(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now here we have the conclusion of the book of 1 Samuel. Last week, of course, we saw the book finished up with David encouraging himself in the Lord, getting right with God, getting all of his family back and his possessions back. And we jump back into the story with King Saul. Of course, we know he's going to a losing battle. He went to the witch and the witch tried to conjure up evil spirits. Of course, Samuel came and spoke to him and told him that he and his sons would die on the next day and that the children of Israel would be defeated by the Philistines. That's what we're going to see in chapter 31, Saul's death. Look at verse number 1. The Bible reads, Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. Now all throughout this book of 1 Samuel, we've seen conflict between the children of Israel and the Philistines. Every single time when the children of Israel were right with God, when they were serving God, when their leader was seeking after God, they won every battle. And every time they were turning away from God, if you remember in the days of Eli when his two sons were committing fornication and sleeping around with the women who assembled at the tabernacle, and when they were stealing from the people who brought their offerings and their tithes into the house of the Lord, they were stealing more than what they were supposed to take. And that's when God caused them to be originally defeated by the Philistines. Then as soon as Samuel came along and got the people to turn away from their false gods and once those two sons of Eli that were wicked, once they died, then they were winning their battles again. And really just consistently in this book, every time the leader is right with God and the children of Israel are right with God, they are always winning every battle. And every time they're defeated, it's because the Lord is not with them in this book. Now it says the Philistines fought against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa and the Philistines followed hard upon Saul. So they're fleeing, they're running away and the Philistines are chasing them. And it says they followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Mount Kishua, Saul's sons. So we see this is the judgment of God. It was pronounced by Samuel that this was going to happen. Now keep your finger here and go to 1 Chronicles chapter number 10. Keep your finger in 1 Samuel 31 and just go a few pages to the right in your Bible to 1 Chronicles chapter 10. Now the book of 1 Chronicles, the first nine chapters is really just a lot of names and genealogies, a lot of historical information. Then in chapter 10, we pick up the story and it's interesting, if you can look at both at the same time and kind of look between 1 Samuel 31 and 1 Chronicles 10, the first nine verses are virtually identical. There's basically no substantial difference between the two. The first nine verses chapters are totally identical, just a couple of prepositions that are different but really nothing of substance. The first difference is found in verse number 10 when God reveals a little bit different information. Let's look at that quickly. It says in verse number 10, And they put his armor in the house of their gods, or in 1 Chronicles 10, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon. And when all Jabeshgili had heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, they arose all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days. Look at verse 13. This is information that's not given in 1 Samuel 31. So Saul died for his transgression, which he committed against the Lord, even against the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit to inquire of it. And inquired not of the Lord, therefore he slew him. I think I misread that in verse 13. He said, against the word of the Lord is what Saul had transgressed. And so the Bible clearly says in verse 14, And inquired not of the Lord, therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. So you see God is saying that he's the one who killed Saul. He's the one who caused Saul to be defeated in battle, to be killed. He caused the Philistines to triumph. How can we apply this today? You know there's a lot of talk about security, and safety, and when it comes to our military, or our defense. And obviously we want to have defense. We want to be defended against a foreign invader. Both personally, we don't want somebody to come into our house in the middle of the night, break in and rob us. Or as a nation, we don't want to be invaded by a foreign country and become enslaved. Or become tributary to some other country and become a colony of someone else. We want to have liberty both personally and as a nation. Well how are we going to achieve that? Well biblically, if we are serving the Lord, if we're pleasing in the eyes of God, he'll protect us. He'll bless us. And the Bible says some trust in chariots and some trust in horses. But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. And yet today, that is the last thing on people's minds. When they're thinking about their safety in their home, or in our safety as a nation. It's all about some politician somewhere, and their policy somewhere, and some weapons somewhere. No, it's about serving God. Because the Bible says that in righteousness will be established and no weapon formed against us shall prosper. I personally believe that. I'm not against having weapons. I'm not against fighting. The Bibles repeat with examples of people using weapons to defend themselves. And God commands us, even in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to carry a weapon. But, when it comes to our safety, it's ultimately in the hands of God. And so I feel much safer just without a weapon, but knowing that God is with me. As David said, day do I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. That's why I am not afraid. Because God is with me. Than to have a whole arsenal of weapons, and to know that the Spirit of the Lord has departed. Now I know that I'm permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit. But God's Spirit upon me, and God's Spirit of protection about me, is not something I can take for granted as a believer. Because Saul was a believer. Saul was saved. And yet the Lord caused him to be slain in battle because of his wickedness. Because he turned from the commandments of God. He was slain in battle. He was defeated. You say, well Saul wasn't saved. Well go back to Exodus chapter number 4. Exodus chapter number 4. Some people will try to say that Saul was not saved. Now this is a ridiculous teaching for a couple of reasons. Number one, God hand selected Saul to be the king of Israel. Why would he choose an unbeliever? Why would he choose an unsaved man if he could choose anybody in the whole kingdom? And he's going to choose David next, and then he's going to choose King Solomon next. Why would he have chosen a man who's an unbeliever, number one. Number two, the Bible clearly talks about the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Saul, and Saul being transformed into another man. That's not an unsaved person. That's what takes place in the life of a believer. Number three, the Bible clearly said a few chapters ago that Saul was told by Samuel, Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. Well we know that Samuel was not in Hell. Samuel was in Heaven. And no, I don't believe in this dispensational Abraham's bosom garbage teaching. And that's another sermon. But the bottom line is, even if you did believe in that stuff, wherever Samuel was, was a good place. Even if you do believe in that other false teaching. Samuel was in a good place, and if Saul's going to be with Samuel, Saul's going to the good place. So there's so many reasons why we could prove that Saul was saved. Also, the Bible talks about Saul being among the prophets. And of course, it talks about prophesying with the Spirit of the Lord upon him. And of course, in the New Testament, Jesus said, There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of Heaven, and yourselves thrust out. But look at a similar story. I don't think anyone would say that Moses isn't saved. And I mean, good night. Is anybody saved? This is the guy who's one of the top guys in the Old Testament. One of the top Old Testament saints. One of the most powerful men in the Bible. Moses. Did you know that God tried to kill Moses at one point? Now a lot of people don't know that, but it's true. Look at Exodus chapter 4, verse number 24. And by the way, this is right after God had just spoken to Moses at the burning bush. And told him, you're going to go to Pharaoh. You're going to tell him, let my people go. I'm going to be with you. Aaron's going to be there as your mouthpiece. You're going to perform these miracles. You're going to do all this great work. He chose him to deliver Israel. He's going by faith. But look at verse 24. And it came to pass, by the way, in the end, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Now, why would he do that? Well, because, well, look at verse 25 and the Bible explains it. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his feet. And said, surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go. Then she said, a bloody husband thou art because of the circumcision. Now what happened was, Moses had gone into a foreign land and married a woman that was of a foreign nation. And this woman did not believe in circumcision. She did not understand circumcision apparently. And so she was refusing to circumcise their son. And Moses apparently was not leaving his home like he should have. And saying, well, if this is what God has told us to do, we're going to do it. And instead of Moses taking the lead in his home, his wife was overriding God's commandments. Sort of like Adam and Eve. Where God commanded don't eat of the three of the knowledge of good and evil. Of course, Eve was deceived by the serpent. And then she told Adam to eat. Well, the Bible says Adam was not deceived. So Adam knew that he was doing wrong. But he hearkened to the voice of his wife. Now, we need to be careful that we're not obeying man rather than obeying God. Or one man in this case. Okay. We need to obey God first and foremost. And by the way, I don't obey my wife about anything. She obeys me. It's called biblical male leadership in the Bible. Whether you like it or not, that's biblical teaching. The Bible says as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be their own husbands and everything. The Bible says that women should be good and obedient to their own husbands. Nowhere does the Bible say, husband, obey your wives. Never. No, it's not there. Okay. And so the Bible is telling us here about this story where God gets so angry at Moses for refusing to circumcise his son. You're going to lead my people out of the land of Egypt and you came to circumcise your son, one of the most basic commandments. Now, my children are not circumcised in the New Testament. That's not a commandment. That's not something that we observe. The Bible is very clear about that in the New Testament. We do not circumcise our children. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with someone being circumcised. I myself am circumcised. But nobody asked me what I thought about it at the time. I would have quoted them some scripture and explained it when I was too young. And I did scream and cry about it. But the bottom line is that he would not obey this basic commandment to circumcise his son. He let his wife dominate there. And so God was going to kill him. And I believe that God would have killed him had he not obeyed. And he would have just chosen someone else. Maybe he would have used Aaron or somebody else. And I don't know who he would have found to fill those shoes. But he can't use somebody who's going to be disobedient in this kind of a basic commandment. So it's not that God would never kill somebody. Even somebody who is saved. He could basically cause them to face an early death. Another person, Josiah. Josiah was a godly, righteous king. He was saved. And the king of Egypt was involved in some wars. And Josiah decided to go out and fight against the king of Egypt. Not minding his own business, but meddling in that battle. They had nothing to do with it. And so the king of Egypt spoke unto Josiah and said, Look, God has told me to do this. I'm fighting the Lord's battle here. You don't even know what you're talking about. Why are you even getting involved in something you shouldn't be involved in? You need to stay home. God had told Josiah that he would die in peace. That everything would go well for him. But because he disobeyed God by getting involved in a battle that he had nothing to do with. He ended up dying in battle. God allowed him to be killed in battle because of his disobedience. So Josiah was killed in battle because of disobedience to God's word. Moses himself, the Lord sought to slay because of his disobedience to God's word. And we see King Saul killed in battle. Why? Because he disobeyed the word of God. So what does all this teach us? Can you lose your salvation? Absolutely not. Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. But wait a minute. Does that mean that there's no consequences in our life for the things that we do? You see, even though salvation is eternal, we can never lose our salvation. Even though Saul went to heaven and Josiah went to heaven and all these people that were believers went to heaven. They still faced earthly consequences for their actions. And sometimes that meant an untimely death. You say, well, why would that be a punishment? You know, you're going to heaven. Well, you're going to heaven anyway. But going there early is not desirable. I don't want to go there tomorrow. I'd rather stick around longer. Why? Because I want to do more for God. I want to earn more rewards. You know, you're going to be there for all eternity. And if your life is cut short, you're losing rewards. You're losing opportunities. You're hurting those around you that are going to have to mourn your loss and do without you. You know, if I died tomorrow because I got involved in some wicked sin and brought judgment upon myself, you know, that's going to cause my wife to suffer. That's going to cause my children to suffer. That's going to cause me to miss out on all the things I could have done in my life. And I'm losing all that opportunity to live and to serve God. And so this is a biblical concept. Over and over again, we see people who sometimes their life is cut short because of their disobedience to God's word, even if they're saved. And we see a lot of other people who get punished in a lot of other ways, like King David committing adultery and, of course, a few of his children end up dying. He ends up losing part of his kingdom. Solomon, who went and worshipped other gods because of his multiple lives that he had married that brought his heart astray, he ended up losing a lot of his peace in his life and his children did not get to sit on the throne of the whole kingdom and so forth. Let's go back to 1 Samuel chapter 31. So there are definitely repercussions for your actions on this earth. You will reap what you sow in this life, on this earth. The Bible says, Whom the Lord loveth, ye chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Every child of God will be disciplined and punished in this life for the sins that they commit. Now you see a lot of people that are not saved get away with a lot of bad things. They might live a life of wickedness and sin and get away with it all the way to the end, but then they go to hell, so they're not getting away with anything. That's far worse than anything that could happen in this life. But you'll never see a believer, a saved person, live a wicked life of sin and not be punished for it in this life. There is no punishment in the next life for those that are saved. Their sins are forgiven. Jesus paid it all. They go to heaven. They have forgiveness. But in this life, they receive punishment for their sins in this life. Not the punishment of hell, but more like a correction that a parent would give a child. You know, I'm going to spank my children. I'm going to discipline them. And that's exactly what God will do to His children in this life. And you say, what is the purpose of it? Well, the Bible tells us clearly why God punishes His children. He said that, you know, our fathers of our flesh, they chastened us for a few days according to their own pleasure. But the Bible says, but He, for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. So why does God chasten us? That we might be partakers of His holiness. To get our attention. To get us on track. To get us to realize that we can't get away with living a life of sin and to get us living a life of God. You say, well, wait a minute. If He kills you, how is that going to teach you anything? How are you going to be holy if you're dead? Yeah, but it's an example to those around you. That's what that's about. Because what if my children grew up in church and they saw a bunch of saved believers and saints of God living wicked lives of sin and just getting away with it and being happy and prosperous? You know, that's going to be a temptation to them. It's better for them to see the people who go off and live a life of sin reap the consequences of this life. And it's not pretty and none of us want to see it. And we pray for God to be merciful on our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. But the bottom line is, it's probably better when they see the punishment come. Because at least then they know that God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. That could be a warning to others, just like Ananias and Sapphira, who were a part of that church in Jerusalem. And they lied to God. They pretended to give a bunch of money that they weren't really giving. And they were deceptive and they were stealing. And by doing that, they were killed by God. Why? That others would fear not to go down the same path. And we see all kinds of examples. I can think of all kinds of examples in my life of people I know who were going down the wrong path and God's judgment came upon them. I can think of specific times in my life when I feel that I was being chased by God. And that God was trying to get my attention on certain areas and causing punishment to come into my life. It's part of being one of his children. This supreme punishment that comes is like what Saul faced. Saul was given a lot of opportunities to get things right before it came to this. But finally, this was the punishment. I mean when he just pushed it so far with God. Where he's just sinning and sinning and disobeying God. Not listening to the prophets. Not listening to Samuel. Going to a witch. I mean, killing innocent people in that town that helped David. Finally, God said, that's it. You're done. You and your sons are going to die in battle that none of them will sit on your throne. Now, not all of Saul's sons died. But all the ones who were viable as a replacement. You know, like Jonathan, who was a mighty man that could have led. They were killed. The son that ends up sitting on the throne is a joke. He's only being propped up by Abner. He's just a total puppet. He lasts a couple of years and that's it. Because he's a very weak leader. And that's why God caused these particular sons to be killed. The only ones who were viable as a replacement for him. So let's get back into the chapter here now that we understand that. It says, verse 2, And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons. And the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Mount Kishua, Saul's sons. And the battle went sore against Saul and the archers hid him. What's an archer? Somebody's firing a bow and arrow, right? So he's hit with them. So the battle went sore against Saul and the archers hid him. And he was sore wounded of the archers. Now, it doesn't say necessarily that he's fatally wounded or mortally wounded. It just says that he's sore wounded. He's got a bad wound. The Bible oftentimes mentions deadly wounds and wounds of the dead. It doesn't say that. Nothing in this chapter indicates that this is a deadly wound. It's just a serious wound that's going to stop him from being able to fight any further. He's not going to be able to win. He's not going to be able to face anybody in hand-to-hand combat because of this wound from the archers. Look at verse 4. Then said Saul unto his armor-bearer, Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore, Saul took a sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died with him. So here we see Saul commit suicide. He's hit. He's wounded. He's not dead. He may have been able to survive. We don't know. Of course, he already knew that he's going to die because he'd been prophesied then. Now, why does he want his armor-bearer to kill him? Because he's afraid that the uncircumcised Philistines will come and abuse him. And therefore, he'd rather just, you know, be done with it. Just kill me right now. Let's just get it over with. I'm going to die anyway. Rather than to be abused by them. And when his armor-bearer will not kill him, he ends up just killing himself. Just falling upon his own sword, basically stabbing himself. Now, what did he mean by that when he said, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me? Well, usually I like to use the Bible itself to define what words mean. But you know, when you look up the word abuse or abuse in the Bible, it's just not a word that's used very often. And it's tough to tell exactly what that means here. If we just look at what the word is, abuse, it's basically a misuse. It's some kind of a wrong use. That's what abuse is. You're never going to say use it, but don't abuse it. So it comes from the word use. Abuse is some kind of a wrong usage. Now, this could be talking about something perverted. I don't know. And the reason I say that is because if we study the Bible, we know that the Philistines were part of that group of nations that were in Canaan. And the Bible clearly says in Leviticus chapter 18 and Leviticus chapter 20 that the nations that lived in Canaan had done all of the perverted things that he lists, all these things, and says don't commit adultery with your mother and with your aunt and with your uncle and with your brother and with your sister. And he says that's a prohibition on homosexuality when he says that if a man lied with mankind as he lied to the woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. Or when he talks about even people that would have that kind of relationship with an animal, just unthinkable things that are actually listed in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. Well, they used to be unthinkable. Now they're starting to invade our so-called Christian society and be accepted, even though they're listed in the list of perversion. But here's the weirdest part about that list. I remember reading this as a kid, and it blew me away. I couldn't believe it. Man, I don't have any trouble believing it out. When I was a child, I remember reading that list where it said at the end that all these things have the nations done in Canaan. And I thought to myself, do you do all this stuff? And it's listing all this bizarre stuff that you would even think of such a thing. But he said, no, they did all this. Okay, that would be said of America. Oh, they did all this weird stuff. And so these were some pretty perverted people, possibly. The fact that he brings up the fact that they're uncircumcised, the fact that he used the word abuse, and of course we could go to Romans 1 and look at the part where it talks about leaving the natural use of the woman, men burning in lust for men. This could be something perverted that he's referring to. Otherwise, maybe he's just afraid of being tortured or something like that. I mean, it could mean different things. I'm not saying I know exactly what it means. I'm just giving you some of the biblical evidence of what he could be talking about. But whatever it is, it's a faith that he doesn't want to face. He doesn't want to be tortured or molested or whatever it is that he thinks they're going to do to him. So he draws his sword, and he ends up killing himself. Now, the Bible is very clear here that he died. Now, if you go to the next chapter, 2 Samuel 1, just go one page over. And I'm not going to be preaching on 2 Samuel for a while, so I want to just touch on this. There's a guy that shows up to the camp right at the very beginning of 2 Samuel 1. And it says in verse number 1, Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag, where in 2 Samuel 1 verse 2, it came to pass on the third day, that behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent, or torn is what that means, and earth upon his head. And so it was when he came to David that he fell to the earth and built basins. And David said to them, From whence comest thou? And he said to them, Out of the camp of Israel am I escaped. And David said unto him, How went the matter, I pray thee? Tell me. And he answered, That the people are fled from the battle, and many of the people are fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also. And David said unto the young man that told him, How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead? And the young man that told him said, As I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear, and lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him, and when he looked behind him and saw me, and called unto me, and I answered, Here am I. And he said unto me, Who art thou? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. And he said unto me again, Stand I pray thee upon me and slay me, for anguish has come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me. So I stood upon him and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen. And I took the crown that was upon his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them hither unto my Lord. Then David took hold on his clothes and rent them, and likewise all the men that were with him. So this guy has a different story than what we read in 1 Samuel 31, doesn't he? Because 1 Samuel 31 clearly says, and there's no question about it, it says in verse number 5, or look at the end of verse 4, Therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it, verse 5, and when his arm of error saw that Saul was dead. So is he alive or dead? Dead. Now look, who's talking here? The narrator. The narrator of the book. God himself is telling us here that Saul was dead. This isn't a person's opinion. This is God's word telling us that Saul was dead. And it says when his arm of error saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon a sword and died with him. There's a second mention that he was dead. Verse 6, So Saul died. So three times he tells us that that's how he died. So Saul died means in that way he died. That's how he died. Keep your finger there and go to 1 Chronicles 10, where we were just a few moments ago, which is, remember, the exact parallel passage. 1 Chronicles 10, the first nine verses are identical. It tells the same story. It's picking up right where 1 Samuel left off. And it says in verse number 4 at the end, So Saul took a sword and fell upon it, verse 5, when his arm of error saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise on the sword and died. So Saul died and his three sons and all his house died together. Now, we can look at that and we have to decide who we're going to believe. Are we going to believe God's word telling us, hey, that's how he died? Or are we going to believe what a person said? Because that guy in 2 Samuel chapter 1 is not God. He's a God. We say, well, isn't every verse in the Bible true? It's true that he said that, but what he said wasn't true. It is true that that's what that guy said. I mean, the Bible even records the words of Satan. Does that mean that Satan's word is true? No, it's just true that that's what Satan said. And so let me give you some quick principles on understanding the Bible, because this will avoid a lot of confusion when you're reading the Bible. Number 1, whenever God is the one doing the talking as the narrator of the story, he never will steer you wrong. Everything he says is true, okay? But characters in the Bible may say things that are false. You know, they may be wrong. They may lie. I mean, there are all kinds of people in the Bible who tell lies. Like, for example, when Elisha asks Ahaziah, where did you go? And he says, thy servant went no whither. I didn't go anywhere. He's lying. Well, this guy's lying, too. You say, well, how do you know he's lying? Well, first of all, his story contradicts what God has said. People will try to use this to say, well, Saul didn't really commit suicide because this Amalekite killed him. No. The Bible's clear. He fell on the sword and died. This guy's claiming, and here's some inconsistencies in this story. First of all, notice what it says in 2 Samuel 1, verse number 6. And there's the young man that told him, he said, as I happened by chance upon Mount Keboah, the old Saul leaned upon his what? Spear. Now, is a spear a sword? No. No, nowhere in the Bible are those used interchangeably. A sword is a totally different weapon than a spear, okay? Now, that right there is an inconsistency in what this guy said. He has other scriptures that tell us clearly it was a sword, and he's saying it was a spear. Next, it says in verse 9, he said unto me again, stand I pray thee upon me and slay me, for anguishes come upon me because my life is yet whole in me. So this is a totally different reason for wanting to be killed. Why did Saul want to die? He didn't want to get what? Abused. Abused. Why is this guy claiming that Saul's saying he doesn't want to die? Just because he's in pain. Put me out of my misery. I'm in anguish. Obviously, what really happened, and I'm going to give you another principle on understanding the Bible in a moment. Obviously, what really happened is this guy comes across the dead body of Saul, and he sees clearly that he has fallen upon his own sword, that he's killed himself, okay, that he is dead. Well, he takes the crown and the bracelet from Saul, and he tells this story to make it sound as if he's the one that killed Saul. You say, what would motivate him? Because you have to look at what motivates people to lie or to do things that are wrong. Whenever you're investigating something, you know, you look for a motive, right? What's the motive? This guy thinks that since David is Saul's archenemy, that if he tells David, he's going to be rewarded for killing Saul. He thinks that David wants Saul then. Later on, a couple of guys are going to kill Saul's son. It's bullshit. And then they're going to come brag to David. Hey, we killed Saul's son. And then David's going to put him to death. You say, I'm not going to reward you for that. You murdered an innocent person. So again, this guy is misjudging David, because what's David going to do to the guy? Look at verse number 13. And David said to the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger in Amalekite. And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thy hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? And David called one of the young men and said, Go near and fall upon him, and he smote him that he died. And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head, for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed. He said, You're condemned by your own words. You're saying you killed Saul? Well, then you be killed. Now the guy's being killed for something that he really didn't even do. Did he really kill him? No. What did he just get put to death for? For killing him. For killing him. Now, there's a lot of things you can learn from this. Number one, just because somebody confesses to something doesn't mean that they're really guilty, which is why in our country we supposedly have the protection of not having to testify against yourself, because that's not a legitimate way to condemn someone by their confession. That doesn't make them guilty. This guy wasn't guilty, yet he confessed to something they didn't do. David here is not for also a euthanasia. You know, people ask me sometimes, what do you think about euthanasia? Basically putting someone out there, if it's an animal, okay, put it out of its misery. Kill Old Yeller or whatever. But human beings are not Old Yeller. That's right. And so you should not kill people just because they're in pain. Oh, they're suffering anyway. Let's just end it. Let's just kill them. And so that isn't biblical. David didn't find it biblical. And there's nothing in the Bible that teaches that. Here's a passage that seems to teach contrary to that. But here's another principle when it comes to interpreting the Bible, because there's a clear conflict between what's spelled out in 2 Samuel 1 and 1 Samuel 31. But not only that. Think about this fact. 1 Chronicles 10 tells the exact same story that 1 Samuel 31 told, right? But guess what? It doesn't even include this guy's story at all. It doesn't include that. Because it was not a significant enough event for that particular narrative of 1 Chronicles. You know, God had a certain purpose for the book of 1 Chronicles. He included certain facts for the book of 1 Chronicles. In the book of 1 and 2 Samuel, he's including different facts because the book has a different purpose. Just like in the New Testament, we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They are to achieve different purposes, so they include different facts and different doctrines and different sermons by Jesus and different miracles they did. The Bible clearly says at the end of John that the book is written that you might believe and that believing you might have life through Jesus' name. So John is a book that's written attending for you to be saved from reading the book of John. That's what it says at the end. This book is written that you'll believe on Christ and have eternal life. That's the purpose of the book of John. That's why it says believe 90 times. 90 times believe. And it makes the Gospel and salvation so clear in the book of John. That's the purpose of the book. Now, the purpose of the book of Luke, on the other hand, is spelled out at the beginning of Luke in chapter 1. God says that the purpose of the book is that you might know the certainty of the things that are believed among us, just to give a lot of certainty and details to the events. There are different purposes to the different books of the Bible. Well, here's one thing that you need to understand when you're interpreting the Bible. Number one, whatever God says is fact. Whatever man says, we got to take it with a grain of salt. But not only that, we must believe that the whole Bible is true. And we also need to believe that every part of the Bible is true. You see, people talk about getting something in the right context, and that's true. You need to understand things in the context of the book and in the context of the whole Bible. But at the same time, when we look at how the Bible was given unto us, was it given all at once? Did God just all at once give us the whole Bible as mankind? No. He gave it to us in portions. He did not give it to us all at once. We have the whole thing today, but did mankind throughout history have the whole thing? No. He gave it in stages. He gave it at different times, different places, different people. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Therefore, every book of the Bible must be able to stand alone. Must be able to stand alone. It can't be forced to use another book to show what it means, and if you don't have that other book, then it'll be a lie. It has to be able to stand on its own if we just have the book of 1 and 2 Chronicles. That needs to stand alone and tell a true story. It can't have some inaccuracy. Well, you have to read 2 Samuel to know the part that 1 Chronicles is leaving out. 1 Chronicles says that Saul committed suicide, and it says he died, period, done. Let's move on to the next thing. If he was killed by someone else, that would make 1 Chronicles totally a lie. Because you could say, God kind of set the record straight in 2 Samuel 1 of what really was going on in 1 Samuel 31, but how can you make that case for 1 Chronicles when there's no such account? It just says in 1 Chronicles he killed himself. If he did not kill himself, if he did not die when he fell upon the sword, then that just makes 1 Chronicles an inaccurate book, just a false book, because it never even tells the true story of how he died. It's just, so he died, and it's the wrong story? And so it's not that hard to see clearly what happened here. Saul committed suicide. Now, there are several people in the Bible who committed suicide. I've known many people personally who committed suicide. Now, some people teach, if you commit suicide, you're going to hell. Well, that's not a biblical doctrine. You might be going to hell. It just depends on whether you're saved. Some people in the Bible who committed suicide went to heaven. Some went to hell. That's not relevant. Now, a lot of people will say that you can do any sin and be forgiven except committing suicide. That's the one thing. Well, personally, I think it's probably worse to kill someone else than to kill yourself. I mean, killing yourself is really bad, and you're definitely harming the people around you. Think about if you kill yourself how your family would feel, and they'd have to carry that around with them the rest of their life. That's a horrible thing to do. But killing an innocent person, wouldn't it seem like murder would be worse than suicide? Okay, they're both bad, and I'm not here to sit there and debate which one is worse, but everybody that I've known who committed suicide, they had a reason for doing it. It wasn't that they're just like, yeah, I'm going to commit suicide. I'm going to do it wrong. That's stupid. That doesn't make any sense. I mean, good night. I think adultery is worse than suicide. You're harming people probably a lot more, but either way, it's bad. But hold on a second. The people that I've known that have committed suicide, some of them were so ill, and they were just in such horrible pain because of medical problems that they committed suicide. Now, that's wrong. That's sin. But I don't think it just makes them a horrible, wicked, evil person. It's just they did something wrong. They did wrong. I'm not condoning it at all. But you can empathize with it. You can say, hey, I see why they did it. Another guy that I knew committed suicide because his wife was committing adultery with another man. I'd commit murder in that case, not suicide. But anyway, he committed suicide. And he was also, wait a minute, he was also under the influence of alcohol when he committed suicide. And by the way, the vast majority of suicides, drugs and alcohol are involved. I've known other people who committed suicide for other reasons. The bottom line is suicide is wrong. God does not want us to kill ourselves. It's definitely a sin. It could be considered murder because you are taking a human life. But it's not an unpardonable sin because Jesus Christ died on the cross for all of our sins. And so even murder is covered and even suicide is covered. Now, here are some people in the Bible who committed suicide. Number one, King Saul. We just saw him. Number two, his armor bearer committed suicide. So there's two people right there. Another guy who committed suicide was Ahithophel. He was the counselor for King David. He gave good counsel, good in the sense that it was wise counsel and clever. It was not righteous or godly counsel, but he did give him smart counsel and Absalom was the one that he gave the counsel to. David, he was David's counselor, but when Absalom took over, he gave Absalom the right counsel that would have caused him to succeed. But because God didn't want him to succeed, his good counsel was not followed. And instead Absalom listened to another counselor. Well, when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he knew, we're done. We're going to lose this battle and I'm going to be an offender. I'm going to be killed. So he decided to just kill himself, give his house an order and everything and he killed himself. Was Ahithophel saved or unsaved? I say he was probably saved. The Bible is not real clear on it one way or the other. I couldn't prove it to you, but my guess would be that he was saved. Okay. Another guy who committed suicide in the Bible was Judas Iscariot. Now, was Judas Iscariot saved or not saved? Unsaved. Unsaved. The Bible says that he did not, even in the early days of Jesus' ministry, Jesus said that he did not believe on him. John chapter 6 makes it clear that Judas never believed on Jesus Christ. He was a traitor. He was a devil. Jesus called him early in the ministry. He said, have not I chosen you twelve? One of you is a devil. And so Judas was an unsaved, ungodly man. He committed suicide and went to hell. Saul committed suicide and went to heaven. Samson is another one who committed suicide. He went to heaven. He was saved. And so we got various people in the Bible committing suicide. Some went to heaven, some went to hell. That's not the point. It's whether they were saved is the point. And suicide is a wicked sin and it will harm those around you and cause people to suffer and have to live with that for the rest of their life. But it's not something that will cause you to lose your salvation because frankly nothing can cause you to lose your salvation because it's eternal life and if you lose your salvation then God lied. The Bible says in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. And so Saul committed suicide. He died. His armor bearer, his three sons, they all died the same day. Look at verse 7. And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley and they that were on the other side Jordan on verse 8 and 31 saw that the men of Israel fled and that Saul and his sons were dead they forsook the cities and fled and the Philistines came and dwelt in them and it came to pass on tomorrow when the Philistines came to strip the slain that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa and they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent into the land of the Philistines round about to publish it in the house of their idols and among the people. So it kind of looks like they did some of the type of stuff that he probably didn't want them to do with him. You know, cutting off his head hanging up his body in the house you know, headless in the house of their god Dagon. You say, how do you know it's Dagon's house? Because in 1 Chronicles 10 he gives us that detail. And so Saul's body is massacred. And Saul's body is mutilated and is beheaded, okay? And this is probably something that he didn't want to happen. He figures, oh, I'll just end it myself. Now you say, well, what does he care? He's already dead, it doesn't matter anyway. It's just a body. But you know, the Bible does talk about treating bodies with respect. That is something in the Bible that matters. Because there are some men in a few verses later that risk their lives in order to recover Saul's body and give him a proper burial. Now look at this. It says in verse number 11, And when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethsham and came to Jabesh and burnt them there. Now, hold on a second. Do you think this was easy? Just waltzed into the Philistines, into their main temple, into their main house, and recovered their trophy, their prize of King Saul? No, these guys risked their lives. They were valiant men. David's going to reward them later for their values and for their courage in doing this. And they go back, they recover the body, and they burn the bodies. Now, here's the thing. That's not the normal thing to do with the body in the Bible. The Bible's clear that burial of the body is what's talked about in Scripture. Why do we bury our dead? Okay, why do we dig a hole in the ground and bury the dead? And that's all throughout the Bible. That's what Christians do. Why? Well, because it's symbolic. And the Bible explains this in 1 Corinthians 15, how it's symbolic of the resurrection because basically it's symbolic of planting a seed. The Bible says, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And the Bible says that the resurrection, it is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. Well, what does it mean to be sown? It's talking about sowing a seed, okay? So what's symbolized with burial, when you take a person's body and bury it, it's a picture or a figure of planting a seed. And, you know, when you plant a seed, you put it underground, you cover it with earth, and then it grows into a brand new plant, something totally new. A new life springs forth from that seed. That's what the resurrection is. Basically, it's sown a natural body. We know, of course, the soul and the spirit is in heaven, but the body is in the ground. The body is dead, totally without life, because the body without the spirit is dead, the Bible says. So faith without works is dead also. That body is dead in the earth, but we believe that one day when the trumpet sounds, that body will rise again. And that is what is pictured by burying the dead. And so that is a scriptural concept. Now, why did they burn these bodies? That's not something that you normally see. Normally, you just see them burying the bodies in the earth. Well, you know, that, and again, this is just my opinion, because the Bible doesn't give all the details here, but I have to look at that and compare scripture to scripture and say, you know what, there was probably something about that body, some other, maybe there must have been some other mutilation or some other, you know, strange thing that they did to those bodies where they just needed to just burn those bodies and just basically, you know, just cleanse it and just get rid of whatever else they did to those bodies. Because, you know, when you're removing the head and hanging up on the wall of your false god, you know, maybe they did something else or whatever, or I don't know why. That's just my hunch, okay, based on the type of people we're dealing with with the ballistae. But either way, they burned these bodies and they buried the bones in verse 13. They took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jadash and fasted seven days. So we see here, Saul meets a very bad end to his life. Started out a great man early in the book of 1 Samuel. What went wrong? What happened to him? I mean, he started out, he was a godly man. Why did God choose him? Because God chose him because he was a great man, because he was a godly, righteous man. The Bible says he was little in his own sight. He was a humble man. He was a meek man. What went wrong? I just believe it was because he was outside of God's plan by even being a king. Because, look, God was very angry earlier in the book of 1 Samuel In 1 Samuel 8, when the people asked for a king, God said, no, you do not need a king. You know, the government that he had set up for them in the book of Deuteronomy was a perfect government system. Man is never perfect. So it's never going to work out perfectly. But the system was perfect. And they rejected that system and said, no, we want to have a king over us like all the nations. And it's just not going to work out to give anyone that much power. Man is not intended to be a king on this earth. Jesus Christ is the only one who's going to be a king and is going to be a terminally righteous king. Because we see every king in the Bible, their heart is not perfect with God. There's always something where they go astray. Like even King David, the man of God's own heart. He's multiplying wives. He's committing adultery. He's doing all this stuff. The power of Christ is going to go to your head. You know, we think to ourself, oh, man, I could handle it. But you know what? We've never even had huge amounts of money. You know, could we even handle that? Let alone huge amounts of money and just huge amounts of power and people just bowing down to us and doing whatever we say. You know what? That could mess us up, too. And let him think if he's going to take, he lets him fall. And we think, oh, yeah, if I were king, I could do this, this, and this. But you know what? We'd probably end up like Saul or like David or like Solomon. I mean, go down the list, Rehoboam, desiring many wives. I mean, we could go down the list and see that, you know, this monarchy that they had just never really worked out for them. Why? Because it was never even God's original plan in the first place. God had a system of, it wasn't three branches of government. It was one branch, the judicial branch. Okay, that's all they had. Judges, that's all. Very, very small limited government, but the kingdom was something that they asked for. God gave them the best king that he could choose, but it still didn't work out because it just wasn't the right system. And so we see here Saul meets a horrible end. Starts out a great guy, starts out winning battles, starts out serving God, and now we see at the end, he's dead, he's massacred, he's mutilated, he's humiliated, he's shamed. Now, you know, the book of 1 Samuel ends on a pretty depressing note. Okay, 2 Samuel is where we see David come in and become king and we see a lot of things happen. Well, we're not going to cover that tonight, but there's a lot that we can learn from 1 Samuel 31. Number one, just how to interpret the Bible, making sure that we use biblical principles to understand it. And also we can see that, you know, suicide is wrong. We can see that euthanasia is wrong. We can see that, you know, you're going to be punished when you go out and live a sinful life and just ignore what God says. He's going to bring judgment upon you. And we saw Saul being judged throughout the book. It culminates in chapter 31 where he's just completely judged for the final time, killed, mutilated, dead. It's a sad story. And so let us take it as an example of what not to do from the life of King Saul. And that's why the Bible says that these stories are here. He says they're written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. We're supposed to look at these examples in the Bible of what people did and the mistakes they made so that we don't have to make the same mistakes that the children of Israel made and the same mistakes that even David made and the same mistakes that Saul made. We can just learn from their example and do right. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God, and thank you for this story of the Bible. Thank you for the book of 1 Samuel and everything that we've learned over the last 31 weeks, all the truths that we've gained. And please just bless our church going forward into the new year. Help everyone to be in their place on January 1st and every week thereafter to be consistent in church, consistent in Bible reading. And I pray that 2012 will be the greatest year that our church has ever seen on all levels with our church and with our soul winning and with our Bible reading and prayer and our godliness of our lives. Help us to do greater works than these in 2012. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.