Thank you. If you would, your Bibles turn to first Samuel 27. Excuse me. First Samuel 27, and we'll begin reading in verse one. We're going to read the first four verses to start.

I'm going to take a journey through chapters twenty seven and twenty eight. So if you have a Bible and want to follow along, that's where we'll be hanging out for the rest of the evening. So David is on the run from Saul. Last week, Saul just about caught up with David. David realized that he was just over the next hill from him before Saul found David, David found Saul.

And David snuck into the camp of Saul and took his spear and took his water canteen and took it with him back to his own camp on the hill nearby. And when Saul woke up woke up the next day, David stood on top of the hill with the spear and things said, Saul, do you recognize these? Your your captain and your guard there wasn't doing a very good job because I just walked into the camp with thousands of men. I think there were 3,000 men and took it and came back over here. So, that wasn't a tribute to the sneakiness of David as was to the power of God who kept all 3,000 soldiers asleep while David walked in and walked out.

But once again, God demonstrated to David as David stepped out in faith that he was going to take care of him. God proved himself, not only David but also to Saul. And Saul once again said, okay, I'm done. I'm not going to chase after you anymore, David. But we get to chapter 27 and after that great mountaintop experience and David trusting the Lord and David kind of takes a turn the other direction.

Now I know that's never happened to you. Sadly, our our lives are a lot like remind me of roller coasters. We get to the top and then, well, from the top, we tend to go what? Down and it's up and down and up and down. And the more we learn to trust God, the less the ups and the downs.

I mean, there's some circumstances that we can't control, but at least as far as our obedience to the Lord, it becomes a little more steady as we mature and we grow in the Lord. But we've all experienced the ups and downs of our own faith and trust in the Lord, and we see that here from David as well. When you talk about all the heroes of the faith in the Old Testament and you look to people like Abraham and and to David, if you really take time to study them, you find out these heroes of the faith struggled with their faith at times and struggled with their trust in word, made some really bad decisions along the way. And one thing we see all the way through scripture is God is faithful and God is gracious and God is merciful and praise the Lord, that's who he is because if we didn't have such a loving and merciful God, every one of these great heroes of the faith would have been forever lost just as we. But praise the Lord, he is a God of grace and mercy as he has shown himself over and over and over again to be, particularly to those who will confess their sins and repent of them.

And this is kind of what sets David and Saul apart often in our story is this matter of repentance. So we'll start out here in chapter 27 with David's poor decision. David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. And Saul shall despair of me to seek me anymore in the coast of Israel, so shall I escape out of his hand.

So after David had that, you know, great, wonderful experience with the Lord and and saw the hand of God, and Saul said, I'm not gonna chase you anymore. David turned tail and what? Ran. Okay? Verse two, David arose and he passed over with 600 men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

Gath is one of the five large Philistine cities on the coast and part of what today is the Gaza Strip. Okay? That's basic same area as the Gaza Strip. Gath was part of that. And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his house hold, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam and Jezreelites, Abigail the Carmelites, Nabal's wife.

And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath and he sought no more again for him. So David fled to Gath and Saul quit chasing after David. So David is called the man after God's own heart, but there are certainly times in David's life when David was not in tune with God, just like us. One thing is for sure, when we take matters into our own hands, when we refuse to see things from God's perspective, we make life more complicated, not less complicated. And we see that here in the latter chapters of first Samuel.

So first of all, we see David's wrong decision. After seven years of running from Saul, it's a long time. Seven years he has been on the run. God had told David previously he would be king of Israel not many days before David stood before Goliath. An assurance of God's promises and in defiance of the blaspheming Philistine, David stood his ground and won a battle with one little stone and a sling, more importantly, with God.

But now David has seen his ups and his downs. He spent a few years in the service of the king. The last seven years, he's been on the run from the king, and he's starting to get a little bit what? What do you think? Seven years of running?

He's starting to get a little bit weary, and it's affecting it's affecting his faith Just a little bit. Now David, the man chosen to be king, was a man on the run from the very king he was chosen to replace. Sure, by God's grace, he had faced down Saul twice, But he was not convinced of Saul's words in the previous chapter that he was gonna stop chasing him because, well, he had been there before and Saul changed his mind. When would the running and hiding end? When would Saul give up?

When would he take his rightful place as king? Think of the words of Paul in Galatians six, be not weary in well doing. For in due season, we shall reap if we faint not. Sometimes we get weary as well, and we don't see the blessings coming our way as we would have expected them. But God is still on the throne and he hasn't forgotten us and God has a plan and his ways are not always our ways and his timing isn't our timing and but he knows best.

In David's despondency, he forgot the advice God had given him in previous chapter to stay in Judah and so he ran. He ran in fear, in fear that Saul would eventually get him and kill him. David is not the only one in scripture that acted in this manner. Moses ran out of Egypt into the wilderness. And how long did he spend in the wilderness?

Forty years. Forty years. You realize Moses was 80 years old when God found him in the wilderness and called him to go back? 80 years old. Forty years in the wilderness.

But more important, I think of Elijah. Elijah had this great mountaintop, literally mountaintop experience on Mount Carmel as he called down fire from heaven. Actually, if he didn't call it down, he called on God and God sent it down. Okay? Let's not give Elijah any more credit than he's due.

The credit goes to who? The credit goes to God. God sent fire down from heaven, consumed the sacrifice, consumed the wood, consumed the altar made out of stone, consumed all the water he had poured on it, And he had a great victory over all the prophets of Baal that day. And they were slain and everything looked great. And just hours later, Jezebel sent out a decree, Elijah is as good as dead.

I will not give up until I get his head, so to speak. And what did Elijah do? He had faced down all the prophets of Baal and Ahab, but he ran from Jezebel. He ran and he ran and he ran and he ran from the Northern Israel, ran down to Southern Israel, ran out into the desert, crawled in a corner, and told God to kill him. And God said, no.

I don't think so. So God fed him. God kept him going for forty days until he showed up on Mount Sinai. And God told him, you're not alone. There's 7,000 who haven't bowed the knee to me.

So let's not, you know, get stuck in this pity party here and fear. Look look what I just did, and now here you are just like us sometimes running away at the first sign of a little bit of things going wrong. Bible says the fear of man bringeth a what? A snare. So David was snared by his own fear into a situation which went from bad to worse and only God's mercy and grace rescued him from it.

The Bible says again, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. That's the the the best advice that sometimes we don't follow because instead we choose to trust in ourselves. I mean, David's reasoning sounded good. You know, if I run into Philistia, then Paul's not gonna chase me there. I'll be safe and I won't have to worry about it.

It sounded like good reasoning. It is in such circumstances that our true mettle and maturity and faith in Christ are tested. In James one, it says, count all joy when you fall into what? Diverse temptations or trials. Why?

Because God is trying to help to grow you in your faith and in your patience. Job said in Job twenty-three 10, but he knoweth the way that I take and he hath tried me. I shall come forth as gold. Now, one chapter Job was saying, oh, boy, I wish I had never been born. This is terrible.

This is you know. And the next then if you next chapter he's saying, well, the Lord knows the way that I take and when he has tried me, I'll forth as gold. So, I mean, Job was a little you know, he's down in the mouth one minute and then, you know, the Lord impresses on his heart and, yes, I know. I know, Lord. You've got me.

You you've you've got this under control that there's something here for me to learn. God came to Abraham in Genesis when Isaac now was around 12 or so and God said to Abraham, I want you to take Isaac up on that mountain three days journey away and I want you to slay him there as a burnt offering. And the Bible is very clear. What was God doing? He was testing Abraham.

Now God never intended for Abraham to slay his son, but God was testing him to see if he really, really trusted in the Lord because that that son was God's promise to him. And Abraham, in that case, passed the test. Did Abraham pass every test? No. But praise the Lord, he got to the point by then that he that he could pass that one.

We're all growing and we're all learning. We see that here in David's life. Once again, he would pass the test in lady later times, many times over. But in the heat of the moment in fear and anger and discouragement, sometimes we talk ourselves in decisions which are at best foolish rather than listening to who? Rather than listening to God.

So oddly enough, David turned to the Philistines of all people, the sworn enemies of Israel. He chose to take refuge in Gath with king Achish. Earlier, he had found himself in Gath. This isn't the first time he was there a few chapters ago in chapter 20. And in order to escape the king's wrath that time, he pretended to go mad.

So they would think he was crazy and just kick him out. But this time, he comes with an army. He has 600 proven soldiers with him and their families. So they number over a thousand people at least, maybe double that 600 number. And king Achish, knowing him to be an at least in his mind, the enemy of Saul, thought that he might that David might be a valuable ally.

So he overlooked his previous actions against the Philistines and he welcomed him. Ever heard the saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Now that's is that always the case? Is that is that the best slogan to live by? Probably not.

But Achish decided, okay. Well, Saul is my enemy. David is Saul's enemy. Therefore, David must be my what? My friend.

And so Achish welcomed David into his territory. Continuing in verse five, David said unto Achish, if I have found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country that I may dwell there. For why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? And Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day.

And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. So nearly a year and a half he was there. David and his men went up and invaded the Geshurites and the Geshurites and the Amalekites for those nations were of old, the inhabitants of the land as thou goest to shore even unto the land of Egypt. Okay? We would generally identify those groups as Canaanites.

So you remember when God sent Israel back into the land, he said either kill or run out all the Canaanites. The Canaanites were longtime idol worshipers. And so David justified his actions based on commands given to Joshua back in, excuse me, the book of Joshua. So David began attacks on the southern groups in Southern Judah in what's today is called the Negev. If you've ever heard of the Negev, it's between Southern Israel and Egypt.

And verse nine, David smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive and took away the sheep and the oxen and the asses and the camels and the apparel and returned and came to Achish. And Achish said, whether have you made a road or a raid today? And David said against the South Of Judah, against the South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites, and David saved neither man nor woman alive to bring tidings to Gath saying, lest they should tell on us saying, so did David and so will his manner So will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines. And Achish believed David saying he hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore, he shall be my servant forever.

So what was David doing? David was raiding the enemies of Israel. And he was conquering Canaanite peoples and slaying them according to the man God had given to Joshua hundreds of years before. But he was telling Achish that he was going after the enemies of the Philistines. And so Achish thought, hey.

Yeah. He's doing me a favor. He wasn't, but Achish bought bought it. And so Achish gave him and his people their own city, Ziklag, a city that once had belonged to Simeon had been taken by the Philistines and would eventually revert back to Judah. David used it as a base of an attack to spoil and destroy the enemies of Israel.

This is how David dealt with his situation. Does that sound like the way that God probably would have had him deal with the situation? He's lying. He's piling lie on top of lie. When Jesus Christ faced the gauntlet of the cross, did things look bleak for him?

Yeah. But unlike David, Jesus' response was not my will, but thine be done. Jesus fully trusted in his father, placed his life in the hands of his father, and just simply did that which was right and that which was necessary for us. Someone once said, true faith is living without scheming. David is up to his eyeballs in scheming.

Someone once said it's never right to do wrong to do right, but this seems to be David's mode of operation. He's killing the enemies of Israel. That's good, isn't it? But isn't maybe he doing it the wrong way and with some false motivation? Why does it say he was killing all the men and women in each place?

So none of them would be able to come and tell the king of Gath that he was actually attacking the enemies of Israel and not the enemies of the Philistines. Once you start scheming, you have to what? You have to keep scheming, and you have to keep up the charade. And the Bible says, be sure your sin will find you out. One day, David will be on the other end of the scheming, particularly with Absalom, his son.

And he will find it to be very unpleasant place to be. But it's going to start become a little more uncomfortable right now. Look if he would in chapter 28 verses one and two. It came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men.

David said to Achish, surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. And Achish said to David, therefore, will I make thee keeper of mine head forever. So now Achish decides he is going to go to battle with who? With Israel. And Achish comes to David and said, you're gonna join me.

Right? Oh, you and your men, you're this accomplished group of marauding soldiers that had won battle after battle and had masked all this great spoil, Achish comes out, I need you on my side. You're going with me. Right? And David says, well, surely you will see what did he say here?

You shall know what thy servant can do. Is that a real straight answer? The answer to that is no. He said, you'll see. You'll see.

Well, Achish thought that you'll see meant, you'll see. Yeah. I'm I'm gonna have your back. But David didn't exactly say that. He just said, you'll see.

And the king said, oh, well, if you go out with me, I I will make you my personal guard. You'll be my highest ranking officer forever. But he was under the impression that was what David was going to do. And to be honest with you, I don't think I know and I'm not sure what David knew what David was gonna do because he was so deep in that if he went one way, he was in trouble. It's just called between a rock and a what?

A hard place, and that's where he was. While David had been attacking the Philistines' allies, he had been weaving a tapestry of lies to the king of Gath, and now his bluff had been called. What was he going to do? Was David going to kill his own people to save his own hide? What was he going to do?

Because, certainly, if he, all of a sudden, changed loyalties, Achish wasn't gonna be very happy. So now he was in a a pickle. And who put him there? He did. Sometimes we blame God for pickles that aren't his pickles, they're whose.

They're our pickles. I personally like certain kinds of pickles, but not not this. So just when you think David has made a big goof, He is outdone a hundredfold by Saul. So our story here isn't mainly about Saul. We're focusing on David, but we need to take a minute and look at how far gone Saul is and the terrible decision he makes.

And it isn't the only time that somebody claiming to be a believer in the Lord has made terrible decisions. And here we have it, verse three. So verse three. Now Samuel was dead and all Israel had lamented him. We read that a couple chapters ago.

And buried him in Ramah even in his own city and Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land, witches and wizards and soothsayers and palm readers and all that kind of thing. Saul had put out of the land of Israel previously. He did that in obedience to the law of Moses. In Exodus, it says, thou shalt not not suffer a witch to live. In Leviticus, it says, a man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit or that is a wizard shall surely be put to death.

They shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them. In Leviticus nineteen thirty one, regard not them that have familiar spirits neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. So Saul previously in obedience to God had put all of the witches and wizards and soothsayers and astrologers and all these people out of the land just as God had said to do.

But now Saul is in a pickle because when Saul really wanted to know God's will, when he really was in a fix, who did he go to? He went to Samuel. But Samuel was what? Samuel was dead and he couldn't go to Samuel. And the Lord wasn't talking to Saul because Saul was not willing to repent before the Lord of his pride and of his jealousy of David.

And so if you follow where are we? In chapter 28 again, verse four. The Philistines gathered themselves together and came and pitched in Shunem, and Saul gathered all Israel together and they pitched in Gilboa. This is in the Valley Of Jezreel, that big valley in Northern Galilee where many, many, many battles have been fought. So the Philistines and the Israelites were gathered together on opposite hills there.

And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid in his heart and greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not neither by dreams nor by Urim nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants, seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit in Endor. Interesting?

They knew right away. Oh, yeah. There's that woman in Endor. I thought they were supposed to, you know anyway. Saul disguised himself and put on other raiment.

And he went and two men with him, they came to see the woman by night and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit and bring him up whom I shall name unto thee. The woman said unto him, behold thou knowest what Saul hath done. She she doesn't know she's talking to Saul. How he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land wherefore thou layest thou then layest thou a snare for me to cause me to die. So she thinks, well, this guy is trying to catch me doing something wrong so that I can be punished, executed.

So verse 10, Saul swore to her by the Lord saying, as the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice. She screamed.

And the woman spake to Saul saying, why hast thou deceived me? For thou art Saul. The king said unto her, be not afraid. For what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.

And he said unto her, what form is he of? And she said, an old man cometh up, and he is covered with mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed for the Philistines make war against me and God has departed from me and answer with me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams.

Therefore, I have called thee that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Now what can you imagine is going to be Samuel's response? Is it going to be good? Oh, yes, Saul. Oh, yes.

God is with you after you've gone to a witch to try to get information from me. Certainly, God is gonna no. I don't think that's gonna be the answer here. Verse 16, then said Samuel, wherefore then dost thou ask of me seeing the Lord has departed from thee and has become thine enemy? The Lord hath done to him as the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me for the for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to thy neighbor even to David because thou obeyest not the voice of the Lord nor executest his fierce wrath upon Amalek.

Therefore, hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel from thee into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. What does that mean in death? Sadly, one of those sons was who? Jonathan.

Yeah. The Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. So Saul wanted an answer and he got it. Bible says, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not, what? Hear me.

The words of David. Saul had not repented of the iniquity in his heart or turned from his wicked way back to the Lord, and the Lord wasn't talking to him. So Saul decided to take things into his own hands. He found the woman, the witch, the soothsayer, the whatever you call her. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The solution was and is repentance. But evidently, that solution was out of the question to Saul. Though he put himself in a in a corner, a corner of his own making, he could have repented and God would have spoken with him. But instead, just dug his hole, what, deeper, which is often the case, by the way, when people turn away from God. Be careful not to justify the wrong things.

Desperate times do not give us an excuse to do that which is wrong. It's not your actions so much that reveal your character as it is your reactions. Our actions are often well planned out, but our reactions to things that happen to us kind of reveal who we really are. When Saul went to the witch, he disguised himself so that she wouldn't know who he was. Sin breeds shame and causes us to hide.

If you feel shameful or like you need to hide what you are doing from the eyes of of others, then you're probably not doing the right thing. All the way back in the Garden Of Eden, when God came down in the cool of the day to fellowship with Adam and Eve, what were they doing? They were hiding because they had sinned and they felt the shame and guilt. And here, rather than confronting his issue and repenting before the Lord, he's continuing to run and hide from God. Saul requested to speak with Samuel.

Saul is so messed up in the head, he decided, well, Samuel's dead. I'll go after him in the grave. So when the witch requested to see Samuel, she saw something she never imagined she would see. Who did she see? She saw Samuel and she was shocked.

Now why was she shocked? Well, because evidently that wasn't what normally happened. Either she was fooling people by a show or she had some familiar spirit that was helping her to put on a show, an evil spirit. But the last thing she expected to see was who? Was Samuel.

That was the last thing because that just that's not the norm. That doesn't happen. And she realized when she saw Samuel that she was probably in the presence of who? Saul. And that made her very scared.

Maybe something about what Saul said or what she saw in Samuel. All of a sudden, she realized that and she realized, uh-oh, I'm in trouble. But was it the witch that was in trouble? No. I mean, yes, she was, but she was in trouble with God.

But it was more Saul that was in trouble here. No. This isn't the normal thing. People don't come back from the grave to and people talk about conjuring up spirits and talking to dead people, and this this isn't the way God works. God isn't into the sensational.

To pique your interest in witches and warlocks and soothsayers and astrologers and seances, that's the other guy that does that. However, this wasn't the only time that people appeared from the grave. There is at least one other example of this and this was Elijah and Moses on the mount of what? Transfiguration in the New Testament. Peter went Peter, James, and John went with Christ and they got to the top of the mount and Jesus was transfigured and they saw who?

Moses and Elijah. So when God wills, God can, of course, open the door for that. But that is not what God normally wills. Remember in the in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and the rich man woke up after death in hell, and he cried in the Lord. And he said, if you'll just let me go back, if you'll just let me come back from the grave, you'll just let me appear to my brothers, I'll tell them and they won't come here.

And Jesus said, you can you can go back and tell them from the grave and they're still not gonna what? They're still not gonna believe you. But Samuel, it would appear, there's nothing here in scripture to indicate otherwise, that God allowed Samuel to speak to Saul. But it wasn't good. What was Samuel's message?

Why did you do this? Do you think this is going to end well? God isn't talking to you because you continue to fight against God. God has simply brought upon you what he told you would happen. First Samuel fifteen twenty eight and twenty nine.

And Samuel said unto him, that is unto Saul, the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day and hath given it to a neighbor of thine of thine that is better than thou. And also the strength of Israel shall not lie nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent. This was after Saul was sent by God to destroy the Amalekites and he didn't finish the job. And he came back and he raised his hand, praise God, I finished the job. And said Samuel.

Samuel said to him, no, you didn't. No, you didn't. You didn't finish the job. You justified only finishing half the job. And so Samuel told Saul, God has rent the kingdom from your hands and he's gonna give it to somebody else.

The next chapter, he went anointed who? David to be the next king. And so Samuel simply reminds Saul this is exactly what God said he was going to do. It's coming to pass. Not only would he be defeated, but Israel would suffer defeat to the Philistines, including his sons.

Others sometimes suffer for our sins. If you get drunk and decide to get behind the wheel of a car and go flying down the road and t bone some car to light and kill somebody, They just got affected by your sin. Now that's a kind of an obvious illustration, but there's many ways in which our sins can affect those, those in our care, those who look up to us. And Israel itself is gonna face a great defeat because their king had turned their back on the Lord. We need to pray for our leaders that God will open their eyes and turn their hearts away from the wicked path they have chosen to turn their hearts back to God.

Because it's not only they that suffer, it's also who? It's also those that are in their care. Thus Samuel's message to Saul, which brings us to verse 20. Then Saul fell straightway along on the earth and was sore afraid because of the words of Samuel, and there was no strength in him. For he had eaten no bread all the day nor all the night.

The woman came unto Saul and saw and saw that he was sore troubled and said unto him, behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice and have put my life in my hand and have hearkened unto thy words which thou speakest unto me. Now, therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thine handmaid and let me set a morsel of bread before thee and eat that thou mayest have strength when thou goest on thy way. But he refused and said, I will not eat. But his servants together with the woman compelled him and he hearkened under their voice so he arose from the earth and sat upon the bed and the woman had a fat calf in the house. She hasted and killed it and took took flour and kneaded it and did bacon leavened bread thereof.

And she brought it before Saul, before his servants, and they did eat. Then they rose up and went away that night. What was Saul's response? Well, he was devastated. But he should have known.

And now the thing that that he had brought upon himself, it was at the door. And it wasn't wasn't years away. It was now it was now at the door. And this great warrior king was laying on the floor crying like a baby and not eating anything. But he had to get back up and he had to go face an enemy that God just told him he was going to lose to and he didn't want to do that.

But in all of this crying and despair and what's the one thing we don't see? We don't see repentance. Even if he was to lose his throne and even if he was to lose the battle, you think maybe he would have repented and tried to save his sons. But no, he cried and he whimpered and he pouted, but he didn't repent. So was the case in the lives of so many people.

Remorse and repentance are not the same thing. Repentance is a change of heart concerning our sin and the Lord. And Saul just could not bring himself. His pride would not allow him. In Revelation two five, it says, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent.

Now God is speaking to the church at Ephesus. He's speaking to believers here. There are times in the life of believer that we also need to what? Repent. Repentance isn't just for the lost.

Repentance is also for the saved. There are times we need to have a change of heart. We need to see our sin and confess it for what it is so God can cleanse us and give us victory. And sometimes out of pride and bitterness and depression. We just want to curl up in a ball and and and but Saul just could not bring himself to repent.

And so we see two men, two poor decisions. One, David, who by God's grace and through repentant heart, his end will be different, and one who refused to repent and his end is sealed. But there's a few things we can learn. Is there not? The fear of man brings a what?

Snare. So don't be snared by the fear of man. Don't be weary in well doing for in due season ye shall reap if we what? Faint not, so don't get faint. Run scared.

Give up. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer. So don't regard iniquity in your heart. Confess it. Trust in the Lord.

He will bring it to pass. For he is a merciful and he is a gracious God to all who put their faith and trust in him. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, for your mercy and grace. Lord, help us to trust you.

Help us to make wiser decisions than these men. Help us, Lord, not to justify doing right or doing wrong in order to do right. Lord, help us to trust you and just to do the right thing. Lord, forgive us of where we have sinned and help us, Lord, to in humility to come in repentance to you that you may help to rectify and bring the solution that is right and best and honoring to you. And, Lord, thank you for your word and for these examples.

Help us, Lord, to learn from the good ones and also from the bad ones. Help us to trust you more. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Take your