First Samuel chapter 31. Got a puzzle to put together up here with. Isn't technology wonderful? I tell you. Alright.

Could not get that PowerPoint to come up earlier when I got here this evening, but it finally did. And I knew I had a song on here that wasn't in the hymn book, and I've got a few pictures to show you that I well, I can't show you if it's not working. So praise the Lord, it started to work. So first Samuel, last chapter. The book of first Samuel is mainly about three people.

First Samuel, the namesake of the book, The prophet and the last judge of God, one of the first prophets, the last judge, nation of Israel, led them in a great revival, but they wanted a king. So the Lord said, okay, that's what they want. That's what I'll give them. So thus comes in the second person in the book of first Samuel, and that is king Saul. Saul is we'll look at this evening.

He's we're gonna deviate just a little bit in that this chapter is mainly about Saul and not so much about David, but obviously, it's very important step toward David becoming king because it is the end of Saul's reign. And then finally, beginning in chapter 16, we meet David, and he is intertwined through the rest of the book. The story of Saul and David and many years after David is anointed to be king, he's still running from Saul. It's been a frustrating time for David though he hasn't lost his face, though he has made some pretty bad blunders at times along the way. But God, by his grace and mercy, who always keeps his promises, has stood by David and sometimes delivered him from his own problems that he got himself into.

Particularly when David were turns back to the Lord and seeks the Lord's counsel, which he did on several occasions, which consequently Saul did not sincerely do, which we see two men going in two opposite directions, sadly for King Saul. So chapter 31, we started the text back in chapter 28 concerning this battle. There is a battle that is taking place, in Israel between Israel and the Philistines. David has been living in Philistia because, Saul was trying to kill him, in Israel and got himself into a bit of a pickle there in in Philistia but the Lord delivered him out of that. We looked at that last week and now, the battle is about to commence between the Philistines and and the children of Israel but before we get to that, just a couple verses that are pertinent to our lesson, particularly regarding Saul this evening.

Proverbs three, five, and six, you ought to have memorized by now if you didn't because I quote it like a lot. 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 path. Saul desperately needed that, the latter half of his reign, but Saul did not seek it. And, therefore, Saul continued to go on the wrong path.

In Proverbs fourteen twelve, the Bible says, there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And that is very much the case here in the life of Saul. He did not give the Lord his his heart to seek his path to be led by the Lord, and it led him to ruin destruction, the ruin of his his kingdom, his reign, and his death. And sadly, we'll see today the death of three of his sons. One of them being beloved Jonathan, the good friend of David.

So let's read chapter 31 verse one. Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the man of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain at Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons. And the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchizedek, Saul's sons. And the battle went sore against Saul and the archers hit him, and he was sore wounded of the archers.

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 Saul died and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men that that same day together.

And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley and they that were on the other side Jordan 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 the morrow when the Philistines came to strip the slain that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent into the land of the and sent it into the land of the Philistines roundabout to publish it in the house of their idols and among the people. And they put his har armor in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan. 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 body of his son bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan and came to Jabesh and burnt them there.

And they took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days. And thus ends the reign of the first king of Israel. At times, a mighty king. At times, a good king. But a king who allowed the flesh to rule.

In his heart and in his life, he allowed pride and jealousy to overtake him. He fashioned his reign a little too much like the world's. And that's why God chose a man after his, what, own heart to take his place. The first king of Israel was the king that Israel wanted. Second king of Israel was the king that that God wanted.

Saul was a impressive man, head and shoulders above everybody else. He was good to look at. He looked like a what? Looked like a king. But he was lacking something inside, which showed itself as time went on.

So we see in this passage, we see the battle, with the Philistines went badly. So just to show you where the battle is taking place here. So I got mixed up last week because I first showed you a picture and I said, Affect is up here. And I said, oh, no. Well, Affect is down here.

Well, actually there's two different Affects, I guess. Alright. So but anyway, the Affect that we read about in the previous passage is down here because Philistia is down here south of this. So the Philistines had gathered here at Affect. The Israelites had gathered up here in the Valley Of Jezreel.

Okay? To fight against one another. This little you see this little, yeah, thing that sticks out up there. Okay? Little peninsula that sticks out.

Today, that is the city of Haifa. If you've ever heard of Haifa in Israel, it's right near that area there. You come inland from Haifa, right in here is Mount Carmel. Okay? I used to pronounce it Carmel because, well, it looks like Carmel, but I guess it's pronounced Carmel.

Okay? And this in this area right here called the Valley Of Jezreel, there have been more battles fought than any other place on the face of the earth. Hand to hand battles fought in this valley, which is a land bridge between Europe, Asia, and and Africa. And so very vital to control this area of of the coastline of the Mediterranean where Israel is. So this is the Valley Of Jezreel.

One was camped up here, the other is down here, and they're gonna clash in there. By the way, it's not on this map, but there's a little town right here that existed for nearly six thousand years, And the name of the town is Megiddo. So if you've ever heard the term Armageddon in reference to the last battle in Revelation, it is a reference to the Valley Of or the Hill Of Megiddo, which is here. And again, this valley is also referred to as the Valley Of Megiddo. So that is where, largely that last, campaign against God in Israel will take place where God will defeat his foes once and for all.

So that is the battlefield that we are looking at. This is a topographical map here. And so right here is Mount Carmel, And then this is all valley right here. It's the breadbasket of Israel. It's where most of their produce is grown, very much so back in past times grown here and in the in the in the Jordan River Valley, South of, Galilee.

There are three mountains or I I'm from where they're actual mountains, and so these things look more like hills to me, but they call them mountains. Okay? There's one here. It's hard to see where you are, but it's Mount Tabor. And then here is the Hill Of Mora.

And then down here, you probably can't read it from back there, but it says Mount Gilboa. Okay? And that is referenced obviously in our text. So this is a picture I took from Mount Carmel. Okay?

So this is looking east across the Jezreel Valley. Right here is a little bump in the background. That is Mount Tabor. This right here is the Hill Of Mora. And this right here, you just see the end of Mount Gilboa.

And this is where largely this battle took place. Next picture. This is a closer up picture of Mount Gilboa. Okay? And this is the mountain upon which, Saul met his end in the land of Israel.

On part of that mountain, on extended part of that mountain is, the city of Jezreel, where later king Ahab and Jezebel would have a palace there, on Mount Gilboa as well. So this is the place where the battle took place. Israel coming from north, the Philistines coming up from the South into this large valley to war against one another. Many times, Israel had drove back the Philistines, had driven back the Philistines again and again and again, but not this time. This time, the Philistines got the upper hand.

And Saul and his army were sent running with their tails between their legs, so to speak. Saul and his three sons were injured and died. Just as Saul had been told days earlier by Samuel brought from the grave through his decision to foolishly consult a medium. He was told in chapter 28, and go back there and read if you would for a moment, chapter 28 and verse 16, then said Samuel, wherefore then dost thou ask of me seeing the Lord has departed from thee and has become thine enemy? So why are you bothering to talk to me?

Aren't you on the wrong side, so to speak? You have become God's what? Enemy. Then why are you coming to God for advice if you are God's enemy? That doesn't make much sense, Samuel says.

That's evidenced by the fact that that Saul went to a witch for counsel. Verse 17. And the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me 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 executes his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.

Well, what did Samuel mean by that? In death, in the grave. And the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. I don't know whether it troubled Saul more of his own life being taken or that of a sound defeat of his nation that he ruled at the hand of the enemy. But he took the news very hard, but what he did not do is he did not repent.

He did not repent. Though he was given many opportunities. In the end, Saul took his own life, not an act of honor as some would suggest in certain cultures, but an act of of cowardice. Unwilling to fight to the end for his nation and for his God, to face humiliation at the hands of the enemy, he took his own life. And then his armor and his head were taken as trophies to Philistia and put before pagan idols.

As the Philistines, in their mind, thought that they had defeated the God of Israel. Boy, were they wrong. It wasn't the God of Israel they defeated, it was Saul who they defeated, who had chosen to ignore himself, the God of Israel. Sort of the reverse of David's victory over Goliath. David had a great victory over Goliath, took his head, trophy.

Yes. That's something they did in that day. Yes. Gruesome. Yes.

But nonetheless, Goliath's sword was taken and placed in a place of worship at Nob, where later David would retrieve it as we read about earlier. Saul's body is hung in triumph by the Philistines from the walls of Bethshan. Bethshan, you can see in this map here. So Aphek, Jezreel, and over here is what? Can you read that back there?

That's Bethshan. Okay? Later, Bethshan became one of the cities of the Decapolis. The Decapolis were 10 Hellenistic cities that were colonized and built by Greece during their time of reigning in the world and over Israel. And it was later named Scythopolis, was the name of the city.

When I was in Israel, we went to Scythopolis. These are the ruins of some of the ruins that they have unearthed from around the time of Christ. Okay? So this was the city of Scythopolis when Christ walked upon the earth, and those would have been ruins largely that would have been there then. The hill in the back, probably contains many more ruins, of an earlier time when the city was the city of Bethshan.

They haven't excavated all of that. But this is where, Saul's body, was hung, as again a sign of triumph over Israel as the Philistines had, worked their way all the way from here, all the way up into inhabiting Bethshan on this side of of the Jordan River. And so for a brief time, Philistia expanded itself in to take over a great amount of Israel near the end of the life of Saul. But there was one group of people who was not content with that picture and was willing to risk their lives for the honor of Saul. Like David, though Saul had not turned out to be the king that they had hoped for, he nonetheless was the king.

He did represent the kingdom, And it was a blasphemy that the Philistines had taken, had partaken in by hanging his body because not only it was an affront to Israel, but it was an affront to God. And so the men of Jabesh Gilead, sent some of their best men. They crept in by night and they took those bodies down, off the wall. This was particularly interesting because the men of Jabesh Gilead were repaying Saul, so to speak, for a good thing he had done in coming to their rescue many years before, which they had not forgotten. You can see it on the map here.

This is Jabesh Gilead. The name of the city is Jabesh. It's called Jabesh Gilead because Jabesh is in the region that's called Gilead. Therefore, we call it Jabesh Gilead. Remember, two and a half of the tribes of Israel settled on this side.

See, here's the Sea Of Galilee, that's the Jordan River. Two and a half tribes settled on this side of the Jordan River. Later on, that area became known as Gilead. And Jabesh was on the eastern side, of, the Jordan River, and, that's why it was called by that name. The people that live over there were sometimes very loyal to Israel, sometimes not quite so much.

They were affected largely by the Ammonites and others that lived over there, as far as their religious activities. But back in chapter 11, if you go back to chapter 11 real quick, we will recap quickly why the men of Jabesh Gilead felt compelled but took their lives at stake not to run the Philistines out, but simply to do what? Simply to recover the bodies of their king and his sons. So, first Samuel eleven one. Then, Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, make a covenant of us and we will serve thee.

And Nahash the Ammonite answered them on this condition will I make it a covenant with you that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for reproach upon all Israel. The elders of Jabesh said unto him, give us seven days' respite that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel. And then if there be no man to save us, we will come out to thee. So evidently, the people of Jabesh had little in the way of defenses and or else their men were unwilling to fight. And, when they were besieged, they said, okay, well, you know, we we can't fight back against you, so we'll just surrender.

And they said, oh, that's fine, but we're going to poke out all your right eyes. Well, that didn't set well, as you can imagine. So they said, well, hold on a minute. We take that back. Hold on.

Let us send out messengers and see if there's someone on the other side of the river that cares about the people on this side of the river, There had been animosity animosity between the two. So then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul and told the tidings in the ears of the people, and all the people lifted up their voices and wept. And behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field, and Saul said, what aileth the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh. So, in the previous chapter, Saul had been anointed the next king of Israel, but he wasn't very hip on that.

He really didn't want to have all that responsibility. He was kind of a little bit shy, so to speak, or probably timid is a better word, though he looked like this great hulking man. He wasn't he wasn't keen on all that responsibility and being the leader of all the people. So he went back to he went back to the field to work for his dad. So, that's where they found him and behold, Saul came.

Let's see. Well, we're in verse six and the spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings and his anger was kindled greatly. He took a yoke of oxen, he hewed them into pieces, and he sent them throughout all the hosts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen, And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one, consent. And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were 300,000 and the men of Judah 30,000. So 330,000 men came at the beck and call of Saul as he was filled and led by the spirit of God.

And they said unto the messengers that came, thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabesh Gilead, tomorrow, by that time the sun be hot, you shall have help. And the messengers came and showed it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. Therefore, the men of Jabesh said, tomorrow we will come out unto you, and you shall do with us all that seemeth good unto you. And it was so on the morrow that Saul put the people in three companies. They came into the midst of the host in the morning, watched, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day.

And it came to pass that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left together. And thus, Saul delivered the people of Jabesh Gilead as he was led by the spirit of the Lord in a resounding victory. And that is how his reign began. And how did his reign end? Running in defeat and taking his own life cowardly.

But the men of Jabesh Gilead remembered. Too bad, oftentimes, we have very short memories. People do nice things for us. They go out of their way for us, and then they forget to do one thing we ask them to do. Or they hurt us somehow by something they say, And we forget everything they did, it seems like, before that.

And all that matters is the one mess up they made. Well, the people of Jabesh Gilead remembered Saul. They put their lives on the line. And for the honor of Saul and the honor of Israel and the honor of their God, they came and they took back the bodies of Saul and his son. Particularly in that day, that symbolism meant a lot, particularly to the people that their remains were not desecrated in such a manner.

So ends the reign of Saul as king in Israel and the lives of his sons, sadly, including Jonathan who went on to his reward. What brought Saul to this end when his God was more powerful than a million soldiers of the Philistines? The whole world could have came against Saul and Saul could have defeated them. That wasn't a problem for the God of Israel. No army that Satan can muster.

And he'll try. He has tried several times and he will try again, particularly at the battle we call Armageddon. He'll fill this valley with his soldiers. And with the words of his mouth, our Lord Jesus Christ will slay them all for they are no match for God. Many times over, God came to the defense of Israel when they and their leaders called upon God in repentance and faith to deliver them.

But you do not read this here. What you read instead is a defeated people led by a defeated king into a great defeat. What happened? Well, as we just noted, it seemed that Saul got off to a good start. Bashful, unassuming in chapters nine and ten.

He trusted in the Lord and he worked with Samuel many times. He led the people in the deliverance of Jabesh Gilead as thankfully, we're left with at least some good news, so to speak, here at the end of the book regarding them. However, in chapter 13, we begin to see a Saul whose pride is beginning to lead him away from the Lord. And it begins with something often very what? Small.

The devil doesn't come and ask us and try to tempt us to do things that are very, very wicked and bad, at least in our eyes. All sin is wicked and bad. But he tempts us to do something that we might consider what? Small. A white lie.

You know, half truth. You know, I I need a couple quarters to wash my clothes in college, and I don't have them right at the moment. I'll have them tomorrow, but my roommate has them sitting in his cup over there. So I'll just borrow them without what? Asking.

No. Am I really borrowing them? The answer to that is no because, a, you're not asking. And are you going to give him back the two very same quarters you took? I don't think so.

And that's the way the devil gets his foot in door. In chapter 13, Samuel and Saul were to meet before a battle was to take place. And in chapter 13 in verse eight, it says, and he tarried, that is Saul tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed, but Samuel came not to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to me and a peace offering and he offered the burnt offering and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of the offering, the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he might salute him. So, of course, you know, Saul gets impatient.

He does. He makes the sacrifice. And then as soon as he's done, who shows up? If he'd have waited an hour longer, then Samuel would have done the sacrifice. Why was that important?

Well, Samuel was a priest, and Saul was not. There were responsibilities that were given to the civic leader of the king, and there were other responsibilities that were for the religious leaders, the priests. But Saul got impatient, couldn't wait, did it himself. Verse 11. And Samuel said, what hast thou done?

And Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattered from me and that thou camest not within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered themselves together in Michmash. Oh, interesting. It's the Philistines, isn't it? Therefore, said I, the Philistines, will come down upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication on the Lord. I I forced myself therefore and offered a burnt offering.

Do you hear the justification there? No. They'll they'll come upon me, and I haven't made supplication to the Lord. So I had to do it. I forced myself.

Have you ever tried to justify your sin? Yeah. That's what Saul was doing. But there was no justification for what he had done. You cannot do right to you cannot do wrong to do what?

To do right. You just do do right. Trust in the Lord. Therefore, verse 12 said I, the Philistines oh, come. Verse, 13.

And Samuel said to Saul, thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandments of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever, but now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord hath sought him, a man after his own heart. The Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.

And what was that? To keep his place and to trust God and not to overstep his authority. But in his pride and in his panic, Saul did not take to heart, did not see the commandment of God as being all that, what, important. You know, there's some some laws that just aren't as important as other laws. Right?

Sometimes I think we we think that way, especially with those little signs on the road that say speed limit, you know, 45 miles an hour. What's sad is when we particularly take the laws of God and treat them that way. Oh, yeah, God. I'll obey this law because I understand that. That makes sense to me.

But, you know, this law over here, not so much. You know, there's this situation that there's they used to teach class in a school called values clarification. And they would come up with these situations where, yeah, you know, these situations where, you know, do you do this or do you do that and and you have to choose the greater good or the lesser evil or so to speak and it's a no win situation. But if you follow the Lord and you do his will, you won't find yourself in what? No win situations.

That's when we get ourselves in trouble. Take for instance Joshua in the book of Joshua. The people from the Gibeonites came from two hills over pretending that they had come from a country far far away. You know, a galaxy far no, not a galaxy. Anyway, a land far far away.

And and they came and said, we wanna make a treaty with you. We're from way over there. We're not we're not we don't live here. We live over there. We just wanna be friends.

And Joshua didn't consult who? He didn't consult God. He didn't consult God, and he he he just went based upon his own reasoning. There's a way that seems right unto a man, and he signed a treaty in the name of the Lord. And then he found out they were from two hills over, and he was supposed to kill all of them and run them all out of the land.

That's what God had commanded him to do. So now he's got himself in a what? In a pickle. And so now you run into the Jesus said, gotta do this, you gotta do that, what's right, what's wrong. It's a pickle because he didn't go to God the first time.

Abraham got himself in that kind of pickle when he decided to listen to Sarah in regards to Hagar, and he ended up with Ishmael, and then here we go. Those two were still fighting each other thousands of years later. So so, Saul did the same, jumped the gun, couldn't wait on the Lord, and he took a step in the wrong direction. And from there on, it it was it was downhill, and it didn't have to be. We do make missteps.

You know, it may have been too late maybe in regards to Saul's kingdom, but it wasn't too late for who? It wasn't too late for Saul. He could still repent. He could still choose a different path. He could still have a positive effect on his people even if his descendants weren't gonna rule the land forever.

But it went worse from bad to worse. In the next chapter, Saul chooses not to protect his own son to cover for his own pride. He made a law on the spur of the moment. He said none of the soldiers can eat anything. They had to fast until they caught these people.

His son, Jonathan, was in a company that wasn't there. He didn't know the rule. He ate some honey. And in order to save his own hide, to save face before the people, God had to stop him from killing his own son. What was that son's name?

Jonathan. In chapter 15, God told Saul to go kill all of the Amalekites in order to keep a promise as we saw as we saw in Esther in Sunday school, in order to keep a promise that God made concerning the Amalekites to Joshua who attacked Israel as they were coming out of Egypt. And Saul went and he killed most of them, but he kept the king for a trophy. Why did he need a trophy? Pride.

Look at me. See, I defeated the Amalekites. The king is over there on the floor. He's missing his thumbs and his toes. They did that kind of crazy stuff.

And there he is. He is my trophy. Here's my trophy from this people. There's the king of that, you know. Foolish stuff they did, but and he also kept all the best of the animals which he was told to kill.

And again, he justified. He made excuses. All the people forced me. All they brought him back to sacrifice. And Samuel said, isn't it better to obey than to what?

To sacrifice. It's much better just to do the right thing than than to do the wrong thing so you have to make a sacrifice. Just do the right thing and you won't have to make the what? You won't have to make the sacrifice to cover for your sin. Same true holds today.

No. Praise the Lord. We don't have to make sacrifices for our sin. Jesus Christ is a final sacrifice to shed on the his blood on the cross for us. But it is still better to do the right thing than to do the wrong thing and go to God for forgiveness.

It's better just to do the right thing to begin with. Is it not? It is indeed. And then in chapter 17, when he faced Goliath, Saul, was probably the biggest of the people of Israel, he said he was head and shoulders above everybody else. Even Saul wouldn't go fight Goliath.

Instead, it was the little shepherd boy, probably a older teenager, but still not anywhere near the experience level or the strength or size of Saul that had to go stand before Goliath and defeat him. It was Saul who then became jealous of David in chapter 18. It was Saul who then sought to kill David first by compulsion and eventually by premeditation in chapter 19. It was Saul that ordered the execution of all of the priests at Nob simply because they dared to help who? They dared to help David.

How far have we fallen? Has Saul fallen? He did not keep his word to David when David cut the corner of the robe off of Saul in the cave. And Saul said to David, I will stop chasing after you. And the next time it became convenient, the next time he thought he had David, guess what?

Off he went with 3,000 soldiers to try to kill him. And then finally, it was Saul that went to a witch for help in chapter 28 because God was no longer talking to him. David said, if I were to guard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not what? The Lord will not hear me. And the Lord was not hearing Saul because he was refusing to repent before the Lord.

The problem was he did what was right in his own eyes. He did not trust in the Lord, and so he failed. He failed his nation, he failed his family, and he failed his God. It began with a little misstep here, a little pride there, but he did not turn back, and it destroyed him. Praise the Lord, we serve a God of mercy and grace.

And his mercies are new what? Every morning. And as long as we're still here, we have the opportunity to seek that mercy, do we not? Not because we have earned some special place, not because we have earned his protection, but simply because he loves us so much that he is willing to offer forgiveness and grace and help in time of need for even such disobedient servants as we. But we need to take our eyes back off of ourselves, fulfilling and gratifying the flesh, and turn our hearts back to the Lord, confess our sins so he is faithful then just and to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all that unrighteousness.

In Saul's day, it said in chapter 11 that the spirit came upon Saul and he led them in a great victory. And then several chapters later, it says the spirit, what? Departed from Saul. And the spiral downward just picked up speed. Praise the Lord in the New Testament.

If you are truly a child of God, the spirit will not leave us, but it doesn't mean that we will listen to him. In John fourteen sixteen and seventeen, Jesus said, I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you, how long? Forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. There is something different about the work of the Holy Spirit in the church in the New Testament that is far different from, far more wonderful than the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.

For he seals us until the day of what? Redemption. But nonetheless, we can grieve him. Can we not? By not listening to him.

And we can refuse to hear him so that we are not walking in the spirit nor being filled and controlled by him. And when we are walking on our own path, when we are not listening to his spirit, we are going to be overcome by our flesh and sin. For Paul said, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the what? Lust of the flesh. But if you're not walking in the spirit, then you are apt to fulfill what?

Lust of the flesh. So how do we walk in the spirit? We confess as we talked about a little this morning. We confess. We partake of the sword of the spirit, which is the what?

The word of God. We get down on our knees in what? Prayer. And we repent. And we avail ourselves of the mercy and the grace and the forgiveness and the love of God.

And he will help to put us back on the path that we ought to be on. He will lead us into green pastures and by the rivers of cool water. But let's not be like Saul. Let's be more like David and Abraham. They failed at times, but they they didn't give up on God.

And again and again, God, by his grace and mercy, delivered them. And he will too deliver us. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, For all that you have done for us, for the opportunity you've given us to serve you, to follow you. Thank you for your mercy and grace.

We pray, Lord, that you would keep us from sin, from temptation. We pray, Lord, that you would deliver us from the evil that is all around us and even inside our own hearts. We know that greater is he that's in us than he that is in the world. We know that your mercies are new every morning. And we thank you, Lord, that in Jesus Christ, we do have the victory and that you will never leave us nor forsake us.

Help us, Lord, to follow you day by day that we will not be dishonoring to our savior but pleasing and glorifying in your sight. In Jesus' precious name, we do pray. Amen.