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00:00 that I caught uh in Pinang on Wednesday. I thought I could uh enjoy the chaka,
00:05 but the flu kind of diminished my appetite. Anyway, please forgive me if I sound a bit funny this morning. Once again, uh
00:13 it is my joy and privilege to be standing here uh sharing with you from the word of God. We are now in the midst
00:19 of a series on uh 1 and 2 Samuel focusing on the lives of uh Saul and
00:25 David. And through these character studies, we hope to draw uh some lessons for our own lives as we look uh at the
00:33 ups and downs uh and the highs and the lows of uh these two kings of Israel.
00:40 Today we are at 1 Samuel um 18:es 1-14 focusing on Saul that was fed to us as
00:47 now. It is quite understandable that uh between Saul and David, you would think
00:53 that David is the one from whom we can learn much because both Jews and
00:58 Christians all over the world rever David who rule as king at the zenith of
01:05 uh the history of the Israelites. He was the anointed one while Saul was the
01:11 disappointing one. When I was uh visiting Jerusalem a few
01:17 years ago, I chanced upon uh this statue of King David in the old city. And this
01:23 is a picture taken uh with my own camera. And you could see him wearing a crown and holding his favorite
01:30 instrument, the harp. But you will not likely find a statue of
01:37 King Saul anywhere in the world which is kind of expected because after all he is
01:44 often cast as the villain. Incidentally when I Googled the phrase
01:50 uh David statue I come across many examples including this one in
01:55 Jerusalem. I also found this located in New York,
02:00 but it turned out to be a statue of David with a surname Beckham.
02:06 You can see him wearing only his briefs because this was supposed to be a marketing stunt uh to promote a new line
02:14 of H&M underwear. But the best known uh statue of King
02:19 David undisputedly is this uh one made by Michelangelo between the year 1501
02:27 and 1504. Sorry, I have to censor a vital part of the statue because we are in a church.
02:34 But if you're curious, you can always Google this later tonight.
02:40 And this statue is now on public display in the city of Florence in Italy.
02:46 But there are many thing there are many things wrong with this statue. Firstly, it is it stands 17t tall which makes uh
02:54 David much much taller than Goliath. And secondly, this David
02:60 looks more like a god from Greek mythology with all the features of of a Greek god.
03:08 And thirdly, he's not even circumcised. How do I know? That's why I suggest that
03:13 you Google this later. If you don't know how a circum circumcised meal look like, we have an
03:20 expert here sitting down here. You can check with Dr. Peter.
03:26 I must I must apologize for this digression because our focus this morning is really on the character of
03:32 Saul and not David. And we shall soon see that we have also much to learn from
03:38 Saul as he's caught in this downward spiral from hero to zero as he shifts
03:46 from being in God's favor to being out of God's favor. But the reason why I'm
03:52 showing you this this statue of David is to illustrate how people in general including Michelangelo
03:59 tend to see things the way they want to see even if the view is far from the
04:04 truth. But what we want to do today is to lay bear the life of Paul Saul from a
04:11 factual biblical perspective to see what we can learn from his mistakes the way that scripture intended us to do. Let us
04:20 commit this time to the Lord in prayer. Our father in heaven, may your spirit be
04:26 our teacher this morning to reveal to us deeper truths from your word. Man shall
04:31 not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
04:37 May these verses speak to us aloud this morning to guide us and to transform us
04:43 so that our lives may be more aligned to your purpose. In Jesus name we ask.
04:48 Amen. At around noon on the 10th of April
04:55 1912, the mighty British passenger liner RMS Titanic sailed from the port of
05:01 Southampton in England on its maiden voyage bound for New York.
05:08 It made two brief stops. One at Sherbach in France and then to Queenstown in
05:15 Ireland before it crossed the northern Atlantic towards America. It was the
05:20 largest ship afloat at the time when he entered service. We all familiar with this story largely
05:27 because of uh the 1997 movie of the same name directed by James Cameroon and
05:32 starring uh Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett. The word titanic means gigantic and it
05:40 is derived from the word titans who were the earliest gods in Greek mythology.
05:47 The titans were a group of powerful deities and giants of incredible strength and they included familiar
05:54 names like Atlas and Prometheus. And somehow there is this fascination
05:59 with Greek mythology not only in the time of Michelangelo but also in the early uh 20th century. Anyway,
06:07 the Titanic was a marvel of modern engineering, a showcase of of human achievement and a demonstration of men's
06:14 capabilities. The ship was so huge and so strong that it was deemed to be unsinkable.
06:21 But sink it did at around 2:20 a.m. on
06:27 15th April, barely 5 days after it left England.
06:33 At 11:40 p.m., 20 minutes before midnight on 14th April, the vessel struck an an iceberg and the collision
06:41 caused a series of holes below the water line. Five of its watertight
06:46 compartments were breached. If it were only two or three compartments, the ship
06:51 would have easily survived. But with five compartments flooded, it soon became clear that the ship was doomed.
06:59 Although the sinking of the Titanic was one of the greatest disasters in maritime history with a tragic loss of
07:05 many lives, I'm using it to illustrate uh the life of uh Paul as an
07:11 introduction to the life of Paul and also to show how mistaken we can be. Sometimes
07:17 we build our lives, our families, our careers, our businesses, our reputation
07:23 etc. And many of us are doing quite well really. But this picture of of strength
07:29 and and confidence can be quite can be rather shaky and it can all come crashing down like a house of cards.
07:37 And this can be an initial lesson for us from the story of Saul that behind the facade of of strength and confidence. We
07:45 are actually quite vulnerable. Saul is a supreme example of this. He
07:51 can be described as the human equivalent of the Titanic. He was a towering figure in Israel at times, strong and
07:58 confident. But his life soon began to unravel and his ending is nothing short
08:03 of tragic. All it took was the iceberg of envy to punch some holes in his heart
08:10 and mind and he was doomed as we shall see shortly. We're now ready to examine the the
08:16 verses before us from 1 Samuel 18:es 1-14 and to see what actually happened
08:23 to Saul at this juncture of his life. The title given to the sermon is selfdeconstruction.
08:29 Now other people give uh g give gave various titles to this passage such as the anotomy the anatomy of a soul's
08:36 destruction or the steps to a to self-destruction. But what really happened here? What
08:42 happened to Saul that brought him down from hero to zero? And just as there
08:48 were five uh compartments in the Titanic that were flooded which doomed the ship. I would like to divide this passage into
08:55 five faces. One phase leads to another progressively until Saul sank into the
09:01 ocean of sin. The five phases are I have it here on the screen. Number one,
09:09 impulse of the heart followed by inclination of the mind
09:15 then incitement to action. Number four, isolation from God and number five
09:22 imprisoned by by fear. a kind of a systematic look at the at the at the 14
09:27 verses that we have this morning. Let's look at the first one impulse of the
09:32 heart. The key verse in this phrase in this phase is in verse 8. Saul was very
09:39 angry. This refrain displeased him greatly. It all started with a feeling, a
09:46 negative feeling in this case. And that itself was triggered by an earlier incident in uh in verse 7 where a group
09:53 of noisy ladies were dancing and singing. Saul has slain his thousands
09:60 and David his tens of thousands. You see the army had just returned from
10:05 fighting the Philistines and by this time David had become so successful in battle as evident from verse 5 here.
10:13 Bearing in mind that this chapter comes immediately after chapter 17 where we find the account of how uh David had
10:19 brought down Goliath. And the women were right. Saul is great. He has slain his
10:25 thousands. But David is even greater. He has slain his tens of thousands. But
10:31 unknowing to them their songs planted the seed of jealousy in the heart of
10:36 Saul. Their refrain spark an impulse of the heart of Saul. It made him very very
10:44 angry which eventually led to his downfall. In all likelihood, the women didn't do
10:50 this intentionally. Sometimes we must be careful with what we say and how we say. Sometimes an
10:57 innocent remark, what we think is an im innocent remark can trigger harmful feeling in someone else's heart and
11:05 cause him or her to fall. Paul advises us in Colossians 4:6, "Let
11:11 your conversation be full of grace. Be always full of grace, seasoned with salt." And here's a lesson for each of
11:17 us. As much as we can, let the words that come out of our mouth affect people
11:23 positively and not negatively. What the women should have done was to
11:28 give praise to God instead. It would have been far better had they sung glory
11:34 to God what for what he has done instead of heaping praise on certain individuals. And what it means was that
11:41 they were crediting David more than Saul. They had forgotten that the reason why the army was winning all this battle
11:48 was because God was with them and not because of Saul or David's
11:54 military skills. The Almighty God alone made it possible for them to have victory after victory
12:01 against their enemies. Perhaps we can pick up another lesson from from here as
12:07 a church as our congregation grows both in quantity and quality as we expand our
12:14 various ministries. Uh we are now starting Nepalese ministry and so and so
12:20 forth. Let us avoid crediting certain individuals for the result that we have.
12:26 Let us refrain from conferring awards to a few people because only God alone
12:33 deserves to be praised. We are mere servants of the most high as pastor
12:38 Dorai reminded us last Sunday because when we start to honor people instead of
12:44 God, many things can go wrong. Firstly, there is the real danger of pride on the part of those receiving the honor and
12:52 secondly on the part of those watching. You will never know if there's a small voice whispering to their hearts, why
12:60 him and why not me and jealousies jealousy slowly creeps in.
13:06 In contrast to what a woman did here in verse 7, there is in fact a rather uh good example
13:12 similar situation but a very good example in Exodus 15 verses 20 and 21
13:17 where we find Miriam Aaron's sister praising God for delivering the Israelites from the hands of the
13:23 Egyptians. They had just crossed the Red Sea and God had caused the waters to to
13:28 come crushing down on the Pharaoh's army and they all drowned. Exodus uh 15 20-
13:36 21. Then Miriam the prophet Aaron's sister took the timber in her hand and all the women followed her with timble
13:43 with timberls and dancing. And Miriam sang to them, "Sing to the Lord, for he's highly exalted." Both horse and
13:50 driver he has heard into the sea. If only the the ladies in 1 Samuel 18 had
13:56 remembered Miriam's song in Exodus 15. Anyway, what they did, although
14:02 unknowingly, was that they swed the seed of jealousy in Saul's heart, which we
14:07 shall see would soon grow to consume him. So began Saul's troubles. As an
14:15 impulse of the heart, from an impulse in the heart, it grew steadily into an
14:21 inclination of the mind. Which brings us to the second phase.
14:28 The key verse in this phase is verse 9. And from then from and from that time on
14:34 Saul kept a close eye on David.
14:39 What is felt in the heart now influences the mind. And by this time Saul thinks
14:46 of little else but David. We get a picture of Saul so preoccupied with David that he now keeps a close eye on
14:53 him. The mind becomes fixated as all kinds of thoughts swirl in his head.
15:01 Maybe David is after my crown. He must be up to no good. Maybe David is after
15:06 my my my kingdom. As is hinted at the end of verse 8, jealousy slowly gives
15:14 way to insecurity. This second phase is critical in Saul's
15:20 descent to destruction. You may not appreciate it but the mind
15:26 is such an important part of our being. It is the faculty that questions and and
15:32 analyzes and reasons. The mind receives signal from the heart and all the other
15:38 inputs from from the eyes and ears and other sensory organs and then and then it processes all this information. It is
15:45 nothing less than our CPU. It is our control and command center. And then the mind then sends messages to the will
15:53 which leads to our decisions and actions. But the mind
15:59 affects our actions and decisions. And that is why in English when referring to someone who has just who
16:05 has just done something stupid or unwise, we say you're out of your mind. We don't say you're out of your heart.
16:11 And when a when a boy when a girl leaves a boy, we say his heart is broken. We don't say his mind is broken because
16:18 ultimately the heart is the seat of our emotions and feelings while the mind the
16:24 center of our convictions and persuasions. The heart may rule the mind which is not
16:29 so advisable. It should be the other way around. And that is why it is no accident when when
16:36 Paul the apostle Paul talks about transformation. Uh he says in Romans 12:2
16:43 not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind but the renewing of your mind.
16:50 He didn't he doesn't say by the renewing of your heart. And also in Ephesians uh
16:55 parallel uh passage in Ephesians 4 22 and 23 Paul writes you were taught with
17:01 regard to your former way of life to put off your old self etc etc to be made new in the attitude of your minds.
17:10 Do you see how important the mind is and most of us want to grow spiritually to
17:16 be more Christlike but have you made up your mind? That is the question to ask.
17:23 In this phase, Saul's mind is now consumed. He's full of of negative and evil thoughts which he feeds with
17:30 greater and greater intensity. In a sense, he has made up his mind. As a result, he goes one notch down in his
17:37 descent to destruction. And we now move to phase three
17:43 in which we see an incitement to action. As I mentioned a minute ago, our mind is
17:51 linked to our will, which is connected to our decisions and actions. What we decide to do is based on what we think.
17:58 If you do something without reason, then you may be described as as psychotic or lunatic. But Paul, but Saul is not
18:04 psychotic. And here we see how the evil thoughts in in Saul's mind push him to
18:10 spring into action. He finally acts upon all that is going on in his mind deliberately, if I may add.
18:18 And so we find Saul sitting one day in his palace fingering his his spear while
18:25 David was across the room playing his harp. And this is a scene uh taken from
18:30 verses 10 and uh 10 and 11 whereupon suddenly
18:36 Saul threw his spear at David. And this is how it might have looked
18:41 like. It says here that he did it twice, but we're not sure if he did it on two
18:48 separate occasions on two different days or he threw two spears at David one
18:53 after another. But it says here twice.
18:58 It also says here in verse 11 that he did it to pin David to the wall, perhaps
19:03 by the sight of David's garment. But unless you are super accurate,
19:08 you will most likely end up killing your target. David would have died if not for the
19:14 quick reflexes that God granted him. And amazingly, this happened a third time in
19:23 in chapter 19 verse 10 in the next chapter where again David escaped
19:28 unharmed. And so we now notice a pattern of
19:33 behavior on the part of Saul. It is no longer an isolated incident.
19:40 What goes on in the mind is now conducted openly. Evil thoughts become evil deeds. It becomes a habit. It
19:48 started with the heart and then it infected the mind and now it spreads to the body. And this is how sin takes
19:55 control of us. Saul is almost reaching the point of no return.
20:01 So as we trace Saul's descent to destruction from one face to another, I
20:07 would like to throw you a question now, not throw you a spear. And from the
20:12 answer to this question, it is like a quiz. We'll try to draw out some lessons uh from this episodes. No worries if you
20:19 don't know the answer. Okay, some of you may know the answer. The question is at
20:24 which point in time do you think uh that uh that Paul
20:31 that Saul started to sin? Okay. That means when exactly do you think did he
20:39 did he become guilty of sinning against God? In which phase as is it in phase one or phase two or phase three?
20:48 Okay. Okay, to rephrase the question to make it harder, let me give you another scenario.
20:53 Suppose a person holds a grudge against another person. Let's let's say Mr. A uh
21:00 deeply resents Mr. B to the extent that he starts to fan uh thoughts of of killing Mr. B, but all all in his mind,
21:09 but he hasn't actually uh done anything to Mr. B. Question, can Mr. A be charged
21:15 in court for for a crime? Now the answer may not be be so straightforward. I I'm not trained in
21:22 the law. Perhaps we can ask our newly trained lawyer from England all the way.
21:28 But from the little I know if A is just thinking of killing B and has not done anything, the police cannot arrest him.
21:37 But if he's making elaborate plans, if he has bought his long sharp knife, you know, and if he has been monitoring Mr.
21:44 be every movement then I think the police can arrest him for conspiracy. I stand to be corrected but whatever the
21:51 case what we are interested in is what the Bible says. The answer lies in
21:56 Matthew chapter 5 where as part of the sermon on the mount Jesus has this to
22:02 say in verses 27 and 28. You have heard that. You have heard what that it was
22:07 said, you shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully
22:13 has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
22:18 And so from God's point of view, sin is not limited to just doing something
22:23 wrong, thinking of doing something wrong in itself is wrong.
22:30 Our God is a holy God, a tri holy God. His standards are high otherwise he will
22:35 not be God. So you see Saul has already committed sin in phase two when he was thinking
22:43 all kinds of evil thoughts against David even before he acted upon these
22:48 thoughts. As a matter of fact he was already guilty of sin all the way back in phase one when he allowed the impulse
22:55 of jealousy to grow in his heart. Remember the ladies in verse 7 a singing
23:01 Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands. The lesson for us here is clear. Never
23:08 allow a negative impulse to gain a foothold in your heart lest it grows to
23:15 to consume you and lead you down to phase two to the inclination of the heart of the mind. We must be very
23:23 careful when the heart feels a little jealous or a little resentful or a
23:29 little proud or a little lustful. The devil often tries to lead us astray
23:35 starting with a little voice, that little suggestion in our hearts. Now we may not be able to avoid all
23:43 these impulses that come knocking at our heart's door simply because we are constantly engaging people and things
23:50 around us. We always interacting with our environments uh mostly through our
23:55 our senses especially our eyes and ears. We cannot help seeing and hearing and perceiving. And as but as we are
24:02 bombarded by all these inputs, we must be careful not to let a negative
24:08 impulse take root in our heart. We must learn to banish them before it takes
24:16 root in our heart. Before we move to phase four, uh I'd
24:21 like to just digress a little bit to address one troubling verse here in verse 10. And this is just before Saul
24:28 threw his spear at David. It says in verse 10, "The next day, an
24:35 evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul." Now, many of us may be stumped by
24:40 this strange verse that seems to suggest that God sends evil spirit to cause people to sin. Of course, nothing of
24:47 that sort happens. As I've just mentioned, our God is a holy God. He does not send evil spirits. He's never
24:54 the author of any evil because he hates evil. So, what does the verse mean? Now
25:00 it may be useful to know that this phrase evil spirit from the Lord or evil spirit from God appears several time in
25:07 1 Samuel. Uh this is a shortened list uh in in
25:12 chapter 16:14 in chapter 19:9 and three other verses in Samuel 1 Samuel. It also
25:17 appears in Judges 9:23. But what we have here may be a case of
25:23 poor translation because Hebrew is such an ancient language with with such depth
25:28 and uh and complexities that are often difficult to convey in the English language. Now there are two kinds there
25:35 are two ways of tackling these difficult verses. Firstly we can see that we can see this through the lens of Job 1:12
25:43 and Job chapter 2 verse 6 where God allowed Satan to torture uh Job.
25:49 The fact of the matter is that God is sovereign and and all created beings are ultimately subject to his control
25:57 including evil spirits and demonic forces. So viewed from this angle, what we have in 1 Samuel 18:10 is not so much
26:05 an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul, but rather God allowing an evil
26:10 spirit to come forcefully upon Saul. But there's a difference between the
26:17 situation here in 1 Samuel uh 16:18 19 and the one in Job chapters 1 and 2. In
26:23 the case of Job, God allowed Satan to wreck havoc on his life in order to test
26:28 him. In the case of Saul, God allowed the evil spirit to come upon him in order to
26:34 punish him for different purposes. Now the second way to deal with this
26:40 difficult verse is to realize that the Hebrew word for spirit here which is
26:45 pronounced uh it seems to be like uh uh ruach you know I don't know the ch is
26:50 pronounced as k but uh when I uh when I speak to my friends in Israel they they try to correct me you know the the ch is
26:58 coming from the throat you know so it's hard for me so I I tend to say rock but it's like rock you know something like
27:03 that so this this Hebrew word for for spirit uh has a rather white meaning. It can
27:10 also mean uh human disposition or mood or temperament
27:16 and hence we may not be talking here about a spiritual being and this is supported by the fact that the Hebrew
27:21 word for evil here may have nothing to do with the moral dimension because it
27:27 is not always the opposite of of good because uh evil here can also mean a troubling or or disturbing.
27:35 You see in the in the New King James King James version the word evil in verse 8 verse 10 here is translated as
27:42 distressing distressing. And in the New Living Translation which
27:49 I also show here the word evil here in verse 10 is translated as tormenting.
27:56 Hence the evil spirit in the NIV may be a case of a poor translation.
28:03 The scene could be one of Saul in a distressful mood caused by the tussle in
28:09 his mind as he struggles between what is good and what is evil. He was tormented
28:14 by all these thoughts in his mind. That is the second way of looking at
28:19 this verse. In fact, when this when this happened uh earlier on in chapter 16,
28:25 two chapters before this where where it says that the the evil
28:31 spirit came upon uh uh Saul, they called attendance. Notice, you know, that the
28:36 king was in such an awful mood and they suggested that David be brought in to play the harp in order to soothe the
28:43 spirit of of of Saul. And that was how David came to play his favorite
28:48 instrument in the king's court. Not for the purpose of entertaining King Saul, but to comfort him in his distress.
28:57 But whichever you whichever angle you take, either God is allowing an evil spirit to come upon Saul, either that or
29:04 Saul is merely in an awful mood. There is another small problem in verse 10.
29:10 It says here that he referring to Saul was prophesying in his house while David
29:16 was playing the harp as he usually did. How come Saul is prophesying? You may
29:23 ask. Isn't that the job of a prophet, a man of God, and Saul is is no prophet?
29:31 Now, this is quite easy compared to the other one. This is simply a case of our wrong notion about the word prophecy.
29:38 You see, a prophecy does not necessarily have to come from God. A prophet does not necessarily have to be a man of God.
29:44 In one Kings chapter 18, we find the prophet Elijah in Mount Carmel in a
29:51 contest against uh the prophets of Baal who were the enemies of God. You all
29:56 know the story. Baal is the title for the supreme god of Canaan, the false god
30:02 of the Canaanites. And in 1 Kings 18 uh verse 29 in this contest between the the
30:08 two groups you know not two groups with Elijah and and Baal's prophets it says this
30:15 midday passed and they referring to the prophets of of Baal they continued their
30:21 frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice.
30:27 And so here we have this pathetic bunch of of false prophets prophesying but
30:32 what but they were merely uttering words from the evil one. Hence as as we read
30:38 how how Saul is prophesying in his in his palace here in in verse 10 we see
30:43 him completely in the grip of Satan which brings us to the fourth phase
30:50 isolation from God. When God leaves the scene, the evil one
30:58 often comes and takes his place. Earlier I said in in phase three that
31:04 Saul is almost at a point of no return. And here in phase four, Saul has finally arrived at a point of no return. Because
31:12 we read from verse 12 that the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul.
31:19 Saul has reached the bottom in his descent to destruction.
31:25 God has left him. The story of Saul is both sad and tragic. He began on a high as the king
31:33 of the Israelites, the people of God, but now he is merely an agent of the
31:38 devil. He is now at a point where Satan has complete control of his life.
31:47 Actually, I'm quite a fan of Star Wars. Just like Arnold Limb, he showed you a scene from uh the movie
31:54 two Sundays ago and so must I
32:01 impulse of the heart. This is a climatic scene from episode 6.
32:08 Oh, maybe I shouldn't say episode 6. I shall ask you, you know, I should ask Arnold to name which episode. Anyway,
32:14 it's episode 6, Return of the Jedi. And you may remember in this uh in this
32:20 in this final scene, you know, in episode 6, we have Emperor Palpatine trying to convert a young Luke Skywalker
32:27 to his side. And this is how he taunted the young Jedi with his slow evil voice.
32:34 Strike me down with all your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will
32:39 be complete. I can't exactly emulate his his his text, you know. Now, I don't
32:46 wish to to spiritualize a Hollywood movie, but I thought this describes
32:52 Saul's transitions quite well. Three times Saul tried to strike David
32:59 down with all of his hatred. And here in phase number four, his
33:05 journey to the dark side is now complete. The defining the defining moment for
33:10 Saul was when God departed from him, causing Saul to move from light to
33:18 darkness. Interestingly, talking about the Titanic again, it set sail in the light of noon,
33:25 but it sank in the darkness of night. Now here I would like to digress a
33:32 little while and to discuss the this darkened world in which we live where
33:39 God has largely departed. An age of godlessness in which we live. My fellow
33:46 believers, ours is a world of godlessness. Godlessness is on the
33:51 increase. And where God is absent, darkness thrives. We must be aware of
33:58 this and be constantly on our guard. Paul uh Paul the Apostle Paul exhorts us
34:04 to put on the armor of God because in Ephesians 6:12 he says that we are up against the
34:10 powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil.
34:16 Sometimes we don't we don't get a a grasp of this. Now to illustrate this godless age in
34:23 which we live. One Monday morning last month, I had to attend a government sponsored forum in
34:30 the middle of Kale and it was supposed to start at 9:00. I went early on time, but as usual, it started 15 minutes
34:37 late. So while I was waiting, I I was in no mood to mingle because my mind was uh
34:43 was trying to plan out the the busy day ahead because later 11 I plan to chabot or
34:50 sneak out because I have an 11:00 meeting uh in in Mount Kara which I cannot miss. And then I must rush back
34:57 after that to to pick Jeremy for lunch because he just started his school holidays. No not enough cars.
35:03 And then at 2:30 I must rush to Sububang to pick this sister from from the life group uh to bring her to MPPJ because
35:10 she has to settle to help her settle some some legal problems. And so so my mind was was crowded with all this
35:16 thought and while was thinking and thinking uh a a friendly looking Chinese gentleman
35:23 came up to me to say hello exchange name cards and suddenly he passed me a book
35:30 as a gift. Mr. this after he saw my name on the my name card Mr. this is a gift for you. And I was I was pleasantly
35:36 surprised at his kindness and later I found that he was working as a scientist uh at the government uh research
35:42 institute and the book was authored by him but it's nothing to do uh with the
35:48 with the uh topic of the of the of the forum on that day. It was entitled uh
35:55 universal values happiness harmony and unity.
36:02 Now, I don't know what his intention was, but I ended up reading the book during
36:08 the forum and ignoring what was going on on the stage
36:13 because most of these government forums are really quite boring.
36:18 Well, this is certainly a commendable effort on his part as he as he expounded his his thoughts and philosophies on how
36:24 to achieve happiness and harmony and so on. But what is grossly missing between the
36:30 covers of this book is that there is not a single mention of God.
36:37 God is completely absent in this book in his so-called formula to happiness. I
36:44 simply cannot see how you can achieve fulfillment or meaning or purpose
36:50 outside the realm of God. Coincidentally or otherwise or by divine
36:57 arrangement. Later that week, I was at a book sale, a book warehouse sale in Jalantandang, PJ, I think it was MPH
37:02 book warehouse sale and I came across another book,
37:07 the book of atheist spirituality. According to the cover, it contains an
37:13 elegant argument for spirituality without God. The book is is interesting. I actually
37:20 bought the book. The book is interesting as much as it's nonsensical
37:25 because atheist spirituality is a contradiction in terms. The atheist
37:30 don't doesn't believe in the existence of God. He doesn't accept the spiritual. And yet this author is trying to help
37:36 the atheist to achieve spirituality. And what's more, minus God,
37:42 there is no shortage of books on self-improvement, self-help, self, self-dead at the book
37:50 sale. Even local authors are jumping on the bandwagon. And here is one I found at a
37:58 book sale, but I didn't buy this. Uh, the missing puzzle in pursuing your dreams by a local author that shows you
38:04 how to create unlimited wealth and freedom of time. So says the caption on
38:10 at the top and this is authored by this guy Ming S
38:17 talk which is an interesting name because he certainly knows how to talk.
38:24 I was amused when I saw his name.
38:29 Another locally published book and this was in Chinese but this is even better than Mr. Talk's book. The title says
38:37 which means the god of wealth will come looking for you. You don't have to talk your way to riches because the money god
38:44 will come to you. I suggest you drop by these book sales once in a while even though you are not
38:50 into reading. You can see what is what is going on this world what people are writing what people are reading. Some of
38:56 them are so ridiculous but it reflects the age in which we live.
39:02 Very quickly here are some other interesting book I came across Harriet the Zen Hen
39:10 and the subtitle says follow the hand path to enlightenment
39:15 you to be happy learn from the hand I tell you was amazing shocking I didn't
39:23 mind this I just just browse through you know a lot of nice quotations you know
39:28 trying to encourage you you know all from the perspective of And here's another one. Your happy,
39:35 healthy pet in your pursuit of happiness. Hey, don't forget your pets because they need to be happy too.
39:43 Now, I have one last example which really takes the cake. The signs of sin
39:50 with a subtitle, the psychology of the seven deadlies, referring to the seven deadly sins, and in brackets, and why
39:58 they are good for you. Wow. Sinning is good for you. So says
40:05 the author. Would you believe that? I think this book should be banned.
40:11 Sinning is good for you. We may all laugh at some of these books
40:17 that I've been showing you. But this last title really illustrates the worrisome situation that we are in
40:22 today. As the world descends into darkness, let us always be on our guard
40:28 and stay in the light. As as godlessness engulfves our society, let us endeavor
40:35 to draw closer to our father in heaven. And this is the lesson for us to pick up here. As we see Saul moving further
40:43 away, further away from God, let us be reminded to draw nearer and nearer to
40:48 him. We now move to the last phase in Saul's descent to destruction.
40:56 imprisoned by fear. After God had departed from Saul, we find him gripped by fear as he plotted
41:03 repeatedly to have David killed. In the rest of 1 Samuel 18, which is outside of
41:09 our text today, we can read how he he made all kinds of plans to get rid of David. Uh just a quick uh overview from
41:16 verse 17, he tried to offer his daughter Mir to be David's wife. In exchange, he
41:21 asked that David serve him uh briefly by continuing uh to fight the Philistines,
41:26 but he hopes that David will be killed in one of those battles, but that didn't work out.
41:33 Next, from verse 20, he tried to offer another daughter, Mikall, to David in marriage, hoping that she would she
41:39 would trap him. But that also failed because Mikall turns out to to to be in
41:44 love with David. And again from chapter 19 verse1, he tried to get his son Jonathan to kill David.
41:52 But that also backfired because Jonathan was on David's side. Plan after plan,
41:59 frustration after frustration. In the rest of Saul's life, we find him
42:04 living in fear, in a in a constant state of worry that David might replace him as the king of Israel. until his tragic
42:12 death in 1 Samuel 31. We see him as an obsessed man driven by by anger and
42:18 hatred. As he plotted against David, what he didn't realize is that he was actually
42:24 fighting against God. No one battles with God and wins. In a life where God is on the other side
42:30 and you're on on this side against him, you only find fear and frustration.
42:37 Saul was living in the prison of fear. In contrast, children of God, do not
42:42 live in fear. For we do not live in fear. Jesus promised us in John 14:27,
42:49 "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be
42:55 troubled and do not be afraid." True, we may we may face all kinds of
42:60 uncertainties in life, but with God on our side, we need not live in fear. When
43:06 faced with various uncertainties and challenges and struggles, Jesus grants
43:12 us assurance and hope. He may not remove these uncertainties from our lives, but
43:18 he grants us peace. Peace that surpasses all understanding.
43:26 As we come to the concluding part of the sermon, we now need to discuss what we can learn from this passage
43:33 in great detail. We have we have traced Paul's descent to destruction face by face, five faces.
43:40 It's time for us to look into some practical applications so that these verses can impact the way we think and
43:47 better better align our lives with God's purpose. Now, if you have noticed along the way,
43:53 we we have already picked up several small lessons from the text and let me summarize them for you here for easy
43:58 recall. There are seven lessons. Number one, behind behind the facade of
44:05 strength and confidence, we are actually quite vulnerable. Number two, be be careful with what you
44:12 say because a seemingly innocent remark can cause someone to fall.
44:18 Number three, in our church ministries, we must avoid crediting certain individuals and we must instead give the
44:24 praise to God. Number four, while we while we may not be able to avoid negative impulses from
44:30 knocking at our heart's door, be careful not to let them gain a foothold in our hearts.
44:37 Number five, because what goes on in the mind leads to action, we must make up our mind if we want to grow in Christ.
44:44 Number six, as the world descends into darkness as and as society promotes god
44:50 godlessness, let us draw closer to God. And lastly, with God on our side, we can
44:55 enjoy his peace and we need not live in fear.
45:01 Wow, that is certainly a lot to bring home. Can you remember them all?
45:08 Now, honestly speaking, I don't think so you can remember this. I think in three weeks from now, you would have forgotten how to remember so many points. And
45:14 hence, you may be tempted to ask me, hey, what is the one big lesson that I can I can take home with me from this
45:20 from this uh uh sermon? Well, the answer is uh rather obvious.
45:26 Don't be like Saul. And that can be today's uh lesson in a
45:32 nutshell. Don't did don't do what he did. Avoid his many mistakes and missteps. The Bible describes his
45:39 self-destructive behavior in in great detail as a kind of template so that we
45:44 will not fall like he did. Now, this should be easy enough to remember.
45:50 Now I can well end the sermon here and say okay let us not uh be like Saul
45:55 don't do what he did but the truth of the matter is I cannot end the sermon on this note because the
46:02 real lesson from this passage goes far deeper.
46:07 What we have here on the screen and beside the slide before this what we have picked up until now I'm sorry it is
46:13 just scratching the surface. We must go deeper in order to give uh to do justice
46:18 to this text. And so what is the deeper lesson?
46:24 You see the trouble with all these obvious lessons is that in reality there
46:29 is a little Saul in all of us.
46:34 Do you really think that you can avoid being like Saul? I believe it to be very very difficult
46:42 because the story of Saul is really the story of all of us. We are really no different from Saul especially when it
46:50 comes to human nature and human instincts.
46:55 I started the sermon by saying that between Saul and David people tend to think that uh we have more to learn from
46:60 David because after all he seems to be the better person. But let me surprise
47:05 you by pointing out that David in fact is also no better than Paul but than Saul.
47:12 Saul's life, as I've described, is one of hero to zero.
47:17 David's life, let me tell you, is one of zero to hero and back to zero.
47:23 Seriously, because later in his life, David turned out not only to be an adulterer, but he became a murderer. He
47:31 became a murderer. What crime? But that's another topic for another sermon.
47:38 Don't be surprised to know that the Old Testament is mostly about the failures and the misdeeds of God's people and
47:44 their leaders. Most religions promote their heroes as
47:50 strong and wise and and righteous while in the Bible the sins of its heroes are
47:57 laid back for all to see. Granted that there are indeed many
48:03 achievements and qualities of biblical characters uh that we can learn from but
48:08 most of the time they are a disappointing lot. David is no better than Saul and by extension we can be no
48:16 better than Saul. And hence the deeper lesson from our passage today is that we are doomed.
48:23 We have no hope because we can do we can do no better than Saul. Sounds gloomy
48:28 doesn't it? But that's just half the deeper lesson.
48:34 What's the other half? And here I need to refer to Anor Lim's uh sermon two Sundays ago. He was
48:40 preaching on 1 Samuel 17 on the story of David versus Goliath which is one chapter before this before our text this
48:46 morning. And this is what I remember from his message is here to confirm that
48:51 it is rather tempting to equate David with ourselves to think of ourselves as
48:57 a sort of David and to think of Goliath as representing all our our insecurities, our struggles, our
49:03 challenges and so on. And that we can slay this metaphorical giant with a with a pebbles of what uh uh prayer and and
49:10 and faith and so on and so forth. And we were shown a number of of self-improvement books that were written
49:17 along this theme. But as honor pointed out, this is missing the point because if you go
49:23 deeper, actually Goliath is the symbol of the big question of sin and David is
49:28 the forerunner of the person of Jesus. The David Goliath narrative is in fact a
49:34 signpost to the future pointing to the work of Christ on the cross.
49:40 The victory of David over Goliath points to the victory over sin that Jesus would
49:45 achieve for us at the cross. So similarly in our passage from 1
49:52 Samuel 18 on the story of Saul if we go deeper we should see in these verses our
49:58 own weaknesses and our vulnerabilities and our our fallibilities because we're no better than Saul
50:05 and we should not think that we can overcome our weaknesses with some sort of techniques or or or strategies.
50:12 The only way to overcome them is to come to the cross of Jesus.
50:18 And this, my fellow believers, is the deeper lesson from the story of Saul.
50:24 That's why I come to the conclusion that 1 Samuel 18, our text this morning, sits so nicely besides 1 Samuel 17, the story
50:32 of Saul actually complements the story of David and Goliath. While the story of G David slaying Goliath points to Jesus
50:39 overpowering sin at the cross, the story of Saul gives the basis why Jesus needed
50:44 to do that. The story of Saul points to the need for the cross. Our need for the cross so
50:52 that we can avoid the missteps of Saul. Too many Christians I know falter or
50:58 fall along the way. Because what they did was that they came to the cross once to receive the free gift of salvation
51:05 and then they walk away later from the cross as if they have the means to to live the transformed life but only to
51:11 find that they cannot deal with the many impulses of the heart and the attractions of the world. The truth of
51:18 the matter is that not only do we need to come to the cross, we need to constantly fix our eyes on the cross and to stay close to Jesus on a daily basis.
51:26 If I may add, most of you are familiar with the song, the old rugged cross.
51:31 Part of the chorus goes like this. I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown. Does
51:36 that reflect the desire of your heart? I will cling to the old rugged cross.
51:45 Finally, I I like to just end with uh referring to the story of the Titanic.
51:50 Again, as the vessel was sinking, it was reported that the ship's band, the musical band, started to play a song.
51:58 They didn't abandon the ship like the many of the passengers, but they they stood on the deck playing a song, a swan
52:04 song, if you like. If you remember a scene towards the end of the movie, the band actually played the hymn nearer my
52:11 God to thee. If you remember the movie Titanic and many of you notice him because we normally sing it during the
52:18 funeral which is understandable because the one departing is now nearer to God if not already beside God.
52:25 So it is also obvious why the band played this song you know when the Titanic was sinking
52:30 because by this time it was it was clear that many of the passengers would would soon perish. The ship carried 2,224
52:36 passengers but they were there weren't enough lifeboats to save them all. Altogether, 1,500 of them will soon die
52:42 in the icy water of the northern Atlantic. Neither my God to thee was played for
52:47 them, perhaps in an attempt to calm them down. But from the angle of today's
52:53 passage, I'm inclined to think that this hymn, Nearer, my God to thee, could also
52:58 be meant for those who will later survive, even though that may not have been the intention of the band. Because those who
53:06 are alive should be exalted to draw nearer to God and not just when they are dying. And I pray that this is what you
53:13 will do to fix your eyes on the cross always to be drawn ever closer to God to
53:19 enjoy an intimate relationship with God because at the cross we not only find our salvation but also we find our hope
53:27 and courage and strength so that we not end up like Paul like Saul. Shall we close in a word of prayer?
53:36 Oh father in heaven as we study the life of Saul we see in ourselves our weaknesses our
53:42 fallibility and our vulnerability. If not for the cross where would we be?
53:47 Cause us to cling to the cross to be nearer to you to stay close to you so that our lives will be more and more
53:53 transformed to be like Jesus. For we ask this in his precious name. Amen.
