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The Fall of Saul (CC Troy)

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1 SAMUEL 19

And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.

2 But Jonathan Saul’s son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father

seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a

secret place, and hide thyself:

3 And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with

my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee.

4 And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin

against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works

have been to thee-ward very good:

5 For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a great salvation

for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to

slay David without a cause?

6 And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the Lord liveth, he shall not be

slain.

7 And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan brought Da-

vid to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.

8 And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with

a great slaughter; and they fled from him.

9 And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand:

and David played with his hand.

10 And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin: but he slipped away out of

Saul’s presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.

11 Saul also sent messengers unto David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and

Michal David’s wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.

12 So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.

13 And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster,

and covered it with a cloth.

14 And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.

15 And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I

may slay him.

16 And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of

goats’ hair for his bolster.

17 And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is

THE FALL OF SAUL / 1 SAMUEL 19escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?

18 So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done

to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.

19 And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.

20 And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets proph-

esying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of

Saul, and they also prophesied.

21 And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent

messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.

22 Then went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is in Sechu: and he asked and said,

Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah.

23 And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went

on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24 And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down

naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?

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Sin and the One-Two Punch (CC Troy)

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INTRODUCTION

Many passages in the Bible speak of the glory of God’s creation. Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 95 says, “The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Psalm 104 says, “How many are your works Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number—living things both large and small.” The first category we think of is nature. From the towering peaks of the Andes in Venezuela, to the great freshwater lakes of Michigan, to the parched sands of the Sahara the Lord has made a variety of breathtaking biomes for life to flourish in. The water cycle refreshes the earth with vitality. The seasons form a natural rhythm for life. The day and night cycle establishes periods of activity and rest. The stars and the moon give light by night. And the sun sheds its energy, light, and warmth by day.

THE PROBLEM

The problem of sin is old, deep, wide, and even transcends our physical reality into the heavenly realm. But we are Calvinists. There are elect angels and non-elect angels. This means, thanks be to God, there is a purpose to all of this. To the pagan, death is just a part of life. You’re born, you live a meaningless life, and then you die. When the Christian sees death, we say, “There is something wrong with that. That is not natural. Something about this world is fundamentally broken. Romans 8 says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Sin is the problem. Sin is the enemy who wants to knock us down. And despite our delusions, we would not have fared any better were it us in the garden being tempted. We would’ve fallen just as they did.

THE JAB

This question about where to place Jesus goes back much further than the 300s. In fact, the author to the Hebrews had to do the same thing. Listen to chapter 1, “Having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’? Or again, ‘I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son’? And again, when he brings the firstborn in the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship.’ Now, what prompted this apologetic argument? Why take verses from the Psalter to prove that Jesus is superior to the angels? The readers of the letter to the Hebrews were enamored by angels, attributing to them a power and a standing that was not warranted. And that is understandable because the Bible does present them as very powerful and important beings. Take Galatians 3:19 for example. It says that the law of God was communicated through angels by an intermediary. This is repeated again in Acts chapter 7 at the end of Stephen’s speech. He says, “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” And we have a third reference in Hebrews 2:2.

THE RIGHT-CROSS

It is a strange man who would say, “When I consider a subject worthy of meditation, I gravitate towards judgment day.” But I hope to convince you that that man is not strange at all. That is the sort of man who understands the character of God and the justice of God. We cannot seem to separate in our minds, judgment day, from the concept of terror. In one sense, this is biblical. Hebrews 10:26 says, “if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” Are you an adversary? Do you keep sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth? No, you take up the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation and you fight against sin. You come here every week to renew covenant. You read the Bible to learn more about the God you serve. You pray to Him and cast your cares on Him. God uses means, even warning passages like this one, to remind us of the severity of God.

CONCLUSION – CHOSEN TO BE SAVED

When judgment comes, it will be a glorious day. There are men and women who have done wicked things in this life. They have cast ruin and destruction. And this is the crucial part, some have gotten away with it. They have escaped the law and they have escaped the avenger who carries the sword in service of God. And so yes, they may have gotten away with it in this life, but they won’t in the next. Justice is coming and as Christians that should give us joy. The victims and the recipients of injustice will have their day. And then at one point it will be your turn. It will be your task to call the demons out of their gloomy darkness and judge them. And when you do consider Nahum 1 as your opening text, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.”

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The Counsel of God (CC Troy)

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ISAIAH 28:17-29

17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep

away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand;

when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by

day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than

that he can wrap himself in it.

21 For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that

he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.

22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord

God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.

24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?

25 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the

cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?

26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.

27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about

upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.

28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his

cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.

29 This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in

working.

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Moses (CC Downtown)

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EXODUS 2

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.

4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.

6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.

7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.

9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the women took the child, and nursed it.

10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.

12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?

14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.

15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.

16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

17 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.

18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?

19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.

20 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.

21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.

22 And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

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The Light That Opens Blind Eyes (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #46) (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

Imagine you find yourself lost at sea in a small boat nearly dead. And by some chance you find a map and your coordinates, and you have reason to believe you might be able to make it to an island. But your dehydration causes you to badly misread the map and you think you’re supposed to be sailing north, and there you go spending the last of your energy heading north, but after a while the clouds suddenly part, the sun comes out, and it becomes blazingly obvious you are very much sailing south.

Now imagine you collapse in despair and happen to glance at the map, only to realize that you were supposed to be going south the entire time. This is what some have called a eucatastrophe – a sudden, favorable resolution to a dire situation. Paul’s conversion was a eucatastrophe, as has been every conversion to Christ ever since, and it will be the great theme of history to the end of the world.

The Text: “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself…” (Acts 26:1-32).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This is now the third time Acts records the conversion of Saul/Paul to Christ. He explains to Agrippa that he grew up as a strict Pharisee, the Jewish sect known for their hope in the resurrection of the dead (Acts 26:1-8). He held his convictions so fiercely that he persecuted the Christians who followed Jesus of Nazareth, even approving of their deaths, until he was confronted by Jesus in a blinding light on the road to Damascus (Acts 26:9-15). Jesus commissioned Paul to become a witness of His resurrection, to open the eyes of the Gentiles from darkness to light, to turn them to God in repentance (Acts 26:16-20). Paul says it was that ministry to the Gentiles that caused the Jews to try to kill him, even though that ministry is nothing other than a fulfillment of the Old Testament (Acts 26:21-23). While all of this was a bit much for Festus, King Agrippa was almost persuaded to become a Christian, and both rulers agreed that Paul might have been freed if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar (Acts 26:24-32).

A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN

A central part of Paul’s testimony is that he is preaching none other than the message of the Old Testament: the hope of the promise made to the fathers and the twelve tribes, the suffering of Christ, and His resurrection as the first fruits of the great resurrection (Acts 26:5-8, 22-23). To return to our illustration at the beginning of the message, what Paul came to realize suddenly is that he had been very wrong about the map, but the map was never wrong. In this case, the Old Testament was the map, but because of Paul’s sinful blindness, he misread the map and saw Jesus and the Christians as enemies. But when Jesus appeared to him, obviously alive from the dead, Paul realized that the very thing he had always hoped for (the resurrection) had actually happened in Jesus of Nazareth. And while Paul was going the wrong way, it turned out to be exactly the way the Scriptures said blind men would go, until the Messiah gave him light (e.g. Is. 42-43).

ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES

In 1 Cor. 15, Paul reviews the gospel which saves, and it is particularly remarkable for his emphasis on the Scriptures: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). It’s not just that it really happened; it’s that it really happened according to the Scriptures. And Paul is making the same point here: he is on trial because of the hope of the promise made to the fathers, “saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come” (Acts 26:6-7, 22).

APPLICATIONS 

When is the last time you changed your mind about something because of what you read in the Bible or heard in a sermon? It is easy to read your Bible and listen to sermons primarily to find what you already agree with. There is nothing quite so hard as trying to convince someone that they are wrong when they really believe they are right. Paul was so sure he was right he persecuted Christians. Everyone believes they are right; this is how human beings function. But humility knows it is all entirely dependent on God. Apart from God, our eyes are blind; apart from Christ, we are slaves of Satan and sin (Acts 26:18). In this world, there are only blind slaves and formerly blind slaves.

The central message of the Cross is God is right, and man is not. And God has always been right, and God has been pleased to make known His infallible truth through fallible men: through prophets and preachers and Scriptures. Paul calls this the “foolishness of preaching” (1 Cor. 1:21) “so that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Cor. 1:29) “that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5).

So this is the message that opens blind eyes, softens hard hearts, delivers from the power of Satan, and grants forgiveness and holiness to sinners: Jesus of Nazareth was tortured on a Roman Cross until He died, and when He suffered, He was suffering for our sins, just like the Old Testament said He would. He was buried, and they rolled a stone over the mouth of His grave and set a guard, but on the third day, the stone was rolled away, and Jesus came back to life in that same body that had been killed, just as the Old Testament prophets had said that He would.

And I ask you the question Paul asked Agrippa: Do you believe the prophets? Notice that question: Do you believe the Old Testament? Of course we now have the New Testament also, confirming this gospel, but the question is probing something deeper: do you believe that God has always been right? Do you believe that since Adam’s sin, mankind is blind and wrong? Do you believe that we are the problem and Christ is the only solution? Believe and you are saved. Believe and you are a Christian.

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