Praise the Lord. Good morning, church. I want to invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 13 for our scripture reading. 1 Samuel 13 verse 8, this is God's word. He, Saul, waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal. People were scattering from him. So Saul said, bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offerings and he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. Saul went out to meet him and greet him and Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, when I saw that the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the days appointed and that the Philistines had mustered at Nikmash, I said, now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal and I've not sought the favor of the Lord. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. You've not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to declare your worth to ascribe worth to you. You are infinitely valuable and worthy. And it is fitting for us to praise you and thank you and acknowledge you. And we do that this morning and we're grateful for the opportunity to study your word together and hear from you. We believe these are the words of God. These are your words. And so Lord, all of us have different issues and things going on in our lives. I pray that through the Holy Spirit, you would minister this morning uniquely and specially to each and every person listening to this. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated. Maybe 10 years ago or so, I bought a Super Cub remote control airplane, similar to like a high wing Cessna. I love aviation and as nerdy as it sounds, I get a kick out of remote control things. I'd flown a few smaller planes and upgraded to a bigger plane. and was excited to try it out. It's quite a bit bigger. So this was its maiden voyage. I was down at St. Mary's Catholic Church, if you know where that is. They've got a football field. It's a great little place to fly an RC plane. There's a little bit of a nervous energy any time you fly something or fly it for the first time. Obviously, you don't want to crash it. And so I get everything ready. I check the servos and double check everything and get ready to launch this shiny new plane. And I launch it. And so far, so good. I fly in kind of a half circle and bank left. And I should mention that at St. Mary's, the football field has like at a lot of stadiums are places of lights, telephone posts with, you know, lights to light up the field. And so anyway, I bank left and I am about at the height of the lights and the telephone posts. And I can't tell depth perception if I'm on this side or that side of it. within a split second, boom, crashes right into this telephone post and breaks into a million pieces and had about seven or eight seconds on it before it crashed and burned. For whatever reason, I thought of that as I was studying chapters 13 and 14 this morning. This is a crash and burn story. Our section basically has two chapters of negative example. What not to do. And as humans, I think we're wired to learn through stories. Biographies are a great example of this. I love biographies. I love reading about men and women who've made sacrifices for the Lord or their country or whatever. It's inspiring. It's challenging. It's illuminating. And also, the opposite is true when you hear stories of people who've crashed and burned, people who have completely botched it, who didn't finish well. George Washington and Benedict Arnold are both instructive. Good examples and negative examples are riddled throughout the pages of Scripture, and that's one of the reasons I love narrative genre. That's what 1 and 2 Samuel is. And this morning is a classic example of a bad example. Last week, John did a great job, took us through chapter 12. Look at chapter 12, verse 22, because this is kind of the summary of this whole section. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because it is pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. And I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things He's done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. That motif carries on through our passage as well. And really this has been a long series of illustrations about one simple thing. Will you obey the Lord or not? Will you listen to his word or your word? Who's the Lord, you or Yahweh? And not much has changed, quite honestly, in the last 3,000 years. Those questions still apply to us today. And Saul provides ample warnings for us to consider. So we're covering chapters 13 and 14. We can't possibly read it all, so I'm gonna summarize some of those sections when we get there. But it's really one unit and helpful to see it as such. I've just followed for an outline just borrowed from the editors of the ESV for my outline here. But there's fighting, there's disobedience, there's foolishness. It's got it all. It's about five different scenes. But again, I want to just summarize the main thesis and the main theological point. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart, for consider what great things he's done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. That is the main point. Look at verse one. Saul lived, chapter 13, Saul lived for one year. and then became king, and when he had reigned for two years over Israel." Now, I hate to get into the weeds right out of the gates, but we've got to just say a few words about this verse. This verse is notoriously hard to interpret. Saul lived for one year, and then he became king? Come and say what? What are you talking about? The NRSV says Saul was dot, dot, dot years old when he began to reign and he reigned dot, dot, dot and two years over Israel. It doesn't even make sense. King James says Saul reigned one year and when he had reigned two years over Israel. What? The legacy standard, NET, NIV, NASB, all take the same basic view and it's roughly something like Saul was 30 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 42 years. over Israel. You can look at the footnotes in your Bible, but the ESV footnote says, the number is lacking in Hebrew in the subdugent. Two may not be the entire number. Something may have dropped out. So in all likelihood, this is an example of a textual botch, a scribal error. And it's a good opportunity just to remind us there's a number of these in the Old and New Testament, and worth noting that none of them have any bearing on doctrine. It's more just a matter of how to interpret the verse. Some ancient Greek texts even just omit the verse entirely. Old Testament scholar John Woodhouse, I think has the best proposal though. He suggests that the text means it had been a year since Saul's anointing, when the events of chapter 13 took place. I think that's the best way to understand it. Acts, the book of Acts, actually tells us Saul reigned for 40 years. So I think it's a good guess that the reference is to how long he reigned since he was anointed. Anyway, starting in verse 2, we read about this fight against the Philistines. Saul chose 3,000 men. The rest were sent home. And this, I think, if your antennas are up, intentionally sounds like the story of Gideon. In verse three, we read about Jonathan. Jonathan enters the scene, really impressive guy. He defeats a garrison right out of the gates, but then Saul blows a trumpet and tells Israel that he, Saul's the one that did it. But that's not the main point at this point. The Philistines are mad. Israel is now a stench to them, and it's all hands on deck. The Philistines rally 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and it's on. Look at verse six. When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble, for the people were hard-pressed, the people hid themselves in caves and holes, rocks, tombs, cisterns. And some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling. So you need to know right at this point, the men of Israel are freaking out. They're scared. Saul is terrified. He panics. He's the opposite of Gideon. He's the anti-Gideon. Instead of rallying the troops and fighting, they hide in caves and holes and tombs and cisterns. Okay, that's the end of scene one. Look at verse eight. Chapter 13, he waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him, so Saul said, bring the burnt offering to me, and of course, I read this story in our scripture reading, but Samuel comes, and Saul makes a bunch of excuses. This is why I did it, so okay, here we go. Saul's freaking out, understandably so, by the way. The people are scattering, there's a gigantic army about to crush Israel, and he's waiting for Samuel, and he waits seven days. I'm sympathetic to how hard this must have been. You can feel the urgency here. Remember, Samuel specifically told Saul to wait for him. Saul's not a priest, he's a king. He needs to wait for Samuel, but under the pressure, enormous pressure, Saul snaps, and he puts himself in the position of priest, and he does the whole sacrifice himself. Big no-no. And right when he finishes, Samuel shows up. What have you done? And that's not a rhetorical question. Nevertheless, Saul tries to explain how reasonable his disobedience was. how reasonable it was that he didn't follow the orders, which, by the way, this is how it works. We explain why our disobedience was reasonable and rational and understandable and correct. I want to talk about this sin, actually, because it highlights the nature of sin, and I think it might be helpful for us to consider it. A couple observations. First of all, this was a sin of disrespect. He disrespects Samuel and the office of prophet and priest. And the lack of respect for the prophetic office becomes a major issue in Israel and a major problem, main theme in the prophets. Related to this is a little bit of hocus pocus divination. He treats the sacrifice like it's magic, like this sacrifice magically guarantees a win. If I do this, God will do that. Similar to when the Israelites parade the ark into battle. Maybe it will save us, they say. It's actually a kind of witchcraft and paganism. But God cares about proper worship. We don't get to worship God any which way we please. Uzzah and the Ark will illustrate that later on. And the point here is that worship is more important than battle. Let me say that again. Worship is more important than battle. It's more important God is worshiped properly than it is that Israel win the war. You could say this applies to politics as well. Politics is very important. But worship is more important than politics. God cares about the proper ordering of things. To obey is better than sacrifice. And Saul reverses it. Second of all, this is a sin of impatience. Saul doesn't wait, and he forces a bad decision. One of the best illustrations of this is with Sarah and Abraham. And the lesson is really don't birth an Ishmael. Be patient. Wait for the Lord. Even though you're in a tough situation, God has made it clear. God has spoken. This is the will and plan of God. Instead of waiting on the Lord, Abraham tries to rush the promise of God. He takes Hagar and along comes Ishmael, not the son of the promise. He rushed it. I think all of us can feel this, there's a strong tendency we all have I think to probe God along, hurry him up. I know I'm not supposed to marry an unbeliever, but maybe this is God's will. Things like that, don't birth an Ishmael. Abraham had the promise, but he got impatient and rushed the process. And sometimes God makes us wait. Don't bypass the waiting, don't birth an Ishmael. The lesson will be illustrated really in the opposite way when King David is anointed, comes along. David's anointed as a young man, but he didn't take the throne until he was 30. There were many opportunities for David to become king and just kill Saul, but he waits. And God is doing something in the waiting, so be patient. Wait upon him, trust him, look to him. Don't try to manipulate the situation. Allow the Lord to be the Lord. The third observation is it's a sin of unbelief. He's looking with his eyes instead of looking to the Lord. He is walking by sight, not by faith. He's walking by feeling, not faith. He sees the dwindling army and he freaks out. He trusts himself and his own instincts instead of God's word. He thinks the circumstances justify the disobedience. He made excuses for his sin. And again, this is so applicable. Well, I'm in a really tough spot. That's why I looked at porn. Well, the government taxes us so much and everything else. That's why I feel justified to not report all my earnings. Plus, I can give more to the church that way. Well, he's not a very attentive husband. That's why I feel justified to fantasize about another man. Saul illustrates the tendency to minimize or blame shift our responsibility. Notice he blames the people for scattering. He blames Samuel for being late. He doesn't take responsibility for his actions. He doesn't own it. That's a problem and it's not a little problem. Meanwhile, he feels comfortable to offer worship. The whole episode is audacious. Look at the end of verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. And that pretty much sums up Saul's life. That's the compendium of his life. It's probably worth mentioning that the word fool here doesn't mean idiot, like Saul, you were an idiot or that was idiotic. Psalm 14, one says, the fool says in his heart there is no God. The psalmist isn't talking about an atheist. Many atheists are very intelligent, very smart. He's talking about a person who knows God exists, but lives like God doesn't. He knows God exists, but he lives like God doesn't exist. That's Saul here. That's a fool. He's living foolishly. He doesn't keep the Lord's command. He's not careful to obey. Goes on in verse 13, you've not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you for then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. Maybe you've heard the story of a man who lost a half billion dollars in Bitcoin. I was researching the story, there's a number of people have told the story, but the New Yorker magazine titled it, Half a Billion in Bitcoin Lost in the Dump. By the way, this was back in 2013, so it would have been a lot more today. It was 8,000 Bitcoin he had, and it was all stored on a hard drive. The article said this, If things had gone just a bit differently, James Howells might today be as rich as the Queen of England. The decisive moment, he now thinks, occurred one evening in August 2013 when he was 28 and at his home with his family in Newport, small city on the Welsh coast. He was cleaning out his desk, throwing away cables and paperwork and a broken mouse, quote, in a cluttered desk drawer he found two small hard drives. One he knew was blank. The other held files from an old Dell gaming laptop, including emails, music he downloaded, duplicates of family photos. He'd removed the drive a few years earlier after he spilled lemonade on the computer's keyboard. Howells grabbed the unwanted hard drive and threw it in a black garbage bag. Later, when the couple slid into bed, Howells asked Tafina, his wife, who dropped off their kids at daycare each morning, if she would mind taking the trash to the dump. He remembers her declining, saying, it's not my blankety-blank job, it's yours. Howells conceded the point as his head hit the pillow. He recalls he made a mental note to remove the hard drive from the bag. I'm a systems engineer, he said. I've never thrown a hard drive in the bin. It's just a bad idea. The next day, however, she gets up, does take the garbage to the landfill. I won't read the rest of the story because it's filled with too many expletives, but you can only imagine. That time it was 8,000 Bitcoin worth 1.5 million, which is a lot of money, but imagine how he feels now. $745 million as of last week. By the way, I'm not recommending you invest in Bitcoin. But that is a plan that crashed and burned. Hear me very carefully. What Saul did was much, much worse, much more foolish. And the same goes for anyone who rejects the offer of Jesus Christ and his kingdom. Saul's life is like a parable of foolishness. Don't forfeit the privilege and blessing of God. The lesson is it's possible to do that. It's possible to do that. And what was his error? It was many, but it can be summed up with Samuel's words, you've not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. Tim Chester makes a great observation here, I'm borrowing from him, but when Samuel confronts Saul in verse 11, he begins with the question, what have you done? Just as God did with Adam in Genesis 3, where are you? Saul responds with excuses. He blames the men leaving and the Philistines for arriving, and he blames Samuel for not coming on time. Saul is portrayed as a new Adam. But this is not Adam the snake crusher. This is Adam the sinner, the excuse maker. Saul is not the promised second Adam. He's the old Adam, revisited. Israel's new start with a new king has floundered because the underlying unbelief and disobedience of humanity in Adam has not changed. We need a king who will not only rescue us from our enemies, but also from ourselves. We need a king who can take on sin and liberate us from our slavery to our sinful desires. We need a king who obeys God in all circumstances, even when put under pressure, unfavorable circumstances. Saul is not that man, so his kingdom will not endure. It cannot. Instead, the Lord will give it to another man after his own heart. Compare Saul to Jesus, who loved the law and kept the law. In his opening prologue to his most famous sermon, Jesus says, do not think I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. And fulfill doesn't effectively mean abolish. Jesus makes the case he's the true and better king. He does what Saul doesn't do. He's a man after the order of David, a man after God's own heart. Let's talk about that phrase. What does it mean, a man after God's own heart? Could mean a couple things, to be fair. Could mean a king of God's own choosing. It could also be a reference to character. And I think that's the idea here. In our context, it's the opposite of acting foolishly. It's juxtaposed with being a fool, like Saul. So instead of not considering God, it considers God. Later on in chapter 14, a similar phrase is used of Jonathan's armor-bearer. It says, according to your heart. Jonathan's armor-bearer is with Jonathan in heart and soul. He's totally loyal. Totally committed to Jonathan. Well, that's the idea of discipleship. We're people totally committed to our Lord and King with heart and soul. And those words will be used to describe David. It didn't mean sinless perfection, but as a whole, David was wholly committed to the Lord and Saul closed his ears to the word of God. Let this be a warning. You may have heard the story of James VI of Scotland. He was notoriously rude when attending church, and on one occasion he was seated in his gallery with several courtiers while Robert Bruce preached. In his usual form, James began to talk to those around him during the sermon. Bruce paused, and the king fell silent. The minister resumed and so did James. Bruce seized speaking a second time, same result. When the king committed his third offense, Bruce turned and addressed James directly. He said, quote, it is said to have been an expression of the wisest of kings when the lion roars, all the beasts of the field are quiet. The lion of the tribe of Judah is now roaring in the voice of his gospel. And it becomes all the petty kings of the earth to be silent. Kings easily forget that they are subjects. We are not kings. We are subjects. Happy slaves to a generous master. We are not our own. We've been bought with a price. But Saul forgets this. The rest of chapter 13 tells the story of the battle. I won't read it, but just summarize it to say that Saul is almost like an anti-judge. If you remember the book of Judges, he's like an anti-Gideon. He proves himself really to be a failed leader, and it only gets worse in chapter 14. So let's look at chapter 14. Let me give you a little teaser into this chapter, though. It hits close to home, literally close to my hometown in Minnesota. But the story is told about Minnesota baseball. I read this a month or so ago. It was a particular baseball game played about the turn of the century by two Minnesota semi-pro teams. At the end of nine innings, they were locked in a scoreless tie. On the top of the 10th, however, the team from Benson scored a run. Wilmer, the other team, came to bat in the bottom half of the inning. Wilmer's pitcher, Thielman, smacked a single. The next batter, O'Toole, smashed a terrific drive deep in the outfield. The crowd began its customary roar. Thielman rounded second base and headed for third with O'Toole digging after him. As Thielman arrived at third, however, he collapsed. O'Toole dare not run past him, so he obligingly half-carried, dragged Thielmann the rest of the way to home plate. Amazingly, the umpire allowed both runs. Wilmer had won. Thielmann was the winning pitcher. Thielmann was also dead. He died of heart failure at third base. That story is really a perfect story to describe Chapter 14. There can be shadows over victory and sadness in success, and that's the flavor of chapter 14. Saul's accomplishments are mentioned at the end of the chapter, but the author has another agenda, and it's to offer Israel and us some object lessons of examples, examples not to be followed. So look at verse 1. One day, Jonathan, son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armor, come, let's go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side. But he did not tell his father. Just pause here to consider that Jonathan, on all accounts, would have made a great king. He's courageous, he's a fighter, he trusts the Lord. In both these chapters, he's like William Wallace out of Braveheart. His dynasty, however, is attached to his father Saul, and God has rejected Saul. And this certainly is not the main point, but there's a little lesson here about the consequences of sin from a father. Saul has ruined the opportunity for his son. From verse 2 all the way to the end of verse 15, we read about the heroism of Jonathan and his armor bearer. Look at verse 6, things like this, come let's go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. It's like the true and better Gideon. Verse 12, Jonathan said to his armor bearer, come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel. The scene ends in verse 15. There was a panic in the camp and the field, and among all the people, the garrison, even the raiders trembled. The earth quaked, it became a very great panic. If you remember prior to the battle, the Israelites were quaking with fear, but now the Philistines are. And Jonathan's faith is worth highlighting. He says the Lord can save by many or by few. The apple has fallen far from the tree. Jonathan is not like his father. At the risk of getting a little granular, there's one more little detail worth mentioning. Back in verse two, Saul is with the priest Ahijah, son of Ahitab, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas. the grandson of the loser priest Phineas, the scoundrel This is the family of Ichabod. You remember what that name means. The glory has departed. Now this little detail is slipped in by the author because he wants you to notice this. Seems fitting that Saul is hanging around the Ichabod crowd. He's not with Samuel's crew, he's with Ichabod's crew. But blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. because his glory is about to be gone too. Saul is like a slow motion train wreck. Nevertheless, the scene ends in verse 22 with the words, likewise, when all the men of Israel had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim, heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle, so the Lord saved Israel that day. But that day is about to turn into a bad day. Good day is about to be turned into a bad day. Look at verse 24 in the stupid vow Saul makes. The men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people saying, cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I'm avenged of my enemies. So none of the people had tasted food. Let me just summarize the story. Oaths were a big deal in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, big deal in Jesus' day. Saul says nobody eats until evening and their enemies are dead. Everyone keeps the oath, everyone but Jonathan, Saul's son. He doesn't keep it because he doesn't know about it. He's out fighting bad guys. And he finds some wild honey and he helps himself as anyone would. When they find out Jonathan had some honey, they, quote, the people faint. And Jonathan says, my father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey? How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they'd found, for now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great. The story goes on, they keep fighting. They're hungry, quote, very faint. They find some sheep, calves, they have a little barbecue, and it's not kosher. Look at verse 32. The people ate them with the blood. This was a Torah violation. Saul finds this out, but notice what he does. He flips. Suddenly, he plays the part of righteous judge, almost like he's trying to compensate. Look at verse 33. Then they told Saul, behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood. He said, you have dealt treacherously. So Saul basically says, there's gonna be hell to pay. Who did this? You guys are big time in trouble here. Shouldn't be sitting like this. So he builds an altar, tries to act the part. But at this point, it's like lipstick on the pig. He's a joke and everyone knows it. The emperor has no clothes at this point. Verse 37, Saul inquired of God, shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel? But he did not answer him that day. God has moved on. He won't answer Saul's prayer. There's a New Testament equivalent to this in 1 Peter. Peter says, you don't be abusive to your wives, husbands. If you are, God won't listen to you. He'll ignore you. Your prayers will be hindered. The silence from God is deafening. It's a kind of judgment. And this now causes Saul to implode, he's unhinged. The scene ends with Saul saying, well, Jonathan, you tasted honey, I made an oath. Even though you didn't know about it, you're gonna die. Oh, the irony. The foolish king, think about it, ignoring his own sin and scorching others for theirs. Meanwhile, all the people are bothered by this. Jonathan says in verse 37, all right, here I am, I'll die. Saul says, okay, you're gonna die. And the people say, shall Jonathan die who's worked this great salvation? Far be it. And the people basically intervene. The whole episode reads like a kind of embarrassment. The deterioration of a kingdom. Saul looks like the fool that Samuel told him he was. I'll summarize this last section. The chapter ends with commenting how valiant Saul was. Even while I'm preaching this, just skim it in your own Bibles to see this. It tells about his fighting, his conquest. This is in verse 47 of chapter 14. His plundering, his family. It's a little bio, and it's really positive, actually. In fact, look at the final verse, verse 52. There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or valiant man, he attached him to himself." Now, here's what you should be feeling right now. Okay, this is odd. This is a little interesting. We've just heard a story of how foolish Saul is, his rash vow, but then the editor ends with talking about these triumphs. These two chapters are a compilation of embarrassing stories, but then it ends with a flattering bio. Why? Dale Ralph Davis makes a really helpful comment here. I'm going to read it to you. I think it's on the screen. This is really the main application of the whole passage today. The vital assessment cannot come from the applause of men within history, but only from the God who reigns over history. What matters then is not success, whether political or military, but covenant. Yahweh is not looking for winners, but for disciples. That is the reason for the negative undertow in chapters 13 and 14. Saul has began to fail at the point of covenant, of the covenant, in that he did not submit to the covenant God. And for the Bible, covenant obedience matters far more than vocational achievement. We have then these two estimates of Saul, the historical and the covenantal. Both are true. Saul was, looking at the whole picture, a courageous and militarily successful king. No need to deny that, no reason to hide it. Let us, as 1 Samuel 14 does, readily and thankfully acknowledge it. Two assessments, both true, but only one matters. One can be a historical success and a covenant failure. Like Mary, we should ponder these things in our hearts. What a poignant and powerful lesson for us today. Worldly success is not the same as covenant faithfulness. Being a great businessman is not the same as being obedient to the Lord. Being a great politician or war hero or entrepreneur is not as important as being a faithful disciple of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What matters, church, at the end of the day, What matters on the deathbed of your life is your soul and its relationship to the Eternal Father. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave this great quote, sorry for its length but it's so good. The gospel confines itself to one particular subject. The gospel of Christ narrows itself down to one question. the soul of man and its relationship to God. In the Bible, there's a good deal of history, history of men and nations and geography, and some people find in it geology and biology. All sorts of subjects are dealt with in this book, and yet it is not an encyclopedia. It is not a book which gives us a little knowledge about many things. It's a book which gives us much knowledge about one thing. It is a textbook of life, the handbook of the soul. It is a manual dealing with one subject, the reconciliation of man with God. If ever there was a specialist subject in the world, it's this book. This is also true of the master of the book. If ever there was a specialist on the face of the earth, it was our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a sense in which he preached only one sermon, and the theme of the sermon was this. the soul of man in its relationship with the Eternal Father. So today's a good day to consider your life, consider your soul, consider your legacy, and know this. But the only thing that ultimately matters is that you have a covenant relationship to the Eternal Father through his beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can be included in his family and his kingdom through repentance and faith. And you can be saved from the wrath to come and forgiven and clothed in righteousness all because of the faithfulness of the King of Kings and his achievement of grace. So grace to you this morning through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace this morning and for your incredible achievement on our behalf. Lord, help us to respond with life change and obedience, repentance and faithfulness and loyalty to you. Lord, help us to cultivate more of that. Help us to learn from the negative example of Saul. Help us to feel the gravity of this being yanked out of Saul's hand, the kingdom. Lord, help us to see the warning here and help us to esteem covenant faithfulness to you more than anything else, Lord, more than any other legacy we may leave. Find us faithful, because great is your faithfulness. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to this sermon from Littleton Bible Chapel. At LBC, we are passionate followers of Jesus, proclaiming Christ and his word. For more information about LBC, please go to littletonbiblechapel.org.