COMMITTED TO
THE TRANSFER OF THE KINGDOM
September 23, 2001 pm
MF Blume
1Sam 31:1-13
Now the
Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before
the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. And the Philistines
followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan,
and Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons. And the battle went sore against
Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers. Then
said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith;
lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his
armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword,
and fell upon it. And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead,
he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. So Saul died,
and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day
together. And when the men of Israel that [were] on the other side of the
valley, and [they] that [were] on the other side Jordan, saw that the men
of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities,
and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. And it came to pass
on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found
Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa. And they cut off his head,
and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round
about, to publish [it in] the house of their idols, and among the people.
And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened
his body to the wall of Bethshan. And when the inhabitants
of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul; All
the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and
the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and
burnt them there. And they took their bones, and buried [them] under a tree
at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
2 Samuel 1:1-3 Now it came to pass after the
death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the
Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag; It came even to pass
on the third day, that, behold, a man came out of the camp
from Saul with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head: and [so] it was,
when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance. And David
said unto him, From whence comest thou? And he said unto him, Out of the
camp of Israel am I escaped.
2 Samuel 1:6-10 And the young man that told him said,
As I happened by chance upon mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear;
and, lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. And when he looked
behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I answered, Here [am] I. And
he said unto me, Who [art] thou? And I answered him, I [am] an Amalekite.
He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish
is come upon me, because my life [is] yet whole in me. So I stood upon him,
and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was
fallen: and I took the crown that [was] upon his head, and the bracelet that
[was] on his arm, and have brought them hither unto my lord.
2 Samuel 1:13-15 And David said unto the young man that
told him, Whence [art] thou? And he answered, I [am] the son of a stranger,
an Amalekite. And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch
forth thine hand to destroy the LORD'S anointed? And David called one of
the young men, and said, Go near, [and] fall upon him. And he smote him that
he died.
2 Samuel 3:1 Now there was long war between the house
of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and
the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.
Saul was left hanging before the men of Jabeshgilead retrieved his body
in Bethshan.
- On the third day, afterwards,
news came to David.
- This is very notable indeed!
The cross of Jesus where He hanged
in death destroys the old life of the repentant sinner who comes to God through
Christ.
- We have a story in the
Old Testament, here, about Saul that relates an important and most blessed
truth about the salvation by Jesus Christ through the cross.
Like Adam, Saul was given dominion
over the land.
- God gave Adam dominion
over the Earth and will that Adam subdue it.
- Adam was made Earth's
king.
- Saul's position is reminiscent
of Adam's.
Adam and Saul both had such a
godly beginning!
Saul's name literally means "ASKED".
- Those who are godly obtain
and receive what they have asked of the Lord!
- That is what it is to
be blessed!
And Saul's three sons who died
that day also have notable meanings in their names.
- JONATHAN means JEHOVAH-GIVEN.
- ABINADAB means FATHER
OF GENEROSITY
- MELCHISHUA means KING
OF WEALTH.
These three sons' names signify
the blessedness of one who is godly and given much blessing from God who
is rich in generosity and filled with wealth to bless those who seek His
face and serve Him faithfully.
- But Saul and those sons
of blessing all died the same day due to Saul's disobedience.
- WHAT A LOSS!
Adam too was godly and had anything
anyone could ever ask for in the beginning!
- But Adam disobeyed the
word of the Lord and ate the forbidden fruit.
- And changed the destiny
of his life to one that would end in death.
- He lost all his blessing,
most of all was his relationship with God.
- If one word can be used
to describe Saul's failure it, too, was disobedience.
1 Samuel 15:3 relates to us a
command given to Saul by Samuel to slay all the Amalekites, sparing none.
- But verse 9 shows Saul's
disobedience in sparing the King of the Amalekites, Agag.
- Watch the degradation
of Saul's character.
In time, Samuel died, and Saul's
prayers suddenly were found out to be ineffective in reaching God.
- After having commanded
all witches and fortune tellers to be slain and removed in Israel, Saul desperately
sought a witch in order to call forth the departed Samuel through a familiar
spirit possessing the witch.
- He found her in 1 Samuel
28.
- We learn later that this
act of consulting a witch was part of the reason Saul died.
1 Chronicles 10:13
So Saul
died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, [even] against
the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking [counsel] of
[one that had] a familiar spirit, to enquire [of it];
We learn in 2 Samuel 1 that it
was an Amalekite who saw Saul's unsuccessful suicide attempt and rendered
Saul the deathblow that took his life.
- The very thing Saul
was told to destroy (Amalekites) came to be the deathblow of himself.
- Adam was meant to subdue
and conquer all creatures including the creeping things.
- Satan possessed a serpent.
- This very thing Adam
should have slain was the means whereby Adam, himself, died.
- God told Adam that the
day he should eat the forbidden fruit, he would die.
- It was the serpent who
offered this means of death Adam.
- And like Saul, the thing
he should have destroyed became his own destruction.
As Saul was dead and lost all
honour due to sin, David began to rise in popularity amongst the people.
1 Chronicles 11:1-3
Then all
Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we
[are] thy bone and thy flesh. And moreover in time past, even when
Saul was king, thou [wast] he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and
the LORD thy God said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou
shalt be ruler over my people Israel. Therefore came all the elders of Israel
to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before
the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word
of the LORD by Samuel.
- They told David they
were bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.
- These are the words
first spoken by Adam when Eve was created from his rib.
Genesis 2:23
And Adam
said, This [is] now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be
called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Adam's wife and all his children
were truly bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.
- Including you and
I.
- But this man Adam
sinned the sin of disobedience.
Romans 5:19 For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners...
Adam had to die!
- The disobedient
cannot remain.
- As part of his
family, you and I had to die, too.
- And Christ removed
us from Adam's family into His own, through the death, burial and resurrection.
- So we are not
longer noted as Adam's bone and flesh, but now we read:
Ephesians 5:29-32
For no
man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as
the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and
of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother,
and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This
is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
The people implied to David that
they formerly considered themselves to be bone and flesh of Saul, the former
king.
- But after Saul's
hanging, they recognized David as the new rightful King.
- So they transferred
all of their lives and goods over to David's kingdom.
- Christ represents
David while Saul represents Adam.
- And Saul was
hanged, to remove the people from his kingdom to David's.
- Jesus Christ's
cross hanged the old man, Adam, and all of us who choose to be redeemed by
Christ.
- And we became
bone of Christ's bone and flesh of His flesh.
- Paul said these
words are a mystery that is explained by recognizing it speaks of Christ
and the church.
An Amalekite was spared by Saul
and became Saul's murderer,
- All of us were
"in Adam".
- And the serpent
that Adam spared eventually caused him to die.
- Satan's temptation
succeeded and Adam died.
- If you want
eternal life you must escape Adam's lineage and be baptized into Christ's
Body.
1 Corinthians 15:22
For as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
You die with Jesus on the cross.
- Your old citizenhsip
in Adam is "hanged."
- That Amalekite,
Satan, caused our demise.
- But on the
third day after Saul's hanging, the Amalekite who killed Saul was slain himself!
- David, the
rightful king who claimed all Adam's forfeited dominion, took the Amalekite
and slew him.
- Jesus Christ
likewise defeated death and the grave, and Satan, himself, specifically on
the third day after the hanging of the cross.
- He identified
with Adam and died on the cross.
- And three
days later he defeated the devil by resurrecting from the power the devil
controlled -- namely death! (Hebrews 2:14).
Saul's reign was over.
David's reign came.
Since Saul's hanging, all traces of Saul's power eventually eroded away.
- Note that
it was eventual.
- It was gradual.
- Yes, Saul
was destroyed, but it took time for all Saul's kingdom to transfer over to
David.
Remember Rizpah?
- The little
mother who came to grips with her sons' hanging?
- This lady
comes into play long before her sons were slain in 2 Samuel 21.
2 Samuel 3:1
Now there
was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed
stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.
2 Samuel 3:7-10
And Saul
had a concubine, whose name [was] Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah: and [Ishbosheth]
said to Abner, Wherefore hast thou gone in unto my father's concubine? Then was Abner very
wroth for the words of Ishbosheth, and said, [Am] I a dog's head, which against
Judah do shew kindness this day unto the house of Saul thy father, to his
brethren, and to his friends, and have not delivered thee into the hand of
David, that thou chargest me to day with a fault concerning this woman? So do God to Abner,
and more also, except, as the LORD hath sworn to David, even so I do to him;
To translate
the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over
Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba.
Rizpah has been seen already in
our previous sermons as an example of a believer who truly seeks the face
of God until all struggles that represent hindrances to the Christian life
are dealt with and settled.
- And this
lady was also the cause of a man whose dedication to the house of Saul was
transferred over to the kingdom of David.
- She was
the focus of a quarrel between Abner, her new husband, and Ishbosheth, Saul's
son.
- Ishbosheth
was insulted that Abner marry his father's concubine.
- Abner
was enraged and told Ishbosheth that he was sworn to transfer all of Saul's
kingdom over to David's kingdom.
This represents the Christian
after salvation who must recognize that Saul's influence still remains after
salvation.
- There
are still many areas of our lives that are not fully yielded to Christ after
we are initially saved.
- And as
time goes by we come closer to the Lord and we yield more and more of our
lives to Him/
- The warfare
can be long, as it was in David's day, even when Saul was dead.
- But Saul's
former household must gradually be given over more and more to David.
- Our lives
must become more and more godly and given over to Christ to live through
us.
- Carnality
is rampant among new born believers.
- These
are remnant and residues of "Saul's" (Adam's) influence -- from our lives
before salvation.
- And these
must be given over to Christ.
- WE MUST
BE COMMITTED TO THE TRANSFER OF THE KINGDOM of our LIVES!
One day, there will be no more of Adam's influence left in any form whatsoever!
- All that
will remain is Christ's kingdom!
- Christ's
kingdom cannot be destroyed.
- Adam's
kingdom can be shaken and will be shaken until its annihilated!
- So,
be committed to the transfer of the kingdom!
- Allow
Christ to lead your entire life.
- Don't
hold back in those areas you know are wrong.
- Let them
go.
- If you
let too much of Adam's house remain, you will be removed with the residue
of Adam when all is shaken!
- Those
who continue to live lukewarm lives, half in the church and half in the world,
are in dangerous positions.
- When time
comes that all of Adam is destroyed, we must be in the place with God where
we've successfully transferred the entire kingdom of our lives over to the
Son of David!
We are made from the dust of the
earth.
- We are
the LAND.
- And the
LAND must belong fully to the Lord, now that Adam has been hanged.
COMMITTED TO THE TRANSFER OF THE
KINGDOM!