How Not to Die, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Well, this one might be kind of obvious, but a sign that you haven't repented is unchanged behavior. With your mouth, you say that Jesus is King, but the testimony of your life says something different.

If your best friends that hang out with you on Friday night don't know that you're a committed Christian, you're probably not. Thanks for joining us today for Summit Life with J.D. Greer, lead pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. So if you'll remember back in our Life of David teaching series, God had promised Israel a king that would bring Israel identity, happiness, and security. But as we're learning, their hearts were broken by the failings of their first king, Saul. So now that David is in charge, surely he'd be the king that they've been promised, right? Well, today pastor J.D. tells us that David was actually not the king that Israel was looking for either. But thankfully, even when things feel chaotic and out of control, God is still sovereign and rules over the mess of our lives too.

So let's rejoin pastor J.D. now as we count down the final days of King Saul. Israel sought a king because they didn't trust God to meet their needs.

That king turned out to be a self-seeking coward who consulted demons in a time of trouble. That king did not defeat the Philistines. His life ended with the Philistines on the offensive, taking up residence now in Israelite cities. Saul's last act is to watch his own sons die, and then he commits suicide. Then his armor is stripped from him and displayed in a pagan temple as a testimony to Philistine strength, and his body is fastened up on the wall of Philistine City to hang there in shame as a trophy until the birds eat away his flesh. Is it possible for the Bible to give a more devastating end to a book? And by the way, don't miss that we've cycled around in this book all the way back to the beginning. Remember at the beginning of 1 Samuel, Israel had a corrupt leader. His name was Eli. And because of Eli's corruption, both of Eli, both Eli and his sons die in a losing battle against the Philistines. We're not going to say the same thing happening at the end. Could the message be any clearer, y'all?

All attempts to be your own king will leave you worse off than when you started. But I think the main lesson from the life of Saul is a message to us religious people. After all, Saul was a really religious guy.

I mean, think about it. He did a lot of great things, didn't he? He led Israel to several great victories. We know the inside of what was going on in his heart, but nobody else knew that.

All they knew is he purged the land of witches and wizards. He donated really heavily to temple worship. We see him give some really impressive financial gifts to the temple during his days. He prays to God, but he's in a jam. He leads national prayers. He seems to have been a pretty good family man.

There's no stories about infidelity in his life. If Saul were alive today, my guess is he would be a respected member of the church. He'd probably be successful in his career. He'd probably be a big donor. He'd probably be a church leader, but he was lost. Here are the lessons.

There are three. Number one, there's a difference between using God and serving God. There's a difference between using God and serving God, and you need to make sure that you know the difference. Saul wanted God in his life, but on his terms. Saul did not want to surrender to God. He wanted to use God as his assistant. He wanted God as his co-pilot, a co-pilot who would ride along, offer suggestions, be there to help him out in the case of a jam or a flat tire.

Saul wanted God to be like the little lady who speaks to me from the navigation system in my car. I punch in where I want to go, and she tells me the route. If I choose to go a different route, she just patiently says, recalculate him.

I choose where we're going. She adjusted me. I told Veronica one time that she should be more like the woman in my dashboard.

When she makes a suggestion and I ignore it, she'd not get upset, but patiently just recalculate. That comment was not well received, I will tell you that. But God doesn't come into your life as a suggestion giver. He doesn't come into your life as a divine assistant. He comes as king. Only one person can be king in your life, and it's going to be you or God.

You got to choose. Elizabeth Elliot, the famous missionary, wife of Jim Elliot who died in the 1950s on the beaches of Ecuador, slain by the people they were trying to reach. She said at the distance between the sun and the earth were the thickness of one piece of paper. Probably can't see the thickness of this. If that were the distance between the earth and the sun, then the distance between the earth and the closest star, she said, other than the sun, would be a stack of paper 70 feet high. Just to give a little perspective.

The distance across our galaxy, she says, would be a stack of paper 310 miles high. And our galaxy is but a speck of dust on the floor of the Sahara Desert. The Bible says God upholds all of this by the word of his power. Is this really the kind of God you ask into your life as an assistant? He's God.

He's the king. Our problem, psychologist Larry Krav says, is that we don't want to find God to know him. We want to find him in order to use him to make our lives work.

To make our lives work. But God will not come into your life on those terms. He will not come into your life to help you get the boyfriend you want, or into the school you want to get to, or get you the raise that you want, or fix your family. Those are all amazing things and God will help you with those. But that's not how he comes into your life.

He comes in as king or not at all. Similarly, number two, there is a difference between religion and repentance. It's like I showed you, he assaulted a lot of religious things, but he never really repented. This is what Jesus warned us about in Matthew 7 that I referenced at the beginning. On that final day, there's going to be a lot of people, Jesus says, a lot of people to whom he says to their surprise and their horror, you were active in my church.

In fact, you were looking with the things he lists. He's like, you were there. You spoke in my name. You gave in my name.

You made big sacrifices in my name. You cast out demons in my name. I don't know if you all know this, but if we tap you in this church to serve on the demon exorcism squad, you're varsity.

We're not talking about sideline people. We're talking about very active religious people if you're on the demon exorcism squad. Despite all that though, you never really repented and I never actually knew you.

I'm not trying to be dramatic, but are you going to be in that number? Part of my own story of coming to Christ came after a Sunday school teacher confronted me with that in middle school. It kind of began a process that led to what I think of as my conversion. It was a Friday night and my whole small group had gone over to his house so we could go bowling, but before we left his house to go bowling, he wanted to do a short Bible study because that's what you do in student ministry.

You bake kids with things like bowling and then you hit them with Bible study. So I remember him reading this passage from Matthew 7, this one I'm referring to. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, and I will say to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. And then my Sunday school teacher looked at us and said, boys, a bunch of y'all are going to be in that number. That's about all he said.

I can't remember anything else he said, but I knew in my heart it was going to be me. Here's the thing, I was super religious. I was a good kid. I was a rule follower.

I'd done well at school. I was very active in my church. And in my church, by the way, you had to go there three times a week for it to count.

Three to thrive, baby, three to thrive. I always say that the only drug problem I ever had growing up was getting drugged to church three times a week. So I was plenty religious, but I'd never repented and surrendered to Jesus as king. You want to know how you can know if you've substituted religion for repentance?

Give you a few signs, okay? Rationalization. If you've ever taken notes, that's letter A. Rationalization. You rationalize your sin. That's what Saul did. Look at all the good things I've done for you, God.

It's not that bad. I'm going to sacrifice. If you rationalize instead of repent, that means you rarely think about your sin in terms of rebelliousness. You only think about your sin in terms of rebellion against God. You only think about your sin in terms of how you compare to others. Well, it's not, it's just pornography. It's not, I'm not having an affair.

I may not be fully committed in my relationship with Jesus, but I'm a good, honest person, and I'd go to church. Right? Rationalization. Number two, or letter B. Here's the second way.

Unchanged behavior. Y'all, this one might be kind of obvious, but a sign that you haven't repented to your behavior. With your mouth, you say that Jesus is king, but the testimony of your life says something different. There's two ways to tell what you believe, right?

One, I can ask you. And what your mouth says, you believe. Second way is what your life says you believe, and if what your mouth says differs from what your life says, God accepts the testimony of your life every single time. Doesn't matter what you say in here, how many verses you know, how many high you can raise your ear. If your best friends that hang out with you on Friday night don't know that you're a committed Christian, you're probably not. With Saul's mouth, he said that God was king, but with his life, he demonstrated that he was.

Write this down. A repentance that does not change you in life will not save you in death either. Jesus' half brother, James, talks about this when he says, you say you believe in God, good.

Guess who else believes in God? The demons. They believe and they tremble. In fact, they believe so much that they tremble at the thought of God, but the demons aren't saved, are they? They're good theologians. They'd outscore you and me on a theology quiz, but they're not saved because their belief doesn't lead to repentance. It's not what your mouth says that God takes as the indicator of what you believe, it's what your life says.

Here's the third thing, let us see. Worldly sorrow, not godly sorrow. Worldly sorrow instead of godly sorrow. Several times in Saul's life, he weeps over his sin.

We see it right there again in 1 Samuel 28. A lot of people confuse worldly sorrow with repentance. They assume the tears and the emotion means repentance.

That is not true. Paul talks in 2 Corinthians, he distinguishes two kinds of religious tears. 2 Corinthians 7 10, he says, there's godly sorrow and the way you know it's godly is it produces repentance that leads to salvation. Godly sorrow is not salvation. Godly sorrow might produce the repentance that leads to salvation, but there's another kind of sorrow and that's worldly sorrow and that produces only death. You feel good because you've cried out your emotions, but it's not led you to salvation.

You got worldly sorrow. Worldly sorrow over sin can arise for all kinds of reasons. Maybe the embarrassment of being caught. Maybe it's self-pity. Maybe it's self-condemnation.

Maybe it's fear of punishment. Your tears might be moving to others and to yourself, but none of those things equal repentance. Confessing your sin is not repentance.

You might just be trying to relieve your guilt or get something off your chest. One thing shows repentance, a changed life. A changed life. Repentance is the Greek word metanoia, which means a change of mind. To repent means you change your mind about the kingship of Jesus and you adjust your life accordingly.

No change, no Jesus. Here's the last one. Letter D, partial compliance. This is a big one.

Talk about it several times in this study. You start obeying God in one area, but not all. See y'all, repentance is one of those things that's got to be total or it's meaningless.

I mean, think of it this way. They say there was a man who was an adulterer. He had multiple affairs, a different one every day of the week, and his wife confronts him and he says, okay, I'll quit sleeping with Tuesday girl and Friday girl, but Thursday girl and I are going to keep going for a while. That's not repentance. Marital faithfulness is one of those things that has to be total for it to be meaningful. A man cannot be mostly faithful to his wife.

She's either the only one or she's not. Same thing is true of Lordship. You either surrender to Jesus as Lord or you're not.

Or like we say around here, he's either Lord of all or not Lord at all. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. For more information about this ministry, visit us at jdgreer.com. Did you know that each month we curate a special premium resource for all of our gospel partners and financial supporters?

It's a way to say thank you for your support. This month we've created an all-new eight-week Bible study to expand on your study of the life of David. This new study takes key passages from King David's life and helps you work through them with the analysis of the text, application questions, and prayer prompts. You see, David's story connects with ours.

We still search today for identity, security, and happiness, the same things the Israelites wanted from their new king. So let's learn the same lessons and pursue God along the way. We'd love to send you this study with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry.

To give, call us now at 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to the conclusion of our teaching today. Once again, here's Pastor J.B.

I always want to be clear when I say this. I'm not talking about achieving sinless perfection. You know, we all struggle with sin and lapses of faith and we will for the rest of our lives.

That happens to me. But Jesus is the king of my life. And standing right here before you right now, there is no area I am willfully holding back from him. In fact, think of it like this. If it helps, a man who gets married doesn't suddenly become a perfect husband who loves his wife purely and completely at every moment. Every man, every man I've ever known struggles to be a loving husband at times. Sometimes you even have stray thoughts. But a man who is serious about his marriage is still, even in the midst of all that, a one-woman man.

If you say you're married and you are still intentionally seeing other people on the side, your marriage is a sham. Saying you belong to Jesus, even as you intentionally keep areas of your life back from him, means your conversion is a sham. Here's the last lesson we learned. Unrepentant sinners die a terrible death. Y'all, Saul gives us a picture of somebody dying without God.

Religious but utterly destroyed. Saul's body was hung up on the wall. Leviticus says that those who die hung up on a wall like that are cursed by God. And more than just a personal tragedy, Saul's death looks like tragedy for Israel. Israel is humiliated.

Their king is stripped of his armor. And the Philistines win. This was the end of all Israel's best attempts at a king, but yet, but yet, there is a glimmer of hope for us even in this dark, dark cloud because silently, silently in the shadows, another king is being prepared in Israel. And this king, unlike Saul, trusts God and is willing to do things God's way. And that's gonna give us a picture of how God's ultimate king, his true king, is gonna come one day. You see, Jesus is gonna come to the throne the exact same way David did. When Jesus came to earth, we, like Saul, had usurped the throne, but Jesus refused to take matters into his own hands. Like David, Jesus trusted God and waited. But, and this is the twist, after living that perfect life, a life David was not able to live, Jesus was not rewarded with the throne like David was. Jesus was fastened to a cross like a sinner.

He was hung up as a curse. He died, in other words, Saul's death. He lived David's life and died Saul's death, and he did that in our place.

And then he told us that if we would look to him as our savior, if we would receive him, if we would surrender to him, then he would save us. You see, there's a biblical precedent for that too. In the book of Numbers, Israel had grieved the Lord, and God had sent in vipers as a punishment to them. When the people suffered from the bites of these serpents, they cried out to God. They said, save us. So God told Moses to construct a bronze image of a serpent hanging high up on a pole.

Y'all think about this for a minute. There you've got a cursed image, the snake, in a cursed position, being hung up. But this time, God said that all who looked at this curse would be healed. John chapter three, Jesus said, this is going to be a picture of me.

I'm going to be cursed in your place, but if you look at me in repentance, you will be saved. In one of his most famous sermons, the great British pastor of the 19th century, Charles Spurgeon recounted his story of his conversion. Spurgeon was a young teenager, just trying to go to church one Sunday. Wasn't really a church going guy that much, but he had a desire, woke up, wanted to go to church, lived in London.

He got caught in a terrible snowstorm. And because of that, he was forced to seek shelter in what he called a primitive Methodist chapel. He said, and I quote, in that chapel, there may have been only a dozen or 15 people. I'd heard of the primitive Methodist, how they sang so loudly that they made people's heads ache.

Some of y'all think that about us, don't you? That didn't matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved.

And if they could tell me that, I did not care how much they made my head ache. The minister did not come that morning. He was snowed into, I suppose. At last, after an awkward amount of time, a very thin looking man, a shoemaker or tailor or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. I'll remind you, I'm quoting him word for word.

Now it is well, the preachers should be instructed. But this man was really stupid. Hopefully you don't think that about me. Maybe you do.

Who knows? This poor and educated man was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was, look unto me and be saved, all ye ends of the earth.

He didn't even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter to me. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus, my dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, look, well, a man needn't go to college to learn to look. Anybody can look.

Even a child can look. But then the text says, look unto me. Aye, he said, in a broad SX accent.

By the way, SX accent means he sounded like one of the Weasleys on Harry Potter. Many of you, many of you are looking to yourselves, but it's no use looking there. You'll never find any comfort in yourselves. The text says, look unto me, and then the good man followed up his text in this way, shouting like only a primitive Methodist could do. Look unto me, I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto me, I'm hanging on the cross. Look unto me, I'm dead and buried. Look unto me, I rise again. Look unto me, I ascend to heaven. Look unto me, I'm sitting at the father's right hand. Oh, poor sinner. Look unto me, look unto me. Then the preacher looked at me sitting under the balcony alone, and he must have known I was a stranger, for he said, young man, you look very miserable. Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance.

However, it was a good blow. It struck right home. He continued, you will always be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death, young man, if you don't look to Jesus, obey my text.

You will always be miserable. If you don't look to Jesus, obey my text. And at this moment, you will be saved. Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a primitive Methodist can do, young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look, look, look, you have nothing to do, but look and live. I saw it once, the way of salvation.

Greatest preacher Britain's ever known said, I know not what else he said. I was so possessed like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed. So it was with me. Oh, I looked until I could have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone.

The darkness had rolled away. In that moment, I saw the sun. I could have risen that instant and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ and the simple faith, which looks alone to him, are sensed by faith.

I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. Oh, that somebody had just told me this before, look to Christ and you shall be saved.

Britain, I'm telling you that right now. You either surrender to King Jesus or you die the death of Saul. And just because you're super religious doesn't mean that you've personally repented and made Jesus your king and savior. Are you sure you've done that?

You want to do it right now? You can surrender to him right now, right now. And you could look to him and he'll save you. King Saul wasn't the answer for Israel, but spoiler alert, while King David did a lot of great things, ultimately he wasn't the answer they were looking for either. That's because King Jesus is the only one who can truly provide us with identity, happiness, and security.

If you've never had a relationship with him and you have questions about what that means, you can reach out to us at 866-335-5220 or email us anytime at requestsatjdgrier.com. We are thrilled to have a companion Bible study to go along with your Life of David teaching series. Pastor JD, what can we expect from the format of the study? Yeah, great questions, Vali. Let me answer this really quickly, but then I actually want to ask you a question.

Okay. The Life of David study has eight parts. It's organized weekly, but you can work through the eight sessions really at any pace you would like. It's good for anybody. And I think it's just a tool that you can use, whether you're a small group, personal quiet time, or you're teaching other people.

I think it's a good tool that you can use based on your needs. So now the question I have for you, tell me about your, how would you handle a resource like this? I remember when I got saved, my youth pastor would always say, when you're reading the Bible, you have to ask yourself three questions. What does it say? What does it mean?

How does it apply to my life? Before I read any book of the Bible, I actually go watch, it's not Bible recap. Bible project. Bible project. Yes. When they, when he gives a recap of, or like the little animation of the whole book. Help you see how it fits into the whole thing.

Yes. So going chapter by chapter, this would be a great daily thing for me because I need to have the word, but I didn't go to seminary. And so it helps to have either some kind of commentary after I've thought through those three, three questions on my own, because I definitely don't want to take it out of context or, or misdirect my application, if that makes sense. So what I love about that, Molly, is when I look at somebody like you, and I think here's somebody who knows the Bible is teaching it to her children, teaching to her neighbors, and then just leads out of it. That's everything that we hope for here at Summit Life is people who, and maybe one day you will go to seminary, but you can become an expert in the word, but it takes effort. And that's our goal here at Summit Life is to give you the tools that you can use to do that.

So this is one such tool. Just go to jdgrier.com and you can get ahold of this. We're so excited about this brand new eight week Bible study focusing on King David's life. And we'd love to get it in your hands as our way to say thank you for your gift of $35 or more to support this ministry. To get your copy, call us at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or you can give online right now at jdgrier.com. That's jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch, and I hope you'll join us tomorrow as we once again hear a brand new message from our Life of David series called New Beginnings. We'll see you Thursday right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.