A Tragic End

We have your Bibles with you today. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Samuel chapter 31, and we'll be looking, first of all, verses 1 through 7. The archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.

But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his own sword and died with him. Thus Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men on the same day together. And when the men of Israel, who were on the other side of the valley, and those beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in them.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are studying today the death of an apostate, King Saul, a man who knew a lot about you but did not truly know you. His death was a suicide. It was a sad, hopeless death that glorified the powers of darkness. Lord, you put this sad story into your Word for your glory and for our benefit. May we as children of God be warned and motivated by Saul's rebellious heart. Help us to see the futility of running from God. Saul was overcome by fear.

We understand that. We're living in a fearful time. We as the church in America have never really had to deal with rejection and anger and persecution, but that's now a constant and ever-increasing reality. Help us to be a trusting church, not a fearful church. Help us to stand on your promises, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power of love and of a sound mind. Jesus, you told us not to fear that one who can only destroy the body, but to fear that one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Help us to fear you and you alone, and help us to love you more. Help me to preach truth, and through it glorify your name and edify this body, for it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray, amen.

You may be seated. In John chapter 10 verse 10, Jesus said, The thief cometh not, but to kill, steal, and destroy that I have come, that you might have life, and that you might have it abundantly. About 20 years ago, Bruce Walker got up early on a Monday morning and took the kids to school. Bruce Walker was a Baptist pastor, and he had a church down in the eastern part of North Carolina. He had preached two services just the day before, and nobody noticed anything different about him at all that day. At this day, he took the kids on to school. He stopped by Hardee's on the way back home and got a sausage biscuit, took to his wife. She wasn't up yet, so he left the sausage biscuit on the table, and he went out to the workshop.

This was his day off. He got out in the workshop, and then his wife got up a little bit later. She noticed that he wasn't around, figured he was out there in the workshop, so she just decided to leave him alone. But by about lunchtime, she started worrying about him, and so she decided to go and check things out. She walked out to the workshop to check on him, and she didn't hear hammering or sawing going on, and that kind of concerned her. Then she opened the door, and when she opened the door, she saw her husband had killed himself. He had hung himself to death, and her heart was absolutely broken.

She looked over on the side, and there was a toolbox, and beside the toolbox, there was a note. He left her a note, and the note stated that he had got himself into such horrible, terrible debt that he could not pay it off, and he did not know what to do. He told his wife in the note how much he loved her. He said, please apologize to the church for me. And then his last statement was this. He said, I'm so depressed.

I just don't have the desire to live any longer. His family was absolutely devastated. His church was grief-stricken. The community was in absolute shock, and everybody had this question, why? He seemed to be stable. He seemed to be fine.

He had just preached the gospel on the day before, and when they checked into his finances, the debt that he was so concerned about was really not that big a deal. Friends, this situation is not a strange and unusual occurrence in the society in which we live. Did you realize that here in the United States, that the people that are under 25 years old, the greatest reason for their deaths is what? It is suicide. Suicide is attacking us at every front. I mean, we're seeing it everywhere. We see it in movies. We see it in music.

We see it especially in rock videos. One particular rock band was interviewed about two decades ago, and they asked the leader of this rock band, they said, why is it that you put so much emphasis on suicide? And he said, this is the reason. He said, suicide is the ultimate act of rebellion. He said, why should we wait till we get old and then die a hard, lingering death?

Why do it that way? Why not ball up our fist in God's face, shake our fist in God's face and say, you don't tell us when to die. We make the choice.

We die when we say die. People, I submit to you today that Satan's greatest desire is to bring us to that end. Jesus said, the thief, Satan, cometh not but to kill, steal and destroy. For several months now, we've been studying the life of David. But it's impossible to really understand the life of David unless you study it along with the life of Saul. And here we see Saul today coming to his end, and it's one of the most tragic ends that we see in the entire Bible. Saul had lost every shred of hope, and with that spirit of depression, just urging him, even compelling him to destroy himself, and with the Philistine army chasing after him with swords drawn, he decided suicide was the only way out. He took his sword, he plunged it down into the ground, blade up, and then he threw himself onto that sword and committed suicide.

The Philistine soldiers had won their greatest victory. Saul, the king of Israel, was now dead. And they ran over to his body and they decapitated him, and they took his head and his armor, they brought it back to one of the Philistine temples, and they put it up as trophies, as trophies to their false gods and to their idols.

And then they took Saul's body and they nailed it to a wall in Bethsham just to increase the mockery and his humiliation. Folks, there are not many suicides mentioned in the Bible. The suicide of King Saul is the first suicide that is mentioned.

And it is not by accident that we have him as our classic example of a suicide case. For here was a man whose life was filled with satanic deception. Now where is David in all this? Remember two weeks ago I shared with you that the last two chapters of 1 Samuel are written, at least partially, that we might have a comparison of David and Saul. What happens in 1 Samuel 30 that we saw last week? What happens in 1 Samuel 31?

These things are happening almost simultaneously. Now what was going on with David? David and his men had been following with King Achish. They are out. And while they are out, they look back and find out that something horrible has happened in their hometown of Ziklag. The Amalekites had attacked Ziklag where their families are. They had burned the city down, totally destroyed it. They had taken all the goods of the Israelites and they had also captured the wives and children of David. And when they got that, when David saw it, he was terribly broken.

He went into a very deep depression. And his men were so mad about this that they were ready to take David and stone him to death. And it was at that time that David ran to God in repentance. The Scripture says that he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. His faith began to soar. His joy returned.

And his double-mindedness just vanished once again. And once again, David is dependent upon God. He takes his men. They go up to find the Amalekites. When they get there to their camp, they find that they are outnumbered about 10 to 1.

But the Amalekites are drunk. And David defeats them and just destroys the Amalekites. And they take back their wives and children.

And they take back all their stuff and even take back the great spoils of victory. Folks, at that very moment, when David is experiencing one of the greatest victories that he ever had, what's happening to Saul? Saul is experiencing a terrible, horrible defeat. Saul has no joy, he has no faith, and he has no hope. All that he has in his heart is death and defeat and absolute destruction.

And it's in that hopelessness that he commits suicide. I shared with you two weeks ago that the difference in Saul and David is nothing but the grace of God. Folks, we need to compare Saul and David, not to make a hero out of David, but to let us know that there's only one hope for us. And that hope is God.

Our only hope is God. I like to look at people's lives and see if there's a theme in their lives. What do I think about when I think about particular people? I think about Bible characters.

I really like to do this, like with Caleb. What is the theme in Caleb's life? It is perseverance. This man would not quit. His name, Caleb, means bulldog, like a bulldog stick-to-it-ness. I look at Daniel. Daniel's theme in his life was no compromise.

For Daniel, the Scripture says about him that he prepared in his heart beforehand that he would be obedient to God. I look at Paul. His theme in his life was gospel passion. I look at Peter. The theme in his life was love for Jesus.

I look at David. The theme of his life was faith in God's promises. But what was the theme in the life of King Saul?

It was a hard-hearted impenitence. Over in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah teaches us that the way to God's blessings is through repentance coupled with faith. In Isaiah 55, verse 7, Isaiah said this, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Saul knew that truth, and he rebelled against that truth his entire life.

I've got four points I want to share with you today. The first one is Saul's death. Look with me again at verses 1 through 5. Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchizedek, the sons of Saul. The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me.

But his armor-bearer would not be feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it, and when the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. Saul knew what was coming. When he went to the witch, to the medium at Endor, the dead prophet Samuel was commissioned by God to go and prophesy to King Saul, and he did that. And Samuel said to King Saul, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord, by this time tomorrow you and your sons will be dead, and Israel will be defeated by the Philistines. That prophecy knocked every vestige of courage out of Saul. He fell down at Samuel's feet, shaken and trembling. The scripture says there was no strength left in him, and Saul has to go lead his men into battle.

Can you imagine being one of Saul's soldiers at that time? Looking up to him to be the one who takes you out in battle, the one who leads you, and they look up and what do they see? They see a man that's shaken and trembling in fear. They see a man who has no hope. There's no fire in his belly.

I mean, this guy can't even stand up. Well, the battle begins, and the Philistines send a barrage of arrows into the Israelite camp. Several of the Israelites, many of them, are hit by those arrows. Some of them are killed instantly, and some of them are terribly wounded. Saul was one who was terribly wounded.

By this time, the Philistines are storming the camp of Israel, and they come with their swords drawn. And Saul looks over at them, and he's bleeding profusely. He's too tired to run, and he's bleeding, and he's too scared to do anything about it. So he looks over to his armor bear, and he says, take your sword and thrust me through so that they won't take advantage of me and make me live longer and torture me. And the armor bear looked at Saul, knowing that he could not lift his hand against God's anointing.

He said, I can't do that. Saul takes his sword. He throws it down into the ground, blade up, and then he throws himself on it. And within just a few minutes, Saul is dead. The armor bear then does the same thing, throws his sword down into the ground, and throws himself on it, and he too is dead. What about this suicide of Saul?

Humanly speaking, we might call it understandable. He knew that, or at least he believed, that he was getting ready to die. He thought that if he stayed alive, that it was going to be a mess because they would torture him terribly.

So why not just go ahead and do it? Herman Haxsama said this, I think we need to soften that a little bit, especially in the case of mental illness, or deep, deep depression that impairs a man's thinking. I think of William Cooper, who was the great songwriter, a great man of God. He was just riddled with depression. He had horrible depression that would come on him. Several times in his life, he almost committed suicide, but he was spared that because John Newton, his pastor, the writer of Amazing Grace, stepped in and saved his life, an amazing thing.

I had a man that I served with when I was a deacon, back before I went in the ministry, and served with him as a deacon, and this man got mental dementia, and he took a gun, he put it to his head, and shot himself to death. I knew this man well, and this man had spiritual fruit in his life. He loved the Lord Jesus.

He would go out with me on visitation, and he would share his faith, and there was just so much about him that looked like Christ. Chip Sloan later, when all this happened, preached his funeral service, and Chip shared with the congregation there what I knew down in my heart, that this man had spiritual fruit, that he was a true believer. After the service was over, a man came up to me and said, you know what, he said, this man's last act on earth was to commit murder of himself. He said, I think he's in hell today. I said, I don't think he's in hell today.

And I take suicide very seriously. But I think this man, his mind was not his anymore. He was in deep, deep forms of dementia. I think this man knew the Lord.

I believe he loved the Lord, and I believe that he is with the Lord today. Folks, I want you to know that's not the case with King Saul. Saul's suicide was not the result of an irrational impulse. It was a calculated decision. Richard Phillips has some wise insights into his suicide.

Listen to this. Perhaps more troubling than what Saul did in that hour of despair is what Saul did not do. There's no cry to God for help. There is no appeal to heaven for mercy.

We read nothing along the lines of the pleas that virtually fill David's psalms. Years earlier, on the night when Saul has sent ruffians to slay David in his house, David prayed, Deliver me from my enemies, O my God. Protect me from those who rise up against me.

Deliver me from those who work evil and save me from bloodthirsty men. Now with the flist encircling in, Saul has no such prayers in his quiver. Thus as he dies as he lived in hardened self-will and without faith in God's salvation, not even crying out to the Lord with his dying breath all through his reign, no hand had injured him but his own. And as he lived, so he died, his own undoer and his own murderer. Now why did Saul come to that tragic end? Was it because he was stupid?

No, no. It was because he was spiritually blind and deceived by the enemy. 2 Corinthians 4 verses 3 through 4 says this, And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Saul was never in a true relationship with God. He was blinded and deceived by Satan. Folks, I want you to know it's possible for people in the church, professing Christians and true Christians, to also experience that kind of deception.

I think of Bruce Walker, the pastor, who pastored, who loved the Lord, and who got so depressed and so out of his mind that he committed suicide by hanging himself to death. Folks, why is it that we have countless evangelists today that are misusing money, stealing money, and involving themselves in all kinds of immoral relationships? Why do we see churches that have so little spiritual life and vitality? Why is it that so many people in the church decide that they don't really need to study the Word of God? They don't really need to worship. Entertainment is more fun than worship. Why is it that we see so many churches today that are not burdened for missions?

Why is it that we see so many today who claim to be Christians, and yet you can't tell much difference between them and those that don't want to have anything to do with Christ at all? Why is it that it just appears that Satan is so active and effective today, even in churches? Because God's people have not learned how to deal with Satan. Folks, in Ephesians 4, verse 27, it was Paul who said, Give no place to the devil. How do we give place to the devil? Through disobedience and unbelief.

That's how we do it. And I think there are two extremes here. Both of them are dangerous.

Both of them are wrong. The first is those people who have an exaggerated understanding of Satan's authority and his power. They see a demon behind every bush. They believe that Satan is almost as sovereign as God, and that he has unbelievable power. He does have unbelievable power, but not anywhere near that of God.

That's a dangerous, dangerous thing to believe. And then on the other hand, there are those who just ignore what the scripture says about Satan's power and authority. They look at Satan as if he's a cartoon character with a red suit and a pitchfork and a forked tail.

They look at him as if he is not really real at all, that he's a fairy tale character. Let me tell you, that's dangerous, too, because Satan is a mighty, powerful being who desires our destruction. Now, how do we know that?

How do we really know that? Because there's so much scripture concerning the need for us to be deeply involved in spiritual warfare. Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 10 through 12. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you might stand against the wiles of the devil. You wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and rulers of darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places.

In James, chapter 4 and verse 7, the scripture says, what? Resist the devil and he will flee from us. In 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 8, Peter said, Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. In 1 Timothy 3, 7, the scripture teaches us about trying to avoid the snare of the devil. And then in 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 3 through 6, the scripture says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when our obedience is fulfilled. Folks, we need to remember the great book, Pilgrim's Progress. If you haven't read it, I just beg you to read it. Spurgeon read it over a hundred times.

It meant that much to him. But the book has a main character. His name is Christian. And he's going to the celestial city and that journey is a picture of his Christian life. And on that journey he realizes that this is a battle, this is tougher than he ever imagined. He has lions that are attacking him, representing demonic activity. He is captured by a giant who represents depression. He is put into a doubting castle.

He has temptations for materialism and for sensuality in Vanity Fair. He falls one time after another after another. Each time God picks him right up. And each time after that fall he learns something. What is he learning? He's learning how to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He's learning how to deal with Satan's deceptions and how to discern what Satan is trying to do to discern his schemes and to fight against them. He is learning that Christianity is much more than just a set of rules and regulations. It's much more than just following principles. It is following a person. Christianity is you and a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ.

It is you following him. And what he learned was that the closer he followed Jesus the more power he had and the more joy he had. King Saul's life ended in sorrow and in deep grief, finally suicide.

Why? Because he had a religion and not a relationship with God. Because he knew about God but he did not know God. And because he failed to understand the key to discipleship. And the key to discipleship is the cross.

Jesus said, If any man be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Alright, point two is a glorious death. Look at verse six. Thus Saul died and his three sons and his armor bare and all his men on the same day together. Saul died in this battle by suicide. His son Jonathan died in the same battle but he died fighting valiantly for Israel.

He's got two other sons. We don't know much about them but we do know a lot about Jonathan. Jonathan was a man of God. If we had to put a theme to his life I think it would be faithfulness. He was faithful to David and became David's best friend. He was faithful to his father and showed great respect to his father.

He surrendered his kingship to David. He surrendered his life to his dad. Richard Phillips said this about Jonathan. In the light of eternity Jonathan's death was not so much tragic as glorious. Through his faith in the Lord Jonathan escaped from tragedy to enter into glory forever. Jonathan died while fulfilling his duty. He died a warrior's death and received a faithful servant's reward. Point three, the consequences of Saul's apostasy.

Look with me at verses seven through ten. When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead they abandoned their cities and then they fled and the Philistines came and lived in them. The next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. So they cut off his head, stripped off his armor, sent messengers throughout the land of Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people.

They put his armor in the temple of Asheroth and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethsham. In 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 19 through 20 the people of Israel said this. We want a king over us so that we will be like the other nations.

They said we don't like this idea of just being under God. We want a king who will ride on a big white stallion. He will be impressive. He will impress the enemy. He will impress us.

That's what we want. But this Jehovah who we call king, we can't even see him. They had forgotten what Jehovah had done for them. They had forgotten that Jehovah had opened up the Red Sea so the children of Israel could cross through on dry land and not one of them was hurt or killed. And the Egyptian army tried to follow in and God let loose the water and killed and destroyed the entire Egyptian army. They forgot about the walls of Jericho, how God hit the walls of Jericho and they collapsed.

And when they collapsed the people of God went in and took the land and won the great victory. They had forgot that God had given them this great promised land. What did they want? They wanted to become pagans. They wanted a king that they could see with their physical eyes. In other words, they wanted idolatry.

The other nations had gods that they could see and feel. They could see this statue that they had made, this little wooden god, and they could put their hands on it. They could touch it. They could reach over and they could touch a golden calf. They could put their hands on it. They couldn't do that with Jehovah.

For Jehovah says, You trust me and you come to me by faith and not by sight. So when Saul was found dead, the Israelites ran off when they saw what was happening. They left their homes and they took off out of there. The Philistines saw Saul's dead body. They came over, they severed his head from his body.

They took his head and all of his armor, and they went back to the temple of Asheroth and they placed it up in that temple as trophies to their false gods, to their idols. And the Philistines then moved into the homes that the Israelites had lived in, and the Israelites had to depart because they were so scared. Folks, the gospel of the Philistines would now be preached far and wide, declaring the supremacy of Dagon and Asheroth over Jehovah God. Richard Phillips said this, Christians should refuse to worship and serve the idols of our day. False gods such as money, power, pride, and pleasure. The first reason is that our service to idols will conclude with the idols' power over our lives. Those who give themselves to sin in support of their idols find that they become unable to cease their sins. Their hearts have been captured and ruled by the idols that they foolishly serve. Amen.

My fourth point is faith in the dark. Look at verse 11 through 13. But when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the men arose and they went all night. They took the body of Saul and the bodies of his son from the wall of Beshen and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. And they took their bones and buried them under the Tamir's tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days. Saul didn't do much right, but one thing he did do right was right at the first of his reign.

The men of Jabesh Gilead were attacked by Nahash and the Ammonites. Nahash said, we're going to make a deal with you. You can take this situation. You can take what you want to do here and you can be our servants or we'll kill you.

And if we don't kill you, then we're going to pluck out your right eye and then you'll be our servants. They gave him a few days to think it over. Jabesh Gilead got in touch with Saul. Saul came and Saul brought his army and he whipped Nahash and the Ammonites, absolutely wiped them out. And when that happened, Jabesh Gilead, the men of that town, just felt very deeply grateful, deeply grateful to King Saul. They would never forget what he had done. Then when they heard that he had died, what did they do?

They went all the way to Beshan. They took his body down. They took the bodies of his sons and they brought those bodies back all the way back to Jabesh Gilead. They burned the bodies and they took the bones and they buried those bones in an honorable burial for King Saul. These heroic men risked their lives to do what was right and to show their appreciation to Saul. 2 Samuel chapter 2 verse 25 is when David is being coronated to be the new king of Israel.

And it's very interesting. The first people that he praises are the men of Jabesh Gilead. They're the very first ones that he praises. Folks, if David noticed the fidelity of the men of Jabesh Gilead for what they did in honoring King Saul, I believe with all my heart that our Lord Jesus Christ will honor those who serve him and love him. And in that last day, what will he say to us?

He will say this, Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter now into the joy of the Lord. We are now living in a dark time in America's history. If you stand for God's truth, the chances are you're going to be mocked, you're going to be canceled out, or you're going to be persecuted, and it's not going to be easy. Folks, this is not a time to be timid. This is not a time to compromise truth. This is not a time to waffle in the faith. This is a time for our world to see that God has put steel in our backbone, that we are going to stand for Christ, that Jesus Christ is going to be number one in our life, and all the demons in hell can't change it. Folks, it is time for God's people to be like Jonathan and not like Saul.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you've given us an example in King Saul of what not to do. He died with no faith, with no joy, with no testimony for the Lord, and no hope. How horribly, terribly sad may Saul's suicide remind us that we are called to be different. As Paul said, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Help us to be steadfast and unmovable. Help us to be focused and single-minded. Help us to be grace-driven and totally dependent on you. Help us simply, Lord, to be like Jesus. Forgive us of our many sins, convict us when we are wrong, comfort and encourage us when we are faithful. Thank you for loving us and thank you for saving us. For it is in the precious name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.