COMMITTED TO THE TRANSFER OF THE KINGDOM
September 23, 2001 pmMF 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!
- 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.
- 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.
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!
- JONATHAN means JEHOVAH-GIVEN.
- ABINADAB means FATHER OF GENEROSITY
- MELCHISHUA means KING OF WEALTH.
- But Saul and those sons of blessing all died the same day due to Saul's disobedience.
- WHAT A LOSS!
- 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.
- But verse 9 shows Saul's disobedience in sparing the King of the Amalekites, Agag.
- Watch the degradation of Saul's character.
- 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.
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.
- 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).
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.
- 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.
- 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 the LAND.
- And the LAND must belong fully to the Lord, now that Adam has been hanged.
