Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed poses this question as we begin.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Why is the flesh so strong in your life, you man, you woman of God? When God has given you the command to crucify the flesh and its desires thereof. And there's not one person listening, including my own two ears, that isn't guilty of this and doesn't pay the price for the flesh. Doesn't find ourselves at the end of our you know and some people unfortunately till the end of their life, their life is categorized by the flesh. It's their undoing. If you don't deal thoroughly with your flesh, you will die because of it.

Guest (Male): Well, you picked a good day to join us as we embark on a new verse by verse journey through second Samuel here on Abounding Grace. And the book begins with the death of Israel's first king, Saul. Some speculate that he committed suicide. Others suggest the Amalekites finished him off. And still others say God did it. Well, whatever conclusion you reach, Pastor Ed will draw out some helpful lessons like how to deal effectively with our flesh. So, if you're ready, let's begin. Here is Pastor Ed Taylor with part one of Get Back in the Battle.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles to the Old Testament book of second Samuel. We finished first Samuel the last time we were together as it chronicled the lives of Samuel, Saul, and David. Those were the primary men that were the focus of first Samuel. And while we learned much through Samuel's life and we learned much through Saul's life, the main emphasis of first Samuel was this man by the name of David, the man after God's own heart, who to us is not only a man, a fellow brother that we can learn from his life, but he's a type of Christ.

So many qualities in his life become a type of Christ. God was preparing David to sit on the throne. Second Samuel now will become will follow David's reign on the throne as he fulfills the prophetic word in his life. God gave a prophetic word that he would be the next king. And through great circumstances, he now will be crowned king. And we find him not just a king, not like Saul. David is not just a king, but he's also a shepherd. He's going to become the shepherd of God's people, the sinner of his court, the strong ruler of the nation, the man of fulfilled prophecy, becoming king under God's rulership.

And as we learned in first Samuel, David is not a perfect man. He had many great highs and he had many great lows up to this point in his life. Well, the same will be as we go forward with the rest of his life. He'll do a lot of great things and he'll also make a lot of great mistakes. Now opening up a book in the Old Testament raises suspicion or concern in some people. It's not uncommon to get an email or to get a note, why Ed are we studying the Old Testament? I mean, I thought we were New Testament believers.

Why are we spending any time in the Old Testament? Well, there's a lot of reasons why. The Bible tells us not to ignore the examples of the past. That's very clear. Hold your places in first Samuel. Turn over to first Corinthians chapter 10. Let me show you. I mean, first of all, the Old Testament's filled with examples of real people living real lives. And the Bible tells us not to ignore these examples. Notice with me first Corinthians chapter 10. Pick up in verse 11. The Old Testament we have good and bad examples. And we're to pay attention to them.

And he speaks of the things that happen in particular with those that wandered in the wilderness through their disobedience. He says, now these things, verse 11, all these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition. Or another word, if you like to write in your Bibles, you can circle the word admonition. And you can also write the word instruction. These are written for our instruction on whom the end of the ages have come. God has given us the Old Testament as a way to be to to learn through the good and bad examples of others.

Whenever I read through the Old Testament, I'm reminded not to repeat their mistakes. I'm reminded that my prayer life needs to grow. And I want to mix with faith those things that God has given me that I hear from God. I don't want to cower in unbelief and wander around. I want a deep worship uh abiding worship life. I I want to learn from the good examples and also learn to avoid the bad examples. And I believe a study through the Old Testament is an essential to grasp the overall themes of God's word. I mean, think about it.

God has given us the whole Bible to to disciple and to grow and mature the whole man and whole woman. The whole Bible in its entirety. You know in our fellowship, that's our goal. Our goal and my commitment to you as a pastor is to teach through the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. It's how I was disciples what was handed down to me and now it's what I'm handing down to you a verse by verse study. Uh and one day, Lord willing, I 'll be able to stand before you like the Apostle Paul did to the elders of Ephesus and say I've not shun to give you the whole counsel of God.

We just go through the Bible verse by verse. We tackle the topics that come up. Occasionally we might break away with some relevant topical message for the time, but for the most part we go through the word. Now we're not going through the word extremely fast. I realize that. But I'm not just in a hurry to get through the Bible. Uh I don't want to get through the Bible. I don't want to go in a hurry just so I can fulfill something that I was disciple with. And I don't also want to go artificially slow um just so I can take one word and carve it all out for you.

I truly do pray about how fast and how slow to go. Now on our times on our midweek Bible study like we are right now, we go a little bit faster. Uh I really try to tackle a chapter at a time, but even as you've seen through first Samuel, there are sometimes we just have to stop. And we have to meditate on a section or on a word. Uh and you know those of you that are here also on the weekends, you know we go a little bit slower carving up the chapters, allowing it to settle in.

But every chapter, every verse is important. Do you know the early church were students of the Old Testament? They didn't have the New Testament. The first century believers, they were students of the Old Testament. You go, Ed, well how did they use that? How did they know? Well, the Old Testament, and it's been wisely said, the Old Testament is or the New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed. So when you're reading through the Old Testament, let me give you something that will help you when you get through some of those sections that are hard to read or harder to understand.

Just look for Jesus. Look for pictures of Jesus. Look for characteristics of Jesus. Look for that that some have called it that red cord of redemption throughout the scriptures because that is the theme of the Bible. The theme of the Bible is God's work through his son Jesus Christ to redeem mankind to himself. So the New Testament is in the Old Testament hidden or concealed. And the Old Testament is found in the New Testament revealed. You get the great picture of wow, now I see what that means. I understand what he was pointing to, what the tabernacle, what was the whole purpose of the tabernacle?

Why spend so much time on all of the little details of the tabernacle? Well, it's spoke of Jesus Christ. And you see that now and revealed in the person of Jesus. Even in the beginning of the book of Hebrews, it talks about how God has spoken in time past to us through the prophets, but in these last days has what spoken to us through Jesus Christ. One of the rebukes that Jesus gave to the religious rulers is very instructive for us when it comes to understanding the Old Testament and the value of the Old Testament.

He rebuked the religious rulers by saying, you know you searched the scriptures. They were such students. They knew the Old Testament. They could quote it and know it in ways that you and I would never be able to They dedicated their lives backwards and forwards, if you will, to understand the Old Testament. The problem was they missed the point. And you know it's possible to study something so much and totally miss the point and totally miss miss the whole reason why God had had written the word. So he he condemned them. He said, you search the scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life.

But these they speak of me, Jesus said. The Old Testament is very important, very valuable to us. Not only as examples, but the early church. This is what they When it says in Acts chapter 2 verse 42 that they continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, they were using the Old Testament scrolls. That's what they had at the time. Even as Paul was writing his letters, I don't think he had the comprehension yet that he was writing the New Testament. God had that all in in line, but he didn't quite know that yet. And now you and I have the benefit of the fullness of God's revelation, the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.

But on a more simple a more simple reason why we would study second Samuel is that God wrote second Samuel. So it's worth our time to study it. It's in the Bible. So we should spend our time looking at what God would have us to learn through the life of David as he's a type of Christ and all the other insights that come. It's our duty and delight to study it. Some of it might be hard. Some of it might be some names as you read ahead, you're like you're like me. I read the names and I go wow.

I know I'm really not pronouncing that correctly. And there'll be times when I just say you go home and read it in the mirror. You know let you practice those words. We'll move on to an easier text. So there are those difficult times, but we don't give up everything just because a few things are hard. We don't just quit because we're I mean, look at your life right now. You're in a hard season. You don't give up. You endure. You steady on. You trust the Lord. Difficulties reveal the power of God. Even so when you're reading the scriptures, you just tape a keep a little notebook, write down your questions, and perhaps the Lord will give you revelation.

It's a joy to study through both the old and the New Testament. And not only that, but you happen to be here on the first night. And maybe you're listening, maybe you podcast. You you're not able to come to our church, so you podcast or you're watching online. And it's just really cool to start a book and to stick with it all the way to the end. It's just really cool. Now I think for us, I didn't count. I should have asked, but I didn't. But I think we finished Man, I even to guess, I don't know.

Maybe I don't know, 30 something books of the Bible. We're not We're about halfway there out of the 66. Um but we're almost done with the New Testament. So when we finish John, I want to go into Hebrews. And I think after Hebrews, we're done with the New Testament. Uh but then I want to go back from the earlier years and re-teach a couple of books for all the stinking mistakes that I made and the poor people that were with me back then and just enduring long teaching and sound doctrine. But we don't know. Maybe the rapture will take place prior to that and we'll be a lot happier.

Second Samuel now begins with the death of Saul, Israel's first king, and ends with the death of David, Israel's greatest king. And we'll see the power of God in David's life to unite the 12 tribes into one unified nation where they'll defeat their enemies, expand their borders, and prepare the way for Solomon's reign. And as we continue to follow the life of David, there'll be more ups and more downs. And as I said earlier, he's not a perfect man. Let me just say now by in very briefly, just because we're studying the life of an imperfect man does not then give us good reason to just make sinful decisions ourselves.

So you can't just make a sinful decision. Well, you know David wasn't perfect because what a man sows, that he'll read. Uh and David's mistakes were David's mistakes. They don't have to be our mistakes. We don't have to go headlong into some of the things that he did. We And And yet at the same time, we're also uh encouraged in our humanity that a man after God's own heart can make some really bad decisions. Of course, I don't want to. You don't want to. A woman after God own heart, you don't want to. You want to avoid the pain and problems and sin.

But God doesn't sugarcoat his the men and women that he uses. He uses people like you and me. David didn't always have an easy time wearing the crown or wielding the sword, but his heart was still after God. And like we've already seen, God will use imperfect people to accomplish his purposes. And And that's proof in in our own lives. God uses us and I'm just always amazed uh when God uses me. I'm always amazed by the faithfulness of God in in our lives that when when the Bible says there's not many wise, not many, you know, of noble character or or noble upbringing, I should say, you know, there's there's not many uh It doesn't say not any, but there's not many.

God is choosing what chosen what? The foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And David is certainly one of them. Now at the end of first Samuel, just to tie the books together, the Philistines wiped out the Israeli army, even King Saul and three of his sons. King Saul was struck with an arrow. As his life was leaving him, he took matters into his own hand and asked his armor bearer to kill him. And he refused. So King Saul fell on his sword. And so now we gain a little bit more uh insight on the situation uh that we've looked at before, verse one.

Now it came to pass after the death of Saul when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, uh David had stayed two days in Ziklag. And on the third day, behold it happened that a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. And so it was when he came to David that he fell on the ground and prostrated himself. And David said to him, where have you come from? And he said to him, I have escaped from the camp of Israel. And then David said to him, how did the matter go?

Please tell me. And he answered, the people have fled from the battle. Many of people are fallen and dead. And Saul and Jonathan, his son, are dead also. So David said to the young man who told him, how do you know that Saul and Jonathan, his son, are dead? Verse six. And the young man who told him said, as I happened by chance to be on Mount Gilboa where Saul was leaning on his spear, indeed the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. Now when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me and I answered and here I am.

And he said to me, who are you? So I answered, I'm an Amalekite. And he said to me, verse nine again, please stand over me and kill me for anguish has come upon me, but my life still remains in me. So I stood over him and killed him because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet was on his arm and I brought them here to my Lord. So last time uh we explored the two options that were there.

There's actually three options to this scenario when it comes to the death of Saul. The first one, of course, is as the text reads called Saul committed suicide as we saw earlier. We learn that the Bible we we learn in a whole Bible study what the Bible has to say about uh suicide and how important it is if you're having any suicidal thoughts right now uh to ask for help because your life is just too valuable. And as hard and as darkest things are right now, uh your life is more valuable and the darkness will lift.

And God is faithful. And he can encourage you. And we looked at that in a Bible study all by itself. The other option involves chapter one here that Saul didn't completely die, but that this Amalekite finished him off. And then there's a third version to the story in first Chronicles chapter 10 verse 14 where it says that God killed him for his rebellion. And so in the providence of God, either using his suicide or using the Amalekite to finish him off. And you certainly can choose. Now if you believe that the Amalekite killed King Saul, that's where you fall in this and that's where you fall in this these different options, then it opens up a new way of looking at the flesh, doesn't it?

Because the Amalekites remember are a type of the flesh of our flesh. Like we we are the weakness of our flesh, the works of the flesh, the Amalekites. And you'll remember that earlier in the life of King Saul, he was told to do what? Completely wipe them out. That was the instruction from God. And And he didn't. He spared Agag and a few of the animals. And when Samuel came, he said, oh I took care of it all just like in and what's that bleeding of the sheep that I hear? And it was a great insight on the heart of Saul and his rebellion and all the judgment that came upon him.

Uh rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. And we looked at all that in depth. And it's interesting because we see we see when when the Amalekites become a type of the flesh, uh these were ruthless people. They They attacked the weak and the feeble. They're the ones that came behind the Israelites to pick off the weak and pick off the sick and and go after the weaknesses in our life just like our flesh does. And you remember that when battling the Amalekites, uh Moses went up on a hill. This is where we're introduced to Aaron and Hur becoming a uh a beautiful picture of support in prayer, becoming a beautiful picture of of seeing Moses as his hands lifted up and worship.

There was great victory in the battle. And And we also see in Aaron and Hur the great need of men and women in the ministry to support their pastors and support their leaders. And we've looked at this in our servants class in depth here to help train you to serve is that really You know, when you look at serving the Lord and And you have a godly leader that's being used by God, when you have a godly leader, then what is good with godly leaders is to offer them godly support, to support on their hands.

And then we have also learn when you have Aaron and Hur up whether he sat them on a on a rock and he's out there and you also learn that with Aaron and Hur as being good support that if they had to come up under his arms and get down under his arm to hold him that that was a pretty stinky job because their faces would be right in his armpits or like this. You know, I don't know I don't know exactly how they would do it, but they would have to be up in his arms and his It's a hot day and you know, they didn't take showers every day and they didn't have right guard.

And I mean, just the reality of it. It wasn't a pretty place. It wasn't an easy thing to support the leaders that God is putting on. It's not an easy thing to hold up another man or another woman's arms in the ministry. So those of you that are struggling under the weight of ministry right now and you go, you know, this just stinks, man. This is just really stinky. I know. That's Don't be surprised. Ministry's difficult and it's hard because when his arms were up, there was victory. When his arms were down, they were the Israelites were defeated.

But we also see in the arms being raised of Jesus or excuse me of Moses a beautiful picture and type of the cross. When your arms are up and outstretched, there's victory. When you look to the cross in your own weakness, there's victory for you. The forgiveness of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful thing, but the Amalekites are not beautiful. They're enemies. Your flesh is not your friend. Uh that's why when we have these times of prayer and fasting as we just did this previous week, it's designed to remind you your flesh is not your friend.

Oh I know it's begging you for food and I know now, you know, you had a stuffy nose, but now you had a stuffy nose for 30 years. But for the three days of of prayer and fasting, you can smell every French fry, every hamburger, every steam broccoli, and you're even liking Brussels sprouts. That's how hungry you are. And that's how nasty your flesh is. And so your flesh isn't to be coddled. It's not to be fed. How careful we need to be what we what we feed our flesh with our eyes, what we feed our flesh with our ears.

And a time of prayer and fasting is designed to remind us that the spirit the spirit of a God needs to be prevailing in our lives and the flesh needs to be put back where it is and where it belongs at the lowest level of demand in our lives. And so when you think if the Amalekite even if Saul committed suicide and the Amalekite shows up and he's lying. Now David seemed to believe him. Uh he took him in his word. And even if he was lying or not, he still wiped him out because you don't go bragging on killing God's anointed and think you're going to get away with it and get rewarded.

See the flesh doesn't understand the things of God. The flesh doesn't You know, here I am. I've done such a great victory. I know you've been after King Saul this time. No no no. He totally The Amalekite had no thing He had nothing to do with the things of God. He had no idea that it wasn't King David. It wasn't David's desire to see David Saul dead. He could have done it himself. He didn't understand the thing. Your flesh doesn't understand the things of God. When you're in the flesh, you're not in the ways of God.

The The The The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God, the Bible says. And when you and I are in the flesh, we don't please God. The flesh fights against the spirit as do the Amalekites. So if you you know, whether you believe um King Saul committed suicide and the Amalekite was there or you believe in verse in chapter one of second Samuel that the Amalekite finished him off, it really doesn't matter. It's not a foundational essential doctrine of the church. But consider this. What is an Amalekite doing by the king of Israel?

And I ask you this. Why is the flesh so strong in your life, you man, you woman of God? When God has given you the command to crucify the flesh and its desires thereof. And there's not one person listening, including my own two ears, that isn't guilty of this and doesn't pay the price for the flesh. Doesn't find ourselves at the end of our You know, and some people unfortunately till the end of their life, their life is categorized by the flesh. It's their undoing. If you don't deal thoroughly with your flesh, you will die because of it.

Guest (Male): Yes, we are to crucify the flesh. Sin must be dealt with or it will ruin our lives. A great takeaway lesson from the first chapter of second Samuel. We're just getting started here on this Old Testament book with Pastor Ed Taylor on Abounding Grace. We hope you'll make it a point to join us each day as we go through all 24 chapters. To give this a second listen, all you need to do is visit aboundinggrace radio.com or oneplace.com or you can listen through our app that can be found in the App Store or Google Play.

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Well, taking notes is a good way to accomplish that goal. And this helpful book will lead and guide you through the process. Just call 877-30 Grace to make your request and your donation today. You can also order online at calvaryco.store. Again, 877-30 Grace or calvaryco.store. Come back tomorrow when our series in second Samuel resumes here on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed.

Guest (Male): This is a amazing grace. This is a failing love. That you would take my place. Then you would bear my cross. You laid down your life that I would be set free. Oh Jesus I sing for all that you've done for me.

Guest (Male): Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.