In this insightful episode of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack Hibbs delves into the rich narratives of 1 Samuel, exploring the contrasting lives of David and Saul. Through the examination of chapters 26 to 28, we uncover the different paths taken by these two leaders in the face of adversity, shedding light on themes of faith, obedience, and emotional control. Join Pastor Jack as he highlights how David’s reliance on the Holy Spirit enables him to rise above challenges, whereas Saul’s dependence on his emotions ultimately leads to his downfall. With profound lessons from these biblical accounts, listeners are
00:25:09 Closing Remarks and Partnership Invitation
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Today on Real Life Radio.
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Emotions are not wrong. They’re not sinful. No one’s right and no one’s wrong. Unless those emotions begin to control. Unless those emotions begin to dictate how we live our lives. Then we’re out of control.
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible.
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Hey everybody, Pastor Jack here, and I want to encourage you to get a great book. Listen to this, Living Fearless in Christ. This is Hediya Miramadi’s story, life story, why I left Islam to win battles for the kingdom. A former Muslim comes to Christ and her ministry and her testimony is powerful. Get a copy for yourself, Living Fearless in Christ.
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Living Fearless in Christ by Hediya Miramadi. Available for the month of February for a gift of any amount at jackhibs.com. That’s jackhibs.com. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues his series called 1 Samuel and a message titled, The Good, The Bad, and… Now, Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of her prophets. So here in chapters 26 through 28, we’ll consider David and King Saul and their different responses to adversity, fear, and God’s ultimate plan for their lives. You see, there is a stark contrast between the faith and obedience of David and the fear and self-reliance of King Saul. When Saul finds himself desperate, his downward spiral turns toward disobedience. When David falters under pressure, he runs and hides in fear, but later turns towards God for his refuge and strength. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that David may have had some bad choices, but overall, he chose to be led by the Holy Spirit, while Saul was led by his own emotional jealousy and fear. Now with his message called, The Good, The Bad, and here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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It’s not by might, nor by power, but by your spirit, saith the Lord. And so, Father, we pray now that you would move upon us and grant us, Lord, ears to hear and, Lord, the strength to do. As we consider now these lessons in 1 Samuel, Lord, make them applicable to our lives. For, Lord, we know that your word, though it was written a long time ago, is eternal. It never gets old. It’s always now. And so, Lord, give us… the ears of the learned tonight, that we may out of it behold wondrous things. And all God’s people agreed by saying, amen. Grab your Bibles in and turn, if you would, to 1 Samuel chapter 26 in our study tonight together. And what we will do tonight, by the grace of God, that is, we will cover chapters 26 to 28. And let me explain the reasons why. I know that you’re holding that with some suspect. But it’s very important that you understand that as we look to chapter 26, first of all, it is really a repeat in some aspects to what we saw in chapter 24. And then chapter 27 says, and 28 will predominantly be the grounds by which tonight we really want to glean a lot out of because chapter 26 of this book is very, again, similar to chapter 24. By way of review, in 1 Samuel 24, just to set the groundwork for that, in verses 16 to 21, the scripture said this, And we do well to pay attention to it. It says there that so it was when David had finished speaking these words to Saul that Saul said, Is this your voice, O my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. And then he said to David, You are more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil. And you have shown this day how you have dealt with me and well with me. For when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore, may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king. Now listen carefully, everybody, to this. This is Saul speaking. Chapter 24. That the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Therefore, swear now to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house. Here we have the story that we saw last time in chapter 24 where Saul has got this mindset to destroy David. And yet David, in his moment of, you would think, vengeance provided by God, he doesn’t do it. Because it was not… the Lord providing an opportunity for David to exercise vengeance upon Saul. It was a moment by which Saul would see the righteousness of David because David, while he had the life of Saul in his hands, so to speak, chapter 24, David did not kill Saul. And it was a great moment of glory to see David’s life under the control of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit has control of our lives, we will rise above whatever occasion you and I are exposed to. No matter what difficulty you and I are going through, when the Holy Spirit is in control, we will get above. We will not lower ourselves to the conduct and tactics of this world. And so David in chapter 24 does a tremendous thing, but we know because David is a killer. You know he’s a killer, right? I mean, he’s a killer. He’s a soldier. He’s a warrior. The man’s hands are bloody by virtue of his combat. Yet he doesn’t kill Saul, his arch evil. Why not? God’s in control. David committed into the hands of God the very situation of Saul. And so now keeping that in mind, the reality is, as we look to our study now, there is a sick cycle, carousel, that Saul is stuck in. He’s not going to get out of it. We reach now the latter chapters of this book, and these chapters will set Saul up for the destruction of his life. He will die soon. All because he decided to be in a cycle of life that he would not listen to God. He would impose his own will upon not only those that are around him, but he would force his own will upon God in violation of obedience to God. And now Saul’s days are numbered. He’s nearing the end. Every life of disobedience, according to the Bible, leads to death. There’s no way around it. It’s the law of the Spirit that God has shown in reality, in life. And so David, it’s sad. David was loyal to Saul. David was committed to Saul. David had a heart to be a man who was under the subjection of Saul. And yet Saul, because of jealousy and rage, was an insane man. And he had resisted God. He had fought against God. When God would tell him to do something, Saul refused to do that thing. And now the great kingmaker, Samuel, is gone. So Saul doesn’t have Samuel to speak to. Saul doesn’t have David to lean upon. He’s ostracized him. David’s been fleeing as a fugitive now for years. It’s a very tragic situation for Saul. So really the title of the message tonight is the good. We want to have David be the good, even though he has struggles. The bad, that would be certainly Saul, and the fill in the blank. You say, well, the ugly. Well, maybe that’s us. I don’t know. The good, the bad, and the ugly. How about the good, the bad, and how does it sit with us? Where are we and what’s before us in these chapters? And chapter 26, I’m going to glean over just a few spots to head off into the depth of the study of where we’re going. If you’re taking notes, jot this down. Chapter 26 of 1 Samuel really depicts Saul’s emotional manipulation in life. Saul had gotten away with a lot of emotional manipulation in the lives of those that were around him. He had temper tantrums. He cried. He whined. He exerted pressure. He was not a man of character whereby people would follow him. He was a man of manipulation, and he did that by emotionalism. 1 Samuel 26, verse 3, it says, And Saul encamped… In the hill of Hekelah, which is opposite Jeshamon by the road. But David stayed in the wilderness. So the pursuing game is still going on. And he saw that Saul, that is David saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. Verse 5. So David arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul had been laying. And Abner, the son of Ner, and the commander of his army. Now Saul lay within the camp with the people encamped all around him. Set this in your mind. It’s evening. And the king, as it was the custom in those days, the king would be in the middle. And by the way, he would take his spear. the king’s spear, and he would impale it into the ground there, and the king would go to sleep, and then all of his soldiers, all of his warriors would sleep in a circular manner around him outward, much like a pinwheel, you know? Or if you’re looking at a dartboard, Saul would be the little quirky part in the middle. and then all of his troops would emanate out, and then on the extreme outer portion of the wheel, they would put all of their horses, their chariots, and all of their stuff to be under attack. It would be a guard or almost like a wall for them. So Saul’s in the middle, safe and snug like a bug in a rug, he thinks. And so he’s there. And so what we see happen in verse 8 through 11 sets it up. Then Abishai said to David, this is David’s soldier that’s alongside of David. He says, God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now, therefore, please let me strike him at once with the spear right to the earth. And I will not have to strike him a second time. Wouldn’t that sound good if your enemy was in that position and you had a man alongside you saying, you know what? It’s obvious God’s provided the moment. Let me kill him. I just need to stab him once and it’ll be over. You’ll be free, David. Sounds good. Listen to David. Verse 9, And David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed? We heard that last time in chapter 24. And be guiltless. In other words, don’t strike those whom God has called to do what he’s doing because they are actually instruments of God’s will, even if they are nincompoops like Saul. Because wouldn’t you and I remove the guy? David says, hang on. This is the Spirit of God speaking through David. He says, hang on. There’s a way that God will deal with this. It’s not for us to do.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And now, let’s get back to today’s message. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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Verse 10, David said furthermore, as the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him. Class, church, people, the Lord knows how to strike much better than we do. or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch up my hand against the Lord’s anointed, but please take now the spear and the jug of water that are beside his head and let’s go. So they’re standing there. You guys, everybody’s sleeping. Right? They’re all out. And David’s standing there with Abishai, and they could kill him on the spot. David says, no, let’s take his spear. They pull it out of the ground. Let’s take his water bag, and let’s hightail it out of here. Let’s not kill him. Now, what we want to watch from this point on, mark it down, is Saul’s emotional response to spiritual embarrassment. His emotional response or responses, it’s been textbook Saul, to his spiritual embarrassments. Whenever Saul is embarrassed spiritually, that is whenever there’s a godly witness in Saul’s presence, he begins to act and to conduct himself in a bizarre cycle of emotionalism. Look at verse 17. Then Saul knew David’s voice and said, is that your voice, my son David? Why, what happened? David and Abishai go to the other side and then call out. And David makes mockery of Abner, who was supposed to have been watching over King Saul, and he awakens the entire group. So David’s making an announcement. This is the second time this has happened. Saul says, listen to him, he’s out to kill David. Remember that. Then when Saul heard David’s voice, he said, is that your voice, my son David? Oh, David, oh. What’s with this guy? He’s out to kill him. Then he hears, this guy, he’s crazy with, I believe, an unredeemed spirit. We know earlier he’s tormented by demons. The Bible told us that. This man is thoroughly out of control and 100% emotionally led. That’s why he’s got incredibly high highs and incredibly low lows. That’s why it depends on what time of the week and what was going on and what he had to eat, how he would answer you. Any one of us, when we are so… Up one moment, down the other, unpredictable, unstable in our conduct. Now, all of us look, I mean, let’s be honest. All of us, we’ve been created with certain emotional characteristics. Emotions are not wrong. They’re not sinful. God made us this way. For him, it’s quite exciting, I guess, to see all this palette of not only different looks, but we’re all made up differently emotionally. We all respond to things differently, right? emotionally. No one’s right and no one’s wrong unless those emotions begin to control. Unless those emotions begin to dictate how we live our lives, then we’re out of control. We’re not in the spirit, we’re in the flesh, and we can make decisions like this. Oh, you know what? And we begin to make an argument of why we’re going to do this or why we’re going to move there or why we’re going to buy that all based upon emotional foundations. And those things will crumble. Very important. Saul has lived his life and he makes one, watch, he makes one decision on Monday and then Tuesday night he’s regretted ever making that decision. He’s like an impulse shopper. They just buy to buy because they don’t have anything else to do. And there’s a moment gratification. There’s kind of a rush that you walk out of the store and you got it. And you can even say, oh, look what I got. And then a few days or a few weeks or a month later, it’s out back rusting. Why did you get it? I don’t know. I liked it. But you don’t like it now? No, I don’t like it now. And listen. That’s dangerous on a financial level. But what of such things in a spiritual or emotional? Oh, I like him today. Oh, I don’t like him on Thursday. Kids are like that. I have forgotten, but I’m going to guess. I thought I was first in love, I think. Well, I was in love with Mrs. Dawson, my fourth grade teacher, first, I think. That was the first person who knocked me off my feet. But I think if you’re like a little kiddo, like a, I don’t know, sixth grade, maybe seventh, the feelings are like, wow. And the feelings are so strong, right? You can’t tell a ninth grader, you know, you don’t really love her or you don’t really love him. It’s just a factuation. They don’t care about that word. They don’t care what it means. They just know that their heart’s pounding, their skin kind of sizzles, you know, when that person walks by. They freak out. They can’t. It’s really intense, and that’s why it’s so real to them. That’s on Monday, right? But by Friday night, you know, it’s all changed. There’s somebody else. There’s somebody new. And it’s going to go that way until that person begins to grow through and up this hormonal and emotional driven stage of their life. Some people never outgrow that type of living in other ways. And all that they do, they’re like a little bee that flits from one flower to the next. And it’s tragic. Saul’s like that. And these kinds of people like Saul, they manipulate things using their emotions. And so he’s crying, oh, David, is that you, my son? It’s pathetic. Listen, it’s been said, the spirit will always outclass the flesh, but the flesh will always outflash the spirit, right? I like that. The spirit, that is when God’s in control, will always outclass the flesh. The spirit is stable. It is strong. When God’s spirit is in charge of our lives, there’s a stability about us. Are we emotionless? No, we still have our emotions. In fact, I think when the Holy Spirit has you and has myself under control, there’s excitement to that when God’s in control and you are the person that you are. I said a couple of Sundays ago that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, not for our personalities. And I said that, and that really helps somebody get through living with themselves. They thought otherwise. They thought because Jesus died on the cross and died for their sins, that they were supposed to be some sort of a monk or something in their conduct and attitude. Not so. When the spirit is in control, the spirit will always outclass the flesh. The sad thing is in the world that you and I live in, if we’re not in the spirit, the flesh always outflashes or the flesh always outflashes the spirit. That is the flesh, like Saul, it’s very loud and very lamentative in this case. Oh, and it gets everybody’s attention and they pull out their little hanky and they’re going, look at Saul. He loves David so much. And if you’re not in the spirit, you’re going to get suckered into that. Look at him. I know he’s been a real crazy person, throwing spears and stuff and trying to kill me. But you know what? He cried when he said, my son David, grow up. Watch out. An emotionally led life, as in Saul’s case, will lead to death. The flesh gets a lot of attention in spiritual arenas when it acts like this. It’s true. Verse 25, then Saul said to David, may you be blessed, my son David. You shall both do great things and also you will prevail. So David went on his way and Saul returned to his place, probably shaking his head because nothing’s changed. And so chapter 26 is a colossus chapter of emotions and control. And Saul now, people listen, Saul is very near Saul. His death. He’ll be dying shortly. Why does Saul keep doing this? Because frankly, the flesh just recycles itself over and over again. It just dresses itself up, but it says the same things. It does the same thing. It’s like this. When someone with good intentions, they say something like, I’ll never yell at you again. Or I’ll never strike you again. Or I’ll never walk out on you again. I swear this time it’s all different. He or she may say. They really mean it. You know that. They really mean it. For a moment’s time, maybe for a week’s time, they really mean it. They’re really sorry. But there’s that sick cycle, like Saul was in, where they did not have the power to change that cycle that they were in because they determined to walk in the flesh and not in the spirit. And Saul had his chance always to walk in the spirit, and he chose not to. It was always, I want, I this, and I that. And there was no room in Saul’s life for God. And yet he was a man of authority. People, have you ever experienced a man or people or a group in authority and they have no concept of how they got it? They have no appreciation that it’s by the hand of God? Do you know what happens when that takes place? It’s called a despot. A tyrant. A tyrant. And they’ll kill people. They’ll destroy them. If not with a blade, they’ll use their tongue and they’ll whittle them down to nothing and they’ll live their life that way and they leave a wake behind them of broken people. Isn’t that tragic? Saul’s got authority, ordained by God even, and yet he’s out of control. Very tragic. but the flesh will dress itself up and go right back out there again. Listen, the Bible says, Jesus said in Matthew 9, verse 16, no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Ladies, us guys, we don’t know what that means. We had to read commentaries to figure this one out. Jesus says, no one puts a piece of unshrunk clothing on an old piece of clothing. For the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse than it was in the beginning. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins will break, the wine is spilled out, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins so that both are preserved. What’s Jesus saying? He’s saying this, that when God wants to do a work, he will find a new vessel to receive the new work.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio and his message called The Good, The Bad, And. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called First Samuel. It’s a series that highlights the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel’s darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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Daniel Cohen here from Israel. If you love Pastor Jack Hibbs’ fearless approach to teaching God’s Word, you’ll love The Real Life Network. It’s built for warriors who want the truth, God’s truth. On The Daniel Cohen Show, we bring you stories the mainstream media downplays. It’s time to start getting your news from people you trust, and it’s totally free. Sign up now at reallifenetwork.com.
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Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you’d like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what’s going on with this ministry. If you’d like to partner with us and help support spreading the gospel around the world, you can do that there too. It has been so good to be with you today and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.
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This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
