The Insincere King

God didn't call me to be a popular preacher and most of my sermons are not popular with the masses but God did call me to be true to your soul. I didn't come here this evening friends to entertain you with funny stories or to flatter you with a false piece. I came here to blow a trumpet and to sound an alarm and to awaken you to your great and grave danger.

For some of you sleep the sleep of death upon a bed of feathers warmed with hellfire and a false hope of heaven. This message is meant to strip down every pious church member and to be like a splinter under your fingernail that gnaws at you and makes you uncomfortable. It's meant to strip the bark off of every halfway Christian who stands in the door of the church and blocks others from getting to Christ and it is my prayer that this message will take the hammer of God's word and smash up every false foundation, break apart every false hope of a empty religious profession and alarm and awaken you to the great peril of sin that it will be like a fire that sheds light into the dark and clouded mind of a deceived religious professor who claims to know God but God doesn't know him.

My message this evening is a solemn message about an insincere king handpicked by God but ultimately rejected of God and this story of King Saul the insincere king is a picture of the unsaved church member. Pay attention friends as we proceed and listen to the sermon as if your very life depended upon it. For some of you may be surprised to learn that you aren't saved after all and as an unsafe sinner you're under the condemnation of a holy God and although you serve in church on Sunday you serve the devil during the week your eternal destiny hangs in the balance this evening friend.

Don't go to sleep tonight until you settle this issue of your eternal soul. Some folks foolishly believe that they can have heaven and religion and sin all they want to but God's word declares in Ecclesiastes because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set on them to do evil but listen friend if you continue along in the path you have settled upon you will unexpectedly leave this earth through sudden death and enter a region you were quite unprepared for a sudden death is all around you lurking at your heels but God's sure word declares for man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snared in a evil time when it falls suddenly upon them now that's the introduction to my message entitled the insincere king turning your bibles to the first book of Samuel we will begin in chapter 18 here now is the word of God and may the spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word in this story friends we see king Saul and David and we see David's troubles begin with a jealous king in verses 7 and 8 of chapter 18 we read and the women answered one another as they played and said Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands and Saul was very wroth and the same displeased him we see friends in a few verses later the hot displeasure of a jealous king for while David is playing his harp for Saul at the end of verse 10 we begin reading and David played with his hand as at other times and there was a javelin in Saul's hand and Saul cast the javelin for he said I will smite David even to the wall with it and David avoided out of his presence twice it was a narrow escape for David friends but I want you to keep your eye on king Saul for this man has a course of life which betrays his sincerity toward God some folks claim to name Christian but they have no intention of living up to it by obeying God and his commands they may fall into temptation and sin and despise the commandments of God and all the rights and claims that the Lord Jesus has on a follower of his after their transgression day may feel ashamed and sorry for it they may even weep tears over it and even vow to God they will break from it but after a while the temptation returns and they are as bad as before they're like the person in the illustration found in 2nd Peter 2 22 the dog has turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire that dog goes back to lick up the filthy foul vomit that made him first wretch the sow altogether she's been washed goes straight back to her walla the church member who claims to know Christ and follow him return to the same errors over and over again confessing his sins every time and vowing to be done with them oh then he wallows in that filthiness again and there they fall into the same pig pen again and they are sorry again and so they keep on sinning and repenting this is just like it was with king Saul his son Jonathan talks to him about David and in 1st Samuel 19 6 it reads Saul hearken to Jonathan and Saul swear as the Lord liveth he shall not be slain here Saul is sorry for a sin of trying to kill David and he vows a vow to God as the Lord liveth but after a while he was persecuting David again and in chapter 24 David saves his life and Saul weeps and makes confession as seen in verse 16 Saul lifted up his voice and wept but upon the invitation of the Ziphites he's tempted again and once again pursues David's life and David spares him a second time and upon that occasion Saul confessed and promises again as seen in verse 21 then said Saul I have sinned return my son David for I will no more do thee harm but friends there is no trust in such a religious man for if they live in ways of sin they are lost men who do not follow a holy God and sin is a slippery slope friend that takes you down lower and lower as we see old lion Saul in chapter 28 go against God's commands again as he visits the witch of Andor and even though he disguised himself that old witch saw right through him the hypocrite may fool a few folks at church by outward religion he may even believe himself that he is a saved individual but his course of sin betrays him before the searching eyes of a righteous God the insincere king is a picture of the unsaved church member who has a religion apart from having Christ those who make a pretense or religion claim they know and love Jesus join a church and serve there in an outward show religion but to continue to live in a course of sin running to their pig pens and clutching to their breasts their beloved idols making a mockery of a holy God and a living Lord who sits at the right hand of the Father and who earned that right by way of a bloody cross their unholy lives are best summed up by Psalm 125 5 which declares as for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity let us pray