Good News or Bad News?

It’s not only by God’s grace that we become His people. It’s also by God’s grace alone that we remain His people.

Saul’s First Conflict

• “Now Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, had been oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites grieviously, gouging out the right eye of each of them and allowing Israel no deliverer. No men of the Israelites who were across the Jordan remained whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But seven thousand men had escaped from the Ammonites and entered into Jabesh-Gilead.” – Dead See Scrolls (4QSama)

Saul’s Response

• Good or bad?

Samuel’s Response

• Case against himself
• Case for the Lord
• Case against the people
• Sermon illustration
• Conclusion concerning God’s mercy and grace