Remember, the Bible says that for every sinner that repents, the angels rejoice in heaven!

Samuel arrives and Saul greets him in the name of the Lord (1 Sam 15), but in the next breath lies by saying he has done everything God commanded him to do! Samuel challenges Saul by asking what the bleating of the sheep and lowing of the oxen meant? Immediately Saul plays the “blame game”. He shifts responsibility for his disobedience from himself to the people. Consider the word OBE-DIE-NCE. The three middle letters spell DIE. Saul has spared the King of the Flesh! Many a time we boast that we have conquered smoking, or bad language, etc. but there is a secret sin... a king of the flesh that we still nurture and harbor :-(  Maybe it is pornography, a secret affair, or something else! You know what it is. Samuel calls for Agag, and then personally flays him to death. What is the lesson for us to learn here? We must utterly destroy the flesh! The Bible says, “Give no place to the devil.”

Further, Saul tells Samuel, “the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord YOUR God.” Whoa! Whose God? He ought to have said “our” God, but he has backslidden so far that he now worships a god formed in his own image. The use of the pronoun “your” implicitly implies they now worship different gods!

The next morning, David shouts out to Saul from a hilltop and tells him what happened the previous night and how he spared the King‟s life. Saul is ashamed and makes a stunning threefold confession. He says in 1 Sam 26:21:

1. I have sinned
2. I have played the fool
3. I have erred exceedingly!

What a tragic three fold confession for one to make – one who had such a wonderful start in life. Do not be envious of people who seem to have it all, or „have it all together‟!

Then there is a final battle against the arch-enemies of Israel, the Philistines. There is no word from God for Saul. In desperation, he goes to consult a witch, How are the mighty fallen! How far had Saul backslidden. In one day in battle, Saul‟s three sons (including Jonathan) are slain, and he loses the battle. Saul falls on his own sword, committing suicide.

What a wonderful start in life, but what a sad, tragic, awful ending! :-(

Now let us look at the 2nd Saul... he is introduced to us in Acts 7:58 where he is consenting to the death of the 1st ever New Testament martyr, Stephen. Even though he had been casting Christians into prison, something happened to Saul when he saw a Christian die! It had to have „rocked his boat‟. He then obtained letters from the Priests and authorities to go to Damascus to apprehend and cast Believers there also into prison. But, on the road to Damascus, Saul (of Tarsus) was struck down by the power of God. He then asks a crucial question... “Who art Thou Lord?” Keep in mind, the only “God” that Saul knew and worshiped was Yahweh or Jehovah. Yet the answer he
hears is: “I am JESUS, whom you persecute.” (Share that with any Jehovah‟s Witnesses you might come across!) Now Saul (Paul) receives true spiritual sight, but he gets up physically blind.

About Stephen... Acts 6:15 says his face shone like the face of an angel! I believe God put some "Shekinah" on his face as he testified to the plan of Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ! And Stephen said...I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Twice Stephen makes this statement... that he sees Jesus standing! Why? In Scripture we read that the Lord Jesus, after He finished His propitiatory work on Calvary, said, “It is finished” and He is now seated at the right hand of His Father. Why then does Stephen see Him standing? I believe He chose to stand up to receive and embrace Stephen as he entered into the portals of heaven! “Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!”

Remember, Saul of Tarsus received his learning at the feet of the learned and respected scholar Gamaliel, but he received his Salvation with his face in the dust at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ! No wonder he said, I count it all (his education and intelligence) but dung, for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus! Saul arose blind. Jesus told him to “go to Damascus to the house of a man named Simon, who lived in a street called “Straight”. And hear this – from that day forward, he kept going Straight :-) As Josh 1:7 says, “Turn neither to the right nor to the left, but keep straight on.”

Three days of blindness and introspection, and God sends Ananias to lays hands on Saul (now Paul the Apostle). The scales fall off his eyes. Watch the life of Paul now... his bad beginning keeps on turning into a better and better ending :-) He can see. He was changed from a raging lion into a meek lamb! Now, wherever he went, he let the chips fly, he invited trouble, brought revival, preached the Word, was stoned, jailed, bitten by a snake, put in stocks, lashed, shipwrecked, but through it all he said, “I glory in tribulation!” What a changed man. He was basically saying to the Devil, “Bring it on. Do your worst, for... “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain!”

Paul‟s last instructions to his young protégé, Timothy were: “preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season, redeem the time, make full proof of your ministry, let no man despise your youth!” History tells us that the mighty Apostle Paul was beheaded for his faith at the guillotine by decree of the cruel Roman Emperor. He writes 13 epistles in all (excluding Hebrews, author unknown). His last epistle is 2nd Timothy, and last chapter is Chapter 4. In 2 Tim 4:6 Paul says, “I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand.” Then, in verse 7, Paul makes an astounding three-fold confession, at the very end of his earthly pilgrimage. He says:

1. I have fought a good fight
2. I have finished my course
3. I have kept the faith.

Why does he say this? Remember, the 1st Saul made a terrible three fold confession shortly before he died? Look at the stark contrast between the two men. Paul says I have finished my course. It is not the one who starts the race, but he who finishes the race that wins the prize! And why “I have kept the faith?”

Because the 1st Saul did not... he descended to the point of visiting a witch!

Then the Apostle Paul adds a powerful Post Script as it were... he follows up in verse 8 by saying... “Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all those who love His appearing!”