Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you would, please be turning
to 1 Samuel 16. I've got 2 Samuel there, but
it is 1 Samuel that we're in. 1 Samuel 16. And I'm going to start reading
in verses 6. Verses 6 through... Let me just start in verse 6
and I'll stop where I stop. Verse 6. And it came to pass
when they were come that he looked on Eliab and said, surely the
Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel,
look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature,
because I have refused him, for the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Then Jesse called
Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, neither
hath the Lord chosen this. Then Jesse made Shammah to pass
by. And he said, neither hath the
Lord chosen this. Again, Jesse made seven of his
sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, the
Lord hath not chosen these. And Samuel said unto Jesse, are
here Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth
yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel
said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down
till he come hither. And he sent and brought him in. Rudy and with all of a beautiful
countenance and a goodly and goodly to look to and the Lord
said arise Anoint him for this is he My title is the Lord's anointed This world, this flesh will always
attempt to do that which it thinks it can do for God. And we're
going back to Saul and what he did in the previous chapter.
God is clear in his word and very specific on how he says
to do things or how things are done. Yet we by nature want to
try and add in our hand to the mix. God told Saul through Samuel
to kill everything and not leave anything alive. That included
women and children. And this is with the Amalekites.
This is the God of scripture. He kills and he makes alive.
Whomever he is pleased to. If you are against the God of
heaven, God will destroy you. But Saul and the people of Israel
thought they would do something for God in chapter 15. Why Saul
only took the king alive and no one else, I'm not real sure,
other than rebellion. Maybe it was so that Saul could
gloat over the victory God brought as if it were his by having this
king serve him, I don't know. When Samuel comes, he has to
go and tell Samuel that he had done what God told him to do.
It was a lie. Samuel knew it because God had
already told him. First Samuel 15, 13 and 14 we
read, and Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed
be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
Verse 14, and Samuel said, what meaneth then this bleeding of
the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? You did not go into the battle
with these animals and you should not have come out with any animals.
God said to destroy everything of the Amalekites. Be careful
when you want the rest of what the world wants. You may just
be a part of this world. Saul thought he knew better than
God. Religious people today do this very thing. I, left to myself,
will do this very same thing. This flesh will deceive us into
thinking that we can work a God righteousness when all our works
are filthy rags in his sight. We read in 1 Samuel 15 in verse
one where Samuel tells Saul that God has sent him to anoint Saul
to be king of Israel. All he has to do is do what the
Lord commands him. And we already know that Saul
has disobeyed what God said to do previously. He's already disobeying
but God says all you have to do is obey what he says. And
I think back on all the scriptures how many times the Lord was gracious
to his people even though they disobeyed him. God was kind to
them. Remember when the people of Israel
were complaining to Moses and Moses got mad and struck the
rock twice? God still gave them water. Many
times did the people of God complain and God continued to bless them
with what they needed. But then we get to, they get
to Canaan and the spies were sent out. 10 came back with an
evil report and two came back with a good report. God had already
told them that he would defeat their enemies. The people would
then do what? They listened to the majority. The majority will never believe
God. Small does not mean you are right,
but believing God is what is right. God has chosen a remnant,
so those who do believe will be a small number. We can see
that in Joshua and Caleb. Joshua, we have seen before,
as he is a picture of Christ, Joshua gives a good report. But
who else? Caleb. Who is Caleb? A dog. Caleb means dog. Christ and all those who are
his dogs will give a good report. All of mankind are dogs, but
some dogs sit at the master's table eating what the master
is pleased to give them from his hand. In chapter 15, we see
Saul giving assent to what God says by going forth to conquer. But he does it his way and not
God's way. Saul was told to go against the
Amalekites and destroy everything there. Nothing was to be left
breathing. This included men, women, and
children. God said there was not anything
worth keeping there. I know this is severe, but that
is who God is. There is nothing a fallen sinful
man that pleases God. Everything where the Amalekites
were was the works of man. Saul wanted a little piece of
it himself. He thought he could do something
to help God out. No, he desired or thought what
God said was not good enough and he knew how to do things
and thought that it would be good enough before a thrice holy
God, the works of his hands. In fact, I see this as Saul thinking
he was great. As I said, I think maybe he wanted
to gloat over the victory as if he had done it and he had
this king right before him doing as Saul was commanding him to
do things. When Saul and his armies got back, Samuel come
to meet him. He tried to butter Samuel up,
but Samuel was not having it. He had already been told by God
that Saul did not do what he was commanded to do. But Saul
says to Samuel, blessed be thou of the Lord. I've done everything
I was supposed to is what he told Samuel. And as I said, that
was a lie. And Samuel knows it. And what
does he say again? And Samuel said, what meaneth
this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the
oxen which I hear? There are sounds coming from
what you have done that would indicate you are not giving glory
and honor to God. Because there should not be any
sounds coming from you at all from what you have done. God
did it all and you are trying to ascend the throne of God as
we all do by nature. But we get to chapter 16 and
we see God choosing his anointed. So what we're going to see here
is God's elect. So we're going to go through
this morning the following. We will briefly look at the chosen
people of God. Then we will look at the elect
of God. So first, the chosen people of
God. As we have seen, there are many who will give lip service
to God, but they will not do things God's way. They will not
give all the glory to God. They want to glory in their flesh
just a little, but God does not share his glory. We see here
in chapter 16 an instance or example of God choosing one of
his. This is not a type. Here God actually shows that
he is choosing a man for his purposes. Let's read verses 1
through 3 of 1 Samuel 16, verses 1 through 3. And the Lord said
unto Samuel, how long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have
rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with
oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for
I have provided me a king among his sons. And Samuel said, how
can I go? If Saul hear it, he will kill
me. And the Lord said, take an heifer with thee and say, I am
come to sacrifice to the Lord. And call Jesse to the sacrifice,
and I will show thee what thou shalt do. And thou shalt anoint
unto me him whom I name unto thee." God tells Samuel where to go.
And where is it that he has him to go? the place of sacrifice. It is the place designated that
everyone at that time and in that place knew to go for sacrifice. Is this not the place where the
local assembly meets? Do we not meet to give God the
sacrifice of our tongue or our lips, giving him praise, honor,
and glory for all that he hath done? But we also see here that
God will tell Samuel what to do going forward. Samuel does
not know who the chosen one would be and neither do we. God does
not inform us ahead of time who the elect are. Those chosen in
Christ from before the foundation of the world. Now let's read
verses four through seven of 16. Four through seven. And Samuel
did that which the Lord spake and came to Bethlehem and the
elders of the town trembled at his coming and said, Comest thou
peaceably? And he said, Peaceably, I am
come to sacrifice unto the Lord. Sanctify yourselves, and come
with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his
sons, and called them to the sacrifice. And it came to pass,
when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely
the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel,
look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature,
because I have refused him, for the Lord seeth not as man seeth,
for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh
on the heart. We can see here God's elect and
those elect being identified by God. Samuel, when he begins
to see the first son come before him, he looks on his outward
countenance. God tells him that this is all
we can do is look on the outward countenance. We have no idea
who the elect of God are before they are revealed. God does not
look on the outward countenance. God knows what is in our heart.
He knows as we are born in Adam, we are born with that heart of
stone which cannot believe God. He looks on the inward parts
and knows them that he gives unto them a heart of flesh or
a living heart. He knows those ones that he does
this for. One that is after God's own heart.
Salvation is a heart work, but it's not a heart work where God
works on that old heart to fix it up. What does Christ say in
John 3, 6? That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. That
old heart we have as we're born in Adam will never look to Christ,
although it will make us think we do. We will be a soul and think we're
doing God a favor in keeping the best of the worst to give
to God. Jeremiah 17, 9, very familiar
to everyone. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? God does not
want our heart. He does not and will not fix
up this old man. This old man is the old heart. When it talks about the heart
in scripture, it's talking about the seed of affection and thoughts.
There's nothing God wants with this old man. How this happens
and how this is done is not known to man. The only thing that is
known to us is that God does it. Psalm 51 5 says, behold,
I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. This old heart will never believe God and God will never
change this heart. It will in fact go back to the
dust if you were a child of God. How many of us are born of the
flesh? Every single one of us. And every
single individual who has ever been born into this world is
born of the flesh. Everything brings forth of its
own kind. We are fallen, sinful, dead in
trespasses and in sin, flesh. All we bring forth is that, dead
flesh. God in his wise design has been
pleased that he would give to us. By us, I mean the chosen
of God, the elect. He tells us he is pleased to
give us a new heart, one that is fleshy, or that is a living
heart, not a hard stone heart which will never believe. And
what does that mean? It means God is in total sovereign
control. We, if we are ever to be able
to do anything toward God at all, it will be Him who has to
perform a miracle on me. He will have to do this before
I can ever turn to Him. Those who are His, He will manifest
openly who they are. How is this manifested? They
believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified. They believe
that Jesus Christ, that one spoken of in times past, that one spoken
of in the present, and that one which will be spoken of in the
future. Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. These are born
of God, the scripture says. But these are not the only elect
ones. We also see here in our text
the elect of God. He is the firstborn among many
brethren, the book says. He was chosen among all his brethren
as the anointed of God, through whom all other chosen of him
come to God. He is the first fruit. So number
two, the elect of God. Isaiah 42, one reads, behold
my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. God has one
that he has chosen to anoint as king over his people. That
one is Jesus Christ. He is the keeper of the sheep.
What does John say in John 1 15? It says, John bear witness of
him and cried saying, this was he of whom I spake. He that cometh
after me is preferred before me for he was before me. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ
is God manifest in the flesh. He is preferred before me because
he was before me. Although he also is the one that
cometh after John. Jesus Christ is all things to
his people. It is in this one elect that
God the Father has chosen all of his people. Had the Son not
been chosen, there would not be any elect for Matthew. If you would turn with me to
Matthew 12, real quick, Matthew 12. Matthew 12, verses 15 through
18. Matthew 12. 15 through 18. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew
himself from thence, and great multitudes followed him, and
he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make
him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the
prophet, saying, behold, my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved,
in whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him,
and he will show judgment to the Gentiles. It is in and because of this
chosen one that we would even be considered. We being given
to the son because of the victory that he would bring. The king,
God the father, would give the king the son, give the king the
son a bride. Ephesians 1, 3, and 4 we read,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Anything holy, just, and good
you can think of as a believer, Jesus Christ gets all the credit
for it because he has done it all. If he does not get the credit,
it is one of two things. It is either the work that is
done and it's not holy, just, or good, or you are robbing God,
one of the two. Now just to be clear, you will
never take anything away from God. You do not have the power. But when you try to take credit
for anything that God does, you are robbing God. God chose us
in Christ from before the foundation of the world. This was based
on what Christ would do to secure his bride. This is that one who
would have to go defeat the great enemy. There is that enemy Satan,
but that enemy is also the one that defies the armies of God.
That one is this flesh of mine. We see in 1 Samuel 17 that there
were Some on one side with this great
warrior and there are some who are arrayed in battle. They are
ready to fight for their religious beliefs. The problem is they
are on the wrong side. They are on the side of the one
where David says here in 1 Samuel 17, those that defy the armies
of the living God, who are they? They are enemies. Romans 5.10
says, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. In Colossians 1.21 we read, and
you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. Those who are his, those chosen,
the elect of God, were just as those on the other side. We were
enemies in our mind against God and our works manifested forth
this array of war, if you will, against God. But God has never
been angry against his people. Not because they have done good,
but because his son has done good. But not only that, he has
done for them something they could not do themselves. He defeated
all the enemies who would defy God and his armies, including
my flesh and your flesh if you were one of his. He did this
in a way that no one else would have done or could have done.
We see it here in 1 Samuel 17. I did a message on this before
too. That David did, he did it with
shepherd's tools. He had a sling and he had some
stones, five to be exact, smooth stones. It took one to defeat
the enemy. But we can even see that God's
people, the ones on the side of David and those who are his
brethren will at one time deride and mock. One of David's brothers
was angry with him for coming to the battle in verses 28 of
1 Samuel 17, verse 28. And Eliab, his eldest brother,
heard when he spake unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled
against David. And he said, why camest thou
down hither? And with whom hast thou left
those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness
of thine heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest
see the battle. Why have you come down here?
I see this really as us before God has opened our eyes and us
being okay with God being somewhere that we cannot see him in controlling
all of that. That was a little bit convoluted,
I believe. But for him to be in control and a part of everything
right where I am in the battle, I will not have this man reign
over this. This is what I see as that brother getting mad,
is us not wanting this Lord to reign over us. And then 1 Samuel
17 29 we read, and David said, what have I now done? Is there
not a cause? What happens now? David begins
to show his brethren why he has come down. He is the anointed
one by God and he will carry out that which is needed to secure
his people from the enemy. David had to come down to win
the battle. He made sure the sheep were cared
for when he came down to the battle. Only because of David,
or that is Jesus Christ, only because of what he has done can
we then begin to pursue the enemy. As I said previously, Jesus Christ
is the first fruit among his brethren. First Corinthians 15,
19 through 22, we read, if in this life only we have hope in
Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ
risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that
slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. Jesus Christ has risen
and because he has risen and we are chosen in him, we are
raised in him or with him. Our life is in Jesus Christ.
We as the elect of God will be made manifest one day if we have
not already, as some of us here have been, but we will be made
manifest by him coming to us in power. Power in giving us
life from the dead and then sending his gospel to us that we might
believe. Causing us to give him all the
praise, honor, and glory. This life, even though we will
die one day laying this flesh down, but we will also, as it
says there in 1 Corinthians 15, we'll be made alive in Christ. It never changes. Christ is our
life and always will be our life. This world, those of this world,
are all about doing what they want, even while they name the
name of Jesus. They will always and continually
think they know better than God. Their works will manifest that
they do not know God. They are dogs. Those who are
gods are those who by His grace have been chosen in the elect,
the Son of God. Jesus Christ, the firstborn among
many brethren, chosen of the Father. Brethren chosen in Christ,
these are all dogs as well, but they are His dogs. Those who
will look to Him when He comes to them in love to let them know
who He is and what He's done. chosen in Christ, not by anything
that they have done, only in who he is and what he has done. Had God not chosen them, there
would be none. God bethanked the son was loved
so much that he was promised a bride, one who would be clean
and white through what he would do. God's elect being chosen
in Christ have no merit of their own. It is all because of Him. We have to say just as it does
in Scripture, and I'll end with this, Ephesians 1 and 6, it says,
to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved.