First Samuel chapter 11, amazingly
I was thinking of the Beatitudes. That's what our
brother just read. Blessed are the poor, blessed
are the meek. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you. I was thinking about that. I was thinking about our text
tonight. And how different it is studying
the book of 1 Samuel than what we're used to studying. And for
some reason the Beatitudes popped into my mind and said, this ain't
the Beatitude. This is not the Lord standing there telling us
who he is. That he's the one that blesses
sinners. And this is what they'll look like when he blesses them.
This is, it reads like a history book, but we know it's not a
history book. revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but rather
than the Lord from his own mouth telling us who he is and who
he blesses and why, he shows us in his providence. This could
happen to anybody. But we find out who the Lord
Jesus Christ is, how he deals with sinners, how he works. Is
it strange to say what his personality is? I don't think there's anything
wrong with that, is there? We're finding out who he is.
in these different ways. This chapter as I said is very
different from what our brother just read. But you'll see the
Lord Jesus, I believe if the Lord is pleased to show him to
us tonight. And there's a lot in this chapter.
Let's read it together and then it's just 15 verses so I think
we'll go ahead and read it because I want to kind of get an idea
in our mind of the overall scope of it. Then Nahash the Ammonite
came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead. Now the Ammonites
are the enemies of Israel here. Those who dwelt in Jabesh Gilead,
all the men of Jabesh, it says here, this is part of the nation
of Israel that had separated itself from the rest of the nation
to some extent. And that's a That's part of the
history of Israel that we'll have to get into for another
time. But they were somewhat cut off from the rest of the
camp of Israel. And there's an enemy encamping
against them. And the men of Jeribash said
unto Nahash, make a covenant with us and we will serve thee.
They're fixing to get attacked and they see that. And they're
saying, well, you know, we don't have to be enemies. Let's make
a covenant. We will serve thee. It doesn't
mean that we're going to be your slaves necessarily. It means
that we'll pay tribute to you. We'll kind of, you know, fall
under your flag and pay tribute to you. And we'll have an agreement
here if you, you know, will be agreed to peace here. And Nahash
the Ammonite answered them on this condition while I make a
covenant with you that I may thrust out all your right eyes
and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. And the elders of
Jabesh said unto him give us seven days respite that we might
send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel. So this is
the Jabesh The leader of Israel here, of this part, his advisors are telling him,
we need to buy some time here. We need to get some help. They never even addressed the
offer that the Ammonites made, and for good reason. We'll talk
about that. That we may send messengers into all the coast
of Israel, then if there be no man to save us, we'll come out
to thee. Then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul and told the
tidings in the ears of the people and all the people lifted up
their voices and wept. And behold Saul came after the
herd out of the field. He's back in his father's fields
being a cowboy or whatever he was before because there was
really no pressing. He's king but there was no pressing
issue at the time and that was common then for the judge or
whoever to just kind of go about other business when there wasn't
any kingly business to be done. So he's out in the field and
Saul said, and we've seen already too that Saul was reluctant to
even be king. He was hiding when they were
trying to pronounce him king. And so that's part of it I'm
sure too. He's saying why is everybody crying? What aileth
thee that the people weep? And they told him the tidings
of the men of Jabesh. And the Spirit of God came upon
Saul when he heard those tidings. And his anger was kindled greatly.
Now this is the Spirit of God fixing to do something now. The
Spirit of God came upon him. Saul is hiding out in his daddy's
fields. He don't even want to be king.
But now God is fixing to do something. And look at it. And he took a
yoke of oxen and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout
all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying,
Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall
it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the Lord fell
on the people, and they came out with one consent. And when
he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were 300,000,
and the men of Judah 30,000. And they said unto the messengers
that came, Thus shall you say unto the men of Jabesh-Gilead,
Tomorrow, by that time the sun be hot, you shall have help. And the messengers came and showed
it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. I bet they were.
Therefore the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out unto
you, and you shall do with us all that seemeth good unto you.
And it was so on the morrow that Saul put the people in three
companies, and they came into the midst of the host in the
morning lodge, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And
it came to pass that they which remained were scattered, so that
two of them were not left together. And the people said unto Samuel,
Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? Bring the men,
that we may put them to death. And Saul said, There shall not
a man be put to death this day, for today the Lord hath brought
salvation. in Israel it's amazing what happens
when God gets involved in it and you know I say that God's
always involved but then Samuel said to the people
come and let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there and
all the people went to Gilgal and there they made Saul king
before the Lord in Gilgal and there they sacrificed sacrifices
of peace offerings before the Lord And there saw that all the
men of Israel rejoiced greatly. So part of the nation of Israel
is threatened by the Ammonites and sought to make a covenant
with them. And here's the condition, the sad condition that God's
people, the earthly nation of Israel, a picture of his elect,
were in at this time. They wanted to make a covenant
with the enemies of God. How's that going to work out?
You know, the God's people paying tribute to a heathen king. The
people of God can never make a covenant with the enemies of
God. There's no communion between Christ and Bilal, light and darkness. Our Lord was very clear about
that with his disciples. We have nothing in common with
this world. You can't make peace with this world. He said, I didn't
come to send peace, but a sword. And that's always going to be
there. The offer of the Ammonites is
a mockery and an insult. I don't think they expected them
to let them gouge their right eyes out. You reckon? They were
insulting them. This was a matter of not just
losing your right eye. That's bad enough just on the
face of it. No pun intended. But what that
meant was they would never be a threat anymore to the Ammonites. You can't aim a bow. You can't
do anything with one eye. As far as being able to perform
to defend themselves or to be a threat to the Ammonites anymore. Any compromise in this world
by those who claim to be the people of God, and I say claim
to be because these people were in a sad condition. I don't know
how many of these were God's elect. There's a remnant in all
of Israel, I suppose. But any compromise with this
world by those who claim to be the people of God will come at
unthinkable cost. When I read that about these
Ammonites demanding, you know, here's our terms, we'll gouge
your right eye out. And then you can pay tribute
to us and we won't kill all of you. Most of you were probably
thinking, no way. That's not fixing to happen. Nobody's gouging
my right eye out. Remember that when this world
tries to get you to compromise with this world. Remember that. Remember when this world causes
you to compromise the faith of Christ. They will if they can.
And they're subtle about it. This world hates your God. And
they detect. You're not going to go around
spouting off about it, I'm sure. As God gives us opportunity,
we'll witness for Him. But it don't take long for people
to figure out what you're about. If you're a true believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they'll test you. They'll
try to get you to compromise that. I'm telling you. You know
that if you're a believer. Think about what those Ammonites
demanded when this world does that to you. And you know what
you're going to say? It's the same thing you said to Matt when I
read that. No way. Temporary pleasure, entertainment,
and even a protection of sorts. The world will take care of its
own. But it means I belong to you and not God? No way. It means
I'll be at your mercy and not God's? No way. Let's remember that. And then
reading this chapter, you'd be hard-pressed to find a whole
lot of fault with Saul, wouldn't you, in this chapter? Boy, there's
no mention in this chapter of how Saul is the result of the
Israelites rejecting God as King. There's no real evidence that
he pictures in this chapter the will of the flesh and the strength
of the flesh and how that could never be a success. There is
success here. however temporary and uncharacteristic
of the rest of Saul's life. And that's true to teach us an
important lesson. Remember that Saul is the picture
of the failure of the flesh, the disaster that is the will
of man. But also remember that God's
true elect is among these Israelites. Remember that God said to Samuel
in chapter 9 verse 15 Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear
a day before Saul came saying here's what God said to his prophet
Sam Tomorrow about this time I will send thee a man out of
the land of Benjamin And thou shalt anoint him to be captain
over my people Israel that he may save my people out of the
hand of the Philistines For I have looked upon my people Because
their cry is come unto me Think about that for a second.
Was anybody crying to God in the context of that? They had
rejected God as their king. They're not thinking about God.
They're thinking about being like everybody else and having
a king that can lead them into battle, an earthly king. They're
going forth in the strength of the flesh and in the will of
the flesh. They're not crying for God. Somebody
was. Somebody was. God said, I've
heard their cry. You know who he's talking about? That remnant,
according to the election of grace. Somebody was saying, what
in the world are we doing? What are we doing? Think with
me now. In that verse, is the Lord talking
about the cry of the people for a king? No, that's not what he's
talking about. Or was there a remnant? As we
see in the book of Isaiah, we've studied all through there, just
about every chapter, the remnant is mentioned, the gleaming grapes,
the remnant according to the election
of God's grace, there always was and always will be among
the earthly nation of Israel. Was there that remnant who like
Samuel? When the people came to Samuel and said, give us a
king, it grieved him, didn't it? He said, no, we're not going
to do the thing God told him. Do what they say. God had purposed
it, God allowed it. But Samuel was saying this ain't
right. Was he the only one saying that? Apparently not. You know
there was a remnant there that were saying, with Samuel, this
ain't right. Samuel's preaching the gospel.
He's telling them about Christ and how all these things picture
God's Lamb, God's Son, God's Mediator, God's Christ. And some
are hearing. Most of the nation was completely
out of sorts with God, but not all, never all. And God's hearing
the cry of those few that are saying with Samuel, what are
we doing? What are we thinking? What are
we getting ourselves into? No, this is not right. We can't
reject God as our King. He's taken care of us since the
Red Sea. He's taken care of us since Passover
night. Since before we were born, he
was watching out for us. We can't do that. Think about it now with me. When
the people cried for a king because they rejected God as king, Samuel
was displeased with that. And he told the Lord, this is,
you know, but the Lord told Samuel, go ahead and oblige them. Because
God is providentially going to show his people the difference
between having their own will in the matter of the ruling of
them and bowing to God's true king, the man after God's own
heart. He's going to show them the difference
now. It's going to take a while. It's going to be years in the
future before they see it. But we can see it now. And you'll
recall that God told Samuel, when you do acquiesce to their
will, give them a solemn warning in that solemn warning Samuel no
doubt he's warning them and of course he told them he also said
tell them what kind of king they're going to get he's going to be
all about himself he's going to take all your men your women
and his servants are going to have servants because he's going
to be such a big shot in his own eyes and he's going to need
a huge entourage and he's going to all the gold is going to be
here he's going to tax you and he's just going to He's going
to be a terrible king. But also, he said, give them
a solemn warning. And I believe there was more
to that than just telling them what a bad king Saul is going
to be. No doubt, he told the people
how wrong and dangerous and self-destructive it is to refuse the rule, the
sovereignty of God. To reject God. And how do you
think that remnant, according to the election of God's grace,
received that solemn warning? We have the answer in 1 Samuel
9 there where we read, they cried to God. They said, what in the
world? What are we doing? No! God is our King and they
cried to God. Samuel wasn't preaching in vain.
There was a handful. that heard what he said and that
heeded that solemn order. They cried out to God. The nation
as a whole wasn't crying out to God. They were going their
own way. But God said, I've heard the
cry amidst all of that noise of give us a king and we'll do
what we want and we'll have our way. And we know what's best.
God heard the cry of his sheep. He always does. When they heard Samuel's solemn
warning they cried in their hearts and later perhaps on their beds
they cried to God that he would bless them in spite of the will
and the wickedness of the people of their own nation. Likely some of the same ones
that we saw in chapter 2 verse 16 that were willing to be defrauded
themselves that were willing to be robbed as long as God and
his Christ were honored in the sacrifice. You remember those
fellas? likely the same ones that are crying out to God in
this disaster that the nation is going through now. Have you ever done that? We're part of a great nation
in a lot of ways. I'm very proud to be part of
this country, but I'm also very sad to be part of this country. Have you ever cried out to God
for your countrymen. Paul did that as a patriot. God made us Americans. I'm glad
he did. But there's a lot to grieve over
too, isn't there? Do you suppose, do you imagine
that when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that
it was legal to murder little babies by the thousands, by the
tens of thousands, by no doubt millions, do you reckon there
was any of God's true elect Crying out to God. And still over that. Crying out to God. I'm not talking
about walking around carrying signs with disgusting pictures
on them. I despise that. Or idiots that
make a public nuisance of themselves in the name of God. I'm talking
about God's true love in their closets where he told us to pray.
Getting down on their knees before God and saying, God have mercy
on us. We are wretched and vile. And
we need your mercy. Whenever our nation does anything
stupid, like the nation of Israel is doing here, may we get on
our knees before God and ask for his mercy. And so the Lord
told Samuel in secret that people are rejecting me as their sovereign,
just like they always have as a nation. But I'm going to give
them a man. And we know now why. But even during a not so great
time in the history of God's people, his earthly nation, God
heard the cry of his true spiritual Israel, his elect, and he kept
them safe. He used Saul to protect them
from their enemies. In spite of Saul, in spite of
the majority of their countrymen, he heard their cry, and he sent
his spirit upon Saul. to do God's bidding, not Saul's. And this is a beautiful, beautiful
manifestation of that, just a beautiful thing to see. As I said, this
is not the Beatitudes, this is not the Son of God opening his
mouth and teaching doctrine, beautiful, wonderful, glorious.
Doctrine, the hope of sinners, blessed, God's Son came down
here, and instead of Waving his hand and killing all of us and
putting us in hell in one stroke like he ought to have done. The
first word that we read out of his mouth is what? Blessed. Blessed
are sinners. Blessed of God are those that
mourn over their sin. Blessed are the meek. Blessed
are those who submit to God's rule. Unlike these Israelites
here. And we see in this history of
Israel, we see that same God, that same King Jesus revealing
himself in a very different way that just is wonderful. There's another picture here.
We must remember that we aren't any better than any of the other
fools in this country who reject God as King. We still have that
heart of flesh in us that rejects Christ. And the lesson here in
this chapter also is that when we, God's sheep, his chosen,
when we do things in the flesh, when we make idiots of ourselves
and we exert our will instead of submitting to God, he's gonna
take care of us anyway. He's gonna send his spirit down
here anyway in spite of us and work out things for our good
anyway. He's gonna protect us from our enemies anyway. He's not going to let our enemies
win just because we're too stupid to see straight. He's not going
to forsake us even when we forsake him. That's not how he loves. God's
love in Christ is unconditional. God's love does not give, he
does not give or withhold his love and love is action now,
it's not just a feeling. First Corinthians 13, love is
what it does and what it doesn't do. That's how you define it.
And God does and does not do what he, how he deals with us
how he does because he loves us. And he don't give or withhold
his love to his people based on their behavior or worthiness
or lack thereof. Aren't you glad? Oh, we see that
here. The precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ has washed us from it. Even the sin that we have
not committed yet. We're going to be stupid yet,
aren't we? We're going to be idiots tomorrow. But he's already
washed it away. When our flesh acts, in other
words, when we sin against our God, we may or may not suffer
temporal consequences of that. God may well chastise us for
it as his children. He certainly will at times. if
we are his children, but even in that, even though we sin against
him daily, hourly, moment by moment, we at the same time enjoy
his tender mercy, his providential grace for us in spite of us.
We at the same time have his divine protection. He at the same time is working
all things for our good while we're rejecting him and rebelling
against him and showing just how messed up we are. And the
reason for that is found in the context where it says all things
work together for good to them that love God. Listen to it,
Romans 8, 28. Why is God taking, why is God,
why didn't He just let the Ammonites come in and just wipe all of
them out? Well, here's the thing about that. We know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. Who loves
God? Those who are the called according
to His purpose. Somebody crying to God. Somebody
was crying to God 6,000, I don't know how many thousand years
ago, and somebody crying to God tonight, too. Somebody doesn't
give a hoot about God and is exerting their own will, even
after their own will, and ruling their own lives, they think,
somebody's crying to God. For whom he did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. This is what's
working for our good. God loved us before there was
an us. David said, In your book all
my members were written before they even were. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, in them He also called, and whom He called,
in them He also justified, and whom He justified. Then he also
glorified. What shall we say then to these
things if God before us, and he obviously is. Obviously everything
is going to work for our good. Has been before we were even
born. Who can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that said, he's unchargeable. It's God that said, I find no
fault with him. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. That's why God justifies. Because
we're sinless, washed clean in the precious blood of his son.
Yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand
of God who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ. What we see in our text is all
things working together for the good of those that loved God
then. And we see that in action. It's
not just words on a page. It's not just something that
we agree with. We've lived it. We get to live it. That's what
they were doing then and we're living it tonight. It's beautiful doctrine. Don't
get me wrong. It's true doctrine and glorious
doctrine. We do agree with it. We do rejoice
in it. Our hope is steadfast in the
Word of God. But we also live in that right
now. We're enjoying His good providence
for us in everything that happens. Oh no, here come the Ammonites.
Look like God's forgot us. No He hadn't. No He hadn't. You see it in your life in action.
We get to live this every moment. You know how it's amazing to
me how the Apostle Paul characterized our life in a lot of ways, but
this one is remarkable and I think of it often. Think about this.
Paul said this. This is the way Paul described
what we're talking about. The fact that everything just
comes up roses for his people. That Christ is all. Christ is not, he's so all that
the way Paul describes our life as believers is this, to live
is Christ. Can you think of a better way
to describe your life than him? John called himself the disciple
whom Jesus loved. To live is Christ. Think about that scripture for
a minute. He's all to such an infinite extent that the best
way to describe for me to live is Christ. And then after that
it just gets better. For me to live now in this world
is Christ. And this is what it looks like. Blessed in spite of us. Think
about this. The nation as a whole, as we've
said, clearly wasn't crying to God. You're not talking about
Israel. They're going their own way.
They've rejected God as King, and they're going to suffer some
consequences for it. They said in verse 3, listen
to this. These ones in Jabesh Gilead, what did they say? When
the threat came, did they cry out to God? Were they crying
out to God? No. They said, let's send messengers
out to see if there will be any man to save us. That's where they were. And the Lord says, don't put
your trust in man whose breath is in his nostrils. Don't trust
a man who may take another breath and may not at my discretion,
God said. Don't trust him. Somebody was crying to God as
we saw it. I'm going to say that over and
over because that's That's God. Remember why God told Elijah
that 7,000, I believe it was, haven't bowed their knee to Baal?
Because I've reserved them unto myself. They're a remnant according
to the fact that they had better sense than everybody else. No,
according to the choosing of God's grace. That's the difference. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God heard their cry. Reckon how
many are crying to God tonight in this nation? If it ain't but one, God hears
it. If it ain't but one, if it ain't
but a hundred, if it ain't but five hundred in a nation of what,
350 million now? Not to mention the rest of the
world. There are not very many crying.
to the Lord today, but God hears them over the roar of the godlessness
and the just grotesque, isn't it? I know every generation says,
boy, it wasn't this bad when I was young. Everybody says that,
and it probably was. But doesn't it seem like it's
just grotesque? The savage evil, just blatant,
open, disgusting evil. If a sinner can be disgusted
by it, that's pretty disgusting. God's still hearing the cry of
his sheep though. Just a couple more lessons from
our text. Remember in the last verse of
the previous chapter, verse 27 of chapter 10, it says, but the
children of Bilal, they're having a big party for Saul, even though
Saul didn't much want to even be there. They had to drag him
into the square to even be part of it. But they had a big fee,
everybody brought him gifts. It was conspicuous that there
was a group of people that didn't bring him any gifts. And Saul
noticed it too. But listen, it says, the children
of Belal said, how shall this man save us? And they despised
him and brought him no presents. But he held his peace. He held
his peace. This is interesting. You remember
the last time we saw this characterization. The Sons or Children of Belal
was in Chapter 2. The sons of Eli, it says in verse
12 of chapter 2, were sons of Balaal. They knew not the Lord. And we saw in the context there
that these two Hophni and Phinehas had corrupted the priesthood,
they defiled the sacrifice, they turned the worship of God into
a despicable thing. So that the actual people of
God who wanted to worship God through Christ in these pictures
and types, hated to even come to the worship. And now here
we have this again, the children of Belal, the children of the
devil. And this is interesting now, because even though Saul
was a disaster, and we're going to see that, and even though
God ultimately rejected him as king, and God only allowed him
to be king for a time to show them the difference between man's
rule and God's rule, he was God's anointed king for those 40 years.
And in that, he pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. We learn this
same lesson from David later. So these sons of Belal, even
though Saul pictures man's rejection of God as king, God anointed
Saul as king. And so these sons of Belal were
wrong. They were wicked to speak against
him. We learn this same lesson later
from David. Let me read you 1 Samuel 24 verse
1. When Saul is pursuing King, already anointed King David,
but not ascended to the throne of Israel yet, to kill him. Listen to what it says, and it
came to pass when Saul was returned from following the Philistines,
he had to go away from pursuing to kill David to take care of
some business as king, you know, fighting off the enemies, the
Philistines. But when he returned from that, it was told him, saying,
Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took 3,000
chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his
men upon the rocks of the wild goats. They're hiding out in
some tough terrain. And he came to the sheep coats,
by the way, and there was a cave. And Saul went in to cover his
feet, take a little nap. And David and his men remained
in the sides of the cave. They happened to be in that same
cave. Now you listen to this, verse
four. And the men of David said unto him, Behold, the day of
which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine
enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall
seem good unto thee. God has delivered Saul right
to your doorstep. Now it's time to kill him. Let's
get this over with. He'll be king and we'll all be
happy. Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe
privately. And it came to pass afterward
that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's
skirt. Not only did he not kill him, all he did was take some
proof that he was able to kill him if he had wanted to. And
he regretted that. Look at him. Listen to him. And
he said unto his men, his heart smote him because he had cut
off Saul's skirt. And he said unto his men, the
Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the
Lord's anointed. Saul? You got respect for that
wretch? Yes, because he pictures the
Son of God. All authority given by God is
under Christ. God just has one King. And everybody
else with any authority, that comes from God. It's a picture
of His Son's throne. This is the Lord's anointing.
David said, God forbid that I do anything against Him. to stretch
forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of
the Lord. So David stayed his servants
with these words. Not only did David reject the
notion, but they said, all right, if you're not going to do it,
we're going to do it. He said, no, you're not. You're not going to touch him.
And suffered them not to rise against Saul, but Saul rose up
out of the cave and went on his way. You see, there's the man
after God's own heart. Even though Saul was a wretch,
David knew God anointed him as king. We're not going to speak
against him, but these sons of Belal did. The very reason Saul
was in that cave was he was chasing David trying to kill him, but
God had indeed anointed Saul as king, and though David had
also been anointed at that time, David was content to wait for
God's good time to put him on the throne. Just as our great
King, the Lord Jesus Christ, was anointed of the Father long
before He ever ascended the throne as a man. He came from the throne. He is the eternal King. But as
a man, as me, He ascended the throne long after He was anointed. And He had to suffer many things
before He would reign in glory as a man. And here's the key.
He submitted to His Father's will in that. The rightful king of glory, and
yet he suffered. He became of no reputation because
his father sent him to do that very thing. And to be obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And he willingly bowed
and submitted. These children of Bilal, they're
a great contrast to that. But David's a picture of that.
We're going to see contrast all through this between man's authority
and God's authority. God's king. that sat on His holy
hill, that may God give us grace to always submit to the will
of our Heavenly Father. He taught us to pray what? Thy
will be done, down here on earth. Thy will be done in my house,
as it is in heaven itself. Is that your honest prayer before
God? Thy kingdom come, hallowed be thy name. Thy will be done,
not mine. May we indeed learn to pray from
him and pray that way. Even when, especially when, we
don't understand his providential dealings with us. So these sons
of Bilal, they sound a lot like those who always rejected the
Lord Jesus. That's what they're doing. Saul
represents God's King. And there ain't but one of those.
And a lot of pictures of him. He was anointed, and the word
anointed means Christ. And so he represents Christ in
that role. And the sons of Belial have always
been rejecting the Savior. They said in his day, when he
walked this earth himself, that's what they said. We will not have
this man to reign over us. That's what they said in our
text. How did he get to be king? It says in verse 27 of chapter
10 of 1 Samuel, the expression of the rebellion of the children
of Belial was what? How did they express their rebellion?
They said, how can this man save us? That's what they said about
our Savior when he was on the cross. He saved others. Himself he cannot save. They're
not saying he saved others. They're saying that mockingly.
They're saying he supposedly saved others. He can't even save
himself. He didn't save nobody. The thief hurled it in his face,
he said, if you be the Christ, save thyself and us, mockingly. And a superscription was written
over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew, this is
the king of the Jews. They mocked him as king, as ruler.
How is he going to save anybody? He can't even save himself. And
the malefactor, one of the malefactors, which were hanging railed on
him saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us. How is he going to save us? Look
at him. Nailed to a cross, bleeding knife, naked before everybody.
And these are the same religious Jews. Now, what are they called
in our text? The sons of Belial? Remember what the Lord Jesus
called them when he walked this earth? Your children of the devil.
Same words. He said, if God were your father,
you would love me for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither
came I up myself, but he sent me. God anointed, Saul didn't
come of himself. God anointed him, kid. You bow.
You bow. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear my word, you are of your
father, the devil, your children of Belial. The lusts of your father you
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father
of it. And because I tell you the truth, and here's the crux
of it, you believe me not." That's the whole problem. Rejection
of God as their authority. And so when God raised up a king,
these children of Balaam didn't want nothing to do with him.
So this rejection of Saul, it's not a matter of politics. It's
a question of submitting to Christ or not submitting to Christ.
Remember that whatever else Saul pictures, will of the flesh,
strength of the flesh, as God's anointed king, he pictures Christ.
Because there ain't but one true anointed Christ of God who sits
on the throne. And I know it can seem confusing. Saul pictures the flesh, the
will of man, rebellion against God's king, but he also pictures
God's true king, the Lord Jesus. If we can just remember in that
one respect, as David called him, the Lord's anointed. That word means Christ. Saul
is to be acknowledged because ultimately God just has one king. And the government is on the
shoulders of God's son. And so whoever God gives lesser
authority to is to be honored with that in mind. They rule under the ruler. So
these sons of Bilal, they despise God's authority. And look at
verses 12 and 13 in our text. Well, you'll remember when I
refer to it. Saul hit the nail on the head there, didn't he?
They said, the people are saying, where are those ones that said,
How is he going to save us? Where are those ones that said
he's not going to be our king? He can be your king. Where are
those sons of Bilal? Let's kill them. But Saul said nobody is going
to die today. The Lord hath wrought a great
salvation today. Saul hit the nail on the head
with that one, didn't he? The spirit of the Lord was upon
him. However, temporarily, It doesn't mean God saved him, but
God was using him. You'll notice before Saul did
anything good, he's out herding donkeys again, I guess, or whatever,
until the Spirit of the Lord come upon him. And then what
did he do? He became jealous over the people
of Israel. He was incensed that somebody
would attack some of God's people. The day before that, he didn't
seem concerned about it, but there's an enemy? This is the
same spirit that was in David, but savingly in David, and in
a much greater measure than in David, no question. When David
said, who is this Philistine against the army of God? We come
in the name of the Lord. And so the spirit of the Lord
was upon him, and he was jealous over God's people. He was incensed that anyone would
threaten him and our God says of all his elect it would be
better for a millstone to be tied around your neck, you'd
be cast in the sea, then you'd hurt one of my children. That's the
spirit that came over Saul. Wait a minute, this ain't gonna
stand. Now the way Saul motivated the
people, it's impossible not to see the flesh again in that.
Because he slaughtered some oxen and stayed out and threatened
loss. And that's religion, that's again,
that's the will of man. Only the religion of man manipulates
people by threats and bribes. And so as we've mentioned, the
Spirit of the Lord coming on Saul doesn't mean that Saul was
saved. It doesn't change who he was in the sense of his core
character. Manipulated some of the things
that Saul did and clearly some of the things that he said. He
gave glory to God here. But it just means that God is
using him here to save his people. That's what he said he was going
to do. To save them from their enemies. I've heard their cry. Man though, you might be thinking,
man, would God use evil to save his people? Look at Calvary.
Of course he would. He always has done that. Man, the... The greatest wickedness
that man ever perpetrated was to spit on and beat and scourge
and mock and murder the Son of God. But they did whatsoever
God's hand and counsel had determined before to be done. That's what
Saul's doing too. That's what Saul's doing. Whatever
God's hand and counsel had determined before to be done up to and including
the protection of God's remnant from their enemies. So, but when the Spirit of the
Lord came upon Saul, he was jealous over the people of God. And when
the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, he forgave even those who
had despised and rejected him. They're not going to die. That's
okay. They didn't bring me nothing. They've been talking bad about
me. They don't want me ruling over them. That's fine. We're
not going to kill them. We're going to rejoice in the
salvation of God, in the mercy of God. There shall not a man
be put to death this day, for today the Lord hath wrought salvation
in Israel. And finally, as we see in that
same verse, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, the
Lord Jesus Christ got all the glory. May His Spirit be upon us, not
just to manipulate a rebel an unrepentant rebel. But may he break us and put us
at his feet, cause us to bow. May he unlock the one thief who
mocked him as king and said, if you're the Christ, save somebody.
You're the Savior, save somebody. But there was one who knew who
he was. I said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. You're my king if you're not his. He's everybody's king in a sense.
But have you bowed to him as the king of salvation, the king
of glory? The Lord Jesus got all the glory
that day. They went and offered sacrifice.
We read later, peace offering. and rejoiced in the salvation
that God had wrought that day. Is that what we're doing tonight?
I sure hope so. Isn't it wonderful to see where our brother read,
to see the Lord Jesus himself teaching us who he is and how
he blesses even the rich and makes them meek and makes them
poor in spirit and promises to give them the very glory of heaven. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then he shows us just in
this history lesson that couldn't happen to anybody. You change
the names and this is the kind of stuff that happens now among
nations. That's the Lord revealing who
he is in a different way. Just as wonderful. He's sovereign. He's ruling all of this for the
good of his sheep. Like he rules everything for
the good of his sheep. And he'll use kings and paupers.
No matter how ungodly they are, in spite of themselves, they
won't even know what they're doing. But what they do will
be a blessing to the sheep of God because of God's true, one,
and holy sovereign. May we go from here rejoicing
in Him and giving Him all the glory in His precious name. Amen. Let's pray together. Our great
God and Savior, thank you for this chapter in your word.