Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 16. 1 Samuel chapter 16, verse 1. And the Lord said unto
Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul? See, and I have rejected
him from reigning over Israel. Now here we've got another question
that God asks a man. And as we've seen in the series,
God asks a question of a man, not for information, but to convict
and convince the man of sin. And that's what we have here.
In almost each case, that's the case. Now, Samuel was mourning
for Saul, but God had rejected Saul from being king. And the
Lord said to Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing
I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Now Samuel, like
Saul, he was the prophet that the Lord had used to anoint
Saul. Samuel was the prophet God used
to anoint Saul, and Saul was the first king of Israel. And
Saul had credentials to be a king. If you looked at him outwardly,
he looked like a kingly man. He was head and shoulders above
everybody. He came from the tribe of Benjamin.
He came from a good family. had great military skill, he
looked like a king. But Saul disobeyed God's commandment
and God rejected him from being king. He rejected him. This to
Samuel is like having a beloved brother who ends up being a castaway. who turns out to be false. I
mean, it was a serious thing to Samuel. I'm saying that not
to make lightly of his mourning the death of... I mean, the rejection
of Saul. Back in 1 Samuel 15, 11, it said
it grieved Samuel. And he cried unto the Lord all
night. But by the time we come to our
text now, a lot of time has passed. A lot of time has passed and
Samuel is still mourning for this rejected king. And God here
is going to turn him from this ungodly king and He is going to send him to
anoint a new king, to lay hold of God's chosen king, the new
king that God has chosen and provided. What we see in this passage is
we see a man being turned from a king that has sinned against
God and been rejected by God, and this man being turned from
that king to God's king. And the passage is dealing here
with the first time that David, King David, is anointed. That's
what God sent Samuel to do, to anoint King David. But what I
want you to see here is God turns His child from walking by carnal
sight and He keeps us worshiping God in spirit and in truth through
faith in Christ our King. He turns us from looking at the
outward and putting our confidence in the outward and in the carnal,
using carnal sight. and He turns us from our carnal
sight to give us a spiritual sight and make us to worship
Christ our King. Now first of all, when we walk
by sight, when you and I walk by sight, by natural sight, by
carnal reason, by sentimental attachment to a friend or what
have you, I'm just going to stop. Let's let everybody come in.
We'll start back in a minute. It's alright. I'm having one of those mornings
myself, Art. I need to concentrate, so I'm
going to wait until everybody gets in here. We're in 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16.
And the Lord has Verse 1, The Lord said to Samuel,
How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected
him from reigning over Israel? So what we have here is because
of an outward appearance, because of a natural affection, because
of a sentimental attachment, Samuel was mourning over Saul. And God didn't rebuke him at
first, but this turned into a sinful thing and He's turning him now
and sending Him to anoint King David. And what we see in this
is God turns His child from walking by carnal sight. And He turns
us and He gives us a spiritual discernment and He draws us to
Christ and He causes us to worship Christ. And He keeps doing this. He keeps doing this. Now, first
of all, now here's our first point. When we walk by sight,
when we walk by natural sight, by sentimental attachment, By
using carnal judgment, it's going to cause us to choose what God
has rejected. He said there in verse 1, How
long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from
reigning over Israel? While dead in our sins, that's
all we did. We only walked by carnal sight
when we were dead in our sins. We walked only by carnal sight.
And all we chose was the outward, the fleshly, that which appeared
something to us by the outward appearance. That's what we looked
on. And we had no spiritual discernment because we were natural. We were
just born of Adam, corrupt, depraved, deceived of Adam. Paul said,
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
their foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they
are spiritually discerned. That's all we could see. But
sadly, after God has created us anew and given us a spiritual
discernment and a new heart that He's given, sadly, we still turn
and look at things with carnal sight and look at the outward
appearance. And we find ourselves walking by sight rather than
by faith. You realize at this point Samuel
is an aged believer. He's not a young man. He's at
the end of his ministry. He's not publicly ministering
hardly any at this point. He's at the end of it. And God
had told him years before. Here's a man who's served years
and years faithfully under God. And God had told him years before
what kind of king the people would end up with if the people
chose the king rather than God. Look back at 1 Samuel 8. Verse
9, he says, to Samuel. The people wanted
a king. They rejected Samuel, they rejected
his word, and they wanted to choose a king like the other
nations had. And that's the only reason. They
looked on the outward appearance, they saw what other nations,
how they had a king. Christ was their king, but they
wanted a king like the nations had. So listen to what God said,
verse 9. He tells Samuel, and therefore
hearken to their voice. Howbeit yet protest solemnly
unto them. This is a solemn thing. Show
them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel
told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of
him a king. And he said, this will be the
manner of the king that shall reign over you. Now this is if
men choose the king. Because we're going to look at
the outward. We're going to look at carnal sight. And he said here, here's
what kind of king you'll be. He'll take your sons and he'll
appoint them for himself for his chariots and to be his horsemen. He's going to use your children
to pull his chariots and use them as slave men. And some shall
run before His chariots. Look down at verse 14. And He'll
take your fields and your vineyards and your olive yards, even the
best of them, and give them to His servants. He's going to rip
you off. You choose by a sentimental attachment
rather than the Word of God and you're going to find yourself
under a false prophet and He'll rip you off. You choose a king
of your making or a salvation of your making and you're going
to find yourself robbed and spoiled and ruined. That's what He's
saying. Verse 17, He'll take the tenth of your sheep and you
shall be His servants. And God said, you'll cry out
in that day because of your king which you shall have chosen you
and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Now brethren, that's
a picture of a man trying to choose his way to God and trying
to choose who's going to have dominion over him and who's going
to rule over him. By them choosing their king,
that was like them saying, we'll reign ourselves. We'll have dominion
ourselves. We're not going to have God reign
over us. We're not going to have Christ reign over us. So God
gave them Saul, but Saul deceived Samuel. He deceived Samuel. Samuel had grown fond of him
and he had a natural attachment to Saul. Just like we do for
our flesh. Just like we do for fleshly things.
Just like we had an attachment to our fleshly religion and our
fleshly discernment and our works and all of those things and all
our former companions. All these things that would leave
us totally ruined and without God. And that's why a believer
can be We see here he can be in faith a long time. Samuel
had been in faith a long time. And he found him now walking
by sight rather than faith. And far too often we look at
our sins and we do the same thing. Don't we? We look at the outward. A believer, we look at our sins
and we begin to doubt if we're even a child of God or not. We're
looking at the outward. Or we do something we should
have done that was our reasonable service to do and we get so proud
and self-righteous just like we did something. Looking at
the outward. Just like they picked that king
because of the outward. We make choices sometimes that
we know is not the will of God according to the will of God
in His Word. We know it. And we do it with
our eyes wide open. Our sinful flesh is our soul.
Our sinful flesh is our Saul. We choose our sinful flesh. When
we're dead, that's all we chose. And the works of our flesh. But
as believers, we still have that old Saul with us. And we choose
him and we know it's wrong. Paul said, The good that I would,
I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. That's just the life of a believer.
And a man who doesn't understand this don't understand that he's
a sinner. Believers think that some folks
that claim to believe think they've gotten past this, that this is
a new believer who hadn't learned yet to have the dominion over
his sin. This is the Apostle Paul who
said, Oh wretched man that I am right now while I'm writing this. He was an AIDS believer too.
But thanks be to God, he said there, he let them choose Saul.
And he said, there's going to come a day when you're going
to cry out to me and I'm not going to hear you. But now here's
Samuel. He's crying and he's mourning
for Saul. He's grieving for Saul. And yet
God came to him and He's going to turn him. Because Samuel belongs
to God. Samuel is one of God's elect.
And so He's going to turn him by His grace, by the blood of
Christ and by the sovereign hand of God, and He's going to say
this, I've rejected him from reigning over you. He's going
to tell you, He's going to come to you, He's going to teach you
in your heart, turn in your flesh, I've rejected him from reigning
over you. Sin shall not have dominion over you. You are not
under the law, but under grace. And God has to come to us and
teach us that. I have rejected you. I have rejected
your flesh. I have rejected your works. I
have rejected your king. And I am not going to let him
reign over you. Sin shall not have the dominion over you. You
are not under the law, you are under grace. That is the first
thing we see. God is going to turn His children.
He is going to turn us because that way we would choose would
cause us to mourn and leave us totally ruined. Now secondly,
our Heavenly Father is going to pour in the oil of His Spirit
and take the reign over His child. When He begins this work and
continues this work and He has to chasten us and turn us all
over again, He is going to pour in the oil of His Spirit and
He is going to turn His child. Look what He said to Samuel,
verse 1. Fill thine horn with oil and go. I'll send thee to
Jesse the Bethlehemite for I've provided me a king among his
sons. Now this was oil that Samuel
was to use to anoint the new king. That's what it was. And
he had this horn, this little vessel and he was pouring this
oil in this little vessel and he was going to take it and anoint
this king that God had chosen. Consecrate this king God had
consecrated. But what you see here is what
God does to His people. God has to pour that oil in.
That horn represents power. And it's just a vessel, but it
represents power. It's a horn. And God has created
a new man in these vessels, a flesh right here. And He's going to
pour in the oil of the Spirit in that vessel. in that new man. And He's going to make you hear
Him. And He's going to make you obey Him by His grace. And when
He does that, He's going to tell you, fill thine horn with oil
and go. And He's going to speak it effectually.
And when He tells you to fill your horn with oil, He's sending
you to His Word. He's sending you to His Gospel.
He's sending you where you can receive that ministering from
God above. He says, you fill your horn with
oil and go. Go. God's provided a King. He tells them, I've provided
a king, I'll send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite. I've provided
me a king from among his sons. And that's who God provided.
Christ Jesus the Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, our King, King
Jesus, is of the house of Jesse. According to the flesh, He's
the son of Jesse. That's who He is. You know who Jesse is? Remember Obed and Ruth? The kinsman, Redeemer and Ruth,
Jesse, is their son. And you go down David, you go
all the way down a line, and you got Christ the King. David
was a type of Christ the King. Now He's going to make all His
people in His kingdom righteous in Him. Christ has done that. Just like David was a good king,
David was a man after God's own heart. And He ruled His kingdom
with righteousness and judgment. And that's the kind of king Jesus
is. He came down to this world and went to the cross so that
He could satisfy divine judgment and establish judgment in the
earth. And He's going to establish it
in the heart of His children too. And we're going to hear
Him and follow Him. But our flesh, as believers,
lusts against the Spirit, don't it? If it's the first hour He's
put a new Spirit in you, that flesh is going to lust after
the Spirit. And if you're an old believer, been in the faith
a long time, kept by God a long time, and that flesh is trying
to rear its ugly head, that flesh is going to lust against the
Spirit. Look at what Samuel said, verse 2. Samuel said, How can
I go? If Saul hear it, he'll kill me.
Is that not an example of what we do when we walk by carnal
sight? When we reason according to the flesh, is that not exactly
what we do? When we look on the outward appearance, this is the
Lord of hosts. This is the Lord of heaven and
earth speaking to Samuel. This is God Almighty speaking
to Samuel. And He's saying, now go to the
house of Jesse, I've provided a king there. How many times do you hear the
Lord speak to you and you're getting carried away in all different
things and your jobs and your children and family and all the
different things are taking up your time and your attention
and you're walking by sight, walking according to the flesh
and you hear God speak in your heart, in your conscience and
He's saying, Get to my house. Get to the house I've chosen.
Get to the king I've chosen. Get where you can hear my son
preached. And you have that flesh rearing
up against the Spirit saying, how can I go? I can't pull away
from this. I'll die if I don't have this.
I'll die if I don't have this. I'll die if I go to Jesse's house. Samuel had a legitimate fear.
Saul was powerful. If Saul found out about this,
Samuel was a dead man. He had a legitimate fear. Well,
you got a legitimate fear too. I've got a legitimate fear too.
Is there anybody here that's afraid that the law will condemn
you if you attempt to come to God? That's what's going to happen
in the beginning. You're going to find out the
law is saying you're condemned. And when you reason by the flesh,
it makes you afraid to come to God because you're afraid that
law is going to condemn you. I can't go. I'll be killed if
I try to go. And you see your sin like you've
never seen your sin before, and you see it, and when you're trying
to reason by your flesh, you're saying, it's too much to go to
God. He won't receive me. You have
a legitimate fear. You and I have no power against
any of our enemies. But the greatest enemy we face
and the one that will surely kill us and the one we don't
have any power over is that lust of that flesh, that carnal sight
that wants to be more wise than God and say, no, I can't do it. I can't do it. I need to do it
this way. I need to do it my way. Isn't that our depravity? We think our way is better than
God's way? By nature? And there's only one way we can
come to God safely. There's just one way. Look at
verse 2. Look at verse 2. One way we can
come to God safely. See there after He says, He'll
kill me? Here's the one way we can come to God safely. The Lord
said. That's the only way you can come
to God safely, is by obeying God's Word. That's the only way. That's the only way you can come
safely, is by obeying God's Word. And somebody will say, alright
then, tell me what God's Word is, tell me what work it is I
need to work, and I'll get to work so I can come to God. Somebody
asked Christ that one time, when He walked this earth, Then said
they unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works
of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom
He hath sent. If we're going to come to God,
we're going to have to obey God's Word and come God's way, believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. God says we'll be safe and He
says we'll be secure if we come through faith in the one sacrifice
that God commands we come in. God says you'll be safe, no harm
will come to you, though you be the greatest sinner that walked
the face of this earth. No harm will come to you if you
come in the one sacrifice God commands we come with. Look here
in verse 2. He said, take a heifer with thee
and say I've come to sacrifice to the Lord. Who is this sacrifice? Turn over to Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 13. I read some commentaries and they spent that whole... everything
they had to say about verse 2 was that they just couldn't believe
God was telling Samuel to lie. or to deceive by saying He was
just coming to offer a sacrifice. And that's not by accident. That's
looking with carnal side. That's looking at the outward.
That's looking at just what seems to be on the surface here. Who's
this heifer? He was going to offer a sacrifice.
He wasn't lying. He had to when he went there
to do this, to do this work for God. And you and I got to come
with a sacrifice. Who is this sacrifice? Look at
Hebrews 9.13. if the blood of bulls and of
goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies
to the purifying of the flesh. That was back there in that old
covenant. That law, the Red Heifer, the Lord put so many laws out
that you could not turn one way or another. You couldn't take
a sip of water. You couldn't walk without walking over a grave.
Anything you did, you were defiled and you had to be purged. You
had to be purified. Nothing you could do. There were
so many laws. You go back and read it. If a
little gnat fell in your water and you didn't even know it was
there, you were defiled. If you were walking and you didn't even
know that anybody had ever been buried there on that plot of
land, and you walked across it not even knowing that there was
a grave there, you were defiled. Every law there, you were defiled,
you were defiled, you were defiled, and the purpose of it was to
show you no matter what you do, no matter where you go, no matter
what you say, you're defiled. And the only way that they could
be cleansed was, God said, take a heifer, a red heifer, and kill
it. And mingle its blood and its
ashes and sprinkle it on the people. That's the only way they
could be cleansed. Well, God says right here, if
that's sanctified just to the flesh as a ceremony and as a
symbol, as a type, look at this, verse 14. How much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? It doesn't matter if you're coming
to God for the first time or if you're Samuel who's been in
the faith a long time and God's turning you from an enemy. God
will not have the enemies reign over you. He's got a safe way
for His people to come. And that way is in Christ. We come in Christ at the beginning
and we don't ever stop coming in Christ. We come to God through
the faith in Christ, the only way. And God told Samuel when
he took the sacrifice that God commanded. Go back now to our
text. He said, now when you take this
sacrifice that I'm commanded, Then he was to take this sacrifice
and call the king's father to the sacrifice. Look at it, verse
3. He says you go there, he says
you bring that sacrifice and call Jesse to the sacrifice. That's the father of the king
that God chose. You call the father of the king
I've chose to the sacrifice. And I'll show you what you shall
do, and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee."
He's saying there, this is the picture, you come believe it
on Christ, and as you do, you call on God, the Father of King
Jesus, and God promises He'll meet a repentant sinner in that
one sacrifice, Christ Jesus. You see it? He said, you take
this sacrifice and you go. And when you get there, you call
Jesse to the sacrifice. God says, you come to Me in Christ,
and you call on Me, and I'll meet you in that sacrifice right
there. Why? Because there's one God,
and there's one mediator between God and men. There you got the
Father, and there you got Samuel, and there in the middle you got
that sacrifice. He said, you call the Father, He'll meet you
right there in that sacrifice. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. There's no other way.
He said, I'll meet with my people over the mercy seat. Christ is
that mercy seat. The propitiation God provided
for His people. So Samuel obeyed God and when
God speaks affectionately in the heart, that's what you do.
You obey Him. You come and you obey Him and that's always the
result. So Jesse and his sons came to
the sacrifice. They come to the sacrifice. Now
here's the third thing I want you to see. And when they got
there to that sacrifice, then God teaches Samuel the problem
that caused his mourning and his reluctance, and this is our
problem right here. When they got to that sacrifice,
God taught him what his problem was all along. And this is what
our problem is all along right here. Verse 6. It came to pass
when they were come that he looked on a liab. That's the first boy
that came out. Big old boy, tall, rugged, probably
bigger than Saul. Strong. And this looked like
somebody that, oh, this would make a fine king right here.
And he looked on alive and Samuel said, Surely the Lord's anointed
is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel,
Now here's the lesson. 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. You see, we've
got to be taught of God not to look on the outward appearance.
We've got to be taught of God that man looks on the outward
appearance. It's God who looks on the heart. God looks on the heart. He doesn't
look on the outward appearance. He looks on the heart. The Pharisee,
the legalist, the lawmonger, the worldly man, He looks on
the outward appearance. And He judges if a man is righteous
by the outward appearance. That's what He's looking on,
outward appearance. And a man judges himself to be righteous
looking on the outward appearance, if he's a Pharisee. That's what
He's looking on, to determine if God will receive him. And
this is what Christ said about that. He said, the Lord said,
now you Pharisees may clean the outside of the cup and the platter,
but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Brethren,
we were Pharisees while we were dead in our sin. We are Saul
the Pharisee in our flesh. King Saul the Pharisee in our
flesh. And we reigned and we ruled and our old fleshly man
is still a Pharisee. And that's why when we're dead
in our sins, we saw Christ like the Pharisees saw Christ. We
saw Christ like Samuel would see David if it wasn't for God's
grace. We saw Christ like the Pharisees
saw Christ when we were dead in our sins. He had no form nor
comeliness that when we should see Him, there's no beauty in
Him that we should desire. Nothing about the Gospel seemed
of any beauty to us. a bloody cross, a man that appeared
like he was just a man and men overcame him and took him and
nailed him up on a cross and he died. What's all the big deal
about all this blood? That offends me. Blood offends
me. I don't see anything beautiful in that. That was our heart when
we were Pharisees because we looked on the outward. We had
no idea what God was doing. We had no idea what He was doing.
We loved our touch knot and our taste knot and our handle knot,
and that's nothing less than choosing an ungodly saw to reign
over us. That's all it is. And too often,
sadly, we still do that. So God has to give us a new heart,
He has to turn us, He has to give us a spiritual understanding,
He has to speak affectionately in our heart and draw us to Christ. So Samuel passed by all these
big strong boys that Jesse had, all these kingly looking sons,
Until that, they last, finally they called David out of the
sheep fold. He was out there tending sheep
out in the pasture. And they called David. And David
comes in and now when you read this, you're going to say, well,
he appeared beautiful. Well, that ain't what you wanted a
king to look like. You wanted a king to be strong and big and
masculine and kingly. David's a little scrawny fellow.
that is pretty. Look here. It's verse 12. And he sent and brought him in.
He was ruddy, that means red, with a little of a beautiful
countenance. He probably had porcelain skin
and red hair and was a beautiful countenance, goodly to look to. That's why when he came up against
Goliath, Goliath looked at him and said, who have y'all sent
out here to take me on? This little pretty little boy
y'all brought out here to take me on? See, there was nothing
about this king that would make anybody desire him to be their
king. And he's a picture of Christ
in that. There's nothing about Christ that makes a natural man
desire him. But look at this. And the Lord
said, Arise, anoint him. This is he. This is the one.
And when God spoke it, Samuel took the horn of oil, and He
anointed him in the midst of his brethren, and the Spirit
of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. And so Samuel
rose up and went to Ramah. That's what God calls a sinner
to do when He calls us by His grace and His power. He calls
us to agree with God. God says, this is my King right
here that I've chosen. And God calls you to say, and
that's my King I've chosen too. And He makes you choose Him.
He makes you say, yes Lord, He'll be my King too. I see the beauty
in Him just like God sees the beauty in Him. Me and God are
in agreement on His Son being my King and God's King. He is
the King God chose to be my King and we're in full agreement.
He's a good King, a righteous King. And we submit to this King
from then on and we rejoice in this King in Christ Jesus and
we worship Him in spirit, with spiritual discernment. and we
don't have any more confidence in our flesh, in our carnal sight
anymore. He alone served God with a perfectly
holy heart and he accomplished the redemption of his people
and everybody that truly fears him rests in Christ alone. Listen to this now. And we got
to be constantly turned just like Samuel was. Because we're
going to have this flesh with us from this day on, but we're
going to have to be turned to Christ. And this is what Scripture
says. He delighteth not in the strength
of the horse. God's not looking for your strength,
what you can do and accomplish. He taketh no pleasure in the
legs of a man. God's not interested in how you
can run and what all you can accomplish. The Lord taketh pleasure
in them that fear Him. That's the heart. That's the
heart. That's a holy heart that fears
Him. Remember when Moses hid his face afraid to look on God?
Because he saw God as holy, His holiness. And his heart had been
sanctified. God takes pleasure in them that
fear Him and in those that hope in His mercy, in His grace. Aren't
you thankful God wouldn't let you choose the King you would
have chosen? Aren't you thankful He brought
you to King Jesus and made you choose Him? Now you fear Him
and you delight in Him and all your hope is His mercy freely
given in Christ. That's all you hope. Alright,
let's stand together. Our Lord God, we need You to
make us worship. We need you to turn our minds
and our hearts from every carnal sight and thought. We got our
kings and we got our opposition and our way that we think is
better. Lord, we need you to subdue that
old fleshly man, put him down and show us Christ. Make us come
to Christ. Make us come with the one sacrifice
you'll receive, Christ the Lord. Lord, we pray now You do this
work in the heart of some sinner here and we pray You draw him
to Christ. Pray Lord that You take Your people You've already
drawn and draw us again. Turn us again. And Lord, don't
ever stop. Just for Christ's sake, for His
glory, for the glory of Your King, we ask You don't ever stop
drawing us to Christ. make everything else to seem
insignificant to us and draw us to Him alone. We ask it, Lord,
for Your namesake, for Your glory, for Your honor, all manifest
in the person of Your dear Son, our great King, our King of kings
and Lord of lords. It's in His precious, glorious
name that we ask these things. Amen.