I'd like to say in way of introduction
tonight, I ask you, isn't it just amazing how in these Old
Testament studies, we can learn such a great deal about our sinful
selves and our almighty, holy God. No exception with our study
tonight. No exception at all. Go ahead and turn with me to
1 Samuel 8. And while you're turning there,
let me ask you a question. It's a simple question. Who is
your king? Is he the king of your choosing? Or is he the king of God's choosing? It's a life or death confession. In our last study of 1 Samuel
8, seems like so long ago, I titled that message, Be Careful What
You Ask For. Israel wanted a king. God said,
I am your king. I'll take care of you. I'll do
for you what no one else can do for you. But they wanted an
earthly king anyway. And God gives them one. You know,
the best request that a child of God can make to the Lord in
prayer would be, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. You
know, the Lord Jesus, when He suffered for the sins of His
people in the Mount of Olives, His request to His Father was,
Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me. And then that
beautiful word, nevertheless, regardless, not my will. but thine be done." God's will
is never the last, but it's always best. The Apostle Paul told us
in Philippians chapter four, verse six, that we should be
careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving, let our request be known unto God. However, when
we make our requests known unto God our Father, we should always
add, nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. It'd be wise
for us to understand that we don't know what is best for us.
We really don't. But God does. And that's the
teaching that we have before us tonight of Israel desiring
a king, even in spite of all God's warnings to them. Why won't
spiritually dead sinners trust and listen to the words of life?
Well, I can tell you why, because they're dead. They're spiritually
dead and they can't understand until God gives them life. I, along with many of you, have
learned that most of the time, if not every time, what we want
or think we need is not the best thing for us. Trusting Christ
as our advocate, our mediator, our savior, and our shepherd
is to trust Him to give us what is always best for us spiritually,
not physically, not worldly speaking. We should always lean completely
and trust totally on the Lord to deliver us from our will and
grant us to trust in His will. Don't you agree? That's the very
thing that Israel didn't do. Israel wanted a king regardless
of all the great warnings God through Samuel, his prophet,
gave them. Look at 1 Samuel 8, verse 11. We looked at this last time,
but let's, let scripture remind us here of what God told them
about this earthly king that they desired. And he said, God
through Samuel, This will be the manner of the king that shall
reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint
them for himself, for his chariots and to be his horsemen and some
shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains
over thousands and captains over fifties and will set them to
ear his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his instruments
of war and instruments of his chariots And He'll take your
daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And He'll take your fields, and
your vineyards, and your olive yards, even the best of them,
and give them to His servants. And He will take the 10th of
your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to His officers, and
to His servants. And He'll take your men's servants,
and your maid's servants, and your goodlyish young men, and
your asses, and He'll put them to His work. He'll take the 10th
of your sheep and you shall be his servants. And he shall cry
out in that day because you shall cry out in that day because of
your king, which you have chosen you. And the Lord will not hear
you in that day. Nevertheless, the people refused
to obey the voice of Samuel. And they refused to obey the
voice of God. God was speaking through his
prophet. And they said, nay, but we will have a king over
us, that we also may be like all the nations and that our
king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words
of the people and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord.
And the Lord said to Samuel, hearken unto their voice. and
make them a king, let them have their way. Give them what they
want. And the Lord said to Samuel,
hearken unto their voice, my. And Samuel said unto the men
of Israel, go ye every man unto his city. Now what the Lord is
saying in verse 22 is this, I'm gonna give you your will. I'm
going to let you have your way and I'm going to let you have
what you want. and most every child of God has
learned to pray through experience. Lord, don't give me what I want. Give me what you want. The king
that Israel wanted would not serve the people, the people
would serve him. It's the same with the king of
religion today. Who is the king of religion today?
Well, King Free Willy. from the tribe of works. That's
who religion today serves. And it will be to their condemnation. Now, if you would, hold your
place in 1 Samuel and turn quickly as you can with me to Romans
8, verse 1. I was going to just read these
verses to you, but I think it's good for us to see them in our
Bible. There's nothing wrong with making a mark in your Bible
if you want to. I tell you this, Romans 8 is
pretty marked up in mind. Romans chapter 8, verse 1. Those who are trusting in Christ
are told this. I'll give you a second to get
there. Romans 8, verse 1. It says, there is therefore now
no condemnation. To who? To them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that's
where it is, hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Now listen, for what the law, the obedience to God's commandments
could not do, in that it was what? Weak through the flesh. You see, that's the problem with
us. We're weak, we're dead. We can't
obey God's commandments, especially perfectly. So, What did God do
for us? God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. You see, with Christ as our King,
we're not condemned. With Christ as our King, our
sin is condemned. Now that's good news. That is
good news. Verse four, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit, for they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh. That is exactly what Israel was
doing. They wanted a king because everyone
else had one. I can remember when I was a young
boy, a popular toy would be out and I'd want it because everybody
else had one. But Paul goes on to say, but
they that are after the Spirit obey, they mind, they follow
the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally, fleshly minded
is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity. I've told you many times that
word means hostile. hostile against God, enmity against
God. For it is not subject, it's not
obedient to the law of God and neither indeed can be. So then,
because of this, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You're not gonna please God by
trying to offer a work of righteousness that you do. It's not by works
of righteousness that we do. You cannot please God that way.
But ye are not in the flesh. This is talking to believers,
those trusting in Christ. You're not in the flesh, but
in the spirit. If so, be that the spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of
his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And friends,
that's his righteousness. Okay, so with that said, I want
you to now look at 1 Samuel chapter nine with me. Would you please
go back to chapter eight and look at chapter nine. And it's
here that the Lord gives Israel what they wanted. You remember
what I asked you in the beginning? Who's your king? Who's your king? Is he the king of your choosing?
Or is he the king of God's choosing? God gave them a king as wrong
as it was, not to do them harm, but to teach them and us to desire
what God desires. In every instance that we disobey
the will of God, we bring his judgment upon ourselves. But
for his elect, God means it for good. Joseph's brothers did with
Joseph what they wanted to do. They wanted to throw him in that
pit. They hated him without a cause. And later Joseph himself told
them, but as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant
it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much
people alive. Genesis 50 verse 20. Now, Joseph
would have never been over the control of the food in this time
of famine if Joseph's brothers had not betrayed him. They didn't
do it for good. They did it out of evil. But
God did it for good. And God, as He always does, works
all things together for the good of them that love the Lord, those
who are the called according to His purpose. God didn't work
everything out for good to the whole world. but to those who
are the called, those who trust in his son, those who love his
son. Those in Israel who wanted this king, regardless of what
it would cost them, were merely the instruments of God's divine
providence. Though their obstinate will was
bent on disobeying God, to have their way, their evil, God. Minute for good. What a God,
what a God. 1 Samuel 9 begins with a description
of Saul, his heritage, his tribe, his willingness to obey his earthly
father, and his description is just glowing. Why, he was the
kind of man that Israel desired to have as king, but he was not
the man that God had chosen. Did you hear me? He was not the
man God chose. Verse one, now there was a man
of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of
Zeruah, the son of Bekorah, the son of Athia, a Benjamite, a
mighty man of power. And he had a son whose name was
Saul, a choice young man and a goodly. And there was not among
the children of Israel a goodlier person than he. From his shoulders
and upward, he was higher than any of the people." Now, as far
as worldly appeal, Saul fit the bill to a T. While he would be
a politician's He'd be a political sensation.
He was a choice man, meaning a young man. He was young, full
of vitality. He was goodly. That simply means
that he was handsome. It's not talking about his inward
actions. He was goodly. He was handsome.
No doubt he had a pleasing personality. He was well-liked, pleasant,
and agreeable. And not only was he tall, standing
head and shoulders above every other man in Israel, when he
was presented to Israel's king, he would be all that they could
ask for when it came to worldly qualifications. Young, tall,
handsome, sophisticated, cultured, self-competent, gentlemanly,
God often teaches us by letting us have what we want, only to
realize that it's not what we wanted at all. People in false
religion are goodly and moral people. They many times stand
morally and goodly head and shoulders above even true believers, sad
but true. Those who profess to know God
and yet trust in their goodly works seem to possess all the
qualifications of what we call a Christian. But just like those
on the day of judgment that profess to do many wonderful works in
the Lord's name, they called him Lord, Lord. The Lord will
declare to them, I never knew you. Salvation doesn't have anything
to do with what we supposedly and imaginatively do for God,
but 100% what God does for us in Christ. To Israel Saul would
be all they could ask for, the cat's pajamas, so to speak. But
in the overall sovereign providence of God, Saul is just a loose
link in the chain and a rusty cog in the machine of God's will
and purpose to set the king of kings on his holy heel. And as
we observe the life of Saul in our studies, future studies,
we'll see him under the frowning eye of God. And we'll see Saul
in contrast to David, the true king anointed for the good of
the people. And David pictured and typified
Christ, the king of all kings. As we read a moment ago in Romans
chapter eight, the flesh desires a king for one reason, while
the spirit desires the king for another reason altogether. And
our story this evening is again a story of providence. All our stories are. All the
stories are Scripture. History is His story. And the saying, it came to pass,
used so many times in the Scripture, just another way of saying, God
brought it all to pass. God often uses the most unlikely
of servants to bring to pass His will. Saul, Israel's future
king, will arrive at his appointment as king in the most unusual way. God put the act, now listen,
this is just how God does things, what seems to be most unlikely
and minute things. God put the act of escape in
the minds of a bunch of asses, donkeys. I don't know how God
can control anything and everything. It all belongs to Him. We could
rightly title this message, God Uses Jackasses to Accomplish
His Will. That's exactly what He did just
as He used Balaam's ass in Numbers chapter 22 to accomplish His
will. Look at verse three here in our
text. And the asses of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. And Kish said to Saul, his son,
take now one of the servants with thee and arise and go seek
the asses. Go find my lost donkeys. And
he passed through Mount Ephraim and passed through the land of
Shalishah. I believe that's how that's said.
I looked it up. I would say Shalisa, but I think
it's Shalishah. but they found them not. Then
they passed through the land of Shalem, and there the asses
were not. And he passed through the land
of the Benjamites, but they found them not. Saul is unable to find
that which was lost. They were found by someone else,
as we'll find out. Is that not a picture of the
false Christ? The failing savior that men today preach, does that
not picture a king who cannot do what he would? This is not
the king that God anointed. God's king never slumbers, sleeps,
nor fails. He's never discouraged. And friends
like Israel, those today who reject the Lord Jesus Christ
as their king, are gonna wind up with an incapable king. The
gathering of the lost will be left up to the people. That's
what false religion does. They save themselves and others
because they don't have King Jesus to rule over them. They'll invent means to bring
in the lost. Oh, I've seen so many changes
in my lifetime in religion. They just keep using means of
the world to try to save the lost. It's not the way it's done. And again, we're given a picture
and type of religion today. Saul had comeliness that he should
be desired. Oh, they looked at him and said,
boy, what a king he's gonna make. How wrong they were. But the
real king, David, would be a ruddy young lad. Why, his own earthly
father didn't even consider him to be candidate until God refused
all his other brothers and he said, do you have any other sons? And he said, we're just a little
ruddy shepherd boy. Go fetch him, go bring him. And
that's who God chose as king. Even Samuel the prophet would
have his doubts. And it's said of Christ in Isaiah
chapter 53, verse two, for he, the Lord, shall grow up before
him, God the Father, as a tender plant and as a root out of dry
ground. And he hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. Men and women by nature do not
see as God sees. Why? Because men look on the
outward appearance, but the Lord. Looks upon the heart, 1 Samuel
16, 7. And what a picture this is of
the false Jesus that men preach today. He cannot find or save
the lost, but he's dependent on others to do so. He's declared
as a Jesus whose only hands and feet are those of another. Why,
you know, you have to do this because you're Jesus's hands
and you're Jesus's feet. That's a lie. That is a lie. Paul told the church at Galatia,
I marvel that you're so soon removed from him, God, the father
that called you into the grace of Christ and to another gospel. That is another gospel. And I love what Paul says there,
which is not another. It's gotta be real to be another.
It's not real. But there are some that trouble
you and would pervert. the gospel of Christ. You know
what the word pervert means. Any gospel but the one declared
in the scriptures is a perversion. Any Christ preached but the Christ
of scriptures. Any king chosen or desired other
than the king of kings is not only another but a perversion
of the truth. The word perversion means an
alteration, a distortion, a corruption. of the truth, the one that was first intended. To preach another Jesus and another
gospel is nothing less than to pervert, alter, corrupt God's
holy, infallible, never-changing Word. Revelation 22, 18 says,
for I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the
prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things,
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book
of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are
written in this book. Friends, our good shepherd always
finds and saves his sheep. He said so himself. He said,
what man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,
doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go
after the one which is lost until he find it? And when he had found
it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he cometh
home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbors, saying
unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which
was lost." Luke 15, verses four through six. None, none, but
a sovereign savior will suffice. Is your king the king of king?
Is your king, King Jesus? If he's not, then you have no
true king. Look at verse five. And when
they were come to the land of Zuf, is the way that's pronounced,
Saul said to his servant that was with him, come and let us
return. Let's go home. Let's my father leave caring
for the asses and take thought of us. We don't want to worry
him about us that we might be lost to. And he, the servant
said unto Saul, behold now, There is in this city a man of God,
and he's an honorable man, and all that he saith cometh surely
to pass. Now let us go thither, peradventure
he can show us our way that we should go. Then said Saul to
his servant, but behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man?
For the bread is spent in our vessels, and there's not a present
to bring to the man of God. What have we? What do we have
that we can give this man for this information? And friends,
we have nothing to bring God. We are nothing, we have nothing,
and we can do nothing. But men will always find something
of their own to offer. Verse eight, and the servant
answered Saul and said, behold, now look at these words, behold,
I have here at hand. The fourth part of a shekel of
silver that I will give to the man of God to tell us our way. I have at hand. Isn't that what
Cain said? I'm bringing God my best. But God rejected it. It's got
to be blood. There's no remission without
the shedding of blood. God's way cannot be purchased
or bought. Salvation is of the Lord, it's
a free gift. But men today still offering
to work by their own hand, a gift from them to God, that God will
not accept. The hymn writer wrote, in my
hand no price I bring, simply to Christ I will cling. I don't
cling to the cross, a piece of wood. I cling to the Christ of
the cross. How about you? I wrote this down
today and didn't realize it till afterwards that it kind of rhymed,
but it says, I wrote, wood can shed no blood for me. God Almighty
cannot die. Man cannot atone for sin, but
Christ the God-man did all three. The Lord Jesus Christ who hung
upon the cross as God could not die and as a man, you and I cannot
atone for sin. But Christ, the God-man, he did
call three. Verse nine, before time in Israel,
when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake, come and
let us go to the seer, which same thing as prophet. Sometimes it was used in conjunction
with a soothsayer, but a fortune teller. For he that is now called
a prophet was before time called a seer." It tells us that. Then
said Saul to his servant, well said, come, let us go. So they
went into the city where the man of God was. And as they went
up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out
to draw water and said to them, is the seer here? And they answered
them and said, he is, behold, he is before you. Make haste
now for he came today. It just so happens that he's
here today. Oh no, it don't just, it so happens. It's the providence of God Almighty. He came today to the city for
there is a sacrifice of the people today in the high place. Not yesterday, not tomorrow,
today. And as soon as you come into
the city, you shall straightway find him, before he go up to
the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until
he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice, and afterwards
they eat that be bidden. Now therefore, get you up, for
about this time you shall find him." Not two hours ago, not
two hours from now, about this time. If you go now, you'll find
him. Oh, is that not the providence
of God? Divine intervention. Oh, we're
in good hands with our King. And they went up into the city.
And when they were coming to the city, behold, Samuel came
out against them or towards them. for to go up to the high place.
And now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul
came saying, tomorrow about this time, I'll 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 coming to me. After all their ignorance,
all their rebellion, the Lord is still merciful and gracious
to them. And when Samuel saw Saul, the
Lord said unto him, behold the man whom I spake to thee of,
this same shall reign over my people. And then Saul drew near
to Samuel in the gate and said, tell me, I pray thee, where the
seer's house is. And Samuel answered Saul and
said, I am the seer. Go up before me into the high
place for you shall eat with me today and tomorrow I will
let thee go and will tell thee all that is in thine heart. And
it's for thine asses that were lost three days ago." Who told
him that? We don't see where Saul did.
God told him that. He said, set not thy mind on
them for they're found. They're already found. And on
whom is all the desire of Israel? He asked that question. Is it
not on thee and on all thy father's house? In other words, all Israel
desires you to be their king. Do you see the providence of
God in this story? You know, I look back on my own
history, which is his story. And at the time when many things
happened to me, I had no idea that God was working all things
together for my good and His glory. He was working all things
together to give me a king, a king of kings. I can take no credit
for it. It was not by my works. God gets
all the glory for saving me by His grace. Our Lord put it in
the hearts of the people of Israel to have a day of sacrifice and
to have Samuel there to bless the sacrifice. This particular
day, God did that. You look back on your life at
the little minute, what seemed insignificant things that God
used to bring you right where you are tonight, listening to
this gospel. Divine Providence had brought
about the occasion where the announcement would take place,
the place where it would have its widest revelation. God did
that. God did it. He's the first cause
of everything. And notice Saul's humility at
first. Verse 21, and Saul answered and
said, am not I a Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of
Israel? Am my family the least of all
the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Wherefore then speakest
thou so to me? Don't be fooled by that. Saul's
self-deprecating humility comes easy for him, because in the
days ahead, it will reveal a tactic that he often used to defend
his wrong actions. Most people are sorry only because
they get caught. But our Lord Jesus, the King
of kings, described himself as meek and lowly in heart. He was. How humble and self-deprecating
it was for God to take on the form of human flesh and be obedient
even to death and the death of the cross. Saul was made king
by the will of the people. Christ was made king of kings
by the will of God. Who is your God? Is he a God
of your choosing? Or is he the king of God's choosing? In the book of 1 Samuel, we clearly
see how Saul little by little reveals himself as a sad example
of what a king should be. And it's for our learning that
we might see what a majestic king of kings that we have in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me leave you with one
last thing. The name Saul means dead. Any who serves the pathetic
King of their own free will and works has nothing but death awaiting
them. Take that as a warning. The name
of Jesus means the Lord is salvation. The title Christ means the anointed
or chosen one. Again, I ask you, is Jesus Christ
your King? or do you serve King Free Willy? Jesus Christ, He's the chosen
King of heaven. He's the Lord of your salvation. And with Joshua, I and all his
people declare, and if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord,
choose this day whom you will serve. Will you serve the gods
which your fathers served? Will you serve the God of your
own choosing? Will you serve the God of your
works and will? Will you serve the idols that
your fathers did on the other side of the flood? Joshua asked,
will you serve the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now
dwell? Will you serve this other Jesus
who in no way, shape, or form resembles the Christ of the scriptures? Joshua said, not me. I'm gonna
serve the God, the King, the God, Job. But it's for me and
my house, by the grace, mercy, and will and purpose of God,
we're gonna serve the Lord. Jesus Christ is the king of God's
choosing for me. And God's people would have it
no other way. So again, I ask you, who's your king? Is he the king of your choosing?
Or is he the king of God's choosing? It's a life or death, life or
death confession.