Okay, go ahead and turn with
me to 1 Samuel chapter 8, continuing our study in the book of 1 Samuel. I titled this message, Be Careful
What You Ask For. Be careful what you ask God for. Let's read this chapter together. 1 Samuel 8, and it came to pass
when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now, the name of his firstborn
was Joel and the name of his second, Abba-ah, Abba-ah, Abba-ah,
They were judges in Beersheba, and his sons walked not in his
ways." And that means his, Samuel's ways, nor the Lord's ways. They
walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, money, and
took bribes and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel
gathered together and came to Samuel and to Ramah. and said
unto him, behold, thou art old and thy sons walk not in thy
ways. Now make us a king to judge us
like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel
when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed
unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel,
hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say
unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they've rejected
me. that I should not reign over
them. According to all the works which
they have done since the day I brought them up out of Egypt,
even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served
other gods. So do they also unto thee. Now therefore, hearken unto their
voice, albeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and 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. He shall take your sons and appoint
them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and some
shall run before his chariots. Well, you know what that means.
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, spice makers, and to be cooks, and
to be bakers. And he will take your fields
and your vineyards and your olive yards, even the best of them
and give them to his servant. And he'll take the 10th of your
seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his
servants. And he will take your men servants
and your maid servants and your goodliest young men and your
asses and put them to his work. And he'll take the 10th of your
sheep and he shall be, and ye shall be his servants. And you
shall cry out in that day because of your king, which you shall
have chosen you, which you shall have chosen you, and the Lord
will not hear you in that day." Verse 19, nevertheless, the people
refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, nay. No, sir, no, sir, but we will
have a king over us. Regardless of all that, we still
want 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. And Samuel said unto the men
of Israel, go ye every man into his city. In other words, your
desire is gonna be granted. Now the Lord had promised Israel
that he would raise up a king to rule over them. But this wasn't
the time. David was gonna be God's chosen
king. He was gonna raise up David in
his time. Hold your place here. Turn back
to Deuteronomy 17 with me. I'm gonna show you this. Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse
14. You know, God knows everything
because God ordains everything. He knew Israel would desire a
king, but he foretold them that he would give them one in his
good time and on his schedule. He'd give them a king after his
own heart, but no, no, they wanted a king right now. Look at verse
14, Deuteronomy chapter 17. When thou art coming to the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shall possess it, and
shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me,
like as all the nations that are about me." The Lord through
Moses prophesied what exactly came to pass in 1 Samuel. Verse 15, thou shalt in any wise
set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
"'One from among the brethren shalt thou set king over thee. "'Thou mayest not set a stranger
over thee, "'which is not thy brother.'" You see, if God promises
to do something, He does it. I wish we could learn that. If
God promises, He is faithful to promise. God's able to perform
what He promised. Sarah, I think about Sarah, she
was past age to conceive, in her 90s. And she conceived and
delivered a child. How? How does that happen? She judged the Lord faithful
who had promised. That's what the scripture says.
And that's where all our assurance, that's where all our confidence
lie, in the Lord. Not in ourselves. God is faithful. We cannot execute. We can't accomplish God's promises. We can't make what God promises
come to pass, no matter how hard we try. As to say, well, I'm
gonna help God out a little bit. You can't. You can't do it. You're incapable. We cannot execute. We cannot accomplish what God
promises. We can't make it come to pass.
God may sovereignly use believers and unbelievers alike to accomplish
His purpose promise. We've seen that time and time
again. But I guarantee you those who He uses to accomplish His
will, they're not aware of it. They're not aware of it. He doesn't consult us when He
wills and purposes to use us. He can use any means at His disposal
to accomplish His will. Why, everything is at his disposal. He owns everything, including
each and every one of us. Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote here
in Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse 11. He says, he, the Lord,
hath made everything beautiful in his time. In his time. Also, he hath set the world in
their hearts so that no man can find out the work that God maketh
from the beginning to the end. Now, anybody that believes in
the God of the Bible, the sovereign, omnipotent God of the scriptures
knows that God can do anything and God can do everything. There's
nothing he can't do. He rules in heaven and earth
and all the deep places. He truly has the whole world
in his hands. We sung that song when we were
young. He's got the whole world in his
hands. He does, he does. The whole world, heaven, earth,
The universe, hell, there's no place that God is not in control
of. And he has the whole world in
his hand. Do men really want that responsibility? I was thinking about that today.
Would you want this world to depend on you and your decision?
No, no, I certainly don't. I don't have the ability to rule
and I don't want it. But I find great confidence and
assurance that my God does. He has the ability. Oh, the depth
of his riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out. We can't figure
God out. He's too wise and too knowledgeable. Unsearchable are his ways and
judgments. We can't figure out the will,
work, and purposes that God wills to do. We just simply bow to
Him. Why are we so hard-headed? Well,
I can tell you in one word, sin. Sin is why. How men and women
can try to take credit for the marvelous works that God does
to the children of men, I'll never understand. I'll never
understand. As we recently saw in our study
of Psalm 107, oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness
and His wonderful works to the children of man. But they don't,
they don't. Very few do. Instead of taking
credit themselves for the thing, instead they take credit themselves
for the things that God has wrought in us. Anything and everything
we do that would be considered good was wrought by God in us. Thy God hath commanded thy strength. Strengthen, O God, that which
thou hast wrought for us. But he, she that doeth truth,
we looked at this Sunday, cometh to the light, that his deeds
may be manifest, that they are wrought in God. Any good work
we do, God worked in us, that we can work them out. Whatever
God's promised us, it's our duty as his people to believe and
wait upon him to do what he promised. But we're so impatient. Lord,
be merciful and gracious, but do it now. Lord, I need help. Would you help me right now?
At least that's the way I am. But in our study tonight, we
see that the people of Israel wanted a king and they wanted
it right now. They would not take no for an
answer. Be careful what you ask God for. Because many times God gives
folks what they want. And more times than not, it's
not, it doesn't turn out the way they hope. It'd be no different
this time. For Israel to desire a king of
their choosing according to their time, not God's, it was a clear
denial of the need of the only true king. For the Lord is our
defense and the Holy One of Israel is our king. Psalm 89, 18. For the Lord is our judge. The
Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will
save us. Isaiah 33, 22. And to believe
that God brings things to pass according to our timeframe is
not only wrong, but it's to deny who God is. It's to believe that
sovereignty is an attribute that we possess instead of God. I've
told you many times that our days are appointed. God determines
when we're born. God determines when we leave
this life. And a baby's not born early and
a man doesn't die too soon. It's all on his time. To believe such as to deny God,
to believe that we have any control over anything. When God gave
Israel his choice of king, it was David, representing the son
of David, the line of the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the king of kings. But our story begins here with
the men of Israel declaring, first of all, that Samuel was
old. They said, Samuel, you've gotten old on us. Well, it seems
like we just... studied the birth of Samuel,
and here in chapter eight, they're saying that he's too old. The
best that I can tell from the commentators and writers that
I read, he's probably not 60 years old yet. Well, I'm telling
you, if that's old, we in trouble, most of us. We're really old,
but probably not 60 years old. But this is not necessarily speaking
of Samuel being chronologically old. They're declaring that because
he had appointed his two sons to be judges, that it was proof
that he was no longer capable or able to judge Israel. But now here's the amazing thing,
and this is how we're so double-minded They still
come to Samuel asking him to seek the Lord for them a king. Why would they do that if they
thought he was too old and incapable of being a judge? And that's
just how double-minded and fickle men and women are. So which is
it? Is Samuel too old? Is Samuel
unfit to make such judgments? And then why are they asking
him to do just that? Another commentator pointed out
that the men of Israel might have accused Samuel of being
old was because he actually appeared to be old. You know, he had spent
himself in the service of the Lord. As judge, he had dealt
with many trying things. He was the bearer of the sure
death of Eli's sons. Now he was witness to the unfaithfulness
of his own sons. Can you imagine what that did
to him? Those are the kind of things
that'll make you look old. Have you ever noticed how presidents
age at a rapid pace? Most of them look 10 years older
after a four-year term. Now that I consider it, it's
kind of like being a pastor. I mean, look how I looked only
before 40 years old. In reality, that's what Samuel
was. He was a judge. He was a prophet.
He was a preacher. He was a pastor. And considering
all that Samuel had to deal with in his time, there's no doubt
that he would be prematurely gray and have wrinkles. And Israel's accusation of Samuel
being old was nothing more than just a ploy and a plot, an effort
by the Jewish elders to endeavor to prove Samuel was no longer
able to judge. And this is also why they approached
Samuel about the ways of his sons. Matter of fact, it says
that in the same sentence. And it came to, or same verse,
and it came to pass when Samuel was old that his sons made that,
he made his sons judges over Israel. They didn't, they just
using this as an excuse. It was a way to charge him with
making bad decisions, proving they needed a right-minded king. And this also shows us something
else. I don't think we can just pass
over without mentioning it. Grace is not hereditary. It's
God's to give. The Lord has mercy on whom he'll
have mercy. If the Lord saves a man and saves
his wife, there's no guarantee he's gonna save their children.
The Lord saves whom he wills. I think I can honestly say that
my greatest concern and my wife's is that God would save our children.
I know many of you feel the same way. I've talked to you about
it. Your heart's broken. It'll put some age on you, won't
it? But we know that God saves whom He wills, when He wills,
how He wills. He crosses His people's path
with the gospel at His appointed time, in His time. That could
be another title for this message, in His time. He doesn't necessarily
give grace to a particular person because He saved the generation
before them. Yet sometimes he does. That's
why we must seek the Lord and we must pray from our hearts
that he'd be pleased to save our children and our grandchildren. I should also pray for your children
and grandchildren and you should also pray for mine. That's what
a true family of believers do. How wonderful is it though for
the Lord to make your children or your parents for that matter,
your brothers and sisters in Christ. That's just amazing. Well, this was just an attempt
to make Samuel feel unworthy and it displeased him according
to verse six. What displeased Samuel? Look
at it. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, this is
what displeased him, give us a king to judge us. By these
elders asking Samuel to petition the Lord to give them a king
to judge them was the same thing as saying, Samuel, you're no
longer fit to judge. Now we've got to remember that
the men of God in the scriptures are men just like me and you.
From Abraham to, from Moses to Abraham to Aaron to all the,
Jacob, Isaac, David, and Samuel are all just men, sinful men. Used of God, yes, but no less
men. And see, you know Samuel was
offended here. He was the, God had made him
the judge. Samuel, you're no longer fit
to judge. You've gotten old on us, you're making bad decisions,
you need to go. But look what Samuel did, verse
six, and Samuel prayed unto the Lord. Verse seven, and the Lord
said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people and all
that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected you, Samuel,
but they've rejected me, that I should not reign over them. May we always remember to take
all our petitions to the Lord, even and especially when they
have to do with the degradation of our integrity and hurt feelings.
We all get our feelings hurt. We all do. Take it to the Lord. Just take it to the Lord. Don't
retaliate. Just take it to the Lord. The
Lord says, vengeance is mine. The Lord will deal with it. So
the Lord here assures Samuel that they were not rejecting
him, but they were rejecting the Lord. And anytime that we
buck against the providence of God, that's exactly what we're
doing. We're saying, Lord, I don't like the way you're doing things.
And who are we to ask such a question? They wanted a king to judge them
in order to justify their idolatry. Now, listen, we read over there
in Deuteronomy, the Lord delivered them out of Egypt. And he basically
said in so many words, in every single day since then, you've
rebelled against me every single day, every single breath. They wanted to justify their
idolatry. That's what they desired. That's
why sinners today still reject the Lord. They have their own
ideas how to be saved, and it's usually by the idol of works,
and it's usually according to king free will. Do you know anything
about him? May God grant you to put this
idol of works and this king far from you. Israel wanted a king
because they desired to get rid of God. I can't say it any plainer
than that. We will not have this man to
rule over us. We will not have Christ to rule
over us. The beloved John wrote, marvel not my brethren if the
world hates you. John said, if the world hates
you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Or Christ
said this, if the world hates you, know it hated me before
it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love
his own, but because you're not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. They'll
put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whosoever
killeth you will think that he does God's service. And these
things were they doing to you because they have not known the
Father nor me. That's why. In verse eight. It says, according to all the
works which they have done since the day I brought them up out
of Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken
me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. And there you go. There you go. That was the reason. They've
pursued the true God. They serve other gods, false
gods. There is no other God. Little
G gods, what I call them. God told Samuel, that's why they
reject you, because they reject me. And that's why men reject
the Lord today. That's why they reject his gospel.
They believe salvation is by a work that they do. So in essence,
they've forsaken God and served other gods. The God of self. That's a big one. Men today serve
king free will, king self-worth, king self-righteous. Now in verse
nine, God tells Samuel to give Israel their desire. He said,
let them have their own way. Be careful what you ask for.
He says, but he adds to Samuel, his word to Samuel, to warn them
of exactly what they could expect. Tell them this is what they're
gonna get. Now let's read that portion again,
verse nine. Now therefore hearken unto their
voice, albeit yet protest solemnly unto them, sincerely, matter
of factly, and 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 thee.
He's going to take your sons, and he's going to appoint them
for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and some
shall run before his chariot. 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. He's going to be a
user. He's going to be a lustful man that takes advantage of you.
He's going to take your daughters to be confectionaries and to
be cooks and to be bakers. He's going to take your fields,
your vineyards, your olive yards, even the best of them. and give
them to his servants, his friends. And he's gonna take a 10th of
your seed, everything you've got in your vineyards and give
to his officers and to his servants, his buddies. And he'll take your
men servants and your maid servants and your good list 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, you shall cry out in that day, because
of your king, which you shall have chosen you. And the Lord
not gonna hear you. You've been warned. Oh, be careful
what you ask for. The Lord warned them before he
judged them. That's why he's a just God. He
warned them before he judged them. And this is why folks can't
complain when judgment comes. Man, we've been warned from this
book. When we stand before God in the
day of judgment, if we dare stand upon our works and say, Lord,
haven't we done this? And haven't we done that? Haven't
we done all these wonderful things? And the Lord looks at us and
says, It doesn't matter what you've done. It's all been works
of iniquity. You'll have no grounds to stand
upon. None. Because God warned you
from this book before He judged you. The Lord warned them, and
the time came where He judged them. They made themselves king. Men today do, but the king of
kings is not going to hear them in that day. especially in the
day of judgment, because then it'd be too late. Now look at
verse 19. Nevertheless, the people refused
to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, nay, no, we will have a king over us. I tell you, I know some folks
today who are in for a rude awakening. They may fool others, they may
fool themselves, but they're not fooling God. Israel would
choose oppression over freedom. Isn't that something? The Lord
would send leanness to their souls, but that's the way they
wanted it. Regardless of the outcome, we're
going to have our king. They would get what they asked
for. regardless of God's warnings. They're gonna have a king over
there. You see, they wanted to be not only in the world, they
wanted to be of the world. They wanted to be like the world.
That's a dangerous barrier. It's appealing to anybody who
still possesses an old nature with a dual nature. According to John, it proves
the love of the Father's not in us. He that loves the world
and the things of the world, the love of the Father's not
in them. Oh, we've been warned. And verse 20 says 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. What are they thinking? That's what God had done for
them ever since He delivered them in miraculous ways, time
and time and time again. He had done it over and over
and over. These forgetful and ungrateful
people had in the very last chapter begged Samuel to intercede for
them, that the Lord would fight for them against the Philistines.
And what did God do? They didn't even have to raise
a sword. put them in disarray and disconfitted
them and they destroyed themselves and freed Israel from their bondage. Who needs a ruler when they have
God? Who needs a king when they've
got the king of kings? Who needs a king and a judge
when Christ, the judge of all the earth, will always do right
by them? They wanted a king that would
let them do what they'd always done. What was that? That which
was right in their own eyes. They determined not to remember
that they were bonded slaves in the land of Egypt and that
the Lord their God had redeemed them, Deuteronomy 15, 15. How can you forget that? 400 years they were in bondage.
How can you forget the Lord's deliverance from that? They didn't want God to rule
over them. Our Lord told a parable about a certain nobleman who
went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom. And he
told three of his servants that he would return. And he entrusted
with those servants a part of his possessions. But the scripture
says this, but his citizens hated him. and sent a message after
him saying, we will not have you to reign over us. We're not
gonna do it. It's the same in the days of
Samuel and the same in our day. But those mine enemies, which
would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay
them before me is what the Lord said in that parable. You know,
this is a matter in which you cannot win. This is the warning from scripture.
I've said this a few times lately. If God be for me, who can be
against me? But friends, if God be against
me, who can be for me? It works both ways. Those who
hear the warning and still refuse to obey set themselves up for
horrific fall. The desire of false religion
is to control, and the desire of a false religion is to be
controlled. They'd like to be told what to
do. But the design intent of God is to, by the work of Christ,
set his people free, make them free to live and walk according
to his good pleasure for them. I heard someone ask a man one
time who was a believer, said, Well, after God saved you, did
you live right? He said, I lived just like I
wanted to. And they grasped, they gasped. You lived like you
wanted to? He said, God changed my want
to. And that's what he does. It's not overnight. Sure wasn't
for me. But God has changed my want to.
And he's done so by his mercy and grace to me. Those who hear the warning and
still refuse to obey set themselves up for a fall, a big fall, a
horrible fall. A true child of God wants and
desires to be ruled and governed by the true king, the king of
kings. For they know that he is out
to do them good. You know, I think I finally,
by God's grace, seen that. God is out to do me good. Isn't
that a wonderful thought? He who controls everything and
does everything according to His own will and purpose is out
to do you good. Those who believe and trust in
Him. If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. God says to His chosen people,
I'm working all things. All things together for your
good, not just something, not just this and not just that,
all things. Whatever happens to you, oh,
this is just horrible. This is horrible what's happened
to me. No, it's not. If you're one of God's people,
it's gonna be for your good. Now, you may never see it. You
may never see how God and His purpose worked it all out for
your good, but you can believe Him. He said He was working all
things together for your good. That's God's promise to us. Let
me leave you with the words from Psalm 73. So in closing, turn
there with me. Psalm 73. Psalm 73, verse 22. Those of you that have my Bible,
it's page 849. Here the psalmist says, Psalm
73, 22, so foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before
thee. He's talking to the Lord, the
psalmist is. And you know what? That's exactly what we are by
nature. Ignorant beast in need of taming, in need of
mercy, in need of grace. Verse 23, nevertheless, I am
continually with thee. Thou hast holding me by my right
hand. The Lord has, whether you realize
it or not, the Lord has you, child of God, by your right hand
at this very moment. He's leading you in the path
of righteousness for His name's sake. Verse 24, thou shalt guide me
with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Boy, that's
something to look forward to. That's a promise. Whom have I
in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. Is that where you're at? My flesh
and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever. Listen, we're all dying. We were
born in this world dying. Something's gonna take us out. But though my heart and flesh
faileth, God is my strength. He's my portion forever. Verse
27, for lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. Thou
hast destroyed all of them that go a whoring from thee. But it
is good for me to draw near to God. And friends, it's good for
you to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord
God that I might declare. All thy works, all His works.
And that's what we do in preaching. We declare the works of God.
And that's what the believer wants to hear in preaching. Don't
tell me what I've got to do. I can't do anything. Tell me
what God has done for me. Tell me about what He's wrought
out for me. What He's wrought in me to wrought
outwardly. There's only one King that we
need. Just one. The King of Kings. the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's the problem with those
that perish. It's a lack of need. That's it. That's what it boils down to.
It's a lack of need. And I say it all the time. Those
that are well, those that are righteous in their own eyes,
in their own sight, have no need of the great physician. But we
who are sick, we have a great need for the great King who's
also the great physician Isn't that something? Our great King
is the greatest physician in all the world, and He can heal
incurable diseases like sin. Oh, it's good for me to draw
near to Him. And all of us are going to talk
about His work, His finished work, His accepted work. So when
you pray, consider also the words of Solomon who said, be not rash
with your mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything
before God. For God is in heaven and thou
upon the earth, therefore let thy words be for you. Now what's
that saying? Just what it says. God's in heaven. He's working all things after
the counsel of His own will. What need is there for me to
say anything? Just hush up and bow to Him. Rejecting God's will
is the same as rejecting Him. Rejecting God's will is the same
as rejecting Him. Be quiet. Let your words be few. Rest in the rule and reign of
Christ. That's what the Lord said. He said, come unto me,
all you that labor and heavy laden, And I'll give you what?
Five words. I will give you.