Our text is 1 Samuel 10, and we're just going to look
at the first seven verses, Lord willing. And the focus of this part is
on Saul's anointing as king of Israel. This is where Samuel
anoints Saul king of Israel. And after his anointing, Samuel
gives Saul three signs that he will encounter as he goes home
to his father's house in Gibeah. And the Lord will give him these
signs. He'll fulfill these things to
him, thus assuring him that God has done this. God has made him
king. And so, Lord willing, we'll be
looking at those three signs. And when he completes those three
signs, Samuel gives him a word of instruction. Now, in these,
in Saul's anointing, we see a picture of our Savior. And in these signs,
we see the signs of grace, the tokens that our God shows us
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by these things, we know
God has taught us the gospel. God has taught us Christ. God has led me to Christ. These are the things that our
Lord shows his people whom he loves and sent his son to save.
So that's what we'll be seeing here. Now the first verse, this
is where we'll focus at first here. This is on the anointing.
It describes Saul's anointing as king. Let's read that. Then
Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed
him and said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to
be captain over his inheritance? And so these two things stood
out to me. First, Samuel anointed him, and
then Samuel kissed him. And this anointing is not his
coronation. A coronation was something more
public that would be publicly done for the people to know this
is the king. But here, here is just Samuel
and Saul. Even Saul's servant was sent
on ahead, so his servant didn't even know that this had happened. And this anointing was with a
vial of oil. He pours it on his head. And what it signifies, it's not
public, it's not well known, it's rather humble, it's private,
but it's God. It's God saying, you are the
king of Israel. I've anointed you king of Israel."
And it is declaring the will and the purpose of God to publicly
declare him as king. And nothing, no earthly force
is going to oppose that or prevent God from doing what he is purposed
to do here. And in this thing we see that
the kingship of Saul began in a very humble manner. A very humble manner. And therefore
Samuel is going to give him signs so that he knows God has done
this. You know, sometimes we notice
things and we take thought of things providentially that the
Lord has done. But with a little passing of
time, we begin to doubt whether we saw what we thought we saw
in it. But when there's powerful signs
that attend it, when it's more incredible, it's very hard even
for this wicked, corrupt flesh to deny God has done this. God did this. the Lord is in
this and so that's why these signs were given to him to confirm
to him the Lord did this because Saul is going to be tried as
king he's going to to be tried and troubled and and put through
temptations and so this will be something for him to look
back on and recall the Lord has done this this is definitely
of the Lord now a lot of the Lord's people have been told
the Lord something and time would pass. I was thinking of not just
Saul's anointing, but David was anointed king of Israel. And
when David was anointed, so what I'm saying is, Saul, it was some
time before Saul was coronated and publicly made known that
he's the king. And like him, David was also
anointed king. And it was actually years before
David became king of Israel. He waited till the Lord removed
his anointed in Saul first before he became king. He waited a long
time, and these things suggest something for our good. It's good for us to wait upon
the Lord, because the Lord gives us promises in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and He calls us to patience, and we wait patiently for the
Lord's fulfillment of His promises made unto us in the Gospel. There's things that we receive
soon and have received and there are things that we shall receive
and we wait upon those things for the Lord's grace and mercy.
We wait upon those things for our Lord's return. Now to that
point we see in scripture here even the prophet Jeremiah tells
us it's good. It's good that a man should both
hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. There's things that we wait on,
especially in regards to our salvation. Paul reminds believers
saying we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. And so we wait for the Lord because
again we see in our members this flesh. But that doesn't mean
that we are to turn to the law. Believers are not under the law.
We wait In the Spirit, we wait for the Lord to free us, to save
us, to deliver us from the corruption of this flesh. And we cry out
to Him and He delivers us, and we cry out to Him and know that
there is further deliverances which shall come at His appearing. What the Lord is teaching us
is we're not going to affect or make things happen. Man doesn't
make things happen by his doing except evil things. It's God
who does good. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, from the Father of lights. That's where
the good things come from. We wait on the Lord. And so we
find comfort in waiting, in looking to Christ, and looking to Christ. I'm gonna read from Hebrews 12,
verses one through three. wherefore seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." We're
looking at Saul and we've spoken of David and we're looking at
this waiting and the scriptures show us brethren, men and women
who have gone before and have been tried and waited upon the
Lord and cried out to the Lord the same way we wait upon the
Lord and we're brought to cry out to the Lord and wait upon
him. Well, we have another one to look at, the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, while you're waiting,
and with all this great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and
let us run with patience the race that is set before us. We're
waiting. We're trusting the Lord. We're
running with patience, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds." And so Saul is waiting. David waited
for years. And we wait, we wait upon the
Lord. We trust Him to do for us what
seems good to Him. We wait upon Him. Now, in terms
of looking to Christ, we know that our Lord came in the flesh.
He's called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And then He waited until that time, that set time when He would
be born of a woman born under the law to deliver his people,
many thousands of years after the foundation of the world. And so he came in the flesh and
he waited 30 years. And then John the Baptist came
and it was time for Christ to come and to be baptized as well. And he was baptized by John,
a prophet out in the wilderness, a peculiar sort of man who ate
locusts and wild honey, who wore a leather girdle and camel's
hair clothing. It was kind of odd. And he's
out there in the wilderness. But Christ came. Pharisees heard
but would not be baptized by him. But Christ came and he submitted
himself to that baptism because it was of the Father. And it
was there at that baptism that Christ was anointed by the Triune
God. In that baptism he was anointed.
I'm going to read from Matthew chapter 3, verse 16 and 17. And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were
opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove, and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from heaven,
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And so we see this is an anointing
of the Triune God. This is the Son of God who is
there present in the flesh. And after his baptism, the Holy
Spirit comes down upon him and a voice from heaven, the Father
speaking, anointing, saying, this is the Christ. This is the
one whom I've sent to save my people from their sins. And yet, before his ministry
went any further, before he opened his mouth and began to proclaim
the gospel and speak to sinners, before he healed anyone or did
any miracle, we're told in the scriptures that immediately he
was led of the spirit into the wilderness. And so he was anointed
and then before his public ministry really began, he waited. He went to the wilderness and
there was to be for the purpose of being tempted by the devil. And one of the things that came
out of that is our Lord showed himself that he was successful
in every way that Adam, the first Adam, failed. Christ was successful. He endured the temptation and
he did that which is right and righteous. He was successful
in everything that Adam failed him. And by that, he showed that
he is the fit sacrifice of his people. But there's something
more in the context of Saul's anointing that I'm getting at.
It's that it shows us how he patiently waited. From that time
of his anointing, he didn't immediately kick off preaching the gospel.
He went into the wilderness, led of God, and there waited. and trusted the Lord in all things,
and it testifies to us who wait. You that are waiting patiently,
you that are praying to the Lord about some burden on your heart,
and you're waiting on the Lord. We see that our Savior really
is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And He's not
asking us to do anything that He Himself has not done. He waited, and He trusted and
depended upon the Father. And so, Saul waited after his
anointing, David waited after his anointing, we wait for the
promise of our inheritance after the Lord has spoken to our hearts,
and Christ waited after His baptism, 40 days till His public ministry
began and he was made known, coronated, if you will, this
is the Christ. This is my son whom I've sent
to save my people. And I just think that's worthy
of our thoughts to know that Christ really is touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. He does really know what we experience
and what we're going through and our need of him. And he's
higher than the heavens, higher than the heavens. And yet, He
knows. And so, remember that. Think
of Him. Pray to Him. Cast your care upon
Him, for He careth for you. When you're troubled, when you
feel forgotten, or feel lonely, when you are tried, or persecuted,
or cast down, or perplexed about something, cry out to the Lord.
Cry out to the Lord, and lean upon Him. He endured what we
in measure endure for his sake. Though the Lord be high, yet
hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar
off. And so it's a mercy that you
are tried. It's a mercy that you're brought
low because that's who the Lord loves. That's who His eye is
upon. Those that are doing well and are puffed up by it and proud,
He doesn't take thought of them. They don't take thought of Him
and He doesn't take thought of them. But you that are lowly,
He has respect unto you. He looks toward you. He cares
for you. And that's His word. That's His
promise. And we see that he knows what
we feel. Now, after Saul's anointing,
we're told that Samuel kissed him. And this kiss was very symbolical. It shows that Samuel approved. He understood God has made you
king. He's made you my king. And he
approves and consents to Saul being made his king. And you
think about how hard that might have been for Samuel because
he was made king because the people rejected Samuel and they
wanted a king like all the other nations. And so he was replacing
Samuel. But his kiss was placed upon
him because he's showing, he's saying, I'm giving you my allegiance.
You are now my king. I'm honoring you as my king,
I'm paying homage to you as my king, and I'm submitting to you
as my king." And so it was a great sign of respect. You know, had he not kissed him,
maybe Saul would have looked back at trying times and thought,
I don't know if you always had my back, Samuel. You weren't
quite enthused about this. But Samuel, he did. He trusted the Lord and he gave
his allegiance to that king. But the picture for us is that
there is one greater. There is one who is the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And He is our King. This goes
back to what we saw in chapter eight, who is our God and who
is our King. Our God and our King is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And by God's grace, He makes
us to know that and to love Him, to kiss the Son, in truth and
to love him as our king. We're told that one day all are
going to know this. Every knee is going to bow, and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. And the Lord warns his enemies
now. He tells them, kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye
perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. But the reality is we preach
Christ, and you hear Christ, and we think now, how is it that
sinners don't kiss the Son? How is it that sinners don't
love the Son? Seeing how gracious He is, how
gentle, how kind, how loving our Savior is. All who come to
Him seeking mercy and forgiveness, find him to be merciful and forgiving. He's kind and generous. Just
as we read earlier in John 6, I will, all that the Father giveth
me, I will. save them. I will raise them
up at the last day. I will not lose any of them.
It's not my feelings. It's not based on how you guys
treat me. It's whoever God gave me. That's who I'm saving. I'm
dying for their sins. I'm shedding my blood to cleanse
them and to make them righteous. And the reason why sinners don't
bow to Christ now and don't kiss the sun now is because it takes
a new heart. We need a new heart. We need
to be made new creatures because by nature, our very nature is
enmity against the true and living God. because we fell in Adam. We sinned in Adam and we sin
ourselves. There's a natural enmity in us
by Adam's seed so that we now need a new birth. We need to
be born again by the seed of Christ, born new creatures in
our Lord's kingdom. And when God by his spirit regenerates
us, when he regenerates a sinner by his grace, then there's going
to be love. And we will bow to Christ our
King, and we will kiss the Son, and we will love Him, and show
Him allegiance, and submit to Him as His bride, loving our
Husband, and our Savior, our God, and our King. That verse
there from Psalm 212, speaking of kissing the Son, the end says,
blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. They're blessed. God blesses those whom He loves
to know Him, to know Christ, to see the Son, and to believe
Him. unto salvation, unto salvation. David wrote in Psalm 65, for
blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach
unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. And so we see there it's the
grace of God that brings us. We would never come to Christ.
We wouldn't bow to Christ till the end. if not for the grace
of God, drawing us now to himself and showing us the Lord Jesus
Christ. As he said, no man can come to
me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. And so this is the day of grace. Beg him for mercy. Beg God to
give you a heart that loves him. and you that beg Him for that
heart, and you that beg Him for forgiveness and to receive you,
it's because He has given you that heart, and He has given
you a new spirit, and drawn you to the Son for Himself. Now,
to you that believe Christ, that He's all your salvation, He's
your King and your Savior, I want to now look at the signs that
Samuel gave to Saul to show him that God had done this, that
God had called him and made him King. These are signs, we're going
to see three signs that picture the gospel. One just at a high
level, it's the grave, the bread, and the spirit, the giving of
the spirit here. And if the Lord doesn't show
you these signs, just as he showed Saul these signs to convince
him, if he doesn't show you these gospel signs of his grace, then
you don't, it's not of the Lord. It's not of his grace. But if
he's showing you these things, it is your calling. Your calling
and your faith in Christ is of the Lord because he shows these
signs. He gives these tokens. He teaches
his people this in grace and in mercy. Now you may have had
an experience, but if you don't see these things, then it's not
of God. It's not of God, but all that
believe him, you'll see these. These are simple, blessed, precious
truths that he shows to every one of his people by his gospel
in Christ. So let's look at verse two, the
first sign there. When thou art departed from me
today, Then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's supplicar in
the border of Benjamin at Zelza. And they will say unto thee,
The asses which thou wentest to seek are found, and lo thy
father hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth for
you, saying, What shall I do for my son? So what stands out
here is there's two men by Rachel Supacher. And you'll notice these
are very detailed signs. It would be very hard for him
to dismiss these three things because they're very detailed,
very specific. But in the two men at Rachel
Supacher, What is the Lord showing? What is he reminding Saul of
here? He's showing Saul his mortality. It's a picture of our mortality,
that every one of us is going to die. Saul is king, and yet,
just like every other man and woman, from the least of us and
the poorest of us to the greatest of us, we all die. We all return
to the dust. We all go to the grave. And so it's a picture to say,
Saul, You're king, but the grave awaits you. Don't forget that,
Saul. The grave awaits you. And these men were witnessing
there at the grave, which was at Zelza. And Zelza means shadow.
And that's something. Every one of us is standing in
the shadow of that grave, in a sense. We're all going to die.
We're going to return to the dust. And so one witness is testifying. There's a grave. You're going
to die. I'm going to die. We're all going
to return to the dust and be laid in the grave. But there's
another witness. There's a second witness there.
And it's spread. It's declared. This witness is
declared all over the world. But only believers, only the
people of God hear this second witness's voice. And the second
witness testifies saying, but that grave, that tomb is empty. See, Christ died. He gave his
life, he laid down his life to obtain forgiveness for his people,
to obtain life, and that tomb is empty. He's been raised from
the dead. And so, you that look to Christ,
you that believe Christ, whose sins have been put away by Christ,
you too shall be raised from the dead and given life eternal
in the Son. And so He has given eternal life
to all them that believe Him and trust Him. Listen to this
testimony from 1 John 5, 11 and 12. And this is the record, that
God hath given to us eternal life, And this life is in his
Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And so these are the two witnesses.
One is of the grave, that everyone sees and knows. And the other
one is that the grave, the tomb is empty, for Christ has been
raised from the dead. And so we believe that we shall
die like everyone else, but in Christ we shall live again. We
shall be raised from the dead. Now let's see the second sign.
Verse 3, Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou
shalt come to the plain of Tabor. and there shall meet thee three
men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and
another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying
a bottle of wine." So these three men, they're going to Bethel,
and Bethel means the house of God. That's where, near there,
Abraham had made an altar and worshipped the Lord, and that's
where where Jacob slept and had that vision of Jacob's ladder
there, the ladder of the angels, a picture of Christ there at
Bethel. And so these men are going to
worship God and they're carrying things to sacrifice to the Lord. And Saul was given a witness
here to make, in one sense, he's given a witness to make public
worship a part of his ministry as king, not to neglect the worship
of God. But I believe these three men
are a picture of the triune God. They're a picture of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And the reason I say is because
they're teaching, they're saying, go, we're going up to worship
the Lord. And that's what the Lord teaches us, to worship Him. And not only to worship Him,
but to worship Him in spirit and in truth. And He does this,
He teaches us by His grace and power. You know, we might come
and go to church services and be part of some religious group
or faction, but it's only by the grace of God that when we
come we worship God in spirit and in truth and look to Christ
for all His grace and salvation. That's something that the Lord
shows us, that the Lord teaches us. John 6.45 says, it's written
in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. every man
therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh
unto me and then we're told in verse four of first samuel ten
and they will salute thee and give thee two loaves of bread
which thou shalt receive of their hands and so let me just focus
on these two loaves of bread here with you now it's hard to
know what Saul and his servant looked like after traveling for
all these days, but it's possible that they looked pretty haggard,
pretty tired and worn, and perhaps they saw them as beggars, as
needy beggars who needed bread, who needed sustenance, who needed
help. And it's a picture there, because
bread is very basic. A lot of poor in the world, they
eat bread. It's a staple of life for people
that don't have a lot. It may not be wheat bread, but
they have some kind of a grain typically for their bread. But
one loaf signifies that when we come to the Lord to worship
the Lord, how do we come? We come as mercy beggars. We don't come as having everything
together. We come as those in need of His
grace and His mercy. So when we come, we need His
grace and mercy. We come as sinners to a God who
is holy, just, perfect, and righteous in all His ways. We need mercy. We need mercy. Guilty sinners
need God to be merciful to them, otherwise we'll die in our sins.
and have no hope, but God is gracious. He's given us his son
so that the mercy beggar will find mercy in the son. Now the second loaf turns our
eye toward Christ who said, I am the bread of life. And he said,
he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth
on me shall never thirst. And so in the sense that we are
mercy beggars, what's amazing is that when we've come to Christ
in spirit and in truth, by his grace and power, we'll never
be turned away. We'll never go off begging. for
another for righteousness. We'll never go begging to another
for righteousness because Christ provides everything that the
sinner needs. He says you'll never hunger and
you'll never thirst because everything we need, all the righteousness,
the perfection, the holiness to stand before a just, perfect,
holy God, Christ gives everything you need. Though we are beggars,
though we are mercy beggars, though we have nothing to give,
yet Christ says, here is everything you need. I am the bread of life.
You that come to me, I'll take care of you forever. I've provided
for you all your needs to stand before my Father in heaven. And so in Him, when He says you'll
never hunger and thirst, He's saying you're never going to
feel you've come up short for your righteousness. He's going
to convince you and show you that He is our very righteousness. And that, to the end, the fullness
of it, everything we need, Christ has obtained for us by His redemption. It's finished. It's finished,
He says. Believe me. Trust me. Now the
third sign, let's see in verse 5. After that thou shalt come
to the hill where is the garrison of the Philistines and it shall
come to pass when thou art come thither to the city that thou
shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place
with a psaltery and a tabret and a pipe and a harp before
them, and they shall prophesy." And so here, these prophets are
coming from the worship of God, and they're teaching the people
joy and rejoicing in the Lord. And so, we go to services all
the time, but in the day of His grace, when God determines to
be merciful to you, and He brings you under the gospel preaching,
He'll open your ear. and give you a new heart and
make you to hear his grace, to see, oh, Christ is all. He's all my salvation. He is
my salvation. It's not in the things I do.
It's not in the things that I've stopped doing. It's not because
I'm trying to be a good person. It's because God is gracious
to all who come to him in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ
gives his children a new spirit. a new heart that joys and rejoices
in Him and stops looking at what they do or don't do and keeps
looking to Him, trusting that Christ is my all. He's everything
that I need. And so in that day, we understand
by the Spirit of God and believe the testimony of God that Christ
is all and in all and He's everything I need. And He shows you that
more and more for your comfort, for your peace, for your deliverance
from the bondage that this flesh is in by nature. And Samuel said
it this way in verse 6, And the Spirit of the Lord will come
upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned
into another man. And that's a picture of what
He does for us. We are made new creatures in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like Paul said, it's not
whether you're circumcised or uncircumcised, it's are you a
new creature? Has He given you the gift that
He gives to His children, His Holy Spirit, whereby you believe
Christ and rest in Him? That's what He does for you.
And so these signs here that he does for all his children
is, yes, we shall die. We know that day is coming. But
the tomb of our Lord is empty, meaning he rose from the dead.
And he said, all that come to me, I will raise them from the
dead in that day when I return. So he shows us that. That's one
thing he convinces us of, that Christ, he came in the flesh,
gave his life. He died, was buried, and rose
again. and I too shall be raised again."
And then these signs teach us that when we come to worship
God, we come as mercy beggars. We come as mercy beggars. We
come as sinners saved, sinners forgiven for Christ's sake. And
he shows us that Christ is the very bread of heaven upon whom
we feast, upon whom we feed. And I don't need any other righteousness. I don't need to go to the law
and add to what Christ has done. I'm resting. He's my Sabbath
rest. I'm resting in Christ from all
my labors, believing that He is my very salvation and my sanctification,
my redemption, my wisdom, my righteousness, my justification,
my all. My all. He's everything to me.
And then these signs teach us that he does this all, he communicates
this all, he makes us to know, makes us new creatures by the
regeneration of his spirit, whom he gives to every one of us.
He makes us new and living creatures in Christ Jesus, who is our king
and our savior, our husband, our friend, our all. And so that's
what he shows us. Hasn't he, you that believe him,
has he not shown you those very same things? those very same
signs there. And then Samuel says in verse
7, Let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou
do as occasion serve thee, for God is with thee. You know, before
the grace of God came, you say that to us, we just do what the
flesh loves to do. That's what man's going to do,
what his flesh loves and desires and is drawn to. But by His grace,
by the Spirit, He leads us by faith in the new man, walking
by faith, being led of His Spirit. So that being born again, we
want to know the Lord. We want to do the will of our
God. We don't want to do the things
of this world which war against the soul. We want to know and
worship the Lord. We want to love Him and love
His people. Rather than bear the fruits of
the flesh, we want to bear the fruits of the Spirit. We want
Him to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit as opposed to the
works of the flesh. And He does that in giving us
a new birth. And I'll just close with this,
Paul said, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God. Amen.