1 Samuel chapter 13. And the title of my message this
morning is, The Rejection of Christ in the Offering of Saul. The Rejection of Christ in the
Offering of Saul. Now in 1 Samuel chapter 13, we
come to find that Saul had now reigned over Israel two years. Remember that Saul was a result
of the sin of Israel. Israel had rejected God as their
king and they desired a king after the flesh. In other words,
they wanted to be like everybody else. They wanted to be like
everybody else. And so to do that, they had to
reject God. Because that's what man is by
nature. Man by nature says in his heart, no, God. That's what
man says. That's what you say. By nature,
no. I will not have this man to rule
over me. And so they rejected him and
they desired to be like other nations. And in chapter 13, Saul
reigned two years. And in verse 2, we read that
there were 3,000 men, 2,000 with Saul, 1,000 with Jonathan. And
in verse 3, Jonathan does something. He does something Very wicked. He does something unadvisable. He neither sought God for it,
nor inquired of God for the victory of it, but he assaults, he provokes
the Philistines. He assaults their camp and he
makes a war. A war. Out of his rashness, he
goes in and causes a war. between Israel and the Philistines.
And we read that Saul blew the trumpet. In other words, this
is bad. It's a warning. He's warning
Israel, we're at war. That's what he's declaring. He
blows the trumpet to let all Israel know. He said, let every
Hebrew hear this because we're at war. We're at war. And all
Israel heard the saying Saul had smitten the garrison of the
Philistines. And this was an abomination. Israel was had in
an abomination with the Philistines. In other words, this was rotten. This was foul-smelling. Isn't that foul-smelling what
we think of in our country of 9-11? We think of those terrorists
who just without provocation just came in and started a war. And I'll tell you, they stink.
They smell in our nostrils because they did this. And that's exactly
how Israel was in the sight of the Philistines. They smelled. They were horrible to do this. They attacked without provocation. And now the army of the Philistines
And this was sad. The Philistines, the army of
the Philistines, was a very large and powerful army. Look at that
in verse 5. It said there were 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen,
and people as many as the sand of the seashore for multitudes.
They were a huge army. You've got to understand how
they did warfare. They all lined up on a hill and showed their
might. They displayed their numbers. And they were a large army. And
what did the Israel army look like? Well, it was pathetic. It was pathetic. It says in verse 6, they were
in a strait. They were distressed. And they
hid themselves in caves and thickets and rocks and in the pits. Matter
of fact, in verse 19 through 23, you could read on your own,
but this is their condition. Listen, they didn't even have
a sword or a spear. The only people who had swords
and spears were Jonathan and Saul. Nobody else in the whole
nation had a sword. How could they go to war without
a sword? They didn't have any swords.
They didn't have any blacksmiths to build swords. They didn't
have blacksmiths to even sharpen swords, to sharpen their farm
tools. They had pitchforks, okay? They had rakes, they had a hoe,
they had an axe, but they didn't even have a stone to sharpen
these things. And so it was a pitiful condition.
But now then, am I just here to tell you the history of Israel?
You know I don't do that. You know I just give you the
background. This is just a background. This is a picture. The Holy Spirit
is intended to show us the straight, or the condition of Israel, to
show us the natural condition of all men by nature. Of all
men by nature. This is a picture. As Israel
has sinned and rejected God as king, even so did our father
Adam reject God as king. The Lord God gave Adam everything
as his king, as his provider, as his ruler, as his God. Gave him everything. He said,
Thou mayest eat of all of the trees of the garden. And God
withheld one thing from Adam. He said, I have one tree that
you should not eat. And the day you eat it, you will
die. And so Adam, seeing after Eve,
was deceived by Satan and she sinned against God. She ate. But I tell you this, Adam was
not deceived when he took the fruit with a full heart of rebellion
against God. He did eat. I want you to know that Adam
was no caveman. Adam was no ignorant man. Adam
was the best that God could make among men. He was the best of us. And he
rebelled against God. And Adam said, I will be king. I will be king. God said, not
to eat. But I say, eat. So what is he
saying? I'm king. He rejected God as
King, and he said, I will rob God of His glory and take it
for myself. Therefore, the Scripture tells
us, by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by
sin. So death passed upon all men,
for all have sinned. You know when you sin first?
You know your first sin? You know what that was? It was
Adam's sin. Who's Adam's sin? Just as Jonathan. Jonathan is the one that attacked
the garrison. It was Jonathan who started the
war. But who received the credit?
Saul. Who received the credit? Israel
stank in the nostrils of the Philistines. And I tell you,
by one man we all sinned and we all died. All sinned in Adam because he
was our federal head. And all men by nature are an
abomination unto God. We're born in sin. I know that's against modern
thought that when children are born into this world that they're
innocent. No, they're not. They're born
with the sin of their father. They're born dead in trespasses
and sins. Did you teach your children to
lie? Was that one of your lessons? You know, okay, I need to teach
them to clean their room, I need to teach them to behave, and
I need to teach them to lie. Is that so? No. They lie because
it's natural. They steal because it's natural. It is their nature to lie because
they are born dead in sins. Behold, the word of God is true. As God had chosen Israel, it
was only a type of His church. Even so, from eternity, God has
from the beginning chosen spiritual Israel, an elect people. And
it was these elect people that were given to Christ in the hidden
mystery of the covenant of grace before the world began. There
is a people before sin ever entered into the world. God gave His
Son a people. God determined, God purposed
to save a people. And it's a mystery. It wasn't
revealed to anyone at first. Go to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, or,
sorry, chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 7. Paul says, but we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery. even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of
the princes of the world knew, for had they known it, they would
have not crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,
I have not seen, nor hear, heard, neither entered into the heart
of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love to
Him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. By His Spirit. This gospel, this
mystery of hidden wisdom is the gospel of Christ. I remember
talking to a lady and her husband was the head of one of the Southern
Baptist curriculum writers. He wrote the curriculum for the
church. And she made this statement. She said, well, we don't need
to preach the gospel because everybody knows it. Excuse me? God said it's a mystery. God says it was hidden. And how
is it revealed? Only by the Spirit of God is
it revealed to us. That is it. But before this,
it's a mystery. Scratching their head, what are
these people like this for? What is this preaching do for
them? It just does nothing for me.
I don't know. It's a mystery. Of course it is. Of course it
is. Because you're dead. dead. That's why it's a mystery. This mystery of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, that God before the world, before sin, purposed
and willed to save some, to save a people, that He should be the
King and representative of all the elect of the Father. Psalm 110 said, The Lord said
unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. You see, God has given Christ
a kingdom. He's given to Christ a kingdom.
And a kingdom is made up of what? People. People, what good is
a king without people? God gave him a people. And these elect are in type here
as Israel. They were given to Christ to
be their King. But yet every one of them were
to be born of Adam's fallen race. Every one of them were born of
Adam's fallen race. See that because of Adam's sin,
we all are an abomination. None of us escape the ruin of
the fall. We by nature stink before the
nostrils of the law of God. You know what God says about
our righteousness? God says it's menstrual claws. That's it. That's the best we
can provide. What is your best? What's your
best? God says it's nothing but a bloody
rag in his nostrils. It's a stench. It's a stench. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. There is none that doeth
good, no, not one. Jesus plainly testifies of man's
complete inability, complete impotence to come to Him. And
we say salvation is simple, right? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Simple, right? I tell you it's
impossible. Why do I say that? Because Christ
Himself said that. He said, no man can come to me
except the Father which has sent me draw him. How do the elect come? Isn't that what God willed? That
the elect should come to Christ? Yes. How then should they come,
being born of Adam's race, like everyone else? How should they
come? They should come by divine exception. No man can come to
Me except. All this is good. Except the
Father which has sent me, draw Him. Draw Him. Behold then those who oppose
us. Those who oppose us are represented
as the Philistines. What opposes the elect? What
opposes us? The law of God opposes us. The law of God opposes. The Scripture
says they are a handwriting of ordinances against us. Satan
opposes us. Sin opposes us. Death opposes
us. We have a multiplicity of enemies
that oppose us from coming to God. One is your inability. You
cannot come to God. Second is your will. You will
not come to God. Third is the law demands that
you come righteous to God, which you cannot. Satan accuses you
of the multiplicity of your sins. How many sins have you committed?
More than the sands of the seashore. That's how many sins stand against
you. God opposes men. God's holiness. God who cannot sin, who cannot
look upon sin, will by no means clear the guilty.
That opposes us. You know what the just reward
of every sin is? Eternal hell. That's the reward
of your sin. That's what you rightly deserve.
You want what you deserve? That's what you deserve. You
want God to give you what you deserve. That's what you deserve. O son of Adam, you will shortly
stand before the holy God, whose sword is set against you because
of your sin. How can you be worthy to stand
before God justified. How can you who are guilty escape? Only the righteous shall be accepted
of God. Jesus said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Does this put you in a strait? Does this fence you in? Does
it hedge you about so that you have no place else to go? Israel
in our text was in a strait. They were at war and had no weapons
to fight. Sinner, you are at war and you
have no weapons. You are at war not with man,
not with me. You are at war with God. How
shall you stand? Not the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ come to mind with that illustration he used. He said,
count the cost. How shall a king, having ten
thousand, go out and meet him that has twenty? And if he can't win, what's his
best hope? That he have an ambassador. That
he have someone to bring him a message of peace. How shall you meet God? You will
meet God. There's no question about it. You will meet God.