Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 13. We had a good Bible conference
last weekend in Lexington. Todd called me and said the people
there said that it was the best one they'd ever been in. And
it was a good one. I enjoyed being there. The messages
were great. And I came back and got sick.
I got a virus down there. And I don't think I'm contagious. I don't think you'd get me anyway.
That's a joke. You'll get it by the time you
get home. Anyway, I think I'm stalling
for time right now. Here in the, and at the end of
this month, let me say this, at the end of this month, I'll
be going to Gabe's and preaching that Bible conference, but I'll
be back here on Sunday. I told Gabe the only way I could
do it is to be back. And then I have one other one
in April. I don't know when that's out,
but Marvin asked me when he was here. if I would preach in that
Easter. He'd let me come back if I need
to. But after that, I've told everyone
I'm not doing Bible conferences, not unless I really feel impressed
to do it. I don't feel impressed to do
any real Bible conferences anymore. All right, 1 Samuel 13. We have a good example here.
of God giving a people what they want as a judgment on them. What some people count as freedom
is really judgment. The last thing you want and I
want is for God to let us have our way and our wants, because
our wants according to this flesh, are always, always, 100% of the
time, opposite of God. The flesh is always opposite
of the Spirit all the time. So in this chapter here, we see
an unlawful sacrifice. That's what I titled it. The
sacrifice itself was not unlawful. The one who did it was unlawful. And this shows us how we can
take something that's good and turn it into something that's
evil. The sacrifice was set up of God and the high priest was
to be the one, the priest was to be the one to offer the sacrifice.
And here Saul in this chapter, I'm just kind of give you an
overview of it. This chapter, Saul takes it upon himself to
be the priest. And when he does that, God says,
the kingdom is taken away from you. And I'm going to find a
man who's after my own heart. Now we think of that as David
and it was, but really it's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
man that was after God's own heart. Perfectly, perfectly. Now it says there in verse one
and two that Saul reigned. He reigned about two years. And
then he chose 3,000 men. He gave 1,000 to Jonathan, his
son, to use, and he kept 2,000 for himself. And this is really
the first professional army Israel had. Saul set it up. And Saul
told Jonathan, and this is where Jonathan got his order from.
He didn't go up against the Philistines on his own. His father had told
him to do it. And Jonathan, he says here, let
me go to verse two. Saul chose him 3,000 men of Israel,
wherefore 2,000 were with Saul in Michmash and in Mount Bethel,
and 1,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah, Benjamin, and the
rest of the people he sent home to their tent, and if He needed
them, He'd call them up. I want to show you something.
I just thought about this. Over in chapter 8, remember the
king that God said He's going to give Israel, He's going to
take, and He's going to take, and He's going to take? You know God's
good for His Word. You can stand on God's Word.
If God said it, it's going to happen, whether you and I believe
it or not. Believing it doesn't have any effect on God's Word.
God said it and that's it, it's gonna happen. In verse 11 of
chapter 8, and he said, 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 did, didn't he? About two years into his reign,
he took their sons and did exactly what God said he would do. And
here's the upside of this. God said, this is what you're
gonna do. And he did it because God said, this is what you're
gonna do. But you know, the Lord said, he that believes in me
shall never perish. I can take God at his word there.
You see, we can take God at his word all the way through. If
he says he's gonna punish somebody, he's gonna punish somebody, but
if he says, he that comes to me, I'll not cast him out, that's
good news too. I stand on that. The point I'm
trying to make is I stand on God's Word. When I was younger,
I have to say, I believe I stood more on my feelings. When you're
young in the faith, you put a lot in your feelings, don't you?
But this is one of the good parts about growing old, is that you're
in Christ, not just growing old. I don't know too much good about
that. But growing old is this, you learn to stand on God's word
and not your feelings. Because you know feelings come
and feelings go, you know that. One day you feel lost, one day
you feel saved, one day you feel this, one day you feel that.
But as you grow older, you think, you say, Lord, you said this,
you said this. And that's the foundation of
faith. The foundation of faith is the word of God. I believe. You know, my granddaughter, I
baptized her when I was there, but she had made this statement.
She said, why do we complicate? Why do we complicate? She said
this to her daddy. Why do we complicate faith? It's just believing
God out of the mouth of babes. It's just believing God. I believe
God. I believe what he said. And that's the foundation of faith,
the word of God. Now it's evident here in verses 3 and 4 that the
Philistines had garrisons, they had strongholds or forts, that's
what they were, in the land there of Israel. Apparently they had
made some kind of agreement that they could have the garrisons
in that land. So they were at a mutual agreement
over that. But Saul told Jonathan to go up against this one garrison.
And he did, and he took it. You see, before this, Saul had
a battle with the Ammonites, and he whipped him. He whipped
him. And I have no doubt, I have no
doubt, he was feeling full of himself. He thought, you know,
I'm gonna take care of these Philistines in the land here.
And he told Jonathan to go up against him, and he did. And
it made the Philistines angry. I mean, it made them angry. And they gathered up, and it
says in verse 5 through 7 there, that they had gathered up 30,000
men and so many chariots and as many as the sand of the seashore. I mean, they really mustered
up their army because they're going to come against Israel.
And here's what's interesting. It says that they were an abomination.
Let me see if I can find it. In verse 4, listen, And all Israel
heard say that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines,
and that Israel also was had in abomination with the Philistines.
Now, if you look over in your margin, that means did stink. Did stink. You know why? Israel had made an agreement
with him they could do this. They broke that agreement. They
were men of dishonor. They were men that you couldn't
take them at their word. Even if you give your word to
an enemy, keep it. Keep it. They gave their word,
and what they do, they, so to speak, came in the back door
on them. Now, if you give your word, you keep it. You keep it.
And so the Philistines said, these people can't be trusted.
That's their attitude. They can't be trusted. So they're
going to take care of that problem. And so what happens here, they
gather this army, then the people hear of this, and they get scared
to death. They get scared to death. And
many of them, it says, went and hid in caves and rocks and mountains
and pits, and some went across Jordan, some got as far away
from the danger that they could get. And some stayed with Saul. And it says that they followed
him. Look in verse 7. And some of the Hebrews went
over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was
yet in Gilgal. And all the people followed him,
trembling. Now would you like to have that
army following you? Trembling, scared to death. They were scared
to death. But here's the problem. It starts,
here's where the problem starts. And usually this is where any
problem starts with us. Not seeking the counsel of God. Not seeking the counsel, he did
not seek the counsel of God's prophet, Samuel. He was to wait,
he was to wait on Samuel. So in verse eight, look here
in verse eight. And he tarried seven days. That is, Saul tarried
seven days, and he was told to do this. He was told to tarry
seven days. According to the set time that
Samuel had appointed, but Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people
were scattered from him. They left him. So here's the
problem. He didn't wait. He didn't seek
God's counsel. He went ahead on his own. He
didn't wait for Samuel to come and offer the sacrifice. He didn't
wait for him to come and tell him what God would have him to
do. He didn't wait on him. Instead, he took matters into
his own hands. You see, by this time, and this
is interesting, when they first went to anoint Saul, you know
he hid himself. He was scared to be king. He
hid himself. Saul, it appears to be that Saul
was of a humble spirit. He hid himself and he didn't
want to be the king, he's hid himself. But once he became king
and once he whipped up on the Ammonites and it's like, let
me tell you something, power without grace is destructive. If it's not tempered by grace,
it's destructive. And so Saul, he got this power,
he got a taste of power. And he thought, well, you know
what? Samuel's not here, I'm the king.
I can go ahead and do this. I can do this. No, you can't. No, you can't. You know, Henry
told me one time years ago, there was a situation going on. He
said, you know, a man makes a mistake who thinks because he's really
good in one area, he can be good in all areas. He said, that's
a mistake. We're good where God blesses
us. God gives us talent. Gifts and he blesses us and that's
where he blesses us when we think you know what I? Could do that
too. I can do that also and I can
do it. No you can't No, you can't Saul thinks I'm a king God was
with me. I whipped the Ammonites But I tell you one thing you
don't do you don't mess with the gospel You don't mess with
the gospel of God's glory You don't do it. It's DANGEROUS,
DANGEROUS to do that. He was supposed to wait on the
Lord and wait for the prophet of God to speak, but he didn't
do it. He wouldn't wait. So what did he do? He offered
the burnt offering. He usurped the authority of Christ
is what he's doing. He's doing what in type only
Christ can do. Christ is the priest. You know,
God set up the priesthood. Only the priest could offer the
sacrifice, nobody else. Nobody else. But Saul thought he could do
it. He was not a prophet nor a priest, but he was a king,
and he said, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this. And that was
his downfall. That's when God said, the kingdom
is going to be taken from you. When he messed with the office
of our Lord Jesus Christ as being a priest and offering a sacrifice
that he was not appointed to do. Someone else made this, and I
think this is probably, of all the notes I've made this morning,
just before coming out here, I read the story of Uzziah. And it really gives us the picture
of what's going on here with Saul. Turn over to 2 Chronicles
26. And basically, after reading
this, I thought, I can just read this and it explains the whole
thing. Those who have eyes to see, see. And those who have
ears to hear, hear. Now, if you look, I'm going to
just kind of go through this chapter, kind of try to kind
of quick, but we'll see. Then all the people of Judah
took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, made him king in the room
of his father Amaziah. He built Eloth and restored it
to Judah. After that, the king slept with
his fathers. Now, 16 years old was Uzziah
when he began to reign. He reigned 52 years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name was also was Jechaliah of Jerusalem. And he
did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He was a good
king. He did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah
did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding
in the visions of God. Now listen, as long as he sought
the Lord, that's very important. As long as he sought the Lord,
God made him to prosper. Put that down. Put that in your
memory bank. As long as he sought the Lord,
the Lord made him the prophet. He went forth and warred against
the Philistines and broke down the wall of Gath and the wall
of Jabnah and the wall of Ashdod and the built cities about Ashdod
and among the Philistines. And God helped him against the
Philistines and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gerbal and Me. I didn't practice these names,
of course. me humans and the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah
and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt everybody
heard about him for he strengthened himself exceedingly He became
a great king. Moreover, Uzziah built towers
in Jerusalem at the corner of the gate. And then in verse 10,
also he built towers in the desert and digged many wells. And verse
11, Moreover, Uzziah had a host of fighting men that went out
to war by bands. And the whole number of the chief
of the fathers of the mighty men of valor were 2,600. in verse 13 and under their hand
was an army of three hundred thousand seven thousand he got
big didn't he man this is he's the lord's blessing him and verse
14 and uziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields
and spears and helmets and abragons and bows and slings to cast stones
and made he and he made in jerusalem engines invented by cunning men
to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows
and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad,
for he was marvelously helped till he was strong." His name spread and he was famous. The man was famous. Now listen,
here it goes, here it is. This is our downfall. Listen,
let me preface it with this. This is why God gave Paul a thorn
in the flesh. Because he was given such an
abundance of revelation, God gave him a thorn in the flesh
to keep him down, to keep him from being lifted up with pride.
That's what he had to give Paul, to keep him from being lifted
up with pride. But when he was strong, his heart
was lifted up to his destruction. I tell you what, and this is
especially for me or anybody that gets in a pulpit, we ought
to crawl into the pulpit and crawl out of the pulpit. It scares me. It didn't used
to scare me, but it does now. It makes me tremble and I always
pray about it. When someone really talks about
a sermon I've preached, and they go on about it, the way I used
to, I like, oh, I like, you like that. It scares me now, it really
does. I didn't have no sense when I
was younger to be scared. But it scares me now, because God
could take that away from me. It's not me, it's God. It's not
me, it's the Lord. For he transgressed against the
LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense
upon the altar of incense. You see, this went to his head,
not his heart. It went to his head, not his
heart. And he went in there to burn incense. And Azariah the
priest went in after him, and with him fourscore forty priests
of the LORD that were valiant men. And they withstood Uzziah
the king and said to him, it appertains not to thee, Uzziah,
to burn incense to the Lord. God didn't give that to you.
You're out of bounds. You are out of bounds. Don't
get out of here. They're warning the man. He's
being warned of God. Get out of here. This is not
yours. You be the king and I'll be the priest. It's like Henry
said to a man one time, a man was trying to tell him how to
do some things at the church. Henry said, you run your business
and I'll run this church. That's what he told him. He said, you run your business,
I'll run this church. You be the king, I'll be the
priest. And let's not cross that line.
Because there's only one king priest. There's one prophet,
priest, and king in one person. That's Jesus Christ. And all
these Old Testament types pictured him. And Saul was trying to usurp
the Lord's authority, his priesthood. That priesthood belongs to Christ.
That priesthood back in that day was a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We don't overstep our bounds.
Learn the place where God's put you and stay in it. Now, I say that for myself, too.
I mean, let's stay in our place. And Azariah the priest went in
after him, he told him, it doesn't appertain to you unto the Uzziah
to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons
of Aaron that are consecrated by God. God set them apart. God set Christ apart to be the
priest. He set Christ apart to be the
sacrifice. He set Christ apart to be the
atonement. They're consecrated to burn incense.
This is their responsibility. Go out of the sanctuary for thou
has trespassed, king. I love it when a man has the
backbone to tell a king, get out of here. This is God. See,
God's man has the authority. God's man has the authority over
all. He can tell the government, no,
you can't come into here. This is not your business. You
can make traffic laws and you can make civil laws that are
good, but when you start trying to step your foot in God's law,
in God's church, you're out of bounds. You're out, get out of
here. You're out of bounds. Neither
shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. God's not gonna
honor this. That's exactly what Saul's doing. God's not gonna
honor what you're doing, Saul. Then Uzziah was wroth. He was
angry. Usually we do when somebody puts
us in our place. We usually get angry, don't we?
Then Uzziah was wroth, and he had a censer in his hand to burn
incense, and while he was wroth with the priest, a leprosy. even
rose up in his forehead before the priest in the house of the
Lord from beside the incense altar. As arrived the chief priest,
and all the priests looked upon him, and behold, he was leprous
in his forehead. And they thrust him out from
there. They got a hold of him and dragged
him out. They thrust him out. Yea, himself
hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And
Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death. And he
dwelt in a several house, established house, being a leper, for he
was cut off from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son
was over the king's house, judging the people of Israel." Here he
started out so good. He did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord. Then he took that which was right
and turned it into wrong. He tried to take the place of
Christ. Christ is the priest. That's
why Saul's in so much trouble here. That's why he's in so much
trouble. I wasn't even planning on reading
all that, but when I read that before coming out here, I thought,
that explains it. I don't have to have notes on
that. You can understand that, can't you? He's overstepped his
bounds. He overstepped his bounds, just
like Saul did. You know, Samuel asked him why he did that, and
here's, let me just say a few more things. Not only did he
offer the sacrifice, and he wasn't supposed to, usurping the authority
of Christ. Look in, I think it's verse 10
here. Oh, let me get back to, back
there. Let me go to verse 9. And Saul
said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, any peace offerings. And
he offered the burnt offerings. And it came to pass that as soon
as he had made an end of offering, the burnt offering, and burnt
offering, behold, Samuel came, and Saul went out to meet him,
that he might salute him. You know what that word salute
means? Look over in your margin if you have it. Bless. Now who does that belong to?
The priest. Saul was so arrogant. He's like,
Samuel, I'm gonna come out here. I've already offered a sacrifice.
I've already done what you should have done. I've done that. Now I'm here, I'm gonna bless
you. That's not given to him to do
that. That's the priest job. That's his responsibility to
bless. His responsibility is to offer the sacrifice, tell
what God would have him to do and to bless the people. And
Saul was so arrogant and he said, Samuel, I'm going to bless you. No, you're not. No, you're not.
Only Christ can sanctify us and make us holy and bless us. Only
he can do that. You know, usually when someone,
and I've noticed this over the years, usually when someone does
something wrong, they try to make up for it by being overly
religious. They become overly religious
to quiet their conscience. Saul makes excuses here. Samuel
confronts him about it. And Saul said, well, the people
were leaving. What am I supposed to do? They
were all leaving. And then he blames Samuel. He
says, you weren't here when you said you were gonna be here,
Samuel. It's your fault, Adam, the woman you gave me. You could
tell when there's not true repentance, because they're still blaming
somebody. True repentance, you don't blame no one but yourself,
period. I don't care what it is. David
said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. David could have blamed God's providence. He said,
well, you know, Bathsheba, you know, you could have kept her
from being out there. Or you could have kept me from walking
out on the balcony. But he didn't. He said, it's
my fault. It's my fault. What I did, I did against you
in your sight, with you looking on, knowing better. I knew better.
Sin against light. But Saul here, he blamed Samuel.
He said, you wasn't here when you were supposed to. Well, what
does that matter? Obeying God is obeying God, period. And then
it says the armies were gathered together and they were going
to plan an attack, so I FORCED MYSELF, I FORCED MYSELF TO OFFER
A SACRIFICE. I bet you they weren't much worse
than that. No circumstance and no situation
warrants us to violate the Word of God. You know that? None. None. Our Lord said this, No man comes
to the Father but by me. We don't come any other way. We come through the Lord Jesus
Christ. We don't try to go around Him. We go to Him. You know,
the Catholics go to Mary or they'll go to Saint Paul or Saint Peter
or something, Saint this, that. They don't go to God. They don't
go to Christ, do they? They go to the ones like when
I was a kid growing up. I went to Mom to get the dad.
Always did. Mom asked Dad if we can do this.
Mom asked Dad. I never went to Dad. I always
asked Mom. They think Mary's going to ask the Lord to do something
and she's going to persuade him. No, it's not. She's not a mediator. Christ is the only mediator between
God and men. Nobody else. So Saul, there in
verse 13, And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly.
You have acted without wisdom. You've played the fool. Thou
has not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he
commanded thee, for now would the Lord have established thy
kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not
continue. The Lord has sought him a man
after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be
captain over his people, because thou has not kept that which
the Lord commanded thee. That could be read to Adam. That
verse right there could be read to Adam. Adam was king. God made Adam king over creation. He said, have dominion over the
fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and just have dominion
over them. If he hadn't of sinned, he'd
still be king. But he sinned. And God took the kingdom away
from him. And he sought one who's after his own heart. And you
know who that is. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is king, listen, who is king of glory, not just this earth. Adam was only king on this earth.
Our king is king of glory. Our king is king of heaven and
king of earth. Our king is king of kings and
Lord of lords. It's serious, it's serious to
mess with the gospel of God's glory, to mess with that which
belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's serious business. All right.