1 Samuel 8. There won't be any midweek service.
I'm leaving Wednesday, Vicki and I, to go to Lexington and
be in a Bible conference. I'll be preaching Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday, because I'll be preaching also at Hurricane Road Grace
Church. And Ben and Tommy are going to
handle the services here next week, next Sunday. Pray for them. I don't, it's a terrible place
to stand, but I don't mean it in a terrible way. You know,
you know what I mean? It's, you know, whenever Moses
approached that burning bush, God said, put off your shoes.
You're on holy ground. And I feel like this has that
same atmosphere about it, standing here behind this pulpit, handling
God's Word, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. So you pray
for them and pray for me. Say, Lord, give me the message,
messages, and the liberty to communicate the gospel. You know,
that's what I want as much as more than anything when I preach.
I want to be able to communicate the gospel to you and to whomever
I'm preaching to. I want to be able to do that.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer here. Our Father, which art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name. Be with us this morning. Bless
us with thy presence. Lord, help us to listen. Be our
teacher, instruct us out of your word by your spirit. Enable me
this morning to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, to lift him up. Help us this morning to sing
your praises and to give unto you the glory that's due unto
your name. And we pray for those in this
congregation that are sick, those who hurt him, who's under trials. We pray for them, Father. Pray
for Paul Gaudet and pray for Judy and others here, Lord, that
you know more of than I do. I pray for them. Pray you'd bless
and comfort and enable them to trust you, to rest in you. Again, I ask for thy help this
morning. And what I ask for myself and
this congregation this morning, I ask for all your children throughout
this world who are meeting together, your preachers who are standing
to preach. Lord, no man is sufficient for these things, but you are
our sufficiency. Father, in Christ's name, we
pray and amen. The title of this lesson is Rejecting
God as King. That started in the garden. When Adam rejected God to be
ruler over him, to be sovereign over him, ever since then, man
has rejected God's authority. You know, when we reject good
authority, God-given authority, we are rejecting God. We're rejecting
Him. God has set up the authority
in the home. He has set up authority in civil
government. God has set these authorities
up. And when we, from our hearts,
you know, we obey these authorities, we're obeying God. We are obeying
God. But this started in the garden,
and we'll see this in this chapter. And this is interesting. It's
providential, as all things are. The next message has to do with
Christ, our King. They're rejecting Him as King.
He's before Pilate. And here, the children of Israel,
again, we don't change, do we? Man doesn't change, I don't care
how educated man gets, he's never changing because by nature he's
sin, by nature he's wicked, that is what we are by nature. By
nature we are rebellion and rebellion against God. That doesn't change. It doesn't change, we don't change.
Now Samuel, as you remember last week, I believe it was last week,
Hannah took him after she had weaned him, took him up to where
Eli was there, and she left him there. And he ministered before
the Lord there along with Eli, helping Eli. And we see that
in 1 Samuel 2 and 1 Samuel 3. And now Eli had grown old. He had grown old, and he had
his sons as priests, and he didn't discipline his sons. He didn't
discipline them at all. And here's what's interesting.
Samuel, the Lord gave him this vision or prophecy or whatever,
and told him what he was going to do to Eli's son because he
hadn't disciplined him. Then Samuel grows old and does
the same thing. His sons become wicked. Samuel is a judge and a prophet
in Israel, and he makes them judges, but their judgment is
perverted, they take bribes. Is there anything more crooked
on this earth than a crooked judge? I don't believe there's
anything on this earth more wicked, more evil than a crooked judge. And that's what his sons were.
They were taking bribes and the people were displeased. And so
in verses four and five, look here, It says, Then all the elders
of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel and
to Ramah. And they said to him, Behold,
thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us
a king, make us a king to judge us like all the nations. They wanted to be like the rest
of the nations, the rest of the world. Here's what I think they
wanted. You have to excuse my voice,
I'm having a lot of trouble with it this morning. Here's what they wanted. They
wanted a visible king. See, God was their king. But God is spirit. And they could
not see God. And they wanted a king to rule
over them. A king they could see. And a
king they could show off to other nations. It's like peer pressure. They felt all these other nations
had a king and why don't we have one? God was not enough. God was not enough for them. And this is not the first time
this happened. Look over in Judges 8. Look in Judges 8. Judges chapter 8, verse 22, Then
the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou
and thy son, and thy son's son also, for thou hast delivered
us from the hand of Midian. Who delivered them? God did. Let's not get caught up with
the means and forget who God is. God's the first cause, God
was their Deliverer. But they said Gideon did it,
they ignored God. And Gideon, showing much wisdom
here, said unto them, I will not rule over you, I will not
be your king. That's what they wanted, they
wanted him to be king. Neither, now hold on a minute, Neither shall my Son rule over
you, the Lord shall rule over you. God, you're a King. Do we need anyone else other
than God? We don't need anyone else other than Almighty God. Do we need anyone other than
the Lord Jesus Christ? We don't need none other than
Him. You know, the Lord made him king
before the world began. He was born king. He was born
king. We will see this because our
Lord tells Pilate, to this end was I born to be king. Well, these elders here, they
request a king and it displeases Samuel much. As you see there in verse 6, But the thing displeased Samuel
when they said, give us a king to judge us. Samuel knew what
they were doing. He knew they were rejecting God. He knew the motive behind this.
And Samuel prayed to the Lord. He did the right thing. It displeased
him, so he took it to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel,
hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto
thee. For they have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected me. See Samuel, I think Samuel did
take it a little personal. He took it a little personal.
We can see that in verse eight. But God says to Samuel, do what
they ask. You know, you don't want God
to give you what you will. I want God to give me what he
wills. Not my will, but thy will be done. Are we not taught to
pray that way? Not my will, but thine be done.
The worst thing I believe God could do to me is lead me to
myself. The worst thing God could do
to me is let me have my own way. You go throughout the scriptures
and when you read, they went their way, it was always opposite
of God. It was always away from God.
Our way leads away from God. ALL FALSE RELIGION LEADS AWAY
FROM GOD, THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD. IT LEADS TO A FALSE GOD,
A GOD OF THE IMAGINATION, BUT THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD OF THIS
BIBLE, THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD OF CREATION, MAN'S WAY LEADS
AWAY FROM HIM. IT ALWAYS DOES. THERE IS A WAY
THAT SEEMETH RIGHT UNTO MAN, BUT THE END THEREOF IS WHAT?
IT'S DESTRUCTION. YOU DON'T WANT GOD TO GIVE YOU
YOUR WAY. Give me, God, give me thy way. Christ said, I'm
the way. Give me thy way. Give me Christ. He said, but they rejected me
that I should not reign over them. Think of all that they
saw. He brought them out of Egypt. These Israelites saw some unbelievable
miracles. And yet, in spite of all of that,
they want a king. And they reject God in reigning
over them. Now he says, according to all
the works which they have done since the day that I brought
them up out of Egypt, even unto this day wherewith they have
forsaken me. I bet if you asked them that,
they'd say, no, we haven't forsaken God. We haven't forsaken God. You could go out on the street
and say, do you hate God? You know what the answer would
be? No, I don't hate God. But God
said you do. The natural mind is enmity against
God. You know what that word enmity
means? Hostile. The natural mind is hostile against
God. He said, they have forsaken me
and served other gods. I guarantee you that all of them
would deny it. The Pharisees denied it. So do they also unto thee. Now,
you know, the servant is no better than his master. And he's saying
here, if they've forsaken me instead of other gods, they've
forsaken you too, Samuel. They're not gonna listen to you.
They're not gonna listen to God's man. THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE
ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST DO NOT BELIEVE THE MESSENGER OR THE
MESSAGE THAT GOD SENDS. THEY DON'T BELIEVE IT. NOW THEREFORE
HEARKEN TO THEIR VOICE, HOW BE IT YET PROTEST SOLEMNLY AGAINST
THEM, GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT, BUT YOU TELL THEM THAT WHAT THEY
WANT IS WRONG. YOU WARN THEM, YOU KNOW HE'S
THE PROPHET, He's warning the people of what God said. He said,
you warned them, you solemnly, you protest solemnly unto them
and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
Oh, they're going to have a king, all right. God's going to give
them a king. And Samuel told all the words
of the Lord unto the people and asked of him, that ask of him
a king. He said, all right, you want
a king? God's going to give you a king.
You've rejected God as being your king. You've rejected his
reign, his sovereign reign over you, his sovereign rule. So he's
going to give you a king. And there's something that keeps
coming up here in the next few verses. And I think you'll see
it. And he said, this will be the
manner of the king. This is the kind of king you're
going to get that shall reign over you. He will take your sons
and appoint them for himself. He's going to take your sons.
He will appoint them for himself for his chariots to be his horsemen,
and some shall run before his chariot. And he will appoint
him captains over thousands, and captains over 50s, and will
set them to ear his corn, and to reap his harvest, and to make
his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will
take your daughters to be confectionaries, 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 servants. And he will take the 10th part
of your seed and of your vineyards. He's going to take 10% of it
and give it 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 work. He will take
the 10th of your sheep and you shall be his servants. Did you catch the word that kept
coming up here? He will take. He will take. He will take. He will take. This
is a king. You want a king? I'll give you
a king. I'll give you one. And this is exactly what he's
gonna do. He's gonna take, and he's gonna
take, and he's gonna take. He's gonna take everything from
you. Everything. The King that God gives and has
given, GIVES! He GIVES! He's given us LIFE!
The Lord Jesus Christ, God's King! He's not the TAKER, He's
the GIVER! He's the Giver of LIFE! He's
given us forgiveness. He's given us mercy. He's given
us justification. He's given us righteousness.
He produced a righteousness, a righteousness that God demands
and a righteousness that God accepts. We can't produce righteousness. We cannot do this. And nobody
understands this until God saves them. You cannot do one right
thing without sin. Jesus Christ did everything right
and knew no sin. There's no sin in His righteousness. There was no sin in His conduct.
There was no sin in His character. He's the Holy One of Israel.
Now, do you want God's King? Who is God? Jesus Christ is God.
David said in the Psalm, God is King over the whole world.
You want God's king or you want your own kind of king? You want
to come up with one. There's no king like God's king.
There's no king ever merciful that's ever been so merciful
as King Jesus. There's no king who fought the
battle for his people like King Jesus. He fought the battle,
the battle was his. He put us out of the way. He
took us out of the way. All other kings sit back and
they send the army forward, don't they? They take their army and
they send them out to battle while they sit back on the hill
and watch and observe. Our King put us out of the way
and He took on the battle by Himself. By Himself He purged
us from our sins. That's what it says in Hebrews
1. The battle is the Lord's, it's
not yours. It's not yours. Oh, I tell you,
I don't want to be like other nations, as they did, you know,
give us a king, give us this, give us that. I want the Lord Jesus Christ
to reign over me. I want God's king. There's no
king like God's king. King of glory, king of kings,
lord of lords. See, they wanted a king, their
own king, and they got their king, and then the other nation
has their king, and now we all got our kings. But God's king rules over all. There's no comparison to God's
king. Because God's king is God. God's King is God, that's who
He is. Now he says in verse 18, and
you shall cry. Oh yeah, you're gonna cry before
this one's over with. When you and I have our way,
we end up crying over it. He said, you're gonna cry. You're
gonna cry out in that day because of your King, which you shall
have chosen you. I'm gonna give you what you want.
You chose this King. And the Lord will not hear you
in that day. Nevertheless, the people." Now
here is spiritual death personified. Samuel just told them, he solemnly
warned them, protested to them, told them what kind of king they
were going to have. He's going to take and he's going
to take and take and take and take and take. And nevertheless, the people
refused to obey the voice of Samuel. They refused to listen to God's
prophet, the one that had been so faithful in guiding and instructing
them for many years. And they say, no, but we will
have a king over us. Well, you're going to have one.
You insist. You know, sometimes God lets
us have our way. Sometimes we should always pray,
Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. Thine be done. Oh nay, but we will have a king
over us, that we also may be like all the nations. They wanted
to be like all the other nations. You know, God's people are different
people. They're not like all other people.
They believe God. They believe God. They've been
born of God. They have the fruit of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness. But they want to be like all
the other nations, and that our King may judge us. and go out
before us and fight our battles. No, you're going to fight the
battles. God gave him a king, Saul. And he took and he took
and he took. But you know what he did, I think
about two years into his reign? He offered a sacrifice. He took
upon himself the office of a priest. There's only one king priest,
Jesus Christ. And Saul took upon himself to
offer a sacrifice because he got tired of waiting on Samuel.
And so he said, well, I'm the king. There's no one above me. I can do this. I don't need Samuel
here. The Lord will accept this. No,
he won't. No, he won't. Jesus Christ is
the only person who is prophet, priest, and king. No other one
held all three positions, only the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
only one. That's the kind of king they
had, a very arrogant and taking king. He took everything. 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, Make
them a king. And Samuel said unto the men
of Israel, go ye every man unto your city. I'm going to make
you a king, God said to you, and you're not going to like
it. But if we bow, if we bow to God
as our king, we're going to like it. We are going to like it. What a king we have in the Lord
Jesus Christ. All right.