Alright, let's open our Bibles
to 1 Samuel chapter 16. And, Brother Aaron, a good way
to cover yourself on that next time is in the original Hebrew
Bible there was just one book. I'm saying the two books were
one. So, that's what he was doing. He was quoting from the original
Hebrew. We preachers have to learn to
cover our tracks, don't we? Save face? I learned a long time
ago that this thing is not about saving face. It's about falling
on our face before the Lord. Humility. Humble us, O Lord. Alright, 1 Samuel chapter 16.
The title of the message tonight is, The Lord is our King. The Lord is our King. You saw
there in Hannah's prayer, Brother Aaron read that Hannah prayed
The Lord shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn
of his anointed. And of course, there is a temporal,
physical application to her prayer that's fulfilled in King David,
King David of old. But the ultimate application,
the eternal application to her prayer is certainly not in King
David of old. but in David's greater son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and our King. And that's who
is our King. One thing is clear in the Old
Covenant. You know the Old Covenant that
was that covenant made with the nation Israel through Moses on
Sinai. That no matter what man was on
the physical throne in Jerusalem, beginning at the time that they
had a king, a physical king, the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised
Messiah, the Redeemer, was and is and always will be God's anointed,
sovereign, eternal king of his people, spiritual Israel. His
kingdom is not of this world, he told Pontius Pilate. So, there's
no use looking for him to come back and sit on an earthly throne.
Now, he is the sovereign of this world. He's in control of this
world. And there's not anything that
happens that is outside of his purpose, his control, and the
ultimate goal of his glory. But his kingdom is not of this
world. King David's kingdom was of this world in a sense. He
reigned over a nation, and we're going to be talking about him.
But one of the things you need to understand here, I believe,
to get into the life of David as a type of Christ, as a prophecy,
the fulfillment of prophecy, and as a living, walking example
of gospel truth is this, that one of the main responsibilities
of every prophet, every priest, and every king in Israel was
to lead the people to submit and bow to God as their ultimate
king, to lead them in the ways of God, confessing their sins
and casting themselves continually on the sovereign mercy of God,
realizing that in themselves, individually or as a nation,
they had no strength, no power, no goodness in themselves. And
they had but to simply plead with God in complete faith and
confidence in His covenant promises that He gave to Abraham concerning
this nation. And that's what conviction is
all about in the spiritual realm, in salvation. It's coming to
realize that in myself I have no power, I have no goodness,
I have no holiness or righteousness, I have no right or entitlement.
to anything of eternal blessing, I have but only to cast myself
upon the mercy of God and plead and beg for mercy." And God promises
according to an eternal covenant, the covenant He made with His
Son, between the Father and the Son before the world began, that
He'll save all who do. He'll never turn anybody away.
But that was the responsibility of the prophets and the priests
and the king. Now, many times we see that prophets
and priests and kings didn't ring true to that responsibility,
and that's sad. But the certainty of these covenant
promises were not conditioned on Israel as a nation, nor on
the kings, nor on the prophets, nor on the priests. It was God's
purpose always to fulfill His promise to His people ultimately. And the certainty of these covenant
promises all found their fulfillment in the ultimate promise of God
to send His Son into the world, to send the Messiah to save His
people from their sins. And just like when He saved me
and saved you, He saved us all in spite of ourselves. When you
look at the history of Israel in any segment of their history,
in their greatest glory which was under King David ultimately.
You read mostly about that in 2 Samuel when we get there. But
you see even in their greatest time and even in their lowest
moments that God accomplished His purpose in spite of them. And what a great picture that
is of our eternal salvation and glory ultimately conditioned
on Christ by the grace of God. It's by the grace of God that
we are what we are. He sent His Messiah, His Son,
to establish forgiveness of sin by His death and everlasting
righteousness and enable God to be both a just God and a Savior.
And the Messiah, upon completion of His work of redemption, it
was prophesied in the Old Testament, all the types and the pictures
and the foreshadowings and prophecies of the Old Covenant, that the
Messiah, upon completion of His work of redemption, He would
be exalted to his throne as the King of Kings. The King of Kings,
that's who Christ is. And I believe that's the ultimate
application of what Hannah prayed. He lifts the beggar off the dung
heap. Talk no more exceedingly proud. We don't have anything to be
proud of. Now, we don't. What do we have
that we didn't receive? We didn't earn it, didn't deserve
it. We don't have anything to be proud of. Our boast must be
in Christ and Him crucified and risen again. The kings of Israel
were responsible to lead the people in that attitude, in that
teaching, in that way. Now, as we study the life of
David, we'll see how these great truths are set forth in his history
as types and prophecies, the gospel message. I want you to
look at 1 Samuel 16 and verse 1. Listen to this, it says, And
the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul? Now you know who Saul was. He
was the first king of Israel. He was the people's choice. He
was the people's choice. And so he says, How long will
you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over
Israel? Saul was rejected. Fill thine
horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite."
Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided me a king.
This is God's choice. I have provided me a king among
his sons. Now, 1 Samuel begins. In this passage here, in this
one verse here, we're introduced to the three main characters
of 1 Samuel. And then later on in 2 Samuel.
And the three main characters are Samuel, the prophet and the
judge. He was a prophet and a judge.
Saul, that was Israel's choice for king. One writer said he
was a king after man's own heart. That was Saul. And then David,
that's the one that God provided himself a king among the sons
of Jesse. We know it's King David. He was
God's choice for king. and he was a king after God's
heart. And that's what Israel needed. 1 Samuel begins with
the birth of Samuel and ends with the death of Saul and the
establishment of David on the throne of Israel. Now what I
want to do is I'm going to take this verse here and I'm going
to work to the back. I want to show you how things
got to where they were and then next time I'm going to begin
with verse 1 our way through the life of David. But I want
you, the first seven chapters of 1 Samuel are concerning Samuel,
the prophet, and the judge. That's the first seven chapters
of this book. And then chapters 8 through 15,
the middle of the book, is concerned with Saul, King Saul, Israel's
choice for king, the king after man's heart. And then, beginning
at chapter 16 there, where we read in verse 1 and all the way
over to 2 Samuel, all the way through 2 Samuel, is concerning
David. That's God's choice for king,
the king after God's own heart. Samuel, the prophet, was and
is a type of Christ. Christ, our Deliverer, Christ,
our Prophet, and Christ, our Judge. His birth was miraculous. You see, Samuel, his mother was
Hannah, and she had no children. But look back at 1 Samuel 1,
look at verse 11. She had no children. She was
barren. And she vowed a vow. Look at 1 Samuel 1, verse 11.
It says, Hannah vowed a vow and said, O LORD of hosts, that's
the invincible God who cannot be defeated, If thou wilt indeed
look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and
not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid
a manchild, then I will give him up unto the Lord all the
days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head."
Now, that's what they call the Nazarite vow, where they wouldn't
cut their hair. You remember, Samson took the
Nazarite vow. Now, this is at the end of the
time of the judges. You remember when Joshua brought
the children of Israel over and they occupied the promised land,
they established under God's command a system of judges. Now these judges weren't like
judges today. They didn't sit behind a desk
and hold court and wear black robes and all that. These judges
were men of of valor, they were men, and even when Deborah was
a judge, they were people of leadership, and many of them
were military leaders. And they were people of the Word
of God. For example, Samson was a military leader. So at the
end of the Judges, this is where we are, 1 Samuel. And here we
see a picture in Hannah, the barren woman, and also in the
land of Israel, how bad things were. Hannah had no children. She vowed a vow. She vowed a
vow to God to offer a child up, if God would give her a man-child,
to offer him up in dedication to the Lord. That's the Nazarite
vow. He'll be your servant. Now, this is well within God's
purpose. When we read through the Scriptures,
especially the history, you know, people look at that and say,
well, God changed His mind and finally gave her something she
wanted. No, He did not. If that's what you think, you
need to get in touch with the God of the Bible. Yes, we pray
for things, and it may seem like to us that God changes His mind,
but He doesn't. He says He doesn't. This was
always within God's purpose. But God, who purposes to bring
about all things, and who works all things after the counsel
of His own will, He deems it necessary for us that He uses
the means of our humility and our faith that He gives us to
pray for these things. And here's this poor woman, Hannah,
praying for a son. Look at verse 20. God gave her
a son. 1 Samuel 1.20, Wherefore it came
to pass, when the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived,
that she bear a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because
I have asked him of the Lord. The name Samuel means asked of
God. She asked for him and she got
him. God's gift to Hannah. But not only to Hannah. He was
God's gift to the whole nation. Now herein we see a wonderful
type of our Savior. Our Savior was born of a miracle.
A miracle of the incarnation, we call it. He was born of the
Virgin Mary, conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit without
the aid of man, without the power of man, without any connection
with man. He was not born with our Adamic
nature, our fallen sinful human nature. He was born pure, holy. That holy thing in your womb,
the angel said to Mary. So it was a miraculous birth.
And in that, Samuel is typifying and foreshadowing our Savior.
And then our Savior is truly the gift of God to spiritual
Israel. The Bible says that in Romans
chapter 8, that He that spared not His own Son, but gave Him
unto us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?
If we have Christ, what a gift! We have everything. You say,
I want all the blessings of eternal life. Well, the Scripture says
in Ephesians 1 and verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. who have blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus before the world began. If you have Christ, you have
all spiritual blessings. Men and women in religion today
are doing their dead-level best, trying to earn their way into
God's favor, trying to make themselves worthy, trying to make themselves
righteous. If you have Christ, you have
it all. And that's what's pictured here.
Samuel asked of God. You know, Christ told His generation,
He said, you have not because you ask not. Hannah asked. Have you asked? Have I asked?
God save me, for Christ's sake. God grant me mercy. Be merciful
to me, the sinner. What a great spiritual illustration
He is. And our Savior was a gift, not
only to Mary, but to the whole spiritual nation. God's elect.
His sheep, He said, I give my life for the sheep. Now Samuel
was born, turn back to the book of Judges, just a few pages back,
to the last chapter and the last verse of the book of Judges.
We won't go through all of this, but Judges 21. What I want you
to notice here, Samuel was born in a time when Israel was at
its lowest. If you read the book of Judges,
I heard a preacher say one time on the tape, I was studying the
book of Ruth, but he had two messages on introduction on the
book of Judges, because Ruth was during the time of the Judges.
And he made this statement, he said that the most pure, the
best form of government that was ever on earth was the Judges. And I thought, man, have you
read the book of Judges? I said, that was Israel, how
they started and how they ended up. I mean, there were some glorious
times there under, for example, Gideon. How'd they end up? At this time, when Samuel was
born, there was a man named Eli who was the judge, one of the
judges. He was a contemporary with Samson. You know what happened
to Samson? And you know the Philistines were defeated under Samson, but
by this time they'd already taken over the nation and really nobody
cared. Here's Eli, he was a priest and a judge, and he really wasn't
an openly immoral man, but he was a neglectful man. He had
two sons that were just hideous. They misused the sacrifices of
the tabernacle. They committed fornication with
the women who were dedicated to the service of the tabernacle.
They disregarded God. They burned strange fire and
He just let it go. Israel was in a mess here, but
look at verse 25. The last verse of Judges 21.
Here's how it is summed up by God. This is Israel's condition. In those days there was no king
in Israel. Now, what he's saying, he's reflecting here, by the
Holy Spirit, the attitude of the people. There was a king,
God's king, you see. But the people didn't recognize
it. And it says, every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. Now, you know what happens when that happens. Think about
our day. That's what's happening today,
isn't it? Everybody's doing what's right in their own eyes. That's
a pitiful place to be. When Adam fell, what did he do?
He did that which was right in his own eyes. But God said, I'm
the one who sets that standard of what's right and what's wrong. Now that's the days that Samuel
was born in. He was born in a time when Israel
was at its lowest. Israel had sunk into deep corruption. They were dominated by the Philistines
and most of them didn't even care. The tabernacle was largely
ignored. The priesthood was corrupted.
As I said, Eli was Israel's high priest and judge, and here he
let his two sons just do what they wanted. And Israel had been
defeated by the Philistines. If you read on in 1 Samuel, you'll
see the ark was stolen by the Philistines, and it was captured
and taken away. They had nothing but trouble
because of it, so they got rid of it and returned it. Now, out
of this mess, God raised up Samuel. the gift of God to be the deliverer,
a prophet, and a judge. Well, what a type of Christ that
is. Our Savior came into the world
when Israel again was at its lowest, religiously, morally,
darkness. I love that picture of the gates.
You remember the Eastern Gate, which is a picture of His first
coming and His second coming, but it comes out of the Valley
of Kidron, which means darkness. He was born in the land of darkness. This shining light, this sun
rising out of the east, this glorious Deliverer and Redeemer,
God the Son incarnate, was born in a world of darkness and depravity
and sin. A root out of a dry ground. And
that's how Samuel was born. And our Savior came into the
world that way. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 7. In chapter 7, we see Samuel leading
the people in covenant renewal, calling them to repentance. Look
at verse 2 of 1 Samuel 7, or verse 3. It says, And Samuel spake unto
all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord
with all your heart, then put away the strange gods of Ashtoreth
from among you. You see, they've gone into idolatry.
Prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only, and
He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. And
the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth, and
served the Lord only. Samuel said, Gather all Israel
to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. He would intercede
for them." That's a picture of Christ, our intercessor. And
they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it
out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said, We ascend
against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children
of Israel in Mizpah. And when the Philistines heard
that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah,
the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when
the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
And the children of Israel said to Samuel, cease not to cry unto
the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand
of the Philistines. They looked to Samuel to pray
for them. They knew He was God's man. He was the prophet. He was
the judge. He was the deliverer. He was
the gift of God. Now, who do we look to to deliver
us from our spiritual Philistines, Satan, sin, all our enemies? We look to Christ, who is our
deliverer, who conquered sin on the cross. as our sins were
charged to Him who gave us righteousness before God to shield us and to
make us complete before God. And He judges His people. He
judged us on the cross when He died for our sins. He judged
us righteous in Him. And nobody can lay anything to
the charge of God's elect. And so what do we continually
do when the Philistines, our spiritual enemies, our spiritual
Philistines come after us even now? We pray to our Savior, intercede
for us, for we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. And there you see the ultimate
purpose of the ministry of Samuel, a type of Christ, our judge to
deliver us from sin, from idolatry, from our enemies, and our prophet
to reveal the glory of God. to us and in bringing us by His
Spirit to faith and repentance and obedience. That's Samuel. Samuel had a great effect on
David. You don't hear much about Samuel
personally after chapter 16. And then later on he dies. But
his influence is felt throughout David's ministry. And that's
the way it is with our Savior. He died on the cross, He was
buried, but He rose again the third day, and He lives. He lives
in glory interceding for us, He lives in our hearts by His
Spirit and His Word, and He'll never leave us, never forsake
us. And then secondly, in chapter 8 through chapter 15, we come
to Saul. Now, you've got to talk about
Saul if you're going to talk about the life of David, because
the last half of 1 Samuel is spent David, mainly, running
away from Saul. This Saul, a king after man's
own heart. The story of Saul, King Saul,
he was a man, it's a story of unbelief, it's a story of human
pride, and not only of Saul's, but the whole nation of Israel
under Saul. Look at chapter 8. It says in
verse 1, 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, Abiah. They were judges
in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his
ways, but turned aside after lucre, as after money. They took bribes and perverted
judgment. I don't know what it was about
these fellows' children back then. You know, we talk about
how rebellious children are today. Well, they must have been back
then, too. Eli's sons, look at them. Here's Samuel's sons. Same
way, they walked in disobedience, took bribes, perverted judgment. What that means is that when
anybody came up to be judged by them, they would take the
bribe, you know, to get people off who were guilty and to put
innocent people in jail. But it says in verse 4, then
all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came
to Samuel under Ramah. Samuel had a school of prophets
in Ramah. And said unto him, Behold, thou
art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways, and now make us
a king to judge us." Now, underscore this. Here's the problem. Like
all the nations. We want a king like all the nations. You see that? What does the Bible
tell us as the spiritual nation of God? It says, Be not conformed
to the world. Now you look out in the world
and you see all kinds of things that glitter, but as you know
the old saying, all that glitters is not gold. And you look at
this, here's a religious organization, and they just pack them in. They've
got thousands. And you, you know, in our own
human wisdom, our own fleshly wisdom, we say, well, they must
be doing something right. We want to be like them. Or maybe
you say, well, I might use some of their methods. Right, here's
the problem. Now, what should they have done?
They should have removed Samuel's sons from office. Just remove
them. But they said, no, give us a
king like all other nations. Look at verse 6. He says, but
the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to
judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. Now 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 have
rejected me. What the Lord is saying is that,
don't take this personally, Samuel. Their problem is really not with
you, it's with me. And that's the way it is when
people reject the Word of God, no matter who's preaching it.
They may go after the preacher. And we do take it personally,
but we shouldn't. Their problem is with the Word
of God. Now that's the problem. And he
says, they rejected me that I should not reign over them. So he says
in verse 8, according to all the works which they've done
since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, always
goes back to that deliverance in Egypt. That's why we always
go back to the cross. They were delivered out of Egypt,
brought over into Sinai through the Red Sea. And that's why we
go back to the cross, where we were brought out of the bondage
of sin through the Red Sea of His blood. And he said, even
in this day wherewith they have forsaken me and served other
gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their
voice. Howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them. Tell them it's wrong,
but let them have their way. That's what God's saying. You
know, sometimes God does that. Sometimes it's well within His
plan and purpose to let us have our way. And you want to know
something? I know God's going to overrule
it for good and to His glory. But you know, from our human
point of view, that's the worst thing that God could do to me,
let me have my way. Do you know that? It's always
God's way is the wise way, the right way. And He says, show
them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. So God
gave Samuel a prophecy here of the kind of king that He was
going to let him have. And it wasn't very good. You
read the rest of that. I'm not going to read all of
this. He says He's going to tax you. He's going to take your
sheep and your cattle. He's going to be lifted up. He's
not going to be the great king that you think He is. And so
look at verse 18 of 1 Samuel. It says, And you shall cry out
in the day because of your king. That's 1 Samuel 8.18. This is
what's going to happen. I'm going to let you have what
you want. The king of your choice. And here's what's going to happen,
"...you shall cry out in that day because of your king, which
you shall have chosen, and the Lord will not hear you in that
day. Nevertheless, the people..." Now Samuel told them that, but
it says, "...nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice
of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over
us." And you know, when I read that, the first thing that popped
into my head, I was thinking about, you know, when the Lord
When they were finagling around trying to arrest him and try
him, how the Pharisees said, we will not have this man to
reign over us. We won't have Christ. They wanted
someone to reign over us, but not God's. Not God's Savior. Not God's Redeemer. Not God's
King. And that's what they're saying. We'll have a king. Our
king. The one we want. And so verse 20 says that we
also may be like all the nations. Oh, my soul. Why do you want
to be like all the nations? Rebellious, idolatrous. And that
our King may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
That tips you off a little bit, you see. We want our King. You see, God has His King. Man
has his King. Man's King is his own self, his
own works, his own religion, his own wisdom. But we reject
by nature God's King. So Samuel tells them that. Look
down at chapter 9. Look at verse 2. Here it says,
and he had a son, talking about a fellow here, talking about
Saul's father. He had a son whose name was Saul,
a choice young man and a goodly. Now it's talking about his outward
appearance there. He looked good. That's what it
means. He must have been a real movie
star looking fellow. That's what it's saying. They'd
have put him on people and kept him there. He'd been where they
vote every year. And it says, there was not among
the children of Israel a goodlier person than he. From his shoulders
and upward, he was higher than any of the people. Must have
been a tall fellow. Tall, a strapping man. He's somebody who got their
attention just by walking into a room. He was that kind of person.
This Saul. He was their choice. Now, put
this all in perspective. Now, from then on, it's downhill
now. But I want you to think about something. First of all,
did you know God had already promised Israel to give them
a king? Even though when they got into
the promised land, He set up the system of judges, and that
was, according to God's purpose, it was an abject failure. Of
course, everything man gets his hand on is. That is, in the realm
of God's kingdom. But God had already promised
to send them a king. But God promised to send them
a king of His choice and in His time. Not their own. Not their own choice and not
when they wanted it. It was in His choice and in His
time. He made that promise to Abraham.
We read it last week. He said, Kings will come out
of you, Abraham. He said that twice. He promised to the sons
of Jacob, Jacob on his deathbed, the scepter, that's the king's
rule, shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come. God promised
that. And one of the things that separated
Israel from other nations was that they did not have a king
like other earthly kings. God alone ultimately was their
king. Now God alone ultimately was
their king. Now, so why would God promise
them a king, an earthly king? Two reasons. Number one, to establish
the royal, earthly line of the King Messiah. That's number one. That's why God gave them a king
subservient to Him, the King. To establish the earthly, royal
line of the King Messiah. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah. And number two, He purposed to give them an earthly
subservient king to picture and prophesy Christ the king and
his kingdom. That's why he gave them. So,
in light of those two things, the main responsibility of Israel's
chosen human subservient king was to do what? He was to be
the leader of the people in worshiping and serving the king, God alone. and lead in the ways of the Lord,
and lead in the ways of the covenant, and teach those people the ultimate
purpose of that kingly line fulfilled in the Messiah to come, the gospel
of God's grace in Christ. He was to lead the people in
humility. in coming before God, saying,
God, I have no power, I have no goodness, I have no righteousness,
but that which You're going to provide in the person of the
King of kings who is to come. That's what the king was to do.
Now, he was not to be like other earthly human kings. Let me read
you this. Deuteronomy chapter 17. I read
this when we were going through the gates. And the horse gate,
do you remember? God's king, God's appointed king
was not to be like other earthly human kings. Now you know what
other earthly human kings are like, right? They're the weirdest,
they're the most arrogant, self-centered individuals that you'll find.
Royalty? You think about the history of
royalty in this world is a history of blood and perversion and idolatry,
self-fulfillment. That's all it is. But God's King
was not to be that way. Listen to it in Deuteronomy chapter
17 and verse 14. When thou art come unto the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt 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, thou shalt in any
wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shalt choose.
One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee, thou
mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother,
but he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people
to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses
for as much as you, as the Lord said unto you, you shall henceforth
return no more." That way, don't look to Egypt for your strength
and your protection, you look to God. That's right. And that's why we look to Christ
today. He says in verse 17, neither shall he multiply wives to himself. Well, boy, they failed miserably
on that one, didn't they? And it says that his heart turned
not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and
gold. And it shall be when most kings,
like other nations, they step on the necks and the backs of
people to line their own pockets. And he says in verse 18, And
it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom,
that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of
that which is before the priests, the Levites, the word of God,
which was a schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ. That's what
the kings to do. And it shall be with him, and
he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may
learn to fear the Lord his God, to worship and serve and trust
God. to keep all the words of this
law and these statutes, to do them that his heart be not lifted
up above his brethren." He's not to look upon himself as better
than his brethren. Does that sound like an earthly
king to you? Well, you don't have the right pedigree. Lords
and ladies and shoot. I'm telling you, it's a mess,
isn't it? But that's not what God's king is supposed to be.
And he said above his brethren that he turned not aside from
the commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end
that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children
in the midst of Israel. That's the kind of king Israel
was to have. Not like the other nations. Well,
Saul, back here in 1 Samuel, now Saul was of the tribe of
Benjamin. He wasn't from the tribe of Judah. God had said,
the scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes. Now, the tribe of Benjamin was
an honored tribe, but it was the wrong tribe. So they made
the mistake there. They disregarded the word of
the Lord. And Saul, being who he is, you
see, what's happening here, you're seeing Israel making their choice
by human wisdom, human ways, human works, human choices, and
they cannot be delivered or saved or protected or kept based on
that. It takes the wisdom of God in
Christ to save us and to keep us. Only Christ, our Savior King,
can do this. And Saul's unbelief and pride
was displayed in three acts of disobedience. Let me just go
real quickly now. You don't have to read all this,
but look, in chapter 13, there's an incident. When he was about
to do battle with the Philistines, he became afraid and he became
impatient in waiting for the priest to come and offer the
burnt offering to show his total dependence upon the Lord and
his faith in God. And what he did, he became afraid
and impatient And he took it upon himself to offer a burnt
offering. In other words, he intruded himself
into the priesthood, which meant he had no regard for God's priests,
no regard for God's appointed way of deliverance and atonement.
You see, that office belongs only to one, the high priest. And that's what modern religion
does. They give themselves works and
efforts that only belong to Christ. Like Saul. That was his first
act of disobedience. In chapter 14, we see the second
act of disobedience. When he refused to be God's instrument,
when doing battle with the Philistines again, he started to seek God's
Word, but then he decided not to bother. He grew impatient
again. And he just disregarded God's
Word and went on his own. You see, no king of Israel should
ever disregard God's Word. No pastor, no preacher, no elder
should ever disregard God's Word in any way, at any time, for
any reason. That's the Saul's downfall. And then his third
act of disobedience is in chapter 15. That's when he refused to
be God's instrument of judgment to destroy the Amalekites completely
for what they'd done to the people of Israel years before. You remember,
and I don't have time to go into these scriptures, but 1 Samuel
15, well, we can look at that one because we're here. 1 Samuel
15, look at verse 1. Samuel also said unto Saul, The
Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over
Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words
of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait
for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite
Amalek, that's the Amalekites, and utterly destroy all that
they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman,
infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and Well, you know Saul
didn't do that. Now, you remember what Amalek
did. That nation was the first one to attack the children of
Israel when they came out of Sinai. And God said back then,
you can read about it in Numbers chapter 24. He said it through
Balaam. He said, you will be judged for
this. But Saul thought himself wiser
and more compassionate than God, and he spared the king of Amalek
and the best of the herds. That's the way people are today.
Somebody looks at that and they say, wow, how can God do that?
Well, let me ask you, friend, do you think you're wiser and
more compassionate than God? You're not. God knows exactly
what He's doing. People say, well, God's got to
give everybody a chance. God's not fair. Who do you think
you are? Read the book of Job. Listen
to God's answers there. When Job accused God of being
unfair and unjust, who do you think you are? I'm going to tell
you something. I don't understand all the works
of God in all ways. I'm just a finite creature. You
are too. The majority of us aren't very
impressive finite creatures either. I mean, that's just a fact of
it. I mean, you can think about great
men like Einstein and all their wisdom and the philosophers and
all that. We don't even hold a candle to
them. IQ or the capacity they have. But let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something. God is higher, infinitely higher
than any of us. And we're just finite creatures.
And He knows exactly what He's doing, and He does it the right
way, the wise way, the fair way, and the just way. No matter what
He does. That's God. And until a sinner
comes to see that, he'll never bow to the God of this book.
He'll never bow. And Saul had to see that. He
said, I've got a better way. My way is more fair. My way is
more just. No, sir. Your way will kill us
all. And my way would too. But God's
way is the only way of deliverance. The only way of mercy. Now, he
says, I'll have mercy upon whom I will, and I'll be gracious
to whom I will. But you just rest and glory in
the fact that He will be merciful and He will be gracious to all
who flee to Him in Christ. That's the thing, isn't it? Well,
let me close. Let me give you these two things.
God has appointed His way of salvation. And it's the only
right way, it's the only just way, it's the only wise way.
And it simply says this, all who come to Christ, begging and
pleading for mercy at the mercy seat, pleading his shed blood
and his righteousness imputed shall be saved, and all who reject
him shall be damned." Saul was one who rejected him. Secondly,
this, Christ is to be worshipped and served as the only sovereign
king of kings and Lord of lords. And he requires obedience. He
demands obedience, and he deserves obedience, not to earn his love,
or His favor, but because of His unconditional love and favor
towards us by grace in Christ. Our whole existence in eternal
blessedness and glory is of His sovereign mercy and grace based
on the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result
of all this, Saul was removed from office. And then God, in
chapter 16, puts His man in. Next time we'll start in chapter
16 and move forward with David, God's anointed king.