1 Samuel chapter 11 and I've
titled my message this evening Salvation in Israel Salvation
in Israel you remember in chapter 10 Saul is an anointed king and
the last time I preached I preached on God's anointed king is the
Lord Jesus Christ man anoints his king He'll live and He'll
die. Kingdoms come and kingdoms go.
But God anointed His King over His holy hill Zion and His kingdom
shall never fall, shall never fail and shall endure forever
and ever and ever. And every soul that knows the
Lord Jesus Christ as King gladly, gladly rejoices in His reign
over them. Oh, what a blessed king we have.
And Saul's kingdom, like all earthly kingdoms, has problems
from the start. First of all, they have a problem
because the king himself, the king himself is a man. He's a man. He's a man like everybody
else. And the second thing is, they
reign over morally corrupt people here in this instance who reject
God and reject his word that's the kind of people Kings reign
over morally corrupt people God hating people people who reject
God people who reject his word and then there's always somebody
in the kingdom who refuses To have this man to reign over them
it said here in verse 27 Back over here. I think it is in verse
chapter 10. Yeah, look at right up there
in the last verse of verse 10 But the children of belial said
how shall this man save us and they despised him and brought
no presence But he held his peace And that's the way it is with
our lord. Jesus christ. They said we will not have this
man to reign over us They will not Men would rather have an
earthly king to fight their battles instead of God to be their defense,
God to be their strength, God to be their help. David said,
God's my present help in a time of trouble. Though the hills
be removed and the mountains be removed and the mountains
fall, he said, God is my defense. My help cometh from Him. But
men would rather have something they can see with their eyes
than trust a God that they can't see and have to live by faith.
But there's always enemies even in that instance. There's enemies inside the kingdom. There's always enemies within.
Just like in America. We see our country from within
just being eaten away and eaten away and eaten away. Not in our
lifetimes we won't see it fall. But in 3 or 4 generations it
may not exist at all. But that's the way it is because
there's enemies within the kingdom. There's men and women within
the kingdom that they're not going to do what everybody else
does and they're going to have enemies within and they'll destroy
the kingdom from within. But now let's look here at verse
1. Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh
Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said
unto Nahash, make a covenant with us and we will serve thee.
Now Jabesh, Gilead is a part of the tribes of Israel. It's
a part of the tribes of Israel over there. Every tribe had its
part in different lot and different places. And Gilead means this,
a heap of stones for witness. That's what the word Gilead means,
a heap of stones for witness. Jabesh means dried up. Gilead, a heap of stones for
witness. Jabesh, a dried up place. One's a good word. Stone of witness
is a heap of stone of witness. The other's not such a good word.
Dried up. And I think this represents us
in both ways. Sometimes we're witness. Sometimes
we witness very well. Sometimes we witness what we
believe about Christ and the things of God and our hope in
Christ. And then there's times we're
dried up. We're dried up. And this word dried up means
hard. It means a hardness. And all of us have experienced
this hardness condition. Have you not been feel like you're
dry and dried up? Maybe you've never experienced
that. Maybe you've never come and you've been, you feel like
you're just dried up. And that means dry needs to be
hardened. And what it means is when we're really not hearing.
It seems sometimes we're alienated from God and from the Lord Himself. And for whatever reason, we don't
know what the reason is. We get up some days and we're
just empty, we're dry, we seem hard. Things don't touch us,
things don't move us. It's like, you know, it's like
Ephesus, when the Lord Jesus talked about Ephesus in Revelations
2. He said this, He said, I know your works. I know you labor. I know you cannot stand people
that are even evil. But I got something against you.
What is it? What in the world could it possibly
be? Well, you've left your first love. You got hard. You left your first love. You
don't hear like you once did. You don't hear. And I'll tell
you what, I don't know if you've ever had this condition. And
I hope if you haven't, I hope you never do. And then there's
sardis. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
Sardis, He said, I tell you what I want you to do. You have the
profession that you live and yet you don't. But He said, I
tell you what, there's a few things that remain and you strengthen
the things that remain. And beloved, that's the way we
feel sometimes. What little bit remains, give
us some strength. You know, it's like a having
a fire. You get just a cold, just a little cold. It's just
almost going out. And you put some stuff around
and start blowing on it. Little while, it will fire up.
And that's what the gospel does for us. It kind of fires us up.
But it's an awful situation to be in. But here's the next thing
about Nahash. Nahash the Ammonite. The Ammonites
and the Moabites were descendants of Lot. You know, his two daughters,
one of them had a son named Moab, and the other they become the
Moabites. And the other one had a son named Ben-Ammi, and that's
where the children of Ammon come from. And I tell you what, they
were descendants of Lot. And Ammon means inbred. That's
what it means. Naash means serpent. And look
what God said about them over here in Deuteronomy 23. Look
what God said about this Naash and Moab and them in Deuteronomy
23. Verse 3 and 4. Look what He says about them. Oh, they mistreated Israel and
that's what they're here doing today. They're mistreating Israel. This is what the Lord said now. An Ammonite or Moabite shall
not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to their tenth
generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the
Lord. because they met you not with bread and water in the way
when you came forth out of Egypt and because they hired against
thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethar of Mesopotamia to curse
thee. So not only did they not help
you and give you any help, didn't try to give you bread, didn't
try to give you water, but they hired a prophet to curse you.
So God said they ain't coming in my presence. They ain't coming
in my presence. So Ammon means inbred, Nash means
a serpent. Serpent always represents Satan
always done and he came to tempt the Israelites and since then
he said he came up and encamped and camped And all look what
happens and they said make a covenant with us and we'll serve you Well,
here's what old Nash did, huh? And here's the thing. I want
you to notice though. They didn't seek the Lord to help them They
didn't seek the Lord. They didn't seek the Lord. They
didn't say let's call on the Lord. Let's ask the Lord to help
us. Let's ask the Lord to come and save us. They didn't say
that. They asked Nahash to make a covenant with them. Make a
covenant with them. Don't hurt us and we'll come
out and we'll serve you. And I'll tell you what, beloved,
don't think Satan can't have a great influence in a believer's
life. All you've got to do is look
at men in the scriptures, what happened to them. Look at Simon
Peter. The Lord Jesus said, Satan has desired to sift you like
wheat. And another time, when the Lord
Jesus Christ was talking about going to his cross, Simon Peter
laid hands on him, wretching God, and said, Lord, be it far
from thee. And you know what Peter said?
He said, Lord, you can't go to that cross. You can't suffer
like that. It's not right for you to do that. You know what
our Lord said? Get thee behind me, Satan. He told an apostle,
get thee behind me, Satan. Satan used him. And he said,
you know what? You savor, you enjoy, you like
the taste of the things of men instead of the things of God. And if you don't want Christ
and His cross, that's the only way you're going to get saved
by the grace of God. Christ has to have a cross. And if He had a cross, we got
a cross. When He died, we died. And I
tell you what, you can't have Him without His cross. Without
His sacrifice. Without His blood. And oh my! So they come up here, don't hurt
us and we'll serve you. And they said, but just give
us seven days. Give us seven days. And they asked them and
I answered them and this and this. We said on this condition
will I make a covenant with you. He said he made it on a condition. Thank God that God doesn't have
a covenant conditioned. Wouldn't it be awful if God had
a covenant with us and made a covenant with us conditioned on something
we did? Wouldn't that be awful? I'm telling
you, if He just conditioned us, this covenant that God made with
Christ, if He just conditioned it on us believing, we couldn't
do it. If He conditioned it upon us
just being faithful, we couldn't do it. If He conditioned it on
us being prayerful, we couldn't do it. So the thing is, all the
conditions that God required in His covenant, the Lord Jesus
Christ met every single condition and God accepts us for Christ's
sake. I thank God He never laid no
conditions on us. And I tell you what, here's the
thing about it, if you give a man anything at all to do, anything
at all to do to come to Christ, you've put that in the place
of Christ. I heard, you know, a man was saying, well, you got
to turn from your sin and then turn to Christ. Listen, how many sins have you
turned from this week? When did you last turn from sin?
And that would make the salvation dependent on what you did instead
of what Christ did. Christ died to put sin away,
not for you to turn from it. He died to save you from your
sins. Now we don't, you know, they
accused Walter Gruber and said, boy, well your preacher said
a man can sin all he wants to. And Walter said, I sin more than
I want to. And we all do that. We do it whether we say anything,
do anything. We can be sitting in a desk with
a Bible in our hands. And I'm like, whoo. Some crazy thing will go through
your brain. You'll say, how in the world
did that get there? That's what it means, man in his best state,
all together vanity. And oh, they come and said, oh
listen, on this condition will I make a covenant with you. Well,
what's the condition? That I put out your right eyes.
I put every one of your eyes out. Oh, you're talking about
a cruel man. I'll tell you this fella, you're
talking about how cruel is a man. They said, only way I'll make
a covenant with you is I put out your right eye. Every one
of you is going to have to have your eye put out. Men, women
and children are going to have to have their eye put out. And you know what they did often
times when an enemy conquered, they'd cut off, you know if they
blinded them, then they'd have a blind side. They could come
on their blind side and they couldn't fight because they'd
have a blind side. And then sometimes they'd cut off their thumb and
cut off their big toe. That way they couldn't fight.
They couldn't hold a sword. And so this is things they've
done to put people under subjection to them. Or they just flat out
killed them. And then look what it says. Why did he say this?
And he says right down there in the last line of this verse,
And lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. I want you all to
be shamed. I want you to be disgraced. That's
what I want. That's what I'm doing. That's
why I want to do this. I want you to be shamed. I want you
to be disgraced. And here's what Satan does to
us sometimes. And I'll tell you what. It's
like I was talking Sunday about Simon Peter, you know, where
he denied the Lord three times. I've denied the Lord a heapsite
more than three times. I've denied him about what I
said, where I've went, how I've acted. things I've done. But Satan sometimes when he comes
like he did these men. Now he don't put out our eye,
but he comes sometimes and puts a big beam in it. Puts a big
beam in it. And then we can't see clearly.
And other times he'll come put just a little bitty moat in it. I've had many a beam in my eye. How do you know? I've tried to get somebody else's
out, and then I find out, boy, I tell you. Poor, bless his heart. Tom Niber said to me the other
day, He said, you know, I need to talk to this person. He said,
I really do. He said, I'm praying about it.
I'm praying about it. Because every time I get right, I feel
like I need to talk to somebody. I feel like that I'm more sinful
than they ever was. And what right have I got to
be saying anything to them to make them do anything? Change
their way or anything? So that's the way you feel. You
know why? Try to straighten somebody else
out when you've got so many things wrong with you. And I can identify with that.
Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. And oh, here
they go. And they said in verse, verse
three, here's all the elders. Now the elders of Jabesh said
unto him, give us seven days respite, and we'll send message
into all the coast. And watch what they say. And
if there be no man to save us, and then if there be no man to
save us, they will come out. They're still not seeking the
Lord for help. We'll see if we can find any
man. They're still looking to man.
They're still looking to the flesh. They said we'll go up
all this room, we'll look at everybody we can find, we'll
send out a messenger and see if any man out there is able
to save us. Come up here and save us in this
awful situation we're in. If not, if ain't nobody can save
us, if there's not a man able to save us, well I guess we'll
just have to lose an eye. That's what they're saying. And
all look down here in verse 4. And those messengers told the
awful situation. Then came the messengers to Gibeah
where Saul lived. And told the tidings and this
covenant that Maash is trying to make. And all the people lifted
up their voices and wept. They tell them all the awful
situation. Still didn't seek the Lord. And
all they did was cry and weep. And that couldn't help them.
And they couldn't help them. And then verse 5, it said, And
Saul came after the herd out of the field. He wasn't acting
like a king. He's still out there working
in a field. And Saul came out and said, What aileth the people
that they weep? What's going on that all these
people are crying? Why are they weeping about? What's
going on? Something bad happened? What
ails the people? And they told him the tidings
of the men of Jabesh. Now look what happens in verse
6. And the Spirit of God came upon
Saul when he heard these tidings, what had been said about the
covenant. And the uncle put out the right
eyes, reproaching shame and disgrace Israel. His anger was kindled
greatly. Oh my! Remember, he's the king
that God gave them in his anger. God gave him this king in his
anger. Yet, he's going to use him to
save Israel. Going to use him to save Israel. And I personally, and I know
I preached on this, I personally don't think that Saul was a saved
man. And the Lord can use a lost man.
The Lord can lose anybody He wants to. And he does sometimes
to accomplish his own purpose. I'll give you an illustration.
In Isaiah it says that Cyrus, Cyrus was named almost 700 years
before he existed. And when Israel was in Babylonian
bondage, Cyrus was raised up to be the king over Babylon.
And Cyrus is the one who saved all of Israel's people and set
them free and started sending them back to Israel to rebuild
Israel and sent them money to do it with. And God named his
name and told him what he was going to do hundreds of years
before he was born. And he was a heathen king, pagan king. Oh my, Pharaoh! God used Pharaoh! Let's listen. He used all them
lost people to crucify the Son of God. But it says the Spirit
of God come upon him. And it caused him to be angry.
He was angry. This is what you'd call a righteous
indignation or zeal. But he was angry at the wickedness
of Nahash. That Nahash wanted to pluck out
these people's eyes. And this is the same spirit that
came upon him when he prophesied. And the Spirit of God, the third
person of the Trinity, He's the one alone who reveals the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the one alone who can open
the scriptures to our understanding. And look what it says, Oh the
Spirit of God came upon Saul. Oh God, let thy spirit fall on
us and let it fill us. Wouldn't you love the Spirit
of God to come upon you and fill you? And that's what we need. Oh, how we need the filling of
the Spirit of God. And look what happened now. He
took that yoke of oxen, hewed them, sent them all over Israel.
Twelve pieces of it, sent them all throughout Israel. And oh,
and said, don't ever follow after Saul and Samuel. That's the way
it's going to be. Look what it says in the last
line of that verse. And the fear of the Lord fell
on the people. Oh my, the fear of the Lord fell
on the people. Oh, I pray that the fear of the
Lord would fall on us. Oh, the fear of God. The fear
of God and His awesomeness and His power and His glory and His
righteousness. Oh, the fear of God fall on us. And look what happens what they
said then. And oh, the fear of the Lord fell on the people.
Oh my, we fear God. We're not going to give him a
big hand clap, we're not going to stand up and shout. And the
fear of the Lord fell on the people. And it says, and they
came out with one consent, or they came out with one man. I
do know this, wherever the fear of the Lord falls on a people,
if he does, every single one of us will be with one consent,
we'll be as one person, we'll be as one man. That's what he's
saying here. And then look what happens in
verse 8. So all the people came in. They all came as one person.
And when he numbered them in Bezach, the children of Israel
were 300,000 and the men of Judah 30,000. That's a pretty good
size army. They didn't have nobody and then
all of a sudden 330,000 people come out of the woodwork in a
day. They just got the message that
day. Saul sent out the messengers and 330,000 people got together
and said, oh, because they feared the Lord, here they come. That's
a good size army. Oh, 30,000 army. And I tell you
what, that's a, that's a, what an army. What an army. But listen,
All we need is one person. We don't need an army. One person's all we need. And
that's all they needed if they knew it. Just one person. I don't
need an army. Do you need an army? We've got
someone to fight our battles. Someone's already fought our
battles. Somebody's already defeated our enemies. Somebody's already
conquered everything that was against us. Oh my, what an army. and all their promise to help
and all listen in verse 9 they said unto the messengers that
came this go go back tell those men of Jabesh Gilead tomorrow
tomorrow by the time the sun gets hot you'll have help and
that help means deliverance means salvation And the messages came and showed
it to the men of Jabesh and this is what happened. They were promised
help. And when they heard about help coming, look what it says,
they were glad. I'll be glad too. Somebody gonna
come help me. Somebody gonna come save me.
When I heard about Christ saving sinners, it makes me glad. And
over in Acts it says, when they heard the word of the Lord, the
Gentiles, when they heard the word of the Lord, they were glad.
They were glad. They were glad. And tomorrow
we're going to come out and we're going to help you. And look what
he told those men of Jabesh Gilead, told old Nahash. They told old
Nahash, therefore the men of Jabesh Gilead, Jabesh said, tomorrow
we're going to come out unto you and you shall do with us
all that seemeth good unto you. They said that's what they're
going to do, have all those folks out ready to get them when they
come out, come out of the town, come out of the gates, But they
said, oh, I thought that they'd have help. Look what happens
in verse 11. And it happened on the morrow,
just like they promised. Saul put the army in three counties. 100,000, 10 over, 110,000 over
here, 110,000 over there, and 110,000 here. One over here,
one over here, one over here. They just started surrounding
them. Oh my. And they came into the midst
of the host in the morning. in the morning watch just about
daylight just before daylight and they began to slay the Ammonites
until the heat of the day just like he said and I'll tell you
what happens I'll tell you they were so completely routed and
defeated that look what it says here that two of them were not
left together The two stayed together. They were so riled
up that they were all out there by themselves. Not two of them
stayed together. And that tells us this, if God
be for us, who can be against us? I don't care how many there
is, if God be for us, who can possibly be against us? Well,
now look what happens now in verse 12. Oh, Saul's a hero now.
And the people said unto Samuel, who is this that said, Shall
Saul reign over us? Bring the men that we may put
them to death. Saul's a hero at this time. But
they said, those men that didn't want Saul to reign over them,
those men that didn't like Saul, bring them out here. We're going
to kill them. We're going to kill them. Let them be put to
death. Oh my, I tell you, these folks didn't have no mercy. But
look what happens. And Saul said, oh, he's a hero
now. And Saul said, there shall not
be a man put to death this day. Oh my, there ain't nobody going
to be saved. Ain't nobody going to die today.
But they aren't, well you know, they're talking about him and
what a great hero he is and let's kill those that are. They're
ascribing salvation to Saul. To Saul. Bring them in. They said it won't rain over
us. They're ascribing this Salvation to Saul. This shows what a low,
low state their heart was. This is a result of their desire
for a king. They weren't a king. They weren't
seeing Christ the King. They just wasn't. And look what
he says now. And Saul said, There shall not
a man be put to death this day. Not a man. This is generous. This is becoming a king. Nobody's
gonna be put to death today. No, no, not nobody in Israel
gonna be put to death It's not what's gonna happen and then
look what this glorious glorious statement he makes right here
for today The Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel The Lord hath wrought salvation
in You know, that's what we believe. That's the statement. You know
what he said? Salvation is of the Lord. I didn't
do this, God did this. I didn't save Israel, the Lord
saved Israel. I didn't win this battle, God
won this battle. And I tell you, the Lord brought
this salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. And
you know, our Lord Jesus Christ, let me go through a few things.
Today, he said today, the Lord hath brought salvation in Israel.
Today, that day, the day is the day the Lord has made. The day
of the cross is the day that the Lord brought salvation for
His people. The day of the cross is the day
that the Lord brought salvation for His people. That Israel is
His people. And we're Israel, the elect of
God, the Israel of God. And you know it's like Jacob.
Jacob, he was a schemer, he was a plotter, he was deceitful.
And God got a hold of him and changed his nature, changed his
name, and called him a prince. A man that has power and prevailed
with God. Huh? Oh my, changed his name
from Jacob to Israel. Well, who did that? God did that. And that's what God does for
us. He changes our name, changes our nature, and He changes the
way we walk. He makes us new. He makes us
new. Who in the world can change a
man's name? But let me tell you this, you
know who the real Prince is that prevailed? Christ. who has the power with God. He's
the one who prevailed with God. And you look at Revelation, it
said He prevailed and took the book out of the right hand of
Him that sat upon that throne. And that book contained every
will and decree of God Himself. Everything that God purposed
to do, Christ took it and He opened the seals. because he's
the only one that could. And he loosed everything and
caused everything and beholds everything that God ever did.
Because God did it in him. And Christ is the Prince who
has power with God. And I tell you something else,
everybody that's in Christ has power with God as well. You know,
under the Old Testament and under the law, you couldn't go to God.
You had to go to a priest. But now we come into the holiest
of holies by a new and living way by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're allowed to come into God's
presence. The high priest is the only one
who doesn't go behind the veil. Well, Christ was that veil and
Christ opened the way for us. A new and a living way right
into the very presence of God. That's why we come and call on
God. Oh my, and remember the Lord
wrought salvation from what? From sin. Thou shalt call His
name Jesus for He shall, shall save His people from their sin.
That day He wrought salvation, that day on the cross. He wrought salvation in election. He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And he wrought salvation when
Christ became born of a virgin and said, this day in the city
of David is born a Savior, a Savior. And then he wrought salvation
in the sinless, holy, glorious life of our Lord Jesus Christ. and He wrought salvation in the
substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ when He Himself
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. And He did it justly. And He wrought salvation when
He sent Him here and shed His blood to redeem us from all our
iniquities. To pay the price and the penalty
for us. He wrought salvation when He
came through the gospel by the Spirit of God and regenerated
us and gave us life from the dead and gave us new natures
gave us new hearts gave us a nature to know God and He wrought salvation
in preservation you know why we persevere? because God preserves
if God didn't preserve us we wouldn't persevere And oh my! He wrought salvation in the intercession
of our Lord Jesus Christ for us. And you know when salvation
will really be wrought? When the Lord Jesus returns and
He glorifies us all. That's when salvation will be
wrought. Look over here in Numbers with
me, 23. Look in Numbers 23. Let's look at this in verse 19. verse
19 look here in verse 19 what it says in Numbers 23 Numbers
23 19 God is not a man that he should lie neither the Son of Man that he
should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken it, and shall he not make it good?
Behold, I have received commandment to bless, and he hath blessed,
and I cannot reverse it." Listen to it. He hath not beheld iniquity
in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord
his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.
God brought them out of Egypt. He has, as it were, the strength
of a unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment
against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.
According to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and all of Israel,
what God hath wrought." Oh, God saved them. God said no iniquity
in them. No iniquity in it. Alright, turn
back over here and I'll wind this thing up. In 1 Samuel. And then in verse 14, look what
it says. This says, Samuel to the people,
come and let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.
This word renew means cause to be new. To be new. And that's what David meant when
he said, Renew a right spirit within me. Put, cause to be new,
your spirit within me. And you know what God caused
us to do? He gave us a new history. A new history. You know where
He gave it to us? In Christ. When He saved us by
His grace. The history we had before we
were saved by His grace, And from then on, it's been different.
He gave us a new history. We had sin, now we got righteousness. We had death, now we got life.
We was naked, now we're clothed. We was blind, and now we see.
We was deaf, and now we hear. We was lame, and now we can walk.
Oh my. And in verse 15, and all the
people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the
Lord in Gilgal. Now listen to this, they made
Saul king before the Lord. And there they sacrificed sacrifices
of peace offerings. And before the Lord. And I tell you what, Christ,
our Lord Jesus Christ, was made king before the Lord, before
this world ever was. And wherever Christ is seen,
His sacrifice is acknowledged as the only one acceptable to
God. The only peace offering we've
ever had is what He offered. Men say, make your peace with
God. Christ did it. Christ made our peace and He
is our peace. And there was only one sacrifice
that's ever been acceptable to God. And that's His blessed Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way we're as acceptable
is in Him. And then look what it says, and
there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced. In that day,
when we saw the Lord Jesus Christ as our sacrifice, and our only
sacrifice, our sin offering, our peace offering. That's the
day we rejoice greatly because we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Father, in the precious,
precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come into your presence. Come into your presence. As I
just said, we can come into the presence of God Himself unto
a throne of grace to obtain mercy and find help in a time of need. Thank you, Lord, for meeting
with us. Thank you for your truths. Thank you for that blessed, blessed
word. We don't want to be like Israel
who wants a king in this world. We don't want to reject Your
Word, reject Your people in any way. We want You, we want Your
Word, we want all that goes with You. We want You as You are.
Oh, because You take us as we are. And You made us new. And oh God, thank You for giving
us a heart to believe, a heart to rest, a heart to rejoice in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I'm learning to lean. Learning to lean.