I want to talk tonight about
a good beginning. Saul is introduced to us here,
Israel's first king. He's introduced to us there in
the second verse. But Israel wanted a king. They
said, oh, listen. They said, and God told Samuel,
said, Samuel, they've not rejected you, though they have, but they've
rejected me. and rejected my word, rejected
my reign. They rejected God's reign. They
didn't want God to fight the battles anymore. They rejected
Samuel's advice. And he told them plainly what
kind of king he would be. How he would take everything,
the best of everything they had. Their best sons, their best daughters,
their best land, their best vineyards, their best olive gardens, everything. The best fields that they had,
he'd take it all. He'd take the best of everything they had.
But I tell you, look what God said back over here in Exodus
19. Look what God said about them over here. Exodus 19, verse
5 and 6. And this is what they didn't
want anymore. Look what God said about them
here. Exodus 19, 5. Now therefore,
if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you
shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for
all the earth is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel." But you know what
they said that happened here? They didn't want to be God's
distinct people anymore. They didn't want to say God is
our God. God is the one who saved us, called us up out of Egypt,
the one that fought our battles, the one who performed all these
miracles to bring us up here. But they didn't want to be God's
distinct people anymore. They said, whoa, listen, we want
to be like all the other nations. We want a king. All the other
nations have a king. We want a king. We want a king
to fight our battles for us. We want a king to go out. and
have a king that we may be like all the nations that our king
may judge as they said in verse 20 and go out before us and fight
our battles oh my so they rejected God and they had made up their
mind and this is the way we are I mean as without the grace of
God they made up their mind they gonna have a king at any cost
even to rejecting God himself And Saul, we're introduced to
him now. At the last verse, it says that
Samuel told every man to go to his own house. No resolution. No king. But God told him, said,
Samuel, do what they want you to do. Give them a king. Give
them a king. So Saul is Israel's first king
and here he is introduced to us. And he starts out in his
early life and starts out as a king very well, very well,
very well. But the end of him, and we have
a lot to deal with him through the next few chapters. But the
end of his life, he started out such a good beginning, but the
end of his life became so tragic and sin utterly and absolutely
destroyed him. He was a self-centered, narcissistic,
egocentric man. And to show that he was that
way, he chose himself to offer sacrifices and to be a priest,
not wait for Samuel. He took it upon himself to not
do what God told him to do when he went to the Amalekites. Made
his own decisions. And so he started way up here
and we're way down there. And God caused it. So he had
a good beginning. First thing I want us to look
at about Saul is this. Verse 1, Now there was a man
of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abel, of Bekoia, the
son of Aphii, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. And he had a son
whose name was Saul. A choice young man and goodly.
And there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than
he. From his shoulders and upward
he was higher than any other people. Here's the first thing
I want you to look at. He came from a very good family.
He came from a good family. He was of the tribe of Benjamin.
And the tribe of Benjamin was a tiny little tribe compared
to all the rest of the tribe. Very small tribe. And his father
was Kish. And every time Kish is mentioned,
he's mentioned as the father of Saul. But it also says there
in the last part of that verse that he is a mighty man of valor.
He was a mighty man of valor, known as Saul's father. But he
was a mighty man of valor. It means he had strength, he
had power, and the margin says he was a man of substance. In
other words, he was pretty wealthy. He had a lot of stuff. He had
a lot of wealth. And no doubt, he was well known
among the Benjamites, well known among his tribe. And beloved,
this is what happens. God determines God determines
the family we're born into. There's no doubt about that.
God chooses what family we're born into. Just like he did Saul.
He was born into the tribe of Benjamin. His daddy was named
Kish. He knew his granddaddy and his great granddaddy. They
know all of them. And God determines the family
that we're born into. And I tell you what, He chooses
the nation that we're going to be born in. He chooses the family
that we're going to be in. He chooses whether we're going
to be affluent, or whether we're going to be poor, or whether
we got any sense, or whether we're stupid. He chooses those
things for us. And He said He has made out of
all blood, one nation. And He has determined the bounds. He's determined my bounds and
your bounds. And as He said, Saul, when you
go in the book, here it always says, so-and-so is the son of
so-and-so. Why does He do that? To show
that God put them in that family for His reasons. Let me show you. Look over here
in 1 Samuel 2. I'll show you this is exactly
what I'm talking about. What God said about it. You know, and here's the thing, here's
the thing, if God blessed you to be born into a home of loving
parents, of loving parents, you know what the blessing that is
for God to do that for you? You know how many family men
and women is born into families that their mother and daddy could
care less about? They don't have no love for them.
They don't have no love for anything or anybody. You know how many
children are born into this world that's born into families that
they do not care. Their mothers don't care for
them. Their dads don't. They get on drugs, become drunks. They walk off and leave them.
And they show no affection for them whatsoever. So what a blessing
to be born into a loving family. God done that for you. And if
God allowed you to be born into a loving family, bless His holy
name for that. Bless His holy name for a mother
and a father that had you because they loved you and wanted to
raise you and cared for you and cared for how your life was going
to be. God put you in that family. But
He also did the other side of it. He puts men and women in
the families where the family don't care. Well, they do not
care. My little brother said to me
one time, years ago, he said, it's bad enough to have one bad
parent, but it's awful to have two. I said, you gotta let it
go. He said, you gotta let it go.
I said, it ain't hurting them, it's just hurting you. But that's the way it is. But
God's the one that has to make the difference no matter whether
you're born into a loving family or a hateful family. God's the
only one that can make a difference whether you know Him or not.
But He chooses the family. And look what He said here in
1 Samuel 2. In verse 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. He brings down to the grave,
and He brings up. The Lord makes poor, the Lord
makes rich. He bringeth low, and He lifts
up. He raises the poor out of the dust, lifts up the beggar
from the dunghill, sets them among princes, and makes them
inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and He has set the world on it. And he'll keep
the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness,
for by strength shall no man prevail." Oh my, that sounds
like God. He said the heart of the king
is in the hands of the Lord as the rivers of water. And oh listen,
if you're born into a home of Christians, say you're born into
a Christian home. A home that Christ is all to
them. Christ is everything to them.
When it's time to go worship, they get up and go worship. When it's time, they come to
believe the gospel, they come and they attend the worship service
on a regular, faithful, they're God-fearing parents. To be born
in a home of God-fearing parents? Those are all great, wonderful
beginnings. Don't let it end up in tragedy
like it did Samuel, I mean Saul. Oh my, God's blessed you to have
something like that. Oh, thank God for it. Because
God determines the family we're born into, the nation we're born
in. Have you seen some of these? Did you see that tsunami that
hit that little place down there in Indonesia? Those folks lived
in shacks to start with. Just shacks. And here we are. We live in this
wonderful country. Who made the difference whether
we were born in Indonesia and live in a shack or we live in
America and live in a nice home? Who made that difference? Who
made that determination? I didn't make that determination.
You didn't make that determination. We could have been born in a
country where socialism and communism rules and reigns. Where you'd
go hungry. But God blessed us in a place
where we can have anything we want, anytime we want. And have
the greatest freedoms. The greatest freedoms. So he
was, he was a, he was a, come from a good family. God determined
the family he'd come from. And then Saul was blessed physically.
Look at what it says down here in verse 2. So O Kish, here's
a mighty man of valor. He was born in a good family. And he had a son whose name was
Saul, a choice young man. Choice! And a goodly man. Now listen to this. And there
was not among the children of Israel a goodly person than he,
from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any other
people. You know what this says? That
of every man in Israel, he was the most handsome. That's what
that said. I mean, he'd have been a movie
star today. They'd have picked him out and
said, we're going to put you in pictures. But that's what
he said. He said he was goodly and stood
out the choicest of all the men of Israel. A goodly person in
Israel was nobody any goodlier than him. Stood head and shoulders
above everybody else. Big old handsome strapping young
man. And oh my, and he was tall and
stood out in the crowd. And that's the way that God described
David. David was described as a ruddy
in complexion and beautiful in countenance. That's what they
said about him. They said about Esther, said,
oh, she's the most beautiful woman that they ever let eyes
on. And it tells us this, that people
look on the outward appearance. People look on the outward appearance. You know why you ladies put on
dresses and why you put on makeup and why you fix yourself up to
come service tonight? Because you're worried about
your appearance. James ain't worried about his
though. I couldn't help it. I couldn't help it. But here you know we worry about
appearance. We do. And not only our appearance,
but how how we appear character-wise. But men pay much, much attest
to the outward appearance of men. And that's what they did
here. And you know, we look on the
outward appearance and we can't help it. And men may look on
the outward appearance and our Lord Jesus Christ said that.
He says, men's got a bushel basket and they measure things by their
basket. And as it's measured out to you, as you measure it
out, it'll be measured to you. But you know God doesn't look
on the outward appearance. He doesn't do that. Look over
here in 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16. This is what God said about it. Oh, he sent to anoint another
king. Saul is still king, but God is going to raise up another
king. A man after his own heart. And you know if people look on
the outward appearance, don't you think that we ought to try
to make our appearance relatively nice? Especially when it comes
to the worship of the Lord. We ought to, you know, and we
can't help it, that's just our nature. We look on somebody's
outward appearance and we say, why would they do that? But anyway, look what he said
here in verse 7. 1 Samuel 16 The Lord said unto
Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature,
how handsome he is, how tall he is. For I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, looks with his eyes, But the Lord looks on the heart. And that's something that you
can't change. Only God can change the heart. And He looks on the
heart. And here's something that Saul
didn't have. He didn't have a changed heart. And why they mention and
make so much of Saul's outward appearance is because that's
what Israel was most concerned about. They wanted a king that
was big and husky and mighty and handsome and wonderful looking. But here's another thing. Not
only that we can't help but looking on the outward appearance. That's
just our nature. And I hope that we don't make
judgments based on those things. But here's the thing that we
ought to desire more than anything else. It's the inner beauty of
the Spirit of Christ. Oh, how we ought to desire that.
You know, a person can be beautiful on the outside and be just as
mean and cruel and hateful on the inside. And you know, and
here's the thing, let me show you what, look over in Proverbs,
Proverbs 31. We're all King Lemios over here. And look what he says now. Look what he says in Proverbs
30, 31. You know, it talks about having
a spiritual man, inner man, new man, created in righteousness
and true holiness. And we ought to care about our
outward appearance, but we ought to really, really care about
our inward heart, what we are inwardly. and have some grace
and some kindness and some love and some gentleness and tenderness.
But look what he said here in verse 30 of Proverbs 31. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. Oh boy, everybody brags about
you. Everybody shows deference to
you. That's deceitful. And all beauty,
outward beauty, all this beauty that some people have is vain.
But listen to this, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall
be praised. And ain't that the way we want
to be? Don't we want the favor of God? We want men to like us and get
along with us. But not at the expense of our
relationship with Christ. And here's something else back
over here about Saul. Not only did he come from a good
family, not only was he blessed with physical appearance, handsome,
big, tall, strong man. But here we see something of
his character. Look what it says there in verse
3. And the ashes of Kish's father
were lost. And Kish said to his servant,
said to his son, take now one of the servants with thee and
rise and go seek death. Now here's a good character of
him. His father said, son, I want you to go find all them missing
donkeys. I want you to go find them for
me. Well, what does he say? He took a servant and he arose
and went after them donkeys. Never faltered, never argued,
never debated. He obeyed his father. And he
searched diligently, diligently. And he never did find them. Never
did find them. And he searched and searched
and searched. They went from one end of the
land to the other end of the land and another end of the land. And he searched diligently for
him and couldn't find him. So he had a character that he
obeyed his father. Done what his father told him
to do. He was diligent about it. And then look what he says
down here in verse 5. And when they were come to the
land of Zuth, that's where Samuel was, Saul said to his servant
that was with him, come and let us return, lest my father leave
caring for the ashes and take thought for us. He even cared
enough about his father, said I've been gone long enough. I've
rambled from one end of this place to the other. I've been
all over the country. And my daddy may be worried about
me now, so I need to go home, so my father can see that I'm
okay. That's why he cared about his
father. That's a pretty good character. That's a pretty good
witness. A man loves his father, obeys his father, and then cares
about his father, worried about him, wanting to go home. And
a person's character, a person's character is shaped by their
parents. They really are. A person's character
is shaped by their parents. And I mean we start young. You
got to start really young to shape a person's character. And
you know the way we are is the way they'll be most of the time.
and you know you gotta shape them, their character and obedience
and love and don't provoke them to anger, just own them all the
time to do something, do something. If they don't do it, you just
own them all the time and provoke them to anger. You don't never
want to do that. So their person's character is
shaped by their parents and the home life that they have. By
the home life that they have. And then also by the society
that they live in. And we, you see that all around
us now. You know, society has so shaped
and so, when parents quit staying home and taking care of their
children, and they turn their children over to the schools,
and turn their children over to daycares, and turn their children
over to the world, next thing you know, you got people that
has no character whatsoever. whatever one person you know
I there ain't nothing wrong with tattoos but I'm telling you watch
this people get tattooed from the top of their head just to
hold their feet people don't even get married anymore they don't even bother and why? why is that? Because that's the
society that they live in. Now see, here's the difference
in the society out in the world and us and our kids. Some of
your kids, not mine, but some of your kids. What happens? Well,
you shape their character. You're as faithful to Christ
and his gospel. And God blessed you and they
come to worship services and they're around believers. And
they're around people that love them. They're around people that
pray for them. They're around people that pay attention to
them. They're around people that knows their names and watch them
grow up. and love them. And that helps
shape their character too. That's why they don't go out
and do like the world does. Because of the society that they've
been raised in. And oh my. And then God's providence. Oh God's providence. What an
effect it has on shaping our lives. Oh, you go back and look
at God's providence in your life, and where you was, and where
He brought you, and things He brought you through, and the
things He saved you from, and where He put you in this place,
and brought you out of that place, and took you through that dark
valley, and put you in that fire, that made the sun shine on you,
and all the things that He did in all your life to bring you,
and to bless you, and all the events in life, Look at the major events that's
happened in our lives. You all just had a major event
in your life. Losing your mother. That's a
major event. That's a great event in God's
providence in y'all's life. Great providence. And when you go to the doctor
like Bill and then they start treating him for what's wrong
with him. And he got up a couple of weeks,
a couple, three weeks ago and the doctor called and said, come
back in here. We got some, we found some anomaly. We, these things, all these things
are providence. God used them to shape our lives
and help us shape our character. I'm a firm, firm believer, and
I know you all are too, that whatever God's providence sends
our way, we say it's the Lord, let Him do what seems good. And
if we got anything to say, we'll say it to Him, not anybody else. If we're going to hurt, we're
going to hurt before the Lord if we can. Look at God's providence in my
life. He took one wife, wonderful wife, good wife, and gave me
a second. God fearing woman, godly woman,
loving woman, kind woman, gracious woman, nice woman, good looking
woman, takes good care of me, takes good care of the whole,
God did that. If it had been left up to me, don't tell me
what I would have been left up with. But God does these things
for you. And all these things are to shape
our character. Alright. And oh my, look what
he had. Not only that, but not only did
he obey his father, and he had a character, personal character,
love of his father, but he had respect for authority. Look what
it says down here in verse 6. I've got to hurry. And instead
of going back to his house, the service said to him, said in
verse 6 behold now there is in this city a man of God wherever
we're at and all that he says shall come and surely come to
pass now let's go up there per adventure he can show us our
way Now they're going to go talk to Samuel and say, Samuel, where's
them donkeys at so we can go find them? Can you imagine somebody
coming to you and saying, I need you to help me find this. And
could you tell me where they're at? Like, you know, that's the
only thing a preacher's good for, Samuel. Samuel will be able
to say, I think they went John's way. But oh, listen. Then Saul
said to his servant, but behold, if we go, what shall we bring
the man? And in those days they did. They'd bring gifts to the
preacher. You know, if they lived by their
natural things, they lived by their spiritual things. What
should we bring the man? Our bread's gone. There's no
present to bring to the man of God. What do we have? And the
servant answered Saul again, said, Behold, I have here at
hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver. That will I give to
the man of God to tell us our way. We won't know what way to
go. And all listen. Verse 10. Then Saul said to his
servant, well said. Oh, that's a good word. I like
that word. So went into the city where the man of God was. Now
I tell you what, he had respect for authority. Saul wanted to
go home to see his father so he wouldn't be worried. And he
said, I got a tiny bit of money. And the amount of money he had
here is about like the widow's mite. That's about how much money
he had. About like that widow's mite.
And they're going to this man of God about some donkeys. Maybe
he'll show us the way. Maybe he'll show us the way.
He had respect for authority. Samuel. Then he had a sense of
humility. Look down here in verse 21. Talking
about his character now. He had a sense of humility. And
this is Samuel speaking to him now. And Saul answers, said,
Am I not a Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and
my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Israel
wherefore then speakest thou so to me he had a sense of humility
now he had all these good qualities all these good qualities come
from a good family very physically attractive respected authority,
respected his father, respected authority had a sense of humility But oh, the great danger of despising
God's blessings on your life. Everything God gave him, he squandered
it away. He stood out among all of Israel,
came from a good family, chosen out of all of Israel, anointed
by God to be the first king over Israel. Yet he did not recognize
his great duty to obey God above everything, and God took all
of his blessings away. Look in 1 Samuel 15. And we'll
see this as we go on later. Look what it says here in 1 Samuel
15, 22. You go, you read this, you read
these things about, you go through here and read about Saul, how
he just ignored God, just ignored Him. Here in verse 22. And Samuel said, hath the Lord
as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices? Because he offered
a sacrifice without Samuel. Has the Lord as great delight
in burnt offerings and sacrifice, as in obey the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion,
going against God, after what God told you to do. Rebellion
is as the sin of witchcraft or divination and stubbornness is
as iniquity and idolatry. And he was both of them. Because
thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected
thee from being king. You know what his great problem
was? He didn't have a heart for God. Never did have a heart from
God. No spiritual heart or mind. When
you know Saul did not know anything about Samuel, but this servant
knew about Samuel. He said, there's a man of God
here. And everything he says comes to pass. Well, look what
happens up here in verse 18. Then Saul drew near to Samuel
in the gate and said, tell me, I pray thee, where the seer's
house is, where's the prophet's house at? Samuel, Saul didn't
know anything about Samuel. He was not interested in God,
wasn't interested in religion, wasn't interested in even knowing
the law or keeping it. But Saul's servant had a knowledge
of him. Saul's servant knew who he was.
When he was anointed prophet over his city, all of Israel
heard of him. All right, let me stop. Let me
give you a couple of warnings in light of this. Good family,
good character, humility, loved his dad, obeyed his father. A warning for us, just like Saul,
he trusted his own abilities. Don't never trust your own abilities. You can have great abilities
if God don't bless them. It absolutely means nothing.
It means nothing. If you're blessed with outward
beauty or handsome or whatever, say, Lord, give us that inner
beauty that only you can give us. That inner spiritual character
that only comes from God. Here's the third thing I want
us to remember from this. only a life, only a life saved
by God's grace lived not for self but for God's glory and
the glory of Christ that will be the only life that's well
lived the rest of them don't amount to nothing and what a tragedy it is to be
born in a nation like America where the gospel has gone forth
by men of God for decades and decades and decades where the
gospel has gone forth and men and women just go on like nothing's
ever happened no interest in it whatsoever Saul had it all it seemed like
good family, good father had some more above anybody in
all of Israel. Obeyed his father, respected
authority, had humility, became king, and lost every bit
of it. And I tell you what, I believe this with all my heart
and I know you do too. What would it profit a man if
he had this world and everything in it and lost his own soul? What would it profit? What would
it profit? Our Father, oh gracious, gracious
God in heaven, how wonderfully gracious, kind, and loving you
are, how ready you are to forgive, to forgive us of our weaknesses
and inabilities. And Lord, we thank you for your
Word and the truth that's in it. And Lord, bless the Word to our
understanding, bless it to our hearts, and use this body of
believers to your glory, to your glory. increase our love for
one another, increase our abilities and desires to pray more for
one another. And we do pray for Kyle and Annie,
Bill and Dartha. Pray for these young people here
who've never yet become believers in Christ. Lord, touch their
hearts. Bring them to Christ. Bring them
to their need of Christ. Husbands, daughters, sons, Grandchildren, oh God, we all
desperately need you to do something for them.
Because if you don't, they'll never know you. But oh God, go
for it, for Christ's sake. And open their hearts. Amen. Amen. Did you hear what Jesus
said to me? They're all Taken away away Your
sins are pardoned and you are free. They're all taken away
Taken away My sins are all taken away So
I praise the Lord for sin Forgiven they're all taken away Your sins are pardoned and you
are free. They're all taken away. They're all taken away, away. They're all taken away, away. They're all taken away, away. My sins