1 Samuel 13, beginning in verse
1, Saul reigned one year, and when he had reigned two years
over Israel, Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel, whereof
two thousand were with Saul in Michmash in Mount Bethel, and
a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin, and the
rest of the people he sent every man to his tent. And Jonathan
smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines
heard And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying,
Let the Hebrews hear. And all Israel heard say that
Saul had smitten the garrison of the Philistines, and that
Israel also was had in abomination with the Philistines. And the
people were called together after Saul to Gilgal. Now Saul had
reigned one peaceful, calm year in Israel, and then it was either
immediately after or during his second year of reigning, things
began to happen. You notice there it says Saul
reigned one year and the center reference says that Saul was
the son of one year in his reigning. What that means is Saul was like
a one-year-old child as a king. He'd just been made a different
man about one or two years ago. He wasn't used to being a different
man yet. And you have to remember Saul
had not grown up as a prince. learning how to be a king by
watching his father be a king. Saul was learning to be a king
through on-the-job training, and he just hadn't had a lot
of time yet to learn how to be king and what all that meant.
Just like a one-year-old or a two-year-old has not had a lot of time to
learn about life yet. That's why they make so many
mistakes. We've got to watch them so closely because they
haven't learned a lot yet. And Saul, he made a lot of rookie
mistakes. And the first one had to do with
his military, his army. Now Saul knew he had enemies
on every side. He knew he already had to fight
the Ammonites. He knew he was going to have
to deal with the Philistines. They were all around him. He
had, we read this a couple of chapters ago, a 330,000 man army. I mean, this is a large army. And he let them all go home,
knowing he's going to have to fight these people. He let them
all go home. He did not keep a trained standing army. He just
kept a small honor guard for him and for his son. And he didn't
arm his army. If you look over later in this
chapter, verse 19, there was no blacksmith found throughout
all the land of Israel. For the Philistines said, lest
the Hebrews make them swords or spheres. And all the Israelites
went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share
and his and his axe and his mattocks, and they had a file for the mattocks
and coulters and forks and for the axes and to sharpen the goads. So it came to pass in the day
of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the
hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan.
But with Saul and Jonathan, his son was their found. Apparently
Saul and Jonathan had the only swords in the whole army. There
were just two. And Saul knew this when he became
king, and he didn't get men to take up the blacksmith trade
so he could get his army prepared. All the time that the Philistines
were kind of in control of this land, back from before the time
of Samson, they didn't let any blacksmiths operate in Israel,
so they couldn't arm themselves. Apparently Israel didn't know
anything about Second Amendment rights, and here they are completely
unarmed. And Saul didn't correct that. That's just a rookie mistake.
And after knowing all this now, Saul throws a temper tantrum,
just like a two-year-old would, and he went and poked the Philistines
in the eye and brings all this trouble on Israel. He sent Jonathan
to go in a surprise attack and wipe out this garrison of Philistines.
Evidently, they had some sort of a treaty or understanding
that kind of kept everything at a Mexican standoff. You know,
the Philistines had all these garrisons around the land, but
they must have had some understanding that kind of kept some at least
uneasy peace, you know, between the people there. And we think
that because after the attack, the center reference there says
that all Israel did stink with the Philistines. The Philistines
felt like the Israelites were men who could not be trusted,
who had no integrity or honesty about them at all because of
this surprise attack. The exact same way that every
one of us felt on 9-11, the day of those horrible, unprovoked
attacks in our country, that's the way the Philistines felt.
So now, even though it's really too late, Saul's got to start
preparing for war, because you know the Philistines are not
going to let this thing go. So verse 5, the Philistines gathered
themselves together to fight with Israel. 30,000 chariots,
6,000 horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore
in multitude. And they came up and pitched
in Mikmash, eastward from Beth-Avon. And when the men of Israel saw
that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed, Then
the people did hide themselves in caves and thickets and in
rocks and in high places and in pits. And some of the Hebrews,
they just left the country. They went over Jordan to the
land of Gad and Gilead. And as for Saul, he was yet in
Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling. And the Philistines
gathered this huge army. And you can imagine how easy
it was for them to recruit men into the military, just like
in the United States after Pearl Harbor and 9-11. I mean, the
recruiter didn't have to try hard, he just had to open the
door and hear men come to volunteer, you know. And they gathered 30,000
chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and at a time when you didn't have
that many horses in an army, and foot soldiers as the sandwiches
on the seashore in multitude. Josephus said that they had over
300,000 foot soldiers. In verse 17, you see what they
had to do. As they come here to gather,
they had to supply their army. In verse 17, spoilers came out
of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company
turned unto the way that leadeth to Orpah unto the land of Shulah. Another company turned the way
to Bethorin. Another company turned the way
to the border that looketh to the valley of Zibon toward the
wilderness. And they went all through the
land, just how you do, just scouring, just taking everything they could
take that would help their army, feed them and supply them and
so forth. And they just decimated Israel. They took everything
that was of any value. Nobody had a spear or sword.
They couldn't protect themselves. And they just came and took what
they wanted. And people, they could see the situation here.
They are certain of annihilation. So they ran, they hid in caves
and thickets of thorn bushes and they went up high into the
rocks and places to hide. And they were so afraid. They're
just terrified. Now, just a little bit ago, they
weren't afraid of anything. They had a 330,000 man army that
attacked Nahash. What happened to all those fellas?
You know, what are they all hiding for now? What happened to following
this great General Saul? Why are they so afraid all of
a sudden? They don't seem to find too much
comfort in old Saul leading them now, do they? I mean, I think
they could see that they didn't find comfort in Saul, because
this is a self-made problem. Saul brought all this trouble
upon them through his own mistakes. And some of the writers say that
people are wishing for Samuel. Now, the text doesn't say that,
but it could be that people are wishing that, well, we wish we
had Samuel back as the fellow that was leading this. Matthew
Henry made this statement about that. He said, sooner or later,
people realize God's servant is their best friend. And maybe
they realized it too late, but maybe it could be they realized
it. And they were terrified. So verse 8, Saul tarried seven
days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. But
Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from
him. Now, if you look back at chapter 10, I'll tell you why
he's waiting here. This is the instruction that
Samuel had given Saul when he was first anointed king, that
if you find yourself in a time of trouble and you need someone
to tell you what to do, you need someone to come tell you what
the Lord will have you do, you go to Gilgal and wait for me.
And this is where this happened in verse 8 of chapter 10. Samuel
says, Thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I will
come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings and to the sacrifices
of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till
I come to thee. and show thee what thou shalt
do. And everybody is convinced that this was not just talking
about this particular time. This was an instruction for all
of Saul's reign. You go wait for me at Gilgal
and within seven days, I'll show up and tell thee what thou shalt
do. And Saul understood those instructions because here in
a minute, when he doesn't wait for Samuel, he's going to start
making all these excuses as to why he didn't. So he knew he's
supposed to wait till Samuel got there and told him what to
do. Now, without question, this situation is bad. I mean, it
is a bad situation. But Saul makes it go from bad
to worse. And he's the one who made it
bad in the first place. Now he's going to make the biggest blunder
of his life and cause this situation to go from bad to worse. Look
at verse 9. And Saul said, this is the seventh
day there he's been waiting, bring hither a burnt offering
to me and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering.
Now, I don't know if we can hear often enough. Wait on the Lord,
just wait on the Lord. I'm not even talking about Saul,
I'm talking about me and us here. Wait. David said, wait on the
Lord. And he said it again. Wait, I say, on the Lord. We
have to hear that so often. Wait. Now Samuel told Saul, you
go to Gilgal, wait on me seven days. And Saul couldn't wait
to the end of the seventh day. Here it is the seventh day and
he couldn't wait. Just till the appointed time
he had to act. And all throughout scripture,
Saul should have known this, that nothing brings the wrath
of God more surely and swiftly than violating the sacrifice.
Nothing brings more sure judgment than violating the sin offering
that's a picture of the person and work of Christ. This sin
offering is not just a religious ceremony. This is a picture of
the person and the work of the Son of God. This sin offering
is a picture of the atonement that's found in the blood of
God's Son. And that sacrifice is not to
be trifled with. It can only be offered by the
appointed high priest. It's the appointed sacrifice
And the appointed high priest has been appointed by God. Now
look over to Genesis chapter 4. Let's look at a couple of
scriptures here. Cain learned this lesson. And these are stories that Saul
should have known. In Genesis 4 verse 3. In the process of time it came
to pass that Cain brought the fruit of the ground an offering
unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of
his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel unto his offering. But unto Cain unto his offering
he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and
his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain,
Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? Now Cain,
you know this. If thou doest well, shalt thou
be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door. Now you know this. And unto thee
shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. But Cain,
he violated that sacrifice, and he did not do well, so he was
not accepted. Look at Numbers chapter 20. Even
the great prophet Moses God is no respecter of persons. No matter
who you are, you trifle and violate this sacrifice, it's going to
bring God's judgment. In Numbers 20, verse 7, and the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou
the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak
ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth
his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the
rock. So shalt thou give the congregation and their beasts
drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded
him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before
the rock. And he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels, must we
fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand,
and with his rod he smote the rock twice. And the water came
out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron. Because ye believe
me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel,
therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land
which I have given them." He took Moses and took him off somewhere
before he saw the land, but never could enter into it. And just
for only one reason, he smoked that rock the second time. And
Christ just smit once. And just violating that picture
kept Moses from entering into the land that God promised Look
at 2 Samuel 6. Uzzah learned this lesson. 2 Samuel 6, verse 6. And when they came to Macon's
threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and
took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the
Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his
error And he died. There he died by the ark of God.
Now, he wasn't acting, you know, ugly. He wasn't acting ugly,
like losing his temper like Moses. He wasn't bringing the sacrifice
God didn't tell him to bring. He just tried to be helpful.
Keep the ark. Nobody wanted to see the ark
fall to the ground, did they? He just reached up his hand and
touched what God told him not to touch. And God killed him.
I'm telling you, we get in trouble when we try to help God out.
People, they try to get people to do things and make a decision
to help God out. All that does is violate the
sacrifice of God's Son. It brings swift judgment. Look
at 2 Chronicles 26. King Uzziah learned this lesson. King Uzziah was a good king.
He restored the worship of God to Israel. He got rid of the
idols. He just he did everything that according to the will of
the Lord. 2 Chronicles 26, verse 16, But
when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.
For he transgressed against the Lord his God, and he went into
the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in
after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord that were
valiant men. And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto
him, Now appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense
unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, these men
whom God has appointed, that are consecrated to burn incense.
Now go out of the sanctuary, for thou hast trespassed, neither
shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God." Then Uzziah was
wroth, and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and
while he was wroth with the priests, The leprosy even rose up in his
forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord from beside
the incense altar. And Azariah, the chief priest,
and all the priests looked upon him, and behold, he was leprous
in his forehead. And they thrust him out. They
took the king, and they thrust him out from hence. Yea, himself
hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And
Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death, and he
dwelt in a several being a leper. Now this is the king who restored
the worship of God in Israel, for he was cut off from the house
of the Lord for just doing one thing wrong, violating the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now brethren, we're not playing
games when we gather together here. This is not a social event. And it is part of it, social,
and people I love most in this world are right here. But now
I'm telling you, we're not playing games when we gather together
here to worship and hear the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ
preached to us one more time. This is not games. And that's
really what Saul did. He's playing games here, offering
this burnt offering. Well, verse 9. Or verse 10, it
came to pass that as soon as he made an end of offering the
burnt offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meeting
that he might salute him. You see, that word salute is
blessed. Saul, not just going out to tell Samuel, hello, he's
going out to bless Samuel. Now, you know, I mean, just this
is the way life goes. As soon as he was offering that
burnt offering, Samuel showed up. That's just the way it goes.
And Samuel, or Saul, he didn't just go out to say hello to Samuel. He went out to bless Samuel. Like, well, now that I'm offering
burnt offerings too, now we're co-equals in this matter of offering
these sacrifices and burnt offerings. And he came out to bless Samuel.
Instead of going out to have Samuel bless him, he went out
to bless Samuel. And that's just the darkness
and pride of the human heart. Only the priest. to get her blessing. And Samuel, he is coming up,
and Saul is coming out to bless him. Well, Samuel didn't fall
for any of that. In verse 11, Samuel said, What
hast thou done? And Saul said, he forgot about
the blessing pretty quick, didn't he? Because I saw that the people
were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days
appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together
at Micmash. Therefore, said I, the Philistines
will come down now upon me to Gilgal. and I have not made supplication
unto the Lord. So I forced myself, therefore,
and offered a burnt offering." Samuel asks Saul, what have you
done? And Saul immediately shows how
he's related to old Adam. Saul starts blaming everybody,
everybody around except himself. He said, well, now, you know,
the people were leaving me, and I wouldn't have done this if
people hadn't left me. And Samuel, it's your fault. You didn't come
fast enough. I thought you were supposed to come, you know, within
seven days. And he kind of conveniently left out that it still was within
seven days. He said, so I forced myself to
offer this sacrifice, you know, just like Adam. You know, he
kind of had to force himself to eat, because Eve, you know,
the woman you gave, she made me do it. I forced myself to
eat. Matthew Henry, this struck my funny bone. He said, what?
Go to war before I say my prayers? Hypocrites, Matthew Henry said,
lay great stress upon the external performances of religion. And
that's what men do. They put great importance on
all the outward form and ceremony of religion. But God looks on
the heart. Now, it is my prayer that the
Lord will enable us time to time through the years as we meet
here together to worship him in spirit and in truth. Because
God looks on the heart. And you know, there is never
an excuse for disobedience. Saul can come up with excuses,
but there's never an excuse for disobedience and there's never
an excuse to treat the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ lightly.
There's never an excuse to treat the worship of Almighty God lightly. And if you do, I promise you
it's going to bring judgment, and that's what happened to Saul
here. In verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly.
Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he
commanded thee. For now will the Lord have established
thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not
continue, and the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart,
and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his because
thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee." Now
Saul lost the kingdom for one act of disobedience, because
he acted as his own mediator and his own high priest. And
there's only one mediator between God and men, and that's the man
Christ Jesus. He tried to offer his own sacrifice
and rejected the sacrifice that God had appointed. And you know,
this is a bad day for Saul and for Israel. And in the midst
of this judgment against sin and in the midst of all this
foolishness that men have acted upon, God shows his electing
mercy. Samuel says, you've lost the
kingdom, but now God's raised up a man after his own heart.
He's commanded this man to be captain. He's commanded this
man to be king. And we know that's David, but
Samuel doesn't even know David yet. He doesn't even know the
boy exists yet. But he knows God's going to raise
him up to be king in Israel. Israel had repeatedly sinned
against God, yet God was always merciful to them. And in this
case, too, they sinned against God, but God was merciful to
them because he remembered his covenant. He remembered his promise
to the seed of Abraham, the people that he chose. And all this is
happening. God's going to raise up a king
for one reason, his electing love, his sovereign mercy. People can rebel and hate God's
election, his electing love all they want. I thank God for it
because Israel would have been wiped out here and you and me
would be wiped out now if it wasn't for God's electing love.
So here's the blessing, the picture we have of Christ in this text.
All of us, every one of us, We have sinned against God. We have
initiated an unprovoked attack against the throne of God. That's
exactly what Adam did. He made an attack against God's
throne. He's going to be equal with God.
I don't have to answer to him anymore. And the moment Adam
sinned, we forfeited the kingdom of God. And all it took was one
sin. Just one to forfeit the kingdom
of God. How many sins have we committed?
We forfeit the kingdom in Adam, and we forfeit the kingdom every
moment through our own sin. And an army of our sin that is
more numerable than the sand which is on the seashore has
gathered against us to witness against us, and we're doomed.
This army, we can't defeat any of them. We're not armed. We
don't have a sword. We're doomed. And just like Saul, this is a
self-made problem. We got nobody to blame but ourselves. It's our fault. It's my fault.
And all sin has brought to us, it's not brought us pleasure
and joy. All sin has brought to our minds
and to our souls is fear. Guilt makes men cowards. What happened as soon as Adam
fell? He became a coward, trying to hide himself from God. That's
exactly what he was doing. And ever since then, ever since
that moment, All of Adam's race has feared the face of God because
we know we're guilty. And that's bad enough, but it
doesn't stop there. Sin has ravaged our minds, our
bodies, and our souls and left us devoid of anything righteous. It's left us devoid of anything
that resembles righteousness. It's left us empty and destitute
and dead. Just like those Philistine marauders
who went out and pillaged the land for supplies, left Israel
destitute, sin has left us destitute of anything good. And it doesn't
even stop there. We continue to forfeit the kingdom
of God by refusing the sacrifice of God's Son and trying to develop
our own way to put away our sin and to satisfy God. And it takes
lots of forms. It might take religion. It might
be, you know, trying to live as good as you possibly can or
something. But no matter what form it takes, it's foolishness. That's what Samuel told Saul.
You've acted foolishly. It's foolishness to think that
God would be pleased with any other sacrifice other than the
sacrifice of his son. And when God sent His Son in
this world to be the sacrifice for His people, how foolish is
it to think that God would be pleased with something else other
than His only begotten Son? Solomon said the sacrifice of
the foolish is an abomination, and much more so when it's offered
with the wicked mind. And that's the mind that we're
born with, the wicked mind is the fallen, sinful mind that
rejects God's Son and thinks we can do something that's equally
satisfactory to the sacrifice of Christ. And I'm telling you,
mankind has rebelled against God. And you don't have to look
far to see that. I mean, it seems to us it's getting
worse and worse and worse with every passing day, doesn't it? But now get a hold of this. I
know this. God's saving a people. I don't
know who all of them are. I don't know exactly where they're
all located right now at this exact moment. I don't know what
their names are. But I know He knows. And the
Lord willing, we're going to keep preaching this gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to keep pointing
men and women and boys and girls to the Lord Jesus Christ as long
as God gives us breath, praying. Maybe God will be merciful to
them. Maybe He will. Maybe God's saving a people.
I know that. He'll be pleased to save somebody
in our town. Maybe he'll be pleased to save somebody sitting right
here. Maybe he'll be pleased to save somebody in those two
classes over there. I don't know. But I know this. He knows, and
he's saving a people. And if anyone is saved, if we
see God save anyone, I know this. It's because God chose them in
eternity past. It's because God sent his son
into this world. He made him a man to produce
a righteousness that we cannot produce, to produce a righteousness
that's going to be freely imputed to his people. He sent his son
to suffer and to die, to shed his sinless blood, to put our
sins away, the sins of his people. And I know that if they're raised
up, it's because God Almighty raised him up, gave him life.
gave them faith and repentance in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if you want to hear from God, I implore you, get in his word
and get yourself wherever you can find one. If you find one
of God's servants preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
you make it a point to be under that ministry, to hear that.
Don't make the same mistake Saul did now. You wait on the prophet
of the Lord. to point you to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's not going to tell you everything to do in all your
life, but I'll tell you what He will do. He'll point you to
Christ. That's what He's going to do.
Now, do you think that's foolish? Do you think what we're doing
here, this preaching, do you think that's foolish to think,
well, I'm just going to wait on God's servant to point me
to Christ and wait on God to give me eyes to see and a heart
that loves Him? Does that sound foolish to you?
Well, what does Scripture say? It pleased God. by what men call
foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. This
right here is how it's going to be done, through the preaching
of the gospel. Well, do you think that the world
has gotten so bad, that the situation is so dire, that now, because
it's gotten so bad, that preaching has become a waste of time? Maybe
we ought to set preaching aside and try to do something different
to reach people, because it's just worse than it used to be
before. You think that? You think, well, I don't know.
He says he's coming, but I don't see any evidence of it. Look
at 2 Peter 3. That's exactly what the scoffers
say. Don't be a scoffer. Don't scoff
at God's Word. Don't scoff at the promise of
God. 2 Peter 3. Verse 3. Knowing this verse. that there shall come in the
last day scoffers, walking in their own lusts, and saying,
Where is the promise that is coming? For since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning
of creation. Well, that's not exactly true,
is it? For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the
word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing
out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was,
being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and
the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing." That's why you become a scoffer if you're
ignorant. Well, don't be ignorant of this one thing. That one day
is with the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years is
one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise. He'll
keep his word. As some men count slackness,
but as longsuffering thus were it, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and the works
that are therein, shall be burned up. Now seeing, then, that all
these things should be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
ye to be, in all holy conversation and godliness, looking and hastening
unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
ye look for such things, be diligent, be diligent, that ye may be found
of him in peace, without spot and blameless." We know this
by God's grace because of his promise. There is a day coming. The king's coming back. God has
raised up his son. He sent his son, the God man,
not just a man like David, a man after God's own heart. He sent
his son with the heart and the mind, the soul of God, because
he is God. That's the one that God's raised
up to be the king of his people. And I bow right now today, don't
you? I bow and hasten Lord to bed
when he comes. We can see him face to face in
person and bow before Christ our King. Lord bless you.