Now when we think about the different
judges of Israel, there are three judges that kind of stand out
in our mind as men who were great blessings to Israel. First, there
was Samson, who delivered Israel with his great strength. Second,
there was Gideon, who delivered Israel through the power of the
sword, that small army that he took against the enemy. And third,
there was Samuel, who delivered Israel through the power of prayer.
We read that last week. Now, none of these men were perfect,
but they were pictures of Christ. And Samuel, that we've been studying
here the past few weeks, is like all the prophets. He's no different
than any of the rest of them. He is loved a whole lot more
when he was dead than when he was alive. And that's kind of
what we see beginning to happen here in 1 Samuel 8. And it came
to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over
Israel. Now, the name of the firstborn was Joel, the name
of the second Abiah. They were judges in Beersheba,
and his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after
Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment. Now Samuel was too
old to ride the circuit anymore all through Israel like he used
to do. He made a circuit all through
Israel at least once a year and judged the people in the different
cities. But he's too old to do that anymore, so he appointed
his sons to judge for him. Now Samuel was a great prophet,
a great man of God, but his sons, their rulings, their judges were
controlled by covetousness. It was just who gave them, you
know, the bribe or whatever. And the same thing's true about
men who call themselves preachers. Their actions are controlled
by covetousness. When a man departs from the gospel,
departs from preaching Christ, many, many times at the root
of the problem is covetousness. And that's what was at the root
of the problem with these boys. And it's just another example
in Scripture that points out to us, salvation is by grace. Now we can and we should, right
at this very moment we are, teaching our children Christ. Teaching
them the truth, teaching them the Scriptures. Janet tells me
frequently, just these little teeny tiny mouths, she watches
them saying their memory first. Those little teeny tiny mouths,
those mouths is coming the Word of God. We teach them the Scriptures. We can't save them. As much as
we'd like to, we can't do it. We can pray for them, we can
teach them, but they're in God's hands to save, if He will. Because
salvation does not come through the lineage of believing parents.
It's by grace. Christ is all of our salvation. And Samuel was a great prophet.
But apparently, he made the same mistake that Eli made with his
sons. That's what most people tend to think. I don't know why. We don't have scripture to tell
us what happened. We don't know what happened. Maybe Samuel didn't
discipline his boys like Eli didn't discipline his sons. Now,
parents who do not discipline their children do not love their
children. That's so. And you cannot be
surprised when a child who's undisciplined grows up to be
like these boys because they never were taught any better
through discipline when they were little. That's just so.
Maybe that's what Samuel did. Maybe he did discipline his sons
when they were little boys. And I mean, he could have been
the perfect father and they still turned out the way they did.
And you know why? Because they are Samuel's sons,
but they're still sons of Adam. They're totally depraved. You
never know what a man will do because they're sons of Adam.
But this is what we do know. Samuel was to blame for not putting
a stop to this behavior of his sons when they were acting as
judges, as grown men. Now, most parents do not have
control over their children. You know, they grow up, they
move out, you're not in control anymore. Up to this point in
my life, I have thoroughly enjoyed being a parent who's in control.
But now, that's not going to be the case anymore. They grow
up, they move out, you're not in control anymore. Samuel was
in control because his sons, in their official capacity, were
under his authority. He should have and could have
removed them from office and he didn't do it. Now it's bad
enough, it's sad enough when this happens in the life of a
private person. But when this happens in the
life of a public person, the prophet, it's very sad. It brings reproach on the gospel
and gives people an excuse not to believe Christ and not to
follow Christ because that's human nature that's looking for
an excuse. And that's what happens here in verse 4. Then all the
elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel and
to Ramah and said unto him, Behold, thou art old. and my sons walk
not in my ways. Now make us a king to judge us
like all the nations." Now you can't blame the people for not
wanting Samuel's sons to judge him. We wouldn't want that at
all. You know, this is a legitimate complaint that they have. It's
immoral for a judge to rule based on who gave him the biggest bribe.
They ought not want these men to judge them, to rule over them.
And if they simply would have come to Samuel and asked him
to to remove his sons from their appointed judgeship and ask him
to appoint honest judges, everything would have been fine. There would
have been nothing wrong with that. But they went a bridge
too far. They said, not only do we not
want your sons to rule over us, we want you to give us a king,
make us a king. Now, God had always been Israel's
king. They never had a human king to
this point in their history. God was their king. He ruled
over them. He protected them. He provided
for them. He fought their battles for them.
But they wanted a man that they could see with their eyes to
be their king. A man that they could be impressed
with and a man that the neighboring nations around them could be
impressed with when they saw him. They wanted a man. They could be impressed with
the royal robes that he wore. They could be impressed with
his procession as he went through the streets. Impressed with his
chariots and his armies and his riches and the castle of a man.
That's what they wanted to be impressed with. And I was reading
that this week and I thought, who in their right mind would
want that job? Who in their right mind would
want to be king of Israel? Look at their history. They're
a rebellious, stiff-necked people. It sounds to me like misery to
have to rule over them and try to lead that bunch of people.
Look how they treated Moses and Aaron right after Moses and Aaron
led them out of Egypt. Look how they treated them. Who
wants that job? And they treated every other
leader they ever had the same way. Look back at Judges chapter
8. This issue had come up before. They asked Gideon to be their
king. In Judges chapter 8, verse 22, this is after and took that little army and
gone out and defeated the Midians. Then the men of Israel said unto
Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's
son also, for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. And
Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall
my son rule over you. I love my son a whole lot more
than that. He's not going to rule over you either. The Lord
shall rule over you. He is the Now look back in Deuteronomy
17. The Lord had given a pretty good
clue to Israel that one day there's going to be a king in Israel.
I'm sure these men, these elders, had some understanding of the
scripture that someday they knew there was going to be a king
in Israel. Look in Deuteronomy 17, 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 shall 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 shall
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." So the Lord has given them a
pretty good clue, a pretty good indication that one day there
is going to be a king in Israel. But here is the problem. That
moment is not now. and they would not wait on the
Lord. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Now
that's easy to say and hard to do, to wait on the Lord. But
running ahead of the Lord and running ahead of the Lord's will
will always lead us to disaster. You think about it. If they just
settled down for a minute and waited on the Lord, David would
have been the first king of Israel, and they avoided all the heartache
and trouble that was brought on them through Saul's rule if
they just would have waited on the Lord. But they wouldn't do
it, so look at verse 6. Then the thing displeased Samuel
when they said, Give us a king to judge us, and Samuel prayed
unto the Lord. And 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 projected
me that I should not reign over them. Now Samuel was a man of
prayer. Here he took his burden and he
took the burden of Israel to the Lord. And you know, now Samuel's
a man, you know he had to take this personally. This had to
hurt him personally. And the Lord told him, Samuel,
they might reject you. They projected me that I won't
be the king over them, that I won't rule over them. And I tell you,
every servant of God who's ever lived understands why Samuel
took this personally. People do not believe the gospel.
They hang around for a while and then leave and say all sorts
of things about you. And you take it personally. But
they've not rejected you. They've rejected God. They've
rejected his Savior. And this is no new thing that
Israel's doing this. Look at verse 8. According to
all the works which they have done, since the day that I brought
them up out of Egypt, even unto this day wherewith they have
forsaken me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee."
This is no new thing. Now if you look over in Hosea
chapter 13, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, the people wanted a king. They
rejected God as their king. And God gave them what they want.
He told Samuel, you do exactly what they say unto you. But he's
not doing this because he's being so kind and gracious. He's giving
them the king what they ask for out of anger. In Hosea 13 verse
9, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. I didn't destroy you. You've destroyed yourself. But
in me is thy help. I will be thy king. Where is
any other that may save thee in all thy cities, and thy judges,
of whom thou saidest, Give a king and princes? I gave thee a king
in mine anger, and I took him away in my wrath." Now, I gave
you what you asked for in anger. Every person in this room wants
what we want, and we want it now. Don't we? I mean, that's
the way we are. But I'm telling you, it's a good
thing. Honestly, that God doesn't always give us what we ask for,
because we don't know what to ask for like we are. Now, we
ask amiss, and so many times we ask amiss. Now, we pray, and
we ought to be men and women of prayer, just like Samuel was.
We ought to offer our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. We
ought to pour out our petitions before God, because who else
are you going to pour them out to? Who else is able to help
you, and who else cares? Pour them out before God. But
our prayer should always include, Thy will be done in heaven as
it is on earth. That's why our Lord taught us
to pray, Thy will be done. So often I pray my private prayers,
Lord, make my heart at peace with Thy will. Give me submission,
not just a broken submission I accept because I have to. Give
me a joyful submission. to thy will. Make my heart love
thy will and be at peace with thy will." But that's not the
way they prayed. They said, give us a king. Now,
one of the key issues of the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ
is king. He is the sovereign. And any
sinner who's going to be saved is going to be brought to the
feet of the sovereign. and beg him for mercy. You're
going to be brought to the dust, your face in the dust at the
feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and beg him to have mercy on
your sinful soul. All the while knowing full well
he has the crown rights to do with me as he pleases. He'd be
just to damn me. But I'm going to beg him for
mercy anyway. And you're not saved. You do
not know the Lord unless you're a mercy beggar at the feet of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless you acknowledge him as
King, he's not your Savior. If you've seen the King, you
know he's King. You recognize him as King. Henry
says, I couldn't count how many times he said, Christ will be
Lord of all or he won't be Lord at all. Now, Christ is King. He's king by the appointment,
first of all, of the father. Look at Psalm 2. The father has
appointed him to be king. Psalm 2, verse 6. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. Well, who on earth is he talking
about? Well, look at verse 7. I will declare the decree the
Lord hath set unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee." That's who he's talking to, my son. He's appointed his
son to be king. Over in Acts chapter 2, don't
turn to it, I'll just read it to you. This is Peter preaching
to the folks there, and he said, therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. God made him king. Now he's been appointed king
by the Father. He was born king. When the wise
men came looking for him, who did they ask for? Where's he
who's born king of the Jews? And when they found him, what
did they do? They bowed down and worshipped
him. Because that's what you do. You bow down before the king.
He was born king. The Father appointed him king.
He was born king and he lived. As a man on this earth, as king
of his creation, he was the one who was in control of every situation
he was ever in. This man, in the midst of that
horrible storm that those experienced fishermen thought was going to
sink their boats, said, Peace, be still. The wind stopped and
the water became as glass. What manner of man is this that
even the wind and the waves obey his voice? It's the king. He
gave life to the dead. They're taking that boy out to
the cemetery to bury him. And the Lord gave him life. He's
king. When the king said, Lazarus,
come forth. He's dead, he's decaying and
stinking. But the dead came forth because
the king spoke. There's power in the voice of
the king. He lived on this earth as king. And he died. as king. The issue at the cross is the
kingship of Christ. To men, for men's actions and
so forth, to men the issue was the kingship of Christ. It was
men rejecting his kingship. Both Jew and Gentile, religious
and heathen, both rejected Christ as king. When Pilate brought
him forth, he said, Behold your king. Shall I crucify your king?
They said, we have no king but Caesar. The only man that they
hated worse than Caesar, that they hated worse than the rule
of Rome was God's son. They hated Caesar, but they'd
rather have Caesar as their king than this man. They rejected
his kingship. The Jews did. And the Romans,
the Gentiles, they rejected him as king. What did the Roman soldiers
do? They mocked him as king. They
lacerated his back and put an old dirty purple robe on his
back. They thrust a crown of thorns
into his skull. They gave him a reed for a scepter
and they bowed the knee, mockingly said, Hail, King of the Jews.
Just laughed him to scorn. And then when they crucified
him, they hung over his head his charge. This was not a description. This was his charge, legal charge,
written over his head, King of the Jews. They killed him because
he was king. They rejected his kingship. But
brethren, he was not defeated. He died as king. Look at Romans
14. Our Savior died that he would
be king. In Romans 14 verse 9. For to this end Christ both died
and rose and revived. that he might be Lord, King,
both of the dead and the living. He died as King, and the Lord
Jesus Christ is King of kings. Yet it's no surprise, when Israel
rejected him as their king, when the Jews rejected him and the
Gentiles rejected him at Calvary, it's no surprise, man's been
rejecting God's kingship and God's rule over them from the
very beginning. When Adam fell, What did Eve
tell him that Satan told her? When you eat of this fruit, you
should be as God's, knowing good and evil. When you eat this fruit,
you're going to be equal with God. God don't want you to be
equal with him. When you eat this fruit, you're going to be
equal with him and you won't have to submit to his authority
anymore. That's exactly what he meant
in Adam 8. And he fell, rejecting God's
authority. The Jews cry at Calvary was,
we will not have this man. reign over us, rejecting His
kingship. They didn't reject when the Lord
healed somebody, did they? They didn't care when He fed
the hungry. Nobody complains about a free
lunch. And that's all men want from this Jesus that they hear
preached today. They want Him to heal them, they
want Him to make them rich, and they want Him to give them food
and feed them. They want those things, but they won't have Him
reign over them. They don't object to the miracles.
What they object to is his sovereignty as king. He could be a king. If the definition of a king is
like a president, you can vote out office. King is sovereign. They object to his sovereign
rule over them. The first time people tried to
kill the Lord Jesus was when he told them he's sovereign in
salvation. You can read it in Luke chapter
4. He told them in the days of Elijah, there were many widows.
But under none of them was the prophet sent, except that widow
woman of Sarepta, a Gentile. In the days of Elisha, there
were many lepers, but the Lord didn't send his prophet and healed
but one of them, Naaman the Syrian, a Gentile. And not just a Gentile,
but the captain of the army that was oppressing Israel. God healed
him. He told them he's sovereign in
salvation and they're going to throw him off the cliff. And
he walked through the midst of them and they couldn't touch
him because he's king. His hour has not yet come. And
men and women do not accept the King as their personal Savior. We do not decide whether or not
to invite the King of glory into our heart. We don't decide whether
or not now's the time He can come into my heart or now's the
time He can't. Men and women can't decide that. Who do we
think we are? This is the Almighty. The Almighty
is his name. This is the king. You beg him
for mercy. You beg him to come into your
heart, but you don't decide now's the time or not. When I was a
boy, I wrote letters to presidents. I remember particularly, I wrote
a letter to President Nixon and I wrote a letter to Gerald Ford.
And when I wrote them, I had questions and things, you know,
and I invited him to our house for dinner. Richard Nixon never
came to our house for dinner. You'd have been fixing shepherd's
pie when he did. I'd be embarrassed. I don't like that. But Gerald
Ford took office, and I thought, you know, I got an in here. I
got a way that I got a connection here. So I wrote him, and I told
him that my dad was a graduate at the University of Michigan,
just like he was, inviting him to dinner. Big Michigan football
fan. He played for them, you know.
You know what? That man never came to our house
for dinner. Now you laugh. Are you surprised? Really? Are you surprised that the most
powerful man in the world, that I couldn't dictate his schedule?
Do we think God is less than the President of the United States?
He's only going to be in that house for four years. Men do
by nature. And we do not have the prerogative
to decide whether we're going to accept him or reject his rule. We don't have that. Matter of
fact, you can never reject the kingship of Christ because one
day every knee, without exception, is going to bow and every tongue
is going to confess that he's Lord, that he's king. And we
can, right now, beg the king for mercy. Oh, begging for mercy. We can beg him to have mercy
on our guilty, sinned, defiled soul. And if you ever see him,
you ever see the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to recognize him
as king and you do the same thing that Thomas did when Thomas saw
him after he rose from the dead. Followed his feet and say, my
Lord and my God, he's king and I belong at his feet. Now, men
by nature will never, ever, ever do that. One of the greatest
evidences of a dead nature is men will choose the harshness
of the law rather than submit themselves to Christ. And that's
exactly what Israel did. Look here at verse 9. God tells
Samuel, it says, Now therefore hearken unto their voice, howbeit
yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them what manner of
king, or what manner of the king that shall reign over them. And
Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that
ask of him a king. And he said, this will be the
manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take
your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots and
to be his horsemen. And some shall run before his
chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands and
captains over fifties and will set them to ear his ground and
to reap his harvest and to make his instruments of war and the
instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters
to be confectionaries and to be cooks and to be bakers. And
he will take your fields and your vineyards and your olive
yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards
and give to his officers and his servants. And he will take
your men's servants and your maid's servants and your goodliest
young men and your asses and put them to his work. He will
take the tenth of your sheep, and ye shall be his servants."
You're going to be his slaves. Now, nowhere in that description
did it say anything. about the king providing for
the people, did it? Nowhere in that description did it describe
a king who would go out and fight their battles for them and judge
them and rule over them in justice. He's not going to provide for
the people. He's going to take from them. He's going to take
whatever he wants from them. You know, the best of kings only
take 10% of the tax, and the Jews were already paying 10%
to support the priesthood. Well, if you want a king, buddy,
he's going to move you up to the 20% tax bracket. And there
ain't no deductions, he didn't take 10% of everything. And the
best, if the best only take 10%, what do the worst take? Well,
they're going to take a whole lot more than that, and they
will, because absolute power corrupts men absolutely. And if you don't believe the
truth of that statement, just look at the kings of history, how
quickly they become corrupt. But contrast that man to King
Christ. This human king, he's got to
take things from his subjects so he can have wealth that everybody
will be impressed with. King Christ already owns everything. He has great wealth and he gives
that wealth to his children. He provides for them. He doesn't
take from them, he provides for them everything they need. This
human king is going to have to draft men into his army so he
can have some power. King Christ already has all power.
He's omnipotent and he uses his power to save and protect his
people. The human king is going to have
to take food from his subjects. He's going to have to take your
sons and your daughters so they can be his servants and cook
for him and wait on his table so he can have a great table
like King Solomon did. Read about Solomon's table sometime,
my goodness sakes. I mean, our Thanksgiving dinner
is a pittance compared to his daily table. He already has a table. Thou
prepares the table before me in the presence of my enemies,
and my cup runneth over. And we sit at the king's table
like old lame Ephibosheth, that dead dog, as sons of the king. This human king is going to make
slaves of his servants. Christ sets his people free. Oh, how can anyone Choose the
law, choose a human king, as opposed to King Christ. Well,
they do because they're dead. That's exactly why. And the Lord
warned Israel about choosing a king so that they're without
excuse. In verse 18, he says in one of
the days coming that you shall cry in that day because of your
king, which you have chosen you and the Lord will not hear you
in that day. This is what you have chosen
you. It's your own fault. And you
know, men are warned in scripture about the wages of sin, aren't
they? But they still choose sin. And their damnation is their
own fault. Not God's fault. It's their fault. And it's utterly
ridiculous to think fallen human flesh would ever choose Christ. Fallen dead flesh always chooses
the law, always chooses sin, unless grace intervenes and God
chooses us. Now look at verse 19, after that
warning, nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of
Samuel. And they said, Nay, but we will
have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations,
and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight
our battles. You know what man's problem is?
Man's problem is a refusal to obey the word of God, a refusal
to obey the word of God's It's not that men can't understand
the Bible. It's not that, you know, take
the these and the thousand of it. You can understand exactly
what the Bible is saying. The problem is men refuse to
obey it. It's not that somebody can't understand the gospel that's
preached. It's that they refuse to obey it. And that's what they
said. We want to be like everybody else. Well, why? Why would you want to be like
everybody else? The Lord brought you out of Egypt. He delivered
you safely through all those years through the desert and
gave you the land He promised Abraham. And you didn't have
to fight a single battle to get that land. The Lord gave it to
you. You walked around the city and blew horns and the walls
fell down. The Lord gave it to you. We read in the last chapter
how the Lord fought their battle, saying to set up that great stone
so everybody could remember, here are the two that the Lord
brought me. Why do you want to be like the heathens? who are
without God, without Christ. Well, they did. So God gave them
what they wanted and he gave them Saul as their first king.
An impressive looking man who's going to go out and fight their
battles for them. What happened to him? He was killed in battle. Big help he was, wasn't he? In two years after Saul, the
first thing he did was usurp God's authority as king. Within
two years of taking the throne, you know what he did? He usurped
the authority of the priest and offered a sacrifice. And God
took the kingdom from him and Israel paid the price. An error
in the kingship of Christ will always lead to an error in the
atonement of Christ. If you do not understand that
Christ is king, you'll think he's offering that sacrifice
for you to accept. If you understand he's king,
you know he's offering that sacrifice to the father on behalf of a
people that the father gave him. He's saving his people from their
sin. And the people wanted to return
to bondage, just like their fathers did. They came out of Egypt and
they wanted to return to bondage. They started thinking about,
you know, the good times we had back there as slaves. They wanted
to go back to bondage. And that's human nature. Human
nature will fight against submitting to the freedom of Christ and
will fight to stay under bondage to the law. That's why God's
got to give us a new nature. And the people refused to obey
and listen to Samuel, even though all these years, Samuel's an
old man now, they knew he was the prophet of the Lord. They
knew the Lord never let one of his words fall to the ground,
but they refused to obey. So verse 21, Samuel heard all
the words of the people and rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto their voice and
make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men
of Israel, go ye every man unto his city, God's going to give
you what you ask for. It's a scary thing for God to
say, I'll give you exactly what you want. God help us. God give us the grace. to bow
in submission to King Christ, and to honestly from the heart
pray, Thy will be done. Lord, give us what we need, not
what we want. Because we pray for material
things, that's what we all, every one of us would, and we may as
well admit it, when what we really need is spiritual blessings.
We need forgiveness of sin. I don't need a new house, but
I cannot live without forgiveness of sin. We need a sacrifice for
sin. We need to be made righteous.
We need to be given a new nature. We need to be given peace with
God. We need God to keep us faithful, or we'll fall away in a moment.
And all those who believe Christ have all those things in Christ
our King. God give us the faith and the
wisdom to continue to bow to Him.