Look back over in 1 Samuel with
me where we were this morning. 1 Samuel chapter 9. 1 Samuel chapter 9. You remember
my text about Tish and Saul, his son. Let's read verse 3 again. Kish Saul's father were lost. And Kish said to Saul his son,
Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek
the Asses. And he passed through Mount Ephraim,
and passed through the land of Sheleshe, but they found them
not. Then they passed through the
land of Shalem, and there they were not. And he passed through
the land of Benjamin, but they found them not. And when they
were come to the land of Sirpe, Saul said to his servant that
was with him, Come, and let us return, lest my father leave
caring for the asses, and take thought of us. I want to leave
this thought with you this afternoon about seeking his father's asses. He was a mighty man of power,
and some say a mighty man of wealth. He probably was a wealthy
man. He had servants. But we're told
here in our text that he had lost his donkeys, his asses.
Now some of this may sound vulgar to our refined ears, but I like
to use Bible language. Sometimes I use it and my kids
laugh at me. But we call them donkeys, we
call them mules, but the Bible calls them asses. That's just
the name for these donkeys. And he had lost his asses. I
don't know, the Bible doesn't say how he lost them. We don't
know if he had them corralled and they broke out, if he had
them tied and they broke loose. But his asses had gone astray
and they were lost. And the Bible says here that
he sent Saul, his son, to seek his asses. Boy, this was a big
man. He was a strong man. Saul was.
But you know something about this man? He was wimpy. He was
one wimpy man. He was charitably and he was
an unbelieving man. I'll give you two or three examples
to prove that. When they made him king, when
Samuel come to crown him as king and announce him as king, they
couldn't find him. And he had hid. And they had
to pray and ask the Lord where he was. And the Lord said, he's
hid behind the stump. He was a coward to come out and
be crowned king. Remember when Goliath challenged
the children of Israel? He was standing on one side of
the valley and the children of Israel were standing on another.
Saul would not go out to fight. He trembled. He sent little David
and he stood. Remember that? He was a coward. Big man, big boy, but he was
a coward. The Lord commanded Saul to go
down and destroy King Agag. Remember that? The Amalek? God
had a crow to pick for that nation, and He sent Saul down and said,
you destroy everything. You destroy the king, you destroy
the soldiers, men, women, and all the cattle. I want it all
destroyed. Saul came back and he destroyed
everybody, and he destroyed all the vile cattle, but he kept
the good cattle, the healthy cattle, and he spared Agag the
king. And he came back and he said,
I've obeyed the voice of the Lord. And Samuel said, what's
this bleeding of this sheep that I hear? He even lied about it. He was an utter failure in almost
everything he did. Tried to kill David for years
and the Lord wouldn't let him. He was a failure. And you'll
notice here in our text that it says he couldn't even find
his father's ashes. And finally, if you read the
context, he got lost himself. And they had to go find Samuel
to help them find their way. Now let me say something in Saul's
defense. And it's this. He loved his father. He loved his father. And he was
grieved when the father lost his assets. He didn't know if
someone had stolen them. He didn't know if they just got
lost. But he was grieved at the loss of his father's assets.
And He put in the best effort that He could to find these assets. I mean, He searched the whole
country, you read there in verse 4, looking for His Father's assets. Sometimes we read in the Scriptures,
and you and I see good examples, beautiful pictures and types
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And sometimes we see here what
Christ is not like. That's what this story tells
us. Jesus Christ is nothing like this man. Sometimes we read in
the Old Testament scriptures and we'll say, man, that looks
just like my Savior. That's exactly what He looks
like. That's exactly what He did. Remember Moses, for instance,
when he was leading the children of Israel out of the land of
Egypt? How He wretched out that rod
over the Red Sea, and He parted it, and He brought His people
out of the land of bondage, and drowned all His enemies, the
children of Israel, enemies in the Red Sea. And you read that
story, can't you see Christ there? The Lord Jesus in that, when
He came to you and led you out of your bondage of sin, slavery
to the devil, and you saw all your sins washed away in the
sea of His blood. You see Christ in that. You see
Christ in Samson. Remember Samson? In the day of
his death, it says, he destroyed more enemies than he did in his
lifetime. And you see him buried up between
those two pillars. And he said, Oh, God, help me
to be avenged of my enemies. And he pushes those pillars apart
and he kills all of his enemies. Don't that remind you of Christ?
What did He do in His death? Did He put away the wrath of
God on your behalf? Was He not punished for all your
sins on your behalf? He killed your enemies in the
day of His death. King David at Zaglag, his enemies
came to Zaglag while he was gone and took his wife and his children,
all that they possessed, and carried them off. David and his
men come back and all the women was gone. All the children was
gone. And David went to the Lord in prayer, and he said, Lord,
what shall I do? Shall I pursue them? And remember
how the Lord answered him? He said, Pursue, you shall overtake
them, and without fail, recover all. Don't that remind you of
Christ? Without fail, He recovered all
of His elect people. He never failed at what He...
The Bible says, He shall not fail, nor be discouraged. That reminds you so much of the
Lord Jesus. Other men reminds us of man's
other impotence and his total failure to affect anything. Saul could not affect anything.
He couldn't even find his father's ashes. And the shame and embarrassment
they bring on themselves and others because of it. How unlike
Christ, the Lord and Savior, this man is. Imagine the embarrassment
aspect When Kish found Saul, we read on in this chapter if
you want to read it sometime at your leisure, his father got
so worried about him he came looking for him. They found the mules and Saul's
dad began to sorrow for him and he came to him and he hugged
him up and said, son, I'm sorry I got you in this mess. I'm sorry I got you lost. How
pathetic that was. Here is this giant of a boy,
well he was married and had children, but here his dad comes looking
for him, finds him lost and embraces him, all the servants standing
around, the women standing around, and here the son is with tears
in his eyes because he has utterly failed to find his father's ashes. How unlike Christ that is, is
it not? Don't we have people today that
has this very opinion of the Son of God? That he came to this
earth and that he didn't have no purpose for sure. And he went
back up to heaven and he's just hoping and praying that somebody
will do something for him or maybe something good will come
out of what he's done. And someday he's going to hang
his head in shame and say, Father, I'm sorry I failed. Brothers
and sisters, there's people in the religious realm that has
that opinion of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's embarrassing,
is it not? That's embarrassing. Oh, God sent his son into this
world to find and secure. Listen to this, to find and secure
the salvation of poor, lost sinners. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ
came to do it. He didn't do the best He could
like Saul did. They tell us that. In spite of
His best efforts, they fail. They say He failed to accomplish
His Father's will. And they feel sorry for Him.
They feel pity for Him. But listen. There's two things
we know about the coming of the Son of God. One thing we know
is this. The Father sent Him. just as
Kish sent Saul out to find his asses. The Father sent His Son. Over and over again in the Scriptures
we find phrases like this, I came not of myself, but the Father
sent me. My doctrine is not mine, but
Him that sent me. I came not of myself, but He
sent me. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me and to finish His work. To finish it. To finish. I love that portion
of Scripture in Luke chapter 4 and verse 18. He said, My Father
sent Me to heal the brokenhearted. My Father sent Me. Has there
ever been a brokenhearted that the Son of God has not healed?
Find one brokenhearted man in this world and Jesus Christ came
to heal him. And not only did He come to heal
him, He did heal him. Who is it that breaks the heart?
That's the sacrifices of God, isn't it? And He breaks the heart
that He may heal the heart. He sent me to heal the broken
heart. He sent me to preach deliverance
to the captive, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of
the Lord. And listen to this one in John
6.39. This is the will of Him that
sent me. That of all which he hath given
me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last
day. Don't that sound like David's mission? The Father sent me to
do this. All that he's given me, to lose
none of them. Not a one of them? I'm going
to recover all. I'm going to recover all. Poor Saul couldn't even find
a mask. Ain't that pathetic? How much less could he find a
little sheep lost out in the wilderness? Not a one of his
sheep will ever be lost. You know why? Because he finds
them. He'll find them wherever they are. He finds them. He's
so unlike Saul, King Saul. Consider with me just for a few
minutes here these asses. Saul wanted to find them. Boy,
he searched the whole country for them there in verse 4. He
felt bad that he failed to find them. Why did he feel so obligated? Why did he feel so obligated
to go to all of this trouble to find these assets? Well, let
me give you two reasons. First of all was this. Why did
he search so diligently to find them? Because they belonged to
his father. They belonged to his father.
I bet you if the neighbor had seen him out looking for these
assets, he would have never labored like this. But he loved his father. He was grieved that the father
had lost his assets, so he put out all of this labor to find
his father's assets. That's the first reason. They
were his father's. They belonged to his father.
The second reason is this. These assets were of great value,
not just for service, but they were of great value for this
reason. A great price had been paid for these assets. Listen
to Exodus chapter 13 and verse 13. Every firstling of an ass
thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou wilt not redeem it,
then thou shalt break its neck. You have to redeem an ass with
a lamb. Man, a lamb! Can't you see a
farmer? And his mare is ready to have
a little mule coat. And he goes out one morning,
and there it is, a little long-eared, long-faced, ugly mule. And here's the choice that he
has to make. He says, I'm going to keep this
ass, I'm going to redeem it with a lamb, or I'm going to break
its neck. That's the choice of the owner.
And what does he do? He has to make a decision, doesn't
he? So he goes out in his pasture, he finds him a lamb, and he looks
over it to make sure it's without blemish, and he finds a wart
on it, and he says, I can't use this one. And he goes to another
one, and it has a bruise on its knee where it fell up on a rock.
And he keeps searching until finally he finds a lamb. It's the best lamb in his pasture. He can't find any blemish on
it. He puts it up in his arms. He carries it off to the priest.
He pulls his head back and he cuts his throat, catches all
of its blood, and he offers it as a sacrifice to atone for that
poor little ass. And he says, now he's mine. He's
mine. Well, if he keeps it, he's going
to have a terrible time with it. I used to break horses. And I'm telling you, I'd never
break a mule. They'll bite you. They'll kick you. They'll hurt
you. And what he thought within himself, if I keep this thing
and I redeem this thing, I know I'm going to have to break him
if he's biting. I know he's going to kick me. I know he's going
to grieve me. I know he's going to break loose
and run off. I'm going to have to tame this rascal. But he said,
I'm going to redeem him. And I'm going to tame him. Saul
went out looking for these asses because these asses cost his
father greatly. Lambs. Lambs. Two thousand years ago, brothers
and sisters, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, listen to this now,
He either redeemed you on Calvary's tree at a great cost to Himself. And He will have you. He will
conquer you. He will subdue your heart to
Himself. He will bring you to repentance.
And you will serve Him and live in His praises all your life. Or He will break your neck for
your rebellion. And you will live and die in
your sins unredeemed. That's the only two options,
is it? A man is either redeemed by the
blood of Jesus Christ or he lives and dies unredeemed and he perishes. Some men talk about hell and
they talk about heaven, but they don't really believe in any one.
They believe there's somewhere in between, but there's not,
is there? The Lord Jesus says of the lost,
listen to this. Bring hither those My enemies
that I should reign over them, and slay them before Me." We
must either be redeemed by Christ, or we'll be damned by Him for
our sins. That's the only option. Oh, here
is our great value. The price that was paid for our
poor souls' salvation. My dad was a Mason, and they had a Masonic funeral
before I preached this funeral. He wanted a Masonic funeral. I don't know what you think about
the Masons, but it's ridiculous to me, I'll be honest with you.
I had my neighbor that just got into the Masons, and he'd come
over and wonder what I thought about it. I said, you profess
to be a Christian? Why in the world would you want
to go into some secret society? Christianity is not anything
that's done in a corner, is it? But my dad was a Mason. He never
would tell me anything about it. But they had a Masonic funeral
for him, and the preacher made this statement in my dad's funeral.
He said, Mr. Crabtree, his soul and his body
was of so great a value that he entered eternal life because
of that. Is that why a man enters eternal
life? He's of such a great value. And because He's of such a great
value, He can't perish. He's too valuable. Brothers and sisters, we're not
what we used to be. We're fallen sinners. We're depraved
sinners. When a dishonorable Jew died,
they gave him the death, the burial rather, on an ass. And
the burl of my ass was this. Nobody said anything at his funeral.
He had no funeral. No song was allowed to be sung.
Nobody took their hat off. No sermon was preached. No verse
of scripture was read. If a man died a dishonorable
death and he was a Jew, they took him out, dug a hole and
stuck him in and forgot about him. A dishonorable death. We're not saved because of our
worth in and of ourselves. Sin has defiled us. Has it not? Sin has defiled us
in and of ourselves. We're worthless. We are worthless. We're no more than a dumbass.
Is that not so? God teaches us to cast contempt
upon ourselves by doing this. He teaches us how to think about
ourselves by the way He addresses us. How does He address us? As
a worm. As a worm. You know what a worm
is made up of. It's got a little bit of skin,
a little bit of protein, but it's mostly mud, is it not? And
what does He call us? Balworm Jacob. He calls us dogs. The Canaanite woman comes to
the Lord Jesus pleading for mercy and he says it's not fit to take
the children's bread and give it to dogs. He calls us evil. If you being evil know how to
give good gifts to your children. He calls us unprofitable and
says that Christ died for the ungodly and we are children of
wrath by our very nature. All of us deserve the death of
an ass. Ain't that so? We're not what
we used to be. We're ungodly. From the time
we're born from our mother's womb till we leave here, we're
unprofitable to God. We're not what we were when He
made us. We're sinners. And we deserve the death of an
ass. We judge and estimate our value
this way, brothers and sisters. What did it cost us? It cost
us nothing. What did it cost the Lord Jesus
Christ to redeem us? It cost Him everything He had,
did it not? It cost Him everything He had. You were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. That is the way you estimate
your value. In and of yourself, you are nothing. You are unprofitable.
You are bought with a price, the Scripture tells us. As sinful
and as worthless and as shameful as we are in our fallen state,
we are bought with a price. Believe it. Believe Him. And live for His glory. And give
yourselves up to Him. Oh, has the Son of God found
you? Has He recovered you? Has He restored you to your rightful
owner? than live in His praises and
live for His glory. For only He could do it. Nobody
else. We can't save ourselves. We can't
redeem ourselves. We can't even find ourselves.
We are as impotent as Saul. It took the shepherd to die for
us and redeem us. And then he could not stop there.
If he stopped there, none of us would be saved. Then he had
to get on our trail and track us and follow us until he found
us. But he couldn't stop there. He
had to put us on his shoulders and take us back to the fold.
And he can't even stop there. Brother Henry Mahan said, if
the Lord got us within 10 steps of heaven's gate and said, I'm
going to trust you to make it the rest of yourself, we'd never
be saved. Ain't that the truth? He's going
to have to redeem us, come and get us, and carry us through
this world, and keep us, and take us up to heaven at last,
if you and I are to be saved. And thank God He's done it, and
is still doing it today. He's still doing it today. Bless
His name. Let's pray.