Let us turn tonight to 1 Samuel
chapter 10. 1 Samuel chapter 10. And we'll notice that chapter nine
ended with Samuel speaking to Saul. alone, as verse 27 of chapter
nine says, and as they were going down to the end of the city,
that is Samuel and Saul and Saul's servant, that Samuel said to
Saul, bid the servant pass on before us. And he passed on,
but stand thou still a while that I may show thee the word
of God. And then verse one of chapter
10, And Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head
and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed
thee to be captain over his inheritance? If you notice down in verse seven
of chapter 10, we read, and let it be when these signs are come
unto thee. And I want us to look at this
chapter tonight thinking of these signs which were manifestations
or confirmations that God had anointed Saul to be captain over
his inheritance. And we'll look at this in three
divisions. First of all, that God gave this
sign to Saul. that he had been anointed to
be captain over the Lord's inheritance. And then second, to those who
knew Saul beforehand, those who were familiar with him. And then
thirdly, to the nation, the signs which the Lord gave. First of
all, to Saul himself, that yes, God had anointed him to be captain
over his inheritance. And then to the people that knew
Saul, who had seen him grow up, most likely, and were very familiar
with him. And then lastly, the nation entirely. First, the signs given to Saul
in verses two through four. When thou departed from me today,
then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre, in the
border of Benjamin at Zelsa. And they will say unto thee,
the asses which thou wentest to seek are found, and lo, thy
father hath left the care of the asses, and soreth for you,
saying, what shall I do for my son? Then shalt thou go on forward
from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor. And there
shall meet thee three men going up to God, to Bethel, one carrying
three kids and another carrying three loaves of bread and another
carrying a bottle of wine and they will salute thee and give
thee two loaves of bread which thou shalt receive of their hands. Consider the fact that some days
before this, not too many days before this, that Saul had left
his father's house. He and the servant had left their
father's house, his father's house, and they had gone looking
for these animals and had strayed away. And now, while Samuel is
speaking with him, he pulls a vial of oil out and pours it on Saul's
head and tells him, God has anointed you to be captain over his inheritance. I think that's an amazing thing,
isn't it? A young man, he's gone off just looking for these stray
animals, and he meets the prophet of God, and the prophet of God
anoints him with oil and said, God's chosen you. God's anointed
you. Out of all the thousands, yea,
billions of the nation of Israel, God has chosen you to be the
captain of his inheritance. If you look back to chapter nine,
In verse 21, when Saul first met Samuel, when they first had
their encounter, that Samuel said, is it not, in verse 20,
is it not on thee and on all thy father's house? On whom is
all the desire of Israel? And look at Saul's answer. Saul
answered and said, am not I a Benjamite? of the smallest of the tribes
of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of
the tribe of Benjamin. Wherefore then speakest thou
so to me? Samuel told him, now all of Israel,
the desire of all of Israel is upon thee, remembering that the
nation of Israel desired a king. And Samuel tells Saul that the
desire of the nation is upon thee, and Saul responds, Listen,
I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. Now, Benjamin was the smallest
tribe. When they took the census, when
they came out of the land of Egypt, it was the smallest of
the 12 tribes. And not only that, but there
was an episode that's recorded in the book of Judges when the
men of Benjamin were almost annihilated. The whole tribe was almost annihilated. by other Israelites because of
something that they allowed to take place in their property,
in their location, or their part of the land of Canaan. And he's telling the truth. Here,
you've got the tribe of Reuben. He was the firstborn of Jacob.
You've got the tribe of Judah, the fourth son after that, and
of him would come the kings of Israel, that was already announced.
And now Samuel tells Saul, is not the desire of all the nation
upon you? Can you believe this? Can you
believe this, Saul? Well, I believe that the Lord
gave saw these signs to confirm to himself, yes, God has anointed
me to be the king over his inheritance. He has anointed me to be the
captain. I want you to notice how specific
these signs are. There's two of them that he would
experience. The first one, and it's amazing
when you look at these signs, Samuel tells them, This is going
to happen, where it's going to happen, and when it's going to
happen. God's providence, right? God's
providence, who works all things after the counsel of His own
will. Nothing happens by chance in this world. There are no accidents. God knows the end from the beginning,
and the reason He knows the end from the beginning is because
He has ordained all things that take place in His world, all
things that take place in His creation. Now Samuel tells him,
when you come to the sepulchre of Rachel, now Rachel of course
had died giving birth to Benjamin. When you come to her sepulchre,
you're going to find two men. Not three men, not five men,
two men, two men. And this is what they're going
to say to you. They're going to tell you that
those animals that you've gone looking for, that they've been
found, that they were with your father, and your father is no
longer concerned about the animals, now he's concerned about you.
If you look back to chapter nine once again, And verse 20, when
Saul met Samuel, Samuel told him, and as for thine asses that
were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them, for they
are found. Now, Samuel tells him, you're
going to meet two men when you come to the sepulchre of Rachel,
and they're going to tell you that your father's animals have
been found. Remember what the scripture says,
in the mouth of two or three witnesses. A fact is established. And here we've got Samuel's word
first to Saul, and now he meets these two men and they tell him,
they confirm what Samuel had said. I believe this is a sign
confirming to Saul, yes, you are God's anointed. you are the
one that God has chosen to be the captain of his inheritance. And then the second sign, when
you come to the plain of Tabor, this is a thought to be named
after a particular man that must have lived there, Tabor. And
when you come to his the Plain of Tabor, you're going to meet
three men. And again, it's not going to
be four men, it's not going to be five men, it's going to be
three men. And these three men are going
to be carrying kids, that is animals, lambs or goats for a
sacrifice. And think about this, they're
going to be carrying not one loaf of bread, but three loaves
of bread and one bottle of wine. You're going to meet them, and
they're going to be on their way to Bethel to worship God.
In other words, they had the things that would be necessary.
They would have a blood sacrifice, they would have a meat offering
with the bread, and they would have a drink offering with the
wine. You're going to find these three men with these things as
they're going up to Bethel to worship the Lord. And, now notice,
they're going to give you two of those loaves of bread. That's specific, isn't it? They're
going to give you, Saul, two loaves of the three loaves that
they are carrying. Signs confirming to Saul that
yes, God had chosen him and God had anointed him. Now the commentators,
let me say this before we go on to the second group of signs,
but the commentators point out that Saul was to receive these
two loaves of bread to remind him to care for the
poor. He had nothing. Remember when
his servant said, the only thing we have is this little bit of
coin I have to give to the prophet. We don't, Saul said, we don't
have any bread. So he's basically a beggar at this point, but he's
going to be king. He's going to be king, and he's
going to have wealth and riches as most kings do. Remember the
poor. Most of the commentators believe
and point out that this was to remind Saul to enforce and to
tell us all, when you become king, when you're lifted up,
remember the poor, be kind and consider the poor. I was thinking
one of the Psalms, I forget which one it is, but I read it just
recently, speaks about those who consider the poor. The blessing
upon those who consider the poor. Now, the second signs to those
who had known Saul as he was growing up, becoming a young
man that he was now, those that had known him, let's read on
beginning with verse five. After that, after you have that
experience, Saul, after that, thou shalt come to the hill of
God Where is the garrison of the Philistines? And it shall
come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou
shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place
with a psaltery, and a tablet, and a pipe, and a harp before
them, and they shall prophesy. And the Spirit of the Lord will
come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt
be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs
are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee, for
God is with thee. And thou shalt go down before
me to Gilgal, and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer
burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry.
till I come to thee and show thee what thou shalt do. And
it was so that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God
gave him another heart, and all those signs came to pass that
day. And when they came thither to
the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him, and the Spirit
of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. And it
came to pass when all that knew him, there it is, all that knew
him beforehand. He's come back to his hometown,
so to speak. Come back to the area where he
had been raised. Came to pass when all that knew
him before time saw that. Behold, he prophesied among the
prophets. Then the people said one to another,
what is this that is coming to the son of Kish? Is Saul also
among the prophets? And one of the same place answered
and said, but who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb.
Is Saul also among the prophets? And when he had made an end of
prophesying, he came to the high place. And Saul's uncle said
unto him and to his servant, whither went you? And he said
to seek the ashes, and when we saw that they were nowhere, we
came to Samuel, and Saul's uncle said, tell me, I pray thee, what
Samuel said unto you. And Saul said unto his uncle,
he told us plainly that the ashes were found, but of the matter
of the kingdom, whereof Samuel spake, he told him not. Now what were these signs? Samuel
told Saul that when he came as to a particular place, I'm impressed, as I studied for
this, at the speciality of Samuel's words, of these prophecies that
Samuel told him. This is what you're going to
experience. He's very exact. You know, there's people, men
today, who claim to be prophets and they speak in such general
terms, you can't tell if it ever comes to pass or not. And we
know there are no prophets today, first of all. But Samuel, these
signs, these prophecies that he gave, he's very specific.
Saul, you're going to come to this hill, And it's called the
Hill of God, which John Gill said was the city of Geba, G-E-B-A. And he says that because we see
there was a garrison of the Philistines here, which we're told later
on in 1 Samuel about this place. But the point is, Saul, you're
almost home. You're almost home. You've come
back. Your journey is almost ended, you're almost home, and
you now are among those who have known you all of your life. They've
known you, they've watched you grow up, and there's going to
meet you a company of prophets. Now, this company of prophets,
sometimes in the Old Testament, they're called the sons of the
prophets. The sons of the prophets. men
who studied under prophets. And they're prophesying, this
is interesting, you notice they have these instruments of music. In verse five it says, and that
thou shalt come to the hill of God where is the garrison of
the Philistines and it shall come to pass when thou come thither
to the city that thou shalt meet a company of prophets, the sons
of the prophets coming down from the high place with these instruments
of music are mentioned, psaltery and tablet and pipe. How did
they prophesy? They prophesied by singing. They
prophesied in praising the Lord. They were not foretelling future
events. That's how most people think
of prophecy, but that's not what they were doing at all. These
were men who were studying under Legitimate prophets, yes, they
were the sons of the prophets, but they were praising God. I
want you to look at a verse in 1 Chronicles. In 1 Chronicles chapter 25, where
it's pointed out that this prophesying was praising, singing praises
unto the Lord. In 1 Chronicles chapter 25 and
verse 1 we read, Moreover, David and the captains of the host
separated to the service of the sons of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthon,
who should now notice prophesy with harps. They prophesied with
harps, with psalteries, with cymbals. That's how they were
prophesying, these sons of the prophets. They were prophesying,
they were praising, singing praises unto the Lord. Now, this made
me remember this verse in the New Testament when the Lord Jesus
Christ said, a prophet is not without honor, but in his own
country and among his own kin and his own house. A prophet's
not without honor, except in his own country, among his kinfolk. Well, we've known you since you
were a baby. Women say, well, we changed your diaper when you
were in the nursery, and now you're a preacher? Now you're
preaching the word of God? A prophet's not without honor,
save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his
own house. Well, so? Here he is, he's back
in his hometown, so to speak, in the area where he had grown
up. Everyone knew him for the most part. He had not been educated
to be a king. Any education he had been given
probably was to be a herdsman, to be a farmer, just judging
from his father's animals. Certainly he had not been trained
and Educated to be a king, to rule over a nation, to have that
ability, to have that wisdom. This makes me think of Martin
Lloyd-Jones, many times reading his messages. When he was pastoring
there in London, the Church of England, for the most part, What
they were doing was organizing peace marches against the atomic
bombs and things like that. They weren't preaching the gospel.
They got over that, you know? And they would ask Lloyd-Jones
questions, and he always pointed this out. He said, that's not
my field. Don't talk to me about politics. My calling is to preach the gospel. to preach the word of God. I'm
not here to straighten out the government, what the prime minister
should do, what parliament should do. No, I'm here to preach the
gospel. He wasn't interested in that. And I think here about this man
saw A young man, he certainly knew nothing about being a king. The education or training that
would have gone into that. If you notice in verse six here
in our text, in chapter 10, Samuel told him, thou shall be turned
into another man. Another man. Now he was a man,
trained and geared. prepared to be a farmer, maybe. But now you're going to be turned
into another man, a man qualified to rule the nation. And not only
that, in verse six, thou shalt be turned into another man, but
in verse nine, you're going to receive another heart. Verse 9, it says, and it was
so that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave
him another heart. Not a new heart. Not a new heart. Another heart. A new heart is
that work of God the Holy Spirit in the heart of his elect, in
the lives of his elect in the new birth. He's not promised
a new heart. He's promised another heart.
He's another man from what he had been. Well, here he is, and
the people around that knew him, they see him now. He's prophesying. He's not been raised or taught
or been educated to be a prophet, but here he is among the prophets. the testimony, the sign, the
confirmation that what God did in changing him, enabling him
to be now among the prophets, God enabled him to be the king,
to be the king of the nation of Israel. And then the third
group of signs or sign given to the nation, beginning in verse
17, and Samuel called the people together unto the Lord, to Mishpah,
and said unto the children of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God
of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, delivered you out
of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms,
and of them that oppressed you. And you have this day rejected
your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and
your tribulations. And you have said unto him, Nay,
but said a king over us, Now therefore present yourselves
before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands. And when
Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe
of Benjamin was taken. And when he caused the tribe
of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri
was taken and Saul, the son of Kish, was taken. And when they
sought him, he could not be found. Therefore they inquired of the
Lord Father, If the man should yet come thither, and the Lord
answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff. And
they ran and fetched him thence, and when he stood among the people,
he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and
upward. And Samuel said to all the people, See you him whom
the Lord hath chosen? And there is none like him among
all the people. And all the people shouted and
said, God save the king. Then Samuel told the people the
manner of the kingdom and wrote it in a book, laid it up before
the Lord, and Samuel sent all the people away, every man to
his house. And Saul also went home to Gebeah,
and there went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched.
But the children of Bilal said, how shall this man save us? And
they despised him and brought him no presents. but he held
his peace. The signs here were given to
the nation of Israel. It couldn't be clearer, couldn't
be made more evident, could not be confirmed in any other greater
way than this, by the casting of the lots. Samuel has all the
tribes, there's 12 tribes, all of them come before him, the
elders or the leaders of the tribes, no doubt. And the lot,
now I don't know how they cast the lots, but I do know this,
as the scripture tells us in Proverbs chapter 16, that the
lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. So, Reuben came by, Simeon came
by, Levi, Judah, all these tribes, you know. And the lot came to
Benjamin. And then the families of Benjamin,
they were somehow represented. And the lot came to this man
who was the head of the family of which Kish, Saul's father,
was a part of. And then the lot fell to Saul.
There was no way these people had wanted a king. They had desired
a king. God gave him one. And there was
no way that any of them could say, well, is that the man? No, it was very evident by the
casting of the lots. Yes, this was the one. It confirmed,
these signs confirmed to the nation of Israel that Saul was
the man that God had anointed to be captain over his inheritance. There's another proverb, Proverbs
18 in verse 18, says, the lot causeth contentions to cease. In other words, nobody could
argue with this. It was done, I'm sure, out in
the open. It was very obvious that God had chosen Benjamin,
God had chosen Kish's family, and God had chosen Saul. He was
a man. He was a man that God had chosen
to be the captain over his inheritance. Let me mention four truths that
stand out to me from this chapter. First of all, if you notice in
verse one, Saul was anointed with a vial, a vial of oil. That's a small, small thing. When David was anointed,
God told Samuel, fill your horn with oil. David was anointed
with a horn of oil. This man was anointed with just
a vial of oil. But think about our king, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was anointed with God the
Holy Spirit at his baptism. The Gospel of John reminds us
that the Spirit of God came upon him and remained upon him. What a difference. What a difference,
right? One king and his kingdom's going
to last a very short time. And in comparison to David's
kingdom, it's going to be very, very small. He was anointed with
a vial of oil, a horn of oil. But our Lord, His kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom. He's anointed with God, the Holy
Spirit, and shall reign forever and ever, ever and ever. A second
thing, you notice in that verse, Samuel said, the Lord hath anointed
thee to be captain, captain over his inheritance. Well, we know
in Hebrews, the scripture tells us that The Lord Jesus Christ
is the captain of our salvation. The word captain is a military
word, isn't it? When we think of a captain, we
think of the military, and the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the captain
of our salvation. He's a warrior who conquered
for his people. He conquered all of our enemies,
death, hell, the grave, and he's made us more than conquerors. And then a third thing, notice
only those followed Saul. If you look here in verse 26,
the only ones who followed Saul that day was those whose hearts
God had touched. Those who follow Christ, those
who are disciples of Christ are only those whose heart God touches. just like he opened Lydia's heart
there in Philippi, that she attended unto the things spoken by Paul,
the gospel spoken by Paul. Thy people shall be willing,
the psalmist said. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. And it takes the power of God,
doesn't it, to open the heart to receive the Lord to receive
the gospel, to receive the truth, so that we become followers of
him. And then lastly, notice in that
last verse, the sons of Belial, that is the devil. Notice how
they treated Saul, the king. They despised him. They brought
him no presents. And they said, how shall this
man save us? I think of The sons of Belial
today, the devil's children in this world, just as these men
doubted Saul, they despised him and dishonored him, even so today,
unbelievers, they doubt the Lord Jesus Christ. They doubt he has
the power to save. Some doubt the need of salvation. What a blessing it is tonight
to know that you need to be saved, isn't it? Amen? I mean, there
are thousands, yeah, millions around us. They live as if they
don't realize they have a need. They have a sin problem. The
sons of the devil here, they doubted his power, his ability
to save them, and they despised him. People say, oh, I believe
Jesus was a good man. I believe he was, I like his
philosophy. But remember this, those people
who say that, the Lord Jesus Christ, he confessed to be God. You can't say, well, I don't
believe he's God, and then say he's a good man. Because he said,
I and the Father are one. And not only that, they dishonored
him. They dishonored Saul. They brought him no presents.
May the Lord bless this word to all of us here this evening.