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1st
Samuel 10:1-27 “Then
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? 2
When thou art departed from me to day,
then thou shalt find two men by Rachel’s sepulchre in the border of
Benjamin at Zelzah; 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 sorroweth for you, saying, What shall I do
for my son? 3 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: 4 And
they will salute thee, and give thee two loaves of bread; which thou
shalt receive of their hands. 5 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 tabret, and a
pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy: 6
And the Spirit of the LORD
will come upon thee, and thou shalt
prophesy with them, and shalt be
turned into another man. 7 And
let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion
serve thee; for God is with thee. 8
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 shew thee what
thou shalt do. 9 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. 10 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. 11
And it came to pass, when all that knew
him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the
people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the
son of Kish? Is Saul also among
the prophets? 12 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? 13 And
when he made an end of prophesying, he came to the high place. 14
And Saul’s uncle said unto him and to
his servant, Whither went ye? And he
said, To seek the asses: and when we saw
that they were no where, we came to Samuel. 15
And Saul’s uncle said, Tell me, I pray
thee, what Samuel said unto you. 16
And Saul said unto his uncle, He told us
plainly that the asses were found. But
of the matter of the kingdom, whereof Samuel spake, he told him not. 17
And Samuel called the people together
unto the LORD
to Mizpeh; 18 and
said unto the children of Israel, Thus saith the LORD
God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them
that oppressed you: 19 And
ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your
adversaries and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but
set a king over us. Now therefore
present yourselves before the LORD
by your tribes, and by your thousands. 20
And when Samuel had caused all the
tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken. 21
When he had 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. 22 Therefore
they enquired of the LORD
further, if the man should yet come thither.
And the LORD
answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff. 23
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 upward. 24
And Samuel said to all the people, See
ye him whom the LORD
hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God
save the king. 25 Then
Samuel told the people, the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a
book, and laid it up before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, every
man to his house. 26
And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men whose
hearts God had touched. 27 But the children of Belial said, How shall
this man save us? And they despised him,
and brought him no presents. But he held
his peace.” Introduction [Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED651] “We
are looking at the life of Saul, of Benjamin, the first king of Israel. And what an interesting study, this man who
we’re told physically is head and shoulders above any other man in Israel,
6’8”, 6’9” seven foot, we don’t know.
We’re told that there is no man in Israel as handsome as he is,
certainly outwardly this man is kingly as it were, in every aspect, people that
would look at him and see that he stands out, people would no doubt just stop
and gaze, amazed at his size and his appearance. And it has, besides all of the natural
blessings, God blesses and seeks to put his feet upon the right path. So in his failure, in his never becoming the
potential that he had to become in regards to ruling over Israel, he’s a very
interesting study for us, as David will also be certainly. So, last week we had followed him through a
series of circumstances, we had clearly seen the providence of God, a number of
donkeys being lost, Saul and the servant pursuing them from one area to another
for many days, realizing then that his father would be worried, deciding to
return, the servant saying ‘No, there’s a man of God, we should go and
enquire of him first,’ and God speaks to his heart, and he says ‘We
don’t have anything to give to him, to show him respect,’ the servant
says ‘I have a quarter of a shekel here,’ and he said ‘Let’s
go.’ Again as they came into the
city they met some of the women, they said ‘Ya, he’s going to go to the
high place today, there’s going to be a sacrifice,’ and as they came
into the city, it says that Saul bumped right into Samuel, face to face,
coincidence of course, and Saul said ‘Do you know where the Seer lives,
where I can find him,’ and Samuel said ‘I am the Seer, I’m the
one you’re looking for.’ And
then he took him then to the sacrifice, he spent time with him. And then as they were getting ready to leave,
he said to Saul ‘Send your servant ahead,’ he had spent an
afternoon, a day with him, and he said ‘I need to talk to you alone.’ The
LORD
Gives Saul Three Signs To Confirm That He’s Being Called To Be King Verse
27 of chapter 9 says, “And as they were
going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Bid the servant pass on
before us, (and he passed on,) but stand thou still a while, that I may shew
thee the word of God.” It says next,
“Then 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?” (1st Samuel 10:1) he must have
taken a little stool to stand on, this guy’s so tall. ‘I’m doing this because the LORD
has chosen you to be king of Israel.’ The
oil, of course, is a picture of the anointing, it’s just a picture of the
anointing of the Holy Spirit that would come on Saul’s life. This has been a very strange several days for
Saul, from the time he started on the donkey-hunt to this whole set of
circumstances, and now here’s this old man, no doubt, 65 to 70 years old,
weathered and worn, with a beard, with long hair, probably looking much like
Elijah would look, and then coming and dumping this oil over his head, and
saying ‘You’re the one, you’re the one that God has chosen to be captain
over his inheritance.’ And the
spiritual, of course, implications are remarkable here. Now Saul’s nature is, to be reticent, we
think of Paul telling Timothy ‘that God hasn’t given us the spirit of
fear, but of power and of sound mind, don’t let anybody despise you.’ Look at the way that Paul encouraged
Timothy, God is very attuned to Saul’s nature, to your nature, and to my
nature. He knows our strengths, he knows
our weaknesses, he knows how to come alongside of us as individuals. And again when he looks in this room, he
doesn’t see a multitude of people, he sees a room filled with individuals, he
loves each of us that way, he treats each of us that way. You know, Kathy and I, God blessed us with
four, I have two sons and two daughters.
You know, you have your first one, and then the second one comes and you
can’t believe it’s the same gene-pool, you know, you have opposites, how’d this
one get here? And then when the third
one comes, I thought opposite only had two directions. And then the fourth one, and then you love
each of them, you know, a particular way.
Again, I can tell you of the four, you know Joanna is the oldest, and I
can tell you honestly why I love her the most, because of her gifts and her
strengths, her discernment, she’s gristly, I love that. Mike came next, and I can tell you why I love
him the most, and then Joshua, I can easily tell you why I love him the most,
and Hannah, and God could write up really why he loves each one of us the most
in the room tonight, with all of your differences, all of your gifts. And he stoops to Saul…the children of Israel
in their weakness cried for a king, God condescended to grant to them their
request and give to them Saul, and this man as huge as he is physically, is
diminutive in some ways, in his aggressiveness, his confidence, and God will
stoop to him. And Samuel now is going to
tell Saul, ‘Look, you’re the one, you’re the king.’ He knows Saul’s thinking ‘What in
the world is happening? What’s all this about?’ He’s going to say, ‘look, the LORD
is going to give you three signs today, this is very important, I want you to
understand this, as you are on your way from this place today, you’ll find two
men by Rachel’s sepulchre, and they’re going to tell ‘You don’t have to worry
about the donkeys you’re looking for, they’re found.’ he
says ‘You’re going to pass on from there, and then you’re going to find
these other men coming, and they’ll have some baby goats with them, they’re
going to have some bread with them, and they’re going to offer you, they’re
going to give you two of the loaves of bread, and then after that you’re going
to run into a bunch of prophets coming down from the mountain, dancing and
playing instruments,’ he even names the instruments, and he said ‘I
want you to go along with them, and then God is going to put his Spirit on
you.’ So he writes out the day
for him, tells him, this is what’s going to happen this morning, this is going
to happen in the afternoon, and he knows that Saul needs this, because of
Saul’s unbelief, this could be an encouragement to Saul, he writes this to
confirm to Saul that what’s happening in and around his life is very real. He says to him in verse 2, “When thou art
departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel’s sepulchre in
the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; 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 sorroweth for you, saying, What
shall I do for my son?” ‘Your
father’s worried about you, saying, What shall I do for my son?’ ‘you
know, he’s out there looking, but you don’t have to worry about the donkeys
anymore, it’s taken care of.’ “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.” (verses 3-4) ‘so you’re going to go, you’re going to
meet these guys, one guy’s carrying three baby goats, another guy’s carrying
three loaves of bread, another guy’s carrying a container of wine, the guy with
the bread is going to offer you two loaves, I want you to take them, I want you
to receive them.’ “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 tabret, 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.” (verses 5-7) So
he kind of lays out this whole day and says these things are going to happen,
this is what’s going to transpire, knowing that Saul needs this affirming, he
needs this encouragement. And Saul
should have taken note of this. Three
Lessons, God Solves Problems, God Provides, And God Enables The
first thing he is learning is that God handles problems. Saul is a micro-manager, Saul’s a guy who
can’t take his hands off of anything, we’re going to see that. What he should learn here, ‘Hey, the
donkeys, they’re found, it’s all taken care of, you don’t have to worry about
that.’ God solves problems, and
sometimes for you and I, we need to learn, God solves problems. We think that we’re God’s little helpers, and
unless we get involved, heaven’s in big trouble. And one of the things God does through the
years is to teach us, is to learn that we can trust him, that he solves
problems. The next lesson, Saul should
have realized ‘Hey, God can provide, I’m traveling here, and I need these
guys carrying three kids and these loaves of bread and the wine, and here this
guy gives me these loaves, and the Lord says You take them, you receive
them.’ Jehovah-jirah, Abraham had
learned it long ago, that God provides, Jacob had learned it. So, here no doubt we spend, and I still spend
much of my life learning, and being reaffirmed, that God does provide, he cares
for us. David said ‘I haven’t seen
God’s children begging for bread, that God is gracious to us.’ And lastly, certainly he was to
learn, that God enables. God’s calling
is God’s enabling, God doesn’t call us to something and not give us the ability
to do it. If you see someone struggling
and striving to do something and it never works out, it’s a dead giveaway, God
hasn’t called them to do that, or they’re way off in their timing, they need to
just chill, you know, “Be still and know that I am God,” is literally ‘Hands
off, and know that I’m God, please leave me do this by myself,’ that’s
what God is saying. And he was to learn
that God is the one who enables, ‘I will put my Spirit upon you, and you
shall become another man.’ He
doesn’t say ‘You shall become a new man,’ it’s not saying Saul will be
born-again, that’s a New Testament experience, he hasn’t granted the Spirit of
adoption that we hear about in Romans chapter 8, verse 15. [that’s a Calvary Chapel teaching, which I
don’t necessarily ascribe to, as Samuel had the indwelling Holy Spirit, and in
his personal life looked to the LORD
as his Father, as king David did, and as did all the Old Testament Prophets, it
merely means that God was not calling everyone in the Old Testament to
salvation, as Moses clearly states in Numbers 11:14-17, 23-29, especially verse
29.] He (Saul) is never lifting his head
to heaven crying Abba, Father. But the
Spirit will come upon him, by the way, we’re promised that also, the Spirit
will come upon us, “that he might be another man.” Look, in Luke’s Gospel chapter 11, we’re
told, ‘Which of you, if his son comes and he asks, one of your sons, asks
for a loaf of bread, you’re gonna give him a rock? Or if he comes and he asks for
a fish, are you gonna give him a serpent?
Or if he comes and asks for an egg, are you gonna give him a scorpion?’ You’d
never fool me on that one, I don’t understand.
He says ‘If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to
your children,’ Jesus says, ‘how much more will the Father give
the Spirit to those who ask him.’ We
are allowed to go ask, that’s not salvation.
When you get saved, you’re not coming saying ‘Lo God, if you’re
really there, fill me with your Spirit.’
You’re saying ‘Forgive me, I’m a sinner, wash me in your blood, I
need to be saved.’ You don’t even
know anything about God’s Holy Spirit, that’s a different issue, ‘how
much more will the Father give the Spirit to those who ask him.’ Listen, I can never be and you can never be
the man or the woman that God wants us to be without his Holy Spirit [and
neither could have Samuel or the holy Prophets have been, nor king David, who
wrote the Psalms, it’s just the Holy Spirit was never offered to
the entire nation of Israel or to the Gentile nations as a whole]. You know, great, great chapter, Billy
Graham’s book on leadership, and he’s talking just about the beginning of his
ministry, and how he would speak at certain places and nothing would ever
happen, and someone said to him, “You need to be filled with the Spirit,”
and he talks about agonizing and how long he prayed then for weeks, and he
said, all of a sudden somewhere, the Spirit of God came on his life, he was
overwhelmed with the presence of God, it moved him so powerfully, and the next
time he spoke, and all of these people came forward, and it was the epicenter,
it was the fulcrum, it was the changing point of his life. And how much more, you and I, for ever what
God wants us to be. ‘Well I want to
be an evangelist,’ but we’re all to be spirit-filled fathers and
spirit-filled husbands and spirit-filled men and spirit-filled women, we’re to
give ourselves to the calling the Lord has for our lives, knowing that he can
solve problems, he can provide. But he
wants to live through us by his Spirit.
And it is only that way that we ever become “another man, another
woman,” you know, the change takes place in our lives through the power of his
Spirit. God
Has Told Us All About The Day We’re Living In And
I look at this and think ‘What would it be like to live through this day?’ Listen, what would it be like for you if the
Lord sends somebody who says ‘God’s got a great calling for your life, he
loves you, all this stuff,’ and you’re thinking ‘Ya, ya, I’ve got
another Pentecostal prophesying,’ and then whoever it was said ‘Now this
is what is going to happen, this morning you’re going to do this, and this is
going to happen, and this person is going to pull up and say this, and then
you’re going to go on from there, and this is going to happen, and this person
is going to give you this, and I just want you to take those, and here comes a
bunch of people and they’re going to be dancing, here’s the instruments they’re
going to have, and then you hang out with them, and all of a sudden God’s going
to put his Spirit on you.’ What
would you feel like by the end of that day?
If God went to such detail to describe your day, how would it effect
you? And here’s how desensitized we have
become. God has told us about the day
that we live in, that there would be wars and rumours of wars, there would be
famine, there would be pestilence, there would be earthquakes. God tells us we would see a reunification of
the European Union, of the old Roman Empire [Comment: It is now June 2022, almost five months since
Vladimir Putin’s Russian army invaded the Ukraine on the 24th of
February, 2022. This heartless invasion
of Russia against the Ukrainians has caused 4.5 million or more women and
children to flee into Poland and surrounding European nations, while their men
stay back and fight for their freedom. Europe
is being given one of the biggest impetuses to federalize and become a
superpower of its own since the end of World War II, just as Bible prophecy
shows it will, which will bring on World War III, which will necessitate Jesus
having to return to save mankind from killing off himself and all life on the
planet. The Bible in the Books
of Daniel and Revelation has been predicting that final resurrection of that
Roman Empire in Europe for 2,500 years now, and now we’re fast approaching that
time. To see those prophecies, log
onto: https://unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm] God tells us, after 2,000 years we would see
Israel back in the land, God tells us that the tensions of the world would be
over the Middle East and Israel would be a cup of trembling to all of the
nations of the world, an unsolvable problem, God tells us that we would live in
a culture that men would not endure sound doctrine, that they would turn away,
God tells us we’d live in a culture where men would be lovers of themselves and
lovers of money, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, and yet wanting
to hold the form of religion, but denying the power of it. They want to have a church, they want to play
religion, and yet they want to be unclean, they want to be filthy, they want to
be filthy from the pulpit, they want to be filthy with their mouths. And yet the Lord, in his great concern and
his love for individuals, understanding his power to change lives, his warning
is not about all of that error, his warning is about those who would hold the
form of religion, and deny the power of it.
Because the God that we come to has life-changing power, and we still
live in a day, with all of these things going on around us. It should call us to soberness, like this day
should have called Saul to soberness. He’s only got three things, we have a
host of things the Lord told us, that if we look around we see them happening
around us. And he warns us about those
who would hold some phony form of religious practice or service or whatever,
and deny the life-changing power of the cross and of the Holy Spirit right in
the middle of it. That is the thing that
God hates, and that is the thing that God identifies, because God loves the
sinner, and wants to see the sinner saved, and wants to see the sinner
transformed. He doesn’t want to see him
join something without life-changing power that in the end will just hand him
over to hell at the end of his life. But
we live in an era where all of those things are going on around us, and the
resource we have is the same as Saul, God still solves problems, he loves us. I solve problems in the lives of my children,
because I love them. He, God loves us
more than I love my own. He provides
more than I provide for my own, and he enables, he enables. He is still the same. And the Word of Jesus has not changed. ‘How much more will the Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask?’
Do we ask on a daily basis, do we ask on a daily basis? It says if we ask anything according to his
will, we can know that we have the petitions.
Jesus said this is the greatest of the Commandments, that you love the
Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and love your neighbours as
yourself. Do we pray everyday, Lord,
that we love you with all my heart, soul, strength…we know if we pray according
to his will, we can have our petitions.
It is his will that we would set our affections on things above, and not
on the things of the world, that we can actually go to him, and we can ask him,
we can say ‘Lord, take my, let me love you more than I love this world,
Lord, let me love you more than I love drugs, let me love you more than I love
substance, let me love you more than I love porn, let me love you more than I
love these other things.’ He’s
either telling us the truth and he is who he says he is, or he’s left us here
powerless, and I don’t believe that’s true.
I do not believe that’s true. How
many here tonight have had transformed lives because of the power of Jesus
Christ? Anybody whose hopeless, just
look around, and look at the ones that raised their hands, if he can change
them he can change anybody, I know that’s what you’re thinking, if I can sit up
here, he can use anybody. And Saul
needed that encouragement, and we need that encouragement. And it is God’s delight to stoop down and
give it to us. I guarantee you this, if
you read his Word everyday, the portion he has for you as an individual will
rise up off the page and blow your mind.
If you will read his Word every day, the portion he has for you, as his
son or his daughter, will rise up off the page and blow your mind, and change
your life. Because here he is stooping
down to Saul, stooping down to Saul, and speaking to him, encouraging him. He knows we’re all in the condition of Saul,
we’re all human beings, we’re all flawed, and God is so gracious. ‘You will be a different man,’ you
know it’s not, again, it’s in the sense the Spirit comes upon you, you shall be
a different man. When the Spirit came
upon Samson it moved him, when the Spirit came upon Gideon in the Old
Testament, when the Spirit came upon God’s prophets, they were different men,
the idea is, in the enabling and powering of God’s Spirit, you will be a
different man. It isn’t in the New
Testament sense of being born-again, it’s not talking about that here at all,
God is condescending to Saul and to his need for encouragement. He said, “And let it be, when these signs
are come unto thee, that thou do
as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee.” (verse 7) ‘You take the opportunities then when
these things come, for God is with thee’ how
wonderful. Saul
Is Officially Selected As The King Of Israel “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 that tarry,
till I come to thee, and shew 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.”
(verses 8-9)
Now in the record now, God doesn’t give us the detail of the fulfillment
of the first two signs, he takes us right to the last one, ‘as he left
Samuel that day, 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.” (verse 10) that’s got
to be a little bit of a strange crew, too, just my own observation. [Comment:
I believe it is shown further on, that Samuel had established maybe up
to three schools or colleges of the prophets.
Samuel during his lifetime had been quite busy training a spiritual
leadership of prophets under him.] Now
it seems Saul’s prophesying was in the context of praise here, not in
foretelling the future. “And it came
to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied
among the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that
is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul
also among the prophets?” (verse 11) It’s
hard to miss a seven foot guy dancing around with everybody else, “What is
this that is come unto the son of
Kish?” ‘Why is he acting like this?’ “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?” (verse 12) This
guy is saying ‘Who is their father, the prophets? Their fathers are no more special than Kish,
the father of Saul, they’re not prophets because their dads were prophets, it’s
not a hereditary thing, God chose them, when God chooses anybody can be a
prophet, who is their father that they should be prophets?’ Now it became a saying, “Is Saul
also among the prophets?” the idea is, ‘Hey, God can do whatever he
wants.’ Somebody says “Do you
think God can do that in that guy’s life,’ somebody would say ‘Hey, is
Saul a prophet, saw him dancing around acting like that.’ So it became a proverb, when somebody
said ‘Could God do that?’ it became a proverb in that day. “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 ye? And he said, To seek the asses: and when we saw that they were no
where, 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 asses were found. But of
the matter of the kingdom, whereof
Samuel spake, he told him not.” (verses 13-16) So he says to his uncle, ‘He told us
the donkeys were found, and not to worry about it.’ Didn’t bother to tell him ‘My head’s all
oily for this reason, there’s a new proverb in Israel for this reason,’ he
didn’t bother telling him ‘I’m carrying around two loaves of bread for this
reason,’ he didn’t tell him any of the rest of it. Now look, we’re going to watch Saul, is this
humility? A good question mark at this
point in time. Is this unbelief, is it
stubbornness? Listen, you and I, we all
know people in the church, they would have said, the first thing they would
have said to their uncle is ‘I’m the Prophet! I’m the king!
I’m a prophesying king!’ we know people that would step right up to
the plate, they’d drive everybody crazy.
You know, we look at Saul, he’s huge, and he’s saying ‘Hey, he told
me the donkeys are found, don’t worry about it,’ and none of the rest. So we can put a question, is it humility, I
don’t think so. Is it unbelief, ya, maybe
to some degree, or stubbornness. We know
we’re going to hear that rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, and
stubbornness is like idolatry, we’re going to see that problem in his
life. “And Samuel called the people
together unto the LORD
to Mizpeh;” where he had offered the lamb,
where they had that victory against the Philistines, “and said unto the
children of Israel, Thus saith the LORD
God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them
that oppressed you:” (verses 17-18) now
this is interesting maybe, because here is Samuel speaking in the first person,
he doesn’t say ‘Thus saith the LORD
God of Israel, the LORD brought
you up,’ but he’s so filled with the Spirit that
he speaks in the first person, he says “Thus saith the LORD
God of Israel, I brought up…” One of the reasons I like the Book of Isaiah
is because you hear more first-person in Isaiah than in any other Prophet in
the Old Testament. ‘Fear not, for
I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by my name, thou art mine,’ over
and over we hear that, Isaiah is in such step with the LORD,
the LORD
speaks to him in the first-person, Samuel was like that. Samuel says to the children of Israel, “Thus
saith the LORD
God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the
hand of the Egyptians,” a constant theme
“and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you:” and
the idea is, God did that without a king, “and you have this day rejected
your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversaries and your
tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over
us. Now therefore present yourselves
before the LORD
by your tribes, and by your thousands.” (verses 18-19) Now this is to confirm God’s choice now to
the nation. The meeting that happened
between Samuel and Saul was private, the only strange thing is people took note
that he was dancing with the prophets, nobody knows about the anointing except
Samuel. So, he says now ‘Come
before the LORD
in your tribes and your thousands,’ “And
when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of
Benjamin was taken. When he had 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:” this
is great, “and when they sought him, he could not be found.” (verses 20-21)
they couldn’t find him, here’s Samuel, he's going to present the new king to
Israel, and they narrow it all the way down to Kish’s house, and then alright
Saul, where is he? everybody’s standing around looking at each other, ‘I
don’t know, I don’t know, we can’t find him.’
“Therefore they enquired of the LORD
further, if the man should yet come thither.
And the LORD
answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.” (verse 22) Samuel must be saying ‘LORD,
I did what you told me, where’s the king?’
Saul’s
Humility, Was It True Or False? What’s
The Difference? “And
the LORD
answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.” Great king, and
they made a great choice, hard for a seven-footer to hide amongst the stuff,
too. It’s an illuminating phrase about
Saul, he’s avoiding God’s call, and we’ll see him do that in more than one
place as we look through here. Look,
there’s a question, there’s a great difference between genuine humility, false
humility, and insecurity. Genuine
humility doesn’t measure itself, genuine humility would be concerned about the
people of Israel, saying, I have no requirements, there’s a genuineness about
that. And genuine humility is not
self-centered, it’s other-centered, a genuine evaluation, a sober appraisal of
self. False humility is self-centered,
it’s false humility, people saying ‘Oh, I’ll serve,’ they really want to
lead, they really want this stage, ‘I’ll serve, and people will know I’m
humble.’ That’s false humility,
that’s other-centered, it’s wanting, it’s acting, it’s playing the part to be
noticed. And we all struggle with that,
we’re all flawed. And there can be
genuine insecurity, most of that is based on the fear of man, what other people
are going to think. And sometimes that
has been ripped into our heart in an abusive situation when we grew up,
sometimes it’s from extenuating circumstances throughout our life, I understand
that. But the point is for all of us, look, when the
Lord calls us, and the Lord confirms, the Lord sets aside. Genuine humility is also humility before him,
there to be a yielding to God’s call. Because
all of us are flawed and none of us deserve to be there. Remember Revelation chapter 5
John said ‘I sought for someone who was worthy to open the scroll, and
there was no man found worthy, in heaven, on the earth or under the earth,’ no
one is worthy. Again, I was tortured for
years, I thought I had to be the one, it was such a relief for me when I
realized, nobody’s worthy, it relieves all the pressure. But we should yield, if he’s called, if he’s
calling you, he’s not calling you because you’re perfect, he’s calling you
because he’s perfect. He’s not calling
you because he needs you to change the world, he needs you to change you, in
the sense of yielding to him, so he can work, he can move. You know, false humility he doesn’t need at
all, that’s somebody who really thinks they are something, but they’re acting
like they’re nothing. And insecurity is
something that he wants to speak to us about, and bring healing. But Saul, I’m convinced here, this will be
typical of his avoiding God’s call, it is rebellion to a degree with Saul, it
is no doubt not real humility but weakness.
It says he’s hiding among the stuff, they couldn’t find him, this is a
big day, they can’t find him, then the LORD
said ‘He’s over there, he’s hiding in the stuff, in the suitcases,’
“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.” (verse 23) they come back with a
7-footer. “And Samuel said to all the
people, See ye him whom the LORD
hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God
save the king.” (verse 24) He
is the only Jewish [Benjamite, not Jewish] basketball player like him. There’s nobody like him, it tells us he’s the
handsomest, the tallest man head and shoulders above anybody, there is none
like him among all the people, “And all the people shouted,” and you
love the King James translation here, “and said, God save the king.” [where England got the saying, and have
been saying ever since, right from 1st Samuel 10:24b.] it says ‘May the king live,’ is
the idea. Listen, the LORD
had been their king, he’s proving to them ‘I’m the One who delivered you,
I’m the One who did this,’ when you seek the Lord, no one ever says ‘You
can’t find him, where is he?’ He
says ‘If you seek me, you will find me,’ he’s vastly different
from Saul, ‘If you seek me, you will find me.’ And the great thing about our King,
is nobody has to say ‘May the king live,’ because he’s forever, without
beginning, without end. And when
somebody has to say to you, ‘Hey, may your king live,’ you got the wrong
king, and so did they as it were. “Then
Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a
book, and laid it up before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, every
man to his house. And Saul also went
home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had
touched.” (verses 25-26) and this is wonderful,
“whose hearts God had touched,” he got a bunch of guys around him who are on
fire, that’s always wonderful company.
Isn’t it? If you find folks that
are on-fire to hang around, it’s just good for you. Because you can find people who say ‘I’m
Christian, I’m born-again,’ that are Eor’s, ‘I
love the Lord, he saved me, I’m going to heavennn.’ Find people that
are on fire, it’s healthy for you, as iron sharpens iron, so is a man with the
company that he keeps. “there went
with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched” how wonderful, God is
providing everything for Saul. “But
the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no
presents. But he held his peace.” (verse
27) Welcome to public life, Saul,
right away. ‘Whose this guy think he
is, he’s tall, he looks down his nose at us, he’s tall, who does he think he
is?’ and Saul held his peace. The thing that you, and it’s been well-said,
if you will take care of your character, God will take care of your reputation,
if you will take care of your character, he will take care of your
reputation. Because you will be
assailed. If you really want to serve
the Lord, and you want to walk with him, and you want to hang around people
that are on fire, the way that the enemy comes is this way. If he can’t take you down in sin or
compromise, it’s always this, the tongue.
James tells us the tongue is set on fire of hell. But if you’re walking with him, you don’t
have to defend yourself, if you will worry about your character, God will take
care of your reputation. Wonderfully at
this point, Saul just held his peace. 1st
Samuel 11:1-15 “Then
Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabesh-gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash,
Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. 2
And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On
this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust
out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. 3
And the elders of Jabesh said unto him,
Give us seven days’ respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of
Israel: and then, if there be no
man to save us, we will come out to thee. 4
Then came the messengers to Gibeah of
Saul, and told the tidings in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voices and
wept. 5 And,
behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said, What aileth
the people that they weep? And they told
him the tidings of the men of Jabesh. 6
And the Spirit of God came upon Saul
when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly. 7
And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed
them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the
hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after
Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen.
And the fear of the LORD
fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. 8
And when he numbered them in Bezek, the
children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty
thousand. 9 And
they said unto the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of
Jabesh-gilead, To morrow, by that time the sun be hot, ye shall have
help. And the messenger came and shewed it
to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad. 10
Therefore the men of Jabesh said, To
morrow we will come out unto you, and ye shall do with us all that seemeth good
unto you. 11 And
it was so on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies; and
they came into the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew the
Ammonites until the heat of the day: and
it came to pass, that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them
were not left together. 12 And
the people said unto Samuel, Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over
us? bring the men, that we may put them to death. 13
And Saul said, There shall not a man be
put to death this day: for to day the LORD
hath wrought salvation in Israel. 14
Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and
let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there. 15
And all the people went to Gilgal; and
there they made Saul king before the LORD
in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD;
and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.” Nahash
The Serpent “Now,
we come to an interesting picture. ““Then
Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabesh-gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash,
Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. 2
And Nahash the Ammonite answered them,
On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may
thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all
Israel.” (verses 1-2) So we are in Jabesh-gilead, it’s Transjordan,
it’s up on the other side of the Jordan River up in the area towards the Golan
Heights, up in the area of Gilead [in the tribe of Reuben]. And there is a king up there named
Nahash. Now Nahash means “serpent,” who
does that to their kid, did mom and dad look at him and say ‘What do you
think we should call him?’ dad says ‘You look like your mom, let’s call
him serpent,’ I don’t know, what happens, how do you do that to a kid? It’s just a joke, come on here, you get a
little oxygen for you to pay attention for the rest of the study. It certainly is a picture here, Nahash. Now the Ammonites back in 400 years before
this, back in the Book of Judges, had been soundly defeated by Jephthah, and
there’s a grudge held, their territory had been taken away from them. Moab and Ammon were children of Lot,
remember, and they were blood relatives to the children of Israel, but they had
become enemies, and Israel had soundly defeated the Ammonites, and now they’re
rising back to power again. And
evidently Nahash is a formidable enemy, and he comes to the children of Israel,
they realize that, and the men of Jabesh, as he encamped against Jabesh-gilead,
they realize his army is too strong, what are we gonna do? and they said to
him, ‘Well, let’s make a treaty, make a covenant with us, and we’ll serve
you.’ Compromise is always a
picture of unbelief and weakness. And
then Nahash the Ammonite said ‘Alright, you want to make a deal, I’ll
make a deal, you let me poke out all of your right eyes, and bring a reproach
on you,’ he doesn’t want to gouge out both eyes, remember the
Philistines did that to Samson, he just wants to take your right eye, because
he wants them to be servants, you can’t have a bunch of servants with no eyes,
so he’ll have a bunch of left-eyed servants who’ll at least be able to
serve. He’s going to gouge out their
right eyes, which is always a picture of your judgment, your ability to
assess. And that old serpent always
wants to take away our ability. He
doesn’t want to kill you, but let me take away your perspective, ‘Let me
take away your ability to perceive and to make decisions correctly,’ it’s
always his M.O. Let me take your right
eyes, so he’ll have a bunch of left-eyed servants and one-eyed warriors which
are less of a threat, ‘and I’ll lay it for a reproach upon Israel,
because of what they did to us.’ You
know, a little bit of, you know, here he is surrounding around their wall, and
the men of Jabesh-gilead are calling down off the wall, ‘Nahash, Nahash,
look, it’s obvious you’re more powerful than we are, let’s make a covenant,
we’ll become your servants.’ We
don’t know how long it took him to think up the idea, then he said ‘Alright,
I’ll tell you what, you guys can be my servants if I can gouge out all your
right eyes, and bring a reproach on you, then you can serve me.’ And they looked at him and said ‘Well
that’s kind of a sticking point,’ look what they say to him. “And the elders of Jabesh said unto him,
Give us seven days’ respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of
Israel: and then, if there be no
man to save us, we will come out to thee.” (verse 3) ‘if there’s no man that
can save us from you, ah, we’ll come out and let you pluck out our eyes, but
give us seven days to find somebody to whup you.’ This is the strangest, when people are willing
to compromise with the enemy, they make the strangest decisions, and the
strangest requests. Nahash evidently is
not threatened, he doesn’t think that, rather than going to war, no sense
having all of this unneeded carnage, just a pile of right eyeballs would be
fine, so he gives them evidently, grants them their seven days to think about
this, what a strange, strange picture. “Then
came the messenger to Gibeah of Saul, and told the tidings in the ears of the
people: and all the people lifted up
their voices, and wept. And, behold,
Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said, What aileth
the people that they weep? And they told
him the tidings of the men of Jabesh.” (verses 4-5) now he’s working with
his hands, he’s working in the field.
And here it is, “And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard
those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.” (verse 6) Please notice that, that is the proper
spiritual and moral response. The Holy
Ghost came on him, and he was angry, there’s righteous indignation. The Bible never prohibits anger, it doesn’t
say don’t be angry, it says ‘Be angry, but sin not.’ People get so condemned because they get
angry, the Bible doesn’t say ‘Don’t be angry,’ you’re created in God’s
image and likeness, God has anger, anger is part of his makeup, anger is
necessary, there’s a necessary time when the proper moral response to injustice
and some horrendous thing is anger. We
need to be angry at some of the things going on around us in this world today,
and that’s a moral response. Here it
says the Holy Spirit came upon him, and when the Spirit came on him his anger
was kindled. And he says ‘This is
not right.’ The
Connection Between Gibeah And Jabesh-Gilead Now
there’s an interesting connection here, between Gibeah and Jabesh-gilead. If you remember back in the Book of Judges, a
Levite decided to leave his calling, and he had a concubine who had gone out
and become a prostitute, he had got her back again, and he was heading north on
his way to Ramah, and he went as far as Gibeah that night, and decided to stay
there. As he was in the town square in
Gibeah, a certain man came and found him and said ‘You can’t stay out
here, there’s sodomites, you can’t stay out here,’ because the men of
Gibeah, they were evil, so he took this Levite and this concubine into his
home, and it said the men of Gibeah were banging on the door saying ‘Bring
out this man, that we might have sexual relations with him,’ and they
came to a compromise, they threw the concubine out. And it says they abused her all night long,
and in the morning when it got light, they opened the door, and her hand was on
the threshold and she was dead. So the
Levite took her and cut her in twelve pieces and sent a piece to all of the
tribes of Israel, and the tribes of Israel were so shaken they said ‘We’ve
never seen anything like this,’ and they said ‘there’s incredible
lewdness and sin in Gibeah, and God do so to you if you don’t come, and all of
Israel came and gathered together against Gibeah, and they said to Gibeah, You
send out the men that have done these things that we might destroy them, and
the men of Benjamin refused.’ And
then through a series of circumstances there was a great victory, the
Benjamites finally come out thinking they’re chasing the Israelites, and they
burned the city, destroyed it, and when all of that was over the destruction in
Gibeah and Benjamin was so great, that the children of Israel wept and said ‘What
are we going to do, there’s only 600 men left, and there’s no women, no wives,
it wouldn’t be right for a tribe to be wiped out in Israel. And yet we have sworn, we won’t give our
daughters. Who didn’t come to the
battle, who wasn’t here, and somebody said, The men of Jabesh-gilead came not.’ It doesn’t say what they were about to do
was right, back in the Book of Judges it said there was no king in Israel,
everybody was doing what was right in his own eyes, and it says there was great
evil in the eyes of the LORD. But they go up to Jabesh-gilead, and they
wipe out all of the men of Jabesh-gilead, but they bring 400 virgins back for
the men of Gibeah that was left, a little over 300 years before this. So chances are, Saul’s great grandmother was
from Jabesh-gilead. Chances are, that’s
why Gibeah, the whole city is wailing and weeping, because they were intimately
woven into the people of Jabesh-gilead, all their ancestry just within a few
hundred years was from there. And it
says here Saul, when the Spirit came upon him, his anger was kindled greatly, “And
he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces,” sound familiar? “and
sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of
messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so
shall it be done unto his oxen. And the
fear of the LORD
fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.” (verse 7) that
was your tractor in those days, ‘if you don’t come we’re going to hack
your oxen in pieces.’ “And when he
numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and
the men of Judah thirty thousand.” (verse 8) [Comment: so you have 300,000 Israelites, made
up of the other 11 tribes, and then you have 30,000 of Judah, the Jews. Notice the Jews are not the Israelites here,
but listed separately. People often
confuse Israel with the Jews. After the
split in the Kingdom in the time of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, the Israelite
kingdom, made up of ten tribes, was in the north, and the kingdom of Judah,
made up of Judah, the half tribe of Benjamin, and the tribe of Levi was to the
south, the southern kingdom. At that
point, and from then on, historically, the Jews were not Israel.
After the Assyrian captivity in 721BC, the ten northern tribes of Israel
became lost historically, they’re out there in the world somewhere, and only
the Jews were left. Modern day
Christians never make this distinction, even though it is Biblical.] Saul’s
Army Slaughters The Ammonites 330
thousand men were drawn together for this circumstance, “And they sent unto
the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabesh-gilead, To
morrow, by that time the sun be hot, ye shall have help. And the messengers came and shewed it
to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad.” (verse 9) King James says “ye
shall have help,” literally “ye shall have deliverance.” “and they were glad.” I guess they all put their patches away, Jack
Sparrow won’t be comfortable here, they just went through it all, ‘We’re not
gonna lose our right eyes.’ “Therefore
the men of Jabesh said, To morrow we will come out unto you, and ye shall do
with us all that seemeth good unto you.” (verse 10) Now they’re saying this to Nahash, not being
honest, they’re putting him off for a day because that’s when the 330,000 said
they’re gonna be there. “And it was so
on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies; [each
company made up of 110,00 soldiers, now that’s a large company of men] like
Gideon, we see this in other places, “ and they came into the midst of the
host in the morning watch,” between 3 and 6am, still dark, “and slew the
Ammonites until the heat of the day: and
it came to pass, they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were
not left together.” (verse 11) there
weren’t even two that were still left together.
“And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he that said, Shall
Saul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put them to death.” (verse 12)
‘We’re in a killing mood, we’re out of Ammonites, who were those guys back in
the last chapter, the sons of Belial that said Whose this guy that thinks he’s
going to rein over us? Bring us those
guys too, while we’re worked up, and we’ll take care of them.’ To Saul’s credit, “And Saul said,
There shall not a man be put to death this day:
for to day the LORD
hath wrought salvation in Israel. Then
said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom
there. And all the people went to
Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the LORD
in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD;
and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.” (verses 13-15) Gilgal, the place of consecration, the place
where they had entered into the land, the place where the pile of stones was
there as a testimony, sadly, that the LORD
had gone before them, the Ark of the Covenant had stood in the midst of that
river, and had parted. You know, they
had seen all of these victories, without a human king. But Samuel says, ‘Let’s renew the
kingdom, let’s go there, that is a good place for the coronation for Saul,
let’s go there, let’s come back to our first love, let’s come back to the place
where we had entered into the land, let’s come back to the Covenant God made to
us in the first place.’ You
know, and you and I, I find how many times do we need to come back to the cross
of Jesus Christ. We get saved, and we’re
enamored with his love, we’re overwhelmed, and that’s the thing when I first
got saved, that I drove everybody out of their minds, I didn’t know what an
Epistle or an Apostle was, I didn’t know what Galatians or Ephesians was. But I knew I was saved, and I knew there were
people around me that weren’t saved, and they found no rest day nor night when
they were around me. I was obnoxious,
but God uses us. And then you start to
grow, and then you kind of enter into the Christian culture, and you start to
hear of all these other things. And you
start to hear of all of these other things, ‘You know, they’re doing this
over here, the oil’s falling from the ceiling, and people are getting slain in
the Spirit over here, and this is going on over in this place, and here’s the
place where the people who are really slick are, and here’s the place where
everybody can talk about sex in this church, and everybody thinks it’s a riot and
has no conviction of the Holy Spirit, and here’s where this is going on, and
here’s where that’s going on,’ and you kind of go from place to place, ‘where’s
the latest and greatest,’ but all the while, you’re realizing, ‘Wow, I
got mad today, I shouldn’t have done that, I thought a lustful thought today,
wow, I did this,’ and all the while you’re realizing, you come to the
realization that you’re in process [you’re in a process of spiritual growth],
and he’s working in your life. And he
brings you in a circuit, and you end up back at the cross. And you realize ‘This is the profoundest
truth, this is the deepest water, this is the most powerful place, the cross,
the Resurrection of Christ, this is the epicenter of everything that I believe,
this is the thing, if I’m one day in hospice on my deathbed, this is the
place and the thing that will matter.’
They went back to Gilgal and they offered sin offerings, the blood began
to flow, they remembered what it was all about, the place of reconsecration,
the place of wonder, a place of dealing with your sins, the place of realizing
why we can have fellowship with a Holy God at all, so important for all of
us. And listen, he knows us, we’re all
like Saul in one way or another. He’s
willing to stoop down to us and say ‘You know today this is going to happen,
and this is going to happen.’ We say
‘Lord, let me know about this,’ and we wake up in the morning, we pull
our little verse out of the bread basket and it says ‘do this,’ then you
get in your car and turn on the radio, and Charles Stanley’s talking about the
same thing, and then you get to work and the only Christian there says ‘You
know the verse the Lord gave me today for you,’ and it’s three times, and
then we say ‘Dah, are you speaking to me Lord? I don’t know,’ and the
Lord’s going ‘Oye vey!’ But he
stoops to us, and he will do that, and he will speak to us, and he will
confirm, he knows our infirmity, he knows that we’re growing in grace and the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, he knows why Paul got on his knees to pray
that we would comprehend the height and the depth and the breadth and the width
of Christ’s love towards us. He knows
that there’s no new commandment, but the old commandment has to be given to us
again [which would be the Ten Commandments, as some would interpret that, which
is probably true], he knows as Peter says ‘I put you in remembrance of
things,’ he knows our propensity to complicate and to forget, to be
insecure. He knows that no one has ever
loved us the way that he loves us. And
we have no meter or gauge to measure that love upon, and it is only received by
faith. It is only received by faith, it
is only received by faith. God loves you
so much that he gave his only Son, that he who knew no sin, became sin, that we
might be the righteousness of God. And
he stoops to us, doesn’t he? and he speaks to us, he leads us. And we try to tell our friends, you know,
again, and they say ‘How do you know?’ we give the most profound answer,
‘Well I know that I know, that I know that I know, I know that I know.’ That drives them crazy and it drives us
crazy, but we know that we know, a wonderful thing. [Comment: You can prove that God exists and
that his Word, the Bible is true, by fulfilled prophecy, by the comparison of
fulfilled prophecy to secular history.
But most people don’t want to know God is real. If you do, see, https://unityinchrist.com/ProofOfTheBible-FulfilledProphecy.htm]
Let’s stand, let’s pray, read ahead please.
And I encourage you as we sing this last song, just as you’re
worshipping, be saying ‘Lord, fill me with your Spirit, fill me
afresh.’ You know, a Spirit-filled
condition, a Spirit-filled Christian is not a title, it’s a condition. ‘Well I’m a Spirit-filled Christian,’ well
you’re living in sin, you’re doing this.
No, a Spirit-filled Christian is not something you were in 1973 or not
something you were in 2004, a Spirit-filled Christian is something that we need
to be in October 2009 [or now, in June 2022, three months into the Russian
invasion of the Ukraine, which is going to bring about a United States of
Europe, prophecied over 2500 years ago in the Books of Daniel and Revelation,
see https://unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm]. It is a condition and not a title. And how many times in the Book of Acts we see
them pray and say ‘Lord, give us boldness,’ and it says ‘they were all filled, the
place was shaken,’ and the class condition was ‘they were filled
afresh, anew, right then.’ So,
if you’re here this evening, someone who wrestles with insecurity, God knows
about the Saul in you, he’ll stoop down, he’ll put people that are on fire
around you. He’ll give you a Samuel to
speak to truth to your heart. He’ll line
up your day, and prove that everything that he has to say is true. He’ll stoop to you because he loves you…[transcript
of a connective expository sermon on 1st Samuel 10:1-27 and 1st
Samuel 11:1-15, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia,
13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
19116] related
links: Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED651 The
Bible in the Books of Daniel and Revelation has been predicting that final
resurrection of that Roman Empire in Europe for 2,500 years now, and now we’re
fast approaching that time. To see those
prophecies, log onto: https://unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm
You
can prove that God exists and that his Word, the Bible is true, by fulfilled
prophecy, by the comparison of fulfilled prophecy to secular history. But most people don’t want to know God is
real. If you do, see, https://unityinchrist.com/ProofOfTheBible-FulfilledProphecy.htm |