Israel Gets Their King Part 1

Guest (Male): Israel gets their king that they've been asking for next on Abounding Grace.
Guest (Male): It's great to have you in our listening family as we present Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. It's a ministry of Calvary Church in Aurora. Today the plan is to cover more ground in 1 Samuel and we left off in Chapter 10. Now, we've been hearing recently how God leads and guides us by His Spirit. It doesn't always line up with conventional thinking. Saul is about to become the first king of Israel. But before this happens, he's going to receive confirmation through three signs. Pastor Ed will relate this to our calling in just a moment.
Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles, open them to 1 Samuel Chapter 10. Studying through the book of 1 Samuel, we have a lot to learn and a lot to grow in as we see God using this time in history in the children of Israel to teach us much. Up to this point in Chapter 10 through a series of events that were all used by God, Samuel and Saul are connected and Saul is identified as the first king of Israel. In Chapter 9, if you weren't with us last time, we did two studies. We did a broad overview and then last time we were together we looked at this topic of God being the God of the mundane. Or another way of looking at that study is that God will lead us through our faithfulness in everyday life. A lot of times we think that God's going to show us a burning bush or give us a fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. But in reality, God will often, most often, work very supernaturally in ordinary ways in our daily life, looking for us to be faithful. If we're faithful and we're diligent, living a spiritual life led by the Spirit, then each moment in Jesus you could say that we are being led by the Spirit. That He is guiding us and helping us. And that was what we looked at as Saul was given the responsibility. You're going to see this in Saul, and I hope it speaks to your heart. Because it's very, very important to live up to the potential that God's put in your life and not just to throw it away. Often we'll think of someone in the Bible that demonstrates wasted potential and immediately in my mind, a man that comes to mind is Samson. What great opportunity, what great potential this man had. Actually, when I taught the Bible study on the life of Samson, I titled it Wasted Potential. It's often a message I'll deliver to men and young people, warning them, stirring them, that with all that God has done and continues to do and the hand of God upon your life, don't throw it away. Well, unfortunately, Saul is also someone that we could label over their lives, wasted potential. Because in relationship to his dad, he did a very mundane thing. He went to go look for his dad's donkeys. And he was no young man here, he's not a kid. He's not a kid where those of you that are parents, you see each stage in your child's life. When they're younger, you just tell them what to do and they do it. Even if they throw a bad attitude about it or they have some inward turmoil, up until about 8, 9, 10, 11, they do what you tell them to do. And then the number changes. It's just from 12 to 13, and there is a change that goes on. For some of you it's like, it wasn't 13, Ed. Well, okay, you name the number. But now they're vocal. "I don't want to do that. Why isn't so-and-so doing it? Do I always have to do that?" And before you know it, they're rebelling against the very simple things. Take out the trash, that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to do it all the time. Do the dishes, take out the trash, make your bed, clean your room, all of those things. Well, by the time Saul here is in young adulthood, he's told to do something. "Go search for my donkeys. My donkeys are lost. They're very important to me." What does Saul do? He goes. And he does it in a very spiritual way. Not only caring about what his dad's possessions were, very valuable to him, but he came to a point where he realized, "You know what? We've been gone so long that Dad is going to start caring about me and my life more than the donkeys. We need to get back. We need to find a spiritual man." And we saw all that last time, if you weren't with us, a very important Bible study in which to build as we come now to Chapter 10. Pick up with me in verse 1. Then Samuel, let's pick up in verse 27, actually. Chapter breaks aren't put in the most opportune time. He actually put it in the middle of this paragraph. So let's pick up at the beginning of the paragraph, Chapter 9, verse 27. As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, "Tell the servant to go on ahead of us." And he went on. "But you stand here a while that I may announce to you the word of the Lord." Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, "Is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over His inheritance?" Now from this point on, Saul will be the leader over God's people, even though only Saul and Samuel know it at this point. It's reserved for them. This would lead to a time of waiting. From the time of anointing to the time of taking over, there's going to be a season of waiting. And before that, there is an anointing before the waiting. He takes a flask of oil, pours it on his head. Anointing was a very common practice. Not only among the Jews but throughout the land. The nations surrounding Israel, when they anointed, they would often use animal fat to anoint their leaders because they had this belief that when they would anoint with animal fat, melted down of course, they believed that somehow the power of the fat of a bull or an ox would convey strength to the person being anointed. It would be a message of strength. You would leave with the strength of that animal, with the confidence of the bull or the ox. But throughout the scriptures, when God anoints a man for the ministry, when God anoints a man here in this case to lead the people on His behalf, He doesn't use animal fat. He uses olive oil. God's anointing was not designed to make men like animals, to lord over people, to boss them around, to convey an out-of-controlness. But rather, the anointing of God was to show that they were to be rooted and grounded in the things of God. Olive oil, often representative of the Holy Spirit. And this anointing of oil is the same thing we're looking for with the laying on of hands of men and women into the ministry. Men especially, into the pastorate, the laying on of hands for the sake of asking God to pour out His Spirit and speak a word of prophecy over them like Timothy received. Oil so often speaks of the Holy Spirit and the necessity of the Spirit of God in our lives. Jot it down in Romans Chapter 8, verse 7. Paul would write, "Because the carnal mind is an enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Let me just say this. As you survey your own realm of responsibility, your own realm of leadership in the workplace or at home, perhaps God has led you here in this church or listening in from afar in your own church. You might be visiting and you are a part of another fellowship family and you have a place of leadership there. Leadership is not to be done in your own strength, relying on the resources that you inherited from sinful Adam. We're not to lead like the world does, Jesus said. We're not to lord over, Peter says, all inspired by the Spirit. We're not to push people in the ministry. God doesn't push people. He leads. Anytime you feel this overt pressure from someone to do something, even if it's spiritual, just know this. God doesn't push, He leads. God leads by His Spirit. He doesn't drive us. We're not to be driven by God or anything else for that matter. We're to be led by His Spirit. Why? Because the Bible says that if you and I are in the flesh, you cannot please God. You go, "Ed, where does it say that?" I just read it, Romans Chapter 8, verse 8. Listen again. Very important we grasp this. "So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God." It doesn't say may not, it doesn't say might not. What does it say? Cannot. And so how careful we must be to be led by the Spirit. To be infilled and refreshed. Not to quench the Spirit. That's the last thing you want to do. Not to grieve the Spirit through compromise and disobedience. So Paul says in verse 9 of Romans 8, he says, "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." This anointing was significant. Not just in the customary practice of the day. But things that are customary, practices that are customary in the hands of God become very spiritual and important. This was unlike any other anointing even though it might look the same. This was God's anointing upon Saul. This was God's choice, very particularly, very specifically. Verse 2 now. "When you have departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah. And they will say to you, the donkeys which you went to look for have been found. And now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys and is worrying about you, saying, what shall I do about my son?" Exactly what he thought. He was so in tune with his father. Such great potential. He said as much without anybody telling him, he knew his dad. What a great picture of how needful it is for us to know our Father. Such great potential. Verse 3. "Then you shall go on forward from there and come to the terebinth tree of Tabor. There three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive from their hands." "After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is. And it will happen when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, a harp before them. And they will be prophesying. Then," verse 6, "the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man." Here Samuel is speaking for the Lord. He's giving Saul three things to look for in order to confirm what's happening is true. Three things, they're very, very precise. They aren't just general. It's very precise, the confirmation of the Lord. And here Samuel becomes a type and a picture of the very Spirit of God that leads us, very specifically. These three signs, these three confirmations that will come to Saul will reaffirm his anointing. Now, when men go out and their families go out to plant churches from here or they go out to another church and they're serving in a ministry or they move to another place, I like to encourage them with two things. There are actually two chapters in a book that's entitled *Calvary Distinctives* that Pastor Chuck wrote before he went home to be with the Lord. And in there, there are two chapters that are of utmost importance when you and I are seeking to be led by the Spirit and obey. The first chapter in that book and the last chapter. The first chapter has to do with the calling of God upon a man. The calling of God. It's very, very important that you know your calling. The Bible would say as much, to make your calling and election sure. This isn't just for those that might leave, but I'm giving it to you now for you personally. This is just as much for you than anyone else in these last days. The first chapter is all about the call to the ministry. You need to know that you know that you know that you are called to the ministry in whatever you put your hand to. To have that affirmation of God that this is what He wants you to do with your life in this time and this place. Why? Because when the spiritual attacks come, and they will, and the spiritual warfare rises up, and it will, and the devil or one of his demons comes knocking at your door or giving you a little phone call. Now, wouldn't it be nice that when the devil's calling you that on caller ID it would just say 666? And your phone would say, some of those phones have been burning up, but when the devil calls it always burns up. But it's not like that, is it? Usually there is no caller ID, or someone you might know that there's just a situation that God's using, and it doesn't say the devil, it says somebody that you know but it's just one of those conversations that stirs you up in the flesh. If when you step out to serve God, you must understand that resistance is already there. The devil's right there. He is not happy. And again, I don't know if we ever, any one of us, because there's only one devil in one place at one time. I use that word in a very generic way. The enemy is the enemy of our souls. I don't know that I've ever taken the devil on face-to-face, but I've certainly seen the spiritual warfare that he has stirred up in my life, for sure. I know that. I don't know if you'll ever meet the devil or not, but you'll certainly meet the opposition that will come from the enemy. You have a threefold enemy: the world and its system, our flesh and we walk around in it and our old sinful habit patterns, and the devil himself, the demonic realm. And if you're not certain of your calling, then this will be a place of uncertainty which will make things even worse. Where you are stepping out in faith, you know the Lord has spoken to you, you have asked for the kind of faith to step out, and then you get hit and you're surprised. Even though the Bible says, don't think it strange concerning the fiery trials that are about to try you as if some strange thing happened. We're told that. We memorize that. And almost every time we think it's strange. We're like, "Lord, I'm in my devos, I love You, I'm not living like a carnal man or woman for the world anymore, I'm not drunk, I'm not fighting, I'm not carousing. God, can I just get a break?" And the Lord would say, "Yes, you get a break. I've forgiven you of all of your sins. I've entered into your life. I love you. I've given you a rest that the world can never give you." And I wonder if this is one of the surprises of heaven, of as much as we have faced, what the Lord protected us from. He says, "Well, look at what you're facing, but boy, there was so much more that was averted in My will that I held back from you. I protected you. I guarded you." So you got to know your calling. You need to make it sure. For Saul here, which is quite a significant relationship and role, the very first king of Israel. No more judges, no more Samuel, no more of his corrupt sons, no Eli. This is a significant place. The people wanted a king and God gave them a king. He's the first king. In order to confirm it, he would have these three signs. So not only do I encourage the first chapter of that book, but the last chapter. The last chapter is entitled A Venture of Faith. Because when you know your calling, you only have one choice. Go do it. Oh, but it's going to cost so much. I know. It's going to hurt. I know. It's going to be hard. I know. But you're already convinced this is from the Lord. For some of you, like I, when I think of this, the pastor that spent so much time with me, Pastor Rudy, his thing was three confirmations. If he did not get three confirmations, he wasn't doing anything. I mean, he would share an idea with me and I'd go, "Let's go do it!" And he goes, "Oh, no, I need to wait." I'm like, "I think this is from the Lord." "No, I need to wait." And he would just, like I'm jumping out ahead of the thing, and he's waiting. And so maybe a week later he goes, "You know, Ed, I got the three confirmations." I know! I got them when you shared them with me. And so he would wait. And some of you are like that. You're just a little bit slow in the sense of stepping out. And the good news to me is whether you're a quick act or you need three confirmations, God will give you three confirmations. He did that with Gideon. That's exactly what happened with Gideon. Gideon, it was clear what God was telling him to do. And yet he was timid and wavering. But God said, "Okay, you want the dew? I'll show the dew. You don't want the dew? I don't have the dew. Whatever I need to do to get you to do something." I just made that up right now. I didn't think it was that funny, but I'll take it. For Gideon, he did step out in faith and God did show Himself strong. You've got to know your calling. If you're a three confirmation kind of person, well then, praise the Lord. But be ready because I find that there is a downside to this three confirmation and that is God will send you confirmation after confirmation after confirmation and you won't do anything. You dismiss them as if they're not from the Lord. With Saul, these are very specific. The first confirmation: you're going to meet two men who will tell you the donkeys are okay and that your dad is worried about you. That's pretty precise. Very specific. Samuel already shared this, but God is going to make it plain. He's revealing to this young king that He, God alone, will solve Saul's problems. See, the confirmation wasn't just to affirm his calling but it was to give the practical characteristics of who the God is that Saul will be serving. You see, although Saul would be the king of Israel, God is the king of Saul. Don't forget that. Saul will be the king of Israel but God is the king of Saul. Isn't it true in our own lives? I might have the privilege of pastoring this congregation but God, Jesus Christ, is my pastor. I become an undershepherd. I may have the privilege of making certain decisions here but the lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord. Can never forget that. Saul's learning this. Saul's learning through this prophecy. Samuel is prophesying to him, telling him in advance what will happen very precisely. He's going to learn that God will solve Saul's problems and take care of the things outside of his control. The donkeys were outside of his control, God took care of it. Secondly, in verses 3 and 4, we have he says, "You'll go on forward to this specific tree in this specific place. There are three men going up to God to Bethel. They'll meet you." And check this out. One's going to be carrying three goats. So look for the guy with the goats. And there's another guy carrying three young goats and another one with three loaves of bread and another one with a skin of wine. Don't you think you'd ask some questions like that? "I want to go up and I'm going to meet three guys. But what three guys? I don't want to mess it up because this is serious." All right, God says, "One's got goats, one's got wine skins, and one's got bread. Those are the guys you're looking for." And after that, you shall come to the hill. So the next one Saul's going to meet these three pilgrims at the tree of Tabor. And even though there is much unbelief still in this nation, there are still those loyal to God who honored and worshipped Him. Because God throughout history has demonstrated that He always has a remnant of faithful ones. There's always a remnant. Would you hold your places here, turn over to Romans Chapter 11? This is especially important to the nation of Israel. There is always a remnant of faithful believers, no matter what you see. We see it very clearly here in Romans Chapter 11. Notice with me verse 17. There's always a remnant of faithful ones. And you can hold on to that as you see the church of Jesus Christ, the larger church, the capital C church, the ones made up of believers in all denominations. There are true believers caught up in systems that don't honor God. They have a genuine faith. There's a remnant no matter where, but especially to the Jewish people. Verse 17 says, "And if some of the branches were broken off and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and the fatness of the olive tree, don't boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root but the root supports you." We studied this in-depth when we went through Romans Chapter 11, God's heart for Israel. God is not done with Israel. But I do want, do you see the remnant? Do you see the remnant in this verse? It's very easily seen. You might want to mark it in your Bible. It says in verse 17 the word "some". It doesn't say all, it says some. It doesn't say everyone, there's a group of people, "if some of the branches were broken off." Some. This is key. Some but not all were broken off. There's always been and will always be even in this current moment a believing remnant in Israel. Many Jews in the first century believed in Jesus Christ and the early church in the beginning was primarily made up of Jewish believers, accepting their Messiah. And you know God is still doing that work today, both among Jews and Gentiles. It does appear today that the move among Gentiles is much larger but there is going to be the fullness of the Gentiles and it will come in and God will turn His attention yet again to the nation of Israel in the last seven years of human history. There's always a remnant. And here's a remnant of people heading up to going to Bethel for worship.
Guest (Male): There's a third sign that would serve as confirmation. We'll look at that next time when our study of 1 Samuel resumes on Abounding Grace with Ed Taylor. Catch a replay when you visit aboundinggraceradio.com or listen wherever you get your podcasts and at oneplace.com. And if you haven't already downloaded our free mobile app, you can do that. The Calvary Church app is a great way to listen to the very latest content from Pastor Ed. Here in the month of August, we've picked out an excellent book written by Bob Hoekstra called *How to Counsel God's Way*. Now, this book is a call for God's people to return to Jesus as our wonderful counselor so that we avoid the pitfalls of following after man's wisdom and trust the Lord Jesus for His reliable riches that are already ours in Christ. We'll send you a copy with our thanks for a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Please remember it is through your financial support that we're able to come to you day by day on this station and others like it. Your gift, whatever the size, would be greatly appreciated and put to good use. Request your book today by calling us toll-free at 877-30-GRACE. Again, 877-30-GRACE. You can also order the book online at calvaryco.store. If you'd rather not have the book but still want to make a donation, that can be done rather easily at aboundinggraceradio.com. And we'd like to connect with you before the day is done. Say hello. Tell us what God is up to in your life when you visit aboundinggraceradio.com and then click on Contact Us. Don't miss our next study in 1 Samuel with Pastor Ed next time on Abounding Grace, and may God richly bless you with His abounding grace.