Sermon

[8 A.M.] Long Live the KING

Park Cities Presbyterian Church Weekly Sermon Podcast

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  1. We direct your attention to the word of God.

  2. You may remain standing now for the reading of the word.

  3. First, Samuel chapter 10. Now, Samuel call the people

  4. together to the Lord at Miss spa and he said to the people of

  5. Israel, thus says the Lord the god of Israel.

  6. I brought up Israel out of Egypt.

  7. I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand

  8. of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.

  9. But today, you have rejected your God who saves you, from all

  10. your calamities and your distresses.

  11. And you have said to him such a king over us.

  12. Now, therefore present yourselves before the Lord by

  13. your tribes and by your thousands.

  14. Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near and The

  15. Tribe of Benjamin was taken by lat.

  16. He brought the Tribe of Benjamin nearby, it's Clans.

  17. And the clan of the mate Rights was taken by lot and soul.

  18. The son of Kish was taken by lot.

  19. But when they sought Soul he could not be found.

  20. So they inquired again of the Lord.

  21. Is there a man still to come? And the Lord said, behold he has

  22. hidden himself among the baggage.

  23. Then they ran and took him from there.

  24. And when he stood apart, among the people, he was taller than

  25. any of the people from his shoulders upward.

  26. And Samuel said to all the people.

  27. Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen.

  28. There is none like him among all the people and all the people

  29. shouted, long, live, the king, the word of the Lord.

  30. You may be seated. That very first verse sets, the

  31. stage. The same, you'll call the people

  32. together to the Lord at Miss Paul.

  33. Macaulay the people together especially by their thousands.

  34. He was calling upon the Elders of Israel.

  35. Remember there were Twelve Tribes and these Twelve Tribes

  36. had Elders. The firstborn and the others of

  37. the patriarch of the tribe, and then there would be others, and

  38. they would number them, and they numbered into the thousands and

  39. thousands each one. In fact, it would not be but two

  40. generations later. They would be so many of them in

  41. the land that the Lord would say, they're like the sand of

  42. the Sea and the stars of the sky just like I promised Abraham.

  43. Back earlier about 400-plus years earlier.

  44. And therefore, actually about 900 years earlier.

  45. Another think about it. It's wow.

  46. Call them all together. Let's have an assembly,

  47. especially of the elders. Let's bring them all together.

  48. In the place, he chose to bring the people together with solemn

  49. assembly was mizpah, Miss. Paul was a tremendous location.

  50. You remember, a few weeks ago. We had a great Revival at Miss

  51. Paula. It was there with the people

  52. gathered and they said we want to serve the Lord.

  53. He said, well, if you want to serve the Lord tear down, all of

  54. these idols and put your faith in your trust in the Lord and

  55. the people had a great time of repentance and Revival and

  56. they'd come back to the Lord. And they Renewed, their Covenant

  57. in their faith, in the Lord and the lord gave them a great

  58. Victory. When Samuel prayed and they

  59. defeated the Philistines. Miss Val was a high point in the

  60. life of Israel in this time and they erected a stone Ebenezer

  61. hither to has the Lord, but helped us and they made it a

  62. special place of memory. It's Not Unusual that Samuel

  63. would call them back to this place.

  64. This place. There was a physical reminder of

  65. how the Lord had help. Them and how he had done them so

  66. much good and now he calls together this.

  67. Holy Congress convocation, but something that strikes me in

  68. this stage setting first, verse is now Samuel called the people

  69. together to the Lord. Atma Spa.

  70. That's significant. Samuel has brought the people

  71. together before God one more time.

  72. This faithful prophet. Samuel is trying to bring God's

  73. people back to themselves back to their senses back to

  74. remembering who God is and what God has done.

  75. God's leaders have done this. Moses on the plains of Moab

  76. gather the people together to hear the words of the Covenant.

  77. Some years later. Joshua had brought the people

  78. together at shechem that mountie ball and Garrison to their

  79. renew, the Covenant and to come back to their God and now Samuel

  80. was bringing the people back to Ebenezer back to the place where

  81. they had marked and noted that God had been their Helper and

  82. God had given them. Great Victory.

  83. So he's calling them to the Lord.

  84. That's the first order of business.

  85. To call them to the Lord, to come to the Lord to obey the

  86. Lord, to walk in his statutes to love him with all their heart,

  87. to keep his Commandments to live in the light of his presence.

  88. Samuels, calling God's people back.

  89. God's people need to go back. Even the patriarch felt like it

  90. one point. He had to go back to Bethel back

  91. to Bethel the house of God to renew and defined the presence

  92. of God that had been lost. That was Israel's Heritage.

  93. Israel was a people that God had chosen for himself to reveal

  94. himself to them. That they would be his own

  95. precious peculiar people. That's what God has done for us,

  96. isn't it? Hasn't the Lord called us to

  97. himself. Separated us from the world,

  98. separated us from that future. That would have been ours.

  99. If we have not heard and answered his call today.

  100. We celebrate All Saints Day. I think we've sort of worked a

  101. little too meaning of that over. In the medieval church.

  102. It was a time where we looked at those who had been venerated.

  103. But in our church, we think of All Saints as those people of

  104. God. Those precious people of God,

  105. all of God's people. All of his saints, that form a

  106. great cloud of witnesses. Run the race before us.

  107. That group of people that we preach, almost every Sunday that

  108. are to persevere in their faith and in their obedience and in

  109. their following and loving the Lord, the perseverance of the

  110. Saints, All Saints. And that's what?

  111. Samuel is doing. He wasn't preaching to the

  112. Philistines. He wasn't preaching to the

  113. Canaanites. He wasn't preaching, even to the

  114. Egyptians, who's preaching to God's people.

  115. That is who needs to hear the voice of God.

  116. That's who needs to come together.

  117. Back to the Lord. Samuel begin to preach.

  118. It says here in the very next verse.

  119. He said he said to the people of Israel.

  120. Thus says, the Lord, that's the prophetic formula when the

  121. prophets want to put something out there in front of God's

  122. people. That's clear.

  123. And plain. They say thus says the Lord then

  124. he begins a recount of what the Lord says.

  125. I brought up Israel out of Egypt.

  126. I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand

  127. of all the kingdoms. That were oppressing you.

  128. God had brought them up. He had delivered them.

  129. He had saved them but it but beyond that they had asked for a

  130. king principally because they wanted a man to lead them into

  131. battle. And Samuel says to God's people,

  132. the Lord defeated the Pharaoh the armies of Egypt and it

  133. didn't stop there. Just read the account.

  134. God enabled them in the wilderness to to defeat the

  135. amalekites. When they came to the passage.

  136. Through the kingdoms of lot. They had fought battles with

  137. Amman and with Moab when they came into the transjordan, god

  138. enabled them to have Victory and passage over the edomites.

  139. The descendants of Saw of he saw and now when they came into the

  140. land under Joshua God enabled him to have victory over the

  141. Amorite and all of the Canaanites Time After Time,

  142. After Time when they had these major battles go He had won the

  143. victory for them and the only battles they lost with the

  144. battles. God made him lose because he

  145. wanted to teach him a lesson. He wanted to bring them back to

  146. repentance. Never thought that the only

  147. difficulties you have in your life or what God lovingly brings

  148. upon you so you'll get on your knees and turn to him.

  149. For whom the Lord, loveth. He chasing it.

  150. And scourges every son that his his That was Israel's history

  151. and Sam was just saying, don't you see?

  152. This is a Story here A History, A History of victory that God

  153. had given his people. And yet notice the very next

  154. verse. But however, instead of learning

  155. from all of that, in keeping the Lord, as your king and following

  156. him and waiting on God, to raise up a king after his own

  157. choosing. A king.

  158. Who would be the kind of King, that Israel was supposed to have

  159. in would also be of the, of the tribe, you have asked for a

  160. king, like, all the other nations, you have forsaken, your

  161. holy status, and you want to be common, you want to be every

  162. day. You want to be worldly?

  163. Today, you've rejected your God. Remember, God had told Samuel.

  164. They didn't reject you, and they came to Samuel.

  165. Very politely. They said, well, you're getting

  166. old and you're becoming inefficient and we have a lot of

  167. things that need to be done and your sons are not fit to follow

  168. in your footsteps and judge us and be our Our leader.

  169. So we need a king. And Samuel was flat-out, angry.

  170. Yeah, that's what the scripture says.

  171. He was angry. The Lord said, no, they have not

  172. rejected, you Samuel, you have properly represented in followed

  173. me. They've rejected me.

  174. It goes way to the very top. It is a rebellion against my

  175. sovereignty. That's really what sin is, isn't

  176. it? It is treason against the most

  177. high God. It's not.

  178. Challo. It's not slight.

  179. Sin is serious. See, it's always about the

  180. condition of the heart. So Samuels preaching now to the

  181. people and you've rejected your God, who saves you, from all

  182. your calamities in your distresses, and you have said to

  183. him set a king over us. The Lord told him back in

  184. Deuteronomy that they would come into the land and one day they

  185. would. Desire a king.

  186. And they would get a king Lord would give them a king and the

  187. king would be the of such and such and he should do certain

  188. things. And we looked at those a couple

  189. of weeks ago, that list of things that the ideal king and

  190. the good king would do some of the things harmful that the king

  191. will do. That's not what God would have

  192. him. Do.

  193. There was a law above the king, that was to govern a

  194. constitution. That was to govern the

  195. government. You've asked for a king.

  196. You're going to get a king. So, Samuel says to the people

  197. now. Present yourselves before the

  198. Lord, by your tribes. and by your thousands, the last time

  199. they did this in Israel. They were looking for a man.

  200. They're looking for a man this time looking for a man to be

  201. king last time. God called him to this

  202. particular. Array.

  203. When he was looking for a man who had sinned.

  204. Remember the story back in judges Joshua seven where they

  205. were looking for the man that had sinned that caused him to

  206. lose the battle at AI whereas they'd won the great victory at

  207. Jericho. Now, there's a search for The

  208. Sinner. The reason there's a defeat in

  209. God's Camp is because there's a sinner in God's camp.

  210. They were looking for Aiken. And Joshua lined them up by

  211. tribes and he began to cast lots working its way down from the

  212. tribe to the clan to the household to the man.

  213. So that they could point out and find The Sinner.

  214. That's what happened in Joshua's day.

  215. Now, they're here in this day. God's called them to the same

  216. array. I wonder if anyone probably,

  217. besides Samuel knew this the solemn occasion.

  218. But that's what they did. They lined up.

  219. They cast lots. We're not sure exactly how they

  220. did it. The prescribed way for finding

  221. an answer was to inquire of the Lord and the priest carried in

  222. his breastplate, in his ephod, in a little pouch, a little

  223. pocket, a to small instruments. We don't know exactly what they

  224. were Stones. Perhaps maybe pieces of metal,

  225. but they were the urim and the thummim, the ER Lament The

  226. Curse, the thumb and It perfect. When there was a perfect

  227. alignment of these two stones or emblems.

  228. It was affirmative. Yes.

  229. Perfect. God is with you, when it was a

  230. misalignment. One said, one thing in one said

  231. the other words, an incongruity in an inconsistency in the to

  232. collect flipping coins in heaven, to come up heads.

  233. That's yes, one. Come up.

  234. Heads one. Come up Tails.

  235. That's no. That was the way they cast the

  236. lots and lot casting is all through the scripture.

  237. He just follow it all the way through you for through the

  238. Kings David Saul, cast, lots, David cast, lots the cast lots

  239. in the days of the prophets. Even cast lots in the New

  240. Testament. Acts chapter one.

  241. That's how Matthias became the 12th Apostle replacing Judas was

  242. by the casting of lots, because here's what they believed.

  243. They believe Proverbs 16:33 where it said, the lot is cast

    Proverbs 16:33

  244. into the lap. But the Lord makes the decision.

  245. So this was a decision that they would all witness was a fair and

  246. square deal. It was the flip of the coin that

  247. they could all see it. It was out there in the open but

  248. yet the results. They believe was what God

  249. wanted. And they did, they did this cast

  250. of lots? In it came up Tribe of Benjamin.

  251. Well, we're narrowing it down now, bring it down to the

  252. merits, the clan. And then to the household of

  253. Kish and then his son Saul. And it's an interesting little

  254. scene here, which has been appointed a lot of discussion.

  255. I'll try to not say too much about it, but he says and Saul

  256. the son of cash was taken by lot, but when they sought him,

  257. he could not be found. So they inquired, again of the

  258. Lord. Is there, a man?

  259. Still to come? This was one of those lots where

  260. you had to be present to win? They had came up Saul.

  261. And where Saul he's not. Here.

  262. Is there somebody else? Who's next door?

  263. Just hold on. Lord says, he's, he's present.

  264. He's just hiding. And here was this tall handsome

  265. capable in many ways incapable and many other ways as we saw

  266. last week. Hiding hiding in the baggage.

  267. These people had traveled from all over the kingdom.

  268. Had taken them days to come. They would come in there.

  269. Oxcarts. They'd come in their donkeys,

  270. riding in their Caravans, and they had a ton of baggage.

  271. And I imagine it was all piled around in, piles around the

  272. camp. When they went the Lord said

  273. he's here. They ran to find him.

  274. We need to get him out in front of the people very quickly

  275. before they become some question about what's going on.

  276. Some question about this decision.

  277. Is somebody messing with The Ballot Box.

  278. What's happening here and they run to find him in the Lord

  279. spotted him and pull him out. Said, he's in the baggage.

  280. He's back there where he feels comfortable in his comfort zone.

  281. He's back there with the donkeys.

  282. And they pull him out of his comfort zone and put him in

  283. right in the middle. Now be aware that a lot of

  284. things that happened. You remember that he had been

  285. appointed by the Lord. He had been anointed by the

  286. prophet already. Saul knew he was the man.

  287. It's all knew. It was coming his way.

  288. And when that lot was cast, it was just a triple or quadruple.

  289. Confirmation. God had already given him three

  290. confirmations of his call and his selection in, this was the

  291. fourth and final and he needed to appear before the people in

  292. order to be accepted by the people in order to have the

  293. approbation of the people. And bear in mind, this was not

  294. the coronation of Saul. That's going to happen neck in

  295. the next chapter. He's going to be crowned, King

  296. and made King at gilgal. This is just the time when

  297. Israel comes to The Crucible of their thinking, where they

  298. actually bring out the man who will be their King.

  299. And he is placed in the middle. It's interesting to text here.

  300. He said when he stood among the people, he was taller than any

  301. of the people from his shoulders upward and Samuel said to all

  302. the people. Do you see him whom the Lord has

  303. chosen? There is none like him among all

  304. the people. That's an interesting phrase,

  305. It's translated in some of the older.

  306. Text behold the man. Behold.

  307. Your king. Look at your king.

  308. What do you think of him? See him standing there.

  309. No doubt. Shy embarrassed overwhelmed in

  310. the middle Center Stage. Up front on the microphone. this

  311. is, The man. The approbation of God's people

  312. was given long live. The king when I was studying

  313. through this passage. I was arrested.

  314. I was just stopped in my in my heart.

  315. I said hold it. Where have I seen this seen

  316. before? Fast forward 11 centuries.

  317. There. Standing before Pilate.

  318. Christ have been put in the middle of the people on what was

  319. called the pavement in the middle of that great room.

  320. By Pilot had been placed there and there stood Jesus.

  321. Betrayed. Bound.

  322. Falsely accused. Condemned.

  323. Be his body was lacerated. Blood was already dripping from

  324. his body. His beard had been pulled out.

  325. Did you know, that was an Old Testament symbol of defeat?

  326. One of the things they would do to a soldier when they had

  327. defeated him as they would pull out his beard.

  328. Or in some cases if he had mercy that we shave him clean.

  329. But the pulling out of the beard was a symbol of absolute.

  330. Defeat pilot, representing Rome, and conquered the Lord's, king

  331. the king of the Jews, and that's how pilot thought of him.

  332. And that's what pilot put up on the cross.

  333. Was the king of the Jews and they disputed with that.

  334. They said no he claimed to be king pilots and what I have

  335. written. I have written if there was ever

  336. a man who quibbled over truth and told the truth, it was

  337. pilot. Tyler told the truth when he

  338. said I find no fault in him. The sinless Son of God had

  339. nothing to condemn him and that there he stood he had his beard

  340. pulled out. He was mocked by the people spat

  341. upon. This is a long way from the

  342. approbation that was given to King Saul on this day.

  343. He standing there in a in a makeshift.

  344. Mocking robe. He's wearing a crown of thorns

  345. that have been pressed to not just for the pain, but for the

  346. symbolism, the Thorns represented the curse.

  347. Back in the Garden of Eden. It's the thorns and thistles

  348. that were the curse of the land. And here he was crowned Upon

  349. Jesus here. He was burying the curse of sin,

  350. the curse of the law, the curse, they would send him to his

  351. death. As he stood, there is blood

  352. soaking through His Garment and dripping down on the pavement.

  353. What did Pilots say? Behold the man.

  354. Look at your king, behold, your king.

  355. And he turned him over. To be crucified.

  356. We thought the writer says that he suffered for his own sins

  357. after all. He was a traitor.

  358. He was a blasphemer. We thought he was smitten of God

  359. for his own transgressions. He was getting what he deserved,

  360. wasn't he? That's what we thought we were

  361. carrying out. Justice said, the Sanhedrin said

  362. Herod said, pilate said you and me.

  363. Shirley. He hath, borne our iniquities,

  364. our sins, our transgressions, the penalty that is do us was

  365. placed upon him. And there this man, Jesus Christ

  366. died. As a substitute, the high

  367. priest. And mockingly said, you know,

  368. it's best that one man die for the people.

  369. That's exactly what the substitutionary atonement of

  370. Christ. Is one man dying for the people

  371. dying for you and me dying for All Saints.

  372. I'll stop with just one more thing.

  373. I don't have time to develop it and I don't think I need to.

  374. What was the exclamation of the people?

  375. Long live. The king.

  376. Long live. The king.

  377. We fast-forwarded 11 centuries. Let's rewind, 20 centuries.

  378. It's the resurrection. Jesus was raised to long life,

  379. eternal life. The king, whose Dominion is

  380. forever eternal life, which he, then bestows upon his own.

  381. He had borne, the curses of the Covenant.

  382. Now, he was given by the power of the spirit of God raised from

  383. the dead. He was given the blessing of the

  384. Covenant, in the blessing of the Covenant is you will live

  385. forever. No, it's not about Soul.

  386. It's really not about Eli the old priest.

  387. It's really not about Samuel the prophet.

  388. When we read these stories out of the Old Testament out of the

  389. Hebrew scripture, sacred history.

  390. We're reading about Christ. Every time you turn a page in

  391. that Old Testament, something will point you to Christ.

  392. Think I'm out of clothing. The Bible, too, soon.

  393. Let me see if I can find it again.

  394. I like what Samuel said, if you hadn't been speaking of Saul

  395. directly to been, speaking of Christ, have been beautiful

  396. words. Do you see him whom the Lord has

  397. chosen? Do you see Christ?

  398. There is none like him. Among a whole people.