Now we're entering a new phase in the book of 1 Samuel. Of course in chapter 8 we saw that Samuel's sons were made judges and they didn't really follow the right procedure with that.
Instead of the people choosing the judges, Samuel just basically made his children the hereditary judges.
They ended up being dishonest and taking bribes and perverting judgment.
And so the people rejected God's perfect system of the judges and asked to have a king instead.
God warned them that if they had a king they would lose a lot of their freedoms, they would end up having to pay a lot of taxes,
and have to deal with a big overarching government that was going to really just oppress them in a lot of ways.
But they said no, let us be like all the nations.
So at the end of chapter 8, God and Samuel decide, you know, let's just give them what they want, basically, and we'll give them a king.
So Samuel says at the end of chapter 8, let's just look at the last verse again of chapter 8, it says,
And the Lord said to Samuel, Harken unto their voice and make them a king.
And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.
So right now the king is going to be chosen, and God is actually the one who chooses the king.
God directly chooses King Saul to be the king.
And it says in verse number 1 of chapter 9, it says,
Now there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Athiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.
And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly.
And there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he.
And from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.
So this young man is taller than anyone else by a head and shoulders length.
So he's head and shoulders above any of the other people.
So basically there are other people that are tall, and he's head and shoulders above them.
So he's a very tall man. His father was a mighty man of power, the Bible tells us.
So he's a very formidable young man.
Now, just a few notes on Saul before we get into the story here.
A lot of people will try to say that Saul was not saved.
Now, that's ridiculous for a lot of reasons because, first of all, if God is directly choosing him to be king,
and God tells Samuel, this is the guy that I want you to annoy to be king, just like you would choose David next,
how in the world would anyone believe that God would choose an unsaved man to be the captain of his people and to bring salvation from the Philistines?
Obviously, he was saved. Number one, he was chosen directly by God.
Number two, he started out being a great guy.
He started out by it being said of him that he was little in his own sight.
He was a very humble man before he was put in that position of power.
Also, the Bible says about King Saul more than about any other man in the Bible that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
So, Samson and Saul, more than anyone else, had the Spirit of the Lord come upon him.
Now, later on in life, he's going to go into all kinds of sin and make a lot of really bad decisions,
but you can't lose your salvation, and so he still went to heaven.
The Bible's clear, and we'll deal with that in a later chapter where Samuel actually tells Saul,
Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.
Obviously, Samuel's not in hell. Samuel's in heaven.
And so, it's clear that Saul was a saved man, God chose a righteous man, he chose a humble man.
It's just that once he got into that position of power, it messed him up because nobody should have that much power.
And when he became king, he became prideful and he lost a lot of his humility.
Let's get into the story here.
It says in verse number three,
And the asses of Kish, Saul's father, were lost, and Kish said to Saul his son,
Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek the asses.
And he passed through Mount Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they found them not.
Then they passed through the land of Shalom, and there they were not.
And he passed through the land of the Benjibites, but they found them not.
And when they were come to the land of Zoph, Saul said to his servant that was with them,
Come and let us return, lest my father leave caring for the asses and take thou for us.
So they're out looking for these lost asses, which is basically a donkey,
and I'm assuming that there were a lot of them, that it was worth going out and spending all this time looking for us,
probably a whole herd of asses.
And so they go out looking for them, and pretty soon they're gone so long they start to say,
Wait a minute, our dad's going to be more worried about us.
Or not our dad, but his dad's going to be more worried about them if we don't just come back.
Let's just go back.
But the servant here pipes up in verse six, and he said unto him,
Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man.
All that he saith cometh surely to pass, now let us go thither.
Peradventure, he can show us our way that we should go.
Then said Saul to his servant, But behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man?
And they talk about that.
But this is a great verse.
I love that phrase, and I've preached whole sermons on just that one verse where he says,
unto them, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God.
Now turn over to Titus chapter one.
Keep your finger in 1 Samuel chapter nine there,
and go to Titus chapter one in the New Testament toward the very end of the New Testament.
Because, you see, it's God's will and would to God that it would be said of every town
that there is in this city a man of God, in every city across America.
Because look what it says in chapter one of Titus there, verse five,
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting.
And wanting means lacking.
Like when the Bible says the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
He's saying I'm not going to lack anything.
And he says here, I left you, Titus, in Crete, to set in order the things that are wanting
and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee.
So he says this is your mission, Titus.
You're on the island of Crete, you know, right here.
See this little smudge of paint?
That's the island of Crete.
And on that island, he said, I left you there.
And he's telling him, stay there.
Because there's a great need that there would be elders in every city as I had appointed thee.
He said, remember, that's what I taught you, you need to be doing.
You need to put an elder in every city.
You say, well, what's an elder?
Well, let's let the Bible define itself.
Let's keep reading in verse six.
It says, if any be blameless.
These are the qualifications for what this elder is going to be.
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife.
And no, that does not mean one wife at a time.
It says, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, for a what?
A bishop must be blameless.
So right here we see that an elder is a bishop.
It's the same thing.
And we usually use the word pastor, but really all three words are used in the New Testament interchangeably.
Pastor, bishop, and elder is all talking about the same guy.
Here you see them used interchangeably.
For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God.
Not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre,
but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate.
And here's where we get the name of our church, verse nine.
Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught.
That he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
Now look, this is the need today, and I think it's even more of a need today than it probably was back then,
that we need to ordain elders in every city in America.
That should be our mission, just like it was Titus' mission.
He told Timothy, Paul told Timothy also, who was another pastor, he was in Ephesus.
And he told him, this is why I left you in Ephesus.
He tells Titus, this is why I left you in Crete.
And he tells Timothy, the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses,
the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
You see, our goal here with our church should be to multiply the church.
The church should beget another church.
And that's how churches should be started.
They shouldn't be started by a Bible college or a missionary board.
You know, they should be started by churches.
It should be just like in Genesis chapter 1, where everything brings forth after its own kind.
The church begets another church.
And we see that Titus here is pastoring a church.
He needs to ordain elders in other cities.
Timothy, same thing.
And that's the need today.
But the problem is that the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
And we need to pray the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth more laborers into his harvest.
And if you're a young man, you know, that could meet these qualifications,
and you say, well, I don't know if I'm ever going to pass through a church.
I don't know if that's for me.
Let me tell you something.
You ought to meet the qualifications anyway.
Because these are all things that every Christian should be anyway.
There's nothing specialized on this list here that's any...
I mean, look, none of us should be given to wine.
None of us should be soon angry.
None of us should abstain from hospitality.
None of us should let our children run the home
and not have our children in subjection and our children in obedience.
Everyone should know how to rule their own house.
Everyone should not be given to filthy lucre.
Everyone should be given to hospitality.
And so you ought to fit these qualifications just in case God could use you in that capacity
because I guarantee you that there are a lot of young men in America
where God had a plan for their life
where they could be ordained in some city
and preach the gospel to every creature and reach that city,
but they messed up their life
and now that city is going without a Bible-believing, soul-winning church
because they dropped the ball.
And I'm telling you, across America, there are many, many cities
where it could not be said there is in this city a man of God.
Oh, there might be some phony liberal church there
that's preaching out of some perversion of the Bible,
some NIV, you know, New American standard or whatever.
There might be somebody there that's preaching some other gospel.
There's probably a bunch of Protestants and Catholics and Mormons there.
But could it really be said of every city in Arizona
and every city in America that there is in this city a man of God?
Well, that's God's will. That's God's plan.
He said it's lacking. It's wanting. Fix it.
That's our job. And it's not just written under Titus. It's written under us.
This ought to be a training ground for young preachers and men
to come out of here and meet these qualifications,
live up to it. Somebody's got to live up to it.
Somebody's got to stand in the gap and make up the hedge.
And if you're not going to do it, then who do you think is going to do it?
Because there's a much greater need
than how many people are stepping up to the plate to do it.
And, you know, I thank God for my friend, Brother Roger Gimenez,
who just started at church. And he and I, I mean, we've been close friends
ever since he was just a teenager.
And I was going out soul-winding with him when he was 16 and I was 20.
And I've been a close friend to him.
And it's been great to see him start a church
in Sacramento, California, and to be starting it in a scriptural way
and to be preaching with the power of the Holy Spirit
and to be getting people saved. The church is growing.
He started from scratch. He started the old-fashioned way.
But what in the world is it when it's just, you know,
one great example I could give you?
And I'm sure there are a lot of other examples that I just don't know about.
Don't get me wrong. I don't know all, see all.
But I should be up here just ranting and raving through a list
of all the great churches that I know of that are starting up all over America.
But it's just not happening.
And we've got a bunch of old-timers that are dropping the ball today.
We've got a lot of pastors that are older
that ought to be leading the way and teaching us young pups, you know,
that are only 30, you know.
But yet, but yet we have to look at them and say,
What are you doing with your contemporary music?
What are you doing with all this watered-down preaching?
What are you doing compromising and giving in to the world?
What are you doing? Why am I more old-fashioned than you?
There's something wrong when the 30-year-old is the one that's old-fashioned.
And the 50-year-old and the 60-year-old are a bunch of compromises
and they're all with this new evangelicalism and this newfangled stuff.
Hey, we need a young generation that will walk in the old paths.
Because the old generation is not walking in the old paths.
They're walking in the new paths, unfortunately.
And there are exceptions to that.
There are many preachers that are older that are doing a great work for God.
I'm not saying that.
But I'm saying by and large that baby boomer generation has let us down spiritually.
Amen.
It's the truth.
Amen is right.
And we need a young generation that will rise up
and be called the restorer of the old paths.
That's what we need.
So back to 1 Samuel 9.
I just wanted to point out that great scripture.
There is in this city a man of God.
You know, wood to God, it could be said in every city in America
that there would be a Bible-preaching bishop in that town
that would preach all the counsel of God.
Not just to preach the Gospel and win souls.
Hey, that's great.
That's what we're all about.
But also to preach the rest of the book, too.
That the saints might be edified and might grow in the Lord.
So let's keep reading.
It says,
Peradventure, he can show us our way that we should go.
Verse 7,
Then said Saul to his servant,
But behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man?
For the bread is spent in our vessels,
and there is not a present to bring the man of God.
What have we?
So he's saying we ate all the food that we brought.
We don't really have any money.
And the servant answered Saul again and said,
Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver.
That will I give to the man of God to tell us our way.
I don't know if Saul's maybe thinking,
you know, have you been holding out on me?
You know, we didn't have any bread?
You had that all along?
But anyway,
so he pulls out this money and says,
well, hey, let's give this to him.
Just basically just as an offering.
You know, they just want to give him an offering
and they want to help him out
if they're going to get help from him.
You know, they just wanted to give him something in return.
And so it says in verse nine,
before time in Israel,
when a man went to inquire of God,
thus he spake,
come and let us go to the seer
for he that is now called a prophet
was before time called a seer.
Now you say, why would they go to a prophet to inquire of God?
Well, because back in those days,
they did not have the whole written word of God.
They didn't have it all completely written out.
I mean, at this time,
pretty much what they had was the first five books of the Bible.
You know, they had Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
They didn't have the rest of the book.
It had not been pinned down yet,
but God's word still existed.
And this is where a lot of people get mixed up.
They think that the word of God
was just unavailable to mankind
before it was written down.
And that is a false doctrine
because it says in Hebrews 1, 1,
God who at sundry times and in diverse manners
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.
So before the word of God was all penned and written down,
God used prophets to speak his word.
God would speak to them and holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,
and God would speak to man through the prophets.
Now we have the written word.
It's all written down.
You say, well, prove it.
Well, in the book of Jude,
the Bible says in the book of Jude,
and Enoch also, the seventh from Adam,
prophesied of these saying,
Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints
to execute judgment upon all
and to convince all that are ungodly among them
of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed
and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Now, that's what Enoch prophesied
according to Jude.
Now, when did Enoch live?
Before the flood.
Way before any of the books of the Bible had been written
and dead sure before the book of Jude was written
because the book of Jude was written
after the time of Christ,
so thousands and thousands and thousands of years later.
Now, hold on a second.
How did Jude know what Enoch prophesied?
Is it written in the book of Genesis?
No.
Nowhere in Genesis will you find any of Enoch's preaching.
It just talks about the fact that he lived 365 years.
He walked with God.
He was not, for God took him.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death.
Okay?
He was basically caught up
and it was a miraculous thing in Genesis chapter 5, I believe.
So, what part of the Bible was Enoch preaching?
Because I'm here to tell you tonight
that I stand on this, that the Bible is the complete word of God.
There's not some other word out there,
like the Mormons, you know, another testament of Jesus Christ.
Now, there are a lot of counterfeit books out there,
like the Catholic Apocrypha,
the Book of Mormon,
all these other things.
They're false.
The word of God is right here in my hand, the Bible.
There's not some other book out there
with some other truth that's been hidden from us.
You know how I know that?
Because God's word has been preserved for us, okay?
And these other things that they dig up somewhere,
it's all fake.
It's all an imposter.
Because think about it.
If you're the devil and the Bible is mentioning a book
or something like that, like, well, Enoch prophesied.
Well, yeah, obviously, a bunch of people are going to go out
and say, hey, let's write a book called the Book of Enoch.
We'll put that one quote into it
and then we'll put a bunch of satanic doctrine.
And we'll put all this satanic doctrine
and then we'll just put that one quote from the Book of Jude.
And then people will think, oh, this is the last book of the Bible.
Noah carried this on the ark with him.
And then they'll sit there and believe a bunch of false doctrine
that's taught by the Book of Enoch.
So this false Book of Enoch, it's a total fraud.
It's a total, you know, and there's other, you know,
the gospel according to Thomas,
the gospel according to Bartholomew.
You know, people are constantly trying to come out
with false books of the Bible just to cause confusion.
And you know how you can tell that they're all false?
You line them up and they don't match up with scripture.
They teach false doctrine.
They don't line up.
This is all of it.
And look, I know it sounds like what I'm saying is simple right now,
but I want you to really just let this sink down into your ears.
This is all of it.
Okay? Now think about that for a minute.
So, therefore, say amen if you believe that this is all of it.
Amen.
Okay. I believe that too.
So, with that in mind, if this is all of it,
then what book of the Bible was Enoch quoting from?
He was quoting the book of Jude.
And you say, well, that's impossible
because the book of Jude was written thousands of years later.
No, the book of Jude was written before the world even began
because in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was God.
Titus 1, 2, and hope of eternal life,
which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.
God's word was spoken and existed
and was in the beginning with God and it was God
before this world was ever created.
And so Jude was preaching, I'm sorry, not Jude,
Enoch was preaching God's word.
He was a prophet.
God spayed through that prophet.
Was it a whole bunch of other doctrine and other preaching?
No.
It was stuff from the Bible that he was preaching.
And guess where he was preaching it from?
The book of Jude.
He probably preached other parts of the book of Jude.
He probably preached other parts of Isaiah or Jeremiah.
We don't know.
But we know that it was God's word that he was preaching.
Okay?
And obviously he didn't know the name of Jesus Christ.
Obviously that's not the parts that he was preaching.
That hadn't been revealed yet.
But there are plenty of other things in the Bible
that were preached throughout time.
Another example is Matthew 2, 23
where it says that it was spoken by the prophets.
He shall be called a Nazarene.
That's not found anywhere in the Old Testament.
He was found in Nazarene.
But there were prophets of the Old Testament,
verbally speaking, hey,
he shall be called a Nazarene,
prophesying of the coming of Christ.
And they said that.
Where were they quoting from?
Matthew 2, 23.
I believe it's 2, 23.
Somewhere in the book of Matthew, chapter 2.
Quoting that, okay?
So this is the whole point
of why I'm spending so much time on that.
Because of the fact that...
Why am I speaking? No, I'm just kidding.
The reason I'm spending so much time on that
is because of the fact that people will try to say,
well, at this time in history,
this is all they knew.
Because they only had these five books,
that's all they knew.
Well, hold on a second.
You don't know what else was being preached
verbally by prophets.
That's the only written scripture that they had.
But they had other words of God
being preached by the prophets.
So we don't know exactly what people knew.
Obviously the name of Jesus Christ
had not been revealed yet.
Things of that nature.
But there was a lot of preaching
that was going on back then.
And a lot of God's word was being preached.
And people will balk at the fact
that you need the Bible to be saved.
You do need the word of God to be saved.
Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God.
And I'm not going to go through my rant
of all the different verses that say that.
There are plenty of verses that say
you need the word of God to be saved.
And people will say,
well what about before the Bible was written?
Before the Bible was written,
God spayed by the prophets in Hebrews 1.
And if a man wanted to inquire of God,
he went to the seer or the prophet
and he would speak unto him God's word.
So let's go back to 1 Samuel 9 here.
The prophet was called a seer.
Then said Saul to his servant,
well said, come let us go.
They went up the hill to the city
where the man of God was.
Yeah, he's like well said.
You got all that money and everything?
Perfect.
So they go to the man of God
and it says in verse 11,
as they went up the hill to the city,
they found young maidens
going out to draw water
and said unto them,
is the seer here?
Now the reason that God explained to us
in chapter 9 verse 9
what a seer is,
is because when we get down to verse number 11
when they say is the seer here?
He doesn't want us to be confused
like what's a seer?
So in verse 9 he explains that
and here's what I like to show here
is that God defines himself in the Bible.
The Bible is pretty easy to understand
if you just let the Bible define itself
and that's why I don't recommend
just constantly going to a dictionary all the time.
Now I'm not against using a dictionary
and a lot of times the dictionary is right
but guess what?
Sometimes the dictionary is wrong
because the dictionary is written by human beings
and so therefore it is not perfect.
It's not God's word
and so the dictionary can give a definition
that is not a biblical definition
and so therefore it's always best
to let the Bible define itself
and if you study the Bible
it becomes clear what words mean
especially if you look up
the first time they're mentioned
usually God will define that word for you.
So here God making it very easy
for us to understand
just explains to us the word.
Now did God change the word
when he tells the story of what Saul said?
Does he change the word?
Because couldn't he have just changed it
to where the story said that he said to them
is the prophet here?
He could have just changed it, right?
Is the prophet here?
But no, that's not what they said.
They didn't ask for the prophet.
They asked for what?
The seer.
So God is wanting to give us
accurately, are you listening?
Accurately what was actually said
and because it's a word that we don't use anymore
or they didn't use at the time anyway
he explains what the word means.
Now this is exactly how it is
with the King James Bible.
The King James Bible is giving us
the right translation.
It's perfect.
It gives us exactly what was said.
Obviously it's translated into English for us
but God's word can be translated into any language.
Check out the day of Pentecost.
The Holy Ghost was speaking all different languages.
Every language, okay?
And it was God's word.
Instead of changing what the Bible says
we as preachers should just explain what it means.
I mean if we come across a word
that's an old word or a tough word
we could just do like God did here
and say hey, when it says seer
that's referring to a prophet.
Or hey, when it says elder
here, let me show you.
That's the bishop.
That's the pastor.
Let me break that down for you.
Instead of just changing it and dumbing it down
you see these new versions
they do your thinking for you.
Instead of explaining stuff to you
they just want to just change it.
Like for example in the book of Job
they take every time it says sons of God
and other places in the Bible where it says sons of God
and they just change it to angels in the NIV.
And here's the interesting thing about it.
If you go in the NIV and look at the footnote at the bottom of the page
it says actually the Hebrew here says sons of God.
That's what it says at the bottom of the NIV.
That's what it says at the bottom of these versions that change it.
It says by the way Hebrew says sons of God.
But in English we decided to make it say angels
to make it a little easier for you to understand
because of course everybody knows that the sons of God are angels
so we're just making that a little easier for you.
Well here's the problem with that.
The Bible says in Hebrews 1.5
But unto the which of the angels said he at any time
thou art my son this day if I begotten thee.
God said in Hebrews 1.5 that he never called any of the angels his sons.
So how can you say the sons of God are angels
when in Hebrews chapter 1
he said that none of the angels are ever God's son
and that Jesus Christ is the son of God
and guess what?
We're the sons of God because we're in Christ.
The Bible says as many as received him
to them gave he power to become the sons of God
even to them that believe on his name.
And you know what?
You can start in Genesis and go all the way to Revelation
and whenever the Bible says sons of God
it is talking about a saved person.
That's all it's talking about.
You say no I don't think it's the angels.
God said no in Hebrews 1.5.
He said it's not the angels.
Plus ask yourself why is Satan's Bible changing sons of God to angels?
Obviously there's an agenda there
and people who are preaching that the sons of God are angels
are basically on that same agenda.
It's a lie.
They didn't read their Bible.
They didn't read Hebrews chapter 1.
The sons of God
the Bible says we're God's sons right?
And you know what else it says?
It says if we're sons
then we're joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
Let me ask you are the angels joint heirs with Jesus Christ?
Well the Bible says if you're a son
you're a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
You know that's not the angels.
The Bible says of which things the angels desire to look into.
The angels wish that they were God's sons
but guess what? They're not.
The Bible says behold what manner of love
the Father has bestowed upon us
that we should be called the sons of God.
Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not.
Beloved now are we the sons of God
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be
but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him
for we shall see him as he is.
The angels are not like him.
We are in his image.
We are his sons.
We as those that are saved.
Then you say well what's it talking about in the book of Job?
People who are saved.
Because look I can show
I just quoted you clear scripture that said
that those who are saved are the sons of God.
Show me one clear scripture that says the sons of God are angels.
It doesn't exist.
Now you can have people explain to you
there are going to be a lot of people that explain to you
why the sons of God are angels
and they can explain it to you
but it's funny how they don't have a verse that says that.
They can just say well
but if we look at this it kind of seems like
this is referring to
well like go to Job real quick
I don't want to get too much up on the tangent here
but go to Job real quick
and look at chapter number
38.
Like this is basically their one
this is pretty much the one verse that they've got.
To try to say
and whenever your doctrine is based on one verse
that contradicts everything else
well you're probably wrong about that verse.
But they'll say well
this verse it seems like
is referring to the angels here
but there's no verse that says
the angels are sons of God
and there is a verse
that says none of the angels
are sons of God.
That's Hebrews 1.5
So I mean
this would be the end of the story right there.
Okay.
And then it talks about the sons of God
marrying
the daughters of men
in Genesis 6. Well here's a news flash
for you. Angels don't get married.
Did you hear me?
Angels don't get married.
Jesus said you do err not knowing
the scriptures and I'll say the same to anybody
who thinks the sons of God are angels.
They're in error. They don't know the scripture
because Jesus said the angels
he said they have the resurrection
they neither marry nor are given
in marriage but are as
the angels in heaven.
So right there
he tells us the angels don't get married.
And it says oh they came down
and fornicated with humans
angels and they created these
mythological half God
half man or half angel half
man or whatever.
You watch way too much Star Wars
or Star Trek
or something to come up
with that because the problem with that is
that the angels
are not their dwelling is not with
flesh. They are
spirits the Bible says
okay their dwelling is not with flesh
they are spirits
they are not the sons of God
they do not get married and it doesn't say
that they fornicated does it?
No it says they took wives
they took them wives and then
God looked down
after they did that and he saw that
the wickedness of man
was great upon
the earth. So if this was
all because the angels
were coming down and doing all this stuff
then why was God angry at man?
And why did God say I'm going to destroy man?
Why didn't he say why I'm going to destroy the angels?
It doesn't make any sense.
It's a false doctrine. The sons
of God from Genesis to
Revelation is talking about one group
saved Christians
those who are believers. And guess what?
They were saved in the Old Testament
they're saved in the New Testament
they went to heaven and they're in heaven in Job 1
but see the reason for this false doctrine
is because people don't believe that Old Testament saints
went to heaven
well they got a problem because in Job 1
and Job 2 they're the sons of God
are walking all over heaven
and they don't know what to do with it
so then they just change it
for you in the NIV
they just change it to angels even though God
says it's not.
Now here's their big powerful verse
to prove that
the angels are the sons of God
look at Job 38
it says in verse 4
Where wast thou
when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare if thou hast understanding
he's talking to Job
Who hath laid the measures thereof
if thou knowest?
Or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof
fastened?
Or who laid the
cornerstone thereof?
Now look at verse 6
in verse 6 we have two different statements
don't we?
Question number 1 is
Whereupon are the foundations thereof
fastened?
That question is asking Job
What are the foundations of the earth
fastened to?
Right?
What are the foundations of the earth
fastened to?
Now look at the second question
it's a completely different question
the second question is
Who laid the cornerstone
thereof?
So the first question the answer is an
inanimate object
What is the foundation of the earth
fastened to?
What's it connected to?
The second one is a
Who
Who laid the cornerstone
thereof?
Ok first of all what is the answer
to the question Who laid the cornerstone
thereof? What do you think is the answer?
God
Right? Ok
So look at the next verse
When the morning stars sang
together
and all the sons of God
shouted for joy
Now get this
Who laid the cornerstone thereof
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy
so they'll say well see right there
this is talking about creation
and so that has to be the angels
well here's the problem with that
problem number one the angels
did not exist at creation
because the Bible says
in six days
God made heaven
the heaven and the earth
and all that in them is
so God
created the angels
in the same period
that He created everything else
they were not already in existence
when God created the earth because the Bible says
in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
and the earth was without form and void
I mean it's already there in verse two
but here's the other thing
the cornerstone
look up
every single time
I believe it's like eleven times
that the word cornerstone is used
every single time it's referring to Jesus Christ
every time
Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone
He says you're a spiritual
building a holy priesthood
and Jesus Christ is the chief
cornerstone
every single time the word cornerstone
is used it's talking about Jesus Christ
so the cornerstone being
laid is not talking about the
creation of the earth
He was talking about the creation of the earth
earlier
that and then He mentions
the cornerstone being laid
and this is where Jesus kept saying over and over
the stone which the builders rejected
is become the head of the corner
He's saying get this
is become
the head of the corner
so was it always was Jesus Christ
always the chief cornerstone
no
He said the stone which the builders rejected
is become the head of the corner
this is the Lord's doing
and it is marvelous in our eyes
so the answer who laid the cornerstone
that is the Lord
and when did this take place
well it did not
take place in creation because
when Jesus was rejected
by the Pharisees listen to me now
when He was rejected by the Pharisees
He said the stone
which the builders rejected
is become the head of the corner
so which came first
the cornerstone being rejected
or
Jesus becoming that cornerstone
first He was rejected
then He became the cornerstone
the stone which the builders rejected
is become the head of the corner
Jesus Christ was the stone
first He was rejected
He became the cornerstone
now when the book of first and second Peter
was written
He's already being referred to as the cornerstone
so He's the cornerstone today
was He the cornerstone
while He walked this earth
no so there was a specific
time when He became
the head of the corner
ok at that time
when the cornerstone was laid
in the spiritual building
ok that's when
the morning stars sang
together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy
and when was that?
at the resurrection of Jesus Christ
when God said unto Jesus
son this day have I begotten
thee because He called the first begotten of the dead
that is when the stone
which the builders rejected became the head of the corner
that took place
when Jesus at the resurrection of Christ
just as when Jesus Christ said
to the Pharisees Abraham
Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and was glad
I mean
in Luke chapter 2
there was a heavenly host
looking on
and remember they were shouting
and saying glory to God in the highest
and Abraham
rejoiced at that time
he said Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and was glad
so those that are in heaven
such as Abraham
such as Isaac such as all the
Old Testament saints they rejoiced
at the birth of Christ
they rejoiced at the resurrection of Christ
and so on and on we see
that this verse
is not proving anything
that the sons of God are angels
because if it did it would contradict the rest of the Bible
first of all
and if the Bible contradicts
itself then it's not God's word
if he says well he never
said at any time
unto any of the angels
thou are my son this day have I begotten thee
oh but by the way I'm going to call the
angels sons of God over and over again in the Old Testament
I hope that doesn't confuse you
so
you got to read the Bible carefully here
he says who laid
the cornerstone thereof
and listen to me
every time
not 90% of the time
100% of the time
it's not talking about the creation of the earth
it's talking about Jesus Christ 100% of the time
and I've gone through it in church before
I'm not going to do it right now
I've read every mention of cornerstone
I'm not going to do that tonight for the sake of time
but he says when the morning stars
sang together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy
now the morning stars
hey that could be referring to the angels
right there I don't have a problem with that
because over and over again
the Bible calls in the book of Revelation
calls angels stars
but
there's no way
the sons of God are angels
it's a lie it's a false doctrine
they are not created in God's image
go back to 1 Samuel chapter 9 here
and so we've got to
take words in the King James Bible
that are maybe
words that we don't use as much today
and maybe words that people don't readily understand
like I think if you ask
somebody on the street hey what's a seer
they probably think it's like
a German shepherd that you take
with you if you're blind
you know what I mean like a seeing eye dog or something
I mean nobody knows what that means
but that's why we need preaching
the whole purpose of preaching
is to try to help people
understand what the Bible means
and to break it down to you
you know and yeah sure you can study it
and read it on your own of course
and that's where you're going to get 90% of your information
is reading it on your own
but preaching is to make it simple
I'm not going to preach out of some dumbed down version
that changes everything
I'm just going to stick with the tried and the true
and hey let me just help you
the word thou it means you
okay get over it
okay wow they all mean you
deal with it
but anyway it says in verse number
what verse are we in
sorry
11 or 12
pick one
and they answered them and he said
he is
behold he is before you
make haste now for he came today
to the city but there is a sacrifice
of the people today in the high place
as soon as you become into the city
you shall straightaway find him before
he go up to the high place to eat
for the people will not eat until he come
because he did bless the sacrifice
and afterward they eat the forbidden
now therefore get you up for about this time
you shall find him
and they went up into the city and when they were coming to the city
behold Samuel came out against them
for to go up to the high place
now the Lord had told Samuel
in his ear a day before
Saul came saying tomorrow about this time
I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin
and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel
and that he may save my people
out of the hand of the Philistines
for I have looked upon my people
because their cry is coming to me
and when Samuel saw Saul
the Lord said unto him behold
the man whom I spake to thee of
now God looks pretty enthusiastic
there with that exclamation point
and so he is telling him
this is the guy that I told you about
and it says
the same shall
reign over my people
then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate
and said tell me I pray thee where
the seers house is
and Samuel answered Saul and said I am
the seer go up before me
unto the high place for ye shall eat with me
today and tomorrow I will let thee go
and will tell thee all that is in
thine heart and as for the
asses that were lost three days ago said
not thy mind on them for they are
found and on whom is all
the desire of Israel is it
not on thee and on all thy
fathers house and
Saul answered and said am not I
a Benjamite of the smallest
of the tribes of Israel and
my family the least of all the families
of the tribe of Benjamin where for
then speakest thou so to me
now I am going to spend the rest of my time
on this verse quickly because
the rest of the chapter
is pretty much just to give you a
quick synopsis of it the rest of the chapter
basically he comes and he eats with
Samuel and they said
in front of him the shoulder piece
and it's amazing how
Saul think about it you got to put yourself
in his position Saul's out looking for
these lost asses okay
he just wants they think
it's just a oh hey I've got an idea
it wasn't even
Saul's idea I mean it was just this
servant oh yeah I've got
an idea I think that this is where
the seer lived let's go check it out
so it's this total chance
thing in their
mind they show
up Samuel comes out to meet him
and says
we've been expecting you and the whole
nation is
focused on you right now and he's like what
and then he says
well you're going to eat with me tomorrow and don't even worry
about the asses they're already kind of like he didn't even bring
that up and he just knew
so then Samuel takes him to this dinner
and he just calls
the cook over Samuel calls the cook
and says remember the piece that I told
you to set aside bring it
and then he brings it and
sets it in front of Saul
and it's the shoulder which is a big
you know big meaty piece
he just sets this huge hunk
of meat in front of him
and he says this piece
was prepared for you
from when this dinner was even
planned from when I first said invite
the people I mean going back
days or however long
he said this was all planned for you
so you can imagine how Saul is feeling
what are you talking about I just came to ask
where these animals are and you're
it's like you have all this planned
I'm supposed to be here and everything and he puts
them in a place of prominence and gives them
all this food and everything and then
he communes with them he talks to them
and then he goes to send them away
but he tells the servant
he says you know let the servant go on ahead and he's
going to talk privately to Saul we're not
going to get into that because that's chapter 10 is when he
talks to Saul so we're not going
to get into that conversation so let me just finish
the message tonight with this
verse number 21 is what I want to finish
talking about tonight it says
and Saul answered and said am not I a
Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel
and my family the least
of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin
wherefore then speakest thou so
to me now the reason that this
is significant is because there's a reason
why Benjamin was the smallest tribe
okay
now obviously Benjamin was the youngest son
of Israel so
and he was quite a bit younger than some of his other
brother so
just by virtue of that
there were a little bit less descendants
of Benjamin just because he came along
a little bit later but if you
go to the book of Numbers you don't have to turn there but in
the book of Numbers when God numbers the people
you can look at the Numbers
and you know there are
a little bit less people in Benjamin
but I mean it's still a pretty big tribe
and in fact
Ephraim and Manasseh were pretty much broken
into separate tribes and
there were more people in Benjamin than there were in
Manasseh you know and there were
there was pretty close to
the same number in a lot of tribes you know the older
brothers seemed to have more descendants
Judah had a lot of descendants and so forth but
it really
wasn't a tiny tribe but here's the thing
at the time of
Saul it was a very tiny
tribe and here's why there's a story
that took place in the book of Judges
and I'm not going to read you the story tonight
because it takes three chapters long
but in Judges 19, 20
and 21 God tells a story of
why Benjamin became
so small because in the book of Numbers
there are 30 I think it was what
35,000 some odd Benjamites
that were soldiers from 20
years old and upward that were warriors
so there were a lot more than that in the
tribe just 32,000
35,000 some odd soldiers
okay
and it was a huge tribe but at the end of the
book of Judges which comes
right before 1 Samuel
the
tribe is decimated down to
only 600 men
period of any
age and all
the women are
taken out of the tribe it's pretty much
it's just 600 men
are left in the tribe at the end of the
book of Judges you say how in the world did that happen
how could a tribe that had
literally hundreds and
hundreds of thousands of people in it
get decimated down to 600 people
now we don't know
exactly how much time went by
to the days
of Saul but we're not that far
we're just right after
the time of the Judges so
we're not talking about a very long time period
so I'm sure there were more than 600 at this time
but all the other tribes have
hundreds and thousands of people in them
and Benjamin was a very
small tribe because here's what happened
there was this man and I'll just tell
you the story really quickly in Judges
chapter 19 there's a man and he's
got a concubine now a concubine
in today's
lingo would just be like
a live-in girlfriend that's what a
concubine is it's basically I'll just break
it down exactly what it means it
means that it's somebody that a man
is going to bed with but he's not
married to you know when I was
a kid they used to call it a common law
who's ever heard that term before
like oh that's so and so's common
law you know it doesn't really
sound that good and you know concubine
doesn't sound that good either does it like
do you want to say oh oh
hi you know I'm Robert's
concubine you know like
a family get together or something
I'm Jim's concubine how you
doing you know
so instead it's
Simon's girlfriend you know and obviously
you know girlfriend would
be fine if they're not going to bed together
but you know a concubine is one
that they're living they're actually living together
actually and a lot of people today
they are living together and they're not married
it's wicked it's a sin it's wrong
it's ungodly you know and a lot of
people say well we're just living together but you
know we're still stay we're still keeping
pure that is the appearance the
Bible says abstain from all appearance of evil
number one and number two that's probably
a lie anyway okay
so you know you ought never be moving
in with somebody that you're not you know married to
because the Bible says make not provision
for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof
you shouldn't put yourself in a position where
you're tempted to to commit
fornication where you're you're staying
you know and by the way those that have left
their parents which which you
know I don't know the Bible says that you
should leave your father and mother and cleave under your wife
and be one flesh you know
but a lot of people these days you know they
turn 18 and they move out
you know and they're doing their own thing
in their own apartment you know what
if that's your situation and you're
a man don't just be having women
over saying at your apartment
oh but it's all pure and she's
on the couch no that is that is
very bad and if
you're a woman and you got an apartment you know don't
be having a man over and
everything like that you are
appearance of evil you're ruining your testimony
and you're also
making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust
thereof
but this guy's got a concubine he's a
lead bite and he's got a concubine
and he gets in a big fight with his
concubine okay so his
concubine gets mad and his
concubine leaves and runs away
we need to bring that word back
that word just rolls off the tongue I'm sorry
I'm going to start using it
but anyway you know when it
needs to be used but anyway
this guy's concubine gets all mad
so his concubine goes home to her
parents house you know because she's
all mad at this guy so this guy goes
back and he's trying to get his
he's trying to get his concubine back with him
so he goes to the dad's house
and he talks to the concubine's dad
and dad just really likes him
you know they get big
meets the parents and they really like him
and so dad's saying no stay with us
you know so basically he's staying
with them and boy
you know his concubine
father in law is just
really loves him you know
so they hang out for a few days and
and finally the Levi you know he's patched
things up with his concubine and says
hey you know let's go
it's time to hit the road it's time for us to go back home
and he says no no no just
he said don't leave first thing in the morning you know
stay a little longer stay for breakfast
stay a little longer
you know it's already 10 o'clock stay for lunch
so okay you know they
stay for lunch and then he tells them
well now it's too late for you to leave
you can't get on the road at this time
stay another night he says okay stay another night
so this father in law
quote unquote of the concubine
he just keeps doing this
he just keeps getting them stay stay
so finally
you know he's leaving and he says
you know stay for breakfast stay for lunch
finally the guy you know gets part way
through the day and he
just says look we got to go
I mean we've been here way too long
it's time to go
the father in law is trying to talk him into saying
he's like no you know we're leaving
so because of this whole
drama he ends up
leaving way too late in the day
because they kind of you know what it is when you're
traveling you know you kind of got to get to a certain
point where you can get a hotel
you know kind of like when you leave phoenix there's kind of a big
dead zone where there's this
desert there's nothing really there well think about
if you're doing that on foot
or on a horse or on a camel or on a
mule or something yeah you're not going to be able
to just you know oh we'll get to
quartzite in an hour and forty-five
or whatever you know it's going to take you a long time
and so they should have left
earlier in the day so they made a big mistake
by leaving so late
so they're
heading out and they're out
in the middle of nowhere they don't know where they are
and there's a town there and they
don't really know what the town is
and everything and they say hey let's stay here
and no let's not stay here
and so finally they find a town of
Benjamin because they didn't want to go to like
a foreign town because they just don't know what it's going to
be like so they're like well this is a
town of a tribe of Benjamin this should be a
pretty good place at least it's the children of Israel
we should be fine well they pull in there
and they get there real late at night
and they show up at night
and there's an old man and he's
been working hard out in the field and the old man
is coming in from the field real late
you know and he sees him out in the street
and he says you know what are you doing here
and they say hey we're looking for a place to stay
and he says hey stay at my house
whatever you do
don't stay out here
don't stay in the street like just
come to my house right now
so they're like okay you know
so they go to this guy's house
and he sets them down and basically
they have dinner together well there's a knock
at the door
it turns out
and it wasn't the whole town
remember the story about Sodom and Gomorrah
this is very similar to the Sodom and Gomorrah story
from Judges 19
except this time it wasn't the whole town
it was certain children of Belial
certain wicked men
the Bible says
compass the house around, surround it
just a group of men
and they basically knocked on the door
and they said bring these men out
that we may know them
they weren't interested in the concubine
they wanted the men
because they were homosexuals, they were perverts
they were sodomites
we may know them
and the old man comes out and says
don't do this
this is wicked, this is perverted
this guy, these people came to
stay at my house, just leave them alone
and they're just demanding
that they send these men out
that they can basically abuse them
and so
finally the old man's telling them
take this guy's concubine
take my daughter
do something with them, but don't do
such a vile thing
this disgusting sodomy
they said don't do it
and so finally these guys won't leave it alone
they're attacking the house
and so finally
and again
get the story, this is an important story
they throw the concubine out of this
mob of sodomite
perverts and just to satisfy them
they throw the concubine out
so here's a lesson
young lady
if he's not going to marry you
maybe he doesn't really love you
he might say he loves you
yeah, he wants to move in with you
he wants to go to bed with you, but does he love you?
hey, this guy
was willing to meet the parents
and he wants to move in with her
but isn't it amazing how they weren't married
because it didn't say it was his wife
it said it was his concubine
and here he is, he loves her so much
that basically to protect himself
he throws her
to the wolves, he throws her out
the door to these perverts, isn't that horrible?
so of course they get
thrown out there
I'm sorry, she gets thrown out there
and basically they just take her
and just abuse, they're satisfied with her
now
which proves that all these sodomites
they go both ways
so women aren't safe around them, like women will think
oh I'm safe around these gay
and I don't use the word gay by the way
but like, I'm safe around these guys
because
you know, they just only like other guys
but look, here they abuse this woman
and the bible says they abuse her all night
until the morning, and basically
she was dead, she was just at the
front door, laying there, dead
so they get up in the morning
and this guy, you know, comes out
cause you know, they're like cockroaches
as soon as the sun comes up, they're all like
so then they, you know, this guy gets up in the morning
and he tries to wake up his
concubine
alright, time to go
let's go, she's dead
so he packs her up
and you know, I'm not trying to be graphic tonight
but this is what the bible says, I'm trying to keep this for young ears
but you know what, honestly
the garbage that the world puts out
is smut
but I believe that everything in the bible
is suitable for all audiences
that's my belief, cause you know, it's wholesome words
it's the word of God
I'll go beyond what the bible says
but I think that, you know, it's okay to preach
the bible to all ages, it's the bible
it's God's word, he basically
and I'll just use the word that the bible uses
for sake of young ears
he divides up his concubine
okay
into 12 parts
and basically mails it out
to the 12 tribes of Israel
and basically tells them
this is what happened
and he even tones down the story a little bit
just cause the story's a little embarrassing
for him, so he tones down the story a little bit
he sends out this mailer
and it kind of got people's attention
you know, when it showed up in the mail
and so the whole nation of Israel
is in an uproar
and they're shocked
and when they find out about this
they say that there's never
been anything that was this
wicked ever since the
children of Israel came out of Egypt
it's never been heard of in the last
400 years that something like this would happen
now the sad thing is
in America, stuff like that happens all the time
stuff like that
happens in America every day
somewhere in America
somewhere in America, something like that's happening
pretty much every day, but in the children of Israel
they said like, this has never happened
we've never even heard of such a thing, this is unbelievable
so basically
the whole nation of Israel
goes to Benjamin
the tribe of Benjamin, and says
give us these guys
basically extradite them to us
so that we can bring these guys
to justice
you know, because it was just a wicked group of men
and we don't know how many, but it was just a small group
and they said to the Benjamites
bring these guys out
and we need to bring them to justice
and put them to death, because they've done a wicked thing
and the Benjamites say
no, we're going to protect these guys
we're going to harbor these guys, we're not going to give them to you
and so
and so the whole nation of Israel
all the other tribes, besides Benjamin
went to war with Benjamin
over this issue
because they said no, if you're not going to turn over
these guys, then we're going to basically
go to war with your whole tribe
we are not going to tolerate this kind of
filth and sin in our country
and so, it'd be kind of like this
it'd be like if there was a certain state
in the United States, think about it
I'm trying to just bring this into
today's world, let's say there were
one state, let's say it were
Nevada or something
and in Nevada, some
abomination like this took place
and basically the whole
rest of the nation hears about it, they're in an uproar
and they say hey, these guys
need to be put to death, they violated federal law
you know, these guys need to be punished
and basically Nevada just says no
we're going to protect them here, they're fine
and then it'd be like if the whole nation
went to war against Nevada or something
but of course that's 50 states
49 to 1, this was 11 to 1
or whatever, depending on how you look at it
or 12 to 1, because Joseph was
two tribes
so they go to war, but the problem was
that Benjamin was a mighty
a mighty
tribe, now remember Kish
he's a descendant of this and he was this
mighty man of power and his
son Saul was so tall and
mighty, and so Benjamin
was a tribe of warriors
and they were also highly trained
and they were trained to sling stones
and they had all these
you know, fighting skills and so
children of Israel, they go
to battle with them and they lose the first time
then they're praying, they're
begging God, they go fight them the second time
they lose again, the third time they defeat them
and the victory was decisive
they destroyed
the tribe of Benjamin, I mean they were
so mad, I mean this is the third time
this is the third attempt, they're
angry about it, they
burn every city to the ground
they kill everybody, I mean they just
killed them all, 600
men escaped into the mountains of
Benjamin, everyone else is gone
then they decided that they
didn't want there to be a missing tribe
so they decided to pardon the 600
men that survived, so they
pardoned them, they gave them wives
and so you know there's a story associated with that
the 600 men, they got their wives
and they basically started to
rebuild the tribe of Benjamin
that's where Saul's coming on the scene
think about that, just
decades or hundreds of years later
he's coming on the scene, that's why he's
saying, me? I'm of the
least tribe
not only the smallest tribe
but probably a tribe that was a little bit
looked down upon if you think about it because
that's their history, not exactly
a glamorous history
of harboring and protecting, and by the way
our country today wants
to harbor and protect sodomites
and weirdos and molesters
the same way, I mean
that's the country we're living in
just now it's being
to where in the military now, open sodomy
starting September 20th
who heard that in the news?
starting September 20th it's going to be open sodomy
in the US military
and so that's where this is at
but you know there's a couple things we can learn from that
God here
does not hold against us
he doesn't hold against
our ethnicity
or our family history
he doesn't punish the children
for the sins of the parents
because Saul's not exactly coming from
a righteous tribe
but his dad was a righteous man
and he was a righteous man
so just because your family is ungodly
doesn't mean that you have to be ungodly
you know, just because your
great grandfather was this and your
grandfather was this and your dad was this
you can break that chain and be a man like
Kish, be a righteous man
be a godly man and break through
that and not continue that cycle
of wickedness, but that's why
it was significant that he says hey I'm
of the smallest tribe, I'm of the least tribe
because they were down to 600
just shortly before that and they'd had a
rough past, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer
Father thank you so much for your
word tonight dear God, help us to
have understanding as we
study the life of Saul, there's
much more to come in the book of 1 Samuel
and God I just pray that you'd open our eyes and help us
to learn from the things that he did right
and learn from his mistakes
and God I just pray that you'd just bless the
word of God to our ears and I pray that those that are
here tonight would not just come and listen to the sermon
but would rather, you know, go back
and open the book of Judges and read the
story that I just told
in Judges 19-21
and that people would go home and read the book of 1 Samuel
2 Samuel and study your word
and learn it
thank you so much for giving us your word and in Jesus' name
we pray, amen.