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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] We're going to go ahead and start with a hymn this evening. If you would, grab your hymnal and turn to hymn number 170. Alleluia, what a savior! Hymn number 170. We'll go ahead and start there right on purpose. Men of sorrows, what a shame For the Son of God who came Ruined sinners to reclaim Alleluia, what a savior! Bearing shame and scoffing brood In my place condemned, he stood Sealed my part and with his blood Alleluia, what a savior! Guilty, violent, helplessly Spotless Lamb of God was he Full atonement can it be Alleluia, what a savior! Lifted up was he to die In his finish was his cry Now in heaven exalted high Alleluia, what a savior! When he comes, our glorious King All his ransomed hope to bring Then adieu, this song we'll sing Alleluia, what a savior! Good singing will open with a word of prayer. Dear Father, thank you for this opportunity that we had this evening to sing praises unto you. I pray that we would pay attention to the words that we sing and I pray that you would be with us in the remainder of this service and be with the preaching as well, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. For our next hymn, if you would, turn in your hymnals to hymn number 185. My Savior's Love, hymn number 185. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene And wonder how He could love me A sinner, content, unclean How marvelous, how wonderful And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful Is my Savior's love for me For me it was in the garden He prayed not that will but thine He had no tears for His own grief But sweatdrops applied for mine How marvelous, how wonderful And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful Is my Savior's love for me He took my sins and my sorrows He made them His very own He bore the burden to Calvary And suffered and died alone How marvelous, how wonderful And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful Is my Savior's love for me When with the ransom and glory His face I at last shall see Twill be my joy through the ages To sing of His love for me How marvelous, how wonderful And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful Is my Savior's love for me Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. This time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, there should be a couple up there. Brother John could bring you one. On the front is our Bible memory passage of the week, Hebrews chapter 6, verse 10. We're moving along nicely in this chapter. Keep up the good work memorizing that. And if at the end of this chapter you can memorize this entire chapter and recite it to someone, a non-family member, then you will receive a prize at the end of this chapter. So keep up the great work on that. Our service times are listed there as well as our soul-winning times. And keep up the great work with soul-winning because you can see our year-to-date numbers are looking good. And we're about 150 off from our goal for the year. So definitely is a possibility that we could reach that. We worked really hard this last quarter. So I don't know about you, I'm glad someone got me saved. So I want to go out and get others saved. So I do hope everyone will pick a soul-winning time and participate with us. We really appreciate that. We do have our nursing home ministry scheduled there. If you preach and are part of that ministry, make note of the times that you are participating there. And as always, make sure to report your salvations to your soul-winning leader. Or you could email them to me at the email address listed there. Please be in prayer for Mrs. Whitney Reed for her pregnancy. Also, we do have coming up pretty quickly our chili cook-off. I do need some judges for this. We could make it work with very few judges. Ideally, though, we'd have about five. So I'd like to have someone as a judge who is not entering in a chili to be judged, obviously. And who does not have a family member who is entering a chili to be judged. So I'm going to make a chili, but I'm not going to enter it in the competition, obviously. So I'm going to be a judge. And if you want to help me with that, please let me know. I do need to get those details ironed out shortly. Also, coming up quickly, November 6th through the 10th, is the Faith Ward Baptist Church Missions Conference. I did see Pastor Anderson. He posted the schedule for that. If you go to the Faith Ward Baptist Church Facebook page, you should be able to see all of those details if you are interested in going to that. And on the back, we do have our prayer list. Make sure if you have any prayer requests throughout the week that you either text me or email the church. And I'd be happy to add you to our prayer list. And at this time, before we go to our third song, let's go ahead and go to the Lord together as a church family in prayer. I just want to thank you for this day and thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church for the opportunity to be a part of the ministry here. And I just thank you for our church family. We pray for those that couldn't make it this evening. We pray for Brother Holm, that he would feel better soon, Lord, and sickness has just been going around. I pray that you please help our church to heal up and to get back to health as soon as possible, Lord. And thank you for the improvement I've had in my health. I just pray that I would get back to 100% as soon as possible. And we pray for Steadfast Baptist Church and pray for unity in our church that would be unified around the right things, the King James Bible, salvation, our friends, our pastor, and just all the good that you've done for us, Lord. I just pray that you would help our church to continue to be a bright and shining light in Cedar Hill and also here in Oklahoma City, and that you'd help us to reach many souls with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We also pray for Brother Alex for his upcoming interview, for a job that he really wants. I just pray that you would give him favor in the eyes of the interviewers and that if it's your will, that he'd be granted this job and that you'd just bless him and his family, Lord. And we pray for Ms. Sean Furr, for her coworker Terry, her cancer. We do pray, Lord, that that cancer would be abated and that she would not have to deal with these issues anymore. And, of course, we pray the same thing for Ms. Remi for her tumor, Lord, that she would just have full healing and recovery and just that she would get all the care that she needs, Lord, but most importantly that she would just reach forth your hand and that she would just heal her body. And we pray for Ms. Whitney and for Brother Zach who both have family members that are in need of salvation. And, Lord, we pray for all of our extended family members in this room that are unsaved that their hearts would be softened and that they would have a desire for truth in their life. And I just pray that you would help us all to be faithful soul winners and we would go out and care about other people's family members that we don't even know. And I just pray that you would bless our family members by sending soul winners to them if they're not someone that we could reach personally. And we love you and thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, at this time we will go to our third psalm. Alright, for our third psalm, if you would actually grab a handout, we're going to go ahead and sing Psalm 126. Psalm 126 in the white handout. Go ahead and start there right now. When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad, turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad, he that goeth forth that weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheeps with him. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad. Good singing. As the offering plates are being passed around, turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter number 10. 1 Samuel chapter number 10. 1 Samuel chapter number 10. 1 Samuel chapter number 10. 1 Samuel chapter number 10. Good singing. Good singing. Good singing. upon his head, and kissed him, and said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? When thou art departed from me today, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulcher in the border of Benjamin at Zelah, and they will say unto thee, the asses which thou wentest to seek are found, and lo thy father hath left the care of the asses in sorrow with for you, saying, what shall I do for my son? Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the planet Tabor, and there shalt meet thee there, men going up to God, to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine, and they will salute thee, and give thee two loaves of bread, which thou shalt receive of their hands. After that, thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines, and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place, with a sultry, and a tabard, and a pipe, and a heart before them, and they shall prophesy. And the spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shall be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do on occasion serve thee, for God is with thee. And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee, and show thee what thou shalt do. And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another part, and all those signs came to pass that day. And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him, and the spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. And it came to pass, when all that knew him before time saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, what is this that is come unto the son of Kish that saw also among the prophets? And one of the same, and one of the same place answered and said, but who is their father? Therefore, it became a proverb, it saw also among the prophets. And when he had made an inner prophesying, he came to the high place, and Saul's uncle said unto him and to his servant, whither went ye? And he said, to seek the acids. And when we saw that they were nowhere, we came to Samuel, and Saul's uncle said, tell me, I pray thee, what Samuel said unto you. And Saul said unto his uncle, he told his family that the acids were found, but of the matter of the kingdom whereof Samuel spake, he told him not. And Samuel called the people together unto the Lord to Mizpah, and said unto the children of Israel, thus saith the Lord, God of Israel, I brought thee up, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you. And they have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations. And he have said unto him, nay, but said it came over us. Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands. And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken. And when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Marti was taken, and Saul, the son of Kish, was taken, and when they saw him, he could not be found. Therefore, they inquired of the Lord further if the man should yet come thither. And the Lord answered, behold, he had hid himself among his stuff. And they ran and fetched him thence, and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. And Samuel said to all the people, see ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, and there is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted and said, God save the king. Then Samuel took the people, then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom and wrote it in a book and laid it out before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house, and Saul also went home to Gilead, and there went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched, but the chosen of Belial said, how shall this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no presence, but he held his peace. Let's bear witness. A word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day, and as long as you saved us at home, we ask that you please go to the Lord's spirit and help us to burn and to find something in our lives just as God saved our elders. God, we bless you and we pray, amen. Amen, well, we are in 1 Samuel chapter number 10 this evening, and if you remember last chapter, the chapter was really focusing on why it is that God chose Saul, and now we're actually gonna get into the portion of the story where Saul actually becomes king. So number one this evening, I want you to notice the anointing of Samuel, or I'm sorry, the anointing of Saul, the anointing of Saul. Let's read 1 Samuel 10, one. The Bible says, then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? Now, the Bible here is describing how Samuel, he kind of had this private ordination, if you would, with Saul, and what he did was he got some oil and he literally just poured it on his head, and that can seem kind of strange to us. That's not something that we really see in our modern world, a lot of people doing, but I do believe that this is symbolic of a couple of different things. First, go ahead and go to 1 John chapter number two, 1 John chapter number two. And if you've read the Bible, you probably know that oil often is representative of the Holy Spirit. Now, let me show you some Bible on that in 1 John 2 20, the Bible says this, but ye have an unction. Now that word unction means the act of anointing. So the Bible says ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things. So Saul, when he was anointed king, he had an unction, he had an anointing of physical oil, but us in the New Testament, when we get saved, we have an unction too, we have an anointing of oil, but it's spiritual oil, it's the Holy Ghost. Let me show you in verse 27, the Bible says, but the anointing which ye have received of him, notice, abideth in you. And so there's a hint right there that we're talking about the Holy Spirit because, you know, Saul, he had this one time anointing of physical oil, but our unction or our anointing is actually something that abides in us. So our anointing is with us at all times throughout our life, it says, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and his truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And if you remember in the book of John, Jesus talks about how he has to leave so that the comforter can come to the world. And one of the responsibilities of the comforter was to do what? It was to teach us all things. And so because we have this unction, because we have this anointing of the Holy Spirit, which is not a temporary thing for us, it's a permanent indwelling, you know, we have at all times the power and the ability to learn the things of God. Why? Because we're smart or we have some sort of advantage because we have some sort of carnal advantage over other people or we're special or anything like that. No, it's simply that we have the anointing of God. And that anointing is the permanent anointing of the Holy Ghost. Go to 2 Corinthians 1. While you're turning there, I'll read for you Ephesians 1.13. The Bible says, in whom also ye trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also that after ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So notice, we have the unction that abides in us. It's not temporary. On top of that, the Bible explicitly says that after we believe in him, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. So it's a very permanent thing. And let's prove that this is talking about the Holy Ghost even more. Look at 2 Corinthians 1.21. The Bible says, now he, which stablishes us with you in Christ and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. So this story of Saul being anointed by Samuel, in one respect, it's kind of symbolic of us, because in this symbology, Samuel could represent God and Saul could represent us, because here in this verse, we read that the one that anoints us is God. And what is that anointing? It's the earnest of the Holy Spirit. But not only I think does that represent the Holy Spirit, that story we're talking about, but I think also Saul here is representing the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me explain to you why. Go to Hebrews 1. Well, I'm gonna read 1 Samuel 10, one again for us. The Bible says, then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? So Samuel, when he is having this kind of private anointing of Saul, he says that the Lord has anointed him. Now what's funny is that word anointed is used all throughout the New Testament, because the word Messiah literally just means the anointed one. So here, Samuel's saying to Saul, has not the Lord anointed you to be captain over his inheritance? And of course we know that Jesus was the anointed one. Jesus was the chosen one to be the savior. Not like the real that you see of Donald Trump saying he's the chosen one. Okay, it's not Trump, it's Jesus. He's the real chosen one. He's the real anointed one. And look at Hebrews 1, verse eight. But unto the Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. You know, first just notice how God the Father is calling God the Son, God. You know, there's no question as to the fact that Jesus Christ is God. He's 100% man, 100% God. Now look, here's what makes Jesus really special. One of the reasons that makes him very special is verse nine. The Bible says, thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. So notice we had Saul, he's anointed with oil and it's a picture of the Holy Spirit. Well, that's actually a picture of Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness, which is the Holy Spirit. Notice what it says, above his fellows. So what made Jesus so special is that while you and I, we have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we have the capability to walk in the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit. You know, we still have this sinful flesh and we still have our sinful flesh nature. And so we're kinda in life just always going in and out of walking in the Spirit and walking in the flesh. You know, there's not really too long that we're just in the Spirit all the time. And if you think you are, you know, you got a pride problem because for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But you know, there's one man that never sinned, ever the Lord Jesus Christ. And how is that? Cause you think, you know, how is it that Jesus Christ, he's 100% God, but he's also 100% man. So he had normal flesh, right? I mean, he's walking around in a real human body. He's not in some sort of, you know, divine bodies in a real body that was born of a woman. How is it that Jesus could have gone through his entire life without ever sinning one single time? Well, it's because the Bible says that he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. So the thing about Jesus is that he was max filled with the Spirit at all times. So, you know, it's impossible to sin if you're max filled with the Spirit at all times, right? It's not like Jesus didn't have the physical capability of sinning. You know, he had a real brain. His brain could have physically thought lustful thoughts, but of course he was never gonna do that. Why? Because he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. He was max filled with the Holy Ghost at all times. And that's why, you know, the story about blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is very interesting because, you know, people could look at you and at me and they could say negative things about us. And let's just be honest, a lot of those things could very well be true, right? Why? Because we have the flesh, because we're sinners. But when the Pharisees looked at Jesus and they said, oh, you know, the miracles that you're doing, you're actually doing it by the power of devils. The reason why that was blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is because there was nothing you could criticize Jesus for. He actually was fully maxed out, filled with the spirit at all times. Go to Colossians chapter number one, Colossians chapter number one. So we see that the anointing of oil is clearly a picture of Jesus Christ being anointed with the oil of gladness. And also, you know, Saul was told that he was going to be captain over the Lord's inheritance. So he was going to be given a position of authority. And of course, this also is symbolic of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the look at Colossians one verse 12, the Bible says, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who have delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. So notice, there is a kingdom that Jesus Christ, the son of God is ruling and reigning. And someday that kingdom, which it is in existence right now, spiritually, but someday that kingdom will be realized physically. But even right now, as we stand in 2024, you know, Jesus Christ is captain over the Lord's inheritance. You know, Jesus's title is Lord. And what does that even mean? It means boss. It means he's in charge. It means he's the ruler. So just as Saul was being put in this position to be the king, to be the anointed, to be the captain over God's people in the same way, Jesus Christ, of course, is the true captain of God's people. He's the one that's in charge today. And the Bible even says that he is the head of the church. And of course we know that Jesus is the head of the church through his words that he gave us. That's how his authority is still in place in the local New Testament church. Go back to 1 Samuel 10, 1 Samuel 10. We talked about the anointing of Saul. Number two, let's talk about the prophecy of Samuel. The prophecy of Samuel. Look at verse number two. Samuel's talking to Saul and this is what he says. When thou art departed from me today, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulcher in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. And they will say unto thee, the asses which thou wentest to seek are found. And lo thy father hath left the care of the asses and sorrow it for you saying, what shall I do for my son? Now flip back the page to 1 Samuel 9. If you remember, this was the very thing that Saul was a little bit worried about. You know, he was saying, hey, I don't want my dad to stop caring for the asses and start caring for us, thinking that something bad happened to us. And I'll remind you of that in 1 Samuel 9 five, it says, and when they were come to the land of Zoph, Saul said to his servant that was with him, come and let us return, lest my father leave caring for the asses and take thought for us. And so here, I think the Bible's highlighting another good leadership trait that Saul had, and that is foresight, right? You know, the Bible tells us to walk circumspectly. What does that mean? It means to walk carefully, to be prudent, to weigh decisions in our lives and think about, you know, what would the outcome be if I take this path? Or what could the consequences be if I, you know, take this action? Saul was a man who was circumspect. He had a good leadership of being able to kind of have some foresight as to the possibilities that could happen. And so he was thinking about other people and, you know, we should try to do the same thing in our lives. Look at verse number three. It says, then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet thee three men, going up to God, to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine. And they will salute thee and give thee two loaves of bread, which thou shalt receive of their hands. Now, receiving bread could be a picture of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, because there's a lot of things here in this prophecy that Samuel's giving that just makes me think of Jesus. You know, you got someone carrying kids, which could often be lambs, right? And we know that Jesus Christ is the lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. Also, it talks about how, you know, he's carrying three loaves of bread, and we know that Jesus is the bread of life. He's that true bread from heaven. And also, it's saying that he's carrying a bottle of wine, which we know that Jesus used wine to symbolize his blood being shed on the cross for the sins of mankind. And here, Samuel's saying that these men are gonna salute you, and they're gonna give you this bread, which you're gonna receive at their hands. And it's kinda like when someone gets saved spiritually, you know, there's a man who's carrying the bread, right? He's got the bread of life, and he's offering it to you, but how do you get saved? You know, you have to receive that word. You have to accept that being given to you, which of course, you know, the man is not the person that's spiritually saving someone. We know that that person's working together with Christ, that it's the lamb of God that saves that person, the bread of life that saves that person. But I just find it interesting that, you know, Saul is gonna be given these things. He's gonna receive these things. And then look at verse number five. It says, after that, thou shalt come to the hill of God, which again, in the context of Jesus, it's making me think of Mount Calvary. Where is the garrison of the Philistines? And it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery and a tabaret and a pipe and a harp before them, and they shall prophesy. Now, what I want you to realize about this prophecy that Samuel's giving here is if you'll notice, it's extremely detailed. I mean, this is not something that you see people doing every day on TikTok and on Instagram, you know, given these super detailed, accurate prophecies. You know, usually when someone's pretending to be a prophet of God, but they're actually a false prophet, it's things that are very vague, right? You know, someone in this room, I can, you know, God just told me someone in this room is struggling with a relationship issue. And it's just like, wow, this guy's a man of God. I've got a relationship issue. You know, I've got a family member that I'm estranged from. And they're just thinking like, wow, you know, this prophecy is amazing. This guy's a man of God. But notice Samuel's prophecy, okay? He's saying, you're gonna go to the plane of Tabor. There's gonna be three people meeting you. This is exactly what they're gonna be carrying. They're gonna salute you. Here's what they're gonna give you. You know, you're gonna come to the hill of God. You're gonna have people, there's gonna be people prophesying. You know, there's no way that a man could pull off a prophecy like this by chance. I mean, this is just clearly a divine act right here that God is allowing Samuel to prophesy his word. You know, Samuel obviously here is not a phony, but the Bible does warn us of phonies and the Bible refers to them as false prophets. Now, of course, to prophesy often in the Bible can mean just to preach. You know, if you're preaching the gospel, you are a prophet of the word of God. But also in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, it's heavily emphasized. When someone prophesies, oftentimes it's foretelling the future. And really Samuel here is doing both. He's preaching the word of God and he's foretelling the future. But go to Deuteronomy 18, Deuteronomy chapter 18, because the Bible does warn us how we can decipher between a true prophet of God, someone that's telling the truth, someone that has God's words and someone who is a false prophet, someone who is a liar. Look at Deuteronomy 18 verse 20. It says, but the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. So whoever a false prophet is, you know, it's not something that God takes lightly. In the law of God, the Bible actually says that a person that prophesies falsely should die. That's pretty intense. Look at verse 21. And if thou say in thy heart, how shall we know the word of the Lord, which the Lord, sorry, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? Notice now God's gonna tell us how we can decipher when someone's a false prophet, verse 22. When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him. So, you know, the Bible says that if a person gets up and says, you know, I'm a prophet, I'm a man of God. I've got the word of the Lord that I wanna give to you. And he starts making predictions. He starts making, you know, prophecies about the future. The Bible says, hey, if that person does that, but then what they say doesn't come to pass, then I haven't spoken by that guy. That guy's a liar. And the Bible says, don't be afraid of that person, right? Because oftentimes, you know, people kind of are afraid of a man that they think has some sort of supernatural power. And if it was actually true, I would understand why, right? But if someone's standing up and they're lying in the stead of God, you know, that's someone that's speaking presumptuously. That's someone that's very self-willed. And, you know, whenever you see any preacher get up and make some sort of prediction and it doesn't come to pass, you have an ironclad guarantee from the word of God that that person is fake. That person is a false prophet. And it does not matter how big or small of a prediction they make. You know, you have tons of pastors every election season that get up and say, God told me this person's going to get elected. And you know what? I love it when they do this. I hope they keep doing this because it just wipes out all these people where you know, it's like, okay, I know for a fact, you're a false prophet. And, you know, there's entire religions where the founders of religions, literally the reason they're famous is because they made so many false predictions. How about the Jehovah's Witnesses? Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Watchtower Society, you know, which now is who we know as the Jehovah's Witnesses. This guy made tons and tons of false predictions. And so, you know, how do you know that the Jehovah's Witnesses are false, that it's not God's religion, that it's a false religion? Well, I don't even have to hear a word of their doctrine. All I need to know is that their founder prophesied false predictions. So I know for a fact, he's a false prophet. Let me read to you some of the false predictions that Charles Taze Russell said. He said this, our Lord, the appointed King is now present. So he's saying he's here on the earth since October, 1874. So Jesus apparently came to earth about 10 years after the US Civil War in 1874. According to the testimony of the prophets, to those who have ears to hear it, and the formal inauguration of his kingly office dates from April, 1878, and the first work of his kingdom as shown by our Lord in his parables and prophecy, the gathering of his elect is now in progress. He said that in a book he wrote called Studies in the Scriptures. So Charles Taze Russell said that in 1878, Christ Jesus came down to earth and was establishing his millennial kingdom. But hold on a second, here we are in 2024. Jesus has been here for how many years now? Where's the kingdom? Where's Jesus ruling and reigning from Jerusalem? You know what? It was a lie. And so I know Charles Taze Russell is a false prophet who's burning in hell. And guess what? Anyone who follows him, anyone who is a Jehovah's Witness will also burn in hell because they reject the gospel. They follow a false prophet. He said this, he said the battle of the great day of God almighty, which will end in 1914 with the complete overthrow of the earth's present rulership is already commenced. So you know, the battle of the great day of God almighty, it already happened. It was in 1914. I mean, you guys didn't know that World War One was the day of the battle of God almighty, you know? That was his prediction, which obviously anyone alive right now knows that that is false. He said this, he said millions, millions of people that are alive in 1918 will never die. Now, who knows someone that's alive that was born in the 19 teens? Does anyone know someone that was born in the 19 teens? Nope. There are all these millions of people that supposedly were never gonna die, that were born in a living at the time of 1918. I mean, the oldest person that I know personally was someone born in the 1930s. Who knows someone born in the 1930s? Okay, two people, three people. Okay, 1920s. Wow. Yeah, okay, two people. That's pretty impressive. But 19 teens, no hands. So guess what? We know for a fact this guy's a false prophet. We know that he is a liar. Now, the person that succeeded him was a man named Joseph Rutherford. He's the one that became the second president of the Watchtower Society. And he said this, he said, therefore, we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the apostle in Hebrews 11 to the condemnation of human perfection. So, you know, 1914, 1878, these predictions didn't work. So now they're saying in 1925, all the patriarchs are gonna come back. It's like, what? What are you talking about? So obviously we could tell that the Jehovah's Witnesses are a false religion. How do we know that? Because Deuteronomy 18 told us that if someone gets up and makes a prediction, they're saying, I'm speaking in God's stead. If it doesn't come to pass, you know it's a false prophet. And according to the Bible, that person was supposed to die. You know, why? Because it's not a light thing to stand up and say that you're speaking for God. You know, anytime that I wanna speak for God, it's when I'm quoting a verse in the Bible. But none of my words are ever speaking for God. None of your words are ever speaking for God. And if someone got up and just presumptuously said, you know, this is God's word and they're lying, you know, that person should be put to death. And we'd have a lot less people going to hell if people like Charles Taze Russell, Joseph Rutherford were put to death. How about Ellen G. White, the leader of the Seventh-day Adventist religion, who was a complete charlatan, made her life's work just fleecing stupid people of their money, making all these false predictions. You know, here's something, or you know what, I'm not even gonna, for sake of time, I'm not gonna get through all of her predictions, but you know, you've probably heard that Ellen G. White was constantly just prophesying the coming of Christ, saying when he's coming back, she's constantly writing about it'll be next month. Well, just a few more months, people, you know, just hang on, hang on a few more months, God's coming. And he never came in your life. Why? Because you're a false prophet. And you know, won't into anyone that got deceived by Ellen G. White, because why were you listening to a female preacher anyways? Step one, female preacher, run away. Step two, false predictions, run away. Why are there Seventh-day Adventists in this world again? What a ridiculous religion. Now, go to Deuteronomy 13. Well, you say, well, what if what they say does come to pass? Does that mean automatically that they're a righteous prophet? Well, look at Deuteronomy 13, verse one, the Bible says, if there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and give it thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. So don't miss this. What's the picture here? The Bible's saying, hey, if there's someone that stands up, that's a prophet, that's a preacher, and they do some sort of wonder or miracle, and they actually perform that miracle. I mean, that could be convincing to people, right? Just off the surface, if you see a man perform a miracle or a wonder, but he's saying, okay, that person's doing a miracle, but if they're telling you to go after other gods and to serve them, look at verse three, thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. So notice it's not just enough to look at a preacher, to look at a person that's claiming to be a prophet, and they make some sort of prediction and it comes true, or they do some sort of sign or a wonder and it comes true. You also have to pay attention to the doctrine that they're teaching, because here's the thing, you can get lucky in predictions, especially in a presidential election where there's two options. You got a 50% chance of being right. And some prophets can say, God told me last night I had a dream and God whispered in my ear and he told me that Donald Trump is gonna get elected. He has a 50% chance of being right on that. And so you don't wanna just see someone like, wow, they made this crazy prediction. This guy must be a man of God. You know, I saw some preacher where he was getting famous on the internet because he supposedly had a dream and made this prediction months before Donald Trump got shot that he would get shot in the ear. And it's like, honestly, that's not really that crazy of a prediction because people that are leaders, presidents, these people are trying to be killed all the time. I mean, people are trying to kill the president of the United States pretty much every day. And even more so with Donald Trump. I mean, this guy is a wanted man. There's lots of people trying to kill him. So it's like, you know, what are the odds of that? Well, the odds aren't really that low. I mean, the odds are pretty high that there's gonna be an assassination attempt. And just because this person had a dream or made a prediction of Donald Trump, that doesn't mean they're a righteous man. That doesn't mean that they're a prophet of God because in addition to saying the right things when it comes to predictions or having signs or wonders, they also have to have the right doctrine, right? So here's the problem with this. In the end time, there's gonna be a great falling away from the faith. There's gonna be many people deceived by the great signs and lying wonders that the Antichrist is going to perform. And the Bible talks about how it's gonna be so deceiving that if it were possible, it would even deceive the very elect. Meaning that if it were possible, we ourselves would be deceived by this person's signs, wonders, words, personality, whatever it's gonna be. And so the lesson from that is we have to stick very closely to what the Bible says. We need to be close to the word of God. We need to know doctrine. Reading the Bible is just not something for the preacher. Reading the Bible is for man, woman, boy, and girl, because the devil and his minions in this world want to deceive all of us, not just preachers. So it's very important for every single person to spend a lot of time in the word of God. And personally, when the Bible talks about how it's gonna be so deceiving that if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect, that's why I actually believe that the Antichrist will likely be a right-wing figure. I think that he'll be a very, very right-wing figure to where if you looked just on the surface at some of the things that he's doing at first, I have a feeling that many of us will even agree with and like some of the things that he's doing, right? A good example of this is Adolf Hitler. And I have done a lot of study and research into the life of Adolf Hitler. And from what I could tell from a worldly figure, from someone that's not in the Bible, I believe that he's gonna be the closest type to what the Antichrist is gonna be. Because what you have to understand is that during the Weimar Republic in Germany, Germany was being completely just destroyed by all sorts of just debaucherous filth, bad culture, Jewish interest, right? Their economy was just in shambles. It was being destroyed. And Adolf Hitler came to the scene and said, man, we really got messed up with the Treaty of Versailles in World War I. Germany's really getting taken advantage of. Let's make our own currency. Let's fix Germany. Let's get rid of all the cultural poison out of society that the Jews are bringing to our nation, which he was right about that stuff. Now, obviously, was he a wicked person? Yes. Do I believe he's burning in hell? Yes. Did he believe in Christianity? No. He was a complete humanist. He was a evolutionary person that believed in Darwinian evolution. But at the end of the day, if just from a surface level, if you're living in 1920s, 1930s Germany, and you're just looking at some of the results Adolf Hitler is bringing to your nation, you might look at him and say like, hey, he's doing some pretty good things. And part of me wonders if why the devil is bringing so much just LGBT propaganda and communist crap into our country and just flooding nations with Islam and all these problems. It almost makes me wonder if someday the Antichrist is gonna stand up and say, hey, I'm gonna take care of all these problems for you. I'm gonna go ahead and stamp this LGBT communist regime coming through America. And you know what? I'm gonna go ahead and just blow through Europe and take over all these Muslims that are destroying your nations and will make your nations your nations again. I wouldn't be surprised if stuff like that happened to where we would even look at some of the things he's doing is like, hey, that's kind of good. But remember, it's deceitful. You don't just look at the person's actions. You don't just look at the person's predictions. You have to look at the word of God. And you know what the Antichrist is not gonna be saying? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what Hitler was not doing? Giving honor to the Bible. In fact, Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf made fun of Christians for being against Jews because of their religion. He was saying, oh, no, no, no. The problem with Jews isn't their religion. You know, the Christians need to stop acting like the problem with Jews is their religion. The problem is their tainted blood. Guess what? I don't believe that. You wanna know what the problem with Jews are? Their religion. Because God is made of all nations of the earth of one blood. There's no such thing as race. You know, a Jew doesn't have problems because of his blood type. A white person doesn't have problems because of his blood type. You know why we have problems is because of sin. You know why nations have problems is because of rejecting the Bible, rejecting God. And it's like, why was Germany destroyed? Because they rejected the gospel. Because they rejected God and they were punished for God. I'm getting way off topic. Let's go to verse four of Deuteronomy 13. Verse four of Deuteronomy 13, it says, you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice. And he shall serve him and cleave unto him. And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he had spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shall thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. And notice how much loyalty God demands to his word, to his doctrine. Verse six, it says, if thy brother, the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosom or thy friend, which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying, let us go and serve other gods, which thou has not known, thou nor thy fathers. I lost the verse there, Deuteronomy 13. Excuse me. Verse number six. If the verse, wait, we're on verse seven, I think, right? Yeah, verse seven, namely of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth, thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him, verse nine, but thou shalt surely kill him. Thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people. Now, think about this today. I wish that we had this level of loyalty to the word of God today from Christians, where even if it was their mother, their brother, their wife, if they're going around and trying to entice people to serve other gods, to transgress against the doctrines of the Bible, if they're out blaspheming God, that you'd have enough loyalty to God to at least just stand with his words above your family members. I mean, in the New Testament, God's not asking you to kill your wife if she's a false prophet or kill your mother or kill your father or kill your brethren, though that is what happened in the Old Testament, but can Christians at least today just stand with the Bible? Can Christians just at the very least today stand with their preacher and their pastor when he's preaching the word of God, when he's preaching the truth against any false prophet, even if it's your mother, even if it's your brother, even if it's your friend, you know, God demands loyalty to him. Look at Hebrews chapter number one, go to Hebrews one. So of course, Samuel here, he's giving this prophecy. How do we know it's true? Well, of course we know it's true because it's in the Bible, it's God's word, and because everything he said came to pass. So it's both. He had sound doctrine and his predictions came to pass, but I don't want you to be confused because let me be very clear, this type of God speaking to you and giving you a vision or giving you a prophecy, this does not happen anymore in the New Testament. It doesn't happen. God is not going to audibly speak to you. God is not going to verbally speak to any person on this earth and anyone that claims that is a liar. Let me show you why. Hebrews one verse one, "'God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophet.'" So in time past, God used a variety, a sundry of times and a diversity of manners. He spake different ways in the past, two people, two fathers, right? But notice verse two, "'He hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.'" So notice how is it that God speaks to us today? It's through his son, Jesus Christ. And of course we know that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. You know, I'm sick and tired of people saying today, well, us as Christians, we need to be careful not to worship the Bible. Wait a second, you may not realize this, but what you're actually doing is blaspheming Christ because the Bible says Jesus is the word. You say, oh, you could have a relationship with Jesus Christ as a person, the person Jesus Christ without his words. No, you can't. You know why? Because in order to have a relationship with someone, you have to talk to them. How do we talk to God? We talk to him through prayer. How does he talk to us through his word? God's not gonna whisper in your ear. And you know, you need to be very, very careful in the future if you're going to a different church and you hear a preacher start saying things like, well, God told me. That is a big, big red flag right there. Why? Because that person is trying to elevate themselves in your mind into thinking that, wow, this person has an extra special relationship with God that I don't have. You know, I need to listen to him. I need to follow him. Not true. You know, God has spoken to us through his son. And if you wanna say, God told me something, it better match up with what the Bible says, what the Bible teaches. But today, you know, you got the Pentecostal movement where God told me to spend the church money on this Lamborghini. And you know, God told me to buy a house in this part of town. And you know what? God's telling you, young lady, to divorce your husband and go find you a better man. You know, and God's telling you, you know, you go take that job, that'll just get you more money. You try to be rich. That's what Pentecostals like to do. God told me, God told me, God told me, you know what those people are? They're liars. They're frauds. They make merchandise of God's people. They make merchandise of the world through their ignorance. Through covetousness, they make merchandise of people. Go back to 1 Samuel 10. 1 Samuel, chapter number 10. We talked about the prophecy of Samuel. Notice number three tonight, Saul's change. Saul's change. 1 Samuel 10, verse six. The Bible says, and the spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shall prophesy with them and shall be turned into another man. Keep your place there. Go to 2 Corinthians, chapter number five, 2 Corinthians, chapter number five. And again, I think this chapter often is symbolizing what happens to us spiritually when we get saved. You know, he had that physical anointing of oil. We get that spiritual anointing of the oil of gladness, the Holy Spirit, which is permanent. You know, here, the spirit of the Lord comes upon him. He's turned into another man. Well, what happens to us? Look at 2 Corinthians 5.17. It says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. How many things change when you get saved? Well, everything changes when you get saved. All things become new. You know, what's an example? Well, first of all, what changes when you get saved is your destination changes. That's the biggest thing that changes. You were on your way to hell. Now you're on your way to heaven. Your destination has permanently changed, and there's nothing that could be done to change or alter that. Once someone's saved, they absolutely do have their ticket punched to heaven. You're like, oh, you just wanna believe in Jesus so you can get your get out of hell free card punched. Yeah, that's exactly right. My destination has changed when I got saved. All things have become new. Go to Romans chapter seven. I'll read for you John 5.24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. So notice when you believe in Jesus Christ, you have everlasting life. Not only that, you're not gonna come into condemnation. You're not gonna go to hell. Not only that, but you are passed from death unto life. Why? Because salvation is not a process. It's not a process of cleaning up your life. It's simply one moment of time, putting all your faith in Jesus Christ. Once you do that, your destination has changed, my friend. You are saved. But what else changes? Because we just saw that all things are become new, right? Not only does your destination change, but also your ability to walk in the spirit has now changed. See, before you're saved, all you have is the old man. All you have is the flesh. You don't have the ability to walk in the spirit. You don't have the ability to understand spiritual things in the Bible. You're just simply carnal. You're dead. You're a dead man living. But when you get saved, something changes. Romans 7.14. Paul said, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that I do. So notice he's describing this conflict inside of him, that he's doing things that he doesn't allow. He's doing things that he tells other people, yeah, don't do that. And then Paul's doing that, right? He's doing things that, one moment he says, I hate this stuff, and he's doing it anyways. Things that he would, so the stuff that he wants to do, he's saying, hey, I wanna do this. I wanna be a good person. He ends up not doing it. Why? Because there's this battle inside of him. Look at verse 16. If then I do that, which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. So notice, he's not one of these holier than thou's that thinks he's super righteous. He's saying, hey, if I'm doing something wrong, the Bible's right. The law is good. I'm the problem here. Verse 17, now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. So notice, he's saying, it's no more I that do it. When I do these things that I hate, when I commit these sins, that I tell other people not to commit, he's saying, look, that's the sinful man. That's the flesh. It's no longer I that do it. Why? Because the real Paul is the new man. The real Paul is the Paul that has the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ that's filled with the spirit of God. It's sealed with the spirit of God until the day of redemption. You know, that's the real Paul. And if you're saved here this evening, you know, there's two yous. There's your flesh, your sinful flesh, which till the day you die, will be dragging you down. Will be constantly bringing you down in the muck, in the mire, causing you to sin, causing you to think things, do things that you don't want to do. Things that you would tell other people. Yeah, don't do that. And you find yourself doing them. You know, if you find yourself in that situation, you know, don't think that you're crazy. That's everyone. And I heard one of these false prophets recently, teaching that you can lose your salvation. And he got up and said, you know, I hate it when people read Romans seven, and they act like this is the normal experience of Christianity. It's like, okay, well, excuse us that we're not better than Paul. I mean, excuse us that we're not more righteous and sanctified and filled with the spirit, than Paul the apostle who said, I am carnal, sold under sin. Sorry, we're not all as good as you. The guy that can't even figure out that salvation's eternal. Yeah, that's the person we're going to listen to. No, let me tell you, if this describes your life this evening, guess what? So it does every single person in this room. You are not alone. That is not something that's weird. That's all of us because we have the flesh. But you know what else that we do have though, is we have the spirit. Go to Galatians. Galatians chapter number five. You see Saul was turned into a different man, right? He became a new man. He became a different person. Look at Galatians chapter number five, verse 16. The Bible says, this I say, then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You say, oh, does your life have to change when you get saved? No, you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to get saved. But when you get saved, this cool thing happens where you now have the ability to walk in the spirit. And you say, well, if you walk in the spirit, is there going to be a change in your life? You better believe there will be. Yes, there will be a change in your life if you're walking in the spirit. But if you're walking in the flesh, absolutely nothing will change about your life because you didn't get rid of that old man. You didn't get rid of that carnal flesh. It's still there. It'll be with you until you die. But now that we're saved, we have the ability to walk in the new man. And let me tell you something, if you walk in the spirit, the Bible says you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Say, I want to be a new man. I want to be a new woman. I want to be a new person. Walk in the spirit and you will be a new person. You will be unrecognizable because the person that you and I were before Jesus Christ was just an open sepulcher, was just full of sin and wickedness. And in us, there's no good thing in us. There's no good thing in our flesh. But when we walk in the spirit, we better believe we'll be new people. We'll be a new man. We'll be a new woman. Go back to Galatians 2. Flip the page a few pages back. Galatians 2, verse 20, the Bible says, this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You know, Christ living in us is a reality in the sense that we're saved, we're sealed, we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of God. But you know what? It is a choice in our flesh, in this body, to live our lives according to the faith of the Son of God. That is a choice. And you say, I wanna be a new man. Well, you know what? You have to choose to walk according to the faith of Jesus Christ. Let's go back to 1 Samuel 10, 1 Samuel chapter number 10. You know, also, I love that when Saul is changed to another man, what does Samuel tell him he's gonna do? He tells him he's gonna preach. You wanna know a good indication that you're becoming a new person, that you're walking in the Spirit, when you have a desire to get people saved, when you have a desire to preach the Word of God. You know, I don't know about you. I'm really thankful. I got saved by Pastor Jimenez. And so when I got saved, I immediately got plugged into some of the best preaching on earth, listening to Pastor Jimenez and Pastor Anderson. And though I was going to an old IFB church for many, many years, you know, I was listening to both of their preaching from day one of me getting saved. And so because of that, I was blessed with all this doctrine, with all this spiritual preaching, with all this meat and milk of the Word of God. And you know what that caused me to do? It caused me to have a desire to preach God's Word. Not because of me, because remember, in me is nothing good, right? But because I was able to be fed in the Spirit, as soon as I got saved, I immediately wanted to preach God's Word. And I'll say this, from the very time I ever got saved, I immediately had a desire to not just preach the gospel, but also just to be a preacher. I immediately had a desire to someday become a pastor. And there's been many times throughout the last decade plus where I've thought, that's probably not gonna happen. You know, I'm probably not cut out for it. But I'll tell you this, what's never changed a single time is I never have lost that desire to preach God's Word. And why is that? Because the Spirit of God, when we're filled with the Spirit of God, when we're walking in the Spirit, it's gonna turn us into another man. And you could tell when someone's another man. It's called a person that's a soul winner. That is someone who's been turned into another man. First Samuel 10, verse seven says, And let it be when these signs are come unto thee, that thou shalt do as occasion serve thee. For God is with thee. And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee, and show thee what thou shalt do. So again, we get some more foreshadowing here of what's gonna eventually be the downfall of Saul, is not waiting for Samuel, not waiting for him to come down to the sacrifice. Two chapters in a row, Saul has had this foreshadowed against him. He's had plenty of opportunity to know what he was supposed to do. Verse 10, And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God came upon him, notice, and he prophesied among them. And it came to pass, when all that knew him before time, saw that behold he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, what is this that has come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? And one of the same place answered and said, but who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, is Saul also among the prophets? So notice, when Saul is filled with the Spirit of God, when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, when he's turned into a different man, the people that knew him before this event were perplexed. They're saying, what is going on with this guy? Is this the same Saul that I used to know? You know, is Saul among the prophets now? Go to Matthew 13. You know, sometimes if you get saved and you decide, you know what, I want to be turned into another man. I want to be turned into another woman. You decide, I actually want to walk in the Spirit. I actually want to change. I actually want to preach the Word of God. I want to be a soul winner. You know, it's very possible that the people that knew you before are going to think you're absolutely crazy. They're going to think you're absolutely insane. And sometimes they're going to think you're in a cult. They're going to think you're weird. They're going to think like, who is this person? You know, why don't you want to come drink with me anymore? You used to drink with us. Hey, why don't you want to go to the bar with us anymore? You used to go to the bar with us. I mean, is this person among the prophets? Who is this person, right? You know, I'm sure that many of us in this room have experienced things like that. I remember someone telling me, you know, are you a Jehovah's Witness now? Because I went soul winning. It's like, what a shame on us that you go out soul winning and people think you're a Jehovah's Witness. No, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness. No, I'm not a part of that cult. You know, I believe the Bible. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. You know, I hold to the words of soberness and doctrine, but you know, that's the type of things that people accuse you of. Why? Look at Matthew 13, verse 53. And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence. When he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, in so much that they were astonished and said, whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brethren, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? So notice, you know, you and I, if all of a sudden Jesus came into this church this evening and preached a sermon, we would all be on our faces worshiping him in complete awe of his just glory and magnificence. Would we not? I mean, we'd be hanging on every word. We'd be taking notes. If the kids cried, they'd be spanked so fast, they'd be told to sit up and be quiet, right? I mean, they'd be, we'd be a tight ship here if Jesus was here tonight, right? But when he's around people that knew him and they're saying, hey, we know this guy's mom. We know Joseph. We know his brothers. We know his sisters. They're saying, who is this guy? You know, Jesus, again, anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, max filled with the Holy Spirit. Even the people that he knew thought he was weird. Thought he was crazy. Look at verse 56. And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. So notice even the Lord Jesus Christ, who anywhere else would be honored, would be respected, would be listened to in his own country and in his own house, people didn't respect him. People didn't honor him. So, you know, this is just a warning to you that you say, you know, I wanna be turned into a different man. I wanna follow the Bible. I wanna walk according to the spirit. Well, guess what? Your family's probably gonna think you're weird. People in your life are probably gonna make fun of you. They're probably gonna think you're crazy. Why? Because a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. Saul here, he's turned into another man. He's filled with the spirit of God. He's preaching God's word. And people are saying, who is this guy? Is Saul also among the prophets? And so, you know, the Bible doesn't have a verse that specifically says this, but the Bible does teach this concept that familiarity breeds contempt. You know, oftentimes the closer you are to a person, the more you know about them, the more you know about their backstory, you could start to despise, or you could start to have contempt or disrespect towards a person. But we need to remember that no matter who someone is, no matter if you know their life before they got saved, you know, if someone is saved and walking in the spirit and preaching God's word, you know, that is someone that you should respect. That is someone that you should give honor to. And I mean that even amongst ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ. You know, I mean that even as someone is unsaved, they're living a completely worldly life. They're not dressed right. Their standards aren't right. They've got all sorts of problems in their life, but if they show up to church and start going soul winning, you know what? Respect. That's awesome. You know, one time I literally went soul winning with a guy that had a big fat dip in his lip while he was soul winning, because he just got saved. And you know what I said about it? Nothing. Nothing. Because I'm just like, hey, this is cool. This guy wants to be turned into another man. This guy just got saved and he's out soul winning. Oh, but he's not perfect. Neither are you. Get off your high horse. You got problems too. And I'm not going to point out all your problems. So someone that's new, that's being turned into another man. Hey, I'm for that person. We don't want to have a holier than thou mentality that people can't come to our church unless they've got everything squared away. Okay, well, I can't come to this church either then. You know, no one can. Go back to 1 Samuel 10. While you're turning there, I'll read Galatians 1 10 says, for do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. You know, we all need to get to a point in our lives where, you know, all we really care about is serving God and pleasing God. And you know, I don't care what my parents think. I don't care what my siblings think. I don't care what my coworkers think. I don't really care what any of you think. I don't care what anyone thinks except for God. And you know, I've just gotten to the point in my life where if someone asks me a Bible question, I'm just going to tell them. Co-worker wants to ask me about what I think about fags. Okay, I'm going to tell you. Cause I don't really, I don't care. I'm not here to please anyone. I'm here to please Christ. So, you know, ask away. And that's where we need to get to as Christians, where we're just like, you know what? We're here to please Christ. And we're here to speak the truth. Verse 13 of 1 Samuel 10 says, and when he had made an end of prophesying, he came to the high place and Saul's uncle said unto him to his servant, wither went ye? And he said to seek the asses. And when we saw that they were nowhere, we came to Samuel and Saul's uncle said, tell me I pray thee what Samuel said unto you. And Saul said unto his uncle, he told us plainly that the asses were found, but of the matter of the kingdom where of Samuel spake, he told him not. So notice Saul, he's a little timid here. He's a little shy. He kind of tells him half the story that, hey, you know, the asses are found, that's great. But he kind of left out this little detail that he was just anointed with oil and was told that he's gonna be the captain over God's inheritance. And so Saul was a little bit timid here, was he not? And, you know, it makes me think of what Pastor Shelley preached here on Sunday about not being ashamed, right? You know, we should not be ashamed of the gospel. We should not be ashamed of God. We should not be ashamed of anything relating to the Bible. Why? Because it's from God, right? And we shouldn't be ashamed of the Lord. And so Saul here, you know, he has great leadership qualities that we talked about, but you know, he still has issues. He's still a human being. He still has problems. And when his uncle asked him, you know, what did Samuel say? You know, he left a big part out, why? Because he's kind of ashamed. He's a little bit shy, a little bit timid. Now, number four this evening, let's talk about the coronation of Saul, the coronation of Saul. What is the coronation? The coronation is the act of, or ceremony of crowning someone king. So we had a private anointing of Saul by Samuel, but now we're going to get into the part of the story where he's actually going to be publicly coronated as the king. Look at verse 17. And Samuel called the people together onto the Lord of Mizpah and said unto the children of Israel, thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt and deliver you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all kingdoms and of them that oppressed you. And ye have this day rejected your God who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations. And you have said unto him, nay, but set us a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands. And you know, it's important to remember that though Saul is a great guy, he has many wonderful leadership qualities and many great spiritual qualities as to why God chose him. You know, it's still important to remember that this was not God's will anyways. It was not God's perfect will for Saul to be anointed king because it was not God's will to even have a king to begin with. And I think what this points to here is just the fact that God is very merciful and long suffering that although times we can mess things up and not be in God's perfect will, he can still bless our lives. You know, Saul here is a blessing of a king at this time. He's a great king. And even though God didn't want that system, they still, God still gave them a good king. And it just goes to show that God can still bless situations in our lives that aren't necessarily the most biblical, but of course, God blesses what's biblical best. Look at verse 20. And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near the tribe of Benjamin was taken when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken and Saul, the son of Kish was taken. And when they sought him, he could not be found. Therefore they inquired of the Lord further, if the man should yet come dither and the Lord answered, behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff. So this is kind of a funny story. Saul is about to be anointed king of Israel. He's about to be anointed to be captain over the Lord's inheritance. God has chosen this guy. God has this guy's back yet he's asked, Hey, what did Samuel tell you? Oh, just stuff about my dad's, you know, livestock. And then now they're like, all right, present yourselves. It's time to anoint this guy. It's time to ordain him king. And he's literally hiding. He's physically hiding. And it's just kind of crazy to think about someone that's a king, someone that's going to be leading a whole nation. You know, you could expect that person to be so brave, so courageous, yet he himself is literally hiding. And I think that what we can learn from this is that God can still use people that are a little reluctant. You think about Moses, right? Moses said, you know, you know, God, I'm not an elegant, eloquent speaker. You can't use me. I'm not really good at talking. And God said to him, Hey, who's made man's mouth. Who's the one that made your mouth. Who's the one that made you speak the way that you speak. And it's the same thing with Saul. Who's the one that created Saul. Who's the one that backed up Saul and wanted him to be king in this situation. It was God. And so God can use people that are still a little bit reluctant, go to Ephesians chapter six, even the apostle Paul at times, the great man of faith that he was, you know, lacked some boldness. So, you know, you may think like, well, I'm a shy person. I'm someone that, you know, I'm not going to be talking that much in conversation. I'm a little, you know, socially awkward or whatever. God really can't use me in a great way. Well, you know, you're in pretty good company. If you're shy, you're in pretty good company. If you're a little reluctant, you know, God used these men that were a little shy to do great things for him. And I guarantee you, God can use you to go out and reach people with the gospel as well. Look at Ephesians six, 18, Paul said this, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there are two with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. And for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. Even Paul was saying, guys, pray for me that I would open my mouth boldly, kind of indicating the fact that perhaps Paul went through times in his ministry where he wasn't feeling very bold. And, you know, I think I would relate with him. If I was shipwrecked, stoned, beaten, you know, forsaken, entrapped, lied about, you know, you could see how he could be lacking a little bit of boldness. So you don't want to think that, well, I'm a shy person. Well, I'm someone that isn't really good in conversation. God can't use me. Absolutely. He can. He's used many people in the Bible that were a little shy. Go back to first Samuel 10 for Samuel 10 verse 23. And they ran and fetched him thence. And when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. And Samuel said to all the people, see him whom the Lord have chosen that there's none like him among all the people and all the people shouted and said, God saved the King. Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. And Saul also went home to Gibeah and there went with him, a band of men whose hearts God had touched. So notice the Bible is not only highlighting the leader Saul, but he's also highlighting a band of men, the hearts of whom God touched. And today in Christianity today, if we are, you know, wanting to do a big work for God, we're wanting to actually take the great commission seriously as a church. We actually want to go preach the gospel to every creature. We want to bring them in, get them baptized, teach them the word of God. It's not going to be done through one man. It's going to be done through a group of people, the hearts of whom God has touched. And so, you know, I would encourage you to never, ever have this mentality or this feeling where you're not important in a church. Oh, you know, people use this term. I'm just a layman or whatever. You know what? We need every single saved child of God in this world to get to work, to get in church, to go out soul winning, because the more labors that we have, the more people we can reach for Christ. And you know what? The kingdom of Israel wouldn't have been really that cool. If it's just Saul, that's kind of weird. It's just a King with no people. That's strange. You know what? They needed a group of people whose hearts God had touched. Lastly, this evening, number five, notice the wicked's rejection of Saul, the wicked's rejection of Saul. Look at verse 27. It says, but the children of Belial said, how shall this man save us? And they despised him and brought no presence, but he held his peace. You know, unfortunately, it is the tendency of wicked people, you know, reprobates especially, but even sometimes backslidden Christians and carnal Christians to despise or to hate or to belittle or to disrespect the man of God. Now go to Jude, the only chapter Jude. And while you're turning there, I want to read for you Titus 2 15, the Bible says, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise you. You know, according to the Bible, the pastor is commanded by God not to allow people to despise him. Why? Because the position of spiritual leadership is important. It's necessary to carry on the work of God and to carry out the great commission. So we can't just be having, you know, a kingdom where everyone despises Saul. We can't have a church where everyone hates and despises the leadership. That's ridiculous. That makes no sense. And the pastor is straightly commanded by God. Let no man despise thee. That doesn't mean you can't disagree with the preacher. That doesn't mean you can't disagree with the pastor because here's the straw man that's thrown at churches like us is well, if you disagree with the preacher, you'll be kicked out of church. If you disagree with the pastor, you'll be kicked out of church. No, you can disagree as long as much as you want. Go ahead. Disagree with the preacher, but you know, you can't do, you can't go around lying about him. You can't go around talking crap about him. You can't going around texting everyone, you know, lying about him, misrepresenting him, talking crap about him. You know what? That's not going to be allowed. And I'm not even a pastor. I'm just a preacher, but I'm just telling you, I'm not going to allow that to be done to me either. You know, I have no authority at all, other than what pastor Shelley has given me. I am not a pastor, but I am a preacher of the word of God. And I'm also not going to let people go around and text everyone and talk crap about me either and lie about me. And you know, if you do that, you better be very careful because I absolutely will call it out. So be careful when you're despising leadership, look at Jude one eight, it says, likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh. Notice despise dominion. What is despising dominion? It means that you hate authority and reprobates hate authority and wicked people hate authority. Notice what it says and speak and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, ders not bring against him a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee. So notice Michael, the archangel, he's not even going around, lying about the devil. Can God's people stop going around and lying about other children of God? I mean, is that too much to ask when Michael, the archangel won't even lie against the devil. And today Christians even are so flippant to go lie about a man of God, to lie about me, to lie about someone in this church, you know, that's wicked as hell. And you know what that person's acting like? They're acting like the children of Belial. They're acting like the children of the devil in first Samuel 10, where the Satan worshiping, devil-filled reprobates hated Saul, despise Saul. Can this man save us? They didn't like Saul. You know what? You better be careful because though you can never become a reprobate once you're saved, sometimes you can act like a reprobate. Sometimes you can share qualities with them and what a shame it is when any child of God shares any quality with a reprobate, you know, you ought to be ashamed yourself if you're going around talking crap about good men, verse 10, but these speak evil of those things, which they know not, which is usually the case about people talking crap, talking about things that they don't know. And you know, one of the things that I've learned having worked in the ministry since 2020 is that there's a lot of times people, they just don't know the situation because the pastor's not going to go around blowing his mouth off about things that people tell him in confidence. And he's not going to embarrass people's sins. And sometimes I'm just telling you, I know this for a fact, the pastor just knows things that not everyone else knows that if the pastor could tell you, you'd be like, Oh, Oh, I didn't know that. If I would have known that it would have changed your mind. Yeah. Don't just blow off your mouth about things, you know, not, because guess what? That's something that reprobates do. It says, but what they know naturally is brute beasts in those things. They corrupt themselves, woe unto them for they've gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the air of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. These are spots in your feasts of charity. So notice these wicked people, they're going to be around us. They're going to be in our feasts of charity. We're going to do nice things to them. We're going to love them. We're going to be their friends. They're going to eat meals with us. And then they're going to turn on us and talk crap and speak evil and speak lies. And you know what the Bible says, woe unto them, woe unto you when someone does good to you, when someone loves you, when someone, you know, like, like Paul talks about, you know, the more I love, the less I be loved. I mean, Paul's just imparting his heart, imparting his soul, preaching the word of God. And people just hate him and lie about him. And you know what? It's such a shame to see Christians doing that. It's such a shame to see Christians acting like the reprobates in Jude. Verse 12, these are spots in your feasts of charity. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear clouds, they are without water carried about of winds, trees whose fruit wither it without fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Go to Psalm 23, that'll be the last place I have you turn. Now don't hear me wrong. Not saying that someone that does this is a reprobate. What I am saying is that these are the types of things that reprobates do. And we as Christians should get as far away from any behavior of a reprobate as humanly possible. So, you know, these, these men of Belial, they're sitting there hating on Saul. Look, if you're living in the kingdom at that time, don't hate on Saul. You know, if the reprobates are out lying about pastor Shelley, you don't hate on pastor Shelley. If someone's going around texting everyone lying about me, don't believe the lies about me, right? Don't have these same attributes. Verse 12, or I'm sorry, Psalm 23, verse one. The Bible says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me, notice, in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You know, it can be discouraging to think about the time where you shared a table with someone or lots of people. And you thought that it was a feast of charity. You thought everything was good. And you find out that really many times in our lives, God has been preparing a table. And at that table, we've been in the presence of our enemies without even knowing it. And sometimes later in life, things are revealed where you thought, man, I thought this person was my friend. I thought this family loved me. I thought that, you know, sister so-and-so, you know, enjoyed our company. I thought brother so-and-so was my friend, right? And let me just, let me just warn you, because this is going to happen so many times in your life. It's just part of Christianity. People will turn on you. People will forsake you. People will backstab you. Guess what? They did it to Jesus Christ. But you know what comforts me? Verse four. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. And you know what? If I've got the Lord, if I've got my wife, you know, I've really got enough, right? Those of us in this room, you know, prepare because someday, yeah, people are going to forsake you. People are going to talk crap about you. People are going to lie about you, but you know, we could be comforted in the fact that God is with us, that God is leading us beside the still waters, that God is leading us to green pastures. And you know what? When, when the storms of life hit you, when you get criticized, maybe it hasn't happened to you yet. It will. I promise you when that happens, let me tell you how you're going to find peace. It's right here. It's opening up the Bible and reading it, being reminded of his promises, being reminded of his love, being reminded that he's with us. That's going to restore your soul. That's going to be bring peace to your soul, because you know what? If Saul in his kingdom, if he's just going to freak out, every time someone lies about him, every time someone comes against him, that's going to be a full-time job, right? So us as Christians, you know, just tune out the noise, tune out the haters, tune out the liars, and just get tuned in to the Bible. Then you will have peace. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day. And thank you for the peace that you do give us. I just pray that you would fill our church with people that are united in doctrine and in spirit, that you'd help us all to rally around you and your word and the mission that you've given us to do, Lord. And we pray also that our church would be supportive of Pastor Shelley and the great work that he's doing, Lord. And I just pray that when persecution comes or when people forsake us or betray us, that we wouldn't let it get us, get our hearts troubled, that we would just flee for refuge in the word of God. We love you. Thank you for this chapter. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. All right, if you would, grab a handle. We'll go ahead and take one last song. Can you show them that, please? Hit number 400. Where should I go? Whoo! Down, down, down. Down, down, down. Down, down, down. Down, down, down. Down, down, down. Down, down, down. Down, down, down. Down, down, down. Number 450. Down, down, down. Down, down, down. Where should I go? Go ahead and start there, right on the first. Living me low, in this old sinful world, Are we a comfort can't afford? Striving alone to face temptation's won? Where could I go? What to the board? Where could I go? Oh, where could I go? Seeking a refuge for my soul Needing a friend to help me in the end Where could I go? What to the board? Neighbors are kind, I love them, everyone We get along in sweet accord But when my soul needs manna from above Where could I go? What to the board? Where could I go? Oh, where could I go? Seeking a refuge for my soul Needing a friend to help me in the end Where could I go? What to the board? Life here is grand, with friends I love so dear Comfort I get from God's old Word Yet when I face the chilling hand of death Where could I go? What to the board? Where could I go? Oh, where could I go? Seeking a refuge for my soul Needing a friend to help me in the end Where could I go? What to the board?