(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Chapter 11, we see the battle where Saul is going to become king by battle. In chapter 10, of course, he was anointed king, and he was shown to the people as the king, and a lot of people followed him, whose hearts God had touched, and then a lot of other people didn't really want him to reign over them. A lot of the children of Belial especially said, you know, how shall this man reign over us? And so, he was technically an anointed king, but he hadn't really begun to reign or to rule yet. They still had this threat of the Ammonites that was upon them. Go to chapter 12, because I just want you to understand how exactly this played out. In chapter 12, basically Samuel is scolding the people, and I'm jumping forward a little bit, but when Samuel is scolding the people, he's going through the history of Israel, explaining how God has always delivered them from their enemies, and he always raised up judges that would deliver them, and then it says in verse number 12, And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore, behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired, and behold, the Lord hath said a king over you. Now jump back to chapter 11. The reason I show you that is to explain to you that Nahash the Ammonite was a threat before they asked for a king. You don't really get that until you get to chapter 12 and you realize that, because this is the first time we hear about Nahash the Ammonite. But that was why they were asking for a king, because they were threatened by Nahash the Ammonite coming against them. We don't really see that until chapter 11, verse 1 here. But it says, Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. So, as Nahash the Ammonite comes to begin to invade Israel, and they had already known that this threat was coming, but they had Saul anointed as king, and he's supposedly going to deliver them in battle from this enemy. That was part of the purpose of why they anointed him as king. Well, when Nahash begins to invade, and he gets to a certain portion of the tomb of Israel in Jabesh Gilead, they, instead of saying, hey let's rally the troops, where's Saul, lead us into battle, they decide that they're going to try to just make a deal, and make peace with Nahash the Ammonite, and make a bargain with them. So they say, make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. So they're basically offering to put themselves under his power, to surrender, just to give in, and be his servants. Look what it says in verse number 2. And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. And the elders of Jabesh said unto them, give us seven days of respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel, and then if there be no man to save us, we will come out to thee. Now, this is ridiculous. They're sitting there offered, they're surrendering, they're giving up, they're saying, we'll be your servants. And he said, the only way that I will allow you to make this treaty with me, is if you allow me to put out everyone's right eye, every man's right eye. And not only that, not only does he want to disfigure and maim them, and harm them, but he says that he wants to do it. Look at the last words of verse 2. To lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. Just to make them ashamed, just to make a fool out of them, just to make them look weak and cowardly and foolish, that they would submit to something so horrible as to have their eye punched out, because they don't have the guts to go into battle against the enemy. Now, I think there's a lot that we can learn from this story if we apply this to ourselves. This goes to show that when it comes to the enemy, and of course our enemy is the devil. The Bible calls him our adversary the devil, who walked about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. There are a lot of other enemies. Paul said there are many adversaries. And we have those that hate what's right. And a lot of times Christians make the mistake today of trying to bargain with the devil, or trying to somehow compromise with the devil, and compromise with the world to somehow please him and to get him off your back. Now, this reminds me of another story. We don't brag or turn there for the sake of time. But we just read it just a few services ago. I forget which sermon it was. Where Ahab, he offers to make a deal with Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria. And Ben-Hadad is going to take over and he does the same thing. He says, I'm your servant. And Ben-Hadad demands all of his silver and gold. And he demands all of his wives and all of his children to be given unto him. And Ahab says, okay. I mean, Ahab is willing to give his wife over to him, his children, all of his gold, all of his silver. And then Ben-Hadad stops and says, well, wait a minute. Ahab agreed to this kind of fast. Maybe I didn't ask for enough. And so he writes back and says, well, I know that the first time I just asked for your wives and your children and your gold and your silver. But now I've decided that I want to send all my officers and all my servants to go through your house and through all of your houses and basically just whatever they see that they like to just be able to take it. So Ahab writes back and says, well, you know, I'll go according to your first deal. I'll still give you my wives and children and gold and silver. But he said, I'm not going to let you just pilfer my house and pilfer the house of the princess. And then, of course, that was where Ben-Hadad was drinking himself drunk. You remember? And he flipped out and said he's going to come. And of course, God actually stepped in and helped Ahab defeat Ben-Hadad and win the battle. But you see how bargaining with Ben-Hadad wasn't the answer. They were supposed to have faith in God and defeat Ben-Hadad in battle. And God promised them that they could defeat him in battle. And he promised to use the 7,000 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal as the warriors. Not a huge army of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. He said, no, just a small army of the 7,000 that have not bowed their knee to Baal, 232 officers, 7,000 troops, and you, Ahab, will order the battle. And they defeated a huge enemy with just that 7,000-man army. Because God blessed them for fighting. And the Bible says, resist, submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. You know, and they could defeat an evil enemy with only 7,000 troops when he had multitudes. Because God is for us, so who can be against us? But yet we try so hard to try to compromise and bargain with the enemy instead of standing up for the truth and standing on ground. You see, when you begin to compromise, it doesn't satisfy the enemy. You sit there and tell them, oh yeah, take my gold, take my silver, take my wives and children. That won't be enough. They'll want to come rifling through your house next. And then you try to say, oh, you know, we'll be your servant. We'll do what you say. No, let me punch out your right eye just to humiliate you. I mean, that's what it leads to. Now, this reminds me of when I was a kid. You remember bullies in school? Did you go to a school where there were serious bullies and kids were getting beaten up and lunch money taken? What up your head if you experienced that or the rest of you just saw it on TV or something? Hey, I lived it. But anyway, I remember I went to schools many times where there was some serious bullying. And especially when you'd be in a Christian school, you'd be with kids that were dramatically different age than you sometimes because the school was small. And I remember we'd go to PE and it was like 7th through 12th was in PE. So you've got 11, 12, 13-year-old kids and then you've got 17, 18-year-old guys. And I remember there was some brutal bullying that would go on. And it wasn't the kind of bullying that they talk about today like, he told me I was fat or something. He called me a fag. That's what they call bullying today, don't they? When I was a kid, bullying was like ripping the hair out of the back of your neck, kicking you in the groin, sucking you in the stomach. That's the kind of bullying that it was when I was in school. I remember there was this one kid and he would always give in on to them. He would literally, every day, practically, he would give them his lunch or give them money just to leave him alone. But it seemed like he got bullied the worst because he was constantly giving them what they wanted. And my dad told me, because I had talked to my dad about it, because when I was growing up I was a smaller kid. It doesn't matter how big you are, when you're dealing with somebody who's 6 years older than you, you're not going to be able to hang. This is when I was in 7th grade and I was in the worst possible school. And when I was in 7th grade is when I was mainly dealing with this. And I remember my dad told me, you can never give in to a bully. Because if you give in to that bully, they'll just realize, hey, here I've got somebody that I can push around. I've got somebody that I can abuse. And then it'll just get worse and worse and worse. He said, you just got to stand up to them and stand your ground. Even if you can't win, you just have to fight and stand your ground and not give in to a bully. Because it'll just get worse and worse and they'll just bully you for the rest of your life. You have to stand up to them. You know, I remember this one guy was bullying me, this is when I was younger, going back to when I was, I think, probably 9 years old. This kid was always bullying me and picking on me and pushing me around. And my dad told me, he said, because this kid was bigger than me, he said, you know what, just catch him when he's not looking. And he said, just sock him in the stomach as hard as you can. And he said, because then it's not going to leave a mark or anything. He said, wait until the teacher's not around and just sock him in the stomach as hard as you can. He said, then that kid will leave you alone. And so that's exactly what I did. I went to school, you know, I waited until nobody was around. I socked this kid in the stomach as hard as I could. He just doubled over, you know. You know what it is when you get in the stomach. He's wind knocked out of him. And that kid never bothered me again. You know, and I'm not kids, I'm not recommending it. You know, if you grow up in that kind of school, then, you know. But anyway, I'm just trying to, I'm using that as an illustration here. And it illustrates what I'm showing here perfectly. You've got to stand your ground. You have to stand up and you can't always just be backing down, backing down, backing. Now there's a time to turn the other cheek. You know, there's a time to back down. You don't always, you know, you don't want to always just have to be standing up all big and tall for your own pride. But when it comes to your own safety, sometimes you do have to stand your ground. And when it definitely comes to your family's safety or someone else's safety or someone else's well-being, you've got to stand your ground. But that's physically. Let's talk about morally. Let's talk about spiritually. You know, you try to basically meet people in the middle. When you try to meet the devil in the middle, it doesn't work. He's a liar and the father of it. He's not going to keep that bargain. You know, and basically, you'll have someone who tries to put some kind of sin on you. And they're trying to get you to, maybe they're trying to get you to watch movies that you shouldn't watch. Or they're trying to get you to watch TV shows that you shouldn't watch. Or maybe they're trying to get you into music that you shouldn't be listening to. Or looking at magazines that you shouldn't be looking at. You shouldn't try to meet them in the middle and say, well, you know, you're trying to get me to see an R-rated video, let's watch PG-13. You know, I'll meet you in the middle. No, you just need to stand your ground and just stand and draw a hard line in the sand. Because once you cross the line of compromise, once you cross the line of sin, you're just going to keep going. You know, when you try to compromise and go halfway and, you know, well, you know, I'm not going to go to the bar drinking with you, but I'll be the designated driver. No, you know, you need to just stay out of bars. You need to stay away from that little scene. And so there are a lot of opportunities where you'll have an opportunity where it seems like you can kind of bargain, you know, with wicked people. And try to kind of meet them in the middle and try to compromise with them. Let me explain something to you. Unless you go all the way wicked, they're not going to accept you. And they're not going to be satisfied with what you give them. They're not going to be pleased with you. So you might, look, let me explain something. As an independent fundamental Baptist preacher, I'm going to be hated by the world. Okay? So why even try to partially please the world every once in a while? It's a waste of my time. You know, try to preach a sermon that kind of throws them a bone a little bit. Maybe some visitor, try to keep them happy and just kind of soften it up a little bit. They're not going to be happy unless I just become Calvary Chapel, they're not going to be happy. So I might as well just be a fire-breathing fundamentalist and that's to them. Because it doesn't make any sense to try to compromise and bargain with people. You know, and that's the big word today. In politics, you know, everything's like, you need to compromise, you need to compromise, you need to compromise. You know what, if I were down there, I wouldn't compromise at all. I would just be voting no on everything. Just no, no, no, no. I'm serious. I wouldn't compromise at all. And I don't want my representatives to compromise at all. I want them to stand for what they believe in and just veto everything, say no to everything and just refuse to budge. You say, well, you know, how are we going to get anything? The less they get done, the better. That's right. You know what I mean? That's right. I'm not going to compromise what I believe in. I don't think anybody should compromise what they believe in. And you say, but how are we going to get along? I'm not trying to get along. I'm trying to be right. I'm trying to do right. I don't need to have unity. You know where I want to have unity? In my own house. And there's unity because one person's in charge. It's very unified. And then in the church we have unity because this book is in charge. And if we all believe that book and if we all have the same Holy Spirit living inside of us, we're going to have unity. We're not going to compromise. We're not going to see what half the church wants and then get what the other half the church wants and say, hey, let's meet somewhere in the middle. Let's compromise on this. No, because the liberals and those who want to take a loose interpretation of the Bible and those who want to live a loose lifestyle, they're never going to be satisfied until we just keep going their way, their way, their way. No, I'm not going to do it. I'm not even trying to please them. I'm not even trying to make the world love me. I'm not even going to go down that road because it's just a good way to get humiliated. And by the way, look at the compromising preachers of this world. And they are a reproach. They're a reproach to the name of Christ. Those who compromise and when they try to meet the world halfway. Like, okay, well, we're not going to do Metallica, but we're going to do a Christian band that sounds like Metallica and looks like Metallica and acts like Metallica. And we're going to meet you in the middle. But you know what? It's really just a joke because it's not going to be as good as Metallica in people's minds. They're not going to be sad. They're just going to stick with Metallica. You're not going to sell more albums than Metallica if you're some Christian ripoff of Metallica. And if you're listening to Metallica, God help you because it's a wicked joke. And I'm just using that example, but whatever the example. The bottom line is you look like a joke to the world when you try to compromise with the world. And I've noticed that the more that I've just stood my ground spiritually, people did not mock and make fun of me and laugh at me for being a Christian. Because your life is not a joke when you really stand for something. It's when you're trying to have it halfway and you're half in and half out that you become a laughing stock to the world. And then you become a laughing stock to those of us who are on the Lord's side. You know, we'll laugh at you too. And then the world's going to laugh at you. Because you don't fit in down at the world. And if you try to go down there and fit in with the world, you're not going to fit in. And so why don't you just sit in here at church where you belong and look like us and talk like us and be like God's people. I'm not saying me in particular, but be like one of God's people. And don't look like and talk like and act like one of the devil's people and one of the worldly people. Just pick which side you're on and get all the way on that side. And have the guts to stay at the ground and not constantly be moved and pushed in the wrong direction. Because if you do, they're not going to be satisfied and you're just going to end up being humiliated and made a fool of. And that's what we see here in chapter 11. He wants to punch out their eyes. Remember Samson? See, he was a guy who compromised. He was a guy who was dealing with the enemy. Instead of realizing, hey, the Philistines are my enemy here. He's basically trying to have a relationship with one of the Philistines, Delilah. And what did it get him? It got him humiliation. He got both of his eyes punched out instead of just one. And they made sport with him. They made him grind mill like an animal. And they said, come, let us make Samson sport. Let's have fun with him. Let's fool around mocking him and making fun of him. And so it doesn't make any sense to compromise. Compromise should be a word that is not in our vocabulary. It's not in the Bible. Where does the Bible tell us to compromise? That should be a word that is just unknown to us. And we need to just stand our ground. But he said in verse 2, And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days' respite that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel. And then if there be no man to save us, we will come at thee. So they basically tell him, okay, give us a break for seven days. And we're going to see if our fellow countrymen will come rescue us. And if they won't help us, then you can do whatever you have to do. We punch out our bright eye, I guess. Then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul and told the tidings in the ears of the people. And all the people lifted up their voices and wept. And the old Saul came after the herd out of the field. And Saul said, What ill at the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh. And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings. And his anger was kind of gravely. Now he had been anointed king, but like I said, he wasn't really ruling him. He hadn't really taken his kingdom yet. Because you notice he's out of the field, plowing the field. He's basically just doing the same kind of work that he did before. He comes out of the field at the end of the day and he hears the news. And when he hears the news, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him. And his anger was kindled gravely. Now, a lot of people will try to say that those two things are not compatible. The Spirit of the Lord coming upon him and his anger being kindled gravely. Yet, as we read the Bible, his anger being kindled gravely was a result of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him. You try to twist the passage, but that's what it says. That's basically what it's telling us here. Now, of course, we already talked about this on Sunday. But anger is not something that we should just always have fuming in our bosom at all times. Just burning in anger and when we go to bed, we're mad. When we wake up, we're mad. Saul was not an enraged, angry person all the time. But when he heard about his fellow countrymen and his fellow brethren of the children of Israel being humiliated in such a way, being mocked and made fun of, and in jeopardy of having their eye punched out, he became very angry and infuriated. That the enemy would be so audacious as to suggest such a treaty that would punch out all the right eyes. So basically, they're infuriated. And he was right to be angry. It was God's Spirit that made him angry. And he took a yoke of oxen, verse 7, and hew them in pieces. That means he chopped them in pieces. And sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were 300,000, and the men of Judah 30,000. And they said unto the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabesh Gilead, Tomorrow by that time the sun be hot, ye shall have help. And the messengers came and showed it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out unto you, and ye shall do with us all that seem good unto you. So basically they just found out they're going to get the help. You know, the rest of the nation, 330,000 troops are going to come in and fight this battle for them. So they're happy, but basically they tell the enemy, like, OK, nobody's going to help us. We give up. We're going to come out to you tomorrow, and you can do whatever you want with us. You know, because they obviously don't want to tip them off too much, so there's a big war coming. So they try to kind of catch them off guard a little bit by telling them that. And it says in verse 11, And it was so on the morrow that Saul put the people in three companies, and they came into the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And it came to pass that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left together. And if you know anything about warfare, you know, one of the things about winning a battle is you've got to keep the troops together and organized. They got so scattered, and maybe it was because they caught them off guard. They went very early in the morning, attacked, killed a bunch of the Ammonites, and whoever wasn't killed was just running, just every man for himself. Two of them were not together. So it was a great victory for God's people. And it says in verse 12, And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? Bring the men that we paid, put them to death. And Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day, for today the Lord hath brought salvation in Israel. Now, should those people have really been put to death, just because of what they said? Just because they said that they didn't like the king? No. Obviously they shouldn't have been put to death. And Saul in his wisdom said, No, you know, we don't need to put them to death. So we still see at this point that Saul is a very humble man. All the way after this story, the last chapter we saw, the chapter before, he was a humble man, he was little in his own sight. He's working hard, he's doing what he's supposed to do. Spirit of the Lord upon him. And even when a chance comes for him to basically silence his enemies, and to kill all those who had stood against him and railed on him, he doesn't take that opportunity. He says, No, we're not going to do that. We're not going to put anybody to death this day. And notice what he says, For today the Lord hath brought salvation in Israel. So he's giving God the glory, because basically they're saying, Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? Bring the men that we may put them to death. So who are they giving all their credit to in verse 12? They're giving all their credit to Saul. Where are those guys that said Saul shouldn't reign over us? Let's kill them. Because look what Saul just did for us. He just won this battle for us. But Saul turns around and gives God the glory. He says, There shall not a man be put to death this day. For today the Lord hath brought salvation in Israel. So at this point, he's doing everything right. I mean, Saul's doing everything. He's giving God the glory. He's fighting the right battles. And then it says, Then says Samuel, verse 14, to the people, Come and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there. And all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. And there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord. And there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. So now he is truly king. He has truly come into his kingdom. He's proved himself in battle. He's delivered the people. The threat of the Ammonites is gone. Now they can just go to governing themselves. And that's why in chapter 12, we see where, you know, Samuel basically gives the final thoughts on the fact that they have chosen a king instead of God to rule over them. It was still God that saved them. He just used Saul to do it. And so I think the biggest thing that we learn from this chapter is just, If God is with us, we're going to win the battle. There's no need to compromise. You know, when it comes to our church, you know, we want our church to grow, and we want our church to thrive and succeed. It's not going to succeed because of compromise. You know, we could compromise and try to maybe soften things up just a little bit to bring in some additional people. But I'll be honest with you, I just don't even want those people. The people who are looking for something a little bit softer, a little more compromised. Because those people won't be satisfied with that. Because tomorrow they'll be mad about something different. You know what I mean? And what I often say is, if they don't like it today, they won't like it tomorrow. Because, you know, I've preached sermons that have made people angry, and then they quit the church. But really, almost in every case, if they hadn't have left the church over that sermon, a couple weeks later it would have been something else. Because there's two kinds of people in this world. There's those who'd like to hear the truth preached, and they like to take a hard line, and they like to take a stand, and then there are the ones who want it compromised. There are basically the Sauls of this world, and then there are the Jabeskilians of this world. You know, the Jabeskilians of this world say, well, let's compromise with the world as long as it doesn't get too bad. Because they basically wanted to make that covenant until they found out what the covenant was, getting their right eye punched out. Now, if the Ammonites had never suggested that, they would have just made a treaty with the Ammonites and been a slave to the Ammonites for the rest of their life. And even when they did that, only because Saul hacked up some cows and mailed it out to all Israel, did he even get them rallied to fight. Because before he did that, they weren't even getting any help. And they would have gone and actually submitted to having their eyes punched out. And so we see that there are the Jabeskilians of this world who are the compromisers, and they end up getting humiliated, they end up looking like a fool, they end up failing and being a slave to the world, being a servant to sin. And then there are the Sauls at this stage in his life, filled with the Spirit, angry at compromise, angry at the devil, angry at sin, and refusing to budge, taking a hard line and being a leader. And you know, this chapter also shows the importance of leadership. You know, when you didn't have a leader here, they didn't have a chance at this. They didn't have any hope. I mean, there was no Saul in Jabes, rallying the people. And so throughout the Bible, we see the importance of a strong leader that can rally people. And we need leaders today. We need leaders all across America, in every city in this country, that would rally people and to stand up and tell people, don't compromise, don't give in, don't change. Don't change with the times. You don't have to be contemporary. You can be old-fashioned, you can stay by the stuff, and God can bless us. We can win the fight anyway. One of you shall chase 1,000, and two of you shall put 10,000 to the flight. And so really, it's a great chapter on not compromising and on fighting the Lord's battle. Bless our eyes and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your Word, dear God, and for this chapter in your Word. And thank you for the story that can teach us about standing on our ground, standing tall, not compromising, drawing a line in the sand and not being willing to budge. And, Father, I pray that you just help every single person that's here to decide what they believe. And, you know, everyone believes different things and has different convictions, but, God, help every single person to decide what they believe and to understand why they believe it and to be willing to stand on it and not budge from that conviction. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. All right, let's sing another song before we go. Let's sing 127, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." Song number 127. 127. Let's sing it out. It's so sweet to trust in Jesus Just to take him at his word Just to rest upon his promise Just to show thus did the Lord Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him How I proved him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus Oh, for praise to trust him more Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus Just to trust his cleansing blood Just in simple faith to plunge me Meet the healing cleansing flood Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him How I proved him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus Oh, for praise to trust him more Yes, it's sweet to trust in Jesus Just from sin and self to cease Just from Jesus simply taken Life and rest and joy and peace Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him How I proved him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus Oh, for praise to trust him more I'm so glad I learned to trust him Precious Jesus, Savior friend And I know that Thou art with me Will be with me to the end Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him How I proved him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus Oh, for praise to trust him more I was so winning one time and I talked to this person and they said, well My husband's Catholic and I'm Baptist So we compromise and go to a Lutheran You know what? It's still wrong It's still the devil, you know what I mean? So compromising doesn't get you anywhere So that's just a perfect illustration of what I'm talking about And that's another reason why I'm glad that my wife And I, you know, 11 years of marriage, you know that we're equally yoked And that's why it's so important to marry someone who's going the same direction as you Because if you try to compromise later, you know with the devil I'm just kidding, hopefully you don't marry the devil You know, you try to compromise with an unsaved spouse A Catholic spouse, or you know Some other variety of unsaved spouse, you know, your kids Are going to end up, you know, getting infected with that stuff Alright, well dismissed, thanks for being here