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

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