Well, I invite you to turn tonight in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 11, 1 Samuel 11, as we're continuing our study in this wonderful book, and tonight we come to chapter 11. If you're visiting tonight, you'll find that on page 297, 297. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord, beginning at verse 1 of 1 Samuel chapter 11. Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, make a treaty with us and we will serve you. But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, on this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes and thus bring disgrace on all Israel. The elders of Jabesh said to him, give us seven days respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of israel then if there is no one to save us we will give ourselves up to you when the messengers came to gibeah of saul they reported the matter in the ears of the people and all the people wept out loud now behold saul was coming from the field behind the oxen and saul said what is wrong with the people that they are weeping so they told him the news of the men of jabesh and the spirit of god rushed upon saul when he heard these words and his anger was greatly kindled and he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of israel by the hand of messengers saying whoever does not come out after saul and samuel so it shall be done to his oxen then the dread of the lord fell upon the people. And they came out as one man. When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were 300,000, and the men of Judah 30,000. And they said to the messengers who had come, thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh Gilead, tomorrow by the time the sun is hot, you shall have your deliverance. When the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you that you may do to us whatever seems good to you and the next day Saul put the people in three companies and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day and those who survived were scattered so that no two of them were left together then the people said to Samuel who is it that said Saul shall Saul reign over us bring the men that we may put them to death but Saul said not a man shall be put to death this day for the Lord has worked salvation in Israel then Samuel said to the people come let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom so all the people went to Gilgal and they made Saul king before the Lord and Gilgal there they sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord and there Saul and all the men of israel rejoiced greatly and there is the reading of god's word and first samuel chapter 11 well i don't think i have to make a case tonight that one of the things that we greatly struggle with uh right now in our time uh probably more than ever in any in my short lifetime and everything that i've seen i've never seen such a struggle over leadership that then we're seeing right now The struggle for leadership and all of the problems that come in that arena and all of the sad divisions that I prayed about tonight, all of the problems that we're seeing when it comes to leadership. I mean, it really is true that if you're looking at things on a national level, our nation is in a leadership crisis. One of the things that I was thinking about in light of 1 Samuel 11 is that when we look at all the division that we're experiencing when we're looking at all the problems that are happening we really are reaping the consequences of a society that has turned its back on basic even morality we look at all the things that have happened and and we remember the cry of david so many years ago help lord for the godly man ceases how many people in our time are really calling out to the lord and look at the mess that we're in well i don't i think you know that there can be serious judgments upon leadership there can be serious judgments upon nations jesus talked about this i'm not really going to focus on national problems tonight i'm going to focus on the kingdom here in the in the arrangement that happened in the old testament and look at what happened since we see so much, so many challenges with leadership in Israel that what it's ultimately pointing to telling us that we need. Leadership that functions well. Think about this for a moment. Leadership in life that we have enjoyed. Leadership that has created unity. Leadership that has done well really is demonstrating something so beautiful before us. It's demonstrating the Lord's goodness. It really is, in every way. But we often don't recognize that. One of the things that has surprised me in our day and in our time is there seems to be this expectation that we deserve good leadership. We all seem to expect we should have good leadership. We all expect it just to come. And notice, though, that everyone is endlessly critiquing leadership. It's really a remarkable time my question is the basic question is what gives us the right really if you think about it to enjoy good leadership what gives us that do we deserve that do we ever deserve it we've just expected it and we expect ironically perfection in it tonight it's really demonstrating the uh simple truth before us that any experience of good leadership is a blessing from the lord and it comes by his strength now that we're especially looking at the kingdom of god notice here it comes by his strength and what we see here and that all throughout the lord has called upon israel to acknowledge him in any kind of blessing of good leadership that they have enjoyed from him. Think of how he's led them. Think of how he's cared for them. Think of how he delivered them and brought them out of Egypt. Think of all of the goodness that he showed to them, feeding them in the wilderness. Think of all of the blessing that they had received from him and they returned back upon him the terrible request, we want a king just like everyone else and not you to reign over us. It's the heart of it. Well, that's what we're looking at tonight. We're continuing our study of looking at this leadership crisis in Israel and that they have done this. They've asked for a king just like every other nation. We've looked at all the details of that. We've wrestled through that, that it wasn't necessarily wrong. It was the spirit that was behind it, that was rejecting the Lord, even though Leviticus and Deuteronomy particularly had given great instructions on what the king should be like. But here's this great tension that we've studied in the book of Samuel that God was willing to give them a king, but he was really clear what was wrong with their request. He was really clear in exposing the spirit behind it and their rejection of him. So after this struggle that we looked at last time, after this struggle and this great confrontation, here we have now the Lord answering their request and he has given them a king. The surprising thing here is that the opening scene is one of the brightest moments in all of the book. I mean, this really is Saul's great moment in the book. This is as good as it gets. Remember what the Lord said. The Lord said, if you and your king will honor me and you will worship and serve the Lord and you will put the Lord's commandments before you, it will go well for you but if not the hand of the lord will be against you well the first scene right out of the gates it's going very well in israel this is one of the high moments in the book it's pushing us to ask the question why did this particular moment go so well what happened that this went so well why did everything function so well in this particular chapter for by the time the covenant is renewed at Gilgal in the next chapter by chapter 12 and 13 the whole thing has tanked so soon so early the the lord in the in the next chapter in chapter um 13 when Saul goes out to fight the Philistines will say your kingdom will not continue by the time that episode is done so what happened here what is this one all about and that's what I want to consider with you briefly tonight the assault of Ammon the appearance of a deliverer and the accomplishment of the Lord you'll notice this here first this assault of Ammon as you begin chapter 11 I want you to remember the character that has been presented to us Saul he has not really been presented as a leader at all remember what happened he lost his father's donkeys he didn't go to find them he didn't know Samuel he didn't know God's prophet which means he didn't know God's word he is in the last chapter there were all sorts of clues that were being given to us by the Holy Spirit to understand the character of this man when when this the the spirit rushed upon him and he prophesied soon after his uncle had come to him and asked him about what had happened and what samuel had said to him and there was that glaring line he did not speak about the kingdom it was a we looked at this he's no prophet when they had summoned him they couldn't find him because he was hiding among the baggages he's a coward in other words this was um this was no choice really this was a bad choice if you if you're looking at it from a human perspective and this is what we've wrestled with of a leader but he was good-looking he was handsome he was tall he's everything that everyone would choose if you looked outwardly this is a big issue in the book of samuel is when remember david is being selected and samuel goes and he sees one of david's brothers and the first thing the lord says don't look outwardly lord doesn't look that way so so here's here is their choice in a sense even though god has validated it isn't an irony that saul's name means asked for you got what you asked for you'll see this is the whole point of it this is ironic so let's look at this first scene then we come out of the gates to the highest and best moment for Saul, and now he faces his first test. We read in verse 1 that Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged the men of Jabesh Gilead, and the first thing it says, the first thing you'll notice here is that Israel itself is not in a good state. In other words, they're in disarray. This is the imagery here, that they're not a united people. You'll remember the leadership struggle from the judges, that everyone was doing what is right in their own eyes. Under Samuel's leadership, he had recovered a lot but remember as time had passed and samuel became old the same things happened again and israel was again separate and they had a leadership crisis and these major internal divisions had happened in israel the tribes seemed to be spread strangely so that the east bank of the jordan the tribes on the east bank are very vulnerable to attack remember the philistines had taken all their weapons. There were no blacksmiths earlier. There are people who are powerless. There are people who have no weapons. There are people who were not really prepared for battle in the best way. They had somewhat worked to replenish those weapons, but for years they had been without them. So here we are. We have a people who really have no unity spiritually, a lot like the time of the judges and what do we have of course at moments like this is that the enemy takes advantage it's always how it is isn't it it's always how it is nahash the strong leader of the ammonites comes at them you'll remember when jephthah had had come he had taken 21 cities from the ammonites they were enemies but the ammonites were interesting you know who the ammonites were They were a result of Lot and his daughters in the cave. They were distant relatives to Israel, but they hated each other. The strategy of Nahash was to take Jabesh Gilead. He was making threats to bring them into slavery. They were willing, the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were willing to make a treaty. They were so scared of Nahash and the Ammonites. And Nahash replies by saying, that's fine. I'll make a treaty on one great condition, that all of you gouge out your right eyes. It says it follows up that he wanted to bring great shame. He wanted to shame the people of Israel and Jabesh Gilead. There was an attack here that was really targeted to bring two great things, two things to Israel. the attack was designed to disarm and to disgrace think about that for a moment the attack was to disarm and to disgrace why everyone knew at this time that uh in battle if you had a shield you were always covering the left eye if you cover if you gouge out the right eye you have no offensive attack whatsoever you are a lame duck this was a way to shame them and totally disarm them and disgrace them um it's one of these moments where you study the old testament and you look at the tactics of of the evil one and you look at the tactics of the nations and you see so much of what the psalms are telling us calling down the lord's help because of the enemy and we typically talk when we talk about the three sworn enemies of the world the devil and the flesh we like to focus on the flesh but really the psalms are often calling us to seek deliverance from the actual physical external enemies that are coming at us and this is one of those cases where we see the strategy of satan so clearly here and when you think about it you see the strategy often in the church today the tactics are exactly the same the tactics of satan against god's people today are to disarm and to disgrace. That's why few want to take us seriously anymore. He's been great at disgracing us. And He's worked hard to disarm us. You can take this even more personally if you will. The enemy wants to make us powerless to fight it all. In other words, He wants to take your eyes and He wants to bring them right into bondage. You know where I could go with all that. He wants to shame you by showing your failures everywhere. He wants, notice we're in this obsession in our society to shame people now as far back as we can go. High school, pictures, everything. He has one great goal. It is to expose your life. It is to render you powerless. And it is to disgrace you to this world as God's people. this is what he wants to do the enemies from without are just as real as the enemies within trust me and it's something we have to take very seriously the lord is constantly showing us in inspired psalms something that we'll see with david deliver me oh lord for my enemies and i think these prayers in the future are going to mean a lot more i really do now what does all to say to us something very simple that you know we need a savior we need a savior you know that's word is used three times in this passage savior we need a savior it's fascinating that that's what samuel used to describe israel's need here the men of jabesh gilead say let's go see if there's anyone who can save us and if no one can save us then we'll give ourselves to you well isn't that about the whole truth of it all if there's no savior we become slaves Israel knew this history well we see here in verse 5 that all the people come and they speak to Israel and Saul is coming into the field in verse 5 behind the oxen and Saul looks up and he sees Israel and the people weeping as this report has come in Jabesh Gilead. And Saul says, what are you weeping about? It's really this amazing moment in the life of Saul because it's really prodding us here and showing us what a leader should be. the lord is really showing us what a leader should be and i love this for that what a king is what a leader is uh in the bible you have types and you have anti-types you have all these things that are are working to show us uh sometimes jesus in a very uh from old testament figures who look a lot like him and then you'll look at somebody who's a total failure and then you'll realize well that doesn't look like Jesus, and that's how we look for a true Jesus. In this case, you have a type in Saul that shows us a lot about Jesus. There are three things here I want you to notice about Saul's leadership that shine in the text. The first is something that we don't think a lot about. When he heard the report that God's people were under assault from the enemy, what happens? It's this. His anger was greatly kindled. And you stand back and you say, well, that's not a very good quality for a leader. And I say, yes, it is. One of the best qualities for a leader. This was righteous anger. This was an anger that had overcome this man that the flock of God was being tampered with and under assault. and in a display of what we would call the worst kind of toxic masculinity, nobody laughed. I mean it. This would make us very nervous today about this man. He has overwhelming righteous anger for the sheep. And I first say that to be an effective leader, there has to be this kind of righteous indignation over the attack of the enemy on God's people. Jesus said when somebody sees the wolf coming and does nothing about it, it displays that he is merely a what? Hireling. There will be no good leadership without righteous indignation against those who are seeking to harm the sheep. when you look at Jesus, you see a man who walking in his earthly days had such zeal for the Lord, but I can never get over the moment when he walks in the temple, the place that's supposed to be a place of worship. And he looks around, and he sees the whole thing had become a marketplace. Completely abusing what the intention of the temple was. It was his father's house, But that house was designed to be what? A place of prayer for all the nations. They had taken that all away. So what does he do? In righteous indignation, he makes a whip and he flips tables and he runs them all out of there. You will not do this to my father's house. The first moment of Saul's glory is this. Righteous indignation. So what does he do? He commands the people, your oxen will be cut up, who does not come out and be made ready today for battle, he musters them and he gathers them 300,000. And did you notice the great statement there? He didn't say he's going to cut them up, by the way. Your oxen will be cut up. He's leading them. He's uniting them. He's bringing them together. And when that happened, the fear of the Lord came on the place. Did you see that? Great fear of the Lord came upon the people. What do you say to the second? fruit of a good leader and a king is he brings unity he unites the people he makes them as one man did you see that they all became as one man a good leader leads by giving direction a good leader is committed to their best interests a good leader unites people together what a beautiful thing happens when a leader in the church and leaders step up and this is the kind of fruit that happens righteous guarding of the flock and a unity in the leadership that commands and the people want to come together under it when the church is united when our homes are united when these things are united you're enjoying this kind of leadership stay with me I have more to say about this but this takes us right to Jesus you ever thought about what his concern was when he was on the earth well you find it in what he prayed about and what did he pray about Father I pray that they would be one as we are one one man right here that they would be one he'll finish that this is what heaven's going to be he will have a people completely united together you know that's the unity he will achieve he brings us together he unites us in righteous zeal for his people to protect the flock of god and then he equips us for the battle for the fight notice this third thing what do you see happen Saul then leads and what happens tomorrow by the time the sun is hot you will have your deliverance you'll have your salvation so that we read in verse 11 the next day Saul put the people in three companies and they came in the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day and those who survived were scattered so that not two of them were left together and they are all saying salvation has been worked in Israel. What does a true leader do? He leads people to deliverance. Well, who are you looking at? Who are you looking at? Jesus. When he came, he went for us and he went ahead of us and he fought the battle and won for us at the cross and he was resurrected and he was seated and He unites us and equips us to fight the battle. A battle that He's already won. This is what Hebrews 12 is saying to us when it says, listen, run the race with perseverance that is marked out for you, fixing your eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter, author and finisher of your faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. Why do you do that? For you. Scorning its shame. Interesting, isn't it? sat down at the right hand of the throne of God consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you don't grow weary and lose heart he's won the battle he's fought it for you he despised the shame he went through the shame he took it for you this is what the cross is all about there's one more thing that Saul does here tonight um that is a absolutely beautiful bright spot. I want you to remember what was said at the end of the last chapter. Some worthless persons came along and said, can this man deliver us? The people said, bring them out. They're dead. And Saul says in verse 13, not a man shall be put to death today for the Lord has worked salvation in Israel. You know what this whole passage is showing us tonight? Saul wasn't doing the delivering. Saul wasn't doing the delivering. We looked at his character. He's a wimp. He's a coward. He hid. He didn't speak. This is not a guy who fights and wins battles for people. He was no shepherd. He was no deliverer. The most important verse tonight in the entire chapter is, you know, because I haven't touched on it yet, is verse 6, isn't it? I love it when your heads go down. It's the most beautiful thing as a pastor because I know you're looking at the Bible, so good job. Did you see what verse 6 says? And when he heard what happened, when the men were threatened of Jabesh Gilead, the Spirit rushed upon him. This we looked at last time is not, the problem with our discussion about Saul and the Spirit is we want to put it in salvific terms, and that is not what the Old Testament's doing with Saul. The Spirit is empowering Saul. It's empowering him for tasks, the Spirit is. All of the discussions about the Spirit that we have, Saul is not the figure to talk about when it comes to the sealing, saving, assuring work of the Spirit. That's not what this is about. The Spirit came upon him so that the Lord would show his goodness to Israel because this man was no leader at all. That's it. Only time Saul ever fulfilled and did anything profitable in this role as a king was when the Spirit rushed on him. That's it. Otherwise, he was a complete failure. So we shouldn't stand back and say, oh, Saul was such a good person. Why did the Lord not know that the message is the Lord was the good one empowering because Saul tanked the whole thing. God was good to Israel. And what was it all declaring to us? Well, it's declaring to us, we need a Savior. And it's nobody that we can produce. This is what I have to say. no matter what happens in our country and in our time, it troubles me that we put so much trust in changing times and in times where we might face persecution in somebody who we think is going to stop all that. Who's in control? Is this the leadership that we want? True leadership is righteous anger about right things, unites people, and delivers. I haven't met one earthly leader who can do any of those things perfectly. Not one. Whatever we've ever seen and any semblance of it has been the Lord's kindness to this fallen world. Do you understand that? It's always been. The whole episode is saying, don't put your trust in any princes. What are we saying about that? It's saying to us something so important about life. Israel should have seen it. They asked for a king when the Lord was their king. And they rejected the Lord in asking for a king. And through this awful mess that we're going to see unfold, the Lord's chesed, His loving kindness shines through in this. That He still will not let His people go and He will be their king. And it won't be by the hand of Saul or any mere man that he delivers. The Spirit must empower us. First message is, your King is Jesus. And He leads you in this way. What does He do for you? He protects you. He guards you. He shepherds you. He feeds you. He's righteously angry over the attacks on you. He unites us together, which He will, in fullness and glory. And He's delivered us. But what are we learning then as we go forward? You're learning a lot about the Spirit. The other day I was talking to somebody and I was out at the baseball field. My sons are playing baseball. And I'm talking to a dad. It turns out he's a believer and I know one of his sons. And we were talking about his son. He's a nice young man. And his dad was saying, yeah, you know, we've done things pretty well in the house. And I said, well, how do you respond? He's a dear Christian. But I said, you know, what I've learned is that if anything has gone well in our homes, it was the Lord. If anything's gone well in your life, it's the Lord. And who has He given to us? He's given us His Spirit who has not only sealed us for the day of redemption, but He empowers us for everything. And that Spirit, the Holy Spirit has never taken from us. If anything goes well in the church, it's because of the Spirit's work. You know, every time we preach, what we should be saying before we preach is what we used to do a lot of is the prayer of illumination, asking the Holy Spirit to specifically work on the life of the congregation and in your hearts so that the message would be heard. This is true for your life. You can't fight the battle without the Spirit. Did you notice the right eye is an issue here? You know, the devil wants to bring your whole body into bondage by attacking your eye. I wondered as I was writing this if this was on Jesus' mind in the Sermon on the Mount. I really did. I wondered if 1 Samuel 11 was on his mind when he says sin is so powerful that its goal is to completely take your eye. And all of you know what the eye does. It's in the context of adultery, looking and lusting. No one I know has ever gouged out their right eye because of sin. Do you? And He said, if your right eye causes your sin cause, cut out your right eye. Cut out your eye. No one I know has done it. Because nobody has the power in themselves to cut out sin. And what does this say? That any progress we make in this life is because of the Spirit. that that means is, is that central to our prayers and our life in the church should be this. We're under the same assault from the evil one. We've been given a savior who has saved us and our lives are in his anointing. You'll notice that the spirit is upon me, said Jesus to proclaim, to save. That anointing is upon us. And that leads us tonight to where I read in the Heidelberg. Think about this again why is he called christ meaning anointed because he's been ordained by god the father and anointed with the holy spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher who fully reveals to us the secret counsel and will of god concerning our deliverance our only high priest who has delivered us by the one sacrifice of his body saul's going to mess up on that point by the way and who continually intercedes for us before the Father and our eternal King. He's anointed to be our King who does what? Governs us by His Word and Spirit and guards us and keeps us in the deliverance that He won for us. Well, that's 1 Samuel 11. But then what about us in the battle? Why are you called a Christian? Because by faith I'm a member of Christ and I share in that anointing by the Spirit. i'm anointed by the spirit to confess his name to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks listen to this since he's king to strive with a free conscience against sin and the devil in this life and afterward to reign with christ over all creation for eternity i just think that's so helpful in light of everything Samuel is teaching us tonight in 1 Samuel 11. A scattered flock is a result of a people who have turned away from the Lord's rule in their life. You hear me? I'm talking about the church. A scattered flock is a result of people who turned away from the Lord's rule and are attempting to fight the battle themselves in the strength of someone who's not the lord's anointed but when the lord jesus christ is truly king over us in our lives and in the church we're going to be giving a lot of glory to him and whatever deliverance and help we receive from any leader in our lives of pastor elder father mother it's because of that gracious reign and because he has in his anointing anointed you. Anointed you, giving you a provision of his spirit, empowering and sealing you. We'll look more at that to demonstrate his great care and leadership and love in your lives. I think that's enough for Samuel 11 tonight. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you for this wonderful text tonight that shows us so much. The bright spot in Saul's ministry which is really the bright spot in this world of the Lord Jesus Christ. In all of the darkness and all the misery, You've given us a king. You've given us a true leader. And we are so grateful for how You have led us. We haven't deserved any of it. But You have been merciful and kind and You've demonstrated Your love to Israel and to your people in the fullness of time giving us a king who protects us, guards us, and keeps us in the deliverance that he won for us. What a wonderful truth. Make us a thankful people, a people who realize that in our own strength we can't fight this fight. Give us your spirit and strengthen us in your promises. And may, Lord, your name be proclaimed this week in our lives as we were anointed to confess, to present our bodies as living sacrifices and to strive against sin and the devil knowing that since Jesus reigns, we reign too. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.