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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

But in a way, we are studying a little bit about a man in the Bible called Saul. Saul, not the apostle Paul, but Saul in the Old Testament. Who was Saul? Well, you know they had a problem with Eli and his sons, and then they had a big problem with Samuel and his sons. So they said, we want us a king like the other nations. We want us a king. And so the Lord warned them, he said, you know, you get a king, well he’s He’s going to take your sons and your daughters.

He’s going to take some of your land. He’s going to be able to military and all kind of stuff like that. He’s going to take things from you. Well we want to say King. And they didn’t want God directly ruling over them. They wanted a King. They want to be like all the other nations. So Saul was very upset. And the Lord says, they’re not mad at you Saul. mad at me. It’s kind of like sometimes you think people take him not on you and it’s not really you that’s the problem.

It’s that they got a problem with the Lord and you just represent the Lord. And kind of like when in the New Testament, you know, Paul was in very rebellious and he thought he was doing God a service. And he was just getting Christians and putting them in jail and persecuting them and all. And so the Lord, bright light struck him down one day. And he says, why persecut us now me? Because when he was persecuting the Christians, he was persecuting Christ.

And so God takes it personally. So here you are, you’re God’s child you’re going to heaven when you die. Well, you’re about to suffer for the Lord. But it’s not really you that people are upset with. It’s what you represent. It’s who you represent. Well, they one of the King. So the Lord said, all right, we’ll give you a King. And so look there in verse 7 of 1st Samuel chapter eight, verse Samuel chapter eight, and the Lord said unto Samuel, this is on page 326 in the Bible that’s in the pew there in front of you.

And so he says, and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them. So there’s always people are looking, well, we’d serve better if we didn’t have to deal directly with God. And I guess there’s people like that. I just really like knowing the Lord. I’m so glad that I don’t have to go through the church to go to the Lord or go through the preacher to go to the Lord.

I’m His child. You know who I am. I’m His child. So I get to go immediately straight to the Lord and I can talk to the Lord at any time that I want. Isn’t that great to know and that’s what he’s talking about. So he told him, he says, down in verse 13, and he will take your daughters to be confectioners and to be cooks and to be bakers and he will take your fields and your vineyards and your olive yards and even the best of them and give them to his servants and he shall take the tenth or the tax your seed and your vineyards and give his officers to his and to his servant.

He’s gonna do all of this. Down in verse 7, he shall take the tenth of your sheep and you shall be his servants and you shall cry out in that day because of your king which you shall have chosen you and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” In other words, you’re going to wine and pine and moan and groan down the road. He says, I’m going to remember, I told you so. You know some people just don’t listen and they don’t learn because Most people are hard-headed.

Now, this was way back then. Now you and I know we’re not like that today. That was 3,000 years ago. People are not hard headed today, are they? I mean, we don’t want to just go our own way and do our own thing. The Bible is the Word of God. It is truth. And we’re supposed to study truth. You know, some people like to talk about, well, we just need to love everybody. And doctrine is so important. divisive. So we don’t want to talk about doctrine because that dividesagascar.

Let’s just talk about loving rg. Now that sounds good . But if you do not love according to doctrine, you’re not loving biblically. You’re not loving according to the Lord. There are things that God says to love and things God says not to love. So just using love as your guide is not a good guide. Use doctrine. Go by what the word of God says. There’s something God calls sins, but people don’t call it sin. Do you think that people today call a lot of the things they justified doing as sin or we love each other?

Is it still wrong for men with men and women with women? But because they call it love, well, then that’s okay. No, it’s not. Love is not to be the guide of our life. truth. Thy word is truth. St. If I am through thy truth, speaking the truth in love, but speak the truth. Believe the truth. And so that means you must know what the Word of God has to say. But he says, this is what’s going to happen to you.

But anyway, we want to be like all the rest of them. So look in chapter 9. Now Now there was a man of Benjamin and this man Kishy, he had a son. And his son looked there in verse 2, he had a son whose name was Saul a choice young man and then goodly. And there was not among the children of Israel a goodly of person than he. From his shoulders and upwards he was higher than any of the people.

He had shoulders above everybody. He must have been a man’s man. He could have played basketball. Maybe it’d been a good football player, huh? I mean, this guy was big. He was huge. But he was what people would look to if, you know, we want a king to represent a, so God gave him a choice young man. Now this man in his own eyes, he didn’t brag about himself. He wasn’t, you know, built up in his own eyes as some great thing.

He was a humble man and he didn’t ask to be king. The Lord chose him to be the king. And so the Lord told Samuel, I want you to go and anoint him to be the king of Israel. And so this is what happened. Now look in verse 15 of chapter 9. 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, 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, this same shall reign over my people.” So Samuel of Prophet of the Lord unknowned him to be the king of Israel. So the Lord told him that he was going to be the man of his choice and man from the tribe of Benjamin, hidden shoulders above everybody else. He looked like a king, but now in chapter 10 of 1 Samuel. But notice what was going on here in verse five, after that thou shalt come to the hill of God.

Where is the garrison of the Philistines, and it shall come to pass when thou art come to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place where they softery and a tablet and a pipe and a heart before the and they shall prophesy and the spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shalt prophesy unto them and shall be turned into another man. So God has his prophets that were out and evidently these prophets were going around the country doing a little soul winning.

This was a soul group because they were going and they were teaching the Word of God. And so here’s Samuel and he heard of these prophets and whatever they said. It turned him into another man. Now when the Bible talks about turning into another man, I believe he’s talking about Samuel heard the gospel, the good news of how he could be born again, child of God. Have eternal life. And so I believe he trusted Christ as his Savior, believed in the Messiah.

Because God wanted a man to lead his people and God needs a saved man. You see, God can raise up people and God can put down people. God can bring honor to a person and God can strip them of all honor and glory. Remember this, the Lord wants something. He wants to be praised and honored and glorified. And he doesn’t like it when people steal from him what belongs to him. Like the honor and glory. And so it’s amazing how God can use you and me if we will be thankful to the Lord for what He’s done for us.

If we will honor Him and give Him praise and give Him glory and look what God did for me. Or look what God did through me. And you realize that you’re only a vessel and God can use you and God can put you on a shelf and not use you. So it’s a wonderful thing to go through life knowing that I am the Lord and He is mine and He can use you. And so therefore I believe this is what happened to Him.

Look also, if you will there in chapter 11, things were not always going exactly right. The group that He had most trouble with was always the Philistines. Philistines were always irritating the nation of Israel. They were supposed to have gotten out of the land, but they didn’t do it. And so now there’s pockets of them and in a matter of time they grew pretty strong. Well the time came when Saul was going to have to face the Philistines. And he didn’t have many, most of his soldiers.

And he was outnumbered by the Philistines. And so Saul didn’t have very many of his or lights there. So they were afraid. And he told Samuel, says, Samuel, we don’t want to go into battle without you. He said, well, I’ll be there. Give me seven days. Well, seven days came. He didn’t show up. So when he didn’t show up, he wanted them to offer a sacrifice. So he decided he’ll just do it himself. Now the king has a job but not to be the priest.

And so he was not to be a priest. He was not supposed to do it, but he does it anyway. And Samuel was angry with them. And he says, what in the world have you done? But he went ahead and did it anyway. look in verse 11 of chapter 13. And Samuel says, what has thou done? Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattered for me and that thou came us not within the days of point them and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Micchmeshe.

He said, therefore said, the Philistines will come down now unto me to Gilgal and I have not made supplication unto the Lord. I forced myself, therefore, and offered a burnt off. I forced myself. I had to do it. Well, just what did he do? Well, because he became impatient. He didn’t wait. He took matters into his own hands. You know, there’s a time in the Bible where the Bible actually says that, you know, Abraham and Sarah got tired of waiting on God.

What wrong did they do? He said, you’re going to have a son. Well, time went on. And so what did Mrs. Abraham say to him? She says, why don’t you take Hagar and have a son? That’s how God’s going to do it. You’re supposed to have a son by Hagar. Well, she was a bonslave out of Egypt. So therefore, did he listen to his wife? Yeah, he listened to his wife. All right. So we have one time in the Bible where a man shouldn’t have listened to his wife.

Now we might say a little bit more about that later, but there’s always a price to pay when you disobey God. But the reason is because of impatience. You don’t see how God’s going to do something so you just take matters into your own hands and try to help God out. And so he forced himself. He didn’t want to do it, but he was forced. It wasn’t his fault. It was Samuel’s fault because he didn’t get there in time.

He was afraid that he was going to lose. What were the consequences? Still lost. And so he says, thou have done foolishly done in verse 13. Samuel said, thou has done foolishly. Thou have not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God. In verse 14 he says, now you are in a heap of trouble. The kingdom you have is not going to continue. It’s going to be given to somebody else, a man who seeks the Lord. He says here in verse 14, but now thy kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be a captain over his people, because thou have not kept that which the Lord commanded thee. You didn’t do what God says to do. Now you think he should have learned his lesson, but the Bible does tell us something. Now what you look over there in chapter 15, chapter 15 of 1 Samuel. So as time goes on, Sangle comes to Saul and says, okay Saul, now there’s some other people that he had trouble with, not just the Philistines.

During he had trouble in one area of your life and don’t deal with it, you had trouble in another area of your life. Well now he’s got trouble with the Amalekites, the Amalekites. And the Amalekites is like that old sinful nature that lives inside of you. Every one of us who are born with a little Amaleka, a little terrorist that lives inside us. And what does he like to do? He likes to terrorize us. And so that’s what he does.

So you have that little tear inside. So God wants us to defeat that little tear that lives inside of us. And where he does that is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Graders, he that is in you, that he that is in the world. See the old sinful nature is in the flesh and the Bible says the flesh is part of the world. And we have a new birth, the Holy Spirit, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, and now you have the Holy Spirit in dwelling you.

And these two are battling all the time. So inside of my physical body, I have two births. One of the flesh when I was born to the world, was an old sinful nature, and that’s why we sin. That’s why we are rebased and go our own way. So when you trusted Christ as your Savior, He gave you a new birth. He didn’t change this one. See, this is where most people go wrong. They think God changed this first birth.

He didn’t change the first one. He gave you a new one. This one over here, see, this was born of God. Born of God, God’s the Father. Born of God, you’re the child. Born of God, no sinful nature. No sinful nature can’t sin. Can’t sin, can’t die. So this is the one that’s born of God. This is your new birth that’s going to heaven, but it lives inside of this old physical body. And you’re gonna have trouble with Amalek.

Amalek says, I had this piece of territory first and landed just dirt and this body is just dirt. She says, I had this property first. I could do anything I wanted. I looked at whatever I wanted, I went where I wanted, I said what I wanted, I became whatever I wanted, was what about what I wanted and now God says that body of yours has been bought and paid for it belongs to me now. But the O.M. elect still wants it.

That land didn’t God give that land to Israel? But see they were supposed to kick the Malachites out of there but they didn’t do it. So now they want that land. They want that land and so they’re always fighting for it. So Israel has problems on their hands. Just like you have problems with O Amalek living inside of you. So he told him and said, this is what I want you to do to Amalek. And verse one, Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people over Israel.

Now therefore hearken unto the voice of the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord of hosts. I remember that which Amalek did in Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. And that’s why they had trouble with Amalek when they were in the wilderness coming out of Egypt. And they had some wars on their hand with Amalek. And God says, I want to put them out of remembrance. Well, that time ain’t come yet.

So in verse three, he says, now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, spare them not, but slay both suckling and Ox and sheep, the women, the camel, ass, everything. Kill everybody. It’s how cruel, how cruel, how cruel. Well, it might seem cruel. But these are people that God had mentioned in the book of Genesis chapter 15 that the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. He was going to send them into the land, but he gave them hundreds of years to get things right.

So they were wicked people. They didn’t do what God wanted them to do. So God’s going to have to chase them. And so, and God deals. A lot of things we could say about that, but we’ll move right along here. Samuel was sick and tired of Saul, but he loved Saul. He tried to tell Saul, a worn saw, but Saul wouldn’t listen. See now he’s exalted himself in, lifted himself up as somebody that can rebel against God. See at one time he was so tender-hearted.

He was so submissive to do whatever God wanted him to do. But now time has rolled on and he’s gotten hardened and that’s what happens to you. It happens little by little and you don’t even know it’s taking place. Look what he says there in verse 17, back up just a tad here but I want you to see verse 17. And Samuel says when thou was little in thine own sight was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel and the Lord anointed the king over Israel.

But no, now you didn’t got too big for your britches. So God’s going to have to knock them down a peg or two. So when you’re humble in God’s eyes and you submit to the will of God and you’re little in your own eyes, it’s amazing how God can exalt you and raise you up. But get too big for your britches and God has ways of bringing you down. So now He’s disobeyed the Lord concerning the Philistines He disobeyed God concerning the…

He wasn’t supposed to make the sacrifice the same, he didn’t warn him about that. Now he’s told him to what to do with the Amalekites. So what happened to the Amalekites? Well, there was a problem, and he was told what to do, and he wouldn’t always obey. He did whatever he wanted. And he was kind of concerned because Because you see things were not working out exactly right. Because he wanted some inside information. He knew he was going to have to face those Philistines and the Amalekites.

But now he’s talking about the Amalekites and what he was supposed to do. Samuel comes there and lo and behold, Saul comes out there. We did it! We did it! We obeyed the Lord.” So he says here, oh, you did. Look in verse 12. And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel saying, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set him up on a place and has gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal.

Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. I have obeyed. I did what I was supposed to do. Pat me on the back, give me my rewards. I did the job. Did he? Did he do it fully? No, he didn’t. But see, sometimes, you know, you have God’s people, and they think it’s okay as long as I just serve the Lord a little bit. Some people want to serve the Lord just enough to keep God off their back.

But then they never know the full blessings of God. Because you see, they don’t totally commit themselves to say, you know, I’m a child of God. And I want to serve a little with all my heart. Well, in verse 13, where Saul said, I have performed the commandment of the Lord and verse 14, look what Samuel said.

What means then this bleeding of the sheep in my near and the loin of the oxen, which I hear? What’s this I hear? I mean I can hear some sheep. I have cattle. Where’d that come from? And Samuel said that to him in verse 15, Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalek, see it wasn’t he did that. They did that. The people they have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God and the rest we have utterly destroyed.

We utterly destroyed. But the people saved the best, the sacrifice to the Lord. Is that what God told them to do? No, God didn’t tell them to do that. So they taken matters into their own hands and once again I had people tell me this, Yankee, you serve God your way and I’ll serve God my way. And I said, if we both don’t serve God God’s way, we neither one served God. Isn’t that true? You’re not free just to serve God my own way.

No, no, you serve God God’s way or you don’t serve God. It’s not that you can pick and choose what area of commands that you want to obey the Lord. And we’re supposed to obey the Lord in every area of our life. Well, this area is off God. God, you don’t have nothing to do with this area over here in my life. I’ll give you this, but I’m not giving up this. No. If you’re going to serve the Lord and walk with the Lord, now you can have limited dedication, but then you’ll have limited blessing.

And then God is free to chasing you for the areas that you don’t discipline in your life and correct and yield to the Lord. So you can bring upon yourself the chasing hand of God. did Saul do what he did in a vacuum and nobody knew? No. God knows everything. If you want God to bless you, you’ve got to be honest with him and people it doesn’t matter. Be honest with God and you be upfront with the Lord and you be surprised what God will do for you but don’t have half-hearted dedication.

It will cost you sooner or later. So he says here in verse 16 and Samuel said on the song, stay and I will tell the what the Lord have said to me this night and He said to them, say on and Samuel says when I was little in thine own sight was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel and so on and then you go down here he says in verse 20 and Saul said unto Samuel Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me and have brought a gang, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

Well, wait a minute, if he’s still got a gang, isn’t he still alive? Then you didn’t utterly destroy all the Amalekites. Here’s the king, the Amalekites right here, you got him. And the people took of the spoiled, the sheep and the, oh, wait a minute, who’s the king? like somebody I know that passes the mark. He’s not taking responsibility of being king. You mean the people don’t obey you? You didn’t tell them? And how they’re going to sacrifice all this against the will of the king?

He’s a hypocrite. Hello friends. Thank you for listening to Bible line. And thank you to those who write in and tell us how Bibleline is making such a big impact in your lives. It’s such an encouragement when we receive your letters and emails. Can I ask, how is your prayer life? Does it need some help? Most Christians think of prayer as a secondary or last resort. Do you realize that Jesus spent hours upon hours in prayer to His Heavenly Father?

And yet we so often fail to practice prayer as a priority in our lives. Well during this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send you Dr. Arnold’s four sermon series on the power of prayer. Perhaps prayer is a shortcoming in your life, and this teaching is surely able to help. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you, and thank you again for supporting Bibleline.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.