Father, we thank Thee for our sense of helplessness this morning. That, dear Lord, is the cry of a heart that Thou, in the midst of it, wilt be the strength, the anointing. Thou wilt minister Thyself to the people, and there will be no calling out of the reservoir of our own knowledge, but, O dear Lord, out of the life-stream of Thyself.
Make this to be very evident and real. We look to Thee. We pray, Lord Jesus, that Thou, Who alone art worthy, shalt be glorified, for this will be sure to give Thee praise and honor and glory. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
We were saying last evening, in getting acquainted, how wonderful it is to see the unique place of David in the larger program of God. This is a relating of things to Him.
There is such a proneness in us: we always relate everything back to ourselves. “I wonder what purpose God has for me.” That is not my burden. It is not primarily, “What does God want to do in and through you?” but, “What is He doing in the larger scope of things, and how are we related to it?”
We spoke of Abraham’s unique place—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as founding fathers. Then, out of Egypt, God brought the people through the deliverer, Moses. Probably we can say of Joshua that he was the possessor.
Then we went through the period of the judges, and I want this morning for us to see two men in contrast: Saul and David.
This is my concern, however. I believe that the largest difficulty with His people is that the moment they begin to see something of the larger program of God, they want to rush out to help Him. But He is not interested in that. That is our big problem.
The minute we see something, oh, how we get drawn and pulled to get our wheels moving and to help the Lord fulfill and realize it. I hope that this morning we will be able to see what God is having to do in so many of the lives of His workers and His people: a complete renovation of some of the old concepts, even our better fundamental concepts, to get us to the place where we begin to see things as He does them—how it is of Him.
After we get through, maybe that will be a little clearer this morning. I trust it will be.
Let me turn our attention to a couple of verses that will give us the theme as we consider David now, and how God brings his life into fulfillment.
I will not ask you to turn, but I will pick a phrase out of 2 Samuel 23, where it says, “the man who was raised on high,” speaking of David.
The man who was raised on high.
In Psalm 89:19-20, we have these words:
I have exalted one chosen out of the people;
I have found David.
But I want us to turn now to Acts 13 again, and take another phrase from Acts 13:21-22:
And afterward they desired a king:
and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
And when He had removed him, He raised up unto them David to be their king;
to whom also He gave testimony, and said,
I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after Mine own heart,
which shall fulfil all My will.
Now, I believe that the easiest way for us to get under strain is to get our eyes on all that needs to be done, get a little glimpse of the will and purpose of God, and then try to go out and do it.
I do not know about you, but there have been times when there has been such an overwhelming in the soul when I have seen this, and yet so little being done. You begin to cry out, “Lord, I am not getting anything done for You.”
Well, maybe there will come some rest, and we can get rid of that strain. We can see the way by which the Lord does it—the way by which God has chosen, out of life, to effect and realize.
You bear with me for a little bit this morning as I scribble again on the board and try to get something of a pattern before us.
I would like for us to say, first of all, man’s way, by which man attempts to achieve, fulfill, and realize for God. Then we want to take, by contrast, God’s way, as we look at two lives: Saul, who is the choice of the people, and finally David, who was raised up of God.
Let me go back and approach it this way. I think it is interesting to notice that when man wants to get something done for God, he is always prone to say, “Lord, if I just had a place—if I just had a position—if I just had a pulpit, if I just had a position, then I could have a ministry. Then I could be used. I could be fruitful for You.”
Of course, we trust that if we get a position, that is the way we will get some experience. Experience comes, we say, out of having a place or position, a job to do. Then, out of the position, we will finally come to be what God wants us to be. We can be something for Him.
But I believe this is a total reverse to the way in which God works.
Let me illustrate it by putting this in reverse. If I understand it rightly—and I think it will come a little more clearly as we look at these two lives—here we have Saul, and this thing quite clearly demonstrated through him. Then we will take David.
God, first of all, works in our being, in what we are in nature. Out of that flows the proper experience, and in due time the position is forthcoming. It flows out of something else; it does not come first.
This is why we are saying now that it was the Lord Who raised up David, but it was the people who raised up King Saul and gave him a place.
I think I have noticed now, in these fifteen or twenty years of moving around among the Lord’s people, that so often the struggle that goes on within a fellowship, an assembly, or a church is a conflict of authority.
Here is the authority of one who has position. Then you have the authority of someone who has some experience. Then you have an authority that grows out of someone who has something wrought in his inner being.
Maybe I can illustrate. You bear with me now, but it is the best illustration I can use.
How often have I been invited into a church. Monday, I am invited out to Grandpa Brown’s for dinner. Quite strategically, after the meal, he says, “I must lay the burden of my heart before you, young man.”
He says, “You will discover it, so I will just tell you. We have a very fine young man who has been invited to be our pastor. He has gathered a group of young people around him—young married couples—and they are determined to have a building program and put up a new church. Then they will be able to draw a certain kind of people, and then they will be able to have the proper image in the community.”
There is old Grandpa Brown, who has been walking with God for forty or fifty years, with deep groanings, saying, “Buster, that is not God’s way.”
I know that he has learned some deep teaching and the principles of the Lord. He has had some experience with God. You might build outer framework and outer structure and all that goes with it. You might add a lot of people, but you are not really building the thing that God wants.
So he proceeds to tell me out of the experience and the things he has seen in the Word. Now, he has an authority that issues out of some experience. You follow me? He has been through some things.
The young man who has just come from Bible college has been inducted into a position, and he has an authority that issues out of the position that he has.
So I get home to the pastor’s where I am staying, and he says, “Well, I suppose Grandpa Brown told you about our problem.”
He says, “I knew he would, so I will tell you my side.” Here we have a conflict of authority. We have a man who has authority from position. We have another man who, through the years, has authority that issues out of experience.
Whether Grandpa Brown wants it or not, birds of a feather sort of flock together, and he has some of the old-timers, you know, who have been walking with God. You have a conflict going on.
I want to ask you, just who would you stand with? Well, we will see.
There is authority that issues out of the position one has. There is authority that issues out of experience one has achieved through years of learning the principles of God. But there is another authority that issues out of just what I am in being—what God has wrought.
I suppose this is close to experience, but I make a distinction, and you will see why. I think I have met some lives that really did not know how to handle the Book very well, but God strangely had taught them.
I think back to Salem, Oregon. We were there for about a year and a half. Oh, this is a long time ago, but I will never forget that dear old grandmother who lived in that area. She was pretty close to ninety, and she had walked with God.
There seemed to be something of the glory and the presence—the sense of God—with her. Pastors from that whole valley would slip in every time they got in a crisis.
She did not give them a lot of theological principle. But she would pray, and when they prayed, they seemed to get up knowing what God’s answer was. Something flowed—something of the flow of light out of her being.
I, as a young man who did not know much, was quite amazed that so many men would go to sit at the feet of a woman, to be honest with you. But they did. They did, and they knew that Grandma had something of God.
She belonged to the Free Methodist Church. This was in the days before they used instruments in the services.
The pastor told me one day, when he slipped into my office in the youth center, something that really amazed me. He said, “You know, we had a vote the other day. The conference gave permission for us to have pianos, but each local church now makes the final vote.”
“So we announced that Wednesday night, at the prayer meeting, we were going to take a vote as to whether we would have a piano. I went over to tell Grandma, but she could not get out. She had not been out for meetings for quite a while. She was much concerned when I told her what we were going to do, and I am sure she prayed all during the service that Wednesday night.”
He said, “When the vote was taken, she voted by proxy and sent her vote. When the vote was taken, it was eighty-nine to one, and we all knew whose vote that one was.”
He said, “I went over to inform her Thursday morning of what had taken place. I told her I was going down and buying a piano right away so that we would have one for Sunday.”
She looked at him with something of, “You are going to what?” He said, “Why, we voted. I am going down, and we are going to have a piano Sunday. I am going to buy one today.”
“Oh, no, you are not, son.”
Here is something of authority now. “Oh, no, you are not, son. You are not going to go down and buy a piano. If there is any piano that will move into that church, it will be that one over there.” She pointed to her own in the corner.
They told me—this was twenty years ago—that when I was there last year, they were still using Grandma’s piano.
Now, you know, a lot of people—hear me now—a lot of people would have complained and found some other person who was having some difficulty. The first thing you know, the society of those who mutually disagree would be gathering together to pray.
They do not all have pianos as their primary objective, but they are all disagreeing about something until they are agreed to disagree and praying about it. Yes, it is something good to have a prayer meeting about.
Well, I only mention this to say to you this morning: I will never forget Grandma Cooley. There was something that flowed, that issued out of a being for over seventy years that had walked with God.
There was a strange authority in her turning to her pastor and saying, “Oh, no, son, you will not. You will move them.” You see what I am getting at?
Now, I know it may sound strange to us, but I would like for us to see this morning, before we get through. We will go back to the book of Samuel, and we will follow through the life of Saul and then of David.
Strange as it may seem, I would like for you to consider—and I am open for correction, but I have a hard time changing; I am pretty convinced—that God stands with position first. He would have to, in the economy of things.
This so crosses us up when we begin to see that God honors government. God honors the authority that issues out of position.
Let us read in 1 Samuel. In 1 Samuel 8, the people begin to cry out for a king. Samuel had been the voice of God, and Israel had been a theocracy. Theocracy means that God is ruling over His people, and Samuel is the voice.
In 1 Samuel 8:1-5, it says:
And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.
And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,
and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways:
now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
The people apparently had some good reason. They knew that his sons were weak. Here is something of a weakness in Samuel, I believe. I am not sure that he was to institute this, but you know how a father will place his sons in position.
I think there is something of a groaning within the people. They did not mind Samuel being the voice of God, but now, what if they get some of his sons put in position? So they begin to cry out, “Give us a king, that we can be like the other nations.”
The thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” Samuel prayed unto the Lord, 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.
According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day,
wherewith they have forsaken Me, and served other gods,
so do they also unto thee.
Well, Saul is chosen to be king. We read on in 1 Samuel 9:15-17, where he is anointed:
Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came, saying,
To morrow 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 come unto 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.
Then we go on to 1 Samuel 10:1:
Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said,
Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over His inheritance?
He did not take a horn; he took a vial of oil. We will see in a little while why.
Then Samuel begins to plead with the people. He is saying that they have missed the best that God had. They wanted a king, and he warns them of some of the difficulties that will come because they are taking an alternate way—a way that is not the real choice of the Lord.
Finally, we come to 1 Samuel 12. Here is Samuel pleading.
Samuel says in 1 Samuel 12:6-8:
It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron,
and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.
Now therefore stand still,
that I may reason with you before the Lord
of all the righteous acts of the Lord,
which He did to you and to your fathers.
Who had advanced Saul? The people had.
Is it not interesting? We have been reading in these other verses: it is the Lord Who raised up David; it is the Lord Who advanced Moses and Aaron. Here is Samuel reminding them.
In 1 Samuel 12:12-13, he says:
And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you,
ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us:
when the Lord your God was your king.
Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired!
and, behold, the Lord hath set a king over you.
Underline that: “the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired.”
Is it not strange that in their begging and pleading, God, in this alternate course, goes along and says, “All right. If you want this man, and you want to give him a position, you want him to be king, I will allow it. I will anoint him to be king.”
But He is saying all the way through, “It is you who have chosen it, and you desired it. You are going to have to suffer the consequences.”
Let me see if we can bring this down into a more practical area. It is interesting to notice, as we go along now, that Saul is given a position, but he has never had anything wrought in his life. He has no background, no experience. There is nothing of preparation in his inner being. He is not ready for the position.
But man’s way is to give a man a position, and then he will get experience. Out there on the pedestal, in front of everybody, he has to learn.
It is something to have a position before you are prepared for it. How many times have I looked at some sweet little lass who comes in and says, “Brother Frantz, I am in love with John, and we are going to get married.”
Especially if I had known John a little bit, I have said so often, “I wonder, young lady, if you know what you are doing. Are you ready to give John the position of lord in your home—that is, of head in your house, of your head?”
Well, you know, love is so blind. She looks down and says, “Oh, I love John. It will sort of work out. I have prayed about it so long, and he is just the one.”
It seems that no amount of counseling or trying to prepare her can make her see that she is giving a position to someone. From that position, John is going to have to learn some experience—learn how to be what he should be.
But, oh, the years of learning. He has not been through it.
Do you not know, six months later, the young lady comes in? I see such a different look on her face, and she says with tears, “Brother Frantz, you have got to listen. John just does not seem to have any ability to run our home. Last week he took our whole paycheck and spent it on his jalopy, you know, buying things for it. He does not know how to handle money.”
The undertone of her groan is, “Do I have to obey God? He does not have experience. He has never had it. He does not know anything. Do I have to obey John? What do I do?”
Now we are on real touchy ground. But we always are when you are touching the things that are vital.
There are those who always say, “Well, Mary, disobey the Lord. Just obey the Lord. John will learn.”
Yes? Who does God stand with? Who does God stand with?
All the struggle that goes on in this dear heart while she hears the Word reiterated again: “Young lady, you have given this man a position for which he was totally unprepared.”
This is man’s way. He has a position now. He is your husband. Now he is going to learn experience, and God will go on. God has not counted the whole thing out. He just says, “All right, this is your way. We will have to let him learn some experience now. I am trying to do something in his inner being. I am trying to get him out of a wrong union. I am trying to bring him to a place where he can learn something in his innermost being of the ways of the Lord.”
Here we are.
This is a problem that carries over all the time. We were dealing with the church a little bit ago—the conflict of Grandpa Brown and the pastor.
I have letters, and people come all the time saying, “Oh, Brother Frantz, we have a fine young fellow who is pastor. He has a position, but he does not have much experience. He does not know the ways of the Lord. What do we do?”
Well, the American way is to vote him out. After all, he was voted in. Why not vote him out?
No, we do not have theocracy. Now, do not misunderstand me. We are real thorough; we believe in democracy. If the fellow will not go, we will starve him out.
Now, you do not believe that is true. I can show you some letters going on right now where a pastor said, “You did not put me here; God did, and I do not intend to move.” The people have said, “Well, we will help the Lord a little differently then,” and they are starving him right now.
Oh, the turmoil that is going on in what I call religious ecclesiasticism today, that has set up their Saul: someone with a degree, someone with the image, head and shoulders, who looks the part. He is the image of what we want to draw and win people.
But I want you to see what they got when they got Saul.
In 1 Samuel 13, we have a man with position who has no ability to lead the people.
Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,
Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel;
whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in mount Beth-el,
and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin:
and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent.
Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines in Gibeah, and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear.”
Israel heard it said that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines and that Israel had become an abomination with the Philistines. The people were called together after Saul to Gilgal.
The Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel: thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude.
When the men of Israel saw that they were in distress, the people hid themselves in caves, thickets, rocks, high places, and pits. Some of the Hebrews went over Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
I do not blame them. I would tremble too with that kind of a general. You wonder why? He does not know how to get a word from the Lord. We will see a little later this week, probably.
He knows that the customary way, when you need divine guidance, is to go to the altar at Gilgal and make an offering. Somehow, the Lord will send an answer down. “We do not know what to do.”
Now, I am not being facetious. He has no background of acquaintance, no personal way by which God, in the hour of crisis, can come in and give the direction that is so much needed.
Hear me: it is strange, but God always precipitates those hours of crisis for this man in order that, through it, He can establish him. The crisis is not bad; it is good. How else will he be established in his position?
Moses had to be established. Every man of God, everyone who has ever moved on with God, has always had the challenging of authority.
But when God, in His own way, has been able to do some preparing in the heart and life of that individual, then they are equal to the position.
Let me see if I can illustrate. You remember how God was preparing the man after His own heart. Here was a boy out with his father’s sheep, tending them in the wilderness.
One day, I cannot help but believe that up to this time there had been something of a strange and wonderful communion and union developing in the heart of David as he responded to God.
God precipitates a crisis. Here comes the bear. Here comes the lion. Let us take the lion. What does he do in the midst of this first physical crisis?
I do not think I am reading into it, but I believe he simply looks up, as a helpless lad would, and says, “O God, this is Your hour.”
God gives him the strength to tear the lion asunder. Very simple, very small, but it is the beginning of a man who is moving into union, moving into the sharing of the life of the Lord.
Something in his being is in tune with God, and out of it he issues in an experience. “Well, Lord, that is wonderful. You do give strength in the moment of crisis.”
There is something of a position that issues out of what has happened in him—experience that has been wrought, and what has come from it. But that is just preparation for a bigger lion.
One day this boy went out to visit his brothers. Here were the armies of Israel on one slope, and the opposing armies on the other. A big old giant by the name of Goliath stood there laughing: “Is there any among you who will dare to come out and fight me?”
David sees that this is not merely a man challenging another man. This is the enemy challenging the people of God.
David does not merely step immediately into this position. There had been some preparation previously. Do you see that? He had met this lion before. He just changed his coat. It is the same lion. Hear me: it is the same lion.
That day, when something of the inner voice of God speaks, and he hears the challenge—God is being challenged—he dares not let the glory and the name of the Lord be challenged by this one.
He moves out with his slingshot and five stones. He puts off the armor that has been given him, but he moves out. You know the lion that falls.
I think every time I used to read these things, I would shudder and say, “Oh, Lord, I am not ready for that kind of a position.”
But the Lord’s sweet voice always seemed to say, “Son, I never push anybody into a position for which they are not prepared.”
The preparations of the Lord: first the lion, the physical; then Goliath. But that is just preparation for another one.
Someday, I do not know whether we will get through to it, but we talked about warfare on three levels and overcoming: first, the physical realm. Here he tears the lion and the bear asunder.
I think I can see, in the realm of the giant, all the war of the soul, all that rises up to antagonize. But when he faces the third lion—I mean the lion in its third phase—it is old King Saul himself.
You know the story. You know how David flees through the wilderness, and you read all of the Psalms. Again and again he cries out. You sense that there is something of an atonement in the midst of his fear, yet God is working. God is working to prepare.
I say that each lion is preparation for a lion on another phase. Here is the spiritual; here is the kingdom phase—the spiritual aspect when old Saul is after him.
So we are saying now, in 1 Samuel 13, that Saul was unprepared. By contrast, God has been preparing Himself a man. Scripture says He has been preparing him in his inner being, bringing about a union.
Out of experience comes reality, and out of it there flows a new position each time. But Saul got his position first. So he has to learn out there on the pedestal, in front of everybody.
Oh, I look back at some of those first days when I was thrust out trying to do some ministering—so often thrust into position. It is quite a thing, out in front of everybody, to make all your mistakes. We are making messes anyway, but it is quite a thing to get all your experience right out in front of everybody.
God does have hidden ways—back in the sheep cote. God does have ways of preparing.
Saul is in a crisis. Here is the proof now in 1 Samuel 13. The people are following him, but I think they see his knees knocking, and that is why they tremble.
He does not move with any principle. There is nothing in the background. Nothing has been prepared in his life. He trembles when he speaks.
In 1 Samuel 13:8-12, we read:
And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed:
but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.
And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings.
And he offered the burnt offering.
Here is a man who does not know. But he knows one thing: he has to have a word from God. The way you get it is to go to the altar and offer. But he does not know that he is not prepared.
Samuel comes, and it came to pass, as soon as Saul had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him.
Samuel said, “What hast thou done?” Saul said:
Because I saw that the people were scattered from me,
and that thou camest not within the days appointed,
and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash;
therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal,
and I have not made supplication unto the Lord:
I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.
A desperation move.
Samuel said unto Saul:
Thou hast done foolishly:
thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which He commanded thee:
for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.
But now thy kingdom shall not continue:
the Lord hath sought Him a man after His own heart,
and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over His people,
because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.
He has not rejected him merely because the people gave him a position. God was saying, “All right, this is the man you want. We will allow him to learn. We will allow him to be established, but it will have to be through the crisis in this way.”
I want you to bear in mind one thing: there are only two people who know this so far—Saul and Samuel. Right?
Dear heart, I do not believe that the Lord ever gives any wife the privilege of saying, “Lord, my husband has no experience. This position—he is not big enough for it. I will reject it. He is not worthy.”
I know the involvement. I know how the rationalizing of the mind and the reasonings rise up to say, “But what if? What if?” I know.
But I simply say that God, in a peculiar way, seems to stand with government and position.
I do not believe—and I will say it as softly and kindly as I can—I do not believe that any people who are mixed up in an ecclesiastical system in which they have given a position to some pastor have any right to reject him. As long as you are in it, you are stuck. Seriously. You have no right to reject.
Let me illustrate why I am sure this is so. We were talking about this last big lion—the one that was after David.
You remember when King Saul began to be jealous and envious of this little boy who killed the giant. Word got back among the people, and pretty soon there was a whispering campaign going on.
The women were saying:
Saul hath slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands.
Now, that will help you if you are a king. That will help you if you have a position, and here is somebody who has some experience. That will bring the best out, and you get to see yourself.
Immediately there is envy and jealousy. Saul must get rid of David, and he pursues him through the wilderness.
One day, when David is hiding in a cave, Saul comes in. As I expect, momentarily blinded coming in from the light into the darkness, there is David and some of his men around the edge of the cave.
David could have said, “Oh, this is the day I will help the Lord. This is the day I will fulfill the thing that God is after.”
This man was a murderer, right? He had a position, right? He was not worthy of it and not deserving of it. Why, that is true. Samuel himself had told King Saul that he would be rejected.
But, oh, here is a principle. David turns, and he has to say that he will not touch the anointed of the Lord. Hands off.
He is a man who had a position which God still honors, even though we know. Do you think it would have made any difference if David had overheard what Samuel said? Well, that is conjecture. We will not go into it.
David does not know this. He knows one thing as a principle: he must not touch the Lord’s anointed, the man who is in position. God stands with that position.
Oh, I have squirmed about this. I have seen some Sauls, and I have cried out, “Oh, God, why?” Just, “Touch not Mine anointed.”
Does it happen just once? In case we think so, I think God wants to verify it again by saying it once again when Saul is caught. The same thing: “Touch not Mine anointed.”
There are a lot of ways to touch the anointed of the Lord.
I have seen some fine young fellows through the years. When God began to make this real to their hearts, they began to see the need to go to some servants of the Lord whom they had touched.
I think of one young man. I will never forget how, in his own eyes, and from the standpoint of the experience he had had with God, he was right, and yet he was wrong.
When the Lord sent him to that pastor, he had to acknowledge how he had been standing against him and resisting and touching him by his gossip and by his talking. The pastor wept, and it was God’s way of speaking to that man.
Maybe the Lord would say to us this morning that we should be very careful about the yokes we get into.
Young people, young men, young ladies, oh, I pray that God will hold you steady. I know that you cannot learn everything before you are married. But, young lady, you can look for a man in whom God has begun to work something of the reality of Himself, whose heart turns His way. There are some principles being inwrought in his life.
He may learn some things after he gets a position. We all do that. But I am trying to say that the basic way by which God works is so different from man.
Man is all the time saying, “Oh, if I had a position, if I just had that place, then I could do something for God.”
It does not work that way. There are lots of people in positions today, all over this country, who have no outflow of life and ministry through them. Yet I see men who have, as it were, no position given by man, but out of the reality of what God has wrought, everybody they touch and every place they touch has something of the flow.
You see, it is not our doing that God is primarily after. It is God bringing us to the place where, out of inward being, there is all the discipline and the coming under authority, the being shut up, and the learning that basically there are just two trees.
Everything that issues over here is of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “Oh, I see what You want, Lord. Why did I not see that before? I will go out to help You.”
So, out of our own resources, out of our own energy, out of our own strength, we become champions to get this thing done for God.
If there are some here who have done it, I am sure there are, you have suddenly wondered why all the doing, all the activity, and all that you have been trying to build for God suddenly comes collapsing in on you.
God is simply trying to bring some people to the place where we move out of this source of independence—getting hold of what we think He wants, then using the Word in our own ways, the principles, and all that is involved, to do it for God.
God says, “No, I do not want you to do. I just want to cut the whole taproot here.”
I think one of the most difficult things is that He takes the eager beavers, the active people, the drivers, all that we are in our temperament to get things done for God, and He sets them aside in the discipline of silence, patience, and waiting.
“Lord!”
But He is trying to develop another tree in us: the tree of life, a union with the Lord.
This is the difference. It is simply His way of saying, “Look, when you quit doing, then I will start doing it. I just want you to be. But I want you to be.”
This is why I want to say this morning that I think I have been more guilty of getting people focused and trying to make them purpose-conscious. The more we see of what we want to do for God, the more we get our steam up.
The strange and wonderful way of the Lord is to get us preoccupied just with Himself—not necessarily program-conscious or purpose-conscious or trying to get it all done, but preoccupied with Himself.
Then, out of it, God begins to be the new source of doing. The doing has permanency. The doing issues out of a reality.
Here is David. God finally brings him to the throne. We will go on a little further into that, perhaps in the days ahead, and the anointing of what was really involved as God brings him to this place: David, the unifier of the people.
Would you turn with me now? We will get just another portion in 1 Samuel 15.
King Saul is still king. In God’s sight, He is just waiting for him to fizzle out a little more in the eyes of everybody.
You know the story so well. One day Samuel says, “Go down and slay Amalek. I remember what they have done.”
You know what they represent? Amalek, the grandson of Esau, represents all of the flesh. Saul is not a prepared man. He does not know.
He goes down, and he slays the vile and the refuse, all the bad things. That is logical to the natural life: get rid of it. But the good things are fair, and we will do that unless we have been taught of God.
One of the things God must do is bring us into the inner sanctuary, where we are taught to discern the difference between the holy and the profane. We will never learn it at any other place.
Saul did not know it. Of course, it was easy to get rid of the bad things. We will all do that in our lives. But they spared the best of the sheep and the oxen. You know the story.
According to type, he spared himself—that is, he spared King Agag because he spared himself.
Finally, we read in 1 Samuel 15:22-23, when Samuel comes:
Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord,
He hath also rejected thee from being king.
Can you not see a man so busy sacrificing? Can you not see a man so busy giving up things, giving up this, literally sacrificing?
I think I see them in the religious world all around me, out of breath, working for God. The tone of it is, “Oh, what I am sacrificing for You, Lord.” The Lord says, “That is not what I want. Do what I want. You are hard of heart, and you do not hear. You do not hear well.”
“Behold, to obey is better.”
Samuel had a sensitive ear which Saul did not have. You know, we come back with a testimony: “Oh, had a great victory. Had a great meeting. Had a great revival. Had a great—” You name it.
But Samuel, with that sensitive ear, says, “I hear something. There is an undertone.”
Oh, Lord, give us the sensitive ear. Here is the undertone in the midst of all the testimony: the bleating of the sheep, the lowing of the oxen. We do not see them, but they are over in the yonder valley. There they are. They give us away in our testimony.
Saul is still the only one who knows that he has been rejected, even though David might like to help bring about the rejection.
In 1 Samuel 16, the Lord said unto Samuel:
How long wilt thou mourn for Saul,
seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?
Fill thine horn with oil, and go:
I will send thee to Jesse the Beth-lehemite:
for I have provided Me a king among his sons.
Then, in 1 Samuel 16:13:
Then Samuel took the horn of oil,
and anointed him in the midst of his brethren:
and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.
Oh, here is the man of God’s preparation and the man of God’s own choosing.
Let us sum it up by taking a couple of Psalms now. Turn to Psalm 75.
I tell you, it is a wonderful thing to rest your case in the hands of God, especially when you see everybody else really getting things done out there in their position, and God has you locked up in the wilderness. We have been there forty—well, not quite forty years, but it seems that long—in the schoolroom of the Lord.
I know that God has woven into us a built-in desire to fulfill and to be something in the right way for God. Now, you can deny it, but I know it is in you. It is there because God willed it in.
The only thing that keeps man moving is something reaching out for the fulfillment of purpose. But when the fall came, there was a perversion of this good built-in thing that God had placed there.
Man is now living from the source of another tree, feeding his whole life in independence, getting knowledge—Bible knowledge—to do things for God, but still independent, relying on himself to help God.
God has to bring us down through death before there can be resurrection. Cheer up. It is a long way down—a lot further yet. But He is working.
All of our waiting and our desire for fulfillment—to really fulfill the need in our generation, to do the thing that God has uniquely called us to—will never come by our own steam, by our trying to do it.
This is the difference between that which God has to reveal of His own way. I pray that He will get it across to us.
Psalm 75:4-7 says:
I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly:
and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:
Lift not up your horn on high:
speak not with a stiff neck.
For promotion cometh neither from the east,
nor from the west, nor from the south.
But God is the judge:
He putteth down one, and setteth up another.
Well, where does it come from then? Is it not significant that he left the north out? You know, promotion does come from the north, because God is in the sides of the north.
I think it is significant. I do not think there is any mystery here. He is just saying it does not come from man, from any of these directions, but it does come because He sits in the sides of the north.
God is the Judge. He puts down one and sets up another. That was the verse we read in Acts 13. He removed Saul. He was a man who had moved into position ahead of time, in his own way, but He raises up David.
I do not believe there is any finagling, pulling strings, maneuvering, or politics. I tell you, God has to get in there. He will get you into the place if there is any promoting. Praise the Lord.
I have wondered so often why this horn business is mentioned. It says, “Lift not up the horn.” In Psalm 75:10, it says:
All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off;
but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
I do not know; perhaps this is just a wild dream. But I remember back when I used to spend some summers on my grandfather’s ranch up in Dakota, with lots of cattle.
Several times I would hear my grandfather turn to my uncle and say, “You see that old cow there with the horn? I want to dehorn her tomorrow.”
I would look with bewilderment, and then I would watch. There she was at the feed rack, making her way in. I heard Grandpa say so often that the cow with the longest horn usually became the boss in the herd. The sharpest horn—she ruled the herd.
Horns gave her some authority, I guess. Have you ever met a cow with horns? There was a peculiar authority that went along with it.
There it is: the horn. The horns gave authority.
I think I see in Scripture the fact that when they took the horn of oil down to anoint, it was something of the picture of an authority that God is investing, that God is giving.
He is saying of the individual who has merely usurped the position, trying to be something, that he has his own horn—his own authority. He seems to say, “I will cut him off.”
All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off.
But there is an authority that issues out of a life in which there is something wrought in the inward being.
This brings the experience that God has wrought, and this brings the position that God has given. With this position, there is always the proper exalting. There is the raising up, the exaltation that the Lord has for His greater David and for David. He gives His own authority.
I think that if God has His way, all these three kinds of authority blend into one, and you have to have all of them.
If you just have a position of authority, you are on pretty dangerous ground. If you just have some experience, I am not sure that you can have that without some intervening work. But the three together—this is what God is doing in raising up men, those who will be prepared to lead His people.
But you have an awful conflict in a church when Grandpa Brown has no position—that is, no legally recognized outward position.
You see, if we get into God’s order of things, Grandpa Brown would have his position. You understand what I mean? He would be one of God’s elders, raised up in the proper order of the Lord.
But all the turmoil and the strife and the friction—I think I look over all of the religious mess today, and it is just things out of order. It will never get any better. I do not think it can get any better.
That is why, I have to say it kindly, the Lord seems to put a new bridle on, saying, “Son, I do not want you to go in and give them another shot in the arm when I have got ‘Ichabod’ written over it and I am just waiting for it to die.”
We will get into this thing of the sharpness of priority in a day or so. Oh, something that God has found He has to reveal and make very real to us.
So He says, “The horns of the righteous.” Let us read one more Psalm that may have a little meaning: Psalm 112. Then we will close.
This gives us the picture of a life that has, I believe, come into proper establishing in God’s way.
Psalm 112 says:
Praise ye the Lord.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord,
that delighteth greatly in His commandments.
His seed shall be mighty upon earth:
the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
Wealth and riches shall be in his house:
and his righteousness endureth for ever.
Now, if I understand the Old Testament word upright, it gives me the significance of the meaning of one who inwardly is right up to God’s heart—right up in harmony with God. It is an inward thing: the upright.
Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.
Well, Lord, I do not have to be worried about getting experience, or all the time trying to find out what to do. To the upright—the one who lives in union, the one who has the source of the tree of life and lives by this as a constant flow—in every crisis there is life. In the moment of darkness, there is light.
This is why God begins with inward life.
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
But we want light, not life that issues out in light.
This is my concern these days that we are gathering: “Oh, Lord, do not let us just get a notebook full, or some new knowledge, or something more to preach, or just some principle.”
“Lord, You shut us up to an atonement with Your heart. Bring us to the basic issues, whatever it may be that has clogged, hindered, or stopped our coming into an open honesty, or complete honesty, with You.”
Out of this there will flow the light in any hour darkness comes. If we miss this, we are just getting some packages of knowledge. We can go out and face men and share them with others, but, oh, God’s way.
God’s way is to bring us to this inward reality, this in which we come to an inward sharing: the upright.
So, in Psalm 112:4-5:
Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness:
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth:
he will guide his affairs with discretion.
Why? Well, this man, out of inward being, out of inward life, is getting light, and he has the experience of light. God has been working. Something issues out of it and flows.
So he says, “He will guide his affairs with discretion.” Here is the wisdom that this young man needs who has gotten married, so that Mary can look at him with confidence and say, “John, I trust the Lord.”
Did you ever notice the shortest route to your pastor, the shortest route to your husband, the shortest route to anyone—the Moses in your life—is not this way, but this way: “Lord, You tell my husband. Lord, You tell my husband. Lord, You speak to our pastor. Lord, You help our elders. Lord, You.”
Because when I try, so often I confuse the issue.
This is the man now whom God establishes. Psalm 112:6-9 says:
Surely he shall not be moved for ever:
the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings:
his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is established, he shall not be afraid,
until he see his desire upon his enemies.
He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor;
his righteousness endureth for ever;
his horn shall be exalted with honour.
Well, where does honor come in? Honor belongs down here? Too early. Too early. It is too early.
God’s way is to remove the life that insists on this way. But the fruit, or the byproduct, that issues out of position when it is proper—honor comes out of the position, in the position that God ordained. Not sought after; it is a byproduct. It can only be given by God.
His authority. His horn. Now it will be exalted with honor.
Oh, there is a power struggle going on in the world today. There is a power struggle that is going on in all the fellowships.
But God’s way of establishing a life in ministry, establishing a life in a walk of uprightness—I tell you, it gives such rest when we just look up and say, “Lord, forgive me for all my straining, trying to be something, trying to get a position, praying all the time to get in a position. I have never been ready for it anyway.”
But out of the reality of what a life has been through, the Lord says, “Oh, now you will count it all joy when I take you through, that I can make you a fountain of life, and out of you can flow rivers of living water to meet the needs of others.”
Cheer up. It is going to get worse—I mean better. But you see, that is what it seems like to the natural, because God’s way of preparing is just one lion, then another, and then another. He will not let you touch them with your own strength.
Lord, who among us this morning—who among us this morning—can stand guiltless? We have all, we have all thought in different ways to do things for Thee, to help Thee in Thy program.
We have been so eager to be somebody, so that with a proper image we could influence people. But Thou dost not work that way. It is not by our own natural image. It is not our influence. It is not who we are.
Oh, there among the sheep cotes this morning, Thou art preparing. Thou hast some David hidden away. Thank Thee, Lord. I thank Thee this morning. The world does not know. Israel at large does not see or recognize. They would still pick somebody else. But here is a little boy; Thou hast got him hidden away.
We believe there are—there are going to be—there are, we thank Thee—those who, in the hour of great need, in the hour of great need, when the challenge of Goliath comes, Thou wilt have Thy David.
Do not let us be guilty, O God, of trying to help Thee in our own ways and after our own reasoning. Do not let us get so involved in those situations at large where we are submitting to things, where we are involved in situations where we have given position to others and we have to follow trembling.
We do not know the answer, but we see something. Do not let us go out in our own way to try to upset or undo things, but keep us occupied with Thee.
In Thy time and in Thy own way, dear Lord, in Thy own way, Thou wilt bring about the one Thou hast for the throne. Thou wilt bring about the greater David. Thou art going to bring His company, a body that is meant to a Head, and the people, dear Lord, who are meant to gather, who come with a glad heart as they came to David.
They gave him the position. They gave it to him. It was something, dear Lord, that Thou hadst ordained in proper timing.
He alone is worthy. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus. Our eyes are fixed upon Thee. Seal any word to our individual hearts. We will give Thee the praise and the honor and the glory. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.