Let us see. “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Woe unto the world because of offences!
For it must needs be that offences come;
But woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!”
That is astonishing, is it not? “It must needs be.” This is something that God acknowledges and says is very needful.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. I promised to make a remark or two on this verse today. I may leave town immediately thereafter.
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
Now verse 18:
For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
My goodness, what is this? There have got to be offences, and there have got to be heresies.
You know, the ministry I have to bring this morning, being very much a coward, I would rather not bring. And if your God is that kind, old gentleman way off up there in the sky, you are not going to believe some of the things I have to say—and you do not believe the Word of God either.
There are some people today in our country who have made great merchandise of the fact that God is great and God is good. I firmly believe those two things, even as you do. He is also holy. He is also a consuming fire, and it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Furthermore, He tells Jeremiah, “Shall I do good, and not evil?” That great, kind gentleman up there in the sky would never do anybody any evil. That is not the kind of God we have.
It is a large part of our education to learn that God is love. He really is love. But this is the kind of love that we do not consider love today. As a matter of fact, if you were to exercise the kind of love toward your children as God does toward His children, you would very likely be put into jail.
Yes, I know in Hebrews 12 it says that He chastens His son. And I know that this word chastening might better be translated as child-training. I have heard sermons on that. But I wonder how the people who preach those sermons would translate the word scourges, because “He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
Is that vindictiveness doing the scourging? You tell me. What is it? Well, that is love.
Well, you are way ahead of me. I can quit preaching, man.
Please pray as we go on this morning with our consideration of the ark of God, and the Lord’s great purpose of getting that ark at rest in His temple—the church, the Body of Christ that He is building.
We are looking at the earthly typology of it. Here is an actual ark: seemingly inanimate, symbolic thing. And yet this thing, as a mere shadow of Christ, has great significance to us. It had great power in the earth in its day.
The Lord is in the process of getting that ark into a temple that He will build in Jerusalem, having the staves taken out—the ark of God at rest—and the glory of God filling that temple so that the priests could not even stand to minister by reason of the cloud of His glory.
When the Lord gets that ark, the testimony, into the great temple that He is building, that will be the end of things. Look at Revelation 11, where we find heaven opened. Can we see the ark at rest in the temple of God? Then look at Revelation 12 and see what begins to happen. The man-child is caught up; Satan is cast out into the earth.
Tremendous things begin to take place. But, you see, the coming of the Lord and the happenings that you read about there are being put off by the fact that God’s people are so long in responding, seeing, understanding, and committing themselves to His purpose: getting the testimony of Jesus at rest in the church, which is His Body.
That requires a lot of vision, spiritual understanding, and revelation of the Word of God. I know.
But at least, dear friends, we can get the earthly ark into its place in the temple of Solomon and see the cloud of glory fill that temple, anyway, in this succession of messages.
But in order to do so, we have got to get by a very extraordinary and, in many ways, wonderful character: Saul, Israel’s first king.
I wish I did not have to talk about Saul. I shall be just delighted next time to go on to David. I like David. I kind of like Saul too. He was an admirable character in many ways, and it is going to be very difficult for some of us to understand the Lord’s dealings with Saul.
I want you to understand one thing when I talk about Saul: I do not have anybody in this congregation in mind except one fellow, and you can recognize him by the fact that he is the only one standing up here today.
So please do not say, “The brother is zeroed in on me,” which you are most likely to say if you hear what God is saying this morning. There is a great deal of Saul in all of us. But I lay claim to the greatest measure, and I will put up no opposition.
Samuel had just brought the people through about forty years of peace. The tabernacle was at Shiloh; Ichabod—the glory had departed. The ark was in the tent at Kirjath-jearim. Samuel was ignoring both those places, and he was going about judging Israel in circuit, making offerings in high places.
He would go to Mizpeh and Ramah, two of the places we read about his making offerings in the text. One of them means “lookout.” Lookout—well, what do you think it means? It is a high place, is it not? And the other means, literally, a high place.
Samuel had forsaken the accepted religious precinct, and he was turning the people’s hearts back to God.
With the help of God, the Israelites were in desperate straits. Very few of them even had weapons. The Philistines, being rather clever, had taken all the smiths out of the land. If anybody wanted to get an axe or a hoe sharpened, he had to go into the camp of the Philistines.
They would put it in the fire, heat it up, pound it out a little bit, and then use the grindstone to sharpen it. And, you know, that is what the enemy has done today, dear friends.
The weapon of God is a sword. There was only Jonathan and one or two others who had a sword. The sword of God is the Word of God ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.
But ministry does not come merely by gifts. There must be spiritual measure. And, dear friends, the combination of gift and measure is found only where there is some real corporate life. That is God’s smithy. Some of you here will verify that: the fire and the anvil.
And if you have not found it so as yet, you still have a baptism to be baptized with.
There is very little corporate life among God’s people today of a real spiritual nature, out of which ministry can come—spiritual measure, yes. And there is very little ministry to bring about that corporate kind of fellowship. Looks like a hopeless situation, does it not?
God has a way. He is sovereign. He is wise. He knows what He is doing.
Believe me, He has provided for us, for the world, a perfect answer for all of our needs in that tremendous cross of His Son and the Holy Spirit whom He has given.
You would be surprised at some of the places on earth today where there is some real measure of corporate life and some real ministry going forth—some of the most unlikely places, right under the noses of a lot of people who would not really be worried if they knew what was going on.
But now, after these forty years of Samuel’s rule as a judge, Samuel’s sons after him, as Eli’s sons, do not walk in their father’s steps. The elders of Israel gather themselves together.
This is 1 Samuel 8:5:
Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
There was a lot of warfare to be carried out now. Samuel was soon to depart from the scene, and strangely enough, we must face the fact that God must have men.
One of the reasons corporate life has failed in many, many places is that people have foolishly said, “We can gather together. We do not believe we need leadership. We do not need gifts. We do not need ministry. We will build the church.”
But these elders were wise enough to know that once Samuel was gone, the commitment and protection of God that hovered over the nation would also be gone. Sorry to have to put that so bluntly. It is true.
God needs men—men of stature, wisdom, grace, and spiritual authority and power. Samuel was such.
They said, “Your sons do not walk in your footsteps, and we know what Eli’s sons did, and we want a king.” They needed a king. Nahash, the serpent, the king of the Ammonites, was getting a great army together, and he was getting ready to come in and crush Israel.
Samuel was not very happy about that, and he went to the Lord about it. The Lord said, “They have not rejected thee; they have rejected Me. So give them their king. Give them what they want.”
So, in 1 Samuel 9:
Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.
And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly.
That is an auspicious beginning, is it not? A choice young man and a goodly. I like that.
And there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.
What do you think of it? We first meet Saul in a demonstration of filial piety. His father’s donkeys had strayed, and he was wandering all over the countryside to find them.
Finally, one of his servants said to him, “Look over here. Here is a seer who can tell us just where those animals are.”
Now God had told Samuel that Saul was coming. 1 Samuel 9:15 says:
Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came.
What is this, “in his ear”? Why this? When you tell somebody in their ear, what are you trying to do? A secret, huh? Sure, of course. Why a secret? Because if certain people among the Israelites knew that Saul was to be king right away, he would be in trouble—probably at the cost of his life.
So, in 1 Samuel 10, Samuel took a vial of oil, poured it upon Saul’s head, kissed him, and said:
Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over His inheritance?
Saul was anointed as king. It is important to know that.
Then, in 1 Samuel 10:9:
And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.
And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.
And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that he prophesied among the prophets, that the people said one to another:
What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?
Now, I am skipping a lot of verses and a lot of incidents because I want to finish with Saul today and get to David. This is not a very savory task that I have here this morning. I will say that again. Maybe it is because I am so much like Saul that I dislike it so much.
But we are going to finish Saul this morning. If you find yourself getting pretty depressed before we are through here, just remember: next time we are going to go to David, a man after God’s own heart. We will have a great deal of uplift on that.
They are casting lots now to see who is to be king. In 1 Samuel 10:20:
When Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken.
And when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken: and when they sought him, he could not be found.
This man was not only large and goodly; he had received a new heart, and he had prophesied. But he was modest. He had already said to Samuel, “Look, I am just of the small tribe of Benjamin.” That was modesty, but it was also the truth.
Benjamin had nearly been wiped out in a civil war during the time of the judges. Saul said, “I am the least of my father’s house.” He was a modest man.
Here he was taken, and he knew he was going to be taken, but they were looking for him and he was not there.
Therefore they inquired of the Lord further, if the man should yet come thither. And the Lord answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.
They ran and fetched him. When he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders upward.
Then, verse 26:
And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched.
But the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace.
Who were these children of Belial? They were Israelites, and they are called children of the devil. Belial was a false god. The Scripture tells us there were children of the devil among them who did not want a king—particularly God’s king.
Saul held his peace. Admirable, was it not? Here is a guy—my kind of guy, if you please. Really, I like this fellow, do you not?
Large, intelligent, filial piety, prophecy, a new heart, modest, and magnanimous. Magnanimity, you know, is the hallmark of a great soul. Magna anima.
These men did not want him. They spoke against him, and he could have gotten those men whose hearts God had touched together and said, “That is enough. Watch them.” But he held his peace.
Over on the other side of Jordan was the city of Jabesh-gilead. These people had refused to enter the land, and they were in difficulty all the time. Even up to New Testament times, we find on that side of Jordan the swineherders.
These were people who had seen the goodly land on the other side of Jordan and had decided to stay on the wrong side of Jordan.
The city of Jabesh-gilead was under siege, and the Ammonites were about to take it over. Saul cut up a bullock, sent it out through all the coasts of Israel, got men together, and went over and delivered that city.
These were the men who did not forget this. Later on, when Saul was killed and they were making sport of his body—when they had his head up on a pole and his body on display—these were the men who marched all night, took the bodies of Saul and Jonathan, and gave them a decent burial. They remembered.
So Saul started his reign with a tremendous victory over the enemy. The fears of the people were answered: they really had a king, a good king, a great king, a successful king, a warrior king who was going to meet all their needs.
So Samuel, in 1 Samuel 12, takes his farewell. Let us look again at some of his last words.
Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.
This was the time of wheat harvest. Any farmers here know what happens if you have thunder and rain during wheat harvest? Bad news, Charles. Bad news. Awesome.
Samuel said that the Lord would send thunder and rain:
That ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king.
He had already warned them what this king would do: the way of taking tithes, taking their best men and their best maidens, and oppressing them in many ways. He said, “If you want a king, you will have to pay the price.” They said, “Give us a king.”
So Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. All the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. The people said:
Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.
Samuel said unto the people:
Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.
And in verse 22:
For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people.
Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way.
Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things He hath done for you.
But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.
Now, in 1 Samuel 13, Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years, Jonathan went down and smote the garrison of the Philistines at Geba. The Philistines rose up.
They gathered themselves together to fight Israel: thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. This was a real threatening situation, was it not?
When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, the people were distressed. They hid themselves in caves, thickets, rocks, high places, and pits. Some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. He tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from Saul. They were leaving.
Saul said, “Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he 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.
My sympathies are with Saul. I told you—I warned you—I am a lot like Saul. But where was God’s side?
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.
Well, what is this? How are we going to explain it? Even if we cannot explain it, we certainly ought to take a lesson from it.
Saul had been told to wait seven days, and Samuel would come. The seven days were up. The enemy was threatening, the people were scattering, and it looked like a total loss.
Tell me: what would have happened if Saul had waited until Samuel came? Would it have meant defeat? That is the big question.
Right away, I see several heads shaking, and you are absolutely right. No, it would not have meant defeat. It would have meant God really on their side, as He had been in the past, destroying their enemies. Then it would also have meant that Saul might, if he had passed a few other things, have retained the kingdom.
Our natural sympathies are with Saul a great deal because it looks like a situation in which he certainly did the right thing. It was the wrong thing. And what is the reason our natural sympathies are so much with Saul? Because we have often been in the same position.
It is well to be honest about these things.
Secondly, let us look at another aspect. It is all just something about spiritual understanding—or, help God speaking, anyway, you know. You will understand.
I have not time to go over this. Jonathan and his armourbearer win a battle at the pass, and a great shaking comes on the enemy. They begin to fight one another because they think they are attacked by a great host.
After they begin to fight one another, they begin to scatter. The Israelites go after them, and Saul says, “Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies.” So none of the people tasted any food.
But Jonathan did not hear when his father charged the people with the oath. He put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened.
The people said, “Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day.’” And the people were faint.
Jonathan said:
My father hath troubled the land: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.
How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely to day of the spoil of their enemies which they found? For had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?
I guess you are wondering how I am going to apply that, are you not? Well, sounds like calling the people to a fast is always a good thing.
What was Saul after? He was after the complete elimination of his enemy. He thought that by depriving the people, assuming they would not take time to eat, they would have more time to slay their enemies. He made an awful mistake.
Jonathan was the hero of the day. He initiated the attack. Saul wanted to take Jonathan’s life because he had broken the oath, but the people would not let him.
Saul had a kind of false spirituality. There is something to be wrong when the Holy Spirit breaks down and you discover that the peace of God is something hidden from the natural mind. There are people who see and understand, whereas other people do not.
There are people around who bring in ideas and want to be strong for the Lord, but they are not. They expect God’s people to do things that do not even have the character of Scripture: matters having to do with food and diet, and other ideas and thoughts from the Word of God about the Lord, His people, and His purpose, which spiritually are not right.
They turn aside from them and eat the food, because there is health and living truth in the Word of God and among His people. It is food; it is encouragement; but then there is suffering.
The people who are off chasing chimeras have a false kind of spirituality. You may think, “Well, brother, we do not have much of this around here,” and I am glad we do not. We really do not. Thank heaven.
Go to a few other fellowships at this time and listen to some of the things being taught—things you want to take down, and we get in trouble because of some of these ideas. People complicate fellowships with such things, and they are causing extreme suffering.
“I will never see a doctor,” you know, for healing is in the atonement. I know people suffering from that very thing to this very day. A lot of those views come out of a false kind of leadership, a pseudo-spirituality. They do not help God’s people at all. It makes them weak, unable to overcome the enemy.
We must go on with Saul. Then, in 1 Samuel 15— I promised you I would not minister more than one hour today, so you may pedal as hard as you are able.
Samuel said unto Saul:
The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over His people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
Amalek, you know, when the people came up out of Egypt, attacked those who were weaker, the stragglers, those who were behind. They slew them and took their stuff. Can you imagine anything more despicable than that?
The Lord had been waiting all these years. He sent word to Saul: “Blot them out. Take up that issue with Amalek.”
Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt. He took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. Everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
We could make quite an application of this if we had an hour. But only to say: Amalek is a type—and almost all Bible commentators agree on this—he is a type of the flesh.
The flesh has got to go. Saul did not understand this. Here was something good. See, Amalek is not the vile kind of flesh, not the obnoxious and evil kind of flesh, but the good flesh.
Saul had an affinity for things that were good. Saul, with that big, worldly-minded kind of guy, kindly, wise, the kind we would love to have as our leader—the kind we would love to have right up here preaching to you this morning, so you can identify with him. We like that kind of help.
He said, “All of this is good, and why should I destroy it?” Dear friends, let us face it: we like the refined, the cultured, the intelligent kind of flesh. As a matter of fact, many of us think that is what the Lord is really after.
If the Lord would only clean us up, make us righteous, give us harmony in our homes, and make us paragons of virtue, we would have a great fellowship. We would have no testimony at all.
Saul did not understand this, and we have a very difficult time understanding it. The people in this earth who are of greatest use to the Lord are not necessarily the imposing ones.
When they want a principal for one of the schools in my district, they look for someone taller than average, shouting commands out there, with the loudest voice, a great voice, an imposing appearance.
But the people most used of God in His kingdom are the broken ones—God’s broken things: exhausted, undone, breed-born losers.
I am glad He liked that. He never picked me up.
The Lord is out to see that the flesh does not get any of the glory from what He does. Believe me, when the last bit of it is written and read by all the universe, we will all be able to write the same thing:
No flesh should glory in His presence.
When He picks up people like you and me, we kind of like Saul. We would like to be like him. But if we had Saul’s natural qualifications, we would just glorify all of our qualifications—our absolute natural goodness—and the thing would be gone.
Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him:
Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
It seemed to me the guy really thought he had.
Samuel said:
What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
Dear friends, I turned on the radio this morning to listen to ministry among God’s people, and I heard the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen, although it would have been called something else. That display of the flesh is a dead giveaway. It is a dead giveaway that the people concerned have not learned this lesson Saul had to learn.
Saul said:
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.
Then Saul said again:
Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.
The people—because what could I do against the people? Besides, the people intended to offer these things as sacrifices to God, and I do not see what is wrong with that.
Samuel said:
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.
Saul said, in effect, “Okay, so I have sinned. But will you please stay and honor me before the people?” Samuel did so.
Then Saul put out his hand and grabbed Samuel by the garment as he went to leave, and it was rent. Really a foolish individual.
Samuel turned again after Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord. Then Samuel said, “Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.” Agag came unto him delicately, and Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
No, no, Saul is admirable. I freely admit it. There is a great deal that is admirable—except when it gets into the thing of the flesh and is ruled by it. Then it spoils everything and makes a success impossible for the Lord.
Samuel said:
As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women.
And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.
Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.
In 1 Samuel 16:14:
But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.
An evil spirit from the Lord—what is this? I said, “God only sends angels, does He?” Maybe we can try some easy kind of way to explain this to one another, or maybe we should learn a real lesson and take it at face value. This is an evil spirit from the Lord.
Dear friends, I could go on. I could take a look at the incident of Saul among the prophets again, making all-night prophesying, and we can see how, when a man of this type gets the anointing, he becomes a spectacle among God’s people.
In a lot of places where there is some real life this morning among God’s people, there is a spectacle—a wild, noisy demonstration of the flesh which is thought to be the gift of the Spirit. This happens from uncrucified people again and again.
We can take a look at Saul’s friendship with Doeg, because this kind of a man can have the oddest kind of liaison outside the people of God.
When David fled to Nob and was given the showbread in the sanctuary, Saul came later. Doeg was there. When Saul found out David had been there and had been fed, he told his men, “Fall upon the priests and kill them.” They would not do it. They refused.
They would follow Saul, yes, but they would not go that far. Doeg the Edomite, this type of great, natural, knowledgeable, upright, virtuous man, carried out Saul’s bidding, and he slew eighty-four priests of the family of the priests.
Saul finally revealed his true colors. No sympathies—no, not yours nor anybody else’s. He tries to kill David.
What is God trying to teach us through Saul? We must face the fact that offences have to come, and there must be heresies among us. There is always this antagonistic situation.
Is there an Abel? Then there is a Cain. Is there a Joseph, a fruitful bough? Then there is a Reuben, unstable as water; Dan, the serpent by the way.
You can go right on down the line. God is always bringing into release something. There is a kind of man to whom He can commit Himself.
There is the Lord Jesus Christ, finally, who takes the towel and girds Himself in the lowliest capacity, while there is a Judas who goes out into the night. That is perhaps the culmination.
Later on, we find a Paul, and we find a Demas. You can go on and on and on. Look at history: Martin Luther, then John Eck—right on down the line. The Lord is saying something.
If I could sum it up in a few words—and I only have very little time left—dear friends, keep in mind that this is a kingdom.
Before this time, God had wanted to see a kind of government without a king. He had not given up the idea of a theocracy. Now He wants a theocratic government, but it has got to be the right kind of kingdom.
I wanted to show you the ark in here today, but we will not have the time.
Again, let us say that one of the big losses of our modern systems of doctrine in Christianity is the kingdom of God.
The other day, in our Bible study at school, some of our friends there were astounded when I asked them, “What did the seventy preach when they went out?” They preached the kingdom. What did Paul preach in his hired house right at the end of the book of Acts? The kingdom of God.
You tell me: what did he preach? The kingdom of God. Tell me, how many places can you go this morning, dear friend, among God’s people and hear the kingdom of God preached? Not very many, because we have lost the sense.
But God now has a King, and He has a kingdom. It is vitally important to your spiritual life. If you are going to have any kind of spiritual ministry and be of any real use to God against the kingdom that is against us, you are going to have to find your place in the kingdom.
That kingdom that we are up against can only be overcome by a kingdom. Is that getting through? You cannot face it as an individual. You cannot face it with a kind of pseudo-relatedness to a little group that excludes you from relatedness to all of God’s people.
That little phrase, “For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels”—I was asked to explain this.
It speaks of a kind of order that God has in His kingdom. The administration of that kingdom, believe it or not, in spite of what you may hear from dear Brother McGee at 7:15 every morning—Brother McGee is on the radio with a very good study of the Bible in many respects—has an order.
Oh, he makes a local mistake, particularly about angels and their ministries. I hate to mention dispensational Brother McGee; he is so far off on some of that. But on the whole, I recommend that you listen to him.
But, dear friends, when we come together, we are dependent on the ministry of the company of angels. The fact that you have the Holy Spirit does not eliminate their ministry and their needs.
All Paul is trying to tell us in those verses is that the angels of God see disorder, just as people play their way into this. In that particular verse, Paul is talking about the sisters, and this is always a problem among God’s people.
Someday, when I get brave enough, strong enough, and foolish enough, I am going to stand up here and spend one hour on the ministry and place of sisters in the fellowship. Then I will leave town.
No, I will not, because the sisters, God bless them, are a very necessary part of any fellowship, in their place—or else the fellowship is lost to be saved. Wherever they are stifled and not permitted to exercise their God-given ministry, I say the fellowship is hindered in what God has among any people.
You will excuse my saying things. If you will excuse me, I will say it anyway. Someday I will spend an entire hour on this matter.
But in the American scene today, it is a problem. It is one of the problems. But it is not just sisters. There is even more than this.
We do not realize that God has an order of things. His kingdom and its effectiveness are very greatly dependent upon knowing this.
Any brother who says to you or to me that the sisters being in their place, or holding the sisters out of place, is not important, really does not know what he is talking about. He probably says that because there is someone at home who really has him, you know, in trouble.
Any time there is any kind of disorder, we need to ask: what is really hindering the kingdom?
People in the infant and elementary stages of Christian growth can get away with a lot of things. But as you get a testimony—the demonstration, the power, the impact of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ—the more you must discover, “The Lord is among us. Find your place in that order.”
Dear friends, some of us will be growing up and enjoying a marvelous time, and you will be sitting around saying, “See, I do not like it. I do not get anything out of it.” You do not like that? “I wish that guy came down to my level.” That is exactly right—it would be a very low level.
Your enjoyment, blessing, happiness, fullness of grace, and the Christian life are dependent on our coming into the fullness of the things that God Himself has set up.
So that is a problem. Spiritual measure, life, and gift—it is tight. In any place, sisters may be in order; in other places they are going to be out of order. You do not need any more suspense. What do you think? Either one is a tremendous one.
But it is that old misunderstanding. The only answer—the only answer—is to see that tremendous thing God has done: the ark in its place, the temple in the city.
The first thing we see about that city, Jerusalem, is the stronghold of the Jebusites. I am going to be saying to you many things.