Answers in Genesis--Spring 2017--Lesson 10, Israel Rejects God as King

Well, good morning. Since it's already 9:02, 9:03, we'll go ahead and start. Since there's only gonna be, because of the other class, there's just very few of us in here, I'd ask if you would come up closer. Please, because we are, we are gonna have, some discussion questions anyway.

I'll be talking, so if, if you wouldn't mind, sitting closer and we can hear each other better and, And we can. Not feel so alone. Yeah, I'll leave closer being, you define closer so you can, as close as you can be, feel comfortable, but All right. Well, let's start with the word prayer and we'll get going.

Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that you give us life and that you, give us, one another that we can come this morning and be together and, and we can spend time in your word and we can, spend time fellowshipping with each other and encouraging each other. Thank you for, that, that great thing that you've given to us as being part of your body and the Lord bless our time this morning. We want this to be about you and about how we respond to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right. We've been going through this series called, called Obedience and Disobedience. And it's a, a series that's really showing the relationship between God and man and how God so generously calls man into his, his presence, gives him a, a cha, gives man a chance for a relationship with him and how man struggles with that. How man is, is up and down.

And so we have one generation maybe that's, that's Really walks with God and, and worships God and in another generation that walks away from God and how mankind is, is historically had this issue. You see it from the time of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, were close to God and, and God had given them, that ability of relationship and yet, Their firstborn son chose a different way and, and walked away from God. And it's been that way ever since.

And so we see this carried on culture by culture. We've seen it through the Book of Judges, as, as we look at it. We'll be talking just a little bit more about that. Today.

our primary focus today is Israel rejecting God as the king, as God has set up this nation to, To be a nation that, is, is really in relationship with God directly. And, and so what, what happens is eventually over a period of, of around 400 years, Israel demands a king. We'll be looking at that today. OK.

A couple of weeks ago, we were in the Book of Judges and, and we were in the Book of Judges for about 3 weeks. And in that book of Judges, we, what we saw is a continual cycle of people being drawn away from serving God to serving idols. So as a, as a first question, what is the attraction to idolatry? Why does it always seem to be seducing people?

What's the attraction? Yes. Oh OK, good. So the, the, the idea is that, that man creates an idol they're comfortable with.

And, and so they, they, create this alternative system. and And, and you said something too about the, the idea of Even treating God as an idol, the true God as an idol. We're actually gonna see that in the story a little bit, or we have seen it last week. We saw it in the story a little bit, with the way Eli's sons were, were, conducting the service to God.

there, there is a flavor of that which is, which is, interesting. OK. Any other thoughts on why, what's the attraction to idolatry? I.

Invited OK, right. With a lot of the idolatry practices, there's a lot of sexual, a, a seduction to it. And so that makes it appealing to, to the flesh of people. OK.

That's definitely got to be one of the issues. any other ideas? The attraction of idolatry. I, I remember as we were going through this a couple of weeks ago, thinking, it's frustrating when you read the book of Judges, one of the feelings I get from judges is frustration.

as I read it, it's like, why? Why do they keep going back? But understand this is over hundreds of years of time. So it's, we, we read it in a compacted way.

But there is a seduction. There is, is something that's attraction and, and so, one of the things is it appeals to the flesh. And so it definitely is, is something that idolatry, it, it, it grabs the fleshy desires of human beings., if you're gonna create your own religion, Is, is, aren't you gonna do that? You're gonna make it attractive to and appealing to our fleshly desires.

it minimizes sin. and, who, who doesn't want to do that? that's, that's also a natural part of our being is to minimize our sinfulness. And, it's pluralistic.

There's a, a pluralistic idea here. And, and we see this in our culture, quite a bit. In fact, it's, it's like an honorable thing to be pluralistic, to respect everybody's religions. Everybody's religions are OK.

Everybody's beliefs are OK. And, so, so that's one of the ways it gets in, they're, they're supposed, they're, God has chosen them to be a, a, special people. the King James Version uses the word peculiar, a peculiar people, a people that are set apart, that are going to be different. but that's hard to hold on to in, in our own flesh, right?

And, you look out at the other people and you're maybe trading, doing business, trading goods and, and so on with these other cultures. And, you go to this other place and you, you exchange goods and you begin to develop relationships and yeah, their, their religion is different than yours, but you become accepting and, and it begins to, to wick up into your own culture and pretty soon it has, has taken over. And that's one of the, the, issues too is, is that pluralism that's there.

And there's also the pressure of being different.

And we're gonna see this, a little bit in our, specific lesson today. But in, in the book of Judges, we see, that God has called them to be different. And there's that, that tension of, I don't want to be different, I wanna be like everybody else. And that's the same for us as, as Christian people growing up in our culture.

there's the pressure that the world that we'll be talking about that. The world is always seeking to conform everyone to its system. There's always that pressure from the world of conformity. OK.

from last week, what was the example of dumb things husbands say to their wives? Anybody remember? Last week was, was on the birth of Samuel. Doesn't jump out to you like it does to me.

whenever I read this, it makes me laugh. When Samuel's father Did you? What Elkena, yeah, that's it. Better than 10 sons.

Yes, that's it. It's the Right. So he, he, he goes, they go to the, to the place of worship, their yearly worship at Shiloh, and Elkana brings back to Hannah a double portion. He brings back a portion for, for Pennina, his, his other wife, and, and all of her children, but brings to Hannah a double portion.

And she's grieving, she's sad because she has no children. And and so his response was, well, am I not better than 10 sons? And it just made me, me laugh. It's like when if my wife is grieving over something, I could bring her 2 double-doubles and 2 orders of fries and say, am I not better than 10 sons?

yeah, I don't think that really Made her feel better. but anyway, that was one of the examples I think of dumb things that husbands say to their wives. From last week, what was the failure of Eli the priest with his sons? What's that?

Discipline, OK. It's failure to restrain them. Eli was in a particular position as high priest. As high priest, that was a position that gets handed down father to son.

These are his two sons. Eli was, is described as a man who fears God and has respect for God. And we do see some examples of that in the narrative. His sons are supposed to take over after him and he keeps hoping, I guess that they're gonna turn around, but he doesn't do anything himself to make that happen.

And one of the things that, you remember there was the, the prophet who comes to Eli. And issues this declaration from God of what's going to happen. And how. the, the descendants of, of Eli are gonna have short lives.

There's not gonna be an old man from now on in his descendants' line. his sons will be killed the same day. And that will be a, a sign that this was all going to come true. And that there would be a new line of the priesthood and, and we'll look at that in, in just a minute.

But what there's a statement in there, in the middle of, of that declaration. That this prophet gives to Eli, and it is this, that, that Eli, you have honored God or honored your sons above God. And that's the, the, the crux of it. That, that Eli has by his actions, given greater honor to his sons than he has to God.

And, and one of the things I think that we're to take away from that is the seriousness of how we view God. And, and, and do our actions actually measure up to what we say we do. Eli's actions didn't did not measure up to that in the, in the way he dealt with his sons. He honored his sons as higher.

And we also see though, in First Kings chapter two, we get the, the story of, of Solomon, who's taken over as king and Solomon is cleaning up all the stuff that's been left over from when David was king. Some of that cleanup involves old enemies and so on, and you read that narrative and how Solomon is, is taking care of business with them. One of them is the high priest Abiathar, who had gone against David at the time of Absalom's rebellion and, and David did not have Abiathar executed for treason, but just had him put aside.

Abiathar was a descendant of Eli, and it says in the passage there.

That when Solomon became king, Solomon had him executed. And, and it was as a final finality or a final judgment from the line of Eli. And it, and it, in the scripture goes back to this section of scripture. So it's a interesting finish to the story, to the judgment that God brought upon Eli's family.

Eli being a high priest, being a special chosen person for this job, and yet God would not put up with it. And there's one more thing from, Last week, what was wrong with their use of the Ark of the Covenant? Remember they, his two sons, they were going to go to battle with the Philistines and they're going to take the Ark of the Covenant with them so they can be victorious. What was wrong with their use of it?

Very good. That's a good answer. It's, it's a, a sin of pre presumption, isn't it? Presuming upon God.

and I think that's a, a really good answer. The Ark of the Covenant was symbolic of God. In fact, it was a place where God dwelt. And yet, God doesn't just let us wield him around as a, as a a superpower for us.

I remember, the first time I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. And there was this sense that, that they took the Ark of the Covenant that way. And that the, and if you've not seen the movie, it's, it has to do with the Nazis and they're trying to get the ark because it would be a great power for them. But God doesn't get manipulated like that.

and, and God does what he wants to do. And we're the ones that are to bend to Him, not him bend to us. And so, God's power doesn't get wielded by us. And they completely misunderstood the whole thing and they were very presumptuous in what they did.

And, and if you read the story further on, the ark eventually comes back to Israel because, because God brings about all kinds of plagues and so on to the Philistines because they have it. So they want to get rid of it. and they send it back to Israel and, it goes into this village and so there's some Levites there that come and they they're gonna take care of it and yet they don't really treated as holy either. And it, the description there is that there's some people that actually looked into the ark and so on.

And it says there that God killed over 50,000 people in their village that day. So they wanted to send it to another village, and they did. but, God is holy and the description there is that they did not treat it as holy. Not, not as they should have.

And, and we need to remember, just who God is and God is not to be manipulated. God doesn't just follow according to our plan. we're to bend to his plan. Yeah, there is that idea.

It's a good luck charm or it's, it's some source of magical power and, and while we have it, the force will be with us, we'll You're Saint Christopher, yeah, well, Maybe it will and maybe it won't. God is, God doesn't, God has his own plan. And, and, and our place is to humbly submit to that, to submit to his plan. And, and so that's, that's where that is supposed to be.

Let's turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8. And I'll be reading out of chapter 8, but I want to Before we get to that, Identify Samuel a little bit. More. Samuel is, is a, an amazing person in, in history.

And There's a, a lot to this character. I want to give a little bit of where he fits, as far as in his lineage and so on, so you can see, just who he is. And that actually will help us get a flavor for what we went over last week with why Hannah would present him to be in, in the temple or in the tabernacle with the priest, why he would even be there. But it's looking In, in 1 Chronicles chapter 6.

And, starting in verse 31, it says, now these are those whom David appointed over the service of song in the house of the Lord, after the ark rested there. They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the temple, of the tent of meeting until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they served in their office according to their order. These are those who served with their sons, from the sons of the Kohathites. And the Kohathites, by the way, Kohath was one of the 3 sons.

Of Levi. Levi was the tribe or that was chosen to be the priestly line. And the Kohathites, the sons of Kohath were to be the ones that actually held the office of priest. The others did temple service, but the Kohathites were the actual priests.

So from the sons of the Kohathites were Haman, the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel. The son of Elkanah. And the son of Jehoram. Let's go on down because there's a list there to verse 37.

The son of Tahath, the son of Air, the son of Ebiasa, the son of Korrah, the son of Ishhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi. so Samuel is born to a family that is a Levite family. And the reason why I bring that up is because in First Samuel, chapter one, it describes, Elkana as being from Ephraim and doesn't really clarify there, who he really is. But if you remember as, as the tribes were dispersed, To their different territories.

The one tribe that didn't have its own territory was the tribe of Levi. And so in each tribe, there were cities that were designated for Levi and so they were to be scattered throughout the nation, really ostensibly to, be spiritual guides throughout the nation and, and, and, reminders that they were all one nation and the tribe of Levi was supposed to be the spiritual glue that held it all together. And so we have here a family that's from the tribe of Levi that's dwelling within the, the, the tribal area of Ephraim, and that's the, the family that Samuel comes from.

Now, in 1 Samuel chapter 8, We get the narrative.

Of the The demand for the king. In chapter 7, we can read the story of the Philistines being routed by Israel's armies. And that's the story where Samuel puts the rock of help out there called the Ebenezer. And And it is this, the, the account of by the leadership of Samuel, the spiritual guidance of Samuel, that they have this great victory.

In all of that though, things change. Time goes by and, and we'll, pick it up there in chapter 8, verse 1. It came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of the firstborn was Joel and his second was Abijah.

They were judging in Beersheba. His sons, however, did not walk in his ways but turned aside to dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and they said to him, Behold, you have grown old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.

But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, give us, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt, even to this day, in that they have forsaken me and served other gods, so they are doing to you also.

Now then, listen to their voice. However, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them. So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who had asked of him a king. He said, This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you.

He will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots. He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and 50s, and some to do his plowing, to reap his harvest and make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants.

He will take 1/10 of your seed and of your vineyards and give them to his officers and to his servants. He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. He will take 1/10 of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.

Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel and they said, no, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the Lord's hearing. The Lord said to Samuel, Listen to their voice and appoint them a king. So Samuel said to the men of Israel, go every man to his city.

We have here a a big transition in, in how Israel is going to be governed. What Israel had been given by God. was a system of, of, a relationship, a system of government that reported straight to him. They were given freedom.

Now, Freedom is not easy. And as we read through the book of Judges, we see how mankind struggles with freedom, but that is what God gave them and had they obeyed his laws, they would have been, been safe. God was the one who fought their battles. they would have been able to handle all of the things that happened within the culture because they had ways of dealing with it.

They had ways of dealing with criminal behavior, they had ways of dealing with, certain disputes and so on. And so all of that would be handled. God gave them freedom. And yet they're willing to trade.

all of that. For security and stability, what they would see as as security and stability. And there are 3 things that in, in the warning that God gives to them. Three areas of freedom that, that come up.

The first one is economic freedom. we see there's going to be taxation, and the taxation is going to be at the exorbitant rate of 10%. That we see here. and, and They would cry out to that.

Now, for most Americans, 10% would be a big tax cut. but, to God, that 10% seems overbearing. I remember hearing a, an economics. Professor one time say that if Talking about our flat tax rate for the United States.

His statement was if 10% is good enough for the Baptist Church, it should be good enough for the federal government. And, and yeah, it It, would be much lower than what we actually pay. in their culture, they had their tithes and offerings. Their ties actually, when they were all added up, there were, there were 3 tithes.

And so it would be about 22 and 2/3%. If you added it all up, it was what they were to be bringing either annually or every 3rd year to the temple, as their tith to God. That was, that was their way of, of giving thanks and of remembering who it was that gave them what they have. And so that was their, their way of participating in God's economy.

On top of that though, now would be A king who would be taking more from them. And so there would be that economic freedom that would be taken away from them. Not only that, but, but we're talking about freedom of career. In, in God's culture that he had for them, they had freedom.

Unless you were the firstborn son. You could grow up to be, choose your career, choose your business, whatever you wanted. If you're the first born son, yeah, you're stuck on the farm. You got to stay there and you gotta keep it going because it's in the family name.

And that was, that was God's way of anchoring stability, economic, stability for every family. but everyone else gets to, to grow up and, they can become the jeweler. They can become the carpenter, they can become, whatever else, they wanted to be. That was, that was the freedom that was going to be there.

under this system, under the king, that freedom's gonna be greatly diminished because it says, this king, he's gonna take your sons to be in the military. He's gonna take your sons to work in his fields. He's gonna take your sons to do all these other jobs. He's gonna take your daughters to do, to, to do certain jobs.

And so, that freedom is gonna be taken away. No, no, no, we still want a king, they said. the third one was the conscription. they're gonna be drafted into the military.

they're, they're not gonna have a choice. when we read in the book of Judges, the, the, the people, the call would go out for an army to come and, and there would be an all volunteer army. All, all the men who would come would be volunteers. It's not gonna be that way anymore.

It's gonna be requirement. For, for those to, to be in the military. So So we see these freedoms that are going to be traded. For what they think is gonna be security and stability.

If when we read on throughout the kings, we find that the history doesn't get that much better, right? It's, we still have the same corruption in our hearts, the same, same issues, and, so it really doesn't get that much better. But why is self-government so hard? This is, I think the The, the issue is, as I read this passage, this is what pops out to me is, is this, this idea of trading self-government to be ruled.

And so why is self-government so hard? Any ideas out there? What's that? Because we're humans.

OK. That's a general idea, but what is it about our humanity? That makes it, makes it tough. We're what?

OK? We have a fallibility in our minds, don't we? OK. OK, good.

There's a tendency for lust for power. Decisions are based on self-interest. And self-interest isn't by itself a bad thing. There, there is actually a lot of, of, scripture supporting the idea of self-interest that, that God has that in mind.

But when you combine it with our corruption, it gets twisted. And, and we begin to take our self-interest above other people's interest. And they have something in their law. That gets referred to, we see it in the New Testament, that is the overriding, overarching theme of how they are to live with one another.

Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. And If they can do that, they would be able to, Deal with their self-interest in a healthy way.

but they can't. Think about just in, in our culture, in fact, in our state, or even in our county. How much money we spend. On law enforcement.

just on law enforcement itself. Why? Because we don't love the Lord our God with all of our heart and we don't love our neighbors ourself. We don't have that self-government under control as, as a general population.

And so we have to spend millions and hundreds of millions of dollars. as a state on law enforcement. From the police to the judges, to the courts, to the prisons, for all the way down the line because we can't obey that. If we could obey that, if we could obey the loving Lord with all of our heart and our neighbors, ourself, look how much money we could save.

But that's, that's the way we are. One of the ideas that strikes me with this is that There's a lie that gets told to us. That, and, and that we believe that freedom. is, is the thing that pushes against boundaries and, and, and goes over boundaries so that we can go anywhere we please.

And that's how our culture at large defines freedom. I was driving down a road. on Tuesday of this week. Over in Hemet, driving toward Hemmett.

I was on Sanderson. If you're familiar with, with Hemett at all, you'll know that street. and so driving down and I'm in north north part of town, so there's still open fields and so on. Well, it was the day after the rain, so the fields are filled with water.

It looked like ponds out there. And off to the side of the road were a couple of police cars. And they were on either side of this other car that had gone off the side, nose first into the bog. That was the word that came to my mind when I saw it.

my first thought was how did that car get there? cause it's just face first. Then, because I'd already been doing some, some preparation for this lesson, the second thing that came to my mind was That car wanted freedom. that push against the boundaries.

This is, and that's exactly how this is. the, the lie that we get told is we push against the boundaries, we can be free. that car, however, was stuck. It wasn't going anywhere after that.

And so the freedom could only go so far. when I was, first learning to drive, one of the things I was told was try to keep it on the black stuff between the trees. and, and that's where the freedom is, right? The freedom is when you stay within the boundaries.

And think about it in, in other areas of life. Like a budget, a financial budget. now, my nature is I would prefer to spend everything I have. I, I love to spend money.

And, so I wanna spend it because that's free. I feel so free until you get the bill, right? And you get the bill from the credit card company and you find out, oh, I'm in bondage. And so that freedom, that, that, that, that thing that looks so free is actually what's going to put me in chains.

It's gonna bind me. And so going beyond the boundaries. It, it's a lie that that's freedom. think about it with diet.

With, with how we eat. Now, I, I like to think, laughingly say that I'm on a seafood diet, right? everything I see, that's what I wanna eat. Yet, just like everyone else, I have to be careful.

I have to be disciplined. I have to, to, to, to treat my body within certain bounds. And sometimes I'm less successful than other times. one time I was walking through a Costco.

Where, some of the people there know me and, and so a person stopped me and said, have you been losing weight? And I, I thought, well, no, I don't think so. And, but, it just, it was like, wow, it made me feel really good. So I went out to the food court and bought, bought an ice cream bar., I thought I'd celebrate that, that, that thing.

But, but diet is one of those things that, that can easily get out of control. And, and yet, that's what puts us into bondage. It's when we push against the boundaries. It puts us into bondage.

The same thing is true in a, on a more serious issue is, is with sex. There are certain boundaries, guidelines that God has given to us. But we say, oh, I wanna be free. I wanna be free.

And yet, when we go and, and try to exercise that freedom, what do we find there? We find bondage. Read Proverbs. Proverbs is very descriptive about this idea of what's at the end of that, of that expression of so-called freedom.

Now, God has given to us laws that That should, protect us and actually give us more freedom. I found this quote by John Locke that I really like and I'll try to read it to you so that it can make sense to you. Because some people who wrote back in the 1600s. Write in a different way than, than we do today.

So, but anyway, it's this. For law in its true notion is not so much the limitation as the direction of a free and intelligent agent to his proper interest and prescribes no farther than is for general good of those under that law. And that ill deserves the name of confinement which hedges us in only from bogs and precipices so that however it may be mistaken, the end of law is not to abolish or restrain but to preserve and enlarge freedom. And the idea that he's expressing there is, is that law is a protector and, and actually an increaser of freedom.

And he's getting his ideas from the Bible. He, he's, he's, he's understanding that God has given to us law and given to us structure to free us. There was a A Jewish rabbi that we're very familiar with who's walking through first century Israel. And he's encountering all of the, the regulation and, and the, and the heavy weights that are put upon people from all of their laws and the, the extra things that have been piled upon people.

And Jesus said to them, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.

That's been God's intent. That's God's heart for us. That his, his ways are good for us. His structures are healthy for us.

But our nature is to push and say, no, I want to be free. And all we do is put ourselves in more bondage. And that is the essence. Of what Israel does here.

And to get to that next issue, they say that we want to be like the nations, the other nations. What is so ominous about that phrase, like all the nations, that's in their request? Ominous Ominous is, is something that is, is a warning of something dangerous. There's, there's a dangerous warning there.

OK, I, I guess I'm, are you saying that Instead of like the nations? OK. Right. So they're they're actually wanting in wanting to be like the nations.

They're, they're pushing away from being like God, OK? Direct rejection. Not. OK.

So God is, is always, has reminded them and, in, in this passage, it reminds them again of what I've called you from, what I've created you to be. And that is to be different from the other nations. And it, it, it's my belief that God created them to be different, to be a light to the other nations. A light of God's glory and God's goodness and of God's ways.

And yet they want to go back and be like the nations, OK? That's part of it. That, that's, that's a lot of it too. I think one of the things that strikes me with this is coming out of judges.

There's a history of idolatry, of, of problems that's like the nations, and now they're saying we want to be like the nations. There's that idolatry flag that just jumps up to me. And And then of course, their distinctiveness is going to be diminished. They're to that God has made them to be distinct.

and that's, that's not, they're not going to be as distinct. And so they're not gonna be that model of freedom to the rest of the world. Instead, Be like the other nations. All right.

why did God allow the request to be granted? I don't know. we'll have to ask him when we get to heaven, I guess. he doesn't really say.

But there are some things that in, in the way God does things, God is not stymied by our silliness and our foolishness. In fact, God Usually, in fact, that's what he has to work with, right? And so he, he works with it and he accomplishes his purpose anyway. In Genesis 17, we just went through this a couple of weeks ago in Pastor Milton's sermon where God talks to Abraham and, and gives Abraham this covenant and what will come in his covenant.

And in, in verse 6, it specifically says, there will be kings in your descendants. So God Has this planned already. That there will be kings coming from his descendants. And The second thing is In, in Matthew chapter 1, what do we see?

We find from the second king who is David being in the line of Christ. And so there is this, this, this royal line that, that gets created that God in His purposes, in his plans, sets about to accomplish. So we don't get to know what alternative, Worlds would have happened had different decisions been made and how God would have accomplished all that. that's, that's not how we, we, we don't get to know that.

But we do know that God is fully able to accomplish his purposes in spite of our weaknesses. And so God is, is very gracious and all that, and God is very gracious in this situation as well. And so we find that the in chapter 9 and and chapter 10, we find the, the man Saul, who, who becomes king. And it's a very interesting story.

I encourage you to read it if you've not read it, or read it again, how God through His providence brings this man to become king. And Saul starts off really well. He ends very badly as we're gonna find out next week, but, But he is the one who becomes king. All right.

We need to, to wrap up here. What are the ways of the world of which we must be wary? Speak loudly so we can hear you. Right.

So Mike's saying that, that there are subcultures that, that exist underneath maybe the overlying culture that may be defined by religion in the overlying culture, but underneath, there are things that, that eat away even of the values that are of that culture. And in our culture, the media is one of the big drivers that's underneath everything. And that even in, in Christian churches, amongst God's people, we can find ourselves taken in and influenced, even in maybe a subliminal way.

In, in a way that's away from God.

And we can find ourselves wanting to be like the world. I think these are great warnings for us and things for us to, to pay attention to. First John Chapter 2, 15 to 17 says that we're to not love the world, neither the things that are in the world. if we do, the love of the Father is not in us.

and, and that is a very strong statement because the same writer, John, writes in John 3:16 that God so loved the world, right? Now, he's writing, don't love the world. And so we, we know that, that, that, that word world is two different things. In John 3:16, that's the people and, and, and the, the people that God has chosen to To bring to salvation.

In First John 5, there's, there's the idea of the world there is the systems, the thoughts, the philosophies. That govern man's interactions in the world. And so, those are the things that we're not to love. We're not to be conformed to it.

And John goes on to list three things there, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life that come out in the systems of the world. And those are, we don't have time right now for the analysis of those 3 things, but those are the 33 items that Really, you can find at the core of the world's philosophies and the world's systems, and those are things that we're not to emulate, not to go along with. We are to be different from that. God has called us to be distinct.

in Romans chapter 12, verse 2, Paul writes, don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed, right? And so, There's this conformity that the world actually is always, always pressing for us to come to it. The world always wants us to conform. It's always been that way.

It was that way when Noah was building the ark. It's been that way all through human history. The world has its own systems and, and of course, the, the systems are influenced by Satan. Satan is the one who's the enemy of God, who's at war with God.

And we are the battlefield. And so we, we have to understand that and we have to realize that the world is always going to be pressing us for conformity. It's not gonna conform to us. It's not gonna conform to God on its own.

In fact, when Jesus comes back, He's not going to enter into negotiations. and, try to get everyone to come along and buy his system. No, he's going to establish it after having destroyed. A lot of the population and certainly the armies of the world.

He's, he's, he doesn't negotiate because the world will not conform to God. but it will continue to press us to conform to itself. But we have to be transformed by the renewing of our mind in the gospel. one more quote from John Locke.

Oh, wait a minute, do I? Well, before we get to that, what is the freedom we have regardless of the governmental system? Under which we live, well, to love God with all of our hearts. And to love our neighbors ourselves.

We have that freedom, right? We can always do that no matter what governmental system we live in. we can still do that. We have that freedom and that is a very freeing thing to that.

God's laws are perfect. And his laws are given to us that we may walk in freedom and, and dignity as a human being. And another thing we can do is to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. OK.

Now this, this, this last quote from John Locke is, men, we have God for our king and under, we are under the law of reason. As Christians, we have Jesus, the Messiah for our king and are under the law revealed by him in the gospel. And under any society, under any governmental system, we can have this in our hearts. This is who we can be as Christians, as followers of Christ.

All right. And I want to close with Psalm 36. Psalm 36 really gives us The difference between Being conformed to the world. are being transformed to God and, and what God really offers us.

The freedom and the life that God offers us. David wrote this, Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes, for it flatters him in his own eyes concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit.

He has ceased to be wise and to do good. He plans wickedness upon his bed. He sets himself on a path that is not good. He does not despise evil.

Your loving kindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep.

Oh Lord, you preserve man and beast. How precious is your loving kindness, oh God. And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They drink their fill of the abundance of your house, and you give them to drink of the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life. In your light, we see light. Oh, continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come upon me and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.

There the doers of iniquity have fallen. They have been thrust down and cannot rise. I think that's a really great description of what we've been talking about. You have the contrasts of, of worldviews and You have the effects of what peace with God is.

and, and the warning at the end of, of not departing from that and not getting caught up in ourselves. So that we miss what God has given to us. God is our Creator. And he's the one who designed us and he's the one who wants the best for us.

And our place is a place of faith, trusting in his design, trusting in what he wants. The law of the Lord is perfect. And we can, we can trust in that. All right, let's close in prayer.

Father Thank you for rescuing us from darkness. And giving us light and helping us to see, Lord, you're the one who brings dignity to our life. You're the one who gives us freedom. You're the one who makes our life meaningful and matter.

Lord, help us to be wary and watchful from our own ways, our own flesh, the, the, the things that are around us that can deceive us. And help us to be strong in in walking in our faith and walking with you that we may Not only walk in your ways, but be a light to others and an encouragement to the world around us to seek after your light, after your truth. May we, Lord, be people who Our, our, blessings in our community, the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Lord, may our lives, be lives that you use to bless those who need you so much.