Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): When it comes to God’s desire for our lives, Pastor Jeff Johnson says it’s quality, not quantity.

Jeff Johnson: God is looking for quality men and women. He’s not looking so much for the quantity. You can pump out a lot of people and just say, "Look at how many thousands." Factories do that. Did you know that? Factories get into a thing of mass producing. Then when you start mass producing, the parts start getting cheaper, they start breaking, and things start not working right. Mass production—no. I believe that God is very concerned about quality today more than ever. The quality of your heart, my heart, before God.

Guest (Male): God works in ways that we often don’t or won’t understand. So we need to adjust our perspective, values, or timetable to fit His. Today on Sound Doctrine, Pastor Jeff Johnson will show us how to do that and maintain our sanity in the Christian life, even during those periods when it’s easy to become frustrated. We’re traveling through 1 Samuel at the present time, and today we’ll be looking at chapter 16. It’s here that the Lord anoints David to be king over Israel. This was a move that on the surface didn’t make a great deal of sense. Here’s Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: The book of 1 Samuel, chapter 16. We’re going to look at how God chooses, which is very interesting as we look at this portion of Scripture. But before we get into 1 Samuel 16 and this whole next portion that we’re actually entering into in 1 Samuel, we need to go back some years now to be reminded how the people of God, who had been governed by God—and He was their king, He was their leader—made a terrible mistake.

I just want to go back to chapter 8 for a moment. You can hold to 16 there. In chapter 8, it just talks from verse 5 on to verse 7 how they asked for a king. Samuel, of course, was very grieved at the people asking now for an earthly, finite king to rule over them after they had an infinite God. How could they think so puny? What a tragedy that you want a man to rule and to lead you now. They said yes, and he was hurt. God had to encourage him and said, "Samuel, they haven’t rejected you, but they’ve rejected Me, that I should not rule over them any longer. This is their choice." So they wanted to be like other nations.

There are two lessons here that are going to come out of this tragic decision. Number one, they would learn to listen to God a little bit closer from now on because, remember, God warned them, "If you do this thing..." Isn’t God good? You want to do it and you go, "I want it. No, I want it." Then God says, "Well, now, just a minute." He always warns us before we’re about ready to fall into a trap or get devoured by the enemy. He always gives us these warnings. So He gave them many warnings about what would happen if they followed a man.

The second lesson that they would learn is that God would reveal through David, which is His choice, a type of King that He would send to rule over His kingdom. Because God, yes, is setting up a kingdom. Yes, He is constantly setting up His kingdom. We pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So the kingdom is growing all the time. God’s kingdom, as we see here at the church, we’re expanding constantly. He has a King for this kingdom, but it’s through David that we get this type.

We have followed the demise of Saul, who was, I think, Satan’s man. I think Saul was a plant, and the enemy was definitely here. This guy was a train out of control. He was going to take a lot of people down with him. He was actually destroying the children of Israel. Chapter 15, God finally rejects Saul, and He says, "Enough’s enough. It is over." So Samuel goes home, and this is where we find ourselves today. He goes home with a great mourning. I mean, he’s really, truly sad over what is happening.

God has now rejected Saul. What’s going to happen? I think it’s a lesson for us that God doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need me, but He loves to use us. Now, if we won’t be used and if we won’t yield, He’ll just say, "Fine. I’ll go use somebody else. I’ll go bless somebody else for being used." It’s a lesson here. Upon this very dark background—and we know that it’s always darker before the dawn, right?—and we’re living in some dark times. The light of hope was coming.

Even though now as we look back in Samuel’s days, where Eli’s sons have corrupted themselves, they didn’t follow the dedication of their father, they committed sexual sin with the people, the people were getting disheartened. Then Saul comes along and they get all excited and they’re saying, "Yes, this is the man." Now he wipes out. He’s rejected of God. You can imagine the people are losing hope now. But through all of this darkness, we see now this tunnel with a light coming, and the light, of course, is David. His call and anointing that is right around the corner.

I believe that we are living in the last days. I believe that we are here on the very threshold of something that happened 2,000 years ago. What is that? God’s intervention. God coming to this earth. He is going to do it again. Jesus says as often as you break this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death until what? He comes again. Our Lord is coming back. This peace thing, as I mentioned last week with Ezekiel 38 and the King of the North coming down on Israel that is going to be in peace. Then, of course, 1 Thessalonians 5:3, "When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction."

So His return is right around the corner. What does that mean for us as a church? That means that we’ve got to start redeeming the time. Why? Because the days are evil. Oh no, we’re living in days of peace. No, they’re evil. There might be a lot of people saying peace and safety, but we have never come to a point with the human race as evil as today. In fact, there was a time similar to today where God said, "That’s it. I’m going to destroy the planet," because of men’s hearts were evil continually and corrupt. That’s where we’re in today.

The church today in the midst of this darkness is struggling. Barely a light can be seen. What are we to do? I think the answer is right here in this chapter, chapter 16 of 1 Samuel. God is looking for quality men and women. He’s not looking so much for the quantity. You can pump out a lot of people and just say, "Look at how many thousands." And yet factories do that. Did you know that? Factories get into a thing of mass producing. Then when you start mass producing, you start—the parts start getting cheaper, they start breaking, and things start not working right.

Okay, mass production—no. I believe that God is very concerned about quality today more than ever. The quality of your heart, my heart, before God. The quality of our lives. Not that we are one about number of the masses. When the saints go marching in, I want to be a part of that number. Oh yeah, I’ll receive Jesus. I want to go to heaven. But there’s more to it than that. There’s a quality that God wants to develop in you that is awesome, that God is looking for today in men and women.

Those hearts that are turned towards Him, filled with His Spirit, who are reaching out in these last days. We need to learn how God chooses so we can be a part of this quality number. More than anything, we need to be concerned about this. So God directs us to chapter 16 where we see in verse 1: "And 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, and I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.'"

Samuel, again, is still broken. He went away mourning, now he’s still mourning. God now gives him direction. God’s saying, "Hey, listen, Samuel, cheer up. I have provided a man." You see, before in—again, going back a little bit to 1 Samuel chapter 8, in verse 19—the people cried and they said, "We will have a king rule over us. We want to be like the other nations." Then the Lord said to Samuel, "Listen to their voice and, Samuel, make them a king. Get them a king." So Samuel had his direction. He had to find a king.

Samuel got them the king, his name was Saul, and they accepted this king. This guy looked great outwardly, right? They said, "Hey, this is our first king. We love the guy." He had some early victories and they just—they loved him. In fact, even Samuel fell in love with him. He loved him. Everybody seemed to love him. But that’s over now. He’s history. Samuel, it’s not time to mourn is what God is saying. It’s not time to pray even because maybe he was just going, "Oh God, oh God, what am I going to do? Oh God, what are we going to do?"

It’s time to move out, He’s saying. Listen, I’ve already taken care of everything. I’ve got a man. I’ve provided a king. Of course, we know that that man is David. This is God’s choice that God is leading to here. God’s plan goes on again. It doesn’t depend upon man. Saul blew it. Saul got out of God’s will. Okay, God provides another man. That’s what God does over the centuries. It’s interesting God tells Samuel to go to Bethlehem. That’s a very unique little area. It’s a small little village there.

But in Bethlehem, what happened there? Well, actually David’s going back to his roots. Did you know that Bethlehem is the place of his great-grandmother Ruth, who was a Moabite who stumbled onto Boaz in that field and there that love story goes on? This is the same place. "David, I want you to go back to your roots." So God makes His choice, and it’s totally different than man’s choice. I want you to see this this morning: that the way that God chooses is different than man chooses, totally.

You say, "But hey, didn’t God have trouble with David?" Yes, He did. But doesn’t He have trouble with all of us? And yet He chose us. Come on. David was a sinner, but David was also a worshipper. He had his ups, he had his downs. But who the Lord loves, He what? Chastens. God’s good, man. He’s a good Father. And yes, He’s got a bunch of rebellious kids at times, complaining and murmuring, "Oh God." God’s going, "Oh, I’m going to have to work with this one a little bit more." He molds us, melts us, fills us, and then, amazing, He uses us.

He wasn’t perfect, but his heart was perfect towards God. Now look at verse 2. Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he’s going to kill me." Saul’s temper is revealed here a little bit to us, right? I mean, Samuel knew that Saul was a very jealous king. He knew he was a very angry person. He had a great temper. The further Saul got away from God, the further he got crazy. That’s like anybody. I mean, you taste the Lord and yet you pull away and then you go back into the world. Oh, there’s nothing worse because you can get mean, man, angry, and hard.

Eventually we know that later on, he starts throwing javelins or spears at David trying to kill him. I mean, his anger just—he becomes a madman. We see it right here. So from this spiritual degeneration that was happening with Saul, we see now God’s plan of regeneration through David. Verse 2, going on in verse 2, it talks about: "And the Lord said, 'Listen, here’s what you need to do, Samuel. Take a heifer with thee, and say, "I am come to sacrifice to the Lord." Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee.'"

Note that God is being very truthful here and God is giving a little bit of light to Samuel. He’s not giving him the whole truth. You say, "Well, isn’t it important to tell the whole truth?" Well, sometimes it’s not to the benefit of everyone. I mean, yes, there are times where you need to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God, yes, right? Tell the whole truth. But if we confess everything all the time and, "Okay, I’m going to be brutally honest and I’m just going to tell it," you’re going to hurt a lot of people. In fact, I don’t know any marriage that would be able to keep together if you started to share everything that you thought.

Sometimes it’s better left unsaid. The tongue is a fire, the Bible says, and it goes forth to do great destruction. So God just gives enough just to get by and he was supposed to go on that and He was going to give him further information. But He said, "This is how I want you to do it." He’s not being deceitful here. He’s just saying, "Listen, Samuel, you don’t have to worry about Saul because here’s the plan." He gives him this beautiful plan. Look at verse 4. "And Samuel did that which the Lord spoke." He was very obedient.

He came to Bethlehem, and the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and they said, "Comest thou peaceably?" And he said, "Peaceably. I come to sacrifice unto the Lord. Sanctify set yourselves aside and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and he called them to the sacrifice. Samuel shows up and he was walking in faith. I love this because Samuel is like every child of God. God wants us to walk in faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

God tells you to take one step. So what do you do? You take one step and you wait for further information. Now, if you never took that step and say, "Well, I’m just going to wait. I’m going to wait for the full picture because I don’t move on half stuff, and I don’t really step out on if I can’t—I’ve got to have the whole total picture." Well, then you’re just going to be sitting there for a long time, man. Because God wants us to have faith. So He gives us just a little bit. He says, "Now take the step." Faith what? Pleases God.

And they that come to God must first believe that He is and that He is what? The rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. So I’m just going to step out in faith. Samuel did that. He says, "Okay, Lord, I’m going to do what You told me to do. I don’t know the whole thing, but I’m just going to go ahead, call Jesse and his family, call for a sacrifice. I’ll go to Bethlehem." He came, though, noticed unannounced. I can see that village as the word’s getting out. Oh no, here comes that prophet who chops up kings. He’s coming into our town.

And they were panicking and they go—they probably sent some guy out to say, "Are you coming in peace? Or are you going to come to chop somebody up?" He says, "I’m coming in peace, man. Don’t worry about it. Everything’s going to be fine." So somehow as they were getting the sacrifice prepared, Samuel now takes time out to spend with Jesse and his family on the side. Verse 6: "And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab"—this is the first of Jesse’s sons and Samuel’s checking him out, he looks at him—and he said, "Whoa, surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him."

I mean, this guy was good looking. He was built, charismatic type of guy. And the Lord said unto Samuel, "Hey, look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Here we begin to see how God chooses a man or a woman. Now listen, there are actually three ways that He does it, and here is the first way that God chooses: His choice will be contrary to human reason. It’ll be contrary to human reason.

Of course, Samuel naturally thought, "This is the firstborn. Of course, this is the one." In the natural. I mean, the elders to be chosen and look at this guy anyhow. I mean, stature and look at how he looks. I mean, he looked the part. But Samuel should have learned his lesson with Saul, right? I mean, come on, what are you doing? You’re falling right back in the same old trap. You’re looking for the outward. But notice, He says, "No, God doesn’t look at the outward as man does, but God looks on at the heart."

He’s kind of an interior decorator. He goes inside of a man. It’s the inside that’s important to God. Now listen, girls, don’t use this as an excuse to look shabby and saying, "Well, honey, Jeff just said it’s the inside that counts." But it still says that man looks on the outward, girls. Okay. Samuel, and I’m thinking as I’m reading this, "What do you want, another Saul here? Are you trying to pick another Saul?" It’s dangerous. But look at how many and think about how many Sauls have been chosen because of their looks, because of their education, because of their strength, or maybe that’s a charismatic type of guy, he fits just what we think a guy should look like.

Colleges do this. I mean, the military does this. Over and over again, they go by the outward. And yet these who are chosen on the outward turn out to be a real pain like Saul. Good looking on the outward but rotten on the inside. Oh no, God looks within. In fact, there’s a Scripture in 1 Corinthians. Let me read it to you in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 27. It says, "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, the base things of the world that the things which are despised has God chosen. Yea, the things which are not to bring to naught the things that are." Why? "That no flesh should glory in His presence."

I don’t know if you’ve read the recent or actually it’s been out for a while, *The Harvest* book. They’ve just recently put it out in paperback. It’s an updated edition. This is all the latest on some guys. In fact, it says: "Gang members, drug addicts, mental patients, society’s rejects, the unlikely leaders God has called." You want to read a bunch of jokes in society’s eyes, read about these guys. These guys are losers, every single one of them, and I’m one of them. All the way through school as I was going through school, every one of my teachers said, "You’re a loser, guy. You’re never going to amount to anything."

I just figured, well, that’s what I am, that’s what I am. And I did my losing thing until I chose a winner, Jesus Christ. And to God be the glory for great things He has done in and through this man. It’s amazing what God can do and what God has done. I encourage you to read *The Harvest*. It’ll just encourage you in your life on how God chooses and who He chooses. It’s incredible. Dedicated men now, spirit-filled men. Evangelism—I mean, we’re talking about men that now have some of the top 25 largest churches in the nation.

I mean, this is incredible what God has done. But this is how God does it. And these men are raising up underneath them men and women who are being spirit-filled and have a heart for evangelism, and it’s spreading like wildfire throughout the world. God’s ways certainly are not our ways. Man tries to figure it out and, "Here’s how we’re going to do it," and he tries to get his plan when God’s got a plan already.

Guest (Male): When you think about that, that’s the one thing that has plagued mankind as long as there’s been mankind: thinking we know better than God. This is Sound Doctrine, and today Pastor Jeff Johnson shared a timely message from a timeless book, 1 Samuel. This great Old Testament account contains some of the most practical lessons we can learn about being a believer in Jesus Christ in the 21st century.

If you’d like to hear the study again, you have a few options. First, go online to sounddoctrineradio.org where you’ll find a massive archive under messages. We’re also on oneplace.com, and you can listen wherever you get your podcasts, too. Take Sound Doctrine with you wherever you go through the Sound Doctrine Radio app. You can download that today from sounddoctrineradio.org.

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