In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the demand of the Israelites for a king. Samuel, who was old at the time, made his sons judges over Israel, but they did not follow in his footsteps. God instructed Samuel to listen to the people's demand and appoint a king for them. However, Samuel warned the people of the consequences of having a king, including heavy taxation, oppression, and the drafting of their sons and daughters for the king's service. This marked the beginning of a new era in Israel's history, one that would ultimately end in tragedy.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be focusing on Israel's demand for a king As we pick up in 1 Samuel, chapter 8, verse 1 And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith Now it came to pass when Samuel was old That he made his sons judges over Israel This was a mistake Because his sons did not follow in the footsteps of their father The name of his firstborn was Joel The name of his second was Abiah And they were judges in Beersheba Which is the extreme southern part of the country And his sons did not walk in his ways But they turned aside after money They took bribes and they perverted judgment So there was corruption in the courts As the sons of Samuel were judging They would take bribes And thus perverted judgment Then all of the elders of Israel gathered themselves together And came to Samuel there at Ramah And they said to him, behold you are old And your sons do not walk in your ways Now make us a king To judge us like all the nations But the thing displeased Samuel When they said give us a king to judge us And Samuel prayed unto the Lord Hard thing here The people are now coming to Samuel there in Ramah And they're demanding that Samuel give them a king And unfortunately the desire was to be like the nations around us We want a king like the nations around us It would seem that Samuel seeing what happened to Eli Because he didn't discipline his sons Would have learned the lesson But unfortunately seemed not to do so His sons being set up by Samuel as judges Corrupting their position And thus causing the people to demand a king They didn't want Samuel's sons to succeed him As judges in Israel Samuel was upset, troubled And he did what you should do when you're troubled Take it to the Lord, he prayed unto the Lord And the Lord said unto Samuel Hearken unto the voice of the people And all that they say unto you For they have not rejected you But they've rejected me that I should not reign over them Here is a very tragic verse of scripture Samuel was hurt personally He took it as a personal affront That they're saying set us up a king He saw it as their rejection of him And God had used him Brought spiritual revival, brought them victory over the Philistines Secured their cities and all And yet here are the people saying hey we want you to set up a king for us And it hurt him, it crushed him And so he went to the Lord and the Lord said now Hearken to the things that they're asking you to do Don't feel personally offended They haven't rejected you Samuel They have rejected me from being the king over them You see what God was wanting for his people was a theocracy A people that were ruled by God What the people were wanting was a monarchy They wanted a man to rule over them What God still desires for his people is a theocracy God wants you to be ruled by God He wants to be the king, the Lord of your life And how glorious it is to enter into the kingdom of God What does that mean? That means that God is king, God is reigning And that is why you who have submitted to Jesus Christ Have entered into the kingdom of God Because you have acknowledged him as king and Lord of your lives And thus you have entered into the kingdom of God And you have begun to reap the glories and the blessings of God's kingdom Now, there is coming a day When the kingdom of God will rule over the entire earth God made a promise to his son in Psalms 2 Ask of me and I will give you the heathen for thine inheritance And the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession The promise of God to his son That he could reign over the uttermost parts of the earth That promise will be fulfilled when Jesus comes again And there are all kinds of glorious prophecies of the Bible Of the conditions that will exist upon the earth During what is known as the kingdom age When we have a theocracy, when God rules over the earth Right now Satan rules Jesus called him the prince of this world The world system, the present world system in rebellion against God Is being led by Satan But Jesus is coming to establish the kingdom of God And that's why when he gave the disciples the model prayer He said, you should pray, thy kingdom come And thy will be done in this earth even as it is in heaven Oh how we should be praying for that glorious kingdom of God to be established Now here was the point where they were rejecting God from being king We want a man Their model was the other nations around them They have a man that they can look up to as their king We want a king just like the other nations And God said, Samuel they haven't rejected Now hearken to them, do what they say Do what they say They haven't rejected you, don't feel bad about it They haven't rejected you, they've rejected me from being king I see something here that's extremely important Extremely important God is giving in to the demands of the people Because God will not force you against your will to serve him If you don't want to serve God, he's not going to force you to serve him That's not what the kingdom of God is about It will be when Jesus comes, he's going to rule with a rod of iron And that will be enforced righteousness for a thousand years People will be forced to serve him at that time But at the present time, God doesn't force a man to serve him And God will accommodate your lower standard If you want to live on a low level If you insist living on a low level God will accommodate himself to your lower level But he loves you so much He'll do the best that he possibly can for you on that lower level But that's sort of tragic when we bring God down to our level Rather than being elevated and lifted to God's level God wants to lift you to the highest The highest level And he will lift you to the highest level That you will allow him to lift you But on the other hand, he will also Accommodate you on the level that you insist upon And there in grace and love will do the very best he can for you on that level But oh, God help us that we might all ascend Under the level where God would have us to be living And what is that level? Seated together with Christ in heavenly places Ephesians, if you want to know where God wants you to be living Read the book of Ephesians It's called the Alps of the New Testament And it's where God would really have you to be living The highest level Don't make God bend to you But rather submit to him and allow him to lift you To his heights But they're bringing him down They've not rejected you Samuel They've rejected me That I should reign over them And so according to all the works which they have done Since the day that I brought them out of Egypt Even unto this day wherewith they have forsaken me And served other gods So they're doing to you Hey, what's happening to you man is what's happening to me Samuel You know since they came out of Egypt They've turned to other gods They haven't followed me And now they're doing the same thing to you They just don't want to follow you You know I've experienced this for many many years Been going on for some You know 400 years around here Since they came out of Egypt They've been doing this Samuel So you're just getting a little bit of what I've had for a long time Now therefore second time he tells them Hearken unto their voice Yet protest solemnly to them Go ahead and do what they want But give them a message Protest to them Solemnly And show them The manner of king that shall reign over them Show them what's going to happen When they have a man reigning over them Show them what man will do Because you see man is incapable Of handling authority and power Without corruption There is a greed within man that keeps him From exercising authority and power and government over other men Without becoming corrupted It's impossible Man just doesn't have that kind of self control So if you have a king over you There's going to be corruption He's going to begin to abuse his position And you will suffer the results of that abuse Government always ultimately becomes abusive He's going to start taxing you Excessive taxes The fact that we can't afford to pay the bills year by year Tells me one thing We can't afford government You know it's just too expensive There's too many hands dipping into the till you know Too much corruption It's just what's new God says that's what's going to happen You set up a man to rule over you And there's going to be corruption Oh that God would rule over us We would be satisfied to have God rule over us And only then can you have a government without corruption A truly righteous government Show me a nation in the world Ours is probably the best And I don't care what political persuasion you are I have a friend that says Well you know you don't want to get the Democrats in power Because you know that they're a bunch of thieves And they'll rob you blind But he said The Republicans are thieves too But they do it with more finesse So take your choice How do you want to get robbed? And so Samuel said to the people If you have a king this is what's going to happen He's going to take your sons And he's going to appoint them for himself For his chariots To be his horsemen And some of them will be running before his chariots He will appoint captains over thousands And captains over fifties He will raise an army He'll have a standing army He will set them to take care of his fields To ear his ground Is actually to till his ground And to reap his harvest And he will make instruments of war You're going to have a war department And instruments of his chariots And he will take your daughters To be your confectionaries And to be cooks And to be bakers You're going to have a draft And he will take your fields And your vineyards And your oliveyards Even the best of them And he will give them to his servants In other words the government will start to take over By eminent domain He'll take away your property Use it for his own purposes You won't have the rights to your own property You've ever tried to build something And find out all the hoops you have to jump through Just to put something on your own property You know you don't have the right You think well that's my land Not the way the government looks at it And then he's going to start taxing you He's going to take 10% Not bad I'd be satisfied with that And your vineyards he'll give to his officers And to his servants He's going to take your men servants And your maid servants And your handsomest young men And your donkeys And he's going to use them for his own work He will take a tenth of your sheep And you will be his servants And you will cry out in that day Because the king which you have chosen And the Lord will not hear you in that day You know it's going to get tough And you're going to start crying unto God Because of the abuses of government But hey that's what you want God's not going to listen Now having been warned what do they respond Oh let God rule over us No no forget that Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel They said no no We will have a king to rule over us Now here's what's going to happen It's alright We'll take it I'm amazed At the bondage that people are willing to live under Just because they don't want God to rule over them Have you noticed that People will live in bondage to drugs They'll live in bondage to alcohol They'll live in all kinds of horrible bondage And you come to them and say hey Just turn your life over to Jesus Christ And he can set you free Oh no no I don't want that man And then they'll go on and tell you how miserable things are Oh this is horrible I wish I were dead I would like to die This is horrible I can't stand it Well just turn your life over to Jesus No no no I can't have all that I had an uncle Very wealthy man And he Chain smoker Had emphysema And I went up to visit him while I was in seminary Because I'd heard he'd had a bad emphysema attack So he was talking to me He still did chawls How wonderful that you're dedicating your life To the ministry of chawls Well that's your family You gotta take what you have And he started wheezing And coughing and all And went into this fit And said And he says I have to call my chauffeur And get in the car And rush out to Palm Springs When this happens to me And he's telling me He felt one day I'm gonna die Between Santa Barbara and Palm Springs Because I'm not gonna be able to make it in time With these horrible attacks And I said well uncle And I called him by his name I said you know The Lord could heal you Of emphysema I've seen God heal so many people of asthma Emphysema The Lord can heal you I can just pray for you And God can touch and heal you He just about had a heart attack then He was afraid I was gonna lay hands on him And pray for him What he was afraid of If God did heal him The obligation that he'd have to God I'd rather die of emphysema Than submit my life to God I'd rather live in horrible bondage Than let God rule over me And this was the choice These people were making But don't fault them too much Because you may be making the same choice It may be that you're running from God's reigning over your life It may be that you're continuing In a life of bondage Just because you don't wanna submit Your life to be ruled over by Jesus Christ You see all of these people aren't dead We're surrounded by them today People who are living in abject misery And in horrible bondage But they still Don't want God to rule over them So we want a king that we also May be like all the nations And that's always a bad desire To be like the world around you We're to be different from the world around us And that our king may judge us And go out before us And fight our battles We want someone you know to Lead us into battle And Samuel heard All of the words of the people And he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord And the Lord said to Samuel Hearken unto their voice Make them a king And Samuel said to the men of Israel Go home And you know I'll take care of it So three times the Lord said to Samuel Hearken unto their voice Appoint them the king So Now We get the king That was chosen to rule over Israel And What God said was true But We begin now A new section of the Bible As we move into the area of the kings Over Israel And we will find that this whole period Ended in tragedy It ended in oppression It ended in heavy taxation It ended in failure We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study of 1 Samuel In our next lesson As God reveals the king to Samuel And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience You can order online anytime When you go to the wordfortoday.org And while you're there Be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies Commentaries CDs DVDs And so much more Once again, that's the word for today online At thewordfortoday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address Which is The Word for Today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station With your correspondence And now on behalf of the word for today We'd like to thank all of you Who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith Continues his verse-by-verse study Through the book of 1 Samuel That's right here On the next edition of The Word for Today And now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith Like the children of Israel You're not going to have to decide If God is going to reign over you Or if you're going to have Some other power reigning over you It's very possible that you're Suffering the ravages And the miseries of having Another king in your life And you're going to have to decide You're not really a free-mortar agent You're bound by the power of sin It's destroying you You realize that God wants to lift you to a higher level He wants to take you out of the bondage of corruption And bring you into the glorious freedom Of the children of God Living under the reign of God If you'd like to enter into that relationship Submitting unto His lordship And to His reign in your life I encourage you just ask God To take over And to begin His reign In your heart God bless you And may you live a life in Surrender unto Jesus This week May He be lord over your life Ruling in every area As you walk in fellowship with Him May your life be enriched in the fullness Of that mercy and grace That He has extended towards us Through Jesus our Lord God bless you and give you a beautiful week And keep you in His love Hey, have you ever seen a person Who was once a drug addict or an alcoholic And then all of a sudden they became a Christian And they're like a different person They're responsible, they're happy They're excited about life They've been changed from the inside out If you know someone who is struggling with sin Whether it be with drugs or alcohol Prescribed painkillers An eating disorder Or a problem with gambling or pornography I'd like to recommend ordering This year's One Step to Freedom conference And DVD entitled Inside Out Hear guest speakers Pancho Juarez Jerry Brown And myself, Tommy Cota And see for yourself Some extreme and amazing Life changing stories of people Who have been changed from the inside out To order this year's conference For a friend or a loved one Call the Word for Today at 1-800-272-WORD Or visit us online at thewordfortoday.org Again, the number to call is 1-800-272-9673 This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California