Let’s now read (1 Samuel 8:4-20) “Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
In (Verse 10) So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He then explains from (Verses 11 – 17) how this king will use the people for his selfish purposes and gain. He will take their women and servants and they will serve him. He will take their possessions and will make slaves of them all. Then in (Verse 18) he states these words, “and in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” How did the people respond, look at (Verse 19) “But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
The Word of God is not about us, it is about God and all things from the Old to New Testament reveal human depravity and God’s attributes and His sovereignty. All things in the Word of God point to Christ. See, we do not want to be ruled and governed by a Sovereign God, No; we want to be like the other nations ruled by men. Pride, arrogance, and idolatry, the story of Israel. Pride, arrogance, and idolatry the story of you and me.
Today we see this in the nations of this fallen world. Consumed by politics, placing our hopes in a president and leaders rather than an Omnipotent Sovereign Holy God. We are a political party before being Biblical. We deny clear biblical truth in compromise to man and sinful desires. We deny God’s sovereignty over ALL things and elevate our “free-will” which the bible says is bound by sin, so we allow God to be on the throne to meet our wants and desires but not on the throne and in control of our salvation and sanctification. We refuse to obey the commands of God in His word for when it is convenient we are Christians and He is our King, but when His demands inconvenience us, we rebel and seek an alternative. Oh, what wretched sinners we are!
Listen to these words “I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and the punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration.” Where do you think this is from? One of the church confessions? No, this is a section from the Pennsylvania Constitution (1776), and every member of the House of Representatives before taking a seat was required to subscribe to this declaration.
Oh how far we have come, rejecting God as our King and governor over all things. (1 Chronicles 28:9) “know the God of your father, and serve him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intention of every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will reject you forever.” The nations have rejected the Sovereign Holy God of the Bible and turned to themselves for self-governance. They use God and Christianity for their personal gain when they do not even know the true God of Christianity much less the very Biblical definition of Christianity and what it is to be a Christian. Then when they gain what they desire they once again abandon God and Christianity and they twist and reject God’s word just as (Psalm 50:17) says; “They hate instruction and fling my words behind you. (Jeremiah 6:10) “Who can I speak to and give such a warning that they will listen? Look, their ear is uncircumcised, so they cannot pay attention. See, the word of the Lord has become contemptible to them—they find no pleasure in it.”
But wait for its not just nations and rulers who are guilty of this and no I am not going to speak on unbelievers, for we have a clear understanding of the reason for their rejection of God (2 Corinthians 4:4) “In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (John 3:36) “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”
No, whom I wish to focus upon is you and I, believers, and those who profess to be Christians. Today Christianity does not reflect the biblical truths of the first century. Today’s teachings in the majority of “Christian” churches have a low view of God and a high view of man. They teach that man has a completely free will to choose right and wrong, to sin and not sin, to accept Christ or reject Christ, then one day they feel more spiritual so they accept Christ once again. They say God did not create robots to do all that He wills; no, He gives us the will to do as we please. They say that man is essential good when Romans 3 says “No one is good, not even one”. God is torn down from His Sovereign Holy throne and man has elevated too little gods who are powerful and God patiently waits upon us, begging us to love Him. Many who fill church pews and carry the label “Christian” seem to love God but want the benefits of God, His peace, comfort, and prosperity but they truly don’t want the God of the Bible and surrender their life to Him. They say my god is only a god of love, not of wrath or jealously, or He is in control of most things but not all things. This is not the God of the Bible that they claim to know, this is a false fabricated god of their imagination. Truth is not in an individual's opinion or imagination. Truth is what God decrees.
God is Sovereign over all things, or He is Sovereign over nothing, Period. We were dead in our sins incapable to love and obey the true God of the Bible. It is God who decrees all things to being and yet we are responsible for our sinfulness, it is He who elects us, He who calls us, He who seeks us, His spirit that makes spiritually dead men come to life and have faith, He who bends our will towards His, it’s His righteousness He imputes upon us, His spirit He seals us with, He who sanctifies and one day glorifies. God’s will is His perfect determination and sovereign ordination of all things, pertaining both to himself (including His decrees and actions) and to his creation (including the events of history and the thoughts and actions of people), all unto the magnification of His utmost glory.
Written By: Jonathan Roiz
Video: https://youtu.be/zeasRvCVh4I