The Head and Shoulders Man is Part 1 of The King And His Army,
the
prophetically important series of messages preached by Ern Baxter at
the Lakes Bible Week in 1975 and recently transcribed by Dan Bowen.
From the typical significance of David’s long and difficult
journey from Ziklag to Hebron and David’s final anointing as King of
all the tribes of Israel, the conquest of Jebus by the armies of Israel
that followed, and the establishment of Zion as David’s great city,
Brother Baxter paints a powerful prophetic picture of the coming
apostolic restoration and reformation of Christ’s Church. In
these wonderful Biblical messages Ern carefully and thoughtfully lays
out for the Church today what it is going to take to give birth to a
true apostolic reformation, and move God’s people from the head and
shoulder government of King Saul to the heart government of David!
The Head and Shoulders Man
___________________________________________________
From the The King and His Army Series- Lakes Bible Week 1975, preached
by Ern Baxter and transcribed by Dan Bowen.
I bring greetings to you from a great host of people in America
who not only know that I am here, but under whose covering and
authority I am here. I am a man under authority, and a number of my
brothers in America have sent me with their blessing and covering, and
send their greetings to you. They praise God for what is happening in
this country and what is happening across the world. It’s about these
things that I propose in the will of God to speak to you. As things
now stand, God willing, I will be speaking to you for five evenings and
I am going to bring you a series, which I have entitled, “The King and
His Army”. I am going to ask you to be patient with me tonight because
I am not going to be able to tell you everything tonight. That will be
my temptation. My temptation will be to give you the last chapter and
the first chapter, but I am going to resist as much as I can. So there
will be things that I want to say to you that shouldn’t be said until
tomorrow night, and there will be other things that shouldn’t be said
until the next night. I will be thinking, “Well that man over there
won’t be here that night, so I want to say that to him,” but I am
talking to myself and thinking – “Now don’t you do that.”
(*laughter*). So I will try not to do that.
1. The Contemporary Context of the Charismatic Renewal.
It has become repetitive I know for speakers to get up and make
reference to what is happening in the earth, but I think we almost have
to repeat that if we are speaking what we feel is a word of the Lord
for the hour. We have to put in the context of what is happening. It
is what is happening that is causing many of us to say what we are
saying. We are saying what we are saying because the Spirit of the
Lord is saying, “This is pertinent to what I am saying. So say it.”
Therefore I am going to have to say it. (*laughter*). You may be
interested in the fact that I am a quarter Irish so that’s why things
come out like that. (*laughter*). As my colleague Arthur Wallis said,
“God is sovereign”. I am sorry that isn’t an original line – it was
said long ago by prophets and apostles that He is Lord over all. There
is a delightful intriguing phrase in the New Testament – “The times and
the seasons.” Our Lord said these are kept secret in the heart of the
Father. They break in upon us, as He will. God is without precedent.
There is none before Him, Isaiah said. God was never born. God
doesn’t pray to another god because there is no other god prior to
Him. There is nothing in Him that should be out of Him. There is
nothing out of Him that should be in Him. He never remembers anything
because He never forgets it. He never has to learn anything because
there is nothing He does not know. He is never surprised by anything
because He knew what was going to happen from the beginning. In fact
when He looked at it from the beginning He went to the end and looked
at it from that point also. (*laughter*) His eternal ‘nowness’ baffles
our time concept. He is not growing older because He doesn’t live in
days. He doesn’t count His time in time because He made time. He
doesn’t put Himself in space because He made space. He stands outside
of time and space as its Creator. He is involved in time and space as
its Redeemer. So when He chooses to break in on a time-space world He
does it in accord with urges that are found in His inscrutable and
infinite goodness. He does it right on time when we need it and when
He thinks it’s best for us.
So a few years ago He came breaking in on our time-space world
without our being consulted. In fact had we been consulted, I am sure
we would have all agreed for the sake of denominational unity it was
not the time. (*laughter*) Had he had a mind to ask us, I think
knowing what we might have said, He decided not to. (*laughter*). But
He did break in on us and it has been called the “Charismatic Renewal.”
Something that I am personally shying away from because I do not like
any divisive term and I think that “charismatic” can be and has become
almost as divisive as any of the other terms that we lament. However,
I am thrilled about what that stands for – a new dimension and a
renewal and restoration, a reviving of the Holy Spirit’s Presence all
over the earth. This cannot be traced to any one person. This cannot
be traced to any locality. If you were to write to the headquarters of
the current spiritual renewal, you would be hard put to know where to
address your letter – unless you addressed it to Heaven, but then of
course, you can do that in the form of prayer. (*laughter*). People
are upset about the Charismatic Renewal but God is the troublemaker.
No one else can be blamed. God is the one who got us in this mess.
(*laughter*). But God always makes a mess of things before He brings
order.
He did that from the beginning, and He always does it. It’s a
kind of strange principle He operates on. “In the beginning,” the
Bible says, “God made the heavens and the earth, and the earth was
without form, and void and darkness covered the face of the deep.” It
was a dark mess. Then the Bible says that the Spirit of God brooded
over the waters. Now how long the Spirit brooded I have no idea. That
depends on your interpretation of Genesis 1 and probably your
interpretation of geology. I don’t know how long He brooded. Now why
didn’t He do something? He was waiting for a Word and the minute the
Word was spoken ("Let there be") – the Holy Spirit leaped into activity
and brought cosmos out of chaos and order out of disorder. The Spirit
and the Word go together. Now I don’t wish to be offensive, but it
seems to me for the last ten years (however long you date this
movement) the Spirit of God has been brooding over a mess. Now a Word
is coming of “structure.” A Word is coming to say, “I have not given
you My Holy Spirit to give you tickles up and down your spine, make you
play tambourines, learn new choruses and dance in the aisles.”
(*laughter*). These are all part of the whole thing but the great deep
meaning of this visitation of the Holy Spirit has blood on it. That
sobers us. You see the Day of Pentecost was also a disorderly
business. But God has done it this way – He shakes you all up. He
gets you all shaken up, and you say, “What in the world is going on?”
He says, “When you really get inquisitive enough, I will tell you.”
(*laughter*). On the Day of Pentecost there had not been that much
noise in the temple in years and God was shaking things, and when He
got through shaking, they said, “Men and brethren what shall we do?”
Then the Word came forth. When the Word came forth it structured
what God was doing in the Spirit. I would be very disappointed if out
of this so-called Charismatic Renewal nothing came of responsible
divine structure. I believe that we are living in probably one of the
most significant days since the days of the apostles. I think that
quantitatively and qualitatively we are seeing a visitation in the
earth that is unparalleled. I know that those who take a negative
attitude to what is happening don’t like that kind of language. But I
think the language fits the event because this visitation has not just
been a visitation of people being converted – it has been the whole
Peter package. They have been getting the whole thing – “Repent – be
baptized – be filled with the Spirit and have spiritual gifts.” It has
been a total dimensional thing, and I think it has been unparalleled
since the days of the apostles.
Now, as I talk to you about the “King and His Army” (and we are
going to get to some Scripture in a few minutes; I’m feeling my way
into this trying to establish some basics), I want you to be agreed
with me tonight that the dimensions of what is happening are
significant. If you don’t agree with that then you will not be able to
rise with me each night to the level of importance that I am placing on
the times. If you think that this is just some little local touch of
God – some little geographically limited revival, then I think you are
not thinking with the largeness that God is requiring in this hour.
All over the earth the Spirit is moving! There is no part of the world
where this visitation is not to be found. I have not been all over the
world, but I’ve been over a good part of it in recent years, and
meetings just like this are taking place all over the world. This
movement has broken into everyone of our denominational sectarian
boxes. There is no box that has not been shaken. Every one of our
denominations has felt the impact of it. They have all felt that it is
of sufficient importance and threat that they must make an official
statement on it. Sometimes the statement is very negative or anti,
sometimes it’s rather neutral, and sometimes it’s delicately pro – but
they all feel they must say something about it. It demands attention!
It’s too big! It won’t go away! When it first came, they thought,
“Well, it is like the measles. Give it ten days and they will loose
the rash.” But it’s here, and to some it’s a chronic ailment. But it
is perennial joy to us.
2. God’s Covenant with His People.
Now, I don’t like to start a series of messages on a negative
note, but it is almost necessary and it’s Scriptural. The first word
of the Gospel is “Repent” which is a negative world. Repent means to
change your mind and it goes along with conversion, which means to turn
around. Faith is the positive thing. Tonight I am going to be talking
about the negative – I am going to be talking about the repentance
factor. Ever since God has had a people in the earth, and I am
speaking corporately now, that takes us to the sons of Jacob. Up until
that point, God had dealt with men individually. Adam. Noah.
Abraham. Isaac and then He came to Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons. A
whole new dimension came into the Word of God and that was the
corporate dimension.
In the New Testament whenever the apostles were referring to
individual faith, they refer to Abraham. Whenever they are referring
to corporate faith, they refer to the children of Israel. Whenever
they talk about what “you” singular have – they relate you to Abraham.
Whenever they talk about what “we” corporately have – they relate us to
Israel. But ever since God has had a corporate people, He has had
problems. He has had problems getting His people to agree with His
desire. Now do I have to labour that or will you accept it? Nothing
has changed! It is still the same. God’s problem tonight is not the
economic situation or the political situation or world government or
the United Nations. God’s problem tonight is the so-called People of
God. That’s God’s problem. If God could get that problem sorted, all
the other problems would fall into place. This is something like the
domino theory. If He can get “us” to respond, then all the other
dominoes will go down. “We” are the flies in the ointment – the knots
in the shoelaces. God has always had problems with His people. He has
a covenant purpose for His people and His people have an in-built
perversity that comes up with a counter-offer .
Let me tell you something about covenant. The word “Covenant” as
it is used in the Bible in relation to God and to people is not a peer
covenant. It is not a covenant between equals. The Greek word for a
covenant between equals is “suntheke.” The word that is used in the
Bible for covenant is “diatheke.” You will notice the prefixes are
different. “Suntheke” means an arrangement between two people that are
equals. “Diatheke” means the imposition of the will of a superior on
an inferior. It is given. It may be rejected – it may be received,
but it cannot be altered. Now God has entered into covenant. I was
teaching a series on covenant in Chicago a few years ago, and after I
had been at it a few weeks, my wife and I were driving home one day,
and she said, “You know it seems to me that the whole Bible is
covenant!” I said, “It is! It is the Old Covenant and the New
Covenant.” It is what God has said. If you can get this simply into
your hearts – God has spoken, and what God has spoken, is God breaking
in on a time-space world to deliver a covenant word. But it is not
something that He asked your advice about! It is God telling you and
me the best way for us to respond to Him and to relate to one another.
Because of the built in perversity we have – we disagree with God and
come up with counter proposals. God has been fighting with us on these
counter proposals for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Right now we are in one of those crucial periods where by this
ministry of the Holy Spirit He is shaking us and saying, “I want you to
look at the covenant – I want you to look at the clauses and I want you
to read the fine print!” Now some of us have lived with counter
proposals for so long that we have equated it with the real thing, and
even when we are required to look at the real thing, we don’t like what
we see because it upsets our counter proposal. This is why the
Pharisees and the Sadducees were upset with Christ. Christ came along
and said, “They say, but I say. Their counter proposal is so and so,
but the original covenant was this!” Now the people that were
responsible for the counter proposal didn’t like God meddling with it.
So they said the only way to get this thing settled was to kill Him.
That is ridiculous. I might as well serve notice on you now that you
are not going to kill God. (*laughter*). If you are going to get into
mortal combat with God, you are going to be the casualty. The hour has
come for us not to fight for our counter proposals, but to submit to
His covenant word.
Now the Old Testament has been lost to many people for many
years. They have had half a Bible because they have been told that the
Old Testament is second-class. It is not second-class at all – the
entire Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That may seem to be
unnecessary to say to you, but I think it is necessary. Augustine
said, “The New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New
revealed.” The New is an extension of the Old, and if you didn’t have
the Old there would be an awful lot of the New that wouldn’t make
sense. There would be whole passages of it that would make no sense.
The Book of Hebrews wouldn’t make too much sense. Great parts of
Romans and great hunks of the Gospels would have no meaning because
they are the fulfillment of the Old. Time and again you hear, “And the
Word of the Lord was fulfilled.” What Word of the Lord? That Old
Covenant Word of the Lord was fulfilled. Paul writing to the
charismatic Corinthians warned them. He said, “Now I would not have
you to be ignorant brethren.” When Paul says this, he is saying, “Now
fasten your seat belts.” Paul was a kind of gentleman. He was an iron
fist in a velvet glove, and what he was really saying was a nice way of
saying, “Stop being stupid.” But of course he was too much of a
gentleman to say it that way – but that’s really what he was saying.
The Corinthians had the idea that because they came behind in no gift,
were filled with the Holy Spirit and had the gift of miracles, tongues,
interpretation, prophecy (Paul said they came behind in no gift) and
were blessed with all utterance, that they could somehow do as they
pleased. And they did do as they pleased! They picked their preachers
– “I’m of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas.” They picked their
social habits. The rich flaunted their richness in front of the poor.
Some of their social habits were very bad. It was commonly reported
that among them there was fornication. They took one another to law
before pagan judges. They had lots of problems. The Spirit of the
Lord was brooding over a mess.
Paul felt he had to remind them that because they had all of
these blessings was no guarantee that they were right. Did you hear
me? We say, “Well I must be right – I prophesy.” That is no proof that
you are right. “Well I must be right – I speak with tongues.” That is
no proof that you are right. “I must be right – I heal the sick.” That
is no proof that you are right. What is the proof that you are right?
If our lives are related obediently to the Word of God – “For man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every spiritual gift.” No? Man shall
live by every Word from the mouth of the Lord. Now, Paul said I would
not have you be ignorant brethren, how our fathers came out of Egypt
and were baptized into Moses in the sea and in the cloud and did eat
the supernatural bread and drink the supernatural water, but with the
majority of them God was not well pleased for they died in the
wilderness.” What are you saying? We can have everything here tonight,
plus if you will, all the charismatic gifts; you can have a Paul, an
Apollos, and a Cephas. You can have all of the rich utterance that the
Corinthians had, and yet have the charge levelled at you that you are
not going on to maturity so you will die in the wilderness. Now you
will notice that God didn’t take Israel back to Egypt or drown the
Israelites in the Nile. Egypt is a type of the world out of which they
had been redeemed. They were brought through the wilderness and in the
Jewish lexicon the wilderness is the place that is uncultivated, or
spiritually – it is a place of immaturity. It was a place of
preparation for Israel to go into maturity and possess the nations, and
when they would not go in, He didn’t take them back to Egypt, but sent
them back into immaturity, where they went in circles for 40 years and
died there.
There is no such thing as static Christianity. You cannot stop
where you are. The options tonight are two: you either go on or you
go back. There are not three: go on, go back or stand still. There is
no such thing as static Christianity. If we are not going on then we
are going back.
3. Three Representative Types of Christ.
There are four representative men in the Bible that I want to
make reference to. Adam, Abraham, David, and our Lord Jesus. To Adam
we relate racially. To Abraham we relate redemptively. To David we
relate royally, and our Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of all three
men. Adam was a type of Christ, as Christ entered the whole human
race. Abraham, through his seed, speaks of the redemption of those who
are saved through Christ the seed. As for David, someone said once how
they find things in the Bible that have been there all the time. For
years I didn’t find David. I found Adam, and I found Abraham, but
David – well, he was the shepherd boy who killed the giant. That was
about the extent of my placing him in the whole picture. Now, I am
seeing that in this present moving of the Holy Spirit, David is the
prominent figure. Adam is not; neither is Abraham. We are in the
period of the Davidic emphasis. Why? David speaks of reigning.
Abraham speaks of redemption. But redeemed to do what? Here is the
crunch in our theology. What have we been redeemed to do? Someone
said, “Well, we have been redeemed to go to church.” Or, “We have been
redeemed to stop this or stop that.” Has it ever dawned on you that we
have been redeemed for a higher calling to fulfill the Davidic type?
That Jesus was not only of the seed of Abraham, but he was of the seed
of David to reign, and we are also not only of the seed of Abraham, but
through Jesus Christ we are of the seed of David. And as the seed of
David, we reign in life by one Christ Jesus! This is an emphasis that
has been lost to the Church for years. For years all many of us have
heard was that we are saved to go to heaven. One of the easy ways out
for most Christians was that there was a bus coming, that would get us
out of the whole nasty business, and as a result we got up hopefully
every morning and said, “Maybe the bus will come today.”
This will date me. But I remember as a very small boy in 1927, I
went to a service with my parents where a famous evangelist was
speaking on the Second Coming of Christ. He made this statement. He
said, “We may see the end of 1927, but as sure as I’m standing in this
pulpit, we will never see the end of 1928.” Well that set some wheels
going in my head. When I got home, I tested my mother’s faith in the
preacher. I said, “Mom, if what he said is right, and the Lord could
well come before the end of 1928, then I can see no sense whatsoever in
my continuing to go to school.” (*laughter*). Personally, I think that
was a piece of ironclad logic, but my mother didn’t buy it, and I went
to school. This is 1975. In 1975, while we all believe in the Second
Coming of Christ, the Holy Spirit is bringing a new dimension upon us,
and we are feeling a new wave of glory in our souls. The Holy Spirit
is saying to us, “You have missed something, and you replaced it with
something that was never meant to be replaced by that. I don’t intend
to solve the world’s problems by the return of My Son, but I intend to
solve the world’s problems by incarnating My Royal Self into the
corporate Body of My Son, and cause the kingdoms of this world to feel
the impact of the Corporate Christ as He blazes forth in the authority
of King David! For David the Prince shall sit on Messiah’s throne in
the hour of my best victory, and it is through the Church that I will
demonstrate and vindicate the purpose I had in Jesus Christ.” The
Church is not going out like a scared rabbit or a dog with its tail
between its legs. The Church is going out in a blaze of glory, as God
vindicates His Son and declares the resurrection the ultimate victory
of humanity over Satan and self and sin and the Adamic society.
I am saying then, that what is happening in this hour has an
eschatological dimension – don’t let that throw you. Brother Arthur
Wallis spoke of it as the “end times,” but “Eschatological” is a good
word that comes from a Greek word that speaks of “the things of the
times of the end.” There is an end-time emphasis here. There is a
dimension, and as we go along in these nights, from my point of view, I
hope to send you back to wherever you come from with a new sense of
meaning. I want you to go from this conference adjusting your crown,
pulling your purple toga a little tighter around you, squaring your
shoulders and standing ten feet tall – to go home to change your
community and plant the flag of Jesus Christ on top of City Hall!
The book of Hebrews starts out with a majestic phrase – it is
almost like the book of Genesis. In the phrase is encapsulated for us
the divine procedure for God ruling the earth. It runs like this,
“God.” That’s a good place to start. “God, who at sundry times and in
diverse manners in time past spoke unto our fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.” Now notice there
are two there, prophets (plural) and Son (singular). Now God has
always been the cosmic King. You read through the Old Testament and
find that God is King. God sits as King at the flood. God is King!
The Psalmists continually celebrate His Kinghood. Yet when we come to
Psalm 110, the cosmic King, God says, “I have set My King on My holy
hill of Zion.” God, the King of the Cosmos, says, “I will have a King
of the earth.” I don’t know if this is just a sideline, but when the
astronauts got to the moon, I had a personal revival. (*laughter*). I
shouted and jumped and talked in tongues and prophesied and shouted to
the stars and waved my arms. They couldn’t find a teeny-weeny
microcosm of anything that even wiggled. I will tell you why I was so
blessed. This old world of ours has been maligned by the scientists –
shunted off to the peripheries of the universe and considered to be a
pimple on the galaxy. But let me tell you – we are not, nothing. We
are everything! It’s all here. This is where it’s at. As one great
man said, “This is the theater of the universe.” This little orb that
you and I are living on, in all the multiplied galaxies of our
universe, looks like an insignificant nothing. But there is a bit of
information that will bless you. Did you know that there are 1, 500
kinds of edible beans? (*laughter*). I knew that would bless you.
Now this will bless you even more – we only eat 30 of them.
(*laughter*). When I thought that on the moon there was absolutely
nothing! Out there! Since I’ve come to England and walked in Arthur
Wallis’s garden down in Devon, and other beautiful gardens, as well as
visiting with my relatives in Shrewsbury, and they gave me the Latin
names for these plants – it blows my mind! I moved to Florida
recently, and now I am in tropical country. Do you know that this
little earth is absolutely teeming with life? Full of life! Why?
This is where it’s at. There is life here. Now because this is the
theater of the universe, this is the place where God chose to unfold
the drama of His love in creating men, and let me say that the Fall was
no surprise to God. Don’t get me involved talking about the mystery of
it, because I haven’t got all the answers, but Christ was a Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. When Adam and Eve fell, God wasn’t
surprised; this is all a part of the divine pattern. God knows what He
is doing, and He has chosen the earth and has chosen to tell us how to
do His will, and we don’t need a lot of horizontal scientists to tell
us how a vertical God is running His earth.
If we can get just a few simple souls that will read the contract
and the fine print, we will get somewhere. God said, “I have set My
King on My holy hill of Zion.” Now up until Christ came, God moved
through the prophets. Abraham was a prophet, as was Moses. Moses
said, “A prophet like unto me shall the Lord thy God raise up, him
shall ye hear, and whosoever hears him shall not be cut off from among
the people.” It was Moses who prophesied that the day would come when
there would be kingship in Israel. There was no problem with Israel
having a king. God intended them to have a king. God intended them to
have a king that the king may provide for them a picture of His
authority through King Jesus. But within the professed redeemed
community we always have this human thing vying with the divine thing,
and what I want to talk to you about during these nights is that God is
bringing into historical reality His divine authority through delegated
kingship in the earth . You may not be getting some of the things I am
saying, but if you will stick with me these nights, I think you will
see it unfold. God right now is in the midst of a titanic struggle.
It’s not Marxism versus Capitalism. It is not the East versus the
West, or the East and West versus the Emerging Third Community of
nations. That’s not where it’s at. That’s the ghosts fighting in the
graveyard. Where it’s at tonight is in the professed redeemed
community. And I use professed with some degree of diffidence, but I
think I have to. It’s in the area where men are aware of God, where
men have concepts of God. It’s in this area of God’s people where God
is having His problems, because until He can get the kind of unanimity
among His people, He is not going to be able to deal with the wider
purpose in the earth. Our Lord established that in the 17th chapter of
John where He said, “Father, I pray that they may be one, as You and I
are one, that they may be one in us, that the world may know.” Now
there is no use with you and I fussing about the world out there, as
long as our house is in disarray. This is why God is shaking us and
our boxes.
God hates walls! God breaks down walls. God can’t stand walls.
Remember what He said about Joseph? “Joseph is a fruitful bough and he
runs over walls.” Joseph comes to a wall and says, “I think I’ve hit a
wall.” (*laughter*). Joseph says, “That’s a wall, I’m going right over
it.” (*laughter*). God is like Joseph. He says, “I think I’ve hit a
wall.” You say, “Yes Lord, we put that up for You.” (*laughter*). “We
did that to protect You Lord. We want you to know that is a nice
creedal wall. We have worked it all out with the Greek, the Hebrew and
the Aramaic and the Latin. We have put a lot of money into it Lord,
and it’s been very costly, and we know you appreciate it.” He says,
“It’s a wall!” And up He goes, and away He goes. Someone said, “But
Lord! You can’t do that! You’ve run over our wall.” The Lord runs
over that and comes to another one, and He is finding all these walls.
The Bible said, “He broke down the middle wall,” and we have been busy
building up the middle wall, and He’s been busy breaking them down. He
is a wall-breaker-downer and we are wall-builder-uppers and guess who’s
going to win? (*laughter and applause*). I don’t go by solar time by
the way. (*laughter*). Ever since I got eternal life. (*laughter*).
Alright, let’s start to get out teeth into the type now. I think
we have broken some ground here. How are we fixed for Bibles? If
you’ve brought half a Bible, I bet you brought the wrong half.
(*laughter*). Let’s go to 1st Samuel chapter 8. A lot of this will be
old hat to you; you know it historically, but please be patient because
I will make some applications that I believe the Holy Spirit is making
in this hour. You will forgive me if some of the subjective
application seems so apt. You see there is something about the Bible
that is timeless. God wrote it from the vantage point of knowing
everything that was going to happen. That’s why He dealt with
evolution in the 2nd chapter of Genesis, long before Darwin was born.
Alright, 1st Samuel chapter 8: “And it came about when Samuel, who was
a prophet.” Remember, that Samuel was a prophet. Keep that in your
mind. There really is some humour in God. God has a sense of humour,
and you will see it come out. If some of you don’t see it come out and
smile, then I don’t know what’s going to happen to some of you. If you
continue looking like that, you are liable to die like that.
(*laughter*).
“And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons
as judges over Israel. Now the name of his first-born was Joel and the
name of his second Abijah. They were judging in Beersheba. His sons
however did not walk in his ways but turned aside after dishonest gain
and took bribes and perverted justice.”
Now, I will lay blame where I believe blame needs to be laid.
The Bible says, “Like Priest, Like People.” I will not let you off the
hook people. But neither will I stand and wave a burning accusing
forefinger under your nose and say that it is all your fault. Much of
our problem today can be traced directly to the disobedient and
irresponsible ministry of leaders. I bear my share of the blame.
Samuel was getting old and later we will find out that Samuel stood up
and charged the people, asking if any could say he had stolen their ox
or ass or treated them unjustly, and not a voice could be raised
against him. But his sons had started to decline and the ministry was
bad. I am one of a group of brothers in the United States who feel a
very deep responsibility for leadership. We have been instrumental in
calling Shepherds Conferences, and we are calling one for next month in
Kansas City . We had one last year in the great Presbyterian
conference at Montreat, North Carolina .
Incidentally Billy Graham came and very graciously opened for us
on our first night. What we are saying is that if the leaders don’t
get it together, then we can’t expect the people to get it together.
The people, I feel, had a valid point when they came to Samuel about
his sons in verse 4:
“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’”
Now I want to be fair. I have scored the irresponsibility and
the disobedience of the ministry. But because ministers are
irresponsible does not give people the right to dabble democratically
in divine affairs. Someone says, “The minister has gone wrong. We
must form a committee.” Who told you to form a committee? The only
committee you have a right to appeal to is the committee of the Holy
Trinity – for the ministry is not in democratic hands! The book of
Revelation says the ministry is in the right hand of Him! I will give
you a sneaky secret. Don’t tell your minister. (*laughter*). It’s a
bit sneaky and I feel a bit guilty about it, but not very.
(*laughter*). When you see your shepherd or minister, and you feel
he’s not behaving properly, don’t talk about him or you will be in bad
trouble, even if he’s wrong. Talk to him. Go to him. If he doesn’t
respond to you, remember that he is over you, but there is a Chief
Shepherd over him. Now here’s the sneaky part. You go and talk to
him, and he doesn’t respond – he gives you that, “Who do you think you
are?” Back off, but don’t go away and shoot off your face, or you will
be in trouble. I am warning you! Bypass him, and talk to his Boss.
Have a word with the Lord Jesus. The pastor will then come into his
study Monday morning, and the Lord will be waiting for him. He will
say, “Reverend Jones! I would like to have a word with you about
Brother So-and-so.” “Lord! How did you hear about Brother So-and-so?”
“That’s alright I just heard.” (*laughter*). You might say, “How, do
you know that?” Well, I was a pastor of a church for 25 years, and the
Lord and I had many Monday morning conferences. Someone had sneaked to
the Boss! (*laughter*).
Remember that if the ministry goes wrong, then people do not have
the right to democratic action. That is not your right. Your right is
to come to God to deal with the ministry. This is where the people
blundered. Instead of coming to Samuel the prophet and saying,
“Samuel, you are God’s representative. God, who at sundry times and in
diverse manners in time past spoke unto our fathers by the prophets –
you are the prophet speaking to us. Now, what will we do about your
sons?” They didn’t do that. They came and said, “Samuel you’re an old
man.” That was kind of nasty in the first place. (*laughter*). I am
reaching the point where I am a bit sensitive about this. I think they
could have done it a bit nicer. (*laughter*). They could have said,
“Samuel you are an old man, and your sons aren’t behaving. We beseech
you – seek God for a solution.” But they didn’t, and they took
democratic action. They said, “You appoint a king for us like the rest
of the nations.” Now look at verse 6:
“But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they
said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ Samuel prayed to the Lord and the
Lord said, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all they say
to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from
being King over them.’”
Now in rejecting Samuel they had rejected God. Let me stop here
to say this (and here I am yielding to temptation in case you are not
here one night), God is restoring spiritual authority across the earth,
as against democratic ecclesiastically appointed authority.
God is restoring spiritual authority. Men are rising up across
the earth with a dimension of delegated authority imparted to them by
the Sovereign Christ of apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic and
shepherding power and anointing that is unmistakable, for God is
bringing in His Kingdom, which is not a kingdom run by democratic
appointments, but run by King Jesus who is Lord of all .
Verse 8: “Like all the deeds, which they have done since the day
that I brought them up from Egypt, even to this day, and 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 shall reign over them.”
Now, I am not going to read all of this, but I want to give you
the main points. You must learn some things folks. I sat here tonight
marvelling at the youth content in this conference . This is
marvellous. Nothing thrills like this. I have got nothing against you
old folks. (*laughter*). We have got to stick together or we will get
voted right out of existence. But it is my firm personal conviction
that it is this generation of young people that are going to go into
the land. And if you see an old Caleb jogging alongside just say, “Hi
Ern,” because that’s me . (*laughter*). Many people today are
terribly upset with the church. They say, “The church doesn’t do this,
and the church does that, and the church this, and the church wants
money.” All right, that is the way people wanted it. God said;
“Give them their kind of king, Samuel but tell them (v11) he will
take, (v12) and he will appoint, (v13) he will also take, (v14) and he
will take, (v15) he will also take, (v16) he will also take, (v17) he
will take.”
This guy is going to be a taker!
I don’t want that fellow running me! I can get a far better deal
from God – God is a giver! Hallelujah. Right there is something that
you need to learn. Thousands and thousands of people have got so fed
up with horizontal democratic Christianity because all it ever did was
take. I have been 43 years in the ministry, and if you were to ask me
what was the one cavilling criticism of the public against the Church
it is this: “they are always raising money; they are always holding
bazaars; they are always broke, and they are always taking!” Take –
take – take! Hallelujah, we have got a new regime and it is give –
give – give! He is giving good gifts unto men! Our King doesn’t need
to take – He gives! You want that other kind? You stay with the taker
– I am all for the giver!
Look at verse 18: “Then you will cry out in that day because of
your king.” Whose king? Your king. Beware you kingmakers. Your king
will fleece you. Isn’t the Bible marvellous? You read a text, and you
say that you have seen that happen so often. “Because of your king who
you have chosen for yourself, but the Lord will not answer you in that
day.” Tuck that away – put it on the back burner. Let it simmer. We
will use it about Wednesday night. (*laughter*). Remember, the Lord
will not answer you in that day. You see there is joy in this whole
thing. Balance – we will address this when we come to the army, but
people say I don’t like this laughter and so on. What’s wrong with
it? When God redeemed me, He redeemed me; He redeemed my “laugher.”
Fortunately, He also redeemed my “crier,” and my “hand-clapper,” and my
“jumper-up-and-downer.” But He also redeemed my moral consciousness.
There is nothing wrong with me laughing, if I am a man who is sober in
my thinking. I can still be sober and the happiest man in the world.
Jesus was the most sober, sound thinker that ever lived, and the Bible
says, “that God anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His
fellows.” It is the balance. If you are silly and superficial and
frivolous – that is out. If you are sober and dour and pessimistic –
that’s out. But if you can get them together in delightful combination
then you will fly with both wings.
I want you to see ourselves mirrored here because what is being
said of corporate Israel in that day, could and can be said of us
today, and may be said to our eternal distress. Ladies and gentlemen,
if there was ever an hour in Church history when we are in crisis, it
is now. And you had better be ready to know which way to turn when the
time comes to turn. Because turning-time is coming ! Nevertheless,
the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel – God’s delegated
authority. Do you notice something? They said, “Samuel! Give us a
king.” What did they go to Samuel for? Why didn’t they go right to
God? Who’s still running things? Samuel. Samuel said, “Lord they
want a king.” The Lord said, “Samuel, tell them they can have a king.”
“God says you can have a king. But He told me to tell you that he
would take and take and take.” “We still want him.” They still want
him. Who’s still running things on the earth’s side? God isn’t
talking to any of those guys – He is still talking to Samuel! And the
amazing thing all the way through is that God all the time talks to
Samuel. They think they got a king and the whole thing, but they are
still coming through Samuel. There is a humour in this. Someone says,
“We’re running everything!” Oh really? Not really. (*laughter*).
“The people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel and said,
‘No but there shall be a king over us that we may be like all the
nations and that our king may judge us and go 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. And 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.’” Chapter 9; “Now there was a
man, a Benjamin whose name was Kish, son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of
Becorath, son of Aphiah.”
I don’t know why they didn’t call them Bill and Jim back then,
but there you are. (*laughter*). I think they gave them names to
embarrass preachers.
Verse 2: “And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice and
handsome man, and there was not a more handsome man than he among the
sons of Israel. From his shoulders and up he was taller than any of
the people.”
Now the Bible is very careful to repeat this description of Saul
who was the people’s choice. Remember that he was the people’s
choice. And the significant qualification of the people’s choice is
that he was head and shoulders above all Israel. He was handsome – he
was a handsome hunk of flesh! This is another one that you have got to
tuck away because the contrast comes later. But God said, “Give them
the king they want.” Remember that verse in the Psalms – “God gave them
the desires of their heart, but sent leanness into their soul.” Did you
know that God may answer your prayer? Think about that – He just may
answer. I thank God tonight for all the prayers that God has not
answered. What is prayer? The soul’s sincere desire uttered or
unexpressed. God has graciously not answered many of my prayers. He
has answered some I wished He hadn’t. Sometimes for our discipline, He
will answer a prayer. “God give me a Rolls Royce,” and you get it, and
when you get it, you wished that you didn’t get it, because something
else comes along. When you pray be sure you have really screened that
prayer because it may be answered.
Now Saul was a Head and Shoulders man – that’s what the people
wanted. A king like the nations. Someone they could point to and say
“My dad can beat up on your dad.” I remember when I was a little boy in
Canada and my dad was six foot one, and I would go to school and say,
“My dad can beat your dad.” This is exactly what they wanted. They
wanted a human, fleshly king, like the other kings, so they could boast
in the flesh. They didn’t want to trust in God who they couldn’t see,
and have to tell the other nations that “our king is up there.”
Somewhere. “What does your king wear?” “Well, He wraps Himself in a
cloud and rides on a thunderbolt.” “Oh, yeah!” (*laughter*). All down
through the Christian centuries the thing that the Church has given
into again and again is sensuous sense things that they can see and
display, including our education. We want the world to know that we
are not dumb. I am Reverend W. J. E. Baxter BA. MA. BTH. BSC. PHD.
(*laughter*) Have you ever noticed in our evangelical magazines that
they are very careful to put down at the foot that so-and-so graduated
from so-and-so and did postgraduate in such a place. What’s this all
about? Can you see John the Baptist coming out of a cave in the
wilderness wiping down his degree? (*laughter*) Someone said, “There
you go you fundamentalist, evangelical, charismatic, obscurantist –
you’re against education!” No, I am not against education. I have
lived in university cities all my life. But I have noticed one thing –
if a man was going into the realm of academics, if he had a PhD. and
walked into any assembly, if he had sense at all, he wouldn’t wear a
doctorate gown because he knew it wouldn’t do a thing in the realm of
the Spirit. When he walked in, he sat beside Joe the garbage
collector, and he sang praises to God.
I am not against academics. If you are going into academics, you
be the best academic student you can be. Whatever field. But don’t
think that qualifies you to come into the realm of the Spirit, because
when you come in, you don’t get that by education – you can’t buy it
with money. It is the gift of the Spirit, and when you come together,
the Bible says, “How is it then brethren, when you come together, every
one of you hath a Psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a
revelation, hath an interpretation – let all things be done, let all
things be done unto edifying.” It’s the only way I can quote 1
Corinthians 14:25. (*laughter and applause*) Do you know why we are
having such a time today in this whole revival? I won’t say much, but
I go back to America Friday, and I go back because I have to meet with
a group of leaders in one of the most significant confrontations. It
is very significant. The whole Christian community has reached a point
of confrontation where what God is doing has now threatened the whole
Head and Shoulders ecclesiastical structure. I sense it in my spirit,
as I am saying it to you. On the 9th – that’s Saturday – if you would
please be in prayer – because we will be in a very significant
conference in America. The Church has wanted its Head and Shoulders
man. A head in the Bible stands for human wisdom, and shoulders stand
for human strength. Isn’t it interesting how blind we are? When we go
back to our beginnings and to our Lord, God of very God – Man of very
man, it was said of Him, “How can this Man speak the way He does, not
knowing letters?” He didn’t even carry a decent ordination
certificate. And He chose as His twelve companions – who would become
the foundation stones for the Church of all time – men who were
illiterate Galilean bumpkins, who when they spoke gave away their
illiteracy by their language, of whom it was said, “These be ignorant
and unlearned men.” All of this done that the earthen vessels should
not be glorified, but the treasure should be the thing that is seen.
Now remember, what we are talking about here are not the
Hittites, the Hivvites, the Jebbusites, the Ammorites or all the other
parasites. (*laughter*) These were the Israelites. Saul was not king
of the Hivvites; he was king of the Israelites. Now please keep that
in mind. We are not talking about world, but the community that claims
Jehovah as their God, and Saul was a Head and Shoulders king because
“the people of God wanted it” that way. They wanted a man with brains,
and a man with brawn, who could fight their battles for them, a Head
and Shoulders man. God is not a Head and Shoulders man. God has never
run His Kingdom with Head and Shoulders men and He never will. I know
I am supposed to stop, but if I could have three or four minutes I just
want to make one or two final points. There is something about God and
His people that at times will look like He is vacillating and
compromising and making concessions, but it is not really that. It is
God giving you a chance to see how stupid you are. You know what He
did with Saul? Verse 15, He was still dealing with Samuel.
“Now a day before Saul’s coming the Lord revealed this to Samuel saying,
‘about this time tomorrow I will send you a man.’”
This is the one who is going to rule. He said, “Samuel – give
them their king, and I will give him every chance.” Look what He did –
let’s move over to verse 1 of chapter 10:
“Then Samuel took the flask of oil and poured it on Saul’s head,
kissed him and said, ‘Has not the Lord anointed you a ruler over His
inheritance?’”
Now look – this is not God’s choice! God is anointing the
people’s choice to give them a chance. They will not be able to say,
“OK, God we picked that fellow, but you withheld everything – no wonder
he couldn’t make it!” God said, “OK– it is your choice and I will give
him every chance to make it.” Now look, drop down to verse 6:
“Samuel said, ‘Then the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon you
mightily and you shall prophesy with him and be changed into another
man.’” (v8) “And you shall go down before me to Gilgal, and behold I
will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace
offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you.”
Put that away on the back burner too because we will come to that.
Verse 9: “Then it happened when he turned his back to leave Samuel.”
Look what God did for Saul.
“God changed his heart and all those signs came about that had been
prophesied.”
God gave him signs.
Verse 10: “When they came to the hill there behold a group of
prophets met him and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily and he
prophesied.”
Saul was a Charismatic! He was a Head and Shoulders
charismatic! Did you hear me? He was a Head and Shoulders
charismatic! I am not being derogatory about the Charismatics. I am
trying to say to you ladies and gentlemen – please don’t miss the
purpose of this visitation. Saul had a new heart. Saul had signs.
Saul prophesied. Saul was a mighty man of valour. Saul was the King
of Israel – not the Hittites or the Hivvites. Saul had all the
charismatic equipment, but he was a Head and Shoulders man.
Verse 17: “Thereafter Samuel called the people together to the
Lord at Mizpah, and he said to the sons of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord
the God of Israel, I brought Israel up from Egypt and I delivered you
from the hand of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms
that were oppressing you.’
Now notice this – in the midst of all He had done for Saul,
‘But you today rejected your God who delivered you from all your
calamities and your distresses; yet you said,’ ‘No, but set a king over
us.’ ‘Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes
and by your clans.’”
They eventually found Saul hiding in the baggage. Look at verse 23:
“So they ran and found him, and when he stood among the people he was
taller than all the people from his shoulders upward.”
Isn’t it interesting how the Holy Spirit wants to underscore that? Now
verse 24:
“And Samuel said to all the people, ‘do you see him who the Lord has
chosen?’”
You say, “Oh now come on Baxter, you are getting us all
confused. You said the people chose him, now you are saying the Lord
chose him!” I didn’t say the Lord chose him – the Bible said, “The Lord
chose him!” The Bible also said, “The people chose him!” Someone might
say, “The Lord sent the 12 spies into the land.” No, the Lord didn’t
send the 12 spies into the land – Moses did. But the Bible says, “The
Lord sent them.” The Lord sent them when the people sent them. This is
God coming down to the level of man’s choice and saying, “All right if
that’s the way you want it – I will go with you. But remember, I
warned you. I didn’t tell you to send spies into the land. Right from
the beginning, I told you that it was a good land flowing with milk and
honey and I told you to go in and possess it. I didn’t tell you to go
in and look it over! If you are going to go in, then ok – send the
spies.” He permitted them – He didn’t direct them. He chose Saul
permissively not directively. We will see that as we go on.
“Samuel said, ‘Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? Surely there is
none like him among all the people.’”
Saul is a people man, a Head and Shoulders people man.