23-1008p Transcript

Preacher: Jim Lokenbauer

(0:56) So, hello again, everybody. (0:59) And we’re going to see that King Saul (1:03) countermanded what God told Israel to do (1:06) in regard to Amalek. (1:10) And to countermand is to go against what was ordered, (1:15) to go against the command. (1:18) And as we read from this morning, chapter 15, (1:25) hopefully that’s still fresh in your memories.

(1:29) We have the king being given his commission as king (1:36) and receiving his first mission, (1:41) and that was to go and destroy Amalek. (1:45) And if you remember, Amalek was one of the testable nations (1:49) in Canaan that they were to dispossess, (1:54) take over their land, (1:56) and they did a particularly egregious sin (2:04) by killing the stragglers as the Israel horde (2:11) moved through the desert. (2:13) The stragglers were the old people, (2:15) moms with children, the infirm, (2:19) and the Amalekites would come down and kill those people (2:23) and then run back up in their mountains.

(2:26) They were ancient terrorists, if you will, (2:31) and perhaps maybe terrorists of today have roots in the Amalekites. (2:36) So anyhow, God commanded Moses to write down as history, (2:47) as a memorial, this terrible act so that they would not forget. (2:54) Isn’t that what people in the United States say (2:58) when the terrorists flew planes into the towers in New York? (3:04) Never forget.

(3:08) You know, some people are just evil and they won’t change, (3:14) and God saw that in Amalek, (3:17) and so he ordered their extermination. (3:21) This was going to be a genocide. (3:25) So keep in mind what we had gone over this morning (3:31) in regard to following God’s orders, (3:34) and we will see the errors Saul made (3:38) and what the consequences were for him.

(3:41) So we’re going to do a verse-by-verse walkthrough, (3:45) 1 Samuel chapter 15, starting at verse 1. (3:52) Then Samuel said to Saul, (3:55) The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over his people, over Israel. (4:00) Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. (4:04) So here is Saul’s coronation as king, (4:08) and Saul is about to receive his very first instruction or mission from God.

(4:17) And don’t forget, Saul is anointed king, (4:22) and that’s where the priest or the prophet pours the oil on the king’s head, (4:28) and God sends Holy Spirit upon the king. (4:32) So the king, and I’m going to use this term, has a measure of Holy Spirit. (4:40) He’s got Holy Spirit in him.

(4:42) Now, he doesn’t have power like Moses had, (4:47) but he certainly has the Spirit of God in him. (4:51) And as we go through this, we should keep in mind, (4:55) just because someone has the Spirit of God in him, (5:02) if he is stubborn and unwilling to be molded by God, (5:09) he’s fighting against Holy Spirit. (5:12) He’ll still do his will rather than the will of God.

(5:17) So, verses 2 and 3. (5:21) Thus says the Lord of Hosts, this is Samuel speaking, (5:26) I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, (5:29) how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up out of Egypt. (5:35) Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, (5:41) and do not spare him, (5:43) but put both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey to death. (5:54) So God has not forgotten what Amalek did to his people.

(5:59) Remember, he told Moses 400 years earlier to write it down as a history (6:05) so that they wouldn’t forget. (6:08) Well, this is now payback time. (6:10) Look at how long it took for this to happen.

(6:17) It didn’t happen in someone’s lifetime. (6:20) This took generations. (6:25) So Saul is given an explicit command that was plainly stated (6:30) with no gray areas or any ambiguity or wondering, (6:35) what does God want from me? (6:37) All human life and all creatures belonging to the Amalekites were to be destroyed.

(6:47) So here we have 210,000 men of Israel, fighting men. (7:10) Picking up arms and going to battle with the Amalekites, verse 5. (7:18) So Saul came to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the valley. (7:23) So all of these men, how do you set an ambush with 210,000 men? (7:31) Could they all be hiding behind a bush? (7:34) That’s a lot of guys.

(7:35) But, you know, they tried the old surprise ambush ploy. (7:42) And in verse 6 it says, (7:43) So Saul said to the Canaanites, go, depart. (7:47) Go down from among the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you with them.

(7:52) For you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came up from Egypt. (7:57) So the Canaanites departed from among the Amalekites. (8:01) And who were the Canaanites? (8:03) Well, the Canaanites lived in the crags of the mountains.

(8:07) They were part billy goat or something. (8:10) They were mountain dwellers. (8:12) But we see in Judges 1, 6, they were descendants of Moses' father-in-law, Jethro.

(8:23) Which is interesting. (8:25) And in Numbers 24, verses 20 and 21, it says, (8:30) and this was the story of Balaam that we’re all familiar with. (8:35) Balaam, the Gentile prophet, he prophesied about Amalek and the Canaanites.

(8:42) He said Amalek would be destroyed and kindness in a permanent place would be given to the Canaanites. (8:50) And the Canaanites showed Israel peace and comfort and attended to them as they were coming up out of Egypt. (9:00) So God punishes evil behavior and rewards good behavior.

(9:08) Verse 7, so Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. (9:16) He captured Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. (9:26) And remember this morning we went over the principles of following a command.

(9:31) So did Saul add to or take away from the command of God? (9:35) By sparing Agag, what a name, Agag, I don’t know why I’m having this, Agag. (9:46) By not following the command completely, he’s taking away from the command. (9:52) So he’s not actually following the command at all.

(9:56) Verse 9, but Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, and the lambs, (10:06) and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly. (10:12) But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. (10:18) So it wasn’t useful to them, they got rid of it.

(10:22) But it looked really good, like the perfect lamb, the perfect cattle. (10:29) Oh, they wanted that for their own flocks. (10:32) And they didn’t listen to the Lord.

(10:39) So that is more taking away from God’s word by not doing it. (10:45) Verses 10 and 11, (11:06) So here is the meaning of God’s regretting, or repenting as some versions call it. (11:13) God’s repenting is simply the changing of a purpose according to the conditions already laid down or mentally determined.

(11:25) So God was expecting certain behavior out of Saul. (11:31) Saul was told what to do, but he knew that he would fail. (11:36) But he’s there rooting for him anyhow, hoping that he would listen to him.

(11:45) So God’s actions were sort of predetermined by the free will choices that Saul was going to make. (11:55) And God was rooting for him to do the right thing, to follow his command, and he would be blessed if he did. (12:05) But Saul unfortunately made the wrong decision and disobeyed God’s command.

(12:12) And God was disappointed in Saul’s choices. (12:15) And there lays the sources of God’s regret. (12:18) Saul was a king who followed his own reasoning rather than faithfully following God’s instructions.

(12:28) And we know this to be true because in 1 Samuel 13-13, Saul now has a track record. (12:36) In 13-13, when Samuel confronted Saul after he reasoned to himself that he should offer the sacrifice, (12:46) remember us reading that this morning, (12:51) Samuel was slow to get to them as they faced the Philistine army. (12:57) And the men were starting to desert because they panicked.

(13:01) And so Saul took it upon himself to offer the sacrifice to God so they could inquire of God. (13:09) But Samuel arrived and saw him do that, and he wasn’t pleased. (13:14) And Samuel said to him, (13:15) You have acted foolishly.

You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. (13:23) For now the Lord would have established your kingdom forever over Israel, but now your kingdom shall not endure. (13:33) So the Lord sought out for himself a man after his own heart, and that’s in reference to David.

(13:40) And the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people because you have not kept what the Lord has commanded you. (13:48) So God was willing to bless Saul’s kingship if he were obedient. (13:55) Instead, Saul reasoned to himself and thought there was fudge room within God’s commands.

(14:05) There is no fudge room. (14:09) You just do what God says, period. (14:15) So God made David, the son of Jesse, kings.

(14:24) So here’s a combination of two New Testament scriptures that show the principles of being faithful to God’s commands. (14:34) And they’re rooted in like Romans 10, 17. (14:37) Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of God.

(14:45) And Romans 14, 23, it says, (14:54) So if you look at those two verses, you know, if you’re acting on something that God tells you to do, (15:02) if you don’t have written marching orders or scripture backing you up, it’s sin. (15:12) You just can’t act presumptuously in the Lord’s name or countermand any of his commands. (15:22) So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ, and whatever is not from faith is sin.

(15:30) So Saul could not say that he acted faithfully by not carrying out the command fully. (15:41) He took away, so to speak. (15:49) The two scriptures that will help us in our understanding of following God’s commands, (15:54) we went over this morning, was Deuteronomy 4.2 and 1 Corinthians 4.6. (16:03) That you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you, and do not go beyond what is written.

(16:14) So these verses tell us that in order to keep a command, we can either add to or take away from the command, (16:22) and we can’t hide behind the silence of scripture to be permissible, (16:29) because 1 Corinthians 4.6 dispels that. (16:34) Do not go beyond what is written. (16:38) A lot of people who claim to have freedom in Christ, which we do, (16:46) will use silence of scriptures to say, well God didn’t say, so I can.

(16:53) And you can fill in the blank of whatever activity they try to do. (16:58) But 1 Corinthians 4.6 takes that away by saying, don’t go beyond what’s written. (17:06) So silence of scripture is not permissible to do something.

(17:14) If it’s silent, you don’t act on it. (17:20) So important are these four verses to our understanding, (17:25) and I would encourage everybody to commit those to memory, (17:28) because by them you can dispel false worship, false teaching, (17:37) and you can approve of that which is good. (17:41) So comparing these principles to Saul’s situation, Saul did not walk by faith and obedience.

(17:48) He acted presumptuously, relying on his own reasoning, rather than doing what he was told by God. (17:56) Okay, back to our story. (17:58) Samuel, 1 Samuel 15.12. (18:07) Samuel, hey Joe, get that, it might be your phone.

(18:13) Verse 12, Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul. (18:17) And it was told to Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, (18:23) and behold, he set up a monument for himself, (18:27) and then he turned and proceeded to go down to Gilgal. (18:30) So the prophet is out looking for Saul, because he’s got a message for him from God.

(18:38) And Saul was probably taken back by seeing a monument raised by the king in honor of himself (18:48) for this great battle that he had victory in. (18:53) And so he goes to where Saul went. (18:57) Verse 13, Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, (19:02) Blessed are you of the Lord, I have carried out the command of the Lord.

(19:07) So Saul’s idea of carrying out a command is much different than God’s idea of carrying out a command. (19:15) And he’s about to find that out. (19:18) Saul was indeed excited by the victory.

(19:20) As you can imagine, engaging in mortal combat, having victory, you’re juiced, you’re charged. (19:29) He built a monument for himself. (19:32) And he thought he was doing great because they got victory.

(19:41) He was quick to take credit for that. (19:44) Verse 14, but Samuel said, (19:50) What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? (19:58) And though this is a serious rebuke, there is sarcastic humor in it. (20:04) You’ve got to admit, God has a sense of humor.

(20:07) There should have been no sheep spying and no cows mooing. (20:15) Verse 15, Saul said, (20:18) They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, (20:25) to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we have utterly destroyed. (20:31) So in light of God’s command, Saul, by his own words, admits the guilt, (20:37) though he doesn’t think he’s guilty, and he shifts the blame to the soldiers.

(20:43) They brought them back. (20:49) Didn’t Truman have a little placard on his desk in the White House Oval Office? (20:55) The buck stops here. (20:57) Well, the same here.

(20:59) You know, he is the leader of God’s army on earth. (21:05) And he just won’t fess up to it. (21:10) So he blameshifts.

(21:12) And he was hoping to gain Samuel’s approval because he said, (21:16) They were going to sacrifice them to your God, not my God or our God, your God. (21:24) So what does that tell us about Saul? (21:30) Strong faith? (21:32) Personal faith in God? (21:36) I don’t know. (21:37) Words mean things.

(21:44) He said that he was going to sacrifice them to God, which God did not ask for. (21:49) And whether this was true or maybe just something he was making up, we don’t know. (21:56) But if they did have intentions for them to make sacrifices to God, (22:01) what is the old saying? (22:04) The road to hell is paved with good intentions? (22:08) Would have been a good intention to sacrifice to God, but did he ask for it? (22:17) Saul should have obeyed God.

(22:19) He should have stressed to the soldiers that everything must be destroyed. (22:29) Verse 16, Then Samuel said to Saul, Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night. (22:37) And Saul said, Speak.

(22:41) I don’t think Saul realized the mess that he was in (22:45) and that Samuel was aiming his double-barreled shotgun of reality right at his head. (22:52) Verse 17, Samuel says, Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, (22:58) you were made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king over Israel? (23:06) So Samuel references Saul coming from the smallest tribe, which was Benjamin, (23:13) and the smallest clan in that tribe, which was little four-letter word Amri or something like that. (23:26) So God chose him out of all the people to be king.

(23:32) Verse 18, And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, (23:36) Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they were exterminated. (23:47) Remember, don’t feel sorry for these folks because they were exterminated. (23:52) Don’t feel bad for them.

(23:55) Think of what they were doing. (23:58) Not only were they nipping at Israel’s heels all the way out of Egypt, (24:04) you know, killing the moms with children, (24:07) killing the old and firm people straggling behind as Israel was leaving, (24:13) but these were the people who worshiped Marduk. (24:18) That involved not only animal sacrifices to a false god, but human sacrifices.

(24:27) They’re children. (24:31) And God even spoke plainly about that to Moses in Deuteronomy, (24:36) about worshiping Marduk and offering children to the flames. (24:44) He said, Don’t do that.

(24:48) That’s why you’re going to eliminate the people of Canaan. (24:51) They were detestable, not to mention other evil practices. (25:00) Their worship consisted of temple prostitutes, (25:05) where they would engage in sexual activity in the name of their god in order to get a good crop.

(25:14) That’s how low the people had sunk in that region. (25:19) Verse 19, Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, (25:24) but rushed upon the spoil, and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord? (25:31) So God knows the heart of man. (25:35) It was greed that made them keep the livestock.

(25:39) It was just a subterfuge to say that they were going to do it (25:45) and offer sacrifices to God with it. (25:49) That was a lie. (25:52) And God called them on it through Samuel.

(26:03) Verse 20, Then Saul said to Samuel, (26:06) I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, (26:11) and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. (26:17) But the people, verse 21, the people took some of the spoil, (26:22) sheep and oxen, and the choices of the things devoted to destruction, (26:28) to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal. (26:32) And again we see Saul not owning up to the sin.

(26:39) He was blaming others. (26:43) In his mind he did follow God’s command. (26:46) And though it is plain to all of us, he missed by a long shot.

(26:51) And what we see here is Saul practicing a form of deism. (26:57) And deism is believing in a God but using human rationale as to this being’s nature. (27:11) And so deism is really me-ism.

(27:15) It’s a form of will-worship. (27:18) And who do we know was one of the first people, or was the first person, to practice will-worship? (27:29) Did I hear someone say Cain? (27:31) Yes, Cain. (27:34) He offered God what he wanted to offer God, (27:38) which was not the correct thing to offer for a sacrifice to cleanse of sin.

(27:44) So, verse 22, Samuel said, (27:52) Has not the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? (28:04) Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. (28:13) So right there, Samuel is spelling it out to Saul. (28:20) Keep your sacrifices.

(28:26) Just obey. (28:28) That’s way better than offering sacrifices. (28:36) So obedience.

(28:37) That’s how we follow the commands and how we show our love to God. (28:42) And isn’t that what Jesus told his disciples in John 14, 23? (28:51) If you love me, you will keep my commands. (28:56) How do you show love to God? (28:58) An invisible being, even though he’s in us, we can’t wrap our arms around him and say, I love you.

(29:07) You do what he says. (29:11) And that’s how we show love and respect for God. (29:15) Verse 23, For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.

(29:28) Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. (29:37) So going against God’s word, either taking away or adding to it, is rebellion. (29:48) And it is equated with divination.

(29:51) Some versions say witchcraft or sorcery. (29:58) With divination, you seek out the unseen world to give you direction. (30:04) When you employ deism, it’s like practicing divination.

(30:12) Because you are seeking out a path that God didn’t send you down, relying on your own reasoning, (30:20) rather than on what God plainly says. (30:25) And likewise, insubordination. (30:28) Wally, you were in the service.

(30:30) You know what it is to be insubordinate. (30:32) If the sergeant tells you to go do something and you don’t, you’re insubordinate. (30:40) And guess how many potatoes you get to peel that day.

(30:43) Or how many push-ups, how many dust bunnies you get to do push-ups with with your nose. (30:51) So anyhow, that’s what not doing what the Lord tells you to do is like to him. (31:00) He lumps you in with the worst of sins.

(31:06) Idolatry. (31:09) So in Paul’s case, he was no more than a sorcerer practicing idolatry. (31:21) By reasoning to himself, I can spare this king.

(31:25) Why did he spare the king? (31:27) He was the leader of those detestable people. (31:34) His men took all the choice stuff out of there. (31:37) Why didn’t he open his mouth and say, kill it? (31:42) So he was a weak leader.

(31:45) And not what God wanted. (31:47) So the bottom line is, Saul didn’t have the proper regard for God or his word. (31:54) So God rejected him as king.

(31:59) Verse 24, (32:01) Then Saul said to Samuel, (32:03) I have sinned, I have indeed transgressed the command of the Lord in your words, (32:09) because I feared the people and listened to their voice. (32:15) Saul finally admits that he sinned against God, (32:18) but he still offers excuses as to why he sinned. (32:23) He still blamed the people, (32:24) but at least he admitted why he let them do what they did.

(32:30) He was afraid of them. (32:32) He saw them in battle. (32:35) He saw them hacking people to pieces.

(32:38) And when they probably turned to him and said, let us keep this plunder, (32:44) okay, take what you want. (32:45) Leave me alone. (32:47) Who knows? (32:48) So anyhow, if Saul would have feared God the same way that he feared the people, (32:55) he wouldn’t have made as many bad choices as he did.

(33:00) But that is just part of the reason God rejected him. (33:04) As the leader of Israel, he should have followed God’s word to the T. (33:09) He should have used his authority as king and commanded his troops (33:14) not to sin against God by rushing to the spoil. (33:19) And he should have used his sword to kill King Agag rather than spare him.

(33:26) Instead, he caved in to the desires of the people to do wrong. (33:30) He used his own logic and reasoning to guide him on his mission (33:34) rather than God’s revealed word and will to him. (33:41) What we see in this story is a reminder to us (33:44) of the importance of following God’s word in our lives.

(33:49) As Christians today, we do have liberty and freedom in Christ, (33:54) not being bound by the law, but we must always use his words as our guide (34:00) in order to be pleasing to him. (34:03) We must use the same principles and following commands (34:07) to be pleasing to God, even if it’s unpopular with the people. (34:13) We must do the right thing.

(34:15) One of the reasons that God included these Old Testament stories in the Bible (34:20) was for us future generations of believers to learn from. (34:26) So even though we’re blessed in Christ to be free from the law, (34:30) let’s love, respect, honor, and obey our Savior. (34:36) Why do you think Paul warned the New Testament Christians (34:39) with these Old Testament examples, like from Hebrews 3, verse 7? (34:46) So the Holy Spirit says, (34:48) Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion (34:53) during the time of testing in the desert, (34:57) where your fathers tested and tried me and for 40 years saw what I did.

(35:02) That is why I was angry with you, with that generation, (35:07) and I said, their hearts are always going astray and they have not known my ways. (35:13) So I declared on oath in my anger, they shall never see my rest. (35:19) Why would Paul tell New Testament Christians who have freedom in Christ these words? (35:28) See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart (35:33) that turns away from the living God, (35:37) but encourage one another daily so long as it is called today, (35:42) so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

(35:47) Paul just tells it like it is. (35:49) And finally, let’s close this lesson with some of these wise words from Paul. (35:58) In particular, Galatians 5.13. (36:05) You were indeed called to be free, brothers and sisters.

(36:09) Don’t turn this freedom into an excuse for your corrupt nature to express itself. (36:15) Rather, serve each other through love. (36:19) So we must always listen to God’s word and put him first in our lives.

(36:23) And if you haven’t, why not? (36:26) So we extend the opportunity for you to make things right with God. (36:30) If you’ve been following your own way, (36:35) we’ll do whatever it takes to get you back on the right path. (36:39) So this is the invitation, so come while we stand and sing the invitation song.