Text: I Samuel 15
Theme: The way we live our lives affects our worship of God. God is more interested in obedience in our daily living than in devotion on the weekend.
Intro:
- Following the victory over the Philistines at Michmash, Saul continued to establish the army of Israel. The end of chapter 14 tells us that, whenever he saw a strong or valiant man, he recruited him to the army.
- In chapter 15, we see God send Samuel to command Saul that he is to gather the army and go and slay Amalek. In this chapter we will see:
a. Saul obeyed in attacking Amalek. (Vs 1-7)
b. Saul disobeyed in sparing Agag and the best cattle. (Vs 8-15)
c. Saul was rebuked by Samuel (Vs 16-23)
d. Saul pleased men rather than God (Vs 24-35)
We will be covering the final two of these four headings this evening.
I. Saul Was Rebuked by Samuel (Vs 16-23)
- Saul received a harsh rebuke (Vs 15-19)
a. Samuel began by explaining that he had a message from God.
– Samuel started by making it clear that this message wasn’t his own opinion on the matter but was the message that God had given him. If Saul was inclined to be angry at the message, then he would actually be angry at God, not Samuel.
– Sometimes, Christians sit under the preaching of the Word in church, and they become angry at the preacher because of the things he is preaching about. The problem is that, usually, the preacher is simply being faithful in his exposition of the Scriptures and the Christians getting angry with the message are actually angry with God but taking it out on the preacher.
b. Saul was anointed by God when he felt unworthy of it.
– This is the condition that we must be in if God would use us. When we are little in our own eyes, when we see the weakness of our own efforts, then we are in a position to depend on God.
– While Saul was little in his own eyes, he could see his own insufficiency but, once he was king, Saul began to think too highly of himself, and it ruined him.
c. Saul was commanded by God to destroy Amalek, but he disobeyed.
– To harken means to hear and to heed. In other words, to listen to God’s instruction and to obey it.
– Instead of obeying God, Saul flew upon the spoil and did evil in God’s eyes. - Saul made a poor excuse (Vs 20-21)
a. Saul attempted to declare his own innocence (Vs 20)
– He had gone where God had told him to go. Surely that counted for something right? Saul had at least gone in the direction that God wanted him to go in.
– He had destroyed the Amalekites. Now that ought to have satisfied God, right? Afterall, he did destroy absolutely everything vile and refuse, as verse 9 stated.
– But he had spared Agag. Once again, we note the sin of partial obedience. He had done most of what God had commanded, but in leaving Agag alive Saul had not fulfilled the commandment.
b. Saul attempted to cover up his disobedience (Vs 21)
– Saul tried to shift any blame that might be laid on him onto the people.
– Saul tried to paint the situation in a good light. Saul told Samuel that the people were planning to sacrifice the best sheep and oxen at Gilgal. If that was the case, then these animals would end up being destroyed anyway, so it was only a matter of time before God’s commandment would be obeyed, right?
– But God wasn’t interested in these sacrifices. As Pastor Simeon was fond of saying, “To delay is to disobey.” Delayed obedience is actually disobedience.
c. Saul received a reality check (Vs 22-23)
– Saul had thought that God would be delighted with the sacrifices he would make at Gilgal, but Samuel knew this was not the case.
– Do you think God is interested in your tithes and offerings while your life is full of disobedience to God? Is God really pleased with the worship you attempt to bring him through the singing of hymns while you refuse to make you own life a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God?
i. God would rather than we listen to His voice and obey it than that we would give him an abundance of money or enthusiastic singing (The fat of rams).
ii. Obedience shows the heart is right with God. You can tithe of your money and yet have a heart that is far from God, but you cannot live a life of obedience to God while your heart is far from Him. You will obey the master who has your heart. - Samuel compared Saul’s rebellion to the sin of witchcraft.
a. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
– Witchcraft is the practice of using divinations to try and manipulate divine powers to provide guidance or help to a particular individual. You will remember that later in life, Saul went to the witch of Endor to seek divine help because God has stopped speaking to Saul.
– The practice of seeking divinations was outlawed in Israel because it was offensive to God. These practices places divinations over the authority of the Word of God. In God’s eyes, to seek divinations was a rejection of the Word of God.
– Hence why Saul’s rebellion against the Word of God was as wicked as the sin of witchcraft, because Saul was elevating his own wisdom above the Word of God.
b. Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
– Saul was stubborn in his own ways. Even as Samuel rebuked Saul for his wrongdoing, Saul stubbornly tried to defend himself and refused to admit his sin.
– To know God’s will and deliberately disobey it is to put ourselves above God and therefore become our own god. This is the vilest form of idolatry.[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Successful, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor/Cook Communications, 2001), 82.
c. Saul was rejected from being king, not because he was a poor leader of men, but because he was a poor follower of God.
– Natural talents in leadership skills do not necessarily make a man a good leader. The best leaders are those who have first learned to be followers. A man who has learned to follow God is a man who God can use to lead others.
II. Saul Pleased Men Rather than God (Vs 24-35)
- Saul was worried about his own image (Vs 24-31)
a. Samuel had plainly stated the problem and left Saul with no choice but to acknowledge his own rebellion against God.
– Sometimes it takes the work of God in shedding light on sin in order to bring an individual to repentance.
As long as the sin remains hidden it will be ignored, but when God exposes the sin then it must be dealt with honestly.
b. We notice in the case of King David and his sin with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet was sent to expose the sin.
– In the case of King David, the exposing of his sin brought about repentance and a return to God, but for King Saul there was a different heart response and a different outcome. - Saul acknowledged that he had feared the people rather than fearing God.
a. The fear of man is possibly the number one hinderance to obedience to God.
– If there is anything that might dissuade us from obeying God, it is our concerns over the reaction we will receive from our fellow man.
– The prophets knew this struggle as much as we do today, and there were times when God’s men tried to get out of preaching God’s message, as was the case with Moses when God called him to go and speak to Pharoah.
b. Saul still wanted Samuel to bless him despite his rebellion.
– Samuel refused join Saul at the altar because he knew that Saul’s worship would not be accepted by God. Saul’s rebellion had defiled his worship, and God would not be pleased with the fat of rams while the one offering them was in open rebellion against God.
– The condition of your heart before God has a large effect on your worship of God. Your worship of God does not sanctify you, but your sanctification affects your worship of God.
– Saul thought that his sacrifices would make him acceptable to God even if he was rebellious in heart, but in reality, it is the condition of the heart that makes the worship acceptable or unacceptable to God, not vice versa. - Samuel confirmed Saul’s rejection by God. (Vs 27-31)
a. As Samuel went to leave the scene, Saul grabbed onto Samuel’s mantle, and it ripped open.
– By inspiration of God Samuel used this as a picture of how God had rent the kingdom from Saul that day.
b. In verse 29 Samuel stated that this was a certain thing and there would be no changing it.
– It seems that up until this point in time, God had been giving Saul further opportunities to repent and to change his ways, even though God had already warned Saul that He planned to take the kingdom from him.
– From this point in time, there would be no turning back. God would not lie, nor would God change his mind on this. It was a good as done.
c. Saul’s main concern was with his own image in the eyes of the people.
– “Yet honour me now, I pray thee.” This was what Saul was really concerned with. He wanted to be honoured in the eyes of the people, rather than be approved unto God.
– Saul remained stubborn and rebellious and spent the rest of his life trying to thwart God’s plans in his attempts to kill David.
– When God exposes our sin for what it is, it is because He wants us to repent and return to him, but He leaves that choice up to us and it is possible for us to disregard the warnings of God and continue in rebellion, at which point God will reject our attempts to serve Him and He may even choose to simply call us home, rather than leave us to continue in rebellion against him. - Samuel fulfilled the command of God (Vs 32-35)
a. Agag came to Samuel “delicately,” which means he approached gingerly, knowing that he was in a dangerous position and his life was on the line.
– He tried to convince himself that he was going to be fine saying, “surely the bitterness of death is past,” but Samuel pronounced the judgement of God upon Agag and then cut him to pieces before the LORD.
b. Following this, Samuel returned to his home in Ramah.
– Samuel would make no further trips to come and see Saul all the rest of his days. Saul had been rejected by God and Samuel had not intentions of wasting his time any further on this rebel.
– “Our hearts go out to Samuel who certainly suffered much because of the people and the king they so desperately wanted. When the kingdom was introduced in Israel, Samuel was replaced by a leader who was inferior to him in every way. Samuel did his best to advise the king and strengthen the kingdom, but Saul insisted on having his own way. Each time Saul was assigned a task, he failed, and when he was confronted, he lied and blamed others. When Israel experienced victories, it was usually Jonathan who led the way. It was a difficult time for Samuel, but God was still on the throne and had His true king waiting to be anointed.”[1]Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Successful, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor/Cook Communications, 2001), 83.
Conclusion:
- Next week we will look at the account of the anointing of David. While the account focuses strongly on David, there are some important lessons to be taken from the anointing of the Holy Spirit VS the evil spirit that came upon Saul.
- The lesson to take away from the message this evening is this:
- It is our own personal sanctification that sanctifies our worship of God. Our attempts at worshipping God do not produce personal sanctification.
- Sin in our lives defiles our worship and makes it unacceptable to God.