enables us to speak the truth
to one another in love. Fellowship's a precious thing,
isn't it? It really is. David, after Nathan exposed his sin lovingly, David cried and said, have mercy
upon me, oh God. according to thy loving kindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. David knew that the only hope
that his sins could be taken away would be God's loving kindness
and his mercy. Wash me throughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgression
and my sin as ever before thee. When we come together for worship,
we come together as sinners in need of grace and mercy. Pray
the Lord will give us that spirit. Let's stand together. Tom's gonna
come lead us in number 28 in your spiral hymnal, number 28. That's not it. That's the lost power up here. Give me just a second. ? Has mercy on whom he will ? ?
And whom he will he hardens still ? ? To whom he will he gives
his grace ? ? And when he will he hides his face ? ? Let none
despise God's sovereign throne ? ? He does what he will with
his own ? It is his right to save or kill according to his
psalm. Yes, God saves some and others'
sleeps to reap the fruit of their own ways. In the eternal ages
past, God made His choice and it stands fast. Aware that I'm
a guilty man and that I'm in God's sovereign I fall before
his throne, a wretch and helpless giver. If you will, you can, I say,
take all my guilt and sin away. A guilty sinner at your throne,
I beg for mercy through your Son. Now trusting Jesus Christ,
God's Son, I know that I'm his chosen one. ? And God's eternal
sovereign choice ? Makes this poor sinner's heart rejoice Please
be seated. With a call to worship, we'll
be reading from Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Pick up in verse 16. This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my
laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now
where remission of these is, there is no more offering for
sin. Having therefore brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath
consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh,
and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, We do come
to you now in and through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior. Blessed to know that his blood
was well-pleasing in your sight, that he was fully satisfied with
the offering of his shed blood on behalf of his people, of all
the names which he took with him. Thank you for the blessed
thought We're not left to ourselves. We pray even this day that you
would see the blood, look upon the blood, Lord, as the gospel
is preached, and have mercy upon our souls. We pray that for those
men that are preaching away from their home churches, we pray
that you'll give them, that you'll season their conversation
with grace, enable them to declare faithfully your word, in love,
speaking the truth in love. As you think of Caleb, to think
of others that are preaching away from their home. And Lord,
we do thank you for your fatherly care for us. As you've given us young children
that might grow up under the sound of the gospel, we thank you for your tender,
Tend your mercies. Pray thou that you'll help Greg
as he attempts to open your word. Might we be able to receive it?
In Christ's name we pray, amen. Let's stand together. We'll sing
the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. Try this again. Precious is the name of Jesus,
who can half its world uphold. Far beyond angelic praises, sweetly
sung to hearts of men. Precious when to Calvary thro'ning,
He endured the cursed tree. Precious when His death atoning,
Made an end of sin for me. In His death victorious, He the
host of power throws. In His resurrection glorious,
Victor crowned Lord all His foes. Precious Lord, beyond expressing,
are Thy beauties all divine. Glory, honor, power, and blessings
be henceforth forever Thine. Please be seated. I want to ask you to open your
bulletin, if you have one there handy, and notice the letter
from Willie Mapote at the bottom right side of your, inside of
your bulletin. Some of you may not know that
Willie is in Malawi, Africa, and I spoke with him some months
ago. He's been working with Gabe Stoniker and
we've been helping to support the work over there. And those
of us that have talked to Willie have been very encouraged with
the evidence of God's grace and his desire to preach the gospel.
There's actually some pictures in the hallway of Willie and
his immediate family, and so if you'd like to see that. But I wanted you to know about
that, and I wanted you to be encouraged to know that the Lord
is working in Malawi, Africa. Let's open our Bibles together
to 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 15. And I want to try to begin this
message with its conclusion so that as we look at the different parts
of this scripture, we'll have in mind its end result. First Samuel chapter 15, and
I'll begin reading at verse 32. Then said Samuel, bring ye hither
to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came into him delicately. And Agag said, surely the bitterness
of death is now past. And Samuel said, as thy sword
hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless
among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces
before the Lord at Gilgal. Samuel had given Saul a word from God to
attack the Amalekites and to destroy them utterly, not to
leave anything alive in all the nation of the Amalekites. God gave Saul and his army victory
to do that. But if you look back with me
to verse nine, But Saul and the people spared
Agag. The king of the Amalekites was
supposed to be killed but Saul spared him. The title of this
message is Sparing Agag. Sparing Agag. and the best of the sheep, and
of the oxen, and of the fatlings of the lamb, and all that was
good, and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was
vile and refuge, that they destroyed utterly." Samuel came to find
out why there were sheep and oxen lowing, why they had spared
them, and why they had spared Agag. And Saul began to make
excuses of why he had done that. The Amalekites were the enemies
of God's people. Amalek, the father of the Amalekites,
was the grandson of Esau. Esau, we know, is the twin brother
of Jacob. And Esau is a clear picture in
the scriptures of the flesh. Remember Rebecca, when she was
pregnant with both Esau and Jacob, these boys were fighting in her
womb and she went before the Lord and said, why am I thus?
And the Lord said, because there's two nations within thee. And
the older, will serve the younger. Esau
was born first. Our flesh was born first. We're
born anew when God gives us the spirit of Christ and makes us
sons of Jacob. And so as believers, we have
two natures. We have the old man and the new
man struggling within each of us. The man of the flesh and
a man of the Spirit. The Amalekites represent that
fleshy man, the man that you live with every day, the man
that I live with, the man that's sitting in the seat that you're
sitting in, your old man, Esau, the Amalekites. When Moses brought
the children of Israel out of Egypt, after they had crossed
the Red Sea, The scripture says the Amalekites picked off the
weaklings of the tribe of Israel from behind. And so they attacked
the Israelites shamelessly, taking advantage of their weaknesses.
Until in Exodus chapter 17, the Lord told Moses to send Joshua
and the men of Israel in battle against the Amalekites. These
are all the descendants of Esau. These are all pictures of our
old man. Joshua, representing the Lord
Jesus Christ himself, goes down into the valley and takes the
men of Israel and battles against the Amalekites. And Moses is
up on the hillside in prayer to God with his arms lifted up.
And his arms become tired and they began to droop. And as the
arms droop, the Amalekites get the victory over the Israelites. And so Aaron calls, Moses calls
Aaron and her to come and hold up his arms. And as long as Moses
was in that posture of prayer and dependence interceding on
behalf of Joshua, the Israelites, the Israelites succeeded in battle. What a picture of the battle
that you and I, Rage, engaged in every day. The Lord Jesus
Christ, our Joshua, goes to battle against our flesh, but he does
it. He does it through the means of our dependence in prayer to
him. As soon as we presume to have
things under control, As soon as we presume to have the strength
to conquer our weaknesses and our sin and our circumstances,
what does the Lord do? He lets us fall flat on our face
and the Amalekites begin to succeed until the Lord brings us again
and again, over and over and over again to see our need for
daily bread and see our need for his strength and to see that
Only by his grace are we sufficient against this nation of Malachites. Moses never defeated the Amalekites.
They fought them the entire time they were in the wilderness.
Now the children of Israel are in the promised land and The
Amalekites are still the enemy. They're still the enemy. And just like Moses, Saul did
not defeat them either. And Samuel confronts him. The And Saul admits that he spared
Agag. Now, not only does the Amalekites
represent our old man, our sinful nature, but Agag's name translated
means I will. I will. What does your flesh hold on
to stronger than anything else? What does your old man, who reigns
king over your old man? Who is it? It's your will, isn't
it? When we say that man doesn't
have a free will, we don't mean that he doesn't have a will.
Man has a will. It's the most powerful thing
about us. Matter of fact, every single problem that you and I
face in this world is caused by our will, which we spared. Isn't that our
nature, to spare our will? To spare Agag, the king of the
Amalekites, the one who gets to be in charge and make the
decisions on what to do and where to go. And every single time
that you and I exercise our will, contrary to God's will, it's
the source and cause of all of our problems, isn't it? Always
has been. Always has been. Man has a will. The problem is his will is bound
to his nature. So that the unbeliever who only
has the old man cannot will to choose God because he has no
interest in the things of God. You can't choose something against
your will. The unbeliever considers the
gospel to be foolishness to him. Why? Because he sees no profit
in it. He sees no need for it. The unbeliever
does not believe that he is a hell-deserving sinner. He doesn't believe that.
He doesn't believe that if God gave him what he deserved, that
he would go to hell. And so he doesn't see his need
for a savior. That's why the Lord has to make us to be a sinner
before we see our need for Christ. And when I say before, I don't
mean in time, I mean in order. We come to Christ as a sinner,
a hell-deserving sinner. Those who have not been made
sinners see no need for Christ, so they have no will or desire
for him. They're perfectly content with
the temporal things of this life, the material and temporal things
of this world. And so they have no interest
in the spiritual and in the eternal things of God. Consequently,
the gospel is foolishness to them. That's what the Lord said
to the Pharisees in John chapter five, verse 39, when he says,
search the scriptures for you think in them you have eternal
life, but these are they which testify of me. And in verse 40,
he said, and you will not come unto me that you might have life. You don't see your need for me.
You will not come to me. The natural man operates according
to his will, and his will drives him away from God, not to God. His will shows him that he has
no need for God. By nature, our will He is in
all ways contrary to God. And only by grace, only by grace will we be made willing according
to the will of God. Only by sovereign grace, only
by the Spirit of God making us willing and causing us to be
sinners and showing us the glory of Christ, will we have any desire
for him? We come to him because we want
him. The natural man doesn't come
to Christ because he doesn't want him. And then the question is, who
maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you did
not receive? It is a sovereign work of grace
in the heart for us to have a desire for God. Otherwise, left to ourselves,
Agag will reign over the Amalekites. And we will do all that we can
do to spare Agag. The one lie that is universally
believed among men is that man has a free will and that he can
choose God whenever he wants. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians.
2 Thessalonians chapter two. I mean, you hear it all the time.
I hear it in just casual dialogue in movies. You know, you hear
it from men, you see it. The natural man thinks, Agag's
in charge here. I'm going to stare Agag. And
Agag's going to control things. And he's going to be in charge
over the Amalekites, the sons of Esau, over my old man. And I say it again, If you've
not been born again, you have one nature, and that's the nature
of Esau. That's the Amalekites. And you've
got one king, and that's Agag, and his name means I will. And
you will do everything in your power to spare Agag. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2, verse
10. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, Because they received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Oh, child
of God, don't you love it? Don't you love it to be reminded
by the Spirit of God that you have no righteousness? That's
the truth. That you stand sinful before
God. That outside of Christ you have
nothing to recommend yourself to God. You love that truth because
that is the truth that drives your new man to Christ. That
is the truth that causes you to look in faith to the Lord
Jesus Christ for all of your righteousness before God. For
all the hope of your salvation. For all the forgiveness of your
sin. You love the truth. And you love it for me, child
of God, to remind you this morning that it's your agack in your
old man that's caused you all your problems. You want to identify the source
of the problem, don't you? You're tired of the blame game.
You're tired of pointing your finger to someone else and say,
well, if you hadn't done that or if my circumstances hadn't
been such and such. You like having the blame for
your own problems laid at your own doorstep because that's where
they belong. They belong at my doorstep. They
belong at your doorstep. You have a love for that truth.
Because the only hope that you have for your sins being forgiven
you is for you to take sides with God against yourself and
to accept full responsibility for all your sin. And as long
as you're looking somewhere else and blaming someone else, you
have no hope of forgiveness. You love the truth. You love
the truth about who you are. You love the truth about who
God is. You love the truth about how
successful the Lord Jesus was in accomplishing the salvation
of his people. You love having your will identified
for what it is, your problem. And you love having your Samuel.
Samuel's name means his name is God. Samuel's the only figure
in the Old Testament that serves as a prophet, priest, and king.
King in the regard that he was the last of the judges and he
reigned over the people, he was prophet, priest, and king. His
name, Samuel, his name is God. Who's he a picture of? Who's
he a picture of? Emmanuel, God with us. The fullness of the Godhead bodily,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And what did Samuel do? He took his sword. What is the sword? The sword
of the Spirit is the Word of God. He took the sword and what
did he do to Agag with the sword? He hacked him up into pieces. He chopped him up into pieces.
He showed no mercy toward Agag. He killed Agag. He left a bloody
mess of Agag. And you love it. You love it
when the Lord Jesus Christ himself takes the sword of his spirit
and puts your Agag to death. Hacks him to pieces. Now the problem with our Agags
is that they come back to life. And they gotta be put to death
again and again and again and again. And that's what the scripture
means when it talks mortifying the flesh, putting to death the
flesh, killing the flesh. It has to be done over and over
and over again. And you love that truth. You
love hearing the gospel because your Samuel wields that two-edged
sword And he puts to death your agag and he exposes your malachite
nature for what it is. And he drives you in faith to
rest all of your hope in the will of God. And he makes you
to say, he makes you to say in your heart, oh Lord, not my will,
but thy will be done. Lord, every time I've let Agag
take charge, he's led me into trouble. Lord, put him to death. Kill
him again. Kill him again. That's why Paul
said, I have to die daily. I have to die daily. That's why the gospel is a two-edged
sword. It kills and it makes alive.
It cuts both ways. but these have no love for the
truth. They're deceived by their unrighteousness. They're deceived in thinking
that what they perceive they've done as righteous is their acceptance
before God. Let's read this verse again.
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, they don't know
They don't know that the best thing they've ever done is filthy
rags before God. They don't know that if they
got judged for the best prayer they ever offered, they'd go
to hell for it. They don't know that. They're deceived by their
unrighteousness. They think their unrighteousness
is righteousness. But you know better, child of
God. You know you have no righteousness outside of Christ, and you love
the truth. The truth that exposes your egg
and your Amalekite for what it is and the truth that exalts
the Lord Jesus Christ for all your righteousness and hope of
salvation. You love that. Okay, verse 11, and for this
cause. God shall send them a strong
delusion that they should believe. I hope the little letter A is
in italics in your Bible because it doesn't belong there. The word that belongs there is
the word the, the. They didn't just believe a lie,
they believed the lie. What is the lie? Free will. Free will is the lie. That they all might be damned
who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Light has come into the world,
but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
are evil. Now the profane and the irreligious won't come to
Christ because they're enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season.
The religious and the moral won't come to Christ because they're
enjoying their morality and their religion as their righteousness. And so in both cases, Men are
deceived by their unrighteousness and they won't come to Christ.
They take pleasure, they take pleasure in their unrighteousness. Amalek said that he's the son
of Esau, which he is, and the father of the tribe of the Amalekites,
which were never defeated, they were always there troubling Israel. The name Amalek translated means
dweller in the valley, dweller in the valley. You remember when
Moses, Abba with Abraham and Lot, their flocks became too
great for the area where they live to support them all. And
Abraham in faith to God, Said to Lot, you choose which way
to go. And what did Lot choose? He chose
the valley. He chose the fertile plain. And
he ended up, he ended up in that place destroyed
by God, by fire. Abraham, on the other hand, ended
up in a rocky, mountainous terrain. You know, I thought, that's just
the flesh, isn't it? Lot was just following the desires
of his flesh. He was letting his agag reign. He thought like the Amalekites.
He thought, well, I'll just, I'll take the easy way out. And he ended up losing everything. The flesh is always choosing
the easy way out, isn't it? Whereas, I mean, this is our
experience. This is our experience. Every
time we exercise our will, Lord, I wanna go the easy way. Takes faith to climb mountains. Takes faith to to see what God
did on Sinai and giving his people the law. It takes faith to see
that Christ Jesus the Lord is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth and that he came to fulfill the law,
not to destroy it. It takes faith to climb up on
Mount Nebo. That's where Moses looked out
and saw the promised land. and he died on Nebo, only those
who've been given grace can get up on Mount Nebo and look into
glory and see the promised land that God has promised and can
die in peace, trusting that the Lord is faithful to all of his
promises. It takes faith. to climb Mount
Calvary, to see the Lord Jesus Christ suspended between heaven
and earth, giving his life for his sheep and offering his blood
to his father as a sacrifice for their sin, satisfying God's
justice, finishing the work of redemption. It takes faith to
climb that mountain. But that old man, that Amalek,
the dweller in the valley, ruled by Agag, I will, is with us till
the day we die. Israel insisted on having a king,
and that's the reason they're in the mess they're in. God gave
them what they asked for. I will. Turn with me to Exodus
15. Exodus 15. And I want you to number with
me the number of times, you know what the number of man is? Six. Man was made on the sixth day.
Six, the closest number to seven, but it falls short of the glory
of seven. 666, the number, the mark of the beast,
all representing man for what he is. And all throughout scripture,
we see that number six representing our Amalek, our Agag. In Exodus chapter 16, at verse nine, I'm sorry, Exodus 15, did I say
16? Exodus 15 at verse nine, And
the enemy, I love what the Lord said in Psalm
23 when he said, I prepared a table before thee in the presence of
thine enemy. I hope right now we are feasting on the bread
of life in the presence of our enemy, who is occupying the same
seat that you're sitting in right now. your Amalek, your Agag that needs
to be hewn to pieces by the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
Oh might God be pleased to do it. The Lord enables us by his
grace to be willing in the day of his power and to delight in
his will and to follow after his will and to put to death
our Agag, oh what a blessing. And as soon as we let Agag choose
our way, we end up in trouble, don't we? And the enemy, verse nine of
Exodus chapter 15, and the enemy said, I will pursue and I will overcome. That's why we
hear men say things like, I have decided to follow Jesus. I'll accept Him. You know, I
was looking for God one day. God's not lost. You are. No man seeketh after God at any
time. But what does the natural man
say? What does the Amalekites say? What does the Agags of this
world say? Those who only have that nature.
They put God in a place where He's subservient to them. I'll
pursue Him. I'll decide. I'll overtake Him when I'm ready. What are they doing? They're
sparing Agag. What are they doing? They're
believing the lie. What is the lie? Free will. I'll get right with God when
I'm ready to get right with God. And when God sends men a strong
delusion, we just read in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, if God deludes you,
you're deluded. There's no hope of being undeluded
unless He undelutes you. Once God sends a strong delusion,
oh, you're going to believe it with all of your heart, even
though it's a lie. Even though it's the lie, you're
going to believe it with all your heart. until God shows you
otherwise. Isn't that true? I will pursue. Notice the I wills. I will overtake. I will divide
the spoil. I'll take what Jesus did and
make it work for me. I'll apply the blood of the cross
to my sin. I'll put myself under the blood.
I'll divide the spoil. No, you won't. The Lord Jesus Christ applied
the blood. He applied the blood on that
mercy seat in the heavens. He put the blood over the sins.
He's the only one that can do that. But man in his pride says,
I will, I will do it. And the I will's not in the next
phrase, but it's certainly implied. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I'll gratify my desires and my
flesh. What did Esau do? Esau sold his
birthright for what? Bowl of soup. Why? The belly in the Bible is a picture
of the flesh. And Esau fed his flesh to the
destruction of his salvation. That's what I will does every
time, isn't it? I will. People think that they
can pursue God and overtake God and apply the blood and divide
the spoil and satisfy their flesh. They'll be just like Esau. I will draw my sword. Well, we
know what the sword's a picture of in the Bible. When the Lord Jesus comes in
judgment on the day of judgment, the scripture says that his tongue
will be like a flaming sword. The sword is what we speak. It's the word of God. The sword
of the spirit is the word of God. The sword that Samuel used
to chop up Agag is God's word. The sword that you hope right
now God will use in your life to chop up your will and make
you submissive to his will is his word spoken by him. But what do men say? Well, you
know, just read this prayer and pray this prayer and say these
words and you can obligate God. If you say the right things,
I'll draw my sword and I'll make God subservient to me. And again, the I will's not here,
but it's applied again. My hand shall destroy them Now,
what is the hand a picture of in the Bible? It's works. Works. And as soon as we put our hand
to something, the scripture says we defile it. We defile it. And the Lord was wounded for
our transgressions. Where were his wounds? They were
partially in his hands. Why? Because only his hands are
undefiled. Who shall stand before God? He
that hath clean hands and a pure heart. only those who are able
to stand in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ having perfect
work before God. But what does the Agag, the I
will of the Amalekites say to God? I'll present you something
I've done with my hands. And they'll end up being just
like Adam's son who's offering was
not accepted. Cain. Why? He presented the works
of his hands. Adam tried to cover his nakedness
by sewing together fig leaves, the works of his hands. No, a
blood sacrifice must be made. God must provide. I want to just read some statements
from the scriptures, some precious promises. I'm sorry, I said statements,
some precious promises from God's word where he says to his people,
I will. Listen to this, Hebrews chapter
eight, verse 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins and their iniquities, I will remember no more. I will never leave you nor forsake
you. I will give unto them that are
a thirst the fountain of the water of life freely freely I will be his God and he will
be my son all that the Father hath given
unto me and he that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. The leper came before the Lord
and said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole. And the Lord looked at him and
said, I will be thou whole. The Lord taught us to pray, Lord
thy will be done on earth even as it is in heaven. Now the truth is that God's will
is perfectly accomplished in all the circumstances of this
life. So when the Lord said for us to pray, thy will be done
on earth, even as it is in heaven, is he telling us to plead with
God to take control of the things here on earth, even as he is
in control of the things in heaven? No, no. He is in control of things here
on earth. He reigns sovereign over the armies of heaven and
the inhabitants of the earth. And no man can say unto him,
what doest thou? He's in complete control. His
will is being done. So when the Lord said for us
to pray, Lord, thy will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven, how
is it done in heaven? There's no egg eggs in heaven.
There's no Amalekites in heaven. The only thing in heaven is that
which rejoices in the perfect will of God. So when the Lord said, pray,
Father, thy will be done here on earth in my heart, draw the
sword of your spirit. Draw the power of your word and
slay my Agag. Chop him up into pieces. Lord,
expose my Amalekite and cause me to trust you. Thy will be done. Not my will. Not my will. Oh, we've got a will, don't we? And it is the cause of all of
our problems. Might God be pleased to kill
it. All right, Heavenly Father, thank
you. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your word. forgive
us for our sin, slay our egg eggs, Lord, again and again and
again. Cause us to rest in Christ, to
believe on him, to know that your way is perfect. Your word
is true. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. number nine and the Sparrow Hymnal
number nine. Is not that I did choose thee,
O Lord, that would not be? This heart would still refuse
thee, Hast thou not chosen me? Thou from the sin that stained
me hast cleansed and set me free. Of old thou hast ordained me
that I should live to thee. ? Your love had no beginning
? No cause in me was found ? That you should choose to save me
? A sinner strongly bound But grace not earned or sought for,
Was purpose for my soul. For me salvation brought, For
Christ made me dreadful. A sovereign mercy called me and
taught my opening mind. The world had else and crawled
me to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before Thee,
for Thy rich grace I thirst. is knowing if I love Thee, Thou
must have loved me first.