Turn back with me tonight to
1 Samuel chapter 15, please. As we discussed in our last study,
the Amalekites represent and picture the flesh. I spent so much time at the beginning
of the last message trying to establish my point that I felt
like maybe I wasn't clear. But that's what they picture
the Amalekites do, that old man within us that we call the old nature or the human nature. And we know that God told Samuel
to tell King Saul in verse 3, look at it, he said, now go and
smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare
them not. Slay both man, woman, infant,
and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." And this is teaching
us. This is what I want to be clear
on. This is teaching us that we should
not spare any aspect of our flesh that endeavors to take credit
for salvation. You know, we read a lot in the
Psalms in our study of the Psalms about the fear of the Lord. And
I've mentioned many times when we talk about the fear of the
Lord, that that is not a slavish fear. That's not a fear of being
concerned about doing something that would cause your master
to beat you or, you know, people think, oh, if I do that, I'll
have a car wreck or some of my children to get hurt. That's
not what the fear of the Lord is. The fear of the Lord is a
fear of looking to anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
a fear of trusting in anything that you yourself do in order
to be saved, instead of looking to Jesus Christ and Him alone
for your salvation. And I can't tell you, I hope
you know, I hope I know, just how blessed we are, just a handful
of people here. And I don't take pride in this.
I've often said this. I don't know of anyone else anywhere
close to us in proximity that preaches and believes what we
believe in the Scriptures. We're so blessed that God has
revealed these things to us. We've got people trusting in
anything and everything but Christ. They're preaching anything and
everything but the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Hey,
somebody tonight is giving a sermon on how to live. Well, let me
tell you something, we can't live right. We can try, but we're
gonna fall short of the glory of God. That's our nature. That's that old man. We've talked
about it over the past few weeks, the struggle within. Paul said,
in me dwells no good thing. Not in my flesh, no good thing.
And that's what the Amalekites picture. Paul said, for what
I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that I do. Does that
sound like you? It sure sounds like me. In verse
17 of Romans 7, Paul added, now then it is no more I that do
it, but sin that dwelleth in me. There's an old man, an old
nature living within me that sins and I hate it. It's a struggle,
it's a battle, there's a war going on in my members. There's
a war going on in your members. Then in verse 18 and 19 of Romans
7, Paul concluded concerning what's transpiring within us. By saying, for I know that in
me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Not some good
things, not a few good things, no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would
not, that I do." Listen, we need Jesus Christ. We've got to have
Him. There's no salvation apart from
Him. May the Lord drive that home
to us. Now, I know we confess to believe that, but Lord, make
it so real to us that we just don't doubt it. So when it comes
to us putting away our sin within, when it comes to us killing the
Amalekites of sin that rage against that new man on the inside, we
don't fare well. We just don't. We cannot not
sin. Only Christ can put away our
sin. We can't put away the first one. You know, if I spent eternity,
Chris, in hell, It wouldn't make a small down payment on one sin
that I've committed. Not a single sin, much less all
my sin. Sin is all that I do. Sin is
what I am. Therefore, all I do is sin. Judgment in eternity wouldn't
pay for the first sin. When it comes to utterly destroying
the flesh, the Amalekites, And all that they have, God said,
we personally fail miserably, just as Saul did. And we do so
for many of the same reasons that Saul did. And we'll see
that, hopefully, in this study. This passage of Scripture also
teaches us that the soul that sins shall die. Every single
sinner who's not found in Christ They will perish because the
wages of sin is dead. How good do we have to be in
order to be reconciled to God? We've got to be perfect. How
are we going to be perfect when sin's all we are? Only one way. In Christ. In Christ. Every Amalekite representing
those in the flesh shall die. But also understand that every
man and woman of Israel who were not true Israel, Paul talks about
that a great deal, referring to those who are not in Christ.
Even those who were of the nation of Israel who were not in Christ
were not true Israel. They also shall perish. Those
in Christ are true Jews. For they are not all Israel which
are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called." What does that mean? Well, he goes on to say, that
is, they which are the children of the flesh, they're not the
children of God. But the children of the promise
are counted for the seed. And the lesson in 1 Samuel chapter
15 is a command from God for the believer to kill any and
every aspect of their flesh that would try to take credit for
what Christ alone accomplished for them. Crucify the flesh,
he says over and over. We fail miserably at it. Galatians
5, listen to this, 16 and 17. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. How do
we walk in the Spirit? We trust in Christ. For the flesh
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot
do the things that you would. Galatians 5 24 and they that
are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affection and
love Do you hear that those that are in Christ? They have crucified
the flesh. That's how we crucify the flesh
by being in Christ. He crucified the flesh for For
if you live after the flesh you shall die but if through the
spirit do mortify the deeds of the body and you shall live and
It all comes back to Him. I don't know why anybody would
want to hear any other message than Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
That's what Paul said. I'm determined not to know anything
among you. It doesn't matter how much you
know. It doesn't matter what you do for a living. It doesn't
matter if you dot every I and cross every T of the law. You're dead in trespasses and
sins if you don't have Christ. Jesus Christ is our message.
Salvation's in a person. Salvation is of the Lord. Romans 13, 14, but put ye on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to
fulfill the lust thereof. Look over Colossians chapter
three with me. Look at verse 5, Colossians chapter
3 verse 5. Here Paul wrote, Colossians 3
verse 5, you got it? He said, mortify therefore your
members which are up on the earth. And then he names fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness,
which is idolatry. For which things sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of what? Disobedience. The ones
that do those things, practice those things. In the which ye
also, verse 7, walk sometime when you live in them. All of
us have done this. The only difference is that now
we're in Christ. Those who trust and believe in
Him. But now, He also put off these, anger, wrath, malice,
blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one
to another. It goes for little lies too,
little fibs. It's a lie. I don't lie, somebody said. Well,
you just lied. Lie not one to another, seeing
that you put off the old man with his deeds, and have put
on the new man. How do we put off the old man?
By putting on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that created him. It's just so clear when you can
see it, isn't it? God gotta show it to you. You
know, the Lord Jesus plainly and simply commanded us in Luke
chapter nine, verse 23. He said, if any man will come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and
follow me. For whosoever shall save his
life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake,
The same shall save. That's how we follow Christ.
Okay. 1 Samuel chapter 15, now look
at verse 4. And Saul gathered the people
together and numbered them, and teleom, 200,000 footmen and 10,000
men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek
and laid wait in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenites,
go depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I
destroy you with them. For you show kindness to all
the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the
Kenites departed from among the Amalekites and Saul smote the
Amalekites from Havilah unto Thou comest to Shur. and that
is over against Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of
the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with
the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared
Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings
and the lambs and all that was good. all that was good, and
would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile
and refused, that they destroyed utterly." So we see here that
there was one Amalekite. Now stay with me on this. There's one Amalekite that Saul
failed to destroy. Who was it? It was the king Amalekite. It was the main one. The one
who made the decisions. The one whose will was done as
the king. That's who a king is. The people under a king don't
make the decisions, the king makes the decisions. That's the
one Saul left alive, the one that makes the decisions, whom
the rest obey. His name was Agag. Now, I found
this very interesting. The name Agag, you know what
it means? You can't make this up. I will, that's what the name
means, I will. It also means over the top. Any
man or woman that thinks their will is what saves them is just
over the top. And its root means a flame, it
means bowing, it means high and lofty. And some of the old scholars
say that it's more of a title than a name, Agag, kind of like
Pharaoh or Caesar. It's more of a title of exalted
status than a personal name. It means the one whose will is
done. Agag was the very one that must
not be spared. You know, what is it, think about
this, what is it that every false religion spares? The difference
between false religion and true religion is that false religion,
and it's something they all have in common, is the will. The will. Man's so-called free will. You can ask any of them, it doesn't
matter, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, they'll
all tell you man has a will. I heard a man, a doctorate, doctorate
in theology, has a big, big church, said God is sovereign and He's
in control of everything except man's will to choose to be saved. Listen, if God isn't in control
of that, then He's not in control of anything. Saul blatantly disobeyed the
Lord's command by letting this king Agag live. In verse nine,
we're told that. It says, Saul and the people
spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and
the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good. It's hard
to throw something away that's good, isn't it? Teresa's cleaning. getting rid of some things in
the house. You know, we're getting to that age where our children
are saying, please get rid of all this stuff. Don't leave it
for us to deal with. So we're trying to, but sometimes
you got something you say, this is too good to throw away. And
you hang on to it and you hang on to it. And I guess they're going to have
to throw it away. But it was all good, and they said, no,
we're not going to throw that away. God said to, well, and I don't know if this was
an agreement between Saul and the people in the boat that was
taken. I don't think so. I doubt it. Maybe it was some
kind of sinister agreement between Saul and the people to disobey
God. I kind of doubt that. I think
it's apparent that This actually displays the will of Saul. You
know, he was king, and it pictures the king of our hearts, by nature,
the will. And our flesh, which includes
our will, by nature desires the things of the world that it sees
good. We're all guilty of it. And our
will rejects the spiritual things of God, which we see to be vile
and refuse. The carnal mind and unregenerate
heart is enmity against God. By nature, what we think is good
is vile, and what we think is vile is good. You ever notice
that? I remember somebody telling me
one time the best message they ever heard on Calvinism, Jimmy
Swaggart preached, when he preached against it. Everything that he
preached against supported it. And that's the way it often is.
It's just the opposite. False religion believes just
the opposite of what we believe. The sparing of King Agag, the
flesh, was disobedience by Saul. But Saul thought it was being
obedient, just the opposite. Look at verse 10. Then came the
word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repented me that I
have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following
me and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved
Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night. And when Samuel
rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel saying,
Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set up a place and has gone
about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal. And Samuel came
to Saul and Saul said unto him, now look at this. He said, blessed
be thou of the Lord. That's what he said to Samuel. He said, I have performed the
commandment of the Lord. No, he didn't. He did not. And notice that Saul immediately
uses religion to justify his actions. When Samuel comes to
him, he says, Blessed be thou, the Lord. God bless you, brother. You know? It's just like religion,
isn't it? I've performed the commandment
of the Lord. What pretension of religion! You know, it's been my experience.
for what that's worth, that those who add the phrase, praise the
Lord, you know people that do that, praise the Lord. It's a
beautiful day outside, praise the Lord. They use it as a punctuation
mark at the end of their sentences, and everyone that does, I just
find them suspect. In most cases, they're covering
the fact that they are not really sincere, just only playing religion.
Well, praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Maybe they've
convinced themselves that they're obedient to the Lord like Saul
did. But Saul was acting religious to cover his lies. But Samuel
wasn't fooled. Look at verse 14. And Samuel
said, What meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine
ears? Is that sheep I hear? And the lowing of the oxen which
I hear? Is that the Amalekites sheep
and oxen? He wasn't fooled. And the lie
continues, and self-vindication begins. Verse 15, and Saul said,
they have brought them from the Amalekites. Who? The people. They brought them from the Amalekites,
for the people spared the best of the sheep. The people did.
You're the king. The people spared the best of
the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice them unto thy Lord,
God, and the rest we've utterly destroyed. We did this for good now. We
took these sheep, the people did, not me, but they took the
sheep because we're gonna sacrifice them unto the Lord. Won't the
Lord be pleased with that? No. The Lord said kill them all. Your disobedience, you're claiming
to be obedience, and it's not that at all. You know, when the
will of a man takes precedent over the will of the Lord, it
always most likely will involve these things. Personal gain.
I know people that attend big churches because of networking. They can network in their business.
They can make business contact. It all has to do with personal
gain. Saul shows us here religious excuse. Well, I did it for the
Lord. Superficial sacrifice and offering. Blaming others. Self-vindication. Saul said, we're going to use
these good sheep and oxen to sacrifice them to the Lord. We destroyed the rest, but we
kept the best for the Lord. We're going to sacrifice them
to Him. Didn't we do good? No, you didn't. You disobeyed
God. How many times has disobedience been explained as for the good
of the Lord and for the good of the church? Verse 16, then
Samuel said unto Saul, stay, and I'll tell thee what the Lord
has said to me this night. And Saul said unto him, stay
on. And Samuel said, when thou wast little in thine own sight,
wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the
Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee
on a journey and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners,
the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but
didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the
Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, yea, I have obeyed the voice
of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and
have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and has utterly destroyed
the Amalekites. Well, he's talking out of both
sides of his mouth. God said, kill them all, especially
the king. He said, I killed all of them
but the king. I'm obedient, I did what the Lord told me to. No,
you didn't. Well, we can convince ourselves
about anything, you know it. He said, but the people took
of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which
should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice them to the Lord
thy God and Gilgal. Here we see Saul's failure to
take personal responsibility for his sin. What kind of God
would accept what he has condemned? God tells you not to do something,
and you do it. You're going to try to offer
that to Him and say, well, it's for the good of the church. It's
for the good of... God won't accept it. The child of God knows
better. It's nothing short of disobedience
and rebellion. And it brings forth nothing but
pathetic responses and excuses. There's nothing in or about our
old man that's acceptable to God. Nothing. Nothing. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? He doesn't have anything to offer God. God don't want
what we got to offer. The old man is worthy of nothing
other than death. That's what God says to do with
him. Kill him. Crucify him. He must die. God commands it. Look at verse
22. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord
Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken, to hear, to listen, than the fat
of rams. God not pleased with your sacrifice. He would rather you be obedient
and do what he says. Verse 23, for rebellion is as
the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the
word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king. Saul was rejected. And he'd soon
be removed from his office. His confession here of being
sorry, his repentance is false. He got caught with his hand in
the cookie jars, they say. The enemies of God must be destroyed. God demands it. And I'm more
and more convinced that our flesh is our greatest foe. You know,
we blame a lot on Satan. That's our own fault. The flesh. Most of what men and
women blame on Satan is just nothing more than an act of the
flesh. And the greatest sin of the flesh is for the will of
man to take credit for his salvation. God won't have it. I gave Jesus my heart. I let go and let God have his
way in my life. No. No. King Agag must be killed and
utterly destroyed. You know, what this religious
world defines as free will really doesn't exist. There's nothing
free about our will. Our will is in bondage to our
nature. Our will is always subservient
to our nature, what we are. effort to make this clear, I
want you to hear me out on this. In the sense of being free, God's
will is not free either. What do I mean by that? What
are you saying by that? God's will is also controlled
by His nature. God can't will to sin. His nature is holy. God can't will to lie. He's not
a man that he should lie. He doesn't have the fallen nature
of man, nor is God like the son of man that he should repent
or change his mind. It goes against his nature. God's will is controlled by his
nature, just as ours is on the other side of the spectrum. We
can't do good because evil's what we are. God's will is a
holy, righteous, just will. Ours is unholy, unrighteous,
and unjust. How to perform that which is
good, Paul said, we find not. Why? Because we're wretches. Sin's what we are. Sin's what
we do. You know, a lion, the king of
the jungle, eats meat. Why? It's its nature. That's
what it likes. That's what it wants. And a cow
out in the field eats grass. That's a cow's nature. A cow
likes to eat grass. And you and I, we drink iniquity
like water. That's what God said about us.
You drink iniquity like water. It's our nature to do so. The notion of man's free will
to choose God makes man sovereign over the Lord's will. That's
right, you think about it. It's not of him that willeth,
it's not of him that runneth, but it's of God that showeth
mercy. To say that I will to be saved,
that I chose God, that Lord Jesus said, you've not chosen me, I've
chosen you. It's to make man sovereign over God. The Lord wills to save you, but
you won't let Him. I've heard preachers say that.
If you have to let God do something, then God is not God. And you're
making yourself to be God. It's really just that simple.
It means that God's will is subject to man's will. It makes God to
be nothing more than just a spectator. Free will is a rejection of God
being God. Man's rejection. I won't have
this man to reign over me. I'm going to do things my way.
That was the temptation to Adam and Eve in the garden. The serpent
said, you shall be his gods. Oh, I kind of like that. I kind
of like that. Can a leopard change its spots? No. Can an Ethiopian change the
color of his skin? Nope. Can you do good that are
accustomed to do evil? Nope. Our minds and hearts are only
evil continually. So can you turn things around
for yourself? I've heard people say, I'm going to turn things
around. I'm going to pick myself up by my bootstraps. You can't. You can't. Free will is the source
of our rebellion. We will not have God. If our will is free, it sure
is ignorant. It's ignorant of God's righteousness
for sure. Because I can't provide a perfect
righteousness that God requires. Only Christ can. And as I said
in the last study, there's a typical significance to these stories
of the Old Testament. That's what Paul said in Romans
15, 4. For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, to teach us that we,
through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have
hope. Listen, this gives me hope. I can't kill the Amalekites,
but Christ can, and He did for me. The story is given to illustrate
some aspect of divine truth. It teaches us something about
the gospel. What is the gospel? I can't save
myself. Only God can save me. Only Christ
can put my sin away. And the teaching of religion
is man has a will. Man can will to be saved. Man
can will to choose Christ. He can will to give God his heart. He can will to come to Christ
if he wants to. He can do whatever he wants to,
but God says that he can't. Which is true. What God says. It's true that God is, if man
can do all those things, will to do all those things, then
God is sovereign over nothing and man is sovereign over God. God's sovereignty and salvation
is His glory. Isn't it? Without His glory,
God's not God. Exodus chapter 33, Moses asked
the Lord to see His glory. He said, I beseech Thee, Lord,
show me Thy glory. And the first two words out of
God's mouth after Moses' request was, I will. I will make all
my goodness, not your goodness, I'll make all my goodness pass
before thee. He said, I will proclaim the
name of the Lord. Not your name. Your name is insignificant. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Sounds to me like God does whatsoever
He wills. God's glory is in His will to
do as He pleases. Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He. I love that verse. Whatever the Lord please, that
did He. What did He do? Whatever He wanted. Where did
He do it? In heaven and in earth and all
in the seas and all deep places, everywhere. Well, what about
man's will? Well, according to John 5, 40,
the Lord Jesus said, you will not come to me that you might
have life eternal. What about man's will? According
to Daniel 4.35, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing,
and he doeth, God doeth, according to his will, an army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand. You know what that means? You
can't will your will over his will. None can say to God, what are
you doing? What about God's will? God told
Moses and Paul confirmed it in Romans 9, verse 15, excuse me,
where he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy. What does that mean? That means God says who he wants
to. He said, I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion.
What does that mean? Just the same thing. God says who he wants to. So
then it is not of him that willeth, not of him that runneth, but
of God that shall have mercy. Well, I plan to deal with this
chapter further in the next study, but I do want to just touch briefly
on Saul's seeming repentance. We'll talk about that in great
detail in the next message. But look at verse 24. And Saul
said unto Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment
of the Lord in thy words, because I feared the people and obeyed
their voice. Now therefore I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn
again with me, that I may worship the Lord. False repentance always
seeks absolution and forgiveness from men. What Saul should have
done, and that's easy for me to say because it's what I should
do too, but Saul should have fell on his face and started
begging God for forgiveness, but instead he asked Samuel for
his forgiveness. How absurd when only God can
forgive and pardon sin. Listen, I know I've got a lot
of Catholic friends that get in a little booth and tell the
priest, their sins. This won't help them a bit. You can confess your sin to me.
I can't forgive your sin. I can't pardon it. Take it to the Lord. Ask the
Lord for forgiveness. No one that's ever came to Christ
has been refused. That's why we've got to come
to Him. There's no forgiveness apart from His finished work.
And the issue always has been, is and always has been, you will
not come. That's what the Lord said. You
will not come. Well, we better come. Friends,
King Agag, the will of the flesh must be destroyed. And coming
to Christ is the only way it can be. Can men and women work out their
own salvation with fear and trembling? No. For it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. Lord, make us willing to destroy
Agag. Don't spare King Agag. Why did
Saul? Well, he said it was for good
reasons. He said it was all for something good to the Lord. We
don't have anything good that the Lord will accept. Christ
must put King Agag away from us. And He did, dear believer.
Look down at verse 32 and I'll finish. Then said Samuel, Bring
ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And look at
this. And Agag came unto him delicately. That word means cheerfully. What in the world has he got
to be cheerful about? Look what he said, and Agag said,
surely the bitterness of death is past. He said, I'm off scot-free. Sam said, bring him to me. And
he's thinking, hey, everything's cool. He thought he was going to be
spared. Surely the bitterness of death is past. That's how
the flesh feels within us, along with Agag, the bleeder's flesh.
in for a rude awakening. Verse 33, 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 in Gilgal. What a picture of Christ. That's
what he does to our flesh. He hews it in pieces. There's
nothing left. So we can truly worship Him as
our Lord and Savior. You know, it's only when we see
our sin and our own depravity that we ever cry out unto the
Lord for help. Until you see what you are, you'll
never see your need of the Savior. May God enable us to see and
to cry and to say, Lord, not my will, not my will,
but thy will be done. Amen.