All right, look with me here
back in this 14th chapter of 1st Samuel. And there in verse 29, Jonathan
said, My father hath troubled the land, hath troubled the land. I pray you how mine eyes have
been delighting because I tasted a little honey. Now y'all remember
the last time we saw Jonathan leave everybody out, slip out,
him and just his armor bearer. They attacked the Philistines. And when they saw how well he
handled the Philistines, the whole army started coming out
of their holes and caves and everywhere and Saul got them
all together and they went after the Philistines. But when they
got the army together, and here's the only reason they won. Look
down here in verse 23. The only reason they won was
this. So the Lord saved Israel that
day. That's the only way anybody's
ever saved. So the Lord, Jonathan battled,
Saul battled, the army battled, but the Lord saved Israel. Nobody
else can save them. Nobody else can save us. Nobody
else can save anybody. God's got to do it. And I tell
you, Saul became king when he was 30 years old. And he reigned
for 42 years. And it didn't take long for us
to find out what kind of king Saul was. He disregarded the
Word of God first thing right out of the bat. When he didn't
wait for Samuel, he offered his own sacrifices. And Samuel said
to him, you've acted like a fool. You didn't do what the Lord commanded
you to do. And God has done stripped away
the kingdom away from you. And he's found a, he sought a
man after his own heart and he's going to give the kingdom to
him. And so Saul then and there, God wasn't with him anymore. Wasn't with him anymore. And
then, you know, Jonathan and Saul, there's a great difference
between the two men. Saul, Jonathan's son, was a man
that was confident and bold. You remember he said, let us
go up to these uncircumcised Philistines and let us, you know,
the Lord, the Lord perhaps may work for us. He may do it. He
don't have to do it, but he may do it. But I do know this, he
can save by few or he can save by many. There's no restraint
to the Lord. He can do what he wants to with
two or three, or he can do what he wants to with just a handful.
And that's why Jonathan had that kind of confidence. And you know
what his daddy was doing? Sitting down under a pomegranate
tree, taking life easy. And he was the king, but his
son slipped out of there and nobody noticed him gone. And
then here comes Saul, and he comes, and when they're getting
ready to go into a great battle here, he said there in verse
24, And the men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul
had adjured, or commanded the people, said, Cursed be the man
that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted
any food. Now that's not a good thing to
do, going into battle and telling people not to eat. going to fight
a war, and all on foot, chasing after people. It's not a good
thing to do, not a very smart thing to do. So it's evidently
that he didn't know much about what was going on. But they was
encouraged by the faith and boldness of Jonathan. But oh my, when
he says, listen, we're gonna go to battle, but I tell you
what, don't you eat a thing until I'm avenged to my enemies. I was in a combat area almost
all the time I was in Vietnam. Right up on the DMZ. And we carried
C-rations with us wherever we went. And we could be anywhere
we did, we could open up a can of C-rations and eat any time
we had time to eat and could eat. And we had little heat tabs
that you could heat your coffee with and heat your cup up with.
So we even in some of the most wildest places there was, they
kept us with something to eat. But here's a man that says, now
you're all going to war, but I don't want you to eat nothing.
You're going to be on foot. You're going to be chasing people.
Don't want you to eat nothing. That's the general of the army.
Don't want you to eat nothing. That's the king saying that. Oh, but it's a vain display of
religious foolishness on his part having his army to fast
while they're in battle. And they were hard pressed. Ain't
that what it says? They were hard pressed. Very
distressed. Very distressed that day. And
he said, if any man eats, let him be cursed. And this word
for trouble, down there in verse 29, where it says, my father
hath troubled the land. This word for trouble is mentioned
15 times in the Old Testament. And it's most of the times about
people being troubled. You find David being troubled.
Call upon me in the day of thy trouble, and I will deliver thee.
But here's three times that it's mentioned in relation to the
nation of Israel being troubled. The nation itself being troubled.
When Ahab saw Elijah coming, he said, Art thou he that troubleth
Israel? You know what Elijah said to
him? He said, It's not me that troubles Israel. It's you and
your wickedness and your sin and your disregard for God and
worshiping false gods. You're the one that troubles
Israel. You're the one that does it. And then remember Achan,
who stole the golden wench, and they told him not to do it, and
he hid it in his tent. And Joshua said to him, Art thou
he that troubles Israel? Why would you bring this trouble
upon us? And he said, Then the Lord trouble
you this day. The Lord trouble you this day.
And then this time here where it says it about Saul. When Saul,
on the surface it appears like Saul was trying to honor God
by proclaiming a fast. Oh this is great, we're going
to honor God, we're going to fast, and we're going to fight
a war at the same time. And on the surface it looked
like a seeking to honor God. But Jonathan actually says, no
my dad didn't do right, the king didn't do right, my father didn't
do right. He's troubled Israel today. He's
troubled not only Israel, he's troubled the whole land. He's
troubled the whole land. And I tell you beloved, it's
obvious. Now here's a man who had, we'll see that all the things
that he, religious things that he done, but he had no heart
in any of it. And just to have, you know, been
in a church, Being baptized, joining the church and doing
things like that is not salvation. A lot of people got religion
that don't have Christ. A lot of people's got the outward
form of religion that don't have Christ. And this is what Saul
had. That's why Paul says that in the last perilous times would
come in the last days. Men would be lovers of themselves. Saul was a lover of himself.
He said, I want to avenge me and my enemies. Don't eat until
my enemies are avenged. He loved himself. He was interested
in himself. And all perilous times will come
in the last days. Men should be lovers of themselves.
Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Heady, high-minded,
greedy, covetous, haters of God. And oh my, and that's where we're
at. I wrote a newspaper article to
be out next Tuesday, Unscriptural Sayings, and I used everything
these fellas say on the radio, and I've tackled everything they've
said on the radio about God. It's going to be in the newspaper.
I've tackled everything they've got to say. And I'm looking forward to hearing
from them. You know, people got, and here's
the first thing. Here's the first thing about religion. Here's
the first thing about just having mere religion, an outward religion.
It has nothing to do with Christ. They don't talk about Christ.
They don't talk about His holiness. They don't talk about His righteousness.
They don't talk about men having a need of Him. They don't talk
about God's Word. They don't even mention the Bible.
One fellow mentions John 3.16, and I guess that's all theology.
It's in one verse of Scripture. But anyway, Saul here had a great,
great form of religion. He had great concern for the
form of religion. And that's why, you know, when
he just sold it and settled it and come up, he said, I'll be
religious. I've got to do something. I've
got to let people know that I'm not just buying time here. So he got him some sacrifices
and he entered the priesthood and he offered sacrifices on
his own behalf. What if you and I offered a sacrifice
on our own behalf? You reckon God would take it?
You know what God, Samuel said, you're a fool! God told you to
wait until I got there. Now, your kingdom's ripped out
from you. God's going to give it to a man
after his own heart. And when he heard those words,
kept not the commandments of the Lord, and God has sent out
a man after his own heart to take the kingdom away from you,
you know that that weighed heavy on that man's mind. But you reckon
he had a sorry and a penitence in his heart? A sorrow in his
heart? You reckon he had a tear in his heart? You reckon he was
sorry before God for what he did? You don't find him being
sorry not one time for anything that he did. He just kept on
headlong in it. In verse 3, the first thing he
done was, and of course you don't have to look at it, but in verse
3 it says that he went to the priest. to try to seek the will
of God. He went to the priest to get
the Urim and the Thummim to find out what the Lord's will was
for him. And he didn't get anything. Didn't get anything. And then
down in verse 18 he says he called for the ark to be brought. Bring
the ark of God up here. Oh that ark will bring us some
good luck. That ark will be our magic talisman. That ark will
be what will save us. That ark will be the one that
will do something for us. Not the God of the ark, just
the ark itself. And then he goes on to be more
religious and he said, I tell you what, we're going to proclaim
a fast. Huh? And he said, cursed be any man
that eats food today. And he invoked the name of God.
Invoked the name of God. And then these people, they got
so hungry, And got so weak that they found cattle, they found
oxen, they found calves, and they sloughed and started eating
them right there. And then Saul said, oh my, you
sinned against the Lord. And then he comes on and he builds
him an altar. He builds him an altar. Builds
him an altar. Then he's going to offer sacrifices
on that altar. And then he says, if it's my
son Jonathan that's caused this trouble in Israel, I'll kill
him. He's going to die. Going to die. And it's all just vain, vain
religion. Saul didn't have any heart in
it. Like lost religious people, Saul has selfish motives. Selfish, selfish motives. And
you know most people have selfish motives. I stood in line with
two men yesterday and they got talking about hell. They got
talking about hell. One fellow said, boy, I just
can't imagine anybody It's just not wanting to go to hell. He
said, it's going to be hot. He said, I've been burned before. Boy, that fire down there, can
you imagine how hot it's going to be? And he said, I read some place
that it'd be so hot that it'd be black. And I never entered
into conversation with them. I just let them. They start talking
about God. How that you don't go to the
Lord, get you forgiven for sin, so you can escape hell. So you
won't have to go to hell. Got to be religious in some way,
somehow. Got to do it. Got to let somebody
know you've got some religion. Even if it's trying to tell people
not to go to hell. Christ, let me tell you something.
Christ didn't come here to save people from hell. He came here
to save people from their sin. Come to save people from their
sin. And Saul has selfish motives and counterfeit religion is just
a cheap imitation of the genuine. Two things that Satan can counterfeit
everything. He can counterfeit religion so
well, but there's a couple things he can't counterfeit. First of
all, he can't counterfeit the love of God in a man's heart.
He can't do that. The only way a man's got love
in his heart, the Holy Ghost has to shed it abroad in his
heart. It's not natural for him. It's not natural for him. And
the second thing he can't counterfeit, he can't counterfeit Christ being
the object of faith. He can counterfeit hell to keep
from going to hell. He can counterfeit, I don't want
to suffer. He can counterfeit, I want to
have a happy life. He can counterfeit everything
under the sun in the place of Christ. But one thing he can't
do, he cannot make Christ to be the object of faith. Make
everything else to be the object of faith. Even faith being the
object of faith. But not Christ. And I tell you,
there's a lot of counterfeit, a lot of counterfeit in religion.
And I'll tell you all about that time Shirley and I was over in
the Smokies, and I was going to buy some chocolate. Went to
this fudge shop to buy some chocolate. I got the money out, and I gave
her a $20 bill. She got her thing down, went
to looking at it. She said, this is a good one.
I'm not so sure about this. I said, well, as far as I know
it, if you know the people that gave it to me got it from the
bank, I'd be afraid to take that one. She said, I really ought
to call the law. I stuck it back in my pocket,
and I went to the bank. When I got back over here, I
went to the bank, and I gave that $20 bill to the bank, and I said,
check to see if this is a real $20 bill. That girl took it. She took it back there and run
it through a machine. Had somebody else run it through a machine.
She come back and said, yep, it's good. I said, want me to give
you one more? I said, no. But that woman, that's
why she was scared to death, getting a counterfeit. Get stuck
with a bad $20 bill. Well, how would you like to get
stuck with a counterfeit religion? How would you get stuck with
a counterfeit religion that wouldn't do you any good in the sight
of God? It's like Ignorance on the Bunyan Pilgrim Progress.
Oh, Ignorance. I'll tell you why. His whole
religion was based on his feelings in his heart. And so he gets
all the way up to the gate. Christian and hopeful is already
there and they're at the gate and they're fixing to go in.
And the king says, show me your certificate. Show me the reason
you're here. Show me the faith you've got.
Show me the proof that you say for you to come in here." And
he looked and looked and looked and said, I don't have one. And they said they took, they
said people come out, the king wouldn't come out, and they took
this man and they carried him over to a hole on the side of
the hill and pulled the ingots in that hill. And you know what
Mr. Brunnion said? He said this,
he said, there's a way to hell right from the gates of heaven
where people can go. I mean our Lord Jesus, one man,
one Lord, he said, you're not far from the kingdom of God. But that's not being in the kingdom
of God. That's people will be at the
door, and the door, standing at the door, and that's
what we're talking about. They can go to church, they can
pay their tithes, act real religious. Like our Lord said, you draw
nigh unto me with your mouth. Oh, you like to talk about me.
You like to talk about praying. You like to talk about giving.
You like to talk about all the things that you do for me. But
he said, you draw lines on me with your mouth. But I know,
I know your heart's far from me. I know that you don't have
the love of God in you. And then there's times, you know,
and I'll tell you there's another thing too about counterfeit religion.
They can be real strict in areas of the law where they think they're
measuring up. and if you don't measure up to
their standard and what they conform to their standard then
they'll condemn you find something wrong with you and again that's
why Paul says the Holy Spirit speaks expressly in the latter
times some shall fall away from the faith giving heed to seducing
spirits and doctrines of devils Having a form of godliness, just
a form of it. Just a form of it. And having
their conscience seared with a hot iron. Being hypocrites. And you know what a hypocrite
is? I don't know if I ever told you this or not. If I have, I
don't remember it. It's a stage player. It's acting out a part
and convincing people that you're real. You know, you've seen actors
that are so good, you just say, boy, they really are a good actor.
Well, that's why a hypocrite, he's such a good actor that he
convinces people that it's all right. Huh? Oh, my. And I tell you, a religious hypocrite
who was warned performs an outward religion without any outward
conversion. You know, you remember Ananias
and Sapphira. In Acts chapter 5. In the end
of chapter 4, everybody was selling their property and things like
that, and come and land the money down at the Apostles' feet. Land
it down at the Apostles' feet. Lennon and I and Sapphire saw
all this. And they said, oh, I tell you
what we'll do. We'll sell us some land. And we'll pretend
that we're going to give all of it. But we're going to keep
back some for ourselves. And so, Ananias come in and Peter
said, did you sell your land for such and such? He said, yes
I did. He said, was it not yours before you sold it? Yes. Was
everything not yours after you sold it? Yes. So why have you
deceived in your heart to lie against God? You didn't lie against
me. You said, I'm going to give all
this money to the cause of Christ and to the apostles to give to
the poor, but you still give it all. He said, I'm going to
keep back some for myself. And they'll think I gave it all.
He's pretending. And I'll tell you what, he dropped
down dead on the spot. His wife come in about three
and a half hours later. She didn't have a clue what was
going on. And she brought some more money. And he said, why
has Satan put it in your heart to deceive God? It belonged to you. You could
have kept every bit of it. Nobody thought nothing about
it. If you would have said, listen, we're going to give half of it
and we're going to keep half of it. And told straight up what
they were going to do. But they wanted everybody to
think they were going to give it all. But they were going to keep back
some for themselves. Now what would you call that?
A liar, hypocrite, cheat? Huh? Oh my. And then there's Judas
Iscariot. Look over in John 12 with me.
Let's look at John 12. John 12, chapter 3. Chapter 6. John chapter 12, yeah. Verse
3. John chapter 12, verse 3. Look
right over here. What happens to him here? You know Lazarus was dead and
Mary and Martha made a supper for the Lord Jesus Christ. They
sat at the table with him. It was after Lazarus had been
raised up, six days before the Passover. It says in verse 3,
Then Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard,
very costly, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and
wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment." Oh my! When Christ is present, oh,
he perfumes the air, but everybody enjoyed, was blessed by what
she did. Then saith one of his disciples,
Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, we should betray him. Why was
not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?
You see that? She put this on Christ. She gave
it all to Christ. She put it all on Christ. She
anointed Christ's body for the burial. She loved Christ and
put all this at His feet. On His feet and anointed His
body. Put it all over and wept and
cried before Him. And he said, why didn't you sell
this ointment? Instead of putting it on Christ
and dedicating it to Christ and use it for Christ's glory. And
to anoint Christ to show your love for Christ. Why didn't you
sell this for 300 pence? That's a lot of money. And listen
to this. This he said, not that he cared
for the poor. You think he cared anything for
the poor? But because he was a thief. It had the bag and bear what
was put therein. When it says he was a thief,
that meant he was taking money out of the bag. He put money
in there and he'd take it out. Put money in there and he'd put
a little in his pocket. Take a little money out of there and
put a little in his pocket. He was a thief. That's what he's
talking about. And that's what you call a hypocrite. False vain
religion. But our Lord wasn't fooled by
this. Many people have lied to God. They profess to love and honor
Christ. And lies just absolutely show the difference. And Saul,
he was void. He had no genuine faith. His life was empty. Just empty. Empty, empty. And I wonder how
many people's lives are empty. You know, they come to meeting.
They like the preacher. They like the building. They
like the people there. But they know there's an emptiness.
Just an emptiness. They sit and they listen. And then when he went into battle,
he had no confidence in God. He didn't have any confidence
in God. He had no peace. He had no comfort. In the end,
God deserted him. Look over here at 1 Samuel 16
and verse 14. Look what happens here. You know, we sang that song,
take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. There have been many a time I
took it to Him and got right back up with it. Have you all
ever done that? Take your burden to the Lord
and get right back up with it. Take it there and say, Oh Lord,
take care of this. I'll leave it with you. I won't
leave it with you. I'm going to leave it with you and get right back
up. And your mind is right where it was when you got out there.
Has that ever happened to you? I certainly hope it doesn't.
But look what happens to him here in verse 12. Excuse me,
verse 14. Verse 7 of 1614, But the Spirit
of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord
troubled him. God said, I've had all I want
to put up with you, Saul. Take my spirit away and I'm going
to send an evil spirit to you. That's what happens with hypocrites.
That's what happens to men and women that play with God. But
I tell you what, Counterfeit religion is without
the power of the gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. For it is, it is, the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. I mean, it takes the power of
God to bring salvation. It takes the power of God to
give salvation. It takes the power of God to
come and save a man. And then Paul said, I want your
faith. I pray that your faith does not stand in the wisdom
of men. Nobody talks you into this. Nobody
led you down a Romans road. Nobody took you to an altar and
talked you into anything. I don't want your faith to stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And that's
how you can find out if your faith is real or not. Did God
give it to you? Or did somebody talk you into
something? And I said, our gospel came unto
you, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance. And I tell you, beloved, we're
saved by the power of God and by Him and Him alone. It's not
plus, us plus His power. Salvation's in Him and Him alone. It's His work and His power.
He starts it and He finishes it. Paul said, I'm confident
that He which begun a good work in you shall perform it unto
the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I tell you what, a counterfeit
man, I tell you like Saul here was that troubled Israel, troubled
the land, He denied the power of God. He denied God's power
to save Israel. He said that we can't win if
we don't make people suffer. We can't win if we don't make
people deny themselves. We can't win with anything to
do with the flesh. And I tell you, beloved, I don't
want to I don't want to miss Christ. I don't want to miss
Christ. And Saul calling a fast showed he was completely, completely
lacking in discernment of God. What a foolish thing to do, and
all in the name of religion to show how dedicated he was to
his people. And then he says, I'm going to
kill my own son. kill my old son ain't that what
he says down here in verse 44 and Saul answered God do so and
more also for thou shalt surely die Jonathan why is he going
to kill Jonathan because Jonathan ate something that day Jonathan
didn't hear his father say anything so he ate something that day
and he said you're going to have to die for doing that told you
to be cursed What a fool! And them people said, there ain't
a hair on his head gonna fall today. You didn't do nothing,
he done everything. He done everything. And I tell
you, beloved, Saul was a great, great trouble of Israel. Carnal
people want carnal worship. Carnal people want carnal teaching.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but heap to themselves teachers. They have an itch in ears after
their own lust. But I tell you, beloved, any
icon of outward form is no substitute for a true, lasting, eternal
relationship with God. And we don't make the relationship
God does. We don't decide one day we're
going to have a relationship. Would you like to have a relationship
with God? That's what the preacher said.
You want to have a relationship with God? Would you like to have
a relationship with the Lord? If there's a relationship between
us and God and between us and Christ, God started it. He brought us into relationship
with Himself. And once He brings us into relationship
with Himself, we're going to be in relationship with Him throughout
eternity. We just get started down here.
And I tell you, true religion comes from the heart. From the
very heart and soul of a man. It may be weak. But it rests in God's mercy,
God's grace, and in Christ and Christ alone. That's real religion. That's true religion. Not like
old Saul had here. Trouble in Israel. Trouble in
the land. Why? Because he wanted to be religious. Wanted to show folks I've got
an altar. I've had the ark. I've had the
priest. I've had to seek God's will. And somebody's gonna have to
die because they didn't do what I told them. What a sad state. God give us true, true, true
heart religion for Christ's sake. Our Father, in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Lord who's like unto you in grace
and power and mercy, Who's like unto you in forgiveness? Who's
like unto you in righteousness and justification? Lord, we need your power. We
need the blood. We need your righteousness. We
need you to be our strength. Lord, we want you to be everything
to us. Put it in our hearts to love
you more. Put it in our hearts to seek you more. Put it in our
hearts to walk before you with our hearts open and naked before
you. Not hiding anything. Not trying
to hide nothing. Oh God, we need you and we want
you. Save you people in this place
for your glory. For Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Alright, I'll see you Sunday.