Well, good morning. If you would
care to open your Bibles with me to the book of 1 Samuel. 1
Samuel chapter 15. We'll read the first 23 verses
of 1 Samuel chapter 15. Samuel also said unto Saul, the
Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over
Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto
the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of
hosts. I remember that which Amalek
did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came
up from Egypt. And now go and smite Amalek and
utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not, but
slay both man and woman. infant and suckling, ox and sheep,
camel and ass. And Saul gathered the people
together and numbered them in Tilaim, 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 unto 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
Canaanites departed from among the Amalekites and Saul smote
the Amalekites from Havilah until they'll come as to shore 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 and would not utterly destroy
them. but everything that was vile
and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. Then came the word of
the Lord unto Samuel saying, it repenteth 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 him 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, blessed be thou of the Lord.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said,
what meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears and
the lowing of the oxen, which I hear? And Saul said, they have
brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best
of the sheep and of the oxen. to sacrifice unto the Lord thy
God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. And Samuel said unto
Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord has said to me
this night. And he said unto him, Say 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 have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
But the people took of the spoil, sheep, and oxen, the chief of
the things, which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice
unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, 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 than the fat of rams. For rebellion
is as of the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness as iniquity
and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the
word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
merciful Heavenly Father, oh, how we thank you that you are
God alone, that you are God the creator of the heavens and earth,
the God who rules over all your creation, the God who rules well
in justice and righteousness. And Father, we've gathered together
this morning in the name of thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, how we beg of thee, the
spirit of worship. Father, I beg of thee that you
would give all of us gathered here this morning a heart of
true worship, that we would bow before you in worship, in adoration,
for you alone are worthy of our worship and our adoration and
our praise. Father, I pray that this morning
you would speak to us through your word, that you would enable
us to hear, thus saith the Lord, to hear and to believe, to bow
to, the Word of the Lord. Father, reveal to us this morning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Reveal to us his glory, his sufficiency. And Father, reveal to us our
need of him, our desperate need of Christ the Savior, that we
might run to him, that we might be found in him, that we might
be found at his feet begging for mercy, that we might be found
at his feet desiring to hear more of him, desire him to hear
his word. Father, how we thank you for
this opportunity to meet together. And I thank you for this place
that you've provided for us, a place where we can meet together
in peace and unity and love and to hear your gospel preached.
Father, I thank you how you have blessed your word as it's been
preached all these many years. Oh, how we thank you. Thank you
for your mercy and grace to to your people, that you've called
out your people from this whole tri-state area to hear your gospel,
to believe it, to see and believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how
we thank you. Father, thank you for not passing
us by. Thank you for giving us a place where your gospel is
preached. And Father, we beg of thee that
you would not leave us alone in the days ahead, but that you
would preserve this place. Keep this place a place where
sinners can come and hear of the Savior. Keep this place as
a place where your sheep can come and be fed the sincere milk
of the Word of God. And Father, I thank you for this
congregation and ask that you would bless each one, that you'd
bless each home. Bless us with your presence.
Father, keep us faithful. Keep us needing the Lord Jesus
Christ. If we need Him, we'll be faithful. Father, keep us needing. cause
us to be a help and an encouragement one to another. For those, Father,
that you brought in the time of trouble and trial, we pray
for them. We pray that your hand of comfort
and healing and direction be upon them. Fathers, we pray for
healing and direction. We pray that especially you would
comfort the hearts of your people with your presence. Give them
a special portion of your presence. Give them grace sufficient for
the hour. All these things we ask, and
we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, turn with me
now again to 1 Samuel, chapter 15. I titled the message this morning,
Killing Self-Righteousness. We just read this, 1 Samuel 15,
verse 1. Samuel also said unto Saul, The
Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over
Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto
the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of
hosts. I remember that which Amalek
did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came
up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly
destroy all that they have and spare them not, but slay both
man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, Camel and ass.
Now that sounds very, very harsh, doesn't it? To go kill every,
to go to a nation, go to a people, and to kill every man and woman,
to kill every child, every baby, every just little baby, even
kill all their animals. That sounds harsh, doesn't it?
You know, people say, I've had people say this to me many times,
you know, I don't like the God of the Old Testament. They say,
you know, the God of the Old Testament is different from the
God of the New Testament. They say the God of the Old Testament
is harsh and vindictive, saying go kill a whole nation, even
the children, even the babies. But they say now the God of the
New Testament is loving and gracious. Now let me tell you, that's not
true. If you ever hear that, that's not true. We know that's
not true because God never changes. The Old Testament and the New
Testament both declare the same God. God is holy. God is just. God is gracious. God is loving. always equally. God is equally holy, equally
just, equally loving, and equally gracious, all at the same time.
Now here what we see is God is just. Now the Amalekites deserved
God's wrath. They deserved to be wiped out
because of what they did to Israel when Israel came up out of Egypt.
But we always have to remember, now this is a picture. Isn't
that true of us too? by nature, by what we've done,
by our sin, don't we deserve God's wrath? Don't we deserve
for God to wipe us out? Yes, that's what we deserve,
isn't it? Outside of Christ, that's what we deserve because
every one of us here are sinners. All we can do is sin and the
wages of sin is death. We deserve for God to utterly
destroy us. But the picture here given in
this passage is how God hates our self-righteous works. And
I'm going to show you that here. I make good on that. The picture
that we'll see this morning is how God hates the self-righteous
works of men and women. God will not accept our works. God will not accept the very
best of our works. If we come to God in our works,
if we come to God pleading anything about our works, even if we come
to God pleading Christ plus our works of righteousness, plus
our faithfulness, plus the good things that we've done, we will
be damned. God will not have even the very
best of our works. He won't have it. Our self-righteousness
must be killed. Our works of righteousness that
we would depend upon to make God happy with us, they absolutely
must be killed or God will not accept us. Our works and anything
that supports our works. You wonder why God said destroy
all the animals too? What have the animals got to
do with this thing? Those animals were used to support
the Amalekites. Those animals were used as a
sign of the Amalekites' wealth and richness. Those animals,
those things that support the Amalekites and their rebellion
against God have got to be destroyed. And anything that supports our
works, making us think we can take our works to God, must be
killed. I can make good on that and show
you this. God, remember Israel was down
there in Egypt. They're slaves in Egypt. And
God sent Moses down there to tell Pharaoh, let my people go.
You don't let them go. And when God delivered Israel
from Egypt, that was a picture of how God delivers his people
through the blood of Christ our Passover, sacrifice for us. When
did Israel go free? The night of the Passover. God
passed through Egypt. and everywhere where there was
not blood upon the door, everywhere where that Passover lamb had
not died as a substitute for the firstborn, the firstborn
was killed. And that very night, Pharaoh
said, get out, get out, take all the wealth, all the gold,
all the jewelry, all the precious gems of the people of Egypt,
and you get out. And they went out, didn't they?
Well, that's a picture of how God delivers His people, how
He saves His people through the blood of Christ our Passover,
sacrificed for us. Christ is slain as a substitute
for his people. That's why his people go free.
And that's what that is given to us as a picture of. And as
soon as Israel came out of Egypt, you know what happened? The Amalekites
came up behind. You know, here's this, they say
three million people, maybe more, but three million people with
all their animals and all their, you know, That's a long line,
isn't it? Long procession. And the people
who are in the back, they were walking more slowly. They were
weak. They were burdened down. And that's who the Amalekites
attacked. They came up behind and attacked the weakest of the
children of Israel. Now, the Amalekites represent
the flesh. The Amalekites represent the
works of the flesh. They represent works religion.
You know where the Amalekites descended from? From Esau. who originated this matter of
works religion. Esau brought the works of his
hands and put them on the altar and actually expected God to
accept those works, the very best that he could produce. He
originated works religion and that's who the Amalekites descended
from. And the Amalekites attacking Israel is a picture of the warfare
between the old man and the new man, between the flesh and the
spirit. And that warfare begins as soon
as God saves the person. As soon as God causes that person
to be born again, immediately the flesh attacks the spirit.
Immediately this warfare between the flesh and the spirit begins. See, before God saved you, before
God gave you a new nature, you didn't fight against trusting
in your works, did you? It was easy for you to trust
in your works. It's just what came naturally to you. But as
soon as God saves you, As soon as God gives you a new nature,
that warfare between the flesh and the spirit begins. Even after
God saves us, that warfare is never won, is it? It's never
fully won. That pride that's in the flesh,
the pride of our works, just keeps coming up. You never can
put it down fully because the flesh is still alive and well. The flesh is still as strong
and sinful as ever, And that's why this self-righteousness keeps
rearing its ugly head even in a believer, even when we don't
want it to. It just keeps rearing its ugly
head. Now look back at Exodus chapter 17. Here's the story of when the
Amalekites came up and attacked Israel as they have come out
of Egypt. They came up and now there's
going to be a battle. Exodus chapter 17 beginning in
verse 8. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel and Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out men and go out in a fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said unto him and fought with Amalek.
And Moses erred in her went up to the top of the hill. And it
came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon,
and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side
and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. And Joshua disconfitted Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. Now here, Israel
won this battle against the Amalekites under the command of Joshua.
Joshua, a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Israel won this
battle under the picture of Christ being lifted up in preaching.
When Moses held up his hands with the rod of God in his hands,
that was a picture of Christ being lifted up in preaching.
And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, and Israel won the battle. They won the battle, and this
is the place where The name of the place was named The Lord
Our Banner. That's how this battle against
our self-righteous works is won under the preaching of Christ. And all of that happened as a
picture of the believer fighting against the works of our flesh.
And those self-righteous works of our flesh can only be destroyed
when we see Christ the Savior. Our self-righteousness and trusting
our works is destroyed only when we see Christ lifted up. That's
what we see in verse 14. And the Lord said unto Moses,
now write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Now you wonder why the
Lord told Moses, rehearse this in the ears of Joshua. You think
Joshua was ever going to forget this day? when he led that army
of Israel into battle and how that battle was won when Moses
held up his hands. You think Joshua would ever forget
that? Well, I don't know. You who believe Christ, you reckon
you'd ever forget? You reckon you'd ever, for a
moment, you reckon you'd ever forget and start trusting your word,
start being proud, oh, look how faithful I am. Oh, look how faithful
I am. Even the coronavirus won't stop
me from coming to serve. You reckon even for a moment
you'd ever think Oh, God's gonna be happy with me now. Yep. We
do, don't we? Because of this flesh. So this
gospel has to be constantly rehearsed in our ears. We have to constantly
be reminded, trust in Christ. Look to Christ, lift it up, because
the flesh is still strong as it ever was, and we'll so easily
forget. Now, verse 15 and 16 here. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah Nisi. the Lord our banner. For he said, because the Lord
has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. The Lord's going to keep fighting
against these, these Amalekites who are a picture of self-righteous
works and they've got to be destroyed. And if you look there in the
center reference, here's why the, in from verse 16, if you're
got the authorized version, you got a little two there beside
the word, because here's why the Lord's going to have war
with Amalek from generation to generation. Because the hand
of Amalek is against the throne of the Lord. The hand of Amalek
is always against the throne of the Lord. Our self-righteous
works, those works we want to trust in now, we think those
things will make God happy with us. We think those things will
actually make God think we're better than even some other believers.
It's not as faithful. It doesn't do as many good works
as we do. We think those self-righteous works will make God happy with
us. God says those works that we want to present before God
is actually against the throne of God. Actually against the
Lord Jesus Christ who sits upon the throne of God. Those works
aren't done for God. They're against God. They're
against God's way of salvation. They're against God's word, His
way that He saves sinners. So if you and me are going to
be saved now, those works have got to be destroyed. They've
got to be. I want to give you five points
here to show us that salvation is all in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and none of it, none of salvation can be attributed to any of our
works. Our works must be killed. Now
back in our text, 1 Samuel chapter 15, here's the first thing. Man's
will, man's will, the will of the flesh must be killed. Verse
4, 1 Samuel 15. And Saul gathered the people
together and numbered them in Tilaim, 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 unto the Kenites,
go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I
destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all
the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the
Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. Now the Kenites,
they were descendants of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law. They showed
kindness to Israel. So when, but Amalek, now they,
they made war against Israel. So I'm sure this was instruction
from the Lord to Saul, let the Canaanites go. Now they showed
kindness to Israel, but you destroy the Amalekites. Verse seven.
And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest
to Shur 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 of the lambs. and all that was good, and would
not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and
refuse, that they destroyed utterly." Now Saul, he killed all the Amalekites
except King Agag, except the king of the Amalekites. Now Agag
was the one, he's the king. He's the one whose word was law.
He is the one that every Amalekite had to obey. He's king. Agag
was the king whose will is always done. Agag represents man's will
that the flesh must obey. It must. And as soon as people
get religion, as soon as they get religion, you know what they
do? If they get man's religion, here's
what they do. They get rid of all the bad looking
Amalekites. Everything that's offensive that
belongs to the Malakites, they get rid of that. They get rid
of all the outward sins that they think are the worst. But
if it's man's religion, you know what they do? They always keep
man's will alive. They might kill everything else,
but they always keep man's will alive. That is the thread that
runs through every false religion. Man's will is alive. Man's ability
to do something good, to be good, is alive. They always, false
religion always keeps man's will and man's ability to earn salvation
alive. They always keep the ability
to get saved alive. False religion always keeps their
power, their will, to decide whether they'll accept Jesus
or reject Jesus. Always. False religion always
keeps alive their power Their will, they can just decide to
do good, holy things so God will be pleased with them. And God's
never going to save a sinner like that. That is false religion. It's a lie on God and it's a
lie on man too. Man's will can never decide to
do anything good. Man's will can never do anything
but sin. So man's will has to be killed. Man's will cannot rule if a sinner
is going to be saved. It's utterly impossible. If a
sinner is going to be saved, Christ must rule. If a sinner
is going to be saved, God's got to do all of the saving from
the beginning to the end. It's got to be all of God. God
must do the choosing. God's got to do the electing.
God must do the saving. God must do the cleansing. God
must give life. God must give faith. God must
preserve and keep to the end. God's got to do it all. So if
a sinner is going to be saved, the Lord Jesus Christ has got
to accomplish all of the work of salvation with no input from
man. With no input from man's will,
with no input from man's words. Agag the king has got to be killed. You know why? Because there's
a new king, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he rules. So in salvation,
self has to die. Self-decision has to die. Self-pride has to die. Self-preservation,
it has to die. All of self must die so that
we can live in Christ. And if you look over a page,
verse 32 of this chapter, that's why Samuel executed God's command. Saul wouldn't do it, Samuel did.
Then said Samuel, verse 32, Bring ye hither to me Agag, the king
of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely, the bitterness
of death is past." Here we can be equal. Surely the bitterness
of death is past. Surely you can see you must let
man's will live. And Samuel said, as thy sword
hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless
among women. And Samuel hewed Agag. He cut
Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Now that's our will. If you and me are going to be
saved, our will must be ruthlessly, just ruthlessly hewn, cut in
pieces and thrown away so that God's will reigns supreme. That's
the only way any sinner can be saved. Our will, man's will,
has got to be healed. It's got to be. I remember years
ago, Brother Henry was getting ready to baptize a young woman.
She had a little boy, probably five, six years old. And Henry
was making this very point right here. If somebody's going to
be saved, man's will's got to die. And that poor little boy
thought Henry was getting ready to kill his mama, talking about
how man's will's got to die. But it's got to, doesn't it?
Oh, it's got to. If we would live in Christ, man's
will's It's got to die. It's got to. God's got to give
us a new will or we'll never be saved. All right, here's the
second point. Salvation is by faith. It's not by the best works that
man has to offer. Salvation is by faith. Giving
God our best. You can take your best and offer
it to God. That's what Cain did, didn't he? That kind of thinking
has got to be killed. Look here at verse 10. 1 Samuel
15. Then came the word of the Lord
unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to
be king, for he's turned back from following me, and hath not
performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel. Samuel
didn't want to see this happen to Saul. He had a softness in
his heart for Saul, and he cried all the night unto the Lord.
And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it
was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he
set him a place. He's gone about and passed on
and gone down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul and Saul
said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed
the commandment of the Lord. Can you believe the gall of this
man? He said, he actually said, I
have obeyed God. I have obeyed God's commandment.
And could be, Saul really thought that. I don't know if Saul really
thought that or if he thought he could pull one over on Samuel,
if he thought he could pull one over on the Lord, I don't know.
But here's what I do know. Saul did not destroy all of the
Amalekites. Apparently he killed most of
them. He killed some of their animals,
those animals that were old or lame or sick or something, he
killed them. But the best of the people, King Agag and the
best of the animals and the best of the possessions that they
found, in the Malachite homes, He kept them. He kept them alive.
And this is just so clearly a picture of man's free will works religion.
People in false religion, I don't know, maybe they're deceived
enough to think it. I don't know. Maybe they think they can pull
one over on the people around them. Maybe they think they can
pull one over on God by saying, you know, we've got rid of all
our sins. When really what they've done
is they've tried to get rid outwardly of the worst of their sins. Oh,
they'll get rid of the vile things. Things that they think are vile,
cussing, smoking, drinking, they'll get rid of them. Sexual sins,
they get rid of them, at least outwardly. Anything in the light
of day, they won't commit those things. Anything that offends
polite society, they're against that. They say they got rid of
that. They get rid of everything they think is vile. Which goes
back to man's will has got to be killed. Man's thinking has
got to be killed. They say that we've got rid of everything that
we think is vile, but we've saved the best. We've saved our best. And you know what we're going
to do with it? We're going to offer it to God. We've done so
many good things that make us better than vile sinners. We
see these vile sinners down there in the streets and in the gutters.
Oh, we've done so many more good things than them. We've got so
many things that we've done to offer to God. Look at my gifts. Look at the things that I've
got. God surely can use those things. God surely can work with
those things. We've obeyed God the best that
we can, so God's going to be happy with us. We're going to
take those things and offer them to God. Oh yes, Jesus had to
die for sinners, but to make it effectual, God's going to
use what I've given Him to finish the work. Really? Really? And that's why
I say, I don't know whether their conscience is seared and they
really believe that, or whether they're just trying to say it
so often they convince themselves, they think they can fool the
people around them, they think they can fool God. Really? Have
you really obeyed God by giving God the best that you have to
offer? Look what Samuel says, verse 14. And Samuel said, What
meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears, and the
lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, have brought them
from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best
of the sheep and the best of the oxen to sacrifice unto the
Lord thy God, and the rest they have utterly destroyed." Saul
said, we've saved the best of the people. We've saved the best
of the spoil, because you know why? We're going to take those
things and offer the best that we've got. And we're going to
offer them to God. It came straight from Cain. That's
what Cain thought too. He's going to bring the best
of his fruits and vegetables, the best of the things that he
produced with the works of his hands and grew from the ground,
and he's going to take those things and offer them to God.
When God said, bring a lamb, bring a lamb, kill the lamb,
shed its blood upon the altar, and I'll accept you. But Cain
didn't do that, did he? He brought the best that he had, and God
rejected Cain. Just like he's going to reject
Saul, bringing the best of the Amalekites and offer them to
God. God already said how offensive
the Amalekites were to Him. Why on earth would we think then
that God's going to take the best from these vile, sinful
people? Why would we think that? More
importantly, why would we think God's going to accept the best
that this vile sinner can produce? Why would we think that? It's
because man's will is dead. Man's will's got to go. Man's
thinking's got to go. See, God's going to reject you
and me too. We're a whole lot better than
Saul. We're a whole lot better than these Amalekites. Now wait
a minute. We're cut from the same cloth. We're born from Adam
just like they were. We got Adam's nature just like
they did. God's going to reject you and me too. I mean, let's
not really worry about God rejecting Saul. You know the story there.
God's going to reject you and me too if we come to God offering
our best works to Him. Do you know what God calls our
best works? best thing that you can do. You
know what God calls them? Filthy rags. Rags that are polluted
with the blood of sin. And the Holy God will never accept
us dressed in those rags that are polluted by our sin. They
won't cover us any better than Adam's fig leaves did. Both of
them are the works of man's hands. The only thing God will accept
is perfect, spotless holiness. The only thing God then can accept,
He can't accept ours. Ours is defiled by sin. The only
thing God can accept is the holiness and righteousness of Christ.
And it's got to be Christ and Christ alone. It can't be Christ
plus our polluted works. No, God won't accept that. You
can't mix grace and works. If we would be saved, it's got
to be Christ and Christ alone. Look what Samuel says here in
verse 22. And Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in
burnt offerings and sacrifices to these motions of religion,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. You really
think God is going to be pleased? Here Saul and the people, they
saved the best of the animals that belonged to the Amalekites.
You think God's going to be pleased with those animals taken from
the heathen? God wasn't pleased with the sacrifice
of any animal, was he? God wasn't pleased with those
things. That's why Christ said, Lo, I come. And the volume of
the book gets written to me. I come to do thy will, God. I
come to offer the sacrifice that you'll accept. You know, thinking
that God would accept these animals taken from the Malachites. Oh,
they're the best of them. But thinking that God would accept
them is not nearly as bad as thinking
that God will accept the best thing that I've done. I've done
all these things for God. To think God would accept those
things? You know, somehow, because of the deadness of our flesh,
we still think somehow God's going to, oh, God's not going
to, He's not going to accept Saul and this sacrifice. God's
not going to accept the Amalekites, but He's going to accept us.
Oh, He's going to accept our worse. No. No, because we're
no better than them. It's just as foolish to think
God would accept those animals as thinking that God's going
to be impressed with something that we've done. And this will
put all this in perspective. This is not just, you know, a
little nitpicking thing. Offering God our best works is
as evil as devil works. It is. Offering God our best
works is just as evil as bowing down in idolatry to a stone statue. I can show you that. Look here
what it says in verse 23. For rebellion, the refusal to
obey God, is as the sin of witchcraft, devil worship. And stubbornness,
just stubbornly refusing to bow your neck to God is as iniquity
and idolatry. And because thou hast rejected
the word of the Lord, He also hath rejected thee from being
king." God is never going to accept anything this flesh can
produce in order to please Him, in order to save us. And thinking
so is just as evil as worshiping the devil. That's exactly right.
You wouldn't have thought that, would you? Unless God's Word
said it. Salvation has to be all of grace. through God-given faith in Christ,
and to try to approach God any other way is just as evil as
any form of idolatry or devil worship that you can think of.
No amount of religious activity on our part is going to make
God happy with us or accept us. No animal sacrifice, I don't
care how many animal sacrifices the Jews ever offered, the blood
of those bulls and goats didn't put away one sin, did it? All
the nice religious things we have to offer to God aren't going
to put away one sin either. Now the believer. I'm not talking
about people in false religion. I'm talking to you who believe.
The believer has a genuine desire to get rid of our sins. We want
to quit sinning, don't we? I would love to quit sinning.
I'd love to sin less than I do. I'd love to carry around this
dead sinful nature with me. We want to get rid of sin. You
didn't wake up this morning thinking all the ways you could sin, did
you? Wake up thinking this morning, oh Lord, keep me from sinning.
But you know what? There's nothing real noble about
that. There's nothing real noble about wanting to get rid of your
sin. We ought to want to get rid of our sin. It ought to offend
us. It ought to be vile to us. But you know what's harder? Harder
to desire? To get rid of your good works.
to quit trusting in your good works, even for the believer. You're carrying around this dead,
sinful flesh. Our flesh wants some credit.
Our flesh wants some recognition for the things that we've done
that other people haven't done. We want some credit for our faithfulness.
We want some credit for our kindness to others. Look at all these
good works I've done. Look how I've been kind to all these people.
We want some recognition, some credit for our service in God's
kingdom. And God says, Away with it. Away with any religious thing
that you've done. It's better to obey. It's better
to obey than to offer any of this religious activity to God.
It's better to obey. Well, obey what? Not obey the
law. Look at Romans chapter 16. It's
not obey God's law. It's not do your best to obey
God's law. It's to obey the commandment of the gospel and to believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the commandment
of scripture. That is God's commandment. Believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here Paul is concluding
this great letter to the church at Rome. The whole theme of it
is salvation is by grace through faith, not by our works of the
law. Here's how he closes here. Romans
16 verse 25. that is of power to establish
you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret
since the world began, but is now made manifest and by the
scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. See, here's the commandment.
It's the obedience of faith to stop, stop, Trust it in your
works. Stop trying to produce all these
good works you can bring to God. Stop that and obey God. The obedience
of faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, on Christ and Christ
alone. That is the commandment of God.
Now, what is it to believe? I tell you, believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I just very, very seriously doubt
anybody in this room would deny the fact Jesus of Nazareth lived. You believe Him, don't you? You
believe He came, He lived, He died. You believe He was crucified
on a cross. You believe He died for sinners.
I'd say every person in this room believes that. Is that believing
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? No. That's just believing
in a historical fact. That's just believing a doctrinal
fact that is told on every page of this book. What is it to believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's to trust Him. It's to trust Christ alone, without
thinking you've got to add any of your works to his in order
for God to save you. To believe on Christ is to rest. It's to rest in Christ. To rest
in Christ's obedience to the law as your righteousness and
not think you've got to obey some of the law in order to,
you know, seal the deal and get God to accept. It's just to rest.
If you rest, you understand the concept of resting, don't you? You come home from work, you
come home from, you come in the house from working hard out in
the yard or working hard out in the world somewhere, you understand
planting yourself in your recliner and turn on the TV to rest, don't
you? This afternoon, I can't take
a nap any day of the week except Sunday. Today, this afternoon,
after we eat, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to rest.
I'm going to turn on the NFL game, turn it down while you
can barely hear it, I'm going to put my feet up and I'm going
to go to sleep. I'm going to sleep good. Nothing,
there's just nothing like sleeping. Just barely hearing the sound
of an NFL game. I'm going to rest. That means I'm doing nothing. I'm doing nothing. To rest in
Christ means you're doing nothing. Not one thing. Not one blessed
thing to add to this work, to make this work of salvation apply
to your heart. You're resting in Christ. trusting
him to be all God requires of you. That's believing. Christ
is resting in him. It's to rest in Christ's work
of redemption. He said it's finished! But I
don't have to add anything to it, do I? He finished the work.
It's to rest in him. It's to rest in the person of
Christ. And not think God's going to
accept anything but your person. Your scripture says God is no
respecter of persons. You know the person he respects?
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God's well pleased with Him that
you believe Him and rest in Him. Just rest in Him. That's belief
in Christ. It's to seek to be found in Christ,
in Christ alone, and not have God see anything about you. Have
God not see any of your works, to just see Christ alone. If
you believe Christ like that, it's not God will save you, God
already has saved you. He's given you the faith to believe
Christ. But if you try to hang on to
the best things that you've done, try to hang on to Christ and
hang on to a few of these best things that you've done, God
will reject you. Just as surely as he rejected
Cain and he rejected Saul. This thing of salvation is a
matter of salvation by God's grace through faith in Christ
alone. Faith without any words. All
right, thirdly, God will only save those people who are completely
dependent on Christ. Back in our text, 1 Samuel 15,
verse 16. And Samuel said unto Saul, Stay,
and I will tell thee what the Lord has said to me this night.
And he said unto him, Stay on. And Samuel said, When thou wast
little in thine own sight, wast thou not made head of the tribes
of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? You know,
when God raised Saul to the throne, Saul never thought he'd be anything
but a nobody. Saul just never had any grand
plans. He'd be anything but just a poor
old dirt farmer. And suddenly, when he thought
he was nobody, God raised him to the throne of Israel. When
Saul thought he was a nobody, God blessed him. But as God rejected
Saul, as soon as Saul thought he was somebody, As soon as Saul
thought he was somebody who could decide for himself and didn't
need God to tell him. As soon as Saul thought he was
somebody who could decide which commandment to keep and which
commandment wasn't so important. As soon as Saul thought he was
somebody that could decide that for himself. As soon as Saul
thought he was somebody who could do something to impress God,
God rejected him. As soon as Saul thought he was
somebody God ought to accept, God rejected him. But when Saul
thought he was nobody, God blessed him. Now God will never say this
kind of person who thinks they're somebody, who thinks God ought
to accept him. And that is the problem with
man's free will religion. We think God owes it to us, that
He ought to accept us. God's got to give me a chance
to be saved because I'm somebody. God will never save that kind
of person. That's the lie that false religion tells everybody. Do good and God will bless you. Do good and God will save you.
And you know what that kind of preaching does? It gives you
the impression you can do good so God will save you. Doesn't
it? All that kind of preaching does is puff the flesh up and
God will reject it every time. God will only save nobodies. Those who are little in their
own sight. And that word little there that
Samuel uses means insignificant. It's just insignificant, the
light dust of the balance. It's just so light on the balance,
it's not going to affect the scales. To be insignificant in
our own sight means that we're so insignificant we're completely
dependent on Christ to save us. My works are so insignificant
They've got to go. They've got to be thrown out
with the garbage. I'm so insignificant, I don't have anything to offer
God. There's nothing about me that
God would be impressed with because I'm so insignificant. Those people
are completely dependent on the grace of God to save them. And
God will save that kind of person. He'll save a beggar down in the
dust every time. If you're so insignificant that
you can't look at yourself and see any reason that God saved
you, If you look at yourself, the only thing that comes upon
you is fear. Because you see, when you look
at yourself, God ought to damn me. That's the kind of person
God will save. That's the kind of person who
will beg God for mercy. I tell you, if you're insignificant,
if you're insignificant, beg God for mercy. And God will save
you. He surely will. Don't make excuses
for your sin. As we read through this passage,
you see how Saul's making excuses for his sin? He said, oh, the
people did it. We didn't read it, but later
on in the chapter, Saul said, I did this because I feared the
people. It's the people's fault. It's not my fault. God's never
going to save anybody by making excuses for their sin. Don't blame Adam. We're guilty
in our own right. We're guilty. Don't make excuses
for your sin. Beg God for mercy. Be so poor
and insignificant. That's the people who beg God. That's the people who God saves.
Come to Christ as you are and leave everything about yourself
behind. Come to God naked and empty,
carrying nothing with you, making no excuses for your sin, and
God will save you. God will save that kind of person
because salvation is by grace through faith without any of
our works. All right, here's the fourth thing. We're talking
here about killing. Self-righteousness. Just killing
this thing of wanting to trust in my own works. How can my self-righteousness
be killed? How can this idea of me wanting
to trust in my own works of the flesh, how can that be killed?
Only by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. If God the Holy
Spirit ever gives us a sight of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll
tell you what we'll do. We're going to quit trusting
in our works. We're going to quit trusting even the best of our works and
trust only in Christ. Now remember Saul, he let some
of the Amalekites live. He saved the best of the Amalekites. He saved King Agag. He saved
the best of the animals of the Amalekites. Saul let some of
the best works of the flesh live. Saul never was going to kill
all the Amalekites, was he? Do you know who finally killed
all the Amalekites? Wasn't Saul. It was King David. King David, a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, who is the son of David. He killed
every Amalekite, every man, woman, and child. He killed him. Now killing every man, woman,
and child of the Amalekites. Again, I know that sounds harsh.
That sounds harsh. But that's a picture of killing
every work of the flesh. Killing, trusting every work
of the flesh. You've got to kill all the adult
ones. All those big, full-grown works of the flesh that we have
been fostering and feeding and raising our whole lives, those
great big adult works of the flesh, they've got to go. They've
got to be killed so we don't trust in them. And all the little
baby ones do too. Those little baby ones that are
so cute, they've got to be killed so they don't grow on us and
we end up trusting in them. any sin, whether we think it's
big or whether we think it's little, well, damn us. So they've
got to be killed. All of our works of the flesh
have got to be killed. And the only way that we will
ever quit trusting in our works is by trusting Christ alone.
If we see him as he is, we'll trust him and we'll quit trusting
the works of the flesh. But that's not a one-time battle.
It's not, oh, well, you know, God saves you and then you're
gonna quit trusting your works. No, God saves you and that's
when the battle begins. It's an ongoing battle. You fight it over and over and
over again. Just like the Amalekites. The
Amalekites were hard to kill. It was hard to kill all those
Amalekites. Just like it's hard for us to
quit trusting our works. Three times, scripture talks
about all the Amalekites being killed. We won't turn to them,
let me just tell you about them. 1 Samuel chapter 27, verses 8
and 9, says David killed all the Amalekites. Sounds like it's
over, doesn't it? Well, go over a few pages, 1
Samuel chapter 30, verse 17, David came and killed all the
Amalekites except 400 who escaped on camels or something. And then
in 1 Chronicles 4, verse 43, we read about the sons of Simeon
coming into the promised land and they took the land. that
God gave them to inherit, and they killed all the Amalekites.
The Amalekites were hard to kill. I mean, it was hard to get rid
of them all. The same thing's true about trusting in our words.
For the oldest, most faithful, most well-taught, most humble
believer, self-righteousness keeps rearing its ugly head,
and we gotta keep putting it down. And you know what? The
only thing that'll put it down The only thing, if we're gonna
quit trusting in the best of our works, we gotta see something
better. The only thing that'll put down our self-righteousness
is seeing Christ lifted up. And that's why we meet here every
Sunday and every Wednesday to keep rehearsing the gospel in
the ears of God's people. Because that's the only thing
that'll put down trusting our self-righteousness. And that
brings me to the last point. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 25.
Do you know when we'll finally be done with the Amalekites?
when we'll finally be done with trusting in our own works. You
know when we'll finally be done with having a nature that wants
to trust in our works and do something that'll make God happy
with us, so God'll accept us? You know when we'll finally be
done with that? You know when we will finally trust Christ
alone and never again look at the filthy works of our flesh?
You know when we'll do that? There's a time it'll happen.
There's a time. We're going to be done with this
battle. There's a time. That time is
when the Lord graciously takes us from this life to the next
one. When he takes us from this world to glory, we're going to
be done with this matter of trusting in our works. Look here, Deuteronomy
25, verse 17. Remember what Amalek did unto
thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt, how
he met thee by the way, and he smote the hindmost of thee, even
those that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and
weary, and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the
Lord thy God hath given thee rest, when he given you rest,
from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it,
that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under
heaven, and thou shalt not forget it. When the Lord brings us to
rest in glory, then it will finally be done. When we finally lay
down this flesh in the ground. I don't reckon there's ever been
a time I've been to a cemetery and we've put one of our loved
ones, one of our friends in the ground that haven't felt sad. If they know God, not sad for
them. Sad for me, sad for us that we won't see them anymore,
that we won't get to enjoy their company anymore. But they know God, how happy
they are, how blessed they are. We're laying that clay carcass,
that prison down in the ground, throwing dirt over it and walking
away. They're with the Lord. They are seeing the Lord Jesus
Christ face to face. Reckon they're trusting their
works anymore? No. They're saying unto Him be all
the glory. Unto Him that loved us and washed
us from our sin and His own blood. To Him be glory, power, and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. We're with Him in glory. We see Him as He is. Oh, for
eternity. Then we're going to be done with
that warfare. But not until then. Until then, don't think we're
ever going to be done with this battle. The only way we'll put
down this trusting in our own words is being reminded of the
gospel. Seeing Him lifted up again and
again and again. If you would have help in this
battle of not trusting in your words. Not trusting, I mean in
the best of them. These best religious works that
your friends and neighbors pat you on the back for and say what
a good person you are. If you're not trusting them,
tell you what you do. You find you a man who would dare preach
Christ and Christ alone. You find you a man who would
preach this word and would dare to offend your flesh every time
he preaches. You find that man and you sit
and listen to him. Hear thus saith the Lord. That's
the only way in this life we'll ever put down this matter of
trusting in our own works. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, How can we begin to thank you
for your mercy and your grace to your people, your sovereign
saving grace to your people that's found in our Lord Jesus Christ?
How can we ever thank you enough for the Lord Jesus Christ, our
substitute, our representative who made his people perfect through
his bloody sacrifice for them? How can we ever thank you for
giving us the gospel of your dear son to preach and to believe,
to hear over and over and over again? How can we ever thank
you, Father, for giving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to your
people? How can we ever thank you for not leaving us to ourselves? We freely admit by nature we're
as vile and wretched and refuse as every other son of Adam. The
only difference is God's grace. Oh, how can we ever thank you?
Father, cause us to be faithful to the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Keep us ever faithful to not
think that any of the works of our flesh could ever commend
us to thee. But it's only in the Lord Jesus
Christ that we can be accepted. Father, I pray as we leave here
this morning, go back home, go back out into the world, go back
out to our responsibilities in this life, that you would give
each heart here this morning faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that you'd go with us, that
this would not just be a Sunday and a Wednesday thing, but that
you'd go with us. And as we go about our activities
in this life, cause us to be faithful. As we go about our
activities, to do them diligently, to do them as unto the Lord,
But do them with one eye, always looking to Christ our Redeemer,
until that blessed time that you call us home to be with thee.
Father, don't take your finger off of us for a second, we pray.
And all these things we ask in that great name, that name which
is above every name, we ask these things for the glory of Christ
our Savior. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.