Well, we all want to please those
we greatly admire. Isn't that true? We all do. You
all like to please people that you greatly admire. It might
be a boss at work, and whatever people might say derogatively
about bosses, many people admire their boss for being in that
position. And you want to please them.
You want to do that which is good in their sight. You want
to please a spouse, perhaps even You want to please a parent.
I wonder about that. You want to please your parents.
You want them to think well of you and think good of you. But
above all, above all, do we not want to please God, the holy
judge of the universe? Is he not the one above all others
that we ought to want to please? How can I please God? That which
pleases God is the title of this message. What is it that we must
do? I want to address two groups
of people, because you know a lot more people listen to this on
the internet than are just here with us in this room. Firstly,
I want to address those of you who are Christians. What do I
mean by that? Not just you call yourself a
Christian, but you're someone who trusts Christ alone. And that word alone is very important. You trust Christ alone. What
is it that Paul says to the Philippians about we who are really the people
of God? You know, all sorts of people
claim to be the people of God. Who are those who really are
the people of God? We worship God in the spirit.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus. He fills our hearts with joy,
what he's done for us. And we have no confidence in
the flesh. anything of this world and of
this life and what we are and what we do, we have no confidence
in it. For all our trust is in Christ
and what he has accomplished. You who are Christians, you believe
that he has redeemed you from the curse of the law, for the
law justly curses every sin. The soul that sins, it shall
die. But you believe that Christ has
redeemed his people from the curse of the law. How? He was
made a curse for them, in their place, as a substitute. He stood
in their place, and he bore the punishment that was due to them.
He paid the price, hence the word, redeemed. He paid the price. And so, as Christians, believing
those things, you have a solid-based hope of eternal life. don't you? You have a solid, you know, you
don't just, you don't just hope and cross your fingers that you'll
go to heaven. You've got a solid base. Why? Because Christ has
died for me. How do you know he's died and
he's risen again from the dead? God has accepted it. We're accepted
in him. But what must you do? What must
you do as a Christian, if you would be pleasing to God? And
then secondly, I want to address those who I'm sure there are
some listening who do not yet believe the gospel. You see,
there are many who probably know the truth of the gospel in their
head, they probably know the facts of the gospel because they've
heard it many, many times, but they don't know the truth of
it in their experience, in their heart. They know mentally about
substitutionary atonement they know what the gospel says but
they don't know it in their heart in personal experience they know
that there is a God before whom we must stand when we die for
it's appointed to man to die once and then the judgment we
must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ we know that there's
a God who has made all things we don't believe this rubbish
about it making itself no we look all around us and we see
design everywhere, intelligent design, the design of the creator
of the universe everywhere in the creation around us. Don't
believe that nonsense because it's utterly untenable that it
all put itself together. It didn't. It couldn't. It's
absolutely impossible. You know there's a God before
whom you must stand when you die. Will you be pleasing to
that God? I tell you, it's a fearful thing,
we read in the Scriptures, it's a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming fire,
because he's a God of justice, and he cannot overlook sin. And
so this is the question, how can we know if we will be pleasing
to God? God's word tells us clearly.
The text this morning is 1st Samuel, we're continuing in this
book, I never intended to do a series on it but it's been
several weeks now. 1st Samuel chapter 15 verses
22 and 23. 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 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. That's our text. Let's put it
in its context. Saul was the first king of Israel
and we've already seen he's acted foolishly. From very humble beginnings
he soon got above his station. He soon got puffed up in his
own eyes. He soon started to take things upon himself that
he shouldn't have done. In chapter 13 we saw him not
waiting patiently for Samuel God's anointed to come and perform
the sacrifice. He took it upon himself and he
did that which was forbidden him for it was only for the Levitical
priesthood to do those things and Saul took that upon himself
and Samuel told him God's taking the kingdom away from you you've
disobeyed his voice well here we get to chapter 15 and he's
done more and more foolish things but God gave a clear command
And the clear command in these Old Testament days was concerning
the Amalekites, which were an evil people. They were an evil
people that had done evil to Israel, the people of God, when
they came out of Egypt. And God was determined to punish
them for their wickedness. God is a God of justice. This
sounds cruel and barbaric to our modern 21st century ears,
doesn't it? It sounds cruel and barbaric.
but it's the word of God. God told Saul to go and utterly
destroy the Amalekites. You see, God's justice is unchangeable. God's justice is absolutely strict. God's justice will be implemented,
and often it is implemented in time to demonstrate its certainty
in eternity. you look at disasters you know
often that is God's judgment in time to demonstrate the certainty
of God's judgment in eternity this judgment in time on the
Amalekites was no different from the judgment that they would
all be brought to when they died and stood before that judgment
seat for all of their sins will be called to account. But Saul
didn't obey the command of God. The command of God was, go and
militarily utterly destroy them. Kill every one of them. That's
what his word says. Because he's a God of justice,
strict justice. But Saul preserved the king,
King Agag of the Amalekites. He kept him. And he kept the
best animals. And his excuse for keeping the
best animals was they would make good sacrifices for God. Saul
took it upon himself to determine what would please God. But who
are you? Who was he who is anybody to
presume what pleases God? So then, let me first of all
address you Christians. You who have learned the gospel,
you who have believed the gospel of grace, you know it's a gospel
of grace. What pleases God? You know that
it's of grace and not of works. You know that salvation is not
of works, lest any man should boast. You know that works don't
save, that nothing we do or don't do changes our standing with
God. You know that, and that's good
to know that. But does that give us license
to do whatever we want to do, to live however we want to live?
Works do not save anybody, but true saving faith works out in
practical living. You see, God does require our
complete commitment to Him and to His service. He calls for
His people as we saw a few weeks ago in the book of 1 Samuel.
He calls for His people to honor Him. He that honors me, Him will
I honor. He that puts me first, Him will
I honor and exalt. He that puts me before everything
else, My honour, my requirements, my precepts, I will honour him. Let's give you an example. Maybe
there's someone who is a Christian, who truly believes the gospel,
but gets a very good living out of dishonourable business. You
know, what they're doing is just wrong, it's just fundamentally
wrong, it's exploiting other people, it isn't right, it's
doing the wrong thing. don't justify your dubious employment
by generous giving to Christian work. You know, yes, I know that
my business is dodgy, I know that my business is illegal and
not strictly straight, I know there are aspects of it that
really are quite immoral, you know, I know that I run these
publications that are viewed and titillating and people buy
them because of what, but it makes me a good living. It gives
me lots of money, so look at the money I can give to the church.
Look at the wonderful work we can do for God based on all of
that. No, don't do that. This is what God says. He says,
it's the fat of rams. I don't want it. I don't want
that kind of sacrifice. I don't want your giving if it's
at the expense of disobeying my precepts about the way you
earn your money. Let's think of another example.
Let's say there's a Christian who truly believes the gospel
of grace, and I know there is, because I was once one of these,
we were once amongst these, and we know many, many people who
have been in this situation. They're true Christians, but
they're in doctrinally corrupt churches that preach a false
gospel, not the truth of particular redemption and sovereign grace.
But they justify continuing to go there And there's lots going
on, lots of people, lots of singing. The music's great, they have
a band for the music, it's excellent. Because you see, they do all
sorts of good works in society. And I know they're all wrong
about the gospel doctrine, but look at the good works that they
do. You know, what they do may be wrong doctrinally, but do
you know something? It's, here's an expression I've
heard, it's faith in action. Faith in action, that's what
it is. We'll carry on going there because it's faith in action,
even though it's utterly corrupt as far as that which saves a
person from their sins is concerned. and it's all religious sacrifice. It's just religious sacrifice. And God says this, verse 22,
behold, to obey is better than that sacrifice. To obey, to obey
God, and come out of her, my people, is what he says. Listen
to God's voice. Noah came out of the ark after
the flood and he built an altar and sacrificed and there was
a sweet-smelling savour. We read about it, you can read
about it in Ephesians 2 that there was a sweet-smelling savour
from the sacrifice. Noah's sacrifice made a sweet-smelling
savour but better was his obedience to God's instruction that he
build an ark God commanded him to build an ark. Do you know?
It was good that he sacrificed when they came out of the ark,
but do you know what was better? He obeyed the voice of God in
the face of opposition all around and he built the ark. Jesus said
to the Pharisees when he's condemning them for their hypocrisy about
the things that they make a great big issue of the tiny matters
of the law and yet they ignore the... He says you strain at
a gnat you know there's a little tiny fly in your drink so you
put your teeth together and you kind of strain the liquid so
you don't swallow the gnat and he said all the time you're fussing
over not swallowing the gnat you're swallowing a great big
camel of hypocrisy and error and he says to them these ought
you to have done the more weighty things but not let the other
undone Noah's obedience to God to build the ark was important
but then of course yes he sacrificed when he came out of the ark he
honoured God and there was a sweet smelling savour. So another example
and it's a relevant one today Christ calls for his believing
people to publicly testify to their faith in baptism. Don't
try to substitute other religious practices. Obey his word and
be baptized. Oh, we can do what we want. No,
no. God has things that he says he requires you to obey. He requires
you to follow where he leads and where he directs. We all,
all of us believers, if you're a believer, ask yourself, are
there passages of scripture which you, and Spurgeon said this,
I got this from Spurgeon. Ask yourself, are there passages
of scripture which you dare not look full in the face because
you're living in opposition to them? You need to think, I need
to think about that. Are there passages of scripture
that you dare not look full in the face because you're living
in opposition to those passages of scripture? You see the epistles,
the New Testament epistles, are half full of clear doctrine. But don't forget that they're
also half full, the other half, of gospel precepts. Gospel precepts. Not law. Gospel precepts that
characterize the lives that believers should seek and strive to live. Not in our own strength. not
in the hope of a reward in heaven for we have our reward in the
Lord Jesus Christ for our God says I am your exceeding great
reward he is our great reward not in hope of reward not in
fear of punishment or loss but simply wearing the uniform of
the child of God who's been born of God's grace of his spirit
and seeking to avoid how should you live here's a good here's
a good rule here's a good rule how should you live seeking to
avoid any dishonor on the cause of Christ and his kingdom. Let's
try, we all need to try. Don't give unbelievers all around
us reasons why they can point the finger and say your testimony
is inconsistent. Now then, let me address non-Christians,
those who don't believe the gospel of grace, those who haven't experienced
the gospel of grace in their heart. You know that there's
a God to whom you're accountable, a holy and a just God, one whose
nature must condemn all sin, his being, his very person must
condemn all sin, all forms of rebellion against his rightful
rule. Are you prepared to stand before
the piercing gaze of the God of the universe? Because I tell
you, you will, you will, we all will. Don't you crave the assurance
that you will be accepted? Have you never had that feeling
of, I must know that I will be accepted by God? What must you
do to be in that position? The Philippian jailer cried out
to Paul and Silas in Philippi, in the Acts of the Apostles,
chapter 16, isn't it? I think something like that.
And the Philippian jailer suddenly knew by revelation of God, by
the things that had happened, that there was a God that he
must face. It wasn't just the people that were his lords and
masters over him who would call him to account for letting prisoners
go that he was scared of. He knew that he was going to
fall into the hands of the living God because if they executed
him for prisoners getting away. He knew he would fall into the
hands of the living God and he cries out to the two men that
had been with their stripes and their wounds from their beatings
on their backs in the stocks, in the jail, in the night, in
the darkness and all he could hear was them singing praises
to God. He could hear them singing praises,
and knowing that, that he faced death, and knowing that they
knew the truth of God, he cried out, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be pleasing
and acceptable to God? And how quick was the answer
that came back. There was no developing of complex theories,
was there? Paul just said straight away,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. You and
anybody else in your household, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. You see, that's it. What must
I do to please God? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is there any reformation of lifestyle that will make it better? You
know I've just been talking about Christians living by gospel precepts. Maybe you don't have to accept
the whole thing but perhaps if you live, try to live by some
of those precepts, will that do? No it won't. No it won't. Because you need to be justified
before God. Do you know how much sin you
need in order to be utterly condemned? James tells us. He who has offended
in one point of the law, only one, has offended all of it.
you've broken all of it. Just one point! What, you mean
I've been right on 99 but I just fail on one? Yeah, that's what
it says. God requires perfection. Not nearly perfection. Is there
any reformation of lifestyle that will give me that perfection? Is there anything I can do? I
know I've been a sinner in the past, but is there anything I
can do? You know, when Zacchaeus came down from that tree, Jesus
called him down. you know, I'm coming to your
house for tea, said Jesus that day, I'm coming to your house
and Zacchaeus the publican, the tax collector who'd swindled
people, he said I'm going to give back more times over than
I took to pay retribution. Was it that that justified him?
No, no. It was what Christ had done,
was doing, would do for him, that justified him. But the mark
of that was that he worked it out in practice. And in practice
he repaid that which he'd swindled other people from. That's right
and just, but don't think that that correction of past sins
improves your standing with God, it doesn't. Is there anything
that will satisfy God's strict justice? One of the hymns that
we're having this afternoon, I think it was the one that Jill
selected, one of the verses says this, not the labor of my hands
can fulfill thy laws demands, could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone.
Thou must save, and thou alone. It's only of God, only of the
gospel of his grace. In John chapter 6, the Jews to
whom Jesus was speaking in that long chapter, that critical,
that crucial chapter, Then they said to him, what shall we do
that we might work the works of God? Direct question to Jesus. What shall we do that we might
work the works of God and thereby find favor with God? Jesus answered
and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom he has sent. And you know, there's a double
meaning there. This is the work of God. This is the work God
requires you to do, yes, but it's God's work. For it is God
that works in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
This is God's work, that you believe on him whom he has sent. Because by grace are you saved,
through faith. And that Not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. It is the work of God that you
believe on him that he has sent. What is the work I must do? Unbeliever,
what is the work you must do? Believe the gospel. Believe it. Rest in the assurance of God's
justice satisfied for you in the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Trust God's word. Trust him. When he tells you what he's done
for you in eternity, for his people, trust him. When you read
those verses in Romans 8, to know that he's called you, you
know, he says, all things work together for good to those that
love God. And lots of people just stop
there. Let's complete it. All things work together for
good to those who love God, who are the called according to his
purpose. For those, he foreknew them. He foreknew them means he chose
them in sovereign election. And he predestinated them. He
mapped out. That's why all things work together
for good. He predestinated them. And he called them in eternity.
Not with the gospel call, I don't believe it is at that point,
but called with the name of the one to whom He betrothed them,
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He called them with the name
of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He justified them. Those
He called, He justified by Christ when He came in time. When He
came, He, who knew no sin, perfect, infinite God in flesh, to pay
the penalty for sin for His people, to make His people the righteousness
of God in Him. Believing that, believing that
Jesus of Nazareth, the historical character that lived 2,000 years
ago, that walked this earth in Palestine in the Middle East
2,000 years ago, that that man is everything the scriptures
promised concerning the Messiah. Try the spirits, whether they
be of God. Every spirit that says Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh, that's what it means. Not just
that there was a man called Jesus, but that everything the Scriptures,
the Old Testament Scriptures promised concerning the Messiah,
who would come as the substitute, as the surety of the covenant,
to stand in the place of his people, to save them from their
sins, to satisfy justice, that he is the one that did it that
God is manifest in the flesh to save his people from their
sins that's what it is to believe the gospel to trust in that to
know that you have solid currency to know that you have currency
that will take you when you die into eternity with confidence
to stand before the throne of God before the judgment seat
of Christ and know that you will hear those words come you blessed
of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. What is God's commandment to
you? What is it that you must do? What is it he requires you
to obey? 1 John chapter 3 verse 23. This is his commandment that
we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love
one another as he gave us commandment. What's his commandment? Believe
on the name of his son, on the name, everything that he is,
everything that he's done. What does God require you to
obey? non-christian, unbeliever. What
does he require you to obey? His law? No, you can't, you can't. Your flesh is too weak, you'll
never do it. I'll tell you what he requires you to obey. There
are three references in the New Testament, 2 Thessalonians 1.8,
1 Peter 4.17, Romans 10.16, and they're all couched in a sort
of a negative way because he talks about people who have not
obeyed the gospel. What are we called to believe,
sorry, to obey? The thing we're called to obey
is the gospel. God says, God calls on all men
everywhere to repent. He calls on us to hear the gospel,
to hear it with our ears, to mentally apprehend it, to think
about it, to think about it. It isn't hard. It really is not
hard. It's not a theological exercise. but to hear it and mentally apprehend
what it's saying about how the justice of God is satisfied.
You know, you need to be no more clever than Happy Jack, of whom
we've heard many times. I'm a poor sinner. What do you
know, theologically? I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. But Jesus Christ, he is my all in all, for he has
done everything to satisfy the law of God in my place. You hear
it. You mentally apprehend it. You
believe it. You commit your eternal soul
to it. What's going to happen to me? Commit your eternal soul
to the keeping of God. You follow its precepts. You
rejoice in its blessings of eternal life. Commit your eternal soul
into Christ's safekeeping, into his surety. Saying this, as Paul
says to Timothy, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded,
I'm convinced. I'm convinced that he is able
to keep that which I've committed to him. What's that? My eternal
soul. I've committed it to him against
that day of judgment to keep me there. And what's the reward?
What's the reward of this belief? John 3.16. God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Have everlasting
life! John 5, 24 and 25, Jesus speaking,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me Listen, hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus, but that one is passed from death
into life. Dead in trespasses and sins,
but passed into life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, maybe it's even now. Well, some
are listening to this. When the dead, you say I'm not
dead, yes you are, you're dead in trespasses and sins outside
of Christ. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live for the
Holy Spirit quickens his people. If you had a terminal illness
and a doctor commanded you to take a course of treatment that
would cure you, wouldn't you grasp it? Wouldn't you? I'm sure
you would. You look at all the things that
there are to do with health on the internet. It's covered with
things that are going to make you better and live longer and
cure this and cure that. You'd grasp it, wouldn't you?
So why will ye die when it comes to eternity? Ezekiel 33, verse
11. Say unto them, as I live, saith
the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but
that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel? What is it that pleases God?
Is it religious practices? No, not at all. Those verses
tell us quite clearly. No, obey is better than sacrifice. It's obedience to his word. Obedience
to the precepts of the gospel. It's his gospel and it's called
to you to believe on the Christ of God. John 20 verse 31. Sorry, for people listening,
somebody's just set off a toy that's playing in the background,
but I've nearly finished. John 20 verse 31 says this, these
are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his
name. Amen.