The text for this evening is
found in verse Samuel 15, but I'd like to read a verse of scripture
from Acts chapter 28. Now in this verse of scripture,
we have as good a definition of preaching as we find anywhere
in the Bible. And particularly, you men who
have responsibilities to speak at any time, remember your speaking
and your preaching should go through these three things. I've been thinking about this
for several days, and this is what I want to take place tonight.
Look at Acts chapter 28, verse 23. And when they had appointed
him a day, there came many into his lodging, to whom he expounded
and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets
from morning till evening. Now, there were three things
that were going on, expounding, testifying, and persuading. And every time I preach, I'm
to expound the truth, what God's word is saying. But not only
am I to expound, I'm to testify. I'm preaching what God has taught
me. I'm preaching what I've seen.
I'm preaching what I have experienced. And I can't preach what I haven't
experienced any more than I can come back from a place I've never
been. But not only are we expounding,
not only are we testifying or bearing witness, we're persuading. I want to persuade you to believe. I want to persuade you to believe. And what I want to do tonight
is I want to expound that passage of scripture from 1 Samuel 15. And I want to bear testimony
toward that, what I've seen, what I've experienced. And I
want to persuade you to believe. That ought to happen every time
the gospel is preached. expounding, testifying, and persuading. And I have the comfort of knowing
that although I cannot persuade you to believe, God can. And I rest in that. Now, with
that in mind, turn back to that passage of Scripture in 1 Samuel
15. I've entitled this message, To
Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice. 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. Was this too harsh? He even says
kill the infants. Was this too harsh? Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? If he says to do it, it's the
right thing to do. Do you believe that? Whatever God says is right, whether
I understand it or not. Somebody says, I don't agree
with that. That's OK. It's still so. Whatever God says
is right. But there's also some typical
significance to this command to go and utterly destroy Amalek. Amalek was a descendant of Esau,
and as soon as Israel leaves Egypt, Amalek was the first to
attack Israel. Turn back to Exodus chapter 17,
verse 8. Now this is right after Israel
has left Egypt, verse 8. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
out men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek.
And Moses and Aaron and Hur 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. When he's holding
up his hand, holding up the rod, he was looking to Christ. His
hands would get tired. And then all of a sudden, Amalek
would prevail. Verse 12, But Moses' hands were
heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him. And he
sat there on, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands. Aaron, the
priest. Hur, his name means light. This
represents the intercession of Christ, and God the Holy Spirit
stayed at His hands, the one on the one side and the other
on the other side, and His hands were steady unto the going down
of the sun. The Lord will enable you, He'll
enable me, to continue to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Aaron
and her. And Joshua discomfited Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said
unto Moses, 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. And Moses built an altar
and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. For he said, because the
Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. Now, Amalek represents the flesh. That sinful nature that you and
I have that is so evil, that's what Amalek represents. You look
to Christ, you prevail. You look down, your hands grow
heavy, the flesh prevails. You know that in your own experience.
God has declared war against Amalek, our flesh, and the greatest
enemy that I have is me, my flesh. Now look in Numbers chapter 24,
verse 20. And when he looked on Amalek,
he took up his parable and said, Amalek was the first of the nations,
but his latter end shall be that he perish forever. This is what
God says about Amalek. Now look in Deuteronomy chapter
25. Deuteronomy 25. Verse 17. Moses speaking to the children
of Israel says, remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way
when you were come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee by
the way and smoked the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble
behind thee when thou was faint and weary, and he feared not
God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee
rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord
thy God giveth thee, for inheritance to possess it, and thou shalt
blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, thou shalt
not forget it." Now here is the command of God, and that command
is given to Saul. You wipe out Amalek. Don't spare anybody. The flesh is not to be spared. But there was a problem with
Saul. Saul is exposed in 1 Samuel chapter 13 when he took it upon
him to offer a sacrifice to God. He didn't wait for Samuel, the
priest, to come. He brazenly offered his own sacrifice. And Samuel told him, you're going
to be rejected because of that. Saul proved by that he had no
true fear of God. If you would come into God's
presence without Christ representing you, without the priest representing
you, all you demonstrate by that is that you don't really fear
God. Saul didn't have the fear of
God. Now, let's go on reading in 1
Samuel 15, verse 4. And Saul gathered the people
together and numbered them in Talium 200,000 footmen. and 10,000 men of Judah. And
Saul came to a city of Amalek, and he laid wait in the valley. God said, Destroy Amalek, and
he's laying wait. 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 out of Egypt. So the Kenites
departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul smote the Amalekites
from Havilah until thou camest to Shur, that is over against
Egypt, and 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." Now what was God's command? Kill everything
that breathes. That was God's command. Did he
obey God's command? No. He spared Agag. He killed everybody but the most
important one. Isn't that interesting? He killed
everybody but the most important one. Now remember how Amalek
represents the flesh. our sinful human nature. How much does the flesh contribute
to salvation? It doesn't contribute anything,
does it? Now, here's the message of error.
True salvation is by grace, but salvation is dependent upon you.
True salvation comes by the death of Christ. But you won't be saved,
even if Christ died for you, unless you do something to make
what he did work. That's the message of the flesh. You spare Agag if you give your
flesh any credit in salvation. You're sparing Agag. And notice
they also spared the best of the sheep and the best of the
oxen. You know, man's religion always
has personal gain behind it. Not the truth, not the glory
of God, but personal gain. There's always an evil and a
dark motive, a self-serving motive behind man's religion. It has
something to do with personal gain. Now let's go on reading.
Verse 10. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying,
It repenteth me, that I set up Saul to be king, for he has turned
back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments."
And it grieved Samuel. Samuel loved Saul, and it grieved
him to see this take place. 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."
Now, he should have come to Samuel, but he was trying to avoid Samuel
at this time. And Samuel came to Saul, and
then Saul begins his religious speech. And Saul said unto him,
Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment
of the Lord. That's a lie. That's all you can call it. And
Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in
mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" You see,
there's always evidence in there. And Saul said, verse 15, 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've utterly destroyed. Here's another lie
dressed up in religious language. We were doing this so we'd have
something to sacrifice. We were doing this in the goodness
of our heart. We wanted to do this to offer up sacrifice. Verse 16, Then Samuel said unto
Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath 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? Now Saul went from being little
in his own to big in his own eyes. And what does the scripture
say? Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before the fall. Now, Saul began with a
low view of himself, but somehow he became big in his own eyes. Verse 18, And the Lord sent thee
on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners,
the Amalekites and fight against him until they be consumed. Wherefore
then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord? But thou didst
fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord.
You disobeyed and tried to enrich yourself by the spoil. You did
evil in his sight. And verse 20, Saul said unto
Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, He just continues
in his lie. He did not. But yet he says,
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
I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites, but the people. This kind of reminds me of Adam. The woman you gave me. She gave me the fruit. And I
did eat. You see, he wouldn't take personal
responsibility for his sin. It's somebody else's fault. It's God's fault. It's the people's
fault. But he wouldn't take personal responsibility for his sin. But the people took of the spoiled
sheep and oxen, the chief of the things, which should have
been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice. unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal."
Now, this was our motive. We wanted to have this stuff
to sacrifice. 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, to hear what
God says, is better 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 also has rejected thee from being king. Now, I've got a question for
myself, and I've got a question for you. Have I I'm asking myself this
question. Would the God that everybody
in here will ask themselves this question? Have I obeyed the gospel? Ask yourself that question. Have
I obeyed the gospel? In Acts chapter 17, verse 30,
we read that God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. That's God's command to me. Have I repented? Am I repenting? In 1 John 3, verse 23, we read,
This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name
of his Son. Have I obeyed that commandment?
And this is his commandment, that we should love one another
as he commanded. Do I obey this commandment? Now this is the means through
which God saves sinners. Obeying the gospel. Believing
what he says. When he says trust my son, I
trust him. That's obedience to his commandment. When he says repent, change your
mind, I repent. That's obedience to His commandment. And this is the means through
which God saves sinners. And it's the only thing that
would suit us. Believe the gospel. Trust my son. What if God said,
the only way you'll be saved is if you personally quit sinning? Where would that leave you? Well,
what happened to you? What if He said, the only way
you'll be saved is even if you quit sinning ten percent of the
time? What would happen to you? You and I would not be saved. Any commandment other than this would cut us out. And as a matter
of fact, this commandment is impossible to obey unless he
enables me to obey it. Now, here's what we all do. By nature,
instead of simply obeying God's command, we bring a sacrifice. We bring a sacrifice. Men believe
their own way of salvation to be better than any that the Almighty
could have devised. Therefore, they offer the fat
of rams instead of obedience to the gospel. Believe. Now,
this takes many forms, but it's the same in principle. I'll quit that sin. I'll give
it up if you'll save me. I'll change. I'll straighten
up. I'll fly right. I'll do right,
if you'll save me. Yeah, right. Nobody believes
that. I'll give. I'll read the Bible. I'll pray. I'll witness. I'll help the poor. You can do
all those things, but I just read that passage of Scripture
to open this service when they said, what must we do? that we
might work the works of God. And our Lord said, listen, this
is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. You know what comes after that?
A period. That is the work of God for you,
for me. This is what God commands me
to do, to believe on Him whom He has sent. Now, I believe that
God sent the Lord Jesus Christ, and I know what He sent Him to
do. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins. I believe on Him. I believe He
is my Savior. I trust his name as all I need
to bring me into glory. I'm looking nowhere else. That is God's command. Now, to obey is better than any
sacrifice that you can bring or you could come up with. You
know, Cain offered up a sacrifice, but it was an act of disobedience.
Now, let me give you some reasons as to why obedience is better
than any sacrifice we bring. Here's the first reason, because
God said it was. God said to obey is better than sacrifice. Here's a second reason. Obedience
to the gospel is true humility. And anything else is wretched
pride. God says, trust my son and you'll
be saved. And we say, surely that's not
enough. Something more is needed. If
I give up this or start doing that, surely that will be better. If I have a deeper experience,
if I have more conviction, if I have more victory over my life,
I'm going to set out for that. Then I can trust Christ. All
that is, is pride. That's it. Let's say you're a
child. is acting up and disobeys you,
and you rebuke your child, and you correct your child, and your
child is just torn up over what they've done, and you tell your
child, you're forgiven. Come here and give me a hug.
What if your kid said, no, something more's got to be done, and they
lay down on the floor and start kicking and screaming and hollering,
trying to, it's too easy, I need to do something before I can
come back. What would you do with your kid if they did that?
You'd whip them, wouldn't you? That's just do what I say to
do. You don't need to add anything
else. Just do what I say to do. True humility simply obeys what
he said to do. Now, the obedience of faith is
true obedience. What do I mean by that? Simply
believing the gospel. This is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. This is true obedience.
Now, what if what if someone in the military is on his post
watching? He's on guard and he's not to
leave his post. To leave his post, he would be
court-martialed. So his one responsibility is to stay on that post. Now,
what if that man said, you know, I really like my commander. I like my sergeant, I like my
lieutenant. I mean, he's a really nice guy. You know, his birthday's
coming up. And I'm going to leave my post
and I'm going to go give him a present to prove to him how
much I love him and how much I esteem him. Now, what will
happen to that man for that act of supposed love? He'd be court-martialed, wouldn't
he? That's not obedience. To do what
he says to do is obedience. You and I are commanded, we're
called on by God to believe the gospel. The obedience of faith
is better than sacrifice because it only is effectual in salvation. It's only through faith that
we're saved. Obey the gospel. Believe the gospel. Now what
if I said, if you crawl on your hands and knees to Winchester,
that's 1820 miles. If you crawl on your hands and
knees to Winchester, you'll be saved. If you believe that, you'd
do it, wouldn't you? I'll do that. I'll crawl on my
hands and knees to Winchester if you believe that you'd do
it. And if I say, believe on Christ and you'll be saved, if
you believe that, you'll do it. You will believe on Christ. And
if you don't trust Christ, who he is and what he did is all
you need to save you. It's because you really don't
believe. Now turn with me for a moment
to 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5. Now remember,
I want to give the meaning of this passage of scripture. I
want to expound it. And I want to testify, I want to preach
to you that which I've experienced, that which I know, that which
God has taught me, not just something I've read in a book or somebody
else to inform me about, but something that I myself know.
But I want to persuade you to believe. I want to persuade everybody
in this room to believe. Now, look here in 2 Kings, chapter
5. Now, name it. Captain of the
host of the king of Syria was a great man with his master.
and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance
unto Syria, and he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper." He thought he was a great, mighty
man of valor who happened to be a leper. He didn't realize
he was a leper. who happened to be a great, mighty
man of valor. Verse 2, And the Syrians had
gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the
land of Israel a little maid. And she waited on Naaman's wife,
and she said unto her mistress, Would God my Lord were with the
prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy,
And one went in and told his Lord, saying, Thus and thus saith
the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria
said, Go to, go, and I'll send a letter unto the king of Israel.
And he departed, and took with him ten towns of silver, and
six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And
he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now,
when the letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith
sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him
of leprosy. And it came to pass when the king of Israel had read
the letter that he rent his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and
to make alive? That this man does send me to
recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you,
and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so when
Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent
his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent
thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that
there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses
and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. I love this. Elisha sent a messenger
to him. Elisha didn't come out to him.
He just sent a messenger. And you can bet this offended
this man. He thought, I'm somebody. He needs to send somebody to
me. And he sent him out a servant. That has something to do with
the preaching of the gospel, doesn't it? He sent him a messenger. Say, go and wash in Jordan seven
times. and thy flesh shall come again
to thee, and thou shalt be clean. You go into the river Jordan,
and dip down in it seven times, and your flesh will be pure as
a baby's, and you'll no longer have leprosy. Verse 11, But Naaman was And he went away and said, Behold,
I thought. Now, those were his problems.
And that's where my problem is, and that's where your problem
is. Behold, I thought. What you think is wrong. You
believe that? What you think, what I think
is wrong. And here's where we get in trouble.
When we think, believe what God says in His Word. But listen
to Naaman. Naaman was wroth, and he went
away and said, Behold, I thought. He'll surely come out to me.
and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike
his hand over the place and recover the leper. I thought it would
be more impressive than this. Are not Havana and far, far rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash
in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. This is too easy. This is ridiculous. Go into that seven times. Is
that all? And his servants came near, and
spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid
thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much
rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean. Then went he down, and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the
man of God, and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of
a little child, and he was clean." Now that's faith. You know that
dipping down didn't cleanse his flesh. God cleansed his flesh.
And this dipping down was the meanest thing. You believe the
gospel, you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're clean before
God. That's too easy. I want something
else to do. Well, his servants warned him,
don't go that direction. So he simply does what the prophet
says, and he is clean. Trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trust Him. Trust His righteousness as your
righteousness before God. Trust His shed blood as all that's
needed to make you perfect before God. That you really don't need
anything else. Does anybody believe that? Isn't
it great? All the pressure is off. All
the stress... I'm clean through what he has
done. Now, if you do not, it's because
you really don't believe that what he did is enough. You believe
something more is needed. Therefore, you bring your sacrifice. And let me say this. If we fail
to obey the gospel, we will be condemned by God himself. If you personally do not believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and lay hold upon him, God will send
you to hell. Now, is that harsh? Is that harsh? If you say, I must eat to live,
and if I refuse to eat and starve to death, is that harsh that
I starve to death? If you say, I need to drink to
be sustained and I refuse to drink, is it harsh that I die
first? If the doctor says, take this
medicine and you'll be healed, if I refuse to take it and I
die, is it harsh? When God says, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved, and I refuse
to call if I just don't call. Is it harsh that I'm not saved? When Christ says, he that cometh
to me, I will in no wise, for no reason cast out, and I don't
come. Is it a harsh thing that I'm
cast out? Now, hear this command. Believe, Acts chapter 16, verse
30. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord. He is Lord. That means He controls
everything. Jesus Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." Christ,
the Christ. He's God's prophet. He's God's
priest. He's God's king. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. I fear that's not enough. I need to offer something else. One last scriptural example.
You remember there in Numbers 21. Where the people murmured
about the light bread. They said we're sick and our
souls loathe this light bread. We don't have anything to eat.
Even though God was feeding them with manna every day. And God
sent fiery serpents into the camp of the children of Israel.
And they started biting the people. And many of the children of Israel
died. And they came to Moses and they said, Moses, pray to
the Lord that he'll take this away. And Moses went to the Lord
and the Lord said, you make a fiery serpent of grass and you put
it on a pole. And any of the children of Israel,
when he's bitten, if he just looks at that pole, if he just
looks to that serpent on the pole, he'll live. And everybody that looked, they
were healed. And I don't have any doubt that
there were some people who said that's the most ridiculous thing
I've ever heard. I'm not going to look. What happened
to them? They died. The Lord said, look unto me. I can't see. Then you're not looking. You
look. You look. You'll see that I'm
blind. I don't care if you're blind.
If you look toward Christ, you'll see. Look unto me, and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and beside me is none
else. Now, I know this. We talked about
this in Sunday school this morning, or Bible study, whatever you
call it. If I'm saved, it's all God's
fault. But if I'm damned, it's all my
fault. Look and live. Obey the gospel. To obey is better
than sacrifice. Let's pray.