In this chapter we will see the first king of Israel disobeyed
God and was rejected. God would have a king that he
describes in verse 28 better than Saul. Now this reminds us
of the first man, the first Adam, who disobeyed God and he too
was rejected, driven out of the garden. The second Adam obeyed
God and is accepted. And all of his people, we too,
are all accepted in him. In Ephesians 1 and verse 6, the
apostle says, accepted in the beloved. The title of the message
tonight has to be The Cost of Disobedience. The Cost of Disobedience. It costs Saul his kingdom. the
cost of disobedience. We're going to go through the
chapter, and I have about seven divisions. Won't take as long
as it sounds. But first of all, I want us to
see that Saul was given very specific instructions. He was given very specific instructions,
verse one through five. 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. 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. We see here that he was given
very specific instructions. He was told specifically that
these were the words of the Lord, that though they came through
the prophet Samuel, that this was God's word that he was hearing,
and he was to go and destroy all that pertained unto the Amalekites. He's not to pity the people and
he's not to covet their possessions. 400 years, think about this,
400 years at least had passed since the Amalekites took advantage
of Israel when they left Egypt. No doubt they had forgotten God
had not forgotten. Let's look back at two passages
that tell us about this in Exodus chapter 17. Now remember, the
Israelites, they certainly were not trained in warfare or anything
like that. They had no weapons. They came
out of Egypt. They'd been slaves there. And
what happens? Well, here in Exodus chapter
17 in verse 18, we read, then came Amalek and fought with Israel
in Rephidim. Thank the Lord, the Israelites
had no weapons, but they did have, they did have the Lord
as their God. And we know that they engaged
in the battle. Joshua led the men in the battle. And Moses up on the mount with
her and Aaron holding up his hands. And when his hands were
held up, remember, the Israelites got the best of the Amalekites. And then when his hands got weary,
the Amalekites began to get the best of the Israelites. So they
put two stones and held up his hands. And they got the victory. And they also got a new name. They heard a new name. Remember these seven or eight
compound names of Jehovah in the Old Testament. And this one
they heard, Jehovah is our banner. When they got the victory, they
raised a stone and they learned this new name, Jehovah. is our banner or the banner over
us. Isn't it wonderful to have a
banner? You know, in Isaiah, the prophecy concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ is a banner, an ensign. You know, these armies,
different companies, they have their colors, don't they? Flags
that they hold up. and followed many times in battle,
and that's the way orders were given to advance, to charge,
or to retreat. Well, we have a banner. We have
an ensign around which we gather, and we are gathered in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But that's the first time we
read of them here in Exodus chapter 17. Amalek came. But what we
learn, if you look in Deuteronomy, it actually gives us a better
understanding. Deuteronomy chapter 25. And verse
17, Moses reminds Joshua, here in Deuteronomy chapter 25 and
verse 17, 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
smote 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 an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt
blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Thou shalt
not forget it. And as I said, 400 years had
passed. since that took place, and now the iniquity of the Amalekites
was full. You know, when God promised Abraham
the land of Canaan for his posterity, he told him that they would be
slaves in Egypt, and they wouldn't inherit the land until the iniquity
of the Canaanites was full. And in 1 Thessalonians, Paul
reminds us about Israel, the iniquity of Israel. And it seems
to me the scriptures teach that nations, they're presented to
us like a cup, like a bowl. And God's patience with the nation
will come to an end when that cup is filled, when the iniquity
of that nation is so full, then God's judgment falls. And that's
what happens here. It's severe judgment. It's severe
judgment. Matthew Henry said, though divine
justice strikes slowly, it strikes surely. And I think of a scripture
which says, be sure your sin shall find you out. Payday someday. That was that famous sermon,
payday someday. When Ahab took the vineyard,
remember that? Seemingly he got away with it.
Oh, but there's a payday someday. And men may think they're escaping,
that their sins are hidden, their disobedience is hidden from God. But we know it's not. Only in
Christ are our sins put away. So first of all, Saul was given
very specific instructions. Number two, notice in verse six,
Saul showed kindness to the Kenites. 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
were part of the family that Moses married into. You remember
he married a daughter of that priest. And that's where his
name was Jethro, wasn't it? And the Kenites, they helped
the nation of Israel because they were familiar with the wilderness.
And as he said, they showed kindness to them. They were their eyes.
They were their ears in the wilderness to the nation of Israel. And
I think about these two things. The judgment of God upon the
Amlekites and His kindness is manifested to the Kenites. You
know, in Romans, the Apostle Paul speaks about God's mercy
and grace, and he said we can see both the severity of God
and the goodness of God. And we see that, don't we? We
see it here. We see His severity on the Amlekites. But we see his kindness to those
who showed kindness to his people. Now third, Paul Assault's partial
obedience was disobedience. His partial obedience was disobedience. Let's read verses seven through
nine. And Saul smote the Amalekites from Evelah 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 the lambs, and all that was good. and would not utterly destroy
them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed
utterly." We see he partially, he partially obeyed the words
of the Lord. They did destroy all the people
except for the king, Agag. They did destroy most of the
animals, especially those that were no good, but they kept the
best. But you say partial obedience
is disobedience. Partial obedience is disobedience
with God. And the fourth thing we want
to see here tonight is the Lord informed Samuel of Saul's failure. Saul went on the journey to obey
the word of the Lord, but we see that he only partially obeyed,
and when Samuel, verse 12, or verse 10, 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, 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 you know when we read in
the scriptures it repented the Lord. That we do not understand,
we cannot understand that signifying like when you and I repent, when
men repent. We know that it doesn't mean
that God changes his mind because he is the Lord. He said, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. God doesn't
change. His purpose is always the same.
Only people who change are people who are fallible, right? We need
to change our minds. We need to change our plans because
we're not omniscient. And when we make our plans, we
don't have always the power to carry them out, but God always
does. and he always has the wisdom
and the knowledge when he makes his. Well, what does it mean
then when we read that God's saying, it repenteth me? He said
the same thing in Genesis 6 concerning mankind. It simply means he changes
his dispensation toward us. It doesn't mean he changes his
purpose, or His will, because if you look down in verse 29,
that very thing is denied in this chapter. In verse 29, and
also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent. The word
lie, of course, it will not change. It will not repent. But when
we read God saying it repenteth me, it means that His dispensation
his dealings, his outward dealings with men, he changes. And notice in those verses we
read, verses 10 through 12, that verse 12, it says, behold, it
was told Samuel saying, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he
set him up a place. What does that mean? He set him
up a place. Well, most of the writers that
I read, at least, believe that means that he set up some kind
of monument, some kind of a, some go so far as to say like
an arch of triumph, made not of stones, but of flowers and
bushes that they used to recognize, just like in the Olympic, Remember
the winner, he got a crown, but it was a crown made out of rose
or something like that. And for him to set up a place,
we see his pride. He's proud, and God's going to
remind him of this in just a minute. We'll see this. God took him
and raised him up to this place of preeminence, this place of
authority. And now, remember when he first
came to Samuel, how he was hiding among the luggage when they cast
slots to see who it was that God had chosen? He wasn't putting
himself forward. He was little in his own eyes. But now, he's somebody. He's somebody. A proud Christian, that's what
they call an oxymoron, a proud Christian. And yet we know many
times we grow proud, don't we? Proud. When we should all recognize
everything that we have we owe to God. The only thing we can
really claim as our own is our sin. That's it. Everything else, if it's worth
having, it's because of God's grace, God's wonderful love and
mercy to us. He raised him up a place, as
scripture says. He set him up a place. You know,
Absalom, and I think it's the same word, Absalom, David's son,
later, he does the same thing, doesn't he? He builds some kind
of a, a place there, a monument to himself. He was full of pride,
and we know what an awful, wicked son he turned out to be, Absalom. Here's the fifth thing, and we're
going to look at several verses now, but Samuel confronts Saul
with his disobedience to the word of the Lord. First, at first,
Let's look in verse 13. At first, when Samuel confronted
Saul, notice he confesses his obedience. And Samuel came to
Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment
of the Lord. He's so proud of himself. He's
done it. I have commanded. He confessed
that he was obedient. He had done what God commanded
him to do. But that was quickly disproved,
wasn't it? The next verse, that was quickly
disproved because Samuel could hear the lowing of the oxen. Look at verse 14. And Samuel said, what meaneth
then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears? Seemed like I'm
hearing something here, Saul. You said you have obeyed the
commandment of the Lord. The commandment of the Lord was
to destroy all of the possessions of the Amalekites. But I seem
to be hearing something. I seem to be hearing the bleeding
of the sheep and of the oxen. Then said Saul, this is the third
thing, he tried to shift the blame. And isn't that so common? Isn't it, all of us, if we just
be honest tonight with ourselves and with God, isn't that true
of all of us? It is so difficult just to admit
and say, I'm guilty. I was wrong. And not add something
to it. Not add something. that excuses
ourselves. Saul said, they, they, who are
they? Not me, not me, no they. Remember last week, I believe
it was, that his army, they would not even eat. Remember he'd given
that commandment, curse it is he. that eats anything before
the evening, and when they came into that area where there was
honey, and they were weary and tired and hungry, but they would
not disobey Saul. And now, he says, they're the
ones, they, the people, the army, they, just like Adam, our father. Lord, the woman which thou gavest
me, she gave me to him. In other words, it's her fault.
And really, Adam was trying to say, it's your fault. If you
had not given, Lord, if you had not given me this woman, surely
I would not have eaten. That's just so typical of all
of us, to put the blame on somebody else when we're the ones who
are guilty. They used to sing that song,
It's Me, O Lord, It's me, O Lord, that standeth in the need of
prayer. It's me, O Lord, who's guilty. No, Saul said they. They
have brought them from the Amlekites for the people. Spared the best
of the sheep and of the oxen, and really, they did it for a
good reason. They did it for a good reason.
Well, we're gonna sacrifice these animals. It'd be like a person,
in God's eyes, under the law, when they were to bring a sacrifice,
if a man went and stole a lamb from his neighbor and brought
it to the Lord to offer in sacrifice. It'd be the very same thing.
Now we've got a good motive, good reason for doing this. No,
there's no good reason for disobeying God. None. Samuel, notice the fourth thing,
Samuel reveals the Lord's message and charges Saul with his disobedience,
beginning in 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, Was 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? In other words, God had given
them the victory. It's like taking a journey. He
doesn't even present it as going to war. God sent you on a journey. Go and utterly destroy the sinners,
the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. But you notice Saul, he continues
to proclaim his innocence, to blame the people, and to justify
the taking of the spoil. Verse 20, and Saul said unto
Samuel, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. Well, he knew
he hadn't done that. Now he's lying. Now he's lying
with the sheep and the oxen lowing in the background. 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? Samuel saw this very important
question, didn't he? Hath the Lord as great delight
in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the
Lord? Does he? Saul, does the Lord
take delight in the blood of these animals more than obedience
unto him? Behold, here's the answer. 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 also hath rejected thee from being king. Now, the next point I want to
make is we see Saul's confession, but it is an insincere confession. In verse 24, Saul said unto Samuel,
I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and
thy words because I feared the people. He's still excusing himself,
isn't he? I sinned, but because of the
people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon
my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.
And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee, for thou
hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected
thee from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned about to
go away, he laid hold, and Esau laid hold upon the skirt of his
mantle, and it rent. Someone pointed out a wonder
when, years later, when he was in the cave, and David and his
men were also in that cave, and David cut off part of his robe,
remember? But he didn't kill him. when
he was in his power, he would not touch the Lord's anointed. David wouldn't. I wonder if Saul
remembered that when he took ahold of Samuel's garment and
it tore, it rent, and it was a picture, wasn't it? It was
a message that the kingdom was taken from him. The Lord hath rent Samuel said
unto him, the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee
this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine that is better
than thou. And also the strength of Israel
will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should
repent. Then he said, I have sinned,
yet honor me now. I pray thee before the elders
of my people and before Israel and turn again with me that I
may worship the Lord thy God." You notice he said, I have sinned. He said it twice actually in
these verses. And I look back at men who lived
before Saul who also said that Pharaoh, he told Moses two times
at least, I have sinned. But it was insincere. I have
sinned. In other words, I want this calamity,
whatever it was at that particular time, the frogs or the lice or
the darkness, I've sinned. And many people, when they so-called
repent, they repent that they've been caught. They got found out. And then I think of Balaam. A
false prophet, he also confessed one time, I have sinned. But he continued a false prophet. Achan, Achan, remember him? Who took that wedge of silver
and the Babylonian's garment when they, when they came to
Jericho? God had said, prohibited them
from taking any of the spoil. And he took some and hid it in
his tent floor. And when he was found out, he
said, I have sinned. But he still was punished, wasn't
he? This man here, Saul. It seems to me, if you read those
verses and think about them a little more in private, it seems to
me that Saul is more concerned about keeping faith than he is
really repenting towards God. He just wanted to appear to the
people that everything's okay. Samuel, worship with me. Don't leave me here by myself.
You forgive me, Samuel. Well, he hadn't sinned against
Samuel. He'd sinned against the Lord,
as all sin is against God, isn't it? And one last thing in these last
few verses, Samuel turned to obey the command of the Lord,
and Saul also turned. Let's read these verse 31 through
35. So Samuel turned again after
Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord. Now it appears that he
worshiped alone, that Samuel did not engage with him in whatever
form of worship. He did. But Samuel turned again,
why did he turn? He turned again to destroy Agag. That was God's command, all the
Amalekites. Now, it says that, then says
Samuel, 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. You know, for a believer, death,
there's no bitterness in death. Not for a child of God. Oh, that's
a promotion. That's a promotion, isn't it,
when a believer is called home. I was reading the last words
that Brother Scott Richardson said in a pulpit there at church
where he'd pastored for 50 some years before he passed away that
following week. And he made this comment, and
it's ever so good, that we know more about what heaven isn't
than what heaven is. What it isn't, no more sorrow,
no more sin, no more tears, no more temptation. Oh, what a blessed thing it is
for a believer when we leave this life and go to be with the
Lord. I remember when my grandmother
passed away, I was in the room and I said to one of my uncles there
who was there as well, I said, you know, this is what she's
been living for all her life, to go home. I think sometimes
we have the wrong idea as God's children about death, don't you? We really believe what we say
we believe, and I do, don't you? He said, I give unto them eternal
life, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. I know it's
sad times when we lose someone, those of us who remain. Not for
the believer, not for the child of God. There's no bitterness
in death for God's children. That's all been taken away. The
Lord Jesus drained that cup dry, didn't he? That cup of bitterness.
May the Lord bless His word to all of us here tonight.