1 SAMUEL 15 PURSUE OBEDIENCE TO GOD2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 15 Pursue Obedience To God

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017. 1 Samuel chapter 15 is where we're going to be, continuing to look at the idea of pursuing the heart of God and what that means, and we're continuing to look at King Saul,

and recognizing that he is not the example to follow, but he is modeling for us how to not pursue God's heart. And we see that continued here in chapter 15, as he is given some clear instruction by God, but he completely disregards it to do what he wants to do and what he decides to do instead. And so what

We're continuing to consider this subject of pursuing God's heart, but learning what not to do as we look at Saul. We'll be looking at David in the coming weeks and see some great examples for us. We've looked at Samuel and we'll see him tonight. He continues to model for us what it looks like

to be in pursuit of God's heart, and that is to be in pursuit of obedience to God. And so this evening, we'll be looking at this in 1 Samuel chapter 15, and let's begin by reading verses 1 through 3. Verse 1 says, Samuel also said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."

As we begin to look at this chapter, we see right off the bat, there's a command, a very clear and specific command that's given to Saul, but it's a command that he chooses to disobey. And this evening, I want to encourage you to be obedient to God. And so I've titled the message, Pursue Obedience to God. Pursue Obedience to God. As we talk about pursuing God's heart, we've seen over and over again that

The heart of God, if you're going to pursue God's heart, that's going to be attached to your obedience to God and your pleasing God and doing the will of God. And we saw that made clear in chapter 13. We saw it in chapter 14. Paul makes reference to it in Acts chapter 13, I think it is, verse 22, that this is what it means to be a man or a woman after God's own heart, to be obedient to God.

and to live in a way that's pleasing to God. And so this evening, I want to encourage you to pursue obedience to God, following the model of what not to do in Saul, really. So he doesn't pursue. He kind of like walks along the path of obedience to God, but it's not the actual path of obedience to God. And so this idea of pursue is what I really want to emphasize here as we get started, that

That to pursue obedience to God is more than just kind of casually, you know, obeying God here and there when it's convenient, when you happen to know what God wants. But to be in this all-out pursuit, this all-out effort to seek to obey God and to live out the life that he's called you to live, that's what he's called us to do. And that is when we become men and women after God's own heart, when we are in pursuit of obeying God in our lives and in all that we do.

And so there's five points that we'll look at this evening from 1 Samuel chapter 15, talking about pursuing obedience to God. The first point is found in verses 1 through 3, and that is, heed the words of the Lord. Heed the words of the Lord. Tina, it looks like my devices are not cooperating, so you're going to have to run the slides tonight. Okay.

Verse 1 again says, So Saul is approached by Samuel. And Samuel says, Remember God sent me to anoint you? I'm the one that God used to set you up as the king. Now I have another command for you. And heed these words, Saul. Pay attention. Now at this point,

Saul has already heard that his kingdom is not going to last. God has already declared that because of his failures in chapter 14. But God's not done with Saul, even though he's already failed, even though his kingdom is not going to continue. There is still a responsibility that Saul has to lead the people well and to walk with God and be obedient to God. And so now Samuel calls him to heed the voice of the words of the Lord.

And what is this command? Well, he goes on in verse two, thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel. Now this takes us back to when the children of Israel were coming out of Egypt and heading out into the wilderness and then eventually heading into the promised land. While they're on this journey, there was a nation called Amalek.

And what they did was really terrible. They came up behind the children of Israel as they were marching in the wilderness. And they came up behind and attacked the people that were weak, the people that were defenseless, the people that were lagging behind. And they were coming up from behind and putting people to death and taking what they wanted. And so God

pronounced a judgment upon them. And he tells Israel, when you get into the land, don't forget what happened. When you get into the promised land and once you get settled, well, verse 19 of Deuteronomy chapter 25, Tina's going to show it on the screen right now. It says, therefore it shall be

And so God says,

said this. This is several hundred years back, more than 400 years ago, God said this. When you get settled in the land, this is going to be on the to-do list. You're going to need to come back and deal with Amalek for what they did and how they treated the children of Israel. And so now God is saying to Saul through Samuel, okay, now's the time. You guys are settled. You have a king. You're established in the land. Now it's time to deal with Amalek for what they did.

for the way that they attacked God

the stragglers, the people who are weak, the people who were defenseless. Pastor Dave Guzik says, God hates it when the strong take cruel advantage over the weak, especially when the weak are his people. So God promised to bring judgment against the Amalekites. And so now is that time for that judgment. Now is the time that that is going to take place. And so he gives them the instruction in verse three, now go and attack Amalek.

Now, getting to verse 3 becomes a little bit of a stumbling block for a lot of people.

Because how could God command this? For them to kill men and women, okay, maybe I can get it, but infant and nursing child, and then oxen and sheep and camel and donkey, why would God give this kind of instruction? And how could God command this? But I'm not going to get too much into that, but just ask you to think along with me about a couple examples. We can consider, first of all, Sodom and Gomorrah.

That is, when there are people who are in such a state of rebellion to God that although he reaches out to them, they will not respond. Well, God is able and he has the right to bring judgment upon anybody for their sinfulness. He has the right to bring judgment upon a people for their rebellion against God because he is God.

Now, in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, you have a divine judgment that is fire and brimstone rained down from heaven, you know, upon these two cities, this whole area, this region, Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, in that case, it was a similar type of destruction, both men and women, infant and nursing child and their animals, and everything was destroyed in this judgment from God.

You can also go back a little bit further to the flood and look at how the Lord did that, not just with a region, but with the whole world, that there was such a state of rebellion that, well, it necessitated this kind of judgment. And severe wickedness always prompts God's judgment.

Now, when the children of Israel were coming into the promised land, the land of Canaan, God announced it. He sent, you know, the messengers ahead. He warned the people ahead of time, and he gave the people of the land 400 years to repent and get right with God, but they persisted in their severe wickedness, and so...

When the children of Israel came into the promised land, God used the nation of Israel to wipe out the inhabitants of that promised land. And it's a little bit more difficult for us because it's an army doing the work, but it's not really different than the flood or the raining down of fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah. That is, God is able to use whatever instrument he chooses to implement the judgment that he wants to bring.

And so we may still wrestle with the whole concept of the judgment of God, but we need to recognize that, well, God is able to use the tools that he wants to use. And sometimes he might choose an army, and sometimes he might choose fire and brimstone. Sometimes he might choose a flood. That God can bring judgment when needed.

He wants to and how he wants to. And at the same time, I would point out that God has ways to rescue the righteous. And so as we look at this, we kind of wrestle with the whole concept a bit. But let me remind you of Lot. Well, first, even before Lot, as God told Abraham, I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

Abraham and God had a little bit of a discussion and Abraham negotiated a little bit with God and said, Lord, it's not right. I don't think that you would judge the righteous along with the wicked. So what if there's 50 righteous in the city? And God said, I would spare the city for 50 righteous. Okay, great. Well, what about if there's 40 righteous?

if there was just, you know, missing 10 people, that there was only 40 righteous, would you judge the city? I wouldn't judge the city for 40 people, he says. And then 30, and then 20, and then finally down to 10, and Abraham left it at 10. Where God said, if there was 10 righteous people in the city, I would not destroy it. Now,

That shows the severity of their wickedness against God. And similar, as we look at Amalek, we're dealing with a similar situation. And yet at the same time, still, even though there wasn't 10 righteous, what God did was he went and he got out the one that was righteous, Lot and his family.

And his wife didn't really come, you know, she wasn't really pursuing obedience to God. She was kind of half-hearted, so she didn't quite make it all the way out. But God gave Lot the opportunity to escape that judgment that was to come. And we don't have the whole backstory here in this account either. So if there were righteous in the nation of Amalek, though, I would say that God gave them an opportunity. God gave them a chance to respond and to remove themselves from this judgment that was to come.

But again, God can use whatever instrument he chooses. And also I would remind us that we're talking about God dealing with a nation. This is not personal instruction. So this isn't licensed for anybody to, you know, go and inflict judgments themselves personally. But in dealing with nations, there is the need for these kinds of situations. And so God gives this instruction in this case.

The commentator Adam Clark says it this way. He says, And so Adam Clark says, we don't know all the reasons.

And this could only be allowed under the absolute authority of God. And we rest in that, that this is God's command because of the issue of the severity of their sin. And we trust and we know that God does right and that his judgments are pure. And as we enter into eternity, even though we might not understand now, we will understand and we'll agree that was the right thing to do.

And so in this case, he chooses to use Saul and the nation of Israel to bring out this judgment upon the nation of Amalek. And as he gives this instruction, he tells Saul through Samuel the prophet, heed the words of the Lord. There in verse one, heed the voice of the words of the Lord.

And as we begin talking about this idea of pursuing obedience to God, I think it's important to reflect on and appropriate that this is a difficult command for us to wrestle with because this is part of the reality that you and I will face as believers in Jesus Christ, that if you're going to pursue obedience to God, you need to understand right off the bat, God is going to ask you to do hard things and God is going to ask you to do things that you disagree with.

And God is going to ask you to do things that you don't understand why he wants you to do them. He's going to ask you to do things that you don't like to do. He's going to ask me to do things I don't want to do. He is going to challenge us in obedience. That obedience to God is not going to be, oh yeah, no brainer, that's easy, I'll always do that. But obedience to God is always going to require faith and trust and

And cause us to step beyond what we know and understand and can see and trust God and do what he says, even when we don't understand and can't see and don't like it. And it's hard to do that. That is what obedience to God is all about because God's ways are higher than our ways.

And so we're not gonna understand all the time. We're not gonna see the reasons all of the time, but the instruction is still the same. Heed the words of the Lord. Do what God says, even when you don't understand and even when you don't agree.

Well, moving on to verses four through 15, now we have point number two, and that is partial obedience is disobedience. Verse four says, so Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Taim, 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. So Saul gets this instruction and then he starts out pretty well.

He gathers together a pretty good-sized army. There's 200,000 foot soldiers. That's a pretty decent-sized army. 10,000 men of Judah are gathered there with them. And he makes his way to the city of Amalek, and he begins to prepare for battle. He lays in wait in the valley. But then check out verse 6. It says, Then Saul said to the Kenites,

So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

So similar to God giving Lot an opportunity to escape Sodom and Gomorrah, here Saul gives the Kenites opportunity. Now the Kenites were another people group that were in that southern region where the Amalekites were, but they were a separate group of people. But although, you know, they kind of mingled together, they lived in the same region. And so Saul says, you know, remove yourselves, step away so that you're not caught up in the midst of this battle.

And so in that, there's some mercy being shown. And it doesn't give us this directly that we know that this was approved by God, but likely it was that this was, you know, part of the people that were kind and helpful to the nation of Israel, as opposed to the Amalekites who came up behind them and attacked them. Verse seven, and Saul attacked the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to shore, which is east of Egypt.

He also took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. And so again, so far, it sounds pretty good. You know, they're going forward. They begin the attack and it's a pretty massive attack as he talks about Havilah all the way to Shur, to the east of Egypt. He's attacking the Amalekites there in that whole southern region below Israel. But then it tells us in verse eight that he took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive.

Now, God's instruction was very clear, right? Back in verse, well, verses one through three, we saw to utterly destroy, it's in verse three, go attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have. But what we see happen here is he takes King Agag alive. Now, it also says in verse eight, though, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. And so,

They did utterly destroy, except for they didn't utterly destroy. It was a complete destruction, except for it wasn't a complete destruction. You see this, where we're going with this, that it's obedience. They went to war, and they mostly did what God said to do, except for...

Well, they made some exceptions. In verse 9, it clarifies those a little bit. It says, And so you can see they went to battle, just like God told them to. They utterly destroyed, just like

God told them to when they agreed with what God said. Everything that was despised and worthless, everything that they looked at and said, you know what? I agree. That needs to be destroyed, God. You're right. They went ahead and destroyed that. But then notice what it says in verse 9. All that was good. The best of the sheep, the ox and the fowlings, the lambs, and all that was good. The things that they looked at and said, well, that's really good. Well, we can't destroy that. And so where they disagreed with God, they didn't obey.

Where they thought, you know, God, that doesn't seem to fit right. I don't think that you understand this completely. I mean, have you seen this sheep? This is a really nice looking sheep. I mean, we got to hold on to this. This is a good sheep. And so they spared that sheep. They disobeyed God when they didn't agree. And let me say this very clearly. If you only obey God when you agree with him,

You're doing it wrong. That's disobedience. That's partial obedience, which is not actual obedience at all. It is disobedience. And notice what it says. They were unwilling. They were unwilling. They knew what God had said. They knew what God wanted, but they were not willing to do what God said, to utterly destroy the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs.

God told them, go utterly destroy, and they were not willing to do that. They were willing to go to a certain point. Okay, God, we'll obey you to a certain point, to the things that we can agree upon. But the things we can't agree upon, well, we're not going to do that. Now, I think it's a little bit interesting to consider, and again, I'm not going to get into this in great detail, but

You know, going back to verse 3 and how we might wrestle with, you know, really we have to destroy all the people, including the women and the children? I mean, that seems pretty severe. They didn't object to that. They didn't spare the women and the children. They spared the livestock. They spared the material goods. They spared the things that they could profit from and benefit from.

you know, sometimes when we make loud objections over, you know, what we think of what God has said or what God has done, um, there's more going on behind the scenes in our own hearts than, you know, we were pretending to be so righteous and, and to care and, and to be more loving and compassionate than God. But there's many times other things going on in our hearts that are not really having to do with compassion and love for people. Uh,

God is righteous. He is right. And so his commands are to be obeyed. And partial obedience to those commands is disobedience. And even to the point that you could say 95% obedience is disobedience. 99% obedience is disobedience. Notice how God feels about this 95%, let's call it. They killed all the Amalekites except for one King Agag.

And they killed all the flocks except for some of the best of the livestock. So we'll call that 95% obedience. Here's what God says in verse 10. Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And I grieved Samuel and he cried out to the Lord all night. The word of the Lord comes in response to this

95% obedience. And he says, I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king. How does God feel about 95% obedience? Not good. He says, this is something to greatly regret, that I greatly regret, he says. Now regret is...

it's a word that we can relate to and understand. It's not exactly accurate in describing God, but God is seeking to convey the emotion that he's experiencing as Saul is in the midst of this disobedience. And it's important to understand and recognize that God is not some distant being that is not at all affected by what we do and how we live and how obedient we are. But that God actually feels disobedience.

He grieves at our disobedience. He grieves. It hurts. So you and I know the feeling of regret. Now, I'm sure there's things that you've done that you regret. Anybody want to volunteer and share some examples? No, I'm just kidding. But you know that feeling, right? And how terrible of a feeling that is. And then to greatly regret, you know, it's just like, oh, it hurts inside. And God's expressing that here.

It's not that he's saying he didn't know this was going to happen. It's not that he's saying, you know, I wasn't going to make Saul king if I would have known this. But he's saying, even though I knew this, but it still hurts to see this take place. It still hurts to see this happen. I greatly regret. And again, this is why it's so important that we talk about pursuing obedience to God.

That we need to be all out and give ourselves wholly that I want to be obedient to God. I want to do what God wants. I want to fulfill God's will. Because anything less than that will wind up producing this regret in God. I greatly regret that I've set up Saul as king, for he's turned back from following me.

What does God call 95% obedience? God calls it turning back from following him. There is not this, you know, well, I get, you know, good points for mostly going the right direction. What God calls us to is an all-out, complete, and total obedience, not mostly obedient. And less than fully obedient, God calls it turning back from following him.

He says, he's not performed my commandments. Now I could see Saul arguing and maybe some of us would argue along with Saul. No, no. I mean, he did most of it. I mean, come on, that's got to count for something. But God says it doesn't count. Partial obedience is disobedience.

And it grieved the Lord. It grieved Samuel as well. And he cried out to the Lord all night long. Now, I also think it's important to point out that this is not just a one-time incident of disobedience, but this continues the pattern of Saul's life, that he has been continuing to make these choices.

And so as God says, you know, he's turned back from following me. It's not just he blew it once, that's it. He never gets a chance again. It's just, this is, well, one more time that he has disobeyed me and disregarded my commandments. This is one more time. This is, in a sense, the last straw that he has chosen to disobey. Verse 12. So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel saying, Saul went to Carmel.

And indeed, he set up a monument for himself and he has gone on around, passed by and gone down to Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Saul and Saul said to him, blessed are you of the Lord. I have performed the commandments of the Lord. Now we just saw how God feels about this, right? He greatly regrets and Samuel's up all night grieving and crying out to God. How does Saul feel about this whole situation? Oh man, he is just elated. He is so happy.

He thinks this is the best thing that's ever happened in his whole reign. He goes to Carmel. It's nearby his hometown. He goes there and he sets up a monument for himself. And then he throws himself a parade. It says he's gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal. You know what that describes? That's a parade. He's like, you know, doing the tour, making the rounds. Like, hey, look what we did. You know, and I...

Took a picture here of my great monument that I've set up, you know, here in Carmel. And, you know, let's just celebrate and rejoice at the awesomeness that is Saul. You know, that's, it's a parade for Saul. It's a monument for Saul. He is just overwhelmed with how awesome he is. Sets up a monument for himself and throws a parade for himself.

And then as he greets Samuel, he says, oh, blessed are you, Samuel. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Saul here is absolutely convinced he has been obedient to God. He's like just rewarding himself, congratulating himself, really good job on doing what God wanted, Saul. Yes, patting himself on the back, completely missing what it is that God actually wanted from him. Completely missing the point, completely missing God's heart. And notice that.

He's fully convinced. He's got it right on. And he's completely missing the heart of God. And again, as we talk about pursuing God's heart, that's why the idea of the pursuit is so important because it is so easy for us to find ourselves in a similar state where we are congratulating ourselves at how awesome Christians we are. And yet we can be in that same moment completely missing the heart of God.

And being clueless about really how badly we're missing the mark and how messed up we actually are. That we need to be pursuing, chasing, seeking, thirsting, hungering for the heart of God, for the walk with God, to know God, to hear from God so that we can keep ourselves in a place that is pleasing to God and obedience to God.

But Saul here is completely delusional. Oh, I've obeyed the command of God. And so Samuel begins to challenge him in verse 14. Samuel said, what then is the bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Oh, you've been absolutely obedient. You've done the command of the Lord. Well, let me ask you a question, Saul. How come I hear sheep? That's not normally what you hear, right?

on a battlefield. How come I hear sheep and the oxen lowing? Why is it that I hear these animals? If you've been obedient to the Lord. Verse 15, Saul said, Now, I don't know if backpedaling was a thing back then because they didn't have bicycles, but

Here's Saul, like, oh, oh, oh, wait. Well, yeah, we did. I obeyed the Lord, but okay. So here's what happened. They, who's he talking about? He's looking at all the soldiers. He's saying, you see those guys? Oh yeah, those are scoundrels, Samuel. I tried to obey the Lord, but they brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen. So first he goes on blaming the people. Now this is not the first time Saul has done this. You remember just...

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at Saul blaming Samuel. Samuel, you were late. That's why I had to disobey God and offer the sacrifice. And even though I wasn't supposed to, because you were late, it's your fault. And so he continues to have that same pattern that, oh, it's the people's fault. They did this. They spared the best of the sheep, but...

Classic Saul. Again, we've seen this over the past couple weeks. Now he makes it sound spiritual. So to try to kind of make up for not being fully obedient. He says they spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God. Oh, Samuel, see what you don't understand is I really wanted to obey, but they didn't want to. But we went ahead and kept the best so that we could worship God.

We really want to worship God. And so we had to keep these animals so that we could worship God with them. And again, he's delusional here. He's convinced, yes, I could worship God better in being disobedient to God. If I disregard what God says, then I could worship God better. And we are so good at

That similar type of thing that we shroud our disobedience with spiritual language and attached to it, you know, spiritual sounding reasons. Sounds great. Oh, really great. Yeah, good job. You can sacrifice better to the Lord now. But that's not what God desires. That's not the way that God sees it. The rest we utterly destroyed. But again, it's partial obedience.

Pastor David Guzik says, pride and disobedience make us blind or deaf. He didn't even hear the animals. To our sin. What was completely obvious to Samuel was invisible to Saul. He says, we all have blind spots of sin in our lives. And we need to constantly ask God to show them to us. And I think this is important for us to consider. None of us are above the example here of Saul. That we all really need to be on guard.

going in this check of our hearts, in this check of ourselves. Now it's interesting, David who comes after Saul is declared by God to be a man after God's own heart. And notice what David wrote in Psalm 139. He says, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way understanding or way everlasting. Lead me in the everlasting way.

Lord, you search my heart. I don't know my own heart. You search my heart. You show me where I'm out of line. You show me what needs to be corrected. And then lead me out of that. Lead me away from that pattern of sin.

Because David was a man who pursued the heart of God. And so he had this prayer, but Saul was convinced he already was obedient. He was convinced he had it all together and he got to choose when he obeyed God and when he didn't. But partial obedience is disobedience. And again, I'll say, if you only obey God when you agree with him, you're doing it wrong. That's not obedience. That is something that we need to check in our hearts.

We need to allow God to speak to us. Are there areas of our lives that need to change? Well, moving on to verses 16 through 23, we have point number three, and that is, there is no good reason to disobey the Lord. Verse 16, then Samuel said to Saul, be quiet, and I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night. And he said to him, speak on.

I like this. Samuel says to Saul, be quiet. I kind of get the impression, it's not directly stated, so it's a little bit of a speculation here, but I get the impression that Saul would have just kept talking. And Samuel interrupts and says, be quiet. Be quiet.

I don't know if you've ever got tired of someone, you know, just going on and on, justifying themselves about why, you know, what they did was okay. But that's kind of what I see happening here, that Saul's prepared, you know, he's going to keep on talking about how wonderful he is and why it's okay he did what he did. And Samuel interrupts and says, be quiet. Let me tell you what God says.

I don't want to hear about what you say. Let me tell you what God says. Verse 17. So Samuel said, when you were little in your own eyes, were you not the head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Now the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?

Why did you swoop down on the spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord? Samuel tells Saul, here's what God said. Think about, it's okay, guys. It's the kids, they have the water games for the VBS, yeah. Richard was like really concerned. He was like pulling out his arms and everything. He was ready to go rumble for whatever was happening over there. But God takes Samuel to the beginning and says, remember when you were little in your own eyes? Now think about something along with me here.

God is speaking in past tense. Remember when you were little in your own eyes? Saul, there used to be a time where you had some humility and you were little in your own eyes, but God's speaking about it in past tense. That's not the case anymore. As demonstrated by the monument, as demonstrated by the, you know, main street parade that you threw for yourself. When you were little, you're not anymore. Now you're big in your own eyes.

He's puffed up in pride. He's proud of himself. He's convinced he's right. And the problem with that is, well, when you're big in your own eyes, that means that the Lord is little in your eyes. It's always got to be the Lord who's big in your eyes. That is, he comes first. Again, that's the whole idea of pursuing God's heart and pursuing obedience to him, that it's his thoughts that matter. It's his ways that matter. It's what he says that matters.

When you were little in your own eyes, God says, look, I made you the king of all the tribes of Israel and I anointed you as king. But now you've become big in your own eyes. And so when I sent you on a mission, you decided to do what you wanted to do. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? He says, why did you swoop down on the spoil? Notice the word that God uses. Now Saul described it as sacrifices. Look at these great sacrifices for God. God says, why did you swoop on the spoil?

I know the motives of your heart. I know what's going on in your hearts, guys. You're after the things that you can benefit from and the things that you want. This isn't for me that you did this. No, instead he says you did evil in the sight of the Lord. You did evil. Again, how does God feel about partial obedience? God calls it evil.

This is important. We need to recognize. We don't get to pick and choose what we obey from God and what we don't obey and how much of what he, you know, tells us we obey that. Well, okay, love my wife. Okay, I'll mostly love my wife. Or forgive, I'll mostly forgive. Or, you know, whatever the case may be, as we consider God's instruction to us, there's not the

The freedom to just, you know, choose what you want to obey. And then the things that you choose to obey, you know, just kind of get it mostly at least 50%, you know, and you're good. You know, what God says is you give it less than your all to obey me. You give it less than your all. That's evil. That's wrong. That's turning your back. And you may comfort yourself and feel good about yourself because you got most of the way there. But God says, I expect you to get all the way there.

I expect you to pursue obedience to me. Verse 20, Saul said to Samuel, but I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and gone on the mission which the Lord sent me and have brought back Agag, king of Amalek. I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. Again, Saul here is exposing the delusions that he has of himself. He is convinced, I have obeyed.

What do you mean I haven't obeyed? I have obeyed. And I kind of see him patting a little bit and throwing a fit here. That's why I'm demonstrating that. But we don't know exactly how he was behaving. But he says, look, I went on the mission the Lord set me on. And I brought back king of Amalek. And I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. It's amazing how we're able to use God's actual words, but mean something different.

I did utterly destroy the Amalekites and I brought back King Agag. Well, no, if you utterly destroyed the Amalekites, there would be nobody to bring back. So you didn't obey, but he's convinced and still working on convincing Samuel that he has obeyed.

but also still not taking the blame for the ownership for what happened in verse 21. But the people took of the plunder, the sheep, the ox, and the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. The people took of the plunder. Again, blaming the people. They're the ones who took the sheep and the ox and the best things. And notice he says,

He incriminates his self here. He says, which should have been utterly destroyed. He knows this isn't, he can't plead ignorance. I didn't know that meant everything had to be destroyed. He says, oh yeah, they were supposed to be destroyed, but the people took them. But we have a good reason. We took them so that we could sacrifice to the Lord your God. Again, making the disobedience sound good, sound spiritual, sound like this is for God. This is a good thing, but it's evil.

It's partial obedience. And there's no good reason. There's no good reason that Saul could say, well, this is so we can make a really strong donation to the temple or tabernacle, right? This is so we could do this for the Lord or do that for the Lord. There's no good reason that he could offer to say, this is why it was worth it and the right thing to do to disobey God and not utterly destroy the Amalekites.

God is making that very clear. Verse 22. So Samuel said, "'Has 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 heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as the iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king.'"

So Samuel tells Saul, listen, God doesn't want your sacrifices. He wants your obedience first. Sacrifices were part of the law. They were part of what God commanded and instructed, and they are pleasing to the Lord, but that's not the priority. And the issue that Saul had, which many of us have many times, is we try to compensate God for our disobedience by sacrificing more. God and Samuel are saying here, that doesn't work.

God doesn't accept that. That doesn't make up for your disobedience. And so to disobey God so that you can give more to God, that doesn't work. That's not obedience. That's not pleasing to God. That's not a good reason to disobey the Lord. Pastor Dave Guzik puts it this way. One could make a thousand sacrifices unto God, work a thousand hours for God's service, or give millions of dollars to his work.

But all of those sacrifices mean little if there is not a surrendered heart to God shown by simple obedience. What God wants is our hearts. And when God has our heart, it's demonstrated with simple obedience.

not rationalizing why we can't obey, why we didn't obey, why we did what we wanted to do, why God's way wasn't the right way, not explaining away, not spiritualizing, not trying to say, well, it's for God that I'm disobeying God. Simple obedience. This is what God says. This is what God called me to. This is what God told me to do. And so that is what I did. That is what I'm going to do. Simple obedience.

is what happens when our heart is surrendered to God. We just obey. And there's no haggling or negotiating. There's no like, you know, explaining and long explanations. And someone has to interrupt and say, be quiet. You know, let me tell you what God says. No, no, it's just, this is what God told me. This is what God has said. This is what God called me to. It's simple obedience that demonstrates that our heart is surrendered to God. And there's no good reason to disobey the Lord.

There's no good reason for there to not be simple obedience in our lives. There's no reason that makes it worth it. There's no reason that God says, okay, well, it's okay then in that case, since you make such a good point. Now he knows the points and he knows they don't work and he knows they're not valid. There's no good reason to disobey the Lord. Moving on to point number four, found in verses 24 through 31. Verse 24 says, oh, sorry, point four is disobedience has consequences. Verse 24, then Saul said to Samuel,

I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord. Now, you look at verse 24 and 25, and you can say, wow, okay, sounds pretty good. Now, maybe some repentance is happening, right? I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord. But

Be careful. A little bit wary of the words because the words are easy to say. And it's clearly demonstrated as you continue to look at Saul's example here. He doesn't mean these words. He knows the right words to say. And that's a dangerous place for all of us to be. And we're all in that place. We know the right words to say. But if it doesn't actually reflect the condition of our heart, then it doesn't mean anything. This sounds good, but it's not real words.

The commentator Thomas Constable puts it this way. He says, Saul's confession was superficial. The Hebrew word translated transgressed means overlooked. Saul only admitted that he had overlooked some small and relatively unimportant part of what God had commanded, what God called rebellion, Saul called an oversight. He's kind of watering this down and saying, oh, I just kind of overlooked. I didn't catch that. It's like a typo, right? It's no big deal, God. I mean, it's just a typo.

We just spared a few of the flocks and sheep. I kind of didn't, you know, catch it in time. I apologize for not catching it in time. But again, the whole point here is that he's not in pursuit of God's heart. He knew the truth. He knew the reality. He just didn't bother to

to fully obey. As we're going through the Bible in three years, we read today in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 about repentance. And I always love this passage because it demonstrates so clearly what real repentance looks like. Sometimes we wonder, you know, can we really tell if I'm repentant or if someone is repentant? And

Paul says, yeah. In 2 Corinthians chapter 7, he talks about how godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation. And in verse 11, he says, for observe this very thing. Talking to the Corinthians, he says that you sorrowed in a godly manner.

And how do we know that? He says, what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication, in all things you proved yourself to be clear in this matter. Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 7, 11, that this godly sorrow, this genuine repentance produces this passion, this diligence to get right with God, to make things right.

The watering down, oh yeah, it was a little oversight. I apologize about that. I'm sorry about that. That's not repentance. That's not godly sorrow. But what godly sorrow produces is a fire within to get right, to make things right, to set things right. That's real sorrow. It's demonstrated repentance. And so Saul here is saying the words, but there's no fire. There's no fervor. There's no diligence to get right with God.

There's just more words and more blaming and more excuses. In verse 24, he says, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, on the one hand, we can all understand that. And we know that the fear of man is a snare, right? The Proverbs tells us that there is that issue. And we know what that's like, that kind of peer pressure. But come on, Saul, you feared the people. Remember last chapter? He was ready to kill his own son for eating honey, right? This...

Saul, you're just making excuses. You're just trying to get out of being guilty of this, but it doesn't work. What do you mean you feared the people? You're going to defy the people and kill your own son because he broke your word. You've broken God's word and you take it less seriously than your own word. You're willing to fight the people and to say, all right, whoever did this, whoever broke my word, you're going to die, he says to the people. But now you're

as you break god's word you're like oh the people were scary he's just trying to get away and not take ownership this isn't real repentance verse 26 but samuel said to saul i will not return with you for you have rejected the word of the lord and the lord has rejected you from being king over israel he says oh please come come with me to sacrifice i feel really bad about what i did

Samuel says, no, you have rejected. Notice what he says. He's making it very clear. You have rejected. It wasn't an oversight. You didn't ask. You have rejected. You knew what was right. You knew what was wrong. You chose what was wrong. You've rejected the word of the Lord. And so God has rejected you from being king over Israel. There's consequences now, Saul. Now you're really going to experience choosing to obey yourself instead of God is going to bring some ramifications in your life. Verse 27 says,

So Samuel needed a good illustration to help Saul see what was going on. And so as he walked away, Saul grabs his robe. Please, no, don't leave me. Now,

Why is he, is this the fire? Is this the fervency? Now he's repenting? Well, no, we'll see just in a second. It's not. But he grabs hold and it actually tears Samuel's garment. And Samuel says, perfect. I needed a good illustration. And the same way that you've torn this from me, God has torn the kingdom of Israel from you. Your heart is not repentant and you're going to face the consequences for your disobedience to God.

In verse 30, he says, then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may worship the Lord your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul worshiped the Lord. Now notice verse three, again, he says, I've sinned. And it's the words that look good, that sound right. But notice what he's asking for. He says, yet honor me now.

Oh man, I'm so embarrassed to go back to the people without you, Samuel. I'm so embarrassed. He says, before the elders of my people and before Israel, come back with me. Help me save face. Even though I've blown it so bad, I want to go worship the Lord. So honor me, right? I mean, just think about those words, right? They just, they don't work very well together. His heart is not repentant. He's disobedient. And now God says he's going to face the consequences.

Well, finishing up in verses 32 through 35, we have point number five, and that is disobedience hurts God and his people. In verse 32, then Samuel said, bring Agag, king of the Amalekites, here to me. So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past. But Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

And so Saul being unwilling to carry out the judgment of God, Samuel says, okay, I will fulfill the will of God. And so he hacked him to pieces. Notice it says before the Lord,

This is not just, you know, vengeance, not him taking things into his own hand. This is him finishing what God called them to do and set them out to do. And so he brings forth the judgment of God in the way that God had commanded them. And that's important to note that when God gives us instruction, he gives us commands. Well, God is going to accomplish his will.

He is going to bring about what he wants. And it's best for us if we participate willingly and, you know, be part of that process. But even if we refuse and choose and, oh no, I think this is a better way, that's not gonna get us around what it is that God wants to do. God will still accomplish his purpose and he might use a prophet to do that. Verse 34, then Samuel went to Ramah and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death.

Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. And so now they go their separate ways. Samuel goes to Ramah, which was his hometown. Saul goes up to Gibeah, which was his hometown. And they're not far away. They're about 10 miles apart, but they don't see each other anymore. Now, it's not like, you know, the end of Saul's kingdom is in like two years. It's in, I think, about 15 years or so that, uh,

Saul is finally killed. And so his kingdom still lasts for a little bit, but it's not the kingdom of God. It's not, you know, with Samuel interacting with him and him having a relationship with the Lord, it's just Saul running his own kingdom. And so they don't see each other anymore. And notice what it says. Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Again, this idea of regret, God is expressing his emotion.

over what it's like for him when his people, when his children are disobedient. When we don't pursue obedience to God, it hurts. It hurts. Not because God needs our obedience, but it hurts because God loves us. It's not just so much that God's like disrespected, you know, it's like, you know, I feel so disrespected. I can't believe you treated me that way. That's not what's happening here.

God loves us so much that when we're involved in disobedience, now all disobedience is to our own detriment and all obedience is for our good. God seeing the eternal has the right perspective. He knows what's best for us. That's why he gives us commands. So all disobedience to those commands of God are hurtful to us and to the people around us. And God seeing the devastation of our disobedience hurts us.

This is where that emotion comes from. Not because, oh, you know, how dare you treat me that way? I mean, although, how dare you treat him that way? But also at the same time, it's not like this personal, like, you know, he's pouting. It's for us that he hurts because he loves us so much. And the disobedience, what it does to us, what it does to the people around us, it hurts. It causes pain. It causes devastation. And so God is grieved.

And Samuel is grieved. He mourns for Saul. And in this, Samuel continues to set a good example for us for modeling the pursuit of God's heart. Pastor Dave Guzik says, Samuel shows that he has God's heart. It hurt God to reject Saul and it hurt God's prophet to see him rejected. We are close to God's heart when the things that grieve him, grieve us. And the things that please God, please us. When we're pursuing God's heart, we will grieve God.

when he grieves. We will rejoice when he rejoices because we're pursuing his heart. When we are pursuing obedience to God, we're pursuing the heart of God. We will grieve over what he grieves over and we will rejoice over what he rejoices over. And anything else less than that, disobedience hurts God. It hurts his people and that's why he grieves. That's why we grieve when we see that take place.

And so this evening, I want to encourage you and challenge you to pursue obedience to God. Not partially, not slightly, not a little bit, not mostly, not 95%, but I would ask you to consider, are you involved in an all-out pursuit that it is the most important thing in your life that you obey God? Has that been the most important thing to you today that you would be pleasing to God? That's the priority that it needs to have in our lives and in our hearts.

And it's going to be challenging because, well, what God calls us to do is not going to be our ways. But if you only obey God when you agree with him, you're not doing it right. That's disobedience. Pursue obedience to God. Hear his words and follow him. Heed the words of the Lord, he told Saul. If you just do it partially, that's disobedience. If you've got all kinds of good reasons why you didn't obey, there's actually no good reasons.

You're going to experience consequences for that disobedience, and it's going to hurt God. It's going to hurt his people. So we have every reason. We have great incentive here right in front of us in the example of Saul to pursue the heart of God, to get up and to engage and to work hard at knowing God and walking with him. I want to close with one last quote from Dave Guzik, and Kim's going to come up and lead us in a couple worship songs.

Dave Guzik says, Saul was full of fire and zeal when it came to his own will, but not when it came to the will of God. He was full of fire and zeal. Last week when we saw, don't eat anybody, you know, nobody eat anything until my vengeance is accomplished on my enemies, Saul said, right? All right, who ate of the honey? You know, who ate? Okay, let's put him to death. I mean, full of fire and zeal when it was what he wanted. But when it was what God wanted, he didn't have that fire. Do you have the fire?

Are you passionate? Are you zealous about what God wants and what God desires? As we close in this time of worship, that's what I would ask you to consider. And I would ask you to seek the Lord. And like David, Lord, search my heart. And if there's anything that's not right, if there's anything that's not of you, I want to get it right. I want to pursue you. I want to know you. We need to have that fire. And so let's take this time to seek God, to call out to God and to

Invite him to show us and lead us in the way everlasting, to set us on fire for him, to know him, to love him, to walk with him the way that he's called us to.

And as usual, as we close in this time of worship, if the Lord prompts your heart and you wanna pray with somebody around you or encourage somebody around you or ask for prayer or whatever kind of conversation or discussion you might need to go, feel free during this time of worship to go minister to one another also, pray for one another, that we might have this fire, that we might be stirred up to pursue obedience to God. Not casual, you know, kind of when it's convenient.

But an all-out, 100%, sirens blaring, you know, pedal to the metal pursuit. Lord, I want to know you and I want to follow you. Let's worship the Lord and allow him to stir up our hearts tonight. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.