1 Samuel 15

Amen. Good to be with y'all. I want to thank y

'all for having us in Yel's house, our house,

your house. We appreciate the great smiles and

the welcome and warm fellowship and reception

that y'all have given us and thanking you

Philip for having us over and the good time we

'll have

with the Lord and his blessing. So let's pray.

Let's ask the Lord to open up his word to us

this morning and give us great clarity on what

is being preached so that our lives can become

more in conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Father, we thank you for this time. Father,

you know Lord that none of us are

professionals, especially me. We're not

polished. We're rough

and raw in many ways. Yet Father, that you

have given us a commission, a responsibility

to speak your word. And as it says in 1 Peter

4, when we speak, we're to speak as the or

acles of you.

So I pray, Father the Lord, that you would

help me to be your ambassador and spokesman

at this time. Father, you would encourage the

saints that Christ would be glorified and magn

ified.

Father, that you would put me into the shadows

. It's not about me. This is about you.

We love you, Father. We thank you and we bless

you. Of course, in your great name we pray.

Amen.

I want you to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 15.

The Old Testament has been given to us for our

instruction. It says in Romans chapter 15.

It's also provides many, many examples for us

to follow and many examples to avoid.

There are such a thing as a negative example.

And God has them in Scripture for us to take

notice of

and to avoid. 1 Samuel chapter 15 is such an

example.

One of the things that you learn as you get

older, I'm older. I had a surprise party for

me not too

long ago here. You learn the value of what it

means to be able to hear. Sometimes you have

hearing

aids and you've got to get, you know, things

to help you along the way. You appreciate

preachers who

preach slowly and distinctly and that you can

follow. My older days, I would be very, very

78

speed, like a record and speak fast and go

back and listen to sermons even 10 years ago.

And I'm

just, I mean, the meter's flying and I'm

thinking, I'm trying to digest what I just

heard and I'm

three thoughts ahead and I'm playing catch up.

You also learn that many things get lost in

translation. And my wife says, Hey, have you

seen Norm's new boat? And I'm thinking, I don

't want a

root beer float. And so you learn that many

times what you hear isn't really what was said

. It was

something else and you need to go back and ret

read and get the conversation out again. And it

can

be quite frustrating for the speaker because

you almost guarantee yourself repeating

everything you're

going to say to someone who is hard of hearing

. Now, sometimes that hard of hearing isn't

lost

in translation because of physical limitations

. Many times it's deliberate. It's not so much

lost

in translation as it's just lost in stubborn

ness. I don't want to hear. I don't want to

listen.

We're going to look at a man in first Samuel

chapter 15 who's got a problem with hearing.

Jesus tells us in Luke chapter eight when he

gives the parable of the sower, he says,

take care how you listen. Now, you would think

all of this is going to be about listening,

but in reality, the theme of what you're going

to find in first Samuel 15,

and this is the title of the message, is the

peril of partial obedience.

Because Samuel, I mean, Saul, who's going to

be instructed by Samuel the prophet is given

some

directives that he needs to follow. And in

most part, he does. And so when we look at

this guy,

as we read through the narrative and try to

understand the flow of the storyline,

you're going to find many things that's going

to jump out that I want you to be thinking of

going,

boy, he shouldn't have done that. Whoa, now

that's a pitfall. Oh, look, he went into the

ditch when

it came to that. And all of those little

aspects of Saul's inability to listen

imperils his kingdom because of partial

obedience. Nobody is going to be in the

kingdom of heaven

who obeys partially. Well, Paul washer sort of

set the table for me. Didn't he this morning

in Matthew chapter seven? Lord, Lord, right?

And they come into his presence as listeners.

And Jesus is going to say, "Depart from you,

you who practice lawlessness." Now,

he doesn't say you who didn't cast out demons

is good enough. Or you who didn't do the

miracles,

you know, great A. You should have done them

better. And so you can't come in because you

're

just not a great healer. It's none of their

ministries. And all these guys always talk

about their ministries. We did this in your

name. We said this about you called you Lord,

Lord. But at the end of the day, did you obey?

Because remember, Jesus says to his disciples,

"He who loves me will obey me." When you

believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

and it could be a mustard seed of faith, let

me tell you what the flip side of that coin is

when it comes to obedience, because all faith

is obedience. And all obedience is faith. You

don't

have any saving faith without obedience. And

you don't have any true obedience

that doesn't have saving faith in it. There is

no partial obedience when you're believing in

God.

When you cast yourself on Christ, no partial

obedience. It's full obedience.

Because you've done basically what he says to

do, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

and thou shalt be saved." Okay, I'm going to

believe on Christ full of obedience.

Anyway, to give you a little lay of the land

in 1 Samuel chapter 15, before we kind of get

into the narrative itself, it's around 1026 BC

. Israel has sinned against the Lord in the

earlier

chapters of Samuel by asking for a king. They

want to be like the rest of the nations around

them.

The Ammonites got a king, the Mobiles got a

king. I mean, everybody around them has kings.

And when they have to go into battle, they don

't know who they're going to be rallying around

.

Read the book of Judges. When you read the

book of Judges, every single judge is a misfit

.

He's not some George Patton on the battlefield

.

You've got a guy like Gideon who needs to work

off of fleeces to be able to know if God's

even

with him. And you got another guy, Jephthah,

who's a half-breed, who makes vows and sends

his daughter

off to be worker in the temple for the rest of

her life. I don't think she was killed

as a sacrifice. But nevertheless, you see a

lot of brashness and rash decision-making

things that

people who are flawed. Now, why would God want

to work through people like that?

You need to ask yourself that question. That's

a Christian, right? Why does God work

through you, right? Because my power is

perfected in weakness. And the book of Judges

is all about

misfits. Women aren't supposed to win battles,

right? You see in the book of Judges, but here

's

this woman there. And he says, "Yeah, there it

is, misfit." And so whether you have Samson

over here,

from the tribe of Dan, and his one-man army

here, and he's got all kinds of flaws and

problems,

when it comes to Samuel, the people are tired

of that. They don't know who to follow,

who's going to be rising up next. We want one

guy that we can hang our hat on and rally

around.

And God already told the people back in the

time of Moses, they're going to ask for a king

. And

when they do, they'll be rejecting me. Anyway,

they ask for a king. And Samuel gives them a

king

that God says, "This is the guy I want, Saul,

head and shoulders taller than anybody else."

I mean, he's a man's man, right? Tribe of

Benjamin. And why Benjamin? Because it was so

decimated in

the book of Judges. Benjamin didn't come to

some of the wars that they had to fight

against the

Midianites. And so as a consequence of that,

the tribes turned on Benjamin and attacked

Benjamin,

and they were decimated. And God says, "I want

that tribe where the king is going to come

from."

Kind of making a point. But also, if you knew

the prophecies in the book of Genesis,

they knew that God's king that was going to

come was going to eventually come from the

tribe of

Judah. And some of this knowledge plays into

our narrative in 1st Samuel, chapter 15.

Samuel comes on the scene and Saul comes on

the scene. Samuel anoints him because, I mean,

he's looking for donkeys that his father sent

him on an errand to run and all kind of stuff.

The Holy Spirit falls on him. It says in

chapter 10, he's with the prophets. He seems

to be prophesying.

And when he goes into battle, he kind of, he,

you know, he wins some of these battles. But

when

you get into chapter 13, there seems to be a

problem with Saul. All of a sudden, he's at

McMash Pass, the first battle of bull runs, so

to say, for him. And you've got an awful lot

of Philistines on the battlefield. Jonathan's

out there picking a fight with the Philistines

,

and all of a sudden the Philistines come back.

And I mean, they're coming back strong, 30,000

chariots. That's also a formidable task. And

Saul's out there with, what, 6,000 people?

And so he's kind of scared. All the people are

trembling. And he was told to wait to make the

sacrifice. I'm going to get the AOK from God,

wait for Samuel to come. And however long it

takes,

you wait. A week passes and he can't wait

anymore because, and here's the catch, and you

're going

to see it in chapter 15. And it's the fatal

flaw for Saul. And it's the fatal flaw for

many of us

when it comes to our obedience. Because this

is where I'm going with it, partial obedience,

the peril of it. He is afraid of the people.

Now, when I say afraid, he's not afraid like a

coward.

He's afraid of losing their respect and

admiration. There's a great little book by

Edward Welch,

you need to get. It's called When People Are

Big And God Is Small. And he kind of goes

through some

of the things that cause that. Why don't

people put God, make God bigger? And you just

think,

when you read a narrative, it's just going to

be simple to do. But people have a hold on you

.

In people's opinions, in people's thoughts,

they weigh heavy on you. So heavy that in the

Japanese culture, if you lose honor, most

people commit suicide. That's just how the

culture runs

over there. You don't want to live in dishonor

in that kind of culture. Better to die with

honor,

kamikaze pilot in World War II. You die with

honor. That's how it's supposed to work.

So anyway, when you get into 1 Samuel 15, by

that time with the battle of McMash and

he sacrifices before Samuel gets there. Well,

Samuel comes and tells him, he says,

what are you doing? I didn't see you coming.

The people were deserting me. They were afraid

.

I had to kind of rush this thing going. I got

to get the favor of the Lord. We got to get

this,

you know, mojo working for us, right? That's

how people look at Christianity many times.

You know, we got to have a day of prayer with

our nation struggling, you know. I guess it's

time

to call on the deities. The gods on Mount Ves

uvius so that, you know, we can kind of keep

our nation

stay together. You know, and God's always, you

know, in case of fire, break glass kind of

situation.

And you see that with Saul, he has this kind

of mentality. And he taught, and he says to

him in

chapter 13, verse 14, "But now your kingdom

shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for

himself

a man after his own heart. And the Lord has

appointed him as ruler of his people,

because you have not kept what the Lord

commanded you." So he had been commanded to

wait

and here's the test. People were abandoning

him, leaving him. He's anointed king. I mean,

hey,

you're supposed to be the rallying point for

all of us, right? You got people from the

northern

tribes are coming down, the southern tribes of

Judah. I mean, what's the deal here? We don't

understand. And he's sitting there worried and

whoever's counseling him isn't giving him good

counsel. But nevertheless, when you see this

take place in chapter 13, and what takes place

after that with Saul and Jonathan in chapter

14, where Jonathan does things like a guerr

illa

fighter, and it's not with the rest of the

army and all the problems that happened with

that,

the writer is showing you in chapter 14 about

Saul. He is a man who is not a principled man.

He goes with the flow of the people. He'll

rationally put everybody under her oath that

they

can't eat anything. And yet they're giving,

been given deliverance over the Philistines,

but they can't pursue them and make a total

victory because of his rash vow. And then

when it's found out that somehow Jonathan, who

didn't hear the vow that Saul put all the

people

under because he's the king, and you can put

all the people underneath a vow, if you so say

a vow

before the Lord, all the people, he didn't

hear it. He ate hunting Saul wants to kill him

and the

people rescue Jonathan from Saul. And you see

this kind of, this mixing and mashing of these

kind

of, he gets some victory over here on one hand

and then on the other hand, he's just not a

leader.

He's got too many character flaws. And now

they're coming to a head in chapter 15.

And so now in chapter 15, verse one, then

Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to an

oint you as

king over his people over Israel. Now

therefore, listen to the words of the Lord,

listen to the

words of the Lord. Now you're going to

understand something with Saul and Samuel's

relationship

at this point. It's a little strained. I mean,

he already told him in chapter 13, your

kingdom's

going to be taken away from you and given to

somebody better. And so Samuel's been given

this

word and he goes and he tells Saul, you need

to listen to what I'm about to tell you. These

are the words of the Lord. Now think about

what he's going to tell Saul here. Put

yourself in

Saul's shoes for a second. Thus says the Lord

of hosts. And you know what the word of hosts

means?

I grew up Catholic. I thought it was that

little wafer thing when he talked about the

Lord of hosts,

the Lord of all these little wafer things.

That's not host. Host means armies. He's the

Lord of armies.

He's the captain of all the armies. So this

Lord of hosts is saying this. In other words,

I'm the real captain here and I'm giving you

as a helmsman an order on the ship.

He says, I will punish Amalek for what he did

to Israel, how he set himself against him on

the way

while he was coming up from Egypt. I'm going

to punish Amalek. Now remember, he's used to

fighting

Philistines. And he's used to kind of going

out there. You kind of size them up. You look

at it

kind of like what Jonathan did with his armor

bearer in chapter 14. And let's see what the

Lord gives us and what kind of deliverance.

And you go out there and you fight. That's

what he's

used to. Now the Philistines aren't under the

band or the holy war band as you're going to

find in

verse three, which when you're in that

situation, God says you totally exterminate,

annihilate

everything about him. I don't want anything.

We talk about nuke, nuke, raised to the ground

.

And he says in verse three, now go and strike

Amalek and utterly destroy that little phrase,

utterly destroy harem in the Hebrew. You find

it in the book of Joshua where he goes in

like in Jericho. Everyone in the wild when

they get to Jericho, what they did with Jer

icho,

they didn't do it in any other city. They did

it to Jericho because it's kind of like the

first

fruits of the promised land. And it's a lesson

to the people. You come up to Jericho, you're

going

to march around the city, right? And then on

the seventh day, you can march around the

seven times

and I'm going to give you the city. Now, if

you're in that army and you're sitting there,

you know,

armed to the teeth, locked and loaded, ready

to go and you're marching around the city and

everybody

in the city is looking at you going like, okay

, this is an interesting military maneuver.

Never

seen this. And they marched around and then,

as they say in the political world, called it

a day,

gave it a lid and went home. Then the next day

came out and did the same thing. Seventh day,

seven times, walls come down. The people, the

army goes in, slaughters everybody,

except Rehab the harlot and her family that

was in her home. Now, that should teach you

something

if you're a soldier. It's not going to be by

our might. It's going to be by God. We need to

listen

to God if we're going to conquer anybody in

this land. If we do that, geez, how hard is it

to walk

around the city? I mean, I can almost be in a

wheelchair and wheel around the city and

conquer

the city practically. I don't have to have a

lot of strength. That's a lesson. But when you

're under

the van, nothing is to be spared. Notice what

he says. He says, utterly destroy all that he

has

and do not spare him, but put to death both

man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep,

camel and

donkey. Now, this gives a lot of people

problems today when they read stuff like this.

This gives

sometimes Christians problems when they read

this. How could God who, I mean, desires all

men to be

saved and come to the knowledge of the truth,

right? 1 Timothy 2, say this about Amalek,

because the same God who's the God of love is

the same God who's the God of light in

holiness,

injustice. And one doesn't compromise the

other. He's light, he's love, and he's life,

the three

Elves when describing God. In this whole

situation with Amalek, ever since Israel

crossed the Red

Sea, the last stragglers crossed on the Red

Sea, the Amalekites were attacking them. You

can go

reading the book of Exodus, I think it's

chapter 17. And then when they get to the

wilderness,

you got the Amalekites kind of doing raids.

And even here, you got the Amalekites.

Sometimes they

would be with the Philistines and they made

attacks and made raids on Israel, especially

Judah and

the South, because Amalek was a nomad kind of

people. They moved from pillar to post. And if

they stayed someplace, because it's going to

talk about this city a little bit later on,

of Amalek, it was pretty much temporary. But

their cup of iniquity has filled to the brim,

and you need to understand something about

civilizations, and this is a freebie for you,

okay? Civilizations rise and they fall. They

rise on the size of their cup, and when it's

filled,

they fall. So here you see this Babylon nation

coming up, right? We're Nebuchadnezzar.

And then in one night with his grandson, D

arius the Mead comes in and they do what? The

Persian

Empire takes over a new civilization. The cup

had filled, now it's time to be replaced.

Persia comes up, Daniel even prophesies about

it. And there's going to be this

ram that's running on the ground. His feet don

't even touch the ground. He's so fast.

But one big horn, Alexander the Great, it's

going to take over the Persian Empire.

Persian Empire's cup fills up. It gets dashed.

Greeks take over. They go as far as anybody,

almost to India. And then Alexander the Great

dies. And then the Romans come in and take

them.

And then the Romans, I mean, look, it's the

same thing with America. It's the same thing

with any

culture, any culture. And so when the culture

out here are preaching against people who came

in

from Europe and conquered the native Indians,

it's a rise and fall of civilizations. That's

just how

it is. Well, they were wrong to do this or

they were right to do that. Whatever it might

be,

it's God's judgment on those people. And every

civilization deserves the judgment.

Some get it sooner than others. Some cups are

bigger than others,

and some are smaller. And what's true for a

nation is also true for an individual.

You have a cup. When the cup of your iniquity

fills up, and you haven't repented,

and you stored up wrath on the day of wrath,

as it says in Romans, too,

God has to do something with that cup. And it

ain't going to overflow. He's been showing you

mercy and mercy stretching out his hands all

day long to an obstinate people, he says.

In Romans chapter nine and ten. And so I'm

giving this by background, the Amalekites now

are on the clock. And now the time has come.

And so he says to the king, he says to him,

this is what I want you to do. Now verse four

says, then saw some of the people and numbered

them

in Tellium, 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000

men of Judah. Judah should have had the most

men

out of anybody, but they had the least amount.

Once again, you've got this riff going on

between

the south and the north. They're even this

time. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and

set an

ambush in the valley. And Saul said to the Ken

ites, the Kenites are related to Moses as Moses

's

father-in-law. So the Kenites were among them.

And they said, go depart, go down from among

the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them.

For you showed kindness to all the sons of

Israel

when they came up from Egypt. So the Kenites

departed from among the Amalekites.

So Saul defeated the Amalekites from Hevala as

you go to Sher, which is east of Egypt.

That's a big area. I mean, they ran after the

Amalekites for a long way, almost to Egypt,

to slaughter them, giving you a little

backdrop here. So far, so good, right? And he

captured

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, the oxen, the fatlings, the

lambs,

and all that was good. And we're not willing

to destroy them utterly. But everything desp

ised and

worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Paral

number one, when it comes to partial obedience

,

is that it starts with the practical in your

mind rather than the biblical.

Well, it seems to me, well, you know, this is

what I think about God. Now, what do you think

about this? What do you think? Well, you know,

everybody's got an opinion about God and

theology

and the future and all these other things.

That means zero. This is their opinion. You

know,

this is worthless. This is good. And you know

something? Because you can remember something.

Saul is trying to play three games at once. On

one hand, he's got to try to please the people

because he fears the people. They're going to

abandon him. So he's got to placate them a

little bit.

And so at the same time, he wants to make sure

he looks good in all of this. I mean, I got to

make sure that I'm still the leader. And so in

order for me to be the leader and they respect

me,

I got to make sure that, you know, I come

across kind of like knight and shiny Norma.

And then I

also have to placate God. So he's got these

three parties here he's trying to deal with.

And so like as one writer said, you know, when

you're dealing with compromise, because that's

what's happening here, you got a lot of place

you got to keep spinning in order for these

things to

work out, don't you? You got to not only do

what you think needs to be done, but you got

to always

do things in such a way that it filters

through your head. Now, remember back when he

fought with

the Philistines, there was a lot of giving and

taking on how they were going to do things

here.

The command is clear. You're to destroy them

all, but you see that somehow he didn't do

that.

There's a partial obedience. Now, total

disobedience would have said, I'm not going to

fight against

these guys at all. Get somebody else to do. Do

somebody else, you know, shoot somebody else.

He doesn't do that. I mean, he goes out there,

he fights. Some people look at it and say, hey

man,

give him E for effort. I mean, he's out there.

I mean, can't God see the glass as least a

little

half full, maybe three-fourths full? Okay. He

didn't quite, you know, measure up, but hey,

he's out there, right? And people have a lot

of view of that when it comes to God, when it

comes

to their own Christian life. And they set

themselves up to partially obey. One of the

reasons why

people, and it's true, and you can look at

your own self or look at mine, that people are

so easy

to partially obey is because many times the

command itself, the message, the directive,

is out there. I mean, really, I mean, do you

really want us going, you know, babies? I mean

,

we're not talking explosives. They're going to

be upfront, up close and personal and kill

these

people because I don't know if I can do that.

I mean, I don't know. I think that's just a

little

too much over the top. And see, you're

weighing in on the command. You're kind of op

ining about

whether you're going to, whether the command

is even legit. And so part of the partial

obedience

is, well, okay, maybe, um, I don't know. Well,

he says that we got to go in here and we can't

, you

know, we're going to destroy everything. I

think about this. You're one of these soldiers

here.

And let's say you don't even have a problem

with that. I got no problem with that. The Am

alekites

have been a real pain in the neck for many,

many years. I'm ready to get some retaliation,

some eye for an eye out here. But I got to

tell you, I mean, they plundered us for so

long. Why

can't we plunder them back? See now, you can

understand when these people start maybe

having

these kind of views and you're their captain

and you're going to come in and you're going

to tell

them, this is what God has said and this is

what we're going to do. Think about when

Joshua had

to follow this command back in the book of

Joshua. Here's his first problem when you

partially obey. The first thing he does, he

rallies the army. That's not what you do.

The first thing you do is you look at the

command and you realize, they know way we can

keep this

command. I'm going to be responsible, collect

the captain of a ship for every single person

on this ship. And they're going to have to do

this kind of task. I mean, think about one guy

in Joshua seven took a bar of gold and 15

people died at the next battle of AI

because he took something that was under the

ban.

And so consequently, you got all these people

out here. The first thing Saul should have

done

is sought the Lord on what he should have done

. How should I accomplish this command?

What people should you bring to me so that we

can accomplish this deed? I mean,

he knew anything about Gideon and that was in

his past, he should have. God gave him 300

people

with pictures. We're going to attack you with

pictures. Watch out, buddy. We're coming at

you

with a picture. Not even a weapon. This thing

's locked and loaded. But anyway, he didn't

learn.

He just gathers up to people working off the

same assumptions that he worked off of when

he came to the Philistines. Thinking yesterday

's obedience and the way I did things yesterday

also can be the same kind of way I do things

today. You can do that with this command.

This is a holy war. These are people under the

ban. And this is where Saul in his partial

obedience is going to lose the kingdom because

it's going to be torn from him.

And in the next chapter, you're going to see

how it's going to be given to David.

Samuel isn't going to see Saul until the day

of his death after this episode.

But you see this edict that's given to him to

have this type of

fight and to bring this kind of devastation.

And so anyway, he tells the canines to leave

and they, you know, they destroy not all the

Amalekites, Agogs still alive. And it's

interesting,

the commander is called Agag. You ever know

where this guy ever shows up again anywhere in

the Bible?

Well, he's killed, right? I mean, later on the

chapter, you'll realize that Samuel is going

to

meet him. He's going to hack him to pieces. Ag

ag, because Saul didn't kill all the Amalekites

,

there's no coincidence in 2 Samuel chapter 1

that the person that actually killed Saul on

the

battlefield is an Amalekite. You see, New

Testament says these things were written for

our example.

The Amalekites represent sin that constantly

plagues us. You don't put sin to death,

it's going to put you to death. It's going to

take you out. You keep, you partially obey

when it

comes to put to death the deeds of the body.

It's going to rear its head against you. It's

going to

find you out. It's going to take you out. Who

is the big nemesis, the big opponent in the

book of

Esther? Anybody remember what the guy's name

was? Haman, right? The Agagite. Agagite. He

comes from

Agag. He was an Amalekite. You think he hated

Mordecai for a reason? He hated Mordecai. He

knew

Mordecai represented people, that those people

that he represented killed Moth, my people.

And he couldn't wait for Mordecai to hang on

the gallows. But see, once again, when you

leave

it alive, sin alive, it has a way of coming

back around to bite you, even in the book of

Esther.

Haman. But anyways, he goes on down. Then it

says, "Then the word of the Lord came to

Samuel, saying,

'I regret that I have made Saul king, for he

has turned back from following me, and it's

not carried

out in my commands.'" Let me get this straight

. We got God regretting something. This is the

God who knows all things, all powerful, knows

the future, obviously, is in control of the

future.

It's predestined. So how does he regret? There

's only two times God regrets in the Bible. It

's here.

And in Genesis 6, "I regret that I made man,

and he destroys man, and he saves Noah."

Regret? People have regret. Men have regrets.

Go down the course of action. You say,

"I regret going to that place. I learned a

lesson from that." You regret. And you say,

"I wouldn't do it again." And God's pretty

much saying the same thing. Now, it's not

because

there's some sort of flaw in the character of

God. This isn't some eternal character flaw

that God's

talking about himself. God's communicating

himself to people in real time. And in real

time,

he's telling Samuel, "I regret. I want you to

know how I feel about Saul at this point. I

regret

that I made him king." Now, when Samuel hears

this, he don't know what to think about. I don

't think

this is kind of throwing his theology in some

sort of discombobulation as much as, "What

does

this mean? Is he going to destroy the nation?

I got a king up here that God regrets putting

on the throne, and I anointed him. And we did

this together with God. I did this up." So he

prays all night. So it says in verse 12, "And

Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul

." Now,

it doesn't say Samuel needs to go meet Saul

and tell Saul what's going on. God didn't

command

Samuel to go to him. You don't see it in the

text, but he goes to him. And it was told

Samuel saying,

"Saul came to Carmel." Carmel, because that's

where Samuel last was with Saul. So he goes to

Carmel. Well, he ain't there. He's down at Gil

gal celebrating the battle victory. Got a gag

in the

cage over there. Got the people happy because

they got the spoils. They got some of this

good animal

here. They're going to be sacrificing it to

God. It's a win-win situation for everybody,

right?

As it says in verse 12, "Samuel, Saul came to

Carmel. And behold, he set a monument up for

himself." I want everybody to know that I'm

bad. I'm a good king here. Y'all need to

respect me.

Y'all need to like me. Got a monument here for

myself. Then he said, "Okay." Then he turned

and

proceeded on down to Gilgal. Now, this guy had

a walk. This is an old man. This guy had a

walk

about 37 miles. Kind of give you an idea about

from here to New Roads. Did they get there?

And Samuel said to Saul. And Saul said to him,

"Blessed are you of the Lord. I have carried

out the

command of the Lord." Totally oblivious. And

he partially obeyed. But Samuel said, "What

then is

this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the

lowing of the oxen which I hear?" Because as

he

walks and begins, here's all the tents of all

the soldiers and he hears all these animals

that were

supposed to be dead on the battlefield. He

says, "I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's

me. I'm

hearing sounds that I shouldn't be hearing."

And Saul said, "They notice the shift, not me

as captain

of the ship who's responsible for carrying out

the Lord's command. They have brought them

from

the Amalekites for the people." Not me. See, I

'm a good guy, right? "Spared the best of the

sheep

and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord. We're not

taking them home with us. Oh, no, no, no. We

're

going to give God his due to sacrifice to the

Lord your God. But the rest we've utterly

destroyed."

I mean, yeah, we took care of all that. All

the riffraff about the Amalekites. Yeah, we

got rid of

that. Then Samuel said to Saul, "Wait, let me

tell you what the Lord said to me last night."

And he

said to him, "Speak." And Samuel said, "Is it

not true though you were little in your own

eyes and you

were made the head of the tribes of Israel and

the Lord anointed you king over Israel? And

the Lord

sent you on a mission and said, "Go and

utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites,

and fight

against them until they are exterminated."

This is godly genocide. Now think about this.

Well,

that can't be good. Genocide, who are you to

tell God what he can and can't do?

God has started an entire world in Genesis 6

with Noah. What are you going to say about

that?

You want to talk about genocide? You can't do

that, God. Why, in your morality is better

than

God's. Every one of these people are sinners.

They shouldn't even be breathing air one

minute

past. They are right now and they're on

borrowed time. And God can do that and he does

it. He takes

out people like this. But he says to him, "Why

then did you not obey the voice of the Lord

but rushed

upon the spoil and did what was evil in the

sight of the Lord?" Now, rushed upon the spoil

and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord

. Now, as far as Saul knows, Saul didn't do

that,

but the people did that. And now you need to

understand something when you're in a position

of authority. And this is free, okay? There's

a difference between guilt and responsibility,

like as one writer says, you know, the captain

of the ship is responsible for the ship. If he

gives

an order to the officer on deck, rightful rud

der, who tells it to the navigator, and the

navigator

tells it to the helmsman, and the helmsman,

who only has two more weeks in the Navy,

decides to

not do rightful rudder, but to do leftful rud

der. And the ship goes aground. Who's guilty

for the

actions of the ship going leftful rudder?

Whose guilty is that helmsman in the bottom?

But guess who's responsible for the man's

actions? The captain loses his commission.

Your wife racks up $50,000 on a Visa card, and

they come in after her, they're going to come

after you, the husband. You're responsible for

your wife. Hedge ship carries responsibility.

When Eve ate of the fruit in the garden, who

was guilty of eating of the fruit in the

garden?

Eve was. What should Adam have done then? When

God comes calling the cool of the day, if he

hadn't

eaten, he should have said, the woman Eve ate

from the tree, she's guilty. But on her head,

take me instead, because I represent her. That

's what the second Adam did for his bride.

That's what the first Adam should have done

for his, but he takes the fruit, he's now he's

guilty.

He's guilty now. He's not just responsible,

guilty. So there's the difference between

being

responsible and I didn't commit the sin, but I

'm going to have to eat the consequences of it

because

of those under me. Saul represents the people.

He's the king. And so while he might not be

doing

things individually that were sinful out there

, he and he alone is going to have the kingdom

torn from him because of that. And so as we

see, as we continue to read on, then it says,

then Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice

of the Lord and went on the mission of which

the Lord sent me and have brought back Agag,

the king of Amalek and have already destroyed

the

Amalekites. But the people, see, it's always

somebody else's fault. The woman thou gave us

me.

See, she took the fruit. Partial obedience

always has a rationale on why they can't do

what they're

doing. And whatever the people were thinking

and why they needed to take the spoils. Well,

these people, they took from us, but we owe,

we're owed reparations for what they've done.

They've

been taken from us for all these years. We're

owed that. Can you imagine them telling Saul

that?

And Saul's listening to that saying, they got

a point here because he's rationalizing these

things.

You know, so also, you know, I can imagine

that people telling Saul, I mean, I know this

is your

belief. And this is how, you know, you're

supposed to, you know, carry out warfare, but,

you know,

each man has their own beliefs and you need to

kind of respect that, you know, we need

legitimate

compensation for it. And I can even see some,

maybe some of the priests even coming in and

saying,

now you do know Saul, I mean, this will be

honest here, according to Deuteronomy 20,

when the laws of warfare, and this is the laws

of warfare, those nations that were in the

land of

Canaan were under the ban. The Amalekites is

not one of those nations. They weren't. So

they're

kind of like the Philistines. So technically,

maybe, you know, I don't know, Samuel's

getting old.

Maybe he got the message wrong, lost in

translation. You know, I mean, who are you

going to listen to? You're going to listen to

Samuel or you're going to listen to Moses and

Deuteronomy 20? Because the nations that are

far off, it says, when you go to them are from

terms

of peace. They don't listen. If they listen to

you, you can make them, you know, your slaves.

If they don't listen to you, you can destroy

them and you can take, you know, the spoils

for

yourself. So the Amalekites, they're not

really nations here. They're really kind of a,

from a far,

I don't know. I kind of think maybe, you know,

Samuel kind of missed it. When you partially

obey,

you always try to make exceptions to what you

're hearing. You try to make little caveats and

nuances

for it. Well, you know, it doesn't really say

that women should be quiet in the church. That

was

one of those false, first cultural things. See

, that command kind of gets underneath our skin

a

little bit and we try to culturalize it. Why?

Because we don't want to apply it the way it

sounds

and we get to partially obey. Are those women

supposed to remain silent with their husbands

who are disobedient? 1 Peter 3? Well, does it

really mean that tomato, tomato? You say this,

I say that. Every man's got their own little

interpretation. You see, and it gives you a

little bit of wiggle room so you can partially

obey. Now, that's how the mind sets itself up,

because it doesn't like the commandment. It

doesn't like the message. Sometimes it just

doesn't

like the messenger and says, you know, this

guy likes Samuel and he's just kind of getting

old.

Maybe you're going to compare Samuel with, you

know, with Moses. Look, they did the same

thing

with Jesus in John 8 when the woman caught in

adultery. Remember they brought her to him?

Moses says this. What do you say? Are you

going to get some Moses? Yeah, let's

let's pit Titan against Titan. Clash of the

Titans. Let's see what happens. Let's see if

he backs down.

And so you kind of maybe have this thing going

on here with the people here. You got a bunch

of people

here and these people are used to fighting

common enemies like Philistines, never

fighting under

the band. And for us as Christians, God comes

in and think about what Christ comes in. This

is why

his commands are like off the charts. You have

heard it said, don't commit adultery. I say,

if you look at that a woman, you've already

committed adultery. You cut off your hand,

you pluck out your eye. Who can do those kind

of things? Why does he say that?

If you have hatred in your heart, you're

guilty of murder. Whoa, who's this guy who

speaks with this kind of authority? And if you

're going to follow King Jesus, like in John 6,

all of a sudden he comes and he says, yeah,

you want to be a Christian? You're going to

have to eat

my body and drink my blood and the disciples

turn and say, this is a difficult statement.

Who can follow it? Difficult statement. See,

partial obedience thrives in those difficult

statements. Jesus comes and says, you got to

hate Mother, Father, Brother, Sister and love

me more

than all of them, even your own self, if you

want to be my disciple. How's those apples?

Fit that into your blender and try and drink

it. It's like, well, he probably didn't mean

this.

He probably didn't mean that. I said, we are

always trying to water things down because

if you're saying what he really is saying here

, that means I'm going to have to go out here,

exterminate the Amalekites and walk away from

the battlefield, empty-handed. I don't take

any

spoils. It's all under the ban. Whatever I

kill, and boy, you kill somebody there and

they got

gold bag with them in their tent. I'll have to

leave it on the battlefield. But if I don't

take it somebody else will, then somebody else

is going to be somebody else's sin. It ain't

going

to be mine. That's the kind of man you want

fighting with you on the battlefield when you

're

fighting a holy war and you're fighting

against sin, kind of like what Paul Washer

said. I mean,

you're going to deal with sin. You're going to

follow Christ. It's total exclusivity.

There are no other gods, and especially you.

Every man doing what's right in his own eyes.

You can't do that. Anyway, as we go through

this, notice what happens. He goes on. He says

,

"The people took some of this foil and sheep

and the ox and the choices of the things

devoted to

destruction to sacrifice to the Lord your God

at Gilgal." And then Samuel says,

"Has the Lord as much delight in burnt

offerings and sacrifices as obeying the voice

of the Lord?"

You keep bringing up these burnt offerings as

if God is kind of, you know, married to burnt

offerings. Let me tell you what he really

likes. He likes obedience. Do you really want

to please God

in delight in the Lord? He likes obedience. He

goes on and he says, "You keep thinking the

fat of ramps." That's not it. No, it's

listening to the word of the Lord. When you

don't listen to

the word of the Lord, you are practicing witch

craft. You are practicing idolatry, he tells

Saul,

because you rejected the word of the Lord. He

has also rejected you from being king.

Samuel knew that back from chapter 13, but now

it's got meat on the bones after this

direct disobedience, compromised partial

obedience. And he said in verse 24, and here's

his problem.

"Then Saul said to Samuel, 'I have sinned. I

have indeed transgressed the command of the

Lord

in your words, because I feared the people and

listened to their voice.'" See.

"Now therefore, please pardon my sin." Catch.

"And return with me that I may worship the

Lord."

That sounds like a good thing. And Saul says,

Samuel says, "I'm not going back."

And he begs him to come back. And when you

grab the hem of another man's garment,

and remember, this man's head and shoulder is

taller than anybody else, and you're

prostrate like that, and you're grabbing hold.

It's a sign of submission, and it's almost to

the

point of humiliation. And so Samuel goes back

with him. And what happens when Samuel turns,

he rips his garment, and he makes a perfect

illustration saying, "That's what God has done

to

you. He's ripped the kingdom from your hand.

It's going to give it to a man better than you

to be able to be king over my people." Then he

says, verse 29, "And also the glory of Israel

will not lie or change his mind, for he is not

a man that he should change his mind,

although he regrets making Saul." See. So on

one hand, he talks about when God's purposes

are on

the table, and he ain't going back. On the

other hand, in real time, when he's talking

about an

individual person, yeah, he can regret things.

He can be happy about things. As he goes on,

he then notice what Saul says in verse 30.

Then he said, "I have sinned, but please honor

me now

before the elders." He's still thinking about

himself and his monument of who he is that I

may

worship your God. So Samuel goes back with him

. And of course, when Samuel goes back, he

takes

opportunity to do what? Bring me a gag. And he

brings a gag to him. And a gag's thinking,

surely the bitterness of, you know, getting

put to death is beyond people because now they

're

celebrating and stuff. Samuel sees him and

says, "Just like your swordmate, Mom's child

less,

your mother's going to be childless." And it

says what? "He hacks into pieces before the

Lord had

gilded." Now, he just doesn't kill him. He

hacks into pieces. Why? Because I don't know.

He's got,

he's challenging Freddie Kruger or something.

I mean, no, he's not some sort of sadomasoch

ist.

He just wants to slice and dice this guy. He's

making a point. This is what it should have

looked

like right here. This is what you should have

done. This guy represents everything God hates

with the Amalekites. And I'm not just going to

kill him. I'm going to slice and dice him.

You're going to see that, don't you think he's

already dead? I mean, this is a little over

kill.

Is it overkill? Really? Now you're talking

overkill? You couldn't do the simplest of

things up front.

And now I got to press the point. But these

things are written for your instruction and

for

my instruction. Do you take this kind of milit

ant attitude towards sin? We don't,

you can't take any prisoners when it comes to

sin. When God calls something sin, it's sin.

And I give you a classic point. We have a

statement we use in our church, and I've used

it before,

that when it comes to lost people, you affirm

their humanity, but you deny their depravity.

And you had better know the difference.

Because if you affirm their depravity,

in the ultimate end game, you're going to deny

their humanity. You don't want to do that.

And I give the classic case of a situation of,

here's a guy, he's a homosexual.

Now I have to be honest with him and tell him,

like, God doesn't count out a homosexuality.

It's an abomination. They're under the wrath

of God if you're homosexual.

That's what the Bible says. You can't back up

on that. You do that, partial obedience.

You do that, you're compromising the word. You

do that, you're not listening.

That's what the text says. You have to deny

their depravity. But on the other hand,

if the guy's my neighbor and he's a homosexual

, and he's on the road and he has a flat tire

and

I see him, I'm going to affirm his humanity

and stop and help him with the flat tire.

If he's hungry, I'm going to try and help feed

him. Why? Because that's in the category of

humanity,

not depravity. But if he wants me to come over

and celebrate a coming out party, I ain't

going.

That's depravity category. I can't celebrate

depravity. And so you need to understand the

difference between celebrating with depravity

and celebrating somebody's humanity. Oh,

you got a birthday party. Count me in. Oh, you

got a coming out party. Count me out.

See the difference? And if you don't know the

difference, you're going to be

partially obeying the text. And this is where

the problem comes in. And all of a sudden,

you're not going to be able to say like what

Samuel does to Saul. Hey, your kingdom's going

to last

forever. It's not because he loses his kingdom

. And so after that, it talks about how the

Lord

regressed that he had made Saul king of Israel

. You know, if you go a little bit later on and

you read the rest of the life of Saul and you

cannot, you can, it's clear that you get into

chapter 28 where Saul's about to die really,

because he's going to fight the Philistines

and

the Philistines are overwhelming and he knows

it. And he can't, nobody, every time he tries

to find

the Lord through effort or profit or whatever,

the Lord's quiet, the Lord's silent, silent,

silent.

The Lord's not talking to him. He's rejected

him. So he goes to this witch and gets this

witch to conjure up Samuel from the grave. I

mean, Samuel's the only guy could talk to me.

And believe it or not, Samuel shows up and

tells him, you're going to be dying today.

Yeah, this is your last day. You're going to

be with me, son.

But what's interesting about that in verse

three in first Samuel 28,

it talks about how Saul had gotten rid of all

the soothsayers and all the witchcraft people

in the kingdom. Why would he do that? Because

of what it was told to him in chapter 15.

In chapter 15, what was told to him was that

this sin is as a sin of witchcraft and this

not obeying is as a sin of idolatry. We find

out in second Samuel, chapter 21,

that he had put Givian ice to death. Do you

know anything about the Givian ice? Givian ice

were

under. They could live in the Promised Land

because Joshua made a rash vow with them in

Joshua.

And God said, be careful who you make vows

with. And so they couldn't kill him. Well,

Saul kills them. Why? Because they're not Jews

. They're probably paying against practicing

idolatry.

So he's taken what was said in chapter 15

about witchcraft and idolatry. And he's trying

to up

his game, look good, that I'm attacking these

things and still can't do it right. Still sins

in

the process. And you see as the time goes on,

how much he hates David because David's coming

into

replacing. He tries to kill him with a spear,

remember? He chases him all around, you know,

in the Promised Land trying to kill him. And

it's like, think about where you've come, Saul

.

Now you're chasing after the guy that God says

is going to be the better man for you.

What should Saul have done if you were Saul?

Well, first of all, if you're guilty of

partial

obedience, you repent because all of us are

guilty of partial obedience. You repent of

your sin.

You don't exacerbate it or blame others for it

or rationalize why you have to continue in it.

That's the last thing you want to do. You cash

in your chips, you say, Lord, I've sinned. I

don't

want to do this anymore. I'm sorry. And

whatever the fallout is, Saul should have

resigned and said,

you've got a better man, then yeah, I'm going

to follow him because he's better than me at

this

point. Now, this is what I think about what

King David does when he sins. I'm going to go

out,

attack his enemy. He repents. He owns it

because remember, David sins. You can read it

in the

book where, remember, he numbers the people

and being a responsible king. You're not

supposed to

do that unless you're commanded to do it. He

does it anyway. And all of a sudden, God kills

7,000

or 70,000 Israelites because of David's sin.

Because of that, because when you're in a

position

of responsibility, your actions affect

everybody else's actions around. And so we

have to learn

that, okay, I need to obey. I need to obey

fully. Help me to obey fully, Lord. Keep me

from partially

obeying you, from my own convenience, from my

own safety, or from my own utilized by people

and

utilized and puffed up. I don't need to do

that. Keep me from rationalizing the command

away.

You know the sins in your life that plague you

. Quit toying with them and keeping them alive

like

Agag. You need to put them to death. Nobody

else is going to put them to death. The spirit

witnesses

to our spirit in Romans 8 that we're children

of God, right? I'm adopted. He tells me we cry

Abba Father, but you know what the verse

before that says when you cry Abba Father?

That same

spirit is putting to death the deeds of the

body. That same guy crying Abba Father is

crying no

certainty. You're not going to go any further

if it comes to this sin and you put it to

death.

And you don't keep Agag as a prisoner hanging

around so you can continue to commit that sin.

That's what new covenant believers look like.

And this is a good lesson we can learn from

King Saul, the perils of partial obedience.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word

.

Father, we come into your presence and where

you know how often and repetitive we fall into

this

trap of rationalizing our sins, rationalizing

the commandment, vilifying maybe the messenger

of it,

someone that maybe we don't like tells us we

're not wise or we're not godly or not biblical

and

we size them up and say I'm not going to

receive anything from them because they're not

worthy

to tell me these things. Put those words in a

better container, in a better mouthpiece,

and I'll listen to it. Father, keep us from

that. Help us, Father, to be a people, Lord,

that

please you in all things. We do not want to be

with that group that says Lord, Lord,

I never knew you on Judgment Day. We do not

want to be with that group, Father,

that tries to present to you a portfolio of

ministries but yet practice lawlessness.

Father, no one can give us assurance except

you and your Holy Spirit.

Help us, Father, for not making an idol of

assurance even, but let you give us that

assurance.

Let you tell us if we're a Christian. Let you

show us, Father, that we're not Saul, we're

David,

we're in that camp as only you can. Show us,

Father, our deficiencies, our faults,

but, Father, show us these things in Christ so

that we don't despair, so that, Father,

we look to Christ and we say, Father, only in

Him do we have forgiveness. Help us, Father,

to

believe the truth of 1 John 1-9, that we can

confess our sins and that you're faithful and

just to forgive. We can believe that to be

true, which means we're not partially obeying

at that

point. We're fully obeying the command to

confess and to believe what you say that you

will do and

you will forgive us of all of our sins. Father

, you can make us white as snow even now, even

today,

even as we have partially obeyed many times

for most of our lives, for many of us. That's

all

we've known as partial obedience. Throwing you

a bone, giving you some token worship,

hanging around with people that we like and

love. When I'm never bowed the knee, you never

have said, I'm tired of hanging on to my

ministry of myself, monuments to me,

fearing the people, having other people tell

me I'm a Christian. I need that. As long as

they

tell me I'm a Christian, I'm good to go. But

we've never heard those words from you. Help

us,

Father, too. We are people who fully obey by

fully believing in Christ and there's no other

name

under heaven by which we must be saved or

sanctified, except His. We love you and we

thank you.

For it's in Christ's great name we pray. Amen.