A Journey to Holiness - Holiness Requires Obedience

Holiness Requires Obedience

This morning we are continuing our series on A Journey to Holiness and will once again be looking in the Old Testament, this morning we will be looking in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 15 if you will be turning there.

We are looking at the time when Saul was King of Israel, just before David comes into the picture, this is when Saul does not obey God’s instructions when attacking the Amalekites.

With that the title of this mornings message is Holiness Requires Obedience.

The prophet Samuel has been in and out of the picture throughout the book of 1 Samuel, and he anointed Saul as the king of Israel, and has helped Saul out through his reign as king up to this point, and comes to Saul at the beginning of chapter 15 to give Saul some instructions from God.

To help us understand our main text of verses 17-23, I want to read you the first 16 verse just so that we know what is going on and then we will dig into our main text as we look at our three points this message this morning.

Therefore, look with me at verses 1-16 to begin with to get the context and background of our text.

1 Samuel 15:1-16.

Pray

I. The Task.

1 Samuel 15:17–18 NASB95

17 Samuel said, “Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, 18 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.’

Now that we have the background, the context in place, we see the task, God told King Saul to go and battle the Amalekites and fight against them until they are completely wiped out, that is they are annihilated.

God said there was not to be any child, any woman, man, or animal left or taken.

Yet Samuel gives the charge after hearing from God.

Samuel says to King Saul, he says, before you were anointed and made king you were little in your own eyes, that is you were a humble man, you did not think of yourself as someone worthy to be king.

Another words, you have allowed this authority and power to go to your head and you have not listened to what you were instructed to do.

Samuel continued with the point that it was the Lord that anointed Saul king of Israel, it was no one else, it was not the people of Israel, it was not another group of people, he did not get it because of his lineage or of his stature but because the Lord God gave it to him.

To many times we like Saul allow things to go to our head, our authority of our position, our statues, our fame, our popularity, and we do not stop to think about who has put us there, it is not anyone but God Himself, and He can take it from us faster than we got there, He can take it from us in the blink of an eye.

Samuel continued that the Lord sent Saul on a mission, Saul was to go and utterly destroy the sinners, that is the pagan people of the Amalekites.

The Israelites led by their King who was Saul at the time was to fight against the Amalekites until they were exterminated, that is completely and fully wiped out. Leaving no one alive.

God gave Saul instructions to follow, and there are times that God gives us instructions, and like Saul we too will leave out the parts that we do not want to follow.

II. The Charge

1 Samuel 15:19–21 NASB95

19 “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?” 20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 “But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

Now Samuel charges Saul with his disobedience, Samuel says, why did you not obey the voice of the Lord.

I do not know about you but that is the last thing that I want someone coming to me and saying to me, with evidence to back it up, why didn’t you obey the voice of the Lord.

Because then Samuel says, you rushed upon the spoil, that is you went and took from the battle what you wanted, you did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Saul tries to talk his way out of it, like we generally do, we try to make excuses for our actions.

Saul says, I did obey the voice of the Lord, I went on the mission the Lord sent me on, and I even brought back the king of Amalek, Like this was a great accomplishment.

See the Lord told Saul to fight against the Amalekites until they are exterminated, therefore, he should have killed king Agag, not captured him and brought him back.

But Saul thought he did something great and even says that they have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

Saul continues his excuses and tries to cover up his disobedience by saying the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things, the best of the best, so that we can sacrifice them to the Lord your God.

Here we see Saul is in a way blaming the people for taking the animals, but also trying to cover it up with saying that they were going to use the animals as a sacrifice to God.

But we must remember what the instructions to Saul were, to go and exterminate the whole country if you will, all children, all women, all men, all animals.

1 Samuel 15:3 NASB95

3 ‘Now go and strike Amalek and 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.’ ”

I mean God goes as far as listing the animals - ox, sheep, camel, and donkey.

See Saul thought he was doing the right thing because he had allowed the power and authority to go to his head.

He took matters into his own hands, captured and kept alive king Agag, and then took the best sheep and ox.

We do the same at time, God gives us instructions but then when we get into motion, we think we know a better way or a better time, a easier way, or maybe we do not feel like we can do it so we push it off on someone else, we leave part of those instructions out because we do not feel comfortable with them.

We must learn to be obedient.

III. The Sentence

1 Samuel 15:22–23 NASB95

22 Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much 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. 23 “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”

Samuel responds with a rhetorical question, does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in your obedience?

Jeremiah 7:23 NASB95

23 “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’

Samuel answers his own rhetorical question with, behold obeying is better than sacrifice, that is God wants us to be obedient to what He tells us before we give or offer sacrifices, before we serve.

Now being obedient, may be apart of that sacrifice, or that service, but we must be obedient before our sacrifices or our service will mean anything to God.

If we are not obedient, than our sacrifices, our service, our worship, our praise, does not mean anything to him.

When it says make a joyful noise unto the Lord, we may not be able to carry a tune in a bucket, but if we are singing in obedience to the Lord then it will be a joyful noise unto Lord, but if we are not in obedience to the Lord then it will not be a joyful noise unto the Lord.

Samuel continues to tell Saul, for rebellion is as the sin of divination, that is Saul’s disobedience here was on the same level as witchcraft and idolatry, sins worthy of death.

See Saul needed to see that his real worship was indicated by his behavior and not by his sacrifices, we need to remember that God sees our heart, and knows the attitude of which we are giving out of.

Saul demonstrated himself to be an idolater whose idol was himself.

He had failed the conditions which would have brought blessings on the nation.

We need to examine ourselves are we coming with the right heart, the right attitude, have we made ourselves an idol, are we first place in our lives, are do we have Jesus in first place.

Samuel continues with and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.

Insubordination which is arrogance, again Saul had become king, and allowed the authority and power to go to his head and he had forgotten how he had gotten to where he was at.

We need to remember that God is the giver of all things, even the breath in our lungs and the beat in our heart and He can take that at in moment, we better not get to big for our britches.

Saul’s insubordination or arrogance was a sin of idolatry in his life, because Saul thought to highly of himself.

Samuel says, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, that is the instructions that God has given you, God has rejected you from being the king.

God set Saul up as king because Israel thought they needed a king, so God appointed and anointed Saul king over Israel, and at first Saul listened and followed God, but he began to allow the authority and power to go to his head and he become disobedient to God.

We must not allow anything to get in the way of our obedience to God.