Better Than Sacrifice
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Starting with Genesis, we see sacrifice consistently throughout the the Word of God. When Adam and Eve sinned and realized they were naked, Genesis 3 tells us that God made for them garments of skin and clothed them. Here we see the first sacrifice. Perhaps a foreshadow of sacrifices atoning for sin.
We see God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son whom he loved, foreshadowing Jesus. In the law, God commands animal sacrifice and burnt offerings. And eventually, God gave His only Son as a permanent payment for our sin.
Sacrifice is an extremely important part of our faith and our theology. But tonight we’re going to discuss something that scripture says is greater. Tonight’s message is entitled BETTER THAN SACRIFICE!
And 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 listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Profound words from the prophet Samuel. But before we break down these verses, let’s get some background here. Saul has recently been anointed as king, and God sends Samuel with a direct command for Saul. Let’s look at what God told Saul to do.
And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt.
Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
When the Israelites were coming up out of Egypt, the Amalekites came out to fight with Israel and God did not forget about the resistance against His people. So God commands Saul to repay them for their sins and to destroy the entire city. To kill man and woman, all the animals, to devote EVERYTHING to destruction. (Some may think this is harsh, but the wages of sin is death). Let’s see what Saul chose to do.
But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
They did not obey the Lord. God told them EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE was to be devoted to destruction. But what actually got devoted to destruction? Only that which was DESPISED AND WORTHLESS. That means, whatever the people looked at and did not esteem very highly, only that which they were willing to part with is what they destroyed. Here’s what we should see from the text.
TRUE OBEDIENCE WILL COST YOU SOMETHING
The people were only willing to obey up to the point to where it would infringe on their desires. They were willing to part with what didn’t mean much to them, but the things their flesh really coveted, they weren’t willing to part with.
Let me ask you something. Let’s take a long look at ourselves and ask this question. Are we willing to destroy EVERYTHING God tells us to? Or are there things in our past and in our life that should be devoted to destruction, but were not ready to part with?
(KING DAVID, I WILL NOT OFFER THAT WHICH COSTS ME NOTHING)
The people of Israel saw the things they desired, and they were not willing to fully obey. We’ve got be sure that our eyes are not set on things that would keep us from obeying The Lord.
(WE MUST BE SURE OUR EYES ARE NOT SET ON THINGS DEVOTED TO DESTRUCTION!)
So Samuel comes to Saul and Saul tells Samuel “I’ve obeyed the command of the Lord!” And Samuel says oh really? Then what is this bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen in my ears?
And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction.
But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
Saul said, “Oh, I’ve obeyed the Lord! He sent me, and I went! But the king He told me to kill… Well i brought him here alive. And the things God told me to destroy.. we’re going to sacrifice to God.”
(KINGS=TROPHIES! SAULS PRIDE KEPT AGAG ALIVE)
But the question that’s worth asking here is, did the people actually keep these things to sacrifice to God?
I really don’t think so. How many of us know that it’s possible to do something in the Name of God that truly has selfishness at it’s root? Or perhaps, isn’t even for God at all.
I’ve encountered people who felt like God told them to do something, they delayed and then say, “Well i just had no peace about doing it.” But here’s the truth,
DELAYED OBEDIENCE IS DISOBEDIENCE
If you feel like God told you to do something, you delay doing it, then say, “Well i’ve got no peace so it must not have been right”. No, the reason you’ve got no peace is because God told you to do something and you didn’t immediately do it!
And this brings us right back to our main passage; after Saul tells Samuel that he only partially obeyed the Lord, and that the people did this with the intention of offering sacrifices to God - Samuel tells Saul this hard truth..
And 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 listen than the fat of rams.
God doesn’t want empty sacrifices. God doesn’t want half hearted offerings. What God wants is our obedience.
Let’s not be mistaken. The Lord does not hate sacrifices -
And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
God said that these offerings brought up a sweet smell to Him! A pleasing aroma! So it’s not that God was against sacrifice. What God was against was the arrogance of disobedience, and sacrifice used as a means of covering blatant disobedience.
Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,
and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?
Animal sacrifice was set in place to temporarily cover the sins of the people. Because God is holy and will not tolerate sin in His midst.
With this understanding; God is saying what He will not tolerate is a half hearted, half committed sacrifice. God said, will you continue in this perverse wickedness? Will you continue in known and blatant sin, and then act like you can simply offer a sacrifice and stand before Me? The people of Israel were living like hell, and thought they could truly just come to the house of the Lord, offer a sacrifice for their forgiveness and act like everything is okay. The people thought they could whore after false gods, after drunkenness and sexual immorality, and still stand before the Lord and offer an offering. God says “I want no part of your offering.” So how can we apply this today?
GOD’S GRACE IS NOT AN ADVOCATE OF EVIL
We cannot live our lives as if we can go on living in sin because we are forgiven. How can we say we are followers of Christ if we are not truly devoted to Him? (DELIVERED PEOPLE LIVE IN DELIVERANCE)
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
This is the proof of our salvation. The proof that grace has transformed our life. If we don’t have this fruit, then all we have is empty religion!
And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
God says here that the peoples “worship” of Him was simply routine. It was a commandment taught by men. They had no closeness, no intimacy, no true worship. They would bring their animals, slaughter them and offer them at the temple, and walk away unchanged; back to their lives of selfish desire.
Is that us? Do we come to church on Sunday, on Wednesday or Friday, sing a few songs, say amen, draw near with our lips, and keep our hearts far from God? Is our sacrifice simply the few hours a week we come to church out of routine, while obedience is nothing more than an afterthought?
You know what God really wants?
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
What God desires is steadfast love. That our love would truly fixed upon Him. What God desires is mercy, that we would have mercy on one another, just as He has had mercy upon us. God doesn’t want the routine of religion. God wants fervent love. That’s why He created us with free will, that we would freely CHOOSE to love Him.
God doesn’t want us to just bring an offering. Think about it, Cain and Abel both brought an offering, but only one was accepted. He doesn’t just want any old offering. He wants our best. Why? Because HE GAVE HIS BEST!
Wha He wants is us to have the knowledge of Him! He desires that we seek Him! He desires RELATIONSHIP! From the beginning of mankind God fellowshipped and walked with Adam and Eve!
The Pharisees had religion. They had the commandments and they were devout in going through the ceremonies and the rituals. But what did Jesus say that they lacked? Love, mercy, compassion, the weightier things of the law!
YOU CAN HAVE RELIGION WITHOUT LOVE
The Israelites were obeying the commands of God by bringing their sacrifices and their offerings, but they did not offer it wholeheartedly with love and thanksgiving, they offered it out of obligation. They offered it as a covering for their sinfulness, their evil deeds, with no intention of true repentance.
How about us? Have we come to the altars and confessed our sins and cried out to God, with truly no intention on fully repenting? We can say that we repent, we can confess and ask for forgiveness, but if we’ve truly changed our mind (which is what repent truly means) then we will prove our repentance by cutting ties with the things that cause us to stumble.
Obedience is better than sacrifice.
So far we’ve gone through scripture and we’ve seen this truth, that obedience is better than sacrifice. But why? Why is it better? Well think about it this way, it’s good to bring a sin offering, because it’s what has been commanded. But if you need to bring a sin offering, what does it mean? That you’ve sinned!
Now we as Christians are not under the law, we no longer have to bring an animal sacrifice for our sin. But let’s put it in our terms. CONFESSION is good, but what’s better than confession? Walking in obedience. Because if I am coming forward to confess, it means i’ve been in sin. - Now, I’m not saying that you must be perfect, or sinless, I’m not saying that it’s possible this side of heaven. But logically, it makes sense. What’s better than confession? Walking in obedience so that there is LESS CONFESSION! Because where sacrifice is required, disobedience is present. And disobedience is far worse than you and I could ever imagine.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
God’s word says that rebellion is as the sin of divination. Do you know what divination is? Divination is the ancient practice in the middle east of fortune telling, omens, contacting spirits, it is a fully demonic practice. The King James Versions says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Are you hearing that with spiritual ears? When we are in rebellion towards God, it is no different than occult practices.
Paul Washer explains the rebellion of man this way. God said, “Let there be light” and immediately there was light. God spoke to the stars and said, “Align perfectly so, in your constellations” and immediately the stars listened. God speaks to the waters and says “Move here and no further” and the waters obey. And then God speaks to man and we say, “No! I will not!”. Everything in creation obeys, and we have the audacity to rebel. 1 Samuel tells us that if we are to choose rebellion, we might as well find the nearest church of satan and bow at its altars, because it’s no different. Rebellion is as divination. It’s as witchcraft.
Samuel also says that presumption is as iniquity, and idolatry.
Presumption is stubbornness. When we are stubborn towards God, we are being arrogant, prideful, and disrespectful towards God. We are transgressing the limits set for us in His Word.
Have you known that you’re supposed to do something, have you ever had God convict you, or speak to you, and you decided to do what you wanted anyways? I’m ashamed to say that i have. And the word says that our stubbornness is as idolatry.
If our stubbornness is likened to idolatry, then who are we worshipping?
The god of self
The root of sin always comes back to self, it always comes back to the flesh. If i choose to harden my heart and rebel against God, instead of humbling myself under God’s mighty hand, then what I’m doing is choosing to worship my sinful desires, rather than worship God through my obedience. You know what happens when we continue to stiffen our neck?
He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.
We see this in the life of Saul. Saul had rejected the commands of the Lord, and terrible things happened to him. He loses his anointing, the spirit of God leaves him. A distressing and evil spirit comes upon him. He and his three sons all die on the same day. We have nothing in scripture that indicates that Saul ever repented. Could it be that he stiffened his neck to the point that he was broken beyond healing?
Samuel tells Saul that because he has rejected the word of the Lord, God had rejected him from being king. It was Saul’s clear rejection of the word of the Lord that led to his demise. We must remember that Saul was anointed by God. Saul was a Jew, a professed follower of Yahweh; yet he rejected the word of God.
We must ask ourselves, as professed believers and followers of Jesus, are we accepting or rejecting His word?
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
How many of you know that denying Christ before men isn’t just about words. It’s about action. Saul professed before Samuel that he had obeyed the Lord. He acknowledged the Lord before men verbally, but his actions told a whole different story. With his actions he denied God before men. He utterly rejected God’s word.
TO TRULY ACKNOWLEDGE GOD, WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE HIS WORD
This is not a one time event. This is a life long commitment. This is actions AND words. Not just works, and not just a profession. This is standing on God’s word, allowing scripture to form our worldview and our opinions in life, and then it’s action. It’s living out God’s word.
TRUE WORSHIP IS A LIFE OF OBEDIENCE
So we’ve looked at obedience, how it’s greater than sacrifice. But all of the obedience and all of the sacrifice we see in the word of God, points towards the perfect obedience OF SACRIFICE!
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus obedience wasn’t better than sacrifice. Jesus obedience truly WAS sacrifice. In so many ways. He made the sacrifice of setting aside His place with God, and came down as a man.
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
He never stopped being equal with God, He never stopped being divine, or being God the Son. But He made the sacrifice of setting aside His form in heaven, and dressing Himself in the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. What a HUGE sacrifice.
Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
Jesus is our example. If Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered, I can’t imagine that we are any different. Jesus learned through obedience unto death. But all He asks of us is to learn obedience through a death far less painful. Not actual physical death, but simply through dying to self.
God required obedience from our Lord and Savior. An obedience that would save all of mankind, who would come to believe in Him.
IF OBEDIENCE WAS ASKED OF JESUS, WHO ARE WE TO DISOBEY?
Rebellion is as the sin of divination. Stubbornness, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Where is your heart? How strong is your desire to obey?
Do you desire the things of the flesh, more than you desire to be in humble submission?
Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
Jesus didn’t say if you say a halfhearted prayer. If you get baptized, if you go to church on Sunday. Yes, we are saved by grace through faith. There is no other way.
But the proof of true belief, is someone who keeps His word.