God's word to 1 Samuel chapter 15.
I'm reading a long narrative portion from verse
13 to verse 31.
Samuel had sent Saul to defeat the enemy,
and we discover that the enemy defeated Saul.
1 Samuel 15 verse 13.
Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto
him, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I
have performed the commandment of the Lord.
Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleeding of
the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing
of the oxen which I hear?
2 And Saul said, They have brought them
from the Amalekites, for the people spared the
best of the sheep and of the oxen,
to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and
the rest we have utterly destroyed.
3 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and
I will tell thee what the Lord hath
said to me this night.
And he said unto him, Stay on.
4 And Samuel said, When thou wast little
in thine own sight, wast thou not made
the head of the tribes of Israel?
5 And the Lord anointed thee king over
Israel?
6 And the Lord sent thee on a
journey, and said, Go, and utterly destroy the
Amalekites, and fight against them until they be
consumed.
7 Why then didst thou not obey the
voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon
the spoil, and didst evil in the sight
of the Lord?
8 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I
have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and
have gone the way which the Lord sent
me, and have brought Agag the king of
Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
9 But the people took of the spoil,
sheep and oxen, the chief of the things
which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice
unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.
10 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as
great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as
in obeying the voice of the Lord?
11 Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
12 Because thou hast rejected the word of
the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from
being king.
13 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have
sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of
the Lord and thy words, because I feared
the people and obeyed their voice.
14 Now therefore I pray thee, pardon my
sin, and turn again with me, that I
may worship the Lord.
15 And Samuel said unto Saul, I will
not return with thee, for thou hast rejected
the word of the Lord, and the Lord
hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
16 And as Samuel turned about to go
away, he laid hold upon the skirt of
his mantle, and it tore.
17 And Samuel said unto him, The Lord
hath torn the kingdom of Israel from thee
this day, and hath given it to a
neighbor of thine who is better than thou.
18 And also the strength of Israel will
not lie nor repent, for he is not
a man that he should repent.
19 Then he said, I have sinned, yet
honor me now, I pray thee, before the
elders of my people and before Israel, and
turn again with me, that I may worship
the Lord thy God.
20 So Samuel turned again after Saul, and
Saul worshiped the Lord.
The tragedy of a great failure, because a
man disobeyed God.
If any man had a reason to become
a success, that man was Saul, who was
appointed the first king of Israel.
Everything was in his favor.
He had physical strength, he stood head and
shoulders above the other men.
He had a divine call from God, and
with this call came a divine empowering from
God.
There went with Saul a band of men
whose hearts God had touched, and it is
always good for a leader to have around
him men who will encourage him.
But added to this Saul had a praying
friend, and Samuel, the prophet and the judge,
was Saul's friend, and Samuel knew how to
pray.
And so everything was in Saul's favor, and
Saul should have succeeded, but he failed, and
he failed miserably.
Saul has gone down in history as one
of Israel's greatest failures.
He lost God's blessing, he lost God's presence,
he lost his crown, he lost his kingdom,
he lost his friend, and ultimately he lost
his life.
And Saul is looked upon today as a
great example of a failure.
He led a nation into defeat, and he
himself ended up a suicide on the battlefield.
Now, how do you explain this?
He had physical strength, he had wisdom, he
had friends, he had divine help, he had
a praying associate.
How do we explain the fact that a
great man like this, called at a great
hour in history, goes down in failure and
defeat?
And may I remind you that the word
of God says, let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fall.
Someone here says that can never happen to
me, it can happen to you, it can
happen to me, it can happen to any
of us.
Now, Israel wasn't to blame for Saul's failure,
and Samuel wasn't to blame for Saul's failure.
God wasn't to blame for Saul's failure, Saul
was to blame for his failure.
I recall the first time I heard Bishop
Culbertson pray a prayer that he often prayed,
Lord, help us to end well.
And I said to myself, what does he
mean by that?
Surely we're going to get to heaven.
Then as I thought, I said, aha, I
know what he means.
It's possible to have a great beginning and
a tragic ending.
It's possible to begin with your name in
lights and end up with your name in
the gutter.
It's possible to begin glorifying God and end
life bringing disgrace to God.
And that's what Saul did.
Now, if you want to know why Saul
failed, you just examine 1 Samuel chapter 15
and you discover why he failed.
He failed because he began to live on
substitutes.
Saul failed because he began to live on
substitutes.
And there are in this passage five substitutes
that ruined Saul's life.
And these same substitutes can ruin your life
or my life.
You know the story.
The Amalekites were the enemies of Israel.
They had been since the Exodus.
And God sent Saul and his armies to
wipe out the Amalekites.
The measure of their sin had come to
the full.
God's patience now was ending and the Amalekites
were going to be eradicated.
But Saul did not obey God.
He saved the king alive.
He kept the best of the spoil.
The rest of it he destroyed.
Samuel knew about this and Samuel came to
meet Saul.
And we have the section that we read
in our scripture reading today.
1 Samuel 15 verses 13 through 31.
Now, what were the substitutes that ruined Saul's
life?
First of all, Saul substituted saying for doing.
He substituted words for deeds.
Would you notice in verse 13, Samuel comes
to Saul and Saul sees him coming and
Saul comes up and does what every great
orthodox believer does.
He greets him.
Blessed be thou of the Lord.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
But he hadn't.
He's just saying it.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
He is substituting saying for doing.
Now, God had commanded him utterly to destroy
the enemy.
Verse 3.
But in verses 8 and 9, I read
that Saul and the people of Israel did
not utterly destroy the enemy.
And so Saul was telling a lie.
Blessed be thou of the Lord.
If you're going to tell a lie, it's
always good to preface it with a beatitude.
If you want one of the saints of
God really to believe the lie you're going
to tell, start off with some blessing.
Quote a Bible verse.
You see, we evangelical Christians or fundamentalists or
whatever word you want to use, have a
tendency to substitute words for deeds.
We can talk a big talk, but we
can't walk a big walk.
And we think that because we've talked about
witnessing, we've witnessed or we've talked about praying,
we've prayed.
Now, God knew that Saul was lying back
in verse 10.
Then came the word of the Lord unto
Samuel saying, it repenteth me that I have
set up Saul to be king for he
has turned back from following me and he
hath not performed my commandments.
So God knew that Saul had not obeyed
and Samuel knew that God had not obeyed
and the people knew that God had not
obeyed and Saul knew that he had not
obeyed.
The animals even knew that Saul had not
obeyed.
Saul comes out and says, I have obeyed
the commandment of the Lord.
And just then the sheep begin to make
their bagging and the cattle begin their lowing.
And Samuel says, that's interesting.
What meaneth then the bleeding of the sheep
and the lowing of the cattle?
There comes a point in life when our
sins find us out.
He substituted saying for doing.
That's easy to do.
How easy it is for me to come
to a worship service and to sing.
Gracious spirit dwell with me.
Truthful spirit dwell with me.
And yet know all along there's some lie
in my life and God cannot answer.
We substitute shouting for obeying.
I recall preaching in a Bible conference some
years ago and right on the front row
was a huge man.
Now I mean he was huge.
There's some people who cannot help their size
for glandular reasons or other reasons.
He was just plain uncouth and yet he
could shout hallelujah like everybody else and amen.
I thought to myself, dear brother, you ought
to be spending some time working on your
temple.
It's so easy for us to sing the
songs and say the words and pray the
prayers and quote the verses and think that
because we've done so we've obeyed the voice
of God.
He substituted saying for doing.
John talks about this in his first letter.
Remember that?
If we say that we have no sin,
we lie.
If we say that we have fellowship with
him, we walk in darkness, we lie.
If we say that we have not sinned,
if we say, if we say six times
in chapters one and two of first John,
if we say, if we say, if we
say, and the conclusion is if we say
we ought to do the first step towards
moral deterioration, the first step toward evangelical erosion,
the first step toward falling apart spiritually is
substituting saying for doing.
Now the next step, he substituted excuses for
confessions.
Oh, he said I had sinned twice.
He said it.
He didn't mean it.
Samuel knew he didn't mean it.
There are a number of people in the
Bible who said I have sinned and they
didn't mean it.
Pharaoh said, I have sinned.
He didn't mean it.
Saul said, oh, I have sinned.
He didn't mean it.
He substituted excuses for confessions.
Billy Sunday used to say that an excuse
is the skin of a reason stuffed with
a lie.
That's a good definition.
Have you noticed that people who are good
at excuses are rarely good at anything else?
I once worked with a man who had
more excuses than he had jobs.
He never accomplished very much, but he always
had an excuse.
People who give excuses refuse to accept responsibility.
And if God's going to build character into
our lives, we have to accept responsibility.
And Saul substituted excuses for confessions.
Oh, he says the people, well, we're going
to do this.
We saved it for the Lord.
My Bible says he that covereth his sin
shall not prosper.
And of course, one excuse leads to another,
which leads to more sin, which leads to
more deterioration.
All Saul had to say was I have
disobeyed God.
I'll go back and finish the job.
Pray for me.
But he didn't.
He had excuses.
There are some people when you talk to
them about their responsibilities, they aren't listening to
you.
Their mind is going a million miles an
hour thinking up excuses.
The person who is faithful to God, who
obeys the Word of God doesn't have to
think up excuses.
If he's made a mistake, he confesses his
mistake and tries to make it right.
If he's sinned, he confesses his sins.
If he's failed, he tries to do better.
The person who depends on excuses is eroding
his own character.
He substituted excuses for confessions.
I used to work in the counseling tent
at Winona Lake.
And people would come forward at the various
meetings and they'd come into the counseling tent
and we'd greet them and sit and try
to help them with the Word of God.
Oh, I could write a book about people
I've talked to in the counseling tent at
Winona Lake.
I'm sure you who work in Pacific Garden
Mission and other such places as that where
there is a witness going on have the
same experience.
And here come Christians who are out of
fellowship with God.
And it's always their mother's fault or their
father's fault or their employer or the church
or the pastor.
Instead of getting down and saying, oh, dear
God, I have sinned, they come out with
excuses.
And if I'm talking to someone right now
whose only success depends upon excuses, my friend,
you aren't a success, you're a failure.
Because one of these days the sheep are
going to start and the cattle are going
to start and the voice of your own
sin is going to find you out.
There's a third substitute in Saul's life.
Verses 20 through 23, he substituted sacrifice for
obedience.
Oh, how many times we've heard this.
God's called me to the mission field, says
this Christian, but I didn't go to the
mission field.
I thought I could stay and get a
better job and support somebody else.
And Samuel says, God doesn't want your paycheck.
God wants you.
And here's somebody that says God's called me
into Christian service, but I really can't afford
to go into Christian service.
So what I'll do is keep my job
and help somebody else do it.
And God says, sorry, you'll be miserable and
nobody can take your place.
Saul was substituting sacrifice for obedience.
Now God wants obedience.
God says to Saul, I want you to
go out and fight a battle and wipe
out the enemy.
And Saul said, I know more about this
than God does.
And so he didn't obey.
Either he is Lord or he's not Lord.
Either we obey him or we don't obey
him.
We don't ask, is it popular?
We obey.
We don't ask, is it safe?
We obey.
The person who makes decisions on the basis
of, is it popular or is it safe,
is not obedient.
You can page right through the Old Testament
and find over and over again where God
says, look, I don't want your sacrifices.
I want your heart.
I want your obedience.
David said, thou desirest not sacrifice, else I
would bring it.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
a broken and a contrite heart.
Oh God, thou wilt not despise.
David could have brought 10,000 sheep and
offered them and God would have said, David,
you burned up a lot of mutton.
I didn't want your mutton.
I wanted your heart.
As you go through the prophets, Isaiah says
it, and Jeremiah says it, and Hosea says
it, and Micah says it, and Jesus quotes
them.
And you and I say, well, I tithe,
therefore I have purchased the dispensation to disobey.
God says, I don't want your tithes.
I want your obedience.
But I have served so long and hard
on committees.
Therefore God says, I don't, I'm interested in
your sacrifice.
I want your obedience.
Suppose our Lord Jesus had not been obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross,
where would we be?
Saul substituted saying for doing.
Saul substituted excuses for confession.
Saul substituted sacrifice for obedience.
We smile at what he has to say
here.
Oh, we have spared the best of the
flocks and herds to give it to God.
And God says, do you think that these
fine sheep and cattle and goats can ever
substitute for your heart?
I don't want things.
I want you.
I want the obedience of your will, Saul.
There is no substitute for obedience.
Now there's a fourth substitute in Saul's life.
Verses 24 and 25, he substituted reputation for
character.
He was only concerned about what do the
people think?
Look at it.
I have sinned because I feared the people
and obeyed their voice.
Now, therefore, I pray thee pardon my sin
and turn again with me that I may
worship the Lord.
And Saul hears Samuel say, no, I won't
return.
You've rejected the word of the Lord.
You see, all that Saul was concerned about
was what the people thought.
Abraham Lincoln used to say character is the
tree.
Reputation is only the shadow cast by the
tree.
Mr. Moody used to say reputation is what
people think I am.
Character is what God knows I am.
Character, said Mr. Moody, is what a man
is in the dark.
And there are multitudes of evangelical people who
are only concerned about what do the people
think?
Not what does God say?
And we have today all kinds of evangelical
bandwagons onto which people jump to be approved
of men.
He was afraid of the people.
Verse 24, I feared the people.
May I ask you a simple question?
Why be afraid of people?
People can hurt your body.
They can't condemn your soul.
Jesus said, fear not them which can destroy
the body, but fear him, God, who is
able to destroy both body and soul in
hell.
I'm not going to face people at the
judgment seat of Christ.
I'm going to face God.
A thousand years from now, whether or not
someone like me or my ministry won't make
a great deal of difference, but whether or
not God was pleased will make a great
deal of difference.
When you fear God, you don't have to
fear the people.
The fear of man brings a snare.
It traps Saul, and Saul lost his crown
because of the fear of men.
We don't need the honor of people.
We don't need people for approval.
We just need God's approval.
And Saul comes very piously and says, I
have performed the commandment of the Lord.
No, he hadn't.
He performed the commandment of the people, and
he substituted reputation for character.
This was the sin of the Pharisees.
You know why the Pharisees prayed?
To be seen and heard of men.
You know why they gave?
To be seen and approved of men.
They would blow trumpets that they were now
going to come and give.
They did what they did for the approval
of people.
That's why they crucified Jesus.
Jesus did what he did for the approval
of God.
I do always those things that please him.
I came down from heaven not to do
my own will, but the will of him
that sent me.
When you start substituting reputation for character, something
very insidious happens.
The outside of the vessel looks very clean
and polished and beautiful, and the inside gets
full of dirt and filth and scum and
sewage.
And one day, the whole thing falls apart.
Man looks on the outward appearance.
God looks on the heart.
Don't substitute reputation for character.
The important thing in life is not popularity.
The important thing in life is doing the
will of God.
There was a fifth substitute in his life,
and this led to his ruin.
He substituted saying for doing and fooled himself
into thinking that because he talked about it,
he did it.
He substituted excuses for confession.
He thought he could blame somebody else.
He substituted sacrifice for obedience.
He wanted to buy his way out.
He substituted reputation for character, more concerned about
what people think than what God knows.
And finally, he substituted his will for God's
will.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Idolatry and witchcraft.
Now actually, he did end up with a
witch.
You know that.
In that last great battle that came to
Saul's life, and Saul cried out to God
for wisdom, and God didn't answer.
So Saul went down to a witch's cave.
The scripture says he disguised himself.
He was not disguising himself.
He was revealing himself.
He'd been that way all along.
Idolatry and witchcraft.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the
Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being
king.
Verse 26.
And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not
return with thee, for thou hast rejected the
word of the Lord, and the Lord hath
rejected thee from being king over Israel.
How big does a sin have to be?
We don't read that Saul was guilty of
immorality.
He simply disobeyed the word of God.
He substituted his will for God's will.
What Samuel is saying is this to Saul.
He says, you know Saul, everything we have
comes from the word of God.
You're king because God's word said so.
And you went on this trip because God
told you to.
And God would have given you complete victory
if you'd obeyed him.
Everything we have comes through the word of
God.
I'm saved today because of the word of
God.
He that heareth my word and believeth on
him that sent me hath everlasting life.
I know I'm saved because of the word
of God.
Day by day, I discover the will of
God through the word of God.
I get encouragement through the word of God.
I know if I should die, I'm going
to heaven because of the word of God.
I know that when I share the word
in ministry, it's not going to be wasted
because God's word says his word will never
return void.
All of my encouragement, all of my wisdom,
all of my strength comes from the word
of God.
Now, what right do I have to disobey
the word of God and substitute my will
for God's will?
Now, when you reject God's word, you're rejecting
God's love.
Why did God command Saul?
Because he loved him.
The word of God is the expression of
the love of God.
The word of God is the expression of
the mind of God.
So when I reject God's word, I reject
his love.
I love myself more.
When I reject his word, I reject his
mind.
I'm smarter than he is.
When I reject his word, I reject his
power.
He speaks and there's power.
And the thing that cost Saul his crown
was rebellion.
Saul was a rebel and God is not
going to tolerate rebels.
A rebel is one who says, Lord, I
know what you want me to do, but
I'm not going to do it.
I've got a better way.
I know where you want me to go,
but I'm not going to go.
I know you want me to break this
thing off.
I'm not going to break it off because
I know better than you do.
It's a rebellion.
How many times have you gone through the
supermarket, pushing your little cart, only to turn
the corner and see some little brat on
the floor, kicking his heels and screaming, wanting
something off the shelf.
And mother is saying, now you can't have
it, junior.
Get up.
If I had done, if they had had
supermarkets back when I was a little kid
and I had done that to my mother,
I wouldn't have been on that floor very
long.
I would have been over her knee and
she wouldn't have been the least bit embarrassed
to spank me right there in that store
because my parents would not tolerate rebellion and
God doesn't tolerate rebellion.
Saul substituted his will for God's will.
So God said, all right, you want it
that way.
You can have it.
You've rejected me.
I'll reject you.
You don't want my crown.
Fine.
I'll take it back.
You don't want my throne.
Great.
I'll put somebody else there.
Saul made his own choice.
Saul was judge and jury and executioner when
he substituted his will for God's will.
And so Samuel left Saul.
And the only time that Samuel saw Saul
again was when they met in that witch's
cave.
That witch thought she was going to conjure
up some demon.
But God took over in that meeting and
Samuel showed up and the witch was so
frightened she hit the deck.
And Samuel said, Saul, you're going to be
where I am tomorrow about this time.
And the death bells began to toll for
Saul.
Whenever I read this chapter, I think of
another Saul who came from the tribe of
Benjamin.
We don't know him as Saul.
We know him as Paul, but his first
name was Saul, Saul of Tarsus.
And God called Saul of Tarsus to be
an apostle.
And he was a success.
Oh, he lost his life, but not as
a suicide.
He lost his life as a martyr.
He didn't substitute saying for doing.
He did.
He said, these things I'm writing to you,
I have experienced myself.
He didn't substitute excuses for confession.
Saul had Saul of Tarsus had no excuses.
He was confessing Christ.
And I'm sure when he sinned, he confessed
his sin.
Saul of Tarsus, Paul, the apostle, didn't substitute
sacrifice for obedience.
His obedience led to sacrifice.
He didn't substitute reputation for character.
He was known as the scum of the
earth.
Had he compromised with the right people at
the right time, he could have been a
very important, influential man in the Jewish Commonwealth,
but he didn't do it.
You know what they called Paul?
Troublemaker, a pest, a nuisance.
This man who's turned the world upside down.
Paul didn't care about reputation.
He had character.
Paul didn't substitute his will for God's will.
You know what Paul said?
None of these things move me.
Neither count I my life gear unto myself
that I may finish my course and finish
the ministry that God's given to me.
And some of his closest friends wept over
him and said, oh, are you sure you're
doing the right thing?
And Paul said, stop your crying.
I'm doing the right thing.
My friend, your character is your most priceless
possession next to your salvation.
God didn't save us just to rescue us
from hell.
He saved us that today, tomorrow he might
build character into our lives, honesty and integrity,
a clean conscience, a life of discipline and
devotion and denial.
That's what he saved us for.
And in this day of shallow Christianity, in
this day when it's so easy to sing
the right songs, use the right cliches.
If we aren't careful, folks, we're going to
find ourselves on the same slide that took
Saul down to death.
May I repeat these for you and then
we'll close.
Don't substitute saying for doing.
If you want to have revival in your
life, just make sure everything you say is
true.
Whatever you sing is true.
Whatever you pray is true.
Don't substitute excuses for confession.
If today some one of us needs to
confess sin, let's do it.
Don't substitute sacrifice for obedience.
You can't buy your way out of the
will of God.
Don't sacrifice reputation for character.
If there's something in our lives that others
don't know, give it time, they'll know it.
Don't substitute our will for God's will.
Don't live on substitutes.
Live on the real thing.
I think of my Lord Jesus Christ, that
great King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Perfect integrity, perfect character.
Sacrifice, obedience, devotion.
He was able to come to the end
of his life and look up to his
Father and say, Father, I finished the work
you gave me to do.
I've done the job you wanted me to
do here on earth.
I hope that's going to be true of
our lives.
What a tragedy it would be for us
to get to the end of our lives
and discover we've been living on substitutes and
it's all gone.
There is no substitute for Jesus Christ.
If you've never trusted him, you come and
trust him today.
There is no substitute for Christian living.
Religion is no substitute.
If we're not living for him, let's today
determine to live for him and not be
found losing our crown and losing our lives
on substitutes.
Gracious Father in heaven, we have read this
chapter and studied it and our hearts are
warned.
Oh Lord, there is in our hearts a
great desire to be real, to be building
on that which is real.
And I pray that you'll help us today
to do what you want us to do,
that we might be what you want us
to be.
Help those who need to be saved to
come to Christ.
Help backslidden Christians to be restored to fellowship.
Lord, where there is something that needs to
be dealt with, help us courageously to deal
with it for your glory.
And may we move forward in obedience to
your word for Jesus' sake.
Amen.