To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

This is a thick text with a very captivating story. Our main topic this morning is sin. We're going to be thinking a lot about sin. Now that may not sound real encouraging, maybe, to think about what it means to miss the mark and to rebel. It's actually a fantastic way of preparing for Christmas. Christ coming is not good news unless He's coming to save us as sinners. It's not good news unless He's coming again to make all things new and to restore all things to truly goodness. We're in 1 Samuel 15, and we're looking at this because we're walking through 1 Samuel chapter by chapter. To give you just a big picture if you're you're new with us of what's going on here God created the world. He spoke all things into the world After each day it was declared good we as humans rebelled against God, we refuse to listen to that one commandment, don't eat. Everyone after Adam then is born in sin. And God made a promise, I will reverse this. That's the big picture. We've caused the problem and God is the solution. What we're dealing here, 1 Samuel, with Israel specifically. God created Israel by making a promise. I will make you my people. You're my promised people. Then he delivers them from Egypt and makes them a nation by delivering them and giving them his commandments. And if you remember, what is God's people doing while God is giving them his commandments? They're breaking all of them by building a golden calf. Then God sends them into the wilderness, sends them into the promised land. Even in the promised land, they continue to do what's right in their own eyes, yet God is gracious, calls them back. They continue this pattern of rejection. God continues the pattern of calling them to repent. It's a regular pattern that has not broken today. Now that they're in the promised land, they have given the final, full rejection of God You're not doing your job, they say to God. We want a king like the nations. God gives him that king. It's Saul. He gives three confirmations in chapters 9 to 11. Chapter 12, Israel repents. Then we see Saul rejected in 13, 14, and 15. This is the final rejection of Saul. As you heard, God makes it very clear, I have regretted making Saul king over Israel. If you're looking at our text, I'm going to give us four words to kind of organize the text in. These are the four points. Command. Rejection. Judgment. Response. So if you're taking notes and you kind of want headings, command, which speaks of God's clear command. Rejection, Saul's rejection of that command. Judgment. That is the flow of the story that captures the basic steps in what happens. First, God's clear command. As we heard, it's a pretty straightforward command. God's a competent communicator. He's clear. Destroy everything among the Malachites. Devote to destruction. This is just like what he said about Jericho when the people first go into the promised land, destroy everything. Now, there's two things we really deal with here. First, it's clear. When God sends his people on a mission, when God wants his people to know who he is and what he expects, it's clear. As Deuteronomy 30 says, it's not too high for you that you have to ascend to the heavens. It's not too low for you that you have to go down to Sheol. It's not too far for you that you have to go to another land. No, God speaks. And He speaks clearly. The other thing I want to wrestle with for a moment, because this text has some complications. God wants to wipe out an entire people. That sounds vicious. That sounds hard. People want to question the God who would wipe out an entire people. So I just want to walk through and explain why God is just. And it's okay to ask questions of God. It's not okay to question God's goodness. Right? There's an assumption about the way we ask questions here. The very nature of God is that He is slow to anger. He's quick to show mercy. He stated that over and over again. If we even go back to Genesis 15, God tells Abraham, I'm going to make you a people, but you're going to not enter the land for 400 years. Why? Because he's going to give the Gentiles who are rebelling against him, who are wicked people, 400 years to repent of their sins. That's a gracious God. They don't repent, and so he shows judgment. Even if we go back to Genesis 12, God has promised Abraham, I will bless you and make you a blessing. I will bless you. And those who bless you, I will bless. And those who attack you, I will curse. Well, on the way out of the Exodus and into the Promised Land, the Amalekites cursed Israel. God has promised to bring justice and vindication on anybody who would burden and curse his people. He is merely keeping his word by devoting destruction all the Amalekites. Finally as we could look at in Romans 1, everything that can be known of God about his divine wisdom and nature is plain in his creation. We call this general revelation. It's a common grace that all people can look around, and she wants to see that there's a good God that is worthy of worship, and yet Romans tells us that everyone suppresses this truth, and so God gives us over to our sin. These people are not good. God does not punish them for sins they have not committed. I understand there's probably more questions than what I've tried to answer. But the focus here is that God is good. He's revealed himself as good. And there's so many different ways in which he's fulfilling promises or fulfilling ways in which he's revealed himself that this actually is what he must do. Now here's the real difficult. Is this the mission of the church? How do we think about this command to Israel, the nation, as the new Israel, the holy nation, the kingdom of priesthood church today? Good news, this is not our command. We are supposed to win over our enemy, but Jesus gives a new command, which quite frankly is a lot harder to keep than this one to the Israelites. Love your enemy. Now we can step back and have an ethical, moral discussion of what God should have said and what God should have done. If you don't like the fact that God's going to smite and bring judgment on all people, God now in Christ, in the new covenant, in the new law of Christ, says, love your enemy. If we're going to judge God there, are we actually going to judge ourselves in asking ourselves, Are we keeping that commandment? Quite frankly, that is a heavy commandment that requires us to trust God and obey Him. We see God's commandment. It's very clear. Destroy everything. He lists things just to make sure you know exactly what's supposed to be involved. It's supposed to be an utter destruction. That's the command. God's command is clear. The second thing we see is man's rejection is also clear. So Saul summoned the people. Okay, it looks like quick obedience, that's good. He calls upon the Amalekites. Now there is this one little point here when he states to the Kenites, verse six, you all need to get out of here. We're gonna try to protect you. Remember Moses' father-in-law, the Kenite? The Kenites did not participate in cursing Israel during the Exodus. That's why God shows them kindness. Verse 7, God gives them victory. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Hevelah, as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people at the edge of the sword. But, there's a clear contrast, but Saul and the people spared the king and the best sheep. Now, we can almost sympathize a little here, right? Waste not, want not. just using basic wisdom from below that, you know, why would we destroy something that's good? We can take it and use it. You can just feel the pragmatism and the practicality of why they would say, well surely God didn't mean the good sheep. We can appreciate that. We could rationalize in our own way of thinking, okay, we heard God say this, or rather Saul heard God say this. Let's, let's keep something. Here's the question. Can we honor God with partial obedience? That is the pressing question here in this text. Can we honor God with partial obedience. When we qualify God's commandments, when we don't trust Him, when we think we might have, okay, well, surely God wouldn't think this. Maybe surely God wouldn't want me to destroy the best sheep. As we teach our children, obedience should be marked by three things. Happy, full, If it's not quick obedience, it's not obedience. If it's not full obedience, if you partially obey, it's not full obedience. If you do not do so happily, it's not obedience. And those of us who have children realize how difficult it is to teach quick, full, and happy obedience. And those of us who are aware of the sins of our own hearts realize how hard it is for God to teach us to have quick, full, and happy obedience. Refusing to obey God in any way is denying our highest calling, and that is worship. Most of our time is going to be this next point. But we need to see this context is just clear. There's a, there's a contrast in God's good commandment and God's people not keeping it. Our third point. We've seen the command. We've seen rejection. Now we see judgment. And this is going to be a longer point. Don't get excited. Wow, point one and two are going to be quick. Short sermon. Nah, probably not. This is going to take some exercise. I'm going to hold that God's Word is clear, but we're going to have to really think and wrestle with what He says. Now, I want to be very clear. Verse 10, under judgment, it begins in the most gracious, glorious way. God speaks. Look at verse 10. The Word of the Lord came. He is not silent. He does not want his people to remain in confusion. He spoke clearly in verse 3 regarding the mission. Now he's going to speak very clearly in verse 10 regarding sin. He speaks clearly so that his people will listen and obey and enjoy his blessing. Even this word of judgment is a good gift. The word of the Lord came to Samuel. Again, he's the prophet, the priest, Saul the king. And he declares to Samuel, I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. First thing is in chapter 13, God's already said he's rejected Saul, and he's going to replace him with a man after his own heart. If you look down later in verse 28, he says, I'm going to replace you with somebody better than you. That's what we all want to hear, right? We need to wrestle with this word regret. Regret is used three times in our passage. Verse 11, verse 29, and verse 35. I regret that I made Saul king over you, verse 11. Verse 35, at the very end, and the Lord regretted that he made Saul king over Israel. We can see the end emphasis, we can see the repetition. This word's important for our text. It's not just a word about sin, it's a word about God and how he treats sin. Now, the trick comes in verse 29. Twice, God is affirmed as regretting, 35, and the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret. Now it's denied, and it's denied in an absolute way. For God is not a man that he should have regret. Now, you understand there's two different kinds of statements being used here regarding regret. God had regret, but God does not have regret. Let's just begin with a couple of assumptions. First, the authors of Scripture are not stupid. Let's just assume that the author of this text, who's using this word in the different scopes, the two different ways and the scopes of the way the word can be used, he's doing it intentionally. All right, so the authors of Scripture are intentionally saying this same word in two different ways, intentionally. Second, God, the ultimate author, is competent to reveal who he is and what he's like. He's not schizophrenic here. He's not confused. He's not confusing. You know, there's two ways to look at Scripture. There's one in which we look at it and there's hard things. Praise God, Peter says Paul says hard things. There's hard things. There's difficult things. There's wisdom that comes from above that does not mesh directly with our wisdom that comes from below, our earthliness, our here-ness. There's heavily things being spoken of that we have a hard time with, and there's two basic postures that we can take. Either we look down on God's Word and we try to judge it, or we stand beneath it. Trusting it must be true. Trusting God must be good. And that in His wisdom, in His power, He will reveal Himself. We should know God's ways are higher than our ways. Let me seek to try to do justice to this. To explain it. And that whole very posture. Realize Saul has the posture of standing over God and saying, this is how I will obey you and not obey you. The whole point of this text is a posture humility saying what God says is good and must be right. If I don't understand something, I'm the problem. Lord give me eyes to see. If we look at verses 11 and 35, they are similar. God regretted. The word here seems to be following in that line of meaning that God is grieved. He has a king. He's given that king confirmation. He's given that king power. And that king has not used that power for his good purpose for his people. The king has been disobedient. God is not surprised by that any more than he was surprised by Adam in the garden. That doesn't mean he's not grieved. It doesn't mean he does not have a response of looking at Saul and being disappointed that he is continuing to follow his own way. The way it's used in verse 29 would be more like the King James translation, repent. God doesn't make mistakes, is what verse 29 says. God can regret in the sense that he's grieving that this person has been appointed, but God does not make mistakes. God does not make mistakes in that he sent his son to die for us. God does not make mistakes in that His Son purchased us with His own blood, that He rose again to call us, He sent His Holy Spirit to seal us, right? God does not make mistakes in whom He chooses to save. Amen? But we can grieve the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4.30. God does not make mistakes in whom he gives the Holy Spirit, but yet we can grieve the Spirit. It's the same thing that's happening in this text. Whom God chooses is never a mistake, but when that person, us included, disobey and refuse and reject, God cares. The Holy Spirit who's yearning to help us see the Son. The Holy Spirit that's crying out, Abba Father. The Holy Spirit that prays when we do not pray is grieved when we do not show tender kindness. When we do not forgive as God forgives. This is just the immediate commands around Ephesians 4. God regrets God regrets Saul and his actions as a king, but God does not repent. He has not made a mistake. He has said, David will be my next king. Next chapter, chapter 16, that's what happens. God does not make mistakes, but our sin does grieve God. Notice what the man of God does next. Samuel has heard the word of the Lord. I regret that Saul has not performed my commandments. So Saul was angry. Saul is so drawn near to God. He is connected with God. He thinks God's thoughts after him. He feels God's emotions after him. He cries all night because of the sin of Saul, because of the way it's going to affect Israel, because of how it affects God. Verse 12, Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And as Samuel nears, the word of the Lord has come. Saul's built a monument to himself. Okay, Samuel's starting to get a picture of what's going on here. All right, who builds a monument to themselves? Someone with pride. Someone who's boasting. Someone who's trying to make a name for themselves. Samuel has built a monument for himself. Samuel comes to Saul, verse 13, and Saul approaches him. Blessed be to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. That's a bold greeting. That's a very confident man. He's got a monument being built. He greets Samuel. Samuel has already heard the word of the Lord, and what Saul is saying does not align with what the Lord is saying. So Samuel responds, and notice what Samuel does. He points to clear evidence. What is the bleeding of sheep in the ears and lowing of oxen that I hear? If you've performed the, if you've performed the commandment of God, if you've done what He sent you to do, what am I hearing? Notice what Saul says. This is pretty fantastic for some self-introspection. First word. First word earlier was, I have performed the commandment of God. What's the first word here? They. Nothing like some good misdirection, right? Whenever the light is on you, and it's clear, again, this is, remember, he performed sacrifices earlier, and Saul shows up, and he says, what have you done? Samuel gives an excuse there, Saul gives an excuse there. They, the people, they brought those sheep and those oxen. For the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, and the rest we've devoted to destruction." So we devoted some things to destruction. We. But they kept the best. This isn't the first time we've seen blame shifting when God has clearly pointed out sin. They have done it. We devoted some. It's partial obedience. Now, what Samuel says next is quite brilliant. Stop. What a remarkably gracious word in the context. Stop it. All right, we've all been there and wanted to say that. Saul is confronted clearly In the midst of his trying to put off his own responsibility, his own culpability, Samuel just says what he needs to hear, stop it. That's one of those loving things you can tell somebody who's going in the wrong direction. Stop. It's what repentance requires. Stop. I will tell you what the Lord has said to me this night. And we see here Saul gives the right response there. Speak. Tell me. So Samuel gives the more direct, clear confrontation from, thus says the Lord. This is God's revelation. Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Okay, 17 and 18, that's the clear declaration. And I just need to explain here, though you were little in your own eyes, that's not kind of a, let me say something nice first, that you're humble. No, he's actually saying, Saul, you're trying to downplay your very significant role by saying they took them. God appointed you king. It's your responsibility. But by simply saying you think little of your own eyes, that's actually a confrontation. You have great authority, Saul. You have great power, Saul. God has given it to you. You can't misdirect. You can't put the blame on somebody else. God sent you. This is on you. Verse 19. He confronts him, and this is so important. He confronts him and he doesn't leave him in the box of confrontation. You ever felt that? This is who you are and what you've done, and here's your box, here's your walls, and you have to stay there. Anytime God gives a confrontation, there's an invitation. There's a question. There's an invitation to come out. This is what you've done. There's a question. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil on the side of the Lord? These questions are calling Saul to stop this arrogant, monument-building declaration that I have built, I have performed, I have done these things. It's the people. There's a call to reflection so that he can repent. This is where it's very important to stop, reflect, and pray. Notice what Saul says. Verse 20. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission which the Lord has sent me. I have brought Agog, the king of Amalekites, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. I have, I have, I have, I have. There's, there's no backing down. He stands strong in his self-deception. Now some of these things are partially true. But he's not fully obeyed. He's not happily obeyed. He's still boasting that he thinks he's done the performance that is expected of him. I have done. He's not doing the most basic spiritual discipline, and that is listening. He's not listening. If we just think about what Jesus says in Matthew 18, If somebody has sinned against you, what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to go to them. And the problem continues if they do not listen. And you take another witness. And if they do not listen, you take them over to the church. And if they do not listen, then you're to cast them out and treat them like a tax collector. Saul's not listening. There's a humility of listening that seeks to be corrected. Here the Lord is speaking. Samuel, who's been a trustworthy prophet, who has brought the word of the Lord throughout Israel, is speaking, and he's still, that is Saul, boasting. Verse 21, he's also continuing to blame the people. It's the people that took the bus. What happens next here, verse 22, we need to realize that whenever poetry is introduced into a narrative, there's a heightening emphasis. We see this in Genesis 1. Right? When man is made in his image, there's that poetic declaration of man being made in God's image that heightens that point. In Genesis 2, when there's a song sung by man declaring how good that God is that has brought woman finally, it's a song, it heightens it. Here, this song shows how important it is. Samuel breaks out in song in confrontation. trying to make his point clear. It's a poem. Samuel said, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offering 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. Now this is somewhat confusing, maybe, because God has commanded sacrifices. Why did God command sacrifices? Because of disobedience. Right? Sacrifices, according to God's Word, are ways in which, when we sin, we can offer, in the Old Testament, they offered a sacrifice to appease the wrath of God. In the New Testament, see, Christ is the once-for-all sacrifice that has done away with sin for those who believe in Him. So sacrifices aren't wrong. It's actually what Samuel is wanting to, or Saul is wanting to do with them. Verse 21, they kept the best things to make a sacrifice. They kept the best things, these people of Israel, to make a sacrifice. Well, the clear point of this passage is to obey is better than sacrifice. But notice how Samuel interprets this action. The rebellion is as the sin of divination. The presumption is as the iniquity and idolatry. The sacrifices that Saul and Israel are performing are not the sacrifices that the Levites do. Right? If you're a pagan, you make sacrifices because what you do with those sacrifices is you're giving God an I-O-U you're trying to control God. Here's the sacrifice, God. Here's what I want you to have. And in response, I expect you to owe me something. You see, Saul's pattern is to constantly try to manipulate God and God's people by not trusting God's word, but by going outside of it. Notice the whole point here is, for rebellion, your rebellion is as a sin of divination. What is divination? is trying to gain extra knowledge outside of what God has said in the spirit world. Seeking the spirits of the dead, seeking information from angels or demons. The whole point here is you're not listening to the God who speaks. You're wanting to find some extra special way to know God outside of what he said. Kind of like tarot cards or the Ouija board. The sacrifices. He's trying to control God. I want to give you these things so that you'll give me what I want. The whole point here is God's Word is sufficient. It's clear. To listen, to believe, to obey, that is the call of the believer. Now, rebellion is like divination. Seeking God's will outside of His law. Not delighting in what God has said, but rather trying to find something extra. You realize when we try to find something extra, we're saying God is not true to His word in 2 Peter 1, that everything pertaining to life and godliness God has made known. This is alive and well today in our Christian circles. I don't like to call out folks usually from the pulpit, but there's just a clear example. There's a book, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. The reason that was written, she said in the introduction and preface of the first edition, God's word just wasn't enough. So I asked Jesus to speak to me directly and I started writing it down. God's Word isn't enough. I need God to give me an extra special Word because His Word isn't enough to obey. It's better than sacrifice. That's what's really great about selling books in our Christian circles. Realize the very heart of it is a rejection of God's good Word being sufficient and clear. We're not We're just as capable of falling into the same sin as Saul. Your presumptions. They're idolatry. Thinking that I will figure out how to do it in my way. The final message for Saul. You've rejected me and my word. I'm going to reject you as king. The emphasis here is, if you will not obey me, you cannot serve me. This morning, we are a people of grace. We have heard from God. We believe God. We are saved by grace alone and not by works. But it's very important to understand that obedience demonstrates a life of trust and love. Obedience is the way we demonstrate a life of trust and love. Jesus makes it very clear. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. We too often want to separate. Right? We definitely want to separate salvation by works versus salvation by faith. We want to separate that. But we cannot ever separate the idea of good works being part of the Christian life, because as Ephesians 2 makes very clear, you are saved by grace, not by works. You're saved through faith, not by works. But yet God has prepared you for good works. It's Advent season. We're gonna celebrate Christmas Eve. We're gonna meditate upon Jesus being born, God himself taking on flesh. It is a season to sing, O come, O come, Emmanuel. And in Advent season, it is also specifically emphasized throughout church history that it's a time to remember Jesus is coming back. He's coming back. Paul warns the church of Corinth in 2 Corinthians 5 that when Jesus returns, every believer will appear before the judgment seat of Christ and will receive what is due. That doesn't mean we lose our salvation or gain salvation. That means we're going to have to give an account. We're going to receive a final discipline or a final reward. for what we have done with our time, with our gifts, with our resources, with our heart and our worship and who we listen to and why. I have to warn you, Christ is coming. He's coming back. And if you believe in Him, you're saved, and you will enter into His presence, and you will be part of the feast. But there is a stated, clear judgment for all believers where we will have to give an account. And Paul's exhortation in 2 Corinthians 5 is very clear. Aim to do what pleases the Lord. We know elsewhere He makes it very clear. Live the life where you would hear the words at that moment, well done, good and faithful servant. That's not earning salvation. That's earning rewards. We need to remember there is an account that we will have to give for how we, those who believe in Jesus, have actually listened to Him and obeyed Him. It's a warning obedience. To obey is better than sacrifice. We see now the response, our last point. Saul said to Samuel, an encouraging response at first glance. I have sinned. Okay, we finally have the right I have, right? Earlier we saw, I've obeyed, I've kept, I've done this, I went on a mission. We finally see the right kind of I have. I have sinned, I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord. That is specific, it is clear, it is helpful. He even tells us why. Because I feared the people. Fear of man is a real temptation. He's saying, I fear the people who wanted the best. I did not stand up as the king and tell them, no, God said to put all to destruction. I feared them and I obeyed their voice rather than the Lord's. That's a good confession. When you hear a good confession, we should be quick to forgive. We should be quick to restore. We should be quick to seek to trust again. What Saul says next makes us wonder how clear he's getting this still. Verse 25. Now therefore, that I admitted I did wrong, please pardon my sin, that's good, and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. That all sounds good, but Samuel is going to interpret that declaration for us. He says, pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. Hear what Samuel's response is, because it actually sheds light on what he's saying there. I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. It appears that what Saul is asking for Samuel, and this is his manipulation maybe, this is my interpretation of what's going on here. Saul is saying return with me so that the people see I'm still king. return with me as a heavenly endorsement that I'm still king." Samuel said, as Samuel tried to go away, Saul does what Saul does. He tries to stay in control. He grabs his robe. It's torn. So Samuel speaks, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the glory of the Lord will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. God's made his decision, you're done. He's not repenting of that. Doesn't mean he's lost his salvation if he has it, it just means he can't serve in this office anymore. He's lost the office. Saul continues, I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders. You see how he still wants that endorsement. He's not accepting the consequence of his sin. He's not accepting the truth of what God says. He's still not listening. Honor me now before the elders and the people that I may bow before the Lord. Now if you look at verse 31, Samuel turned back with Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord, but Samuel's not turning back to honor him and go worship with him. Samuel goes and does what Saul does, cannot do. He refuses to do. He kills the king as God commanded. He finishes God's mission. And he tells the king, verse 33, as your sword has made women childless, So shall your mother be childless among women." And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Geocha. We see the response of Saul is still lacking. He's not accepting the consequences. He's still trying to figure out how to manipulate the situation so he can continue as king. He's not realizing that what he has done has been so offensive and so egregious and so bad for Israel that he's accepting he's not going to be king anymore. He tries to grab his coat, no you're not going anywhere. He tries to get his endorsement. So we gotta question what kind of confession this is. As we turn to some final application, I feel the need because of what's happened in this passage to be very clear about something. What Saul is losing is only an office. It's an important office, it's king. It's not clear if Saul has expressed saving faith. It's not clear that Saul has, has become part of the elect of Israel by faith in God's promise. It's confusing because it seems like every time God says something he doesn't listen or obey by faith. Let me try to put this in, in kind of today's context. I am certain that I can sin in such a way that I am no longer fit to be called pastor. That's an office that can be lost. I'm certain that I can sin in such a way that I can lose the privilege of being a member of a local church in good standing. I can sin in such a way that you would not want to take the Lord's Supper with me and get that affirmation and blessing of fellowship. I'm certain I can lose those two privileges and positions. Thirdly, I am certain that I cannot sin in such a way that God would stop loving me. I am certain that I cannot sin in such a way that His grace could not overcome my sin and still save me. I am certain that I cannot sin in such a way that the Holy Spirit would stop sealing me for adoption and sealing me for redemption, but I can sin in such a way that I stop enjoying that and having the assurance of it. That distinction is very important. You can lose positions in the church. You cannot lose your position and privilege to be called a child of God because once Christ purchased you as a sinner, you cannot sin your way outside of his redemption and love. We do see the destructive power of sin. We see the sin of omission. A sin of omission is not doing what God commands. He did not do everything God commanded. When God says to do something, like we read earlier, be a cheerful giver, when God says do something, love your enemy, it is a command and not to do it is a sin of omission. We see the sins of commission. This is actively lying. This is actively manipulating. This is offering things for sacrifices that aren't meant to be sacrifices. This is taking on roles and responsibilities that are outside, like Saul does. So we see here, in our very story, sins of omission, sins of commission. Ben preached this passage back in 2014, and I highly recommend you go listen to his sermon as well. I was actually tempted to just have him preach it this morning. He emphasized the fruit sin and root sin. Right? Sin's like an onion. There's the evidence of sin in the actions, but really the sin of the heart, the desires that lead to sin. Jesus says it's from the heart that all kinds of sin come forth. The pride, and unbelief, and selfishness, that's what leads to the actions of anger, and self-righteousness, and slander, and adultery. It's the sin inside, when we don't seek God to heal us, that leads to sins of action. Root sins and fruit sins. Those are the things I want us to meditate upon regarding sin. First, sin is self-deceiving. Sin is self-deceiving. How many times does Saul just refuse to hear the word of the Lord? No, I'm good. I did this. I don't think he's intentionally lying. I think he's believing what he's saying. He's continuing to argue the word of the Lord with full belief that he has obeyed the voice of the Lord. He has performed the commandments. He is self-deceived. Once you start lying, it's hard to keep track of what the lie is. It's hard to keep track of what God's truth is. This is why it's so good that God speaks so that we know where we have believed a lie? First of all, sin is self-deceiving. Second, it's God-rejecting. When we sin, we're saying God's Word is not good enough. When we sin, we're saying what God has for us is not enough. It is not good enough. Finally, it's others harming. Saul and his sin has put Israel in a difficult situation. When we sin, it hurts others. It never is isolated. Sin and lies especially are always compounding, snowballing, and others are hurt in the midst. We see here Saul, he's believing a lie. Do you wrestle with the fact that you're always being tempted into different kinds of stories? There's one true story where God has told us who he is, and what he's done, and what he expects, and there's a lot of other phonies. Just think about the holiday. There's two basic prominent stories. One story is you get to go tell a magical man who's a reindeer whisperer all the things you want. And he provides. He sneaks in and he gives you all the things you want. And the end result is you're just as unsatisfied as you were before six weeks later. That's one story that dominates our culture right now. The magic of Christmas. The other is God decided what we need. God sent the good gift. God gave us, instead of us asking what we want, God gave us what he wanted, and he gave us himself, and he gave us his own son, and he took on flesh, and he lived the life we refuse to live, and he died the death we deserve, and he rose again to give us life. It's better than all the things we think we want. It truly satisfies and gives peace. But we're always tempted to the other story of thinking I know what I need. My wants before what God says I really need. And we also like to mix those stories together. The most basic truth, God is good. What He says is good. What He does is good. What He commands is good. What He warns us against is evil and destructive. When we think about this passage, remember Jesus says, cut off your right hand, or gouge out your eye, because if it causes you to sin, because it's better for that to be destroyed than for your whole body to be destroyed in hell. There's a call for repentance, not partial obedience, not I'll hold on to this sin because I'm doing okay on this side. No. Cut it off. Mortify sin. Put off sin. Put on Christ. Saul is a warning to us of what it means to be an obstinate, stiff-necked sinner. Remind you, Romans 10 makes it very clear. God says, I hold out my hands all day long to a people who are obstinate. His grace abounds where sin abounds. But we have to stop holding on to sin. His grace abounds where sin abounds. We have to believe in him. This morning, if you hear his voice, listen. Don't rationalize that thing he's convicting you of. Do not qualify it. Do not practicalize it like the Israelites did with the best. No, this morning is a warning. See how dangerous and deceptive sin is. And see the call to draw near to God, so that you would listen and obey. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have not left us alone. We thank you that you have sent your Son to die for us. We thank you that you have sent your Spirit to renew us, to illuminate our minds, our hearts, so that we can see you, so that we can hear you. Lord, help us to respond today with a desire to listen. to put off our practiced excuses, to put off the sin that has entangled us, to ask Christ from above to unmingle this heart and the affections we have that are so confused. Lord, bend our hearts up to you so that we can know you and love you. and express that fully by obeying your commandments. Thank you for the law and the call to delight in it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.