I invite you to turn tonight in the scriptures to 1st Samuel chapter 14 as we pick up at verse 47 pick up at verse 47 and we'll read through chapter 15 and of course chapter 16 and 17 16 David is anointed and then we have the fascinating section with David and Goliath but before we get there we have this section tonight that is very important that sets the stage for all of that. So again, 1 Samuel chapter 14 beginning at verse 47. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he routed them. He did valiantly and struck the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who plundered them. Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, Malkishua, and the names of his two daughters were these. The name of the firstborn was Merib, and the name of the younger was Michal. And the name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Ner, Saul's uncle. Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner, the father of Abner, was the son of Abiel. There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he attached himself, attached him to himself. 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. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Talaim, 200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, go depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites and Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 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. The word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made Saul king for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. and samuel was angry and he cried to the lord all night and samuel rose early to meet saul in the morning and it was told samuel saul told samuel saul came to carmel and behold he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to gilgal and samuel came to saul and saul said to him blessed be you to the lord i have performed the commandment of the lord and samuel said what then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that i hear saul said they have brought them from the amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the lord your god and the rest we have devoted to destruction then samuel said to saul stop i will tell you what the lord said to me this night and he said to him speak and samuel said 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 why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord why did you pounce on the spoil and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord and Saul said to Samuel I have obeyed the voice of the Lord I've gone on the mission on which the Lord has 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. 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've rejected the word of the Lord. He has also rejected you from being king. Saul said to Samuel, I've sinned for I've transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you for you've rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him, 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 Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. Then he said, I have sinned. Yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord. Then Samuel said, Bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, 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 Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. There ends the reading of God's word. That's about as troubling a passage as it gets, isn't it? That is about as troubling a passage as it gets. In every single way, this passage is troubling and it should be. It's meant to be. It is the long conclusion tonight of Saul's kingship which leads to the complete and final rejection of him as king over Israel. That's what this is. We have to keep that in front of us because it's just so distressing, this series of events that are in front of us. And on an initial reading, I read it at my house in front of the table and none of us felt good after hearing this passage. They wanted me to preach it right then and there. I said, just wait until Sunday. so we'll get to the meaning of it. I want to remind you that by the next section, we have a king of God's choosing, and everything's going to go radically different with him. At this point, at the heart of this is the message that I want to say we know from Ephesians. The basic point here can't be missed. We know that salvation is by grace through faith alone in Christ alone, that you have not been saved by your works, and that it is not by your obedience, lest anyone should boast. The truth that we have here that is being shown to us, that very truth that we confess is being shown to us now on the level of the office of king. What I mean is, Israel's choice of a king was Saul. And God didn't lighten his standard in light of their choice of a king. We know the office was designed, the office of king, we've studied this. The office was designed that the king would deliver all of God's people from their enemies, all of them, and that he would rule them and shepherd them and care for them and never let an enemy harm them. This is what a king does. But God would not accept the imperfect obedience of Israel's choice. Did you hear that? God would not accept it. We have to understand this, that just as God doesn't accept our imperfect obedience, that's why He tells us over and over and why it means so much when we say, listen, you can't save yourself. We have to say that over and over and over. You can't save yourself. This was the same thing for the king of Israel. It's meant for us to stand back of these sections in Samuel and say, we need a righteous king who can deliver us. We need an entirely different kind of king. And any other application of this misses the heart of what the book is doing for us and what it's showing us and what it's laying down for us. Let's look at this, and I think you'll see this so clearly. We see this unfold in this command that really becomes the heart of this. And then, of course, Saul's disobedience to the command and then how the Lord has the necessity for raising up a new king. Notice verse 1 tonight that says, 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've noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Here's what I want you to do, Saul. Here is the command of your kingship. Here is what the Lord is commanding you to do. You are going to go and you are going to devote to destruction. You are going to put under the ban. This is holy war in the Old Testament. You are going to put all of Amalek under that ban. And you're not going to spare anything that lives. Nothing. And you'll notice the shocking language there. Man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. Hard verse for us. Hard verse for us. The other day at our prayer meeting, we were reading and we got to Psalm 58. And starting our day, we read Psalm 58. And this is the same kind of psalm. The wicked go astray from the womb speaking lies. Break their teeth in their mouth, O God. This is not the way to start the day. It was a little bit distressing. And we all came to the realization there at the prayer meeting, we really don't understand the justice of God. We really don't understand the righteous justice of God. We realize how careless we take it, and how little we think of how serious sin is. But I think this passage helps us tonight in a remarkable way. You remember what happened in the Exodus? God had delivered His people out of Egypt. And they were traveling and they had no weapons. They were completely vulnerable. It was a few million, they say. The going number is coming out of Egypt. And remember, they were at the rock and they were worshiping the Lord and Amalek came from behind. And there was that, remember by the end, there was the great battle where they came and they held up Moses' hands and every time the hands were held up, The Lord defeated Amalek and when the hands were put down, Amalek would win. So they defeated Amalek that day. But I want you to remember what the Lord told Israel after this in the Torah, in the law. The Lord never forgot what Amalek did to them. Here it is. Deuteronomy. Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came up out of Egypt. How he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary. and cut off your tail. Those who were lagging behind and he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you in the land that the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. When it says cut off the tail, Amalek came behind and slaughtered all the women and children he attacked the old the old people who could barely walk on this long trip amalek came and and hit them all their weak people all these people that are mentioned here in this passage and the lord you know what he said i'll never forget i'll never forget what they did to you i will execute my justice on them at the appointed time here it is here's the moment now this is a perfect application to the passage in the old covenant of what the lord has promised us in the new covenant vengeance is mine i will repay says the lord he has told us he is going to do this you don't do it we don't repay god was showing us here he would repay through the office of the king god would repay through the office of the king and we need to remember this until we have suffered some great attack by an enemy and we've seen these horrible things that can happen you may not appreciate such a passage like this but we should never read this and say how unfair we should read it and say look at how this king never forgets and look at how this king always works righteousness and justice for his sheep always always sheep who are would be led to the slaughter if it were not for his defense but this is one of the purposes of the king you understand this this is one of the purposes of a king to fight and defend the subjects to fight and defend his kingdom to love his king his subjects his people saul i have devoted them to destruction the time of their judgment has come and think of the long period here that they lived under the sun until this finally happened he now has put them under the band. Everything is to be wiped out. Now today, as we looked at this morning, we're in this wonderful day of mercy. We're in this day that we proclaim, come to Jesus now. It's a day of mercy. You can have your sins actually forgiven and not face this judgment. That's the beauty of the time we live. That's why the gospel ministry is so important. That's why we're doing what we do. But I want you to know that what we're studying here is a picture of what will happen on the last day everyone and everything outside of jesus will face this judgment it's foreshadowing of that god giving israel the land anticipates him ultimately giving us the new heavens and the new earth with no more offenders with no more attackers with no more evil with no more of this and him giving his righteous judgment. So here we are. Here's his king, Israel's king. So Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah 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 with the edge of the sword. If you read nothing else, this passage, he would have been great. Everything would have gone well. But verse 9 is the turning point. but Saul and the people spared Agath and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and of the lamb and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction. I mean, this is sheer disobedience. This is sheer disobedience to what the lord said there was nothing that could have been missed about the command from samuel it was an absolute choice to reject it and and then comes this this lengthy section here explaining that i have regretted samuel putting this man in office uh i've made he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments samuel cries all night about this i want you to notice that verse 23 helps us to make sure we don't understand regret as we understand regret in other words uh it says there that the lord does not have regret for he is a man that he should have uh for he is not a man that he should have regret in other words what he is telling us here is when he says this this king has not functioned at all as a king should function he has not done what he is commanded to do so samuel rises up early in the morning and it was told to samuel here's saul and he came to carmel and behold he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to gilgal and samuel came to saul and saul said to him and notice as samuel's walking up saul yells out blessed be you to the lord i've performed the commandment of the lord do you believe that you think that's sincere there's nothing about him that's been sincere Saul knows he hasn't done this he's lying it's kind of like me walking upstairs I hear a big fight up in the parsonage I hear all this rumbling around and I walk upstairs and they hear my footsteps and they yell out dad we're loving each other why are you all scratched up why do i see blood that's a little dramatic exactly what happens here really you've kept the command why do i what is this bleeding of the sheep what is this lowing of the oxen i hear this is really great moment saul tries to make sense of this of a of his disobedience to samuel well it wasn't me it was the people this is not a leader it was the people they wanted to keep oxen for themselves they they wanted to save those so that that they could properly worship they really what we this is what we wanted to do with this we wanted animals for worship to worship you we wanted to do the sacrificial laws that's why we kept them you believe any of this i don't and so an argument happens between saul and samuel you stop it right now you hear that you stop it saul you knew the command you knew what you were told to do you were given the word of the lord and you didn't do it why did you not obey the voice of the lord your god why did you pounce on the spoil and do what is evil in the sight of the lord i have obeyed is this a broken and contrite heart i have obeyed i've gone on the mission that the lord sent me to do i have brought agag the king of amalek and i have devoted the amalekites to destruction it's like is this guy this clueless but the people they took of the spoil and the ox and the best of the things to sacrifice to the lord your god in gilgal and the thing you're supposed to do at this point is say that is not what god told him to do that's the issue of the text tonight that's the issue let me ask you this question. And this is so important for us. Does God accept half obedience? This is where the commentators are so interesting because all of them then applied this right to us and beat God's people for not having complete obedience. And I struggle with that right now. I struggle with that because is that really what this office and what's going on here and what we should take from this text because because you'll notice here this is a remarkable moment of what comes out here notice this look at what samuel said in verse 22 has the lord as great a light in burnt offerings 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 witchcraft Make sure you feel that. And presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Have you ever done it? Have you ever done it? Did you hear what happened here? What's the problem? Study Saul. Study Saul. Previous section, you have all this mention of all of his successes. In all the outward form, this guy was right. His daughters are mentioned. If you went into Saul's house, there was the grand big picture of the family. 20 kids. Wow, you're blessed of the Lord. You've done great things in life. You've done well for yourself. You're king. You would never look at Saul and think anything's wrong. In fact, you would look at him and you would say, wow, what a model of piety in Israel. What a beautiful family. He had achieved everything, humanly speaking, that you could achieve in this life and say, blessed of the Lord, blessed of the Lord. But he's alienated from God. Did you hear me? He's alienated from God. Whenever it came to the commands of the Lord, he gave formal sacrifice. We're kind of understanding this now, aren't we? What David was saying. He gave formal sacrifice without repentance and without faith. He was always in church. He always did what was right to look righteous, but it was all fake. and Samuel points that out. Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, it's over for your office as king. The Lord's rejected you in this office. Let me ask, what do we understand about obedience? How seriously do we take it? Do you know the Lord doesn't just demand that we do our best and try our best? he doesn't want even half-hearted obedience. He doesn't want people who come to worship for all the wrong reasons and just do it for all the wrong reasons so that they look righteous. We all do it. Have you used your voice today? Let me test it. Have you used your voice in song today and then used your tongue last week to run down your neighbor? we've all done it. He says you should be mastered by nothing. And yet what about addictions in your life? He has told husbands to love their wives. Have you done that? Obedience is better than sacrifice. In other words, obedience is better than coming and sitting in church and putting on the show. If that's how you relate to God, I've got one word for the outcome tonight. Rejection. Do you hear it? One word, one outcome. Rejected. And when Saul hears this, what does he do? The worst display of false repentance you could ever have in the Bible. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Listen, I repent. I've sinned. Take it away. Please pardon my sin. None of this is sincere. None of it. It's I got caught. Samuel said to Saul, I'm not returning with you. You've rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord rejected you from being king. And Samuel turned to go away and Saul seized the skirt of his robe. And Samuel said, the kingdom's been torn from you. And Samuel has to go finish the job with Agag. Awful scene, but it's a righteous scene. Here's where we land all this tonight. One consideration, really, one conclusion. Israel had chosen a king for themselves. the holy office of king designed to represent the Lord's leadership of His people, the Lord's defense of His people, the Lord's love for His people. Any king who steps into that place must fulfill perfectly what that office is intended to accomplish in Israel. But if the king is disobedient, apart from mercy, there's no hope. that's the point apart from mercy there's no hope and that's what i i couldn't get away from studying this week with us if we're relating to god sheerly on our obedience apart from mercy there's no hope this is what the conclusion is you have to draw there's no hope that's your relationship to god if you want to make it that kind of contractual relationship of of formal sacrifices and coming here just to do it to think you're pleasing him by being here. There's no hope. Because he expects full obedience. Perfect obedience. And that's why the text turns us away at this point from Saul and our choice to who? The Lord's choice of a king. The Lord has torn the kingdom from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And in the next chapter, he goes to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, and says, I am picking the king of my choosing. And here's the beauty of this king. You know what this all foreshadows. You know what this all foreshadows. It foreshadows a king who would come and a king who would execute perfect, perfect righteousness and perfect justice for the oppressed. Jesus. He gives food to the hungry. He sets the prisoner free. The Lord, every command given to Him by His Father, He came and He is going to judge our enemies and gives us happiness in the freedom that He won for us. If we have faith in God's King and no one else, not even in ourselves, then we have hope. Listen to this. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Is that what Jesus said? Here's what Jesus said. Here's what the king said to the Pharisees. Go learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came to call the righteous, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. True repentance. True turning. So think about this. Obedience is better than sacrifice, but mercy is what I desire, for not one work can make you right with me, and when you have had genuine repentance, the true obedience will follow. When you have genuinely come in true faith to the king, the obedience will come. See, this is, I think, what David is getting at in Psalm 51. Listen to the totally contrite heart of David who went through terrible sins and when he was confronted gave us what true repentance looks like because he received mercy. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. But you delight in truth in the inward being. Not, listen to what he says. And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins. And he goes on in that psalm, in Psalm 51, to finish it. Think about this. When he says here the most overwhelming truth, listen to this. Then I will teach. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You will not be pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God. Here's the obedience first and foremost. Or a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices. In burnt offerings, in whole burnt offerings, then bulls will be offered on your altar. You see, it's not in the formal sacrifice that pleases God. It's not in that kind of response. But when we've come realizing we need mercy from the Lord, He gives us mercy in the King of His choosing. And then obedience flows from our hearts, having been justified by faith with great gladness. This is a help to us tonight, for in the dark moment of the Old Testament, the Lord was already planning, and the Lord was already setting forth a righteous King to come. And as we study David, we're going to see Jesus shown to us in many ways. and we're going to see what the Lord is indeed after through even the failings of this man, this king. But there we keep our eyes on the true king. And we're thankful for a king who fights for us, delivers us, and gives us freedom in this great joy that he has won for us because of his work. Let's thank him together tonight. Heavenly Father, you love obedience and you demand obedience. We desire to give obedience because You've changed our hearts. But before any of that, You've given us mercy. And we thank You for that. For we don't deserve it. Indeed, we deserve Your wrath and Your judgment. We deserve to be cut off. We deserve to face the extreme judgment of God. But instead, because You gave a righteous King in the fullness of time, Now, You've proclaimed to us that Jesus came not to call the righteous, not those who just give formal, outward sacrifice, but sinners to repentance. And having come to this King, You have changed our hearts. You've given us new life so that indeed now, true obedience follows to love You with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbors, ourselves, because of the grace You've shown to us. Thank you, O Lord, for being so faithful to your promises. And thank you for giving us Jesus, a King who fights for us, a King who's won for us, a King who has set us free. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.