The Weight of Obedience: Lessons from King Saul

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, July 29th. How do you handle the opinions of others or the weight of overwhelming pressure? Today we are taking a moment to look at the life of King Saul and discover why precise obedience to God matters, especially when the pressure is on.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:22

I want to talk about the priority of obedience. And what I’d like to do is to take you through the Scriptures to demonstrate, to show you why I do believe this is the key to the heart of God. And as you follow through the Scriptures with me, what I want you to do is to listen carefully and to look at these Scriptures And then relate them to your own heart. Because sometimes it’s difficult to be obedient. Sometimes it’s painful to be obedient. But obedience is always the right thing to do with no exception. So I want you to turn, first of all, if you will, let’s look in the 10th chapter of 1 Samuel. Just going over Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel. Look, if you will, in the 10th chapter. And this is probably one of the best examples of why so many people are so dissatisfied and unhappy in their Christian life. This is the way they reason obedience. I’m going to give you a little background. Samuel is the prophet. And they don’t have any kings in those days at that time. And so Samuel is the prophet through whom God speaks. And the people keep saying, we want a king, we want a king like the rest of the earth. And so finally God says, all right, you want a king? I’m going to give you one. In other words, instead of you honoring me as your king, you want a king? I’m going to give you a king. And so he tells Samuel what he’s to do. So look, if you will, chapter 10, verse 1. Then Samuel took the flask and of oil, poured it on his head, kissed him, and said, Has not the Lord anointed you a ruler over his inheritance? Now, speaking of Saul. So come on down, if you will. Verse 6. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man. It shall be when these signs come to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires, for God is with you. Now watch this verse. And you shall go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices, peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do. Now Samuel is speaking the voice of God. He said, Saul, I’m coming down to meet you, but you’re to wait seven days. I’m coming. And so what happens? Well, I want you to turn to the 13th chapter for a moment and look what happens. 13th chapter. Verse 8 says, Now he waited, that is, Saul waited seven days according to the appointed time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, Bring to me the burnt offerings and the peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offerings. Now this was absolutely forbidden. The law of God said it was forbidden. Only those appointed by God, the priests, could do that. So he takes it upon himself, and he decides that he’s waited long enough, and so therefore he does it. Now watch this. As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, look who showed up. Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him, to greet him. But Samuel said, what have you done? Saul said, now watch this. Because I saw that the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the appointed days that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, therefore I said… Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal. I’ve not asked the favor of the Lord, so I force, listen to this, I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. Well, well, well, how many times have we said that? The devil made me do it. I forced myself to do it. Samuel said to Saul, you’ve acted foolishly. You’ve not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord will have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out himself a man after his own heart. And the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. Now, I want you to watch this. This is what happens to us. God says, here’s what I want you to do, and I want you to wait. And you know what we do? We wait. We either check the clock or we check the calendar. We said, you know what? I know that’s what God said, but. And it’s interesting to me that as soon as he finished disobeying God, Samuel shows up. You know what he did? He disobeyed God. In fact, it was an atrocious sin for him to do what he did. And so what does he do? He explains it away and says, well, you know, he said, because, and then he says, because and therefore I said, that is because things didn’t happen the way I thought they ought to happen, then I said, you know what? God is not interested in what I have to say when I have deliberately, willfully disobeyed him and the command is very clear. Very simple, very clear. Now, I want you to turn, if you will, and let’s turn to the 15th chapter. So, here is another opportunity for Saul to choose obedience, and here’s what happens. God tells him in verse 3, Amalek and the Amalekites are their enemies. And so he says in verse 3, Go and strike Amalek, utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him. Listen, put to death both man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey. And we say, I can’t believe God would do such a thing. You know why he did? Because he’s a wise God. God knew those ungodly, unrighteous, pagan people would absolutely infiltrate His people, mix marriages, and absolutely destroy God’s ultimate purpose, which was bringing forth a nation through whom the Lord Jesus Christ would come and save the entire world. God’s great purposes sometimes are greater than ours, and we think, well, now, God would never do thus and so. Yes, He would. What he was doing was protecting his divine, listen, eternal purpose for mankind. He said destroy them. He made it very clear what he was to do. Gets his army together. And so what happens? Verse 7. So Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He captures Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive, only to destroy all the people at the edge of the sword. But… Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. So what did they do? They chose to destroy what they wanted to destroy and keep what they wanted to keep. Partial obedience is disobedience. You say, well, I partially obeyed God. No, you didn’t. you disobey God. When you do part of what he tells you to do and not all he tells you to do, you disobey God. And then we wonder, oh God, why is this happening to me and what’s happening and all these things? And we go on and on. We moan and groan. And if we stopped and were deadly honest with ourselves, we’d say, God, I see the consequences of my disobedience. I sinned against you. I chose to have it my way and now I’m suffering the consequences. Now watch what happens. So, Look, if you will, in verse 13. Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him, now watch, this is very interesting. Saul said to him, blessed are you of the Lord, I have carried out the command of the Lord. Hallelujah. But Samuel said, what’s this bleeding of the sheep I hear and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Now watch this. Saul said, they, doesn’t that sound like Adam? She. They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, the sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we’ve utterly destroyed. Well, I mean, you’re talking about a real fantastic argument that even God couldn’t argue with this. Lord, we destroyed all those things. Now, we kept Agag and the best of that, but God, here’s what we’re going to do with it. We’re going to sacrifice this to you. God was not impressed. That’s not what God said. This is exactly what we do. God isn’t interested in what I have to give him in disobedience. Listen to this. So, He says, Then Samuel said to Saul, Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night. And he said to him, Speak. Samuel said, Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribe of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, speaking to Saul. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated. That doesn’t mean whip them. It doesn’t mean don’t be nice to them. Extermination means obliterate them. Listen to this. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord? Listen to what Saul said. I did obey the voice of the Lord and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me. And it brought back Agag the king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took some of the spoils, sheep and oxen, the choices and things devoted to the destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal. He said, I did go on a mission. That was only part of the command. I did destroy them. That was only part of the command. Listen to what Samuel said. Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings as sacrifices? No. No. As in obeying the voice of the Lord, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than to fathom the rams. Rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Here’s what I want you to see. Obeying God means exact obedience. You won’t always know everything at the same time. But what we do, we do what we know to do at this moment. What we know God has said. What I want you to see is this. It’s exact obedience. You see, partial obedience is not obedience. For example, let’s say you say to your son or your daughter, now tomorrow morning, sweetheart, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to make up your bed before you leave the room. I want you to take out the trash. Then I want you to sweep off the driveway. Okay. So he or she goes out, sweeps off the driveway, and comes back. Mom comes home from work. She says, I thought I told you you had some tasks. Well, you did, and I did what you said. What did I say? You said… Make up my bed, take out the trash, and you said, clean off the driveway. And I cleaned off the driveway, and I just figured, you know, I can take out the trash. I mean, it wasn’t full. And besides that, nobody’s going to my bedroom but me. Now, let me ask you a question as a parent. You’ve got to answer this. Was that obedience or what? Was it obedience? Was it? Now, you know why you can’t answer that very loud? Because you do the same thing. Isn’t that true? Say amen. I know it is. So what we do, we pick out something we want to do, and then we say, I’ve obeyed God. You know what? If your son refused to make up his bed, refused to take out the trash, and swept off the driveway because his buddies were out there waiting for him, What would you say? Oh, I’m going to reward you for your wonderful, submissive, obedient spirit, son. No, you’d take him back then, whop him one, and remind him that you are his father, his mother, and that you mean by obedience exactly what you mean. What I want you to see is this. Making excuses won’t work. Obedience is obedience, exact obedience to whatever God tells you to do. Very clear through the Scripture. Secondly, what’s clear is every time there’s disobedience, There are painful consequences. Sometimes those painful consequences are to the individual. Sometimes they spread out over other people. Obedience is absolutely necessary. Not only is it the pattern throughout the whole entire Old Testament that God requires obedience, but in the life of Jesus, over and over and over again, he reminds us he always did what the Father asked him to do. You say, but he’s perfect. I know, I understand that. You know what? The Holy Spirit will enable you and me to obey God every single time He commands us to do anything. If He did not, He would not be a just God requiring us to do something that He knows we cannot do, listen, with the Holy Spirit living within us. Whatever God requires of you and me, it may be painful, it may be joyful, it may be prosperous, it may be costly. Whatever He requires of us, our Heavenly Father will enable us to do it, no matter what. So here’s the issue. You know, a long time ago, I made some decisions in my life that I’ve never had to make since then. I made them once and for all. My first job, I made $4. I didn’t know much about the tithe, but I gave God one dollar of it because I couldn’t even imagine giving him change when he was God. So I gave him a dollar. I’ve never just tithed. I’ve always given more than that. And you know what? I have never made that decision but one time. I don’t have to get up on Sunday morning thinking, am I going to tithe or am I not? How much am I going to give God today? I know how much I’m going to give. You see, what God wants is a spirit of obedience, that you and I are controlled by the spirit of obedience. And the truth is, we should make commitments to our God to be obedient about most things in life, everything that we know of, that we know that would harm us, to make the commitment and walk in it. Will we always walk in it? No. There may be times we fault and fall, but you know what? God will pick us up. He knows our heart, and He knows that our heart’s desire is to be obedient. And what I want you to notice here about Saul, you do not see any repentance on his part at all. But what? Rationalization. But, oh, here’s what I went on a mission, and I did this, that, and the other. No. A person whose heart is bent toward God is going to walk obediently before Him. And you know what? When we fall or stumble at something, we immediately ask God to forgive us. We acknowledge it’s our fault. We acknowledge the fact that we disobeyed Him. It was a moment of rebellion on our part. We wanted our way. We asked Him to forgive us, and we move on in the spirit of obedience. What I’m concerned about primarily is the very fact that most people’s idea of obedience is, maybe so, maybe not. A little bit of. In other words, a little bit of what God called you to do is disobedience. So you and I would say to our children, you cleaned off the driveway, but you didn’t make up the bed, and you didn’t carry the trash, so we would call that what? What would you call that? Well, but most people call that what? Partial obedience. Well, I partially obeyed God. I partially did. But you see, partial obedience is nothing but disobedience. It’s a degree of disobedience. But it’s disobedience. The degree is what I did or did not do. The act of disobedience is disobedience, period. You say, well, you’re coming on awfully strong on me. You know why? I’m going to tell you why. Number one, because I care. I care enough to make it hard when it needs to be hard, strong when it needs to be strong, quiet and peaceful and loving when it needs to be that way. You know why? Because I do care. Because I’ve been through enough hurt and pain in my own life. I’ve made enough mistakes of my own to know that God is a gracious, loving, wonderful, kind, indescribable, awesome God. And because I know that obedience is the only way you will ever be happy. The only way you’ll ever become the person God wants you to be. The only way you’ll ever be able to achieve the things in life that God has so wonderfully prepared for you. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, Your first act of obedience should be, Father, forgive me of my sins. I’ve sinned against you. I’ve been living in rebellion, and I’m asking you to forgive me of my sins, not because I’m so good, God, but because I do believe that when your son Jesus went to the cross, he paid my sin debt in full. I accept his death as payment for my sin, and I receive you as my personal Savior. The moment you do that, the Holy Spirit comes into your heart, and you know what he comes in to do? to enable you to walk obediently before God in His strength and in His power. And that is my prayer for you, my petition to God in your behalf, so you can become the persons God wants you to be. Do the work God wants you to do. Bear the fruit that God wants you to bear in order to receive the blessings that God has prepared for you. And Father, how grateful we are You look upon our weakness and our frailties. You see oftentimes our struggles. And then in Your grace and love and Your awesome power, You enable us to walk obediently before You. I pray the Holy Spirit will sink this message so deep in the heart of every single person who hears it. Cannot escape it. Always before them is the word. Obey. Obey, obey, obey. Reap the marvelous fruits. of obedience, but we ask it in Christ’s name.

SPEAKER 01 : 18:37

Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of The Priority of Obedience. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.