From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: All of us would be pretty savvy to the fact that witchcraft—you get into witchcraft and you have really deviated from anything of God. Witchcraft is casting spells and seances and conjuring up the dead and calling out to the dead. It's a connection with the devil.

And the Bible says, you know what is as bad as witchcraft? Rebellion. Rebellion against God and His word. The Lord likens that to witchcraft. Now, Lucifer was the original rebel. We're going to read about a man today who was also a rebel. His name was Saul.

Larry Nobles: King Saul started strong but lost everything because he refused to fully obey the Lord. Rebellion and pride led him down a dark path of compromise, disobedience, and eventual destruction. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today and a rather unusual topic in Christian preaching circles.

The message is entitled Rebels and Witches. And it's from Pastor Jeff's new eight-lesson series, Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel. Through King Saul's tragic story, Pastor Jeff will challenge us today to heed the warnings from Saul's life and choose humble, wholehearted obedience to the Lord before it's too late. Open your Bible to First Samuel chapter 15. Here's Pastor Jeff to begin the lesson entitled Rebels and Witches.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: To get it in our minds how evil this is to rebel against the Lord, because sometimes we don't think of rebellion in those terms. When it comes to morality, God tells us how we are to live. "Let the marriage bed be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers, God will judge." And we say, "Well, God, I know what You say, but I'm going to do it my own way." We rebel against the word of the Lord.

Business ethics and how we are to be honest in business. "Well, Lord, I know what You say about that. And I know that six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, a false witness who utters lies." "Lord, You don't like lying, but I've got to lie to get ahead in my business." And so we rebel and we do it the way we want to do it.

And even in our worship. We say, "Well, Lord, I want to worship the way I want to worship. And I'm not really that interested in what You want, it's what I want." We rebel against the will of God, the ways of God, and the word of God. And we need to see how evil that is.

We're in a series on the prophet and the priest and the judge, Samuel, the last judge of Israel, called Leaving a Legacy. And today we're in First Samuel chapter 15, such an important chapter of scripture that teaches us about the evils of rebellion. I'll begin reading in verse one.

Then Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord." Really important what you're getting ready to hear, Saul, so listen. Open up your ears. "Thus says the Lord of hosts, thus says Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of angel armies: I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him, but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."

Then Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim. 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. Saul came to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the valley. Saul said to the Kenites, "Go depart, go down from among the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came up from Egypt." So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

So Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He captured Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with 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.

I want to share with you four warnings from the life of Saul, King Saul, who rebelled against the word of the Lord. Warning number one: beware of questioning the word of God. Questioning the word of God. "That doesn't sound right what God is asking him to do." And he heard the word from the Lord, "I'm supposed to wipe out the Amalekites. I'm going to wipe them out from the oldest to the youngest, child and infant, everything that he has, I'm just going to wipe them out."

Well, he heard that. It was very clear, but he didn't do it. He did some of it, he didn't do all of it. And no doubt Saul and the men who were with him began to question why they should wipe out everything of Amalek. And maybe you're saying, as we were reading the scripture, "What's God's deal with the Amalekites? Why did He want to wipe them all out?" I'm glad you asked.

Amalek is a significant person and a people group in scripture. Amalek is the grandson of Esau. Remember, Esau is the firstborn. There were twins, Esau and Jacob, in the womb. And they are from Isaac. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Esau and Jacob. And God chose Jacob, and He didn't choose Esau. And then Jacob was the one whose name was changed to Israel. He had 12 sons, 12 tribes of Israel.

Amalek is related to Esau. Amalek, as we're going to see, is a picture of the flesh. And when Israel came out of Egypt, led by Moses, they came through the Red Sea, God destroyed the Egyptians in the Red Sea. And they're coming to Mount Sinai to get the law. And then they're going to come up north. Mount Sinai is south, and then they're going to come up north to Kadesh-Barnea to go into the Promised Land.

Well, as they're going toward Mount Sinai to get the law, they're attacked by the Amalekites. And you remember Exodus chapter 17 because it's a famous story. The Amalekites attacked them, and there is war. And Moses is told to go up to a mountain and raise up his hands with the rod of God in his hands. And Joshua was going to fight the Amalekites.

And when Moses kept his hands up, Israel and Joshua prevailed against the Amalekites. And when his hands went down, then the Amalekites prevailed against Israel. And it says that they were doing good when his hands were up, but his hands got heavy. So what did they do? They put a stone underneath Moses, and Aaron got on one side and Hur got on the other side, and they held his hands up.

And as long as his hands were up, Joshua and the Israelites were able to defeat the Amalekites. It's a picture of our fight with the flesh. How do you defeat the flesh? You defeat the flesh not through the power of the flesh but through the power of the Spirit. And when your hands are up and you're surrendered to God, then you can put to death the deeds of the flesh.

Well, the Lord had said in Exodus 17 that He is going to judge Amalek for what he did to Israel. And then He repeats it again in Deuteronomy chapter 25 when Moses speaks one last time to the people. And this is what the Lord says: "Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God."

"Therefore, it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget." Now it's been a long time, it's been hundreds of years. And now is the time where God says, "We're going to go in and we're going to wipe out Amalek."

And Saul heard the command, and he did some of it. He didn't do all of it. And no doubt he began to question. Now, make no mistake, the devil wants you to question the word of God. He wants you to doubt the word of God, and then he wants you to dismiss the word of God. It's not a surprise that when he slithers onto the pages of scripture, Genesis chapter three verse one, the first thing he says to a human being, he says to Eve: "Indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?" Question mark.

God didn't say that. He said it to Adam: "From any tree of the garden you may freely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from it, for in the day you eat of it you will surely die." But the devil takes the word of God, he twists the word of God, he adds a question mark to the word of God to get Eve to question what has God said.

And from that question, he gets her to doubt the character and nature of God. And then he gets her to dismiss what God has said and deny what God has said and indulge herself in sin. The devil wants you to question the word of God. Beware of questioning the word of God. The devil wants you to question it, doubt it, and dismiss it.

But God expects you to obey His clear commands. You are getting this from the Lord of hosts, the God of angel armies. This isn't from some lowly angel that had this idea one day, "Well, maybe we ought to go wipe out Amalek. That sounds like a good plan." This is from God Himself. And as the old saying goes, "Yours is not to reason why, yours is but to do or die," Saul.

Larry Nobles: CS Lewis wrote that obedience is the key that opens every door. And in just a moment, Pastor Jeff will have more about the power of obedience in your life. So stay tuned. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve and today's lesson, part one of Rebels and Witches. It's one of eight messages in the series, Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel.

Telling the story about how King Saul started strong but lost everything because he refused to fully obey the Lord. Rebellion and pride led him down a dark path of compromise, disobedience, and eventual destruction. Through this tragic story, we're reminded that rebellion in God's eyes is as serious as witchcraft and challenges us to heed the warnings of Saul's life and choose humility, wholehearted obedience to the Lord before it's too late.

Again, this message is one of eight in the new encouraging series from Pastor Jeff called Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel. It's our gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount to From His Heart. And you can get the series in the format of your choice. Just go online to fromhisheart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE. 866-40-BIBLE. Your gifts really do help us sustain and expand this outreach around the world. So thank you so much for your help. Now let's continue with the lesson today, Rebels and Witches. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, we don't like what we read about God saying wipe out Amalek. We really don't like it when He says child or infant. And we say, "Well, come on. I mean, that can't be right." We look at scripture from our perspective and we say, "That can't be right. God is not right in telling Saul to wipe them out."

Well, God—very important to remember—God knows way more than you do, than I do, than we do about everything. You don't know squat about the Amalekites. He knows everything there is to know about the Amalekites. If God says, "I'm done with these people. My patience is gone with these people," as He did with Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, and He wrote the handwriting on the wall.

He wrote those words, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin: You've been weighed in the balance and found wanting." What does "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" mean? It means the words of the Terminator: "Hasta la vista, baby." It means you're dead. You're done. I'm through with you. My patience has run out with you.

Now God has patience that is not limitless, but in relation to our patience, it goes on and on and on and on. The Lord is so longsuffering. The Lord is so much more compassionate than you are, than I am, than we are. He's so much more loving. He's so much more gracious. And one of the things that burns me up is when you find people standing in judgment over God and His word, saying, "Well, God can't do that. That is wrong. That's why I don't follow God because He is wrong. He's genocidal, and He's murderous, and He's awful."

Listen, it's impossible for God to commit genocide. It's impossible for God to commit murder because all souls belong to God. He is the giver of life. God doesn't have to take your life. He just has to stop giving it to you. Because everything—that's why the Bible says, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord"—because your next breath is a gift from God. He doesn't owe you anything.

And God, all souls belong to God, Ezekiel 18:4: "The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son. And the soul who sins shall die." And all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. Everybody is going to die. It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment. And God can determine when He calls up your lease on life.

And whether you're an infant or whether you're a hundred years old, it doesn't matter. That's God's prerogative. And we can't point the finger at God and say, "Well, you're wrong for doing this." Who are you, oh man, who questions God? The pot doesn't say to the potter, "Why did you make me this way?" He's the sovereign king of the universe. He's not waiting for you to weigh in and give your approval of what He does.

And so this idea that we question God and we question His word and we would rebel against that—wow. You know Genesis 22. You think about the word comes to Saul: "This is what you're supposed to do." And he no doubt questioned it because he didn't do it. And we think about Genesis 22, the word of the Lord came to Abraham, and He tested Abraham.

What happened to Saul here was a test to see: will you follow me fully? Well, the word of the Lord that came to Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 said this: "Take your son, your only son Isaac whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of Moriah." And Abraham thought, "How can this be right? This is the son of promise. This is the son of miracle birth. This is the son that God's going to use to bless the world. I'm going to have multitudes come through this son, and yet God wants me to sacrifice him?"

And it didn't make any sense to him, but he didn't argue with God. He obeyed God. And it says in the book of Romans that what was going through Abraham's mind was he said, "Well then, God must be going to raise this son up from the dead." And in that he received Isaac back as a type of type of Christ. But Abraham passed the test because he did what God said. And as you know the story, God didn't let him kill his son.

When the knife was getting ready to plunge into Isaac's heart, the Lord says, "Abraham, Abraham, hold back your hand. For now I know that you fear me." Saul didn't fear the Lord. He questioned the Lord. Beware of questioning the word of God. Secondly, beware of partial obedience. Partial obedience.

Now, did Saul go on the mission? Yes, he did. And did he kill the Amalekites? Yes, he did. Did he utterly destroy the Amalekites? No, he didn't. Verse nine: "He captured Agag," verse eight, "the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag." Agag was the king.

Agag's like a trophy that you can parade around. "Look, we defeated you, and we're going to just parade you around as the defeated king." He spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings. That was the livestock that were so fat and so ready for killing so that you could feast on them, the lambs and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly as God had commanded them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

Hey, if we agree with what God is saying, and that's despised and that's worthless, yeah, let's go ahead and do it. We'll do what God said. But these other things, we know better than God, and so we're going to do it our way. Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, verse 10, saying, "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commands."

And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night. Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul. And it was told Samuel saying, "Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself." That speaks volumes about Saul. Full of himself right now. "Then turned and proceeded on down to Gilgal." Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the Lord. I have carried out the command of the Lord."

But Samuel said, "Really?" He didn't really say it, I said that. I just had to add that. But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Why am I hearing the 'baa'? You carried out the command of... 'baa.' Doesn't sound like you did."

And Saul said, "Well, they have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we have utterly destroyed." 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."

And Samuel said, "Is it not true that though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel?" Well yeah, that was true. "And the Lord anointed you king over Israel?" Yeah, that was true. "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'?" Yes, all that was true.

"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?" Then Saul said to Samuel, "I did obey the voice of the Lord and went on the mission which the Lord sent me and I've brought back Agag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. I destroyed them all except for this one because he's my trophy.

But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal." And Samuel said, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams." Saul did what many in the church do today. He wanted to do the will of God his way.

Larry Nobles: Following Jesus means taking steps forward in what might be called the obedience of faith. And there's much more to be said about this on the next broadcast, where after a brief review, Pastor Jeff will continue the message Rebels and Witches. Make sure you're with us then. And Pastor Jeff would like for you to be with him in Israel next year. Here's more.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hi, Pastor Jeff here, and I'm excited to announce that we'll be going to Israel in 2027. Our trip is set for April 2nd through the 11th, and we would love for you to join us as we walk where Jesus walked. This is truly the trip of a lifetime as the sacred places you've only read about will now be seen up close and in full color. You can find out all the details by going to our website, fromhisheart.org, and follow the link titled Holy Land 2027. I look forward to having you with us for this awesome experience in the land of Israel.

Larry Nobles: Well, that is a trip of a lifetime for sure. We hope to see you there. Again, go to fromhisheart.org, click the link for our trip on the homepage for all the details. We're out of time for today. Thank you for joining us. I'm Larry Nobles, and a big thank you for listening, and we trust that you'll be back here tomorrow for part two of the lesson called Rebels and Witches from the Leaving a Legacy series. Here's part of the wisdom we'll learn then.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Listen. Are you heeding the warnings from the life of Saul? His life ended so terribly, and it's because he had incomplete repentance. When he had the opportunity to get right with God, he didn't do it. Listen, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Behold, today is the day of salvation. It's the day to get right with God.

Larry Nobles: Join Pastor Jeff Schreve on Friday when again we'll discover that no matter how badly you may have messed up in life, God still loves you and has a plan for your life. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.