Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): Coming up today on Sound Doctrine.

Jeff Johnson: I’ll tell you something. The enemy is as a lion seeking whom he may devour. Know this, when Bible study gets boring to you, when your hunger for Him is beginning to diminish, He’s trying to get a foothold in your life. He’s trying to defeat you. He’s trying to pull you down. Bible says we must resist him, right? If we resist him, he will flee.

Guest (Male): This is Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. I don't know anyone who likes to be recognized in the center of attention. Today, we'll be introduced to a man from long ago that fits that description. His name is Saul and his story's recorded for us in 1 Samuel 13.

As king, he should have been looking to God for guidance and seeking to give him the glory. But instead, he's more concerned with himself, and that's a tragic mistake that's been all too frequently repeated. Here's our teacher once again, Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: Emerson said this: a hero is not braver than any other soldier on the field. What a hero is, is one that waited a little bit longer. It's the same way with the successful Christian. It's not that one Christian is better than another, but a successful Christian is one who waits upon the Lord and renews his strength.

Remember Abraham? As Abraham was given the direction to take his son and sacrifice him, he raised up the knife. Look at how close this came down to. He went all the way, wouldn't you say? Then as soon as he was getting ready to come down on his son, God's hand stayed the knife. Then there was a sacrifice in the thicket.

The timing of the Lord is incredible. You say, "Why does God do this? Does he do it to trick us? What's he trying to do?" No, it's not a trick. It's part of our training as Christians. James says count it all joy when you enter into trials and tribulations. Why? Because it builds patience and endurance.

He is preparing us for eternity. It’s part of that preparation here. He’s causing us to be mature men and women of God that we might hand down these things. Patience and endurance is part of that. Listen, it took endurance for snails to get on the ark, but they got on there.

Saul blew it. He got ahead of the Lord. And then Samuel says in verse 11, "Why have you done this?" Okay, now we're going to find out why he did it. Then he gives his excuses. First excuse: "I saw the people, they were leaving me." Well, that's not a good enough excuse to sin, to go against God because people were leaving you. When Jesus was on the cross, everybody forsook him. That's not a good enough excuse.

"Well, what's the second one?" "Well, you didn't come in the time that you said you were going to come." Come on, a half an hour? That's not a good enough excuse. Because after a half an hour, Samuel was there. The next excuse: "The Philistines are gathered themselves together at Michmash. I was being surrounded." Still, that's not a good enough excuse to sin and go against the Lord.

Though the devil comes in like a flood, God's going to raise up a standard. He's got angels that encamp us. Remember Elijah and his servant? As the Syrians were surrounding them, the servant was panicking, saying, "We're going to die! I don't want to die!" And then Elijah said, "Oh Lord, just open his eyes so he can see that the angels of the Lord are getting ready to pounce on the Syrians." It’s great when you’re God's because if He be for you, who can be against you? He’s on our side.

And so Saul gives his excuses. It’s amazing these excuses that people give why they can't go God's way. Remember when Jesus said, "And he compelled them to come in to the Lord. He compelled them to follow the Lord"? And they began to give excuses one by one. The first excuse was, "I just bought some land, I got to go see it."

Oh, you did one of those big river projects on the TV? "Come to the river. This is beautiful." And they showed you a little palm tree and you went and bought land you didn't even look at? Boy, you’re going to end up with a real parcel. That's a stupid excuse. "Well, hey, I just bought some oxen and I got to go check out what I bought." Oh, you didn't even look at their teeth or their hooves? You don't know what you got? You probably got a bunch of scurvy-looking things.

That's a stupid excuse why you couldn't come to the Lord. Well, here's one for you: "I just got married." And so you can't come to the Lord? "No." How about bringing your wife? "Well, no." How about coming down on the harvest with your wife and bring your wife to the Lord? "No." What's the excuse? It’s lame.

You should want to not only come to the Lord yourself but bring your whole family to the Lord. There's not an excuse that you can come up with that's good enough why you can't come to the Lord. But Saul's making his excuses. Oh, you think these are good excuses? Wait until verse 12. Look at this.

He says, "The Philistines were coming down and they were coming down against us and I had to make supplication unto the Lord." I mean, he got religious on him. And he said, "I forced myself therefore and offered the burnt offering. You've got to see that I was just trying to get right with God." Oh, you're going to get right with God by doing this little sacrifice when you're not even supposed to be doing it?

Well, it's just a little religious thing that I thought if I did that I'd be all right. There are a lot of people today that figure if they do religious things that they're going to be all right. It’s not going to work. I'm sorry. The way of man that seems to be right, the end thereof is death. And so the church got together and said we're going to raise up this vicar and he is going to be the one for us to look at, the leader of the church. And so they did it.

It sounds so much like the raising up of Saul. And so they get into the religious things of what they do and yet look at the people that are caught up in this quote-unquote religion. They're suffering today tremendously. They're not free. They're still under the bondage of sin and death. They're only going to be free when they see it's more than religion. It's a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And once you receive Christ, you have that awesome set free, sins forgiven peace that comes into your life. God's way, not religious. Don't give these religious excuses. They're not going to get it with God. "I pray." Okay, so? Do you know the Lord in your heart? "Well, I don't know, but I pray." That's not going to get you to heaven. You need the Lord. You need a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

So he says, "I forced myself." I just had to disobey. There is no reason. There is no good excuse to sin against God. It’s like Aaron. Remember when Moses came down off the hill having a great experience with God, bringing down the Ten Commandments? He's all blessed and excited and he looks and he can't believe it. Everybody's naked, jumping around a golden calf.

Moses goes, "Aaron, Aaron, come here. What did you do? What happened here?" Aaron goes, "I don't know. It's amazing. We took all this gold and we threw it in the fire and this calf came out." Not good enough. In fact, we know better. We know that Aaron fashioned it with his own hands. See, just trying to get out of it with an excuse. Man is greater than his circumstances.

Look at verse 13. And Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God." Here is his sin which He commanded you. "For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever." You blew it. You didn't obey God. And I mean God knows best, doesn't He? Father knows best. He always does. What are you doing? You think you got it up on God?

Well, you know, I think I have a better way. And when you do disobey God, that's exactly what you're saying, that you know better than God does. When you're doing your own thing, you're saying, "I know better than God does." God says it's this way, I say this. That's foolishness, Samuel said. You blew your opportunity to be king of Israel and all of your descendants from there on out. For what? A half an hour? You blew it.

God help us to see that that moment of sin is not worth it. You could forfeit so much. You say, "But God will have to forgive me. He's a loving God. He'll just forgive me." Yes, he will. He is a loving God. His grace is awesome, but it's still going to affect you. If you sow to the flesh, you reap corruption. And sometimes we have to reap many years of things that we've done.

Yes, He forgives us. Yes, He loves us. But don't bring it upon yourself. You forfeit too much. Avoid sin like the plague. Stay away from it. But Samuel jumped into it and when sin comes, comes judgment. This is the problem of this country today. We are not serving God. We are not obeying the Lord. Because we're not living for God and seeking the Lord, this nation is under judgment. We're in disobedience to God.

That's why things are such a mess today. And they're going to continue to be a mess until our King of Kings and Lord of Lords comes back. I think what God's really trying to do is get us to our knees so we can cry out and say, "Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus." And to get us to where we see finally that change doesn't come through a man. Change comes through Jesus Christ and only through Him.

That there's going to be change in your life, change in your family, change in your attitude. It’s in the man Jesus Christ, the God-man, nowhere else. Look at verse 14. "But now," Samuel says to Saul, "thy kingdom shall not continue." It's over, Saul. "The Lord has sought him a man after his own heart." Guess who that man is?

"And the Lord has commanded him to be captain over his people because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded you." You blown it, Saul, and because of that, God raised up another man. See, God doesn't need us, does he? He'll use us, doesn't need us. If you don't do it, somebody he'll raise somebody else up to do it. Did you know that? He's just waiting, He's praying.

You know, God sought for a man to fill in the hedge, couldn't find one in Ezekiel 22. Couldn't find one to fill in the need. But here He sought for a man whose heart was as His own heart and He found one, didn't he, in David? Acts chapter 13, verse 22 talks about David who was called of the Lord with a heart as unto God's. Why? Saul made excuses like a lot of people do. David didn't. David repented.

There's the difference. Big difference, isn't there? You can go ahead and keep making excuses why you're doing what you're doing. It’s not going to hold any water. But if you repent, things are going to start happening. David was mightily used of God. David said, "He took me out of a horrible pit, out of a miry clay, set my feet upon a solid rock, put a new song in my heart, even praise unto my God. Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord."

He's changed my life. He'll change your life if you'll just repent. Our God is an awesome God. And so this is it as far as God's concerned. Saul, you're out of the picture. You're no longer king. The anointing was off of him as king. He had no more power as king.

Yet the sad thing that we're going to see in his life is he's stubborn. I know none of us are, but he's stubborn. And he says, "I'm king. I'm the captain of my own ship, the master of my own destiny. I'm king, man, and I'm staying king." Oh gosh. You’re history, guy. He just told you. "No. And if anybody tries to take my spot, I'll wipe him out."

David's going to come up. Oh wait until you see David come up, how he comes up. It’s so beautiful. And yet Saul says, "I'm going to kill that man." God's anointed, I'm going to touch God's anointed. Don't you do it. But he sought to do it. You know what? It’s so much like this world today, isn't it? It’s a type of where we're at today. This world is in sin. Satan is the prince of this world. This is not our Father's home and our Father's place.

Yes, but the Lord came to this earth and He died for men's sins. Why? So those that receive Christ, He will be King in their hearts. He wants to be King of your life. Yes, this world is not His home yet. It is Satan's world right now. And Satan is trying to reign and he knows he's only got but a short time. So he tries to snuff out God's anointed all the time, doesn't he? Always trying to put him out. But he's got a short time.

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is coming back. And so Saul, trying to reign. Hey, your days are numbered, guy. You're history. You're going to be dethroned. David's coming in. Jesus is coming back. He's coming back at any time to rapture the church up, to set up His kingdom forever and ever to be the Lord's. This is soon, it's upon us. Gosh, do you see what Saul forfeited here?

Verse 15. And Samuel arose, got him up from Gilgal and Gibeah Benjamin. That's when he left Saul, not to see him for a number of years from here on out. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him now and he counted what? He's got 600 after 3,000. Boy, his numbers are diminishing. He's got 30,000 tanks coming down on him, a multitude of people coming in at him, and he's got 600.

I want you to notice here that Saul's heart is so hard he doesn't even make another plea. He doesn't say anything else. He hears from Samuel and he just goes on. That's how hard this guy is. Some of you are hearing from the Lord this morning and you're just going to leave here and not get right. You're not going to repent. That's you're in a sad position.

You need prayer because you're living hell on earth. You're walking around in your sins and the bondage of sin and death in your life when you could be delivered and have your eyes opened and your ears unstopped. And yet you're stubborn. Verse 16. And Saul and Jonathan his son and the people that were present with him abode in Gibeah of Benjamin. The Philistines encamped in Michmash.

And the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company went one way, another company went another way, another company went another way in verse 18. So these three companies of Philistines surged throughout the land. They were actually to go against all of the little encampments of Israel and to punish them for what they had done. They were going to break them into subjection to themselves.

So the Philistines now very overconfident. Why? Because there's only a few. There's 600 left. And they've got the land now and they can go ahead and destroy their enemy and get them as under bondage again. Saul's fall was the reason for all that is going on in the children of Israel right now. Do you see that? And because the children of Israel decided to. Be sure that your sin will find you out.

Each one sins and that's why we're not going to heaven because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's why we need Christ. He's our way to heaven. Saul sinned, the nation went into terrible distress. The people sinned. We want a king. So they put themselves there, didn't they? We're our worst enemy, aren't we? And notice the results of sin is bad decisions.

He disobeyed the Lord, leaning to themselves and all of a sudden we see a lack of drive now and no power. The children of Israel, the children of the mighty creator of the universe are now hiding and shaking behind closed doors saying we're going to die, we're going to die.

Verse 19. And now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel and the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make them swords and spears." But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen their wares and all their axes and all their pitchforks. They had a file for the mattocks and the coulters and the forks and for the axes and they sharpened the goads.

So it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan. But with Saul and Jonathan his son there was found, they had each of them a sword. They had two swords for 600 people. The rest of them had pitchforks that were dull. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the passage of Michmash.

What I want you to see here is that the enemy totally dominated Israel. And look at what they made Israel do. And always like an enemy will do, the enemy will seek to take away your weapons, to take away your sword. What is he going to try to do with us today? He's going to try to take away that which is your offensive weapon. He's going to try to get you to be discouraged as far as reading God's word.

He's going to try to get your desire as far as your desire to learn to diminish, to read it, to meditate in it. He's going to try to get you to not want to do Bible study. And he gets us to then go inside of ourselves with fear and he makes us then into a helpless state. I see them all the time. Christians. I say, well how long have you been a Christian? About 10 years. What are you doing? I don't know. What's going on? I don't know. Have you been in God's word? No. Have you been to church? No. What's wrong? I'm in misery. But you're a child of the king. I know it.

It happens all the time. Totally without any kind of armor, totally without any kind of weapon. They're walking around getting beat up all the time. They're not meditating in the word, they're not spending time in the word. Their weapon has been taken away from them and they're walking around in defeat. I'll tell you something. The enemy is as a lion seeking whom he may devour.

Know this, when Bible study gets boring to you, when your hunger for him is beginning to diminish, he's trying to get a foothold in your life. He's trying to defeat you. He's trying to pull you down. Bible says we must resist him, right? If we resist him, he will what? Flee. How do you resist the enemy? Well, if he tells you not to go to Bible study during the week, go two times a week.

Say there. If he tells you to quit reading that chapter at night before you go to bed, read two chapters at night. Say there, Satan. You kept trying to get me out of it, I'll stay in it. Would you say that's resisting? He tries to get you away. Not go to prayer meeting? I go to two prayer meetings. I'm going to pray like crazy. You've had it and he'll flee from you.

Notice how they were totally dominated. Absolute hopelessness. Despair was everywhere. And I'm saying this morning it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to live like this in the '90s. You don't have to live defeated and afraid to go outside and looking at the news and being beat up constantly and just say what's the use? This whole place is just destroyed, it's had it and get all defeated.

Lord wants to lift you up. Lord teach us to wait upon you, to renew our strength. Not to fall as Saul did but to trust and obey because there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. To listen to the word of the Lord, to stay in the word of the Lord, to be empowered by God, to continue on in his anointing.

I'd like to end with this scripture in Romans chapter 16, if you'll turn there with me. It’s a song that we made into kind of a rap song. Kids love it. Romans 16:19 says, listen to this, Romans 16:19. Paul is signing off to the Romans and he's saying, "For your obedience is come abroad unto all men." Everyone's hearing how you're obeying God.

And he says, "I am glad therefore on your behalf that this news is going out. But I would have you wise unto that which is good. Get wise in the things of God. Get into the word of the Lord and simple, ignorant concerning evil." Get into the things of God and not into the things of this world. And then finally he says in verse 20 of Romans 16, "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." The God of peace is going to bruise Satan, snuff him out under our feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. The grace of the Lord be with us.

Guest (Male): Pastor Jeff Johnson will be back in a few moments to wrap up our time together today on Sound Doctrine. Stick around. We pray you've been blessed by what you've heard today. 1 Samuel is filled with practical insights for Christian living. If you'd like to hear this study again, go to SoundDoctrineRadio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app.

You can also hear Sound Doctrine on OnePlace.com and wherever you enjoy podcasts. That includes Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If you'd like to get behind what we're doing and donate to this radio outreach, you can do so at SoundDoctrineRadio.org by clicking the give tab. And thank you very much for your support. It's greatly appreciated and will be put to good use helping others build their lives on the sound doctrine found in God's word. Now to bring us a closing thought, here is Pastor Jeff once again.

Jeff Johnson: I had somebody after last service come up to me and say, "When you were talking about excuses, I've made a lot of excuses. I made a lot of excuses and I left my husband because of these excuses. And then I married another man and now I feel like I'm a failure and I've blown it and that God won't forgive me."

No, the God of grace be with you. Amazing grace, unmerited favor. You're never going to earn it. He loves you and he'll forgive you. Whatever you've done, whatever you've gone through, he loves you and he wants to wash you clean. He wants to set you on a solid rock and put a new song in your heart. Let him do that this morning. He'll bless you.

Guest (Male): We hope you'll join us for our next study in 1 Samuel. It's going to be a good one. That's right here on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. A presentation of Calvary Chapel Downey. Have a blessed day in the Lord.