Sound Doctrine

Announcer: Coming up today on Sound Doctrine, a challenge from Pastor Jeff Johnson to set your sins aside.

Jeff Johnson: We're directed by God in the scriptures in Hebrews 12:1 to set those sins that so easily beset us aside. Those sins that would overcome you, you know your weaknesses. Set them aside. Give them to the Lord and say, "Lord, give me strength, your strength." I want to trade my weakness for your strength and your power in my life. You shine, my flesh is going to die. Bible says put these sins off, let them die.

Announcer: Thanks for joining us for Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. We're currently focusing our attention on the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel. When you think of this book, you probably think first of the encounter David had with Goliath in chapter 17, and we'll be getting to that famous bout next week. But for today, we'll be wrapping up our look at chapter 15 and the sad story of a man named Saul. King Saul had everything a man could want. He was handsome, powerful, and even wealthy, but he had one major flaw. Here's Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: Agag was brought to Samuel and notice Agag is kind of seeking to compromise here. He thought he was safe now. "Finally, I'm in Samuel's hands. This is great. There's no reason to get radical here. Samuel, this is awesome. We can cohabitate together. There's no reason for anymore to die, no reason for anything else to get crazy." But we're to make no deals or seek to reform this flesh. No deals with the flesh.

We're not to listen to the lies of the enemy or to rationalize our sin. You know how the enemy does. He comes and he says, "Well, you deserve this. You've worked hard and you've served God, and you deserve this. God won't care if you do this. Oh yes, it's a little wrong and a little away from his word, but hey, it's not a big deal. And isn't he a God of mercy and grace? He's got to forgive you. Check it out. Do it. It's alright. It'll be okay."

In fact, let me tell you something, that the reason that he doesn't want you to do this is because he doesn't really want you to be totally fulfilled as a person. He's trying to rip you off from real joy and real pleasure. Come on, don't let him do that to you. And isn't this the lie from the very beginning? Isn't this what Satan lied to Adam and Eve with? And he hasn't changed. He continues the old rap, the old lie, and it's a lie.

He's seeking to get you to compromise, to get you to allow sin to exist. Sin is missing the mark of God. God has a direction for you and your life, that is to follow him, serve him, and when you get off that trail, that's when it gets dark and it's dangerous. "Come on, let me live." Verse 33, Samuel said, "As thy sword has made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women." And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

Last week we mentioned how this nomadic tribe called the Amalekites were very ruthless and cruel, and they were. They did incredible crimes against humanity. Awesome, terrible things, as many people did during these times. But when we sow and give into our flesh, we reap corruption. The Bible says that if you sow to your flesh, you're going to reap all kinds of trouble. Indignation, the wrath of God will come down upon you and your life.

God will no longer be blessing your life. His hand is taken off of your life. He cannot hang around those that are unholy, that are living in sin. He departs from that situation and that individual. He is a holy God, and so he leaves that situation and that individual. The Bible says that tribulation will come into your life, and anguish as never before. The word anguish is so descriptive of what sin does to an individual and to his heart, to his family, to his friends. The anguish of soul.

But then the Bible says no, listen, live in the spirit. Sow to the spirit of God. Go God's way in your life and reap everlasting life. The word everlasting life is not only a longevity of life to live forever with God and his love, but it's a quality of life right now for you as an individual, as a family, that God wants to give to you. What is this quality of life? It's glory and honor. It's peace and joy and happiness. Happy are the people whose God is their Lord.

There's nothing like it. This world can never give what God can give, and what's great about that is that this world can never take it away. I like that, because when God gives me something that this world can't get, this world tries to get a lot, doesn't it? It sure sucks a lot from the race of humanity. But not the things of God. You can't touch it, world, nor the enemy, nor my flesh, unless I yield to it.

There is fullness of joy in his presence. So Samuel, knowing this, that you don't make any kind of compromise, he takes a sword. And I'm telling you, our God is a God of judgment, isn't he? He comes down hard against sin, and he cut Agag into pieces right before everybody. You might say that Samuel's made his point, and truly this man has been cut down. You might say also he's pretty butchered up, but that's what happens.

But here we see something that's incredible. There's victory. There is no compromise. There's just an end to it. True repentance is to obey God all the way. Jesus said, "If you really love me, I've got something for you." You say, "I love the Lord, I will serve the Lord," and the Lord's saying, "Alright." And then he says, "Now, if you love me, I've got something for you to do." "What's that? Anything!" "Obey my commandments."

Samuel didn't make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. He dealt with it. If we will confess our sins, not be stubborn as the mule or as the horse. If we won't be as David, tossed to and fro and held on to his sin and the lies of the enemy and of his wrong before God, he just held on to it. But he wrestled all night in Psalm 32. He wasn't happy, he had no release until he said, "And then I confessed my sins. I let go." And God forgave all of my transgressions.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and wash us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Hey, listen, if we will walk in the light as he is in the light, we'll have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all sin. It's powerful. Obedience. Samuel went according to real the New Testament counsel that Paul gave to the Colossians. Let me read it to you.

Samuel did exactly what Paul said. When Paul said in Colossians 3:5, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, sex outside of marriage, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, any kind of evil immorality, covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience." If you continue in the ways of the flesh, God's wrath will be upon you.

But he says mortify yourselves. Put to death your flesh once and for all. How do you do that? You say, "Identify with Christ." When he died, you died. And as he rose, as we went to the baptism last night and I shared this with many that I baptized in Romans 6, how it talks about how Jesus was buried and so we go down in this watery grave. But also as Jesus was resurrected, so you will come up in newness of life.

And so it's that identification, following Christ all the way, identifying what he did for you to your life, putting it to your account that he died and I died with him. Now he lives and now he lives through me. I died as soon as I received Christ and I die daily, as Paul said, to my flesh. Daily, it's a daily death. We put on Christ and make not provision for the flesh. Verse 34, then Samuel went to Rama. Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.

After Samuel's open rebuke, which is always better than silent love, he realized that it was over. He went home to watch, to pray and to see what God now is going to do with Saul and the situation. Sometimes that's about all you can do, isn't it? You can just do your best and then you’ve got to commit the rest. You see a brother or sister going off the deep end, you try to go to them in love and meekness, trying to draw them back into fellowship. All you can do is try to encourage them.

But if they will not hear, all you can do is go home, pray and to see what God will do. And so he did that. And finally it says in verse 35, and Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. Samuel's ministry to Saul was pretty much done now. And the word there "see" really means to give attention to Saul.

Samuel would no longer give attention to Saul. He's pretty much out of the picture as far as Samuel was concerned. He's removed. It's over. He did his best. Saul wasn't listening, and so he departed from Saul as we're to avoid fellowship. We are to mark them and avoid those that cause division. He just pretty much put Saul in that position and he left. He would see him one other time, and it was interesting. We'll get to that as we go through our study.

But there is one time during a séance where Samuel would see Saul again, and we'll look at that later on. But I want you to notice here Samuel, how he mourned for Saul's loss. Do you see that in verse 35? Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul. I mean, he was heartbroken for what had happened. You say, "Why?" Well, he knew two things. Number one, he knew that a good man had fallen and lost it.

Anytime a good man, a good woman, goes away from the Lord and goes back into the world, it's a sad event. And so Samuel was heartbroken. But more than that, the second thing is that Samuel realized that Saul would hurt and draw a bunch of people away from the Lord. The price of sin, man. And so he grieved within his spirit. And then notice again it says that the Lord repented. Three times, four times it's talked about.

The Lord repented in this chapter. This word is man's best effort to express God's action. I mean, we don't have an English word to put with the way God is working things here. God doesn't make mistakes, so how can he repent? He's not a man that he should repent. He does everything perfectly. But he's not saying here in this word repent that he changed his mind, but that he is actually rejecting Saul as king.

Saul failed to obey. There is a scripture in Matthew chapter 7 that I think is very eye-opening. It says in Matthew 7 verse 21, "Not everyone that saith unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?'"

But then the Lord saying, "And in that day, I'm going to turn to you and say, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you worker of iniquity.'" A real awakening day at that day when it finally comes down to judgment time. I mean, we're really going to see those who were repentant and those who were playing games with God, aren't we? The dividing line. And there's going to be a lot of folk that are going to say, "But Lord, I went to church every Sunday. I did this, I did that."

But you didn't do the will of the father. You say, "But what is the will of the father?" The will of God is that you should believe on him that he has sent. Believe in Jesus Christ. Give your heart and your life to the Lord. That's the will of God, and he will call you his child and you will call him Lord, and in that day, he will say, "Well done, now good and faithful servant of the Lord. Enter into the grace of God."

Saul didn't obey the Lord. He didn't kill everybody like God said, did he? He didn't take care of the flesh. He saved King Agag as that customary practice for many during that time would actually, in destroying the people, would save the king or those important figures and bring them back home, march them down the center of the street so everybody could rejoice and humiliate that king. So Saul's saying, "I want to do that too. I want to do like all the other people."

What do you want to do? Just because everybody's doing it today so you're going to do it, and that's your excuse? That's a lame excuse. God says no. Don't do it. Don't make rationalizations. And yet we play with fire, and when you play with fire, you're going to get burned. It's interesting. I found out that Agag's name means "I will overthrow." I will overthrow.

So my flesh is saying, "I'm going to fight you, man, to the end." And I just have to say, "My flesh, go ahead, try. I'm crucified with Christ. You're dead. You're dead. Bring your body under subjection in the name of the Lord. He's dead." We're directed by God in the scriptures in Hebrews 12:1 to set those sins that so easily beset us what? Aside. Those sins that would overcome you. You know your weaknesses.

You know your weaknesses. Set them aside. Give them to the Lord and say, "Lord, give me strength, your strength." I want to trade my weakness for your strength and your power in my life. You shine, my flesh is going to die. Bible says put these sins off, let them die. But you say, "Well hey, listen, one little Agag once in a while, it's no big deal. I got this little Agag and I like this Agag and I just play with it and it's no big deal."

But God says this, "I want it wiped out. No sin in the camp if you want to go on in victory. Remove that sin. Give me that sin. Let me wash you and cleanse you of that sin, and then you can go on in victory. But if you continue to play with it, continue to compromise with it, no victory. You can't go on anymore. You're stalled." So many Christians are in a stalled position.

Why? Because you're going to be stubborn? You're going to hold on to that instead of giving it to the Lord? No. God's saying, "I want to release you from it this morning. I want to set you free, man. I want to forgive you of all your sins." We think sometimes it's not a big deal, but remember Saul's end of his life. It's kill it or it will kill you. Remember that? We looked at it last week. Agags always reproduce, don't they?

And if you don't deal with the Agags in your life, they are going to reproduce, and if you don't deal with it, it's going to move in for good. It'll grow. In fact, James says something very powerful in James 1 verse 15, "Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, it bringeth forth death." That's the growth of it. That's what it's out to do. It's out to destroy your life.

Destroy your relationship with your God so that you don't have that living, close, vital, daily, hour, moment by moment relationship with your living God. Sin is out to destroy, right? To kill and to rob the things of God out of our lives, if we let it. Down the road we see in 2 Samuel chapter 1, we already read it last week, how an Amalekite turned and eventually killed Saul and ended his life.

Can you imagine? That which he was told to destroy he let live and it went around, and what goes around comes around. Here he comes and Agag with his sword, "Saul, you want me to kill you? Okay." And the same one he was told to destroy. Agag 2, the horror of it all. The son of Agag. It happens. It reproduces. It comes to kill you, it comes to haunt you in your life if you don't deal with it.

What I continued to do is read on in 2 Samuel. If you turn over with me for a moment, we'll end here. 2 Samuel chapter 1, notice David was dealing with this story and he heard about the death of Saul and how he died and who is telling him but an Amalekite. This guy's telling him and then in verse 13 look at this. David said unto him, and he was talking to this Amalekite, verse 14.

And David said unto him, "How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?" He says, "I can't believe you killed Saul." Verse 15, David called one of his young men and said, "Go over there and wipe that guy out." And the guy went over and just killed the guy. David followed through with the message, and what is the message this morning? Death to the flesh and to sin.

Put it out. Get the sin out of the camp. It's time to deal with your Agags. David would be raised up to be the king over the kingdom after Saul, we're going to see, fades out of the situation.

Announcer: That's Pastor Jeff Johnson and what we heard today was Jeff's final message in 1 Samuel chapter 15. Pastor Jeff will be back in a moment with more. If you enjoyed today's message from Pastor Jeff Johnson from the book of 1 Samuel, I'd like to remind you that you can hear it again on several different venues. First, you can go online to SoundDoctrineRadio.org, where you can hear today's study as well as make a donation to this radio outreach. That's at SoundDoctrineRadio.org.

You can also listen at OnePlace.com and through the Sound Doctrine Radio app. I should also mention Sound Doctrine can be heard wherever you enjoy podcasts including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Now to wrap up today's time together, here's Pastor Jeff with some more about the boy who would become one of the greatest leaders in all of God's word, a shepherd boy named David.

Jeff Johnson: David was an interesting character. A man after God's own heart. And a lot of times we question, say, "How could David be a man after God's own heart?" I mean, you talk to any Jew today and he'll tell you Saul's a lot greater man than David. David sinned. David committed adultery, he committed murder. He was a low person. I mean, what are you doing? You spend too much time saying, "David, David."

You should be saying, "Saul, Saul." Saul was the mighty one, Saul was the one that did well. Oh yeah, he had his problems, but not like David. Yet the Bible says nothing about Saul having a heart as God's heart, but David did. Why was that? Because David, when he sinned, he repented. You want to have a heart like God's heart? Face up to your sin, your Agag, and let the cross of Jesus Christ remove it out of your life.

Deal with it this morning. Psalm 32 is such a beautiful cry of David's heart. "I am sorry for my sins." He repented and God forgave him. He delivered him from his flesh to do what? To walk in victory with his God. That's what God wants to do with you this morning. True repentance is to respond to his love and to know that it's the goodness of God that leads you to repentance.

Announcer: On we go to 1 Samuel 16 next time on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. It's here that the Lord anoints David to be king over Israel, a move that on the surface didn't make a lot of sense. Hear all about it as you join us for the next Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. A presentation of Calvary Chapel Downey made possible through your generous support.