Obedience

I'm going to ask you to turn to 1 Samuel, chapter 15, just for the final 10 minutes. 1 Samuel 15, and just two verses, and Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Now, I'm sure that the background of this chapter is well known to most here. The occasion, of course, is when God, through Samuel, had sent Saul to destroy the Amalekites, and despite Saul's protestations that he had done that, he had spared the very best for himself and for the nation. And Samuel comes to rebuke him for his limited obedience, which really is disobedience, and he concludes his remarks with the words we have just read, that the Lord has delight, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and as sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and hearken than the fat of rams.

Most will know that as you go through this tremendous first, I'm going to say first epistle, first book of Samuel, there are principles that stand out in various places, and this is one of the great principles of 1 Samuel. So, let me just underline the principle that God is giving expression to here, that obedience is greater than sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat of rams. Why is that? When a man obeys, he is doing something more than just giving something out of his possessions.

What really do you and I possess that we can give to God that really is our own? Everything you and I have accumulated in life, the money in our pockets, the homes that we live in, the cars that we drive, whatever we have really, what have you that you have not received? In reality, as David said, of thine own have we given thee, when it comes to our possessions, when it comes to our time, when it comes to all that we are, really everything really has been given to us. But there is one thing. When God created man in his own image, while that is a very embracive term and would perhaps embrace many things, one thing he gave you and me, he gave to humankind that made us in the image of God, he gave you and me a free will.

He will never, he has never overridden a man's own free will. Tremendously costly decision that God made to give man a free will. He knew that eventually it would mean that using that will man would rise up and cast his son out of the vineyard, impale him to a tree and say, no God for us.

Yet God gave man a free will. So that when a man obeys God, he's not just bringing something that has been given to him that he is giving back to God. He is bringing God the one thing, the one thing that is really his.

He is yielding his will. And so as he obeys, he is submitting his will. He is owning God's worth that God is more deserving of that will than he is.

He is agreeing with God's wisdom that God knows far better than I do what is best for me. And would you allow me to say that since obedience is better than sacrifice, it is really an act of worship. To submit my will to obey God really becomes an act of worship as I bring my will to him.

Likewise, the idea to hearken in the fat of rams rather than the fat of the ram of consecration, as I come and give my ear and my body then to what God desires, it's far, far greater, God says, than the fat of the ram of consecration. So there's a principle here that we need to underline and live by and understand that God gets greater delight out of obedience than out of a sacrifice I bring. More delight out of a willing ear that's submissive to him than the fat of rams.

Then there is, of course, not just a principle, there's a proportion that's suggested here, isn't it? The measure to which I am obedient, the measure to which I hearken, is the measure in which God gets delight and pleasure from my life. Not all the great things I may try to accomplish and not all the great deeds I might try to do, but just this simple truth of obedience and hearkening, to the measure in which I do that, God gets pleasure from your life and from mine. It reminds me as well of a potential that every one of us have, irrespective of gift, regardless of stature, your life has the potential to bring pleasure and delight to the heart of God by the simple truth of obeying his word.

But that's not where I'm going today with what I have before me. I want you to think of the perfect pattern of a man who lived here, who brought his will to the altar for God. He was expressing in his sacrifice this great truth.

God is deserving. He is worthy of my will. He was expressing, I will depend entirely upon the wisdom of God for what is going to be before me.

The Lord Jesus Christ brought infinite pleasure to the heart of God. When his will was sacrificed, when his ear was open to hear, and he brought that sacrifice to an altar at Calvary. The proportion of the light that God gets from my life is the measure in which obedience and hearkening mark me.

Now, can you begin to appreciate the proportion? As you apply to the Lord Jesus, of what God received from that life, of what God appreciated and delighted in when there was a will that was sacrificed, when there was an ear that was opened. He was owning the worth of God. He was owning the wisdom of God.

He was bowing to the will of God. Can we say that Calvary as well was an act of worship to his God? As he yields all that he has in worship, recognizing the worth of the one whom he has come to serve. When Paul penned those words to the Philippian saints, obedient unto death even, even across death.

I wonder if they looked around at each other, the jailer maybe looking over at Lydia, maybe Lydia looking over at the young damsel, maybe others just scanning the room. They knew as Roman citizens, not one person in that room would ever be subjected to that kind of death. Yet, he was obedient to death, even across death.

To obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams. Just one final thing. What was it when the obedience involved the sacrifice? What was it when the hearkening meant, not just the fat of rams, but the very best of all that he was? Given to God at Calvary.

To obey better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams. Hath God as great delight? Does not God find his ultimate delight in a will submitted and an ear opened and a life yielded? We fail, we come so far short. Lovely to think of one who delighted God with an infinite delight when he gave his will at Calvary.