Selfless Obedience

Bro Vive Supramaniam

It is a privilege to be able to deliver the word of God this morning. I have been having an invitation at least once a month to minister and it has enlarged me and I am thankful. Our pastor is ministering at a church camp in Ipoh and sister Melinda is ministering at Haggai. We also just had 6 heroes who just came back from Nasi Thong. A lot of hard work I was told. They had to plant 30 poles weighing up to 30 kg each. They had to dig the ground first. Worst were the barb wires. So we thank God that Topians are everywhere answering the call to serve. 

I titled my message 'Selfless Obedience'. The two clips talks about Abraham and Jesus. It talks about sacrifice. But before the sacrifice there was obedience. Abraham obeyed and sacrificed his son and Jesus obeyed and went to the cross. 

The bible says a lot about obedience. The Ten Commandments spoke about this commandments and we see how important the concept of obedience was to God. Deuteronomy 11:26–28 sums it up like this: "Obey and you will be blessed. Disobey and you will be cursed."

What is obedience? 

To understand the term you need to go back to the bible dictionary. 

According to Holman's Illustrated Bible Dictionary a succinct definition of biblical obedience is "to hear God's Word and act accordingly.” 

Eerdman's Bible Dictionary says, "True 'hearing,' or obedience, and involves the physical hearing that inspires the hearer, and a belief or trust that in turn motivates the hearer to act in accordance with the speaker's desires."

Biblical (Hebrew) - shama means “to hear intelligently; to consider and consent with contentment; to diligently discern and perceive with the ear; to give ear”

Biblical (Greek) – hupakouo means “to listen attentively; to heed or conform to a command or authority”

In summary, biblical obedience means, simply, to hear, trust, submit and surrender to God and obey his Word.

In 1Samuel 15 we will go through the life of king Saul and his obedience to God. Let's read the whole chapter. 

1 Samuel 15

Saul Spares King Agag 1 Samuel also said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ” 4 So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 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 unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Saul Rejected as King 10 Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, 11 “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. 12 So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” 13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” 14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” 15 And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak on.” 17 So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? 18 Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great 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. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” 24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.” 26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. 28 So Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. 29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.” 30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.” 31 So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord. 32 Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” 33 But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. 34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. 35 And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.

This gives us a picture of a king who disobeyed instructions given to him by the prophet Samuel. King Saul was given a clear instruction through Prophet Samuel to destroy the Amalekites and EVERTHING that belong to them. This was because of what the Amalekites have done to the people of Israel years before, when they came out from Egypt. Amalek was the grandson of Esau (Gen.36: 12). His descendants, called, Amalekites, were the relentless enemies of Israel. We read in Exodus 17:8–16 When Israel came out of Egypt and passed through the wilderness, the Amalekites attacked them. God gave the Israelites victory, but the evil was never forgotten. 

We know from Deuteronomy 25:18 that this attack is cowardly because they attack from behind, preying upon stragglers who are faint and weary. God gives the Israelites victory over the Amalekite army, but this does not wipe out the entire nation. God specifically commands that a future generation blot out the memory of this people, and this command is recorded for Israel’s posterity.

God command that in future they will be destroyed. God gave king Saul specific commands to destroy them. 

In Deuteronomy 25:17–19 God said,

Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and cut off at your rear all who lagged behind you; and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

He started well to attack and to destroy them. But he did not kill Agag and some of the choice livestock. He spared Agag and his family. Because of this disobedience it affected the Israelites in the future. 

1. Partial obedience is disobedience. 

Saul does most of what God has instructed him to do but he did not obey God completely. And Samuel saw this as sin. Saul only obeyed God’s command to the point that it made sense to him. Saul figured it was unreasonable to destroy the fine livestock. He probably thought that was just an oversight on God’s part. Saul assumed that God wouldn’t mind if he spared Agag, the king, as a trophy of his great victory.

Why did he spare Agag? The king of the enemy is the biggest prize of winning a war. 

When Germany won the World Cup, what did they do? They paraded the trophy in an open top bus. They were celebrating. It is the same in the past, they will parade the enemy king and to show them off. They will humiliate the king of the enemy. 

Saul’s disobedience does not stem from compassion. I think we may safely assume that Saul’s sparing of Agag, along with his sparing of the best of the flocks and herds of the Amalekites, is really self-serving.

First, Saul doesn’t even see what he did as wrong. In verse 13, he says “I have carried out the Lord’s instructions…” He has? Second, in verse 14, he blame-shifts and denies disobeying. Samuel confronts him with the sounds of bleeting sheep and the lowing of cattle. Samuel can hear the animals. He knows they have survived. If Saul had carried out the Lord’s command, there would be no animals left and certainly not Agag, their king.  In verse 15, he shifts the blame onto the soldiers. Then he reaffirms that he totally destroyed the rest. How could he have “totally destroyed” some, but not all? He’s admitting that he didn’t completely carry out the task, while at the same time saying he did carry it out.

Third, Saul again says he obeyed and refuses to repent. After Samuel calls him out in verses 17-19, in verse 20, he says, “But I did obey the Lord.” He’s still not willing to admit he’s done anything wrong. Saul even offered "godly" reason for his actions. He hadn't done what God told him, and yet he tries to portray himself so wonderfully. When Samuel asked about the presence of the spoils, Saul blamed the disobedience on his soldiers, rationalising that they were preserved for sacrifice to the “LORD your God.”

Was God pleased? God was not pleased. Can we make the same mistake? Can we disobey God and convince ourselves that we obeyed God? 

John Woodhouse wrote the following in his book titled “1 Samuel” - "Has it ever crossed your mind that you might compensate for some disobedience to God's word with regular churchgoing or generous giving or even disciplined praying and Bible reading?"

The Road of Disobedience is littered with Excuses. Saul has a lot of excuses and some of it seems to be very religious. Do we have excuses today? When we did not obey him completely do we give excuses? We got to check our heart and our motive. Are we really obeying God?

After all the excuses, Samuel says this, to obey is better than sacrifice. Rebellion some say is as bad as witchcraft. The consequence of Saul's sin is that he was rejected by God as king. It led to Saul's downfall. In 1Samuel 13 he also disobeyed God so this is not the first time. Partial obedience is also classified as rejecting the Word of God (verse 26).

To know what God commands us to do (or not to do), and then to disobey, is to willfully rebel against God. No ritualistic worship, no ceremonial activity, overrides the evil of such sin. 

2. Obedience is not optional. 

The day we are saved we obey. Obedience is action. It is being submissive to God. Hearing his word and doing it. In 1Samuel 15, Saul had very good instructions. 1Samuel 15: 1 “Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord.” I want to rephrase Samuel’s reminder: “Saul, it was God Who made you king over Israel. Because of that fact, you are obliged to obey His commands.”

King Saul was given a clear and precise instruction. The Orders (verses 1-5) was clear. God was not vague in His command. God called Saul, very specifically, to destroy the Amalekite nation. But he choose to disobey

Christ was the perfect example of obedience. He was perfectly obedient to God. The selfless obedience of Jesus Christ to the will of God his Father, through which the redemption of humanity is accomplished. Christ sets an example which believers are called to imitate.

He became man, he humbled himself, and he became obedient to death—death on a cross, Philippians 2:8. Jesus came and obeyed for us, precisely because he knew we couldn’t do it on our own. Jesus alone is the truly obedient one.

Our motive to obedience is love. It is our expression of love to God. The world view obedience in a very negative light. The world view it as something that is being forced. They perform it out of concern of punishment. Children when asked to clean their room does it for fear of being punished. 

Obedience starts with love. If you love me you will obey what I commanded. As his disciples, we follow Christ's example as well as his commands. Our motivation for obedience is love:

We see obedience in relationship to fearing God but God sees it as motivated by love. Love is the underpinning of our love for God in an outward expression. We don't obey him because we have to but because we want to. 

Just as God did not make Saul king of Israel because his own merits, neither are we God’s children today on the basis of any personal merits of our own. 

Our sins have been forgiven simply because of the marvelous grace of God (Eph 2:8-9). The Apostle Paul goes further, and adds, “…Ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor 6:19b, 20).

TOP is going through a series of evangelism. In cell groups too. To bring the good news to the world. That's a commandment given to us. Are we obeying the great commission? Do we take it upon ourself to obey?

MH17 tells us the fragility of life. I pray that all of us will be bold to share the word of God. That we will take every opportunity to obey God. There are many other commandments we are called to obey. Our obedience is always in alignment with God's word. 

Obedience is crucial in the Christian life. Sacrifice without obedience is simply an outward performance of a religious duty or act.

A study of the Bible and of human history reveals that man's obedience to God's will has always brought man happiness, and disobedience has always brought unhappiness. 

For this reason we have in the Bible an emphasis on obedience. God said, "The things I command you, observe to do". Deuteronomy 12:32. Again, "If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land". Isaiah 1:19.

Christ himself set the example of obedience to the Father's will. 

"Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him". Hebrews 5:8,9. 

Christ said, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me" John 6:38. 

Christ said, "Not every one 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" Matthew 7:21.

True obedience flow from our heart in gratitude for the grace we have received from the Lord. 

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Romans 12:1

Friends, this account in history reminds us that although we have a choice, obedience is not optional!  Those who belong to God obey Him. And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to Him. - Colossians 2:6

I grew up near an airfield and I lived to see fighter jets. I wanted to be a pilot but my mother said no. More fighter jet crash in training than in a war (laughs). A MIG29 fighter jet is an amazing aircraft with incredible capabilities. But there is one thing that a fighter pilot requires above all else. That the aircraft reacts completely to his control. The fighter pilot has the control stick to steer the plane and every action the plane has to response. Can you imagine what would happen to the plane of it refused to follow the commands of the pilot? It had to respond to how the pilot wants to control the plane. If it were to have "a mind of its own" regardless of how remarkable that might sound, it would end up grounded. 

Same with our mind. How many of you know that the Lord wants us to obey him? He wants is to obey him, calling us to a selfless obedience. He wants us to serve him and to give our very best. 

Disobedience brings defeat, discouragement and ultimately death. In contrast the Outcome of Obedience is victorious life in Christ Jesus. 

A child of God is able, with a heart after God’s own, to learn to walk in the path of obedience.

Bro Vive delivering his hard hitting message.