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Bibleline, Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. On Reach Us Tool Free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now what you look a little bit in chapter 15, chapter 15 of 1 Samuel. So as time goes on, Samuel comes to Saul and says, okay Saul, now there’s some other people that he had trouble with, not just the Philistines. During he had trouble in one area of your life and don’t deal with it, you had trouble in another area of your life. Well now he’s got trouble with the Amalekites, the Amalekites. And the Amalekites is like that old sinful nature that lives inside of you.

Every one of us who are born with a little Amaleka, a little terrorist that lives inside of us. What does he like to do? He likes to terrorize us. And so that’s what he does. So you have that little tear inside. So God wants us to defeat that little tear that lives inside of us. And what he does that is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Graders, he that is in you, that he that is in the world.

See the Old Sinful nature is in the flesh and the Bible says the flesh is part of the world. And we have a new birth, the Holy Spirit, when you trust the Christ is your Savior and now you have the Holy Spirit in dwelling you and these two are battling all the time. So inside of my physical body I have two birds. One of the flesh when I was born to the world with an old sinful nature and that’s why we sin.

That’s why we are rebased and go our own way. So when you trusted Christ as you say, He gave you a new birth. He didn’t change this one. See this is where most people go wrong. They think God changed this first birth. He He didn’t change the first one. He gave you a new one. This one over here, see this was born of God. Born of God, God’s the Father. Born of God, you’re the child. Born of God, no sinful nature.

No sinful nature can’t sin. Can’t sin, can’t die. So this is the one that’s born of God. This is your new birth that’s going to heaven. But it lives inside of this whole physical body. and you’re gonna have trouble with Amalek. Amalek says, I had this piece of territory first and landed just dirt and this body is just dirt. She says, I had this property first. I could do anything I wanted. I looked at whatever I wanted, I went where I wanted, I said what I wanted, I became whatever I wanted, was what about what I wanted?

And now God says that body of yours has been bought and paid for, it belongs to me now. But the O.M. elect still wants it. That land didn’t God give that land to Israel? But see they were supposed to kick the malachites out of there but they didn’t do it. So now they want that land. They want that land and so they’re always fighting for it. So Israel has problems on their hands just like you have problems with those Amalek living inside of you.

So he told him and said this is what I want you to do to Amalek. And verse 1 Samuel also said in the song, the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people over Israel. Now therefore hearken unto the voice of the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did in Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. And that’s why they had trouble with Amalek when they were in the wilderness coming out of Egypt.

And they had some wars on on their hand with amalek. And God says, I want to put them out of remembrance. Well, that time ain’t come yet. So in verse 3, he says, now go and smite amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, spare them not, but slay both, suckling and ox and sheep, women, Campbell asks everything. Kill everybody. It’s how cruel, how cruel, how cruel. Well, it might seem cruel. But these are people that God had mentioned in the book of Genesis chapter 15 that the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.

He was going to send them into the land, but he gave them hundreds of years to get things right. So they were wicked people. They didn’t do what God wanted them to do. So God’s going to have to chase them. And so, and God deals. A lot of things we could say about that, but we’ll move right along here. Samuel was sick and tired of Saul, but he loves Saul. He tried to tell Saul, warn Saul, but Saul wouldn’t listen.

See now he’s exalted himself and lifted himself up as somebody that can rebel against God. See at one time he was so tender-hearted. He was so submissive to do what God wanted him to do. But now time has rolled on and he’s gotten hardened. And that’s what happens to you. It happens little by little and you don’t even know what’s taken place. Look what he says there in verse 17. Back up just a tad here but I want you to see verse 17.

And Samuel says, When thou was little in thine own sight, was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed the king over Israel? But no, now you didn’t got too big for your britches. So God’s going to have to knock him down a peg or two. So when you’re humble in God’s eyes and you submit to the will of God and you’re little in your own eyes, it’s amazing how God can exalt you and raise you up.

But get too big for your britches and God has ways of bringing you down. So now He’s disobeyed the Lord concerning the Philistines. He disobeyed God concerning the, he wasn’t supposed to make the sacrifice to Samuet and warn him about that. Now he’s told them to what to do with the Amalekites. So what happened to the Amalekites? Well, there was a problem and he was told what to do and he wouldn’t always obey. He did whatever he wanted. And he was kind of concerned because you see things were not working out exactly right.

Because he wanted some inside information. He knew he was going to have to face those Philistines and the Amalekites. But now he’s talking about the Amalekites and what he was supposed to do. Samuel comes there and lo and behold, Saul comes out there. We did it, we did it, we did it. We obeyed the Lord. So he says here, oh you did. Look in verse 12. And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel saying, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set him up on a place and has gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal.

Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. I have obeyed. I did what I was supposed to do. Pat me on the back, give me my rewards. I did the job. Did he? Did he do it fully? No, he didn’t. Let’s see. Did he? Did he do it fully? No, he didn’t. But see, sometimes you have God’s people and they think it’s okay as long that I just serve the Lord a little bit.

Some people want to serve the Lord just enough to keep God off their back. But then they never know the full blessings of God because you see, they don’t totally commit themselves to say, you know, I’m a child of God and I want to serve a Lord with all my heart. Well, in verse 13, where Saul said, I have performed the commandment of the Lord and verse 14, look what Samuel said. What meaning then this bleeding of the sheep in my near and the lowing of the oxen, which I hear.

What’s this I hear? I mean, I can hear some sheep. I have cattle. Where’d that come from? And Samuel said that to him in verse 15. Saul said, they have brought them from the… See, it wasn’t he did that. They did that. The people, they have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God and the rest we have utterly destroyed. We utterly destroyed.

But the people save the best, the sacrifice to the Lord. Is that what God told them to do? No, God didn’t tell them to do that. So they taken matters into their own hands and once again I had people tell me this. Yankee, you serve God your way and I’ll serve God my way. And I said, if we both don’t serve God, God’s way, we neither one serve God. Isn’t that true? You’re not free just to serve God my own way.

No, no, you serve God’s way, or you don’t serve God. It’s not that you can pick and choose what area of commands that you want to obey the Lord. And we’re supposed to obey the Lord in every area of our life. Well, this area is off God. God, you don’t have nothing to do with this area over here in my life. I’ll give you this, but I’m not giving up this. No, if you’re going to serve the Lord and walk with the Lord, now you can have limited dedication, but then you’ll have limited blessing.

And then God is free to chasten you for the areas that you don’t discipline in your life and correct and yield to the Lord. So you can bring upon yourself the chasting hand of God. Did Saul do what he did in a vacuum and nobody knew? No. God knows everything. If you want God to bless you, you’ve got to be honest with him. And people, it doesn’t matter. Be honest with God. And you be upfront with the Lord and you be surprised what God will do for you.

But don’t have half-hearted dedication. It’ll cost you sooner or later. So he says here in verse 16, and Samuel said unto song, stay and I will tell the, what the Lord have said to me this night. And he said to them, say on. And Samuel says, when thou was little in thine own sight, was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel and so on. And then you go down here, he says in verse 20, and Saul said unto Samuel, ye, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.

and have gone the way which the Lord sent me and have brought a gag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.” Well, wait a minute, if he’s still got a gag, isn’t he still alive? Then you didn’t utterly destroy all the Amalekites. Here’s the king of the Amalekites, right here, you got him. And the people took of the spoiled, the sheep, and the, oh, wait a minute, who’s the king? This is like somebody I know that passes the muck.

He’s not taking responsibility for being king. You mean the people don’t obey you? You didn’t tell them? And how are they going to sacrifice all this against the will of the king? He’s a hypocrite. And so it says in verse 22, Samuel says, has the Lord as great delight in burn offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to harken than the fat of rams. God would rather you do what He told you to do than you take it upon yourself to do what you want to do and ask God to bless.

Lord, this is what I’m going to do with my life. Bless me, okay? No, God says, this is what I want you to do with your life. Serve me, okay? See, with the Lord, it’s that you got a blank slate. And all God wants you to do is just sign your name down here and then trust God to fill it in. But you know what we do? We fill it in and say, God, would you sign it right here?

No, no, no, no. God, you sign it and I’ll fill it in. And so this is why we’re supposed to dedicate our life to the Lord and it doesn’t matter what He asked us to do, where He asked us to go, or whatever He asked us to be. Because the Lord is the one that gives us the very air we breathe and He can sure take it away. And He can raise us up and He can put us down.

But I do believe that the world has never seen what God can do with one man that’s totally yielded to the Lord because it seems like we all want to hold back a little bit in some area and not serve them fully. But anyway look what he says in verse 23, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry and here’s why because thou, talking to Saul, hath rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected the from being king.

You can’t be the king because of what you have done. Now this doesn’t mean that He’s taken away His salvation. His salvation is secured in the Lord. Your salvation does not depend upon your obedience to God. Once you trust Christ and Savior, He gives you eternal life. And if it’s eternal life, it lasts forever. But we have a choice as a cell of God to walk in the Spirit or walk into flesh. You still got that choice. So you’re free to choose.

You’re free to live your life however you want to live it after you could say. You can choose to serve God or choose not to serve God. But there’s consequences. If you walk in the flesh, be not deceived. God is not mocked. There is a price to pay. If you will serve the Lord and you make the right decisions because God didn’t make us robots, didn’t take away our will to choose. But I said, I’ll believe it. your life and I’ll raise you up and I’ll reward you when you get to heaven and it will be worth it all but because Saul did not do this.

In verse 24 and Saul said in this Samuel, I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words because I feared the people and obeyed their voices. Now he’s decided to come clean. Why? He’s been rejected as the king. God’s taken it away. Why? He’s crying now. He’s crying. We’ve been. He’s changing his mind. He sees the air of his ways. But is it too late? It’s too late. It’s too late. God had somebody else.

He was trained in the wings. You know who that was? King David. Little old boy, God raised him up and so God said I’m looking for somebody whose heart is right toward me and so he says there in verse 26 Samuel said in the soul I will not return with thee for thou hath rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king so you can reject God and not serve him and God can reject the idea of using you for his honor and glory and reject you from receiving rewards that you could have earned.

And he can reject those blessings that you could have had. There’s also a story about that in the book of Hebrews in chapter 12 when he talks about Gynan Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright to Jacob and he says afterwards he repented and saw it bitterly with tears, but it didn’t change anything. It was too late. There are some things you will never get a second chance at. I used to tell the college kids, opportunities are on wheels and they’re rolling by.

And preparation is for the man to take advantage when those opportunities come. And sometimes those opportunities come and those opportunities go and because you were not prepared you didn’t even know that was an opportunity. You didn’t even see it. I think people say well if I had the opportunities you have, duh, what would you have done? If you’re not prepared to take advantage of the opportunities God sends you away and so many people never prepare themselves and so they never see opportunity.

And everybody else has all the good luck and poor, poor them. And they complain about everything. And they are reaping their own consequences of what decisions they made. That’s why the Bible says prepare. Prepare to meet God. Prepare to be fit for the Lord’s use. Prepare. Study to show thy self-approved unto God a workman that need if not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. Studying that you can be a workman. You want to work for the Lord.

So he says down here, I’m going to give it to somebody else in verse 28 and Samuel said unto him, the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day and hath given it to a neighbor of thine and that he is better than thou. I’ve had people say, well you’re trying to think that you’re better than me? Well, God may think so. Why do you use that person and not that person? I mean, people say, well, you think he’s better than I am?

In some cases? Yes. We always say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, they are. Now, we’re all sinners, but some people are more fit for the ministry than other people. Some people are more fit to be a good husband than other people. Not all husbands are the same. Would you agree with that? But all wives are the same. Some wives are better than other wives. Some children act better than other children. They’re all all the same. So no, I don’t play the political game of being politically correct.

I just state what I believe the Bible says and it gives me more trouble but don’t think it’s the truth. What happened to this guy? egg egg. Well, look what happened to him. And you can see, down in verse 32, then said Samuel, bring ye hither to me, a gag, the king of the Amelicate, and a gag came unto him delicately. I believe prancing up to him. Well, surely the, as he says here, the bitterness of death is past.

you’re right, if it depended upon Saul. But Samuel’s a different man. What did Samuel do? He took a sword and cut to God of pieces. Now, he loved truth and God more than Saul and all the people all put together. And so therefore, some people will take a stand for the Lord and some people never will. Because unless you’re strong in the Lord, you’re not strong. Some people are only as strong as the last person they talked to depend upon what wind of doctrine is going on.

And what’s the political wind? Which way should I bend? Or some people stand firm. That’s why when they came to see Jesus about John the Baptist, he says, what did you expect to see a reach shaken by the wind? No. So he says in verse 33, and Samuel says, as thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. Now I wonder what he meant by that. Today your mother is going to be childless. He’s gonna die.

See the last part of it, and Samuel hewed a gag in pieces before the Lord and Gylgown. And 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. In the Lord it grieved God. See it always grieves God when we disobey God. Now doesn’t the Bible say in the book of Ephesians and several other scriptures talking about grieve not the Holy Spirit of God who are by were sealed unto the day of redemption.

Once you trust Christ to save you the Holy Spirit lives within you and you grieve God. God is grieved when we are disobedient and when we’re rebellious to the Lord. So can we cause God’s grief. Grief generally doesn’t bother somebody unless it really hurts you because you love. When you really care about somebody, and I believe God really loves us and really cares about what we can do with the life, but God, He’s holy. God is holy. Look up here, this hand represents you and me, the wallet represents sin.

We all have sin on us. Now God, He loves us, but He hates our sin. He loves us. But to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. And so we were without hope. There is no option to. We have to die and pay for our sins. That’s the payment for sin. You see heaven is perfect, but we’re not. And God won’t let sin in. We can’t go. How can I get rid of my sin? Die. Then it’s too late.

So God says you cannot earn eternal life. You need a Savior. So this hand representing Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord. God in the flesh came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because our sin separates us from So the Bible says the only way we can get to heaven is God’s going to have to just forgive us the note. Forgive us, but he can’t just forgive us because the law says it has to be paid. So he can’t just write it off and forget all about it.

So he had to send his son. His son came into the world and died that sin debt that we owe. Everybody has to die. And he paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. So now, because the debt has been paid, forgiveness can be offered. So he told his disciples to go into all the world and preach the forgiveness of sins. See, the sin payment’s been made. That’s not the issue anymore. Now the issue is, will you accept God’s forgiveness?

Who in their right mind wouldn’t? So when I was 18 years old, I heard this for the first time. It blew my mind. You mean it’s free? I don’t have to do something. I mean there’s nothing to do. I don’t have to change my life. Start doing something. All I had to do is believe he did it for me and he would put this payment to my account and I go to heaven on what Christ did for me and that was a gift free.

So this is the message that teaches the grace of God. God loved us and we didn’t deserve it. You And he paid for our sins, and we didn’t deserve that. He forgives us, and we didn’t deserve that. Now, in our lives, there’s people going to sin against us. They don’t deserve forgiveness. They don’t deserve to be loved, and they don’t deserve be kind, and they don’t deserve our compassion. They don’t deserve it. So we’re only looking for the people that deserve our goodness.

Oh, really? God says, I want you to say, to do this, For me, treat them the way I treated you. Now, can you understand what I’m saying? Can you really understand what I’m saying? Shake your head like this. This means yes. This means no. I was over in India. They went like this. I’d ask them a question and they go like that. Totally confuse me. Let’s pray, shall we? shall we? Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around.

If you’re here this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you trust Him right now? Would you say something to the Lord Lord? I know I’m a sinner, I believe Christ died, paid for my sin, and I’m going to trust Him as my only hope of going to heaven. I want the Lord’s forgiveness for everything I’ve ever done. And the reason He can do that is because he’s already paid for my sins. And I will accept his forgiveness.

And if you will, God said he would give you the free gift of everlasting life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven whenever you die. Would you trust him? If you will, I’m going to ask you in just a moment to raise your hand. Raising your hand doesn’t save you. It just lets me know that what I said made sense to you. I’m not going to have you forward. I’m not going to embarrass you. But right where you’re sitting, would you trust Christ as your Savior?

And if you will, would you let me know by just slipping the hand out very quickly and better right back down? And what at all? And what at all? With your heads to your bow and your eyes closed. While I was talking, did anybody’s picture flash into your mind? Can you recall something that was said or done to you or that you did to someone else? And you need to get forgiveness for that. Talk to the Lord about those things.

God will bless you. He really will. Pray, Father, we do thank you so much for your wonderful love and care and all your provision for us. And Father, even though I’m standing up here teaching a little lesson about Saul, I must depend upon the Holy Spirit to do its work in the lives of each person that’s here and to bring to their attention areas in their own life where they need to realize, yes, we need to be humble before God.

But if I exalt myself, God can bring me down. And that rebellion is like wickedness and witchcraft. And Father, I pray Your will to be done in the lives of each person here. Blessen our service to follow Christ and we pray. Hello friends. Thank you for listening to Bibleline. And thank you to those who write in and tell us how Bibleline is making such a big impact in your lives. It’s such an encouragement when we receive your letters and emails.

Can I ask, how is your prayer life? Does it need some help? Most Christians think of prayer as a secondary or last resort. Do you realize that Jesus spent hours upon hours in prayer to his heavenly Father? And yet we so often fail to practice prayer as a priority in our lives. Well, during this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send you Dr. Arnold’s for sermon series on the power of prayer. Perhaps prayer is a shortcoming in your life and this teaching is surely able to help.

Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.