1 Samuel 15 and 1 Samuel 16, similar to what we saw last week, where you get two sides almost of the same coin, the man who chooses the curse and the man who chooses the blessing. 1 Samuel 15 and 16 give us something similar. In 1 Samuel 15, Saul is a man who chooses his own way, and so he chooses the judgment of God. In 1 Samuel 16, not to give away too much, we see the opposite. happening. And so yes, 1 Samuel 15 leads us once again to a very dark place. But we serve a God who never leaves his people in darkness. So let's start 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 1. And Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them into lime, 200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, go, depart. Go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatted calves, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them, all that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction. The word of the Lord came to Samuel, I regret that I have made Saul king. For he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel arose early to meet Saul in the morning, and it was told Samuel, well, Saul has come to Carmel. And behold, he has set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him, blessed be you to the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, what then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God and the rest we have devoted to destruction. Then Samuel said to Saul, stop. I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to him, speak. And Samuel said, though you are little in your own eyes, Are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then? Did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoils, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. And 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, to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. And 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. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may bow before the Lord. And 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. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul bowed before the Lord. And Samuel said, bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past. Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Thanks be to God for his word. You know, humanly speaking, Saul had everything going for him. Everything. In personal terms, he was tall, he was handsome, and he was decisive. Exactly what you want your leader to be. In terms of his social standing, his father was a well-off farmer, his helpers were intelligent men, his son Jonathan was a valiant, brave, godly man. He was king over the nation in terms of the nation that followed him. He was adored. He was exactly the kind of king they wanted. They had cheered when he'd been chosen because they knew that there was no one else in the nation that had the same sort of regal bearing as Saul. Saul is a king among kings, they thought. Even in terms of God's equipping him. As soon as Saul is crowned king, God's Spirit flies into him like a gale into a sail, giving him the boldness to do whatever needs to be done in order to fulfill God's mission. In terms of accomplishments, Saul was a... We can say, in earthly terms at least, a rather successful king. He built an army where there had been no army before. He trained that army. He wiped the floor with Israel's enemies, whether through his own military prowess or through that of his generals. He had everything going for him. So why was Saul such a dramatic failure? Well, in short, it's because he was Israel's king, but he was not God's king. He was a man's man, a king's king, but he was not God's man. He was not God's king. That is to say, he was not a king who devoted himself to the king of kings. And we'll see him in several stages this morning. We'll see him show himself to be just that, a king's king. interested in the business of reigning, interested in the business of building a kingdom, despite the fact that God said that His throne won't outlive Him. And because this is His priority, because His own political position and power is His priority, Saul is going to deem political expediency of greater weight than God's commands. He's got the heart of a politician. When we get right down to it, Saul is a failure because he was his own man. He was interested in his own business, his own kingdom. He was not God's man. He was not pursuing God's kingdom. We're going to see this this morning in this chapter in four stages. First, in his false submission. Second, in his false piety. Third, in his false repentance. And then fourth, we're going to see the fruits of his actions. in his very real isolation and misery. We begin verses 1 through 12, his false submission. What is it that he's not submitting to, though? Well, the mission that God sends him on. God issues his command here to King Saul, and of course, he reminds him who the true king is. Samuel comes to Saul, and he says, Saul, the Lord sent me, remember, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. They're not your people, they're God's people. Israel is not your nation, Israel is God's nation. He is the king that is over you. God is the king. You're just his viceroy. God gets to call the shots. God is the one who determines when, how, if Israel will go to war. Samuel, speaking for God, says, You might not remember this story. It's in Exodus. Before the people get to Sinai, they're wandering through a wilderness without water, without food. So, at a place called Rephidim, God splits open a rock and water gushes out. The place is also called Massa and Meribah, because there the Israelites tested God. But there also, the Amalekites, a nation of traders and raiders in the desert, attacked Israel, not just Israel, but they attacked the weakest members of the nation of Israel, the stragglers, those who had been left to the back of the baggage train. And God says, I've not forgotten. This was some 350, 400 years earlier, but God says, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came out of Egypt. I haven't forgotten. I've remembered the misery they've caused. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, camel and donkey." Now, I don't want to get too sidetracked here, but I imagine that many of you, when you read that part of the passage or heard that part of the passage, you had a great deal of difficulty with what God had just commanded Saul to do. And our difficulty with God's command really stems from our inability to understand the true depths of God's concern for justice to be done. And in the end, our inability to, our difficulty with God's command stems from our unwillingness to share in that same sense of perfect, divine justice. God is so concerned for justice to be done, for His people to be protected, for His name to be glorified, that He appears quite severe to us, perhaps too severe. But check your heart. God says, do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, camel and donkey. You might find that repulsive. You might experience some degree of revulsion. But I wonder, does the same revulsion occur to you when God's justice is displayed on Calvary? See, that's the only time in history that a truly sinless and innocent person has ever been punished. If you've got difficulty with this command of God's, Don't you understand that for any Amlekite, indeed for any person outside of Christ, to die is simply justice at work? In Adam, all die. And it is appointed for man once to die, and after that comes judgment. We and all people are born with the sentence of death hanging above our heads. It's a sentence that Adam, our father, purchased for us. And when we baptize our babies, we say, I believe this child is born deserving God's condemnation, God's wrath. This child is born deserving hell. And unless God steps in in mercy and saves this child, he or she will be condemned. If he or she remains in Adam, he will die. And if we demand, according to our great sense of justice, that only the guilty be punished, well, then we are calling God's condemnation down on ourselves. If an innocent Christ being punished for our transgression is abhorrent to us, if we will not put our trust in a God who would do that or who would do this, we are without hope because we are without God. But Saul, if he has any misgivings about God's command, he does not share them with us. In fact, very little time is really spent on this military campaign at all. Saul gathers all of Israel's forces, some 200,000 plus, and then after telling the Kenites to get out of the way, the Kenites, by the way, were that other nomadic nation that Moses' in-laws and Jael, the killer of Sisera, belonged to. After telling the Kenites to get out of the way, he attacks the Amalekites with this overwhelming force, he crushes them, he destroys that nation, he chases them all the way to the edge of the Red Sea. The victory is total, it is overwhelming. If Saul has shared any of our modern Western misgivings about carrying out holy war, he doesn't display them. No, he's got his own misgivings. His problem with the command of God, though, is very different from ours. But Saul and the people spared Agag. You know, if anyone is deserving of death in the nation of Amlek, it's Agag, their king. Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and the oxen, and the fattened calves, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. But all that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. See, we have this moral hangup when it comes to holy war. War that god commands in in books like joshua judges first samuel kings And really you might blame our culture which insists that there is no ultimate standard of justice that absolutely everyone has violated Saul's hang-up though is is quite different, but it also comes from his surrounding culture How was it that ancient Near Eastern kings were established and made mighty in ancient cultures? Well, it was by winning wars. It was by taking spoil and then handing out that spoil to their servants and allies. In this way, everyone could know who was in charge, the kings in charge. It was how they got people both inside and outside their nation to fear them. And so Saul's just carrying out what's normal practice for kings of this time and in this place. The only problem is, Saul has forgotten how he became king in the first place. We forget the ultimate source of justice. Saul forgets the ultimate source of authority. The word of the Lord came to Samuel, I regret that I've made Saul king, for he's turned back from following me and he has not performed my commandments. Saul has forgotten that he is a man under authority. He has forgotten that he is not Israel's true king. He is the true king's representative. And because he has forgotten, or rather perhaps because he has pushed that rather inconvenient truth out of his mind, he will not and he does not submit to God's law. He's willing enough, happy enough to carry out God's war, but only until the point at which it becomes inconvenient for him to do so. And at that point, He goes back to serving Himself. He reverts to being a king like the nations. And God says something rather startling here in verse 11. He says, I regret, I regret that I have made Saul king. And we'll say more on this later. But don't plaster this over. God is saying that what has happened here, what Saul has done here, this incomplete and really this false obedience of Saul's is contrary to everything that should be going on in the world. In fact, it's contrary to the very heart of God. Everything in God's world, everything in God's word screams at us, it's not about you. It's not about you and what makes you happy and what makes you wealthy and what makes you wise, what makes you influential and high up in the world. It's not about your reputation. It's not about your opinion. It's not about your sense of justice. No, it's about God. It's about God. And when we go and pretend that things are all about us, and when we live our lives in a way that our lives are really all about us making ourselves happy, we are flipping the world on its head. See, that has been the sin from the very beginning. Saying it's about me, it's not about you. And often the people around us see it before we do. Christians around us see that we are serving ourselves instead of serving God. We are serving our own opinions instead of God's truth. And they're broken up by it before we are. Well, we're carrying on as normal. We don't notice our sins, but they see them. And the Lord tells Samuel what's happened. And now both Samuel and Saul know the same things. They know the command of God, and they know how far Saul went in fulfilling that command. And Samuel, He hears this judgment of God. He hears God say, I regret that I've made Saul king. He has turned back from following me. He has not performed my commandments. And Samuel is angry. And he weeps. He weeps in the presence of God all night. But Saul, in contrast, he actually goes out and he builds himself a monument. Now, ordinarily in Scripture, when a monument is set up, it's to remind people, hey, God was here. He did something of massive importance here. Don't forget. But now Saul sets up a monument for himself. It's that same message, but again, flipped on its head. Saul was here, and he did something of massive importance. Don't forget. And this is really the heart of his false obedience and the heart of all of our false obediences. It's all about him. It's all about Saul. And really, when we have our own hangups about what God says, about whether what God says is right or wrong, when we disagree with him about what should and what shouldn't be done, it's because we've done the same thing. We have rewritten history, we have rewritten morality, we have rewritten the way the world works, and we've even rewritten the Bible to be all about us. We erect our own monuments, we erect our own idols, and it's ourselves. When God says, do this and you shall live, and we say, yeah, you know what, I'll do this and I'll do this, but that last thing you're commanding, that looks rather dull and difficult and possibly dangerous. It doesn't look terribly enjoyable. It looks like something I really don't wanna do. And you know, anyway, God doesn't want me to be unhappy, does he? No, no. I'm gonna do these things at God's commands, and in this area, I'm gonna do what makes me happy, and we'll just see how things turn out. But what we're doing is we're putting ourselves on the throne, and we're putting God in the dock. We're saying that God and His opinions must conform to ours. We are making ourselves the evaluators. We are making ourselves the definers of reality, what is good, what is bad, what is right, what is wrong, what is cursed, what is blessed. And you see how upside down that is, don't you? And it's easy to see in Saul. But you've got to recognize the same thing when it happens in your own heart. You've got to recognize when you are only going halfway or two-thirds of the way or even 99% of the way in following the commands of God, you've got to understand that 1%, that 1% of self-willed rebellion is abhorrent in the eyes of God. It's the fly that spoils the other 99% of the ointment. And for Israel's king to be doing this sort of thing, it's really bad. Not just for his own sake, but for the sake of his people. Because all of God's people are gonna see what Saul is doing, and they're gonna say, hey, we can get away with that? Wow, why have we been following God's law? Let's follow our hearts instead. And you see the nonsense that's really taken root in Saul's heart, don't you? Because Samuel finally catches up with Saul, and Saul seems completely oblivious to everything that's been going on. Samuel's got bags under his eyes, his eyes are red from weeping all night, and Saul sees him, Samuel, blessed be you by the Lord, I've done exactly what the Lord commanded me to do. That self-centered bravado. I've done a good job, Samuel, pat me on the head, call me good boy. But his bravado is cut off by the bleeding. You've done what the Lord commanded? Then why do I hear sheep? Why do I hear oxen? And Saul's caught. He's caught in his bravado, in his self-centeredness, but again, the excuses come out. Well, the people, Samuel, oh, you know these people, they were so dedicated to God that they found themselves unable to destroy the livestock out there in the desert, and we just had to bring them back here to Gilgal to sacrifice to God. Boy, won't God be happy that we caught his mistake? Oh, but don't worry, don't worry, Samuel. We killed the weak, the thin cattle in the wilderness, just like God says, and Samuel cuts him off. Stop it. Stop it, Saul. And when someone is rationalizing their sins to you, that's usually the best course of action. Just stop it. Just stop. And Samuel says, I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And Saul, somewhat subdued, says, speak. Saul, you started off so well. You were little in your own eyes. You had the right view of yourself. You understood that you were small, but God is big. You understood the immensity of this office of king that God called you to. And yet, even though you were so small, God gave you this huge task of being king over His people Israel. The Lord gave you this task. Not me, the Lord did. The Lord is the one who anointed you king over Israel, and that same Lord that anointed you, that gave you the throne, sent you on this mission, He told you what to do. The word was clear. Why didn't you obey? Why did you take what the Lord said was off-limits? And again, Saul's got his excuses. Well, you know, from a certain point of view, I did. I went and I fought the Lord's enemies. I smashed them up against the Red Sea. Why don't you give me credit for that, Samuel? Come on, lighten up. The only thing I did wrong, if you want to call it wrong, was I took Agag their king. You know, Samuel, every good ancient Near Eastern king needs another defeated king or two in his court in a cage to let the other nations know just how strong he is. The nations around need to know that I'm the king of Israel. I am a king of kings. Come on, Samuel. It's just how things are done. Kings need to act like kings. Get with the times. Be practical. And if you want to know about the animals, well, I blame that on the people. They didn't listen. I tried to restrain them, perhaps, but, you know, they had really good intentions. They wanted some nice sacrifices in case God was hungry when we got back. I'm their leader, so I had to follow them. See, not only has Saul begun to believe that he is a king like the kings of the other nations, not only has he begun to think that Israel is a nation like the other nations, but he's begun to believe that the Lord is a God like the gods of the other nations, hungry for blood, pleased with nothing but sacrifices. And here's where the text touches down in our lives again. We think that God thinks like us. We're the most reasonable people we know, so of course God thinks like us. We think that God values the same things as us. They are, after all, extremely valuable. Why wouldn't he? We think that God would be happy with what we think he ought to be happy with. And as a result, the service that we offer him is that which flows most naturally from our hearts. Now, what's the danger in that? Shouldn't worship be, you know, a full-hearted experience? Well, yes. But the measuring rod for whether worship and service is good or evil should not be your heart. No, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? God's Word gives us the standard for worship. We excuse a lot of people in their misapplied devotion to the Lord, people who are worshiping God in ways that He has not commanded in His Word. And we say things like, well, they're so sincere. They're so sincere. Their praise is so heartfelt. Look at the offerings they're giving to the Lord. We don't listen, do we, to Samuel's correction in verses 22 and 23? 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. To listen is better than the fat of rams. You can do all manner of things in wholehearted devotion and sincerity. You can give away everything you own in this act of extreme devotion. You can die a martyr's death with utmost sincerity. You can speak in tongues with all your heart. You can have miraculous faith and perform all kinds of miraculous signs. You can move mountains. You can understand every little detail of the Bible, memorize the whole thing front to back. But if you're not listening to the voice of the Lord, it's nothing. It's nothing, and it's worse than nothing. I saw a video this past week, a short video of an adherent of another branch of Christianity that values tradition, that is the opinions of men, over the commands of Scripture. And this man was carrying about what he sincerely believed to be the true body and true blood of Christ. And he was weeping because of the great honor that had been given to him. And the commentators were saying things like, isn't this a picture of piety? Isn't this what true devotion to God looks like? Look at the tears streaming down his face. Look at the happiness. Look at the happiness on his face. This man is so devoted to God. No, rebellion, ignoring the voice of God. Coming up with your own opinions of what is good and what is evil worship. Rebellion is as the sin of divination. Samuel says, if you're not going to listen to the clear commands of God in Scripture, you might as well go to a witch doctor instead of going to church. Bring your tithes and offerings there instead. And presumption is as iniquity and idolatry, if you're going to sit under the preaching of God's Word. but you're gonna sleep through it or else sit in judgment over it as though you were the judge and God were the accused, go to a mosque. At least then you'll be judging what is in fact false. To assume that you can enter into the presence of God and assume that your own ideas are enough to get you through. Samuel says, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king. If you sit in the congregation hearing without listening, you are rejecting the Word of the Lord. Not my words. You can take my words, you can leave my words. I won't be too hurt by that. I'm wrong about a lot of things. You can ask my family. But God's words are another issue altogether. If you reject the Lord, He will also reject you. These are heavy words. They're heavy for us. They were certainly heavy for King Saul. And Saul says to Samuel, finally, and it seems like it's hit home, all right, you're right, Samuel, I have sinned. Now forgive me so we can move past this. How can we smooth things over so it'll all be good between me and you and God? He doesn't get it. Saul thought too lowly of God and too highly of his own judgment. He thought God was like him. He thought God should be happy with what Saul decided God should be happy with. We do the same thing. And then when we're caught in our sin, when we're challenged, we make our excuses. And then when that fails, we give our half-hearted confession and we say, okay, now put it behind you. Put it behind you, God, I'm the sinner, you're the forgiver, that's your job, now forgive me. So everything can be like it was. But Samuel responds, I will not return with you. You've been rejected by God. How could I, as God's spokesman, act like everything was still okay? Now Saul's distressed. He's disturbed by what Samuel has now said. And so as Samuel turns and begins to walk away, Saul, in desperation, grabs onto the edge of his cloak and it tears. And Samuel whirls around, the Lord has torn the kingdom away from you this day. You're not God's king anymore, Saul. He has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. The Lord's got plans for His people, the same plan He's always had for them, and He's not going to alter it to fit your petty ambitions. The Lord is not like a man, He will not change His mind. You're out, Saul, you're out. The Lord is the strength of Israel, and He can give His Spirit, He can give His favor to whomever He chooses, and for His own sake, and for the sake of His people, you're out. Now Saul, again, he seems subdued. I have sinned, verse 30. But don't mistake this for repentance. It's not repentance. It's just an admission of guilt. That is not the same thing as repentance. He's not turning from his sin. He isn't turning from his pride, his self-centeredness. He isn't turning to the Lord. He's just saying, okay, what I have done is wrong. Yet, now honor me in front of the elders of my people and before Israel and come back with me so we can keep up appearances. And maybe it's pity for Saul, and maybe it's devotion to Israel. He wants to keep the nation together until God's other king emerges. Maybe it's because he's remembered there's a certain other king who needs dismembering. But Samuel returns with Saul, and Saul bows before the Lord. Then Samuel says, There's judgment that needs rendering here. If Saul won't do it, Samuel will. And Agag is brought to him quite happy that he seems to have avoided punishment for all of his crimes. But Samuel's words, you can imagine, brought him crashing down to the earth, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother, really, be the most childless of all women. And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. See, this is the kind of sacrifice, this is the kind of service that God had demanded of King Saul. It seems barbaric to us, because we're so much more civilized than God is. But this is the kind of service that the Lord demanded, obedience and love. Is it loving to hack egg to pieces? Yes, it is. Because God commanded it. And love is the summation of God's whole law. Obedience and love is what God commanded, not the extravagance of human service But for Saul, that's it. His reign is effectively over. He's become a hollow king in his heart. He's become a hollow king on the throne. He has disobeyed his sovereign. And so now he's nothing but a placeholder until Israel's new king, Israel's true king comes. And Saul, he's still in a pretty good place in human standards. He's surrounded by the 10,000s of Israel. He's still living high off the hog with those Amalekite beef and camels all around him. He's still got his glorious victory. The other kings and the other nations around Israel, they're gonna hear what happened to Agag and they're gonna tremble. Israel will still render him obedience. He's still gonna collect taxes and lead Israel's armies and give gifts to his allies and friends, but he is not God's man anymore. He wanted nothing to do with God. And so now God will have nothing to do with him. He has isolated himself from God. And so now God has given him over to his desires. This is the cost of sin. This is the cost of sin. And it's a high cost. Don't think that you can listen to the Word of God and then ignore the Word of God and live without consequences. You've ignored the Creator and you're living in His creation. There are going to be consequences. And you know, if you've read the rest of the book, you know how devastated Saul will be, and even at the end, how devastated he will be when he needs Samuel to help him. But Samuel has died and it's too late. You know how desperate he'll become. He'll even go to a witch in some effort to raise Samuel from the dead, because Samuel's back is turned. And because of Saul's sin, he has become truly isolated, not from men, no, but from God and the friends of God. And God's back is turned, and Samuel's back is turned, and the story of Saul is effectively over. In fact, even this chapter could be considered part of the story of David. An introduction of sorts, if you will. Because this chapter, it cries out to us, Israel needs a king, but he can't be some mere man chasing the things that men chase, looking for the solutions that men look for. And yes, as we'll see this afternoon, for the time, it'll be David. It'll be the man after God's own heart. But even righteous David, you know, is gonna fall short if you've read his story. We need a king. We need a king. But we need someone to be our king who will not offer incomplete submission to God's law, but someone who is entirely in tune with and in submission to God's law, for whom God's law is a portion and a light, who meditates upon that law with gladness day and night. Psalm 1 says, we need someone whose piety, whose service to God is without bravado and without the incompleteness that brings bleating. We need someone who loves God with his whole heart and doesn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left. We need a king who will not judge by what his eyes see, but who will do justice with divine standards and divine perfection. We need someone who has no need to be corrected, who has no need to confess. We need the kind of king that God Himself delights in. We need the kind of king who will come into this world and say, Hebrews 10, 5 through 7, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired. but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you take no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book." And who came into the world saying this? Well, the Lord Jesus. Not a king like Saul, not at all. No, great David's greater son, who came into the world to render perfect obedience. But we need someone, we need someone more than that. It's not enough for a righteous king to be provided and to say, come follow me. No, we need our own slates wiped clean as well. We need to be made pure and perfect and undefiled because we are a bunch of excuse-making, half-hearted, half-obedient souls by nature. We're a pack of souls in desperate need of a Savior. And here's the wonderful news, as Hebrews 10 will go on to tell us, this good King who does the will of God perfectly is also a good Savior. As Hebrews 10, 12 through 14 says, but when Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, a sacrifice that God delighted in, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for that time when his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet. For by that single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. There's more, there's more. Remember, by nature, we're like Saul. We need our slates wiped clean, but we need our hearts fixed as well by the Spirit though. By the Spirit sent from the Father's right hand, by our ascended Christ, we are being made like Jesus himself, like that good King. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. Hebrews 10.15, now. For after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law on their hearts, and I will write my laws on their minds. Saul was a mere man. in the image of Adam, in the mold of Adam, pursuing his own lusts and ambitions and desires, living like the nations because he saw himself as a king like the nations. The Christ who has saved us is also sanctifying us now, is giving us hearts that love the law of God. He's giving us hearts that have the law of God written on them. He's giving us hearts that now by nature choose to do what the law demands. Rejoice in this. Rejoice in this. You were in Adam. You were Saul. You were of the devil by nature. But if Christ has saved you. If that good King has provided the sacrifice for your salvation, your Father is now making you more and more and more like Christ. Yes, you still have those Saul-like tendencies, but your heart's being trained to sing a better song. And He's fixing your eyes so that His Word and His Messiah, reeking of death and folly in the noses and the eyes of the world, His Word and His Messiah are now the sweet aroma of life. And now God's Word has come to you. And the choice once again lies before you. Will you choose life or death? Will you choose to be found in yourself half-hearted, half-obedient, half-willing? Or will you be found in Christ, who is perfect and who gives his perfection to you and makes you willing and wholehearted, who gives you new desires, who gives you new affections, Oh, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone. Behold, the new has come. Let's pray.