I SAMUEL
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Please turn in your Bibles this evening to I Samuel chapter 15 as we continue our study through the Word of God. If you remember from our previous studies, the Philistines were coming against Israel after king Saul’s son Jonathan started attacking the Philistines. The children of Israel were outnumbered and outgunned and this caused Saul to be fearful and his men caught that fear. Many of them fled away, hid in caves, and many joined forces with the Philistines.
But that did not stop Jonathan and his armor bearer. They went after the Philistines, defeated many of them and it caused such confusion in the camp of the Philistines that they started killing each other! Not only that but when the children of Israel saw what was happening it encouraged them and there was a great slaughter against the Philistines.
But it was not complete because Saul made a foolish oath and said that his soldiers could not eat until the battle was complete. Not only that but whoever did eat was in trouble. Now Jonathan new nothing about this oath and he had some honey that energized him but the rest of the men were worn out, they had no energy. What is tragic here is that these soldiers were so hungry that they slaughtered some animals and did not even drain the blood out as God had commanded them.
And Saul, he wants to know if he should continue on against the Philistines so he inquires of the Lord but the Lord is silent. Thus, he comes to the conclusion that there is sin in the camp; not realizing it was his sin. Saul wants to know who broke his oath and whoever did was to be put to death! Well, as they sought the Lord it was revealed that Jonathan, his son broke this foolish oath and thus, Saul wants his men to put him to death. Thank God they did not listen. But because of Saul’s fleshly actions, the enemy was not defeated like God intended and we are told that, “ . . . there was fierce war with the Philistines all the days of Saul. . . .” I Samuel 14:52.
Now we are going to see Saul continue on with his disobedience to the Lord and this will be costly for him as disobedience to the Lord truly is! Before we get to our text this evening, let me share this story with you that will show you how important obedience not only to our earthly father’s, but also our Heavenly Father is. We are told:
In the Belgian Congo, the weather was hot and dank. No breath of air stirred; leaves hung from the trees as though they were weighted. In the garden not far from the missionary home a small boy played under a tree. Suddenly, the father called to him: “Philip, obey me instantly – get down on your stomach.” The boy reacted at once, and his father continued, “Now crawl toward me fast.” The boy again obeyed. After he had come about halfway, the father said, “Now stand up and run to me.” The boy reached his father and turned to look back – hanging from the branch under which he had been playing was a fifteen-foot serpent.
Are we always as ready to obey? Or do we say: “Tell me why?” “Explain to me”? “I will after awhile”? Let it be, “Speak, Lord, Thy servant hears.”
- Donald Grey Barnhouse, Timeless Illustrations for Preaching and teaching, p. 170
And as we will see tonight, it is not only hearing but also obeying to what the Lord is saying. With that said, let’s begin reading in I Samuel chapter 15 starting in verse 1 and see what the Lord has for us as we study through His Word.
As you read this it seems that Samuel is very gracious in coming back to Saul and speaking to him. The reality is that God is good, He is very gracious and He gave to Samuel the words to say to Saul, a warning to not only listen to the voice of God but to obey it.
Folk’s God does the same with us. Many times He will send others to warn us when we are going astray, not because He hates us but because He loves us and wants what is best for our lives, if we would only listen!
Here is the Word of the Lord to king Saul, go and utterly wipe out, destroy the Amalekites, don’t leave anyone alive, not even their animals! Now what in the world did these people do that was so bad that God wants Saul to destroy them, even their children, it just doesn’t seem fair? In Deuteronomy 25:17-19 we are told what they did, “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.”
So as the children of Israel were leaving Egypt, as they were traveling to the Promise Land, the Amalekites would attack the weak, the young, the sick in the camp of Israel as they were traveling and God is holding them responsible for their actions! God was now going to use Israel as His instrument of judgment against them. In fact, hundreds of years before this period of time, back in Exodus 17:14-16 the Lord said He was going to do this, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’ And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-Lord-Is-My-Banner; for he said, ‘Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.’”
Now, even as we look at what they did, it does seem a little harsh, doesn’t it? That is because we do not have the full picture that God does and because He knows what these people were like and where they were headed, He was going to destroy them. Some of their practices, besides attacking the weak in Israel is that they committed child sacrifice and were into all kinds of demonic practices. They were like a rabid dog that is going to die any way. The Amalekites were going to eventually destroy themselves by their practices, and instead of letting them continue on and infect those around them; God was going to destroy them. Think about it, would you let your child play with a rabid dog? I don’t think so! Our Heavenly Father feels the same way.
And the reality is, we don’t know all the reasons, only God does and thus, we know the character of God and thus, we know that what He does is right, it is just, even though we might not fully understand it. In fact, Clarke puts it like this, “Nothing could justify such an exterminating decree but the absolute authority of God. This was given: all the reasons of it we do not know; but this we know well, The Judge of all the earth doth right. This war was not for plunder, for God commanded that all the property as well as the people should be destroyed.”
Now for us today, some feel that we need to take up our arms and fight for the cause, even if we have to wipe people out, destroy them. Folk’s, God NEVER tells us to do that in the New Testament, it was part of the Old Covenant, God was trying to preserve His people for the coming Messiah to be born from. In fact, Jesus said in John 18:36, “ . . . ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.’”
Then how does that relate to us today? The Amalekites are a type of the flesh, and if the flesh is not utterly destroyed, it will rise up and destroy you. You see, it is like a cancer and must be removed. If not the cancer will spread quickly and choke out and kill the rest of the body. Don’t leave even a little left for just a little leaven will permeate the whole loaf and just a little sin will permeate whole body! If you don’t kill the flesh, it will kill you!
Saul does the right thing here. He spares the Kenites, who were descendants of Moses father-in-law. (Exodus 18:10, 19, Numbers 24:21, Judges 1:16, 4:11-17). They showed kindness to Israel and now Saul is repaying them, in a sense for the kindness they showed.
Now Saul is able to amass a pretty good-sized army, some 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. But again, it is not the size or the strength of this army, it is the faith of these men and their leaders that will bring about this victory!
When you look at the territory that this battle encompassed, it was a major military campaign. Havilah is in western Arabia and Shur is located in the northeastern boarder of Egypt. Thus, over 200,000 men were needed in this battle!
Now Saul does start out well, he does go to battle against the Amalekites, but he does not fully obey the Lord. He keeps Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings or young animals, the lambs, every thing that was good they kept and everything that was bad they destroyed! God gave Saul another chance and he failed once again. Regarding this issue we are told, “Partial obedience is complete disobedience. Saul and his men obeyed as far as suited them; that is to say, they did not obey God at all, but their own inclinations, both in sparing the good and destroying the worthless. What was not worth carrying off was destroyed, - not because of the command, but to save trouble.” (Maclaren).
Now in regards to them keeping what was good and destroying what was bad, who decided that? It was Saul and the people because God said that it was all bad, destroy it all! How true that is in our own lives. We have no problem giving to the Lord those things that we don’t want, that is easy but when God wants us to give to Him something that we treasure, that we think is good, well, that is another story! God wants our full obedience, not because He is mean, but because He knows what is best for our lives! May we listen! It is as Meyer wrote:
“But an even deeper reading of this story is permissible. Throughout the Bible Amalek stands for the flesh, having sprung from the stock of Esau, who, for a morsel of meat, steaming fragrantly in the air, sold his birthright. To spare the best of Amalek is surely equivalent to sparing some root of evil, some plausible indulgence, some favorite sin. For us, Agag must stand for that evil propensity, which exists in all of us, for self-gratification; and to spare Agag is to be merciful to ourselves, to exonerate and palliate our failures, and to condone our besetting sin.” Obviously this is a good lesson for us to learn and we are going to see that expounded on even more in the rest of this chapter.
Now as you read this you may be wondering, “If God is all knowing, why is he regretting that He made Saul king? Didn’t He know that Saul would not obey Him?” Of course He did! What God is doing here is trying to explain in human terms how He felt, He knew that Saul was not the man and that He was looking for a man after His own heart, (I Samuel 13:14) and thus, this is what we call an anthropomorphism. And I think the idea comes across when you see Samuel’s reaction to what the Lord is telling him. Samuel does not gloat or think, “I told him he would fail.” No, he is broken over this and I think that is the heart of God being reflected in the heart of this man of God, Samuel! Where are you in regards to your feelings when a brother falls? You see, as we walk with God the things that grieve the heart of God will grieve our hearts as well and the things that please the heart of God will please our hearts as well. Where do you stand?
How hard this must have been for Samuel, to go and discipline Saul, but he rose early and obeyed the voice of the Lord. For Saul, he was so full of pride, so full of himself that he built a monument of his great accomplishment. There is no recognition of God here nor is there any remorse or repentance for his failure to fully obey the Lord. He is boasting and on his own spiritual high even though he is not walking with the Lord. My, how we can deceive ourselves! He even goes out to greet Samuel and bless him as he says, “Saul said to him, ‘Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.’” And listen to how The Living Bible puts these words, “Saul greeted him cheerfully. ‘Hello there,’ he said. ‘Well, I have carried out the Lord's command!’”
Did Saul really believe he was obeying the Lord? I think so. You see, he was so self-deceived that he saw his disobedience as an act of obedience. I hate to say this but folk’s, we still do that today! If Saul was humble, if he was walking with the Lord he not only would have obeyed the Lord and destroyed the Amalekites and their animals, but he would not have boasted about it. You see, how tragic it was to see lives lost because of sin. He should have been broken over the devastation that sin has caused, but instead, he is boasting about himself and what he has done!
Samuel, this poor man had not finished reading one of the most popular self-help books around, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie! No, Samuel called Saul on this one and he was not interested in winning a friend but saving a soul! Thus, Samuel basically tells Saul, “Look Saul, if this is true, that you have fully obeyed the Lord, then why do I hear this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen?” I don’t think that Saul was lying here, I just think that pride and disobedience made him blind and deaf to his sin and the same is true in our own lives. May we be like David who said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.” And The Living Bible puts it like this, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test my thoughts. Point out anything you find in me that makes you sad, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 139:23-24. We need to be seeking the Lord to try our hearts to show us what is in there or He will use others to expose those areas we refuse to deal with!
Saul does have an excuse for this little problem; “It’s the people’s fault, they did this. They wanted these animals to sacrifice to the Lord, even though I told them not to do it. You know these people, they are stiff-necked!” Wrong, but that is what Saul basically says, he blames them but he also takes credit in the obedience part, “and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” But again, this was not true, because there were Amalekites that were left alive; he did not only leave Agag alive! How do I know that? Because an Amalekite will kill Saul, (II Samuel 1:8). David had to deal with the Amalekites,
(I Samuel 27:8, 30:1, II Samuel 1:1, II Samuel 8:12). And Haman was an Amalekite who tried to wipe out the Jewish people, (Esther 3:1). So Saul shows no signs of repentance, remorse and thus, God will not honor that! How do I know that God did not accept what Saul was saying? Let’s read on and you will see!
Samuel does not want to hear any more excuses and thus, he tells Saul to shut up, to be quiet, enough with these excuses, it is now time to hear what God has to say! And guess what, Saul can’t shut up, he has to speak on, he has to be in control and he tells Samuel to, “Speak on.” Like Samuel needed permission from Saul to speak, he was a prophet of God and like it or not, he was going to speak!
I have said this before, but it does fit Saul perfectly. At one time he was small enough to be used by God but now he is too big to be used by God. And what was going on with Saul can happen to us, it is called pride! And Samuel is asking Saul why he would do such a thing, why he would disobey the Lord and not utterly destroy the Amalekites? And Saul will answer him but once again he is deceived and making all kinds of excuses for his behavior as we will see.
Do you see how Saul is speaking out of both sides of his mouth? He is very confused in his response to Samuel. First of all he says that he has obeyed the Lord. Then he says that he brought back Agag, an Amalekite. And then he says that he utterly destroyed the Amalekites. If that were true, and it is not, then why in the world did he spare Agag? You see, there is no repentance here. He is trying to justify his actions and if Samuel doesn’t buy it, then he blames the people, they took the plunder and it was not his fault, he did not do it!
Now think about this for a minute. Back in I Samuel chapter 14 Saul was willing to put to death anyone who broke his command regarding eating anything on the day of this battle against the Philistines. And when Saul finds out that it was his own son who had done this, even though Jonathan knew nothing about this command, Saul was willing to put his own son to death. Now, with these Amalekites he is not willing to put them to death, but he is willing to spare some of them! Why is that? Because when it came to his own will Saul was willing to bring forth his full obedience, he had much zeal for his will being done. But, when it came to the will of God being fulfilled, he was not so zealous! I wonder how often we do? When our will needs to be done we have much zeal but when God tells us to destroy the flesh, something we want to hold on to, we are not as zealous and we are not as obedient!
Now this is tough for many people, that God is not interested in our sacrifices, the work we do, but in our obedience to Him! You see, do you really love the Lord if you serve Him and yet you are not doing what He has called you to do? Samuel is saying that you don’t really love the Lord if that is what you are doing and He will not accept it! First of all does God need our sacrifices? Absolutely not for we are told in Psalm 50:9-12, “I will not take a bull from your house, Nor goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.” In other words, God does not need anything from us because He owns it all, it is all His!
Then what does God desire from us? Listen carefully to what David said after he acknowledged his sin with Bathsheba before God in Psalm 51, “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart — These, O God, You will not despise. . . . Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.” Psalm 51:16-17, 19.
What is God looking for? God is looking for a broken spirit and a contrite heart. He is looking for a person who is willing to repent of his sin and it is out of that that God is pleased and it is after a person is repentant that God will accept our sacrifices to Him! Paul makes this point of true sorrow and a sorrow that is there because you got caught in II Corinthians 7:8-10, “For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
First of all, what is Paul speaking of here? If Paul is speaking of his first letter to the Corinthians, full of correction, it was difficult for him to send it, and yet, Paul knew it had to be sent. And as they read it they were hurt, they felt sorry but that sorrow then lead them to repent of their sin and get right with God. It is as Trapp tells us, “In sin, the pleasure passeth, the sorrow remaineth; but in repentance, the sorrow passeth, the pleasure abideth for ever. God soon poureth the oil of gladness into broken hearts.” It is as David said in Psalm 30:5, “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.” May we not forget that and may we give Him those things in our life that only brings hurt and pain so that we can have that joy that is fresh every morning!
For the Corinthians, their sorrow led to repentance; it led to a change in the direction that they were going. You see, repentance is more than a feeling, it is an action word and it speaks of turning around. They were moving away from God by their actions, they repented and came back to God that led to salvation or SOTERIA (so-tay-ree’-ah) in the Greek, and it speaks of more than just being born again, it encompasses all that God has for us, that our walk is not hindering God from pouring out His blessings upon us!
Think about people who are sorry, prisons are full of them, sorry for getting caught. That is worldly sorrow and it does not led to life, but to death. It does not cause a person to change but they continue to move in the same direction away from God. That kind of sorrow produces death, spiritual death in a person! It is as Redpath tells us, “How sorry do you thank you have to be? What is the purpose of your sorrow for sin? It is to bring you to trust in the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not your sorrow that cleanses you from sin, but His blood. It is the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. Has your sorrow for sin led you at one time or another fling all the burden of it at the feet of a crucified, risen Savior? If it hasn’t, anything short of that is what Paul here calls sorrow that leads to death.”
Thus, God is looking for repentance, a turning from sin and towards Him and not excuses for the sin! But if you refuse, then this rebellion is just as bad as witchcraft. Now I realize that not many of us think of rebellion that way, but God does! In regards to our stubborn hearts, God sees it as bad as idolatry. Why is that? Because if we are stubborn to the things of God we are worshiping someone other than God, we are worshiping ourselves!
The end result for Saul is that he would be rejected as king. You see, he did not have a heart after God but after his own desires and thus, God would reject him just as he rejected God! Now in saying that, it still would be some 25 years before Saul is removed and David made king or I should say be placed on the throne. He will be anointed as king shortly but not come to the throne for many years!
This is a great lesson for each of us, that we need to obey the Lord, not when we want but all the time. In regards to this incident with Saul, Erdmann makes these comments:
In the following words: To obey is better than sacrifice, the thought takes a new turn: apart from what alone is well-pleasing to God, only an obedient disposition of mind is in itself something good, the offering, without such a disposition, is not a good thing, has no moral value. . . . So disobedience and the thence-resulting rebellion and defiant self-dependence is similar in essence to, stands on the same moral plane with the outward wickedness of witchcraft, that is “divination in the service of anti-godly demonic powers” (Keil), and of idolatry.
- Christian F. Erdmann, The Books of Samuel, in Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical, III:209
Now on the surface it does seem like Saul is repenting, but in all actuality, he is still blaming the people for his sin instead of being responsible and he wants Samuel to go with him to worship the Lord. In that I see Saul wanting to look good in front of the people, he is not broken, he remains prideful and wants to continue on and that is never a good thing! Yes, Saul is regretting what has taken place but he is not repenting before the Lord! Saul, instead of fearing the people should have feared the Lord more, but he was more interested in his reputation than with his relationship with God and thus, his actions paint that picture for us!
This may seem harsh on Samuel’s part but what else could he do but leave. If Saul did not want to deal with his sin, there is nothing more that he can do. And folk’s, we may have family, friends like this. They refuse to deal with their sin, you have spoken to them and they still ignore what God desires, and there is a time to walk away as Samuel was doing here.
But Saul is desperate here and he grabs a hold of Samuel’s garment and he rips it. Saul was trying to hold on to his power, his influence, his kingdom but what he ends up doing is giving a vivid object lesson of what is going to happen to his kingdom. It will be torn from him and it will be given to his neighbor. You see, David came from the tribe of Judah, which was located next to the tribe of Benjamin! And it will be David who has a heart after God and not Saul! David will be the next king in Israel, and I believe it is David that the Lord wanted all the time. But it was the people who wanted a king like the other nations and God gave to them Saul because David was not ready yet!
Samuel now speaks of “the Strength of Israel” and Saul probably thought that he was the strength of Israel at one time and he is still trying to hold on to that strength. But Samuel wants Saul to know that this strength in Israel is not a man, it is God and it is the Lord who determines who will sit on the throne in Israel and not man!
Now compare Jesus to Saul. We are told in Philippians 2:6-11, and this is from the J. B Phillips translation, “For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God's equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has now lifted him so high, and has given him the name beyond all names, so that at the name of Jesus ‘every knee shall bow’, whether in Heaven or earth or under the earth. And that is why, in the end, ‘every tongue shall confess’ that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
In other words, Jesus was willing to empty Himself, to let go and He was obedient to the Father even to the point of death. On the other hand we see Saul who was not willing to let go of his sin, of his position, he held on for dear life and as he lifted himself up, God is going to bring him down! Saul lost it all and Jesus gained it all! Who are you going to follow after?
Is Saul concerned about his relationship with the Lord or with the people of Israel? As you can see, he wants to look good in front of the people. He wants Samuel to make him look good before the people and for that short time of glory he has an eternity to think about the mistake he made. It is as Poole wrote, “Here he plainly discovers his hypocrisy, and the true motive of this and his former confession; he was not solicitous [concerned] for the favour of God, but for his honour and power with Israel.”
Why did Samuel go back with Saul to worship the Lord, it seems that he is feeding into his ego, his fantasy that everything is okay? I think Samuel, like our Lord, gives Saul every opportunity to return to the Lord, to turn to Him. Yes the Lord rejected him as king but he still had every opportunity to turn to Him and repent of his sin, but we do not see that here. The lesson for us here is that we need to let grace flow from our lives as Samuel did. We need to give people opportunities to turn to the Lord and not cut them off even if it does seem hopeless. Yes, there are times we need to walk away, but God will show us for only God knows when they have passed that point of no return.
Again, as Poole wrote regarding this situation with Saul and why Samuel did not just right him off, “That people might not upon pretence of this sentence of rejection immediately withdraw all respect and obedience to their sovereign; whereby they would both have sinned against God, and have been as sheep without a shepherd.” In this situation, there was no other king to be raised up yet, and to lose the leader would have brought about anarchy.
We don’t know what Saul said to Agag but whatever it was, however he treated him, Agag did not expect to be put to death and thus, he confidently comes before Saul. I like the way The Living Bible puts this verse regarding Agag, “ . . . ‘Agag arrived all full of smiles, for he thought, "Surely the worst is over and I have been spared!’” And Poole expounds on this by saying, “I who have escaped death from the hands of a warlike prince in the fury of battle, shall certainly never suffer death from an old prophet in time of peace.” I wonder how the enemy feels about us? I wonder how prideful you might say our flesh is, thinking we will not put it to death but we will let it control our lives? This is Agag and truly this is our flesh!
Samuel needs to lay off the caffeine, his is a little on the edge don’t you think? No, Samuel saw the reality of this man and what he has done in his life, the evil and he knew the command of God, he knew that the Amalekites were to be wiped out. And for Samuel, he did not even hesitate, but cut Agag in pieces.
Now who did Samuel do this before, king Saul? No, he did this before the Lord. He was not doing it to impress Saul but to be obedient to the Lord, something that Saul did not do!
Now Samuel puts things in Saul’s hands. Samuel would not go to see Saul anymore but I believe the door was open for Saul to come and see Samuel as he repented before the Lord, but that is not going to happen. Yes, Saul could have been restored, but his kingdom would not have been restored to him. But in the big picture, as you look at things through the eyes of eternity, the kingdoms of this world do not matter, it is only the kingdom of God and that we have come before Him and repented of our sins and thus, we will enter into that eternal life with Him by the shed blood of Jesus cleansing our lives! What kingdom are you going for?
Once again look at the heart of Samuel for Saul. He loved him and was saddened over the decisions he has made. I think Trapp rightly sees the heart of this man Samuel and why he mourned for Saul. He wrote, “For the hardness of his heart, and the hazard of his soul.” May our hearts be soft and crying out for the lost as Samuel’s was!
Before I close this evening, there is one more point I would like to deal with and we have talked about it a little this evening and that is the flesh! The name, “Agag” means, “I will overcome” or “I will topple.” That is the flesh folk’s. It never gives up. It tries to not only destroy our lives but to destroy our relationship with the Lord! Folk’s, the way you deal with the flesh is that you crucify it and you crucify the flesh by starving it to death. You don’t give it room to grow. You don’t play with the flesh. You draw close to God, you fill yourself up with the things of God and the flesh will not have room to grow. But you need to deal with this on a daily basis because if you don’t kill the flesh then the flesh will kill you!
Let me give you a few Scriptures to show you what we are to do. First of all in Romans 13:14 Paul tells us, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Listen to how The Amplified Bible puts this verse, “But clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and make no provision for [indulging] the flesh [put a stop to thinking about the evil cravings of your physical nature] to [gratify its] desires (lusts).” You see, what you fill yourself with is what will flow from your life!
And listen to what Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:15-21, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” What are you filling yourself up with?
And lastly, in Galatians chapter 5:16-25, Paul tells us, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” May we crucify the flesh, put it to death or it will overcome us and destroy our relationship with the Lord. Make no provision for it!