Compromise in the Pulpit

Not many of us read our Bibles today. We spend more time on our hobbies and sports and entertainments than we do in prayer and the Word of God. That's why we can quote all the statistics about our favorite sport team, name all the characters in our favorite TV show, but we can't quote much about our Bibles because we don't spend much time there.

And if we do read our Bibles from time to time, we don't spend much time in the Old Testament because we feel that it doesn't apply to us today and that the God of the Old Testament makes us uncomfortable because He's a God that kills people. We tend to think God is now more politically correct and that He overlooks sin. But if we read our Bibles, we would come across the verse in Malachi 3, 6 where God declares, For I am the Lord, I change not, meaning God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

But we'd like to think God has changed His spots and He's kind of like a nice old grandfather who just loves us and who isn't strong enough to hurt anybody. But that's not the God of the Bible, friends. The God of the Bible kills people.

And we're going to see that side of God today in our passage today. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel. We will be in chapter 15, beginning in verse 1. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word.

Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts.

I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for Him in the way which He came up from Egypt. Let me pause here to say, friends, that not only does God have a good memory, He keeps detailed records on the lives of men. God had noted in His record book that an enemy of Israel was His enemy, and they did His people wrong.

And now it's payback time. Look at verse 3. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not. But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Let me pause here, friends. God has given marching orders to King Saul to kill everyone in the camp of the enemy, and to spare no one, not even a mother and her baby. Is that too harsh for you? Does that side of God upset you? Does it go against your concept of God? Well, maybe your concept of God, friend, is just your view of God, because you're too unfamiliar with the God of the Bible.

I believe America has shrunken God down to our size, and we've placed Him on the same level as man, and we no longer believe that God is almighty, that God is a God who must punish sin, and we've convinced ourselves that God doesn't send anybody to hell. I heard a big Baptist pastor say, Listen, friends, God doesn't send anyone to hell. If you go to hell, it's because you sent yourself there.

Well, that's what the old boy said, but he was dead wrong, and now that he's dead, he knows he was wrong. The Bible says the king had him bound hand and foot and cast into everlasting fire. If you go to hell, friend, you're going to go kicking and screaming, bound hand and foot.

You're going to be cast in there. God ordered Saul to kill everyone and to spare no one, and we see in verse 9, But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlands, and of the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. And we keep on reading, and we see, Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments.

And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night. Well, let me pause here, friends. Brother Pastor, when was the last time you spent the night out of bed and on your knees in prayer, crying out to God against the sins of the land, and the sins of your community, and the sins and the life of your church? Hearing that God's heart was broke over the spiritual declension of Saul broke Samuel's heart as well, and he cried all night in desperate prayer.

If more of us spent more time with God, and if we got on our hearts what is on God's heart, it would break our hearts as well. We'd all be in our sanctuaries or on our faces in nights of desperation, and in prayer crying out to God to forgive the sins of the land, and not to destroy us. Most of us here are familiar with how this story plays out.

Samuel goes to Carmel to confront Saul, and Saul defends himself. He denies any wrongdoing. In fact, he is adamant in his declaration that I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.

But we see that God doesn't see it that way, and ultimately even Saul admits he sinned before God. We see in verses 22 to 24, And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than to fetter rams, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. I will stop there. I wonder how many pastors there are who can say right now with Saul that I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

I believe God knows all about our record at our church, what we preach, what we don't preach. Listen, friend, brother pastor, what you do preach could be accepted by man, and what you won't preach for fear man. He knows the compromise of the pulpit and what you've been guilty of.

Old-time preachers cut sin into pieces and called out the vices in a community, and they faithfully warned folks about damnation and hell and a future judgment that awaits all mankind. If we read down in our passage, we are confronted with verse 33, and we find there a man of God doing the work of God by the power of God. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.