1 Sam 13:9, So Saul said, "Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings." And he offered the burnt offering.
	We are looking at the fact that Saul took upon himself the place of offering to God the sacrifice that was not his privilege of service. He was only doing it as a means of trying to persuade the members of his army that God was going before them. It was a play on their superstitious hearts, as far as Saul was concerned. He knew this was not within his purview of responsibility, but that didn’t matter as he watched his troops quickly dissolving away. Saul offered the sacrifices in complete disobedience to the commandment and the stipulations of God.
	That brings us to several passages this morning which we would do well to consider in those times of our mental argumentations with God about the rights and wrongs of doing things that we truly know we should not do. We are all very familiar with the mental disputations and wrestling that we put ourselves through when we are faced with those times of doing things because we reason that we need to do it even when we know that it is wrong. 
Unless I am alone in this scenario, we have all had those times of weighing the consequences for our actions on the scale of worst case scenarios. Do we do this or that hoping to get away with it? Which is worse, disobedience or missing out on some pittance of seeming pleasure which will surely and absolutely dissolve away in the light of the Holiness of God?
	The writer of the Proverbs, in Prov 15:8+9, cuts right to the point with regard to both the sin of Saul in offering the sacrifice before the Lord and the sin of our minds and motivations as we place those things before the Lord that are only excuses for the deliberate actions that we commit. We even set before Him those things that we think will make up for the selfish behavior of our indulgences. Sometimes we think that if we do extra works of charity or community building activities, they will offset the nagging conscience which continually points out the disobedience which was our heart’s desire set against obedience to God. 
	Prov 15:8+9, The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But the prayer of the upright is His delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But He loves him who pursues righteousness. 
	God is not concerned with the things that we try to do to make up for our sins. He is looking at our hearts and seeking for the reality of our actions to make an impression within us that will cause us to ask for His forgiveness and to pursue His righteousness with all our hearts. We could offer up sacrifices day after day. However, without a heart that is truly penitent before Him, without a desire to please Him rather than ourselves, without a heart that seeks to become obedient unto Him because He delights in our pursuit to know Him in all His Holiness and Righteousness and Power and Glory, we are just wasting our time and energy and resources. 
	There is that within us that tries to argue away the consequences of our behavior. We are very adept and very quick to place the blame for our sinful actions on the circumstances surrounding us or on the pressure of other people. We posit explanations and justifications for our sinful actions, thinking that, like Adam in the Garden, if we can shift the focal reality of what we did elsewhere, maybe God will not hold it so severely against us. 
	What we fail to recognize is that sin is sin. It doesn’t matter if we were talked into doing this or that, it doesn’t matter whether we gauge it as merely an indiscretion rather than a blatant action of horrible proportions, sin is sin! White lies are still lies! Pilfering a grape at the supermarket is still stealing. Trying to hide away our closet activities are still fully open before the gaze of the Lord God Omniscient and Omnipresent and Holy!   
	The writer of the Proverbs, in Prov 21:1-3 is once again quick to point out that even social rank or station holds no special privileges before the Lord. Pauper or prince, all are held accountable by God for the manner in which we focus our hearts and meet the desires of our eyes. 
	Prov 21:1-3, The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes. Every man's way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice Is desired by the Lord rather than sacrifice. 
	We all have the option to turn our hearts and our minds over to the Lord. We all should seek to please Him and to obey Him as He directs through His Holy Spirit, always in line with His Word. No argument, no theological quotation, no theoretical excuse, no manner of circumstantial dilemma will stand the test of what God has declared is the right and holy manner of living our lives on this earth! Do we want to honor Him? Do we want to bring Him pleasure in the course of how we live before Him, in the new life that we have been given in Jesus Christ? Is there a heart-felt craving to bring honor and glory to His name? That is what He is weighing in our hearts. 
	It is not our so called good works, which present to the world how splendidly we can act when the eyes of others are upon us! It is not the amount of money that we contribute to good causes with all the accolades of humanity pointing to us and cheering us on! What matters to God is the quiet and simple action of obeying the every whisper of the Holy Spirit in our moment by moment sojourn on this earth. That is what delights and blesses our Lord God Almighty!
	Again hear the writer of the Proverbs, in Prov 21:27-31, with the declaration that all the goodness of humanity is nothing in the scale of the Holiness and the Righteousness and the Justice of God. Everything of value, everything of purity, everything of understanding is all centered in the knowledge that only God is good! Only God can make the way of our walk that which will be eternally victorious and of essential value in the power of His Omnipotence.
Prov 21:27-31, The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, How much more when he brings it with evil intent! A false witness will perish, But the man who listens to the truth will speak forever. A wicked man shows a bold face, But as for the upright, he makes his way sure. There is no wisdom and no understanding And no counsel against the Lord. The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But victory belongs to the Lord. 
	The Prophet Isaiah has very much to assert in the terms of our place before the Holiness and the Splendor of God. Through this prophet, God made known the depths of His heart after man and what the course of man’s disobedience brings forth. It matters not how righteously a person behaves outwardly. It is the heart that brings forth either the pleasure of God or the condemnation and defilement of humanity in sin and trespass. Consider as but one passage of this discernment, Isa 66:1-4.
	Isa 66:1-4, Thus says the Lord, "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? "For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being," declares the Lord." But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. "But he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb is like the one who breaks a dog's neck; He who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine's blood; He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol. As they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delights in their abominations, So I will choose their punishments, And I will bring on them what they dread. Because I called, but no one answered; I spoke, but they did not listen. And they did evil in My sight, And chose that in which I did not delight." 
	…But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. This is the measure of what is before us this morning. This is the difference that was evident in the heart of Saul. He did not tremble at the Word of the Lord. He did not take into account the fact that God would not be pleased with his sacrifice. He really gave that no account at all. 
What Saul was after was some means to keep his army together. If killing and placing a dead animal on a rock would bring his army back that was the entirety of his concern. There was no seeking after God with all his heart. There was no contriteness of being. There was no humbleness of knowing how we are nothing and God is everything. 
	We are constantly faced with the choice to come unto the Lord with humbleness of heart and contriteness of spirit. We can freely read and cherish His Word and beseech the Holy Spirit to make it ever more the manner of how we live on this earth. We see the outcome of this as recorded in Acts 6:7.
	Acts 6:7, And the word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. 
	Note that even the priests of that day were turning their hearts to the Lord. We make rather insidious judgments against the Pharisees and the Scribes of the early church time. This is because of how we have the record of those who were so set against Jesus because He threatened their power and their position. 
But in reality, there were many priests within the Jewish community who were very much searching for the Messiah. They were studying the texts of the prophets and they were so moved by the Holy Spirit to see that the Christ had been given. He had come and they were recipients of the salvation of God along with the rest of those early church believers, our brothers and sisters in Jesus.
	The Apostle Paul shows forth the reality of how the Word of God proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the writings that he cherished from the heart of God. He was a most learned man of the Word. He saw exactly how Jesus, after that encounter on the road to Damascus, fulfilled all that Paul had read, and studied, and loved with all his essence. Consider what he proclaimed about Jesus in his letter to the church at Rome, the first seven verses of the first chapter.
	Rom 1:1-7, Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name's sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
	Paul highlights the pinpoint matter that is before us this morning. … Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles… Our obedience of faith is the core reality that we need to embrace as the heart of what is required of us on this earth. 
Please recognize that this is not something that earns us anything in the grand scheme of eternity. It is not about what we will get. It is all about what God has done and is doing.
It is the direct and earnest desire of those who know that they have life only because of the unfathomable gift of the salvation that God has wrought in Jesus. When we cherish Him above all else, we want to obey Him! We want to honor Him! We want to please Him! It matters above all else that our lives give more and more perfect witness unto Him!
	As the Apostle continues in this letter, we are to be utterly overwhelmed by the love of God and therefore enthralled and honored to be those willing ambassadors of the new life that is found only in Jesus. Please turn to Rom 15:15-21 as we can read it together. We pray that the Holy Spirit will make it the absolute testimony of Christ’s life in us. 
	Rom 15:15-21, But I have written very boldly to you on some points, so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that my offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man's foundation; but as it is written, "They who had no news of Him shall see, And they who have not heard shall understand." 
	Note the great difference in the manner of the sacrifice so offered unto God. Saul slaughtered a beast with no concern about whether God would be pleased or not. He just used that action to try to stem the dissolution of his army. 
	Paul, on the other hand, offered his life completely and absolutely for the sake of the testimony and the witness of God before all men. There was no desire to gain anything for himself. It was all surrendered wholly and absolutely unto Jehovah for His good pleasure in the course of Paul’s witness before the Gentile nations. 
	As we further read in Rom 16:25-27, Rom 16:25-27, Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. 
	Everything that is of value, everything that matters, everything that has any consequence on this earth, right now is tied together in the manner of our obedience of faith. We live by the direction of our faithful walk in Jesus Christ. As we are led forth, we go in the knowledge that it is Christ, Alone, Whom we honor with all our hearts! Our desire to please God becomes increasingly more in line with the heart of Christ Who died for us. In His resurrection power, we walk in the manner which so honors Him and His ministry of love to us.
	As declared by the Writer to the Hebrews, in Heb 5:5-10, we learn to obey as He so obeyed. We do not try to glorify ourselves in any measure, but only serve to be those whose lives are now hid in Him and His obedient service, even unto death on the cross.
	Heb 5:5-10, So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, "Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee"; just as He says also in another passage, "Thou art a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek." In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. 
There is a tremendous difference in place in those who so honor the Lord and those who seek the honor for themselves. This is at the heart of why Saul was so wrong and so defiant in the manner of his sacrifice. We pray that we never allow our hearts to be so moved to take matters into our own hands for the sake of our plans and our schemes set so hopelessly against the plan and the purpose of God. So be it!
So Saul said, "Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings." And he offered the burnt offering. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 20:7. Some boast in chariots, and some in horses; But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God. Amen.