The Flesh & The Spirit–Flesh can’t defeat flesh.
Resolves, promises, fighting, and striving in our own power only lead to further defeats–it is only by yielding to the power of the cross. And what is the power of the cross? It is the defeat of death, sin, and Satan that Jesus accomplished once for all time when He died on the cross.
Remember our study of Saul’s life these past few weeks?
We repeatedly saw that King Saul’s downfall started with his selective obedience. But his undoing was when he spared Agag. We learned that if we want to waste our lives, we should just be like Saul, who kept only the best of what God hated.
Remember when we started our look at Saul, the first king of Israel. I explained that God rejected him for disobeying an obvious command. Then I read the actual orders God gave him. Turn there again with me, please.
1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ” NKJV
The Deadly Poison of Sin
To God the Amalekites were a deadly poison that had to be dealt with; they were emitting dangerous spiritual radiation that would contaminate all that came into contact with them. So when God gave them into Saul’s hand he wasn’t to even spare their livestock – everyone and everything was to be destroyed. But Saul and his men went through that which God hated and saved the best.
1 Samuel 15:32-33 Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” 33 But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.
Samuel was God’s man, His obedient instrument for that moment—and Samuel’s harsh action towards Agag is an example of how we must deal with the flesh, that old sinful part of us that remains.
Let me repeat the message God has left us from the failed life of King Saul.
Saul’s Life is a Warning
Saul is a picture of one of God’s servants who suffers loss. Let me underline in your heart and mind this sobering truth–any part of our old life that we spare will come back and slay us and rob us of God’s blessing, fruitfulness, and rewards.
Any part of our flesh (like Agag) that we exempt from mortification will come back with a vengeance and slay us.
All of our flesh (like the Amalekites) always comes to strike us down when we are weakest – and then rob us of our crown.
Christ already won the battle—the world, my flesh, and the Devil were all defeated at the cross—and we just need to believe and act upon that truth! How do we do that more regularly?
Two passages explain this truth. The first, the attitude we need, and second the action we need to take. We need to repeat, reaffirm, and remember over and over again that the past work of Christ’s death on the cross saved me and keeps me. Listen to Paul in Galatians 2 as he sets forth the attitude we are to have.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ (past event–justification); it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (present event-sanctification); and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God (present event-sanctification), who loved me and gave Himself for me (past event–justification). NKJV
Notice the sandwich-type presentation. The past work of Christ on the cross secured my salvation in the present and offers my sanctification in the present, based on the past work of Christ’s cross.
DSS-13 – Imperatives of the Crucified Life – 1 (060312AM)
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