To obey is better than sacrifice
Adam is a great example of what God will do to those who are disobedient and rebellious to his command.
Gen:3,17-19 And
unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy
wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
A life of obedience in this world to God, is being assured that he is able to provide for me, and now I can live having great expectation knowing that if I overcome in this world and endure to the end I will become God.
This is why Jesus didn’t say, “If you love me, sacrifice for me.” the sacrifices were temporary, they couldn't stop death nor give eternal life. Jn:14-15 However Jesus did said, if you love keep my commandments.
Heb;10,I-4, 9 For
the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image
of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year
by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For
then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the
worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. This is why obedience is better than sacrifice.
1.Obedience is a willingness to please someone in authority over you.
2.Sacrifice is seeking to appease the anger of an authority you have disobeyed.
Disobedience results in a need to sacrifice. Obedience prevents the need for sacrifice.
Obedience brings blessing, but disobedience results in a curse
Deuteronomy 5:29
O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! #20,7-13 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,8 Take
the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy
brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give
forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the
rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
10 And
Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and
he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of
this rock?
11 And
Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and
the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their
beasts also.
12 And
the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to
sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall
not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
13 This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.
1 Samuel 15:22-23
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 the fat of rams.23 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.
Is:1,10-20
10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring
no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new
moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is
iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And
when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea,
when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of
blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
In Deut;30.15-20
- 15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
- 16 In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
- 17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
- 18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
- 19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
- 20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Mark 12:33
And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding
and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is
much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Micah 6:6-8
“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord
be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body
for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what
does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Jeremiah 7:22-23
For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I
did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings
and sacrifices. But this command I gave them:
‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And
walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
Psalm 40:6-8
In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have
given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not
required. Then I said, “Lo I come; in the volume of the book
it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is
within my heart.”
To obey is better than sacrifice because if you live by God's word of righteousness, keep his commandments statutes and judgements, his promise of eternal life belong to you at his coming.
Jesus said to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne (Revelation 3:21) If we stumble and fall, Christ has given us a way out. Repent be baptized in the name of Jesus and start walking in the word. {Act:2-38}
2Kings:5,1-27
Now
Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with
his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given
deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.2 And
the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out
of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife.
3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.And
the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the
king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of
silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am
I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to
recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see
how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
8 And it was so,
when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent
his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent
thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a
prophet in Israel.
9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 And
Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven
times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
11 But
Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will
surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his
God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.Are
not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters
of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went
away in a rage.
13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
14 Then
went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to
the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the
flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.
16 But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.'
19 And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.
But
Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master
hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which
he brought: but, as the LORD liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.
21 So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?
22 And he said, All is
well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to
me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give
them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.
23 And
Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound
two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and
laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.
24 And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed.
25 But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.
26 And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it
a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and
vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?
27 The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
Matt:26,13-14
14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
16 And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.
Matt:27,1-5
1 When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:
2 And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
3 Then
Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned,
repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the
chief priests and elders,
4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Ecc:12,13-14
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Bro James Stearns
