The Greatest Sin in the Church — Stephen Olford

The Greatest Sin: Partial Obedience

The greatest sin in the Church, and we're going to discover just what it is. There's no time to read these thirty-five verses, but I am going to ask you to turn with me to verse twenty-two of 1 Samuel, chapter fifteen.

Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice

And Samuel said, And hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Wherever he leads, I will follow, you would think. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the pat of ram.

There was a time in the life of Saul when he was very small in his own eyes. It was in that period of his history that God broke through from heaven and answered the cry of his ancient people, and anointed through Samuel Saul to be king of Israel.

And we read that in those days the speech of the Lord came upon Samuel. But as we move into this fifteenth chapter of 1 Samuel, the scene has changed. The mood is different. The man who was small in his own eyes is now elected to choose his own terms of obedience.

When God commanded him to do something which, notwithstanding its inconvenience, as we were hearing, he decided that partial obedience was enough. Partial obedience was enough. Ninety-nine percent would do.

God broke into that man's life with each searching word. Hath the Lord his 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 pat of ram.

And in my considered judgment, the greatest sin in the Church of Jesus Christ today, as in every generation, is partial obedience. There is no preacher here who would stand up and confess to flagrant disobedience.

Your congregation would have voted you out long ago. But I wonder how many of us are in this place guilty of partial obedience. And for the next few moments, I want to speak on what I'm going to call the greatest sin in the Church today, or the peril of partial obedience.

The Seriousness of Partial Obedience

I want you to observe, first of all, what I'm going to call the seriousness of partial obedience. Said Paul, when it was brought to his notice, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy word, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

The seriousness of partial obedience. You can't examine the context here and follow through the story with all its attendant ramifications without discovering that this was serious, serious business. Partial obedience was the violation of the will of God.

I have transgressed the word of the Lord, said Daniel. Transgressed the word of the Lord. God had told him to go out and fight the Amalekites. God had told him and reminded him that this enemy was a sworn enemy of Jehovah God.

Exodus chapter 17. From the rising of the sun until the setting of the sun, God was ever at war with the Amalekites. And he was to go out and destroy the king and the people and the castles. And he went out and he destroyed the people and the castles, but he saved Agag and the best of the oxen.

It was partial obedience. And in that he violated the will of God. And I don't know that I've ever been so covered as in studying this passage to learn, and listen very carefully, partial obedience in the ultimate analysis is total disobedience.

For if a man keeps the whole law and offends in one point, he is guilty of how much? All of it. D .L. Moody used to illustrate this by describing graphically a man hanging from a cliff with a chain of ten links, and he would ask rhetorically from the audience, how many links does it take to drop that man to his death?

One link to break was sufficient. A man keeps the whole law and offends in one point, he is guilty of it all. And I don't know anything that solemnizes my heart than to realize that as a man of God behind the sacred desk, I've only, I've only to render partial obedience to commit total disobedience.

It violated the will of God. But more than that, it was serious because it dictated the work of God. I have transgressed, he says, the word of the Lord because I've heard the people and obeyed their voice.

Those last few words are highly significant. When a man violates the will of God, when a man takes into his own hands what he thinks is obedience, when he gives a part in the name of the whole, and he violates the will of God, from that moment onwards he vitiates the work of God.

He became immediately an open, an open target for a twofold temptation that completely spoils and mars and ruins the work of God in the church of Jesus Christ today. A twofold temptation, fear of man, love of game.

Fear of man, love of game. And because he violated the will of God, he vitiated the work of God. He didn't do the job. And that's for two reasons. First of all, because he feared man. He feared man. Show me a preacher in this audience tonight.

Show me anyone who violates the will of God, and I'll show you somebody who is a constant victim to the fear of man which bringeth us there. And you're not prepared to preach to your people as you ought to preach.

And you're not prepared to face your deacons as you ought to face them. And you're not confronting the issues of today with a fierceness that comes from a man who really obeys the will of God. But I want to go further, and I want to say this.

The Love of Gain and Fear of Man

It leads not only to the fear of man, but to the love of game, to the love of game. Remember that Saul was a farmer. Saul was a farmer. He knew a good bullet when he recognized one. He knew what these good cattle would mean.

And although he allegedly thought that he might sacrifice them at Gilgal, he wasn't going to do that with Agad, nor was he going to do it with a cattle either. When a man violates the will of God, he initiates the work of God, because he dropped as a victim to the fear of man and the love of game.

You show me the work of God in this country today, or Europe, or anywhere else, and I'm going to tell you that the two rocks on which preachers are falling every day, the two rocks on which their boat is capsizing every day, is this the fear of man and the love of game.

Search your own heart. Search your own heart. Search your own heart. The greatest sin in all the Church is partial obedience, and it's a serious sin. The seriousness, then, of partial obedience. But look again at the subtlety of partial obedience, the subtleness of it.

And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. What utter nonsense. There's an amazing thing, an amazing thing, how we can rationalize partial obedience in order to say, Bless you, brother, I'm happy to tell you I've performed the work of the Lord.

You see, partial obedience is impressive in its appearance. It's impressive in its appearance. Yes, he said, Blessed be thou man of God, I welcome you, for I want to tell you I've performed the work of the Lord.

And I want to tell you this, there is something, there is something so subtle about partial obedience that you can completely gloss it over by hallelujahs and amens and all kind of language. I won't forget a few months ago preaching on one of the most solemn subjects in all the Word of God, and as I bore down upon this subject and upon my congregation, there was an individual right in the very front row of the church agreeing with me, amen and hallelujah.

And I agree with amens and hallelujahs in the right place. But presently, presently we pierced the honor. Presently God struck him to his heart, and he got up from the audience and he called out. And two of my men intercepted him, and in the confrontation that followed discovered that he was living in the most unmentionable trance.

Blessed, blessed be thou in the name of the Lord, I performed all the work of the Lord. It's impressive in its appearance. That's its subtlety. That's its subtlety. It's defective, it's defective in its performance.

Yes, I have performed the work of the Lord, he said. I performed the work of the Lord, but he hadn't, he hadn't. Even though his alleged intention to sacrifice those cattle of King God was later disclosed, that isn't, that isn't what Samuel saw, and that isn't what God saw.

It was defective in its appearance.

The Deceitfulness of the Human Nature

And I want to tell you, whether you're saved or whether you're not saved, remember, remember that your own nature, your own nature is with you until the day of redemption. And even though as a sinner you came as a bankrupt beggar, and you cried for mercy, and you took the cleansing blood, and the mighty resurrection life of Jesus, and you're indwelt by the Holy Ghost, your own nature is still your own nature, and it's not one with better.

And don't you preach heresy to say that it is. And until the final day, the spirit lasteth against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit, and my old man is just as condemned, just as crucified, just as rotten, just as deceitful as the day I first trusted Jesus Christ.

Hence my need to keep my eyes on him and to trust the inwilling Lord to do in me and through me what I can ever achieve of myself. For the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

And I want to tell you that the subtlety of partial obedience is this insinuous, this insinuous appearance, yes, and this deceptiveness of performance. But more than that, I want you to notice that the subtlety of this partial obedience was explosive in its experience.

Sin Will Be Exposed

For presently God's messenger came, and he looked into the face of King Saul, and he said, I want to ask you a question. What meaneth the bleating of the sheep? What meaneth the lowering of the cattle?

What meaneth the bleating of the sheep? What meaneth the lowering of the cattle? You know, it's a strange thing that the word of God cannot be judged. The Bible says, be sure your sin will find you out.

Be sure your sin will find you out. And I care not who you are, preacher, and I care not how you try to cover it, and I do care not how you've been caught by the subtlety of this thing. If there is partial obedience in your life, one of these days the sheep will bleat.

One of these days the ox will bellow. You'll be found out. You'll be found out. Be sure your sin will find you out. Be sure your sin will find you out. I'll never forget a young man who came to me utterly broken, utterly broken, a young minister who was beginning to go blind.

He couldn't read his Bible. He couldn't study his books. I asked him what had gone wrong, and he paused for a moment. And then broke into uncontrolled crying. And then the story came out bit by bit. He said, I've just gone to see the doctor.

I've been troubled with this eye business for some time now. The doctor tells me that it's due tonight, when I should have been on my knees. I should have been praying. I should have been studying. But I was off guard.

And like David, who looked on a woman to lust after her. I went to town. It was only one night. I asked God to forgive me. I asked God to put it away. But what I contracted that night, unknown to me, is going to send me into total blindness I shall never see again.

Be sure your sin will find you out. Be sure your sin will find you out. The seriousness of this partial obedience. The subtlety of this partial obedience. And if you please, the sinfulness of it. The sinfulness of it.

Partial Obedience as Witchcraft, Iniquity, and Idolatry

For the word of God says, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he also hath rejected thee from being king.

To bring it home to that man's soul, the Spirit of God, through Samuel, describes the sinfulness of it. He calls it witchcraft. He calls it iniquity. He calls it idolatry. God calls partial obedience witchcraft.

And witchcraft suggests the bowing to the devil. The bowing to the devil. And it's not insignificant or beyond reasonable computation that the reasons why Samuel, yes, Samuel, having passed off the sea, was sought by Saul to a witch a few weeks later.

A witch! Here he is, a man who should destroy every witch, every witch and every wizard from the country. A man who should have destroyed all witchcraft to purge the land, knows where the witch of Endor is, and goes to seek her help.

And I want to tell you, you begin this business of partial obedience, and the next thing you'll be bowing to the devil. There are two very graphic illustrations in the New Testament of a man, yes, and of a couple who bowed to the devil.

Peter’s Refusal of the Way of the Cross

Peter, that great apostle, has pronounced the greatest confession ever heard from the lips of man. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But presently the Lord Jesus challenges him as to whether or not he's prepared to go all the way, all the way with him, because the Son of Man, the Son of Man, shall be taken by wicked hands.

He will be crucified. The third day he'll rise again. And when Peter heard that Calvary meant nothing more than obedience unto the death of the cross, obedience unto the death of the cross, he said, far be it from thee, Lord.

Far be it from thee. Far be it from thee. And Jesus had to turn to his beloved Peter, who had pronounced him the Christ, the Son of the living God, and say with words that cannot be watered down, Get behind me, Satan.

Get behind me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan. For thou savest not the things that be of God. It was Peter to whom he said, Get thee behind me, Satan. He wasn't prepared to go all the way in obedience. Obedience takes you to Calvary.

Ananias and Sapphira’s Partial Obedience

Obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. In chapter five of Acts we read of Ananias and Sapphira who conferred together to agree on partial obedience. They kept that part of the price. They named the whole, but in part they kept it back.

And do you remember how it took Peter, Peter who had learned his lesson, to detect that partial obedience because thou hast lied unto God. Because thou hast lied unto God. Judgment's going to come upon you.

And do you remember, both of them suffered under the judging hand of God. Witchcraft. Witchcraft. You thought it was only in the bushes of uncivilized countries. Witchcraft can be in your heart tonight.

Partial obedience, God calls witchcraft. Partial obedience, God calls iniquity. And if witchcraft is bowing to the devil, iniquity is turning to the world. The Bible tells us from that scripture that Dr. Hathaway referred to in his sermon that there is now the mystery of iniquity working in the world.

The mystery of iniquity. The mystery of lawlessness. And I am shocked and I am concerned how many of our preachers today are turning to the world. And when they fail in obeying the will of God, initiating the work of God, they turn to the world to bolster up their ministry.

Whether it's music, whether it's in programming, whether it's in compromising, whether it's adopting the world's message. I care not. It's part of the mystery that works in the world today. This mystery of iniquity.

Yes, witchcraft is bowing to the devil. Iniquity is turning to the world. Idolatry, idolatry is pandering to the flesh. For what is idolatry? Idolatry is the substitution of God for all that I want. For all that I want.

And when God is demoted and deposed from the throne of my heart so that I worship what I want, I have actually enthroned the flesh. Flesh has taken over the life. And I want to say, my friends, that that's the sinfulness of it because God calls witchcraft sin.

God calls iniquity sin. God calls idolatry sin. The sinfulness of partial obedience. And I'm just wondering how many in this place tonight were able to sit up and look God in the face when Dr. Van Tavener brought the most solemn and serious word I believe you find in the Bible anywhere when he said, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Ah, you say, I'm not guilty of commission. The sins of commission. But my brother, I'm asking you about this partial obedience. What about the sins of oblivion? Your daily quiet time with God, that morning Christ with him, that lost soul that God has been burdening you about and you haven't gone out to find him, that relationship between your wife or your children that hasn't really been mended, that situation in the church that you know to be sin, sin, the sin of atonement in the past, but you won't disclose it.

You're afraid to rock the boat. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. To him it is sin. To him it is sin. Yes, my friends, the seriousness of partial obedience, the subtleness of partial obedience, the sinfulness of partial obedience, but thank God there's one last word I want to say and it's this, there is a savingness of partial obedience.

The Consequences of Forgiven Sin

Thank God even in the darkest hour, God is never taken by surprise. Thank God when Adam and Eve sin in the garden, God is there to clothe them. Thank God that when there's breakdown in the light, Jesus Christ becomes the mighty living Redeemer.

And I want to say two things I learned from this story that constitutes the savingness of partial obedience. Here is the first. Here is the first. The penalty, the penalty for partial obedience. There's a penalty.

Did you know, my friend, there's such a thing? Yes, did you know that there's such a thing as the consequences of forgiven sin? Let me say it again. Did you know that there's such a thing as the consequences of forgiven sin?

Read this story carefully, we haven't time, and you'll see that Saul said, Oh, that God would pardon me. Oh, that God would pardon me. He bowed down and he worshipped the Lord, but he never, never regained his kingdom.

He never regained his kingdom. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he also hath rejected thee from being king. And I want to say, my friends, and I want to say it very solemnly, there are scars that you're going to carry right through the rest of your life, and they're even going to be glorified in that day because those marks will still be upon you.

He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is unrighteous, let him be unrighteous still. Those marks, even though challenged at the judgment seat of Christ and put right, are going to determine the positions that you have in that eternal kingdom.

You can't fool with sin. It can't be condemned in the sinner and condoned in the saint. And I want to say that the kingdom was lost. He never regained the kingdom. He never regained the kingdom. The penalty for partial sin.

Victory Through Christ’s Perfect Obedience

But thank God there is the victory for partial sin. And there is our check. The victory for partial sin. To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fath of Rams. And when that man of God with flashing eyes, the prophet of the Lord, declared those words, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fath of Rams, Samuel did something that that man's fall never forgot for the rest of his life.

He called for Agag the king. He called for Agag the king. And he took a sword and he killed him in peace. The disobedience of Paul was matched by the obedience of Samuel. As by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.

Even so, by the obedience of one, many were made righteous. And this man of God, Samuel, wonderfully illustrates what our blessed Savior has done. We couldn't fulfill the law in that we were weak through the flesh, but he came down and in the flesh condemned sin, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

And thank God in Jesus Christ, I can come into this wholeness of obedience, for his obedience has been made over to me, and if I am prepared to bring every single thought subject to the obedience of Christ, and let him step into my life, so that in me and through me he might work out the obedience of God, thank God, I can reign in life by one, even Jesus Christ.

And I want to say here tonight, that the only life, the only life that God accepts, the only life on which he can pronounce pleasure, from beginning to end, is the life of obedience. The life of obedience.

The hymn writer was right when he said, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus,.

But to trust and obey.

Rejecting Light and the Call to Revival

As I look across this vast audience tonight in these closing moments, I want to ask one simple question before we bow in prayer. That word that came from Dr. Vance Havner tonight is one of the most solemn messages I think I've ever listened to.

It isn't how many sins you have committed. It's what light you have rejected. And there are no more enlightened people on God's earth than ministers. You are men who hold the book in your hand. You are men who pour over its pages, praying God to enlighten the truth.

You are men who have the blinding flash of inspiration. But you are men also who can be guilty of rejecting the light. And I don't know any text that applies to ministers more than that word in James, to him that knoweth to do good,.

And doeth it not. To him it is sin. And that sin is the sin of partial obedience.

A reservation in your heart. You know tonight, even as you bow your head, that situation isn't solved in my church. You know as you bow your head, that relationship hasn't been healed. You know as you bow your head, that truth has never been preached.

You know as you bow your head, I've never said hello, greetings, God bless you, to my Negro brother. Whatever it is, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And you're never going to see a revival.

You're never going to see a revival. You're going to never have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I'm waiting with eagerness to hear my brother Bennett tell me how to receive the gift and the fullness, the fullness, the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

But I know this, he won't have preached the word unless from the truth of God he has pointed out that God gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. God gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. The reason why that life of yours has the performance and anointing of the Spirit.

Is because of partial obedience, which in the last analysis is total disobedience.

I close by reminding you of the words of Charles Finney who in writing his Revival of Religion opens his book with these words,.

Revival is a new act of obedience to God.

And I'm going to say, having crisscrossed this country hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times, having preached here for nearly twenty years off and on, having held a pulpit now in a metropolitan church for ten years, having had hundreds of thousands of letters from television and radio, I would say that the supreme sin of the church today, in minister and member alike,.

Is the sin of partial obedience.

The Final Appeal to Obey

I say to you as I go, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to harm than the fact of wrath. Away with your sacrifices! Away with your singing! Away with your preaching! Away with your money! Away with your standing to contest that you're yielding!

It is not obedience in your heart, the wrath and the fact of wrath, it is nothing to God. For to obey is better than sacrifice, and to harken than the fact of wrath. Let us pray.