Profile of a Rebel

Presented to:

Bethel Chapel Pentecostal Church

Auditorium Sunday School Class

Granite City, IL

30 June 2019

Updated: June 29, 2019

By:

Boyce Belt

Profile of a Rebel

Opening:

• Independence Day
• Points 2 Ponder^[1] (slide)

• Integrity vs. dishonesty
• Depth vs. superficiality
• Egotism vs. selflessness

• Handout: Profile of a Rebel
• Prayer

Text:

1 Samuel 15:1-25 (KJV) 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. 2 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 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. 4 And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.

6 And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt. 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

10 Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, 11 It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night. 12 And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal. 13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. 14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? 15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. 16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. 17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? 18 And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. 19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? 20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. 22 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.

 24 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. 25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.

Introduction:

Partial obedience is not the same as full, wholehearted, trusting obedience.  Obedience, rather than an out ward show of religion, demonstrates the true attitude of one’s heart in relation to God.^[2]

The rebellious mind-set:^[3]

• Defies authority in order to accomplish his or her own desires
• Rationalizes and covers up to excuse sinful actions—The word rationalize means to provide plausible but untrue reasons for conduct or to attribute one’s actions to rational and creditable motives without analysis of true and especially unconscious motives.
• Defensive when confronted with the truth
• Resists accountability when he or she has committed wrong

1. Commission

1. Hear The Word Of The Lord

1. Samuel had commanded Saul to listen to the voice of the Lord (v. 1) but Saul disobeyed by yielding to other voices.^[4]
2. Saul felt God’s Word was good but not so sacred that it must be followed in every detail.^[5]
3. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (KJV) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.  Worship, praise, prayer, spiritual gifts and service to God are hollow in His sight if not accompanied by explicit obedience to Him and His Word.^[6]

2. Obedience My Way

1. Under the cloak of religious zeal, Saul refused to obey fully the command of God.^[7]
2. Saul is so blind to his own disobedience that he has talked himself into doing it this way rather than the way God specified.^[8]
3. You can be so wrapped up in you own way of doing things that you become blind to the fact that you are disobeying a clear command from God.^[9]
4. Saul’s sin was placing his own conception of what was right above Biblical revelation.^[10]

3. Monument To Self

1. (KJV) And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place…  Some versions translate “a place” as “a monument”
2. It was common practice in the ancient Near East for victorious kings to set up monuments or victory steles, with inscriptions celebrating their glorious achievements and crediting their success to their god(s).^[11]

2. Confrontation

1. Denial—Saul showed his arrogance by claiming to have performed the command of the Lord (v. 13)
2. Blame

1. Saul Blamed the People
2. Genesis 3:11-13 (KJV) And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

1. Adam blamed Eve
2. Eve blamed the serpent

3. Refusal to Accept Responsibility for sin

3. Justification

3. Confession

1. Confession without Repentance

1. The consequent rejection of his dynasty did not mean that God had forever rejected Saul personally.  He could still receive forgiveness by sincerely repenting and serving the Lord.^[12]
2. A spiritual leader may fail morally, and thus be rejected permanently by God from his spiritual office, yet be open to full forgiveness.^[13]

2. Forgiveness Sought from Man Instead of God
3. More Concern for Reputation than Character

1. Saul is concerned with his image and having Samuel with him would make it appear as though everything is all right.^[14]
2. Revelation 3:1 (KJV) And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

Conclusion:

In his book Of God and Men, A. W. Tozer writes,^[15]

“I believe our problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying; and it simply will not work.

“A church, for instance, follows its traditions without much thought about whether they are scriptural or not.  Or it surrenders to pressure from public opinion and falls in with popular trends which carry it far from the New Testament pattern.  Then the leaders notice a lack of spiritual power among the people and become concerned about it.  What to do?  How can they achieve that revitalization of spirit they need so badly?  How can they bring down refreshing showers to quicken their fainting souls?

“The answer is all ready for them.  The books tell them how—pray!  The passing evangelist confirms what the books have said—pray!  The word is echoed back and forth, growing in volume until it becomes a roar—pray!  So The pastor calls his people to prayer.  Days and nights are spent begging God to be merciful and send revival upon His people.  The tide of feeling runs high and it looks for a while as if the revival might be on the way.  But it fails to arrive and the zeal for prayer begins to flag.  Soon the church is back where it was before, and a numb discouragement settles over everyone.  What has gone wrong?

“Simply this: Neither the leaders nor the people have made any effort to obey the Word of God.  They felt that their only weakness was failure to pray, when actually in a score of ways they were falling short in the vital matter of obedience.  ‘To obey is better than sacrifice’ (1 Samuel 15:22).  Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience.  The sovereign Lord accepts no offering from His creatures that is not accompanied by obedience.  To pray for revival while ignoring or actually flouting the plain precept laid down in the Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble.

“It has been quite overlooked in recent times that the faith of Christ is an absolute arbiter.  It preempts the whole redeemed personality and seizes upon the individual to the exclusion of all other claims.  Or more accurately, it makes every legitimate claim on the Christian’s life conditional, and without hesitation decides the place each claim shall have in the total scheme.  The act of committal to Christ in salvation releases the believing man from the penalty of sin, but it does not release him from the obligation to obey the words of Christ.  Rather it brings him under the joyous necessity to obey.”

James 1:22-27 (KJV) But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.  26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Next Week: Guided By The Spirit 1Samuel 16

Prayer