This morning we have a special speaker, I don't know if you call him special, it's just my son-in-law, but it is good to have him here, Jonathan Davis. Jonathan is a graduate student at Bob Jones University pursuing his doctoral degree in what? theological studies, okay? And so, I know he gets an opportunity to teach Sunday school where he is in his church in South Carolina, but I don't think you get an often chance to preach, do you? Once in a while. But we're gonna give him an opportunity to preach today and to share God's word with us. I'm gonna ask Jonathan if you would come and share with us God's word. If you would please turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 15. We're going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 15. We're going to be looking today at kind of a transition within the nation of Israel. This is Saul's, in a sense, last opportunity to remain as king. If he had chosen correctly, he would have stayed king probably for much longer than what he did. But in fact, he chose to reject what the Lord had told him. So we're going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 15, and we're going to read the whole chapter to get started. And in 1 Samuel 15 it says, Now therefore, hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. 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. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not. But slay both man and woman, and infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Tel-Aim, 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley. And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get ye down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul smote the Amalekites from Hevelah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt. and he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive, and utterly destroyed all the people at the edge of the sword. 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 everything that was vile and refuse, that they utterly destroyed. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night. 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 Gogal. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears? And of the lowing of the oxen was I hear. And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spread the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. 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. 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? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against the Amalekites. and fight against them until they be consumed. 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? 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 the Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 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. 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 to sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 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 has also rejected thee from being king. 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. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said unto him, the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou. And also, the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God. So Samuel turned again after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord. Then said Samuel, bring ye hither to meet Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, as thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. Let's open with a prayer. Father, as we look into this passage and we see both wonderful and horrible examples of men that have gone before us, we ask that you would use it to guide our steps, that we would come to love you more and to approach people and deal with people in a way that is more honoring and glorifying to you. I ask, Lord, that as I preach, that you would use your spirit to speak through me, as I am not capable of having your word be applied to the hearts of people, but your spirit can do that. I ask that you give me the strength and the wisdom to speak correctly and adequately. And we ask that as we go through this sermon, that it would be enlightening to your flock and strengthening to them for this week. In your name we pray, amen. Here in Samuel, we see at the beginning, Saul is given this commandment to destroy the Amalekites. Now, why would God want the Amalekites destroyed? To answer that question, we have to go back to Exodus chapter 17. back in Exodus chapter 17 right after the Israelites had just quabbled with Moses about not having Water Moses has gone Moses goes to Sinai to strike a rock and the water comes down to the people but while he and the elders had left, it seems like the Amalekites, in verse 8, then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. They come and they attack them either right as the elders were coming back or as the elders had left, leaving Israel a little bit more defenseless than they normally would. And verse 14 and 16 says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial and a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. For he said, because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amlek from generation to generation. And the Amalekites were the only people up to this point to attack the Israelites as they are leaving Egypt, going into the Promised Land. Now this is before they have turned away, right? They go to the Promised Land and have been turned away because of their own sin. So this is just a group of people that haven't seen war. God purposely led them away from the easier path to keep them from the possibility of war. And the Amalekites come and they attack them while they were not really prepared for war. And the next time we see Israel under attack is after they have already tried to go into the Promised Land, the 12 spies went in, the two say we should go in, the other 10 convince the rest of Israel to turn away. And because they chose not to obey God to go into the Promised Land, they had to do the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. While they're wandering in the wilderness, Arad the Canaanite, we see this in Numbers 21, comes and attacks Israel. And Israel makes a vow saying, if you will allow us to win, we will utterly destroy the Canaanites, Ered the Canaanites. And Ered and his nation is obliterated. They are completely destroyed because they attacked Israel while Israel was just wandering in the wilderness. And we get over to Deuteronomy chapter 25. And this speaks to the Amalekites again. In Deuteronomy chapter 25, in verses 17 through 19, It says, remember what Amalek did unto thee, by the way, when you were come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee, by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee. even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary, and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out from remembrance of Amlek from heaven, thou shalt not forget it. So this is coming, you know, There's been quite a few years from this time until Saul becomes king. But finally, as Saul is king, Israel has rest from its enemies round about. And Samuel comes to Saul and goes, remember way back then when Amalek did this to the nation of Israel? God said, we are going to destroy them when we have rest. Well, you have rest now, Saul. Go do what God said he was going to have Israel do. And so Saul takes the army, and they go up, and they have 210,000 men, and they're told specifically that the Amalekites are under, they are to be utterly destroyed. Now this term, utterly destroyed, is a term, we would call it the ban, or it's a Hebrew term, harem. That word is used of Jericho, when the Israelites come across and they fight the Battle of Jericho, right? Nobody was supposed to touch anything. Nobody was to take anything. It was under the ban. Nobody was supposed to take anything. Everything was supposed to be destroyed. Achan, if we remember, Achan takes some things from Jericho, and the Israelites lose the next battle at Ai, because Achan stole things. When they find out that Achan was the one that took things, the result of breaking the ban was instant death. He, his family, and all his stuff was thrown into a valley and burned, okay? So the term utterly destroyed here indicates you don't touch anything. It all gets destroyed, everything. And as we read further, we see Saul gallies the people, they go up to a city, and they go and they talk to the Kenites and they say, Kenites, you get out of here. Now Kenites is a term that we almost never see in scripture, but these are the descendants of Moses's father-in-law. So when Moses was coming, when they are coming through, making their widowness journeys, you know, to the promised land, Moses's father-in-law comes to them and says, Moses, Why are you running the people this way? This is a horrible way. Let me help you put up a sort of government to make it easier for you. And the Kenites are a huge blessing to Israel as they're going to the Promised Land. So Saul comes down and they're still dwelling among the Malachites and Saul says, get out of here or you're all dead. So this was actually a very wise thing that Saul did. So the Kenites leave and then Saul begins his campaign. Now they start in Havilah and they go all the way to Shur. This is over 100 miles distance. So this isn't like a one day thing where they go and they fight the Amalekites. This probably took months. I mean if you're fighting city to city for 100 miles, this is a long campaign because you didn't take a city in a day back then. It took quite a bit of work. So this isn't something that they just went and had a battle and they came back. They've been fighting and fighting and fighting and when they finally come back, They would likely have had offerings of Thanksgiving, peace offerings to the Lord. But as they do all this fighting, as they're going along, instead of destroying everything, they're taking the best of the sheep, the best of the oxen, for the purpose in their minds to sacrifice to the Lord when they get back. So are they going to eventually destroy these sheep and oxen? Yes, because they're gonna be sacrificed. But is this in following the ban? No, because you're supposed to utterly destroy everything immediately. So they have this fight, this war. Verse 8, they take Agag the king alive. And verse 9, they spared Agag, they spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, and all that was good. And so as you're coming to this point, reading this, knowing that they broke the ban, the first thought in your mind is, there's going to be somebody that's going to die because of this. Because the last time we saw somebody break the ban, it was death. And so as Saul is going back from this campaign, the word of the Lord comes unto Samuel. And the Lord said unto Samuel, it repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king. The term repented me that I have done, God repenting of doing something only shows up one other place in the Old Testament, and that is at the flood. God says it's repenteth me that I have made man upon this earth. What happened after the flood when God was repentant of making man? Everybody's destroyed, right? Noah builds his ark, Noah and his family survive, everything else is wiped out. And so as you're reading this passage and Samuel's going to Saul, as an Israelite would be reading this, they're expecting Saul's gonna die because he broke the ban. That's what you're thinking as you're going through this process. So as we read through it, we actually see the Lord is incredibly gracious and merciful to Saul in the way that he deals with Saul. So Samuel gets this message from the Lord, that it repented him that he set up Saul, for he has turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. Now I find this very interesting, it says turn back. So that is indicating at one point Saul was following the Lord. You can't turn back if you were never going in that direction. So this is somebody that knows what God wants him to do, has followed God up to a point and that said, you know what, it's gonna be easier or better for me to go this way instead of following exactly what God said. And we'll see how he gets that when he gives his first excuses about why he didn't obey the Lord. And as we're looking at verse 11, it grieved Samuel and he cried unto the Lord all night. Samuel isn't sitting here angry at Saul because Saul disobeyed the Lord. Samuel is weeping, praying out to God, asking God to give forgiveness to Saul, asking for God to change his mind about repenting that he had made Saul king. And all night we don't know what Samuel was praying. It's not given to us. But at all night, Samuel prays and weeps and cries out to the Lord. And this shows the heart of somebody that's, he knows he has to go and confront Saul, but he's not going in an attitude of anger, he's not going in an attitude of self-righteousness, that he's better than Saul, because I've served God for how many years and I've never turned back? Instead, he's going in a very sorrowful, grieving spirit. And so we get to verse 12, and Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set him up a place, and has gone about, and has passed on, and gone down to Gilgal. So Samuel was thinking at first he was going to meet Saul in Carmel, so he heads towards Carmel. That's actually the opposite direction of Gilgal. And so Samuel gets probably close to Carmel, and somebody goes, oh yeah, yeah, Saul's not here anymore. He went up to Gilgal. Samuel's like, Gilgal? Why is Saul in Gilgal? That's where the tabernacle is. That's where we go for sacrifices. I was supposed to meet him here in Carmel, and then we were supposed, it seems like he was going to meet Saul in Carmel, and then they were going to go up to Gilgal. But Saul just heads on up to Gilgal. So Samuel has to turn around, which, if you think you're going to meet somebody, right, and then you're told, oh, by the way, they didn't meet where you're supposed to be, they actually went this way, that could get you a little bit frustrated. We don't see Samuel getting frustrated about this. He still has a heart of grief, he still has a heart of sorrow over Saul's sin, and when he goes up to Saul, even though he's been inconvenienced already about where he's supposed to meet him, he's not angry in the way he approaches Saul. So as we look on in verse 13, and Samuel came to Saul, and as Samuel's walking down, Saul sees him coming, and he goes out ahead of the camp, and he said, blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And I can imagine Samuel's heart breaking even more over this, because he's sitting there, knowing he's coming to deliver a message of judgment to Saul. And Saul's coming with joy, saying, I did what was right. And Samuel, probably at that moment, his heart broke in a lot of ways and just, it was horribly painful. And he just stops instead of saying, no, you didn't. It would have been very easy for him just in a text saying, no, you didn't obey the command of the Lord. That's why I'm here. He pauses and he asks a very insightful question. And we look in verse 14, Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And this begins Samuel's basically master class of how to approach somebody that's in sin. He's first in an attitude of sorrow over the person's sin, not of self-righteousness, not of judgment. and he's coming to the person and he doesn't instantly accuse Saul, but rather he asks him a very pointed question that gets right to the heart of the issue and gets Saul to realize, oops, something's not right. And so Saul responds to this, Samuel's question. Saul's they, they, he starts off with this they, the people, instantly Saul's not taking any blame for this. They have brought them, the sheep and the oxen, 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." So first off, he blames the people, right? So it's not his fault that these oxen and these sheep are here. And he gives an excuse for why the people did it that he thinks is fine. we brought it to sacrifice to the Lord. Isn't it pleasing to the Lord to give sacrifices? And Saul is instantly denying, basically, that he's done anything wrong. No, no, no, no, no, no. The people did the wrong. The people brought it. And the people did it for a good reason, to sacrifice unto the Lord. And Samuel sits there, instead of attacking Saul again, he asks Saul, a question, he said, Samuel said unto Saul, stay and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me this night. Now this term stay is also used in Psalm 46, it's the word for be still, from be still and know that I am God. So he says, Saul, be still, wait a moment. and let me tell you what God has to say. And Saul, this had to have been some type of question because Saul says, say on. So Saul says, okay, I'll listen. And Samuel here, instead of just saying, you're wrong, goes, is it okay if I tell you what the Lord has to say about this? And Saul goes, okay, go ahead, tell me what the Lord has to say about this. And Samuel said, when, verse 17, 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? 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. 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? And again, he doesn't say, you did this, he asked a question. He said, why did you do this? God, took you when you were nothing and made you a king. And he put you in this spot to rule over his people. And he just sent you on a task. If God made you king and God sends you on a task, then you should follow what God did because you didn't make yourself king. You didn't put yourself in this position, God did. And we see him, Samuel, pointing out who God is, God's character, what God has done over here for Saul and said, then why didn't you obey what God has done? And for all believers, God has made us people of God. He has made us his children, he has justified us, he's redeemed us, he has given us life, he's brought us into the family of God. There are so many things, as believers, God has done for us. If God has done these things for us, when God says do or do not, there's no excuse not to do it because he has done these things for us over here. So when we read scripture and we see God says do this or do not do this, it's coming from somebody that has already done so much for us. We sang a song that talks about how at Calvary the soldiers chose the nails, Jesus did all these things for us, right? because of what he has done and what he has already given to us and the position he has placed us, we should therefore go and without any regret or sorrow or, okay, I'll do it if I have to, joyfully do what God has said to do or choose not to do what God has said not to do. And when we have to confront somebody about sin, don't just go, the Bible says this, which that is helpful, but say, look at who God is, Look at what God has done. And now let's look at what his word. If he has done all this for you, shouldn't this matter to you, what God has said? And even for unbelievers, as those that don't know the Lord, God still has made them, he has given them life. So therefore, because he is the giver of life, they owe their life to him. And if you haven't experienced the joys of the gospel, how Jesus can save you from sin and free you from the penalties of it, God is sitting here having done so many things for you. And it is your choice whether or not to trust in him and come to him through faith to be forgiven of your sins. But Samuel starts out with that. He asks Saul a question. In verse 20, Saul responds again, But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God. And instead of listening to what Samuel said, Saul's still throwing up excuses and blinders and saying, no, I did what God said. Stop telling me I'm wrong, I did what God said. Right? And interestingly, when Samuel, because Saul's saying it's the people that did this, right? The people went upon the spoil. In verse 19, Samuel says, but thou didst fly upon the spoil. This term fly is the term used for an eagle soaring down to grab its prey. Direct, focused, intentional attack. And Samuel's saying you intentionally went upon that spoil. This isn't something that the people did. You intended to grab that spoil. And he's just basically shoving it aside, saying I didn't intend to do that. The people did. And you would think in some ways that Samuel would just give up at this point. Clearly Saul's not going to listen. Saul's not going to even admit that he's done anything wrong. But rather, Samuel goes at the heart of Saul's excuse. He goes, okay, here's your excuse. Let me show you why that's not a good reason. And in verse 22, Samuel says, 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 the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. And then finally, Samuel brings the judgment. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected thee from being king. And finally, after hearing this statement, Saul confesses that he's sinned. But Samuel, before he just says, no, you did sin, God's rejecting you. Instead, he says, okay, let's look at your excuse. Okay, you're saying they were doing this and it's okay because they're using it to sacrifice unto the Lord. It's okay to do this in over here because I'm going to serve God through it. It's okay if I lie over here because it'll give me the opportunity to serve God. It's okay if I take a little money here that I shouldn't be taking because then I can give more to the offering. It's little excuses that we come up saying, you know what, it's okay because I can use it to glorify God later. There's never a case in which sinning for the excuse of doing something for God later is ever excused. The sin outweighs any good that you might have done. It is better to obey than it is to sacrifice and serve the Lord. And when Samuel finally tells Saul, look, that is not a good excuse, Saul, receives the judgment that God has rejected him from being king, which Samuel could have given right at the beginning, but rather he waits to try to get Saul to see, yes, I have sinned. After hearing the judgment, Saul finally says in verse 24, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words. If that was a period there, we might have a different story on the rest of the way down here, but there's a colon. He says because, I feared the people and obeyed their voice. And Saul goes off, instead of taking full blame, says, you're right, I sinned, but I sinned because of them. Rather, he should have just said, I have sinned, I did transgress the commandment of the Lord. And that should have been the end of that statement. If people confront us about sin, and we realize that we've sinned, it's so easy to say, you're right, but here's why. We don't need the here's why. If we've sinned, we need to confess. And we'll see it later, Samuel doesn't expect his here's why. He doesn't accept it. He continues to say, you're rejecting the word of the Lord from this. So he said, I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now why would the people want to take the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord? Well, after Israel would have a campaign of war, they would come back if they won and offer Thanksgiving offerings unto the Lord. A Thanksgiving offering was an offering of sheep or cattle, and it had to be the best of the sheep or the cattle, which you would offer to the Lord and it was sacrificed, and then you sat down with the people that you brought this Thanksgiving offering, and you ate it to glorify the Lord, saying, God allowed us to have this victory. We're now going to enjoy it before the Lord. Well, if you can't take the spoils from those that you won from, where does that Thanksgiving offering come from? It comes from your own flocks. So the flocks were either going to be from Saul's, because Saul is the one leading the battle, at this point Saul is a fairly wealthy guy, and probably has enough sheep and flock to do these sacrifices. So when he sees the people taking it, he's like, you know what, that's okay, then I don't have to give of the best of my flock to glorify the Lord. And the people that are taking it are saying, this is so much better, because we're gonna still destroy them, but we can enjoy it before the Lord, and we're still killing off anything that belonged to them, so it must be fine. rather than saying, I'm going to take of what is mine and give it back to the Lord and thanksgiving that we survived. We had a war. God allowed me to come home. So I'm going to give it my best and thank him for what he has done. And they would sit and they would eat this and likely their family would be there enjoying this meal, right? Of celebrating that God has done something for them. And so Saul looks at this and says, you know what, it's okay if the people take it, then I don't have to give so much of my own. And the people are probably thinking this themselves. And so Saul, fearing the people, says, you know what, I don't wanna make the people think they have to give of their own, so I'm just gonna let them do this. And we see here something that reoccurs throughout the life of Saul, even at the very beginning when we see him hiding among the stuff. Saul is a very fear-controlled man. He's very insecure. He's constantly worried about what other people might think, and if they think negatively, I gotta do something to keep them from thinking negatively. So you know what? Let's just let them take the spoil so that they think I'm a good king. so they can be happy that I'm not, oh, Saul's keeping us from taking, you know, Saul's making us come after we fight for him, he's making us use our own animals to thank the Lord for us coming back, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah. Saul's worried about people who think he's a bad king if he doesn't let them take the spoil. He's insecure, and he's allowing that fear and insecurity to control him. That doesn't make it a good excuse, it's still his own fault that he's being fearful, right? And it's so easy for us to be fearful, to be insecure. And we have that person that, you know, I wanna tell him about the gospel. What are they going to think? Are they going to reject me? Are they gonna push me out of their life because I say these things? If I tell them they're a sinner, will they just completely cut everything off for me? And we are sometimes afraid to go and tell people this is what God has said. And Samuel is doing the exact opposite of Saul here. He's going to the most powerful person in the entire nation and telling him, this is wrong and God is rejecting you because of it. If anybody had a reason to fear, it's Samuel. But rather Saul is the one that is fearing and being insecure. In verse 25, Saul continues and said, now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said, because I think he's saying this this way because Saul still hasn't taken full ownership of his sin, he's still blaming others and giving excuses, he says, said unto Saul, I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected thee from being king over Israel. Basically, a repeat of what he has already told Saul earlier. And Samuel turns about to go away. And Saul lays hold of the skirt of his mantle and it rent. The skirt of the mantle is the very bottom corner. So if you're trying to picture what's happening here, Samuel turns around and starts walking away. And Saul lunges forward and grabs the bottom of Samuel's mantle and it rips off. And Saul's laying there on the ground, holding Samuel's mantle. And Samuel turns around and looks down at him. And this is not coming from a voice of somebody that is in anger. This is coming from the voice of somebody in grief and sorrow, I believe, based on how he says this. He says, Sam said unto him, the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou. And also, the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent. And as Samuel's thinking this, when he says he is not a man that he should lie or repent, he's probably thinking back to when he was praying all night asking God to change his mind about bringing judgment on Saul. God, don't judge Saul. Can we find a way to make Saul that you wouldn't repent of having made him king? So, interestingly, we have the same Hebrew word. God repented that he made Saul, and God is not a man that he would not repent. So how can these both be true? Well, in Hebrew, their words have a lot more flexibility than most of our English terms. And we even do this sometimes with repent ourselves. Repent in the sense of turning away, changing our mind, and repent in the sense of sorrow. Earlier in the chapter, God is repenting of the fact that he made Saul king. He is sorrowing. It's sad that he has made Saul king. And at the end here, he is not a man that he should repent. He's not going to change his mind. This is set. When God makes a decision, it's set. When we have instances of God, in a sense, repenting in the past, for instance, with Moses and the burning calf and God says, stand aside and I'm going to destroy them. Later it says God repents of doing this evil to his people. God didn't say, I am going to destroy them, period. He says, stand aside. There is a part there that says, if you don't do anything, I will destroy them. So God isn't saying, I will destroy them. He's saying, if you don't do anything, I will destroy them. Moses prays and God goes, okay, I will not destroy them. I repent of destroying them because you prayed. But once God has said, I will do this, I have rejected Saul from king, there is no changing. There is no condition. If you pray for Saul, then I might not reject him. If Saul repents, I might reject him. I have rejected, finished, period. God is not a man that he should change. And likely Samuel was praying with God, trying to get him to change. And God kept saying to Samuel, I'm not going to change my mind. I'm not a man that I should repent. And Samuel's looking at Saul, laying on the ground, holding a piece of mantle, not in anger saying, God's not gonna repent. You're wrong. There's likely sorrow of God's not a man that he should repent. This is final. This is it. And as Saul lays there on the ground, holding that mantle, Hearing this statement that God is not a man that he should repent, he looks up at Samuel and says, I have sinned. Yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God. At this point, Saul, I think, actually takes ownership of his sin because Samuel does turn around and go back with him, right? There is some type of change from Samuel saying, I will not turn back with you, because you're still rejecting the word of the Lord, to, okay, I'm gonna come back, I will walk back with you. And even as Saul repents, the big thing in the back of his mind is, yet honor me now before the people. I still fear the people. Yes, he's repenting of the fact that he didn't destroy the Amalekites, but the main reason that he's there in the first place of his inability to trust that God has put him there, God has put him as the leader. to trust to do what God has told him to do. He still fears the people, and he's still concerned about what the people might think. Because the people just saw Saul run out to Samuel, and they're like, okay, Saul's beating Samuel. And they see Saul fall on the ground holding a piece of Samuel's mantle. They're like, what just happened up there? Something just happened up there. And then if you saw Saul come down and Samuel go away, without coming back with Saul? Because normally Samuel would come in with Saul. You're sitting there going, what happened? Do we need to know about that? Did Samuel just reject Saul? Why isn't Samuel coming down? And all these questions start flooding your mind about what just happened up there. And Saul is so concerned, not about the fact that he's sinned, not about the fact that His own fear has caused the reason why he's this way. He's so concerned about what the people might think that he's confessing his sin and he's begging Samuel to come back with him to honor him before the people. And because Samuel, in verse 31, Samuel turned again after Saul and Saul worshipped the Lord. The fact that Samuel goes back with Saul makes me think that Saul has actually at this point repented of the fact that he didn't obey the Lord. Saul's like, you're right. I'm fully agreeing with you. I should have destroyed everything. It's my fault. Not the people's fault. Not my fear of the people. It's my fault. And we don't get all the words that Saul probably said. Saul probably said more. The Bible's not going to give us everything that happened in every conversation. Otherwise it would be impossible to read. It would be so long. And what we need to know is that Saul admitted that he had sinned, and likely he said more than that, and admitted, yes, you're right, I'm wrong. But interestingly, as Samuel does these things, as he had turned away from Saul because Saul kept giving excuses, Samuel never gives justification to any of the excuses. And he never says, you know what, that's okay, you're right, that's why it caused you. The people are the reason why you chose to sin. And it's so easy if we go and the Lord leads us to confront somebody and somebody gives an excuse that sounds kind of good. It's like, okay, your excuse makes the sin okay. It's not as bad because you have this excuse. We can't just help people justify a guilty conscience by saying, yeah, that's a good excuse. Maybe it's not that bad of a sin. Samuel doesn't allow the excuses to stay in Saul's mind to keep him from fully repenting. Rather, he says, you know, you're rejecting the word of the Lord. The Lord is rejecting you in this situation. I'm going to leave. There's nothing more I can say. There's nothing more I can do. Saul actually repents, it seems like. But when Samuel comes down in verse 31, it doesn't say, and they worshiped the Lord. It says, and Saul worshiped the Lord. It could simply be mean that Samuel stood there while everybody was having the Thanksgiving offerings, which was their worship to the Lord, doing the Thanksgiving offerings of worship. Samuel didn't participate. He didn't eat any of the meat. He didn't offer any of the the cattle. Likely at this point, a lot of the sheep and the herds had already been sacrificed that were brought back from the Amalekites. And probably they continued sacrificing them. And so Samuel said, I am not going to participate in this because you're doing what is wrong. but I'm going to come back with you because you are, you have repented of the fact that you did this. And we get down here to verse 32. And this is very intriguing, how Samuel says, bring ye hither to me Agag the king. Agag's coming, he's like, okay, you know, I'm probably not gonna die, that's past, I've already made it through the rest of this campaign, I'm up here, they're all celebrating. And Samuel the prophet, okay a prophet, you know, he's not a warrior. Samuel the prophet takes a sword and hews him into pieces. And it's interesting that Saul doesn't do this. Why is Samuel the one cuing Agag into pieces? Well, there's possibly two reasons. Either one, even after repenting, Saul's not gonna fix the problem and actually deal with Agag. Or two, God has, by having Samuel do this, God's showing, okay, Saul, you're not the one I'm going to be using anymore. And after this point, Saul is never given a word from the Lord, go do this. I want you to go do this as the king, we'll lead him this way. And he's no longer the main one that God is using to lead his people. Instead, does Saul still do good things for the nation of Israel? Yes, he's still a warrior, he's still a leader. There's still good things done under Saul, but he's not the one that God is saying, you're the one I'm going to use for my people. Now he's saying, here's one over here, which comes in the next chapter, this David, this little shepherd boy that I'm focusing on bringing up to be used for my people. And David is used as a child to slay Goliath. Should have been Saul's job. Should have been the thing that Saul did as the one that God was primarily using to lead and defend his people. Samuel went to Ramah, in verse 34, and Saul goes to Gibeah, and 35, Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, this is huge, Samuel born for Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. After this whole confrontation, Samuel could have very well been like, I told him, I told him, I told him, I asked him so nicely, I tried to explain things to him, why wouldn't he just listen? Samuel continues to mourn and to grieve over Saul. We never see Samuel looking at Saul and thinking, oh, he's just a stubborn man that won't listen to anything that God has to say. Rather, he's sitting there going, God, I wish he would turn. I'm sorry that Saul is doing this. And we don't see judgment coming from Samuel to Saul. We see the word of the Lord having judgment for Saul, but Samuel himself isn't coming judgmental towards Saul. He's coming with sorrow. And Samuel truly puts on a master class of how we approach those in sin and how we deal with those that even after being shown the truth say, you know, I don't need it. And as we, come to the conclusion here, we see some things from Saul that we can learn to avoid. Partial obedience is disobedience, no matter what the reason is for partial obedience. So easy to be, do it most of the way and have an excuse for not finishing the job entirely. But partial obedience does not mean it's good, it's rather bad, it's still complete disobedience. When somebody confronts us and tells us about a sin in our own lives, don't immediately start throwing up walls and barriers and excuses. They could possibly be wrong, you know, because people don't see things exactly, and they might not be approaching you in the right way. They could come saying, you did this. You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, where is this coming from? Instead of throwing up those walls of defenses and excuses and barriers, stop and consider, did I sin here? Is this wrong? and make full consideration, if you do realize it's a sin, don't start making excuses for why you did it. Immediately repent of the sin. Don't allow insecurity, as Saul did, to control his life. Don't be afraid of what man might think. We have And the New Testament example of Peter, he's preaching the gospel, he's telling the joys of Jesus, the Sanhedrin bring him in, they beat him and they say, don't speak anymore about this Jesus. And he goes, should I fear man or should I fear God? And his answer is, it's pretty obvious, I should fear God. Yes, you can beat me, sure. But I know someone who can destroy both the body and soul in hell. So I'm gonna fear him a lot more than somebody that can just beat me physically. And when we look at Samuel, the way he's coming towards Saul, never from a heart of judgment, but rather from first he comes and he prays earnestly for Saul. Then he approaches him with his heart of compassion and asks questions to verify, to get Saul to realize, to get the person to realize the sin. He then seeks permission from the person to speak what God has to say to them. He doesn't just throw the Bible down their throat, but rather graciously says, can I tell you what God has to say about this? He presents God's character when expressing what they did was sinful. He didn't accept any of Saul's excuses, but clearly pointed out, clearly points out the reason why the excuses aren't valid. He did not falsely ease Saul's conscience when he gave a partial repentance, but rather sided with God instead of Saul. And he continued to love and to pray for Saul, even as Saul was one that had rejected the word of Lord. He had turned back from following, he's said to have turned back from following God. Samuel still continues to pray for Saul throughout the rest of his life. And these are things that we need to do if God said, if there's a clear sin in the life of a believer that we know, we go to them with these questions, with humility, and we seek to point them to the Lord. And if they reject us, we don't get upset at them, like, man, I can't believe they won't listen to what God has to say. Don't they know God's right? Rather, we sorrow over the fact that they're choosing to reject God. We're not choosing to attack them and get angry at them because they don't think what God has to say is important in their life. Or they're giving this excuse, I don't know why I can't get them to stop saying this is just an excuse. We have to come in humility and sorrow. And when it is us, that isn't sin. We can't allow excuses to keep us from a full repentance. Rather, say, God, you're right, This is sin, I'm going to side with you and agree that I should never have done this. And come back into fellowship with the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the examples that we have in scripture of both good and bad, and we ask that you would help us to imitate the good, and that you would help us to avoid following after the bad, and making excuses, and choosing to not repent. Rather, when we see sin in our lives, may we be quick to repent, quick to return to you, and enjoy the fellowship that we have when we are walking with you. May you be glorified through the rest of this day. In your name we pray, amen.