Excuses, Excuses

I Samuel 15:12-23

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All right. Turn again this morning, 1 Samuel 15, if you want to make your way there. Last week we used the text of the chapter to take a topical detour into considering God's interaction with time. We'll not revisit that this morning. You can take a listen to it if you're interested. The text today confronts us with the sin of Saul. And I say confronts us because any time we are considering sin in Scripture, we will at some level be confronted with our own sin, no doubt. We noted last time that while Saul had listened to the word of the Lord, he ultimately failed to fulfill the command that God had given him. And what we noted then is how I'll introduce the message this morning. Partial obedience is still disobedience. God calls us to obey his word, and in that we discover that God's commands are not a series of options whereby we can pick and choose what we like or what we think might be easy, and then disregard the parts that we don't like or that we find difficult. So let's go ahead and pray and then we'll pick it up at verse 12. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Thank you, Father, that it uh warns us, that it encourages us, that it moves us along in our walk. And we definitely need your guidance. We need your strength, we need your mercy, and we ask as we study, Father, that we'd be encouraged, that we'd be challenged, and that we would uh be drawn and brought closer to you. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, 1 Samuel 15, and we'll read verses 12 through 23. Early in the morning Samuel got up to confront Saul, but it was reported to Samuel. Saul went to Carmel where he set up a monument for himself. Then he turned around and went down to Gilgal. When Samuel came to him, Saul said, May the Lord bless you, I have carried out the Lord's instructions. Samuel replied, Then what is this sound of sheep, goats, and cattle I hear? Samuel Saul answered, The troops brought them from the Amalekites and spared the best sheep, goats, and cattle, in order to offer a sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we destroyed. Stop, exclaimed Samuel. Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night. Tell me, he replied. Samuel continued, Although you were once considered yourself although you once considered yourself unimportant, haven't you become the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel, and then you sent you on a mission and said, Go and completely destroy the sinful Amalekites. Fight against them until you have annihilated them. So why didn't you obey the Lord? Why did you rush on the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord's sight? But I did obey the Lord, Saul answered. I went on the mission the Lord gave me. I brought back King Agad of Amalek, and I completely destroyed the Amalekites. The troops took sheep, goats, and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was set apart for destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal. Then Samuel said, Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king. We see that Samuel is up early in the morning to go meet Saul. I suppose we shouldn't make too much of that, but it did make me think of the old proverb, the early bird catches the worm. It's something we instinctively know. It's that if you have a task to deal with, the best thing to do is to get after it as soon as you can. Sometimes that will come after a night's rest, hopefully a decent night's rest, although sometimes that's difficult when you know you have something that's pressing or stressing that you have to address. But the idea is get the bad business out of the way first thing in the morning. And so to the bad business and confrontation that Samuel has to do. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Samuel can't find Saul. The reason points to trouble to come. Because he's gone to set up a monument for himself. Oh, how humble one has to be to set up a monument in honor of oneself. It's hard to be humble when you're perfect. Perfect in every way. Y'all remember that song? I can't wait to look in the mirror. I get better looking each day. It would be one thing to set up a monument for the battle and for the troops, but the text is clear. He set it up for himself. You have to wonder if he had it inscribed, you know, with something like, Saul slew the Amalekites here, or something tribute to Saul. We're not told, but it's clear enough Saul was surely not grieved over any sin. To the contrary, he appears to be quite pleased with himself. And of course, this speaks volumes of where Saul's heart is. And we do well to take note of it. Samuel mentions it. Saul is not the same man he used to be. We see he had a humble opinion of himself back in 1 Samuel 9. He had said, Am I not a Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family, the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? In the next chapter, he had hid himself when they were going to make him king. But despite his humble beginnings, seemingly maybe the years of military victories, the years of him being king, has either set up or uncovered the pride in his heart. And it is clearly pride that takes him down. So Samuel shows up, and we see that Saul's greeting is to confirm that he has done as God commanded. I have done, I have cut carried out the Lord's instructions, it says in the CSB. For some reason it made me think of the Shakespearean line for whatever reason. That's in Hamlet, where some lady says, Oh, she's upset, and she says she'll never, ever remarried, and to which Queen Gertrude says, the lady doth protest too much. We've all heard that saying, you know, I think you do protest too much, methinks. And methinks that Saul doth speaketh too quickly. And I came across a commentator named McLaren who may have been thinking along the same lines. He says that Saul's statement is, quote, more than true obedience is quick to say. If Saul had done what he was supposed to, he would have been slower to boast of it. Again, this is pointing to Saul's pride. Samuel will spell it out, but it shows up here in the fact that he comes to Samuel with this boldness. And he's clearly self-deceived at some level, right? That's what pride does. As they say, while I'm uh still in my old English mode, pride goeth before a fall. I would say the fact that he opens with that line, I've carried out the Lord's instruction, that may indicate that he, or I think it might indicate that he actually realizes something was off. That he's trying to get ahead of it, and he knew that he didn't do exactly what he was supposed to. Now, based on what Lou was saying there, I do want to interject something that let's be careful and not sit in judgment. Humans that we are, we can all say we know a little bit about sin, can't we? Actually, more than any of us would care to admit. One thing we'd all probably sign off on is that sin will blind you. You often can't see the reality of what's going on in your own life when you're caught up in some sin, or if you do, you have a way of seeing it through rose-colored glasses. That's solid. He's either blinded or deluded. And we come to verse 14, and I'll introduce here the reason for the sermon's title, Excuses, Excuses. Let the excuses begin. There are three main lines of defense that Saul uses. All three are classic. I'm sure we've tried them all. The first is denial. Again, out of the gate, Saul just says, I did what I was supposed to. This made me think of Shawshank Redemption. I've mentioned that uh movie quite a bit, but it's one of my favorites. A lot of you have probably seen it. But anyway, in the movie, Andy is this new prisoner, and he starts asking what the other prisoners have done to land them in prison. And so when he starts asking each one, one says, didn't do it. The other one says, innocent, not guilty, wasn't me, the witch's friend Red says, Nobody in prison is guilty. Andy, that's the idea. Denial is the easiest excuse. It's also one that can stick around if no one is giving you the straight of it, which is why it's important to challenge sin in those you love. Now, obviously, that needs to be done prayerfully and graciously. It need not be done with everything you might see. Obviously, the Bible says love covers a multitude of sins, but with things that are more serious, that can cause these life-changing issues. We do no one any favors by turning a blind eye to obvious and blatant sin and letting someone deny they have a problem. As they say, I think it is with Alcoholics Anonymous, I believe. The first step to fixing a problem is to admitting you have one. Denial, of course, doesn't work with Samuel. Samuel's response is to bring Saul some initial clarity to make things clear. I actually like the older translations better here than the CSB. What then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears and the loying of oxen, which I hear? It's uh it made me think of the Christmas tune. Do you hear what I hear? It's kind of that, right? Um God had said, Not only were all the people to be killed, so were all the animals. And now these livestock provide very clear testimony. Saul had not followed through on what he was told to do. The cattle are lowing, the sheep are bying, whatever you say there. All could very clearly be heard and seen, likely smelled fittingly. The whole thing has a stench to it. Well, that challenge Saul proceeds to excuse number two deflection. And this one is reminiscent of Adam and Eve. Why did you eat this? Well, the woman you gave me, she beguiled me. Well, why did you do it? Well, the serpent convinced me to do it. So it's the idea of passing the buck. Again, we all understand it. We've all done it. Saul first denied there was a problem. Samuel makes clear, hey, there's a problem. Saul says, Well, those troops, they spared the best. This reminded me of a skillet song. Skillet, I don't know if you know Skillet, in addition to being a very heavy iron pan, it's also a Christian contemporary rock band. Um, and we've actually seen them a few times. The boys were just really love to listen to them. So we listened to them quite a bit growing up, and they have this song that's called uh, or there's a line in it. I don't know, I can't remember the name of the song, but the line goes, It's not me, it's you. And that's what I would get from the boys sometime. You did this. Well, it wasn't me, it was my brother. And they would pass the buck. And one reason I remember that song so well is that we were riding in the SUV one time, and we were playing that song, and I looked up in the rear view, and the song's going, It's not me, it's you. And each time the boys would go, It's not me, it's you, it's you, always has been you, and they'd take turns pointing at each other, you know, laying the blame on them. That's what Saul tries for excuse number two. It's not me, it's you, it's those troops. Then that brings us to excuse number three. We see that commence at the end of verse 21. The troops did this, but they did it to sacrifice to the Lord your God. So Saul probably recognized at some level, well, yes, I am king. This is gonna work its way back to me. So let's bring in uh excuse number three, which is validation. There was a perfectly good reason for doing as we did and not doing as God said. The animals will be sacrificed to God. Now, we'll move to Samuel's response to all this in just a moment, but I wanted to note Saul goes back through all of these again, starting at verse 20. But I did obey the Lord. Again, denying that he did anything wrong. Verse 21. He goes with deflection again. The troops took the sheep, the goats, and the cattle. They did that, not me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites while he notes he's got an Amalekite King Agag with him right there. Again, he's either blinded or deluded. He just said, I destroyed them all, and he's got one right there with him. And then finally, a repeat of the validation. The troops took the best to sacrifice to the Lord your God. He amps that up right there, too, because he brings in it, went from being just a sacrifice to the Lord, oh, we've saved the best animals, it'll be the best sacrifice. Saul's answer reveals where his heart is. And when a person starts to willfully sin against God, it will become increasingly apparent. And at some point it will jump out at you because it will be reflected in their conversation and ultimately their lifestyle. Saul here has drifted from the Lord, and it's not just he made a foolish decision, it's that he's actually turned his back from following God. And at this point, it's clear he has a poor relationship with God. It's been deteriorating for some time, as you can recognize if you just remember going back through 1 Samuel. He what's interesting here, too, he doesn't even refer to God as his God. Notice he refers to him as Samuel's God. This is the Lord your God, Samuel. It would seem, as Guzzik suggests, that Saul's God has become Saul. Now, Samuel at some point had enough of it, right? You can tell just by reading, he's completely exasperated. And he says, Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night, and he lays out the issue very clearly. He begins by pointing to the root of the problem. Saul, you once considered yourself unimportant, then you became leader. The Lord anointed you king. And again, what we're seeing is that the problem of pride has reared its ugly head. In mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis refers to pride as the great sin. He writes, quote, pride leads to every other vice, it's the complete anti-God state of mind. You may have heard, and I don't know if this came from Lewis or who, but I've heard it before. Pride is the reason the devil became the devil. So I had an issue this week that kind of brought this to mind. And it may seem mundane, but this is the sort of thing that does cause problems, and it can happen to any of us. I I knew these two people fairly well, and one was harping about a close uh about the other. And I I'll just call the first guy friend A and the second guy friend B. It's not not very original, but I never know who might end up hearing some of this, so I don't want to give too many clues, particularly when there's negative examples. Um, but friend A was really upset about what friend B was doing. And friend A asked me, should I say something to friend B about this decision that he's getting ready to make? Because I think it's going to be really bad for him. And so I said, Well, if it's a genuine concern for you, and you can say it in a loving way, sure, I think you should tell him. And he said, Well, aren't you concerned about it? You're trying to get me in on it. And I said, Well, basically, I was thinking about it, and I didn't think it was a great decision, but it's one of those things, again, I didn't think friend B was making a wise decision, but it wasn't sinful. I mean, it was just one of those things that you had to make, you know, a decision on. I honestly felt like, again, it probably wasn't the best. But I also felt like, you know, friend B had probably thought about it and may have just thought, that's probably the best I can do right now, which I may not have agreed with, but I'm like, okay, I'm not getting involved in that. But anyway, I think I said something to the effect, it's probably not the best decision, but you know, I don't feel the need at all to press it. Um I'm not in friends, friend B's shoes, so I'm I'm just not going there. Long story short, friend A had just decided he knew best. He knew what it should be. And I could tell he was probably gonna say something. I said, you know, I don't think I would go at it so aggressively. I I would probably just, you know, mention it in love, and and then that's it. But he he didn't listen. And it ended up being not good, and and the main problem was because I felt like I could I was detached from it and I could sit back and look at it. And the main problem was friend A was just being prideful. It's like he thought that he knew everything and what would be best for friend B, and and there were really no other considerations. Almost said, I didn't do this on purpose, but it seemed like friend A, the A stood for arrogant uh in that moment. And in relation to our text, Samuel says, you know, Saul, you once considered yourself unimportant. And Samuel is not saying that Saul was unimportant, he's just saying this at one time you realized you didn't know everything, and that you needed God, and that you needed to go to him, and now that you are have been exalted, you should know your exaltation came from God ultimately. We don't want to end up like the old line I heard one time. We don't want it to become true of any of us, and that is what you lack in humility, you make up for in arrogance. Um that's not a good place to be. Now, I say that it doesn't mean that you need to be insecure, you just need to know where your security comes from, and it comes from God, and it comes from trusting in Him and following Him. Samuel lays out the problem very specifically. God sent Saul on a mission, go and completely destroy the sinful Amalekites. And again, I'll just mention here we see a little bit of reasoning, I think, for God's comprehended, comprehensive command and the command that you know jolts our modern day society. But the truth is we're all sinful, as Lou was saying. So when you see that sort of descriptor highlighted in the Bible, it means these folks, the Amalekites, were sinful even in comparison to the everyday sinful. In other words, they're a step above us run-of-the-mill sinners. Now, don't take pride in that either, but what that is presented in that way to help us understand how degenerate they were. And you understand that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of how degenerate they were, not because they were just simply sinners, because they had took it up a notch. So Samuel says, you were to completely rid the world of that bunch, but you didn't do it. And instead, you took the plunder, which was the evil in God's sight. Because again, as I as I mentioned, this was really a solemn judgment. And God was ordering Saul and the Israelites to carry out judgment on the Amalekites, and it was a very solemn event. It was not to be a time to gain in wealth. So let's learn from Saul. He's making excuses for sin, denying, deflecting, and validating. Some way he's trying to rationalize that what he is doing is different from what God said to do, but it's okay. One thing that's definitely made clear here religious observance without obedience is empty before God. Samuel shoots that down, and that's this attempt at validation. Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as obeying the Lord? Now it's not that the Lord had a problem with sacrifices in the Old Testament. He's the one that called for it. He prescribed them for the Israelites' well-being. But those activities do not somehow replace the core of their relationship with him. Our obedience and our walk with the Lord is the key. In other words, and this is true of us, formal worship can't be substituted for obedience. It's like I'm using the kids that they always would get on to me when they were here and said, Dad, what do you always use as a bad example? Well, they can't hear me now, they probably won't listen, so I'll keep using them as a bad example. But anyway, it's like when they would get in trouble. And I would say, Why did you not mow the yard? Well, Dad, you know, I was making sure my homework was done. And I knew my room needed to be cleaned. And I'm like, Yeah, and you could have done that after dark, and the yard's still not mowed. But they're trying to point the good that they did. That's why I didn't do what you said. That's Saul. He's trying to bring in the good that he's done. Again, setting apart the best of the animals. I thought about this. This would actually be a good lesson for the charismatic leaders today who don't want to hold their lying prophets to account. I think I've mentioned this some, but a lot of those issues are going on today in the charismatic wing of the church. This will be a good passage. I'll just name him out Bill Johnson, who's over the leader of Bethel, who said something to the effect, yeah, yeah, the false prophets were bad, but there was a lot of good that came from it. You know, where he told all these lies and got all this money to come in. And uh people got together at church and said, and that sort of thing. It's a bunch of nonsense. Now, God can redeem any situation, but it's not up to us to justify sin in the process. That's exactly what Saul is doing here. If we can somehow catch our sin and the language of religious devotion, then you never have to take responsibility for it. Oh, the sin's bad, but did you see all the good that came out of it? That's basically the idea. That's exactly what's happening with the charismatic leadership right now, at least some of them. And the Bible says, woe to those that call evil good and good evil. The best sacrifice that God wants from us is a repentant heart. Romans 12 1 says, for us to present ourselves as living sacrifices. You know, a person, a person in the Old Testament can make a thousand physical sacrifices for God. We in the New Testament could work a thousand hours for his service, give one million dollars to his work. All these sacrifices mean little if it's not coming from a surrendered heart to God, shown by simple obedience. It's Luther that said, I'd rather be obedient than be able to work miracles. And that made me think of that verse over there in Matthew 7, which is one of the scariest verses ever, where the where the people are saying, Hey, Lord, didn't we cast out demons in your name? And the Lord's like, didn't we do miracles in your name? And the Lord says, I go away, I don't know who you are. So what Samuel says then in verse 23 is inescapable. Rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. Samuel is saying that the continual rejection of God's word leads to the worst condition in man. Divination is ultimately tied to the worship of foreign deities here in the Old Testament. It's the antithesis, in other words, of obedience to God. And a rebellious, stubborn heart that rejects God over and over is just like someone practicing in the occult. That's what he's alluding to. Saul's problem wasn't, of course, that he neglected some ceremony. That's how he was thinking he needed to be obedient to God. Or at least that's what he's saying, is that I'll do this ceremony. And I've mentioned this before, and and you all know it. God wants us to be at church, but he wants us to be here for the right reasons, you know. Not like, well, and we can't use it like, oh yeah, I'm stealing, but I'm going to church. I donated some of my stolen funds at church. So it's okay. That's the idea, right? Um, religious observance doesn't mean anything if our hearts are rebellious and stubborn. Saul could point his finger to the Amalekites to the Philistines and say, Well, look at those godless idolaters. They don't worship the true God as I do. What Samuel is saying is, Saul, you're not really worshiping God either. You're just doing your own thing. Because the real worship of God begins with surrender. And because Saul has rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord rejected Saul from being king. Now, I think you understand. Let me state it. This is not a situation where Saul is struggling with sin. That's obvious in his response to Samuel. This is a situation where Saul, who is king, with a clear direct directive from the Lord, is not concerned about that directive. And in his empty religious practice and rebellion and stubbornness, Saul is rejecting God's word. And thus God rightly rejected him as king over Israel. And I would just say, don't be tempted, as some in our modern day church might be, to think, well, Saul was rejected because he spared a king and a few sheep and oxen. Later kings did far worse than that, and they weren't rejected. Why has God been so tough on Saul? Well, I think clearly God saw Saul's heart and saw how rebellious and stubborn he was. This is not the end of it. As we keep going through 1 Samuel, we'll see more. Saul's condition was like, you might say, an iceberg. Whatever was on the surface here was reflective of what ran really deep in his heart. So God rejected him from being king. Now, it would be almost 25 years before Saul was ultimately replaced. Well, he had all that time. Couldn't he have repented? Of course he could have repented. Yes. Now I'm not sure it would have saved his kingship. I don't know, but he certainly couldn't have got he could have gotten in good graces with God. God is quick to forgive. And Jesus came to the cross so that we can be forgiven. He wants us to be close to him. And for Saul, really for any of us, that can start with true humility. And so I might just say if you're struggling with something right now, maybe struggling with some sin or struggling to do what's right, maybe first, instead of feeling like, oh, I just gotta keep fighting this, I just gotta keep doing what I need to do, maybe just get on your knees and go to the Lord humbly and say, Lord, please be merciful to me, a sinner. And start there. And we'll we'll talk more about the nature of true confession next week. But going in a humble spirit before the Lord is always a great place to start and dealing with any sin. Suffice it to say, this week, our text drastically illustrates how we can make our sinful situation worse by going forward making excuses for not following God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Thank you, Father, that you ultimately, Father, want us to be as you created us and help us be reflective of that. We struggle in our weaknesses, but we realize, Father, that you want what is best for us. You do not give us commands to keep things from us, but to bring us closer to you and to save us from heartbreak and heartache. And so, Father, we just thank you again for your word. We pray that you will help us, Father, to take stock of where we are in our walk with you, that we would be open with you, Father, and that those areas where we realize that we're not following you or reluctant to get surrender to you, that we would change course, that we would repent on that and come closer to you. Father, we praise you. We thank you again for your word and thank you for your love. We know you're faithful and just to forgive, Father, and we thank you so much for that. So we praise you and thank you and pray that you'll go with us this week and help us to be a line and an encouragement to others. When this is in Jesus' name, amen.