Last week we started discussing the consequences of disobedience. We discussed Cain and Abel and the sacrifices that were brought to God. How Abel’s sacrifice was accepted but Cain’s was not.
We also started to look at why God didn’t accept Cain and his sacrifice. How God established right sacrifice as being animal. Blood sacrifice. Not the fruit of the ground, which represented the sin. Cain knew what was an acceptable offering, but chose to do it “his way.”
In God’s first point in Gen 4:6-7, He asked “if you do well [obey] , will you not be accepted?” For the acceptance of God, we must be in obedience.
Now we move onto the second point God was trying to make with Cain. Gen 4:7, “if you do not do well [do not obey Me], sin is crouching at the door.” Notice the word “door.” There is a figurative door inside every person, whether you realize it or not. This door represents the entrance into your life.
In the case of this scripture, it’s saying that disobedience allows sin and demonic powers access to your life. Through this “door”. God is telling Cain what causes sin and demonic powers to enter our life, as well as what will close the doors to it. Disobedience opens the door, whereas obedience shuts it.
What happened with Cain? He used his reasoning and his own ways with the sacrifice rather then obedience. Then envy entered his heart, as well as being angry with Abel. Anger turned to hatred, and hatred to murder.
Cain in a fit of rage murdered Abel. He had lost the fear of God. And He showed this when God asked him where Abel was. Gen 4:9, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” He lied directly to God. He knew exactly where Abel was.
Again, when God asked the question, He wasn’t looking for information. God also knew where Abel was. When someone turns to reasoning and disobedience in his life, He loses touch with the reality of spiritual things. He lowers God to an equal stance as them self, sometimes thinking that they know “better” then God.
Lucifer, knowing God and his power and might, actually thought he could overthrow God. Talk about deception!
So Cain, who was originally following God and God’s ways, came to a point of disobedience and murder. How could he go so far away from God? He opened the door of his soul to the law of sin through persistent disobedience.
A saying that perfectly describes the law of disobedience is, “Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.”
Even the littlest bit is like a crack in a dam. The water wears away till the dam is broke and the water floods through. Even the littlest sin can break down and flood through your life.
There have been people who start off with their hearts on fire for God. They are active in church and witnessing. But over time, little things come in and expose the self will hiding within their nature. It could be through God’s direct authority or through God’s delegated authority.
They will refuse to submit and continue in their own ways. Soon lawlessness takes over. You may not see it result in murder, but you may see things such as greed, hatred, anger, unforgiveness, strife, gossip, sexual sin, or countless other forms of bondage that control them.
Although they claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they really are following their own ways and reasoning’s. They have made a god in their image. Without realizing it, deception has taken over, and they are blind to see it.
God and all authorities can look extreme, legalistic or out of touch, when a person is in this state. Many will even do things they would never have even thought of in their younger Christian lives, but deception and disobedience have broke down the walls of protection and a proper view of authority.
One day, everyone will be judged for his or her lawlessness. But many will end up where they never dreamed they would go. They will wonder how they drifted so far. But it comes as a result of disobeying and not coming under the cover of God’s authority.
There is only one hope for those in deception, and that is that God’s mercy can break through and shed light on the deception. But we will not see truth until we first humble ourselves.
“Partial obedience is not obedience at all in the eyes of God”
With Saul we will learn about what happens when people play around with disobedience. We will also learn through the Lord’s word of correction to him. It also will show spiritual consequences of not fully obeying divine authority.
The scripture gives these things to us for our growth and learning. Rom 15:4, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning.” And 1 Cor 10:11, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.”
Ok, in this story, Samuel (The Senior Prophet of Israel) went to Saul with a command from God himself. Samuel told Saul, make sure you listen carefully to these instructions. 1Sam 15:3, “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
The command was very specific. Kill every living thing, human or animal, that Amalek possessed. Not one living creature was to be left alive.
What was Saul’s response? Did he say, “No way! I’m not going to do that!”? That would be blatant disobedience, but that is not what was said. Disobedience is not always in your face rebellion. He also didn’t agree but then when he got there changed his mind. He also did not forget what was commanded of him. Most of these things would easily be labeled as disobedience, and some would be reasoned away due to good intentions.
But what did Saul do? He gathered his armies and attacked. He killed every man woman and child, except the king of Amalek. This could have been because of the culture of the day. If you could defeat a nation and bring back the leader as a slave, it was a mark of honor, or like a trophy.
Saul also slaughtered thousands of animals, but he spared the best of the sheep, oxen, fatlings, lambs, and all that was good and gave them to be sacrifices to God to do the “scriptural” thing. While they were sacrificing these animals to God, they thought they were giving God a gift. They thought they were putting God first. But is that how God saw it??
Let’s see what God said. 1Sam 15:11, “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.”
Saul did 99.9% of what was commanded of him. Most would say he was in obedience. Many would praise his thoughtfulness to the gift he gave to God through sacrifice, but all God saw was disobedience. God in later verses even called it rebellion. Through this we learn that partial obedience isn’t obedience at all. It is rebellion.
How many times have you heard, “I have done all this good and you are pointing out the little thing I did wrong??” Saul could have said that himself. This is human reasoning, not divine ways.
Samuel went to see Saul. When Saul saw Samuel, he ran to him and greeted him, and enthusiastically declared that he had done all that God had told him to do. Saul was most likely sincere in his proclamation.
James 1:22 says, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” When a person disobeys a command of God, a veil covers their heart, and the veil distorts or obstructs a clear view of God’s ways. It leaves the person thinking they are right with God when in truth they are in complete rebellion.
That was not the first time Saul had been in disobedience. Samuel had already scolded him previously for disobedience in 1 Sam 13:1-13. Saul had a pattern of disobedience. The more you follow in disobedience the more difficult it becomes to see truth.
Listen to what John writes about this, “Do you remember the first time you sinned after salvation? I do. I felt as if a knife had passed through my heart. As children of God, we are all acquainted with this feeling. It is the conviction of the Holy Spirit and our hearts smiting us. But what happens when we justify what we did, thereby turning our backs on true repentance? Two things. First, we are positioned to repeat the same act of disobedience. Second, the veil of deception covers our hearts, thereby lessening the sense of conviction and replacing it with reasoning.
At the next infraction, we don’t feel a knife so keenly because a veil shrouds it; rather, there is only a pinch of discomfort. Again we justify ourselves, and another veil blankets our hearts, muffling further the call of truth. The next time we transgress we sense a mere tingle of conviction. If again we justify, another death shroud veils our hearts. If we sin again, the veil is so thick, there is no conviction at all – only justification. Deception had hidden the truth from us, and the conscience is seared.
At this point a person may fall away from any semblance of godliness, or more frequently he may continue with a form of godliness, but live religiously under the curse of the knowledge of good and evil.” Isn’t this what happened to Adam and Eve in the garden?
The sense of right and wrong coming from a source other then God Himself, or the written word of God. (One in the same)
How often to we deceive ourselves into thinking we know what’s good for us, better then God does?
“If I change this here, I can still do what God says, only in a different way, because I think it will work out better if I do it this way. And, I’m still doing what God told me to do. Right?”
When God tries to reach us in our disobedience he will go through a process. First, He will try through conviction, but if the veil of deception is too thick for the person to see the conviction, then he will send a prophetic messenger. Just as God sent Samuel to Saul.
The true ministry of a prophet opens eyes to see the ways of God. God can send anyone on a prophetic mission. It doesn’t have to be an actual prophet. The message can come through a pastor, parent, boss, child, or friend.
I personally believe it can even come through an unsaved person. Now I know you are probably thinking I’m way off on this one, but let me give you an example. My mom was at work years back, and she was smoking. (Now please understand, I am not pointing fingers here, just showing one area of revelation for my mom). Her boss said to her, “You do this, that, and the other to try and please God and to make sure you are in right standing with God over big issues, but obviously your God isn’t big enough to help you quit smoking.” She told him that it had nothing to do with Gods ability to help her, that it was her choosing to hand it over to him, which at that point she had not. She realized at that point that not only was she blowing her witness, but she also had allowed the cigarettes to control her. She immediately changed it.
James 5:19-20, “ My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.”
Note how it reads “many sins”. The wandering was a result of repeated disobedience.
Once the prophetic messenger is sent, if we still don’t listen, God attempts to reach us through judgment. 1 Cor. 11:31, “For if we judge ourselves, we would not be judged.”
The root word judge appears twice in this scripture. However, each is a different Greek word. The first, “For if we would judge ourselves,” is the Greek word “diakrino” which means “to separate extensively.” (This occurs when we examine ourselves thoroughly to remove the vile from the precious.) We accomplish this through confession and repentance of our disobedience. The second occurrence, “we would not be judged,” is the Greek word “krino”, which means, “to punish or condemn.” Paul continued, “But when we are judged [krino, punished], we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (v.32). God longs to separate us from our disobedience so we will not be punished with the world (Matt 7:20-23; Luke 12:45-48).
How does God judge or punish when we refuse or ignore prophetic warning? The answer comes in the form of hardship, sickness, or some other type of affliction.
Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word… I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. (Ps 119:67, 75)
Lets look at what Paul said through a different translation. “That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. But if we examine ourselves, we will not be examined by God and judged in this way.” 1 Cor 11:30-31
I’m going to end tonight with a story that John shared that I think is impacting.
I have witnessed many cases of people who received judgment by not responding to the first two methods of God’s corrective process. One vivid illustration occurred in the early 1990s when I was preaching at a youth camp in Texas. The beginning of the week was very confrontational because many young people had lost their tenderness toward the Lord through sin. Several young men and women came forward at each service and repented of their sins, most of which were sexually related, and were gloriously cleansed by the blood of Jesus. I was excitedly expecting a blowout final night in God because of the repentance that had been sown all week.
When I walked into that final service, I realized it would not start out the way I had anticipated. Again, I sensed the need to bring correction and call for repentance. When the time came for me to speak, I took the microphone and began to pray. The Holy Spirit showed me: “there is still a person in this auditorium who is in rebellion. Give this person another opportunity to come forward.” (I had already preached on rebellion in a previous service.) I gave the call, a few young people came forward, but I knew in my heart none was the one the Holy Spirit was targeting. These were sensitive young men and women probably wanting to deal with other issues.
The Holy Spirit spoke again to my heart: “Tell this person if he or she does not respond tonight, judgment will come on his or her life.” I spoke exactly what He spoke to my heart, and more young men and women came forward, but again I felt the person the Spirit of God was targeting was missing.
The Holy Spirit spoke again to my heart: “Tell this person what the judgment will be if he or she fails to respond.” He impressed it within me, then I heard His voice again: “Tell the person he or she will be in a head-on car collision in three weeks if he or she does not respond tonight.
With fear and trembling I firmly repeated the words He’d spoken to my heart. More young men and women came forward, yet again, I knew none of them was the one the Lord was targeting. The Lord released me to minister and pray with those who had come forward. I did, and after that, we had the powerful service I anticipated. Many young people received impartations from the Lord; others received the call to ministry. Some were healed and received direction for their lives. It was a night none of us would soon – and possibly ever – forget.
A few months passed, and the youth pastor and I talked by phone. He was giving me follow-up reports from the youth camp. He shared, “John, there is a young high school girl in our youth group who had given us more problems then anyone else. She was always disobeying us and causing trouble. I knew in my heart she was the one the Holy Spirit was speaking to that last night. I was so disappointed when she didn’t respond.” ( I had no idea who the girl was.)
He continued, “Three weeks after camp she was in a head-on car collision accident, just as you warned. The car was totaled.”
I was trembling; I wanted to know what happened to her. I knew I had spoken by the Spirit of God, but I hoped this person would hear His call before tragedy befell her.
He continued, “God spared her life! She was in serious condition, but has since recovered. She is now one of the most on-fire girls in our church. She’s a totally different person. Her life has been completely transformed!” I was relieved and excited for her.”
David said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.”
Now, know this though, It is not God who brings these things on us. Rather, He lifts His hand of protection and allows the enemy to bring on us what obedience would have protected us from.
Ps. 66:12, “You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.”
This woman had a “happy ending.” Even though God would have preferred she repented long before the point she was brought to. But when all else failed, it worked. Others have not had as good an outcome. Saul was one of them.
When we pick back up next week with the last part of this section we will start off with obedience vs. sacrifice. As well as, coving the questions for this lesson.
Gleaned from UNDER COVER by: John Bevere http://johnbevere.com/