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CHAPTER 10 REBELLION AND WORSE I Samuel 15:3 “Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” I Samuel 15:8-11 “”He captured 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, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. 10) Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, 11) I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all night.””   I Samuel 15:17-19 Samuel said, “"Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the LORD anointed you king over Israel, 18) and the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.' 19) Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the LORD?”” I Samuel 15:22-23 Samuel said "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices.  As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23) For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king." I Samuel 15:28 “…so Samuel said to him, The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.’” Earlier in 1 Samuel 13:13-14 Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.  But now your kingdom shall not endure.  The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you." In this section of Scripture Saul was told, because of his disobedience, that his kingdom would not endure.   Had he been obedient, his kingdom would have endured through him and his son and his son's sons.  In I Samuel 15:28, Saul was specifically told he was no longer the leader of Israel.  I Samuel 15:23 says, "For rebellion is as the sin of divination (witchcraft), and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”  Saul lost his rulership because of rebellion - rebellion against God's direct command to utterly destroy all the Amalekites and all of their possessions.  God did not give Saul an A minus because he accomplished 92% of what he was told to do.  God flunked him and gave him an F.  Saul utterly failed because his partial obedience was an act of total rebellion.   Rebels flunk completely in God's school.  Rebellion is one of the most serious of crimes against the Cross of Jesus Christ, and is dealt with severely by the Lord. The punishment of all unrepentant rebels is hell itself.   Rebellion is considered by God to be as serious a sin as divination (witchcraft in the KJV version) . When we look at Saul, at first glance, we don’t see a rebel.  We can sympathize with him in regard to the Amalekite situation.  He did an excellent job.  He did not take the beautiful women, he did not take the strong young men, and he did not even let the sympathetic look of an innocent child deter his sword from the obedient act of slaughter.  He did what he truly felt was best: he spared Agag their king and the best of everything else.   He acted from the most practical of motives.  But God called it rebellion.  Why would God accuse this simple man, who acted with good intentions, of the most serious of sins?  It is because Saul acted from SELF-WILL.   Saul did what HE thought was best, NOT what he was told to do by God.  Saul was practical, but he was not spiritual.  Saul was carnal, self-willed, and rebellious.  His heart was not given over to God.  He obeyed when he felt that obedience was sensible.  He disobeyed whenever the situation indicated that obedience was unreasonable.  Saul was a rebel.  To be sure, he was a RELIGIOUS rebel, but he was still a rebel.  His rebellion ultimately cost him his leadership and the direction of God, and what's more important, God took the anointing of His Holy Spirit from Saul. Today, if any one single word could best describe the state of the world, that word would be Rebellion.  “I Did It My Way” is a song popularized by two of the world’s finest rebels: Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.  The Saul Church too, because it is a Church that mixes the "best" of the world with what it desires of the Spirit, is also a Church in rebellion.  Rebellion has permeated the Church as leaven permeates the dough.  Rebellion has infected the Church in the same way it has infected the world.  We are now a lump that is greatly polluted with the leaven of rebellion. Rebellion is the opposite of submission.  In Scripture we are told to submit to the authorities who are over us.   Saul would not submit to Samuel because he felt it was not necessary.  Similarly in the Saul Church of today, we have Christians who function regularly in the selfish, deadly sin of rebellion.  Many in the Church change jobs, husbands, wives or churches whenever they are told to do something they don't want to do; especially when they believe they have been told in an inappropriate manner.  They claim their "rights" and refuse to submit to directive or rebuke.  In a job situation most people, including Christians, quit because they decide they have been hurt, abused, or not appreciated.  The result is that most Christians quit because they would not submit to the dealings of God. They are rebelling against the cross that Jesus told them they are to take up daily.  They are rebelling against the notion of denying themselves, going the extra mile, loving their enemies, and turning the other cheek.  They are not at all sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is doing; they are only sensitive.  They get hurt easily, they complain, and they rebel against any authority, whether it is from the Church or the world, that tells them to submit to the situation, directive, or rebuke.  A common response to a situation that the Holy Spirit has set up for their maturation as a Christian is "I don't need to take that kind of stuff anymore...I quit!"  When we resist what the Holy Spirit has prepared for us, we are resisting the Holy Spirit and rebelling against God.  One of the reasons he is able to resist and rebel so easily is because of current demonic teaching which instructs the so-called Christians to remove themselves from situations where their self-esteem, self-confidence, self-image, and self-respect are being damaged.  They are actually being counseled in how to be good rebels.  They are counseled concerning their rights and how to assert those rights, just as people in the world are counseled to assert their rights.  Gone is the counsel of the Sermon on the Mount which instructs God's people to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, bless them that curse you, pray for those who despitefully use you, and love your enemies.  Gone is the counsel in I Corinthians 13 which tells us to "not take into account the wrong being suffered, to bear all things, and to endure all things.” (I Cor. 13: 15,17).  The greatest tragedy is in the realm of marriage.  All too quickly a dissatisfied wife or husband is willing to abandon the marriage relationship because they feel that they are experiencing abuse, either physical or psychological.  Families are destroyed and children are condemned to a single parent or 2 or 3 “fathers”.   Because of this their hearts become divided and confused.  All this occurs because one parent would not obey or embrace chapter 13 of I Corinthians.   Notice what happened when Jeremiah ministered to Israel during a time of great rebelliousness.  He warned her for years about the judgment that God would bring upon her because of her unrepentance.  Another prophet, Hananiah, ministered in this time and spoke this message to the people in Jeremiah 28:2-4, ""Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.  Within two years I am going to bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place and carried to Babylon.  I am also going to bring back to this place Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon", declares the Lord, "for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon."" Jeremiah's response, from Jeremiah 28:5-9, was at first appropriately sarcastic and then extremely serious: ""Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord, and the prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen!  May the Lord do so; may the Lord confirm your words which you have prophesied to bring back the vessels of the Lord's house and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place.  Yet, hear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people.  The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms of war and of calamity and of pestilence.  The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent."" Hananiah's response noted in Jeremiah 28:10-11 was, """Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.  And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, ""Thus says the Lord, "Even so will I break within two full years, the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from the neck of all the nations."" Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.""" But Jeremiah had the final word, as recorded in Jeremiah 28:12-17, """And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, """Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, ""Thus says the Lord, "You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made instead of them yokes of iron."  For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; and they shall serve him.  And I have also given him the beasts of the field.""" Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, ""Listen now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and YOU HAVE MADE THIS PEOPLE TRUST IN A LIE.  Therefore, thus says the Lord, "Behold I am about to remove you from the face of the earth.  This year you are going to die because you have COUNSELED REBELLION against the Lord."""  Notice particularly Jeremiah 28:16, "...This year you are going to die because you have COUNSELED REBELLION AGAINST THE LORD."  Hananiah was punished severely for counseling rebellion, as Saul was punished severely for engaging in rebellion, and the Church of Saul in our generation will also be punished severely because we have both counseled and engaged in rebellion.  Notice that Scripture says that Hananiah COUNSELED REBELLION.  If we read Jeremiah 28 carefully, we do not see Hananiah directly telling anyone to resist or hate or disobey God.  In fact, Hananiah seems to be a very nice, positive prophet.  He even uses visual aids to emphasize what he probably very sincerely believes the Lord is saying to His people about the freedom from bondage that the Jews were supposedly  about to experience.  He has high hopes and a good word.  Yet the Lord, through Jeremiah and through Scripture, brands him a teacher or counselor of rebellion.  Why does the Lord so accuse this positive, hopeful, probably sincere man of God?  He accuses him because he was not speaking by the Holy Spirit but by his own human compassion, and what's worse, he was ministering human compassion in the place of the word of judgment that God had for His people.  The fact that this word was a word of judgment should never have been the issue with Hananiah, but it probably was.  He was a misguided patriot.  He was loyal in an unholy way.  What's worse, he was an optimist.  God has no room for prophets who are Optimists or Pessimists.  He only desires that prophets be Reveal-ists.  He only desires that the prophet reveal His Word for His people at precisely the proper time.  God wants His prophets to be ready in season or out of season.  He demands His prophets to speak the truth, the WHOLE truth, and nothing but the truth.  The prophet can have no sides to take; he may only speak God's words.  If the movement is lukewarm or polluted and God directs him to speak His word of judgment, he MUST do so.   Hananiah and his kind, both then and now take sides.  They are FOR THE MOVEMENT; they never see the need for God’s people to repent.  They are AGAINST God judging His people.  They are AGAINST divisive prophets like Jeremiah who are so negative.  They are AGAINST the confusion and the unsettling feelings that hard words from these negative men bring to God's people.  They are AGAINST the prophets who prophesy defeat for God's people - even if great blessing and victory is on the other side of that defeat.  The problem is that God labeled Hananiah, and all who repeat his error, counselors of REBELLION. Who are the counselors of rebellion in the Saul Church of today?  They are the men and women who bring a word of comfort to those who need to hear a word of correction, warning, or judgment.  They are the men and women who edit the Bible by removing or neutralizing words of correction, warning and judgment with their carnal preaching and teaching.  These men and women make it appear that God no longer demands holiness, hates sin or requires discipleship and obedience.  They are quite certain that the current state of affairs in the Church would never call for God’s judgment.  They are completely unaware of the lukewarmness and the self satisfaction that exists among most churches in America.  They are the preachers who cause the visible Church to live its daydreams of "Everything is going to be ok.”  They are the unity mongers who would sacrifice holiness and sound doctrine for "togetherness.” These men and women are the prophets and prophetesses you find in many Charismatic churches who, on a regular basis, have a word of comfort for the people at the assembly.  Their so-called words from God virtually always tell of God's love, the fact that He is pleased with the people, and the fact that He is healing their relationships and blessing materially.  The people are virtually never warned of judgment or corrected regarding sin. The credo they are taught is let’s not be negative.  They seem to have a frivolous attitude toward Jesus Christ.  They excuse and even counsel divorce on the basis of sympathy for an apparently abused spouse. They do not counsel on the basis of the Word of God.  They are the modern evangelists who smugly mock old fashioned preachers who cause their people to be uncomfortable by their convicting messages.  They say to the people that it is not necessary to have those words spoken to them directly from the pulpit because it is not our job to be the Holy Spirit; it is much better to let the Spirit of God deal with each individual in a private manner, forgetting the admonition in Ezekiel 3:17-18, "Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me.  When I say to the wicked, "You shall surely die"; and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.""  They have also forgotten that it is the shepherd's job to keep the sheep out of danger. Most shepherds do not believe that the sheep are in any real danger, and in today’s Church if a prophet or prophetess would speak about the dangerous plight of many of God’s people, the pastor might well reject that word because it is a negative word that does not comfort his people.  Many leaders in the Church today are practitioners and purveyors of the philosophy that "you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar" (forgetting that one of Satan's names is "Lord of the Flies").   If rebels like Saul are under a terrible curse, counselors of rebellion are under an even greater one.  Even as the shepherds counsel rebellion, so the sheep have learned, and learned well, current Psycho-Christian doctrines.   Many listen religiously to the Psycho-Babel on Christian radio, read a few Psycho-books, and feel obligated to "counsel" all their friends and little brothers and sisters on how to enhance their self-esteem, self-worth, self- confidence, and self-love.  For every Christian lay person counseling that the Bible says, "You must take up your cross, deny yourself and follow Jesus", you have a hundred Psycho-Christians mouthing the old human- istic, a-Scriptural platitude, "You just need to love yourself more.  After all, everybody knows “you need to love yourself before you can love anyone else”, or "you don't need to take that kind of talk from him (or her).”  Look what is happening to your self-image and self-respect.  God CERTAINLY would not want you to have to put up with THAT sort of abuse anymore.  For THE SAKE OF YOUR SELF-RESPECT, leave her (or him)!” The Saul Church was born in the midst of rebellion.  God's people, both thousands of years ago when Samuel judged them for the Lord, and decades ago when the Church grew dissatisfied with its station in the world, rejected God and rebelled against His ways.  Their shallow materialism was rebellion against a deep revelation of Himself that He strove to work in their hearts.  Their partial obedience to His Word by rejecting much of the world but keeping the best was rebellion against His Holiness and His Holy Spirit.  Their excuses and rationalizations for their sin merely compounded their rebellion and their judgment.  The kingdom of Israel under Saul was finally destroyed right after Saul’s ultimate rebellion, seeking counsel from a witch.  So the Saul Church of today is on the brink of judgment because of its rebellion and its acceptance of false teachers and false prophets and its desperate seeking of counsel from the world and even worse.  Rebellion is a serious deadly sin and has serious deadly consequences.  By obeying only part of the Word of God, Saul was tried and convicted and punished in a final way by God for committing the sin of rebellion. The Saul Church in the latter part of the twentieth century was also under the judging hand of God for its rebellion.  We saw the exposure of our leadership with many headlines and stories about their greed, lust and what is worse, their excuses and partial repentances in the newspapers, television, and weekly magazines.   The judgment that God brought at that time was relatively moderate.  We experienced some shame, a loss of standing in the world’s eyes, a few monitory set backs and most serious of all, because we did not repent fully, the Church experienced the judgment of an even deeper blindness.  Unfortunately we have learned virtually nothing since that time of God’s dealing with His people because we would not repent.  Because of this our hearts have been further hardened.   In the last decade a major Charismatic denomination, because of the folly of their president and the love of money, lost 15 million dollars through suspect investments that turned out to be scams.  Several years previous, the former president of the denomination was asked to resign because of financial improprieties.  They felt the solution was to get a President of impeccable qualifications.  They chose the most popular and most highly thought of leader in that denomination.  They did not understand that the problem was not with the head of that denomination but the problem was with the foundation of that denomination.  The foundation is made up of good and bad elements.  There are elements of the Word of God in that foundation but these elements are liberally mixed with teachings of rebellion to God’s Word.  This organization has been on the cutting edge of the NEW GOSPEL of unity regardless of truth and has been a moderate proponent of the gospel of self- esteem.  This denomination has ignored or rationalized away Scriptures regarding God’s view of divorce.  In the name of balance they have chosen Scriptures that would not offend the people and ignored Scriptures that they felt would “hamper unbelievers from coming to Christ.”  They have taught rebellion to millions in this country and even spread this rebellion through missionaries all across the world.   That foundation is built with a Saul mentality and must be changed.  This denomination and others like it must repent of the grievous sin of teaching rebellion if it is to be spared from the devastation of the great shaking that will surely come to God’s people.  Each church or denomination or movement is like a building.  Some are very tall, some are short, but regardless of the height or size, a proper foundation must be under them all if they expect to survive the great shaking.   Leaders, no matter how qualified they are, are not the issue.  The foundation on which the work is established is the issue.  All the Saul churches are built on the foundation of granting the people their desire to have leaders so they can be like the world.  They have not wanted to throw the Scriptures out, but they have been “forced” by the people to not teach on certain Scriptures for fear that they would leave and they have mixed the Scriptures with the so-called wisdom of the world.  Because of this unholy mixture, just as during the time of the Saul kingdom, they are found to be in deep rebellion against the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  Deep repentance regarding Saul Church attitudes that goes to the very foundation of each denomination, church and leader must occur for God to prepare them to survive the judgment and be a part of the next great move of God.   The Revival/Reformation that will surely come will include leaders and members who have a desire to wholly please God and have a heart after Him and His ways and are willing to do so even if it costs them their ministries or the respect of their denominations or peers.