First Samuel and chapter 15. We are continuing in our series of messages on the anatomy or the nature of false repentance. And if I could quickly give us what's happening by way of background, those of you who have been regular in coming will not need that background, but it's meant especially for our friends who might be new. Basically what we were doing is we were going through the book of Ephesians and then decided to take a bit of a break so that we could look at this chapter only, 1 Samuel and chapter 15. And in looking at it, we are seeing from the life of Saul an individual who really is supposed to belong to God and his people. But the evidence is overwhelming that although outwardly he does, inwardly he does not. and you can see it from his self-centered life that manifests itself again and again as you read his biography in 1 Samuel. As we come to chapter 15, he is given an assignment to go and exterminate the Amalekites, But when he goes there again, the agenda changes. It is all about himself. And so he spares the best of the animals. He also spares the king of the Amalekites. Word gets to Samuel. Samuel is affected by what God tells him, and he goes to look for Saul. Already from Samuel's reaction, we learned something about the nature of the godly when they are face to face with sin. We saw the brokenness that was there in his own life. But we've seen that as he arrives and seeks to confront Saul, Saul, at first not knowing what Samuel knows, arrives with a kind of pompous approach and says, yeah, I've actually done what God wanted me to do. And so begins this conversation where we continue to see Samuel slowly hemming in Saul. We noticed initially that he brought out the evidence and said, look, in the light of this, what's this you are saying? And the first thing that Saul did was to shift the blame onto the other individuals. his army, his soldiers, that this is what they have done. He even claims that it is being done really for the glory of God because these animals are meant to finally be sacrificed to the Lord. Samuel does not buy that at all. So he closes in on him basically arguing, as we see in those famous words, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fight of rams. It's probably the most well-known verse in the whole of 1 Samuel. That's what he confronts him with. And finally, Saul admits. He says, yes, I have sinned. And that's what we looked at last time. But what we still saw as a failure, what was as it were still stinking, and suggesting that there is no real repentance here was the vague confession. The vague confession doesn't quite say what his sin was. All he does, again, is really giving some form of false repentance before Samuel. And Samuel makes it abundantly clear that God has now rejected him altogether. Well, today we see the final sign of false repentance in this man, and it is his face-saving pride. And I think that's the title there. Face-saving pride betrays false repentance. And I want us to read from verse 26 down to verse 31. verse 26 down to verse 31. The conversation continues. The conversation continues. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore. And Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also, the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. Then he said, I have seen that soul speaking again, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul bowed before the Lord. If you look a little closer at this passage, yes, Samuel, rather Saul, again says, I have sinned. But you can't miss the fact that soon after that, he is saying, yet honor me. Again, the attention is on himself. The approach that we'll use is the one that we've used all along, and that is we will begin with what Samo said, analyze that, and then we will see what Saul says in response. And as we do so, hopefully we are helped to see more and more the lack of repentance on Saul's part. So, to begin with then, as we look at the words of Samuel, the point is that in principle, we should not help unrepentant sinners to pretend that they are walking with God. In principle, we shouldn't do that. That was what Samuel taught Saul after he asked to be accompanied to worship God. So let's begin with verse 25. Now, therefore, please pardon my sin, and here is the next phrase, and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. So there's this request that we get back to Gilgal, and when we get there, that you may stand by me as I worship the Lord, I bow before Him. And someone said to Saul, I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. Now, you might be wondering there, why did Saul need Samuel for him to bow before God? Why? Well, the answer is quite simple, and it is the fact that only a priest could offer sacrifices. And that was supposed to be part of what Saul, as king, was to participate in. And therefore, for him to show up in Gilgal and begin this event And then there is no priest to offer the sacrifice was going to really be quite revealing. Something is wrong here. Or if he was to bring a more junior priest to come and do the sacrifice. That would be the question. But this is the king. Where is Samuel who is supposed to be engaging in this activity, who is the prophet and priest of God? So it was on that basis that he is now really pleading with Samuel, saying, please come along with me so that we engage in this activity together. But as we've already seen, Samuel refuses. But he also gives the reason why he is refusing. And it is the fact that Saul was being disobedient to God. So this is the pretending at its highest level. First of all, you are hardening your heart against God. You are refusing the word of God. And then I should take you to God to go and bow before him and offer this sacrifice. It doesn't make sense. So he says, for you have rejected the word of the Lord. And the Lord, in response, has rejected you. And so Samuel is saying, I need to act in a way that represents the act of God. You've rejected God. God is no longer in fellowship with you. God has rejected you, I'm a prophet of God, surely I should be representing the act of God. I should show you that God has rejected you. And I want to repeat, that's the way that the godly tend to reason. They refuse to misrepresent God as they relate with sinners. They want to make sure that those who hate God, who reject God's word, who stubbornly continue in the ways of sin, that they are shown exactly how God is relating to this. Well, Saul does not accept that. He becomes desperate and in the process he clings onto Samuel's clothing as Samuel was leaving and he tore it. Verse 27, As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore. That's how strongly Saul felt that Samuel should go with him. That he was willing to, as it were, drag him back against his own will. What does Samuel do? He uses the opportunity to drive the spirit's sword further into soul's conscience. Look at the way he puts it here. He says, verse 28, And Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. Now that's really taking occasion of something that, strictly speaking, has no real spiritual significance. Okay, I mean every so often you do get something, your clothes torn. It doesn't mean God is taking away your kingdom from you. But Samuel in this particular case wanted to drive home this lesson. So that Saul can realize that even what is beginning to happen is having some spiritual significance. That exactly what has happened here is what God has done for you. And obviously, if Saul had any conscience, this would have spoken to him in volumes. Because this is now a played out parable. That's what it is. Because even as it's going, that noise of cloth tearing would be sending the signal into his own conscience that that's exactly what has happened here. The judgment of God has befallen me. I am now paying for my sin. And then Samuel goes on to say to Saul, and mind you, God is not going to change his mind. This is not going to change. Verse 29, and also, the glory of Israel. That's simply referring to God, by the way. The glory of Israel. In other words, God will not lie. Neither will he regret. For he is not a man that he should have regret." And that's referring to the judgment that has been pronounced, the taking away of this kingdom from Saul. God is not the type of being who, as he makes pronouncement, afterwards thinks, now what did I do? No, no, no, come on, come on, come on. And then regrets that. Or perhaps realizes, you know, Saul is such an important figure in this nation that me losing him as king is going to be a real loss to me, a real loss. Again, that is not going to happen. God is not going to regret at all. So says Samuel to this man called Saul. And friends, again, we need to simply learn a lesson from all this. Because all he is saying there is that Saul, it is over. God is done with you. It's over. We must be mouthpieces on behalf of God, telling sinners their true state before the Lord. When any person is stubbornly continuing in sin, We must be able to say to them, the loss is yours. It's not God's. The loss is yours. Because as he puts it here, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. That's what he's done. At the end of the day, God is not a loser. How? Because His will will still be accomplished. God will still be worshipped. If there are souls to be won, God will raise other people to win those souls. It's you in the end who is the complete loser. And we need to say that to those who are stubbornly continuing in sin, that the kingdom of God still marches on. God will finally bring in his people. He will still wrap up history and all his elect will finally arrive in glory. In this particular case, we know that the next king is going to be anointed in the next chapter, chapter 16. Saul anoints David. And David was very close to Saul. That's why he's being called your neighbor. He was close enough. It is Saul who was the loser. Let's quickly move on to Saul himself. And here's the point. Where there is false repentance, you hear a mixture of right and wrong words being said. You hear a mixture of right and wrong words being said. That was the case with Saul. He confessed his sin, again vaguely, I have sinned, but notice he wanted to be honored. He wanted to be honored. Look at verse 30. Verse 30. Then he said, I have sinned. Yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. And return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God. It's the second time he is saying, I have sinned. And in many ways, If we didn't know the rest of the story, we would begin to think, well, perhaps he's really repentant. I mean, it's the second time he's saying, I'm sorry. Shouldn't have done what I did. I sinned against God. Now, granted, it took quite some time to get him here, as we saw from the entire chapter. It took quite a few steps on the part of someone to finally bring him to say it. But hey, it is possible for people to begin unrepentant and end up being repentant, as you are hemming them in with argument. It is possible. So in that sense, let's not say because. Initially he wasn't repentant, therefore he is not repentant. Let's not say that. We could give him the benefit of the doubt. But it's not just the vagueness, but now it is this desire, this unquenchable desire to be honoured when he has lost any right to being honoured. That's the problem. Yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Honor me. Come alongside so that I can be honored. That's where the problem now is. This is the kind of false repentance that is primarily concerned with saving face in the public. Saving face in public. And such individuals are willing to confess their sin if it's going to end in private. If it's going to end there, yes, I'm willing to say I have sinned. Not if somebody is now going to say, let's take it out there. They're the kind of people who say, sorry, and then they will even threaten to kill you if you spill the beans to anybody. And you say, but what kind of sorry is this? Initially, it was hard to get the person to face their sin and admit their sin. Now that they have been, as it were, caught red-handed, the evidence is overwhelming. The person says, OK, yeah, OK, yes, I did wrong. And then the next thing they are saying is now, you know, it can cost me my job, you know. If the bosses get to know what I've done, you know, it might cost this, it might cost that. So, you know, what can we do now? As someone once said to me, that now it's damage control. Damage control. Damage control. That's the main thought on your mind? Damage control? That's not repentance. That's not repentance. Because where there is genuine repentance, Perhaps we can just go to Matthew and chapter 5, the series that I have been taking on radio Christian voice. So those who are regular listeners, you will know what this is about. Just the first three Beatitudes, the first three Beatitudes. They're a description of a person who is regenerate. The Spirit of God has worked in your heart and in your life. He has awakened you to the real condition of your soul. He's shown you your own sin. And Jesus is speaking in poetic language to show what begins to happen in such a person. And the first is this, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And the basic point there is that a person recognizes, painfully recognizes their spiritual poverty. that in fact they owe God a lot, that they are spiritually bankrupt. That's the first effect of the work of regeneration. The second is seen in verse four, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. In other words, the effect of realizing this is broken heartedness. Broken heartedness. Nobody goes to God seeking forgiveness while he's whistling and clicking his fingers. Nobody does that. Individuals are shattered. They are broken. One of the most difficult aspects of my work as a pastor is exactly this. I must admit that every time, and happens so often, that people come under conviction and they start weeping, weeping. I get to the point where I say to God, God, how much longer can a person continue like this? Seeing people broken, crying. How much longer? And yet it's an inevitable part of Regeneration. Not necessarily that everybody cries actual tears, but definitely there is a broken hearted spirit. Inevitably. But here's number three. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. What is meekness? Meekness is when a person stops fighting for his rights. He stops fighting. He stops insisting on having his own way. To be meek is to be malleable. It's to be a wire that someone can easily turn into something that they want. And that's what happens when the Spirit of God has given birth to genuine repentance. It is the fact that you stop fighting with God. You stop fighting with providence. You stop. So if it so happens that your sin was private and it ended all there, you repented before the Lord and it was finished, well, that's it. You move on. But if, and this is usually the case, there is stubborn sin, the Lord finally says, enough is enough. He opens the wardrobe doors, the skeletons fall out. Where there is genuine repentance, a person finally says, Lord, have your own way. Have your own way. It's you who's exposed my sin. I will simply follow through to its logical conclusion. I lost my rights when I sinned. I lost. If it has pleased you to take me to the gallows, so to speak, to have my neck harmed, it's you. It's you. The person stops fighting with God, stops fighting with God's providence. Sadly, with Saul, that didn't happen. Where we are is chapter 15 of the book of Samuel, 1 Samuel. The book ends in chapter 31. So it's another 16 chapters before the book finishes. Let me tell you what Saul was doing between chapter 15 and chapter 31. He was fighting God's will. That's all. Half the whole book, half of it, is a man who is saying, I am not giving up my throne. I'm not. And therefore, the moment he realizes that David is the person that has been earmarked to take over from him, David becomes Saul's archenemy. He begins to hunt him down. He brings him into his home. He tries to spear him against the wall. He fails. David runs away. He's really upset that his own son, Jonathan, is now a close friend to David. He tries to kill his own son, Jonathan, because of that. The guy's just raving mad. He takes his entire army to go and hand down one person. One person. State machinery is brought in to hand down David. On two occasions, David being the kind of warrior that he was, he would have killed Saul on two occasions. He gives him evidence that Saul, I could have killed you. Here is a portion of your clothing that I cut off from you. Saul even says, oh, you are more righteous than me. I've sinned against you and so on. The next day he's at it again to try and destroy him. At one time, David is hidden by priests Saul goes with his army and slaughters all the priests in that town, slaughters all of them. Was he sorry? When he says, I've sinned, when this is now his life? And in the end, he even consults a witch. saying, what does my future look like? And the witch tells him, you're dying tomorrow. You know, witches are not motivational speakers. You're dying tomorrow. And sure enough, he dies the next day. He is a person who was not repentant. It was all about self-preservation. It was all about his own pride. Before we conclude, there is a rather strange response finally by Samuel that we will deal with again next week in verse 31. So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul bowed before the Lord. It's very strange because he had refused. He said, no, I'm not going to do that. Saul even tore his clothing in the process. But then At this point, he decides, let me do this. Why? How do you explain it? It's simple. And it's this. Although Samuel, rather Saul, was rejected by God, he was still king. And For the sake of his office, Samuel says, let me fulfill this role. In other words, I will honor you because you are king. He does his part. because he owes it to the office of the king. And therefore he goes with him and does his part. And I think that's important for the godly as well, isn't it? Often you can have maybe a parent who's become wayward, but he's still your father. And so you respect him because he's your father. You still play your role to him because he's your father. While at the same time, it's obvious that he's on his way to hell. That's what Samuel does here. But as we shall go on to see when we wrap up this series next week, it's the last time. he ever was in Saul's presence. In other words, I will honor you one more time. And that's it. That's it. But we should leave that for next week. I just thought it was important that we don't miss this change of mind on his part. So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord. Well, brethren, as we hurry on to close, because in a sense this is the last time we are looking at actual false repentance in the light of this man. What is it that led this man to such an extent? The answer is quite simple. It's pride. Pride. Pride puts us on the throne. It dethrones God. It's willing to worship God as long as it is based on my conditions. So the moment God's will and mine clash, it's God's will that must be thrashed, that must be thrown away. I should still have my own way. And that's often the sign of an unregenerate soul. when the I that is right in the middle of the word sin, S-I-N, when that I becomes the primary ruler, God must follow my terms. And that's essentially what we saw in Saul. Then he was sent to go into the battlefield. And instead of asking himself the question in the battlefield, what were the commands of God upon me? What is it? What is God's will? And then I carry it out, unflinchingly. Instead of doing that, he instead begins to say, you know what? It's a good idea. if I can spare this king so that he can see that he's now at my mercy. He can see. A dead guy can't see. So I'll spare him. And come to think of it, why destroy these good-looking animals? Why? I think I'll keep the good ones. Slaughter the lame ones, the blind ones, all those others that I defiled, slaughter them. But the good ones, bring them, and so on. After all, I can even sacrifice some to God. He should be happy enough, and so on. It's himself all the time, himself all the time. And even when someone shows up, again, it's me. He doesn't know what I've done, so hey, I'm going to claim I've done exactly what needed to be done so that he can say, hey, well done, soul, well done. It's again just pride, pride, and pride. And it's the same pride that stops him from admitting when he's now asked, but what about that noise that I am hearing? And those animals, you don't carry animals when you are fighting at the battlefront, do you? So what are those animals? Again, it's pride that stops him from coming clean, from saying, I have sinned. It's pride. And even when he is challenged about it, That sinful insistence that we saw earlier on, he's still insisting. It's pride that's pushing him and pushing him in the wrong direction. It's still me. I cannot afford to go wrong. I'm the one who is right. And when he is finally told to obey is better than to sacrifice, it's pride that leaves him giving some vague answer, vague answer. I have sinned. But you see, it's the people who did this. Well, then what is your sin? He fails to admit it. And you remember I mentioned quite a number of obvious things that need to be accepted as seen, but we often paint wrong words over them so that our ego remains intact. And now, When he's told that the kingdom has been taken away from you, it's been given to somebody else, his response still remains, honor me. Honor me. It's still pride. And that's the nature of sin, ultimately. The nature of sin is me, myself. That's the nature of sin. It is actually idolatry. I am worshiping myself. Let me put it this way to you, that the opposite is true when the Lord regenerates your soul. Because when he exposes you, true repentance resigns to his sovereign. That's what it does. It resigns to his sovereign. It's admitting what I've done, and that's it. You remember Saul's successor, David. David also sinned. And for a while, stubbornly was hiding his sin. Until he even got his arch soldier killed, Uriah. Even got the woman now Bathsheba to be his wife. He's cleaned everything now, let's go forward. But when Nathan came and told him, you've sinned. In fact, he simply said, you are the man. That's what he said. After bringing out that story, and David said, yes, the man must pay. He says, you are the man. David was broken. He was broken. Right there, there was nothing like it. Nothing. Damage control. What should we do? That was it. He admitted his sin. And when he was told that the baby that's going to be born from this will die, what he did was he threw himself at the mercy of God. That's all. He just threw himself before God. God have mercy. And when the child finally died, he went washed his face, ate some food. Everybody was surprised. We thought you'd kill yourself now. No. God is sovereign. The punishment has been undertaken. I must get back to work. He resigned himself to God's will. And we have two Psalms that were written by David in the Bible on that occasion. Because he freely confessed his sin, freely. He went to town, as it were, to admit what has happened. So as I close, let me plead with you. If you are somebody who has sinned, and you are under conviction, forget that reputation of yours. If God in sovereignty has decided to expose, forget it. Just say, Lord, you are sovereign. It's you I sinned against. I cannot fight against you. If you won't have mercy on me, I'm undone. I'm undone. I'm undone. and then go to the cross of Christ for cleansing. That's all. Make a beeline to the cross at the foot of Calvary. Plead that the blood of Jesus Christ might wash away your sin. There's mercy there. There's grace there. There is super abounding love there, as we were singing earlier on, the love of God. It's all there. And the very reason why he convicts you is because he wants that sin washed away. So go to Calvary and ask that you might be given a new start through the forgiveness of God. Amen.