Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 15. We're embarking on a study in the life of David, and we've come to 1 Samuel 15. We need to see the rejection of Saul that provides the vacancy for the throne that David would occupy. So we looked at half the chapter last week.

We'll take up the latter half tonight, and then deal with some of the matters concerning theology in this particular chapter. But I do want to read beginning in chapter 15 at verse 1. Samuel also said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore heed the voice of the words of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 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. So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Tulam, 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.

And Saul said to the Kenites, go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites, and Saul attacked the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He also took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

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 unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, 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. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night.

So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel saying, Saul went to Carmel, and indeed he set up a monument for himself, and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed are you of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. But Samuel said, What then is the bleeding of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. And Samuel said to Saul, Be quiet, and I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night. And he said to him, Speak on. So Samuel said, When you were little, in your own eyes, were you not the head of the tribes of Israel?

And did you not, or did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Now the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord?

And Saul said to Samuel, But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek. I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. So Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king. Then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord. But 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. And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. So Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.

And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor relent, for he is not a man that he should relent. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord. Then Samuel said, Bring Agag, king of the Amalekites, here to me.

So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past. But Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

And Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Amen.

Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for this, Your written Word, and we ask now that Your Holy Spirit, the Spirit who gave us this Word, would guide us in our understanding, help us to think clearly concerning the theology in the passage, and as well, with reference to Saul, his great sin, his crime against a holy God, was not obeying. Lord, we know we're not saved because of our obedience, because our obedience is not perfect, it's not exact, it's not entire. We are saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, but unto obedience.

So help us, Father, by the power and the presence of your Spirit to be faithful to you, to follow your word. Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. John says the commandments of God are not burdensome, they're not grievous. Lord God, I pray. that we with David would delight in the law of God in the inner man, that it would be our meditation day and night.

And again, by your Spirit, help us to comply with these things and help us to learn the lesson of Saul with reference to his disobedience, that sin which is likened unto witchcraft and idolatry. Again, Father, bless and guide us with your Spirit. Forgive us for all of our sin and transgression. And we ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Introduction: Saul's Decline

Well, with reference to Saul, 1 Samuel chapter 13 gives us the beginning of the end. There, God tells Saul that he will not ultimately have a succession of kings from his line. Then in chapter 14, Saul imposes a fast upon the people, most likely for religious reasons, which evidences his superstition. If we fast, then God will bless us.

And here in 1 Samuel chapter 15, we have the technical end of Saul. Now, he's certainly going to live beyond this chapter. He doesn't die until the end of 1 Samuel, but essentially this is it for Saul because of his disobedience against God in the manner concerning Agag and the Amalekites. Remember last week he received a command to destroy the Amalekites in chapter 15, verses 1 to 9.

He wasn't supposed to spare anybody, he wasn't to take the spoils for possession, but rather he was to obey God and utterly decimate and utterly obliterate Agag and the Amalekites. That being for the fact that they had ambushed Israel when they were on their way in the Exodus. And with reference to Saul, we notice that he rebels against him. In chapter 15, verses 10 to 23, we have his interaction with Samuel.

Saul, all the while, maintains that he had obeyed the mission, that he had complied with the instruction, that he had done precisely what was mandated for him. And of course, Samuel makes that statement there in about verse 12 or 14. What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? In other words, Saul, if you had done your job, I wouldn't be hearing that right now.

Because not only was he supposed to utterly destroy the human beings, he was supposed to utterly destroy the animals as well. And we see Saul blame shifting. We see him throwing the people under the bus. We see him trying to evade the clear implication that he had rebelled against the living and true God.

So that's what we covered up through, as I said last week, verse 23. Notice Samuel's sort of capstone remarks in verses 22 and 23. Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king. Now the chapter ends, of course, and we'll see this in a few moments, with Agag being hacked into pieces by Samuel and Gilgal. But Saul has been hacked into pieces as well, because he has been disobedient to God Almighty.

He has engaged in sin, like witchcraft and like idolatry. He will never be the same. He will only decline from here on out, and he will express his rage and animosity in his attempt to destroy David, as David is identified in chapter 16 as his successor. Not his son Jonathan, but rather David.

So he hunts David like a dog, and it ultimately culminates with Saul seeking the counsel of a witch in chapter 28, and then dying on the field of battle with reference to the Philistines. So Saul is a miserable character on the pages of Scripture relative to what it looks like not obeying the voice of God Almighty. So

The Repentance of Saul

let's pick up in verses 24 to 35 to look at the rejection of Saul by the Lord. In the first place, notice the repentance of Saul. I have repentance in quotation marks.

Saul's Admission of Guilt

He admits his guilt in verse 24. Finally, after all of these statements by Samuel, after all of the emphasis on his rebellion, he finally admits it. He says, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Even in this, he expresses something that is wrong in his heart.

If he obeyed the people, he was absolutely contrary to the will and word of God. He was to lead the people. He was to govern the people. He was to guide the people.

He wasn't to listen to the people. Instead of believing God, this is a sin on his part. Even his admission of sin is riddled with sin. As well, when we look at the narrator's comments in verses 8 and 9, we see that Saul was far more responsible than he lets on here.

Verse 8 says, He also took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, the ox and the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. They wanted this stuff. They wanted the possessions.

They didn't want to devote it to destruction. They didn't want to be rid of it. The only things they got rid of, according to the end of verse 9, but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Well, that's pretty convenient, isn't it?

We don't want that anyway, so let's go ahead and destroy it. But everything we want, including Agag, king of the Amalekites, we're going to go ahead and spare them, and we're going to go ahead and take that back to the land of Israel. So God is angry with him. Notice in verse 25 his request for pardon.

Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord. It's almost as if he's just seeing it as some small thing. Okay, I've sinned, I admit it, but it really wasn't my fault. I listened to the people.

It was their fault, ultimately. If it hadn't have been for those people that insisted we take Agag and we take these possessions, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. But I've admitted it. Everything's okay now.

Now go ahead and pardon me." Always be mindful of that, brethren. If all you're after is an immediate quick fix, that is not indicative of grace in the heart. Now God is gracious. God is merciful.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But there is this idea or this sentiment, let's just get this done, let's just get this over with, pardon my sin, give me the whammy, restore me to my office, and then we'll be back to normal and everything will be hunky-dory. That seems to be the attitude manifested by Saul here. It's a matter of convenience.

It is a matter of appearance. It's a matter of saving face. And as we move through the narrative, I think that is precisely what the narrator wants us to see. Saul's repentance, much like much of the news today, is fake.

What he is doing is wrong. What he is doing is not from the heart, embracing the reality that he has violated the command of a truly holy God, but rather he just wants to have things back to status quo. Now

Samuel's Reiteration of Rejection

notice Samuel's response to him in verses 26 to 31. He reiterates that he has been rejected. That's not going to change, Saul. Verse 23 is reality.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king. So Saul just wants to fix things so that he is not rejected from being king. Most likely he wants to see his son Jonathan ascend the throne after his death. But he reiterates in verse 26, 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.

Done. Full stop. Period. Things ain't gonna change for you, Saul.

You've already made your bed. Now you must lie in it, all of your fake repentance notwithstanding. And then Saul petitions him in verse 27. And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul sees the edge of his robe and it tore.

This is a sign of supplication. You see it with that woman who grabs the hem of Jesus' garment in Matthew chapter 9. It's a common sort of a custom. And then we have Samuel again respond to him in verse 28.

The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. That neighbor is King David. Now, King David wasn't a perfect man. In fact, when we get to 2 Samuel, specifically chapters 11 and 12, we will see he was a very imperfect man, a very flawed man, a very sinful man.

But always, David maintained that status as a man after God's own heart. David never engaged in idolatry. He never committed apostasy. He didn't defect.

He didn't leave off Yahweh. But rather, he showed that fidelity when he was sinful, and he was rebuked for that by the prophet Nathan. He genuinely repented. He expressed his sorrow against the living and true God, or toward the living and true God, and he repented genuinely.

So David was that neighbor that is better than Saul. And then Samuel goes on in verse 28 to indicate, or verse 29 to indicate, Also the strength of Israel will not lie nor relent, for he is not a man that he should relent. The strength of Israel there is God. And what Samuel says is that he's not going to change his mind on this.

He is not going to relent. Now, I said there's a bit of theology that we need to deal with, because the same verb is used in verse... Can't even see that without the glasses anymore. Verses 10 and verse 35.

It's the same verb, verse 10, verse 35, and here in verse 29. So on the one hand, you have God saying, I regret that I made Saul. On the other hand, you have Samuel say that he's not a man. He doesn't relent like men do.

So we need to have a manner in which we can synthesize this teaching and deal with it in a way that upholds who God is and upholds all of scriptural teaching concerning him. And we'll do that in a few moments. But let's just finish this particular narrative relative to what's going on here. And then the request by Saul.

And again, here we see the only desire is that he be seen honorable among men. Verse 30, then he said, I have sinned. Yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me that I may worship the Lord your God." There are instances where he says, the Lord God, and there are instances where he says, the Lord your God. But he never says, as far as I can tell, the Lord my God.

Saul was not a believer. Saul was not converted. Saul was not one who owned Christ. He wasn't able to say with Paul in Galatians 2.20, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The only persons entitled to say that are those who are washed in the precious blood. Those who have by grace believed the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Those who by grace have fled to him for salvation. They are the ones who can say, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Or with Thomas, they can say, my Lord and my God. Saul does not have that capability because Saul is a goat. Saul is a reprobate. Saul is an unbeliever.

And Saul never owns, as far as I can tell, he never owns a relationship with God Almighty. Now certainly people will say, but I thought the Spirit of the Lord came upon him to activate him and energize him as the King of Israel. The Spirit did that in the Old Testament as well. Just because the Spirit of God came upon a particular person didn't necessarily mean it was an ordo salutis. sort of thing in the New Testament where that person was saved.

So he had the Spirit and the Spirit left him and again that doesn't mean that he was saved and then unsaved. It means he was set up as the king over Israel and then he was basically defrocked from that particular position. So he wants to be honored in front of the elders and verse 31 says, so Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul worshiped the Lord. Samuel is a man.

Samuel initially said, I'm not going to go with you. Samuel changed his mind and now he does go with him because he's not the strength of Israel and he does change and he does relent and he does go with Saul at this particular time.

The End of Agag

And that brings us to the end of the chapter and the end of Agag. The end of Agag, notice in verses 32 to 35. Verse 32, then Samuel said, bring Agag, king of the Amalekites, here to me. So Agag came to him cautiously.

I'm sure he did. He had no idea what was going on in terms of the inner turmoil with reference to Saul and Samuel. So now he's bidden to come and appear before Samuel, so he comes cautiously. He tries to break the ice with a bit of a proverbial saying.

He says, surely the bitterness of death is past? Not so fast, Agag. You shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch. Samuel is going to obey God.

While Saul engages in sins akin to witchcraft, rebellion, and idolatry, Samuel is a godly man. Samuel is a believer. Saul says the Lord your God. Why?

Because Samuel was a man of faith. He believed the gospel. He understood salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Samuel himself, not a perfect man.

Samuel himself, a flawed man. Samuel's sons didn't turn out great in that he was somewhat like Eli before him. But nevertheless, Samuel was a faithful godly man. So when the Lord God Most High commands the destruction of Agag, Samuel is going to deal out this blow.

So notice what we have in verse 33. Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Now I think at times, not just the world, but believers, especially in a New Covenant setting, where they aren't very familiar with the Old Testament, sort of recoil a bit in horror at the bloodshed in the Old Testament.

Brethren, this was a wicked man. He was an ungodly man. We already saw that in verse 2. The Amalekites ambushed Israel on their exodus.

We see it here in verse 33 with Samuel's words. As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. This morning in our Sunday school or confession study, we discussed justice.

And it appears to me at times that the church, and I don't mean this church in particular, but the church in general, doesn't love justice, doesn't love righteousness, doesn't exalt in the Lord for His goodness when it comes to retribution poured out upon those who are lawless and disobedient and engage in all manner of wickedness. One brother cited Micah chapter 6. Micah chapter 6, verse 8. He has shown you, O man, and what is it but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

I think this is in the backdrop with reference to Jesus in Matthew 23, 23, when he's indicting the religious leaders of his day, and he says, you tithe the mint and the anise and the cumin, but you neglect the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. I think the church as a whole appreciates the mercy of God. And well, we should! We should celebrate that mercy.

We should revel in that mercy. We should jump up and do holy jigs in light of that mercy. Because God is in Christ, reconciling the likes of us unto himself. But there is justice, brethren.

God is a God of justice. In fact, the psalmist in Psalm 89 tells us the very foundation of God's throne is righteousness and justice. And when God visits with His judgment persons who deserve it, it is not wrong for the righteous to rejoice. Now, we don't dance on their graves, and we don't engage in that sort of a display of revelry, but at the same time, there is this joy that God Most High has undertaken for His elect.

Turn over for just a moment to Judges chapter 4. I just want to illustrate this point with a couple of texts. Judges chapter 4.

Righteous Joy at Divine Justice

Just so we don't look at Samuel and say, oh boy, Samuel, I cannot believe you hacked Agag into pieces. This was the command of God. And Samuel was obedient to the command of God. And the righteous rejoice in the meeting out of justice for those who are deserving.

Notice in Judges 4, there's that instance. We've got the Jabin, the king of the Canaanites, and then his henchman, the commander of his army, is a man by the name of Sisera. And I just want to drop down to verse 17, where Sisera meets his end. It says, however, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael.

Jael's that sturdy woman that is quite capable with a tent peg. In case you didn't know her, I just want to make sure we're all singing off the same page here. However, Sisera, I reckon she had to be sturdy to do what she did, would require a bit of upper body strength and a bit of ability to navigate and all that sort of thing. So she definitely had a skill set that I would doubt many people possess.

Verse 17, however, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. For there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Gennite. And Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, turn aside my lord, turn aside to me, do not fear. And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket.

Then he said to her, please give me a little water to drink for I am thirsty. So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, stand at the door of the tent. And if any man comes and inquires of you and says, is there any man here?

You shall say no. Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand. and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple. And it went down into the ground, for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

And then as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, Come, I will show you the man whom you see. And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera dead with the peg in his temple. Now, there are some sloppy commentators with reference to this particular passage. One in particular, I won't even mention his name because we'd all gasp and go, can't believe he actually says that, says that what a jail does here is murder.

This is not murder. This is legit war. In fact, look at the next section, verse 21. So, on that day, God subdued Jabin, king of Canaan, in the presence of the children of Israel.

Why? Because the commander of his army got a tent peg driven through his head, vis-à-vis jail. This was not murder on the part of Jael. This was an act of retribution against a godless man who led the army of an additionally godless man.

Verse 24, And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. Now notice chapter 5. Chapter 5 is the song of Deborah. Deborah was a prophetess who assisted Barak.

Barak is the judge. Deborah was a prophetess who assisted him. She wasn't a judge. She was technically the prophetess that assisted the judge, which was Barak.

Now, notice she engages in this song to praise God for the great deliverance that God wrought relative to this Canaanite band that had tried to impose their might upon Israel. And it's a celebration of the goodness and the glory of God. But let's pick up at verse 24. Notice what she says.

Most blessed among women is Jeho. Doesn't sound like a murderer, doesn't sound like a transgressor of the law, doesn't sound like somebody who should be upbraided or who should be visited with judgment from on high. Do you know where this language is also utilized? With reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Most blessed is Mary, the mother of Jesus, alongside of most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Blessed is she among women in tents. He asked for water. She gave milk.

She brought out cream in a lordly bowl. She stretched her hand to the tent peg, her right hand to the workman's hammer. She pounded Sisera. She pierced his head.

She split and struck through his temple. At her feet he sank. He fell. He lay still.

At her feet he sank. He fell. Where he sank, there he fell dead. She's celebrating the reality that this man had been dispatched.

He is no longer a threat to the children of Israel. Now notice what she goes on to say, just so we don't go, oh, poor Sisera. He was just a innocent Canaanite, minding his own business, trying to navigate the armies of the Canaanites in their ongoing battles with the Israelites. Brethren, he was a wicked man.

And that is precisely what the next section indicates. The mother of Sisera looked through the window. All the other troops are returning home. His mommy's standing there looking out the window, wondering where her baby boy is.

And look at what happens. The mother of Cicero looked through the window and cried out through the lattice. Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarries the clatter of his chariots?

Notice the response from her friends. Her wisest ladies answered her. Yes, she answered herself. Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?

To every man a girl or two? I don't want to unpack that because there's children here, but it means precisely what it means. This is what's happening with reference to Sisera. They were dividing up the plunder and they were sharing the Israelite girls.

Are they not finding and dividing the spoil to every man a girl or two for Sisera a plunder of dyed garments, plunder of garments embroidered and dyed, two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter? Now notice how Deborah brings the song to a crescendo and a pinnacle here in verse 31. Thus let all your enemies perish, O Lord, but let those who love him be like the sun when it comes out in full strength.

Lex Talionis and Rejoicing

So back to 1 Samuel 15. While we may recoil in horror at the thought of poor innocent Agag being hacked in pieces by Samuel, this is legit. This is the lex talionis. This is the law of retribution.

And I think Proverbs 11 summarizes the sentiment well. Proverbs 11.10. When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. And when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.

The ESV captures it this way. When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish, there are shouts of gladness. You see that? It is not inconsistent for the people of God to rejoice when the enemies of God are visited with judgment by God.

That is not only not inconsistent, it is absolutely consistent, and it is the reflex attitude of those who have been conquered by sovereign grace, who now actually appreciate justice and righteousness, who now actually appreciate the reality that there are some bad characters in this world, and that when the civil state visits them with punishment, They're acting on behalf of God Almighty, according to Romans 13, 4. So it is not ungodly to rejoice. I mean, again, dancing on graves and engaging in that sort of ridicule and whatnot, that's overboard, and people ought not to do that. But in terms of rejoicing at the just judgment of God Almighty, that is absolutely consistent with biblical Christianity.

Going back to 1 Samuel chapter 15, we have Samuel in verse 34, went to Ramah and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Thus, we see the chapter and we see how it opens the door for chapter 16 and the choice of David as the successor of Saul.

The Doctrine of God in This Passage

But I want to deal with a couple of things before we close. First, the doctrine of God in this passage, and then sort of summarize the reign and subsequent apostasy of Saul himself. With reference to the doctrine of God, We need to understand how we jive or how we reconcile or how we deal with statements like this. I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king.

Verse 11, verse 35, the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. And then in the middle, verse 29, and also the strength of Israel will not lie nor relent for he is not a man that he should relent. Whatever verses 10 and 35 mean, Samuel did not understand it to mean that there was change in God. That much we are absolutely sure of because Samuel makes that declaration in verse 29 that he does not relent.

Now,

Divine Impassibility Defined

there is a doctrine. It's one of the more important doctrines in theology proper that you don't know that you desperately need. It's called the doctrine of divine impassibility. Now just bear with me for a few moments.

Some of you have heard this material before, but it certainly bears repetition. And this chapter or these statements about God regretting or God relenting are often utilized as a challenge to the doctrine of divine impassibility. Now, what is the doctrine of divine impossibility? I'll give you a definition in just a moment, but our confession highlights it in chapter 2, paragraph 1.

There's a lot of books written about the attributes of God, or the perfections of God, or those things that are true of God. There's not a lot written on three of them in that sort of string of attributes that get a lot of attention. That's changing, and thankfully so, there are more persons dealing with it Certainly in the ancient church, they dealt with it a lot, and in the Reformation era as well. But you have this statement in 2nd London Confession, chapter 2, paragraph 1, that says that God is without body.

That means divine non-corporeality. That means God doesn't have a body like man. He is spirit. It then goes on to say that God is without parts.

That's the doctrine of divine simplicity. That means that God is not made up of parts. God is not a composite being. God is, as our brother reminds us, He is.

He is pure spirit. He is pure act. He is independent. It's called aseity.

He is not dependent on anything in His creation. He is simply Him. And so there is this doctrine of divine simplicity. And then the next statement says, and without passions.

That is the doctrine of divine impassibility. Now, just a basic definition of impassibility. It is that divine attribute whereby God has said not to experience inner emotional changes, whether enacted freely from within or affected by His relationship to and interaction with human beings and the created order. In other words, there's no passions with God.

Passions we often associate with change. In fact, the very idea of passion suggests undergoing change. James Dolezal says it this way, The doctrine of divine impassibility teaches, quite simply, that God cannot undergo emotional changes. In its narrower sense, it emphasizes that God cannot suffer.

That's why this morning I took pains to indicate how Scripture can tell us the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. God doesn't have blood, God doesn't suffer, and God doesn't die in His essence or substance as God. Dolezal goes on to say, the term passion is derived from the late Latin passio, which means to suffer, to submit, or to undergo. Passion as passion is an undergoing, a happening to, so to speak.

So scripture tells us that God is impassable. Now this doctrine is a subset of what we call immutability. I would imagine you have probably heard of immutability before you had heard of impassibility. But understand that immutability teaches us that God doesn't change.

So if God doesn't change, then it's true that He's without passions. And there are several texts, Exodus 3.14 being one of them that indicates that God is without change. As well, you have Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6, and then James 1. We can turn to the James 1.1 just to see this in a New Testament setting.

The doctrine of immutability teaches us that God doesn't change. Impassibility is a subset of that. James 1 verse 16, do not be deceived my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Hermann Bavink said, those who predicate any change whatsoever of God, whether with respect to his essence, knowledge, or will, diminish all his attributes, independence, simplicity, eternity, omniscience, and omnipotence. This robs God of his divine nature and religion of its firm foundation and assured comfort. That is why I said this is one of the most important doctrines you may not even know that you need. We need the fact that God doesn't change.

We need the fact that God is without passions. We don't want Thursday us to engage in some grievous sin and God says, that's it, I'm done, I'm cutting you off. The fact that God doesn't cut us off is owing to the doctrine of divine impossibility. It is a wonderful thing.

Impassibility and God's Relatability

Now, typically, when people hear about this doctrine, they say, well, then that means that God is inert. That means that God is static. That means that God is just a rock and doesn't relate to his creation. Oh, God does relate to His creation.

God relates most excellently and most wondrously. In fact, in the language of our confession, it says He is most loving, most gracious, most long-suffering, most abundant in goodness and truth. He's most because of the doctrine of divine impassibility. He can't get more loving toward us.

He just can't do it, but he can't get less loving toward us either. You see why this is a glorious truth? He doesn't say on Thursday, well, I'm so disappointed with you. The love that was 100 units is now 80 units.

If you work really hard and you obey very industriously, then we'll bring those units back up to 100. That's not the way God operates. As our brother reminded us, He is not the top of a chain of being that includes creature. He is Holy Other.

He is God. He is Creator. Everything else is creature. Consider the statement by John the Apostle in 1 John 4, 8.

He says, God is love. You can't say that about us. We do love, but that love fluctuates, that love grows, that love moves from object to object. Note that God is love.

Not that He loves, but that He is love. Man loves, but it is not the case that man is love. It is part of what makes us up. We can grow in love, we can diminish in our love, but this is not the case with God.

He is His attributes. He is His perfections. He is His essence, existence, and attributes. One has well said, all that is in God is God.

So we're not dealing, again, with a composite being who's made up of a little bit of love, a little bit of justice, a little bit of mercy. It is the reality that God is impassable. Stephen Charnock makes this observation. He says, if God does change, it must be either to a greater perfection than he had before, or to a less.

If to the better, he wasn't perfect, and so was not God. If to the worse, he will not be perfect, and so be no longer God after that change. So he is relatable in the language of the confession, most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth. But because he's impassable, he's most.

He can't get better at this. He can't get more at this. He can't grow in his appreciation for his elect. No, he loves us with the mostness that is grounded in that blessed reality that I, the Lord, do not change, as he says in the prophet Malachi.

Anthropopathism and Figurative Language

Now, back to the challenge of the doctrine of divine impassibility. As you might imagine, persons will say things like, well, God does change. No, the change is in the creature. The change isn't in the Creator.

And when it comes to this reality, there are several lines of defense relative to the doctrine of divine impassibility. There are these statements, the challenge, concerning God's regret. And then we have this statement concerning the immutability of God, sort of sandwiched between those in 1 Samuel 15. Now, the verb that is used in verses 10 and 35 and in verse 29 is the same verb used in Genesis chapter 6, verses 6 and 7.

When God relented, God was sorry that He had made man on the earth. In that pre-flood situation where the earth was exceedingly corrupt and filled with violence, Genesis 6 and 7, it says that the Lord was sorry because He had made man on the earth. The same verb is used in Numbers 23. You can turn there.

The prophecy of Balaam. Just because Balaam was a wretch doesn't mean his prophecies were untrue. You need to keep that in mind. God willing, someday we'll get to Numbers. on our Wednesday night study and deal with the Balaam prophecies.

But notice in chapter 23 in Numbers, in verse 19, God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. So you have these conflicting statements. God is sorry. And then you've got Balaam and Samuel telling us, he's not sorry.

He doesn't repent. He doesn't relent. He doesn't regret. He's not like a man.

He doesn't have these changes. He doesn't undergo passions. He's not affected by things from without or affected by things within. So how do we deal with this?

Priority of Divine Essence Texts

I would urge in the first place, there is a priority of the essence of God texts. And by priority, I mean being earlier in time or occurrence. In other words, we ask who God is before we look at what God does. And verse 29 in 1 Samuel 15 tells us who God is.

He's not a man. He doesn't relent like a man. And then we see what He does. Verses 10 and 35, He relents, or He regrets.

There's not contradiction, so there has to be a strategy that we can employ so to avoid that particular instance. Now, the second thing I would urge is that we understand that the Bible uses figurative language. Figurative language is when Jesus says, I am the true vine. I am the door.

Figurative language is replete throughout Scripture. And two of the forms of figurative language are called anthropomorphism and then anthropopathism. Anthropomorphism is when the Bible says something about God and attributes to him physical human characteristics. When the prophet Isaiah says that God bears His mighty arm before the nations, I don't think any of us thinks that God has an arm.

Or when in 2 Chronicles it says the eyes of Yahweh run to and fro throughout all the earth, I don't think any of us think there's all these eyes kind of running throughout the earth. It's designed to teach us by figurative speech something true of God. His power in the one instance, His omniscience in the other instance. So that's anthropomorphism.

It is predicating or saying something about God that is true of the creature and applying it to God. The second is anthropopathism. Passions, pathos, is connected here. Anthropopathism is when the Bible, using figurative language, takes things that are true of human emotions and applies them to God.

And it does that to teach us something true about God. But the true about God is not that He changes. The true about God is not that He relents. The true about God is not that He regrets.

The true about God, in verses 10 and 35 in our passage, is that He's righteous, He's just, and Saul is a wicked rebel. And it uses this, it's called an improper predication, when the Bible does this with reference to God, it teaches us truth about God using concepts that are familiar to us as creature. It is spoken, as the old writers would say, in the manner of man. John Gill explains.

He says, with reference to this regret, which is not to be understood of any change of mind, counsel, purpose, or decree in God, which is not consistent with His unchangeable nature. Right? Priority. His unchangeable nature.

Who is God? Once we get that settled, then anything that God does that seems to betray that has to be consistent, and it has to jive with who He is. And so this provides us a grammar to be able to deal with that. He goes on to say, but of a change of dispensation and outward dealings, and is spoken after the manner of men, who when they repent of anything, change the course of their conduct and behavior.

And so the Lord does without any change of His mind and will, which alters not. And though He changes the outward dispensations of His providence, yet He never changes and alters in the matters and methods of His grace. So ask the Bible, who is God? And then look at what God does, and then ask the question, is this something being spoken in the manner of men?

Certainly in the prophet, God bears his mighty arm before the nations. That's spoken in the manner of men. When it tells us that God was sorry, or that God's soul was affected, or that God moved from one position or place to another, that is an improper predication. It is not properly predicated of him, that there is actual change in him, but rather it is a convention, it is a method wherein Scripture accommodates us.

In fact, Calvin says the entirety of the Bible is similar to a woman who lisps to her baby or to her child. You can't talk to a two-year-old and say, I want you to go down to the store and buy a gallon of milk. He doesn't understand that. You talk baby talk.

You say goo-goo ga-ga. You talk to him in language that he is able to accommodate or that he is able to process. Much of Scripture is that way. It is an accommodation from the Creator to the creature because there is such a great chasm or a great distance betwixt us.

And so, of course, he speaks to us in the manner of men, to educate us about true theology, Saul's wickedness, God's righteousness, but not to tell us that there's a contradiction, that when he says, I, the Lord, do not change except in my dealings with Saul. or I the Lord do not change except when I was sorry that I made the world in Genesis. There's no inconsistency in Scripture. There is no contradiction. This morning I said the communication of idioms or properties is necessary and crucial to understand how the Bible can say the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.

When you get into this aspect of theology proper, this idea of anthropopathism, or improper predication, or speaking in the manner of men, is absolutely crucial to understand so that you know there's no contradiction, you understand who God is, and what He does is consistent with who He is, but He speaks to us in the manner of men to highlight certain truths in a given context or in a given passage. Again, if you have questions about any of this, please contact me. I'd love to discuss it with you. in more detail.

The Reign and Apostasy of Saul

Now, let's look finally at the reign and subsequent apostasy of Saul. And brethren, we need to take heed to this. At one point, Saul probably thought everything was great in his life. He was the king of Israel.

He was a good king in terms of administering the kingdom. I mean, it wasn't all bad with Saul. I mean, there were times where he defeated enemies and he protected Israel and he engaged in those things that good kings ought to do. They probably thought he was on the top of the world.

But he wasn't saved. And so I think that Saul and others in our Bibles help us, or hopefully will, call us to some healthy self-examination. In terms of his royal appointment, the Lord directed Samuel to Saul in chapter 9. The Lord directed Samuel to anoint Saul in chapter 10.

The Lord equipped Saul for service in chapter 10, 9, and following. The Lord set Saul over Israel in chapter 10, 17 to 27, and the Lord granted Saul an early victory over the Ammonites in chapter 11. There's an instance of divine justice that tells us that Saul was killing Ammonites until the heat of the day. Boy, if that doesn't make the modern Christian recoil in horror, what do you mean he was killing Ammonites until the heat of the day?

Well, Saul distinguished himself in those initial stages as God's man. But then it was a downward trajectory from there. And I think from that, we ought to extrapolate the principle.

Privilege Versus Grace

The presence of great privilege does not necessarily argue for the presence of grace. Don't make that mistake that great privilege necessarily equates to the presence of grace. Judas had great privilege. Judas was part of the apostles.

Judas was given authority by Jesus. Judas went out and preached. Judas went out and cast out demons. Judas went out and healed the sick.

We have no reason whatsoever to suspect that Judas was exempt from the exploits of those other apostles. Judas was included among them. He enjoyed great privilege. But he didn't have grace.

So never conclude, well, I've got great privilege, I grew up in this family, I go to this church, I have this version of the Bible, that that necessarily equates to grace in the heart. We need God's grace, not necessarily privilege. Better to have no privilege and God's grace than to have privilege and no grace. So, with reference to Saul, that certainly seems to be the case.

Now,

Marks of Saul's Apostasy

in terms of his apostasy, or his rejection of the Lord, in our chapter, he blames others, verses 15 to 21. Always an evidence, brethren, that there is either, A, the absence of grace, or just a little bit of grace. I know it's in us still to blame shift. I know it's in us still to say, no, I didn't steal the cookie when our mouths are covered with chocolate.

It was him, it was them, and he gave it to me. I know that there's still shreds or remnants of that in our hearts, but this idea of blame shifting to others is not a good indicator that there is grace in the heart. Remember when David is confronted by the prophet Nathan? He doesn't engage in some elaborate sort of ceremony the way Saul does here.

Oh, Samuel, I've sinned, but please honor me before the elders. All David says, I have sinned against Yahweh. That's it. What else is he going to say?

Is he going to say, well, it's Bathsheba's fault. She shouldn't have been bathing naked. She shouldn't have been there so I could see her. It's her fault.

I didn't do this. It was, it was entrapment. I was led into it. I was, I was framed.

No, he doesn't do that. He says, I have sinned against the Lord. This idea of blame shifting is indicative, not completely of a lack of grace. Again, there is remaining corruption in our hearts, but it is certainly a dangerous sign.

Secondly, he is riddled with false piety. Riddled with false piety. 1 Samuel 13. Samuel says, stay here and don't do anything. Samuel's a day late.

So what does Saul do? Well, I sacrificed. I wanted to show my devotion to the Lord. Again, it's all couched in piety, but it was wrong and rebellious.

Chapter 14, the imposition of this fast, which in the context is absolutely ludicrous because these troops were engaged in battle. That's not a winning victory. Starve your troops and then send them out to the battlefield. If ever there's a time to shove meat and protein and fat down their gullets, it's right before they go out and engage the enemy.

They need strength and energy. But again, he does this most likely out of superstition. If we fast, then God will bless. That is something that attaches itself to the professing people of God in so many instances, in so many ways. 1 Samuel chapter 4, they get bested on the field of battle by the Philistines.

Well, let's trot out the Ark of the Covenant. We'll win then. Certainly, they treat it like a holy horseshoe or a lucky charm. They think that if they bring it out to the field of battle, then they will win.

God sends defeat to them to teach them not to do such things. He'd rather have the Ark of the Covenant captured by godless Philistines and taken into Philistia than indulge his people's vain curiosity with reference to lucky charms or superstition. Saul is riddled with these things. We see it in chapter 15, verse 15.

They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God. And the rest we have utterly destroyed. Oh, well, since it was sacrificed, that's okay. No, it's never okay, brethren.

There is never a good reason to disobey God, even when you and your piety think that it's okay. It's not okay. The bottom line, and I feel I feel bad that we have to say this clearly, but whatever God says, we just do it. We just obey it.

We don't say, well, I thought this would be a better approach, God. I thought sacrifice would bring you more glory. No, no, no, no, no. Do not innovate.

Do not create. Just obey. You see it as well in verse 21. Verse 21.

But the people took of the plunderers' sheep and oxen the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. So he blames others. He is riddled with false piety. Thirdly, he's delusional.

He is just flat out delusional. Brethren, this may not always be an indicator of apostasy, but it's certainly not an indicator of good things when the professing people of God are delusional, when they have no concept whatsoever about reality. Look at Saul specifically in verse 13. Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed are you of the Lord.

I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Not at all, not even a little bit. If that's the case, why am I hearing these animals? You should have obliterated them.

And then notice in verse 20, and Saul said to Samuel, But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me and brought back Agag, king of Amalek. I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. No, you haven't. Your own statement betrays you.

Agag, get it, was an Amalekite, and he was under the ban and devoted to destruction with the rest of them, and he should have been terminated in this mission. As well, fourthly, he engages in fake repentance. He wants to look good among the elders and among the people. He doesn't care about God.

Brethren, if that is in our minds and hearts, I'm not suggesting we all want to look bad in front of everybody. I think there's a natural sense in the second great commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. We don't want to expose our neighbor to ridicule and all kinds of bad things. We don't want to do that unnecessarily with ourselves.

I don't think that's a wrong thing. But if we are driven by what men think of us instead of what God thinks of us, that is a bad sign and an indicator that you may be on the road to apostasy. Fifth, he seeks to destroy the man after God's own heart. That takes us a bit to the future, chapters 18 to 26.

He hunts David. He tries to destroy David. He wants to kill David. David is the man after God's own heart, and Saul wants to rid the earth of him.

Sixth, he consults a witch in order to receive direction concerning a battle with the Philistines. He knows he needs divine direction before he faces the Philistines, and I think it's Gilboa. And so he doesn't have the ear of God, he doesn't have the voice of God, he doesn't have the favor of the prophet Samuel, so he fetches this witch at Endor and he seeks guidance and counsel from her. And then ultimately he dies on the battlefield as an apostate before God.

Guess where it all began? He disobeyed. He didn't do what he was told. Now again, brethren, we are not saved because we're so obedient.

We are not saved because we are so upright and we do everything God says. We are saved because Jesus is upright and because Jesus did everything God says. That righteousness of Jesus, the moment we believe, is imputed to us. It is received by faith alone.

But having received that, the child of God now has a new nature. The child of God now has a new orientation. The child of God now understands, John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Saul's wretched end started off by Saul not listening, not obeying, and not complying with the Word of the Living God.

I think there is a great warning for all of us with reference to this wretch, and we ought to, by God's grace, cry out for more of the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we would walk in obedience to our God. Not because we think by it we'll be saved, but because we have by grace been saved, and this is the natural outflow of those conquered by the blood of Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Well, let us pray. Our Father, thank You for Your Word, and thank You for the glorious things that we learn in Scripture concerning You. We praise You that You do not change. We praise You that You do not fluctuate, that You are not given to passions or emotions or the sorts of things that are so common among men.

We thank You as well that You speak to us in ways that we understand. You speak to us as Your children, and You give us guidance, and You give us direction, and You give us not only the revelation of who You are, but what you require. and help us all as your people, those saved by grace through faith in Jesus, to learn from this wretched man and to seek to be obedient to the divine will. Give us grace to search the scriptures, give us grace to submit to your word, and give us grace to persevere, not just for a time, not just for a few weeks, not just when we're converted, but each and every day until the day we breathe our last. We ask for your help, we ask for your provision, we ask for your protection, and we ask for your blessing upon this local church.

And we pray these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation.

Scripture References

• Genesis 6:6-7
• Exodus 3:14
• Numbers 23:19
• Judges 4:17; 4:21; 4:24; 5:24; 5:31
• 1 Samuel 4; 9; 10; 10:17-27; 11; 13; 14; 15:1-9; 15:8-9; 15:10-23; 15:13; 15:15; 15:20-26; 15:27-35; 16; 18-26; 28
• 2 Samuel 11-12
• Psalm 89
• Proverbs 11:10
• Micah 6:8
• Malachi 3:6
• Matthew 9; 23:23
• John 14:15
• Romans 13:4
• Galatians 2:20
• James 1:16
• 1 John 4:8