The Demise of a Backslider

A backslider and a hypocrite are not the same in the Bible.

A hypocrite is a super-actor, a lost person who has never been saved and never will be. A hypocrite is an apostate and a reprobate.

A backslider is one that has been saved but has been trapped, because of his or her own choices, in a life of sin.

A person can backslide to the point that he or she may not know if they are saved or not.

Hypocrites will have their place in Hell. Backsliders will go to heaven, but they will have hell on earth because they will not repent.

God does not want His children to be backsliders, and He gave us His Word and the Holy Spirit to keep that from happening.

Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

John 15:26 “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:”

The Bible and the Holy Spirit are given to us to keep us from falling into the same traps that some people recorded in the Bible fell into. One such person is King Saul.

No one in the Bible had a better start than King Saul, and no one had a sadder ending than King Saul.

In First Sam. Chaps 9-10, we see that Saul was a handsome young man. He was humble. He was courteous. He was thoughtful, but he turns into a bitter, envious, murderous, and wicked old man.

***What happened to Saul can happen to anyone sitting here today or watching today.***

Saul gave himself over to certain influences, and the Devil moved in and established residence in Saul’s life, and the same thing can happen to you and me.

Ephesians 4:26–27 “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”

In Saul, we see what Satan can do to a person who yields himself to the Devil. At first, Satan moves in almost imperceptibly, but when Satan moves in, when Satan is given a place, he takes over, even in the life of a child of God.

I want you to know, based upon the Bible, that I believe Saul was a saved man.

1 Samuel 10:1 “Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?”

1 Samuel 10:6–7 “And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee.”

Saul was anointed by the Lord, and the Spirit of God made him a new man. Is that not what happened to you when you were saved?

John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Saul was saved, and he had a great pastor and mentor in Samuel. Saul was chosen by God to lead God’s chosen people. What an incredible beginning! BUT.....

Saul let the Devil move in, and by the end of his life, he was a broken man.

1 Samuel 26:21b “....behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.”

Saul had played the fool. He denied the power of God in his life, and he erred exceedingly by not repenting.

Some here today may be as Saul. Some may be playing the fool. If you are, there are have been some steps along the way that have led you to where you are today. Saul’s life is a solemn warning to all believers. The steps taken by Saul are the steps of a fool that lead to self-destruction. Let’s examine those steps to a sad demise.

1. Self-determination. (1 Sam. 13:5-14).

1 Samuel 13:13–14 “And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.

But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.”

Biblically, self-determination means to live as one chooses without consulting others.

As Christians, we are not to make any decision without consulting with God. We are to be guided by what God says. You can do something that is right, but it ends up being wrong because you did not consult God.

To us, this is going to seem innocent. If you read the background passage found in 1st Sam. Chap. 13, you are going to see that Saul was directed by God to lead Israel into battle with the evil and Satanic Philistines, but God told Saul to wait 7 days until Samuel gave the signal to start the battle.

Samuel was to offer a burnt offering when He arrive which was a statement of faith that Israel was placing the battle into the hands of the Lord. Saul, however, was impatient as his men were frothing at the moth ready to go into battle, so Saul offered the burnt offering instead of waiting on Samuel.

The offering was still offered, but Saul was the king and not the priest or prophet. The priest and prophet were to offer the sacrifices, and the priest and prophet was Samuel and not Saul. If Saul had waited on God, God’s plan would have been done, but he was determined to do things his way, and by this seemingly innocent act, Samuel could see the seed of self-destruction in Saul’s character.

Honestly, what Saul did does not seem to be too bad. He did that which seemed good to him, but dear friends, what seems good to us is as filthy rags in the nostrils of a righteous and holy God.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Saul was self-determined to do things his way and not God’s. Whatever you and I do for the Lord is supposed to be led by God.

Too many of us want to lead the Lord into battle instead of letting the Lord lead us into the battle.

We like to do things our way, and our way is very dangerous. Saul did what many of us like to do.

Judges 17:6 “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

What Sual did was right in his own eyes, but it was not what God told him to do, and it was the beginning of his undoing.

2. Stubborn disobedience. (1 Sam. Chap 15).

A self-determined man will not only run ahead of God, but he will get so far out in front of God that he will start going in the opposite direction from God. He will become stubbornly disobedient.

1 Samuel 15:2–3 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

God commanded Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites. God was not being cruel. He was being righteous. The Amalekites had been a cancer on planet earth for 500 years. For 500 years, they had left a trail of blood and destruction.

They raped, killed, tortured, and destroyed for the pleasure of doing so. The Amalekites were bullies and enjoyed what they were. They would pluck people’s eyes out. They would pull their teeth. They would skin people alive, and God told Saul to kill every last one of them and their possessions including the children.

By destroying the Amalekites, Saul would have been saving millions from their violence and idolatrous influence, but Saul did not destroy all of them.

1 Samuel 15:20–24 “And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.

And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.”

Saul saved the best, even King Agag. He defiantly disobeyed God, and then he lied about it. He had opened his heart to the Devil, and his sins were piling up one on top of the other, and he did not repent.

Instead of repenting, Saul offered excuses. Instead of repenting, Saul apologized. Instead of repenting, Saul blamed someone else. Dear friend, does that sound familiar?

In churches all across America, there are “good” people who do just as Saul did. Saul was commanded to kill all of the Amalekites and their livestock. In churches, God tells his people to bury their grudges, to not let let the sun go down on his or wrath, and those people say “I will not.” “God, you do not know what that other person did to me.” It is stubborn disobedience.

Saul thought the end justified the means. He thought he could stubbornly rebel against God and justify his rebellion with an excuse, but I want to you pay attention to verses 22 and 23, and keep those two verses in your mind as we complete Saul’s path to destruction.

1 Samuel 15:22–23 “And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.”

Obedience is better than sacrifice, and rebelling against what God commands is as the sin of witchcraft.****

Stubbornness is sin and idolatry. Did you know if you refuse to forgive some as God commands that you are committing idolatry? You are because you are placing yourself before what God says.

Saul was a stubbornly disobedient man. Saul was a self-determined man.

3. Swift degeneration (1st Sam. 16).

As a person becomes more self-determined and more stubbornly disobedient, the downward spiral of his or her life begins to quicken in pace leading to swift degeneration. Pay careful attention to this verse. This is very important to you if you are saved and sitting here this morning and refusing to submit to God and repent of your sin.

1 Samuel 16:14 “But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.”

Saul would not repent. He let the sun go down on his wrath, and the Devil took up residence.

The Spirit of the Lord was upon Saul. He had been anointed, and he had been made a new man, but because he was determined to do things his way, and because he was stubbornly disobedient, God’s Spirit left him to his sin, and in the vacuum created, an evil spirit gained access, and the Bible says the Lord allowed it.

Now, was this a demon? I do not think so because a Christian cannot be possessed by a demon, BUT a Christian can possess a demon.

I believe what happened to Saul is similar to what Paul describes in 2nd Thess.

2 Thessalonians 2:10–11 “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:”

Because Saul refused to repent, he lost his spiritual compass. His mind became demented, and it was God’s judgment on his self-determination and stubborn disobedience.

Believe me or not and ignore me if you wish, but a Christian who refuses to repent is following the same path that King Saul followed, and what happened to him can happen to you. He had gone from ignoring what God said to disobeying God, and now he begins to fight God because this is about the time that he starts fighting with David, God’s anointed. By fighting David, he was fighting God.

If you refuse to repent, do you know who you are fighting against? ______________

4. Spiritual depravity (1st Sam. 28:7).

Do you remember what Samuel said to Saul?

1 Samuel 15:23 “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.”

This is absolutely incredible and frightening.

If we are disobedient toward God, it is the same as practicing witchcraft or consorting with familiar spirits, and the familiar spirit is you as you have yourself the master of your domain, and God hates it.

Look what happened to Saul, and Samuel had already warned him.

1 Samuel 28:7 “Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor.”

The Spirit of God had left Saul, and Saul, instead of repenting and seeking God, turned to a witch. Saul who had once received such a wonderful commission from God was now consorting with the demons of hell. Samuel knew it would happen, and that is why he said rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Samuel knew where Saul’s self-determination and stubborn disobedience would take him, and it did.

I want you to think about this.

When you rebel against God’s will and you are stubbornly disobedient refusing to acknowledge your sin, confessing it, and repenting of it, you are committing the same sin that the Devil did. You are putting yourself in the company of the Devil, and you, by sin, opened your life to him.

5. Self-destruction (1st Sam. 31).

To what does all this lead?

1 Samuel 31:4–6 “Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it.

And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together.”

Sin that is not confessed and repented of in the life of a Christian leads to destruction.

Ask yourself this.

Is holding a grudge worth your self-destruction? Is holding that grudge worth you becoming an old, bitter person? I do not care whose at fault. Is the grudge worth your self-destruction?

Is being stubbornly obedient worth your self-destruction?

Do you want some good news? If you are saved, restoration to the good graces of God is simple. Admittedly, it could be painful because it means you have to swallow your pride, and sometimes our pride is hard to get down.

1 John 1:8–9 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Can a backsliding Christian get to the point of not being able to repent? I don’t know, but there are a lot of confessed Christians that live lives of misery and bitterness. Are those lives the results of self-determination and stubborn disobedience?

If you are lost this morning, your life is taking the same trajectory. Eventually, you will get to the point that you will not be able to repent. Listen to me. Reformation is not the answer. Regeneration is the answer.

John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

How can you be born again?

Romans 10:9–10 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Once you ask Christ to forgive you and to enter into your life and believe that Christ is the Son of God raised from the grave by God, will you come and confess that before this church?

If you will, you will be my brother or sister in Christ, and this church will welcome you into our membership with open arms. We do not care about your past. We care about your future.