Your Rebellion Will Send You to Hell

Years ago, I was on a golf course and the man I was playing golf with had a foul mouth. Finally, I turned to him and asked him this question, what is your relationship with God like? He looked me in the eye and said, I have a great relationship with God. He leaves me alone and I leave him alone.

And then he cussed some more. That man didn't want anything to do with God and he represents a good number of people out there who want to live their life the way they want to without having God intrude in any way. My Bible declares that man drinks iniquity like it's water and fallen man is a guilty rebel on the wrong side of God and he's dead in trespasses and sin.

But that man on that golf course did not go to church. He didn't want to do have anything to do with God or religion. And he was honest enough to admit it.

But I fear there are a great many folks today who have walked an aisle and joined a church and who are in the same boat as that man. And they are not honest with themselves. They are self-righteous and they are self-deceived.

And I want us to examine a passage of scripture today, friends, which speaks of a man who was like this very thing. He was both self-righteous and self-deceived and of whom I'm speaking is King Saul. My text is found in 1 Samuel.

You can turn in your Bibles there now. We will be in chapter 15 and we will peer into the life of King Saul. It is not necessary for me to read the entire chapter because it's a passage that's familiar to us all.

It's a striking passage of scripture, friends. And I want us to pay close attention to some facets in the life of King Saul, which centered on a point of rebellion in his life, which resulted in God rejecting him. We see in chapter 15 of 1 Samuel and in verse 3 that King Saul was sent by God to destroy Amalek.

Here we read of God's orders to King Saul. 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.

But as we read the passage, we soon learn that King Saul spares Agag and the best of the spoil. But God said to spare them not. There was a point of rebellion in King Saul.

He was going to do things his way no matter what God had declared. And King Saul's rebellion so disturbed God that he revealed his divine displeasure to the prophet Samuel by saying in verse 11, It repented to me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night.

Now I want you to see something here in our passage, friends. I want you to see how King Saul was a self-righteous man who was self-deceived, and any self-righteous person is a person who is self-deceived. Look at verse 13.

And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, Blest thou be of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Here is a king who is self-righteous and greatly deceived, for he has disobeyed God, but he disregards it. He makes it a little thing.

But God doesn't see rebellion as a little thing, friends. In fact, we see how God views rebellion in verse 23. Listen to it now.

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Now there is the focus of my message today, friends, this aspect of rebellion in the life of an individual. Here in our passage, King Saul is a follower of God, but he's not obedient to God.

God rejects him because of his rebellion, and God will reject any man or any woman for their rebellion. Remember my story about the man on the golf course who said he wanted God to leave him alone? At least he was honest with himself. At least he was honest with me about it.

But I fear there were some in the church today who are not so honest with themselves or with others. They're like King Saul. They're followers of God up to a point, as long as they can derive benefit from God.

But they do not want God to have any rights and claims on their life. They want God on their terms. They want God up to a point, and that's all.

They want what they can get from God, but they do not want to give all they have to God. There is a point of rebellion in their life, and that's the focus of my message today, friends. The title of my message is Your Rebellion Will Send You to Hell, and It Surely Will.

Listen to me, dear friend. Perhaps there is someone here within the sound of my voice who is in King Saul's shoes, so to speak. You have been given a place of Christian service, a place of some importance in the church.

Perhaps you serve as a deacon, or an elder, or a pastor, or you teach a Sunday school class, or whatever the capacity it is which you serve your church. You are convinced in your mind, and you can say with King Saul, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. But you are wrong, friend.

You are hiding something. There is the sound of bleeding of the sheep and lowing of the oxen in your life. Your sin will find you out, but for now it is hidden.

There is a sore spot in your life, an area in your life where you put up a fence around it. You have fenced it in, and this is an area in your life where you have told God to keep His hands off, like that man on the golf course. You have told God to leave you alone regarding this particular area in your life.

This is your point of rebellion, and you have marked off your ground, and you have told God to keep His hands off that area in your life. Oh dear friend, if you only knew what danger you are in, if you could only see your great and terrible danger, for any person who withholds a thing from God at a point of rebellion to God is standing on dangerous ground. Yet you serve in a certain capacity in church, and you are proud to be in that position.

You are self-righteous in your attitude, and you are self-deceived in regard to your great danger, for yet you claim to be a follower of God. Yet you have an area of disobedience to God in your life, and you refuse to surrender it to Him. There is an unyielded area in your life that you put a fence around with a keep-off sign, and you have told God to leave it alone.

Anytime you tell God what to do, friend, you are heading up a rebellion that will surely send you to hell, for God places rebellion on the same level as witchcraft. I can assure you, friend, there are no witches in heaven, but there are witches in hell. I can assure you, friend, there are no rebels in God's kingdom, but they are surely down in hell.

Yet you serve in church in some capacity, and you take great pleasure in that position. You tithe your money, you give God your time, and you call yourself His follower by taking the name of Christian. But to be a Christian is to be Christlike.

To be a Christian is to take up your cross and deny yourself and follow Christ. But you refuse to deny yourself in this area in your life. Rather, you indulge it, you protect it, you fight for it, you just refuse to put it down or give it to God to be put on the cross and nailed there.

You refuse to have this area in your life crucified and done away with. Rather, you take great pride in your service to your church. You stand on a long track record of service.

But God has something to say to you, friend, and it's found in verse 22 of our passage today. Let me read it to you now. 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 fad of rams.

Perhaps God, by His Spirit, is bringing conviction to your heart right now, friend. He is shining the spotlight of His holiness upon that particular area in your life right now, though you deny it. There is a sound of bleeding sheep in the background, and your sin is finding you out before the Lord right now, right now.

I recall a story I once heard in a sermon by Duncan Campbell. He was preaching in a country church, and God's Spirit was moving upon the people in conviction of sin. An elder of the church got up in the middle of Duncan Campbell's message and left the building.

He did not return to the meeting for several days. When he did return, he approached Duncan Campbell with the following story. He said to him, When you were preaching, I heard a little dog bark.

Duncan Campbell replied, I didn't hear a little dog bark, but the elder said, Oh yes, I heard a little dog bark. You see, years ago, when I was just a lad, I stole a very expensive puppy from a farmer, and I sold it to another farmer for a fine price. I've kept this thing hidden all these years.

I've never confessed it to God. It's been a sore spot with me all these years, and I've refused to yield it up to God and rectify it. And when you were preaching on that passage of King Saul's disobedience and the bleeding of the sheep that was heard in the background, I heard a little dog bark, and I left this meeting, and I went out to find that farmer to whom I stole that dog so many years ago.

I found his farm, and I learned he'd since died, but his daughter lived on that farm now. I told her my story. I paid her back the money for that dog with interest for all these years.

Then I went to search for the other farmer whom I sold the dog, and I found his farm. It was now in the hands of a relation of his. I too settled that account with him, and I've come back to the meeting to tell you and everybody here, I have surrendered that sore spot to God once and for all.

I'm a changed man. I've got a great peace I've never had before. Perhaps, friend, as you've been listening to this little story about the man and the dog, you've heard a sound within your heart telling you that you have a sore spot with God, that you have an area in your life which you have told God to keep his hands off.

It's your point of rebellion, and you stand guilty before him. You have no excuse for your mouth has stopped. You realize your need of grace and mercy and forgiveness.

You realize your great need of repentance, for the sound of the sin is growing larger and larger, and you now must do something about it or hang on to your rebellion, and if you were to suddenly die, your rebellion would send you to hell. You know that to obey is better than sacrifice, but all you've been giving God is your burnt offerings. You've been withholding obedience to him in a final and utter surrender to him.

Listen, friend, Jesus Christ is Lord. He sits at the right hand of the Father, and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross. That cross had Christ's blood all over it because of my sin and your sins.

It was covered in his blood, and it is his blood that washes sins away, and you have put some of your sins under that blood, but you kept back this particular area of your life, and it's where you're heading up your rebellion against the Lord of glory, but God will have no rebels in his kingdom. Your rebellion will surely send you to hell. Hell is full of church members who live their lives by giving God burnt offerings in their service to him, but they did not give their obedience to him.

They had a point of rebellion in their life, an area where they told God what to do. They told him to keep his hands off that area like that man on the golf course who said he wanted God to leave him alone. Listen, friend, God is holy, and he hates sin.

He hates sin so much he sent his only beloved son into the sin-cursed world to die on a bloody cross, a bloody death because of sin. Jesus gave himself an utter surrender to that cross so we could be reconciled back to a holy God through the forgiveness of sin. When a man is crucified, there has to be an utter surrender.

No man who is crucified can withhold anything back. He has no rights. He has no demands, and when Christ Jesus purchased me on that cross by dying for me, he purchased me with his blood and by his death, he bought me out of the marketplace of sin.

Jesus saves his people from their sins, and when you come to Christ, friend, you cannot come to him casually and hold anything back. He gave his all for you. You must give your all for him.

Jesus Christ did not die on an ignoble cross so you can hug your sins and call yourself a Christian. You must deal with your point of rebellion, and you must deal with it now. To delay is to risk being sent to hell for your rebellion.

You don't want to go to hell, friend. Hell is a terrible place of agony and misery and torment. It's a region of outer darkness where there's wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the worm dieth not.

Hell is forever. Oh, why don't you shut up in that prison? There's no exit doors in hell. You may die quite suddenly without warning.

I had a friend who just this year went to bed as a healthy young man, but in the early morning hours, he awoke with a pain in his chest, took two steps out of bed, and dropped dead to the floor. You have no guarantee of tomorrow, friend. You could wake up in hell without having time to pack your suitcase.

Your rebellion could send you to hell. God declares, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. The sin of rebellion cast Satan out of heaven and all the angels who followed him.

The sin of rebellion cast Adam and Eve from the garden and ruined an entire race. A man enters this world under a curse because of rebellion, and man drinks iniquity like it's water because man is a guilty rebel who hates a holy God, and God will send all rebels to hell. Now, friend, is your conscience clear, or are you convicted by the Spirit of God on your point of rebellion? If you stand convicted, then do something about it.

Go to God. Ask him for the grace to surrender that area in your life. Christ gave his all for you on that cross.

How can you not give your all to him? Ask God to take that area in your life, friend, and take it to the cross and nail it there. There must be an utter surrender of all you are to the King of Kings. You must lay your shotgun of rebellion at his feet, at his nail-pierced feet.

Jesus is a living Lord, and he rules on a throne, and if he is your life, friend, then he must rule there. My Bible declares in 2 Corinthians, for the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Listen, friends, you cannot tell God to keep his hands off any area in your life.

You must submit to all the rights and claims Christ has on you if you are to be one of his. A crucified Christ must have crucified followers. Take the time to seek him and go to him now in prayer.

God has got a power and majesty. He is an almighty God. Jesus can transform your life, friend, and give you the abundant life, but you can't have Jesus, friend, unless you're willing to let him have all of you in utter surrender.

He is Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord.

You cannot have a Savior without having him as Lord. He must be Lord of all in your life. Go to him now in prayer.

Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver you by his power, to set you free, to break the chain that binds you in that area of your life by his power. Jesus came to save his people from their sins. Give it all to him, friend.

Give yourself wholly to him and ask him to make you holy. Listen, friends, to some powerful truths spoken by J. Sidlow Baxter. These are his words.

I pray you apply them to your life right now. What I give to him, he takes. What he takes, he cleanses.

What he cleanses, he fills. And what he fills, he uses. I'll end this message with God's word on giving the whole heart to God.

Do it in love. Deuteronomy 6, 5 declares, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. Do it in obedience, friend.

Psalm 119, 2 declares, blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. Do it in trust, friend. Proverbs 3, 5 declares, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean to thine own understanding.

Do it in prayer, friend. Jeremiah 29, 13 declares, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And friend, lastly, do it in repentance.

Joel 2, 12 declares, therefore also now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning. Do it, friend. Go to God and give him your all.

Do it. Do it now, friend. Let us pray.