Man Pleasing (1 Samuel 15:1-24)

Topical  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
0 ratings
· 2 views

Man Pleasing

Notes
Transcript

Introduction

The LORD Rejects Saul

15 And Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the LORD. 2 Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”

4 So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

10 The word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night. 12 And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.” 13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” 14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” 22 And 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 listen than the fat of rams.

23  For rebellion is as the sin of divination,

and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,

he has also rejected you from being king.”

24 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.

In recent months, a pastor in whom many of us love dearly and have benefited from for many years, Pastor Alistair Begg, gave some rather shocking pastoral council to a grandmother asking what to do about her grandson getting married to a transgender person. And to the surprise of many of his listeners he advised the woman to attend the ceremony. The story first aired on Alistair’s Truth for Life radio program in a conversation with co-host Bob Lepine. Several months later, the two minute clip became a mainstream Christian story.
While Alistair qualified his pastoral counsel by asking the woman whether it was clear to her grandson that she was a Christian and couldn’t affirm his choice to marry a transgender person, he advised her to attend the ceremony anyway. However, despite his qualifications, Alistair was asking the woman to speak with a forked tongue, to speak out of two sides of her mouth. On one hand, she had made it clear to her grandson that she was a Christian and therefore couldn’t affirm his sinful behavior, yet on the other hand Alistair was advising her to communicate the opposite by participating in the ceremony. And he told her to do this in the name of catching her grandson off-guard by her love.
Now, I don’t doubt that Alistair believes transgenderism is sinful and that such a union is an abomination before God, but Alistair went astray when he negotiated biblical fidelity in the name of “loving” his neighbor. Participation in such a ceremony, which is clearly an abomination before the Lord, is participation in sin, whether we intend for it to be or not.
Now, my aim today isn’t to pick on Alistair Begg, I believe he’s a godly man, and I hope he eventually repents of his recent statements. He’s been serving faithfully in ministry for nearly 50 years, and I sincerely hope his recent comments don’t ultimately tarnish that ministry. He’s a great teacher and he’s discipled thousands through his pastoral and para-church ministries.
My aim today is to consider why someone like Alistair might reach the same conclusions that he did. There could be more than one reason, and I don’t presume to know Alistair’s personal motivations, but today I want to consider one of them. I want to consider a category of sin that’s particularly pernicious and often avoids detection, the danger of man pleasing, or people pleasing.

King Saul, a king after the people’s heart

There are multiple examples of this throughout the scriptures, but the example of King Saul here in 1 Samuel 15 is one of the clearest and most well known among Christians. When Saul was anointed king over Israel it had been nearly 400 years since their Exodus from Egypt, and the time of the judges was finally coming to an end.
While Moses had told the Israelites earlier, while they were still in the wilderness, that they were permitted to set a king over themselves whom the Lord would choose, that the king must be a king after God’s own heart. Look back with me in Deuteronomy 17, beginning in verse 14,

14 “When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

However, the circumstances behind Saul’s ascension were not the result of the people desiring a king after God’s own heart, but as a result of their desire for a king after their own heart. At the time, Israel was under threat by the Ammonites and wanted a king to fight for them. They asked Samuel to appoint one, but Samuel perceived that their motivations were self-serving, and that it was a rejection of his own ability to judge Israel. He also perceived that it wasn’t a legitimate request for a king, but rather a cover to be like all the other nations. They wanted a king for all the wrong reasons, and to suit their own desires.
Therefore, we read in 1 Samuel 8:7-9,
1 Samuel 8:7–9 ESV
And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
The Lord makes it clear to Samuel that their desire for a king isn’t merely a rejection of Samuel, but ultimately a rejection of God himself as king over them. They wanted a king to suit their desires, the desires of the people. Therefore, God tells Samuel to give them what they want, “to obey their voice,” to give them a taste of their own medicine, and to warn them of the consequences.
And so God gives them a man-pleaser, he gives them Saul, a king from the Tribe of Benjamin, rather than the tribe of Judah, indicating that Saul was not according to God’s own choosing, but according to their own, for God had already promised that Israel’s king would come from the Tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10). This is why its significant that David would come from Bethlehem in Judah, and would become known as a king after God’s own heart. And it’s fundamentally why Saul would would become increasingly jealous of David.
Now, it’s here in 1 Samuel 15 that we observe King Saul in action. The Lord tells Saul, through the prophet Samuel, to strike the Amalekites and to devote all that they had to destruction, not to spare them, but to kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox an sheep, camel and donkey.
Now, we’re told in Genesis 36 that the Amalekites were descendents of Esau, Jacob’s brother, who had traded his birthright for a hot meal. Samuel tells us there in verse 2 that the Amalekites had opposed Israel while they were in the wilderness coming up out of Egypt, therefore their destruction was going to be a result of their opposition to Israel in the years past.
We actually read in Deuteronomy 25:17-19,
Deuteronomy 25:17–19 ESV
“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.
So, when we fast-forward almost 400 years to 1 Samuel 15, Samuel is instructing Saul to strike Amalek and to devote to destruction all that they have. However, when we look down at verse 9 it says,

9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

So, Saul disobeys God’s instructions by sparing their king, Agag, and by sparing the best of their livestock, and by sparing all of their valuable goods. Yet Saul pretends as if he’s done nothing wrong later in verse 13,

13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” 14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”

Samuel was not impressed by Saul’s excuse, and we read continuing in verse 16,

16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel.

In other words, I know you think you’re just a man, but God has made you head over all the tribes of Israel, he has made you king over Israel! Therefore, there’s no excuse for not obeying God’s command to devote everything to destruction.

18 And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?”

Notice what Samuel says, there. “Why did you pounce on the spoil?” In other words, you sure were quick to preserve the spoil even though you were commanded to devote it all to destruction. What motivated you to disobey the voice of the Lord, and to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?
As we read on Saul provides his cover story there in verse 20-21,

20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”

Oh, really? You obeyed the voice of the Lord? And it was the people, not you, who took of the spoil and the best things devoted to destruction. All so that they could make a sacrifice to the Lord? Really? I mean, this sure sounds like the kind of arguments my children make when they’re trying to disguise their disobedience with righteous motives. In fact, how prone are we to do this? How easy it is to disguise our disobedience with righteous motives when we know others can’t see the secret intents of our hearts?
But Samuel wasn’t born yesterday, and he’s not stupid, and back in verse 10 we’re also told that the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night.”
So, Samuel is fully aware that Saul’s story is dishonest. He knows that he’s concealing his true motivations. And so he confronts him beginning there in verse 22,
“And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.” 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.””

Man pleasing

Ah, there it is, “because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” What the people liked about Saul was that he pandered to them. He was more concerned with obeying their voice, than God’s. And the desire to please men is almost always at the heart of compromise, and it comes in many forms.
Man pleasing is motivated supremely by what others think of us, rather than by what God thinks of us. It’s idolatrous by nature, for it puts men’s desires ahead of God’s. Man pleasing is motivated by the approval of men rather than by the approval of God, or as the NT writers would put it, seeking the approval of the world. Man pleasing is motivated by a desire to be liked by others, rather than by a desire to be favored by God. Man pleasing is motivated by the praise of men, it’s motivated by popularity, rather than being known by God.
Man pleasing is fundamentally rooted in a fear of man rather than a fear of God. We fear men so we’re motivated by what they think of us, we fear men so we seek their approval, we fear men so we’re driven by a desire to be liked by them, we fear men therefore we seek their praise. This is why man pleasing is so dangerous, because,

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

We cannot serve two masters. You can’t be a Christian and a man-pleaser, you can’t please Christ and please the world.

Effects of man pleasing

And because there are many kinds of man pleasing there are various effects and symptoms. Like King Saul, man pleasing will drive us to disobey God in order to please men, and our desire to please men will drive us to rationalize our disobedience to God. Man pleasing will cause us to pander to and affirm other’s sin.
Man pleasing will shape our lives to look like the world. People pleasing conforms us to this world, rather than to the image of God’s Son. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Man pleasing makes us cowards, driven by popular opinion rather than the word of God. Unable to stand up to anyone because we’re seeking the approval of everyone.
Man pleasing silences us when we should speak up. It silences us from discussing difficult but important matters, it silences us from warning others when their sin is leading them to destruction, it silences pastors who are charged with shepherding their local church, it silences preaches in the pulpit, it silences parents when their children are going astray, or when their children are engaged in sin, and it silences our proclamation of the Gospel. I’m convinced the number one reason most Christians don’t share the Gospel with others is because of our desire to please men.
Man pleasing makes us hypocrites. We alter ourselves in the presence of certain people to make or keep them happy, and speak a certain way to fit in with one crowd, while changing ourselves later to fit in with another. As one writer put it, such “insincerity camouflages weaknesses and embellishes strengths. It hides secret sins and parades virtues. It’s self-protective, self-congratulating, and always projecting.” Man pleasing produces hypocrisy.
This is probably most clearly seen in the lives of the Pharisees when Jesus said in Matthew 6:1-8,
Matthew 6:1–8 ESV
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
The Pharisees were famous for pretending to be someone they were not in order to garner the praise of men. Their public persona was superficial and fake. They were known for their eye-service; for performing a task or duty only when they knew others were watching, in order to look good when others were around. They were not genuine or sincere, their desire to please men made them hypocrites.
Furthermore, man pleasing is a hindrance to belief. Listen to what Jesus told the Pharisees in John 5:44,
John 5:44 ESV
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
The praise of men was one of the fundamental reasons Israel’s religious leaders rejected Jesus. Even those who believed him him were often unwilling to confess it, listen to John 12:42-43,
John 12:42–43 ESV
Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
Folks, man pleasing is not only pernicious, it’s deadly, it’s a hindrance to saving faith.

Symptoms of man pleasing

Now, I want to point out five common symptoms of man pleasing that we might more easily identify it in our lives, there are countless more, but I wanted to list a least a few here,
1) an inability to say ‘no’ to others, or to be constantly over-committing yourself,
2) constantly apologizing, yet having done nothing wrong; many of us do this so that people won’t be mad at us, but this is usually just a form of man pleasing,
3) engaging in flattery, excessive or insincere praise to gain the approval of others,
4) prioritizing the needs of outsiders above your family or your church. Now, this might sound strange at first, but God has given the Christian a hierarchy of priorities, first to God, second to his immediate family, third to the household of God, and fourth to others outside. Therefore, if these priorities are regularly out of order it may be due to an unhealthy desire to please certain people. For instance, if a wife is regularly neglecting her husband and her children for those outside the family it may be related to an unhealthy desire to please other, certain people;
5) always avoiding conflict or offending others, now, I’m not saying we should look for conflict, or try to offend others, but we certainly shouldn’t avoid it when it’s necessary or important. For example, husbands are charged with leading their households, however, many of us think we can lead from behind in order to avoid conflict, we neglect to bring up important issues because we’re afraid to rock the boat, but really we’ve just fallen prey to man pleasing and in doing so we abdicate our responsibility to our wife and to our children, and we become cowards. It’s also frequently seen when it cripples our ability to share the Gospel with others. The Gospel is fundamentally offensive to man’s sinful nature, therefore conflict and offense when sharing the Gospel is nearly inevitable to some degree, therefore we avoid it, choosing to please men rather than God. In 1 Thessalonians 2:4-6 the Apostle Paul wrote,

just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others,

And when we do share the Gospel, we often neglect to share the whole Gospel. We soften its corners, and share only the bits that we know won’t offend anyone, but when we do be blunt the effectiveness of the Gospel. We expose no one’s sin, and call no one to repentance.

Man pleasing ≠ loving neighbor

Now, before we wrap up I want to make one final point that’s particularly important for us today. The biggest reason man pleasing goes undetected or unchallenged is because it flies under the guise of love. This is why advice like Alistair Begg’s is seductive to many undiscerning Christians. Even discerning Christians may struggle at this point, they recognize that something’s wrong, but they can’t quite put their finger on it, and so they wonder if there may in fact be biblical warrant to Alistair’s counsel.
This is why it’s essential that our definition of love is thoroughly informed by scripture, lest we fall prey to compromise. I can’t overstate how important it is that we rightly define our terms, and recognize that how the Bible defines love is not how the world defines love. Unfortunately, most Christians share a very shallow and unbiblical view of love with the world, therefore the world leverages this against the Christian. Anytime a Christian objects to the world’s sinful behavior the world answers back, “you’re not being loving!” And because most Christians don’t possess a biblical understanding of love their mouths are stopped, and they capitulate to the world’s demand for ‘tolerance’, when the world really means tolerance for sin. And the world hasn’t stopped there, we’re expected to accept and celebrate their sin, and if we don’t, then well, “you’re not being loving!” See how that works?
So if our definition of love boils down to man pleasing, well, then we’re not loving anyone at all, and especially not God. We think that pandering to one another’s demands (no matter what those demands are) is what love requires, and we justify our man pleasing by confusing it with loving one another. The only reason any Christian thinks participating in a so-called wedding between a man and a transgender person is the right thing to do, is if they think it’s the loving thing to do.
However, it’s fundamentally impossible to participate in such an event without communicating approval, your attending is a form of approval whether you intend for it to be or not, unless of course you intend to object to the wedding during the ceremony. But love rejoices with the truth, not in unrighteousness, therefore the most loving thing a Christian can do in such a circumstance is not to attend. We should never lie to our neighbor and give them the impression that we approve of their sin.
Sin finds shelter in man pleasing. This is why I’ve come to despise the concept of niceness, because niceness is a counterfeit of kindness and love, it appears kind and loving on the surface, yet it’s fundamentally built upon man pleasing. It has no genuine concern for the state of its neighbor’s soul, it’s not sincere, it only wants to gain it’s neighbor’s praise and approval, and it’ll do whatever it takes to get it.
When we confuse biblical love with man pleasing we end up giving people only what they want, but not what they need. Therefore, if man pleasing is what motivates us then we will never share with them the news they need the most, we’ll never confront their sin, we’ll never call them to repentance, and have the opportunity to point them to Christ. Unfortunately, most professing Christians have been convinced by the world (not the Bible) to think that it’s fundamentally unloving and judgmental to do so. Our desire to please men has effectively stopped the mouths of Christians and silenced the Gospel proclamation in America.

Closing

Now, I want to close with one last word. While man pleasing is pernicious and deadly, there is an antidote. The remedy for the fear of man is the fear of God. There is infinitely more value in having God’s approval than the approval of men. And for those of you who confess your sin, who turn away from wickedness, and turn to Christ, he will be faithful and just to forgive you of your sin, and because of his sacrifice you will find peace and acceptance with God, for “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And if you’re accepted by God you’ll have no need to seek acceptance from men.

Prayer

Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more
Copyright 2024 Logos Bible SoftwareFeatures|Pricing|Privacy|Terms of Use|Support