More Rules That Rebels Live By

By Jeff Farnham

As proven in Scripture time and time again, rebellion brings heartache and ruin to a person's life. Rebels persist in their destructive patterns of behavior, caring not how much wreckage they leave in their wake. Even though they may think they are independent of all guidelines and regulations, the Bible clearly shows that rebels have their own rules and motives for the unhappy choices they make.
With love and compassion, Pastor Jeff Farnham shows the error in each mistaken way of the rebel. He then explains the right path that the righteous person follows and gives abundant real-life illustrations which affirm his conclusions. His previous book entitled Rules That Rebels Live By has been very beneficial for pastors, teachers, soul winners and parents. This sequel will continue to exhort and encourage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sword of the Lord Foundation
• Release date: Sep 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311992154

Book preview

More Rules Rebels Live By

by

Jeff Farnham

P. O. Box 1099 • Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37133

[phone] • [phone] • FAX [phone]

www.SwordoftheLord.com

Copyright 2012 by

Sword of the Lord Publishers

Distributed by Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (printed, written, photocopied, electronic, audio or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

All Scripture quotations are from the King James Bible.

To

The memory of Evangelist Lester Roloff, the People's Church, Corpus Christi, Texas, whose indefatigable work until his Home-going in 1982 resulted in the reclaiming from the depths of sin hundreds of rebels who are now faithful servants of the same Lord Jesus Christ whom Brother Roloff so loved, and whose preaching ministry in the chapel pulpit of Tennessee Temple University brought me to face issues of personal rebellion, to forsake them and to replace them with scriptural principles of belief and behavior.

Contents

Preface

What Every Rebel Wants

Chapter One: The What-You-Saw-Isn't-What-You-Saw Rule

Chapter Two: The No-Fear Rule

Chapter Three: The Hold-a-Grudge Rule

Chapter Four: The Lying-Lips Rule

Chapter Five: The Reject-the-Wisdom-of-Age Rule

Chapter Six: The I-Am-an-Island Rule

Chapter Seven: The Silence-the-Preacher Rule

Chapter Eight: The We-Come-to-Inquire Rule

Chapter Nine: The God-Speaks-by-Me-Too Rule

Chapter Ten: The Build-Again Rule

Chapter Eleven: The Shut-the-Temple-Doors Rule

Chapter Twelve: The Mock-the-Leader Rule

Chapter Thirteen: The Teach-Rebellion Rule

Chapter Fourteen: The God-Seeth-Not Rule

Chapter Fifteen: The Good-Evil-and-Evil-Good Rule

Chapter Sixteen: The One-Bible-Verse Rule

Chapter Seventeen: The Allowed-Not-Commanded Rule

Chapter Eighteen: The I-Will-Be-Like-the-Most-High Rule

The Circle and the Railing

Afterword

Glossary

Preface

Indeed, the title of this book may seem to contradict itself because of the general conception of rebels as people who break rules, not as individuals who live by them. This book, as well as Volume I by the same title, will quickly show the open-minded reader that rebels have a code of law by which they faithfully live. That code is the concept behind this book.

They that forsake the law praise the wicked.—Prov. 28:4.

The law that is forsaken by those referred to in that verse is the eternal law of God. Paradoxically, those who forsake God's law write their own laws, and it is those laws that are the subject matter of this publication.

Rules That Rebels Live By lays a foundation for the reader by treating such subjects as The Exception-to-the-Rule Rule, The I-Don't-Care-How-Much-I-Hurt-You Rule and The Be-Yourself Rule. While it is not necessary that Volume I be read first, it is advisable, so that Volume II will be more meaningful.

Whether you are in a Christian career in ministry or a layperson who is serving the Lord as a volunteer in your local church, these two volumes will shed light upon the reasons behind rebellious behavior in our society. Since the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple (Ps. 19:7), a critical study of the Bible passages dealt with in this volume will increase the wisdom of any serious student of God's Word. These two volumes are designed to assist the student in such a study.

What Every Rebel Wants

Every rebel wants connection

To the blessings of the saint,

Wants to have a little color

Of the Christian's brilliant paint,

Wants to taste a tiny morsel

Of the manna—Heaven's bread,

Wants to whiff a sweet aroma

Of the Christian's flower bed,

Wants to get a little favor

Of the faithful child of God,

Wants to own a little portion

Of the Christian's plot of sod,

Wants to keep a soft remembrance

Of the pleasant path of grace,

Wants to wear the precious jewels

Of the Christian's shining face,

Wants to feel the peace and comfort

Of the Christian's restful way,

Wants to sing the psalms of beauty

Of the Christian's hope-filled day,

Wants to join the celebration

Of the throng of grateful saved,

Wants to gain some fleeting remnant

Of the fellowship he's waived,

Wants to know the precious secrets

Of the ones who know the Word,

Wants to hide beneath the shadow

Of the Christian's loving Lord,

Wants and wants but ne'er possesses,

Wants and wants without relief,

Wants and wants amid distresses

Due to sin and unbelief.

—Jeff Farnham, December 2008

Chapter 1

The What-You-Saw-Isn't-What-You-Saw Rule

"And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.

And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me.—I Sam. 15:13,14,20.

The what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rule is, among other things, a psychological tactic of rebels to pervert the obvious into the ridiculous and then to turn around and convert the ludicrous into the logical. Besides being a psychological ploy, what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebellion is a spiritual deception. Those who live by this rule convince themselves that sin is righteousness, that disobedience is obedience and that dishonor is honor. After they persuade themselves of such tomfoolery, they go about to enlist others' agreement with their outlandish position.

King Saul

King Saul of Israel was cited in the first volume of this work. Because he was a well-known rebel and clearly had a tendency for rebellion, he is a good example of several of the rules that rebels live by. After the prophet Samuel had announced God's first divine rejection of Saul's kingdom (I Samuel 13), and after Saul built his very first altar unto the Lord following that divine rejection (14:35), several years passed. One day, Samuel approached King Saul to tell him that God wanted him to avenge Israel of the Amalekites. This divine vengeance was to be a total obliteration of both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass (15:3). The instructions were unquestionably simple. Saul was to destroy the nation, its inhabitants and its animals. Saul smote the Amalekites, but in keeping with his rebellious nature, he and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them (vs. 9).

God came to Samuel at that time and told him how sorry He was that Saul was anointed king, because Saul had again turned away from following orders and had not performed the Lord's commandments. This news touched the aging prophet deeply, and he cried unto the Lord all night (vs. 11). The next day, Samuel was told that Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal (vs. 12). It is noteworthy that Saul had set him up a place but had not built another altar unto the Lord.

Samuel traveled to see Saul, and Saul came rushing out to greet the prophet with a pious-sounding salutation of blessing and proclamation of obedience. Saul was so proud of himself. God's prophet had arrived, and he joyfully reported his obedience in slaying the Amalekites and their flocks and herds.

Samuel then asked, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? (vs. 14). Saul, in keeping with what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebellion, told Samuel that the lowing cattle and the bleating sheep were not really evidence of his disobedience. In essence, the rebellious king told the prophet, It's not what you think. Let me explain. King Saul then attempted to eliminate the obvious by interpreting it in the abstract.

In any logical reasoning, the known leads to the unknown, that which is concrete brings one to its abstract counterpart, the certain brings sense to the questionable. All logic must move from the obvious to that which is less obvious. Rebels seek to do just the opposite. Three specific things can be said of this masterful effort of Saul the king to persuade Samuel the prophet that no disobedience had occurred.

What-You-Saw-Isn't-What-You-Saw Lies

First, note that what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebels do all in their power to convince other people that they are obedient to God, although their actions are so evidently disobedient. When Saul told Samuel, I have performed the commandment of the Lord (vs. 13), he was telling an outright, brazen lie. He had not performed the commandment of the Lord. He had not utterly destroyed the Amalekites and all that they had. He had spared the king, along with many animals which were healthy specimens acceptable for sacrifice. What-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebels are prolific liars who have no shame in claiming obedience when they have been disobedient.

Some of these rebels (and King Saul was likely among them) have told lies so long and have convinced themselves of lies in so many instances that lies become as truth to them. Psychologists and psychiatrists call these individuals pathological liars. Truthfully, the word pathological deals with disease, and since lying is a sin rather than a disease, even the term pathological liar is a lie! It is evident from the text that Saul really did think of himself as obedient because he was close to obedience, because he had done more than he might have done at other times, and because he had done more than some others might have done. He still lied when he spoke to Samuel, because the work God had given him to do was not completed.

What-You-Saw-Isn't-What-You-Saw Levity

After Samuel proved that Saul had not obeyed but had disobeyed, Saul told Samuel that the people had done it. God said in verse 9 that Saul and the people spared Agag and the best animals, but Saul told Samuel that the people had done it. God said in verse 9 that Saul and the people spared Agag and the best animals, but Saul told Samuel that the people did it. His what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw lie could not convince Samuel that he had been obedient and get him off the hook, so this time he said, I obeyed, but the people disobeyed. It was as if he were attempting to convince Samuel that he had no authority in the matter and that the people did what they wanted against his wishes. Saul's rebellion led him to use a light attitude about the real truth and the true report.

Samuel did not accept Saul's levity either. He rehearsed the entire scenario from beginning to end in verses 17-19, reminding Saul that God had commanded a total and complete annihilation of the Amalekites and all they had, not a selective judgment with the sparing of the best sheep and cattle—to say nothing of the sparing of the man who was responsible for the evils of the Amalekite nation, their king! In verse 19, he closed his reminder with the question, Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? This question was designed by God to bring Saul's what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw levity into full view.

What-You-Saw-Isn't-What-You-Saw Loopholes

When Samuel would not back down the second time, Saul became more adamant, repeating his lie and his levity, but this time punctuating it with the loophole that the reason for the saving of the spoil and sheep and oxen and chief things was that they might return them to the Lord as a sacrifice. What-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebels are experts at finding loopholes, because their entire effort is to get around their disobedience and make it look like obedience. The loophole was Saul's way of saying that disobedience is as good as obedience if one engages in disobedience for a good reason.

In layman's terms, this is known as situation ethics. In philosophical contexts, this is called pragmatism. The general concept of what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebels at this point is that they seek to justify their wrongdoing by the right they are sure can come of it; they attempt by loophole reasoning to make right what is wrong by gambling that some measure of right will come of it. The fact that some good (in Saul's case, an abundance of sacrificial animals) can come out of wrongdoing does not impress God or God's people. However, one must remember that loopholes often form nooses, and the what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw thinking that rests in a loophole often ends up with a rope around its neck!

What-You-Saw-Isn't-What-You-Saw Lesson

Samuel responded with two of the most famous verses on rebellion in all of Scripture.

"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.—Vss. 22,23.

These words of sharp rebuke had never been spoken in Saul's ears before. The sound and content of the prophet's message pillaged Saul's lie, plundered his levity and plugged his loophole, leaving the king to grovel and snivel like a cornered animal.

Truth always reveals lies, repeals levity and reseals loopholes. Samuel's words from the mouth of God left Saul with no way out. Saul had no options left. His what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebellion had come to the end of its usefulness. All of a sudden, King Saul's rebellion had run out of steam.

What-You-Saw-Isn't-What-You-Saw Lament

First Samuel 15:24,25 record Saul's lament over his what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebellion. His words were, I have sinned...I have transgressed...Now therefore...pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord; but these words were a lament, not a confession. Had Saul been truly repentant, God's spokesman would have most assuredly had discernment to see it, and God Himself would have stepped into the situation with forgiveness and a measure of restoration. Instead, Saul was merely disappointed with the outcome and the consequences of his actions. Rebels of any kind will often communicate their sadness about the way things have turned out, but their sorrow is the sorrow of the world [which] worketh death (II Cor. 7:10). It is evident that Saul was not genuine in repentance, because Samuel would not consent to worshiping with him.

The next verses of this passage disclose the fact that as Samuel turned to go away in symbolic gesture of God's turning away from Saul, the humiliated king laid hold of the holy prophet's mantle and tore the skirt of it away. Even this had symbolic gravity as Samuel told Saul that, just as he had rent the skirt of his mantle, so God had rent the kingdom from his hands.

What-You-Saw-Isn't-What-You-Saw Legacy

What-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebels do not have a good legacy. The last words Samuel spoke to Saul until Saul's death several years later were that God had rent the kingdom from him and given it to someone who was better than he. If Saul had been repentant, he would have worshiped the Lord and changed. Instead, he worshiped the Lord, Samuel hewed Agag in pieces and went home to Ramah, and Saul, like a madman, spent the remaining years of his life hunting David. Even in his senseless and demented obsession with killing David, he was exhibiting what-you-saw-isn't-what-you-saw rebellion, attempting time and time again to have David killed by means other than outright murder. Saul came to the end of his days in a witch's coven, again attempting to disguise himself so that what she saw would appear to be something other than what she saw! Alas for the rebel King Saul whose rebellion took many forms and whose life was filled with many failures.

Illustration

A godly Christian couple suspected their daughter was not leveling with them about her relationship with a young man. They spoke to her several times when facts did not coincide, but each time she had an airtight alibi.

Then came the day when the daughter thought her parents were away together on business. Her father had in fact left, but her mother had decided at the last minute to remain home because she had awakened with an illness. This adolescent girl took this opportunity when she believed her parents were both absent to invite her boyfriend to her parents' backyard for an after-school tryst. As they sat on a swing, they both began kissing and groping.

The mother, hearing giggles and voices, got out of bed and discreetly peered out her bedroom window. Not wanting their daughter to get away with it again, she set up their camcorder, zoomed in and recorded her daughter's deviant, lascivious activity. Later, after the husband had returned from his business trip, this couple asked the daughter to sit down and watch something with them. When the daughter saw herself and her boyfriend behaving shamefully on the screen, she blurted