Well, this evening, brothers and sisters, our confessional lesson comes from the shorter catechism and the larger catechism. First, I want to read two questions and answers from the shorter catechism, and you can find this on page 970, the back of the hymnal, 970. We're going to read question and answer 33 and 35. Question and answer 33, what is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace whereby he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. Then question 35, what is sanctification? Sanctification is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. And then if you'll turn back a few pages to page 948, 948. I want to read question and answer 77. Wherein to justification and sanctification differ. Although sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ. In that God, in justification, imputes the righteousness of Christ. In sanctification, his spirit infuses grace and enables to the exercise thereof. In the former, sin is pardoned. In the other, It is subdued that one does equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God and that perfectly in this life that they may never fall into condemnation. The other is neither equal in all nor in this life perfect in any but growing up to perfection. Well, justification is certainly a precious doctrine because it tells us how sinful men and women can be made right in the presence of a holy God. Calvin described the doctrine of justification as the sum of all piety and the main hinge upon which all true religion turns. Our catechism reminds us that justification is a one-time act of God where the judge of all the universe declares us pardoned, free for the sake of Christ. God's justice for the sins of His people was fully met when Christ received on Himself our sins, and then the righteous judgment that our sins deserved was poured out on Him. You see, dear ones, when we Christians speak of the forgiveness of sins, we understand it's not as though God simply decided he was going to turn a blind eye to sin, nor should we ever imagine a God who's simply too nice to punish sins. That would surely be nothing more than a God of our imagination. Punishment was due for our sins. God's goodness and holiness demanded that his justice be satisfied. That punishment couldn't be avoided. It had to be meted out for him to be just. And that punishment was poured out upon Christ. who was our substitute, God imputed our sin to Christ on the cross. That is, God laid our sin on Him as our sin bearer. And at that moment, on Calvary, God's wrath was no longer restrained. It was fully poured out on our sins. And at that moment, justice for God's people, all those who embraced the Lord Jesus by faith, that justice was fully satisfied. That's justification. It's a one-time judicial act of God declaring legally our acquittal. Sanctification, on the other hand, is a lifetime process. We're transformed by God's grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit, unto holiness. And what that basically means, dear ones, is that sanctification is that ongoing work of God in our lives to make us more like the Lord Jesus. You see, when God regenerates our hearts, our entire disposition is changed at that moment. Paul says it this way, we are new creations in Christ. Romans 6 verses 17 and 18 tell us that prior to our regeneration, we were slaves to sin. But in Christ, the bondage of sin has been broken and now we're slaves to righteousness. We've been liberated from the shackles of sin. to be restored more and more into the image of God. Now, it's certainly true that throughout this life, the process of sanctification will be a battle. I mean, think about that. I mentioned Romans 6. where the Apostle Paul taught that we're no longer slaves to sin, but then in the very next chapter, chapter seven, he talks about the ongoing warfare that we're gonna have with the old nature, because it's still going to be there. It's still gonna rear its ugly head and attack us, and the vestiges of the old man will remain with us until we reach glory. One of the things that's so encouraging though about the doctrine of sanctification is that it tells the believer that God does not give up on us. He does not give up on one of his children. He's making us over from the inside out to be more like Jesus. And he won't stop that work in his children. until it's complete, until we see Jesus face to face, until we're in glory. So as painful as the process of sanctification can be, the grace behind it is that you're a child of God, that he's dealing with. Now the reason we looked at question and answer 77 of the larger catechism is that it sort of compares and contrasts these two doctrines, the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of sanctification. And there are really only two things I want to briefly draw out. First, question and answer 77 remind us that these two doctrines are inseparably joined. That means there's no such thing as a sinner who's been forgiven, who's been justified, who's received the pardon of God, and is not in the process of becoming more like Jesus. You see, if we have faith, it's because the Holy Spirit first gave us life. And where there's faith and life, there will be transformation from one level of glory to the next level of glory, to the next level of glory, until we enter glory. To be sure sometimes those steps will be baby steps. They'll be so small and it'll be frustrating. But if there are no steps, then a serious examination of one's heart is necessary to see if they actually be in the faith. Because if there's new life, there will be a growth in godliness, a pursuit of godliness. So that's the first thing I want us to see. These two doctrines are inseparably joined. The second thing, and this is very practical, understanding these two doctrines rightly and how they contrast and compare to one another, can be a great aid in helping us not becoming self-righteous or developing an attitude that might be characterized by the phrase holier than thou. You see, our catechism reminds us that there's no such thing as a person who's more justified than another. There's only one level of justification because it's based solely on the merits of Christ. But that's not true with sanctification. The judicial acquittal is the same for every believer, but the process of godliness will take shape and look quite different in the lives of God's people. The rate in which we mature, the level of practical holiness that we attain, the degree to which we overcome personal or besetting sins will not be the same for me and for you or for you and the person next to you. And this can be a very practical encouragement. Because if you're anything at all like me, that is, a sinner, you can find it relatively easy to criticize people, even fellow brothers and sisters, if they battle and struggle with a different category of sin or a different kind of sin that you do. You know, you've got that friend who has anger issues, right? And you know that's a violation of the sixth commandment according to Jesus. And it could very well be that that's not a sin. that isn't necessarily as difficult for you. It may not be one of the kinds of sin you have a lot of trouble with. And you know what's the easiest thing in the world to think? What's wrong with that person? I don't struggle with that sin. Why does he struggle with that sin? That's not right. He's weak. He's childlike. He's an infant into faith. That sin isn't hard for me. It ought not to be hard for him. There are a host of problems with that kind of thinking. But one of the most insidious is the idea that your perceived righteousness is the benchmark by which we evaluate a brother or sister in Christ, a brother or sister from whom Christ died and for whom Christ provided righteousness in our catechism. It helps us avoid that, right? We're justified by a sovereign act of God's grace. We're being sanctified by God's sovereign work of grace in our lives. In other words, we are what we are because of God's grace to us in Christ from beginning to end. And therefore, we must treat believers with grace and encouragement. Well, as you know, it's my habit to connect the week's confessional lesson to our evening text, but it really doesn't connect this week. When I picked this out earlier in the week, I had a different trajectory in mind that I didn't take. But I will say that the hymn I chose that we're about to sing does connect to our evening text. Everything that will begin to unfold in the life of Saul, as the newly appointed and coronated king of Israel, is going to be a message that God's people needed a king better than Saul, and ultimately a king who was greater than even David. Excuse me. It's fairly obvious that you can learn lot about a person by what they say and do. Given enough time, their words and their actions will tell you the kind of person they are, the kind of person you're dealing with. And that's not a human idea, that's a biblical principle. Jesus said in Luke 6 45, the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good. And the evil person, out of his evil treasure, produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks." You see, eventually a person's word and deeds will paint a picture of what's in their heart. You need only look long enough or listen long enough. On the other hand, what a person doesn't say or doesn't do can also tell us a lot about them. Sometimes silence, for example, can be a mark of godly wisdom. Proverbs 10, 19 says, when words are many, transgression is not lacking. But whoever restrains his lips is prudent. In other words, if you're a numbers guy, think in terms of numbers. Speak less words, you're likely to sin less. And then there's Proverbs 17, 28. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he's deemed intelligent. That's probably where we get that oft-repeated quote, better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. The point is, silence can be a sign of godly maturity, unless it's not. Sometimes silence can mask fear, can mask a disposition that we have toward the Lord that's sinful. And there are actually Proverbs that also instruct us not to be a people who are silent. Like this one in Proverbs 31, 8 and 9, open your mouth for the speechless. the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy." And Jesus deals specifically with those who are silent because they're afraid, because they're ashamed of Him. The Lord Jesus said in Mark 8, 38, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. This evening when we return to our study in 1 Samuel, we're gonna learn quite a bit more about Saul. And one of the questions that continues to hang in the air is whether or not Saul's silence is the product of godly wisdom or not. Is his silence golden or not? Well, before we seek the Lord's word, let's ask for his blessing. Our great God in heaven, we are so thankful that you are not silent. You're a God who speaks to your people. You have given us your word. Make it our delight. Make it the pillars and the foundation upon which we live. Teach us wonderful things from it this evening. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, please turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 10. We're going to read verses 17 through 27. 1 Samuel 10, beginning in verse 17. Hear the true word of the living God. Then Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mitzpah and said to the children of Israel, thus says the Lord God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt and delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all kingdoms and from those who oppressed you. But you have today rejected your God, who himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations. And you've said to him, no, set a king over us. Now, therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans. And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. And when he caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was chosen. And Saul, the son of Kish, was chosen. But when they sought him, he could not be found. Therefore, they inquired of the Lord further, has the man come from here yet? And the Lord answered, there he is, hidden among the equipment. So they ran and brought him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. And Samuel said to all the people, do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? And that there's no other like him among all the people. So all the people shouted and said, long live the king. Then Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty, and he wrote it in a book, and he laid it up before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. And Saul also went home to Gibeah, and valiant men went with him, whose hearts God had touched. But some rebels said, how can this man save us? So they despised him and brought him no presents, but he held his peace. There is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. Here's congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We'll want to remember how the people got there, how they got to Mitzvah. We've learned that Samuel was a faithful prophet, but his sons were scoundrels. So the elders of Israel had gone to the aging prophet and said to him that they wanted a king, a king just like the other nations. They wanted Israel to have a proper kingdom, just like the other nations, a king who could lead them out into battle, just like the other nations. But ultimately their request was a rejection of God's reign over them and what they really wanted and what I'm obviously emphasizing is they wanted to be like the other nations. That's the kind of king they wanted and that's the kind of king God will give them. And that's what Saul represents. In our passage, Saul is God giving the people what they asked for. What we've learned so far about Saul is somewhat hard to discern because, by and large, we can't evaluate Saul based on what he knew or what he said or what he did. So far, the texts that we've looked at actually focus on what Saul didn't know and what he didn't say and what he didn't do. For example, Saul and his servant, you'll remember, they had gone out on a donkey hunting patrol. And when their search landed them near the home of Samuel, Saul didn't seem to know that Samuel lived there, even though his servant knew it. And it actually seems as though he didn't even know that Samuel was God's prophet, when presumably the vast majority of people in Israel did. He didn't know the protocol for approaching God's prophet. He thought it was like a business transaction. If he was going to go get something from the prophet, he had to bring something to the prophet. Otherwise, he shouldn't go. Last week, we focused on the first 16 verses of this passage. What's highlighted in those verses is what Saul didn't do and what Saul didn't say. I mean, Samuel had anointed Saul. What a profound moment. He poured oil over his head and he kissed him. What a solemn and profound moment. Saul was being designated by God as God's appointed prince. And Samuel's kiss was also wonderfully significant in at least two ways. First, it demonstrated that Samuel would submit to Saul's kingship. But secondly, it was a picture of the intimate connection that was to exist between God's king and God's prophet. God's king was to be passionately committed to God's word. And when this incredible event unfolded, And he's been anointed by Samuel. Did you notice all the questions that Saul peppered Samuel with? No, me neither, because he didn't say a word. But Samuel made it crystal clear he was announcing the Word of God to him. Then the dear old prophet provided him three signs, three wonderful verifiers. that Samuel's words were true because he was a true prophet of God. Samuel told him on the way home Saul would encounter two men who would tell him not to worry about the donkeys because he had been found. It happened. Then Saul and his servant would encounter three men and they would provide Saul and his servant bread and it happened. And then third, he would encounter a group of prophets and the Spirit of God would rush upon him, and it happened. All of this verifying Samuel's words are true, he's God's prophet, and God's word is saying, you're the king. And Samuel told him something very special. He said, when you encounter those prophets, and when the Spirit of God rushes upon you, the New King James Version says, do as the occasion demands, for God is with you. That's a unique Hebrew phrase, it's probably better translated, do what your hand finds to do. And it's a Hebrew idiom that's only used one other time in the Bible, back in Judges 9.33, and it's military language. Language used to speak of overtaking a city. And of course, that's what Saul tasked was as God's prince. He was to be the ruler, the champion of the people, a king that would not only govern over their civil affairs, but would go out and fight their battles. So Saul was empowered by the Spirit to go and fight the enemies of the Lord. And then one of the things we read last week that was a surprise to us is that when Saul gets home, there's a Philistine garrison right there next door. Think about that. With the Spirit of God strengthening him, and the enemies right there at his front door, and having had God's prophet tell him, do what your hand would do, they're the enemies. You've got God's Word, you've got God's Spirit, there are the enemies. What will you do, Saul? Nothing. Now, Saul was not completely silent in our passage last week. He clearly had one of those pesky uncles who peppered him with questions, so he said, yeah, I met Samuel, and Samuel prophesied about the donkey, but about the matter of the kingdom, he did not tell his uncle what Samuel had said. Now, that's a good bit of review tonight, but I did that because I want us to have the momentum moving into this passage. that Saul, by and large, has proved himself to be a man who doesn't know much, doesn't say much, doesn't do much. And yet, he's exactly the kind of king that the people wanted. Well, Samuel's going to assemble the people together and he's going to rebuke them. The stage is set for us in verse 17. Then Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mitzpah. Now Samuel is going to rebuke them. We've already read that. But we're already given a glimpse, I think, of Samuel's heart. He wants the people to repent. We don't know how much time had passed between the events of verse 16 and the events of verse 17. Presumably, it was a very short period of time. But two or three decades earlier, give or take a few years, This was a place where he preached repentance to the people, right there at Mitzvah. And you'll remember it was right there next to Mitzvah that he set up the Ebenezer Stone, which means stone of help, because thus far the Lord has helped us. And oh, what an incredible victory it was. The Philistines had been driven completely out of Israel. After 25, 30-ish years, the Philistines are back in Israel's territory, and the people are summoned to make their way to Mitzvah. And it does seem to me, and that's what this is, this is sort of reading between the lines, reading the white space. Samuel was hoping some of this would still be in their national consciousness, that they would remember some of this. Would they remember what the Lord had done for them when they turned from their idols there at Mitzvah? Did some making that journey even see the Ebenezer Stone? Perhaps. But whether they remembered or not or saw the stone or not, that history of what God had done just a generation earlier seemed to have little impact on them. There's virtually no explanation for this except that the people had clearly become apathetic about the things of God. Within a generation, the people went from repentance and restoration to rejecting, God's reign. One generation, they went from repentance and restoration to rejecting God's reign over their lives. So Saul takes them back a bit further in history to remind them the very reason they're in that land. And he said to the children of Israel, thus says the Lord God of Israel, brought up Israel out of Egypt and delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all kingdoms and from those who oppressed you, but you've today rejected your God who himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations and you've said to him, no, set a king over us. I don't miss this, dear ones. When you think of a coronation, what do you envision? joyful occasion, a time of celebration, right? That's not what the people are experiencing. Far from it. They're getting a rebuke. And please notice Samuel makes it clear he is God's mouthpiece. He's about to speak to them. What he is speaking to them, he speaks with divine authority. Thus says the Lord God of Israel. He delivered you from Egyptian bondage. He's provided for you over these many, many years. He's protected you. And this cycle was repeated over and over and over during the history of the judges. You remember the people would backslide and they would end up under the thumb of oppression, typically the Philistines? But they'd cry out. God would hear them, God would mercifully respond, raise up a judge to save them. Despite all that history, a history of God saving work among His people, they're rejecting God, the God who Himself had saved them, and Samuel lets them know exactly what they're doing. You are rejecting God. I think one of the lessons we have to pick up from this is that every church is only a generation or so away from apostasy. If they become apathetic to the things of God, they stop being amazed by the grace of God, or they get captivated by peripheral things and lose sight of the glorious gospel. of Jesus Christ. It can happen relatively slow or surprisingly fast, but all of a sudden, one day you look around and the Philistines are in the land. The world is in the church. And the most tragic part is that the church seems to be at peace with that. And in the end, it's because they didn't want the kind of king that Jesus is. When that happens in the church, it's because God's people have rejected the kind of king Jesus is. And ultimately, they wanted to be like the other nations, the world around them. They didn't want King Jesus to rule over them. That's what's happening at mitzvah. They didn't want Yahweh to rule over them. So they said, no. set a king over us. What I'm about to say is sort of an editorial preacher comment. Although there's no indication that Samuel did this, I would tell you if I were preaching this sermon and I was calling these people to repentance, I would have paused here. I would have prayed. and ask the Lord for the grace of repentance to these people. We don't know, of course, if Samuel did that. Our text doesn't tell you, but we can be sure his heart was heavy because he was a man who loved the Lord and loved the Lord's people and knew the Lord's people were the Lord's treasure. So this must have been devastating for him to have to say these things. Did he pause? We don't know. But he definitely presses on. Now, therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans. Again, the people gathered to get a king. That's what they thought they were going for, perhaps a party. What they're getting is a rebuke. And this command, to present yourself before the Lord by your tribes and your clans, That must have been really unsettling for the few in Israel who could still discern and who still knew biblical history. The people are to arrange themselves according to tribes and clans and lots are going to be cast, or probably stones, so that they can pick their king. So the first stone fell on the tribe of Benjamin, then all the clans of Benjamin gathered themselves together and the lot fell on the family of Matri. And then the lot fell to the family of Kish and to Saul." And you may be wondering, well, why did you just say that that would have been so unsettling? Well, because in Israel's history, the last time the people were all called together and lots were cast to identify a person, it was back in Joshua 7. That's when Achan had kept some things that the Lord had demanded would be utterly destroyed. And so the people were called together. They went through this very process, the whole process of choosing the tribe, choosing the clan, choosing the family, until the lot fell on Achan. And once Achan was chosen and identified as the man, he, his children, his livestock were stoned, killed, and burned. And incidentally, I think Achan was probably a believer and probably repented. But that's for another sermon. That was the last time this happened in Israel's history. Don't you wonder if the people there at Mitzvah were all plagued with a collective lump in their throats? Did they breathe a sigh of relief when their tribe, their clan, their family wasn't chosen? Perhaps. But it's definitely turning out to be a kind of coronation that was unexpected. It's not the kind of coronation They thought it would be. But then again, brothers and sisters, rebellion against God never delivers what it promises. So they go through the process and the stone lands on Saul, or the lot fell to Saul. There it is. Here's what they ask for. Drum roll. It is Saul. There's only one problem, he's nowhere to be found. In my unsanctified imagination, I kept thinking about that movie that's a couple of decades old, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the one professor is calling roll in the class and he says, Bueller. Bueller. And he was nowhere to be found. Again, that's my unsanctified humor. Saul is not there. There's nothing humorous about it. Scholars have spilt a lot of ink trying to figure out why it is that Saul wasn't present. Some suggest he was humble. He didn't want to be presumptuous in terms of his role as the prince of Israel. Others have suggested that maybe he actually knew what had happened to Achan and how this related to Israel's previous history, but I think that's really unlikely since Saul didn't seem to know even who Samuel was just a few days earlier. What we can say for sure is that Saul has not reported for duty. He is not there. And everybody knew that was the place to be. Think of it this way. His first act in public is one of rebellion. Again, we're confronted with a man who's being characterized by not knowing, not doing, and not saying. Finally, the Lord will tell him where to find him. He's hiding in the equipment, probably the luggage, the baggage, the kinds of things they use to come together at mitzvah. Again, at this point, when he's not there, you might have thought the people would rethink their decision. He is a man who doesn't show up. A man who's hiding. Is he really going to be our best leader to take us into battle? But again, there's no pause for reflection. Instead, the people ran and brought him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. Again, why are we getting that bit of, that physical description? Because that's the kind of king they wanted. He looked the part, right? Big dude, good looking, best looking man in Israel. That's what really matters. And Samuel said to all the people, do you see him, whom the Lord has chosen, that there's no one like him among all the people? Again, this is an editorial. I wonder if Samuel just paused for a moment just to say, people of God, think about what you're doing. But what they do is they shouted and said, long live the king. This passage really demonstrates the sovereignty of God in some very vivid ways. The people needed to know that God was still sovereign and that even giving them the king that they wanted was his choice. The fact is he had chosen the kind of king they had asked for, quite precisely the kind of king they asked for. And he's putting it before them. God chose him for you, right? This is what you wanted. And we see God's sovereignty in another way, in what Samuel does. Because despite Saul's shortcomings, Samuel is a faithful prophet. And we're told in verse 25 that Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty. And he wrote it in a book and he laid it up before the Lord. And then Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. We don't know exactly what Samuel said as he explained the conduct of royalty, nor can we be sure about what he wrote. But we can say this, because he was a faithful prophet of God, he either summarized or expanded upon or recorded directly what we've read a few times in Deuteronomy 17, where it gives the law of God for kings. Right? So he's definitely presenting that. And we want to remember a few of the things that were required to be a king over God's people. They had to be a brother. They had to be a fellow Israelite. They couldn't accumulate wealth for wealth's sake. They couldn't accumulate stuff for stuff's sake. They weren't supposed to accumulate a multitude of wives. And most importantly, The kings were to write a copy of God's law and the king was to keep that with him so that he could read it and meditate on it every day. Presumably, Samuel was doing Saul a favor by writing this down for him and presenting it before him. And we're told that Samuel laid it before the Lord. Why is this so significant? Because despite the fact that Saul is a very flawed king, it doesn't change the fact that his kingship is to be under the authority of God's word, under the authority of God's law. And this is such a wonderful picture of God's sovereignty. He didn't step back and say, okay, You've got a bad king because you chose a bad king, and now that bad king is gonna do bad things to you, ha ha. God said, that king is still over my people, and this is how you govern my people. Any king that serves God is under God's law. I shared a couple weeks ago that these chapters that we're working through have actually played a significant function in our development of political theory in Western civilization, particularly the passage that's before us today. John Knox, a great Presbyterian, pointed to this passage to show that earthly monarchs are not a law unto themselves, but are themselves subject to God's law. And Knox's argument was that was even true of Saul. You see, back in John Knox's day, people believed that royalty, that they were a law unto themselves. They were above the law. And Knox wanted to stress, no, the king is not above God's law. And Knox argued that they were subject to all the demands of God's law. And when this came to fruition in Scotland's history is when Mary, the Queen of Scots, committed adultery and then had her husband murdered. And John Knox had the temerity to say, she needs to stay in trial, she needs to be punished, and she would have been found guilty because we know historically she was guilty, and she needs to be executed. It's hard for us to imagine what a brave statement that was. But it was all based on this. He believed that even earthly rulers were under God's law. I think more importantly, though, this passage tells us something about the kind of king God's people desperately needed. They needed a king who would willingly submit to God's law, who would willingly put himself under God's law, and so willingly put himself under God's law that he'd actually obey it and obey it perfectly. And of course, that King is Jesus. We hear that in those wonderful verses, Galatians 4, 4 and 5, that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Well, Samuel dismissed the people. And one group of men, probably soldiers who had been training, the Lord touched their hearts and they went with Saul. They went back to Gibeah. They sort of formed the first pieces of his early army. But there's another group of men identified in our passage. In verse 27, it says, some rebels said, how can this man save us? So they despised us and brought him no presents. That word rebels is translated a couple other times in 1 Samuel as worthless. It's actually a word that Hannah used and was used of Hannah to say that Hannah was not worthless. It's the word that was used to describe Eli's sons, who was worthless. So this is clearly talking about unbelievers. Now, why would they say, how can this man save us when God just gave them the kind of king they wanted? Because after God gave them the king they wanted, God said, this king has now got to rule according to my law. That's not the kind of king they wanted. And so they rebelled and they despised him. And see, at this point, Saul is now God's prince. God has provided him faithful soldiers and to attack The prince of Israel is to attack the Lord. So again, we're confronted with how will Saul respond? He held his peace. He kept silent. See, dear ones, this whole passage is moving us forward, taking us one step closer in redemptive history. until we would get the King we need, King Jesus. Amen. Let me give you a minute to ask any questions you might have or comments. asking for a king. And in the time of the Israelites, which is with Jesus, and them asking, you know, they always called him the son of David. And, you know, the reason for that, they had an expectation of kingship, so they knew that. And they followed that, you know, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? But, um, What Micah was saying for those of you who may not have heard him is he's talking about how this is a picture of, I'm paraphrasing, a picture of expectation. for the kind of king we think we want and how bad those expectations are and how wrong they can be. And again, this is the history of redemption. It was here, it will be in the multitude of kings that come after David. Ultimately, when King Jesus comes on the scene, they don't want him. They constantly want a different king. They don't want to be under the authority of the kind of king God raises up because they don't want to be under authority, not even God's. And that's really the issue behind it, which is why The only way we can become a subject of Christ's kingdom is for Him to break that rebellion in our hearts. Because we're born with it. We see that unfold over and over and over. Any other? and how you want to be like the world in many ways. And the world accepts a certain thing. Well, the church is being that way. They're not being divisible. They're not in any particular congregation. Yeah. And again, this is the point of comparison I was trying to get. If you guys heard what Brother Paul said, you know, there's always that pull in the church. What you're saying when you make those steps is that you'll not have this king and his ways govern you, right? Because if you believe that was the case, then you would use the kinds of equipment he's provided for his kingdom. And what would that equipment be? The preaching of the word, the sacraments, the means of grace, fellowship even. Those are the equipment that he's given us, right? Any other questions or comments? Well, let's pray. Lord God in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it teaches and blesses us. It blesses us because we know, despite all of the failings we see throughout redemptive history, that when the fullness of time came, you sent forth your son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. that we might be your sons and daughters. Lord, when we see all the rebellion in Israel's history, and we see all the rebellion in our own hearts, we're left astonished that You saved us. You saved us through King Jesus. Help us out of gratitude and love and adoration to submit more and more to His reign over our lives. A reign of grace. We ask this in His blessed name. Amen.