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Praise the Lord. Good morning,
church. I want to invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Samuel
chapter 13 for our scripture reading. 1 Samuel 13 verse 8,
this is God's word. He, Saul, waited seven days,
the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal. People were scattering from him.
So Saul said, bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace
offerings and he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he
had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came.
Saul went out to meet him and greet him and Samuel said, what
have you done? And Saul said, when I saw that
the people were scattering from me and that you did not come
within the days appointed and that the Philistines had mustered
at Nikmash, I said, now the Philistines will come down against me at
Gilgal and I've not sought the favor of the Lord. So I forced
myself and offered the burnt offering. And Samuel said to
Saul, you have done foolishly. You've not kept the command of
the Lord your God with which he commanded you. For then the
Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever,
but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought
out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him
to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what
the Lord commanded you. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for this opportunity to declare your worth to ascribe worth to
you. You are infinitely valuable and
worthy. And it is fitting for us to praise
you and thank you and acknowledge you. And we do that this morning
and we're grateful for the opportunity to study your word together and
hear from you. We believe these are the words
of God. These are your words. And so
Lord, all of us have different issues and things going on in
our lives. I pray that through the Holy Spirit, you would minister
this morning uniquely and specially to each and every person listening
to this. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated. Maybe 10 years ago or so, I bought
a Super Cub remote control airplane, similar to like a high wing Cessna. I love aviation and as nerdy
as it sounds, I get a kick out of remote control things. I'd
flown a few smaller planes and upgraded to a bigger plane. and
was excited to try it out. It's quite a bit bigger. So this
was its maiden voyage. I was down at St. Mary's Catholic
Church, if you know where that is. They've got a football field.
It's a great little place to fly an RC plane. There's a little
bit of a nervous energy any time you fly something or fly it for
the first time. Obviously, you don't want to
crash it. And so I get everything ready. I check the servos and
double check everything and get ready to launch this shiny new
plane. And I launch it. And so far,
so good. I fly in kind of a half circle
and bank left. And I should mention that at
St. Mary's, the football field has like at a lot of stadiums
are places of lights, telephone posts with, you know, lights
to light up the field. And so anyway, I bank left and
I am about at the height of the lights and the telephone posts.
And I can't tell depth perception if I'm on this side or that side
of it. within a split second, boom,
crashes right into this telephone post and breaks into a million
pieces and had about seven or eight seconds on it before it
crashed and burned. For whatever reason, I thought
of that as I was studying chapters 13 and 14 this morning. This is a crash and burn story.
Our section basically has two chapters of negative example. What not to do. And as humans,
I think we're wired to learn through stories. Biographies
are a great example of this. I love biographies. I love reading
about men and women who've made sacrifices for the Lord or their
country or whatever. It's inspiring. It's challenging.
It's illuminating. And also, the opposite is true
when you hear stories of people who've crashed and burned, people
who have completely botched it, who didn't finish well. George
Washington and Benedict Arnold are both instructive. Good examples
and negative examples are riddled throughout the pages of Scripture,
and that's one of the reasons I love narrative genre. That's
what 1 and 2 Samuel is. And this morning is a classic
example of a bad example. Last week, John did a great job,
took us through chapter 12. Look at chapter 12, verse 22,
because this is kind of the summary of this whole section. For the
Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because
it is pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover,
as for me, far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord
by ceasing to pray for you. And I will instruct you in the
good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve
Him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great
things He's done for you. But if you still do wickedly,
you shall be swept away, both you and your king. That motif
carries on through our passage as well. And really this has
been a long series of illustrations about one simple thing. Will
you obey the Lord or not? Will you listen to his word or
your word? Who's the Lord, you or Yahweh? And not much has changed, quite
honestly, in the last 3,000 years. Those questions still apply to
us today. And Saul provides ample warnings
for us to consider. So we're covering chapters 13
and 14. We can't possibly read it all,
so I'm gonna summarize some of those sections when we get there.
But it's really one unit and helpful to see it as such. I've
just followed for an outline just borrowed from the editors
of the ESV for my outline here. But there's fighting, there's
disobedience, there's foolishness. It's got it all. It's about five
different scenes. But again, I want to just summarize
the main thesis and the main theological point. Only fear
the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart, for consider
what great things he's done for you. But if you still do wickedly,
you shall be swept away, both you and your king. That is the
main point. Look at verse one. Saul lived,
chapter 13, Saul lived for one year. and then became king, and
when he had reigned for two years over Israel." Now, I hate to
get into the weeds right out of the gates, but we've got to
just say a few words about this verse. This verse is notoriously
hard to interpret. Saul lived for one year, and
then he became king? Come and say what? What are you
talking about? The NRSV says Saul was dot, dot, dot years
old when he began to reign and he reigned dot, dot, dot and
two years over Israel. It doesn't even make sense. King
James says Saul reigned one year and when he had reigned two years
over Israel. What? The legacy standard, NET,
NIV, NASB, all take the same basic view and it's roughly something
like Saul was 30 years old when he began to reign and he reigned
42 years. over Israel. You can look at the footnotes
in your Bible, but the ESV footnote says, the number is lacking in
Hebrew in the subdugent. Two may not be the entire number.
Something may have dropped out. So in all likelihood, this is
an example of a textual botch, a scribal error. And it's a good
opportunity just to remind us there's a number of these in
the Old and New Testament, and worth noting that none of them
have any bearing on doctrine. It's more just a matter of how
to interpret the verse. Some ancient Greek texts even
just omit the verse entirely. Old Testament scholar John Woodhouse,
I think has the best proposal though. He suggests that the
text means it had been a year since Saul's anointing, when
the events of chapter 13 took place. I think that's the best
way to understand it. Acts, the book of Acts, actually
tells us Saul reigned for 40 years. So I think it's a good
guess that the reference is to how long he reigned since he
was anointed. Anyway, starting in verse 2,
we read about this fight against the Philistines. Saul chose 3,000
men. The rest were sent home. And
this, I think, if your antennas are up, intentionally sounds
like the story of Gideon. In verse three, we read about
Jonathan. Jonathan enters the scene, really impressive guy.
He defeats a garrison right out of the gates, but then Saul blows
a trumpet and tells Israel that he, Saul's the one that did it.
But that's not the main point at this point. The Philistines
are mad. Israel is now a stench to them,
and it's all hands on deck. The Philistines rally 30,000
chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and it's on. Look at verse six. When the men
of Israel saw that they were in trouble, for the people were
hard-pressed, the people hid themselves in caves and holes,
rocks, tombs, cisterns. And some Hebrews crossed the
fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still
at Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling. So you
need to know right at this point, the men of Israel are freaking
out. They're scared. Saul is terrified. He panics. He's the opposite
of Gideon. He's the anti-Gideon. Instead
of rallying the troops and fighting, they hide in caves and holes
and tombs and cisterns. Okay, that's the end of scene
one. Look at verse eight. Chapter
13, he waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but
Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering
from him, so Saul said, bring the burnt offering to me, and
of course, I read this story in our scripture reading, but
Samuel comes, and Saul makes a bunch of excuses. This is why
I did it, so okay, here we go. Saul's freaking out, understandably
so, by the way. The people are scattering, there's
a gigantic army about to crush Israel, and he's waiting for
Samuel, and he waits seven days. I'm sympathetic to how hard this
must have been. You can feel the urgency here. Remember, Samuel specifically
told Saul to wait for him. Saul's not a priest, he's a king. He needs to wait for Samuel,
but under the pressure, enormous pressure, Saul snaps, and he
puts himself in the position of priest, and he does the whole
sacrifice himself. Big no-no. And right when he
finishes, Samuel shows up. What have you done? And that's
not a rhetorical question. Nevertheless, Saul tries to explain
how reasonable his disobedience was. how reasonable it was that
he didn't follow the orders, which, by the way, this is how
it works. We explain why our disobedience was reasonable and
rational and understandable and correct. I want to talk about
this sin, actually, because it highlights the nature of sin,
and I think it might be helpful for us to consider it. A couple
observations. First of all, this was a sin
of disrespect. He disrespects Samuel and the office of prophet
and priest. And the lack of respect for the
prophetic office becomes a major issue in Israel and a major problem,
main theme in the prophets. Related to this is a little bit
of hocus pocus divination. He treats the sacrifice like
it's magic, like this sacrifice magically guarantees a win. If
I do this, God will do that. Similar to when the Israelites
parade the ark into battle. Maybe it will save us, they say. It's actually a kind of witchcraft
and paganism. But God cares about proper worship.
We don't get to worship God any which way we please. Uzzah and
the Ark will illustrate that later on. And the point here
is that worship is more important than battle. Let me say that
again. Worship is more important than
battle. It's more important God is worshiped properly than it
is that Israel win the war. You could say this applies to
politics as well. Politics is very important. But
worship is more important than politics. God cares about the
proper ordering of things. To obey is better than sacrifice. And Saul reverses it. Second
of all, this is a sin of impatience. Saul doesn't wait, and he forces
a bad decision. One of the best illustrations
of this is with Sarah and Abraham. And the lesson is really don't
birth an Ishmael. Be patient. Wait for the Lord. Even though you're in a tough
situation, God has made it clear. God has spoken. This is the will
and plan of God. Instead of waiting on the Lord,
Abraham tries to rush the promise of God. He takes Hagar and along
comes Ishmael, not the son of the promise. He rushed it. I think all of us can feel this,
there's a strong tendency we all have I think to probe God
along, hurry him up. I know I'm not supposed to marry
an unbeliever, but maybe this is God's will. Things like that,
don't birth an Ishmael. Abraham had the promise, but
he got impatient and rushed the process. And sometimes God makes
us wait. Don't bypass the waiting, don't
birth an Ishmael. The lesson will be illustrated
really in the opposite way when King David is anointed, comes
along. David's anointed as a young man,
but he didn't take the throne until he was 30. There were many
opportunities for David to become king and just kill Saul, but
he waits. And God is doing something in
the waiting, so be patient. Wait upon him, trust him, look
to him. Don't try to manipulate the situation. Allow the Lord to be the Lord.
The third observation is it's a sin of unbelief. He's looking
with his eyes instead of looking to the Lord. He is walking by
sight, not by faith. He's walking by feeling, not
faith. He sees the dwindling army and
he freaks out. He trusts himself and his own
instincts instead of God's word. He thinks the circumstances justify
the disobedience. He made excuses for his sin.
And again, this is so applicable. Well, I'm in a really tough spot. That's why I looked at porn.
Well, the government taxes us so much and everything else.
That's why I feel justified to not report all my earnings. Plus,
I can give more to the church that way. Well, he's not a very
attentive husband. That's why I feel justified to
fantasize about another man. Saul illustrates the tendency
to minimize or blame shift our responsibility. Notice he blames
the people for scattering. He blames Samuel for being late.
He doesn't take responsibility for his actions. He doesn't own
it. That's a problem and it's not a little problem. Meanwhile,
he feels comfortable to offer worship. The whole episode is
audacious. Look at the end of verse 13,
Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. And that pretty
much sums up Saul's life. That's the compendium of his
life. It's probably worth mentioning
that the word fool here doesn't mean idiot, like Saul, you were
an idiot or that was idiotic. Psalm 14, one says, the fool
says in his heart there is no God. The psalmist isn't talking
about an atheist. Many atheists are very intelligent,
very smart. He's talking about a person who
knows God exists, but lives like God doesn't. He knows God exists,
but he lives like God doesn't exist. That's Saul here. That's a fool. He's living foolishly. He doesn't keep the Lord's command.
He's not careful to obey. Goes on in verse 13, you've not
kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded
you for then the Lord would have established your kingdom over
Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not
continue. The Lord has sought out a man
after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be prince
over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded
you. Maybe you've heard the story
of a man who lost a half billion dollars in Bitcoin. I was researching
the story, there's a number of people have told the story, but
the New Yorker magazine titled it, Half a Billion in Bitcoin
Lost in the Dump. By the way, this was back in
2013, so it would have been a lot more today. It was 8,000 Bitcoin
he had, and it was all stored on a hard drive. The article
said this, If things had gone just a bit differently, James
Howells might today be as rich as the Queen of England. The
decisive moment, he now thinks, occurred one evening in August
2013 when he was 28 and at his home with his family in Newport,
small city on the Welsh coast. He was cleaning out his desk,
throwing away cables and paperwork and a broken mouse, quote, in
a cluttered desk drawer he found two small hard drives. One he
knew was blank. The other held files from an
old Dell gaming laptop, including emails, music he downloaded,
duplicates of family photos. He'd removed the drive a few
years earlier after he spilled lemonade on the computer's keyboard.
Howells grabbed the unwanted hard drive and threw it in a
black garbage bag. Later, when the couple slid into
bed, Howells asked Tafina, his wife, who dropped off their kids
at daycare each morning, if she would mind taking the trash to
the dump. He remembers her declining, saying,
it's not my blankety-blank job, it's yours. Howells conceded
the point as his head hit the pillow. He recalls he made a
mental note to remove the hard drive from the bag. I'm a systems
engineer, he said. I've never thrown a hard drive
in the bin. It's just a bad idea. The next day, however, she gets
up, does take the garbage to the landfill. I won't read the
rest of the story because it's filled with too many expletives,
but you can only imagine. That time it was 8,000 Bitcoin
worth 1.5 million, which is a lot of money, but imagine how he
feels now. $745 million as of last week. By the way, I'm not recommending
you invest in Bitcoin. But that is a plan that crashed
and burned. Hear me very carefully. What
Saul did was much, much worse, much more foolish. And the same
goes for anyone who rejects the offer of Jesus Christ and his
kingdom. Saul's life is like a parable
of foolishness. Don't forfeit the privilege and
blessing of God. The lesson is it's possible to
do that. It's possible to do that. And
what was his error? It was many, but it can be summed
up with Samuel's words, you've not kept the command of the Lord
your God with which he commanded you. Tim Chester makes a great
observation here, I'm borrowing from him, but when Samuel confronts
Saul in verse 11, he begins with the question, what have you done? Just as God did with Adam in
Genesis 3, where are you? Saul responds with excuses. He
blames the men leaving and the Philistines for arriving, and
he blames Samuel for not coming on time. Saul is portrayed as
a new Adam. But this is not Adam the snake
crusher. This is Adam the sinner, the
excuse maker. Saul is not the promised second
Adam. He's the old Adam, revisited. Israel's new start with a new
king has floundered because the underlying unbelief and disobedience
of humanity in Adam has not changed. We need a king who will not only
rescue us from our enemies, but also from ourselves. We need
a king who can take on sin and liberate us from our slavery
to our sinful desires. We need a king who obeys God
in all circumstances, even when put under pressure, unfavorable
circumstances. Saul is not that man, so his
kingdom will not endure. It cannot. Instead, the Lord
will give it to another man after his own heart. Compare Saul to
Jesus, who loved the law and kept the law. In his opening
prologue to his most famous sermon, Jesus says, do not think I've
come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish
them, but to fulfill them. And fulfill doesn't effectively
mean abolish. Jesus makes the case he's the
true and better king. He does what Saul doesn't do.
He's a man after the order of David, a man after God's own
heart. Let's talk about that phrase.
What does it mean, a man after God's own heart? Could mean a
couple things, to be fair. Could mean a king of God's own
choosing. It could also be a reference
to character. And I think that's the idea here. In our context,
it's the opposite of acting foolishly. It's juxtaposed with being a
fool, like Saul. So instead of not considering
God, it considers God. Later on in chapter 14, a similar
phrase is used of Jonathan's armor-bearer. It says, according
to your heart. Jonathan's armor-bearer is with
Jonathan in heart and soul. He's totally loyal. Totally committed
to Jonathan. Well, that's the idea of discipleship.
We're people totally committed to our Lord and King with heart
and soul. And those words will be used
to describe David. It didn't mean sinless perfection,
but as a whole, David was wholly committed to the Lord and Saul
closed his ears to the word of God. Let this be a warning. You may have heard the story
of James VI of Scotland. He was notoriously rude when
attending church, and on one occasion he was seated in his
gallery with several courtiers while Robert Bruce preached.
In his usual form, James began to talk to those around him during
the sermon. Bruce paused, and the king fell silent. The minister
resumed and so did James. Bruce seized speaking a second
time, same result. When the king committed his third
offense, Bruce turned and addressed James directly. He said, quote,
it is said to have been an expression of the wisest of kings when the
lion roars, all the beasts of the field are quiet. The lion
of the tribe of Judah is now roaring in the voice of his gospel. And it becomes all the petty
kings of the earth to be silent. Kings easily forget that they
are subjects. We are not kings. We are subjects. Happy slaves to a generous master. We are not our own. We've been
bought with a price. But Saul forgets this. The rest
of chapter 13 tells the story of the battle. I won't read it,
but just summarize it to say that Saul is almost like an anti-judge. If you remember the book of Judges,
he's like an anti-Gideon. He proves himself really to be
a failed leader, and it only gets worse in chapter 14. So
let's look at chapter 14. Let me give you a little teaser
into this chapter, though. It hits close to home, literally
close to my hometown in Minnesota. But the story is told about Minnesota
baseball. I read this a month or so ago.
It was a particular baseball game played about the turn of
the century by two Minnesota semi-pro teams. At the end of
nine innings, they were locked in a scoreless tie. On the top
of the 10th, however, the team from Benson scored a run. Wilmer,
the other team, came to bat in the bottom half of the inning.
Wilmer's pitcher, Thielman, smacked a single. The next batter, O'Toole,
smashed a terrific drive deep in the outfield. The crowd began
its customary roar. Thielman rounded second base
and headed for third with O'Toole digging after him. As Thielman
arrived at third, however, he collapsed. O'Toole dare not run
past him, so he obligingly half-carried, dragged Thielmann the rest of
the way to home plate. Amazingly, the umpire allowed
both runs. Wilmer had won. Thielmann was
the winning pitcher. Thielmann was also dead. He died
of heart failure at third base. That story is really a perfect
story to describe Chapter 14. There can be shadows over victory
and sadness in success, and that's the flavor of chapter 14. Saul's
accomplishments are mentioned at the end of the chapter, but
the author has another agenda, and it's to offer Israel and
us some object lessons of examples, examples not to be followed.
So look at verse 1. One day, Jonathan, son of Saul, said to
the young man who carried his armor, come, let's go over to
the Philistine garrison on the other side. But he did not tell
his father. Just pause here to consider that
Jonathan, on all accounts, would have made a great king. He's
courageous, he's a fighter, he trusts the Lord. In both these
chapters, he's like William Wallace out of Braveheart. His dynasty,
however, is attached to his father Saul, and God has rejected Saul. And this certainly is not the
main point, but there's a little lesson here about the consequences
of sin from a father. Saul has ruined the opportunity
for his son. From verse 2 all the way to the
end of verse 15, we read about the heroism of Jonathan and his
armor bearer. Look at verse 6, things like
this, come let's go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised.
It may be that the Lord will work for us for nothing can hinder
the Lord from saving by many or by few. It's like the true
and better Gideon. Verse 12, Jonathan said to his
armor bearer, come up after me, for the Lord has given them into
the hand of Israel. The scene ends in verse 15. There
was a panic in the camp and the field, and among all the people,
the garrison, even the raiders trembled. The earth quaked, it
became a very great panic. If you remember prior to the
battle, the Israelites were quaking with fear, but now the Philistines
are. And Jonathan's faith is worth highlighting. He says the
Lord can save by many or by few. The apple has fallen far from
the tree. Jonathan is not like his father.
At the risk of getting a little granular, there's one more little
detail worth mentioning. Back in verse two, Saul is with
the priest Ahijah, son of Ahitab, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas. the grandson of the loser priest
Phineas, the scoundrel This is the family of Ichabod. You remember
what that name means. The glory has departed. Now this little detail is slipped
in by the author because he wants you to notice this. Seems fitting
that Saul is hanging around the Ichabod crowd. He's not with
Samuel's crew, he's with Ichabod's crew. But blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. because his glory
is about to be gone too. Saul is like a slow motion train
wreck. Nevertheless, the scene ends
in verse 22 with the words, likewise, when all the men of Israel had
hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim, heard that
the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after
them in the battle, so the Lord saved Israel that day. But that
day is about to turn into a bad day. Good day is about to be
turned into a bad day. Look at verse 24 in the stupid
vow Saul makes. The men of Israel had been hard
pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people saying,
cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I'm avenged
of my enemies. So none of the people had tasted
food. Let me just summarize the story. Oaths were a big deal
in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, big deal in Jesus'
day. Saul says nobody eats until evening
and their enemies are dead. Everyone keeps the oath, everyone
but Jonathan, Saul's son. He doesn't keep it because he
doesn't know about it. He's out fighting bad guys. And
he finds some wild honey and he helps himself as anyone would.
When they find out Jonathan had some honey, they, quote, the
people faint. And Jonathan says, my father
has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright
because I tasted a little of this honey? How much better if
the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies
that they'd found, for now the defeat among the Philistines
has not been great. The story goes on, they keep
fighting. They're hungry, quote, very faint. They find some sheep,
calves, they have a little barbecue, and it's not kosher. Look at
verse 32. The people ate them with the
blood. This was a Torah violation. Saul finds this out, but notice
what he does. He flips. Suddenly, he plays
the part of righteous judge, almost like he's trying to compensate.
Look at verse 33. Then they told Saul, behold,
the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood.
He said, you have dealt treacherously. So Saul basically says, there's
gonna be hell to pay. Who did this? You guys are big
time in trouble here. Shouldn't be sitting like this.
So he builds an altar, tries to act the part. But at this
point, it's like lipstick on the pig. He's a joke and everyone
knows it. The emperor has no clothes at
this point. Verse 37, Saul inquired of God,
shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand
of Israel? But he did not answer him that day. God has moved on. He won't answer Saul's prayer.
There's a New Testament equivalent to this in 1 Peter. Peter says,
you don't be abusive to your wives, husbands. If you are,
God won't listen to you. He'll ignore you. Your prayers
will be hindered. The silence from God is deafening.
It's a kind of judgment. And this now causes Saul to implode,
he's unhinged. The scene ends with Saul saying,
well, Jonathan, you tasted honey, I made an oath. Even though you
didn't know about it, you're gonna die. Oh, the irony. The foolish king, think about
it, ignoring his own sin and scorching others for theirs.
Meanwhile, all the people are bothered by this. Jonathan says
in verse 37, all right, here I am, I'll die. Saul says, okay,
you're gonna die. And the people say, shall Jonathan
die who's worked this great salvation? Far be it. And the people basically
intervene. The whole episode reads like
a kind of embarrassment. The deterioration of a kingdom.
Saul looks like the fool that Samuel told him he was. I'll
summarize this last section. The chapter ends with commenting
how valiant Saul was. Even while I'm preaching this,
just skim it in your own Bibles to see this. It tells about his
fighting, his conquest. This is in verse 47 of chapter
14. His plundering, his family. It's a little bio, and it's really
positive, actually. In fact, look at the final verse,
verse 52. There was hard fighting against
the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any
strong man or valiant man, he attached him to himself." Now,
here's what you should be feeling right now. Okay, this is odd. This is a little interesting.
We've just heard a story of how foolish Saul is, his rash vow,
but then the editor ends with talking about these triumphs. These two chapters are a compilation
of embarrassing stories, but then it ends with a flattering
bio. Why? Dale Ralph Davis makes a really
helpful comment here. I'm going to read it to you.
I think it's on the screen. This is really the main application
of the whole passage today. The vital assessment cannot come
from the applause of men within history, but only from the God
who reigns over history. What matters then is not success,
whether political or military, but covenant. Yahweh is not looking
for winners, but for disciples. That is the reason for the negative
undertow in chapters 13 and 14. Saul has began to fail at the
point of covenant, of the covenant, in that he did not submit to
the covenant God. And for the Bible, covenant obedience
matters far more than vocational achievement. We have then these
two estimates of Saul, the historical and the covenantal. Both are
true. Saul was, looking at the whole
picture, a courageous and militarily successful king. No need to deny
that, no reason to hide it. Let us, as 1 Samuel 14 does,
readily and thankfully acknowledge it. Two assessments, both true,
but only one matters. One can be a historical success
and a covenant failure. Like Mary, we should ponder these
things in our hearts. What a poignant and powerful
lesson for us today. Worldly success is not the same
as covenant faithfulness. Being a great businessman is
not the same as being obedient to the Lord. Being a great politician
or war hero or entrepreneur is not as important as being a faithful
disciple of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What matters,
church, at the end of the day, What matters on the deathbed
of your life is your soul and its relationship to the Eternal
Father. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave this great quote, sorry for its
length but it's so good. The gospel confines itself to
one particular subject. The gospel of Christ narrows
itself down to one question. the soul of man and its relationship
to God. In the Bible, there's a good
deal of history, history of men and nations and geography, and
some people find in it geology and biology. All sorts of subjects
are dealt with in this book, and yet it is not an encyclopedia.
It is not a book which gives us a little knowledge about many
things. It's a book which gives us much knowledge about one thing.
It is a textbook of life, the handbook of the soul. It is a
manual dealing with one subject, the reconciliation of man with
God. If ever there was a specialist
subject in the world, it's this book. This is also true of the
master of the book. If ever there was a specialist
on the face of the earth, it was our Lord Jesus Christ. There
is a sense in which he preached only one sermon, and the theme
of the sermon was this. the soul of man in its relationship
with the Eternal Father. So today's a good day to consider
your life, consider your soul, consider your legacy, and know
this. But the only thing that ultimately
matters is that you have a covenant relationship to the Eternal Father
through his beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can
be included in his family and his kingdom through repentance
and faith. And you can be saved from the
wrath to come and forgiven and clothed in righteousness all
because of the faithfulness of the King of Kings and his achievement
of grace. So grace to you this morning
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your grace this morning and for your incredible achievement
on our behalf. Lord, help us to respond with
life change and obedience, repentance and faithfulness and loyalty
to you. Lord, help us to cultivate more of that. Help us to learn
from the negative example of Saul. Help us to feel the gravity
of this being yanked out of Saul's hand, the kingdom. Lord, help
us to see the warning here and help us to esteem covenant faithfulness
to you more than anything else, Lord, more than any other legacy
we may leave. Find us faithful, because great
is your faithfulness. We pray this in Jesus' name,
amen. Thank you for listening to this
sermon from Littleton Bible Chapel. At LBC, we are passionate followers
of Jesus, proclaiming Christ and his word. For more information
about LBC, please go to littletonbiblechapel.org.
King Saul: Unlawful Sacrifices and Rash Vows
| Sermon ID | 112524124760 |
| Duration | 39:58 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Samuel 13-14 |
| Language | English |
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