Obedience, Sin, and Hope: Lessons from Saul
Devotional
Sermon Summary
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The world in its perplexity and in its trouble refuses to listen to the one word which at one and the same time can explain its situation to it and has a solution for it and that word of course is the word which is to be found here in the Bible. [00:02:19]
God in his infinite grace and kindness did not cease to speak to men when men in his unutterable folly rebelled against him and brought ruin upon himself. God continued to speak sometimes in action sometimes in words. [00:05:35]
The prophet is a man divinely inspired of God. He is a man upon whom the spirit of the Lord came, a man who receives the burden of the Lord, the message of the Lord. God enlightened his mind, gave him understanding, gave him a message, and sent him to deliver it. [00:12:11]
The prophetic message divides itself inevitably and very naturally into two. First and foremost, it was, as I've just been saying, a message which exposes the sin of the people. It unmasks their sins; it reveals people to themselves as they are. [00:13:47]
The exposure of sin is general in this way: that what the prophets always expose is the subtlety of sin and the element of self-deception that comes into sin. And of course, it's all here to perfection in the case of this man Saul, the first king of Israel. [00:21:48]
Saul thought he was pleasing God. Saul's whole idea was to worship God. He isn't the man who's turning his back upon God. He isn't a man who's giving up religion. No, no, he's a man who's doing it well in the best form that he can think of. [00:25:13]
The subtlety of it all, the rationalizing, the devilry of it all, the explanations we can give, and of course, it works itself out in practice in the way in which we are told here so perfectly in the story. What we do, you see, is we substitute our ideas for God's ideas. [00:31:54]
What God wants, I say, is our heart, our entire obedience, not a partial obedience, not for us to pick and choose, not for us to worship him in our way and to do what we think is so much better. No heroics, no elaborate ceremony and ritual, no man-made system. [00:40:58]
God wants our heart. God wants our devotion. God doesn't want things that I can empty out of my pockets. He wants me. He doesn't even want my activity. Take how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 13: Though I have the tongue of men and of angels and can speak with an eloquence. [00:38:42]
God in spite of it all is sorry for us and has mercy upon us. He knows that what we all need is a new nature, nothing less. We are all like Saul. The twist is in us, and the prophetic message for a thousand years, these mighty men of God and their preaching, they fail to convince. [00:47:10]
God has sent his only son into this world, and he's taken human nature unto himself in order to perfect it, and he gives us his own nature, a new mind and a new heart, a heart to love God and to serve him willingly. That's the whole message of Christmas. [00:47:59]
If you've seen yourself in the picture of King Saul, go to God at once and confess it and acknowledge it and tell him all about it and cast yourself at his feet and upon his mercy, and he will assure you that he will receive you, that in Christ he pardons you. [00:51:49]
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God in his infinite grace and kindness did not cease to speak to men when men in his unutterable folly rebelled against him and brought ruin upon himself. God continued to speak sometimes in action sometimes in words. [00:05:35]
The prophet is a man divinely inspired of God. He is a man upon whom the spirit of the Lord came, a man who receives the burden of the Lord, the message of the Lord. God enlightened his mind, gave him understanding, gave him a message, and sent him to deliver it. [00:12:11]
The prophetic message divides itself inevitably and very naturally into two. First and foremost, it was, as I've just been saying, a message which exposes the sin of the people. It unmasks their sins; it reveals people to themselves as they are. [00:13:47]
The exposure of sin is general in this way: that what the prophets always expose is the subtlety of sin and the element of self-deception that comes into sin. And of course, it's all here to perfection in the case of this man Saul, the first king of Israel. [00:21:48]
Saul thought he was pleasing God. Saul's whole idea was to worship God. He isn't the man who's turning his back upon God. He isn't a man who's giving up religion. No, no, he's a man who's doing it well in the best form that he can think of. [00:25:13]
The subtlety of it all, the rationalizing, the devilry of it all, the explanations we can give, and of course, it works itself out in practice in the way in which we are told here so perfectly in the story. What we do, you see, is we substitute our ideas for God's ideas. [00:31:54]
What God wants, I say, is our heart, our entire obedience, not a partial obedience, not for us to pick and choose, not for us to worship him in our way and to do what we think is so much better. No heroics, no elaborate ceremony and ritual, no man-made system. [00:40:58]
God wants our heart. God wants our devotion. God doesn't want things that I can empty out of my pockets. He wants me. He doesn't even want my activity. Take how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 13: Though I have the tongue of men and of angels and can speak with an eloquence. [00:38:42]
God in spite of it all is sorry for us and has mercy upon us. He knows that what we all need is a new nature, nothing less. We are all like Saul. The twist is in us, and the prophetic message for a thousand years, these mighty men of God and their preaching, they fail to convince. [00:47:10]
God has sent his only son into this world, and he's taken human nature unto himself in order to perfect it, and he gives us his own nature, a new mind and a new heart, a heart to love God and to serve him willingly. That's the whole message of Christmas. [00:47:59]
If you've seen yourself in the picture of King Saul, go to God at once and confess it and acknowledge it and tell him all about it and cast yourself at his feet and upon his mercy, and he will assure you that he will receive you, that in Christ he pardons you. [00:51:49]
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