Exhortation, Confession, & Assurance from Sunday, December 4th, 2022

Exhortation

Looking to the Law, Paul tells us in Galatians that one of its functions is as a tutor to direct us to Christ. This is quite true. And I would remind us that the whole of scripture has this same benefit. We have the great benefit of biblical history serving as a guardian to lead us away from folly and to Christ. And the life and actions of Israel’s first king is one such lesson. 

In 1 Samuel 13 and 15, we are given a picture of the finicky nature of the heart of man. At one moment we are leaping off the cliff on the right side of the trail and the next moment it is to the left that we jump. But regardless of whether it is to the right or to the left, the folly is leaving the path in the first place.

In 1 Samuel 13, we are given a warning about the dangers of impatience. Saul, who is on the eve of war with the Philistines wants the blessing of God but does not want to wait for it to come in God’s way or in His timing. So instead of waiting for Samuel, the itinerant priest and judge, to arrive. Saul takes matters into his own hands. He takes on a mantle that he had not been given. He plays the part of the priest and sacrifices to the Lord, in the wrong way and at the wrong time. Because of this, when Samuel arrives and sees what Saul has done, that like Adam, he had reached out and taken what was not yet his, He tells the king that even what he does have will be now taken, the kingdom would be removed from him and given to another.

But then in chapter 15, we see a lurch in the opposite direction. There Saul is instructed to go to war with the Amalekites and take no spoil and spare none, for great was the evil of the Amalekites. But after the campaign was complete, we are told that Saul and the army took the King and much spoil back with them. Perhaps they believed they could salvage some good out of the wicked. This time, it is not Saul’s impatience, his taking things too far that is his folly, but his refusal to go all the way.

Now, this lesson is a coin with two sides, and we should learn from both. In the first instance, we should recognize our propensity to reach out and take that which is not given, at least not yet. This is the sin of impatience. Children, this is the temptation to run out from underneath your parents’ authority and protection before the time has come to leave father and mother. This is the temptation of sexual pleasure in the wrong way and at the wrong time before you have left father and mother to cling to a wife or a husband under the covenant of marriage. This is the impatient sin of wanting authority or office or applause that God has not yet granted to you. Rather than being grateful and content in our position, we like Saul grumble and grab impatiently and immaturely for that which has not been given.

But the other side of the coin is as deadly. Not going all the way that God has called us to go. This is when we fail to kill all the sin that we are commanded to mortify, keeping a little to the side hoping to still get a little more pleasure out of it, with perhaps only half the guilt. Or it is the refusal to take up the mantle that God has in fact given—the mantle of a husband and father leading and bleeding for his wife and children… of mothers suspending their prior track to sacrifice for the blessing of their children… of elder men and women pouring their wisdom and knowledge back into the generations behind them. 

These are the two cliffs that in alternate chapters Saul dove off of. But as much as it is important to recognize and avoid the cliffs, it is far more important to love and cleave to the path itself. For the path that we are tempted to abandon, the one Saul disregarded, is the Word of God. In both Chapters, we are told that in grabbing prematurely or failing to go all the way, Saul disregarded the voice of the LORD. Which, as we ought to know, but need reminding of regularly, is the central and fundamental rebellion. When we refuse to hear and heed God’s word, we find ourselves in a free fall, and like Saul, the Kingdom, if only temporarily, is stripped from us. And I say temporarily, because both the sin of impatiently, and of indolently disregarding God’s word, are sins for which Christ died, and the Father invites us to confess and receive forgiveness. Therefore let us not hesitate, but by the Spirit, run to the Father and confess our sins to him. So let’s read this confession of sin together.

Corporate Confession

Together: Most merciful Lord take away our sins, and mercifully kindle in us the fire of your Holy Spirit. Take away any part of our heart that remains hard as stone and give us hearts of flesh, hearts that love and adore You, hearts to delight You, trust you, obey you, follow and enjoy You. For Christ’s sake and for Your glory, forgive our sin. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Paul writes this great news in Philippians chapter 2, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Church, for you, Christ did nothing impatiently, he did not grasp for anything, he waited with absolute and godly patience to receive that which the Father would give to him.

And, Christ also did nothing 80% of the way. He did not avoid difficulty or sorrow or physical pain or discomfort. No, in all ways and at all times Christ obeyed the word of the Father, and rather than having the kingdom stripped, the Lord Christ has been given a Kingdom that has no end. 

And Church, his obedience, in the place of our disobedience, his hearing and obeying the voice of His Father led to his death, even death on a cross, for you and for me. His patient and complete obedience has covered our sin, and because of His humiliation, we have been glorified, we have been clothed in his obedience. And now we are forgiven and set free, equipped to wait on the Lord when he says wait, and go all the way when he says to do so. And we do so trusting the God and Father who, for us and for our salvation, sent his Son to die for the unrighteous.

Minister: Therefore, it is my great joy and delight to declare, to all of you who have faith in Jesus Christ, who have confessed your sins in his name, Church your sins are forgiven through Christ!

Together: Thanks be to God!!!

by: Jefff Rodland