Aldo's sister, Solange, been
here several times over many years, but we're happy that she's
here with us this morning. If you were here the first hour,
Tom brought up a good point right after the message that I wish
I had said. He said, you know, in order for
the boy to hit himself with the ball, somebody has to give him
the ball. And I thought, you know, that
is so true. The Lord has given us his word. And what can wash away my sin? What? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Number 212, let's stand together.
212, from the hardback temple. ? What can wash away my sin ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? What can make me whole again ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? Oh, precious is the flow That makes
me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon this I seek, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing this I plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow, That
makes me white as snow, No other fount I know, Nothing but the
blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow, That
makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the
blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow, That
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Please be seated. Good morning. Let us turn now to our
scripture reading, our call of worship in Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. We just read about nothing but
the blood of Jesus, and that's how it's covered, by the blood
of Jesus Christ. Blesses the man to whom the Lord
imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed all through my roaring all day long. For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into drought
of summer." Selah. I acknowledge my sin to you and
my iniquity I have not hidden. I said I will confess my transgressions
to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah. For this, shall everyone that
is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely,
in the floods of the great waters, they shall not come near to him.
You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall compass me about with
songs of Deliverance, sala. I will instruct you and teach
you in the way which you should go. I will guide you with my
eye. Be ye not as a horse or as a
mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with
a bit and brittle, lest they come near you. Many sorrows shall
be to the wicked, but he that trusts in the Lord, mercy shall
come pass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
you righteous, and shout out for joy, all you who are upright
in heart. Father God, we come before you
in the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We have access to you
and we thank you for this, Father. Thank you for allowing us to
be here. Thank you for the word that is being preached, that
is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you because it's
still time where we can turn to you, Father God, and pray
for mercy and pray for grace. We now are in special need. of
hearing, especially that you give us ears to hear and eyes
to see the Lord Jesus Christ and his glory, Father. We pray
this for all the churches that are preaching the gospel this
morning, Father. We preach the same, that your
gospel may be preached, that your son might be honored, and
that he may be glorified in our sight. In Jesus' name we pray. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin, the
hymn on the back of your bulletin. Jesus, with all thy saints above,
thy tongue would bear her part, would sound aloud thy saving
love, and sing thy bleeding heart. Blest be the Lamb, my dearest
Lord, Who bought me with His blood, And quenched His Father's
flaming sword, In His own blood. from Satan's heavy chains, and
sent the lion down to hell where hell and horror reigns. Please be seated. But ere my God ordains His right,
His holy will abideth, I will be still, whate'er He doth, and
follow where He guideth. He is my God, no dark mine will.
He holds me fast. that I shall not fall, wherefore
to him I But there my God ordains us right,
His Son will not deceive me. Christ is my hope, my only hope,
He promised not to leave. His life, His death, His perfect
faith hath pleased the Father over me. So now I can come home. But ere my God ordains as right
His loving thought attends me, The sin that kept me far from
Him, Christ, forbid all that carry. My God is true, each born anew. He gives me faith, the gift of
grace. Christ is my life, unending. What e'er my God ordains is right.
He is my friend and Savior. He suffers not to do me harm,
though many storms may gash. Now I may know both joy and woe,
some day I shall see it clear, that he hath loved me
dear. What e'er my God ordains is right,
here shall my stand be taken. Though sorrow, need, or death
be mine, yet I am not forsaken. My Savior's care is round me,
there He holds me, and I shall not fall. And so to Him I give thanks. Thank you, Tom. We believe that. Let's open our Bibles to 1 Samuel
chapter 13. 1 Samuel chapter 13. I started to title this message
Rejected by God because that's what's happening to Saul. And there are at least four reasons
why Saul was rejected. But I've changed the title of
this message to Accepted by God. And my hope is that the Lord
will teach us, by contrast, to do and to have just the opposite
of what we see in the life of Saul. If you turn over just a page
with me to 1 Samuel chapter 15, at verse 23. The latter part of verse 23,
because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also
rejected thee from being king. Here we see one of the reasons
why God rejected Saul as being king, because he didn't believe
God. In verse 26, And Samuel said
unto Saul, I will not return unto thee, for thou hast rejected
the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from
being king. We know that faith is a gift
of God, and yet the Lord calls on us to believe, and what God
requires, we know that God must provide and so we see both of
these things being true. The Lord has to give us faith
and we must believe, we must believe God. Saul did not. I don't suppose there are any
more grievous words for a man to have to hear than depart from
me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. All would be lost if we had to
hear God speak those words. And yet, the other side of that
would be the king saying unto them that are on his right hand,
come ye blessed of my father and inherit the kingdom which
was prepared for you from the foundations of the world. That's
what I want to hear. If we are to be accepted by a
holy God, we must be accepted in the beloved. We must be found
in Christ. We must believe all that God
has revealed in his word, about his word. Saul didn't believe God. And those horrible words, you've
been rejected by God. I don't wanna have anything to
do with those words. I want the Lord to say to those
on his right hand, blessed are you of my father, enter into
the kingdom. And this kingdom was prepared
for you from the foundations of the world. When the Lord Jesus
Christ entered into a covenant promise with his father as the
lamb slain before the foundation of the world, he promised to
be their surety. And so this covenant of God is is the gospel of God, it's the
hope of our salvation, it's the work of God, it's all of God. In 1 Samuel chapter 13, in the first four verses of this
chapter, we find one of the reasons why Saul was rejected, and in
contrast to that, we find a reason why we would be accepted. Saul takes credit and glory for
something that he did not do. Let's read it together. Verse
one, Saul reigned one year, and when he had reigned two years
over Israel, Saul chose him 3,000 men of Israel, where of 2,000
were with Saul in Michmash and in Mount Bethel, and 1,000 were with Jonathan
in Gibeah of Benjamin, and the rest of the people he sent every
man to his tent. And Jonathan smote the garrison
of the Philistines that was in Geba. And the Philistines heard
of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout
all the land saying, let the Hebrews hear. And all Israel,
this is what Saul pronounced to all of Israel. And all Israel
heard say that Saul had smitten the garrison of the Philistines.
and that Israel also was had an abomination with the Philistines
and the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal. Jonathan had smitten the garrison and Saul blew his own trumpet
and took credit for the victory that Jonathan had gotten. What a recipe for disaster. What a truth to our salvation. And we see it so evident in the
false gospel, do we not? Men taking credit and glory for
something that they did not do. What is the difference between
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ that actually accomplishes salvation and all the other messages
of man-made religion? What's the difference? Very simple. Who gets the glory? All the glory. All the glory,
that's what makes the difference. If we take credit for something
that we did not do, we'll be rejected of God. David, a man after God's own
heart, who was God's man after Saul was rejected, said this in Psalm 115, he said,
not unto us, oh Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, give glory
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Lord, you get all the credit. You get all the glory. You are the one that promised
the father to redeem us and you accomplished that redemption
all by yourself. You went to the cross by yourself.
You didn't have another man to help thee. Rejected of all men,
truly, truly salvations of the Lord. It's all of him and he
gets all the glory and we rejoice in giving him the glory. We would
We would fear to rob Christ of any of the glory of salvation.
That's what it is to fear God. There's no fear of God before
their eyes because they don't fear taking credit for something
that they didn't do. They don't fear it. The Lord said in Isaiah chapter
48, verse 11, for my own sake, even for my own sake will I do
it. And how shall my name be polluted for I will not give
my glory to another. Aren't you thankful believer
that he did it all and he gets all the credit and all the glory
and you would never blow your trumpet before Israel and say to Israel, Saul did it.
I did it. Come follow me. Saul knew that
they would not follow him unless he took credit for what Jonathan
had done. Turn with me to Isaiah 48. I
just read one of the verses in that passage. Isaiah chapter 48. We'll read verse 11 again. Look
at it. For my own sake, even for my
own sake will I do it. For how shall my name be polluted
and I will not give my glory to another. For any man to think that he's, that he's done something to make what God did work for
him. That's the message of a works
gospel. God loves everybody and Christ
died for everybody and God wants everybody to be saved and he
offers you salvation and if you'll do your part, he'll save you. That's taking
credit for something you didn't do. Look at the next verse. Hearken
unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called, I am he, I am the
first and also the last. How oftentimes we see in the
scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ referring to himself as the alpha
and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the
last. What is the Lord telling us? From election to glorification
and everything in between, your regeneration, Your justification
before God, your redemption, your sanctification, it's all
of the Lord. We're not going to take one letter
out of the alphabet and say, well, I did that part. He gets
all the glory. Saul took credit and glory for
something that he didn't do because he wanted other men to follow
him. He wanted to be exalted. He wanted to be exalted. Look at verse 13. For my hand also hath
laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned
the heavens. When I call unto them, they stand
up together. All ye, assemble yourselves and
hear which among them hath declared these things. The Lord hath loved
him, and he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall
be on the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken, yea,
I have called him, I have brought him, and he shall make his way
prosperous. I'll not share my glory with
another. He gets all, he laid the foundation and he'll finish
the work. He's the first and the last.
And faith, faith, fears. When the self-righteous sin of your old man raises his
ugly head, child of God, Does that not make you afraid? It does, doesn't it? Oh, there's
just, there's so much pharisaical self-righteousness in the believer. You know, the only difference
really between the believer and the unbeliever is that the believer
recognizes it and the unbeliever toots his horn and glories in
it. It makes us afraid, it makes
them It makes them happy. It makes
them content. It makes them hopeful that they
did what was required of them in order to be saved. It makes you afraid, doesn't
it? Every time you see that, that proudful self-righteousness coming up, oh Lord, save me. Save me from myself. Save me
from my sin. Saul took credit and gloried
in something that he did not do. Faith gives all the glory and
all the credit to Christ, all of it. Go back with me to our
text, 1 Samuel 13. The second recipe for rejection,
the second thing that we see Saul doing here that faith cannot
do is that he thought that he could secure God's blessings
by a sacrifice that he made. He thought that he could offer
God something that would that would procure the blessings of
God on him. Look at verse eight. And he tarried seven days according
to the set time that Samuel had appointed, but Samuel came not
to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. Samuel in
chapter 10 of 1 Samuel tells Saul, you wait in Gilgal seven
days. And I'm sure the sun is beginning
to set at the end of the seventh day and the people are beginning
to scatter and Saul takes matters into his own hands. And Saul
said, bring me here a burnt offering to me and a peace offering. And he offered the burnt offering.
Now, what I want you to see in this text is that Saul never
offered the peace offering. The burnt offering is an Old
Testament type of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on
Calvary's cross when the fire of God's wrath fell upon him
and consumed the sacrifice. And as that fire of God's wrath
was consuming the sacrifice, the sacrifice consumed the fire. That's what that's a picture
of, that whole burnt. And only the priest could do
that, but Saul, Thought, Samuel's not here, time is short, people
are scattering, and he offered the burnt offering. He told him,
bring the burnt offering and the peace offering. Samuel's
gonna show up before he offers the peace offering. But what
is the point here? That the burnt offering that
Saul offered was ineffectual in bringing peace. That's the message. Saul thought,
I can make a sacrifice of a burnt offering, and then I'll make
the peace offering. Saul, you see, the false prophets
are saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. They will
tell you something to do. They will give you a work to
perform. And not only the false prophets,
The self-righteousness of our own old nature keeps looking
back, thinking, well certainly, but there's no peace in that,
is there? There's no peace in it. We're always trying to make
a sacrifice and an atonement, but it comes without peace. The only peace that there is
to be had is the sacrifice that Christ made. But here's the mistake
that Saul thought, I'll make a burnt offering and then I'll
make a peace offering. He said, bring me the burnt offering,
bring me the peace offering. He never made the peace offering. Look at verse 10. And it came
to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt
offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him
that he might salute him. And Samuel said, what have you
done? And Saul said, because I saw the people were scattered
from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed,
well, the day wasn't over yet. Oh, there's a lesson to be learned
there, isn't it? In terms of waiting on God. How
often times we take matters into our own hands rather than trusting
God. And every time we do, we make
a mess of things, don't we? How often times the Lord tells
us, wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord. But he thought, and there's our
problem, there's our problem in that I thought we do things
because we think they're prudent, we think they're expedient, we
think they're necessary when they're If they're contrary to
what God has said, Samuel had already, remember the first hour,
we looked at chapter nine of 1 Samuel, where Samuel told Saul,
sit still and I will tell you the word of God. And he told
him everything. And now Saul is acting contrary
to what God had spoken. He thought he could make a sacrifice
that would secure God's blessings on the battle that he was about
to engage in. What is our battle? What is our
warfare? Is it not with our own sin? Is
that our battle? Spirit warring against the flesh
and the flesh against the spirit. Is not our sin our conflict? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem. Tell them their warfare is accomplished. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus went to the cross for. He bore all the sins of all of
his people in his body upon that tree. The fire of God's wrath
fell upon him and consumed the sin and put it away. Put it away. There's our comfort, there's
our hope. The battle for sin has been won. But Saul, like us, thought, well,
God's not coming in time and I'll just take matters into my
own hand. Verse 11, because I saw that
the people were scattered from me and that thou camest not within
the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered themselves
together at Michmash, therefore said I, the Philistines will
come down now unto me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication
unto the Lord. I'm not yet. provided what God requires in
order for him to give me victory over my enemy. And here's the
message, brethren, you can't provide what God requires in
order to get victory over your enemy. You can't do it, I can't
do it. We need to be reminded of that,
don't we? Because we're constantly trying to do it. I can't do it. It's a recipe for failure, it's
a recipe for rejection. And if a man thinks that I can
make an offering, I can make a sacrifice to get the supplications
of the Lord, that word means to supply. What are we looking
for God to supply us with? Forgiveness, grace, peace, hope,
all those blessings that come, victory over sin, all those blessings
come through Christ. David said in Psalm 51, he said,
thou desirest not sacrifice else I would give it. Thou desirest
not in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken
and contrite spirit. Oh God, thou will not despise. What is a broken and contrite
spirit is to come before the throne of grace and say, Lord,
I don't have anything to offer. I don't have a sacrifice to make.
I can't procure your blessings. I can't bring a burnt offering. The only thing I can bring to
you is my sin. That's all I've got. Nothing
else. Nothing else. That's all I have. Accepted or rejected? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse eight. Above when he said
sacrifice and offering and burnt offering and offering for sin,
that's those Old Testament sacrifices. Thou wouldest not. They weren't
sufficient to put away our sin. They weren't sufficient to get
the victory. They weren't sufficient to provide
life. They were not given in order
to. in order to put away sin. They were given as a type, as
a picture, pointing to the one who would put away sin. And so
God says, sacrifice an offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither
hath pleasure therein which are offered by the law. All the religious
ceremonies and sacrifices that men make. All the attempts that
we make in order to try to secure the blessings of God are made
without the peace offering. There's no peace in them. My
peace I give unto thee, not as the world gives. We're left without
peace. Look at verse nine. Then said
he, the Lord Jesus Christ, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Once for all. Saul thought First of all, he took credit
for something he didn't do. He gloried in it, he blew the
trumpet, told all of Israel, look what I did. Secondly, he
thought that he could make a burnt sacrifice and a peace offering. He made the burnt sacrifice without
the peace offering. Thirdly, He thought that he could approach
God without a priest. Samuel was the priest. Saul was
the king. Saul needed Samuel to intercede
for him. The king was not allowed to make
an offering. Only the priest could do that.
Let me show you that. Turn with me to 2 Chronicles
chapter 26. 2 Chronicles chapter 26. Uzzah was a good king. He had accomplished much. And yet, toward the end of his
life, he became proud, thinking that the blessings that he had
enjoyed as king were the result of something he did. And in 2 Chronicles chapter 26,
At verse 16, look at verse 16. But when he was strong, his heart
was lifted up to his destruction, for he transgressed against the
Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense
unto the altar of incense. Now the incense in the Old Testament
is a picture of prayer. As the smoke goes up into heaven
and he's goes into the nostrils of God, it's a picture of prayer.
And if you and I think that we can even pray to God without
the Lord Jesus Christ. He told Peter, he said, Peter,
before the cock crows, you're gonna deny me three times, but
be of good cheer. I have prayed for thee. Father,
I pray for them. I pray not for the world. I pray
for them, which thou has given me out of the world. We have
an advocate with the Father. That's why when we pray, every
time we pray, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What are we doing? We're calling upon the Lord Jesus
Christ to make those prayers acceptable to God. we would never
approach the throne of grace without the Lord Jesus as our
advocate before God. So Uzziah thinks, well, he can
offer incense. He can pray to God without a
priest. Verse 17, and Azariah the priest
went in after him and with him four score priests, 80 priests,
81 to be exact. of the Lord that were valiant
men. And they withstood Uzziah the
king and said unto him, it appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn
incense unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron
that are consecrated to burn incense, go out of the sanctuary,
for thou hast trespassed, neither shall it be for thine honor for
the Lord God. And when Uzziah was wroth, He
was angry at these priests. Say, I'm king. I don't need you. I can go to God without the priest. And Uzziah was wroth and had
a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was wroth
with the priest, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead
before the priest and the house of the Lord for beside the altar
of incense. And Azariah, the chief priest
and all the priests looked upon him and behold, he was leprous
in his forehead. And they thrust him out from
thence. Yea, himself hastened also to go out, because the Lord
had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper
until the day of his death." Isaiah was the prophet during
these times. And in Isaiah chapter six, the
scripture says, and in the year that King Uzziah died, I also
saw the Lord. Uzziah. This great king thought
he could offer prayers. What was Saul's error? He thought he could make a sacrifice
without a priest. Do we make sacrifices to God?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Gladly, unprofitable
servants is what we are, but we do, we make sacrifices of
prayer, we make sacrifices of offerings, we make sacrifices
of service, we do what we do as unto the Lord, and we do it
all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for whatever is not done
in faith is sin. So we understand that whatever
offerings we make, whatever prayers we offer, we must have the Lord
Jesus as our priest before God. He's our high priest. We would
dare not come into the presence of God without a priest. And yet men boldly and foolishly
think they can barge into the presence of God without Christ
as their advocate. That's what Saul did. He didn't wait for the priest.
If the priest's not coming, I'm going to have to do this myself. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
7. Hebrews chapter 7. Look at verse 23. And they truly
were many priests, talking about those Old Testament priests,
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
They died and a new priest had to take their place. But this
man, we don't look to a man as our priest. You know, every religion
in the world practices priestcraft. They set up Imans and priests
and elders, and you know, and men love it. Men love having
a priest they can see. We're talking about a priest
you can't see with your physical eyes. That priesthood's over
with. We have one priest, and he's
entered into the heavens. But this man, verse 24, because
he continueth forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for
them. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and
made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifices, We don't make sacrifices through
a man. We have a priest who's made himself
to be the sacrifice. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests
which have infirmity, but the word of the oath which was before
the law He's talking about that covenant of grace. This is the
promise that the father made to the son, the son made to the
father before the law was ever given. It make it the son who
is consecrated forevermore. Now the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum, this is the summation of it all. We
have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the
throne of the majesty on high, a minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. The third error that Saul made
and the reason why he was rejected is that he thought that he could
approach God without a priest. Fourthly, go back with me to
our text. And this is my final point. First Samuel chapter 13, look
at verse 12. Therefore said I, the Philistines
will come down now upon me and Gilgal, and I have not made supplication
unto the Lord. I forced myself therefore and
offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, thou
hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment
of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee from now, for
now with the Lord have established thy kingdom. upon Israel forever,
but now the kingdom, your kingdom will not continue. The Lord therefore
has sought out a man after his own heart." And speaking of David. The fourth thing that we see
Saul doing in this story is refusing to accept responsibility for
his sin and even justifying himself for his sin. When David had Uriah killed and took his
wife Bathsheba for almost a year, David continued to try to make
sacrifice. What can I do? He felt the guilt
and shame of what he had done. And he kept trying to atone for
his own sin until God finally sent a prophet by the name of
Nathan. And Nathan said to David, David,
thou art the man. And David was smitten. And for the first time in a year,
the spirit of God put the whole weight of his sin on him. And he had a burden now that
he could not bear. That's such a blessing. To be given a burden that you
cannot bear. That's the only thing that will
force us to say what David said in that situation. He said, I
have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said, yes, and the
Lord has forgiven you. David could enjoy no forgiveness
at all. David wrote Psalm 51 right after
that. And David could enjoy no forgiveness
from God until the responsibility of sin was placed on him. God makes you to be a sinner.
You know, the blame game's not a game with God. We're real good
at it. We're real good at it, aren't
we? It goes all the way back to the garden. When God first
confronted Adam for the very first sin, what did Adam say?
The woman that thou gave me, she did give me and I did eat.
Adam wasn't blaming Eve, he was blaming God. And anytime we blame
our circumstances or another person for our sin, we're blaming
God. And we're real good at it. We
justify ourselves until the Spirit of God, by the Word of God, says
to us, thou art the man. And then we know, it's all on
me. and we take sides with God against
ourselves. And then, and only then, do we
hear the voice of God say, yes, and thou art forgiven. First John 1.9, if thou confess
thy sins, And that word confess doesn't mean you make a list
of your sins and you try to figure out everything that you've done
wrong and you come before God and you are able to identify
time is not sufficient nor is our understanding sufficient
to figure out all of our sins. The word confess comes from two
words in the original language The first word is word, logos,
and the second word is same. And so when God says, if you
confess your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive you of your
sins and cleanse you of all of your unrighteousness. What God's
saying is, say the same thing back to God that he says about
yourself. What does he say? In me, that
is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. My righteousness is as
filthy rags before God. Behold, I am vile. I'm a sinner. And this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. There will be no salvation until
the Spirit of God We're not here. Come and enter into the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. We depart this
world thinking that our sin is somebody else's fault, particularly
God's fault. Like Saul, we'll be rejected. Four points. Saul took credit
and glory for something that he didn't do. Faith gives to
Christ all the glory for our salvation. Saul tried to atone for his own
sins by making a sacrifice of a burnt offering. And there was
no peace offering. We don't try to atone for our
sins. We look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice
that he made on Calvary's cross for the burn offering and for
the peace offering. Thirdly, Saul thought that he could come
into the presence of God without a priest. We would not so much
as offer up a prayer without the Lord Jesus Christ as our
mediator and as our high priest before God. Fourthly, Saul refused
to accept responsibility for what he had done, even after
he was confronted, he justified himself. Faith says with the Syrophoenician
woman, when God speaks and calls you a dog, Faith says, truth,
Lord. Truth, Lord. And the dogs eat
the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Oh, Lord, feed
me. Four years ago, when we were
in the other building. I thought I brought a copy of
that up here with me. I don't guess I did. Thank you, Tom. Four years ago, we were in the
other building. Bert took the hymn, Blessed Assurance,
and wrote some better words to it and sang it as a solo, you
may remember. Inside your bulletin there's
a copy of that hymn, the words that Bert wrote. On the refrain, pleasing hour. You see where it says, praising
my savior for the work he had done. And then it says, praising
my father for the work he had done. I misunderstood that when Bert
was singing it. So it's, it's pleasing our father
for the work he had done. I want us to close this service
this morning by singing this hymn. And so Tom's gonna come
and lead us and What assurance? Blessed assurance. Oh, it is. We have good assurance. We have
a good hope. We grieve, but not as those who
have no hope. We have a good assurance. Our
assurance is based on the testimony of faith and the truth of God's
word. We know where our brother is.
We know that he's glorying in the presence of the one that
he loved more than anything else. He's been made like him. He's
worshiping him like he wanted to be able to worship him every
time he came to this place. I pray the Lord will cause us
to learn from Saul's error and not make the eternally deadly mistake of doing
what Saul did. Pray Lord to give us some understanding
as we sing these words together. Tom, you come please. I'm gonna
leave this with you. Oh, okay. Let's all stand together. ? Florence, Jesus is Lord ? ? Oh,
what a Savior of glory divine ? ? He is salvation, our substitute
? ? Born of the Spirit, faithful and true ? ? This is his story,
this is his song ? ? Praising my Savior for the work he hath
done ? This is his story, this is his song ? Praising our Father
for the work he hath done ? Perfect obedience, all satisfied ? Justice
demanded, our Savior should die ? It is finished, Christ Jesus
cried ? Precious blood offered, God satisfied ? This is his story,
this is his song ? Praising my Savior for the work he hath done
? This is his story, this is his song ? Praising our Father
for the work he hath done ? Our Savior is risen, he sits on his
throne ? Interceding for his chosen below ? God's Spirit is
calling ? Oh, merciful Savior, have mercy on me This is His
story, this is His song, Praising my Savior for the work He hath
done. This is His story, this is His
song, Praising our Father for the work He hath done. ? Blessed
assurance elected of God ? ? Glory and honor His name we adore ?
? O weary sinner be of good cheer ? ? Our blessed Redeemer all
is so near ? ? This is His story, this is His song ? Praising my
Savior for the work He hath done. This is His story, this is His
song. Pleasing our Father for the work
He hath done.