The true biblical gospel is a
gospel of accomplished salvation. It's a declaration. Whenever
you hear people claiming to preach the gospel, and many, many do,
they generally Talk about offering an option to men and women. The
true gospel is not an offer of an option. You can or you maybe
don't want to. The true gospel is a declaration
of something that is accomplished. Absolutely. What did the Lord
Jesus Christ say on the cross? It is finished. Finished. Accomplished. accomplished. Nothing to do. It's absolutely
clear. The gospel of salvation is entirely
of grace. The grace of God. God's riches
at Christ's expense. It's by Christ alone. It's with
no contribution. Does this thrill your heart to
know? To be right with God in heaven,
there is no contribution required. In fact, don't even attempt it.
Because if you try to add anything Christ will profit you nothing,
nothing, okay? Entirely of grace by Christ alone
with no contribution from the one who is saved. The things
believers do, now this runs against what religion teaches people,
you listen to me carefully. The things believers do have
absolutely no effect on their standing as saved, redeemed,
justified, sanctified people in Christ. So don't ever despair
that anything you have done has lost your salvation. Don't ever
despair. It's not dependent on anything
that is in you, or that you do, either have done, or might do
in the future. Nothing whatsoever. But, but,
but, being saved completely controls and constrains the behaviour
of saved sinners. So if you have no experience
of gospel restraint, if you have no experience of the word of
God coming in the gospel of his grace, and you go, no, I'm not
going to do that, I'm not going to go that way, I'm not going
to do that thing, do not presume on salvation. Because though
nothing you do changes your standing before God, what God has done
for you changes the way you will react. Look at verses 27 to 31. A man of God came to Eli, verse
27 of chapter 2 of 1 Samuel. A man of God came to Eli and
said to him, this is what God says, thus saith the Lord, did
I plainly appear unto the house of thy father when they were
in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? Whose house was this? It was
the house of Aaron of the tribe of Levi. They were the priests,
verse 27. Did I plainly appear unto the
house of thy father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house,
yes, of course he did. And did I choose him out of all
the tribes of Israel to be my priest? Yes, he chose Aaron.
Yes, he was the father of the line from which Eli, the high
priest, came. To offer upon mine altar, to
burn incense, to wear an ephod, to wear the clothes of a priest.
And did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings
made by fire of the children of Israel? The priests were for
the service of God and they were to live off the offerings that
the people brought. wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice?"
Why are you treating it contemptuously, with contempt? Which I have commanded
in my habitation. The sacrifices, the temple service
that God had commanded, Eli and his sons were treating contemptuously. And why was he doing this? Not
Eli himself, perhaps, but Eli in this. Look what God says to
him by this man of God. You honor your sons above me. God says you honor your... What
an indictment. You honor your sons above me
to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings
of Israel my people. Wherefore, the Lord God of Israel
says, I said it indeed that thy house and the house of thy father
should walk before me forever, but ye haven't. Now the Lord
says, Be it far from me. Them that honour me I will honour,
and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." You know
we saw last week Hannah's prayer, Hannah's prayer of thanksgiving.
She'd given Samuel, the child, to Eli. And Samuel was not of
Eli's descent. He had two sons who were in the
priesthood. He was high priest and he had
two sons, Hophni and Phineas, who were in the priesthood. And
we read about them in this chapter two of their evil deeds. They were committing fornication
with the women that came to the temple door. They were abusing
the sacrifices. They were making the people give
the best of their things so that they could enrich and fatten
themselves up with it. Everything that they did was
vile in the Lord's eyes. It was wicked. It was evil. And
Eli had failed to honor God regarding his wicked sons. And in truth,
Eli preferred them and their way and their desires to what
God had said in truth, and that brings consequences. I know I
said that whatever we do doesn't change our standing, but even
as belief people, our actions bring consequences. We claim,
those of us that do, claim to love the true gospel. We claim
to honour God and his Son. But do we in any way think about
these things? Examine your own heart and me
my own heart. Do we neglect salvation? How do I mean? What do I mean?
Do we make it a part-time thing? Do we make salvation a part-time
thing? Because if we do, we're actually
despising God. We despise Christ. We're not
honoring him. And how shall we escape if we
neglect so great salvation, says Hebrews 2 chapter 3. Do we ever
resist his clear will? We see his words saying to us,
thus and thus, this is the way, walk in it. And do we disregard
his clear will? Do we despise, fail to honor
his right to rule in all things if we're his people? He is God. He has a right to rule us and
our thinking and our actions and our philosophies in all things. Do we disregard the clear instruction
of his word? Read that piece by Spurgeon.
from the sermon that he preached on this very text of scripture
read that passage it's very very clear disregarding the clear
instruction of his word because his word is not mysterious it's
clear It's clear. Men of religion try to confound
it and confuse it. But as I've heard Don Faulkner
say many times, generally speaking, the vast majority of times, the
scripture means what it looks like it means. It says what it
looks like it says, first time you read it. Eli was saved, but
he failed to honor God. And as a result, there were consequences.
He lost his sons. and his family lost the priesthood. You know how it ran in the family
line, Aaron and then his sons and his sons and then their sons
and so on. Eli was saved but failed to honour
God and he lost his sons and his family lost the priesthood.
Think of Lot, Abraham's nephew. The New Testament calls him righteous
Lot. He was a saved man but he had
preferred material prosperity to the clear direction of God.
And when Abraham said, you take what you want, he said, well,
I'll have the good fat piece and go and get myself rich. And
as a consequence, in the end, he lost his family. He lost his
honor. He became the grandfather of
godless nations. Righteous lot, yes, he was saved,
but his actions had consequences. He became the grandfather of
godless nations, Edom and Moab, through his drunken incest with
his daughters when they'd escaped from Sodom. And like David, King
David, the man after God's own heart, but oh how he suffered
family strife, and oh how his son Absalom tried to kill him
and remove him and what torment came upon that man, why? Because
of what he did in failing to honour God over Uriah the Hittite
and his wife Bathsheba who he took and committed adultery with.
Now I need to be very direct this morning because the text
is very direct and I'm being just as direct with me as I am
with all who hear this I'm speaking to me just as much as to you.
We have a duty as believers, if we're saying we're believers
we have a duty to honour God. But as a result of honouring
God, God makes promises to us, precious promises, from the one
who cannot fail. And if we fail to honour him,
and in truth despise him, we have a very clear warning from
God. Let's look at this duty of believers to honour God. The duty of believers. Oh, don't
tell me the things I ought to do and ought not to do, I don't
like the idea. Well, I'm sorry, but the word of God every now
and then comes up with the duty of believers to honour God. And
do you know something? This is not an onerous, burdensome
duty. This isn't a hard work duty,
because Jesus says, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Take my yoke upon you, it's a
light, easy burden. Think about it. Think about it. God has created us. God sustains
us. Does he not daily provide all
our needs? They might not be what we would
say petulantly that we want from time to time but he provides
all our needs. Does he not speak to us? Is it
not such a blessing? Do you know what a curse it was
on Israel when God shut up heaven and there was no prophecy in
the land, there was no preaching, there was no declaration of the
truth. They had 400 years after Malachi of darkness and lack
of any prophet to speak to them until John the Baptist came.
He speaks to us. He guides us. We have the God
of the universe to guide our steps. He gives us light from
His Word by His Spirit. This is a living thing, this
is not an academic textbook. He gives us light from His Word
by His Spirit. He's shown us the glory of His
grace in the face of Jesus Christ. Think of this, the God of heaven
who holds the planets and the galaxies and the stars in their
position. He is the one who hears his children when we pray. He's
made precious promises to us. Promises of eternity, of eternal
life, of eternal blessing, of bliss, of sinless bliss in the
fellowship of the God of the universe forever. And he has
honoured us. beyond all that we deserve in
taking us from the horrible pit of sin and setting our feet on
the rock which is Christ. Surely, surely, honouring God
ought to be our chief concern in life. Can there be anything
more important? How was it that Eli failed to
honour God? As high priest he had a position
of authority. He had a position of power. those
of you that work in companies will know that there are people
when they're given power in the organization they have the ability
to do things that nobody else does You know, you don't have
the ability, you might have opinions, but you can't turn things around.
But the boss, the one who's got the authority from the owners
of the company to act, he's got the power to make it happen.
As high priest, Eli had the power and the authority and the means,
but he failed to exert authority over his wicked sons. He just
gave them a weak reproof. He said, why are you doing such
things? I hear of your evil dealings.
No, my sons. Oh, no, no, my sons. It's no
good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people to
transgress. You see, he just said, oh, that's
not good enough, is it? No, no, we must try a little
bit. He didn't use his authority to exert his authority over his
wicked sons. So how are believers called to
honour God? He didn't in that way. How are
we called to honour God? Well I can tell you for sure,
it's not by law. It's not by law works, it's not
by rules and regulations, it's not by, as we were looking in
Colossians a couple of weeks ago, touch not, taste not, handle
not, no. It's not by any law, rules, and
regulations. It's not by submission to man-made,
ecclesiastical, presumed authority. Not at all. There are those that
set themselves up. You get these panels of henchmen
elders, who support a failing and failed system and what they
do is they protect the man they call their pastor from just criticism
and they stop it and they stamp on it and it's completely wrong.
No, it's not by submitting to any of that sort of thing but
it is by these things. This is not a comprehensive list
but I'll give you some ideas. Do you know how we honour God?
Do you know the most fundamental way in which we honour God? We
honour God by believing Christ. by believing on his Son. Listen
to John 5, 22 and 23. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth
not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. How
do you honour God? First and foremost, you believe
his You believe Christ. You trust. What is it to believe
Christ? It's to trust in him. It's to
rest in him. It's to lean the entire weight
of your soul upon him. For he is able to keep you and
support you. He is able. I am persuaded, said
Paul, that I can commit everything unto him against that day of
judgment. I'm persuaded, I'm convinced, that's what it is
to believe Christ. You honour God when you believe
the Lord Jesus Christ. You must believe on him. You
cannot claim to honour him if first and foremost you're not
believing the gospel of his grace. There are some who try to be
religious, there are many who try to be religious. Without
this fundamental foundation you must trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Because only by honouring him
do you truly honour God the Father. That's how. Secondly, let's look
at Psalm 51. I'll turn to it. You don't need
to, but you can just listen along. This is David's prayer of confession
and contrition after his adultery with Bathsheba. And he says,
Psalm 51, the first four verses, have mercy upon me, O God. According to thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions, wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse
me from my for I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin
is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest."
Confessing our sin. And what do I mean by justifying
God? It says there that thou mightest
be justified. It's saying you're right. You're
right. God, you're right. You're right
in this. I am a sinner. You have rightly
judged me. You are absolutely right. Let
God be true and every man a liar, is what the scripture says. In
truth, God is true and we hear opinions flying around all over
the place. all sorts of opinions of fallen man but every man is
in truth a liar compared with God. God is truth let God be
true and every man a liar and when God calls us sinners he
speaks the truth and he's justified in speaking that truth he's vindicated
in it because he's absolutely right and true we're sinners
and we confess our sin we honor God when we confess our sin,
we don't go into a booth with a catholic priest and confess
our sin but we confess it to him in prayer what we are we
acknowledge in the quietness of our hearts what we are by
the revelation of his grace by his holy spirit giving us the
gift of repentance we acknowledge what we are that we are sinners
before God who in truth in our flesh deserve nothing other than
his condemnation but by his grace have experienced and known the
blessing and salvation which is in Christ. That's how we honour
God. We have a duty to honour him
and we honour him by believing on Christ and confessing our
sin and justifying that God is right when he calls us sinners.
Thirdly, we honour God when we submit to the rule of Christ
in everything. Jesus said this to his disciples,
John 13 verse 13, he said to them, Ye call me Master and Lord,
and ye say, Well, for so I am. If then I'm your Lord, obey what
I say, do what I say. Do we submit to Christ and his
rule in every aspect of life? Do you know that having accomplished
salvation, Philippians 2, 9-11 tells us that God also has highly
exalted him. Christ is highly exalted him.
How high has God exalted Christ? He's given him a name which is
above every name. There is no higher name. That
at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and in earth
and under the earth. and that every town, without
exception, should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. You know, there's lots of so-called
Christians who love to sing, Jesus is Lord, you know, Jesus
is Lord, creation's voice declares it, Jesus is Lord, and they sing
this with such gusto. Do they mean it? Jesus is Lord. that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of the Father. This is what it is to honour
God, is to submit to the rule of Christ. What else is it? It's trusting his providence
in all things. When we trust the providence
of God in all things, let me read you these very familiar
verses from Romans 8, 28 to 32. Listen, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things, all things, by trusting his providence
in all things? Believer, your God, my God, He
provides all our needs, all things. Do you know one of the greatest
indictments against the people of Israel, when they'd come out
of Egypt and they were settled in their land, whenever they
went away from God and He allowed their enemies as punishment to
come in and afflict them and threaten them, when the Assyrians
came, do you know what Israel always used to want to do? They
always used to want to go back and form an alliance with Egypt.
and God by his prophet used to say don't you dare do that I
warn you if you go back to Egypt you will be consumed there is
that not, you know what Egypt is, it's a picture of the world
to the believer and the bringing of Israel out of Egypt is a picture
of salvation from that lost condition and yet how many want to go back
and form alliances with Egypt let us not We live in the world,
but not of the world. They wanted to go and form alliances
with Egypt rather than honoring God who had brought them out
of Egypt and had promised to keep them. When we honor God
by trusting Him for everything, trusting Him in our finances,
in our career, in our family, with our direction of what we're
doing, do we consult? You know, we read often about
people, the kings of the Old Testament, and those that did
well inquired of the Lord. And those we read that didn't
do well, he inquired not of the Lord. Do we inquire of the Lord
for providential guidance? That's to honour God. Next one. By praising him, from the heart. We honor God when we praise him.
Why do we gather for worship? You know, when the rest of the
world has given up on it, and even the church just goes its
own way and does its own thing, and there's no truth anymore,
and there's no absolutes. Why do we do it? Why do we gather
for a church service in this format, in these days, when so
many people, they're getting loads more people than us when
they do things the modern way. I'll tell you why. Because we're
honoring God. by doing it in his way. Psalm
30 verse 1, I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted
me up. We'll praise God in the way that
he has said he will be praised. It's not in a particular building,
but it is in a particular way, and centred around the gospel
of his son and him alone. Psalm 68 verse 4, sing unto God,
sing praises to his name, extol him that rideth upon the heavens
by his name, Yah, and rejoice before him. And that brings to
the next one. We honour God by rejoicing in
him. He said, that's true. No, really,
from the heart. We honor God when we rejoice
in him. What does it say in the scripture?
Philippians 4 verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again,
I say rejoice, says Paul. Why? Because you've been saved
from your sins. You're going to a blissful eternity
that has been accomplished, that has been purchased by the blood
of Christ. I rejoice in this. What did Hannah
say in our text last week, in our text in 1 Samuel chapter
2 and verse 1? Hannah prayed, my heart rejoices
in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged
over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. And by rejoicing
in the salvation of the Lord, she honored God. That's how she
honoured God. She honoured God by rejoicing. That comes, you know, you can't
press people into rejoicing. It comes from a heart that is
a volunteer heart, that wants to rejoice in Him. Next point. We honour God by personal dedication
to God. Those of you who are old enough
will remember the BBC children's program record breakers based
on the Guinness Book of Records and it was always bringing out somebody's done the most bizarre
record world record holders and Roy Castle who presented it always
used to sing a song dedication dedication that's what you need
if you want to be the best if you want to be the rest beat
the rest dedication is what you need if you want to honour God. You
know like Mo Farah? is the best middle to long-distance
runner in the world. He is. He's won Olympics and
World Championships over and over again. In the same thing,
he's won the 5,000. He's the best. He wants to be the best.
How does he do it? By utter and complete dedication
to his training and his commitment. And he loves his family, but
I tell you what, his training comes first. He's utterly, utterly
dedicated. Jesus said to his disciples,
if you want to be my disciple, he said you must hate father
and mother and husband and wife and children because if you don't,
you can't. Did he mean hate them? Of course
not. Of course not. You love your
family. What he meant was that by comparison they must never
take the place that belongs uniquely to God and his Christ. They must
never. You must be utterly dedicated.
You honour God when you are utterly dedicated to the service, the
glory, the word, the instruction of
God to us. That's how we honour him. When
we obey his word in personal and family life, read that Spurgeon
piece again. Seriously, read it. It's good.
Very, very good. That's why I put it in there.
Do it in worship. In all matters of worship. Why
do we do it the way we do? Why do we just have hymns? And
old-fashioned hymns, I'll tell you why, they're full of gospel
truth. Marguerite often says they're
a sermon in themselves. They are. They're more often
than not a better sermon than the one you get from this pulpit.
They're a sermon, these hymns. We do, we sing to the Lord. And we pray to Him. And we don't
pray in a frivolous, trivial, charismatic way. We pray with
reverence to God who is on His throne. And we read His word. because thy word is truth and
it gives light. And we hear his word preached
and expounded because he's given ministry gifts to his church.
We don't do other things, we don't do drama, we don't do other
things. Reason? God doesn't ask us to. We do the things he asks us to.
So in worship we seek to do that which is right. In ordinances,
what do I mean by ordinances? Baptism. The Lord's Supper. We
try to do it in the way the scriptures say, because they speak truth. We honour God when we do that
which his word says. we seek his will in all things. What would you have me to do?
Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 says this, trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy
ways, all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Do you know at the marriage supper
at Cana of Galilee, the first miracle in John's Gospel, where
Jesus went to the marriage feast at Cana of Galilee, and they
ran out of wine, and there were the four pitchers, big jugs of
water there, and Mary said to the servants about Jesus, Mary
the mother of Jesus said this, whatsoever he says to you, do
it. Simple. Whatsoever he says to
you, do it. That's the instruction. Believer,
that's the instruction from the word of God. Whatsoever he says
to you, do it. Honour him. Honor him. How do
you honor him? You honor him with your time
and your resources. Yes, we've got lots of things
to do, but be sure to honor him with your time and with your
resources. Proverbs 3 verse 9, honor the
Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine
increase. Honor him. I tell you, when we
honor him, He pays back. He really does. God pays back. Do you know we've just borne
the majority of the cost of the conference, and I don't say this
in the slightest, please anybody listening, this is not for crowing
purposes at all, I'm just stating a fact, and you think, wow, that
thing's going to be, the catering's going to be very expensive, and
there's the rental of the hall, and, well, do you know, I mean,
people who came gave, but it came nowhere near the cost of
the whole thing. I was just looking at the church
account a couple of nights ago, there's nearly as much money
there now as there was before we started. God honours those
that honour him. We sought to honour him by having
that conference, by having that preaching, and he's honoured
that. The money's nearly all there
again. We honour him Do you know how else we honor God? In our
relations one to another. As we love one another. Let me
just read you a couple of verses from 1 Thessalonians chapter
4. God has not called us unto uncleanness
but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth,
listen to this, despiseth, what he means is he that has a quarrel
or a despising quarrel with somebody that's supposed to be called
his brother or sister in Christ. He therefore that despiseth Despise
the not man, you're not despising the person that you're not getting
on with. Who are you despising? It says, but God. You're despising
God, you're not honouring God, who has also given unto us his
Holy Spirit. But as touching brotherly love,
you need not that I write unto you. For ye yourselves are taught
of God to love one another, and in so doing we honour God. But if we despise one another,
in truth, we're despising God. We honor him by our personal
dedication in all things. Honor God in contact with the
things around us in the world. You know our lawmakers, our lawmakers,
members of parliament and magistrates and all, they're called to do
so but don't we see in this society as time goes on how increasingly
they fail, how on principle they ignore the tenets of the Word
of God. In our families we ought to direct
things according to the Word of God, the instructions of God's
Word. Do you know what God said about
Abraham? In Genesis 18 verse 19 God says this, I know him. God says I know Abraham that
he will command his children and his household after him and
they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. Remember what Joshua said Joshua
24 verse 15 he said you choose for yourselves this day whom
you will serve but as for me and my house we will serve the
Lord. We will go where God tells us
to go. We will go where the gospel of his grace is being preached
if we can possibly find it. We will do what we can to serve
the Lord. In the church, pastors and elders
ought to honor God in the conduct of the church. How many churches
in the last 40 years have completely lost that reverence for the truth,
for the declaration the serious declaration of the gospel of
God's grace and have allowed it to go over to a liberal anything-goes
approach. We have a duty to honour God,
for God says, them that honour me I will honour and they that
despise me shall be lightly esteemed. I'll wrap this up very quickly.
The promise of God. God will honour those that honour
him. Hannah honoured God in lending him Samuel. You know when we
read the chapter earlier, did you not see that bit in the middle,
verses 20 and 21, Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife and said,
the Lord give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent. Hannah lent Samuel to the Lord. Someone said, God richly repays
the interest. God richly repays. She lent him
Samuel and he gave her three sons and two daughters. It says
in Luke chapter 6 verse 38, when we honor God, he gives back good
measure and press down. You know how some kind of try
and give you a very, very short measure and they try and swell
it up so that it isn't a full packet, you know? No, he presses
it down, he presses it down. Full, good measure. John 12,
26. If any man serve me, says Jesus,
let him follow me. And where I am, there shall also
my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my Father honour. If we serve God, If we serve
God, he will honour us. The promise of God is that you
will never, listen to this, this is so clear, many have said it
before me but it's worth saying again, you will never impoverish
yourself by honouring God, whether that's in personal life, in family
life, in work, in business, in church, A monarch is said, I
don't know if it was Elizabeth I, to have ordered a man, a businessman,
to go to Hamburg to attend to the monarch's business. And he
said, oh, I can't go because if I leave my own business here,
then it will deteriorate, it will lose money. And she said
to him, no, no. If you go and attend to my business,
I, the sovereign, will attend to yours. Your business will
thrive. You see? God says that. You attend
to my business and I'll make sure your business thrives. God promises these things. He promises to honour his people. When we give over everything
to him, he promises to honour what we do. And God promises
respect from fellow men as well. This is another thing. Even from
unbelievers. You know, John the Baptist had
his head chopped off by Herod. But Herod feared John the Baptist. Herod respected John the Baptist. Herod was in awe of John the
Baptist. Even the martyrs of 400 years
ago were an influence for good. The majority of men and women
leave no record on the page of history. They come and they go
and all is vanity. But those martyrs are there.
They stand out from history as greatly honoured in the kingdom
of God. and God promises. When we honour him, he promises
a good conscience. Now, finally, one final sentence,
the warning of God. He says, they that despise me
shall be lightly esteemed. Oh, that's something to be avoided.
You don't want to be lightly esteemed by God, you want to
be honoured by God. he will lightly esteem you. If
you despise him, if you fail to honour him, he will lightly
esteem you, not only in this life, but when it comes to death. You know the death of his saints
is precious in his sight. But if you act like you're not
amongst his saints, it will not be precious in his sight. He
won't esteem you. He'll esteem you lightly. And
in eternity, he'll esteem you lightly. Heed God's warning. Ask his enabling to honour him.
Seek his will for every aspect of life. Determine with Joshua
that whatever others may or may not do, as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord. Amen.