Introduction
On October 31, 1517, the day before All Saints Day, a German monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed to the door of the Wittenberg castle-church an invitation for debating a certain doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. Martin Luther presented 95 reasons, or theses, why the idea you could buy salvation and forgiveness (indulgences) was not biblical. Luther did not necessarily want to leave the Roman Catholic Church. He wanted to have a scholarly debate on this subject. However, the fullness of time had come for the Reformation and the people were hungry for the Word of God. Within a month, the 95 these shad been translated into every major language in Europe, and the Protestant Reformation was under way.
For Luther, the central point of this revolution was the nature of salvation. "The just shall live by faith," was the statement that awakened his soul to the glories of the Gospel. This thought should awaken our souls and delight us as well. The hymn writers put it beautifully:
"Not what these hands have done can save this guilty soul; not what this toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Your work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin; your blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Your grace alone, O God, to me can pardon speak; your power alone, O Son of God, can this sore bondage break." Horatius Bonar
"Not the labor of my hands can fulfill your law's demands; could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all could never sin erase, you must save, and save by grace. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to your cross I cling; naked, come to you for dress, helpless, look to you for grace: foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die." Augustus Toplady
These are essential truths that set our souls free! The free grace of God is the life-giving balm for souls weary in sin.
Right there with the doctrine that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is the doctrine that this saving faith will result in obedience. This is clearly seen in another reformer's life motto: "My heart I offer to you, O Lord, promptly and sincerely," John Calvin. We see this last element of faith in Samuel's reply to Saul.
I. Sacrifice v. Obedience: Are They Enemies? 22.
A. What led Samuel to talk about obedience was Saul's reasoning that it was ok not to destroy all the possessions of the Amalekites because they were going to use the animals for sacrifice, 20-21.
B. At first glance, you might think that Samuel is saying that you can either obey or sacrifice.
1. What Samuel is doing is stepping into Saul's presupposition.
a. Do you think you can disobey God and then observe some outward ceremony and call it good?
b. There is no value in that!
c. Rather, you must obey instead of relying on killing of animals.
2. Saul could not obey God and not sacrifice, but these sacrifices he wanted to bring were not based on obedience.
3. In other words, under the old covenant obedience necessarily required sacrifices, but sacrifices were not necessarily based on obedience.
C. This teaches us at least three things:
1. Going through the outward motions is not necessarily obedience.
2. We can deceive ourselves into thinking that what we are doing is obedience when we are actually modifying what God said.
3. Only obedience that proceeds from faith is acceptable to the Lord.
a. Saul didn't believe that what God said was what needed to be done, so he didn't obey.
b. At the heart of godly obedience is faith.
Heb. 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him,for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
II. Disobedience Is a Serious Matter, 23.
A. Disobedience is nothing short of rebellion.
1. The word translated rebellionis used also to describe Israel in the wilderness.
Num. 16:41-17:11
2. This word is also used to describe the wicked.
Pro. 17:11 – An evil man seeks only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
3. We hear what these passages say and we think, "Yeah, these are really bad people. I am not like them."
a. It is not even noon – have you sinned today?
b. Have you loved God with all your being?
c. Have you loved those around you as Christ has loved you?
4. Disobedience is autonomy – becoming a law unto ourselves.
a. That's how rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft or divination.
b. We are pronouncing a different law from a different god when we disobey.
c. In the context of 1 Sam. 15, this is particularly true when we rebel by coming up with ways to worship the God of the Bible that he hasn't prescribed – more on this next week.
B. Disobedience is insubordination to the King (stubbornness)
Gen. 19:9 – And they said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one came in to stay here,and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them." So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.
C. At the end of the day, disobedience is idolatry – the enthronement of another king over your heart.
D. At this point you may be thinking, "What hope do I have, then? I sin all the time. I don't try to sin all the time. As a matter of fact, I try really hard not to sin. Yet, I disobey God. What hope do I have?"
1. When we think of God's view of disobedience and the fact that we are constantly disobeying him, we need to think of our relationship with him in terms of two realities – God as our Judge and God as our Father.
2. God as the Judge of all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
a. When your heart was changed (regeneration), you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
b. At that very point, God declared that you were united to Christ.
1) Being united to Christ, or as the Bible speaks of it more often, being in Christ means that God the Father as your judge declares that the obedience with which Christ obeyed him is your obedience.
2) The Father as your Judge also declares that the guilt of your sin, ALL OF IT, was dealt with at the cross of Jesus.
c. This means that the Father considers you through Christ to be judicially perfect, that is, as having never sinned.
1) The eternal consequences of sin are removed.
2) We are literally not guilty anymore in a judicial sense.
Rom. 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus….
3) Because of this heavenly transaction, there is nothing that we ever separate us from God.
Rom. 8:38-39 – For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
d. Some people get really scared of this teaching because they think it will lead people live careless lives, not caring to obey the law of God, and it might.
e. But this transaction that happens in courts of heaven has a deep, life-change effect on us.
1) When the Spirit of God changes our hearts and we subsequently declared perfectly righteous in the sight of God through faith in Jesus Christ, he also kills us and revives us.
a) He kills the heart for unbound sin that dominated our lives.
b) He revives us unto righteousness.
c) These two things happening, the inevitable result is obedience.
Eph. 2:1-10 – And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made ussit together in the heavenly placesin Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it isthe gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
2) So, Paul speaks of the impossibility of having been changed by the Spirit of God and continuing to rejoice in sin.
Rom. 6:1-4 – What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
f. Your level of frustration and discouragement may be rising even as we consider these life-altering doctrines because you still see sin in your life.
g. If that's you, you are in good company.
Rom. 7:22-25 – For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
3. This frustration may be alleviated when we consider God as the Father of all who believe in Jesus Christ.
a. Our union with Christ, our in-christness, makes so that his Father is also our Father.
Gal. 4:6-7 – And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
b. God as our Father does not demand perfect obedience from us because he already received it from his unique Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
c. He does demand GROWING obedience from us.
Phil 2:12-13 – Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for Hisgood pleasure.
Rom. 13:14 – But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
1) The theology term for this process is progressive sanctification.
2) In this process we die more and more unto the vestiges of our sinful nature, and live more and more unto righteousness.
3) To use a biblical phrase, it is the process through which we are being conformed in this life to what we have been declared to be in Christ – becoming like Christ.
2 Cor. 3:18 – But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
d. This conforming to Jesus, this progressive transformation, is rooted and takes place as we live a life of repentance.
1) A child of God will not refuse to repent of sin when shown from the Scriptures that he/she is sinning.
2) As we live a life of repentance, then we are little by little transformed to become like the Lord Jesus Christ.
a) As we repent of specific sins, we grow as Christ-like husbands and wives, as children, as brothers and sisters.
b) As we repent of specific sins, the barriers that those sins created between our heavenly Father and ourselves are removed and we are able to climb up, as it were, onto our Daddy's lap and enjoy him and his company/presence.
c) As we repent of specific sins, we die a little more to that sin and become a little more like our Savior.
E. You see, Saul's problem wasn't ultimately that he disobeyed God; his problem was that he didn't repent from it.
Conclusion
The surest path to a life that is marked by obedience to the Word of God is not a life marked by the fear that God is just waiting to punish us when we have indeed placed our faith in Jesus Christ. The surest path to obedience, true obedience, is the firm knowledge that God is not out to get us. In Jesus Christ, the Father/Judge has declared us innocent. In Jesus Christ the Father has said he loves us. And now he sends us out to obey him out of faith and love. That's the reality of obedience.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2015/10/faith-results-in-obedience-1-sam-1522-23.html
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