Self-serving Piety

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Hymn — Spirit of the Living God
• Hymn — Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart
• Call to Worship — Psalm 113
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — 1 Timothy 3:16
• Scripture Reading — Acts 7:29-60
• Hymn — All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering Prayer
• Hymn — Not What My Hands Have Done
• Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 14:24-52
• Sermon
• Hymn — My Faith Has Found a Resting Place
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Self-Serving Piety

Scripture: 1 Samuel 14:24-52

I. Self-Serving Piety Brings Disruption to Salvation

A. Saul's rash oath burdens the people rather than liberating them

1. The people are described as "hard pressed" and "faint" — language echoing the Philistine oppression of 1 Samuel 13:6
2. Saul's vow depletes Israel's fighting strength, limiting the victory over the Philistines
3. The thread runs through the whole passage: the Philistines are never fully routed; 1 Samuel 14:52 notes "hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul"

B. Saul's piety is self-serving, not God-glorifying

1. Verse 23 declares "the Lord saved Israel that day," but verse 24 shifts to Saul's words: "I am avenged on my enemies" — the battle becomes his, not the Lord's
2. Contrast with Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14:6, who called the Philistines "uncircumcised," recognizing them as the Lord's enemy and the battle as the Lord's

C. Self-serving piety removes the freedom and joy of salvation

1. Jonathan says the people should have "eaten freely" of the spoil — freedom is the natural response to the Lord's victory
2. Paul warns against returning to a yoke of slavery in Galatians 5:1
3. The Reformation parallel: Luther's nailing of the 95 Theses freed the people from the suffocating self-serving piety of Rome and unleashed the gospel

II. Self-Serving Piety Brings Disobedience to the Saved

A. Saul's oath produces the very sin it was meant to prevent

1. The famished people slaughter animals and eat meat with the blood, violating Leviticus 3:17
2. Saul then corrects this by building an altar — a godly response to a problem created by his own godless oath

B. Self-serving piety provokes rebellion rather than obedience

1. Leaders who heap burdens on God's people drive them toward disobedience and away from God
2. Paul's warning to fathers not to provoke children to anger applies equally to church leaders (Ephesians 6:4)
3. Luther's testimony: "I hated the righteous God" — self-serving piety brought him to hatred of his Creator before he discovered the gospel of grace
4. The question for believers: what kind of God are we displaying — a slave-master with arbitrary rules, or the God of grace, love, and mercy?

C. Minor distinctions are elevated to majors, creating false lines of inclusion and exclusion

1. This gives the appearance of controlling God's declarations rather than submitting to them
2. Self-serving piety feeds on making the pious person the standard rather than Christ

III. Self-Serving Piety Brings Destruction to the Savior

A. Saul's oath leads him to condemn Jonathan, the very instrument of Israel's salvation

1. God falls silent when Saul inquires, signaling unresolved sin in the camp
2. Saul swears with religious zeal — "as the Lord lives" — that even Jonathan must die (1 Samuel 14:39)
3. Parallel with Jephthah's rash vow in Judges 11
4. Solomon's wisdom: "It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it" (Ecclesiastes 5:5)

B. The people ransom Jonathan, recognizing him as God's instrument of salvation

1. "Shall Jonathan die who has worked this great salvation in Israel?" (1 Samuel 14:45)
2. The people intercede and Jonathan is ransomed — likely through substitutionary atonement at the altar Saul had built

C. Jonathan as a type of Christ

1. Jonathan says, "Here I am, I will die" — willingly bearing the curse for the people's sake
2. Unlike Jonathan, Christ received no ransom from the people; the crowd cried "Crucify him" — the self-serving piety of the scribes and Pharisees placed the true Savior on trial
3. Like Isaac on Mount Moriah, Jonathan was ransomed; Christ received no ram in the thicket
4. Christ became the curse for us (Galatians 3:13) — he was not ransomed because he was the ransom; he had no substitute because he was the substitute
5. Through Christ, God's silence is broken forever: "It is finished" — victory over sin and death declared once and for all