Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, we find in the context of 1 Samuel chapter 2, two very different families. The first family is that of Elkanah and his wife Hannah. Hannah loved the Lord, but she was barren. She did not have any children of her own. She greatly desired a child of the Lord, and even made a vow that if the Lord would give her a baby boy, then she would devote that baby to the Lord for the rest of his life. God gave her a baby boy, Samuel. And Hannah made good on her vow. As soon as Samuel was weaned, she and Elkanah brought him to the Lord's house, the tabernacle in Shiloh, and devoted him to the Lord's service there for the rest of his life. Hannah was a godly mother in Israel. She loved Jehovah. And she had a godly concern also for the worship of Jehovah. And then there is that second family, that of Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. We read right at the beginning of our text that Hophni and Phinehas were sons of Belial. They were worthless men. They hated God and they profaned the worship of God. They had no concern for what rightly belonged to God and belonged to his people. They violated the covenant because their father Eli did not discipline them. That was the root sin, the root issue in our text. What a contrast. Hannah, who loved the Lord, who had a great concern for the worship of the Lord in the tabernacle, and then Eli and his sons, upon whom God would visit horrible judgment. There is in this history, people of God, some application for us. And especially a word for us fathers. A word of warning. God's judgment comes upon unfaithful fathers with regard to the discipline of their children. Parents who neglect the discipline of their sons and their daughters. A sharp word. but also a word of encouragement that God will certainly bless the faithful discipline of our sons and our daughters. And he will most assuredly give us the grace to bear up under the tremendous responsibility which is ours to raise up our children and to discipline them in the fear of his name. Let's consider this word of God under the theme, God's judgment upon an unfaithful father First, judgment for what? So what is the sin? Second, judgment what? What is this judgment? And finally, third, judgment with what promise? The reason God judged Eli's house begins with the sin of Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas. You know that, as we read, and in the context that they were priests in the tabernacle at Shiloh. On the first place, this was the nature of their sin, that they sinned against God himself in that tabernacle at Shiloh. God made very clear in Old Testament law what belonged to him when an animal was brought to be sacrificed. What was his own portion? when the offerer would come to that tabernacle at Shiloh with an animal, then it would be divided up. The breast and the right shoulder of that sacrifice would belong to the priest, but then the fat of the animal, the most precious part of it, would belong to God. It would be burned on the altar. But Hophni and Phinehas disobeyed that clear command of God. They would send their servant, and the servant would take that fat of the animal and bring it back to Hophni and Phinehas. That's verses 13 through 17 of our text. And sometimes the offerer of the sacrifice would object, saying, you may not take that. That belongs to the Lord. And if there would be that objection, then the servant of Eli's sons would take that fat by violence. by force. What a terrible sin. Hofnein Phinehas robbed the Lord of what was rightfully his, what he clearly said was his, portion from the animal. They were greedy. They were selfish men. They were only concerned about themselves. That in the first place. Second, the sin of Hophni and Phinehas was that they sinned not only against God at that tabernacle, but against the people of God. People of God. Again, God made very clear provision in his law, not only for himself in that sacrifice, but also for the offerer for the people of Israel. So that the breast and the right shoulder belonged to the priest, the fat belonged to God, And then everything that was left over of that animal belonged to the offerer. He would take it home and eat it with his family and friends for a good meal. But again, Eli's sons disobeyed that. They disregarded that law of God. They sent their servant. The servant would come up to the seething cauldron, as we read in verse 13 and following. can take a fork and take that meat out of the cauldron and take it back to Hophni and Phinehas. That meat belonged to the offerer. God provided for them that way. Again, Hophni and Phinehas were greedy men. They were selfish. They were motivated by their lusts and by their need for a profit. A terrible sin. Not only did they rob the people of Israel, But they also committed immoral acts with the women at the door of the tabernacle. That's what we find in verse 22 of our text. We read there, and now Eli was very old and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel, and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. They made the house of God a house of fornication, And what is so horrible in these sins of robbery and fornication is that they cause the people to stumble. That's especially verse 23. We read there, Eli is saying to them, why do ye such things? For I hear of your evil doings by all this people." It was spreading around, all the rumors. Here were priests, leaders in the church, lying with women publicly in church, robbing the people of what was rightfully theirs. A grievous sin. And in the third place, The sin of Hophni and Phinehas was a sin against God, against His people, but also a covenant sin. Covenant, the relationship or friendship God establishes with His people in Christ. Notice, if you have your Bibles open, how that covenant language really arises out of the text. Starts already in verse 27 in the verses that follow that. God chose the house of Eli, the house of Hophni and Phinehas, unto himself to be priests among all the tribes in Israel. He gave them much. He provided them with all the sacrifices and the offerings physically provided for them. And then also this, at the end of verse 29, This sin of Hophni and Phinehas was not a sin just against any people. But Jehovah says, My people you have sinned against. My chosen people from all eternity who belong to Me. A covenant sin, therefore. The nature of this covenant sin, we also find in those verses. Right at the beginning of verse 29, wherefore, kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering. You, of course, kick at something that disgusts you, that you have no use for, and that you hate. And then, at the end of verse 30, Hofnein Phineh has despised the offerings of the Lord. Instead of going about their work in the tabernacle with great awe and reverence, Because they did it before the Lord, they thought nothing of their sin. Absolutely nothing. Sinning publicly in God's house. Despised His worship. And therefore, this covenant sin was inexcusable. Here were Hophni and Phinehas, the descendants of Ithamar, Aaron's son. God entrusted the priesthood and its services to Aaron and his sons. Hophni and Phinehas knew what was required of them. They were taught. They knew the kind of responsibility that they had in the worship of God. They knew how they were to serve the people. And now they went against all that they knew, against better knowledge, and they sinned. inexcusable sin against the covenant. But the reason for God's judgment upon Eli's house must ultimately be traced to Eli. Eli himself. Now when we say that, we need to be very careful and very precise. What do we mean when we say, that Eli sinned. Eli's sin was not a failure to live a godly life before his children. We have no reason to believe that he lived an immoral life. After all, remember, Elkanah and Hannah brought their son Samuel to Eli, and he trained up Samuel, taught him to live a godly life before the Lord and what it meant to be a priest. In a few chapters we learn, when Israel goes to battle against the Philistines and they steal the Ark of the Covenant, that Eli had a great concern for God's covenant and glory. When he learned the news that the Ark was stolen, he fell over dead. We have no reason to believe that he was not a godly man and that he did not lead that godly example before his sons. Neither was Eli's sin a failure to teach Hophni and Phinehas. That he did too. That comes out in his rebuke of Hophni and Phinehas as it's found in our text. Notice that when he approaches them with their sin, they do not say, but father, how were we supposed to know that we were sinning? You never taught us. No, they did not say that. Eli rebuked them exactly because he had taught them the way to walk before the Lord and to live before him. Earlier in the text, we are given notice that Eli's sons were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord. True enough, they knew him not spiritually, but they did know him intellectually. Why? because they were taught by their father to know the Lord. Eli's sin was a failure to discipline. Discipline, that's the root of it. That Eli himself is responsible for the sins of his sons is clear from the text. Verse 27, God sent that man of God, his servant, to talk to whom? Not to Hophni and Phinehas. That's not where he went. We might expect that. After all, they were the ones that profaned the worship of God. No, that man of God came to Eli because he was the father. And as the father of his family, he was responsible for their actions in the sight of the people. That Eli's sin was a failure to discipline is also Evident that doesn't come out so much in our text, but it is clear from 1st Samuel 3 verse 13 Chapter 3 verse 13 here God is speaking to Samuel and he says For I have told him that is Eli That I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth because his sons made themselves vile and now this And he restrained them not, restrained them not. Discipline is the activity of rebuking, stopping, and correcting sin. The text is clear enough. Eli did rebuke his sons. He confronted them with their sin and even warned them concerning God's judgment upon them if they persisted in that sin. But this is where Eli failed. He did not stop them. He did not restrain them from sinning further. He rebuked them, and then he looked the other way. And he ignored it. Eli ought to have brought his children to the elders in Israel. And you know Old Testament law, the elders would have killed Hofdai and Phinehas. Why? Because the punishment for fornication was death. The punishment for disobedient and stubborn sons was death. And of course, the punishment for profaning the worship of God, think of Nadab and Abihu, was certainly death. That is the discipline Eli ought to have carried out upon his sons, but he restrained them not. He did not stop them. The reason Eli did not discipline Hophni and Phinehas was that he was a permissive and an indulgent father. Notice the words of our text carefully. When that man of God comes to Eli, he does not only say, Eli, your sons have made themselves fat with the offerings of the people. Your sons have despised my sacrifices. No. Your sons and you have done these things. Your sons and you have made yourselves fat with the people, both of you, because you failed to discipline them, Eli. And then this chilling verse, 29, right toward the middle. And honorest thy sons above me. Eli, you assigned your sons more importance, more weight than you did to me. And that, beloved, puts the chills up the spine. There is a word in this history for us, for you, young people. The sins of Hophni and Phinehas, young men in the church, have not gone away today. Robbery. We can easily rob God, even in public worship, when the plate is passed around at collection time. And we are able to give, and we do not. Perhaps that arises out of a heart of selfishness. We want more for ourselves. We want more things, more money. We rob God. Fornication. Hofnei and Phinehas lay with the women at the door of the tabernacle. Young people, our society is awash with sexual sin. You know that. the billboards along the freeway, the newspapers, the magazines, the portable devices, our computers. Only a click away is that filthy pornography. And you must know that the devil wants to destroy you young people by sexual sin. He wants to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ. Flee. Flee. fornication. The sins of Hofnein Phinehas were sins of priests. And that too, for us young people, you are priests, just as we are all prophets, priests, and kings. We have that office from God. When we sin as priests, young people, we sin against God. We take His worship lightly. When we sin as priests, we sin against the people of God. We must never think that our sins only affect ourselves. Now, that's true. But they affect the members of the church around us. And we cause them to stumble and be offended by our transgressions. And that is the most serious thing. And young people, when you sin as priests, you sin against the covenant. violate even the covenant. Everything that we have, church, home, Christian parents, solid Christian schools, and when we sin as priests, we go against everything that we know, everything that is required of us, and we sin. That too is a most dreadful thing. Covenant sin. The text calls us, children and young people, to be sacrifices of thanksgiving before God, as priests, to live a godly life before Him, motivated by gratitude for who He is and what He has done for us, knowing how much we have been given, and also knowing how much He requires of us. There is also a word to us, fathers, in this history. May we not fall into the understandable yet serious faults of Eli in his parenting. That can happen so easily. We come home from work, we fathers, tiring day mentally and physically. We are exhausted. And our wife meets us at the door and she says, you must do something about the children. They have been rebellious all day. And then you say, I don't have any time for that. I don't have any time to discipline them. I'm tired. I'm exhausted. And then we ignore it and we look the other way. We neglect the discipline of our sons and daughters. Perhaps, fathers, we put up a wall of excuses around us and we say, I have taught my children how to live a godly life since they were very little. I have taught them the way to walk before the Lord. They don't have any excuse. Now what they do when they get older is up to them. I'm not going to do anything about it. But then we neglect discipline. Then, that chilling verse comes back. We honor our children above God. That's the seriousness. God calls us in this text, fathers, to lay the rod upon our sons and daughters. Yes, confront them with their sin and rebuke them, but then stop them lovingly, patiently, absolutely, but restrain them. That's the calling of the text. And in the course of our discipline of them that we teach them who God is and what he requires of them and of us. And if what we do at home does not work, then we must do what is probably the most difficult thing a parent can envision doing, and that is bring them to the elders for God's glory, for the salvation of that son or daughter, and for the purity of his church. Oh God, richly bless the discipline of our children. God's judgment came upon Eli for his failures. Eli himself. When we say that, we need to clearly understand that this judgment of God upon Eli does not mean that Eli would suffer everlastingly in hell. That was not God's judgment. We know, of course, as we have already seen, that Eli was a child of God. He had a concern for God's covenant and His glory. He was much a man like Lot. The sins of his sons vexed his righteous soul. Nevertheless, Jehovah would bring serious judgment upon Eli. He would hear with his own ears and see with his own eyes God's judgment upon his very sons. And he would see and he would hear God's judgment upon the whole nation of Israel before he died. There was no greater horror for Eli than to see and to hear that judgment. God judged Eli even though he was a child of God. Even though it was his sons that profaned the worship of God. even though God sovereignly reprobated Hophni and Phinehas. Remember that phrase? Because he would slay them. Sons of Belial. Now, parents, we come to a most difficult spiritual truth. Sometimes, faithful parents, not perfect, faithful parents see their children perish despite their best efforts. But not here, not in our text. God sovereignly reprobated Hophni and Phinehas in the way of Eli's failures. This judgment of God upon Eli and his house was twofold. As we see that in the text, verse 31, In the first place, behold the days come that I will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house. God would cut off the house of Eli's father. Again, go back to verses 27 and following, they had so much. chosen among all the tribes of Israel to be God's priests, provided with all the sacrifices and the offerings and the services of the tabernacle. Chosen of God. And now all of that would be stripped away. The text is very graphic, a cutting off of the arm. The arm, a picture of life and vitality and energy. All of that cut off and gone. There would not be an old man left in Eli's house in his generations. This had a historical fulfillment. Remember Doeg, that servant of Saul? He killed Ahimelech and destroyed Ahimelech's house. Ahimelech was a descendant of Eli. Judgment. And then a few years later, when Solomon came to the throne, Recall that he deposed Abiathar, the high priest. And that, too, was God's judgment, because Abiathar, too, was a descendant of Eli. A grievous cutting off. And that is the reality today, people of God. God cuts off unfaithful parents. Parents who do not discipline their children. Undisciplined sons and daughters grow up to be rebellious sons and daughters. Rebellious not only against their parents, but against God himself. What a horrible thing that is for parents. Eli's sin is a very common one in the church, and that is why perhaps we wonder sometimes why the church is not as large as we might think it should be. That is because of this reality. God cuts off families in their generation who are unfaithful to him. In the second place, God's judgment upon Eli's house is found in verse 32. And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation in all the wealth which God shall give Israel. There would be an enemy in God's habitation. That enemy was the Philistines. We meet them immediately at the beginning of chapter 3. Initially, Israel went out to battle against the Philistines and they lost. Then, in preparation for the next battle, the Israelites superstitiously and foolishly brought the Ark of the Covenant from that tabernacle in Shiloh to the battlefield. They thought, perhaps, that this would help their chances in beating the Philistines. But they were mistaken. Again, they lost in battle. Not only that, but the Ark of the Covenant was stolen. The Ark, the very center of the worship of God, robbed by uncircumcised Philistines. And now you can see the judgment here. Their very really was an enemy in God's habitation. And that, too, is a present reality for the New Testament church. When parents do not discipline their sons and their daughters, then there comes an enemy in God's habitation. Perhaps those undisciplined children marry unbelievers, and then they leave the church as it were the enemy enters the church as a great flood and carries them away. An enemy enters God's habitation when there is not faithful and diligent preaching from our pulpits regarding the discipline of our children. Then the philosophies with regard to discipline of children enter into the church and they start to influence the people of God. And then, too, in a very real way, there comes an enemy in God's habitation. And that is certainly dreadful. And, of course, dreadful for parents of the church, and especially parents of those children. A two-fold judgment. This judgment, horrible as it was upon Eli's house, came with a promise. A promise. God would not utterly destroy his people. He would not. He would be faithful, true to his promises. Now when we say that, there is a verse we need to look at because it seems that verse 30 of our text contradicts what we have just said. We read there, Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord saith, be it far from me. For them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. It seems here that Jehovah has changed his mind. He was going to be faithful to Eli's house and to his people, but now he's going to turn around and destroy them. But you know that is certainly not the case. God is faithful. And that comes out of the text in three ways. First, He is faithful in that he would deliver his people through judgment, through judgment. Remember, the sins of Hophni and Phinehas were affecting the people, making them stumble, offending them. If that sin was left untreated, it would be as a cancer spreading throughout the whole nation and diseasing all of them. But God brought judgment upon Hophni and Phinehas. He cut them off so that they are no longer able to profane the worship of God at the tabernacle in Shiloh. And in that way, He preserves His people. He preserves them. He is faithful to them, even in the way of destroying the evil men in Israel. He is faithful. May God cut off evil men, even from our midst, in his faithfulness to us. In the second place, Jehovah was true to his promises because he would raise up a faithful priest in Israel. That is the astounding verse 35. We read there, and I will raise me up a faithful priest that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed forever." This priest was Samuel. That's the historical fulfillment. That comes out at Mizpah in a few chapters in 1 Samuel. There, Samuel acted as a priest. He prayed on behalf of the people. He sacrificed for them. and he commanded them that they worship the Lord, and the Lord alone. Was not Jehovah faithful to Israel by raising up Samuel and preserving them in that way? God raised up faithful men and faithful women in our midst. And then the third place, Jehovah was faithful in raising up the faithful priest, Jesus Christ. Samuel in verse 35 is a type, and he points to the reality Christ. Think of Christ all his life long. He demonstrates that he is this one for whom God would build a sure house. He would be the one to walk before God's anointed forever, being the son of David. That comes out. He had a zeal for the worship of God. Think of Hofnei and Finesse. They profaned it. They had no concern for God's worship. But Jesus Christ overturned the table of the merchants, and the money changers, and the sellers, and the buyers. And he said, my house, my Father's house, is a house of prayer. Zeal for the worship of God. He had an eye to the Father's glory all his life long, and he performed that. Hear his agonized cry in the garden. Said, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. So much would He do that which was in the Father's heart and the mind for Him to do that He would go to the cross. Calvary. The sins of Eli and the sins of the people of Israel with regard to the discipline of their children was covered in Christ's blood. The judgment that they deserved on account of that sin was the judgment that fell upon Christ. What a beautiful gospel. May God lift up our eyes to see Jesus Christ, whose work and faithfulness alone is our salvation. This has been tonight, people of God, a sharp word. One full of warnings, especially for us fathers and us parents, and for all of us, really. And perhaps we have that guilt mounting up inside of us. As grandparents, we look back upon the raising of our children. As parents active in that now, we see our failures and our weaknesses. And perhaps we are saying now, if only I had done, if only I could still, And the guilt builds, and Satan uses that for his own means and ends. But then we look to the cross. Look to the cross, people of God. The judgment which we deserve on account of the sins toward our children was laid upon Christ. That's beautiful. Tonight, Maybe you are discouraged, and maybe I am discouraged, because we do see our failures with the discipline of our children. And when we see those failures, we ask all kinds of questions. You feel, mothers and fathers, as if the task of raising up children is just too much. I must teach them. I must live a godly life before them, and I must consistently and faithfully discipline them. And we raise up our hands and we say, who is sufficient for this task? Who can possibly do it? But then again, we look to Christ. God is faithful to his promises in Jesus Christ. Despite my weaknesses, and my failures, He will preserve His church. And He will give you and He will give me the grace to raise our children in the fear of His name. Amen. Father in heaven, we have been humbled tonight sharp warnings, but we have also been driven to the cross. We have been driven to see Christ's faithfulness and the salvation which we have in him. Give us the grace to raise up our children in the fear of thy name, especially with regard to their discipline. and lift our eyes always to see Jesus and our salvation and our forgiveness in him. All this we pray in Jesus' name alone, amen.