First Samuel 28. Now, of course, you remember I told you that Langton, who put the verses, the chapters, and ultimately the verses came together, that sometimes these things are not divided exactly, maybe like they ought to be. So in probably chapter 27 should have been extended two more verses. And then chapter 28 should have started in the third verse. And so that's where we'll start. We covered the other two verses last time. So here 28, so this is 1 Samuel 28 verse three. Now Samuel was dead and all Israel lamented him and buried him in Ramah. even in his own city. Now, let me say this to you, that here is this great man, Samuel, and we have followed Samuel's life. I didn't, when I began this series, really didn't think that I would be doing it as thoroughly as I am doing it, but we did. We looked at Samuel's life from the beginning, how his mother prayed for a child and how she gave, how Hannah gave Samuel unto the Lord. And so for all of his life, Samuel was a man of God, in the service of God, that God himself with his voice called him and he said, here am I. And now Samuel was faithful in all things to God. And now he's dead. And the people of faith, that is the people of God, lamented him. Now it may appear to those that really don't have an understanding of Christianity or faith, for those who look at it from afar, it may appear to them quite strange that we would weep over those who died. Because after all, we talk about heaven and we talk about a better place and a new world, another world, another life, living eternally after this life. And so that is our hope and we all seek that. And we say, I mean, I think maybe sometime glibly, But I trust that most of us, at least most of us in this room, when we talk about heaven, when we talk about being with God in Christ, when we talk about the new life there to experience it, that we desire it and we seek to be filled with hope because of it. And yet then around us here are these people who die and then we weep over them. Now often I think that we weep for ourselves because we have lost and we won't see them again. And there have been generations in the past, generations of Christians that really saw it as kind of the judgment of God upon a people. If someone died, especially if someone died early, if someone was taken out, someone was like Whitfield and, and basically his prime when, when they, um, so needed great men and great preachers. And in fact, the story is told that Whitfield, they even got him up off his deathbed and said, Oh, Oh, Mr. Whitfield, if we could just hear you preach one more time. The story is he stood at the top of the steps. in this house and he preached until this candle burned down and then he went back to his bed and died. And so we weep a lot for ourselves, but we also, we see Christ, you know, the shortest verse in the Bible there, Christ weeping for Lazarus. Christ. Who had a memory into eternity. A memory there. He remembered. In fact, we read that in many verses, but surely we read it in John 17 when he remembered the glory that was shared that he shared with his own father there before the world was, and remembered that great covenant of grace when God gave, when God the Father gave to him a people, that he should lose none of them. It's such a shame that there are so many people that are so afraid of the sovereignty of God and so afraid of election and so afraid of these great truths of predestination. They're so afraid of them that, and they won't speak to them, they won't even discuss it, won't even talk about it. And yet how are they robbed of such a wonder of this great prayer of Christ when he is thanking God for us. For the joy laid before him, for the joy that was before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. And we are that joy, his people, that the Lord God gave him. And all that the Father gives me, he says to those Jews there after he had fed them in the sixth chapter of John, all that the Father gives me shall come to me. And if any man comes to me, I will in no wise cast him out. And then he says to the unbelievers, well, you know, as I told you before, no man can come to me unless it be given, unless it be given him or to him that ability by my father, which is in heaven. And so, uh, Christ who remembered all of that tries to, who had, I mean, Christ, he didn't have to have faith in this. He had seen it with his own eyes. Yet he stands outside that tomb and he wept. What was this weeping? Why would Christ weep? Because of sin. Because of how it robbed us, maybe even Christ, and this is a conjecture, oh my poor, but maybe Christ was weeping for his friend Lazarus. Well, he said, I don't call you servants, I call you friends. And greater love hath no man than this that he would lay down his life for his friend. Maybe he was weeping over the fact that his friend had to be so terrorized by this experience of death. I think all the emotions, especially for us, as we think about those that we love, that the Lord has taken from us, from this church and from our own families and from our own lives, how the Lord has taken these people from us and how we had genuine emotion. I considered my own emotion. I don't know, maybe I'm a little strange in this regard, but I considered my own emotion when my mother would die. And I thought about it. How would I act? What would I do? And when my father died, how would I act? What would I do? What should I do at that? You know, there is a sense where you want to hold it back. Since you want to hold this, you want to grab hold of this emotion, and you want to control the emotion, which I think is a fool's errand, because the emotion, by the very fact that it's emotion, is often not able to be controlled. It controls you all. It's like this morning when I was speaking. I've used that illustration about this woman whose father I asked her where the other two points were in her test when she was so proud and wanted his approval so much. I've used that numbers of times in sermons before and was never touched. But this morning, for some reason, when I thought about this poor lady and how she desired to have the approval of her father so much, and that approval was withheld from her, and how for 30 and 40 years it just ached at her heart. When this man, when this jerk could have just as easily given her an encouraging word and her heart would have been thrilled and she would have remembered something different, you see, for 30 years and 40 years. But because of his own wicked heart, Well, I've used that, but yet, and yet this morning, the emotion of it over, I mean, I was, I couldn't control it. I surely don't want, I tell you this, when I stand before you, I do the very best I can not to be emotional. I do the very best I can to control these emotions. And in fact, if sometime, if I believe I can't go to a certain place without being overcome by emotion, I'd stay away from it. But I wondered about my own father. You know how, you know the pain of holding it back? You know what I'm talking about? I mean, when you are gripped with this great loss, you're gripped with this powerful emotion that's about to break you down, and how you fight it. Do you know what I'm talking about? I don't know exactly where it hurts, but it hurts somewhere. It hurts in the throat and in the chest and in the stomach. I don't know. In the mind, maybe it hurts somewhere, but I was determined. I wasn't going to fight. I made the determination that I was not going to hold it back. If it came genuinely, then it would come. And it did to such a degree that my, uh, my older sister thought she needed to comfort me. You know, I'm the preacher ought to be the one with the comfort, right? But here they are lamenting because they sensed the loss of it. And they sense the horror of it. The terror. You see, being dead is not the terror. The terror is dying. And I think Bunyan so magnificently and so creatively and so brilliantly Such a genius how he, in Pilgrim's Progress, there when they were crossing that river, which is a metaphor there of death, when they were crossing the river, the one who had been strong all of the walk, all of the journey, the one who did the chiding for a lack of faith, the one who gave the great comfort and the great confidence to those who were near him and around him, the one who's strongest throughout the whole way and surely stronger than hopeful. But when they came to that river, he began to despair even of his life. Bunyan brilliantly teaching us that the fear of this thing is the fear of dying. And all that he saw and how his heart was fainting within him. And so maybe some of that is why we I think some of the reason we weep is because the world won't ever be the same as it was. You know, there are times when you really wish this one who was so instrumental in your faith, this one who was so used of God so much to encourage your faith, This one who was such a stalwart in the faith, this one who gently taught you and who courageously stood in front of you and defended when even the king himself would go against God, here this one would stand firm. And so now you don't have this confidant, you don't have this one that you can go to, speak to, this one that you would like to share joys with, this one that would help you in pain and sorrow. Gone. And who would ever replace him? Who's going to come and replace Samuel? In fact, no one ever did. He was the last judge. He was the end of it. No one was there. There was never another Samuel. Never another one like him. But it was dead. No more life. No animation. No more prayers to be heard as he prayed. No more mouth moving with truth in it. No more heart beating for the passion of God. And will we be as faithful? Will we be as strong knowing in our own heart, because we really didn't live in his body, in his mind, in his heart, we only live in ours. He was always strong, or at least appeared to be strong when we were sometimes weak. And now that strength is gone, and when the next weakness comes to us, will we remain as faithful as dear Samuel? given to us as a gift from God. Never had they lived in this world, at least many of them, never had they lived in this world without His presence. And now they're forced to live the rest of their life without His presence. And so they lamented. It didn't mean that they just came to the grave and a tear or two ran down their cheek. No, this word lamented means that they were crushed. They were crushed. with the great burden of his loss, that they were moved in every faculty of their being. And the pain of this loss, you know, it's a strange pain. It is a pain that makes you want to run from the place, and yet there's no place to run. A pain that you wish would give you some relief and yet there is no relief from it. A pain that often, by the grace of the living God, and thank God for it, that sometimes is lessened because if it was never lessened, we would be crushed by it as if it were a can deep within the ocean and the pressure of the ocean around it would just crush it until it was completely flattened. Occasionally, God just gives us some reprieve. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically. But the problem with it, this lamenting, is that it returns. And it returns at the strangest of times. Sometime it returns out of the blue. Sometime something you saw or heard or experienced brings it back. Sometime when you think about their existence and this lamenting, sometime when you think about their existence, when you think about their personalities, when you think about their quirks, it might bring a smile to your face. but immediately wiped away because of their loss that can never, ever be replaced. For the rest of your life, when someone like Samuel that is in your life, this great man of God in your life, for the rest of your life, there will be a void that will never be filled and that will cause you pain. They lamented over Samuel. And it is not a lack of faith. In fact, I don't believe that there are those who can truly mourn the loss except those that have great faith in Christ. Those who have great faith in Christ are the ones who truly know how to mourn the loss of a great man or of a great person that has been in your life, a great woman that has been in your life. It is only us because we only, only we understand what a great gift it was that God had given us such a person. Many, you know, the world just takes it for granted, you know, and many people pass from this world and they've never thought of again. Well, that was yesterday news. I mean, we are somewhat shocked and somewhat saddened by the passing or by the brutal murder of these nine people there in this church. And what a horrific thing that they were murdered as they were before God praying. but this world will pass on. And then just about two or three weeks, we won't even be able to remember what city it was. But not so for those who are Christians, not so for us who truly know how to lament. Those of us that are engaged in a constant battle with sin, Those of us who are constantly engaged in the battle with the enemy. You see, once we come to know Christ, once we come to live for Him, once we have been transformed by His power, once we have been converted, once we have been redeemed, you see, once that happens to us, then we get a new set of enemies. Have you noticed? There's a new set of enemies and there are things that you array yourself against. Now, some people think we're fighting with flesh and blood. They think we're fighting, you know, because, and then they get angry with us and, and, uh, they said, well, they're insensitive and they're, you know, they, they shouldn't, uh, they shouldn't make these strong stands against sin because that hurts people. And yet we know that, uh, that, We, because of the truth that God has spread abroad in our heart, even as He has shed the love of the Spirit, the love of God abroad in our heart by the Spirit, we get a new set of enemies. And we now see what the real enemy is. And our desire is to defeat and to war against the enemy of sin. But the worldling, the one who dwells upon the earth, Katocheo, the down dwellers, they love sin. They desire it. They think it's pleasure when it's death. They think it's pleasure, my friend, when it's really persecution of their own soul. They think they control these things when really these things control them. And here we are as people of God with the love of God shed abroad in our heart. And that love of God will cause us to array ourselves against the enemy that's destroying those that we love and destroying those that are the people of, you know, the creatures of God. And we will not and cannot and must not stand aside. And we must not stand and just gaze this and be unaffected by the destruction of it in their lives. They think that we're trying to take something. something from them when we're really trying to give something to them. And they array themselves, you see, that we are the enemy. Isn't it amazing that they will even confess out of their own mouth, I have left what was right. I have left what was joyful. I have left that which was, that gives me great, great, uh, uh, you know, supply and great comfort. The thing that, that, that gave me, uh, what I needed. And when I was happiest in this world, These are the things that I was, were in. These are the things that I did. And now I've gone the way of the world and it's disappointed me at every turn. Everybody that I put confidence in have let me down. Everything that I thought was good has turned to bite me as a stinging adder, and as a worm, and as burning fire. the bosom of into my bosom, the fire of this world. And it burns me almost irreparably. And yet you say to them, well, then why live in such a way? Why, why won't you return? Why don't you go back to the father's house as the prodigal? Because you know, you know, that there's much, much greater things at the father's house than out in this pig pen of the world. They are defeated and persecuted by the sin. The sin has its hooks in them and drawing them unto death. And we who know the truth, we who know the Word of God, we who have the love of God shed abroad in our heart, we that have faith in Christ, we cannot stand. If we are loving toward them, we cannot stand and watch this enemy destroy them without lifting our voice and without lifting our hand and without attacking these things as the enemies, not only of God, but of the souls of these who were poor, pitiful creatures. They think we're mean. Unloving. Unkind. I tell you what the most unkind thing that you could ever do for someone is to watch them kill themselves with sin and never say a word as if you're happy. I mean, we told the story of Jonah. Jonah didn't want the Ninevites saved because they were the enemies of the people of Israel. He didn't want the Ninevites saved. He wanted them dead. But we're not Jonah. No. Even the most wicked one. Our prayer is that they would be redeemed. That God would indeed convert them, save them, rescue them from sin. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. That is the heart of one who has come to Christ. And so they're lamenting. because of the enemies. We must array ourselves against these enemies. And when this enemy of death gets its victory over one that we love, when this death, you know, reduces them down to lifeless form, our hearts are filled with two emotions. The first emotion is just abject pain. The second emotion, we're filled with rage against this enemy. As I can tell you, When my father left this world, I hated with all the fiber of my being. I hated death that robbed me because it's Now the enemy, you see, it is the last enemy. And so they're lamenting, they're weeping, but they honor him. They bury him. They take him back to Ramah, even to his own city. and honored this great man of God. And so the scripture teaches us that we should give honor to whom honor is due. And we should give tribute to whom tribute is due. And what a horrible thing it would be if a man of God we could take to the grave and dump him there a woman of God we could take to the grave and put her there and never feel any pain of their passing. I have prayed, O God, Please do not ever allow me to be as a pastor so professional that I would not be able to enter into the pain of these ones who were weeping so bitterly over their loved ones that I could stand aloof from such a thing and never feel any of what they are feeling. Oh, I pray to God, please never let me get to that point. But I must admit my own sinful heart. There have been times when I have watched them weep and I was untouched. There are times when we put the body into the ground and I was unmoved. I say that to my shame. And so help us to, O God, lament and weep and feel the pain of this last enemy, and may it enrage us against it to such a degree that we would preach the gospel with all the fortitude and power we have, that there not be one more claim as it's but that we will be able to stand up in that great and terrible day and say, oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death has been swallowed up in the power of Christ. Let's pray.