Well, if you can believe it, I'm not going to ask you to turn to Hebrews, at least not yet. This is what I call a sequel. If you haven't been here for a while, I've been going through the book of Hebrews to give us warnings. Online, I call it warnings for all. because it's warnings to people who aren't Christians, people who are Christians, for people who think they're Christians and are not. Hebrews is so skillfully designed by the Spirit of God to attract us to the need of grace and mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ. and that even after we have received salvation, that is, our sins have been paid for, we still need him to minister to us and help us through to get past into that next stage of sanctification where we get saved from sin's power and deceptive pleasure. Well, Hebrews chapter 12 alone has led me to three messages, which we just finished the third one. And you thought, oh good, he's finally done with that. Well, this sequel came to me. And as I was studying for myself, I saw the example of Samuel. And I saw, actually it's in Samuel 12 where we're going to be heading. that there's a lovely parallel between what we see in 1 Samuel 12 and then also parallel to Hebrews chapter 12. So if you see me comparing, I will go back and forth, we'll read some verses, but if that makes you want to know more about Hebrews chapter 12, I've got some notes for you. If you want to dig in, you'll have a study available. But today, and I didn't even tell Sue this, I honestly don't know until the Lord gets done with me today, if this is one message or two. I just don't know. Enough notes, it could be a week of Sundays. But I don't know how He's going to have me linger. I'm just trusting the Spirit of God today, as I try to do every day, and every Sunday especially, when I get to share the Word with you. But we're going to start with 1 Samuel chapter 8, and look at the first 10 verses. We're going to then turn to 1 Samuel 12, verses 13 through 25. Now maybe you want to get a little turned ahead and have a finger in there, or maybe you got a little bookmark or something. Be careful sticking your pen for a bookmark into a Bible. Make sure it's clicked up. You'll make a mess. But I'm going to start now with 1 Samuel 8, verses 1 through 10. And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abiah. They were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre," or money, greed, and they took bribes. and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah and said unto him, Behold, thou art old and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel. when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee. For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice, albeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked him for a king." And we'll move over to chapter 12. And we'll start with verse 13. 1 Samuel chapter 12, starting with verse 13. Now therefore, behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired. And behold, the Lord hath set a king over you. If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God. But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord. Then shall the hand of the Lord be against you as it was against your fathers. Now therefore stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call unto the Lord and he shall send thunder and rain. that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king.' So Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king.' And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not, you have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And turn ye not aside, for then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit. nor deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed. Some of your Bibles will say swept away, both ye and your king. That ends our reading, but that starts quite a discussion now. As I've said, we've studied the warnings in Hebrews chapter 12, and the lessons we now consider will help us take time to let it soak into our souls. I'm reminded of Jesus one time in his teaching. He said, let these sayings sink deep into your ears. It's a metaphorical thing, but there's something got to get down in deeper than just surface understanding. We've often talked about the distance between the mind and the heart, and that's 18 inches, and we can miss what God has for us by 18 inches. We can miss salvation by 18 inches, miss heaven by 18 inches. We can miss the point because it's rolling around up here in our brains, and we have intellect enough to understand words, but it didn't get into our heart where it caused transformation, decision, and change. What we are learning is so basic and so consistent with the rest of Scripture that it's not difficult to find numerous examples to illustrate God's heart and mind in the matter of how he thinks of us and deals with our sinfulness. So if I wanted to, I probably could have picked others. This is the one God picked, though. I was just minding my own business, reading my Bible for my own sake, and all of a sudden, it leaped out. God's got this special spiritual highlighter, and it's invisible to the physical eye, but it's like he put yellow all over 1 Samuel 12. And wait a minute. Oh, sure enough, there's context on Hebrews 12 and 1 Samuel 12. Boy, there it was, and I was gone. I was gone. And so, again, I do not know how long it takes to deliver this. Let's see what happens. But let's first think about Samuel. He's one of those servants of God who gives us a lot of positive insight, a lot of positive example. Of course, he was a sinner like all of us. But Scripture presents his Christ-like qualities without emphasizing his faults. If you're looking for a fault, it might be the fault that Eli also had who brought him up. Eli's sons didn't turn out. and Samuel's sons didn't turn out. And somehow there, and that's a scary thing, but you get so busy in dealing with the God's people, God's word, God's word, and somehow kids fall through the cracks. And I don't know, we don't get detail about it, but these boys weren't able to just walk in their daddy's footsteps just because they were physically his children. They didn't have something in here. And I dare say that many a time we appreciate that God's given us family in the realms of Christ that are closer relationships than those with our physical family. It's wonderful when you get both. They're your physical family and your spiritual family. And you've heard that old saying, blood is thicker than water. Well, I got news for you. When you have family based on the blood of Christ, that's the thickest there is. And we need to really value that. Well, that was not in the notes. That was no extra charge. But our background story begins in chapter 8. I'm not going to reread all these verses. I'm going to read a few of them for emphasis, but we're talking about Samuel who had served Israel well, but as his sons grew up and began to serve as judges, it became a concern to the elders of Israel that Samuel's sons were not fit to take his place. I'd like to say that the elders got together and said, no, we got a problem here. These boys are not, they're not cut from the same cloth as their father. And we do respect Samuel, but look at this. And if he's gonna pass away and leave this all to them, we're in big trouble. Now, up to that point, I think they had a very legitimate concern. And here's where we fail sometimes. We create our own plan, our own exit plan, our own strategy. And instead of saying, let's go to Samuel and ask him what to do. Let's ask Samuel to go to the Lord. And let's find out what the Lord says, because there's an obvious need, and let's see what the Lord says through Samuel. No, no, Samuel, here's the problem, we got the solution, it's already been to committee, so there you go. Oh boy. They wanted to be like all the nations. I think that's where the ears started burning. with the Heavenly Father and with Samuel. We want to be like all other nations. Instead of having a judge and a prophet for a leader, which implies God is actually direct linked running the country, that no, we wanna be like other nations and have a king and we'll have something we can be proud of, we'll take care of our king He'll take care of us, and it's going to be so nice. And they're just imagining all these things. Let me diverge a little in 1 Samuel 8, verse 5. Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all nations. In my Bible, I underline that with two lines, all nations. Do you know why that's so offensive? And I'll be honest with you, I could not put any more words or references on these pages. They're packed. But have I got a list that I'd love to share with you sometime of how many ways God described that Israel is the apple of my eye. Israel is my glory. Israel is this nation I chose out of all the other nations, not because they were great and powerful, because I chose them. And I want to make them special. Okay, let me give you two references. I could give you a sling of them, but I don't dare get that deep. But in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter seven, and I'm taking time to emphasize this because there's a lot of people today, and I'm talking about Christian people, that think God's done with Israel. He's cast them off. They're the Christ killers. Historically, they've been called. And they're nothing anymore. And up to a certain point in time, it looked like Israel was all barren and abandoned and Israel was scattered and it's all over. And nobody could have seen it coming unless they believed the scriptures that God would create a nation in a day and bring them back. They're back in the land. They're not back with the Lord yet, but they're back in the land. And a lot of our good Christian brothers and sisters don't see it. They don't get it, that this is how significant this is. Now we have in the world of unbelievers hatred, absolute hatred for Israel. Our brothers and sisters in Christ may not hate them. They just don't see any big deal. They need to become Christians like us. End of story. But God's got a plan for them. They are going to come to Christ. And many are individually. They will as a nation. But in the meantime, scriptures are being fulfilled about this horrible hatred that's poured out by the numerous other nations for Israel. And all you have to do is look at history books or newspapers. We don't use newspapers anymore probably, but all we have to do is look at headlines and say there's something going on there because look at all this evil hatred that's stirred up. Well, back to the point. Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 6 through 9. And God says, for thou art and holy people. Holy means separated. Thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people. For ye were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of Banban from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. For you know, therefore, that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations." And just move over a few pages to chapter 14, verse two. Deuteronomy chapter 14 and verse 2. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people. Now, some of your Bibles won't say peculiar, but in the King James, they use this word peculiar a lot. Even in the New Testament, it comes up, we're peculiar people too. And I know in today's way of talking, that means we're weird, you know, we're odd. We're somehow offbeat, you know, but peculiar was used differently in the days of the King James Translation. And the word here has to do with personal treasured possession. A thing possessed, a thing purchased. Now, the connotation with Christ purchasing us with his blood makes us his purchased people. We're his possession, and we are unique. And I've always illustrated that with people that collect things. You have friends, or you are that person that collects chickens, or rabbits, or geese. My mother collected monkeys. And once I was born, she stopped. But you go shopping, you go touring, you're in a gift shop and you see a monkey or a rabbit or a chicken and you say, oh, let's get that for so-and-so because it's peculiar to them. Some people collect so much stuff you can't possibly keep track of all the things that are peculiar to them. But the very thing here is we are to be the kind of people, Titus 2.14 says, we should be the kind of people that when people look at us they say, oh, that's one of those people that belong to Jesus. He's one of His kind of people. Zealous of good works happens to be one of those phrases. But here, the Heavenly Father spoke of Israel as His possession. His peculiar treasure. His unique, special, treasured people. So anyways, that's just a sampling. And God who changes not, has not changed His mind about his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were not all transferred over to the church as some love to teach. And if you wanna know more about that, have I got a booklet for you that will explain the history of antisemitism and also in Christian realms, what's called the replacement theology or the transfer doctrine that God took all the curses and said, Israel, you keep them and all the promises go to the church and you're done as a nation, I'm not gonna use you anymore. You can understand how it happened when this book I have explains it. It's a short little booklet by Reynolds Showers, The Coming Apocalypse. But understanding something doesn't justify it. And it bears out through history. Anti-Semitic thoughts, disrespect, disregard, not simply for Israel, but for the promises of God and the character of God. It's been missed. It was subverted, and I gotta stop this. I got another message to preach. But it is an important thing here, and Samuel is going to remind them in all of their disobedience and all of their problems, he still is pleased to have them as his people. And if you all saw what God endured up to this point, you'll understand he can endure the rest until his promises are fulfilled in his time, in his way. And that brings us to verses 6 through 8 in 1 Samuel. Chapter 8, verses 6 through 8. You know, Samuel has worked all his life for some particular goals to represent God to Israel, to represent Israel to God. He worked and he labored to protect them, to guide them, to help them, correct them, and keep the thing going. And in one fell swoop, this committee gets together, the elders of Israel, and they're going to destroy, undo what he worked all his life for. You know what that does to a man? It can happen to men or women, but I think many of God's leaders have gotten so discouraged because all that they worked for gets unraveled. Think about Paul. He'd spend years in Galatia, that big region, establishing churches. And then he gets moved to a new area, and here come the Judaizers. Here come people to unravel his work and confuse the churches. And, of course, that gave us the book of Galatians, thankfully. But wherever he went, he was hounded by people who were trying to undo the gospel and add circumcision and things for Moses and drag him back into the old covenant. And he had to keep undermining that. And again, I personally feel that Paul wrote Hebrews as well. This man was invested. But, you know, some ministers get bitter, disillusioned, want to quit. Some of them join the crowd and just say, phooey, it's not worth it. I'm tired of fighting. But you know what Samuel did? He didn't get up and have a press conference and tell them how upset he was and disappointed. He went to the Lord. He ran to the Lord. I've had people ask me throughout the years, What are we going to do about this terrible crisis? What are we going to do about what society's on? What are we going to do about the condition of the church? What are we going to do? And they expect me to, oh, we're going to join this organization here, and we're going to fight, fight, fight, and we're going to protest, and we'll get our signs. No, this goes back to last summer's messages on lamentations. We're going to go to God and grieve a while. We're going to sigh and cry to the Lord. It's his problem. Isn't that not the problem the elders of Israel had? They had a problem, and instead of going to God and grieving about it and pouring out and seeking God's help and guidance, we got the answer. We figured it out. Now, Samuel, just get on board and let God know what we need, because we're here to tell him. Now, Samuel went to the Lord. Let me read verses 6 through 8 of 1 Samuel chapter 8. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee. For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me. that I should not reign over them. According to all the words which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee." Okay, so by going to the Lord first, he didn't say things he'd have to regret. Moses fell into that pitfall. Moses did just about everything right until that day that he was at Meribah. and he was supposed to speak to the rock, and instead he got mad, and, how long shall we fetch you water? And God was saying under his breath, what do you mean, we? And instead of speaking to the rock, he hit the rock. Well, you know, God gave him the water mercifully, but God told Moses, you're not going into the promised land because you messed up my illustration of Christ being crucified, and then after that, he's our priest, and we confess, and we talk to him. I want my sins forgiven. I don't have to crucify him every week like certain denominations teach and do. Now, he's crucified once. Once and for all, he's been offered. And after that, we come unto him with confession of our mouth and our hearts. Okay? So Moses had that problem, and Samuel might have done something just like that. He might have gone on a tirade and just give him a piece of his mind. Well, I don't know about Samuel, but I don't have enough mind to share. I've got to keep it. You know, so I better make sure I'm sharing the mind of the Lord with you. So he went to the Lord, and the first thing is, the Lord ministered to Samuel. Samuel, you take it easy. I know this hurts, but it hurts me. Really what they're doing is they're rejecting me as their ruler. You are my representative, so you're feeling it, but you're in good company, Samuel. They've rejected me. And by treating you the way they treat me, you're in good company. And that's what Paul says in Philippians 3.10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings be made conformable to his death. Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and yet Hebrews 12 told us the joy that was set before him, he endured the suffering of the cross, the contradiction of sinners against himself. He despised the shame, but the joy was set before him. He ever counseled with the Heavenly Father? We better learn from this wonderful example. Well, God went on to reason with the people through Samuel. and warned them. You think this King idea is so good? Here's what it's going to look like. He gave them a chance to change their mind, folks. They were so sure what they wanted. And they're going to get what they wanted. And we've been warned. Be careful what you ask for. You may get it. But he gave them a picture in the following chapters of what this King is going to be like. Here's the hard stuff. Here's the difficult things. Here's the things you didn't know you were signing up for. But you can still change your mind. Hmm. Well, he would give them their wish, but there would be consequences. Nevertheless, the people of Israel chose their way instead of God's way. Had a sermon a while back last year. Do you want a good way or God's way? Kind of in line with this very thing here. We can come up with some really good plans, right? If God would only take notes when we're talking, but no, They didn't want God's way, they wanted their way. So when we get to 1 Samuel 9-10, which I'm not gonna read, Samuel was led of God to choose Saul to be Israel's first king. In chapter 11 of 1 Samuel, there was an Ammonite threat made against Israel. Saul rose up, the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and Saul led the people to victory, delivered them from these Ammonites. And then by the time we get to chapter 12, Samuel reasoned with the people of Israel so that they might see the big picture. They just experienced a big victory, and they were feeling pretty good about themselves, pretty good about Saul and having a king. This is working, see? Well, Samuel rehearsed things before them and rehearsed the faithfulness of God, that God was faithful to Israel all along. all along. And you know what? He could have delivered them from the Ammonites. They didn't have to have a king. God could have done this. He delivered them before. You just read 1 and 2 Samuel. Read the Judges, Joshua and Judges before that. You'll see, God could take care of them. But they've asked for it. They're going to get it. But understand, they had not been faithful to God, and God would still bless the nation, but they must be careful not to forsake the Lord. Now, we're gonna go into some detail on chapter 12, the second half of it, and then we're gonna, as we look at the details, we're gonna show comparisons with Hebrews 12. If you were here for the Hebrews 12, this'll come quickly and easily. Perhaps you're so familiar with Hebrews 12, it'll still come quickly and easily. Let's see how this goes. But let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 12 and start with verse 16. 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 16. And we're going to read 16 to 19. Now therefore stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes, is it not wheat harvest today? I will call unto the Lord and he shall send thunder and rain that you may receive, perceive and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for a King. So Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not. For we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king. Okay, my subheading here is t'was grace that taught my heart to fear. And in marketing, you can't sell a product until you create a need. Do you have bad breath? Well, we have something here that will kill the bad breath, and you have coffee and tea stains on your teeth. We have this special toothpaste that will take that all away. I'm not going to get into other body parts, okay? I'm just staying up there in the mouth. But we got to tell people how awful it is, how bad it is, how much you need something. And oh, look, here it is. Well, We get the gliding along, and things are working out, and we've ignored that God's been the one that's keeping us going all along, and we think we're pretty good. So God says once in a while, let me show you what sin looks like and what an awful thing it is to be a sinner. So in the middle of the hardest time, when it should be nice, dry, sunny weather, bam, boom, boom, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, and this horrible thunderstorm. You ever been caught in one? Well, you don't have to answer that. But there's thunder out there that can just make it, you feel it in your chest. And I've known friends who were out on boats fishing and the storm swooped in and they're trying to get back to shore and all of a sudden they got white caps to deal with it. You can go from everything's so nice to everything's so terrible so fast. And so God wanted to put the fear of the Lord in them. Please note, nobody got hurt. God didn't kill off a few thousand just to, Get that off his chest. No, he scared them all for positive, productive purposes in the future. Here's who you're dealing with. And a good minister has to ably present the fear of God to the people he preaches to so that they then can totally appreciate and appeal for the grace of God. And if we're not teaching the fear of God, if we're not teaching the high holy demands of God, if we're not teaching His justice and goodness and His standard, then people say, well, I'm not that bad. Oh, it's nice that Jesus died on the cross, but you know, that sure helps, but, and we don't know where we'd be if it hadn't been for the Lord. So once in a while, God lets us feel what it is to stand on the edge and look into the precipice of God's justice and what a horrible place it can be. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Oops, that's in Hebrews 12. Let's turn there. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 18 through 21. It's actually a different spot I've picked here. I call this a taste of Sinai. Not Sinai, the poison, but Sinai, the place where the Ten Commandments were given. And we had studied that the day the commandments were given, that mountain was off limits. Nobody could touch it but Moses. And there was such horrible thunderings and lightnings and shakings. If even an animal touched that mountain, it would be thrust through with a dart. It would be killed. People were trembling. Even Moses himself said, I exceedingly fear an quake. And you can find all those references in our previous notes. But let's just catch what the taste of Sinai is. In Hebrews chapter 12, starting with verse 18 and to verse 21, And happily the word says, for ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice They that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure that which was commanded. And as so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." And here's the meekest man that ever lived feeling the fear of God. Now, we're looking at what it is to look unto Jesus or not. You don't want to look unto Jesus. What's going to be said in a little while, don't refuse him. Don't reject him who speaks from heaven. God can be very severe. We had warnings in Hebrews 2 about this, about ignoring, neglecting, drifting away from the things that are God's holy word and thinking we can just casually float around like a ship without a rudder. It's a fearful thing. That's how this chapter ends. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Well, you are not come to that, Christian. It will go on to say, verse 22, but you are come unto, and I've got to stop because I'm going to use that later with the first Samuel comparison here. "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear," and you'll notice next, "'and grace my fears relieved.'" This is, in volleyball terms, this is set and spike, okay? When I was first playing volleyball, everything was, get it over the net, get it over the net. Then I got taught proper etiquette. No, you don't just flop it over. You set it up so that another person right near the net can spike it down and make the point. Okay, so this is the setup. Look at this mount burning with fire, shaking and thundering. People are shaking and quaking, can't tolerate hearing anymore. No, you don't get that. You get this. You get grace. You get Jesus. And grace now, my fears relieved. In 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 20. 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 20. And Samuel said unto the people, fear not. What? If you didn't want me to fear, why did we do all that thunder and lightning stuff? Well, it's because you needed a good reason to be calmed down. So I had to get you revved up. I had to get you a taste of the fear of God. I had to give you a taste of Sion, a taste of what it is to be in the hands of a holy God. You're trifling with him. But now he tells you, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Why? You have done all this wickedness. There was no mistake in the memo. You have done all this wickedness. Yet, important little words connecting each phrase, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. I got to stop there because this is just piling up on us here. Do not dwell in fear and dread. Go forward with God. You know, I do like Wisconsin's motto, which is forward. And we need to be forward in our thinking. We've got to look at what's ahead and deal with the future. That's where I plan to be, is the future, not dwelling in the past. So do not dwell in fear and dread. Go forward with God. And in Hebrews 12, verses 5 through 11, and I didn't tell you to do this, but it'd be really good if you had a bookmark or something, because I'm just going to go back and forth here. as long as I can, but in verses five through 11, this is about the chasing section. And we learned in our study that this quoting of the Proverbs about don't despise the chasing of the Lord and comparing him, you know, as a earthly father would chase in his children, so the heavenly father, but we found out that Jesus is actually like a father. We found scriptures that point out Jesus, he's like a brother. He's a king, he's a savior, he's a shepherd. We're brothers to him. We're sheep, we're disciples, we're all these different things, but we are also like children. And I can't reprove that. Again, you have to go to the old notes. But here's the point. Don't despise the chastening of the Lord. Don't turn away. Don't try to crawl in a hole somewhere. You know there's no hiding place, really. But verse six says in Hebrews 12, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens. And he scourges every son whom he receives. And he goes on to say, if you don't get this chasing, you're not one of his true children. So don't live in fear and dread. Don't run from God. The fear of the Lord teaches you to run to God. And then we get chapter 12, verses 12 through 14. Going forward, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. God isn't revealing sin to you to torment you before he kills you. He's showing you sin so you can run to him, get it dealt with, and have it expunged, and be cleared up, and go forward with new strength, and more resolve than ever, and more love for him than ever. Oh, in the Psalms it tells us, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I seek thy precepts. I seek your way, but you had to afflict me, Lord, in faithfulness you have afflicted me, we're told. Don't live in fear and dread. The fear of the Lord sends you to the Lord. The fear of this world, we refer to the sorrow of this world, it brings forth death. It makes you want to give up, kill yourself, drown your sorrows in whatever pleasures, and it makes you want to try to just get into avoidance. But the fear of the Lord makes you want to run to him, get closer, and take your licks and thank him for it afterwards, because no chasing for the present seems to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby." That's Hebrews 12.11. So we're encouraged to participate in God's correction so that we can follow and serve the Lord. Verse 21 of 1 Samuel 12. Verse 21, and turn not aside for then should you go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver for they are vain. Where are you going to go except to the Lord? Got any bright ideas? There are other little islands somewhere that's okay? I've often imagined people don't want to go to heaven because it seems too yicky. I don't like religion. I remember one man going to his desk saying, I don't want to be in that nursing home, all those Christian women there singing their hymns. I don't want to be around all that. And I think a lot of people don't want to go to hell. They don't want to go to heaven. They want to go a place called not hell, where there's good fishing, a nice cabin, and their favorite hunting dog, or their favorite whatever. But there isn't a place called not hell except heaven. And heaven is all in with God. And when I get to it, if I can get to it, Hebrews 12 has that section. Here's what we are come to. But right now, if we do not go forward with the Lord, we will go backwards into bad and unprofitable things. You remember? Jesus was teaching in John 6, and it got pretty, pretty tense. He's talking about the body and the blood of Christ, and eating my flesh, and all kinds of things. They had people all mixed up, and instead of coming to Jesus saying, would you please explain that? They just said, he's crazy. I don't understand. I'm out of here. And they walked away and followed him no more. Jesus turns to the 12, and he says, will you also go away? And Peter stood up, and here's one time he was shining, folks. Lord, where shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. We're stranded on you, Lord. I don't have plan B. And Peter was doing good that day. And we need to say the same thing. Lord, sometimes it's hard what you want. Sometimes it's hard what you say. Sometimes it's downright difficult, and I don't even like the smell of it. But you're still Lord. And I still have to follow you because there's nothing else. I'm yours. I'm stranded on your sovereign grace. Now, we get warned in Hebrews 12, 15 through 17 that if we're not diligent, we can fail the grace of God. or fail the grace that God has given us, if you look there in Hebrews 12, verses 15 through 17, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of food or meat sold his birthright, For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, that we sought it, the blessing, carefully with tears." Now again, I got to put a knife to my throat. I can't reteach all that, but there's some very important things here. We can fail the grace of God. Now that may not be a statement that makes sense to you, but in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1, Paul warns them that you receive not the grace of God in vain. Here's God giving you things, giving you knowledge, giving you insight, giving you promises, and you go, later, maybe, I don't know. It's kind of like somebody handed you that healthy food that doesn't look as good as this donut. And well, maybe I'll eat that later. And we put it on the shelf till we plum forget about it. It goes stale because we want what we want. And so we can defile ourselves here. There's a gracious environment that we need to thrive in. Now we can become bitter, disillusioned, troubled, defiled, unfaithful, worldly, which is another way of describing profane, and we can lose many blessings. I can't re-elaborate on all that, but now we go to verse 22 of 1 Samuel 12, For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people." He didn't say, you guys are so cute. God feels sorry for you. He didn't say, well, you've done so well in the past. This is a little hiccup. We'll get over it. Or, you know, boys will be boys, so we'll just sweep this one under the carpet. No, you guys are full of sin, you've been unfaithful, you have done evil, but don't give up because the Lord's motive for you has never been on how good you are anyways. He that knows everything there is to know about you still wants you. You never will surprise him. I had the pleasure of talking to John Wickham one time, and he said, has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God? And I like that, and I've hung on to it, and I'm going to make you hang on to it if I can. That there's no surprises. I surprise myself. God knows I surprise my wife. I surprise others. I never surprise God. He's thought of everything. He sent His Son to take care of everything. All the sins I have committed, am committing, or ever will commit, have been dealt with by the Son of God, and the Son of God's gonna see it through. There's this parable where a man owned a vineyard, and he's got a caretaker, and there's this one particular tree. Vineyards can have trees too, and besides grapevines. And anyways, the owner says, look, this thing is not producing. It's not producing. It's shrimpy looking, and it's not bearing any fruit. Dig it up, get rid of it. The gardener says, give me another year. And in the King James, I love it. It says, I'll dig it and dung it. I get pleasure out of such things. Behold, he stinketh. Those are just great things to use Chaucer English to describe. But to put it in our terms is, I'm going to cultivate it, I'm going to feed it. I'm going to watch over it. And next year, if it's doing well, good. And if not, then we'll deal with what you said. And to make this more important to me, God had my father, who was an organic gardener, food and flowers and bushes and trees and everything. And I remember we planted a tall hedge. We knew a neighborhood was being built and dad wanted some privacy. So he bought these tall hedges, which at first they're not tall. But anyways, we planted them ahead of time. And one of them just was not working out. At this time, I hadn't read this parable either, but one of them wasn't working out. I said, dad, let's get rid of it and quickly plant another one in here so it can catch up to the others. And he says, no, I'll work with it. It'll be okay. And years later, I came back home and I looked at that tall hedge and I thought, where was that runty one? Did it work out? I couldn't even tell which one had been the runty one. All of them looked tall and thick and doing their job. My dad was right. And then I learned that scripture. And then, I found out that's me. I'm that brunt. And the holiness of God says, he ain't bearing fruit. Ditch him, he's fake. But Jesus, the chief gardener says, I'll work with him. He's mine, I'll work with him. I'll feed him, I'll cultivate him, I'll get some weeds out, we'll work with him. And that's what he's doing with me, folks. That's what he's doing with you too. And so we have to understand God's gracious motives and intentions. We have to understand the love, or let's call it the tough love, of God as a Father. Again, that Hebrews 12, 5-8, we've looked at it once, we look at it again. There's some overlap here. Well, the Lord loves us. He corrects us. He chastens us. And if you've ever seen a grapevine pruned, it looks like they're being killed. They're pruned back, cut back so much. I got the privilege of doing some grapevines once, and man, I got the idea. But that's because the vine branch was producing fruit in the first place, and it's going to do better, but it's got to get cut way back. And that's why we get things in our life that's not chastening for sin. It's not punishment of any kind. It's saying, you were fruitful here. I can make you more fruitful. And it takes hardship. It takes difficulties to toughen us up. It's like the football coach. He loves his team so much, he makes them run extra laps and do push-ups and push hard. getting them ready for a tough team. So they got to get tough and they got to go through tough stuff under his guidance. And God's nurturing us and taking care of us. So we need to focus and dwell on the loving and gracious environment that God has for us. And yes, I finally get to Hebrews 12 verse 22. 18 says you're not come to that Mount Sinai. Uh-uh. That's not what God's doing when hardships come in your life. He's not burning you and thrusting you with darts and all that. No, you have come, verse 22 says, unto Mount Zion. Okay, this is a reference to Jerusalem, where the temple is, where Jesus died on the cross. And so you've come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God. And by the way, that city exists. up in heaven, one day will come down from God out of heaven, the new Jerusalem." But it's already in existence, folks. Psalm 46 says there is a river. It doesn't say there will be. There is this river that refreshes the people of God. And if you will, it's that river that's coming from that throne that's in that city, New Jerusalem. And one day it's gonna be brought down to us. He doesn't come down here and build it. It already is done. It's coming down. In my father's house, there are many mansions, many dwelling places. He didn't have to go die on the cross, go up and get Abraham and Isaac and Jacob all woke up and start building. This is built. It's built of God. It's a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God. And that's Hebrews 11, by the way. You are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Now again, this was all taught more heavily last week. I'm going to tell you just quickly what I feel about Jesus' blood speaking better than that of Abel. I personally don't think it's a reference to the lamb he offered in Genesis 4, the offering that was accepted temporarily. And Cain's offering wasn't accepted because it was his fruits. I think it talked about after Cain got jealous and murdered his brother and buried him, and God says, where's your brother? And Cain says, how would I know? Am I my brother's keeper? And God says, the blood of your son, whom you killed, is crying out to me from the ground. It's crying out for justice. His blood calls for justice. It's coming to my ears, this cry. But the blood of Jesus isn't crying for vengeance. The blood of Jesus is crying out, mercy on them, Father. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. I laid down my life for them. I sanctify myself that they might be sanctified. That's really wonderful environment to be in. This environment of grace and mercy through the blood of Jesus. And if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. That's our environment. And don't you forget it. Because many a time, the accuser comes in and tries to drag you down into some kind of a bare-knuckle fight with the holiness of God. And you think, oh, I've got to do better or else. Oh, I failed, so look, now what? And we get these fearful things going on. And Satan loves it when we dwell in a realm of guilty feelings, and discouragement, and wanting to give up. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, or else we will faint in our minds. We'll quit. We'll give up. Looking unto Jesus, but they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. And like the song says, teach me, Lord, teach me, Lord, to wait. Teach me to look. Keep me to looking diligently. Don't get your eyes off of this. Samuel's telling them, yes, you sin, now you finally got it. In asking for a king, you rejected God as your leader, and God didn't like it, and I didn't like it. But he's going to go on to say something that, guess what, it's next week. But God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the right way. He's never more like Jesus than when he says that in verse 23 of 1 Samuel 12. Never more like Jesus. And you know what? Every minister of God needs to be like Jesus on this one, too. And every discouraged Christian who tries to work with people, and people will always get you frustrated, always get you discouraged if you keep your eyes on them. But it's designed to drive you to the Lord, to the throne room of grace, and you get past praying for supplicating for yourself, and you're starting to intercede for others. You're going to step into this realm, this better covenant, and Jesus, who's the mediator, the one mediator between God and man, and you're going to be like him, you're going to be with him a lot. People are going to drive you to prayer, folks, or drive you to despair. Oh, that sounds like a good outline. Prayer or despair? Hmm. I probably better end on that one. And obviously, there's going to be Next week, page two, God help me. Father, I'm asking you to give us the faith that is taught in Hebrews 12 and it's exemplified in 1 Samuel 12. Help us to draw these lines and connect these dots. and see how consistent you are, Lord. Old or New Testament, you're the same God, and it's the same kind of grace. We just know more about it now because we've got the name of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus, and not only His death, but His resurrection to fortify us and lift us up higher than ever. Give faith where it's needed, Lord, for each person here and anybody else who hears this message. And as such, you do it for Jesus' sake. Amen.