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Let's pray together, please.
Father, thank you for giving us the words of eternal life
in your Holy Word. May we receive them with faith
and love, lay them up on our hearts and practice them in our
lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please turn to 1 Samuel
chapter 12. You're in the next chapter here
in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 12. And I've titled this morning's
message to you, Samuel's Thunderous Farewell. First Samuel 12, beginning
at verse one, this is God's word. Then Samuel said to all Israel,
behold, I have listened to your voice and all that you said to
me, and I have appointed a king over you. Now here's the king
walking before you, but I am old and gray, and behold, my
sons are with you. And I have walked before you
from my youth even to this day. Here I am. Bear witness against
me before the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose
donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom
have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken
a bribe to blind my eyes with it? I will restore it to you.
They said, you have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything
from any man's hand. He said to them, the Lord is
witness against you. And his anointed is witness this day
that you have found nothing in my hand. And they said, he is
witness. And Samuel said to the people,
it is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and who brought
your fathers up from the land of Egypt. So now take your stand
that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous
acts of the Lord, which he did for you and your fathers. When
Jacob went into Egypt and your fathers cried out to the Lord,
then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers
out of Egypt and settled them in this place. But they forgot
the Lord, their God. And so he sold them into the
hand of Sisera, captain of the army of Hazor, and into the hand
of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab,
and they fought against them. They cried out to the Lord and
said, we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and
have served the Baals and the Ashtoreth, but now deliver us
from the hands of our enemies and we will serve you. Then the
Lord sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and
delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around so
that you lived in security. When you saw that Nahash the
king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me,
No, but a king shall reign over us. Although the Lord your God
was your king. Now therefore, here is the king
whom you have chosen, whom you have asked for, and behold, the
Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and
serve him, and listen to his voice, and not rebel against
the command of the Lord, then both you and also the king who
reigns over you will follow the Lord your God. If you will not
listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the command
of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you,
as it was against your fathers. Even now, take your stand and
see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes.
Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord that
he may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that
your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of
the Lord by asking for yourselves a king. So Samuel called to the
Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the
people greatly feared the Lord, and Samuel. Then all the people
said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to the Lord your God,
so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this
evil by asking for ourselves a king. Samuel said to the people,
Do not fear, you have committed all this evil, yet do not turn
aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your
heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile
things, which can neither profit nor deliver, because they are
futile. For the Lord will not abandon
his people on account of his great name, because the Lord
has been pleased to make you a people for himself. Moreover,
as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the
Lord by ceasing to pray for you. But I will instruct you in the
good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve
him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things
he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly,
both you and your king will be swept away. May God bless the
reading of this holy word. Not every leader has the opportunity
to address the people that they led during their life. when that
comes to a conclusion, but Samuel here, he was indeed the final
judge in the long list of judges that started way back with Othniel,
Ehud and Shamgar and some of those other strange sounding
names that God raised up. Samuel's the last one in Israel
before Israel turns into a full-fledged monarchy. And so he has one final
chance to speak to the people of Israel and he really is kind
of passing the baton off to Saul. And while Samuel still has a
big role to play in the book of 1 Samuel before his death
in chapter 25, this scene here really is the final act for Samuel
as the leader of Israel. Now they have their first king,
they have Saul now. Remember, Israel is one nation
united for 120 years under their first three kings. It goes from
Saul to David and then to Solomon. And then after that, civil war
breaks it into the Northern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom is usually
called either Ephraim or Israel throughout the rest of the historical
books. And the Southern Kingdom is usually just referred to as
Judah. But here in this moment, Samuel
has a great opportunity to speak to the people that he had led
and judged nearly all his life, since he was really a boy. And
I titled my message to you this morning, Samuel's thunderous
farewell. Israel, as we've all learned,
and we're all very similar to Israel in this way, Israel, just
like us, unfortunately, very often didn't do overly well simply
taking God at His word. They needed visual aids and concrete
illustrations to kind of drive home the point. And they're gonna
be getting one here. Farewell speeches are actually
somewhat common in the Bible. The entire book of Deuteronomy,
is three farewell speeches from Moses before his death to Israel. The upper room discourse in John
14, 15, and 16 is Jesus's farewell address to his disciples before
his crucifixion. And some of the clearest teaching
in all of scripture about the ministry and person of the Holy
Spirit. Joshua also has farewell speeches
in which he addressed the people of Israel. You may remember some
of his grand glorious final words to Israel. He says, choose this
day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will
serve Yahweh. We will serve the true God. So
I want you to be thinking about that. What would you say if you
had the opportunity to address the people that you had been
called to lead at some point in your life? What would you
say to your spouse? What would you say to your children?
What would you say to your church? What would you say to your siblings,
to your Sunday school class? What would you say to them? You
got one final chance to speak. Samuel is first going to invite
them to point out how I wronged you. Have I wronged any of you
in any way? And then he's going to rehearse for them the great
things that God had done for them throughout their lives.
Then he gives them an exhortation to be obedient. And then he gives
them a rather terrifying reminder of God's power. And then the
people are frightened. And Samuel encourages them with
some very good biblical advice in the midst of their terror
at God's thunderous display. And it's counsel we all need
to listen to. So I've given you an outline there in your bulletin,
a five-point outline. It's amazing to me. Every time
I read another chapter of 1 Samuel, my initial thought is, what am
I going to do with this? And then there's so much in it, I
wonder how I'm going to fit it into one sermon. Look at verses
one through three here. Then Samuel said to all Israel,
behold, I have listened to your voice and all that you said to
me, and I have appointed a king over you. Verse two, now here
is the king walking before you, but I am old and gray, and behold,
my sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my youth
even to this day. Here I am, bear witness against
me before the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose
donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom
have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken
a bribe to blind my eyes with it? I will restore it to you."
Now, why was Samuel feel the need to vindicate his life in
ministry at this time? Well, most commentators think,
and I think they're right, because the administration that he came
after was a very, very bad one, was a very corrupt one. Hophni
and Phinehas and Eli and his house, they led the people in
a corrupt and evil way. They had defrauded Israel constantly.
If a minister succeeds someone who was evil and corrupt or both,
they will probably unfairly be under people's suspicious eye.
What is this one up to? Samuel has nothing to hide. He
lays it on the line. He said, here's your chance.
Have I done anything from the time I was a youth until now
that I'm old and gray-headed? Have I taken anything from you?
Have I ever taken a bribe to distort justice? Bring it on. I lay myself on the chopping
block. Do you have anything against
me? And look at verse four and five. They said, you have not
defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's
hand. Verse five. Then he said to them,
the Lord is witness against you and his anointed that saw his
witness this day that you have found nothing in my hand. And
they said, he is witness. So Samuel's letting them know,
okay, you all said it. I didn't do anything wrong against
you. The King, Saul, God's anointed. He's witnessed that you've said
this. I didn't do anything wrong against you. And Samuel, he obviously
was not a power hungry individual. This is a man who did not have
an ego. And in that way, he's very rare. He is characterized by incredible
humility. Power very often corrupts. You
know, Lord Acton, the famous saying, power corrupts and absolute
power corrupts absolutely. Power had corrupted Eli and his
administration, but not Samuel and his. Samuel did exactly as
he was instructed by the people and by the Lord in giving them
Saul as a king. Samuel, Samuel promoted, encouraged,
and would pray for and advise Saul. He did not have any jealousy
of this king whatsoever. There's no jealousy in Samuel's
heart in this matter. Samuel is a model leader. His passion was just to be obedient
to God and his life was not about him. And that's what made him
so special. His life was about loving and
obeying God and promoting loving and obeying God in the hearts
of everyone around him. Promoting righteousness. Now
Saul is young, he's tall, he's handsome, he's strong. And Samuel
said there in verse two, you see it verse two, but I am old
and gray. He said, my time is now at an end. Here's the king
you all wanted. Samuel is remarkably gracious. Remember the people's request
for a king? It was a personal insult to Samuel. It was a personal
insult to his leadership. And God even told Samuel in 1
Samuel 8, 7, when the people said, we want a king to judge
us like all the nations, God encouraged Samuel by saying in
verse seven of chapter eight, they've not rejected you, they've
rejected me. But I should not reign over them.
God knew Samuel was hurt by this. Samuel had devoted his entire
existence to this nation. And they're saying, we don't
want you. We want a king. Despite that slight, despite that insult,
Samuel still does everything he can think of to help Israel
make this transition. In fact, I want to say this.
I really think without Samuel, without a man of his extraordinary
humility and character, this transition from judges to a monarchy
would not have worked. Had Israel's final judge been
a man of lesser godliness, someone with even a little bit of ambition,
someone with even a little bit of an ego, the desire for a king
could easily have fractured the whole country, and there would
have been a faction favoring Samuel and a faction favoring
Saul. But Samuel's not like that. Samuel knows this is what the
people wanted. God told me, give them what they
want, and it's time for me to pass the baton off. No ego, no
ambition. This man is made of an extraordinary
metal. He really was. Despite the slight,
despite the insult, he's going to do everything he can. He's
going to pray. He's going to work. He's going to encourage
Saul, pray for Saul. Humility is what marks Samuel. It really does. The desire for
a king, it could have blown the whole country up. And Samuel's
old and gray, and the people want the big, tall Mr. Israel,
handsome in choice Saul. I mean, there's a lot of reasons
Samuel could have been jealous of him, but he's not. He's humble.
Humility is what makes him such a great man of God. Moses and
Samuel were both characterized by humility and their character. They're spoken up together by
God as two of the greatest men who ever lived. And remember
that passage in Jeremiah 15 one, God says to the prophet Jeremiah,
I'm so angry with Israel that even if Moses and Samuel were
to stand in front of me, I'm still going to destroy them.
Why Moses and Samuel? Because they're two of the most
extraordinary, humble individuals who ever lived. Samuel's life
really speaks for itself. And the people of Israel knew
this. They knew what a great leader
he was. They knew that he had integrity. They knew that he
cared nothing for himself or his power, his influence. Samuel
was easy to follow because Samuel followed God first. And that's
all he ever wanted everyone else to do. Follow, love, and obey
God. What a legacy. What a legacy
for him to have with God and with the people that followed
him. And I want to tell you all and tell myself, people will
remember us. People will remember us, our
family, our church, our friends, fellow Christians, they will
all remember you. What will they think of when
they think of you? The people of Israel say of Samuel
in verse four there, you have not defrauded us or oppressed
us or taken anything from any man's hand. And then Samuel begins
his farewell address. Samuel's rehearsal of God's faithfulness
to them, it stretches all the way back to what even for them
was the ancient past. So let's look at it, look at
verse six. So here's Samuel's speech. And Samuel said to the
people, it is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and who brought
your fathers up from the land of Egypt. Okay, stop there. These
people were a nation who lived in that land for one and only
one reason. At this time, God liberated them
from Egyptian slavery. Moses and Aaron were appointed
by God to lead them out of that terrible place, out of their
bondage, out of their terrible trials and persecutions, and
away from idolatry to worship and serve the one true and living
God. And Samuel wants the people to remember this. This is one
reason why ministers of the gospel need on a regular basis to take
their own hearts and the hearts of their congregations back to
the cross. Back to where it was all done.
Back to where we were saved. Back to the righteousness of
Christ. The Exodus event is the ultimate Old Testament picture
of our own personal liberation from the guilt and power of sin. So it makes sense that Samuel
would say, you guys live in this land because the Lord appointed
Moses and Aaron to bring you out of Egypt. Hark back to the
day it all started. Hark back to when you were helpless
and in slavery and God brought you out of that place. In Samuel's
parting address, that's where he starts. He takes them back
to the days of Egypt, back to the place of bondage, to the
place of deprivation and humiliation and murder and death. And he
says, it is the Lord who brought you up. And I say to every Christian,
it was God Almighty who in eternity past planned your salvation. Whatever you've got going on,
remember that. You're here as a worshiper of
God because of that. And He's telling them, you're
here in this land because it was the Lord who came after you.
He begins with grace. Look at verse seven. So now take
your stand that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning
all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did for you and
your fathers. And then verse eight. When Jacob
went into Egypt and your fathers cried out to the Lord, then the
Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt
and settled them in this place. Stop there. The Lord sent Moses
and Aaron and brought them out of Egypt into a glorious, wonderful
land flowing with milk and honey where they would be free. They'd
be free to serve the Lord without fear, free from fear of their
enemies if they obeyed God. And what did they do when they
got there? They all fell into idolatry. Remember something,
dear congregation, God has given us every reason to be obedient
and to thrive under him as our Lord, Savior and God. But like
Israel, we too are so easily ensnared by the lies and the
tricks of the world and the charms of sin. But Israel was brought
out and they were settled in that place, the promised land.
God brought him there. Look at verse nine. But they
forgot the Lord their God. So he sold them into the hand
of Sisera, captain of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of
the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And
they fought against them. What an amazing thing. They forgot
the Lord. So he sold them to be oppressed
by their enemies. And this happened over and over
again in Israel's history. Remember Sisera? Remember how
Sisera died? Jael, tent peg, right in the
head. Look at verse 10, 11. Then they cried out to the Lord
and said, we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and
we have served the Baals and the Ashtoreth, but now deliver
us from the hands of our enemies and we will serve you. Verse
11. Then the Lord sent Jerubbaal
and Bedan and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you from the hands
of your enemies all around so that you lived in security. Okay,
stop there. That was the cycle. Read through the book of Judges.
It happens over and over again. Over and over, the people would
forget God, and they'd start being idolatrous and evil, and
then God would raise up oppressors against them, and they'd cry
out for help, and then God would send them another judge. What
a testimony to our own stubborn foolishness. I mean, think about
it. Really? I get to go to heaven
for eternity and not hell? We can have such joy if we believe
that, but even now, our hearts are deceptive to us, and we forget
God, and we act like He's not there. We act like He can't see
us. We get heartbroken and discouraged
by life. Our eyes go dry, and our faith
gets old, and our hearts become hardened and crusted over, and
our prayers get cold and lifeless. And we wonder, what are we missing
out there in that sinful world? What am I missing out on? And
then we forget. 2 Peter 1 speaks even of true
believers acting like they have forgotten that they were cleansed
from their old sins. How do we forget the greatest
of things? What a testimony to our sinfulness that is. And Samuel
lists some of the judges there. Jerubbaal is just another name
for Gideon. Beden, it might be a judge that
is just not mentioned in the book of Judges. Some think that
might be Barak, it really doesn't matter. And it doesn't record
every event that happened in that time period. But Israel
here would have remembered those names. Oh yeah, I remember Jerubbaal,
I remember Gideon in the 300, remember that? Remember Beden,
remember Jephthah. But notice who else he mentions
last. Me, Samuel. God gave you me and I helped
you. Don't forget me. All of these
men, these judges, they were great examples of God's grace
and patience. And the people did not deserve
to be delivered from their oppressors after all God had done for them,
but he helps them anyway. He reaches out to them anyway.
How quick are we? I wanna ask, how quick are we
to just be done with people? Thankfully, God's not like that
with us. Then Samuel reminds them of the last great crisis. Look at verse 12 and 13. You
see it? Verse 12 and 13. When you saw that Nahash, the
king of the sons of Ammon, came against you, you said to me,
no, but a king shall reign over us, although the Lord your God
was your king. Verse 13. Now therefore, here's the king
whom you have chosen, whom you have asked for, and behold, the
Lord has set a king over you. The threat of Nahash, this Ammonite,
that's the reason Israel wanted a king. They were afraid of Nahash. And so they go to Samuel and
say, we want a king to judge us like all the other nations.
Isn't that amazing? And that was not long after God had just
delivered them from the Philistines. And they say, no, no, no, we've
decided we just don't want to believe in this God we can't
see. We want a king that's like the nations. Nahash, that brutal
Ammonite, remember the people were anxious to make a covenant
with him. He was very intimidating. And Nahash said, sure, I'll make
a covenant with you, but I'm going to poke out all of your
right eyes. And the Spirit of God comes mightily upon Saul,
and Saul gets very angry, and he cuts up an oxen and sets out
the pieces of it and says, if you don't come to battle, this
is what's going to happen to your oxen. And then they fight
against the Ammonites, and they beat them so badly that the only
Ammonites that were left had to flee all by themselves, not
even in pairs. And Saul then forbids anyone
who previously questioned his abilities to be put to death.
Remember the people said, hey, who are those people that said
Saul could not deliver us? Let's put them all to death.
And Saul says, no one's dying today. He did a lot of wise and good
things. God is using him. So the people
want a king to fight for them. They got one. He fights for them. They win. And Samuel's reminding
them of what just happened. We forget God's righteous acts
of grace and faithfulness in the distant past. You know what
else we sometimes forget? His gracious acts that just happened.
We forget everything. Sin makes us so forgetful. The
same was preaching to the people hoping that they will not do
what they've shown they're really good at doing. And that is forgetting.
Forgetting God's faithfulness. Forgetting how good He's been.
How many times He's come through for them. Even as believers in
Christ who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, who have a sincere
desire to love and obey God, we really do love the Lord. We
want to obey Him. When we sin, it's really like we forgot who
we are. We forgot what we've been bought
with and what our purpose is. We forget that. When Paul rebuked
the church at Corinth for its sexual sins, he is reminding
them of what they already knew. He says, don't you know, 1 Corinthians
6.19, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit? Did they know that? Yeah, they knew that. He's reminding
them, you're acting like you forgot about this. Glorify God
in your body, he says. Of course they knew that, but
sin makes us forgetful. Sin makes us throw caution to
the wind. But then we come to the timeless principle, which
is the ticket to things going well for us in life. But this
also shows us our need for a savior. Look at verses 14 and 15. If
you will fear the Lord and serve him and listen to his voice and
not rebel against the command of the Lord, then both you and
also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your
God. If you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel
against the command of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will
be against you as it was against your fathers. Now, there's nobody
who always does what is righteous and does so perfectly even when
they do. But generally speaking, if we
just obey the Lord and listen to his voice and not rebel, generally
speaking, things will go well for us in life. Although Israel
had sinned in their request for a worldly king like all the nations,
even now, if they will obey the Lord, obey scripture and not
rebel, things will go well for you. You will follow the Lord.
Now, no one has ever or will ever be saved by obedience or
by works, but there's still that general principle. If you want
things to go well for you in life, just obey God. When all
else fails, avoid the things he tells you to avoid and do
the things he commands. Just obey God. That's the general principle
here. Obedience will bring blessedness. Disobedience brings the disciplinary
hand of God. When we rebel, and Christians
can at times do that, the hand of the Lord's discipline will
come against us. There will be times that we make
unwise choices and make bad decisions that have repercussions for us
sometimes for years to come. We might make a move and move
our family somewhere that we end up regretting. We might take
a job that we find out later was not a good idea, was not
a good move. We may end up enrolling in and
going to a school and then wish we'd gone to school somewhere
else. We can even be in a marriage that's very hard for whatever
reason. There will be times that we think
that we have somehow stepped out of God's will and therefore
we conclude that, well, I can't really turn to him in this situation
because I'm the one that messed all this up. I wanna encourage
you, never let yourself think that way. The solution's always
the same. Psalm 28, verse seven. The Lord
is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him and I
am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices and with my
song I will praise him. No matter what your situation
or scenario is, just obey God's word. When all else fails, just
walk in obedience. We all have problems. But our
biggest problem is that the wrath of God is provoked by our sin. That is what the gospel answers,
that problem. And when a person comes to Christ,
they may still have all their other problems, but their biggest
problem is solved. The biggest problem is answered
for the rest of eternity. There is no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus. That is our great inheritance.
God is our father. Christ is our savior. The Holy
Spirit is our indwelling helper and comforter. but it was true
in Samuel's day, it's true today, just obey God. Whatever your
situation, whether you got yourself into it or it was something outside
of your control, just obey God and do as he says. No matter
how tough a marriage might be or how deep the bitterness is,
husband, if you will just obey scripture, love your wife as
Christ loves the church, God will bless you no matter what
the outcome. If your job situation is bad and you're underpaid,
or you work for a boss who's a tyrant, or people nitpick at
you and are constantly criticizing you, and your hours are too varied
or too many, just obey God. Listen to the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 2, 18. Servants, be submissive
to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle,
but also to the harsh. There were people that Peter
wrote to that had terrible working situations. My boss is impossible
to please. No matter what I do, I can't
make him or her happy. And the command from Scripture
is, be submissive to your masters with all fear. Show respect,
not just to the good and gentle, but to the harsh. That's really
what Samuel is telling the people here. Just obey God, just like
Moses told the people of Israel in Deuteronomy. Just obey him
and things will go well for you. That's the command of the Holy
Spirit. Be submissive, do your work hard to the best of your
ability, love your spouse, be patient with your children, repent
where you need to to the people that you need to repent to if
you have sinned, and then you press on. Far too often we wallow
in the past and we sit and stare at our former sins and think
about those things and the burden is just overwhelming. I want
to encourage you, just obey God from here on out. Israel, like
all of God's people throughout history, they didn't find mere
words from God to be overly threatening or impressive. We should, but
they didn't. And so a grand sign to help Israel
fear from the Lord is about to happen here. Look at verses 16
and 17. Even now take your stand and
see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not the wheat harvest today?
I will call to the Lord that he may send thunder and rain.
Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great, which
you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves
a king." Wow. Wheat harvest was the driest
season in Israel. And what happens here in this
speech would be like Miami, Florida, getting three feet of snow in
the dead of summer. Thunder and rain are coming to
show Israel one thing, God is a threat to you. The God you
serve and have sinned against by asking for a king is a threat
to you. And while we emphasize the biblical
truth that gratitude is the primary motive for personal holiness
in our struggle against sin, the disciplinary hand and power
of God is certainly a close second. Don't sin because God is a faithful
father who will come at you with the rod of correction. You see,
Israel, like us, tended always to see, just like we do, I do
it, my temporal circumstances are my greatest problem. I always
think the problems of today are my biggest issues. We always
think people are our biggest problems, our enemies. We fear
circumstances that are outside of our control. We fear the people
that we know despise us. And we certainly should be concerned
about things like that. But what did Jesus teach us about
the ultimate fear? He said to people who had that
same problem, Matthew 10, 28, do not fear those who kill the
body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able
to destroy both soul and body in hell. So Samuel specifically
tells Israel that this display of thunder and rain in the middle
of the driest season of the year was intended to show them their
wickedness and asking for a king specifically. And we need not
doubt this must have been a terrifying display of God's power. When God himself intervenes directly
to show his people thunder and rain in the dead of heat and
dryness of the wheat harvest season, it will be remembered.
Look at verse 18. So Samuel called to the Lord
and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people
greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. It worked. The people were terrified
of the Lord. Isn't that odd? When people are
greatly afraid, they cannot help but turn their thoughts to the
things of God. They turn their thoughts to eternal matters.
All of a sudden, they have, who's that? Never heard of him. When
I was 14 years old. The church I went to, we did
a bike trip. About 30 kids went up to the upstate region of New
York by the Finger Lakes region. And it was in the middle of summer.
It was really hot. And we were doing very long,
grueling bike routes. And at one point we were heading
down a mountain, down a windy, narrow road that was double yellow
lined. We were headed down towards one of the lakes. And I was going
really, really fast. And someone was on my right side
in the correct lane where intelligent people ride their bikes. And
I was in the lane with oncoming traffic. Because we were going
so fast, I was trying to hug the turn, and the person next
to me said, you probably shouldn't be in that lane. You can't see
what's coming up over there. And it hit me. Oh, yeah. If a car
came up here, I'd probably get killed. So I started inching my way back
out. Here comes the semi. Missed me probably by three or
four inches. Horn blasting and everything scared me half to
death. When we got to the bottom of
the hill, got up to the lake, everyone threw their bikes aside
and all ran out into the lake to cool off in the water. And
I remember sitting there on the ground with my forearms up on
my knees, sitting down and just shaking. And all of a sudden
I got real spiritual. And I sat there saying, and just
said, thank you, God, for saving my life. And was trying not to
get, it's almost emotional remembering that, but I said that, thank
you, God, for my life, for saving me. All of a sudden, the zits
I popped on my face that morning were not a concern to me. A brush
with serious injury or death like that suddenly makes your
other problems kind of fade away. Thankful to be alive. The people
feared the Lord and Samuel that day. They saw rain and thunder
at a time of year they'd never seen it. And you can have no
doubt that thunder was really loud and it was scary. Don't
be afraid of Nahash Israel. Don't desire to be like the nations
around you. Fear God and keep his commandments.
Look how powerful he is. God's hand will be on us for
blessing or his hand will be against us for difficulty and
painful discipline based on whether are we following him? Are we
willing to walk in obedience or not? And you know, your obedience
doesn't save you, but it sure has a lot to do with whether
you walk in the countenance of God or under his fatherly displeasure.
Whatever your circumstances, fear the Lord greatly. Trust
in the finished work of Christ. Walk blamelessly before God. Take sin seriously. The fear
that people have of God here is great. And look at their prayer
requests. Look at verse 19. Then all the
people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord, your
God, so that we may not die. For we have added to all our
sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king. Now, it's not
every moment of our lives that we realize in such living color
that God holds us in the palm of our hand and our days are
written in his book and he determines them all. But we do have those
moments. We see an incredible display
of God's power in nature. You have a near-death experience
by an accident, by almost getting hit by a semi, or you have a
serious illness that you make it through. But notice Israel's
prayer requests here. They don't ask Samuel, hey, Samuel,
pray that the Ammonites and the Philistines will leave us alone
and never come near us to oppress us again. They, amazingly enough,
ask Samuel a really simple thing. They say, please pray and ask
God not to kill us. I was reflecting on that. What
an amazing prayer request. You know, as a pastor, I've been
asking people for years, how can I pray for you? And I'm very
thankful people give me specific things I can pray for. But I
want to tell you, no one has ever said to me, Patrick, would
you pray that God wouldn't kill me for the sin I committed today
or yesterday? Never. You know what? I haven't
ever asked that either. Pray that God wouldn't kill me
for all my former sins. Pray that God won't strike me
dead. Had a tough week this week, wrestling with my sins. I don't
feel very good about it. Pray that God won't kill me.
But even on my own, I don't typically pray for that. I don't pray,
Lord, don't kill me this week for the sins I commit. Don't
kill so-and-so for the wicked things we do. When I was really young, I used
to go with my dad. My dad was a life insurance agent. Once
in a while, my mother was working, I'd have to go with him to go
see clients and deliver death benefit checks. And one of those
trips I remember so clearly because it terrified me. My dad told
me what had happened to this family. A man, a middle-aged
man in his 40s had died sledding. He hit his head on a shed at
the bottom of a hill and broke his neck and died. And my dad
was really torn up about it. He was a friend of my dad's.
And I remember that one because it was real hard on him. And
just recently, the last time my mother was here, visiting
just a few weeks ago, I mentioned at a family worship that, you
know, We have God's promise of forgiveness. We have God's promise
of justification and adoption. It's by grace alone, has no reference
to our works. But if a Christian is determined
to be a fool, if a Christian pushes the boundaries and is
willing to just defy God and to sin boldly, God could certainly
strike them down. It's not saying that it's impossible
to lose your salvation, but if we dishonor his name to such
an extent, he may strike us down. Paul told the church in Corinth
that God had killed some of them for that. So for this reason,
many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. And my mother
brought up that event with that guy that I went to his house
with my dad when I was a kid. My mom said, remember that guy
that broke his neck on the sled when you were real little? I
said, yes. And she told me something I'd never heard before. She said,
did you know they were a Christian family? And after he died, his
wife told me that he'd been having an affair. that had been discovered
by the wife. But even after confronting him
about it, he still would not give up that other woman. And
it went on and on and on. And that widowed woman told my
mother, I think God killed him because of that. So much time,
so many opportunities to stop, and he would not give her up.
Now, do we know that's what happened? Of course not, of course not.
But I wanna tell y'all something. Sin is not a game. Sin is not
something you manage. It's something you fight and
are at war with. And it's not our place to make
a spot for our pet sins. We are to crucify them all. Paul
said in Galatians 5.24, and those who are Christ's have crucified
the flesh with its passions and its desires. The people of Israel
are realizing, wow, look at that display of thunder in the dry
season. In the dry season, all of a sudden it's pouring rain
and there's lightning and thunder and it's scary. Pray that God
won't kill us. You realize the God that could
do that at any moment is still the same God with the same power,
24 hours a day. Why do we act like he can't do
that? Sin is not a game. Don't think you can manage it,
be at war with it. those evil desires, they want
to master you. But you have to, by the means of God's grace,
the preaching of the word, the reading of the word, the sacraments
and prayer, you can master them by the grace of God, put them
to death, keep up your guard, be vigilant, and never think
that you're entirely victorious against any of them. Always keep
your guard up. It should not take a violent,
deafening thunderstorm and a dry desert to suddenly turn our hearts
to eternal matters. Our lives at every moment hang
by a thread. What an incredible response to
a natural display of power. They said, Samuel, pray for your
servants to the Lord your God so that we may not die. For we have added to all our
sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king. Notice that
all their other sins have come to mind too. We have all these
other sins and now we've done this. Pray that the Lord won't
kill us. brushes with death, powerful
displays in nature, loud and deafening noises can terrify
us into being suddenly spiritual. It did here. And Samuel's response
shows Samuel has the true heart of a pastor. Look at verse 20
and 21. And Samuel said to the people, Do not fear, you have
committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following
the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. You must
not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things
which cannot profit or deliver, because they are futile. At any
given moment in our lives, there are sinful things where you're
gonna be tempted to turn aside after. Think about your Christian
life. You're on a path, a straight path towards a celestial city.
And all along the way, there's these little detours. There's
lust, and there's pride, and there's wealth, and there's the
sin, and that's him. And he's saying, don't turn aside. Keep your eyes fixed forward.
Keep your eyes on the Lord. Don't be distracted by the things
in your peripheral vision. Keep your eyes straight. He says,
what good are those idols anyway? They can't profit or deliver
you. You're gonna call on sex, drugs
and friends and whatever idols stealing to deliver you in your
time of need. Those things can't satisfy, they
can't deliver, they are futile. They can't save you from your
sins, but they can drag you either into hell or under God's disciplinary
hand. Remember the psalmist preaching
to himself. Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there's nothing on earth I desire besides you. My flesh
and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever. But there are so many things
we do desire, sinful things. But this is what we aim at in
everything, to desire God, to desire communion with Him, to
desire to love Him more, to obey Him more, to love our fellow
man, to love the people in our household better. Why are we
so inclined towards idols and futility and that which destroys
and ruins us? Samuel encourages them. He says,
yes, you did all this evil, but forget about it. Forget about
the past and press on. Realize that what is done is
done. It cannot be undone, but you
can decide to walk in God's ways from here on out. You can make
good decisions today and tomorrow, but you can't make good decisions
yesterday. Don't turn aside after idols
now and in the future. Forget the past. Ask forgiveness
and move on. Know that you have it. And here's
the reason that we need not wallow in our past sins and our past
failures. Look at verse 22, great promise. For the Lord will not abandon
his people on account of his great name, because the Lord
has been pleased to make you a people for himself. Is that
not good news? Why does God never abandon his
people? For his own namesake. Listen
to some of these passages, Ephesians 1, 11 and 12. These are all in
your thoughts for Sabbath meditation. In him also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him
who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that
we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his
glory. Hebrews 13, five, for he himself
has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Psalm 23,
familiar Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me
beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads
me in the path of righteousness. Why? For his namesake. As long as salvation and the
theater of creation is about the glory of God, he will never
forsake and abandon his people. The people of God who are elected
by name individually from all eternity, whose salvation has
been entrusted to God the Son, they need not doubt that God
not only will never abandon or forsake them, but that he will
most certainly employ all the powers of his Godhead to bring
every one of them safely home. And then Samuel further assures
them, not only will God never forsake them for all their sins,
but Samuel says, I won't either. I won't either. Even though you
guys, you know, kind of spit in my face by wanting a king,
I won't abandon you either. Look at verse 23 through 25.
Moreover, as for me, far be it for me that I should sin against
the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. But I will instruct you
in the good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve
him in truth with all your heart. For consider what great things
he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly,
both you and your king will be swept away. It was a thunderous
farewell speech. Samuel made the most of this
last opportunity. It was probably not what the
people were expecting. They were not expecting to be
struck to the heart with fear that God was about to kill them,
but all of this was needed. This great man Samuel was raised
up by God to prevent Israel from doing a national face plant in
his transition from judges to kings. God puts the right people
in the right place at the right time for such occasions as this,
for the good of his people and the glory of his name. As odd
and as strange as the days are that we live in in America and
the church in America, we ought to take courage from this narrative.
As much as the professing church in America these days has really
sold its soul for a mess of stew like Esau did long ago, and has
discarded its glorious biblical and Reformation heritage, God
will never let it die altogether. God will not abandon his people
on account of his great name, because the Lord has been pleased
to make you a people for himself. That's God's promise. I wanna
encourage you all. Please look at and discuss the thoughts for
Sabbath meditation and discussion today with your families. Let's
pray. Father, we thank you for your
faithfulness to your people, that it pleased you to have a
people in this world. What a privilege we have to be
part of it. Help us know our salvations by
grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. And yet we can
come under your fatherly displeasure. Help us to forget what's behind
and press forward to seek to love and obey you, always clinging
solely and only to the finished work of Christ our Savior for
our entrance into heaven. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Samuel’s Thunderous Farewell
Series 1 Samuel Series
| Sermon ID | 98241716151957 |
| Duration | 47:09 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | 1 Samuel 12 |
| Language | English |
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