1 Samuel 12 20 And Samuel said unto the people,
Fear not, ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside
from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your
heart. Turn ye not aside, for then should
ye go after vain things which cannot profit, nor deliver for
their vain. What is vain? Everything else. If you turn aside from Him, there's
nothing but vanity. For the Lord will not forsake
His people for His great namesake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you out of all of this mass of humanity
and pleased him to make you his. You've sinned but don't be afraid
because the Lord has chosen you. 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 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, both you and your king." Samuel is rebuking
them. You've sinned. He's consoling
them, fear not, and he's exhorting them. Do, do what's right. Follow, serve him. All in this
one verse, rebuke, consolation, and exhortation. The people had
demanded a king because God wasn't doing things the way they wanted
him to do. And they just flat didn't want
to wait on God So in chapter 8 verse 19 They murmured It says nevertheless the people
refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said nay, but
we will have a king over us That we also may be like all the nations
Is that what we want? We want to be like everybody
else What a thing to aspire to. We want to be like everybody
else. And that our king may judge us
and go out before us and fight our battles. And Samuel heard
all the words of the people and he rehearsed them in the ears
of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, hearken unto their
voice and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men
of Israel, go ye every man into his city. And it's a simple rejection
of God as God. And we see that in the demand
of the eyes is so great in it. They wanted a visible king. They
wanted somebody to that they could see and look up to and
follow a visible king. But faith is the evidence of
things not seen. The substance of things hoped
for. And then in our text, he said, you've sinned now and God
will kill you and your king with you. if you continue to rebel
but fear not return to the Lord follow
him just like you should have done to begin with the Lord's made you his people
look at 1st Samuel 8 verse 6 1st Samuel 8 verse 6 but the
thing displeased Samuel when they said give us a king to judge
us Why did they do that? And Samuel prayed unto the Lord,
and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the
people and 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 unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken
me, served other gods, so do also they 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.
What does God do? Sometimes he lets us have our
way, doesn't he? To teach us the foolishness of it, and to
bring us back to him. To reject God's messenger is
to reject the one that sent him. Our Lord said, he that receiveth
you, whosoever I send, they receive
in me. John 13, 20. And he that receiveth
me, receiveth him that sent me. Even knowing what it would be
now. He said, you tell them what's going to happen. Tell them what
kind of king he's going to end up being. And they're going to
regret it. And then let him have it. But even knowing from the
very voice of God that it was foolish, they insisted on it. That's our nature now. That's
what we wake up with every morning. Right there. That's the lesson
here. This is us. This is not, oh,
look at those stubborn, stiff-necked Jews. This is look in the mirror. And let's, by God's grace, learn
something here. Unbelief is obstinate. It's stubborn. It's a hardening of the neck,
God says. In spite of what we know is right,
we harden our neck against God. He said to the Pharisee, you
will not come to me that you might have life. Thomas said, I will not believe. That's our problem, our will.
We want exactly what God says, no. People say they believe the Bible.
I'm a Bible believer. You know, I was raised a Bible
believer. They reject the clear message
of the Bible. That his preachers proclaim.
Not because they don't understand it, but because they just hate
God. They don't want God to reign over them. Just like here. They're determined to find somebody.
Give us a preacher. Give us a preacher that will
tell us what we want to hear. Give us a king that we can manipulate. God says it's not going to be
that way and we say we want it anyway. They're determined to
find somebody that will tell them that it says what they want
it to say and that's what they do. One time, you know how Hollywood
likes to take stories of the Bible and try to make a movie
out of them. They were talking about the a film that was made about the
Lord leading his people out of Egypt and They were saying this
and this is a perfect example of what we're talking about here
That the message of That story how that you know, the Israelites
were being treated badly and so God came down and Sent Moses
to be their champion and led them out of Egypt and the message
of that story is that everybody should be treated equally It
was bad, you know, that the Jews were mistreated and so the Lord,
you know, came down there and took up their cause and everybody
should be treated equally. But if you read the story, the message of the Exodus is
not equality, it's inequality. The message of Exodus is God
has made a difference between his people and everybody else,
not the same. It's not that they should be
treated the same. Listen to Exodus 11 for anybody that would care
to read that You know in Hollywood, they would have understood they
would have known at least in their heads Moses said thus saith
the Lord. This is the Exodus. This is the
story right here About midnight. Well, I go out into the midst
of Egypt and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die
from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne
even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the
mill and and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be
a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there
was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue,
against man or beast, that you may know that everybody should
be treated equally. No, that you may know that the
Lord doth put a difference, the Lord discriminates between the
Egyptians and Israel. That's the message now. Not equality. It's just exactly
the opposite of what everybody said. It's rebellion, refusal
to believe what God said. And the difference, of course,
that God puts between his people and everyone else is the blood.
When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Pictured by the blood
of the Passover lamb. That was the difference made
a long time ago in eternity. And we had nothing to do with
it. And everything that matters,
everything that really matters is things that we had nothing
to do with. Because if we have something to do with it, we're
going to mess it up. The first covenant is what is
being preached in most churches now. It's up to you. God said,
do this, do this, do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't
do this. Now it's up to you. If you obey me, I'll bless you.
If you disobey me, I'll curse you. It's up to you. That's the
old covenant. But in the new covenant, the
difference is not do or don't do, obey or fail. The difference
is the precious blood of the Lamb in the new covenant. That's
why he said this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink it. And I give this example to illustrate
how that nothing has ever changed. People still don't like God. If they'd seen that this is a
message of inequality, not equality, they changed it because they
didn't like it. They didn't like the way God wrote it. Still don't
like God. They don't like His ways. They
don't like His Word. So they just make it up. They
just make it up as they go. But aren't you thankful for Samuel's
words? In verse 22. He said, the Lord will not forsake
His people for His great name's sake. For His great name's sake,
because it pleased the Lord to make you His people. In verse
20, we've done wickedly, but the Lord is faithful. We've sinned
greatly, but the Lord He doesn't go back on his promises. We've
left him, but he hadn't left us. That's the gospel. If it was up to us, if there
was just the old covenant, which is up to us, we'd already be
in hell. We would already be in hell. But it has pleased God to make
you his people. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 12,
32, Fear not, little flock. Just like the same as the fear
not. For it is your father's good pleasure to give you his
kingdom. The verse 23 in our text is the
definition of a pastor. Moreover, as for me, God forbid
that I should sin against the Lord. in ceasing to pray for
you, but here's what I'm going to do, by God's grace, here's
what I'm going to do. I'm going to teach you the good and right
way. Your ways are not God's ways.
Your way of salvation is not God's way of salvation. Your
way in everything is not God's way. By God's grace, may we find
out together what God's way The Lord Jesus Christ said it's me.
That's what the way, I'm the way. Are you looking for God's
way? His name is Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. I wouldn't be the pastor after
God's own heart that he promised you. He said he'd give you a
pastor after his own heart, didn't he? Well, that ain't me unless
I love you. Unless I love you. That's what after his heart means
now. And if I love you, I'll pray
for you continually. You'll pray for me when I fall. Notice the word sin there. God
forbid that I sin in not praying for you. How evil it would be
for me seeing God has entrusted me to be your pastor if I didn't
intercede for you before the throne of God. As I said this morning, I'm learning
how to pray. I hope that the Lord will teach
me how to pray. But such as it is, I believe
God has made it so that my heart is yours. One way or the other,
whether I can pray or can't pray. My heart. Goes out to God for
you. But even though these folks had
refused to listen to Samuel, he told him the truth. He was
determined. Instead of just saying, and you
know the Lord, that's not our human nature my friends. And
you remember Moses was the same way. You reckon Moses ever got
tired of being murmured against and opposed at every turn? What an undertaking that was.
And you know what he said? He said, Lord, if you could forgive
them, forgive them. If you can't forgive them, then
blot me out of your book. Instead of just saying, God said,
I'm going to kill them. You'd think Moses would say,
well, do what you got to do, God. No. That's what being a pastor after
God's old heart is all about now. That's why he raises up
a sinner like you. If an angel was your pastor and
God said, I'm going to kill him, the angel would say, I'll do
it. I'll do it. You want to kill
him? Send me. You reckon? But a sinner that knows, that
understands a little bit, by the grace of God. And notice in the verse now that
it's sin against the Lord. It's not sin against you. He
said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing
to pray for you. It would be bad for you, but
it's not sin against you, it's against the Lord. We see that
over and over in the scripture, don't we? And again, I say, Lord, teach
me to pray. Give me that heart. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much, and that's why I value your prayer
so highly. And Paul said, pray for me. How many times did he say, pray
for us, pray for us, that God would open a door, God would
give us grace to preach boldly as we ought. Those of you who are in Christ
are righteous in Him and in God's scheme of things. Your prayers
are powerful. They avail much. And then Samuel
said, I'll teach you the good and right way. You know what's
interesting? If you look up the word teach in that original language
right there, you know what it means? It means to shoot. It means shoot. Like shooting
an arrow then, or a gun now, or whatever. And you know what
the word right means? Straight. I don't know if that's
where that saying came from or not, I'm going to shoot straight
with you. I don't know if that came from that right there or
not. But I know this, I want to shoot straight with you. I
want to shoot straight with you. By God's grace. May I always
tell you what God said. I always think about what our Lord
said in John 14 too. He said, in my father's house
there are many mansions. He said, I'm going to make sure
one of them is yours. That there's a place for you
in the presence of God. And he said this, if it weren't
so, if it wasn't that way, I would have told you. You talk about
shooting straight. Our Lord now. If it's not so,
I want to tell you. I want to tell you. If it's not
the way you want it to be, if it doesn't end well, if it's
not good, if it's not right, I want to have the guts to tell
you. Even if it's the last thing you want to hear. I want to be, I want to be straight
with you by God's grace. And as I said, you know, this
is what we do here. Our way is not God's. I want
to find out God's way. God said in Jeremiah 315, what
I quoted you a while ago, He said, I'll give you pastors according
to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Feed you. Peter, do you love me? You know,
I love you, Lord. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. That's what a
pastor after God's heart does. Feed my sheep. If the shepherd
were here, you're his little flock. It's his pleasure to give
you everything good. If the Lord Jesus himself in
bodily, present, personal form were here tonight, what would
he do? He'd feed you. You're his sheep. But he sent
somebody after his own heart. to do it in his stead. We pray
you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. He sent me
with his message for you. And then these next two verses,
look at them in our text. Teach the good and right way.
This is what we teach. What are you going to teach us,
Samuel? Only fear the Lord. Only. Fear the Lord. This is not talking about being
scared of God. This means you don't much care what anybody
else says, except Him. That's called fear of the Lord.
My children may hear something at school, they may hear something
from somebody else's parents when they're at their house,
and then I tell them something different. Who do they fear?
Who do they respect? Who are they going to listen
to? If they're smart, they'll listen
to the one that loves them. And the one who God ordained
to be their parent. Personally for them. God gave
them, specifically, a daddy. Well, we have a father too. Fear him. Don't listen to anybody, anything
anybody else has to say. Fear Him. You see what I'm saying?
Respect Him. And to be in awe and reverence
of Him, glorifying Him as God, rendering Him the honor that's
due unto Him as our Father. And if that's true now, you'll
hear what His preacher says. If you're that way, if you fear
God, you'll hear what His messenger says. If not, it won't have any
meaning to you at all. I've witnessed that over the
years. This was the Israelites problem. It's our problem by
nature. We just don't care. We know what God said. We just
don't care much. By nature. They feared the people of Canaan. Remember when God told them to
go possess the land? He said, I've already given it
to you. And they went over there and there were some giants in
there. And they said, we can't possess the land. Wait a minute,
God just told you, I've given it to you. They feared the Canaanites instead
of God. If you truly fear God, you need
not fear anybody or anything else. And if you fear God, you'll
hear God. That's the next point in his
message. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth. with all your heart for consider
how great things he done for you. The second point is this. You fear God and then what? Hear God. Well no it doesn't
say that because it says serve him. What does a servant do?
Whatever the master says. Speak Lord. Here am I. Send me. Just say the word Lord. Say the word. Thy servant hear
it. Saul said, Lord, what would you have me do? What would you have me do? Fear the Lord. Don't fear the
terrorists. I'm not afraid of them, are you?
I'm about sick of them. I'm about ready to strap my gun
on myself and go do something about it. But I'm not afraid
of them. Any tyrant that rules in this
country, any trial that God sends your way, don't fear people or
what they can do. David said, the Lord is my rock.
I will not fear what man can do unto me. Any man. I'm not
worried about that. Fear the God who says don't fear. Can we do that? Fear him who
says fear not. You are forbidden, lovingly,
graciously forbidden by God to be afraid of anything or anybody
else. Only fear the Lord. Only. If you fear God, you'll
hear him, you'll trust him, you'll worship him, you'll serve him.
All these things are included in that word fear. That just
goes along with it. Psalm 89.7, God is greatly to
be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence
of all them that are about Him. I pray this for us. I want to
teach you this. As Samuel said, I'll teach you
the good and right way. What's that? Fear God. Reverence
Him. Hang upon His every word. Prefer Him to all else. Psalm 34 11 come you children
hearken unto me and I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. That's
what Samuel's doing here and I pray that's what I'm doing. Psalm 130 verse 4 there is forgiveness
with God that thou mayest be feared. Samuel speaks of forgiveness
and fear in our text doesn't he? They go together. Didn't
he say you've sinned but God's forgiven. God's merciful. You're his people. Don't be afraid. Fear of God is reverence for
him who will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy. There's
forgiveness with him. Forgiveness is his to sovereignly
at his own discretion dispense and so fear him. Malachi 3 16 it says then they
that feared turn over there with me. This is so beautiful Malachi
3 16 Malachi the last book of the
Old Testament verse 16 of chapter 3 look at this I wonder if this
describes you and I, us, this church. Malachi 3.16, then they
that feared the Lord spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought
upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. And
I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Like Samuel said, you've sinned,
but don't be afraid. You're God's children. He chose
you. And he didn't do it naively.
He didn't think when he chose you that you were going to be
good. He didn't choose good people. Then shall you return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth
God and him that serveth him not. And that's what he said, that
second point there, serve him, serve him, serve him, fear him
and serve him. This is proof of fear now. This is fear in action, service. A servant who respects his master
will do what he says. Faith without works, faith without
service is dead. Serve him with a service that
is characterized by the two things here. What did he say? Truth. Let me get back over to our text.
1 Samuel 12 Serving with truth? You know, there's a lot of people
going around serving the Lord that don't have any idea what
the Lord's doing. Don't have any idea what the Lord's will
is. Don't know anything about God. How are you going to do
that? How are you going to serve somebody
you don't even know? You don't even know what they're like.
What their desires are. Serve him in truth. In truth. And it's characterized in the
service that God talks about here in our text is characterized
by something else. Commitment. With all your heart. With all your heart. Serve him in truth, not hypocritically. Find out what God's doing. Paul said of the Israelites,
they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They
were serving the Lord. Just ask them. They didn't know
anything about the Lord. Not according to knowledge. Serve
Him in truth. And God must be served wholeheartedly. You can't half-heartedly serve
God. God hates lackadaisical lukewarmness. Because of who
he is. That's why you can't serve him
that way. You know, if I'm your boss, you might go out there
and I say, you know, well we need to dig this ditch. And I
want you to dig out every two seconds. I want to see a pile
of dirt flying, you know. And then I go, you know, take
care of some paperwork and you may Well, you know, we'll get
the ditch dug. I don't know about every two
seconds. But God's not that way. You can't serve him half-heartedly. He said that he would prefer
that you openly reject him than to half-heartedly serve
him. Isn't that what he said? I wish you were either cold or
hot. One of the two. To say that you love Him and
then don't care enough to listen to Him, to do anything
He says, to even care. John said in Revelation 4, 11,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For
Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they were
and are created. That's You and that's me. for
His pleasure. Is that alright with you? Not
for your pleasure, not for my pleasure, for His pleasure. 1 Corinthians 6.20, you are bought
with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body. In your hands, instruments of His
service, your heart must beat for Him. You're bought with a
price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are God's, apostrophe s, God's. We belong to Him. And we'd like it that way. Now
just act like it. Let's just act like it. 1 Corinthians
7, 23, I like the way this is put. You are bought with a price. Be not ye the servants of men. It wasn't this world that bought
you. It wasn't men that bought you. It was God. And here's what
we teach. Here's what we teach too. For
consider. Why do we serve him? Well, that's
obvious. We're going to go to hell if
we don't. No. No, we serve him because of how great things he's
done for us. Man, what he said right there.
How great things he's done for us. Old man that he cast all
them demons out of he said I'm with you now. I'm your man Where
you go, I go what you say I do and the Lord said no Don't come
with me, but just go home and tell your friend what great things
the Lord has done for you and had compassion on you Consider how great they notice
that Samuel does not say fear the Lord and serve him because
he commands it and Although that wouldn't have been
a bad reason, would it? But that's the old covenant.
Why do you come to church? Because God says we should come
to church. You're supposed to go to church. You're supposed
to. Is that why? Or do you come because look what
God did for me. Look what he did for me. The
Son of God shed his precious blood for me. My great high priest, we read
it this morning in there, and it's overwhelming when the Lord
gives you just a glimpse of it. It'll overwhelm your heart. He
didn't go in there with the blood of bulls and goats, but with
his own precious blood, he obtained eternal redemption for me. Bought
with a price that is beyond all price. Consider what great things he
hath done for you. Coming to church because we're
supposed to come to church. That's the old covenant. Well,
don't tell a lie. You're not supposed to lie. How
about let's just be honest and open in the sight of all men,
as Paul said, because look who sent us. We're ambassadors of
the King. Fear Him and serve Him because
of what He's done for you. He didn't do what he did for
you because you feared and served him. It's the other way around. You fear him and serve him because
of what he did. That's what David said in Psalm
52. I will praise you forever because
you have done it. And I will wait on thy name for
it is good before thy saints. I want to read that to you again. Psalm 52 9. I will praise thee
forever because thou has done it. What do you think David was
talking about there? Thou has done it. Done what?
Done everything worth doing. Everything worth doing. You did
it. I'm going to praise you for it.
And by God's grace, I'm gonna serve him for it. He said, choose
whatever God among these heathen gods that you prefer. As for
me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord now. Let's not
be presumptuous. Let's not overstate our abilities. But let's be determined with
all of our heart to serve him. If He's gracious to keep us,
if He's gracious to teach us, if He's gracious to restrain us, our evil, if He's gracious not to let us
go, may He give us determination
and commitment to serve Him because of what He's done, because of
His greatness. How great things he hath done
for you. Just the fact that he would do
anything for you is pretty great. 2 Thessalonians 2 13 But we are
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you. What great thing did God ever
do for me? Do you know him? Do you know
why you know him? Before you ever existed, he chose
you to salvation. He determined to
save you before there was a you through sanctification of his
Holy Spirit and belief of his gospel. Revelation 5 9 they sung a new
song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the
seals thereof for thou was slain What great things has God done
for me The death that he should accomplish
that's what they talked about on the Mount of Transfiguration
the death that he should accomplish He was slain and has redeemed
us to God by his blood, out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nation who has made us unto our gods. Now, by
being slain, still the same, by being slain, he made us unto
our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
He took a worm. a beggar from the dunghill, and
set him among princes by his precious blood. Mark 5, 18, When
he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with
the devil prayed him that he might be with him. I am coming
with you, Lord. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not,
but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how
great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion
on thee. I'm that man. So are you if you
know the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how the scripture refers
to him when he was coming to the ship. He that had been possessed
with devils. That used to be. That's me. I had been possessed with devils. I was a walking hell on earth.
And the Lord Jesus Christ came where I was. He sailed an ocean
to come where I was. And then went back. You remember
that in our study? He sailed all the way over there
to meet the most wretched man in that whole area. As far as
we know, one man. He sailed all the way over there
because he had an appointment with that one most wretched of
all wretches. And when our Lord left him, he
was sitting and clothed in his right mind and saying, Lord,
I'm coming with you. That's me. That's me. And I want to be with him, don't
you? I'm kind of like him in that regard too. Lord, I want
to be with you. I want to be with you. But the
Lord suffers it not to be so for now. But he sent us to do
something instead. Just like he did that man. Lord,
I want to be with you. To be with you would be so much
better. To depart and be with Christ, that'd be far better. Let us come with you. Could you
pray that earnestly tonight? Lord, let's just come with you
now. No. No, you're not coming, not
yet. But go and tell. May he give us grace to serve
him because of what he's done. What great things he did for
me. Now think about that for a second.
He hasn't just done great things. This is not just some doctrine
that I'm well versed in or not well versed in for that matter.
He did something for me. He did it for me. This is not
just about the doctrine of election. This is God chose me. He chose
me. If I can't be with him right
now, then let me faithfully do what he's told me to do, until
I can. What great things he did for
me and had compassion on me. I sinned, like Samuel said, I
sinned greatly. But bless God I'm his, and he's
faithful to his promise. Let's pray.