Go ahead and turn with me to
1 Samuel chapter 3, please. 1 Samuel chapter 3, we'll begin
reading in verse 8. And the Lord called Samuel again
the third time. And he arose and went to Eli
and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me, And Eli perceived
that the Lord had called the child. Now that word perceived
means just what you would think it means. It means he understood,
he distinguished, he discerned. And I was thinking any true discernment
that we receive comes by the divine revelation of God. We
know that. We don't figure the gospel out. God reveals it to us. And he
can reveal it to one and not to the one sitting next to him. It's God's prerogative. Verse
nine, therefore, Eli said unto Samuel, go, lie down and it shall
be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, speak, Lord, for thy
servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in
his place. And the Lord came and stood and
called, as at other times, excuse me, Samuel, Samuel, then Samuel
answered, speak for thy servant heareth. And the Lord said to
Samuel, behold, I will do a thing in Israel. at which both the
ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle. And in that
day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken
concerning his house. When I began, I will also make
an end." Important lesson right there. Don't ever forget it.
God always finishes what he starts. Sometimes we're not able to finish
what we start, but God is able, and He always finishes what He
starts. Look at verse 13. For I have told him that I will
judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because
his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. Another important lesson. God
always does what He promises. You know, we often make threats
and we don't have any way of backing them up. We often make
promises that we cannot fulfill, but God can. Everything that
He threatens, everything that He promises, He's able to do. He's able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we could think or ask. Nothing's too hard for
Him. Is anything too hard for the Lord? No, no. Verse 14, and therefore I have
sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall
not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. And here we have a confirmation
of the two previous verses. God finishes what he starts,
God's sworn that he would, and God does what he promises. He
can swear by no higher than himself. The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and
as I have purposed, so shall it stand. Isaiah 14, 24. And
through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord said, because I have
spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent. Change,
God doesn't change, God doesn't repent. Neither will I turn back."
Jeremiah 4 verse 28. Beloved, it's the immutability
of God Almighty that gives a believer confidence and assurance and
peace. knowing that God is able to do
what He's promised. And the wonderful thing about
that is, for the believer, God has promised to do them good. I love to think about that. God's out to do you good. Well, who can separate you from
the Word of God? Nothing or no one. He's out to
do you good. God can't fail. God can't change. God can't lie. And verse 15,
and Samuel lay until the morning and opened the doors of the house
of the Lord. And Samuel feared to show Eli
the vision. Then Eli called Samuel and said,
Samuel, my son, and he answered, here am I. Now I want you to
pay close attention to 17 and 18. This is my text, pay close
attention. And he, Eli said, what is the
thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from
me. God do so to thee, and more also,
if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he said
unto thee. And Samuel told him every wit,
every word, and hid nothing from him, And he, Eli said, it is
the Lord. Let him do what seemeth good. Now, as you remember back in
1 Samuel 2, the Lord sent a man of God, when I told his name,
because it's really unimportant. The man that delivers the message
is unimportant. The message is what's important.
And he sent this man of God to warn Eli of his lack of, because
of his lack of firmness with his two wicked sons, these things
were gonna come up on him. And now God's gonna give Eli
a second warning through a young boy under his own roof. And Eli had failed to deal with
the sin of his sons harshly. He just kind of swept them under
a rug. You know, God don't do that.
God don't sweep sin under a rug. He doesn't turn the other way
and not look upon our sin. No, he's just, he's got to deal
with it. Justly he's got to deal with
it. And because Eli did this, this brought the anger of the
Lord upon him. And the heavens became as a brass.
Have you heard that saying before? It means that, well, just what
verse one says, and the word of the Lord was precious in those
days. There was no open vision. God had become silent. Sometimes
God becomes silent. especially here to Eli, the high
priest. So the Lord sends Eli a word
of threatening by young Samuel. Now, remember, and I know you
do, that Samuel has been under Eli's care for some time now.
Hannah had brought him to serve the Lord, dedicate him to the
Lord, and he's serving in the temple under Eli. And he's probably
around the age of 12. Same age as Ronnie, my granddaughter. Can you imagine a young boy going
to Eli the priest and with the word of the Lord rebuking him?
No wonder he hesitated. No wonder that he wasn't looking
forward to going to him. And I was thinking as I read
this, the times that the Lord called Samuel, Samuel's awakened
by the Lord, Eli's asleep. What a picture of Samuel's spiritual
awareness and Eli's spiritual slumber. You see, experience
must now be admonished by adolescence. Gray hair doesn't always yield
a crown of glory, especially in this case to Aaron Eli. Samuel is evidently more trusted
than the elder sleeping priest. And this is a chastisement of
a divine nature. Eli's honor is gonna pass away. An aged, experienced priest would
be here reproved by God through a 12-year-old boy, more than
likely. and through a youthful and experienced
prophet. And Samuel is the means that
God uses to rebuke Eli. And at the same time, God establishes
Samuel as a prophet at this young, ripe age. But I want you to also
notice that there's much mercy here, much mercy for Eli and
the purpose of God. The Lord here gives Eli room
for repentance, and friends, anything to do with us as sinners,
the sinners that we are, short of hell is mercy. If God took us all tonight and
threw us into hell forever, that's what we justly deserve, and anything
short of that is mercy. Do you believe that? Here's a young boy that's still
talking about childhood things, And just like that, he becomes
a mouthpiece for God Almighty. Regardless of the state of a
servant, God can speak. Remember Balaam's ass? Who's
sufficient for these things? You know, I'm 68 years old and
I often stand overwhelmed. In my study, when I study the
scripture, sometimes I think, how can I bring this, the wretch
that I am? How can I encourage people to
trust the Lord when I don't trust the Lord like I should? It's
overwhelming, but can you imagine how this young boy must have
felt? Not even a teenager. Samuel was around the things
of God, but he'd never been exposed to God till God called him. And as we already know, Eli took
sides with God against himself. We've already looked at that.
The Lord spared him. but he had brought dishonor to
his name. Now, the consequences of his actions had been foretold. The holy office of priest would
be discontinued in his family. None of Eli's descendants would
live to an old age. God's gonna kill his two sons.
And this is what Samuel told him. And can you imagine how
hard that must have been? Oh, may we, by God's grace, learn
and not be deceived with the fact that God is not mocked.
Whatsoever man soweth, he shall also reap. Galatians 6, 7. Look
back at 1 Samuel 2 at the last part of verse 30. It says, Be it far from me, for them that
honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly
esteemed." That's reaping what you sow. And that's what Paul
said there in Galatians. And let me add what you already
know. God means what he says. And he
says what he means. Lord, help us to beware of sin.
We can't allow willful sin by those who are under our charge.
You know, if we just allow our children to live like hellions,
we're as guilty, maybe more guilty than they are. Oftentimes, I've
seen a child just act up in a store. I mean, just horribly act up.
You might say, did you want to spank them? I said, no, I want
to spank the parents. And I do, because that's whose
fault it is. God Almighty, as a father, chastens
those that he loves. We all do the same. We all do
the same. There can be great consequences
for sin to us if we neglect the sin and those who are under us. And this sorrowful reaping continued
in Eli's lineage forever. There are many lessons for us
in this story. The title of this message this evening is The question
asked by Eli to Samuel found in verse 17. The question is,
what is this thing? The marginal reference there
to the word thing is word. What is the word that the Lord
hath said unto thee? Or we could use the short title,
which I'm going to, tell me the truth. tell me the truth. You know, if someone says to
you, and I've had folks say this to me, and I'm sure you have
too, they said, I've got good news and bad news. Which do you
want first? Well, I never, I always hate
that. I wish you just had good news,
but I suppose I would every time choose to hear the bad news first.
Why? Because depending on how bad
the bad news is gonna determine to me how good the good news
is. So let's just get the bad out of the way and then tell
me the good. But friends, God always gives
us the bad news first. God does. We're dead in trespasses
and sin. That's bad news. We're spiritually
dead in trespasses and sin. But the good news, the gospel
is Christ came into the world to save sinners. That's good
news. The bad news is that we were
conceived in sin, and sin is what we are. The good news is
that Christ was made to be sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. The bad news is the wages of
sin is death, but the good news is the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I love what Brother Scott
Richardson said one time. I actually heard him say it in
a meeting that I was in, and he said, you know, I haven't
heard any bad news since I heard the good news. And that is so
true for the believer. Since I heard through the preaching
of the gospel that Christ came in the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief." I haven't heard any bad news. It's all
good news. Everything God does, whether
I think it to be bad or not to be bad, he's working it together
for our good. I want to make a few observations
before we get into the meat of this lesson, and I'm not going
to keep you long. First, God does speak to chosen
sinners. Isn't that good news? I wish
I had the ear of all the unsaved world. I'd ask them, when or
if the Lord sends his word to you as he did Eli, what would
you do with it? Would you believe it? Would you
bow to it? Would you reject it? Would you
rebel against it? It'd be one of those two responses.
And this question should be asked to every professing believer. Do you want to know the truth?
Do you want to know the truth? The whole truth and nothing but
the truth. I'm not talking about the truth of man. I'm not talking
about what man says and what man thinks. I'm talking about
the word and the truth of God. Eli said, tell me the truth.
Tell me the truth. I'm talking about what God says
about us. Do you want to know? Well, the
question again is what is the thing, this word that the Lord
has said unto thee? God does speak to men and women.
Otherwise, it would be a senseless question, wouldn't it? But he
does. God has not placed his creatures
at an immeasurable distance from him. You know, God, the immortal
one, communicates with mortals. He does so to make them immortal. How else could corruptness put
on incorruption? How else could mortality put
on immortality? You know, there's not an abyss
from nothingness to grandeur. God can span that great gulf
between us and him. And unlike that hit song in the
1990s, God's not watching us from a distance. No, He's not. How does God speak to us? Well,
through His Word, through the Word of God. In various ways,
divers ways, and times past, God spoke through the prophets.
But in these last days, God speaks to us through His Son, through
this Book, who is, Christ is the Word of God. He speaks to
us by the Holy Spirit. God takes the things of the Holy
Spirit and reveals them to our spirit. the things that are preached
from this world. God speaks to us through the
preaching servant. I hope that's why you're here
tonight, to hear from God. God speaks to us in creation.
God speaks to us in providence. Every line in this book, and
we may Well, we're not gonna ever see them all, but every
time we look at a scripture that we're familiar with, we see something
new. But every line in this inspired book was dictated by the Holy
Spirit, and it's a message from God. The Bible is to be read
as a message from God to men, a message from God to women.
That's why I say often this book is the most valuable possession
that any of us have. This book is the record of Jehovah's
voice. What would you give for that? My, my. what he aforetime spake
by his voice. He continues to speak to us through
his written word. God speaks to us by his word
when the spirit applies this word to us individually. How
many times have you read something and go, I never saw that before.
That's God revealing the scripture to you. It's spoken into our
hearts and our conscience by the Holy Ghost. That's a divine
revelation. Oh my, thank God for that. When
God does that, thank Him for it. Revelation must be revealed
to us individually. I'm not gonna get in on your
faith in Christ, and you're not gonna get in on mine, and I'm
not gonna benefit from your knowledge of the scriptures, and you're
not gonna benefit from mine. God has to reveal it to us individually. Thy grace does not see until
God gives us life, and God gives us sight. It's our depravity of sin that
makes that soul. How are we dead in trespasses
and sins? Our sins gotta be dealt with. When our sin is taken away, death
is taken away. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. God uses the means of his servants who speak in his name. He directs the thoughts of his
called and he ordains his servants to speak to those who are dead
to hear the word of God and those who are led to hear the word
of God. It's not difficult to understand.
Men understand it. They just, they hate it. God
speaks to us through creation. Romans 1.20, for the invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Let me tell
you, if you look out at the stars and the sky, the moon, the sun,
this vast creation that God has made, and you think it all happened
from a big boom, then you're yet without God. You're lying
to yourself. You know there's something instilled
in every man and woman deep within that says, God did this. God
did this. You know it's so. Because that
when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. Men change the truth of God into
a lie, and they worship and serve the creature, the things that
God made, more than the Creator Himself, who is blessed forever. God made this, and then they'll
take a frog and worship it and saying, that's the Creator. Just like Israel made a golden
calf and said, this is the God that delivered us out of Egypt.
What nonsense. And then Aaron himself, the high
priest, Moses' own brother, said, I just threw gold in the fire
and out popped this calf. My, my. Natural men do not retain
God in their knowledge. God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. Look that word up, reprobate,
sometime. That's what you are by nature.
That's what I am by nature. They're filled with unrighteousness,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness. This all comes easy to us by
nature. Full of maliciousness, full of
envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers. That's what we are by nature.
We're whispers. We're back biters. Haters of
God. Despicable. Proud. Boasters. Inventors of evil things. Have you ever invented anything?
You might say no. Yeah, you have. You've invented
some evil things. It's what God says. Disobedient
to parents. Without understanding. Covenant
breakers. Without natural affection. and
unmerciful. We are unmerciful by nature.
We commit things that are worthy of death, and what makes it even
worse, we take pleasure in doing so. That's what God says. Tell
me the truth. You want to know the truth? That's
what God's Word says. And this is every one of us by
nature. We all inherited this from our fallen state in Adam. And we look at God's creation,
and we look at God as the Creator, We will not have Him to rule
over us. That's just the bottom line. A man that does not bow
to Christ, he wills not to have God rule over him. I will not
have this man rule over me. He's not going to be my boss.
I'm my own boss. I'm going to do things my way,
and he's not going to rule over me. Well, if he desires to, he
will. He'll break your will. He'll
cause you to bow. God also speaks to us in providence. God in the providential affairs
of this world speaks to us softly and patiently. God at other times
use sterner notes, but as a father that loves and chastens his children,
God could speak to us however he pleases, but God saves us
through the preaching of this gospel. He can talk with us in
nature. God is speaking loudly right
now in Florida. Trust me, He's speaking loudly
in nature, in the hurricane. Have you heard the thunder? Have
you heard the roaring of the sea? He's heard in the noise
of Niagara Falls, and He's heard in the little ripple of the brook.
The Lord is never voiceless. but to those who will not hear
with their earless souls." No. Not going to listen. Not going
to hear. Not going to hear. Tell me the truth. Four times the Lord said, Samuel,
Samuel. And when Samuel knew who it was
that called him, He said, Speak, for thy servant heareth. God
gave him ears to hear. God revealed to him who he was. Samuel knew who he was, and he
was his servant. Samuel knew who spoke to him.
It was his master. Oh, may God open our ears to
his voice. Samuel heard the Lord loud and
clear, and he lay there the morning. He didn't go to sleep. There
wasn't no sleep that night for Samuel. He didn't leave his bed. He lay still and he pondered
what he heard. And can you just imagine what
was going through his mind? I've got to tell the man who
is most like a father to me, this horrific news. And he didn't
rush into Eli. The news was hard to tell. He didn't seek out another to
tell. But in one night, he became mature above his years. He went
to bed a child and he woke up a man with a secret from God
entrusted to him. There was, you know, pressing
anxiety upon him. A battle enraged within, a message
raised upon his heart. He had a fear of grieving the
man that he loved, but a greater fear of grieving God. Well, I'm telling you, I know
a little bit of how he feels. Words will not suffice or express
this anxiety of delivering a message from God to a sinner. There are
some who hate me this very moment for telling them the truth. That's
what Paul meant when he asked the church at Galatia, he said,
am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
People don't like it when you tell them the truth. But you're
doing so for their good. Tell me, ye that desire to be
under the law, do you desire to do something to merit your
salvation? Do you not hear the law and what
it's saying? God's law has got to be kept
in full. God's law has to be kept perfectly. If you offend
in one point, you're guilty of the whole law. It doesn't do
you any good to keep 9 of the 10 commandments. You're guilty
of all 10 if you fail in one. I don't deserve to be under the
law. I desire to be under grace. How about you? If I can do something
to save myself, if Christ alone is the only one who can save
me, if I can do nothing to be lost, for salvation is sure and
certain and finished in Him, I'm not gonna try to keep the
law. I'm gonna trust in the fact that He kept it for me. Abraham
had two sons, one by a bondwoman and one by a free woman. You
ever thought about that? The youngest son, Isaac, was
a son of promise. The son of the bondwoman, Ishmael,
was born after the flesh. The son of the free woman was
born by God's promise. What saith the scripture? What
did God say? Tell me the truth. What saith the scripture? Cast
out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren,
we're not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. We can't do
anything to save ourselves. Okay, well, let's pick the story
up in verse 15. And Samuel lay into the morning
and opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and Samuel feared
to show Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel and said,
Samuel, my son. And he answered him, I. And he
said, what is the thing that the Lord has said unto thee?
I pray thee hide it not from me. God do so to thee and more
also if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he
said unto thee. Now there are three statements
in that one verse made here by Eli that shows us beyond a shadow
of a doubt that Eli wanted to hear the truth. The first one
is what is the thing? What is the word that the Lord
has said unto thee? That's pretty direct. What did
God tell you? Secondly, hide it not from me.
Don't hold back. Tell me, tell me what he said. Let me have it. Tell me the truth. Don't try to cover my feelings. And thirdly, God do so to you
even more also if you hide anything from me. Eli wanted to know God's
Word concerning him. Do you? Do I? Yes, I do. I do. Do we want to hear the
truth about ourselves? Well, we're not going to hear
the good news till we do. Some do, many don't. Are we hanging
on the edge of our seat to hear Or we like that man that Paul
preached to, sleeping, fall out a window and get healed. God
has sent a message to Eli and young Samuel is the messenger
and God has sent a message to you because today preaching is
the chief means in which God almighty speaks to sinners. May we learn to pay more attention
to the message and not to the messenger. You remember what
Paul said? He said, for one saith I am of
Paul and another I am of Apollos. And then he said, are you not
carnal? Are you not fleshly minded to talk that way? Who's Paul
and who's Apollos? Nobody, nobody. Can Paul save
you? Can Apollos redeem you? Did Paul die for you? Did Apollos
rise from the grave for you? Paul and Apollos and every servant
that serves is nothing but a minister. You know what that word means?
Men today have made it a whole new thing. They dress up in the
robes and they, like the Pharisees of old, walk down the streets
wanting somebody to respect them. That's a man of God. The Lord
Jesus said they're like beautiful sepulchers. They're beautiful
on the outside, but on the inside, dead men's bones. Just ministers,
just servants, waiters. The word means waiters. The word
means table attenders. That's what a ministry is. And
he said, by whom you believe. They're just the means that God,
through whom God delivered the message. Paul said, I've planted and Paul
has watered. But God gave the increase. God
does the saving. So the conclusion of the matter
is this. He that plants is nothing. He that waters is nothing. God
who gives and increases everything. We solved that mystery, didn't
we? No, we didn't. No, we didn't. God revealed it
to us. May God enable us to see the message and not the messenger.
May God be pleased to give us an interest in the message. That
is the gospel. You know, Gene Harmon preaches
the same gospel I do. I preach the same gospel he does.
And a younger man than both of us is coming down Sunday to preach
that same gospel to you. The same gospel. We got different
personalities, and we have different mannerisms, and the text of the
scriptures that we choose may be different, but it's the same
message. It's the same gospel. And when
it comes to the word of God, God's people want to hear it
no matter who proclaims it. Eli's interested in the whole
counsel of God. Did you notice what he said?
He says, hide not anything from me. I want to know all of it. I want to hear the whole counsel
of God. Don't hide anything from Him. Tell me all things. Tell
me everything. Tell me the truth about it all.
Some say, well, leave out that sovereignty stuff. Some say, leave out those election
and predestination doctrines. Tell me about the love of God.
I like to hear about the love of God. Don't tell me anymore
about that holy justice stuff. That's depressing. Tell me about
God's forgiveness. Well, there is no forgiveness
apart from holy justice. That's telling you the truth.
You want to hear the truth? There's no forgiveness apart
from God's holy justice being satisfied. And only Christ can
satisfy it. God can by no means clear the
guilty. Sin's got to be paid for. Don't
tell me about God being holy. It makes me sad. Well, you better get sad and
then you better get glad because that's exactly what's gonna keep
you out of heaven is to think that God can somehow or another
just excuse your sin. It's not depressing when you
see that God must save you justly, that he can by no means clear
you. Your sin has to be justly put away and the good news tells
us how. Tell me the truth. Do you want
to hear the truth? Don't leave anything out. Tell
me the truth. Shame on you. Cursing on you
if you don't. That's that's what those scriptures
teach. Hell is going to be a little
hotter for those that tell lying things to sin. Don't sugarcoat
it. Tell me what I'm responsible
for. OK, glad you asked. You're responsible to believe
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Leave out that wages of sin teaching.
Leave out that soul that sins stuff. Tell me what I must do
to be saved. The truth is, you can't do anything
to be saved. Why would I tell you that? Eli
didn't want to sugarcoat it. He said, don't hide anything
from me. Don't hide anything from me. Tell me the truth, the
whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God. I wonder
how much of that goes on in courtrooms today, the truth. Eli's saying,
doesn't matter if you're a boy, doesn't matter if you're an old
man with one foot in the grave. Tell me the truth. Paul told Timothy, these things
command and teach, let no man despise your youth. But be thou
an example of the believers in word and conversation and charity
and spirit and faith in purity. Learn the truth and tell me the
truth. Verse 18. And Samuel told him every wit
and hid nothing from him. That's the kind of preacher I
want to be. Everything that God told Samuel,
Samuel told Eli. He told him every wit, every
word. Have you heard the whole counsel
of God? What do you say to it? Now let me just quickly add,
as I finish up, Samuel didn't add anything to what the Lord
told him. He told him every word. He didn't tell him any more than
God told him. He didn't add to what the Lord
had said. He didn't embellish what the Lord spoke. We got a
lot of that going on today. He simply declared what God told
him. I've told you this many times. Preachers are just good news
reporters. We don't make the news, we just
report it. We don't create the news, we simply report and declare
the news, the whole of God's word. For almost 12 years now,
I have desperately endeavored not to shun declaring unto you
the whole counsel of God. And the apostle went on to say,
take heed therefore unto yourself. When you hear this gospel, you're
responsible for what you heard. Eli did. He took heed. And what did the
Lord do? He forgave him. He saved him. His profession
is the proof. He said, all these things, nobody
in your family is going to be a priest ever again. Every man
in your family is going to die an early death. I'm going to
kill your two sons. And you're going to leave shortly
thereafter. And Eli said, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. Whatever happens to us friends,
it's the Lord. It's the Lord. Let Him do what
seemeth Him good. Eli submitted to the Lord. It's
the Lord. The Lord always does what's good
for His people. And the child of God can find
great comfort in knowing that God will always do what seems
Him as God to be good for His people. God works all things
together. For what? For good. To who? The world? No. To them that love
God. Is everything going to be good
for everyone who lives on earth? No. to them who are be called
according to His purpose. Not everybody's called. If they
were, they'd be saved, and it would be to their good, but it's
not. God does good to everyone in the world who believes in
His only begotten Son, and they will not perish, but have everlasting
life. And you know what? That's good. That's good. That's a good thing.
That's the gospel. Well, I just thought those two
verses neat and just didn't feel like we could pass over them
again. Look at him one more time. Tell me the good news. Tell me
the news. Give it all to me. OK, well,
I hope that was a help to you.