Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter
3. So far in our study of 1 Samuel,
the first three chapters, we've seen the Lord's goodness. He was good to Hannah in giving
her who was barren life within. God put life into Hannah. God
gave life to one who was barren. That's what God does to every
child of God. Dead in trespasses and sin, and
God, like he did in creation, to us who were void, formless,
darkness upon the deepness of our heart, he's spoken to us
light, and there was light. Those who are barren of life
are given life. God breathes into men and women
the breath of life, just as He did Adam, who was just dust of
the ground. God's got to give us life, friends.
There's no other spiritual life apart from that. He breathes
life into the dead and they become living souls. God gave Hannah
a son, and she named him Samuel, and she dedicated Samuel unto
the Lord. And Maya did the Lord a blessing.
The Lord, from Him, all blessings flow. She got him from the Lord,
and she returned him to the Lord. And that's what that word lent
there in chapter one means when it says she lent him to the Lord. She returned Samuel to the Lord
where she got him. He belonged to the Lord all along.
You know, the Lord gives us children. We raise those children. They
grow up. They move out. They get out on
their own. They have children. They just
don't belong to us. They belong to the Lord. They're
the Lord's. Everything that we have is from
the Lord. Everything. It's all just on loan to us. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. The Lord showed
mercy and goodness to Samuel. He did Hannah and he did Samuel.
Samuel, we're told, grew in favor with the Lord and with men. Samuel
ministered unto the Lord as we saw. The Lord called Samuel as
we looked at last week and revealed himself to him. The Lord did
it all. He's the first cause of everything,
especially salvation. We didn't know. There's none
that seeketh the Lord. He sought us first, and then
we seek Him. He loved us first, and then we
love Him. He chose us, and then we chose
Him. It all initiates with Him. And tonight, we're gonna see
the Lord's goodness to Eli. Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's children,
sons, they were evil men. We saw that, spent some time
on that. They both were priests like their
father Eli, but they were not the priest of the Lord. Matter
of fact, they're called the sons of Belial and we're told that
they knew not the Lord. Belial means without profit. Belial means worthless. It means
destructive and wicked. That's what Hophni and Phinehas
were. The sons of Eli, as you remember,
took the best of the sacrifices for themselves. And they stole
from God's people, but most importantly, they stole from God. They committed fornication with
the women that served in the sanctuary. You know, they thought
they were like rock stars or movie stars. I don't know. And
God rebuked Eli for their actions. Eli only lightly and mildly rebuked
them. He should have dealt with them
harshly. He should have put a stop to their behavior. He should
have restrained them according to verse 13 here in chapter three. Look back at chapter two, verse
27. You may not even have to turn the page. And there came
a man of God unto Eli and said unto him, thus saith the Lord,
did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father when thou
were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? Talking about Aaron, the priest. And did I choose him out of the
tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to
burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? And did I give unto
the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the
children of Israel?" What a great honor to be the priest of God.
That was something God gave Aaron. And Eli being of the house of
Levi, the family of The priest Aaron, in verse 29,
he says, wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering,
which I have commanded in my habitation, and you honors thy
sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all
the offerings of Israel my people. Eli partook in this too. He was
not innocent. The Lord sent an unnamed prophet
to Eli, And he told Eli that God was gonna cut his sons off
from his altar. Look down at verse 31. Behold,
the days come that I'll cut off thine arm and the arm of thy
father's house, and there shall not be an old man in thine house.
Everybody in your family gonna die an early death. And thou
shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall
give Israel, and there shall not be an old man in thine house
forever. And the man of thine, whom I
shall cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes
and to grieve thine heart, and all the increase of thine house
shall die in the flower of their age. And this shall be a sign
unto thee that shall come unto thy two sons on Hophni and Phinehas
in one day. They shall die, both of them." All Eli's heritage would die
early deaths. Hophni and Phinehas would both
die in the same day. Can you imagine? Boy, to lose
a son or a daughter would be most difficult, but to lose two
in one day, Job lost 10 in one day. And we'll talk about that
in a moment. Then in chapter three, the Lord
calls Samuel, as we saw last week, and He told Samuel to go
to Eli to tell him the same thing that this unnamed prophet told
him. Look at verse eight here in chapter
three. 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. Therefore, Eli said unto Samuel,
go, lie down, and it shall be, if he called thee, that thou
shalt speak, or 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, 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. Those who hear these
things are going to be struck with such horror and terror that
they'll be so amazed and stunned that their ears are going to
tingle, like the reaction of a great and violent clap of thunder
that catches you, you know, unaware, and you jump, and your ears kind
of echo. He said, when they hear my judgment,
that's what it's gonna be like. And that actually happens later
to Eli. I'll just go ahead and tell you
in the next chapter, when he heard the news of the Ark of
the Covenant being taken by the Philistines, Eli was so stunned
at what he heard, he fell off backwards off the wall and broke
his neck and died. And God said the same thing in
2 Kings 21 concerning the evil that He'd bring up on Jerusalem. He said, your ears are gonna
tangle. He said it again in Jeremiah 19 to the kings of Judah about
bringing evil upon where they dwelt. The warnings and the words
of the Lord can have that kind of effect. Now, the Lord tells
Samuel in verse 12, he says, in that day, I will perform against
Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house. When I
begin, I will also make an end. 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. 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 Samuel lay until the morning
and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared
to show Eli the vision." You know how difficult it must have
been for Samuel to deliver this message of God God's wrath against
the house of a man that he had faithfully served while Eli was
his mentor, his earthly master. And I'm reminded that the message
of God, the gospel, when it's preached, it's a savor of life
and delight to some, and it's a savor of death. The very message that the believer
rejoices in, there are some that don't believe that it pronounces
judgment on. It's a savor of death unto death.
Who's sufficient for such things? You know, it's difficult to tell
someone who's been raised in religion that they're trusting
in a false hope and a false God. It's difficult. It's a hard burden
to tell someone who trusts in their imagined righteousness,
who all their life thought they've done good, to merit salvation
from the Lord, to find out that their righteousness is nothing
but filthy rags, their works are just self-righteous rags
that God won't accept. Oh, it's difficult. It's enough to make somebody's
ears tingle. It's hard to renounce something
that you've believed your whole life. It's not readily received. People have great difficulty
with it. A lot of people leave the gospel or leave hearing the
gospel because they just can't admit that they've been wrong
all their life. It takes an intervention from
God. It takes a divine revelation
from God for someone Well, God's gotta change your heart. God's
gotta give you a new heart. And for Samuel, these words are
particularly painful. They mean the end of his friend's
life, as far as he knows. Samuel does not bring peace but
a sword. That's what you do when you preach
the gospel. That's what every gospel preacher
does when he preaches to the lost. It says, is it any wonder that
Samuel lay into the morning and feared to show Eli the vision?
Verse 16, that Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, and
he answered, here am I. And he said, what is this 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 you hide anything from me of all the things that he said
unto you. In verse 18, and Samuel told
him every wit, every bit of it, and hid nothing from him. And
Eli said, Let him do what seemeth him good. Samuel told Eli God would take
the life of his sons. Samuel told Eli that God would
take the priesthood from his lineage. Samuel told Eli that the Lord
was gonna judge their iniquity. I remember some old preacher
once saying that believing the gospel got him out of trouble
with God, but got him in trouble with me. And I guess I know what
he means by that because I remember someone who attended Brother
Mahan's church one time and worked, I think with Dale Simpson there
in the iron mill or whatever. And he said, you know, I liked
you better before you were saved. And there's a lot of people that
liked me better before I was saved. How about you? I bet there's some. Oh my. But when we cannot fear what man can do
to us, we're bound to tell the truth concerning God, regardless
of the repercussions. And didn't I say in the beginning
to that we're gonna look at the good that God did to Eli? Where's the goodness in all this
judgment? I thought you were gonna tell
us something that God was gonna be good to Eli. Well, what is
it? Well, in a nutshell, it's how
God allowed Eli to respond. It's seen in the faith and grace
that God gave Eli. The truth of the word of God
came, and it wasn't favorable news. And how did Eli respond? Did he get angry? No. Did he cry, that's not fair?
Boy, there's a lot of people that cry that. Did he say, Lord, after all these
years of service, This is how you're going to treat me? No,
he didn't say that. This is how Eli would have responded
had the Lord not had mercy on him. If the Lord had not given
him grace, if the Lord had not caused him to take sides with
God against himself. But instead, Eli said, it's the
Lord. It's the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. In other words, it's right for
God to do what He wills. Is it not lawful for Him to do
what He will with His own? He can bless or dispose of His
creatures however He sees fit. None can put Him into question,
saying to Him, What doest Thou? None can stay His hand. He's
the Lord God. He's all wise, and He does all
things well. He's faithful to His word, whether
it's in threatening or whether it's in promise. Let Him do what's
in Him good. And that don't mean let Him,
it's give Him your permission. That means bow to it. Why? Because this is the Lord. He's
never been wrong. He's never done wrong. He's too
wise to fail. He's too holy to judge unrighteously. Nothing but goodness comes from
Him. There's nothing but goodness in Him. He blesses His people
in their trouble and affliction. He works all things together
for their good. That's His promise to His people.
Not to the world. but to his people. You know,
each and every one of us, I hope you know this, but each and every
one of us deserve every judgment that would come up on us. There's
not anything that I've ever really been accused of that I haven't
done inwardly, if not outwardly. You know, I hear folks say, well,
I've never committed adultery, but they've sure looked at a
woman to lust after. And I've heard people say, I've
never committed murder. Well, I hope not. But if you
hate a brother in your heart, you've committed murder. See,
we're guilty of every judgment that the Lord would put upon
us. And here Eli was saying the same
thing that David said in Psalm 51, 4. You remember what David
said? In verse three, he said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
And then he said, whatever God does, he was justified in doing
it. He said, whatever God does, he's
clear, he's holy in his judgment. Whatever God does with me, whether
it's good or bad, shall not the judge of the earth do right. Always. In Psalm chapter 39,
David said, I was dumb, silent. I opened not my mouth because
thou didst it. Whatever the law says to them
that are under the law, whatever judgment the law pronounces on
a sinner, you, me, any sinner, it does so that every mouth may
be stopped. Shut up. Shut up. There'll be no one with anything
to say. They're not going to be able
to brag and take any glory for themselves. They cannot make
any excuses for themselves. But Lord, I did this because
of that. And you know, the blame game,
we're all guilty of it. You know, Teresa and I tease
each other every now and then, like, well, honey, why'd you
do it? Well, I wouldn't have done that
if you hadn't done this. Well, I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't done
this. The blame game. The woman thou gavest me, that's
what it is. The serpent you put in the garden,
That's why I'm a pretty good boy, you know, for the most part. Oh my. And all the world become
guilty before God. We are. But Eli, because of God's
intervention, Eli, because of a divine revelation, like every
other believer, now listen to me, is not under the law. but under grace. I'm not under
the law. I'm free from the law, O happy
condition. Jesus hath bled, and there is
remission. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace. Romans
6, 14. Isn't that good news? Job lost everything he had, as
I mentioned a moment ago, including all 10 of his children. And what
did he do? Well, let me show you. Turn over,
you can stick your marker here, and turn over to Job chapter
one. Look at verse 20. You know the
story. Lost everything he had. It was a messenger sent to him,
said, well, you've lost all your cattle. And as soon as he was
finished talking, the other one came, you lost all your camels,
you've lost everything. You've lost it all. And here
in Job chapter one, verse 20, it says, then Job arose and he
rent his mantle and he shaved his head and he fell upon the
ground. And what did he do? He worshiped. Worshipped, you'd lose everything you got
and you worship. He worshipped the Lord. That
ain't all he did. And he said, naked came I out
of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord
gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Mercy and grace of God would
cause someone to do that. That's sure not in us by nature. No. In everything that comes our
way, may God allow us to do the same thing that Eli did. It doesn't come naturally. It
comes supernaturally. Only the goodness of God leads
men and women to repentance. That's what leads to peace and
comfort and assurance. What did Eli say? He said, it
is the Lord. One evening, our Lord was walking
on water. The disciples had already left.
They were out in the middle of the sea and on the ship. and our Lord walking on the water
towards them. And the disciples, when they
saw the Lord coming to them, they were troubled and scared
to death. And they said, it's a spirit.
And they cried out for fear. Now, these are professional mariners. I mean, these guys have been
out on the sea before, but they'd never seen this before. They'd
never seen a man walking on the water. What kind of man is this,
they said. He's the God-man. And the Lord Jesus, I love how
the scripture says, and the Lord Jesus immediately spoke to them.
He immediately put them at ease and he said, be of good cheer,
it is I. Be not afraid. You know, when
we're fearful and when we're afraid, when we're in trouble,
The very moment we hear the Lord say, it is I, it calms us just
as He calms us just as He calms the sea. Oh, I hope we can remember
that. And this is what should really
calm and comfort us. When trials comes, it's always
the Lord. He's the one that sends it. And
He sends it for the believer's good. He's causing all things
to work together for the good of them that love the Lord, who
are called according to His purpose. All trouble, every trial, every
tribulation, it is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good. Because
He's doing it for my good. I really believe that. Next time you're in trouble,
listen closely. You just may hear that inaudible,
small, still voice of the Lord saying, be a good share. It is
I. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. You can be assured that the Lord
will do you good. That's the Romans 8.28 promise. That's what calmed Eli. He said,
it's the Lord. Let him do what seems good. Not
what we think's good. That's not good. We don't know
what's good for us. But what he thinks is good. The
Lord's disciples were fishing one night about 300 foot off
shore. And they'd been up all night, didn't catch anything.
Not, I mean, not even one little minnow in the net. And John and Peter were in the
same boat, professional fishermen again, fished all night, caught
nothing. And the next morning when they
were ready to quit, they pulling their nets up and said, we've
had enough of this. We're just going to go home hungry,
I guess. They heard a voice from the shore
saying, children, have you any meat? And they must have first
thought, well, who in the world is asking us this? You know,
I don't have time. We didn't catch any fish. We
don't have any fish to sell." And in their depression and in
their frustration and in their shame, they answered, no, no,
we don't have any. And the voice said, well, cast
your nets on the right side of the ship. And they did. And man, it erupted. I bet their boat started shaking.
There were so many fish on just the other side of that boat.
that their nets couldn't hold it. They thought that it was
going to pull them down to the bottom of the water. And they couldn't handle it. And they weren't able to draw
in the net for the multitude of fish. And John, the disciple that loved
Jesus, that's how the scripture described him, said to Peter,
he said, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. This was after
the resurrection, you know. Peter said, I'm going fishing.
They all followed him. And that's what they did and
didn't catch nothing. And then here's the Lord. He said, it's
the Lord. And Peter heard that it was the Lord. He dropped the
net. He jumped in the water. He swam
to shore. And when the other disciples
reached the shoreline, not a single one of them asked him, who art
thou? You know why? They knew it was
the Lord. How'd they know? Only the Lord
could do what he did. And it calmed them. It calmed
them. They weren't frustrated anymore.
They weren't aggravated. They were comforted. And the
Lord fed them. And the Lord assured them. When
the Lord causes His people to know that it's Him, it immediately
brings them true peace and contentment. Most of the time we don't have
peace because we don't look to the Lord. We don't believe what
we say we believe. And we're poor, poor, pitiful
me folks, aren't we? By nature. Eli said, it's the
Lord. It's my shepherd. The Lord is
my shepherd. He said, it's the Lord, my shield.
It's the Lord, my defender. It's the Lord, my provider. That's
what Eli is saying. It's the Lord my owner, the Lord
my maker, the Lord my creator, the Lord my wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification, my redemption. It's the Lord my judge. He always
does what's right. It's the Lord my friend who's
closer than a brother. It's the Lord my substitute who
gave himself for me. It's my Lord and my God. It's the Lord my everything,
it's Christ my all and them all. Let him do what seemeth good.
I'll bow to it, whatever it is. Thank God he doesn't do what
seemeth him harmful. Thank God he doesn't do what
seemeth us, what we've seen to be good. Naturally speaking,
we don't know what's good for us. He always does what seemeth
Him good. And that's good because the Lord
is good and He always does good. So it's good, isn't it? Jack
Shanks used to say, it's good. And it is. So the next time I
encounter a difficult, troublesome situation, I pray that the Lord
enable me to say with Eli, it is the Lord. It's the Lord. It
always is. We give way too much credit to
Satan. Men say, well, you know, Take
authority over Satan. No, no, no. Most of the time,
it's you instead of Satan. If it's anyone else to blame,
it's us, but it's the Lord. He's behind it all. Men with their wicked hands took
and crucified the Lord of glory, but it was by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. God was behind it. He's
the first cause of everything. This should be the response of
every child of God. The Word of God shall always
settle the matter. It's the Lord. We have no right
to question the will and wisdom of our Maker. He has mercy on
whom He'll have mercy, and whom He will, He hardens. Should we
question His decision? Should we question His purpose? Will we ask, why doth He yet
find fault? Knowing that none can resist
His will, do we blame God in doing what is right? Who are
we to reply against God? Shall the famed form say to him
that formed it, why did you make me this way? Does not our great
God, the sovereign potter, have the power and the right to take
the same lump and make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Most in religion believe that
we make and form ourselves to be one or the other. Well, you
know, I remember in Sunday school, when I was a little boy, had
a sign on the door that said, the way to heaven, turn right and go straight. Well,
I'm not going to make it then because I can't turn right and
I can't go straight. I am messed up. I need the Lord
to save me. So what do we do? We trust in
the finished work that Christ has done for us. We rest at Christ's
feet, knowing that His work's finished. And most importantly,
it's accepted of God. God accepted His work. God's
satisfied with His work. And if I'm in Christ, He's satisfied
with me. And I'm really not much interested
in hearing any other message but that message that tells me
again how Christ died for a wretch like me. Who do I trust my everlasting
soul to? It's the Lord. It's the Lord. He's out to do me good. He's
out to do you good. May God be pleased to make it
so, for His glory, our good, and most importantly, for Christ's
sake. Amen.