unto all Israel. Behold, I have
hearkened unto your voice and all that you said unto me, and
have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh
before you, and I am old and gray-headed. And behold, my sons
are with you, and I have walked before you from my childhood
unto this day. Behold, here I am, witness against
me before the Lord, and before his anointed, or before the king.
Whose ox have I taken? Whose ass have I taken? Of whom
have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose
hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?
And I will restore it to you. And they said, Thou hast not
defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought
of any man's hands. And he said unto them, the Lord
is witness against you. And his anointed is witness this
day, that you have not found aught in my hand. And they answered,
he is witness. In 1st Samuel, back up there in verse 14, chapter
11, it says this, This said Samuel to the people,
come and let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.
So that's where they're at. And Samuel is commencing his
farewell address. His farewell address. And what
he's doing, he's turning the government of Israel over to
the king that they chose. King that they chose. They rejected
Samuel, they rejected God, they rejected God's Word. And they
went there to renew the kingdom, to anoint Him in the presence
of all Israel. And remember when they anointed
Him before, they said, they all shouted, God, long live the King,
long live the King. And God used Saul, if you remember
last week when we were going through it, to deliver Israel
from Nahash the Ammonite. God used him there to save Israel
from an awful, mean, cruel, and when it was all done there wasn't
two of them left standing together. Now Samuel is giving his farewell
address and giving his farewell message to Israel. Now it will
be a while before Samuel dies. But he'll still act as a priest
offering up sacrifices for Israel. But he's turning the leadership.
He'd been leading Israel. God had been leading Israel.
And had been using him as a prophet and as a priest. And he's turning
over leadership to Saul as the king. And look what he said here
in verse 1. And Samuel, all of them's gathered
together there. And they're all rejoicing greatly.
And Samuel said unto all of Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto
your voice and all that you said unto me, and I have made a king
over you. I listened to what you said.
You asked for a king and you got one. Now this wasn't a good
thing. This was not a good thing. Them
asking for a king. It displeased God. It displeased
Samuel. Look back over here. You keep
that chapter 12 and look in chapter 8. In verse 6 and 7. Well, in verse 5. Start in verse 5. This wasn't
a good thing. You know, you hearkened. You requested a king. I hearkened
unto your voice. I hearkened unto what you said.
And it said here, And said unto him, Behold, you are old, and
your sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us
like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel,
evil in his eyes, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And
Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel,
hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say
unto thee. For they have not rejected thee, but they have
rejected me. Listen to this, that I should
not reign over them. This wasn't a good thing. Now
he's standing there and said, I hearken unto your voice. And
look here, I want you to see a couple of things here in chapter
12. Look down in verse 12. Now this is Samuel here, he's
still talking. And when you saw that Nahash,
the king of the children of Ammon, came against you, you said unto
me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God
was your king. You chose a man over God, who
was your king. Look what he says down here in
verse 17. Is it not wheat harvest today?
I will call unto the Lord, and He shall send thunder and rain,
that you may perceive that your wickedness is great, which ye
have done in the sight of the Lord, and asking you a king."
He's telling them flat out what you did was a wicked thing. A
wicked thing. Now look what it says down in
verse 19. And all the people said unto
Samuel, pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we
die not for we have added unto all of our sins this evil to
ask us a king so it wasn't a good thing it wasn't a good thing
to ask for a king ask for a king and then he says there in verse
2 now the king walks before you here he is he's walking before
you but look what he says about himself he said I'm old and grey
headed Kind of like some of us. Old and gray, getting old and
gray headed. But he said, I'm old and gray headed. And behold,
my sons are with you and I've walked before you from, listen
to this, from my childhood unto this day. And when he says I'm
old and gray headed, my sons are with you, what he's saying
is they're not taking my place. They're just with you. They're
going to be Israelites like you are. There is one of you, they're
not taking my place, they're not going to stand in my step.
And he started out as a child, and now he's old. And I tell
you what, he's leading Israel, probably aged him greatly. You
know, you've seen presidents when they start into the office
of president, and after just a few years, I mean, you just
watch them age right in front of you. that pressure that no
respite no rest from it and all the things they deal with day
in and day out he's dealing with the whole nation and he's dealing
with a bunch of people that didn't want God didn't need God and
didn't like him and didn't like what he had to say and so it
probably aged him greatly Very greatly. Mr. Spurgeon, he died
when he was 58 years old and I mean it. He was preaching to
7,000 people about every service he was in. A lot of times he
preached to many more than that. So the more you have, the more
pressure you got on you. I remember a preacher telling
a young preacher one time, he said, I want a church with lots
and lots of people in it. He said, be careful what you
ask for. He said, the more you have, the more problems you have.
That's why, you know, I don't have no problems. I just, you
know, me, that's my problem. That's my problem. And then look
what he says here in verse three. Behold, here I am, I'm standing
before you. And he calls out four things
here. He calls out four things. And he said, I want you to be
a witness for me. If you are a witness against
me over these things, stand up and speak out now. And he names
four things, and here's the things he says. He said, I'm witness
against me before the Lord and before this king right here.
I want God to be my witness and I want this king to be my witness.
And he asked this question, whose ox have I taken or whose ass
have I taken? Have I ever taken anything from
anybody? Have I ever taken anything because I had the power to do
it and the ability to do it? Had the right to do it. Have
I ever taken anything from anybody? And then look what it goes on
to say. Of whom have I defrauded? That's the second thing. Whom
have I defrauded? Who have I deceived? Have I ever
used deceit or deception to get what I want? That's what he said.
Have I used deceit or deception to get what I want? As the prophet
over God's Israel. As a priest over God's Israel. Whom have I oppressed? Who have
I ever brought them into bondage? Is there any among the Israel
that I've brought into bondage? That I stepped on someone to
lift myself up. That I brought you into bondage.
That I brought you under my rule. Brought you under my thumb. Made
you understand that I'm the one that's got the power and authority
in this country. Did I ever do that to anybody? Did I ever oppress
anybody? When I was thinking about this
today, I remember a congregation. They're gone now. The preacher
died, but I remember vividly I remember him very well. Those
people couldn't even get a dog unless they asked their preacher. Couldn't even go get a dog. He
said, I want to find me a dog. Well listen, I'll go with you. Make sure you get the right.
I mean you couldn't do anything. Them people couldn't do anything
without first checking with him. And one poor old gal, she just
broke down and cried. She said, I never realized what
an awful, awful bondage and oppressed we were until God saved us out
from under it. It's awful for a preacher to
use that. And that's what Samuel said. Who have I oppressed and brought
into bondage? Stepped on them. Lifted myself
up. And then look, here's the fourth
thing. Whose hand have I received any
bribe? A bribe. So you know, listen, who has
ever paid me to blind my eyes therewith? That I turn my eyes
away from what they were doing. You paid me so you could get
by with this. And I turn my eyes away from
you. Who ever bribed me and I received a bribe? And if any of these
has happened to me, and I've done it to you, I'll restore
it. I'll restore it. If I ever took
a payoff and me not seeing justice going on, that's what he's saying.
Now why do you reckon he's asking these questions? Why do you reckon
he's asking these questions? These four questions. These four
things. I'm sure that he had been accused of all these things
by someone or maybe several people. People that were disgruntled
with him. People that didn't like him. But when it was all
said and done, none could actually bear witness to these things
that he said. If you can show me, if you can
witness to me, if you'll stand up and speak, I'll restore. I'll
restore the ox, I'll restore your money, I'll ask for your
forgiveness if I defrauded you, deceived you, deception, done
anything against you, you let me know and I'll restore it.
And all listened to what they said. In verse 4, and they said,
Thou hast not defrauded us, you've not oppressed us, you neither
have taken on of any man's hand. You've never taken anything from
anybody. That's like the Apostle Paul, when he was saying his
farewell address to Ephesus, he said, Did I ever take anybody's
silver? Did I ever take anybody's gold?
Did I ever ask anybody to buy me a suit and furnish me a suit
of clothes? He said, listen, tell me if I've
ever done that. And this is an apostle. He stood
before them all. What have I ever taken? I never
covered your silver. I never covered your gold. I
didn't cover your garments. I didn't cover anything you had. And I tell you, that's awful
that they have to stand out and say these things. But oh my,
and I tell you, they said, no, no, you've not defrauded us.
And he said unto them in verse 5, the Lord is witness against
you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you've not found
all in my hands. And they answered, God is witness,
and the king is witness. Oh my, now that's the type of
leader. That's the type of man, what an honorable man. What an
honorable man we were. Wouldn't we love to have somebody
like that as our leader in this country? Oh, wouldn't that be
something, such an honorable man as that? But his sons weren't
like him. They weren't like him. Look over,
keep 12 here now. Look over here in chapter 8,
verse 1. His sons are not like that. And it came to pass, when Samuel
was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name
of the firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah.
And they were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his
way, but turned aside after Lucre, filthy money, filthy Lucre, took
bribes and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel
gathered themselves together and came to Samuel and said,
Listen, you're old. You can't have your sons doing
this. So his sons were not like their father whatsoever. But
now back over here in chapter 12, the fact that the Holy Spirit
has recorded these four things here. I have not taken anything,
not defrauded anybody, not oppressed anybody, and have not taken a
bride. These four things, they're significant. The Holy Spirit
shows us these four things, and there's some significance to
them. And I want to use these four things to contrast, and
these four things summarize the world. That's the world. The
world takes all it can get. And I'll tell you, we'll go through
these things, but here's the four things, and these things
summarize the world in which we live. But we want to contrast
these four things to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
this contrast between what the world is and what Samuel said
show that every believer aspires to. We aspire to be in that way. Now it says here, you know, said,
have I ever taken anything? Here's the damage to get to the
gospel. Men take, men take. He said, have I taken anything?
But men take. But God gives. But God gives. Man wants to take from another
man. Man wants somebody else's God. You see, it starts out in
children. And men take, but God gives.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Our Lord Jesus told the woman
at the well, if you knew the gift of God, you would have asked
of Him, and He would have given you a drink of living water.
And you know why God doesn't take and only gives? Because there's nothing that
we have that He needs. He absolutely needs nothing from
anybody. He said, if I was hungry, would
I ask you? The cattle on a thousand hills
belong to me. And I tell you, beloved, that's
why, do you know, Paul was standing on Mars Hill preaching, and he
says, God, who created all things, The God of heaven and earth. He's not like unto a God made
out of silver and gold, and neither does he dwell in temples, and
he's not worshipped by the works of men's hands. So listen, and
that's what he says, the wages of sin is death, but God gives. He gives eternal life. And God's
gift is always free. Always free. I'll tell you something
about the gospel. When he talks about, he said,
I never took. Men take, but God gives. God's gift is free. It's never offered. God does
not make an offer for men to accept or reject. That's not
the way God does. He's never, ever wants. The only time you ever find free
will in the Bible is in the Old Testament. It had to do with
offerings. And I tell you here, it tells
us that God, His gift is never offered. People tell you all
the time, God offers you this. God don't offer nobody nothing.
He gives. Did He ask the world, would you
like to have my son as a gift? Would you like to have the cross
as a gift? Would you like to have the blood
of Christ as a gift? Would you like to have Jesus
as a gift? God so loved, He gave. And He
didn't ask anybody if you want to accept it or not. He gave
it. And oh, listen. And I'll tell you something else
about God's gift. It's immeasurable. How do you measure God's gift?
No wonder the apostles said, thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. Ruby used to tell me that all
the time. She'd leave here and she'll say, thanks be unto God
for his unspeakable gifts. I couldn't tell you the time
she told me that leaving out here. Oh, it's unspeakable. And then he talks about defrauding. Oh, have I taken? Men take God's
gifts. Men defraud. He said, I'm not
defrauding anybody. Men defraud through deceit, through
deception, through injustice. They'll lie and they'll cheat
and they'll die and they'll lie and carry on and then deceive
people and use deception and injustice. But oh, God's not
that way. No, no. Everything about the
gospel is above board. There's nothing deceitful or
unjust about the gospel. Nothing. There's no attempt to
hide anything. We don't use any trickery. We
don't use any gimmicks. The Gospel doesn't do that. And
you know, Paul talked about those who handle the Word of God deceitfully.
We're not those who handle the Word of God deceitfully or dishonestly. And everything about the gospel,
it lays everything out. It exposes everything. Everybody's
on the same level. Everybody has to face the same
thing. Everybody hears the same thing in the gospel. And there's
nothing, nothing deceitful about the gospel. Some preachers are
deceitful, but God's not and the gospel's not. Some preachers
use trickery, but the gospel doesn't. Some people use gimmicks,
but the gospel doesn't. And that's why Paul told the
Ephesians, I held back nothing, listen to what he says, nothing
that was profitable to you. I declared unto you the whole
counsel of God. I went from Genesis until my
time. I went from what I knew about
the Old Testament. I declared everything God taught
me to you. And all my being, mental defraud,
used deceit and deception. But in the Gospel, I tell you,
everything is above board. Everything is right out in the
open. And that's why we talk about grace. We talk about righteous
grace. Now what do you mean by righteous
grace? God didn't give us grace just to cover up our sins and
to just give us grace and let us continue the way we did. We're
not saying God gives us grace righteously. And that's what
it means for Him to be just. He's a righteous God. He's a
just God. And that's what the gospel does.
Therein is the righteousness of God revealed. When we preach
the gospel, God reveals His righteousness. His righteous nature, His holiness,
and His righteousness. And He gives us grace based on
the righteousness of His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh
my! Grace reigns. How? Through righteousness. Justification
came by the Lord Jesus Christ the righteous. I don't know how to say that
other than God just didn't decide one day and said, I'm going to
give him grace. You know, I know he's a mess
and I know he's going to do the best he can, but I'm going to
give him grace and he's going to stumble. He's going to fall
and he's going to, he's not going to live to the glory of God.
And you know, and I'm, and he's never going to change. So I'm
going to give him grace anyway. But for God to give us grace,
he had to have a sacrifice. He had to have a righteousness
that would meet His righteousness. He had to have a righteousness
equal to His righteousness. He had to have a righteousness
and a holiness equal to His own. That was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now grace reigns. It reigns. But how does it reign? Through, through the Lord Jesus
Christ. You take Christ out of the, you
take Christ out of the gulf. And you don't have righteousness,
you don't have justification, you don't have gifts, you have
nothing. But when you got Christ, grace reigns. It reigns. Sin did reign. Sin had dominion
over it. But grace reigns. How? Through the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ said that God's right
hand keeps grace reigning in us. And if He let us go, you
know how long grace would... I mean, it'd be gone that quick.
Look at the problem we have with this flesh. Even with Grace Raynon. I hope y'all don't have it as
bad as I do. But I mean, even with Grace Raynon,
I still have an awful problem with this flesh. And then he
said, Oh, oppression. He said, I'm not oppressed. To
whom have I oppressed? And you know the oppression that
goes on in this world. It's sad how much oppression
goes on in this world. We don't have any idea how much
oppression there is. How many leaders oppress their
citizens? How many kings oppress their
citizens? How much law in a country oppresses
its people? In the country of China, all
these Muslims, they oppress people. In America, there's people being
oppressed. People are being sold into white
slavery. Girls are being picked up off
the street and sold into white slavery. Oppressed! And the greatest oppression a
man goes through is the oppression of sin. And he can't break that
bondage. He can't do it. And all men like
to keep others, others down, down, down. Why? Because it lifts
them up. It lifts them up. But the gospel,
it sets the oppressed free. It sets the captive free. And almost all people in religion,
now you know this as well as I do because I went through it.
Almost all people Experience in religion is oppression
and guilt. Oppression and guilt. Oppression
and guilt. You've got to dress this way.
You've got to go to these places and not to these places. And
they're always making people feel under guilt. And they want
them always to come to the altar. They want them always to make
things right. They want them always to renew up. But look
what he said. Do you keep Samuel? Look over
here what he said in Isaiah 58. Look what the prophet said over
here. God said through the prophet.
Isaiah 58. Verse 5. You know, right now in America,
if you don't talk a certain way and use political correctness,
you'll be oppressed for it. You'll be taken to task for it.
That's how bad it is. You know, if you don't use certain
languages and deal with certain things and believe certain things,
you get oppressed for it. You're made to be an absolute
idiot because of it. And I thank God that God sets
us free. The gospel sets us free from
the fear of man, from the opinions of man, from the opinions of
the world, and the things that this world teaches and believes.
Look what he said here in verse 5. Is it such a fast that I have
chosen, this God speaking, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as
a bulrush, like a bulrush leans over, and put ashes under him?
Will thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? Listen to this, to loose
the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let
the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke. Nothing like the freedom of the
gospel. The gospel is all about setting people free. That's why
I sent the captive free. That's why Paul said, stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free. Stand in
it. Don't move from it. Don't go under any oppression,
under any bondage. And then he said, have I taken
a bribe to blind my eyes therewith? Have I taken a bribe? Bribery in our age, and I guess
it's always been this way, his sons took bribery. and perverted
judgment bribery so sad so sad that men are so wicked for a
little money for a little money and I don't care how much they
give you it's a little compared to what God will do oh for a
little money for a title they'll turn their heads and
fail to see and you can buy so many men so easily and so cheap
and there's so many people that's perverted judgment and they can
be bought can be bought and that's sad that's sad but
the gospel the gospel sees all God sees things as they really
are, not the way men would like to see them. You know, men can
go ahead and take that money. One of the governors of Illinois,
they gave him tens of thousands of dollars so he could pick a
senator, the one that they wanted. You know where he's at now? He's
in prison. He should be. He got caught. But how many ever
and they never got caught? But the gospel sees it. God sees
all things as they really are. That's why He says no flesh shall
be justified in His sight. And God told about His people,
you know what He says about them? They're holy, unblameable, unreprovable. And this is where
it counts, in His sight. That's where it counts. He sees
everything. He's never blinded, and he doesn't
ever even blink. He doesn't blink. He doesn't
blink. And let me tell you something
about a believer, and this is what we aspire. He said, if I've
taken anything, a believer is a giver. A believer is a giver. Paul told the Corinthians, he
says, God's grace was bestowed on you. And he said, you freely
receive, you freely give. And he also told them here that
giving, instead of us taking, we give. It proves the sincerity
of our love. Love gives. And I, you know,
I don't have to say it, but this, how much we give and how much
we keep says a lot about us. says a lot about us. I know we
have to live, but I also know this that a believer gives. He
doesn't take, he gives. He gives. I remember when we
built this building years ago, there was a man He had a factory. He made windows
and doors and things like that. And he offered to bring a truckload
of windows down here and put them in this building and said,
I'll give them to you. I said, nope, I won't take them.
I won't take them. If you'll let us pay for them,
we'll take them. We'll take them if you'll let
us pay for them. And then other folks would turn right around
When they needed a witness, they'd call him up and say, can you
send us a witness down here and say thank you. Listen, we don't
want, I don't care, we don't want the world to give us nothing.
If God don't provide for us, we won't take it. I feel that,
I believe that with all my heart. I wasn't going to take advantage,
we use this world but not as abusing it. I'm not going to
abuse one of God's people over no matter what they got. I'm
not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. And there's lots of
people that do things for me and they just won't take anything
for it. And I'm very, very thankful for it. I'm very thankful for
it. I don't mean to be that way. And a believer is not a defrauder.
He's not deceitful. He doesn't claim to be honest. He is honest. We keep all things
honest in the sight of all men. That's why Paul told, I mean,
God said about David, blessed is the man to whose sins are
covered and in whom there is no God. My soul, we, God sees
us as we are. So there ain't no sense us being
any different than the way we are. Now that's one thing that
people just can't get over when they come around the Lord's people.
They say them folks, they're not pretenders. They're not pretenders. Those folks are real. And oh,
listen, I'll tell you something else. Not only do we give, not
take, and we don't defraud and not deceitful, we're honest,
but we're not an oppressor. We don't want anybody oppressed. We don't want them oppressed
by afflictions. We don't want them oppressed by sin. We certainly
don't want to oppress anybody and put them under our thumb
and our opinions and what we think. But a believer is merciful. He's kind. He's gracious. He's moderate. And he certainly
don't want to oppress anybody. And he certainly doesn't want
to use his liberty as a cloak to be mean to somebody. And I'm talking about a bride,
I'm going to tell you this. I know this without a shadow
of a doubt. You can't buy off a believer. You can't do it. You know what? People say, well,
I'll tell you what, I'll do this for you if you come over there.
I'll do this for you if you go over there. But I tell you something, for
God's people, you don't have anything valuable enough to cause
us to walk away from Christ. It ain't nothing. We're not for
sale. Christ bought us and paid for
us. And we're not for sale. We're not going to sell our truth,
our belief, our gospel, our Lord, our conscience. We're not going
to sell it. We're not going to give up anything
about our gospel, our Christ, our truth, our love, our grace,
and the things that God has done for us for nothing. We're not
going to do it. We're not going to do it. Father, thank you for allowing
us to meet here tonight. Thank you for allowing us to
speak. Thank you for allowing us to See things the way you
see them, not the way we see them, but the way you do. And
Lord, we want to see things the way you do. Believe what you
taught us. Help us, oh God, to always, always,
by your grace, be kind and gracious and forgiving and merciful, praying
for one another, loving one another, upholding one another. And Lord,
for all the folks we mentioned tonight, put it on our hearts
to pray for these people. James, Annie, Jim, Bruce, Helen. Oh Lord, these saints of God.
Thank you, Lord Jesus. Please meet the needs of these
people, for Christ's sake. Amen. There is a name