Seeking for the help of the Lord
I direct your prayerful attention to 1 Samuel chapter 3 and reading
from our text verse 9 and specifically that which Eli directed Samuel
to say. The whole verse reads, 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. 1 Samuel chapter 3 verse 9, but
specifically the words, speak Lord for thy servant heareth. It was the advice that Eli gave
to Samuel. This is a very important time
in the history of Israel when the Lord is pleased to give a
servant, one of his servants, one that was going to be greatly
owned and blessed. We think of Samuel here given
in answer to prayer to his mother Hannah who was childless And
she loaned him then, according to her vow, to the Lord for the
days of his life. And he served the Lord all his
days. It appears that he came to Israel
in the time just before Samson was the judge. When the ark of
God was taken and Eli died, then Israel were in captivity for
20 years under the Philistines. And we know it was 20 years that
Samson judged Israel and began to deliver Israel out of the
hand of the Philistines. And it was then through Samuel
gathering the people together, suddenly coming to preeminence
and bringing the people together, praying for them, making offering,
that the Lord delivered them completely out of the hand of
the Philistines. And so it is a time that bridges
as well, because Samuel comes to be the one that anoints King
Saul, the first king in Israel, and also David as well. We are told here in this account
that Samuel, verse seven, that did not yet know the Lord, neither
was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And that applies
to every one of God's dear people. There has been a time that they
did not know the Lord, and a time that the word of the Lord was
not revealed to them. What is said of Samuel is true,
has been true of all of God's people. You might not think that. We could look at Samuel later
in life and we think how greatly he is used, how close to the
Lord indeed he was. And it's hard to think of a time
when he did not know the Lord. And we might think of those in
our day as well, in the churches, ministers, elders, deacons. And yet we're to remember the
Lord began with every one of them, revealed himself to them,
and caused them first to hear and to know the word of the Lord. Remember our Lord said how vital
that was, what a mark of being a child of God. Speaking as the
good shepherd and his people as his sheep, he says, my sheep,
they hear my voice and they follow me. Here is the time when Samuel
first heard the voice of the Lord. And we may ask ourselves,
where are we? Do we know the voice of the Lord? Do we hear and have the word
of the Lord? revealed unto us. Now we know that in these gospel
days that it is not the same as in the days of the prophets. We're told in Hebrews and chapter
one, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets and Samuel was
a prophet of the Lord, hath in these last days spoken unto us
by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he made the worlds. That is our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. One thing to be really emphasized
here, and that is in the words there in verse 7, Samuel did
not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet
revealed unto him. And in our text we have, Speak,
Lord, for thy servant heareth. Samuel was to hear the words
of the Lord. And in our day, in the Gospel
day, to put it in those words is so vitally important. As we gather in the house of
God, as we're in our own homes, it is vital that God's people
hear the word of the Lord. hear it with authority, hear
it with power, hear it as from their God and their Saviour and
their Redeemer. What a solemn position that King
Saul was in at the end of his life. He had lived in rebellion
against God, He had disobeyed the word of the Lord when the
word of the Lord came to him. He had not obeyed the word of
the Lord through Samuel. The Lord then did not answer
King Saul, and he did not speak to him. He was silent to him.
And that's why we read in the words, in the Psalms, be not
silent unto me, lest if thou be silent unto me, I become like
them that go down into the pit. Those that go down into the pit,
the Lord is silent too. He doesn't speak to them. They do not know the Lord. they
do not know the word of the Lord. That is why it is so vital for
us that we know the word of the Lord, that we can stand in Samuel's
place and let it be that the word of the Lord is an authority
in our lives and that secret, that blessing, that token is
ours of a child of God. Was Samuel here? We are told
how that he lay down at night to sleep and the Lord came and
spoke to him. And Samuel's first thought, as
the Lord called him and called him by name, Samuel, was that
it was Eli that was calling him. The voice sounded like the voice
of Eli. And twice he goes to Eli. But then Eli, he perceives that
as it was not him that was calling him, that it was the Lord. And so then he gives him this
advice in our text. And Samuel acts on that advice. The advice was that he was to
lie down again And that if he call thee, then thou shalt say,
Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. And we read that Samuel
did that. He lay down again, the Lord came
again, and called the same as at other times. Samuel answered,
Speak for thy servant heareth. At this time, he wasn't able
to add that Lord. And there's a lot of teaching
in that too, because many of the people of God, as the Lord
is beginning to teach them and instruct them, cannot say clearly
that the Lord is their God, and they claim to him as their Lord. But nevertheless, even though
Samuel left that out at this time, the Lord still did answer
him. He still did speak to him in
spite of him having, you might say, that lack of faith or lack
of assurance or even that humility that he felt unable to call him
Lord. So may we be encouraged in that. I want to think of us in these
Gospel days, these days in which our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
has come, the eternal Son of God manifest in the flesh, He
who spoke on earth and spoke with authority, commanding devils
to come out of those possessed with them, commanding the seas
to be still, the waves to be still, commanding the dead to
rise again, commanding men to follow Him, and they did, they
followed Him, and being obedient unto His Father, even unto death,
the death of the cross, to lay down His life for His people,
to put away their sins by the sacrifice of Himself. And the
Lord then gave commission, after he had risen from the dead, gave
commission to his disciples to go forth and to preach the gospel,
the good news of salvation, to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. They were given the word of the
Lord. They were given to speak what
they had seen, what they had witnessed, what the Lord had
given them to speak, and the Lord attended in with power and
authority. And that commission we still
have. Our remit is to preach the Word,
and the Word of the Lord then is heard from the pulpit. The Word of the Lord that we
have here and that we speak of concerning our text here is the
Holy Word of God. We do not look for any other
revelation, any other speakings from heaven, but that which is
already revealed and written in the Holy Bible. This is the
Word of God. Many, many in this world do not
accept it as the Word of God. They do not believe in God. They
do not believe that the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, is the
Word of God. But all of God's children will
come to a time that they do believe in the true and living God who
made heaven and earth and all things that are in them, and
who spoke who is revealed in the Word of God from beginning
to end, and that this Word is His Word. Our Lord said, Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away. And so it is a great blessing
if we have been brought to believe in the true and living God, the
God of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, He who is God manifest
in the flesh, the true God and eternal life, and that we have
been brought to receive the Word of God, the Bible as the Word
of God, and that God has spoken to us through that word spoken
to us when we've heard the minister's voice, when we've heard man's
voice, maybe thought at first that it was the minister or man,
but then brought to understand that God does speak through his
ministers, through his servants, and causes his people to hear
and understand the Word of God. And so this is the work in a
Gospel day, of hearing the words of the Lord. Faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord. We are told that
in the last days there shall be a famine, not of bread and
of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. In one sense,
it may be interpreted that, as it is today, many churches are
laying aside the Word of God. They do not read it, they do
not preach it, or they cut it about and say that it is not
all the holy, pure, and infallible, inherent Word. And so they make
it the Word of Man that they can cut about and do what they
want with it. Israel of old. They often fell
into idolatry, and the good thing, if you might put it in that way,
about idolatry is with an idol you can make it say what you
want it to say. It has no ears, it has no eyes,
turns a blind eye to your sin, the way that you are living,
and cannot be authoritative in anything that it says. But with
the true and living God, his word is firm, it changes not,
it is with authority, and he is a living God, and he is power,
power to save and power to cast into eternal damnation. And so to be brought to acknowledge
and value the word of God, and then to hear that and have a
desire to hear it. And if there's a famine of that
word, it's a solemn thing where you may go into the house of
God or not hear those words of the Lord. It is, in one way,
the prime part of a service of worship. When the word of God
is read, that part of the service is infallible. That part is pure. That part does not have man mixed
with it. It is God's and God's alone. We pray, of course, that as we
preach, we preach the word of God faithfully. And as that is
done, that is pure and right. But we are but sinners. But you
are to do as hearers like the Bereans. search the scriptures
daily whether these things were so. Many have been converted
in that way, by going home and testing what the minister has
said by the word of God. Then you won't be deceived. We
read of those Bereans, therefore many of them believed. Another way that the famine may
be referred to of hearing the words of the Lord is in a personal
way in the soul. If there's a famine in a literal
way, people find it very hard to get food, and there's a real
hunger and longing for that food. they cannot find that food. And where the Lord makes a soul
to be alive, there is a hunger and thirst after righteousness. And there's a looking for that
food. Well, we know in the literal
famines, the famines of scripture, and how it was with the children
of Israel in the wilderness, in the desert, they were supplied
miraculously with manna from heaven, and with the famine in
Egypt that brought Jacob and his seed into Egypt, it was through
the Lord's revealing his word to Joseph that made sure there
was plenty in Egypt. And so in that sense, it is a
good thing when we feel that there is a famine, that we are
not satisfied with natural bread natural things, our soul hungers
for spiritual food and we find that this world does not have
that to offer and we cannot find it in many places. But there
are places where the Lord has his word and his word is set
forth and may here at Cranbrook be one of those places where
the word of the Lord is sent forth. I want to look at the
words of our text in three ways. Firstly, I want to consider godly
advice. Godly advice. And then secondly,
the advice given and taken in this case. And then thirdly,
that which is heard. Because when the Lord began to
speak there was Many things that he said to Samuel. But firstly, godly advice. Samuel, he went to Eli. It is true that he thought it
was Eli that was calling him. But in Samuel going to Eli, Eli
was able to direct him what to say and what to do. Now we never want in the church
of God that man stand before a sinner and God. God's dealings are to bring a
people to himself and to seek that help from him. There's an account years ago,
many years ago in this land, where there was John Warburton,
a senior, John Warburton Junior, his son. One was in the pastorate
at South Hill, and then one was at Trowbridge. And the son had
a particular problem and need, and he wrote to his father And
he asked him his advice, how he should deal with it, what
he should do. And his father wrote back, and
he said, here, I have the word of God, and you have the word
of God there. Here, I have the throne of grace. I can go and pray, and you have
the same throne of grace where you are. And he directed him
straight back to God. Now I'm not saying there will
be times that we may give advice and help one to another. But
the best advice is that which brings the soul to God. Now we always like to, as it
were, get an easy option out. Nice to have a quick answer from
a fellow Christian rather than laboring at the throne of grace
and searching the scriptures and seeking to know what God's
mind and will is. How easy we can be deceived by
man. We may ask man's advice and in
the end we prove that if we had taken that advice we would have
suffered instead of taking that which the Lord directed us in.
We proved that in providence many times. The important thing
is God will have his people come to him. He likes to hear their
voice and that communion, that fellowship, is to be between
that soul and God. We do not stand with having a
priest between us and God. We do not have any other mediator
but our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is he that says, come
unto me. So when we think of godly advice,
when we seek that, when we give that advice, may we be very careful
that we don't turn away a person from actually having that word
given them directly from the Lord. Here, we look at it in
our second point, the advice what Eli gave to Samuel. But it is advice that brought
him to the Lord and to hear his voice and to wait upon the Lord. Eli did not stand in the way
between Samuel and the Lord. May we be helped then to ask
advice, but be very careful that we ourselves aren't falling into
a trap of finding a way that we do something without personally
having that close direction communion, fellowship, hearing the words
of the Lord. But this advice here that Eli
gave, we read that Eli perceived, in verse eight, at the end of
verse eight, Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. What a beautiful way that that
is set forth. The Lord had called the child. All of God's children, he calls
them by grace. He calls his people. Eli perceived here that Samuel
had been called. Samuel, the Lord had begun with
him. Samuel's ear was opened. He had heard something. He thought
it was Eli, but he had heard. His ear was opened. Men by nature do not have an
ear open to the Word of God. Men by nature are uncalled, but
God calls them, or brings them to be born again of the Spirit,
or converts them, or gives them eternal life. I pass by thee. When thou wast in thy blood,
and when thou wast in thy blood, I bid thee live. Elo was not
giving advice to one that was dead in trespasses and sin. He was not giving one advice
that was uncalled. But he perceived this. God had
begun with him. And it was twice that. Samuel
came to Eli before he perceived that. There was a time earlier, wasn't
there, with Samuel's mother, Hannah, when she was praying.
And again, Eli, he mistook her. He thought she was a woman that
was drunken. But she says, no. I'm a woman
of a sorrowful spirit. It was because she was praying
but not audibly, just silently, her lips were moving, you know,
you do not have to, when you're praying in silence, if you're
in a home and you're in your bedroom or in some other place
and you've got other family members and you don't want them to hear
those things that you are praying between you and the Lord, it
does not have to be Audibly, if it can be, it's nice to be
so. It keeps one's thoughts focused. But the Lord still heard Hannah
and answered her, even though her voice was not heard. But
Eli, he didn't perceive at first at all that this was a woman
that was praying. But as soon as she said what
she did, he did. And he said, the Lord grant thee
the petition that thou hast asked of him, go in peace. And so here,
Eli is giving advice, Godly advice to this person, to Samuel. He perceives that God had begun
with this person. You know, where God begins with
his children, they do need advice, they do need guidance, they do
need help. But let's see what advice that
Eli gave to Samuel. Our second point, the advice
given and taken. The first was, if, if he call
thee, he was to lie down and if he call thee, waiting on the
Lord again. But let us just think of this.
Think of it in a gospel day. If he called thee. There is what we may say the
outward call of the gospel. Whenever the word of God is read,
whenever it is preached, whenever it is declared, the word of the
Lord is heard. May we always remember that.
When we come into the house of God, when we come in the assemblies
of his people, when we come to the word of God, when we read
that word of God, instead of there being an if, we may say
that there is, in the word there, a call. The Lord is speaking. The Lord is speaking. But it must be something more
than that. Many, many hear that outward
call and do not have any desire, like Eli, to know who it is that's
speaking. They would just hear the sermons,
or hear the minister, just say, well, that was a good sermon,
or that was a bad sermon. And the Lord doesn't speak to
them. They don't have a hearing ear. They don't realize what is being
said. You know, we read of those that
were with Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul, when he was converted. They were hearing a voice, but
they did not know what it was. Those of us who are a little
hard of hearing, sometimes we We will hear a voice, we know
that something is being said, and we might say, I cannot hear
you. Why do we say I cannot hear you? You must have heard something
to realise something is being said, but really, more accurately,
it might be said, I cannot understand what you are saying, or I cannot
hear clearly what you are saying. The apostle Paul refers to those,
some that would hear the word or have the word said before
them, and they say, I can't read it, I'm unlearned. And others, they might have it
spoken before them, they said, I can't understand it, it's not
in a language I understand. Then others, we might have something
said to us, And we hear it, and we might think we understand
it, but we don't understand the implication of it at all. You know, we've heard recently
in the news the last couple of days of petrol shortages and
queues at petrol stations. And you can hear that and think,
oh, yes, this is, it could be quite serious. But then when
you start to think, Well, I've got preaching engagements of
several hundred miles in this next week. And so it takes on
a different form. The things that you're actually
hearing, you then convey it into your own life. What does that
mean? How does that affect me? And
so with the gospel as well, when we hear the word of God read,
Do we ever think, how does that affect me? I have a soul. I must die. I must stand before
God. I must give an account. I am
a sinner. I am not fit to appear before
God in my own righteousness. How can I be saved? God's people
hear His voice. They follow Him. Do I hear His
voice? Am I doing His will? Do I follow
Him? How much do we hear the Word
of God and don't actually hear it? We don't hear what that is
meaning to us, what the implication is to us. It's just applying
to other people. Other people are going to be
inconvenienced with the lack of fuel and petrol this week,
but not me. But when we think of our path
and think of our life, you say, but it does affect me. How many
times has it been so in the house of God? You might think, that
doesn't affect me. But when we have an ear opened,
then we realize it does actually affect us. Now remember what
a solemn thing it is to come under the sound of the truth
and to be in gospel days when the word is proclaimed and is
spoken. So the advice, the first advice
that was given was to Samuel to wait till that call again. So really it's pointing one that
would be inquiring and seeking When you're under the sound of
the Gospel, when you're reading the Word of God, when you're
hearing it read, when you're singing the praises again, in
those ways the Lord speaks to his people, this, this is the
advice and path that I'd have you to walk. And Eli then says
this, Thou shalt say, Thou shalt say,
Speak, Lord. In other words, it is to ask
the Lord to go on. Ask the Lord to speak. When was
the last time you or I asked the Lord to speak to us? When was the last time that we
came into the house of God and we bowed our head in silent prayer
before the service and we said, Lord, speak to me? This is the advice. Ask. The Lord says, ask and it shall
be given you. Seek and you shall find. knock
and it shall be opened unto you. Not only did he say, speak, but
speak, Lord. We read that he that cometh to
God must believe that he is that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. We come asking that the one that
speaks is not the minister, is not man, but the Lord, the
God, Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Lord, as in the text
here, that he speaks to us. And if that is our asking, and
then we are spoken to through the word, we know that it is
He that has spoken to us. So the question we've asked,
who do we want to speak to us? Whose voice do we want to hear? Whose voice are we asking to
hear? And who are we asking to speak? The word is speak, Lord. The
second or third advice that was given was an expressed readiness
to hear. For thy servant heareth. Every
one that is born again has their ear open, that is part of the
new birth, part of the eternal life that is given to a child
of God, they first begin to hear. I remember in my unregeneracy
how many times I went to the house of God and never heard
the word, turned off during the services, never listened to it,
never understood it, never applied it to myself. But when the Lord
opened my ear, How different I came to the house of God. What
a difference. The words were still spoken.
The words were still read. The preaching was still there.
But how different to me. My ear was opened. And this is
a profession, a thing that is to be brought before the Lord
and to really be owned in this way. Thy servant heareth. I'm waiting. I'm ready to hear."
Really the advice that Eli gave, it was as much as a direction
what to say to the Lord as to put Samuel into the right attitude
of hearing that word. Well, that was the advice given.
And the advice was taken. Now Samuel went, he lay down. The Lord did come and he did
call him. Then Samuel answered, speak,
for thy servant heareth. So as we mentioned before, not
able to clearly say Lord, and yet the Lord did answer him. And what an encouragement it
is when God's coming children are fearful, they can't really
lay claim that the Lord is their God. They tremble to frame His
word on their lips, and yet He answers nevertheless. They are
to be encouraged in that way through this account of Samuel. But may we follow the advice
of godly people, those that know the Lord and know His voice,
and know His ways, and especially where that advice directs us
and points us to the Lord, so that we are brought to Him and
brought to hear His voice. I want to look then thirdly at
that which is heard, that which is heard. The first, of course,
was Samuel's name. The Lord knew him and called
him by name. It was a personal word to Samuel. And that which the Lord speaks
to his people is a personal word to them. But what did he hear? Again, we go back to how we began
this morning. He heard the word of the Lord. And may we be able to say this,
that we have heard the word of the Lord. We have heard it read,
we have heard it preached. We have received it as the word
of God. Paul says to the Thessalonians
when he preached to them, that ye receive the word not as the
word of man, but as it is in truth the word of God. That which Samuel heard was a
most solemn word. Now of course, and I don't want
to draw a direct parallel in gospel days, Samuel was to be
a prophet of the Lord. He was going to speak on behalf
of the Lord to Israel and the first one that he was to speak
to was Eli and Samuel had to learn to be a faithful prophet
not only speak smooth things and nice things but speak when
the message was a most solemn message and that was the case
here so much so that Samuel feared to tell Eli what that word was
and Eli pressed it that he should tell him and he told him everything,
he didn't keep anything back. Sometimes it's a very hard thing
as a minister of the gospel to bring the word of God when you
know that the hearers are gonna be cut to the heart with it,
it's going to reprove their sins, It's going to be against what
they have already formed in their own heart and minds. And many
of the prophets had to walk that path, Jeremiah especially. And
Samuel had to learn this. And so his first lesson was to
be given a word that was very, very hard for him. to bring to
Eli and speak to Eli. What Samuel didn't know was that
the Lord had already spoken to Eli the same thing about his
wicked sons by another of his servants. So Samuel's word was
a confirmation to Eli. Eli recognized this, was able
to say, it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. God confirms the word. of his
servants, and often speaks through more than one of his servants,
even in gospel days. It was so here to Eli, through
Samuel, and through the other servant that had come before.
And so it is with, in these gospel days, we may have the Lord speak
to us through his word by means of one servant, and then in another
place of worship, or another servant, at different times the
Lord speaking through his word. But what he heard then was a
hard thing for him to hear. And may we take a lesson from
that. Not when the Lord has opened
our ear and made us to receive the word as the word of God,
and then as soon as we come across something that is hard to hear,
something that offends us, that then we just throw the Word of
God away. The hymn says that nor are men
willing to have the truth told, the sight is too killing for
pride to behold. The Word of God is very clear
about how desperately wicked our hearts are, how we have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, how we are under the wrath
of God, how we are under condemnation outside of Christ. The Word of
God is very clear that all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. The Word of God also is very
clear that there is only one name given among men whereby
we must be saved. And for those who have had a
thought, well, any faith will do. We can believe in any God
and we've got to allow any kind of religion in this land to be
then faced in the holy word of God with one saviour, one Lord
Jesus Christ, one God, and many will be offended at that. Then there is the thought that
God has appointed some to salvation and some to death. Some he will,
like with Samuel, call, and others he will just leave to go on in
their own way and their sovereignty will also offend and be hard
for some to actually hear that word. And so maybe in heeding
the advice and think of what Samuel had to hear and realise
if the Lord does speak to us and does bless us there will
be those things that are hard for our natural man to hear,
hard for the old flesh to hear. But if we are hearing the truth,
and if we are hearing that which is saving, if we are hearing
that which shall do us good at that last great Judgment Day,
that shall really save our souls. That is what matters. In Jeremiah's
day we mentioned him while he was warning them of all their
wickedness and God's coming judgment on their wickedness, there was
other prophets saying that there was peace, peace, when there
was no peace. They made the people believe
a lie. It didn't turn them away from
their wickedness and their wicked ways, and God's judgment then
came. And so today there is many that
will say you can still go on in the world, you can still go
on in sinfulness and wickedness and uncleanness, and you can
be God's people. Our Lord was very clear, you
cannot serve God and mammon. Our Lord's name is Jesus, for
he shall save his people from their sins, and that's not saving
them so that they continue in sin, that grace may abound. And so what is heard by a people
will at first be those things that are hard to hear, sometimes
hard to be understood. But dear friends, may we never
be ashamed of the Word of God. May we fall before it, humble
ourselves before it. May we ask of the Lord to interpret
it. May we take the lowest place
as a sinner, pleading for mercy, pleading for forgiveness, confessing
our sins and looking solely to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. It is he that is endured the
wrath of God because of his people's sin. May we then be mourners
over our sins and after him and to be able to view him what our
Lord did at Calvary. as that which is saving for our
souls. This is what is remembered in
the house of God, the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, this doing
remembrance of me, the hope of the child of God, is that Christ
hath died, yea, risen again, and has ascended up and dwells
on the most high. It is the Lord that speaks to
his people And He speaks through the Word, opening their ear,
causing them to hear and understand the Word, and the Word entering
into their hearts and minds with authority and power, having effect
in their lives, making them willing to obey and to serve the Lord
and to walk in those ways that are pleasing to Him. The Lord
said in John 8 to those Jews that believed on Him, If ye continue
in my word, ye shall be my disciples indeed. Ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. May we then heed the advice
that Eli gave to Samuel. May we be ready to hear May we
be ready to obey and may we truly know at last to be able to say
like dear Thomas did, my Lord and my God. Eli perceived here
that Samuel truly had been called and may that be our happy case
to be truly called and then instructed, taught through the word of God. May the Lord then, at his blessing,
and those that are here this morning, continue to desire to
hear the words of the Lord. Amen.