Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the portion we read, 1 Samuel
chapter 12, and we read for our text verses 20 and 21. And Samuel said unto the people,
fear not, ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside
from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your
heart, and turn ye not aside, for then should ye go after vain
things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse
20 and 21. You will find in verse 20, the words that are very similar
to the ones found in verse 21. The words in verse 20 are ye
yet turn not aside. The whole verse reads and Samuel
said unto the people fear not ye have done all this wickedness
Yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord
with all your heart. And then the 21st verse, it begins
with these words, and turn ye not aside, for then should ye
go after vain things. So twice we have the warning
not to turn aside from the path that they had set before them
in following and in serving the Lord with all their heart, they
were not to turn aside from that. Now in the Word of God we have
three occasions, and no doubt if we search we'd find some more,
but there are three occasions that often stand out to me as
a real illustration of not turning aside from the path that we are
set to go in. The first is found in the second
book of Kings and it is the case of the Shunammite woman. If you
remember, she had a son given her in her old age and when she
wasn't able to have a child. And then that child had grown,
fell on a day that he was smitten with sunstroke and he died. And the woman then sent to Elisha
and sought to have him to come at this great time of her sorrow. The woman had great faith when
her husband asked why it was so urgent that she go to the
man of God. She said, it shall be well. When
it is that the servant Gehazi meets her, she said, it is well. But then she comes to the man
of God She comes to Elisha and the distress that she is in,
and we read in the second book of Kings, chapter four, verse
27, she came to the man of God to the hill. She caught him by
the feet, but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. The man of
God said, let her alone. For her soul is vexed within
her, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me."
And then it is that Elisha, after she makes known what has happened,
and really she doesn't actually say that the child is dead, but
she says, did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, do
not deceive me? Then Elisha, he gives a command
to Gehazi, and he said to Gehazi, gird up thy loins, and take my
staff in thine hand, and go thy way. If thou meet any man, salute
him not, and if any salute thee, answer him not again, and lay
my staff upon the face of the child. He gave Gehazi very specific
directions that he should urgently go to this child, and he was
not going to be distracted by talking with anyone by the way,
not even saluting them, greeting them by the way. A man with a
mission, you might say. And yet, of course, Gehazi was
to prove that even with Elisha's rod, he was not able to raise
that child from the dead. But Elisha comes and lays the
matter before the Lord and lays upon the child too, warms the
child, and the Lord brought the child's life back to him again. But the clear message here, even
for a servant, that actually his going, you might say, was
only to prove that Elisha's rod was not enough. He needed to
be the master of the rod, and not only the master of the rod,
but his master. that heard prayer and gave life
again. But nevertheless, however much
we might feel that our mission or the task that we've been set
and the path that we are to go may not result in great success
or may not be to real and much benefit Yet
if we have been given, like Gehazi, a very clear command, then we
are to be mindful of the words that are in our texts, that we
be not turned aside, that we be not distracted and end up
doing something else and not being where we should be. and
doing what we should be doing. And so that's the first example
I bring before you of the urgency of a mission and the charge anticipating
how easy it could be to be sidetracked and how many of us know what
that is, how easy it is to be sidetracked, to be turned aside
to something else, to not fulfill what we've been set to do. Yes,
we may have done other things, but we've been turned aside.
So the second one that I bring before you is that of the case
of Nehemiah. This is when the Jews had been
brought back to their own land and Nehemiah is building the
walls of Jerusalem. And in Nehemiah chapter six,
then we read of those that were trying to hinder the work, Sanballat
and Tobiah, and Geshem, the Arabian, and the enemies of the children
of Israel. They wanted to build with them,
but they said that They weren't to build with them. And so then
they sought to hinder the work. And so they say in verse 2, come,
let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain
of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. And I sent messengers unto them,
saying, I am doing a great work. so that I cannot come down? Why
should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you? Yet they sent unto me four times
after this sort, and I answered them after this same manner."
And so what they were trying to do is to distract Nehemiah
from the work. They were trying to put him in
fear later on. Anything that they could do so
that he was sidetracked, so that he stopped the work, so that
he paid attention to what they wanted to do. And we should be
mindful of this. We have an adversary in the devil. We have the world, the flesh
as well, and all conspiring to put other things in the way,
and not just in one attempt, but like we have here, four attempts
at it. And sometimes we should be really
wise to what is happening when the adversary overreaches himself. When we find, like in the case
with Nehemiah, it's one thing after another that is trying
to take our attention. One phone call after another,
one other pressing job after another, one thought coming into
our mind after another thought, and one thing taken up with,
instead of holding fast to the task at hand. How many Lord's
servants even preparing for the ministry of the word, or whether
it be a student at university with a deadline to meet, or whether
it be something that's got to be prepared and done by a certain
time. And all of these other things
come in and distract and sidetrack, whether it is reading the Word
or going to prayer, or whether it is something else that must
be attended to, but another thing gets in its place. When here
is Nehemiah doing this great work of building the wall, a
long work you might say, and He could easily have said, well,
in the scheme of things, you know, a few weeks we're going
to be building this, or months, then just a day or so, just going
to speak with these people. It won't harm too much, will
it? But he saw through what they were trying to do. And you know,
one little time, then it adds to another little time, and it
all adds up. and it is being sidetracked,
it's not following through with what we've given the mission
to do. We're turning aside. And then
we have a case with our Lord when he finished his Galilean
ministry. We have in the Gospel according
to Luke chapter 9 and verses See, it's at the end of that
chapter, in verse 51. When it came to pass, when the
time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem. Now we know that this is a good
while before our Lord was to be crucified and offered up,
but what we do know is that this is the last time He was in Galilee. He never returned back to Galilee. So he is going now from the Galilean
ministry up to Jerusalem. And there he would eventually
be crucified. So we read that he steadfastly
set his face to go to Jerusalem. So here is our Lord with a mission,
if you like, He has there to offer himself a sacrifice, an
offering unto God. There he must be crucified. There
he must lay down his life and take it again. He cannot remain
in Galilee. He cannot remain in that ministry. He must go to Jerusalem. We read that he sent messengers
before his face, they went and entered into a village of the
Samaritans to make ready for him. But, and they did not receive
him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. We read that when his disciples,
James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we
command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even
as Elias did? But he turned and rebuked them
and said, you know not what manner of spirit ye are of, for the
Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. They went to another village.
And you know, it's often a real blessing to us when we're not
meant to stay in a place, when we're meant to pass on, that
the Lord makes it that those people do not receive us. Sometimes
it can be the greatest hindrance to what the Lord would have us
to do when men do receive us, or when we are called to turn
aside for the hospitality that really would take our time. But here, our Lord is to go to
Jerusalem. And because of that, then it's
ordered in Providence they don't receive him on the way. A blessing, a blessing of not
being hindered. It may be in your life and mine,
there's some cases where we felt ill like these disciples against
the people because they haven't received us. But if we can look
back and think that was the Lord's blessing, because the Lord had
bidden us not to stay there, but to go to another place. And
the Lord saw it kindly that we weren't hindered, nor pulled
back, nor distracted. from the way that he'd have us
to go, taken out of our hands. Are you set to go to another
place in the same position as our Lord here? The Lord wasn't
to be hindered. And may you view the same. Good
thing to read Providence and to see the Lord's good hand so
that we don't turn aside and we do that which he's appointed
us to do. How easy it is then to be turned
aside and what messages we have in the Word of God that we should
not be turned aside. Now we have this message in these
two verses of our text here, and we think of the situation
here. The children of Israel, we are
told that they wanted a king, and they saw that even their
adversaries, they had a king, and they wanted to be like the
world. They wanted to be like other nations, to have a figurehead,
one that they could see. But how Samuel was so grieved
at the first, because the Lord was their king. And the Lord
said to him, they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected
me. And here we find the kingdom is established
and Samuel is protesting to the people and making them to clearly
know that what they have done in asking a king is a very wicked
thing, and the Lord has given them a king, that it was a wicked
thing that they'd asked. And he gave the sign of the thunder
and hail coming in their harvest so that they fell under that.
And all the people said, in verse 19, unto Samuel, pray for thy
servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for we have
added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. So they were convinced of it.
They fell under that reproof. Now, I just want to notice a
few things, four things, before we come to the words of the text. That is firstly the previous wickedness. The wickedness
that they are now convinced of and that they've repented of
and seen is a wickedness. That is not and must not be a
hindrance to serving the Lord. One of Satan's strategies is
to say, well, you've done all of this sin and this wickedness,
there's no hope for you now. You might as well just give up.
There's no point in serving the Lord now because you've just
annulled all of your servitude by your previous wickedness.
And so this account completely counters that. They were convinced
of their wickedness, they said it, They were brought to repentance
of it, to acknowledge it, to confess their sin. And from that
point then, Samuel says to the people, fear not, ye have done
all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the
law. May that be a message to some
of us. We may have felt we've done wickedness. You may have felt that you walked
in very wicked and evil ways. But if you've been brought to
feel and to see and acknowledge that wickedness, that is no hindrance. It must not be a hindrance to
serving the Lord. And so this word is to be an
encouragement. There's a fear not here. A fear
not to those who have done wickedness. An encouragement to them. so
that they do not turn aside from following the Lord." Think of
that. Fear not, ye have done all this
wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord. So that's
the first thing to remember here. The second is this, that even though
something is wicked, or something is grievous to the Lord, sometimes
He can give us our request that we've asked. We are told in the
prophecy of Hosea, in chapter 13, I gave thee a king in mine anger
and took him away in my wrath. That is referring to King Saul. King Saul was given in anger
and taken away in his wrath. He committed suicide actually
on the mountains of Gilboa, killed by the, or wounded by the Philistines
and then took his own life. But the Lord had rejected him
many years before that because he did not serve the Lord and
did not walk in his ways. Their king did not walk and did
not do that which was right. And so we can ask things of the
Lord and he gives them to us. But just because it's given to
us doesn't mean that the Lord is not angry in what we've asked
or sought and doesn't mean that it will be really for our blessing
and good. The real measure of what is right
is the Word of God. We can ask, like the children
of Israel, for things that are wrong. Things to consume upon our lusts
and to just, for our own pleasure and not for the honour and glory
of God, or in this case, it was just to be like other nations. and yet it was really a rejection
of the Lord. But instead of the Lord saying
outright, no, you will not have a king at all, he gave them that
king, but showed them in their asking his displeasure. So may that be a caution to us
in that way. The word of God is to show us
what is that which is acceptable and right. But then we have another
lesson in this because we know in the providence of God it was
always appointed that there should be kings over Israel and kings
over Judah. Many times the children of Israel
rebelled against the Lord and even the division between the
ten tribes and Judah was again because of Solomon's sins. And yet the Lord overruled it
for good. After Saul came David, a man
after God's own heart. And in the direct lines, the
Lord Jesus Christ, both in his son Solomon and in his son Nathan. And so we see the working of
God's providence even in the sins of his people. And when we think of the crucifixion
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Peter charged the people, you read
it in Acts 2, of the crucifixion of the Lord. He that was delivered
by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God, ye have
taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain. The Lord used the
wickedness of his people in bringing about the freewill offering of
our Lord Jesus Christ. No man, says our Lord, taketh
my life from me, I lay it down of myself. And yet, in the purposes
of God, the wickedness of the Jews was used. We should never
do something with the thought that, well, if it is wrong, God
will bring good out of it. No, we should never sin that
grace might abound. But we should always know that
when we do sin, when we are brought to repentance over it and sorry
for our sin, that the Lord often turns that about for good and
gives the blessing behind used in it. We think of, again, David's
sin in adultery and murder and marrying then Bathsheba. The two sons I mentioned, Solomon
and Nathan, were both Bathsheba's sons. God did not choose to use
any of David's other wives who were perhaps more legitimately
alive than in the line to Christ. Then also we have not only the
overruling of providence to bring about the lines of the kings,
but that the Lord is over a king. what is said here is that they
were to serve the Lord. Both the people and the King
were to serve the Lord. The King was not to be above
the Lord. And the Lord is the King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. And so We have these lessons
that are bound up in the context here, but it is these two words that we have in our text, yet
turn not aside, in verse 20, and turn ye not aside, in verse
21, that I want to look at just briefly now. Firstly, and I only
got two points. Firstly, what Israel was to do,
and we are told very clearly that they were to follow the
Lord and serve the Lord with all their heart. And then secondly,
what they were not to do and why. They were not to turn aside. And the reason was that if they
did, they should go after vain things which cannot profit nor
deliver, for they are vain. If we have a word that is as
we have for our text, turn not aside, turning not aside, It
immediately brings the question, turn aside from what? What is
the mission? What is the goal? What is the
object of what you're actually doing that should not turn aside
from? And we can apply that in many
practical ways in our lives. And may this word tonight be
of use in that way that we have clear aims and clear objects
in all that we do, whether it is to set times of prayer, or
times of reading, or times of study, whatever it is that we
set ourselves as being a right or good way, or the Lord sets
us, or a parent sets us, or the church sets us, whatever it is,
that we have clear in our minds what is the aim, what is the
object. You know, if we have a meeting,
then generally there is an agenda that is to be followed. Very
easy, isn't it, in a meeting? You've got several things that
are your objects, the things that are being attended to. How
easy it is to turn aside from that. and to start discussing
or following along some other line instead of what you're supposed
to be doing. It is a principle that applies
to so many aspects in our lives, whether we are young or old,
but Israel was given a very specific thing that they were to do, and
that was to Firstly, follow. Follow the Lord. Turn ye not
aside from following the Lord. That's what they were to do.
The Lord says in John 10 that when he puts forth his sheep,
he goes before them. When the children of Israel came
out of Egypt, the Lord went before them. The Lord went through the
Red Sea before them whenever they a cloudy, fiery pillar moved
from off the tabernacle, then the children of Israel moved,
and it was what showed them where they were to go. He led them
forth by the right way, we read in Psalm 107, that they might
go unto a city of habitation. The Lord puts forth his sheep,
he goes before, and Paul He says, let us run the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus. The Lord himself is the front
runner, the forerunner, the first begotten from the dead. He is
in heaven and his desire is, Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am. He has gone before
and he'd have his people follow after him. The Lord himself,
has walked this earth before us, and we often are directed
to His life, especially when we are cast down, when we are
discouraged, that we are to consider Him, who endured the contradiction
of sinners against Himself, lest we be wearied and faint in our
mind. The Apostle Paul, he says, be
ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ." What did he mean? He meant that he was a follower
of Christ in his example here below, in the way that he dealt
with sinners, in the way that he fulfilled his father's will. He was a follower of him in the
doctrine of the cross, the doctrine of our Lord. Our Lord had a ministry,
we have that clearly set forth in the Word of God and we're
not to turn aside from following the doctrine of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have the ordinances that the
Lord Jesus has set before us in baptism and in the Lord's
Supper and we are to follow those, we are to obey those. In many
aspects of the worship that we have, yes, it's not prescribed,
you are to have one, two, three hymns, four hymns, or a certain
pattern of reading, or prayer, or sermon, but we have in scripture
the very clear example of the apostles meeting, and meeting
for prayer, and meeting for the expounding of the word of God,
the commission was to preach the word instant, in season,
and out of season, and the necessary, sending forth the Lord's servants. Go ye into all the world, preach
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. And this was the commission,
the sending forth. If Gehazi was sent forth by Elisha
with a commission, with directions, then we as the Lord's servants
are sent forth with the same from the Lord. And we are to
follow then his directions in what he has given us to do. And
the children of Israel were to follow the law, to follow the
law of Moses, to follow the ceremonial law, to follow the promises,
to follow his servants, to obey his servants, that they were
to follow those things that were set before them in the law. And so this is the very first
thing. They were to follow the Lord. And then they were to serve the
Lord. Not only follow him, but serve
him. chosen as his servants. Of course,
the Levites were to serve the Lord directly in all of the sacrifices
and in the service of the tabernacle, but all of the people of God
also had to serve the Lord in obeying those laws and sacrifices,
the Passover, various offerings that were to be made, the three
times appearing before the Lord. They were to serve the Lord in
tithes and in offerings, at which at the end of the Old Testament,
the Lord charges the children of Israel as robbing the Lord.
They said, wherewith have we robbed thee? And he says, in
tithes and in offerings. They were necessary that the
Levites could administer solely to the Lord and didn't need to
flee to their own fields and work to earn their living that
way. They could serve the Lord freely. And so they had to serve in that
way. And when we think of in a gospel
day, really everyone, when the Lord healed people when he worked
the miracles that he did, then he set those people to go home
to their houses and to tell what great things that God had done
to them and had mercy upon them. And they were to serve the Lord
virtually as evangelists, as witnesses, as those that told
others of the ways of the Lord. And in serving of the Lord, it
is a daily worship for the people of God. A daily devotion in prayer,
in meditation, in walking with the Lord, as Enoch did. Walking in the word of God, let
the word of God dwell in you richly. And speaking to yourselves
in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs making melody unto the
Lord. Serving the Lord also in that
Church of God, which each member given grace and given a position
in that church to minister and to serve that church. We are
used to, even in society, with the different structures In our
homes, when we think of what we have in our homes, we have
our lights, we have our gas, we have our telephones, we have
our broadband, we have all sorts of infrastructure. If one was
to say, well, we're not going to supply electricity anymore,
then how that would be felt by all of us. And in the Church
of God, where the Lord has given to his people gifts and graces
as members of that one body to serve him, to work together for
one aim, to glorify God, to be as salt and light in the earth.
But if one says, well, I'm not going to serve the Lord, how
that is going to then affect everyone else. And so the Lord
puts in the church those with various gifts, abilities, graces,
functions, purposes, whether it is in ministering or hospitality
or able to work the technology as today or editoring skills
or organising skills or financial skills for the financial helper
churches, or whether it be driving skills to help transfer ministers
or other people from place to place, or caring for the elderly,
or teaching of the young, or whether it be in the various
duties of the diaconate, or whether it be playing the organ, and
doing the music, all of the different things that go together to serve
the Lord and to serve his people. In as much as you've done it
to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me, a cup
of cold water in the name of a disciple. But we have here
who serve the Lord with all your heart. There is such a danger
that everything we do is just half-hearted. It may be just
outward, but not with the whole heart. There is a reserve. There
is a line, Jehu, come see my zeal for the Lord in the outward
ways, but in his heart he took no care to serve the Lord at
all. And so with the children of Israel
and with us is not just to be an outward show, it is to be
in the heart. And so this is to be what Israel
was to do and what we are to do. Serving the Lord in these
Gospel days, the days of the Son of Man upon earth in the
Gospel. in showing forth the praises
of him who hath called us out of nature's darkness and into
his marvellous light, and to seek to live godly, upright lives
of faith and of prayer, not seeking great things for ourselves, but
seeking to be humble, patient followers of the Lamb, seeking
to glorify Him in all that we do and all that we say, asking
for wisdom, direction and guidance, and when we're receiving of His
gifts, giving thanks to Him and blessing His name and putting
the crown on His head. We are to be a people that is
taken knowledge of, that they do serve the Lord, As for me,
says Joshua, and my house, we will serve the Lord. We will be guided by the word
of God, by the will of God, by that which is pleasing in his
sight that he sets before us. And so this is to be our aim,
our object, what is the path that we have been set in. When the Lord calls his people,
he sets them in a path, sets them in a way, teaches them the
way that they should go. And this is what Israel had been
told here. And this is what all of the people
of God are to know, that there is a way. there is a right way. Solemnly there is a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. But there is a way, a right way, the narrow way that
leadeth unto life, and that is the way of the Lord. The Lord
Jesus Christ says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. Well then secondly, what
they were not to do, And what they were not to do was to turn
aside. And in one sense, it's a very
simple thing, isn't it? If we have clearly known what
we are to do, then turning aside is anything that is apart from
that, anything that is not the aim. Nehemiah, he had one aim,
build that wall. And so he could clearly see when
there were those coming to turn him aside from that, that that's
what they were doing. He would be turning aside from
doing that because his aim was clear. With Gehazi, there was the child
lying on his bed. That was his object. Get to that
child. Lay the staff on that child. That was his aim. Anything, any
salutation, anything done apart from that on the way was turning
aside. With our Lord, His face set to
go to Jerusalem, stopping and staying any other place was turning
aside. Have we an aim? And with that
aim, we'll clearly know if we are turning aside to something
else. and especially from turning aside
from following the Lord. Because we're not only told in
this case of what not to do, not to turn aside, but why? But why? Very often with us and
what the bait is, is that what we turn aside to is something
beneficial and good or that needs to be done and needs to be attended
to. But what is specifically said
here, and is not something that might happen, but will, it is,
and turn ye not aside, for then should ye go after vain things,
which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. And of course the children of
Israel are many times turned aside to idols, to false worship,
to that which was not of the Lord. But we can be sure of this,
that when there is a turning aside, and if we would be honest
with ourselves, how many times the things that turn us aside
are empty, and they are vain, they are time wasters, they are
things that Really, at the end, we wish that we hadn't turned
aside for those things. They promise good. They promise
a good return for what we turn aside to, but they don't profit
at all. We think of Bunyan and his pilgrims
and how they attempted to turn aside at the silver mine, yet
they went on their way. Others they did turn aside, never
seen in the way again. We can be sure that there will
be many a temptation to turn aside from the way that the Lord
has set us in. And may even the temptations
or the inclination to it be an encouragement to us. Now, Nehemiah
was clearly able to say, I'm doing the Lord's work. And maybe
when we get those temptations, think, why am I getting this?
Why is Satan so intent on turning me aside from this? Why is there
so many things that are trying to take my attention, my mind,
my time? And it'd be an encouragement
to us that where the Lord's work is, we need such warnings like
this. We will need them. We will have
temptations to turn aside. The children of Israel most solemnly
did. But may this word then remain
with us. These two words, yet turn not
aside. And turn ye not aside. Don't be distracted. Don't be sidetracked. Don't be
deceived into going in a different way than that the Lord has set
us in. How many, it may be, have sought
to go in a way and relatives, friends derided them, dissuaded
them, turned them aside so they don't continue walking in the
way that they had intended going in. Dear friends, don't be turned
out of the way. Go in the way the Lord has set
you in. And may I go in the way that
the Lord has set me in and not turn aside, the right hand or
to the left. We have a beautiful word really
given to those as to hedge us out, that thou shalt hear word
behind thee. saying, this is the way, walk
ye in it. And when shall we hear that word? When ye turn to the right hand,
and when ye turn to the left. It's a blessed thing to have
a conscience, a tender conscience, and to hear the still small voice
bringing us again into the way. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.