Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of 1st Samuel. 1st Samuel. If you see fine kings,
you went just one too far. 1st Samuel. I'm going to look mainly out of chapter 3, 1st
Samuel chapter 3, but I'd like to consider A few thoughts out
of the first chapter before we we look. I've entitled this message. The
call of the Lord. The call. Of the Lord, I've. Looked at this passage and I
truly believe this. This is the. The message of the
hour. I was telling someone a few moments
ago, if you feel that this is the message of the hour, then
your heart can settle down. If you're unsure, your heart's
not settled. I believe this is the message
of the hour. Knowing that, knowing that God
speaks to his people through his word, As I began to write out my notes,
I was brought back in my mind to this scripture. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of
God may be perfect. throughly furnished unto all
good works. And today I'd like to consider
a passage concerning the calling
of a young man named Samuel. God called a young man named
Samuel, and this young man would prove to be truly a vessel of
God's affection, love, one who exhibited in time the mercy and
compassion of God not to leave his people to themselves without
a witness, a witness for the Lord. Now we know, we all know,
faith cometh by hearing. Now, this is how the Lord gives,
how it cometh, cometh. You know what I've said concerning
that ETH. It cometh, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Lord, give me faith. hear the
word of the Lord. Lord, give me more faith. Give
us more faith. Hear the word of the Lord. In this passage, we're going
to consider just how the Lord may be pleased to cause His own
to have their paths crossed with the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace, and that's beautifully set forth in this passage. I
just, my heart was just rejoicing as I read this and tried to consider
it, and I pray that God give us eyes to see the wonder of
his grace today. Now, I want us to look, first
of all, look at 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter one, and I'm
sorry, 1 Samuel chapter 3. I'm going to look at chapter
1 in just a moment. But 1 Samuel chapter 3, first
verse, this is what it says. And the child Samuel ministered
unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was
precious in those days. There was no open vision. Now this child, he was a young
child, Samuel. We're going to look at his birth. But here was a young child, Samuel,
and he was said to minister unto the Lord. And how amazingly the
Lord set forth how he got to that point. He was found to be
in the temple. ministering before the Lord. And how did he get there? Well, look, just turn back and
look at 1 Samuel, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. It just amazingly,
how the Lord ordered all these things. It says now, 1 Samuel,
chapter 1. a certain man of Ramath the Imzophim
of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Alcana, the son of Jeroham,
the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zoph, an Ephriathite. And he had two wives. The name
of one was Hannah, the name of the other Penina, or Peninnah,
and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Here was a man, he had two wives,
one of them had children, and the other one didn't. Okay, that's
all we know about this man. And then the scripture sets forth
in verse six that Hannah, being barren, and here was the reason
that she was barren. Look at verse six of chapter
one. Her adversary also provoked her. She angered her. That's what
the word means. He provoked her, made her mad. Made her mad. She provoked her sore, provoked
her sore for to make her fret because the Lord had shut up
her womb. Now God had shut up the womb
of Hannah. She couldn't have children. And
Peninnah provoked her, made her mad. Laughing at her, picking
on her, I don't know what she did. But whatever she did, it
made Hannah mad. And obviously, Peninnah had no
sympathy, didn't try to console her, just provoked her. Now what
Hannah did, was she cast herself upon the mercy of God and asked
the Lord. And she made a promise unto him
if he would be pleased to grant her petition. Look in first chapter,
verses 10 and 11. Here's what it says. It says,
she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and
vowed, vowed a vow. She vowed a vow and said, O Lord
of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine
handmaid, and remember me, and not forget, and not forget, will
give unto thine handmaid a man child. I will give him unto the
Lord all the days of his life. There shall no razor come unto
his head. She made a promise unto the Lord. If you'll give me a son, if you'll
give me a man child, I will dedicate him unto you
all the days of his life. Vow to vow, I promise. I promise. Vow that vow that that boy's
gonna be raised up and trained up from infancy in the Lord's
ways, in the work of the Lord. And providentially, the Lord
was pleased to give Hannah a son. Scripture reveals that in the
Lord's timing, Hannah was found to be with child. Look at 1 Samuel
1, verse 19, 20. Obviously, she and her husband
had gone to worship God. And it says, and they rose up
in the morning, early, and worshiped. before the Lord and returned
and came to their house to Ramah. And Elkeah knew Hannah, his wife,
and the Lord remembered her. Wherefore, it came to pass, when
the time was come, about after Hannah had conceived, that she
bare a son and called his name Samuel, saying, because I have
asked him of the Lord. She was found to be with child. And she did just exactly what
she promised to do. Look at verse 24, 25. When she
had weaned him, she took him up with her three bullocks, one
eaf of flour, a bottle of wine, brought him unto the house of
the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young. And
they slew a bullock and brought the child to Eli. Lord, if you'll give me a son,
if you'll give me a son, I promise. I'll dedicate him up to you,
I promise. I'll bring him wherever you lead
me to bring him. And I want him to be brought
up, Lord, here in the gospel. I want him to be in a place where
he hear about you. Boy, I thought to myself, oh,
Lord, please, Give us a heart to get our children under the
gospel and keep them there. Who knows? God may be pleased
to do something for them. If God's pleased, He's gonna
do it under the sound of the gospel. I'm gonna tell you right
now. That's where, and so, scripture says back in, now, chapter three.
The Spirit of God was pleased to give us some revelation concerning. She had a boy, she raised him,
he was weaned, and then she did as the Lord, as she had promised
the Lord. Now let's remember, here's this
young boy, and his mama has brought him, dedicated him to the Lord.
I'll dedicate him to you all the days of his life. I just
want a son. And so the scripture says back
in 1 Samuel chapter three, now here's where we are now. The
child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was
precious in those days. There was no open vision. He came and he was gonna minister. It means he was going to serve
unto the Lord. He was going to minister unto
the Lord before Eli, under the direction of Eli. Now, although
this young boy is where the Lord had purposed for him to be, verse
7 of this third chapter declares something very interesting. Verse
seven, now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. Neither was the
word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. I thought about that
word yet, Charlie. I thought, what a blessing. At
the Spirit of God, he wasn't revealed yet. Didn't say he wasn't
gonna reveal it to him. He just, he hadn't done it yet.
The timing of the Lord. Oh, the purpose of God, how wonderful
to be able to behold what God may be pleased to do of worshiping
God. He didn't know the Lord, but
only the Lord knew the benefit of what he would be pleased to
do. He's going to reveal himself
to this boy. We know that and we're going
to see that. You've read the story before, but as of this
point right here, He's just a little boy. He was probably, they think,
probably around 12 years old. I don't know how old he was. But the scripture declares that
he's somewhere and all around him is the going through of the
performances of worship. Whatever was being done in there
by Eli, little Samuel saw it. He watched it, he listened to
it. Eli surely would talk to it,
talk to him. And here's little Samuel. Scripture says back in verse
one, the word of the Lord was precious, precious in those days. You know what it means? It was
rare, it was rare, rare. There was no open vision. That means there was no bursting
forth of the Word of God, of the divine communication of Almighty
God in those days. But thanks being to God, it was
rare. There was no open vision. One writer said there wasn't
a place where somebody could go seek the guidance of the Lord
from a preacher, from a prophet. I read that explanation with
no open vision, and I think to myself, as I was, years ago, beginning
to hear the gospel, and the Lord was pleased to reveal, brought
me out of false religion, false, just man-centered, false religion,
and I was caused to cross paths with a man that knew God, and
one that God was pleased to reveal Himself to me. I had so many
questions, things that I would read, and I didn't understand
any scriptures, and I would call up different ones. There were
so many of them that I could call. I could call Brother Henry
Mahan. I could call Brother Scott. I
could call Jack Shanks. I could call this one, this one. On and on and on. And it was
so wonderful. But so and so, I got a question. Can you help me here? Well, let's
look, Marvin. And I thought, oh, what a blessing. But now, Years have passed, and
so many that I knew before. The Lord's been pleased to take. You realize, I told you before,
Brother Henry said whenever God removes an aged and taught believer,
one that has gone through some stuff, one that has been in the
ministry, one that God's taught and revealed some things to,
do you realize how wonderful it is But if the word is rare and there's
no open vision, a great loss, that's what Brother Henry said,
he said, this world suffers one of the greatest losses when God
removes an aged and taught believer, somebody that God's taught. And
this is where they were. The word of the Lord was rare. It was rare, it was rare. Thankfully, the Lord was mostly
silent, but still there was a witness. There was still an Eli. An Eli
was still there. And though there was no open
vision where you could just go and just find a prophet and ask
him a question, And I truly believe we're in days like that. There's
some, there's some, and I'm thankful for them. But like today, the
word of the Lord was precious. It was rare, but thanks be unto
God, it wasn't extinct. God's gonna have a witness. Aren't
you glad? Aren't you glad that God keeps
a witness? for his people. Faith, again,
cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Well, back in
1 Samuel chapter 3, let's just read verses 2 to 7. I'll make
a couple of comments on it. It came to pass, at that time
when Eli was laid down in his place, his eyes began to wax
dim. He couldn't see. Actually, I
looked it up. I mean, his eyes were going bad. They were going back, he couldn't
see. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the
Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep,
that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, here I am, here
am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said,
here am I, for thou callest me. And he said, I called not. Lie
down again, and he went and lay down. And the Lord called yet
again, Samuel. Samuel arose and went to Eli
and said, here am I, for thou didst call me. And he answered,
I called not, my son. Lie down again. Now Samuel did
not yet know the Lord. Neither was the word of the Lord
yet revealed unto him. Now this young boy, he's in the
temple. He's where God had providentially
placed him. He's in where there's a preacher,
but the preacher's getting old, and his eyes are waxed dim. It's hard for him to see, and
the Lord The Lord calls him, calls him. Samuel heard him, he heard his
word, he heard his name called, Samuel. And Samuel, he didn't
know the Lord, thought it was Eli. He went in there and he
said, here am I. And Eli said, I didn't call you.
He said, go back to sleep, boy, it's okay. Back, the Lord called
him again. Samuel, he ran back in there. He said, you called? He said,
no, I didn't call you. I didn't call you. Here, he's
hearing his voice. He hears his voice. Samuel hears
his name called. And he thinks it's Eli. He doesn't
know anything in that temple but Eli. And he said, you called
me. He said, no, I didn't call you.
Go back down. Oh, it's here, beloved. We began
to see the marvelous work of God in calling out his sheep.
Lord called out the name of Samuel. allowing him to actually hear
the Lord's voice. Had he heard it before? Had he
heard the Lord's voice before? Well, he just did just a few
minutes ago, and Eli told him, he said, it wasn't me. Went back
down. Samuel, he heard something. He heard his name called, but
he didn't recognize the call to be of the Lord. He didn't
recognize it because the word of the Lord was not yet revealed
to him. You that know the Lord. How long did many of us sit under
the sound of the truth and we heard the word of the Lord? We
heard it with this. How many years did you hear it,
Dave? You heard it, but you didn't
recognize it. Didn't recognize it. Why? Because the Lord had not yet
revealed Himself to him. Man, by nature, thinks that man
just hears something, makes a little decision here and there. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. The Word of the Lord must
be revealed. You can hear it. I heard five
points of Calvinism and it logically, Chuck, made sense to me. I think
I can see that. But I had no heart for it. I
heard it. Beloved, Proverbs 20, verse 12,
the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even
both of them. Samuel could not hear the word
of the Lord with a hearing ear. Not this, this. He couldn't hear. Why? Because the Lord had not revealed
himself to him. What does it take? What does
it take to be able to hear with a new heart? What does it
take? It takes divine revelation. And the Lord is pleased to reveal
and grant a hearing ear, a hearing ear, I keep doing this to make
sure you understand what I'm saying. He's pleased to reveal
it through the preaching of the
gospel, of God's grace. That message that gives God Almighty
all the honor and glory and praise. It gives man none It doesn't tell a man he's got
a free will. God said he don't. Apostle Paul
said, Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it,
for it, for it, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Everyone that believe it, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. When does God call His people
out of darkness? When He gives them a hearing
ear to hear the truth and a heart to believe. He gives them faith
to believe it. They hear it. They may hear it
before. They may hear it before. But when they hear it, Paul said,
I'm not ashamed to preach it. That's the power of God and salvation.
Everyone that believe it, you first, also to the Greek. Samuel
needed, like all of us, he needed somebody to tell him about God. He needed somebody to tell him
who God is, who man is, lost, incapable, dying. He needed somebody to tell him
the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God does this through the
means of preaching, preaching. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 1 Corinthians
121. Preaching, this is how God calls
them. You see the importance of being under the gospel? And you say, well, you know,
it's not that big a deal. I mean, I've, you know, I've
heard it before. Faith cometh, faith cometh, faith
cometh by hearing, hearing, and hearing, and hearing the gospel. Oh, how wonderfully we behold
that God speaks when God is pleased to speak. And when God's pleased
to call out His sheep, I tell you what he's going to do. He's
going to put them under the sound of the gospel. He's going to
put them under the sound of the gospel and he's going to reveal
it to them in power. Oh, if God were to be silent,
the word of the Lord was precious in those times. But it wasn't
extinct, that's what I'm saying. Isn't that wonderful? God still
had a witness there because it pleased God to have a witness
there. It was rare, but it was there. Psalm 28, one, unto thee
will I cry, O Lord, my rock, be not silent unto me, lest if
thou be silent unto me, I become like them that go down into the
pit. Lord, please don't cut me off. Lord, please don't be silent
to me. Please, Lord, have mercy on me. So here's this young boy, didn't
know the Lord, sitting where God was pleased to raise up a
preacher. Well, let's consider, as we begin
to close down this thing, the wonder of God's power to call
out His own. Look at verses eight to 10. 1 Samuel 3, 8-10, 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 call thee that
thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel
went and lay down in his place, and the Lord came and stood and
called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered,
Speak, for thy servant heareth. Now this is the first time, obviously,
the time that the Lord now has given this young man. I don't
think he's just mimicking. I thought about that. I thought
how many questions we always come up with, you know, excuses,
excuses to not be obedient, excuses. Oh, I'm just so busy. I just got so much stuff I gotta
do. I don't have time. I'll be there,
you know. I'll be there when I can, though. This prophet told this young
boy, if, oh, I looked at that word again, if, if, if, if he
calls you again, if he does, Neither Eli nor Samuel had any
guarantee that God would call him again. I looked at that word
again, if. Oh, Lord, God of heaven, thank
you. Thank you that you did not leave
me alone. If he calls you again, this is
what I want you to say. Speak, Lord, for thy servant Damiel didn't give him any excuses.
I don't understand what you're talking about. I don't know what
you mean. I don't really think that that
makes any sense to me. That I would just hear something
out of nothing? No. If he calls you again, this is
what I want you to say. And that young boy did just exactly
what that prophet had told him to do. If he talks to you, you
answer him. You answer him. For the first
time, obviously, Samuel was given a hearing ear and the consciousness,
spiritual consciousness of the Lord's presence. And Eli, Gave him the best advice
that he could. If he calls you, you answer him. You answer him, don't you argue
with him. You answer him. God did speak to him. Here's the wonderful thing. Eli
knew it. Eli perceived that it was the
Lord. Eli knew it. And Samuel knew it. Samuel knew
it. The Lord said, my sheep, they
hear my voice, and I know them, and listen to this, and they
follow me. They follow me. They follow me.
Eli had instructed this boy, this is what you do. The call of Samuel. is a beautiful
example of how the Lord calls His sheep. He calls them personally. Samuel. Samuel. He calls them personally. When He calls, they answer. When God calls in power, They
answer, my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow
me. Samuel, Samuel, speak, Lord, for thy servant
heareth. If God ever gives a hearing ear,
they heareth, they heareth. They continue to hear, they continue
to hear. Paul said, concerning his answer,
and I, well, Paul, Paul, I'm going to quote what Paul said
in Romans 1, 1, but this is in answer to what Samuel said to
him. Thy servant, thy servant, hear
it. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which
he had promised to for by his prophets in the holy scriptures. Concerning his son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, the Lord called
him personally, called him in power, that boy. And lastly,
knowing that Eli knew it, Samuel knew it, when God calls his own
in power, they perceive that call, and like others of like
faith, They exhibited, they exhibited
the fruit. You know how it was known that
Samuel heard him? He answered him. He answered
him. Last scripture, turn to 1 Thessalonians
1. 1 Thessalonians 1. That was a
manifestation. Let me say it like this. How
did we know he heard? There was a manifestation. There
was an exhibit. There was a showing forth. Something happened to that boy.
He knew it. There was some characteristics
of it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse
4 to 8. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. For you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were in samples or examples
to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to God is spread abroad
so that we need not to speak anything. Whenever God calls, God's people hear. When they
hear, they know it. and others know it. It's manifested. God's people exhibit a heart. They're struggling sinners. All of us are. But God's people
walk, have a walk, a manner after them. They follow after the Lord.
They know it and others know it. That's what Paul said. I
pray God bless this to our hearts for Christ's sake.