May I please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
first book of Samuel, chapter 3, and we'll read the last few
words really in verse 10. So the first book of Samuel,
chapter 3, and the last few words in verse 10. Then Samuel answered,
speak. for thy servant heareth. I think without any doubt the
truth is that God does speak to all his people and how important for us every
one of us to know that we have heard the words of Jesus speaking
to us. It may be, perhaps like it was
here in the case of Samuel, that initially he did not realise
that it was God that was speaking to him. And as we read together
in this chapter, he thought that it was Eli who had called him. But of course it was not, it
was God who was calling him and God who was speaking to him. And sometimes we may wonder what
it is that is addressing us perhaps in our conscience, in our mind,
and we may not be sure what it is and how to respond. Well, here was and here is a
good example to us. If perhaps we're not quite sure
what it is to come to God in these very simple words and say,
Indeed, as Eli told him, he should say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant
heareth. Because every person who is a
child of God is a servant of God. We should not think that
we don't come up to that kind of situation, and we should not
have the false impression that only those who preach the gospel
are the servants of God. Well, they are the servants of
God, but they've been called to preach the gospel. But there
are servants in all of God's people are his servants and we
are all called to serve in one way or another and we should
be concerned as to how we should serve and what we should do.
God gives talents to his people and those talents are to be used
and not to be buried in the earth and not to be ignored we should
be concerned to be able to observe what talents God has given to
us. And indeed seek that the Lord
will reveal to us what those talents are because we may have
a wrong impression. We may think that God has given
us a certain talent and in actual fact it may not be so. We should
always come desiring that the Lord will show us what talent
he's given us and how to use it and to seek therefore that
the Lord will come and he will speak to us and that we might
hear and be directed by the Holy Spirit of God to do that which
is right and that which will be good for ourselves and that
which will be for the honour and glory of God. And very often
we find that God directs us to do things that naturally we don't
want to do. It's very seldom that God works
in accordance with the way that we think God has planned out
for us. God has a superior plan, far
above what you and I can think in our own little lives. And
therefore it's a great blessing to be able to come and to seek
that the Lord will speak. And the Lord will direct us.
And of course Samuel here in this instance, well he asked
the Lord to speak to him and he did. He didn't give him a
very good message, or at least I should say he gave him a good
message, but it wasn't an easy message for him to proclaim to
Eli. And God doesn't always give us
easy work to do or easy messages or easy ways. In actual fact,
very often the life of The true Christian is far, far from easy. We have the multiple examples
in the Word of God of the people of God who were called by God,
spoken to by God, who had a difficult life. But it was a life that
brought honour and glory to God. It didn't bring honour and glory
to the individuals, but it did bring honour and glory to God.
And what a blessing if you and I are to be found serving Him
to bring honour and glory to His great and holy name. So let
us be clear that God does speak, that God does call. His people
are made aware of it. His people understand it. The Spirit of God does come and
reveals himself to them. But it's good, therefore, to
be blessed with this humble position, to ask the Lord to speak. Ask
the Lord for direction. And ask the Lord that we might
have a hearing ear to hear the Word of God. we just mentioned
on Friday, about the church in Laodicea. But there were those
other six churches, seven churches, all together, and what was the
word that was spoken to those churches? It was quite simply
this, those that have ears to hear, let them hear. Those words that John was able
to write down, that the Spirit indited into his heart for those
seven churches, they were words of instruction. They weren't
always pleasant words to hear, but they were right words, and
they were good words. And they weren't to stop their
ears to say, well, I don't want to hear that. That's not good
news at all. I'm not interested. I'm going
to carry on doing what I want to do. No. There was the gracious
word. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. And remember, of course, it was
the words that the Lord spoke to John that he was able to recall. So let us remember that. And may we hear the word of the
Lord. In the last verse that we read
in this chapter together was, and the Lord appeared again.
In Shiloh, the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by
the word of the Lord. That's how the Lord appears. That's how the Lord shows himself.
That's how the Lord directs us, by the word of the Lord. We should not expect or think
or desire some very unusual situation. The Lord has given us his word.
And it's a great blessing when the Lord applies his word to
our hearts as his word to our souls, and not our word, but
the word that the Lord will have, and the Lord speaks to us. Well,
the word of the Lord, speak for thy servant, heareth. And that word comes in a variety
of ways. You can think, can we not, of
the case when Elijah, recorded in the Book of Kings, had fled
from Jezebel and was hiding in a cave and he stood in the mouth
of the cave and to hear the word of the Lord and there were thunderings
and lightnings, no word of the Lord. There was earthquakes,
no word of the Lord. What was there? A still, small
voice. That means a very quiet word
from God speaking to our hearts. It's not a great earthquake word,
it's not a great thundered word, but nevertheless it is the word
of the Lord. And that still, small voice to
Elijah, do you know what it said? What doest thou hear, Elijah? Elijah had run away. He shouldn't
have done. He would have stayed where he
was. God had been with him, hadn't
he? God had wonderfully appeared for him on that mount when the
Lord came down with fire and consumed the sacrifice and the
stones and all the water. Wonderful answer to prayer. And
now you see what could come across into him, really evil heart of
unbelief. And the Lord therefore came and
spoke in that still small voice, what doest thou hear, Elijah? I know I have given a little
account to you before of that man I knew so well who was a
deacon at the church when I was a boy. And he was brought up
in a godly home, but had departed and left and was pleasing himself. And he'd got married and had
a family. And there he was on a Sunday
morning in his garden, digging the garden. And he got the radio
on and it was blaring away. And God spoke to him, that still
small voice. In those same words, what doest
thou hear, Elijah? He couldn't get rid of them.
So he stopped digging and threw his fork in the shed and went
indoors and turned up the radio and the radio fell off the shelf
and smashed. So there was nothing more from
that to distract him. And there he was with this word
and he knew that it was the Word of the Lord. Now then, when the
Word of the Lord is spoken, what does it do? It has an effect. It had an effect
upon Elijah. It had an effect upon this man.
It had an effect upon Samuel. And this man then, who'd had
this Word spoken to him the next Lord's Day, He wasn't found digging
in his garden. He was found with all of his
children and wife going to chapel to hear the Word of God. He just
picked them up as they were. They weren't dressed in their
Sunday best, dirty and scruffy as they were. He said, we're
going to chapel today. And off he went. Well, you see, that
was the effect of the Word of the Lord. Speak for thy servant
heareth. And then we have perhaps a more
outstanding example, or perhaps that's not true. They were both
outstanding, weren't they? But perhaps one which is more
attractive, we might say, to our natural mind. And that was
when, of course, Paul, or as he was then, Saul of Tarsus.
again was pleasing himself and Let's not forget what he was
doing. He thought he was doing God's service but he was wrong
and People have sometimes thought they're doing God's service and
he was doing it to the best of his ability. He was going about
Casting people into prison because their belief in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Joey was so against the Lord Jesus Christ he was brought
up as in the Pharisaical religion and he didn't believe that the
Lord Jesus had come and therefore he was about doing all that he
could to destroy any Christian faith. Well, the Lord was patient
with Paul, wasn't he? Perhaps he's been patient with
us in our lives. Hasn't dealt with us as our sins
deserved until that appointed time. And there was an appointed
time in the life of Paul the Apostle. And my friends, if we
are the children of God, there's an appointed time, a divine time,
when a divine call will come from God. And it was so in the
Apostle's case. And that call came. And he was
struck down. It was a bright light from heaven.
above the brightness of the sun, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? What was his response? Who art
thou, Lord? Didn't really know, did he? I
am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. What do we learn from that? We
learn this. The apostle had no doubt, although
he was going about his business so brazenly, determined to exterminate
Christianity, there had been those pricks of conscience as
to whether he was doing matters of right. The Lord tells him
so clearly, it is hard for thee. Yeah, Paul was disobeying God,
he was struggling against it. And the effect was, upon the
Apostle, very marked, he was such a changed man. And his response
was, very simply, what wilt thou have me to do? What wilt thou
have me to do? Really, very similar to this,
speak, for thy servant heareth. Gone were Paul's own ideas, of
all the things that he wanted to do, of all the evil that he
was doing, destroyed in a moment the work of the Lord. So it is, still today, the Lord
in a moment, in a second really, changes us. And what is the change? The change
is very simply this, a change from spiritual death to spiritual
life. The Lord had spoken. Well today,
I wonder whether you and I can look into our lives and search
out to see whether There has been a time when the Lord has
perhaps called in this way. We may not really have known
what it was, but it's a blessing if we have known what it was. And it's a wonderful favour therefore
if we come and take up these words that we have here. Speak, for thy servant heareth. Now, if the Lord gives you and
me that grace to speak in that way, it will then give us a gracious
submission to do and to hear and to obey the gracious words
of God. That was the case, was it not,
in Paul's case? He was a changed man, he was
submissive, he was submitting himself under the mighty hand
of God and let's remember there is a mighty hand of God It's
very humbling to think that the Almighty God should have condescended
to come to you and me where we are, in this vast world with
billions of people, and yet to come precisely to you and me,
and to speak to us, to arrest us, to perhaps nudge our conscience,
and yet how condescending of Almighty God. And if that has
occurred, what a blessing if you and I have bowed down before
our God. You see Samuel here was saying,
speak for thy servant heareth. It's important to realise the
words. He recognised that he was serving
the Lord. And as we may come to God in
answer to a call from him, to bow down and say, in these words
speak, for thy servant heareth. And the Lord then spoke to Samuel. The Lord directed Samuel. The
Lord told him. And so the Lord does speak. The
Lord does hear. The Lord does answer prayer. Because it's the prayer that
God has indicted, God has put into our hearts in the first
place. We don't possess prayer ourselves.
We may possess words. We may possess many words. But
true prayer emanates from the Holy Spirit. And it's a very
humbling thing to be granted. a spirit of prayer, to pray to
God. And I believe when the Lord grants
that spirit, we realize that we can only pray through the
merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, because our prayers are only
accepted through Him, through His merits. We stand guilty. We stand condemned. We stand
held deserving ourselves. But what a blessing if the Spirit
of God has spoken to us and given us this call and directs us then
to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then things begin
to fall into place in our spiritual life. We don't learn everything
at once. The Lord teaches us as we're
able to understand, as we're able to observe it, as we're
able to bear it perhaps. And it is just here a little
and there a little. But there will be a spiritual
growth. A baby doesn't stay a baby, does
it, all its life. It may not be able to do very
much when it's born. It can't walk, it can't speak. If it's healthy, it can see and
it can hear. And so God gives us the blessed
truths to hear and to see his great and glorious work. But
we aren't able to do very much. But the Lord does grant that
spiritual growth. And it's that spiritual growth
which is by His grace, by His free unmerited favour, to grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. There will be a knowledge of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. When that call first comes, it
may not mean anything to us. But as the Spirit works in our
heart, the Spirit will reveal unto us Jesus. And as that Spirit
works in our heart to reveal unto us Jesus, we will then see
what a great and glorious work He did and what a necessary,
what an essential work it was. If that work had not been done,
there would be no hope for us. But then we, by the Spirit's
work, are led to see What a glorious life the Lord lived. What a wonderful
sin atoning death he died. How necessary it was that he
should suffer and give his life a ransom for many. And he should
suffer on that cross at Calvary to atone for our sins well. What a blessing if the Spirit
of God has spoken to us and revealed himself to us as our great and
glorious Saviour, so that we are able to know those words,
I am thy salvation. The Lord is the salvation of
his people. Well, here we have these simple
words. Speak, for thy servant heareth. You know, none of us this morning
need to be discouraged, need we? This is, we can say, a beginning. It's a good beginning, isn't
it? It's a good beginning, and it's wonderful if we know that
beginning, where we come humbly to our God, Seeking that he would
indeed speak to us You know the the Lord does speak and In the
in the prophecy of Habakkuk we we read of the the words of the
Lord Through Habakkuk directing us to the truth and the necessity
of hearing the Word of God and in that little book of Habakkuk
We read these words in the second chapter. And the Lord said, and
the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it
plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. For the
vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end it shall
speak and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, Because it
will surely come, it will not tarry. Now that means that the
Lord has appointed times to bless. And we are not to be discouraged
if perhaps we should come and say in the words of Samuel, speak
for thy servant heareth. And we don't get an instant response,
an instant reply. The Lord tests the reality of
our desires and how those desires truly come from our heart. They're not just the mere thoughts
of our mind. And we may think, well, I must
say that, so I say it. That's very different from the
blessed work of the Holy Spirit, because the work of the Holy
Spirit works in this way. He draws us. draws us with His
love, draws us to Himself. And so we then, you see, are
given that grace to wait for it, wait for the Word of the
Lord to be given to us, wait for the direction to be granted
to us, because We can be sure, as the word says, it will surely
come. It will not tarry. When God's
time comes, it will be instant. But again, we read, your time
is always, but my time is not yet. God has a divine time to
favor Zion. He has a divine time to bless
our souls. Here's a divine time to come
and to bring us into the great and glorious liberty of the Gospel. And by that I mean that when
we see Jesus as the only way of salvation, the Lord may have
come and convicted us of our sin. And we may be under that
conviction and we don't seem to get beyond it. Well, we are
not to be impatient. We are not to give up. We should
be so thankful if the Lord has brought us to a condition where
we see something of our sinful state and makes us cry unto God
for his mercy and for his salvation. Well, wait for it, because it
will surely come. It will not tarry. And Habakkuk
goes on to say, behold, his soul which is lifted up not upright
in him. You see, sometimes we need to
learn that God's ways are higher than our ways, that we have our
plans which are not upright. You may say, well what do you
mean my plan? I'm sure my plan is a good plan.
I'm sure my plan is for God's honor and glory. Well, you need
to just analyze it very carefully to see whether If it was brought
to pass, there would be pride in it. Pride is very insidious and pride
grasps and grips us in so many ways. That's what the devil wants. So the Lord has a right time
and a right way and it may be that our soul is lifted up within
us and it's not upright. What a blessing when God therefore
shows us that. Now then, the Prophet goes on
to say, but the just shall live by his faith. That means you
and I may not have perhaps the wonderful revelation that we
expected. No, we are to walk by faith and
not by sight. And so if God speaks to us, if
God instructs us in answer to that prayer that we may have
offered up to God, speak for thy servant heareth, and God
perhaps speaks to us, perhaps God has spoken to us. And we
are now waiting and expecting some wonderful revelation. Well, the Lord hasn't promised
it. Sometimes people expect wonderful
revelations with regard to the salvation of their souls. The Lord hasn't promised it.
Sometimes the people put down perhaps directions to God. God
hasn't promised it. We have God's word. And if God speaks to us and directs
us to His Word, it is that we walk by faith, we are blessed
to lay hold of that Word. It's no wonderful, perhaps natural
appearance or anything, but the Word of God just lays hold of
us. The Word of God. The Lord gives
us His Word. And we should recognise that
it is His Word. We don't need anything extra.
We don't need any wonderful revelation by the Lord. Sometimes people
pray for certain blessings, or they must have this blessing
and they want that revelation. Why do they need it? Sometimes
people are thinking about joining the church and they want a wonderful
word or a confirmation and a wonderful revelation. The Lord hasn't promised
it. The Lord hasn't promised these
things at all. The Lord's word is very clear, isn't it? If you
love me, keep my commandments. And we have so many wonderful
examples when the people in the New Testament believed. They
didn't say, well, now I've got to have a wonderful word of confirmation.
I've got to have a wonderful blessing. They were baptized. Obeyed the Word of God. Speak, for thy servant heareth."
Well, there were many times then throughout the Word of God where
the Lord spoke through His Word and directed the people to that
which they should do. Now, coming back to the Apostle
Paul, he was blessed with a life's work in serving the Lord, of
preaching the gospel. But it wasn't a bed of roses,
was it? As we've gone through the Acts
of the Apostles, recently in our prayer meetings, we've traced
out the life of the Apostle Paul. And we've seen how much opposition,
how much persecution he had to endure. And on top of those natural
things, also he was given that thorn in the flesh to buffet
him. It wasn't just a little prick.
It was something which buffeted him. And he prayed he might get
rid of it. The Lord might take it away,
but it didn't. It wasn't the Lord's purpose. The Lord said
to him, my grace is sufficient for thee. And therefore he was
glad to endure it. That's the grace of God, isn't
it? glad to endure the hardship the Lord determined he should
have to take with him. Well, the Lord knows perhaps
what you and I need. The Lord keeps us down. What
a blessing that is. If we were left to ourselves
we would be very obnoxious, wouldn't we? striding about, giving all
our opinions. The Lord keeps us down. He lays
us low. Why? So that His name may be
lifted up, so that His name may be honoured and glorified. Speak,
for thy servant heareth. That's a few simple words, isn't
it? There's a great depth in it, isn't there, really? It really
has reference to all our life, everything. The Lord will speak. The Lord will give us gracious
direction. What a favour it is to know,
therefore, that the Lord does speak, perhaps through visions
and through his word, but to know, to humbly know that the
Lord is indeed speaking to us. In the 119th Psalm is a is a
wonderful psalm and there's so so much instruction in it and
a number of times in this psalm the psalmist speaks about my
whole heart and that's a good expression and it would be good
if you and I can lay that up in our heart to realize that
when we do something in accordance with the will of God if it is
with our whole heart Or are we leaving a bit behind and we're
doing it half-heartedly? Well, the psalmist says in this
119th Psalm a number of times, and just referring to one occasion,
verse 145, I cried with my whole heart. What does that mean? That means he earnestly prayed. This was an earnest prayer from
Samuel. Speak for thy servant heareth.
He prayed it with his whole heart. He cried it with his whole heart.
And here is the psalmist saying the same words slightly differently.
I cried with my whole heart. Hear me, O Lord. You see, if you and I are praying
with our whole heart, we should desire the Lord to hear us. Hear me, O Lord. And he says,
I will keep thy statutes. He desired to do God's will. I'm sure when the Spirit of God
gives us a true and right prayer, we shall be concerned to do the
Lord's will. I will keep thy statutes. I cry
unto thee, save me. That may be the prayer of our
heart. Save me, and I shall keep thy
testimonies. I prevented the dawning of the
morning and cried, I hoped in thy word. There's the place of
comfort, to hope in God's word, not be left to ourselves. Hope
in God's word, not our words, God's word. Speak for thy servant
heareth and Just referring to some words in the Song of Solomon
which came to me, and I think they're very appropriate and
They're the words of the Lord Jesus and He says this oh My dove Well, referring to
the bride of Christ as a dove, a dove, you know, is a very meek
and harmless bird. You've seen the doves going about.
They're perhaps slightly different to a pigeon, but they're the
same breed. But he says, oh, my dove, that
art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs.
Let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice. For sweet
is thy voice, and thy countenance is lovely." That's a wonderful
thought, isn't it? The Lord addresses us in this
way because we are pleasing in his sight, because we are those
for whom he's shed his precious blood, for those for whom he's
died. We are precious in his sight.
And therefore our countenance to him is lovely. And he says,
let me hear thy voice. What an encouragement, isn't
it? To pray to God. The Lord speaking, not casting
us off. Let me hear thy voice. He'd come to Samuel, hadn't he?
He'd said, Samuel, Samuel. And he wanted to hear Samuel's
voice. And Samuel did come, and he said
in these simple words, Speak, for thy servant heareth. Well,
may we be encouraged by words like this. Let me hear thy voice. The Lord says this, for sweet
is thy voice. We may not think it so. We may
think, well, I'm full of sin, Can't seem to be able to pray
really? Well, just ponder these words. The Lord looks on us as his children. He looks on us for those who
he has redeemed. And therefore we are precious
in his sight. How humbling that is. And as
such, to think that when we pray, our voice is sweet to Him. He loves to hear our cry. He
loves to hear our prayers. Sweet is thy voice. Well, may we be blessed with
that real desire to come and to pray to God in that right
way, not in a wrong way. but in a God-honouring way, for
his honour and for his glory, and so that our souls might indeed
be wonderfully blessed. How we need the blessing of the
Lord. And don't forget, as we're told
by Ezekiel, that he will be inquired of. Thus saith the Lord God,
I will yet be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it
for them. I will increase them with men
like a flock, as the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in
her solemn feast. So shall the way cities be filled
with flocks of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord. And what a confirmation it is
to us when we cry, when we pray to God, when we seek in these
words that He will indeed speak to us when the Lord does speak,
how encouraging it is. What a confirmation it is. The
Lord hasn't cast us off as a waste of time, as someone who will
not hear his voice, but he hears our voice. He speaks to us. We're encouraged to hear that
he's not cast us off. but we have the evidence that
we are sons and daughters of the Most High God, and that we
have a reserved place in heaven, in glory at last, and to believe
that here, therefore, we are travelling through this little
life with many problems, many trials, many times of opposition,
as the Lord Jesus said, it is through much tribulation that
we shall inherit the kingdom but be of good cheer i have overcome
the world and as we read in the hebrews and we are more than
conquerors through him may we rejoice in this truth and bless
god that we have a god to come to and hear these simple words,
take them to our hearts, pray them unto God, speak, for thy
servant heareth. Amen.