Let's be turning to 1 Samuel,
chapter 12. The people here had just had
a great victory. They were enjoying a great victory
over Nahash, king of the Ammonites. And so they went to Gilgal there
to renew the kingdom. When Saul was anointed, it wasn't
that joyous. Not everybody was really excited
about him being chosen to be their king. But now, after this
great victory, everybody was on board with that, so they went
down to Gilgal. And since Saul was their king
now, it's fitting that Samuel gives a departing address. He's not going to go away from
them. He's still going to be there,
still ministering to them in the things of God. but he's not
going to be their judge anymore. The king will be their judge.
And so he gives a departing address to them. And the first thing
that he does is he obtains a witness from them, verifying that he
had done none of them any wrong. And it says in verse five, he
said unto them, the Lord is witness against you and his anointed. is witness this day, meaning
King Saul, that ye have not found ought in my hand and they answered
he's witness. That's right. You've not done
any wrong against us. We don't have any, we're not
going to bring up anything to the king after You leave and
you're clear. You've done nothing wrong. And
then from there, Samuel gives them a brief history of Israel. And in doing this, he declares
to them and reminds them of God's goodness toward them as his people. He puts them in memory of what
God has done for them and what you'll notice is that through
manifold temptations he made them his people. He made them
his people. He revealed to Israel their God
and that they are his people. and that he provides for them
and he will not let them depart from him. In verse 8 we find
that he speaks of when they were down in Egypt. God had providentially
brought a famine into the land that sent the 70 souls in Jacob's
household down into Egypt. And while in Egypt, over some
time, they became slaves to the Egyptians. And it got harder
and harder and more oppressive as their slavery solidified and
they became slaves. I don't know how they became
slaves, but they became slaves. And the Spirit of God gave them
a cry, so that they cried out to God, regarding their oppressors
and asking for relief from their oppression. So they cried unto
God and God heard them. God heard them and he sent to
them Moses and Aaron, raising them up a deliverer to bring
relief to them who were crying. And he said in verse 8, they
brought forth your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell
in this place. And so we see how God did that
for his people. God did that for them. And that
wasn't all. His people became idolaters.
When they came into Canaan, they began to go after the gods of
the nations that were around them. And verse nine says, they
forgot the Lord their God, and he sold them into the hand of
Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor. He's one of the first
ones mentioned in the book of Judges, I think Judges four.
and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the King
of Moab, and they fought against them. So it's, as we saw when
we went through judges, it was throughout their history. They
would go into idolatry. Every man would do that which
was right in his own eyes. They would come under bondage,
under oppression, under threat of an enemy, and they would be
pressed so that they cried out to the Lord and the Lord would
raise up a deliverer and restore them to the Lord. And so we see
that there, how that God strengthened the hand of their enemies, the
enemies came against them, but he brought fruit. in bringing
his people back to himself. Verse 10 says that they cried
unto the Lord and said, We have sinned. They confessed their
sin to the Lord, saying, Because we have forsaken the Lord, and
have served Balaam and Ashtoreth, but now deliver us out of the
hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. And the Lord sent
Jerubal, and that's Gideon, and Bedan, or I believe that's Barak. the one who saved them out of
the hand of Sisera by the Lord, and Jephthah, and Samuel, which
is either Samson or it's Samuel referring to himself of the recency
of what he did for the people when they had the stone Ebenezer
that was laid for a memorial. When Samuel prayed as their judge,
God delivered them out of the hand of their oppressors. And
it says there, He delivered you out of the hand of your enemies
on every side and ye dwelled safe. And so God is over and
over. They come into oppression because
they go into idolatry and He delivers them. They cry and He
delivers them out of their idolatry. And so the Lord raised up judges
to make them understand the spiritual work of salvation, which he wrought
for them. And in these things, we see not
only that God is good, but we see that God is sovereign. He
is the sovereign God in control of all things. And he does as
he pleases, when he pleases to do it, and for whom he pleases
to do it. And Daniel 4 verse 35 says, All
the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And God
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, What doest thou? And you might ask the question,
why does God do this? Why does he do it this way? Why
does he bring his people into manifold temptations? Why does
he bring his people under the hand of oppressors? Why does
he just not keep them from that completely? Why does God do it
this way? And why does he do it this way
and prove their faith? And why does it work this way?
And that's a question that we sometimes have. under difficult
circumstances and trying times, we ask those questions and wonder
why it has to be that way. Well, first of all, in Adam,
all flesh, by nature, is already in bondage. We forget about that
very often. We think, well, why does God
bring us into bondage? Well, the reality is, by nature, we're
in bondage. We're in bondage. And in this
flesh, we are idolaters. and we do have foolish thoughts
about God and we do sin and go astray and think of ourselves
much more highly than we ought to think and so this flesh is
already in bondage and this flesh has no spiritual understanding
It's in darkness. It's in prison. And we cannot
deliver ourselves from the hand of our enemies. We can't get
ourselves out of that house of bondage. We don't free ourselves. And so we don't even realize
that we're in bondage. We don't see that by nature.
And this flesh is already by nature going according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That's what we do. And all men
and women were born of Adam's corrupt seed. And therefore,
we're already in bondage to the law of sin and death. We come
forth sinners. We're conceived in sin. We come
forth from our mother's womb, going right into sin and to lies,
and death follows. And we're already spiritually
dead. We don't know anything about the true and living God.
We're told by John, John 3, 19, this is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. That's what we are.
That's what God has saved us from. That's what he's delivering
you, his people, from. He's delivering you from that
bondage. He's severing you from the love of this world. He's
taking you out of the prison. He's brought you into the body
of Christ and he's revealing himself to you and teaching you
who the true and living God is. And so because he loves his people,
he chose them to salvation instead of letting them continue on into
death and condemnation. He brings them out of that. He
delivers his people out of that destruction and he gives us righteousness
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now turn over to Romans chapter
five. Romans chapter five. And we will be back in 1 Samuel
12. But Romans 5, and let's pick
up in verse 17, because Paul addresses this very bondage that
we are in in Adam, and he declares the free grace of God by Jesus
Christ. All right, Romans 5, 17. For
if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they
which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the
offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That brings us to the second
reason. The first one is that we're already in bondage by nature.
And God is teaching us. God is delivering us. God is
showing us that He is God. He's showing us what we are by
nature and our need of Him. And second, what we see here
is that God is in complete control. He is taking complete control
in choosing your temptations and assigning your temptations
and when they are brought to pass. God is in complete sovereign
control over all these things. Why? It's for their good. It's
for your good, brethren. It's to lead you to God, the
true and living God. It's for your eternal good. It
says in Luke 1.77, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people
by the remission of their sins. God is proclaiming to you. He's
making known to you who he is through the gospel. And as you
go through the temptations, and as you go through the trials
and troubles, he's teaching you through the gospel. He's making
you to know that he's sovereign. And he's the one who brings you
through this. He's the one that delivers you. He's the one who
put you in it. for your good, for your good.
Now the wicked, they're also in bondage, and they suffer many
trials and tribulations and difficulties and setbacks, but they're not
benefited by it eternally. It's not for their eternal good,
but for you it is for your eternal good, because He reveals Christ
to you. He shows you your God, who He
is, who you are, and your need of Him. He says, by Jeremiah
2911, and I'm going to quote from this chapter a few times,
but 2911, he says, for I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
give you an expected end. God knows exactly what He's doing
with you. He's got a purpose for each and every one of you
and that's why He chooses your temptations and your trials and
He brings you through them and reveals the true and living God
to you through those very things. Through those very things. And
each one's different because we're all trophies of His grace
and mercy and kindness. through Jesus Christ. And he
tells us also by the Apostle Paul, Romans 8, 28. And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to purpose. It says his purpose,
but it's purpose, God's purpose. We're called according to God's
purpose. According as he had chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."
God has done this. But the people in Samuel's day,
they didn't understand these things. And there's a time when
we don't understand these things, and we need to be reminded, and
our God reminds us. He lets us know the truth. They knew their history. The
same way we know the scriptures, we read them. We believe we have
an understanding of them and a good understanding of them
until we go through the trial and the difficulties come and
we don't know what's going on. and we're pressed, and we feel
that pressure, and we begin to cry out to the Lord. And so this present generation
was in that same boat. They knew what the Lord had done,
but it wasn't brought home to their heart. They didn't feel
the experience of it yet. They didn't understand the lesson
that the Lord had been teaching them and was showing them. And
so Samuel faithfully reminds them. And he recounts for them
what the manner in which what they were doing now was exactly
what their forefathers had done when God had brought them into
trouble as a result, what God did. And so he began to, well,
it says back in 1 Samuel 12, verse 12 and 13, It says, and when you saw, so
he's gonna remind them of their sin, he says, when you saw that
Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye
said unto me, nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the
Lord your God was your king. Now therefore behold the king
whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired, and behold,
the Lord hath set a king over you. And so he then exhorted
them that you and your king You need to follow the Lord. Don't
depart from the Lord or else you'll be consumed. You make
sure you follow the Lord. And to make them understand the
weight of what they had done in seeking a king to be like
the nations of the earth and how they turned from God to the
way of their forefathers, Abraham prayed. Look down at verse 16. Now therefore stand and see this
great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not
wheat harvest today? I will call unto the Lord, and
he shall send thunder and rain, that ye may perceive and see
that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight
of the Lord in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord,
and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people
greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. Israel didn't get a lot of rain,
and it certainly didn't get rain during the time of harvest. And
if they expected rain that day, they would not have begun to
harvest their wheat. The wheat was the most precious
grain. That's where you get the best bread from, not from rye
and from other grains. You want wheat. Because it's
the softest, and it's got good protein, good content, and it's
healthy. Farmers want dry, boring weather. They don't want rain. They don't
want dust, and I don't know. They want it just dry, dry. And because if it rains while
you're out there working, and I'm sure that it was a little
bit different back then than now, but you could wreck a field
being in a field when it's wet. You can mess up a field. Wherever
they were, when it started raining, however far they made it, they
had to stop. And they probably had to give it a couple days
before they could go back out there and let everything dry
out again. And then whatever they had cut down, if it's too
wet, sometimes that seed begins to sprout. And then you can't
eat it. Now it's going to the animals.
That good wheat bread is going to the animals. And if it's too
wet, it could get moldy and rot. And then it's no good for anybody.
And so, you know, they didn't have dryers back then the way
we do. I mean, maybe they had inventions to help, but it was
a bad thing. And that rain came out of nowhere
because they wouldn't have been out there if it looked like it
might rain. So it was a clear day when they began, and the
Lord answered Samuel, and he brought the rain. And at that,
that's when the people saw their sin. Verse 19, and all the people
said unto Samuel, pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God
that we die not. For we have added unto all our
sins this evil to ask us a king. What happened? Why was thunder
and rain so effectual in revealing their sin to them? What was it about rain that revealed
to them their sin? It was to see that God is sovereign
over all things. It didn't rain at that time in
Israel. and it certainly wasn't gonna rain that day. And then
like that, he prayed and God brought in, just formed the clouds
and they dropped down rain and it just shut down the wheat harvest
and they saw, oh, all our enemies. When we were in Egypt in bondage
and all the enemies that came up against us, God was in absolute
sovereign control the whole way. These things weren't just happening,
God controlled everything. He can turn it on and shut it
off in an instant. And once they saw God is completely
in control of everything, they then saw their sin, their unbelief,
their faithlessness. And that became very clear in
demonstration of God's power. And so they saw we had turned
to the flesh. Nahash started moving, and they
saw something going on over there, and they went and asked for a
king. And then sure enough, Nahash came up against them, but they
had already turned to the flesh. They had done just like their
forefathers in turning to the flesh, and all God was doing
was proving them, proving that what they were trusting in wasn't
the Lord. They said they knew the Lord, they knew the scriptures,
but they didn't believe that God is in control of all things.
And their actions showed that they didn't believe that God
was in control. They didn't perceive that. They
didn't see it. But now they did. Now they saw clearly God can
do all things, all things. And every trial that we have,
brethren, is brought to us by God. And it's good for us to
reflect on what we've done and to see our sin, because we see
our sin. We see that the trouble we are
in, we've brought upon ourselves. But we're not seeing how that
God has brought it to pass and allowed it for our good to bring
us into that bondage, to bring us into that pain, that trial,
that suffering, to show us again how that He is our God and now
that we need Him always because you are His child. Nothing's
gonna pluck you out of His hand. Christ redeemed you. Christ shed
His blood for you that believe on Him this day and believe in
Him this day, trusting the faith of Christ for your righteousness,
nothing's going to separate you from God. And so these things
that he brings to pass are for your good because he's keeping
you. He has a blessed purpose in what he does for you, his
people. And so they understood it now.
Now, it was brought home to their heart through their bread, the
loss of their bread, right? That rain came down threatening
their wheat harvest. It threatened their bread. Their
bread was touched and they felt the loss of it. And as I was
thinking about that, that's when I sin grievously against the
Lord, when I know that I've sinned against the Lord and the Lord
has touched me, that sin and I feel that sin. The thing that
troubles me most in my sin is the fear of the loss of the heavenly
bread. That he will depart from me and
take away that living bread. That's what hurts me the most
because that's who I need the most right then. But I fear because
I've just sinned against my God. And I'm calling out to Him whom
I've just offended and sinned against. And I'm most troubled
that He'll turn me away and reject me and put me in a corner and
cast me out and bring me into utter ruin. That's my fear. That's what I fear the most is
the loss of the heavenly bread because when He And when he brings
that forgiveness and he gives me that peace in Christ, then
the trouble goes away. And then that bread, I know I've
not lost that bread. And so what we find in that is
that Christ, the living bread, the bread of heaven, he's the
most precious to us of all things, of all things. Christ is the
most precious thing that we have. And I love my wife, and I love
my children, and my grandchildren, and I love you, brethren, the
church. But if I have Christ, then all those other things are
secure, because he's sovereign and in control, and he protects
them better than I can. I mean, it's hard not to worry
or think about your loved ones and the things that are most
meaningful to you, like what we have here and our families. When we're looking to Christ,
and we have that living bread, and we're fellowshipping, and
partaking of living things, then all other things are secure in
Him. And He provides for all things, and that's what He does
for us. And so, that picture there, that
their wheat was touched and threatened, that's how it is when we sin
grievously against the Lord, and the Lord makes us to know. But it's the Lord that does that.
It's the Lord that gives the repentance. It's the Lord that
makes us to cry because the fact that you are crying out to the
Lord and that you do. Worry about that and think, Lord,
don't turn me away. That's because the Lord has drawn
near to you and given you that soft heart. Rather than your
heart be seared, your conscience be seared as with a hot iron,
no, he's given you a soft heart to know your sin and to cry out
to the Lord that night and to cry out to him when you see your
sin. That's the Lord who's given you
that repentance. It's the Lord who makes us to
feel the shame of our sin and to cry out to Him for grace and
mercy. He's done that. He's done that. So the Lord restores His people
graciously. We know through the scriptures,
we can't work for that. There's nothing I can do to pay
the debt of my sin. All I can do is cry out for forgiveness
for Christ's sake, who paid and settled the debt of the sin of
his people by the death of himself with his own blood. And so it's
the Lord who does that. Verse 20, and Samuel said to
the people, 1 Samuel 12, 20, Fear not, ye have done all this
wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but
serve the Lord with all your heart. Now I want to give you
four things which the Lord teaches us graciously about what we just
looked at, our sin, our sin, and how it troubles us, and the
fear of losing that heavenly bread. The first thing he says
is, fear not, fear not. The Lord our God is the God who
hears the cry of his children. As Samuel showed them, demonstrating
to them, just in a few of the things that had happened historically
for them, they were brought into that oppression, they were brought
in to feel, and to feel their need, to know their need, and
they cried out, and when they cried out, the Lord delivered
them. Lord delivered them so he is the God who hears the cry
of his people he's the God who brings the pain upon us so that
we know that what we are doing is sinful and wrong and that
he will not have us continue in that he does that and he brings
it to pass by his sovereign hand by his sovereign hand and when
you cry it's because the Lord has drawn near to you You know
your sin because the Lord has drawn near to you. He hasn't
departed from you. He's not cast you off, though
you feel like you've been cast off, but the only reason why
you feel that and cry is because He's not cast you off, but has
drawn near to you and has given you repentance. He shows you
your sin, He shows you your need of Him, and He causes us to seek
His face. He says, this is the second time
I'm quoting from Jeremiah 29, verse 12, then shall ye call
upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto
you. Secondly, He says, He have done
all this wickedness. You know, it's not because we
are righteous that God forgives us, or it's not because we're
righteous and perfect in our ways that God loves us. His love
for us is not conditioned on what we do or don't do. It's
in Christ. It's in Christ. He loves us.
He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
before we did any good or evil. And nothing's going to change
that. Nothing's going to change that. What we are to understand,
what he said here is we have done all this wickedness. We
don't earn God's favor. We don't deserve God's favor.
We don't earn or deserve his forgiveness. He gives it freely
in Christ. And so he's making us to know
our sin that, yeah, you did it. You did do this sin. You did
it. And he makes us to know it. But
it's for our good that we would come to him. ask forgiveness
and seek his face and seek him again. David said this in Psalm
51 verse 5 and 6 after he had committed committed adultery
with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband to try and cover
it up and God called him out on it. God, after a whole year
had gone by, he called him out on it. And you know David was
doing his best to work off the guilt, to sacrifice more cows
and do as more that he could do to work that off and be a
good boy after that. But God wouldn't receive it.
For a whole year he was hardened, and then the prophet came, and
God drew near and brought him repentance. And David said, behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the
hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. He softened David's
heart. David tried to purge himself
of that guilt, and he couldn't do it. Thanks be to God. because
his righteousness was the righteousness of Christ. God wasn't gonna let
him come as a Pharisee. And he won't let you come as
a Pharisee, having worked that off. Yes, you did it. You did
sin. That's what God's gonna show
you. You are a sinner. But that's not why I'm forgiving
you. I mean, not because you fixed it and made it right. I
don't forgive you for something you've done. I forgive you for
Christ's sake, period. And you're gonna know that. You're
gonna know that. He doesn't leave us in darkness.
He doesn't leave us in hardness. You know that you're a sinner
because He's making you know that you need Him. And you're
going to then know His forgiveness and the peace in Christ. And
he's gonna do that. Third, he says, yet turn not
aside from following the Lord, so that he gives you, his people,
hope. Hope in him. He doesn't tell
us these things to drive us to despair, but that we would turn
to him. He didn't send you away to punish
you. He doesn't turn you out into the world to teach you a
lesson. He's doing this for your good. for your good, to hug up
to him, and beg him for mercy, and to cry to him for your forgiveness
in Christ. Verse 21, Samuel added, And turn
ye not aside, for then should ye go after vain things, which
cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. If you turn to
this world to try and cleanse yourself or to get some relief,
you're turning to vain things. That's what he's saying. Don't
stop seeking the Lord and crying out to Him. If you turn to this
world, it's vanity. And when people turn away from
the Lord and they go into the world to seek some kind of relief
or peace for their pain and suffering, they go into more and more worldliness. They don't
come back more and more holy. They don't come back more righteous
and with greater understanding of the true and living God. No,
they pick up the things of the world. That's what they then
embrace. And so the Lord doesn't send
us out into the world to get cleaned up. No, we stay upon
the Lord. Keep coming and hearing the gospel.
Don't turn from the Lord. Stay upon the Lord because He
is your salvation. He's your righteousness. He's
your sanctification. He's your forgiveness, He's your
all. So don't turn from Him, because there's nothing out there
but vanity. That's what He's saying. Fourth, He says, but
serve the Lord with all your heart so that He gives us His
Spirit. You continue in the Lord, He's
saying. And by His Spirit, He's giving you the mind of your Savior,
the mind of your God, to know that He's your righteousness,
That God isn't, He knows that we're sinners, and yet He calls
us to Himself. He loves us, and He's drawn us
in Christ, and He cleanses our sins with the blood of Christ,
and He calls you through this blessed gospel. And He gives
you a spirit to know what God has done for you in Christ Jesus. That's where your peace is. That's
where you're gonna find peace, is in Christ alone. Matthew 6.33,
our Lord said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these other things that you're worrying about and trying
to make right shall be added unto you. They'll be taken care
of in Christ. You stay upon Him. The prophet
Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 29 verse 13, ye shall seek me and
find me when you search for me with all your heart. When you
know there is no other righteousness but Christ. He's the bread of
heaven. Lord, don't take that bread from
me. Lord, satisfy me. Feed me in Christ. Don't turn
me away. That's the cry He brings from
us. And then We see he continues
to feed you with this gospel. That's a testimony of his grace
and mercy and love for you. Verse 23, 1 Samuel 12, 23 and
24. Moreover, Samuel said, as for
me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing
to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way.
He's saying, I'll pray for you and I'll preach the gospel to
you. That's what God has sent me to do, to pray for you, and
to preach the gospel. That's because the Lord loves
you and you're his people. That's what he promises to do
for you in his darling son. Only fear the Lord and serve
him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things
he hath done for you. And so, remember brethren, God
is sovereign. His hand is in control of everything. Everything that has come to pass
It's come to pass for your eternal good in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank Him for it. Bless Him for
it. Praise His name. Give Him thanks. Cry if there's some sin you see,
but trust Him. Trust Him. He's shown you these
things because He loves you in Christ. It's for your good in
Him. Amen.