You take your Bibles and turn
them back with me to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 12. 1 Samuel chapter 12. We'll be looking
at verses 20 through verse 25. And the title of the message
this morning is, Fear not, but consider. Fear not, but consider. Now, Samuel is preaching in this
passage of Scripture to Israel who had rejected God to be their
king. If you remember the history that
the Lord had brought Jacob or Israel into Egypt by Joseph,
and they had prospered well, and then they became the slaves
of the Egyptians for 400 years. And the Lord sent Moses and Aaron,
and they were delivered from the Egyptian captors. And God
set them in the land. God placed them in the promised
land that He gave them. And yet, they continually, over
and over again, forgot God. They forgot the wonderful things
that God had done for them. And they worshipped other gods.
They followed after Baal and Astaroth, which are the heathen
gods of that land. And every time they forgot God,
God gave them over into the hands of their enemies. And yet every
time that they cried, Unto God. Every time they turned again
unto God from their backsliding. Every time they had fallen and
were in trouble, they said, God, deliver us. God, save us. God, help us and we will serve
you. And every time God sent them
a man, God sent them a judge. We had Gideon and Jephthah and
Barak and Samson. These were judges over Israel
and God sent them to deliver Israel every time they cried.
God was their King and every time they cried unto their King,
their King came in mighty power and delivered them from their
enemies. Now then, this King of Ammon. He had surrounded Israel and
was to attack them. They had turned again and forgot
God. And God had once again given
them over into the hand of their enemies. And instead of crying
unto God, that had worked so many previously times before,
instead of crying to God as their King, they said, we will have
a man. We will have a man. to be our
king. We want to be like the other
nations. We want a king. And in doing
so, the nation of Israel sinned greatly against God. When Samuel, he was their judge,
when he was told by the people they wanted a king, no doubt
Samuel felt rejected. He was their judge. He was the
one God sent, and he felt rejected. But God, He said to Samuel, He
said, Samuel, they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected
Me to be their King. And so Samuel here is preaching
to this nation of Israel concerning their sin. And I want us to see
just a few things from this message this morning. The message that
Samuel preached to Israel is the same message that God preaches
to us. This is the gospel message concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Samuel, after he had preached
this gospel to them and they had learned of their wickedness,
he said, I'm going to prove this, and in verse 16 through verse
19 the Lord sent a strong storm Samuel called on the Lord and
he sent a strong storm and The people feared for their
very life Feared for their very life They said pray unto God
that we die not For we have added unto our sins this evil to ask
us a king. And Samuel said unto the people,
Fear not, you have done all this wickedness. Those two things
don't sound like they go together, do they? Fear not! You have done
all this wickedness. All this evil that you said you
have done, that is so. You have done all this wickedness. That's the first point I want
us to see. Is that ye, and I love the King James Version for this
particular purpose, ye is personal and singular. Don't look around.
You. You. personally, intimately, have
done all this wickedness. You. You. We were born sons of
Jacob. We were born heirs of promise. And yet we were born in sin. God had before purposed our salvation. We are believers in Christ. God
had before purposed that we be the sons of Jacob, that we be
Israel. God had purposed to save us.
God had purposed to make us heirs. But when we were born into this
world, we had no idea of these things. Matter of fact, we rebelled
against these things. We were born in slavery. Scriptures tell us that we were
born dead. And he's talking to believers.
He's talking to those who were chosen and redeemed by the blood
of Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit. You were born dead in
trespasses and sins and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. There was no difference between
you and anyone else. You who are believers, In Christ
we were born rebels and sinners, children of wrath, haters of
God, rebels against the law of God. The natural man is not subject
to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. He is
not able to be subject to the law of God. Anyone that says
he is able, he is a liar and he is not able. He has already
broke the commandment by lying. We cannot, because we are spiritually
judged, spiritually discerned. No man is good, no man is righteous,
and no man seeks after God. This is clear in the Scriptures. But all men are full of sin. This is so. If we never got a
hold of this, you've never been saved. If you've never been a
sinner, you've never been saved from sin. If you've never been
lost, you've never been found. We, by nature, are full of lusts
and full of false gods. You, who are not believers in
Christ, you, by nature, are like me by nature. You are a God factory. Man is a God factory. You remember
when the Pharisee and the publican prayed, the Lord Jesus said,
the Pharisee prayed thus with himself, God. God, I thank you that I am not
like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
that publican over there, beating on his chest. I thank you I'm
not like that. I fast twice in a week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. God, I'm just so good. I thank
you." What was he doing? He was praying to the God of
self. He made himself God. Now, the God of this man that
he prayed to was himself, and he was very pleased with himself. His God was very pleased with
him. His God was pleased with all
he did. He fasted and his God was pleased. He tithed and his
God was pleased. He thought he obeyed the law
and his God was pleased because his God was himself. He was very
pleased with himself. But not the God who would judge
all men according to their works. God is not going to be pleased
with our old nature and His works. The God that is true in living
is holy and just, and He says of all our righteousnesses, all
our goodness, all that we've done well. I remember
as a little boy in church, I remember always trying to do well, always
enjoying the praise of men. I'd do good just so people would
notice me. That's how we are by nature.
But God says of that, He says, that is nothing but filthy rags. That does not please me at all. The God of heaven says of our
righteousness that there are wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores and there is no soundness from the top of our head to the
sole of our foot. There is no goodness in us. You
personally have done all this wickedness. Whatever wickedness
there is to do, you've done it. You've done it. Only to believers is that true. To the world, that's offensive.
How can you say that I've not done any good at all? God says
you've not done any good at all. No man can escape the chains
of his sin because God will and must punish all sin. He says concerning His holy name,
I will by no means clear the guilty. By no unjust means. By not sweeping it. He said,
I will not sweep your sins under the rug. I will not unjustly
forgive anyone of their sins. God must justly forgive sins
if He is ever to forgive. False religion can prop up the
corpse. They can put on new clothes and
they can keep it from going here or there. They can carry it around
to hear the best preachers. But friends, only God can give
life. You remember the Spirit, how
it's like the river. In Ezekiel chapter 47, it says,
wherever the river went, there was life. And wherever the Spirit
of God goes, there is life. He gives life. Only God can give
you life. Only God can free men from the
guilt of sin. Only God can free men from the
power of sin. Only God can give the new birth
that is necessary to see The Kingdom of God. Anyone can say,
I believe in God. But unless you have seen your
sin, and your need of mercy, you have not come to Christ. That is to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the King of the Kingdom. And to believe
anything else, is to have a king other than God. No man can come unto me, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. Does this speak to
you? Does that speak to your heart? Do you know this concerning
yourself, that you have done all this wickedness? Do you realize
that you can't look down your nose at anyone? If we say, man, I will never,
how in the world could that person do that? Then what we've said
is that I can, by my own strength, stay away from such a sin. We
should never be able to say that at all. You have done. All this wickedness that the
Israelites have done, you and I have done. If we've not done it with our
bodies, we've sure done it with our minds, our hearts. You have done all this wickedness. Does all who believe in Christ
know that their salvation is because of the grace of God who
gives us life and faith? Do you know that? I know that in me dwelleth no
good thing. I know some things about myself. Do you know these
things about yourself? Have you confessed that you are
full of sin? If you have, then know this,
if you've come to Christ, the scripture says, fear not. You have done all this wickedness. This is a truth. This is not
an opinion. This is the absolute facts. That you have done all this wickedness,
yet the Scriptures are clear. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. Why? Well, we should fear not, but
consider. Sin causes us to fear. And we are full of sin by nature. And we are fearful a lot of times. You know that in the scripture,
someone said this, that fear not or be not afraid is mentioned
365 times, one for every day of the year. Fear not. How many times has the Lord exhorted
His disciples, Fear not, it is I. Fear not, it's me. Fear not. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Well, how then
can we who have done all this wickedness not be afraid? Well,
we can consider what great things God has done. He said this, in
verse 24. He said, Only fear the Lord,
and serve Him in truth with all your hearts. For consider how
great things He hath done for you. As God sent Moses and Aaron
to bring Israel out of captivity, even so has He sent the Lord
Jesus Christ to deliver His people from the captivity of their sins. God has sent His Son to deliver
His people from the bondage of sin. We who are full of sin,
who have done all this wickedness against God, yet in mercy and
for His own glory, for His own namesake, for His own purpose,
He sent His Son to redeem us. In verse 22 it says, For the
Lord will not forsake His people for His great namesake, Because
it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. Fear not. You who believe on Christ, you
who are delivered from your sins by the blood and righteousness
of Christ, the Scriptures are clear. Fear not. Consider. Consider that God has purposed
to make you His people. Purposed. I always like that
story. When someone was concerned about
the doctrine of election, the pastor just simply asked, did
God save you on purpose or on accident? Did God save you on purpose?
There's the gospel. That God saved you on purpose. This would give us cause to not
fear. God in free and sovereign mercy
gave all His chosen people to His Son, who should save them
from all their sin. And when the Son of God was made
flesh, what do you suppose should have happened to Him? He should
have been worshipped. He should have been honored.
He was the Son of God. He should have been praised,
but He was despised and rejected of men. The Lord Jesus Christ
in His day was the most hated man in the world, and He is still
today the most hated man in the world. I tell you, the Jesus who loves
everybody is not hated by anybody. But the Christ who came to save
His people from their sins, He is hated. He is hated. The Father who chose is hated.
The Son who redeemed the chosen is hated. He is despised and rejected in
the same in His day as in our day. But His purpose in obedience
and humility On purpose, He obtained both our righteousness and our
atonement. This is the gospel message that
would cause we, us, who have done all this evil, who have
been sinners from birth, we who are now saved by the grace of
God, have this comfort, have this joy, have this hope that
Jesus Christ has delivered us from all our sins and has gave
us His righteousness. You have done all this evil,
but fear not and consider what great things God has done for
you. Over in Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Consider this. You who have sinned against God,
consider this. Us who have believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ, Consider what God has done for us in verse 6. For
when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for who? You who have done all this wickedness,
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Sinners. Much more being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Therefore, when he obeyed the
law of God to the fullest measure, and by the greatest act of love
that has ever been seen from the beginning of time, offered
himself as a sacrifice for sins, became guilty before the eyes of God. And God
poured out all His wrath on His Son. While you were yet sinners,
Christ died for the ungodly. Christ didn't give His blood
to wait for you to choose Him. He died even though you and I
were ungodly. He died for our sins. And by
His blood, by His one offering as the Passover Lamb, He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Believer, consider
His perfect righteousness. If you have fears, if you have
doubts concerning your hope, concerning your acceptance with
God because of your sin, behold and consider the Lamb of God. Consider His righteousness and
His obedience unto death. Jesus saved His people because
He was their surety. Jesus was the surety of God's
people from the beginning. And consider that Jesus saved
His people from their sins, not only by His life, not only by
His death, but by His resurrection. By His resurrection. Consider
this, that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the exclamation
point of it is finished. It is finished! Exclamation point. He is risen from the dead. Jesus Christ is seated on the
throne of God. What troubles do you experience?
What things do you go through in this life that is not by the
sovereign hand of Christ, directing all things after the counsel
of His own will? Everything that we go through. And we can have hope. We can
live without fear because He controls all things. He is risen
from the dead. We know that Jesus is the Christ
because He fulfilled Scripture and suffered for our sins. But
we know that He is the Christ because He is risen from the
dead. Do you know that without resurrection there is no salvation?
If Christ did not rise from the dead, there is no hope. What evidence do you have that
Jesus Christ and His offering was accepted but the resurrection? The resurrection is the hope. It is the confidence that we
have that God accepted Christ's offering. Paul said, if Christ
be not raised and you are dead in your sins and your faith is
vain. But Christ is risen from the dead. Christ is risen, and
God hath declared Him to be both Lord and Christ. And you who
are full of sin, hear and consider the great deliverance of God
by Jesus Christ. Consider that. When you are afraid,
consider Christ. Meditate on Him. We as His people confess His
truth, we confess That we have done all this wickedness, we
confess that by nature full of sin, and we are saved only by
the grace of God. We confess by faith that Jesus
Christ is our only Deliverer. Are you looking for something
else? I remember a man that I know
very well, he was a good friend of mine. And our friendship was
based completely on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We enjoyed each
other's company. We enjoyed studying together.
We enjoyed fellowshipping together. And one day he came to me and
he said, there's got to be something more. And my heart fell. Because I knew that this man
had no idea who Christ was. If he was looking for something
more than Christ, If you're looking for something more than Christ,
it is because you've not known the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing more. There is no other salvation. There is none other name given
among men whereby we must be saved. There's no second experience. There's no greater joy. There's
no wonderful bliss in your works. There's only joy. There's only
peace when we consider that God's salvation rests solely in the
man, Jesus Christ, our Savior. There's our peace. There's our
hope. There's our assurance. It's in
Him. It's not in ourselves. It's not
in ourselves. We confess by faith that Jesus
is our Deliverer and we confess that our faith is a gift of the
Holy Spirit. And thus we confess that salvation
is completely and utterly of the Lord. From eternity, through time,
to now, and from now to eternity future, salvation is completely
of the work of God alone. He does not require my help in saving my soul. Have you believed on the Son
of God? Do you believe on the Son of God? Do you trust all
your salvation to His blood and obedience? Are you under conviction of your
wickedness? Are you bound and captive to
sin? Then cry out to God for deliverance. These people did. They said,
pray unto God that we die not. And Samuel said, don't be afraid. Even though you've done this
wickedness, God has put away your sin. I like that when David
confessed his sin to Nathan, he said, Thou art the man! And
David said, I have sinned! I have sinned! And Nathan said,
Fear not. Thou shalt not die, for God hath
already put away your sin. Does your sin feel near? Mine feels very near. It is near in the fact that we
have this old nature still wrapped around our neck. When Paul says,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death, he had reference
to when they used to tie a dead corpse around the prisoner's
neck. And they would have to drag this rotting corpse around
until it fell off. That's exactly how every believer
feels. That sin nature feels so near. And yet God says that He has
cast all of our sins behind His back. Now where's His back? How
far is that? As far as east is from the west. How far is that? It's from eternity
to eternity. Christ. has put away our sin. Fear not. You who believe on
Christ, don't be afraid. You who rest in Christ's blood
and righteousness, don't fear. Don't be afraid. He has already
put away thy sins. Therefore, Samuel says to God's
saints, don't be afraid. You are truly guilty, but God
has truly put away your sin by the blood of His Son. Believers
who are saved from sin, do you hate sin? If you have love for sin, you
should really consider if you know Christ. Because I hate my
sin. And I'll tell you this, because
all I can do is sin, that is no excuse for my sin. I do not
use that as any excuse for my sin. I hate my old man. I hate him. And we desire to live soberly
and righteously and godly right now. And because of this, it makes
us to despair and fear. John says, little children sin
not. Don't sin. And I'm so thankful for the next
clause that he doesn't even pause. Children, sin not, but when you
sin, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. When do you have an advocate?
Always. You have an advocate right now.
You have one pleading for you now. You have one whose wounds
are still in His hands and His feet. You have one that intercedes
for you in every sin that you've committed, whether you know it
or not. How many sins have you committed this morning that you
don't even know about? And yet, every one is pleaded
and put away. Every one of them. Consider that.
And don't be afraid. Don't be fretful. And lastly, because God has put away our
sins. Notice what the prophet says
to the people. He says, Fear not, you have done
all this wickedness, that's right, yet turn not aside from following
the Lord, but serve Him with all your heart. Turn not aside. Now, he says it twice. When Scripture
says something once, we should definitely pay it attention,
but when it says it twice, within two verses, We should really
pay attention. Don't turn aside. You who have
been saved by the grace of God, don't turn aside. What an exhortation. Don't turn aside from serving
the Lord. Let us not take our eyes off
of Jesus Christ. To follow Jesus Christ is to
suffer. To believe on Jesus Christ is to suffer for His namesake. When we were saved, I know that
most of us felt that, oh, that we were relieved of our sin,
we felt the burden lifted off of our shoulders, and we thought
surely everything would go well with us. Well, it is. It's just not how you think well.
should be. It's not what you thought it
would be. No. When you become a believer in
Christ, your world will be turned upside down and inside out. You will suffer. You will. Consider the cost. If you are
to follow Christ, He said consider the cost. And I know this, I don't have
sufficient to finish. Do you? My sufficiency rests
in Christ alone. Consider this and obey His commandment. What is His commandments to you?
Are they grievous? His commandments are this, believe
on Jesus Christ and love one another. Is those commandments
grievous to you? Not to one who has done all this
wickedness and been saved by the sovereign mercy of God. It
is not a great thing for us to believe on Christ and to do His
will. To love His brethren, love His
people. Turn not aside from these commandments.
Don't turn to the right or to the left. Keep your eyes on Christ. Have you considered Christ? Well,
keep considering Christ. Have you finished considering
Christ? You say, well, that's done. I've considered Christ.
I've done my part. I guess I don't have to do that
anymore. What? No, no. Don't turn aside from
considering Christ. Don't turn aside. and follow
after the vain trinkets of this world, family and friends and
good education, money, good works even. Don't turn aside to look
at your works. There's only fear there. There's only doubt there. There's
no joy there. There's only joy in Christ alone. Nothing else. is in the grace of God who promised
to never leave us nor forsake us. Look at that again in verse
22. Why He won't leave you? Why is it He won't leave you?
I'd have left myself a long time ago. Why is it He won't leave us?
For the Lord will not forsake His people because they're great
and they love Him so much. Is that what it says? No. He will not forsake His people
for His own name's sake. For Christ's sake. He won't forsake
you. He won't leave you. He'll not
forsake you. He'll not leave you because of His own glory. You
know, for God to forsake one of His people would be the ruin
of His own glory. And that's not going to happen.
That's not going to happen. As Samuel said, I will teach
you a good and a right way, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him risen from
the dead. That's why you should not fear
and be afraid. Don't be afraid. Consider, meditate
on what great thing great things God has done for you. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.