Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Samuel chapter 1. 1 Samuel chapter 1. Last Wednesday night, we looked
at the story of when God called and revealed himself to Samuel. And since then, I've been looking
at these chapters, the beginning chapters here in this book, and
I have something that I want to bring for our Bible study
this morning. And then from this same account,
I have something I wanna bring in the message tonight. So we're
gonna be here for the Bible study and we'll be here tonight. But
this, the beginning of this book, this is a tragic story. It's a very sad story. The story of what took place
here, I pray the Lord might help us to learn from it and see the
seriousness in it. The absolute seriousness of this. God brought great judgment on
the people of Israel. Great judgment to him. And the
reason for the judgment of a whole nation boiled down to two men. God's judgment on the whole nation.
It boiled down to two men. Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. They were priests who profaned
the office that they were given. They were priests, just like
their father. Because of their wickedness,
though, and because of their blasphemy, God judged the whole
nation. Now, chapter 1, this book begins
with a man named Elkanah. And verse three says, this man
went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto
the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni
and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord were there. Hophni and
Phinehas were there in Shiloh. All right, now, if you look with
me at chapter two, verse 12 says, Now the sons of Eli were sons
of Belial. They knew not the Lord. Alright,
now didn't we just read in chapter 1 that they were priests of the
Lord? Yes, we did. The Apostle Paul
said in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 that the adversary has transformed
himself into an angel of light. That is so important. The adversary
has transformed himself. He operates the great work of
deception through religion. And he blinds men and women into
thinking that he operates it through the bar, the nightclub. He operates through religion. And the Apostle Paul said that
his ministers have done the same thing. They're all transformed.
as the ministers of righteousness, but they're not the ministers
of righteousness. They're not. The Apostle John said, try the
preachers, whether they are of God. How do we do that? We're
about to find out. Verse 13 right here in 1 Samuel
2, it says, and the priest's custom with the people was that
when any man offered sacrifice, The priest's servant came while
the flesh was in seething with a flesh hook of three teeth in
his hand, and he struck it into the pan or kettle or cauldron
or pot. All that the flesh hook brought
up, the priest took for himself. God said that the priests were
allowed to do that. That was their portion of every
sacrifice. It was their cooking. And a servant
of the priest would go up with this three-pronged fork and scoop
it in. And whatever came up, that was
the priest's portion of that sacrifice. Hophni and Phinehas
said, that's not enough. They started telling all Israel,
that's not enough. Either you bring extra meat for
us, the portion of the Lord is not enough. Either you bring
extra meat for us to cook for ourselves on the side, or we're
going to take your sacrifice that you have brought for the
Lord and we're going to keep this for ourselves and we're
not going to offer it to the Lord on your behalf. And when
the people said, no, this is for my sin, they took their own
animals and they knew they'd sinned against God and they brought
their own animals to the priest to offer a sacrifice to God for
them. And when they said, no, this is for my sin, this belongs
to God. These two men said, either you
give it to us right now or we're going to take it by force. We're
taking it by force. So verse 17 says, Wherefore,
the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for
men abhorred the offering of the Lord. They made men, they
made the people hate the offering of the Lord. They turned men
off to worshipping the Lord. And that's what religion has
done. I want to go out and tell people, what you know of religion
is not the true way to worship God. They're so in it for self. It's a big marketing scheme.
You guys bring your money down here and we'd love to have you.
Keep your money at home. God's not worshipped with men's
hands or men's money. But they were so greedy, they
turned men off to worship. They just turned them off to
it. People dreaded coming to the house of the Lord. Verse
22 says, Now Eli was very old and heard all that his sons did
unto all Israel and how they lay with the women that assembled
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. They were
fornicators, adulterers. Phineas was married. Verse 23,
he said unto them, why do you such things? For I hear of your
evil dealings by all this people know my sons. It is no good report
that I hear you make the Lord's people to transgress. You're
causing God's people to sin against him. Verse 27, and there came
a man of God unto Eli and said unto him, thus saith the Lord. And through this man, God told
Eli, because of the sin of your two sons, I'm going to remove
the priesthood from your family line. I'm taking it away from
you. In verse 34, he said, This shall
be a sign unto thee that shall come upon thy two sons on Hophni
and Phinehas in one day, they shall die, both of them. I'm going to kill them. Now,
Eli was told this before God revealed himself to Samuel. He
was already told this. He was already warned of this.
Verse 35, he said, And I will raise me up a faithful priest. This is Christ. This is Christ,
okay? He's described every man. This is Christ. This represents
our Lord, our Savior. He's physically speaking of Samuel. He's physically talking about
Samuel, but he's spiritually speaking of Christ. He said,
I'll raise me up a faithful priest that shall do according to that
which is in my heart and in my mind. He will delight to do my
will. He'll be in total agreement with
my heart, with my mind. He'll accomplish everything I
send him to do. And I will build him a sure house
and he shall walk before mine anointed forever. You know, we
read the scripture and generally the stories are very horrible. They're very sad in the midst
of all the sorrow and all the Oh, the hurt. Isn't it so wonderful
to just see a glimpse of Christ? Isn't it so wonderful just to
have a moment to see redemption? Christ Himself. Well, chapter
3 is what we looked at Wednesday night. It's where the Lord revealed
Himself to Samuel. And the Lord told Samuel, I want
you to tell Eli the same thing I sent this other man to tell
Eli at the mouth of two or three witnesses. a thing is going to
be established. And it was. What God said was
established. If you look at chapter 4, verse 1, the word of Samuel came
to all Israel. It came to pass. Now Israel went
out against the Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer. And the Philistines pitched in
Aphek, And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel,
and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the
Philistines, and they slew of the army in the field about 4,000
men. Israel went to war with the Philistines,
and they lost. They lost 4,000 men. Verse 3,
And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of
Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before
the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant
of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh unto
us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. Now, they
didn't see a need for the ark of the covenant before. They didn't Think on the Lord
and call on the Lord and dwell on the Lord before. But they
got into trouble. And this is what men do. They
get into trouble. They got into trouble and they
said, maybe it's time we go get our good luck charm. Maybe it's
time we tip this in our favor. So they went to Shiloh and they
got the ark and Hophni and Phinehas brought it. They brought it back
to the camp. where the battle was. And when
the ark came into the camp, Israel started shouting. They were all
excited. They were all pumped up. It was
big, emotional, but God wasn't with them. God was not with them. He said, My word's going to stand.
They went back into battle with the Philistines. And if you look
at chapter four, verse 10, it says, the Philistines fought
and Israel was smitten and they fled every man into his tent. And there was a very great slaughter
for their fell of Israel, 30,000 footmen. And the ark of God was
taken and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were slain. God's judgment came to pass.
Verse 12 says, And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the
army and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent and
with earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli sat
upon a seat by the wayside, watching, for his heart trembled for the
ark of God. This man had the fear of the
Lord in him. In the middle of all that's going
on, he's sitting there, his heart is trembling for the ark of God,
trembled for the glory of God. He goes on to say, And when the
man came into the city, he told it, and all the city cried out.
And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What
meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily and
told Eli. Now Eli was ninety and eight
years old, and his eyes were dim that he could not see. And
the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and
I fled today out of the army. And he said, What is done there,
my son? And the messenger answered and said, Israel has fled before
the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among
the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are
dead, and the ark of God is taken. And it came to pass when he made
mention of the ark of God, not his two sons. When Eli heard about the ark
of God, He fell from off the seat backward by the side of
the gate, and his neck break, and he died, for he was an old
man and heavy. And he had judged Israel 40 years. And his daughter-in-law, Phinehas's
wife, was with child, near to be delivered. And when she heard
the tidings that the ark of God was taken, she had the fear of
the Lord too. When she heard that the ark of
God was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she
bowed herself in travail, for her pains came upon her. She
delivered her child. And about the time of her death,
the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not, for thou
hast born a son. But she answered not, neither
did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod. And if you have the center margin,
you see it says, Where is the glory? There is no glory. She named the child Ichabod saying
the glory is departed from Israel because the ark of God was taken
and because of her father-in-law and her husband and she said
the glory is departed from Israel for the ark of God is taken. Isn't that so sad? Tragic. It's just tragic. I fear that. And I mean that. I fear that. I pray that our
God would never allow that to happen here. It has happened
in plenty of congregations. Oh, I beg God. May it never be
said When those that fear the Lord
come into this place, may it never be said, where is the glory? Where is the glory? The glory
of the Lord, may the glory of the Lord be evident. Every time a message is preached
from this pulpit, may we be able to walk out and say the Lord
was glorified, not our flesh. Not the flesh of the preacher.
Oh, isn't that preacher some kind of preacher? That's glorying
in the flesh. May it be said the Lord was glorified. Where is the glory? Now, if that is to be the case,
if our worship revolves around and if our message is centered
on the glory of the Lord, the glory of the Lord, if that's
the case, what would we be glorying in? What is the glory of the
Lord? What would our message declare? Where would our glorying be? There are many verses of scripture
that could answer that. Many, many. For the sake of time,
I want us to look at three. Three things where the glory
of God is, these three things will be. They'll be preached,
they'll be believed, they'll be loved. Loved, I mean loved. Number one, go with me if you
would to Exodus 24. Exodus 24 verse 15 says, And Moses went up into the mount,
and a cloud covered the mount, and the glory of the Lord abode
upon Mount Sinai. And the cloud covered it six
days. And the seventh day he called
unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the
glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount
in the eyes of the children of Israel. When the Lord descended
on Mount Sinai, He revealed the glory of His holiness and the
glory of His justice. The glory of it. Hophni and Phinehas
lost sight of His holiness and His justice. That's what happened. I believe they never had sight
of His holiness. Oh, His holiness. You talk about
put a man down, put a man in the dust. Let him get a glimpse
of the holiness and justice of God. His holiness. These two men, they caused the
people to also lose sight of His holiness. His holiness. God is holy. On Mount Sinai,
He declared that He must punish sin. He's holy. He is perfect
in every way. Perfect in holiness. His glory
is His perfection. He's so perfect. That's what
we're going to be glorying in for all eternity. He's so perfect. Everything about Him is so perfect.
So right. The glory of His kingdom is the
perfection of His holiness. Everything there will be crying
with the cherubims, holy, holy, holy, so holy. Therefore, His
judgment must be right. And since man is wrong, He must
punish man. He must deal with that. If we
get to the place If we ever get to the place, if this congregation
ever gets to the place where we lose sight of His strict judgment
for sin, then the glory of the Lord has departed from this place.
If we ever lose sight of His holiness and His justice, where
the glory of the Lord is, His holiness is declared. It's declared. Holiness. All right, now turn
with me to Leviticus chapter 9. Next book over Leviticus chapter
9. Leviticus 9 verse 22 says. And Aaron lifted up his hand
toward the people and blessed them and came down from offering
of the sin offering and the burnt offering and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into
the tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed the
people. And the glory of the Lord appeared
unto all the people. When the Lord commanded the blessing
to be on all of His people, He declared the glory of His grace. The absolute glory of His grace. Grace is unmerited favor. Unmerited favor. Freely bestowed gift. What glory? Hophni and Phinehas caused the
people to lose sight of His grace. They went to war in the might
of their own strength, the might of their own hand. They went
in their own works. And the Apostle Paul said in
Romans 11, if it's works, it's not grace. No man or woman has
ever been delivered by the works of his or her own hand. No man
or woman. Never. It only comes through
the blessing of His grace. Only through grace. This is what
Moses said. This is a man who had not lost
sight of it. He told all the people the enemy
was coming. It was soldiers. They were coming
after him. He told all the people, stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. That's what he said. He said, the Lord shall fight
for you and you shall hold your peace. Salvation is freely bestowed
of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's usually pretty obvious whether
works or grace are in a place. It's usually pretty obvious.
If the blessing We're all here to hear about and learn about
the blessing. If the blessing comes through something that
you do or I do is works. And you can hear it. When they're
saying, yeah, but you that's all you need to hear. If the
blessing starts with him and finishes with him is grace. If the ball is in our court,
it's works. If the ball is in His court,
it's grace. It's all grace. If we ever get
to a place where we lose sight of the fact that all of the blessings
of God, all of them are freely bestowed on sinners through the
abundance and the goodness of His grace, then the glory of
the Lord has departed from this place. If we ever start preaching
works, then the glory of the Lord has departed from this place.
Write Ichabod on it. Write Ichabod. Do God's people
believe in good works? Sure they do. Should we obey
God? Sure we should. Should we not
murder people and honor our father and our mother and have no other
God but Him and not steal and not commit adultery? Sure. Do
God's people realize that those are the results of God's work
in us after salvation is complete? Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Grace alone. It's grace alone. Where the glory of the Lord is,
His free and sovereign grace is declared. Number three, look
with me at 2 Chronicles 7. 2nd Chronicles chapter 7. 2nd Chronicles 7 verse 1 says,
Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came
down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices
and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priest could
not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the
Lord had filled the Lord's house. And when all the children of
Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord
upon the house, They bowed themselves with their faces to the ground
upon the pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord saying,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. When the Lord
consumed that sacrifice, he declared the glory of his mercy. Mercy is not getting what we
deserve, not getting what we deserve, not getting what we
deserve. How is that possible with a holy
and just God? How can he, if he is holy and
just, how can he not give us what we deserve? He gave Christ
what we deserve. How is that possible? If I did it and He didn't do
it, how is it good and right and just and holy to punish Him? He made Christ to be me. And He made me to be Him. God laid everything that we are
on him and made him to be the sacrifice for our sin. The only one who ever satisfied
God was the only one who could satisfy God. He was the only
one. The sacrifice of his body, the
sacrifice of his blood, that was the only sacrifice God would
accept. And the reason is because it
was the only one that was perfect. He said it has to be perfect.
It has to be absolutely perfect. Moses said, show me your glory. And he said, I'll have mercy. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. I'll have mercy on sinners through
the death of my son. If we ever get to a place where
we lose sight of the fact that the broken body and the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that God will
accept in order to have mercy on our souls, if we ever lose
sight of that, then the glory of the Lord has departed from
this place. It's gone. Where the glory of the Lord is,
Mercy in the blood of God's Lamb is declared. That's what's declared. The Apostle Paul summarized every
bit of that in this way. We're going to close the Bible
study with this verse of scripture. Go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 6. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. in the face
of Jesus Christ. He is the glory. He is the glory. The glory of
the Lord is Christ Himself. Phineas' wife cried, where is
the glory? Where is the glory? Where is
the holiness? Where is the justice? Where is
the perfection? Where is the grace? Where is
the mercy? It's in Christ Himself. And every
time you hear a man stand up and preach, ask this question,
Where is Christ? I hear the good morality. Should
good morality be taught? Sure. Yeah. And I hear the sin. Should man's
sin be taught? Sure. And I hear election. Should God's election be taught?
Sure. Where is Christ? Where is Christ? Where is the
glory? He's the glory. If any man glory,
let him glory in the Lord. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray the Lord
will never let that depart from this place. Never. Lord, keep
it here. All right.