Alright brethren, if you will,
turn in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 12. We'll read our text
first and then hopefully I'm able to skip a little bit, go
back to chapter 1 real quickly, go through the book of 1 Samuel
up to chapter 12 so we can see the context more so of what the
Lord's brought for us. I'll try to lead up to it. 1
Samuel chapter 12. I text my pastor, About a month or so ago,
I was telling Brother Andres last night, and I said, I need
you today. I need to lean on you. And I
was low, real low. And I said, just when you have
time, when you're not busy, give me a call and he'll talk to you.
And so we, several hours later, and I ended up hearing through
the Lord's providence only, I heard another sermon of Brother Greg
Elmquist, and that was exactly what I needed. That was the medicine
for my illness. And so Clay finally called me
and he said, what you need brother? I said, I'm all better now. I
said, I'm fine. I said, Lord took care of me.
I don't want to bother you. And he said, what's wrong with you?
Did you find out you was a sinner? And I laughed and I was like, yeah,
that's, that's, that's exactly what was wrong with me. I was
looking to me, you know, and I didn't, didn't like what I
saw. All right. First Samuel chapter 12 verse
19. And the Lord said unto Samuel,
Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not. For we have added unto all of
our sins this evil, to ask us a king. Samuel said unto the
people, Fear not, ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn
not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with
all your heart, and turn ye not aside. For then you should go
after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for they
are vain. For the Lord will not forsake
His people for His great name's sake, because it has pleased
the Lord to make you His people." So I struggle greatly. As you
all know, I struggle with a lot of things. I always have a hard
time picking a title to a message. I originally titled this one,
A Believer of Sins. I can't remember what I sent
poor Mike, but it's our assurance. Those go hand in hand. Believers'
assurance. Yeah, believers' assurance. Once
the Lord shows Himself to you and calls you, have you ever
sinned after that? I know a lot of people say that
that don't happen, but that's not been my experience. I've
failed 70 times, 70 times 7 in a day, don't you? I fall all the time, but what
happens after we know the Lord and then we willfully and knowingly
go against His Word and sin against Him? What takes place during
those times? Is that possible? And if it is,
what's the outcome of it? I told you a little bit last
night when we read here in chapter 1 of the birth of Samuel. You
guys can turn to chapter 7 if you'd like. We'll start there.
Starting chapter 1, it's Samuel's life story from his birth. His
mother was barren and unable to have children, so she prayed
to the Lord to give her a child. He remembered her and he did.
She said she lent him to the Lord. She gave him to the Lord.
So she took him up to the temple and dropped him off. And Eli
kept him. So once a year she would go up
to visit. They would make their sacrifices.
That was the only time she got to see her child. I couldn't
imagine. I hope the Lord uses my children, but I hope I don't
get to see them once a year. Especially from Burt. But he
gave her what she asked for and he used him. But Saban grew up
in the temple, and he mentally learned of the Lord. He mentally
learned of the ceremonies and all the requirements, and he
would feed the sheep before they sacrificed them or whatever was
needed. He was the helper. But then one night, the Spirit
spoke to him. He woke him up, physically and
spiritually. And he taught him the Gospel,
not just in his mind, but in his heart. And he provided him
Eli there to train him up and to be a mentor to him. But while this was happening,
the Philistines defeated Israel and they stole the Ark. And when Eli heard the news,
he was blinded by then, sitting on a wall, and they told him
that the Ark was stolen and he fell backwards and it broke his
neck and he died right there. And so at that moment, Samuel
became the high priest of Israel for the time. And the Lord didn't
allow his ark to remain gone for long. Every city that the
Philistines took that, they would take it to a city and the Lord
would kill just about everybody in that town. And they would
say, all right, well, let's move it. Let's put it in another city.
That's our wisdom, isn't it? If it's not working here, let's
just try the same thing over someplace else. And they'd take
it to another city and he would slay most of those people until
finally they submitted. That enemy was defeated. And they
said, you can have your ark back. Where do you want us to put it?
So here in 1 Samuel 7 and verse 12, this is Samuel's first act
as a high priest. 1 Samuel 7, 12, Then Samuel took
a stone and set it between Mizpeth and Shinn, and called the name
of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. So the
Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast
of Israel. It was effectual. And the hand
of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. There's
a rock set between us and our enemies, and they don't cross
it. They come to us no more, because
our high priest set a rock there. But everything was taken from
Israel by the Philistines when they were defeated. They took
the ark, and they took land, and they took animals, sheep,
and camels, and all those things. But after this, They were restored. Israel, everything they had taken
from them was given back to them. The land was given back to them.
Possessions, jewelry, whatever it was, it was all given back
to them. So after the restoration, Samuel made his rounds. Scripture
says he made a circuit. And so he'd go to each town every
year and he'd judge them. So he would rule over them and
decide for them, things of that nature. And he'd preach to them
and he would serve them. And that's what his job was.
Then in chapter 8 we read that Israel started demanding a king.
Everything was pretty comfortable. And Samuel was getting old, and
so he put his sons in charge. He said, I ain't got time to
make this circuit. I can't make my rounds anymore,
but my two boys can. And just like Eli's sons, they
were corrupt. So the people said, we don't
like them. They'll take money and do whatever we tell them
to. We want a king. They wanted to be like all the
other nations. They wanted somebody to judge them and protect them
and provide for them. And in times were going well,
they didn't need the Lord to do all those things anymore for
them. They thought they could benefit from an earthly king.
And they wanted to be like the other nations, and they rejected
the Lord being over them. They wanted something physical,
somebody they could see and touch, smell, and they could look to
their other friends or neighbors and say, we have a king. So where's
your God? Or where's your king? He's right
there, you can see him. They wanted something physical,
not just from faith or from evidence. But Samuel, they came to him
and said, we want a king. Probably one that they could
bend for their will as well. Samuel asked the Lord, we want
a king. So Samuel didn't immediately speak to him. He didn't respond
to him. He went and prayed to the Lord. And before he replied
to him, he asked the Lord what to do and brought it up to him.
And in chapter 8, verse 7, we'll turn there, 1 Samuel 8, 7, we'll
see what the Lord told Samuel to tell him. Chapter 8 verse
7 says, And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice
of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have
not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not
reign over them. According to all the works which
they have done since the day I brought them up out of Egypt,
even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served
other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore, hearken
unto their voice. Listen to what they tell you.
How be it, yet protest solemnly unto them. Caution them. Tell
them what's going to happen. You can do what they want, but
you warn them. and show them the manner of king
that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words
of the Lord unto the people that ask of him a king." Samuel did
not tell the people of Israel what he wanted to tell them.
He didn't tell them what his logic stirred up inside of them. He was about his father's business.
And as high priest, he instructed them what the Lord told him to
tell them, and that's what he did. He told them what a king
would be like, that that king eventually, like all other men,
would get puffed up, and get a little intoxicated on power,
and he may start off well, but... Then he'll start conscripting
people for the army, and he may start taking a little bit of
land and some taxes, and then more and more, and he's going
to keep taking. That earthly king will take. Unlock the king
they have now, the Heavenly Father, who only gives. The Lord doesn't
take anything from us. He gives us everything, don't
He? Alright, chapter 8, verse 19. It says, Nevertheless, Samuel
told them all these things. He warned them. Nevertheless,
the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said,
Nay, but we will have a king over us. that we also may be
like all the nations. They want to be like everybody
else and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight
our battles. And they already had what they
wanted. They had someone that went out before them and judged
them and fought their battles, didn't they? Many times they've
been pulled out of Egypt and time after time all these wars
with the Ammonites and Philistines and they'd always turn from the
Lord and he'd always protect them and kept them. After he'd
successfully, I'm sorry, They wanted a king, and so Samuel
went to the Lord and said, who are you going to give me? He
said, I'll show you, man. I'll tell you when he'll be there.
So he picked Saul, and he set Saul apart, and he announced
this. They said, alright, here's the man the Lord gave us to be
king, but they didn't crown him then. There was a period of time
between kind of like it is now in England, there's a period
of time between that person's going to be king or queen until
the anointing, until they actually crown them. And so during that
time, the people, it doesn't mention it in the scriptures,
but I'm sure they talked about it. That's what they wanted for
a long time. They discussed it. But while that was happening,
the Ammonites were fighting with them and Saul went out still
on their behalf and he defeated the Ammonites. And so after he
had successfully defended them, successfully defended Israel,
we pick up in chapter 11, 1 Samuel 11, in verse 12. The war with the Ammonites was
over, and it says, And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he that
said, Shall Saul reign over us? bring the men that we may put
them to death." They said, you see, we were right. Who disagreed
with us during this time that didn't want Saul as a king, who
wanted the Lord? Bring them up here and we'll
kill them right now. Verse 13, and Saul said, there shall not
be a man put to death this day, for today the Lord hath wrought
salvation in Israel. That new guy they got was telling
them everything's alright, this work just played into our hands,
just the way we like it, just be happy and calm. Then said
Samuel to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the
kingdom there. And all the people went to Gilgal,
and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. And
there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the
Lord. And there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
So Israel was ready to murder anyone that disagreed with them,
the Adib of Fleshly King. And they were so sure that this
decision was right, after Saul was crowned, they had a feast,
they had sacrifices. They thanked the Lord for it.
And the Lord had just told them through his prophet, this is
what's going to happen. Don't do this. And then they
had a celebration for it. So that brings us to chapter
12. But why did Saul, here in chapter 12, pulls him apart and
talks to him. Why did he do this after the
time of sacrifice? They had just celebrated and
thanked the Lord for all these things. Why did he need to address
them during that and rebuke them? Times, in their eyes, were good.
Saul hadn't yet begun to fulfill the prophecies that Samuel had
of being a harsh ruler. That hadn't come to pass yet.
So right now, everything's great. They just wanted to battle and
they're protected. But they had still rejected God. But moreover,
they were sacrificing, they were praising the Lord for their wrongdoing.
So it's easy to say, when everything's going good and our lives are
great, we're healthy, and we got money coming in the bank,
and we're not in the negatives, and we're checking accounts,
oh, the Lord's blessed us. I got a new car, the Lord's blessed
me. All kinds of silliness we say. It's only through the Lord's
grace that during trials and afflictions that we can say,
oh, the Lord's blessed me. When we're in pain physically
or we're financially destitute or our family's forsaken us or
left us, only there and then, the Lord's grace solely, you
can say, oh, He's been merciful. This is a blessing for the Lord.
I'm thankful. And that's what we pray for our brethren, don't
we, that's going through these trials. We hope to show Christ
and that they're thankful for it. But there are times that
the Lord allows us to have our desires. what we really, what
we think we really want, what we think we need. And to the
world, it would appear that we're moving up. Like, oh, the Lord's,
that man's favorite of God. Look at him. And last week, if
y'all want to download it, I'd encourage you. Clay preached
a sermon, I think it was True Gain. But everything in the world
says you're gaining. Oh, you graduated college and
you got a big job and you moved to a big city or you got famous,
you got a role in a TV show or whatever it is. Oh, that's good.
That's desirable. Those things are vanity. There's
nothing that profits. But there are times at the center
we live outwardly and inwardly, we rebel against God. And while
we're doing it, we honestly think we're upholding the gospel. I debated on saying that, but
many of you know firsthand what that's like. There's people that
truly believe that they're defending the gospel, and what they say
is the truth, and it's no gospel at all. And it's sad, and how
often we can look down on those people, and how fast would I
be the one that would think that I'm standing on a cause other
than Christ, and that I'm right. It's the Lord's hands that keeps
us, so we pray for those that do that. There's many times the
Lord lets us do what we do, and we think we're doing right. And
then when Samuel asked for a king, they didn't outwardly say, we
don't want the Lord to be our king anymore. We want a physical
king. They didn't say that. They just said, we want to be
like everybody else. So I'm certain in their hearts, they think,
well, we'll still serve the Lord. We'll still go to church. Just
here on earth, fleshly, We just want king. You know,
it's a management decision. This is a business decision.
This isn't something in our heart that's bad. But after Samuel
warned them, this is what's going to happen, they still said, nay,
we want a fleshly king. So we grow impatient with the
Lord's providence. Like Sarah and Abraham, the Lord's
going to give you a child. Well, it didn't come quick enough,
so they honestly thought what she was doing was right when
they had Ishmael. But we act on our thoughts instead
of waiting on the Lord. And foolishly, we err with a
full conviction that we're just and we're right. We truly think.
I do that often. So many times I think, boy, what
I'm doing is good. But I unfortunately find out quickly that's not the
case. But never think while you're doing something wrong and there's
not an immediate repercussion, there's not an immediate correction
from the Lord that what you're doing is okay. Matthew Henry
wrote this, said, We must never think well of that which God
in His law frowns upon, though His providence may seem to smile
upon it. So just because we know outwardly
or inwardly what we're doing is wrong, and we haven't received
the negatives yet, that doesn't mean what we're doing is right.
But chapter 12 begins right after those sacrifices, and the celebrations,
and they got their king, and Samuel calls all of them and
says, for them to listen to Him. And He shows His fairness and
His wisdom to them. And He has served them His whole
lives, what it tells them. Samuel reasons with them. We've
heard that before, haven't we? Isaiah says, Come now, let us
reason together, saith the Lord. So Samuel here in this whole
chapter, whole book is a type of Christ. His birth was a miracle.
Before he was born, he was sanctified to the Lord. He was set apart.
And there was no charge that could be laid against him. He
was a prophet. He declared what would happen
before it happened, and then it came to pass. And he acted
on the will of God, own, not his own. He was there about his
father's business. And he patiently and he kindly
mediated between the people of Israel, between the Lord's children
and the Lord. He was between them. So in 1
Samuel 12 and verse 3, Samuel says, Behold, here I am,
witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed.
Whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken? Or
whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or whose
hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes therewith? Who
paid me to look away? and I will restore it to you.
Show me what I did wrong and I'll give it back to you." And
the people, they said, Thou hast not defrauded us nor oppressed
us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man's hand. They knew
it had been fair with them. Verse 5 says, And then he said
unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and has anointed
his witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand."
And they answered, he is witness. They said, yep, the Lord can
be our witness. We agree with you. You haven't done anything
wrong to us. That would logically lead you to someone you might
want to listen to. An older person is wiser and you've lived a lot
of years and they've never done you wrong. Maybe you want to
pay attention. So, him declaring himself here
in verse 16-18, he calls on the Lord to send thunder and rain
in the day of harvest. So, now it brings me to my first
point. When the believer knowingly sins
against the Lord, what happens? Well, first, we're brought to
see our sin. So, in 1 Samuel 12, 16, Now therefore
stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before
your eyes. Samuel says, harken up, listen, watch what's going
to happen. 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."
The Lord is going to perform a miracle to show you that what
I'm telling you is the truth. "...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 feared, greatly feared the Lord and Samuel."
During that time of year, during the harvest, you all understand
this here, sometimes it don't rain. And it don't rain and you
don't expect rain. But during that time, during
the harvest, it was a period in that area that it didn't rain
much at all. And so the crop would stay dry
and they could gather it and house it without rot. And no one expected rain during
either the time of year, or they didn't see rain coming. And then
I can tell you when it's going to rain. Normally, my knee and
ankles and everything else, you start aching when that pressure
changes, don't you? But within the same time period, a great
storm arose. Thunder clouds came and storms
and rains. So it was a miracle. It was obvious
to the people of Israel that this happened. And that's why
they greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. Now they understood,
because Samuel has been telling them, what you're doing is wrong.
So the Lord allowed there to be a miracle to prove it to them.
We're convinced of our sin, and that's a miracle that happens.
But for a person to truly understand they're depraved, it's accomplished
in direct contrast to the holiness and righteousness of Christ.
When we're allowed to see what He is, it's not hard at all to
see how low we are. The higher we see Him, the lower
we become. But when we're made to see Him
as He is in truth, our hearts are open. And we can only see
ourselves as completely lacking, and that's a miracle. When we
fear the Lord and His prophet, it's a work solely performed
by the Spirit. We can't choose to do those things. When the
Lord creates those miracles like we saw last time, the blind see
and the lame walk, right? But in our day, instead of a
prophet requesting of the Lord a storm to come, instead of those
things happening outwardly that we can see, the Lord sends a
messenger to his people, wherever his lost sheep are. fly from
New Jersey to here or he may shipwreck you on an island or
whatever it is, but the Lord sends a messenger and that word
is a miracle and it pierces your heart. And then you hear the
Lord thunderous marvelously in your heart, don't you? You hear
it for the first time. So we're made to see our sins.
What happens after we see it? And we know that God is just
to kill us exactly where we stand. Then we seek a mediator. So in
chapter 12 and 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." They knew they were sinful, but
they said there they have added to all their sins this evil to
ask for a king. I wonder why they would distinguish
that. Obviously it's one act that they did, but they were
conscious of their other sins. But this evil is unbelief. That's the source of any sin,
truly, you don't believe the Lord. Eve didn't. When you boil
it down, and anything I do, I do it, I don't believe the Lord.
That's my nature. I think that my way is better, or I turn to
my thoughts, or my wisdom, or my wants and desires, instead
of what the Lord declares. But that's the base of it all.
Let's turn to Jeremiah 2. Jeremiah 2 and verse 13 says, For my people have committed
two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns
that can hold no water. You all know about cisterns here
too. Unbelief, it puts the trust in ourselves. We forsake those
living waters. We forsake the Lord and we turn
and we make cisterns. We make some that will catch
our own water and they're broken. We're not able. We can't hold
water. But not only do we forsake the
Lord, we attempt to make our own means of life. He's the living
waters. He's the life. We try to make
it ourselves. But Israel had a mighty king. They had the Lord
over them. But even with Him in their presence,
complacency came around. They got used to it. Everything
was good. There's no trials going on. So then they started... minds
started to wander. He was their God and they were
His people, but that wasn't enough. And they understood and begged
for Samuel to intercede for them afterwards. Once they saw their
sin, please talk to us. But that's easy for me to look
down, for them to be complacent and not be thankful for what
the Lord's given them, but how could that happen? Christ said
in Mark 6, a prophet is not without honor, but in his own country,
and among his own kin, and in his own house even. So it's easy
to, Lord said we will, we'll be complacent when we come in
contact with Him and how thankful we are for those trials that
bring us back to His knowledge. But once we see that and we understand
our sin, we seek a mediator. And then after that, what happens,
we're pointed to Christ. So back to 1 Samuel 12 verse
20, And Samuel said unto the people,
he said, I told you so, didn't he? No, that's not what it says.
Samuel said unto the people, fear not, like Bob read earlier. Fear not, that's all throughout
the Scriptures. ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn
not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with
all your heart." Samuel is a faithful watchman. That's a faithful high
priest to him. He doesn't discount their sin.
He doesn't minimalize it. He doesn't make light of it.
He tells them, yep, you did, but fear not. We should never
make light of our sins, we should confess them and acknowledge
them. Let's turn to Psalm 51 real quick. It's easy for me, I'm in a bad
habit of reading the scriptures instead of having people turn
to them, but I do better when I get to read it while somebody
is telling me about it. Psalm 51, there in verse 2, says, wash me thoroughly from
my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. But against thee and thee only
have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Believers made
to know those things, made to see it, and then were comforted
and told to fear not. Jeremiah 3, 25, it says, We lie
down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us, for we have sinned
against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from even our
youth until this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord.
We're brought to see our sin. We're brought down. We're humbled
before God and our Redeemer. And we're shown that Christ is
all. Showed not to fear. We're showed He's our righteousness.
He's our intercessor. He's our Savior. And trusting
in Christ has put away our sins. We're told fear not. Once you
have that knowledge, once you look to Him, there's no reason
to fear. Advocate to the Father. But trusting in anything other
than Christ is vanity. It's foolishness. And back in
our text there in 1 Samuel 12 verse 21, He tells them again,
"...and turn ye not aside." He keeps saying that to them. What
does that mean? Look to the Lord. Look to the
Lord. Don't look to yourself. Look
to the Lord. And just echo it and say it and say it and say
it. I was telling Bob, I told some of you the other day, I
felt real Lowell, before I got up to preach last week at home,
and I didn't feel like I had anything for these folks, and
our brother Rob got up to preach the first message, Rob Keller,
and man, it just went right along with my message. And I was like,
oh, that's great. Maybe the Lord did give me something. And Ravi
Dudnath got up and read the scriptures. And boy, oh, it was perfect.
I couldn't have picked a better scripture to be read before my sermon.
And so the Lord comforted me. I was miserable for two or three
days. And about two minutes before I got to that pulpit, I was calmed.
I was like, I have something for these people and I'm excited.
But as Brother Bob was reading, I thought, oh man, that just
goes really well with mine. What's the difference? I felt
so full just sitting right there. They preached Christ. That's
a message. That's why I have a hard time
picking a title. I pray if the Lord enables me,
if the Lord gives a man something to preach, every message. Look
to Christ. Look to Christ. Turn ye not aside.
Turn ye not aside. Constantly. He's all. I'm sorry. Same in 1221. And turn ye not aside. For then
ye should go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver,
for they are vain. And Jeremiah 10, 14, it says,
Every man is brutish in his knowledge. Every founder is confounded by
the graven image. For his molten image is falsehood,
and there is no breath in them. All those idols, all those gods
that we come up with on our own, those kings that we want, there's
no life in them. And the next verse there in Jeremiah
says, And they are vanity and the work of errors. In the time
of their visitation, they shall perish." So once it comes about,
all those things will go. Those earthly kings will fall
away. Our idols and whatever that may be, whatever foolishness
we come up with, it will all perish. It's all vanity. It will
all go away. But our Redeemer won't. Christ won't. So we're
showed our sin. We ask for a mediator. We're
pointed to Christ. After we sin against God, then
what happens? Let's look in verse 22. 1 Samuel 12, 22. Here's our comfort. This is a
believer's assurance. We worry about all these things.
And I look to myself all the time and think I need to do different.
And I look to me more and more. And the more I look to me, the
lower I get. When I should be looking to Christ, the more scared
I get. But I shouldn't be fearing. So
1 Samuel 12, 22. For the Lord will not forsake
His people That's a comfort. But why? The Lord shall not forsake
His people for His great name's sake, because it has pleased
the Lord to make you His people. The Lord will not forsake His
people. Jeremiah 31.3 says, The Lord hath appeared unto me of
old, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. He pulls us
to us. Let's look in Deuteronomy 7. Deuteronomy 7, verse 7. The Lord did not set His love
upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than
any other people. He didn't pick you because you were great. For
you were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. And because he would keep the
oath which he hath sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now therefore,
that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which
keepeth covenant and mercy to them that love him, and keepeth
his commandments to a thousand generations. That's comforting. The Lord thy
God, He is God. Maurice Montgomery said that
once. He said, our God is God. I pray I never tell you my opinions
or my perceptions. This is, well, you know, I think
this is what the Scriptures are saying and for me this is my
truth. No, our God is God. We declare
it. But the Lord won't forsake us.
Why won't He forsake us? Back in our text there it says,
for His great name's sake, It's for the benefit and preservation
of His name to show His power. 1 Chronicles 16, it says, And
say, Ye save us, O God, of our salvation, and gather us together,
and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to Thy
holy name, and glory in Thy praise. Turn over to Psalm 106. Psalm
106, verse 7. It says, Our fathers understood
not the wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of Thy mercies, but provoked Him at the sea, in the Red Sea.
That's what Israel did. They didn't remember all those
wonderful things the Lord did for them. They just provoked
the Lord. Nevertheless, He saved them for His name's sake. that He might make His mighty
power to be known." The Lord did it for His namesake. What's a namesake? That's not
something we use often nowadays. I'm a namesake. My grandfather
was William Bailey Thacker Jr. and he had four boys and he didn't
name any of them. None of them were the third.
And then when my father had me, he named me Kevin Bailey. And
so my grandfather just lit up. And I thought, well, he had four
boys. He could have named them whatever he wanted, you know. But he said,
oh, there's my namesake. And every time I'd see him, he'd
say, Eric, come here, namesake. And he'd give me a piece of candy
or something. But he was so thankful I had his name. But the bride
of Christ, we receive Christ's name. That's the name we're given.
And through the work of Christ, we receive all His spiritual
blessings. We're made like Him. And Christ is doing the work
of the Lord. They have the same name. But it's pleased the Lord
to make you His people for His name's sake. So if God has chosen
us for our good behavior, it would be just as easy for us
to be unchosen or discarded for our bad behavior. But that's
not it. Christ is our surety. We were chosen in Him, not in
ourselves. In Exodus 6, it says, And I will take you to Me for
a people, and I will bring you I will be to you a God, and you
shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you
out from under the burdens of Egypt. Jeremiah 31 says, But
this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in
their inward parts and right in their hearts, and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people. So in Exodus, Deuteronomy,
Zechariah, all throughout the word, all throughout the scriptures,
the Lord says, you will be my people and I will be your God.
That's a commanding covenant. But the source of that is His
namesake. That's our comfort. I've talked
this out 10 different ways. I don't know if I can make it
clear. Our assurance is not something we do. It's not a baptism. It's
not walking down an aisle. It's not acts that we do or giving
to the church. Our assurance is the Lord saved
and elect people for His namesake, for His glory. It's for His glory
and our benefit. I hope I can pound it out. But
anyway, whenever it pleases the Lord to show a believer their
sins, and we have sinned, we're sinning right now this morning,
and we're going to sin this evening and tomorrow, and it ain't going
to stop until this flesh is gone, until it dies. But when He pleases
to show us that, we confess it, and we're pointed to Christ,
and we seek a mediator. We seek Him to stand between
us and the Father, that we die anon. We're taught that our sin only
condemns us, but our Redeemer, that's the one that saves us.
We have an advocate with the Father. Then after that, we're
assured that God the Father sent Christ as our substitute for
His glory and our benefit. And just like the first time
we're convicted, we have nowhere to go and nothing to cling to
than Christ every time. pleased the Father to do that.
He made the promise, and Christ is able to keep the promise. I hope I have the comfort to
you, but don't believe that after this trial or this sin that we
choose, after this next king we pick, that'll be it. We'll learn our lesson. No, it'll
happen again. The Philistines will come, the
Ammonites, and we'll pick our kings, and we'll fail and fall.
give up on him every time, but the Lord will continue to redeem
us. He'll continue to give us a high priest, and Christ is
always their force, and we'll look to Him. Next trial comes,
I can promise you, at the end of it, if you're His, you'll
cling to Christ. You'll look to Him at the end
of it. And then you'll have another trial. And then finally this,
like our sister Kathy, will be well, will be whole. Over this,
we may lock Him and get to see Him face to face, but until then,
I hope that's a comfort to you. Thank you brother.