We've been going through the
whole book of Hebrews, and we came to chapter 11, and have
been dealing with each single person mentioned, each name mentioned,
sixteen names. We've been dealing with them
individually. And we come to the last one, Samuel. Samuel and,
in verse 32, the last line speaks of, by faith, Samuel and He goes
on to say, "...who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness
were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the
armies of the aliens." Samuel and the prophets are who we are
going to consider this morning, by faith. were men chosen and called by
our Lord, men whom God spoke to, who spoke to the people for
God. That's what we've read in the
very beginning of this book. God who in sundry times and diverse
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. God did not speak out loud then,
nor does he now. that he speaks through men. And
he spoke to the prophets and through them to the people. And
the Lord used these prophets to write his word, like Samuel,
1 and 2 Samuel, Isaiah, and so forth. Prophets. Those are men
that he chose and called like the apostles, and the Lord mentions
in the same breath, evangelists, pastors, and teachers also, whom
the Lord speaks through now, through his Word. Now go back
to 1 Samuel chapter 3. We want to look at some of the
story of Samuel and how these men were known as being sent
by God and how they are known now. Because Romans 10 says,
How shall they preach except they be sent? If a man is truly
a preacher, God sent him. How do you know? How do you know? Well, they're known by the Word
of God that they declare. That's how they're known. Isaiah
820 says, To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not
according to my Word, there's no light in them. Jeremiah 23,
I was going to have you turn there, but read it for yourself.
Most of you are familiar with it. But throughout Jeremiah 23,
he talks about those false prophets who tell their dreams and use
lies and likeness and think to have the people forget My Word
through their dreams and steal My Word. They don't preach the
Word, or else they pick and choose. or else they misapply it or twist it, as Peter said. Paul
said, we're not as many which corrupt the Word of God. And
that's what false prophets do. Not God's men, no sir. They preach the whole counsel
of God, the Word of God, as it is declared. And Jeremiah 23,
he said, That's the chaff. These false
prophets are the chaff. What's the chaff to the wheat?
But he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. And that's what the prophets
did. That's what the apostles did.
And that's what true evangelists, pastors, and teachers did. That's
how you know them. That's how you know them. And
all of them are called by God. Like Samuel, verse 1, chapter
3. Verse Samuel 3. Child Samuel
ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord
was precious in those days. Precious means rare and valuable,
invaluable. Something you have to have, something
you can't live without, something that's vital. The word of the
Lord was precious then, and it's even more precious now because
it's even harder to find. Was it Amos that talked about
there being a famine in the last day? Not of bread, plenty of
that, but of the hearing of the word of the Lord. There are a
lot of Bibles, but not much faithful, verse by verse, clear, plain,
true declaration of God's word. But God has not left himself
without a witness in every generation. He has those men like Samuel
who preach the Word completely. 1 Samuel 3, verse 7, Samuel,
this young man Samuel, did not, young boy, did not yet know the
Lord. Neither was the Word of the Lord
yet revealed unto him. You've got to be lost before
you're found. And so Samuel did know the Lord. You know, every
child of God, the Lord has to reveal Himself to them. We're not born believers. We're born dead in trespass and
sin. There comes a time when the Lord
has to give life to His people. New birth. So this happened to
Samuel. How did it happen? Well, the
Lord spoke to him. New birth comes one way. The
Word of the Lord. By the witch will, begotten through
the word of Christ. Peter said, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, the word of
God which liveth and abideth forever, the living word. Verse
10, the Lord came and stood and called as other times, Samuel,
Samuel. The Lord came and stood. The
Lord came and stood. Sounds like when the Lord came
down and stood with Moses, doesn't it? What's the Lord we're talking
about here? The Lord Jesus Christ. The same yesterday, today, and
forever. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who calls his people. He said, My sheep hear my voice,
and Samuel heard him. And he heard him, and he answered,
And so the Lord revealed himself to Samuel. Down in verse 19,
Samuel grew. The Lord was with him. And the
Lord let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground. But they were effectual. As the
Lord said, My word shall not return unto me, but it shall
accomplish that whereunto I sent it. That's why a true preacher
doesn't want to do anything but preach the Word of God. He knows
that his comments and his works and all his will fail. They will
avail nothing. But the Word of God is his power.
And so you'll notice a true preacher of God will fill up, his messages
are full from start to finish with God's Word. We shoot many
arrows at a venture, hoping, believing. that the Lord will
use one of them as he pleases for someone. So verse 20 and
21, the Lord established Samuel. Samuel was established to be
a prophet of the Lord. The Lord appeared to him and
revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
In verse 1 of the next chapter, the word of Samuel came to all
Israel. I thought it was the Lord's Word.
Well, it was. It was. But like Paul, remember Paul
called the gospel his gospel, didn't he? My gospel. He even
said this, if any man preach any other gospel than that which
I preach, let him be a curse. And every true preacher has got
to be able to say that. He's got to be able to say that he
preaches the same gospel that Samuel did, the same gospel that
Paul did. And if anybody doesn't preach
that gospel, the gospel I preach, it's not the gospel. We're not bragging on ourselves,
we're just bragging on the truth. 1 Samuel 4, you just read that,
wouldn't you? Chosen, taught, led, sent by
the Lord. They were faithful men. Samuel
and the prophets. The Lord puts these people in
Hebrews 11 not for us to worship, not for us to give them any glory.
They are due our respect and honor, but not glory. But the
Lord is glorifying himself, and the faith, or this wonderful
gift that he gives to human beings, that without, they can do nothing. These men could not do what they
did unless God gave them this extraordinary, wonderful gift
of faith, right? Neither can we. So to God be
all the glory. But the Lord made these men faithful
men. That's how you know them. True.
Faithful means true. True to God's Word. True to God's
Word. True to God's glory. This is
the acid test of every doctrine, of every preacher, of every so-called
church, who's getting the glory. That's the answer to that. Who's
getting the glory? That's how you triumph. Triumph.
Alright, if they're coming in God's name, do you hear their
name more or His? Do you hear about their works
or His? Do you hear about what man does
for God or what God does for man? Who's getting the glory? That's the acetate. And these
men were true, true to God's Word, true to God's glory. Remember
John? The Lord commended John the Baptist. John wouldn't even tell his name. The Lord called him the greatest
man born of woman. Never been a greater, anyway.
And they came to John and said, Who are you? He said, Voice. He said, and here's how you know,
He must increase, I must decrease. John said, I want you to know
Him. Forget me. There were two disciples that
followed John, and John was preaching, Behold the Lamb of God, behold
the Lamb of God. Every true preacher is pointing
men to Christ, not himself, Christ. Look to Him. Look to Him. Follow
Him. John had two disciples, and it
said, They began to follow Christ. They left John and followed Christ.
And John thought, my mission has been accomplished. John had
two church members and he lost them both and praised God for
them. They started following Christ and not following them. These were men that were true
to God's glory, true to God's people. True to God's people. Our Lord said of pastors, and
you can take great comfort in that. He said, I will give you
pastors after my own heart. That is, men, men mind you, there
are no women preachers. God's Word expressly forbids
it. Say what about what? What about
what? We're not going to answer that. He said, I'll give you
pastors after my own heart. That is, men who love God's Son. God's heart? What is the heart
of God for? His Son. God loves the honor
and the glory of His Son supremely. He made the whole universe for
Him. He made men for Him. He purposed this thing of salvation
for His Son's glory. He's going to make a new heaven
and a new earth for His Son's glory. And so those men who have the
heart of God, they love Christ, they love God's Son, His glory,
and they love God's people. They love God's people. One of
the old preachers years ago said this, and I've never forgotten
it. He said, it's one thing to love to preach. It's quite a
different thing to love those to whom you preach. A lot of
fellows want to stand up and hear themselves speak. want to
be in the limelight. But God calls men who love the
people of God and want them to hear the message of God. Love
those to whom I was so blessed with one such name. Am blessed. And as I said, the Lord is the
one who put pastors in the same breath with with prophets and
apostles and evangelists, pastor and teacher. Now, evangelists,
pastors and teachers do not, have never had, never will have
the power, the authority, the gifts that the prophets and the
apostles have. No, sir. Any man pretends to
do so, he's pretending. And he's not God's man. God gave
those men, prophets and apostles, powers that He has never given
and never will give to any other man because the Word of God was
not yet complete. They were being used to write
the Word of God. And those gifts and those miracles
and so forth validated that God sent them, were obvious proof
that God sent them. Undeniable proof. No man can
do what you do except God sent you. It made the people sit up
and listen to what they were saying as the Word of God. And
all we do, a true pastor and teacher, is repeat what they
said. Repeat. Telling it again. These were men with a message
from God. Paul, in his farewell to the
Ephesians, He said this, he said, I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. He said,
I've kept back nothing profitable unto you. Kept back nothing.
True preachers don't keep back the Word. Who does a man think
he is to withhold the truth from the people? I've heard it said
of some fellows, or I've heard some fellows say, well, this
is family doctrine. We don't preach election. Well,
this is family. Are you an imposter? Who are
you to hold back the Word of God? It's family doctrine, all
right. It's the God's people. They're the only ones that will
hear it, but tell it loud and clear. God's people will receive
it. Yeah, they're worried about the
jobs is what they're worried about. These are men with a message. Paul said in that letter or that
farewell to Ephesians' elder, he said, I preach day and night. I preach repentance toward God. and faith toward the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the message. It never has changed. The message
never has changed. Repentance toward God. Look at
1 Samuel 7. This is what Samuel and the prophets
preached. 1 Samuel 7. Repentance toward
God. David said, "...against thee
and thee only have I sinned." Repentance toward God. It's God.
All sin is against God. It's God that we repent to, not
men. God. Samuel spake unto all the
house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with
all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth
from among you. That's idolatry in it. Repent.
Turn from your idolatry. Prepare your hearts unto the
Lord and serve him only. And he'll deliver you. He'll
deliver you. Samuel, that's repentance toward
God there. Your idols and so forth. Turn
from your idols to serve the living and true God. And here's
a faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9, Samuel took
a sucking lamb and offered it. What's a sucking
lamb? Why did he offer a lamb? He just
preached repentance. Now why is he offering a lamb?
Behold the Lamb of God. Christ's repentance toward God.
We ask God for forgiveness. We repent toward God. And we
look to Christ for that forgiveness. Look to Christ for faith toward
our Lord Jesus Christ. God will receive all that come
unto Him, all that turn to Him, all whom He turns to Himself
by Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ. And then verse 12. Oh, I love this story. I've got
to hurry, though, but he took this stone and set it between
Mishpah and Shen and called the name of it Ebenezer. The name
meant, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. A stone? A stone has
helped us? What are you talking about, Samuel?
Oh, well, God's people know what he's talking about. Huh? Moses, what is that rock following?
That rock is Christ. The rock of ages. Here we raise
our Ebenezer, don't we? Everywhere God's true people
are, then and now, they raise their Ebenezer. What's that?
They exalt, they set forth, they declare, they preach, they worship
the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ. Hitherto by his help. That's our Ebenezer, isn't it?
Jesus Christ. Christ is all. Alright, these
were men of prayer. Men of prayer. Verses 8 and 9
of chapter 7. Children of Israel said to Samuel,
cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will
save us out of the hand of the Philistine. And so verse 9 says,
Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel. Samuel cried for Israel. Go over to chapter 12. Chapter
12, he said this, verse 19, you have it? Chapter
12, verse 19, all the people said the same of pray for thy
servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not. You know, sad
to say it, you don't read much of them praying for Samuel. But
he sure prayed for them. And it says in verse 22, the
Lord will not forsake his people. And verse 23, moreover, as for
me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease
Him to pray. If he's a man of God, he's praying
for God's people and he's probably losing a lot of sleep over it. Paul said in Acts chapter 6,
he told them to choose deacons to wait tables and do the business
and all that. He said, we'll give ourselves.
There's two things that the minister, the preachers were to give themselves
to. We will give ourselves to prayer
and the study of the Word. That's it. Prayer and study. And it will show. It will show. Samuel and the prophets, these
were men who were respected and even feared. My, my. This is
amazing. Verse 18. of chapter 12, Samuel
called on the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day,
and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. I couldn't help but think of
my father-in-law, what he said one time that made a great impression
upon me. Now, you know we're not the pure
men. But God did give these men such
authority, and everybody didn't have the Bible, you know. Nevertheless,
these men commanded respect. They didn't demand it, but they
commanded it. Their lives and their word and
their integrity and so forth commanded the respect of the
people. But I remember one time my father-in-law
said this about his pastor, this man. There was some division. He said, I would be afraid. I
would be afraid to go against God's man. That made a real impression on
him. And he didn't diddy that. He never did. He was such a faithful,
faithful, devoted member. My, my. And the man, that man
knows that. Paul said, he's entrusted me
with the gospel, entrusted him with God's people. He is well
aware of his own inability. He is well aware of his own sinfulness. He is well aware of his total
dependence on God. And so he cries. He is a man
of prayer because he cries constantly. He cries constantly. And as I
said, these are men that weren't to be worshipped, but heard. They were men to be heard and
esteemed and supported. Not as gods. One time, well,
several times when Paul and Peter and John, they would go into
a town and the Lord would do great things and people would
try to worship them, wouldn't they? And they would rip their
clothes off and run and say, don't do that, we're just men.
Like that angel in the Revelation that John fell down before the
angel, didn't he? Fell down and he said, don't
do that. He said, worship God. Worship me and worship God. He
said, I am of your brethren, the prophets. John didn't know
who it was. It may have been Samuel. Don't
worship me. A true man, God won't let people
worship him. God won't let them. God will
show that man himself to such a point that he wouldn't dream
of elevating himself. But Paul said, we don't owe no
man anything. We don't owe honor and respect.
Let's do. I greatly, you know, maybe I
keep referring to my pastor because God gives, this is the greatest
gift that God can give to a people is a preacher of the gospel.
That's right. Not prosperity. And I'm so thankful. And I honor
this man. I respect him. And I owe him,
like Paul said one time to the Corinthians, you owe me. He gave his life to preach the
gospel then. Gave his life. As has every single
preacher I know. Left home, family, friends, job,
soul, everything. Brother Tom Hardy, a dear friend of mine, known
him from the very beginning. He was a Mormon priest. The Lord
revealed the gospel to him through this man right here. He came
and sat and became the most faithful member of 13th Street Baptist
that I've ever known. He was a janitor in the church,
a faithful janitor. He worked on a Walker Lift truck
on diesel in the coal mine, equipment and all that. He and I were dear
friends. I was working on a railroad and
he was working on coal mining equipment. We cut wood. We just
spent many, many hours together. A man I greatly, highly esteem. He had a nice home, a wonderful
home, two young children at the time, and a good job, a secure
job. And all of us, we had just a
bunch of young couples that we enjoyed fellowship together,
a church, a pastor, a little place down in Pikeville, Kentucky.
Have you ever been to Pikeville, Kentucky? But it ain't much. And forgive
me, but it just ain't much. The Lord called him. He sold
out. Quit his job. Sold his house. Took his small
children. And he was leaving. And one of
the preachers said to him, Brother Tom, don't sell your house. You
might want to come. He said, I ain't coming back. And there he is. You know how, what all hardships
he's dealt with. And I'm going to tell this. I'm
going to go ahead and tell this story. I hope it goes out. You
know how he's lived in the flood plain, you know? His home has
been flooded twice. And they're living in that ramshackle
piece together, the house that's been destroyed by flood. The
whole basement's boarded up. Can't go down there. So the Lord
provided the means for them to build a new house out of that
floodplain. Two members of that church that
had been there for over 20 years left, angry because they didn't
think he needed a new house. And that anger is a meeting,
no end. He left everything for them. They didn't deserve Him. That needed to be said, didn't
it? Put this on Sermon Audio. These were men that were respectable
men. And thank the Lord He has not
left Himself without a witness. Samuel said this, he said, I
didn't take anything from you. He told the people, he said,
bear witness, and this was back in chapter 12, he said, who did
I defraud? What did I take of yours? What
did I demand? And so forth and so on. Paul
said the same thing. He said, we didn't come in craftiness
and for our own glory and honor and our own name and so forth.
Now why do we speak of these men? Why am I going on and on
about these men? Because God did. Because God
did. The people who followed these
men needed to know that these were God's men. You don't want
to follow a false one, do you? You can know. 1 John 4 says,
try them. Test them. Put them to the test.
How? Like the noble Bereans. They
wouldn't even take Paul's word for it. They went home and searched
the Scriptures. And God's preachers Insist that you do. I'm going
to go, I'm going to find out what you're saying. So please
do. Take the word and search it.
Nothing to hide. They said if our gospel's hidden,
it's hidden. Not hidden because we hide it. Hid it in their laws. The Lord did. The Lord commended
these men and wrote their names down for us, and the Lord confirmed
to His people that these were His men. We need the same confirmation
now, don't we? Huh? We sure do. Do you remember how
He commended John the Baptist? People came and the Lord said,
and brought up John, He said, Who'd you go out to see? A prophet? More than a prophet. A reed shaken
with the wind? Some fellow you think you could
buy out and influence and a man-fleet? Is that what you... Oh, no, no.
The Lord commended him. And that confirms to God's people
we're not following the wrong fellow. We're not following the
wrong fellow. He's fallible. He's sinful. He's
just like you. He's no better than you. But
thank God He's giving him His Word to preach. And He'll do
that faithfully. And also, the Lord commends these
men and confirms their calling to God's people to, as we've
been saying, to show that this faith This faith that God gives
is a gift of God. It's the power of God. To make
a man sell out, to leave home, that's not of
the flesh. To make a man determined to do
nothing but preach Christ and Him crucified, regardless of
the results. to make a man stay and keep preaching
a message that few people will hear, and few people will come,
and you won't have big crowds, and you won't make a lot of money
and so forth. That's a God. That's a God. A man of flesh, a preacher that
runs that hasn't been sent, all he's out for is results. and his own pocket. That's right. His glory. His own glory. But
not God's preacher. Thank the Lord that he gave gifts. He that ascended is he that first
descended. And he gave gifts unto men. He
gave some Prophets, some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers, Ephesians 4, for the perfection of the saint,
for the work of the ministry. Thank God that he did. Thank
God. Thank the Lord for you.