Back here with me in 1st Samuel
25. Told you I was going to just use that
one verse. But really that one, those three
words, and Samuel died. And Samuel died. And all Israel
gathered together and lamented him, wept over him. Our Lord
doesn't give us a great detail about the deaths of his people.
He doesn't do that. The one he gave us the greatest
detail about his death was our Lord Jesus Christ. Great detail
about the death of our Lord and what it was for, who it was for,
why it was for, what it accomplished. But God doesn't say much about
the death of his saints other than his own blessed son. But
I can tell you one thing we can say about Samuel. He died in
faith. He died in faith. Hebrews 11.32
says that, what shall I say? And then Samuel and David and
the prophets are mentioned in that verse. He's in Hebrews 11,
Samuel. He died in faith as all God's
saints do. And also know this, that his
death was precious in the sight of God. You keep this and look
over in Psalm 116. Psalm 116. Oh, he died in faith and all of God's
people are going to die in faith. Every single one of them. Psalm
116. And it was precious in God's sight.
Look what the Lord said here. This is what God said about it.
God had several things to say about His people and their deaths. He said it was a blessed thing
to die in the Lord. But He said in verse 15, Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. We can talk about our faith being
precious, the blood of Christ being precious, Christ being
precious to us. But here's something that God
said is precious to Him. Valuable to Him. Great worth
to Him. Something that He has found so
very precious. Whenever He calls one of His
saints home, and when He called Samuel home, God said, He was
precious in my sight. His death was. And oh my! And I'll tell you something else
about him. Not only did he die in faith and he's precious in
God's sight, but he lived a long, long, fruitful life. This man,
as they say, was in his 90's. He was an old, old, old man.
And he was in his 90's. So he lived a long, fruitful
life. And then look what it says. And
they lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah. They
buried him at home. Maybe in the backyard, front
yard, beside the house, I don't know. But said they buried him
in his house in Raymond. Maybe they dug up a hole inside
the house and buried him in there. But it says they buried him in
his house. Buried him in his house. Oh my. He was buried at home. That's
a wonderful place to be buried. Don't make no difference where
you're buried. If you're buried with Christ, it don't make no
difference where this body goes anyway, does it? And then it
says here, he was lamented, wept over, loved, admired, had been
a faithful prophet. They lamented over him. That
word lament means that they just wept and carried, cried and went
on for a long time. They wept over him, they loved
him, they admired him. Been a faithful prophet. And
Samuel, left behind a testimony. He left behind a legacy. You
know the memory of the just is blessed. When you think about the saints
that's been on that you know personally that God's took on.
The memory of them is blessed. When you think about them, your
memory is blessed. You think about him and you remember
such good things, wonderful things. And that's what he means. And
this is a man who left behind a legacy. And here he is with
thousands and thousands of years on down the road. And here I
am, I'm talking about him. In the memory of this justed
man is blessed. God blessed it. God blessed it. And many is going to spend their
entire lives their entire lives getting earthly goods. Getting
earthly goods. Houses, cars, bank accounts. Nothing wrong with any of those
things. Not a thing in the world wrong with any of those things.
But if you make that your whole purpose in life, then you're
really in trouble. I've got earthly goods. I've
got a house. Got a car. Two of them. have a bank account that's just
one, that's all you need. But listen, but I do know this,
that that's not my purpose and I don't believe it's yours. I
don't think that's our aim. Because we know every bit of
that's going to be left behind. Going to be left behind. And
though we may have all these things in this life and may even
enjoy them, But may we, by God's grace, do like Samuel, leave
behind a testimony of a life lived on Christ, by Christ, through
Christ, and because of Christ. May God enable us to do that.
I'll tell you a couple true stories. I know of two men that died without
Christ, and this is what they wanted. One fellow was laying
on his deathbed, down in Grassy Cove. And he had a bunch of black
cattle. He's really liked his black cattle.
Told his wife, said, I want somebody to gather all my cattle up here.
Gather them around up here close to the house so I can see them
all. Because that's where his heart was. That's the last thing
he wanted to see. Want to see all of his cattle.
And then there's a fellow that was pretty close to me. He is
on his deathbed and he told his wife, he said, I want you to
get my knife collection and I want you to get my arrowheads and
put them right up here on the wall while I lay on here at the
couch so I can look at them. So I can look at my knife collection
and my arrowhead collection. But Samuel died and people lamented
him. Died in the faith. Oh my. Precious in the sight of God
was He. His blessed death. When I leave this world, and
I know you do too, I want to be looking at Christ, not anything
else. Well, let me tell you some things
about Samuel and some of the legacy that he left. And I tell
you what, there's a lot of folks that left a wonderful legacy.
Wonderful legacy. People that I've known that's
went on and they've left a wonderful legacy, a wonderful testimony
behind them. But here's the first thing we
can say about Samuel. And he left behind. He was a
man who knew God. He didn't know some things about
God. tried to figure out God, tried
to find God, but he actually knew God. He knew God. Samuel was chosen and called
of God at a very, very young age. You remember he was just
a child when God called him. Just a child when God set his
affection on him. And God called to Samuel. You
remember when he was just a boy and he was in Eli's, he was in
the court and Eli was the high priest, was the priest. And he'd
hear a voice, and he'd say, Samuel, Samuel. He'd get up and run to
Eli. What is it, Master? Go lay back
down. I ain't said nothing. Samuel,
Samuel. He'd run up back to Eli. What
do you say, Eli? What do you say? He said, oh,
he said, I believe God's speaking to this boy. You go back and
you lay down. And the next time you hear your
voice, say, speak, Lord. God spoke to Sam. He was just
a boy. He was just a boy. Just a boy. And I tell you what, God called
him. He was a man who knew God. You know why he knew God? Because
God knew him. When God knows you, you'll know
God. Paul says, you know, I've known
of God, rather know God, or rather known of God. And then not only
was he a man who knew God, oh my, to leave this world and say,
boy, that fellow knew God. And then he was God's prophet.
God spoke to him, through him, and all Israel knew he was a
prophet. Look over here in 1 Samuel 3. Look over here in 1 Samuel
3. All Israel knew he was a prophet.
Look in verse 19, 1 Samuel 3, 19. God spoke to him. God spoke through him. And everybody
in Israel knew he was a prophet. And look what it says here, verse
19. And Samuel grew. Now, oh, I love
this here. The Lord was with him. The Lord
was with me. Oh my! You want to go somewhere,
wouldn't you like to say, well the Lord's with me? Well He is! If you're the Lord Jesus Christ,
you belong to Him. He's with you. And did let none
of His words fall to the ground. Whatever Samuel said, it had
power, it had authority to it. And all Israel, from Dan, even
to Bathsheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet
of the Lord. The Lord appeared again in Shiloh
for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh listen to
this by the word of the Lord and what a blessed thing to put
on a man's Tombstone a man here lies a man who knew God who knew
God Put his faith in Christ Not only was there a man who knew
God not only was he God's prophet But he was a faithful man He
was a faithful man. He stayed his course. You know,
I preached Sunday morning about run, we have a course. Run with
the race before you. That we have a course laid out
for us. And Paul said it like this, he said, I've fought a
good fight, I kept the faith, and I finished my course. And
there's an end to our course one of these days. And his course
did come to an end one day at his house. in his house and they
took him out of his house and buried him but he stayed that
course and he beloved he got to the end of the course and
when you get to the end of the course there ain't no place to
go but to Christ and go into glory now that's why Paul said
I finished my course he was in his nineties you don't hear about
it say well I need it's time for me to retire time for me
to cash in my retirement take life easy Huh? You know the Marines, they say
to one another this, and I see a Marine with a hat on that says
he's a Marine, or an emblem on that says he's a Marine. I always
say to them, I walk up to them, I say, simplify. You know what
that means? Always faithful. Always faithful. And I tell you,
beloved, that's what he was. He was faithful. And I think,
I've said this before, I truly think that one of the greatest
marks of a believer is faithfulness. Faithfulness. God's faithful
to us. He's faithful to His Son. He's
faithful to us. He was faithful to save us. He's
faithful to keep us. He's faithful to His Word. He's
faithful to His promises. And beloved to us to be faithful
to Him and be faithful to the Word, be faithful to the Gospel,
be faithful to the local assembly. That to me is one of the greatest
marks of a believer anywhere is to be faithful. Be faithful. So, well, you know, I said, that
fella's here today putting that thing, and he said, how long
you been here? I said, 40 years. Whoa, my goodness, he said. And
then I started talking about Larry and Cindy. I said, I think
they started coming about 1980. Can you imagine that? 80, 90,
2000. How about 40 years yourself? and faithfulness to go and say,
yes, they'll be there. I know where they're going to
sit. And that's what he was. That's what Paul said, keeping
the faith. And I tell you, beloved, he is
a faithful man. He stayed his course. And how
many preachers and how many people we know over the years that stayed
their course? I mean, God set them a course
and they stayed on that course. And Samuel was Israel's last
judge. He was the last judge of Israel.
Look over here in 1 Samuel 7. You know, judge means, you know,
that they judged Israel and saved Israel from their troubles. You know, and the people would
come to him and he would make judgments to them. Make judgments
among the whole nation. And he was Israel's last judge.
The book of Judges is before Samuel. He was Israel's last
judge. Look what it says here in verse
15. And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year
in circuit. Went around to all these different
places. And he sat as a judge. And people would bring him their
problems and bring him what they needed and bring him all the
things that he needed to judge about. And he'd sit and he'd
judge them. In Acts chapter 13 it says that
he was as Moses and the prophets who spoke about Christ in the
end times. And he also served as a priest.
Do you remember that when Saul went up to Amalek and he didn't
do all that God told him to do about Amalek. And Samuel was
supposed to meet him at a sacrifice, an offer of sacrifice. Well,
he was late in coming, so Saul took it upon himself to offer
sacrifices. And when Samuel got there, he
really, really wrecked him over the coals. So he was a priest.
And he offered a sacrifice when David was anointed king over
Israel. He was a prophet and he was a
priest. And he was recognized as a prophet, a great prophet
like Moses who spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I'll tell
you Samuel, Samuel left a legacy. And though a prophet, a man of
God, a man who knew God, and a faithful man, here's something
about him. He's still just a man. He's still
just a man. His family life wasn't perfect.
His family life wasn't perfect. He had two sons and neither one
of his sons knew God. Neither one of them. But you
know, when it comes to your children a lot of times, we have blind
spots. Well, he had a blind spot for his son. And I want you to
see this. Look over at 1 Samuel 8. You know, all these things
here about Samuel. You know, look at 1 Samuel 8.
He had a blind spot for his sons. But look what it says about them
here in verse 3. They didn't follow God as he
did. Look what it says. Verse 3. And his sons walked not in his
way. But listen to this. Turned aside
after lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment. Oh my. Here's a little bit of money.
Here's something. You come down on my side and
I'll give you this. Well that's what they did. Samuel
wasn't like that at all. But he had a blind spot for his
sons. Look what it says back up in verse 1. And it came to
pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over
Israel, knowing good and well what they were like, knowing
the type of men they were like, and yet And that's what David
said when he laid the sweet psalmist of Israel. The scriptures tells
us that he was laying in his bed and had a maiden there to
keep him warm because he's an old man. And he's getting ready
that these would be the last words of the sweet psalmist of
Israel. And this way it was with Samuel. His house wasn't perfect. His sons didn't follow in their
father's footsteps. wicked men but anyway David said
though although it be not with my house my children my grandchildren
all of my sons and all of my daughters there although it may
not be so with my house God hath made with me an everlasting covenant
ordered in all things and sure And that's the way it was with
Samuel. I tell you, I may leave this world. I've got a son and
a daughter and three grandsons and a whole bunch of little great-grandchildren. And I may not see any of them
become a believer. But I may leave this world, but
God Himself knows whether there's any seed sowed in their hearts.
You know, Ethel left and she never seen Herman become a believer.
People go all the time and then their children become believers
after they're gone. And I tell you what, it may not
be about where's my house right now. It may not be that way. And your house means your family,
your generation. But God made a covenant. And He made it with me. And He
made it with you. And he ordered it. He ordered
this covenant. And he made it sure. He made
it sure. And then let me tell you something
else about what a legacy this man left. He was a man of prayer. You know, let me tell you a couple
of things about this. First of all, he was born as
a result of prayer. You remember Hannah? When she
went up to Jerusalem, they went up there and at the yearly sacrifice,
And she got up there and she was praying, Lord if you'll give
me a child, if you'll look on your handmaid, and if you'll
give me a man child, I'll turn around and I'll dedicate him
to you and I'll give him to you and a razor will never come on
his head. She come back the next year and she had a son. You know why she
named him Samuel? You know what Samuel means? Asked
of God, the name of God. Asked of God. Well, God heard
her. And he gave her Samuel. Samuel
got about five or six years old. And she took him right back up
to Jerusalem. Took him right back up to the
priest and said, here he is. I told you, Lord, he'd be yours. I told him I'd give him to you.
You gave me, and then she had lots of kids after that. But
I tell you, he was a man born as a result of prayer. And he
thought it, and I'm gonna tell you something. He thought it
was a sin for people not to pray for one another. You think, I'll
show you that. Look over here at 1 Samuel 12.
He thought it was a sin for people not to pray for one another. Chapter 12 and verse 23, look
at this. Well, you got to look up here
back up in verse 20 and look what happens. Look at the context
of it. Samuel said unto the people, Fear not. You have done all this
wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but
serve the Lord with all your heart. All your heart. Turn not aside. Don't go after
vain things which cannot profit nor deliver for they are vain.
for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake
because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people moreover
as for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord now listen
to this sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you God forbid that I sin against
the Lord in ceasing to pray for you do you ever Let me ask you,
well, you know, but I'll teach you the good and right way. You
know, you've had folks ask you, please pray for this or pray
for that or pray for me about this or pray for that. And then,
you know, you say, OK, I'll do that. And then they'll mention
it to you and say, boy, do you remember praying? And all of
a sudden, you just, oh, Lord have mercy on me. And I did. And it smites your conscience,
you know, that I forgot. And it's an awful thing. If somebody
asks you for prayer, and then by God's grace, remember
them. I tell you some people, I don't
know if it's the right thing to do or not, I don't know. But
some people write things down. You know, write down people's
names and write down situations and things. You know, I need
to pray for this one, that one, and the other one. And pray for
them that way. If you can't remember in your
mind, write it down. And say, listen, I want to remember
this person, that person. I want to remember this situation,
that situation. And let me show you another one.
Over in Psalm 99, verse 6. Look what it said here. Psalm
99, 6. Talking about prayer. Everybody has their own place
and their own time to pray. But look what he said here in
verse 6. And Moses and Aaron among the priest, and Samuel
among them that call upon his name, they called upon the Lord,
and listen to this, and he answered them. He answered them. God hears us. God hears us. God hears us. And God Himself
gave testimony to Samuel. He said over in Jeremiah 15,
He said this, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, I will
not accept these people. And though Moses and Samuel stood
before me, I wouldn't hear of them regarding these people.
That's what He said. And He was a man. Here's another
thing about Samuel. He was a man who understood rejection. understood rejection. I should
have told you, keep your Bible here, because look back over
here in chapter 8. Back over here in chapter 8 about Samuel.
He was a man who understood what rejection was. You know, all the elders of Israel said
to Samuel, said, oh now, make us a king to judge us like all
the nations, because your sons are not doing what's right. make
us a king and the people said give us a king give us a king
but look what it says down here verse 6 but the thing displeased
Samuel and they said give us a king to judge us and Samuel
prayed unto the Lord and the Lord said unto Samuel go ahead
and listen to the voice of the people and all they say unto
thee for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me
that I should not reign over them. That's what he said. He
was a man who understood rejection. We don't want you Samuel. We
don't even want God. We don't even want God. So he
understood what rejection was. Nobody likes to be rejected.
Nobody likes to be, well I don't want nothing else to do with
you. Nobody wants to do like that. And then last of all, he
was a man that was honored. It says there in our text that
all Israel, all Israel gathered together and lamented him and
buried him in his house at Ramah. David must have been there because
David after that arose and went down to the wilderness of Perun.
And you know they rejected him. Here's the thing about it. They
rejected him in his life. Didn't want to listen to him.
He rebuked him. He warned him. He told him to leave off their
false gods He prayed one time and God sent thunder And he messed
up their harvest for him. I mean God when he prayed God
miss it and They rejected him in life, but wept when he died
and that's what our Lord Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees
said you garnish the tombs of the prophets and And you say
if we had been in the days of our fathers we wouldn't have
treated the prophets like that. We wouldn't have killed them,
we wouldn't have hated them, we wouldn't have despised them,
we wouldn't have stoned Moses. He said, well by saying that,
that you say you're the sons of the prophets, you're the sons
of the fathers that did that. So you're just making them, you
know Spurgeon's gone? I know soul winners that quote
Spurgeon. Yeah, after somebody's dead and
gone, it's easy to build a monument to them. That's another thing,
then, that Phil's talking about today, about funerals, you know.
Somebody dies and somebody has to take care of somebody and
The family won't help them and even when they die, the people
that didn't do anything to help them at all, they'll cry the
hardest and wail the longest and fall all over the casket
and carry on like they're fixing to die. Never done anything.
And that's the way they done Samuel.
Samuel, listen. We didn't want you, we want a
king. We don't want a prophet, we want a king. You know Samuel died. Oh, Samuel,
Samuel, what a man, what a man. But he faithfully, faithfully
led them. And I tell you what, I want this
to be the last time we look at anything, but look with me over
here at 1 Samuel 7. I'll just look at this and then
I'll be done. You know, Oh, I tell you what, people's
the worst things and you know, people are bad and there's more
of them in this world than anybody else. People's sorry. And if God don't, God save us,
God help us, God keep us. But there's a, and here's Samuel. They said, oh Samuel give us
a king. But look what Samuel was so faithful to them, look
what it said here in verse 3 and 4 of chapter 7. And 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, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve
him only. And he will deliver you out of
the hand of the Philistines. Now listen to this, then the
children of Israel did put away Balaam, and asked for wrath and
served the Lord only and then Samuel when they defeated the
Israelites look what it says down verse 12 we sang that song
here I raised my Ebenezer either by thy help I've come that's
what happened here when they defeated the Philistines so greatly
because of the way Samuel prayed and God sent a great thunder
and they scattered and then Samuel verse 12 took a stone and set
it between Mizpah and Shen and called the name of it Ebenezer
saying hitherto hath the Lord helped us and beloved we sang
about Ebenezer big stone there every time they looked at it
the Lord had helped us to hear Here are the two after the Lord
helped us. And oh may God help us. Help me and you. I can think about your mother
and your daddy. Both of them left a good testimony. Herman
left a good testimony. How many peoples left a good
testimony behind? When you think about them, your
memory is blessed. And when I tell you what, I hope, you know, we'll have
to wait and see. Of course, I won't hear it anyway.
I won't hear it. You don't want to make a difference
in what anybody says. But I remember Albert Blalock
one time, his nephew got killed. We went to the funeral home up
at Billbridge. And there's just him and that
boy's girlfriend and me. That's all three people there. And that old boy was laying,
that young man's laying in his casket and old Albert said, well,
he never did amount to nothing when he was alive and he still
ain't worth nothing to him. That's what Albert said. And
he told the truth. You know, but he said it right
there in front of, you know, but that's, that's what I'm talking
about. But when we leave this world,
we'll not hear what anybody says about us. Samuel didn't hear
these people weep and lament over him. And we won't hear what
anybody says about us when we're gone. But I do hope that people
won't say, well, he's a pretty good fella, but he just, you
know, he's alright. I hope they say that he was faithful,
he finished his course, and he preached the gospel. But if I
can leave this world with just that one thing, this man preached
the gospel, that'd be enough for me. That'd be enough for
me. Not only did he preach it, but
he believed what he preached. That'd be enough for me. If that's
all anybody ever said about me, he preached the gospel. That'd
be enough, wouldn't it? That'd be enough for anybody,
wouldn't it? Yeah, that'd be enough for anybody. Either if
he didn't preach it, he believed it. He believed it. He believed
it. Oh, blessed Father, in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for allowing us to
meet here tonight. Thank you for allowing us to look into
your word. What a joy it is to know you, rejoice in you, trust
you, believe you, cast our cares upon you, trust you with our
lives, trust you with our souls, trust you with our families,
trust you with everything in this world, trust you with it
all, everything. And Lord, whatever you do with
us, I'll be just fine. And Lord, we do pray that you'd
help us all. When we leave this world, leave
with a testimony. They were believers. They loved
Christ. They knew Christ. They believed
Christ. And they left here with a good,
good hope. Oh God help us to glorify and
honor our master while we live because we'll never be able to
do it after we leave here. We bless you and praise you in
Christ's name. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free. Well, good night and God bless.