If you'd like to follow along,
I'm gonna be in 1 Samuel chapter two. But I'm not gonna be talking
about Hannah. Although I really like Hannah.
That's not what we're doing today. 1 Samuel two and verse 22. Now, Eli was very old, 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 and He said unto them Why do ye such things? For I hear of your evil dealings
by all this people Nay my sons For it is no good report that
I hear. I Ye make the Lord's people to
transgress. If one man sin against another,
the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the
Lord, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they hearken
not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them. I'm gonna stop right there. This
is Eli speaking to his two sons. This is Hophni and Phinehas. These were not nice men. They
were priests. They were priests. But they were
not nice men. They were bad men. And more than
that, they were bad priests. Wait a minute, they were priests?
Oh yeah, they offered sacrifices. They did. And they were bad priests. They offered bad sacrifices. Incorrect sacrifices. How can
I say they're bad? I don't know their hearts, no.
No, I don't know their hearts, but I actually do know the word
of God. And if you look at verse 12 of First Samuel chapter two,
you'll read these words. Now the sons of Eli were sons
of Belial. Wait a minute, it didn't stop
there. They knew not the Lord. You mean a man could have been
a priest in the Old Testament and not knew the Lord? That's
exactly what I mean. I'm gonna tell you right now,
there's a lot of people running around here right now, in this modern
era, calling themselves priests, They know not the Lord. They were the sons of Belial.
Of course, being called the sons of Belial was not a compliment.
It was a condemnation. Because here's what sons of Belial
mean. Sons of worthlessness. Worthless, without profit, wicked,
ungodly, and evil. Eli was a priest himself. And
his two sons were bad priests and Eli was no, nothing special
either, to be honest, because this had been going on for a
while. And matter of fact, Eli had gotten fat off of it. I'm
not going to go into all the details on this, but I do want
to tell you this, this is the definition of a bad priest. And I'll add it in for free.
This is the definition of a bad preacher. It's verse 24. They made the
Lord's people to transgress. That's the definition of a bad
shepherd right there. Because Hophni and Phinehas were
feeding themselves and not feeding the flock of God. And what's
it say in the scriptures about that? Woe unto them. And a lot of people don't know
what woe is. But let me tell you something.
This book will tell you what woe is. It's not good. It's not good. They were not
feeding the flock of God. They were taking from the sacrifices. And they were taking the Lord's
portion. And I'm gonna tell you something,
folks. He won't have that. He will not
have that. That's the definition. And they
consumed it themselves. They violated the sacrifices
of the people of God to the Lord. That's bad. But what I wanna talk about today,
I'm not gonna go in too much particulars into that other than
what I just did. I wanna deal with this statement.
Who shall entreat for him? Because that's what caught me
about this. And I actually, before the end of this comes up, I'm
gonna tell you this, I'm gonna end up personalizing this. Who
shall entreat for me? For me. Again, Eli talking to his son
said, if one man sins against another, And I'm gonna put it
in here this way. When one man sins against another,
the judge shall judge him. What's he talking about? He's
talking about in a sin man against man, man will take care of it.
You understand? That's what he's saying. That's
what he's telling his boys here. When a man does something, commits
an offense against a man, breaks the law of man, by man he shall
be judged. And there's nothing wrong with
that. A property dispute or theft among men should be dealt with
by men. Now I know some say, well that's
man's law. And you know what that means?
It means I don't want to obey it. I want to break it. A lot of people use that's man's
law about a couple of things in this area, okay? One of them's
trespassing on somebody's property so they can hunt. And the other
is breaking the speed limit. Now, I don't trespass on people's
property to hunt, but I have been known to break the speed
limit, and I apologize. But here, that will be dealt
with by a man. When that cop pulls you over
and you say, you got me. Guess what? He's going to write
that ticket, and I'm going to pay that ticket. Because I don't
want to go to jail. What is it? I don't want to be
found in contempt of court. Because yes, it is man's law.
And Paul tells us, obey them that have the rule over you.
He didn't say enjoy obeying them that have the rule over you,
because you may not. But it is for your good and God's
glory. But obey them that have the rule
over you, why? Because God put them there. So, if one man sin against another,
the judge shall judge him, man shall take care of him. And like
I said, I got no problem with that at all. But here's the next
thing that comes up. And I'm gonna change this too.
But when a man sin, what? Against the Lord. When a man
sins against the Lord. Not sin against man. When a man
sins against the Lord. Because here it is, in this context
right here, this direct context, ooh. Eli's talking about some
directed real sins against the Lord. By his two sons, Hothni
and Phinehas, who he is talking to. He had these heinous, heinous,
how do they say that on law and order, heinous, malicious, rotten,
evil sins directly against the Lord. He had those in his mind
when he was saying this. Because Hophni and Phinehas were
desecrating the sacrifices of the Lord. They were not offering
the correct offerings to the Lord. God gave explicit, and
I mean explicit instructions as to these sacrifices and these
offerings. Walter's been dealing with some
of it in Leviticus. And there's much more there than
what we've been talking about. What he's been talking about.
But what it comes down to was Eli's sons were robbing these
sacrifices and these offerings to the Lord. And they were taking
what they wanted. And they took the best and they
gave God the leftovers. That's you know. You start messing with the burnt
offering. Because the burnt offering was the whole cow. The whole
lamb, the whole sheep, the whole goat, whatever it was, it was
the whole thing. And every single bit of it goes
to God. It says at the beginning of it,
yes, it'll be an atonement for you. But that sacrifice was the
whole totality in picture of Christ to God. All of it goes
to God. You don't get a bit of it. The
priest didn't get a bit of it. and that these boys were taking
it, and you can read up to there, give it to us or we'll take it
by force. Yeah, and the sacrifices had to be made according to the
law also. Oh, this was a sin directly against
God. These were the offerings and
sacrifices of God's people, the congregation of Israel. They
were making burn offerings and sin offerings and trespass offerings
to God. And Hophni and Phinehas made
the Lord's people to transgress, why? Because those sacrifices
weren't going the proper way. They weren't going the way the
Lord had ordered. And because, it says in verse
17, wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before
the Lord for, Men abhorred, abhorred, hated, avoided, disliked intensely
the offering of the Lord. They were causing the people
of God to transgress. That's the context. Hophni and
Phinehas offended and trespassed against the holy Lord. And this is a sin against God. But I'm gonna tell you this.
There's more than this that's a sin against God. Just in case you think I'm making
stuff up, I'm gonna look at Psalm 51, just for a minute. Verse
four says this. Well, before that, let me read
the introduction. To the chief musician of Psalm
of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone
into Bathsheba. He starts off saying, have mercy
upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. David has taken full responsibility
for what he did. Now, he didn't take full responsibility
for it until after he'd done it. But he's taking full responsibility
here, and then he says this in verse four. Against thee. What? Thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified
when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Very clearly,
very... David sinned against Uriah. David
sinned against Bathsheba. And David sinned against himself. But that's not what David's talking
about here. The same very sin against Uriah was a sin against
God. The same sin against Bathsheba
was a sin against God. And the same sin against himself
was a sin against God, against the Lord. David wrote this after
he'd been with Bathsheba and he states categorically that
this was a sin against the Lord. I've done this evil in thy sight. Any sin against a man or a woman
is a sin against the Lord. I'm gonna say that again. And any sin by a man against
a man or a woman is a sin against the Lord. And that's the way
it is. Now I know that's not what Eli's
talking about here in First Samuel, but he's talking about sin against
the Lord. And that's where this comes in. And I'm not just making
this up on my own and not taking it here because I'm gonna tell
you that's exactly what Jesus Christ said. Let me find it here. Because this is where, as they
used to say, the rubber meets the road. If you remember, our
Lord Jesus Christ knocked the Ten Commandments down to two. I love it when people have the
Ten Commandments up on a wall. Why don't you just put those
two? Those are the words of Christ. Those are the words of Christ.
They're not my words, they're not your words, they're the words
of Christ. He said the whole law could be boiled down into
these two things. And aren't we great for wanting
simple things nowadays? Not if they're about God we don't,
but we don't want complicated things about God either. Let
me find the... And one of the scribes came this
is a mark chapter 12 verse 28 one of the scribes came and having
heard them reasoning together perceiving that he had answered
them well asked him which is the first commandment of all
and Jesus answered the first of all the commandments is here
o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the
first commandment. And the second is what here? The second is like. What? They mean the same thing. Now
that's the first one, and he's very clear. This is the first
commandment. The Lord is one God, and you can love him with
all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. But the second is like,
namely this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Now, what else does he say? There
is none other commandment greater than these. That's why you can
get two commandments. I'm gonna tell you this before
we get started. You can't keep either one of them and neither
can I. The only one who ever did was the one doing the talking
right here. Jesus Christ the righteous. The Lord our God is
one God, see? So here's the thing. If you're
not loving the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your mind,
all your soul, and all your strength, you are sinning against the Lord. Well, you mean in church? Well,
yeah. You sin in church. You sin in
church. I sin in church. People, if you're
seeing this on TV, you're sinning at home. Because you're not loving
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Because you can't. You're corrupt and your flesh
will not worship God. You understand? This is why we
needed a new man. Because the old man's absolutely
no good. The old man was dead. Wait a minute, the old man is
dead. To not to do this, is a sin against
the Lord. But you understand, that second
one is like this. Just exactly like it. To not
love your neighbor as yourself. Now what's that mean? Okay, well
that means you won't steal from your neighbor. That means you
won't covet your neighbor's ass, your neighbor's wife, you won't
bear false witness. Because how can you love your
neighbor as yourself when you're gonna go tell lies about them?
How you gonna love your neighbor as yourself when you go tell
the truth about him? You understand, this is the thing. He's not talking
about just loving your neighbor, he's talking about loving your
neighbor as yourself. And I have enough problems with just loving
my neighbor, much less loving him as me. But here's the thing,
if I don't love my neighbor as myself, guess what I'm doing?
You're sinning, I'm sinning against the Lord. just like it says here in 2 Samuel. Oh my, to not do this. See, so don't take what Eli said
to his sons too much to heart, the first part of it, where he
says, if man sinned against man, let the judge be judge. Let man
take care of it. You understand? That's true,
and we need to obey those that have the rule over us, but understand
this. Just because you stood before
the judge down here doesn't mean that the judge up there is gonna
let anything go by. Because if you sin against a
man, you're sinning against God. There is no free pass. You understand? Walter, when they let some of
them guys out and they can come out and they said, I paid my
debt to society, right? And they have. Legally, they
have. They're free to go. But being
free to go, according to the legal system, doesn't carry any
weight with God Almighty. And it never has. Never has. What? I've done this evil in
thy sight. You understand? God don't wanna
look on evil. God doesn't wanna see evil. It's
an offense to his eyesight. It's an offense to him. So, then Eli asked that question. Who shall entreat for this one? Who's gonna entreat for one who
has sinned against the Lord? You understand? Who shall speak
for the one who has sinned against the Lord? Entreat for him. Not just entreat about him, entreat
for him. Who shall intervene? Who shall
intercede? Who shall be an advocate? Isn't
that a good question? Isn't that a good question? Because
I'm gonna tell you something, Eli from the context here, and
he was right, from Eli here is acting like there ain't nobody
gonna help you if you sin against God. That ain't so. We're getting
to it, but it ain't so. Because here's the other good
question for you. Do you know you need somebody
to entreat for you? Because this whole world surrounding
us thinks that part's over. or they've taken care of it.
Now you understand, I need some entreatin' every day. I need
somebody that ever liveth to make intercession, what? For
me, for me. Job asked this question, or talked
about this, he said, neither is there any daysman betwixt
us that he may lay his hand upon us both, on both. A go-between, a daisman to argue
for me. To plead for me, to reason with
God for me. A go-between, an advocate. I
remember, was it down there at that meeting at Henry when we
were there when the guy talked about the daisman? He was preaching
from that and he called it the umpire. Sending in the umpire,
the game's out of control. And I always thought that was
a little strange. But then I thought about an umpire. I was telling
Debbie about this the other day, was watching football. Yes, I
watch football, it's all right. My wife watches football, so
it's okay. An umpire, here's the thing,
an umpire controls the whole baseball game. He's in charge. He's in charge, you understand?
He says play ball, and he says don't play ball. He calls the
game on account of rain. Or he says, let's go back out
there. And you also hear a thing about the umpire. He says who
plays, and he says who doesn't. That's right. You go sit on the
bench. You didn't come in right. You
ain't coming out on the field until the umpire says it's OK.
Oh, and here's the thing I thought about. I told Debbie this. I
said, the umpire can throw you completely out of the game. I don't know if I want an advocate
like this. Yes I do, but you gotta realize who you're dealing
with, folks. He'll throw you out of the game,
he'll tell you, you can't play anymore. But ha, Job wanted more
than just an umpire, though. Job wanted an umpire who entreats
for him. That's what he wanted, that's
what Job wanted. And you know what Job was asking for? Job
was asking for a mediator. That's what he was asking, that's
what he said to me. Because you gotta be on both. You gotta be
able to touch both sides. You understand? I mean, I'll make it here personal. Who
will entreat for me? You understand? Who will mediate
between Almighty God and me? Now I could ask a man to do this,
but it probably won't work. I could ask Walter over here
and tell him that I needed somebody to speak to God for me and explain
my side to the Lord. Now I have a deep suspicion that
Walter would look at me and tell me, Joe, you don't have a side.
He'd be right. And besides that, Walter tell
me, I can't go up there. He said, I need somebody for
me. You understand, every man needs someone to entreat for
him. No man, well, there's one man, but no man living today
here on this earth physically, been born on this planet in the
last 100 years or whatever, 2,000 years, can approach God in and
of himself. Why? Because we have all sinned
against the Lord. and come short of his glory.
You understand? Oh, we've all sinned and come
short. No, you've all sinned against God, against the Lord,
and come short of the glory of God. Now, Paul knew what he was
saying, and they knew what he said when he wrote that. We just
kind of threw it under the bridge, and it's just something we say.
It's a cliche now. Well, we're all sinners, brother.
We're all sinners. No, you're all sinners against
God. We've all sinned against God
and come short of the glory of God because we have absolutely
no good deeds. None. And here's the thing, God
will not accept any excuses or explanations. Well, Walter, I
ain't got no side, I don't. He has showed me that. That's
what it means to be a sinner, to realize you don't have a side. You understand what Moses said?
Who's on the Lord's side? I don't care about your side,
I don't care about your side. I care about the Lord's side.
That's the side I need to be on. Oh, first Timothy two and
verse five says this. For there is one God. How about that? Isn't that how
the first commandment started out? The Lord our God is one
God. and love him with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength. But what does Paul write? For there is
one God, and. And that's one of the most blessed
ands in the Bible right there. And one mediator. Between who? Between who? God and men. And who is it? The man, Christ
Jesus. That's the answer. Who shall
entreat for him? If it ain't Jesus Christ, it's
of no account. If it's not Jesus Christ, and
I mean the Christ of the Bible, the Lord of glory, God manifest
in the flesh, the man of sinless perfection, the God of the perfect sacrifice.
And the perfect sacrifice to God. The real thing that Hoffman
and Finneas were back there messing with in the past came to fruition
in this time. God manifest in the flesh by
his good works, by his sinless perfection, by his perfect sacrifice
to God and by his willingness and willingly bearing our sins
in his body on the tree is our mediator between God and man. Our sins had to be punished.
Understand that's the only way you can stand before a holy God,
you gotta be sinless. That's it. People don't, oh,
they think God forgives sins like we forgive people who trespass
against us. No, God doesn't deal with us
that way. God's a holy God, God's a just
God. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Ah. You understand this word
mediator? Well, there's one God and one
mediator. I look at one of the definitions, it says to restore
peace. Well, I marked that part out,
because the next one's more true for us, to make peace. That's
what a mediator does. He makes peace between two people. Now, you understand, in our case,
I said we don't have a side. God does. And Christ can take
hold of both of us because he has paid the debt, the sin debt
against God that we owe. This man died for our transgressions
and sins against the Lord. He died the death of his people. He was wounded for our transgressions
against the Lord. He was bruised for our iniquities. And our iniquities were against
the Lord. And the chastisement of our peace was upon him. The
Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. He saved his people
from his sins. That's what the angel said, told
Joseph what he was gonna do. Call his name Jesus for he shall
save his people from their sins. And he has, he has. And he entreats for me. And he entreats for you if you
know him, if you believe him. He stands between the Lord, who
I sinned against, who you sinned against, and he stands in our
behalf as our advocate. Now he's not pleading our case,
he's pleading his own. You understand? He's looking
at God, he can look at God in the eye as an equal. Why? Because he is equal. They are
one. But he can say, I paid every
sin that Joe Galuzek ever did, will do, and is doing right now. I paid every sin that Walter
Pendleton has or will ever commit. And you know what God says? God says, yes you did. And that's
that right there. Me, right here, believe this
or not, I'm a child of God. And if you believe him and you
trust him and he has saved you, you are a member of the family
of God. You are a member of Christ's
body. And he's our head, why? Because
he entreats for us. He entreats for us. He has reconciled
us to God. And he ever lives to make intercession,
who? For us. He tells God, I've bought them
with my precious blood. And they're mine. And all mine
are thine, Father. Now, I'm gonna tell you something. Man does this all the time, but
the father will never disrespect the work of the son. Oh, we do
all the time. I was saved, oh, I backslid,
now I'm out of Christ. You wasn't ever there to start
with, folks. You understand? Because if you're without Christ,
you've always been without Christ. And if you're in Christ, you're
gonna be in Christ till he puts you out, and that ain't gonna
happen. And the father respects the work of the son. Man doesn't,
but the father does. Because believers do have a days
man. The man Christ Jesus, and he
does lay hands on both of us. Now the bad news. Back in 2 Samuel. Verse 25, but
if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? We
all know Jesus Christ shall entreat for him or no one else can. But
here it says, notwithstanding, they hearken not unto the voice
of their father because, because the Lord would slay them. What are you talking about here?
I mean, this is serious as serious gets, right here. Hear the word
of the Lord about Hophni and Phinehas. They wouldn't hearken. They would not hear, they would
not understand, and they would not obey. And they would not believe. Why? They knew not the Lord. You understand? You can't believe on him on whom
you've not heard. And you can't hear it without somebody circumcising
your ears. And they would not offer the
proper sacrifices because they knew not the Lord. And because they knew not the
Lord, they would not hearken. And it says this, because the
Lord would slay them. God was gonna kill these two
boys, and he did. He didn't do it right here, right now. But
you can read on in a few chapters, these boys are dead. We're not
playing. Here's the two choices, hearken
or death. Now I can tell you this, those
that are dead are not gonna hearken. And those that hearken, they
aren't dead. That's why it's two options,
that's it. But here's the thing, not everyone
will hear. That's just the truth. It's not pleasant, it's not fun,
but it's the truth. Not everyone will hearken, not
everyone is given ears to hear. But, here's the thing, there is forgiveness
with thee. Why, with who? The one who didn't
treat for you. the one who entreats for you. I know some people say, oh, I'll
come when I want to. I don't think so. Oh, I'll believe
when I want to. I don't think so. Oh, I'll obey
when I'm convinced. Well, that I believe. But I can also tell you this.
If they don't obey, they ain't convinced. There is forgiveness with thee.
but that's only in Christ Jesus, the Lord. And he has said that
he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And yes, folks, that's sinners
who sin against the Lord. Who will hearken for him? Christ
Jesus is the only one who will hearken for the sinner against
God. Now the question is, do you know you're a sinner? Because he came to call sinners.
Now, not to any, to repentance. To repentance. You understand, Walter, that's
that thing about that whole thing, well, we're all sinners. Yeah, but
you ain't repentin'. No, matter of fact, you sound
kind of proud about it sometimes. You understand, he came to call
sinners to repentance. Now he did not come to call good
people, righteous people, even people who thought they were
righteous. That's not why he came. But he did tell them to
call sinners, so will you come to him? If you'll come to him, it's because
he's entreating for you. But if you come to him, he will
entreat for you. Come to him. His yoke is easy
and his burden is light. You know why? Because he's done
already all the heavy lifting. He's carrying the load. His yoke's
easy, his burden's light. He's carrying the whole thing.
And just making you feel good like you think you're doing something.
That's me. I'm not poking fun at you, I'm
talking about me. He is my Lord and my God. If my Lord and my God entreats
for me, who can stand against that? What
shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for this time and this place. Your Lord, your Son, our Lord,
the Lord from heaven that you've given to us, and you have given
us to him. Thank you, Lord, for all you've
done and you're doing. Be with Walter as he comes to
preach your gospel in this place and give us ears to hear and
a mind to grasp the things of the Lord. We can only learn from you. In
Christ's name we ask, amen.