Now you remember our lesson ended
last week with Hophni and Phineas. They were still acting as the
priests in the temple and so forth. They hadn't changed their
wicked ways at all, but the purpose of God was not thwarted. Even
though they're going about their evil ways, Samuel still grew
and ministered before the Lord. That's the way chapter three
begins. And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before
Eli. And the word of the Lord was
precious in those days. There was no open vision. And
the word of the Lord was precious in those days. Well, that's not
confined to that day. That's been true of every generation. The word of the Lord was precious
in that day. Nothing is more precious than
the word of God. both the written word and especially
the incarnate word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. And as I began
studying this week, the first question that came to my mind
is, is the word of God precious to me? Is the word of God precious
to us, to you? Well, I can answer from scripture.
God's word is precious to you if you have like precious faith.
Under you, therefore, which believe, he is precious. God's Word is
precious to you if you believe him who gave us these exceeding
great and precious promises. This is what you hang on to when
the hour is dark. And God's Word is precious to
you if this is your bread. This is the children's bread.
If you're a child of God, this is precious to you because this
is how we're fed. Children's bread, the Word of
God. And anything is precious if it's rare. In Samuel's day,
there was no prophet in Israel. There was no open revelation. The Lord hadn't given anyone
an open revelation in a long time. So God's Word was precious. He hadn't given a revelation
in a long time until now. Until right here in this chapter.
In verse 2, we read on, it says, and it came to pass at that time.
when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to
wax dim that he could not see. And there the lamp of God went
out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and
Samuel was laid down to sleep." Now, Eli, you know, we've studied
this. He's an old man, and as old men
get at night, you can't see at night. His eyes had become dim
at night. But all the writers say, and
I think this is true, that this is also happening to Eli The
spirit of prophecy, which had been with Eli for a long time,
was leaving him now. The son of Eli was setting and
the son of Samuel was rising. So it's nighttime and the candlestick,
we studied that in the tabernacle. The lamp, that's the lamp of
God. It was lit every morning and evening. And over the course
of the night, some of those bowls would go out. The oil would run
out or whatever and it would go out. But on this particular
night, None of them had gone out yet. And what that's telling
us is this is the middle of the night. Everyone's laid down to
sleep. And verse 4. It came to pass at this time
that the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, Here am I. And
he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I, for thou callest me. And
he said, I called not, lie down again. And he went and lay down.
And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. Samuel rose and went
to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And he answered,
I called not my son, lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet
know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed
unto him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time.
And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I, thou didst
call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord
had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel,
Go lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt
say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay
down in his place." Now, the Lord called Samuel audibly. The Lord doesn't do that anymore.
We have the completed Word of God, but it wasn't that way at
this time. He called Samuel audibly, by
name. Now the Lord, whenever he calls
any of his people, it's not just confined to Samuel. When the
Lord calls his people, he calls them by name. He calls them on
purpose. Jeremiah 1 verse 5, before I
formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. I always knew thee. I knew thee by name. I formed
you. I made you. I've always known
you in the covenant of grace. But now this, where the Lord
called Samuel, this is very rare. This hadn't happened in a long
time. You know, God spoke to the prophets, the fathers of
old, but hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time. And now the Lord's
calling a boy. This is a boy. And God's talking
to him. Now Samuel thought it was Eli.
So he goes to Eli and said, here I am. What do you need? He's
sleeping nearby. Eli, in case Eli, he's helping
serve Eli. And Eli said, well, I didn't
call you. Go back to bed. Don't wake me up. Go back to
bed. What happened a second time? And a third time, a third time
Samuel comes to him and says, now I know my ears are not deceiving
me. I know you called me. I didn't
dream this. I know you called me. Samuel thought it was Eli
because he did not yet know the Lord. Now Samuel knew the name
of Jehovah, didn't he? His mother taught him that. He
knew the form and ceremony of worship he'd been serving around
the tabernacle. He knew. Samuel could never remember
not knowing those things. His mother had taught him those
things. As long as he could understand language, his mother had taught
him those things. But the Lord had not revealed
himself to Samuel. Big difference between your mama
teaching you in your head and the Lord revealing himself to
you in your heart. Samuel knew the doctrine. He
knew the ceremony, but he did not know Christ. He was busy
in religion, but he did not know Christ until the Lord revealed
himself to Samuel's heart. And Samuel probably didn't even
know that the Lord spoke to me and it hadn't happened in such
a long time. Samuel hadn't heard of such a thing. Now, he knew
a lot of verses. from the written word, from the
law, and so forth, but he didn't recognize Christ, the incarnate
word, when he spoke to him, yet. But now Eli finally realized
who it is that's calling Samuel. So he tells Samuel what to do.
He says, you go away. And if the Lord is pleased to
call you again, you say, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
You're not doing the talking, you're hearing. So verse 10,
that's what Samuel did. And the Lord came and stood. and called us at other times,
Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak,
for thy servant heareth. Now the Lord came and stood.
This wasn't just a voice appearing out of the darkness. The Lord
came and stood. This is a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. Christ came to him in some bodily
form and spoke to Samuel. He came and stood. This is the
same one who called Abraham. Go to your father's house. Go
to the land which I'll tell you. Abraham, Abraham, don't slay
your son. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?" Here he's called Samuel. Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel did
what Eli told him to do. He said, speak for thy servant
here. Now, isn't this the prayer of our
heart for our children? that someday the Lord will call
our children. That's the prayer of our heart. Right now, our little ones are
sitting over there being taught the scriptures. And our prayer
is that one day the Lord will call them in mercy, just like
he did young Samuel. And they're going to grow up,
by God's grace, they're going to grow up just like Samuel did.
They will never remember a time that they did not know the name
of the Lord. That they didn't know that God's
holy. They're always going to know that and they'll remember
a time they didn't know that. They're always going to know,
at least in their head, they're always going to know this, that
they're a sinner. They're going to know it up here
because somebody's telling them. They're always going to know,
they'll never remember a time they did not know the historical
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ died on a cross to save his people
from their sins. They're always going to know
the doctrines of grace. They're never going to remember
not being a Calvinist. They're always going to know
those things. But they won't know the Lord unless God reveals
himself to them in mercy. And our prayer is that he will.
And if the Lord calls them, I'll tell you what they're going to
know. They're going to know it's not Miss Janet calling them.
It's not Tara. It's not the pastor. It's God. Our prayer is that he will call
them by name, just like he did Samuel. And Samuel said, Speak,
for thy servant heareth. And here is the message, verse
11. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in
Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it
shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all the things
which I have spoken concerning his house. When I begin, I will
also make an end. For I have told him that I will
judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth.
because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not.
And therefore have I sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity
of Eli's house should not be purged with sacrifice in our
offering forever." Now this is the message that the Lord gave
Samuel. A message that is so dramatic
that when people hear it, both their ears are going to tingle.
This is such a dramatic message. Now God told him before, told
Eli before, this is what he's going to do, how he's going to
judge Eli's house. And what the Lord's telling Samuel
here is, I'm going to do what I said. God always keeps his
word. He will do exactly what he said
he would do. And this is a message of judgment
against Eli and Hothnai and Phinehas. And there's going to be no sacrifice
for this sin. There's going to be no substitute.
for this sin. I told you last week how they
rejected the sacrifice. They abhorred the sacrifice of
the Lord. And when you reject the sacrifice
of the Lord, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. There
is no other way for sin to be paid for than the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. His sacrifice. God's justice
is going to be satisfied. No way around it because God's
holy and he's either going to punish you or he's going to punish
your substitute for your sins. He's going to punish our sins
one way or another, either in us or in our substitute. And
if you reject the sacrifice of Christ, the substitute, then
judgment will fall on you. And that's what's happening to
Eli here, to his sons. But isn't this message also a
picture of salvation? This is what God does for everyone
that he reveals himself to. They're going to see Christ alone. God's telling Samuel that everyone
that he counted on in religion, everyone that he looked up to
and respected in religion is going to be removed. All his
confidence, all his hope in the flesh is going to be removed
in a fell swoop. The whole foundation of Samuel's
religion is going to be swept away until nothing remains but
the Lord. Isn't that the same thing that
happened to Isaiah? He was so fascinated with King
Uzziah. God killed that man. And then
Isaiah said in the year King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. Now I saw the Lord high and lifted
up and his train filled the temple. That's what happened to the disciples
on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were so impressed. with
this glorious vision that they saw happening in front of them.
They're so impressed seeing Moses and Elijah talking to the Lord.
They're all, they were impressed. And then God spoke from heaven
in a thunder and they were afraid. They fell on their faces afraid.
And when they lifted up their eyes, what did they see? They
saw no man save Jesus. They saw Christ alone. John put an article by Henry
on the back of the bulletin. That salvation. The Lord Jesus
Christ alone. And that's what he's going to
reveal to Samuel. He's going to take away everything. So Samuel
only sees the Lord. Now verse 15. Samuel lay until
morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And
Samuel feared to show Eli the vision. Now Samuel didn't tell
anyone this vision. He just lay there. And then in
the morning he got up and he did all the lowly tasks that
he ever used to do. Seeing this vision didn't suddenly
make Eli, you know, grow above his duty. He still went and opened
the doors like he always did. David said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Samuel did. And can you imagine if this happened
today? We do anything that we could
to tell everybody as fast as we could that God spoke to us.
People do that even when God didn't speak to them because
he doesn't do that anymore. I mean, they just. But that's
not what Samuel did. He just didn't tell anyone. He
went and opened the doors like he always did in verse 16. Then
Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, hear
my. And he said, What is the thing
that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not
from me. God do so to thee, and more also,
if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he said
unto thee. And Samuel told him every wit, and hid nothing from
him. And he said, Eli said, It is the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good." Now, Samuel told Eli everything that the
Lord told him. After hearing the judgment pronounced again,
Eli made the famous statement that many of us have quoted so
often, it's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good.
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, but Eli did. Eli knew the
Lord. He knew that God is sovereign,
and he bowed to the will of the sovereign. Now God is sovereign,
and that means that he has the right to do with his creatures
As he will. That includes me and mine. It doesn't just mean out there
in the world that it means me and mine. That's what that means,
because God's sovereign. And Eli knew that. Eli knew that
God's holy. There is no unrighteousness in
him. He's holy. So everything he does
is holy and it's right. God's faithful and good, isn't
he? then everything he does is good. And what Eli's saying here is
this is going to cause me pain personally, but if God does something,
it's right. It's righteous, it's just, and
it's good. And even in this time, Eli who
knew the Lord could say, thy will be done. So verse 19, Samuel
grew and the Lord was with him and did let none of his words
fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even
to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet
of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord
revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
Now Samuel grew in grace and knowledge of the Lord, and even
at a young age, people from north to south, that's Dan was in the
north and Beersheba was in the south, from north to south, people
recognized Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.
And all the words that Samuel spoke as the prophet were true,
came true. All the judgments of Samuel were
true and they were right. The Lord let none of his words
fall to the ground. And what that's giving us the
picture of is his words being like arrows. None of his arrows
fell harmlessly to the ground. All of his words hit the mark,
hit the bullseye because God made it so. That's the story. Here's the
message, here's what I think we can take home and feed on. You can put this in your lunch
bucket, take it to work with you tomorrow. In Samuel's day,
the word of the Lord was precious. It was rare. No open vision. Well, same thing's true today.
The word of the Lord is precious. It's so rare, but God has not
left himself without a witness. And that day, God called Samuel
to be his prophet, and God still calls his prophets today, and
he calls them the same way. There's a pattern here of how
God calls his prophets. Now, it doesn't say in this day
that religion was rare, does it? It says the word of the Lord
was rare, was precious. Now, the same thing's true today.
The Apostle John said there are many false prophets going out
into the world. Religion is not rare. Religion
is abundant in our day. It's the word of the Lord that's
precious, that's rare. And our text here gives us some
ways to determine. How do I know if God's called
a prophet or if he's a false prophet? Well, you can look at
the pattern of Samuel. First, God calls his prophets
to the ministry. Eli didn't call Samuel to the
ministry. God did. In Hebrews 5, verse 4, Paul said,
No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called
of God, as was Aaron. Aaron didn't make himself the
high priest. God called him to be the high priest. Paul told
Timothy, he said, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled
me. He's the one that gave me the gifts and enabled me. He
counted me faithful. He made me faithful, putting
me in the ministry. God picked him up and put him
in the ministry. And I'll show you in Galatians
1 when he did that. In Galatians 1, look at verse
13. Boy, he didn't call Paul because
he was something else. He was so faithful and good,
did he? For ye have heard of my conversation, my conduct,
in time past, in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God, and wasted it, and profited in the Jews'
religion. Religion wasn't rare, was it?
I have profited in the Jews' religion, above many my equals
in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition
of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the
heathen." God called Paul, put him in the dust, and called him
to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And that's what he did. So God
calls a man to the ministry. Second, when God calls his prophet
every single time, he gives that man a message for his people. God gave Samuel a message for
Eli, didn't he? Well, he does the same thing
with all of his prophets. He gives his minister, his prophet,
a message for his people. Now, we have a message for all
men, don't we? We preach the gospel to all men
everywhere as much as possible. And that message is, repent and
believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. But all men do not believe, do
they? You preach it to everyone that you can, but all men do
not believe. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians, all men have not faith. So all
men aren't going to believe it, even though the gospel may be
preached to their human ears. But there is a message that's
specifically for God's people, for his sheep, and that message
is Christ, whom they love. God's going to give them a heart
to love it and receive that message, the message of Christ. And when
God calls a man to the ministry, He gives that man the message. And he gives him an understanding
of the word of God. And he gives him an understanding
of both the written word and the incarnate word. Now Samuel
grew in wisdom and knowledge and grace. And look at the end
of verse 21. I'll show you how he grew. By the word of the Lord. That's how he grew. By the word
of the Lord. God's preachers have an understanding
of the word. It's far from a perfect understanding.
It's far from being able to understand every verse and every line, but
they have an understanding and they preach it as opposed to
the false prophet. Look in Isaiah chapter 8. I'll
show you this. In Isaiah 8 verse 20. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, it is because there
is no light in them. Now, it really and truly is pretty
simple to understand if a man is God's prophet or not. Does
he say what this is saying? If he does, he's God's prophet.
If he doesn't, it's not that he's mistaken. It's not that
he understands part of the gospel, it's that there is no light in
him. That's what God's word says.
And you'll see here, notice this in our text, that the Lord appeared
again in Shiloh for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in
Shiloh. Now look over in Genesis 49. Tell you what that means. That's
Christ. He revealed himself in Christ,
in the person of Christ. That's what the word is. It's
Christ. In Genesis 49, the law first mentioned this is the first
time the word Shiloh is used in scripture. Genesis 49, verse
10. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come. and unto him shall the gathering
of the people be." Who's Jacob talking about there? He's not
talking about the city, is he? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who that means. Well, that's what Shiloh means
then through all the rest of scripture. Christ. He revealed
himself to Samuel in Christ. And the word Shiloh actually
means a place of rest. Well, that's Christ our Sabbath,
isn't it? He's a place of rest. And the city Shiloh What was
the first place that Joshua set up the tabernacle when the children
of Israel came into the promised land? Shiloh is where the tabernacle
was found. Well, Christ not only is our
place of worship, He is our worship. Christ is our sole object of
worship. And God's preacher, the man that
He calls to the ministry, leads God's people in the worship of
Christ. not things about Christ, Christ
himself. That's the message. He is our
sole object of worship. We preach Christ crucified under
the Jews' stumbling block, under the Greeks' foolishness, but
under them which are called Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. He is our message. It's like
the man John told us about last Sunday. He came to him and said,
God called me to preach. And John said, no, you didn't.
He said, how do you know? You don't have the message. The message is Christ. And that
is our message. That's our sole message is to
preach Christ. And the message that God gives
his servant is God's message. It's not man's message, it's
God's message. Samuel would have preferred not
to have been the one to deliver this message to Eli. He loved
Eli. He really didn't want to tell
him this. But it's God's message. And the message of every single
one of God's servants is, thus saith the Lord. That's the message. Thus saith the Lord. And God's
servant will tell that message no matter what it costs him.
Absolutely regardless of what it cost him, God's servant will
give this message and he'll be judged if he doesn't. Eli told
Samuel, God do so to thee and more also, if you hide anything
from me, you'll be judged if you don't tell the whole message.
He's going to tell it if he's God's servant. Now, the gospel
message. Is a message of mercy and grace
in Christ, isn't it? It is. But first, the gospel,
God's message to his people is a message of God's wrath against
sin. God told Samuel here in verse
13 about the sons of Eli that made themselves vile. Well, the
message of the gospel tells us that we've been made guilty.
We've been made vile in Adam. I mean, you can't just paint
sin, you know, to be something, it's vile. Oh, it's wretched
and vile. And we've been made vile, pollution
in Adam. And we've done a mighty fine
job of contributing to that ourselves, haven't we? And what that means
is this. That men, my children and your
children, you and me, are spiritually dead. Completely incapable of
doing anything to please God. And the gospel tells men that
God is holy. He must punish sin. And he's going to punish sin,
either in the sinner or the sinner's substitute. And when God gives
the man that message, he gives him the ability to preach it.
Paul told Timothy, a bishop is apt to teach. He's been given
the ability to teach. And Samuel is just like every
one of God's preachers. He told the whole message. And
he did it in fear and trembling. He's dealing here with holy matters. This was God's word. And he does
it humbly, not full of himself. God's preachers are humble men.
So God calls a man to the ministry and God gives him the message.
And third, God's prophet always, invariably, preaches the entire
message of the gospel. Samuel did. He told him every
wit and hid nothing from him. He had absolutely nothing. God's
preachers tell the entire message. What did Paul tell the Ephesian
elders? I've kept back nothing that was profitable unto you.
I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Preach the whole message. God
calls a man to the ministry. He gives him the message. And
that man preaches the message, all of it. Fourth, the sheep
recognize God's prophet when they hear him. All of Israel,
from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to
be the prophet of the Lord. You know why the sheep recognize
God's prophet? Because they hear the voice of
Christ in the message. It's not the man. They hear the
voice of Christ in the message because the message is Christ.
They've been given ears to hear. And the sheep will always hear
the message. There's no fear. I have absolutely
no, there's a lot of things I fear, but this I never fear. God's
sheep are going to hear the gospel because none of his words fall
to the ground. The arrow of the gospel never
falls harmlessly to the ground. It always finds the mark. We don't know what we're aiming
at. Time, we don't know. God gives the arrow and we pull
it back and fire it into the air. Had no idea where it's going.
God directs its path and hits the mark every time. Not just
the mark, the bullseye every time. You cannot hear the gospel
and leave unaffected. Can't do it. Either it softens
and breaks your heart or it hardens it. You cannot leave hearing
the gospel unaffected. And the reaction of the sheep
when they hear the gospel is what Eli said. It's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good.
He says ugly things about me. It's true, Lord. And it's Scott
that said, I've taken sides with God against myself. It's true. Now fifth, and this is not exactly
in our text, but every one of God's preachers, a man that God
calls to the ministry, is faithful. He's going to be found faithful,
and he's not going to be in it for money. Look over at 1 Samuel
chapter 12, just a few pages. 1 Samuel 12, verse 3. This is it,
getting towards the end of Samuel's ministry, he says, Here I am. Witness against me before the
Lord and before his anointing. Whose aughts 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 mine eyes therewith? And I will restore
it to you. And they said, Thou hast not
defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught
of any man's hand." Samuel was not in this for the money. He
wasn't in it for gain, just like the Apostle Paul. He said, I
have covenanted no man's silver, gold, or apparel. Not in it for
the money. And sixth, God's servant, when God calls
a man to the ministry, he gives him a heart for it. He gives
him a heart that loves God's people. Look in 1 Samuel, it's
still there in 1 Samuel chapter 12. Now the people, people of
Israel. They had Samuel ministering to
them for 40 years. They sinned against the Lord
and they rejected Samuel. Now, they just said he'd never
defrauded them, he'd never done anything to hurt them or harm
them, he'd been faithful to them, and they rejected him. Can you
imagine such a thing? But they did. And God told Samuel,
he said, they're not rejecting you. They're rejecting me. They wanted a king. What was Samuel's reaction? The
people finally realized, oh, we've sinned. What are we going
to do? Look at verse 22. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great namesake, because it is pleased the Lord
to make you his people. Moreover, as for me, I'm washing
my hands of you. No, God forbid that I should
sin against the Lord and ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach
you the good and the right way. God's servant has a heart, a
heart love for God's people. He can pray for them. And regardless
of what they've done, he's going to preach the gospel to them.
The gospel is the good and the right way. The Lord Jesus Christ. All right. I hope that will bless
you.