I've entitled this message, Samuel
the Prophet. After entering Canaan, the nation
of Israel went, as we just read, 450 years without a king. God
was their king. 450 years is a long time. This
was the time of the judges. You remember Gideon and Samson
and Jephthah, just to name a few. After the death of Joshua, or
actually before the death of Joshua, Joshua told them, when
you go into the land of Canaan, you'll depart and you'll do so
quickly. And indeed they did. Would you
turn to Judges chapter two for just a moment? After the death of Joshua, verse
11, Judges chapter 2, and the children of Israel did evil in
the sight of the Lord and served Balaam. And they forsook the
Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land
of Egypt and followed other gods of the gods of the people that
were around about them and bowed themselves unto them and provoked
the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord and
served Baal and Ashtoreth, And the anger of the Lord was hot
against Israel. And he delivered them into the
hands of spoilers that spoiled them. And he sold them into the
hands of their enemies round about so that they could not
any longer stand before their enemies. Whether so ever they
went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as
the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn unto them. And
they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless, the Lord raised
up judges which delivered them out of the hand of those that
spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken
unto their judges, but they went a-whoring after other gods and
bowed themselves unto them. They turned quickly out of the
way which their fathers walked, you know, obeying the commandments
of the Lord, but they did not so. And when the Lord raised
them up judges, then the Lord was the judge and delivered them
out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For
it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason
of them that oppressed them and vexed them. And it came to pass
when the judge was dead that they returned and corrupted themselves
more than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and
to bow down unto them. And they ceased not from their
own doings, nor from their stubborn ways. This went on for 450 years. God would send a judge, deliver
the people. As soon as he died, they'd go
south. The Lord would send another judge over and over again. And
Samuel was the last and arguably the best of the judges. Now,
you remember the story of his birth. His father was Elkanah. Elkanah had two wives, Hannah
and Paniah. Hannah was barren. She couldn't
have children. Paniah had children. for Elkana, and it's pointed
out that Elkana loved Hannah more than he did Pania. Now, you can imagine the dynamics
that would create in that household. And Hannah said, give me children
or I die. And he said, I treat you better
than Pania. I treat you 10 times better.
acting this way, I love you so much. But she continued to cry,
give me children or I'll die. She wanted children so bad. And
of course, Pania became her adversary. Of course, she was jealous of
Hannah. Elkanah treated Hannah better than he did her. And so
she became her adversary and made fun of her about not having
children. And this was a bitter pill for
her to swallow. So she went to the temple, weeping,
praying, and saying, Lord, if you'll give me a child, I'll
dedicate him to you as a Nazarite. Now, the priest, Eli at that
time, saw her praying and weeping and moving her mouth, but he
didn't hear anything she was saying, so he accused her of
drunkenness. You're a drunk. You're a child
of Belial. Get out of here. Don't make a
fool of yourself." And she said, I'm not drunk. I'm crying in
the bitterness of my soul. I'm asking the Lord to give me
a child. And we know what happened. Eli
said, the Lord's heard you and you're going to have a child.
And she went home and had this child Samuel. Look in 1 Samuel
1, verse 24. And when she had weaned him,
she took him up with her with three bullocks and one ephah
flower and a bottle of wine and brought him unto the house of
the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young, and
they slew a bullock and brought the child to Eli. And she said,
oh, my Lord, as I so liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that
stood by thee here praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed,
and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him.
Therefore also I've lent him to the Lord. As long as he liveth,
he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshiped the Lord there. Now, as the child grows, look
in chapter 3, verse 19, and Samuel grew. And the Lord was with him. and did let none of his words
fall to the ground. And all of 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 during Eli's time as judge,
Samuel was being raised up under this, The Philistines defeated
Israel and took the ark. Look in chapter five. They've taken the ark back to
their land, chapter five, verse one. And the Philistines took
the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. And when the Philistines took
the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and
set it by Dagon. And when they of Astaroth rose
early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face
to the earth before the ark of the Lord. Oh, what a sight that
must have been. And they took Dagon and set him
in his place again. He had to have their help to
do that. And when they arose early on the morrow morning,
Behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before
the ark of the Lord and the head of Dagon. And both the palms
of his hands were cut off upon the threshold. Only the stump
of Dagon was left to him. Therefore, neither the priests
of Dagon nor any that came into Dagon's house tread on the threshold
of Dagon and ashtrod into this day. And the hand of the Lord
was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and He destroyed them and smote
them with emeralds, and Ashdod and the coast thereof. And when
the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of
the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for His hand is sore
upon us, and upon Dagon our God. They sent therefore and gathered
all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall
we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered,
Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried into Gath. And they
carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. And it
was so that after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord
was against the city with a great destruction. And he smote the
men of the city, both small and great, and he had emeralds in
their secret parts. Therefore they sent the ark of
God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark
of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying,
they brought unto us the ark of the God of Israel to slay
us and our people. So they sent and gathered together
all the lords of the Philistines and said, send away the ark of
the God of Israel and let it go again to its own place that
it slay us not and our people for there was a deadly destruction
throughout all the city and the hand of God was very heavy there. Now you can read in chapter six
about the ark being sent back to Israel and when it They sent
it back on an ox cart. You can read that. But look what
happened when it was sent back to Israel, beginning in verse
19. It came back to Besh Shemesh,
a Jewish city, and he smote the men of Besh Shemesh because they
had looked into the ark of the Lord. Now, they weren't allowed
to do that. Only the priests could have anything
to do with the ark of the Lord, but they presumed, oh, we got
it back. Let's see what it's made of.
It's given us such good luck. I guess that's what they were
thinking. And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh because they
had looked into the ark of the Lord. Even he smote of the people
50,000 and three score and 10 men. And the people lamented
because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great
slaughter. And the men of Beth-shemesh said, who is able to stand before
this holy Lord God and to whom shall he go up for us? And they
sent messengers. into the inhabitants of Kirjath-Jeram,
saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the
Lord. Come ye down and fetch it up to you. And the men of
Kirjath-Jeram came and fetched up the ark of the Lord and brought
it into the house of Abinadab. in the hill and sanctified Eliezer,
his son, to keep the ark of the Lord. And it came to pass while
the ark abode in Geram that the time was long, for it was 20
years, and all of the house of Israel lamented after the Lord."
Now, here the ark is in this place for 20 years, and the Lord
blesses that place. Verse three. And Samuel spake unto all the
house of Israel. Now, what's he been doing the
last 20 years? I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't say.
But now he speaks. Eli's been dead quite some time.
He's the priest. 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 Astaroth
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 here's Samuel's message,
return with your whole heart to the Lord. And what's gonna
demonstrate that you've done that? You will put away all the
false gods and give them no acknowledgement and serve him only. Any concept of God that is not
the God of the Bible is a false God, is an idol. A God that is anything less than
holy, other, absolutely sovereign, immutable,
incapable of change, absolutely just, independent, having no
needs, all-powerful, all-wise, omnipresent, unapproachable,
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. If that's not your God, your
God is an idol, nothing more. Do you believe that? The God
of the Bible, in all of his glorious attributes, as they're revealed
particularly in the cross, is God. Anything less is a false
God. And if I give any adherence to
a false concept of God, I've not turned to the true and living
God. Now he says, get rid of your
gods, your false images of God, and serve the Lord only, and
he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. That
is his promise. Then, verse four, the children
of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth and serve the Lord
God only. That's the same thing as believing
the gospel. Exact same thing. And Samuel said, gather all Israel
to Mizpah and I will pray for you unto the Lord. Now here,
Samuel is such a type of Christ. representing Israel and bringing
them into the Lord's presence. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ does as our great intercessor and great high priest. Verse
six, and they gathered together to Mizpah and drew water and
poured it out before the Lord. They drew this water and poured
it out. We're empty. We're empty. They brought an empty cup to
the Lord, and that's the only way you can come, empty. That's what they were demonstrating
by this act, fasting, showing their utter need of Him. And they said, we have sinned
against the Lord. Now, unless I see my sin as against
the Lord, I really don't have true conviction of sin. I know
people feel guilty when they get caught, when they do something
that they know is obviously wrong, but that's not the true conviction
of sin. True conviction of sin is when
you see, like David, against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight. Like the prodigal returning to
his father and saying, I've sinned against heaven. and in thy sight,
and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy
hired servants. And Samuel, last sentence of
verse six, and Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. He governed them there, verse
seven. And when the Philistines heard
that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah,
The lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. They
were gonna destroy him. They were gonna punish him for
getting together like this. And when the children of Israel
heard, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the 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 Philistines.
Oh, representative Samuel, if he doesn't save us, we won't
be saved. We're in trouble, pray for us. Verse nine, and if I was going
to say the focal point of this message, here it is. Verse nine, and Samuel took a
sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto
the Lord. Now the only way God can be approached
by me or you or them, the only way he will hear is through the
sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Now at this time he's speaking
of the Lamb, the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the cross. He is the spotless Lamb I love in Revelation, the book
of Revelation, 28 times Jesus Christ is called the Lamb of
God. And in eternity future, what
is the song? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And before the foundation of
the world, He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He is the spotless Lamb of God. And as the Lamb of God, He willingly
took my sins and owned them as His own. Now, I can't do that.
I can't take your sins and own them as my own. Because I'm a
sinner. Wouldn't do you any good or me
any good. And I don't have the authority to do anything like
that. He does. He willingly took my sins upon
himself. He guaranteed to do it before
time began as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And he willingly took my sins as his own. And when he was on
Calvary's tree suffering as the Lamb of God, Don't for a second
think that God was punishing someone who was innocent. Christ Jesus died guilty before
God. But that perfect righteousness
that he worked out, it belongs to every believer. 2nd Corinthians
5 21 for he had made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him and I want us to
know what I'd love to be able to get a hold of this I hope
I hope I am getting a hold of this because of what Christ did
God is satisfied with me The Holy God is completely satisfied
with me. There's nothing for him to be
upset about because Christ put that sin away. And God looks
at me and says, he has no guilt. He's perfect. He's holy. That's
the gospel. That's the only way God can be
approached. Now somebody may think, why is
a sacrifice needed? You ever thought that? Why can't
God just forgive? We're called upon to just forgive.
Why can't God just forgive? Why is a sacrifice needed in
the first place? Because God is just. And if God
just forgives sin without his justice being honored and satisfied,
he would no longer be God. He would be unjust. And I want
you to think about this. What would we think of a human
judge who just decided to forgive sin? What if somebody murdered
your child or your spouse? And the judge says, well, I'm
going to forgive him. I'm going to forgive him. We'd get rid
of a judge like that, wouldn't we? That judge would be utterly
unjust. He would lose his right to be
judged. God is just. Aren't you thankful? God is absolutely
just. There's no unrighteousness in
him. There's no respect of persons in him. He's absolutely, impartially,
perfectly just. That's why he can't just up and
sweep sin under the carpet. He would lose his justice if
he did that. But oh, the amazing grace of
God that he's made a way to be just and honor his holy law and
his justice and yet justify the ungodly through what Christ did
on the cross. Now the sacrifice, this suckling
lamb that Samuel offers up speaks of the character of God. He's
just. And he's merciful. And he's gracious. And he delights in mercy. And
this Lamb lets us know something about the character of me and
you. So evil. So sinful that there's nothing
we can do to put away our sin or make up. The only way we can
be saved is through the sacrifice of the Son of God. Now, what
did he do? He offered up this young lamb. Now, is it possible to speak
too much of the cross? It's not, is it? As a matter
of fact, any message brought that does not have the sum and
substance, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a wrong message. It shouldn't have been brought
in the first place. Paul said, I've determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, Samuel took a suckling,
verse nine, Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt
offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord
for Israel. And the Lord heard him. You know
why I heard him? because of the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why would God hear you? Because
of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. God heard him,
and look what happened next. And as Samuel was offering up
the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel,
but the Lord thundered. What's louder than thunder? And
I bet this is the loudest thundering that ever took place. The Lord
thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines
and discomfited them and they were smitten before Israel. They
were terrified. Can you imagine how frightening
this was when they heard this thundering and thundering? They
were scared to death. They knew the Lord was battling
for Israel. If God be for us, who can be against us? They heard
this mighty thundering, it scared them to death. And the men of
Israel, verse 11, went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines
and smote them until they came under Bethkar, the place of the
lamb, is what that means. Now, the Philistines were defeated
totally by the Lord. Israel's enemies were smitten
before them without them doing anything. Now, I believe this
mighty thundering represents the preaching of the gospel.
Oh, when God speaks through the preaching of the gospel, it's
heard, and it's heard as mighty thundering. Verse 12. Then Samuel took a stone. He made a memorial and set it
between Mizpah and Sin, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying,
hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Now you know that song we
sing, come thou fount of every blessing. Tune my heart to sing
thy praise. Dreams of mercy never ceasing
call for songs of loudest praise. Here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I've come. And I hope by thy good pleasure
safely to arrive at home. Hitherto hath the Lord helped
me. Now the help here is the help
of sovereign grace. It's not an offer of help. You
know, God offering to do something for me, you ain't not going to
do us any good. It's not cooperative help. It's not teamwork help. When the Lord Jesus Christ stood
as my surety before time began and took full responsibility
for my salvation, how he helped me. When the Lord Jesus took upon
him flesh and became a man and kept the law for me, for all
of His people. This was not some kind of generic
work. He had the names of His elect engraved on His heart. And He kept the law for them. When the Lord kept the law for
me, how He helped me. Here I raise mine ebony, sir. When the Lord was nailed, He
willingly went to the cross and was nailed to the cross as my
sin bearer. You know what He did? He put
away my sin completely. How? He helped me. My sin is gone. How? He helped me. When He went to the tomb, how? He helped me. He died for me. And when He was raised from the
dead, how? He helped me. He was delivered
for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. When I was born into this world,
how He helped me. I wasn't aware of it, but provenient
grace ordered everything that's ever taken place before my conversion. How? He helped me. Aren't you
thankful? How He's helped you? Streams
of mercy never ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor. Daily I'm constrained to be.
Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wondering heart to thee. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart. Oh, take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. how He helped me when He gave
me life. He spoke to the dead soul and
said, live! And I lived. And I was made to
see the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the completeness
of the salvation that's in Him. How He helps me now as He preserves
me. The only reason I haven't fallen
away right now is because He helps me. He helps me as he stands and
makes intercession for me as my great high priest. Wherefore,
he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. And I have the fullest confidence
that he will continue to help me all the way to the end. I hope this gives a little more
meaning to that song we sing. Here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hither, by thy help, I've come. 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. So the Philistines were subdued. Now this is important. They were subdued. They weren't
killed. They're still there. They were
subdued. Your sins are subdued. They may not feel subdued, but
they are. You still sin. They're not dead,
are they? You still sin. Now they're dead
by what Christ did and put them away, but you still sin. That's
the fact of the matter. You and I still sin. But the scripture says, sin shall
not have dominion over you. For you're not under the law. Now I want you to think of what
a blessing that is. You're not under the law, you're under grace.
You know, if you're under the law, sin has complete dominion
over you. And if you have one law that
you need to fulfill, you're not really gonna have any love for
God. You might say you do, but you're gonna deep down resent
it, that you don't have his complete love unless you do this. You're gonna resent it. You may
say you don't, but you will. The only way you're ever gonna
love God truly, with a pure heart, is if you're not under law in
any way. but you are under the grace of
God. Now your sin is subdued. And as a matter of fact, I want
to say this reverently, I want to say this fearfully, but I
know it's so. Your sin is serving you. Remember the elder, the
old nature shall serve the younger, the new nature. There's never
an excuse for sin. Sin is never okay. I can never
think of any sin. Well, it's okay. No, it's not. It's evil. But let me tell you
what your sin does do for you. Your sin leaves you with nothing
but Christ. It does that for you. Your sin
lets you know that you have nowhere to look but Christ only. Aren't you thankful for that?
Now, you're not thankful for your sin. I'm not saying I do. I would
sin no more. These things write unto you that
you sin not. We're never in any way saying
sin is okay under any circumstance. We're never excusing it. But
what does your sin tell you? That you have no personal righteousness
and the only righteousness you have is the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. Amen? It's so. The Philistines were subdued,
and they came no more into the coast of Israel. And the hand
of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. Now the Lord is against all your
Philistines as long as Christ is around, which is forever. Verse 14, and the cities which
the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored. to Israel,
from Ekron even unto Gath. And the coast thereof did Israel
deliver out of the hands of the Philistines, and there was peace
between the Israel and the Amorites. Now, everything that they'd lost
to the Philistines, I mean, the Philistines made them miserable,
and they come up over and over and over again in the history
of Israel, but everything they lost at this time was restored
to them. Everything we lost is more than
restored. Now, Adam lost his innocence. He had an innocent nature. But
you know what he was given in its place? A holy nature, born of God. Adam lost his righteousness. But he gained infinitely more. He gained the righteousness of
God. Adam, if he would have kept the
law, he was still liable to fall. But after the fall, every believer
is not even liable to fall. You cannot fall away. You will
not, you don't want to, and you cannot. We will endure all the
way to the end looking to Christ. Look what verse 15 says. And
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. Now, you know the way you persevere? By looking to Christ's life as
your only life before God. That's the way you'll continue
all the days of your life. Looking to Christ only. We're
made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence. What's the beginning of my confidence?
Well, I know this. I know this for sure. When I
first looked to Christ, I didn't have anywhere else to look. It hadn't changed a bit. As long
as Samuel lived, as long as Christ lives, there'll be perseverance. Verse 16, and he went from year
to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mishpah and judged
Israel and all those places. I have no doubt that what he
was doing was traveling around preaching the gospel. Verse 17,
and his return was to Ramah, for there was his house, and
there he judged Israel. And here's the summary of his
judging of Israel. There he built an altar unto
the Lord. The sacrifice of Christ, it begins
there, it ends there. He built an altar unto the Lord. He was a worshiper through the
sacrifice. Now I'm going to give a hint
into what we're going to get into next week. Look in chapter
eight. And it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges
over Israel. Do you remember somebody else
who did that? Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas. And they were corrupt
before God, and God killed them. And all the people of Israel
were very upset. that Hothni and Phinehas were
judges, and God killed them. And do you know Samuel made the
same mistake? This man who was so used of God made the same
mistake. He made his sons judges over
Israel. Now the name of the first was
Joel, and the name of the second, Tobiah, and they were judges
in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his
ways, but turned aside after Luker. and took bribes and perverted
judgment. Then all the elders of Israel
gathered themselves together and came to Samuel and to Ramah.
And said unto him, behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not
in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us
like all the nations. We want to be like everybody
else. Make us a king. Now they had God as their king.
And they had God fighting their battles and winning their battles.
But now they want to have a king like all the other nations. Verse
six, but the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us
a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord,
and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the
people and all that they say unto thee. You know, Samuel was
very hurt over this, but he says, for they've not rejected thee,
but they've rejected me, that I should not reign over them. We will not have this man reign
over us. According to all the works which
they've done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt,
even unto this day, where they've forsaken me and served other
gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore, hearken unto their
voice, give them what they want, albeit yet protest solemnly unto
them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign
over them. And this is where Saul comes in. King Saul. And that's what we'll consider
next week, Lord willing, King Saul, the people's choice. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
sacrifice of thy son. How we thank you that you were
willing to give him in our behalf How we thank you that he was
willing to be our surety and to be our savior. Lord, we stand amazed at the
glory of your sacrifice. And Lord, we know that the enemies
of our sins are defeated by him, and we give thanks. Bless this
message for your glory and our good. And Lord, enable us to
walk with the living Christ by your grace, by your spirit throughout
this week. We give thanks for him. We pray
only in his name. In his name we pray. Amen.