The Grace of God's Word

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  The Grace of God’s Word

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  Good morning, Saints of HBC. Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 3, and we'll pick back up in the story of Samuel, who, as we have met him so far, has been just a boy, maybe three, four years old, when he was brought to the temple in chapter 2. And now we pick things up in chapter 3. And he is in his adolescence, still serving God faithfully in Shiloh, under the dimming and slightly dutiful eye of Eli the priest. But as we get back into the Book of Samuel again, I want to remind us all that though the book is named after him, it's not about him. This is true of Samuel, as it is the entire Bible, true of our lives. This book and the entirety of the Bible is about God and how he has revealed himself to us...God's Revelation. His sovereign choice to reveal himself to his creation is the start of our redemption. Without his Word being revealed to us, where does that leave us? If he doesn't come to us, if he doesn't make himself known to us...leaves us lost, leaves us in the dark, it leaves us in the silence. And that is what appears to be the situation in Israel at this time...1050 BC. It is a dark time and it is a quiet time, but in God's timing, the perfect time for the gifts of grace of His Word to arrive, because that is God's revelation to his creation. It is, as the title of today's sermon says, it's the grace of His Word. That God's word arriving, God's word being revealed, God's word being made known is in and of itself grace. It doesn't matter what message is being conveyed, a message of comfort, a message of affliction, a message of encouragement or an admonition. Any time God is revealing His Word to His creation, that's an act of his grace. Not anything we deserve, but that which he, out of love and care for his creation, wants to make himself known. And so it fits into the title of our series, though it's entitled Samuel. We saw from the beginning that his name meant, though it sounded like what Hannah named him. I've asked of the Lord. What it actually meant was God is my name. He wants his name to be made known. We saw last week in studying the Lord's Prayer...it's the first thing. We pray Hallowed be your name. It's his name that's to be exalted. And to pair with that message last week on prayer, we get to talk about the Word of God today...how fitting. As we jump back into Samuel, we're going to be in chapter 3 today. We will cover the entire chapter, but to get us into it, I would just read the first four verses, and then we will walk through the text together and you will see the revelation of God, the Word of the Lord being made known to Samuel in a way that hadn't been made known before. And the blessing wasn't just for him. It was going to be for all God's people. Follow along as I read.
  "Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And the word from the Lord was rare in those days. Visions were infrequent. It happened in that time as Eli was lying down in his place. Now his eyesight had begun to grow dim, and he could not see well. And the lamp of God had not yet gone out. And Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the Ark of God was that the Lord called Samuel. And Samuel said, here I am."
  Father, your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ when speaking to the followers around him in his day, in a loving but warning way, told them, as your Spirit tells us now be careful how you hear. He who has ears to hear, listen up. May we listen to the word today through the power of your Spirit, we pray. Amen.
  Speaking of voices, thanks to the internet...we live in a sea of man's opinions. A veritable wasteland, if you will, of bad ideas that you can find all the time. And in a seemingly infinite amount, you can't get to the depths of the sea of what the World Wide Web has to offer us when it comes to man's opinions. One particular place that you can find bad ideas very quickly...man's opinions that is...is a website called Reddit. It's a social news forum style website where users called Redditors submit content, which then when they offer their answer to you, a question that plagues you. People can vote up or down. And so sometimes when I had one advice from the masses, not the Massey's, Massey's will give you good advice. Kurtis Maria, even their kids...masses will not give you good advice up or down. But the other day I wanted to query Reddit and find an answer to the question, how can I hear God's voice? Probably know where this is headed. So, in no particular order of awful, I offer you the following replies from Redditors. First, from chainsawX72, which should be intriguing just by the name alone. Somebody just slunk down in their chair a little bit. There goes my burner account. Um. Chainsaw X 72 says to the question, how can I hear God's voice? Well, Jesus never suggested we do that. We are called to love, not to have magic powers. Okay. Thanks, Chainsaw. Um. A spiritual voice from Be the Light 24-7 says your body is a house. If you have a bunch of chatter in your house, it'll be hard to hear the Holy Spirit's voice. Try to do a three day water fast for God. Find a book online explaining how to do this. I believe this, be the light person means, find a book online of how to do a water fast. But I think that's rather self-explanatory. Then ends...guarantee by the third day you will hear the Holy Spirit's voice guarantee. So you try it and don't hear it. Be the light 24-7. Find them. Don't find them. Lastly, a guy who gave his real name to to protect his identity. I won't reveal it. Um, he's not in our church for all I know. He writes when you are about to fall asleep in bed, pray God, speak to me. Repeat it three times and go to sleep. Which perhaps he got this idea from this chapter. Three times, you know, when you're sleepy, don't wait for the Lord to call your name. Just say God, speak to me three times and then go to sleep and see what happens. Um. My favorite. Both theologically and good natured, is the response if you want to hear God speak, read your Bible out loud. So I offer that to you today.
  Today's text doesn't intend to tell you how to hear God's voice, but it does indirectly teach a fundamental truth about hearing from God, which is this...that the grace of God comes to his people through the revelation of His Word. It's an act of his grace to make himself known. It's always an act of his grace. It is not something that you can initiate and put God on the dock to speak to you. At the same time He has given you His Word.  So, you can come to the Word of God and believe that it's not just the voice of prophets throughout the ages, it's the voice of his Son in Hebrews chapter one, which says, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days, has spoken to us in his Son. So you have God speaking to you when you open His Word. You have not just the voice of prophets and preachers throughout the ages that has been in Scripturated...God has spoken to us through His Son. And that is the starting point in any discussion when we talk about the value, the the precious value of the Word of God in our lives. But in this section today of Scripture, we get to kind of follow the path to see just how gracious is God when he brings his Word into our lives. And we see it in three ways.  
  First, we see grace comes by God's perfectly patient Word in in the first section of this story, verses 1 to 9. When God's perfectly patient word comes to Samuel right there in verse one of chapter three, we find Samuel ministering to the Lord, just as he's always been doing. We think now he's in his adolescence, maybe age 12. He's been with Samuel for the last 7 or 8 years. Whenever Hannah and Elkanah brought him, dropped him off and was committed to be Eli's understudy as the high priest. Not sure if they knew the future of Samuel when they gave him to Eli, if they thought, oh, he's also going to become a priest. He was committed to the Lord, and that's all Hannah and Elkanah godly parents, they were, cared about. Was this kid though you gave him to us, we give him back to you. He is yours, God, to use as you will. And in the track record on Samuel's life as we meet him again in chapter 3, verse 1 is continual growth and godliness. Verse 11 of chapter two, the boy's ministering to the Lord before Eli the priest. Verse 18 of chapter two, the boy's ministering before the Lord. And verse 26 of chapter two...now the boy Samuel was growing in stature and in favor, both with the Lord and with men. And by this time in chapter 2, Eli is very old. He's getting on in years. And we learned that about Eli in verse 2 of chapter 3. So time has passed, but we're still in those days, those times. We see that in verse 1. These are the same days we've been in for the last two chapters. These are days where the Word of God was rare and visions were infrequent. And this is the moral collapse of Israel as a society. It starts back in the book of Judges. Moses and Joshua are off the scene, and there is no man of God who would be there on a faithful and frequent basis, to be relied upon to hear from God and mediate that word to the people. Judges came and went and all had their own shortcomings. And now, by the end of the book of judges, where 1 Samuel overlaps with the start of it, everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. There is a spiral for this nation into apostasy. And so a summary statement in verse 1, the word from the Lord was rare and visions are infrequent, speak to that idea. Uh, God would speak to his prophets directly to give people God's voice and not just his voice, but from that voice a vision for what to do, where to go, the direction they should take. That's not hard to put those two ideas together. When it says visions, it could refer to as we hear often in the Old Testament, someone has a dream. But if God isn't speaking to that person to tell them what that dream means, then they're left with just a dream. It's just that. Where it's connected here is between the word of the Lord and those visions. Being that when God wanted Israel to do something, he would speak to a prophet like Moses, and the people would hear whatever that was and follow that word. And so there is where God's voice and vision or direction for the people are connected. And Israel has neither right now to a great degree. Which brings you to the basic truth that if there is no word from God, there is no vision for God's people. It's fundamental to understanding the kingdom of God. When you look across churches, um, don't get fooled by what we have said all along in Samuel. What you can see with your eyes. You'll be fooled if you just assume church is growing and big, it must be a place where the Word of God is there. A lot of religious functions, a lot of programs going on, and you could maybe attend some of those churches and you show up and there's a lot of activity and so much is going on, whether it's a contemporary or a traditional church, you can see a lot of religious activity. There was a lot of religious activity happening this entire time in Israel by ungodly men like Eli's sons. So they were performing the functions, but there was no flame to the fire. It was going out. And you can show up in a church today, and you could see a lot of religious function going on and activity. And you sit there after a while and you go, I think I could put my finger on what's wrong here. The Word of God isn't here. Everything else seems to be here but the Word of God. We might live in a time, particularly in our country, where, because of our man centered approach and view towards pragmatism, we know how to get people in a room. We know how to meet their felt needs. We know we can figure it out. We can do surveys, we can watch what the people want, and we could give it to them. And you can show up week after week. And it can keep you interested for a while. But if God has been doing a work in your heart, you're saying, what's missing here? The Word of God is missing, and such it was the time in which Samuel was ministering to the Lord. Rare and infrequent does say that it wasn't entirely silent, but, um, it was like a time, I guess, Amos 8:11 speaks of behold, days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord. It's a famine like time, spiritually speaking, in Israel here. And does the majority of the responsibility lie on God or lie on Israel? It works both ways, doesn't it? If people want to do what's right in their own eyes, the leadership is corrupt. Eli doesn't have the courage to try to turn it around. And so when we see in the Bible often is the case, when you refuse to listen, your spiritual ears will begin to dull. When you refuse to eat what God would offer, eventually the famine comes. Here it's a judgment of perceived silence from God. And we understand what that could feel like on a human level, when someone stops talking to us. I don't think anybody...when somebody ghosts you, young people. Old people, that means they're just done talking with you. You thought you were their friend. Gone. When somebody does that to you. What's that? Your thought is there must be. I did something wrong. They must be mad at me. Not because they had to say anything. They just stopped talking to you. Even if they responded to you with some type of malice, at least you know they care enough to talk, even if it's just to pick up the phone to yell at you. Okay, I got something going. There's communication here. But when it's silence, when you're blocked. When it's you're phased out. It's as, um, the writer Elie Wiesel wrote in his book 'Night', his account of growing up during the Holocaust. He remembered as a young boy watching his mom and dad and siblings killed at Auschwitz. And he titles the book Night because it was the dead silence of the night when people were being led away to be killed, slaughtered, that he lost his faith because God wasn't there. And he said, out of that, the opposite of love isn't hate. The opposite of love is indifference.  And that's sometimes what the silence can convey. But we know that God isn't indifferent, and we know that when it seems like nothing is happening in the dark of the night here in the first four verses, God is doing something. He is working. He's been preparing Samuel and he's been giving Eli warnings and Eli has not responded. So now it happened at that time of darkness and Eli's sleeping and his eyesight's dim. He can't see well. You wonder, is that the narrator trying to tell you there's something more than just a physical problem with this priest? That's a spiritual issue that we're about to see why he seems so dead to the workings of God. And yet this young Samuel is alive to them. Samuel is away from the presence of God, sleeping the night away. And yet, verse three, the lamp of God, which was to perpetually be burning, has not gone out. See, it's dark there, but the light's not gone out. And you find little Samuel, adolescent Samuel. He's not so little anymore. He's lying down in the temple of the Lord where the Ark of God was. The writer wants you to know Samuel where he should be. This is him being faithful to his task, though Eli had not been faithful to his.  This is the decline of Eli, physically and spiritually. And this is the rise of Samuel. He's lying down in the temple of the Lord where the Ark was. And that was as prescribed that the lamp should always be burning. One where the ark is, is where God's servants should be, Exodus 25:22. Because he says, there I will meet you. Where? Where the Ark of the Covenant is. I will meet with you from above, the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony. I will speak to you about all that I will give to you in commandment for the sons of Israel. Eli is derelict in his duty, going back to Exodus 25:22. But Samuel is not. Samuel is there, waiting and ready even just to keep the lamp burning. Exodus 27:20, you shall charge the sons of Israel, that they bring you clear oil of beaten olives for the light to make a lamp burn continually...why?...in the tent of meeting outside the Veil, which is before the ark of the testimony, Aaron and his sons. That's the priestly line...goes all the way to Eli and his unfaithful sons. They shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout their generations for the sons of Israel. Why do I take you back into Exodus? To show you that what Eli had let happen on his watch, it wouldn't bother him to let the light go out physically, because it already has gone out spiritually. We've seen that in chapter two with his sons, that a man of God has to come in and tell him, did I not reveal myself to you, Eli? Did I not choose your line from all the tribes to be my priest, to go to my altar, to burn incense, to do all of this? Why have you rejected my sacrifice and offering which I have commanded? All this is happening here. The lying down. The eyes dim, the lamp almost out...at the dark end of chapter two. And the judgment on Eli and his sons. Their demise is set. It's a bleak picture, except in that flickering light of the Ark's lampstand, there is Samuel. 12 years old, been at the task eight years ministering to God before Eli. And when you just think about that in our lives, what's the relevance? Where does God need to find his servants today? Faithful at your task. That's where He doesn't need hype machine's calling attention upon themselves. You just need somebody in the middle of the night where they should be at their post, ready to serve God wherever and however and with whatever means he wants them to serve them. Do you understand that? There's a story to be told here. It's what looks like a bleak and barren moment in the life of Israel and even in this priestly temple. And yet there is Samuel. Why? Why is it so simple? Because God doesn't need us to light anything up. He sees through the darkness to those who are truly obedient from the heart. He can find you where you're at. He could find whether you're faithful or not. And so he comes to call Samuel, verses 4 through 9. Three times the Lord called Samuel, and Samuel faithful and ready to serve. Eli just says, here I am. And the first time he pops up, verse 5 sprints over to Eli. Sleepy, Eli. Sprinting, Samuel. Can you picture it? Here I am, you called me. What did you need? This is what he does. This is who he is. He is grown in wisdom and stature...favor with God and men. Of course he's going to respond this way. And Elijah says, I didn't call. Go back to bed. He's snoozing. And the Lord calls yet again. 'Samuel' and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, here I am, for you called me. And Eli is not getting it. He's not getting it. What other explanation would there be for Eli? This, of all people, should be the man who should understand when God is coming to call. He doesn't get it. He's spiritually dull. He's not out, but he's dull. He says, go back and lie down again. Verse 7 explains, this is no fault of Samuel's. No, Samuel didn't know the Lord. It had the word hadn't yet been revealed. That's a phrase that's meant to explain why Samuel's response wasn't immediately to think it was Yahweh. It had never come to him this way before...the Word of the Lord. Did he know the Word? I would think he would. Having worked in the temple for the last eight years or so, he knew what he was supposed to be doing. But Eli, the mentor, the high priest, has not apparently taught him to be ready to be listening to saying, Lord, speak to me whenever and however. So, Samuel...the worst I guess you could say, he's just unacquainted with the words and ways of Yahweh at this point, I don't think you could say he's totally ignorant of Yahweh based on how already he's been described, but it's just this particular way in which God wanted to speak to him, reveal himself to him. He wasn't ready for it yet. This is on Eli, just as it's always been on Eli for his own sons, and now this adopted son who's been faithful and submissive and humble, and Eli hasn't prepared him. It says he doesn't know the Lord. But that's a far cry from the sons of Eli, who were worthless men and did not know the Lord. And in 1 Samuel 2:12, do you see the contrast? Those words aren't there by accident for us to just pass over. It's showing...here are men who do not know the Lord, and it is on them. They're worthless men. They sin before the Lord. They despise the offering of God. And Eli should have not just rebuked them, but removed them. Why? Because the Bible says so. Not because I say so. Numbers 15:30...It was in the law of God for the priests to make atonement for the person. Numbers 15:28, the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who goes astray when he sins unintentionally." But we learned in 1 Samuel two that they despised the offering of the Lord. They were intentionally sinning against the Lord. It was high handed. It was deliberate. So listen to Numbers 15:29, you shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally for him who is native among the sons, meaning they should know better. But they sinned unintentionally, and even for the alien who sojourns among them. But listen to Numbers 15:30, but the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is a native or an alien, as in whether he's from Israel or he's a Gentile, that one, if they're doing it, defiantly is blaspheming Yahweh, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. That's the action Eli should have taken all along, high handed, deliberate, defiant sin against the Lord. You're gone. You don't get an exception for being a pastor's kid...Priest's kid...why? Verse 31, it goes back to the Word, because he has despised the Word of the Lord and has broken his commandment. That person shall be completely cut off and his guilt will be on him. So there's the contrast as we see in this section, it was it was inexperience and ignorance for Samuel, it wasn't so for Eli's sons. And so God is persistent in his patient call. Verse 8, so the Lord called Samuel again a third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, here I am, for you called me. Then Eli discerned, see, that's that's the tricky thing about Eli. The third time was the charm, wasn't it? We want to just roll them out, write them off and say what an awful guy he is. But three times in, he finally discerns and goes, you know what? Maybe this is God trying to get Ahold of this boy. So what does he say? He tells him next time, if he calls you that, you shall say, speak, Lord...personal name of God, Yahweh...your servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. What does this section teach us? It's the perfect patience of God. This section isn't really about Samuel and Eli. This is how God's Word comes to us in grace....perfectly patient. You don't see God raising his voice, rebuking Samuel or Eli. It's a modest word in the middle of the night. He doesn't try to get Samuel or Eli's attention in some blaring and blazing glory, though God had every right to go silent on his people in the time where His word is being trampled on and trifled with by his own priests, God's perfect timing patiently calls on a young man of his choosing to take up the diminishing torch of Eli and light it on fire again. And that is a good way to think about how God's Word comes to us. It comes with patience, because God's never in a hurry. He's never running behind. And when the time comes for his perfect Word to land on your prepared heart, it'll be there. It'll be there, friend. Wherever you sit this morning. Know the patience of God and His word to you. You can see it in a hundred ways, can't you? Sitting under teaching, reading your Bible, listening to a sermon. You put yourself under, underneath the teaching of God's Word and it will come in God's perfect and patient time. There is, though, a warning with that. From 2 Peter 3 that though God has a patient word delivered in just the right time, it does not give us the right to presume upon the patience of God as if he's never going to take action. 2 Peter three:3-4. Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming, the return of the Lord? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, we've been told that this Messiah will return, but everything just keeps going on as it has been from the beginning. Those are the words of a mocking person who's gone dull. They hear that this return of Jesus is coming, but rather than that move them to be ready and have their lamps lit and stay awake and be on the alert, they run in the opposite direction. Hey, if this God is so patient, who knows if he'll ever show up? That's presuming upon his patience. And the warning is this...the only thing holding back the judgment of God is His Word, his perfectly patient word. Verse 7 in 2 Peter 3. By his Word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Do you see the only thing holding back God's judgment...final judgment is his perfect, patient Word. That word that the mockers mock. Maybe some of you. You just think I got time. I mean, look, how long people have been saying Jesus is returning. It's getting so bad. Look at the wars. Look at all of that. Yes, there's going to be wars and rumors of wars, but it warns you. Don't presume upon his patience. Verse 9, the Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Beware of testing his patience. Thinking you know better than him, and you'll come to Christ on your own time. No, you won't, because all time is his time. And as you sit under the Word of God and Christ Jesus being offered to you in his righteousness and his life, his perfect keeping of the law, not yours, comes to offer you in his sacrificial death, his substitution for you on the cross. And you sit there and go, I know I've heard it all before, Adam, but have you then repented and trusted in him? Don't presume upon his patience, because his patience is actually an act of kindness for you to repent, not for you to wait. So call on the Lord Jesus Christ now and be saved. Don't wait another moment longer. If you see yourself lulled to sleep thinking life just goes on, I can wait. No you can't. Today is the day of salvation because tomorrow could be the day of judgment. That's the perfect patience of the Word of God that comes to us. In just the right timing. Just like Samuel needed it. But just as much as we could see the patience of God in this, this portion of Scripture from verses 1 to 9, right around the corner comes the forcefully firm Word of God. I mean, back to back in the story, there is this pace. And it's not a sleepy pace. It's a patient pace to God, calling upon Samuel and even trying to wake Eli up from his slumber. But just as we sang this morning, The Lion and the lamb, you have those diverse excellencies of Jesus Christ. Lion and lamb, as Jonathan Edwards called them, paired together in in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have them meeting here in verse 10 where you had a a lamb like, patient word coming to Samuel and Eli. And then in verse 10, the lion roars. He shows up forcefully firm in what he is going to reveal to Samuel, to be told to Eli right next to each other. Unexpected. Almost. Verse 10. Then the Lord came and stood and called. He's not just speaking. What's he doing? He's appearing. I'm shocked at Samuel's response. Speak, for your servant is listening. He has the composure...12 year old to not fall dead like John did in Revelation 1:17, when the Lord that he had walked with three years seen after the cross, comes to him in his glorified state, and he says, I fell like a dead man at his feet. And here is a theophany of the Lord coming and standing and calling to Samuel, the 12 year old. And he can repeat the words that Eli had told him. What a kid!
  But it's about the Word of God coming in grace, even though this gracious word is a forcefully firm Word, because immediately after he says, speak, your servant is listening. Then God says to Samuel, listen, behold, I'm about to do a thing in Israel, to put everybody's ears a tingling, as in, the hair is going to stand up on your head, because the person that everybody in Israel was looking to as the high priest, the priestly line that was supposed to be the guide and the guard against falling into apostasy will be removed once and for all. In that day I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. And what was that that he spoke? Well, you'd have to go back a few weeks and listen to the sermon if you weren't here. But it's in verses 27 to 36 of chapter 2. It was the judgment on Eli. What judgment? What's he going to carry out? What did Eli do wrong? Well, on one level, nothing. Eli is being judged for doing nothing. When he was supposed to do something, he did nothing. And therein is his judgment. When he was supposed to speak up and kick out his ungodly sons from the priesthood in Shiloh, he didn't do it. And you would say, yeah, but he verse 25, he spoke to them about it, but he didn't carry it out. Like the parent that just keeps warning the kid, you do it one more time. You do it one more time. On the 15th time, you do it one more time. All you've taught your kids is delayed obedience. All you've taught your kid is. I can just keep pushing my parent like this. Maybe I could push God like this when he comes to me forcefully firm in his word and says, do this and live. And I say, you know what? We train our kids that way. We don't believe in first time obedience training our kids because we want to raise robots. We want to raise sensitive hearts to respond to the Word of God immediately against their own will and desire, because that's where the blessing is found, parents. In the same way, the blessing would have been found. How Eli hadn't responded all these years, knowing what the Word of God said and not doing it, not speaking up when he should have in his sons’ lives. Eli was not judged for his son's sins of commission. Those sins were on his sons. Eli was being judged for his sins of omission, not honoring God above his boys. And here's the irony. To deliver the final word of judgment, God uses a 12 year old that's been right under Eli's nose the whole time. How humbling...that God, in his judgment, doesn't even speak directly with Eli. He brings Samuel, this 12 year old, to tell him the high priest. It's over once and for all because you honored your sons above me. You took the easy route. It's kind of an irony that Samuel, a courageous young man, has to deal with Eli in a way that Eli couldn't deal with his own sons. And that goes back to Hannah's prayer, doesn't it? That boasts no more the proud and the arrogant. Because the bows of the mighty are shattered. But the feeble will gird on strength. Who would be more feeble in a moment like this than a 12 year old boy talking to a man he respected and worked for the last eight years? What a twist. And we have said Samuel was full of these great reversals. You think it's going to go this way and God takes it that way. Now here's another interesting thing. After Samuel gets this forcefully firm word that he now has to deliver to Eli, he goes back to sleep. Verse 15, he lays until morning, and then he opens the doors of the house of the Lord. He doesn't go and talk to Eli right away. Why? I don't think it was out of disobedience. We'd have no reason to believe Samuel would want to be disobedient, but he was probably afraid. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. There was a humble fear in him. Maybe those same humble fears that Eli never overcame in his own ministry. When God gives you a word to say, you say it. You say it straight.  You don't add to it and you don't take away from it. And so Eli comes to Samuel. Clearly, he knew something was up. He seeks Samuel out in the morning and says, Samuel, my son...I mean that again. Eli being the unpredictable priest. He calls him my son. It's a gracious, affectionate word. And Samuel says, here I am. And he said, I want you to tell me the word that God spoke to you. Please don't hide it from me. And like, man. Eli, what a guy. I mean, he's really like, come on, it's okay. And then he says, and may God do so to you and more also, if you hide it...that's a curse. That's a prophetic curse. If you don't tell me every last word of truth right now, may God curse you. I mean, finally we see some boldness in this guy that should have been there all along. But the irony is, he's saying it to...Samuel. See, this is where Eli's waking up. He knows God means business. He was dull, but he wasn't out. I think it's a word of warning to us as Christians, as his children, we can be dull, but not out. And God could be trying to come to us in that perfectly patient word, and we just kind of lull ourselves to sleep until he has to show up with a forcefully firm word. And, it gets our attention, doesn't it? Yet that's still a word of his grace. He wants you to listen. It's what I prayed earlier and mentioned in Mark 4. If you have ears to hear, let him hear. Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you and more will be measured to you besides, if you're listening and wanting more from the Word of God, he will be faithful to give it. But when you start pulling back, beware. Whoever does not have even what he has shall be taken away from him. Eli was going to have the entire promise of the priesthood taken away from him. Not only that, his sons, were going to die because he got soft to the Word of God. Not in the right way. It just didn't penetrate anymore. It fell and didn't sprout. But yet in this moment, he tells Samuel, I want you to tell me everything. So Samuel, reticent as he is, tells him everything and hid nothing from him. I mean, what a first assignment as a prophet. This is what the prophet's task is. He's 12 years old, and the first time God speaks to him with direct revelation to speak to someone else, it's a word of judgment. He doesn't give Samuel any time to warm up on this thing, you know. Let me give you a few easy reps with some positive things to say. No. He calls him right into the line of fire and to speak to Eli. And what was God doing? He was preparing Samuel. He was testing him. In the first test that Samuel had to pass was the earliest test with somebody that he probably loved and respected. Could he minister the grace of God's Word with the courage and conviction that is inherent in it? Because God's Word is never weak. It's patient. It's not pathetic, it's compassionate. But it's not compromising. We do that to the Word of God when we take away from it or add to it. And so the test of the prophet here and the test of the preacher today, we feel it. We understand it...what Samuel's going through. But he says every single thing, and he hid nothing. And look at Eli's response. It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. Eli received it. Samuel passed the test. The convergence of these two lives that God has planned all along for one's diminishing role and one's ascension are happening at this very moment in verse 18. Eli knows it's over for him. Samuel sees it's just beginning. Question we need to ask ourselves, as we know God calls us to speak the truth to other people. Teaching a small group. Discipling others in the Word. Parents leading Bible times in your own home. You could feel this tension between softening it or making it too hard, can't you? If you don't feel that tension, you're not doing it. I'm serious. If you've never felt that tension, am I being too soft and easy? Am I tempted to go too hard? I don't think you're doing it, because it's always there. All encouragement and in no exhortation can produce rebellious results because sin needs confronted in people's lives. So if you just want to bring that comforting message all the time. I mean, as a preacher, it would leave you sitting here going, I know he loves me, but I wonder if he really fears God. If your preacher is just all comfort. But if he's all affliction, if he's all exhortation, if he's all admonition, if it's all heavy, all the time, it might leave you wondering, does he really love the people? Does he care for the sheep? All admonishment, no words of assurance of the gospel will have an exasperating effect on your disciple. Count it. Where do you find yourself? Where do you lean? Because none of us are perfect. Only the Lord was perfect in how he would deliver the Word. I mean, it even shows in the life of Samuel detention how he was afraid to say it exactly as it was. But he did it. He passed the test. God's forcefully firm word was not just about what Eli was to hear, but it was for Samuel to say. And so God is always doing more than one thing as it might appear in our lives. The person that you need to speak forcefully and with firmness to. It's not just for their good, it's for your good. God's growing you to be able to do that, but he wants you to have the humility of a Samuel who would be hesitant...reticent. Why? Because it's a weighty thing to have a word to say that would be that bare bones. Matter of fact, when you see this person running headlong into sin. The reality of the task of the Word of God from preacher down to the pew. But it's still a gracious word, even though it's a hard one to give. So God's Word is gracious. God's word is firm. And then lastly, we see it's its lasting quality. When you do take God at His word and see it's not about you, the messenger, it's about the message. Look at the blessing that comes to close this chapter out. How things change, where it goes from the Word of God is rare and visions are infrequent to now all Israel, verse 20, from Dan to Beersheba knows Samuel is the new voice in town. He passed the first test with the Word of the Lord coming to him. None of his words were falling to the ground like a dried up leaf with no nourishment, because he was a man of God who feared God and what God was going to tell him to say, he would say it. And look at the blessing and benefit that would now come to the people of Israel...what they needed. They needed the Word of the Lord now is being revealed to Samuel. Verse 21. The Lord appears again at Shiloh. He has been missing, so to speak. And now he's there. Samuel's there. The Word of the Lord is there. Over time, God confirmed a new era of his work, of his word through Samuel. The dark clouds that had hung over this story so far in the first three chapters of people doing what's right in their own eyes, there is no man with no word from God. The light is breaking through all because of God's Word and not just a one time word. Samuel grew and the Lord was with him. There was a relationship. There was a communion. There was an abiding. And because of that, the Lord let none of his words fail. Do you notice that? It wasn't Samuel's words that had the inherent power. It was that God was giving him those words. And because God gave him those words and was with him, he wasn't going to let any of the words of Samuel fall to the ground without producing the desired result.
  So it teaches us to trust him, trust the repeatedly resolute Word of God to endure in people's lives. It's the promise that Jesus gave to his disciples in John 15:16. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain or abide or endure, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. What an amazing promise. And it all comes to us simply by the grace of trusting more in God's Word than your own opinion...than what you think you should say, how you might compromise it, how you might make it harder. Push it aside. Say, God, I just I want to say what you want me to say. I want to hear what you want me to hear and tune all the rest of the stuff out and trust him. Trust him like Samuel did. He'll be there for you. The repeatedly resolute word from God regulated Samuel's ministry and revived a nation. Do you see the impact in his life? It changed his life. It changed the course of the nation of Israel. Why wouldn't we trust it the same? Why would we think that anything else could be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path besides the Word of God? Everything else is going to be flickering out. Everything else is going to be dimming. But what never fails to shine is when we take the Word of God and hold it in front of us. He won't let the oil of the lamp go out, but you got to keep it in front. You can't put it to the side or behind you today. Are you doing that with the Word of God? Is it leading your way? Is it lighting your path because it has the inherent glory to do that. It tells us that in Psalm 19, yes, there's a glory we see in creation, but the glory that changes a life that works from the inside on the human heart comes from what? The law of the Lord that's perfect, restoring the soul. Do you believe that with everything in you today? It'll restore the soul. It'll change the heart. But you got to trust it and not trust yourself. I mean, think in your own life. Put these three ideas together. God's word coming patiently, forcefully, and having an enduring effect in your life. Do you even see brother and sister in Christ, how God has been faithful to do that in your life till now? I mean, before you even believe, there was the person patiently teaching you the Word of God time after time, even though you rejected it. That was God being faithful. And then there was the time when it came in its force, and it opened your eyes to see your sin and see the glory of Jesus Christ. And you believed. And then what has he kept you with?...the Word of God. You've endured. Because the Word of God continues to give you life, it continues to feed you. It's living and active. It's the firm foundation on which your life continues to hold. I couldn't help but think of the pairing of these qualities next to each other in this chapter of a patient word and a powerful word, and as we sang earlier, the meekness of the lamb and the majesty of the lion and how those go side by side, don't they? That in the middle of the night, in a very meek and modest way, God can start to speak to Samuel, and then burst on the scene in a magnificent moment, fully revealing himself towards the dawn. That's the Word of God in our lives, brothers and sisters. It's the dawn, it's the sun, it's rising, and it rises higher and higher into the noonday sky in a blazing light of glory. That what you when you see it in all it's worth, it changes everything. You see everything correctly that way. 2 Corinthians 4:6, for the God who said, let light shine out of the darkness is the one who is shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Do you believe that's how you live your life when it comes down to it? What other light could you live by?...than every day you wake up and you say again, Lord, like the sun rises each day. Christ rise in my life, that I would see the glory of God in your face and your person and in your work. And it's the light by which you live your life. What a what a wonderful blessing to have Christ, to have His Word, and for the glory of God to be illumined in your life, to live by. We have everything we need for life and godliness right here in front of us. Let's thank him for that.
  Father, we praise you this morning for your gracious word that comes patiently, forcefully...it lasts, it endures, it abides. And we have to take you at your word, because sometimes we don't see its effect. As Jesus, you taught in a parable, sometimes it's scattered. And we like a farmer, we go to sleep and it's going to grow overnight. It might seem dormant, it might seem gone. And then there's the sprout. There's something there. And you in your perfect timing let us see it when we need it. To build our faith, to exercise our faith in prayer, to exercise our faith, in meditating on your Word that we persist. We come back. We trust, we abide. Help us to do that. Grow us by your grace. We pray today, Father, through seeing the glory that you have in your Son and your son gave us in giving us the Spirit. And in giving us the Word, we have what we need. Help us to steward it rightly. Amen.