A People for Himself

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truth for we're going to read from the Bible in first Samuel and in Chapter 12 I invite you to follow along as I read from the first verse and Samuel said to all Israel behold I have a badger voice in all that you've said to me and have made a king over you and now behold the King walks before you and I am old and gray and behold my sons are with you I have walked before you from my youth until this day Here I am testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed whose orcs have I taken or whose donkey have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it testify against me and I will restore it to you they said you have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand and he said to them the Lord is witness against you and his anointed is witness this day that you have not found anything in my hand and they said he is witness and Samuel said to the people the Lord is witness who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your father's up out of the land of Egypt now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers when Jacob went into Egypt and the Egyptians oppress them then your fathers cried out to the Lord and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place but they forgot the Lord their God and he sold them into the hand of Sisera the commander of the army of his or and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab and they fought against them and they cried out to the Lord and said we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the bills and the Ashtaroth but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies that we may serve you and the Lord sent Jared bail and Barack and Jeptha and Samuel and delivered you out of a hand of your enemies on every side and you lived in safety and when you saw that Nahash the king of the ammonites came against you you said to me no but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king and now behold the king whom you have chosen for whom you have asked behold the Lord has said a king over you if you will fear the Lord and serve Him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord and of both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God it will be well but if you will not obey the voice of the Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes is it not wheat harvest today I will call upon the Lord that he may send thunder and rain and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great which you've done in the sight of the Lord and asking for yourselves a king so Samuel called upon the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel and all the people said to Samuel pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die for we have added to all our sins this evil to ask for ourselves a king and Samuel said to the people do not be afraid for you have done this evil yet do not turn aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart and do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver for they are empty for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself moreover as for me far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you and I will instruct you in the good in the right way only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart for consider what great things he has done for you but if you still do wickedly you shall be swept away both you and your king amen now these words come from your mouth you are the Living God you have spoken them we pray now that the Spirit of God will illumine the page to us deal with a blindness that is endemic in our own minds and open our eyes to behold wonderful things in your word for we pray in Jesus name Amen well we've been following samuel from the very time of his conception all the way up until today and i had asked for him God gave him to Hannah she in turn then lent him back to the Lord and as we arrived at this 12th chapter he tells us in verse 2 that he is now old and gray the inevitability of life is that you will end up if you live long enough old and gray you may not ever get to be gray you may have no hairs to be gray we then we can tell but we recognize that in the normal routine of things as the writer of Ecclesiastes says there for everything there is a season and there is a time to every purpose or to every matter under heaven and it is this to which as Samuel is referring at the end of chapter 11 Saul has been made king in this sort of stage for element of his kingship before the Lord at Gilgal and so the focus is inevitably shifting and samuel is recognizing now that the role that he has played as a judge is about to change and so in later vide he essentially sets out the State of the Union as it were at what is a pivotal moment of transition I actually think it's helpful and you may choose to see it in these terms or not this is not a main or a plain thing but I think it is more than likely that chapter 12 is providing the detail of what is given to us as a summary at the end of chapter 11 at the end of chapter 11 and he was their maids king before the Lord in Gilgal and they had come there to renew the kingdom and I think that chapter 12 actually probably provides that the the wider framework of what was summarized for us at the end of eleven with that said samuel then uses this transition time first of us as an opportunity to establish if you like his legacy it's more than just being about Samuel as I say in a moment but it is certainly that he has enjoyed a privileged position and he has walked before the Lord as he puts it here I have walked before the Lord before you from my youth until this day there's something about being able to say that that I have had the privilege he's able to recount of God's faithfulness and goodness and he wants to make sure that the people understand this it's a bit along the lines of what happens when you eventually get to the end of the day and somebody will provide some kind of eulogy for you there is a difference which David Brooks pointed out masterfully in his book the road to character between what he refers to as resume virtues and eulogy virtues the resume virtues have to do with the skills and strategies that we managed to secure and convey as a means of success in our careers whereas the eulogy virtues are usually the ones that are talked about at one's funeral and as people always say no but no son ever stood at the funeral and said I'm glad my father went to the office as often as he did he usually say I'm glad that he rode bikes with me whenever it was there is a big difference and I think if you look carefully this it would appear that Samuel is focusing very much on the the latter rather than the former and so notice what he tells us of our Swan behold I have obeyed your voice he's talking to the people he says you're the ones that asked for a king and I did what you said and he says and you should look now and behold the King walks before you he's he's got all of his future in front of him as it we're limited as we're going to discover it was but he's got it all in front of him and I have more behind me than I've got in front of me because I'm old and I'm gray and again I have done what I've done and you will notice also that my sons are with you they're not with me is it where we have rehearsed that before they're part of the community life is unfolding now what he's then doing is is putting himself in the dog and he's essentially saying you could come forward now and testify in terms of the integrity of my leadership leadership is very vulnerable isn't it when you when you work whether it's in front of a classroom or work in front of a lab or an industry or or whatever it might be certainly in in political or pastoral leadership there's an immense vulnerability that attaches to it because you are before the scrutiny of people and you are routinely under the spotlight whether one seeks it or not it is inevitably there and it's one of the reasons I think that James and speaking pastoral terms is probably not a good idea for people to put up their hands and say I Lee to be a teacher of the church because after all you'll be judged with greater strictness so it takes place in the presence of God and before the congregation and therefore it's not to be entered upon as we say in the wedding service lightly or carelessly but thoughtfully with reverence for God and with due consideration of the purposes for which it was established by God and so he says you should just check and see whether I have taken anybody's ox whether I took somebody's donkey whether I defrauded anybody or whether I oppressed anybody in other words he says I'm going to stand here and you can have a conversation with one another and determine whether my leadership has been marked by bribery and by self-promotion now you perhaps recall that when he introduced the the possibility of a king back in chapter 8 I think it is he said to them if the King ends up on the wrong side of the equation then he'll be on the take if you remember that at all he says he'll take your donkeys he'll take your daughters he'll take your young man he'll take take take and now he says to them I didn't do that did I I didn't take take take and they said fine we agreed the Lord is witness you have not defrauded as verse 4 you've not oppressed us you have not taken anything from any man's hand and so he is vindicated and he says well let me just put it to you one final time before God as our witness before his anointed that is the King you haven't found anything in my hand have you and they said no absolutely not now here's the thing this is not just about Samuel as in terms of his character it is true of his character but it's about Samuel in terms of his leadership and of the leadership that was entrusted to him and in some measure in light of what follows now he's actually saying to the people testify to the fact that this old style of leadership was really pretty good and then and so they're actually saying yeah yeah actually it was because he's really setting them up so that his vindication leads to their condemnation and so we moved from his legacy to something of a summary of Israel's history which you will notice there begins in verse 6 and so sama said that people now the Lord is witness he moves into if you like the prosecutor prosecutors role rather than being the defendant the Lord is witness and what I want to do is ask you to stand still verse seven that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your father's I want you to think about how immensely good God has been to you as you serve a history in order that the contrast between the reliability of God and the fickleness of the People of God may be unmistakable the reason I want you to stand still and reflect on these things he's going to do it again before the before the chapter ends down in verse 24 consider what great things he has done for you it is the consideration of the immensity of God's goodness that shows up the the poverty of the people's response now I'm not going to delve deeply into this I'm going to trust you to do some of your own homework it's pretty it will become pretty obvious to you where you can find this material his starting point is with the Exodus all right the people who were in Egypt and God granted deliverance through Moses and Aaron he says however not too long after that they found themselves oppressed once again because they forgot the Lord verse nine and he sold them into the hand of Sisera the important thing to get from this is straight forward and you can see it if you read judges what what he is pointing out is the recurring pattern amongst the people of God and it goes like this they found themselves in bondage they cried out to God in their difficulty the Lord provided a deliverer and set them free they promptly then got themselves right back into bondage they cried out to Yahweh for a deliverer he sent another deliverer and got them free and they promptly went right back into bondage again here is the whole story of the book of Judges and in that line you have these individuals that he mentions here gerrae bail and barrack and Jeptha and even he includes himself samuel now now what had happened was in verse nine that they forgot the Lord their God remember you know the Bible says remember your Creator in the days of your youth it doesn't mean remember that there is a creator it means to dwell upon to get down underneath the reality of the goddness of God if you like and they forgot that it's actually that they chose to forget it it was inconvenient for them to consider God in all of his holiness and all of his mind and so they deliberately turned their back on him despite the fact that they'd been warned in Deuteronomy and chapter 8 on a couple of occasions Moses says to the people take care lest you forget the Lord your God it's very straightforward I wouldn't want to sit in judgment on them did you ever choose to forget the Lord in the face of temptation are we going to go down the pathway of his kingship or are we going to look for another way to maneuver the circumstances they forgot him and then in verse 10 they forsook him they're prepared to acknowledge that in verse 10 because we have forsaken the Lord and we have served the bails it's an inevitable process let me tell you forget the Lord forget his commandments forget his goodness begin to think about yourself a lot begin to come and dear your own designs and desires and before any one of us know knows it we will forsake the Lord there is an inevitability to it and so it is that he tells them that's exactly how you ended up following the bills and the Ashtaroth in other words going after foreign gods seductive gods admittedly but depraved gods and in both cases largely marked by one ongoing feature which remains true throughout all the generations of time if you think about the corruption within the framework of Christianity per se evangelical Christianity is a subset of that you realize that although we may not have actual bills and actual astronauts what that offered to those who would submit to it was a lifestyle of depraved sexual indulgence so the appeal was if we stick with his Yahweh God we're stuck with those Commandments those Commandments appeared to be very limiting it doesn't seem we're not having fun like all of these surrounding nations are having fun they they seem to have parties all the time and we have like a prayer tent time and then and then the the fellow who praised and that he preaches and then he prays and he preaches I mean there's nothing much going on there's a lot of fun ways we could do this and so they said yeah why don't we do that now the wonder of it is this and this is surely the point in it all that God did not abandon them he didn't abandon them and what happens is that every time in his mercy he deals with them drastically in fact it says there in the text that they cried out to the Lord because he had sold them into the hand of the enemy he sold them into the hand of the enemy why in order that they might seek him because they weren't seeking him they were forgetting him they were forsaking him so this gives the lie to the idea that you know if if if if you're really truly engaged in things then everything will be going very very wonderfully well no an actual fight not necessarily so now what God is doing is he's showing himself to be righteous righteous in his dealings with him as verse 7 I want to declare before you all the righteous deeds the Lord has performed for you and for your fathers you're not thinking when you do this you're not thinking this is the significance incidentally of baptism whenever I deviate from path whenever I sleep seek to slip out from underneath the jurisdiction of God as my almighty King I am NOT thinking I am not thinking think of what God has done for me think about the fact that he has buried me in baptism he has raised me to newness of life I am no longer the person I once was I have been made a member of a community that will last forever what in the world am I doing here why am I thinking like this why am I going to deviate from course they forgot him they were cyka they forgot the righteous deeds the garden abandon them he doesn't and in verse 13 the history comes right up to date with me hash those of you who were around last week know about Nahash a bad man the king of the ammonites and what he's pointed out here in verse 12 is the head Nahash when he shows up causes the people to break their pattern the pattern was bondage cry deliverance sent from Yahweh now they find themselves confronted by Nahash and look what it says in the text and when Nahash came you said to me no but a king shall reign over us we're not going we're not gonna go we're not gonna cry out to Yahweh for a deliverer we've got our own plan we've got a king now I can't delay on this but those of you who are alert which reduces the number considerably those of you who are alert will remember that in Chapter a the the the dynamic which gives rise to the request for a king is the age of Samuel remember Samuel thus came to Samuel said you are old and your boys are not cutting it here in Chapter 11 Samuel says it was when you saw nae hatch the king of the ammonites that you said we want a king how do how do we deal with that I think the way to deal with it is to see both things happening simultaneously the chronology is is difficult in Samuel as we pointed out already but if you think about the fight that first samuel 11 basically covers a week because remember the new house came and they said give us a week to try and figure something out and that's concluded so Nahash is is at his business he's only introduced to us at the beginning of eleven but for sure he's present back in chapter 8 again this is not a main and plain thing but it seems to me that it is possible for us to say both things happen simultaneously namely Sammy was getting old the people were getting restless neigh hash came stirred the whole thing up and in that case they said no we're gonna have a king so instead of crying out to the Lord as they had done before in the form of the judges they decide on a new kind of leadership a monarchy will be the answer and fascinatingly you will remember at the beginning of chapter 11 they were even prepared to take may hash as their king that's not what they said and all the men of jay-bez said tune a hash make a treaty with us and we will serve you incredible isn't it they must have forgotten the Lord that they would have nay hash as their king now when you consider this and consider it we must you realize that the point that he's making is you said no but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king when the Lord your God was your king so he says look here's your king the one you chose the one that's been said over you he's tall he's handsome he was good against the ammonites but he's not the Lord your God is there any way that this can possibly work well yes verse 14 if you will fear the Lord and serve Him and obey his voice and no rebellion to the commandment of the Lord and if that is true of both you and the king who reigns over you if the two of you all of you will follow the Lord your God it will be well we can't stop here but incidentally this is the only way any political structure ultimately works no matter what it is in the entire universe because it's underneath the sovereign authority of Almighty God who is the king of the universe if you will submit to the king of the universe then you'll be amazed at how things can unfold if you refuse to do that then no matter what structure you put in place is bound for disintegration so he says yes you can go forward in this way but verse 15 if you will not obey the voice of the Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king so why don't you stand still he likes telling people to stand still now therefore stand still because you're gonna see something really spectacular that's my paraphrase of verse 16 and then he says is it not the wheat harvest today you can imagine people looking at one another going yeah it is but what's that what does that have to do with anything well that has to do with the fact that in the feet harvest it was an arid time it was a dry time it wasn't a thunder and lightning time it wasn't the rainy season and so he says what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask God now that I've spoken to you you have heard audibly from God now I'm going to ask God to demonstrate visually before you with a sign just how displeased he is with what you've done and so what then happens is kind of the equivalent of twelve inches of snow in downtown Miami on the 2nd of June right it just doesn't happen and that's the point stand still and watch this if you go this route all will be well if you don't this is a critical juncture in the history of Israel there there teetering is that we're on the abyss and Samuel called upon the Lord the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel I remember as a boy in Scotland in school it made me think of it justice now that every so often on a pretty nice afternoon in school all of a sudden the darkness descended the lights had to be turned on and there's a dreadful darkness that became pervasive in the middle of the afternoon is a huge storm came in and there was always some little boy at the back you would say you could hear him whispering it's the end of the world it's the end of the world I was going to be the end of the world for these people they didn't pay attention the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom incidentally the Bible is not shy in talking about the place of the fear of God moving men and women to repentance the Bible isn't shy about it we needn't be either and as a result of the fearfulness they asked for Samuels intervention on their behalf notice verse 19 and all the people said to Samuel pray for your servants to the Lord your God if you go back to force a no7 they had said to him there cry out to the Lord our God here they say pray for your servants to the Lord your God I see what has happened here they've now began to distance themselves from Yahweh they recognize it if he is really our God if he's really our King if he's really the one that we serve what new world are we doing here and it is an answer to these longings that the kingdom we'll be renewed well we time is gone but just say a word then concerning that concerning how all that then may be enjoyed is grounded in the reliability of God how on what basis can Samuel begin his response in verse 20 with the line do not be afraid do not be afraid he just said I'm gonna ask God to do something so dramatic there you'll be afraid and then they're afraid and then he says don't be afraid how can they not be afraid on what basis can fear be dealt with he's not he's not encouraging them for a moment to believe that somehow or another hey listen it doesn't really matter I spoke with God and he said it's okay the fact that you have rebelled against him in this way that you're foolish in your wicked it doesn't matter he overlooks these things no it's not that at all do not be afraid you've done this evil we're not gonna say it isn't evil but don't turn aside don't turn aside and here's the key verse 22 for the Lord Yahweh will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself in other words God is not the author of unfinished business he completes what he begins he will not allow his purposes for his people to be thwarted even by their foolish rebellion his grace is greater than all their sin and all our sin the future of the people of God here in 1st Samuel 12 and the future of the people of God throughout the nations of the world this morning rests on the reliability of God that God has purposed from all of eternity to put together a people that are his very own and the issue there is not ethnicity it is not race it is not gender it is grace it is the fact that God is a covenant established in God and a covenant keeping God it is grace that brings us in it is grace that keeps us in it is grace that will take us home when Paul writes of this to the Philippians remember classically says being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ God is concerned about his name and about his reputation and he's so concerned that he won't allow his purposes to be destroyed by the wickedness of his people now that ought to be a huge encouragement it ought to be a huge encouragement at a very personal level when we are tempted this morning as individuals to allow our past sins to define us when we are tempted to conclude and say things that are not uncommon in terminology well you know I I can I can't change there is no hope for me that's the lie of the devil Ralph Davis has a wonderful little section where he says don't think that the quotes grand mistake that has disfigured your life is the first disastrous sin that God has seen don't think you can silence verse 22 because God can make it blink at you in neon if he must the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself so Samuel has confronted them with their evil they have repented and so they must move on move on and that's what the cop says it Hopkins isn't it when you're trying to wait for your mother-in-law and he taps you on a window they all said move on move on you have to go around again and they can't move on well that's what Samuel is saying here what is the devil say this devil says well you should probably you should probably review some of your mess he says it why don't you relive some of your mess why don't you go back in the garbage cans and dig out some of that stuff that confronts you and your fear and your wickedness your failure and your rebellion that's that's what he says but God says no move on it's not that their obedience then establishes this covenant relationship with God but it is that our obedience allows us to enjoy the relationship with God there's no peace there's no joy there's no thrill like walking in God's will and the imperatives that are then pervasive through the balance of this text I'm going to have to leave you to consider them on your own verse 20 do not turn aside serve the Lord with all your heart 21 don't reach for empty things we can't deliver verse 24 fear the Lord's servant faithfully consider what the great things he's done for you and Samuel says in my ongoing ministry will continue as prophet and intercessor and insofar as I fulfill this role then both the people and the King will submit to God's good and great rule I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you I will instruct you in the good and the right way that's why I say that it is his farewell address in one respect but actually he's vital and he's going to be seen to be vital he still has a role to play he's going to play the role of the Prophet and of the intercessor he said well what is this all got to do with us today well this you just fast-forward if you keep in mind again that the Bible is the story of God's purpose from from all of eternity that it focuses ultimately in Jesus but the kingdom comes in Jesus at the role of the Prophet and the King and the priests are fulfilled in Jesus he is the King before whom we bow he is a real king he's the Prophet who speaks to his the very word of God he is the priest who intercedes for us and when we ponder that we realize how foolish and wicked it is for us to turn aside to empty things that can profit and can deliver the Robert Burns in one of his poems he says but pleasures are like puppies spread uu sees the the flower the bloom is shed and like a snowflake in the river one moment here then gone forever do not do not forsake the King for empty stuff that can't deliver that's the message let us pray thank you Father that ultimately when we read the Bible we find ourselves chasing forward again and again until we realize by grace I am redeemed by grace I am restored and now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my lord thank you that this morning in all of the various political structures of our world we are able to declare that Jesus Christ is king and then lord help us to live underneath his kingly rule before we pray in his name amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living learn more about truth for Life with Alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 12,657

Rating: 4.9633026 out of 5

Keywords: Truth For Life, Biblical Figures, Samuel, Faithfulness of God, Fear of God, Idolatry, Security of the Believer, Trusting God

Id: Nvzcn5-yYhQ

Length: 37min 26sec (2246 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 23 2019