Tonight, I invite you to please turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 3, as we continue our study in this book, and that is found on page 290 in your Bibles, 290. These are dark sections in the opening here of the book of 1 Samuel, and we see how the Lord answers and brings Israel to repentance and then raises up in this book a king for them. That's a wonderful book. This is the word of the Lord. We'll begin at 3 verse 1. Now the young man Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli and the word of the Lord was rare in those days for there was no frequent vision. At that time Eli whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see was lying down in his own place 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 then the lord called samuel and said and he said here i am and he ran to eli and said here i am for you called me but he said i did not call lie down again so he went and lay down and the lord called again samuel and samuel rose and went to Eli and said here I am for you called me but he said I did not call my son lie down again now Samuel did not yet know the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him and the Lord called Samuel again the third time and he rose and went to Eli and said here I am for you called me then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the young man therefore Eli said to Samuel go lie down and if he calls you you shall say speak Lord for your servant hears so Samuel went and lay down in his place and the Lord came and stood calling as at other times Samuel Samuel and Samuel said speak for your servant hears then the Lord said to Samuel behold I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle on that day i will fulfill against eli all that i've spoken concerning his house from beginning to end and i declare to him that i am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming god and he did not restrain them therefore i swear to the house of eli that the iniquity of eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever Samuel lay until morning then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli but Eli called Samuel and said Samuel my son and he said here I am and Eli said what is it that he told you do not hide it from me may God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you so Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him and he said it is the lord let him do what seems good to him and samuel grew and the lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground and all israel from dan to beersheba knew that samuel was established as a prophet of the lord and the lord appeared again at shiloh for the lord revealed himself to samuel at shiloh by the word of the lord may the lord bless the word tonight to your hearing and i trust that you see the providence of god don't you from this morning that we land on this tonight this is all about the word of god again what if god had decided that his word was not to be heard anymore it's a scary thought isn't it that he pulled the plug on the project and said you know i'm taking it away i'm taking the word away there no longer will be a hearing of the word of the lord the word of lord will don't will no longer be spoken how would we handle that how it's it's a terrifying thought isn't it what would it indicate in a place where god's people reside if the christians in that place didn't know the word didn't understand the word didn't care about the word threw us to side the word didn't listen to the word what would that really be saying how would we process that what would it be saying about god and what would it be saying about us imagine your life without the bible for a minute imagine your life without preachers who faithfully come uh every week who god has sent all over the face of the world who come and deliver that word imagine that gone for a minute i hope that thought brings some kind of distress to you it should be one of the worst scenarios ever well then you're going to see here that this is probably one of the most distressing moments in israel's history for that is what had happened. The whole chapter, chapter three, begins with a shocking statement, doesn't it, that really requires a lot of reflection. You'll notice it there. Now the young man, Samuel, was ministering to the Lord under Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no frequent vision. It's a revelatory word. There was no widespread revelation. Prophets were not being sent and prophets were not speaking. What 1 Samuel 3 just said, that this was a particular time in Israel's history where it was a rare thing to find the word of the Lord. In other words, God was not speaking. And you take it for granted because you hold Bibles and you say, well, God speaks to us in His word. This is how they received the word from the prophets. Thus saith the Lord. the people were in darkness as to regarding the word of the lord they didn't they weren't hearing the word of the lord they were coming up and doing the sacrifices where were the prophets i like to think about that but there were it seems to me that the whole prophetic office here had been shut down for a time, especially as the Lord tells us, that in those days it was simply rare. We begin to compare Scripture and see what the Bible says about this kind of phenomenon and this kind of moment. For instance, Proverbs 29, 13, where there's no revelation, the people cast off restraint. One of the worst statements comes out of the book of Amos. You'll remember when Amos said this very phenomenon, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Remember this morning, the Bereans, no famine, beautiful. But what about a famine? They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. What a situation in Israel that they would not find the word of God spoken anymore. The Lord had described a time when He would be silent. They would be like people who desperately search for food and drink and can't find that. Now, I looked at this this week and thought to myself, what had happened? What brought this about? Why would the Lord shut it down that way? And I think you've been studying it, haven't you? You've been learning when you read chapter 1, what the priesthood had done. They weren't speaking it. They were speaking their own words, and God wasn't speaking because of it. And the opening line is telling us that this was a direct response to God's divine displeasure over what had happened to the priesthood and Eli's house, what they were doing to the people of Israel. If you go through the opening chapters of Samuel, you'll find that Israel had come, We remember through one of the darkest moments of their history, the people had come to worship. You remember they hated to do the offerings. They were coming up to worship. The priests were stealing. They were lying with the women. Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's sons were totally corrupt. They didn't even know the Lord. Did you see that? Remember that? The worst thing about Eli's sons is they were ministering to the people, supposed to minister the word, explain what the sacrifices meant, and they didn't even know the Lord. The leadership was totally corrupt. There was no accountability. There was no discipline. And as a consequence, one of the judgments was, as the leadership turned from the Word, as they refused to hear the Word, as they refused to speak the Word, what happened? God stopped speaking. This is an interesting moment, isn't it? To study. Some of the same warnings and revelation Jesus gave to His churches. It's an incredible privilege to have the Word of God spoken. Now what happens when you come to a time where it's no longer viewed that way? Even worse, it wasn't that the priests often in Israel's history stopped speaking. It was that the messages they were giving were their own. They weren't God's. remember jeremiah he had a showdown with these guys jeremiah said the prophets prophesy falsely the priests rule by their own power my people love it i have not the prophets prophesy lies in my name i have not sent them i've not commanded them i haven't spoken to them they prophesy to you a false vision a divination a worthless thing a deceit of their own heart i think this play is shown to you this this there's a play on words here in verse 2 that it says and it came to pass at that time while eli you'll notice that at that time eli whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see was lying down in his own place 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. There's a play on light there. There's a play on lamp. It references the lamp not yet going out. The light would go out in Israel. Remember, they were always to keep that burning there. And Eli's blindness was indicative of Israel's spiritual blindness so that they couldn't see even the light. Eli's house should have been the light for Israel. Eli's house should have been the light. They should have been speaking the word to Israel and giving the word of the Lord. Now, why does the Bible raise all of this at this point? Well, this has immense application for what we're doing today because when we think about the speaking of the word, there's a direct responsibility in Christian ministry of what we are called to do and what we are called to say. It's not so different from the Old Testament in that when the Old Testament prophets spoke, they were speaking, thus saith the Lord. When the New Testament pastor speaks, he's saying, thus saith the Lord, as he speaks what this says. So that the Spirit is speaking to you through the vessel, through the human, preaching the word as he is called the voice of God, as He delivers the Word as the Spirit intended it and inspired it to be a blessing to you. Is it possible that God could ever bring judgment today? I'm not meaning that, obviously there's a difference in the Old and the New Covenants, but clearly the Lord has warned about not hearing the Word in the New Covenant. I'll never forget a chapel I did years ago on Dr. John Rainbow. After I spoke on Amos 8, I was at a Christian school, he walked up right after the chapel and he said, isn't it something? Could you have a famine? How could you have a famine? Could you have a famine of the Word of God with the bread in your hand? I thought, yeah. The Reformation gave us the Bible back, didn't it? What had happened to it? It had been taken. Everyone today is writing on how bad biblical illiteracy is among us. I was reading this week Al Mohler, an article he did on biblical illiteracy, and he wrote this, a majority of adults think the Bible teaches that the most important purpose in life is taking care of one's family. Some of the statistics are enough to perplex even those aware of the problem. A Barna poll indicated that at least 12% of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. Another survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50% thought Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. A considerable number of correspondence to one poll indicated that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. According to 82% of Americans, they believe God helps those who help themselves is a Bible verse. This is a tragedy. This is a tragedy. We're in big trouble. How could it get to this? And it's not much better in the Christian church with Bible knowledge. The illiteracy is shocking in our day. We don't know even the basics of it. Who's reading it? Who's reading it? And yet we hold it. There was no widespread revelation in those days. The Word of God was rare in those days. You draw the connection. It's in the midst of this darkness that God begins to shine a light. Behind the scenes, this whole time someone's been weaved into the narrative, hasn't he? Powerful. Somebody's being prepared to speak. A servant indeed. A servant unlike Israel's ever seen. Outside of Moses, of course. Verse 18, but Samuel, in all this darkness, Samuel ministered before the Lord, even as a child wearing a linen ephod. There was one light left in Israel, and this little child is there in the temple, ministering constantly before the face of Yahweh, right by the ark. After the description of the horrors of Israel's apostasy, the horrors of corrupt leadership, the horrors of people speaking their own messages the word of god shut down in those days in such a darkness you see god raising up a true prophet how do you know who a true prophet is in this mess was always the question in israel's history how are you gonna know and god did not remain silent about that he said constantly through the prophets do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you to fill you with false hopes they speak visions from their own minds not from the mouth of the lord they keep saying to those who despise me the lord says you will have peace and to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say ah it's okay sin's okay no harm will come to you. But which of them has stood in the counsel of the Lord? Which of them has stood to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? That's the question of the Old Testament. And in 1 Samuel 3, we are told you always knew a true prophet in a few different ways in the old testament he had to be number one called by god number two he had to stand in his counsel and number three he had to speak only what god told him to speak those are the three ways you knew a true prophet in the old testament well this is exactly what you have now here this is exactly what's outlined for you in first samuel chapter three in verse four we read that the lord begins to call samuel and he answered him remember he calls in the middle of the night and samuel answers and he says here i am and he runs to eli and and and he says here i am for you called me said i did not call my son lie down again and he went and laid down this happens a second time in verse six and the lord called yet again the word here interestingly means he summoned him this was a divine call placed on him this was not just hey Samuel this was I am calling you Samuel I am summoning you up Samuel the divine call is on you Samuel but in the middle of the second call we have a crucial verse don't we so crucial look at verse 7 now Samuel did not yet know the lord why well for one great reason the word of the lord had not yet been revealed to him this is a direct contrast with eli's sons they did not yet know the lord the word of the lord was never revealed to them but here's the prophet and look what's happening the word of the lord has to be given to him and every time a prophet was called you remember isaiah the the the angel took the tongs from the altar and grabbed the coal and went and touched his lips. When Jeremiah was giving his call, remember he was afraid. When Moses was as a prophet, he gave him Aaron. Every time the Lord was giving him the word of the Lord. He was revealing that word. He was opening the heart to that word to know the Lord. What a scary thing that you could have people in the ministry speaking their own ideas, their own messages, who don't know the Lord. But you see what has to happen? This has to happen with all of us. The Word of the Lord has to be made known to you. It's what Peter described, you being born again by the Word of truth. The Word has to break into that hard heart and shatter it and give life by the Spirit. for you don't know Him. So the Lord, what He's doing at this point is drawing a powerful contrast between a true prophet called by God and one who is not. Now, here's Samuel. Called by God as a prophet. He's called. The Word of the Lord is being revealed to the prophet to know Him. And notice here then that the third time the Lord calls and he again comes to Eli and we read that Eli perceived that the Lord was calling him. So he says, go, lie down. And it shall be that if the Lord calls, here's what you say, speak, O Lord. Speak for your servant. Hear. So Samuel went and laid down in his place. And now the next big thing that had to happen for this to be a true prophet happens, the Lord comes and Samuel is in his counsel. It's powerful. Here the Lord has come to commission him. Here the Lord has come to send him. He's called him. He stood in his counsel. And here's the first prophetic act. Then the Lord comes, calls him, and Samuel says, speak, Lord, for your servant here. And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. And that day I will perform against Eli all that I've spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. For I've told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows because his sons made themselves vile and he did not restrain them. We have been through all of this. And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for forever by sacrifice or offering. How would you like as a pastor for your first message to be that? I wouldn't. You've got to go to Eli and tell him this. Samuel hears this, he can't even get up. I have sworn judgment comes on this house. Samuel has to be the bearer of that. See, now a true prophet is known by what? Okay, he's been called, he's now stood in the counsel of God, and now he's got to go speak what God gave him to speak. Here's the great test. Now God's prophet has to give the bad news. How hard it must have been to give the doom to his teacher. But the very point is, a true prophet of the Lord, when he is called, will do it. He will speak what God has given him to speak. You know, it's a hard word when we have to proclaim the other side of this, isn't it? This is why we constantly feel the pressure of pleasing men and want to shrink back from the message of judgment. Who likes to speak about that? Who likes to say, if you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you refuse to turn from your evil ways and you cling to this, there is absolutely no atonement for your sins and you will go to a place of unending punishment. Who wants to say that? Not very many because we've all been very close in our day to abandoning that entire message. Every pastor has some kind of fear in that. because we fear how people will view us and how people will respond. But I think the important thing to say tonight is the sincerity and the truthfulness of God's messenger will be seen in their willingness to say what God has said. There's goal, of course. And I'll come back to that in just a minute in closing. But I love Eli's response. This is why I say I believe the man, even though he was a great failure as a father. I believe the man was a believer. Right here, for this reason. When Eli hears the judgment and he says, you tell me what the Lord said, you don't hold back a word. What does he say? He says, well, it is the Lord. Let him do so as he pleases. This is about your son. He didn't rise up in judgment against God. He received that word. But the point is that when this time of deep darkness fell over the people and the word of the Lord was rare, the Lord had raised up a prophet in front of them. And verse 19 tells us that this prophet grew and the Lord was with him. And a verse that has always been, of course, as a personal, my favorite for ministry, I've asked the Lord over and over, Lord, let none of my words fall to the ground. Let them be heard. That's what the Lord did for Samuel. He let none of his words fall to the ground. Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord, and the Lord seems pleased now, as we enter into this section, to say, I reveal, he was revealing his word to Samuel Shiloh. The word of the Lord was established through him. I want us to think for a minute in closing tonight of what all this anticipated. What did God promise He would do from Moses in the line of prophets? Send a great prophet one day who would come into Israel's darkest moment and speak the word of truth to them. And when the Lord Jesus came, that is exactly what He did. Remember what He said, for judgment I have come into this world that those who do not see may see and that those who see may be made blind. Everything was about to change in Samuel's ministry and we're going to see what the Lord would do through that. But think of what all this anticipated when Jesus came and spoke to us and God inspired for us that God in various times and in various manners spoke in times past through the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son. And what has that Son brought to you? Well, He's brought to you life. His Word has the power to not only forgive your sin, but to give you life. This is all what He was doing in raising people and demonstrating His great power as He spoke the Word. Remember in Mark when he said everyone wanted him to go on healing and he left and he said, let us move on to the other towns for I must preach. This is the reason I have come. I'm speaking God's Word. I'm speaking salvation. I'm speaking judgment for sins and salvation to all who repent and believe the Gospel. And he did the saving. I love to think of, in this entire section tonight, what all of this foreshadowed. Boys and girls, is God going to come to you tonight on bed and start speaking to you? How do you know what the Word of the Lord is? Well, it was spoken to you today. God spoke to you today. Do you know that? God spoke to you. As His Son was made known, where the Word of God is spoken and His Son is made known, There is His church, there is His people, and there is the community of faith that He has saved and given life to. The central desire of you to hear Jesus proves what? There's not a famine on you. He's loved you. He's given you salvation. He's given you Him. And I have to say I'm immensely thankful tonight for a people whose hearts are eager to hear God's Word. For this is what we need to pray that happens all over the world today. That God's Word would be heard again and they would hear the voice of His Son in these days. For that is our greatest need of the hour. A prophet is established in Israel and he's seated on the throne and he's King. His voice needs to be heard. And I pray tonight that as we go out into another week, we will take what we've heard and apply it and realize that we live under a gracious King who has given us life. Our prayer should be that none of the words of Jesus would ever fall to the ground. His word will be established. His word will be heard. He will save to the ends of the earth and there will be an Israel of God full of all of the people of God praising Him for His wonderful salvation. Thank Him for what He's done for you. as you go out into another week. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise You tonight for answering us, for clearly we deserve the judgment of You not speaking and shutting all of this down. But You gave Your Son, the true prophet indeed, who in these last days has spoken. Spoken salvation. Yes, judgment, but also salvation. And if we tonight can say that we believe the gospel promises, this is all evidence that You have revealed Your Word to our hearts, opened our minds to receive it so that we might be saved. Thank You, O Lord, for Your faithfulness. Thank You for Your gospel. Thank You for Your love. Let Your Word be hidden in our hearts this week that we might not sin against You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.