Don't we see churches ask the world permission to be intelligent? To try to somehow blend in the evolution of the species with the genesis record and many other such things. You know, let's go to the university, let's get accredited, let's prove that we're smart too, see? Instead of saying, we don't care what you think against Christ. except to say, we want you to love him like we do.
And as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. and not cave in. You're listening to Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically, how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 1 Samuel 8 as he begins his message: Misguided Demands. 1 Samuel chapter 8, Misguided Demands It's helpful to remember that hell is threatened by a Christian-sound motives. When our motivation is to obey the Lord because we know Him, we love Him, we know. of his love for us.
Regardless of how weak we may be, That motivation to obey God threatens hell because hell recognizes that. There is potential. to go against the things of darkness to bring light To bring Christ into any situation. And Even King David, who was a man of war, who God did not want directly associated with his tabernacle. Even David was honoured by God for his motivation, even though he was forbidden.
In 2 Chronicles chapter 6, verse 8. The LORD answered David, The LORD said to my father David, Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for my name, you did well in that it was in your heart. And uh It is true The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but so is the road to heaven. What is the motive? To whom do those intentions belong and where do they come from?
And God was Israel's invisible king. But that wasn't enough for many of them. They wanted a human king. but their motive for the human king. Was misguided, it was wrong.
And that's what we're going to discuss tonight. When we look at verse 1.
Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel.
Well, he wanted to delegate authority to his sons to raise them up. And what better way to? Train them to be leaders over the people, then to put them in positions of leadership. It was a good idea. It says that he makes his sons judge over Israel, delegating that authority.
It was a good plan. ruined by bad men. which so often is the case. In verse 2, The name of his firstborn was Joel. and the name of his second Abijah.
They were judges in Beersheba. godly names, godless lives, They don't appear to be as bad as Eli's son. They're actually not even close, but they were corrupt. They could be bought. They were in Beersheba, which was so sixty miles away from the home of.
Samuel and from Shiloh, which was once the place where the tabernacle of God was, far enough from Samuel, They were on Israel's southern frontier. At the end of their land, so much history.
So much of their beloved history. Had taken place with the patriarchs there in Beersheba, with Abraham. Isaac and Jacob, all three of them. The book of Genesis records these episodes of Abraham dealing with the Philistines and digging wells, and then Isaac coming and digging wells again there, and then Jacob leaving for Egypt from Beersheba. A lot of history there.
You would think that these two boys, Joel and Elijah, Who were judges there on that southern frontier would have said. You know There's something special about this area that we've been given by our Father to administer justice. but it didn't register with them. What a danger to be born into a a house Samuel to grow up. to be delegated authority by this man Samuel.
and to miss the whole point. To fall so far short of that opportunity. And that is a risk for all of us, young and old alike. to miss what God has blessed us with. We tend to want more or something else, and that's where we get in trouble.
We begin to find that we have misguided. demands placed on life, which life doesn't care anything about. What we must work to do is Consider our blessings. Consider what the Lord is doing. Whistle.
What we have And then make it work for the king. It's a very simple formula. Just carrying it out. is very painful sometimes. They're very rewarding also, but there's a lot of pain in this light.
There's no way around it. Trying to make it work for the kingdom. Trying to Fine. My favorite tree falls, I will cut it up and make something out of it. Anything from furniture to firewood.
But This takes discipline. It takes faith. It takes a motive. And the motive is To please the king. Verse 3.
But his sons did not walk in his ways, they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes. and perverted justice.
So again, they failed to realize the high calling of being born into the house. of a man like Samuel. or being born into the house. of godly parents. Those who love the Lord.
Now, Samuel, he's going to end up saying, fine, you know, I'm still going to be Samuel. We're coming to a verse where they're going to say, well, Samuel, you're old now.
Well, we're going to find more action in his life as an old man than we did prior to these events. Samuel made it work. Instead of wringing his fingers, why Lord, why me? Why did Joel and Abijah have to turn out this way? He continues to be Samuel.
That's who he was. He remembered his godly mom, The high purpose of being in ministry was lost on their carnality.
So often that is the case, someone is given an opportunity when you serve in the house of God. You're given an opportunity.
Now there have been those who think I'm just doing the church a favor. You're either serving the Lord or you're hurting yourself. There's really no other. There's nothing in between. Uh ultimately.
And Whatever that may bring, good times and bad times, you're serving the Lord. And that's how I think we should always see it. That's how Samuel did. I mean, this is a man that ministered from the grave. Who else did that?
So he appointed his sons to assist him. As I mentioned, the end of their border in Beersheba. They trampled the opportunity. to be high servants of Yahweh so that they could satisfy themselves. and their twisted understandings.
You know what happens? Satan plays us before we even know what's going on sometimes. Unless we adhere to the Lord, unless we stick to the Lord. But when we find ourselves loveless and judgmental, we are being set up. And if we find ourselves that way, we know what to do, we fight it.
We don't cave in to it. But don't feed it. They were a disastrous failure. Deuteronomy 16, verse 19, they knew this verse. At least they should have.
You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality nor take a bribe. for a bribe Blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. He compromised. Here is an interesting thought.
That you shall not pervert justice, you shall not show partiality. That's a good lesson for parents. Whenever parents play favoritism with their kids, they are creating. Big trouble. It is unrighteous, it is ungodly, it ain't cute.
To pick out one child, I like him more than all of you.
Now, my mom couldn't help it with me. My my siblings, they understood because I was adorable. Yeah, that is not true. They felt like it. That was their problem.
I'm kidding, of course, I'm kidding. My mom never played favorites. And uh I think that That is a lot of wisdom in that one verse from Deuteronomy: You shall not pervert justice, you shall not show partiality.
Well, like Eli before him, Samuel's sons were a disgrace, but they don't seem to have been, again, as bad as Eli's sons. Unlike Eli, Samuel is not said to have enabled his boys, or tolerated it. It's just mentioned that this was a fact. We're not told what he did after that. Perhaps if Samuel is the Historian here giving us the information, as I believe he is, most of it, the bulk of it.
They're too painful. and unnecessary.
So it is omitted. And The people will take this. and jump at the chance to replace The leader of the nation. With a king. Instead of having a man of God, a prophet over them.
They want a king like everybody else, and that is where their demand is misguided. And the king will not bring improvement. Verse 4. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. And said to him, Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways.
Do now. Make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Feels like I'm not in the mood to read, I just want to dance. Anyway.
So the elders come, and you know what the elders said was law. We don't read about a lot of protests in these days. When the elders, tribal elders, stood before whoever was the judge or the leader, and they made their decision, that was the law of the land. And so they come to Samuel and they And they say, you're old. And that's just a nice greeting.
But this broke his heart, no question. That here he was, the spiritual lamp of the nation. And it wasn't enough for them. He is going to be the spiritual lamp of the nation until his death. There's nothing anybody could do about that.
And he's going to be around a while. And he's going to get a lot done. They did not, in the fair side of this, want to be stuck with his corrupt sons.
So they said, Listen, who's your successor going to be, Samuel? Once you die, your sons are in place to kind of take over. And we don't want them to lead over us.
Now would be a good time for a king. One of the problems with that is Samuel already knows there are other factors hovering around this whole thing. But before we get to that They come and they tell him about his corrupt sons, which was true, and that was very painful for him. To have to listen. That His beloved sons were failing on the field of ministry.
They were not just failing as administrators of justice, they were his kids, they were supposed to be righteous, they were supposed to set the example. People were supposed to say, just like your dad, such a man of God, you are. And that wasn't happening. And of course, today we see that on a righteous parent, As children fail, there are those Christians that pounce on them. It makes me want to beat him up sometime.
I mean, to kick another brother or sister when they're down and struggling just because they're kids. Listen, Hosea's family was a disaster, but he was God's man. God did not say to Hosea, You can't raise your own family and keep your wife where she's supposed to. You're not a prophet. In fact, he called him to be a prophet.
Then there's Samuel. As I mentioned, God invested a lot into Samuel, so much so that when Samuel was dead, Saul goes to the witch at Endor and says, Bring up Samuel, and he comes up. God allowed that. God said, where I can't rule, I'll overrule. And you are not running this show, you witch.
I'm running it. And so Samuel. It comes and ministers from the grave. And as for their motives that he already knew about, Samuel understood the Jews were supposed to be a distinct people, like Christians. They were supposed to be separated.
We're not supposed to be like everybody else. There's supposed to be something about us that's very different.
Some of you have heard this in the workplace or the neighborhood, wherever you go, from unbelievers. You're not like us, you're not like everybody. There's something about you. Or I knew it when you say I'm a Christian. I knew it.
And that's how it's supposed to be. There's nothing wrong with that. Leviticus 20, verse 26, and you shall be holy to me, for I Yahweh am holy, and have separated you from the peoples. that you should be mine. Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount, What do you do more than others?
Oh, how man how convicting is that What makes me different?
Well, here's what Samuel knew what was also going on behind the scenes. 1 Samuel 12, verse 12. He brings this up later. He says, And when you saw Nahash, king of the Amorites, came against you, you said to me, No, But a king shall reign over us. When Yahweh was God your king.
Quote unquote. Samuel knew what was going on, but he is such a man of grace and grit at the same time. That he withholds these things. Instead of slashing them with it, he holds, restrains himself and he just tries to minister to them and reason with them. There was the Ammonite king threatening them.
Threats were nothing new to them. They just dealt with the Philistines. And Samuel led the charge called thunder. But that didn't mean anything because they had other ambitions. Their demands were misguided.
Because they wanted to impress The pagans.
Well, don't we see churches do that? Don't we see churches ask the world permission? To be intelligent. To try to somehow blend in the evolution of the species with the Genesis record? And many other such things.
Let's go to the university, let's get accredited, let's prove that we're smart too, see? Instead of saying, we don't care what you think against Christ. Except to say, we want you to love him like we do. And as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. and not cave in.
Well, we watch Verse 6 almost went political. caught myself. Yeah. Verse six But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us.
So Samuel prayed. to Yahweh. He's just a messenger of God, and he knew it. He's a minister of Christ, the Creator. And it broke his heart.
Not only the thing about his sons, yes, that too, but Samuel took this personally. He felt he failed in ministry. He has such a vision. For the people that he would create, you know, or at least be part of the founding of the sons of the prophets, the school of the prophets. And his sons would be godly men.
And all of that was falling down around him, and he still had to press forward. But the day now comes, and they're not honest with him. He knows that it's Nahash the king, they're impressed by him, and they want one of those too. And they come up with this excuse: well, you know, we're worried about you, you're old, there's no successor, your kids are no good, we should have a king.
Now, this was not new to their understanding as a people. It was baked into their law. Moses had given some, there was anticipation in the prophets of the king eventually coming. Even Hannah prayed. About the blessings of God.
Maybe I'll get to that later. But this was not new. But the motives were wrong, misguided. And God is going to honor them. They didn't need a king.
Yahweh was their kings. No officials except those who spoke the messages of Yahweh. No code of laws except those given by Yahweh. That was supposed to be enough for them. We see it again in the church.
We see those who say the Bible is not enough for me to live my life. It's not enough of an authority. I need the Bible plus something else to help me understand how I'm supposed to live. I don't agree with that. I think the Bible's got all the answers as to how we are supposed to conduct ourselves morally and spiritually in this life.
Now, it does not give me directions on how to maybe program a VCR. Do they even make VCRs anymore? I've just lost, I don't want any more technology. I'm done. Uh Well anyhow Even Gideon knew better, and wanted nothing to do with the monarchy.
Judges chapter 8. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us. Both you and your sons, and your grandson also. for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, for Nor shall my son rule over you.
Yahweh shall rule over you.
So Gideon is saying, Yahweh's king. And That's enough. These people at this time in Samuel's day knew this. It was there in their scriptures. But it didn't matter.
So Samuel will pray to the Lord here in verse 6. He steered a course to Heaven's Harbor. When things were hurting him, that's where he went. He got down on his knees, The refuge of broken hearts, where wrecked lives go, and those who are heavy laden. I don't know.
You know, you go and pray to the Lord when something's really pressing on you, and even though you don't get your answer or your will done. or the relief you still find relief. it still strengthens us to keep moving forward in Christ. Or you become an apostate. Demonstrating that you probably never really did care about what the Lord thought to begin with.
True believers know were to take their crushed hearts, And this is a picture of what's going on here. all of his dreams splintered and ruined and laying before him and He goes to God. Paul said it this way, be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known. to God.
And then he continued, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah, that's what he said from jail. By this time in Paul's life, he had already been persecuted several times. I mean, how humiliating to be let down in a basket out of Damascus to avoid capture.
And death. But he did, and in many other things he suffered. And so when he writes this, we say, you know. This is worth listening to. It's coming from a man who's doing it.
And he did it to the end. to the day that they likely beheaded him. This is how he lived. He said, Don't worry about anything. That's not easy to do, but it is a motivation of the saints, it is a motive.
that we have And no one else is supposed to have it except those who come to Christ, those who are motivated to trust Christ and not be worried because of Christ. And keep moving forward, which Paul did because he had a lot of life left in him after he wrote to the Philippians. He says in everything in prayer and supplication, don't forget gratitude, thanksgiving. Who likes an ingrate? Little children by nature are usually on they have to be taught to be grateful.
Again, you can sit up with them all night when they're sick, and in the morning, they're not going to, you know, let me bring you some coffee or tea or whatever it is you drink, mom. You stayed up with me all night. My mom used to say, you're going to miss me when I'm gone. And she said it in a very humorous way, and we took it that way. But moo man, I don't know how many years it's been, uh over almost thirty-five or so, and still.
Miss my mom. And my dad, So We learn to start paying attention as we get older and being grateful for things and thinking through it. and not just taking things for granted as though we are owed these things. Maybe we look at someone else who has them and we think because they have them, we're owed them too. May we stay focused on the main things.
He says the peace of God, Paul does, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. Yeah, it does, because that peace does not come in. as the world would like it to. Remembering that Philippi in jail? His back still sore and bleeding.
And he and Silas are singing praises to the Lord.
Well, Samuel He worked so hard to not be like Eli, to not have his boys turn out that way, and look what happens. Who knows? Maybe at some point his boys corrected themselves. Verse 7. And Yahweh said to Samuel, Heed the voice of the people and all.
that they say to you, Well, they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. I'm not so sure Samuel expected this answer. Heed the voice of the people on this matter, of course. I think he was hoping God would say, Samuel, go back and you tell these people. And He doesn't do that.
Now God is not saying Yet the people are correct. And they know best. And so we should do as they're asking us to do. What God is saying is the people have rejected him, and now this is going to be the best course of action based on that. This is how we're going to handle it.
But again, I know I read this this verse from Jeremiah.
Well often enough. It's good to remember. Jeremiah says, Oh, Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. Man can't govern himself properly without you.
That's what he is saying, Jeremiah 10:23. Psalm 37, verse 23: The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way. These were written by real people who suffered real things. We talked about the suffering of Paul. I mean, it's a it's it's a debate.
Who suffered more, Jeremiah or or Paul? I think Jeremiah But it's not a competition. But I think Jeremiah, no, okay. I mean you just read these stories of these men and you just my goodness I Where did they get the metal? to be the kind of heroes of the faith that they were.
Well, they got it from God. And so the kingdom of heaven is based on a divine monarchy. Pardon me, God wanted men to be under. His authority, and that's okay. When Jesus comes, he speaks about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.
It is a kingdom, we have a king. And he is to rule. Uh Samuel Probably ready to step down and be subordinate to the king. He says, For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Again, in verse 7.
So Samuel's sorrow is shared by God. God is saying, I'm a fellow sufferer with you, Samuel. They're rejecting me. I feel it. I know what rejection is.
And this is what it looks like. Thanks for joining us for today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Rick is in the book of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to listen again to this or other messages or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreferenceradio.com.
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Okay.
