This is the insanity we're seeing in people. Christians saying, I love the Lord, and they are empowering those who hate Jesus Christ at the voting booth. And in the little circles they run in. with the little comments that they make. Should any pastor be silent when he knows about this kind of stupidity going on?
Because. If it's not fixed, And the wrath of God falls on them for it. There'll be nothing anybody can do. This is 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 chapter 12 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. 1 Samuel chapter 12. This chapter is his final address.
As the Judge Uh Prophet slash judge. Over the nation. The nation will be moving from A judgeship to a Monarchy. King will take its place, and there will be some radical differences, and they will be Put on the people. Every servant wants a splendid ministry.
When it's all said and done, when this life is finished, We do want to hear the Lord say, Well done.
Well done. Samuel is a man who Heard that. and of course in glory now, had this God-sented ministry. Jesus, of course, it was said, He increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man. And that was true not only of the Lord, but of man like Samuel And others, Paul, Had such a ministry, and I think it's very important that Christians do not lose sight of that.
If you think you just have a good relationship with God, but everybody can't stand you, the Christians, everybody, then maybe there is an issue. He spoke of his God. in such a personal way, that Samuel did. And as if God was never far off from him. Always centered on him from the time he was.
Just a wee lad. This comes out in this chapter in a very unique way. thirty-two times in twenty-five verses, We hear the covenant name Yahweh. all of them spoken by Samuel except one time. I mean, you almost couldn't finish a sentence without mentioning the covenant name of the Lord.
Because he was so focused on God. This again is his Oh. Last address as the leader of the nation. And so now we look at verse one.
Now Samuel said to all Israel, Indeed, I have heeded your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you.
Well, the last clause, of course, lets us know that he heeded them concerning the king, not in everything. He was the prophet of God. He told the people what God wanted. He did not let the people tell the prophet to tell God what they wanted. Although there's some of that, of course, in intercessory prayer.
But that's not what he's talking about. About here. He says that he did not continue to resist their plea when God made it clear that this was the direction. The people were going in. The children of Jacob were going to have a king now.
And once Samuel heard it from God, Like it or not, he was off and running with what he was supposed to do. He had his orders. And he was going to carry them out. And many good men over the centuries and women have done just that. They have received their orders.
And though they did not like them, Care for them? And yet they fulfill them to the utmost, and that is what is going on here with this statement. And have made a king over you because God again told him to do so. But their true motives It soured everything. I mean, they had false motives, and they had true motives.
And Samuel knew what the true motives were, and he called them out on it. He called them out on it.
Well, they did tell him. They tipped their hand in chapter 8. And they said that we also may be like the nations in having a king. That must have broken his heart. Pause here to remind us all that after all these years of ministry, of this God centered ministry, a splendid, blameless ministry, It was stacked with heartache.
stacked with things that just didn't turn out the way he thought. He grew up. In um environment where Hofni and Phineas were big disappointments. and big sinners And I'm sure that just disturbed him. It also contributed to his understanding of how to serve by knowing what not to do.
Well The people had come to a place where they wanted to fit in. with those who rejected Yahweh. And it's not a pleasant thing. I'm thinking about doing a topical again on this verse because. It looks like it's needed.
But some of you may not be familiar with just this shocking passage. In Chronicles second chronicles nineteen It is quite appropriate. Jehoshaphat was a king who loved God. He was a good king. But he just could not.
Pick the right friends. He just gravitated. when he had no reason to. and it almost cost him his life on more than one oca more than one occasion. And we pick it up in 2 Chronicles 19.
Then Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, returned safely. to his house in Jerusalem.
Well, he had been out with Ahab and almost killed, and when he comes back, and Jehu, the son of Hanani. The seer, that is a prophet, went out to meet him.
So here's the king coming back. He survives. And here he sees the prophet coming out to him. And this is what the prophet says. and said to the king Jehoshaphat, Should you help the wicked and love those who hate Yahweh?
Man, that had to get him right between the eyes. Because Joseph had loved the Lord. He wasn't like Ahab who would spin it around. It cut deep. I want to read that again.
Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, Should you help the wicked and love those who hate Yahweh? Therefore, the wrath of Yahweh is on you. Oh man. Then he goes on, Nevertheless, God is good to you, Jehoshaphat.
So that goes in with a verse that I have said, I think, now, four times in a row, four sessions in a row in a pulpit. Titus chapter 1 verse 16. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him. I'm probably doing my topical now. I gotta move on.
I don't wanna, but I'll repeat it. That's all that needs to be repeated if it is of the Lord. There are those that say they love Jesus. and if Satan himself were running for office and they knew it was Satan. They would still vote for him.
This is the insanity we're seeing in people. Christians saying, I love the Lord, and they are empowering those who hate Jesus Christ at the voting booth. And in the little circles they run in. with the little comments that they make. Should any pastor be silent when he knows about this kind of stupidity going on?
Because. If it's not fixed, And the wrath of God falls on them for it. There'll be nothing anybody can do. And that is what Samuel is going to tell them at the end of this chapter. He's saying: if you don't follow God, Even your king won't be able to help you.
The judgment will fall. We don't like having our conscience spoken to when our conscience is guilty. That's why a lot of people don't want to go to church. That's why some don't want to come back. That's why many of the youth, once they get old enough, they're gone.
They don't want to hear it. They want to be free to sin without the sting on the conscience. And I guess many churches have succumbed to that and they don't preach those things.
So they go out shop for one that will just say nice things to them about, oh, don't worry, God loves you. You can vote for Satan if you want. You can go out with those who hate Yahweh. And still go down to the temple and offer sacrifices and sing praises to the Lord. This is the kind of stuff that the prophet faced.
His strategy, Samuel's, obviously We said just stay centered on God. and not get tied up with the failures.
Alright, there were the Hophni's in the Phineas, and there were others that were just eventually, there's going to be Saul. He still stays focused on what he's supposed to do. And therein lies a great lesson for all of us. No matter what. A thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand, but it shall not come near me because I will be centered on the Lord.
That's why. And this kind of behavior is very attractive. To those. who are attracted to truth in Christ Jesus. In verse 2, and now Here is the king.
walking before you. And I am old and grey-headed. And look. My sons are with you. I have walked before you from my childhood to this day.
You got what you asked for. Here he is. It's not a bitterness. It certainly is a sting in Samuel's heart because he takes this as a personal rejection. How can he not?
Even though it really is not. They couldn't say, and that's going to come out too, they couldn't say, Well, this is what you did wrong. They're going to say, Yo, your kids did this, the other nations have kings, we wanna do this. We want to be modern. We want to flow with the culture.
We goin' to run with the herd. and not be led in the flock. From Moses to Samuel. God has always sent deliverers to recover His people from their spiritual failures. And uh To this day, he sends people to help others.
recovers spiritually. How does anybody get saved? He says, and I am old and gray-headed, and look, my sons are with you.
Well, we know the sons were corrupt. And I That's telling us that he's an older man with adult children. But this is also what the people used. Going back to First Samuel 8. And they said.
to Samuel Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways.
Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. I re-read that. Because it's that important. When the Christians When the church begins to look to the world for spiritual solutions Isn't she dead already? We look to the word of God for how we should behave in life, and we care that others would.
but not enough to forsake God. to make them happy. There's that thing called, some call it, I don't call it peer pressure, I call it temptation. It's a temptation to sin. To be seduced.
You're sitting in a church, and the Word of God is going out, and you've got people texting you. adults and young uh teens alike. And they're not saying, hey. Wait till I'm done. And give God his due.
And then I'll come tell you how wonderful the sermon was. Yeah. We can hope.
So Coming back to this. Samuel What is also remarkable about this man is he suppresses his strong personal opposition to what they did. I would, you know, that's real hard. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. When you find out somebody is wrong and sticking it to you, you want to attack that.
Not them necessarily, but that which is wrong, which is false, and that can be a trap. And so now he's doing his very best to start the nation on their new. send them off on their new chosen path. and to do it uh properly. He is the bridge that is they're going to cross over into this next move.
Here's what the psalmist wrote. In Psalm 99, Moses and Aaron were among his priests, and Samuel was among those who called upon his name, and they called upon Yahweh, and he answered them. He's got this reputation for praying. And getting his prayers answered because he's got this connection to God, like Daniel and Joseph. God liked the way Daniel thought.
And he liked the way Samuel thought. And he liked the way they reacted to situations that were often deadly. I want that. I want God to like the way I think. I want God to like me.
I know he loves me. That's done.
Okay, now let's work on this hard one here. Let me be likable to God. Jeremiah 15, Yahweh said to me Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me. My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of my sight.
and let them beat it. He says, Go forth. I've I've helped you with it. I've given commentary. Let him go.
They want to behave this way, even if these men of prayer, Moses and Samuel. Interceded for them, I would tell them no. As righteous as you two men are among men, no. It's quite profound. Again, when you Cover scripture and you know the scripture is feeding the flock.
You know that there are those that are turning their nose up to it. I don't care for it. I don't like that. I don't eat that. Do you have any Twinkies?
Do you have anything, you know, else to eat other than the word of God? I've heard it, Pastor. It's old now. I'm so familiar with God's Word that it doesn't move me. That's you, you're not fighting.
Then they I don't like you saying that. You're mean. I'll be mean. I'll be mean and tell you. The Satan has got his lips around your leg.
And he's gonna swallow you whole. And if you don't do anything about it, That's how it's not going to go well for you. That is the story of chapter 12. If you don't believe me, when you leave here or when you have a chance, read chapter 12 and you'll find out this is what Samuel's telling the people. Just as Elijah would pray centuries later, listen to Elijah.
1 Kings 18. And it came to pass At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant. Man, I want that! He continues.
And that I have done all these things at your word. Um This should be attractive stuff for us. And we're not going to be perfect. We're going to pursue these things. When we look at the book of Chronicles, again, I'm going into my topical to one day be.
Chronicles was published after the nation had failed. But within the story of the Chronicles, The chroniclers have highlighted These profound moments. These great servants These stellar performances in the face of evil. As I just read about Jehoshaphat and Jehu the prophet going out, taking his life in his own hands. And saying Why are you buddies with those who hate your God?
Why are you helping them? Why are you making them strong? They're going to hurt people. You are enabling them. He says I have walked before you from my childhood.
I'm now back in. 1 Samuel 12. In Verse 2. He says, I have walked before you from my childhood to this day. In other words, blameless as men go.
I wanna park it here for a moment. From my youth. That's what he is saying. From the little days. when I was just a little guy loving the Lord.
I know I grew up in a home where I was taught to love God. I loved Him so much as a boy. And then of course the teen years hit, There was no father around, influences. I'm not making excuses, I'm just trying to make heads or tails of what happened. And I turned against God.
God didn't turn against me. And he got me back. All his work. And I can say I loved God in my youth. but I cannot say I loved him all my youth.
1 Samuel 3.
Now the boy Samuel ministered to Yahweh before Eli. How beautiful is that? That's still doable. You can be born in a church and be born again in that church. And you can look back and say, I ministered in the church that I grew up in.
I remember Pastor Rick when he was in his nineties preaching.
Now he's in his uh hundreds and somethings. The psalmist in Psalm 71. For you are my hope, O Lord. Lord Yahweh. You are my trust from my youth.
Who can say this?
Some of you can say this. Psalm 71 again, verse 17: Oh God, you have taught me from my youth. To this day, I declare your wondrous works. That psalmist never let up. Then there was Obadiah, not the Obadiah, the prophet.
And the minor prophets But this Obadiah was hiding the saints from Jezebel's henchmen. at risk of his own life. And of course, there's this battle between Ahab and Elijah the prophet, and Elijah disappears, but he shows up when they're looking for him. And he has this engagement with Elijah, which is Very telling because you just have, you know, you have two strong believers here risking their lives for God, and yet there's a little friction between the two of them and how to go about this. And so Elijah says to Obadiah, tell Ahab Elijah is here.
And Obadiah said, uh-uh, mmm, because you're gonna leave. I'm gonna run and tell him, and you're gonna go who knows where. And out in the woods somewhere, and then He's going to turn on me. And this is what Obadiah says to the great prophet. He says, But I, your servant, have feared Yahweh from my youth.
That's why he could stand up to the man of thunder. This guy called fire down and killed people. More than once, do it again!
Okay. How can you not read these stories and say, I'll just take that little bit, please? I'll put that on my plate. And I will devour that. What else have you?
In spite of all the things that come against us, the perplexities, the God, when you say, God, what are you thinking? Why? I can do better than this if I had a little bit of your power. That's the flesh, of course. The Spirit of Man looks at you and Your spiritual man looks at your flesh and says, you're crazy.
And the flesh is. Jeremiah. Chapter one. Then I said, ah. Lord Yahweh, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.
But Yahweh said to me, Do not say, I am a youth. You shall go to all whom I send you, and whoever I command you, you shall speak. Oh man. So Jeremiah said, I don't want any parts of this. I'm too young.
He played the youth card. And God said, Mm-mm. You going? And you're going to do what I tell you to do. Because he knew what he had in his hands.
You know, you ever ride with somebody and you're pushing on the brake because the brake on the passenger side does not work. But the driver note hopefully They know what they have. They know they can perceive how much stopping time. I try not to be a passenger because you can't fix this. But the point is, God knows what he has.
He knows how to gauge this. We don't. We submit to this. Ezekiel Again, Ezekiel was not a weirdo, but he was eccentric. And he was a musician.
Yeah. I'm not saying the dots connect. I'm not saying they don't. Ezekiel 4:14.
So I said, Ah, Lord Yahweh. Catch how many times connected to their youth they're saying, Adonai Yahweh. Master and God Almighty. altogether.
So I said, Ah, Lord Yahweh. Indeed, I have never defiled myself from my youth till now. I've never eaten. what died of itself or was torn by the beast, Nor has abominable flesh ever come into my mouth. He said, From the time I was a kid, I've been following the dietary laws as commanded by Moses to the Jewish people.
He was quite Proud in the good sense, not proud in the sense that I'm looking down at others, proud and says, This is an achievement, Lord. and I'm happy to say it is an achievement. And God would have agreed. That part is an achievement.
Now, here's what I want you to do. Paul the Apostle. We can't forget him. Speaking to Agrippa, My manner of life from my youth. which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, All the Jews know.
You see, they all know how I grew up. They know my record. They know that I have a good testimony in the law before God and before men. And finally, Timothy. We don't hear Timothy speak.
But we hear Paul speak about Timothy. And Paul says, from your childhood, You have known the holy scriptures. Which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The scriptures can do this to you, Timothy. You've known the scriptures from a child and you've not departed.
You've not said, okay, I'm too big for this now. Oh, it's boring. Heard the story of Daniel in the den. Oh, know all about the nice boys in the fire. Boring.
Oh, David's going to kill the giant. No, it's like yeah. If I get to go on that fire, I won't be like them. If I'm faced with lions, I want God to shut their mouth too. If I face a giant, I want to run at him as David did and take him out.
Now that all sounds good. To were faced with it. But then, after it's all said and done, you look back and you say, I did it. I remember when my dad taught me to ride a bicycle. And I thought he was still holding me.
And I was just sailing down the road. He was way back there. And what a feeling. Like I'm free, I'm doing what I thought I could never do. First three.
Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken, and whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed?
Mm-hmm. Um 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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