Delivering bad news can be almost as easy to receive it. Today on Truth for Life we'll learn how to find the delicate balance between compassion and truth when we're assigned to deliver an uncomfortable and yet biblical message. Let's join Alistair Begg as he teaches from 1 Samuel chapter 3 verses 15 through 21.
Well, I don't think any of us would be surprised by that. I think we would have been afraid to tell the vision to Eli as well. And Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel my son.
And he said, Here I am. And Eli said, What was it that he told you? Verse 17, Don't hide it from me. May God punish you if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.
That's why I imagine that Samuel just took a big intake of breath. And then verse 18, He told them everything and hid nothing from him. Here's the role of the prophet.
Now we know that Samuel has been set to the task. For the responsibility of the prophet is not that of invention or of creativity or of the ability to stimulate the mind of the listener with intrigue. But it is simply to take from God God's Word and to convey God's Word to those who are to hear that Word. And in that same passage, to which we referred in Exodus chapter 4, it's quite striking and also encouraging, isn't it, that God says to Moses, I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak?
You remember at one point he actually says to him, Who made your mouth? There was no wonder that Moses recoiled when he realized what it was he was supposed to say, what he was supposed to do. He spoke the Word of God, and he held nothing back. Now, there's a challenge in this, and I want to pause on it for just a moment.
Because the pattern is clear, but it is not easy to do. Consider in more contemporary terms how many otherwise useful, potentially useful servants of God are condemned by their silences, condemned by the things that are left out. People will always say, But he's such a nice person. He says so many nice things. True and true.
Where, then, would the problem lie? Well, the role of the prophet is to make sure that they say everything and that they hide nothing. Now, I don't sit in judgment on those people, because it is an easy temptation, and I'll tell you where it comes up just like hounds on your heels more than any other in my experience, and that is in the funeral service—the conducting of a funeral service. If you listen carefully to people reading the Bible in funeral services, unless they're prepared to read the text exactly as it's written, you will often find that Psalm 90 is a great favorite in funerals. In fact, it has become a funeral psalm.
Although, really, it's not about dying, it's about living. You remember it, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth, or you ever had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. And it goes on and later on, Make us glad, and may your work and your glorious power and so on.
But right in the middle of it are two verses that are often skipped, and this is what they read. For we are brought to an end, by your anger. By your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins, in the light of your presence. You see, you should never read that unless you have the gospel. Because it is such a chronicle of absolute and utter judgment and despair and finality.
Because the person whose funeral you're conducting, if they have remained outside of Christ, have, according to the Bible, been lost forever, forever. Now, who but the prophet of God with the Word of God would say such a thing? I'll tell you another one in the New Testament. It's very common to hear people reading 2 Corinthians 5. And again, I don't say this in any spirit of judgment. I confess I've often been tempted to skip a couple of these verses. You know, for we know that the earthly tent we live in, if it is destroyed, we have a building from God, not made with hands, and so on—the wonderful picture of rolling up the tent of life and heading for our permanent dwelling and so on. And yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. Amen.
Not so fast. You just skip the kicker. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. It's a kind of selective prophesying. You say, Well, are you suggesting, then, that the way to handle this is always to lead with this and always to emphasize this and so on?
No. I think, as we're going to see—Samuel helps us in this—there is a really unsavory dimension in the psyche of certain individuals who feel that to lead in this way, you know, is to really be doing the job. We're not like those who are cutting out verse 7 and 8 of Sam 90. We're not those who are leaving off at verse 10.
No! We're starting with verse 10. We're leading with verses 7 and 8.
Those are the polar extremes, aren't they? And the real challenge, you see, is in allowing the Scriptures themselves so to adjudicate not only on what we say but also how we say it and in what context we communicate it. So, for example, Paul says, Knowing the fear of the LORD, we persuade men. The prophetic role, the role of the preacher in every generation, is by definition a persuasive role. He's not simply the provider of information. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we seek to persuade men. We're not coming to it to say, You can take it or leave it.
No. And in that context, says Paul, it is the love of Christ that constrains us. When Lloyd-Jones gave his lectures to the students at Westminster Seminary back in the seventies, at one point he asked the question rhetorically, What kind of preacher do we need today? And this is what he said, The chief thing is the love of God, the love of souls, a knowledge of the truth, and the Holy Spirit within you. These are the things that make the preacher. If he has the love of God in his heart, and if he has a love for God, and if he has the love of the souls of men, and concern about them, if he knows the truth of the Scriptures, and has the Spirit of God within him, that man will preach. So Eli said, Tell me everything.
Hold nothing back from me. Interestingly, Lloyd-Jones, prior to writing that book, in the UK, was preaching on one occasion when a mutual friend was leading the service. The mutual friend was a much younger man than the doctor. Lloyd-Jones preached in his normal fashion, and it was an event to be present when he preached. And he sat down, or better still, he collapsed into his seat. And following the benediction, my friend went to him and said, Dr. Lloyd-Jones, how do you feel?
And Lloyd-Jones said, I feel tired. Unhappy with such a short response, my friend pressed him. He said, In what way? He said, Young man, I think this is the closest that a man will ever come to the experience of childbirth.
And he wasn't being funny. The agony, the ecstasy, the carrying of something that has to be released, has to be discharged—all the joy that accompanies it, all the pain that is part of it, all that dimension—no wonder it says that he got up and he opened the doors, and he was afraid to tell Eli what God had told him to tell. Listen. If we are not afraid, if we are not fearful, if we do not cringe from that responsibility, then there's something actually wrong with us. If there is not within our own hearts that which recoils from the reality of it all, because it is such a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And there is a large crowd in every generation that simply want you to tickle their itching ears, to tell them something that they would like to hear. That was what Paul said to Timothy in Ephesus, and it's as true in Cleveland as it ever was in Ephesus, and the danger was that Samuel would be tempted just to tickle the ears of Eli when the message was supposed to tingle both of the ears of Eli.
You know what the real challenge is? The challenge in teaching the Bible and in preaching in this way at all is in recognizing that you have to somehow or another make sure that in seeking to comfort those who are afflicted that you don't lose out on the opportunity to afflict those who are comforted. And one of the unique challenges of a congregation such as our own, if I may just put it to you in plain terms, is that the congregation is so diverse that in an average service here we have all of the categories of listeners to which Perkins referred in an earlier era. Perkins said to the preachers of his day, You need to be aware of the fact that these various categories of listeners are present when you preach the Bible. I've told you them before.
You've all forgotten, and I had forgotten, but I keep notes. And so here's what he says. When you proclaim the word of God, there will be non-Christians present who know nothing about the gospel and don't care. True.
Right? There will be non-Christians who know nothing about the gospel but they're teachable. There will be those who know what the gospel is but have never been humbled by it to see their need of a Savior. There are those who have been humbled, some in the early stages of seeing their need, others who see that they need salvation not merely an improvement and are convinced that only Christ can save them. There will be genuine believers who need to be taught.
There will be backsliders who are in that condition, either as a result of failing to be taught or as a result of failure to live constantly in the light of what they have been taught. What you have, he says, is a mixed congregation of believers and nonbelievers. That simply heightens the challenge and reinforces what we say to one another about how the effectiveness of the delivery of the Word of God, of the bringing home of the Word of God to the lives of a very degraded group of listeners, is surely directly tied to the prayers of the people of God. Praying home the Word of God. It's as if the person is firing the truth like arrows from a vantage point, and the people are saying, you know, Bring this home, Lord. Bring it to me.
Bring it home to people. For that was going to be the issue in Samuel's case. And, of course, you'll notice that Samuel responds.
And in just a sentence, we have what some commenters say was a kind of spirit of fatalistic resignation. It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. This is where we need the video. I need to hear his voice. Did he go, Hey, it's the Lord. Whatever.
Or was this his greatest moment? Was this when he said, You know, it is Yahweh. It is Yahweh. Let God do what God does. That matters more than anything. Matters more than my welfare.
Matters more than my family's continuance. Let God be God. That's what he's saying. I want to believe that's what he's saying. And then, in the concluding two or three verses, we can simply say that God is no longer silent. How many times are we going to read, And Samuel grew?
Here it is again. I wish I knew how old he was, how tall he was. Don't you? I mean, how big is this? This guy's gonna be a giant here if he keeps growing like this.
It's just a picture of progress, though, isn't it? Could Hannah have ever imagined this? Remember in her prayer, the Lord brings them down, and the Lord lifts them up. Would she ever have thought that this boy who was given to her, for whom she longed, for whom she cried, would be lifted up in this way to such a place in the purposes of God? He grew in the presence of God, and he delivered the Word of God. And the Word of God accomplished the purpose of God. None of his words fall to the ground, because God speaks through his servant. And remember in Isaiah 55 that my word, says God through the prophet, will not return to me empty but will accomplish the purpose whereunto I have sent it.
And that's what's being described here. He doesn't need to mount a PR campaign. He doesn't need to somehow or another send himself out, as it were, over the radio to let everybody know who he is. No, everybody knew. All Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And once again, the Lord appeared at Shiloh. How does that mean? What does that mean? Well, the Lord revealed himself to Samuel.
And how does that work? Well, by the word of the Lord. Well, that was a thousand years ago, and here we are tonight. So what is the takeaway when you read a passage like this? What are we supposed to do with that?
If we're not careful, people will be saying, Well, I see what it is. We're supposed to pray like crazy now for a prophet to be raised up, perhaps another Samuel who would arise in our day. No, it's good to pray for those who preach the Bible and so on, but that's not what we need to do. We don't need to pray for God to send a prophet.
Why? Because of where we began our service. God has sent his prophet. In the past, he has spoken in various ways by the prophets. But now, in these last days, he has spoken to us in his Son. And do you remember the voice from heaven regarding his Son? This is my beloved Son.
Listen to him. And Jesus sends out his followers, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. And off they go. There are only a few chapters into it before there's a hullabaloo. Somebody's complaining about something.
And the food distribution is not working as it should. And immediately the practical ramifications of this burgeoning church comes to the knowledge of the apostles. And the apostles say, Well, we better get this thing sorted out. And in the opening verses of chapter 6, that's exactly what they do. And they express purpose in doing what they do is so that they might give themselves to prayer and to the preaching of the Word of God.
And they do. And then Luke records, And the Word of God continued to increase, And the number of the disciples multiplied greatly. Read church history, and you will find there is a direct correlation between the Word of God being proclaimed, believed, obeyed, shared, and lived, and the multiplication of the church. Because, as we like to say to one another, the Word of God does the work of God by the Spirit of God in the people of God. And so tonight, throughout the whole world, his kingdom grows, unabated. No earthly kingdom has been able to last the test of time. But since Jesus is an ascended King, we can be sure of victory in the end. It's far more important that we tell people what they need to hear than what they want to hear.
It can be a matter of life and death. That's Alistair Begg. You're listening to Truth for Life, and this is the conclusion of a message titled, Speak Lord.
Please keep listening. Alistair will be back in just a minute to close with prayer. Speaking of preaching what people need to hear, the Basics Conference is returning to Parkside Church in May of 2022. This is a conference meant to refresh men who serve as pastors and church leaders to send them back to their home churches renewed and ready for ongoing gospel work.
This year's theme is Back to Basics. The speakers include Alistair Begg, Tony Morita, and John Woodhouse. They'll be encouraging pastors to remain faithful in their teaching of God's Word. Basics begins Monday, May 2nd.
It concludes Wednesday, May 4th. This is a popular event, so don't wait to sign up. The conference is open to men who serve in any role of pastoral ministry or church leadership. Be sure to register before March 1st.
To take advantage of the discounted rate, go to basicsconference.org. Many of us have a nickname, or maybe there's a term of endearment you use for your spouse or for a family member, but only Jesus has been given the name that is above all names. That's the title of a book we're recommending today, Name Above All Names. The authors Alistair Begg and Sinclair Ferguson explore seven of the many names that have been attributed to Jesus throughout Scripture. The book Name Above All Names comes bundled with a study guide, which makes it perfect for use with a small group or for personal reflection. There are seven sections in the study guide that track with each chapter of the book. Each session includes additional scripture, questions for immediate application to help you meditate on the greatness of Christ.
There's ample space provided so you can record your thoughts or prayers, and then each session ends with a quote or a poem or a hymn text to help you close in praise. John MacArthur had this to say about the book Name Above All Names. He said, one day every knee will bow at the mention of his name. If you want to understand why and to have your heart humbled, filled with gratitude, and aroused to worship, nourish your soul with this simple yet profound overview of who Jesus is and what he has accomplished. Request the book Name Above All Names when you donate to support the teaching you hear on this program.
Just visit truthforlife.org slash donate, or call us at 888-588-7884. Now here's Alistair with a closing prayer. God our Father, thank you for the way in which this turns us again to Christ and to the living Word. Thank you that we were able to begin the day magnifying you, the triune God, in your holiness and in your grace. And now, as we seek to part from one another, we remind ourselves that as the day ends and as a new day dawns, your kingdom continues to grow, and we rejoice in this. And we pray that you will make us faithful. Help us, Lord, to be compassionate and yet to be clear, to be truthful and yet to be kind. Help us not to be so focused on love that we become so soft and become absolutely hopeless. Help us not to so focus on truth that we become hard and embittered in like a refrigerator. Make us like Christ, we pray, for it's in his name we ask it. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. We hope you enjoy your weekend and are able to worship with your local church family this weekend. Be sure to join us Monday when we'll find out how quickly faith in the living God can be replaced by superstition. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
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