[0:00] 1 Samuel chapter 12, we'll read it in its entirety, but let's put it in its right context. What we read in 1 Samuel 12 is the end of Samuel's public life.
[0:15] Now by public, I mean because he will reappear, we'll see him in Scripture in definitely some very public events. We could call it political life, if you will.
[0:25] This is the end of his position as judge. If you remember, Samuel is the last judge, and he is the first in the school of prophets. So he comes in the spirit of the judges, which we encounter in the book of Judges, even though he's not militaristic in that nature.
[0:43] He is delivering the people from their sloth and from their lackadaisical attitude of worship, and he's reawakening in them the word of God.
[0:53] He is there judging not just a local community, but he's judging the entire nation of Israel, which is very unique in the period of the judges, because most of your judges were confined to a locale or to a city.
[1:08] But here Samuel is not stepping down from the prophetic role, but stepping down from the judge role, because now there's a king.
[1:19] If you remember, if you remember, in chapter 8, the people asked for a king. In chapter 9, Saul's searching for some donkeys, and he encounters Samuel, and there's this private coronation, not a coronation, a private anointing of the king.
[1:37] In chapter 10, there's this public coronation, and in chapter 11, there's the first battle. So now, all things are set. They've kind of rededicated themselves to the king.
[1:50] Saul is now in right position. He has won the victory. He's come back victorious. And at this time, Saul is still doing things right. The next chapter is when things begin to unravel and fall apart for Saul, the next few chapters.
[2:02] But up to this point, everything's still right. They're kind of on this political and even a spiritual high. They've worshiped together. They've communed together. They've had this fellowship, which they call a peace offering.
[2:14] They are celebrating in what God is doing. God is showing himself faithful. But yet, the sin of the nation still remains, and that they asked for a king at the wrong time. We'll get to that. But Samuel has one more public address, and that's what we have in the 12th chapter, his final public address.
[2:31] There will be times where he comes on the scene and admonishes and rebukes Saul. Of course, we know he anoints David, and then he is completely off the scene until his death.
[2:43] But here we have kind of his final public official duty as judge. We read it. It's easy to get caught up in the historical aspects of it.
[2:55] And I found myself doing that, really just looking at the historical parts and being captivated how God is even working in history. But as with every other portion of scripture, I had to step back after I, I'll be honest with you, I wrote three outlines over this passage.
[3:14] I wrote one. It sounded okay. I wrote a second one. It was good. And I was getting ready to type that second outline. And the big raging question that was in my mind was, so what?
[3:28] Because any time we come to a portion of scripture, what we need to ask ourselves is, so what? It's there, not so what in a mean way or even a kind of a smart aleck way, but so what do I do in light of what I've just read?
[3:45] What does this mean to me spiritually? Because we can read a lot of historical elements, even among the nation of Israel, and not find that application. So when we see this, let's not focus much.
[3:58] I'm saying this before I read it so that when I read it, you understand. We don't focus so much on the reality that this is Samuel's last public service.
[4:10] It is. We acknowledge that. We admit that. We concede that. We don't focus so much on Samuel, though there are some matters which we will see which pertain to Samuel.
[4:21] We want to look beyond that and say, so what does this mean to me? What is the application? What is being seen? What is being exalted? And while in the historical works we have to dig a little further, but we can still see God reveals his character.
[4:37] He reveals who he is. He reveals all these things. So as we read it, we try to think on the so what. The Word of God says in 1 Samuel chapter 12, Then Samuel said to all Israel, Behold, I have listened to your voice and all that you said to me, and I have appointed a king over you.
[4:57] Now here is the king walking before you, but I am old and gray, and behold, my sons are with you. And I have walked before you from my youth even to this day. Here I am.
[5:08] Bear witness against me before the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox 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?
[5:22] I will restore it to you. They said, You have not defrauded us, or oppressed us, or taken anything from any man's hand. He said to them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have found nothing in my hand.
[5:37] And they said, He is witness. Then Samuel said to the people, It is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron, and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt.
[5:48] So now take your stand, that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did for you and your fathers. When Jacob went into Egypt, and your fathers cried out to the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt, and settled them in this place.
[6:05] But they forgot the Lord their God. So he sowed them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them.
[6:17] And when they cried out to the Lord, and said, We have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served the Baals and the Asherah. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.
[6:27] Then the Lord sent Jerubabal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around, so that you lived in security. When you saw that Nahash, the king of the sons of Ammon, came against you, you said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us.
[6:45] Although the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore here is the king whom you have chosen, whom you have asked for. And behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve him, listen to his voice, and not rebel against the command of the Lord, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God.
[7:06] If you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the command of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers. Even now, take your stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes.
[7:21] Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord that he may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves a king.
[7:36] So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. Then all the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to the Lord your God so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.
[7:55] Samuel said to the people, Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things, which can profit or cannot profit or deliver because they are futile.
[8:12] For the Lord will not abandon his people on account of his great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, but I will instruct you in the good and right way.
[8:31] Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be swept away.
[8:46] 1 Samuel chapter 12. Though this is Samuel's final public address, not his final deed, God will use him in some very public manners, but there are no longer any public addresses.
[9:02] This is his final word to all of the people of Israel. It starts out with saying, Then he spoke to all of Israel and said. It is clear even from a casual reading, as we read through the text, that Samuel is not the focus of attention.
[9:18] The Lord, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord. It is this repetition in this text that keeps exalting and lifting up one individual, or one great name, and that is the Lord.
[9:32] It is not about Samuel. It is not about what he has done. It is not about how he has lived, though those things are expressed, and we'll see why in just a moment. The so what and the focus of the passage is on the Lord.
[9:47] So from 1 Samuel 12, we want to see the unwavering faithfulness of God. We always want to put ourselves in the context of Scripture, but it seems right also to put ourselves in the historical context of his people.
[10:04] God's people have just rejected him as their king. God has said so a number of times. In asking for a king, they rejected their true king, who was God, because they operated under that word, remember, theophany.
[10:21] God was king. So they have turned their back on King God and asked for a king like the other nations. They had a king unlike anybody else. They had the king of kings and Lord of lords.
[10:33] They had the creator of all. They had the king whose throne no man could stand before. They had the king that if anyone ever saw a vision of it, we get it all throughout Scripture, whether it be Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6, Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapters 1 and 2.
[10:50] No matter who it is, Daniel, when he's caught up into the heavens and sees it in Daniel chapter 7, the feeling is always the same. It is a feeling of unworthiness. Even John in the book of Revelations, it is a feeling of unworthiness and falling on your face and a beating of your chest going, woe is me for I am going to die because I stand in the presence of this king.
[11:12] But they turned their back on him. So they're in a spirit of rejection and they want to be like everybody else. They are called and brought out to be different than everybody else and now their great desire is to be like the nations around them.
[11:26] So if we want to put ourselves in context, then God's people are standing in rebellion and they're standing in sin. And in the midst of this, God reminds them of his unwavering faithfulness through his man Samuel.
[11:42] Isn't it good to be reminded of the faithfulness of God at all times, but it is even better to be reminded of the unwavering faithfulness of God when we're in the wrong. When God could have declared judgment to them and would have justifiably been able to declare that, he declares his unwavering faithfulness to the people.
[12:08] And he does it in a number of ways. So we notice just three great truths from this passage. The one that is radiating and standing out is the character of God.
[12:21] The first thing we notice is the character of God. Samuel begins this public address by opening up himself for inspection.
[12:33] He calls all of the people to him. And he says, okay, all these years, I mean, essentially, he tells them the truth. He said, I've grown up before your eyes. Remember, he was brought to the temple, which was at Shiloh, which is no longer there because Ichabod was written over it.
[12:49] And when the Ark of the Covenant was taken out and the sons of Eli were captured, more than likely the temple at Shiloh fell too. He was brought to the temple at Shiloh probably when he was about three years of age.
[13:00] So from three years upward till now he says, I'm a gray-haired old man, he has lived a public ministry before the nation of Israel. I mean, he's lived in the glass house literally his whole life.
[13:16] Everybody's watched him. Everybody's seen him. So now he stands and he asks the question to the nation. What wrong have I done? How have I defrauded you?
[13:28] How have I taken from you? See, it was understood in those days that leaders would gain from the people that they ruled over. It was just customary.
[13:40] As a matter of fact, he declares that Saul is going to do that and Saul does. But Samuel never did. And he asked them, have I taken money from anyone?
[13:50] Have I taken anyone's livestock? Has anyone given me a bribe? Did any of these things ever happen? And he asked them to do that and they say, no, never. None of these things. He says, so you are witnesses. The Lord and his anointed, that is the king, that is Saul, are witness this day that I have done no wrong.
[14:05] And they said, yes, absolutely. He is witness. We agree. You have done no wrong. Now I want to establish this. Samuel first declares his own worthiness among the people for the purpose of proclaiming a word from God.
[14:24] So Samuel's life is the foundation he is standing on that gives authority to what he's about to say. We have an easy way of saying that.
[14:38] They tell you today that in public speaking, not necessarily pastoral ministry, the way people respond to what you say is only 80% of the actual words you declare.
[14:50] I mean, only about 15% is the words you say. A full 85% is how you say them, the life you've lived up to that point, how well they know you.
[15:07] Only about 15% are the words. Upwards of 85% of how people hear you are based upon who you are.
[15:19] You all know it. You know people that no matter what they say to you, no matter how they say it, because you know what their life looks like, you have discounted everything they say.
[15:35] Samuel has a word from God. And he wants to ensure that the people of God are going to hear the word of God so he at first establishes his right to say it.
[15:45] And that right to say it is based upon the life he has lived before them. Grand application here. If we want to rightfully declare the character of God before anybody will ever listen, we better live like it's a reality in our own life.
[16:03] You can't talk about... Brother Kenneth Swan came a long time ago now, a couple years ago, went through the rocks of the book of Revelation with you.
[16:15] He used to lead singing down at Normandy. And he would get on to the congregation all the time. He said, if you've got the joy of the Lord in your heart, some of you need to notify your face. It was just kind of one of his things.
[16:31] I know that not all of us can walk around. And some of us, and I'm included in that, it hurts to smile sometimes. Some people just have a good countenance. Mine is more of a rest, right? It is what it is. But he said, you know, our life needs to reflect what we proclaim.
[16:44] If we declare God is love, but we're living a very unlovingly manner of life, then nobody's going to believe the character of God. And one of the character of God is that God is love. If we declare that whosoever calls on the name of Jesus Christ shall be saved, but we very limit ourselves to any one demographic of whosoever, then we really do not believe whosoever, right?
[17:07] Because of how we live our life. So Samuel is allowing his life to be the platform to give authority behind the words he's about to declare. That's all he's doing.
[17:17] He wants to talk to them about the character of God. So the first thing is he has to establish his own right to do so. And he does it. It's not about Samuel. He just wants to make sure they hear what he has to say about the Lord.
[17:31] We live our lives in such a way, God says to let you see in humility, well, I don't, nobody needs to see me. No, I used to think this way too. You know, I'm not to be seen on it. The Bible says you are a lamp that has been lit to put on the lampstand to sign.
[17:44] The Bible says you are a city set on a hill. The Bible says that you are to glorify, to work your works in public, to glorify your father in heaven. That is, your life lived out is not about you, but it is the platform that gives you the opportunity to declare who God is to you.
[18:03] Be it in the home, in the workplace, in the supermarket, at the gas station. The only way it's ever going to be lived out is how we do those things.
[18:16] And that's what Samuel is saying. You've seen my life. This is why I do not believe that monastic living as a monk in a monastery somewhere or a nun is a biblical practice of Christianity because how are you declaring the works of God?
[18:32] You're around other people. You're not, the Bible says you are a city set on a hill. You are a lamp that has been lit. Samuel says, I've lived before you.
[18:44] Right? Jim Elliott died on the mission field among the Auka Indians in Ecuador. Had this great saying. He said, Lord, set me on fire for all the world to see.
[18:58] Don't necessarily give me a long life, but give me a bright life. Make me a whole burnt offering. Set me on fire for all the world to see.
[19:10] And we see this is what he's doing. And he does this because once they establish that, do you notice that? That after they say he is witness, he doesn't start talking about himself. He says, Then Samuel said to the people, and he begins to declare who God is.
[19:26] God is the one who redeemed you and brought you out of the land. God is the one who led you and brought you into the promised land. It was God who heard you when you were there. God is a God of deliverance. God is a God of dedication.
[19:38] God brought you here. And then notice this. He also says, The Lord God is also, when your fathers rebelled, the Lord was the one who sold them into chastisement. Right? He rose up Sisera and all these other kings and the Philistines.
[19:52] The people who came against them was because God brought them against them. So he said, He's also a God of discipline. He delivers you, but he's also going to discipline you.
[20:03] And then when you cried out again, God rolls up a judge. So God is faithful, right? You see this character, right? God brought us here. God has disciplined us here. When we cry out to him, he delivers us again here.
[20:15] God remains the same. He is consistent. And then he stops. He says, But then you saw Nahash and asked for somebody else. When a quick glance, by this time in history, they are 500 years removed from the Exodus.
[20:37] Approximately. It's about 400 plus years removed from the Exodus. They had over 400 years of history to look back and see the faithfulness of God.
[20:52] The fact that they were still in existence is a testimony to God's faithfulness. He says, But as soon as you saw this, you asked for something else, which leads us to the second thing, the confession of man.
[21:11] Because it's though the character of God has validated himself, though the character of God has shown that he is worthy to be trusted, that though the character of God declares that when an enemy comes before you, you have one greater that is with you.
[21:27] See, they got so concerned about looking at who was attacking them that they forgot to look and see who was protecting them. We do that all the time, right? We look at the enemy rather than looking at the protector.
[21:41] Elijah prayed that his servant's eyes would be open, that he wouldn't see the enemy coming before them, but he would see the angels that were camped among them. So he declares that even though God's character is shown, he said, You did wrong.
[21:55] He said, You looked at this and God has proven himself right, but yet you asked for a king and now God's given you a king and that's fine. You have it, but then he just drops them with this bomb shell, right? He says, Even now and take your stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes.
[22:13] Is it not the wheat harvest today? So this is not the rainy season. This is the dry season, okay? He says, I will call to the Lord that he may send thunder and rain. Why? Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord by asking for yourselves the king.
[22:30] So in case we get too carried away in the character of God, we want to see the sinfulness of man. So he says, I'm going to give you a sign. I'm going to let God reveal this to you.
[22:42] I want you to stop right here and understand this. No man understands his own wickedness until God reveals it to him. Samuel prayed that God would send thunder and rain when it should not have come.
[22:57] It says, And then it thundered and rained and the people realized their own sin. The Bible tells us that it is the Holy Spirit that comes and reveals sin to us. Naturally, we believe we're okay.
[23:10] Because the natural inclination is to look around and I promise you, I don't care how bad I am, I can find somebody around me that's worse than I am.
[23:23] Right? The natural inclination is to judge ourselves on this plane. And we look around and go, well, I'm better than that person. I'm better than that person. I'm better than that person. I'm better than that person.
[23:33] And naturally, this sounds bad, we love us, we love ourselves a lot. I mean, I love me some me. I mean, if you don't, you're just not human.
[23:47] You're just not mankind. We call that self-preservation. Right? Just naturally, I'm talking about the natural man. This is why Jesus says it is astounding when you find a man that will lay down his life for his friend.
[24:03] But what about the one who loves even his enemies and dies for his enemies? Man loves man. And naturally, we believe we're okay.
[24:15] That's why the natural man really is not on his spiritual pursuit. He's on a pursuit to fill a void within him, but he doesn't know what that pursuit is because naturally, we do not understand our own sinfulness.
[24:29] Man has to be convinced of his sinfulness and his wickedness based on a divine interruption in his life. Whether that be circumstances or individuals or people or the word of God or something happening.
[24:43] And this is why we praise God for those difficult seasons that show us things about ourselves we may not normally like, but they show us things about ourselves that reveal who we really are. And so when it thundered and lightning and rained, everybody understood we got a problem.
[25:02] And we see their confession. Then all the people said to Samuel, pray for your service to the Lord your God so that we may not die. That's a true understanding, right? For we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.
[25:18] So don't miss that. God revealed their wickedness to them. By the way, that's part of the character of God. So, we understand this.
[25:34] It is a good thing when conviction comes because conviction is a divine operation. That means God's doing something in our lives.
[25:45] That feeling in your gut, that feeling in your heart and your mind and your spirit, that uneasiness about something in your life, that's not just you feeling bad about something you've done. Because man has a way of forgetting that, men and women.
[25:58] Okay, we said, we have a way of pushing that aside and just saying, ah, that's not that bad. And we become numb to it. It is a good thing because it is a divine operation when we can no longer handle a certain aspect of our lives and we become convicted over it and we look at that area of our life and say, I'm going to die because of this evil that's within me.
[26:18] Now, we know in Christ that that's not true. We are eternally secure in Christ. But even then, when we're being conformed to his image, it is a divine operation that reveals our wicked position to us.
[26:33] This is why Paul says to suppress not or push down, don't push down the spirit. You know, man doesn't push down the spirit when the spirit makes him feel good and gives him those goosebumps and runs around and, you know, swings off the chandeliers.
[26:47] We like to push down the spirit when it begins to show us things about ourselves we don't like. That's when we begin to push down the spirit. It begins to make us uncomfortable.
[26:58] We begin to be like the people here. Deliver us. We're going to die. Look at all this stuff. I'm beginning to find out about myself. And then we close the Bible, put it down, put it over there because, man, that thing's starting to tell me things about myself I don't like.
[27:10] That's a divine operation. Here's the confession of man. The character of God is united with the confession of man because man has to confess in light of the character of God that they have fallen woefully short because who God is has been clearly revealed to them through his past actions.
[27:26] And now that character of God is revealed in contrast to their convictions. And all of a sudden they begin to see themselves as they are. They should have never asked for a kink. And when we truly think on and dwell on and meditate on the character of God then we ultimately end up realizing our own shortcomings.
[27:50] But this brings us to the third thing. The third and final thing. There's the character of God, there's the confession of man. The third thing is the confidence to move forward.
[28:02] I'm so thankful that when the character of God intercepts the condition of man and he reveals the true state of mankind to himself that God doesn't just leave us there.
[28:17] So this is why I say we need to rejoice in seasons of conviction because they are divine operations which means God only reveals things to us about us that he wants to deal with with us.
[28:31] I'm thankful. I believe and I know I've said it before it's probably been a while since I've said it so it bears repeating. I believe in instant glorification and salvation.
[28:43] That is in one moment I am saved. When I confess with my mouth when I declare in my heart when I believe in my mind I believe in immediate salvation that I am saved at that moment. I also believe in progressive sanctification that the moment I'm saved that is the birth.
[28:58] The Bible says it's a new birth. You are born of spirit and of water. It is a new birth. That is not the end of the road that's the beginning of the road. So from that point on he is forming a Christ likeness inside of me which means each day there is something else he's dealing with inside of me.
[29:14] Each day there's part of this sanctification. I'm being set apart set aside and there's a new area in my life and there's this new divine and I may go through seasons of rejoicing but then there's going to be this new season where he begins to put his finger on something else and I'm like Lord I don't want you to touch that.
[29:28] I don't want you to bother that but this is what I have found out. I'm so thankful that the moment I was saved God didn't come up and give me a list and say now here's all the things I want you to work on. I mean I'm just thankful.
[29:40] When I think back over that 22 almost 22 years ago I'm so thankful he didn't give me a list and say in 22 years I want you here because you know what I would have done I said I can't do it and I'd have quit.
[29:53] I'm just being honest. I mean if I think if 19 years ago you had told me I was going to be a pastor I probably would have walked away.
[30:04] It took another year before the Lord began to show that to me. I said you know I can't do it. I can't do it. But what I have found is that when God brings conviction when he makes the thunder and lightning testify to the reality that there's a problem inside of us it's because he wants to deal with that and he wants to bring you through that.
[30:25] He wants to move you forward. God never brings conviction just so we feel bad. He brings conviction so that we may move forward into repentance.
[30:38] God's not in the business and making us just feel bad. Paul says it's a sorrow unto godliness. It breaks our heart so that we may move toward godliness.
[30:52] It produces a sorrow inside of us that is uneasy that wants to move forward because there's hope on the other side of that.
[31:02] They say we're going to die but look at what Samuel says. The very first thing Samuel says is do not fear. Do not fear. Now I love this. Samuel if he'd been some of our modern day preachers would have said don't fear you ain't that bad.
[31:18] There's a lot of people out there that have done things that you've done too. He could have glassed over it but I like the truth. Right? I want somebody to look at me and tell me it's wrong.
[31:32] Wrong is wrong. Right is right. I want somebody to come in and just address the problem. Tell me exactly what it is. Our kids all had a surgeon when they had sports injuries and three older ones all three older ones had sports injuries.
[31:47] I didn't always like how he approached the room but whenever he found out what the problem was he would walk in the room and he would shake your hand and he'd go alright I'll go ahead and tell you boom this is what's going on now let's go on from there. He'd kind of smack you in the face for a minute like yep your ACL's torn or your collarbone's broke or your knees busted up and then let's talk about what we can do.
[32:06] The problem was not the main thing it was moving beyond the problem but he always just said it his name was Looney of all times Dr. Looney I mean not Looney Tunes all you think Dr. Looney could you soften it up just a little bit but he just wouldn't he just hit you.
[32:21] Well look at what Samuel says Samuel says do not fear you have committed all this evil. Do you notice that? He said you right you've committed all this evil what you think about yourself is actually true about yourselves.
[32:37] You have committed this evil in the sight of a holy God but he doesn't stop there. You've committed all this evil by asking for yourselves a king yet do not turn aside from following the Lord.
[32:52] Do not turn aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all your heart. You must not turn aside for then you would go after futile things which cannot profit or deliver because they are futile.
[33:04] So here's what he's saying let's put it in a nutshell. Don't fear what you're feeling about yourself is absolutely true. The things that God is revealing you have committed all this evil but let the conviction produce in you a confidence to persevere.
[33:24] Let it be a motivator not a distraction. Let it be the thing which causes you to push into the Lord God more to serve him greater rather than to be the tool that Satan uses to discourage you away from serving God at all.
[33:42] Man responds to conviction one of two ways. Either as a result of that conviction he leans into the Lord his God in a greater way in a stronger way in a deeper way or he gets so angry about it he walks away.
[34:00] That's only two options because when true biblical conviction comes lukewarmness is no longer an option. A.W. Tozer is one of my favorite authors of all time.
[34:13] A.W. Tozer didn't write many books he only well he wrote a lot of books but he didn't write many of his own books he only penned two before his death. A lot of books have been written posthumously in his name that were all sermons and I've got just about every one of them in the office.
[34:30] Dan Snyder I think published them there's been some more that have come out recently I don't have but A.W. Tozer when you read his sermons they don't make you feel real good about the holiness of God and things of that nature.
[34:43] A.W. Tozer was well known he pastored in Indiana and in Chicago and up in Canada Christian Missionary Alliance and he even was the editor of their paper and things like that real well known public speaker but it was also known that Tozer's churches never grew large.
[35:01] The most he ever had was 500 people. Now he was asked all over the world to go preach. He was asked everywhere he could anybody could ever get an audience. Some of the recordings of his sermons are still there but it was because if you sat under the ministry of A.W. Tozer you either got mad and left because of conviction or the conviction was used of God to commission you and you went out as a missionary.
[35:29] There were no lukewarm believers in the church and that's just the way it was. He preached biblical true sermons and people couldn't sit on the fence.
[35:46] A lot of people got mad and left and said I can't deal with this. but more people had the fire kindled and were sent out and became pastors, missionaries, gospel spreaders all over.
[36:01] When God brings conviction the reality of who we are is either going to cause us to lean into him and serve him in a greater way or cause us to get discouraged and Satan use it to draw us away. But I want you to notice something here because just because God finally shows us what he knows about us it doesn't mean he doesn't love and care for us anymore because here is the confidence we have to lean into God.
[36:26] Look at this verse. I have this one underlined verse 22. For the Lord will not abandon his people. For the Lord will not abandon his people.
[36:37] What did he just say? All of this evil you have done. For the Lord will not abandon his people on account of his great name because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for himself.
[36:53] You know what this is a good way of saying it? God has staked his own character on calling you to himself as his people. Remember what Moses' plea was?
[37:06] God says Moses I'm going to wipe this people out and make another nation out of you. I don't think God was ever going to do that. He was just revealing his character to Moses in this. Right? He said Moses stand aside.
[37:17] I'm going to just wipe them out. We'll start all over. Moses said you can't do that God because everybody knows you brought them out of Egypt. And if you don't bring them into the promised land then God you're going to look like a failure.
[37:30] You can't do that. Your character your name is riding on these your people. Remember a little bit later God says y'all go ahead and go I'm going to send an angel with you but I'm not going with you. My glory can't go. I can't do on the message.
[37:40] Moses says Lord you have to go with us because if you don't go I don't go because your people these are your people. They're not my people. He refers to them as Moses' people. He said Moses go get your people.
[37:51] Moses said they're not my people. I didn't get them. You got them. Those are your people. So God your name depends. The glory of your name depends on what happens. Friend listen to me. When God convicts us over.
[38:02] I get a little preachy on a Wednesday night. When God convicts us about an evil which we do. It should cause us to lean into him more because he's only showing us what he already knows about us and he knew it when he called us to himself and he has staked the character of his name on himself by calling us to himself and those whom he calls he can't glorify.
[38:27] His whole glory is wrapped up in his people because we are the only billboard in the world that has the opportunity to verbally proclaim his worth.
[38:40] The heavens declare it but people don't have to look at the sky. All of nature cries out until the day of groaning but people can hug trees all day long and never get to the biblical but until they hear no one will be safe.
[38:56] God states his own character upon the people he calls to himself and the confidence we have moving forward is that God is so invested in us he will not fail us.
[39:10] He will not forget us but he will bring us through. Look at what it says the Lord will not abandon his people on account of his name. It's not because of who we are it's not because of what we do it's because of who he is because the Lord has been pleased to make you people for himself.
[39:29] And then Samuel says I'm going to pray for you because if I didn't pray for you would be a sin. He said moreover it's for me far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you but I will instruct you in the good and right way. And here's this final admonition only fear the Lord don't be afraid of who you are.
[39:45] Fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart. For consider the great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly both you and your king will be swept away.
[40:00] Confidence moving forward because of who he is. Not because of who we are. Here we see the unwavering faithfulness of God even in the midst of the sins of his people and calling them to a greater service.
[40:16] Will they do it? No. That's not the grand question. The grand question is the so what is will we do it? When God thunders and lightnings over our heart and our mind in the season when it's supposed to be dry and reminds us who we are in light of who he is what will we do?
[40:40] Will we lean in to a greater service and fear God more than we fear who we are or will we just walk away saying well I'm not that bad? First Samuel chapter 12.
[40:52] Thank you brother. Thank you so Thank you.
[42:02] Thank you.
[42:32] Thank you.
[43:02] Thank you.
[43:32] Thank you.