"What we need is a king"

So the reading is taken from 1, 1 Samuel chapter 2, and verse 11 to 26. And it's on page 272. And then Elkhana went home to Rama, but the boy ministered before the lord under Eli, the priest. Eli's sons were scoundrels. They had no regard for the lord.

Now it was the practice of the priests that whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a 3 pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or cauldron or hot. Whatever the thought brought up, the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the israelites who came to shiloh. But even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, give the priest some meat to roast. He won't accept bold meat from you, but only raw.

If the person said to him, let the fat be burned first and then take whatever you want. The servant would answer, no, handed over now. If you don't, I'll take it by force. The sin of the young men was very great in the lord's sight for they were treating the lord's offering with contempt. But Samuel was ministering before the lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod, and each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.

Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife saying, may the lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the 1 she prayed for and gave to the lord? Then they would go home, and the lord is gracious to Hannah. She gave birth to 3 sons and 2 daughters. Meanwhile, the boy, Samuel grew up in the presence of the lord. Now Eli was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

So he said to them, why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. No, my sons. The report I hear spreading among the Lord people is not good. If 1 person sins against another, god may mediate for the offender.

But if anyone sins against the lord, who will intercede for them? His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke, for it was the lord's will to put them to death. And the boy, Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the lord and with people. Good morning, everyone. I'm Bart.

I'm pastor here at Hopechurch. Please, keep that passage open in front of you. Just check and switched on our channel. Please keep the passage open in front of you. Page 2 7 2 in 1 Samuel chapter 2, and let me pray for us as we come to god's word.

Father, we thank you that every word of the Bible is god breathed, that it all comes from you. And it is all useful for us to cheat teach us and correct us and rebuke us and train us. And we pray therefore that as we read this passage, as we look at it together, you would teach us. And that you would shape us and change us in what we think and in what we do. Our men.

Well, I'm glad, John referred back to Hannah's prayer so much because, it was a wonderful prayer to look at, and it was rich. In Hannah's prayer last week, the sec the prayer goes far beyond her circumstance, and it was great having Gary preaching it for us. The prego is far beyond her circumstances. Her circumstances were that she couldn't have children. And then in the lord's goodness, he provided for her miraculously that she was able to have a child.

She had the child, Samuel. And yet her prayer is so much bigger, isn't it? It's not just about what the lord did to her, but he's saying, this is the kind of god god is. Just have a cast your eyes back. We've already heard some of the verses, but look back again with you to verse 8 of chapter 2.

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with princes and makes them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth, are the lords on them. He sets the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.

Hannah is saying this is the kind of god he is. He lifts up, those who are poor, those who are needy, and he brings down the wicked. That's the kind of god. God is. And now we see in verse 12, Eli's sons were scoundrels.

They had no regard for the lord. Straight away, after that prayer, you hear of Eli's sons. And the surprises, although we've heard in Hannah's prayer, that god lifts up the needy and brings down the wicked, the surprise for us is that the wicked, who are immediately turned to, are priests. At shiloh. And we look in this passage at their wickedness, and it is a bleak passage.

It's very much a dark scene. As we read it, I've maybe you thought your heart sank at all with it's so dark. If Netflix did it, it would be well, as their usual series seem to be, just plenty of darkness. They do it quite well, I think. I don't know why you don't get sort of comedy characters in things anymore, but in their series, it's just all bleak, and they they would do well with this that Eli's sons It's just dark, isn't it?

What's going on here? And if you're new to Hope church and you're thinking, well, why are we focusing in on this passage? Well, our usual practice as a church is to work our way through books of the bible. And therefore, you You have to deal with the dark passages and the light passages, the tricky bits, as well as the easier bits. And this has plenty to teach us about sin because that is a big focus of the chapter.

It's their sin. What they were doing in rebellion against god. Now, I'm not saying that we're all exactly like Hoffman and Finious. It's not that we've all done everything that they did. But there's plenty for us to learn here because the bible's teaching is that we are all sinners.

Sin is a universal condition. Some think Christianity is, about that Christians are people who look down on those who do bad things. As if we've got it all sorted, then everyone else is a load of dirty rotten sinners. But actually, the teaching of the Bible is we're all sinners. Like I said, we haven't all done what Halfley and Finious did.

But the Bible does say there is no 1 righteous, not even 1. And therefore, as we look at this darkness, as we look at this sin, there is plenty for us to learn and warnings for us to receive from this passage. And the first thing we see is, this Now we've got 5 points this morning. Don't let that frighten you. We normally have fewer, but therefore, they will be briefer.

And the first point is this. Sin in sacred places. That's what we see at the beginning, isn't it? As I say, the shock here is it's Eli's sons who are the scoundrels, and I love that choice of word. Thank you to the NIV translators to say that they're scoundrels, and it's a great word to use.

But they are. And verse 12 tells us they had no regard for the lord. Isn't that awful? In the land of Israel, amongst god's people, in the most sacred place, which Shiloh was. It was the place where the tabernacle had been put.

That is, it's now the place which represents the presence of god. And these people, Hoffman, and Finious, are priests, of the lord. They with their responsibility to teach people and to bring people's sacrifices to the lord. They had the most sacred office in the land sacred role, and yet they don't know the lord. That's a more literal translation.

When he said they had no regard for the lord, it was that they didn't know the lord. And what a terrible state to be in? If those in spiritual leadership, whose job it is to teach and bring sacrifices if they themselves don't know or care about the lord. And yet, it happens surprisingly frequently in the Bible. That it is those in positions of leadership amongst god's people who disregard the laws and reject the laws.

Sadly, it's all too common. Today as well, or through church history. I mean, we saw a few weeks ago, I gave you a quote, about George Whitfield, who in the 18 hundreds, got into trouble for saying he could produce 2 cobblers who knew more of real Christianity than all the clergy in Bristol. But sadly, again, it's true today, isn't it? We can see it around the country that there are plenty of church leaders.

Who deny core truths of the Christian faith, reject what the Bible says in all sorts of ways, and who abuse their positions. We see in 1 Samuel too, Yeah. This has been a problem all along. And therefore, it shouldn't surprise us, but it doesn't excuse those people who abuse their positions. And maybe you're someone who in the past has suffered from, church leaders who have abused their positions and their power.

And I want you to know, and he's right to be outraged and, to be upset by those abuses. But don't let that stop you from coming to Jesus. Sometimes people just give up on church give up on Christianity because of those, in positions of of power who've abused their positions. But, of course, the devil's great tactic is is to put wolves in pulpits or in church leadership, and their greatest abuse would be to stop you coming to Jesus, the good shepherd, so don't let them. Come to Jesus.

The good shepherd. Sadly, we see sin in sacred places. Sin is a universal condition, and it hits those in leadership as well. Second point from the passage is Sins Overreach. That's what I'm calling it.

Sins Overreach. Let's see what Hoffman and Finious did. These priests who didn't know the lord. It's described for us in verse 13 onwards. It says the practice of the priests, was that whenever people brought sacrifices, they would send their servants.

Now, people would bring sacrifices for all sorts of reasons to Shiloh, for these sacrifices to be made, and it was the priest's job to do the sacrifices. But we're told that they would send their servant with a 3 pronged fork. I love the detail on that, that it's a 3 pronged fork. Presumably, it gets more meat if it's got 3 prongs. And the servant would come along, and while the sacrifices being boiled, would plunge the fork in like some great fondue shoving the fork in, bringing out the mean, whatever they brought out, they would take to the priest for the priest to eat.

Now it wasn't wrong for the priests to eat meat from the sacrifice. The lord had told them in the law that when they were sacrifices, there were certain parts of the animal they could eat. The lord had prescribed. It said, these these parts you can eat. But that's not what they're doing.

They clearly aren't satisfied with the bits the lord has given them, and they want other bits so they send their servant with his fork to dip it in and bring it out and bring food to them. But more than that, We're told, verse 15. Even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, give the priest some meat to roast. You won't accept boiled meat from you, but only raw. Now, again, that's contrary to what the lord had told them to do.

They wanted the meat with the fat still on it, but the fat was to be burned as a pleasing aroma to the lord. And yet the priests are saying that we want that bit because we all know the bits with the fat in it. Those are the juiciest bits. They're the tastiest bits. You want those.

And you want them roasted because that tastes nice, but that's not what the lord had prescribed. Do you see that what the priests are doing here is to say we're not satisfied with what the lord is giving to us. We want more. God provides this, but I I want the extra bits. I want the other bits.

And isn't that often what sin is? Maybe you you need to realize sin is is far more than just a list of do's and don'ts. It is actually an overreaching often. But god says, here's something for you. Here's the provision for you.

This is good. And we say, well, we don't just want that. We want more than that. It was the problem in the garden of Eden as well. God provided trees for them to eat, but said don't eat from that tree.

And yet Adam and he said, well, we don't want just all those others. We want from that tree. And very often, that is what sin is like. And it wasn't just the meat they were taking. Verse 22 tells us, if you cast your eyes just down a little bit, he says now Eli was very old and heard everything his sons were doing, to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

They take women as well, the women who serve at the entrance to the tent and sleep with them. And again, Sex is a good thing, a good gift from the lord, and the priests were allowed to marry. And sex is good within the god given gift of marriage, the way god has designed it, but Hoffman and Finius are not content with that. And sleep with other women. And like I say, this is often our way.

It's part of sin. God gives us good things, and we say, well, no. I want more. I want it in a different way from the way you've said We envy, want more. We're never content with what god gives.

And it's true for us, in terms of sex as well as it was for them. Sex is good within marriage, but we want more. We overreach. And so people watch porn and and have sex outside marriage, fantasize about sex with those. They're not married to, and god says no.

This is good. It's good in this place, but we don't know. We want more. We want it in a different way. Not the way you've prescribed lord.

Because frankly, god, you're a bit of a spoilsport. That's what we think. And so we want more. We want to take things in ways god has not given it. Sins overreach.

The third, sins offense. Who does this sin offend? There's no doubt, Hopefully and Finia sinned against people. Clearly, they did. They hurt people.

They abused their position. And there's no doubt they abused those coming to sacrifice. And those women serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And that's what happens when we do this overreaching. We will end up hurting ourselves and hurting others too because it becomes all about me and me getting what I want.

And taking from others. And interesting. People do recognize this. Louis Perry, you may have heard of her. She, wasn't a Christian at the time.

She wrote a book called The Case Against The Sexual Revolution Like I say, she wasn't a Christian when she wrote the book, but she exposes in it how dangerous our culture is and the way our attitude towards sex, and this just taking of sex in in a whole load of different ways. And the conclusion she came to, she wasn't a Christian at the time. The conclusion she came to was that the best place for sex was within marriage. Amazing. Isn't that interesting?

That she came to the conclusion that, actually, she wouldn't have expressed it this way. God's way is best. And I said, I've heard a couple of days ago that, actually, she then became a Christian. And she came about it in an unusual way. I think she she looked at Christianity and said, actually, that works.

That's right. From a sociological point of view, from a relationship point of view that's right. And actually then came to faith in Jesus. It's been interesting. It was that way round, often it's the other way round.

People come to faith in Jesus, and then you've gotta teach them, well, what does the Bible say about sex and relationships? And she came about it the other way around. Now we harm 1 another, and we harm ourselves as we do this overreaching. But that isn't the main focus of the passage. Of the Infinius, taking what they shouldn't.

These the meat from the sacrifices, and it says in verse 17, this sin of the young men was very great in the lord's sight. For they were treating the lord's offering with contempt. Here's the big problem, that it's an offense against the lord. They're treating with contempt, the offerings being made to the lord. As they took that meat.

And we won't understand sin properly until we see that all our offenses are an offense against the lord. It isn't denying that we offend others, and we hurt others, but the big problem is it's an offense against the law. We heard this earlier in the year, when we had thought about King David, committing adultery and murder. And he was confronted about what he'd done wrong. And he was convicted and confessed to god and said against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.

He isn't saying he hasn't heard others. He knows he's heard others. But he's saying the big thing is, god, I've offended against you. That is the big issue. And that's the big issue we have.

All our offenses are an offense against gold. Well, in the gloom, we now get a bright spot, and it's so nice to have a lighter moment in the passage. You get this bit about Samuel. You keep coming back to Samuel. It's it's lovely.

You just get these pinpricks of light through the passage. It it began. It was nice that David began to read at verse 11 where you started with, yes, did the boy ministering before the lord? That's Samuel. And now you come back to Samuel verse 18, but Samuel was ministering before the lord.

It's not just Hoffman and Finius. At at Shiloh. It's not just them being priests, they're doing their thing or doing their bad thing, but actually you've got someone doing good things. But it's a boy. It's Samuel wearing his linen e fod.

And you get this touching scene that's described about Hannah, his mother, every year, making him a robe because he was living at the, at Shiloh, and she would go every year for this annual sacrifice, which we know they did. And she would it says she made him a little robe to take It's beautiful than that. And, the shoe how you can imagine her at home before her and having to think, well, what size am I gonna make? He's gonna have grown. And, you know, I'm gonna have to make it bigger than last time, but it wasn't gonna give him growing room as well, haven't you?

So she's probably made it extra big, and when she brings it. It's probably far too big on him, and but you don't have to grow into it, but she takes it lovingly year by year, taking this robe to him. And we're told of Eli blessing El Kanard, that's Hannah's husband, and his wife Hannah, saying, may the lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the 1 she prayed for and gave to the lord? And they would go home and The lord was gracious to Hannah. She gave birth to 3 sons and 2 daughters.

Wonderful. And Samuel grew in the presence of the lord. It's sweet, and it's lovely. And you've got this family in which there is life and birth, and it's a lovely thing. And then we go back to Eli and his family.

Where we see there's aging and death. And there's a strong contrast between the 2. Eli is old. We're told and heard everything that was going on. And we'll spend a bit more time with Eli next week, but we notice here he hears, and he speaks, and he confronts his sons saying verse 23, why do you do such things?

He's heard of their wickedness and confronts them and says verse 24, the report I hear spreading among the lord's people is not good. And then verse 25, we need to just spend a few minutes on. First 25, if 1 person sins against another, god may mediate for the offender. But if anyone sins against the lord, who will intercede for them? Well, that's a good question.

Our next point, the mediator. See, Eli's point is to say, look, if you offend against another person, god might mediate for you. And god does that, and you see it in the law. Now that's what people think that he's referring to. Because there are a lot of ways in the law, where if someone offends against another person, that they can be brought back together.

So for instance, if someone steals someone's ox, it does say in the law how this should be dealt with. And the answer is that you're to give, if you stole an ox from someone, you're to give 5 head of cattle back to them. And by doing that, there's a kind of mediation. It's like god is the mediator coming between you and saying, this is how you're to deal with this so that actually justice is done, and you're brought back together, and things are sorted out. But Eli is saying, but what about if your offense is against the law?

What if you offend god? Who's gonna mediate for you? And that's a good question. Because we've already said all our sin is an offense against the lord. Our wrongdoing, our overreaching is a sin against the lord.

So who mediates for us? And wonderfully, I hope if you know your bible that that you will go, actually, there is a mediator. There is someone who mediates for us, and that is the lord Jesus. And praise god, there is a mediator. The answer Actually to this is Jesus.

1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 says, for there is 1 god and 1 mediator be between god and mankind, the man Christ Jesus. And this is so important to see, isn't it? There is a mediator. We offend against god, but there is 1 who stands between us and god, who can bring us back to god, and that is Jesus. And he brought about that mediation by dying on the cross.

By the sacrifice of himself on the cross. And through that sacrifice, the 2 parties us and God, though we shouldn't be able to come together because of our sin, yet we can, because our sin is placed on Jesus. He mediates. He takes what we deserve so that we can be forgiven and come to god. Jesus is our mediator.

His sacrifice means we can have peace with god. 1 at the cross. Yesterday, we heard about god coming and searching for the lost, to bring us home. But in order for us to be brought home to god, in order for us to be able to come home, there needed to be mediation. We needed to have that sacrifice on the cross so that sync could be dealt with.

So there is a mediator. But the commentators point out that there's probably something more going on here in what Eli is saying. Because you see, the the sin of Hoffman and Finious is to reject the lord and show contempt for the lord's offering. They're not respecting the sacrifice being offered to the lord. And that is a huge problem.

Because if you reject the sacrifice, what other way is there to be made right with the lord? The equivalent today would be, yes, we don't need to make animal sacrifices, we don't need to go to Shiloh or Jerusalem or Jerusalem or to the temple or anything like that, to make animal sacrifices because Jesus came and died on the cross forest doing that mediation. And the equivalent today would be to say, what if we showed contempt for Jesus's sacrifice and rejected him. The answer is there is no other way to be made right with god. You reject that sacrifice and you're in big trouble.

If if you wanted to go north of the river, So, yeah, go, let's say, from Kingston to Richmond or something like that. You know that there are certain ways that you've gotta cross the river. However, bad, the traffic is on 1 side. You you wanna cross over. You've gotta get to 1 of those places to cross over, and Maybe it's over a bridge, maybe there are other places you can go through times, but you've gotta go through 1 of those places.

If we want to get to the lord, if you want to be right with the lord, there is only 1 way to get a cross. And that is through the cross of Jesus. So if we show contempt for that, if we reject that, if we don't turn to Jesus, what way is there for us to be made right with the lord? The answer is there's none. Hebrews chapter 10 warns us of this, that if you know about Jesus, if you know about the covenant, if you if you know about his bloodshed, don't treat it as unholy, it says.

Don't trample the son of god under foot it warns us. Don't reject that sacrifice because if you do, there's nowhere to go. So don't reject Jesus. Or his mediation, his sacrifice. Don't turn away from him or dismiss him.

He is your and my only hope. He is a glorious salvation. Don't turn from him. The mediator, and we will celebrate his mediation, his sacrifice as we take communion in a few minutes. But last point, Don't presume you'll be able to turn to god in the future.

I wasn't quite sure what to title this last, but you can tell that because it's longer than the others. I could have put don't presume upon god's mercy. It might have been brief. It might have been better. And it comes from the last bit of verse 25, and this last bit of verse 25 should make us tremble.

Says halfway through verse 25. His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke for it was the lord's will to put them to death. Why didn't Hoffman and Finius respond? Why didn't they turn to the lords? Why didn't they listen to Eli telling them that what they were doing was wicked?

Why didn't they do it? Was because the lord's will was to put them to death. And it doesn't say they refused to listen to the lord so he determined to put them to death. But rather, they didn't listen for it was the lord's will to put them to death, which is telling us our hearts are in the lord's hands. It is the lord who determines whether people will turn, whether people will listen or not.

He can harden hearts, and he can soften them. I think The old way that someone expressed this is that the same beam of sun can melt wax or harden clay. Maybe a slightly more modern version would be things that left out in the sun, leave butter out in the sun. It melts leave weetabix out in the sun in a bowl, and it hardens to concrete. So god with our hearts that he can soften and he can harden.

And you might have a whole load of questions about that. I would think that you do, and I'm very happy to talk about them afterwards. But this is a warning for us, isn't it? That for Hoffman and Finney House, god said enough was enough. And is isn't wrong of god to do so to harden their hearts so they can't hear?

It isn't wrong for him to do that. And I think we see in this that it was right that the lord judged them. They were wicked. They were scoundrels. And he hardened their heart.

We see this. If if you want another example in the Bible, there's pharaoh in the book of Exodus, isn't there? It talks about, pharaoh who opposed god, and it talks about pharaoh hardening his heart towards god, but also says, god hardened pharaoh's heart. Both were going on. There can come a point where god says enough is enough.

You won't listen, and you won't be able to turn. Now some might hear that and just think, oh, well, yeah, god is, as I suspected, harsh, a harsh judge. But you need to hear the repeated description of god that god is merciful and gracious compassionate. He has provided the mediator. He's provided his son to be the mediator between us and god.

He is forgiving. He is gracious, but we do need to see here that we must not presume upon god's mercy. If we persist in rejecting god, if we persist in refusing to come to Jesus, there can come a point where god says enough is enough. And harden's hearts and stops up ears. So respond to him today.

If you hear his call, don't put it off. Don't think to yourself, well, I'll respond at a later date. I'll put it on. I'll respond another day. You don't know that you'll ever feel like responding again.

You don't know if the lord might say. Enough is enough. And Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus, take this as a warning too, because 1 of the ways the devil tempts us is to say to us to presume upon god's mercy. To say to us things like, oh, it doesn't matter if you sin. It doesn't matter if you reject god for a bit.

You can always turn back to him You can always turn back. Just just indulge yourself for a bit. Go for it. You can always turn back to God in the future. But what makes you think you will want to turn back in the future?

It is a miracle of god whenever anyone turns back to the lord. And you might say, well, yes, but I did rebel in the past and, and the lord brought me back. And if that's the case, that is a wonderful thing. It's a miracle that you came back. It is a work of god that you came back, but it is exactly that.

It is a work of god, and we should not presume that god will do that to us in the future. He would not be unjust to say enough is enough. So heed the warning, as it says in Psalm 95, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Well, you'll be thankful to know that we end on another little glimpse of light. First 26, and the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the lord and with people.

It's like there's this brooding. This is sort of in the background thing going on, isn't there? Samuel. Just keep an eye on Samuel. Things may be bleak, things may be dark in Shiloh, but yet Samuel is growing.

Even through dark times god is not absent. There is hope. In a boy. He seems like a bit of a nobody really, but we've seen in Hannah's prayer that the law brings down the wicked and lifts up the needy. And we've seen Eli's household that they're gonna be brought down.

And we'll see that more next week. But where's the lifting up? Well, we've seen it in Hannah, but looks like we might see it in Samuel, Martin. And so this is teeing us up to say, keep an eye on Samuel. He's growing up in the presence of the lord ministry before the lord watch out for him.

And even that little last verse points us forward to Jesus, because it's very like when Jesus was growing up, It's very like Luke chapter 2 verse 52, which says, and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with god and with man. It's almost exactly the same as this. God's way has always been that even when things seem dark, in desperate times, he's at work. Here in 1 Samuel, he'll be through that little boy, Samuel, when he grows up. But he points to Jesus and says, keep an eye on Jesus.

Who will be far greater than Samuel is far greater than Samuel, because he is the mediator between us and god. He is the perfect sacrifice for sin for you and me. Let me finish my praying for us. Having father, we thank you that your word teaches us about sin, the problem of sin, the overreach of sin, the offense of sin, but thank you that you point us to Jesus, the mediator. And we pray you'd help each 1 of us not to reject Jesus, not to turn from him, but to turn to him.

And father, I pray that you would help us not to put off responding to Jesus. But to do so today, when we hear his voice to respond to him, and father protect us from presuming upon your mercy. Though your mercy is great, further may we not be tempted to turn away from you even for a period? Father, thank you for your mercy towards us, and thank you. This passage points us to Jesus, our only hope, amen.