The call to Samuel

Sermon notes from Sunday 25 November 2018

1 Samuel 3 verses 1 - 10

As I have said already the character of the boy Samuel is very profitable to study.  The time set out here in verse 1 is a very dark time in the land of Israel.  "The word of the Lord was precious" means God was not speaking through the prophets to the nation.  There was no open vision.  Eli the prophet had 2 sons who were very wicked.  Eli was not condemning what they were doing and not speaking out against them.  We find something very real and exciting in the bedroom of this child - verse 12.  God will raise him up and he will beome one of the mightiest prophets Israel has every known.  This is the same child that Hannah had brought to the temple.  She had prayed for him.  She had come to the temple and poured out her heart to the Lord.  She asked for a man child that she might give him back to the Lord.  She brought him back to the priest and gave him back to the Lord.  The lesson here for us is that we should bring our children into the house of God to hear the word of the Lord.  We live in a sinful day, the things of God are treated with lightness, very little reverence to the things of God.  There were days in our province when God swept through our land and men and women were gloriously saved.  If only God would do that again, come with that real freshness again.  Thank God there are ones coming to faith, genuine change, born again of the Spirit of God. 

The appeal God makes - verse 4.  It is firstly a private call.  It was an audible voice.  Samuel was lying in his bed.  The voice was audible enough for him to make Samuel think it was Eli.  God is still calling people tonight.  The Spirit of God is still speaking in meetings, showing us our great need of salvation, showing you God`s son, how he took your place on Calvary, dying in your place that you might never be lost.  He is trying to reveal to you what he has done for you, calling you to leave your sin behind.  Unless we are willing to repent of our sin he cannot save us.  "Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin."  You cannot take it with you.  The woman at the well left her water pot.  She had found the Messiah, Christ for herself.  She trusted him now for new birth.  He gave her water that she wold never thirst again.  He calls us, saves us, sets us free.  This was a very private appeal.  It happened in his bedroom.  Eli did not know what was happening.  God was speaking directly to Samuel.  He jumps out of his bed and runs to Eli`s room.  There is quietness in his bedroom, no noise around him.  Has God ever spoken to you like that?  As you lay down at night and you thought to yourself "what if I never wakened, lifted my head again, where will my soul be for all eternity?"  Elijah in the cave witnessed the earthquake, heard the great wind sweeping across the mountainside, saw the fire that came yet he realised God was not in the earthquake, wind or fire but that God was in the still small voice.  Sometimes God speaks quietly and privately.  There is no set of circumstances to bar God.  God knows no limitations.  In the Old Testament scriptures King Belshazzar threw a great party and invited 1000 of his lords.  He spread the table with the tastiest of things, brought the cups from the house of God.  There was great merriment all around that night then all of a sudden he could see a hand writing on the wall.  A private message for him and him alone.  You can be sitting in the biggest of congregations yet God could speak to you and you only.  Maybe he is speaking directly now.  You are weighed in the balances and you are found wanting.

It was a personal call.  The God of heaven knew Samuel`s very name.  He knew his heart.  Everything about him.  He knew why he was there.  He calls him by name.  God calls us by name.  God knows about it.  He knows whether you are saved or not.  He knows whether you have turned from your sin, accepted Christ as Saviour.  He knows whether your name is written in the Lamb`s book of life or not.  This is a personal call.  Saul of Tarsus was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus.  He was going with letters to persecute the church.  He was brought to his knees on that road.  He heard a voice calling him "Saul, Saul."  God knew all about him.  Zacchaeus was sitting in the sycamore tree when God stopped at the bottom and told him to come down.  He named him directly.  God is saying to you and calls you by name.  Would you be man or woman enough to surrender your life to Christ?  Could you look back in your life when you trusted Christ as Saviour and Lord?

A prolonged appeal.  We read in this chapter that God comes to him 3 times.  3 times he heard this voice and 3 times he made the trip to Eli.  It was a prolonged appeal.  One of the most solemn verses of scripture is where God is speaking - Genesis 6 "my Spirit shall not always strive with man."  Some day he will stop calling you.  The Spirit of God strives and works.  There comes a time when he leaves.  He doesn`t give up without a battle.  A prolonged appeal.  In the days of Peter he spoke of the longsuffering of God in the days of Noah.  He was a preacher of righteousness.  He was given the task of building the ark.  He followed the design of God.  He was living among a people who were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.  These people had never experienced rain before.  Noah invited, preached and pleaded with the people.  They would not go into the ark.  God suffered long but then it ceased.

The advice that was given - verse 7.  "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord neither was the word of the Lord revealed unto him."  There was something about that voice that made him run to Eli.  Eli himself couldn`t understand it.  There are many standing behind the sacred desk who are keeping people back from God`s salvation.  They never had that experience of saving faith.  They know the scriptures but they will tell people there is no call for salvation.  They will tell people "you are a good person, you go to church, you take communion."  The advice you receive can keep you back from the Lord himself.  Is there someone hindering you from getting saved?  Eli was able to explain at the last calling who Samuel heard.  He realised it was God speaking directly to Samuel.  He told him if he heard God calling again he was to say "Speak Lord for thy servant heareth."  Have you heard God speaking to you in other meetings, on other nights?

The answer that came.  Eli said "Samuel if you hear this voice, if God calls again say to him speak Lord."  What great advice to give.  See Philip standing beside the Ethiopian eunich`s chariot watching him pondering the scriptures.  Philip stepped up and opened the scriptures and preached Christ to that man.  This same eunich asked later on "what doth hinder me to be baptised?"  Philip asked him "do you believe with all your heart that Christ has died and risen again?"  He said yes and was baptised that day.  There is an appeal made by God himself.  There is advice given by Eli but the answer had to come from Samuel

There is an appeal from God.  God waits at this moment for an answer.  What will you answer be?  Perhaps it will be "yes Lord I would love to be saved, to know Jesus Christ as my Saviour, to have that assurance."  Is God speaking to you right now?