4-28-2024_A Faithful, Forever Priest_1 Samuel 2:11-36 (Mark Evans)

In 1 Samuel, Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are described as worthless men who do not know the Lord. They engage in selfish service and seize the sacrifices for themselves instead of offering them to God. They also indulge in false worship by taking the best portions for themselves and using force to take the Lord's portion. Their actions show contempt for God and his offerings. This highlights the danger of having an unconverted ministry and the importance of knowing and serving the Lord faithfully. Amen. Well, if you have your Bible, do make your way to the book of 1 Samuel, as we will finish out chapter 2 today in 1 Samuel, and so that would have us in verses 12 through the very end of the chapter. And just to get us going, I will read verse 12 through verse 21 of 1 Samuel 2. And these are the words of the one true and living God. Now, the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. The custom of the priests with the people was when any man offered sacrifice, the priest servant would come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot, all that the fork brought up. The priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw. And if the man said to him, let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish, he would say, no, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force. Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt." Elkanah was ministering before the Lord, a boy clothed with a linen ephod, and his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, may the Lord give you children by this woman, for the petition she asked of the Lord. So then they would return to their home. Indeed, the Lord visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the Lord. While the grass withers and the flower fades, let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we praise you, for indeed there is none like you. You are the God who is to be honored, who is to be feared, who is great and greatly to be praised. And so we pray once again that you would give us eyes to see, that you would give us ears to hear, that we would see how awesome it is to worship you, the true and the living God through Jesus Christ and by the power of the Spirit. In his name we pray, amen. Amen. You may be seated. Well, at least in terms of American church history, one of the most famous sermons ever preached on our soil was preached during the first Great Awakening by a man named Gilbert Tenet. Now, I'll say one really never knows what to name a sermon. But in this case, the title, the name of Tenet's sermon is still remembered and cited by men seeking ordination to this very day. It's easy to remember because the ominous title of his sermon was, quote, the danger of an unconverted ministry, the danger of an unconverted ministry. And just as the title implies, Tenet preached on the perils of churches and ministries and more so ministers who do not know the Lord. Here's just a snippet of his sermon, a quote, no one can expect God's blessing upon their ministry that are not called and sent of God. Is a dead man fit to bring others to life? Isn't an unconverted minister like a man who would teach others to swim before he himself has learned and is drowned in the act and dies like a fool? Those precisely, those dangers of an unconverted ministry that we come to today in 1 Samuel 2. Tenet's sermon was very powerful, was very profound, but he just as easily could have read our Scripture reading this morning and have the very same effect. Because we'll see this morning blind guides and dead men, swim instructors who are drowning during their swim lessons. Unless we think that this is not a real and present danger, church history certainly says otherwise. The modern day certainly says otherwise. However, don't hang your head too low because Tenet went on and he spoke of the saving grace of God in his sermon. And so it is for us today, we'll see the very real dangers, but you'll see the even greater steadfast love of God for his people at a time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes. So we'll walk through this text and we'll look at three simple parts, Eli's sons, Eli's rebuke, and then finally Eli's rejection. But all with the main focus of the pitfalls of false worship with the priest of God's own choosing. So let's look first at Eli's sons. Now I just recall, Eli is a priest. You could contrast him with a young faithful Samuel, you'll see there in verse 11. Because we read in verse 12, the words that no priest, indeed no parent, no father would ever want to hear of his sons, quote, now the sons of Eli were worthless men. What does it mean to be worthless? Well, it simply means that they were of no profit, no benefit. They were useless. Now that might offend our modern sensibilities, right? Our Christian instinct might be to say, hey, you can never call the image of God worthless. No matter how bad, image bearers always have some worth. And that's certainly true. But in this text, you need to situate their worthlessness in terms of their ministry. These two sons are Hophni and Phinehas, sons of Eli, as such they are once and future priests whose very job is to mediate between God and man. It's no stretch to say that the spiritual health and vitality of the people of God hangs upon this ministry. And so their worthlessness has this blast radius that negatively impacts the entire covenant community. And it's even worse, that Hebrew word for worthless is literally sons of Bileal. There's a painful irony there because in chapter 1, Eli mistook Hannah to be a drunken daughter of Bileal. Yet here, Eli has raised two sons of Bileal. And you see the simple explanation as to why they were worthless men in verse 12, for they did not know the Lord. Just think back to 1 John and what's true of those who know the Lord, right? They are born again. They are anointed and have all knowledge. They abide in God and in God's commandments. And we could go on and on and on. And yet here we have these two men, these two priests, who do not know the Lord. And so just look at the consequences that flow from that reality. And we'll see three dangerous consequences. Firstly, their selfish service in verses 13 and 14. They recall the law of Moses, called for animal sacrifices. And those sacrifices went up to heaven as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, some of which could be eaten, but a portion, the best portion, was to be burnt as a burnt offering to the Lord. And yet you see at the end of verse 14, it reads that all, not just a portion, but all of the sacrifice that the fork brought up the priest would take, quote, for himself. You've got to appreciate just how serious this sin is. They're seizing the entire sacrifice for themselves and offering none to God and doing so as God's mediator. And you'll see this is not a one-time slip-up. Verse 13 says, this was so common, it was the custom of the priest. Right? So it goes for unchecked selfishness. Right? It has an unlimited appetite. Our capacity for self-indulgence, self-centeredness, is staggeringly infinite. This is why Scripture repeatedly says, put on humility. Have the mind of Christ. Put off selfish ambition. If not, you get this selfish service. Second consequence in verses 15 and 16 regards false worship, particularly when it comes to the fat. And now your kids may be like mine, but I've noticed when we eat meat, particularly fatty meats, something like bacon or pork chops, certainly this is the case with a roast or a juicy steak, they tend to find the fat unappetizing and unappealing. And so they'll get their knife and fork, and they cut off the fatty portion with their knife and they just leave it be. They did not get this from me. But it was not so in ancient Israel. Fat was the best portion. The fat was the choicest portion, and as such, the fat belonged to the Lord. Leviticus 3, which details the peace offerings, concludes by saying, all fat is the Lord's. That's just a way of saying. Give to God the very best portion. And yet here, the sons of Eli are not only seizing the fat, but so committed, so captivated to their lust, are they? You see, they would even take the Lord's portion by forceful violence. You see it in verse 16. Worshipper comes and says, can we burn the fat first? But the sons of Eli reply, no, give it now, and if not, I will take it by force. It's hard to imagine a more rebellious, hard-hearted, perverted priesthood than this, that the very men who should be ministering are mutilating the worship of God. But it gets worse still. There's a third consequence that sums up their priesthood, and that is simply treating God with contempt. Because what does the word contempt mean? Well, contempt just means to be disrespectful or to dishonor. And the higher up you go, the worse that becomes. So, for example, kids, if you disrespect your brother or your sister, that's bad. But if you disrespect your father or your mother, that's even worse. And of course, in the highest position, to dishonor God Himself is the worst of all. And sadly, that's exactly what you have in verse 17. It reads, thus the sin of the men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for they treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. So, even the word disrespect is too light. This is to say they spurned, they despised, they looked down upon the offering of the Lord with utter disdain. That is to slap God in the face, to spit upon His holiness. And so we've got this threefold selfish, false, contemptuous worship of God. And what stands in back of all of it is the sons of Eli did not know the Lord. They served a God whom they did not know, and so they served Him out of the wickedness of their own hearts. As such is the danger of an unconverted ministry, as Jesus spoke out against blind guides leading the blind, of making a convert twice the son of hell, of sweeping clean the house only to fill it up with seven demons more. But by contrast, it also speaks to just how awesome it is to truly know the Lord our God. And you get that breath of fresh air in the second appearance of young Samuel. And the contrast could not be clearer in verse 18. There's Samuel, ministering before the Lord, a boy clothed with the linen ephod. And ephod is the garb of a priest. And so you're starting to see this shift as Eli's house decreases while Samuel is the rising alternative in verses 19 through 21. Eli blesses the house of Samuel. The Lord opens Hannah's womb, and she has five more children. And Samuel is growing strong in the Lord. And so you see, as bad as things were, and let's be clear, this is about as bad as bad gets, you see here what is always true. Our God's constant, jealous love for His namesake and for His people, that He will always keep a remnant for Himself. He will always shine a light into the darkness. And He will always keep 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And He will advance His kingdom, if even by a mustard seed. Now, that said, it's still a head-scratcher. What brought Israel to this low point, right? What does the autopsy report say as to why Eli's house slid into complete worthlessness? Well, we get some of that answer in our second section as we look now at his ineffective rebuke. Eli's an old man now, and he starts to hear rumors of his son's sexual escapades, found in verse 22. And you see, it's not just that his sons are sleeping around with women, as bad as that would be, but that they are sleeping with the very women who are supposed to be ministering at the tabernacle, God's holy place. The very thing that they're supposed to be guarding and keeping, they're violating and profaning it with their sexual escapades. All right, this is one of those can't-make-this-stuff-up kind of moments. And of course, though thousands of years old, it's as timely as ever. All right, certainly this applies to all men, but particularly to ministers. Is it not the sad case that the common downfall of men and of ministers is greed and sexual sin? Greed and sexual sin are in many ways one and the same thing, right? Material greed and sexual greed make a happy couple. This is why also, incidentally, we are right to relentlessly fight against the growing trend that would advocate for sexual leniency in the ministry, things like homosexuality or transgenderism in church leadership. You can see so clearly here, our God will not abide sexual abominations in the leadership of his house. Well, as the proverb says, a foolish son is a ruin to his father, and so Eli is grieved by these reports of his sons. And so he attempts to rebuke them in verse 23 and following. But we'll see that while Eli makes a sound rebuke, a good rebuke, yet from a bad testimony. A good rebuke, but from a bad place, which of course is never a winning combination. So firstly, the good rebuke in verse 25. Eli says, sons, if someone sins against man, God will mediate. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? Now that's a good rebuke, right? He's pinpointed just how high-handed their sin is. He's saying, look, sons, it's one thing to sin horizontally, but what you two fools are doing is directly, defiantly, stubbornly an affront to God himself. And of course, the answer to his question of who can intercede is Jesus Christ can intercede. You need to remember that in the Old Testament, these sacrifices squarely point to Jesus Christ. Right? Let's appreciate that God did not give Israel busy work, empty, pointless rituals. No, these sacrifices point forward to the coming Christ when done by faith. And so in that sense, it is Christ himself that the sons of Eli are despising. So that's a good rebuke, very good rebuke. And yet sadly, it comes from a bad place. We've covered already and we'll uncover more the sad truth that Eli did not walk uprightly before the Lord, that Eli himself was complicit in his son's conduct. And in chapter 4, he's described as heavy, implying that he too ate of the fat that belonged to the Lord. And so you learn a cautionary tale from his life. One, of course, would be that rebukes, corrections, are really only as good as the place that they come from. If we have a log in our eye and then we go to take specks out of the eyes of others, our rebukes will be ineffective and even self-condemning. And so in verse 25, his sons refused to listen to the voice of their father. As Eli failed to walk uprightly, it's no small wonder that his foolish sons ignored his counsel. And so for parents, and particularly a sober word to fathers, we are reminded how our lives, our walk, our conduct as fathers set the very footprints for our children to follow. That as goes the father, so goes our household. As Proverbs 20 says, the righteous man who walks in his integrity, how blessed are his children after him. That's, of course, a timely word for today, because today fathers and fatherhood is demeaned to be unimportant, dispensable, and so-called patriarchal. I think we would say, of course it is. Satan does protest too much, right? You should expect nothing less from the world's perspective than to demean and despise the God-ordained head of the Christian home. And so instead, fathers, you are right to think of your office as highly important. Note, that is not the same thing as thinking of yourself as highly important, but rather to think of yourself as father, the functions, the duties, the office of father as highly important. And we see in this passage, unfortunately, not the rewards, but the curses, as the Lord's will was to put to death Hophni and Phinehas. Just as God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, He hardened the heart of these two sons who refused to listen to their father's counsel. But just as Hannah sang last week, the Lord kills and the Lord makes alive, and you have that life in verse 26. Back again to Samuel. Notice what it says of Samuel. The boy Samuel continued to grow in both stature and favor with the Lord and also with man. So there's young Samuel, simply being faithful with the little things. We should keep our eye on him if faithful with little brings faithful with much. I hope that description in that verse, verse 26, piques your curiosity, because you might have recognized that as we read from Luke's gospel, that Luke said the very same thing of the Lord Jesus, that when the Lord Jesus was maturing as a boy, He grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. So you see in Samuel, we've got this type of the coming Christ. He points us forward to the better Samuel, who is Jesus Christ. And we get to see particularly that our Lord Jesus genuinely grew. Have you ever thought about Jesus that way, that Jesus genuinely grew? And when Luke says He grew, he doesn't simply mean that He grew physically taller or that He filled out as He matured. No, He increased in spiritual wisdom and understanding. He learned obedience as Hebrews says. He made gains on doing His Father's will. He received more and more favor from His Father. It's not as if obedience was just downloaded from a heavenly Wi-Fi and pre-programmed into His brain. No, Jesus was not God wearing the costume of a man. No, our Lord was as man as man gets, accepting sin. He genuinely advanced and He did so for us. As is rightly said, Christ not only died for us, Christ also lived for us. He took on our flesh to obey where we disobey, to be righteous where we are unrighteous. He was sanctified so that we, that you, might be sanctified also. And Christian, that means that He can sympathize with you to the utmost. He knows what it means to grow, to increase, to overcome. Your Savior in heaven knows what it is like to live in the flesh because He lived in the flesh. That's what that means. There's not one weakness, not one temptation, not one affliction that you can present to Jesus Christ to which He will say, I'm sorry, but I cannot help you. No way bruised reed He will not break. Draw near to your merciful Savior with that confidence. Well, thirdly, let's look at the rejection of Eli's house in verse 27 and following. One of the great rules of rhetoric is arrangement. Arrange your topics for the desired result. And that's what this unnamed man of God does because he comes to Eli and he fires away these three rhetorical questions. And you'll see these three dominoes fall in just the right way to produce just the right effect. Question one, verse 27, to Eli, did not God reveal Himself to your father when they were in Egypt? That's a way of simply saying when you were in total slavery and tyranny under Pharaoh, did not God hear your cries of slavery and redeem you? Implied answer, yes. Question two, verse 28, did not God choose your father, that would be Aaron, out of all the tribes to be a priest and to minister to Him? In other words, Eli, out of everyone, of all the tribes, didn't God choose your father to be priest? This is not something earned or merited. Did not God graciously, lovingly choose you? Implied answer, yes. So given those two realities, then comes this final blow in verse 29. Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded? Implied answer, there is no good answer. And that devastating arrangement shows that Eli's house is where it is, solely by God's free grace. His blessings bestowed upon them, dating all the way back to the very first high priest, Aaron. And that is what makes their scorn, their contempt, so rebellious. And so we can glean a few lessons here. One, a very basic stewardship of blessings. To whom much is entrusted, much is expected. For instance, to be very clear, our nation is not Israel 2.0. We are not a theocracy, as was Israel. I hope that's obvious, but I stated it anyway. But that said, the principle still applies, that we as a nation, we are the recipients of blessings bestowed in countless ways. We stand downstream from centuries of God's generosity and kindness and grace to us, enjoying blessings more than we even realize. You've got this sober principle here, just how dangerous it is to scorn God's blessings. It's true of a nation, it's true of a church, it's true of generations within a family, and so forth. And so we are rightly rebuked and warned that our God is not mocked, and to scorn His blessing is to court severe judgment. Secondly, we see a great priority for parents. Verse 29, it continues this line of questioning to Eli, and the man of God asked Eli this simple question, why did you honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts? So you've got another very basic principle of headship, and that is of responsibility, accountability. It just says God came to Adam for Eve's sin, God now comes to Eli for the sins of his sons. And of course, the same holds for fathers today. As the head, fathers are held accountable, responsible for their households. And particularly, you see this parental temptation that in the name of love or sentiment or convenience or just downright sin, to honor our children above the Lord. It's often said of our culture that we have a worship of youth, that we idolize youth. And so you see in various ways today, parents elevate their children to the highest positions. Children begin to dictate to the parents the priorities of the home. As soon as sports or other activities start to come before church and Lord's Day worship, these commitments of time and money and energy begin to take center stage. This fear of missing out starts to loom larger and larger. And of course, there's freedom for families to work out the finer familial details. But Eli shows us that our authority as parents is in every way a delegated authority, that parents are under a higher authority. Voddie Bauckham said it well, our children do not belong to us. They belong to the Lord. And so our standards fall under God's standards. Because you see, by honoring his sons over the Lord, in the end, Eli lost his two sons. But did you notice in contrast, Hannah gives away her one child. She devotes her one child to the Lord and she gets five children in return. She honored the Lord and the Lord exalted her. And one of the best things Eli could have done is repented before the Lord, gone to his sons, humble himself before his sons and say, my sons, here is where I have failed you. Here is where I have fallen short. And I think parents struggle to do that, believing that somehow that would lessen, that would weaken their authority. But you see, that's the very thing that would establish authority. Because it shows that his authority, a parent's authority, is submissive to and under God's authority. And yet, like Eli, likely out of his own indulgence, his own laziness, he was too fainthearted to discipline his sons. We unfortunately see the same thing with David towards his son Adonijah, that it says, never did David displease Adonijah by disciplining him. In our vernacular, you might say David was the always affirming parent towards Adonijah and he reaped the consequences. And that's a very live temptation today. Discipline has become a near curse word, right, it's couched as oppressive, even abusive by the world. And instead, a child's greatest need is simply to express themselves. And you add to this how modern psychology and so-called experts are directly opposing God's word in this area. There was a recent Harvard study that claimed 50 years of research, so just leaving that claim aside, 50 years of research concluded that discipline, particularly spanking, is quote, harmful for children's development and increases the chance of mental health issues. And no doubt, discipline can be performed by an undisciplined parent. And then it becomes not a blessing, but a domineering curse with a heavy hand. Let's be clear, Scripture in no way commends discipline out of sinful anger or frustration. But Scripture says just the reverse of the world's wisdom, in that when done God's way, discipline is nothing less than love. Indeed, as Proverbs says, if you want to hate your children, then just withhold discipline from them. It has that effect of bastardizing our children. And the house of Eli shows us the high-stakes reality and calls us back to this right order of disciplining our children and honoring the Lord above. And what's so awesome, what's so encouraging is how those two things work together. It's not as if we serve a cruel master who says, punish your children, honor me by punishing them. No, that is the false god, Molech. That is the demon of child sacrifice. That's the spirit of the age. But our God loves our children better than we do. He promises children great reward for honoring your father and mother, that it will go not bad but well for you. And Jesus says, let the little children come to me. Why? So I can scold them? No, so I can bless them. That is how much God loves our children. Well, thirdly, in this section you see the centrality of worship and how judgment begins at the household of God. Verse 30, the Lord pronounces this judgment upon Eli's house for dishonoring him. It reads thus, therefore the Lord says, I promised your house and the house of your father to go in and out of me before forever. But now, far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house. It continues on and it spells out how God's judgment is sealed with this sign that Hophni and Phinehas will die in the same day. And just as Hannah sang last week, Eli's house now has to scramble just to get a morsel of bread. That's how seriously our God takes his honor and the right worship of him. You can think of Nadab and Abihu offering that strange fire to God or Uzzah touching the ark and being put to death for it. Unless we think this is an Old Testament thing, this is why Hebrews warns us that if we profane the blood of the covenant, there no longer remains a sacrifice for our sins. As Christ himself said, he who is ashamed of me and ashamed of my words, of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory. And so we are to honor the Lord. And how do we do that? Well, firstly, that would mean that by comparison, key word, everything else will seem dishonored or more simply less honored, right? We can take good things and when we make those good things, in this case children, ultimate things, we then dishonor the Lord. Richard Baxter said it well, whenever a thing is loved ultimately for itself, it is sinfully loved. And that was Eli with his sons. But of course, you could put nearly anything on that pedestal, your career, relationships, riches, appearance, our desires, our fame and so on. But we don't just park there in neutrality, we go on to honor the Lord. As 1 Peter says, we are to in our hearts honor Christ as Lord. What's awesome is that the more we honor Jesus Christ, that does not make us more surly, more cagey. As we honor Christ, we are then able to rightly honor others. We can honor our spouse well, we can honor our boss, we can honor the state and so forth. And so as we close, let's end with two awesome truths about our Lord Jesus that this passage prophesies. Two reasons to honor Christ as Lord. We get to see Christ as our faithful priest, first of all. You see that in verse 35, that while Eli's house expires, that is not the end of hope. You see God says there, I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do all that is in my heart and all that is in my mind. Now most immediately that will be the priest Zadok, but it points us forward to the final fulfillment who is Christ, our faithful high priest, the one who always did what was pleasing to His Father. As Christ said, I always do my Father's will. That is the kind of priest that we need. I will wholeheartedly agree with Rome on this one point. We need a priest, only we need the perfect priest because only he can bring us to God. Only he can atone for our sins. Only he can sympathize with you in all of your weaknesses. Christ not only died for us, He also lived for us so that you, Christian, could receive the spotless, perfect righteousness of Christ, of the one who did everything that was in His Father's heart and in His Father's mind. And secondly, Christ is not only our faithful priest, He is also our forever priest. You see there in verse 35, God says, I will build Him a sure house and He will go in and out before My anointed forever. Again, near fulfillment in Zadok, final fulfillment in Christ. We need not just a perfect priest, we need a permanent priest. The Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means, Christian, when you come to Christ, you are not coming to a changing Christ. A Christian never needs to wonder, what will Christ be like today? What mood will He be in today? No, He is our faithful, forever priest. Always strong, always compassionate, always merciful, always kind, always all wise, always all powerful, always all knowing, and always all loving. Now you see today, just how bad things go when you have a bad priest. But how well do things go when you have the perfect priest? God's answer was not to get rid of the priesthood. His answer was, I will give you My beloved Son who is able to save you to the uttermost. And that means for you, dear Christian, that you have a faithful, forever priest whose unfailing goal is to bring you to God. And He is worthy of all honor, both now and forever. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, indeed, we praise You that You have given us this faithful, forever high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, that He always lives to intercede for us. And so we pray, Lord, that we would draw near unto Him, that we would draw near unto You through Him with confidence and faith, that we might run the race that You have set before us, that we might fight the good fight. We pray, Father, that You would give us this wisdom from above, and we ask it in Jesus' name.