A friend we have in Jesus, our Lord's sins and grieves to bear. What a pittal is to carry, everything to God in prayer. Oh, what a pittal is for us. All because we could not carry everything to the inside. As we cry, ascend and give some riches of our land. He said, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah Take us, Lord, for every weakness, Take you to the Lord, dear friend. Oh, we'll be here to you. Come and live the Lord again Let the Savior fill our land, take it to the Lord and pray. Do not thirst and cry for safety, take it to the Lord and pray. If you want to be and still be, down will find and long and serve. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. Thank you, ladies. Good morning. It's good to have the opportunity again to share the Word of God with you. And I trust that as we have begun to focus our attention on the Scriptures, that our continued studies together will be occasion for the Spirit of God to work and to minister to us. I'd like this morning to invite you to turn with me to an Old Testament passage, First Samuel chapter three. While you're turning there to say that last night in the first session of the conference this weekend I had the opportunity to share the Word of God and to begin the subject that I would like to work with in the times when I'll have the opportunity to speak. And that is the subject of priesthood, realizing that it's a subject we are all familiar with. The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is one of the very choice doctrines that we readily confess to which we hold very firmly. And of course, it is one of those doctrines which we, particularly as the Lord's people who fellowship in the assemblies of God's people, consider to be one in which we are focusing our attention in a very specific way, that we acknowledge dimensions of this great truth that perhaps many others don't. And yet the fact of the matter is, even though it is a very basic one, a very basic doctrine to which we are committed, it's good for us to review, to rethink, and perhaps to expand the horizons of our thinking. But one of the problems that I find in our traditional attitude toward this doctrine is that we are much too narrow in our perspective thinking about the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. We're like people who have tunnel vision. You know, we're focused on one spot out in front of us, but we don't have that peripheral perspective. We don't have the breadth of perspective. And I find as I listen to many, many people that they assume That priesthood means that you stand up at the Lord's Supper and give out a hymn or have a brief word, and that's the beginning, that's the essence, that's the highlight, the priesthood. And my concern is, as I read the scriptures and see the total perspective of priesthood, that if that's all a person does, it may even be questionable whether that is an exercise of priesthood. That there are many, many, many dimensions of priesthood that are far more important, far more basic than this. And of course, if this is not an expression of a life of worship, then the formality of it in public may mean very little to the heart of God. We were looking last night at some of those foundational teachings in the Scripture that come from the Old Testament because even though we have a recognition of valid distinctions between the Old Testament priesthood and New Testament priesthood, the fact of the matter is that there are fundamental truths that are true of all of God's appointed priesthoods. Not only that, But it is very true that the greatest detail that God has given to us about the function of priesthood is given to us in the Old Testament. And that even in the New Testament, the key passages, which in the will of God we will look at, these assume an understanding of the Old Testament teaching. And God does not repeat many of these things in the New, but rather understands that we will glean the perspectives of priesthood from the Old Testament narratives which are given in such great detail. We looked at the individual priesthood, the early saints like Abel. We looked at patriarchal priesthood and how that grew into a family representation and eventually developed into that which was nationwide as God ordained a priesthood for his nation Israel. Now today I would like for us to look at some of the ingredients in two Old Testament passages. which present to us priesthood in decline. And I suppose it's necessary to apologize a bit for taking this tack. One does not like to have a life-negating ministry, and that's not my intent. The Word of God is not life-negating, even though it has negatives. The Word of God is life-affirming. And certainly that's the intent of the ministry of the Word of God this weekend. And yet many of the things that God teaches us He teaches us by sharp negative relief and contrasts. And I think one of the things we need to see in studying the subject of priesthood is that God shows us some pictures of priesthood in decline. But unless we look at God's pictures, we may not see the real issues of a decline or of a lethargic priesthood because, as you will notice in every case, the outer motions kept going. And had you gone to the tabernacle at a time with the decline of the priesthood, you would have seen a lot of activity. You would have been impressed by the beauty of the place. And the priests in their garb, and they were doing this and this. And animals were being brought and slain, sacrifice was being offered, and smoke was ascending, and every night to clean up crews would come and clean up the ashes and the blood that had been splashed. And all things were going on. But all the time the priesthood was in tragic decline. And there were a number of times when God chose to point out the real issues, the real problems of priesthood. And invariably we have to get beyond the superficial functions and the motions of priesthood to see what God sees when he sees priesthood in decline. This is true in the New Testament as well. Think, for example, of First Corinthians chapter eleven. What was the problem? Had the Corinthians stopped meeting? Were they no longer remembering the Lord? Oh, they were. In fact, they also had their agape, their love feast. But Paul says, your coming together is not for the better, but for the worse. You're worse off for having these meetings than if you didn't even have them, Paul said. You see, the problem was that they were not going through the motion. The problem was that God saw beyond the surface of the motions that were going on and saw problems in lives and in relationships and in attitudes. and in spirit. That was the issue. And so it is with the issue of priesthood. And so we would like to take two quick glimpses of priesthood in decline, both from the Old Testament and we'll begin reading first in this passage in First Samuel chapter three. Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli and word from the Lord was rare in those days. Think of that tragic state. Word from the Lord was rare in those days. Visions were infrequent. And it happened at the time as Eli was lying down in his place. Now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well. And the lamp of God had not yet gone out. Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was. That the Lord called Samuel and said to him, Here I am. He ran to Eli. said here I am for you called me but he said I did not call lie down again so he went and lay down and the Lord called yet again Samuel Samuel rose and went to Eli and said here I am for you called me but he answered I did not call my son lie down again now Samuel did not yet know the Lord nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him so the Lord called Samuel again for the third time And he arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you did call me. And Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down, and it shall be that if he calls you that you shall say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times. Samuel? Samuel? And Samuel said, Speak. for thy servant is listening. And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel, at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them. And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. And with those solemn words we will end our reading and take a moment again to seek God's faith. Father, help us, we pray, in these moments of contemplation of your word. Help us to consider that which you have revealed. Minister to our hearts, we pray. that we as your believer priests in this day may be instructed, that we may be enervated, that our lives may be challenged and purified through your word. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Now the picture we have in First Samuel, these early chapters, is clearly one of priesthood in decline. And of course the attention focuses upon the man Eli and his son, Hosni and Phinehas. It is assumed that Eli was the high priest. He seems to have had that overall administrative perspective in the life of the people of God at that time. And we have a great many details in these opening chapters, the first four chapters of First Samuel, details about this man and his life. And it's easy to miss them because usually when we turn to this passage of Scripture, we're looking for those background ingredients for the man Samuel. Now that's totally valid because Samuel became a great figure in the history of the nation. You will recall that when God brought Israel out of Egypt, he appointed the leader, Moses. And Moses, that great man, great of stature, led the people out of Egypt through the wilderness and right up to the promised land. You'll recall that he was succeeded by Joshua. And Joshua was the man whom God used to lead the people across the Jordan into the land of promise to conquer the land and to divide it in its tribal territories and regions. But after the death of Joshua and those mature men of God who worked with Joshua, the nation fell into a period of dark moral and spiritual decay. The time of the judges was not a good time for Israel. Read the book of Judges if you haven't read it recently, and it'll shock you to see some of the things that went on among the people who named the name of the Lord in that day. A dark, dark period in Israel's history. But God would raise up from time to time a judge, one who would lead the people of God in various portions of the land, lead them to victory against their enemies before whom they had become weak in their moral decay, and of course there were a whole series of these judges. The last of the judges was this man Samuel, and in many ways he stands out head and shoulders above the other judges for a number of reasons. In the first place he ended up having a nationwide influence where the judges prior to him had only had regional and partial influence over the nation. But Samuel was a man of transition. While he was the last of the judges, he in many ways functioned as a king. He was never a king. He never wore a crown. God did not through him establish a dynasty, as he did with David. In fact, God used Samuel to anoint the first two kings of Israel, and thus you find Samuel in a tremendously strategic place in the history of the nation of Israel. a crucial pivotal transitional ministry. And if you have not studied the life of Samuel, you lack a lot in understanding of Old Testament history. So we cannot minimize the importance of going to these early chapters of First Samuel to see the background and the nature of and the function of this man in the history of the nation. But so often, as I say, we are focusing upon the background and the life of Samuel. And it's easy to miss the figure that's Eli that appears in these early chapters of the Book of Judges. He was a priest, perhaps the high priest. His two sons, Hafton and Phinehas, were also, at this point, mature enough to be officially functioning as priests, which means that they were at least twenty, more probably thirty years of age, or more. Don't forget that. And of course, had you gone to the tabernacle that was still at Shiloh, you would have seen a lot of activity, as we said. All of the priestly functions were going on. Sacrifices were being offered. People were bringing their gifts and so on. It was all going on. But what God does in these early chapters is to help us to get beyond the motions that they were going through. and to perceive the real essence of the priesthood in that day. And the picture is not a right one. Notice beginning in chapter one and verse nine, we're introduced to Eli, the priest, sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. Sounds good, doesn't it? He was on duty. He was at the door. But the Spirit of God says he was sitting. Where did he get that seat? You can go back in the Levitical ordinances and look at all the items of furniture that God commanded. And there was not one article of furniture related to the tabernacle and its function that was designed to sit on. In fact, any kind of seating is notably absent in the tabernacle furniture. Rather the scriptures emphasize that a priest on duty must stand. The writer of the Hebrews picks this up when he says in chapter ten, and every priest stands daily offering the sacrifice. But somehow or another Eli had provided for himself a seat. And in this early picture of the man, we find a foreshadowing of that which seems to characterize his whole priestly involvement. There was a slacking, there was a lethargy, there was a carelessness about priestly responsibility, certainly reflected in this very first statement. Notice, if you look down into chapter one, verses thirteen and fourteen, where you find Eli watching Hannah while in the burden of her heart she prayed inaudibly to God and yet so exercised before God in her burden of heart her lips were moving but there was no audible voice. Eli thought she was drunk and rebuked her. Did you notice in the passage that we read in chapter three that again And again, and again Samuel ran to Eli, saying, I'm here, you called me. And when you come down to verse eighteen, you read the statement, Then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy, and I have simply written in my margin of my Bible final. Because you see, what you have in these two instances is a rather striking instance of insensitivity. and lack of discernment. Now that may seem like a very subjective thing. But remember, if any person in the nation should have been discerning and sensitive to the working of God in a human heart, it should have been the high priest. But here is a woman so exercised before God that this has become the great issue of her life, pouring out her heart to God silently. He thought she was drunk. Here is a boy that the Lord is speaking to again and again and again. And finally Eli perceived insensitivity. He did not recognize nor apparently expect the work of God in the lives of others. But you see, if one's own spiritual condition is not healthy, we're not in a very good position to discern the working of God in other lives. If I am not sensing the movement of God in my own life, then not only will I tend to be insensitive to the working of God in other lives, but I may either miss seeing it or perhaps become defensive about the working of God. in another life. Do you remember the old prophet? First King Thirteen? Living in the city of Bethel? When Jeroboam set up that idolatrous temple there and a golden calf for the people in the northern kingdom to worship? And God had to send a young prophet from the other nation of Judah to come up there and rebuke Jeroboam. But what happened? The old prophet lied to him and deceived him into violating the word of God, even to his own death. Ah, what goes on in the spirit of a person who has long since ceased to know the working of God in a fresh way can be very, very deadly indeed. Insensitive to the work of God in another life. Chapter two in verse twelve. You see a glimpse of Eli's two sons, Hosni and Phineas. And while they were wearing priestly garb, and while they were going through the motions of offering sacrifice and incense in the tabernacle, the fact of the matter, in their hearts they were committed to Baal. That's what the word literally means. They were really devoted to Baal. And they were bringing some of the pagan concepts even of religious prostitution, into the functions of the tabernacle of Jehovah. And God rebukes Eli for this. He did not faithfully train up his son. The same God who said, Train up a child in the way he shall go. And when he is old, he will not depart from. Now I know that there is a theme through the scriptures that seems to run counter to this. And I know that it is true that God does not always blame parents for the adult conduct of individuals. And I think we need to be very careful not to worship at the shrine of environmentalism that sometimes I think our culture does, and always blame parents for everything. For example, God never blames Abraham and his wife Sarah. for the tragic mess that Isaac made of his family life. He never blames Abram and Sarah. In fact, Abram and Sarah are presented as varied people, as a very beautiful and ideal couple, that through all the problems they had, some they brought on themselves, at least they could keep talking. At least they could talk it out. And if you go to Genesis chapter eighteen, you will find God honoring Abram as a family man with very high and commendable terms, even though his son made a mess of his marriage and family. And so I think we need to be careful not to always blame parents, but God lays the blame for the tragic character of Eli and Hathi and Phinehas right at the doorstep of Eli. He did not train his son in the ways of the Lord. Chapter two, verses thirteen through seventeen, and again down in verse twenty-two, we see that Eli was fully aware of the tragic pattern of the lives of these two men, his son. He knew it all. He was not oblivious to the transgressions. For example, when people would bring a sacrifice, rather than the priest taking that which was hooked out of the stewing pot at random for their own portion of me, they would take the choice fat portions of me before they were ever offered to the Lord. And if the worshiper who brought the sacrifice said, oh no, no, the fat must be burned before the Lord, they would say, give it to me or I'll take it from you by force. And when the priest has a pretty long, sharp instrument in his hand for slaying animals, you don't argue with it. And Eli knew that. And he was eating the same fat choice portion to meet with him. He knew it all. And he participated in the whole thing. Chapter two, verses twenty-three to twenty-five. You find him chiding his sons a little bit, but there is no rule of a household here. You look at it. Oh, at best it's a pitiful, weak wrist slapping. But that's about all. Think of it. The violence with which they were disobeying the pan of God. The tragedy of their immorality they had brought right into connection with the tabernacle itself. These crash things. And here is Eli saying, No, no, boy, you shouldn't do that. Oh, he was going through the motion. But there was no moral force from the man's life. There was no real influence on the lives of these individuals. Nothing of that dynamic of the spirit in his life. His words fell like dead sounds upon their ears. And, of course, there's no respect on the part of his tongue. No response whatsoever toward him as a man of God. Chapter two, verse twenty nine. We see a very interesting thing here in the idiom. Some have said this is the first illustration of a child-centered home. And God sent an unnamed prophet to speak to Eli and to promise him judgment if he didn't shape up and bring his household in order. And the literal idiom here is, Eli, you have kicked my offering. You should have kicked those boys. But no, no, these fellows really had rule of the roost, and there is no effective headship whatsoever. By the way, headship is not tyranny. Headship is not bossism. My head does not tyrannize my body. If my head wants my hand to pick up this Bible, how does it get my hand to do that? By biting it? Get down near you and get that Bible. You say the man's crazy. You don't bite your hand. or bite your leg to get it to move. Headship is not bossism and tyranny. One of the tragic alternatives to a non-functioning headship in the home or in the local church is our easy human propensity to bossism and bullishness and tyranny. And that's not headship. Headship is exercised by that organic relationship between my head and my body that built-in element of control and direction that is God-ordained. But when you find powerlessness, when you find this kind of thing, as you see in Eli's home, it's tragic. Mouthing the words, a little scolding and wrist-slapping, but there was no moral influence of the man over his family. There was no leadership. There was no effective restraint. That was long, long gone. Chapter two, verses thirty through thirty-six, and then again in chapter three, verses eleven through fourteen, God warned this man of his folly. First, through an unnamed prophet. Secondly, through the boy Samuel. And it's one of the things that when we learned this story back in Sunday school, you know, of God calling Samuel in the night, I think it's sad that we don't really lay before our children the real message that God wanted to convey to Samuel that night. And it's interesting that in his first communication with Samuel, the message that God spoke to that boy really had nothing to do with Samuel himself. It was a message of judgment against Eli. And I'll tell you, when I think of how this boy must have squirmed, waiting the light of day, knowing that just as sure as you could be, that Eli was going to interrogate him and want to know what God had said to him, and that he, as a boy, was going to have to deliver a message of judgment to that older man. It's a very moving scene, as you see Eli the next day, interrogating Samuel. And finally, Samuel, even in his youth, as a faithful early servant of God, just telling it all. But you know the tragedy? It didn't make one particle different in the course of Eli's life. Not that much. Eli had long since become so insensitive to the word of God in his own life. that even solemn tones of judgment didn't faze him or alter his course. And yet, mind you, he was still wearing the robes of priesthood and going through the motion. And had you and I come merely as an observer or to bring a sacrifice, we would not have detected these things because the motions were still going on. And mind you, it can be so in our meetings. And even with leadership among the Lord's people, the motions can still be going on. But what God sees in the line may be a very different thing. And Samuel giving that message to the older man, trembling at the responsibility, and no response, all Eli said, well, the Lord can do whatever he wants to do. That's his prerogative. Well, that's true. But it didn't make a bit of difference in the direction of his life. You know, it's a frightening thing when we turn a deaf ear to the Word of God. Oh, I didn't say stop carrying the Bible. I didn't say stop reading the Bible. I didn't say stop going to meeting. I said it's a tragic thing when we turn a deaf ear to the Word of God. And the Word of God no longer serves our conscience or makes any difference in the kind of life we live. When we're so siding our ways, even our religious ways, that even the solemn messages from the Scripture don't make any difference in us. It's our human propensity. It reminds me a number of years ago, meeting an older man down in the South, used to be very involved with one of the conferences there at Mid-South. used to have a statement that kind of got people aggravated. He'd say, oh, give me the young folks. Give me the young folks when they were talking about various aspects of it. The old apostles said they won't change. You give me the young folks. But you see, the fact of the matter is that is not always true. Because both in the scriptures as well as in the history of the church, you can see some dramatic working of God in older people's lives. It is not true that with age inevitably comes an insensitivity to God. But you do see in occasion as you see with Eli, going through the motions, but the Word of God had virtually no effect on the course of his life. Go over to chapter three in verse one. A word from the Lord was rare in those days. Do you wonder? If the high priest is in such a condition, is it any wonder that a fresh message from God to his people was a rare thing? Now mind you, they were still going through the motion, and they were still playing church, if you please. But a fresh message from God was rare. No wonder. No wonder. Let me ask you, friends. How long has it been since God's been able to get a fresh message through to you? I'm not saying when's the last time you attended a meeting. We're in a meeting right now. That's different. We're talking about a fresh message from God that awakens the conscience and gives redirection to our lives. Is it rare to us? It was in those days. Chapter four, verses three and four. That foolish plan, because they were losing the battle in their fight against the Philistines, they decided that they needed a fetish. They needed a magic charm. They needed a rabbit's foot. And so they ran to get the ark. And Eli just stands by and lets them do it. What folly to take the ark of God as a fetish into battle. Not one word from Eli. No voice raised, no resistance when the people wanted to do such follows. Oh, chapter four and verse thirteen, he worried. To be sure he worried. He fretted because of the ark. He knew that that was no place for the ark. God had never ordained that the ark of the covenant be a mere fetish to his people. a rabbit's foot to be carried into battle for a lucky charm. He knew better, and he worried. But you see, worry accomplishes nothing. Worry is the antithesis of faith. Faith acts. Faith speaks. Worry does nothing. He worries. No evidence of prayer. No evidence of rushing into battle and say, hey, wait a minute, I was wrong. I never should have let you guys take this out here. God has not ordained that his ark be used. No, nothing of the kind. He had long since lost that kind of initiative. Or chapter four, verse fifteen, he was now blind. And I know that that was a physical condition, but again, the picture is one which is very striking, and it sort of reminds us of what Peter says. in his second epistle, he who lacks these things, Peter says, is blind, is myopic, and cannot see afar off. That's literally what Eli's problem was. He had such devastatingly fixed near-sightedness that he couldn't see beyond the end of his nose, and that it's literally what Peter talks about in Second Peter III. spiritual myopia, nearsighted, that we can't see beyond our nose, we can't see beyond my own aches and pains and the issues of my own life, no longer in a position to reach out and touch other lives helpfully, no longer able to look down the road and see the alternative, the consequences of certain kinds of action, no longer with a concern for ministering to others, can't see beyond the end of my nose. That's Eli. And finally, chapter four, verses twenty-one and twenty-two, his only remaining descendant was named Hicabah. You know what that means? Sure you do. The name means the glory of the Lord is departed. Let me ask you, fellow priests, what will you leave behind? What kind of spiritual progeny will you leave behind? If the Lord were to call you home today or me home today, what kind of spiritual progeny would we leave behind us? Eli's only living descendant was named the glory of the Lord to depart. Is that what you want to leave behind? fellow priest? Is it? A solemn picture isn't it? A solemn picture. Look at another picture of priesthood in decline. And we'll have to look very quickly at this. Go over to the book of Malachi. In the meanwhile, you will recall that the priesthood really came into very great disarray as the monarchy flourished the priesthood did flourish and there were some very godly priests from time to time in the history of the nation but generally speaking as the nation declined the priesthood declined and when you come into the voice of the prophets you find however that in god's eyes it was the other way around as the priesthood declined the nation declined And to Ezekiel, when God gives his final condemnation to the nation, his final indictment that led to the destruction of Jerusalem, the priesthood bears a pretty heavy brunt of that indictment. And you would think they have learned a good lesson during the captivity, but even after God restored them from captivity under the leadership of Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah, You come to the post-exilic prophets, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi, and there were still problems with the priesthood. And Malachi had some very strong things to say to the priests. Notice chapter one, verses six and seven, you have despised the Lord's table. Verse six, the son honors his father, the servant his master, Then if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my respect, says the Lord of Oce to you, O priest, who despised my name? But you see, how have we despised thy name? You see, they were going through the motions. They were wearing the garb. They were offering the sacrifices. They were having their meeting. How have we despised your name? Verse seven, you're presenting defiled food upon my altar. But you say, how are we defile these? And that you say the table of the Lord is to be despised. You see, their attitude had a defiling influence upon the bread that they were placing on the table. You see, the problem wasn't that they were using dirty pans to make this bread in. The problem was that their attitudes toward the Lord and his table were defiling the bread that they were placing on the table. Now you see, if you had been there and had watched them going through the motions, you may have seen very beautiful bread being placed on the table. Golden, brown, roasted in the ovens and on, the smell of it may have been glorious. And here they go in and all of their ceremony and place the bread on the table. And you might stand there and say, Ooh, that's an impressive service. God says, defile! Why? Because he saw the attitude of the priest. Notice chapter one, verse eight. When you present the blind for a sacrifice, is it not evil? When you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? These sick animals that you're offering to me, take them to the big shots in your governmental system and offer to them, see if they like. Hmm. Do you see that?