Year 2 Day 196

Year 2 Day 196


Pray (ACts)


Read - 1 Samuel 3 and 2 Peter 1:19-21


Message - Alan Burke 


The call of Samuel is a passage that we are all familiar with, mainly because of all those Sunday school lessons we sat through, with such delights as flannelgraph (if you don’t know what flannelgraph is just be thankful and think of it no more). There were many varied applications that were given to us in Sunday school, and the question to end with was ‘if the Lord speaks to you, how will you respond?’. 


I want to start by saying, and I hope it’s not news to you but we are not Samuel, these are not the days of the Judges, we are not in the temple with the Lord standing at our side, nor is he speaking to us directly in the way he did with Samuel. There may have been times that wanted an audible voice or a big neon sign in the sky but remember God speaking in these ways was not the normal every day experience of his people and these former ways have ceased, for as God through the author of Hebrews reminds us; “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb 1:1-2a). 


Before we start thinking of the call of Samuel on Wednesday we are going to think of what the Lord God teaches us through the epistle of 2 Peter 1. Peter explains how he was an eyewitness of the majesty of Christ (16), he was there at the Mount of Transfiguration and heard the very voice of God say… “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” (17). There Peter had seen and heard, he was an eyewitness to what happened. But look to what Peter then says immediately after in verse 19-21. First v19 “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed”. 


Yes Peter had seen, he had heard, he had been there on the Mount of Transfiguration, but he is making the point that we have something better, now we have the scriptures, the word more fully confirmed. He goes on to say that we would do well to pay attention (v19) to this word because it’s not from someones own interpretation or imagination but “from God, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (v21)”


What we have before us in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the word of God, the complete revelation of God to us, it is everything we need, we do not need anything more, no new revelation, there is no need for an audible voice or a neon sign in the sky. We don’t need a Samuel experience for the Lord has given us everything we need. The bible before you is the very word of God, and when the Scriptures are faithfully proclaimed, God’s voice is truly heard (Lk 10:16, 2 Cor 5:19-20, 1 Thes 2:13, Heb 13:7, 1 Pet 4:10-11). God has designated preaching as the means for his voice to be heard in this world (Rom 10:14-17, 1 Cor 1:18-25). As you come to worship this coming Lord’s day, what are your expectations, are you ready to hear the voice of God as the Lord speaks to you though his word, do you have ears to hear his truth?


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q77 What is required in the ninth commandment?
The ninth commandment requireth the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, (Zech. 8:16) and of our own and our neighbour’ s good name, (3 John 12) especially in witness-bearing. (Prov. 14:5,25)