God's Gracious Plan for Spiritual Growth

I Samuel   •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  37:50
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How does God sanctify His people? How does God work out practical holiness in our lives? How does God cause us to grow spiritually?
There is and always has been one answer to these questions. For every person who has a personal relationship with the God of the universe, for all of those who call themselves followers of God, in all ages and in all places- God’s method of sanctification is the same.
It is perhaps best summed up by the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in His high priestly prayer in John’s gospel:
John 17:17 ESV
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones expounds on this verse with these words, “Bring them into the realm of truth; keep them there so that the Truth shall work upon them and influence them and produce their sanctification.”
A good pastor friend of mine regularly asks the people that he is discipling, “How has Jesus changed your life this week?” That is a really good question to ask ourselves on a regular basis. This question is not just for the newly saved believer. Sometimes, that is the way we think. After we get saved there is all kinds of things that God changes, but then after a while we hit this spiritual plateau and not much happens after that.
I want to contend this morning that whether you have been saved for 5 days or 50 years, you should be constantly being sanctified. In other words you should be able to look back on this past week and answer the question, “How has Jesus changed your life this week.”
How is that possible? How do we participate in regular spiritual growth? How do we constantly progress in our sanctification? What is God’s gracious plan for spiritual growth?
I believe we find his plan for spiritual growth in I Samuel 3. And I want to share with you three essential steps for regular spiritual growth.

I. The Problem of “Rare-ness” (3:1-3)

1 Samuel 3:1 ESV
1 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.
Equilibrium- Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. Some amount of time has elapsed since the end of chapter 2- not sure how much time. God pronounced judgement on Eli and his household for their sin. And in the mean time Samuel has continued to minister to the Lord in the temple in the presence of Eli.
Occasioning Incident- The word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.
Rare- this Hebrew word is used most often to describe precious stones or elements of the earth- as diamonds and gold are rare or sparse so in those days God’s Word was rare and uncommon.
There was no frequent vision. That is, in those days prophetic revelation in the form of visions and divine words were precious few. In those days that was how the Lord communicated with His people. In our day we no longer have prophetic revelation in the form of visions and divine words because we have all of the revelation we need in the Holy Scriptures.
2 Peter 1:3 tells us that we have already been granted, “all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” And where do we find that knowledge? We find it in the Bible.
But in Samuel’s day they did not have the completed revelation of God’s Word, so God would communicate to His people sometimes through visions and divine words. Yet, the big problem of this whole passage is that God’s truth, God’s revelation was rare!
This circumstance can be linked to divine displeasure over the sin of the nation.
1 Samuel 14:37 ESV
37 And Saul inquired of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?” But he did not answer him that day.
1 Samuel 28:6 ESV
6 And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.
And it was this, the rareness of the truth of God’s Word that explained the desperateness of that time.
Judges 21:25 ESV
25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Where there is no truth there is no growth. Where there is no regular immersion in God’s Word there will never be any kind of sanctification whatsoever taking place in the hearts of God’s people.
Proverbs 29:18 ESV
18 Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
Amos 8:11 ESV
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
There is no more dire event than a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. When that takes place in a believer’s life, sin and the result of sin- death are sure to follow. And that is exactly what had been taking place in Israel. And we see that vividly pictured for us in v. 2
1 Samuel 3:2 ESV
2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place.
Rising Action- Why was the word of the Lord so rare in those days? Because the spiritual leaders of the nation had spiritual dull eyes. Here we begin to see Samuel and Eli contrasted drastically.
Eli is old, so old that his physical eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see- he was virtually blind physically. His physical condition was also a telling illustration of his spiritual condition. Eli’s spiritual eyes were so weak that he could barely see. How could this happen? How could the spiritual leader a nation become so spiritual dull that the Word of God had become virtually non-existent? Answer: UN-CONFESSED SIN.
1 Samuel 2:29 ESV
29 Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’
1 Samuel 2:30 ESV
30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
Eli was unwilling to deal with the horrendous high handed sin of his sons, and he himself was complicit in some of their sin. God gave Eli years to repent and remove sin from his life, but he was unwilling. Unwillingness to confess sin, hardening your heart against God is the surest way to become spiritually weak. Left un-dealt with sin will cause you to become virtually blind to the truth of God’s Word and will cause you to go places that you don’t want to go and will bring about the judgement of God.
In contrast to Eli in v. 3 we see Samuel:
1 Samuel 3:3 ESV
3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
This verse serves primarily to give us temporal and spacial information about the story. The time was sometime during the predawn hours. According to Exodus 27:21 the priests were to tend the lamp of God from evening until morning. This is also a vivid illustration of Samuel- the one that God was raising up to do what was in God’s heart and mind. He was the means by which God would bring to bear the light of His word to His people.
Samuel was also lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was- this tells us not only his position spatially, but also stands as a spiritual illustration that of everyone in the nation of Isreal, Samuel was the closest to the Lord's throne.
What a contrast between Eli and Samuel. And we will see this contrast continued to be developed in the rest of this narrative.
Back to our question this morning: What is God’s gracious plan for spiritual growth?
The first essential step for spiritual growth that we find here in this narrative is this:

You must constantly read the Scriptures

The reason that there was no spiritual growth in Israel was that the word of the Lord was rare in those days. When our hearts become barren to the Word of God there is no spiritual growth.
John 17:17 ESV
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
The only way you and I become sanctified is through the word of God.
The most essential step is constantly to read the Scriptures. If you look at any saint who has ever adorned the life of the Christian church, you will find that they have always done that. They have always been men and women who have spent a great deal of their time in reading the Bible, studying it and familiarizing themselves with it. (Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
So I ask you this question this morning:

“How has Jesus changed your life this week?”

Well pastor there really hasn’t been any change in my life this past week. Why not?

It may be that you have never been born again

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
John 1:12 ESV
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

It may that you are unwilling to deal with sin in your life.

Isaiah 59:2 ESV
2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
1 John 1:9 ESV
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
James 4:8–10 ESV
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

It may be that you spent very little time in God’s Word

John 15:5 ESV
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Maybe you are sitting here this morning and you are born again, and you don’t have any unconfessed sin in your heart, and you did spend time reading God’s Word last week- and yet you are still thinking- But Jesus still didn’t change me. Why?
The reason is- constantly reading the Scriptures is not enough to produce spiritual growth.
We need to move on to the second essential step of spiritual growth.

II. The problem of “Revealed-ness” (3:4-10)

1 Samuel 3:4–7 ESV
4 Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” 5 and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. 6 And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
Here God graciously reveals Himself to Samuel by calling the boy by name- “Samuel.” But, Samuel did not yet know the Lord. And the idea is Samuel had not yet experienced the Lord. Why? Because the Word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. So two times Samuel goes to Eli for further instruction, and two time Eli sends Samuel back to bed.
I think it is also telling that it takes Eli so long to understand the the Lord is the one speaking to Samuel. Perhaps because Eli was blind to even the possibility of the Lord revealing Himself in such a personal manner.
1 Samuel 3:8–10 ESV
8 And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”
This event happens two more times, but on the forth time Eli gives Samuel specific instruction, and the Lord significantly, on the forth calling came and “stood” that is, God drew near to Samuel, and God calls his name twice. What a gracious act of God. Who put Samuel in that temple? Hannah did right? No- the Lord caused all of this to happen. The Lord is the one who orchestrated the events of Samuel's life in such a way to prepare Him for this moment. It is all because of the wondrous grace of God! God is still graciously working today calling out to you. And wondrously Samuel responds to God, “Speak, for your servant hears.”
This is what is so desperately needed in our own lives! It is not enough to simply read your Bible. We need God to reveal Himself to our hearts. We need His grace so that our eyes might be enlightened and we might see God.
Ephesians 1:17–18 ESV
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
Once again I want to issue a very important warning. There are many ways of reading the Bible, and I mean reading it in a very particular way. I have known people who seem to read their Bible like this: they say, “Yes, I am now a Christian. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and have surrendered myself to him. I have had this experience.” So now they seem to be living on that experience and they believe that henceforth they have nothing to do but look to him.
“Well then,” you say, “do you not read your Bible?”
“O yes,” they reply, “I read my Bible.”
But they seem to read the Bible as a good bit of discipline, as the sort of thing a Christian is expected to do. That is not the way of reading the Bible that I mean here. I am advocating that I should read my Bible daily not because I believe it is a good thing for me to read the word every day, not because I think it is going to do some general good, not because it is a good thing to be familiar with the word of God-no-I must learn to read the word of God in order to look for doctrines that are in it. I must be search for doctrines which I can apply to myself, I must be looking for particular teachings. My reading of the Bible must not be general, but very specific.
It is possible to be very familiar with the letter of the Scriptures and yet not to know its doctrines; indeed, there are many who are familiar with the words of Scripture who are not familiar with the word of God. You can know your Bible in a mechanical sense without ever having come face to face with its doctrines. And my whole understanding of John 17:17 leads me to say that all that is useless.
In other words, if I do not read my Bible in such a way as to come to a deeper knowledge of the greatness and holiness of God, there is something wrong in my reading, and the same is true if my reading of the Bible does not humble me, or bend me to my knees.
In other words, my attitude towards Scripture reading must not be, “I have a certain amount of time before I go to work,” or “I read my daily portion if I can”- that is not the way to read the Scriptures. We must be very careful not to become slaves to the daily portion. We must be searching for the doctrines not merely that we may know the contents of particular books of the Bible, but also that its spiritual message may come out to us. We must see it and know it, and we must daily remind ourselves of it.
Why do I say all this? What is the point? If you read your Bible and God does not reveal Himself to you through His word and your OK with that, you will never grow spiritually.
Back to our question this morning: What is God’s gracious plan for spiritual growth?
The second essential step for spiritual growth that we find here in this narrative is this:

You must constantly dwell on the Scriptures

How do I describe this?
God’s word must come alive in your hearts. You must read God’s truth and think over God’s word until it burns within your heart. You must let the word of God dwell richly in your heart until it humbles you and causes you to bend your knees. You must diligently and eagerly fill your heart with truth until God floods your eyes with tears. You must go down deep into the Word and stay down long until God reveals His glory to you in His word.
Now I am not saying that every time you read the Bible you have to be moved to your knees, or to tears, or come away with some earth shattering truth. But, it needs to happen at least some time. When was the last time your wept over your Bible? When was the last time you felt drawn out of your chain on onto the floor from reading your Bible? When was the last time God enlightened the eyes of your heart through His word.
Spiritual growth is impossible unless we constantly dwell on the Scriptures until God himself is revealed to us.
Pastor, that rarely or never happens to me. What do I do? Three texts and a challenge:
Acts 17:27 ESV
27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
Hebrews 11:6 ESV
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Jeremiah 29:13 ESV
13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
So I ask you this question this morning:

“How has Jesus changed your life this week?”

Well pastor there really hasn’t been any change in my life this past week. Why not?

It may be that you have not taken the time necessary to be in God’s Word until He opens your spiritual understanding

Then you must not only read the Scriptures, you must also meditate upon them. There is a line of a hymn which says, “Take time to be holy.” I am not sure but that it is not something which we all ought to have pasted upon the walls of our homes in this foolish, ridiculous, hectic age in which we are living.
The good news is that we don’t have to go it alone! That is why Jesus instituted the local church. That is why we are encouraging you so heavily to get involved in a disciple-making relationship and study God’s Word together. If you are not doing that, why not? Are you really growing spiritually the way God intended you to? Are you changing to become more like Jesus? Why not take advantage of ever opportunity to grow?
Maybe you are sitting here this morning and you are born again, and you don’t have any unconfessed sin in your heart, and you did spend time reading God’s Word last week, and you even spent time meditating and dwelling on the word and God revealed Himself to you in a powerful way- and yet you are still thinking- But Jesus still didn’t change me. Why?
The reason is- constantly reading the Scriptures, and constantly dwelling on the Scriptures is not enough to produce spiritual growth.
We need to move on to the third essential step of spiritual growth.

III. The Problem of “Reluctant-ness” (3:11-21)

1 Samuel 3:11–14 ESV
11 Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”
Think about what God just did. He finally reveals himself to Samuel after years of silence and the first thing God does is teach Samuel about His holiness and the seriousness of sin and the importance of honoring and obeying God.
1 Samuel 3:13 ESV
13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.
Also God taught Samuel the danger of high handed sin. What is high handed sin? Willful rebellion. And what is the consequence?
1 Samuel 3:14 ESV
14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”
This is the first revelation that God gives to Samuel. I am sure that Samuel is thinking- God couldn’t you have gone easy on me on my first day? Why did you have to lay it on so heavy. Because guess what Samuel now has to do?
1 Samuel 3:15 ESV
15 Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.
Why is Samuel afraid to tell Eli? It is not just that it is bad news. It is that Eli and his house are the most powerful family in the nation. Who is Samuel? A boy. One small boy- and God says tell the most powerful and corrupt family in the nation that I am going to destroy them. Is it sometimes hard to do what God tells us to?
1 Samuel 3:16–18 ESV
16 But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” 17 And Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”
Even though it was intensely difficult how did Samuel respond to the revelation given to him by God? With complete obedience. He told Eli everything and hid nothing from him. Now contrast that to Eli-
1 Samuel 3:13 ESV
13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.
And what was the consequence for Eli failing to respond to God’s revelation with obedience? Judgement.
What was the consequence of Samuel responding to God’s revelation with complete obedience?
1 Samuel 3:19 ESV
19 And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.
What does v. 19 say happened to Samuel? He GREW! and the Lord was with Him and he let none of his words fall to the ground- that is everything that Samuel prophesied God fulfilled.
Samuel experienced spiritual growth! And what elements were necessary for this to happen?
Word of the God + The Lord Revealed Himself + Obedience = Spiritual growth
Samuel was in that position because of the grace of God- God is the one who worked in Samuel’s life and revealed Himself to Samuel and called Samuel- it was all grace. And yet, Samuel still had to respond with obedience before growth took place.
God had also been gracious to Eli and his family-
1 Samuel 2:27–28 ESV
27 And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? 28 Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel.
But, what did Eli fail to do? Respond with obedience!
1 Samuel 3:13 ESV
13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.
But because Samuel responded to God’s grace with obedience- he grew- and:
1 Samuel 3:20–21 ESV
20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. 21 And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
And keep going into the first part of chapter 4: “And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.”
Back to our question this morning: What is God’s gracious plan for spiritual growth?
The third essential step for spiritual growth that we find here in this narrative is this:

You must constantly respond with complete obedience to the Scriptures

There is no value whatsoever in having an intellectual awareness of the truth unless we proceed to apply it, and there are many who fail at that point
John 15:5 ESV
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:10 ESV
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
So I ask you this question this morning:

“How has Jesus changed your life this week?”

Well pastor there really hasn’t been any change in my life this past week. Why not?

It may be that you have not responded to God’s revelation with joyful obedience

The first step in the life of faith is the constant application of the truth which we have believed, the bringing to bear upon our daily lives of these great doctrines which we have been studying.
In other words, we must not wait for some experience, the thing to do is to apply what we believe. Then we shall receive it.
Do not wait until you are moved; move yourself and then you will find that the Spirit will be present
What truth has God revealed to you lately that you have not yet put the hands and feet of obedience to yet?

What is God’s gracious plan for spiritual growth?

You must constantly read the Scriptures
You must constantly dwell on the Scriptures
You must constantly respond with complete obedience to the Scriptures
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