Good morning. My scripture again is taken from the book of 1 Samuel. We're going to read chapter 3 verse 1 1 Samuel chapter 3 verse 1, and this is God's own word Now the young man Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli and the word of the Lord was rare in those days There was no frequent vision. Amen. May God bless the reading and the hearing of his word Before we open up his word and hear from God, let us bow and let's pray Gracious God and our Heavenly Father, Lord. We come once again to you showing that We depend on you, Lord fully We need you now Lord as you have your word before us. We ask you to speak and we ask you to give us ears to hear Bless us now, Lord show us our Savior to your glory in Jesus name. We pray. Amen And amen. As we do celebrate Reformation Sunday on the hills of Reformation Day, which will take place tomorrow October 31st We will I guess in a sense revisit one of the doctrines And one of the emphasis that were that was recovered during the Reformation last week Pastor John's focus on a few of those Grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone Three of the five solas as we call them Today, we'll look at I guess in a way Solar scriptura which is a focus on the scriptures alone the scriptures alone is God's word and the authority The only authority that we have and that we stand on I mean, I want to focus on The latter part of verse one that we just read the idea that God's word was rare In those days that is during the time that Samuel Was living and I move to ask two questions here as I read that the Lord's word Excuse me was rare in those days first I Move to ask how How was God's word rare in those days and We're not left without an answer that verse tells us It was rare because there was no frequent vision during that time But then that leaves me to ask a second question and that second question is why Why were there no frequent visions during this time? And if we think on that a little bit I'm sure we can find an answer. Well, who was it that gave visions? There wasn't something that the prophets just conjured up themselves It's not something that they just had to dig inside and get a little bit of power to to have these visions It was God who gave So there were no frequent visions at that time obviously because God wasn't giving any frequent visions at that time He was held and when we talk about these visions We're talking about God's revelation and when we talk about God's revelation We're talking about God's own word And so God at that time Withheld his word He was withholding his word. He was absolutely silent Descriptor tells us at times He didn't speak There were a series of Experiments done during the 1940s and the 1950s Based on emotional detachment A very inhumane Experiments where they took human infants babies And they wanted to see the effect That would that that they would have or these babies would experience When detached from their mothers Or detached from any kind of emotional experiences or communication So these babies won't receive their basic physical needs any time they needed to eat food was not what held they would eat Anytime they needed to be changed. They were changed immediately They kept everything in the wherever it was that they were keeping them Steril and sanitary it was very clean all of their physical needs were met however The caregivers could not go beyond that They couldn't touch these babies Even if they were crying and it wasn't for a reason besides food or being changed They could not speak to these babies or even look at them all communication Was cut off and here's what they found In those babies around three months They had already the the process of Retardation of development had already come to a complete Holt Between six and 12 months their postures there was a certain posture and I forget the name of it But they all saw the same posture in these children you couldn't approach them and for some of them at the end of four months They would die when communication was cut off The impact and the effects We're dangerous if not deadly and in the same way saints when communication is cut off Number one, it's a sign that something is wrong And the consequences that follow can be very unhealthy the fact that God has ceased to communicate with man at any point in history Indicates that there is a problem And we can pinpoint that problem we can go back to Genesis and we can go back to the garden and we can see where man fell And immediately at that point when Adam sent against God Communication with God would not be the same anymore. It's our sin That causes this This problem with our communication with God. We read of Adam walking with God speaking with God Audible there in his presence And we don't experience that anymore In that same way and it's because of what took place at the fall But here's the good news as we open up the book of Hebrews or the letter to the Hebrews At the beginning of that letter chapter one verse one We're met with some exciting news and it tells us that God has found it in his heart To commune with us once again Hebrews one tells us that God Has decided in his own heart out of his own love to speak with us To talk to his people those who sent against him and in that sense we know that God's word God's word is here. It's with us God speaks and has spoken to us once and for all in Christ Jesus That's not a question But brothers and sisters in the same way that we read of Samuel's own experience that in those days God's word was rare There is a sense in which even today God's word is still rare. I Know it's readily available the Bible time and time again is the number one bestseller All right, it outsold any book in history. We know that But his word is still rare the difference is It's not rare because like then God chose to be silent at times It's rare brothers and sisters because I would propose Because we limit his word now We fail to go to it We fail fail to hear from it And it's us Who limit God's word and so in doing God's word can be thought of as rare in these days a clear example of that can be seen in the 16th century during the reformation Martin Luther John Calvin your ex-wingly the great reformers that we know about and that we've heard about dealt with the same issue for centuries God word Had come to be rare It wasn't known the doctors that we know of were hidden and so this is what I want to do God seems silent during the Reformation Even though his word had been pinned and it was done God can seem silent now although we have his word complete doesn't have to be but sometimes that is the case So this is what I want to look at this morning I quickly want to just look at four things that occur When and where God is God's word is rare With that understanding we'll look at four things briefly that occur Whenever and wherever God's word is rare and we want to do that again remembering that it's not because God has not spoken a Chooses not to speak he is spoken in Christ We have his word. It's there But sometimes we do limit his word Sometimes we run from his word or we Neglect this great treasure that we have so four things the first is this Number one where God's word is rare There is guaranteed to be confusion Where God's word is rare. There's guaranteed to be confusion Three periods where I see this at number one in Samuel's own day If we look back at first Samuel chapters one and two We'll notice a few things during that time when God's word was rare the scriptures tell us Number one, you see the confusion with God's word being rare if we simply look at the priesthood during that time If you remember Samuel's own mom Hannah, she struggled with having a child and So Hannah She wept and she experienced all kind of turmoil For the lack of being able to have or produce children and There was a priest Eli Eli was the the high great high priest at that time and Even when Hannah Encounter Eli this great high priest who was supposed to be her priest Who was supposed to mediate On her behalf to God even when she encountered this man during this great turmoil He had no word for If you go back and read you'll see that she she met with Eli or she ran across him and the most that he could do was Criticizer And not only Eli but Eli's two sons Hoffney and Finney's When we read about these two men and especially in chapter two Here's what we see that these men were corrupt That these men did not stand on God's word. They did not stand for the people on behalf of the people As those who were there to mediate for the people to God they were corrupt. They stole the sacrifices of the people They mistreated the women and abused them And there was a lot of confusion going on during this time with who these men were the priesthood was corrupt There was an absence of God's word and therefore there was a lot of confusion but even Samuel himself If we continue to read down in verse one of chapter three We see that God does finally speak But when he speaks Samuel's kind of confused He gets up. He goes to Eli and says that did you call me sir? Eli says no go back to bed Here's a voice again Still he's confused and he goes back to Eli. I'm sure you called me this time. What do you need? Nothing I didn't call you you're hearing things go back to bed and yet a third time He Samuel hears a voice And by that time they finally figure it out took a few times because there was confusion because God God's word has been had been so rare It had been so absent that when it finally came Couldn't even recognize God speaking So where God's word is rare there's a lot of confusion, but even doing the reformation There was a lot of confusion because God's word as we said had been so covered and it was so rare That people didn't even know the main place where people were confused Was with how a person stands right before God Justification what we talked about last week People were confused because for so long for centuries the church had been teaching something else God's word was not present in that It was rare to hear of the truth that God had given through Christ and so what the church was teaching was that we are saved By the works that we do God's word was rare And so the church looked very different From what God Christ had left and from what we see now in a small sense. It was a lot of confusion But even in our own day brothers and sisters, there's the same kinds of confusion Because God's word is sometimes rare We don't find it everywhere even though it's readily available Number one, it's rare in the world The world is a confused place It's very confusing out there Marriage is confused about what marriage is in the world We're confused with how we treat people It's a confusing place and that's been happening since the fall Racism has been alive and it's still alive and it's gonna be alive in the world because God's word isn't There it's it's rare in the world. You don't find God's word there and brothers and sisters That's nothing to be surprised about when it barks It's a dog So we're not confused about that But we know that there is a lot of confusion there and you would think it would get better in the church, but The church too is sometimes confused God's word is supposed to be here. We stand on the Scriptures. We put the Bible in the names of our churches But there's a lot of confusion this just this morning My TV was left on the channel last night and So when I woke up this morning, it was on that same channel But the program was different And I heard a preacher preaching on that channel this morning and it was supposed to be a minister Of the word Yet I heard nothing from the word Seemed rare. He talked about Jesus being a businessman He talked about Jesus going out and finding disciples who are also business man He said Jesus had a booming business everybody in small Nazareth knew who Jesus was or knew that he was the carpenter's voice So therefore this preacher I'm implied that Jesus business was booming everybody knew him I'm sure that would be the case in such a small town They would know that he's the carpenter's son, but anyways This is what happens in our churches because even though the word should be there We limit the word we sometimes like Samuel when God does speak when his word is open We don't recognize his voice and so we look to hear from God in other ways We want to see miracles produce We want to see visions given when God is spoken through his son finally and given us a sure word and we don't have to wait on a vision But we're confused because where God's word is rare Brothers and sisters, there's guaranteed to be confusion and so even it it's also true with individual Christians If we don't return and stand on God's truth in his scriptures alone We will be very very confused Individuals we will be very very confused churches and we will look or be confused as the world is confused But there's a second thing that we notice when God's word is rare number one Not only is there confusion. There's guaranteed to be confusion where God's word is limited or not emphasized But secondly Where God's word is rare Hopelessness is present Where God's word is rare hopelessness is present and we go back to Samuel's experience and we go back to Samuel's mother Hanna And we look at her situation again and I would say that the underlying problem that Hannah had was that at one point she had no hope God's word was rare We read of a prophet At the end of chapter two who comes to Eli the priest God raises up a man to speak his word but aside from that there were no frequent visions God's word Didn't go forth Frequently and so Hannah she had not much to go by She knew that she could not bear children And that was all that she knew and so she went we read and she was hurt and she experienced all kind of troubles in turmoil And brothers and sisters she was without hope Until of course God spoke to her and you see this dramatic shift in change and Hannah gives us this this this song of praise in chapter two Because she was given hope when God's word was made present but aside from God's word Being present brothers and sisters. There's no hope Again, we see the same thing with Martin Luther Martin Luther's experience was this He was a monk His dad had sent him to school to be a lawyer He had worked hard and was able to provide for his family and so Martin Luther could afford an education But at some point Martin Luther decided to become a priest Crazy experience that he experienced lightning struck a tree almost killed them. He vowed to give his life over and serve as a priest and During that time Martin Luther was a devoted priest So much so that he would confess His sins Daily hourly over and over and here's what Martin Luther found that as much as he confessed his sins As soon as he would leave from confessing you have to turn back around Because there was another sin that he had forgot to confess And Martin said he fell with hopeless He was without hope because again brothers and sisters the word was rare in those days God's true and living word That although we were sinners God had loved us enough to send his son To take on our sin To live and earn righteousness to give to us That he would die the death that we deserved and that because it was sure and it was perfect and pleasing to God God was would raise him to prove it And so we would be raised that word was not being preached then Sometimes it's not preached now and before hearing that and before knowing that Luther was without hope Until he read That there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and saints as hard as things get at times and they get really hard They get very hard even for Christians I can't imagine Going through these things and living this life as an unbeliever Because there's no hope There's absolutely no hope and I've seen this thing time and time again I think about celebrity marriages every time somebody comes to me and tell tells me hey You know so and so got married to celebrities and I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer But the first thing that comes to my mind is sometimes out of my mouth is man. It's not gonna last Maybe it's me being critical and if so God forgive me But I think it's because I have This underlying knowledge of the fact that without God's word being present and Being the guiding light for anything in this world. There's there's no hope and sure There are people who are married who are not Christians who may die Mary and That's their right to marry But what I'm saying is that when there's turmoil and a marriage what hope do you have to stand on if it's not The principles of God's saving word in the same way divorce I've seen people close to me go through divorce and I see a stark contrast between those who Who have built their foundation on God's word and those who haven't and here's what I see is tragic as it is either way Those who don't have God's word They're destroyed Through that process There's no hope to stand on some have threatened suicide some have committed Suicide because there's nothing to hold them together But on the other hand, I see those who know God They know what he said They know that God has said he would never leave them nor forsake them He knows that God has said he's going to leave them in this world He's not going to take them out of it, but he'll be there and Unexperienced all kinds of trials and tribulations But no worries. It's not a sign that he doesn't love them He has something better for him and he will bring them over and There's hope in that and even when it comes to death especially Death I've seen people and the scriptures tell us that we mourn it hurts But we don't mourn as those who are without hope Because we know what God has said brothers and sisters where God's word is rare hopelessness is present We can't know what God has said unless he has revealed it to us And God has revealed himself in nature But there's a limit to that Doesn't tell us everything we need to know about God doesn't tell us of his saving grace It doesn't tell us of our savior nature doesn't But his word has told us everything that we need to know About him and the opposite is true where God's word is your foundation There is always hope think of Joe As he faced all kinds of things everything was stripped from him His physical possessions his health And he was almost defeated spiritually, but he says I know that my my redeemer lives He stood on God's word and where God's word is present there is hope It brings us to a third thing Where God's word is rare it's guaranteed to be confusion where God's word is rare There There is guaranteed to be hopelessness But we start seeing a light here where God's word is rare It is all the more precious Where God's word is rare it is all the more precious now last fall There was a product that hit the market and it blew up it exploded this thing got so big and it became huge No one saw it coming the demand for this thing was so outrageous that there wasn't even enough Supply at months and months at a time Anyone in there have an idea of what I'm talking about patty libels sweet potato pies
Now I eventually got the taste one and it's not anything that I have to have ever again But still because because you could hardly find these pies in any store. I think it was exclusively sold at Walmart They became so precious to people They were so precious that customers would call stores miles and miles away just to see if they had those pies and stock and I'm guilty of that They became so precious That the customers would get up early in the morning and you could watch YouTube videos of this thing They were up early in the morning after finding out that they had a truck coming in Just to get those pies. They became so precious that the employees were hiding these pies in the stock room For themselves and people would tell they would let the world know anyone who got their hands on one of these pies They they they let everybody know that they finally got one of patty's pies Brothers and sisters long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers through the prophets But in these last days God has spoken to us through his son Now saints We don't have to wait for a faithful Prophet to be raised up in order to hear God's word We've established that Christ has been raised and that it is through him that God has spoken once and for all no questions asked and we have God's word written and Preserve despite what anyone says God's word is true It is inspired. It has all authority and it is unadulterated Yet for some reason it is hard to find a place that faithfully proclaims the word of God Sometimes I feel so sorry for people that I know or that I speak to who tell me that they are in search of a church home And here's why because the supply for the gospel Gospel preaching and gospel teaching is so limited today Now my heart just cringes when I know that somebody's searching for church, especially if they don't live close to Glendale Like the people trying to get their hands on one of patty's pies brothers and sisters You may call around And you may still find that you can't find a place that has God's true word His gospel word in stock for miles and it's not necessarily because God Or better yet the demand for it is so high that it's just hard to get it get your hands on gospel preaching and teaching It's all taken there's a lot of people who don't want it But yet and still it's true You can't find Faithful preachers and teachers and churches committed to the truth of the gospel But since when you finally get your hands on that you realize what you got I pray Because God's word is rarely preached in churches today Because of that fact we are especially blessed by God to be in this church or any church that faithfully proclaims the word of God We're blessed Because you can't find this any and everywhere I would challenge you to thank God as much as you can as as long as you have breath To thank him that he has chosen to place you here And to place you in a place where his word is in full abundance where we hear God's God truly speak to us Week in and week out because his word is rare In these days and again, it's not because God has limited his word He has given us his word his word is readily available But because his word is still rare due to our limiting his word Know that what you do have is precious And by all means tell your friends By all means tell your family that you have found something so precious and so good Before ourselves let's be thankful and let's know that what God has given us is his precious word and this precious gift I think of The truth of what's going around in the world There's something have you ever heard of the 1040 window That that's the region Some of us have heard of it where guides are a rectangular area on the map Where the gospel has not been heard at all Not that people don't embrace it not that people are they just done they choose to beat there's there's more atheist or more Buddhist This is a place where they don't even if you say Jesus they don't know who that is
In this area There are ministers who have gone out and who are going out To change that to taste take God's word to the ends of the earth if you will One of these places is in North Korea And in North Korea what's happened is there there these balloon scriptures There are people who tie scriptures to these orange balloons And it's very dangerous if they get caught Their life is gone But they tie these balloon they tie these scriptures to these balloons and they release them close to the border And they float out over into North Korea and as a helium is released these balloons fall and the Christians who are there The underground churches there that are there they recover these scriptures and brothers and sisters the This the word written on balloons is so precious to them because it is so rare There may we never forget or take for granted how blessed we are not just to have bibles But to have the content of the scriptures. Jesus Christ himself Expounded to us to have full truth of this thing to not be living and worshipping God in error To not have to come to a place where there's a circus put on But to come to a place where we are fed Christ and we're able to go back into the world with hope It's precious But God's word is rare. It's all the more precious It brings us to the fourth and final thing Well God's word is rare. It's guaranteed to be confusion and hopelessness But it's all the more precious And fourthly and finally this is the good news where God's word is rare He can still make it abunded Now during the Reformation John Calvin coined the phrase Post-Tenabris Lux And that's a Latin phrase when translated. It means after darkness light After darkness light and what Calvin was referring to was the fact that after centuries of the absence of gospel word and truth God had finally overcome the dark age that tried to hide the light of the gospel and the light of his word and God made Christ known again Post-Tenabris Lux Now notice that the same thing took place in Samuels. They once again after a period of silence and darkness God out of that darkness night and that silent night God spoke once again to Samuel He had raised up a prophet who could finally hear God's word and give God's word to the people the good news about our God is that even when Satan and this world and darkness and even us When we try to cover up God's word When we try to hide the light of the gospel God is powerful to overcome us and any demon and anything that would stand in the way of his word Wherever God wants his word to go saints we know that his word will go and it will not return to him void So all that we said about there being confusion and there being hopelessness that statement's a fact But that's not our our final word The final word is that in spite of this God still speaks and his word still has power to save as Jesus took that bland water at the the wedding that cana And transformed it into flavorful wine so does God take Ages and people and churches that are watered down and missing the gospel truth And he turns them into gospel springs overflowing with Jesus Pastor Jones has shared this experience with us These churches that he's visited within this past month as minister singleton just a spoke of this morning These are places where there was darkness and doctrines being taught That were outside of God's word even blasphemous Some of it we grew up with And these places are now Crying and calling now reaching out themselves for reform gospel centered Christ drenched Doctrine theology and teaching and they're calling out the pastor Jones to come and help bring that light to these churches a testimony That although God's word may sometimes be limited by us He will overcome us. He's a sovereign and a good God And he can overcome us and give us what we need and give us what is such a gift and so precious And so we take hard As we close brothers and sisters as we read this passage that in this day during this time God's word was rare We realize that we experience the same thing sometimes There are many churches If you go in your stomach turns To hear what they're preaching God's word is nowhere inside and you wonder to yourself Are we living in Samuel's day And whether there's Rarity of God's word there's bound to be confusion Where there's Where God's word is rare there's going to be hopelessness But take hard brothers and sisters Because even in those same moments it shows us that we'll be have his precious And God will still overcome it God will still overcome Those places Where darkness has tried to cover the light of his word of Christ Here's our challenge Our challenge is to just be thankful That even in a world And in places where God's word is rare and covered He has made it known to us And it's a challenge for us to give thanks and glory to God That nothing can stop his word from going forward We can be reminded of Jesus Christ today in a place where Christ isn't preached Where people are going to be given messages today On how to make their lives better if they apply Principle A, B, and C We're being told once again That we are saved by Christ and Him alone That despite what happens in this world Christ is still at the right hand of God and you're okay Despite what your life looks like right now Christ has won victory for you and me And it's going to be okay Despite the fact that we have sinned against God and continue to sin against God Christ makes that sin obsolete His righteousness is so much better This is the word that we have in the place where God's word is rare Let's thank God for His precious word And let's tell the world Amen