Alright, so our text is in 1 Samuel chapter 2. And tonight, by the Lord's grace, we'll see the difference between law and grace. And so here, as we read a moment ago, we come to a very sad account in Israel's history. And this is witnessed in the behaviors and the practices of Hophni and Phinehas, who are the sons of Eli. These are priests. These boys are priests of the Most High God. men, these young men, they were engaged in very wicked practices. According to the law, they were not doing what the law prescribed, and they were doing very wicked things concerning the sacrifices and the offerings that the people were bringing unto the Lord, according to what the law told them to do in serving the Lord. It wasn't wrong that they had food of these people, that they were taking part of the sacrifices, but the Lord told them how they were to have food, what they were to have. In fact, it says, I'll just read it in Leviticus 7 verse 34, he says, the wave breast and the heave shoulder, these were things that they waved before the Lord and and took from the animal. He said, I've taken these things, and I've given them of the children of Israel. When they come for a peace offering, I take these things, and I give them to the priest. This is for their food, for their labors, for their service in serving me. This is what they're to have, and they can have it forever. In all these sacrifices, they can have these things. But these men had developed a tradition And they would take something called a flesh hook, and they would stick it in the pot. And whatever meat they grabbed into and can pull up, that's what they would take. And that was what they took for themselves to eat. That's what they brought home and ate, just random pieces by it. Additionally, they didn't always want it boiled. They weren't happy with getting boiled meat, sodden meat, seething meat in a pot or a cauldron. Sometimes they wanted it raw. They wanted it raw so that they could roast it with fire and have it the way that they wanted to eat it. And if any of the people protested, the servants of Hophni and Phineas would force them to give them what they wanted. They would take it. They would just say, you either comply and give it to me, or else I'm going to make you comply, and you're going to give it to me. We could do this the hard way, or we can do this the easy way. So why don't you just give it to me now? And then on top of all that, we find out that these men would lay with the women, these daughters of Israel who came to worship the Lord. They'd meet them at the door and do some smooth talking, and they would lay with these young women. Now we're told in verse 12 about these boys. This is what the scriptures tell us about these two. It says there that the sons of Levi were sons of Belial. They were children of the devil. That's who their father was. And it says they knew not the Lord. In other words, these were not men of God, but we see they did have a form of religion. They had a form of religion that they practiced. They looked good on the outside. They knew what they were supposed to do. They dressed the right way, and they served in the right place, and they came in there with a form of religion, but they didn't know the Lord. And we see these characters throughout scripture. Paul wrote of them, because he had a lot of interaction with these men who had a form of religion. But they had no life in them. Paul wrote of them in Romans 2.20, saying that some of you, you're an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. And he's talking about those men who would hear Paul preach the gospel and they'd argue with him. And they'd say, that's not what the law says. That's not what Moses said. You're speaking contrary to Moses, and you're leading the people astray. And they would argue with him, and he said, no, you have a form of knowledge. You have an understanding of the truth to a degree. You have a sense and understanding of that, but you have no heart. There's no life in you. There's no life in you. They knew not the Lord. Well, what does it mean that they knew not the Lord? If they know what they're doing, If they're there practicing religion, what do you mean they don't know the Lord? Well, it means that they didn't know the Lord in a way of communion and fellowship. There was no fellowship between them and God. They had no sense of God. And they didn't think about God in their presence. They didn't think about what they were doing. They didn't care about it. They just went through the steps of religion, just carelessly, just foolishly, in the form of it. And we know that the Lord does have a people that he speaks to, that he is very kind to and has that fellowship with. We've been in Abraham in Genesis recently and we've been seeing how the Lord had a relationship and a fellowship with Abraham. He would come to Abraham, and he would speak to Abraham, and he would repeat his covenant of grace. He would tell Abraham the promises, and he'd repeat that over and over to Abraham every time he came. And then he would reveal something more about himself, something about his character, something about his promises, something about what he does for his child. And that pattern's repeated constantly, and Abraham, spoke to him as a friend speaks with a friend. He's called the friend of God in the scriptures because the Lord spoke to him and we see that the Lord holds communion and holds fellowship with his people. So these men had a form of knowledge and of the truth of the law but they had no communion or fellowship with the Lord. They knew nothing of the Lord's grace and they had no love for the Lord's people. They could care less about them. They didn't care that they were being offensive in what they did. And they didn't care that they were abusing them. Now, we're instructed from this passage, what the Lord is showing us here, is that, understand these men were practicing under the law. And one thing that this scripture, that this whole Bible is teaching us, is that by the law, no man is justified of God. You cannot be saved by keeping the law. You're not going to be accepted of God and justified with God by keeping the law. And this scripture is showing us that the law cannot save a sinner. No man can come to the Lord in the law. You cannot be saved by the law. Instead, when we look at what these men are doing, these are works of the flesh. That's what's coming out here. These are works of the flesh. And that they're using their skill, and they're conniving, and their brute force, and their mouths, and they're saying things and doing things that they want to get what they want. That's works of the flesh. That's what we do in the flesh when we want to get something that we want to get from someone else. And we see that it wreaked havoc, it was horrible for the people that did love the Lord and did have a heart to serve the Lord. It says in verse 17, 1 Samuel 2 verse 17, Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. And so you can imagine, they dreaded going there. They thought, ah, we've got to see those boys again. The way they just take what they want. They hit so-and-so in the head last time, and they just took what they wanted. And they were so rude, and so abrupt, and so harsh, and so mean. They hated going there. But the Lord said to go there, so they went. And they paid. They did what they had to do, but they dreaded it. They dreaded it. and because they were dealing with these two boys. And we know what the law says, that what the law says is good. The law is good. What it says is good and right. But hearing the works of these sons of Eli, we see the problem. We see the problem. And the problem is with this flesh. That's the problem. That's why no man can save himself by the law, or no man can be saved by the law. Because this flesh is sinful. Every one of us here is a sinner. Every one of us here by nature is dead in trespasses and sins. We have nothing to boast in, nothing to glory in. We're all sinners. And by that law, the law is going to show us you're a sinner, and you're a sinner, and you're a sinner, and you're a sinner too. The law shows us that we're sinners, that we cannot save ourselves. And so Paul said this in Romans 3.20, therefore by the deeds of the law, There shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." When you try to come to God in the law, it will not be long before you see what a sinner you are. Because the law exposes our sin. The law shows us our sin and shows us this is perfection and this is you all the way over there. That's where you're measuring up. That's where I'm measuring up, way over there. We're not keeping the law. And so it's showing us God has done that. The purpose why he gave the law is to show us the infirmity, the sickness, the weakness, the death of this flesh. That's why he gave the law. Because that's a good question. Why did he give the law then if I can't keep the law? To show us our need. to show us that we cannot save ourselves, to show us that we've offended holy God and trespassed against Him in everything, in word, in thought, in deed. We've offended God. That's what He's showing us. That's what He's teaching us. Another thing we see, it says in verse 22, 1 Samuel 2, 22, that Eli was very old. Eli was an old man. What does this picture? Well, in the Scriptures, the Lord teaches us about the old man of flesh, as well as the new man. And this old man, just like Eli, cannot constrain the passions and the lusts of this flesh. Just like Eli couldn't constrain his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to do what they should do Because he was an old man, same thing with our flesh. It's an old man of sin in Adam. And he has no strength, no ability, no way to constrain the lusts and the passions of the flesh according to the law. He reasoned with them, but to no avail. He had no strength to change their heart. And that's what the Lord shows us, that we and our sins cannot change ourselves. Just as the leopard can't change its spots, the Ethiopian can't change the color of his skin, neither can you, that are accustomed to doing evil, change from doing evil. We are accustomed to sinning. We sin all the time and don't even realize the sins that we commit against God. Verse 25 says, Notwithstanding they hearken not unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them. And what the Lord is showing us here in the gospel, what he's teaching us, is that this inability of our flesh, our old man to fix ourselves and to make things right and to stop doing the evil and to start doing good to save ourselves and make ourselves acceptable with God, God is showing us that You're not going to obtain a righteousness by the keeping of the law. By coming to me in the law, you cannot do it. And he shows us just how awful our sin is to put that thought to death. So that you would know I cannot come to God in the law by my good works. I can't just reform myself and make myself better. God's going to see right through me. because my sin's going to come out before his eyes. And so, like Eli, this old flesh cannot constrain these lusts and passions. And now, Paul does tell us, he says in Romans 7, he says, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." In other words, the Lord gave us the law to show us how exceedingly sinful our sin is, and just how desperate our case is before God. God is holy, God's going to judge the world in righteousness, and I'm not righteous. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? What are you going to do? What are we going to do? Because we can see here they had the law and they weren't keeping it and they couldn't keep it and they were offending men and certainly they were offending God. So the Lord is showing us here in all of this Galatians 3.22 but the scripture This is the truth that the Lord is showing us by giving us the law, but the scripture and all these accounts here that we read where we see just how awful these people were and that the scripture hath concluded all under sin. Every one of us is a sinner. When we read this, the best of the best of us is still a sinner. That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. In other words, that we would abandon that vain hope that we're going to save ourselves by the law, that we would hear what the Lord is saying about faith concerning His darling Son, Jesus Christ, and that we would come to Him in faith. Lord, forgive me. I have no righteousness. I have no goodness. I have nothing to give You, Lord, but You say that all who come to You and Your darling Son trusting him, believing him, that he died and put away my sin, and that he rose again to give me life, you say that you forgive them of their sins, that you receive that sinner who comes to you by faith in Jesus Christ. That's what the scriptures are teaching us. That's what he's showing us here in this passage, because none of us is going to going to save ourselves. You're not going to save yourselves by the law. Now, while these men were doing this, they were doing what they pleased and wanted to do according to the works of their flesh. When we read this, we saw it kept weaving in here something about this child, Samuel. Every few verses we're reading something about Samuel. In the midst of all their sin, there's something about Samuel. For example, verse 11, Said Elkanah went to Ramah to his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. Drop down to verse 18. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod. Verse 21, it says that the Lord visited Hannah, and at the end of the verse it says, and the child Samuel grew before the Lord. And then verse 26, it says, and the child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men. What's going on here? This is the evidence of the grace of God doing something in this child that was not done in the sons of Eli. They were in religion. They were practicing religion. They had a form of religion, but there was no grace. There was no life. God didn't do anything for those boys, but he did a gracious work for Samuel. Now what does this remind us of? It speaks to us of what the Lord Jesus Christ tells us that he must be born again. The Lord gives his people a new heart. He gives them a new spirit. He gives us new life. new life in his son. We're born again by his grace and his spirit. It was told the church, and if you need to hear it this way, it was said to her, the elder shall serve the younger, the older one shall serve the younger one. And I was talking about Eli, I'm sorry, Jacob and Esau, Esau being the older and Jacob being the younger one. And what it's saying there is this old man of flesh is going to serve that new man of grace, that new man of grace. And so we see that here with these older boys, they're going to yield to and give way to that new man, to Samuel here. That's the picture here. And so our Lord tells His people in His Word that we're saved by grace. We're saved by grace. He said it this way in Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 10. He says it's by grace. Are you saved through faith? And that faith is not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. My faith didn't save me in the sense that I didn't invent this faith. It didn't come from this flesh. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit, which is given by God. And you that hear His Word, there's no hoops to jump through. There's no works that you got to do first before you can come to God. You that believe the Lord Jesus Christ, you have eternal life. Christ has put away your sins. What he does is he gives faith through the preaching of Christ. That's why Christ came to suffer and to die for the sins of his people because we cannot save ourselves. We're just like Hophni and Phinehas in this passage here. We're just like them. We're not going to do it. We're not going to save ourselves and we can't save ourselves and that's what he's telling us. Forget about your form of religion and playing religious games and thinking that's your righteousness. It cannot save you. I've given my son, who came and shed his blood, laid down his life to die for the sins of my people, to put them away. And having he satisfied his father so that the sins of his people are put away, they're bought and purchased with the blood of Christ, he rose again for our justification. For our justification. And so it's, where I grace you are saved through faith and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Everything about the gospel is contrary to this flesh. It's contrary. It's completely against what we think God is looking for. This gospel is about the grace of God. This is what the conclusion is here. So I just want to show you four things from this passage that we read earlier, just four things that our Lord makes known to us in the preaching of the gospel that we see evidenced in this passage here. First, the first thing our Lord teaches us, or one of the things that he teaches us in the gospel that we first see here in this passage is that salvation is not a work of the flesh. It's a spiritual work of God for his people. I'll read verse 11 one more time. And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. It's good that we should train up a child in the way that they go. And we should teach our children to love the Lord, to come and worship the Lord, to read his word, to sing hymns. But we need grace, because it's very easy to teach our children a form of religion. a form of religion without any heart. Timothy was brought up in the way of the Lord. Timothy was brought that way. Paul said to him that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. We can labor with our children to train them up in the way that they should go and make them to know the things, but, and oftentimes we think they're gonna be godly people because we've done that, but a lot of times they don't. They fall away, they don't care, they drift away and they go and do their own thing. What the Lord said here about Timothy is very telling. He said the Holy Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. In other words, it's a spiritual work. You that would be saved, it's a spiritual work. When you're training up your children and telling them about the Lord and reading the scriptures with them and teaching them how to pray, it's a spiritual work. Pray for them and tell them it's a spiritual work. Tell them it's a work of God's grace that works in your heart, that He gives a new heart that believes Him and trusts Him. So that's the first thing that we see here. He did something for Samuel. that he didn't do for these other boys. It's a gracious work. Second, man naturally tries to work righteousness in others by cursed means. By cursed means. And when they do it, all it's going to do is produce death. It's going to produce death. Let's see this in verse 13 and 14. 1 Samuel 2, 13 and 14. And the priest's custom with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came while the flesh was in seething with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand. And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot, all that the flesh hook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither." So these men used a flesh hook to obtain something that was not theirs to take. And they obtained it, how? By wicked means. They did something that they ought not to do. And I mean, it's even called a flesh hook. I mean, they were using fleshly means to obtain something for themselves. And it pictures the works of man, what man does to try and bring forth fruit in others by fleshly means. And it's a picture of the false prophet who uses the law to obtain fruit from you, to get something from you. Then that's not what the Lord gave the law for, so that we could use flesh hooks and take what we wanted. But that's exactly how men use it. They use the law as a flesh hook to just dig in there and just take from people what they want. and rend them to pieces. Over in Matthew 7, our Lord speaks of this in verse 15 and 16. He said, Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. That's a popular saying. A lot of people have heard that or use that today. And when I heard that as a young child, that confused me. Because there's people out there that have good looking fruits. They have works that outshined my works. There's people that are very humanistic, that can put to shame people that profess to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. So what is he saying? You shall know them by their fruits. Both alike have good works. How do I know whose fruit is good and whose fruit is wrong? Because a lot of times people will judge others by their works. And if they've got that thing down pat and they don't do that, they'll say, you're a sinner. What you're doing is wrong. And then they'll go on justifying themselves because they do what you can't do. Now, if you dig eventually, you're going to find, sooner rather than later, that they've got some smelly things too. They've got a lot of sin in them too, but they justify that. That's okay when they do it. Just don't let you be doing what they do, right? And that's how people do. But the Lord says, you shall know them by their fruits. Well, he says this next thing, and this I believe helps very much. He said, do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Are you going to find grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? What's he talking about here? He's saying there are people, the false prophet, the false teacher, uses the law to bring forth good fruits of grapes and figs in his hearers. He lays the law upon you to try and get you to bring forth grapes and figs. But what happened? When we fell in sin, We were cursed under the law. We were cursed under the law, and we fell in sin so that we have no fellowship with God by nature. We're sinners by nature. In fact, there's enmity in us by nature against the true and living God. We are afraid of God. We're fearful of Him. We don't want to know Him. We don't want to hear from Him. We know things are messed up, and we don't want to have anything to do with the Lord. And when we fell in the garden and had him, what happened? We came under the curse. And what did the Lord say to Adam? The Lord God said unto Adam, he said, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life, thorns also and thistles. shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field, and the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. And we see that, right? When we're out there working the ground and working the garden, and we pick up the grass or the weeds that were there, and we put in good food, tomatoes and peppers and things, It's only a little bit of time before we start seeing various weeds coming up. And in my garden I have things that literally produce thorns and thistles. And if I don't have a glove on when I get them and they're too big, they poke me. They sting me. They remind me of that curse. But what he's saying is, just like the ground was cursed for our sake, this body returns to the dust. This body is cursed. In other words, this body produces what? Thorns and thistles. The works of sin. And when you come with the law, trying to bring forth grapes and figs and good works from people, What he's saying is, are you really going to bring forth a law against the cursed ground? That which can't do it? You're not going to get grapes and figs. You're going to get thorns and thistles. You're going to get dead works religion out of that. That's what he's saying there. That's what the false prophet does. And so our Lord said, even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Who's the good tree? The Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is that good tree that bringeth forth good fruit. Psalm 1-3 says of him that he's the tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. If you would see men bring forth good fruit, grapes and figs, that which is pleasing to the Lord, preach Christ. Declare the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the righteousness of God's people. He's the righteousness of God. He's the one whom the Father sent to save His people from their sins. And He does it. He works salvation in the hearts of His people. Not with the beating and the whippings of the law. But with grace He gives His Spirit, He gives life and light to know Him and brings you into fellowship so that you know He saved me a sinner, a vile, wretched, guilty sinner. He laid down His life for me and He gave me faith which believes Him and hears His word and trusts Him. and enjoys him now. I'm not angry with him anymore, and he's not angry with me. He loved me and gave himself for me, and he does that. He brings forth that good fruit peaceably, easily, in rest and peace through his good, precious, blessed word. And so, even, I gotta move on, but yeah, even Paul said, in such trust have we through Christ to God. We're so confident that God works salvation in the hearts of his people graciously by his spirit that we preach Christ crucified. because we know that's how God works fruit in his people. All right, third, the natural man does this for his own glory to feed his own belly. He doesn't care about you that are his victims that he's ripping apart. He could care less. Verse 16, if any man said unto him, let them not fail to burn the fat presently and then take as much as thy soul desireth. He's pleading, please don't diminish my sacrifice. Please don't tear down the sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ that I'm looking to in this, and you're ripping it apart. Well, then he would answer him, nay, but thou shalt give it me now, and if not, I will take it by force. And that's what the false prophet does, right? He demands that you get your life in order, and you stop doing this, and you start doing that, and you better fix this, or else you can't come here. That's what he does, that's what the false prophet wants to do because he can't wait on the Lord, for the Lord to accomplish his salvation and work salvation graciously in the hearts of his people. And so they beat, and they work the law, and they come at you, and they tear you apart, just like these. And they take what they want. Paul wrote of these when he was writing to the Galatians. He said, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you. They force you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves that are circumcised keep the law. They tell you they keep the law, but they don't keep the law any better than you do. But they desire to have you circumcised so that they can glory in your flesh. They constrain you. They tell you, well, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you can't be saved. Or they say some other thing. Except you believe this, like this, you can't be saved. And you've got to do this, and dress like this, or else you can't be saved. And they put all these works in front of you, by which you've got to jump through all these hurdles before they'll tell you, all right, now, now you're a child of God. But we preach Christ. we declare Christ. And you that believe Him, the Lord says that's His work. That's His gift, which He's given to you that believe Him. You that cry out to Him to save you from your sins, it's because He's given it to you. He's given you that gift to be merciful and gracious to you. And so the false prophet constrains you. He forces you to do it. But Paul said it this way. He said, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And that's what he's showing us. We must be born again. He don't constrain the people and force the people to do it. God does it graciously. He gives them his spirit, and he draws them to himself. with words of his promise and comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he gives fruit. He'll bring forth the grapes and the figs as it pleases him, and he'll do it graciously in his people. And then finally, we see that the Lord grows his people in grace through the preaching of Christ. Look at verse 18 and 19. I think this is sweet. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with the linen ephod. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice." Now, this little picture here is a testament of the care that the Lord has given to you through the care of the church. He's given the church this word of comfort, this gospel word to feed the people, to nourish the people of God, to comfort the hearts of God's people. Now, we minister, the Lord's given us this gospel, and we're declaring to you the robe of righteousness. It's not worked by us under the law, it's given, it's put on you by Christ. He's our righteousness. It's His blood that has cleansed us of our sins. It's His blood that covers us cleansing us from all unrighteousness and makes us acceptable to our God. He's a sweet saver in us, upon us, unto our God. He is our salvation. Himself there and as the Lord grows us in grace right as he comes near to us in fellowship and and communion and grows us in grace What we see here is just like the mother made that coat each year. She'd bring it what it's saying there is that as the Lord grows you his righteousness will cover you. You will never outgrow that righteousness. You shall never be short of that righteousness that you need to stand before Holy God. And we don't outgrow Christ. We don't go beyond Him. We only and always ever come to the Father in Jesus Christ the Son in His righteousness. And so that's the robe. That robe of righteousness is always going to be fitted on you perfectly. It's never going to be too short. It's never going to fit you wrong where something's exposed. He covers you perfectly. And so that's what Peter says, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. So I pray the Lord help you to hear that. I know it was a lot, but I pray that you hear what the Spirit say to the churches. It's by grace and Christ that he saves his people fully, completely. Amen.