We come this morning to the end of our summer series on the life and ministry of Samuel. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 12. Rather than reading the whole chapter at the beginning, we’ll move through this scene by scene and read the verses as come to them.

To set the stage, Samuel is old. How old? Well, just older than you, I’m sure. The people have asked for a king. We’ve seen that, and Samuel now is graciously stepping aside. He is literally now a king-maker and he will sometimes be the consultant, first for Saul then for David, but before he’s done with his official public ministry as the leader of Israel, the judge, he’s going to utter his longest recorded speech. It’s one of those great parting speeches in the Bible, ones like we have from Joshua or Moses or David. It’s part farewell, part warning, part blessing, part covenant renewal.

Now as I said last week, we wouldn’t have to end the series on Samuel right here. There are two more significant events in Samuel’s life. In chapter 15 his role in the rejection of Saul, and then in chapter 16 in his anointing David to be king. But I’ve decided to end the series here because this farewell speech marks the end of his public ministry officially as the leader in Israel.

We can divide this speech into four sections. One – Samuel’s innocence. Two – the Lord’s righteousness. Three – the people’ challenge. And four – a final reply. That will be our outline as we move through each of these sections.

We’ll look at the first one, which we find in verses 1 through 5. We can call this theme, Samuel’s innocence. We read in verse 1:

“And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have obeyed your voice in all that you have said to me and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray.”

Now incidentally, you don’t have to be old to be gray.

““I’m old and gray and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. Here I am; testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me and I will restore it to you.” They said, “You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man’s hand.” And he said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.””

There are people in the world who never admit a mistake. They don’t acknowledge sin, they don’t take their faults seriously, they don’t repent. That’s one sort of danger. But there are also people who have the opposite problem. If there are those who never admit a mistake, there are some people who will never dare to admit that they did something right. And perhaps it’s possible, and I hate to say it, but maybe particularly in Reformed churches, it is possible that we think to be a mature Christian means we constantly downgrade ourselves, and the spiritual way to talk is as if we are constant spiritual failures. “I never go anything right, I’m always a failure,” that magnifies the grace of God.

Well, of course, there is a sense we saw last Sunday evening, from 2 Corinthians 4: We have this treasure in jars of clay. So yes, we’re humble, we take a posture of humility. And yet did you notice what Samuel says here at the end of his life in ministry? He’s not claiming perfection. He isn’t arguing for justification by works. There’s no hint of arrogance or pride. We can get so nervous with texts in the Bible where someone is asserting their righte...