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Amen. Well, it's always a pleasure to be able to get up here and preach to you guys. It's a little thinner crowd at night, but either you heard that I was preaching or there's a missions trip in Jamaica. So I'm just going to go with the latter. That said, there in Psalm 44, beginning in verse 8, the Bible says, and God boast we all the day long and praise thy name forever, Selah. But thou has cast us off and put us to shame, and goest not forth with our armies. Thou make us to turn back from the enemy, and they which hate us spoil us for themselves. Thou has given us like sheep anointed for meat, and has scattered us among the heathen. Thou selest thy people for naught, and does not increase thy wealth by their price. Thou makest a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. And the title of the sermon this evening is Don't Become a Byword. Don't become a byword. It's there in verse 14 where the psalmist says, thou has made us a byword among the people. And I want us to take note of that tonight because it's very important that we understand that if we become a byword in our lives, we won't be the first ones that do it. In fact, we'll look at many examples here in scripture this evening where we'll see people that became a byword in scripture. In fact, we probably even know people personally, whether we realize it or not, that are bywords. They become bywords to us. And I just want to warn us tonight and help us to understand what it means to be a byword so that we can take heed that we do not become a byword. Now, what is a byword? What does it mean to even become a byword? That's not a word that's used often. It's not something you hear in your normal conversation throughout the day where somebody say, hey, that guy's such a byword. Well, this passage here actually helps us understand what it means to become a byword. If you look there, it says, beginning in verse nine, it says that they are cast off and put to shame. So somebody who's a byword is somebody that you would put distance between you and them. If someone's a byword, it's somebody you want to keep at arm's length. It's something that you want to avoid associating yourself with. It says that they were a reproach in this passage. So we see that if you were to be a byword tonight, you would be found offensive unto others. You know, if someone were to find out you were associated with a byword, they'd say, you hang out with that guy? Or you're with those people, you run with that crowd? So we see being a byword is to be a reproach, it's to be offensive. It's a scorn and a derision, as it says here in this passage. You know, being a byword makes you one who's worthy of derision. Being a byword is one who makes you worthy of being mocked. That's what it means to be a byword. And that's why it's so important that we don't become a byword, because these are not things that we would want have happen to ourselves. It says that they are a shaking of the head. If you were a byword, if you become a byword tonight, you will be a shaking of the head to others. Now, if you think about that, it's a perfect illustration where someone would say, hey, did you hear about so-and-so? Say, yeah, I heard about him. They shake their head. They say, man, that's too bad. It's a shaking of head. That's the perfect illustration of the attitude that somebody would have towards someone who is considered a byword. Now, perhaps a less serious example, but a more common one, would be to help you understand what it means to become a byword would be say, you would say, maybe on the job, you'd say to somebody, hey, don't pull a, and you'd put a name in there, right? You know, and I've actually been victim of this. I've been a byword in this sense. When I was roofing years ago, I was working, and we'd taken all the sheathing off, and we were walking on the trusses, and my foot caught on a nail, and I slipped between the trusses, and I landed on the sill plate, and my feet went through the drop tile ceiling in the guy's house like this. Like, my feet just came right through the ceiling. And the drop tile goes all over the guy's bedroom, and he fixed it up. Everything was fine. My boss said, hey, are you okay? But from that day forward, when you went through the roof, that became called, you know, pulling a Corbin. You know, and it was funny, because the guy who coined that said, hey, don't pull a Corbin. He pulled a Corbin a few weeks later. He did the same thing. He put his foot through some drywall, and he looked at me, and he said, oh, no. I said, what? He said, I pulled a Corbin. Right, so we see that that's perhaps a less serious example of what it means to become a, you know, become a byword. Now, if you would, turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. There's nothing, you know, there are, we will be a byword to the world. You know, and that's to be expected. It's to be expected that we will be a byword to the world. Jesus said, blessed are to you when some men shall hate you, and when they shall separate from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. So we know that if we're gonna live the Christian life, if we're gonna follow God's word, if we're gonna have some godly standards in our lives, that, and we follow, and we, you know, do the commandments that God has given us, that the world is gonna consider us a byword. 1 Peter 4.14 says, if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. So if we're a byword for the name of Christ, that's a good thing. I don't want you to get the wrong idea today that you should never, that you should try to avoid any kind of, you know, having anybody have kind of a negative connotation of you, or a negative perception of who you are. If it's for the right reason, so be it. Amen. It would be concerning if we weren't considered a byword to the world, you know? If everybody spake well of us, you know, that would be a bad thing. If nobody had any, had a problem with us, if we were so buddy-buddy with the world and all the wickedness and the evil, all the evil that we see in this world, that would be concerning, because we should want them to consider us a byword. 1 Corinthians chapter, you're in 10, I'm gonna read from chapter four. Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling pace and labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it, being defamed, we entreat it, we are made as the filth of the world. So Paul's saying here, look, we're a byword, we're a derision, we're a mocking, we're scorn, we're a shaking of a head to these people. We're the filth of the world, an off-scouring of all things under this world. But he said we entreat it. It's okay, we should entreat that, we should entreat if the world hates us for Christ's sake. Jesus said in Matthew 10, the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord, it is enough for the disciple to be as his master and the servant as his Lord. It shouldn't surprise us if the world considers us a byword today if we're serving Jesus Christ. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? What we want to avoid is being called a byword by God or God's people. Those are the people that we don't want to be considered a byword by. The first step down the path to becoming a byword is to think that it's not possible. If we get this puffed up and arrogant attitude and think, it could never happen to me, I'm at Faithful Word, I'm here three times a week, I do this, I do that, I'm soul winning, you could still become a byword. Nobody's above that. We'll see some, I mean, the example of Israel is perfect for somebody who thought, boy, this could never happen to us, yet they became a byword. First Corinthians 10, you're there, look at verse one. Moreover, brethren, I would not have you that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and passed through the sea. He's saying, look, they were all under the cloud, they were all under the sea, they were all baptized in the Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did eat the same spiritual meat, they all drank the same spiritual drink. Jump down to verse six. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. So even these people who saw all these great miracles of God and got to see God's hand in the wilderness and deliver them with a great and strong arm, they became a byword. So it'd be foolish for us to think that it's not possible for us to also become a byword. Verse 11, the Bible says, now all these things happened unto them for our example and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh that he standeth take heed lest he fall. All those things that we see in the Old Testament happening to Israel, them becoming a byword, we need to take heed to that, otherwise we might fall. If we get this arrogant and prideful and puffed up attitude that says, it could never happen to me. And that's the point of preaching this sermon tonight because God forbid that it should happen to anybody in this room. God forbid that anybody that's a member here should ever become a byword. I mean, I think often about how great it will be decades from now to run into people or know people in this church and have all these great memories. You know, you think of it like your children, like your own children, we are God's children, well let's think about it from his perspective. If we had a child that we looked for, we raised up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and hoped in one day that they would live a godly life pleasing to God and that they would raise up children of their own and to see that child then veer off the path, go off to the devil, go off to the word, think about how that would break your heart. And God looks down on this congregation tonight of his children and says I don't want them to become a byword. God wants decades and decades, he wants a lifetime of us doing that which is right. And if you would, turn over to Hebrews chapter 12. We'll look at some individuals and some people that were considered themselves a byword. Job is one. Job said, but now they that are younger than I have me in derision whose father I would have disdained to sit with the dogs of my flock. They were the children of fools, the children of base men. They were viler than the earth and now am I their song, yea I am their byword. They abhor me, they flee far from me, they spare not to spit in my face. So we see that again, to be a byword it's to be people are fleeing from him, they abhor him. Esau is a byword for a fornicator or a profane person. You're there in Hebrews chapter 12, look at verse 15. Looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau. Why did he have to throw Esau in there? Kind of took a jab at him, right? Now there is a point there, the characteristics of Esau, but he could have just put a period right there at person or profane person, that would have been the warning, right? He says as Esau, don't pull an Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. You see if a person were to get kicked out of church for being a fornicator or getting into some wicked sin, we could say, boy, that guy pulled an Esau, right? Turn over to 2 Timothy chapter four. So we're just looking at some individuals that we would consider bywords in scripture. Because we do not want to become a byword. And if we can look at people in scripture and see what made them a byword, it will help us better understand what a byword is and thereby avoid it. Hymenaeus and Alexander are bywords for a shipwrecked faith. Here in 2 Timothy four, I'll read from 1 Timothy one. This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. He's saying there's some people that have made shipwreck of their faith. They've ruined their life, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. You see, if someone wants to ruin their testimony by means of blaspheming and being put away by a man of God, we'd call that being pulling a Hymenaeus, pulling an Alexander. Demas is another well-known word for those that would forsake godly living for worldliness and sin. That's what we think of Demas, if you're familiar with the scriptures there in 2 Timothy chapter four, verse 10. For Demas hath forsaken me. How would you like that to go down in scripture, associated with him? Demas, the guy who forsook Paul for all eternity in heaven. Oh, Demas, nice to meet you. I heard about you, right? Yeah, I read about you. Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and it is parted unto Thessalonica, Cretans to Gratia, Titus to Dalmatia. So if someone forsakes the assembly, somebody just goes rotting off into the world, having loved this present world and forsakes the people of God, we would say, well, that guy pulled the Demas. That would be the byword that we use to describe that person. Turn to John chapter 18. Perhaps the best-known byword in scripture is Judas. I mean, the Gospels just nailed Judas to the wall as a byword. I mean, they bring him up over and over and over, and they always say one thing, that he was a betrayer, that he was a traitor. Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? Then Judas, which had betrayed him when he was condemned, repented himself. And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him, every time his name comes up. And Judas, the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. It just comes, I mean, by this time, when you're getting into the book of John, you would think, well, we know that Judas is the traitor, right? So he's probably gonna lay off, no. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. And here there in John 18, look at verse one. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth to the disciples over the brook seedron, where was a garden into which he entered in his disciples. And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place, for Jesus oftentimes resorted thither with his disciples. Surely by now, we've understood that Judas is the betrayer. And we can lay off, right? No, jump down to verse five. They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am he, and Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with him. So just over and over again, we see that the best known byword in scripture is Judas. And he just goes down as being the son of perdition, the betrayer of Christ. You see, Judas is a byword for a reprobate, backstabbing wolf in sheep's clothing. That's not anything we want to be associated with. Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 28. So we get an idea of what it means to be a byword. To be a byword is to be worthy of being mocked and be found in derision. It's a shaking of the head. It's to be cast off and put to shame. It's to be a reproach. And we can now begin to see who can become a byword. That'll be the next question. Well, who can it happen to? It can happen to any of us. Not only individuals, but a group of people. Not just the Judases, not just the Demuses, not just the individuals that we've looked at in scripture can become a byword, but entire groups of people. In fact, whole nations. There's a couple of them back there on that back shelf, if you think about it. We've got that one document. Iceland, a nation of? Vast. Right? That's their byword, right? Oh, Iceland, the nation of bastards. That's right. I heard about you. Japan, kamikaze nation, right? Well, another one we would find in scripture would be biblical Israel. They're a nation rejected by God. That's how they kind of went down as a byword. In 1 Kings, you're there in Deuteronomy 28, 1 Kings 9 says, but if you shall turn at all from following me, you or your children will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them. Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them. And this house which I have hallowed for my name will I cast out of my sight, and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people. And that's exactly what happened to Israel, isn't it? They did just that. They stopped following God. They stopped keeping his commandments, and God cut them off and cast them out, and they became a byword. So we can look to them as an example of even a whole group of people, a whole nation becoming a byword. Deuteronomy 28, verse 15, this is where Moses is commanding the people before they crossed over the River Jordan to the promised land. He said, but it shall come to pass, in verse 15, but it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken of the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Verse 36, the Lord shall bring thee and thy king which thou shalt set over thee unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations whether the Lord shall lead thee. So that's what God even foretold me. He said, look, this is what will happen to you. You will become a proverb. You will become a byword. You will become an astonishment to all people if you forsake me. That didn't stop them. And that's why I think it's important that we listen to this sermon, listen to this message from God's word that we don't become a byword. We're being warned from scripture that, and we've seen examples, that we do not want to become a byword. And if we're not careful, it can happen even to us. Now, one particular place. Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 7, Jeremiah chapter 7. There's one particular place that I want to focus in on. It's a group of people that serves as an example of how someone can become a byword. So we've seen individuals. We've seen nations. We've seen whole groups of people that can become a byword. And there's one group of people in particular that I want to look at. And that's the place known in scripture as Shiloh. You're there in Jeremiah chapter 7. I'll read from Psalm 78. So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh. If you remember when they first came over in the Promised Land, the first place they set up the tabernacle was Shiloh. And it says that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, and delivered his strength into captivity and its glory into the enemy's hand. So God, when he forsook that first place, that Shiloh, he forsook it. And we can look to Shiloh now and see, and use Shiloh as an example, a pattern for how one becomes a byword. You're there in Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 1. The Bible reads, the word that came to Jeremiah the Lord, saying, stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there his word, and say, hear the word of the Lord of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. Verse 11, is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. But go ye now into my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. Verse 14, therefore will I do unto this house which is called by my name wherein ye trust, and under the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. So God, not only did he forsake Shiloh, he actually uses it as an example of what will happen to others who will forsake him. He uses Shiloh as an example of becoming a byword. Jeremiah chapter 26, I'll read you. The Bible says, and thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord, if you will not hearken to me to walk in my law which I have set before you, then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. Shiloh goes down in scripture as a byword of somebody that is cursed by God, of somebody that is forsaken by God for their disobedience. Turn over to 1 Samuel chapter 1, and we'll look at some of what caused Shiloh to become a byword. Because the title of the sermon is don't become a byword. We've seen great, you know, we've understood that it could happen to any of us, that it's a strong warning from the word of God. That's not something that we want to happen in our lives. But now we can begin to look at a particular group in Shiloh and see what they did that allowed them to become a byword. What made Shiloh a byword? Well, first thing, and a lot of this I think we could apply, even if we were to try to apply it today, we could apply it to ourselves. We could apply it to our nation. We could apply it, in particular, you know, some of our fundamental brethren, our old fundamental brethren, the old IFB. Now, they're doing some of the same things that Shiloh did. And Shiloh became a byword. And if these guys aren't careful, that's exactly what's going to happen to them. They're going to dry up and wither away, and they're just going to become a byword. Well, what was one of the things they did? The reprobates were tolerated in the house of the Lord. That was one of the first things that happened in Shiloh. And we know that. If you look there in 1 Samuel chapter 1, look at verse 3. And this man went up out of the city yearly to worship and to sacrifice in the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. Now, it says that Hophni and Phinehas were there. They were the priests of the Lord there in Shiloh. And we know from the scripture that Hophni and Phinehas were reprobates. If you look over at 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 12. Now, the sons of Eli, 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 12. Now, the sons of Eli were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord. So we see that they were sons of Belial that were being tolerated in the house of God. And do we not see that taking place today in many of the Baptist churches, even? Even in independent, fundamental Baptist churches that are tolerating reprobates, sons of Belial. Not just tolerating them, inviting them in. Saying, here, let me write you a book. Let me write you page by page instructions and how you can get these people into your church. And not only just to get them into your church, let's see if we can get them into the children's ministries to work with your children. You say, that's not going on. It is going on. I mean, Johnny Nixon, that guy wrote a book on how to bring the reprobates, the sons of Belial, into the house of God. And that man is going to go down as a byword. In fact, he already is among certain crowds. It says there in verse 17, 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 17. Wherefore, the sin of the young man was very great before the Lord. For men abhorred the offering of the Lord. What a terrible thing to have a church filled with reprobates and all these, and just to make a church the place where the people of God abhor even going there. They didn't want to darken the door of God's house and they forsake the assembling of themselves together. Because people are tolerating the sons of Belial in the house of God. They lay with the women that assemble at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Verse 25, they hearken not unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them. That's how we know they were reprobates. Because they were beyond saving. That's what it means to be a reprobate. God has rejected you. They were, the Lord would slay them. They weren't going to hearken on any reproof. God had already determined these guys are going to be slain for what they've done. They've crossed the line. Now we could pick on the old IFB, but the truth is, they're probably a large part to blame that even our own nation is a byword today. Our own nation is a byword in the world because the Sodomites, the reprobates, are tolerated and celebrated in our streets and in our land. They go up and down in every street in America, every major city has a gay pride parade, and they put their filth on display and they walk up and down, and nobody bats an eye. And this nation has become, and is becoming more and more every day, a byword in the world. And it's going to be a nation that is judged and rejected by God. We tolerate the grossest sins in our own lives when we will become bywords as individuals. We can do that as a nation, but if we do that in our own lives, we could become bywords as well. So what's another way that Shiloh became a byword? We see that, well, first of all, they let this gross, disgusting sin in their life, in the house of God. The man of God is to blame for Shiloh becoming a byword. That's where the buck stops. Ultimately, that's who's to blame, is the man of God. The preacher, the pastor, the men getting up behind the pulpit every weekend and week out, who are not preaching the whole counsel of God, who are holding back, who are trimming the message, who are afraid of offending people. They are the ones that are to blame. And that's what we see in Shiloh. It's the perfect example. There's no new thing under the sun. The people abhorred the offering of the Lord because of Eli's compromise. They hated going to church. Eli made himself fat with the offerings. It says there that he, if you were to read the scripture, that he made himself fat with the offerings his son stole. He was too busy. I'm sure he didn't approve of everything that they were doing but he was getting a little kickback. I mean, I don't know what the motivation is for some of these guys to bring these sodomites in the house of God and become a byword. I don't know why, what's the motive to even do that? To be seen as friendly and tolerant and so other people will come and maybe that tithe will go up a little bit more. Maybe they can lie in their pockets. Maybe the wages of unrighteousness will fill their pockets and their checkbook a little bit more. Then I just get this picture of Eli rebuking his sons with this big plate of fat in front of him. You know, my sons, why do you do this? The Lord is not pleased with you. Just trying to rebuke his two reprobate sons while he's just got grease all over his face. And that's the way a lot of these preachers look spiritually. You know, they might try, oh, it's a sin, it's a sin. Oh, I'm gonna get real bold and come up behind my pulpit and say, mark it down, homosexuality is a sin. There, I said it, ooh. You got grease on your face. Why don't you wipe the grease off your face and call it what it is, abomination. Something that's worthy of death. Why don't you get the Bible out and tell us what the Bible says about these sodomites. We got a bunch of greasy-lipped compromisers who just wanna, that's why they say all these smooth things, because it just slides right off their greasy lips. Because there's all the kickback coming in, right? They got all the sons of Belial in there and they're just feeding the preacher the fat. Just shut up, old man, here, have some more fat. Guys like Johnny Nixon. I mean, he's just been completely discredited. You know, the other day I was at a job and it's just where we're at in this country. I was at a job, working at this house, real nice house, real nice part of town, and I get there and it was like, I think it was like Martin Luther King Day, so all the folks, their kids were home. They were all like junior high, high school kids. And I'm doing some work and he's like, hey, you're gonna have to put up with my kids. They're practicing some kind of recital or something. And they had this piano and they were singing and stuff and it sounded nice. But I could overhear the conversation and it was just, it just struck me. I mean, they just started talking about who was gay at school. Oh, did you hear about so-and-so? Was he gay? Just talking about it like it was just like, you know, oh, did he join the football team? Just like it was just like any other conversation. I mean, that's where we're at in this country, where our young people think that there's nothing wrong with it. It's perfectly natural. In fact, they think there's something wrong with us when we stand up and say, hey, being a homosexual is something that's worthy of having you put to death. When we say it's an abomination before God and that they can't be saved, that they're brute beasts meant to be destroyed. But that's where we're at, where we have these kind of conversations just taking place day to day. I mean, I don't know how much I really want to go on because it's more about being than they are with the commandments of God, protecting this country and helping it not become a byword. And you know what? I think it's too late. I think when you've got a man in full drag reading children's stories to little children and the parents are standing over there, oh, isn't that nice? It's wicked as hell. We need more people to stand up and call it what it is because we're becoming a byword today. I don't even want to, you know, I've got more that we could look at how our nation's becoming a byword. It's just, it's a mess. I mean, we've got these people, these child rapists and these pornographers, these child pornographers, these rapists, these molesters, these wicked people that should be killed, destroyed. They get single digit prison sentences. No, no, no. Destroyed somebody's life. They get a slap on the wrist. They should get a bullet in the head. There, I said it. They should get a bullet in the head. They should be drug out in stone. That's what the Bible says. And if you don't like it, that's too bad because I don't want to become a byword. I don't want this church to become a byword and it's probably too late for our country but we might as well just preach it anyway. So we see that a group of people like Shiloh, they became a byword. We see why, because of the man of God, because the reprobates were tolerated. We see Eli, Eli himself became a byword as an individual. I mean, if you want to talk about a lazy, no good, compromising, worthless preacher, just call him Eli. We've got a lot of Eli's in the pulpit. Oh, Pastor Eli over at Shiloh Baptist. They're on every corner. First Samuel chapter two, verse 31. Behold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm. This is God pronouncing judgment on Eli. And the arm of thy father's house that there shall not be an old man in thine house, verse 32. Now shalt see an enemy in thy habitation and all the wealth which God shall give Israel. And there shall not be an old man in thine house forever. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from thine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes and to grieve thine heart. And all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age. And this shall be a sign unto thee that thou shalt come upon thy two sons of Hophni and Phinehas and one day shall they die, both of them. So, you know, Eli, I mean, his entire, all of his descendants were just wiped out. I mean, just, they all become a byword for his compromising. That's what's gonna happen to these old IFBers. If they don't wake up and smell the coffee. If they don't wake up and start preaching the word of God like it's meant to be preached and quit worrying so much about, you know, well, if I say that, I'm gonna sound too much like so-and-so and then I'm not gonna get invited to this conference or that Bible college or people are gonna think of this or that about me. They get so upset and so worried about what other people are going to think. And we've got a nation that's just become a byword. And if they're not careful, that's what's gonna happen to them. And it's already happened to many of them. Samuel, we've looked at, you know, some pretty hard stuff in the word of God about how a person becomes a byword. And that's important that we look at it because we do not want to become a byword. We don't want that in our lives. We don't want to be a shaking of the head. We don't want someone to cast out our name as to use it as, you know, an example of something terrible or something that we ought to be ashamed of. Oh man, you really pulled a so-and-so on that one. We don't want that. So how do we not become a byword? We've seen how it happens. Tolerate sin in your life. You know, we pick on the preachers for letting the sin in their churches. Well, are we letting sin in our life? Are we tolerating sin that we know God disapproves of in our life? Or we just keep flirting with it and seeing how far we can push the envelope until God just is gonna say, you know what, become a byword then. Are we flirting with the world? See how much, just how close to the world we can get? Are we letting the cares of this world choke us out? Do we just become as known as that fruitless guy, that fruitless family, that fruitless person, that fruitless church? It starts as an individual. And we do not want to become a byword. We cannot tolerate sin in our life. And Samuel is an example of how not to become a byword. He's the great hope there in 1 Samuel 1. And he's the character in that passage. And I mean, when you look at that passage, let me just turn over there because every time I read it, it just gets me thinking about just the visual imagery of the way Shiloh was in that day, 1 Samuel 3. Look there in verse one, it says, And the child Samuel ministered in the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was prescient in those days. There was no open vision. So right away, you're starting to get this mental imagery, this picture that God's kind of painting here. It says there's no vision. And it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, his eyes began to wax dim and he could not see. There was no vision. His eyes waxed dim, he could not see. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple, it's just this dark shadow creeping over Shiloh. And that's really it, and he falls asleep. But you see that imagery there of just this dark shadow coming over it. But Samuel, he serves as that light there. He serves as an example. You know, we see this place that's becoming a byword before our very eyes in 1 Samuel 3. And we can look to Samuel as an example of how not to become a byword. Jeremiah 15, one of the Bible says, Then said the Lord unto me, though Moses and Samuel, you don't have to turn there, though Moses and Samuel stood before me. You know, we talked about Demas earlier, like man, how terrible it's got to be to go down as Demas, right? Well, Samuel goes down right along, I mean, God mentions him in the same breath as Moses. I mean, the greatest prophet, right? I mean, what an honor that must have been. Though Moses and Samuel stood before you, yet mine could not be toward this people. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32 says, And what shall I say more if the time would fail to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, of Jephthi, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets? So we see that we don't have to become a byword. We can become a Samuel. We can have people talk about when we pass on, or we get the glory, that we could have our name mentioned in the same manner that Samuel is. As someone who God looked to as a prophet, as a preacher of righteousness, as someone who stood for the word of God, as someone who kept God's commandments, even in the midst of darkness, even in the midst of a wicked and evil generation, we too could be Samuels. The Bible says in First Samuel chapter three, if you're there, and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. So one of the first things you can do, if you do not want to become a byword tonight, one of the first things we can look to Samuel and understand is that if you do not want to become a byword, you need to minister. The Bible says in First Samuel three one, and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. You see, Samuel was a servant. If we got just busy serving others and not worrying so much about ourselves, we probably wouldn't get into any trouble. We would probably be a lot less likely to fall into some sin or get mixed up in some strange doctrine. If we just focused on the things that mattered. If we were more concerned about our neighbor's well-being, if we were more worried about our friends and our family and taking care of them and serving God with our lives, that's how we can not become a byword. That would be one way to not become a byword, is to minister. That's what Samuel did. He was a minister unto the Lord before Eli. It keeps you humble when you serve others. And that's really what's required to not become a byword, is to stay humble, to not be proud and lifted up. First Samuel chapter three verse 10. And the Lord came and stood and called at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, speak for thy servant heareth. He said, speak for thy servant heareth. Not only did Samuel minister, not only was he a servant, but he heard the word of God. When God spoke, he heard. And we can do the same thing today. And that's the question. If you don't wanna become a byword, are you listening to God? Are you getting in the Bible? Are you reading it? If we listen to the word of God, if we read the words of God, we'll be like Samuel, we'll hear the word of the Lord when he speaks to us. And that will help us to not become a byword. I mean, when we think about it, if we say we believe the Bible, we say we believe that this book is inerrant, it's complete, it's inspired, it's the very word of God. And if we began to read it and began to hear God speak to us through his word, would that not help us to be a little bit more cautious with the things we did, the things that we said, the places we went? We need to hear the word of God. Reading the Bible gives us a proper perspective of ourselves. That's how you get the proper perspective of who you are before God and how we ought to treat others. You see, we need to read the Bible to prove all things. That's why we need to read the Bible and not to make some earth shaking, some theology rocking revelations. That's not why we should go to the word of God, to try and pull out some strange new doctrine and just wow everybody with our knowledge. That's a good way to become a byword. We need to read it so that we can hear the word of God and allow him to give us some perspective and humble us. Deuteronomy chapter 17, I'll read for you. The Bible says, and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren. When you see somebody that's just puffed up and arrogant and just condescending and just being that way, you can mark it down. That person's probably not in the scripture like they should. They're not, their heart is lifted up above their brethren. First Samuel chapter three, look at verse 15, we'll see another thing that Samuel did to help him not become a byword, but rather go down as one of the great prophets in scripture. First Samuel chapter three, verse 15, and Samuel lay until the morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was in church. That's a good way to not become a byword, is when the church doors are open, you're here. That's what's gonna help you, and they say three to thrive, right? That's the saying. You need three to thrive. Well, what's two then? To survive? One to just kind of skim by me, just make it. There's a chance, there's a glimmer of hope that you're gonna be in for the long haul if you make it to one service. And I'm sure there's people that could go many, many years with just one service, but three to thrive, man. Be like Samuel, when those church doors are open, let's be here. Let's not become a byword. Let's not be like, oh yeah, we even kind of hear one in jest every now and then. You'll hear a preacher say something like the, you know, the Sunday morning only crowd. That's kind of a byword if you fall into that, right? And I can say all this because this is the Wednesday night crowd, and I don't have to worry about any retribution after the service, so praise God I'm here. But Samuel was in the house of the Lord. You see, going to church is going to help us to learn, and it provides support. You know, there's gonna be times in our life where we're going through a struggle. Maybe we're being tempted with something, or maybe we're really having a hard time with some area of our life. And maybe, you know, at church we should have our family, we should have our friends, we should have people that we can go to do and say, hey, pray for me, help me with this. The people we can go to in confidence, we should have those kinds of relationships. I mean, are you gonna really get those at work? I mean, are you really gonna go to your boss at work and tell him about some struggle you're having spiritually? He's probably gonna laugh at you. You know, if he's an unbeliever, he'll be like, well, what do I got? You know, see, that'll do it. Get to work, you know? That's all he's concerned about, but the church of God, the house of God, that's where we can go to get that support that we need so that we don't just fall off into sin, that we just don't wander off out into the world and become a byword. We need to be in the house of the Lord, as Samuel was. Verse Samuel chapter three, verse 18, we'll look to see another thing that Samuel did. And Samuel told him every wit and hid nothing from him. So in the story, Eli comes to him after, you know, God comes to Samuel, gives him the vision of the night, and speaks to him and says, hey, I'm gonna judge the house of Eli. The next morning, Eli comes to him and says, tell me everything that God said to you, and if you don't tell me, the Lord do so unto you and more. So Eli says, okay, and he lets her rip, and he told him every wit and hid nothing from him. He preached the whole counsel of God. That's what Samuel did. And that's exactly the problem that we spoke about earlier, isn't it? How a nation and a people and even as individuals or churches can become a byword. It's when they stop preaching the whole God, they don't tell every wit of the word of God. They hold back. So preachers who don't hold back, they don't become bywords. I mean, we think about Pastor Anderson. I mean, he's a guy who doesn't hold back, right? Now, he's a byword to the ungodly and to the heathen, and so be it, and praise God for that. And we got a preacher that, you know, the world would despise, but that God would honor. But he's not a guy that holds back. He won't become a byword. And the preacher that gets up and preaches the whole word of God, he won't become a byword. And the people that are sitting under a preacher like that who hear the whole counsel of God, you're much less likely to become a byword as well. And lastly, we see from this passage when Samuel told him every wit, you know, he did that out of obedience. And that's one thing that we need to learn to do if we're not going to become a byword. Because becoming a byword, really, the end result of it, the end result of becoming a byword, excuse me, it's the result of disobedience. That's what leads you to becoming a byword is when you disobey the word of God. When you hold back, when you don't preach the whole word of God, when you fall away, when you stop coming to church, you stop reading your Bible. You're disobeying all these things that God has told you to do. You're allowing sin to creep back into your life. You know, you're tolerating things that displease God. That's how you become a byword, it's through disobedience. 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse 22, and we'll close. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse 22. This is Samuel talking years later to King Saul. And Samuel said, hath the Lord his great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, and is in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken in the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected thee from being king. So, you know, Saul goes down, he gets some judgment pronounced on him. And you would say, wow, Saul, he was the first king of Israel. I mean, he started out so good, didn't he? He was little in his own sight, the scripture says. And he was hesitant to take that position as king. And he didn't go looking for it, it came to him. But look how he ends his life. Samuel comes to him and says, look, you disobeyed God. And he ends up becoming a byword for somebody who ends his life tragically. And that should go to show us that if somebody like King Saul can go down as a byword in scripture through disobedience, that it can happen to any one of us. Any one of us can become a byword. And it may be too late as a whole. You know, our country, just some of the things I just mentioned in passing, I mean, there's just mountains more that we could go on and on about where our country is. And it might be too late for it as a whole, and I tend to think that it is. I mean, there are certain things that this country is involved with that God is just going to judge. There is no coming back from it. God is going to judge this country. And we could stay it off, and maybe God will hold off his wrath, and in his wrath, he'll remember mercy. But it's coming, and it's too late. But it isn't as a church. Faithful word church is not a byword. And God willing, as long as the man of God continues to not hold back, and the people are here and willing to hear the word of God, it won't ever become a byword. It can go down as one of those great churches. But it's going to require humility on our part, even as individuals. You know, there's people here, if you're here, chances are you're not a byword, right? You're doing the right thing. But it's going to require humility for you to stay that way, to not become a byword. See, if we obey God, our lives will not serve as a warning to others, I mean, like a Demas. I mean, is that, well, what did you accomplish with your life? Well, I served as a good example of what not to do. Well, thanks for that. I'm glad somebody did that for us, I guess. We've got plenty of examples right here. We don't need anybody else showing us how not to do things. So we need to just obey God. And no one ever sets out to become a byword. No one ever sets out that way. No one ever grows up thinking, you know what, I want to become a mocking and a derision when I grow up. I want people to think very low of me. I want my name to be associated with just being a complete failure. No one ever sets out that way. The point is, it can happen to any of us. And that we need to learn to be humble and to obey the word of God so that we don't become a byword. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again, thank you, Lord, for the Bible. Thank you for the strong warnings that are in it. That, Lord, great men have fallen and, Lord, have gone down in history as just failures. And Father, thank you for a church that, Lord, doesn't hold back, that preaches the whole counsel of God. Thank you for all those that are here tonight. Lord, I pray to help each of us as individuals to take heed to your word and to understand that it could happen to any one of us. Lord, help us to not be puffed up or arrogant to think that we can't be touched by the devil, that we can't be tempted with sin. Father, help us to always go to you when we need. And Father, I pray that you would just keep us and help us, Lord, and that we would be able to, Lord, have friendships in this church that last a lifetime. And Father, that we would never know anyone here to become a byword. We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.