1 Sam 8:19+20, Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, "No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." 
In this morning’s passage, there are two courses that merit our consideration. One, which, Lord willing, will be our continuation next time, is that the people demanded to have a king over them. That brought to the forefront a whole set of issues and demands for the loyalty of heart and mind. This morning, however, we will deal with the fact that Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel… 
As we have read, the course of the people of God was set forth in the fact that they were not willing to listen to the proven prophet of the Lord. The scripture states point blankly Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel… 
This meant that they were not agreeable to listen to God. When Samuel detailed all that the Lord had made known concerning the appointment of an earthly king over the people, he did so as the direct vocalization of the Lord His Chosen Nation. When they refused to listen to Samuel, it meant that they were actually stating, with all directness and obstinacy, that they would not listen to the Lord God Almighty, Jehovah, Yahweh. 
This is what was so distressing to Samuel. He wanted the people to know exactly what was going to happen to them in their rejection of God as the One Who would lead them. They were choosing a fallible and limited and frail human to go before them instead of the Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent God Who had always been faithful and true and loving in the manner of His care and keeping of this, His people. They were deliberately turning their backs on the One Who had freed their forefathers from the slavery to another king, the pharaoh in Egypt. 
As a nation, they had come so so far in their journey away from that bondage, and yet now, they were actually demanding to have the same course of human frailty to rule over them. They were obstinately adamant that a man should enslave them through a governmentally imperfect system. This insistent stipulation would be rife with abuse of power and so flawed by the seeking after selfish gain for wealth and fame and fortune at the uncaring abuse of those who so put this kingly order upon themselves. With all deliberateness, they were doing so with gusto and with stubbornness and with utter disregard to their own best interests.
They refused to listen to God! They were stubbornly set against the Lord and His prophet who voiced the consequences of their self-appointed doom.
Sadly, even as we may find ourselves in utter disbelief at this callous rejection of the goodness and the grace and the mercy and the loving-kindness of the perfect Sovereignty of God, it is often the choice that we make! We know what the Lord has to say about the choices with which we are daily faced. We know, in our hearts, that we should always choose to follow Him. 
Despite this, when the moment of decision is upon us, we choose our selfish course, thus setting aside that which is best for us. We, so sadly, refuse to listen to the voice of God. Rather, we turn to our flawed and worthless and disobedient seeking after the lusts and the desires of our minds. We allow ourselves to be enticed by the tawdry baubles and facades of this age. This is because we too want to be just like the peoples surrounding us at work, at school, in our neighborhoods, and in our circle of acquaintances. 
The earnest call to obediently listen to the Lord and His words of life are so frequently set in the scripture for all of God’s people to ponder and to dwell upon. There are such urgent pleas from the heart of God for the true benefit and the blessing of those whom He has chosen. This is set against the awful and specific consequences that are so distinctly spelled out and put before those who belong to Him. Consider, for another example, Ps 81:8-16.   
Ps 81:8-16, "Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you; O Israel, if you would listen to Me! "Let there be no strange god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god. "I, the Lord, am your God, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. "But My people did not listen to My voice; And Israel did not obey Me. "So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, To walk in their own devices. "Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! "I would quickly subdue their enemies, And turn My hand against their adversaries. "Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him; And their time of punishment would be forever. "But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat; And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." 
This was the earnest plea set before the people by the Lord through Samuel and through the Psalmist and through almost every one of those who spoke the Word of the Lord. This was to those whom God sincerely wanted to bless and to caress with His wondrous and glorious Hand of love and mercy and grace in all the abundance of Heaven. 
Yet, the people refused to listen. They, and yes, we …did not listen to My voice… The result of stubbornness and disobedience, the feebleness of walking by our own devices and oh so limited knowledge and ability leads only to severe trial and tribulation. The Lord needs to cause us to want to hold to Him with all our heart and mind and soul rather than all the falsity and senselessness of this age. 
The Prophet Jeremiah set this before the people of the Lord in the continued plea to listen and to obey and to choose to love the Lord in Jer 7:8-15. Please turn to it.
Jer 7:8-15, "Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. "Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say,' We are delivered!' — that you may do all these abominations? "Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," declares the Lord. "But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. "And now, because you have done all these things," declares the Lord, "and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer, therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. "And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim. 
When we deliberately choose to disobey the voice of the Lord, be that as the Holy Spirit opens His Word in our reading or hearing, we will never know the peace of God. There will be that constant and sometimes deafening roar of our dissatisfaction with anything that we think we have gained. 
As the Children of Israel found out, the kings of their history were so often those who led the people astray, who oppressed them and who sold them into slavery through the wickedness of their refusal to acknowledge the True Lord of all Creation. The people suffered horribly in their lack of honor to the Lord, as will we when we have deliberately and vilely offered our allegiance and our worship to anything of this realm! 
It matters not how much we may pray in the assembly of the saints, when we are hiding away the foulness of our hearts and minds in the sordid desires of this realm. We may seem to be holy on the outside, but the Lord knows what filth and disgusting worms of sin are eating away at the core essence of our beings. 
We cannot hide from the Lord! We cannot escape the consequences of our actions! We will never know the fullness and the awesomeness of the relationship of Righteousness, Peace, and Joy that the Lord offers freely to us, when we shun Him and choose the filthy and depraved lucre of this age! 
The Prophet Jeremiah continues with this pleading heart of God to His people, who had fled back to Egypt in their futile seeking to escape the bondage of the conquering forces of their age. Rather than turning to the Lord for salvation, they sought the feeble and utterly devastating route of going back to what had been the very source of their captivity and ensnarement by the false gods of this earth. Please turn to Jer 44:15-30.  
Jer 44:15-30, Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying, "As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you! "But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food, and were well off, and saw no misfortune. "But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine." "And," said the women, "when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven, and were pouring out libations to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out libations to her?" Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and women — even to all the people who were giving him such an answer — saying, "As for the smoking sacrifices that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your forefathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them, and did not all this come into His mind? "So the Lord was no longer able to endure it, because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations which you have committed; thus your land has become a ruin, an object of horror and a curse, without an inhabitant, as it is this day. "Because you have burned sacrifices and have sinned against the Lord and not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in His law, His statutes or His testimonies, therefore this calamity has befallen you, as it has this day." Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, "Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, as follows:' As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled it with your hands, saying, "We will certainly perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her." Go ahead and confirm your vows, and certainly perform your vows! ' "Nevertheless hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are living in the land of Egypt, 'Behold, I have sworn by My great name,' says the Lord, 'never shall My name be invoked again by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying," As the Lord God lives." 'Behold, I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will meet their end by the sword and by famine until they are completely gone. 'And those who escape the sword will return out of the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number. Then all the remnant of Judah who have gone to the land of Egypt to reside there will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs. 'And this will be the sign to you,' declares the Lord,' that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for harm.' "Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I am going to give over Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt to the hand of his enemies, to the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave over Zedekiah king of Judah to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and was seeking his life.'" 
The Prophet Ezekiel was as well used by the Lord to bring before the people the voice of God. He was met with the same stubborn refusal to hear and to obey the Word of the Lord. 
In Ezek 33:23-33, we are told that the people would listen to the sound of his voice and the words were sweet to them, but they set their heart against any obedience to it! It was beautiful to hear but not attractive enough to obey. There was no sense of follow through unto obedience. 
As we read this, let us gauge in our hearts how we receive that which the Lord presents to us. Is it only something which we enjoy hearing but without any desire to do what is required in order to obey and thus honor the Lord? 
Ezek 33:23-33, Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, "Son of man, they who live in these waste places in the land of Israel are saying, 'Abraham was only one, yet he possessed the land; so to us who are many the land has been given as a possession.' "Therefore, say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God," You eat meat with the blood in it, lift up your eyes to your idols as you shed blood. Should you then possess the land? "You rely on your sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor's wife. Should you then possess the land? '" "Thus you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God," As I live, surely those who are in the waste places will fall by the sword, and whoever is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves will die of pestilence. "And I shall make the land a desolation and a waste, and the pride of her power will cease; and the mountains of Israel will be desolate, so that no one will pass through. "Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I make the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations which they have committed."' "But as for you, son of man, your fellow citizens who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, 'Come now, and hear what the message is which comes forth from the Lord.' "And they come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people, and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain. "And behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not practice them. "So when it comes to pass — as surely it will — then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst." 
As we close this morning, we jump ahead into the New Testament and the admonition of the Apostle Paul as written in 2 Thess 3:13-15. This is the manner in which the church is instructed in the course of dealing with any who are so inclined as we have before us in this morning’s text. When there is that obvious refusal to listen to the Word, there is the manner of our taking them before the Lord in our loving admonition unto obedient and reverent correction. 
2 Thess 3:13-15, But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. And if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man and do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame. And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. 
We are brothers and sisters, together in Jesus Christ. We need to encourage one another unto obedience and unto growing together into the fullness of the Lord. Therefore, as we go forth, we need to search out our hearts as to whether we are being stubbornly defiant! We need to obey every correction of The Lord in our lives. We dare not mock God or the instructions that He sets before all those who belong to Him. So be it!
Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, "No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." Amen.

	
This morning’s benediction is Ps 19:1+2. The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. Amen.