Chapter 7 of 1 Samuel, rather
than read this whole chapter, let's just take off. Let's just
start at verse 1 and just go through this. Lord willing, we'll
see the whole chapter tonight. And the men of Kirjeth-Jerim
came and fetched up the ark of the Lord and brought it into
the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar
his son to keep the ark. of the Lord. Now you remember
the Ark has traveled now back and forth. The Philistines stole
it and then they got rid of it and then the ones they took it
to Beth Shemesh and then it didn't go well there with the people
there. And now the people of Kerchef
Jerum are going to have a different experience than everybody else
did with the Ark of God. Those Jews who sent for it out
of Shiloh in chapter 4. And then the Philistines who
took it in battle. And then the people of Beth Shemesh
to whom it was delivered by the Philistines. They're going to
have a different experience than all those people did. Very, very
different. And it starts right here at the
beginning of verse 1. They kept the ark of God. They
sanctified a man to keep the Ark of the Lord. Now, how do you keep the Ark
of God? You can't even touch it. So what
would be involved in keeping it? First of all, two lessons
from this. Anyone who speaks for God is
a keeper of the Ark. The Ark is Christ in every aspect
of it. God meets and communes with sinners
in Christ alone. The blood is offered upon the
mercy seat, that's Christ. That's the mercy of God in Christ
by the precious blood of his son. And so we've seen how clearly
the ark and the mercy seat picture our Lord Jesus Christ. And all
who speak for God are keepers of that ark. That is the gospel. It's defended and carefully preserved. No error is to be allowed to
creep in. And we know that in our flesh
we're susceptible to that. We can't allow the flesh to be
exalted or trusted in any way. And no will of man is allowed
to defile the things of Christ among the people. There's a keeping,
isn't there? There's a keeping. Our Lord told
us to be wise stewards of His grace. The word keep here also
includes treasure. The gospel is treasured, valued. preached in such a way that Christ
is revered and treasured and precious to those who hear of
him. Valued above all people and above
all things. The wisdom of Christ. Solomon
said, with all you're getting, get some of his wisdom. With
everything you've got. The second lesson here is, how
do you keep something that you can't touch? We'll ask this question
again and answer it this way. How do you keep something that
you can't touch? By not touching it. In other words, the way you
defend and protect and treasure the truth of Christ is simply
by not messing it up. Just staying out of the way of
it. Staying off of it. Don't mix any human reasoning,
any human will with it. Just let Him shine as He is.
He is the light and we are only the light of the world as we
shine forth His glory. Christ is enough. Christ is all. We don't need to add anything. And Christ is perfect and complete
and it's the fullness of the Godhead in the body. We dare
not take anything away. And look at what happened in
all of those other cases. They added or they took away
from God's divine order pertaining to the ark and it didn't end
well for them. They mixed in human will and human reasoning
and human lusts and desires and corruption But we are, by God's grace, keepers
of the ark. And may God give us grace to
just lift up Christ. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll
draw all men unto myself. Let's just shine His light as
He is and determine, as Paul did, to know nothing. That's
how you keep something you can't touch. Just don't touch it. Just determine to know nothing
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Verse two, it came to pass while
the ark abode in Kirjath-Jerim that the time was long, for it
was twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after
the Lord. Here's difference number two,
and this is important. Instead of trusting the ark as
a good luck charm as those in chapter four, they said, let's
fetch that ark, it'll save us. They cried out for God himself. They lamented for the God of
the ark. Big difference. Big difference. David said, my soul panteth like
a heart panteth after the water broke. So my soul thirsteth after
the living God. It doesn't seem like these people
here were in any particular trouble at the time. So this wasn't just
a fire escape from hell. A lot of people call out to God
when they get in trouble. And not that there's anything
wrong with that, but don't only cry out to Him when you're in
trouble. Cry out to Him all the time. We need Him every hour. And when people just long for
God all of a sudden, after 20 years, 20 years went by and nobody
seemed to care, and then just all of a sudden, when two thieves are railing
and cursing and mocking and ridiculing the Son of God and then just
all of a sudden only one of them are, you know the Holy Spirit
of God has done something. And that's what happened here
in our text. God moved upon these people. When the prodigal comes
to himself and longs for home and his father, you know the
Holy Spirit has done something. And this is a good sign Do we
cry out in our hearts for God? Do we cry out for Him? Do we
long for Him? Do we treasure the preaching
of Christ? Are we keepers of the ark? Do
we still rejoice in salvation accomplished? That we don't add
anything to and bless God we can't forfeit it. Do you rejoice
in salvation that He finished on Calvary? Do we still Worship
the son of God in the shedding of his precious sin atoning blood
does our heart still burn within us To hear of his eternal electing
love for us. I've loved you with an everlasting
love Therefore with my loving kindness have I drawn you to
me? Oh If we do then victory is ours and will be ours as well
as we'll see in this text And we can raise an Ebenezer And Samuel, verse three, spake
unto all the house of Israel, saying, if you do return unto
the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods
and Ashtoreth from among you and prepare your hearts unto
the Lord and serve him only. And he will deliver you. He will
save you. He will save you. The key words,
and well, this whole verse is just beautiful, isn't it? Notice
the words all and only. Christ can have no rivals. If
it's Christ plus, then there's no Christ. If it's Christ plus
your works, then Christ will profit you nothing. Return unto
the Lord, not unto religion. Not, not, well, I've had people
say, I know I need to get back in church. No, you don't. No,
you don't. You need the Son of God. You
need to do business with God. And then maybe you'll have a
desire to hear what He said. Or come to hear Him speak. You don't just need church. You
need Him. If He don't show up, this is nothing. Return unto the Lord. Not to
the right way of doing things even. Not turning over a new
leaf, turn to the Lord, return to Him. That follows, doing the
right things follows returning to the Lord, follows Him doing
something for you. Then you may do something for
Him, but that's still Him doing something for you. Christ, when
you're crying out to Him now, you lament for Him and you turn
to the Lord with all your heart. Not just with your intellect,
but with your heart. When your heart's love and desire
is Christ, then you'll want to do right by Him. Not perfectly
or meritoriously before God. You'll want to, but you can't
do that. Christ is all your righteousness. You would never want to add to
that, but you just want to serve Him because you love Him. And you're not going to trust
your flesh if you trust in Him with all your heart. There are
three parts to this turning to God in the text there. Renounce
all other gods first. That just simply means quit trusting
yourself. Gods, where do they come from? A false god comes
from where? Right here. So who am I worshiping? Me. Quit trusting the works of your
hands. Quit trusting your own wisdom. Quit trusting and going
your own way. If you turn to the Lord you have
to turn away from something first and that something is you. It's
you. Deny yourself and take up your
cross and follow Him. And then prepare your hearts
under the Lord, he said. That word means establish. It
means be stable. It means be fixed. In other words,
fix your heart upon Him. Abandon yourself and fix your
heart upon Christ. Lay hold of Him and don't ever
let go. And that's what he did for me in eternity. He set his
heart on me, didn't he? And I love him because he first
loved me. So my heart is fixed. My heart
is fixed. And then thirdly, act like it.
Serve him only. And that's not a work. That's
just a natural result. Natural to the new heart. Not
to the flesh. Not to the old man. But natural
to the spirit, to the new heart. It's just a natural result of
loving Him. You're going to serve Him if
you love Him. If your heart is set upon Him, then your feet and
your hands and your tongue will be set upon Him. It just means
that the setting of your heart is genuine. It's real. James
said if faith that doesn't work is dead, it's not the faith that
God gives. It's false faith. We do not serve Him to gain acceptance
with God. Christ is our righteousness and
acceptance with God. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Him. In other words, when He went
to the Father for us, we went to the Father. We have perfect
communion with the Father. We serve Him because we love
Him. The bond slave. You remember
the bond slave in the Old Testament. Why didn't he leave? The seventh
year you can go out free, but the bond slave says that's not
freedom. Freedom is to stay here. And why? Because I love my master
and I love my family. I love those who under the leadership
and rule of my master have become my family. In other words, I
love God and his sheep. That's why we're not going anywhere.
That's why we're serving him. That's why we love to say, Paul,
Chris, a bond slave of Jesus Christ. I don't ever want to
be anything better than that. It don't get better than that. But the truth is to be left to
our own will is bondage. What men call a free will, that's
bondage. But to be a bond slave of Jesus
Christ is freedom indeed. Number four verse four then the
children of Israel did put away Balaam and Asherah and served
the Lord only I just want to look at one word in that verse
then then They turned to God when when his prophet said Here's
what here's what here's who he is Here's what you are. Here's the problem. The prophet
spoke the truth to them. Then it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Verse five, and then
Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray for
you unto the Lord. Nobody, nobody bothered to do
this in these other three cases. The Jews in chapter four, the
Philistines or those in Bethshemesh, Nobody ever once thought to ask
God, what's going on here? What do we need to do? What would
you have us do? But now, what a difference. What
a difference. I think often about our Lord's
words in Matthew 7, 7, where he said, ask, and it shall be
given unto you. Seek, and you shall find. knock, and the door shall be
opened unto you for every one that asketh, receive it." It's hard to complicate that,
isn't it? Every one. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord. He's mighty to save. He's willing
to save. He delights to save. Notice also, he didn't say, come
and pray to the Lord. He said, come and I'll pray to
the Lord for you. You know why? Because sinners
don't come to God without a mediator. Sinners don't approach God without
a mediator. We don't need an earthly priest or prophet now
because Christ is our mediator. That's why our brother just prayed
a while ago. In our Lord's name, we pray, Lord, we pray. In the
name of our mediator, our high priest, our representative, the
Lord Jesus in his precious name. We pray and the Father hears
us. And we're taught to pray for
one another. Christ has made us kings and
priests unto our God, Revelation 1 6. We don't replace the intercession
of Christ. That's not it. But in him and
by him, we pray for one another. Samuel said, Come and I'll pray
for you. What a wonderful thing. I want
you to understand, I've told you many times, I want you to
know again tonight, I want to remind you how special and humbling
and valuable it is to me to think of you on your knees before God,
calling my name. And I want to do that for you.
I sure do. Pray for my children. I'll pray
for yours. Verse six, and they gathered
together to Mishpah and drew water and poured it out before
the Lord and fasted on that day. And said there, we have sinned
against the Lord. You remember Numbers chapter...
21, we have sinned. The fiery serpents
had bitten the people. We have sinned. Moses, talk to
God for us. Pray for us. Intercede for us.
And they raised up that serpent in the wilderness. And our Lord
said, even as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And here the people are here
in this circumstance saying, we've sinned. We've sinned. What a difference, again. Chapter
4, it was fetch that ark. Fetch that ark, it'll save us.
Here they cry and lament for the Lord himself. And they have
a God-approved mediator intercede for them before the Lord. And
they cry out unto God, we have sinned. We have sinned, we're
the problem. We are idolaters. We just had
to throw away the false gods that we've been worshiping. How
shameful that is. We're so stupid, we worship rocks
and sticks. That's how ignorant and foolish
we are. We've gone our whole lives, 20 years, and didn't give
a thought for God. The one that made us The one
that breathed into our soul the breath of life. And 20 years
have come and gone, and we never gave a thought for him. We've
sinned. Before our Lord told the woman
at the well about himself, the water of life, he said, go fetch
your husband. And she said, I don't have a
husband. And he said, that's right. And the man you're living
with right now is not your husband. You've had several husbands,
and he ain't one of them. When our Lord revealed himself
to the thief on the cross, that thief said, we're getting what
we deserve. But this man had done nothing amiss. We must confess our unworthiness
to God, our helplessness. We've spent all we have, Lord,
and we were idiots to do it, to spend it on vanity. We've
done everything that we know to do, and we're fools, we're
failures, we're helpless, and we're hopeless in ourselves.
We have nothing, we are nothing, we can do nothing, and if you
put us in hell right now, you'd be doing the right thing. Sin must become to us exceeding
sinful, as Paul said it did to him. And we must admit that we
are the problem. We have sinned. Not we believe
in original sin. I'm glad if you do. I do too. What about your sin? Our will is the problem. Our
way is the problem. Our works are the problem. I
am the problem. That's where the Lord's got to
bring us. Verse 7, And when the Philistines heard that the children
of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines
went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel
heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. Apparently,
the Philistines thought that when they gathered together and
cried out to the Lord and had their mediator there praying
unto the Lord and confessed their sin before the Lord, they thought
they were gathering together to mount some kind of an offense,
some kind of a warfare. Spiritually speaking, that's
kind of true. That's kind of true. How do we
fight our spiritual battle that we have to fight every day? We
come to the Lord and say, we're nothing, Lord, save us, save
us. And we cry through our mediator
unto God. In the name of our Savior, we
cry for mercy and grace to help in time of need. That is our,
that is us mounting an offense, isn't it? Because he's our defender. He's the one who wins the victory
for us. The battle begins when you believe on Christ. When they
returned to the Lord with all their hearts and cried out to
Him and confessed their sins and through God's ordained mediator
sought the Lord. Then here comes the enemy. The
flesh doesn't fight the flesh. It's the spirit that lusteth
against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. If there's
not a warfare going on inside of you, it's because you're dead.
It's because that which is born of the flesh is flesh. There's
no fight there. It says they were afraid. In the Philistines,
picture the flesh, our sin. Are you afraid of your flesh? Verse 8, And the children of
Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our
God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. Do you know what to do when you're
afraid? Cry through your mediator. Do not cease. Don't let us go,
Lord. Don't leave us to fight on our
own. Don't stop. Interceding for us. Don't stop
undertaking for us. Don't stop holding us up and
keeping us Don't leave us to follow our own. We know you can
save us Speak the word only Lord And it'll be done Now think about
this This is their mediator their intercessor, which is Christ
And they're saying don't cease to pray for us. Don't cease to
cry for us Listen to this statement It is the incessant, the non-stop,
eternal incessant intercession of our mediator that is our hope
before God. If he ever ceases to plead his
precious blood, then it can never happen. But there's a reason
why Paul said in Hebrews 7.25, wherefore he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come to God by him. They came
to God by Samuel. We come to God by Christ. And
he's able to save us to the uttermost seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. Lord, don't cease to be our mediator. Don't cease to plead your precious
blood. Forgive us of our sins every
day. He's told us to pray every day, didn't he? Forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. They
came to God by Samuel and said, don't cease. And we come unto
God by Christ. And our intercessor never ceases.
He ever lives to intercede for us. Through the offering of his
precious blood for us, his intercession is effectual. He pleads on the
basis of something now. And that's the next verse, verse
9. And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt
offering wholly unto the Lord. If Samuel's going to cry out
for them, he's going to have to have some basis upon which
to do so. God's not just going to wink at your sin. He's not
just going to sweep it under a rug. It's got to be paid for.
If God's going to have mercy on you, There's going to be strict,
ruthless, uncompromising justice poured out upon somebody. And by the offering of that sacrifice,
look at the last part, he brought that sucking lamb and offered
it unto the Lord and said, and then it says he cried unto the
Lord for Israel and the Lord heard him. The Lord heard him. Our high priest comes in, he
comes with the censer of incense, and that's the prayers of our
Lord, the intercession of our Lord. But he comes in there with
something else, so there won't be satisfaction. There won't
be atonement. He comes in not without blood.
Not without his precious blood. As Paul taught throughout the
book of Hebrews, and as I said, you'll see how appropriate the
Hebrews 8 is to our text tonight, We have a great high priest who
has entered into that holy place, not made with hands, that the
Lord pitched and not man, our brother ran into heaven itself. And just
like no high priest ever entered into the presence of God without
an offering, our high priest also, as he read, must have somewhat
to offer. And he offered not the blood
of bulls and goats, But His own precious blood is the price for
salvation. What was it that their cry was
in verse 8? What do you want from God? We want Him to save
us! What do you need salvation from
tonight? We need Him to save us from our
sins. The Philistines are just a picture of that. And without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. So if God's
gonna save us, we can cry all we want to. but there's got to
be blood. We must plead on the basis of
a finished work, of justice satisfied, of our sins being punished in
our substitute. This man, Hebrews 10, 12, this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Every one he shed his precious
blood for is perfected forever. And the Lord heard him. Our mediator,
he said in John 11, 42, the Father hears me always. And bless God,
What did our Lord pray for? He says at times he went into
the mountains alone to pray all night. What did he say? Well,
we know a little bit of it, don't we? He told the Apostle Peter,
he said, I pray for you, Peter. I pray for you. You reckon he
could say that to everybody in here that knows him? I pray for
you. That's what I pray. That's what
he said in the mountains. That's what he's saying now.
I pray for you. In John chapter 17, his great
high priestly prayer for his sheep, Oh, how beautiful. The Father hears him always when
he said, Father, I will that those that you've given me be
with me where I am. Father heard him then too, didn't
he? Samuel took a sucking lamb. A victim that should not die
had to die. Would it be difficult for you
to take a little baby lamb from its mother's milk and slaughtered
that thing. Would that be hard for you to
do? That's nothing though, that's nothing. That lamb was innocent,
that precious little lamb. But there's a lamb so much more
precious than him. The people had sinned, the people
sinned, but the lamb died that day. In 1 Samuel chapter 7, the
people sinned, and the Lamb died, and the people were saved. The
Gospel's not complicated, is it? Salvation's of the Lord. Christ is our salvation. Our
salvation is a person. It's the precious Lamb of God
slain in our place for our sins. There's no use asking God for
victory unless it's right for God to give you the victory. And it's right, because Christ
has won the victory. He won it at Calvary. Christ
asked for our salvation in John 17, didn't he? Father, keep them
from the evil, and I will that they be with me where I am. If
that ain't salvation, I don't know what is. Christ is saying,
Father, save them. I want them with me forever. But he had to go to the cross,
didn't he? To make that happen. The intercession is one thing,
but the basis upon which he pleads is his own precious blood. The
blood of the precious, spotless, innocent Lamb of God. He prayed for our salvation in
John 17, but in John 19 it says, delivered he him therefore unto
them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led him
away. And he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called
the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha,
where they crucified him, and two other with him on either
side, one and Jesus in the midst. And in verse 30 of that chapter,
it says, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he
said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he
gave up the ghost. He prayed that God would save
us, would keep us, would bring us home with him. And then he
went and did what was necessary to make that happen. Verse 10 in our text, and as
Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew
near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a
great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited
them, and they were smitten before Israel. I thought to myself as
I read this, picture it now, as Samuel was
offering that offering of that sucking lamb unto the Lord as
a burnt offering for the sins of the people, as that was happening,
the Philistines are drawing down on them. You know what I thought
to myself? I thought that was a real bad
time for them to show up. And let me tell you what you
already know. Here's the spiritual truth. If I'm under the blood
of the Son of God, there's not a good time to mess with me.
There's not a good time for any of my enemies to come against
me. I'm under his precious blood, safe though the worlds may crumble,
safe though the stars grow dim, under the blood of my Savior.
My God brought a great thunder down upon all my enemies on the
day that my Savior's precious blood was shed for me. His heel was bruised, but he
crushed the head of my great enemy on that day. The day that
the offering, at the very moment the offering was made unto God,
the precious blood was shed. Victory. His victory at Calvary by washing
all my sins. Salvation is such a simple truth,
isn't it? His victory at Calvary where
he by himself purged my sins is the destruction of all my
enemies, all my problems. Every problem I have is a result
of one problem, my sin problem. And he washed all of my sins
away with his precious blood. All of my insufficiency, all
of my offense against God, All of my wretchedness and foolishness. I don't know how to say it simply
enough. The difference Christ crucified makes is the difference
between being under the unmitigated wrath of God. We saw what happened
to everybody who wasn't under the blood. Tens of thousands slaughtered
where they stood. and the difference between that
and being at perfect peace with God. Perfect peace, perfect satisfaction,
safe, accepted, well beloved, to have every blessing. Have
you ever thought about this? How many blessings, how many
good things does God have to give? How many spiritual, when
Paul says all spiritual blessings in heavenly places are ours in
Christ, how many is that? How many is all? What is it that
God can do when He goes about to bless His people? That's a
fun thing to think about it. Christ is that. He is the fulfillment
of that. There's nothing else but Him.
When you have Christ, you have every blessing that God has.
Peace, satisfaction, safety, glory, Every blessing that God
can give poured out upon me. Under His wrath, the recipient of every blessing
that God has, the difference is His precious blood. Christ
crucified. The difference between the destruction
and misery on a massive scale that we saw in these previous
chapters and the utter complete resounding victory that we see
in this one is the precious blood of the Lamb without blemish and
without spot. And in spiritual reality, in
matters of eternal life and death for me, for me personally, Christ
and His precious blood is the difference. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory. That's what's happening in our
text and picture. God gave them the victory. They
cried out through his mediator on the basis of his ordained
sacrifice, and God saved them. He giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 11, And the men of
Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistine. You talk
about victory. We still win in it, aren't we?
We still win in it. It was victory the day He found
us. The day He came where we were
in love and mercy. And by His Holy Spirit gave us
life. And it's victory every day, isn't it? It's one victory
after another. We're still chasing the enemy. And they're still
losing. And they're going to plum lose,
and we're going to plum win. They pursued the Philistines
and smoked them until they came unto Bethkar. And then Samuel
took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Sheon, and called
the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us. I love it when the scriptures
describe Now here they are chasing the enemy, slaying them, no doubt
by the thousands. And here is a grueling and laborious,
difficult journey or battle that involved great effort, no doubt,
for them. But then, under the direction
of their spiritual leader, the people after doing all that,
said, look what God has done for us. Don't you love it when
we see that all through the scriptures, don't we? They had to draw their
sword, they had to get bloodied, didn't they? They had to sweat,
they had to toil, they had to work. And then when they were
done and battle weary, they sat down and said, look what God
did. Let's raise a memorial here to God and remember what He's
done for us. We cried, Lord save us, and He
did. That word, helped, means surrounded. The Lord has surrounded us. Can we raise an Ebenezer tonight? All my life, God has surrounded
me. He was saving me before I ever
cried to Him to save me. And by His grace, I know that
now. He's been saving me all along. and he'll save me to the uttermost.
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? He give us the victory in every
sense of the word, and when God saves a sinner, he gets all the
glory. Ebenezer, hitherto hath God done something, and may he
never cease. He gets all the glory from then on. From then
on. We can raise an Ebenezer tonight,
and a year from now we'll have to raise another one, won't we? He gets the glory, He gets it
from then on, and He gets it for everything. For everything. And rightly so. Amen? Rightly
so. May he never... If we can honestly
say he's helped us till now, do you reckon he'll stop helping
us? Do you think he'll leave us to ourselves now? If he intended
to kill us, would he have shown us these wonderful things? I
think not. May we go from here tonight rejoicing
in him and giving him every ounce of glory for just plumb saving
us. He saved us in every way That
a man can be saved. And he's still saving me right
now. Let's pray.