Alright brother, let's turn back
there to 1 Samuel chapter 7. We try to sing songs that praise
the God we trust. Try to sing songs that give Him
the glory and speak of what He does for His people. We just
sing, oh worship the King. He truly is the King. And one
of the lines in this says, frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies
how tender, how firm to the end, our maker, defender, redeemer,
and friend. And then we sang Praise the Savior. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He for conflict fits and arms us. Nothing moves and nothing
harms us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, you saints, forever.
He is faithful, changing, never. Neither force nor guile can sever
those He loves from Him. And then where our prayer is,
keep us, Lord, keep us cleaving. to Thyself and still believing,
to the hour of our receiving promise joys with Thee. That's
the praises of our Redeemer. And when we sing the song, Come
Thou Fount of Every Blessing, in the second verse we sing this,
Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I am come. and I
hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home." Where did
those words come from? Where did those words come from?
Here I raise my Ebenezer. What do they mean? Here in verse
12, 1 Samuel 7 verse 12, it says, then Samuel took a stone and
set it between Misbe and Shin and called the name of it Ebenezer,
saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. That's what it means.
It means the stone of help. He raised up the stone of help
in the sense that he set up a stone there to remember Christ. Christ is
our stone of help. He's the stone of help. He's
our Ebenezer, the Lord Jesus. We don't raise him up. Samuel
just raised up a stone to remember he's the stone of help. He delivered
us right here and to remember he'll deliver us in the future.
That's why he put that stone there. So the hymn writer got
the message of that passage correct. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
to this point by thy help I'm come. and I hope by thy good
pleasure safely to arrive at home. I'm looking to my helper. Brother Greg just read it from
the Psalms. The Lord is our helper. He's
a very present help in trouble. He's not a helper and just a
coworker with you. No, he's the one who does the
saving. That's the kind of helper he
is. He does the saving. Now let's look at it together. Verse 7 says, And when the Philistines
heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Misbe,
the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when
the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. Now, the Lord had just granted
the children of Israel repentance. They were in a worship service
at Misbe. That's what they were doing,
they were worshipping the Lord. Samuel told them that if they,
he preached to them the gospel, and he said if they turned from
their idols, turned from worshipping the God of their hands and trusting
in their works to save them, and they turned to the true God
with all their hearts, And they trusted Christ. He said the Lord
will deliver them. He told them the Lord will deliver
them from the hand of the Philistine. This was before the Philistines
had come up against Him. He just told them the Lord will
deliver them. And to every unbeliever, that's our message. And to every
believer, that's our message. If you turn from every idol,
if you turn from trusting your works to save you, and you trust
Christ with all your heart, Our Lord Jesus Christ, our Ebenezer,
will help you. He will save you from every enemy. Trust Him. Cast all your care
on Him. That's what every one of those
songs just said. They just kept saying, believe
Him, trust Him. People think we get past that.
We don't ever get past that. We're constantly needing Him
to save us and we're trusting Him alone. And so the exhortation
to us that's safe, that needs to be repeated over and over
is, cast all your care on Him for He cares for you. The Lord
had revived the children of Israel. He's the one that works revival.
That's what He had done. He had revived them. And when
God works revival, He greatly humbles His child. And the Lord
had revived them and he had humbled the children of Israel. They
saw their weakness. They saw how weak they were.
They saw how incapable they were of saving themselves. That's
what the Lord shows you when he really shows you who you are
and shows you your sin. He shows you you cannot save
yourself. You are the sinner. You are weak. And this is what we need to hear
now. This is our gospel. They were
so weak that they took water and they poured it out. And that
symbolizes their weakness, that they were weaker than water poured
out. And that's our gospel. All flesh
is grass. That's all we are in ourselves
is grass. Behold your God. He's our Ebenezer. He's our helper. He's our Savior. Turn from trusting self. Cease
ye from man. Turn from self. Deny your whole
self as having any part in salvation. And trust the Lord alone. Salvation
belongs to our Lord. That means He is the salvation
of His people. Believe Him and trust Him to
deliver you from all your sins, from all your enemies, all the
way to the end. Think of what the Philistines
saw. Now that's what was going on in this worship service. Humble,
weak sinners confessing their total inability. And think of
what the Philistines see. They're just looking with carnal
eyes. They don't have spiritual understanding. And carnal eyes can't see what
faith sees. And so they're looking with carnal
eyes and all they see is the children of Israel weak. All
they see are them focused on worshiping the Lord and not paying
attention to the world. And they're thinking to themselves,
now's the time to strike. If we strike now, we can easily
defeat them. But Samuel's message to the children
of Israel was that if they cast all their care on the Lord, the
Lord would fight for them. That was His message. If you
trust the Lord, He will fight for you. The Lord will deliver
you from the hand of the Philistines. That was the gospel He preached.
And with the children of Israel being humbled by the Lord and
weaker than water poured out, the Lord was teaching them what
He taught Paul. They're weaker than water. They
know it right then. And the Lord's teach them what
he taught Paul. He's teaching us this when he
brings us into these trials that we cannot deliver ourselves out
of. He just closes your mouth and
he turns your focus and your affection from everything below
to him. And here's what he's teaching
you, brethren. This is what he taught Paul. My strength is made
perfect in weakness. That's when you see his strength.
When you're so weak, you can't put a finger, you can't lift
a finger. That's when the power of Christ
rests upon us. That's what the Lord told Paul.
And so Paul said, when I'm weak, then am I strong. When I'm not
trusting me at all, when I'm so weak, I'm not trusting me
at all, only the Lord. That's when I'm strong because
the Lord's my strength. Things were not as they appeared
to the Carlisle of the Philistines. The Carlisle of the Philistines,
they only saw these men weak and mourning and weeping and
pouring out this water and focused on their worship. The Philistines
couldn't see that by fighting the children of Israel, by going
forth and fighting the children of Israel, they were fighting
against God. That's what they couldn't see.
Child of God, when the devil or any enemy fights against you,
they're fighting against the Lord of hosts. The enemy has to go through Christ
to get to you. That's what Brother Greg just
read in that psalm. He's our refuge. It's what we
just sang. He's our defender. He's our helper. Christ is called the strength
of Israel. That's what he's called in Scripture, the strength of
Israel. He's the strength of every elect, redeemed, regenerated
child of God. He is our strength, brethren.
The Lord taught David this. He wrote this in Psalm 27.1. He wrote, The Lord is the strength
of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm
28.8. The Lord's the saving strength
of His anointed. Psalm 20, verse 6, he said, now
know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from
his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some
trust in chariots, some in horses. We will remember the name of
the Lord our God. They're brought down and fallen,
but we are risen and stand upright. Save, Lord, let the King hear
us when we call. That's where our help comes from.
The king in his heaven. And that's what the children
of Israel did. They called out to the king of glory. That's
what they did. That's the first thing we see.
Israel's strength is Christ our intercessor. That's our strength. Christ our intercessor. Look
at verse 8. And the children of Israel, they're
afraid, they see the Philistines coming, they've heard they're
coming, and they're afraid. 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. Christ is
our intercessor. Paul said, pray without ceasing.
Pray without ceasing. The children of Israel say to
Samuel, cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us. He will save us. He will save
us. That's what they cry. He will
save us. Samuel here is a type of Christ.
He's a type of Christ who intercedes for his needy, strengthless people. Oh, that we cease not to pray.
That would be good. If we cease not to pray. But
brethren, our Lord Jesus never ceases to intercede for his people. He never does. We can't come
to holy God without Christ our high priest interceding for us. That's the only way we can come
to God. We have to come through Christ. He's the stone of help.
He's the Ebenezer with God our Father. He's our Ebenezer with
God our Father. He's our help with God our Father.
Is Christ ever living to make intercession for us by which
we're saved? He said, because I live, thou
shalt live. And what that means is because
He lives in God's presence with His wounded side and His wounded
hand, He is the intercession for His people and intercedes
on behalf of His people. When the Spirit reveals Christ
in us, He makes us know we're the sinner. really and truly
makes you know you're the sinner. He makes you know you can't come
to a holy God by anything you've done because of who you are,
what you are, and what you've done. You are the sinner and
all you have ever done is sin. And so he makes you know we have
to have Christ our mediator. We have to have one between us
and holy God, an intercessor. The Spirit of God reveals we
need Christ to intercede on our behalf. And we need him to deliver
us the whole way. That's what the psalmist wrote.
Hither by thy help I'm come. Hither by thy help I'm come.
And I hope, this is my good hope, by thy good pleasure, safely
to arrive at home. Here's the good news. This is
the good news, brethren. Christ Jesus, our intercessor,
never ceases to intercede for us. He never ceases to intercede
for us. If you prayed all the time, you're
still going to go to sleep at some point, and you're going
to cease praying. He never ceases. He neither sleeps
nor slumbers, the Scripture says. He intercedes for His people
continually, and He will save us. John said, My little children,
these things write I unto you that you sin not. There's our
Philistines, our sin, temptation. The devil. Those are the Philistines
we're warring against. Our own sin nature. Our own unbelief. That's our
Philistines. John said, brethren, he said,
I write unto you that you sin not, and if any man sin. And he's saying, and when you
sin, because you will, and you do, and you are. We have an Advocate
with the Father, an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the Righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only, but His people everywhere. Christ is our Advocate
with the Father. You know why He's our Advocate
with the Father? Because He is our righteousness. There's only
Jesus Christ, the Righteous, And He's the righteousness of
His people. He's our advocate with the Father. He's the propitiation
for our sins. You remember when the Lord gave
them the ark and He had the mercy seat on top? And the Lord said
to them, He said, there will I meet you. I'll meet with you
right there over the mercy seat. Right there. That's where I'll
meet with you. That blood was on that mercy
seat. Sprinkle on that mercy seat. There you have the blood
poured out. Picture Christ crucified for
His people. And God said right there is where
I'll show mercy to you. That's Christ is our propitiation
because He made atonement for our sins and He ceases not to
intercede for us with His people. He's the place. He's the seat
of mercy between us and God where God will meet with us. Now secondly,
God the Father always hears Christ. He always hears Christ because
Christ Jesus is the believer's burnt offering. He hears Christ
because Christ is our burnt offering. Look here in verse nine. So as
he's praying, it says, and Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered
it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord, and Samuel cried
unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him." So he offers a burnt offering,
and he's crying to the Lord. Christ is typified in this burnt
offering. Samuel is, as our intercessor,
and this burnt offering typifies Christ. Now, to me, it appears
Samuel was between the children of Israel and the Philistines
when he made this burnt offering. That word there for shin means
crack, tooth. It's like a rocky point that
stuck out. And it seemed that's where he
was offering this, or between there and Misbe, offering this
as the Philistines were coming. So he's between the Philistines
and the children of Israel. Well, I know this without a doubt. Our Lord Jesus was lifted up
on that cross between holy God and all his people. And you see,
while we were yet in our sins, the law was our Philistines and
holy God was our Philistines because he was an enemy to us
while we were ungodly. And Christ was lifted up between
us and the Father. Holy God. Now, get the picture
here in this burnt offering. Here you have a sucking lamb.
The most innocent there could be. A sucking lamb. No doubt
spotless. Little sucking lamb. And that lamb is killed. And all his blood is poured out. And his body's cut up. And it's
put on the fire and it's burned. And you know what the children
of Israel were saying about that? They're saying, that's what we
deserve. That's what we deserve. Christ Jesus Knew no sin. He's the sucking lamb. He knew
no sin. But he took all the sin of all
God's people. He took all the sin of all God's
people and his body was bruised. under the fierce wrath of God. His blood was poured out. His
body was burned under the fierce wrath of God, the fiery indignation
of God. And He suffered everything His
people deserved, and that's what it took to justify us. and to make God just to be able
to have mercy on us. That's why He's the mercy seat.
That's why He's the propitiation for our sins. You know what He
did by that? That mercy seat was a covering
and the blood was a covering. And you know what Christ did
for His people? He covered the sins of His people. Last week we saw how the Lord
cursed the serpent in the garden. was cursed for causing man to
sin, and he's cursed because he's the accuser of the brethren.
He's cursed. He's cursed because he goes to
the Father and uncovers our sins to the Father. That's what he
was trying to do. You think about Noah's son, Ham. He typifies the devil. Noah's
son, Ham, typifies the devil. How so? Rather, because he uncovered
the sin of his father. And you know what? Rather than
cursing Noah for his sin, God cursed him for uncovering his
sin. Noah's in Christ. He's justified. Who shall lay anything to his
charge? He cursed him for uncovering his sin. And the other two boys
are a picture of Christ. They wouldn't even turn their
face to the Father. They turned their back and they
walked backwards and they covered their Father's nakedness. That's
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for His people. Thou has forgiven
the iniquity of Thy people. Thou has covered all their sin. Christ did that for us on the
cross and then He came to us. Look at Ezekiel 16, 8. Where
did He find us? Ezekiel 16, 8. Here is where
He found us. He found us, verse 6 says, I
passed by thee and I saw thee polluted in thine own blood.
And I said to thee, when thou wast polluted in thy blood, live.
I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Look down
at verse 8. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. And
I spread my skirt over thee and covered, covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Look at Isaiah 61. This is the
very rejoicing of God's people. He made you see what He did for
you on the cross, and He gave you faith to trust Him, and He
made you to know all His righteousness is imputed to you. He's put the
robe of His righteousness on you. He's put His skirt over
you and covered your nakedness, and you start rejoicing in none
but the Lord. Isaiah 61.10, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
degath himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels." That's what Christ accomplished for his people.
He covered us. Noah's two sons, they covered
Noah. They knew something about that.
They knew something about that covering, because they did the
same thing for their father. Ham didn't know a thing about
it. Notice here now, as Samuel offered this burnt offering,
he prayed to the Lord for the children of Israel. As he's offering
this offering, he's praying to the Lord. Verse 9, Samuel took
this sucking lamb, he offered it for a burnt offering holy
unto the Lord, and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and
the Lord heard him. Now you put those two together. When Christ
was on the cross, offered himself up as a burnt offering. Now listen
to me. By His broken body, by His shed
blood, by what He bore for us on the cross, without Him even
saying a word, He made intercession for us. Isaiah 53, 11, He shall
see of the travail of His soul. Wait a minute, let me find it
here. Here it is. I'll divide him a
portion with the great, Isaiah 53, 12. He'll divide the spoiled
with the strong, because he's poured out his soul unto death,
and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the
sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. That's
what Christ did on the cross, by his broken body and his shed
blood in place of his people. And now our Lord Jesus, because
of his sin-atoning blood, due to Christ declaring God just,
having fulfilled His law, the wrath of God poured out on Christ. And when it was poured out on
Christ, it was poured out on all His people. And so God's
just now. He's poured out His wrath on
all His people. And in Christ, He's also the
justifier. And so because that's so, with
Christ being our righteousness now with the Father at God's
right hand, God hears Christ Jesus, our Advocate. He hears
Him. That's how Christ is a propitiation
for our sins. That's how He's the mercy seeker.
God promised to meet us in Him because of what He did. When
we pray, when we pray, there's enough sin mixed with our prayers
that we could never, they could never be accepted of Holy God.
That's so. You know, if men want to deny
that they're sinners after they've been converted, every time they
pray, And they say, in the Lord's name, we're coming to you in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a confession right there,
that I'm nothing but a sinner. There's no way I could even pray
to you, Father, except through Christ my intercessor. And it's
Christ our Father hears. This is what the Hebrew writer
said, we have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. The new and living way is the
way He consecrated for us. That veil, that's not it. That veil was ripped open. The
way He consecrated through us is through His flesh being broken,
His body broken. And now we have a high priest
over the house of God. That's the only way we can come
to God. That's what Samuel typifies here
by them asking Him to pray for them, Sacrificing this lamb for
a burnt offering and by Him continuing to cry for it. That's a picture
of Christ Jesus, our intercessor, our burnt offering, our Ebenezer.
Now thirdly, the Lord Jesus, by what He's done on the cross,
He has defeated all our enemies. Get this now, He has already
defeated all our enemies. He's delivered us, and He shall
deliver us from every enemy. Verse 10, 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. He thundered
on that day upon the Philistines with a great thunder, and He
discomfited them. And they were smitten before
Israel. Who did that? The Lord did that.
He smote them. He discomfited them. And the
men of Israel went out of Misbe and pursued the Philistines and
smote them till they came unto Bethkar. And somebody will read
that and they'll say, well, but you see, they're Israel's fault.
Yes, Israel went out. They went after them. We have
to fight the fight of faith. The Lord's not going to believe
for you. He's not going to repent for
you. He's going to make you do that. He's going to make you
resist temptation. He's going to make you keep looking
to Him. He's going to make you do that.
And it's going to be a fight the whole way. But it was not
Israel who defeated the enemy. It was the Lord. It was the Lord
who discomforted the Philistine. He smoked the Philistine. It's
the Lord Jesus who delivered His people on the cross. We didn't
have a hand in that. And the devil bruised our Savior's
heel, but when he bruised our Savior's heel, Christ thundered
on the devil's head just like the Lord thundered on the Philistines
that day. And He crushed His head. He took
all His power from Him. How did He do it? He took all
the sin from His people. The accuser has nothing to accuse
us with before the Father. He can't uncover our sin now
because there is no sin to uncover before God. And Christ is the Deliverer who
continues to deliver His saints. Who was it that came to you?
We just read it there in Ezekiel. He came and delivered us from
our sin nature and gave us faith to believe Him by creating a
new holy man within us when Christ was formed in us. Well then,
who's going to deliver us when we're taken captive by our sin
nature? That's a Philistine we have to
fight against. Who's going to deliver you when
you're taken captive by your sin nature? Oh, wretched man
that I am, Paul said. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's who. That's who. Christ alone delivers us in every
single trial we face. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 1
and look at this. Every trial we face, it's the
Lord Jesus delivering us. 2 Corinthians 1, and look at verse 8. He said, We would not, brethren,
have you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that
we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that
we despaired even of life. Now that's where Israel was.
That's where the children of Israel was. pressed out of measure
above any strength in them when those Philistines were coming
after them. That's where they were. That's where God brought
Paul right there. And that's where He's going to
bring you. As a child of God, a believer, that's where He's
going to bring you and me. Why? Verse 9, But we had the
sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us." You see that? Why was Paul brought into this
place in Asia where he had no strength to save himself? Why
was he brought there? The Lord teaching him one more
time that he had no strength in himself to deliver himself.
The Lord teaching him again to trust the Lord alone. He's the
deliverer. He's the one that's delivering
his people. He delivered us from the great death of our sin on
Calvary's cross. He delivered us from the great
sin of our sin nature. And He keeps delivering us from
it. And He's going to deliver us from every trial we face and
every temptation we face in this world. Go with me to 1 Corinthians
15. Just back a page. Who's going
to deliver us from our greatest enemy? The greatest enemy is
the grave. It's death. Who's going to deliver
us from that? 1 Corinthians 15, 25, He must reign till He hath
put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. Verse 55, 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 through our Lord
Jesus Christ. You see that? That covers our
whole life, brethren. That covers from the time He
called us, through every trial He takes us through, all the
way to the grave. And who does all the delivering?
Christ does. Christ does. The Lord delivered
the children of Israel that day, and He did so all the rest of
their days. He delivered them that day and
He kept delivering them all their days. And that's what He does
for all who cast their care on Him. You might be suffering a
little while. You might be suffering a little
while. Let me tell you what Peter said over here in 1 Peter. Listen to this, what Peter said.
He said there in verse 6, 1 Peter 5 verse 6, He said, Humble yourselves
unto the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.
That's what Christ did. Paul said that in Philippians
2, and God also exalted Him, but He did it in due time. And
so Peter says here, now you humble yourselves under God's mighty
hand, He'll exalt you in due time. How do you humble yourself
in His hand? Casting all your care upon Him,
for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. Whom resist steadfast? By trusting
Christ. In faith, casting all your care
upon Him. And know, while you're doing
it, know that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world. We get to thinking that we're
the only ones suffering, and we get to thinking that nobody
knows the afflictions I'm bearing. The Lord is accomplishing the
same thing in your brethren that He's accomplishing in you through
the affliction. That's what I try to say when
you hear me say He's teaching every one of us through this
trial. That's what He's doing. and he's accomplishing it. But
now look, but what if you have to suffer a while? You suffer
a while and you think, well, is he gonna ever deliver me?
Verse 10, but the God of all grace who has called us into
his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you've suffered a
while, he'll make you perfect. He'll establish you, he'll strengthen
you, he'll settle you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. And that's what he did for the
children of Israel. It says there in verse 13, The
Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast
of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines
all the days of Samuel. The Philistines were fighting
a losing battle. When they were going up against
the Lord's people, they were fighting the Lord Himself. That's
a losing battle. The devil's fighting a losing
battle. Every other enemy's fighting a losing battle. The hand of
the Lord is against all the enemies of his anointed. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, gay, rather
that's risen again, who even is at the right hand of God,
who also makes intercession for us. That's why none can touch
his people. And Christ restored to His people
more than we lost in Adam. The Lord restored in verse 14.
He restored the cities to Him. We have eternal restoration in
Christ. We have eternal righteousness.
We have eternal redemption. We have eternal life. We have
more in Christ than we lost in Adam. We can never fall again. We can never be lost again. We've
been restored. And the Prince of Peace, He's
our peace. And He's our Judge, ruling, watching
over all, ruling all in the midst of His people, just like Samuel
was. Verse 14, there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
Christ is the Prince of Peace. He gives us peace with God, peace
with brethren, peace with our enemies. Christ does. And Samuel
judged Israel all the days of his life. Christ is judging all. keeping you right where you need
to be, working just what needs to be worked in you to teach
you every step of the way that He's your Deliverer. He's your
Ebenezer, your help. Brethren, it's real simple. Whatever you need in whatever
situation you're in, we start trying to figure out what is
it I need. I just don't know what I need.
And this situation and all these circumstances and all these different
factors in it, I don't care what they are. Here's what you need. Peter just said it. Cast all
your care on Christ. That's what you need. He will
care for you. He will deliver you. He's the
Ebenezer of His people. He's the helper. And listen now,
when He saves you, when He delivers you from the first hour and every
trial after that, when He works it out and He works in you His
good pleasure, He does it in a way that you know He is the
One who did it. And so you give Him all the glory.
And that's what Samuel did. Verse 12, Then Samuel took a
stone and set it between Mishpe and Shinn, and called the name
of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. He did
this. That was a monument to His honor
of what Christ did for them. How about we sing that? Brother
Greg, you know we're gonna sing it. And pay attention to these words
as we sing it. Christ Jesus is our Ebenezer,
brethren. We're not lifting him up other
than to remember him. That's what that stone was for.
All right, Brother Greg. Let's stand and sing number 17,
Come Thou Fount, hymn number 17. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet
sung by Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I come. And I hope by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home. Jesus saw me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood. Let thy goodness, like the feather,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
see.