1 Samuel chapter 7. And we'll pick up here in verse
7. Just take it verse by verse here. The children were gathered to
Misbe. And when the Philistines heard
that the children of Israel were gathered together to Misbe, They
were there, in a sense, worshiping what they were there for. They
were repenting in return to God's judge, Samuel. And the lords
of the Philistines, the enemies, they went up against Israel when
they heard they were there. And when the children of Israel
heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. Now why? Why
was Israel afraid? Well, God had revealed something
to them. Look back at chapter 4 there. in verse 1 and 2. It says, The
word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the
Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer. The Philistines
pitched in Aphek. And the Philistines put themselves
in array against Israel. And when they joined battle,
Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of
the army in the field about 4,000 men. The Philistines had come
up against him. And in this case, the children
of Israel didn't ask God. They didn't go to Samuel and
pray to God to ask Him to intercede for them, to help them. That
was our case before we knew anything about the Lord. We didn't think
we needed the Lord's help. We thought we could win the battle
by our own strength, by our own sword. And when they did that,
4,000 men were slain. They didn't need God, they didn't
seek God, and the enemy prevailed. And then Israel tried something
else. Look down at verse 3. And when the people were coming
to the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord
smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant
of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among
us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. Now there's
a lot of cases where in the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord,
a lot of cases where it's representative of Christ. You know the great
picture there is with the Ark. But in this case, they weren't
looking to the one whom the Ark typified, they were looking to
the Ark itself. And it says, So the people sent
to Shiloh, that they might bring from this the Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims. And the
two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the Ark of the
Covenant of God. Now these were some priests of
Eli, sons of Eli, that were committing all kinds of evil. They were
just going through a vain show is all they were doing. And they
had the Ark and they brought the Ark up. And it says there
in verse 10, the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten,
and they fled every man into his tent, and there was a very
great slaughter. For there fell of Israel thirty
thousand foot men, and the ark of God was taken, and the two
sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. Now, this is the
second thing that many of us tried before the Lord saved us
by His grace, and that is carnal religion. They just looked to
this symbol, looked to this ark, rather than, still they hadn't
gone to Samuel, still they hadn't beseeched the Lord, still they
hadn't fallen on their face and asked God for mercy. They thought
by them bringing that ark up there, that that would help them
win the battle. So this was two things that they
had learned from trying to fight the Philistines on their own.
Of themselves, they had no hope. They had no strength to overcome
this enemy. He was too powerful for them.
And the second thing they learned was, if they're going to have
any hope at all, it's going to be casting themselves on the
mercy of God, asking Samuel, who stands here as a judge, as
a type of Christ, to be mediator between them and the Lord God.
And so that's what we find out in chapter 7. That's what they
were doing at Misbe. We look there now back in chapter
7. Samuel told them in verse 3,
he said, if you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts,
you repent from trying to accomplish this salvation by the strength
of your hand. Turn from your idle gods, your
strange gods, and ask to grow from among you. Prepare your
hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only and He will deliver
you out of the hand of the Philistine." So they came up there to Misbe
and they drew the water and they poured it out signifying their
great fall and their worthlessness to help themselves. They fasted,
they separated themselves from that that carnal bread, a picture
of not depending on anything of this earth, anything of this
world to save, but consecrating yourself to God. And they were
there beseeching, worshiping God. And Samuel was there judging
between the children of Israel. And when they were there doing
this, the Philistines heard that they were all gathered there.
They all are at this one place in Misbe now. And they're all
there. They've laid down their weapons. They're there crying
unto God, worshiping God, and the Philistines see this as an
opportunity to pounce on them. They see this as an opportunity
to go up and take them and slay them all. Now verse 8, so they
go up there and Israel, they heard that the Philistines were
approaching and they were afraid of the Philistines. And verse
8 says, And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Now here's some
repentance. Now here's some God-given wisdom. They 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. Now, that's where we've got to
be brought. There's two things, two things
vital that the Holy Spirit is going to reveal in a sinner to
whom he brings to faith in Christ Jesus. The first thing is this,
we have to be made to know our dire need of Christ. We have to be made to know our
need of Christ. And the second thing we have
to be made to know is Christ is all we need. We need Christ,
that's number one. And the second thing, Christ
is all we need. Now, in Him, in Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And those chosen children of
God, redeemed of Christ, called out by the Spirit of grace, are
complete in Him. They're complete in Him. Now,
verse 9. 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." This
is the second thing we see. Christ is the believer's burnt
offering. He's the believer's burnt offering. It was a lamb without blemish,
this sucking lamb. That's what the scriptures tell
us, through the eternal spirit, Christ Jesus offered himself
without spot to God. This burnt offering was a voluntary
offering. This was a confession of our
need of Christ. We come to God by faith. Under the old covenant, they
came to God in a lamb with a burnt offering. Christ voluntarily
offered Himself. He's the willing offering. When He came into this world,
He said, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body
thou hast prepared Me. He said, it's written of Me.
In the whole volume of the book, the whole volume of Scripture
is concerning Christ. This burnt offering, this burnt
lamb that we're seeing here is written of Him. That's what He
said in Hebrews 10. And He said, Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O God. I get tired of hearing folks
talk about man's will and about what man can do and what have
you. Man's will is the absolute weakest
thing that we have. There's no soundness in man.
There's nothing in us, no will in us to save ourselves by. That's foolishness. That's foolish
talking to imagine we can save ourselves by our will. James
said, When you say tomorrow we will, you don't even know what
tomorrow holds for you. Your life's a vapor. It's here
for a moment and it's gone. That's all it is. We can't even
determine what we're going to do tonight, much less tomorrow. This will is useless. It's futile for us to think we
can come to God by our will. He has to make us willing. He
has to make us willing. But that's why Christ came. to
do God's will, because not a sinner on this earth could do God's
will. Nobody could do God's will. And
he said, this is why my father loves me, because I lay down
my life. He said, no man takes it from
me. I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it up again. He willingly came to do the will
of the father. He willingly walked this earth. as the righteous representative
of His people. He willingly went to the cross
as the substitute for His people and laid down His life on that
cursed tree. He did it willingly. And this
burnt offering had to be burnt according to God's order. It was all ordered and sure how
this offering precisely had to be offered. Every minute detail
of Christ's death was foreordained in eternity. It was foreordained
before anything was created, before anything was made. From
his birth, where he would be born, to the parting of his raiment
by his enemies, to his burial in the rich man's tomb, all was
fulfilled and ordained by God. It was all ordained by God and
all fulfilled by Christ Jesus. Every detail Look over at 2 Peter. 2 Peter, we're talking about
a lamb here. If God's going to be approached
now, He's got to be approached in a lamb. In that old covenant,
He had to be approached in a lamb. What did that typify? I'm sorry, did I tell you 2nd
Peter? Look at 1st Peter. 1st Peter. 1st Peter 1.18. For
as much as ye know. that ye were not redeemed, you
were not bought, you were not purchased with corruptible things
as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God,
that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God." And that's what they were, that's
what was being typified here. They went to Samuel, and they
said, Samuel intercede for us, mediate for us between us and
God, and Samuel takes a lamb. And He takes that lamb, and He
slays that lamb, and He flays that lamb, and He separates all
the pieces out. It had to be clean within and
without, just as Christ was. And He put that lamb on an altar
there. And the Scripture says, and God heard him. It means God
answered him. Fire came down and destroyed
that burnt offering. Burnt that offering. That's the
picture there. Christ on the cross suffering
in the place of His people. And then here's the third thing.
Samuel interceded for the children of Israel just as Christ our
Mediator intercedes with the Father. We have an advocate. Let's look there at verse 8.
The children of Israel, back in our text, 1 Samuel 7, 8. 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
Philistine. And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt
offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord
for Israel. See that? He cried unto the Lord
for Israel. He wasn't crying for the Philistine.
He wasn't crying for the other nations that were around the
children of Israel. He cried unto the Lord for Israel. There is an elect remnant out
of every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue on this earth. that
God chose and put in Christ Jesus before the world began. And those
are the ones for whom Christ came to lay down his life. Those
are the ones for whom Christ prayed in John 17. He said, I
pray not for the world, I pray for them which thou hast given
me out of the world. These are the ones for whom Samuel
interceded. He was interceding for these
natural sons of Abraham, but our Savior intercedes for the
true spiritual Israel, for those that are Jew and Gentile, bond
and free, male and female, chosen of God and given to Christ. And
he cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. We have
an advocate. The believer has an advocate
with the Father. We have someone who can plead
our case with the father. If you come into a courtroom,
and anybody here, you've been in a courtroom and seen it, it's
interesting just to go in and watch the proceedings in a courtroom.
You go into a courtroom, and the person who is committed a
crime, they don't get up and go to talking and defending themselves.
That person sits down, keeps their mouth shut, and the advocate
gets up and does the talking. The advocate approaches the judge
on their behalf. Christ is our advocate. He approaches
God the Father in the behalf of his people, and his people
keep their mouth shut. He does the talking. He does
the interceding for his people. And he ever liveth to make intercession
on behalf of his people. He's risen, and he intercedes. And the Lord heard him. The Lord
heard Samuel. The Lord answered him. The Lord
hears His Son. He always hears His Son. He delights
in His Son. He is well pleased with His Son. Well, look here at verse 10.
Now, what happened as all this was going on? As Samuel was offering
up the burnt offering, The Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.
You get the picture here. This, this Misbe was up on a
high place. It was up on a, you know, we
were on the way over here and we came, I don't know what the
highway was, but it was a straight highway. That thing didn't have
a curve in it. It was, but way off, I could
see this tall hill that we came over. Well, that's, Misbe was
up there on a hill to where you could see it as you approached
it. There's Israel on one side. They're defenseless. They've
laid their weapons down. They're totally dependent upon
Samuel. They're totally hoping, their
hope is God will receive this land. They're totally dependent
upon God to conquer their enemies. And then on the other side, you
have the Philistines. They've got their shields, and
their swords, and their horses, and their chariots. They've got
everything, and they're roaring up that hill, coming to conquer
these children of Israel. And they're in the middle, on
this hill, in the middle, before everybody, high up there, high
and lifted up there, on this hill. There's Samuel, offering
up this burnt offering, and this smoke ascending up to heaven
on this high mountain. Can you imagine what those folks
were thinking, that army was thinking, when they're going
up that mountain? You know what's the last thing you want to do
if you're in an army and you're fighting and you're in battle?
You know what the last thing you want to do? You don't want
to give away your position. You don't want to let the enemy
know where your hiding place is. You don't want them to know
where you're taking refuge. And here this smoke is going
up this hill, going up this, off the top of this hill, and
they know right now, they know right where Israel is. They know
right where to get them. They're rolling up there thinking,
that, that dummy Samuel, he's up there building a fire, building
a fire, giving away his position. How silly, how silly. But here, this is the fourth
thing I want you to see. Here we have a picture of Christ.
We have a picture of Christ crucified for all to see. High and lifted
up for all to see. The Philistines, they're sure
they have the victory right now. And all the hosts that hated
Christ and was gathered around Christ and was hanging Him and
nailing Him to that tree were sure they had the victory. Satan
and the hosts of hell were reveling and sure they had the victory
now. There He is, high and lifted
up on that tree. We got the victory now. You know
what Isaiah said that was? That was the bait. That was the
bait and the trap. It lured him right in, lured
all the enemies in the bait and the trap by which Christ broke
the yoke off his people. Exactly what it was. That host
crying out, Christ loved us. says of His people, He loved
us and He gave Himself for us, an offering and a sweet-smelling
savor, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing unto the Lord.
When the Philistines are going up that mountain, it's just a
stench to them. A lamb being burnt whole, everything
about that lamb being burnt whole, it's just a stench to them. You
know, when most people hear you preach Christ, and preach blood,
and preach no remission of sin without the shedding of blood.
We have a bloody gospel. Our Savior, His visage was marred
more than any man. And that's just what was on the
outside, beaten, spit upon, cursed, hung upon a cursed tree. That's just to give us some idea
of the hell that He bore in His soul as He bore the wrath of
God in the place of His people. And to the whole host who thinks
this is a foolish gospel, who thinks the blood is foolishness,
who hate to hear this gospel preached, that's just a stench
in their nostrils. Don't talk about blood. We're
too dignified and too refined in our day to talk about blood.
We're just a bit too uppity in our day, you know it? We're just
all, we're spoiled. We got everything, and we just
spoiled. We just absolutely spoiled, too
refined. We need to get down in the dirt.
We need to get down in the dust. We need to find out something
about the blood. That's what we need to find out
about. But you know, to God, it was a sweet-smelling savor. This is Christ Jesus the Lord. This is Him declaring, God, righteous,
declaring him just and the justifier of all who believe, declaring
that salvation is of the Lord. God the Father chose whom he
would save. Christ redeemed him and the Spirit
of God calls him out. This was a sweet smelling savor
unto God. And I tell you somebody else
it was a sweet smelling savor too as well. Ask those children
of Israel who were totally, solely, completely depending on that
sacrifice. Depending on the Lord God to
save them. On Samuel to make intercession
for them. Look at verse 10, what happened? Here they come up that
hill, drawing near, but the Lord thundered. The Lord thundered
with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and
discomfited them and they were smitten before Israel. Christ
the Lord hung there on that tree and He bore the wrath of God
in place of His spiritual Israel. Scripture says there was darkness
over the whole land. Everybody was shut out from this
except for the two parties involved, God the Father and God the Son.
And darkness covered the face of the land, and God thundered.
God thundered. It says that Jesus, when He had
cried again with a loud voice, said, He yielded up the ghost. The Lord thundered. The Lord
thundered. Behold the veil of the temple,
from top to bottom, that veil, that multi-layered veil, that
thick veil that separated the holy place from the most holy
place. It was split from top down to
the bottom, declaring the law is satisfied. The ark of God,
it opened up and there was no ark in there anymore. The ark
of God was on the cross. The ark of God gave up the ghost.
The ark of God is Christ Jesus the Lord. And when that veil
rent from top to bottom, the Lord thundered. That's what happened. He thundered. And the rocks did
quake, Scripture says. And the rocks rent. The Lord
thundered. The graves were opened. And those
that came out of the graves, the Lord thundered. And Christ
crushed the serpent's head that day. He discomfited the enemy. The Lord thundered. Look at verse
11. And the men of Israel went out
of Mishpe and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came
to Bethchal. By the gift of faith. You know
what the believer does? He does what they did. lays hold
of the victory. The Lord did it. The Lord did
everything. All they did was chase them out of there. They
laid hold of victory is what they did. Faith's active. When they saw that God had done
what he'd done and conquered this enemy for them, they believed
God. They trusted God. You know what
we are by nature? We're Philistines by nature.
We're Philistines by nature. And by nature, we have every
day, that old unconverted nature that's in every believer, that
old sinful, wretched nature that's in every believer, it's got to
be discomforting. It's got to be put down. It's
got to be mortified. It's got to be, we got to turn
from what we are in ourselves, turn from our way, turn from
trusting ourselves, trust God. Lay hold on the victory. Lay
hold on the victory. This is what the Scripture says.
Seeing then, we have a great high priest that is passed into
the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Hold fast our profession. Well,
let's see what happened next. Verse 12. Then Samuel took a
stone, and he set it between Misbe, and shin, and He called
the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us. The Lord is the stone of help. You know how often He's called
a stone in Scripture? The stone of Israel. The rock
of Israel. The one foundation. The sheer foundation. The triad stone. The precious
cornerstone. He is represented by the one
that Moses was put into, the cleft of the rock as the Lord
passed by and showed him his glory. He is a stone of help. Samuel set forth the gospel.
This is what he is doing. He set this stone and he said,
hitherto hath the Lord helped us. He declared to everybody,
this is how we were saved by the Lord of glory. This is our
gospel. This is what we preach. He'll
not forsake his people for his great namesake. This was his
banner. This was his word, his proclamation,
his declaration to the people. The Lord has saved us. He's the
stone of help. This is our song. Tears unavailing,
no merit had I. Mercy had saved me or else I
must die. Sin had alarmed me, fearing God's
face. But now I'm a sinner saved by
grace. That's my story. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only
a sinner saved by grace. Can you say that? Is there anybody
here that can say that? Have you seen this battle fought
and this war won by our Savior? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell them their warfare is accomplished. It's accomplished. Christ accomplished
it. I've rewarded them double, the
Lord said. Verse 13 says, So 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. Samuel is a picture of Christ.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect is God
to justify. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that dieth, yea, rather that is risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, whoever liveth to make intercession for
us. All the days of Samuel, all the days of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our God, our Father is against the enemies, brethren. He's against
our enemies. You will know Him and trust Him.
He's against our enemies. Look here now, this is the good
part. This is the good part. Verse
14, And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel
were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath, and the
coast thereof did Israel deliver of the hands of the Philistines.
The Lord, when He said, Comfort ye My people, He said, I have
rewarded them double for all their sins. I give them a double
portion of everything. The firstborn got the double
portion. Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. And we're
sons. Those that are born of the Spirit
of God have received the Spirit of adoption. We're sons. And
if children, then joint heirs with Christ. If so, be that we
suffer with Him. If we continue in the faith and
hold fast this profession of faith, joint heirs. Everything
God owns belongs to His people. Everything Christ owns belongs
to His people. Everything. Everything. But this is the best part. Everything
that we lost in Adam has been restored in Christ. Everything
we lost in Adam has been restored by Christ, the last Adam. But
here's something even better. We've been justified of all sin.
Sin's been put away as far as the east is from the west. He
said your sin and iniquity I'll remember no more. But even more
than that, listen now, the believer has been made the righteousness
of God in Christ. He offered himself through the
eternal spirit. He obtained eternal redemption.
Believer has eternal life. And because it's God who purchased
his church with his own blood. You know what that means? I can't
be lost. They can't ever fall. They cannot
be lost. They cannot perish. Unblameable, unapprovable, as
holy as God is holy. Christ redeemed have a better
standing than Adam ever had. Better standing than Adam ever
had. We can't be lost. We can't be lost. It costs too
much. His name is Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. He said, all that the Father
has given me, they'll come to me. And I won't cast them out. I'll give them eternal life,
and no man can pluck them from my hand. My Father is greater
than all, and no man can pluck them from my Father's hand. My
Father and I are one, he said. Now look at verse 14. Here's
the title of the message. And there was peace. And there
was peace. And there was peace between Israel
and the Amorites. You meditate on that thought.
Peace. Peace with God. Peace with the enemies. Peace.
There's peace now. Being justified by faith. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access into
this grace wherein we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of
the glory of God. The holy law satisfied. God's
righteousness has been imputed to His people, to the believer. The believer has been born of
the Spirit of God, made a partaker of the divine nature. Sin no
more has dominion over us. Grace reigns. Now Christ reigns
in the heart. Hell has no claim on Christ's
redeemed. Dead, the last enemy that will
be destroyed is death. The stinger's gone out of death.
It's gone. Sin is the strength of sin. Sin's the strength of death.
And it's gone, the sting of death. It's gone. Death's got no more
sting. Well, what about Samuel who typifies
Christ? What about him? Look at verse
15. And Samuel judged Israel all
the days of his life. You know where Christ is right
now? He's passed into the heavens. All judgment's been given to
Him of the Father. All judgment's been given to
Him of the Father. And the judgment's put away for
His people. It's put away for His people.
And He's reigning and ruling over His people all the days
of His life. You know how long that is? He's
the high priest after the order of Melchizedek, having neither
beginning of days nor ending of days. I can't even enter into
that. I don't even know anything but
time. But he's eternal, and he reigns and shall. He said of
David, he said, David, I'm going to give you a throne, and there'll
be no end to your government, be no end to your throne. Peter
stood up there on the day of Pentecost, and he said, that's
speaking of Christ. He's the king. He has the throne
of David. This same Jesus, whom you crucified,
God has made both Lord and Christ, had no end to his reign. No end
to it. Christ must reign till he hath
made all his enemies his footstool. To Jesus, our atoning priest,
to Jesus, our superior king, who saved this sinner who is
chief. His glory I'll forever sing.
And there was peace. Peace. I sure do thank you. I hope that was a blessing to
you.