May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word, and may it prove
to be a time of blessing for our souls tonight. Let's turn
into the first book of Samuel, and chapter 7, and we'll read
the 12th verse. The first book of Samuel, chapter
7, and reading the 12th verse. Then Samuel took a stone and
set it between Mishpah and Shenn, and called the name of it Ebenezer,
saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us. Quite clearly, Samuel desired
that Israel might have something to remind them of the wonderful
victory that the Lord had given to them and therefore He took
this stone and set it up so that they would not forget and the reason for it was that they might
remember when they saw that stone hitherto hath the Lord helped
us it's a good thing to remember
in our lives times when God has helped us. Sometimes perhaps
we need to make a special effort to produce something. Perhaps we write and make a note
of the things that God has done, the victories the Lord has brought
upon us and for us, and the favours perhaps that we received from
the good hand of God and therefore not to pass them by so that they
are forgotten but to do something whereby we might remember what
God has done and of course in this case it was a wonderful
deliverance because the Philistines have been subdued and it's interesting
to know that 20 years previously in this very place the Philistines
had beaten the Israelites and now there was a complete change
and therefore all the more reason why the Lord should graciously
be honoured and glorified. And so in this chapter we have
this account of how the people desired that there might be this
blessing and Samuel spake to the house of Israel saying if
you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts and put away
the strange gods and astro from among you and prepare your hearts
unto the Lord and serve him only. And he will deliver you out of
the hand of the Philistines. Well, that was the good and kind
and gracious words of Samuel to Israel. We might think, well,
there was something to do. They had to turn away from those
false ways that they'd been following. What was the result? What did
they do? Well, we're told, and the children of Israel did put
away Balaam and Ashtoreth and served the Lord only. So we need
to remember that relevant condition. We cannot expect God to bless
us if we're serving other gods. And what a mercy it is when God
enables us to truly serve the true God, the Lord only. And so when this occurred, Samuel
said, gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto
the Lord. So all the people came together.
They didn't think, well, that's irrelevant. They recognized the
importance of providing prayer. And what a blessing for us today. If we realize the relevance of
prevailing prayer, especially in the sad day in which we live,
when Satan is very active, we need to pray and we need to pray
and we need to pray. So Samuel said he would pray
unto the Lord. And the people gathered together
at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord
and fasted on that day. And said there, we have sinned
against the Lord. Again, confession of sin is a
wonderful grace and a wonderful favor. Not to think that we are
righteous and self-righteous and what we're doing and what
we're saying is good and right because we need always to examine
ourselves before God and to come to this. Because in our best
things, we still sin against God. And so here we're told we
have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children
of Israel in Mizpah. And when the Philistines heard
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. 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. It reminds us the words of the
Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians when he spoke to them and told
them to pray without ceasing you know we often forget to pray,
don't we? but it's encouraging to have such statements as this
to realise that we must not cease, but we must continually pray
to God it's not vain repetition because our heart desires The
Lord were here, and the Lord will come. So Samuel took a sucking
lamb and offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord
for Israel. And the Lord heard him. Isn't that a blessing? When God
hears the prayers of his people, the Lord's ear is not heavy that
it cannot say, let us always remember that. We know that the
Word tells us it's our sins which are separated between us and
our God. And therefore we are to favour
to be able to come continually to confess our sins, recognising
the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So Samuel cried, the Lord heard
him. And so often in the Word of God
we find that God brings about a victory in a way that Israel
or the people of God would have been unable to produce. And that's just the case here.
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. Well, I'm sure we've all heard thunder. Sometimes
thunder's not very heavy, not very loud. But sometimes, sometimes
if a storm is overhead or very near, the thunder can be exceedingly
loud. The lightning can be very bright
and it can be very frightening. And we can realize that it is
the Lord that brings thunder and lightning. Man can't produce
it. He may have tried, but he can't
produce it in the same way that God does. And so here on this
occasion, God did that which man could not do. Isn't it wonderful
to read the occasions that God does these wonderful things? It was a time, of course, when
Elijah was on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal and they'd
endeavoured to bringing fire down from heaven to burn up their
sacrifice and they were totally unsuccessful but Elijah prayed
unto God and God heard his prayer and the fire came down and not
only burnt up the sacrifice but to prove the greatness of God
consume the stones consume the water that had been put in a
trench round the altar all to prove the greatness of God that
it was God that was doing it. Well, on this occasion, the Philistines
were smitten. Prayer had been heard. Prayer
had been answered. So let us not be discouraged
in our life to think that the Lord does not hear. But the Lord
does hear. The Lord does not answer. The
Lord does answer. But you see, there were conditions.
as we've gone through in this little account before the time
of this favour and before this time of blessing. We need therefore
to follow the gracious words and the gracious directions of
our God in these things. And so we're told in the men
of Israel, went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and
smoked them until they came under Beth-kar. And so there was a
great and wonderful glorious victory now we read you don't
think was that Samuel then sat down and folded his arms and
said well that was a wonderful victory and now we're just carry
on I wanted to mark the occasion in a way that Israel would not
forget and so he took a stone and set it between Mishra and
Shen and called the name of it Ebenezer saying hitherto hath
the Lord helped us. What a good thing it is when
there are those things brought about whereby we indeed remember
what God has done. You know, we see, don't we? We
go to a cemetery and what do we see? We see stones, don't
we? Lots of stones. And those stones
are to remember the people that have died. give their name and
they give a little bit about them and they're there to remember
people who have died well on this occasion there was much
more to remember and what a good thing it is when you and I might
remember and so they put this stone up they put this stone
and Samuel called the name of it Ebenezer that is the stone
of hell The Lord had helped them. The Lord had been with them,
which are recognised today. We have a God who still comes
and still brings about wonderful victories. It may not be in battle
like it was here. It may be in our lives in one
way or another. But it's good to see the Lord
going before us and hearing and answering prayer and causing
us to cry unto him urgently. And without ceasing, and then
to observe the great and wonderful favour and blessing of almighty
God as he brings about the victory which he did here. And so Samuel
took this stone, called it the stone of help, placed it up and
then said, hitherto hath the Lord helped us, hitherto really
meant up till now. Yes, up till now. We and I don't know the future,
but we can look back. I hope we can look back and recognize
that in our lives the Lord has helped us hitherto, hitherto
up to the present moment of time. He hasn't ditched us. He hasn't
cast us away as a cumber of the ground, but he's been gracious
to us. may remember in the life of the
Apostle Paul, when he came to speak before those high and lofty
people in his days to give an account of his life and what
he said and what he'd done before the kings and before the rulers.
And in that statement, he was able to tell them, having obtained
Help of God, I continue unto this day. You see, there he was
on that occasion. Yes, and of course, they could
have easily have cast him aside, but in actual fact, they didn't,
and they were very gracious to him in these things, and they
favored him, and listened to what he had to say. They didn't
agree with what he had to say, but at least they were willing
to listen. 26th chapter of the Acts of the
Apostles, we read what the Apostle said. Having therefore obtained
help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to
small and great, saying none other things than those which
the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should
suffer and that he should be the first
that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the
people and to the Gentiles. Well, it was to the end of his
wonderful testimony, his defense before Agrippa that he was able
to give. And he came to this wonderful
conclusion, acknowledging the greatness of God, saying that
he had obtained help of God through all that he'd been able to speak
of it was God that had given him that help he didn't forget
these things and it's so important for us in our lives to testify
that it's the help of God that has brought us thus far and to
also be able to speak forth of those great truths you see the
Apostle grasp the opportunity. We often pass by the opportunity. It's often a difficult thing.
And we know it might be costly if we grasp the opportunity to
speak of the things of God. But here the apostle gives us
a wonderful example and a wonderful testimony. He didn't pass it
by. He said he'd obtained help of
God. He said he continued on to this
day. He tells us, witnessing both the small and great, didn't
matter who he was before, at every opportunity, the apostle
desire to witness the truth of God. And what did he say? He
tells us. None other things than those
which the prophets and Moses did say should come. It's wonderful,
again, to go back in the word of God to those prophetic statements
that came to pass as a wonderful proof of the truth of the Word
of God, that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first
that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the
people and to the Gentiles. Well, in a few words, there was
the truth of the gospel and, of course, almost immediately
He had a rebuff. Festus said, Paul, thou art beside
thyself. Much learning does make thee
mad. Well, the apostle wasn't going
to accept that. He says, I'm not mad, most noble
Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. And then he turns to the king
and says to the king, for the king knoweth of these things,
for whom I also speak freely. For I am persuaded that none
of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not done
in a corner. And then he asked the king directly,
Believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. And
so then we come to one of the very sad verses in the Word of
God, what King Agrippa said. He says, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian. Well, my friends, may we not
be an almost Christian, but may we be a true Christian, a true
believer in the grand and glorious truths of the gospel set forth
in the word of God and set forth very succinctly, very simply
by the Apostle Paul in these few verses and so therefore let
us thank God that we have these testimonies in the Word of God
hitherto hath the Lord helped us up till now the Lord has helped
us well can you confirm that? can we confirm that in our lives?
yes up till now. God has helped us. Helped us
in your school life. Helped us in perhaps your college
life. Helped us perhaps in our work life. Helped us in our home
life. Helped us in every avenue of
our lives. Let us not deny it. Bless God
if we can confirm it. as the blessing and favour that
God has granted to us. It's good, you see, to remember
these things. It's good to acknowledge that
it is God that has done these things. Because Samuel here tells
us very clearly, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. He didn't
claim anything. He didn't say, well, of course,
it was my prayers. that were answered. We have to
be very careful, you know, in our lives, not to claim credit
ourselves. It's the pride of our own nature,
which lights a pat on the back. We're not to claim any virtue
ourselves. We are to recognise what the
Lord has done, the hand of the Lord. What a mercy then to know
that hitherto hath the Lord helped us a great mercy because it is
the hand of the Lord. You see the next verse 13 tells
us so the Philistines were subdued they came no more into the coast
of Israel and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines
all the days of Samuel. If God before us who can be against
us may indeed encourage us May that indeed strengthen us in
our life as we walk through this world. We have many encouraging words
of help in the Word of God. Many words from the Psalms. You know, of course, that well-known
Psalm, 121st Psalm, where the psalmist says, My help cometh
from the Lord. He had no doubt where his help
came from. my friends tonight may we have
no doubt where our help has come from in every avenue of our life
every avenue in our life to realise it is the Lord who has helped
us you know the psalmist tells us in the 28th Psalm the Lord
is my strength and my shield my heart trusted in him. If we
pray to God, if we pray earnestly to God, if we pray from our heart
to God, then you see we must be trusting in the Lord. We can't pray and not trust. Such prayers are vain prayers. Such prayers have no value. The psalmist confesses, and it's
good for us to make confession. The Lord is my strength and my
shield. He needed a shield against all
the fiery darts of the devil. And we do today. The devil's
always throwing darts, fiery darts. And if they gain access,
you know, they're very painful. They cause pain. pain to our
heart, pain to our soul but you see if the Lord gives us that
shield of faith to resist the devil what a blessing that is
and he says my heart trusted in him and again the psalmist
is very honest and it's good to be honest sometimes people
are hypocritical in their statements and they don't like to tell the
truth and they like to pretend in some pseudo holiness they
doubt whether It is so. But here we have the confession. My heart trusted in Him. Then
he says, and I am helped. Yes, he was. And what a blessing
it is for us. And he was able to go on and
say, therefore, my heart greatly rejoices. If you and I were to
trace out God helping us Surely our heart rejoices in what God
has done for us. Surely our heart is glad. Surely we do rejoice. The Lord
has been mindful of us and helped us. What a blessing that is.
My heart, he says, greatly rejoices, greatly rejoices. If God has
helped us, we should greatly rejoice, shouldn't we? The Lord's
heard our prayers. The Lord's greatly helped us
and therefore he's given us this great favour of greatly rejoicing. And with my song will I praise
him. Desires to praise God. So that's
the true outcome of receiving God's help. The desire to praise
God. that God from whom all blessings
flow. And going on to the 51st Psalm,
54th Psalm rather, we read, Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is
with them that uphold my soul. Again, the psalmist directs very
clearly our thoughts to this greatness of God. God is my helper. If you were us tonight, well,
Who helped you to do this? Who helped you to do that? Who
helped you last week? You stand and say, well, God
is my helper. God has helped me do this and
God has helped me to do that. And it's good to look back in
our lives to occasions when we were in difficulty. We didn't
know what to do. Perhaps couldn't solve a problem. Didn't know how to solve it.
Might have been a theoretical one, might have been a physical
one. What a blessing if, in that time
of need, we called upon the name of God for help. Yes, it's a blessing, isn't it?
You can pray to God at any time. You should remember the occasion
of Nehemiah when he stood before the king and the king asked him
what the problem was and he was fearful. And he tells us, then
I prayed to the God of heaven. There is no situation in our
lives when we cannot pray to almighty God. There is no time
too short when we cannot pray unto God. No. And it can be a very short prayer.
We have that occasion in the Word of God, in Matthew's Gospel
15 and 25 about that woman who needed help with her child. And
she prayed a very, very simple prayer. Lord, help me. Well, I'm sure we can all realise
whatever situation we find ourselves in, there is always time to pray
a prayer like that. Lord, help me. And God hears
an answers prayer and God brings answers to pass so that we can
bring praise under his name. Let us always remember the Lord
is worthy to receive praise. He's worthy to receive honour
and glory from us. We should never pass him by and
think it's irrelevant. to thank God. The devil wants
you to thank God. He wants you to rejoice in what
you've received, and to immediately forget it's God who's been your
helper. Well, merciful is our God, gracious
is our God, and good, therefore, when we're able to come and thank
Him for His deliverances. David tells us, again in the
118th Psalm, about the Lord being on his side. He says, the Lord
is on my side. Isn't that humbling? The Lord
was on the side of Israel on this battle at Mizpah. And again,
can we look back and see when people have perhaps been against
us. We've been in a tight corner. And what we found is God has
been on our side. Yes, perhaps the Lord has stopped
people's mouths. He hasn't allowed them to say
what they wanted to say. God has been on our side. What a wonderful evidence of
the greatness of God. What a wonderful evidence of
the faithfulness of God. What a wonderful favour to realise
of His mercy to warn us. He looked upon us and heard our
prayer. The Lord is on our side. And
so he comes and says, I will not fear what can man do unto
me? And he goes on to say, Thou hast
thrust at me sore that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The devil will do all he can.
to make us fall, won't he? You see, it's very easy to fall. It's very easy to listen to the
devil. We only have to look at the example
of Adam and Eve, don't we? Having been clearly told they
should not eat of that fruit, and to remember the words that
the Lord has spoken, and yet so solemnly disobedient to the
word of God. Left by the Lord. we so easily
sin. What a mercy then to recognize
the great truth of God. Thou hast thrust sore at me that
I might fall, but the Lord helped me." Again, you see, recognizing
the goodness and mercy and favor of Almighty God so that we can
indeed bless the Lord. That's wonderful. I think the
book of Hebrews is a very great wonderful book to encourage us
and to instruct us and in this epistle the Apostle tells us,
he comes down towards the end of this epistle, in the 13th
chapter and the 6th verse he says, well let's start on the
5th verse, he says let your conversation Be without covetousness, and
be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say,
boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man
shall do unto me. It's really going in the strength
of the Lord God, isn't it? And relying upon Him to help
us, not looking to ourself. The Lord gives that help. And
so Paul's able to speak these words to Hebrews. We've already
spoken about Paul when he was before Hephaestus and the king. But there are many other occasions
in the life of the Apostle Paul when He endured much opposition,
but he was never afraid to testify boldly of the help he had received. Remember, when he was on that
ship, travelling, and they were in the centre of that hurricane,
and the sailors didn't know what to do. So what did Paul do? He prayed to God. And he was
able to boldly say, the Lord stood by me. The Lord spoke to
me. The Lord helped me. And this
is the result. And he was able to tell them
that they would not lose their lives. They would lose the ship,
but they wouldn't lose their lives. Wonderful evidence of
the goodness of God. And so he says here, so that
we may boldly say the Lord is my helper. Yes, confidence in
God. My friends, God is the same today.
He hasn't changed. We're told in this same epistle,
Jesus, the same yesterday and today and forever. Let us always remember that he
hasn't changed. He's the same God that heard
Samuel's prayer is the same God that was with the Apostle Paul,
the same God that was with David and helped and strengthened him.
I am the Lord, I change not. We have the same wonderful, almighty
God. He is the God who has formed
us. Isaiah was blessed with that
same confidence in his God. He was able to acknowledge that
this is the Lord that's made me, the Lord who has made thee
and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee, fear not. So if God's on our side, we have
nothing to fear. If God has given us that faith
to believe the Lord is with us. You must remember that we must
not expect God to help us in things which are not right. in
things which are not in accordance with His will and purpose. But
if the Lord has set before us the right way, we should believe
the Lord will be gracious to us and the Lord will indeed help
us. Indeed, our help is in the name
of the Lord, who has made heaven and earth. This is a God who
has formed us. This is a God who has made us.
This is a God who is being with us. May we recognise that we have
this God. He who has helped us, as the
hymn writer says, hitherto will help us all our journey through. I think that God will be with
us in the journey of life. All our life. Every moment of
our life. We don't always perhaps realise
it. That God never leaves. He said,
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. so that we may
boldly say indeed the Lord is my helper what a blessing that
is to recognise and to be able to have faith to believe the
word that the Lord speaks is true today and so the Lord will
take us safely through life we may perhaps fear the future the
future may be difficult the future may appear very dark But if God
be for us, who can be against us? If God is for us, it means
he is and will be our helper. And so if God be for us, who
can be against us? As you and I travel through our
life, but think and have that confidence in the greatness of
our God, who does not deal with us as our sins deserve, but is
merciful to us and has prepared the way. He's prepared the way. That's an ordained path. As the Lord spoke when he spoke
to his disciples in the upper room, you have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you and ordained you. He's ordained us. He's ordained the path for us.
Every detail of it. You should go and bring forth
fruit and that your fruit should remain. our life is to set forth
what God has done in our lives, that fruit which he has granted
to us, to give a testimony of God's love and mercy to us, and
especially indeed as we read of that testimony of setting
forth the love of God to our souls, and that love of God which
reveals to us the path of salvation and reveals to us the Lord Jesus
Christ has indeed walked that path to redeem our souls, to
save our souls from that death of going eternally into hell. It is the blessed work of the
Holy Spirit. And so tonight, can we believe
the Lord helps us day by day to trust Him that He will bring
us safely through. He will indeed not leave us,
that He won't forsake us, that He'll be with us to land us safe
above, to land us safe in glory, to be with the Saviour forever
and ever, to recognise that He helps us right through. the valley
of the shadow of death as David said I will fear no evil for
thou art with me yes God is with his people and he helps them
he's with them close by he doesn't forsake them he helps them in
the same way that Samuel was able to encourage the people
by raising this stone of Ebenezer saying hitherto hath the Lord
helped us. So many occasions there were
when stones were erected, when Israel went across Jordan and
to come into the promised land. There was that instruction by
Joshua to take 12 stones, a stone representing every tribe and
to erect them. So again, it would be that evidence
of what God had done. And you may remember also that
when they won and gained the glorious victory, the Israelites
against the Canaanites and all the other nations, the two and
a half tribes which had their land on the other side of the
river Jordan, which they passed over. And as they went back to
it, what did they do? They built an altar. and initially
of course Phinehas and the others were distressed they thought
they were going to cause a false worship and bring a curse upon
them but they were able to tell them satisfactorily no, they
built this altar to remind the people of what God had done so
that whenever they saw this they would think of God's wonderful
deliverances it was a good and a right desire. And so as we
think of these things, we have right desires in our life, to
raise Ebenezers, to recognize what God has done in bringing
about a deliverance, bringing about a victory so that we may
have reason to praise and thank our God and thinking of it in
a very personal way, what a blessing it is. When God shows us that we are victory, we gain
the victory through our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. As the
Word tells us, we are more than conquerors through Him. And it's because the Lord has
helped us. It's because the Lord has enabled
us to look to the Saviour and to see what He has done in order
to redeem our soul. He's taken away all our sin.
He shed his precious blood to redeem us from all our sin. What a mercy then to have the
evidence of God's love toward us and to recognize as we journey
on day by day, he has helped us and to believe he will help
us. To therefore thank God for this
truth that we read in this verse Samuel took a stone and set it
between Mishra and Shem and called the name of it Ebenezer saying
hitherto hath the Lord helped us well I hope all of us tonight
before God can confess and say by the grace of God the Lord
has helped me