Let's be turning to 1 Samuel
chapter 7. I want to begin reading verse
12. 1 Samuel 7 verse 12. Then Samuel took a stone and
set it between Mizpah and Shem. and called the name of it Ebenezer,
saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped us." Now this is the time
when this place is given that name, Ebenezer. It had been mentioned
in chapter 4 and chapter 5, but it wasn't yet called Ebenezer
until this time here. And Ebenezer means the stone
of help. And our stone of help is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the stone upon whom we
stand complete and accepted before God. Outside of Christ, there
is no acceptance with holy God. There is no forgiveness. There's
no life, no light, no fellowship outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. in Christ is all those things. All those spiritual blessings
are in Him. And this stone of help was put
there as a means of causing Israel to remember. For you and I to
be mindful of what the Lord has done for His people. For Israel here, it's a reminder
to them of how the Lord defeated her enemies, how the Lord delivered
her. She was unable to deliver herself
of her oppressors. And everything she tried, she
was unable to succeed in giving herself relief from her enemies,
the Philistines. But this chapter now is intended
to serve as a reminder for believers in every generation, not just
Israel then, but the true Israel of God even now. This is to put
our heart and mind upon the hope of our salvation, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so these verses here, we'll
see they testify to you of the mercy and grace of God to you
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see how our God takes his
people from dead works, wicked works, idolatry that cannot save. We saw that in chapter 4 when
Israel tried to deliver herself of her oppressors. And the Lord
didn't give them the victory. They were defeated. Then they
turned to religion. They brought the Ark of the Covenant
into the camp, thinking that if we do these things, if we
practice this religion, then God will bless us and it'll be
our salvation. Well, it wasn't, because God's
not going to let his people. have any vain, false idea that
it's their works and religion that saves them and gives them
blessings by their doing. No, not at all. Our blessings
are all of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we saw how the Lord,
when he was in the camp of the Philistines in the Temple of
Dagon, how that the Lord destroyed and defeated and tore down the
idolatry of man. A picture of what he does in
our own hearts and minds to deliver us from dead works and idolatry. And so we'll see. We're going
to look at this chapter here. And in this chapter, I want to
show you seven memorials, seven things that our Lord gives us
in this stone of our help to remind us of what our God has
done for you that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. because
that's His work of grace. And when He delivers you in Christ,
and when He manifests the glory of God and the grace of God in
Christ in your heart, these are the blessings He works for every
one of you that this day believe the Lord Jesus Christ. So first,
we're going to look at seven memorials. First, we see there's
a division in the people. The Lord puts a division between
His people and those that are not his people, between the wheat
and the chaff. The Lord puts a division between
the sheep and the goats. He puts a division between them
that he gives faith to, and therefore they are of faith, and those
that are of the flesh. And we see this first in the
men of Beth Shemesh, when the ark came to them back in chapter
6. And when the ark was returned, they rejoiced for a time. They
rejoiced for a season. They sacrificed to the Lord. And they were curious. And their
curiosity had them look into the ark. And we're told back
in 1 Samuel 6, verse 19. Look there. And he smote the
men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark
of the Lord. Even he smote of the people fifty
thousand and threescore and ten men, and the people lamented,
because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great
slaughter. Now, that might be 50,000 and
70 souls, but it might be saying there that of the 50,000 inhabitants
that were there, the Lord smote 70 men, 70 people. Either way, this is the thing
that we're not to miss. Curiosity in the things of the
Lord. Looking to the Lord with just a curious notion and passing
to see what you can see, what dark things you could see, what
hidden things you can learn. Without a heart of grace, without
a converted heart, it's death. It's death. It's not going to
save you. Just being curious about the
Lord. Look and taste and see that the Lord is good. But don't
come in your own strength. Come pleading and begging God
for mercy and grace to bless you. To give you that heart to
seek Him. To give you an understanding
in the Lord. And so these people showed they
had no heart of repentance given to them. Look now at 1 Samuel
6, 20 and 21. And the men of Beth Shemesh said,
who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall
he go up from us? And they sent messengers to the
inhabitants of Kirjath-Jiarim, which is the city of the forest,
saying, the Philistines have brought again the ark of the
Lord. Come ye down and fetch it up to you. They wanted the
removal of the ark from them. They wanted the presence of the
ark put far from them, just like we saw in chapter 6 when the
Philistines wanted the ark put far from them. They wanted it
removed. And so that brings us here to
chapter 7, verse 1. And the men of Kirjath-Jerim
came. and fetched up the ark of the
Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill,
and sanctified Eliezer his son to keep the ark of the Lord."
Now, just historically, this is probably when the priesthood
came back to the proper lineage of Aaron's sons. It had been
the younger son, Eli was of the younger son of Aaron, not the
eldest. And so perhaps that's what we
read of in Judges when you read of that priest who was way off. in what he believed, and was
very wishy-washy at the end of Judges there. Perhaps that's
when it's telling us when it came under Aaron's youngest son
as opposed to the oldest. But now it goes back to the oldest
of Aaron's sons, and it's also we see the Lord removing the
ark from Joseph's tribe, from Ephraim, and bringing it near
to Judah where it would ultimately find its resting place in Judah. So that's what's going on historically.
The psalmist even writes this, Psalm 78 verses 67 and 68 says,
moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe
of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which
he loved. But here's the spiritual picture.
We see here with these men of Beth Shemesh and those of Kirjath
Jerarim how the Lord puts a division. It's a picture. It's to show
us that the Lord puts a division in his people. And we're to preach
and to declare the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the
people because that's how the Lord saves his people through
the hearing of faith. And we declare Christ. And that's
the spreading forth of the saver of the knowledge of God in every
place. That is the saver of Jesus Christ. And by that saver, God
manifests His will and His purpose in every place. And so we see
this. Paul, or rather Peter, speaks
of this in 1 Peter 2, verses 6 and 8, where we see the Lord
puts a division between them that are of faith, those that
he gives faith, and them that are of the flesh. And he said,
wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. You that trust Christ
shall never be ashamed for trusting Christ and trusting his righteousness. If you trust your own righteousness
and your works, you will be ashamed to stand before God. But if you
trust the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, you shall never
be ashamed. That's what that word confounded
means. You will not be confounded. You will not be ashamed. You
will not hear God say, what were you thinking? Why did you trust
my son? No, he's going to say, well done
thou good and faithful servant, enter into thy rest prepared
for thee from before the foundation of the world. Because you believed
God, you trusted the son. And that's what he manifests
in the hearts of all those he loves and gave to Christ before
the foundation of the world. They believe Christ and trust
him. It's his gift in the Lord Jesus Christ, life and salvation. Now listen to what Peter goes
on to say, 1 Peter 2, 7, unto you therefore which believe he
is precious. We preach Christ because he's
precious to us. He's all our salvation. If I
didn't believe it, I wouldn't speak to you about Christ. I'd
tell you what to do. But the Lord has shown me that
my works are wicked. And his word says, your works
are wicked, and cannot save you. But Christ is able to save to
the uttermost by the death of himself, and you shall never
be ashamed trusting in him. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, or rejected, or set
aside, The same is made the head of the corner. That's the one
that God exalted, Christ. But man, in his religion, rejected
Christ. But that's the one whom God,
the Father, exalted. That's who is exalted before
his people this very night. Christ, Christ is all, he's salvation. And a stone of stumbling, and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. And so in Beth
Shemesh, the Lord made known his power and glory. He brought
the ark back. He delivered himself from the
Philistines, having defeated the Philistines, and shamed the
Philistines, and brought them low. And they rejoiced for a
time in Beth Shemesh, until they started dying. And then they
wanted it out of there. It became a savor of death unto
death in them, but in them of Kirjat Yerim, a savor of life
unto life. A picture of Christ and how he
divides the people. And that's the first memorial.
is that we see how the Lord separates the people, how the Lord puts
a division between those that are His and those that are not
His. And you that are His, that's
a blessed memorial stone, the stone of our health. Now, the
second thing that we see here is the patience of God in dealing
with His people and in instructing His people. Look at verse 2,
1 Samuel 7, verse 2. And it came to pass, while the
ark abode in Kirjath-Jerim, that the time was long. For it was 20 years, and all
the house of Israel lamented after the Lord." It had been
a long time since the defeat of Israel back there at Ebenezer,
before it was called that. It had been 20 years since their
defeat, and their shame and all the things they tried to do.
It had been 20 years since that ark was taken and was with the
Philistines for seven months and back now. It had been 20
years. 20 years now, a long time. And what we see here is how the
Lord patiently dealt with his people, Israel, to make them
to see their infirmities, their sins, their wicked deeds, but
the grace and mercy of God in providing for them. You know,
if you look back 20 years, you that are over 20 years old, and
you look back 20 years now, that's a good amount of time for us
that are but a vapor. Us that are here and gone quickly. 20 years is a good amount of
time to us. And when you look back, If you're
here today hearing the gospel, believing the Lord Jesus Christ,
you look back at that 20 years and you see all kinds of memorials,
all kinds of remembrances of how the Lord has dealt with you. You see times when you exalted
yourself and the Lord brought you low. You see times of sorrow,
times of suffering, times of great difficulty, times when
you thought, I'm not going to survive this. I'm not going to
make it through this. This is hard. I don't think I'm
going to see the other side of this and the good on the other
side of this. And yet through all that, all
those times when when you were pressed out of measure, those
times when you were dealt with by the Lord and rebuked in His
word and brought low in yourselves, and then how He comforted you
with His gospel and brought you through those times. And you
can look back and say, Lord, you've brought me here as it
is this day. And you purposed to do this.
I wouldn't have brought myself here, but you've brought me here.
And you can look back and see all those times where the Lord
kept you and dealt with you. And rather than slay you, He
had the donkey you were on just crush your leg up against the
wall and prevent you from being slain when the angel of the Lord
stood in your path. And how He saved you rather than
destroying you as your sins deserve. I can testify to that. how the
Lord is gracious, and very kind, and patient, and deals with his
people the way we have need of being dealt with, to bring us
to see this day. Lord, thank you. Thank you for
your grace. Thank you for not destroying
me, though my sins deserved it, and for giving me repentance,
and turning me from death, and turning me from the world, and
turning me to Christ, and blessing me in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For some of us, we can honestly say it's a wonder that I'm even
here. And if we're all honest, when we see it, it's truly wonder
that any of us are here, because it's all of His grace, all of
His grace and mercy. And so 20 years, the Lord's dealing
with His people for their good, and to make you to know as you
know this day, Christ is all, because that's not of the flesh,
that is of His spirit and of His grace to give that to His
people. I like the verse that Isaiah
30, verse 18, where he says, and therefore will the Lord wait
that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore will he be
exalted that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God
of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for him. And so all this time, these 20
years, the Lord has sweetly influenced his people and blessed them under
the ministry of Samuel. instructing them and saying,
don't go to the left. Nope, don't go to the right.
Don't go that way. You go this way. And he brings
us in the way of Christ. And he does it. He does it. He
does it perfectly and prepares them and makes his people ready
for his grace and for his blessings in the day which he purposes
to bless his people. and speak with them. So that's
the second memorial of his grace to us, is to behold, just look
back and you'll see, you know, if I'm really honest, I can see
the hand of the Lord and how he dealt with me and his people
all through the way. You can do that every decade,
every 20 years, every year if you're still young, you could
see how the Lord, it's how he leads you and brings you through
the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now third, We see in verse 3,
in Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel. We see here
the blessing that the Lord gives to his people to give them the
word, to bless us with the preaching of the gospel, to bless us with
the hearing of faith. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. to do for you more than just
have you sit on the couch and listen to tapes and CDs or online. He blesses you with a fellowship
and brings you into his fold, into the inn. And he provides
for you and gives you a pastor and blesses you with his word. That's a comforting thing. That's
a memorial. That's a testimony of God's grace
and kindness to you, to keep you. Because anyone that spent
time on a couch, in their living room, all alone, maybe with their
family, but with no one else, it's lonely. And you think foolish
thoughts, and you can justify a lot of things on your own.
But it's a gracious thing when the Lord brings you and brings
his sheep together. That's what sheep are meant to
do, to be together. And so, if you don't have that,
move. That's not for you here, but
I mean, anyone listening, if you don't have that blessing,
go to where there is a gospel church. You know, there's a lot
of buildings on many corners, but I heard someone say, and
I think they're right, you know, they said Ichabod here in chapter
four, when the Ark was taken, and Phineas' wife said, Ichabod,
for the glory of God is taken, they noted that could be said
on, put on many church doors, Ichabod, the glory of God is
removed, it's taken, it's not there. And so, If you're in a
local assembly where the gospel is preached, that's a blessing. That's a memorial of God's grace
and kindness to you. That's a blessing. Now here's
the instruction. Here's the fourth thing. The
instruction they heard. Look at verses 3 and 4 with me.
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, if ye
do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away
the strange gods and Ashtoreth, so the plurality of gods, Balaam
and Ashtoreth, single, 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. Then the children of Israel did
put away Balaam, and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only. Now, what you just heard, you
that hear Christ and believe him, you just heard the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What do I mean by that? When
we hear that, what does God do when He declares the gospel of
Christ and what Christ has done to save His people from their
sins? How that He was sent to the Father,
took upon Him this flesh, but without sin, as the fit sacrifice,
went to the cross in perfect obedience to the Father, having
fulfilled all righteousness, Having kept the law perfectly,
he laid down his life, bearing the sins of his people, and put
away our sins forever, and obtained life and forgiveness for us,
all by himself. He did that. That's the gospel.
And because Christ did that, God raised him from the dead
and gives us light and life, his spirit and all the spiritual
blessings. All right. So now when you hear
that, what you just read there and you can read it again later,
that's the gospel. Because what it's saying there
is we are turned from idolatry. We're turned from the dead works
and idolatry of this world to we are given a heart for the
Lord. We're given a new heart. He takes
out that dead, hard, wicked heart and gives his people a new heart,
his spirit. That gives us a new heart. And
we're given faith. He manifests his life in us by
the revelation of faith, by giving us faith, which looks to Christ.
And fourth, we are delivered from the power of our enemies.
Now let me tell you what that means there in the gospel. We're
to hear this instruction not in the covenant of works under
the law of Moses. That's not how we're to hear
that because we, by nature, have no ability to hear that, no desire
to hear that, and no ability to obey the truth of God perfectly
in all things. We can't do it. We don't do it. We're to hear it in the new man
of faith. We're to hear it in faith, all
right? Now, what does this mean? First of all, the blessing of
Christ to his people in the preaching of the gospel, what the Lord
does when he gives his word power, he turns the sinner who's dead
in trespasses and sins, he gives us life, and he turns us from
trusting in dead, wicked works religion. Trusting that this
is my salvation, and thinking this is how I save myself, and
this is how I get blessings from God, is doing the practice of
this religion. Whether it's this doctrine, or
that doctrine, or this ceremonial thing, or that ceremonial thing,
people put their trust in that. To this day, they're still trusting
it. They use the name Jesus, but they put their trust in dead
works religion. And the Lord turns his child
from trusting that to trust in Christ, that he is all my salvation. He is the very salvation of God's
people. He is the savior. We don't save
ourselves by religion and the practice of religion. We are
saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the one who blesses
his word. He's the one who takes, the spirit takes of the things
of Christ and he blesses them to our hearts that we trust in
him and rest in him. So like he said, turn from your
idolatry. That's what he does in the gospel.
He turns us from wicked works is what Paul called them. That
is works of religion, wicked works and trust in Christ. And
then second we see here, that new heart, that's the giving
of his Holy Spirit, who gives us a new birth, who gives us
life from spiritual death, and trusting that we knew God. And
we're blessed of God in that dead works religion. And we're
turned to Christ. And we have a new heart that
believes Him. And that's the third thing. He gives us faith
to rest in the finished work of Christ. He gives us faith
to believe that He's everything. And then the life and power of
Christ delivers us from the power of the enemy and all our enemies. And this was the purpose of the
Son of God being manifest was to destroy the works of the devil. Again, you can read in Colossians
2, you can read in Ephesians 2, which speaks of us being under
the course of the spirit of the world, and going the way of the
world, and he delivers his people from that spirit, and that unclean
spirit. Let me read Romans 6 to you.
Knowing this, this is under the the heading of he delivers us
from our enemies knowing this that our old man is crucified
with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth
we should not serve sin that body of sin when we which we
served in Adam We serve that even in religion. Some people
just go out and just live the way they want to live in the
world. Others are very religious in the world. But it's the body
of sin trusting our works to save us. It's all the serving
of sin and the body of sin. Well, Christ destroyed that dominion
and power over us so that now we're not fearful and afraid
and running to and fro in religion trying to fix what we've ruined
and trying to make right by our works in religion. Now we're
trusting Christ. Now we're turned to Christ. And
that's a deliverance. To have that peace in Christ,
to know that when I sin, that I can go to the Lord and ask
for His forgiveness. Because He does. I don't love
my sin. I don't want to see sin in me,
but it's there. It's present in these members.
But we have an advocate with the Father. We can go to the
Father and pray, Lord forgive me for Christ's sake. and rest
in Him and trust Him to remove that guilt and the shame and
the fear. Rather than trying to somehow,
I don't know, punish ourselves to a degree to finally feel comforted. We will never. That's not salvation. That's not peace. Christ is peace. Christ is all. And so, that fourth
memorial is that He blesses you to see Christ in the Gospel. And that's how he turns you from
idolatry, and gives you a new heart, and gives you faith, and
defeats all your enemies. It's in Christ. In Christ. That's
the fourth. Now, let's look at verses five
and six. And Samuel said, gather all Israel
to Mizpe, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered
together to Mizpih and drew water and poured it out before the
Lord and fasted on that day and said there, we have sinned against
the Lord. And Samuel judged the children
of Israel and Mizpih. And so what's the Lord doing
here? Why did he bring them to Mizpi? Well, Mizpi was either the very
place or very near the place where Israel had gathered 20
years earlier to save themselves from their oppressors, to deliver
themselves from the oppression of the Philistines, their enemies.
A picture of all our enemies. And they were defeated. They
weren't successful. And then they got religion, and
they still weren't successful. And then the Lord destroyed idolatry
in all those pictures we saw there. He brought them right
back to that spot as a memorial to show them where they sinned,
where they ruined things, where they did their own thing and
failed, and God humbled them so that they were brought to
see, I'm the sinner. And the Lord shows us that, and
we know We know that all we've brought to this thing is a sinful,
ruined nature and cannot save ourselves. And we need God's
grace. And so the Lord brings his people,
that fifth memorial there, to look back and to see, Lord, how
gracious you've been, because I'm the sinner and I deserve
to be destroyed. But you, Lord, are very gracious
and kind. The Lord, it's not that we can
look back and see no sin for many years. That's not our comfort. That's not salvation. It's that
we can look to Christ and see how the Lord is gracious to us
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I like what Isaiah said in Isaiah
40 verse 2 when he said she hath received at the Lord's hand Double
for all her sins. What does that mean? What's the
double for my sins? One, it's that rather than punish
you for your sins, God forgives you for your sins. That's one
thing. I deserve punishment, I deserve
eternal death in hell, but God forgave me for Christ's sake. And the second thing is He gives
you life and fellowship with Him. That's the double. You don't
deserve any of that. I don't deserve any of that.
But in Christ, He forgives for sin and gives you life and fellowship
with Him and keeps you there. That's the double for all your
sin. Now, verses 7 and 8. We're told, When the Philistines
heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpe,
the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when
the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. Now Israel wasn't there for war.
They weren't prepared for war. They were going there to worship
the Lord. And so they weren't, they didn't have any carnal weapons. They were there seeking the Lord.
Verse eight, and the children of Israel said to Samuel, now
this is, excuse me, very different from how it was before. They
said, cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he
will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And what
the Lord does here in this sixth memorial is he brings us to see
our justification. The reason why God is just to
forgive you of your sins and just to give you life and all
these blessings is because sin has been punished in the Lamb,
the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why God may be
gracious and merciful to you. who don't deserve anything. Look
at verse 9, and Samuel took a sucking lamb, that is a baby lamb still
nursing, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord
for Israel. and the Lord heard him. And so
that is the basis of our hope. The basis of our acceptance with
holy God is because the punishment of sin has been satisfied. The
holy justice of God is satisfied in Christ. And that's why God
is merciful to us who are sinners, to us who have no righteousness,
to us who don't come to God with our own works of filthy rag righteousness,
but come to Him in the blood of Christ. God receives sinners
in the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Him alone. That's our hope there. And so
that's our sixth memorial there. And that's why Christ is so precious
to us. That's why it's so precious.
Now, this is our final passage. Look at verses 10 through 13.
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. He sent them running in terror.
And they were smitten before Israel. They were defeated before
Israel. So in this seventh memorial here, we're made to see how that
the Lord fights the battles of his people, and he overthrows
our enemies. He silences the accuser. He's the one who turns the heart,
which was doing wickedly, and turns us again to the Lord. He's
the one who brings us to cry out to him, Lord, save me. Lord,
forgive me. Lord, heal me. Lord keep me,
Lord turn me. He's the one who defeats all
our enemies and gives us victory over all our foes. And so that
we know and are assured that in that day, though we be dead
and laid in the grave, Christ shall return and he shall call
us with his voice and we shall rise out of that grave. The grave
cannot contain us, death cannot keep us, nothing can turn us
from the grace and salvation of our God. And the men of Israel,
it says in verse 11, went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines
and smote them until they came unto Bethkar. Then Samuel took
a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shem, and called the name
of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. And
so we see in these perfect number of memorials how that the Lord
has been so gracious, so kind to us as it is this day in blessing
us richly with all spiritual blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, verse 13, the Philistines
were subdued. All that death resulting from
our sin is dealt with and defeated in Christ. 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 Lord continues to subdue
our sin. He continues to turn us from
fleshly lusts which war against the soul. He'll humble us when
we have need of humbling, but he's the one keeping at bay our
enemies, his strength, his glory, his power, his honor. It's all
his in the Lord Jesus Christ. We glory in him. I pray he continue
to bless you in the Lord Jesus Christ and give you many, many
memorials of his grace all the days of your life, brethren.
Amen.