To All Israel

In the book of 1 Samuel chapter 7, we'd like to read a few verses of scripture and make some comments. I am convinced, I am sure, that everything that Samuel had to say has not been recorded. I mentioned in the past a number of times that if we lived in this day and time, that Samuel was alive, and that we loved the gospel, and we loved the God of the gospel, we loved the Messiah that had saved us, we'd want to be around a guy like this. because he is one among many, I mean, one among few that knew something about the gospel.

And he is so clear when he brings that gospel to these folks. Now, I think we also have here that Samuel is speaking about more of the glorious pre-incarnate pictures of the then coming Messiah. To him, the Messiah was the future. To us, he's been here and we look for him in the future, just as Job did. I know my redeemer liveth. and on the earth again shall stand. So Job understood that. We can understand that. And Samuel understood that. And those who believed understood that.

That's part of the revelation that the Holy Spirit gives to us in our salvation, is that we can have some understanding about what God is doing and what God has done. And here we find in this book of 1 Samuel 7, verse 3, And Samuel spake unto, and it is so interesting for me to read this, all the house of Israel. Now, whether they were all gathered there, God uses that word. We have it here in this, and it is symbolic of so much that we find with regard to the message of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ spake unto all the house of Israel. My sheep hear my voice. and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life." He's speaking to all the house of Israel in that line. Samuel is speaking to all the house of Israel and saying, verse three, if you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashdod from among you. When he spoke here, he's speaking to all the house of Israel, and he brings up this return unto the Lord, put away your strange gods.

And we have with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, that Christ, again, spoke to all the house of Israel, when he shares with us in Matthew chapter 11, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. That's to the house of Israel. That's not to the world, that's to the house of Israel.

And I want us to look at that, if you would, turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter 11, as we look here and we find out that, come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, is quite qualified in this very line of scripture. He qualifies who he's speaking to.

So turn with me, if you would, to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 11. In Matthew chapter 11 is that wonderful passage about God in Christ Jesus taking care of our burden. His burden is light. Let's hear in Matthew chapter 11, and beginning with verse 25, we read these words.

At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. It is so interesting, there's so much that's so interesting. It's so interesting to find in the Lord's prayer here as he prayed so often, the Lord of heaven and earth. He shares with us in his opening statements of his great sovereignty and that he is in charge of all things and nothing is left out of his attention. and all things work together for the good of them that love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

That's the whole house of Israel. Because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. I thank thee, Father, for what you've done. You've hid this, but you reveal this. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight, and whatsoever God deems good is good. He's never been bad.

And then it says, all the things are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. Now in that verse of scripture, we have all the house of Israel. all that the father will reveal the son to, whomsoever the son will reveal him. Come unto me now, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and give me rest. So those who are found in that verse of scripture, again, all the house of Israel, that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest.

And that means he is our Sabbath. He's not a Sabbath day. He is rest. The Sabbath day was put away. And people who want to keep it, don't pick up any sticks. Because the man who did was taken out in stone to death. So they're just sharing. The Lord is sharing with us that adding works to the gospel, adding works to Christ, adding works to salvation is not going to go well. All right. Come unto me all that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Every day God gives us the blessing of allowing us to learn of Him. We learn of Him in the Word. We learn of Him in the preached Word. We learn of him in the recorded word. Sometimes I have heard things in hearing the word read to me that I didn't hear when I read it to me. So there's a benefit to having the word of God read to us.

It may be the preacher. It may be the Sunday school teacher. It may be a CD. It may be the new phone you have, but they'll do it all. So it's just a blessing to listen to the word read. And I usually have a notepad there. It says, I didn't even know that was there. I didn't know that was there. So it's a wonderful thing. Take my yoke. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

So he is speaking unto all the house of Israel. And that's exactly what we find that Samuel was called on to do. What a type he is of the coming Messiah. He spoke to all the house of Israel and he's gonna give them some instructions. Before we go back over there, there's a couple of verses I wanna read in the book of Isaiah. So if you travel there with me, the book of Isaiah chapter 45, as we think about, All the house of Israel and all the blessings that God has provided for all the house of Israel. The blessings are not provided for anywhere else or anyone else. It is all the house of Israel.

So if you'll join me here in the book of Isaiah chapter 45 for our first reading. Isaiah 45 and there in verse 22. Isaiah 45 verse 22. We read this. Isaiah 45 verse 22, the scriptures say, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else.

I have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. that unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say to the, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength, even to him shall men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord, notice this, in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. All the house of Israel shall be justified.

What's that mean? Made just. The penalty that he endured paid for the price that we owed. We're just, we have that sin taken care of us. So in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. Only in the Lord will that happen, but all the house of Israel will have that happen. God is going to deal with his people in such a glorious manner that in the end, not one will owe anything. not a farthing.

I went into a store today and they said, well, we're going to have to round down here because we don't have pennies. I said, fine, save four cents. Good for me. Well, the penny, very low value, costs more to produce than it is worth. It's going to go out of our system of monetary value and so forth and so on, that's about what people would say I must owe, but that has even been paid. The farthing. Everything has been paid.

Join me if you would as we passed backwards towards our text is to the book of Psalms, the book of the Psalms. Would you join me in the book of the Psalms for a couple or three readings? Psalm 41, as we think of all the house of Israel and all the blessings that we find in the scriptures about what God does for all the house of Israel, all the house of Israel shall be justified and they shall come and he has All his sheep will hear his voice and follow him. He is the shepherd to all the house of Israel.

Just goes on. You know, we look at him, I'm the door, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. And we go to the Old Testament and Samuel said, he's the Messiah. He's in charge of all of Israel. Same thing, same message, same Christ, same gospel, same thing.

Didn't change over time. All right, the Psalms, Psalm 41. In Psalm 41, we read this verse of scripture, Psalm 41 verse 13, blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Now he's had all Israel in mind from everlasting and he'll have it in mind to everlasting. Amen and amen. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting.

Now I appreciate the Holy Spirit realizing that we have problems considering eternity. I do. People do. It's hard for us to come into grips with it. But I find that the Holy Spirit sometimes helps me with it by just simply saying, Old eternity, future eternity, it's all. From everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. So he is, has all Israel. He has been, his blessings are from everlasting to everlasting. And then follow me just a little further to Psalm 90. Psalm 90 in verse two. In Psalm 90 in verse two, we read this. Psalm 90 verse two.

This is that benefit that we have in an everlasting God, eternal God, had his mind on all the house of Israel from eternity and will have it on mine to eternity. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou has formed the earth, and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. So this God has his eyes on all Israel. His message is to all Israel.

And then Psalm 105, would you turn there with me? Psalm 105, and there in verse eight. Psalm 105 in verse eight. He speaks here in verse 10 and we'll jump ahead and just read this then we'll go back to verse 8 where he says, to Israel for an everlasting covenant.

He had all Israel in an everlasting covenant. All right, verse 8. He hath remembered his covenant forever. The word which he commanded to a thousand generations Which covenant he made with Abraham and his oath with Isaac and confirm the same unto Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant. What a message he has here that he speaks concerning all Israel. They're covered in an everlasting covenant.

All right, let's go back to the book of 1st Samuel chapter 7 and look at a few thoughts here in verse 4 of 1st Samuel chapter 7. Verse 4, as it is laid out in this message of Samuel to all Israel, as he brought them together as they are a symbol, and it is written to all Israel, and we can still enjoy the message to all Israel, that's the church. All right, in 1 Samuel chapter seven and verse four, then the children of Israel, what did he just do?

Verse three, he said, 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 Ashdod and serve the Lord only. Now that's what all Israel will do. They will serve him only. We put away our works just like He put away His works. We're not depending on works anymore. And as we look at this, the children of Israel did put away and serve the Lord only. And, you know, we have noticed, particularly when we went through the book of Judges, that every time a judge came along and that judge died, what did the children of Israel do?

They went right back to their idolatry. And in reality, they had really never put that idolatry away. It may be a secret thing, but they had never put it away completely. Now, this is probably a picture. This is a type, this is a shadow of what God does for all Israel.

All the people that he ever saved are not gonna depend upon idolatry any longer. First Thessalonians chapter one, they put away their idols. They turn to God from serving dumb idols. Well, when we look at Israel, as we look at ourselves, I looked at myself in religion.

Why did I trade religions? I was raised this, went down to Texas, heard something new, and switched over to this, and never had any difference of heart at all about it. What was it? What makes us want to trade religions? We think we're getting a better deal. I read the obituary of a woman I worked with in the school district.

And in there, I'd never seen this, but in there, at the very end, they had put in where she started in her religion, where she was in her religion, and where she ended up in her religion. It was a progress through time over different religions. And the reason somebody can do that is they think they're getting a better deal.

We don't think we're going to go downhill in religion. We want to go uphill in religion. We want to climb out of this. We want to get better. Well, we find that really that's what Israel did naturally. They will trade. They will go from God to Balaam. Why? Because they think they have a better deal.

Balaam never took them out and beat them. Balaam never left them in the wilderness to die. Balaam never said, he's a deaf mute. And they wanted that. They didn't want him telling them that they couldn't gather sticks on the Sabbath. They didn't want him telling them that they couldn't connive and trade and kill and all that other stuff. So they traded up. They didn't have this God after them all the time. This God left them alone and they could do just about what they wanted to do. Well, that's how people feel. And you know, it's often said that they put away idols, but secretly they kept their idols. Secretly.

Turn with me to the book of Isaiah, if you would. Isaiah 57, eight. Isaiah 57, eight. And I heard this. I've had people tell me that they're saved by grace, but you know, I have some, I have some family that are, they're going to make it because they're good. I have some family that made a decision for Jesus. I have some family that did this and I have some family that did that. So I have something more than they do, but they're okay. They're gonna make it too. They secretly are worshiping the very same thing that their family's worshiping and that is nothing.

All right, Isaiah chapter 57. Let me get there, Isaiah 57, eight. Behind the doors, also the post has thou set up thy remembrance. And that word could be translated idols. For thou has discovered thyself to another than me. and art gone up, thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them. Thou lovest their bed where thou sawest it. What's he say? In secret you have this going on. And we find this in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was told, there's a hole here in the temple, go take a look at it. And he looked in there, And they had all kinds of idols in the temple.

And if we go back to the book of 2 Kings, let's just do that. 2 Kings chapter 23. 2 Kings chapter 23. This is just an eye opener, what was going on in Israel. And it will just continue going on if God does not intervene and give us grace in Christ Jesus. In 2 Kings chapter 23.

Second Kings chapter 23, beginning with verse four, it says, the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the door to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal. We have a king here, he's one of the few. Israel had no good kings. Judah had a few, not many. And this is one of those that is trying to reform things. Well, we can try to reform, but it does not beat regeneration.

He goes on here to say, 1 Kings 23, verse 4. and for the grove and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. And he put away the idolatrous priest whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem, them also that burn incense unto Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. Sounds like Rome. Sounds like Greece. Sounds like the Dalles.

And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord without Jerusalem and the brook Kidron and burned it. Out of the house of the Lord he brought this grove, this idolatrous place, and stamped it to small powder and cast the powder upon the graves of the children of the people. And he break down the houses of the Sodomites. that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove." My gosh, we got sales Sunday going on here. House of the Sodomites, he broke it down.

He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense from Gibeah to Beersheba. break down the high places of the gates that were in the entering of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on the men's left hand at the gate of the city. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat the unleavened bread among their brethren."

What a state of affairs has been going on in Israel. This is Israel. This is not the Philistines. This is Israel. He turned them over to their own corruptness. All right. Israel often said that they had put away their idols, but they had not. And then we find here that the children, going back to verse 4 there in the book of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 7, verse 4, The grace of God, if this happened, the children of Israel put away Balaam and Ashtaroth. Now from a picture standpoint, from a type standpoint, that's what God's people do. They worship God.

And then it said in verse five, and Samuel said, gather all the children, excuse me, yes, all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. Samuel has promised to pray. I love what we read in John 17. Father, I pray for them that thou hast given me. I pray not for the world. I pray for them that thou hast given me. What a statement is made here.

They delighted and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said here, we have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. They gathered together and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted that day. So they came and said, we have sinned against the Lord. And he said, I'll pray for you.

And what a statement is made here about the prayer that God has for his people. And I pray for those who will believe through their word. He says there in John 17. Not just for my disciples am I praying for, but I'm praying for all those who will believe through their word. And one of the greatest prayers, for my sake at least, is Jesus speaking to one individual disciple and saying, Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you. God would pray for us, that Christ would pray for us. What a statement is made here. How intimate that is, that he would pray for us individually.

It tells us there in that verse of scripture too, that they fasted on that day. Now, when we went through, I think it was Ezra, When we went through the book of Ezra, we looked up that word fast and many times in the original that meant hold your mouth. Now the mouth is where we put food. So if you have you're really gonna food fast. But it means be silent before the Lord. It means that, and I think when we look at this, we find out that they fasted in that day and said, we have sinned against the Lord. They held their mouth.

In Judges 10.10, Judges 10.10, it says, The children of Israel cried unto the Lord, saying, we have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God and also serve Balaam. Over here we have, we have sinned against the Lord. They fasted and made that statement.

Remember what David said about all the atrocities that he had committed? with that woman, having her husband killed, all of the stuff that went on there. He said, against thee and thee only have I sinned. Now that, when they got a confession of faith out of me as a kid, they mentioned I was a sinner.

And you know what? I had done some bad things. But when the Lord saved me, I realized who my sin was against. It wasn't my mom and it wasn't my dad. Now they had, I'd done things against them and my brothers and my family and other people, but it was against God. He was the offended party, sinned against God. And that's, I think we see this here. We've sinned against our Lord. We've sinned against God. This is what it's against. Against thee and thee only have I sinned. Most of the time when Israel or the general public say they've sinned, it's just a trite word. It's just, there's nothing really to it.

But we do find out the wages of sin is death. And that's one reason every one of us around this table, everyone around before us and everyone after us is going to die. I ask the question, why do babies die? They're sinners. We don't like to think of it that way, but that's what they are. That's why they die. And teenagers and young adults and middle-aged people and old people and old people, is we are sinners. That is what we're going to face. Death, that's just it. But I love what Jesus Christ had to say, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we have that. The epitaph to all of those in the fifth chapter of the book of Genesis is, and he died. Every one of them. 27 verses. and he died. So sin will extract its wages, but the gift of God is eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 45, would you turn there with me to Isaiah 45? Isaiah 45 was one of those verses that struck me when I was listening to it. Isaiah 45, sometimes it's better to fast than to make an ill statement about God.

Woe unto him that striveth with his maker. Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What makest thou or thy work? He hath no hands. Woe to him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? Or to the woman, what hast thou brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the host, the holy one of Israel, and his maker, ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. So that verse of scripture, woe to him that striveth with his master.

So these folks fasted. They went through a picture at least of those who God saves. They quit arguing with God. They're not challenging God. They do not strive with God. They have an admission that they are the sinners that Christ came to save. And as it goes on there, just going back for a quick look, final thought here from the book of 1 Samuel chapter 7. 1 Samuel chapter 7. And then it says there, and they gathered together at Mizpah. Verse six, verse six.

Samuel, verse three, spake to all the house of Israel saying, if you return unto the Lord with all your hearts and put away the strange gods and Ashdod from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only, he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel put away Balaam and Ashtaroth and served the Lord or Jehovah only. And Samuel said, gather all of Israel, said, gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered. in Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said, we have sinned against the Lord and Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.

Now, the next thing that happens is those Philistines do raise up and we have here, without taking a Ark of the Covenant into battle, we have God taking care of the problem. And that's who does it. He's the one who takes care of our sin. Well, we'll stop there for tonight. Lord willing, next week, Brother Mike will bring a lesson on the living water. And there is something here. They drew water and poured it out before the Lord. And we'll let Brother Mike deal with that.

To All Israel

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To All Israel

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