1 Samuel 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. And it came to pass by
the ark abode in Kirjath-Jerim that the time was long, for it
was twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after
the Now you remember at the end of our lesson last week, the
men of Beth Shemesh were afraid of the ark. They didn't want
the ark in their town anymore because they looked inside the
ark and many, 50,000, I forget how many it was, there were many
men died because they looked in the ark. They were afraid
of the ark. They didn't want it anymore. But the men of Kirjath-Jerim
came and they took the ark back to their city with joy. Gave
the ark a place of honor. house on top of the hill in their
city. And they knew what happened to the men of Bethshemesh, but
they still were not afraid to take the ark to their city because
they knew that God had smoked the men of Bethshemesh in justice
because they looked inside the ark. And that's a kind of a picture
of the believer's life. A child of God knows the fear
and reverence and respect of the Lord. But we're not afraid,
not afraid of the Lord, even though we're sinful men and women.
A believer has no fear of God's justice because we know Christ
has been punished for our sins as our substitute. We're not
afraid of the presence of the Lord. We receive Christ with
joy. We pray for his presence in our midst. And the men of
Jerusalem, they gave a good home in their city to the ark of the
Lord. That home is a picture of Christ. It's Abinadab's home. His name means my father is willing
and my father is noble. Well, that's God the father.
He is noble, holy and majestic. And he's willing to save sinners
through the sacrifice of his son. And his son's name was Eliezer. And Eliezer's name means God
has helped. And that's what we're going to
see throughout this chapter, how God has helped his people.
Now Eliezer's job that he was given was to keep the Ark of
the Lord. He protected the Ark from the enemies of Israel, but
he also protected the Ark from the Israelites. He protected
the Ark and kept them from making the same mistake that the men
of Bethshemesh did, and because of over-familiarity, looking
inside the Ark and bringing destruction upon their city. And that's a
pretty good description of a job of a pastor. Pastor's job is
to keep Christ before the eyes of the people, to preach Christ
and to protect the pulpit. So only Christ is preached from
the pulpit. His job is to teach the people
the fear of the Lord, to come to Christ and worship and do
so reverently, to avoid the mistake of over familiarity that we see
in scripture and we see so prevalent in our day. Now the text says
after they brought the ark to Kirjath-Jerim that it stayed
there for 20 years. Actually the ark was there between
40 and 50 years. The ark stayed in Kirjath-Jerim
until David had been king for seven years and then he began
to bring the ark back out of Kirjath-Jerim. And what the text
means is that the ark stayed in Kirjath-Jerim in the home
of Eleazar and Abinadab for 20 years before Israel started missing
the ark. 20 years went by before Israel
started missing the ark and saying, whatever happened to that thing?
Whatever happened to the ark? Now, for those 20 years, they
had religion, but they had no ark. They didn't have the presence
of God. They didn't have Christ, even
though they had religion. For 20 years, they were very
happy. They have their altars and their
ceremony and so forth without an ark. And that is all false
religion is. Nothing has changed from this
day until today, 2011. Nothing's changed. That's all
false religion is. It's altars without Christ. That's what false religion is.
And you know, some, some of them are obvious, you know, but there
are religions, they preach about an event. that took place on
Calvary's Mountain, but they don't preach the truth about
who's that man dying on the center cross. That's what, they have
an altar, they have a cross without Christ. That man dying on that
center cross is the son of God. He's not a reformer. He's not
there making an offering to men, seeing how many men will accept
him and let him save them. He's the son of God. He's dying
there as a substitute for all those that the Father gave him.
That man dying on the center cross is saving his people from
their sins. He's putting their sins away
through the blood of his sacrifice. Now, I read this this week and
I thought and thought and thought about this. It struck me as very
strange. I've never heard anyone talk
about this, but it struck me as very strange. that during
the prime of Samuel's ministry, Israel didn't miss the ark. Israel
fell into idolatry during the prime of Samuel's ministry. I
mean, one of the greatest prophets who ever lived. And the only
conclusion that I could come to is this. The depravity of
human nature. They had this great prophet. Never listened to him. Didn't
hear a word he said for 20 years. Salvation is of the Lord. It's not dependent on the greatness
of the prophet or the eloquence or the ability of the prophet.
Salvation is of the Lord. No one will hear until God gives
ears to hear. No one will see until God gives
eyes to see. No one will believe until God
gives a heart that loves and believes Christ. And finally,
after 20 years, Israel begins to lament after the Lord. They
began to realize what a sorry condition that they're in without
the Lord. And that's the very beginning
of salvation. That's the beginning of true
repentance, is to realize our miserable condition without Christ. Salvation is not having something
happen to you, being saved so you avoid going to hell. Salvation
is much, much more than that. A child of God They do desire
to be saved from their sin, but not to avoid hell. They desire
to be saved from their sin so they can be with Christ. Salvation
is knowing Him, is having Christ. And the very beginning of this
whole process is being miserable without Christ. And that's what
they were brought to after it took 20 years, but they're finally
brought to that situation. In verse 3, so Samuel spake unto
all the house of Israel. saying, if you do return unto
the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods
and Asheroth 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." Now, over the course of these
twenty years, Israel had worshipped many, many different idols, and
the text only mentions two. Asheroth, who was some sort of
female deity, god of fertility of some sort, And Balaam, who
we're all familiar with. And Samuel's message is the command
of the gospel. He said, put away your idols
and worship the Lord with all your hearts and he'll deliver
you from the Philistines. And that's the command of the
gospel. Put away your idols. I don't care what heading they
fall under, what name they go by, put away your idols, put
away any rival to the Lord Jesus Christ and come to him. And he
will save you from your sin that keeps you in bondage, just like
the Philistines just constantly kept the Israelites in fear.
So, verse 4, then the children of Israel did put away Balaam
and Asherah, and served the Lord only. And Samuel said, Gather
all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. Samuel
says, You gather together in worship, and I will pray for
you. Now, I don't think you can really overemphasize how important
it is for each of us to pray for one another. It's so important
for us to pray for one another. God answers prayer. He hears
the cries of his people. And here in Israel, a great revival
is going to happen. And when the Lord saves someone,
whether it's many or whether it's just one person, almost
always you find someone praying. that God will save this person.
The Lord's laid it on someone's heart to pray for one of his
sheep and he saves them. But this is also a picture of
the intercession of Christ. Brethren, we cannot live without
the intercession of Christ. What did our Lord tell Peter?
Peter was so sure of himself, he said, I'll die for you. I
think it was Todd Nyberg. Peter was willing to die for
the Lord, but was he willing to live for Him? Was he willing
to be embarrassed for Him? Peter said, I'll die for you.
And our Lord told Peter, Satan has desired you that he might
sift you as wheat. But I prayed for you that your
faith fail not. And boy, Satan got a hold of
him, didn't he? Peter stumbled, but his faith did not fail for
one reason. The Lord prayed for him. The
Son always receives what He asks for of the Father, and we're
going to see why in a minute. But knowing that the Son, Christ
the Son, always receives what He asks of the Father makes us
love to read John 17, His great high priestly prayer. Here's
Christ interceding for His people, and that prayer is answered in
every detail. Now you listen to me. If Christ,
the Son of God, is interceding for you, you're saved. Your soul is eternally secure
and your sin is forgiven if Christ is interceding for you. And that's
what Samuel says, I'll pray for you. And look what happens when
Samuel prays for the people. Verse 6, they gathered together
to 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. And Samuel judged the children
of Israel, Mizpah. Now before a person can ever
be saved, the Lord must reveal to that person that they're a
sinner. You've got to be lost before you can ever be saved.
And this pouring out of water that they did, this was a public
confession that they are sinners. They're confessing that they're
sinners. They're confessing that they're empty and useless. They're
empty, just like that bucket. Once that water's dumped out
of it, it's empty. And that's what they're saying.
We're empty of anything good. And we're useless. Just like
that water. Once it's poured out on the ground,
unless you're watering plants or something, it's useless. You
cannot gather it back together and put it in that bucket. That
water's lost. And that's what they're saying
we are. We're useless. What we've lost in Adam, we can
never gather together and put back in the bucket. And that
is what baptism is. Baptism is simply a public confession
that I'm a sinner and that Christ is all my hope of salvation.
My sin was laid on him. And when he died, I died in him. When he was buried out of sight,
I was buried in him. And when he arose from the grave,
I rose to newness of life in him. Now, I like what our pastor,
he said this several times. Baptism is not salvation. God
wouldn't give you a plug nickel for a confession of salvation
where that person has not followed the Lord in believer's baptism.
A believer, someone who believes and has seen the Lord Jesus Christ,
loves to confess Him publicly. It's a joy. And the people here,
they made a confession of their sin. They turned from their idols
to serve the Lord. Well, the rest of their life
is going to be walking in a park, isn't it? No, it's not. The Philistines are still their
neighbors. Now, they turned from their idols to serve the Lord,
but the Philistines are still right next door. It's just like
sin. It's still in a believer. And
because of that fact, there's always going to be a warfare.
Well, that's what happens in verse 7. When the Philistines
heard that 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. Now the Philistines hear about
this meeting and they assume it's a meeting for war. So they
come and set themselves to battle. Now there's going to be a battle.
I mean, it's just unavoidable. There will be a battle because
as long as Israel and the Philistines are together, there's going to
be war. Israel, it's impossible for them
to live at peace with the Philistines any more than it's possible for
a believer to live at peace with the sin that's in us and around
us. And Israel is afraid. And rightfully so. They don't
have a good track record fighting Philistines, do they? It looks
to me like every time they fight the Philistines, they get slaughtered.
They're afraid. So they ask Samuel to pray for
them. The same way a believer is afraid,
afraid of our sin and what we would do if the Lord takes his
hand off of us, afraid of the world around us. So we cry to
the Lord to intercede for us. And Samuel prayed for him. Look
at verse 9. 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, and the Lord heard him. And as
Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew
near to battle against But the Lord thundered with a great thunder
on that day upon the Philistines, and disconfited them, and they
were smitten before Israel. Now Samuel prayed for the people,
and the Lord gave them the victory in the exact same place that
twenty years ago they were defeated twice, in the exact same place.
Now Samuel told the people earlier, just a little bit ago, you turn
from your idols and serve the Lord, and he'll deliver you from
the Philistines. And that's exactly what the Lord
did in it. We can always and should always believe the word
of God. There is not a word of error
between the covers of this book. This is the word of God. Always
believe it. God honored his word. He did
exactly what Samuel said that he would do. And look back in
chapter 2 of 1 Samuel. He fulfilled the prophecy of
Hannah too. The first Samuel 2 verse 10, this is part of Hannah's
prayer that we studied. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder
upon them. In just a few pages over, that's
exactly what he thundered upon them. There was lightning and
thunder. The writers say there was an earthquake that swallowed
up some of the Philistines and that thunder just knocked the
rest of them over backwards. Lost all their weapons and so
forth. The Lord gave them the victory. Now Samuel is a picture
of Christ interceding for his people. Now you remember earlier
I told you Christ always receives what he asks of the Father. Well
why is that? Why does he always receive exactly
what he asks of the Father? It's because of his sacrifice.
His blood, his sacrifice. As Samuel was Offering that sacrifice
and offering prayer to God as the sacrifice was being burned,
God smoked the Philistines with that thunder. And when Christ
intercedes for his people, he's not asking his Father for a favor. My daughters can come to me and
ask me for a favor, and not always I do it. Christ is not asking
his Father for a favor. He's not asking his Father to
deny his holiness and turn his head and ignore the sin of his
When Christ intercedes with his Father, he's asking for justice. He's pleading the merits of his
blood, the blood of his sacrifice. He says those sins have been
paid for by my blood. And those sins are forgiven based
on the sacrifice. Forgive them for my sake. Now, there's a host of people
gathered together here in Mizpah. And Samuel offered one lamb.
And all those people are saved. All of them were saved from the
Philistines. Not one Israelite died that day because of the
sacrifice of one lamb. And Samuel offered that lamb
whole. Now that's a picture of Christ,
the lamb of God, who has taken away the sin of the world. It's
the whole Christ that saves. You don't just take part here
and part here and ignore the rest. It's the whole Christ. It's who he is, who he is eternally. It's his life. It's his death.
It's his resurrection, it's his ascension back on high, and it's
his intercession for his people right now at the right hand of
the Father. It's the whole Christ. You see,
prayer alone didn't save Israel, did it? Even the sacrifice alone
didn't save Israel. It's the sacrifice and the prayer
together. It's the sacrifice and the blood
applied. It's the sacrifice and the intercession
of Christ that saves. And the men of Israel went out
of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them until they came
under Bethkar. Then Samuel took a stone, and
set it between Mizpah and Shinn, and called the name of it Ebenezer,
saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. 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. 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 out of the hand
of the Philistines, and there was peace between Israel and
the Amorites. And the Philistines, the Lord
thundered upon them, the soldiers went out after them, and they
were completely destroyed and subdued." Now that is what Christ
has done with the sin of his elect. He's destroyed that sin. He's destroyed sin's power to
condemn, and he's subdued the controlling power of sin in his
people. Now, sin is still in the believer. Sin still raises its ugly head
all the time. But just like the Philistines,
its controlling power is subdued. And there's peace. There's peace
in the heart that God puts in his people. Israel enjoyed peace
in the land that God gave them. And all the land that Israel
had lost through their weakness, you know, they go into battle,
you know, and they lose land and they just keep losing and
losing and losing when they fight with their own strength. But
when God thundered upon the enemy, all the land they lost was restored.
Everything, absolutely everything and more that we lost in Adam. is restored to the believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this stone that Samuel set
up near Mizpah is what I want to talk about for just a minute.
Mizpah, the name Mizpah means watchtower. And the name Ebenezer
that Samuel gave this stone means stone of help. And this great
stone is set, I have a book at home. Haley's Bible handbook,
and there's a picture. He's got a picture, he says,
of this stone. I mean, it's a huge thing, just out in the middle
of the field there. And that great stone was a constant reminder
to Israel when they walk by and see that stone of how the Lord
helped us, how the Lord delivered us and gave us the victory. So
that in the future, when they're in trouble and they see that
stone, they can be reminded, oh, in the past, how the Lord
helped He'll help us in the future, too. That's what that stone was
set up as a reminder of. I have a story for you. In 1735, a boy named Robert Robinson
was born in England. When he was 10 years old, his
father died. He became an incorrigible, incorrigible
child. His mother finally gave up when
he was 14. She sent him away to England,
or to London, excuse me, to be a barber's apprentice. And he
was no better there than he was at home. He became a drunken
hooligan. And when he was 17 years old,
he and a group of his friends decided they were going to have
some fun one night by going down to a meeting at the local church
that had been advertised. And they were going to go make
fun of the preachers who were preaching there. And they went
and heard George Whitfield preach. And that night, the Lord saved
Robert Robinson, that rebel, drunken rebel God saved him. Five years later, he wrote the
hymn, Come Thou Found. Can't you just see that man sitting
there writing, Oh, Grace, how great a debtor. Daily I'm constrained
to be. And he also wrote this line,
Here I raise my Ebenezer. Here I raise my stone of help.
Hither, thus far in my life, by thy help I've come. by thy
good pleasure safely to arrive at home. And every one of us
here in this room can look back over the course of our life,
and this morning put up a great stone in the mizvah, the watchtower
of our mind, and say, hither, up to this morning in my life
have I come. Hither by thy help I have come,
and I hope by thy same good pleasure to continue safely to arrive
at home." We can look back, every one of
us can look back over the trouble that we've had up to this morning
in our life and say, the Lord's delivered me out of them all.
By his power and by his grace, he's delivered me out of them
all. Well, he'll do the same thing. I can look at that great
rock in the watchtower of my mind in the future when I'm in
trouble. And remember, hither by thy help
I've come. Well, he'll take me on too. When
sin seems to overwhelm us, oh my goodness, it just breaks your
heart and it's just overwhelming. Look to that Ebeneezer. Look
to the Lord who is our stone of help and be reminded how God
sent his son to be made sin for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Look back to Christ, the stone
of our help, how he saved us from all of our sin. He saved
us from all the sin that we hate. The sin that we feel has caused
us to lose fellowship with God has been forgiven. It's been
put away under the blood of Christ. Now come to Christ, come to the
Father in full assurance of faith. Pour out your heart before him,
just like Israel poured out that water. He'll forgive. Just like he's forgiven in the
past, he'll forgive today and he'll forgive in the future.
Look to that Ebenezer, that stone of hell, and it will remind us
God's faithful. I'm not. I mean, that bothers
me so much how unfaithful I am. But that's not the hope of our
salvation, is it? Look to that Ebenezer. God's
faithful to his covenant. He'll help in the future just
as he has in the past. He'll forgive in the future just
as he has in the past. Every believer has gone through
trials. And we'll keep going through
them. They're never going to end. And the Lord has helped us and
eventually delivered us out of them all. And he's helped. He's
given grace for the hour, every hour, up to this moment, hasn't
he? Well, he's going to do so in
the future, too. We have sicknesses. He's healed in the past, hasn't
he? He has. And he'll heal in the future,
too. Now, I'm not telling you by any means that God's going
to heal you of every disease you ever had, because one of
them is going to take you home. I'll tell you this, he's healed
us of every sin sickness happening. And one day, he's going to plum
heal us. We'll be plum healed. And this
is what I can promise you. We're all going to be healed
of every disease of this life, but this is what I can promise
you. No sickness is going to last forever. One day, we're
going to be healed. We'll be perfectly healed. And
until then, he'll give grace for the hour, just like he has
in the past. He will give grace for the hour
through the rest of our life. Just like the songwriter said,
I hope, I trust, I believe by thy good pleasure, by your power,
by your grace, by your mercy, safely to arrive at home. What
about trial of need? Whatever the need is, we are
poor and needy creatures. Whatever the need, hasn't the
Lord always provided in the past? Can you look over one point of
the history of your life and say, you know, the Lord didn't
provide? No, you can't. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. As He's provided in the past,
He will today, and He will in the future. His very name is
Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. Well, He's going to provide for
this present need as well. What about the trial of darkness? Life's hard. I mean to tell you
life, this life is hard. I don't want to be healed of
every physical disease I ever have. Does that mean I have to
stay here? Life's hard. But I mean to tell
you there's trials of darkness and turbulent storms that you
are confident is going to send you to the bottom of the ocean.
Have you ever been sent to the bottom of the ocean yet? Hasn't
the Lord always, eventually, said, peace, be still? He will
again. He will again. But you know what,
after he says that, there's another storm on the horizon. Cesar Roche
told me one time, he said, when I was a young man, he said, there'd
be stormy days, and then there'd be periods of blue sky. Then
there'd be a stormy day, periods of blue sky. He said, now that
I'm old, occasionally there's a sunny day, and then clouds
one right after another roll in. They constantly roll in.
And every time, the Lord says, peace, be still. And one day,
like our brother Cecil, the Lord's going to say, peace, be still. Come on, peace eternally, be
still. And you could go on and on and
on with examples, but whatever the trial, whatever the heartache,
and there are many, put this on the rock, in the
mizpah of your mind, the Lord has never left you alone. Never. Not for one moment. He
promised. Remember how we say you can believe
his word? He promised in his word, I'll
never leave thee nor forsake thee. I will be with thee to
the end." So next time something comes upon us that causes us
to fear, look to that Ebenezer. Hither, by thy help, I've come,
and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. All
right. Lord bless you.