we've been looking at first samuel
and particularly the ark of the covenant this box this box that
they carried wherever they went and how it symbolized the gospel
and we saw it taken from israel captured by the philistines and
when it was captured ikabod you know ikabod can you remember
what ikabod His name means, it means the glory has gone. Why has the glory gone? The Ark
of the Covenant's gone. Why should you write Ichabod above virtually
every church door in this country today? There's no gospel there.
There's no gospel of Jesus Christ there. Ichabod, the glory, the
glory of God is the gospel of his grace. And that has gone.
And the Philistines took that ark into the temple of Dagon. This is what we saw last week,
into the temple of Dagon. And the gospel confronted idolatry. And we saw what happened, how
Dagon fell on his face, and how the Philistines who'd taken it
were seriously, seriously suffering, physically suffering, for their
disrespect to the gospel. And do you know there's a lesson
in that? And it's entirely consistent with the rest of the Word of
God. All who disrespect the Gospel in this life will reap painful,
shameful, eternal consequences. The Philistines did physically.
All who disrespect the Gospel in this life will reap painful,
shameful, eternal, spiritual consequences. Now in chapter
6, which we're going to skip, We have the wanderings, it went
all over the lands of the Philistines, and they're trying to get rid
of it because it's causing them such trouble having this Ark
of God, it really is causing, they're in terrible pain and
physical sufferings, wherever it goes it's a curse to them.
How can we get rid of it? And it's because they're not
respecting it as the Gospel of Grace, which only Israel can
do. And we see in chapter six, we're
not going to look at it in any detail, but we see unregenerate
human wisdom. What they did was they made metal
images of the things that were reflecting them, hemorrhoids
and mice, to try and appease God in a sort of a superstitious
pagan way. And then we see in verse 7, they
get a new cart, and they try and make an offering, two milk
cows, and they try and make an offering, but it's worthless,
because it's not the offering that God has specified. And in
verse 9, they hedge their bets. as so many people do, so many
people say well I want to live with all the pleasures of the
world but you know there might be something in this eternity
thing so I better back both horses and then in the end one of them
will come home to roost and that's what they do in verse nine they're
hedging their bets is it God or is it chance that this thing
will go away and then it comes to Beth Shemesh so it's starting
to come back into Israel but the men of Beth Shemesh they
disrespect it They think, oh look we've got it back, that's
great. They open the lid and look inside. Who was permitted
to do anything with the Ark of God? Just the Levites, only the
priests. And the men of Beth Shemesh looked
inside and thousands of them were slain. Verse 19, 50,070
men were slain and the people lamented. Why did that happen? Because
they disrespected it. Because they looked inside the
Ark. That was disrespect to the Ark
of God. All the while, Israel was in
idolatry. Then it ends up going to Kirjath-Jerim
in verse 21. And there having been that great
slaughter of those who disrespected the Ark of God, which is a symbol
of the Gospel of Christ, it then goes to Kirjath-Jerim. So it's
back in Israel. But in Kirjath-Jerim, it's there
for a long time. We read that in verse 2 of chapter
7. It's in Kirjath Jerim for 20 years. That's a long time,
isn't it? Some of you here have not yet
lived 20 years. Some of you have only just lived
20 years. That's how long it was there. It was a long time.
And we read that all the house of Israel lamented after the
Lord. But all that time, all that 20
years, we can tell from verses 3 and 4 and 5, all that time
Israel had the ark of God at Kirjath-Jerim but they hadn't
given up their idols. There was still idolatry going
on, they still had false gods, they still had the false gods
of Baal and Ashtoreth. What was going on during that
20 years? What was going on during that time? I'll tell you what
I think was going on. It doesn't say explicitly, but
I think what was going on was that Samuel was going around
the whole of Israel, Samuel the prophet, and he was preaching.
He was preaching the gospel of grace to little groups, probably
little groups like this. He was going round from place
to place. What was he preaching? He was preaching the need for
justice to be satisfied with God. He was preaching the only
thing that could satisfy justice, the same thing that Abel saw
when he killed his lamb and brought his lamb to God. The same thing
that Seth saw, and Enoch, and all of those, that Noah saw.
The same thing that they all saw, all the way down. The same
thing that was revealed to Abraham when God brought him out of the
idolatry of Ur of the Chaldees. He showed him what was necessary.
Abraham will have a seed, a seed with a capital S, in whom there
will be a seed with a small s that no man can number. Look at the
stars, can you number them? No, I can't number them. Right,
in the same way, you won't be able to number the seed that
will come from you because that's who I am going to save from their
sins. How? And then he shows him in
various symbols and various ways and various types. He shows him
by taking his own son Isaac up onto that mountain. to kill him. Why was he going to do it? He
knew justice had to be satisfied. And so it is, all the way down
the Old Testament, they knew, this is what Samuel was teaching
them, he was teaching substitution, substitutionary atonement, the
satisfaction of the justice of God by a just and fitting substitute
who would come for his people. And Israel began to lament, because
that work of preaching God says this about his preaching, about
his word, it will accomplish the purpose for which he sends
it, it will not return to him void. If he's pleased to do it,
perhaps even these messages in our little gathering here, as
they go out on the internet and round this room, that they will
accomplish their purpose as well, that God will use them for the
glory of his name, to call sinners out of darkness into his marvellous
light, into the gospel of his grace, into the truth of everlasting
life. Samuel preached then, and Israel
came to lament. What is it to lament after the
Lord? To have a yearning inside. I know there's something serious
about eternity. I know I'm not right with God,
I know I need to be right. You know when you're out of sorts
with a dear friend, or a member of your family, and you know
there's something not right, and it's got to be put right.
There's a lamenting, isn't there? This can't go on, I've got to
be right. You know there might be tension in a marriage, and
you might not be speaking for a few days, and it's not a good
situation to be in. And you say, this is just not
right, this has got to be put right. Israel lamented after
the Lord. We wish we were back in a good
relationship. We know we haven't been. We know we've done things
that are completely wrong. So Samuel told them what they
must do. look down in verse 3 Samuel spake
unto all the house of Israel saying if you do return unto
the Lord with all your hearts then here are the things that
you must do he gives them three things that they must do you
must put away your idols you must get rid of your false gods
Balaam and Ashtoreth we don't have gods of Balaam and Ashtoreth
do we? Maybe not little carved idols,
you know, molten metal carved or cast idols. No, we don't have
that, but we do have idols, don't we? Sins of pride, of self-confidence,
sins of covetousness, various lusts of all sorts, false gods,
false gospels that are no gospels at all. Remember I said last
week, they have about as much value to purchase salvation as
monopoly money does, to purchase goods in the shops or pay your
debts. No value whatsoever, looks like the real thing, sounds like
the real thing, might even in a way feel like the real thing,
but has no purchasing power at all. these false Gospels that
are not true Gospels, that have got all of the sounding and appearance
of the Gospel of Christianity, but they can't save and they
can't bring peace. Put it away. Come away from it. Anybody listening, if where you
go and what you listen to is one of those false Gospels, it's
an idol. Put it away. Come away from it.
Get rid of them. Get rid of them. Prepare your
hearts, he says in verse three, prepare your hearts unto the
Lord. This just isn't an external reformation,
or we're not going to do that thing anymore. No, it's not just
external, it's internal. It's an internal thing. If you
want to return to the Lord, put away your idols and confess your
sin. Speak to God. Confess your sin. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Commit your life absolutely unequivocally
to his service. Say what Joshua said, you know
in Joshua 24, when Joshua is telling the people how wayward
they were and how prone to wonder they were, and Joshua says to
them, choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord. You do what you want, well
no don't, serve the Lord, but this is what I'm going to do.
That's what it is, prepare your hearts, be committed. And thirdly,
thirdly, look, what does he say? Serve him only. Serve him only. Jesus said you cannot serve two
masters. You cannot serve God and mammon. You know, the things of God and
the things of the world. You have to partake of the things
of the world, but you don't have to serve them. While you're in
the flesh you have to partake of them, but you don't have to
serve them. Commit your heart wholly to the Lord. Serve God
only. How do we serve God only? Oh,
by doing all sorts of things. Not at all. Get this right. We do not serve God by doing
a whole list of things that people, religious folks, tell us we must
do. We serve God by faith. By faith. Where do I get that?
Not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Oh Lord,
give me faith. Give me faith. The disciples
asked Jesus on more than one occasion, Lord increase our faith.
Give me faith. What is faith? Sight of the soul. Give me that spiritual discernment
which the natural man doesn't have. To look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. To be committed to his cause.
To be devoted to his truth. to have above all else the objective
of bringing honor to his name. For he is the one, if you are
going to heaven, he is the one who has saved your soul from
sin. Put him first in everything. That's what it is. Serve him
only. Put him first in worship, in family, in work, in finances,
in everything. Put him first. God will not let his children
go begging bread. Nobody ever impoverished themselves
by committing to the service of God. And verse four, that
good intent was put into practice. Verse four, then the children
of Israel, they heeded what Samuel had preached to them. Whether
this was all at one go or in little groups, I think it was
in little groups as he went around. The children of Israel did put
away Balaam and Ashtoreth and served the Lord only. But it's
clear from the rest of the text that they were still afflicted
by the Philistines. You know when we trust the Lord
Jesus Christ, when we come to faith in him, does that mean
that all of our troubles are over? Not at all. We have non-stop
battles in this life with the flesh, with sin, with all sorts
of things around us. Not at all. Do the children of
God not get sick, get ill? Of course they do. They get the
diseases that everybody else gets. They get all of those things.
No, none of those things are taken from us. The Israelites
were still afflicted by the Philistines, but there was something else
that was needed. the place of prayer. Look at verse 5. Samuel
said, gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto
the Lord. This was on the border of the
tribes of Judah and Benjamin. It's near to the place where
previous battles with the Philistines had been. If you look back in
the start of chapter 4, I think it is, And the word of Samuel
came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the
Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer. At the time
when they pitched there, it wasn't called Ebenezer. It only became
called Ebenezer in verse 12 of chapter 7. That's when it was
named Ebenezer, but because it's a historical record, it's that
same place, that same place. Mishpeh, close to the site of
previous defeats, where the Philistines had defeated them. and they did
all that Samuel had called for. They put away the idols, they
prepared their hearts, they committed to serve only the Lord. But even
though they did all of that, all that he called for, that
in itself, on its own, was not enough. Do you know it's not
mechanical? It isn't just a mechanical formula.
What was missing? Answer, verse 5, prayer. I will pray for you unto the
Lord." They came together for a convocation to worship the
Lord, to cry to the Lord. to hear the Lord speak to them
and to bring their petitions before the Lord. They came, it
would seem, unarmed, certainly unready for war. How do we know
that? The Philistines heard about it and thought here's a good
opportunity to come and get the better of Israel yet again. They
came confessing their sins. They came to put right injustices. How do I know that? Where does
it say? End of verse 6. Samuel judged
the children of Israel in misput... They were putting right injustices
that had gone on. But there they were. vulnerable,
unarmed. They'd come together to pray,
to seek the Lord, to ask Samuel to pray for them. And the Philistines
saw it as an opportunity. Israel heard and feared. What were they to do? What were
they to do in the face of such fear? Answer? Keep praying. Keep praying. Those verses in
the middle of the chapter, keep praying. Samuel, pray for us.
Do we pray? I so often feel, and I say this
to myself more than to you, how feeble is our praying. We know
it's a vital mark of living faith, is prayer. But how feeble is
our praying? How mechanistic is our praying? Do you pray? Do I really pray? Do I really pray? Do we pray
for the right things? What should we pray for? pray
for the going of these messages and others like them pray, I
know I've only just announced it, but pray for next year's
conference that it will be a key element of what God is doing
pray for God as we saw in Revelation the prophets lying dead in the
street and it seems like that's the age we're living in there
seems to be such a dearth of true preaching of the gospel
of grace the prophets are lying dead in the street as it were
but God breathes life into them and they stand on their feet.
That has yet to happen. Pray for him to do that. Pray
for him to raise up preachers. Pray for him to breathe life
into his two dead witnesses. Pray for his kingdom to come.
Oh, there's need for prayer. There's need for prayer. I'm
not talking about these type of prayer meetings where people
think that they have the power to twist God's arm up his back
you know if we if we stay all night long then God's bound to
hear us and if we all hold hands together God's bound to hear
us no no no no I'm talking about prayer that comes from the heart
you know David said this he says the Lord put it in his heart
to pray pray that the Lord will put it in your heart to pray
to him Pray that he'll do that. Pray that he'll put it in your
heart to confess your sin, to know your sin, to thank him and
praise him for the gospel of his grace. Well then, how did
this prayer take place? You see, there are people who
pray, all sorts of people pray, there's this idea that anybody
and everybody can pray. You know, even if we don't agree
about this doctrine or that doctrine, I'll tell you what we can do,
we can all get together and have a prayer meeting. Let's not argue
about doctrine, because we'll only fall out about doctrine,
but at least we can all bow together in prayer, can't we? You know,
we can all sit in the same room and we can, and then all all
other barriers are removed and we've come down to the lowest
common denominator and we can all pray together. Do you know
that's completely false? Prayer is only true and valid
in one context, and shall I tell you what it is? It's in verse
9. 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. The only context is in the
context of an acceptable sacrifice. What was Samuel saying? What
was Samuel saying? He was saying this. You're praying
for the favor of God. The favor of God is only possible
in the context of the justice of God against sin being satisfied. Do I need to say that again?
The favor of God is only possible in the context of the justice
of God against sin being satisfied. That justice has to be satisfied.
Sin is an offense against the justice of God. That justice
has to be satisfied for the favor of God to be shown. This lamb
that Samuel took represented the Lamb of God who would come
at this time, who has now come, because we look back, to save
his people from their sins by his blood. And what he's saying
is this, they all All the elect of God must be saved because
of Christ. Therefore, Lord, save this people
from the situation they're in. And the Lord heard him. You see,
that's the context of true prayer. We need to pray but only ever
in the context of the true gospel of God's grace, the true and
acceptable sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, His sovereign grace,
His particular redemption of the people that the Father gave
to Him before the beginning of time. That is the only one that
satisfies justice. There are lots that sound like
it, but they're false currency. They do not save from sin. So
prayer isn't the lowest common denominator of spiritual interaction. around which we can all unite.
It isn't at all. It's only effectual in the context
of the only sacrifice that satisfies divine justice. So they prayed
in the context of sacrifice. And they gained the victory.
But it wasn't by their military might. Look in verses 11 to 13. The men of Israel went out of
Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smoked them until they came
to Bethkar. The Lord had thundered on them.
I don't know what it was, lightning, hailstones, whatever it was.
It, as it says, this lovely old word, discomfited them. I imagine
they were discomfited. They were absolutely put to flight
and Israel pursued them and in verse 13 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. Israel's enemy
was subdued. So are the enemies of the Israel
of God. Do you know what the Israel of
God is? All God's believing people. His church. The enemies of the
Israel of God are subdued. What are those enemies? What
are the main enemies? If you're a child of God, these
are the enemies that afflict you. Sin, your flesh, Satan,
the error of false doctrine, attacks from the left, attacks
from the right, all of these things, and they're subdued by
preaching and by prayer in the context of an acceptable sacrifice. So then we come to verse 12.
Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen,
and called the name of it Ebenezer. Ebenezer. Ebenezer. Verse 12. What does it say? That is, the
stone of help, saying, hitherto, thus far, up to this point, the
Lord has helped us. A stone of memorial. Samuel set
up there a stone of memorial. he didn't set up an icon to be
worshipped do you remember there have been various times in the
history of Israel when physical things were used in the blessing
of the people of God when the Israelites in numbers were bitten
by serpents for their constant complaining and they were dying
of snake bites and God told Moses to make a brazen serpent, a serpent
of brass metal in the shape of a snake that was doing the biting
and put it on a pole and hold it up and he said whoever looks
shall be saved from their snakebite. You know, like God says through
Isaiah, Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye
saved, for I am God, and there is no other. Look unto me! Look
to this thing. And you know, that had worked,
and many had looked and were saved, and those that didn't
look perished of their snake bites and what a picture of the
gospel that is for Jesus says to Nicodemus when he says that
he must be lifted up as a substitute he says as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have
everlasting life but they started to worship that brass serpent
you see the things were put in the ark of God in the Old Testament
but that brass serpent wasn't one of them and they started
to worship it as an icon you know you go in the cathedrals
of anglicanism and the cathedrals of catholicism you know beware
if you do just look at them as objects of architecture don't
treat anything that they do as serious in any spiritual way
whatsoever it's just idolatry and they've got their icons and
they've got their statues everywhere you look There were various kings
in Israel, some good and some bad, and Hezekiah, late on, was
a very good king. And he got that brass serpent
that had been kept, and had been revered, and had been worshipped,
and people made pilgrimages to go and see it and touch it, thinking
that if only they went and touched that, they'd get so much good
out of it. And do you know what Hezekiah the good king did? He
found the Word of God and he restored it and all of those
other good things, but one thing he did, that brass serpent, he
had it ground to powder and threw it away because the people had
made it an idol. Serve the Lord only, only. This stone was not an icon to
be worshipped. It was not a holy place of pilgrimage,
but what it was, was just a physical reminder. When you look at it,
don't worship it, don't come to touch it, just remember. Remember all the way the Lord
has helped us. Remember what he's brought us
through and where he's brought us to. Just a reminder, like
communion. What do we have? Physical symbols.
Bread, which we break. and wine which we drink, unleavened
bread, what's it remind us of? The sinless body of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That to satisfy the justice of
God was broken for us. His body was broken for us. And
his blood was shed for the life is in the blood and the blood
was poured out for the penalty of sin is life. The soul that
sins it shall die and he died in the place of his people to
bring us to God. Those elements of bread and wine,
what are they? They're just physical reminders. They're nothing more, nothing
less. Physical reminders of the broken body and shed blood of
Christ that paid the sin debt of God's people to the end that
they're saved from their sins. In their place, reminders can
be very useful, can't they? We have reminders all the time.
I think there's not very often goes by that it isn't too long
from somebody's birthday. We've had one very recently.
The passing of the years, they act as reminders. You know when
it turns the new year and you think back, birthdays come, anniversaries
come, seasons come and go. In fact, I never quite know whether
to love Facebook or hate it. Half the time I think, oh, it's
quite good, and the rest of the time I'm thinking I must get
off it because I can't stand it. But one thing it does is
it pops up reminders. This is what you were doing last
year at this time, or two years ago. And these things, it's good
to be reminded. It's good, isn't it, to remember. all the way the Lord has brought
us. Isn't it? Isn't it good to remember all
of the challenges that we've had, all of the circumstances,
all of the opposition, all of the trials, trials of physical
things, of financial things, of health things, of all sorts
of things, of family strife, of trouble of all sorts, that
the Lord has brought us through to this point. And mentally,
you can set up an Ebenezer Stone. Thus far, the Lord has helped
us, the Lord has brought us, the narrow way that he's brought
us along, the often lonely way, the often difficult way, but
yet you can say, as Samuel said here, hitherto hath the Lord
helped us. Whatever I've been through, Some
of it sweet, some of it bitter in the flesh, hitherto hath the
Lord helped us." Can't we say that? The older we get, the more
record there is. Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us. Look back if you have faith in the Son of God, if you have
a good hope of eternal blessing. Where has he brought you from?
through what has he safely led you think about the error i was
telling my testimony last week in the message about the the
the doctrinal error through which i was brought until God, it didn't
happen by chance. God led us down a path, and as
we're going along that path, there was something that was
clear. And I remember it, I remember it. It's an Ebenezer Stone to
me. He led me through that, through what he safely led you. And where
you are now, where are you now? I'll tell you where you are now
if you're trusting Christ. You're kept safe in his everlasting
arms. Confident, aren't you, that he'll
bring you to glory? Somebody was saying, I won't
embarrass her, somebody was saying how I long to leave this life.
This is not something suicidal, it's just a longing for that
country, that blessed place of eternity that God has for his
people. He'll bring you to glory. Ebenezer,
the stone of help. Don't worship it, but when you
see it, remember the Lord's dealings with you in sovereign grace,
mercy, and providence. Think of the place where it was.
The place of it, where they put it, was the place of previous
defeats by the Philistines. Think of the Lord making you
conscious of sin. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. Ebenezer, thus far as the Lord,
he's led me through that. My debt to the law which I cannot
pay, he's brought me through that. The error of all my past
searching for truth. The bankruptcy that I discovered
in all of the error. My godly sorrow that he brought
upon me. Him granting me repentance for
that, even that is the gift of God. Think of Peter and his denial
of the Lord. And he said, I'm not going to
deny you. The night before the crucifixion,
Jesus said to him, I tell you, Peter, this night, this night
before the cock crows, you'll deny me three times. You'll deny
me three times. No, not me. No, no, I won't.
And what did he do? He denied three times. Quite
clearly. And the Lord looked at him. And
he went out, it says, and he wept bitterly. What an Ebenezer
stone that must have been to Peter, looking back. But the
Lord led him through it. You will deny me three times. But then what does he go on to
say in John's account? Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are
many mansions. He is the man who is told, you're
going to deny me three times. Oh, he's not got a place in heaven.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. What an Ebenezer stone that must
have been for Peter. when is the great apostle writing
his epistles and teaching the church and leading them into
such truth and blessing and then going to die an ignominious death
for Christ what an Ebenezer Stone that must have been how the Lord
brought him through even that even that Don't you see and rejoice,
child of God, when you look back at all the circumstances the
Lord has brought you through? Don't you see that as Romans
8, 28 says, that all things have worked together for good to them
that love God, who are called according to his purpose? The
place where that stone was, the occasion where that stone was
set up, It was the occasion of the assembly, of the prayer,
of the sacrifice, of the victory, all of those things that we've
looked at. All the blessings were because of the Lamb, or
the Lamb to which that Lamb pointed. It's only because God has put
his people in Christ before time and redeemed them from the curse
of the law in him that works all things for their eternal
good. That's where all blessings come from. Don't think of any
blessing from God outside of the work of Christ because there
is no blessing from God outside of the work of Christ. There
isn't any other than the common blessing of daily providence
for life. The sun shines on everybody, it rains on everybody, the crops
grow for everybody. But spiritual blessings, which
are eternal blessings, are in Christ and Christ alone. Are
you in that blessing? Then mark it down. Hitherto hath
the Lord helped us. The place, the occasion, the
inscription, the inscription. Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us. It's all the Lord's doing, from
first to last. Any of you who are here, any
of you who are on that journey and have a confident hope of
eternity, what can you say? Oh it was because I did that.
No, no, no, no, no. It was because I accepted Jesus.
No it wasn't. It was because the Lord did it
all. He did it. He brought you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. He planned it from first to last,
purposed, purposed, purposed. He foreknew and purposed and
predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son. Don't
forget it. He has brought his people out
of spiritual darkness into his marvelous light of sure salvation
by the grace of God and nothing else. I am what I am by the grace
of God that's that's the testimony of the child of God I am what
I am not because of what I have done and I have like Nebuchadnezzar
said look at all these beautiful things I've built in Babylon
and you know his sanity was taken from him and he spent time living
like a living like an animal his nails grew like great long
claws and his hair grew down to the ground and he lost his
mind completely until he knew that God reigns in heaven and
God does all things and God made him that great emperor that he
was and God took it from him and God gave it back to him by
the grace of God I am what I am let us who trust the Christ of
God let us who trust the Christ of scripture be constantly reminded
hitherto hath the Lord helped us and for sure He'll continue
until we are with Him in eternal bliss. Amen.