Could you turn to 1 Samuel, chapter
7? I'd like to read the chapter. 1 Samuel, chapter 7. And the men of Kerjath-ji-arim
came and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it under
the house of Abinadab in the hill and sanctified Eleazar,
his son, to keep the ark of the Lord. And it came to pass while
the ark abode in Kerjeth-ji-arim. And the time was long, for it
was twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after
the Lord." And 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 Ashtoreth,
that's the goddess of love, 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 Ashtoreth, and serve the Lord only." Evidently,
they've gone 20 years kind of mixing the worship of Jehovah
with these false gods. A 20-year period. And then they
began to lament after the Lord. The Lord put that in their heart.
And they served the Lord only. And Samuel said, gather all Israel
to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered
together to Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the
Lord and fasted on that day and said, we've sinned against the
Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. And when
the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered
together in 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. That's everything we believe,
isn't it? That he will save us. Out of the hands of the Philistines,
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 the battle against
Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that
day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were
smitten before Israel." What must that of thunder sounded
like? And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the
Philistines and smoked them until they came under Bethkar. Then
Samuel took a stone and set between Mizpah and Shinn and called the
name of it Ebenezer, saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped
us. When we sing that song here,
I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I've come, that's
where that came from. Hitherto the Lord hath 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 was restored
to Israel, from Ekron even into Gath. And the coast thereof did
Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there
was peace between Israel and the Amorites. And Samuel judged
Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year
in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and judged Israel
in all those places. And his return was to Ramah,
for there was his house. And there he judged Israel. And
there he built an altar unto the Lord. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name, and we ask that you would be our teacher,
and we ask that you would be our savior. And Lord, we cry
the same prayer that Israel did, that you would save us. Lord,
have mercy on us. Make us to be found in thy son.
Be with all your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. Twenty years is a long time,
and evidently from verse 3, Israel had been guilty of mixing the
worship of Jehovah with the worship of Ashitoth, the goddess of love,
and Balaam or Baal, which means master. Remember, you can't serve
two masters, but they were attempting to do this at this time. In twenty
years, they had been in this condition. And while they were
in this condition for 20 years, the Lord did something for them.
He put it in their hearts to lament after Him. That's the only time we find
language like that in the scripture, where they lamented after the
Lord. The Lord made it to where they
saw what had happened to them. in the mixing of religions and
so on. And they begin to lament after
the Lord. What a blessed place to be. They
begin to lament. Now look what Samuel says to
them, verse 3. And Samuel spake unto all the
house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with
all your hearts. Now you can't return unless you
left. And that's what they've done.
They had left the Lord, and there is such a thing in the Scriptures
as backsliding, isn't there? How many times have you backslid?
Gone in a wrong direction? There's such a thing. The Scripture
has a lot to say about it, and that's what they had done, and
Samuel is exhorting them to return to the Lord. They lamented after
the Lord. It's almost like they felt like,
we desire him, but we're afraid he doesn't desire us. and they
were lamenting after him, longing to be back in fellowship with
him and looking for a restoration. And here's what Samuel told them
to do. Verse 3, And 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 Ashtaroth
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, it gives them three things
to do. First, they were to put away the strange gods from among
them. Somebody says, I don't have any
strange gods. I don't worship idols and so on. Well, okay,
let's see, let's see. When people get in a backslidden
condition, and like I said, there is such a thing, their love cools
to the Lord. And in their love cooling, they
become tolerant of that which is contrary to Him. They no longer take personal
that which is spoken against Him. and is contrary to Him because
their love has cooled. It's not such a personal thing.
It's just doctrine, I believe, rather than taking everything
that's said regarding to the Lord and His gospel personally.
They become tolerant of that which is contrary to Him. And
that's what the children of Israel did. They became tolerant of
Asitroth, the love goddess. I guess it was all done under
the name of love. And they became tolerant of Baal. This was incorporated into their
worship. And this is what Israel, you look through the history
of Israel, this happened over and over and over again. The
thing that they were always doing was going back to idolatry, going
back to toleration of that which is contrary to God. no longer
taking personally when they hear an affront against His truth.
They're no longer jealous and zealous of His honor, and that
which is false really doesn't bother them. That comes from
a cold and a hardened heart. That's what had taken place.
But now the Lord has put it in their heart to lament after Him. would to God that he would always
put it in our hearts to lament, to long, to desire after him. So he says, here's what you're
to do. If you want to return to the Lord first, put away the
strange gods and Ashotroth from among you and prepare your heart
unto the Lord. Prepare your, you know, whenever
we come into a public worship service, we ought to be preparing
our heart unto the Lord. We ought to be asking Him to
speak to us, to deal with our understanding. We're dumb and
we need Him to teach us. We want Him to deal with our
will. Our will is chained to sin if
He doesn't set it free. And we want our will to be directed
to the Lord only. And we want Him to deal with
our affections because naturally we love what we ought to hate.
And we hate what we are loved by nature and we ask the Lord
to do something for our hearts. Prepare your heart to the Lord
only. And next he says, and serve Him
only. Not the Lord and, but the Lord
only. Christ must be all or He is not
at all. And he said, in doing this, in
serving the Lord only, in putting away these false gods, in preparing
your hearts unto the Lord, He will deliver you out of the hand
of the Philistines." Now the children of Israel had come to
believe that the only hope they had Somehow they saw that these
false gods were false gods. They quit acknowledging them
as having any truth at all. They saw them for what they were,
and they sought the Lord only, and they knew that the only way
they could be helped is if the Lord helped them, if the Lord
delivered them. Don't you believe with regard
to the grace of God? The only hope I have is the grace
of God. The only hope I have is what He does for me for Christ's
sake. When they were lamenting after
the Lord, that's what they were brought to. And they longed for
Him. Verse 5, And Samuel said, Gather
all Israel to Mizpah. And I will pray for you unto
the Lord." Verse 6, And they gathered together to Mizpah and
drew water and poured it out before the Lord. Now that's a
picture of emptying yourself. And that's what happens when
someone truly repents. They empty themselves. There's
nothing to me that I want to keep. I'm emptied out. And that's what this thing of
repentance is. And look what they said. And
they gathered together in Misbah and drew water and poured it
out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said, we sinned
against the Lord. When's the last time that's been
my prayer? Truly, we've sinned against the Lord. That is an
honest confession of sin. We sinned against the Lord. And
Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. Verse 7, And
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. This
is so urgent. They didn't feel like they could
come on the road. Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for
us that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.
Everything the Bible teaches is found in that statement. Pray
to the Lord that He will save us. Lord, save us. We can't save ourselves. We can't
do anything to contribute to our salvation. We can't do anything
to make ourselves savable. We're utterly in your hands. Would you be pleased to save
us? 2 Timothy 1.9 says, He saved
us. There it is again. He saved us. And He called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace which were given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. 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. We're no
match for them. And I love What Samuel did, and
this is what happens when the Lord saves, and Samuel took a
sucking lamb, a young lamb, still sucking upon its mother, and
offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. Now when he saves us, how does
he save us? It's through the sacrifice of
his son. That is how He deals in mercy. That is how He saves. It's always
through the sacrifice of the Lamb. You see, the sacrifice
of the Lamb of God opens up the door for Him to deal in mercy
and grace with me and you. The first thing that happens
in response to their cry, save us, He offers up this sucking
lamb. holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried, verse 9, 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. This is verse 10 against Israel. But the Lord, while this
was going on, while this offering was being offered up, the Lord
thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines
and disconfitted them, and they were smitten before Israel. I
love thinking about that. What much that thunder sounded
like? I totally destroyed them. They were defeated by that thunder. And I think it's interesting
the way the children of Israel go running after them after they're
already defeated. We fought a battle that's already been won. And
it didn't have anything to do with us doing anything. It's
what the Lord did. They ran after their enemies
after this battle was already accomplished. Verse 11, and the
men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and
smoked them. And they came under Bethkar.
They did this after they were already defeated. And that's
exactly what we do. And Samuel took a stone and set
it between Mizpah and Shinn and called the name of it Ebenezer,
saying, hitherto the Lord hath helped us. I remember when Isaac and Chris
and Hans first moved here, one of the very first things, we
sang that song, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and I remember
Isaac said, what in the world is an Ebenezer? Well, here it
is. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I've come. Now, hither to, up to this point,
the Lord has helped me. Hitherto, from this point on,
the Lord has helped me. It's what Ebenezer means. The
Lord has helped me. And I got to thinking about this
concept of the Lord helping me. You know, the Lord helped me
when he stood as my surety in the covenant of grace and said,
I'll be responsible for him. Give him to me, I'll save him. The Lord helped me when he became
flesh. You see, I'm flesh. He was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh and I couldn't be saved unless
the Lord became a man. And the Lord helped me when he
became flesh. And the Lord helped me when he
kept the law for me. Oh, how He helped me when He
obeyed God's holy law for me. When He did it, I did it too.
It was the Lord helping me. Hitherto hath the Lord helped
me. And how He helped me when He died. You see, when He died,
He put away my sin. My sin was gone. I was made clean
by what He did. Oh, hitherto hath the Lord helped
me. He did it all. I really believe
that from the very depths of my heart. Hitherto the Lord helped
me. And oh, how the Lord helped me
when he was raised from the dead. You see, when he was raised from
the dead, it's because he had accomplished my salvation. You
see, he said, it is finished, my salvation was accomplished,
and he was raised from the dead for our justification. Oh, how
the Lord helped me. Hitherto hath the Lord helped
me. And you know, when he ascended
back into glory, how he helped me. You see, when he ascended,
I went there with him. You know, I love the fact that
that Great Ascension Psalm in Psalm 24, it says, The Lord of
hosts, lift up your heads, ye gates, lift them up, ye everlasting
doors. The Lord of hosts is coming in. Who is the Lord of hosts?
The King of glory. Well, He came in with hosts.
Everybody He died for united to Him. Scripture says we're
seated together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Oh, how He helped
us when He ascended back to the Father. And how He helps us as
our great High Priest and Intercessor. I love that Scripture in 1 John
chapter 2 where it says, These things I write unto you that
you sin not. Every one of us. by the grace
of God ought to make this as our determined desire to never
sin again. So somebody says, well, how can
I do that if I still have a sinful nature? Well, these things write
unto you that you sin not. And every one of us ought to
determine we're not gonna sin against him anymore. Then John
says, if any man sin. And that word if is also translated
when. When you do. Not if. When you do. We have an advocate
with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. Literally
a lawyer. A lawyer. And this lawyer is
like no human lawyer because this lawyer has never lost a
case. If you have Him representing
you, you must be saved. And this lawyer is like no other
lawyer in this sense. This lawyer is one who makes
all of his clients plead guilty. And then he makes them justified. No lawyer like this lawyer. When
you sin, we have an advocate. We have a lawyer with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. Oh, hitherto hath the Lord helped
me. And how, you know, I really won't
understand his help much. I mean, I'm talking about things
now, but I won't stand, I won't understand his help much until
judgment day when my name is called. And he says, he's one of mine. And you know, nothing else will
need to be said. The books are closed. I'm perfect in God's
sight. Ebenezer, here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hitherto hath the Lord helped
me. You know, the Lord, when I believe,
it's the Lord helping me. When I repent, when my mind is
changed, it's the Lord helping me. When I love, When the Lord gives
me grace to love Him as He is, it's the Lord helping me. If
I confess my sin, it's the Lord helping me. Truly, this is our
motto, isn't it? Ebenezer, hitherto hath the Lord
helped me. Verse 13, 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 Hecarim even to Gath. And the coast thereof did
Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there
was peace between Israel and the Amorites. And Samuel judged
Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year
and circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Misbah and judged Israel
and all those places. I like thinking about that. He goes
to these different cities and offers up sacrifices. He was the priest.
And his return was to Ramah and there was his house. And there
he judged Israel and there he built an altar unto the Lord. What a blessed thing. The last
thing said about his ministry, if you want to call it that,
is him building an altar unto the Lord for sacrifice, just
like that was all that was on his heart and mind, the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we're going to consider
next week where Israel asked for a king. I think, look at
the first few verses. And it came to pass, when Samuel
was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name
of the firstborn was Joel, and the name of the second, Abiah.
They were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his
ways, but turned aside after Lucre, took bribes, and perverted
judgment. Doesn't that sound like the typical
politician? I mean, it really does. And they said, we don't
want these fellas judging us. You make us a king. And the Lord
was displeased with that, but we'll be considering that next
week.