tonight to 1 Samuel chapter 7.
1 Samuel chapter 7. 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 Eleazar his
son to keep the Ark of the Lord. Let me just remind us for the
last three Wednesdays, we've looked at scripture, which mentioned
the Ark of the Lord at this particular time in the history of the nation
of Israel. And I've reminded us each time
and again tonight that the Ark of the Lord was a part of the
tabernacle, which was a type, that is the Ark of the Lord,
was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. That part of the law,
which God gave through Moses at Mount Sinai, when he made
that covenant with the nation of Israel, part of that law is
called the ceremonial. Now the law is one. Only man
has made these divisions. They are apparent, of course,
but only man has made these divisions. The law is one. And it's been
divided into three sections, the moral and the ceremonial
and the civil. But the ceremonial part of the
law, that which concerned the tabernacle and all the furniture
of the tabernacle, the priests, the sacrifices, and all of that,
was a way through which the Lord Jesus Christ presented the gospel. because everything in that tabernacle
represents something to do with our Savior. The lampstand, the
showbread, the altar of incense, the brazen altar, the veil, everything
represented the Lord Jesus Christ and in some way is a picture
of the gospel. But I'm reminded of what the
writer of Hebrews said when he wrote, God having provided some
better thing for us, some better thing for us, that they, that
is the Old Testament saints, without us should not be made
perfect. They had the types, they had
the promises, and in them, no doubt, the gospel, the Savior,
is revealed, but God has provided some better thing for us. Those
of us who live since the Lord Jesus Christ, the reality of
all those types of promises He fulfilled. Now we've seen so
far, I've said we've spoken on the Ark of the Covenant or from
scriptures that that mention the Ark of the Covenant, the
last three Wednesdays, the first time the Ark of the Lord was
brought into the camp of Israel. This was in 1 Samuel chapter
4. And the Israelites believed that it, you will remember, that
it, not he, but that it would give them the victory over the
Philistines. But rather than give them the
victory, they were defeated in battle and the Ark of the Covenant,
the Ark of the Lord, the Ark of God, same Ark, right? Goes by all three of these names,
the Ark of the Lord, the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of God.
But the Ark of the Covenant was taken, the Philistines. So that's
what we saw in the first study, the Ark of the Lord brought into
the camp of Israel. and them believing that it would
give them the victory over the Philistines. But instead, they
were defeated. And they were not looking to
God, but they were looking to it. And the ark was taken into
the land of the Philistines. And then the second time, the
ark of the Lord among the Philistines in 1 Samuel chapter 5. And we
saw how that God brought judgment upon the God Dagon, and all the
gods of the Philistines, all the false gods, and not only
judgment upon their gods, but also judgment upon the lords,
that is, the rulers and the men of the Philistines. And then
last time, in 1 Samuel chapter 6, the Ark of the Lord was miraculously
brought back to Israel. We saw that it came to the town,
the village of Beth Shemesh. And it was a miracle, the way
it was brought back, the way they put that Ark of the Lord
on that cart and hooked up those two milk cows and turned them
loose, took their calves away from them. And those cow, they
just made a straight line, a beeline, as we would say, for Beth Shemesh.
It was a miracle, there's no question about that. But then
we saw the sin of the men of Bethshemesh when they looked
into the ark. And so many of them were killed.
God struck many of them dead immediately for prying into the
ark, for looking into the ark. And then they asked this question,
who is able to stand before the holy Lord God? And I would say
that a better question A better question, instead of asking who
is able to stand before the Holy Lord God, a better question is
how is one able to stand before the Holy Lord God? That's a question
for you and I, for all of us to consider. How is it that those
of us who by nature our sinners, how it is that we are enabled
to stand before God, before the Holy Lord God. And we know it's
only in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ our
Lord. That's the only way. There is
no other way. There's one name given under
heaven among men whereby we must be saved. There's not two ways,
there's one way. God's holy and we are, by nature,
sinful. And so the only way that any
of us may stand before this holy Lord God is to be found in Christ. You know those two words. If
people would just take their concordance and look up the scriptures
that speak of being in Christ, in the beloved, what a message,
right? What a lesson. for all of us,
excepted in the Beloved. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus." In Christ, in Him. Well, tonight,
and I want us to read on in this chapter from verse 2 on through
verse 12, but I'm going to divide my message into three parts,
and each part will tell us something about Samuel. Each part is going
to tell us something about Samuel. Let's read on in verse 2 through
12. And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirgiz-Jerim,
that the time was long, for it was 20 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
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 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 there, we have 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 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. And Samuel took a sucking lamb
and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel
cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as
Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew
near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a
great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited
them, and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel
went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them
until they came unto Bethkar. Then Samuel took a stone and
set it between Mishpah and Shin, and called the name of it Ebenezer,
saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. First, Samuel the judge. Samuel the judge. You notice
in verse two, we see the time 20 years. Now that is not the
time that the Ark of the Covenant stayed in Kerjath-Jerim. It was much longer than 20 years. If you look with me, keep your
place here if you will, but look with me to Psalm 132. Now Kerjath-Jerim
literally means the woods. It was surrounded by woods, the
city. In Psalm 132, you see from Samuel, the reason
I said this 20 years is not the time. It's easy to read that
verse and think, well, it remained in Kirjash-Jerim 20 years. No,
it remained there much longer. Because from Samuel, then Saul
becomes king. and he reigns for some time,
and then David reigned over Judah for seven years, and it's not
until David is king over all of Israel that David finds, as
he says in this psalm, the ark in the woods. It was in the city
still of Kirjath-Jerim. Notice with me in Psalm 132. Lord, remember David and all
his afflictions. How he swore unto the Lord and
vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. Surely I will not come
into the tabernacle of my house nor go up into my bed. I will
not give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eyelids until
I find out a place for the Lord. Now what's he speaking of? A
place for the Lord. He's speaking of the Ark of the
Covenant, that which pictured, represented the Lord. until I
find out a place for the Lord and habitation for the mighty
God of Jacob. Lo, we heard of it at Ephrata. We found it in the fields of
the wood. We will go into his tabernacles. We will worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, unto thy rest,
thou and the ark of thy strength. So the 20 years, you say, well,
if it doesn't refer to the time that the ark was in Kirjath-Shirim,
what do the 20 years refer to? It refers to a period of time
when the nation of Israel was once again in great spiritual
decline. Now remember, this is still the
period of the judges. The period of the judges does
not end until they ask for a king and God gave them a king, that
is, Saul. This that we read about here
in 1 Samuel is taking place during the time of the judges. The nation
during this time, and you read this over and over in the book
of Judges, if you will, look back to Judges chapter 6. But
you're familiar enough with your Bibles to know that through the
book of Judges, this is something that occurred time after time. That is, the nation of Israel,
they would forsake God, they would worship idols, and God
would, in judgment, sell them into the hands of their enemies.
And they would become subdued. They would become servants. That's
what they were at this time in 1 Samuel chapter 7. They were
servants to the Philistines. They'd been defeated in battle. We saw that in that first lesson.
But here in Judges chapter 6, this is just one of these many
times. In verse 1, the scripture says,
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.
And the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Midianites, or
into the hand of Midian, rather, seven years. So for seven years,
at this point in the book of Judges, in the history of the
nation of Israel, they were servants to the Midians, the Midianites. And then, in their despair, and
this is the way it always is, This is the way it was with the
nation of Israel, and let me tell you something, this is the
way it is with you and I. It's only when times get hard,
I mean when times get tough, that we really get down to business
and serious in seeking the Lord. This is what happened here in
Judges chapter 6, after seven years, The hand of Midian prevailed
against Israel. And because of the Midianites,
the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains
and caves and strongholds. And then they cried unto the
Lord. And down in verse 6 it says,
And Israel was greatly impoverished. Here they are in need. Read Psalm
107 sometime, and you see it time after time, I think about
four times, when man gets into the most desperate situation,
then they seek the Lord. Then they seek the Lord. And
God in mercy, because He is merciful and gracious, as He was to the
nation of Israel, He raised up a deliverer. He raised up a judge. And in this case, here in Judges
chapter 6, we know it was Gideon. If you look in verses 11 and
12. And there came an angel of the
Lord, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained
unto Joash, and the Abba Ezarite, and the son of Gideon, threshed
wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites, And the
angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord
is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. Now, Gideon sure didn't
see himself as a mighty man of valor. But God delivered them. God did. Remember, he had a great
army, and God said, There's too many here. There's too many here. Because if I give the victory
with this number of soldiers, then you're going to say that
you did it yourselves by your own strength. So God whittled
down their army to, what, 300 and something, I believe it was,
a small number. And yet they defeated the Midianites. How? God defeated them. God defeated
them. Well, at this time, if you turn
back to our text, Samuel is the judge. He's the judge this time. We have several judges named
through the book of Judges, but now it's Samuel. He's the judge. And if you look here at the last
part of verse six in 1 Samuel 7, we read, and Samuel judged
the children of Israel as Mizpah. Did you know several of the commentators
Robert Hawker being one, he said that this is somewhat similar
to what took place on the day of Pentecost. If you notice,
it says in verse two, and all the house of Israel lamented
after the Lord. Now, you know, for all the house
of Israel, for the many, who lamented, who began to cry out
after the Lord God, God poured out His Spirit. This was a great
revival, one of the greatest revivals maybe in the Old Testament
part of our Bibles for the nation of Israel. And there are four
things I want to point out to us about the ministry of Samuel. Now God always uses His word,
doesn't He? He always raises up a man, always
uses the preaching of the gospel. But let's notice these four things
that I see here about Samuel's ministry at this time. First
of all, if you look in verse 3, Samuel, he preached that they
must return unto the Lord with their hearts. With their hearts. Samuel spake unto all the house
of Israel saying, if you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts. This is always true in our relationship
with God. It must be with the heart. Samuel, remember he learned this
lesson after this again, didn't he? When he went down to the
house of Jesse to anoint one that God had chosen to be king.
And the first son passed before Samuel, the first son of Jesse,
and he was such a fine looking man that Samuel said, this is
it. This is it. And God said, no,
it's not. No, it's not. Man looks on the
outward appearance. God looks on the heart. If you
return unto the Lord, you must do it with all your hearts. David, when he was seeking forgiveness
in that Psalm 51, after he had fallen into sin, we all know
that sad story in his life. But he said this, the sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise. You see, as a king, David was
a wealthy man. He could have sacrificed thousands
of lambs, hundreds of bullocks. to no avail. No, what God is
looking at is the heart. With the heart, with the heart. You know, our Lord, when he was
here in the flesh, he quoted from Isaiah concerning the nation
of Israel, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of that day.
And he said, this people honoreth me with their lips. with their
lips, but their heart is far from me." It's the heart, with
the heart. The apostle Paul tells us in
Romans chapter 10, for with the heart, for with the heart, it's
not just going through certain exercises and repeating certain
things and memorizing certain things and all of that. A man was here recently working
on the lights, and he said, y'all don't kneel in your church, do
you? I said, well, I hope we kneel in our hearts. He said,
well, in our church, we've got rails for people to kneel. I
said, it's the heart, it's the heart. For with the heart, man
believeth unto. It's easy to go through physical
exercise. Paul said, exercise profiteth,
bodily exercise profiteth little. with the heart. Samuel says,
if you return unto the Lord, do it with all your heart. And
that's the only way that we will come unto God, with the heart.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Or notice the
second thing. He preached not only to return
with the heart, but he preached that their repentance must bear
fruit. Notice that again in verse 3.
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If you
do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, now here it
is, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among
you. Now Ashtaroth was a female deity
and Pagan religion has always had a number of gods, both masculine
and feminine, but Ashtaroth is a feminine deity, and there was
more than one of them as well, and always a woman with a child,
always a woman with a child, a baby. Well, this is something
like John the Baptist's words to the Pharisees when he came
preaching repentance And when they came out to be baptized,
he said, bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. Repentance means
a change of mind, doesn't it? A change of mind. But the fruit
of repentance shows that the mind is clearly changed. If you return unto the Lord with
all your hearts, then put away your strange gods. Put away Balaam. Destroy Balaam, Ashtoreth, burn
them up. Do whatever you need to to show
that you're sincere. That you're, as we would say,
you're burning all your bridges. Burning all your bridges. You're
not planning on coming back to worship these false gods again. Look with me, if you will, in
I or II Kings, just a moment. Keep your place here. But this
is interesting. In II Kings, when Hezekiah, we've
all heard of Hezekiah, he was a godly man. But when he was first come to
the throne and began to exercise repentance in the nation himself
and in the nation, here in verse 5 of II Kings chapter 18, 2nd
Kings chapter 18 and verse 5. Let me read, it's verse 4, I'm
sorry, verse 4. He removed the high places and
break the images and cut down the groves and break in pieces
the, here it is, the brazen serpent. that Moses had made for unto
those days. Now we're talking about several
hundred years. For unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it Nahistan. Now you look in the margin of
your Bible and what he called it is what it was, a piece of
brass, a worthless thing. Can you imagine that? When God
gave the instructions to Moses to make this serpent of brass,
yes, it served a purpose. It was a type. In fact, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he used it himself as a type of himself. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him shall
not perish. But it served its purpose, and
then what was it? A piece of brass. How silly. How ridiculous. And it's so easy
for you and I to see how silly and how ridiculous it is for
a person to bow down or whatever before some idol made of stone
or gold or silver or any kind of metal made of wood, whatever.
But you know, we can have an idol ourselves. In fact, many
of us do. Turn away. Repent. Turn from
these idols and bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. The third
thing I notice about Samuel's message, again in verse 3, he
preached a sure hope. He really did. He preached a
sure hope. Notice he said, after telling
them, put away the strange gods and astaroth from among you and
prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only. Now
notice, he doesn't say he may deliver you. Perhaps he will
deliver you. Oh no, he will deliver you. Those of us who preach the gospel,
you as you witness the gospel to other people, we have a sure
message. We preach with certainty. Believe
on the Lord Jesus, just like Paul said to that jailer. Doubt,
no hesitancy, no maybe so, no perhaps. What must I do to be
saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Amen? Amen. And number four,
I noticed this about Samuel's preaching. He called for a public
confession in verses five and six, a public confession. He
called for all of them to gather together at Mishpah for prayer. That's what He said in verse
5. Samuel said, Gather all Israel
to Mishpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. But it turned
out to be much more than a prayer meeting. It turned out to be
much more than a prayer meeting. It turned out to be a gathering
with thanksgiving, with fasting, and with confession. You say,
well, where do you see thanksgiving? I see the fasting. I see the
confession. I see the prayer. Well, I see
the thanksgiving in that water they poured out. The water they
poured out. And I do so because thanksgiving
no doubt is signified by them pouring out the water. When you take a vessel, let's
just say a glass jar like this, and you pour water, it wasn't
oil, it wasn't anything that would leave an aroma, a savor
behind in the vessel, it was water. And you pour it out on
the ground, it's gone. It'll never be regathered into
that vessel again. So when God forgives our sins,
they're gone. They're gone. The psalmist said
they are removed as far as the east is from the west. And God
will remember them no more. Yes, it was a time of prayer,
of fasting, confession, but also thanksgiving. And there wasn't
even a smell of that water, not even a smell of our sin. They're
gone. That's a blessing to me. I don't
know if it is to you, but as I thought about that, that's
a blessing to think that God says they're gone. If he says
they're gone, they're gone. All right, number two. First
of all, Samuel the judge, but now Samuel the intercessor in
verses seven through 11. And when the Philistines heard
that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah,
the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. Now the
Philistines, when they heard that all Israel was gathered
into this place, they just assumed that they were gathering together
to plan battle to overthrow the Philistines. Samuel, as I said, he promised
them the Lord's deliverance. But once again, let me mention
this is the case, as always, it is in the most desperate situation. It is when all hope is gone.
And this was a hopeless situation. The Israelites, they had no weapons. That's one thing a conquering
army was always sure to do, is to take the weapons. You remember
when, in history, when General Lee surrendered to General Grant,
that was one of the things that the victor allowed was for those
soldiers to keep their weapons, which was a kind thing to do. It really was. And to keep their
horses. But in these days, when a country
defeated another country, they took all their weapons. trying
to assure that they would not rise up in rebellion. They had
no weapons, but they did have their God. They did. And Samuel prayed for them, interceded
for them, cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard. He also, we see, offered up a
burnt offering, a sacrifice unto the Lord. And notice how it is
that God defeated the Philistines with a great thunder. And as I thought about that,
you remember that first study when they brought the Ark of
the Covenant into the camp. They made a great noise. The
Israelites did. They shouted. And the Scripture
actually says, "...they shouted with a great shout, so that the
earth rang again." What came of their shouting? Defeat. What came of their great noise,
in other words? Defeat. The ark captured. What came? What took place when
God made a noise? When He thundered. We tonight, you and I, we have
a great high priest. I think Brother Bill mentioned
this a little while ago. We have a great high priest who
ever liveth to make intercession for us, just like Samuel made
intercession, and he had that sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ
himself makes intercession for us, and he is the sacrifice.
He's not only our priest, but he's the sacrifice, and he makes
continual intercession for us. Now notice the last thing, the
third thing, and I'll be very brief. Samuel, we've seen Samuel
the judge, Samuel as an intercessor, now Samuel places a memorial. In verse 12, Samuel took a stone,
and he placed it between these two cities, and it was to serve
as a memorial, and he named the stone. He had a pet rock. No, no, that's
way before that. He had a stone, he had a rock,
right? And he named it, and he named
it Ebenezer. Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us. And I just want to mention four
things. I'll just mention these about
God's help. We have a God who helps us, right? Hitherto, every one of us here
tonight who know Christ, every one of us tonight, we can say
hitherto hath the Lord helped us. We wouldn't be here tonight
if it were not for God's help, for His keeping grace as well
as His saving grace, His keeping grace. The first thing about
God's help is it's always on time. Always. His help is always on time. It may not be the time that we
expected, the time that we thought, but God's help is always on time. I remember reading in the book
by John Flavel, The Mystery of Providence. What a wonderful
little book that is. But during a time of great persecution,
this man was being chased by soldiers or the church, the official
church that was persecuting believers. And he crawled into an oven.
I assume it was one of those ovens you see outside, you know,
outside the backyard or somewhere. He climbed into that oven. Before
the soldiers came, God sent a spider. And that spider went to work
building a net, a web, rather, over the entrance to that oven.
And so the soldiers came in, and they looked. Of course, they
didn't move the web away. They just assumed there could
not be anyone there. God's help is always on time. And secondly, God's help is always
sufficient. It's always sufficient. I thought
about that widow woman that God sent Elijah to during that time
of drought. Now she didn't get rich. She
really didn't. And Elijah showed up on her doorstep. She had just a little meal in
that barrel and a little oil in the crews. But every day for
two, two and a half years, whatever it was, there was still meal
in that barrel and oil in that. God's help is always on time,
it's always sufficient. Number three, God's help, God's
help before should be a constant reminder to encourage our faith. To encourage, hitherto, after
the Lord helped us, should be a constant reminder to help our
faith, to believe God, to trust God, And number four, God's help
means we always, always, always have reason to give thanks. Not a day passes that we do not
have reason to give God thanks for his help, for his mercy endureth
forever. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this word to each one of us here tonight.