I invite you to please turn this morning in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 7, 1 Samuel chapter 7. I'm sure many of you know that the Dodgers in Boston went 18 innings the other day. Did you think I was not going to raise that when I hear about long sermons? Some of you stayed up, I know you did. This morning, we're going to be looking at 1 Samuel. Tonight, we're going to come back and continue our study in the book of Acts. I thought that this morning, 1 Samuel 7, we've been working through this in our evening series. I thought it is such a beautiful text this morning, especially as we anticipate coming to the table of the Lord, and I trust you'll see why. So 1 Samuel 7, page 293, if you're looking for that in your Bibles. This is the word of the Lord. And the men of Kiriath-Jerim came and took up the Ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son, Eleazar, to have charge of the Ark of the Lord. From the day that the Ark was lodged at Kiriath-Jerim, a long time passed, some 20 years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. and samuel said to all the house of israel if you are returning to the lord with all your heart then put away the foreign gods and the ashtoreth from among you and direct your heart to the lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the philistines so the people of israel put away the bells and the ashtoreth and they serve the lord only then samuel said gather all Israel at Mizpah, for I will pray to the Lord for you. So they gathered at 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 people of Israel at Mizpah. Now, when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the people of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines. So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them as far as below Beth-kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shin and called its name Ebenezer, for he said, Till now the Lord has helped us. So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites. Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. and he judged israel in all these places then he would return to ramah for his home was there and there he also judged israel and he built there an altar to the lord may the lord bless the hearing of his word i was reflecting uh since we're coming up on the 400 year celebration of the canons of dort and their drafting in the work uh on some of the statements that are made there. And there are some wonderful things that are said there so pastoral to help struggling people and sinners in this life who are on this up and down roller coaster, it often feels, of assurance and whether God really has favor toward them when they're struggling with their sins. And I'm going to interact with a few of those in the course of the sermons, but it says something so wonderful in one of the articles that we should use the means of grace and humbly wait for seasons of richer grace i love that seasons of richer grace you know there are seasons of richer grace which also means that there can be in our lives seasons of departure the canons describe that vividly and clearly if you ever want to look at that and explore that that that often we have these seasons of departure from the living god and and God then will come back at us at times with seasons of richer grace and pull us back. This is somewhat the framework I want to work with this morning as we look at 1 Samuel and what we've been doing in this book, looking at this long story here of Israel in a giant season of apostasy and departure from God. And it's been dark. If you have been here at night, it has been one dark series so far in the book looking at all that has happened and all the terrible things that Israel had done and what had happened in Israel and and this is one of the real bright chapters in the book this morning that we come to for finally we see a great light in our study of first Samuel it's actually one of my the most enjoyable Old Testament passages to preach, because what we see here is Israel turning back to the Lord and the Lord answering them, the Lord helping them. All, of course, rooted in his wonderful covenant of grace that he made in the promise to Abraham for his people. We see this here as there was a raising up of the Ebenezer stone, and we'll come back to that at the end of the sermon here. But today the Lord is showing us this that he um in the course of lives especially when there are seasons of departure that that he does call us back to him that he does bring us back that he renews us in his promises that he desires to encourage and strengthen us in these things that he has done for us and to show us exactly what a season of richer grace looks like and i don't know that there is any better passage from the canons to say in the scriptures this has got to be one of the best sections to show us what a season of richer grace looks like after departure. And that's what we're considering this morning. You can think of it in terms, boys and girls, of the prodigal son where he departed and then that season of grace where the Lord brought him back. It's beautiful. Well, we see this in Israel's repentance, we see it in Israel's forgiveness, and we see it in the deliverance that the Lord shows us today in these three things. We're struck with something different now in 1 Samuel 7, a turning point that has really come in the book. One of the things that we really don't think about often is how sin directly affects our walk and our Christian life. The book of Hebrews is constantly talking about this, giving us cautions to be careful as Christians in how we walk. You'll notice that Hebrews says, see to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. He says, you must also warn each other every day while it is still called today so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. So you could have a completely unbelieving heart, right? But even the Christian who is justified by faith, is somebody who's right with God, can go through a hardening process himself this is why why christians have always taught the need for daily repentance for coming back to the lord for looking to the lord for help and strength this is what we did in the service today we confessed our sins and and he helped us and he answered us didn't he i want you to see what happens then in in this story of israel remember israel was always meant to be what we call a microcosm of the macrocosm. It's teaching us something about us. Paul applied this everywhere in the New Testament when he said, look at Israel and learn from them. They're a teaching tool for us. Israel's been in this state of spiritual slumber for years, spiritual apostasy, and that whole time they have known nothing but chastisement and hardship because of it. In fact, chapter 5 keeps referring to, if we were to go back and survey this, there's been a play on words, and this is why Samuel's a masterpiece, a literary masterpiece. It's using all the stuff from the Exodus as we looked at last time in Deliverance, the themes of the Exodus. But the Lord's hand has been heavy on Israel. It's said that numerous times. The hand of the Lord was very heavy. And that should mean something to us because as we looked at in Psalm 32 and Psalm 51, when David described his departure from the Lord, his great claim was, his experience was, day and night, your hand, same word, your hand was heavy upon me. You were pressing down on me. You were bearing down on me. It was a form of chastisement. Eli's sons had corrupted Israel's worship. False teachers had filled the whole nation. Nobody even wanted to come to worship. sacrifices were being stolen. Eli did nothing about it. The spiritual decay of the people was so bad they didn't even know the Lord their God anymore. The priesthood fault because they were supposed to teach them about the Lord and the sacrifices in Christ and the gospel. It was all gone in Israel. As a matter of fact, the great claim was they had booted the sacrifice right out of Israel. They kicked it. Christ had been kicked out of Israel. So bad that when the philistines came we saw their gross ignorance when they thought they could use god as a magic wand by putting the ark in the middle of the battlefield thinking we'll just grab that ark we'll put it right out here and it will win the battle for us and you remember what happened it was a terrible slaughter god is not a magic wand nobody was to handle that ark nobody was to peek into the ark as we looked at last time. You see, all that is demonstrating they didn't know the Lord their God. And it was a terrible moment, one of the darkest in history of Israel that we've studied so far in the book of 1 Samuel, that the ark was captured, the sons of Eli die, Eli falls backward and breaks his neck off a chair. The ark is now taken capture by the Philistines and we watched this whole time how the Lord handled himself in Philistia among the lords of the Philistines, repeating the whole Exodus theme as the Lord himself now was placed into exile and bondage and came out with a mighty hand, slaughtering many of them and knocking over Dagon, their God. Well, here we are in chapter 6. The ark has made its way back. We looked at all this last time. And the men of Beth Shemesh are in the field working and people come up and grab the ark. I want to see what's in there. And a big strike happens. There's textual variance there. The numbers were probably a lot bigger than we know. The great question of Samuel so far, Who is able to stand before this holy God of Israel? Now Israel's asking the question. How did they not know that? How could they have not understood that? Now that leads us here in verse 2, that the ark had remained in Kiriath-Jerim for a long time. You'll notice a time reference there. It was there 20 years. Then comes this really amazing statement. And the children of Israel lamented after the Lord. What a moment. What a moment. 20 years. Where was this church 20 years ago? Right? 1998. That period of slumber. Imagine a whole church sitting in that period of slumber. and this was well before that no light in israel they were lamenting after the lord it's important to see here and ask the question where samuel has been because a prophet has now been established in israel prophet has been sent in israel and where has samuel been we haven't been told this whole time as a matter of fact now all these years have passed and samuel was a little boy and he was wearing the he fought and now he's a man and finally the first time in the book we have his first prophetic speech when it said they lamented first time text is showing us something really important isn't it holy spirit is the children of israel had not lamented after the lord for 20 years they could take him or leave him as a matter of fact they left him and so here's the scene the ark is away from the children of israel just as the lord's hand has been heavy on the Philistines. The Lord's hand now is heavy on Israel. And for 20 years, they are being oppressed by the Philistines. They had become in their own land slaves. We know that from chapter 13 later, the Philistines had taken away all their blacksmiths. So that means they could make no weapons, no swords, nothing to deliver themselves anymore. They were completely in the land oppressed. all of their weapons were gone taken it's one of the most amazing things being raised here that for 20 years Israel's slumber was this great Samuel is saying to us here that there was this period offset by 20 years that Israel really had not much to do with him they didn't enjoy peace they didn't enjoy care they didn't enjoy the blessings of the lord this is all tied to obviously what was done through moses and how they were told to behave in that administration but it's an example to us to think about can you imagine this you can't imagine this you know the lord's absence it seems and nothing's going well. This departure has brought only misery. All of them had run and they ran into their own misery right like another nation of the world in complete darkness. Everyone here knows to some degree what sin does, don't you? Well, of course you do. When you sin, how do you feel? Burden. empty, defiled. You feel like giving up. You feel that God has departed from you. It has this defiling effect on the relationship and you bring it upon yourself because you know the darkness that you've run into because of the light you've known. Listen again to the canons. The power of God Strengthening and preserving true believers in grace is more than a match for the flesh. Yet, those converted are not always so activated and motivated by God that in certain specific actions, they cannot, by their own fault, depart from the leading of grace, be led astray by the desires of the flesh, and give in to them. For this reason, they must constantly watch and pray that they may not be led into temptation. When they fail to do this, not only can they be carried away by the flesh, the world, and Satan into sins, even serious and outrageous ones, but also by God's just permission, they sometimes are so carried away. Witness the sad cases described in Scripture of david peter and other saints falling into sin well add israel the list that's what this is here's what i want you to think about here uh for a little bit as the lord's hand is heavy upon them and their enemies are oppressing them this is exactly what david said when he was living uh in his sin with basheba for for all those months months when he said when i kept silent my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my vitality was turned into the drought of summer selah in other words all those months of my hardening in that sin as the canons are telling us it brought me nothing but misery well haven't you known that when you've tried it having the hand of the lord fall on you is no easy thing but yet in the next breath i'm going to tell you it's one of the most merciful acts of god um remember what hebrews said endure hardship as discipline god is treating you as his children for what children are not disciplined by their father if you are not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline then you're not legitimate it not true sons and daughters at all god disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness hebrews is telling us that the heavy hand of the lord is a form of discipline to lay hold on you so at the end of verse 2 this is what we're seeing here as we open up first samuel 7 7 after this dark period all of a sudden they're lamenting after the lord and finally now there's tears they couldn't produce them themselves the lord's hand has been upon them and finally they have felt the weight of the unconfessed sin and their alienation and and as they weren't confessing their sins now they've realized what they were lost where is the lord among us this is what makes us a people this is what makes us the most unique people in the world this is why we're a special people it's the lord's presence among us life's terrible without him we don't ever want to try this again where's the ark we can't even come near it where's the ark this whole situation's terrible shiloh's gone the tabernacle's gone and all this by the way is going to anticipate what's coming in samuel a king and a kingdom and a temple here's what i love is that this is a giant, it's a big moment in Samuel. Israel's tears were here the signal that they're ready for the Gospel and the Word. When the seasons of richer grace come, it begins here. What are they longing for? Him. Him. You know, all over the Scriptures, God's people to enjoy His wonderful grace and his gospel cross this path. How can you miss it? The first evidence of grace here in their lives is God's breaking of you. God's putting an end to you. This happens when you're initially saved and it's a constant process throughout life and sanctification. Remember Peter? I'll never deny you. John Hales once said, it was this look of Christ that restored Peter. Listen to this. This is so good. They weep for their sins whom Jesus looks upon. Peter denies him once, he doesn't repent. For Jesus did not look back upon him. He denies him a second time and he doesn't weep. For the Lord had not looked back. He denies him a third time and as soon as Jesus looked at him, he breaks out in tears. Day and night, my tears have been my food, said David. Oh, wretched man that I am. It's the prodigal in the pigsty. What am I doing here? I could go back to be with my father. Why would I ever leave that house? How could I have done it? After a long period of this apostasy, we would all think, I mean, it is that bad in these first chapters. I hope I've done my job to make you feel it. It is that bad. you'd think God gave up on them. You'd think God said, that's enough. You'd think God said, I'm done. And yet, right here, as Paul will realize, even in the New Testament, God did not cast off His people whom He foreknew, ever. The time of refreshing, the time of the season of grace had come. They're returning. In some ways, this sermon brings tears to my eyes when I wrote it. realizing that unless the Lord does this, nobody will ever come. It's all grace, your repentance. The coming home is all grace. When He came to Himself, He got up and said, what am I doing here? Prodigal son. Again, canons. By such monstrous sins, however, they greatly offend God. They deserve the sentence of death. They grieve the Holy Spirit. They suspend the exercise of faith. They severely wound the conscience and sometimes lose the awareness of grace for a time until listen to this until when after they've returned to the right way by genuine repentance god's fatherly face again shines upon them for god article six and the fourth head who is rich in mercy according to the unchangeable purpose of election does not take the holy spirit from us completely even when they fall grievously neither does god let them fall down so far that they forfeit the grace of adoption and the state of justification or commit the sin which leads to death the sin against the holy spirit and plunge themselves entirely forsaken by god into eternal ruin if god can show you this here with the darkest moments in israel's history do you know what that means there's no sin you've ever committed that he can't forgive understand that that's what's being shown it's the whole pattern here of repentance and forgiveness and god's answer now in the gospel and now we're ready for samuel now we're ready for his ministry you see now we're ready to hear from the guy it's almost as if samuel was waiting for this minute he wouldn't speak he's just been silent and now it happens the work of god humbling these people that heavy hand pressed down upon him and here comes the moment he speaks now first time in the book prophetically and one of the first prophetic words out of his mouth then samuel spoke to all of israel if you return to the lord with all your hearts put away the foreign gods and the asterisks from among you and prepare your hearts for the lord and worship him only he'll deliver you from the hand of the philistines how many times was God all throughout Israel extending His hands to Israel. Come. Return to me. I'll return to you. Come to me. Paul picks this up in Romans 9. He did it all day long sending pastors. Return. Come. But there's a nuance here that's really important. If you return to the Lord with your heart. See, the grace of God in the gospel is that He forgives our sins. He changes our hearts. And we begin to taste what it is in this life, anticipating it in glory and full, what it is to begin to love the Lord our God with all of our heart. Return. Don't use me as a magic wand. I'm not that way. Come to me with your hearts. Believing. So notice, return with your heart. Put away your idols. Prepare your hearts for the Lord and worship Him. That's what you're made for. So you'll notice that they gather together at Mizpah and they draw water. It says they fasted that day. The actions of pouring out water symbolize something that what they were outwardly doing symbolized what was coming out of the heart. They were grieved by their sins. We've sinned. Do you see it? Here's the big moment. We've sinned against the Lord. What's that? Confession. I acknowledge my sin to you, said David. And my iniquity I've not hidden. This is what we like to do with God. Thinking we can hide what we're doing. When we know He's omniscient, we still try it. I said, I'll confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. 20 years, nothing. When God tells you, if you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness, all that defilement, all that pain, all that hardship, you've gone trying to do this yourself. Look what you brought on yourself. He'll take it. 20 years of darkness. They're yearning for the Lord. Their eyes are open. They're crying out. The tears have come. They're returning. They're confessing their sins. Well, welcome to the Christian life, by the way. Welcome to it. This is why it's a battle. This is what warfare is all about. This is what's going on in the devil, the world, in your own flesh. Paul would say this to the Corinthian church, I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. You were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner. It's a beautiful moment in the text. It's just a beautiful moment in the text because now as this happens, as there's a collision course here, if you come to verse seven, here's where it all comes together this morning in verse seven, where it says, now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel and when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines and the people of Israel cried to Samuel, do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines. These dogs come right at the moment of their sorrow. No weapons. Nothing in their hands. Broken and contrite hearts. They are before the Lord as sheep for the slaughter. Here come these dogs with swords out, ready to slaughter. And it would have been the biggest slaughter ever. It's a real test of whether they were repentant. What did they do last time? Grab the ark. Put it out there. That's not what they're doing. What are they doing? They're asking for a mediator. An intercessor. We need a helper. We need a deliverer. We need a savior. Samuel, pray. Totally humbled. Totally broken. What a change from smug self-confidence and presumption. We're the covenant people. No prayer. A complete, utter dependency on the Lord for help is right here. We need to be saved. So, verse 9. What does Samuel do? So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him. Everything's built to this, hasn't it? As Samuel's offering a lamb, as a lamb is being sacrificed, here comes the enemy. And all of a sudden, as the enemy's swords are out, as Samuel's sword is over the lamb, as the enemy's sword is out over Israel, what do you read? The Lord thundered with a loud voice upon the Philistines that day. And so confused them, they were overwhelmed before Israel. So the enemies are ready to slaughter. They have, Israel's no weapons, no power, no confidence in themselves. They can't deliver themselves. They're completely at the mercy of the Lord. Swords have been taken. At the moment of their death, sword bearing down on them, right at that moment Samuel offers a lamb and the Lord answers verse 13 says this must have been one major event for the Philistines never came back they did not come back after this let me tell you as a matter of fact you'll notice peace then reigned in the land and all of the deliverance that came but but but here here's the point this morning you see when the deliverance came when they felt their helplessness, when they confessed their sin, when they called out to the Lord in faith, it was the blood of the Lamb as a mediator that brought about what Samuel said. That if you return to the Lord with all your heart, He'll do what? Save you. He'll save you. Well, that's the whole message, isn't it? That's what we pastors are trying to preach all the time. We do the best we can. It's all over the Scripture. It's stamped all over the Scripture. When I go through periods of darkness and hardness of heart, when His hand falls heavy on me, and I fall in despair because in His mercy, He has opened His heart to see things now as I should have seen before I ran down the stupid path. When I'm ready to die and perish forever, He comes and He lifts my eyes to Golgotha. And there I see the Lamb of God given to take away the sins of the world. There I see blood shed for me. There I see God's answer and His love. There I see that He has not left me in this mess. There I see that He's delivered and saved me. There I hear the words, it's finished and it can't be undone. And then he declares to us all over his unfailing love that even in the New Covenant he'll never remember our sins anymore. So what did Samuel do? Takes a stone. Sets it up. And calls it Ebenezer. Well, they tried to use that name earlier on the battlefield. Samuel now corrects the whole thing. This is what we've known. The Lord all the way, notice that, the Lord all the way. The Lord all the way this time has been our help. The Lord is ever working to bring the Ebenezer Stone to His people, who is Jesus. The Christian life is up and down. I don't know where you are right now, but when you come into these periods of renewal and strengthening of His grace as a Christian, As a believer, can you look back in the course of your lives and see this? How he's constantly helped you in the midst of all the hardships and distresses and the stupid things you've done? Well, of course you can. And you should remember that he's doing it for you right now, right? He set a table before you in the wilderness in the presence of your foes. You can't be touched. Can you look back and see that he's helped you the whole way? Maybe you're a non-believer here today. You're being confronted with this for the very first time. Here's the path. Come to the Lord. He's gracious and merciful, long-suffering. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Cast your burdens on me. I care for you. A sacrifice has been made for us. It's Jesus. He's our stone of help. Remember this then in closing. whenever you're at your weakest, whenever you're in despair, whenever you have no answers, whenever the Philistines come, whatever form they take, a sacrifice has been raised once and for all. All who look to Him in repentance and faith will be delivered from all their sins and today are delivered from all your sins forever. So what should you do now? Well, I think it's set in front of you. Come, taste and see that the Lord is good. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your wonderful word. Thank you for your encouragement in the gospel. Forgive our sins. We humble ourselves before you. We realize we cannot save ourselves. We've done things in the course of our life that are bad. but your mercy is greater. We return to the Lord with our heart today, knowing that even that is a work of your grace. Asking that as we humble ourselves, that you would show us Christ in this supper. That you'd feed our weary souls and strengthen us in the promises. That we would know your love. And that we would see how good you've been to Israel, to all your people. We praise the name of the Lord for a stone has been raised and Christ is our stone, our rock, our shield, our defender. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen.