God Helps

This morning we're going to be looking in 1 Samuel 7, and our topic's going to be revival. We're going to be thinking about revival, because I believe what's happening here is a revival. If we look back at some pastors and theologians, here's the way revival's been described. God's quickening visitation of his people, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace in their lives. Another extraordinary season of religious interest. Another awakening or quickening of God's people to their nature and purpose. A community saturated with God. If we look at the different definitions that we have, Revival is something that is community-oriented. It's a people, a body, a church. Here in Israel, the nation. And it's God doing a unique work of grace to call them out of sin and to himself. Now, we need to separate revival from one of its many imposters, and that is revivalism. Ian Murray in his book Revival and Revivalism makes it very clear what these two things are. Revivalism is a man-manipulated way of bringing a response. And Charles Finney of the Second Great Awakening was someone who was very influential in Revivalism. In his lectures on Revival, he said this, Revival is not a miracle, nor dependent on a miracle. In any sense, it is purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means as much as any other effect produced by the application of means. If we just do the right thing, then we will have the right result. Who's in charge there? Man. Revival is something that comes down from above. Revival is, is God bringing His grace so that His people see their sin for what it is, put it aside, seek Him by His grace, and believe Him, and obey Him. This morning we're in the Old Testament. And I think we see a revival. Because the same God of Jesus Christ that we know of that brought Pentecost is the same God of the Old Testament. He is seeking to bring life to his dead people. There's four marks of revival. I believe we've seen this text, if you're taking notes. One, repentance. Two, dependence. Three, testimony. for peace. Repentance, dependence, testimony, and peace. If you're new with us, we usually just walk through books of the Bible one at a time. Here we are in 1 Samuel. You're catching us in Chapter seven. So let me just remind us where we've been the book opens with a Wife who was not who was barren. She could not have children. She prayed the Lord for a son. His name is Samuel She prays to God that if you give me this son, I'll give him over to your service So Samuel now is is living in the temple Samuel is contrasted with Eli, the priest, and his sons. And Eli, the priest, and his sons, they're, they're not good priests. They're not feeding God's people. They're not, they're not caring for them. They're stealing from God. They're stealing from God's people. And you, you see this contrast where they're rejecting God's warning, and Eli is hearing God's calling. And then we see in chapter four, verse one, the result of Samuel hearing God's calling is the word of Samuel went out to all Israel. And that's in contrast to chapter three, verse one, where the word of the Lord was rare in those days. God is providing his word for his people. And then we have this incredibly embarrassing event from chapter four to seven. The people decided to use the Ark like a lucky charm. They send it out in battle, and the priests die. Who's watching the Ark? The two sons of Eli. And the Ark is stolen. One of the two most grand, embarrassing defeats of Israel. The other one is actually being yanked out, the people themselves, out of Israel. But here, one of the most devastating losses. They lost the Ark of God. The Ark of His covenant. What we see here in response to their failure, what we see in their lack of faith and obedience, is God graciously saying, return to me. Return to me. Our first point, repentance. Repentance. Throughout Israel's history, God has been calling them out of false worship and into true worship. It's important just to acknowledge and be very clear. By default, we worship the wrong God the wrong way. Our default, our natural disposition apart from God working, is that we worship the wrong God the wrong way. And this is clear even for Israel, who had heard the name of God, and had heard who He was, and was given their instruction. God describes Israel in Deuteronomy as needing a circumcised heart. He himself said, I will circumcise your heart. And there it means cut off your love for other idols, for other gods. Another more provocative way, he accused Israel of whoring themselves after other gods. That's how God describes Israel. and their love for all the other gods. He's the covenant-loving God who said, I'm committed to you, I want to be with you, I'm for you. And then he sees them just going astray after all these false gods. They hoard themselves out. And then judges. Just a continual, repeated cycle, generation after generation. They would go after gods, they would be afflicted, they'd crowd to the one true God, and He would help them. Generation, after generation, after generation, after generation. Constant, regular, idolatry. But, God. It's amazing, He keeps calling His people back to Himself. We can just think about our own lives, and how often He calls us back to Himself when we fail. But in the Old Testament you see generation after generation, God being gracious and inviting His people back to Himself. So after they've sought to use the ark like pagans, they've lost the ark, they're false worshipers, they're being led by priests who are stealing His own glory, Verse 3, what's the message of Samuel? What's the word of Samuel that goes out to all of Israel? Return. There's a wonderful, gracious invitation. If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, Return. You have forsaken the God who loves you. You've forsaken the God who has called you to Himself. You're forsaking the God who has redeemed you. Return. Return means repent. If you're going the wrong direction, what do you do? You listen to your GPS that says recalculating. And what does it normally tell you to do? At the next U-turn, turn around. You're going the wrong direction. You have to start going the right direction. If a man is cheating on his wife, he, he doesn't keep going to the mistress and say to his wife, I love you. No, he, he is that relationship. So with all his heart, he loves the wife God has given him. Christian, we do not keep playing with sin. We forsake God. We reject Him. We don't keep playing around with the sin that takes us away from God. We repent. Repentance is one of the most important and often misunderstood truths and principles of Christianity. There's two things I want us to understand about repentance. The first is this. Grace precedes repentance. Grace goes before, it precedes repentance. The reason I say this is important. You don't clean yourself up enough for God to love you. You don't wash yourself in order to receive grace. No, grace is there so that you can repent. Grace is provided so that repentance is possible. We don't have to think, if I can just clean myself up enough, if I can just fix these things in my life, if I can just work everything out and get my life better, then God will give me grace and love. No, that's not grace. That's earned. Grace precedes repentance. The second truth about repentance is grace produces repentance. Grace produces repentance. The only proper response to receiving God's grace is setting aside sin and putting on Christ. As we just sang, tune my heart to sing thy grace. I need help just to know and praise you for the grace you have. God calls us to return. And we depend upon Him and we turn back. I fear what C.S. Lewis said is true. God invites us to go with Him on holiday, but we'd rather just sit at home and eat our mud pie. Returning to God does not mean you're forsaking anything good. It means you're forsaking sin. Or it is the season, right? We're about to go eat Thanksgiving meals. Can you imagine going to your mama's table where she's provided all the best foods, whatever the meat is, the casseroles, the dishes, and you go to that table and you decide, you know what? That hot dog that's been sitting at the 7-Eleven for 36 hours, that sounds really good right now. I'm going to run out and go get a well-seasoned and aged Frankfurter delicacy. Thanks mom, but no thanks. That's insane. And think about what your mom would do if you did that. She should slap you, she probably wouldn't, but she should. Come to your senses, are you kidding me? But that's God. He provided the feast that can satisfy our every longing. And it's not that we're going to get some nasty hot dog at 7-Eleven. We're digging in the trash. Saying, surely I'll find something better out here. I don't know if I can trust God in the feast He has provided for me. Repentance does not mean you leave behind anything good. Repentance means God is giving you the grace to set aside what's destroying you, so that you can come to his life. It is by grace that Jesus, that God himself says, return to me. Put away the foreign gods. Put away the Poles. Set your heart on the Lord himself. If you want to look at a New Testament teaching that is saying this exact same thing, look at Ephesians 4 or Colossians 3. The most basic truth of sanctification. You put off sin to put on Christ. Let me just read Colossians 3. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. Put on then as God's chosen ones Holy and beloved. Compassionate hearts. Kindness. Humility. Meekness. And patience. Bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive. Put off sin. So you can put on Christ. The invitation is to be washed of sin, to be washed of those practices that are destroying you so you can put on Christ who gives life. Now let's be very clear. He's speaking as if it's a coat, and it is that simple. You put off sin so you can put on Christ. The opposite is true. You put off Christ so you can put on sin. When we choose to practice sin, you're choosing to put off Christ. It's as simple as two layers, or two coats. You can't wear both. Galatians 5, Romans 8, it's very clear. These are two opposite ways of living. You can't do both. You're putting on sin, or you're putting on Christ. Now here's the sad part. We pretend like we can dress in layers. Right? It's fall. We dress in layers in the fall. We pretend sin and Christ, we can put them on like layers. And if we live that way, here's what's gonna happen. Sin, that's gonna be your inner layer. The one that's hidden. The one that's closest to your heart. The outer layer, that's gonna be Christ. That's the hypocrisy. That's the pretending to be righteous. It's pretending to be something you're not. It doesn't work that way. You don't get to put a layer of sin, and then a layer of Christ, and a layer of sin, and a layer of Christ. You don't get to pretend that some way of being wise in moderation. No, you love the Lord your God with all your heart. And be very clear, putting on Christ does not mean you are putting off, doesn't mean you're losing salvation or gaining salvation. Putting on Christ means you're enjoying your salvation. Putting on sin means you're choosing to not enjoy your salvation. You can't lose your salvation, but you cannot enjoy it. The only way to enjoy the blessings of Christ is by obeying Christ. Put off your foreign gods and put on Christ and his righteousness. Again, verse three, let me read that again. If you're returning to the Lord with all your heart, that's what we halfway do, that's what we partially do, then put away, put them aside, remove them, the foreign gods and the Ashtoreth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him only. That is worship language. Two questions. What's your direction? Who are you serving? We're always serving someone or something, and if we're just going through life without intentionally thinking about it, you're serving yourself. That's our default mode. Right? Let's think about all the different love commands. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemy. Love the brothers as Christ loved you. The one love that is never commanded because it's just absolute. We love ourselves. We love ourselves wrongly if we're not doing so as a way of loving God. I ask, what is the direction of your love? What's the direction of your life? Where are you serving with your time and energy? Now, it's basketball season, and let's just pretend that it's possible to worship something as silly as a sport or a team. Possibly. They are the most amazing worship experiences. They're so exciting. We get wrapped up emotionally. Think about the time and energy and effort and investment we make into things like this. It's not that we're investing in sinful things necessarily. It's just we're not investing in the best thing. What direction is your heart pointing? If you want to know that, look at your daily routine. Look at your web browsing. Look at your daydreaming and your planning. Look at your calendar and your spending habits. What gods would be revealed if we allowed God to truly analyze and help us see what, who, and how we're serving? If you want to return to God, if you want to enjoy the salvation that Christ has purchased for you, and the Holy Spirit has come to seal in you, We have to put the gods away. Here's the hardest part. It's believing that God is actually a good authority. We don't really believe in good authority. We see so many abuses of authority. God is good authority. He has all the power in the world, and He's decided to use all that power for the good of those who believe in Him, and love Him. That sounds terrifying because in order to really trust the God who is good authority, you have to realize, I have no control. That's terrifying. Until you begin to trust Him. Verses 5 and 6. Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you. So they gathered in Mizpah, and they drew water, and they poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on the day, and said there, we have sinned against the Lord. They, they poured the water. Now some translations say they poured out their, their hearts. The pouring out, whether it's their hearts or, or literal water, it's, it's, it's, it's an act of dependence. We need you. We're, we're coming before you. It's not a mere intellectual acknowledgement. You're the true God, and that's a tree I made of God. Too many Christians act like we can just be spectators. It's a loving, personal relationship with a loving, personal God. Worship is not mere thoughts. It's affections. It's a relationship where we speak to God, and we listen. Don't be satisfied with an intellectual relationship where you just say, okay, I know that is the God. No. Don't be an observer. Be a participant in His love. Be a participant by hearing Him in His Word. Be a participant by serving Him actively. Still in repentance. This is a long point. We'll get to the other three. Repentance. Notice what they say. We have sinned against the Lord. That's your memory verse for today. So I'll say it together. We have sinned against the Lord. Notice what's missing from their response to God. There's no qualification. There's no excuse. There's no explanation. It's a true confession because it's them truly taking responsibility for what they have done. We too often confess sins like we're the victim. Yes, God, I cheat on the test, but that professor is just too difficult. Yeah, God, I use words of anger, but do you know how annoying they are? They make me so angry. Or worse, yes God, I'm sorry you're offended by that. As if God is too sensitive to our sin. That's how we confess sin today. The way the Bible prescribes and describes confession of sin, we have sinned against the Lord. There's no explanation. God, you gave me the tree. What else was there to do with it? There's no excuse. There's no kind of qualification to make themselves feel or look better. It's just flat out, we've rebelled. They're confessing to the God who can forgive. They're confessing to the God they've sinned against. God receives the clear, simple confession. Notice God doesn't sit down and make them list out every possible sin they've committed either. It's concerning when someone cannot take clear responsibility for their sin. It's also concerning when a Christian has to make sure everyone who's sinning against them knows exactly how much they've been hurt. God doesn't function like that. That is not the model of reconciliation. It's terrifying that God says in Romans, He's going to judge us by the same measure we judge others. Whatever we think others need to do to earn our forgiveness, God is going to measure us by that. We need to be quick to forgive and quick to confess. We have sinned against the Lord. It's that simple. Believer, if you're here today, confess your sin. Quit holding on to it. Quit hiding it. Do not delay. The invitation is life and peace. Why hold on to that ticking time bomb in your heart? The invitation is to God who says, my grace abounds where your sin abounds. I have something better for you. Confess. If you're not a believer, the call is for you to return. Now, if you're not a believer, that means you've never known the Lord or forsaken Him, but here's how the return is for you, that God designed every human being to know us, to love us, to be known by us, and to be loved by us. We've all sinned. Sin is what separates us from God. To be very clear, sin is our theft, our lying, our cursing, our anger, our lust, Our just simple refusal to acknowledge God and worship Him. That's our sin. That keeps us from God, and what's terrifying for you this morning, if you're not a believer, is one day you will have to face God, and you will have to give an answer for all of your sins, and punishment is the right response of God. Here's the good news this morning. God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to become like us in every way. to live that perfect life that we have not lived. And He died as if a sinner to take the punishment for sins He did not commit. He died to take the punishment for sins we've committed. So that we can believe in Him, be forgiven, be reconciled, restored, and return to God. This morning, the exhortation to you, if you're not a believer, believe in Jesus. For the forgiveness of your sins. Our second point. Dependence. Dependence. Now when the Philistines heard the people of Israel had gathered at Mithba, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid. Now, If you're like me, you have this ideal world where if I'm coming back to God, if I'm trusting God, it's going to be worry-free and easy. Right? We tend to think, as long as I'm doing all the things that God wants me to do, right, they've had a revival. God has spoken. They've responded. All signs of revival are taking place as repentance is here. We've forsaken God's, but now the Philistines are attacking again. That doesn't seem right. The opposite appears to be true. There's a testing. There's a way in which God wants us to realize how much we can depend upon Him. Verse 8, 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. People recognize we cannot turn to our gods. We've forsaken them. They're not true. We know the one true God. Cry out for us. Without ceasing. This reminds us of the New Testament commands in Thessalonians and Philippians. Cry out without ceasing. This isn't checking of a box. I prayed. God will take care of it. I'm done. This is a regular dependence upon God. This is the people of God recognizing that the most powerful tool you have is prayer. coming to God and recognizing they need his help. Look at verse 9. So Samael took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samael cried out to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him. And as Samael was offering the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. Now why the sacrifice of the lamb? My best understanding is this lamb is completing the return. The lamb is slain for the sins of Israel. The lamb represents their sin in a way that now they're reconciled, now they've made a sacrifice to God in their repentance, now the sacrifice is being made of the lamb. The lamb in the Old Testament was always a pointing figure to Jesus Christ. The lamb that was slain year by year in the atonement, it covered sin. It didn't take it away. That's why it's so significant when John the Baptist sees Jesus Christ, he says, behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That Lamb was not sufficient to actually take away their sin. It simply covered it. The Lamb is a symbol here for us, as we can see, the death that was ... We all deserve death for our sin, but instead Christ, the Lamb of God, has died for us. Notice how God responds. Verse 10, halfway down. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines, and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. God does the victory. All the battle is won with His action. And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and struck them as far as below Bethkar. Israel's following God, but the thunder and the confusion, that's what caused the victory. And let's not lose something here. Baal. One of the gods of the Philistines. One of the gods that always tempted Israel to worship him. He's a god of thunder. He's a god of seasons and storms. And God is saying, I will show you who the true God is. I will bring down my thunder. I will give my people victory. There's a dependence here that follows repentance. God's people trust Him in the battle, and He wins the battle. The third point for us is verse 12. It's one verse. Testimony. Testimony. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shinn, and called his name Ebenezer. For he said, Till now the Lord has helped us. Now, Samuel, he's spoken the word God gave him. He's called God's people to repentance. They've responded with a confession of sin. He's helped them. Now what do you do? Well, you don't boast of your faith. You boast of God's help. And they testify. They, they put up a testimony that declares, God is our help. They raise an Ebenezer. Now, it is very unfortunate that this name is oftentimes, or most often, associated with the miser from the Christmas Carol. Right? Ebenezer Scrooge. That's why my favorite movie rendition of that story is Mickey's Christmas Carol, where they change the name to Scrooge McDuck. Ebenezer is this fantastic theme throughout the Old Testament. The stone of help is what the word literally means, but the whole point of the word and the action is God has helped us. We just sung about this very declaration in the first song we sang this morning, Come Thou Fount. Come Thou Fount was written by a 22-year-old recent convert, Robert Robinson, who was greatly influenced by George Whitefield. 1 Samuel 7 is the inspiration behind the song. Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither to thy help I come. There's a need to provide and proclaim testimony. God's helped me. God's helped us. When God acts, we respond by trusting Him and glorify Him. And what Samuel does here, not only glorifies God, but it sets up a constant, regular reminder for the people of Israel, for future generations, you can trust God. He's your help. It's important to have regular reminders, testimonies, that God is help. Israel's done this numerous times. There's other stories where stones were piled up. After they crossed the Jordan, they piled up stones to remember God let them pass through dry land. The feasts are meant to be reminders, testimonies of God's goodness. The sacrifices, year after year, are reminders. God is our help. Even a day, church, baptism, the Lord's Supper, these are testimonies, reminders. God is our help. It's important. We have testimonies. Regular reminders. Why? Because there's one thing that we're consistently described as in Scripture, it's forgetful. We're forgetful. And by grace, God gives us Ebenezers, reminders, testimonies. Now, we could talk about literal stones. Right? Peter, the week Ivy was born, brought a huge rock And now sits in my front yard. That's a constant reminder of his friendship. And most of all, it's Ivy's rock. He gave it to her. It's a reminder of the blessing we have in Ivy. Or when Finister Vision leader came, Joey. He went to a tribe in Papua New Guinea whose people had not heard the spoken Word of God for thousands of years. And before he started sharing the Gospel with them, he had them all take a rock and make a pile as an Ebenezer, literally, to mark the day. Now God is no longer silent to save you. You're going to start hearing the Word of God again. I have a strong personal affection for rocks. In 2017, I built an over-ambitious patio out of stone. I moved over 200 tons of rock. As I reflected on this, I have snarkily called that patio the 2017. I moved all that rock because of how difficult that year was. And now I realize, no, it's an Ebenezer. The testimony is how much God helped. How much God helps. He does not stop helping. God is our help. This past Sunday night, Jen Scruggs shared her testimony. If you were here, you were blessed. you're not here, you missed a fantastic Ebenezer. A declaration of God's help. Next Sunday night we're gonna have new member testimonies. Ebenezer's declarations. God is our help. Do not miss this. I want to say one other thing here about these stones. They're placed in Ebenezer. If we go back to chapter 4, verses 1 to 3, they're placed, in chapter 7 here, in the exact same place where the ark was lost. Where Israel lost the ark is the exact same place a stone is now placed to declare God as their help. Israel, your most embarrassing moment thus far, your biggest failure, is where God is going to set up His testimony. That's just like God. See, when we usually talk about God's helping, we want to think of something like a point guard passing me the ball so I can dunk it. I want God to help me look good. The way God helps is in our worst moment. The way God helps is in our failure. Where we experience God's help most is in our sin. God does not help us find more glory. God helps us in our failure, in our sin, so that we can give Him glory. The placement of this rock is significant. If you're worried, if you're frustrated, if you're afraid of all this, these moments of failure, no, that's where God can make Himself most known. If we return to Him, confess our sins, and seek to glorify Him. Our last point is peace. Peace. P-E-A-C-E. 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. And the cities 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, Mishpah. And he judged Israel in these places. Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there. And there also he judged Israel, and he built there an altar to the Lord." God gives them peace. Now, this is important. It's military peace for a nation. Right? It's hard to build gardens and vineyards and set up systems in your community while you're having to carry around an armor. Or a sword. Or a staff. When you're constantly afraid of an attack, you can't dedicate your attention to living the peaceful, right, good life God has commanded. And so God gives them victory. God gives them peace so that they can live without fear. Fear is disabling. Fear is paralyzing. That's where their peace is helpful. Believer, I wanna be very clear. We have peace, which means freedom from fear. That doesn't mean that Satan is not roaring like a lion. He is. The peace you have is that he can't bite. Jesus kicked his teeth out. He can't bite anymore. For those who are believers in Christ, he roars, he does not bite. If you're afraid of the temptation, Christ has given you His Holy Spirit. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Fear does not control the believer who's walking in Christ. We're free from that. Christ promises, peace I give you, peace I live with you. Yes, there's going to be famines, wars, fights, internal struggles, relational conflict. but God gives us peace to know Him. Today we should long for revival that looks like this. Again, revival is something that happens to a community, a church, a people, a family. It requires plurality. We can't make this happen. We shouldn't try to manipulate people into our form of revival. We should not make people want to conform to what we think they should do. We should prayerfully trust God's grace. There is something that comes before revival. It's renewal. Renewal is what happens to each person in a revival. That's what you actually have responsibility for right now. Will you seek personal renewal? Will you seek to put off those idols? Will I as an individual seek to put off the idol, the sin, and put on Christ so that I can participate in what might be God's revival? Revival happens when people seek renewal. So if we want revival, it has to begin with our own personal hearing the Word of the Lord return to me, and proclaiming we have sinned against the Lord. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have not left us in our sin, in our own destruction, in our own damnation. We thank You, Father, for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who came to die for our sin, to rise again to give us new life, to give us peace. Lord, if someone here does not know You, do not let them leave without convicting and converting and helping them come to a new relationship with You. For us who are believers, Tune our hearts, Lord. To not protect the sin that we love so much. To not refuse to confess, but to come before you who forgives so quickly and fully. Lord, help us to experience personal renewal and church revival. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.