1 Samuel 7:2b-17, How Do You Get Back to God?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

1 Samuel 7:2b-17, How Do You Get Back to God?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

00:00

First Samuel chapter 2 be to the end of chapter 7 here the word of the

00:05

Lord 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

00:14

Lord with all your heart then put away the foreign gods and the asterisk from among you and direct your heart to the

00:20

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 balls and the asterisk and they serve the

00:29

Lord only Then Samuel said gather all Israel at Mizpah and I will pray to the

00:35

Lord for you and 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

00:45

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

00:54

Philistines went up against Israel and when the people of Israel heard of it They were afraid of the

00:59

Philistines and the people of Israel said to Samuel do not cease to cry out to the

01:05

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

01:15

Lord and Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering the

01:23

Philistines drew near to attack Israel but the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the

01:30

Philistines and threw them into confusion and they were routed before the Lord and the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the

01:38

Philistines and Struck them as far as below Beth Car Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shin and called its name

01:48

Ebenezer For he said till now the Lord has helped us so the

01:53

Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel and the

01:58

Hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel the cities that the

02:04

Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron to Gath and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the

02:12

Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites Samuel judged

02:18

Israel all the days of his life and he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel Gilgal in Mizpah and he judged

02:26

Israel in all these places then he would return to Rama for his home was there and there also he judged

02:33

Israel and He built there an altar to the Lord made the Lord out his blessings to the reading of his

02:40

Holy Word When we were just starting in the first year or two of us as a church

02:45

We were going door -to -door in Yancey Ville and we came upon a man who said he was the pastor of another church around here

02:51

I forget which one he encouraged us that nice things and and said to me, you know

02:57

When you have a revival, let me know and I'll visit and I thought but I didn't say

03:02

When we have a revival, you'll hear about it without me having to tell you Now it might be a surprise to many that being put reformed means being enthusiastically in favor of revival even

03:17

When we never schedule a revival, we never plan one. We never advertise one.

03:22

We're all for revival Just not the kind that can be scheduled and planned and advertised

03:29

For many other churches they have revivals often annually About the same time of year to reach people and of course, they're hoping to reach new people unsaved people outsiders but realistically the fact is most of the people who come are their own people or maybe

03:45

Family members of their members or maybe old members who haven't been in years that kind of people

03:51

That's realistically the ones they get the hope is to get them to come back to God And many of them are people who have made some kind of decision some time ago.

04:00

They responded to an invitation Or were led through a repeat -after -me prayer. They were told now that Now they're saved now their church members.

04:09

Maybe they're rushed through a baptism and then they Disappeared from the church may be showing up only around Easter or something like that They'll have revivals these churches in part just like they have homecomings, you know to get the non attending church members to step foot back in the church building and for Noble reasons hoping to revive them

04:30

To get them to recommit and maybe they'll start coming regularly again, except of course with homecomings though are more about trying to keep old sentimental attachments alive whereas revivals are about preaching passionately for a commitment a

04:46

Recommitment or for salvation to people who were already supposed to have confessed that Jesus is

04:53

Lord So they schedule a revival every year hoping that that boy or that girl that they told was saved and they told him or her that they're now church members and Then they grew up never to attend church or hardly ever to its interest except for maybe

05:09

Easter special events hoping that they will be drawn in and recommit him or herself or maybe they're hoping to reach the youth who don't have any choice but to come along with their parents and Will be persuaded by the sixth verse of just as I am

05:27

To come forward so that they can tell him or her that he's saved Never seeming to learn the lesson

05:35

That they should have learned from all the kids that they've told in the past They've assured of salvation at past revivals that now they're trying to get to come back

05:45

To another revival and they keep going on and on Not learning we don't believe in that kind of revival because we believe in the real ones

05:55

The Reformation started as a revival the German monk wanted to know how to be right with God Founded it that it was through faith alone and he was revived the

06:03

Puritans Wanted revival. They were dissatisfied with the compromise of the state church and sought

06:09

God about how he wanted the church to be run They would have long meetings called prophesying

06:16

With several preachers expositing scripture going on for hours. They were so committed to their revival many of them came to America to preserve it to keep it alive from an oppressive

06:27

King and many others who stayed Brought about a revolution there about a century later here in America revival started when the

06:37

Puritans became dissatisfied with The deadness of the churches they had started a century before in revival and they felt that they were now cold

06:47

They had declined After about four generations of being here and they prayed for revival and it came about and what is called the

06:54

Great Awakening no one had to advertise it or cajole straying members to come and hear a gospel quartet and Visit here a visiting preachers.

07:04

Don't be real exciting to come here come to our revival It was just there was a real revival

07:09

So people came Jonathan Edwards could read a sermon in a calm voice and people would be reduced to tears

07:16

When farmers out in their field were plowing heard that George Whitfield was preaching a few towns over they would just leave their plowing animals out in the field and Run to their horse and ride as fast as they could to go hear him

07:30

Once in New England people packed into a church there to hear

07:36

Whitfield preach so many people the balcony Collapsed killing a couple of people but they were undeterred and moved the meeting outside So that they could continue

07:48

So imagine imagine if a disaster happened here something collapsed Whatever that is up there that frame collapsed in the ceiling and killed a couple of people

07:57

But we were so determined we had to finish this service. We want to praise the Lord We want to hear the

08:02

Word of God. So we move it out to the parking lot and we continue when that happens That's when you know, you have revival they wanted to get back to God It's a great awakening.

08:13

Do you I get a feeling that a lot of people call themselves reformed today are

08:18

Satisfied with themselves with their tradition with their theology with the way things have always been done

08:24

It's kind of smugly feeling superior to those ignorant people out there with their scheduled revivals

08:31

When we know so much better We have better theology, of course when you think that way you're arrogant self -satisfied

08:41

Smug looking down on everyone else. You're the furthest away from God I think the

08:47

Lord is more likely to bless a church with scheduled revivals Which passionately pray for revival and really want a revival then what is one that is full of that attitude?

08:59

So, how do you get back to God? We see that here in four parts first repent second repulse third remember and finally reform

09:11

To get back to God first you have to repent we see three facets of that what it means to repent or first What what is repentance second how and finally then?

09:21

Then what does it look like? What's it produce at the end of verse 2 all the house of Israel lamented after the

09:28

Lord they mourned For their sins as they sought the

09:33

Lord they had a godly grief which caused them to despise their sins the common idea in our day in churches with a lack of revival is

09:44

That we need to attract people with what makes them feel good about themselves

09:50

We got to meet their felt needs give them the information they need give them the inspiration they need leave them feeling uplifted positive

09:59

But here the first step is lamenting in a peculiar phrase lamenting

10:07

After the Lord and the Great Awakening is Jonathan Edwards or George Whitfield would preach

10:14

Or others people would commonly lament After the Lord they would weep for their sins

10:21

George Whitfield wrote about how when he visited Jonathan Edwards Church in Northampton, Massachusetts Edwards himself sitting in this

10:30

Congregation listening to the sermon Edwards Jonathan Edwards the probably the greatest theologian in American history

10:36

Was weeping through the whole sermon Lamenting after the

10:41

Lord where the Spirit comes and begins convicting of sin our reaction is to lament

10:50

So Israel is lamenting after the Lord and so Samuel Who's been absent? Have you noticed he's been absent from the story just before you know about Ichabod the

10:59

Ark being captured Probably absent from that story because he's a boy. He was a boy and now he's grown up and he challenges

11:07

Israel in verse 3 if So this is a condition you know if This lamenting after the

11:14

Lord if it's real if it's sincere You're really sorry For what you've done for your sin not just kind of sorry that man we we tried to turn the

11:25

Ark of the Covenant into a magic box and we got it captured and we got Devastated and now we're being oppressed. We're sorry things have turned out badly

11:31

If not just sorry for the consequences, are they sorry for really what they've done if you are returning To the

11:38

Lord you're returning literally the word returning means repenting the same word repent return

11:44

Repentance is turning away from the way you were going and going another way

11:50

After the Lord to come back to God You need repentance

11:57

Now along with a lot of the modern false gospel Repentance is either ignored or even sometimes just denied

12:05

Some deny the need for repentance many teach that God affirms, you know Whatever sin that they want to cling to that he's inclusive

12:13

You can feel proud of the sin you want to identify with it's pride month feel proud of your sin

12:19

Of course, they don't admit it's a sin But even among those who appear conservative

12:25

Who preach for revivals? Some dispensationalists have taught that repentance isn't necessary The salvation is purely by grace what they call grace and their grace doesn't produce this grace.

12:37

They talk about a lot doesn't Produce repentance doesn't leave you changed.

12:42

It just assures you of salvation without any change of life. It's what they call grace They've developed this idea to explain why they have so many people who respond to their invitations respond to their revivals

12:54

Whom they told were saved And they boasted that they were saved they've counted them as saved because they got to count them because they want to boast of how many people came forward and Yet they don't repent their lives don't change

13:08

They're just as immoral or drunken or profane or racist as anyone else. And so they'll say they're

13:14

Tried to explain why this is the case. They'll say well, they're there are carnal Christians They make up this phrase and they're carnal

13:21

Christians are people they say who have been saved But who haven't repented as if repentance is optional

13:28

You can you can out for it if you really want it, but you don't have to you could just get saved and forget the repentance

13:33

That's what they say. But here we see when God brings people to himself They repent grace produces repentance

13:45

Samuel challenges them not only with what they are to do which is repent but how

13:53

If you are really repenting Really lamenting after the Lord what?

13:59

Repent it must be he says with all your heart and verse 3 with all your heart that's how real repentance is from the heart the heart is the center of yourself of Your loves and delights and your character your your inclinations to the way what makes you go the way you go

14:21

Repentance isn't just a change of your doctrines Now it might produce change of doctrines if you used to believe

14:28

God was affirming of sin Real repentance will change that doctrine if you used to believe that grace doesn't necessarily produce repentance real repentance will change that doctrine, but your doctrine can be fine and You still need to repent to aim your heart

14:47

To the Lord true repentance comes from your heart and his heart felt and second thing whole hearted, you'll see says with all not half -hearted but with all one's heart so that No longer is not a part of your heart.

15:06

Oh, yeah, you believe the Lord you believe that you want the Lord kind of but you got a part over here that Man still likes living for money

15:15

Or for the belly or for the love relationship or the ego Real repentance has an undivided devotion to the

15:26

Lord what you do is repent How you do it is? wholeheartedly then

15:34

If you repent wholeheartedly It will show in various ways in what you put away

15:41

What you go toward and what you pour out and Verse three if you repent then it will show by you

15:50

Here putting away the foreign gods Dora gods that are there are foreign to you as God's people you're one of God's people.

15:59

There's other gods are foreign to you You shouldn't have any other God your one and only God must be the

16:04

Lord so Israel Here he's saying put away

16:10

The gods from the world around you from the culture that you're surrounded by The ashtoreth for them, which is the female fertility goddess or balls the male fertility goddess now for them as mostly farmers

16:24

Imagine you're a farmer Israel is kind of semi arid I was it is a rain a whole lot rain some but not always a lot

16:31

And so, you know, you know, you've got to get that crop you want the rain to fall you want whatever help you can get

16:37

To grow your your your fields your your crops your animals

16:43

And so you would be attracted to God's who promised fertility For their animals for their fields for their families.

16:50

And so why not offer a little? Worship to ball just a little bit

16:57

Or to ashtoreth to help don't go all out for ball. I'm not saying that but there's a little something or hurt a light

17:05

It wasn't that they were totally ignoring the Lord they'd go to the tabernacle they had offered their sacrifices But just to kind of cover their bases, maybe there's something to this just to cover the bases

17:14

They would they give a little something to ball in ashtoreth. It's like Christian today.

17:21

They can serve God and Mammon sure. I'll go to church.

17:26

I'll be passionate. I'll sing revive us again on Sunday morning, but you know, come on There's the week and I Can I give a little my life?

17:33

to live it for the money a little part to serve money a little corner of my heart reserved for The cash or whatever else you want

17:42

But Samuel says your repentance must be whole Hearted and if you repent that it will show by directing or fixing

17:51

Your heart to the Lord in verse 3 or more literally make your heart firm For the

17:57

Lord firm as it doesn't stray When the revival has gone away the emotions gone away

18:02

It doesn't stray away from the Lord. So you aren't easily drawn away to morality or to greed or self -indulgence serve him only

18:13

Samuel says exclusively So that even when you're working to make money you got to do that You're making money for the

18:20

Lord when you're with your family, which is great It's for the Lord and then the Lord will

18:25

Samuel promises deliver you From your enemies here for them the

18:31

Philistines for us put away. He will put his enemies in our lives

18:37

Under his feet and for us that may be Greed that temper that lust

18:46

He'll put them under your feet But you need wholehearted repentance. Well, then the

18:51

Israelites did that They put away the extra gods that they had acquired and they serve the Lord only then they had a revival meeting in verse 5 now notice they didn't call a meeting first and Then have a revival.

19:04

The revival has already started it started when they began lamenting after the

19:10

Lord Samuel challenges them to show their grief for their sins and Seek the

19:15

Lord that's how they show it by seeking the Lord put away all the other gods seek the Lord With real repentance and then when the survival has already started then he calls for a gathering

19:28

Samuel called them together at Mizpah in central Israel notice in verse 6. He did a ceremony with water drawing it up and Pouring it out

19:38

To represent their cleansing and in the law they had a ceremony of water for purification

19:45

Sometimes they had to bathe completely on the would be immersed in water to be cleansed

19:50

And so when the Jews accepted new converts, they required them to bathe to be immersed Which if you translate into Greek is to be baptized as a sign of cleansing

19:59

John the Baptist took that up and he said now Everyone not just Gentiles converting to be

20:04

Jews, but now everyone even you Jews who are repenting Have to be immersed have to be baptized.

20:11

That's what baptized means. It means to be immersed Because God does not have an ethnic people God is not a racist who prefers one race

20:19

God can make sons out of Abraham remember John the Baptist said so why don't why do you think God's impressed with a particular race?

20:26

He could make the people he wants out of rocks if he wanted them that's what he cared about a certain kind of people but John the

20:32

Baptist said he wants a people who repent and Then show their repentance

20:38

With baptism and the Lord Jesus took that up from John the Baptist and said it is for his disciples

20:44

If you repent it will show in baptism So we draw out the water were immersed and then we pour out our lives to the

20:54

Lord here Samuel shows their cleansing with water and Then they fasted they denied themselves.

21:02

So maybe you're so intense. You're lamenting after the Lord It's all you can think of it real revival. You you can't think about well,

21:09

I gotta eat something You're just so intense for the Lord you forget about eating they fasted they confessed their sins if you repent it will show with self -denial and Confession here in verse 6 they confess.

21:23

We have sinned against the Lord Then it says

21:28

Samuel judged the people Means he applied the law of God to them taught them the law of God how to live

21:36

Repentance is tangible. It shows invisible ways and changes to your life that we can see

21:44

Like Israel you might repent to get back to God You might repent after we've had some problems.

21:50

We've had some hard times you played with sin and it just didn't work out very well Well, what if you repent?

21:59

Just to make life easier and Better it's still about you still about you sin because you thought that was the best for yourself

22:06

And now you're repenting because you think it's the best for yourself Well if that happens Expect an attack from the world the flesh or the devil

22:16

After you repent you will have to second repulse As they gather in Mishpa Mishpa by the way is far away from Philistia the land of the

22:27

Philistines But still somehow the Philistines heard about it heard about this meeting the

22:33

Philistines now So dominate Israel that they know what's going on everywhere in the territory of Israel.

22:38

They know Israel is gathering They probably suspect this is a military mobilization.

22:43

And so they prepared to attack it the Philistines attack the revival meeting

22:50

When there's a revival There's always an attack After the

22:56

Reformation the Roman Church attacked sometimes literally Launching military crusades against reformed cities like Zurich where they killed

23:04

Uruk Zwingli King Henry VIII killed William Tyndale for translating the

23:09

Bible into English a great crime That is the Jesuits were founded to counter the Protestants and the

23:15

Roman Church became more Entrenched in the errors that provoked the

23:21

Reformation So that the Council of Trent at the Council of Trent they made those errors an official part of their doctrine understand court it contrary to what some people think that they've gotten better over the

23:33

Years over the centuries. No after the Reformation they got worse There was a counter attack against the

23:40

Reformation The Puritan revival in the early 17th century was attacked by King Charles the first who tried to wipe out

23:48

Puritanism Acquiring Puritan pastors to to conform to unbiblical traditions like superstitious rituals like making the sign of the cross that kind of thing and Which they refused to do he was trying to wipe out

24:02

Puritanism which provoked some of those Puritans to come to America so they would be free of those things and the others who stayed in England eventually started the

24:13

English Civil War and Charles the first lost the Great Awakening was countered by the rise of Unitarian Universalists who denied the

24:20

Trinity or the need for the gospel Everyone's going to be saved. Anyway of those who it's what they taught those who weren't revived attacked the revival and Often became heretics who eventually took over Harvard and then

24:37

Yale Which had been before this Puritan colleges Jonathan Edwards who had been the leader of the

24:45

Great Awakening in America was fired from his pastorate on a personal level after revival in your own life there's frequently an attack

25:00

In which some of the excitement might go away Like last week God seems to be losing it seems to be sometimes distant and we find out who are

25:09

God's fair -weather fans or Who have their heart fixed on the

25:17

Lord here imagine the scene You're an

25:22

Israelite. You've been genuinely. Sorry for Dabbling in Canaanite idolatry that that little ball statue you set up in your living room

25:32

You've been sorry that you've been breaking God's law now. You want to do better You repent you fast and you're praying your leader the young man

25:41

Samuel challenges you to put away the idols to fix your heart on the Lord alone and you resolve to do that and you're sincere and he calls for you to meet at Mizpah far away from the

25:53

Philistines and You all have this cleansing ceremony with water and Samuel offers a young lamb as a whole burnt offering

26:00

Symbolize atonement and that you are offering yourself wholly to the Lord in dedication

26:07

Revival has now reached its peak and you expect great blessing from the

26:13

Lord you're gathered with other other of God's people because you love the Lord and then

26:21

Then instead of blessing You hear the

26:26

Philistines are approaching to attack You saw the Lord You wonder what happened.

26:34

I saw the Lord instead of blessing. We're getting attacked You know, this is the reward we get for revival

26:42

What would you think if instead of reward for having repented and believe the

26:48

Word of God You get persecution like the early Protestants Instead of making more money by closing on Sunday morning, so you go to church and worship

26:59

You lose out Instead of promotion at work for standing on your principles

27:05

You get fired Instead of being liked and admired by your family for your faith for your sincerity for your integrity.

27:14

You're insulted Instead of all your sinful desires your temptations going away

27:21

They come back stronger than ever Revivals are followed by attacks and we see who are the

27:29

Lord's fair -weather fans. The Philistines are marching toward them Israel hears all about it and is terrified

27:37

And so they asked Samuel to pray That's another sign that their Revival is sincere.

27:43

They don't just flee. They asked Samuel to pray Remember they had lost so many of their men at the last battle of Ebeneezer And now they're virtually helpless so they can't really defend themselves

27:55

So they were afraid of the Philistines at the end of verse 7 so they begged Samuel in verse 8 do not cease

28:02

Don't stop. Don't halt don't slow down to cry out to the Lord our

28:08

God for us That he may save us from the hand of the Philistines So Samuel takes a little lamb still nursing

28:15

Like they or we are God's lambs Offers it as a whole burnt offering

28:22

Now this isn't the kind of offering that you could eat the leftover meat like some of their other offerings work

28:28

This is offered entirely representing how they were fixing their heart wholly on the

28:34

Lord and Then he cried out to the Lord for Israel Samuel interceded for them in verse 9 and The Lord answered him

28:46

The Lord answers him By repulsing The attack as Samuel is in the very act of offering this lamb the

28:54

Philistines come inside they'd heard of that They were coming now. They can see them on the horizon ready for battle but the

29:02

Lord Thundered with a mighty sound Imagine bolts of lightning just flashing across the sky with the thunder reverberating shaking everything now

29:15

God could have Struck them with that lightning. Couldn't he the the fire of God just wiped him out himself

29:22

Or he could have pelted them with large hailstones I happened with Joshua remember said in one

29:29

Bible the hailstones killed more of the enemy of the Canaanites than Then the Israelites did but here

29:37

The Lord just confuses them this crashing of thunder You know, we had a

29:43

Violent hailstorm didn't last but a few minutes, but it was violent for a while here right right here

29:49

Just last Friday afternoon and when the hail is hitting this metal roof

29:54

It just made a deafening roar. I never heard anything like you've been here when it rained You'll hear it's kind of loud, but this was far beyond that.

30:03

It's just almost deafening I stayed in the prayer meeting room over there. I got a watch looking in here

30:09

Was watching it saying holes get poked in the in the skylights and then rain would come pouring through It was it was intimidating

30:19

It was frightening to even be in here You know God can do things with the weather or with nature that just remind us of how small and weak we are

30:29

That's what he did here. God threw them into Confusion in the middle of verse 10. It means that confusion means to trouble them to frighten them

30:39

It's the same thing that God did with the Egyptian army as they were uses the same word there, too the Egyptians were chasing

30:44

Israel through the Red Sea remember the story and the wheels of their chariots get bogged down in the mud and This says they got confused

30:52

Where they began to panic? Even before the sea started to collapse on them They began to get frantic at the idea of you know

30:59

I'm at this wall of water could collapse on us and there's armor on will drown and then that's what happened

31:04

God confused them first and that's what God did here to the Philistines to repulse the attack flashing lightning boom loud shaking thunder filling the sky and sowing confusion and Panic what

31:19

Franklin Roosevelt described as unreasoning unjustified terror, which paralyzes? They were so agitated.

31:26

They were uncontrollable. They couldn't mount the Organized military attack and so they just began to flee helter -skelter

31:34

Reckless retreat the Lord made the Philistines run away fulfilling

31:41

Exodus chapter 23 verse 27 So I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come

31:51

And I will make all your enemies Turn their backs on you So the

31:57

Lord created this Psychological breakdown in the enemy so that his people

32:04

His people even though they're they're smaller they're weaker they could repulse them They could go out it and chase them down But they still had to get up and run toward the enemy to repulse your enemies

32:18

You will still have to Get up and run get up and work. You'll still have to read your

32:24

Bible Make yourself pray Sometimes lament after the Lord go to church

32:31

Discipline yourself get up and Chase your enemy

32:39

How do you get back to God? You repent You repulse with the

32:45

Lord's help and third you remember set up a remembrance

32:53

Now here Samuel sets up a monument to remember what God has done. He set up a stone

32:59

Where all this happened and he called it called the stone Ebenezer Now first, you know, he did this for two reasons first.

33:08

Remember the Ebenezer should sound familiar. That was the name of the town Where they were defeated the

33:14

Israel was defeated by the Philistines It was the first name of a town where they had the battle two battles He defeated twice and the second time they were just devastated

33:23

Where they lost the Ark of the Covenant and they were wailing about how they now they were Ichabod The glory had departed

33:30

So Samuel is saying this new Ebenezer Where they won

33:37

Reverses that first Ebenezer Here the Lord intervened for them and he showed that he hasn't departed

33:46

Ebenezer reverses Ichabod a second the meaning

33:52

Ebenezer means stone of help or Helper the helper is a stone.

33:58

Otherwise, he's solid. He's firm like a rock reliable Not like feelings that could come and go

34:07

Samuel sets it up and declares in verse 12 till now Till this point up until this point the

34:16

Lord has helped us He hasn't departed No matter what it felt like When we when we lost when our army was routed when the our priests were killed

34:27

The Ark of the Covenant had been taken and set up in a pagan temple and we were saying Ichabod No up until now the

34:35

Lord has helped us And it is on going so the

34:40

Philistines were repulsed in verse 13 so they didn't dare now venture into Israel the hand of the

34:46

Lord was against them and Samuel is proven to be Israel's new

34:51

Judge just like the judges before I'd proven their anointing and battle. That's how you get appointed as a judge

34:58

You don't run to get elected you prove it by the Lord empowering you To have victory over the enemies

35:05

Samuel's done that so Samuel is shown to be the Lord's leader. So they recover lost territory

35:10

They have peace Peace with the Amorites the leftover Canaanites thus far

35:17

Has the Lord helped them The Lord Jesus tells us that he is with us to the end of the age

35:23

So any time up until then we will be able to say thus far has the

35:30

Lord helped us He might let us lose now While he's helping us and we might wonder if the glory is departed from our life or from the church

35:41

But repent repulse and remember what the Lord has done set up a monument in your life saying this far and still ongoing

35:52

Has the Lord helped me? That's what the Lord's Supper does for us. We remember the

35:57

Lord's death Until he comes any time until he comes we can say thus far

36:05

Has the Lord helped me? That's what we say every time we meet for church Here up until now

36:14

June 18 2023 I raised my Ebenezer here

36:21

By thy great help I've come and I hope by thy good pleasure safely

36:30

To arrive at home. How do you get back to God?

36:38

last You reform Verses 15 to 17

36:45

Samuel judged Israel, which I think here means that he applied God's law to them

36:52

You don't tell them what to do that. They were working on Sabbath. So you can't do that if you were Committing adultery anything.

36:59

No, you can't do that Judging them. He was the applier of the law of God to them

37:05

He was both the judge and the executive and one person with a lifetime appointment in verse 16

37:11

He went on a circuit in central Israel All the way from there to Gilgal near the

37:17

Jordan River. So he's more accessible to more people then he returned home to Rama Where Hannah his mother was by the way, she gets him back as a young man

37:27

Now the leader remember she had given him up as a boy now she gets him back He judges well there to setting up an altar of the

37:33

Lord leading worship Notice all three verses from verses 15 to 17 those last three verses in the chapter mentioned that he judged

37:41

Israel Repeating it three times the same word. He judged Israel, you know, why is it repeating this?

37:47

Wants us to understand when he repeats something like that is for emphasis. He judged Israel Samuel is setting

37:53

Israel, right? according to God's law So the revival they had before is resulting in their lives being changed and being organized

38:02

According to God's Word he's changing not just their kind of enthusiasm for the Lord So they want to sing and they want to worship, but he's changing their practice for the

38:12

Lord for the way they live revival has led to reform true revival leads to reform

38:24

Earlier this year there was a lot of talk about a revival breaking out at Asbury University in Kentucky and spreading to some other

38:30

Colleges mostly Christian colleges like my own Samford University in Birmingham. I Hope it was genuine.

38:38

We want revival now we can be hesitant about Calling everything people call revival calling it a real revival

38:49

We want it to be true, but don't be gullible and one of the signs are true revival and one

38:55

I haven't yet heard coming out of Asbury is The movement toward reform do they go to Scripture and Reform what they've been practicing that isn't biblical

39:08

Do they stop giving assurance of salvation to every kid who repeats a prayer? Do they sing

39:14

Psalms? Do they practice church discipline? Do they have a church membership that allows church discipline that makes it possible?

39:23

Do they have only men as elders a a true revival is going to eventually lead to reform

39:33

It's not going to just be hours and hours of singing And although we might include that while you're caught up in this is yearning to be right with God but eventually true revival will bring reform a change of life and Practice it did in the

39:51

Reformation. We're learning that the gospel is by salvation alone through faith alone

39:57

Changes how you see being right with God It's no longer about getting sacraments which give you power

40:03

Do you call access to a treasury of merit and you're going to use that to save yourself? The Puritan revival led to reform of the church when unbiblical practices were stripped away the

40:16

Great Awakening in America Led to the reform particularly of baptism most

40:22

Christians in America before that baptized infants Then they've seen that that wasn't the right with many church whole churches, which used to practice infant baptism reforming and saying that baptism is for Disciples Jesus said go make disciples and baptize them the disciples

40:40

It's for people who are declaring that they are putting the old life behind and are going to walk in newness of life as a follower of Jesus for individuals for you true revival

40:53

Results in a reformed life changes that can be seen And what you watch how you spend in your words and your living

41:05

How do you get back to God? Well, maybe you know

41:13

You're a good reformed person. Well, I've been lost The God preserves his

41:18

Saints If you're truly saved, you're not going to be unsaved He doesn't allow anyone any of his sheep to be snatched out of his hand

41:25

But he does tell us it's out believers Even of whole churches who have lost their first love and who have become so lukewarm

41:36

That he's outside knocking on the door Don't let your sound theology of salvation keep you from saying that you may need a revival a fiery zeal for the

41:52

Lord repent repulse Reform your heart even if your theology is perfect and Remember raise your

42:08

Ebenezer Mark every Lord's Day if not every day That he's gotten you thus far to this point and He will by his good pleasure