Revival and Deliverance — Chuck Smith

The Word for Today, the broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of The Word for Today, we'll be focusing on the subject of revival and deliverance, as we pick up in 1 Samuel Chapter 7, Verse 3. And now, with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith.

Samuel Calls Israel to Repentance

And so Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines.

Now, the Philistines were still mastering over Israel at this time. And it seems that Samuel was going around sort of in a subterfuge, encouraging the people. And for 20 years, while the ark of the LORD was here at Kiriath Urim, in the house of Abinadab, Samuel was going around encouraging the people that God will deliver you from the hands of the Philistines.

If you'll turn to the LORD with all your heart. If you'll really seek God and put away the false gods. Now, Baal and Ashtaroth were two of the false gods. In the concept of the gods, they were husband and wife.

They were gods that represented the reproduction capacities. And they were worshipped in lewd and lascivious kind of rituals. And it is tragic that the children of Israel had taken these as their gods.

And that was a part of their whole problem. Today, we don't call it Ashtaroth. We call it pornography. The worship of sex and the reproduction capacities. And these people who were into these things, God's people, given over to vile sexual rights and practices as the land around them.

Idolatry, Sexual Sin, and Separation from the World

God always intended His people to be separate. God said, come ye apart from them, be ye separate, saith the LORD, touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a god unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.

They were into the gods of the materialism. And we see the gods of materialism, how they're ruling people today. You see, we are more sophisticated. We were more sophisticated. We're becoming more pagan.

I am shocked. I am alarmed. I really cannot believe that people would consciously and deliberately worship Satan, but yet they are. And so many thousands of young people in the United States today are, again, getting out satanic symbols and beginning to worship Satan.

And it's a very strong and powerful movement. But again, the worship of Satan is accompanied with all kinds of unspeakable and horrible things because it is strong and it is powerful. There are human sacrifices that are taking place in the United States today in the satanic rituals, boys and girls that are being offered as human sacrifices in these rituals.

I mean, that's, in this modern enlightened age, you say, that's unthinkable. It is. I can't conceive that this is so, but it is. The children of Israel were falling into the patterns of the people around them.

And though they had idols that represented Baal and Ashtoreth and Molech and Mammon, and their worship was quite obvious because they would worship before these idols in these images, they'd have them in their homes.

We today feel that we are freed from the worship of pagan gods because we don't have any little idols of Baal or Ashtoreth in our house. We don't have the idol of Mammon. But the god Mammon was the god of materialism and the god of pleasure.

And there are those that are, that pleasure has become their god. Nothing wrong with pleasure. Nothing wrong with fun. Nothing wrong with a good time. As long as it's not your god. If that's what you live for, then that can be a horrible god because it can enslave you.

Turning from False Gods to the Living God

And the children of Israel had begun to worship these gods and Samuel is saying, Look, get rid of these false gods. Let the true and the living God become the center of your life once again. Turn away from the false gods.

And if you will serve Jehovah, then he will deliver you from the hand of your enemies. God can free you from the Philistines. And he's going around and encouraging a spiritual revival, but it's taking 20 years.

Oh, how we need a spiritual awakening in the United States. How we need to turn from Baal and Ashtoreth and Mammon and Molech, the god of pleasure. And how we need to turn to the true and the living God.

Get rid of these corrupting influences. Talk about sacrificing your children. That's sort of shocking, isn't it? How could they take their babies and sacrifice them to their gods? How could they throw their babies into the fire?

How could they place their babies in the red-hot little arms of Baal as they are stretched out with hands up like that to cradle the baby and watch them burn to death? How could we kill thousands of little babies in the womb?

You see, we're just as guilty as they. We're just as guilty as they. And so Samuel is going around speaking to the house of Israel, saying, if you'll just return to the Lord, put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord.

Oh, the preparation of the heart to worship God. Serve Him only. No man can serve two masters. Serve Him only. He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. And then the children of Israel, they put away the Baalim, which is the plural of Baal, and the Ashtoreth, so they put away their gods and they serve the Lord only.

They followed the advice of Samuel. And Samuel said, gather all of Israel to Mishpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. Let's gather together for a great assembly, and I'm going to pray to Jehovah for you.

So they gathered together at Mishpah, and probably was to gather together, and actually the purpose was to throw off the yoke of the Philistines. Was no doubt the purpose of the gathering. I'm going to pray for you.

He's been promising God will throw off the yoke of the Philistines if you'll turn to God, if you'll serve God, get rid of these other gods, serve Him only, God will deliver you. So he gathers them together at Mishpah.

Revival Through Confession and Prayer

And they gathered together, and they drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and they fasted on that day, and they said there, we have sinned against Jehovah, and Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mishpah.

And so it was a time of spiritual renewing. A time of the confession of sins. And it seems that spiritual renewal is usually begun with the confession of sin. And you read of some of the great revivals.

They sprang out of confession of sin as the people began to confess, we have sinned against God. That revival then was prompted and sparked as the result of the confession of sin. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mishpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel, and when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

Twenty years earlier, they had been soundly defeated by the Philistines. The Philistines still had garrisons in the cities of Israel. They were subject to these people. And when the lords of the Philistines heard that they were gathered at Mishpah, they gathered all of their army, and they came up to Mishpah to battle.

And when the children of Israel heard that the Philistine army was on its way, they were afraid. They were frightened. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hands of the Philistines.

Don't stop praying for us. So they turned their fears into prayers. The Bible says, cast all your cares upon him, for he cares for you. The Bible tells us that we aren't to be worried. We're not to be full of care.

And how we need to learn to take our fears, our cares, our misgivings, and just cast them on the Lord and say, Lord, help us. And so they said to Samuel, hey, don't stop praying, Samuel. So Samuel took a suckling lamb, that is a little lamb that was still nursing, so a very young little lamb, and he offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord.

And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and he disconfitted them, and they were smitten before Israel.

God Delivers Israel from the Philistines

So God joined the battle and just confused them. The tremendous thunderstorm and no doubt lightning, and the armies were hesitating and stopped, and it gave chance for the Israelites to come rushing down from Mizpah, which is on a higher mound, on down against the Philistines, and began to really wipe them out.

And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and they pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came to Bethkar, and wherever Bethkar is, we don't know yet. That's a place that's unknown as far as archaeology is concerned.

Then Samuel took a stone, and he set it between Mizpah and Shen, and he called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. And so this Ebenezer stone, and going back a couple of chapters, it was at Ebenezer where the children of Israel 20 years earlier were thoroughly defeated by the Philistines.

That's where 30 ,000 of them got wiped out, and that's where the Philistines gained the supremacy over Israel. Now in the same place of great defeat, they have great victory. And what's the difference between defeat and victory?

As you look at the record, when they went out 20 years earlier and were defeated, they went out without prayer. They went out without seeking the guidance of God and without seeking the help of God. They went out in their own strength and in their own power and were thoroughly defeated.

Now they go out relying upon God. Fearful, yes, because they knew their strength was weak, but trusting in God. They went out with prayer. They went out with sacrifice. And now God delivers the enemy into their hands.

How many times as we are struggling against the flesh and against the enemy do we seek to go out in our own strength and find ourselves defeated and wiped out? I don't have the power to resist the temptations of the flesh.

I need the strength of God. I need the help of God. And we have to rely upon God if we're going to be victorious. And so the vast difference between defeat and victory. The acknowledging now, you see, the work of God should always lead you to the worship of God.

Ebenezer Stones and the Assurance of God's Faithfulness

God has wrought great victory. Raise the stone up. This is a monument to what God has done. It's acknowledging that God's hand is in the victory. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. This is the beginning of God's work.

There's still more Philistines to be wiped out, but hey, God's brought us this far. And oh, how we can raise the Ebenezer stones in our own lives as we look where we are today and we say, well, hitherto has the Lord helped us.

God has brought me this far. But the encouraging thing about that is that God has not brought me this far to drop me, to let me go, to forsake me. But having brought me this far, God's going to take me all the way.

He hasn't brought me this far just to, you know, dump me. He hasn't begun a good work in me and then is going to give it up. But he who has begun a good work in you shall continue to perform it until he brings it to completion.

Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling. Oh yes, he's doing that and he has done that. I raise my Ebenezer stone. He is able and he has helped me to keep me from falling. Hitherto has the Lord helped me.

But then Jude went on to say, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory. You see, the Lord has brought me this far, but he's going to take me all the way. All the way into the presence of his glory and is able to present you faultless in the presence of his glory.

Now unto the only God, our Savior Jesus Christ, be glory and honor, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen and amen and amen. And so the glorious work that God has begun in our lives, he's going to continue as we yield ourselves to him and as we remain surrendered to him, he's going to take us all the way.

But let's raise the stone and say, all right, God's brought me this far. Bless God. And then look at that stone. Whenever you're discouraged, whenever the enemy begins to overwhelm you, you think, oh, I don't know if I can make it.

Look back. There's the Ebenezer stone. God brought me that far. He's going to take me all the way. And oh, what a glorious confidence we have when we realize the work that God has done. Paul, the apostle, said, who hath delivered me from so great a death?

Who does now deliver me? And I am confident he shall yet deliver me. And so it's the past, it's the present, it's the future. The Lord has helped me in the past. The Lord is helping me now. And that's only a prophecy that he's going to help me in the future.

The Lord will perfect that which concerneth you. That means complete it. God's going to complete his work in your life. And that, to me, is all that I need. God's help and God's strength. He'll see me through.

So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more. Complete subduing, really. They came no more into the borders of Israel. For the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all of the days of Samuel.

And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron even to Gath. Now that doesn't mean Ekron and Gath were restored, but the little villages and all that had been taken by the Philistines.

And all of the borders thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines, and there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in a circuit.

He was a circuit-riding preacher. He went from Bethel to Gilgal and to Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah. That's where his home was. And today, on a hill in Ramah, you can see a large building that they say is the tomb of Samuel.

But there was another church that figured that that wasn't the proper site, so they built another church on another hillside, and they say that's the tomb of Samuel. And so you have a problem, two tombs of Samuel, but one guide in Israel solved it.

He said, well, that's first Samuel and that's second Samuel. But Ramah, just north of Jerusalem, was the home of Samuel, for there was his home, and there he judged Israel, and he built an altar unto the Lord.

Samuel's Corrupt Sons and Israel's Demand for a King

Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. This was a mistake, because his sons did not follow in the footsteps of their father. The name of his firstborn was Joel, the name of his second was Abiyah, and they were judges in Beersheba, which is the extreme southern part of the country.

And his sons did not walk in his ways, but they turned aside after money. They took bribes and they perverted judgment. So there was corruption in the courts. As the sons of Samuel were judging, they would take bribes and thus perverted judgment.

Then all of the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel there at Ramah. And they said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. Hard thing here. The people are now coming to Samuel there in Ramah and they're demanding that Samuel give them a king.

And unfortunately, the desire was to be like the nations around us. We want a king like the nations around us.

We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study of 1 Samuel in our next lesson as we find Israel demanding a king. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us. But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message, or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one, you can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives, and they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details.

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That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today. Now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck Smith.

Putting the Word into Practice

May we now be doers of the Word and not hearers only, because that's self-deception. You've got to put it into practice for it to have any value in your life. Let the Spirit of God now minister to you its truth as He brings to your remembrance those things that we have studied, and He enriches you in your walk and in your faith and in your life in Christ.

May the Lord be with you and bless you. Give you a good week. In Jesus' name.

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