This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 22, 1998.

We are in 1 Samuel chapter 7, reading from verse 3. This is the word of God. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreth from among you. and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth and served the Lord only.

Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord.’ And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.’ And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

And the children of Israel cried to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a second lamb and offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near. to battle against Israel, but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel.

And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Beth-kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shem, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”

So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron even unto Gath. And the coasts 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 the circuit to Bethel, to Gilgal and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah, for that was his home. And there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord. After that, John was put in prison.

Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Pray with me now. Do help us, O God, in our hearing, and be with me in my speaking. And may we, O God, give our attention to you as is right. May our spirits be focused and concentrated from the beginning of our worship to its conclusion. Father, may it be so for us, and may it be so for your people throughout the world, even as your word, even as the gospel, is proclaimed. We pray it through Christ, who reigns above. Amen. Thank you.

Samuel has been absent from the story in 1 Samuel since chapter 4 verse 1. But now he reappears in chapter 7 verse 3. But you must understand the reason why Samuel reappears. He does not reappear in this story at this point in the interests of a national Jewish as if the foundations of the national moral order had collapsed, as if the fabric of the moral character of Israel had unraveled, and Samuel had now appeared on the scene for the purpose of reconstructing lost national identity and resolve.

Therefore, it is not as if in labelling Israel’s social ills or cataloguing all of her moral weaknesses, Samuel arrives with just the right prescription, just the right medicine, all the appropriate answers to return Israel to her former glory days. as if he had appeared to salvage the nation through just the right blend of political, economic, social, moral, and religious concern.

Nor does Samuel step out of the shadows in order to resurrect and ignored, neglected, if not forgotten, Jewish world and life view. A Jewish Belsen Shalom. As if Samuel were the agent of a virtual Jewish renaissance, within the nation with respect to her culture, in which all aspects of Jewish life are now again properly balanced and limited because of their relationship to a transcendent religious norm. Nor does Samuel come forward because he has observed a particularly neglected segment of Jewish society. His mother Hannah was a great woman, but the structure of Jewish society made it impossible for her to reach her full potential. to receive the recognition and enjoy the empowerment rightfully belonging to her. Might Samuel’s appearance then be for the purpose of addressing the evils inherent to a wicked patriarchal system? Or maybe it is. that Samuel feels the pain of one of the many tribes in the Israelite commonwealth.

Maybe he’s especially sensitive to the pain of the Benjaminites. They are a diminished tribe. They lack numerical strength. They are particularly high-pressed, and we are aware of that if we remember the conclusion of the Book of Judges, where the tribe of Benjamin took it on the nose.

But maybe it was more than Samuel could bear. He could stand it no longer, his conscience suppressed too long. He no more must speak out, no, he must act. He marches out, he having become convinced that God, if there be a God, has no cause presently but the cause of the oppressed Benjaminites. and that God has no existence if God be God, but that existence which is expressed in the cause for equality for the Benjaminites. I am the first to admit that this is a very difficult message, because the train is about to run over many of our most cherished convictions and attitudes. If it has not already. The worst isn’t over. The worst in this message is yet to come.

Samuel does not reappear in 1 Samuel 7 in the interest of any of these things I’ve spoken. But for the sake of something of far greater significance, Samuel reappears for the sake of the kingdom of God, and in the spirit of that kingdom he comes. But even here, Even here we must be very careful, and I say that we must be very careful, because in identifying the interest of his reappearance as being along a spiritual line, we are liable again to misread the Scripture’s intention.

Samuel most certainly does not come in the interests of Israel’s social, cultural, and moral reconstruction. Neither is his purpose the correcting of society’s injustices. But by the same token, neither is Samuel the emissary of a religious revival. At least not as we have come to understand religious revivals. At no point in this Biblical account is there any indication that at a certain point in Libertarianism, he decided to follow God. And there he has committed himself to bring people back to the Lord. We have no suggestion in this story or in Samuel of some sort of inner spiritual crisis that he could use later as the bedrock for his ministry as he appealed to others that they might have a similar inner spiritual crisis. Nor are we given any testimony from any who gathered around Samuel in recognition of his calling as a prophet and a judge.

Any recognition of those who would gather around him acknowledging his calling, who would then provide support for his revival campaigns, who would orchestrate and manage his schedule, who would raise his money, who would enlist celebrities, distribute publicity, and generally guarantee the success, the statistically driven bottom line of all of his visits here and there in Israel. Now, I am serious. There are different tracks that you can be on in this Christianity business. And it is imperative that the Church of Jesus Christ now begin to take stock of exactly what track she is on.

Samuel is not the instrument of commercial religion. He is not the instrument or the tool of pen-style religion. Instead, Samuel is the instrument of the kingdom of God, from God’s own sovereign plan of redemption, the story of salvation. Samuel does not live and serve for the sake of a repeatedly revisited religious rush, revivalistic style, through which the backsliding, if not the unconverted Israelite masses, might have yet another chance to get it right with God.

It is true that the conclusion of 1 Samuel 7, Samuel, does itinerate. He does move from place to place, but his itineration is for the purpose of judging Israel, not evangelizing Israel, verse 16. Samuel’s ministry is the nurturing and admonishing ministry directed toward the Old Testament Church, as Samuel in his movements anticipates the coming continual presence of Jesus Christ’s constant ministry to his people. That’s what’s going on at the end of 1 Samuel 7. In Samuel’s itinerating ministry, we see an effectual ministry of continued nurture and admonition to God’s covenant people, His Church, with elect, rising out of the distinctive acts of God earlier performed in and through Samuel. at the center of which now stands, according to verse 17, an altar established by the prophet, priest and judge Samuel, in anticipation of the true altar established in glory of God by the true prophet, priest and judge Jesus Christ. This means, then, that when Samuel is reintroduced in verse 3 of that 7th chapter, it has nothing to do with the regularly repeated religious rushes of revivals.

As if the cycle has now commenced for Samuel’s career as a mass evangelist. In actual fact, Samuel’s reappearance has everything to do not with the often repeated revival events, but with the once-for-all accomplished definitive event of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Here, in provisional, shadow-and-testament form, the coming conclusive work of God rushes upon us, we who fear of it.

I might, just in passing, note for you that the repeated religious rush of revivals and revivalism is the evangelical counterpart to the repeated religious sacrificial rush of the Roman Catholic mass. Both the general and genuine interest of the gospel and the true spirit of the Protestant Reformation stand opposite to revivalism. This is not your heritage. This is not the train you are on.

I trust that by now what I am telling you helps you to see the events in 1 Samuel 7, not in terms of what you might hope to see and often repeated in your experience, but in terms of the realization of the gospel in the unrepeatable event of the coming of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And Samuel comes then when he reappears in verse 3 of chapter 7, he does so in such a way that we perceive in him the coming ministry, attendant to the kingdom, in its appearance. We perceive in it something of the ministry of John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ himself, both of whom preach repentance and faith because the kingdom has died. Samuel preaches repentance and faith. You hear it in his message, in his words. It is as if you can hear in Samuel’s words, Jesus O, repent and believe the gospel.

Mark 1.15. Samuel’s message of repentance comes in the words, return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve him alone. The call to believe the gospel, the good news, is heard in Samuel’s words, and the Lord will deliver you from the hands of the Philistines.

The remarkable response to this Old Testament picture of the preaching of the gospel is not because of Samuel’s charm, or his good looks, or his cleverness. It is in demonstration of the power of God’s word. God himself moving his people to respond in repentance and faith.

And the fact that all Israel responds has nothing to do with any notion of universal salvation, but everything to do with the truth concerning God’s election. The uniform response to Samuel’s message expresses the biblical truth that all the elect And all who are of the true Israel will, in fact, be saved. But note further, the repentance and faith worked in Israel by God through Samuel’s word is thoroughly religious in character.

It focuses upon God himself and upon pure worship, a worship that repudiates forms and images, a worship that is established away from the tabernacle and without the Ark of the Covenant. both of which have been prominent in the story of Israel to this point. In other words, such worship is now in view, as Christ will announce, as the extension of his gospel, worship that is in spirit and in truth.

In fact, the defeat of the Philistines is promised specifically without any mention of the Ark of the Covenant being made, the Ark having figured so prominently in the early story about Israel’s encounter with the Philistines, chapter 4. It is as if the story of the ark in 1 Samuel 4, up until 1 Samuel 7, was the equivalent of the Old Testament administration under its external forms. And the disappearance of the ark now with 1 Samuel 7, 2, and the appearance of Samuel in 1 Samuel 7, verse 3, is the equivalent of the dawning of the New Testament age. The first preaching of repentance and faith by Samuel in verses 3 and 4 here leads to the convening of the assembly of the Old Testament Church, verse 5 and following, which in the deepening of her faith and repentance, through a constant humility and faithful confession, now awaits at her watchtower at Mizpah, on the basis of Christ’s completed work, the final onslaught of the dreaded enemy.

This enemy shall not be overcome by Israel’s own strength or by her own doing, but only by God and in God, and only through the effectual ministry of Jesus Christ, who makes continual intercession for his Church. The Church’s enemy is overcome only through the effectual benefit of Christ’s own sacrifice, he being the Lamb of God, the final true birth, sacrifice, and offering, presented to God for the preservation of all who are true to God, the true Israel of God, a preservation administered from heaven, and the heavenly altar from which our exalted prophet, priest, and king conducts in the Spirit his present ministry among us. Here is the gospel reading of 1 Samuel 7.

It stands over against the nationalist, cultural, moralistic readings of this chapter. It also stands over against the revivalist reading of this text. The revivalist reading of this text has no appreciation for the definitive, completed, once-for-all character of what 1 Samuel 7 is saying. It instead lives by and for the repeat of the events described herein. More particularly, to the extent 1 Samuel can be judged meaningful, so says the Revivalist interpretation, it must speak principally about an inner change in me.

The gospel reading of the text does not ignore the inner transformation within the sinner. But what it does is place that transformation not in the context of potentially perpetually repeated religious experiences, but in the context of the coming of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ, a divine and conclusive event in which you now have been caused to share, into which you have been brought for participation. By the same token, the gospel reading of this chapter includes a gospel reading of verse 6. When we read about the Israelites drawing water and pouring it out before the Lord and fasting on that day and saying, we have sinned against the Lord, the gospel reading of this chapter includes a gospel reading of verse 6. And this verse sets before you the constant disposition of those who have come into the kingdom. The revivalist approach would read verse 6 as an example of the periodic, intermittent, personal religious paroxysms to which we might come from time to time in our lives.

The Gospel reading sees the text as reflective of the continual spiritual attitude and posture of Christ’s people as they, having been gathered by Christ to their mispot, that is, their watchtower, they now await God’s final deliverance at the end of the world.

The pouring out of the water is a way of life, folks. It is not an occasional experience for you, it is a way of life. The confession that is being made here by the people where they state the case concerning themselves and their sin is a way of life. It is not an occasional experience that we resort to from time to time in our lives. This is a description of the people of God. This is a description of you until Christ comes again. Is it not true that you are awaiting the deliverance finally from the last enemy death? Is that not true? Are you not well set upon your watchtower to await the coming of Christ? And while you wait, what do you do?

You pour your heart out, your soul like water upon the earth, and you maintain in faithfulness your confession of your sins and the greatness and the glory of God. That’s how you live. And in conclusion, the revivalist reading of verses 15 through 17 here finds in these verses an example of the kind of itinerating demanded by every true and respected evangelist as he moves in the interests of bringing revival and producing religious crisis in the lives of those who hear him. The Gospel reading sees here the foreshadowing of the enduring ministry of Jesus Christ. who moves by his Spirit among his people, the Church, to constantly nourish and admonish them on the basis of his finished work, a work in which you have been included. He moves among you for the sake of your access to the heavenly sanctuary and the altar that has been established there over which he presides. You see in Samuel Christ and his coming service and ministry to the Church, to you.

This does not mean that the evangelistic word will not go out. This does not mean that souls will not be changed. And you, some of you, are testimony of that today. You can tell the story of your own transformation. This is not a denial of any of that. It is merely to tell you that your story of transformation, of inner reformation, is now subordinated to the grand and glorious story of God’s accomplishments in the transition of the ages. when he turned time upside down and changed everything.

This message is not meant to diminish in any way the evangelistic call of the Church of Jesus Christ and our commitment to missions. But we would see, in fact, God raising up many who are gifted, who carry his word to the end of the earth, who build up the assemblies of God’s elect as they declare that word in his power. And it is not to mitigate in any way your own personal responsibility as you speak well of your Lord day by day and you live for him. in everything that you do. It is merely to place in context what is being said here in 1 Samuel 7, lest you be misled and you displace true things with false things and end up going down the wrong track. You dare not compromise the accomplished, finished work of Christ.

That is the foundation, that’s what you’re drawn to. You cannot allow yourself to slip into a religious mode of mind that leaves you subject to the rising and falling of your emotions, or whatever religious whim might be taking control of you at the moment. You are moving from one conversion experience to another. You are being born again a thousand times before you reach the end of your life. That is not biblical religion. That is not biblical Christianity. to invest our money and our interest, our energies, in such ministries as that, is misdirected.

And I would plead with you to see clearly here, and appeal from God himself, in Old Testament form, for the proper and right ministry of the Church, and the service which she renders. Here is a very difficult message, and I know that it is difficult for some of you to hear. You may even find it confusing and disorienting.

But I ask you to consider once more the accomplishment of Christ and the finished character of his ministry when he comes to bring the kingdom and the relationship of his test to what God is doing in that regard. This is my Ebenezer. in our gospel reading of 1 Samuel 7. Thus far hath the Lord helped us. our God, we stand before you and we ask, Lord, that we would receive the full benefit from your word which you have ordained for us, and that, Lord, that we might live before you as we ought to live, and that the things that are set before us here in this text this morning, by properly and rightly, grab hold of us that we in no way, O God, would compromise the accomplished work of Christ, that we in no way, O God, would diminish the significance of the appearance of our Savior and the realization of the kingdom of God in him, and that we would see, O Father, that even this text is preaching to us these things and teaching us about them. Father, we ask at your church at the same time, that she is zealous for a proper and right reading of the text, might also be zealous for a proper discharge of her responsibility in the realm of evangelism and missions.

And may it please you, O God, to raise up many who will proclaim your word, and may you be pleased to even raise them up from this church. And may your gospel be published, and may sinners be converted, and may they be incorporated into Christ, and may they be a participant in the great transition of the ages, the coming of the kingdom in Christ.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.