The Gospel According to Samuel - Aaron Roeck | Feb 8, 2026

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Well, I bring you greetings from your brothers and sisters at Heritage Grace Baptist Church in Kitchener.

I know most of you probably don't know anything about our church or many or any of the people there, but I rejoice in our partnership in the gospel that we have certainly even just in the truths of the gospel that we hold so tightly to together, as well as I think one of the ways our partnership in the gospel is pictured is in my friendship with your pastor.

I'm so thankful for him.

And uh he's been used in many ways, I hope, and trust in your lives, but in my life in particular, there's been a few really pivotal, pivotal turning points in my life that Miles providentially was brought in and a part of.

And so I'm so thankful for the gift that your pastor has been to me, and I'm so thankful that he is your pastor here.

Uh, God's word is clear about uh the gift that pastors and teachers are to the church that Jesus gives to his body.

And I just want you to know, redemption, you have been given a good gift.

And so I would just encourage you to encourage Pastor Miles and tell him that if you mean it today.

I hope people tell you that, Miles.

Uh but I would exhort you all with uh a verse that's I'm sure familiar to many of you, Hebrews 13, 7.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith.

But the task before me and before us this morning is to continue worshiping by looking to God's word.

One of the great gifts we have is what we just experienced, which is singing corporately together.

God has given us clear instruction in His Word to be a singing people.

God's people have always been a singing people.

And we have an embarrassment of riches in the songs that we can sing.

We have new songs, we have old songs, we have long songs, we have short songs, we have repetitive, simple songs, and we have dense poetic songs.

Even this morning, we're singing a spectrum of songs.

A spectrum of songs written over the course of 267 years by my math, from the oldest song that we'll sing after the sermon to the newest ones that we've already sung.

So the newest one that I could find was written in 2025.

The oldest one that again will sing after the sermon was written in 1758.

Now, some of us will gravitate more towards the new songs.

Others of us will gravitate more towards the old.

And I think that's a good thing, actually.

I don't think we have to apologize and pretend that we don't have preferences and things like that.

I actually think one of the best ways that you can apply the commands we have in Scripture to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ or to put others before yourself is to recognize that sometimes things don't go according to your preference.

And what a gift it is to be able to honor one another, even if there's songs that aren't your preference.

Now, there was a time in my life where I did not understand that.

And I would vehemently be the kind of guy that hated old songs.

I just thought, they're trash.

What do we need old songs for?

But I've come to be persuaded that there is something precious about adding your voice to the choir of Christians that have been singing these songs for centuries, even millennia.

But what was one of the reasons I would have given to say, get rid of the old songs?

Well, one of the reasons I would have given was that sometimes the lyrics don't make any sense.

At least not right away.

So take the song Come Thou Fount, the one we're gonna sing after the sermon, written in 1758.

In it we sing that God's grace is like a fetter.

Is that a good thing?

Like what if we don't know what that means, we'd be tempted to just throw the song away.

Why are we singing words we don't know?

Now there is this pretty simple solution to that.

It's Google, right?

You can Google what is a fetter.

Well, a fetter is a chain.

Maybe you all know this.

I didn't know that.

A fetter is a chain.

God's grace is like a chain that binds our wandering hearts to Him.

That's rich.

If we're willing to do a little bit of work, these words that we don't often use can come to life.

But arguably the strangest lyric, maybe in all the hymns that I know, is also in that song.

Here I raise my Ebenezer.

If we were to play a game of word association, and I said, Ebenezer, Scrooge, that's what you would say.

Yes.

So that I mean that's what we think.

What does Ebenezer mean?

What do we do with that?

Well, that is a great question.

Now, Ebenezer is not a made-up word or like a, you know, just a fabricated fictional word.

It's not even a word that was popular in 1758.

It's a word that comes straight out of the Bible, straight out of 1 Samuel chapter 7.

1 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

And so tough lyrics might drive us to Google at times, but at their best, they will drive us to the Bible.

And so turn, if you haven't already, to 1 Samuel chapter 7.

1 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

I've given the sermon the title, The Gospel According to Samuel, because this is a chapter about good news.

That's what gospel literally means.

Good news.

It's good news about God saving a people.

And 1 Samuel 7 is about God saving a people way back then.

But the good news is we worship the same God today who worships a, saves the people still today.

The circumstances of 1 Samuel chapter 7 might feel very distant to us with the looming threat of an enemy army closing in.

1 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

But there it is, a remarkably relevant passage in my estimation.

So let me invite you to stand as you're able in honor of the reading of God's word.

I really believe this is God's word.

And so when I'm done reading, I know this might not be the experience or the regular practice, but I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord.

And if you believe that to be true, if you agree with me, I would encourage you to say out loud, thanks be to God.

And if you do it with vigor, you might just be encouraged.

Or maybe the person next to you will be.

So I'm going to start in verse 2, 1 Samuel 7, verse 2, and I'm going to read all the way to the end of the chapter.

1 Samuel 7:2

Let's hear God's word.

From the day that the ark was lodged in Kiriath Jiram, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Asteroth from among you, and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Asteroth, and they served the Lord only.

Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.

So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.

And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.

Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel.

And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

And the people of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.

So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord.

And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.

As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel.

But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines, and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.

And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them as far as below Bethkar.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer.

For he said, Till now the Lord has helped us.

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

And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines.

There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.

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

Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel, and he built there an altar to the Lord.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

Nine needs for true repentance.

I'm sure I'm breaking some kind of preaching rule with that many sermon points.

But this passage doesn't give us nine steps to earn God's favor.

It gives us really a single picture of true repentance shown through many facets, like light through a prism.

And so need number one is you need to lament.

You need to lament.

Look at verse 2 again.

From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath Jiram, a long time past, some 20 years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

This exact word here for lamented is not a common one that we find in the Old Testament.

It's used only three times.

In Jeremiah 9, it's translated as wail.

In Micah chapter 2, it's translated as moan.

Micah 2 · chapter mention

This is not a happy word.

This is agony.

This is pain.

This is a wordless cry.

This isn't a great time for God's people.

A few decades before, they had faced the threat of Philistine attack, and instead of repenting of their sin and turning to God, they attempted to treat him like a good luck charm or like a genie.

And what they did is they, well, I mean, it resulted in them being decimated by the Philistines.

They tried to bring in the Ark of the Lord, thinking that that was going to solve their problem.

But then the Ark of the Lord was taken.

It was brought into enemy territory.

And even after God sovereignly worked to save his own ark, to save himself, the people of Israel weren't following God.

In the very next verse, we find Samuel calling the people here to give up their idols, idols that have been picked up from the surrounding nations.

So they're not following God, and it's been two decades, and now they're broken.

We can illustrate this with fishing.

I don't know if anyone likes to fish.

It's a cold morning today.

Fishing might not be on our mind.

But a fish has some fight when you first hook it.

But as you work the drag and you do what you need to do, the fish gets tired and eventually they get worn out, they're broken, they're fatigued, and then you can reel them in.

This is the Israelites.

Even before the ark gets to Kiryath Jiram, they were acting foolishly, but now they are done.

They have fought the divine angler for long enough.

And so they lament after Yahweh.

They wail, they moan, they're hopeless, they're broken in their sin.

They're crushed under the weight of their rebellion.

They're sorrowful over their sin.

And as strange as it sounds, this kind of brokenness, this kind of wailing and pain over our sin is grace, isn't it?

It's grace because it can send us to God.

At its best, this isn't just being grieved over the consequences of our sin, it's being grieved because you've sinned against God Himself.

The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 9 and 10.

2 Corinthians 7:9

He says, As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting.

For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas a worldly grief produces death.

Have you ever felt this kind of brokenness over your sin?

This lamenting after the Lord.

It's right to feel it.

And so you need to lament.

But it's not enough to just feel sad.

You need to do something, which brings us to our second need.

Need number two, you need to put away your sin.

You need to put away your sin.

Look at verse 3.

And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the asteroid from among you.

So you need to put away your sin.

If your grief is what Paul would call a godly grief, like we saw in 2 Corinthians, versus a worldly grief, put away your idols.

Not just put them away for later, but make a clean break.

You need to put away your sin.

The bales we see referenced in this text represent male gods or a god and the astroth female.

Now, why do I mention that?

Well, it's important to realize that this wasn't simply lifeless statue worship.

I mean, it is that they're lifeless statues, but there was almost certainly more to it than that.

The way, uh in this case, the specific mention of these idols in this way that we find in these verses likely points us to the fertility worship that was common in the nations around them and the sexual acts that would accompany these religious ceremonies.

We need to recognize idolatry is far bigger and broader than literal statues.

There are literal things that can trap us, literally, statues and idols and things like that.

But also cars and boats and all sorts of physical objects that can capture our affections.

But maybe you aren't even tempted to bow down to a physical idol of any sort.

But there are countless things, relationships, careers, almost anything.

We have a way of turning into an idol, things that capture your heart, your affections, your worship.

One author writes, genuine repentance will always move beyond wet eyes, moved feelings, and stirred emotions.

It will cast down idols and cling only to God.

The hymn writer says it well, this dearest idol I have known, whatever that idol may be, help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee.

Help me to tear it from thy throne.

What would you say to someone who claimed to be following Christ, but refused, like flat out refused, to give up an idol?

The great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon likened this to the well-known story of the prodigal son.

Imagine the prodigal son returning home, broken over his sin, marching towards his father with pails of slop for lunch later.

Is that real turning away?

And so, what is the idol or the sin that you need to put away today?

You know what it is.

God knows what it is.

What are you gonna do about it?

Put it away, get rid of it, make a clean break.

Wouldn't it be glorious to be free of that today?

This could be the day that you're just done with it.

You don't have to wait 20 years like the Israelites.

You might not have 20 years, and so put it away.

Put away your sin.

But it's not enough for us just to feel sad or even to try to will ourselves to put away our sin.

You need to turn away from something and to something, or better, someone.

You need to turn away from your sin and turn to God.

That's need number three.

You need to turn to the Lord.

Look again at verse three.

And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, if you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the asteroid from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

So genuine repentance is a turning away from something and a turning to.

Turn away from your sin, turn to the Lord.

Instead of serving whatever idol or idols you're giving yourself to, serve the Lord with all of your heart.

Serve him only.

Jesus' words are worth remembering.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

So maybe you've begun to recognize the foolishness of the idols you're trusting in.

Maybe you recognize how truly unsatisfying they are.

Maybe you recognize how there's no rest or peace, even if you gained the entire world.

And maybe knowing this, you've tried to put away that vice, that habit, that behavior, that sin.

You need to be broken, you need to put away your sin, but you will find no rest for your weary soul until you turn to the Lord and find refuge in Him alone.

You need to turn to the Lord.

And that is the best news, the best invitation there ever possibly can be.

Christian, I hope this stirs your affections to think about this idea of turning to the Lord.

If you did it a long time ago, if you did it just recently, recognize He will receive you.

If you don't know Jesus, today could be that day where you turn away from your sin and you turn to the Lord.

And I promise you, He will receive you.

Oh, that's good news, friends.

If you're grieved over your sin, turn away from it and turn to the Lord.

What's stopping you today?

Follow the lead of those that we read about.

In verse 4, so the people of Israel put away the bales and the asteroids, and they served the Lord only.

If you're grieved over your sin, if you recognize that there's a chasm between you and the God who made you because of your sin, you see that you justly stand accused, turn away from your sin and turn to the Lord.

But what does that mean?

You're thinking that sounded really good and religious, but what does that mean?

What do I actually do with that?

Well, that's good you asked.

Need number four, you need to confess.

You need to confess.

Look how frank they are in verses five and six.

Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.

So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.

And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.

We have sinned against Yahweh, the God of the universe.

That's what the people say.

They call a spade a spade.

As elementary as it sounds, we need this reminder.

We need to call sin what it is.

We love to say all kinds of things that aren't this.

I could have done better.

I messed up.

I regret my decision.

I'm sorry for the offense that you took at what I did.

I know what I did wasn't right, but you should have seen what they did to make me do it.

Does that sound familiar?

Sounds familiar to me.

But we do well to notice how blunt their response is here.

How blunt their repentance is here.

We have sinned against God.

It's been decades.

Maybe they could have blamed someone else.

Maybe they could have blamed their upbringing.

It's been 20 years, right?

They could have said, oh, my surroundings, my upbringing.

Maybe they felt conned into worshiping the Baals or the Astrods.

Oh, that's what mom and dad did.

You know, maybe others justified their actions because of the urges that they had that were beyond their control.

But here, no one is blamed but them.

We have sinned against God.

And then they have action.

Behind their confession.

They pour out water, and frankly, all we can do is speculate at exactly what this behavior is that they're doing here.

We don't know.

Maybe it's connected with the fasting, like just like they're fasting from water, they're also, or fasting from food, they're also pouring out the water as a picture of their fasting.

Maybe it's a tangible picture of them pouring out their souls to God, like they pour out this water, like they're pouring out their souls, or maybe they're saying they need God's grace and mercy poured out on them.

We don't know.

But what is important is to recognize they put something physical behind their words.

Now, religious behavior or ritual will never be sufficient to save you.

But as we saw before, action followed their grief over sin.

And here, something tangible accompanied their confession.

And so if you're confessing sin to one another or you're going to the Lord and confessing your sin, think about how you can maybe avoid the vagueness that can be so tempting.

Maybe just look at the Bible and see the kind of words that the Bible uses to talk about sin.

Use that language.

That will not be comfortable, I guarantee.

But it's vital that we don't shy away from this point, that we don't rush past it.

Because the great news is that God already knows.

You don't have to sugarcoat your sin.

He knows it.

He knows you.

If you're tempted to go light on your sin, just remember and rehearse the promise after promise you find in God's word of just how ready He stands to receive you.

Think of John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

All that the Father gives me, Jesus says, will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

If you're wondering this morning, would God really save me?

Or maybe would God really take me back?

Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

We'll get a firm grip on that, friends.

Admitting your sin is good.

But what do we need?

This sermon can't possibly just be a list of all the things you must do.

Maybe you're like super gospel centered and you're like, this guy's just giving us a list of things to do.

That's not gospel, that's law.

Well, we can't.

That's our hope is not that it's just in what we would do if it was up to us, there would be no salvation.

You cannot do enough, but the good news is God can.

Well, I thought maybe that would get an amen.

Need number five, you need an intercessor.

Here's where God really starts to work here.

You need an intercessor.

Over and over in this passage, the Israelites turn to Samuel and they plead with him and they say, Pray for us.

Pray for us.

First in verse five, Samuel tells them that he will pray for them.

Then in verse eight, after the Philistines get word that they're gathering and they start moving in.

Like that's terrifying.

I've never experienced that.

But then they plead with Samuel in verse eight.

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.

They recognized how vital it was to have God's man praying for them.

And no offense to Samuel, he seemed like a pretty faithful guy.

But we have it way better than they did.

Because our advocate, our intercessor, is the one that Samuel was only a shadow of.

The one that Samuel was pointing to.

Our intercessor is Jesus himself.

Christian, do you realize that Jesus prays for you?

Do you?

I don't think about that nearly enough.

I love what Robert Murray McShane says.

He says, if I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.

And yet distance makes no difference.

He is praying for me.

Alright, Hebrews chapter 7, verses 23 to 25.

Hebrews 7:23–25

It says the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.

But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

This is talking about Jesus.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

He's praying for you.

Or maybe you think of uh Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8, verses 33 through 34.

Romans 8 · chapter mention Romans 8:33–34

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies, who is to condemn.

Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us.

Isn't it glorious to know that Jesus is praying for you?

He is the best prayer.

Right?

He never fails to do what he's committed to do.

That's good news.

How many times have I said, I'll pray for you, and I don't?

Sad to say, it happens.

But he never does that.

How many times do I pray and my will is not jiving with the Lord's?

Sad to say, too many times.

But that's never true of Jesus.

He never fails to pray for you, and he's always praying perfectly according to God's will.

He's God.

This is good news.

And my brain, my three-pound brain, and my limited vocabulary cannot articulate just how good of news it is to have.

I think my brain's three pounds, I don't know.

But we have someone praying for us, the second person of the Trinity.

This is good, good, good news.

I need an intercessor, and I have one in Jesus Christ Himself.

Shockingly, there's even more to this priestly work of Christ that he does, which brings us to our sixth need.

Need number six, you need a substitute.

Look at verse 9.

So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord.

And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.

Even with our grief over sin, even with turning away from sin, even with turning to God, confessing honestly, and even having an intercessor, our sin still needs to be dealt with.

And just like any good judge, God is just.

And he can't turn a blind eye to sin.

Sin needs to be dealt with.

And as we're reminded from Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22, it says, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 9:22

And so, in a foreshadowing type of way of what Christ would eventually do, God established the sacrificial system in the Old Testament.

And frankly, it's a bloodbath at times.

But it vividly pictures the reality of sin and the need for a substitute.

But this is exactly what Jesus came to do.

That he would be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

He came to live a life without sin and yet die in the place of sinners.

Like this sacrificial lamb in 1 Samuel 7, but in a far greater sense, Jesus came to die as a substitute.

John Stott says it so well.

The essence of both sin and salvation is found in substitution.

Sin is man substituting himself for God, and salvation is God substituting himself for man.

That's a good one.

We can read a little bit more of Hebrews chapter 7.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

I'll start where I read before and read a little bit more.

The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, because he always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered himself.

And not only did Jesus offer himself and die, God raised him from the dead, demonstrated that he had accepted his sacrifice for all who would turn from their sin and trust in Christ for salvation.

The resurrection tells us not only that God's just wrath is satisfied, but it also tells us the same truth we find in need number seven is that you need a powerful God.

You need a powerful God.

You need a God that's powerful enough to intervene when all seems lost.

We needed God to break through our dead hearts with the regenerating work of his spirit in order for us to be saved.

We needed God's power to be evident when he raised Jesus from the dead.

We need a powerful God.

When all seems lost, God's people here in 1 Samuel 7, they were left with no hope other than God.

And that's when God's sovereign power likes to show up.

Right, look at verse 10.

As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel.

But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion.

And they were defeated before Israel.

When I was first preparing this sermon to preach at our church back in the summer, there was a massive storm.

Like just a crazy storm.

And I sat on my front porch for close to an hour watching the show.

And in case you think that that's something like, oh, that seems like something a pastor would do is just like sit and look at the sky, that's not me.

You just got to spend time with me to figure out.

I don't sit still for very long.

So this was exceptional.

But it was mind-blowing.

Every few seconds, the entire sky would just light up.

You would barely even hear the thunder because it was so constant.

It was just like a roar and a rumble in the sky.

But every once in a while, just this ear-splitting crack would come through, and you would, oh my goodness, what am I witnessing?

It was just power on display.

Now I don't know the way the Lord thundered against the Philistines with a mighty sound back then.

I don't know if it was literal thunder, I don't know what it was, but I was so glad to get that show.

And so the next time you hear thunder just rumble through your body, think about this powerful God that we serve.

This God who steps in when all else seems lost.

That's really good news.

But God's power isn't merely displayed in a storm.

We sung that just a few minutes ago.

More than that, it's that he can deliver us from the storm, he can calm the storm.

And it's in light of salvation that Samuel leads his people to commemorate what God had done to step in and save them.

And so need number eight is this: you need to remember.

You need to remember.

Verse 12 then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer.

For he said, Till now the Lord has helped us.

Here's that word, Ebenezer.

Literally, it means stone of help.

Samuel isn't setting up an idol here.

He's giving them something tangible that reminds them of the reality that God has been their help.

He has been their salvation.

Till now, the Lord has helped us.

We have tons of Ebenezers.

Gathering each week on the first day of the week, it reminds us what?

Of the salvation that we know.

Till now, the Lord has helped us.

In the songs that we sing, not just the ones that say Ebenezer, but all the songs we sing that rehearse the gospel, what are we proclaiming in different words and ways?

Till now, the Lord has helped us.

When we're baptized, it's an outward symbol of an inward reality where we're declaring, till now the Lord has helped me.

In the Lord's Supper, we remember and proclaim Christ's blood and body broken, shed for us.

We eat and drink together in communion with one another.

We remember and proclaim all that Christ's death accomplished until he comes again.

And so each time we partake of the Lord's Supper, what do we say?

In a sense, till now the Lord has helped us.

You need to remember.

Because if you're anything like me, you're prone to wander.

You're quick to forget.

But we need to rehearse the gospel to ourselves.

We need to remind each other every chance we get of our salvation.

What can you do this week to help somebody else remember these things?

Maybe today.

What could you do after the service when you're chatting?

You can talk about the Super Bowl or whatever else you want to talk about.

But what could you maybe do that help would help them remember and rehearse the gospel?

Maybe from your own story.

Till now, the Lord has helped us.

One of the fascinating things we find in this passage is Samuel filling the threefold type office.

He calls on the people to repent and to turn away from their sin.

And this he's acting like a prophet.

He's interceding and sacrificing a lamb, and this he's acting like a priest.

And then we see mentioned earlier, but then over and over again throughout the passage, we find him acting as a judge, which brings us to the final need that our passage gives us.

And this is need number nine.

You need a leader.

Verse 15 Samuel judged all Israel all the days of his life.

And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places.

Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel, and he built there an altar to the Lord.

Remember, Israel doesn't have a king yet.

That's just around the corner in the life of God's people.

But at this time they were ruled by judges, Samuel being the final one.

And so this is what Samuel does.

He's fulfilling the office of leading God's people.

Good godly authority leads to flourishing.

And so we see God provide a leader for his people.

Now all you need to do is just read the next couple chapters and you see how things can so quickly go wrong.

Samuel's sons fall short.

The people of Israel reject God's kingship and they demand a king.

And they want a king like all the nations, not a king after God's own heart.

But right here, as far as the end of chapter 7 in 1 Samuel, God has set up Samuel to be a prophet, a priest, and a judge, a leader of God's people.

And all of this ought to point us to the one who Samuel is merely pointing us to in his life and ministry.

In Jesus, we find a perfect prophet, priest, and king.

We need a leader.

And God gives us leaders in our homes and in our land and in our churches.

But even the best, most faithful leaders don't compare with Christ our King.

And so this chapter shows us our many needs.

You need to lament over your sin.

You need to put away your sin.

You need to turn to the Lord.

You need to honestly confess.

You need an intercessor.

You need a substitute.

You need a powerful God.

And you need to remember.

And then we need a leader.

We need Jesus to be Lord of our lives.

Because even if you track with everything, maybe you're like, I'm an eight-point sermon kind of you know, guy or gal, and you track most of the way through, and you're saying, Yeah, I want all that stuff.

I got sin, I got sin I need to be dealt with.

I need a savior, but do you want a Lord?

Maybe you want to have your sin dealt with, but you don't want to give your life to Christ to rule.

You want to rule.

Well, if that's the case, something has broken down, and there's no true repentance there.

Because this passage, the gospel according to Samuel, in it we get a challenging but wonderfully helpful picture of true repentance.

And in turn, true salvation.

If you're already saved, I hope this stirs your soul to rest in that salvation.

And if you're not, I today could be that day of salvation for you.

Because all of this sounds like nine needs.

I need, I need to do so much, and I need so much.

Well, guess what?

Every single one of those is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

So let's pray.

Our gracious God, we need so much.

And yet you've given so much.

You've sent your own son to live the perfect life of obedience that we could never live, die the death that we deserve, and rise in victory over the grave.

Oh, give us great confidence today that we have an intercessor, we have a substitute, we have a leader.

Help us to remember today.

Even as we sing and we recognize how prone we are to wander, remind us of your amazing grace that binds our wandering heart to you.

And even in our singing, help us raise an Ebenezer, a declaration corporately that says, till now, the Lord has helped us.

And all we need to do is stare at the Savior to recognize that that is so clearly true.

It's in his name that we pray.

Amen.