“Thus Far The Lord Has Helped Us”
(1 Samuel 7:12)
Preached May 25, 2014 in Central Park
175th Anniversary of Henderson’s First Baptist Church
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
•If you have a Bible with you, let me encourage you to open it to 1 Samuel, chapter 7.
I realize our gathering outside as we are likely means many of us are out of our usual routine and we may not have our Bible with us and that’s okay.
We are setting aside our regular verse-by-verse expositions through 1 Corinthians this morning in light of this special occasion and are going to be focusing on one main verse from 1 Samuel, chapter 7.
The best way to preach the Bible is to preach verse-by-verse through passages of Scripture. That should be the regular diet of the people of God as we gather together for corporate worship. Verse-by-verse expository preaching through books of the Bible is the best way to preach, teach, and learn the Word of God.
And so when we turn aside from that practice and focus-in on one main verse, it is especially important that we carefully consider the context from which the verse comes.
What is the greater context of 1 Samuel 7? God’s people have just won a decisive victory over their enemies, the Philistines. We read time and again in the Old Testament of these battles between God’s people and the unbelieving Philistines.
What is particularly significant about this one battle in chapter 7 is that the Philistines are defeated not by the people of God, but rather before the people of God. In other words, God’s people didn’t win the battle, God won the battle. God did it while the people just stood there. God caused the Philistines to fall not by Israel, but before Israel. God’s people did not rely upon their own strength, but rather they relied upon the strength of God and God delivered them in a stunningly supernatural way.
Specifically the text says that God “thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel (1 Samuel 7:10).” Again, the Philistines were not overcome by Israel, but before Israel. God caused the enemy to fall before His people.
God thunders down upon the Philistines and throws them into a frenzied panic. It’s a fulfillment of an earlier prophecy by Samuel’s mother Hannah way back in Chapter 2, verse 10 where Hannah says, “Those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven.”
The Lord thundered against those who opposed Him, the Philistines. They ran away. The Israelites run after them, probably picking up the weapons the Philistines had dropped in their haste to get away. In fact, the Jewish historian Josephus tells us in his work, Antiquities, that the thunder was accompanied by lightning, “which flashed in (the faces of the Philistines), and shook their weapons out of their hands, so that they fled disarmed; and also with an earthquake, which caused gaps in the earth, into which (the Philistines) fell” (as cited by John Gill). It is a remarkably powerful victory that God gives in answer to the prayers of His people.
So then, the Prophet Samuel does something to commemorate the powerful victory and deliverance of God’s people. It’s found in verse 12 and I want to read it and invite you to hear the Word of God. Just this one summary verse, verse 12.
•Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, thus far the LORD has helped us.”
•God, we ask for Your help this morning. As we gather together to celebrate our church’s 175th Anniversary, remind us that You have been our help, and You will continue to be our help. You are our salvation, our deliverance, our victory. You are the giver of life itself and spiritual life through the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.
It is hard to miss the power of the symbol in what Samuel does in verse 12 to commemorate the help of God to the people of God. The Bible says that he took a stone and set it up in the midst of the battlefield as a memorial stone so that all people would remember the mighty hand of God in saving His people.
Can you see Samuel? He finds that stone, and I’m guessing it’s a sizable stone, probably as big as a man that would have required a couple men to move it and lift it into place. But Samuel takes that stone and sets it up and calls its name Ebenezer. Ebenezer is a Hebrew word that means “Stone of Help.”
And after Samuel gets that stone set into place he gets the attention of the gathered people of God and summons them to draw near that stone. And Solomon proclaims to the assembled people, “This stone is called Ebenezer, which means ‘Stone of Help.’ Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
In other words, “Every time you look at this stone, remember the LORD who has helped you.” Thus far the LORD has helped us. Never forget the true and living God, He is God.
And you can hear in those words not only gratitude to the LORD who had delivered God’s people in the past, but an anticipation, a certain expectation that He is the same God who will help in the future. The God who had helped His people “thus far” is the same God who will help His people “thus forward,” guiding His people to future victories.
Remembering God’s help in the past is important. Each time we as God’s people remember how God has helped us in the past there is a sense in which we are “raising our Ebenezer, our ‘Stone of Help.’” The hymn-writer speaks of this in the hymn,“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Remember the verse?
Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
Hither by thy help I’ve come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Remember past victories God has given. Remember how He saved you in times past and you’ll be encouraged to know that He’ll save you in times present and times future. The God who has delivered you “thus far” is the same God who will deliver you “thus forward.”
As John Newton wrote:
“Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review;
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.”
Thus far the LORD has helped us.
As a church family, we can look back over 175 years of church history and say, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
There’s a stone right over there that marks the location of the “Old Union Meeting House” where Henderson’s First Baptist Church actually began. The church was birthed as a result of a revival meeting led by the Reverend J.L. Burroughs. Prior to this, there were only a handful of Baptists in the city of Henderson, one of whom was Mrs. James W. Clay, a founding member and for years a pillar of the church.
The Old Union Meeting House was old, already old in 1839 and already in a state of disrepair when First Baptist Church began meeting there. Eventually, the Meeting House was condemned as unsafe. And so, the founding members met in a home, one source identifying that home as the home of Mr. Fountain Cunningham, another source identifying the home of Mrs. Clay as the location of our church’s official constitution. W. H. Cunningham and John C. Cheaney were the first deacons of the church and Elder N. B. Wiggins was our church’s first pastor.
Not long after constituting as a church in the fall of 1839, the original 35 members sought to build a church building. They purchased the land right over there from wealthy landowner James Alves and the church has occupied this location since that time, located at the corner of Center and Elm for 175 years.
Thus far the LORD has helped us.
Our church has had many wonderful pastors, several worthy of special note. Pastor John Bryce of Virginia served as pastor from 1851 to 1862. This period is marked by significant growth and revival among the people of Henderson.
The church held special revival meetings led by George Lorimer, a gifted preacher originally from Scotland who pastored churches in New York, Boston, Louisville, and Paducah. Reverend Lorimer preached in a series of protracted meetings. Our young folks are likely unfamiliar with that term, “protracted meetings.” They were extended meetings of preaching the Word, revival meetings that met here in the spring of 1860 and scores of people were saved.
One person who came to know Christ at these meetings was a young, 20-year-old George F. Pentecost. Pentecost had come to the meetings as a trouble-making unbeliever from Illinois, a prideful young man who had come to “make sport” of what was going on in the meetings here in the church. And God got hold of his heart and he was radically saved.
Pentecost was baptized in the chilly waters of the Ohio River and ordained a minister by Henderson’s First Baptist Church. He went on to preach all over the world, including serving alongside the famous evangelist DL Moody from Chicago and Pentecost even preached once in Charles Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle in London England.
Thus far the LORD has helped us.
A prolific writer, Pentecost was among the contributors to the historic “Fundamentals,” the collection of theological articles written by evangelical scholars defending the fundamentals of the faith in an age of encroaching theological liberalism in America.
Pentecost wrote on the trustworthiness of the Bible. I’m holding in my hand Volume IV of the Fundamentals. Pentecost’s contribution is entitled, “What the Bible Contains for the Believer.” He writes on the infallibility and trustworthiness of the Scriptures. I’ve marked the page if you want to look at it later on in the display in the fellowship hall.
Another pastor worthy of special mention is John Sallee, who was pastor here from 1890-1899. Sallee is also remembered for his theological contributions, namely his using the Scriptures to argue soundly against those who were notoriously referred to as the Campbellites. Campbellites were so-called because they followed the teachings of Alexander Campbell, a minister who taught—among other things—that no person could be genuinely saved without first being baptized. In other words, one had to be baptized in order to be saved. Most members of the Churches of Christ and the Christian Church here in Kentucky owe their heritage to Thomas and Alexander Campbell.
Baptists, of course, believe in the reformation doctrine that no one is saved by works, but is saved only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, alone. In a defense of this doctrine, and against the false teachings of Alexander Campbell, Dr. Sallee wrote this book entitled, Mabel Clement. This book is a religious fiction about a young lady originally immersed in the teachings of the Campbellites who later speaks out against them. Sallee provides numerous biblical refutations of the false teachings of the Campbellites and soundly defends the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This is a very good book. I have read it and I commend it to you, as well. It was used widely by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Of this book, John Gilpin, who was editor of The Baptist Examiner said, “It is doubtful if any book printed on American soil has influenced more people for GOD and the Truth of His Word, as held by Baptists, than has this book. It is an antidote for all the pernicious heresies of those who believe in salvation by works, salvation by water, salvation by grace and works, falling from grace and open communion. Particularly,” adds Gilpin, “it is a Campbellite killer.”—February 3, 1956
This book will also be on display on one of the tables in the fellowship hall and catalogued in our church library.
It was also during Sallee’s pastorate that the present sanctuary was built in 1893. Many of you are aware of the fire that broke out a few decades later on an early morning in March of 1932. The sanctuary caught fire, but was saved through the heroic efforts of fireman across the street, including the fire chief, the first one to see the fire, who nearly lost his life when he fell through the sanctuary floor down into the basement in his efforts to save the main part of the structure.
Thus far the LORD has helped us.
Many of the effects of the fire are still visible today and as recently as a few years ago, we might occasionally find a small charred piece of wood that had fallen from the rafters onto the sanctuary platform.
Well, if only we had time to recount all the wonderful pastorates of Henderson’s First Baptist Church. Some are more colorful than others. And there are new things we are learning all the time.
For example, many of us learned only recently that during his first term as pastor, Dr. Keevil Judy performed the wedding ceremony of Grandpa Jones, the famed musician from Niagara who appeared on the old TV program, “Hee Haw.”
Last fall we were contacted through our church’s website by the great grandson of Reverend FW Taylor, who served as our pastor from 1899-1902. He wanted to know if we would be interested in a church annual that he had located in his great grandfather’s belongings along with a sermon booklet he had written. He mailed them to us and they are also on display today along with countless memorabilia from our church’s rich history.
You can read the fuller account of our church’s history on the website, a history co-written by Dr. Judy and Ken Davis, who have recorded the ups and downs of our church’s 175 years. Not all of the history is rosy. There are high points of periodic revival and missional progress as well as low points, too, low points that Illustrate all too well our fallen natures as sinful human beings. But in all, we can truthfully say, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
And now, as we are poised to move forward into the future, we can say confidently that the God who has helped us “thus far” will guide us “thus forward,” faithfully guiding us onward and upward to new heights of victory.
Having recently re-affirmed our church covenant, constitution and bylaws, we are positioned to move forward into the next 175 years, faithful to the Gospel, expanding our missional outreach from the community to the continents.
We look forward to future growth, growth beyond Center & Elm Streets, maintaining our historic presence here as well as looking outward to the possibility of a second location where we may continue our steady growth in building the Kingdom of God.
But as we grow and as we go, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We must never attempt to do anything in our own strength.
Thus far the LORD has helped us.
The greatest help our Lord has given is the help of the Gospel. The Bible says we enter into this world dead in trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1). We are born into this world spiritually dead because we are born in sin. We are sinners by nature and sinners by choice.
Our sin separates us from God. And God is right and just to punish our sin, punishing us for our rebellion against Him and for our failure to keep His law consistently. Galatians 3:10 says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” Would any of us dare say that we “continue” to do the things of the law? Continually? Consistently? No, we are sinners and we are therefore under the curse of our sin.
Our sin separates us from God. And God’s holiness and wrath separates God from us. It is a dual separation. Sinful humanity stands on one side and God in His righteousness and holiness stands on the other.
No man can bridge the gulf of separation. No man can work his way from one side to the other. No one can be good enough to merit God’s favor. So God comes to us. The LORD helps us. God comes to us in the Person of Jesus Christ. God lives a perfect life to fulfill the righteous demands of the law. God substitutes Himself for us, dying on the cross for our sins, taking the punishment upon Himself for our sin. Jesus pays it all. And He says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes unto the Father except by Me.”
Thus far the LORD has helped us.
If we repent of our sin and turn to Christ and believe in Him, believing He lived a perfect and sinless life, dying in our place, taking our punishment upon Himself, dying on the cross and rising the third day, if we repent and turn to Christ, we may be saved.
And if you are saved, you can be sure that the God who has saved you thus far will save you thus forward, keeping you in His hand, holding you every step of the way home to heaven.
Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
Hither by thy help I’ve come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
With Newton you can sing:
Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come, ’tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
Thus far the LORD has helped us.
The God who has helped us “thus far” is faithful to guide us “thus forward” into the future.
Why don’t you sing with me the first and last verse of that great hymn, “Amazing Grace.”
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Last verse:
When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’ve first begun.
•Dear God, you are the LORD who helps us. We thank you for your help to us as a church family, faithfully guiding us for 175 years. And we acknowledge the truth of Your Word, knowing that the greatest help you have given to us is the help we need to be saved from our sins.
With heads bowed and eyes closed, some of you are here this morning as those who are lost. Don’t leave today lost. If you need to be saved, turn to Christ this morning. Repent from your sin and trust Christ alone as your Savior. Do that right now and afterwards, seek me out and request baptism—but right where you are you can repent from your sin and turn to Jesus.
“God, be our saving Help, as we surrender all.”
•Let’s sing:
All to Jesus I surrender;
all to him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust him,
in his presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all,
all to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
I will be available to you if you have any questions about salvation, joining the church, or if there is just something unsettling to your soul. Don’t leave here that way. Come let’s talk about it and pray about it.
We have lunch for you today right over here. We also have welcome bags for those of you who are visiting. Take one of these home for you. After lunch, take some time to go into the fellowship hall and enjoy all the historical memorabilia on display. We’ll have no evening service tonight to allow for plenty of time to fellowship today. There is also a nice gift in the fellowship hall for each family, a commemorative plate for you.
I’d like to say a special thank you to folks who have worked hard to make this day possible. Thanks to our ministerial staff, our support staff, our deacons—Deacon Chair Byron Hunt, also Kenny Davis who helped a great deal—thanks also to two special ladies: my wife, Michele, and Jen McCraw, who did a lot of work in the fellowship hall.
•Let’s close in prayer.
Dear God, we thank you for this time together as we look back and see Your hand of providence at work in our church. We thank You, too, for fellowship and for the food we are about to receive. We have been reminded from your word, “Thus far, the LORD has helped us.” Give us courage to move forward knowing that the God who has helped us thus far will guide us faithfully thus forward, till Christ returns. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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