The sermon preached at the thanksgiving service held on 13 February 2016 at the opening of our new facilities, William Tyndale House, by Pastor Pooyan Mehrshahi, Minister of Providence Baptist Chapel, Cheltenham and the Persian Bible translator.

‘Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’ (1 Samuel 7.12).

Today is an occasion of thanksgiving; it is a time also of remembrance of God’s goodness towards us, towards the Society, towards so many. We could say, in the history of the Society millions have received the Word of God and only eternity will tell how many have been converted through this simple but holy task of translation, publication, and distribution of the Word of God. So many thousands of people have been involved throughout the ages, and for these we must raise up this memorial of thanksgiving for God’s goodness.

Sadly, generally men by nature are guilty of not remembering the ways of providence. Time passes before us; scenes succeed each other without attracting our attention to the fact that God has been in it and that God has been involved in all our affairs. People are usually unconscious of the many kindnesses and blessings of God that are done toward them. They are ready to attribute the things that they have received, their successes, toward themselves or even to chance. But the sovereign God sadly is left out of their thoughts.

But it ought not to be so with God’s people: we ought always to be thankful. Those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ know that there are many strange or unforeseen events that take place. The blessings and the provisions: anything that promotes our good are only from the Lord. So we praise Him; we rejoice in Him today. We acknowledge God’s wise and gracious dealings with us. ‘Eben-ezer… Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’.

The veil that covered our unthankful hearts, by grace, has been removed. How many can say this afternoon: God has removed that veil by grace and I am thankful for all His benefits towards me? We see the holy arm of the Lord in our lives, not only now but day by day.

A Thankful People

In the wintry season of the year, we see storms, we feel the cold wind, we see the clouds; and we may say these are accidental things—we may even be unhappy about them. The British are very good at speaking about the weather, but let us think of God ‘who maketh the clouds his chariot’ (Psalm 104.3). The very clouds that cause us to be cast down, the Scripture says He makes His chariot. So look up, acknowledge God: those clouds are His chariots and His ministers a flame of fire (v. 4).

Thankfulness, remembrance, and acknowledgment of God’s mercy and blessings must be the mark of Zion, God’s covenant people. This is the reason for our thanksgiving today. God has blessed and providentially ordered the affairs of the Trinitarian Bible Society. God has alone brought this Society thus far; it has not been any man but the Lord Himself. He has been behind every turn of events. He has done whatsoever He has pleased. And so we thank Him; we can thank only Him. We have done nothing ourselves, but we thank Him and magnify His holy Name. Christ our King continues to do all things well, so we praise Him.

Now the passage before us is very apt: ‘Eben-ezer … Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’. But in what context does it come? It is a phrase that is given in the midst of a battle. The victory has been gained by means of a storm, by the thundering of God, and is attributed to the gracious intervention of Jehovah. The thunder that the Lord sent terrified the Philistine army so that the unprepared Israelites were given, by God’s grace, the victory. All those twenty years they had been severely oppressed by the Philistines and yet through the thundering of God, God’s people won. They were not prepared for it; they did not even know that they would win that day. Yet God did it on their behalf.

This is remarkable: that this victory was gained on the very spot where twenty years earlier God had delivered them into the hands of their enemies. He had given His covenant people, and the ark of the covenant that they had vainly trusted in, into the hands of the Philistines. Twenty years ago on that very ground because of their unbelief, because of their sin against the Lord, they had lost. Now they won because of God’s mercy. So to commemorate the goodness of God Samuel took a stone, set it up and called it Eben-ezer, saying ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’. Now let us think briefly upon these things and apply them to our own lives as we thank God for His mercy to the Trinitarian Bible Society. 

A Remembering People

Why should we have to erect memorials like Eben-ezer to God? Does it matter if what God does is more or less visible? It is certain that even when a sparrow falls to the ground it is done by the direction of God. The Lord cares for the fowls of the air; He counts all, knows all by name, knows the number of the hairs on our heads. The mercies of God for these things are before our eyes. God has been merciful towards you, towards me. Why?

The people of Israel had been defeated twenty years previous. Have we not fallen in the past? How often have you fallen? Does God not even use this? Let us remember that when we give thanks to God; it tempers our prayers when we feel our unworthiness and our failures. Let us not be presumptuous. We have fallen because of our presumption; we have gone on in our lives, trying to do certain things in our strength thinking that the Lord has been with us. And yet we have not gone with the blessing and the presence of the Lord. We have done many things in our own strength and then have fallen, defeated.

How many mothers here have done things in their own strength? How many fathers? How many young men and women? You have felt low, you have felt defeated. Instead of mourning, let us give thanks to God as we remember our defeats of the past. Who would have thought that God’s Word and work would continue in you? Who would have thought that God would keep you? Who would have thought that over so many decades God would keep the Society?

I often think of how God keeps His people so graciously. Have you thought of how many hours we spend each week in the house of God, hearing the Word of God? Your minister preaches three one-hour sermons each week: if you go twice on the Lord’s Day and once at the midweek, that’s three hours of His Word. The Lord keeps and sustains His people by way of those small portions: the Word of God that is read, the Word that is expounded to us. We feed our bodies and our minds with hours of other things, passing, empty things and vanities, and yet we are not fallen although we should be. God sustains us upon portions of His Word because of His covenant mercies towards His people. Think about these things.

What have we achieved for Him who keeps us, who intercedes for us? The Lord has been on our side; the Lord has been with us. But oftentimes we have not sensed His presence. We have not always had the spiritual sight that Elisha had—not that we will have his physical sight to see the host of God all around His people, all around His work, keeping us, but spiritual sight.

The Society, the staff, the Committee, the supporters, the friends must remember their past, and that should make us thankful to God for His mercies towards us. We must by faith today roll, as it were, a great stone and upon it write, ‘Eben-ezer… Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’ because we have seen that our past has been from the Lord.

Think about the blessings we enjoy in the Western world. There are national and public occasions of thanksgiving, as well as individual private times for thanksgiving. But think about our nation: what a desert it is in these days. The nation that sent forth missionaries, the nation that the blood of the martyrs was sprinkled upon: what has happened to it? It has forsaken the Lord. And yet what has God done? He still keeps our Christian liberties today. He has enabled the Society to build a place for His Word, for its translation, publication, and distribution. We do not deserve it; the nation does not deserve it, and yet the United Kingdom and other nations have been and continue to be blessed. This country is not broken up by war; we do not have anarchy; we still have the rule of law. So let us raise our Eben-ezer and be thankful for that. But more importantly think about the spiritual reasons for thanksgiving, and apply these things to your own hearts.

If you are a child of grace, can you not proclaim Eben-ezer by God’s grace: ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’? Not just helped me, but helped us. Except for the works of God, everything we have is temporary. But even temporal mercies must give us reason to be thankful.

Any building erected in this world is temporary. Every brick in the Society’s new building will one day fall; everything that you see around you will pass away one day. It will be burnt up on that final day. The things that we hold so dear will pass. Yet the things done in this building—all that the Trinitarian Bible Society does for Christ and for His kingdom by God’s power and grace—all those things, all of the influences and the work that is done will go into eternity; they will have eternal effects. We must be thankful for this.

I was so thankful yesterday to see various men in the Society’s General Committee talking together as brethren, together aiming for God’s glory. What a wonderful, thankworthy thing that is: to see men from all kinds of backgrounds truly united in heart and spirit for the extension of the kingdom of God and for the Word of God.

Are we thankful? If there is anything that we can point to in our lives and say this has prospered, this has succeeded: we ought to give thanks to God for them. Think about the Society’s past decades, its history, its beginnings, and give thanks. Consider too its many contentions, its many difficulties, its many battles, its many enemies: all have been overcome.

An Acknowledging People

In our passage in 1 Samuel 7 we have this great instance of danger, of battle. The Philistines are coming against the children of Israel, and God’s people are afraid. They go pleading with Samuel, and Samuel (verse 9) takes a lamb and offers it in sacrifice. The blood of the lamb is shed and is offered up. As the smoke of the sacrifice goes up, the people of God plead with Samuel to pray on their behalf. And so Samuel prays. Here is a man of God praying. The blood of the lamb has been shed, the sacrifice has been offered up to God, the smoke goes up and what do we have here? The voice of a man praying to God, pleading.

How many thousands of prayers have been offered within the Society over many years, and upon what basis? Upon the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Lamb of God. Samuel prayed, but the voice of Christ interceding for us is better than that of Samuel. Christ intercedes on the behalf of His people forever and is answered by God in the voice of thunder. The thundering comes forth and the enemies are defeated.

Verse 11 says the Philistines were smitten ‘until they came under Beth-car’. The name Beth-car has a meaning: the house of pastures; or it could be translated as the ‘house of the lamb’. When the thundering came, God’s people fought. The voice of God came from heaven and the people went, as it were, to the house of the lamb.

Here is Christ displayed, and here is the hand of God: the hand of Jesus Christ that throughout the past decades has been upon the Society. Who else could have kept this work but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? He has covenanted to keep His Word and to have a witness until He comes. In this passage here are God’s people winning and going up to the house of the lamb, Beth-car. Anything that has been done by the Society in our lives has been done for Christ, by Him, by His strength; all has been done through the Lamb of God.

Jesus must receive all the glory and all that He does in us will bring glory to His Father. It remains His business today to glorify His Father. Think about the suffering of Christ: here was a Lamb that was offered up; here is a new and living way made to heaven. God answered Samuel with His thundering and the people become victorious in this battle. Think about that better Lamb that was given and all that Christ has suffered, the blood that He shed, the agonies that He endured upon that cross. Then look at yourself, look at your work, look at my work, how feeble we are, how weak. We preach the gospel so feebly; in proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ we can hardly lift up our voices. Yet it is done in His name.

We feel our own weaknesses but then see Him working when we least expect it. We see Him working in hearts that are so dark and so totally depraved. We see Him save sinners through His Word, this Word that, shamefully to us, we often read but take for granted. We have it so wonderfully translated in our English tongue but we take it for granted. Yet it is given to some poor sinner and the effect of it is so great: it transforms the world, turns the world upside down. Jesus Christ is victorious.

How many preachers will say, I have preached the Word of God and I feel I have not done it justice at all, and yet it pleased the Lord to save someone under that preaching? The virtue needed goes from Jesus Christ. We set up the Ebenezer, ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’. We must praise Him for that. Jesus Christ continues to lead captivity captive. He continues to draw sinners to Himself; His throne is established in the midst of His people. He reigns forever and forever. 

A Victorious People

Blessed be His name that He has seen fit to enable us to have a part in this Society that we might be used by God. It is a mercy to each one of us to be used by Him to bring glory to His name. It is a mercy for us, and all because of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Jesus will conquer; He will be victorious. This Society, I believe, is part of Christ’s conquering. His Word is sent forth and effective, so we rejoice and praise Him. God has answered prayer and His people win by prayer. Samuel did not cease praying until the victory was God’s. We ought then not to cease to pray, to serve, to work and labour together. Let us not cease to labour in prayer for this God-honouring cause.

The Society has remained faithful in publishing the Word of God throughout the ages since 1831; let us not cease to pray for it. Every brick, every wire throughout this building, every door, every parcel, every page, every pen, every computer, every ink that is used here is for the extension of Christ’s Kingdom and His glory; so too all those working here, labouring in the distribution of the Word of God. Everything here has been dedicated for God, for Christ and His kingdom. Only eternity will tell of the Lord’s use of these things.

We do not win by spear or by the sword; we do not win by the force of human innovations or man’s designs. But it is through the Word of God, through simple Spirit-anointed preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through His Word, that the power of God unto salvation comes to those who believe. So this Spirit-blessed and inspired Word is published and we must continue to declare it. Every one of us who are God’s children we have a part in this: we have been commissioned in this way, to bring down the great walls surrounding people who seem to be so far from the Lord. Our brothers, sisters, uncles, various relatives, children, will see that through the Word of God and the preaching of it great walls come down. Nations that are closed to the things of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ will become open.

It is the privilege of the Society to send forth His Word into such situations. People that are so steeped in false religion, so blinded to anything of Christ and antichristian can be turned and changed. Something supernatural happens in them when the Word of God goes to them with the power of the Spirit; they are transformed. Then they too will say, ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’.

I have a picture of a man from my own country of Iran, forsaken by family, thrown out into the streets. Then finding a place in a dirty cellar he sent a picture saying, ‘do you see this place I live in: this is my Eben-ezer, “Hitherto hath the LORD helped me”. I keep this picture as a reminder of God’s goodness to me. I am here because God has saved me; Jesus Christ died for me. So I would rather be in this place than to have the smiles even of my mother and my father’. That brother is now labouring as one of my chief proofreaders in Iran.

I have seen a man who was in prison partly due to the Society’s Gospel according to John in Farsi. The gospel was found on his computer when the revolutionary guards caught him. So the Trinitarian Bible Society has something to be blamed for his arrest. He was in prison for about three years. Yet, from the borders of Turkey he wrote to me and said, ‘My work is not done but I have managed to find the files of the gospel. Would you still like them?’ I was so pleased to be able to say to him that already the work on the gospel had been finished and he no longer had to proofread it, but now there is the rest of the New Testament he could work on. That man said, ‘I look back to the prison and the place is a memorial, a place of thanksgiving in my mind; “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us”’.

Eben-ezer is a wonderful name: it means so much to God’s people; it means so much to this Society. It is the ultimate aim of the Trinitarian Bible Society that Christ’s Name is to be honoured and glorified throughout the world, that Christ’s kingdom be established in hearts by this inspired Book which reveals Jesus Christ. We ought to remember this; we have much reason to be thankful to God. Remember this text: ‘Eben-ezer… Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’. 

Conclusion

As I close I would ask you to apply this to your own life, to your own soul. Think, what does this mean to me? The external and the visible moments in our lives are precious to us and we ought to be thankful to the Lord for all the external blessings, but as Christians we must erect a different kind of memorial to God in our hearts.

Apply this Eben-ezer to your life. We must get a sense of God’s goodness engraved on our hearts, if we are truly to say, ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’. We must get a sense of His goodness to us poor, wretched, falling sinners. So engrave that upon your heart; get a sense of it. Let us not forget Him Who has loved us unto death. Let us not forget Him whose love has been different than that of any creature on earth.

I often say to my friends who believe in a man-made god, ‘imagine a great ship in the midst of an ocean and imagine you have fallen overboard and are sinking. You are drowning and calling out for help. Then the Pope comes to the edge and says to you, “Follow these rules, follow the church’s tradition and one day maybe you will arrive at the door of heaven”. Someone else comes to the edge and says “Move your hands like this, move your feet like that when you are drowning”. Muhammad comes and says, “Follow Sharia, follow the Islamic law and maybe you will arrive in paradise”.

But how can a man do such a thing when his hands and legs are broken? How can a man do anything for God if he is totally lost and dead in trespasses and sins? Then you have Christ who comes, not giving us a list of do’s and don’ts for salvation but Himself as the Saviour. He Himself jumps into the ocean of God’s wrath and He saves us. He takes us who are broken, who are dead, He takes us when we have already drowned and brings us back.’

Jesus is the Saviour of the world, and it is the work of the Society to publish His Word and to distribute it. Get a sense of God’s goodness to your heart; engrave it upon your soul. Say, ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits’ (Psalm 103.1–2).

But we must not only do this, we must also endeavour to impress others to sense the same things. Our words, our actions, all of our dealings in life ought to bring glory to God, to bear witness to our Saviour God. Do not attribute anything to yourself, to your working, to your reading, to your own goodness, to your own church. Attribute everything to Jesus Christ Who has done all things well.

But then again, if we are truly thankful, there ought to be an increasing devotion to God’s service. It is not enough to say, ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’. There ought to be an increasing devotion to serve Him. ‘What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?’ (Psalm 116.12). Are these the words of a man who is ready to serve, ready to give whatever it may be? I will do what He wants, I will give what He requires: the aim of all the blessings of God, the aim of this building, the aim of my life is so that I may bring forth fruit for His glory.

Finally, we must trust Him in all future difficulties and dangers. This is one of the reasons why memorials are raised up. It is not merely to remind us what God has done, but also of what He is ever ready to do if we call upon Him. Here again we must think about David, who regarded the deliverances he had experienced as reasons to trust in the Lord. The past memories of God’s goodness were used in the time of his trials and afflictions, when he was faced with new dangers; he was expecting the same kind of deliverance from the Lord. So he says in 1 Samuel 17.37, ‘The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine’. The Apostle Paul said similar words as he thought of the mercies of God for him in the past. In 2 Corinthians 1.10 he speaks of God ‘who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us’. Here too he does not only speak of the past, he speaks of the future.

What has this Society before it? Still many battles, for sure, for things shall wax worse and worse in this world: persecutions and tribulations shall come in this nation and throughout this world. Yet we say, ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’. There shall be many weaknesses, many dangers, many divisions, many hopeless times. Yet in the midst of it you will have answers, in the midst of it you will have victories. In the midst of it the Word of God continues to go forth, and you will say, ‘we are more than conquerors’ (Romans 8.37) still, because Christ remains King.

So what ought we to do then? The words of 2 Thessalonians 3.1 are so apt to be remembered by the Society, ‘Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified…’.

As we think today of ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’, the words from Psalm 98.1 should be within our souls, ‘O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory’. Amen.

Edited for online publication, 29 October 2024.