Samuel's voice is now heard. “If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only: and He will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines.” Observe the words, “with all your hearts” and “prepare your hearts.” Note, too, the word “only.” Nothing external or superficial could be accepted. Out of the heart are the issues of life (Prov. 4:2323Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23)), and the heart must be really reached.
We must pause here. Brethren, has our God our affections in their entirety? Do we “serve Him only”? Remember the reply of the Blessed One to the tempter in the wilderness, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matt. 4:1010Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Matthew 4:10)). ONLY! ONLY! Has the world any place with us. Has self? Have we indeed seen the displacement of everything in the death of Christ? Paul saw this, and could say with holy enthusiasm, “This one thing I do” (Phil. 3:1313Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (Philippians 3:13)).
No deliverance came to Israel until they put away Balaam and Ashtaroth. In like manner today, if anything has been permitted to come in between our souls and God, so that the joy that once we experienced has fled, there is nothing for it but the complete abandonment of the evil, or the casting out of the intrusive thing. It is not sufficient to sing lustily at a public meeting:
“Revive Thy work, O Lord, Thy mighty arm make bare.”
Action—vigorous, stern action-is required. God ever waits to bless His people and lead them on from victory to victory, but the platform must first be cleared of every offensive thing.