So this is a fairly brief chapter
and a pretty clear story. And really with the chapter before
it, understood in light of chapter four, there's a very simple and
very powerful lesson concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what this whole book is. It concerns the Son of God and
it's simple and it's powerful. And this is a beautiful message
between these two chapters. If you remember chapter 4, you
might be wondering why. If you think about what happened
in chapter 4 and what's happening here now in chapter 5, you might
think, why? Why did the Ark do nothing in chapter 4? And yet in chapter 5, it seems
to have woken up somehow. There is power connected with
it now in chapter 5. But in chapter 4 the Israelites
they expected, they wanted it to do something for them in the
battle against the Philistines. But it seemed to be useless in
their time of need. Thousands of Israelites died
on the battlefield against the Philistines. 34,000 Israelites
died in chapter 4. And they hoped that the Ark of
the Covenant of God would save them. But it was as though it
wasn't even there. But now, when the enemies of
God capture the Ark and take it away, it seems to wake up
and terribly afflict the people that took it. So there seems
to be an inconsistency. If it was going to have an adverse
effect on the enemies of God, why not when the Jews needed
it the most? And then later, the Ark seems to be honored.
It's put in a sacred place, sacred to those who put it there. They
put it in the house of their god, Dagon. And then bad things
start to happen. So why did the Ark do nothing
for the people of Israel, God's chosen people, in an earthly
sense, a picture of his elect? Why did it seem to have no power
then, but later after Israel had already been decimated in
battle, why does the Ark begin to work? Well, the first thing
we need to understand and to take into our hearts is very
simple and important. The Ark didn't do anything either
time. The Ark can't do anything. The
Ark is a piece of wood covered with gold. It was a lifeless piece of furniture. The Ark didn't do anything for
the Israelites and the Ark didn't do anything to the Philistines. God did. That's important now. You say, well that's just kind
of self-explanatory. No, it wasn't to them. The Israelites thought
the Ark was going to save them. The Philistines were a little
bit smarter. When they were smitten, they said that God of the ark
has smitten us. God is the one that that smote
the Philistines and God is the one who deliberately did nothing
for the Israelites and you ain't had nothing done for you until
God does nothing for you. Paul said if you be circumcised
if you come before God on a standing of your law keeping of your good
works Christ shall profit you nothing. And you talk about slaughter. You talk about disaster. You
talk about tragedy. That's what the chapter four
is all about. Christ shall profit you nothing. And everybody died. 34,000 men
died in battle. That's a lot. So Chris, are you saying then
that the Ark didn't have any significance at all? No, I didn't
say that. I didn't say that. The Ark was
a lifeless piece of furniture, but it was God's furniture. This
is important now. That Ark was sanctified. It was
set apart for a holy purpose by God Almighty himself. The
ark itself is nothing, but if God says it's something, then
it's something. What was the purpose of the ark
then? Very simple and clear. The purpose of the ark, as well as the tabernacle and
everything in it, the priesthood and everything involved in it,
the purpose of the ark was to picture Set forth, reveal, and
honor the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son. And this can't be a study of
the Ark tonight, and I still see anything about this chapter
because we just don't have time, but it's important that we remember
some things, a few things about this Ark. God said in Exodus
25-21, Thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the Ark. And
in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee,
and there I will meet with thee. Now this is everything. If God's not with us, we're lost.
And if he's with us, who can be against us? There I will meet
with thee. I will commune with thee from
above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon
the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give thee
in commandment unto the children of Israel. God said, I will meet
with you there. God with us. Whose name is that? The presence of the ark meant
the presence of God. And God with us is Christ. His
name, Emmanuel, being interpreted is God with us. That's the very
definition. The ark is Christ. The ark is where atonement was
made. Where does that happen in reality under the Old Testament
covenant in picture and shadow? What's the substance of that
shadow? Who is it that's casting that shadow? Where is atonement
made in reality? On the day of atonement, under
the old covenant, the high priest went into the most holy place
once a year, not without blood, and made atonement by splashing
the blood of an innocent victim upon the mercy seat. This is
Christ crucified, very plainly and clearly and powerfully pictured
and set forth and honored. They weren't honoring him in
it then. That's why the ark was nothing to them. Christ shall
profit you nothing if you just do what you want to do. If it depends on you, it's your way or God's way. It's
your will or His will now. And this is Christ crucified
who Himself alone made atonement, reconciliation for the sins of
His spiritual Israel with His own precious blood. In the ark
also was preserved, kept, whole, unbroken, the law of God. when the idolatry of the people
was angered Moses and he cast that
law God wrote with his own finger he cast it down and broke it
God said all right I'm gonna write it again and you put it
in the ark now whole preserved kept God's law where is God's
law honored and glorified and kept and preserved in Christ
He did always those things that pleased his father. He honored
God in thought, word, and deed eternally and in time. And that's important because
that's as us, that's as our representative. As the God-man, the son of man,
he kept that law. In the ark was the pot of manna,
Christ the bread of life. His flesh is meat indeed. In
the ark was Aaron's rod that budded. Christ is life. A severed rod, a piece of a stick,
doesn't have life. It does if God gives it to it.
Life is in Christ alone. He's able to give life where
there's nothing but death naturally, but also that rod of Aaron was
a symbol of God's authority, of God's bestowing his authority
by causing Aaron's rod alone to bud, God showed that Aaron
was his chosen and ordained high priest and everybody else was
an imposter. If you remember that story. Aaron was the chosen authority
of God as high priest among the people. A picture of Christ,
our great high priest, he to whom all authority is given in
heaven and earth, that he might give eternal life to as many
as the Father gave him. And so everything about that
ark is Christ. That ark, every time somebody
thought about it, it shouted the name of Christ in every aspect
of it. It showed that God's blessing
is alone in Christ. Reconciliation with God is alone
in Christ. Righteousness, the law kept,
is only by Christ and in Christ. So yes, that ark itself was inanimate
and powerless. It was nothing except that God
made it something. God set it apart. And that's
the way with sanctification. God makes nothings into something
precious and priceless because it's His. Kind of like us. Do you think about us when I
said that? We're sanctified by God. Worthless in and of ourselves. Worse than that. Paul said, I'm injurious. I'm
not worthy to be called an apostle. I'm less than the least of all
the saints. I'm nothing. And yet God, to God, we're precious.
We're his jewels, purchased with the very blood
of his son. And I may be useless in myself, but
God said, you'd be better off tying a millstone around your
neck and casting yourself into the ocean than to mess with me. Matthew 18, 6. All of his people are precious
to him. He's jealous over them. Though
we're nothing. Why? Sanctified by the precious
blood of his son. In Christ. And that ark, now
he pictured and set forth Christ. God said it's holy. Why was the ground that Moses
stood on at the burning bush holy? It was just dirt like all
the other dirt. Because God said it was holy.
because of the presence of Christ in that place. So, but what about the inconsistency
here though, Chris? What about, why did God not move
with power when the ark was in the camp of the Israelites? But
God did later move with power in relation to the ark. It had
something to do with the ark, but it was God that moved. It
was God's power. It was God's doing, not the ark's. But it had something to do with
the presence of the Ark, didn't it? With the honoring of Christ
in that Ark. Now think about that. Why then?
Nothing. It was like it wasn't even there
when they were in battle with the Philistines. But then God
moved with power when it was in the camp of the enemy. There's
no inconsistency here whatsoever. And once again, as in all the
scripture, the answer is Christ. And this is, this is important.
I keep saying that, but every, this is a very simple chapter,
very simple lessons, but very vital, very important. The Ark
was not accompanied by the power of God to save in the camp of
Israel because they believed not on Christ. They honored not
Christ. Their trust was in a piece of
wood with gold on top of it, and not Christ. They had defiled the sacrifice
of Christ in picture and in time. They believed in the Ark, but
they didn't believe in the Christ that was pictured by the Ark.
And the Ark brought with it the disfavor of God in the camp of
the enemy for exactly the same reason. Because they dishonored
Christ. They believed not on God's Son.
Perfect consistency. The Israelites believed not on
Christ and dishonored Him in that they tolerated, generally
speaking, not all, as we saw, but generally they tolerated
the defiling of the sacrifice. corruption of the priesthood
and the ordained way of the worship of God in the ordinances that
he had established at that time was perverted and perverse. They trusted in a thing and not
God and his Christ. We saw all of that in the first
chapters of this book. The enemies of God believed not
on Christ and honored him not in treating the Ark as a powerful
religious relic. But they didn't know God. None
of that even pertained to them. It wasn't their Ark. God didn't
promise them He'd meet with them there. He promised His people.
They had nothing to do, they had no business having anything
to do with the Ark. It didn't even pertain to them.
The things of God didn't pertain to them. They took the ark away
without God's permission. They did things with the ark
that God didn't permit. They worshiped Dagon at least
until God destroyed him and made a stump out of him before their
very eyes. They had no understanding whatsoever of who the true God
was and what he said about them or how communion with God could
be had through Christ. Through faith in Christ by those
pictures and times. So in neither case did God do
what was expected. He rarely does. He didn't help
the Jews like they thought he would, or they thought it would.
And the capturing of the Ark didn't turn out to be the victory
that God's enemies expected either. And in both cases the reason
was Christ. He that dishonors the son dishonors
the father. So God killed 34,000 Jews. And we can't even talk about
what he did to the Philistines in polite company. And here's the question tonight.
Are you honoring God's son? Have you bowed to the son of
God? Do you acknowledge and bow to the sovereign authority of
Christ to save whom he will, to damn whom he will, to do with
you what he will, to do with your loved ones what he will?
Do you honor him as the only human righteousness that there
is? There's just one righteousness. And it's Christ's, it's the righteousness
of Christ. If you have righteousness before
God, it's Him. It's really that simple. My righteousness
is not like His, it is His. I only call it mine because He
imbued it to me. Do you rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ alone as the victorious redeemer of sinners who perfected
forever all whom he sanctified with his precious blood? Do you
rejoice in him as the only sin offering that God will accept?
You need a lamb. You need a sin offering. And
there's only one. Do you trust the Son of God By
God-given faith that excludes all boasting and renounces all
confidence in the flesh and exalts Christ alone. Do you believe
on the Son of God? He asked that blind man in John
9. Do you believe? All of that that I just said
is included in that. Believing on Him. It's bowing
to Him. It's embracing Him. It's rejoicing
in Him. It's loving Him. It's trusting
Him. That's what faith is. It's not
just believing some facts on a page. It is, I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded, and I've committed everything to Him. God committed everything to His
Son. Have you? What about your side? To God, Christ is all. How about
to you? What is He to you? I can answer that for you. If
God has left you to yourself, He's nothing to you. just like
in chapter four. And the wrath of God abides upon
you, just like in chapter five, and for the same reason, because
of Christ. But if God, if you can say with
Paul, of God am I in Christ Jesus, who is made unto me wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, then Christ is all to you too.
The same one who said, I'm in Christ because God put me there
and he's all these things to me. The same one said this, Christ
is all and in all. So that's the first lesson. What
about you? This is not history. This is relevant right now. Everything
still hinges on Christ just like it did then. And here's another lesson, don't
despise God's sanctified means. It did have something to do with
the ark, too, didn't it? The ark was just a piece of wood,
but without it, under God's authority and by His ordained direction
in that day, there was no atonement without the ark. This sermon is just a man talking. But it pleased God by the foolishness
of these means to save them that believe on His Son. To despise God's means is to
despise the God who ordained them. And listen to me tonight, just
simple lessons tonight. I'm just talking to you. I would
sit down and talk with each one of you individually face to face
if I could. But that's what this is. Tonight
I'm talking to every one of you. Don't trifle with God. Don't
play with God. Do you see that in this day?
It's kind of clear, isn't it? Don't play games with God. Don't
come up here and step into that baptistry and tell everybody
here that you're committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
Son, and then go live for yourself. I want to read you a passage
of scripture from 1 Corinthians 6.15. I could read you scripture on this for the rest
of the night, but listen to this. 1 Corinthians 6.15. Know ye not
that your bodies are the members of Christ? You see, you didn't play with
that ark. You didn't dishonor it, or Christ would profit you
nothing. And you didn't dishonor it or
God's wrath. abided on your head. Because that was Christ. That was Christ in picture and
in time and in shadow. Well, God has set us apart too.
Don't you know that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall
I take the members of Christ and make them the members of
the harlot? God forbid What, know ye not
that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two saith
he shall be one flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord
is one spirit. Flee fornication. Wait a minute,
Chris, is that talking about spiritual fornication or fleshly
fornication? Yes. Yes. You belong to him, body and soul.
Don't you? You either do or you don't. Every sin that a man doeth is
without the body, but he that commiteth fornication sinneth
against his own body. What? Know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? Does that
mean anything to you? Which you have of God, and you
are not your own. For you are bought with a price,
therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
are God's, what did I just say, body and spirit. Is it fleshly
fornication or spiritual? Body and spirit, you belong to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that alright with you? If
you've ever been baptized, you said it was. The significance of the Ark, the significance of this message,
the significance of life is Christ. He's all that matters. And I say this to you, and as
I say it, as I said, my heart as long as to speak to each one
of you personally. I hope that can happen this way. Not as somebody that's better
than you, or that knows more than you, but that's in it with
you. We are surrounded by this world,
but worse than that, there's a whole lot of this world still
in us. May God give us grace. to be careful and committed to honor Him. May He keep us. May He keep us. If Christ was honored as God
had ordained it, the Ark was very significant in the economy
of God, was it not? And yet, as the Jews discovered
in a very costly way Apart from God's grace and favor and will,
it was useless. If this message is Christ, then
it's vital. Otherwise, it's just noise. You
see what I mean by everything? Christ is the difference in everything. If you live for Christ by faith,
by God-given faith in Christ alone, and by God's grace, you
honor Him, then life is wonderful, isn't it? Even with all the trials,
even with all the pain. Sometimes it's overwhelming to
me how much is wrong with this world. Does it ever just kind
of weigh upon you? How much is wrong? And yet, Paul said, Christ who is our
life, if he is your life, then life is still wonderful in spite
of all that. Otherwise, apart from him, without
him, you're dead while you live. The serpent in the wilderness,
the brazen serpent, I believe it's numbers 21, where it's recorded when God
said through Moses when the people had been bitten by fiery serpents
they had murmured against God and his prophet they had sinned
and ultimately they admitted it they said we've sinned once God had had visited them and fiery serpents bit all the people
and many people of Israel died. And they came to Moses, they
said, we've sinned. And God told Moses, he said, all right, here's
what you do. Make a serpent of brass and set it upon a pole.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who looks to that brazen
serpent shall live. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
in John chapter 3 even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up and whosoever
believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life that
serpent under God's direction looked to by faith in God's Son
was life but in 2nd Kings chapter 18 verse
4 when that same serpent that the people had looked to and
lived. By God's command, it was life then. But when that same
serpent began to be worshipped as an idol, and they burned incense
to it, King Hezekiah had to grind it to powder, and he called it
nehushtan. He had to state the obvious,
didn't he? Nehushtan means a piece of brass. You're worshipping a piece of
brass. And he grounded into powder. Same serpent. What's the difference? Christ.
Are you worshiping Christ or an idol? Even those who value this book,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, you search the scriptures because
in them you think you have life. You think this book can give
you life, that knowledge of this book, that memorizing this book.
Let's study in this book being a doctor of theology will give
you life, but you will not come to me that you might have life
Is it Christ or a thing Are you worshiping him or yourself
is your faith in him or yourself Do you live for him? or for yourself When God knocked Dagon over,
they went in and set him back up again. Is that what we're doing? Maybe
God is knocking your God over tonight. Are you going to go
home and just set him back up again? Sooner or later, one way
or the other, that's not going to work. The Lord Jesus Christ has no
rivals, not real ones. So the Jews displeased God and the Philistines displeased
God. And God made that very clear. How did they displease God? Without
faith it is impossible to please God. Faith in who? Faith in what?
They believed that the ark was powerful. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and
we'll close with this. Hebrews chapter 11. Don't want to take the time to
read this whole chapter, but I want us to get a good sense
of the whole chapter This is significant now Clearly
the problem in both cases of the Israelites and the Philistines
is God was displeased with them He stood by As the Philistines
slaughtered 34,000 Israelites. And then he smote the Philistines
in Cheshire waves. Utter destruction. Many, many,
many. We don't even know how many died.
And the ones that didn't die wanted to die. They cried out
unto heaven. Hebrews 11 verse 1. Faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear. We know that in the beginning
God, we believe God's account of what this is all about, what
this is and why it is. And by faith Abel, verse four,
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. If Abel had offered that lamb
without faith in Christ, it wouldn't have been any better than what
happened with the ark on the day that 34,000 Jews died. It wasn't the lamb, Paul said,
the blood of bulls and goats and animals can never take away
sin. It was by faith in Christ. Abel
didn't just offer a lamb that day. He offered the more excellent
sacrifice by faith. By which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts and
by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch. Now look at verse
six. You know this chapter is is over
and over by faith moses by faith noah by faith enoch by faith
abraham Look at verse six, but without faith It is impossible
to please god Now whatever faith is That's why god Killed 34 000
jews And just annihilated the philistines They didn't please
God. And when you don't please God,
you displease God. And there are consequences. There
are eternal, horrible consequences to that. So you know what? We need faith. We need this thing
of faith. What is faith all about? Without
faith it's impossible to please Him. And let me tell you something.
You're going to have to please Him. For them that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. By faith Noah. Verse 8, by faith
Abraham. Verse 9, by faith he sojourned
in the land of promise as in a strange country. Verse 10,
he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. Why did he do that? Because God
told him to look for it. God told him that it was. Through
faith, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed. Sarah laughed at the idea until
God gave her faith. These all died in faith, verse
13. Verse 17, by faith Abraham, when
he was tried, offered up Isaac. That's impossible. Without faith,
it's impossible. Why couldn't the rich young ruler
go and sell everything that he had and give it to the poor and
follow the one that gave him all that stuff to begin with?
It just makes sense. But without faith, it's impossible.
Who then can be said, with men it's impossible. You know why
he couldn't do that? No faith. And he went away sorrowful. By faith, Joseph, verse 22. 23, by faith, Moses. And I'm leading
up to something now. I want you to see something.
By faith, look at it all along here. By faith, Moses chose,
verse 25, rather to suffer affliction with the people of God and to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. What is this faith? Is it just believing in God?
Believing that God exists? No. He esteemed the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He counted
Christ to be so precious and vital and needful that he'd rather
have Christ and be miserable in every other way than to have
everything and not Christ. He would rather have Christ And
suffer every other affliction and need known to man Than to have every need known
to man fulfilled and yet not have christ He chose that by
faith All right now look look at verse 12 We're foreseeing
we also Now this is talking about men that lived long ago so far
abraham noah moses But look, what about us? What does this
have to do with us? We also, we're compassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses. They're witnessing to us of something
that's relevant to us right now, tonight. So let us lay aside
every weight. By God's grace, let's do what
they did. Let's not look at the circumstances.
Let's not think about the fact that it's never rained before.
But like Noah, by faith in the Word of God, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, let's believe God. Lay aside every weight. Wait
a minute, we're past years. We can't have a child. Lay it
aside. Lay aside every hindrance to
just simply believing what God said. What are you doing when
you do that? Keep reading. And the sin which
doth so easily beset us? Some say that's unbelief. I don't
know what that is. Let me tell you this. Everything
that you can positively identify as a sin according to God, lay
it aside. Get rid of it. And let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. Now think about this. He's been
talking about Moses and Noah and Enoch and all those people. But he's saying now, what about
us? What does this have to do with us? What is faith? What
is this? It's impossible to please God without it. What does faith
do? What is faith? Looking unto Jesus. That's the key verse in this
whole context right there. That's what these people did
in the Old Testament. They were looking unto Jesus. That's what faith is. Faith has
one object. God's holy, spotless, precious
Son. The Israelites were not looking
to Christ. They were looking to themselves.
They were looking to a thing, to an object. And it didn't end
well for them. The Philistines didn't know Christ
from each other. And it didn't end well for them. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Not only is faith looking to
him, but it's looking to him as the one who gave us the faith
to look to him. Oh. Now I thought you were saying
we're supposed to do something, Chris. No, we look to him who
did it all. We look to Him who redeemed us.
We look to Him who chose us in Christ. We look to Him who gave
us the faith to look to Him. What have we been saying all
night? Christ is all. Christ is the difference. Christ
is the one thing needful. You're not going to please God
without faith. And you see what happens when you don't please
God. And that's just a picture. We can't even understand eternal
damnation. We can't even understand it. But I see from the word of God,
I need to be saved. And only Christ can save me. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy. We don't look to
Jesus in the manger. We don't look to Jesus, the one,
you know, that can bless our life. We look to Jesus Christ
crucified. The one who for the joy set before
him endured the cross. The one who endured the cross,
not to give everybody a chance, but because he knew he was purchasing
a people for the joy that was set before him. He knew he was
honoring his father and glorifying his father and accomplishing
all of the purpose of his father, all of the purpose of grace.
It wasn't a venture. He rejoiced to do it. Not to give people a chance.
But when he did it, when he endured the cross, counting the shame
a small thing for the joy For the joy that was set before him,
he sat down. You know why he did that? You
know why he did what no other priest, no other high priest
or any other priest for that matter ever did in the service
of God under the old covenant? He sat down. There weren't any
chairs in the tabernacle. But this high priest sat down
because the work was finished. The blood of bulls and goats
could never take away sin, so they had to be offered over and
over and over. But by one offering, Christ perfected
forever everybody he sanctified with his precious blood. He obtained
eternal redemption for them. And we look to him. That's the difference between
wrath and blessing. The difference between death
and life. Him. Look away from self. Look away from your works. Look
away from things. And look to Him. For salvation. For sanctification. For all of
your life. For everything. Christ is all
and in all. Those whom the Lord smote, in
verse 12 of our text, they cried out. What a sad thing. They cried
out to heaven, but not to the God of heaven. Their cry went
up to heaven, but not to God. Listen to this in Job 35, 9. By reason of the multitude of
oppressions, the oppressed cry, They cry out by reason of the
arm of the mighty. The reason the oppressed, those
who are afflicted, those who are in trouble and afraid. The reason they cry is because of
the arm of the mighty. Nothing happens without Him.
But, verse 10 of Job 35 verse 10. But none saith, where is
God my maker? who giveth songs in the night.
They cry because of their oppression, and it's because of Him. But
they don't cry to Him. They don't take comfort in Him.
They don't say, where is God, my Maker? I need a song from
Him. Where is God, my Maker, who giveth
songs in the night? Has He ever done that for you? who teacheth us more than the
beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven. Did you know without his grace
and wisdom, which is Christ, you're like a beast? You're not
any smarter than the beasts of the earth or the fowls of heaven.
He's the one that makes you smarter than that. But nobody's saying, where is
he? until he does. Make you smarter
than that. There they cry. I should have
had you turn here. I want you to see this language.
Job 35. Look at it later. But there they
cry. They're oppressed. They cry.
They're in trouble. They're afraid. But they don't cry to God. They
don't cry for a song. We do. Lord, where are you? Give me a song. You're the one
that made me have enough sense to cry to you. There they cry,
but none giveth answer to them, because of the pride of evil
men. Why didn't the Israelites just
bow to God and do things in the tabernacle and worship Him the
way He prescribed? Because of the pride of their
evil hearts, that's why. They would not bow to the Son
of God. You will not come to me because of the pride of evil
men. You search the scriptures for in them you think that you
have eternal life. And they are they which testify
of me. The scriptures have one purpose.
to testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are written that
you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing
you might have life through His name. Christ is all. But you will not come to me.
You cry, but not to me. The Israelites looked to the
ark because they thought it would give them life, but they would
not come to Christ that they might have life. The Philistines
cried, but they would not cry to the God of heaven. And you
might say, well wait a minute, Chris, the Philistines didn't
have any life. They didn't know. They didn't have the testimonies.
They didn't have the law. They didn't have the prophets.
Read Romans chapter one. They had no excuse before God.
No excuse. Because of the wicked pride of
their evil heart, when they knew God, they knew that God was doing
it to them and they wouldn't bow to Him. When they knew God, they refused
to glorify Him as God, Romans chapter one. They cried, oh, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Cry to Him. Cry to Him. Believe on Him. Come to Him. Trust Him. Live for Him. May God give us grace and faith
to believe on and honor and fall in love with His precious Son. And may He give that faith to
those that we love.