So we've been, many of us have
been studying the Bible together for quite a few years now and so I imagine most of you
can see the gospel in this chapter and
see what these different people represent, what the circumstances
represent. And so let's talk about that.
As I said, I suspect that you had some clues as we went along
there. The nation of Israel, of course, always is a picture
of God's elect. Although the nation of Israel
is not and never has been the elect, it's important that we
understand that. They're not the elect of God,
but they do picture the elect. He did choose Israel and gave
them outward blessings, picturing his spiritual blessing. He bestows
upon a particular people from every nation, tribe, kindred
and tongue, which he calls his spiritual Israel. And the reason
he calls them his spiritual Israel is because like Israel, he chose
them in eternity. And he does bestow his blessings
upon physical Israel. in an earthly sense, in a temporal
sense, many outward advantages. But spiritual Israel is the real
Israel. Earthly Israel is a type of them.
And we need to understand that. We've seen clearly in the book
of Isaiah that the elect of God is a remnant among the earthly
nation of Israel at that time. But also, even then, there were
exceptions among other nations. Rahab the harlot always comes
to mind. She was a resident of Jericho
and the Lord apparently saved her, had mercy on her. And Nebuchadnezzar,
the one who said, the one who God caused his fingernails to
grow out and he crawled around in the grass for a while like
a beast. And then the Lord brought him
back to his senses because he had bragged about his great kingdom
and the Lord smote him, made him like an animal. And he gave
him his understanding back and he said, now I praise the God
of heaven. All authority is his. He gives kingdoms to men and
takes them away. And he knows how to abase wretches
like me, he said. And so Nebuchadnezzar, the name
of the leper, we don't know for sure that God saved his soul. But a great miracle was wrought
upon him, and so I believe maybe he did. But those were all Gentiles. And then in the New Testament,
salvation openly came to the Gentiles in God's purpose, as
he had prophesied all through the Old Testament. It's always
been prophesied that he would be a light unto the Gentiles
when he came. But in Acts 13, 46, Paul and
Barnabas, it says, wax bold and said it was necessary that the
word of God should first have been spoken to you Jews. But
seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And so the Gentiles
were included. It was a it was a rare exception
in the Old Testament because the earthly Jews had all of that.
They had the word of God. They had the testimonies and
they had the prophets. They had the ark, they had the very presence
of God with them most of the time, or often. But never was all of the nation
of Israel among the elect, and never was the elect limited to
the nation of Israel alone. The earthly Jews had all, as
I said, all the outward advantages of the law and the presence of
God in the tabernacle. He was there. He said, I'll meet
with you at the mercy seat and commune with you. And he was
with them in the camp. The mercy seat and all the prophets
that spoke, they spoke to the nation of Israel. But still most
of them, at any given time, were like most people who call themselves
Christians now. It's a very similar situation. The so-called church now is full
of lost people. I say full, but not completely
full. There's a remnant in there, just
like in every... I don't imagine that everybody
that walks through these doors and out is necessarily the Lord's
sheep, but I'd say quite a few of them. But that's not why. You see what I'm saying? You're
not a believer because you're a Jew. You're not a believer
because you're a member of this church or a member of any denomination,
of course. So it's kind of like the same
thing. At any given time, the nation of Israel was mostly lost. If you're a child of God in name
only, you call yourself a child of God, a believer, a Christian. But it's only an empty profession.
of some kind of faith that you worked up, there's no spiritual
life from God, no real union with Christ himself. Life is
Christ. If you're united with Christ
by God-given faith, then you're gonna be fine. But we've already
seen in the book of 1 Samuel that the ceremonial sacrifice
had been defiled by Eli's sons and all those who worked for
them. The priesthood at that time was corrupt and very vile
and just a despicable farce. In Samuel's day, but God was
speaking through Samuel through all of that we saw how that God
preserved Samuel and Samuel was committed to the the true service
of God and And we see in verse one of our text that God was
beginning to speak through Samuel all the all the nation heard
the word of Samuel but Things didn't immediately change There had been no open revelation
from God for a while as we saw in in the context and the spiritual
condition of the nation was not good at this time. And so that's
kind of the backdrop in which this story unfolds. God is speaking
through Samuel, but there's still a lot of baggage, a lot of corruption,
a lot of ungodliness, a lot of unbelief in the nation of Israel.
And then comes the enemy, the Philistines. And as religious
people do, when they don't actually know God, They try to get right
with God when they're in trouble You saw that in the tape that
was just kind of stuck out like a sore thumb, didn't it? We don't
give a hoot about about God until we're we're in deep and then
oh my let's let's uh Let's see what God will do for us here
When they see that the philistines in verse two are just tearing
them up four thousand men died in verse two and then when they
had done what they thought was gonna fix things. When they had gotten religious,
it was a much worse. I wouldn't say 30,000 died. After
they thought they shouted, well, they thought, well, God's with
us now. They shouted, they got excited about it. And then 30,000
of them were slaughtered. That's man's religion for you.
That's the effectiveness. And they get together and they
decide, verse three, that what they need is the ark of God.
They need the Ark of God. And notice in verse three, though,
what they said first. Let's look at, we're just gonna
learn a few lessons here about what we are by nature. When we
talk about religion, that's us by nature. That's what we, that's
the mess that we're in, that we've gotten ourselves in by
nature. Verse three, when the people were coming to the camp,
the elders of Israel said, wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today
before the Philistines? Let us fetch the Ark. And notice
this is the leaders now saying this, the elders of Israel said,
why is God doing this to us? You see the spiritual condition
that they're in and the very ones that the people looked up
to and respected, the ones who were supposed to be telling them
the truth and be leading them and guiding them in the right
way were idiots. And when your leaders are idiots,
everybody's in trouble. And that was the case here. That's
the case in what this world calls a church these days. And I guess
it always has been. In man's religion, Christless
religion, our Lord put it this way, they're blind leaders of
the blind. What a tragedy. What a sad situation. The ones who are given authority
among men, not by God. God said, I didn't send them.
If they're not giving you my word, I didn't send them. But
they're given authority by men to tell the truth and to lead
spiritually. They're idiots. And so what this world calls
the church is a disaster, just like this situation we read about
is a disaster. And so what'd they do? They blamed
God. Why is God doing this to us? Now this will require some
thought. Think about this with me. This
is no surprise, of course. Adam blamed God, didn't he? In
the garden, he said, the woman that you gave me suggested that I eat this fruit,
you know, she talked me into it. In Romans chapter 9, Paul,
you know, anticipates the answer of false religion of the religious
Jews to his writing concerning the doctrine of election, the
grace of God in electing love. In Romans chapter nine, he says,
what shall we say then? In other words, this is what
you're probably going to say. And so I'm just going to I'm
going to say it now and preempt you and answer it for you. Answer
the question for you. What was what was man's objection
there? Why did he yet find fault for who had resisted his will?
In other words, Paul, if you're preaching that everything happens
according to God's will, then how can he blame us for anything?
We can't resist his will. This is all his fault. Okay,
I highly recommend you don't come before God with that argument.
Paul said nay, but oh man, who are you to reply against God?
So, it's not new to blame God, but you might be thinking here,
wait a minute Chris, aren't they right? Isn't this God smiting
them? Isn't this God giving them what
they deserve? Yes it is, but, though it was God, God's the
first cause of everything. But they didn't say. Notice their
attitude in saying this. It was God that did it, but they're
still wrong in saying, why is God doing this? Because they're
not saying here, we've sinned before God. They're not saying
this is our fault. We've sinned and therefore we're
receiving what we deserve from God. The thief on the cross said
that, didn't he? God gave him enough sins, didn't
he? But our natural reaction is not, oh, we've sinned and
so God is punishing us. Here's our natural tendency. It's just ignore God, ignore
God, do what we want to do, ignore God, do what we want to do. And
then when things don't work out the way we want them to, why is God
doing this to me? That's wrong. Even though God
is doing it to you, you're wrong to think that way. If you want
to be on your own, then why are you blaming God for anything?
You said in Psalm chapter 2, the whole world says, let's cast
his bands from us, cut his cords asunder. We don't need God. But
then when things don't work out the way you planned, it's God's
fault. No, I'm sorry. It's not. It's
your fault. The spirit in which they said
it was evil. You see that? They went along
for years with no use for God at all, doing just fine. In the
case of Eli's sons and all those who went along with him, now
we know not everybody did. There's always that remnant in
there. There's always that remnant that says, let's honor God in
this sacrifice and then take it all if you want to. You remember
those ones. That's the remnant. But Eli's sons, they're making
out like bandits. They're prospering by despising
God's word and perverting it and going their own way. Worshipping
themselves and not God and now that they've gotten themselves
into a mess. They say why God why is God messing us up? The
blame is ours alone. It's our sin that has gotten
us into the mess we're in Just like Adam they had every outward
advantage Adam they're born in paradise now think about that. I Born in paradise and God says
one tree You're not going to eat of that tree, but when you
do you're gonna die In the day that you eat thereof
not in the Not in the off chance that you eat thereof in the day
that you eat thereof I mean, he didn't have enough? He couldn't make it on Paradise? Couldn't get by in Paradise?
Without eating that one tree, of that one tree. And then here,
they had the mercy seat. Hophni and Phinehas were with
the Ark of God. God said, I'll meet with you
there on that mercy seat. And look, I know how this sounds
to say all they had to do, because we know man's nature, we're not
going to ever do what God says, but all they had to do, and I
know you know what I'm saying by that, all they had to do was
just follow the simple instructions that God gave. Here's how you
offer this, here's how you, you divide it up into this, you offer
the blood this way, you do it in this order, you do it right
here this way, my way, and it wasn't complicated. Every possible
event. Just simple obedience, simple
submission. And my presence is with you.
Your enemies can't touch you. I'll bless you in every way a
person can be blessed. We could not do it. Could not
do it. And all it is is man's will. Our problem is our will. We will
not bow. We will not submit. And it's our fault. And when
some consequences come of going our own way, we say
it's God's fault. That's what they're doing here. And so their solution was what?
Also verse 3. Let us fetch the ark of the covenant
of the Lord. I want you to notice the wording
now, out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among us, It may
save us. You see anything wrong with that? Let's get that ark thingy. Let's
get that ark. That's been known to help. There's
power attached to that thing. And why do I say it that way?
Because that's exactly the spirit in which they're saying, let's
get that ark thing out here. The prominence of the word it
in that verse just screams doesn't it it it First of all, nobody was given
a passing thought to the ark which represents Christ God's
presence in favor And blessing The very communion of God with
men which is Christ God with us and Nobody was saying anything
about let's get the ark. Let's go to the ark. Let's worship
God Not many were anyway before this now they're in trouble They didn't mention God at all
to begin with it when they started the battle before 4,000 men died
It doesn't say anything about him praying to God. Let's go
to God's priest and see if this is what we need to do or not
That's what David did often didn't he? usually Now they said let's get the ark.
It'll save us that ark will save us That's a problem. This is a sure sign of godless
religion When the emphasis is on it's It let's go to church Let's do this let's do that let's
it's it's what we do what we have what we use no acknowledgement
of sin no repentance, and no desire for the person of God.
Think about this with me for a minute. I'm not making this
up. Let's go get it. It will save us. Instead of saying,
we're in trouble with God. We need God to bless it. We need
God's favor. We need to make things right
with God somehow or another. We need his mercy. We need for
God to smile upon us. Why has God left us? That ought
to have been their question. But they knew the answer before
they asked it, didn't they? Not why did God do this to us,
but how can we come to the place where God is for us and not against
us? It wasn't a matter for them of
what is God's will in this. Why are we really in the mess
that we're in and will God have mercy on us? They just considered
the ark of God like a good luck charm of some kind to get them
out of trouble So they could go on ignoring God in comfort
and prosperity again That's the problem and that's man's religion
to a tee we witness it all the time don't we It's all about
the it's It's the statues and the crosses and the buildings
and the stained glass windows in the the religious ceremonies And verse 4 tells us something
look at verse 4 samuel was preaching in shiloh and god was there with
him So the people sent to shiloh that they might bring from thence
the ark of the covenant of the lord of hosts which dwelleth
between the cherubims The two sons of Eli now look it's called
the the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts Which dwelleth
between the cherubims by the one that's writing this but that's
not what the people called it. Let's get that ark thing The
ark of the covenant. Let's just get that ark They
didn't even mention God So verse 4 the last part of chapter 3
again now is and the Lord verse 21 of chapter 3 the Lord appeared
again in Shiloh for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in
Shiloh by the word of the Lord so Samuel is there in Shiloh
also it mentions in our text that Hophniah and Phinehas were
there with the ark but we know what kind of respect they had
for the ark or anything of God they perverted and twisted everything
to their own advantage to make themselves rich but God had a
man in place God was speaking, but it doesn't look like anybody
was listening, does it? They didn't say, let's go find,
there's somebody that speaks for God, let's go find out if
God has a word for us. Again, David did that quite a
bit, didn't he? He'd go to the prophet and say,
what does God say about this? I want to inquire of the Lord,
can I do that? Can I find out what God says?
about my situation. Nobody cared to inquire of the
Lord. And David had the same enemy. The Philistines, they
would come up against him and he'd go and inquire of the Lord.
That doesn't sound that difficult, does it? You know why people
don't do that? Their will, their pride. I got
this, that's why. I got this. But you don't got
this. You need to hear from God. In
verse 5, the people got excited about it, didn't they? When the
ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel
shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. They
thought, oh, now it's going to be good. But we got this ark
thing. We've seen power now come out of that thing. We've seen,
you know, what it can do. But notice verses 6 and 7. When
the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, and they said,
what meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the
Hebrews? They understood that the Ark of the Lord was coming
to the camp, and the Philistines were afraid. For they said, God
is coming to the camp. The Philistines, as often is
the case, the outright enemy of God was a little bit smarter
than those who claimed to be God's people. They knew at least
that the Ark was supposed to mean God's presence. They weren't afraid of the Ark,
they were afraid of God. Do you see that? But the Israelites,
they weren't confident in God, they were confident in the Ark. The Philistine says, oh no, God's
with them. No, he ain't. But they didn't
know that. They were smarter than the Israelites.
They knew that the difference was going to be made if God was
with them. If the Ark's with them, God's
with them. And that was what they were afraid of. They knew that that was a symbol
of the presence and favor and blessing of God. And that's the
problem. What they didn't understand is
that that was only a symbol and that God wasn't always where
that ark was. That ark is Christ. In every
aspect of it, that's where God will meet with a sinner and not
throw him straight into hell. is in the person of Christ. If
you're going to have communion with God, you will have to come
to his Son. And the Philistines at least
knew that that was supposed to be the case. Let me say it one
more time because this is key. The Philistines were afraid of
God, not the Ark. They just knew that the Ark meant
God's with them. They were afraid of God. The
Israelites weren't confident though in God they were confident
in a piece of metal. It was just a good luck charm
to them. The Philistines didn't know that was that the ark had
ceased to mean that to the people of Israel. It wasn't about God.
They didn't even mention God. They didn't even say, what is
God? What's God's will in this? Let's inquire of God. Let's speak
to the man of God and see if there's a word from God. They
just said, let's get that ark. The Philistines didn't know that.
And of course the Philistines didn't know God. I say they were
smarter, but that don't mean they knew God either. They called
him gods. You notice that in the text.
They said, where are these gods? These gods are going to kill
us. Complete ignorance of the God of the Bible, verses 8 and
9. That's what that's all about. The Philistines superstition.
Now think about this. There's a lot of wonderful lessons
in this chapter. The Philistines superstition.
Made them fight even harder and more fiercely than they would
have otherwise. Let's read 8 and 9 again. I think this is kind
of key. Woe unto us, verse 8, who shall deliver us out of the
hand of these mighty gods. These are the gods that smoke
the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong
and quit yourselves like men. Oh you philistines That you be
not servants unto the hebrews as they have been to you quit
yourselves like men and fight They're using it as a pep rally,
aren't they? They're saying you you're going
to have to bring your best game And they motivated each other
by saying you don't want to be servants to them. They're our
servants You don't want to have to serve them That's not going
to be pleasant they you see how they use this thing to motivate
themselves to fight even harder than they would have otherwise.
And so what is the bottom line of that? The bringing of the
Ark into the camp of Israel was not a blessing to them. It ended
up being a curse, wasn't it? Because their enemy just destroyed
them even worse than they did the first time. That's religion. It's not just worthless. It's
a whole lot worse than that. Like the woman with the issue
of blood, she spent everything she had and the more doctors
she got on the case, the worse she got. When your help is vanity, it's not just worthless. To trust somebody that can't
save you is not just worthless, it's soul damning. The woman with the issue of blood,
after she had spent all that she had, just got worse. Whatever
those doctors did that took her money, it made her worse. Or
it just allowed her to get worse, one or the other, which is the
same. They didn't do anything. Or they made it worse by something
that they did do. But she was the Lord's sheep. In the end, she came to Christ
when she had spent all that she had. She came to Christ. And so, as I said, religion's
not just worth it. Religion actually takes you farther
from Christ. A sinner who doesn't know Christ
is one thing, but a religious sinner who thinks he knows Christ
and doesn't know Christ, you're in deep now. You're in deep now. That's dark. The way our Lord
put it was this, if the light that is in you be darkness, how
great is that darkness. If what you're trusting to be
the way, the solution to you is evil, that's great evil. The ones in Matthew 7, to whom
our Lord said, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never
knew you. They called him Lord, didn't
they? They said, Lord, Lord. We've done all these wonderful
things in your name We've done many wonderful works That's what
these Israelites would have said we've done the right thing We've
got we've got God involved here. We've got his ark, you know,
we're doing our best We're doing what we you know the best we
can here and God's not helping us Problem is the best man can do
is altogether vanity What we've got to do is fall on our face
before God and say, God, save me, save us, deliver us from
our enemies. They're stronger than we are. It's obvious we can't win this.
You're going to have to win it for us. That's salvation. If you had asked Eli's obnoxious
sons What they did? What do you do? They just said,
oh, we're the servants of God. Paul said of the Jews, they have
a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. They have a zeal of God, but
it's not according to knowledge. They're zealous, but they don't
know God. Remember when it said, Hophniah
and Phinehah, they didn't know God. Chapter two, I believe. And they have a form of God,
and they're religious, but they deny the authority, denying the
power thereof. That's, in other words, they
will not submit to God. God said this, we're going to
do this because it benefits us more. That's denying the power
of God, the authority of God. That's what happened in the garden. If Adam had not denied the authority
of God, what he would have said was, God said don't eat, I'm
not eating. That's acknowledging the authority
of God. But religious people in every
age and in our day, we see it, they make a lot of noise like
the Israelites did in verse five. They make a lot of noise, don't
they? We're excited. God's with us. Problem is God ain't with
you. And you didn't even ask God to
be with you. You just made a bunch of things.
You just got a bunch of its. And got excited and religious
in the flesh. The earth rings with the sound
of it, doesn't it? With religion, singing their
praise songs and, you know, their worship leaders are getting them
worked up and getting them excited, shouting and banging on drums
and playing loud music and celebrating something. And someone who didn't know any
better, like these Philistines, might hear that and say, God's
with them. Now, They heard all that racket and
they said God has come into the camp was God in the camp When God's in the camp you don't
lose 30,000 men don't die when God's in the camp No, it was
just a bunch of empty meaningless noise Paul said no matter what i do and know
and how much faith and knowledge i have if i don't love god does
it sound like they loved god when they said let's get that
ark and then he mentioned him didn't he mention his name he
said if i don't love god i'm just making noise i'm just becoming
a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal a show of religion a fleshly
show of religion So what do we need tonight? What do we need
tonight? Do we need to be more zealous?
Let's get excited, you know. I could be a cheerleader. I could
work you up, you know. Do we need to do more? More outreach? You know, let's just do more.
Religion's doing quite a bit, aren't they? I'd love for more people to hear
the gospel. But more outreach ain't the problem or they would
have solved the problem. They are the problem. So we don't
need more outreach. We need Christ. One thing is
still needful. One thing was needful in Samuel's
day. One thing was needful in our Lord's day. One thing is
needful tonight, and it's Christ. We need Him. And if we have Him,
if we honor Him and worship Him and preach Him, He may just use
us to reach more people. We may end up making a little
noise before it's over, but just the noise and the effort and
the willing and the running is worthless without Him. We need more of Him. More faith in Him. More love
to Thee, O Christ. We sing it. We need to know Him. We need to grow in grace and
in the knowledge, more knowledge of Him. More love to Him. More faith in Him. More praise.
We need to praise Him. We need to trust Him more, don't
we? That's what we need. The only thing better than Christ
is more Christ. Isn't that right? That's what
Paul said. Why did he say, I have a desire to depart and to be
with Christ, which is far better. Don't you have Christ now? Yeah,
but what's better than having Christ is more Christ. More understanding of him, more
of his presence. We need to preach Him more. We
need to praise Him more. We need to worship Him more.
We need to believe Him more. We sing that chorus that says,
Thy presence, the only thing needful, I see. Friend of the
friendless, have mercy and come to me. We need Him. We still need Him. Though we have Him. Paul said,
oh, that I might be found in Him. Paul, aren't you a believer?
Yeah, but I still want him. I need him. We don't need an it. We don't need fleshly excitement. We need him. And notice the way
they said this too. They said, let's go fetch the
ark. Go fetch the ark. Like the presence
of God can just be Called up on command. Let's have a revival. Really, you're gonna have a revival? They can just jerk God around
at their own pleasure. Go fetch him. Go fetch the ark. You don't fetch the blessing
of God. You ask, you beg him for it. You fall on your face
and you beg him for a crumb. You plead. You ask. You pray
in Christ's name. God be with us. God wake us up. God have mercy on us. God meet
with us. May we never come together without
asking God to be with us. For the glory of Christ your
son, meet with us tonight. and bless us. We cry out to God as though our
life depended on it. You know why? Because our life
depends on it. He may just be pleased to bless
us. He's going to bless somebody, isn't He? Don't you want in on
that? He's going to bless His sheep,
I know that. Most of the time, He's going
to do it in spite of us, isn't He? But I pray he'd cause us to ask
for it with all of our heart. So what's God gonna do with false
religion? What happens? You know what God's gonna do
with people that are religious and they say let's fetch the
ark and things like that? Let's get excited for Jesus.
You know what God's gonna do with religion? He's gonna destroy
it. He's gonna absolutely annihilate it. And praise his holy name. Religion, you know, will admit
to the problem that we have, you know, we admit that there's
problems in the church. No, the problem is you're not
the church. The problem is you. We have some problems, but there's
going to be revival. You know, we're all going to
get to heaven and be one big happy family. You know, a lot
of religion talks about that, how there's going to be a revival,
you know, at the end, in the end times. And a lot of people
are going to come to God. There's going to be a big, A
big awakening or something. I wouldn't look for that. Do
you see that in the scriptures? I wouldn't expect that. You know
what I think is going to happen? Maybe just me talking now, I
don't know. But I would expect things to be pretty much the
same as they are now. Just a handful huddled up somewhere
worshiping his name. And he's going to come and with
vengeful fire, he's going to scour his earth. and destroy
millions upon millions of God-hating pretenders. I wouldn't look for a big revival,
a big awakening or something like that. I wouldn't expect
that. What I expect is for God to absolutely annihilate this
religious, wretched generation. And he's going to save us in
spite of us. He's going to save his remnant. I think, again,
I think we saw some of them in chapter 2, verse 16. Don't you?
Just honor God and take everything. We don't need anything. Just
honor God in the sacrifice. That's why we came here. I believe
we saw some of them right there. The sacrifice was routinely defiled,
and the corrupt priests, they didn't have to threaten very
many But it says there were some they had to absolutely actually
threaten them with their lives to get them To dishonor the lord Once in a while somebody would
say you honor god And then take whatever you want steal from
me, but don't you rob god? And the priests would have to
threaten them God's people are going to be
saved and everybody else that there's the elect and the rest
romans chapter 11 God's not trying to save the
rest. The rest are going to be destroyed.
And the blessing is taken away here in this text. No more. The
glory is departed. Ichabod. There's somebody speaking
for God now. At the end of this chapter, what's
the situation? A few men here and there. There's somebody speaking for
God. I'm sure there was a remnant listening to him and hearing
him and saying, praise the Lord. The Lord has finally sent us
somebody. There's been no open revelation of God. And now here's
God's got a spokesman. And I'm sure they were there
to listen to him every time he spoke. And they were excited.
The word of God was precious in those days. We saw that, didn't
we? It was precious. And for those to whom it was
precious, they drank it up. You know they did. You're going
to be whatever's precious to you. That's where your heart
is. Where your treasure is. That's where your heart is. But what's it like now in our
day? Just a few men here and there. And nobody was hardly
listening to Samuel. There was a few. Isaiah said,
Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Isaiah, a great prophet of God. And he had to
say, nobody listened to us. I'll tell you, he answered his
own question, didn't he? Who hath believed our report?
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Everybody God reveals
it to, they're gonna listen. If you ever see him, you're gonna
have to have him. Somebody's speaking for God.
Now, tonight, a few men here and there, and most people aren't
listening to them, we know that. But those nobodies that are listening
to him, that's God's chosen, precious,
elect people. That's the remnant. And God took
his glory away from the nation, but he never leaves his sheep.
Never. He never forsakes them. That
ark was a symbol of God's blessing. But it was a symbol. God's blessing
is Christ in you. And nobody can take that away.
And God won't take that away. He don't repent. He don't take
his gifts. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He don't change his mind about
that. So let me be clear about that.
The glory departing Did not mean that God had forsaken his people.
That's what I believe in. Also in Romans chapter 11, have
God forsaken his people then? Since the nation of Israel is
a bunch of wretched idolaters and don't give a hoot about God,
has God forsaken his people then? Oh no, he hasn't forsaken his
people whom he foreknew. To a great degree, he's forsaken
the nation of Israel, but he hasn't forsaken his elect, Paul
said. Not gonna do that. And that's what we see here.
The glory has departed. Well, in a sense, yeah. In a sense. And that's true now. That's what I want us to see
in closing. It said there in chapter three, verse one, that
there was no open vision. And that was the problem. The
word of God was rare. It was precious. Nobody was hearing
from God. That's why the nation was in the shape that it was
in. That's why they trusted in it and not the person of God
himself. God is not publicly declared, honored or worshiped.
And that's greatly true in our day, and you know it. I'm thankful
for this, aren't you? The word of God is precious in
our day, too, isn't it? Oh, it's rare. Rare and precious. There are a few families and
a few individuals that God has reserved for himself. As Paul
said, even today, even now, there is a remnant according to the
election of grace, the choosing of God's grace. God hath reserved
himself a number. that will not bow to the idols. And that's true today, too. He
told Elijah that he had 7,000. You reckon he has that many today?
Could you count up 7,000 people that you know that know the Lord?
Of course, we don't know everybody. We know that, but we wouldn't
even get close, would we? Be tough to name 1,000, wouldn't
it? That you have a good hope for? And it's not based on that. You know what I'm saying, though.
You think, I'm just wondering. I'm just wondering, does God
have 7,000 today? I don't know. Maybe more, maybe less.
I don't know, but there's a specific number, I know that. That he's
reserved this very night to himself. According to the election of
his grace. That woman in the end of our
text and Eli, think about this in closing, Eli fell over and
broke his neck and died when he heard that the ark was gone. Did you notice there? I wonder
if you all noticed when that soldier came back and told him
that his sons were dead and that the ark was stolen. And what killed Eli was the fact
that the ark was stolen. Eli was God's man. He was messed
up in a lot of ways. We all are, aren't we? We messed
up. But he was God's man. He trembled
for the ark before he even heard. He wondered, what about the ark? Because even though God's presence
is not with us now, he may be yet again. He may be yet again. But here's the truth of the matter,
that he said the ark was gone, but the ark had already before
that become of no use to the people. It didn't help them, did it?
Because it was an it to them. And it wasn't Christ. It wasn't
the blessing of God and Christ. It was an it. And so even before
that, long before that, and who knows how long before that, The
glory was already gone, wasn't it? The glory left without them
even knowing it. By the time they noticed it,
it had long since been gone. That woman named her child, the
glory has departed. What about the day that all the
people said, let's fetch that ark? Was the glory with them
that day? Christ is God's glory. And he may have left this world
to itself in a great sense, long since. You reckon? But if you are his, the glory
has not departed you. The glory hasn't departed this
place, has he? And it's not an it, it's a person. Christ is still meeting with
his people, where there are two or three gathered in his name.
The glory is there. When the glory departed Israel
in the words of Eli's daughter-in-law, did that mean that God had left
Samuel? Oh no, there's a whole lot left to this story. I pray
God will bless us as we look into it, because it's a great
blessing. God hadn't left Samuel, and he had a remnant as he always
has. According to the choosing of
his grace, the choice of his grace. But you who are the remnant
today, don't look for a happy ending in this world. God's going
to destroy this world, and that will be happy for his people.
That will be happy. I know that's hard to imagine.
That's hard to understand now, but you know he's going to come
get us first, the scripture says. I don't know much about the end
times and the rapture and things like that, but it looks to me
like the Lord's gonna catch us up out of here. Those that are
alive and remain will be caught up together to meet him in the
air when he chooses to come back. The time is already appointed,
and I'll tell you this, is he gonna come quickly, or is it
gonna take a while, Chris? He's gonna come quickly. You
know how I know that? Because he said, even so, I come
quickly. Come quickly and John said even
so Lord Jesus come quick How quickly is it urgent to you
Lord if you don't come back and wrap this whole thing up at least
come down here and bless it be with us Bless us. Don't leave
us Above all else don't leave us
to ourselves But he's gonna come get us first and take us out
of here before he burns this thing up and for now I You know,
I thought of those shepherds watching their flocks by night.
Just a few shepherds out in the field by night, and the Lord
appeared to them. And a heavenly host shouted the
praises of God. And the Lord appeared to them
and spoke to them in a very unlikely place. God's son is born into
this world. Who does God speak to? Some shepherds
out in a field watching some sheep. He's still doing that
tonight. Where the sheep are, that's where
he is. He's still revealing himself to the unlikely handful of huddled
wretches like us around this world. And he pronounces the
gospel unto them. The shepherds returned, listen
to this, this is what we're gonna do tonight. When God spoke to
them, good tidings of great, you know what good tidings is?
That's gospel. You know what the gospel is? Unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the
Lord. There's your gospel right there.
Good news, the Son of God is here. And it says in Luke 2.20 that
the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the
things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. Can we do that tonight? Let's
return to our homes rejoicing and praising God for all the
things we've seen and heard in his word tonight. As he told
it unto us. I wonder how many he's speaking
to tonight. Does it mean anything to you to be among that tiny
number? Wow, isn't that amazing? How
many people tonight is God speaking to? Concerning his son, just
a handful. And I expect, and I don't know,
maybe the Lord will save everybody before this thing's over with.
I don't know. If he wants to, he can. But I
expect when the Lord wraps this thing up, there'll probably still
just be a handful praising his name and glorifying him for showing
us his gospel. Rejoicing that he is sovereign,
rejoicing that he's on the throne, rejoicing that he's the one calling
the shots, rejoicing that he saves whom he will, when he will,
the way he will, rejoicing that he still does this very night
by the effectual blood of his son. Save his people from their
sins through the preaching of the perfectly victorious successful
redeemer of sinners That he's still saving his people
and one of these days the last one He had 7,000 in Elijah's day
in Paul Paul said there's there's a remnant there's a number right
now I don't know how many it is. It might be 7,000 might be
2,000 and Might just be one left Might just be one left and they
might be in this room God may save them tonight and wrap this
thing up. Would that be all right with you? I Could live with that That's what we're waiting for
in Even so Lord come quickly even so save that last sheep
call that last sheep into the fold of and then take us home. Take us home. We're waiting for him, in other
words, to do what he said he'd do. And we know he'll do what
he said he'd do. In a general sense, the glory
has departed this world a long time ago hasn't it? The glory
has never been with this world anyway. The glory is with His
people. The glory is in us. Christ in
you. Christ on top of a golden mercy
seat with carved angels on it is not the hope of glory. It's
Christ in you that's the hope of glory and always has been.
That ark was a symbol of His presence and they didn't care
anything about His presence and so the ark was nothing. They
just wanted to be gotten out of the mess they were in. But though his glory is departed
if you want to say it that way from this world Long since he's
never left One of his sheep alone nor forsaken us And when he comes again to receive
us unto himself He said I go to prepare a place
for you And what he did at Calvary has absolutely made it certain that there's
a place for us, for everyone that he died for, in glory. He said, I'll come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be
also. And so he hasn't left us and
he never will. All the same though, when he
comes and takes us out of here, we're not going to look back,
are we? There's no glory here. I'm not going to look back. You reckon you will look back
like Lot's wife did? Not anything to see, is there? What a wonderful day that'll
be. Let's pray together.