or if you don't mind. Dear Lord, we have so much to
be thankful for, and we lift those thanks and praises to You
once again. You've been pleased to visit
with us in this place so many times over the years, and we
pray once again that You're with Dennis in the next hours. He
brings a message to us once again about our dear and wonderful
Savior. We'll never praise him enough,
not while on this earth, dear Lord. But thankfully, he saved
so many. There'll be an eternity to praise
him forever. And even then, us wayward sinners
will come up short in giving him the glory and honor he deserves.
Thank you for all blessings. And as we beg, continue to be
with us. Amen. Alright, I'm going to read
the first 14 verses of 1 Samuel 6 for our beginning today. And
I'm trying to be in Sunday school mode today. I'm trying not to get carried
too away with my comments today and get too far off the wayward
path. I've seen something in this passage. had time to study this week,
once I finally decided to come to it, to have it reinforced
by some other writers, but I don't think I'm wayward on what I've
seen in this passage today, and I hope you can see it with me.
Beginning at verse one in 1 Samuel chapter six. And the ark of the
Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And
the Philistines called for the priest and the diviner saying,
what shall we do to the ark of the Lord? Tell us wherewith we
shall send it to his place. And take note that it says his
place and not its place. This is not a typo, and I hope
we'll see by the end of the hour what I mean by that. It is His
place. And they said, if you send away
the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty, but any wise
return him, return God, return this ark. Return him a trespass
offering. Then you shall be healed, and
it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from
you. Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which
we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emirates
and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of
the Philistines. For one plague was on you all,
and on your lords. Now the best I could learn these
emirates were tumors, and as the Philistines passed the ark
from one of their cities to another, God would afflict the residents,
maybe only the males, with these tumors. Various authors said
they were in different places. Most of them along the back or
down in the middle region is where they were affecting these
people. And the mice here represent the pestilence that also followed
the travel of the ark as it went to the three cities in Philistine,
maybe possibly all five as mentioned either here or later on. Says,
wherefore, you shall make images of your emirates and images of
your mice that mar the land, and you shall give glory unto
the God of Israel. Peradventure, he will lighten
his hand from off you and from off your gods and from off your
land. Wherefore, then, do you harden
your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?
When he had walked wonderfully among them, did they not let
the people go and they departed? Now therefore make a new cart,
and take two milk cows, that's what this means here, on which
there hath come no yoke, and tie the kind to the cart, and
bring their calves home from then. So separate mother from
their offspring. And take the ark of the Lord,
and lay it upon the cart, and put the jewels of gold which
you returned him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the
side thereof, and send it away that it may go. And see, if it
goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beshemesh, then he hath
done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall know
that it is not his hand that smote us. It was a chance that
happened to us. And the man did so, and took
the two milk cows and tied them to the cart and shut up their
calves at home. And they laid the Ark of the
Lord upon the cart and the coffer with the mice of gold and the
images of their emirates. And the kind took the straightway
to the way of the Shemesh and went along the highway, lowing
as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to
the left. And the lords of the Philistines
went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh. And I guess the
Philistines received their answer to the question from back in
verse nine, if this judgment that had come upon them and their
land, if it had come at the hand of God of Israel or not. So that's
our first lesson for this morning. Don't test God. You might not
like the answer you get. And they, a Beth Shemesh, were
reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And they lifted up
their eyes and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it. And the cart
came into the field of Joshua, a Beth Shemite, and stood there
where there was a great stone. And they claimed the wood of
the cart and offered a kind of burnt offering unto the Lord. Now I've got two different parts
this morning, and I've sort of headlined this first part, history
and quick lessons. So as we go through it, just
pick up a couple points here and there that I noticed, I think,
as I was reading the first, really the first six chapters of this
book of scripture. So to go to the history, how
did we arrive here or what we were told of here in verse one,
that the Ark of the Covenant had been in the land of the Philistines
for seven months. There's a short answer to that.
Sin. Sin. With one sin, Adam introduced
all the calamity that has entered this world. Yes, there is living
by the sweat of the brow, but there's also war, heartbreak,
loss, sickness, decay. All of this can trace its root
cause to this sin. This earth began in peace and
harmony, but now there's nothing to it but strife and chaos. Look around. I don't think my
assessment is wrong at all, but we can't all lay all this blame
on just Adam. with just a small amount of honesty
with yourself. You have to admit that as far
as if you want to go numbering sins, we have this one listed
for Adam in the Scriptures, and of course it is a big one. It's
imputed to all of us. We are Adam's seed, therefore
we're all sinners. But if we wanted to go and list
or number our sins, each and every one of us, how many volumes
would it fill? Would yours fill a library? Think about the consequences
of sin. Not just sin, but your sin. With
this view, with anything of what we term
as bad coming our way, death of a loved one, sickness, financial
ruin, if you take this view, that that
is a direct punishment from God for your trespasses. No matter
how bad you have it, with just a little reflection,
you have to admit that God could really rightfully punish you
so much more than what He does. He actually takes it pretty easy
on us, if you want to be honest about it. Even in His judgment,
God's merciful to us. But what we have here is a worse punishment, almost,
that Israel suffered for not only these seven long months
But really, for about the past 25 years, it's stated back in
1 Samuel 3.1, and the Word of the Lord was precious. And this
does not mean like a jewel is precious. It has the meaning
of it was rarely given. And the Word of the Lord was
rarely given in those days. There was no open vision. And
then, the Ark was taken from Israel. I've already hinted at
it, folks, but without this ark, there is no salvation. No salvation. The long answer for why the ark
was captured, the short one was sin, or the long reason that
the ark was captured in a losing battle, it's also sin. The sin of three priests, the
high priest Eli, and his two sons, Hockney and Phineas. And
now I'm sure, and looking at their pronunciations, I looked
at them and tried to... I've been saying it that way
all my life. I'm sure it's wrong, but I'm too old to change now.
You all know who I'm speaking about. We've heard this story
before. But to put it in my terms, God
didn't take too kindly to the sins that Eli's two sons committed. Committed during their service
as priests. The scriptures here in Samuel,
they refer to them as both being sons of Bilal or wicked men. They were wicked men. The first
sin they're charged with had to do with the sacrifices that
were brought before the Lord. Priests were entitled to a portion
of the peace offerings that were brought before the Lord, but
they were to receive their portion after the Lord received his.
These two men put themselves before God. They were taking
their portions first, often with the threat of violence. To top
it on off, they were committing lewd acts with women right there
at the tabernacle. Eli's sin It was upon hearing
the reports of what these two wicked men were doing, his two
sons, what they were doing in the sight of God. He did reprimand
them, but he never removed them from their offices. He never
took them out of the priesthood. So God passed judgment on these
men for this sin. You can read of it in 1 Samuel
2, beginning in verse 27, but for right now, I just want to
look at two verses. So look at 1 Samuel chapter 2.
I'm going to read verse 34 and 35. God tells Eli, And this shall
be a sign unto you, that shall come upon thy two sons on Hophni
and Phinehas, and one day that shall die both of them. And I
will raise me up a faithful priest that shall do according to that
which is in mine heart and in my mind. and I will build him
a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed forever."
Now God reinforced this judgment that he gave to Eli when he appeared
to Samuel in the middle of the night, and you can read this
in the first part of 1 Samuel chapter 3. Here we see God's patience. Many
years passed, and I'm sure Well, I'm not sure,
but Eli might not have ever forgot it, but I got a feeling his two
sons never thought much about it. But we see God's patience
here, because in these years that passed between when he talked
to Eli, he was raising himself up a faithful priest. The same
child Samuel that he called in the middle of the night in chapter
3, he was preparing him to serve not only as priest, but also
prophet and judge. So when God's appointed time
was met, his condemnation of Eli and his children came to
pass. This begins in chapter 4. Israel
goes to war with their neighbors, the Philistines. And the first
day of the war didn't go very well with them. Like I say, I
don't have my Bible open in front of me because I left it at home.
But if I remember correctly, they lost 4,000 men that first
day. So what did they do to prepare
for the next engagement with the Philistines? You can read
it right here in 1 Samuel chapter 4 and verse 3. And it says, and
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 of the Covenant
of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among
us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. Doubtless,
the people knew their history and how often God had fought
on their behalf through the years, most especially when they first
came to the land of Canaan. And I'm sure they thought that
if they just bring this ark along, next time victory was theirs. The tide was going to turn, everything
was going to come out in their favor. How often man tries to
bend God's will to theirs. I guess because of the message
Dennis preached last week, but the first example I thought about
when I got to thinking on this subject was a prayer chain. A prayer chain. That's nothing but a fancy way
to gang up on God. And really it's nothing but a
good way to make you feel good about yourself because you're
praying for somebody else. I've never heard anyone who ever
mentioned a prayer chain or that they were going to pray. To pray
as we were given the example. Thy will be done, Lord, thy will. No, prayer chains always want
to change God's mind, didn't it? And now this country, we celebrate
a national day of prayer. This country don't need one day,
it needs every day of prayer. That's just a dog and pony show
to get politicians on TV. They look pious one day a year. We're in bad shape. Israel learned this lesson the
hard way. God did not give them direction
to bring the ark to the battlefront. They come up with that idea on
their own. It was man's will and not his will that was exercised
in that decision. And the results didn't turn out
too good. Look in verse 10 of chapter 4, 1 Samuel. The first day was bad, the next
day is terrible. And the Philistines fought, and
Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent.
And there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel 30,000
foot men. And the ark of God was taken,
and the two sons of Eli, Hopni and Phinehas, were slain. And
upon hearing this news, Eli fell out of his seat, said he was
a fat man, he fell backwards, he broke his neck, and he died. Never take for granted the patience
of the Lord. God's will is done on earth as
it is in heaven. And He always keeps His promises.
And unlike modern day promises by modern day charlatans, they're
always promising health and wealth. Sometimes God brings judgment
and not mercy. Hopni and Phinehas died at the
hand of the Lord. And with the death of Eli, what
God promised Eli in verse 31 of chapter 2, it came to pass.
God told Eli, behold, the days come that I will cut off thine
arm and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be
an old man in thine house. Condemnation, damnation. If you
take time and read these first few chapters, there was no salvation
to be had in that family. So the Ark's taken to the land
of the Philistines because they were given a great victory by
the hand of God, the God of Israel. You go back and you read the
history of that battle, and you'll read of the scare that came upon
the Philistines when they first heard that the Ark was coming
to battle. They knew of the history of Israel,
and they knew the mighty works that God did in both given them Canaan, but most specifically
what happened to Pharaoh back in Egypt when he freed Israel
from 400 years of slavery. And it took considerable persuasion
for them to button up their courage and not hightail it back home
once they heard that the Ark of the Covenant was amongst the
Israelites. Like all men in their natural-born
state, they were blind and ignorant to the true ways of God. Instead of understanding that
this was God's punishment on Israel, you know that they had
to believe that it was their God that had given them victory
over Israel's God when these 30,000 died and the Ark was captured. So what did they do? What did
they do? They brought the ark to the temple
in which they worshiped their God. Almost as if the ark had
to pay homage to their God. Look there in 1 Samuel chapter
5 and verse 2. We all know this story. When
the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into
the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. This is their God.
And when they of Ashdod, which is where the temple was, arose
early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face
to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon
and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on
the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the
ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and
both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold. Only
the stuff of Dagon was left to him. You know, we often speak
of the unchangeableness of God, and we rightly do so. We're told
in the Scriptures that I am the Lord. I change not. Well, man just doesn't seem to
change much either, does he? Instead of bowing to the great
God that made their little God fall off his little shelf and
to break into pieces, those people in that day, They just took the
ark out of the temple and they shipped him off to the next town. How often we've seen it in this
place. So many have come through their
doors in the last 30 plus years. Some just for a visit or two.
Some came for years. They've had the gospel preached
to them by Rupert and other preachers that he's brought to the pulpit
here just over and over again. But still, Even when shown the
real God of the scriptures, they eventually decide to turn back
to their little God, the little God they formed in their own
minds, bandaged and all, just like poor little Dagon. The God of our imagination, has to be wiped away. And it, as I'm going to get to
in a few minutes, is nothing short than the work of the one
true God. So they take the ark out of the
temple, and they take it out of that town. It gets like a
hot potato to them. They start passing it from town
to town. Everywhere it goes, these people
start having these tumors and the pestilence comes. And that had to be a surprise
and a shock to them. You know that when they captured that ark and
they brought it into their temple, There was a few of the people
who, there's always people who like money more than they like
anything else. They had to be thinking, we'll
keep this thing for a little while and that price will just
keep going up and up and up and up. And sooner or later we're
going to sell this thing back to Israel for a small ransom. That's not the way it turned
out, is it? I've already read it. Not only did they send this ark
back freely, They had some gold going back with it. All to the
glory of the true God of Israel. Now that's the history. That
brings us back to where I started in our reading this morning.
It comes to part two and I'm going to change my approach here.
I've entitled this part, Jesus and the Saved. How I'm going
to do it, just to let you know what I'm I'm going to quote some
scripture to you. You won't even have to turn.
Everyone I'm quoting to you, we're all familiar with. But
then I want to try and relate it back to what I hope I've seen
here in 1 Samuel. The first scripture I want to
start with is Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5. But when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoptions of sons." Now, we know that the
Apostle is speaking of Jesus here, and in the passage we have
before us this morning, this son made of a woman is represented
by this Ark of the Covenant. That's why I reinforce that he
is, that we read of a couple times already this morning in
chapter 6. When the fullness of time was
come, When God had prepared Samuel to lead his people, the ark left
Israel and went to the land of the Philistines. This ark leaving
Israel and being brought amongst the heathens, to me, speaks of
Jesus leaving heaven above and the glory that he shared with
his father, taking on the flesh of man and dwelling among the
inhabitants of earth. Israel had almost made the Ark
an idol, just like the Philistines had their idol Dagon. It was
as if when they brought it to war, they thought they could
unleash their God out of that Ark and they would have victory. The Ark is not God, but it pictures
God. It pictures the God who came
to put away the sins of His people by the shedding of His blood
on the cross. When they brought the Ark to
battle that day, they overlooked Christ, which is what the Ark
is telling us. No wonder they lost that day.
Whenever you see the Ark of the Covenant, you must first see
Christ. If you don't first see Christ,
you're better off not seeing anything at all. Philippians chapter two, verses
five through eight. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of man. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Now, no picture or type in the
Old Testament is perfect. I'll use an example for what
I mean by this is Moses and David. At times they serve as types
of Christ in the scriptures, yet we all know that they were
both sinners. And we know that Jesus never
committed a sin, so they're not always a type of Christ. So keep
that in mind, and my type here is not perfect, but I think that
Christ making of himself of no reputation and looking at his
humbleness being pictured, we can see this in the ark being
placed in with this false god, Dagon. Him humbling himself. Jesus Christ is the truth. He
is the truth of the gospel. Yet he humbled himself to live
in the land of the false, false religion. There were plenty of
idol worshipers in Christ's day, just as there was in Samuel's.
But the number one false religion that he faced when he was on
this earth was the religion that was practiced by his fellow countrymen,
his fellow Hebrews. All of their scriptures spoke,
talked about, pointed to, directed their attention to Him, the Messiah
of God. And yet they rejected Him. They
did not see it. It's amazing to me, and I use
that word amazing with intent. It's just amazing to me that
he just didn't get fed up with all of it. Especially about the
fourth or fifth time they tried to put him to death. And just
wipe them all off the mat and start over again. But I think that speaks to the
greatness of God, and it most especially speaks to His love
for His people, that He didn't do this, that He willingly allowed
Himself to suffer humiliation, scorn, ridicule. Why? To save His people from their
sin. He knew that He would suffer. He knew that He would die. Yet,
He did it anyway. This was prophesied. In Isaiah
53, it says of Christ, He is despised and rejected of men.
In Hebrews 12, beginning at verse 2, the author writes, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds. The Ark
of the Covenant was despised and rejected. Twice it was sat
beside Dagon. Twice Dagon fell. The second
time, like Humpty Dumpty, broken all into pieces. Yet the Philistines
rejected the true God, just as Israel rejected Christ when he
walked among them. And unfortunately, this same
Christ, he still rejected and despised in our day. Still, it
pleases him to save sinners, and he's still doing it today.
So that brings me to the next character in our scripture of
the day here in 1 Samuel 6, and really it's why I chose this
passage for today, because in this I believe we have the picture
of a saved sinner. And if you're like me, when I
come across this, I was surprised at how this saved sinner, this
he or this she is represented in this passage. 2 Corinthians
5.17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Behold, all things are become
new. Take your Bibles, please, and
look at it with me in 1 Samuel, verse 6, and let's read verse
7 together. 1 Samuel 6, 7. Now therefore, make
a new cart, and take two milk cows, on which there hath come
no yoke, and tie the cattle to the cart and bring their calves
home from them. This new creature from 2 Corinthians
is this new cart from 1 Samuel. The saved sinner is here represented
by this cart. You know that in all the land,
the Philistines had at least one or two old carts they could
spare. They had at least one with some rotten boards on it,
or they had one where the wheels weren't quite round so it rolled
sort of funny and threw things off that they would have loved
to get rid of. No, to send the Ark of the Covenant
back to Israel, it had to be a new cart. And when the Ark,
when this Ark of the Covenant, when Christ brings a sinner home
to heaven, He brings the new creature, the new man. Isn't
that what he told Nicodemus? Christ told him, verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. You have to be a new man. And how is this done? How is
this done? Well, our cart in 1 Samuel speaks
directly to me on how a sinner is saved. It's a work of God. What do I mean by this? I'll
start with just a simple question. How can a cart build itself?
How can a cart build itself? Well, that's a ridiculous question.
A cart is inanimate. It's got no feet, it's got no
hands, it's got no eyes, it's got no brains to do anything
with. A cart cannot build itself. Someone else has to build it.
So it is with the sinner. How is a sinner saved? It's God's
work. It's God's work alone. Salvation
is of the Lord. A sinner has feet, but his feet
only fly to destruction, swift to fly to destruction. A sinner
has hands, but they can only work evil. A sinner has eyes, but they only
look to their own lust and their own needs. And the sinner has
a brain, but it's so cloudy and polluted with their sin. And we've seen it so many times
already in the verses we looked at this morning. We can have
no, the natural man can have no right thoughts on God. That is Unless God does something
for him. Unless he makes a new creature. He did this to Samuel back in
chapter 3. I didn't read those verses. We
all know how God came to Samuel. Samuel was dead asleep when the
Lord first came to him. This is nothing short than the
picture of a sinner being dead in trespasses and sins. And when
he did call, Samuel didn't know who he was. He went running to
Eli, and he did it not once, but twice. I don't know that
this doesn't represent the sinner turning to the law, which is
what they so often do when they first have their eyes open to
what a sinner they are. We go running to that law, trying
to do right. We learn it's all over the scriptures.
What does the law point to? The same thing that this ark
points to. It points us to Christ. And that's what Eli told Samuel.
He told him to go lie down and listen again. The next time God
spoken to him, he was asleep again. Three times dead in trespasses
and sins. But this time, he listened and
God opened his understanding. Samuel lay down in death. The
new Samuel awoke in Christ. He was made a new cart. He was
made a new cart. Now Paul writes in Romans 7 verse
22 and 23, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man,
after this new created man. But I see another law in my members,
and that's the old man, warring against the law of my mind and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members. While a saved sinner walks on
this earth, he exists as two people in an adversarial relationship. There is this new spiritual man
created by God, but he's still attached to the old man corrupted
by the sin of Adam and the sin of himself. In 1 Samuel, this
is shown by this new carp being attached to the two milk cows.
And this is an apt description for the old man. Think of a cow.
What does it do? What good is it really while
it's alive? Well, it's really not much of
anything. It does produce milk. But as
far as it's being, really all it does is eat, swish its tail,
it flies and get rid of what it eats. And another thing he does is
wander and stray. If a farmer has some cows and
he has them fenced in and that fence gets broke every day, guess
what he's going to do every day? Every day he's going to go looking
cows. To a cow, the grass is always
greener on the other side of the fence. He's always chasing
that grass. So it is with the old man. He's
always concerned with the wants and the desires of the physical
man. He continually wanders and strays from God. continues in
his trespasses and sins. He's never satisfied. He's always
looking to satisfy his own lust, his own needs. He's always after
that greener grass. This is why we have such a great
saving God. He didn't just make salvation
possible by dying on the cross. And he didn't just call sinners
to himself and then leave them alone to fend for themselves.
God brings sinners all the way home. His home. In Hebrews 12,
Jesus is called both the author and the finisher of our faith.
And in John 10, verses 27 through 29, we're taught this by Jesus
himself. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. Jesus is the author. And I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. Jesus is the finisher.
My father which gave them me is greater than all and no man
is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father
are one. Jesus is God and God's will shall
be done. His people shall be saved. If you look at verse 12 in 1
Samuel 6, if you have it open, it says, And the cattle took
the straight way to the way of Bathshemesh, and went along the
highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right
hand or to the left. Well, this is nothing short of
a miracle that we have here. These cows taking the straight
path back to the promised land. was the town that bordered Israel
to the Philistines. And if what I read is correct,
this path covered at least eight miles journey going from where
it was at to this town. And during this entire trip,
these two cows, they'd never stopped to eat off the side of
the road. They never wandered out of the
wilderness. They never tried to return to their young calves,
which is directly contrary to the nature of all mothers. All
mothers in the right mind, anyway. They went straight on the intended
path. But is that how the cows thought?
Is that how the cows thought? Were they going straight in their
mind? This was a rough country they were traveling. No paved
roads. I'm sure they were full of rocks
and debris and tree limbs and potholes and everything else.
And there's no way they were straight. It won't text us. I'm
sure the roads turned left and right, and they went up hills
and down hills, high and low, high spots, low spots. And if
this was during the rainy season, they would have had to go through
wet spots, and they'd had to drag that caught through the
heavy-laden mud. I doubt the cows thought that
this road was very straight. Such it is with a saved sinner
while continuing in this land. They run into plenty of pitfalls,
so many created by their own doing. Like Paul, there are still
sinners warring against themselves. Then there are the trials and
the tribulations sent by God. Israel is suffering this very
fate that we've looked at this morning They will be continued
to be oppressed by the Philistines for another 20 years Trials and
tribulations come and they are for the sinner's benefit and
also for the glory of God The life just doesn't seem very straight
while you're experiencing them. Do they or does it? but to God Every step the saved
sinner takes is being directed by His hand. So no matter how
you go through this life, your path is straight because you're
directed by Him and His ways are right and His ways are straight. Just a few more things. Hopefully
I can get done in the next few minutes. I'll put two passages
together. The first from Paul in Galatians
2.20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." So put what
Paul says of himself and put this with another statement that
I have here from 1 John chapter 4 and verse 4. This is what is
said of all saved sinners. You are of God, little children,
and have overcome them. because greater is he that is
in you than he that is in the world. What did this new cart
have in it? It had the Ark of the Covenant.
What does the new man have in him? Christ dwells in him. Christ is life, and the life
in the new creature is Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.21 He, for God,
hath made Him, God the Son, Jesus Christ, to be sin for us, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him." Now, in 1 Samuel, as a trespass offering, the Philistines
made up golden images of the afflictions that they received
at the hand of God. As I told you, these emeralds
were tumors, and the mice represented the pestilence. Both their bodies
and their worldly goods were affected. And as I look at this
passage, these golden images to me represent the sins of the
Philistines. And as our passage in 1 Samuel
tells us, these images, these jewels of gold were put on the
side of the cart by the ark. Now for a second, just look at
Jesus on the cross. pierced in his side, bleeding
and dying and suffering the wrath of God. The sins of his elect
laid upon him as he suffered this wrath, as he suffered to
pay the penalty and the payment for their trespasses. And he was and he is the acceptable
sacrifice. That's why Paul had the liberty
to write that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
My time's gone, and I'm already cutting things short, but just
one more thing. Luke 15.10, likewise I say unto
you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
that repenteth. Read 1 Samuel 6.13 if you have
it open. And they of Bethshemesh were
reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up
their eyes and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it. And they
saw the ark and rejoiced to see it. Now I came to this passage
today when listening to a sermon that Clay Curtis preached on
a few years ago, and he was preaching about how the S-U-N testifies
to the S-O-N. And in that message, he just
briefly mentioned this passage of Scripture. He probably didn't
take 30 seconds on it. But in that time, he gave the
meaning, the definition of this word, or the name of this town,
Beshemesh. It translates to the house of
the sun. The house of the sun. We all
know that the sun, the S-O-N, he now resides in heaven at the
right time, right hand of God. And every time he saves a sinner,
there is rejoicing, just as the people in Bethshemesh rejoiced
upon the ark's return. And this is why I wanted to make
sure and get this last point to you, even though I've already
run out of time. I want to stress this point to
you. The people that day, when they saw those cows and that
cart coming in the distance, Did they rejoice because they
had two new cows show up? Did they jump up and down because
they had a brand new cart to use? No. They rejoiced because
of the ark. They rejoiced because of the
ark. How do you know a sinner is saved? If any of the glory
or honor goes to the sinner, then it is not a true salvation. But if the praise and glory belongs
only to God the Father, God the Spirit, and most especially God
the Son, this Ark of the Covenant we're looking at this morning,
then and only then is a sinner saved. That's when the praise
rings forth from the angels. They're praising the Son. And
praise God, He's still making new carts. Thank you.