You would turn with me in your
Bible to the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter
4, 1 Samuel chapter 4. In this fourth chapter of Samuel,
we find the nation of Israel out of communion and fellowship
with God. They had gone aside unto the
worship of idols. They had neglected the things
of God, and God gave them up to their enemies. When Jehovah
had brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, he had instructed
them on how they should live when they were to enter into
the land of promise, and he warned them. that if they forsook Him,
they would be dealt with harshly. He told them plainly, as only
God can, that if they did not hearken unto Him, but walked
contrary to Him, that He would walk contrary to them in fury. And as I read those words, I
shuddered. I don't want God to deal with
me in fury. God promised that he would chasten
them seven times for their sins, Leviticus 26, 28. And here in
this chapter and in our story, we find the Philistines being
divinely permitted to make great havoc of idolatrous Israel. And we see in verse two that
in their first battle, they were smitten, and that word means
struck down, and over 4,000 men were slain in that single battle
alone. And then when the army of Israel
returned to their camp after this great defeat, the elders
of Israel said in verse three, why has the Lord smitten us?
Oh, they knew why. They knew why. And at least they
were right to ascribe this defeat to the Lord who had allowed them
to be defeated. He is the first cause of everything. He allows things in order to
accomplish His purpose. And apart from sovereign grace,
friends, it's impossible for men and women to ever see that
their sins and their iniquities are the cause of their many troubles.
And what they do next exposes their sin even further, for they
endeavor by a work of the flesh to save themselves. In verse
three, they say, let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the
Lord out of Shiloh unto us, and when it cometh among us, notice
this next little word, it, it may save us out of the hand of
our enemies. The ark of the covenant, it shall
save us. out of the hand of our enemies.
And what a picture we have here of man's free will works religion. Those in religion have a form
of godliness, but it is nothing more than superstitious religion. They deny the power of God and
true godliness, 2 Timothy 3, 5. And they will soon find out
that God's power is not in the ark of the covenant. The power
of God is in the God of the covenant. Big difference, big difference. Men today stand and preach what
I call a little G God that is a failure. How so, you might
ask? Well, they say that God loves
everybody and that Christ died for everyone, yet there will
be some that will still perish and be lost forever in hell. If that is so, God is a failure
and Christ's blood is ineffective and unprofitable. Can the blood
of God Can the blood of God be shed in vain? Absolutely not. God and His Son are not failures. Fetching and retrieving the Ark
of the Covenant and bringing it into the camp of battle is
a picture of how men by nature endeavor by a work of their own
doing to save themselves, and it cannot be done. You know,
man thinks of a thousand inventions and he neglects Christ, who is
the one thing needful. I've seen it many, many times. Will self-serving sinners ever
learn? When men and women find themselves
in sore trials and in great trouble, they immediately look to something
that they can do instead of looking to Christ who has already finished
the work of their redemption. And they look outwardly to the
arm of the flesh instead of looking inwardly in faith to Christ. Let me again remind you that
without faith, it is impossible to please God. External religion
will do you no good. Men will trust in a work of their
free will. Men will cling to a free will
decision that they made. Men will find some assurance
in walking to the front of the church. Men will find comfort
in saying a sinner's prayer. Men will find rest in getting
into the waters of baptism. And they'll look to everything,
everything external and outwardly that they can do, but they won't
look to Christ alone unless God divinely intervenes. You wouldn't,
and I wouldn't, and that's just a fact. The Israelites, instead
of seeking God for help, instead of seeking God's prophet for
advice. Went to Shiloh to fetch the Ark
of the Covenant, but the Ark itself was void of power without
the presence of the One that it represented. And men can trust
in their will, and they can trust in their walk, and they can trust
in their work and in their way, and they will die in their sin. There's no power in the dead
will and work of the flesh, none. Israel trusted in their own doing
and the results were disastrous. And like modern day religion,
they mistake the visible for the invisible. Men and women
will make anything an object of worship. I've seen it and
so have you. By nature, we want to worship
something that we can see, that we can touch, that we can feel. But a God that can be seen is
no God at all. The Ark of the Covenant was a
chest of wood inlaid with gold. It had angelic figures on the
lid that faced each other. It was simply a token of God's
presence and power with His people. And they worshipped and trusted
in that inanimate object instead of the Christ of God that it
pictured and represented. They ascribed to the Ark what
only could be done by God. And this is the error of false
religion today. Man's free will work religion. They ascribe to their work the
work that only God can do. By nature, it's the tendency
of us all. Men by nature want to trust in
man. We want to trust in ourselves. We want to trust in our works.
Most every time that man has been confronted with the gospel
and the scriptures, the first thing out of his mouth was, what
must I do? You can do nothing but believe
and trust in He who did all things for you. Men by nature want to
lean upon the arm of the flesh, but what did God say? In the
book of Jeremiah, He said, Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the
man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose
heart departed from the Lord. Now look at verse 4. So the people
went to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of
the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims.
And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with
the ark of the covenant of God." Now, I don't know if you remember,
but if you read earlier in the book of 1 Samuel about these
two boys, they were wicked. Read on with me. Verse 5, and
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. Have you ever been to a ball
game or something and when folks shout, it just shakes the earth? That's what this was like. That's
what this was like. Verse 6, And when the Philistines
heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise
of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And 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. And they
said, Woe unto us, for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. They had heard what God had done
in Egypt. These guys knew what God had
done, how He, with a mighty hand, had delivered His people out
of Egypt. And in verse 8, they said, Woe
unto us! 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. Well, they'd
heard. Trust me, they'd heard. Well, that was the very purpose
that God had raised Pharaoh up, to show his power in him, that
the whole world might know that God is God. And here we see that
both Israel and the Philistines made a great mistake. They both
thought that Israel's God had come into the camp, but he hadn't
come at all. Israel set up an inanimate object
to worship. I'm telling you again, men will
make anything an object of worship. Even something that has no life
in it. That's what an idol is. It's
a man-made object of worship that has no life. David said our God is in the
heavens. He's done whatsoever He hath pleased. And he said
their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They
have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but
they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they
through their throat that they that make them are like unto
them. They're dead, and so is everyone
that trusteth in them. If you trust in an idol, you're
dead spiritually. And truly again, I'll say that
men have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.
And men will even worship the things of God and not God Himself. I know people that worship their
church building. They've made it an idol. They
worship their denomination. They worship their own ministries.
They worship Mary, they worship another Jesus, and they worship
their will, their walk, and their way. But they won't worship the
sovereign God of the Bible. Israel, instead of calling upon
God, they called upon the two wicked sons of Eli, two of the
grossest sinners in all the land of Israel. Do we dare put sinful
men in the place of God? And Israel confused enthusiasm
with faith. That happens all the time in
religion today. Truly men have a zeal for God,
but it's not according to knowledge. The flesh likes it. Oh, we like
enthusiasm, we like excitement, we like emotions. And if any
who liked those things would have passed by this day, the
camp of Israel, they would have joined themselves in their worship
service, thinking that they had great faith. Oh, when they heard
the shout and the noise, oh, now this is the kind of church
I want to go to, they would have said. And just because there's
a shouting and a loud noise doesn't mean that true faith accompanies
that emotion and that enthusiasm. Most of the time, it doesn't.
The Israelites were mistaken. They shouted long before they
were out of trouble. A lot of folks shouting today,
and they're still in great trouble. Before they had won any victory,
the sight of the ark made them boastful and confident. And religious
men and women are confident and boastful of many things that
they do for God. They will, in the day of judgment,
say unto the Lord, haven't we done? Haven't we done? And the
Lord would declare to them that what they've done are works of
iniquity. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Our Lord said, I never knew you.
And then the Philistines, they fell into an error of a different
kind, for they were frightened without any real cause. They
said God is coming to the camp, and God hadn't come into the
camp at all. It was only the ark made of wood, gold with a
cherubim upon it, but God wasn't there. The Philistines here give
us a picture of the heart of natural man. It's common belief
that men and women can somehow and someway pull themselves up
by their own bootstraps. And that's exactly what the Philistines
did. They said to one another in verse
9, Be strong and quit yourselves like men. Oh you Philistines,
that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews as they have been
to you, quit yourselves like men and fight. Now that word
quit here simply means to grow up. Stop your crying. Have you
ever had anybody tell you that? Stop your crying. Grow up. Fight like a man. They convinced
themselves that they were superior to God, and God turned them over
to strong delusion. God will do that. God was not
in Israel, though the Philistines thought that He was. And when
they defeated Israel, they thought that they had defeated God. And
I'm telling you, that's strong delusion. Because none can defeat
God. You know, there was a time when
Satan and the demons of hell thought the same thing. Christ
was delivered into the wicked hands of men who crucified and
killed the Lord Jesus Christ, and it appeared that God was
defeated. But perish the thought! Little
did they know that it was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, ordained before the foundation of the world in the death of
Christ, that God redeemed all that He had chosen before time
ever was. You know, things are not always
as they seem. Verse 10, 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 footmen, and the ark of God was taken, and
the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas were slain. The Ark of the Covenant was captured
by the Philistines, though it was guarded by all the armed
men that Israel could muster for the battle. But it came to
no hurt at all when it was surrounded by unarmed priests. It was never
taken captive until it was protected by the arm of the flesh. What
is the lesson here? God doesn't need help from us. God doesn't help those who help
themselves. God helps those who cannot help
themselves. And oh, how I wish men and women
could learn that. We can't help ourselves. Why? Because we're dead. Dead in trespasses
and sin. Read on, verse 12. And there
ran a man of Benjamin out of the army and came to Shiloh.
And the same day, with his clothes rent and with earth upon his
head, he was a mess. And when he came, lo, Eli sat
upon a seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the
ark of God. This was a man that feared God.
Though his sons were wicked, he feared God. And when the man
came into the city and told it, all the city cried out. And when
Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, what meaneth the noise
of this tumult? And the man came in hastily and
told Eli. Now Eli was ninety and eight
years old, and his eyes were dim that he could not see. And
the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army. And
I fled today out of the army." And he said, what is there done,
my son? And the messenger answered and
said, Israel is fled before the Philistines. And there has been
also a great slaughter among the people. And thy two sons
also, Hophni and Phinehas are dead. And the ark of God is taken. And it came to pass when he made
mention of the ark of God that he, Eli, fell from off the seat
backward by the side of the gate and his neck break, and he died. For he was an old man and heavy,
and he had judged Israel 40 years." Now, I found that very, very
interesting. When Eli, the priest of God,
was told that there had been a great slaughter among the people
of Israel, he didn't say a word. When he was told that his own
two sons were dead, why, he simply kissed the hand of God's providence
and bowed to God's purpose, and he never once charged God foolishly. That's what a child of God does.
But when Eli was told that the ark of God was taken, He fell
backward from off his seat and broke his neck. You see, the
loss of the ark of God was to him the most dreadful loss of
all. Some commentators think that
Eli died upon hearing the words, and that's why he fell backwards. And there are many losses, now
listen to me, there are many losses that we will experience
in this life. Yet they all come at God's sovereign
bidding. Whether it's the loss of a parent,
a spouse, a sibling, a son, daughter, they're all great losses. But there's no greater loss than
to leave this world without God's Son, in whom the Ark of the Covenant
is a wonderful picture. The loss of the Ark of God was
so devastating to Eli that it killed him. But it was not devastating
to him only. Look at verse 19. And his daughter-in-law,
Phinehas's wife, was with child, near to be delivered. And when
she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that
her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself
and travailed, for her pains came upon her. And about the
time of her death, The women that stood by her said unto her,
fear not, for thou hast born a son. But she answered not,
neither did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod,
saying, the glory is departed from Israel, because the ark
of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her
husband. And she said, the glory is departed from Israel, for
the ark of God is taken. Now, do you see? the disastrous
results of man's free will, work, and worship of self. Here's what
I want you to see in all this. The glory of the Lord had departed
long before the Ark of the Covenant was taken. The glory of God departed
when certain men and women of Israel worshipped their idols
instead of God. It's the will worship of men
that causes God's glory to depart from them. Never forget this,
never ever forget this. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of their temptations and to reserve the unjust until
the day of judgment to be punished. You can count on it. Now look
at the next chapter, 1 Samuel chapter five, verse one. And the Philistines took the
ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer into Ashdod. And when
the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into
the house of Dagon. and set it by Dagon." Now, Dagon
was their prominent God, the prominent God of the Philistines.
And when the Philistines, verse two, took the ark of God, they
brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. They set it there as a trophy
that they had defeated God. And when they of Ashdod arose
early in the morning, or on the morrow, behold, Dagon, their
idol, their statue, 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." Listen, no idol can stand or compare
to Christ our Savior. Dagon was an idol that upper
part from the waist up was a man and the lower part of a fish
like the mermaids that we see in fantasy movies today. Dagon was the Philistines' god
of fertility, being that physical life and sustenance came from
water. But this idol's dominant features
were that of a man, and his upper body was a man. And that shows
us that the Philistines believed that man himself was the giver
of life. This fish god idol is going to
bow before God Almighty. Verse four, and when they arose
early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face
to the ground before the ark of the Lord. And this time the
head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon
the threshold and only the stump of Dagon was left in. Therefore
neither the priest of Dagon nor any that came into Dagon's house
tread on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod until this day. But
the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed
them and smote them with emeralds." Verse 9 says emeralds in the
secret parts. You look up the word emeralds,
you know what it is? Hemorrhoids. God destroyed them
and struck them with hemorrhoids, even Ashdod and the coast thereof. And the men of Ashdod saw that
it was, and they said, the ark of the God of Israel, capital
G, shall not abide with us. For his hand is sore upon us
and upon Dagon, our God, little g. Now listen. That's the problem today in preaching.
That's the problem today in religion. Men are preaching a little g-god. A little g-god that has no power. A little g-god that has no authority. A little g-god who's wanting
and trying to do something if men will just let him. Men are
preaching the sovereignty of man and his little G-God who
is subject to man's will, work, and purpose. He's a God of their
imagination. And do you see what happens to
this puny God of man's imagination? When you set Him up next to the
God of the Bible, when you compare Him to the Lord Jesus Christ
who the Ark of the Covenant pictured, He's made to fall on His face
before the Sovereign One. And what does man do? Verse 3,
they take Him and they set Him in His place again. God tears
Him down and what do we do? We pick Him up and we set Him
back in His place. A God that man has to help is
no God at all. Now let me say that again. A
God that man has to help is no God at all. A Savior that needs
man's help to save No Savior at all. Men say things like,
God has no hands but your hands. That's not God. That's Dagon. That's Dagon who has to be set
in his place again by man's hands. And what happens when man sets
his eye on Dagon in his place again? I know something about
this from experience. For years and years I kept picking
my little pygmy god up and setting him back in his place until God
destroyed him in my mind and in my heart. What happens when
man sets up his idol again? God knocks him down and severs
his head and his hands and he shows us that he has no power,
no authority, nor is capable of doing any work that can save
a sinner. A false god is a stump god. Dearly beloved, Christ is all. The Ark of the Covenant pictures
the Lord Jesus. It contained three levels. The
lower level, it contained the tables of stone, the Ten Commandments. Christ is the fulfiller of the
law of God. In it, it contained the manna
that fell in the wilderness. Christ is the bread of life that
fell from heaven. It contained Aaron's rod that
not only budded, but bloomed and blossomed and even yielded
almonds, showing us something of the incarnation, the life,
and the death, and the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ Jesus,
and Christ's fruit, and the saving of God's elect. The Ark of the
Covenant pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. The second level was
the mercy seat which was overlaid with pure gold representing the
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that place where God is pleased
to show mercy to God's elect and judgment to those who will
not have Christ to rule over them. Christ is the mercy seat. And it was on the mercy seat
that the blood of God was shed upon the altar to satisfy His
own divine justice. And it was Christ's blood that
did so. And the third level was the very
presence of God in His Shekinah glory where God dwelt. Friends,
for God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined
in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God, where? In the face of Jesus Christ.
That's what the Ark of the Covenant pictured. And you who are yet
without Christ, I want you to hear me. You know who you are.
Do you see that He is the Ark of the Covenant? Oh, renounce
the idols of your imagination. Renounce your will. Renounce
your work. Seek God alone for the deliverance
that you must have. Seek Christ alone for the righteousness
that God requires. When it's all said and done,
the Philistines were begging Israel to take back the Ark of
God. They even offered to pay Israel
to take it back. But that's the beauty of the
gospel. Christ is not for sale. The gospel's not for sale. Salvation
is by the free grace and mercy of God. Come and buy without
money, without price. Bow before the Lord Jesus now. There'll come a day when every
knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. that He's God, that He's Savior,
but for some it will be too late. Today, today, not tomorrow, but
today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear His voice,
not mine, but His voice, harden not your hearts. May God enable
you to trust in Christ alone. He is salvation.