Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Samuel 4. 1 Samuel 4. We have been studying
in this book, and I have not had the intention of going through
it, but the Lord keeps sending messages, so we'll keep going. When we study for a message, we open up the Word, read and
look and... When we study, what we're doing
is, we are looking for pictures of Christ in the scripture. That's
what we're doing. We're looking for the gospel
message. These stories are all written
on purpose. They're all parables. Earthly
stories with spiritual meaning. Every single story tells us how
we were redeemed back to God. Every story in this book, every
detail, every page tells us that. There is a physical story in
every scripture, but it is the spiritual story. It's the spiritual
application that reveals salvation to us and reveals salvation to
a sinner. Well, this is a wonderful picture
of Christ. This is just, and I pray the
Lord will open our eyes to see it. Lord, let us see the beauty
and the glory of Christ in this. This story begins with the Philistines. They were the enemies of God,
and they were the enemies of his people. And if you'll look
here in chapter four, verse 10, it says, the Philistines fought
against, 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. All right, the Philistines went
to war with Israel, and Israel lost, and the Ark of God was
taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. Eli, the priest, when he heard
about this, when he heard that the Ark of God was taken, he
fell over dead. His sons were killed, but that's
not what slew him. When he heard that the Ark of
God was taken, He fell over dead. And when his daughter-in-law,
who was pregnant, heard that the ark of God was taken, she
delivered her child and named him Ichabod, saying, the glory
is departed from Israel. And then she died. The Philistines
literally robbed God. Now, will a man rob God? That's
the question the scripture asks. Will a man rob God? The Philistines
stole God's glory, which physically cannot be done, but that's what
they wanted to do in their heart. They wanted to steal God's glory. Chapter 5, verse 1 says, And
the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer
unto Ashdod, their city. When the Philistines took the
ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, their idol,
their little god, their little false god, Dagon. And they said
in God's ark, it says at the end of verse two, by Dagon. Now the Philistines represent
in this spiritual story, the Philistines represent me and
you. Man by nature has in his own
will and his own heart and his own desire stolen the glory from
God, and taken it to himself. Tried to anyway. Tried to take
the glory of God to himself. He has tried to set God's glory
next to his own. Man naturally thinks, God is
my co-pilot. Whether he says that phrase or
not, man naturally thinks, God is my co-pilot. And there's a
place for him here. Sure, bring him on in. Set him
down right next to me, back just a little bit. He's my co-pilot. Set him right here beside me.
Well, the Philistines, who represent us, took the Ark of God, which
had the Law of God in it, inside this box. It had the law of God
in it. It had the life of God in it.
It had the two tables of stone, those ten commandments. It had
a bowl of manna. And it had Aaron's rod that budded. All of that represents Christ. Everything about the ark of God
represents Christ. The ark itself is Christ. In Him, the law is kept. That's the most glorious revelation
a sinner will ever hear when God turns the light on to what
was just said. In Him, the law is kept. Relax. In Him is life. The life of God. The mercy seat on top of the
ark, that's Christ. He said, that's where I'll meet
with sinful man. I'll meet with you right on top
of the mercy seat. Right where all that blood is
poured. That law in that ark is Christ. The ark that houses the law is
Christ. That's His perfection. That's His righteousness. The
manna, that's definitely Christ. He is the bread of heaven. The
rod, the dead stick, It was just a dead stick butted. That's Christ in His death because
He was cut off. In His death, life came. Through
the deadness of His body, eternal life came. So the Philistines
set the glorious ark of God next to their idol, Dagon, who was
the fish god. He was made in the image of a
fish there in the city of Ashdod. Verse 3 says, And when they of
Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon
his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. Boom! And
they took Dagon and set him in his place again. Now, when the
ark of God's law comes to a sinner, it knocks all of his idols down. When the ark, the holiness, the
justice of God's holy law comes to a sinner, it knocks every
single one of his little idols down. All his little idols, he's
been worshiping all his life. And you would think that when
sinners see that, when they see that with their own two eyes,
you'd think they would bow to the true and living God. But
what does the flesh naturally do? It sets his little idol back
up again, puts it right back in his place. Verse 3 says, When
they of Ashdod 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 stump of Dagon was left to him. The
first morning God knocked him over. The second morning God
knocked him over and cut his head off and cut both his hands
off. Now, for a man whose false idol
is his God, it can truly be said to that man, Your God has no
hands but your hands. If your God is going to move,
you're going to have to move Him. If your God is going to do anything,
you're going to have to do it for Him. You're going to have
to. But for the man whose God is the Lord, the true and living God, it can
be said to that man, your God kills. Your God makes alive. Your God wounds. Your God heals. Your God actually does all of
these things. If a sinner's God is not the
God of the scripture, not the God of the Bible, that sinner
is praying to a God who cannot save. There's a story that Brother
Walter Groover, the missionary to Mexico, has told of a young
man who came to know the truth. God crossed His path with the
Gospel, and He saw the true and living God. And His whole family,
they were all idol worshippers. They had all these little idols,
six or seven little idols that they had lined up on a ledge
in their house. And they worshipped these idols.
And He came to see, these are false gods, these are false idols.
And He told His family about the true and living God, and
they didn't want to hear it. His dad would not hear it. So one
day while he was at work, This boy got a hammer and smashed
every little idol except for one and set the hammer in front
of that one. And when his dad came home and
saw that, rage came over his face. And he looked at that boy
and the boy pointed to that one left, one idol standing and said,
he did it. And he said, boy, you know he
couldn't do that. And he said, that's what I've been trying
to tell you, dad. That's what I've been trying to tell you.
We're dealing with the true and living God. No other God will stand with
Him. Everything and everyone will fall before Him. Verse 4 says, 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 stump of Dagon was left to him. Therefore,
neither the priest of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house
tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. But
the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and He destroyed
them and smote them with emrods, even Ashdod and the coast thereof. Because they tried to rob God,
Because they tried to steal God's glory from Him by adding it to
their own. And that's what men do in their
own works. They're trying to mix their own glory with His
glory. They're trying to add it to their
own. And because they did that, God smote every single one of
them with emrods. And do you know what emrods are?
Hemorrhoids. He smote all of them with hemorrhoids. He smote them with something
painfully deep inside the body. Something that removed all their
comfort from them. Something that brought shame
to them. He smote them with a loathsome
disease that represented their sin. He smoked them with something
that would reveal to them what is deep inside them. Something
that represents the inner vileness of man's sin. Verse 7 says, And when the men
of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God
of Israel shall not abide with us, for His hand is sore upon
us, and upon Dagon our God. They sent therefore, and gathered
all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall
we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered,
Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And
they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. And
it was so that after they had carried it about, the hand of
the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction,
and He smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they
had emrods in their secret parts. They brought the ark of God from
Ashdod to Gath, and as soon as it got to Gath, God smote the
entire city with emrods." Everywhere the law of God goes, It exposes
sin. Every time a man is confronted
with the ark of God's holiness, that man is confronted with his
own sin. Every single time. God smote
the city of Gath. Verse 10 says, Therefore, they
sent the ark of God to Ekron, and it came to pass, as the ark
of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying,
They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to
slay us and our people. So they sent and gathered together
all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of
the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that
it slay us not, and our people. For there was a deadly destruction
throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy
there, and the men that died not were smitten with emrods,
and the cry of the city went up to heaven." God smote all of them. All of
them, all the Philistines were smitten with this loathsome disease. And that is the case for every
single man and woman in this room. All of us. Sin has plagued us all. It's plagued us all. It's a loathsome
disease and it's deep inside every single one of us. Chapter
six. Verse 1 says, 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 they said, If you send away
the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty, but in any
wise 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." They said the only way a remedy to this great disease
can be made is if a sin offering is made. This is the only way. Do not let the ark of God, and
who does the ark of God represent? Christ. Do not let the ark of
God go back to his place without bringing a sin offering with
it. Or this disease will never be
removed from us. Never. Verse four. Then said they, what shall be
the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered,
five golden emrods and five golden mice. Melt down some gold and
form the image of five golden hemorrhoids and five golden mice. Don't turn,
but you may see in the center margin that for mice it says
Leviticus 11, 29. God told Moses, you tell the
people that the mouse is an unclean thing. That's what it represents,
uncleanness. Unclean, unclean. They said, you acknowledge with
the best substance you have, gold. The best that you have,
you acknowledge who you are and what you've done. Those golden
mice represent the people. And they said to God, in our
best state, we're nothing but sinners. Altogether vanity. We
are nothing but sinners. We're unclean. We're unclean. Those golden emrods represented
the sin of the people. They said we acknowledge our
sin. Our sin is ever before us. We're
sinners and we acknowledge our sin. Verse 4. Then said they,
What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him?
They answered, Five golden emrods and five golden mice, according
to the number of the lords of the Philistines. For one plague
was on you all and your lords. Wherefore you shall make images
of your emrods and images of your mice that mar the land,
and you shall give the 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 wrought wonderfully among them? Did they not let
the people go and they departed? Now therefore." They're about
to tell us the only way this trespass offering can be made
and accepted. And this is gonna tell us how
the remedy for our sin was made. This is the only way. This is
the only way. There's only one way. This entire
story has been written by God for us. It's been written by
God for us so that we might believe this was the only way. The only way. This is a sinner's
only hope. This is where a sinner can put
all his trust. This is where a sinner can find
relief. This is what had to happen. They
said in verse seven, how therefore make a new cart, not an old cart,
not a cart that had already been worked by man. Our Lord said,
we're not going to put new wine in old bottles. Make a brand new cart, and take
two milk cows, cows that have calves, on which there hath come no yoke,
a cart that has never seen the work of man's hands, and two
cows that have never seen the work of man's hands. No yoke
on them. never been trained, never been
instructed by man, there must be no possible way that man can
have any glory in this. Verse 7, Make a new cart, and
take two milk kind, on which there hath come no yoke, and
tie the kind to the cart, and bring their calves home from
them. Separate them for the work. They
must be sanctified, set apart. They must leave their own and
perform this work alone. They have to do this alone. These
two milk cows and this cart represent our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He left His own. He left His
Father. He went by Himself to accomplish
the work of purging our sins by Himself. Verse 8, they said,
take the ark of the Lord and lay it upon the cart. The ark
of God, the holiness of God, the law of God, the mercy seat
of God, everything that pertains to the eternal life of God was
laid on Him. Absolute perfection, absolute
righteousness, absolute holiness was laid on Him. It was carried
in His body. God was manifest in the flesh.
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. The Holy
Spirit descended like a dove and landed on Him. Spotless. Verse 8. Take the ark of the
Lord and lay it upon the cart and put the jewels of gold which
you return him for a trespass offering in a coffer. That's
a basket. And put it by the side thereof
and send it away that it may go. The mice and the emrods,
they were laid on him. Set it right there next to the
holiness of God. It was all laid on Him. He carried
the law, and He carried the ones who sinned against the law, and
He carried their sins. He carried it all. He carried
it all. The ark, the mice, the emrods,
it was all laid on Him. And they said in verse 9, See,
if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth Shemesh,
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. If these cows that have never
had a yoke put on them, if they take the road that leads straight
back to the place where the ark resides, then we'll know God
did this to us. But if they fight each other,
if they try to go two separate ways, if they take the road that
leads back to their calves, we'll know this is just a chance happening.
Verse 10, And the men did so, and took two milk kind, 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 emrods. And the kind
took the straight way to the way of Beth 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 Beth Shemesh. And they of
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, abest she might, and stood there where there was a
great stone. And they claimed the wood of
the cart and offered the kind of burnt offering unto the Lord.
Those two cows carried the load, the load of God's holiness. and the load of man's sin. And they set their face like
a flint. And they went along the highway.
This thing was not done in a corner. And the whole way they were lowering,
they were lowing as they went. Our Lord, oh, He humbled Himself
when He came to this sinful earth. Oh, He lowered Himself. And while
He was here, He preached and He healed and He should have
been praised and glorified and magnified and lifted up. But
He wasn't. He was despised. He was mocked. He was rejected. And He could
have just left us here to remain in our sins. But when the time
came, He allowed Himself to be beaten and spit on, stripped. hung on a cross, marred more than any man. And
then he lowered himself lower than any man could ever recover
from. He bowed his head. He gave up the ghost and he died. And they laid him in a grave. Verse 12 says, And the kind 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, And the lords of the Philistines went
after them unto the border of Bethshemesh. 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 the
cart came into the field of Joshua." The same name as Jesus. It means, that name means Jehovah
is salvation. The Lord is salvation. Salvation's of the Lord. Verse 14. The cart came into
the field of Joshua, Bethshemite, and stood there where there was
a great stone. The chief corner stone. The stone of God's justice. The
stone of God's righteousness. The stone of His satisfaction.
And they clave the wood of the cart They broke and they split
and they destroyed the wood of that cart. And they offered the
kind a burnt offering unto the Lord. They shed the blood that
bore the sin. They shed the blood that bore
the sin. All the sin of His people, it
was all laid on Him. And every single one of them
were redeemed when they shed the blood that bore the sin. That's what Christ had to endure
to deliver us from our infirmities, our afflictions. God's holiness
and man's sin had to meet and it had to be dealt with in his
body on the tree. It had to be. He had to bring
the sacrifice and He had to be the sacrifice. He had to become
the sacrifice in order for God to be satisfied. Verse 15, And
the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the coffer that
was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on
the great stone. And the men of Bethshemesh offered
burnt offerings and sacrifice offerings the same day unto the
Lord. And when the five lords of the
Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.
And these are the golden emrods which the Philistines returned
for a trespass offering unto the Lord. For Ashdod won, for
Gaza won, for Ascalon won, for Gath won, for Ekron won. And the golden mice, according
to the number of all the cities of the Philistines, Belonging
to the five lords, both of fenced cities and of country villages,
even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the
ark of the Lord, which stone remaineth unto this day in the
field of Joshua, the Beshemite. Every sinner and every sin that
was laid on him was redeemed. Every single one. If God ever
reveals the sacrifice of Christ, everybody knows that Jesus died
on a cross. I can't imagine hardly anybody
not knowing that. But if God ever reveals the sacrifice
of Christ to a sinner, that sinner will stop trying to make his
own sacrifice. He will stop and He will say,
my faith has found a resting place, right on that stone, right
there in the field of Joshua on the great stone. My faith
has found a resting place, not in device nor creed. I trust
the ever living one, the true and living God. His wounds for
me shall plead. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that the Lord Jesus
Christ died and that He died for me. Thank God for the sacrifice
of redemption. Redemption. Let's sing that song.