1 Samuel 7. Once again, let me
just say this. I hope this is more than just
an interesting study or something we're amazed at and marvel at
the type. If you've never heard it, it
would be a blessing to you. I hope the reading was. And I
hope it will be more than that. I hope the Lord will speak to
our hearts through this, show us Christ. The story of Samuel,
and Ark, and Israel, and their enemies, and Philistines. Samuel
represents our Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, and he represents
those that preach Christ. The prophets, the apostles, evangelists,
pastors, and teachers, those that preach Christ. The Ark is
the Word of God, the Truth of God, the Gospel of God. The Ark
is the Gospel of Christ. The Ark is Christ. The Gospel is Christ. Israel,
in this story, are those who outwardly seem to be God's people,
supposed to be God's people, visible people of God. Scripture
says he's a Jew, this is one inward though, it's not outwards,
inward. The Philistines were the constant
enemies of Israel. Every generation, the Philistines.
It began way back. The Philistines were the enemy
of God and His people and they were with them constantly. They
represent Satan, his demons, this world, They're called Satan's
seed, sons of Belial, the old man within us. That's
a Philistine that just will never let up. They'll never let up. They're always around, always
fighting Israel. Philistine. That's our sins.
Our ever befores. Did you read the article? And that's the adversary. This
story of the Ark, and I hope you'll bear with me, I hope the
Lord blesses it. From chapter 4 through chapter
7, it's mentioned 38 times. In fact, in the book of 1 Samuel,
more than any other. The Ark. Is this making a noise? Is this making a noise? Don't know. How about now? Still doing it? All right, I'm
going to turn it on, off. Okay. I'm going to turn it off. Real preachers don't
need them things. Now speak up. Speak up, all right? From chapter 4 to chapter 7,
38 times the ark is mentioned. Is it important? Over 200 times in the Scripture.
It's not mentioned in the Gospels. The ark is not mentioned in the
Gospels. It's gone. Or is it? The ark is, as I said, The Word
of God, it's the revelation of God, it's the way God gave to
His chosen people to reveal to them who He is, His holiness,
His justice, His wrath, His love, His mercy, His goodness, His
kindness, the way to approach God, the way to worship God,
the way to come to God, one way. You didn't know God, you couldn't
come to God, you wouldn't be accepted by God, there's no forgiveness
of sins except through this ark. It's called the Ark of the Lord.
It's called the Ark of the Covenant. All through the Scripture. It
began in Exodus and all the way through the Old Testament. And
then as I said, it's not mentioned again in the Gospels. Why? Because you don't need that box
anymore. Alright? That Ark is Christ. The Ark is the Gospel of Christ
crucified. and a mercy seat on it. And that
mercy seat was one thing, to pour blood over it. Let me just
go ahead and tell you what the Ark was, if you don't know. The
Ark was a wooden box covered with gold. And it was God's design. He said, see that you make this
exactly like I purposed it. It's all a picture of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who was with the Father in the beginning.
A wooden box, that's his humanity. Covered with gold, that's his
deity. God was manifest in the flesh.
Inside that ark were three things. The manna, the law of God, the
Word of God was in that vessel. That vessel was the Word of God. Christ is called the Word of
God. The manna was in that ark. God put a bowl of manna in that
ark. It was preserved forever in that
ark. Christ said, I'm the bread. That
was the food for God's people. That's Christ. And then Aaron's
rod that budded. This is what Moses... He divided
the Red Sea. He made judgments. He slew the
enemy with his rod. That's his sovereignty. That's
Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord and Savior. Christ
our bread. These three things are in one. They're in Christ. He is the
Ark. The Gospel is Christ. And in this story and all through
the Scripture, God's dealings with men and women according
to the Ark. God dealt in mercy and love and
grace and forgiveness for those who needed forgiveness, for those
who feared the Lord, for those who worshiped the Lord around
the Ark, those who feared Him. And around that ark, and that
ark is Christ. Fear the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. But the wrath of God, the anger of God, the judgment
of God, the destruction of God, the death, God killed people
because of what they did with this ark. God was angry with
those who toyed with and trifled with, and even one man touched
it. Try to help it out. A man named
Uzzah, in David's day, the ark was on a cart, which it should
not have been. Uzzah thought, I'll help it out.
It's going to fall without me. No, it's not. That's God's gospel. That's God's truth. That's God's
Son. Don't lay a hand on him. Help him. He doesn't need your
help. You need his. But that man just
touched it. God killed him. And it says that
David even thought, David shook with fear because he saw what
God did to a man for just touching the ark. Now there's no power
in a thing. There never was any power in
that box. It's just a box. Just an earthly
element, a wooden box. But it so represented the Lord
Jesus Christ and all that He was and all that He did, is and
did, that God, for anybody to lay a hand on, anybody to help
with, anybody to toy or trifle with it or make a pretense around
it, God was angry. Anybody playing with it, Just
merely interested in it, God killed them. Killed them all. That's how serious it was. Go back to chapter 3. Chapter
3 of 1 Samuel. Chapter 3. It says in verse 1,
the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord. Oh, what a picture
of Christ Samuel is. Oh, what a picture he is. The
Word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open
vision, but the Word of the Lord came to Samuel. And Samuel, I
started to say, he's not my message, but he really is because Samuel
is Christ. Not one word of Samuel, verse
21 says, it didn't fall to the ground, verse 19. The Lord let
none of his words fail. That's Christ. The Word of the
Lord was precious. There's no open vision. Well,
brothers, it's still precious, isn't it? There is no open vision. There is no more vision today,
but the Word of the Lord is still here. And look at verse 2, it
came to pass at that time Eli was laid down in his place, his
eyes waxed dim, he could not see. Verse 3, the lamp of God
went out in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was.
The lamp went out, the light went out where the ark was. The
light went out. Eli was supposed to be a keeper
of the light. Hophni and Phinehas, his sons,
were sons of Eli. Supposed to keep the lamp burning. Why? So he could see the ark.
So he could see the work. It was darkness. It was darkness. Stay with me. It was darkness. Down through years, there have
been many ages of darkness. There wasn't just one dark ages. There have been many. In the
beginning, it says the world, darkness was over the face of
the water, doesn't it? After that heavenly revolt of
all the angels, it says darkness covered the face of the water.
What happened? God said, let there be light. And there was
light. The flood, right before the flood,
God sent a dark cloud over this whole world because of its wickedness,
its violence. The whole earth crept its way,
so a dark cloud came and the wrath of God fell. But inside
the ark, there was light and joy, salvation in the ark. Israel, when they were in Egypt,
right before He took them out, it says, was darkness over the
land, the face of the land. You could feel it, like now. You could feel it. But the children of Israel had
light in their dwellings. What's the light? Christ is the
light. The gospel is the light. It says
here the lamp went out, the light went out. At Calvary, when Christ was hanging
on the cross at Calvary, darkness covered the whole earth from
the sixth hour to the ninth hour. Darkness. Then there were dark
ages in modern church, modern being the D-Church. Dark ages
from about 400 A.D. to about 1400, 1000 years of
darkness. Why? No word, no gospel. Oh, there was some, a little
bit, a remnant here and there. And then there was a man, the
Lord raised up a man named John. That sound familiar? A man named
John. He's called the Morning Star
of the Reformation. John Wycliffe. If you don't know
him, you need to know him. The Lord used that man to preach
the Word in a dark day. He had preachers that he trained
to preach the Word, and they went out everywhere preaching
the Word. And he began, Brother Kelly, to translate the Bible,
the Word of God, into the language of the people so everybody could
have light. What is light? What is the lamp? The entrance of thy word giveth
light. In thy light we see light. Christ
said, I am the light of the world. The gospel is the light, the
knowledge, the glory of God in the person and work of Christ.
Where no gospel is, it's dark. We're living in a dark ages,
aren't we? This ark, as I said, that wooden box, it represents
Christ. No power in that box. But God
dealt very severely with everyone who misused it. All who toy with
it, make a pretense. Chapter 4, the ark was taken. The ark was taken. When the lamp
went out, the ark was taken. Chapter 4. No, this is not yet
here. Here is right before it's taken. But chapter 4 says, The Word
of the Lord, verse 1, came to all Israel. Israel went out against
the Philistines to battle. Israel was a mess. Israel was
in idolatry. Israel was steeped in sin. They
weren't worshiping God in spirit and truth. Verse 2, So the Philistine, God
sent the Philistine. God sent it. The Philistines
went against Israel and they were smitten. 4,000 people, 4,000
men were killed. 4,000 supposedly people. Now
look at what they did. Verse 3, the people will come
into the camp, the elders of Israel, they said, why has the
Lord smitten us this day? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant
of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us that when it cometh, it may
save us out of our enemy. Let's get that wooden box and
it will save us. It didn't save them. 30,000 more people died. And what is this telling us? This is religion. People
that hope in objects, religious objects, and religious idols,
and relics, and crosses, and rosaries, and even their baptism,
and even their experience, and not hoping in Christ. Did you
hear them calling on the Lord? Were they calling on the Lord?
People trust in their baptism, trust in their good work, trust
in their church attendance. It won't save you. Salvation
is of the Lord. Whose service shall call on the
name of the Lord? They weren't calling on the Lord. And God
killed, verse 10, 30,000 of them. It. And the ark was taken. Then the
ark was taken by the intimate. Taken by the intimate. Now, when
the ark was taken, verse 21, look at this, there was a child
born in this dark time. Verse 21. And this daughter-in-law
of Eli, Phinehas' wife, had a child, verse 21, and she named that
child Ichabod. Say, the glory is departed from
Israel. Why? Because the ark is taken. The gospel is the power of God,
the glory of God unto salvation. And when there's no ark, when
there's no gospel, Ichabod's over the door. The glory is departed. Write that over the door of most
so-called churches all over the world today. Ichabod, because
there's no gospel, there's no light. Write blessed over this
door. Oh, how blessed we are. All right? Chapter 5. They took this ark,
the enemies, Philistines took this ark and put it in their
temple with Dagon. Dagon was a god that they'd made. A god that they carried around. He couldn't do anything if they
didn't let him. Dagon, you know what the shape
of Dagon was? A fish. That's right, a fish. Well, they
brought the ark of the Lord in and they mixed the ark with their
pagan, heathen religion. Okay? That's like religion today.
That's like so-called Christianity today. We worship God, the God
of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Jesus, and this and that
and the other. But it's another Jesus who can't
do anything unless you let Him. It's another God who's not God
at all. They say they believe God, but He's not God. They say
that Jesus paid it all, but He didn't. It's yea and nay. It's a mixture of works and grace. And it's a false gospel. Well,
they brought this ark, the ark that represents Christ, into
their temple and set it down beside Dagon. And they left. And in the morning,
look at this, down in verse 4, chapter 5, verse 4. They rose
early in the morning. Dagon was falling on his face
before the ark. And look. His head was cut off. And his hands were cut off. So
their God had no hands. I'm not making this up. That ark represents Christ. Christ
is the truth. There is but one God. There is
but one Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. And unto
Him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. And all
idols shall be brought down. All other gospels, all other
Jesus. It said in 1 Thessalonians, Paul
said, I know your election because you turned from your idols to
serve the living and true God. And we're going to see in a minute,
these children of Israel finally, finally, you read it with me,
finally, they weren't looking to a box to save them. They were
looking to the Lord. Chapter 6. Are you with me? Chapter 6. Am I talking loud
enough? Chapter 6. You hear me back there, Richard?
Okay. Chapter 6. Ark was sent away
by its enemies. Ark said, we don't want this
Ark anymore. Chapter 6. You know, God killed
with a great slaughter, verse 19, 50,000. So he looked into it, just curious,
what's in there? God killed 50,000. What do people
die of today? It doesn't matter what it is.
I'll tell you who it is. Things don't kill, God does. Why? Because God is angry and
wicked every day. Why? His Son, It's all about His Son. People
toying with, and trifling with, and making a pretense to worship
God's Son. He's angry. And He's sinning,
and they're dying like flies. Dropping like flies. Why? They're
not worshipping God's Son. They're not believing God's Son.
They're not looking. They're not trusting God's Son.
They say they do, but they don't. It's curiosity. God hasn't changed. God has not changed. The ark was sent away by the
Philistines in chapter 6. They said, we don't want this
ark. It's giving us nothing but trouble. And that's the world
in general. We don't want any more of this
religion. Try to do away with it, you can't. Oh no, you can't
be indifferent to God's Son. Why? Because He sits on the circle
of the earth. All right? They sent it away.
Do you remember the story of the two milk cows in the cart?
Huh? Remember that? God had two old
milk cows, two mothers. Two mothers with nursing children.
And He put this ark on them, a burden, a great burden. He
said, I'll go to where God's people are with this ark. Bear
this burden, this ark, the truth of God. And they went low and
as they went, and they went all the way where God's people were,
okay? And they stopped where there
was a stone in a field. That's where they stopped. They
left their children. Why? Because this is the thing
needful. We got to take it to God's people.
We got to bring them back to God. And they went and they stopped
where that big stone in the field was. That's Christ. You know
what happened? They both died. Both of those
cows died on the altar where that ark was. That's every believer. If you love anybody more than
Christ, God's not pleased with you. Except you forsake all that you
have, you cannot be my disciple, you see. That's what he did,
that's what Christ did. Does he deserve any less from
us? No. Love so amazing, so divine,
deserves my life, all my soul's best song. Songs of loudest praise. Why are you hollering, preacher?
That's what we should have been doing, singing. Deserves songs
of loudest praise unto Him that loved us. Washington. We're going
to be singing at the top of our lungs in glory. Now, that's another
story. No, it's not. It's the same story.
Those milk cows in that cart. Now, chapter 7. Here we are. And the ark was brought back. And bless God, verse 1 of chapter
7, bless God, the ark of the Lord was brought into the house
of Abinadab. This fellow named Abinadab came
to his house. And he had a son named Eleazar.
He said, keep this ark, son. Watch over this ark. Guard this
ark with your life. Give your life to this ark, my
son. This is our life. And it's not
a thing, it's a person. Don't let anybody take it again.
Don't let the light go out. Are you with me? Oh, how blessed! When the ark
came to the house of Obed-Edom, when David was king, the ark
came. It says, the Lord blessed that house, the whole house.
Everybody was blessed because of the ark. It's Christ, where
He is. You're blessed. This ark came
to Abinadab's house. Eliezer, the keeper of it. He
had one thing to do. Keep the ark. The covenant. We've been so blessed. We have
the ark here. We have the gospel here. You
know how few people know what the ark really is, or rather
who? We hear it all the time. Well, and here's Samuel, he preached
to them. In verse 2, the house of Israel
lamented. You know what the word lament
means? Groan. Groan. The whole house of Israel groaned.
lamented over their sin, groaned, 1 Corinthians says, the whole
creation groaneth, and not only they, but we ourselves who have
the firstfruits of it. We groan within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Lord,
help us all. That's what they were all now.
They were all understanding that this is not just a box. It can't
save us. The Lord must save us. And we've
sinned against the Lord. Now here's Samuel, it was a short
sermon. Verse 3, he said, "...if ye return
unto the Lord with all your hearts..." With the heart, men believe,
not the head. Heart, put away strange gods
and astreth from among you. Strange gods. Gods are idols. Covetousness is idolatry. Anything,
anyone that takes the place of our God and His Christ is an
idol. He said, put it away. Nothing
can take first before. Astreth, what's that? That began
with Solomon. He married unbelievers. And they
turned his heart away. Astrid was a goddess of love
and prosperity. Sex and prosperity. He said, put it away. Put it
away. That's the world, isn't it? That's
the world we live in. He said, prepare your hearts
unto the Lord and serve Him only and He will deliver you out of
the hand of the Philistine. He will. How? We're going to
see. What did they do? They heard
the preacher's message and they put away. They turned from their
idols to serve the living God. Verse 4, Lord only, the Lord
only. And Samuel said, gather, verse
5, gather All the people gather, gather. He sent out the word. We're going to have a gathering.
Where? Mitzvah. What's that? It's called
the Watchtower. Watchtower. What's that? That's the cross. That's where we gather, isn't
it? All people, God's people, gather around Christ and Him
crucified. This is a picture of Christ who
gathered. He said, I gather my sheep. And
I will pray for you, Samuel said. I will pray unto the Lord for
you. I'm going to pray for you. Watch with me. Do you remember
when our Lord, right before He went to the cross, told three
of His chosen disciples, now come with me into the garden
and watch and pray. I'm going to go in there and
pray for you. And he did. And it was that prayer. And we read it. The Lord heard. That high priestly prayer of
our Lord in John 17. He prayed for his people. God
heard. And how did he smite the enemy? Look at verse 6. So they gathered together at
Mitzvah and drew water and poured it out and fasted. What's that? Brethren, pour out your hearts
unto the Lord. And they fasted, meaning they
esteemed the Word of God more than their necessary food. They didn't need anything but
to hear God's Word, the Gospel. Now, here's their confession.
Six words. We have sinned against the Lord. That's all they could say. We've
got nothing to say for ourselves but this, we've sinned against
the Lord. And Samuel judged the children
of Israel. You know, we were judged in Christ
on Calvary's tree. And when the Philistines heard,
look at verse 7, when the Philistines heard they were gathered together
at this watchtower, this meeting place, they went up against them.
You're struggling right now to hear this message. I see it in
your faces. Why? Because we're not wrestling with
flesh and blood, but in principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness
in high places, rulers of the darkness of this world. His grand
design is to keep you from hearing the gospel. He'll use anything. He's a master at it. And wherever
the gospel is preached, wherever God's people gather, evil is
present. The enemy is present. Keep you
from hearing the gospel. That's why we're to prepare our
heart. That's why I said prepare. Prepare. You're not going to hear it.
You need to hear them. Prepare. Prepare your hearts.
Lord, give me a heart to receive the Word. Well, they drew near. Look at this. The children of
Israel said the same. You know, verse 8. And they were
afraid, the Philistines. They were afraid. Brethren, what
time am I afraid? Are you afraid? Are you afraid
of Satan? I am. Are you afraid of that
old man in you? I am. Are you afraid of this world? Yes.
It's got a strong power, doesn't it? And I've got an old man it
still appeals to. I'm afraid of it. What are you
going to do? They said, Samuel, pray for us. Samuel, pray for
us. Look at verse 8. The children
said, cease not to cry unto the Lord for us. to save us out of
the hands of the Philistines. Don't stop praying for us, Samuel. We're no match for these enemies. Our Lord ever lives to make intercession
for us. If he didn't, brother, we're
gone. He said to Simon Peter, Satan
hath desired you, he said, do you like wheat? He said, but
I pray for you. Aren't you glad? Samuel in another
place said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease
Him to pray for my brethren. He never ceased. And God heard
him. God heard him. Look at verse
9. Now here's how the Philistines
were smitten. Verse 9, Samuel took a sucking lamb, an innocent victim, a lamb without spot and without
blemish of the first year, from the bosom of its parents. He
took this lamb and offered it for a burnt offering. He killed
it and the blood was poured out and offered it for a burnt offering
on the altar, holy unto the Lord, unto the Lord. And Samuel cried
unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. What is that?
That is Christ crucified. Christ hanging on that cross. Christ, the Lamb of God. Christ
cried from the cross. Father, forgive them. They know
not what they did. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Father, in thy hands I commit
my spirit. It is finished. He finished the
work on Calvary's tree, put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
His high priestly prayer before He went, His cry on the cross
when He went, the blood that was shed for remission of our
sin, God heard, God accepted. He went through hell to burn
off, and God accepted what He did on behalf of His people.
Now look at the next thing. It says, the Philistines drew
near to battle, verse 10, and the Lord thundered with a great
thunder. Psalm 18 says the very same thing. The Lord thundered. The psalm
of the cross, Psalm 18. God thundered from heaven. When
Christ was crucified, darkness over the land, it says the whole
earth shook. Why? Because there was a battle
raging between the Son of God and the dark prince of the power
of the air. I'll tell you who won. Look at
it, verse 10. And they were smitten before
Israel. Sin put away by Christ and Him
crucified. We overcome our enemies. Why? How? By the blood of the Lamb. And so they went out to fight.
There's a warfare we're still in. Not to put away sin, but
mortifier members. And verse 11 says, "...they smote
them till they came to Bethkar, the house of pasture." Then Samuel
took a stone. You know, it was there all along. It was there all along. Way back
in chapter 4, it says the battle was pitched beside Ebenezer.
There was a stone already there. It was there before this whole
story started. Like a big foundation stone that
somebody had laid. Somebody did. God did. It was
there all along. And Samuel took that stone and
set it between this watchtower, the cross and Shein, that's a
high place. Shein is a fortress, a sharp
rock, a high place, representing heaven itself. Between cross
and heaven itself, this stone, which is Christ, and He named
it Ebenezer, the stone of help, saying, hitherto hath the Lord
helped us. Listen to this. Listen to this,
and I'll close with this. Peter said this in 1 Peter 2,
verse 4. We come to Christ, to whom coming
as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men. but chosen of
God and precious. You also, lively stone, living
stone, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, it's told in scriptures,
behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
he that believeth on him, Christ, the solid rock. shall not be
ashamed, unto you therefore which believe he is precious." And
in our text it says, so the Philistines were subdued. They were not only
smitten, but they could never have dominion over them. Didn't our Lord say that? Sin
shall not have dominion over you, not under the law. Christ
nailed those ordinances against us to His cross. You know the
law is for us? The law is now for us. The law
says kept, fulfilled in Christ. And He said, sin shall not have
dominion over you. It shall never subdue you. I
subdue it. And you subdue and you fight
it by how? By faith in Him. Resist Him by
faith in Christ. Look unto me. Look unto them. Look at verse 14, "...the cities
the Philistines had taken were restored to Israel." All these
captive places. All these captive cities were
taken back, restored unto the Lord. Like Rocky Mount, Virginia,
steeped in idolatry, steeped in religion years ago. But the
Ark came here years ago, didn't it? And took captivity captive. Fairmont, West Virginia. Pikeville,
Kentucky. Bendville, Kentucky. On and on
it goes. These captive cities God sent
the Ark. to recover those cities unto
himself. He's got a remnant in each of
those cities. Is that you? Okay.