1 Samuel 4. Look at verse 22. This woman in her dying breath
said, The glory is departed from Israel. for the ark of God is
taken. I read a message preached by
a man on this very text, read it quite some time ago, two or
three years ago, and it made a great impression upon me at
the time. It was his last message to his
people. He was arrested shortly thereafter,
and the doors of the church were shut by the authorities, and
they never met again. This was his last message to
them, trembling for the ark, worried that the ark might be
taken. Can the gospel be removed from
us? That's what the ark represents.
The ark represents the gospel of Christ. We'll see that in
a little bit. Can it be taken from us? It sure can. It has been. A lot
of places. I look around at the church. I'm talking about those local
churches that we know preach the gospel. And I know there
are some, maybe many, who we don't know about. I know that.
God has many that we don't know. I'm sure of that. But not many
compared to the general population. But if we look around at the
churches we know, you'll see we don't see a great revival
going on. We don't see that. We're not seeing many souls saved,
but few. And thank God for that. I would love to see him do something
for especially our young people. It's been a long time. But we
see in the church, I see, if you're aware of what's going
on, trouble. A lot of trouble. Calamities. I mean, terrible things happen. Preachers and pastors being called
in. Laborers are being called in
from the field. Very few being called out. That's
a sign that the harvest is over with. And I know for a fact we're living
in a famine of the hearing of the Word, like Amos talked about,
Hosea talked about. Not bread. There's not a famine
of bread in this land. Food to eat. But there's a famine
of the hearing of the Word. That's evident. Israel, in our story, was supposed
to be God's people. They had the true God, the knowledge
of Him, the way to worship. But it was so full of idolatry,
Israel, at this time. Sin, wickedness, abounded, all
manner of evil throughout that nation. Just all manner of evil
and debauchery because of false creatures. That's why. That's
where it comes from. Romans 1, read that. All the
wickedness of a country, of a nation comes because the truth is gone. That's why our nation is like
it is. But back then, Israel, they had
the ark. Well, we read there that they
had the ark in their midst. But it wasn't in their heart.
John, they called it it, didn't they? It. Let's go get the ark
and it will save us. It's not an it. They weren't
calling on the Lord, Brother Henry, were they? They had the
ark and there were many smitten and destroyed because they abused
the ark. America today is supposed to
be a Christian nation. It's founded supposedly on Christian
principle, God, fear God, in God we trust. It's on our money. Now, it's against the law to
even say his name, isn't it? You sure don't want to say the
name of Jesus Christ. So what's happened? And the gospel
is hard to find. I mean men standing up declaring
the living and true God, God who is God. Sovereign. Say unto
the heathen, thy God reigneth. The true gospel of sovereign
Christ seated on the circle of the earth who came and did his
work finished the work, accomplished redemption, went back to glory,
succeeded, expecting that his enemies be made his footstool
and all his elect be brought in. You've got a frustrated Jesus
now that they're preaching. The gospel is hard to find. It's
hard to find. We have it. We have the blessed
ark right here. This little The ark was in Shiloh
at that time, understand? Shiloh, the one little bitty
place in the middle of all Israel. Shiloh! That's what Christ is
even called in the Gospels. Shiloh. The Lion of the Tribal
Jews. Shiloh. Well, my, my, the ark, the gospel needs
to be in our heart, not just be in our presence. was a high
priest at this time. Eli was a faithful man, a godly
man. Yes, he was. A sinful man. He did not deal with his sons
like he should have, and the Lord told him, I've got to deal
with you because of this. You didn't honor me. You should
have honored me over your sons. He didn't. But he was a godly
man. He was a faithful man. He judged
for 40 years. Forty years. But he let the lamp
go out. He let the lamp go out. God said,
don't let the lamp go out. Always had that light burning.
But he let it go out. He fell asleep. The lamp went
out. Nevertheless, nevertheless, in
the end, the ark was being abused. The ark was being misused. He heard that his sons had taken
that ark and went somewhere with it. The ark was not in its rightful
place. The ark was not where it ought
to be. You don't go get the ark and
take it. You come to it. Beware that thou don't bring
my son down again, he said. But they went and got it like
a good luck charm or something and took it out. This will save
us. It will save us. And he heard this and it troubled
him greatly. And verse 13. It says that he
sat by the wayside watching, praying, that is. He didn't have
any eyes. His eyesight was gone. But he
was praying, looking to the Lord, watching, praying. And it says
his heart trembled. Inside he was trembling for the
ark of God, it says. Trembling for the ark of God,
worried about what's going to happen to the ark of God. This
ark was his life. His life revolved around that
ark for 40 years. And now it's in danger of being
taken, and he's worried. Do you see the picture? And he's
trembling. It's going to be taken from Israel.
In this story, God's going to take it. He should have. It's
a miracle of his mercy that didn't take it before now. Should have. They didn't deserve it. Eli knew he didn't deserve it.
Eli blamed himself for the ark being taken. He blamed himself.
He says, my fault. Oh yeah. That's why he was so
worried. He says, my fault. If God takes
this ark, it's my fault. But he's not the only one to
do it, is he? And it was taken. And an unknown messenger came,
you read it with me, an unknown man came and told Eli that your
sons are dead, and the ark is taken. And when he heard not
his sons dying, but heard that the ark was gone, he died. He killed him. And his daughter-in-law,
evidently she's a believer, a lover of the worship of God, the truth. She heard she's giving birth
to her firstborn child. This should be the happiest day
of her life. She didn't even think about that
baby. When she heard the ark was taken,
it killed her. She said, the glory is gone. The glory is gone. She said,
you've got a child. It doesn't matter. The glory
is gone. Art's gone. Because without that
art, my baby's going to grow up lost. As a matter of fact, ten, sure.
It would have been better not to have any, for them to grow
up and not know Christ. Right? So, art is everything. What is the art? What is the
art? Let me say this. This preacher that I mentioned
to you, his name was Edmund Callamay. I'd never heard of him until
I read this message by him. He said this, England at the
time, he said, England doesn't hold a patent on the gospel. It can be removed. He said this
to his people. He said, the gospel is removable. God took it away, took the ark
and the temple from Israel. Israel. He took the ark and the
temple, tore it down, from Israel. He said he unchurched the Jews.
Paul wrote a whole chapter, Romans 11, about that. They're divine. God cut them off. Come on. This man goes on to say he unchurched
seven churches in Asia. There were seven churches. Laodicea
and Philippi and Ephesus and so on. He unchurched them. Removed them. Removed their candlestick. And the man went on to say, I
have no reason at all to think that the gospel will stay here
for 100 more years. There's no reason to think that
whatsoever. You see, if you go back through history, you'll
see that the gospel doesn't stay anywhere very long at all. And sure enough, God has taken
the gospel where it used to be in plenty from Asia, those churches
in Asia, that's Turkey. Turkey. The gospel churches were
all over Turkey. Seven! I have never heard of
a church in Turkey right now. Have you? Have you heard? Anybody
preaching the gospel in Turkey? No, it's gone. And then the gospel
was in, well, it was all over Israel,
wasn't it? Did you hear anybody preaching
the gospel in Israel? It was there. It went to Asia,
remember? Went to Europe. Martin Luther. Germany. Look what happened to
Germany. Germany. Sherry, Martin Luther
was in Germany. He, Lord through the gospel,
tore that nation up through the gospel. Had a people. Germany. Now it's godless. Godless. God sent Manasseh there,
Adolf Hitler. Switzerland, John Knox, John
Calvin. My, my, the gospel reigned. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to
find one Armenian there. Brother Henry, it's gone. That's
the most decadent part of this world. And then it moved into England
and Scotland. Oh, what about the preachers
there? Oh, there's not enough time to talk about them. This is a message to us, to me,
to me, starting with me, like Eli. Eli fell asleep, and he
let the light go out. And I want this to be a wake-up
call to me. Don't let the light go out. to watch and tremble lest the
gospel be taken from us. Can it? Absolutely. John Bradford was a martyr. You
remember John Bradford, a great preacher, martyred. Queen Mary
came in to that part of Then to England, Bloody Mary, you
heard Bloody Mary? She's the one that put so many
believers to death, put preachers out of the pulpit, closed up
churches and all. Bloody Mary. She's had many of them killed.
He's preached martyrdom. John Bradford was one of them.
And he said, going to the stake, he said, it's my fault. It's my fault that Mary's here,
because I didn't appreciate the gospel enough. Touch your heart. He did. He loved the gospel, but he blamed
himself. He said, I wasn't thankful enough
for the gospel. And God removed it. That's what it means to tremble
for the ark. What is the ark? The ark is a symbol of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The ark was a golden vessel. container that had three things
inside it. All the fullness of God was in
that ark, which represents Christ in whom dwelleth all the fullness
of God. Three things were in that ark, and I loved it. The law, God's word, was in that
ark. God Almighty said, put my covenant,
my oath, my law, put my word in that golden vessel and cover
it and seal it up so that it will be there kept forever, for
Israel forever. Put my word where it will be
kept, the word you broke in Israel, put it in that box, it will be
kept there. That's Christ. Christ came. Why? To save sinners. Who are
sinners? They break the law. Lawbreakers.
And God ought to kill them all. But Christ came as a substitute
for sinners. In Him is no sin. He kept the
law perfectly. Golden man. Holy man. He kept the law of God for His
people. He is the covenant of God. It's
all in Him. In Christ we've kept the law. It's in Christ, and we're in
Christ for safekeeping. What else was in that ark? Aaron's
rod that budded. Aaron's rod. Who was Aaron? Aaron
was the high priest, the one chosen by God to offer sacrifices
on that very ark, the mercy seat. We'll get to that in a minute.
Aaron was the high priest. Had to have one. God said, I
won't listen, I won't deal with anybody but the high priest.
Had to have one. Aaron was the man chosen by God.
Aaron, Christ is our great high priest. There's one mediator
between God and man. It's the man Christ Jesus. We
have a mediator. Sinners have a mediator. Those
that have broken the law have a mediator, a high priest whom
God will listen to. God will hear him on our behalf
every time, all the time. forever after the order of Melchizedek. Aaron's rod, thy rod and thy
staff that comfort me. Aaron's rod. God gave Aaron a
rod, Moses' rod, his shepherd's staff, a rod by which he did
everything. It was a scepter by which he
ruled and made in Israel. Aaron's rod was the rod that
he used to bless the people. When they came to the Red Sea,
he held out that rod and the Red Sea parted. Christ, a scepter of righteousness,
is a scepter of his kingdom. He is the rod of Jesse. He is
the Lord our Shepherd. He is the rod that budded, that
rod, miraculously, that God had put in the ark. It was always
blooming. It was always blooming. You'd
think it would die out in that. Oh no, it's alive. Always alive. Budding. That means new life,
doesn't it? Brand new. Young life. That's Christ. He said, I was
dead, but I'm alive. I live forever. And there's new
life in Him. The rod budded. And then there
was something else in there. There was a bowl of bread. Manna. God said, you put a bowl
of manna in there. Manna. Oh, that was a miracle
of God. Sent down to a starving people,
people wandering in the wilderness who didn't have anything to eat.
God must provide. So God did provide bread from
heaven to sustain their life. Bread miraculously came down
from the sky. Bread! And they went out there
and they said, look, it's white. And it's white. And they said,
what is it? We've never seen it like that.
What is it? That's what the name manna means.
What is it? And John said, that which we've
heard, which we've seen, which we've handled, which we've observed,
that's word of life, came down. Christ said, I'm the bread, come
down. I'm the true bread of life. No
man lives but by me. And God provided life to those
that need, those that hunger. Life came down. Christ said,
I'm the bread. What is it? It's life is what
He is. And it was sweet to the taste.
That manna said it was as small as a small thing, like a coriander
seed, but you put it all together and there was enough to feed
everybody. And it said it tastes like wafers
dipped in honey. It's the sweetest thing. When
those Israelites first tasted that manna, they thought, this
is the best thing I've ever eaten in my entire life. This is life. Thank you, Lord God, for the
manna! And that bread is pride. A little
while later, those same Israelites who said, this is the best bread
we've ever had, said, We're tired of it. And God said, I'm tired
of you. But that ark, you see those three
things? These three were in this one
vessel. These three are one. In Christ,
Christ is all. And in all, the blessings of
God come down from heaven and the mercy of God. That was what
is in it. But this ark had a mercy seat. How often have we heard this? How many years have we been hearing
this? Teaching it. I wonder how many people throughout
the world have ever heard what the mercy seat is. Or even care. A mercy seat. Don't you like
the sound of it? There is a place where spirits
blend. Heart holds fellowship. Friend
holds fellowship with friend. It's a mercy seat. It's a mercy
seat. The mercy seat was the covering
over the ark. The covering upon which the blood
was poured. Oh, the blood. The blood of the
Lamb. Without the shedding of blood,
There's no remission of sin. If there wasn't bloodshed at
Ark, there's no sin forgiven. Blood was poured out on that
mercy seat, on the mercy seat covering the broken law, sealing
it up, sealing that Ark. Mercy seat is where God said,
that's where I'll be. I'll hold communion with you
between the cherubs. at the mercy seat. He said, whoever
comes, I'll be there and you'll find mercy. It's called a mercy
seat. Who needs mercy seats? Who needs rest? That's where
I'll be, God said, every time the blood's poured on. That's
where I'll be. Christ is that mercy seat. Oh my, this is where God is promised
to be, where the gospel is preached, where Christ is preached, the
blessings of God, all the blessings of God, the forgiveness of sins,
protection, Israel, the Ark was in the camp. As long as the Ark
was there, God promised protection until they started trifling with
it, playing with it, presuming upon it. But protection, blessings, the presence of God, the forgiveness
of sin, you take away the ark and none of those things. Gone.
There's no assurance that God will spare us. There's no assurance,
no promise at all that God will forgive us. No blessings, no
peace. You expect to be overcome in
the wilderness. You expect it. Thus in our children. If the ark is taken. If the gospel
is taken. The ark back then, look at chapter
5, and I'll hurry, just a few more minutes. Chapter 5, verse
2, it says, 1 and 2, the Philistines took the ark of God, brought
it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the
ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon. They had
an idol they called Dagon. They had several idols, but this
was their chief idol, fish. You know what was a fish? Can
you believe that? That's what it was shaped as.
It had a fish head, except it had arms and legs. Fish head. And they brought this ark in.
It's just another god. We have this god and that god.
There's some truth in all religions. God said this one way, one truth,
one life, one God, one faith, one debtor, one hope, you call
it. One, one, one, one way. That's too narrow. The rest of
the world lies too narrow, you Zionists. Y'all believe there's
one God. We have a God. Here's our God,
the fish God. And they brought that ark in
and put it up beside their idol, okay? I love this story. They
came in a couple nights later, and that Dagon, that fish-head
god, that idol, was falling over at the feet of the ark. And the head was cut off, and
the arms and legs. That's their God in it. No arms,
no legs, no hands. What's your hands, John? People,
America! It's such a mixture and a conglomeration
of idolatry. It's just like the Scripture.
Nothing's changed because people don't read the Word of God. They
repeat it. But back then it says Israel
even mixed idolatry with the fear of God. That won't work.
That won't work. God's not there. God's not beside
that idol. Come on, bless that. I love that. God cut his head
off. His feet and his hands. Well, the Gospel today is being
mixed, isn't it? Then it came to a town called
Beth Shemesh in chapter 6. Look at this. The Gospel came
to a town called Beth Shemesh, verse 19. Do you have it? I want you to read it. It says,
God smoked the men of Beth Shemesh because they looked into the
ark of the Lord. They were curious. Beth Shemesh is in Israel, Sam.
And they were curious about it. So they opened the lid. And I
know, you know, we've heard of that silly Hollywood movie, Raiders
of the Lost Ark, and all that, and what happened, and all that.
But this is true. This is true, it's not a fable,
this is true. And these men, Brother Mack,
they were curious about this ark and they opened the mercy
seal, opened it up, began to play with it. Look at it, it says God killed
a great sloth, 50,000, and 70 men. The people admit it, God admits
it. The gospel is a thing of mere
curiosity for a lot of people, isn't it? A mere curiosity. How
many study the Word, and I see things all over TV and all that
talk about the Bible, where did it come from, the Bible, you
know, who wrote the Bible, is it true, and on and on it goes.
You see those sort of things, don't read it. Don't read it. But they do, don't they? Curious.
Curious. Men trifle with it. Rather than
fear the Word of God, they're just curious about it. And men
study it. Rather than tremble at it, they
study it like just any old book. It's not any old book. It's an
old book, all right, but it's not any old book. This is the
Word of God. The only Word of God. And they trifle with it. No fear
of it. These men had no fear of the
ark, and they began to trifle with it. Young people, listen to me. I
want you to listen to me. I see you bring people in here,
young friends, who don't know anything about this gospel. You
do. You've been taught the fear of
the Lord. You've been raised that way. That this is not a
thing to be toyed with. Not a thing to be trifled with. This house is a house of worship. This is a serious, sobering thing. I see you bring your friends
in and they don't know. And I see that they begin to
cut up and do things and smile and laugh and all that. This gospel is not a thing to
be trifled with. Let me go ahead and say this. And maybe it's the fault of preachers,
you know, myself included, that there's not more respect for
preachers than there are. Like old Eli. But Elisha one
time, this is a true story, Elisha, a bald headed fellow, And he
came into a town one time, this really happened, and some kids
came out and were mocking him. And God killed them. Sent a bear
out of the woods. So this gospel is not a thing
to be trifle with, and you tell them that. If you're not careful, they'll
make you act that way. I see it, and I worry. I worry. They'll take your heart away.
You need to pray, and may God impress upon you the serious
stuff. This is life or death. If you
don't have Christ, you have nothing. And this is what we're doing
here. I hope you seek the Lord. You call on Him. You ask the
Lord. You need to ask the Lord. We're not going to go to glory
through mom or dad. We're not. We're not going to
get there through dad or mom. We're going to get there if we
call on the Lord and ask him to reveal himself to us and have
mercy on us. So this is not a thing to be
trifled with, and even the preachers should be respected. It's not
a trifling matter. God's word is to be feared and
reverenced. If the gospel is taken from us,
there's no hope. There's no help. There's no comfort. There's no comfort. No peace
now. Just worry. And no peace forever. If the gospel is taken from us,
we and our children will be overcome by this world. We'll become just
like it. And we'll die in the wilderness. Left out of the promised
land. Like that. If the gospel is taken
from us. What should we do? Let's do like Eli. Let's watch. And tremble. Our Lord said, watch
unto prayer. Watch. Look, you see the signs
of the times? That's when you're really on
the watch. He's coming. Tremble. Blessed is the man. To this man
when I look, who's a poor and a contrite heart, tremble at
that, my Lord. was very concerned about the
ark himself, he himself. Very few were, but he was. That
proved that he loved the ark, didn't it? And those who have
a concern and an interest in the gospel need to tremble for
it, that the Lord could take it. Not take it presumptuously, not
presume upon it. Israel had it all those years.
Oh, no, don't say that. Don't say that. Don't say that.
It can be gone tomorrow. Don't presume upon it. One thing
needful. One thing needful. And Eli, and
take it personally, Eli, as I said, Eli said, this is all my fault.
God has taken this gospel because of me. It's my fault. If I had
set a better example, If I'd have been more serious. If I'd
have done that. He took it personally. As we
should. We should. We should. I should. I should. It's my fault. But
the gospel hasn't been taken from us. Has it? It hasn't. We still have it. So there's
no reason to lose it, is there? What's this money all about?
We've been talking about giving. Gospel. It's all about the gospel. We've got to have it. It's a
shame it takes money. It's too bad we can't get by
bartering eggs and flour, isn't it? Nobody operates that way
anymore. We've got to have money. It's a shame, isn't it? But it's
so. We support it. We reveal our
love for it and we show that we tremble for losing it when
we give generously to make sure that it stays here. I don't want
it to go. What are you going to do about
it? Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. It takes everything. It takes everything. Because without the ark... I want you to... I'm going to
close the whole service with this prayer. I'm going to close
with this prayer. I want you to stand. This is the prayer by that man
that I told you is the last sermon he ever prayed. The last one
they ever heard. Nice meeting together, Brother
Jack. I want you to listen to this. May this be our prayer. Listen to it. O most holy, ever-blessed
Lord God, who fills heaven and earth with Thy presence, we pray
Thee, fill our hearts with the presence of Thy grace. Let it
appear that Thou art in the midst of us with that powerful Holy
Spirit. Let us receive a token of Thy
love. It is thy favor that the doors
of this sanctuary are open to us, and we meet together in thy
name. We pray thee, continue it. Set us apart every Lord's Day. We confess we have forfeited
all our mercies. We have heard much of God, Christ,
and heaven with our ears, but there is little of God, Christ,
and heaven in our hearts. We confess, we've heard many
sermons, but we've grown sermon-proof. We know how to dissect a sermon,
but we don't know how to live it. It is a miracle of thy free
grace that you have not taken the gospel from us up to this
time. But thou art a merciful God,
and though we cannot please thee, yet mercy pleases thee. And we
have no argument to bring unto thee to beg thy favor, to beg
thy mercy, but Jesus Christ. We pray that thou wilt glorify
thy sovereignty, be gracious to us, pardon our many great
transgressions for Jesus Christ's sake. Lord, forgive us. We cannot sin at so cheap a rate
as others do. We pray thee, humble us under
our great and grievous sins. Give us repentance unto salvation
and a living faith through the blood of Jesus Christ. Quicken
us, forgive our sins, make us alive. Let us be such as thou
wilt have us to be. Make us Christians not only in
outward profession, but in our heart experience. May we live
in heaven while on earth and come to heaven when we leave
the earth. To that purpose we bless thy
word. And we ask you give us all grace
to make us conscious of what we hear and how we hear it. And
call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to whom be all blessings,
honor, and glory. Amen. Thank you very much.