And my subject is God's glory
is gone. God's glory is departed. It's
departed. Now Israel had fallen to a very,
very low spiritual state. And they're going to go to war
with the Philistines. And that's how this starts out.
They went out against the Philistines to battle. And then they went out to this
war. Let me tell you some things they didn't do. They didn't seek
God. They didn't seek God. Lord, how
are we going to do if we go out in this battle? What's going
to happen? Should we go to war? Is it your will for us to go
out and fight these Bilsteins? Another thing they didn't do,
Samuel was the prophet. God had called him to be a prophet.
He was the prophet over Israel at that time. They didn't. You don't find where they went
to Samuel. Samuel? Seek the Lord. That's the Lord.
What we're to do? Give us counsel whether we should
go out to war or not. And the reason being, and this
is the way lots of folks are, they saw no value in hearing
from God. No value in hearing from God.
Phineas and Hophni didn't want to hear from God. Didn't even
want to hear from their own father. And when they didn't do this,
it says there in verse three, or excuse me, verse two, in the
last part of verse two, and they slew the army in the field about
4,000 men. They didn't inquire of God. They
didn't inquire of their prophet. They decided they was going to
go out to war. And the war wasn't going their way. And look what
it says there in verse three, I believe it is, what they say.
And down in the middle of the verse says, wherefore the elders
came to the camp of Israel and said, wherefore hath the Lord
smitten us today before the Philistines? Why did God let us get beat today? Why did God let us get defeated
today? Well, if they just got defeated
and lost 4,000 men, you would think, you would think, now this
would be an awful good time for us to stop, for us to pray. For us to fast. For us to seek
the Lord. Because things certainly ain't
going our way. We just lost 4,000 men. I think it'd be a good time for
us to stop and pray. Stop and pray. Or maybe even
examine themselves. Maybe they should examine themselves.
Say, Lord, search me. Know me. Try me. Know my thoughts. And if there be any way, it could
weigh in me, save me, and deliver me, and lead me in the way everlasting. But they didn't think of that.
You know what they did? They didn't do none of these
things. And look what it says here in verse 4. Excuse me verse
3 and said and let us down on the last sentence in the in it
Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of shallow unto
us that when he cometh among us It may save us out of the
hand of our enemies Well, they took dark the way they went and
Carried it out there into the middle of the battle. And when
they saw the ark coming, the army jumped up and went to shouting
and hollering and said, oh, and the Philistines said, what's
all this hollering? And they said that the ark of
the Hebrews has come into the camp. And here's the thing, they
said it'll save us, this ark will save us out from among our
enemies. They didn't say nothing about
God saving them. And how in the world is an ark going to do anything
for them? He said, the ark, that wooden
ark, that gold encrusted ark, that ark that's got the law in
it, that's got the tablets in it, that's got Moses rotted by
it, and got a pot of man in it, they think that's going to save
them? That just well took a rabbit foot out there with them. That's
just superstition. It was a superstitious effort
to call down the power of God. Well, they'll tell you we'll
take the ark and we'll short-whip them now. And oh, it didn't work. You know
what happened that time? 30,000 got killed and the Philistines
took the ark away from them. and Aphrodite and Phineas was
involved in this charade. The Ark was not God. The Ark could not save anybody. The Ark, God put it there to
be, and that's what they said, take it out from among the cherubims. The Ark of the Covenant, from
between the cherubims. So they had to go in the Holy
of Holies and take that thing out of there. And oh my, Hoffman and Phineas
died that day. 30,000 armies, so that day after
they got to Ark, 30,000, 34 all together. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of men. And it didn't
work. And so here comes Phineas' wife. And she had more of the sorriest
husbands that a man could have, a woman could have in this world.
Didn't it tell us over there in 1 Samuel 2 that he was Phineas
and Hophni were sons of Belial. They were worthless men. They
weren't worth the salt, as we say around here, that goes in
their biscuit. These men were no good. And it
says, you know, that they even lay with the women around the
tabernacle door. So that's what kind of wife,
a husband that Phineas' wife had. He was no good. He was a no good man. He was
a sorry man. He was a rotten man. And God
told him he was going to kill him because of how sorry he was. And so Phineas, his wife, she's
pregnant. And she's sitting there. She
heard that first of all that the Ark was taken. Then she heard
that her father-in-law was dead. Then she heard that her husband
was dead. And when she got this news, one up on top of the other,
she got in labor, and when in her labor, she died having this
child. But before she died, before she
died, she said, I'll tell you what, I'm gonna, she died in
childbirth and gave birth to a son. But before she died, she
gave him a name. She gave him a name. She said,
I'm going to name this boy before I die. What are you going to
name him? Ichabod. Ichabod. And everybody,
I think, knows just off the top of their head what Ichabod means.
It means that God's glory has departed. You know, I've heard
a lot of preachers say over there, you know, God will write Ichabod
over that door one of these days. That means the glory is going
to depart. And she's the one that told us
the meaning of Ichabod's name. The glory has departed. And that
ark, when it was in the tabernacle, and when it was in the temple,
it testified of the presence of God. But the ark itself was
not God. It contained no intricate power. And sometimes God, when Solomon
built his temple, the glory of God came down and filled it up
with smoke and his glory come down and nobody can go in. And
in the book of Exodus one time they were all standing around
outside and God came down and He come down in a cloud, He come
down in His glory and everybody run to their tent and hid. Went
and hid. And she says that the God of
glory has departed. Or the glory of God has departed.
And Phineas' wife, she told the truth. She rightly declared the
glory has departed from Israel. But what she failed to see and
what all the elders of Israel failed to see was God's glory
had departed long, long, long before they ever took the ark.
God's glory was done, gone from Israel long before the ark was
ever taken. And we know that the last verse
of Judges 21, the last verse says this, there was no king
in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And that's the condition that
Israel was in. And her husband, and Hophni,
was testimony to this fact that the glory of God had departed
whenever you had a high priest that let his sons be such lowlife
characters and abuse the priesthood and corrupt the word of God and
the scripture says they knew not the Lord and that was the
people who was running the religious services in Israel at that time. Now look over here in Judges
with me. Look in Judges chapter 2. Look at what it says over
here. Judges 2 and verse 7. And because the glory had departed
years and years and years ago. And so when the glory had departed
for so long that when they took the ark to the battle, the ark
had lost all of its meaning. God was not there. And look what
he said here in verse 7. Judges 2, And the people served
the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders
that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the
Lord that he did for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the
servant of the Lord, died being a hundred and ten years old.
and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in the Mount
of Ephraim on the north side of the hill, Gaash. And also
all that generation were gathered unto the fathers." Now listen
to this, "...and there arose another generation after them,
which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done
for Israel." A generation dies and goes away, and a generation
rises up. Don't know God. That's how fast
a generation can come and go and the gospel be lost in a generation.
It's frightening, ain't it? But that's what it takes. That's
what it is. My children were raised here
and having the best preachers in America in my home. They sat
and talked with Henry Bay Ann and Scott Richardson, Maurice
Montgomery, Don Fortner, Tim James, sat and listened and fellowshiped
with men like Bruce Crabtree and they grew up with those kind
of men in my home. And they're the next generation
after me. And they know nothing. Maybe
one of these days they will, but I use that as an illustration.
That's all it takes. One generation to pass completely
away and the next generation come up. And every one of them,
every generation gets a little weaker, a little weaker. Wouldn't
that be awful to lose that? And oh my, Ichabod would always
bear testimony that God's glory is gone. And let's consider this
name, Ichabod. And when we say by glory, when
I say by glory, and when he's talking about the glory department
here, we're talking about God's presence. That's what we're talking
about, God's presence. They said the Lord's presence
is gone. When the ark's gone, the Lord's presence is gone.
No, God has always been God. But oh, by glory we mean His
presence. And I've got two things I want
to talk about tonight. What would we do? What would
we do as individuals without the glory of God? What would happen to us without
the glory of God? And the second question is this.
I'll try to answer. What would our church, this local
body, us, as individuals, as this local body, as a church,
body of believers, what would our church be without God's glory
and the glory of God? I almost preached this last Sunday
morning. The Lord led me in another direction. But let me ask that
first question, what happens if God takes his glory from us
as an individual? What would happen? And we all,
we all as believers, as God's people, we all enjoy God's presence. You know when he told the prophet
came and told Mary says, you know that the virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel. What does
that mean? God with us. And God came down
and his presence is now known in the person of his blessed
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we understand that God
has come down in the person of his blessed son, and his precious
son what peace what comfort that God would take interest in such
insignificant people as us that he himself would be Emmanuel
come down to be with us and I'll tell you something God's
presence. Now we're talking about believers
now. God's presence is with us in every condition and circumstance
that we're in as long as we're in this world. There's no situation,
no circumstances, nothing that can happen to us in this world
that God's not present with us. You know what our Lord Jesus
told his disciples when he left this world? He said, Lo, I am
with you all the way, even unto the end. And that's the end of
this life for us, because then we won't worry about it anymore.
And I'll tell you what, he said, I will never No never, no never, no never,
no never, no never leave you or forsake you. In Psalm 46 verse
1 it says God is our refuge, He is our strength and a present
help in the time of trouble. So oh my, I'll tell you this
much, God does not and will not take His glory from His people. He won't do it. And Paul knew
this by experience. I want you to see this over here
in 2 Timothy. And some of us have experienced
this a little. Not much, but a little. You know, of losing relationships
and things over the years. But look what 2 Timothy chapter
4 and verse 16 says here. Paul knew this by experience.
About God standing with him. God being with him. 2 Timothy 4.16 You know the Lord
is our shield. Our shield. He's our defender. And all power belongs unto Him.
He's got the power to be our strength. He's got the power
to be our defender. And He said here in verse 16,
chapter 4. At my first answer, no man stood
with me. He had to give an answer. Who's
he giving an answer to? Felix, Agrippa, Caesar. But all men forsook me. I was
left standing by myself. And listen to this. Now you think
he's not like our master. I pray that it may not be laid
to the charge. But, now listen to this, notwithstanding,
nobody else did, notwithstanding the Lord stood with me. What did it make any difference?
Nobody else does. The Lord stood with me. And listen
to this, strengthened me. that by me the preaching might
be fully known that all the Gentiles might hear and listen and I was
delivered out of the mouth of the lion and listen to what he
said and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil word and will
preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever
and ever. Nobody stood with me but the
Lord did. The Lord did. And oh my, what
a thick of heart. And here's the thing, we are
not without Christ and without the presence of God when we face
decisions about our life, face decisions about this body of
believers. When we face decisions, we face
them with our infinitely wise and blessed advocate, our Lord
Jesus Christ, to be with us, to help us make the right decision. But what if it comes upon your
life? What if the glory departed? Two
sides to look at it. Two ways to look at it. One side
of it is this, God will never leave nor forsake his people. Paul said, I'm persuaded that
neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able
to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ. But
here's the other side of it, and I want you to look at this
2 Corinthians 4. Here's the other side of it. And you know, people can get
in some awful, awful, awful bad shapes in this world. That's
2 Corinthians 4. And that's why it says, Grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed under the day of
redemption. But people, I've noticed this
about human beings. We get physical sicknesses. Well,
people can get spiritually sick. And when a person gets spiritually
sick, they start making reasons and
excuses for why they don't come. And the more they don't come,
the more they don't get under the sound of the gospel, and
the more they let it slide by because of some spiritual malady
that's going on in their life, it gets farther and farther and
farther away. until it comes to the place where
it becomes I need to go to church but I've missed so much and I've
let things go so bad and I've not paid attention enough and
just like a fellow told me just recently he attended the same
services for years and years and I've traveled a lot with
him and him and I took a lot of trips together but he quit
going to the services And at that time he was reading, every day he would read a chapter
out of a poor man's commentary by Robert Harker. Done that for
years. And then all of a sudden he told
me, he said, I don't do that anymore. I don't holy pray anymore. I don't go to church services
anymore. He was here at one of our services.
He is here at our conference. And he knows in the condition
he's in, and he knows he's got that way. And by God's grace, when he gets
back, he'll go back to the services. I hope and pray that he does.
But there is a side. And I tell you what, this is
why we fear ourselves so very much. You know who I fear more
than anybody in this building? Even more than I fear Satan,
because Christ doesn't whip Satan. I fear me. I know me. I know my weaknesses. I know
my inabilities. I know my own pride. I know my
own self-righteousness. I know my own anger. I know my
own ability to say things and do things without thinking them
through sometimes. And if the Lord don't keep us,
we won't be kept. That's the way it is. But here's
the other side of it. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ. Here's the other side of it.
Look down here in verse 16. 2 Corinthians 4.14. Am I? 2 Corinthians 4. My word six six six. I'm sorry. I have six I Put down verse chapter 4 instead
of 6 It's chapter 6 in verse 14, that's
what I wanted chapter 6 in verse 14. Here's the thing now you
talking about getting in a mess Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. A believer's got no business
to go and getting yoked up with somebody in business or marriage
or any other way. And he says, for what fellowship
hath righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, with unrighteousness?
And what communion, what fellowship, what union does not light have
with darkness? It's either darkness or light.
There's no middle ground. And what concord, or what union,
what agreement, hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he
that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, and I'll be their God, and they shall
be my people. Now you go out here and get hooked
up with unbelievers and it won't be very long that an unbeliever,
your spiritual health is not going to help them. But their
spiritual disease will affect you. It will affect you. And I tell you what, Paul told
the Colossians, I have not ceased to pray for you. since I heard
of your faith, your hope, and your love that you have in Christ. And I pray that you might be
enlightened, that you might be strengthened, that you might
be strengthened with might in the inner man, that you might
grow in the knowledge of God. And beloved, not only pray this
for ourselves, but let's pray one another for that. I see faith
in you. I see hope in you. I see love
in you. And I cease not to give thanks
for those things. And the more we give thanks for
one another in those areas, the less time... It's hard to be
hard on a man and feel hard on a man or a woman when you're
praying for them. Ain't it? You know, you can't feel bad
or hard toward a man if you're praying for him. Lord, I come to pray for Brother
Brad. I know he's a sorry thing. He's
aggravated me to death. But Lord, I come, pray for me. I wouldn't even think about saying
something like that about somebody for the Lord. You don't do that. You start off giving thanks. Every single one of us here tonight,
every one of us can turn around and give thanks to God for every
single person in this building. For all the fellowship and union
and enjoyment we've had with one another over the years. And
God's presence has been with us up to this time. So pray for
yourselves and pray for others. And oh God, leave us not to ourselves
and our own devices. Please. Here's my second point. What will happen if God removes
His glory from this church, from our body of believers? How terrible,
how terrible to think about losing the presence of Christ. Oh, it
would be awful to lose the presence of Christ. Every blessing, every blessing
we have, every blessing we have comes from Christ our Lord. Every
single one of them comes from Him. All we are, all we are here,
all we are rests upon the Lord Jesus Christ. All we are, this
whole body. And God said that God made Christ
to be head over His body, the church, who is the fullness of
Him who filleth us all. And as a church, we find our
being and existence in Him. Without Him, we'd have no reason
to exist. He's our strength. Without Him,
we would cease to be. He told the church at Ephesus.
He told the church at Ephesus. He said, I know you hate them
that are evil. I know you take a stand against
sin. I know you do all those things. But I've got one thing
against you. You've left your first love.
Left your first love. He says, repent and return or
I'll take away the lampstand and when he's talking about taking
away the lampstand that means taking away the presence of Christ
himself who is our light who is our light and oh to have him
take the lampstand is to lose the presence of Christ himself
and then why did he tell the church of Laodicea they said
oh we're rich We're increased with goods. We
don't need nothing. And our Lord said, oh, oh, don't
you know that you're wretched? Don't you know you're poor? Don't
you know you're blind? Don't you know you're naked? And oh, anybody thinks they don't
need nothing, they're in trouble. They're in trouble. I'm I. There never is a time
that I'm not in need. Are you? There's never a time
I'm not in need. Never a time I'm not in need. Well, let me give you some things.
I'm going to put this in the bulletin in a couple weeks. How
can our church lose the presence of Christ? What would cause Ichabod
to be written upon our church? Well, if we let the spirit of
Hophni and Phinehas dwell among us, where we don't care about
the Word of God, where we don't care about getting rebuked, we
don't care about how the worship of God goes, we don't care about
the glory of God like Hophni and Phinehas was. And oh, here's the first thing.
How can our church lose the presence of Christ? When Christ ceases
to be preached, That's when God will leave. When Christ ceases
to be preached. And secondly, when you cease
to desire to hear the gospel preached. Secondly, when the Word of God,
the glory of God would depart, when the Word of God ceases to
be seen as the great and blessed treasure it is. This is God's
Word. This is when God says the books
are open. These are the books that are
open that He judges men by. This is what He'll judge the
dead out of and the living. This. He's not got special books
up there that He's going to open up. This is the only book He's
ever had. And oh my, we don't treat it
as a great treasure. This blessed book, when we read
it, it's God saying something to us. And all to savor it, delight
in it, rejoice in it, and most of all, believe it. Third thing in God depart from
us, when love ceases to prevail among us. When love ceases to
prevail among us. When we become hard, When we
become critical, when we become censurous, when we become unforgiving,
the very opposite of everything our Lord is, God would depart
from us. God would depart from us. Here's another, here's the fourth
reason how God would depart from us. And this is so When gossip
can flow and no one cares to stop it. You hear what I said? When gossip
flows and no one cares to stop it. You know what it takes to
stop gossip? You just don't listen to it.
Somebody says something to you, let it stop right there. Don't
carry it on. The fire goes out when there
ain't no tail bearer. You know, all you got to do is
stop folks talking about one another. Something, I heard this
or I heard that or I heard this other thing. Did you know this,
that, and that? All you got to do is stop it. Just don't repeat
it. And it'll stop. Here's the fifth thing. Why God's
glory may depart from us. When sin is given free course,
sin's just let loose in us. and we cease to hunger and thirst
after righteousness. Instead of striving against sin,
we strive to keep up appearances of what we are when we're really
not that. Here's the sixth reason. When selfishness replaces that
sweet and blessed position of a servant, when selfishness replaces
the sweet and blessed place of a servant. Every one of us ought
to be servants one to another and all of us servants of our
blessed master. All of us. And oh my, instead
of looking to the best of others and helping others, you satisfy
yourself before you care about doing anything for anybody else.
As long as you're satisfied, it don't make no difference what
happens to anybody else. Oh, those are those reasons why
God leave us. And here's the last thing. Seven
things I've had. When zeal for the things of God
becomes cold and is replaced by a passion for the world, when
coming to the worship service and coming to a meeting becomes
a burden instead of a blessing. That's a bad state to be in,
ain't it? And these things that I've said,
we really need to consider. We really need to consider. May
we desire our Lord's presence. Always desire our Lord's presence.
Everyone that comes up here and prays, they pray for the Lord
to come among us. Lord, come among us. Come among
us. Visit your plantation. Visit
your vine. May we desire His presence and
may we savor His presence. May we treasure God's glory at
the expense of ourselves, our family, or anybody else. may
we treasure His glory. Nothing, nothing is more sweeter
or more precious than a life filled with Christ. Nothing more
precious or sweeter than your life being full and filled with
Christ. And there's nothing more better than to live a life without Him. And I certainly Certainly don't
want God's glory to leave me and I don't want God's glory
to leave us. God, to make it our hearts desire,
Lord visit us. Lord, if I need you to do something
in me and for me, do it. Do it for Christ's sake. Our Father, oh blessed Father,
precious Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your word. Thank you
for your word. Oh Lord, these are serious matters. And Lord, we believe you. We
believe you'll never leave us nor forsake us. And Lord, we
certainly, certainly don't want to leave you. You're our life. You're our life. We have no life
without you. We have no hope without you.
We have no strength but yours. We have no ability to stand in
this flesh. But Lord, by the Spirit of God
and by your blessed presence, we can stand. And God bless these
saints tonight. May we all Seek You above all
seeking, and desire Your presence. Whom
have we in heaven but Thee, and whom on earth besides Thee? Lord, bless these dear saints.
We pray again for the sick and weakly among us. Meet their needs
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light
of His glory and grace