I've given our lesson this morning
is idolatry and true conversion. Idolatry and true conversion.
So 1 Samuel 5 verse 1, you remember last week the Philistines took
the ark of God and Eli's daughter-in-law, she died. She named that baby. She died in childbirth. She named
him Ichabod. The glory of God has departed
because the ark was taken. In chapter 5, verse 1, the Philistines
took the Ark of God and they brought it from Ebenezer into
Ashdod. When the Philistines took the
Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it
by Dagon. Now, Ashdod is one of five principal
cities in the Philistines' realm, and the name Ashdod means stronghold,
and it has a connotation, the word does, that is connected
to power or stronghold or strength. that's gained by war, gained
through your warring efforts. And this city Ashdod was located
on the main road that they used to travel and trade to Egypt.
So we see the Ark taken to a stronghold of sin. That's what Egypt is
a picture of, a stronghold of sin and false religion. Obviously
it's a false religion. They took the Ark of God and
they set it in the temple of an idol, Dagon. Now Dagon was
the god of fertility. He had the upper body of a man,
but the lower body of a fish. He was a merman, not a mermaid,
but a merman. Interestingly enough, this isn't
in scripture, but this is what the historians say. You know
this story about Dagon. When he was destroyed, they did
replace him with a mermaid. They got rid of the upper body
of a man and put the upper body of a woman there. But that's
what this idol was, is a merman. And that just shows you, and
you see this all the way through here in this picture of idolatry,
dead human nature will worship anything, anything but the true
and living God. This creature was an abomination. Now, you don't find something
like this in God's creation. It's just an utter abomination.
It's silly. But they would worship that abomination
and would always refuse unless God intervened in grace to worship
the God of order and beauty. They're worshiping this merman.
And they bring the Ark of God to this house of Dagon, this
temple. Now, there's two kind of schools
of thought as to why they did that. First, maybe they brought
the Ark to the house of their idol because they're honoring
the Ark. They're setting the Ark in a
place of worship and they planned on worshiping it just like they
did Dagon. You know, we know from what we
read last week, they respected the power of the God of Israel.
So maybe they planned on worshiping it alongside Dagon, maybe. And
that could be because idolaters, all idolaters, they can add idols
to their worship. They can add in something else
from another, you know, false worship. They can, you know,
worship another idol in addition. You know, they can integrate
real well, but the Philistines are going to find out You can
do that with other idols. That won't work with the ark
of the Lord of hosts. And the same thing is true about
all false religion. Nothing's changed from the day
of the Philistines till today. People can get along in false
religion. They can get along with other
false religions. They can integrate even parts of other false religion
into what they're doing. All except sovereign grace. You
can't integrate it. You can't just take bits and
pieces of it. Now, people try, don't they?
They try to mix grace and works. They try to take, you know, some
of grace and some of work and they call it grace. But, you
know, really what they're doing, you know, this is worse. When
you try to do that, what you have is Christ plus. And that's an abomination, just
like Dagon is. Look at Romans chapter 11. You
cannot mix idolatry. And that's all works is, it's
just making an idol out of human works and doings. You can't mix
idolatry and grace. Look what Paul says here, Romans
11 verse 5. Even so, at this present time
also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And
if by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise, if you try
to mix grace and works, otherwise grace is no more grace. Grace
is not grace at all if you mix it with works. But if it be of
works, then it's no more of grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
You cannot mix grace and works. You can't mix idolatry with the
worship of God because only God is to be worshiped alone. We will worship Christ alone
or we don't worship him at all. That's just so, and anything
less than that is an insult to God's son. And the rest of this
chapter stands out to us as an example of how God treats those
insults to his son. So maybe they brought the Ark
into the house of Dagon because they were going to worship it
beside Dagon. Or secondly, maybe they brought the Ark into Dagon's
house as a trophy to Dagon because they felt like Dagon had given
them the victory over Israel. But either way, what the Philistines
are going to find out the hard way, is men best not try to take
the glory of God from him. Look first in Exodus chapter
20, seven times in Old Testament scriptures, God describes himself
as jealous, jealous of his glory. And we'll just look at two of
them, Exodus 20 verse three. Now thou shalt have no other
gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve
them. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." You see,
there's no mixture here. If you mix in this worship of
idols, God says you hate me. There's no middle ground. Now
look over a few pages in Exodus 34. Exodus 34, verse 12, I take heed of thyself. Lest thou make a covenant with
the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a
snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy their altars."
You're not going to mix it in, you're not going to kind of admire
how zealous they were. You'll destroy their altars.
You'll break their images and cut down their groves. For thou
shalt worship no other god. And you'll notice that's a small
g, no other idol for the Lord, whose name is jealous. is a jealous God. He's so jealous
of his glory, that's his name. Jealous. So he's not going to
allow this mixture of warmth and grace to take away from the
glory of his Son. Now back in 1 Samuel 5, verse
3. And when the day 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. Now they came in to do, you know,
whatever morning rituals they would do in their worship. And
they found Dagon fallen on his face before the Ark, just like
he was worshiping the Ark. Dagon had fallen prostrate at
the feet of the Lord of the Ark of Israel. It was like Dagon
was telling everyone he is inferior to the Lord of this Ark. And
anyone who worships him ought to do the same thing. recognize
how inferior they are to him and fall before him in worship.
But the Philistines, they never connected that. They just never
connected that this Dagon falling before the Ark had anything to
do with the Lord. Now they knew, we read this last
week, they knew what the Lord did to the Egyptians. They knew
his power and his might, but they never thought this might
be connected and start rethinking their plans. All they did was
put Dagon back in his place, and then they kept praying to
a God who needed their help to stand upright. That's a sign
of dead human nature. Look at Isaiah 41. This is not just confined to the Philistines,
this is dead human nature. Where every one of us this morning
would be, bowing down to a ceramic statue of somebody, if it wasn't
for God's grace. Isaiah 41, verse 7. So the carpenter,
here he's talking about men making an idol. So the carpenter encouraged
the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smotheth
the anvil, saying it's ready for the soldering, and he fastened
it with nails that it should not be moved. Well, they just
needed a bigger nail for Dagon, didn't they? They just set him
back in his place. Look over a few chapters of Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46, verse 6. They lavish gold out of the bag. They weigh silver in the balance,
and hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god. They fall down,
yea, they worship, and they bear him upon the shoulder. They carry
him, and set him in his place, and he standeth. From his place
shall he not remove. Yea, one shall cry unto him,
yet he cannot answer, nor save him out of his trouble. And that's
what happened to Dagon. He didn't even stand in his place.
He fell down and they had to prop him back up. Put him back
up. And it ought to have been so obvious to them, he couldn't
help himself. Much less them. He had to have
his help just to stand still. And men are the exact same way
today. Nothing has changed from that
time till today. All over this country this morning,
Men and women are sitting in pews, really believing in this
impotent Jesus that they hear preached to them. He can't do
anything to help you unless you let him. He's depending on you
to do something to make his sacrifice effectual. He died for everyone.
Some people are going to go to hell anyway. He can't help you
unless you accept him into your heart, unless you ask him to
come into your life. And what they have to do. Every
Sunday is keep propping that Jesus up. They have to keep propping
him up because he's powerless to do anything to help him. And
when they do that, look over Romans chapter 10. If they're
going to have to prop their Jesus up, then they're going to have
to prop up their own righteousness too. In Romans 10 verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
Oh, they're very, very zealous. They're very involved in their
religion, but they're ignorant. They're ignorant of the fact
that God does not require the best that we can do. God requires
perfection because He's holy. They're ignorant of how God makes
a man righteous. They're ignorant of Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord our righteousness. They're ignorant of the fact
that righteousness is not earned. Righteousness is imputed. And
so what they're doing, because of that ignorance, they're going
about to establish their own righteousness. And that going
about is constant work. It's constantly propping up the
dead man, constantly propping up the straw man. Now, that's
the idol. But in contrast to Dagon, there
the ark sits in the temple of Dagon. God, God's word and God's
gospel needs no defense from men. Dagon needed help, didn't
he? The ark has been taken in violence,
taken in war, taken from the temple, taken from the tabernacle,
left Israel completely. The ark is in no danger. The
ark needs no defense. All the gospel is to us is to
be declared. It has the power to reach the
hearts of God's people. Well, verse 4, they set Dagon
back up in his place, and verse 4, when they rose 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. My mom used to sing this
song with the children, second verse, same as the first, a little
bit louder and a little bit worse. Now, not only has Dagon fallen
down before the Ark, his head's cut off. He's powerless to do
anything now. His head's cut off. He can't
think. He can't rule. He can't see. All his mental
capacity is cut off. Now, he never had any to begin
with, but when his head's cut off, it gave a picture to the
Philistines. He's got no power. And both of his hands were cut
off. All of his power to defend. to hold and to help has been
cut off. Now, again, he never had any,
but this is just a picture. He doesn't have any power to
hold you, to save you, as opposed to God, whose hand is not restored,
that it cannot save. And every false gospel declares
a false savior the same way. It doesn't go under the name
of Dagon. It might not look like a mermaid, but it's a false savior
just the same in some form or another. Their God depends on
men to do something. They even tell you He's got no
hands but your hands. He's got no feet but your feet.
He's got no mouth but your mouth. Why? Why doesn't He? I thought
He was God. They've been cut off just like
Dagon. And the only thing that was left
intact of Dagon was the fishtail, the stump. They come in in the
morning and all they found was a dead fish laying on the ground.
That's their God. Yet they still worshipped an
idol that had no power to help, no power to defend, no power
to help. Why'd they do that? Well, David
told us in Psalm 115, talk about the idols who have eyes that
see not, mouths have they but they speak not, ears have they
but they hear not, hands have they but they handle not. And
he said in verse 8, they that make them are like unto them,
so is everyone that trusts They're dead. That's exactly why they
kept worshipping those pieces of stone because they're spiritually
dead. Well, look at verse 5. Therefore,
neither the priest of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's
house, tread upon the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod until this
day. When they came to that threshold,
for generations, what they did is they jumped over it. They
just leap over it because they were afraid of the power of God. They saw what God did to Dagon,
they were afraid God would do the same thing to them. And their
religion became filled with superstition. Don't step on a crack, you'll
break your mother's back. And that's all man's religion
is, isn't it? It's superstition and old wives tales that are
not based on God's word. But you know, even in this, I
see the wisdom of God. Those idolaters, for generations,
whether they want to or not, had to give glory to the God
of Israel because they had to teach the next generation, don't
step on that threshold, jump over it. And the children would
say, well, why would we do that? Well, let me tell you about how
the God of Israel broke our God Dagon in pieces and we're afraid
of him. So we jump over it. They had
to give God the glory. Even in that idolatry, they had
to tell their children we're worshiping an idol that's not
nearly as powerful. as the God of Israel. Same thing
with us today. When God instituted the first
Passover, what did he tell Moses? Tell the people. When your children
ask you, what mean ye by this service? You tell them, oh, it's
the Lord's Passover. He delivered us from Egypt with
a mighty hand, and he passed over us. He passed over our sins
because of the blood on the doorpost, the blood of the sacrifice of
the Passover lamb. Same thing, isn't it? Well, verse
6, but the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod. They
didn't step on the threshold, but his hand was still heavy
upon them, and he destroyed them and smote them with emeralds,
even Ashdod and the coast thereof. Now, the Lord gave plenty of
warning about this situation, didn't he? I mean, they'd gone
fall over twice, he broke once, and now he punishes that city
that was holding the ark for violating just the picture of
his son. He smoked the city with pestilence.
Many people died. I bet more Philistines died in
these pestilences in this chapter. More people died there than Israelites
died in that battle. 34,000 men or how many ever it
was. I bet more Philistines died in
these pestilences. And I say that because of this.
God Almighty will avenge his people. Even though they're full
of faults, he will avenge his people. Because he's avenging
his name. It's not me. He's avenging his
name. And his people are called by
his name. So he sent his pestilence and
he sent emeralds to the people. Now, emeralds are a form of hemorrhoids.
And they include with them a bloody dysentery. So the people that
weren't killed in the pestilence are left living in utter misery. And you know, they had the Ark
of the Lord right there in their city. They had the art of the
great physician. And never one time did they beg
for mercy. Never one time did it cross their
mind to call for Samuel to see maybe Samuel could intercede
for us. Maybe Samuel could tell us what to do in this situation,
how to plead with God for mercy. But they didn't because they
were dead. God's not going to smite people
with these physical ailments and drive them to him because
it's not a physical thing coming to Christ. It's a heart matter. It's a spiritual heart matter.
He's got to give us life before we ever will beg him for mercy.
So verse 7, when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said,
the ark of the God of Israel should 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 they said, now 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 under and they carried
the ark of God of Israel thither. See, they recognized that God
is superior to Dagon. They'd met up with a greater
power than that of their idol, Dagon. So they get a council
of the elders together. These are the men that ought
to have been around long enough to have a little bit of wisdom.
And they decided to send the ark of the Lord away and keep
Dagon. They'd rather be children of
a lesser God. And you know why? They can control
Dacon. They can put him in his place.
He'll do what they say. They already know they can't
control the God of Israel. They can't control the Lord of
this ark. So their best plan was to be like the people of
the Gadarenes. Remember the Lord healed that demoniac and he sent
the demons in the swine. The swine ran in the sea and
died. They asked the Lord to leave. Don't stay with us because
they respected those pigs more than the Lord. And the Philistines
were the same way. They had a whole lot more respect
for those broken pieces of rock than they did for the Lord. So
their best idea was to send the Ark to Gath. Now Gath is another
one of the five principal cities, the home of Goliath. It's the
home of a race of giants. And if you look over in Isaiah
63, the word Gath means wine press. And that's what Gath is
going to become, the wine press. Who is this that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to say, Wherefore, why
art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that
treadeth in the wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press
alone, and the people of the people there was none with For
I will tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury,
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will
stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in
mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." And that's
exactly what's going to happen to Gath. They are going to become
the winepress, and God's going to crush them. He's going to
come in there and crush them by himself. Look at verse 9.
And it was so that after they carried it about, the hand of
the Lord was against the city with very great destruction.
And he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they
had emeralds in their secret parts. Agath had the same experience
as Ashdod. You know, God doesn't need a
mighty army. He doesn't need nuclear warfare
or something. He takes care of giants with
a pebble from a shepherd's sling and just a little hemorrhoid.
That's all it takes to fell those giants. And they had the same
pestilence that Ashdod did, but their hemorrhoids were worse.
They were both inside and outside the body. And that's what sin
is. We see the effects of sin outwardly,
don't we? But sin is an inward disease.
You can't cure it because it's an inward disease. So they had
these hemorrhoids inside and out of the body. They had the
bloody dysentery. And it affected all the men of
the city, both small and great. I don't care if you were an important
man or an unimportant man, if you were a rich man or a poor
man, if you were an old man or a young man, even children have
this disease. For there is no difference. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Well, they
quickly saw they don't want to be crushed in this wine press
anymore. So verse 10, 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." Now
Ekron is another one of the five principal cities. It looks to
me like they're going to run out of principal cities pretty
soon. There are only two left. I'd rather be from some small
bird nobody ever heard of than to live in one of these principal
cities and invite the wrath of God on my town. But here it comes. And Ekron means pulled up by
the roots. And that's how God's going to
deal with sin. Now one day, when the day of grace is over, God's
going to come back and he's going to pull up sin by the roots,
and it's going to be gone. He's going to pull up this city
Ekron by the roots and destroy it. That's what the people were
afraid of. They said, why did you send the Ark of the Lord
here? What did we ever do to you boys? Just take it back.
Because they're afraid they're all going to die and suffer with
these hemorrhoids. So they acted more quickly than
people in the other cities. Verse 11, they sent, I mean immediately,
they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines.
It says, send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it
go again to his own place. Why don't you boys send it back
to Israel? That's a good idea. Let it slay us not, and our people. For there was a deadly destruction
throughout all the city, and the hand of God was very heavy
there. And the men that died not were smitten with emeralds,
and the cry of the city went up to heaven. Now in all this
affliction, in this chapter, you'll notice not one time did
anyone beg for mercy. Not one time. So many people
died and those that weren't killed, I bet spent time wishing that
they were killed because those hemorrhoids and that dysentery
was horrible. Now in that, I mean, anybody
ought to be able to just read that, those verses and see the
end of idolatry, shouldn't we? But in this chapter, there's
also a picture of salvation. And I got this from Charles Spurgeon.
I was not smart enough to see this on my own when I read it.
But he had a three-point message from this chapter. It's a picture
of redemption. First, the ark being brought
into the temple of Dagon is a picture of Christ coming into the heart
of a sinner. Now, I don't care where you find
them. Where you find one of God's children, when God finds them,
They're an idolater. They're wicked. They're sinful.
And they're an idolater, worshiping someone or something other than
Christ. Someone is on the throne in his
heart. Now, they are. It could be Satan.
It could be self. It could be self-righteousness.
Maybe they're all sharing the throne. I don't know. But it's
powerful rulers in a dead heart. But when Christ comes into that
heart, those rulers depart. They fall at his feet and Christ
is enthroned. That strong man armed leaves
defeated and Christ is enthroned in the heart of a new willing
child of God. Second, when Christ comes into
the heart of one of his people, the head of that old ruler is
cut off. He's decapitated. Sin is cut
off. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace. Christ,
when he comes into the heart of his people, he sits in throne. Those old rulers leave, their
heads cut off, their powers destroyed. But third, the stump of Dagon
remained, didn't it? And everyone in this room this
morning that's born again knows exactly what this is saying.
The power of sin is removed, isn't it? The power, the controlling
ruling power is removed. The damning power of sin. is
removed. There is therefore now, right
now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. But
brethren, the stump is still there. That root is still there. We've been given a new, holy
nature that loves Christ, that loves God, that loves his word.
But that old sinful nature, that root is still there. It doesn't
rule, but it's there. And we hate it. If God's given
you a new heart, you hate that old one. So that we say with
the apostle Paul, a wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? Well, we know our Lord will one
day. Like Ekron, he's going to come
back and he's going to pull that up by the roots. And that stump,
that root is going to be removed. He's going to eradicate sin in
his people. And we're going to be left with
nothing but a nature and a body, just like the body and nature
of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be with him eternally. No more
power of sin, no more influence of sin, no more presence of sin,
eternally. When Christ comes into the heart
of his people, he comes enthroned. He sits on the throne. That old
ruler, his head's cut off. He's defeated. He bows at the
feet of Christ. One day, that stone is going
to be pulled up by the roots. God hasten the day. Lord bless
you.