Well with the reading I gave
a bit of a recap of last week but just for the sake of those
that are only picking up the sermon, last week in chapter
4 of 1st Samuel We were looking at the capture of the Ark of
God and how that amounted to Ichabod. Ichabod departed glory. That was the name that was given
to the son of Phineas, his wife. Phineas was one of the two wicked
sons of Eli, the priest. And God had promised that he
would kill them because of their wickedness. And he did in the
battle. And Israel was roundly defeated. and the Ark of the
Covenant was taken. Why was that Ichabod? Why was
it that the glory had gone? The Ark represented the glory
of God. What is the glory of God? What
is the chief glory of God? You remember? Exodus 33, sorry,
yes, Exodus 33 verse 18, Moses had said to God, show me your
glory. And what did God show him? Did
he show him earthquake, wind, and fire as to Elijah? No, no, no. God said this, I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. This is the God of the Bible.
The true God of the Bible is a God of sovereign grace and
sovereign grace alone. A God of covenant mercy. A God
who saves his people from their sins. A God who loses none of
the ones that the Father gave to the Son before the beginning
of time. The Ark of the Covenant represented
that gospel. All of the Old Testament temple
worship was just not another way of worshipping God, it was
the gospel in blueprint. It was the plan of salvation. All of the animal sacrifices,
not a solitary animal sacrifice actually saved anyone from their
sins, but it was the pattern. The piece of paper that's got
the pattern for your house on it is unfit to live in. You cannot live in it, but according
to that pattern, the builders build the house that you now
live in. Isn't that right? That's what it was. Think of
it that way. All of the Old Testament things were patterns, were blueprints
for how God really saves his people. The Ark of the Covenant,
most of all, was covered with a mercy seat, a gold mercy seat
where blood was sprinkled. Mercy seat, propitiation. turning away at the just anger
of God. Why is God angry? God, we read,
is... You know, you'll hear, God loves
you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Do you know what
the scripture really says? Do you know, you will not find
that anywhere in scripture. God nowhere says to every man
and woman that ever lived, God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. But what he does say is God is angry with
the wicked every day. Why is God angry with the wicked
every day? because of sin. He is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity, and cannot look upon sin. The law says, the soul that
sins, it shall die. It shall die. It shall fall under
the judgment of a just God. The soul that sins, it shall
die. And it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God responsible for your own sin. But the gospel of God's
grace says this, that the Lord Jesus Christ the God-man, God
in human flesh, God incarnate, came to stand in the place of
a people, a particular people, His people, the multitude that
no man can number, that the Father gave to the Son before the beginning
of time, before there ever was a world, outside of time in eternity,
God gave The father gave a people to his son and the son came and
satisfied, offended justice for them. And all of that was pictured
by that ark containing the law. It covered the law. Christ covers
the law. It was made of common wood. Christ
was made of common humanity. Clothed in gold, speaking of
his divinity. With a crown around the edge
of it and a mercy seat on the top of it. It all speaks of the
gospel of grace. Israel could not worship God
without the Ark of the Covenant. Israel had no hope of acceptance
with God outside of the Ark of the Covenant. They had to have
it. When it was taken away, all of their hope of heaven was gone. Do you hope it will be alright
with you? Do you hope it will be good with you when you leave
this life and pass into eternity? On what basis do you hope? Today
you hope, if you have a good hope, you hope on the basis of
the finished work of Christ. That he put away your sins. That
not one solitary sin. I looked for the sins of Israel
and Judah and they were found not. Why? That's what it says
in the Old Testament. Why were they not found? because
Christ has taken them out of the way. He who knew no sin was
made sin for us, he was made the sins of his people, he committed
no sin but he was made the sins of his people at Calvary and
God poured out his just wrath on that one that those who are
in him might be made the righteousness of God in him if we haven't got
that we have no hope we're with as the New Testament says without
Christ and without hope in this world if we're without Christ
and the gospel of his grace it's Ichabod departed glory for the
God of grace has gone from us we haven't got him and so it
was with them They had no hope of justification, or salvation,
or acceptance, or of heaven. Note that the Ark of God, throughout
its history, from when it was instituted, we saw that in Exodus
25, it was safe all the time it was guarded by unarmed priests. The priests of the Old Testament,
the Aaronic priests, were the ones who were committed to guard
it. Only they could carry it. God
would strike dead anybody else who tried to carry it. Only the
priests could carry it. As soon as they put it under
the charge of civil authorities and military strength as they
did when they took it into battle what happened to it? It was taken.
Is that not a graphic illustration of the error of attempting to
mix spiritual and civil authority? Look in the so-called church
of our land which is no church at all. The Anglican church in
our land is utterly compromised from top to bottom and has been
for years. because it's trying to mix civil
authority with spiritual authority. And what do you get? Complete
and utter compromise. There is no gospel in it. There
is no hope in it. It's Ichabod. You can write over
every one of those church doors Ichabod. Anyway, let's come to
chapter five. The Philistines were triumphant.
Oh, can you imagine? They're rejoicing. The ark was
taken and they put it in the temple of Dagon. Now, the Philistines
were an idolatrous people. They lived next door to Israel,
but they were a constant aggravation to Israel. You know, we're going
to come on later to Goliath of Gath and David and Goliath and
all of those sorts of things. The Philistines were a constant
irritation. And they were an idolatrous people.
They didn't worship the true God. Israel itself was compromised
so often, but within Israel, there was that which was the
true Israel of God, and the true worship of God. But these people,
the Philistines that were next door to them, that captured the
Ark, they were idolatrous. And like all idolatrous people,
they make false gods that are really no gods at all. And theirs
was one they called Dagon, who was this statue of some sort.
We have no pictures, we don't know what it was like. It seems
as though it was a fish god, and if you want to know what
it might have looked like, imagine a mermaid, you know, where the
top, or a merman, or a mermaid, where the top is like a very
attractive, alluring human being, but the tail of it is the tail
of a fish. That's what we think this Dagon fish god might have
been like. A very alluring appearance. And
what appealed to the Philistines about it, as all idols, it's
tangible. Do you know what tangible means?
You can touch it. You can feel it. You can get
hold of it. You know? The god that we worship,
you can't, can you? Where is he? God is spirit. And
those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. As
far as the Philistines were concerned, their statue, their Dagon, their
fish god, had defeated Israel's god. Triumphant! The Israelites
had been triumphant over so many coming out of Egypt, but now
the Philistines and their god Dagon had defeated Israel's god. So they brought the Ark of God,
this box, this glory of God, representing the Gospel of God,
they brought it into their into their idol's temple, Dagon's
temple, and they put it at the feet of Dagon, they set it by
Dagon. And look at verse 2, there it
is, when the Philistines took the Ark of God they brought it
into the house of Dagon, into their temple, and set it down
by Dagon. There we've been triumphant,
we've won. And they went to bed, they went off home to bed rejoicing
in the fact that they'd been so victorious. And when they
of Ashdod, this is the place, arose early in the morrow and
they went into the temple to gloat over the fact that Dagon
had been victorious, Dagon, the statue, was fallen flat on its
face before the Ark of the Lord. The Ark of the Lord's sitting
there and Dagon's flat on its face. So what did they do with
him? What did they do with Dagon?
The men picked him up and stood him on his feet again. Is that
not odd? the God that they worshipped,
why do you worship God? He's sovereign over all things. What are the words that describe
God? Omnipotent. What does omnipotent
mean? Omni, all, potent, to do, able
to do, powerful, all powerful, nothing he cannot do. Omniscient,
nothing he doesn't know. Omnipresent, everywhere, why
do we rejoice that we can worship here just in a home and know
that the presence of God, because He's omnipresent God is all those
things and yet this idol that the Philistines worshipped couldn't
even pick himself up when he fell down he was lying flat on
the floor so they stood him up and the next night came and off
they went to their beds and the next morning they came in and
look when they arose, verse four, early on the morrow morning behold
Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the Ark
of the Lord, but it's a bit worse today. 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. His head and his arms were
broken off. Only the stump remained. And
not only that, but the people started to be afflicted. Look
down in verse 6, the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them
of Ashdod and he destroyed them and smote them with emeralds,
hemorrhoids, piles between you and me. Painful, embarrassing,
not the sort of thing you want to talk about but that's what
God did to them and you'll see more of it later on. He afflicted
them to the extent that they weren't too pleased to have this
Ark of the Covenant of the God of Israel with them they wanted
to get rid of it because Israel rejoiced over it later in Psalm
78 verse 66 it speaks of this account he says and he God smote
his enemies in the hinder parts and he put them to a perpetual
reproach they were in great great discomfort what does this have
to say to us? What's it for? What's this account?
Is it just an interesting story of magical things happening,
you know, wooden or stone idols, whatever it was, falling flat
on it? No, we know that the Old Testament scriptures are for
our learning, upon whom the ends of the earth have come. They're
written for our learning. Sometimes they teach us direct
doctrine. as when God said to Moses, I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. I am
a God of sovereign grace, direct doctrine. Sometimes they teach
us through historical accounts, historical lessons. Sometimes
it's an allegory, which is a story that tells another story, a bit
like a parable. But I tell you what, all of it
What does it speak of? All of it, without exception.
All of it, every page, without exception. What does it speak
of? You search the scriptures, said Christ to the Pharisees.
John 5, 39. John 5, 39. You search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. And that's right.
If you want to know the way to eternal life, you must search
the scriptures. These are they, he said, these
scriptures are the scriptures that speak of me. With the disciples
on the Emmaus road, beginning at Moses and the prophets, he
expounded to them in all the scriptures how they ought to
live. No, he didn't. No, he didn't.
No, he didn't. Beginning at Moses and the prophets,
he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself. I determined, said the Apostle
Paul, I determined to know nothing else among you. Whenever he preached,
what was his text? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's it. When he spoke to the
Ephesian elders on the beach when he met them at Miletus,
what did he say to them? I have not shunned to preach
unto you the whole counsel of God. What is the whole counsel
of God? Christ and Him crucified. That's it. For it all speaks
of Him. Here we have idolatry. We have
the Ark of God in Dagon's Temple. It speaks to us of the gospel
and idolatrous religion. What is idolatry? Let's think
about that for a while. The Philistines, as I've said,
lived next to Israel. They lived side by side. They
were constant enemies and they were idolaters. Not like us,
eh? Not like us. Oh, hold on, hold
on. Hold on. We're all idolaters
by nature in our flesh, are we not? Does our flesh not constantly
run after serving false gods? We get hold of some weird idea
and we're very, very quick to follow false gods. We're all
idolaters by nature. What? Even some of the... What
about Abraham? He wasn't an idolater, was he?
He was the one who basically founded the Jewish religion,
the Israelite religion, wasn't he? No. Even Abraham and his
family were idolaters. Joshua 24 verse 2, Joshua's telling
the people who are so prone to go after idols, he said this,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other
side of the flood in old time even Terah the father of Abraham
and the father of Nacor and they served other gods they served
idols they were idolaters that's what they are that's what we
all are by nature what is an idol? What is an idol? Oh, you
say, it's something that primitive tribes do, they cut down a tree,
it tells us in Isaiah, there's a kind of a mocking account of
idols, they cut down a tree and they carve the tree and with
a bit of the tree they warm themselves by the fire and with the other
bit of the tree they make a statue and they bow down to it and worship
it as if it's a god that can do anything. It's a bit of wood
that's growing in a forest. Well, I tell you, there are plenty
of other idol gods that grow in the dark forests of the human
mind. It's a god of our own imagination.
It's not the god of the scriptures. It's a god that's the product
of false teachers and what they have taught us, but not the product
of what the word of God says. but idols are very appealing
to fallen human nature because we all by nature we have a spiritual
nature we have a spiritual side of us but it is so corrupted
by sin it's distorted and we go wrong there's there's a tendency
always to be devoted to idols and to serve them and to follow
their leading in the New Testament we're warned again and again
about false teachers who come and they sound so plausible and
we're told that even Satan comes as an angel of light don't believe
them try the spirits whether they be of God John says to the
people he writes to, try them test them test what they're saying
Test whether they're saying that the Christ is everything that
the Old Testament promised and foretold that he would be. Those
who say that are true. Those who do not are liars, and
I'll tell you in what respect later. So what is idolatry? A god of our own imagination
and worshipping a god of our own imagination and it comes
in all sorts of forms not just in physical icons and statues
but in emotions covetousness for example listen to what Colossians
3 verse 5 says mortify put to death therefore your members
which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection
evil consupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry covetousness
wanting that which is not yours wanting that which belongs to
your neighbor around you covetousness is idolatry But do you know what
I believe is the biggest and most worshipped idol of all?
I'll tell you. This is the most worshipped idol
of all in the day in which we live. It's this. It's the God
of eternal well-being without the satisfaction of divine justice. You might not have heard what
I said so I'll say it again. Think about it. The biggest idol of
all, the most worshipped idol of all in our day is the God
of eternal well-being without the satisfaction of divine justice. The God that says you don't need
divine justice to be satisfied. to be right for eternity, for
it to be well with you, either by you being annihilated and
when you stop breathing that's it, that's just the end of it,
or you've been alright, you've done pretty well, or you've put
your trust in Jesus and you'll be rewarded for that. What about
divine justice? That doctrine is the religion
of Antichrist. When we were looking at Revelation
we saw this very clearly. The religion of Antichrist. It's
the religion of Satan's beast and of Satan's false prophet.
It's the religion of Baal. Throughout the Old Testament
you see the conflict between the truth and the religion of
Baal, Elijah on Mount Carmel, him, I even I only am left a
prophet of the Lord and there were the 450 prophets of Baal
and all that they did. That religion is the religion
of swathes of religion today and swathes of what calls itself
evangelical Christianity. Why do I say that? Why do I make
such a bold and challenging statement as that? I'll tell you why. Because
they deny particular redemption. They deny what the scripture
teaches about what the salvation that Christ accomplished actually
accomplished. What is the extent of the atonement
that Christ has accomplished? What is the extent of it? They
say it made it possible for all without exception to be saved
if only they will believe. That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches this. That before the beginning of
time God the Father gave to God the Son a people. He chose them
in Him before the foundation of the world. Am I making this
up? Ephesians 1 verse 4. Chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. 2 Timothy 1 verse 9. Who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling. which he gave us it before the
beginning of time that was given to us before the beginning of
time in sovereign grace outside of time in eternity and when
Christ came He who knew no sin was made sin for us. Who? Everybody? No, for his people, the ones
the Father gave to him before the beginning of time. And he
paid their debt to the law. He paid their debt fully to the
law, so that he cried, it is finished. For them it is finished.
their sins are taken out of the way. God will not charge his
elect with any sin for Christ has borne the charge. The elect
of God, the people God chose in Christ, the multitude no man
can number before the foundation of the world now stand on ground
that has already been burned with the wrath of God. It's Christ
and his cross where the justice of God fell for them. What was
the will of the Father for Christ coming to earth? He said, I came
not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me. Read John
6, John 6, 37. I came not to do my will, but
the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who
sent me. Jesus said, this, Jesus, God
the son said, this is the will of him, my father, who sent me.
That of all that he has given me, I should lose nothing, but
should raise it up at the last thing. What's all that he has
given him? All the people. that the Father gave him before
the beginning of time. No man can come to me, said Jesus,
except my Father draw him, and whosoever comes I will in no
wise cast out. But no man can come except the
Father draw him. This is the will of him that
sent me. Of all that he gave me I should lose nothing. The
God of the Bible is a God of particular redemption. Is that
your God? If not, You may use the terminology
of Christian redemption, but your God is an idol and worthless,
powerless to save. Let's say you have a very big
debt. Let's say you owe somebody a hundred thousand pounds. That's
a big debt. Even by the standards of many
people who are quite rich, they wouldn't like to have to pay
a hundred thousand pounds. You've got a big debt. And I
go to our old Monopoly set and I gather up some lots of old
Monopoly sets and I count up the money and I count you out
£100,000 in Monopoly money and I go, there you go, go and pay
your debt. And what good does it do you?
I tell you, it's good for playing games but it's absolutely no
good at all paying debts. Because it's worthless money,
isn't it? It doesn't buy anything. Even Luca, who's sat there grinning
at this moment, knows what Monopoly money is. It's great for playing
the game, but you take it down to the shops and try and buy
some sweets. Do you know what they'll say to you? Sorry, that's
no good. That won't pay for the sweets.
You must have currency, you must have money that works. There's
only one currency that works for eternal salvation, and that's
the debt Christ paid vicariously for his people, in the place
of his people. So then, that's what idolatry
is. That's the only truth. Everything else is idolatry.
Whatever form it takes, Islam, anything else, materialism, nihilism,
whatever it is, it's idolatry. There's idolatry in individual
human hearts, there's idolatry in assemblies of supposedly Christian
believers. What happens when the true gospel
of God, the true gospel of the God of Israel, comes into those
dark, idolatrous situations? In this chapter we've got the
ark in Dagon's temple. Dagon's temple pictures false
religion and idolatrous human hearts. And the ark coming in
there is like God's Holy Spirit shining the light, you know this
verse don't you, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6, the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God, where is it? Where do you see it? Where
do you see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God? In the face
of Jesus Christ. You don't see it anywhere else.
You don't. You don't see it in emotional
singing, you don't see it in lovely forms of worship and flashy
buildings and nice assemblies and lots of acting. No, no, you
see it in the face of Jesus Christ. When that gospel comes into Dagon's
temple, the equivalent of it, the idolatrous human heart, something
must happen. They can't coexist. Jesus said
no man can serve two masters, you cannot have the two side
by side. The truth of biblical redemption, the truth of the
Bible's version of how people are saved, will fell all the
idols of false religion, it always will. Let's think of the gospel,
an idolatrous religion. I'll give you a personal testimony.
We used to do a lot of giving personal testimonies. I think
this is possibly the first time I've ever done so. Let me give
you my personal testimony. I came across an Arminian gospel. An Arminian gospel is the gospel
that says God is trying to save everybody but they won't let
him. Oh, will you not let God save you? All you have to do
is to ask Jesus into your heart and then he will save you. And
I made an Arminian decision, but I was in constant doubt for
years, I was in constant doubt. Was I saved? Was I really saved? Had I truly believed? Would I
go to heaven? You see, the thing that would
make the difference between me and somebody else was that I
had prayed that prayer. Oh come in Lord Jesus, come in
today, come in to stay, come into my heart Lord Jesus. I had
prayed that, but had I prayed it sincerely enough? And what
had I done since then? Had I been consistently good
and had I turned over a new leaf and would God accept me? And
then I started to doubt whether that currency was worth anything. Why? Just because I'd prayed
that prayer should I go to heaven and my neighbor who was no worse
a person than me go to hell? Because he hadn't prayed that
prayer. Was it the praying of the prayer that saved me? Do
you remember as I always tell you about Abraham It's not Abraham's
believing that saved him, it's what Abraham believed in that
saved him. It's the doing and dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's not my faith in Christ that
saves me, it's the faith of Jesus Christ that saves his people.
that's what saves his people what he has done and accomplished
and faith faith is just the open hand that receives that which
God's grace has accomplished faith isn't the thing which makes
it active for you faith is the thing which receives it and that
is not of yourselves it is the gift of God and so from that
situation I moved on and Christine with me we moved on into Calvinistic
religion and we learned about election and we started to say
well you know the bible really does talk about election and
I could I bought books and I could prove to you over and over again
that election was the right doctrine of the bible but what went with
it was an awful lot of legalism and an awful lot of stuff that
challenged me was I sufficiently sanctified and was my calvinistic
doctrine pure enough and that gave me no peace That gave me
no peace at all. I remember constantly feeling
bound and not free. And I remember Christine once
saying to somebody, I read in the Bible that I ought to be
free, but I'm not free. I'm in bondage. And then we heard
Grace preach. Some dear friends sent us some
tapes. Dear friends, I'm pointing at her now, sent us some tapes
and we started listening to Grace. We started listening to Sovereign
Grace. Dear Henry Mahan, preaching Sovereign Grace. Noisy Don Faulkner,
we love him, preaching Sovereign Grace. Maurice Montgomery, Scott
Rich, we heard Sovereign Grace preached. We heard not what you
must do, but what Christ has done. We heard salvation accomplished. We heard particular redemption.
Oh, the human heart doesn't like that. It's what God says. Who
is God? Is it you to decide? Or is it
God to tell you? This is the God of Scripture.
Particular redemption. Christ died for a people. We
heard about the solid currency. of the debt that Christ has paid
with his own precious blood. How it paid the debt. He paid
the debt for all eternity. And we came in knowing that.
Hearing that, by faith receiving that, we came into the glorious
liberty of the sons of God. And what happened to the idols
of Arminian and Calvinistic false religion? They fell flat on their
faces with their arms broken off and their head broken off.
Yes, a stump remains, the flesh and sin, we've got it until we
leave this life. But a day is coming when we go
to glory when not even a stump will remain. I'll give you a
testimony of a church that's well known to us. I won't name
them, but they had a minister years ago, a dear brother, preaching
an Arminian gospel, and he had a full church, and plenty of
people going there, and there was loads of activity, and that
minister heard grace. He heard the message that we
had heard. And that message of grace brought him low. And he
saw the light of gospel glory in Christ. And he started to
preach what he heard. He started to preach that message.
He started to preach grace alone. And do you know what he did?
How successful was he? He emptied his church. All the
idolaters left. they didn't like what they were
hearing, he emptied his church of its idolaters and left a tiny
remnant according to the election of grace and they're still there
today but they're exactly those whom the Lord, what does he say
in Revelation, sorry in the Acts of the Apostles 13, 48 as they
preached the gospel those that were ordained to eternal life
believed what could be clearer Those that were ordained to eternal
life in Christ, they're still there at that church. Even though
its numbers are depleted, but the truth is there, and it's
being preached there. In the face of the true gospel,
idolaters suffer affliction. These Philistines suffered the
embarrassing affliction of piles. It's very painful, embarrassing
pain, disabling pain. You don't want to talk about
it. You do whatever you can to get rid of it. Look at verses
10 to 12. 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 God
of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. And they sent and
gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said,
Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again
to his own place, that it slay us not and our people. For there
was a deadly destruction throughout all the city, and the hand of
God was very heavy there. And the men that died not were
smitten with emeralds, vials. And the cry of the city went
up to heaven. They did whatever they could
to get rid of it. When our Lord Jesus Christ went
across the Sea of Galilee, to the Gadarenes, Luke chapter 8,
you can read about it in verses 26 to 39, he cast out evil spirits
from that man that was impossible to tame, living amongst the tombs. And the end of it was that the
spirits went out and they sought leave for Christ to send them
into a herd of swine, herd of pigs, and they ran down the hill
and drowned in the lake. and the end of it was that the
man who had had the evil spirits was found clothed and in his
right mind and sitting at Jesus' feet and the swine drowned in
the lake and the people of that area do you know what they prayed
the Lord Jesus Christ please go away from us just like these
philistines please take this ark of God away we don't like
this we don't like the effects of it we don't want anything
to do with it The man said, please may I go with you? You see, they
had their prayer request answered. They prayed Jesus to go away
from them, and he did. He left them. The man said, please
may I go with you wherever you go? And Jesus said, no. You go
to your own home and tell them what great things the Lord has
done for you. And he did. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 2, I've nearly finished. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, it's
like this. When the truth of God comes in,
there's a division. We are unto God a sweet savour
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the
ones that are saved we are the savour of death and to death.
The gospel is not a sweet thing to them. It's a taste, a stink
of death. Get rid of it. We don't want
this message. And to the other the saver of
life unto life and who is sufficient unto these things has the ark
of God has the ark of God come into the idolatrous temple of
your heart or of your church using that illustration from
friends in South London if it has the idols must fall down. This is what happens when the
true gospel is heard by a true believer. Paul writes to the
Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 1, 9 and 10, talking about what
people say about them, people around about say about them.
They themselves show us what manner of entering in we had
unto you, how our preaching went in powerfully, and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God. That's it.
You turn to God from idols. When you hear the true gospel
of sovereign grace you turn to God and leave your idols behind
to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from
heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered
us from the wrath to come. That's what happens when the
true gospel of grace comes in either to your own idolatrous
heart or to the idolatrous assembly where you are. I know that there
are many people, there's a lot right to me, who are in struggling,
some struggling with churches where they say the true gospel
is not preached. If you're in a church which you
know is really Dagon's temple, though it be called Christian,
you know you can't stay there. You must go where God has burdened
a man to bear the ark of the covenant before God's people.
That is to preach the gospel of grace in Christ. And you must
go there, as many of our people do on the internet, even if that
is without what people would call a formal church, and you
use the internet to hear the grace of God proclaimed. Anyway,
I trust God will bless those thoughts to our hearts and minds.
Amen.