Would you turn to 1 Samuel chapter
5? Seemed like half the church was
in Crossville this weekend. We had a very good meeting and
I guess a bunch of them are still there. 1 Samuel chapter 5, beginning
in verse 1, And the Philistines took the
Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the
Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house
of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when they 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. And when they arose 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 marginal reading says
the fishy part. He was kind of like a man mermaid.
He had a human top and a fish bottom. Therefore, neither the priests
of Dagon nor any came into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold
of Dagon and Ashdod unto this day. But the hand of the Lord
was heavy upon them of Ashdod, And he destroyed them and smote
them with emeralds. If anybody's wondering what an
emerald is, it's a hemorrhoid. He smote them with hemorrhoids. Even Ashdod and to the coast
thereof. And when the men of Ashdod saw
that it was so, they said, the ark of the God of Israel shall
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 said, 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 into Gath. If
you'll remember, that's where Goliath was from, one of the
five cities of the Philistines. And they carried the ark of the
God of Israel about thither. And it was so that after they'd
carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city
with a very great destruction. And he smote the men of the city,
both small and great, and they had emeralds in their secret
parts. 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 brought about the ark of the God of Israel
to us, to slay us and our people. So 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. The hand of God was very heavy
there and the men that died not were smitten with the emeralds
and the cry of the city went up to heaven. I titled this lesson, The Ark
Placed Beside Dagon. That's what took place. The Ark
was placed beside Dacon. Now the Ark was something material. It was just a box of wood with
gold around it. It was just material, but it
wasn't just material. It represented the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the importance of the
Ark. I love to think of this Ark. It was two feet high. four feet wide, two feet deep,
approximately, wood laid about with gold on the inside of the
ark, there was the law. Christ, our righteousness. Christ, our obedience. There
was the rod of Aaron that budded like flowers coming out of a
broomstick. How would that happen? Christ,
our life before God. He is our life. And then it had
the showbread, Christ our food, Christ our necessary sustenance. That's what the Ark represents. And I think this is real interesting.
When the New Testament, turn with me to Hebrews chapter nine. This shows how closely the Ark
is associated with the gospel. The writer to the Hebrews is
telling us about The tabernacle, and we read in
verse three after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is
called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer and the
arc of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein
was the golden pot that had man and Aaron's rod that budded and
the tables of the covenant covenant and over at the cherubims of
glory, shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot speak. Particularly
this arc had this lid over it. the lid of propitiation, the
mercy seat. As a matter of fact, this same
word, mercy seat, is translated in Romans chapter three, propitiation. Whom God had set forth to be
a propitiation, a mercy seat through faith in his blood. Now the significance of the ark
is this. God said, there I'll meet with
you. The only place God's going to
meet with me is in the ark. And he said, I'll have communion
with thee. What a glorious thing to be allowed,
to be privileged, to have communion with the living God. Oh, the
significance of the ark. Now, before the Philistines had
taken it into their country, they paid a kind of religious
homage to it. Look back in chapter four, beginning in verse five. So when the ark of the covenant
of the Lord came into the camp, verse five, all Israel shouted
with a great shout so that the earth rang again. Boy, they were
having some kind of religious service here, weren't they? I
mean, there was some shouting going on. They were so happy
and excited about the ark being here. Verse six, and when the
Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, what meaneth
the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And
they understood that the ark of the Lord was coming to the
camp. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God has
come into the camp. And they said, woe unto us, for
there hath not been such a thing heretofore. Woe unto us. Who
shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty gods? These are
the gods that smoke the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.
You see, they knew something about this ark, didn't they?
They knew what happened to the Egyptians in the wilderness,
and they were afraid this is going to happen to us. The Lord
allowed the Philistines to defeat the Israelites, and they carried
the ark back into their country. Now, chapter 5, verses 1 and
2, And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from
Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the
ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon. That was
their god, and they set it by Dagon. Now, why? You know, when
the children of Israel came into other countries, They were told
to destroy their idols. But the Philistines didn't want
to destroy the Ark of God. They put it beside their God. Notice they didn't put it behind
their God. They didn't put it at the feet of their God. They
put it at the side of their God, paying it some sort of religious
homage. They had some fear of the Ark.
They knew what happened with the Egyptians and they thought,
well, we'll tap into his power too. We'll put it alongside of
our God. We'll put them beside each other
and we'll pay respect to their God because we know what he's
done in the past. So there he is in the house of
Dagon, the fish God. Verse three. And when they of
Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold Dagon, was fallen upon
his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. Can you
imagine how eerie that must have been? When they walked in there
and they saw their God on its face right before the ark of
the Lord. And then I think it's almost
funny how the scripture says they set him back up in his place. A God that needs me to set it
back up in its place is not much of a God, is it? No power at
all with that God. A God that needs anything isn't
much of a God. Turn with me, hold your finger
there and turn with me to Isaiah 45. Now remember what idolatry
is. Idolatry, a false God, is a reaction
to hatred to the true God. And therefore we want to change
him and we want to make a God that we feel comfortable with.
A God we can control. A God we can manipulate. It doesn't
have to be material to be a false God. It can be a false God right
in here, right in here. But look at this passage of scripture
in Isaiah chapter 45, where the Isaiah tells us about the making
of idols. Look in verse nine. They that make a graven image
are all of them vanity. Isaiah 44, nine. They that make a graven image
are all of them vanity, and their delectable things shall not profit.
And they are their own witnesses, they see not, nor know, that
they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god or a molten
of graven image that's profitable for nothing? Behold, all of his
fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen thereof men. Let
them all be gathered together, let them stand up, yea, they
shall fear and they shall be ashamed together. The smith with
the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with
hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms. Yea,
he's hungry, and his strength fails. He drinks no water, he's
faint. The carpenter stretches out his
rule, he marks it out with a line, he fits it with planes, and he
marks it out with a compass, and makes it after the figure
of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain
in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and
taketh the cypress, and the oak, which he strengthens for himself
among the trees of the forest. He plants an ash, and the rain
doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to
burn. He'll take it therewith and warm himself, yea, he kindleth
it, he bakes breads, and he makes a god out of the same piece of
wood, and he worships it. He makes a graven image, and
he falls down thereto. He burns part of it in the fire,
and with part thereof he eats flesh. He roasts roasts, is satisfied,
yea, he warms himself, and saith, Aha, I'm warm, I've seen the
fire, and the residue thereof he makes a god. even His graven
image, and He falls down unto it, and worships it, and prays
unto it, and says, Deliver me, for Thou art my God. They've
not known nor understood, for He has shut their eyes that they
cannot see. and their hearts that they cannot
understand, and none considers in his heart. Neither is there
knowledge nor understanding to say, I burn part of it in the
fire. Yea, also I bake bread upon the
coals thereof. I've roasted flesh and eaten
it, and I shall make the residue thereof an abomination. Shall
I fall down to the stalk of a tree? Now that's what's going on there
in the production of idols, and that's what was going on with
this fish god. He falls down before God, And
then they set him back up in his place. Now, a God that needs me for his intentions
to be carried out, he's not much of a God. A God who has to wait
to see what I'll do and him respond to me, that's not much of a God. I love what the Lord said when
he said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. The cattle on a thousand
hills are mine. He's not worshiped with men's
hands as though he needed anything. But they set this God back up. It's almost humorous, isn't it?
They set this God back up. Now back to our text. Look in
verse four. This is the next day. And when
they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen
upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord, This time
it's a little bit more drastic. And the head of Dagon and both
the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold and only
the stump of Dagon was left. His head's cut off to let us
know he's absolutely destitute of wisdom or knowledge or understanding. And his hands are cut off. He has no power. He has no ability
to do. All that's left is the fishy
part. Dagon was a male mermaid who
had been cut in half. Now, they placed the ark beside
an idol, giving the idol equal footing with the ark, making
the ark equal with Dagon. We're paying them both respect.
We're covering all of our bases. Just in case we're wrong on the
one, we'll still be in good standing with the other. We're covering
ourselves. Now, in seeking to honor the
ark of the Lord, all they brought upon him was great dishonor. You see, the Lord can't be compared
with anyone. Any comparison is bringing him
down to our level. Any comparison is humanizing
him, making him just like us. Now, let me try and make this
contemporary. You know, I, I hate it when,
um, when a preacher, uh, says that he's trying to make the
scriptures relevant. We don't make the scriptures
relevant. The scriptures say what they say and we don't make
them relevant. As soon as somebody tries to make the Bible relevant,
he becomes irrelevant himself. This is the word of God that
we bow to. But I do want to look at this
in a contemporary light that it's going to be the same thing. There is the true gospel that
saves, and there is a gospel that does
not save. Now, the only gospel that will
save this sinner, is the gospel of God's sovereign grace. That's
saving grace, electing grace, redeeming grace, regenerating
grace, the father's choice of his people, the son's successful
redemption of his people, God the Holy Spirit giving life. That's the only thing that'll
save this sinner. That's the only one who can save
this sinner. We're talking about the living
God. We're talking about who he is and the trinity of his
persons and how he is all All three persons of the one God
is involved in the salvation of a sinner. And that's the only
way I'll be saved. That's the gospel of God's sovereign grace. And the other quote gospel, small
G, is a gospel somehow that it's left dependent upon me. God has
these intentions that he wants to do. He wants to save me, but
still some part of this salvation is dependent on me. Now to put
those two messages together and to say they're salvation in both.
is to do the same thing the Philistines did when they took the ark and
set it beside Dagon. It's idolatry. If you put these
two gospels besides one another and say there's salvation in
both, you do what the Philistines did, and that won't work. Dagon is going to fall to the
ground. with his head cut off, no wisdom, and his hands cut
off, no power. There's only one gospel. You
believe that? There's only one gospel, the
gospel of God. And oh, may he deliver us from
joining the gospel with Dagon, a man-made God. But I think it's
so powerful to think of them coming in They thought they were
doing God an honor by placing the Ark alongside Dagon. And they come in and they see
his head cut off and his hands cut off face down before the
Ark. That's glorious, isn't it? Our
God is so powerful and so altogether glorious and lovely. Okay, let's
go on reading, verse five. Therefore, neither the priests
of Dagon nor any that came into Dagon's house tread on the threshold
of Dagon and Ashdod. And to this day, they were scared.
They were scared. They were superstitious. I don't know what all was going
on in their mind, but they were, they were afraid to go back into
the temple. But in the meantime, while the Ark is in the land
of the Philistines, and we know from chapter six is there for
seven months, seven months out of the tabernacle in the land
of the Philistines, look at all the things that took place. We
read in verse 6, but the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them
of Ashdod. And he destroyed them and smoked
them with emeralds, even Ashdod and the coast thereof. And when
the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, the ark of
the God of Israel shall not abide with us. We need to get this
out of here. It's just like the Egyptians were. You remember
when they wanted the Israel? Get them out. Get them out. We
want them away from us. That's how they felt because
they saw all the things that were taking place because the ark was there.
What the ark represented the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel
of his grace. Verse seven. And 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 said, 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 into Gath. That's
where Goliath was from, Goliath of Gath. And they carried the
Ark of the God of Israel about thither. Now, what they were
doing, they should have just sent it back in its place. Look
in chapter 6 when their priests are speaking to them about what
to do about getting the ark back to Israel, they say in verse
6 of chapter 6, wherefore then do you harden your hearts as
the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts when he had wrought
wonderfully among them? Did they not let the people go
and they departed? They knew exactly what they were
doing. And the priest said, you just hardened your hearts. You
should have sent it back to Israel right at the first. But they
didn't do it. They thought something would work for them. Verse nine. And it was so that after they'd
carried it about the hand of the Lord was against the city
in a very great destruction. Evidently this one was even worse.
And he smoked the men of the city, both small and great, and
they had emeralds in their secret parts. 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
brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us to slay us
and our people. So 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 its own place. It's got a place where it belongs
in the tabernacle. Let it go again to its own place
that it slay us not and our people for there was a deadly destruction
throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy
there and the men that died not were spent with emeralds and
the cry of the city went up to heaven. Now the Ark, the gospel
has its own place. And you know what that place
is? The place of preeminence. Not to be compared with anything
else. Not to be set beside something else. It's the place of preeminence,
the place of worship, the place that has no rivals. Now the Ark
was the only piece of furniture in the Holy of Holies and you
wouldn't dare put anything beside it. Now listen to me real carefully.
There's one place where God will meet you. There's one place where
God will meet me. That's in His Son. All of God's
blessing, all of God's mercy, all of God's grace, all that
God has for the sinner is in, through, by, and because of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Ark of God, the Ark of the Covenant,
Christ my life. Christ, my necessary food. Christ, my obedience. Ark's got
one place. And we don't set anything or
anyone beside him. All God has for the believer
is in Christ. Now I want to, I want to quote
this scripture. In John chapter 14, verse six,
it's a very familiar scripture. The Lord Jesus said, I am the
way. He didn't say, I am a way. He
said, I am the way. He is the way to the father. If you're in him, you're already
there. He said, I am the truth. Not, I'll show you the truth. I'm it. I am the truth. You want to know the truth? Jesus
Christ is the very truth of God. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He is the truth. He said, I am the way I am the
truth. And I love this. He said, I am
the life. His life, His perfect obedience,
His law keeping, His life before God right now as He lives before
the Father. You know, one thing I can't stand
is when somebody says, Jesus is alive and well. No, He's not
alive. He's life. Big difference. He's not alive like you and I
are. We're alive because he causes
us to be alive. That last breath you took, it's
because he willed that breath for you to go. You're alive because
he said, stay alive. He has life in himself. Just
as God has life in himself, he has life in himself because he
is God. He said, I am the life. No man. comes to the Father,
but by me. That means, my dear friends,
when He comes to the Father, I come to the Father. It doesn't
mean I come to the father and say, hear me for his sake, although
I do, I do, but that's not what that means. That means when he
comes to the father in the glory of his person being accepted
altogether, lovely before his father, I come to because I am
in him. The ark, the Lord Jesus Christ,
may God deliver us from ever putting him beside Dagon. A deadly destruction took place
when that happened and a deadly destruction will take place for
us if we do something like that. May the Lord deliver us from
that and give all glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, next
week we're going to consider how they sent the ark back to
Israel. It's a very interesting chapter,
and if you can, read 1 Samuel chapter 6 this week, and we'll
consider that once again. Okay, thanks.