I'd like to read verses 11 through
13. And the ark of God was taken. Israel no longer had the ark
and the two sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas were slain, just
as God said they would be. And there ran a man of Benjamin
out of the army and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes
rent and with earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli
sat upon a seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled
for the ark of God. We'll stop there. Let's pray
together. Lord, we come into your presence
in the high and the holy name of our blessed son. Lord, we look to him only as all in
our salvation. And we ask that we might be enabled. to see something of his glory
and sufficiency and beauty. And that we might be like Mary
and set at his feet and hear his word. How we thank you for
the gospel of your free grace. Lord, how we love the way you
save sinners for Christ's sake. Thank you for the revelation
of yourself. Lord, we confess our sins. We pray for forgiveness
and cleansing. We ask that you would give us
grace to love you more and love one another more. Lord, bless
all your people wherever they meet together. Accept our thanksgiving
through Christ. In his name we pray, amen. Samuel trembled at the
sight of the ark. Now the ark was the first piece
of furniture mentioned in the construction of the tabernacle. God said regarding the ark, which
symbolized and represents the Lord Jesus Christ, He said, there
I will meet with you. and have communion with you."
Now, that's a glorious thing to think about, isn't it? God's
saying, I'll meet with you there, and I'll have communion with
you there. The ark typifies Christ himself. I love the way it's made of gold
and wood. Gold, the absolute deity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's altogether God. Wood representing the humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a real man. That is great
as the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. What a glorious thing to think
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, and that's what the
Ark symbolizes. Now, the Ark was taken, but I
want to kind of take a peek ahead to next week, and you don't need
to worry about the Ark. Look in chapter 5. 1 Samuel chapter
5, 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 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. Don't you love thinking
about that? And they took Dagan and set him
in his place again. I think there's humor in that.
They take their god and set him up. He needs their help to get
him up there. And they get him back up. Verse
4, And when they arose early on the morning, behold, Dagon
was fall'd 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. That
means the fishy part. He was the fish god. That's what
Dagon means, the fish god. And only the stump was left as
he fell. But they had taken the ark of
Israel, and look what their false god does. Now when it's sent
back, Look in verse 19, it's sent back to Israel after the
hand of the Lord was heavy upon all of the land of the Philistines
and many people were killed. Look in verse 19. It's brought
back to Israel and he smote the men of Beth Shemeth because they'd
looked into the ark of the Lord. They came without a priest and
they looked in. Even he smote of the people 50,000
and three score and ten men. When these men were presumptuous
enough to come into the presence of the ark of the Lord and touch
it without a priest. You remember Uzzah when the ark
was being carried on a cart? and it hit a rut in the road
and was about to fall off and Uzzah just put out his hand to
stop it from falling and God killed him. The Ark of the Lord
representing the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Eli had some understanding
of this because we read that his heart trembled for the Ark
of the Lord. His heart trembled. Now, that
trembling is a response to something, isn't it? when you tremble. Have you ever had a fever and
you were freezing? The fever hadn't broke yet and
you were just trembling? Trembling is a response. Have
you ever been afraid? Scared? And because you were
afraid, you trembled. Or perhaps you've been in awe
of something and you trembled. His heart trembled before the
ark of the Lord. Now, this is Worship, really. It's the attitude of worship.
He understood something about this ark. Now, he knew the ark
itself represented something. He wasn't worshiping the ark,
but he was representing the Lord, the ark representing the Lord
Jesus Christ. His heart trembled at what this ark represented. It's a response to something.
You tremble when you rejoice or in awe. Now, this religious
feeling, like any other, can be counterfeited. is trembling
before the ark. You know, there's an entire religious
denomination named the Quakers. You've heard of them, the Quakers.
And the Quakers, where that comes from is where they tremble. They
tremble, they quake in fear. And it could be very similar
to, say, speaking in tongues. There are people who speak in
tongues or quake or these outward religious symbols. It could be
that they sincerely think they're quaking, or they sincerely think
they're speaking in tongues, or it could be that they're just
hard-hearted and putting on and being a phony. Both cases are
true, I'm sure. But the point I'm making is any
religious emotion can be counterfeited quite easily. But this man, Eli,
every time this word trembled is used, it's used with reverence
to trembling before the Lord. It is the fear of the Lord. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Isaiah chapter 65? Isaiah 65. Or actually Isaiah
66. Verse 1, Thus saith the Lord,
The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that you build unto me, and where is the place of
my rest? For all those things have mine hand made, and all
those things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will
I look. And doesn't that interest you?
You want to know who the Lord pays attention to. He tells us,
to this man, and he's going to give a threefold description
of him, to this man will I look, will I have favor toward, my
eye of mercy is toward, even to him that's poor and of a contrite
spirit and trembles at my word. Now, what a description. First
of all, this man the Lord looks to is poor. That means he doesn't
have anything. This is the first beatitude, isn't it? Blessed
are the poor in spirit. They don't have anything. I mean,
they're bankrupt. They're poverty-stricken. They
don't have anything of their own that could recommend them
to God. They're poor. And that word contrite is the
same word that quite often is translated in the Old Testament
lame. It was used to describe Mephibosheth.
He was lame in both of his feet. These people feel like they can't
walk. They're lame. And the third description
is this person that I look to, God says, is one who trembles
at my word. Now this is a hard attitude.
He trembles at my word. It's being the preacher, I can't
look into someone's heart. I realize that. I can't look
into your heart and know what you're thinking. Sometimes I
think I can, but I can't. But you look at different faces,
people's response to the word. I mean, there's some who are
rejoicing in awe, fear. There's some you'll have this
joyless, responseless, blank stare as they hear the Word.
But, oh, may I be someone who always trembles at God's Word. This is the Word of God. And
that's got to be my attitude toward the preaching of His Word. I want to tremble at His Word.
And God said, this is the man I look to. That man who's poor
and in himself he's poverty stricken. He's lame. He feels like he can't
walk. That's the way Mephibosheth was.
Even after he was set at the king's table, he was still lame
in both of his feet. And that's the way this poor
one feels about himself. Poor. and trembles at the Word
of God. What a glorious attitude that
is. You know, when Paul came, turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. This is one of the reasons I admire,
this is one of the reasons I know Eli was a believer. He trembled
at the Word of God. Eli had all kinds of problems
and he brought all kinds of problems in his own life through what
he allowed his sons to do. But he trembled at the Word of
God. And that's what a believer does.
A believer responds to the Word. Now when Paul came to Corinth
preaching, look at his attitude. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness."
Now look, this is Paul's attitude when he came preaching the Word.
I was with you in weakness, conscious of my own weakness. And fear,
fear of misrepresenting the Lord. Fear of preaching myself instead
of Christ Jesus the Lord. Suspicious of myself is what
he's saying. In weakness and in fear and what? Much trembling. Not with his cocksure attitude.
I'm here to dispense my wisdom to you. No, he came in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. Now trembling or reverence is
the actual meaning of the word is an emotional response to God
and His truth. Now, while we despise emotionalism,
we love emotion, don't we? We're emotional creatures, and
we respond in emotion to the Lord. Listen to this scripture.
The Lord reigneth. Let the people tremble. at scripture. We tremble at his
awesome reign. You know, just the fact that
everybody in this room and outside of this room is in his hand and
he can do whatever he's pleased to do with them. He's active
in mercy. He's active in judgment. He's
in absolute control of everybody and everything. You know what
our response to that is? We tremble in fear. We tremble in reverence and fear
of him. Now, what was Moses' reaction
to Revelation? Now, you know, David Pleasure pointed
this out to me, and I thought this was so good. He said, a
lot of times in a worship service, there'll be all kinds of noise
and shouting and amens and yes, yes, and I'm not, discouraging
somebody from response. I say amen. You know, when I
hear something that just moves my heart, amen. That's what we
believe. We rejoice in that. But when
the Lord's speaking, there's silence. I love to be in a worship service
where there's silence. People listening to what God
says, poor, contrite, and trembling. When God appeared to Moses in
the bush, the scripture says Moses trembled and dares not
behold. He was afraid to even look. When
God came down on Sinai to give the law, Moses said, so terrible
was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. In Jeremiah 5.22, we read of
trembling at His presence. And in Jeremiah 33 verse 9, we
even read of trembling for His goodness and His prosperity. I mean, that's a response to
the goodness of the Lord, His grace, the freeness of His grace. There's a response of trembling
at His goodness. Turn with me for a moment to
Mark chapter 5. beginning in verse 25 and a certain
woman which had an issue of blood 12 years she had a menstrual
disease and can you imagine how anemic and weak this woman was
she had this disease for 12 years and she had suffered many things
of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing
bettered, but rather grew worse." Now, isn't that religion? That's
religion. She didn't help her a bit. She actually grew worse. When
she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched
his garment, for she said, if I may but touch his clothes,
I shall be whole and straightway The fountain of her blood was
dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that
plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing
in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned about him
in the press and said, who touched my clothes? He knew who touched
his clothes, but he's going to have this woman confess. And
his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging
thee, and sayest thou who touch me? And he looked round about
to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, look what
it says, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her,
came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. Now that's the response to this
touch. And he said unto her, Daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace, and be whole of
thy plague. Now this attitude of fear and
trembling, it's what happens when God saves somebody, when
he makes himself known. Look at Acts chapter 9 when the
Lord saved Paul. And Saul, verse 1, Acts 9, verse
1, and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against
the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired
of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found
any of this way, the way of grace, the way of Christ, whether they
were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And
as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there
shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the
earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? And he said unto them, who art
thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. Now this is the response to Revelation. And he, trembling
and astonished, said unto him Lord what wilt thou have
me to do I turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 now this is when Paul
had sent Timothy to Corinth and look what look in verse 14 well
first look in verse 7 No, verse 6, nevertheless God that comforted
those that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus. He
had sent Titus to Corinth and Titus came back with this Message. He says in verse 14, For if I
have boasted anything to him of you, I am not ashamed. But
as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting,
which I made before Titus, is found of truth. And his inward
affection of you is more abundant toward you, while he remembered
the obedience of you all, the obedience of the gospel, how
with fear and trembling you received him. This attitude of fear and
trembling. Now, trembling, it wasn't Titus
they were fearing and trembling at. It was the gospel he preached. It was the gospel he brought
to them. and what this attitude of the heart that Eli had before
the ark. Now, turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 6. This attitude is to be with everything
we do. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 5, Be obedient to them that are
your masters according to the flesh. Now this is talking about
your job. Your job. Whatever it is you do. Your way
of employment. Be obedient to them which are
your masters after the flesh. How? With fear and trembling
in singleness of your heart as unto Christ. Christ is your boss. Not them. Yeah, they are under
the Lord's authority, but Christ is your boss. And you do what
you do, not fear and trembling of them, but fear and trembling
of the Lord that makes you do what is right. This attitude
of fear and trembling is to be there at all times. Now, I think
this is what will sum up what we're trying to say. Turn to
Philippians chapter 2. Verse 12, wherefore, my beloved, as you've
always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That's a powerful statement,
isn't it? Work out your own salvation. Now, you know that doesn't mean
salvation's by works. Doesn't have anything to do with
it. But when I say I'm going to work out something, what am
I talking about? There's something I need to give my attention to
and I'm going to work it out. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling and then we're given this assurance for it is
God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. Don't you love that verse? You
have a will to follow Christ. Who put that will there? God
did. He works in you both to will
and to do His good pleasure. We have that assurance, so work
out your own salvation with fear and with trembling. And let's
examine what he's saying in the context of this. Look in verse
1 of Philippians chapter 2. He says, if there be therefore
any consolation in Christ, if any comfort from His love, if
any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill
ye my joy that you be like-minded. Now work that out. Be like-minded
with all of the Lord's people. Have the same mind, the mind
of Christ, the mind of His glory. Work that out. Having the same
love, Love to Christ and love to each other. Work that out.
Being of one accord, having the same desire, the glory and honor
of Christ. Work that out. Anything that's contrary to that,
get rid of it. Work it out. Being of one accord,
of one mind. Look what he says in verse 3.
Let nothing be done through strife, vain ambition, or vain glory,
or self-glory. Work that out. When you see that,
work it out. Ask the Lord to deliver you from
that. Say, Lord, you said it's of you both to will and to do,
thy good pleasure. Work that in me. Work in me both
to will and to do, thy good pleasure. Work it out. But in lowliness
of mind, let each esteem the other as better than themselves. Now you work that out. That's
to be my attitude. I'm to look at you and to think,
they're better than me. They're better than me. And any
thought contrary to that, of true humility, work it out. Work out your own salvation.
Isn't humility beautiful? I don't know of anything more
beautiful than true, genuine humility. Work it out. And then he says, verse 4, look
not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of
others. Well, work that out. You know, what he's talking about
is selfishness. I know something about that.
I know something about that very well. And he says, where you
see that, work it out. Work it out. And when you think
of that, don't think, well, so-and-so needs to hear this. No, you need
to hear this. Remember, the Bible doesn't tell other people what
to do. It tells you what to do. Work it out. Work it out with
fear and trembling. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man on the things of others. Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now, that's what
we work out. Work out your own salvation with
fear and with trembling. Now this is the attitude of Eli
with regard to the ark. Like I said, I know that this
attitude can so easily be counterfeited. I can counterfeit it. You can
counterfeit it. Anybody can. Any religious emotion
can be counterfeited. May the Lord deliver us from
put-on and fake and phoniness, trying to show everybody how
we fear and tremble. But I want, when the Lord looks
in my heart, I want him to see somebody who, by his grace, is
poor. David said, I'm poor and needy. And contrite before the Lord. Feeling yourself to be lame,
unable to walk. Somebody needs to be carried.
That's what Mephibosheth was. He was somebody that needed to
be carried. I love that story. Is there any yet of the house
of Saul that I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake? Remember,
David said that, which represents the gospel. You know that. Is
there any that I can show kindness to for Christ's sake, God says.
And Ziba answered and said, yeah, there's one, but he's not worth
much. He'd have to be carried. He's
lame in both of his feet. Lame through the fall. Lame in
both of his feet. Can't do anything for you. There's
one, but I don't know that you want him. David said, fetch him,
bring him to me. You're going to eat at my table.
And Mephibosheth, that man who was lame in his feet, oh, he
trembled in David's presence, didn't he? Who am I that you'd
look on such a dead dog as I am? He didn't expect anything but
judgment. That's laying on your feet. Oh,
may the Lord make us laying on our feet. Have to be carried
by Him. You see, if He's the one carrying you, you really
get somewhere, don't you? You really move when He's carrying
you. All the other stuff you think, it's false. It's not real.
But when He carries you, you're moving and trembling at His Word. Oh, may the Lord enable you and
I to be just that. Well, we'll pick up with 1 Samuel
chapter 5 next week.