Amen, all right.
Well, we're here in first Samuel chapter five,
and we have much of a shorter chapter this evening.
So we'll try not to be too long this evening.
But if you remember last chapter,
the Israelites were destroyed multiple times in battle.
And after their first defeat,
they wanted to seek to the Ark of God,
but they were actually not just wanting the Ark of God
because of what it represented,
but they were saying, man, maybe this Ark can save us.
Maybe it can save us.
And as a result, the Israelites were destroyed
because of that, and Eli died, his sons died.
Really, this is a very low point in Israel's history here.
This is a sad time for them.
The glory of God has departed from them.
And that's kind of the thought that we pick up
the story here in 1 Samuel 5.
Let's start reading in verse number one.
It says, and the Philistines took the Ark of God
and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.
So you remember that the Israelites were destroyed so bad
that the Ark of God was actually taken from them
and is now in the hands of the enemies of the Lord,
people that are not saved.
They now have the Ark of the Covenant.
They have the Ten Commandments.
You know, they have these holy items.
And I want you to see first of all this evening,
number one, the false religion of the Philistines.
The false religion of the Philistines.
Notice in verse two, it says,
when the Philistines took the Ark of God,
they brought it into the house of Dagon.
Now Dagon is their false God that they worship.
And of course we know from the New Testament
that the Bible says that pretty much any idol,
any false God, when people are worshiping a false God,
what they're actually worshiping is the devil.
So here the Bible says it's the house of Dagon,
but we know that really they have now just taken
the Ark of God into the house of the devil.
And they're worshiping the devil
with the Ark of God in the midst.
Notice and it says, "And set it by Dagon."
And so, you know, what a blasphemous picture this is,
to take something that's holy, that's separated,
that's consecrated to God,
and they bring it into their demonic little temple
and they put it by the idol of their false god, Dagon.
That's where the Ark of the Covenant is.
Look at verse three, it says,
"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 notice this, they took Dagon
and set him in his place again.
And this really is a picture of all false religion.
Because what man wants to do,
rather than submit themselves to the Lord,
is they wanna create a god,
they wanna create a religion that they can manipulate,
that they can be in charge of,
that they can make the rules for.
And you know, worshiping the god of heaven
is a lot different than worshiping some little statue
that could fall down and you could put back on the shelf.
Because the little fake false god
that you could put back on the shelf
isn't gonna tell you how to live your life.
He doesn't know all your thoughts.
He can't see everything at all times.
You know, he's just a convenient little god for the world.
And you know, this is what a lot of false religions
are like today.
Go to Psalm 115, Psalm 115,
and think about the mentality of the Philistines here.
They just came off of a victory.
So they're on an emotional high.
They stole the Ark of the God of Israel.
They put it in the house of their false god, Dagon.
You got to imagine that these guys are feeling pretty big
and bad at this point.
They're probably feeling pretty prideful thinking,
you know, who is this God?
Is he really as tough as other nations
have made him out to be?
I mean, look, we just stole his Ark
and he doesn't even seem to care.
Well, look at Psalm 115 verse two.
It says, "Wherefore should the heathen say,
where is now their God?"
Don't you think that's probably what the Philistines
are saying at this point when they've stolen the Ark of God?
But look at verse three, it says,
"But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased."
Here's the thing, the God of Israel, the God of the Bible,
he's not a God you could just put up on a shelf.
Our God is the God of heaven
and he has done whatsoever he has pleased.
So look, if you got the Ark of God,
that's only because the Lord allowed you to do that.
If you destroyed the children of Israel in battle,
it's only because God allowed them to do that.
And so you can see a huge difference
between the true God, our God,
and all the other false gods of this world, all the idols.
Look what it says in verse four, it says,
"Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands."
And really every false religion in the world
is a combination of the work of man's hands
and the work of the devil's hands.
That's really what false religion is.
It's either something that the devil
has tricked man into believing
or something that man out of his own wicked heart
has just invented.
False religion is that which man makes with his own hands.
And every single false religion in this world,
what they teach as the way to salvation,
as the way to getting to heaven,
is the work of their own hands, right?
What does Mormonism teach?
That you have to be a good person
in order to get the highest level of eternal life,
of the telestial kingdom.
You know, 'cause they believe in three levels of heaven.
What do the Catholics believe?
That you have to do good works to get to heaven.
Every false religion is just like this,
it's the work of men's hands.
And then worshiping Dagon is no different
at the end of the day than being a Catholic,
or being a Buddhist, or being a Mormon,
or anything like that.
Look at verse five, it says,
"They have mouths, but they speak not."
See, if you were to look at Dagon,
if you were to look at their false little idol,
you would see something that resembles a mouth.
You'd probably see some lips.
You'd see some sort of facial features.
But guess what?
Dagon's never going to talk to you.
Let's keep reading.
Eyes have they, but they see not.
They have ears, but they hear not.
Noses have they, but they smell not.
They have hands, but they handle not.
Feet have they, but they walk not.
Neither speak they through their throat,
as they don't have a throat.
They, this is the verse that I really like.
Look at verse eight.
They that make them are like unto them.
So is everyone that trusteth in them.
Notice the Bible's describing what an idol is like.
It's dumb, it's deaf, it's blind, it's lame.
It can't do anything.
And it's really foolish, stupid, inanimate.
It does nothing, right?
And guess what?
The people that make idols and that trust in idols
are exactly like the idol itself.
And of course we know that it's speaking spiritually here.
'Cause obviously we see people around this world
believing in false religions.
They could talk, they could hear.
But here's the thing.
Spiritually though, they're just like Dagon
where they can do absolutely nothing.
They can hear absolutely nothing.
And you might think that this is kind of a silly analogy
that the Bible's giving.
Yet we have 1.3 billion Catholics in this world
that are trusting in idols that are bowing down
before statues.
It might as well be the statue of Dagon
because it's just as much of an idol
and just as much of an abomination in the sight of God.
God feels the same exact way about Dagon, the false God,
as he does about crucifixes
where they make an idol of Jesus Christ dying on the cross.
That's a wicked false idol.
And people that would trust in idols
and think that idols are somehow divine
or somehow gonna take them to heaven,
you know what, they're just as dumb,
lame, and blind as the idols themselves.
And you know, you go to countries like Mexico,
and when you're crossing back into the border
in the United States, there's tons of Mexicans
that are just trying to sell you everything under heaven.
They're trying to wash your windows.
But you know what most of them are doing?
Most of them are just carrying around
just a ridiculous amount of idols to sell to Americans
going back to the United States.
Why? Because a lot of Catholics in the United States
visit their Catholic Mexican family members in Mexico.
And what are these Catholics doing?
Well, they're trusting in idols.
1.2 billion Hindus on this earth
are just like the Philistines here.
520 million Buddhists.
All of these religions practice idolatry.
And while idolatry isn't something
that we really see a ton of in our day-to-day life
here in the Bible Belt in Oklahoma,
we do still see some of it,
but you gotta realize that there's other parts of the world
where like this is everywhere.
When you go to Mexico, who's ever been to Mexico before?
Okay, a few people.
When you go to Mexico, when you're soul-winning there,
I am not kidding, every single street
you will see an idol of Mary.
Every single street you will see some sort of Catholic effigy
or some sort of Catholic statue,
and a lot of this world is like this.
A lot of Asia is like this, where idolatry is just rampant.
Now, go to Romans chapter number one,
and keep your place in the sermon
throughout first Samuel five.
Of course, that's our text this evening.
But also keep your place in Romans chapter one,
'cause we're gonna go here a couple times
throughout the sermon.
Romans chapter number one,
we're talking about false religion here.
Look at Romans one verse 18, it says,
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
"against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
"who hold the truth in unrighteousness."
Verse 19, "Because that which may be known of God
"is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them."
So notice, God has made manifest certain things
about himself to every single person on this earth.
It says right here, "For God hath showed it unto them."
What is it that God showed them?
Look at verse 20, "For the invisible things of him
"from the creation of the world are clearly seen."
So there's things that you could see that are invisible
about God, but by looking at creation,
you can clearly see these things.
What are they?
Being understood by the things that are made,
even specifically, number one, his eternal power,
and number two, his Godhead,
even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse.
Here's what you have to understand
about every single human being on earth.
When God creates us, God does not create man being an atheist
because God has revealed from his creation
certain things that are obvious,
that are manifest, that are clearly seen,
and that are revealed to mankind through the Lord.
What are they?
Well, by looking at creation itself,
you can understand two things.
You can understand that there's an eternal, powerful God.
You can understand that he's powerful and that he's God.
That's what you can understand
because any person looking at creation
will automatically realize
that this did not come into being by itself.
You know, I went to the Mercedes-Benz factory museum
in Germany earlier this year,
and I'm looking at all these awesome,
beautifully engineered cars,
and no one goes to this museum thinking like,
wow, this Mercedes just like got wrapped up by a tornado
and just got landed here,
perfectly ready to go on the Autobahn at 170 miles an hour.
Like how great is this?
No, everyone knows that some German dude
created the Mercedes-Benz.
Everyone knows that the Ford vehicle
was created by a dude named Henry Ford.
No one looks at things that are created
and say like that came out of nowhere.
No one looks at this world and thinks,
oh, this came from nothing.
Something has to happen to you
for you to come to that conclusion, but it's not natural.
And here's the thing, no one naturally thinks
that some little statue, that some little idol
is the thing that created this world.
You know, you have to be blinded
in order to think something like that.
You have to be deluded in your mind.
You have to be lied to from what nature itself even reveals.
When you're looking at something
and you're pouring milk on it and you're pouring food on it,
like a lot of places in this world do, like India,
and you're thinking like, huh, it's weird
that this thing can't eat or drink,
but somehow it created the world.
Somehow it's gonna give me eternal life.
That's insane.
That's absolute insanity.
But look what happens here.
It says in verse 21, because that,
notice, when they knew God,
every single person in this world,
at some point in their life,
in some shape or fashion, knows God.
Even if it's just knowing that there's a creator.
That is what God reveals to all people.
When they knew God, what happens?
They glorified him not as God.
They made a decision not to accept the truth
that's in front of their faces and seek more truth.
And hopefully, here's the thing.
If you have seen some truth, you believe that truth.
And in your heart, you want to seek more truth,
you will end up believing in Jesus Christ.
All that seek will find.
But here's the thing, when you look at basic truths
that God has revealed to you,
like the fact that there's a creator and you reject that,
well, then maybe you won't hear a clear gospel presentation
because you've already rejected the small bit of truth
that God has already revealed to you.
You know, I'm not preaching about reprobates tonight,
but I just want to say this thing.
There's a false misconception about reprobates
that every single reprobate has heard
a clear presentation of the gospel, and that is not true.
But I will tell you this.
Every single reprobate has been given some truth by God.
And when any person rejects any truth given to them by God,
then they're in danger of going down the road
of becoming a reprobate.
That is what this Bible's explaining here in this chapter,
is that God's revealed these things to everyone,
but these specific people, they rejected it,
they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful,
but notice became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened.
Now here's the thing, I'm not saying that every single person
that worships idols is a reprobate,
but I will say that every single person that worships idols
is vain in their imaginations.
It's meaningless to imagine that this idol
is doing anything for you spiritually.
And it says right here,
and their foolish heart was darkened.
Can we all agree that every person that worships idol
is a fool, because what a foolish thing
that this thing that can't talk, hear, speak,
taste, see is somehow divine
or somehow helping you spiritually.
And notice what they did in verse 23.
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God
into and what image made like to corruptible man
into birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.
This is what false religion does.
It rejects the truth of God.
It rejects the glory of God and it changes it.
It perverts it into something else.
Specifically, what do people often change it to?
To a corruptible what?
Image, to an idol.
That's why you see so much idolatry in this world
is because there's so many people in this world
that have been, had truth revealed to them
but they reject that and they pervert that
into something corruptible like an idol.
Now, go to Matthew chapter number 28.
Matthew chapter number 28.
People do not want a real God, the real God to submit to.
They want a little idol.
They want a little daigon that it could fall over.
They could put it back up.
Why?
Because false religion wants to be in charge.
False religion, man wants to make the rules.
We wanna make things of our own hands
and we wanna be the ones in charge.
That's what false religion does.
But you know what?
There's even people within the realms of Christianity
that do this to an extent
where they wanna pervert the truth of Christianity.
They wanna pervert what the Bible says
to make it to where man is still in charge.
They wanna take away the authority from scripture
and they wanna bring it to someone else
so that they could just put their little spiritual daigon
on their pulpit and control things the way they want to.
Look at Matthew chapter number 28.
Now, who I'm talking about that's a very specific
example of this is a guy named Andy Stanley.
And I preached a whole sermon on this guy recently
at Faithful Word.
I highly recommend you go listen to that sermon.
But this is a person that wants to make a manmade religion.
He claims to be a Christian.
This guy is not a Christian.
He preached this sermon, and it was called, I believe,
encouragement and discouragement.
It was something similar to that.
But this was his text verse in his sermon.
Matthew 28, are you there?
Look at verse 18.
It says, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,"
this is the part he focuses on,
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo,
I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world, amen.
Now, this is a passage that's very familiar to us.
This is the Great Commission.
This is where Jesus is giving his desire
for the church to go out, reach people with the gospel,
baptize them, teach them all things
whatsoever he commanded.
Well, Andy Stanley focuses on something completely different
when it comes to this passage.
Now, I'm not gonna read his whole super, super long quote.
I'm just gonna take out some parts that I wanna focus on,
but if you wanna hear the full context
and everything that he preached,
you can listen to my sermon
that I preached at Faithful Word.
He said this, Andy Stanley said,
and then Jesus begins his farewell address
with what I, in my opinion,
I think this is the most important
and the most overlooked statement
in the entire New Testament, maybe in the whole Bible.
So according to Andy Stanley,
the Great Commission is the most overlooked passage
in the Bible, which I would say
that this is like the passage that every church cares about
or at least pretends to care about,
and how every church basically models their church
is more about getting people saved in church
than it is about preaching the whole council of God.
So it's like the Great Commission
is what churches are pounding behind the pulpit.
Whether they're doing it the correct way is another story,
but this is not an overlooked passage in the Bible, okay?
Every church knows this passage.
But he says this, he's quoting it.
He says, "All authority in heaven and on earth."
Heaven and on earth, that's pretty much everything, right?
Heaven to earth, all authority in heaven and earth,
how many times is he gonna say it?
"Has been given me by my Father to me."
Your savior, my savior, if you're a Christian,
claimed to be the ultimate authority.
Or, to put it in another way, if you use this language,
the Bible says that Jesus is our ultimate authority,
not the Bible.
So what is he doing here?
He's trying to mess with the minds of his congregation.
Because, of course, when we read that all authority
has been given to Jesus Christ, we agree with that,
we rejoice in that, we're like, yeah, of course,
he's God, right?
But then he says, notice, this doesn't say
that all authority is given to the Bible,
it's given to Jesus Christ.
So what he's trying to do in the minds of his audience
is he's trying to disassociate these two things,
Jesus Christ and the Bible.
Whereas we know that in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was God.
So we know that Jesus Christ is the word of God.
You can't disassociate these two things.
So when Jesus said, all power has been given unto me,
yeah, we believe that.
And we believe that this book right here
is the words of Jesus Christ.
And so if all power has been given to Jesus Christ,
then everything in here is the final authority.
That's the actual logical conclusion
to believing that Jesus has all authority.
But he says, no, I want you to separate these two things.
He says this, that the Bible infers,
if you just take the Bible as if the Bible had a voice,
the Bible proclaims that Jesus, your Savior, your King,
is your ultimate authority.
More importantly, Jesus said that Jesus
is our ultimate authority and ignoring the implications
of this statement is how church leaders have gotten by
with so much harmful nonsense,
century after century after century.
So notice, he's upset that churches are giving authority
to the word of God and not to Jesus,
which we know they're the same things.
And he says, by churches giving the authority
to the word of God, that they've gotten away
with harmful nonsense.
How blasphemous to say that, to say that someone that's giving heed to the word of God is preaching
harmful nonsense.
But you know what Andy Stanley is?
He's a false prophet that has created a perversion of Christianity that he wants to make his own
little God that he can control.
Because you say, "Oh, okay, so the Bible's not the final authority, Jesus is."
Okay, well where is Jesus today?
Is Jesus preaching the sermons at his church?
Is Jesus leading the songs?
Is Jesus the pastor of his church?
No, he's not.
You know how Jesus has remained as the head of the church by this being our final authority?
That's the only way you could have Jesus as the head of the church.
But here he makes his little false daigle that he sets up and says, "You know what?
The Bible's not the final authority, just basically whatever Andy Stanley says is the
final authority."
He says, "Because somebody like me, because I'm so well acquainted and well versed in
the verses of the Old and New Testament, somebody like me can use and misuse, apply and misuse
apply the Bible in such a way that I can justify pretty much anything you want to do."
Speak for yourself, man.
When I'm preaching, when I'm writing a sermon, I'm not thinking, "Well, I know the Bible
so well so I could just abuse and misuse any passage I want to try to pervert the minds
of my congregation."
What a perverted thought that is.
What projecting here that he's doing, leaking of his heart, he says, "I'll find you a verse,
I'll find you a story, I'll find you an implication, I'll find you a loophole."
And you know, this is what Christianity is slowly drifting to become today.
A lot of churches are becoming like Andy Stanley, where they're throwing away the authority of
the Word of God, where they want to make their own false little version of Christianity that
they can have knocked off the shelf and put back up and fashioned any way they want.
They don't want to submit to God.
That's what a lot of Christians have done today.
People want to exalt their opinions, their manmade ideas over what the Bible says.
You know, I saw a good example of this this week because I overheard a group of men today
having a conversation about abortion.
And this group of men were all blue collar Christian ish dudes, conservative dudes.
And half of them are arguing saying that, yeah, you know, I'm pro life.
It's a life in the mother's womb.
You shouldn't kill it.
And then half of the people are saying, well, us men should never, ever vote to do anything
to a woman's body.
We have no authority over what goes on in a woman's body.
It's like, first of all, women shouldn't even be voting at all because the Bible teaches
that they shouldn't be an authority.
Sorry to burst your bubble there, but oh yeah, I'm not worshipping day gone.
I actually have a Bible verse to tell me that in first Timothy two.
I actually have a Bible verse to tell me that in first Corinthians chapter 14.
I actually have a Bible verse to tell me that in first Corinthians 11.
But many Christians say, which is, oh, I just, I mean, men shouldn't be involved in making
decisions for women's bodies.
What if I told you that every law, virtually speaking, is telling you what you can and
cannot do with your body?
Virtually every law on the books is about what you can and cannot do with your body.
Do you know that a speed limit is telling you how fast your body is allowed to make
your vehicle go?
Do you know that laws about assault are telling you when you cannot touch someone or hit someone?
Battery, robbery, burglary, I mean just think of a law.
It's telling you what you can and cannot do with your body.
What a stupid idea, oh well we can't legislate what people do with their bodies.
That's every law.
That's how we even have a society is because we have this thing called first degree murder
which tells you it's not okay to use your body to go kill someone else.
And here we are in Christianity where a bunch of blue collar construction dudes, half of
them are so stupid and ignorant and haven't read their bible because they've been at Dagon
Baptist Church where the pastor has put up a little false idol of love abortion, love
faggots and love women presidents too while we're at it.
That's I mean Andy Stanley, that pretty much sums him up.
That sums up a lot of false Christianity.
Go back to first Samuel chapter number five, first Samuel chapter number five.
You know what, I don't think that the Bible's a bunch of harmful nonsense like Andy Stanley
thinks it is.
I think that the word of God is pure, that the law of the Lord is perfect, and I think
that our world would be so much better if more preachers actually preach what the Bible
said rather than putting up some Dagon for their church.
First Samuel chapter number five, verse three says, "And when they have Ashdod arose early
on the morrow, behold Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the
Lord."
So notice Dagon has been a baste below the ark of God and they took Dagon and notice what
they did and set him in his place again and this is just what people do.
Right?
I mean people will just keep trusting in false religion no matter how many times it fails
them, no matter how many times it screws up their life.
I mean you could have people that they don't want to submit to the Bible, they want to
go get a divorce, right?
And they go get a divorce.
And they go get remarried.
And they get remarried to some random dude.
And that dude goes and bless their kids.
And their kids grow up.
And their kids say, you know, I don't want to go, I don't want to submit myself to the
Bible.
I'm not going to listen to the rules that the Bible has.
I'm going to drink alcohol, become a drunk.
And that person's life gets destroyed too.
That person goes and commits fornication.
They don't listen to what the Bible says.
They have bastard children out of wedlock.
Their life is ruined.
I mean how many times have you seen someone's life just ruined, ruined, ruined.
And it's always the same reason.
Because they're not listening to what the Bible says.
And here you got the philistines.
Their idol falls down and instead of figuring out, huh, I wonder why this idol keeps getting
knocked down.
I wonder why it's below the ark of God.
They're just like, let's put it back up again.
And this is just human nature.
It's just to be stupid and foolish and not to actually look at ourselves and change our
ways and figure out what's wrong with this picture.
They just keep putting Dagon back on its shelf.
Over and over and over again.
Go to Philippians chapter number two, Philippians chapter number two.
But you know this is just a picture of the fact that false religion will always fail you
False religion will fail you and you know what?
Perverted versions of Christianity will also fail you.
A Christianity that tells you no rules, no judgment, do whatever you want, you don't
have to listen to the Bible, that Christianity will fail you.
Your life will be destroyed with that version of Christianity.
But just like Dagon was brought lower than the Ark of God, you know someday every single
person, religion, thing in this world will be brought lower than Jesus Christ and will
acknowledge and exalt Him.
Look at it in Philippians chapter 2 verse 9, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted
Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Someday every single knee that God ever created in the history of humanity will bow before
the Lord Jesus Christ and acknowledge Him as being God, as being the true Lord.
You know, someday every single day gone will be cast down to the ground before the great
ark of the Lord, before the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so you know what?
It would be so much better for people to quit just putting their idol back up on the table
and just before that happens, acknowledge him as the supreme God before that.
Go to first Samuel chapter number five, first Samuel chapter number five.
We saw the false religion of the Philistines.
Number two, let's look at the humiliation of the Philistines.
Verse four, "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."
So notice, Dagon, he fell down, they put him back up.
He falls down before the ark of God.
This time though, his head and his hands are cut off.
It doesn't say that they broke off.
When I picture this story, I don't picture Dagon falling down and just kind of looks like
a broken piece of glass.
No, it's cut off.
I picture this as just being a complete, smooth, clean cut to where you walk up to this thing
and you know this is not normal, what just happened.
This is not some natural thing where a cup falls over and it breaks.
It's like it was cut off.
I mean do you see what the Bible says there?
Cut off upon the threshold.
Now go to Hebrews chapter number 12, Hebrews chapter number 12.
We kind of see here that you know God's trying to get the attention of the Philistines.
He knocks it over.
They put it back up.
He knocks it over.
They put it back up.
They knock it over and then God actually cuts the head and the hands off that.
And I think this could be a picture of a couple different things.
Number one, it could be a picture of God's increasing anger with the wicked and that
in the end times, God's going to get more and more and more angry with the world and
is going to punish them greatly.
But even Christians who he's not punting, punishing us out of hatred or anger or anything
like that.
Sometimes when we despise the chastening of the Lord, you know, your life can go from
just maybe being knocked down and brought back up and knocked down and brought back
up when you're not listening over and over, you know, things might start getting cut off.
It might start getting worse and worse and worse to where, you know, God's humiliating
and upping the ante here.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse 5, it says, "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which
speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of him."
So notice we shouldn't hate or not want to endure or not want to deal with God punishing
us.
You know, we should embrace it when that happens.
We should be accepting of it when God decides to punish us, and we shouldn't faint when
we're rebuked of him.
We shouldn't get tired of hearing the scripture.
We shouldn't get tired of hearing preaching that steps on our toes.
You know, when God does that, we should embrace that.
Verse 6, 4, meaning why, "For because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth."
So of course, because God loves us, because he's a good heavenly father, he disciplines
his children.
By the way, fathers that actually love their kids will spank their kids.
Mothers that actually love their children will spank their children.
That's not a bad thing.
That's actually a very loving thing to do.
But the idea is that when your parents spank you, you're being corrected and you actually
make a change.
You actually stop doing the action that got you spanked, or you start doing the action
that your parents want to do.
Same thing with God.
When God corrects us, it's because he's trying to change something in our lives.
Look at verse 7, "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all our partakers, then are ye bastards and
not sons.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit,
that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward, notice, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby.
So while chastening is not fun, the Bible's saying, it's not going to be pleasant, it's
not going to be enjoyable, you're not going to be like, "Yeah, I'm being punished by God."
But here's the thing, if you actually exercise the thing that God wants you to do, if you
actually change, your life is going to produce something that every single human being wants.
Peace.
And you know, there's a big difference between two people where one has peace and one doesn't.
I mean, peace is just such a wonderful thing to have.
Even when things are hard, even when you're going through trials, when you just know that
you're right with God, when you just know that your family's right with God, you know,
you can have peace.
You can put your head on the pillow at night and sleep like a baby.
But you know, when you just don't pay attention to or you don't endure the chasing that God
gives you and he's knocking things down in your life and you're just putting it back
up, he's knocking things down in your life, you're just putting it back up, you know,
he might have to start cutting things off to really get your attention.
And I don't know about you, I'd rather just be pushed over and stand back up than get
my arm chopped off.
Because there's a difference between standing up and getting some, you know, grass off you
than throwing a tourniquet on your life and stopping you from bleeding out and just dying.
There's a big difference between these two scenarios and I want to be punished by God
as little as possible, so you know what, God just comes up to me and just shoves me a little
bit, it's just going to be like, "Yes, Lord, I'll stop right now."
I'm not going to wait until he gets out the sword and starts chopping things off in my
life.
Let's go to 1 Samuel chapter number five, verse four, number three, let's look at the
unrepentance of the Philistines, the unrepentance of the Philistines, verse four, "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," notice this, "upon
the threshold," that's going to be important in a minute, "only the stump of Dagon was
left to him."
Therefore, so because of the fact that Dagon was destroyed again, cut off upon the threshold,
because of that, neither the priests of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread
on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod unto this day.
So notice, here the Philistines, they recognize and they understand that God is doing this.
And here's the thing, they even change their behavior to prove it.
They're saying like, "Whoa, we see Dagon getting knocked down here, and his head and his arms
are cut off upon the threshold.
And since God did that, since God lowered him upon the threshold, we're never going
to step on this threshold ever again."
And what are they doing?
They're getting superstitious.
They're recognizing that this is the act of God.
But notice, they didn't repent as far as changing where they were putting their trust.
They repented of just like, "Okay, we're going to stop stepping in this place."
And you know what, this story, it should have been that they come in, they see Dagon's fallen
on the ground, his head's cut off, his arm's cut off, they see him upon the threshold,
and then they decided to believe in the God of Israel and believe that he's the true God
and believe that he's the powerful one.
But instead, they continue in their hard-heartedness, in their impenitent heart, and they just continue
going on, worshiping Dagon, but the only change they made is they just don't step on that
threshold.
Now, I told you to keep your place in Romans 1.
Let's go back there real quick, Romans 1, "Stories like this help me understand parts
of Romans 1."
Look at verse 21, "Because that," Romans 1 verse 21, "Because that when they knew God."
Did the Philistines here know who's doing this?
Did they understand that this is God?
Yes, they did, but notice, they glorified Him not as God.
That's the difference.
"Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart
was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory
of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, to birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things."
This is the same path that every single human soul goes down that someday ends up in hell.
They know God, but they choose not to glorify Him as God.
Even if people are almost all the way to the truth, where they believe in Jesus Christ,
but they also believe you have to repent of your sins, you have to live a good life, they're
still not fully giving the glory to God.
They want to share that glory with themselves.
Then you have other religions that completely just reject the glory of God altogether, like
Islam, they want to worship Mohammed and say that Jesus was just a good guy, that he was
just a prophet, not that he's God.
Or you got the Philistines, where they know God, they know God's doing this, but did they
stop worshiping Dagon?
No, they didn't.
And so here we see the unrepentance of the Philistines.
Look at Romans chapter number two, Romans chapter number two, if you flip the page.
You know who else was a lot like this?
Jews.
Jews are exactly the same way where they knew God, but they chose not to glorify him as
God.
Look at Romans two, verse one.
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things.
But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit
such things.
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do it, which do such things and
doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God, notice, or despisest thou
the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance.
Now think about this story in 1 Samuel 5.
Spoil alert, at the end of the story, God punishes them really, really bad with emirats
which we are going to get to in a minute.
But before that, what happened?
There was lots of longsuffering shown by God.
There's lots of kindness shown by God where God's showing them, "Hey, I'm the true God.
I'm knocking down your false idol.
Hey, I'm knocking it down again.
Hey, I'm cutting off the head and off the arms."
But did the goodness of God lead them to true repentance?
No, it didn't.
Same thing with the Jews.
God sent them prophet after prophet after prophet in the Old Testament to preach unto them,
to tell them of the coming Messiah.
And did the Jews accept that when Jesus came?
Nope, they didn't.
God's goodness and long-suffering did not lead them to repentance.
But what happened to them, verse 5, "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart," meaning
it's not repentant, "but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurous up unto thyself
wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will
render to every man according to his deeds."
Here is the truth, here is the reality of our world, the more truth that God reveals
to someone, the more light that is shown in a human heart, in a human's heart, the more
punishment that person is going to receive from God.
Here's the thing, just looking at creation alone is enough to tell you that there's a
God and that he's powerful.
And if you reject that alone, you will go to hell.
But you know who's going to go to the lowest hell?
People that saw Jesus Christ in the flesh, face to face, and rejected him, those people
are going to have a much worse hell to go to.
And here are the Philistines, they're given, you know, mercy, long suffering, kindness
from God, but you know what's going to end up happening to them?
God's going to render to them according to their deeds.
And that's what we're going to see for the rest of this chapter.
Go back to 1 Samuel chapter number five.
Number four this evening, notice the punishment of the Philistines.
The punishment of the Philistines, look at verse six of 1 Samuel five, "But the hand
of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and smote them with
emrods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof."
Now what are emrods?
Let's get into this.
Skip down to verse nine for a minute, "And it was so that after they had carried it out,
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 emrods in their secret parts."
This isn't very fun.
This isn't very nice.
This doesn't sound like a pleasant situation, but you know what's happening?
God's rendering to the Philistines according to their deeds.
He's paying them back for having such an impenitent heart.
Now go to Psalm 78.
Psalm chapter 78 refers back to this story in 1 Samuel chapter 5, and the Bible's going
to kind of explain even more about this topic that we don't really want to know much more
about, but hey, no one can say that the Bible's boring, because this is not boring, that's
for sure.
Psalm 78 verse 60, "So he that forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed
among men," verse 61, "and delivered his strength into captivity," that's the ark going into
captivity from the Philistines, "and his glory into the enemy's hand," the glory's been
departed from Israel, verse 62, "he gave his people also over unto the sword, and was wrought
with his inheritance," he's angry at Israel, they lose in battle, verse 63, "the fire consumed
their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage, their priests fell by the
sword, and their widows made no lamentation, then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,
and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine, and he smote his enemies in the hinder
parts, he put them to a perpetual reproach."
That's some punishment right there, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.
You know what hemorrhoids are?
It's hemorrhoids I think, that's pretty much what I think this situation is talking about.
That's crazy right?
But that's what God did to punish the Philistines.
And I'm telling you, Jesus Christ, God, the God of the Bible is a God to be feared.
The Bible says that he's terrible, not meaning that he's bad, but he's one that invokes terror.
Why?
Because you cross him, he can just strike you with hemorrhoids.
Man, that doesn't sound fun, but you see the more that God gives to someone, the more that
he reveals to someone, the worse punishment you're going to get.
Go to Romans chapter number one, Romans chapter number one, here's the thing.
God still punishes people like this today.
God still punishes people with all sorts of gross, nasty diseases in terrible ways that
you would never want to happen to you, but he doesn't do it for no reason.
He does it because they knew God and they glorified him not as God.
They knew the truth and they rejected it and they rejected it and they rejected it.
And because of that, look at Romans 1 verse 24, "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness
through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed
the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator
who is blessed forever.
Amen."
For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections.
He's saying, "The people that hated me, the people that rejected me, that despised the
like that I gave them, I'm going to give them up unto vile affections."
What's vile?
Something that's gross.
Something that's disgusting.
Something that you would never want naturally.
He says, "For," now it's going to specifically explain what he's talking about, "even their
women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.
And likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one
toward another.
Men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense
of their error, which was meat."
But notice, with our story in 1 Samuel 5, they're rejecting, rejecting, rejecting, they're
not getting the message, finally God smokes them with a serious punishment.
Here in Romans chapter 1, you have people that know God, they glorify Him not as God,
they don't believe in Him, they reject Him, they reject Him.
Finally God rejects them back, God gives them up to a reprobate mind, and God gives them
up to vile affections.
Then the Bible explains what those vile affections are.
He causes women to start burning in their lust towards other women.
He causes men to start burning in their lust towards other men.
You want to talk about a vile thing.
You want to talk about a disgusting thing.
And here's the thing, God still punishes people in terrible ways today.
It's called every single sodomite, every single faggot, every single tranny in our world is
a walking person that's being punished by God.
The world wants to tell you, Oh, homosexuals are born that way.
Oh, you know, we should just love them because of course, I mean, who's to judge someone
because who they love.
Let me tell you why homos like the same gender.
It's because they rejected God.
And as a result, God punished them with the disgusting vile affection of having affections
towards the same gender.
This is something that's not natural.
This is something that's not normal.
It doesn't just you're born and you just happen to be gay.
No, you went down a long road of despising the truth, rejecting the truth and finally
God gives you over to those things.
Verse 28, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them
over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient."
We need to reject the brainwashed mentality of our world that every HR department wants
you to think that, "Hey, we should never discriminate against someone," and then they'll list all
these things, their age, their country of origin, their financial status, their sex,
all these things, their marital status, and then they'll just throw in, "And if they're
a filthy faggot too."
It's like, "Hold on a second.
One of these things is not like the rest."
It's like we played this game in kindergarten where it'll show like an elephant, a giraffe,
a deer, a dog, and a building, and it's like, "Which one of these is not like the rest?"
It's like, "Yeah, don't discriminate someone because of what color they are, because they
were born that way.
Yeah, don't discriminate against someone because they're old, because everyone gets old, but
you want to know why someone is a faggot, why someone is a disgusting sodomite is because
they hate God, and you better believe I'm going to discriminate against someone that
hates God, that rejects God.
No, I don't like them, no, I'm not going to love them, tolerate them, accept them because
the fact that they are who they are tells me that they hate the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go back to 1 Samuel chapter number five, 1 Samuel chapter number five, 1 Samuel chapter
number five verse seven, "And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, 'The
ark of God.'"
Notice, "The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for His hand is sore upon
us and upon Dagon our God.'"
Did they know who was messing with them or what?
They knew.
Lastly, number five, I want to show you the sending away of the ark.
The sending away of the ark, look at verse number eight, "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 you know, this question is the question that every single human soul has to answer
someday.
God has revealed Himself to every single person.
There's no excuse not to believe in Him, but you know what a person has to do?
A person has to make the decision to believe in the God of Israel.
A person has to make the decision to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation,
not their false religion, not Dagon, not the Catholic church, not the Mormon church, not
your good works, not repenting of your sins, but trusting in Jesus Christ.
And every single person has to ask themselves, "Hey, what shall we do with the ark of the
God of Israel?"
Keep reading.
It says, "And they answered, 'Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto
Gath.'"
And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about Lither.
Isn't this the reaction most people have when they're posed with this question?
"Hey, what are you going to do about the ark of the God of Israel?"
"Oh, send it down.
Send it down that way.
Send it away.
Send it away."
They don't want it.
They don't want to deal with it.
They don't want to face this question.
Let's keep reading verse nine.
"And it was so that after they had 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 emrods in their secret parts.
Therefore, they sent the ark of God to Echron, and it came to pass, as the ark of God came
to Echron, that the Echronites cried out, saying, 'They've brought about the ark of
the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
They're freaking out.'"
Verse 11.
"So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines.
So now the people of Echron, they're saying, 'Hey, why did you send this to Echron?
Now we're getting wrecked here.
Hey, what are we going to do now about the Ark of Israel?'"
Now they're asking themselves this question.
Notice what they say, "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."
Now we're going to close here in a minute.
Turn to Luke chapter number 13.
So what do we have in this final part of the chapter here?
You know this great question is posed to them, "What are we going to do with the Ark of Israel?"
And their reaction is the reaction that's most common to human nature and it's not to
actually think about it and say, "You know what?
Here's a crazy idea.
Why don't we just trust in the God of this Ark of Israel?
Why don't we start worshipping Him?
Why don't we forsake Dagon?
Why don't we have real repentance where we don't just not walk on this threshold anymore
but we actually change where our trust is in our hearts?
What do they do?
They just send it away.
Isn't this a lot like soul winning where you can knock on someone's door and this person
by the way their life is probably terrible because when you're not saved, let me just
tell you something, your life is terrible.
I can't tell you how many stories I've heard in the last week of people's lives destroyed
by alcohol and divorce and drugs and having bastard children.
Let me just tell you when you're knocking on someone's door that's unsaved, chances
are this person's life sucks and then it's completely jacked up and you say, "Hey, here's
this Ark, here's God, here's the God of the Bible."
You say, "What are you going to do about this Ark?"
And it's like, "Just send it to the next door."
And just, this makes no sense.
I mean, what a crazy thing.
You're worshiping Dagon, your God sucks so bad he keeps getting knocked over.
Your God sucks so bad his head and his arms are cut off.
Why don't you realize that you're in the wrong camp?
Why don't you realize, Mr. Philistine, that you need to come over and join spiritual Israel?
But you know what?
They don't do it.
Look at Luke chapter 13 verse 23.
This question is asked to Jesus, then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be
saved?
And he said unto them, strive to enter in at the straight gate.
For many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able.
Go to John 15.
This would be the last place you go to this evening.
Jesus has asked, hey, are there few that be saved?
And in short answer, you know, Jesus said, yes, there are few people that actually get
saved.
And, you know, just get used to the fact that if you know the truth, if you're saved this
evening, if you're a soul winner, just get used to the fact that every door you knock
is not going to get saved.
And not every family member you preach the gospel to is going to get saved.
It's a sad reality.
I mean, think about it.
When my grandfather died, this kind of hit me for the first time, like, wow, I go out
and talk to all these random people every week and their family members don't care about
them enough to get them the gospel.
I'm getting some random grandma saved.
I'm getting some random person's brother or sister or whatever saved.
But it's like, but my grandpa goes to hell.
That's just the reality.
You know, that's what Jesus said.
And I'm not trying to discourage you with that fact, but I just want you to live in
reality and just realize most people will reject the ark.
And some people don't even want to get saved because they realize that their family members
are also unsafe.
It's like, dude, yes, they're going to reject the ark, but please, you accept it.
You please get saved.
Don't follow after their footsteps there.
John 15, 18, Jesus said, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated
you.
If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you're not of the
world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord.
They have persecuted me.
They will also persecute you.
If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
And you know, we got to remember is that if the Philistines rejected God, when God's literally
cutting the head off of their idols and the Ark is before them, their God's being debased
before the Ark of God, if those people reject God, people are often going to reject us too.
And if people that looked at the Lord Jesus Christ and saw him in his earthly ministry
and still didn't believe on him, and in fact, not only did they not believe on him, but
they hated him, they despised him.
They lied about him.
They tortured him brutally on a cross.
They killed him.
Yeah.
A lot of people aren't going to just immediately accept us when we come knocking on their door
with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But you know what?
Some people will, some people will, and you know what we're trying to do in life is we're
trying to knock on a door and we're going to hear that person say, nah, send the arc
down.
It's like, whatever.
I'll send the arc down and hit that next door.
That person might actually want to get saved.
That person might actually want to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And yeah, you know, it may not be my grandfather and that sucks, but you know what, it could
be your grandfather.
It could be some random person's grandfather that I'll never meet.
That person might want, might want to get saved.
And so just, Hey, don't let it discourage you that a lot of people are going to reject
the arc.
Just get that arc to everyone you can and just try to get as many people saved as humanly
possible and you know, nuts to whoever doesn't believe in it.
Let's find the ones that do believe in it.
I'll leave you with this verse, Psalm 126, six says he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing
precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with
him.
You know, if you got soul winning and you don't get anyone saved that week, don't let
that discourage you.
Don't let that stop you from being a soul winner.
You preach to your mom, she didn't get saved.
Don't let that stop you from being a soul winner because you know what the Bible says
that if you go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, you will doubtless come again with rejoicing.
A lot of people are going to reject the ark, but we're trying to find the ones that will
accept it.
Let's pray, Lord.
Thank you for this chapter.
Thank you for the exciting stories in first Samuel chapter number five.
I pray that you would use it to inspire us to want to serve you, to want to be on fire
for you, be a soul winner for Jesus and to serve you in any way we can.
Love you.
Pray that you bless our church now.
We love you in Jesus' name.
Amen.