Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
We're going to go ahead and continue our study.
And first Samuel, if you have your Bibles, turn there with me to
1 Samuel, chapter 5, and I'll recap just a little bit of what we
talked about last week.
Last week we studied the defeat of Israel to the Philistines.
The Philistines came in and slayed 30,000 footmen and they took
the ark of God and killed Eli's sons Hophni and Phineas.
And we're the news came to Eli that his sons had been killed and
that the people from Israel had been killed, and particularly
that the ark of God had been stolen.
He fell and died himself.
And so we ended the chapter in Samuel 4 with the words of basically
this woman who is proclaiming that the glory of God was departing
from Israel.
And so we end chapter four with hopelessness.
We end chapter four with depression and despair.
And really we see that a lot when it comes to Christians today
with spiritual struggles and, and hardships and even what we would
consider failures.
There's a lot of folks that would deem that God has forgotten
about his people or maybe he has stepped away and turned his back
on his people.
But even in the midst of the unfaithfulness of Israel, we see
God's power and his faithfulness to the truth.
And in chapter five, what we're going to see is that even because
of the moral failures of Israel and because of their defeat,
we still see God's powerful presence there in the land of the
Philistines.
And we're going to talk more about the application of that here
a little bit later.
So with me in first Samuel, chapter five, we're going to look
at verse one says, and the Philistines took the ark of God and
brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.
Now mentioned this last week, but the Philistine kingdom at this
point in time had five city states.
They had five major cities, and Ashad was one of those major
cities that had a temple that was set up for the false God Deon.
And we're going to talk about the story of how God shows his power
over the false God of the Philistines here this evening.
So verse number two says when the Philistines took the ark of God,
they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by day.
So essentially what we see here is that they take what we would
consider and according to Scripture, the most holy artifact
of the Israelites, and they put it there in the house of Dagon,
essentially saying that the God of Israel is going to submit
to the God Dagon.
And what we know is that God doesn't submit to anybody.
God is more powerful than any false God.
He's more powerful than any person.
He's more powerful than any a power that we find in the world.
And so this, this situation that we see here, that the Philistines
are essentially defying God and ultimately trying to put God
into their box.
And it's a, it's an act of victory in their minds, and it's
an act of ultimate in their minds defeat over the God of Israel,
which we're going to see here is, is not coming to pass.
And so the Philistines were, were happy.
They were confident.
They believed that their God was superior to the God of Israel
because of the victory.
And sometimes that's how the world perceives Christians.
It might seem like whatever they're worshiping, whatever the
world is worshiping, whether it's self or money or a false God,
that if there seems to be a victory in their eyes, that they
think that their God is more powerful than our God, or maybe even
that our God doesn't exist.
But every time God shows Himself to be almighty, he shows
Himself to be glorified, no matter what the case might be.
And so always remember this, God will glorify Himself, even if
his people do not glorify him, he will glorify Himself.
And that's seen over and over again in Scripture, that even in
Israel and the Israelites failures, even as we as believers
are unfaithful, God will always be faithful to His Word and
He will always be glorified.
And so sometimes we might be like the people there in Israel that
think that the glory has departed.
But even when men and women won't glorify God, we know that God
will ultimately exalt himself.
And that's what we're going to see here in this passage.
And so the lesson that we can learn in this case is that even when
Israel felt like they were defeated, even when they believed
that God had forgotten about them, even though they believed that
the glory of God was taken away, the glory of God was not taken
away.
It was they who were the Ones that had missed the glory of God
and missed their opportunity to glorify him in the midst of that.
So verse three says this.
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 so they come into the temple there, they come into that
house of Dagon, and they found Dagon, the statue, the, the idol
Dagon, on its face there, bowing down before the ark, which
is a picture of how this, this Dagon, this false God, can ultimately
fall before God and that all folks eventually will fall before
God.
The Bible says in the New Testament that every knee shall bow
and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And in this case, we see that the false Dagon falls before the
ark of the Lord, and they took Dagon and set him in his place again.
So they see this and there could be a lot of things that come
to pass in their minds.
Maybe they thought that it was a mistake, maybe they thought that
the wind came in and blew it over, but ultimately they set it
up and try to figure it out themselves.
And so they're, they're confronted with the truth that God
is more powerful, but yet they set up Dagon again.
This is going to happen in a different way in verse four.
And when they arose early in the morning, morrow morning, behold
Dagon was falling upon his face and the ground before the ark
of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both of the palms of his
hands were cut off upon the threshold.
Only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
So the second day that they come back, maybe if they were confused
or maybe that they doubted that this wasn't something beyond
the norm, the next morning they find their God fallen onto the
ground.
But this time he's not just on the ground fallen.
He, he's had his hands broken off, his head's broken off, and all
that's there is the stump of the, the torso of Deon.
And so they recognize that obviously something is going on.
And after seeing God's power, these Philistine priests have a choice
to make.
They could say, well, you know what, maybe the God of Israel is
the real God.
Maybe we need to stop worshiping this false God of Dagon.
Which there's a lot of theories about who Dagon was.
Some historians believe that Dagon was a God who was represented
as a half fish, half man.
Other scholars don't believe that that's the case, that he was
just represented as a man, but nonetheless Dagon was a false God.
Most people at that time believed that Dagon was the father
of baal, which some of you know, the false God baal.
It's mentioned quite a bit in the Old Testament.
But what they have is a choice.
They could say, well, the God of Israel is more powerful.
They could serve the God of Israel, they could reject the false
God Dagon, or they could just do something else, make it, make
a religious act and come back to their old path.
And verse five tells us that that's what they do.
Therefore, neither the priest of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's
house tread on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod unto this day.
So essentially what they do is they create just basically a religious
tradition.
They didn't choose to repent, they didn't choose to turn to the
true God that demonstrated his power over their God.
And this is indicative of every time in our culture that a
God shows himself very clearly, clearly to the world by
the way of truth and the word of God, or by powerful testimonies
about lives changed.
People see that evidence, but yet still reject the truth of God
for various reasons, but ultimately because their rebellion,
because of their hardened hearts, because of their sinful nature,
because of their pride.
And the Bible says that God resists the proud, but gives grace
to the humble.
And so because of their pride and because of their rebellion, they
choose not to worship the God of Israel who proved himself to be
more powerful.
They stick to their own God and stick to their religious tradition.
And so these Phil, these Philistine priests are, were confronted
with the truth, but they rejected God.
And, and I think that that's what we can see today.
God is, is so clearly revealing himself today.
I think all of us could admit that we live in a dark world and
that there is a battle between good and evil.
And, and God clearly tells us in his Word how it got started, how
this whole world got started and how it's going to end.
And we can see people read, everyone can read the Bible, everyone
can see the, the creation of God.
The Bible says that the law of God is written on the hearts of man,
but yet those who don't believe are.
It's not a matter of evidence, but it's a matter of faith.
It's a matter of humility.
It's a matter of pride.
It's a matter of whether or not someone's going to reject the
truth of God and submit themselves to his power.
So what I would say is this.
I was, I was watching a interview one Time.
And someone said, well, what if God himself came down and showed
Himself and clearly evidenced to you and gave you visual evidence
that he exists?
What would you do then?
And the guy said, well, I would probably think I was hallucinating
because it couldn't be real, right?
So you see, the hardenedness of man is that even if God does reveal
Himself, which He has revealed himself, it's not a matter of evidence
as much as it is a matter of faith.
And that's what we see with these Philistine priests is it's
not a matter of evidence.
The evidence was clearly there, but it was a matter of faith.
Verse 6.
So, but the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them and Ashdod, and
he destroyed them and smote them with emirates, even Ashdod and
the coast thereof.
So you might not catch what it's saying here is.
But on top of Dagon being destroyed in his own house by the
power of God, God was also judging them because of their rebellion.
And it says that he smote them with emirates.
Now, what are Emirates?
Well, there's a couple different interpretations of that
word, but essentially it's tumors, it's swelling.
It would be some type of evidential sickness that people could
see and evidently feel.
Some scholars believe that it would have been like the bubonic
plague, something like that.
But essentially there were.
There were issues of not just spiritual nature, but now it had
come to the physical side of things, and God was revealing Himself
by way of sickness to the people of Ashdod.
Verse 7.
And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, the ark
of God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore
upon us and upon Dagon, our God.
So again, it's not a matter of evidence, because they evidently
see that the power of God is upon them.
But instead of seeing this as a judgment, instead of getting right
with God, instead of turning away from Dagon, they say, we got
to get rid of this God.
We got to get rid of Him.
This conviction, this.
This judgment is not something that we want.
We want to squiggle out of that and go back to our old ways.
Again, that's evidence through folks today that aren't willing to
hear the truth of the preaching of the Word of God, because
conviction allows many people to feel uncomfortable, which it should
make us feel uncomfortable.
But it's how we deal with that conviction and the judgment of God
that really matters.
And so these people here in Ashdod are saying, we just got to
get rid of this.
We got to get rid of this preaching, we got to get rid of this
word.
We got to get rid of the power.
We have to just avoid this at all costs.
And so I would encourage us to think about that today and how that
looks for us within our world and understand that when the power
of God is evidently seen and when God is dealing with sin, we
shouldn't run away from him.
The opposite would be to get right with him.
And we know that the Philistines don't do that, because
what do they do?
They say, we got to get rid of this.
And verse 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?
So we have a meeting of the minds here.
Instead of in repentance, turning to God, they come up with
their own worldly wisdom, they come up with their own path.
And they answered and said, let the ark of God of Israel be carried
about unto Gath.
So they think maybe just changing our city will be the answer.
Maybe it's just something with Ashdod here.
We need to move it over to Gath.
Now, some of you are familiar with Gath, related to.
That's where Goliath, the giant Goliath comes from.
But he was a Philistine as well.
But Gath is a.
A city there.
And.
And the land of Canaan, which was one of the major cities of the
Philistines.
And so they say, let's just try to avoid it and go to Gath.
And they carried the ark of God of Israel about thither.
And so they believe that this is the answer.
And so instead of submitting to the God of Israel, they decide
to get rid of him.
And we all know that as much as any culture has tried to get rid
of God, you can't get rid of God.
We can do things to try to push him away.
And even in many cases, scares me so much every time it does that,
you know, I. I will tell you that the technology here has really
been trying to fight against me this last few weeks.
So if you guys were here Sunday night, I had, like, a choking
problem.
I had, like, had chili before the service, and my throat was getting
all messed up.
So I'm sorry for the distractions.
It's just the, you know, um, the enemy trying to stop us.
But anyway, they're going to Gath and they're gonna see if that's
gonna change it.
But ultimately all of us are gonna face God and the people of
Gath do the same thing, 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 smoked the men of the city, both small and great, and they
had emirates and their secret parts.
And so what we can see here is that in verse number nine, it isn't
any better.
The city of Gath tries to do the same thing in rebellion to God.
And we see that there's more destruction and more pain in their
rebellion and their sin.
So God is still proving himself to be all powerful, even
over people that don't believe in him.
Verse 10.
Therefore, they sent the Ark of of God to Ekron, which is another
one of their cities.
And it came to pass as the Ark of God came to Ekron that the Ekronites
cried out, saying, they have brought about the Ark of God of Israel
to us, to slay us and our people.
So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines
and said, send away the ark of God of Israel and let it go again
unto this his own place that it slay us not and to our people.
For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city.
The hand of God was very heavy there.
And so the Ark of the covenant was basically at this point in time,
just being bounced about through all these Philistine cities.
And every single city that it was at, it was showing judgment,
it was showing this pain.
And the Ekronites were not happy to see the ark there.
And still, though they didn't submit to God.
And so the Philistines eventually come up with a plan to
say, you know what?
We're giving it back.
Instead of repenting, they turn to just trying to avoid their
problems.
And that's many times how we see people in the world today living
in rebellion, try to deal with their problems, just try to avoid
it, just try to cover it up, just try to send it somewhere else.
And that's exactly what they try to do here.
So verse 12.
And the men that died were not smitten with the emirates, and the
cry of the city went up to heaven.
So what we can ultimately see here is that this is a story of God's
power over the unfaithfulness of his own people, his power over
rebellion of the Philistines.
And really what we see is this hand of judgment upon those in that
sin.
And so the Philistines, if they would have, and we have enough
proof in the Old Testament to know that even Gentiles, when they
turn to The Lord and repentance came to find salvation.
So, for example, you have Rahab, among many others, Ruth.
So it didn't mean that just because they were not Israelites
that they couldn't find salvation.
They could have repented and turned towards the Lord.
The art could have been a blessing to them.
But at the same time, we know that it was not a blessing to them
because of their lack of desire to know the true God and to
love him and to follow him and to obey him.
Which is a passage when we were going through Second Corinthians,
if you remember.
I want you to see this because this is a principle that we even
see today.
Second Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 15 and 16.
The same truth that can be a blessing to us as Christians is painful
and a hardship to those who are in rebellion.
We're going to look at two different New Testament passages
that I think illustrate the principle that we see here in 1st
Samuel, chapter 5.
So in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 15 and 16, it says, for
we are unto God a sweet Savior of Christ in them that are saved
and in them that perish.
To the one we are a savor of death, unto death, to the and to
the other, the Savior of life unto life, and who is sufficient
for these things.
And so what we can see here is that Jesus in, in.
In many ways for Christians and in all ways for Christians is
a beautiful thing.
It's an exciting thing to know that we're saved.
It's an exciting thing to know that we have life.
It's exciting thing to know that our knee will bow to the Lord.
But for those that are in rebellion, Jesus is, is an offense.
It's, it's something not for blessing, but to them it's a curse.
And we'll see a couple of other passages of scripture that
specifically speak that.
But what, what I will say to you is that in the world today, many
people are okay with talking about God.
Many people are okay with talking about religion.
Most people are okay with you expressing yourself with religious
freedom until it comes down to the wire.
And we say that there's one way, and that one way is found in
Jesus Christ.
Now, in the case of First Samuel, what happened was, is that
the Philistines saw the ark of God and they thought, well, this
would be something beneficial for us to add to our God here and
maybe we can find some kind of power that the Israelites are finding
in this ark.
Maybe there's something that's emanating from this ark that can
give us some type of benefit.
But when the ark wasn't bringing them benefit, what did they
say?
Well, we need to get rid of it.
And a lot of times people will use the Bible or they use Christianity
or they use religion as somewhat of a religious trinket that
they can add on to their life as some kind of good luck charm.
But when the realization is, is that, hey, I'm a sinner, I need
Jesus Christ as savior, and the truth of God is essentially wrapped
up in the fact that the gospel is the only way for salvation, that
all of us need a savior, that none of us can save ourselves, that's
when we start to see people in the world that are in rebellion squirm.
Right?
It's a.
It's a stumbling block.
And I want you to see in First Peter, Chapter 2, this exact principle,
First Peter, Chapter 2, speaks of Jesus being a rock of offense
to those.
And for some, he's the cornerstone of our salvation.
So for the Philistines, they look at the ark and they say, wow,
the ark makes the Israelites powerful.
So we want to take the ark and we want to bring that in.
Well, when they brought it in on their terms and in their way,
it didn't bring blessing, it brought judgment.
So when people try to bring in a different Jesus or a Jesus that
they can understand or a Jesus that they support, but it's not the
Jesus of the Bible, they're bringing in something trying to bring
the blessings of Jesus, but when they bring it in, in, in a way
that is wrong, there's ultimately judgment, there's.
There's pain and there's confusion, and we see it's a rock
of event.
So in First Peter, chapter two, we'll go to verse number four,
because I think that this will, will allow us to kind of see
the bigger context here.
It says, to whom coming?
And so what he's talking about here is Jesus.
He's talking about Jesus coming.
And he already had come at this point as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men.
So he was rejected of men, but chosen of God and precious.
Then he points to the people who believe in Jesus, and he says,
ye are also livelier.
Living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ.
So he says, when you trust in the Lord as your Savior and you have
faith in him, you are a living stone.
And so what Peter is doing is he's trying to paint a picture.
And the picture is, is that we're building a spiritual house.
And so the spiritual house is built up through living stones.
That's us, that's the believers.
But then he says the spiritual houses are built for a purpose, to
offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
So ultimately we're there to glorify God.
We're ultimately there to praise Him.
But then he says in verse number six, wherefore also it is
contained in the Scripture.
And this is a reference to Psalm 118.
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone.
So there's a bunch of living stones.
That's us and that's other Christians throughout history.
But there is a chief cornerstone.
Or think about it this way.
There's a foundation that all these stones are built upon.
It says, behold, I lay a scion, a chief cornerstone, elect
and precious.
So he's chosen by God for a specific purpose.
And we know that that's the purpose of redemption.
And he that believeth on him shall not be confounded or not be
put to shame.
So the difference between those who are put to shame, judged,
condemned, and those that don't have that condemnation, who
have righteousness, who have salvation, are those who trust in
Jesus Christ.
He's the same Jesus.
He's the same stone for the Christian, for the believer, he's
a Chief Cornerstone.
Verse 7.
Unto you therefore, which believe, he is precious.
So for the believer, Jesus is precious.
He's the chief cornerstone.
He's everything we build our life on.
He's everything that we we are.
He's our identity.
But unto them which be disobedient.
So this is speaking to those who don't believe.
It's not just about, hey, a Christian fails here and there.
And once you're disobedient, now you've lost this blessing.
He's specifically talking about those who have not believed,
who have rejected the truth of who Jesus is.
He says, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the
builders disallowed or rejected.
So when he's talking about the builders, he's talking specifically
about the religious leaders of Jesus's day.
They.
They rejected him.
The same is made head of the corner.
So he says that same Jesus that some rejected, you believe,
but some rejected, he is the cornerstone.
He's the chief of the corner.
He's the head of the cornerstone.
And for the Christian, that's a blessing that's precious.
Verse 8.
And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which
stumble at the word being disobedient, wherein to also they
were appointed.
So what we see here is this.
He says, Verse 8.
The same stone that is the precious cornerstone of who we are
as Christians is the same rock of offense for those who don't believe
who ultimately were, are destined for judgment.
That's what he's saying there.
So the point I'm trying to make here this evening is that we
don't worship a different Jesus that judges those that are
in rebellion.
It's the same Jesus.
But when you mention the word Jesus, the Christian should celebrate.
The Christian should feel warmth in one's heart.
The Christian should think about all the beautiful things that
Jesus is to them as Savior, as Lord, as shepherd.
It's kind of like when.
When people are talking to me about my family, like, maybe someone
says, hey, you know, like, your child did really good in class
today.
Like, that brings that heart to me.
Of, like, that's exciting.
That's a blessing, because I love that person.
So anytime I hear something good about someone that I love, I
should get excited.
And that's the same thing about Jesus.
But for someone who is in rebellion to Jesus, whether they
know it or not, they're ultimately going to have, as it says
here, a rock of stumbling.
It's going to be an offense to them.
So that is why the Bible is telling us that's why people are
okay with religion until you start talking about Jesus.
Because Jesus is that cornerstone.
He is that.
He is that polarizing figure that basically everything rides on
when it comes to salvation.
And so that's what we see all the way back in First Samuel.
It was seen in the ark, but what they did is they brought that
in, thinking that they could apply it to the way that they want
to apply it to in their own life.
But what we can see is that that brings offense and judgment.
And there's really only one way to respond to God's power, and
that is to fear him in a healthy respect and to submit to
him and to repent before him or be judged.
As the Bible says in Philippians chapter two, that one
day every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Those that are believers will confess it by way of salvation and
celebration.
Those that are not are going to confess it in judgment and in
pain.
But it'll be a recognition one way or the other at one point in
time.
And every single person that's ever walked this planet will eventually
recognize who Jesus is.
And whether or not they're doing it through salvation and celebration
or pain and judgment, it's going to still be a proclamation.
And so even those Philistines that were rejecting will eventually
recognize the power of, of God seen in Jesus Christ.
And so I think about that today.
So what's the practical application today for us as believers?
We know that the Bible says in, in 2 Corinthians, and, and I
want you to see this because I, I've often talked about this in
different capacities, but I don't know if it's been recent since
I brought this up in a church service.
I've done it in some of my Bible studies recently.
But in Second Corinthians, chapter 11, the reason why we're
so adamant about warning, about knowing who the true Jesus
is, the Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse number four, tells
us that there will be some that come preaching Jesus, but seemingly
a different Jesus.
And so what, what we're seeing here is that, yes, if someone is
proclaiming the true Jesus, that's something that we should celebrate,
even if they're not exactly like us.
Jesus even referenced that.
And even Paul references that like, hey, they might have different
preferences than us, they might worship a little bit different
than us, but if they're preaching the true Jesus, we celebrate
that.
We don't have to have the same convictions as them, but what we
do is we say, hey, they're preaching Jesus.
Jesus is being heard.
That's fantastic.
Amen.
Praise God to that.
But what Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 4 says is that
for if he's.
He's warning of false teachers.
Actually, let's just jump back a little bit by way of context, because
I really want you guys to see this, because I really believe that
this is something that we have to be so conscious of within our
Christian walk today.
Says verse one of Second Corinthians, chapter 11 would to
God ye could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear
with me.
So he says, bear with me.
Now, you have to understand the context.
In Second Corinthians, chapter 11, Paul is being accused of being
a false teacher by false teachers, which puts yourself in
a really hard place, because when you have false teachers saying
that you're the false teacher, you're kind of like, what am I doing?
How.
How can I overcome this?
So he just says, bear with me in my false teaching while I give
you the truth.
Okay?
That's what he's saying.
He says, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.
And so Paul basically says, you in the, in the Corinthian Church,
I'm so jealous of you because I Love you and, and jealousy in and
of itself is not a bad thing.
Selfish jealousy is bad.
Selfish jealousy is a terrible thing because I want something to
myself.
But I would say that God is jealous for us.
So jealousy is a good thing.
Like I'm jealous of my wife.
I want my wife to love me and love me alone.
That's it.
That's in, in the concept of marriage.
That's.
That's the picture of what we're seeing.
Reese says, I, I, I love you with a godly jealousy, for I have
espoused you to one husband.
He says, you are the bride of Christ.
You are now married to Jesus.
And so for Paul, in his mind, he's like, for you to come and follow
these false teachers is like you committing adultery to your husband.
And he says that, he says, you have been espoused to one husband,
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear lest by any means.
As the serpent beguiled Eve, so the serpent deceived Eve through
his subtlety.
So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity or
the pure focus that is Christ, that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus.
So Paul says, there are people that are coming to you, and they're
preaching Jesus, but it's a different Jesus.
He says, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have
not preached, he says, remember, Paul's the apostle.
He is a mouthpiece of God to the people.
And he says, you've heard the true Jesus, and if someone preaches
a different Jesus, that's not the true Jesus, or if you receive
any other spirit.
So this is kind of difficult for us to understand, but what that
means is that, yes, we receive the spirit of the Holy Ghost, we
receive the Holy Spirit, but there are other spirits out there.
That's why the Bible says, test every spirit, whether or not
it comes from God.
So what that means is that there can be religious experiences
or spiritual experiences that we have that are not from God.
And I know that's hard for our Western minds to think about, but
folks, there is a spiritual battle going on behind the scenes
that can be what is seemingly a good thing, but it's actually darkness.
It's actually from the spirit realm that's evil.
So he says, don't receive another spirit.
Don't listen to the teaching of another spirit.
And so we'll talk more about that later on.
But then he says, or, or if you receive another spirit which
ye have not received, or another gospel.
Remember, gospel means Good news, another gospel which you have
not accepted, you might well bear with him, which, which means
you, you put up with it long enough, you shouldn't bear with that
anymore.
Okay, so what.
Why am I saying all this?
Because someone might come and say, this is, this is.
That was a long Runway to get to where I'm at.
But someone might come to you and say, look, don't you love Jesus?
Jesus loves you.
That sounds like a beautiful message.
But what I'm going to tell you is, is that make sure you know what
type of Jesus is being preached, because if it's not the
Jesus that's presented in the word of God, it's not the Jesus that
we should be believing in.
And so I just want to be clear about that, because here in, throughout
the whole Old Testament and the New, but particularly here in
Second Corinthians, chapter 11, the Bible says that there can
be a different Jesus preached, there can be a different spirit received,
and there can be a different Gospel preached.
So, so one might say here by way of application, well, Pastor,
how do I know if it's the right Jesus or not?
How.
How do I know that someone that's proclaiming Jesus is proclaiming
the true Jesus?
Well, first and foremost, what do they believe about that Jesus?
Do they believe that Jesus is God?
If they don't believe that Jesus is God, they're.
They're contradicting the Word.
John, chapter one, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
And so there's a lot of people out there today that will say, well,
Jesus is not God, but he's a good prophet, or he's a creation
of God, or he's.
He's a powerful spirit, or he's a powerful being, whatever they
say, if it's counter to what the Bible says about the true person
and work of Jesus Christ, and they are preaching a different Jesus.
So I say that person and work of Jesus Christ, who Jesus is, he's
God.
He's 100 man, he's 100 God, he's.
He's born in the flesh, as the Bible says, He dwelt among us, but
then also the work of Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross
for our sins, that he didn't just die on the cross because he
was a martyr, or, or that he was really just preaching a different
message.
No, Jesus didn't get killed that day.
Jesus gave of himself.
The Bible says that he offered himself as a sacrifice, as the Passover
land.
And so whether or not people thought that Jesus was doing, that
Jesus was offering himself.
So what I would also say is this, okay, so that's the Jesus of
Scripture.
But then I would also say, like, are they preaching a message
that corresponds with the whole scope of the Word?
So maybe they have Jesus, right, But they're preaching other
parts of the Bible wrong.
What I would say is be very cautious about that because the Bible
says that the word of God is, is God breathed.
The scriptures are given by God.
So if they're denying other parts of Scripture, they're basically
saying that God is denying himself.
And so what do they say about the whole, the whole book?
Not just, well, hey, you know what, Jesus, I only want to follow
Jesus, but I don't want to follow other passages of scripture.
That's, that's a major issue.
So we would, we would say that.
But then again, going far forward, remember 2nd Corinthians
11:4.
A different spirit.
If, if the spirit that I'm being driven by is making me contradict
the Word, it's not the Spirit of God.
If the emotions and the, and the fanfare that come along with
the spiritual experience does not equate to obedience to God, then
it's not of, of God.
And so I want you to be aware of that, because there can be people
that say, well, I had this spiritual experience, and the spiritual
experience led me to do this, and I believe it's from God, so therefore
I'm okay with doing it.
Well, if that action that the Spirit has led you to do is contradicting
the Word and leading you to sin, that's not from God, that's
from another Spirit.
And then we see a different gospel.
And so the, the, the last mark there would be.
Are they preaching the right way to get to heaven?
The gospel, the right news.
What if I told you the gospel news is this, that God loves everyone.
And forget about what you do, forget about what you believe in.
Everyone's going to go to heaven one day.
That's a gospel, but that's not the true gospel.
That's not the gospel of the Scriptures.
And so what we would say here tonight is that we need to be very
careful when it comes to what does Jesus mean for me?
What, what, what God is being presented, what religion is being
presented, and what am I believing in?
Because it's just as those Philistines thought that the, the
God of Israel can be a blessing to us, he was not, because
ultimately they were in rebellion to him.
And so that's an application that I think we can all take with
us here today, all the more reason why we need to proclaim and
preach the true Jesus in a world today that needs to hear Jesus.
But again, preaching the whole scope of scripture, and that's the
harder part.
The harder part is telling everybody the whole story.
And what I would encourage you to do as a Christian, at whatever
capacity that God is calling you to proclaim the gospel message
is to proclaim it completely and fully with love and truth.
Love and truth.
And so what.
What we see tonight is this.
When I'm asking somebody whether or not they're, you know,
I don't really care if you're religious, all right?
So if I'm talking to someone and I'm trying to present the truth
of God to them, I. I might start the question with, do you go
to church?
Because that might help us understand where to go when it comes
to our discussion with somebody.
But really, at the end of the day, the deciding factor is not whether
or not someone goes to church, even though going to church is a
good thing in the right setting, in the right context, at
the right church.
But.
And it's not like that I've read the Bible, because there are
many people that have read through the Bible that don't believe
it.
So the true question would be not, are you religious?
Do you do religious things?
Do you want God to bless your life?
Do you want to go to heaven?
Even though we should ask whether or not people want to go
to heaven, but there's a lot of people that think they're going
to heaven for the wrong reasons.
Like if I walk up to someone and say, do you want to go to heaven?
I would say a vast majority of people, if they believe that there
is an afterlife, would say, I want to go to heaven.
But then the next question would be, is, do you know how to
get to heaven?
Well, I think being a good person is going to get me to heaven.
You'll hear this mostly, that I hope my good outweighs my bad.
Because if I'm more good than I'm bad, then God will shine brightly
on me that maybe I. I hope I've done enough.
I. Folks, none of us have never.
We can never do it.
We never could do enough.
So the idea would be this.
It's not just about having someone that wants to go to heaven.
Because what if I got up and preached and I said, how many of
you want to go to heaven?
And everyone raises their hand.
I said, all of you are saved today because you want to go to heaven.
There's a Lot of people that want paradise, they want everlasting
life, but they don't find it in Jesus Christ because he's the
rock of stumbling, because we've got to submit to him, we've
got to submit to our heavenly Father.
And so that's where we're seeing in, in the disconnect in our
culture today is we have to so clearly diagnose with a scalpel,
right?
With a scalpel, get down to the most basic, most reduced level
of what a person believes in when it comes to who Jesus is.
A good start is that they believe that Jesus exists.
That's a great start.
It's a great start to believe that someone believes in the afterlife,
that they believe in, in spirituality, they believe in all
these things.
That's fantastic because that at least allows us to go through
an open door.
But at the end of the day, what does the Bible say?
The Bible says that it's through Jesus and Jesus alone, he's
the chief cornerstone.
And so I say all that.
And that's like a branch off of First Samuel, chapter five.
But what I will say is that the Philistines, the reason why they
missed it was not because they didn't worship the ark, right?
Or that they didn't, they weren't the right bloodline or they
weren't in the right location.
The reason why they didn't have the blessings of God was because
they rejected God in rebellion.
They didn't believe in him.
And that's what we can see even today, just, just in a more
modern sense.
And so I want you to think about that.
You say, well, I don't even know what the gospel is like.
I couldn't even explain that to somebody.
Well, the blessing of being a believer and trusting in the word
of God is that he gives us the definition.
So if you want to have a good, clean, straightforward definition
of the gospel, go to First Corinthians, chapter 15.
And if someone asks you, well, what do you believe when you're saying
the gospel?
Well, Paul gives us that right there in First Corinthians, chapter
15.
And he goes, Just the first four verses.
If you just read the first four verses, that gives us the gospel.
Now some people say, well, it's the gospel plus you gotta work,
or the gospel plus you gotta be at a Baptist church, or the gospel
plus.
Well, there, there are all these things that I think are good
to do.
We should serve, we should go to a good Bible believing church.
But what Paul describes this, the gospel, he doesn't say any of
those things.
He says basically the story of who Jesus is.
He says that Jesus died according to the scriptures and that
he was buried and that he rose again on the third day according
to the scriptures.
So he.
He gives us the simple message of the gospel, and that's what we're
trusting in.
All the other elements of spiritual growth stem from the gospel.
I can't grow in the Lord unless I trust in the.
The simplicity of the gospel.
And then from there I can grow.
And there's a lot of nuances, right?
I mean, when I was growing up, I had no care in the world.
When I was 10 years old, my biggest care in the world was like,
am I gonna score a touchdown at recess and football or, you know,
what am I gonna have for lunch today?
But as I got older, there were more nuances of life that I needed
to deal with, right?
Taxes and, you know, paying these bills and like.
So as we mature as Christians, there are other elements of that
maturity that we have to recognize and we have to identify.
But to tell someone that they have to know all those things before
they come to Christ is a complete misunderstanding of the
simplicity of the gospel.
So spiritual growth and maturity comes from the growth after
salvation.
So sometimes people will say, well, you have to be a certain way
to get to find God.
No, it's just.
It's.
It's faith.
And then that faith will then eventually grow if we're walking
and we're nourished in the word of God.
So I will stop there.
I would like to go a lot longer, but I will stop there.
Well, we'll come back next week and we'll see the result of
them sending the.
They're trying to figure out all the stuff, and they're going
to send the ark back to Israel, and we're gonna see how that
kind of comes to pass in First Samuel, chapter six.
And we're gonna eventually get to where in Israel they.
They say they wanna.
They want a king.
And we're gonna hear the story of King.
King Saul.
And most of you know that story.
And then eventually, through King Saul, we'll get to King David,
which really was the culmination, I thought, of coming
into first and second Samuel was really studying the life of David,
but we have to study the life of Samuel and the life of Saul to
get to the life of David, which.
Which is going to be, I think, a really great study to have.
Well, if you have any questions about anything that we
talk about here within the services, I'd love to answer those
questions for you, or if I don't know the answer to those questions,
I'd love to work alongside of you to find the answers to those
questions from the Word of God.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch
dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.