Israel's defeat by the Philistines in 1 Samuel 4 stemmed not from the presence of the Ark of God, but from their misplaced confidence in the object (the Ark) rather than the Person it represented (God). The examples highlight how the Philistines feared God's presence, while Israel sought the Ark as a magical object to save them, demonstrating a focus on ritual over relationship. The core lesson is that true victory and God's presence are assured only when our confidence is in God Himself, not in religious symbols or practices, and when His people minister with holiness and reverence. The message concludes by urging believers to keep Christ preeminently before them, lest they also fall into defeat by focusing on 'its' rather than 'Him'.
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would be touched by this accident, you know. And then that morning they sang that and I still see some of the Christians with their, we were gathered around the Lord's table that was at the close of the meeting and I remember the tears that flowed that morning. My own heart was touched. Now I wonder if you would just let me take a minute to do a little more advertising here. I really haven't gone into the selling profession at all. And I hope you'll just let me say this because it might be something you, you know, you'd like to see. But if you have never seen a bound copy of that magazine console that we're promoting, you know, or this is what a bound copy looks like. And you see it written in the pages for two dollars.
This is what you get for two dollars. And you can just keep adding your copies to them. See, you don't need to buy a new binder every year. You just keep adding to them. All you have to do is buy a paper punch. And this, you can just add as many until you get it. Pretty sick. You don't want to. And those software two dollars, postage paid. I don't have any with me. And that way you, in this particular one, you get everything that has been produced in council from the time it started in November of over a year ago until December. Now we don't put this year's issues in there. The same thing is true of license. flashes is bound up the same way but this one starts with the April issue back in nineteen seventy I think and this is when we started putting it into book form like this before that it came in the long sheets you remember now the reason I advertise this one is because every message that has been written on the Christian home is in this volume.
This way you have the whole series on the Christian home. And we have had people write in and say they were using them in Sunday school classes and ministry and for those of you who preach, we just don't have any copyright on the messages in here. There's lots of good sermon illustrations. The only thing I object about it is that I want to get a few out of there myself and I won't be able to preach it to you as I'm saying that. There's some points in there from Mr. McClureton and others that I intend to use myself. So I marked mine up. You can have that one. But if you want one, you can order one and we'll be glad to mail it to you. Now that's all the sales pitch I have. I won't bother you anymore about that. But let's turn to First Samuel chapter four. First Samuel chapter four and reading.
I think we're just going to take time to read this chapter because, well, the other day I was reading this and It just did my soul so much good. Whatever is good for me, I think is good for you. Hope I can share it with you. After all, that really is what I feel is important about a little ministry is just sharing something with you. It isn't how well we can preach or how much thunder we can stir up. It's whether we can really share something with you that we have appreciated in our own hearts and hope that you can appreciate it too. First Samuel chapter four now in verse one. The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines pitched in Apex.
And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel, and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men. When the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistine? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemy. So the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from since the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hothnai, and Phineas were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
When the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout so that the earth rang again. When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What means the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And then they understood that the Ark of the Lord had come into the camp. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is coming to the camp. And they said, Woe unto us, for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. Woe unto us. Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you.
Quit yourselves like men and fight. And the Philistines fought, and the Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent. And there was a great slaughter, a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hapni, and Phinehas were slain. There ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. And when he came low, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside, watching for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told it, all the city cried out. And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What meaneth the noise of this tumult?
The man came in hastily and told Eli, Now Eli was ninety-eight years old. You're not old yet, Cal. Eli had to be. Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were dim, but he could not see. And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled to day out of the army. And he said, What is there done, my son? The messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people. And thy two sons, Hapnai and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken. He came to pass when he had made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck break, and he died.
For he was an old man and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years. And his daughter-in-law, Phineas' wife, was with child, ready to be near to be delivered. And when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and prevailed for her paintings came upon her. About the time of her death, the woman that stood by her said unto her, Fear not, for thou hast borne a son, but she answered not. Neither did she regard it. And she named the child Igbo, saying, The glory of... the glory is departed from Israel because the ark of God was taken and because her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, the glory is departed from Israel for the ark of God is taken.
May the Lord add his blessing now to the reading of his word. There's about three things that I would like to make mention of here concerning the ark of God coming into the midst of the people of Israel. First of all, I would like to speak about the Philistine sphere. And then secondly, we would like to consider the Israel defeat. And then thirdly, we're going to consider the reason why. For there must be a why and a wherefore for all that goes on in this chapter. Now let me just say a little bit of something about the Ark itself so that you will appreciate more the significance of the whole story.
The Ark of God was sometimes called the Ark of the Covenant, and it was that box. that Israel had that was in the place in the most holy place of the tabernacle and over it were the cherubims those angelic like images and inside was the contents of the law and the golden rod the golden pot of manna and then Aaron's rod that budded and let's see the tables of the law the three things were in there now without saying a whole lot about the Ark of the Covenant it is very significant that that Ark of the Covenant is a symbol of the presence of the Lord in the midst of the people of Israel.
That Ark pictured or symbolized Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a number of reasons why one could point out to support that, but I don't think I want to spend my time on that particular phase of the message tonight. So I hope you'll just take that for granted then. you dare to take anything for granted at all, that the Ark, that box with its contents, with its design, with its mercy seat, with its cherubim, it is a very, very graphic picture all through the Old Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the significant thing about that Ark is to see where the Ark was always located. For the Ark was a very essential part of the furniture of the tabernacle, the tabernacle proper, the structure part of the tabernacle which was the very presence of God, that building part which was divided into two compartments, the holy place and the most holy place.
In the most holy place where this Ark of the Covenant was placed, this is where God's presence dwelt. And when the cloud of glory was over that most holy place, that was a signification to Israel that God was resident amongst his people. Now here is something that's really interesting to notice about this Ark. in the book of Numbers. That is that God gave instructions in the first and second chapter of the book of Numbers concerning Israel when they were encamped in the wilderness. For you must remember that part of the time Israel were pitching tents and encamped and they were resting on their journey, but then there were times when they were marching through the wilderness.
So at the request of God, at His command they pitched. At the command of God, they move forward. Now, just to throw this in as we go along, you see, you and I must be that submissive to the will of God as well, so that when God tells us to stand still, or even when He tells us to take a little rest, we're ready to do that. But we must be just as ready to get on the move when God says so, as we must be ready to stop when He says so. The people of God moved when God said, they stood when God said, and that's the thing that is sometimes difficult for you and I to learn in our Christian experience. And that is that when God says for us to move, there's no time to waste, we must move.
And when God says now, it's nothing to get excited about, you must have a little rest, you must stand by the way now, I've got something, stand still, I want to show you the word of the Lord, you know, then it's time for us to stand still. Because there's always the danger that we will become either too nervously excited about moving ahead of God when He tells us He wants us to stand still, or the other danger can be the other extreme we lag behind when God is wanting us to move. And I think I'm a creature of extremes when I look at my own life, and I see so many times when I should have been moving and I was standing still. But there have been probably just as many times when I was... standing still when I should have been moving.
And so you see, we do have these problems, don't we? Well, we're either one end of the thing or we're at the other extreme of this. Well, here's Israel. We see them now as they're encamped in the wilderness, and we notice from Numbers chapter two that God gives them instructions as to where they encamped, where each tribe, remember now, twelve tribes, and where each tribe was to set up their standard. There they were in perfect formation. Now I can't give you just exactly the location of each tribe, but over here on the west, Numbers chapter two says, over here. And he tells us which tribes of Israel were encamped under a certain standard over on the west side.
Then he tells us over on the east side, and here was the standard raised up, which would be their flag. And there they are, three tribes encamped over here. Then over on the south side and over on the north side, there's three, I guess I'm not pointing in the right direction, but you know which way it is in the north. I get all turned around in these buildings. But there they are. Now, what's the picture? The camp all around the tabernacle, where is it? In the midst. Where's the Ark of God? In the midst of the tabernacle. The Ark of God is in the midst. Don't you see, you've got a beautiful picture. When Israel was in formation, as God told them, by God's orders, the Ark of God, symbolizing the presence of God, was always in the midst.
But then there were times when Israel was traveling. What about it then? All right, the Lord said, when you travel and you pack up your tent and you put your paraphernalia on your shoulders and you start, he said, six tribes go before. Then comes the tribe of the Levites carrying the tabernacle and the Ark of God, and then six tribes following behind. And where's the Ark of God? Isn't it? So whether Israel was traveling or whether Israel was parked, the Ark of God always had a central position. What was God trying to teach the people of Israel? And what was he seeking to teach us through it all? seeking to teach us a New Testament truth for us that God only takes up one position with his people, and that is in the midst of his people.
This is the place that the Lord would have. Now, if we want to be able to define a New Testament church, in the simplest language, how would you define a New Testament church? Well, I know now there's a lot of ways that we can define a New Testament church. But I think one of the most notable characteristics of a New Testament church, according to a New Testament function and pattern, is that the Lord Jesus Christ had His place in the midst of His gathered things. But it doesn't seem to be an isolated New Testament teaching. For all the way through the Old Testament, God taught the people that He had a place in the midst of His people.
Then in the book of Psalms, He says, Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. In the book of Genesis chapter forty-nine he tells us that unto him shall the gathering of the people be. All the way through the minor prophets and the major prophets. Every now and again you can come across those little verses and little portions of verses which indicate to us God in the midst of his people. Beloved, this is the only place that God will take up residence. We can never put God on the outside borders. He just will not take that position. He must have His place in the midst of His gathered people.
And that's exactly what we see in Numbers chapter two. Now when we come to first Samuel chapter four, we've got the Philistines in fear and let us say, well might they fear. Look at verse seven and eight. And the Philistines were afraid. Now do remember that the Philistines were the enemies of God's people and the enemies of God. These Philistines were the uncircumcised hosts, the camp of the enemy around them. They were the ones who were giving them the problems. But the Philistines were afraid. So I think of the Philistines in terms of those who are not aligned up with the will of God today.
We still have the Philistines with us today. And these philocines were afraid. And it says, they said, God is coming to the camp. Now what made these philocines afraid? This is the thing that made them afraid. God is coming to the camp. I want to tell you something. The world is afraid of God, and they might well be. But do you know that the religious world is just as afraid of God as the secular, the pleasure world? or the world of sinners around us, there is one thing that unsafe people do not have an appreciation for, and something that they're very apprehensive of, and that is the presence of God.
Do you know, and I know you do know, that God has long since been shut out of the world's program, out of the world's organization. Any organization that the world has formed, you'll find for sure that God himself is shut out. Now this is one of the reasons why I have a hard time finding out why Christians desire to participate in any kind of a world's organizations. Because God himself isn't included in their thoughts. This is what Tom says. Tom says God is not in their thoughts. You and I as Christians must have God in our thoughts.
So the organizations and the systems of the world, whether they're political, whether they're social, whether they're religious, or you name it, when they organize for any kind of a program at all, God is invariably shut out. Why? Because the world is afraid in the presence of God. Sinners tremble at the thought of a holy God. And because God, in his thoughts, are in constant collusion with the world and their thoughts, Naturally, they're going to keep God out if they can. And so we find here the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God has come into the camp, and then they said, woe unto us. Woe unto us.
Now, beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ is certainly outside of the religious world today. Why don't they want him? For the very reasons that I've already stated. And if they were to try to take him into consultation, And if they were trying to bring the Lord into their religious program, they would say, woe unto us. Woe unto us. Because his line of thinking just does not fit with their line of thinking. They're thinking in different terms altogether than what the Bible teaches us concerning the thoughts of the Lord. So they said, woe unto us. For this has not been heretofore. Woe unto us.
Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? Notice what they said, out of the hand of these mighty gods. But before this they had said, God has come into the camp. These Philistines were afraid. First of all, there was a reason for their fear in verse eight. Because they said, well, these are the gods that smote the Egyptians with the plagues in the wilderness. They had heard what the God of the Israelites had done before. They had heard how he had delivered them. from the bondage of Egypt. They had heard how he brought them through the Red Sea. They had heard how the enemies who had stood up against this God of Israel had been absolutely vanished.
They had heard these things. And the very things that they had heard caused their hearts to panic with fear now when they heard that God was coming into the camp. And they were afraid. Now in verse nine we notice that they reinforced themselves in an effort to stand against that. Look what they said. The Philistines are the ones who are talking here now to their own army. Be strong and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews as they have been to you. Quit yourselves like men and fight. Doesn't that sound like the enemy?
That's exactly what the enemy is saying. The enemy is saying God is moving into our environment. God is moving into our camp. And what we've got to do is to fortify ourselves. We've got to reinforce our strength and come on, stand up, quit you like men, and fight. We're not going to let God take over our encampment. And this is the enemy who has reinforced itself against the program of God. back home at Eddieville Iowa where we're having a month of meetings I don't know what's going on there this week because I missed the night last night tomorrow night I will miss and Wednesday night I will miss but I hope when I get back home Thursday that I will have found out that God has made another move into the campus of all I will be here I think that God has already begun to move into the campus over time because the city of Eddieville as every other city in the world is certainly an encampment of the PhiloSigns.
The enemies of God are there. The enemies of God are those who are diametrically opposed to God's program, to God's truth, to anything that is really of God. And they're opposed to New Testament Christianity. And some of these PhiloSigns have got a religious guard on them. One young lady had professed to be saved Don was out visiting Don Walburn, you know, was out visiting one day and he asked the Lord, he says, now just where would I stop? Where shall I stop? And he really hadn't got anything laid out as far as an organized effort to cover the whole town and visit every door as they're doing now.
So just riding around and kind of sizing up the town and for some reason rather the Lord indicated for him just to stop at a certain place. So he locked at the door and went in and there was an interested soul. She invited him in, he sat and talked to her a while, for since she broke down, and before he left the house that morning, he had led her through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that woman is a church member. And I can just imagine what happens when the preacher finds out that one of his good church members has gotten saved. And by the time two or three more of those church members out of that church get saved, this preacher is just going to be a little bit, he's going to act like a fellow sign, that's what he's going to do.
unless he himself is a born-again man, and many of these preachers are not. He's going to get upset, and he's going to fortify his forces against those meeting and against those people who are going around knocking on doors, and he's going to do everything he can to warn those people against it. I don't have to tell you older folks who rely on us how it works. I tell you, you know. Some of us younger ones don't know too much about it. We don't really know what it is to get the camp of the Philistine stirred up. But back in the days when I've heard Brother Cal and Brother Fred and some of the rest of you older folks talk about the early days of Lyman, the early days of Berea, you folks know what it is to get the camp of the Philistine stirred up.
And you know that when God moves into a community and there's a visitation in a community. And I do believe that sometimes under certain circumstances, God seems to move in with his forces when conditions are right. And what I said yesterday, I want to repeat. I feel at this moment in the way, as far as I can observe and as far as I can feel, I feel that conditions down there in our assembly at Eddyville, this might be the time of God's visitation for us. And I can't say that I really have felt that way before now. I feel, with certain details that I understand that you wouldn't appreciate, I feel that we have a condition down there that God is going perhaps to make a real visitation in our town.
The golden opportunity may be the last one for that town of Eddyville, which has become so gospel-hardened. But I want to tell you, if God moves into the camp, we're going to expect things to happen on this. Do we have a right to it? We have a right to expect God to move into the camp. We have a right to expect things to happen when God begins to work. And the thing that I have felt as a rebuke to my own soul this fast winter, that the reason that things aren't happening is not because God isn't ready to move, it's because I'm not ready to move. That's why. We're sitting back on our arms. Oh, we can pray at the prayer meeting, and that's good. Keep on praying at the prayer meeting.
But you know, there is a time when we must do more than pray. We must work. There is a time when we must pick up the hammer and build. There is a time when we must pick up the enemy and the sword and pursue the enemy. There is a time when we must move. And I trust that we can move God. Now, if you move ahead of God or move without God, you might as well not move. But all these Philistines in their fear and their hatred for God, they fortify themselves against it. Now, you know, as believers in the New Testament age in which we live today, we profess to be scripturally gathered assembly.
And thank God for a profession like that. We don't need to back down on that, do we? We profess to be New Testament churches at least trying to follow New Testament teachings. Now, maybe you won't share this with me, but when I try to describe to people who don't understand too well a New Testament church, I'll always at least leave a little bit of leeway for them. I say to them, this group of people with whom I am associated meets over in a certain building, and the name of the building is all that is. It's not a denomination. It's just the name of the building. Gospel Hall, Gospel Chapel, call the meeting room, call it what you want to.
I'm not particularly interested in the name. But it's just a group of people meeting together in that place on undenominational lines, and it's a concentrated, honest effort to... go by New Testament church teachings. I sort of wean myself away of upholding the so-called, in parenthesis, assembly to people. Like I've heard so much of it, and maybe this is what has kind of turned me against it. I have heard, well, back home in one of our meetings back in our area, and you can just guess the rest of the night which one it is, because I almost got you.
But we have a lady who, well, she's pretty well near the end now, but she used to just be busy on the phone all the time calling people, trying to get them to come to meetings. And in her conversation with people, she would always thought, you ought to leave your church. You ought to come to the assembly. That's the place where we're right to know and things of that kind. I don't think I have to tell you that that woman never did succeed in getting anybody so far as I know ever to leave a church and come to the assembly. You wouldn't expect anybody to do with an invitation like that, would you? Why not? Well, I'll tell you why. Because that assembly and every other assembly have got enough, pardon me for the word, but hang us.
And especially in a small community, everybody knows where our failures are. And oftentimes we aren't just bearing such a perfect testimony to the community as what we would like to think we're bearing. And the idea of just saying, our assembly is right, then to the exclusion of everybody else being wrong. If I want to think that, that's entirely up to me. But it doesn't really work to try to promote that to other people. I'll tell you what I want to promote to other people. I don't want to tell somebody that the assembly at Eddyville is right and all the churches are wrong. Whatever I may think, that's my business. Whatever I say, that involves other people.
I'll tell you why I don't want to do it. Because all they have to do is just nail me and say, you've got a conditioner. Is that right? Is that right? And that's right? And I have to say, well, there are a few things wrong, you know. But I'll tell you what I do want to say and what I am not ashamed to promote. There's a pattern in the Word of God. There are truths in the Word of God that are absolutely right. And I see them. I see at least a vague outline. And I think maybe it's more than a vague outline. I think I see a pretty clear outline in the Word of God as what a New Testament church consists of. I get a good clear picture from the New Testament as to what a New Testament church is.
And then I say, and that's what we over there at the chapel or the hall, that's what we're striving for. We're striving to maintain New Testament principles with confessed failures on some points. Because we do fail on some points. They can point out enough things where we have failed. So I'm not really so prepared to defend our practice always, but I am prepared to defend the truth that we seek to maintain and the truth that we believe and the truth that we uphold. Because, beloved, I can't see anything more beautiful than the New Testament church, patterned after God's order, and I can't find anything in this world more beautiful than groups of Christians who are making a real concentrated effort seriously to follow that pattern.
And in the sense, in the measure that you dear Christians here at Lyman, and I see some from Maria, in the sense and the measure that you folks and we in our part of the state are keeping that pattern before us and seeking to abide by it and adjust ourselves to it, in that measure I say, God bless us. And you will. But let us never become complacent and think we have reached our utopia. Don't ever let us think that there just isn't any room for any improvements with us because probably somebody's going to point out someplace where there is room for improvement. If there is no room for improvement in our position, they can sure find plenty of room for improvement in our condition can take.
The point that I'm trying to make here, in case you haven't got it yet, is that if God is in the midst of His people, there ought to be some evidence of it. What I'm really asking my soul, and what I ask my soul, I ask you, if this is true, and it is true, that God is in the midst of His gathered people who are meeting according to New Testament Scripture, is God sitting still? Doesn't this truth do something for us? Wouldn't we want to share this wonderful truth with others? Or could it be that we are so complacent with the truth that we have that we have just sort of withdrawn ourselves into our own shell, and we assume that everybody knows what we believe and stand for, and then we just are so happy together.
Well, now, thank God when we're happy together. That's wonderful, to be happy together. But I want to tell you, this happiness ought to be a branch hanging over the wall. What I'm really saying, in case I'm still not understood, is that every assembly ought to have a testimony in the community that others will sit up and take notice to. And if we don't have a testimony in the community, then maybe we can pride ourselves that God is in the midst. But I think if God is really in our midst, we ought to be so happy about this, and we ought to be so free that we're unshackled from denominationalism that we will want to spread this truth around. and let other people know.
And if we really got that kind of a zeal and a zest within us, it could be that our assembly, testimony, and assembly life would begin to flourish. You know, there's something kind of interesting in what's going on in the world today. You've all heard about the Jesus movement, haven't you? Well, don't get too excited now. I'm not going to stand up here and give you a complete summarizing or a defensive lecture on the Jesus movement. But you know, some of these young people, not all of the Jesus movement people, incidentally, most of the Jesus movement or the Jesus Freak is Pentecostal, most of it. Nearly all of them are all tied up on tongues and healing and weird things.
They're just way out. So don't get real excited when you see something that sounds pretty good about Jesus Freak. Check it out. But at the same time, we do know that there's... kind of a movement going on in young people, especially on college campuses. And there are even groups of young people traveling out from assembly centers and they're going out and doing a lot of witnessing on college campuses. Now I'm not going to stand here and criticize that. First of all, because I don't know all that goes on. Secondly, because I do have to respect them for at least an effort to get out and do something.
But here's what we discover, and here's what I learn as I travel around, is that these young people who are reached in college groups, they are reached and then they began meeting on their own, and the sad thing is that they oftentimes, most generally, ignore the already existing assemblies in any given town. They just ignore them. Maybe they have reasons for doing it, but not in good ones as far as I know. But what they do is go out and form... a little group of their own. And if you ask them what they've got here, you know what they'll say? You go into one of these places where a group of these people have been reached by the Blitz group or some other group of young people.
And you'll find those young people and you'll find some admirable things about them. You'll find that some of these young people are really hungry for the Word of God. And I like to see people hungry for the Word of God. I really do. And you will find that some of these young people are really teachable. And I like to see people who are teachable. And you will find some of these young people who are really sold out to the Lord Jesus and they're ready to witness and share their newfound joy with others. At the same time, you will find these young people and they're desirous of establishing a New Testament church. And you can find them breaking bread on Sunday, maybe in the afternoon. They may have had a little fellowship meal.
They may have an afternoon meeting of breaking bread. Then they may have a prayer meeting. Then they may go out and witness. They may do things all different than we do. And you ask them, hey, what are you young people doing here? We've got a New Testament church going here. You know what? The thing that kind of makes me chuckle is that sometimes these young people who have got this New Testament church They talk as though they've just discovered the first New Testament church that ever was to be discovered. I read a letter one time from a young girl down south. That young woman was raised in an assembly. She was taught by good teachers. She's listened to lots of ministry.
She went out with the young people and got in with this thing. And then she wrote home to her mother and she was telling her mother and her mother let me read the letter all about this New Testament church that she had discovered. And you know the very thing that she had discovered was the thing that she had been raised in all of her life. Very easy. She hadn't discovered anything new. She had just discovered something that was a wee bit different. But what those young people were doing is what you and I have been doing all these years and we have been meeting. We're simply trying to meet in New Testament simplicity, according to the Word of God. What's different about what they're doing?
Maybe their methods are a little different. Maybe their program is a little different. But they're trying to maintain. Only sad thing is they have no leadership so many times. And I can't really say amen to everything that those young people do because they lack leadership. And when they don't have someone to teach them and guide them, they can fall prey to the enemy real easy. Thank God for the New Testament church where we pick up the word of God and say, what does God say? And God is in the midst of people like that. But when God is in our midst, I want to tell you the other people ought to take notice. God will move. But now notice something. The ark is moving into the camp.
And the Philistines are afraid. And the people of Israel gave a shout so that the earth rang again. I like that expression. But now notice. The whole beautiful picture changes in verse ten. And the Philistines fought and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent. And there was a great slaughter for their fell of Israel, thirty thousand footmen. How do you like that? The ark of God has moved into the camp. The Philistines are afraid. They reinforce themselves against God's movement into their environment. What's the next thing you read? You read that the Philistines have conquered and the Israelites have gone down in defeat.
Why? That's what we've got to find out. Boy, we're going to have to do it in a hurry. I've got to see that clock. There were some related events that I just want to note with you before we ask the question why. When these Israelites went down in the valley and so many of them were killed, something else happened. The Ark of God was taken, you will notice. Now, here was old Eli the priest. And Eli the priest was sitting on this stool. And this man from Benjamin came running out of the army and back into the city of Shiloh. And Eli's two sons had already been killed.
And you know Eli asked a question. And what did Eli ask? He wasn't to know how things were going, and he had a strong suspicion. He had a suspicion that things weren't going well in the battle, and he got the news. And here's two things that he learned. He learned that the ark of God had been taken by the Philistines, and he learned that his two sons had been killed in the battle. Now, if that were you, if you were Eli, which one of these would give you the most concern? Your two sons who have been killed in the battle or the ark of God. I think I know which one would have concerned me the most. I probably would have been most concerned for my two sons and the ark of God would have been second.
But if you'll look at this carefully, you'll notice that Eli didn't fall off of the stool and break his neck because his two sons were dead. He fell off of the stool and broke his neck when he heard the ark of God was taken. There's something about Eli that I don't admire, but there's something that I do admire too. And that was that his heart trembled for the Ark of God. Why? Because he recognized that God's presence was uppermost, and that was supreme, even over the welfare of his sons. As I read this, do you know what clicked in my mind? I thought about men that I know have sat in assembly judgment as elders, And they had sat in judgment over their own sons or daughters who had committed some kind of a sin in the assembly.
And they had to sit in judgment against their own kids and kin and put them out of the meeting. I hope I never had any experience. I certainly have to admire anyone who will sit in judgment. Why? Not because that father doesn't love that son or daughter. Don't you think it for a minute. I'll tell you why. because that father realizes that he has a solemn responsibility before God to vindicate God's holiness and God's holiness comes over family relationships and family affections. And only a father would know the tremendous responsibility and the terrible experience of having to sit in judgment on a son or a daughter as an overseer in the assembly in order to vindicate God's holiness.
That is one reason why people are put out of the assembly when they sin. There's more than one reason, but that's one. One reason why people are put out of the assembly when they sin is because God's glory and God's holiness has to be vindicated. And old Eli's main concern was for the Ark of God. And when he heard about the Ark of God, he trembled and he fell off of that stool. He had no business sitting on that stool because he was a priest. And the dear old man didn't checkmate the sin in his sons, and he died the death of an unredeemed ass. He died the death of a broken neck. It wasn't a very glamorous way to die, but I still have to respect him for what I can.
And that was his concern for the Ark of God. And then the other related event was Iqbal's mother, the wife of Sinehas. She heard what had happened. She had heard that her husband was dead. She had heard that her father-in-law was dead. she had heard that the Ark of God was taken. And when Iqbald was being born, a woman stood by her and tried to comfort her. But she had already heard that the Ark of God had been taken in the battle, the glory of Israel had departed, and there was no comfort. The maid who stood by said to her, You've just delivered a son. And she never answered a word. She had nothing to say. And she died in her birth.
But the last thing that she said when she died, was the glory of God is departed from Israel. Now I'm closing, and we're going to have to handle this in a hurry. What's the why for all of this? What's the reason? What is the reason? Let me ask you, see if you can answer it in your own mind. What is the reason? When the ark of God comes into the tent of Israel, the Philistines tremble. When the Ark of God is actually God coming into the camp, why is it that Israel immediately goes down into defeat?
Why? Wasn't the presence of God in their midst enough assurance that they wouldn't go down in defeat? I think there's a little clue in the early part of the chapter. Clue number one. Look at verse three. And when the people were coming to the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore has the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us. Are you watching? I want you to look at them. That's the next expression. You got it, don't you? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us that when it comes.
Among us, it may save us. You say, I don't get it, preacher. What are you driving at? Well, let me tell you what I'm driving at, in case you haven't got it. These people put their confidence in the it instead of the person. They put their confidence in the ark instead of the God that the ark represented. The Philistines didn't say we're afraid because the ark has come. The Philistines said we're afraid because God has come. But the people of Israel said, if we can just have it, if we can just have it, it will save us.
Did the it save them? No. The it didn't save them because they had their affections and their hearts set upon the it. Now here's a little something that again came into my mind when I read this the other day. I heard a man say one time that he thought the assemblies of the Lord's people were pretty much foolproof because of the place that we give the Lord's Supper in our midst. The Lord's Supper being celebrated in the way that we do which is right every first day of the week and he said, I feel like we're foolproof against doctrine. False doctrine. I'm not critical of what this man said except that I don't exactly believe that I share it with him.
Maybe I am critical after all. I'll tell you why. If If we are occupied with the Lord's supper or the table and fail to see the person that the table represents, then we've got our whole affection centered upon an it, and that it will never save us. It has to be the Lord that those emblems represent that our eye is upon. Otherwise, we can get ourselves all wrapped up. in the it, just as Israel did, and the it will never save us. The Lord can save us from false teaching and false doctrines, and if we really keep our eyes upon the message that that little supper gives us, I believe we will be spared from false doctrines.
But if we're just going to be breadbreakers, and if we're just going to do ceremonialism and get taken up with the Lord's supper without the Lord himself, then it just becomes an it to us and it will never stay with us from me. I believe there are people who sit at the Lord's Supper that don't get to the Lord at all and don't see the Lord at all. Same thing can be of baptism. Baptism isn't the thing that really does us all the good. It's only a symbol, an outward symbol of something that is real. What is the real thing? My death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. That's the real thing. The baptism is just a symbol of that. So if I get all taken up with baptism, like I talked to a lady today in the hospital, Boy, she was telling me about her baptism.
And her baptism was the most beautiful thing that ever happened to her. She was in the clouds when she was baptized, and she told her, preach her about her baptism. My baptism was over. And for all the visits that I had with that woman this afternoon, she never had an experience about being saved. tried to tell her. I said, well, you know, I've never had the kind of experience, as you've told me about today, but I want to tell you about my experience, and I told her how I was saved. I don't suppose that even sounded very exciting to her. But it is to me. Her baptism is nothing because she has failed to see the real person that she was identified with if she were baptized scripturally after she was saved, which I doubt.
One more thing in closing, though. What's the second secret of the defeat? Why the defeat? Not only were they occupied with an it instead of the person, but notice verse four. So the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from since the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelt between the cherubim and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. I'm not going to take time to point this out to you, but if you want to get the history of Hapnai and Phinehas, you just read the first few chapters of the book of Samuel. Do you know what they were?
They were wicked sons of Eli. And these were the fellows who were ministering in the priest's office. In any time that unsanctified, unholy hands are permitted to minister in the sacred things of God. You're in trouble. Because the Bible teaches us that they must have clean hands who bear the vessels of the Lord. There isn't anyone who needs to be cleaner than any person who handles the sacred things of God. Whether you're a Sunday school teacher, or whether you are a preacher, or whether you are an elder, or whatever else you may be.
One thing is absolutely essential in the service of God, and that is that the Bethel be clean. And Eli and Hapni were wicked men. And those men ministering in the work of the Lord, this was a good reason for Israel to require a king, at least in their estimation, those wicked sons ministering in the service of God. And where was the real charge laid? The real charge was laid at Eli's feet. Sure, he rebuked his sons, But he never put them out of the priest's office when he knew their wickedness. And he knew about it. So you see what unholiness can do. It can do damage in the work of the Lord.
Let us be sure that we handle the things of God with clean hands, clean hearts, pure mind, pure body. God wants clean vessels. Vessels that are meat for the master's use. There is the second reason for the defeat that Israel suffered that day. The ark of God was there, but they went down in defeat because they were taken up with the it instead of their confidence in the God Jehovah himself. Let us, perhaps the sequel to all of this, I can say in closing, beloved, let us never, let us never sacrifice a thing for the person. Let us never sacrifice the building or the assembly in quotes or the real thing.
New Testament teaching concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the assembly? It's the place where the Lord dwells in the midst of his people. And we've got to always keep the Lord before us. His person in view. Otherwise, we can too go astray. And we can go down in defeat. The fact that we claim God in our midst is no assurance of our victory unless we give the Lord his rightful honors and keep him preeminently before us. Shall we pray? Father, we ask that you bless us now as we bring this meeting to a close, to speak us to our homes and say to be with us, as we go into the night, may we have a good rest, and may thy blessing rest upon us.
We thank you for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we thank you that he too is the center of our gathering. We praise thee for the place that he has in our midst, and we would like to give him that exalted place, and we would like more and more to just take place. Our place has nothing and give the Lord the glorified position in our lives and in the assembly. For we ask these things now as we give thanks in Jesus' name.