Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: Can you fool God? Can you slip one by him? Here's the answer from Pastor Jeff Johnson.

We can't hide anything from him. When are we going to quit thinking we can snow God and do our thing and get away with it and not have him chasing us because he loves us? And yet, a tragedy would have to happen. God forbid.

But as we seek him, he begins to reveal the sin in the camp, doesn't he? The unbelief, the disobedience. He begins to reveal the rebelliousness and the ways to be worshipped. He shows us what we're to be doing.

Guest (Male): It's been well said there must be conviction before there can be conversion. It's like the person who is seriously ill. If he doesn't believe he's in danger, he won't accept the diagnosis and take the necessary treatment.

Spiritually speaking, if the symptoms of our condition persist, it has to be God's mercy designed to push us toward treatment and healing. Every human being is dying of a terminal disease called sin, and there is only one cure. Find your place in 1 Samuel chapter 6 as we bring you Sound Doctrine. Here's Pastor Jeff Johnson with today's study.

Jeff Johnson: First Samuel, chapter 6. Now, we have been looking at the effects of the Ark of God first upon Israel and then the effects of the Ark upon their enemy, the Philistines.

Now, with Israel, we have already seen the effects was, of course, devastation. They had lost their first love, in a manner of speaking, due to their backslidden state. They had now begun to trust in things. This thing will deliver us. And in doing that, their victory turned to defeat.

To their enemy, to the Philistines who took the Ark thinking that they now had the great victory, it was also devastation because we read last week that boils and just a plague was upon them. God was trying to get their attention, as he does many times. He revealed himself, he revealed his presence and his power, and yet they rejected him and they sought to get rid of him.

Because when the heat turns up and when the Lord starts to finger you, that's when you want to run. There's one thing different between clay and us. You know how we say, "I just want to be clay in the master potter's hand"? Well, the analogy breaks down when you're not clay because you've got legs. Clay doesn't have legs and you can run. And that's what we do. When things get heavy, we run.

And yet, when you think about it, where are you going to go? I mean, when the Lord really starts to convict you about something and nail you, where are you going to run to? I mean, the Spirit of the Lord is the hound of heaven. He'll just come running after you.

In chapter 6 now, notice verse 1: "And the Ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines for seven months." And so for seven months, the Ark was a hot potato. And we talked about it last week. We saw how they tried to move it around from city to city. "We don't want it, give it to them." And so they moved it over to the other city. "We don't want it, give it to them." And everybody's passing the Ark around until it was decided finally to send it where? Back to Israel.

Verse 2: "And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, 'What shall we do to the Ark of the Lord? Tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.'" Interesting question: what shall we do? I remembered that there was another time in the New Testament where Peter was sharing the gospel and the people were pricked in their hearts to the point of actually asking this very same question.

And in Acts 2 verse 37, they cried out and said, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" With hearing this news, how should we react? What should we do? Then Peter very carefully said, "Repent. Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

I think that's wise counsel. When a person gets to the end of themselves and they cry out, "What should I do then?" you tell them to repent of their sins. You tell them to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. To join the forever family of God is great counsel.

But here, we are dealing with heathen diviners and priests. And so they're going to their own priests, remember. And these are false prophets. These are those that are in the world, thinking worldly things, and the philosophers of the time, the greatest geniuses in the Philistines, those that they looked up to for direction. And they were seeking light in a roundabout way. They were seeking direction.

And so they come to these guys. You know, Jesus in Matthew 24 warned us. He said, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name saying, 'I am the Christ' and shall deceive many." So we have to be careful who we're asking first of all, "What should I do?"

Be careful of the counsel that you go to, who you go to to receive that wisdom and that counsel, being aware that there are many that will give you false counsel, false direction, and mess you up. Let's go to the Word of the Lord. It will stand forever. The counsel of the Lord will always be right on, right?

So let's seek to go to the Word. Let's seek to surround ourselves with counselors that are going to give us the Word and let's get the Word of the Lord on our direction when we find ourselves asking and seeking for light. But these guys, they sought it from the false counselors.

Now notice their counsel in verse 3: "And they said, 'If you send away the Ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty.'" And here's the plan: "'But in any wise return him a trespass offering. Then you shall be healed and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.'"

So first of all, we see they say, "Give a trespass offering," which is very interesting. These priests, these heathen priests, they knew and understood about the Old Testament law. Or they wouldn't have said trespass offering. It is amazing how people in the world know more about God than I think we give them credit for knowing.

I think if you dig a little bit more, you'll be amazed yourself. Turn on Jeopardy, right? The Bible. Those guys, they come off with the answer right away. People understand the Bible. They understand the things of the Word of God. They understand a lot more than we give them credit for. And so these guys said, "Well, give a trespass offering."

Now, usually their counsel, of course, is going to be if you're going to get it from those of the world, it's going to be misguided, it's going to be confused counsel. And so they said, "Give an offering. Appease this God with an offering." And it's amazing to me how many people think by giving an offering, "I gave at the office," by doing something good, that they are actually winning God over to their side.

I mean, I've heard people say, "Hey, listen, I know I do bad things, but I always overcome the bad with doing good. And I kind of try to keep it balanced. And God knows I'm a good man. I helped an old lady across the street the other day. I'm a good man." Like you're going to get on God's side because of the things that you sacrifice or the things that you offer to God.

But God doesn't want sacrifice. The Bible says that he desires obedience. That's when the Bible says "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." That's your obedience to believe in what he did when he sent his son to die on the cross for your sins.

You need to believe in him. And that means a lot more than intellectual assent. It means trusting in, clinging to, relying upon, adhering to. That's the whole meaning of the word believe. And you shall be saved.

Verse 4, the counsel goes on: "Then said they, 'What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return unto him?' They answered, 'Make five golden hemorrhoids and five golden mice according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on you all and your lords. Wherefore you shall make images of your hemorrhoids and images of your mice that marred the land.'"

And here's where many believe that there was a plague going on because there was just an infestation of mice. "And you shall give glory unto the God of Israel. Peradventure he will lighten his hand from off of you and from off your gods and from off your land."

So they figured, well, let's give him some golden images of the plague that was upon us. And that will suffice him. You know, five golden hemorrhoids, five golden mice to represent the five cities that were plagued by the very uncomfortable disease and also the plague that was on their crops too.

Notice gold would represent, of course, any price to get rid of their affliction. "We'll give the best. Gold to man is the best. And we're willing to give the best to get out of this thing." I think the mice kind of represent that they realize that they were just mice in this whole thing. They were just nothing compared to what was going on.

But only really when you look at the Old Testament, if they really knew what the Old Testament said, they would understand that blood sacrifice is the only thing that God will receive. Because it's a type of Christ and that is the only way you're going to get saved, by being cleansed by the blood of Jesus, which was shed for you on the cross. Every sacrifice points to that all the way through the Old Testament. That's why the blood sacrifice is very important.

Notice, let's acknowledge this God and give him glory. That'll do it. We know that'll do it. Just acknowledge him that he's the greatest and give him the glory. But really, I don't see anything, I don't see any word of repentance here, do you? Of them being sorry for their sin.

I don't see anything like what happened to Nineveh. And remember, as Jonah went through there, he said forty days and sudden destruction. He didn't say for them to repent. He didn't even infer it. But they just figured, hey, why don't we just repent to God and say we're sorry for the lifestyle we're living? And maybe he'll forgive us and this judgment won't come upon us.

And that's exactly what they did. And God did what? He forgave them. There was repentance. And Jonah stood back and said, "Hey God, what's going on?" Well, God is a God of forgiveness if we repent. I don't see it here.

So as Egypt, with no repentance, the Philistines send Israel away with their gold. Just like the Pharaoh did. Just take all of our gold. Just go. Just get out of here. We'll give you the best we have, you know, like that's going to appease and everything's going to be all right.

Verse 6: "Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts," they said, "as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go and they departed?" Again, I want you to notice that these priests, these people, knew Old Testament history. They knew the stories of the children of Israel. They knew what they went through.

And they simply again, I've got to say, people in the world, they know a lot about who we are and what we are and why we are. And you don't believe me, you just go to a rowdy party sometime and be standing there. Somebody will come up to you and say, "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you were a Christian. You're not supposed to be here in all this debauchery and rioting and drinking. What are you doing here?"

"Hey, you're not supposed to steal. You're not supposed to lie. I thought you were a Christian." Oh, they're so quick. You see, being rebuked and reproved by the pagans. That's got to be a real low blow. But oh, how we need it. Abraham, remember, as Pharaoh turned to him and said, "Why did you lie to me? Come on. You're supposed to be this child of God here." They know what's going on.

So let's in the counsel was, let's not stiffen, make ourselves strong as the Egyptians did to fight God. Let's learn by their example. Because as they fought God, I mean, they continued to reject the plagues, and it got worse and worse. I mean, let's learn from the past. Isn't that wise? That's a little wisdom here. Let's learn from what happened in the past, how the Egyptians dealt with God, and let's loosen up here, guys.

I love the scripture in Psalms in 78. It says in verse 40, "How often did they provoke him in the wilderness," talking about the children of Israel. "They grieved him in the desert. Yea, they turned back and tempted God, limited the Holy One of Israel, and they remembered not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from their enemy."

Oh man, that we would not forget to learn the lessons of the past. That we would look at these things as our examples and that we would learn our lessons. That these things don't have to come upon us, that we can learn from these things and we can be better instead of bitter. And we can see victory instead of defeat all the time if we'll just learn from the past and not forget all that God has done, yet what he is doing, yet what he's going to do.

So Lord, keep us sharp. Look at verse 7 now: "Now therefore, make a new cart." And here is their advice how to get rid of the Ark. "Here's our advice on how you guys should get rid of the Ark. Make a new cart." And I think what they were trying to do is they were trying to again appease this God by a new cart. Nothing's ever been on this cart. We're talking shiny mags, rims, you know, just whoo, this thing is just beautiful, it just shimmered.

Not only a new cart, and then put jewels of gold and put all of the, you know, the little hemorrhoids and all those things in a little box for a trespass offering in this little coffer by the side of the Ark and send it away that it may go. So this new cart concept, we're going to see later on in Samuel how God chastened David for using a new cart.

But here, we don't see any judgment upon them, and I believe the reason why is because they didn't know any better. They didn't know how you're supposed to carry the Ark. And if they did know, because they did know some Old Testament law, then they didn't have the implements. They didn't have the golden poles. They didn't have the rings. Or they had the rings on the side of the Ark already. But they didn't have the priests, right? to do it. So even if they knew right, they put it on this cart and they let it go off.

But David, now, here's where David, he knew better. You know, it's a lot more on us. The more you hear your Bible, you are what? Christians, we know a lot. And it's when we know something and then we just do it is when it's worse than just not knowing it and doing it. Same way with the Philistines here.

David knew better. Remember God wants what? Our obedience. He gives us his word to do what? To obey. David used the new cart, and I think that it really relates back to us because if we use the ways of the world, if we see that this is working for the world and we go ahead and take it as the church and we begin to use it ourselves, that not only are we going to suffer, many are going to suffer.

And David was actually trying to do a right thing in the wrong way. Bringing the Ark into Jerusalem was a right thing, but he was doing it in a wrong way. Remember David's friend, Uzzah, died because as the Ark went, it tipped and it began to fall over and Uzzah put up his hand to stop it, and he touched it, and immediately he died.

And when David saw that, it was one of his best friends, he was crushed in his heart, he was broken, he said, "Leave the Ark there. We're not going to touch it." And everybody backed off. What David did though was a right thing. David went and he sought the Lord.

Just as Joshua, you know when you know things are wrong and they're going wrong in your home or in your own heart, how the Lord's trying to get your attention to pray and to seek him. Joshua did that, didn't he? And the Lord began to speak to him. David did the same thing. "Things are going wrong. What are we going to do? Lord, what is going on?"

And God was right there to give to him because he started studying the Bible again. David had gotten away from the Word. He got into the Word and he found out, "Oh, this is the way it's supposed to be carried. The priests are supposed to carry it with the golden staves through the loops." Aha, now I know. And so he went back and he began to do it in the right way.

If we do not go that way, and it's a shame that it takes a tragedy sometimes to wake us up, a death of a loved one, does it take to get your attention that what we're dealing with here is serious? That this is real warfare? That this is real relationship with a living God, a holy living God who sees everything and all things are naked?

We can't hide anything from him. And when are we going to quit thinking we can snow God and do our thing and get away with it and not have him chasing us because he loves us? And yet, a tragedy would have to happen. God forbid.

But as we seek him, he begins to reveal the sin in the camp, doesn't he? The unbelief, the disobedience. He begins to reveal the rebelliousness and the ways to be worshipped. He shows us what we're to be doing, how we're to pray. We might be trying to do a right thing but in the wrong way. He'll show us the right way if we will seek him first.

And then look at verse 8. Their further counsel was: "And take the Ark of the Lord, lay it upon a cart, put the jewels of gold which you have returned him for a trespass offering in the coffer by the side of it, and send it away that it may go, and then see if it goes up by the way of his own coast to Beth Shemesh. Then he hath done us this great evil. But if it doesn't go that way, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us, and that it was a chance that happened to us."

So their further counsel here and I want you to note how lame it is, and yet how loaded it is. Man's counsel is always wheeler-dealing. I mean, you'll see how rigged this whole thing is and how they're trying to put the odds in their favor in a minute.

If the cart goes north towards Israel, they said, then the plagues and the disaster that is upon us is of God's doing, and this is really the true living God dealing with us. If the cart goes south towards us, it's got nothing to do with their God. It is just something that just so happened to us, the plague and the hemorrhoids and all. That's just something that just was by chance.

But listen folks, if you know the Lord, you know that nothing by chance happens to you. Nothing just so happens to any of God's kids. God's will will be done, and there's things that come into our lives for a purpose and a reason. All things are working for the good for those that love the Lord. So he allows things to come and to get our attention and teach us certain things as we live in this life, right? It's neat. He loves us.

Nothing just so happens. Nothing's by luck either. You're either blessed or you're not. You're either blessed or you're cursed. Or the Lord's going after you. Or either you're blessed of God and all the things you have are blessings.

Look at verse 10. The men did exactly as they said, and they took these two milch kine, which really are female cows that have calves. They tied them to the cart and shut up their calves at home. Now what this means is that they took the calves away from the mothers, took the calves south of where the mothers were. Okay?

And they laid the Ark of the Lord upon the cart and the coffer of the mice of gold and the images of their hemorrhoids. Now, they take the calves and they go south with the calves, put everything on the cart, and then they just kind of let the cart go. It's like spin the wheel, we'll see what is the direction here.

It's a fleece. And you know when you really look at fleeces, Christians, you older Christians, now when you're a younger Christian a fleece is all right. I mean you say, "Well Lord, if this happens then I know this," and you're young and everything.

But as you get to know the Lord more, fleeces are really, when you look at them, a lack of faith. You're not taking a step and believing God. You're just saying, "Well, if this happens and this and this." And after a while as you grow up as a Christian, you don't do it anymore. You're maturing. You don't throw fleeces out all the time to the Lord. No, you just step out on God's word and you believe in faith.

Guest (Male): A mature faith is what Pastor Jeff Johnson is talking about today here on Sound Doctrine as we study 1 Samuel chapter 6. We pray you've been blessed by what you've heard today. 1 Samuel is filled with practical insights for Christian living.

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We hope you'll join us for our next study in 1 Samuel. It's going to be a good one. That's right here on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. A presentation of Calvary Chapel Downey. Have a blessed day in the Lord.