Today on Real Life Radio. There is no perfect marriage. There's no perfect nation. There's no perfect relationship. But when the fire is gone, The glory's departed.
It's a very tragic and a very scary thing. When a nation or a people or a home is no longer committed to God. This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible.
Have you ever ignored a warning only to regret it later? What if the warnings we so easily brush aside are exactly what we need to live a life full of purpose and protection? What if instead of seeing warnings as obstacles or interruptions, what if we embrace them as the love and wisdom of a God who wants to protect us from destruction? How often do we dismiss the warnings in our lives because they challenge our comfort, our convenience, or our pride? In this month's featured resource called Words of Warning, Charles Spurgeon calls us to wake up to the seriousness of the spiritual battles we face every day.
Words of warning, listen to the subtitle everyone, for those wavering between belief and unbelief. You need this book. Everyone needs this book. If you're struggling with belief and unbelief? Get it.
Get words of warning by Charles Spurgeon for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That's jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today's edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack continues his series now called 1 Samuel and a message titled When the Glory Has Departed, Part 1. Samuel of the Old Testament was a man, of course, dedicated to God as Israel's last judge.
And the first of the prophets who now hears from God concerning Israel's apathy. toward the things of God. You see, chapter 4 is really a very somber chapter. When a nation whose roots are in God begins to slip away from an honest and true relationship with God, well, time is short for that nation. unless there's some sort of miracle.
So today Pastor Jack teaches that the same holds true for the church. When there's no appetite for the Bible, there will be no change in our lives. It's only when we come to our senses, repent, and pray for a miracle that we can do. that we can be free from the clutches of spiritual deception.
Now with his message called, When the Glory Has Departed, Part 1. Here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs. And we ask you, Lord, that you'd manifest your presence. by blessing us with your word. In Jesus' name and all God's people said, Amen.
Won't you turn, if you would, to 1 Samuel chapter 4? 1 Samuel 4 in our study tonight. And really The chapter is a very somber, serious chapter. And we'll be taking this chapter, Lord willing, anyway. I think in maybe two to three weeks.
As we do. Look at this chapter. The title is When the Glory Has Departed. And that is 1 Samuel 4, 1 through 11.
Next week we'll pick it up. Or the next time we get together, beginning in verse 12, where we hear there that one of the Wives Of the sons of Eli, when she hears that the ark of the of the Lord has been taken. And her husband Father-in-law and brother-in-law are now dead. She's pregnant. And we'll see next time together that when she hears the news, she begins to go into what must be a.
some sort of a premature labor. And the child is born. And It must have been a horrible delivery because she winds up dying. And while she's dying, she yells out the child's name. She gives him a name.
Ichabod. Ichabad, the glory has departed. A tragic word. A word that you would not normally name your child. Unless some horrible event has taken place.
And the fact is that the glory has departed. And God has established this. young man Samuel to be his mouthpiece. It's a tragic thing enough to To see when a Maybe a a husband and a wife are very very close friends where their relationship is Uh now grown cold. and uh there's no longer any fire.
So to speak between them, there's a um A deadness, there's a routine to it. And what you used to once fight for, that is time with that person, you used to try to make more time so you could find. those precious moments together with them. Uh now that the fire and the flame has grown cold. Uh time is something that you now Uh look for to to use as an excuse, sorry, we can't be together, I don't have the time.
No longer is it pleasurable. No longer is there Uh That Wonderful passion. It's bad enough in a marriage. It's bad enough when a nation loses its love and its passion. Especially a nation that has been founded by God.
A nation Where Israel had been established and decreed and ordained by God, but the nation. And its love to God has now grown cold. And they forget God. They neglect God. No longer consulting God.
No longer praying. There is no perfect marriage. There's no perfect nation. There's no perfect relationship. But when the fire is gone, The glory's departed.
It's a very tragic and a very scary thing. When a nation or a people Or a home is no longer committed to God. The Bible tells us. And warns us that in the last days, There'll be churches like this.
Well established, no doubt, maybe huge. Churches to where There's people in line trying to get into the building. The money's there, the The hype is there. On the radio, maybe, on TV. Everybody knows that church's name.
But you and I live in a time and in a place where We can throw so much money at something to make it look really good. You know that? You wear that, you can throw so much money at a church and make it look really great. And I think you can fool a lot of people for a long time. But in due time, It'd be evident that the glory is departed.
The Bible talks often about the church and about us as believers as finishing well. Israel in this tragic story. In this chapter is not doing well at all. and yet rather make it a history lesson for us tonight. We need to look at it in a very personal way, though we will touch on the scripture, of course.
Before we do that, jot down in your notes, if you would, or keep in mind 2 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 5. In 2 Timothy 3.1, the Bible says, But know this, that in the last days perilous. dangerous, difficult. Times will come. For men.
that is the general populace. will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money. Boasters, proud. Blasphemers. Disobedient to parents.
Unthankful. Unholy. unloving, unforgiving slanders. Without self-control, Brutal. Despisers of good.
Traders Head strong. Hotty. lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. they have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. From such people, turn away from them.
The disgusting part about that verse implies that these people are in a church. They have a Form of godliness. I mean, let's be. Specific to us today. They look like Christians on the outside.
They say they're Christians on the outside. There's a cross or a dove hanging on the building. It might say First Baptist or Calvary Chapel, or yeah, I don't care. You put the name up there, it doesn't matter. You and I can be living in an age that even the church that you and I attend could slip into that backslidden state of being a ministry where the power has been denied.
No longer the Holy Spirit is looked upon. No longer is the Spirit of God sought after. And if it can happen in a church, It can happen in a nation. If it can happen in a nation, as the old statement goes, As a Family goes, so goes the nation. It can happen in a home.
So we want to ask ourselves tonight these questions. What are the ten steps that lead to the diminishing glory in our lives? There are 10 steps. We'll look at however many we're able to look at tonight. But ten steps that lead to the diminishing glory that God would have operating in our lives.
And as we go through these, they may be very sobering. And I think as I looked at them, very convicting when the glory has departed. The first thing that we see in this chapter, look at verse 1 of chapter 4. It says, And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. And they encamped beside Ebenezer. And the Philistines encamped at Athac, Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel, and when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about 4,000 men of the army in the field. And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Listen, why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord from Shiloh to us.
That when it comes among us, It may save us from the hand of our enemies. I hear you, some of you already responding. to the error of their ways.
So the people sent to Shiloh. That they might Bring from there the ark of the Lord of hosts. who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Haphne and Phanas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook.
And now when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, They said, what does the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean? Then they understood that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp.
So the Philistines were afraid. For they said, God has come into the camp. And they said, Woe to us for such a thing has never happened before. Woe to us. Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods?
These are the gods. who struck the Egyptians with the plagues, In the um expanse or the The wastelands. Look at verse 9: Be strong. This is the Philistines speaking. They're saying to themselves: be strong and conduct yourselves like men.
Right here, I want you to... Keep in mind that these Philistines have not known the God of Israel only by word. Look what transpires here. That you That you do not become servants of the Hebrews as they or the Hebrews have been for you. Verse 10.
He's encouraging them or they are saying fight And he goes on, look, the 11th verse: also the ark of God was captured. in this battle that's taken place. And Eli's sons. They die. A radical thing.
An amazing thing. What's happening? 10 things that we need to look at. 10 things that are convicting. Number one, jot it down, if you would, when the glory's departed.
There will be no spiritual word. When the glory is gone, when the glory is departed. From your life, my life. The church. Israel, America.
When the glory's departed, no longer a spiritual word. How so? Back in 1 Samuel 3:1. The scripture says that Samuel ministered there to the Lord. And it says this very, very important word.
It says, the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no widespread revelation. That's where it goes wrong. The word is not prevalent. It's not uh.
Going out widespread. You would expect Israel, you would expect America, you would expect our house to have the Word of God being widespread. But look what it says It was not. And from that point, The The curse, if I can put it that way, begins. There will be no spiritual word.
In Proverbs 29:18, the Bible says, where there is no revelation. The people cast off restraint. And what he's saying is that where the word is not governing and where the word is not prevalent, people do whatever they want to do. They don't go to the Bible. It's not that God wasn't speaking to Israel, it's that the people didn't want to hear him.
Their hearts had been dimmed. And no doubt we know the Lord enough that his Patience must have been great. But they wouldn't hear. You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com.
That's jackhibbs.com. And for now, let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor Jack. By the way, there will always be words. There'll always be tons of words.
Somebody is always going to be saying something, but does someone have something to say? Samuel had something to say. But there was no widespread revelation, no widespread word. Under this Points We need to maybe jot down a few things. There will be no spiritual word when the glory of God has departed, that is, out of our mouths or in our homes or in the church.
We know this. There will be no appetite for the Bible. When the glory's departed from someone's life, there's no appetite for Bible. It's not there. In verse 1, we read that it says, that through Samuel the word of God came to the entire nation.
That doesn't mean the entire nation was converted. It means they all heard the word. But they didn't obey the word. They didn't have a hunger for the Bible. Whenever the glory departs, this book will take a back seat to our lives.
It might go from our lap. To um The floorboard of our car to the back seat to the trunk. From the trunk To the coffee table. It seems like so many of them wind up on coffee tables as giant Yeah. coffee holders or something, I don't know.
So sad. The Bible is rarely picked up. And it's just uh Something there in the home. Or you can say I own a Bible. But is it really a part of your life?
Listen, when it's not a part of your life, there's no appetite for the Bible. When the glory has departed from a nation, Listen, There's no Cry for the Bible. But what happens when a nation begins to remove the Ten Commandments from its public places. And when The President of the United States Makes the announcement. I don't believe people should be leaning on welfare.
People should be leaning on the church. Let the church take care of the people in need. You would think the nation would have stood to its feet and said, yes, amen. And yet the greatest opposition that came To President Bush's encouragement for the church to step up. and be the welfare system of the nation.
Churches Attack this plan. The glory has departed. It's a tragic thing. There'll be no spiritual word. And when a spiritual word is said, when it is announced, the nation will scratch its head and wonder: what was that?
They won't understand. Samuel brought the word of God to the nation, the people didn't receive it. We know this by what happens. There'll be no appetite for the Bible. As a prophet, Samuel began to speak.
God had prophesied judgment. And you remember last time together where God had spoken to him to announce that Eli, his entire home, would be destroyed and that no one from his name from his Children would sit upon the throne. God wants an appetite to be in our hearts for the Bible. And the fact is, if tonight we are convicted that we don't have a hunger for the Bible, if we can live days and days and days without the Bible, And never miss a beat. That we need to pray tonight and say, Oh God, create within me a hunger for the Bible that I might thirst and be hungry for you again.
Because we need the wisdom and the guidance of the Bible. When the glory is departed There'll be no spiritual word. Historians tell us, and it's quite beautiful to think about this: that Israel's custom among the Jewish mothers, when they gave birth to a child, They would take that child and they would begin to nurse the baby. And the moment the baby began to nurse, technically, in the writing, it says that the moment the baby began to take suck, that is, the mother discerns the baby is latched on and receiving nourishment. The moment she realizes that, she discerns that.
She leans and it's perfect. Just think about it in your mind. She leans her head down to that the ear of that baby. While that child is nursing and she says, The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God.
When she changes breast and moved the baby over to the other side and to the other ear, she says, The Lord, He is God. Why? Because that child, and it was important to her that that baby would grow up knowing that comfort, peace, warmth, security, strength comes from. The Lord He is God. It's a very wonderful picture.
And I believe Jesus wants to do that to us through his Bible. In Revelation, there's a very unusual passage, and I don't have it. Off my head or in my notes tonight, but you can look it up later. It says, and I believe it's in the Old King James, it says that across Jesus, across his chest, it doesn't use the word chest though, it's Paps, P-A-P-S. across his paps is a golden band.
You say, well, what is that all about? You look it up in the Greek and you just kind of go, bonkers, what can this mean? It's not the chest of a male. It's the breast of a female. You say, what are you saying?
I'm saying that Jesus' chest is associated with comfort, peace, and strength.
So much so that the King James authors took the Greek word, didn't know what to do with it, and put the word paps in there, trusting that you would look it up someday and figure it out. That Jesus Christ in his great revelation Of all that he is, With his eyes of fire and his beard of blazing white, the sun and the moon flee from his glorious appearance. His feet are polished, bright like brass. And as the scriptures say, he rides on the wings of the wind. Oh man.
It says that his chest is a place of sweet. comfort and nourishment. Isn't that awesome? How you gonna know that? Unless you read your Bible.
You see, when the glory's departed, the Bible is not important in your life. It's just something young.
something that often tragically collects dust. There's no appetite. We also would recognize that when the Word, the spiritual word is vacant and gone, and the glory is departed. There'll be no personal application. X only bears to reason.
There'll be no Personal. Application verses 1 and 2 go on to tell us that when Israel went out to battle, They went out to battle against their age old enemies. The Philistines, those who established the area of, listen, Philistia. It's the area Just about today at Gaza. And just south of the area.
Um where Joppa might be. on your map today. Kind of a small area on the coast. Those of you who have been, you've come in to Tel Aviv. That area here in scripture of Philistia.
is south. An area that we don't Even C. when we go there. It's interesting to note that today Israel's archenemy Is The very Philistines, Philistia. The area of Gaza today.
Isn't that interesting? Nothing's really changed, huh?
So they go to battle, they're encamped. And they've drawn their battle array. And they're going to go into war. Samuel had spoken, but Israel had failed to listen to the word of God. With their hearts, they wouldn't listen.
And so there's no personal application. Would God have gone to battle for them? Listen, we know this enough about God that even when God says, okay, I'm gonna do this thing. And if people repent and seek his face, God relents from his edict because he loves forgiveness. to be extended based upon repentance.
If you repent, if I repent, he forgives. Isn't that amazing? What times did you blow it today? How many times did he forgive you? Listen, how many times did he forgive you?
Be careful, don't shout it out. He'll forgive you based upon your asking for forgiveness. The Bible is very clear for the non-believer and for the Christian. For the Christian in 1 John 1.9, if, if. Conditional.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Right? What is incumbent upon us to do? Confess. No confession?
No forgiveness. even in the life of a Christian. You don't confess, you're not forgiven.
Well, does that mean I'm going to go to hell? No, it doesn't mean you're going to hell. It's a fellowship issue, it has nothing to do with heaven or hell. You're already going to heaven. But if you don't confess your sin to the Lord, you'll walk around, you'll live the rest of your days in a Christian days, D-A-Z-E.
You miss it! God will want to be speaking. He'll want to be leading you through battle? You miss it! Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes.
Here on real life radio, and his message called When the Glory Has Departed, Part 1. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called 1 Samuel. A series highlighting the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest ages. to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
Hey, this is Pastor Jack, and I want to encourage you to join me every morning this year at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, where we literally get together online in a prayer group, and there are thousands who are joining us. I'd love for you to participate. That's 5 a.m. every day throughout the entire year.
We get together and pray. I look forward to meeting up with you. Come get prayed for and join Pastor Jack in the Word. That's the Lyft Daily Prayer every day this year on Pastor Jack's Facebook page. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners.
Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
