Today on Real Life Radio. When we begin to see God as someone who is prone to material, Persuasion, which of course God isn't. But an unbeliever practices this. I will do this good to outweigh what I did last week. And they begin to deal with God in a material way.
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On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called 1 Samuel and a message titled This Holy God, Part 1. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first prophet.
So Samuel is now urging the people of Israel to come back to their one true holy God. You see, Israel slipped into a ritualistic-based form of worship rather than a personal relationship with God. And when they fail to recognize God's holiness, they're also neglecting to pray to him. exposing themselves to the power of the enemy.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that it's humanly natural for us to trust in what we see. We can get lost in carved images or material worship instead of giving God the glory that really is due to His name only.
Now with his message called This Holy God Part 1, Here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hughes. The title of the message is This Holy God. We're going to find out why that is said in the scripture this evening. This holy God 1 Samuel chapter 5. And we'll go as far as we can.
We'll begin, of course, obviously. In verse 1, as we are starting this chapter, 1 Samuel chapter 5. Keep this in mind that in the chapters 3 and 4 of This book Uh it's really dedicated to teaching us. That Worship And dedication to God concerning the nation Israel had begun to slip away. The people were horribly Presented with Their concept of dedication to God by Eli's sons, who prostituted the office.
of priests. If you remember that in our study together, they began, that is, the people, because the misrepresentation of Eli's sons, the people began to take the things of God common. And they began to take their common attitude into worship. It's a horrible day. when we come into God's presence and we begin to think, and take God in a very common way.
Beginning to project upon God attributes of man or humans. That, yeah, I've come to church tonight, but who really cares? God probably doesn't even care. He's not really probably in tune with the message or with my singing. He's probably not paying attention.
And you begin to do the religious thing, but in a very common way, very tragic. And because of Eli's sons Misrepresenting God before the people, the nation began to take the things of God in a common manner. And you remember that as they went out to battle. The Philistines were aligned against Israel. They went out to battle, remember, and they got whipped.
So do you remember what they did? They called for the ark of God to come, and they literally said, We'll get the ark, bring it out here, because it will. Give us the victory. It will save us. And so they trust in the external things.
And we talked about how A lot of people Like to sense or feel that they can manage God by putting him in a box. Remember, Israel thought God somehow resided in that box with the golden angels above it. And so they bring out that ark and they get not only whipped again. But the ark is taken captive. And the Philistines take it home.
And Israel retreats. And Eli was sitting along the road waiting to hear what happened. And when he heard that his two sons were killed, remember. That was bad enough. But when Word came to Eli that the ark had been taken captive.
Remember, the Bible says he was old. And he was fat. And when he heard the news that the ark had been taken captive, he fell backwards off of his chair and broke his neck and died. When that news came to one of the sons of Eli, The widowed now, widowed daughter-in-law who was pregnant. She cries out loud.
For fear of hearing that her husband's dead, her father-in-law's dead, and the ark had been taken captive. That she immediately went into child. Bearing, childbirth, and A child, a little boy, was born, and while she's dying in birth, she names the child Ichabod. Remember, the glory has departed. Tragic story.
She dies. The little guy's name is The glory has departed. Ichabod. And Israel Is crying out now, the glory has departed, but that's not really what had happened because remember, God had Samuel alive and well. and prepared for the nation.
As we come into this study now, picking up where we left off last time, note this. The Philistines had taken the ark. We'll read about it tonight. But note this in the background. The Philistines worshiped three main types of deities.
They worshipped others as well, but three main types: Beelzebub, you've heard of him. The Lord of the Flies. That's another name for Satan. Beelzebub, they worship Astroth, And they worshiped Dagon. And in their worship, by the way, they had worship centers in Gaza.
Well, you saw that in the news this morning, didn't you? Gaza? Ashdod, which still stands today, and Bethshen.
Some of us have been to Beth Shen and those wonderful ruins there in the West Bank. Beautiful place. But these were the three key worship centers. that the Philistines worship these three Main deities. But if you were to pick one big kahuna deity of them all, it would be Dagon.
Dagon was The Lord of grain or the lord of the harvest. The Lord of Grain.
Now, some people, and for years they didn't believe that Dagon was lord of the fishes, and yet archaeological discoveries have proven that that's not the case. Dagon is actually the Lord of the grain, and it's very cool. Listen, and we'll get into the study. God is so good. And by the way, so is the earth.
Because the earth burps out. Treasures and trinkets for us. to pick up our Bible and say, wow, isn't it God great? Because as we go into the study, you're going to see what happens today God. in the presence of Jehovah God, okay?
But what happens to Dagon is very cool because the outcome of this story just so happens that. Um God takes the The Lord of the grain that the Philistines worship, and really. Rubs His glory, God's glory, in the face of this deity and the people that worship it. And it's going to be subtle. But here's the cool thing, the Bible obviously has had this recorded for thousands of years.
The neat thing is, through recent archaeological discovery, we find out that Dagon is the Lord of the harvest, the Lord of grain. And yet the Bible has had locked in it this neat little Kind of Thrust of the Lord that He alone is God and that He is holy.
So it's very exciting.
So in your note-taking tonight, you're going to want to jot down your first point, and that's in verses 1 through 5 of 1 Samuel chapter 5. And again, the title is This Holy God and what we're saying and seeing here in verses 1 through 5. the failing to recognize His holiness. The failure to recognize the fact that God is holy.
Now watch what happens here. Begin at verses one and two. We see here that there's a Lost, that is, God's holiness is lost in material worship. Watch with me. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it up from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
Then the Philistines took the ark of God and they brought it into the temple of Dagon and set it by Dagon. Stop right there. Why did they do this? This was a normal Philistine practice to take. The icons or the gods of a pagan country that they were warring against.
Take their deities and bring it into the presence of their chief god. Are you with me? And what they would believe is that when they would bring these other little Pagan deities before Dagon, Dagon in the temple would. Begin to uh Zap or suck the strength of this little god or gods. And assimilate into it the power that those little pagan gods had.
Kinda sounds like a weird movie, huh? Like a B movie? But you could see in front of Dagon, which was a massive structure. Really freaky looking thing too. It had kind of like a man's body, but also kind of like a fish's body, and also kind of like a lizard's body.
And it's standing there. And they would have all these little pagan gods.
Well These Pagan worshipers, Philistines, they bring the ark of God into the presence of their God.
Now, the Ark of God is nothing, right? It's nothing. It's acacia wood. Covered with gold. That's all it is.
But it represents the God of Israel. It's only a material thing. The holiness of God is being lost in material things. They knew about God's power. They knew what God had done for the children of Israel.
But they associate God with this material thing.
So much so if we just bring this Arc of Israels into the presence of Dagon, we'll do our normal carnal worship. practice and Our God will zap the strength of their God. But it had been rumoured about. For centuries. That God had delivered the children.
Of Israel from Egypt, that he had protected them in the wilderness. They knew this. But they Didn't? Take to heart the holiness of God. They began to look at God, the God of Israel, as something material, always a dangerous thing.
Always a scary thing. And when you begin to think that way, by the way, the next... Really, practice that comes from your life is the thinking that this God can be bought off somehow. Because you're thinking on material levels. If I just buy this God off in this area, then I'm okay in the other.
You with me? And it's a very dangerous thing. When we begin to see God as someone who is prone to material, Persuasion, which of course God isn't. But an unbeliever practices this. I will, and you know how unbelievers think.
I will do this good to outweigh what I did last week. And they begin to deal with God in a material way. Um The karma. Concept. If my good just outweighs my bad, I'll be all right.
That's not true.
Now Failing to recognize God's holiness, they lost. God's holiness In material worship. It's humanly natural for us to trust in what we can see. That's. The human side of us, but God wants us to worship Him in spirit.
You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now, let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.
What's kind of, I think, funny is that they see it just on the human plane.
So, watch this: you got all these idols in this temple. That have been made by the hands of men. Then they bring in the Ark of God, which has been made by the hands of men. But they don't believe that the God of Israel dwells in the world. Over that.
So really what it comes down to And I don't know if I should admit this, I just caught this on TV about a week and a half ago. It's so cool. I forget the name. I think it's called Robotica or something like this. Where these guys spend thousands of bucks to build these robots and then they put them into a theater and these robots chew each other up.
It's very cool. I really like this, and it's funny because what it comes down to is strategies: who's going to outplay who, and who's going to whip who, and who's robot stronger. And it's really kind of fun. And you know, last week they had MIT versus this guy from Harvard, and it was very cool. You know, I'm screaming and yelling as these robots are eating each other up and Kind of neat.
But what it comes down to is Someone's um Craftsmanship versus someone else's craftsmanship. And so you get these two gods. that they're thinking in front of each other. And it's like, okay, let's see what happens. Our guy's bigger than your guy.
Well look at the craftsmanship into our God. Oh look at the craftsmanship into our God. Which one's gonna Take the power from the other. Dagon?
Well, of course, the Philistines thought Dagon. That's all they knew. They didn't know the holiness and the glory of God. In Acts chapter 7, verse 47, the Bible says, but.
Solomon. Built him a house.
However, the Most High. Does not dwell in temples made with hands, that is, human hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my heart or of my rest?
Has my hand not made all that there is? I mean, what can we do for God? Isn't it great that we serve a God that fully cannot be explained? I love that. Our God is so awesome that He has given us just enough to know Him.
He's so beyond that it's gonna take eternity for us to get to know him. He can't be all figured out. I get very nervous when some of the cults come up to To me, and they explained to me all about their God or gods. You know what? I can only explain to you as much of my God as what He's revealed in the Bible.
Beyond that, His ways are past finding out, says the scripture. That such knowledge is too wonderful for me. He's incredible.
Now, all of a sudden, when I have problems, I can come to the God who's beyond my problems. He's greater. He has resources that I'll never quite know of. He can cause anything to happen to my benefit at any time. He's wonderful.
Again, in Acts chapter 17, verse 23. The danger of losing God's holiness and material worship. In Acts 17, 23, the Bible says, For as I was passing, Paul says, through and considering the objects of your worship I even found an altar with this inscription as he came to that pagan land to the unknown God. Paul says, Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you, God who made the world and everything that is in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth. Does not dwell in temples made with human hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life.
and breath. to all that there is or to all things. This is our God. Poor Philistines, they're going to learn something here tremendously. Verse 3: We see here that we have to be careful about neglecting to give God the glory.
We have to be careful. If we're failing to recognize His holiness, that God is altogether holy and awesome, we'll fail and neglect giving God glory. Verse 3: And when the people of Ashdot arose early in the morning, there was day God. Fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord.
So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. Can you imagine? This is so great. There's this little box. The ark is not much bigger than this pulpit.
It's not big. Dagon's huge. Little arc there. And they get up. Look, it's kind of cool.
They get up early in the morning. Come on, kids, get up. Come on. This is the great day. We captured the God of Israel.
This is really cool. Come on, let's go see what happened to it. Let's see how it's just, you know. Maybe they're in ashes because our great God Dagon has snapped all the strength from it. And then can you imagine like you know they open these huge doors of this temple?
And there's Dagon. Light on his face in front of it like he's worshiping. No, really, he's prone before it. He's just... In front of the ark.
And the pathetic thing is, they probably get a rope or a couple ropes tied around its neck, and they gotta heave, hoe it up into position again. And okay, all right, now we've got our God back in position. That's the first clue. Friend, get out of there. Find a new God.
If you've got to keep propping them up, something's wrong. But you know what? When you're hooked on something, or when you've been born into it, it's hard to break away. Everyone had their little You know, I love Dagon, yes I do, I love Dagon, how about you? They've got shirts, dagon, you know.
Crusade. You know 800 BC, something That's all they know. sad they could they their god back up. Listen, jot it down. You can look at it later, Daniel chapter 5.
God does not take these things lightly. When we do not give Him glory, He does not take this lightly. In Daniel chapter 5. Belshazzar, who is really a spoiled brat of Nebuchadnezzar, who has long gone home. Belshazzar now is king of the Babylonian Empire.
I mean, he's pretty weak guy. Anyways, having this big party. And by the way, the party room that he had this party in in Daniel 5 has been unearthed in Babylon. They have found it. And it's amazing because the descriptions and the size given in the scripture.
Uh Or the articles given in Scripture, much of them have been found, by the way, in this room. It's a tremendous archaeological find. But he's there, and he calls for all of the articles that were housed in the temple in Jerusalem in 536 BC when his grandpa. had taken captive when Nebuchadnezzar came through. And took captive the things from the temple in Jerusalem, took them there into Babylon and housed them in the treasury.
Well, Belshazzar asked for those items to be brought because they're going to drink from them in his drunken party. And it's a bunch of drunks. They're all Uh Leaders of the various provinces that he had power over, they've come, and they're all drinking from the articles of gold and silver and stone from the temple in Jerusalem. And those things were dedicated to God, you know. And you know the famous story.
The Bible says there in Daniel chapter 5: that then a mysterious hand appeared. During the party. And it says the finger wrote on the wall, mini, mini tekuyu farsen. You have been weighed. In the balances and you have been found to be lacking.
Or in a modern day language, King, you have been weighed and you are a lightweight. Your kingdom is over as of now. And that night the kingdom was overthrown and Belshazzar was slain. Mini mini taka you far sin up. The hand of God began to ride on the wall.
He did not Revere the things of God. Listen, they take the Ark of God. And the Philistines put them before This Pagan statue, not giving glory to God. They knew all about God, but they didn't give glory. Listen, Outside of Jesus Christ, my friend, your life and my life do not bring God glory either.
If you're a non-believer tonight, that is, if you're not born again by the Spirit of God, you are not bringing honor to God. It doesn't matter how good you are. Listen, I know this is going to upset somebody, but listen carefully. Jesus said: unless you're born again, you will not see the kingdom of heaven. You must be born again.
Who did he say that to? Nicodemus Israel's priest. You must be born again. To see the kingdom of heaven, or she's not going. I'm not going.
Unless I'm born again. Listen, if Billy Graham is not born again, he's not going to heaven.
Well, Jack, he led hundreds of thousands of people to Christ. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Did you know that it doesn't matter? There are reprobates that can preach the Word of God, and people will get saved not because that person is somebody, but because the Word of God is everything.
If the Pope is not born again, he's not going to make it. If Mother Teresa wasn't born again, she didn't make it. If I die tonight, not born again, I will not make it. The Bible says, By the works of the flesh shall no flesh Or by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in my sight, says God. Isn't that radical?
But if you read your Bible, isn't that normal now? If you read your scriptures, it just makes sense. God's not pagan and he doesn't want us to be pagan.
So, I'm not being pagan. I don't have, I'm not born again, but I'm really super clean kind of person. Doesn't matter. Living our lives without being born again. We are not giving God glory.
In 1 Corinthians 10:31, the Bible says, Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. That's a great verse, I tell ya. We ought to cut that out and put it out of our cubicle, put it in our office or put it in our truck. Or put it wherever we work. Whatever we do, do it to the glory of God.
Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called This Holy God, Part 1. Thanks for spending time with us today. We're very glad you're here. 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 in order to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. and will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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. 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.
