God Will Be Glorified

First Samuel, chapter 5 and into chapter 6, last time we looked at God's special revelation and how we must receive it humbly, believing in obeying what God's Word says and that any attempt to manipulate God, even by the gifts that He's really given so that we won't have to believe or obey His Word, that's rebellion and God will judge it as such even among as people as we saw last time. God made man for His glory and God will be glorified by human beings, either by their faith and salvation or by their disobedience and destruction, but God will be glorified. His holiness will be seen in and among the nations of the world. You know, this morning we have one of the most unusual passages in all the Bible, at least a preach on. There's not a single believer in our text. A believer never appears in our text. It's God in his manifested presence in the ark among the Philistines and it was really unusual trying to prepare a message where there's no believers. How do you preach the believers in a passage that doesn't have any believers? Well, I think what we see is a time of judgment among Israel. That's why God's ark was among the Philistines. God was chasing His people for real sins for idolatry and so forth and it reminded me of a little story that I could tell you when I was a boy in Salzburg. We were growing up in our neighborhood. I think this was pretty typical in small town America at the time. Most of the moms, at least all the moms of everybody I knew, was to stay at home mom and dad worked during the day and so you know we'd be kids doing things that kids do and invariably would get in trouble sometimes and I remember one particular time I got in trouble and my mom's biggest weapon, most frightening discipline that she could do was wait till your father gets home. You know and a lot of times if it was you know hours before dad got home you know you didn't worry about it too much but as the hours got closer and if mom hadn't forgotten and you were going to get in trouble and you know and I knew there were certain things that you know dad was going to give me a licking for and you know we got spanked as children and I probably deserved it a lot more often actually than I got but I remember this one particular time I knew I was going to get a spanking and so I did something and I only did this once I put on about three or four pair of underpants under my shorts and I was waiting you know figuring this is going to happen I'm going to take steps and sure enough that I'd got home mom told him what I did he said all right come here and you know we I assumed the position and dad gave me a spanking and it didn't really hurt you know because I had all these pair of underpants on it but you know something funny happened immediately I felt guilty I had this guilt that I didn't have when I got spanked and felt it I mean yeah it hurt for a while but hey everything was forgotten my bad behavior was forgotten the relationship with my parents was restored everything was good but this time I felt guilty the whole evening and I felt bad even into the next day I didn't have any peace because I was fleeing from the judgment in an ungodly way we're going to see in our text how the world flees from God's judgment and because they do even in ways that are outwardly conforming to his law yet not rightly dealing with God there's no peace in the world no peace in the Israelite world no peace in our world how does God let me ask you this how does God manifest his glory in a world dominated by a philosophy and a morality of unbelief isn't that what we see in America today that our institutions our educational system our culture in general dominated by unbelief how does God manifest his glory and how do we live in a world like that I think that's what we see in our text so let's pray as we turn to God's word Father we thank you for a word that is as all your word is instructive to us for our good and Lord it shows forth your glory help us to see your glory in this word and help us Father to know how we are to live before you for Jesus sake we pray amen here now the word of the Lord from 1 Samuel chapter 5 this is God's holy word then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from ebonyzer to ash dot and when the Philistines took the ark of God they brought it into the house of degen and they set it by degen and when the people of ash dot arose early in the morning there was degen fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord so they took degen and said it in its place again and when they arose early the next morning there was degen fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord the head of degen and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold only degen's torso was left of it therefore neither the priests of degen nor any who come into degen's house tread on the threshold of degen in ash dot to this day but the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of ash dot and he ravaged them and struck them with tumors both ash dot and its territory and when the men of ash dot saw how it was they said the ark of the god of Israel must not remain with us for his hand is harsh toward us and degen our god therefore they sent and gathered to themselves all the lords of the Philistines and said what shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel and they answered let the ark of the god of Israel be carried away to gath so they carried the ark of the god of Israel away so it was after they had carried it away that the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction and he struck the men of that city both small and great and tumors broke out on them therefore they sent the ark of god to eckron so it was as the ark of god came to eckron that the eckronites cried out saying they have brought the ark of the god of Israel to us to kill us and our people so they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said send away the ark of the god of Israel and let it go back to its own place so that it does not kill us and our people for there was a deadly destruction throughout the city the hand of god was very heavy there and the men who did not die were stricken with the tumors and the cry of the city went up to heaven now the ark of the lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months and the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners saying what shall we do with the ark of the lord tell us how we should send it to its place so they said if you send away the ark of the god of Israel do not send it empty but by all means return it to him with a trespass offering then you will be healed and it will be known to you why his hand is not removed from you then they said what is the trespass offering which we shall return to him they answered five golden tumors and five golden rats according to the number of the lords of the Philistines for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your rats that ravaged the land and you shall give glory to the god of Israel perhaps he will lighten his hand from you from your gods and from your land why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts when he did mighty things among them did they not let the people go that they might depart may the lord establish this word in our hearts this morning I told you this is an unusual word have you read this story before those of you have read through the bible obviously you have very unusual very unique passage in the bible I want you to notice three things first of all gods holiness will be seen notice that gods holiness will be seen even in a land of unbelief even in a culture of unbelief and ungodliness gods holiness will be seen therefore sometimes we need to wait and pray I'm gonna have a little admonition like that in each one two so gods holiness will be seen therefore wait wait and pray notice verse one we see the arc of the covenant I talked about this last time we all know the arc of the covenant from Indiana Jones even the kids know about that maybe it's funny how certain movies of the 80s have made it into the culture of the two thousand and teens now and the arc of the covenant was the symbol of gods presence I mean he commanded them to make it just as they made it he said he would meet them there above the arc and it was the symbol of his presence and as they had the arc it was a great blessing to gods people because they had the symbol of his presence it was a sign and a seal right a sign that here is God and a seal that yes you do have me you do have my blessing because here is my seal as it were you know the seal of God to say yes you are my people so when they lost that it was a huge blow an awful thing and that's why we saw at the end of chapter four when when Phineas's widow cries out the glory has departed I said to you that was actually a good thing that she was so devastated by that that news that had not only put her into labor but probably was part of the reason why she died and I believe she died in faith because she was crying out to God on behalf of his people who were being severely chastened for their sins for their really decades and even centuries of idolatry during the period of the judges three to four hundred years depending on who you who you read and so they lost the arc the symbol of gods presence because of their idolatry their their disbelief their disobedience to God's word the glory had departed from Israel I think that happens at times in the church and I pointed out to you last time that in the dark ages I think was such a time where God was judging his people and I wonder what's going on today as I see the Christian nations more and more descending into depravity is there a pruning in a testing going a judging of God upon his people does God judge his people while yes he does and I'm using the word judge on purpose because scripture uses the word listen to 1 Peter chapter 4 beginning in verse 16 if anyone suffers as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in that name listen for it is time for judgment to begin with the house of God and if it begins with us what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God God is a holy God and he does visit his judgments in this world and I think we need to remember because you know we might read this story and we remember how rotten off me and Phineas were and I say that I mean but in all seriousness remember they were extorting money from God's people they were stealing from the worship they were threatening God's people with violence they were seducing the women who were coming to serve at the tabernacle they were seducing them and fornicating with them these were awful man and so when we see here of God judging the people and we think of people like Hoffney and Phineas and the you know other people building idols and doing the awful things that they were doing at the end of the book of judges maybe we might think well you know it's not so bad that God put them through this I mean they sort of deserved it but you know what don't just think of Hoffney and Phineas don't just think of the idolaters there were other people in Israel Hannah was in Israel at this time and she loses God's presence too the symbol of God's presence too Samuel the prophet of God whom God raised up whom God spoke to he was in Shiloh where the ark had been and now the ark's gone Samuel goes through this time of shame as well all of God's people go through it and we've got to remember that you know we can't just sort of shut down and say well you know and I think sometimes Christians will do this you know well it's me and Jesus and I don't need to worry about what's going on with anybody else as if it's not going to affect you or maybe me and my family in Jesus and I don't need to go to church and I don't need to worry about anything because you know we'll be faithful and and nothing else will affect me or sometimes we can do that as a congregation hey our congregation we're going to be faithful and who cares what's happening in the broader denomination or in our denomination we could say well we're PCA and I don't care what's going on in the other evangelical churches as if we don't suffer when they suffer as if when God brings judgment we don't all suffer all of God's people God has always treated His people in this sort of corporate solidarity so that when one suffers we all suffer because we're one body you can't hit your thumb with the hammer and not worry about it 90% of your body your whole body in a sense suffers right because it hurts and it hurts when God brings judgment to the church and we ought to share in the suffering and in the morning Israel had been idolatrous yes and so they weren't glorifying God but God will be glorified and so he's going to manifest His glory in the land in the Philistines but not in such a way that you would want to be there that's the thing right if God's people aren't glorifying Him somebody will somebody will remember what happened at the triumphal entry when Jesus enters into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday do you remember the story and all of the people were crying out saying Luke tells it in Luke 19 blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest and of course the Pharisees hear that and they see that the people are worshipping Jesus in a sense as if he's more than a man and so they're indignant and they say some of the Pharisees in the crowd said him teacher rebuke your disciples they're they're almost worshipping you right and what a Jesus say he answered I tell you if these were silent the very stones would cry out God will be glorified either his people have the privilege of glorifying him or there will be glory of God manifested in judgment there was a Christian rock band that when I first became a Christian and I told you I was I grew up in my teenage and even I turned 21 I guess at the end of 1989 so you know my whole sort of teenage high school years and into college in the 80s and I liked a lot of the you know the one what they called the hair of metal bands you know the guitar bands the metal bands the hair bands the guitar and drums and all that so when I became a Christian and I was introduced to contemporary Christian music there wasn't a whole lot that I liked because a lot of it didn't quite sound what I was used to what I had liked but there was a band that I found called Petra I don't know if you ever heard of Petra the lead singer John Schlett was the singer for head east which was a band in the 80s and even in the late 70s and so I you know so I recognized this in the good guitar and drums well they had a song and it said this somebody's going to praise his name somebody's going to call him Lord it'll either be you and me or it's going to be a rock or a tree God's glory will be seen among the nations and we see it manifested here in Felistia look at what happens when the Philistines think they've conquered God they think they've conquered the God of Israel and so they set the really the most holy object that God had given us people the ark and they set it in the temple before day gone there God to say look our God day God has conquered your God now they had defeated Israel but what they had to learn and what God was going to show them is that they had not defeated God and so it begins in verse 3 what happens they set the ark by daygan verse 2 and when the people of ashdod rose early in the morning there was daygan fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord now imagine this is a huge stone statue it doesn't just fall and then you don't just set it back up this would have been a pretty astonishing thing in the morning but maybe they thought okay could have been some kind of earthquake or accident or you know something happened the the daygan has fallen down and scored a sort of weird that he's right on his face in front of the ark of the Lord but they set it back up nobody needs to know the priest can take care of it you know we'll fix this daygan our God fell over it was a coincidence you know our world is good at that whenever we see God doing anything in the world that might be judgment all it's a coincidence it's just happening right so they set it back up again but notice what happens next in verse 4 when they arose early the next morning there was daygan fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord the head of daygan and both the palms of its hands were and I've got to criticize the new king James here were cut off it's not the word broken if you have any other translation in English it says cut off the old king James says cut off why did they go with broken in the new I don't know I would have loved to have been there when they had this debate because it's the word in Hebrew Kharath and Kharath means to cut when Abraham cut the covenant with God and God said to cut the animals in two he wasn't breaking them right he's cutting them the word to break a perfectly good word to break and he brews shavair to break or even to break in pieces but it doesn't say that it says that he Kharath it was cut it was clear to them this wasn't an accident somebody cut daygan in two and his head and his hands were cut off and that was significant God was speaking to the Philistines in a way that they should have been able to understand because Lord willing if we get there in first Samuel we're going to read the story of David and Goliath and do you remember what happens when David defeats Goliath we'll remember the stones right in the sling but that isn't the end it doesn't say Goliath died it says he fell to the ground David runs over and does what takes the sword cuts off his head and then he carries the head back to the camp and there's one place where it says and David's still holding the head of Goliath well that's what they did back then that's how you treated the enemy that you defeated you cut off his head and you cut off his hand sometimes in fact there's a passage in second Samuel at the beginning when David when an amalachite comes boasting about how solid died even takes credit for killing him which wasn't true David says has him ordered he hasn't killed and his head and his hands and his feet are cut off as a warning to others and so this sort of thing happens and was done in fact there was a there's a eukaryotic text that's extant from this period of time where the goddess Anath is said to have collected the heads and palms of all the human warriors that she had defeated so what's God clearly saying to the Philistines I've defeated your God his head and his hands are cut off and they're face down bowing before me and they got the message God makes it clear beloved sometimes we have to wait but God makes it clear that our idols are going to bow before him how do we see that in our world today let me give you an example if I had to pick probably one of the most foundational idols in America today I would have to say it's the theory of evolution the theory of evolution which denies the most foundational thing right it denies the creator it denies that God exists that God has created that God is responsible for all these things well right now in the field of by in fact the theory of evolution is in a lot of trouble and a lot of the experts know this in fact they're trying to find ways in which they're looking to outer space now and what's sometimes is called directed pan spermia it's belief in aliens shooting out the beginnings of life because they know there's just they can't account for life on this planet anymore with Darwinian evolution so they're trying to find a way out but in the field of biochemistry a lot has been written on the bacterial flagella all right I'm going to talk about this briefly but what is that it's a molecular outboard motor it's a it's like a like a motor you know propeller motor on one single cell of bacteria and they've been they've discovered this and they're checking it out looking at it and Howard Berg of Harvard has said this about the bacterial flagella motor quote the most efficient machine in the universe that's what he's called it it runs at 100,000 revolutions per second and it can stop on a dime and go in 100,000 revolutions per second the other way immediately by the feedback that it's getting in its surroundings because it has these feedback systems that are telling it what to do and so forth in a single cell all right and this system serves as an example of what many scientists are now calling irreducible complexity all right and this flies in the face of Darwinian evolution are irreducible complexity is the name given to describe the multi-component parts to any system in a cell all of which are necessary for function all right so you can't get rid of any of the parts it's it's been illustrated by a mouse trap okay so everybody seen a mouse trap right a mouse trap has five parts and you need all five and if any one of the parts are defective it's a piece of junk you got to have first of all the catch to hold the bait then you got to have a powerful spring then you have to have the hammer the bar and then you have to have a catch that holds the hammer and all of that needs to be attached to the wooden block and if any one of those pieces of the mouse trap are not there the mouse trap doesn't work and see the interesting thing is Darwinian evolution has to account for all of life by slow random incremental changes over millions of years and so how do you get a system that you need all five of the parts there in place at once if the only way to get there are the random changes that benefit the organism you see if you have four of the parts it doesn't benefit the organism in fact it actually hinders it because you have all this energy from the organism going towards developing these four parts that don't do anything that take energy from the organism with a problem is worse because in the bacterial flagellar motor there are over 40 parts and all of them need to be there over 40 how do you get that from blind natural selection just that just randomly mutates and the mutations are only passed on when they're helpful how do you get all 40 how does this happen Darwinian evolution can't answer the question it's been becoming more and more clear that you need an intelligence to have creation this is true for any one of the even bigger systems like flying how did creatures come to fly you know what the theory is that well the certain creatures that in their environment they needed to jump to get away from predators and they kept jumping and you know they kept getting strong well and eventually they just started to fly that's not insane but they have to develop the feather and all of the things that go along with the feather and the new muscular system that allows for flight not the legs but wings this is true for how mammals went back into the sea dolphins and whales they are Darwinian evolution says well there were these mammals that were living in aquatic environments and more and more they developed sea things and eventually they started swimming and lost their legs how does that happen over time how does that and how does it benefit the creature none of these things can be answered anymore the caterpillar that's an interesting one how do you get a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly through small incremental random changes when the caterpillar is a perfectly legitimate organism why would it do that to itself why would it go into a cocoon where literally 30% of its body is destroyed it's dissolved how does it know how much to dissolve how does it know when to stop and then it turns into this butterfly and that's the only way it can reproduce because the caterpillar is a dead organism unless it's a butterfly because it can't reproduce so it all has to be there at once how does that happen through small random incremental changes that are only done when they benefit the organism evolution is dying it's becoming more and more obvious that it's intellectually indefensible and yet what is our nation doing is it embracing the truth is it admitting these things no I want you to notice secondly god's holiness will judge I want you to notice god's holiness will judge what does is what does what do the Philistines do when they see the truth that their god has been conquered by the god of Israel so they fall down and worship him no hey let's send it off to another city let's send it off to another city let's move it around you know it sort of reminds me when belac wanted to want to bail him to to curse Israel right and bail him can't curse Israel so we'll try it on this one well no try it over here let's move it around let's figure it out let's try something different this is what they're trying to do this is what's what's going on with the Philistines what they're trying to do they're not dealing with they're not they're not admitting the truth they're not dealing with it look at verse six of our text but the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashtaud and he ravaged them and struck them with tumors both Ashtaud and its territory you see when gods holiness is revealed among unbelieving nations and rebels and idolaters it comes in the form of judgment it wasn't just the god that he would judge but the people who refused to turn from the god and so the people of Ashtaud are struck by these tumors and the rabbis say in fact in the Hebrew Bible you know I've mentioned to you in the Maserah there's the the Margin where they'll put these notes sometimes sometimes the the Maserites would put these notes in the Margin and where you would read a different word than what's written sometimes because they thought it was offensive to God to read what was written or sometimes because it was offensive to humans and what they think in what the rabbis say here that has is affecting Ashtaud is that these are genital tumors this is these are what we would call sexually transmitted diseases and they're getting these tumors these this literally swellings upon them the old word and some of the older translations are Emirads we get hemorrhoids from but all over what's called sometimes you you'll see it written as the private parts the secret parts things like that that's the rabbinic tradition and why is that the case because Daegon was the main god of the Philistines he was the father of Bale the storm gods he's an older god and he was considered to be in fact a lot of the older commentaries believe that he was a half man half fish you know a merman or even a female they're not sure half you know woman half fish like we would see the mermaids but the newer commentaries don't think that's the case but regardless he was considered the god of all good gifts you know from the sea or wherever Philistines were to see people and he would provide the benefits food from the sea and good health and fertility he was a sexual god there was a sexual cult that went along with it and so god here judges the people with these awful diseases that they were dying from now I want to relate this to our country because I think if there is another god that is just as popular and as devastating and as foundational in our country as evolution and the denial of the creator it is our worship and our acceptance and our our promotion of sinful sexuality this is the right now in our land right to have sex any way that you want with anyone that you want and it's considered good and how dare anybody judge that do you think God's going to let that continue in this land is God judging that in this land I want to be very careful as I say this because I am not condemning any person I am not condemning or saying anybody that gets a certain disease is condemned of God but I am saying that God's judgment falls upon a land that rebels and everybody bears it everybody is afflicted including the faithful people in God's church and there are many faithful Christians who suffer from sexually transmitted diseases that they either can receive innocently or receive but while they were living a promiscuous lifestyle and have sense been saved and so this certainly does happen but I just want to notice is God judging America in this way well let me just say that the Center for Disease Control I looked up some statistics they reported unprecedented highs of sexually transmitted infections in 2015 unprecedented highs in fact they say things like the status quo is no longer acceptable week we've got to do something this is getting crazy I looked at the different individual diseases and things like 12% increase from 2014 8% increase and you know this one and I'm not going to name them but one after another just unprecedented highs in 2015 in fact the number now and you can find this on several different reports is that there are 20 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections every year that's the number now in America 20 million new infections every single year and just those infections cost the healthcare system 16 billion dollars annually just the new ones not the treatment for the ones that are already known just the new ones and yet we won't keep God's law for sex will we we won't admit the problem we're like the Philistines well let's try something different let's move it around let's dress it up in this let's call it something else let's not say that God is trying to communicate something here let's do different things you know look at verses 8 to 10 I'm not going to read it but this is where they're moving the arc around right to different places and what happens each time God's judgment breaks out each time the judgment gets worse and we're seeing the judgment get worse and I do think these things are connected you know the origin of species was published in 1859 by the early 1900s it had captured all of academia but it wasn't until really the 1950s and the end of 1950s and into the 1960s that it captured the schools and the educational system and the culture in general where people in general began to believe and disbelief creation and believe in in evolution and isn't it interesting that within a generation of that time that the sexual revolution happened and all of the sexual sin and all of the judgment it's really interesting to me because Romans 125 says this because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature evolution rather than the creator who is blessed forever on men for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions it sounds like a prophecy of America doesn't it for their women exchanged the natural relations for those that are against nature and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women heterosexuality and were consumed with passion for one another homosexuality men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error isn't that exactly what happened in America the same kind of judgments that we're seeing here I do see this what was the Philistines response when they started to see the tumors break out verse five therefore neither the priests of Daegon nor any who come into Daegon's house tread on the threshold of Daegon and ash started to say nothing about that they have their God who's been defeated and judged by the God of Israel and the act of the defeating Daegon's face and hands on the threshold one now they say oh the thresholds holy we got to jump over the threshold they make an an element of the worship of their false God rather than heeding the message what do we do what are they calling for now on these reports because the thing everything's unprecedented we've got to get more safe sex education out there we've got to get more condoms out there we've got the same old things the same old idols not listening not considering when I was a boy you know it's interesting when I was a boy the AIDS epidemic broke out I remember it because everybody was scared you didn't know what it was and could you get it and everybody who got it died and there were famous people like Liberace you know the great pianist gets AIDS and dies Freddie Prince the singer of Queen you know everybody knew about these guys and then Magic Johnson contracts AIDS and that was huge because it was towards the end of the 80s and he was just such a celebrated basketball player and he wasn't anybody who you know was homosexual and that's what the first people were thinking it was only that and but he didn't die in fact he's still alive today he contracted AIDS in the in the late 80s not well he he was HIV positive I want to say that because you get the HIV infection and that can progress into AIDS okay and that's what killed you but he's HIV positive and he never progresses to AIDS and he never dies well why because they developed all these drugs to deal with it it was a lot of money in fact I found this and this is on a paper considered quote the benchmark for evaluating HIV prevention they estimate all right now listen they estimate the average undiscoded lifetime treatment cost for somebody with HIV to and and this is somebody that's 35 years old the if you catch HIV at 35 with the drugs today your your average lifespan is 33 and a half years you're going to live a normal life from that point on but you've got to take a lot of drugs and they're very expensive in fact a undiscoded average amount of money at a 35 year old will have to spend to live a normal life is seven hundred ninety eight thousand three hundred dollars in their lifetime that's how much money it costs for one person from 35 think if that person catches HIV at 25 or 20 there's a cost to are continuing to indulge in sexual sin there was a cost for the Philistines two notice what they did and verses four and five of chapter six this is where I'm getting this from they decide to make these golden racks and these golden tumors you know I'm not going to go into why they did that there's all sorts of theories but in their idolatry this is what they think old peace god right but they did have something right that I don't think we do in fact I think there's a sense in which they were more sophisticated than we are they knew that they had offended god and that they needed to give an offering that he would turn from judging them we're not there yet in america we don't believe this is a judgment what you know what would solve our problem in america and I'm not an expert in these things and I may have misunderstood some of the figures and statistics okay I'm just trying to give you this I mean I think we all recognize this in fact um right now I said 16 billion for the STDs or STIs the federal spending on domestic HIV treatment just last year 2016 was 26.4 billion 26.4 billion in the healthcare system that's the government spending that's not what people are spending and the 16 billion is just what the new cases oh that's two thousand twelve dollars by the way that's not today's dollars because that's what the so who knows how much more it is and how many people and if you count all the other people who already have the disease you've got to be talking at least a hundred to two hundred billion dollars a year it was very expensive for the Philistines to make those gold idols and to give to god it's very expensive for us to continue to worship at the order of sinful sex it's very expensive for america and yet what's the solution if one generation of americans just one one generation would say we're going to keep god's law for sex just one generation 30 years 20 years one generation would say we're gonna keep god's law for sex no premarital sex no prostitution no sodomy no adultery everybody wait till they get married only be intimate with their spouse one generation what would happen to all these numbers what would happen to all the money there would still be some but it would be so small it would be like here and somebody talk about a UFO oh yeah I heard somebody who heard somebody say that they know somebody who got a sexually transmitted infection what's that didn't we didn't we do away with that isn't that like polio haven't they cured that it would be like that but we won't do that so you and I need to walk and pray god's holiness will judge we need to walk and pray and not indulge in these things I want to tell you especially you young people others 20 million new cases each year more than half are people in their 20s and younger you guys are being lied to did you can have this kind of illicit sex and nothing bad's gonna happen the the diseases are getting worse too they're not responding to antibiotics anymore I remember one of the good things I came about from the AIDS scare when we were teenagers is everybody was a sort of getting afraid to have sinful sex if you were afraid you might catch AIDS you didn't know how you could catch it and we need a little bit of that fear you know it was that fear that actually prevented God's judgment and Philistine I want you to know this thirdly and lastly God's holiness cannot be escaped God's holiness cannot be escaped therefore we need to witness and pray just as God's holiness will judge and we need to walk and pray and avoid this we need to witness and pray because God's holiness cannot be escaped the Philistines try to find a way to get rid of it verse 2 of chapter 6 what shall we do with the ark of the Lord how shall we send it to its place like Adam and Eve in the garden let's run from God let's get God away from us right and isn't that the same thing that man will do at the end of the age the very first result the very first way to deal with sin running hide and the very last way man deals with sin in Revelation chapter 6 verse 12 just before Christ returns listen to this it says I looked in the open to six seal and behold there was a great earthquake and then verse 14 the sky receded as a scroll when it's rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place and listen the kings of the earth the great men the rich men the commanders the mighty men every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and they said to the mountains can you imagine fall on us and hide us from the face who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come man will not be permitted to run forever we're not going to be permitted to run forever the Philistines were right and thinking they needed a trespass offering that was there was some rightness there in their false religion and in their weirdness of making these golden tumors is probably golden mounds swelling and these golden rats whatever reason they wanted to add that there's a Septuagint tradition that explains that but it doesn't matter some kind of a weird view of things but they understood they needed to to appease God and and they understood that they needed it needed to cost them something and by doing that they actually avert God's judgment in their lifetimes in their land that God stops afflicting them in such a way and there are people today that if they conform rightly and turn away from their sins you know we I've talked about you know not believing in God as creator and embracing a simply sexual lifestyle you know you can turn from those things and you'll benefit from that yeah there's no doubt but it's not going to avert God's judgment you're still going to stand before him we can only push God away for so long every one of us someday is going to stand before Jesus Christ you won't be able to send him away anymore and what will we do well I think here and I want you to notice verse six why do you harden your hearts what a what a neat thing they didn't mean it that way why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh harden their hearts and then there but there's this you know to get God away from you know to make peace with God to acknowledge God you know the arc of the covenant was the symbol of God's presence on earth but it was the symbol of something else it was the symbol of salvation because in the ark was the law and the law is what condemns us and rightly so but what covered the law the lid of the ark which was what it was the mercy seat the mercy seat and it's sprinkled with the blood and that's how God's people could be accepted before him it was through the holiness of God that he provided the sacrifice and yet the animals weren't enough the New Testament teaches us that it's Jesus Christ whose blood has fully and finally satisfied God's holiness you can live a sexually pure life you can believe in God as creator all you want but if you don't come to God through Jesus Christ his judgment will fall upon you the arc of the Lord was a symbol of that and his judgment went out because they didn't come to God by way of the mercy of God by way of the gospel by way of believing in Jesus Christ the Bible says Jesus Christ satisfied God's holiness satisfied His wrath for whoever would believe if you believe in Christ then you have peace with God then you're accepted by God then and only then you'll escape God's judgment the Philistines were like me as a boy trying to find a way to get out from under my dad's judgment you know and it didn't it worked but it didn't give me peace maybe you don't have peace today maybe you're running from God there's a way to have peace there's a way to stop running there's a way to not just avoid judgment but to have God's pleasure to have God's delight to have God's acceptance and you have to come by way of Jesus Christ and that would have been true for any Philistine all they wanted to do was push God away but every one of them now every one of them now they can't push him away anymore and neither will you we don't know how much time we have right I'm talking to Jesus returns and who knows when that will be it might be tomorrow it might be a thousand years from now but every one of us is going to see him a lot sooner than that because we don't even have tomorrow promise have you made peace with God have you come to God by way of the mercy by the blood of Christ who satisfies the law who covers it so that you'll never be condemned let's pray father we thank you that you provided a way of atonement for us a way of salvation the ark was a picture of it and God how we see man in his sin running from you not accepting not coming to you the right way trying in his superstition to appease you and it doesn't work trying to deal with sin by throwing money at it and it won't keep your judgment away forever father forgive our nation forgive us as Christians for not rightly witnessing and caring about our nation Lord if there are any here who today don't know you I pray you know don't just deliver them from a sinful lifestyle which could very much harm them in this world but that you would deliver them from your wrath from your holiness from your justice that you would do it by your gospel by Jesus who not only satisfies your holiness but even makes us holy in your sight so that we don't have to fear you as the judge anymore father I pray that if there are any in here today who believe that that you would cause them to flee to Christ to believe in him to finally make peace with you to judge themselves and to call themselves sinners in your sight and to just trust in Jesus Lord would you give that grace today to those who might not know you here and for those of us who do father help us to again remember that it's not by our righteous lives as if there could be such a thing but it's by your mercy it's by your grace it's by Lord Jesus your blood that we can have peace and that we do have peace and that we even get to grow in that peace with God help us to believe that and walk according to it and witness for it we pray in Jesus name amen