The Unyielding Power of God: Lessons from 1 Samuel 5

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We're going to go ahead and continue our study.

And first Samuel, if you have your Bibles, turn there with me to 1 Samuel, chapter 5, and I'll recap just a little bit of what we talked about last week.

Last week we studied the defeat of Israel to the Philistines.

The Philistines came in and slayed 30,000 footmen and they took the ark of God and killed Eli's sons Hophni and Phineas.

And we're the news came to Eli that his sons had been killed and that the people from Israel had been killed, and particularly that the ark of God had been stolen.

He fell and died himself.

And so we ended the chapter in Samuel 4 with the words of basically this woman who is proclaiming that the glory of God was departing from Israel.

And so we end chapter four with hopelessness.

We end chapter four with depression and despair.

And really we see that a lot when it comes to Christians today with spiritual struggles and, and hardships and even what we would consider failures.

There's a lot of folks that would deem that God has forgotten about his people or maybe he has stepped away and turned his back on his people.

But even in the midst of the unfaithfulness of Israel, we see God's power and his faithfulness to the truth.

And in chapter five, what we're going to see is that even because of the moral failures of Israel and because of their defeat, we still see God's powerful presence there in the land of the Philistines.

And we're going to talk more about the application of that here a little bit later.

So with me in first Samuel, chapter five, we're going to look at verse one says, and the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.

Now mentioned this last week, but the Philistine kingdom at this point in time had five city states.

They had five major cities, and Ashad was one of those major cities that had a temple that was set up for the false God Deon.

And we're going to talk about the story of how God shows his power over the false God of the Philistines here this evening.

So verse number two says when the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by day.

So essentially what we see here is that they take what we would consider and according to Scripture, the most holy artifact of the Israelites, and they put it there in the house of Dagon, essentially saying that the God of Israel is going to submit to the God Dagon.

And what we know is that God doesn't submit to anybody.

God is more powerful than any false God.

He's more powerful than any person.

He's more powerful than any a power that we find in the world.

And so this, this situation that we see here, that the Philistines are essentially defying God and ultimately trying to put God into their box.

And it's a, it's an act of victory in their minds, and it's an act of ultimate in their minds defeat over the God of Israel, which we're going to see here is, is not coming to pass.

And so the Philistines were, were happy.

They were confident.

They believed that their God was superior to the God of Israel because of the victory.

And sometimes that's how the world perceives Christians.

It might seem like whatever they're worshiping, whatever the world is worshiping, whether it's self or money or a false God, that if there seems to be a victory in their eyes, that they think that their God is more powerful than our God, or maybe even that our God doesn't exist.

But every time God shows Himself to be almighty, he shows Himself to be glorified, no matter what the case might be.

And so always remember this, God will glorify Himself, even if his people do not glorify him, he will glorify Himself.

And that's seen over and over again in Scripture, that even in Israel and the Israelites failures, even as we as believers are unfaithful, God will always be faithful to His Word and He will always be glorified.

And so sometimes we might be like the people there in Israel that think that the glory has departed.

But even when men and women won't glorify God, we know that God will ultimately exalt himself.

And that's what we're going to see here in this passage.

And so the lesson that we can learn in this case is that even when Israel felt like they were defeated, even when they believed that God had forgotten about them, even though they believed that the glory of God was taken away, the glory of God was not taken away.

It was they who were the Ones that had missed the glory of God and missed their opportunity to glorify him in the midst of that.

So verse three says this.

And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord.

And so they come into the temple there, they come into that house of Dagon, and they found Dagon, the statue, the, the idol Dagon, on its face there, bowing down before the ark, which is a picture of how this, this Dagon, this false God, can ultimately fall before God and that all folks eventually will fall before God.

The Bible says in the New Testament that every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And in this case, we see that the false Dagon falls before the ark of the Lord, and they took Dagon and set him in his place again.

So they see this and there could be a lot of things that come to pass in their minds.

Maybe they thought that it was a mistake, maybe they thought that the wind came in and blew it over, but ultimately they set it up and try to figure it out themselves.

And so they're, they're confronted with the truth that God is more powerful, but yet they set up Dagon again.

This is going to happen in a different way in verse four.

And when they arose early in the morning, morrow morning, behold Dagon was falling upon his face and the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both of the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold.

Only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

So the second day that they come back, maybe if they were confused or maybe that they doubted that this wasn't something beyond the norm, the next morning they find their God fallen onto the ground.

But this time he's not just on the ground fallen.

He, he's had his hands broken off, his head's broken off, and all that's there is the stump of the, the torso of Deon.

And so they recognize that obviously something is going on.

And after seeing God's power, these Philistine priests have a choice to make.

They could say, well, you know what, maybe the God of Israel is the real God.

Maybe we need to stop worshiping this false God of Dagon.

Which there's a lot of theories about who Dagon was.

Some historians believe that Dagon was a God who was represented as a half fish, half man.

Other scholars don't believe that that's the case, that he was just represented as a man, but nonetheless Dagon was a false God.

Most people at that time believed that Dagon was the father of baal, which some of you know, the false God baal.

It's mentioned quite a bit in the Old Testament.

But what they have is a choice.

They could say, well, the God of Israel is more powerful.

They could serve the God of Israel, they could reject the false God Dagon, or they could just do something else, make it, make a religious act and come back to their old path.

And verse five tells us that that's what they do.

Therefore, neither the priest of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod unto this day.

So essentially what they do is they create just basically a religious tradition.

They didn't choose to repent, they didn't choose to turn to the true God that demonstrated his power over their God.

And this is indicative of every time in our culture that a God shows himself very clearly, clearly to the world by the way of truth and the word of God, or by powerful testimonies about lives changed.

People see that evidence, but yet still reject the truth of God for various reasons, but ultimately because their rebellion, because of their hardened hearts, because of their sinful nature, because of their pride.

And the Bible says that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

And so because of their pride and because of their rebellion, they choose not to worship the God of Israel who proved himself to be more powerful.

They stick to their own God and stick to their religious tradition.

And so these Phil, these Philistine priests are, were confronted with the truth, but they rejected God.

And, and I think that that's what we can see today.

God is, is so clearly revealing himself today.

I think all of us could admit that we live in a dark world and that there is a battle between good and evil.

And, and God clearly tells us in his Word how it got started, how this whole world got started and how it's going to end.

And we can see people read, everyone can read the Bible, everyone can see the, the creation of God.

The Bible says that the law of God is written on the hearts of man, but yet those who don't believe are.

It's not a matter of evidence, but it's a matter of faith.

It's a matter of humility.

It's a matter of pride.

It's a matter of whether or not someone's going to reject the truth of God and submit themselves to his power.

So what I would say is this.

I was, I was watching a interview one Time.

And someone said, well, what if God himself came down and showed Himself and clearly evidenced to you and gave you visual evidence that he exists?

What would you do then?

And the guy said, well, I would probably think I was hallucinating because it couldn't be real, right?

So you see, the hardenedness of man is that even if God does reveal Himself, which He has revealed himself, it's not a matter of evidence as much as it is a matter of faith.

And that's what we see with these Philistine priests is it's not a matter of evidence.

The evidence was clearly there, but it was a matter of faith.

Verse 6.

So, but the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them and Ashdod, and he destroyed them and smote them with emirates, even Ashdod and the coast thereof.

So you might not catch what it's saying here is.

But on top of Dagon being destroyed in his own house by the power of God, God was also judging them because of their rebellion.

And it says that he smote them with emirates.

Now, what are Emirates?

Well, there's a couple different interpretations of that word, but essentially it's tumors, it's swelling.

It would be some type of evidential sickness that people could see and evidently feel.

Some scholars believe that it would have been like the bubonic plague, something like that.

But essentially there were.

There were issues of not just spiritual nature, but now it had come to the physical side of things, and God was revealing Himself by way of sickness to the people of Ashdod.

Verse 7.

And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, the ark of God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon, our God.

So again, it's not a matter of evidence, because they evidently see that the power of God is upon them.

But instead of seeing this as a judgment, instead of getting right with God, instead of turning away from Dagon, they say, we got to get rid of this God.

We got to get rid of Him.

This conviction, this.

This judgment is not something that we want.

We want to squiggle out of that and go back to our old ways.

Again, that's evidence through folks today that aren't willing to hear the truth of the preaching of the Word of God, because conviction allows many people to feel uncomfortable, which it should make us feel uncomfortable.

But it's how we deal with that conviction and the judgment of God that really matters.

And so these people here in Ashdod are saying, we just got to get rid of this.

We got to get rid of this preaching, we got to get rid of this word.

We got to get rid of the power.

We have to just avoid this at all costs.

And so I would encourage us to think about that today and how that looks for us within our world and understand that when the power of God is evidently seen and when God is dealing with sin, we shouldn't run away from him.

The opposite would be to get right with him.

And we know that the Philistines don't do that, because what do they do?

They say, we got to get rid of this.

And verse eight, they sent, therefore, and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them and said, what shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?

So we have a meeting of the minds here.

Instead of in repentance, turning to God, they come up with their own worldly wisdom, they come up with their own path.

And they answered and said, let the ark of God of Israel be carried about unto Gath.

So they think maybe just changing our city will be the answer.

Maybe it's just something with Ashdod here.

We need to move it over to Gath.

Now, some of you are familiar with Gath, related to.

That's where Goliath, the giant Goliath comes from.

But he was a Philistine as well.

But Gath is a.

A city there.

And.

And the land of Canaan, which was one of the major cities of the Philistines.

And so they say, let's just try to avoid it and go to Gath.

And they carried the ark of God of Israel about thither.

And so they believe that this is the answer.

And so instead of submitting to the God of Israel, they decide to get rid of him.

And we all know that as much as any culture has tried to get rid of God, you can't get rid of God.

We can do things to try to push him away.

And even in many cases, scares me so much every time it does that, you know, I. I will tell you that the technology here has really been trying to fight against me this last few weeks.

So if you guys were here Sunday night, I had, like, a choking problem.

I had, like, had chili before the service, and my throat was getting all messed up.

So I'm sorry for the distractions.

It's just the, you know, um, the enemy trying to stop us.

But anyway, they're going to Gath and they're gonna see if that's gonna change it.

But ultimately all of us are gonna face God and the people of Gath do the same thing, verse nine.

And it was so that after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction.

And he smoked the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emirates and their secret parts.

And so what we can see here is that in verse number nine, it isn't any better.

The city of Gath tries to do the same thing in rebellion to God.

And we see that there's more destruction and more pain in their rebellion and their sin.

So God is still proving himself to be all powerful, even over people that don't believe in him.

Verse 10.

Therefore, they sent the Ark of of God to Ekron, which is another one of their cities.

And it came to pass as the Ark of God came to Ekron that the Ekronites cried out, saying, they have brought about the Ark of God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.

So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, send away the ark of God of Israel and let it go again unto this his own place that it slay us not and to our people.

For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city.

The hand of God was very heavy there.

And so the Ark of the covenant was basically at this point in time, just being bounced about through all these Philistine cities.

And every single city that it was at, it was showing judgment, it was showing this pain.

And the Ekronites were not happy to see the ark there.

And still, though they didn't submit to God.

And so the Philistines eventually come up with a plan to say, you know what?

We're giving it back.

Instead of repenting, they turn to just trying to avoid their problems.

And that's many times how we see people in the world today living in rebellion, try to deal with their problems, just try to avoid it, just try to cover it up, just try to send it somewhere else.

And that's exactly what they try to do here.

So verse 12.

And the men that died were not smitten with the emirates, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

So what we can ultimately see here is that this is a story of God's power over the unfaithfulness of his own people, his power over rebellion of the Philistines.

And really what we see is this hand of judgment upon those in that sin.

And so the Philistines, if they would have, and we have enough proof in the Old Testament to know that even Gentiles, when they turn to The Lord and repentance came to find salvation.

So, for example, you have Rahab, among many others, Ruth.

So it didn't mean that just because they were not Israelites that they couldn't find salvation.

They could have repented and turned towards the Lord.

The art could have been a blessing to them.

But at the same time, we know that it was not a blessing to them because of their lack of desire to know the true God and to love him and to follow him and to obey him.

Which is a passage when we were going through Second Corinthians, if you remember.

I want you to see this because this is a principle that we even see today.

Second Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 15 and 16.

The same truth that can be a blessing to us as Christians is painful and a hardship to those who are in rebellion.

We're going to look at two different New Testament passages that I think illustrate the principle that we see here in 1st Samuel, chapter 5.

So in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 15 and 16, it says, for we are unto God a sweet Savior of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish.

To the one we are a savor of death, unto death, to the and to the other, the Savior of life unto life, and who is sufficient for these things.

And so what we can see here is that Jesus in, in.

In many ways for Christians and in all ways for Christians is a beautiful thing.

It's an exciting thing to know that we're saved.

It's an exciting thing to know that we have life.

It's exciting thing to know that our knee will bow to the Lord.

But for those that are in rebellion, Jesus is, is an offense.

It's, it's something not for blessing, but to them it's a curse.

And we'll see a couple of other passages of scripture that specifically speak that.

But what, what I will say to you is that in the world today, many people are okay with talking about God.

Many people are okay with talking about religion.

Most people are okay with you expressing yourself with religious freedom until it comes down to the wire.

And we say that there's one way, and that one way is found in Jesus Christ.

Now, in the case of First Samuel, what happened was, is that the Philistines saw the ark of God and they thought, well, this would be something beneficial for us to add to our God here and maybe we can find some kind of power that the Israelites are finding in this ark.

Maybe there's something that's emanating from this ark that can give us some type of benefit.

But when the ark wasn't bringing them benefit, what did they say?

Well, we need to get rid of it.

And a lot of times people will use the Bible or they use Christianity or they use religion as somewhat of a religious trinket that they can add on to their life as some kind of good luck charm.

But when the realization is, is that, hey, I'm a sinner, I need Jesus Christ as savior, and the truth of God is essentially wrapped up in the fact that the gospel is the only way for salvation, that all of us need a savior, that none of us can save ourselves, that's when we start to see people in the world that are in rebellion squirm.

Right?

It's a.

It's a stumbling block.

And I want you to see in First Peter, Chapter 2, this exact principle, First Peter, Chapter 2, speaks of Jesus being a rock of offense to those.

And for some, he's the cornerstone of our salvation.

So for the Philistines, they look at the ark and they say, wow, the ark makes the Israelites powerful.

So we want to take the ark and we want to bring that in.

Well, when they brought it in on their terms and in their way, it didn't bring blessing, it brought judgment.

So when people try to bring in a different Jesus or a Jesus that they can understand or a Jesus that they support, but it's not the Jesus of the Bible, they're bringing in something trying to bring the blessings of Jesus, but when they bring it in, in, in a way that is wrong, there's ultimately judgment, there's.

There's pain and there's confusion, and we see it's a rock of event.

So in First Peter, chapter two, we'll go to verse number four, because I think that this will, will allow us to kind of see the bigger context here.

It says, to whom coming?

And so what he's talking about here is Jesus.

He's talking about Jesus coming.

And he already had come at this point as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men.

So he was rejected of men, but chosen of God and precious.

Then he points to the people who believe in Jesus, and he says, ye are also livelier.

Living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

So he says, when you trust in the Lord as your Savior and you have faith in him, you are a living stone.

And so what Peter is doing is he's trying to paint a picture.

And the picture is, is that we're building a spiritual house.

And so the spiritual house is built up through living stones.

That's us, that's the believers.

But then he says the spiritual houses are built for a purpose, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

So ultimately we're there to glorify God.

We're ultimately there to praise Him.

But then he says in verse number six, wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture.

And this is a reference to Psalm 118.

Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone.

So there's a bunch of living stones.

That's us and that's other Christians throughout history.

But there is a chief cornerstone.

Or think about it this way.

There's a foundation that all these stones are built upon.

It says, behold, I lay a scion, a chief cornerstone, elect and precious.

So he's chosen by God for a specific purpose.

And we know that that's the purpose of redemption.

And he that believeth on him shall not be confounded or not be put to shame.

So the difference between those who are put to shame, judged, condemned, and those that don't have that condemnation, who have righteousness, who have salvation, are those who trust in Jesus Christ.

He's the same Jesus.

He's the same stone for the Christian, for the believer, he's a Chief Cornerstone.

Verse 7.

Unto you therefore, which believe, he is precious.

So for the believer, Jesus is precious.

He's the chief cornerstone.

He's everything we build our life on.

He's everything that we we are.

He's our identity.

But unto them which be disobedient.

So this is speaking to those who don't believe.

It's not just about, hey, a Christian fails here and there.

And once you're disobedient, now you've lost this blessing.

He's specifically talking about those who have not believed, who have rejected the truth of who Jesus is.

He says, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed or rejected.

So when he's talking about the builders, he's talking specifically about the religious leaders of Jesus's day.

They.

They rejected him.

The same is made head of the corner.

So he says that same Jesus that some rejected, you believe, but some rejected, he is the cornerstone.

He's the chief of the corner.

He's the head of the cornerstone.

And for the Christian, that's a blessing that's precious.

Verse 8.

And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, wherein to also they were appointed.

So what we see here is this.

He says, Verse 8.

The same stone that is the precious cornerstone of who we are as Christians is the same rock of offense for those who don't believe who ultimately were, are destined for judgment.

That's what he's saying there.

So the point I'm trying to make here this evening is that we don't worship a different Jesus that judges those that are in rebellion.

It's the same Jesus.

But when you mention the word Jesus, the Christian should celebrate.

The Christian should feel warmth in one's heart.

The Christian should think about all the beautiful things that Jesus is to them as Savior, as Lord, as shepherd.

It's kind of like when.

When people are talking to me about my family, like, maybe someone says, hey, you know, like, your child did really good in class today.

Like, that brings that heart to me.

Of, like, that's exciting.

That's a blessing, because I love that person.

So anytime I hear something good about someone that I love, I should get excited.

And that's the same thing about Jesus.

But for someone who is in rebellion to Jesus, whether they know it or not, they're ultimately going to have, as it says here, a rock of stumbling.

It's going to be an offense to them.

So that is why the Bible is telling us that's why people are okay with religion until you start talking about Jesus.

Because Jesus is that cornerstone.

He is that.

He is that polarizing figure that basically everything rides on when it comes to salvation.

And so that's what we see all the way back in First Samuel.

It was seen in the ark, but what they did is they brought that in, thinking that they could apply it to the way that they want to apply it to in their own life.

But what we can see is that that brings offense and judgment.

And there's really only one way to respond to God's power, and that is to fear him in a healthy respect and to submit to him and to repent before him or be judged.

As the Bible says in Philippians chapter two, that one day every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Those that are believers will confess it by way of salvation and celebration.

Those that are not are going to confess it in judgment and in pain.

But it'll be a recognition one way or the other at one point in time.

And every single person that's ever walked this planet will eventually recognize who Jesus is.

And whether or not they're doing it through salvation and celebration or pain and judgment, it's going to still be a proclamation.

And so even those Philistines that were rejecting will eventually recognize the power of, of God seen in Jesus Christ.

And so I think about that today.

So what's the practical application today for us as believers?

We know that the Bible says in, in 2 Corinthians, and, and I want you to see this because I, I've often talked about this in different capacities, but I don't know if it's been recent since I brought this up in a church service.

I've done it in some of my Bible studies recently.

But in Second Corinthians, chapter 11, the reason why we're so adamant about warning, about knowing who the true Jesus is, the Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse number four, tells us that there will be some that come preaching Jesus, but seemingly a different Jesus.

And so what, what we're seeing here is that, yes, if someone is proclaiming the true Jesus, that's something that we should celebrate, even if they're not exactly like us.

Jesus even referenced that.

And even Paul references that like, hey, they might have different preferences than us, they might worship a little bit different than us, but if they're preaching the true Jesus, we celebrate that.

We don't have to have the same convictions as them, but what we do is we say, hey, they're preaching Jesus.

Jesus is being heard.

That's fantastic.

Amen.

Praise God to that.

But what Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 4 says is that for if he's.

He's warning of false teachers.

Actually, let's just jump back a little bit by way of context, because I really want you guys to see this, because I really believe that this is something that we have to be so conscious of within our Christian walk today.

Says verse one of Second Corinthians, chapter 11 would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me.

So he says, bear with me.

Now, you have to understand the context.

In Second Corinthians, chapter 11, Paul is being accused of being a false teacher by false teachers, which puts yourself in a really hard place, because when you have false teachers saying that you're the false teacher, you're kind of like, what am I doing?

How.

How can I overcome this?

So he just says, bear with me in my false teaching while I give you the truth.

Okay?

That's what he's saying.

He says, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.

And so Paul basically says, you in the, in the Corinthian Church, I'm so jealous of you because I Love you and, and jealousy in and of itself is not a bad thing.

Selfish jealousy is bad.

Selfish jealousy is a terrible thing because I want something to myself.

But I would say that God is jealous for us.

So jealousy is a good thing.

Like I'm jealous of my wife.

I want my wife to love me and love me alone.

That's it.

That's in, in the concept of marriage.

That's.

That's the picture of what we're seeing.

Reese says, I, I, I love you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband.

He says, you are the bride of Christ.

You are now married to Jesus.

And so for Paul, in his mind, he's like, for you to come and follow these false teachers is like you committing adultery to your husband.

And he says that, he says, you have been espoused to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

But I fear lest by any means.

As the serpent beguiled Eve, so the serpent deceived Eve through his subtlety.

So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity or the pure focus that is Christ, that is in Christ.

For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus.

So Paul says, there are people that are coming to you, and they're preaching Jesus, but it's a different Jesus.

He says, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached, he says, remember, Paul's the apostle.

He is a mouthpiece of God to the people.

And he says, you've heard the true Jesus, and if someone preaches a different Jesus, that's not the true Jesus, or if you receive any other spirit.

So this is kind of difficult for us to understand, but what that means is that, yes, we receive the spirit of the Holy Ghost, we receive the Holy Spirit, but there are other spirits out there.

That's why the Bible says, test every spirit, whether or not it comes from God.

So what that means is that there can be religious experiences or spiritual experiences that we have that are not from God.

And I know that's hard for our Western minds to think about, but folks, there is a spiritual battle going on behind the scenes that can be what is seemingly a good thing, but it's actually darkness.

It's actually from the spirit realm that's evil.

So he says, don't receive another spirit.

Don't listen to the teaching of another spirit.

And so we'll talk more about that later on.

But then he says, or, or if you receive another spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel.

Remember, gospel means Good news, another gospel which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him, which, which means you, you put up with it long enough, you shouldn't bear with that anymore.

Okay, so what.

Why am I saying all this?

Because someone might come and say, this is, this is.

That was a long Runway to get to where I'm at.

But someone might come to you and say, look, don't you love Jesus?

Jesus loves you.

That sounds like a beautiful message.

But what I'm going to tell you is, is that make sure you know what type of Jesus is being preached, because if it's not the Jesus that's presented in the word of God, it's not the Jesus that we should be believing in.

And so I just want to be clear about that, because here in, throughout the whole Old Testament and the New, but particularly here in Second Corinthians, chapter 11, the Bible says that there can be a different Jesus preached, there can be a different spirit received, and there can be a different Gospel preached.

So, so one might say here by way of application, well, Pastor, how do I know if it's the right Jesus or not?

How.

How do I know that someone that's proclaiming Jesus is proclaiming the true Jesus?

Well, first and foremost, what do they believe about that Jesus?

Do they believe that Jesus is God?

If they don't believe that Jesus is God, they're.

They're contradicting the Word.

John, chapter one, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And so there's a lot of people out there today that will say, well, Jesus is not God, but he's a good prophet, or he's a creation of God, or he's.

He's a powerful spirit, or he's a powerful being, whatever they say, if it's counter to what the Bible says about the true person and work of Jesus Christ, and they are preaching a different Jesus.

So I say that person and work of Jesus Christ, who Jesus is, he's God.

He's 100 man, he's 100 God, he's.

He's born in the flesh, as the Bible says, He dwelt among us, but then also the work of Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he didn't just die on the cross because he was a martyr, or, or that he was really just preaching a different message.

No, Jesus didn't get killed that day.

Jesus gave of himself.

The Bible says that he offered himself as a sacrifice, as the Passover land.

And so whether or not people thought that Jesus was doing, that Jesus was offering himself.

So what I would also say is this, okay, so that's the Jesus of Scripture.

But then I would also say, like, are they preaching a message that corresponds with the whole scope of the Word?

So maybe they have Jesus, right, But they're preaching other parts of the Bible wrong.

What I would say is be very cautious about that because the Bible says that the word of God is, is God breathed.

The scriptures are given by God.

So if they're denying other parts of Scripture, they're basically saying that God is denying himself.

And so what do they say about the whole, the whole book?

Not just, well, hey, you know what, Jesus, I only want to follow Jesus, but I don't want to follow other passages of scripture.

That's, that's a major issue.

So we would, we would say that.

But then again, going far forward, remember 2nd Corinthians 11:4.

A different spirit.

If, if the spirit that I'm being driven by is making me contradict the Word, it's not the Spirit of God.

If the emotions and the, and the fanfare that come along with the spiritual experience does not equate to obedience to God, then it's not of, of God.

And so I want you to be aware of that, because there can be people that say, well, I had this spiritual experience, and the spiritual experience led me to do this, and I believe it's from God, so therefore I'm okay with doing it.

Well, if that action that the Spirit has led you to do is contradicting the Word and leading you to sin, that's not from God, that's from another Spirit.

And then we see a different gospel.

And so the, the, the last mark there would be.

Are they preaching the right way to get to heaven?

The gospel, the right news.

What if I told you the gospel news is this, that God loves everyone.

And forget about what you do, forget about what you believe in.

Everyone's going to go to heaven one day.

That's a gospel, but that's not the true gospel.

That's not the gospel of the Scriptures.

And so what we would say here tonight is that we need to be very careful when it comes to what does Jesus mean for me?

What, what, what God is being presented, what religion is being presented, and what am I believing in?

Because it's just as those Philistines thought that the, the God of Israel can be a blessing to us, he was not, because ultimately they were in rebellion to him.

And so that's an application that I think we can all take with us here today, all the more reason why we need to proclaim and preach the true Jesus in a world today that needs to hear Jesus.

But again, preaching the whole scope of scripture, and that's the harder part.

The harder part is telling everybody the whole story.

And what I would encourage you to do as a Christian, at whatever capacity that God is calling you to proclaim the gospel message is to proclaim it completely and fully with love and truth.

Love and truth.

And so what.

What we see tonight is this.

When I'm asking somebody whether or not they're, you know, I don't really care if you're religious, all right?

So if I'm talking to someone and I'm trying to present the truth of God to them, I. I might start the question with, do you go to church?

Because that might help us understand where to go when it comes to our discussion with somebody.

But really, at the end of the day, the deciding factor is not whether or not someone goes to church, even though going to church is a good thing in the right setting, in the right context, at the right church.

But.

And it's not like that I've read the Bible, because there are many people that have read through the Bible that don't believe it.

So the true question would be not, are you religious?

Do you do religious things?

Do you want God to bless your life?

Do you want to go to heaven?

Even though we should ask whether or not people want to go to heaven, but there's a lot of people that think they're going to heaven for the wrong reasons.

Like if I walk up to someone and say, do you want to go to heaven?

I would say a vast majority of people, if they believe that there is an afterlife, would say, I want to go to heaven.

But then the next question would be, is, do you know how to get to heaven?

Well, I think being a good person is going to get me to heaven.

You'll hear this mostly, that I hope my good outweighs my bad.

Because if I'm more good than I'm bad, then God will shine brightly on me that maybe I. I hope I've done enough.

I. Folks, none of us have never.

We can never do it.

We never could do enough.

So the idea would be this.

It's not just about having someone that wants to go to heaven.

Because what if I got up and preached and I said, how many of you want to go to heaven?

And everyone raises their hand.

I said, all of you are saved today because you want to go to heaven.

There's a Lot of people that want paradise, they want everlasting life, but they don't find it in Jesus Christ because he's the rock of stumbling, because we've got to submit to him, we've got to submit to our heavenly Father.

And so that's where we're seeing in, in the disconnect in our culture today is we have to so clearly diagnose with a scalpel, right?

With a scalpel, get down to the most basic, most reduced level of what a person believes in when it comes to who Jesus is.

A good start is that they believe that Jesus exists.

That's a great start.

It's a great start to believe that someone believes in the afterlife, that they believe in, in spirituality, they believe in all these things.

That's fantastic because that at least allows us to go through an open door.

But at the end of the day, what does the Bible say?

The Bible says that it's through Jesus and Jesus alone, he's the chief cornerstone.

And so I say all that.

And that's like a branch off of First Samuel, chapter five.

But what I will say is that the Philistines, the reason why they missed it was not because they didn't worship the ark, right?

Or that they didn't, they weren't the right bloodline or they weren't in the right location.

The reason why they didn't have the blessings of God was because they rejected God in rebellion.

They didn't believe in him.

And that's what we can see even today, just, just in a more modern sense.

And so I want you to think about that.

You say, well, I don't even know what the gospel is like.

I couldn't even explain that to somebody.

Well, the blessing of being a believer and trusting in the word of God is that he gives us the definition.

So if you want to have a good, clean, straightforward definition of the gospel, go to First Corinthians, chapter 15.

And if someone asks you, well, what do you believe when you're saying the gospel?

Well, Paul gives us that right there in First Corinthians, chapter 15.

And he goes, Just the first four verses.

If you just read the first four verses, that gives us the gospel.

Now some people say, well, it's the gospel plus you gotta work, or the gospel plus you gotta be at a Baptist church, or the gospel plus.

Well, there, there are all these things that I think are good to do.

We should serve, we should go to a good Bible believing church.

But what Paul describes this, the gospel, he doesn't say any of those things.

He says basically the story of who Jesus is.

He says that Jesus died according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures.

So he.

He gives us the simple message of the gospel, and that's what we're trusting in.

All the other elements of spiritual growth stem from the gospel.

I can't grow in the Lord unless I trust in the.

The simplicity of the gospel.

And then from there I can grow.

And there's a lot of nuances, right?

I mean, when I was growing up, I had no care in the world.

When I was 10 years old, my biggest care in the world was like, am I gonna score a touchdown at recess and football or, you know, what am I gonna have for lunch today?

But as I got older, there were more nuances of life that I needed to deal with, right?

Taxes and, you know, paying these bills and like.

So as we mature as Christians, there are other elements of that maturity that we have to recognize and we have to identify.

But to tell someone that they have to know all those things before they come to Christ is a complete misunderstanding of the simplicity of the gospel.

So spiritual growth and maturity comes from the growth after salvation.

So sometimes people will say, well, you have to be a certain way to get to find God.

No, it's just.

It's.

It's faith.

And then that faith will then eventually grow if we're walking and we're nourished in the word of God.

So I will stop there.

I would like to go a lot longer, but I will stop there.

Well, we'll come back next week and we'll see the result of them sending the.

They're trying to figure out all the stuff, and they're going to send the ark back to Israel, and we're gonna see how that kind of comes to pass in First Samuel, chapter six.

And we're gonna eventually get to where in Israel they.

They say they wanna.

They want a king.

They want a king.

And we're gonna hear the story of King.

King Saul.

And most of you know that story.

And then eventually, through King Saul, we'll get to King David, which really was the culmination, I thought, of coming into first and second Samuel was really studying the life of David, but we have to study the life of Samuel and the life of Saul to get to the life of David, which.

Which is going to be, I think, a really great study to have.

Well, if you have any questions about anything that we talk about here within the services, I'd love to answer those questions for you, or if I don't know the answer to those questions, I'd love to work alongside of you to find the answers to those questions from the Word of God.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.