(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, last week we talked about how the children of Israel were defeated before the Philistines. They went out to battle against them, they were destroyed, they lost 4,000 troops. So then they decided to go get the Ark of the Covenant and to bring it into battle. And they thought that somehow that was going to change things. Of course, the reason why they were destroyed was because God had cursed them because of the sins of Hophni and Phinehas, or the two leaders in the land. They were involved in all kinds of wicked sin that we've talked about over the past few weeks. And because of all that sin and because the children of Israel were worshipping other gods and doing a lot of other things wrong, God caused them to be defeated. Even worse, 30,000 troops died. And then also the Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant away from them and basically took it with them back to the land of the Philistines. So that's where we pick up the story in chapter 5. The Philistines have taken the Ark of God. You remember Eli just died in verse 4. And it says in verse 1 of chapter 5, The Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. So they have their own false god that they're worshipping, Dagon. Well, they bring the Ark of the Covenant, and they think it's just kind of a good luck charm or a religious relic. It's got some kind of mystical or special powers. So they decide to take it into the house of their false god and set it in front of this idol, this statue of the god that they worship called Dagon. And it says in verse number 3, And when they have asked God to rose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon and set him up in his place again. So God performs this miracle where they set the Ark up in the house of Dagon, and Dagon just falls on his face. And they show up in the morning, and he's just laying on his face. Not really Dagon, but just the statue, of course. He's just laying on his face in front of the Ark of God. So then they go in, and they pick it up, and they set it back where it goes and everything like that. So then the next day comes around, and it says, When they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold. Only the stump of Dagon was left to him. So the second time, he falls over so hard that his head basically breaks off the statue and the two palms of the hands. So there's just a stump left, you know, just the torso and just arms with no hands. And so look what it says, and this is the part that blows me away, verse 5. Therefore, neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon, in Ashtod unto this day. Now the part that's so strange about that is that this book is written hundreds of years after the event takes place. And he's saying, unto this day, they're still worshiping Dagon. And what's funny is that the place where Dagon fell and smashed his head, they don't lock on that part, because that's like some kind of a hallowed ground. Yeah, it's holy there, because that's where his head landed. I mean, what kind of a ridiculous idea is that? I mean, saying that we don't want to tread because the tread needs to step on. We don't want to step on this certain part of the floor because that's where Dagon's head busted and fell off. Well, maybe he's not really a god then. Maybe you should have got the picture when he keeps falling on his face that obviously the god of Israel was a lot more powerful than their god. But yet, to this day, he's saying they're still worshiping him, and they actually reverenced that event. Now, this just shows you that people don't often care what the truth is. They're just going to stick with their religion and just keep worshiping whatever they want to worship. And how many times do we go out and knock doors open, and we'll talk to people, and let's say they're a Jehovah's Witness or whatever false religion they're a part of, and we'll take the Bible and show them the truth, show them the gospel, show them everything that proves that their religion is false. You can show these Jehovah's Witnesses until you're blue in the face that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. You've got all kinds of scriptures to show them that Jesus bodily rose from the dead, to show them that Jesus died on the cross, to show them that believers who died are in heaven right now and that people who are unsafe will spend eternity in hell. And you can get all done with it and show them everything, and they'll just say, well, I'm still going to just stick with my religion. I'm just going to stick with the Jehovah's Witnesses. Why? Because they don't care. It doesn't matter to them. And there are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who care what the truth is and those who don't care. It just doesn't even matter to them. No matter how many times their idol falls on its face and smashes its face in and breaks its hands off, you know, God's trying to send you a sign here. Are you getting it? That your idol is stupid, that your idol can't talk or move, it's not a lie, it's not a god, it's false. And it's funny, because later in the chapter, they're going to talk more about Dagon. Let's keep reading. It says, but the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and smote them with emirates, even Ashdod and the coast thereof. And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, the ark of the god of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore upon us, and look at this, and upon Dagon our god. We need to get the ark out of here, because otherwise the god of Israel is going to keep beating up our god. It's just nonsense. Your god got beat up, you know. Maybe he should switch to worshipping the one true god. And what's interesting too is that you'll notice throughout this chapter, over and over again, they keep referring to God as the god of Israel. Did you notice that? Did you notice that? Now go back, if you would, to chapter 5, verse number 2. This is where God is speaking, and God's telling us the story. He says, when the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. So the Bible's just telling us the story, it just calls it the ark of God. But they keep calling it over and over and over again the ark of the god of Israel. In verse 7 they say that, three times in verse 8. In verse 10 they say that, in verse 11 they say it. Over and over again, the ark of the god of Israel. Because they had this idea that somehow God was just specific to the Israelites. And that, you know, we have our god, Dagon, and sometimes he gets his rear-ends kicked, but that's alright, you know. And they have their god, the god of Israel. But in reality, there's only one god. And he's the god of the whole earth, the Bible says. And a lot of people today still have this same mentality. You know, the Jews believe that he's just the god of Israel. And they think that they're some kind of a chosen race or a chosen people. It's not true. The Bible says that if we believe on Jesus Christ, we're a chosen generation and a royal priesthood. It doesn't matter what our race is. It doesn't matter red and yellow, black and white. It's whether or not we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that makes us that chosen generation and that royal priesthood. But there are other people today, maybe Native Americans, you know, they consider Christianity a white man's religion. Or maybe Arabs might have that attitude, or other, you know, nationalities might look at Christianity and say, oh, it's a white man religion. No, God is the god of all flesh. He's the god of the entire earth. He's not just the god of Israel. He's not just the god of the United States or of the European people. No, he's the god of the entire earth. And they have this wrong mentality thinking, well, you know, you guys have your god. It's kind of the attitude of people today. Well, you know, everybody's got their own religion. You know, we have our religion. No, your religion's wrong. There's only one right religion. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby you must be saved. And it doesn't matter if you're in Africa, Asia, North America, Europe. You must be saved by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a different god for different people. Well, you know, I'm a Hispanic, so that just makes me Catholic. No, you need to get saved. You need to get out of Catholicism. It doesn't matter if you were raised that way. You know, if you were raised in the land of the Philistines, you need to quit worshiping Dagon and quit worshiping that stump that's left and worship the one true God. And so they have this wrong attitude. Oh, he's the god of Israel. Oh, that's their religion. No, it's the only true religion. It's the word of God. And so that was a big mistake they made. That's where we were. It says, but the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashtod, and he destroyed them and smote them with amaurods. Now, amaurods is a word that people may not understand today. It's kind of a tough word. Jump down to verse 9, and he gets a little more detail. He says, 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 smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had amaurods in their secret parts. Now, I'll just be honest with you. I don't really know exactly what an amaurod is, and I don't think I want to know what it is. And I definitely don't want it in my secret parts. Now, I'm not sure what this is, but probably if you stick an H on the front of it, it might get you in the ballpark of what it is, okay? I don't know exactly what this is, but it's some kind of an illness. Go back if you went to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Deuteronomy chapter 28. You know, like I said, I'm not a medical expert on amaurods or the treatment or anything like that, but go to Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 14. And this is a great chapter in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 28, God is listing all the blessings that he's going to bless the children of Israel with if they obey. He said, if you keep my commandments and if you serve me and love me with all your heart and you obey my laws, these are all the ways I'm going to bless you. And he goes on, like the first 13 verses, he's explaining all the blessings. And then he says, and if you don't obey me, if you disobey all my commandments, and if you sin against all of my laws, this is what I'm going to do to curse you. And he lists all these cursings, and the cursings actually go pretty much from chapter 14, all the way to the end of the chapter. So there's a lot more cursings than there are blessings. He goes into a lot more detail, I think just because he's trying to give him a really clear warning that they need to keep his commandments. But let's just get into some of the cursings and see if any of it sounds familiar. It says in verse 14, And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day to the right hand or to the left to go after other gods to serve them. Verse 15. But it shall come to pass that thou would not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shalt be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shalt be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall sit upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, and all that thou sittest thine hand unto were to do until thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken thee. The Lord, now watch this in verse 21, The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee. Now what is pestilence? It's disease. That's what that means. He said he'll make the pestilence cleave unto thee until he hath consumed thee from off the land where thou goest to possess thee. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with a fever and with an inflammation and with an extreme burning and with the sword and with blasting and with mildew and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. Let's jump down a few verses because, you know, you can't read all the curses just for sake of time. There are a lot of curses. I did it in the sermon a few months ago. Look at verse 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt and with what? The amrods. And with the scab and with the itch whereof thou canst not be healed. And he goes on and on, but that doesn't sound very good. You remember Job. When Job was punished, not punished, but when he was tested by God, God allowed Satan to just do whatever he wanted with him in order to prove a point unto Satan. And remember when Satan attacked Job, he caused down all these boils all over his body and he was itching and scraping at himself and he talked about how there was pus coming out of his sword. And Satan even said unto God in Job chapter 2, he said, skin for skin, yet all that a man hath will he give for his life. He said, let me now touch his body and he'll curse thee to thy face. You know, God often brings judgment and he talks about it in Deuteronomy 28 that he would bring judgment through disease and through inflammation, burning, scabs, itching. Now, obviously just because someone gets a disease or an illness doesn't mean that they've done anything wrong because Job had not done anything wrong. And yet Job was struck with that horrible disease that he got. God was just testing him. All kinds of people throughout the Bible became ill. It wasn't necessarily that they were doing anything wrong. So this doesn't mean that everyone who is ill, it's because God's punishing them. That's what a lot of your Joel Osteens and your Kenneth Copeland and the prosperity preachers will tell you, you know. If you just get right with God, you'll have no problems and your teeth will be perfect and you'll live to be 150 years old and everything like that and you'll have all kinds of money and no problems. Look, we're going to go through problems in our life. We're going to have health problems. We're going to have financial problems. We're going to have problems in our lives. But God does send illness and disease as a curse on people. That is a method of punishment that he uses. And we could go all through the Bible. I could show you all kinds of, all kinds of scriptures were popping into my mind as I was preparing this. I was thinking about it in the back of chapter 3 when he talks about sending the pestilence. But, you know, there's no need to show you the hundreds of times in the Bible that God brings this up. I'm just showing you a few examples. There is nothing new under the sun. Now, why did God curse the Philistines with emeralds in their secret Bible? It wasn't just because they were the Philistines. It wasn't that God just loved Israel and just hated the Philistines. Because in Deuteronomy chapter 28 he's not talking about the Philistines. He's talking about Israel. He said to Israel, if you worship other gods, I'm going to smite you with emeralds. I'm going to smite you with the scab and the eggs and the burnings if you don't keep my commandments. And so it's not just because they were Philistines. It's because of the fact that, number one, they worship the false god, they god. But number two, the Bible also tells us about the Philistines, that they were involved in a lot of perverted practices. They had a lot of wicked sins and a lot of abominations. They did human sacrifice. They had a lot of perversion. And so that's why they were being judged. Now, look at Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter number 1. We'll go to the New Testament and see that, you know, even in the New Testament, God still has this principle in place that he will punish with the pestilence. He'll send a pestilence to punish people who sin against him or worship other gods and so forth. Look at Romans chapter 1. The Bible says in verse number 1... I'm sorry, let's look at verse number 21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creepy things. So here we see Dagon. He was an image. He was like unto a man or a beast. We don't know exactly. Somebody told me that Dagon, and I don't really know if this is true, because the Bible doesn't really go into it, that he was some kind of a fish god, like a half-fish, half-human or something. And, you know, whenever you see the hieroglyphics of the old age in Egypt, it seems like all their gods were like a half-human, half-animal hybrid. You know, I don't know exactly what Dagon was like, but a lot of the gods seemed to be a hybrid between a human and an animal. And so whatever it was, it was a graven image of some kind of creature that had a head and hands and so forth, fell and was broken. But it says in verse 24, because they worshipped these other false gods, it says in verse 24, Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. So God is not the author of perversion, but he gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts. So he didn't dream up the wickedness that they gave. He just gave them over. He basically just removed the normal restraints that human beings have, the normal conscience that they have that keeps them from doing wicked things and strange things. Look at verse 25, it says, Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was me. So in Romans chapter 1, we see a downward spiral. You know, it starts out with just people knowing who God is and just not glorifying him as God. Doesn't seem like that big of a deal. And they're unthankful. Then pretty soon they start worshipping statues and worshipping animals. Next thing you know, they start just practicing all kinds of uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts. They're committing fornication. They're sleeping around. They're not following God's plan of getting married and one man and one woman for life. And so they get into all kinds of uncleanness. Next thing you know, they're professing themselves to be wise. They're changing the truth of God into a lot. They go down this downward spiral, and then we end up at the very bottom rung here, the very final stage of depravity here is where we have women leaving, changing the natural use of that which is against nature. And we also have men leaving the natural use of the woman, burning in their lust one toward another. Men with men, this is homosexuality, sodomy. This is being a queer. And God explains that how they got that way was not just they were just born that way. They just woke up that way. That's not what the Bible says at all. The Bible gives a process of how they got that way where they kept rejecting God and kept getting more perverted and kept turning away from God, and then God turned away from them and turned them over to a reprobate money. So it says that men with men working that which is unseemly, but look at the last phrase, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. What does that mean? That means that because of their sin that they committed, the man with men, it says that they received in themselves, talk about in their body, that recompense, recompense is basically the payment or the punishment, receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meet, or they received an appropriate punishment in their body. And I promise you, God is punishing the sodomites today and the queers today, and these people that are going against nature, He's punishing them with all kinds of pestilence today because of their wicked sin, and they are receiving in their bodies the recompense of the error which was meet. Now, Hollywood doesn't talk about this, and you don't see this on the sitcoms. You know, the sitcoms love to promote sodomy and promote the queers and the almost, but what they won't show you is all the disease that they're filled with. But I'll tell you, I did a little research on this, and I don't have the research in front of me tonight, and it's too disgusting anyway, but I did a little research with the Center for Disease Control, and I did some research even on some of the U.S. government's own websites just about the statistics of disease among sodomites, and basically they're all filled with disease. I mean, 90% of them are filled with disease, and I mean, we can go on and on. I don't even want to gross you out with all the diseases. But I mean, we're talking about the most disgusting, repulsive diseases, and pretty much, pretty much, I mean, virtually all sodomites are just infected with a multitude of diseases because of their lifestyle. Because of the filthy sodomite lifestyle, really, it's almost that God doesn't even have to punish them. It is a punishment in and of itself, all the disease that they pick up from their disgusting behavior. And, you know, we as Christians need to stand strong against this and not, you know, people are starting to get weak on this, and they're starting to water down on this because the devil is just always pushing and pushing and Hollywood's pushing and the TV's pushing and pushing and pushing, and, you know, finally they start to wear you down. And you just get into it, oh, okay, they're fine, they're normal, they're just like us, it's no big deal, it's just another sin. No, they're filled with disease. You know, they're living a wicked lifestyle. They're an abomination. And God, and you say, oh, don't you want to donate to cure AIDS? No. You know, isn't AIDS the punishment for going around and being a sodomite? And, you know, they'll try to say, oh, it's all these straight people that have AIDS. Oh, it's all these children. No, it's a lie. It's a bunch of sodomites that are filled with AIDS, and the straight people who get AIDS are out fornicating with a bunch of sodomites and a bunch of perverts who all go both ways. That's where the disease is coming from. And I'm not going to stand up here and back down on this, because the world wants to say that I'm hateful or that I'm bigoted or whatever they want to call me. No, I'm preaching to you the truth tonight that the sodomites are filled with disease and that they spread that disease to the whole population. And listen to me, young man, young lady, you think you're going to grow up and you say, well, you know, I'm just going to sow my wild oats a little bit, you know, young man. And of course you're not thinking about being a sodomite, of course, but you may think, oh, okay, well, I can still be with my girlfriend and this girl that I just met and that girl. You know what? You're going to be filled with disease, because this disease spreads around. It starts with the sodomites, and then it spreads to other people through all their promiscuous ways, and they're going both ways. You ought to take heed, my friend. Now, I'm not going to be filled with disease. My wife's not going to be filled with disease, because guess what? My wife and I, I made a vow to her to keep me only young to her so long as we both shall live. That's how I know I'm not getting any of these diseases. That's how I know my wife isn't getting any of these diseases. That's how I know that my children are not going to be born with these diseases. And, you know, it is a shame that children are born with a filthy disease, because their parents were so godless and wicked that they picked up that disease and transmitted it to their child in the womb. But let me tell you something. You can make your cure, and you can spend your billions of dollars to cure AIDS, and I promise you, if you continue the sodomy and filth in America, as soon as they cure AIDS, God will just send another pestilence. He'll just send other emerons. He'll just send another burning. He'll just send a different scab and itch and inflammation. He will punish sin. And people today think that they can go out and live a filthy life and a disgusting life and that there will be no consequences for it. And I'm here to tell you that God will punish sin. He will punish filthy behavior. And God calls it uncleanness when people that are not married sleep together. He calls it uncleanness. And He calls it uncleanness when people commit adultery. And He calls it uncleanness, what goes on in ASU, the typical lifestyle among the young people. It's uncleanness. And you know what? Uncleanness breeds disease. And God will make sure that it breeds disease. Because God's the one who created this earth, and He created this earth in such a way to where uncleanness breeds disease. And it's all part of His plan to punish those who will not listen to God and be married and be with one woman and just one man for life. And you say, oh, come on, who do you think you are? Who's God? Well, God's the one who created you. And God decides whether you live or die. God is the one who's in control of the planets. And God's the one who makes the sun come up in the morning. And you can't just live your life however you want it, spit in the face of God, and not end up with emerods and scabs and itching and burning. It's true. You know, this is something that you don't hear a lot about. And you know, I probably wouldn't be preaching on it tonight except I'm just preaching through every chapter. And I'm not going to leave anything out. You know, a lot of pastors will probably just skip over this chapter. You know, and I don't blame them. But the bottom line is, it's in the Bible. And God's warning us here. And He's not just telling us about the Philistines so we can say, oh, that was thousands of years ago. You know, oh, well, no, He's warning us and saying, you know what, there's nothing new under the sun. God never changes. And God still punishes us in today. You better be careful messing with God. You better be careful with perversion and spitting in the eye of God and uncleanness. You will be struck with emerods today. And you say, well, you know, you know, it doesn't matter what the disease is. It's a disease. It burns. Whatever it is, it's bad. Whatever it is, they were crying out to God about it. And whatever it is, it was in their secret hearts. And I don't think it was just a coincidence that it was in their secret hearts. I don't think it was just random. Because God could have just told us, hey, you're struck with emerods. But, you know, He spelled it out. And we said, nope. They were struck with emerods in their secret hearts. And I think God was trying to make a point there, pointing out one of their sins right there, what they were doing with their secret hearts. And so He smote them with those emerods. Go back to 1 Samuel 5, if you would. So God smote them with this horrible disease, this horrible whatever it was, the inflammation, burning, the pain, the painful sores or I don't know. You know, like I said, I don't know. But it was bad, whatever it was. So it says in verse number 7, when the men of Asherah saw that it was so, they said, the ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for His hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon our God. I'm sorry, before I get on this, one last thing I forgot to point out about Romans chapter 1. The next verse, we didn't read it. It said, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Now the word convenient is a really important word that I want to dwell on for a moment. Let me quote the verse to you again. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, these wicked people or men with men, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. What does the word convenient mean? Think about it with me. What does the word convenient mean? Somebody just tell me. Well, in today's vernacular, you're right. In today's vernacular, basically, convenient just means, oh, yeah, it's readily accessible, it's pretty easy, like a drive-thru would be, or a convenience store, you know, you just run in, grab a gallon of milk or whatever. But if you break down the word convenient to its actual roots, it's a Latin word. You know, and I'm not going back to Greek. I'm just talking about the English word here, convenient. Okay. Who knows Spanish in here? We've got several people who speak Spanish, right? Whether it's Agora or the Dayton. You know, what's the first three letters of convenient? What's that mean in Latin? With, right? Con. Okay, and then venient, okay? B-E-N-I. What does that mean in Spanish? Like veneer. Put an R on the end. Put an R on the end. V-E-N-I-R. To come. To come, right? Okay. So what does convenient mean? It comes from the Latin word. One of them means with or, you know, in Latin they mean more just like, you know, it's present, it's there, okay? Something that's there. And then convenient, come. What God is saying when he says convenient, to do the things that are not convenient, it's to do things that would not come naturally, is what he's saying there. Basically, it's to do something that would not come naturally to these people. He gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Meaning that if he hadn't given them over to a reprobate mind, they wouldn't be doing those things. He gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Think about the meaning of the word convene. What does it mean to convene? Yeah, exactly. A convention. What's a convention mean? You're coming together. That's where the word with at the beginning means, like I said, it can mean also to be together, okay? So, they're doing something that just doesn't come naturally. It doesn't come on its own. They're giving over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient. Look, a normal person isn't going to go down that route, is what God's saying there. Your average Joe, and look, I've known a lot of very wicked, sinful people. Have you known people that are just really wicked, really sinful, ungodly people? But it doesn't mean that they were going down that road. Because that's not the normal route that a sinful person goes. It's only when they've been given over to a reprobate mind that they do those things that are not convenient. And so, it's not normal. It's not just, oh, it's just another sin. No, people that have gone to that level, they've already been given over three different times in the chapter, Romans chapter 1. And so, go to 1 Samuel, chapter number 5. I will finish up here. It says in verse 8, 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? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither. And it was so that after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city, now Gath, with a very great destruction. And he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emeralds in their secret parts. Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron, 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 the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. So first it's in Ashdod. There are five major cities of the Philistines. First it's in Ashdod, and they say, Get out of here, we're getting all this disease ever since it showed up. So then they say, Okay, what are we going to do with it? Well, send it to Gath. I guess they didn't really like the people in Gathra unless they sent it to Gath. Same thing happens there, and then the people in Gath say, Hey, let's send it to Ekron. It gets to Ekron, and before it even gets there, they're saying, No, don't bring it to us. Now, why don't they just figure out that they need to get right with God? Instead of trying to get right with God or figure out how to please God, because the ark of the covenant represented the presence of God. Now, it wasn't the presence of God. It represented the presence of God. The children of Israel made the mistake where they brought them into battle thinking that God's presence was with them. God's presence wasn't with them because of their sins, and that's explained later. But the Philistines here, they would rather kick God out than to get right with God. Instead of trying to figure out, Okay, what do we need to do to please God here? God's angry at us. He keeps smashing our idol. Hmm, I wonder what He wants us to do. I wonder what our sin is here. I mean, why don't they go get a Bible? Why don't they go to Israel and get a Bible and figure out, Okay, what does God want us to do? Okay, He wants us to quit being a pervert. He wants us to quit committing adultery. He wants us to quit stealing and lying. He wants us to live a clean life. He wants us to worship Him. He wants us to get rid of all our idols. But instead, it's easier just to say, Well, just get God out of here. Just send it to the next town. Just send it to the next town. We just don't want it in here. Just get this God out of here. He's too heavy-handed with us. And He's too heavy-handed with our God. Now, that's exactly what we saw in Romans chapter 1. What was the verse I just quoted? Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to reprobate Michael. You see, wicked people, they just want to push God out of their knowledge. Just get Him out of here. Just kick God out. We don't want to hear about God. We just want to pretend like He doesn't exist instead of making things right with God. It's just like it says in John chapter 3, verse 18, it says, He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the combination that light has come to the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. People that are ungodly, they don't want to come to the light. They're like cockroaches. You turn the lights on, and they all scamper off. And my wife told me that the rule of common is that if it's the daytime and the lights are on, and you see cockroaches, then you have a really bad cockroach problem because they're not supposed to be out in the daytime. And, man, could I tell you, Mr. Pest Control, can you back me up? Can I get a witness here? So, cockroaches... You know, I got my own cockroach stories. I got some stories. I remember we used to go soul-winding in South Chicago in the ghetto, and those places were bad. I mean, it was a run-down, slummy place, and, I mean, we're talking the smell. I mean, after a while, you got used to the smell. But, man, the first few weeks, I went up there soul-wining. It was overpowering. You couldn't even hardly think straight to even give the gospel, just the stench of that place. And it was horrible. And I remember I was giving somebody the gospel, and they just had a cockroach just crawling across. I'm not kidding. Crawling across my face. And they didn't even know it. And I didn't tell them because I just figured, you know what, these people are used to it. And so this cockroach just knocked across this lady's forehead and just walked across, and I just kept talking to her, and that was in broad daylight. And, I mean, in those houses, we'd be going in those houses, and, I mean, we'd see cockroaches all the time walking in the middle of the daytime. And if you see them in the daytime, for every one you see, there's a lot that you don't see. They come out at night. You know what I mean? So, yeah, cockroaches are bad. I remember I went to the, you know, I went to a restaurant. I'm not going to name the name of a restaurant in Mesa. And I was doing the alarm inspection. And so, yeah, it starts with a C, and it ends in her chest chicken. I'm not going to eat that. That's all I'm going to do. But anyway, I went to the restaurant in Mesa on Route 87, and we were checking the alarm, and my sister and I are there, and the panel, they didn't have a key for the panel. It was totally locked up. And so, you know, I was being cool in front of my sister. Well, I always do this anyway, because whenever there's a panel, and it's locked, and nobody has a key, I just rip it open. You know, you just grab it and just rip it open. So I say to Lisa, I said, yeah, this is what you do when there's no key. You know, and I'm going to show her the big, strong brother, rip it open, you know. So I reach out, and I just rip the door open on the panel, and we're both standing right in front of the panel. And as I rip the door open, just cockroach. There's probably, like, 40 of them just come flying toward us, because I grabbed the door and yanked on it, and the force of yanking had just caused them all to just go... And me and my sister were like... Ahh! So then they all jumped off us, and then we look at the ground, and they're all scampering and all... Under the ovens, under the cupboards, everywhere. And they were all living in the alarm panel, and I said to the, you know, one of the workers, I said, you know, do you guys have some bug spray or something? You know, do you have some braid? And they're just like... Mmm. They didn't go see bug spray. I was like, whatever. I wasn't here anyway, so... If you don't care, I guess I don't care. You know, I tried to tell you, because I said, you know, you guys are totally infested with cockroaches here, and they're just like, okay. No, don't have a bug spray. So that was some cockroach stories. Oh, yeah. Cockroaches, they're really dirty animals, and they don't come out in the daytime. They're afraid of the light, and that's how wicked people are. They like to come out at night, and they like to be in the darkness, because their deeds are evil. You see, the Bible says, he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they're wrong. He's not trying to hide his deeds. So he comes out into the open with it. He's not always secretive and hiding and afraid. You know, the people who are doing wrong, they like to be in dark places. You know, you look at, like, the bar scene. It's like a darkened atmosphere. You look at the casinos and places like that. It's a darker atmosphere, and people come out at night. It's called the nightlife. You don't go there at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. You come out at night, and you do all the sin and all the ungodliness and all the wickedness. And so that's how it is with people that are sinful, and ungodly, and that's how the Philistines work. They didn't want God's word. They didn't want God shining the light. And, yeah, God was punishing them, but you know what? God doesn't just punish you randomly. They could have done the right thing, and everything would have been fine. They could have just prayed and said they were sorry and straightened out their light, and God would have taken away the emirates and God would have taken away the punishment that he had sent. But it says in verse number 10, Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron, and it came to pass as the ark of God came... See how the Bible keeps calling it the ark of God? The ark of God. And then they keep calling it the ark of the God of Israel, like just trying to say, well, that's their God, as I was bringing out earlier. It says as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They brought about the ark of the 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. Instead of, you know, hey, maybe we're wrong here. Maybe Dagon's not the true God. And by the way, they'd already been worshipping Dagon a long time. You remember the story of Samson? When they were fighting against Samson much earlier, decades and decades before, they were still worshipping that stupid god Dagon. And they should have just figured out, hey, let's get all the lords of the Philistines together. Maybe Dagon's a false god. Maybe we're worshipping Satan. Maybe we should worship the God of the Hebrews. But they didn't do that. Instead, they just said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel and let it go again to its own place, that it slay us not. That it slay us not? I mean, is the ark the one that's killing them? Is the ark the one that's giving them disease? No, it's the God of the ark. Just like the Israelites in chapter 4 said, Oh, it's going to save us. No, if anybody's going to save you, it's God, not the ark. These people say, it's going to kill us. No, God is going to kill you. It's not, it's just a box. It's just symbolic. It is not God, it's just God's word. It's not, you know, they just mix this up and they think it's just something about that box that's killing them. And it says, Let it go to its own place, that it slay us not in our people, for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there. And the man that died not were smitten with the emeralds and the cry of the city went up to heaven. And so, today in America, we're going down a wrong path. We're going down that Roman's one path as a nation. And obviously, there are many individuals today who are serving God and doing right and they love God and they're living a good life. But as a nation, if you look at the nation as a whole, we're going down that Roman's one route. You know, we're going down an ungodly route. And we're going down the route of Philistines. We're going down the route of a false god. We're going down the route of perversion and sin and iniquity. And I'm gonna tell you something, God's hand is just gonna get heavier and heavier upon our country until we get right with God as a nation. Until our nation puts away all the filth and sin, until our nation recognizes the authority of God's word and respects the God of the Bible and glorifies Him as God, God's hand is just gonna keep getting heavier on us. And there's gonna be more disease, more pestilence, and we could go through the whole Deuteronomy 28, how He's gonna punish us financially, how there's gonna be poverty, how there's gonna be famine, how there's gonna be disease, there's gonna be pestilence. And we can see that our nation is not doing well right now. Our nation is not prospering. I don't think that anyone that's in our government today would stand up and say, boy, things are great. 2011's a great year for our country. We're doing great. No. Everything that you hear from them, if you tune into the news at all, if you read any news at all, you know that everything that they're saying is, what are we gonna do? We're on the verge of catastrophe. We're in a crisis. How are we gonna fix the finances? How are we gonna fix this economy, the unemployment is skyrocketing? What are we gonna do? There's natural disaster. I mean, look at the natural disasters that are happening in our country like every day now. I mean, you got the wildfires just ravaging through Arizona and New Mexico. Now it's heading toward a nuclear plant. Massive flooding, the Mississippi River flooding, the Missouri River flooding. I mean, there's all kinds of flooding, tornadoes killing hundreds of people. There's more disease today than there's ever been. I mean, the STDs are on a rampage today because of the filthy lifestyle of our nation. I mean, we're talking about finances that will not make it through the end of next year, probably. I mean, when you look at the finances of our country, when you look at the fact that the whole thing, you know, the baby boomers are retiring and they have trillion-dollar deficits and, you know, the Republicans and Democrats, you know, they're gonna get together and, you know, they can't agree on stuff because the bottom line is neither one of them wants to fix the problem. So they just argue about it, and nobody wants to step forward and fix it, and I don't even know if you can fix it. It's so messed up. I mean, look around, folks. Wake up. The finances in this country are collapsing. The standard of living is going down. Disease is rampant. Freedoms are going goodbye, and disease is ravaging us, and natural disasters are ravaging us, but we still don't get it. We're still gonna keep propping up Dagon. You know, after everything that happens, we're still gonna prop up Dagon, and we're still gonna take... And you know, you hear these people... And let me just get off topic here. Let me take a little rabbit trail. It's amazing. I heard this in the news. Here's what they were saying on the news. They said, well, I was listening on my radio. I have an XM radio in my car, and I was tuned in to some CNN or something stupid like that on a long drive. It was a really long drive. And so I turned into that thing, and this is what they're saying. We're falling behind economically. Other countries are passing us up. We're going downhill. We're no longer leading the world. We're no longer the innovator. We're no longer the most prosperous. And here's their solution. This is what they're saying. Well, communist China is doing great. We need to have a government more like them. That's what they literally said. They said, yeah, China, it's easy. The government can just force everybody to do what they're supposed to do. And we need that kind of a command-and-control economy here in order to make better... So that we can keep up technologically. Why don't they just realize that we don't have to look at communist, wicked China with their one-child policy, with their concentration camps, with their persecution of religion and persecution of people who want to have a family and persecution of any decent person? Why don't we just realize that if we go back to the way we used to do things in this country, that's when we were prospering, when we had freedom, when we worship the Lord Jesus Christ, it's when we were prospering. But instead, they say, oh, let's be more like the Philistines. Let's be more like communist China. I mean, this is the kind of nonsense they don't realize that we're not failing today in America because we're not enough like communist China. The reason we're failing today is because God's hand is heavy upon us. That's why we're failing today. And the only way to really fix the problem is to go back to God and to call upon His name and to get on our knees and say we're sorry and to grind Dagon to powder and screw him into the river. That's the only way that we're going to get back to prosperity and peace and happiness in this country. And as long as we continue to prop up Dagon, I mean, every couple of years, Dagon comes crashing down. But then we just keep picking him up and propping him up. All the schools are failures. Our government's a failure. All the government programs are failures. They're all just a bunch of Dagons that we just keep propping up, and they just keep falling over. What do we have to do? We need to get right with God in this country. And you know what? I'm all for being politically active, but you know what? The only thing that can really save our country is God. And it's to turn to God. And it's to get rid of the sin and wickedness from our country because sin always brings you into bondage. And we've got to get rid of Dagon, and we've got to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in our country. And God's hand is heavy upon America, but he doesn't have to be heavy upon your family. You know, you can still live for God and do right, but if you choose to go down this wicked route that the rest of our country is going on in your own personal life, if you choose to run your finances that way, you know, that'll last about five minutes. If you choose to run your morality the way that the public school system's teaching and the way that the television's teaching, God's hand can be heavy upon you. Let me tell you something. God's got a pretty heavy hand when it comes down. I mean, there shouldn't be, after reading this chapter about the M-rods and the secret parts, there shouldn't be any question that God punishes sin and he punishes it with a vengeance. Because I think that that's probably the last thing that anybody in this room wants to happen. And that's what God did to these people that refused to listen to his warnings. Because, look, he didn't just smite them with the M-rods right out of the gate, did he? First he knocked over their idol a couple times, but then they just didn't get it. And then he said, okay, well, now I'll send you a message that you might listen to. And they heard the message loud and clear, but their reaction was wrong to get rid of the ark instead of the turn to God. Let's borrow this and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word here, God, and we thank you for your presence, and you promised that where two or three are gathered together in your name, there you'd be in the midst of us, dear God. And we thank you that just as the tomb of Israel had the ark of God, which symbolized your presence, and many times your presence was there between the cherry bins of the ark of the covenant, dear God. I just pray that your presence will be with us and that we would not flee from your presence because of sin in our lives, but that rather we would want to bask in the light of your presence and help no one in this room, dear God, to leave church and to quit church because of sin in their life, because they're going and trying to hide from the light of your word and trying to hide out in the dark somewhere like a cockroach. Help us all to come to the light of your word. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and also every morning, let us open the Bible and let its light shine upon us and light our feet and light our path. And we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.