Now I'd like to call your attention this evening to the words which are to be found in the first book of Samuel, in the fifth chapter. And I shall read the first four verses. The first four verses in the fifth chapter of the first book of Samuel. And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashton. When the Philistines took the ark of God they brought it into the house of David. and set it by Dagon. And when they of Ashtar arose 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 in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morn, 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 hand were cut off upon the threshold. Only the stump of Dagon was left to him. Now those words come as a kind of epilogue to the remarkable history which is recorded in the previous chapter. And the history I can summarize hurriedly in this way. The children of Israel at this particular point had reached one of those lowest points that they ever reached in their long and tepid history. They had gone wrong not only religiously but politically and even in a military sense. With the result that they had been conquered by their traditional enemies the Philistines And at this point we're more or less in a state of theft. The high priest at this function was an old man whose name was Eli, a very good man himself. But he had two sons who were worthless, profligate men, and he unfortunately had delegated most of his functions and his duties to them. They used this sacred office simply to satisfy and to gratify their own lust. The result was, I say, that the whole life of the nation, in every respect and in every department, was in a state of utter degradation. But we read here that there were certain people who were dissatisfied. Some of them felt that they really must rouse themselves and shake off this yoke of oppression. So we are told that they gathered an army together and they went up and challenged the Philistines to battle. And the Philistines came and the two armies met and there was a great battle. But unfortunately the children of Israel were defeated. Then we are told that they held a kind of council of war to discover if they could the cause of their discomfiture. And after much discussion, somebody seems to have got up and said, I can tell you exactly why we were defeated. He said, we were defeated because in our thoughtlessness and our folly, we went up to battle against the Philistines without taking with us the ark of the Lord. He said, now that's been the cause of our disaster. If only we had taken the Ark of the Lord with us, he said, no doubt we would have been successful. You see to him, the Ark of the Lord was a kind of mascot. If you took it with you, you had good luck. If you forgot it, well then probably you would be defeated. However, he aroused the people and he said, now let us gather together another army and let us make sure this time that we take the Ark with us and then let us go up and challenge the Philistines. And he succeeded in persuading them. So they gathered together their army and off they went, full of confidence, full of assurance, and full of hope. And indeed when the Philistines heard them coming, at first we are told they were very frightened. They said these men are coming at this time and bringing their God with them. And he has been, they said, a remarkable God. So they exalted one another to fight as men. And the two armies met again. And after a terrible battle, alas unfortunately, the children of Israel were defeated once more. And this time they were not merely defeated, they were utterly routed. Their army was decimated. But still more disastrous, the Philistines captured the Ark of the Lord and took it away with them captive. These two men, Hofner and Phineas, were killed. The old men, their father Eli, now aged 98, seated upon a bench, heard the news and fell backwards and broke his neck and died. Everything went wrong. Ichabod was written over the whole life of the nation. It was nothing but complete disaster and despair. Now that's the story. But I tonight am calling your attention to these four verses of the first four verses of the fifth chapter, because I say here we have the sequel, the epilogue, if you like, to that story. And this is what it tells us. When the Philistines captured this ark, decided that they wouldn't destroy it, They said to themselves after all this ark which is the god of Israel has done many marvelous and wonderful things for the Israelites. Therefore they said we'd better keep this. The day may come when we'll be very glad indeed to use this god and to be benefited by him. So they decided that they would take this ark and take it to the temple of their god Gagon and they did so. And they took the ark and they set it on a shelf by the side of their god Dagon. Their idea, I say, was that if ever a day should come when they would need his help and his aid, well they could take him down and use him, so they put him there in reserve. Then having done that, of course, there was nothing left to do but to celebrate their notable victory. And if ever a people had a right to celebrate a victory, it was these celestials. Where they are, they'd vaulted and completely destroyed the army of their ancient enemies. Over and above that, they'd even captured the god of their enemies. Boy, the world was absolutely perfect. Nothing could ever again go wrong. So they began celebrating their great victory. And off they went in a spirit of jubilation and rejoicing letting themselves go in this marvelous VE celebration. But then comes this extraordinary history. The next morning we are told that the keeper of the temple of Dagon, doing what is apparently nothing but a kind of routine round of the temple, not expecting to find anything wrong, but just doing it, as I say, as a matter of pure routine, to his amazement found that their god Dagon had fallen to the floor, immediately beneath the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. He couldn't understand it, nobody else could. However they said, these kind of accidents will happen, so we are told that they took Dagon and set him in his place again. And then of course they proceeded to another day of remarkable rejoicing and celebration of their astounding victory. Everything in the world was perfect. all their enemies have been destroyed well there was nothing now but to live happily ever after but then we are told the next morning when they arose early again this man once more went on his round of inspection of the temple and this time to his comfort of mercy he found that not only was Dagon fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord but in addition to that the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hand were cut off upon the threshold. Only the stump of Dagon was left to him. So that's the story. Well dear me, sir, someone's very well, that is the story as you say, but what has it got to do with us? What has it got to do with January 1955? What has it got to do with the modern world? And yes, to someone that's all right, that's an Old Testament story. But my dear sir, says this person, don't you realize that we are living in a very difficult world? In a century which has already experienced two world wars? Don't you realize that the times are cruel and that life is urgent? Are you asking us really to spend an evening with you while you consider some Old Testament story like that? So remote from our world and all that's happening in it. Have you nothing better to do than to take us back like that to this old story? Oh, wait a minute. I suggest to you that before I finish, I shall have demonstrated to you that this old story is a very contemporary message, and that it speaks with a peculiar urgency to your situation and mine at this very moment. Now, what is this old story? Well, as I see it, this is nothing but a story of religion in eclipse. It's a story of God and his cause apparently defeated. It is a picture, if you like, of Christianity down and almost out. Everything has gone wrong. The enemy is triumphant all along the line and God and his people seem to be routed and in a state of captivity. That's what we have here. So I suggest to you that this story really has a very great deal to tell us about ourselves at this very moment. Let's be quite frank and honest and admit it on this anniversary occasion. These are very difficult days for the Christian church. These are very exceedingly difficult days for Christianity. It is the case, isn't it, that the enemy of the Christian truth seems to be arrogantly successful and triumphant all along the line. And the Christian church, Christian people, seem to be in eclipse and in a state of defeat. That is the position, speaking generally. For the Philistines are still with us. The Philistines don't always assume the same guise. They don't always appear in the same form. Here it was a naked open military form. It isn't always that. The enemies of God and his cause and his truth vary their appearances and their mode of attack. And in the last hundred years, and especially in this present century, the form which the attack of the Philistines has taken has been very different indeed from that it was of their original prototypes. In the last hundred years, and especially I say in the last 50 years, the line, the method which the Philistines have adopted, I need scarcely remind you, has been something like this. The essence of the attack has come in the form of knowledge and of learning. I was referring in passing this afternoon to the tendency to substitute philosophy for revelation, to put up human wisdom and understanding in the place of the word of God. That's been one form. It began in Germany in the 40s of the last century. This attack which came and tried to undermine the whole foundation of this book's authority, as one form, a kind of knowledge and of human understanding and human wisdom. But of course this has been particularly the case in terms of scientific knowledge. You were celebrating here today the 79th, I think you said, anniversary of the founding of this cause. Well in 1959, I prophesy to you now, there will be great celebrations in this country They will be celebrating the centenary of the first publication of Charles Darwin's famous book, The Origin of Species. It was published in 1859, and it has been confidently asserted that that book, that single book, has rarely undermined and indeed destroyed the very foundations of the Christian faith. For here was a book, you see, that claim to be able to explain the origin of life and the origin of man entirely apart from God and entirely apart from all that we have in this revelation. And man is not a special creation of God, we were taught. He's simply an animal that has evolved through a long and painful process. Well, you know all about it. It's very much before us at the present time, isn't it? And we're being reminded of it day by day at this moment. Well now, the idea was that here was this attack delivered by the Philistines that really has ranted the case of Christianity. And it is being confidently asserted that no really intelligent people can any longer believe Christian dogma. It's all right for women and children, we are told. I'm not saying it, that's what's being told, that's what we are being told. It was all right, we were told, in the primitive times when Mankind was comparatively ignorant, but today, with our knowledge and our learning, it's impossible. The miraculous and supernatural, surely, no one can believe it. That's the attack. You see, it's taken these forms. But not only that, it's taken other forms. It's taken the form of a kind of secularism. Disinterest in political action, social and economic conditions, the idea being this. that nowadays we can indeed make our own perfect world and we therefore don't need a God. Alas, many of our own grandfathers turned the zeal and the enthusiasm which used to go to God's things into politics and things like that. And it was confidently believed that as the result of legislation a perfect world could be created. Those are some of the forms. There are many others but I mustn't weary you with them. Well, the result of it all is this, that the average man rarely believes by now that the case for Christianity has really gone. That God and his cause is really demolished. And that those who are on the other side are absolutely triumphant all along the line. That is more or less, I think you will agree, the position. But there's one remarkable thing which I cannot but emphasize. It is to me astounding how the modern philistines have repeated the action of their ancient prototype, as I say, down even to the smallest detail. You'll notice that I emphasize that these philistines, when they did capture the Ark, didn't destroy it. They didn't do away with it altogether. No, no. What they did was to relegate it to the background. They said, put it there in the temple of Dagon. If we need it, we'll use it. And if we don't, we'll put it back. Have you noticed that the modern Philistines have done exactly the same thing? You know, the average person doesn't believe in God and doesn't believe in Christ. But that doesn't mean, you know, that they've done away with them altogether. They still like to get married in a church. Oh yes, a religious service is rather nice if you're getting married. They'd rather like to have their children christened still, if they believe in that sort of thing. There's an advantage in this. And if somebody dies in the family, well, a religious service somehow adds the comfort and the dignity to the occasion. And if you should happen to be in a war, in a great war and if things are going badly, well then the state calls a day of national prayer. Ah yes, you use God when things are going wrong, well then of course the next Sunday you don't go to church, that's past now. Isn't this contemporary history? If there should be a royal wedding or a coronation or If a Prime Minister is made a Knight of the Guard, oh, you must have a religious service, whether they attend regularly on other Sundays is immaterial. It's useful, it adds a kind of veneer to the occasion. There's something about religion, after all, which nothing else can supply. So you use it on these unique occasions, and apart from that, you forget it altogether. Yes, you put God on the shelf. You put him somewhere in the background. You'll take him down when you think he can be of use and of help, and when not, you put him back in. Now that is exactly, I think, the position during this pleasant century. The world has ceased to believe in God, and yet it pays this lip service. It'll use God when it suits it to do so. That's the situation. Religion in a state of eclipse. The Philistines, the enemies of God, apparently triumphant and successful all along the line and in every department. That's the situation. Religion in a state of eclipse. The philistines, the enemies of God, apparently triumphant and successful all along the line and in every department. Very well, says someone, what's the message for such a time as this? You know, it's all in these four verses. And I just want to unfold it briefly to you. But before I do so, I want to ask a question. Why is it, you think, that this kind of thing ever happens to God's people and to God's cause? For after all, these children of Israel were God's people. None other. Why is it that they're found in defeat like this? Why does this kind of thing happen to them? Oh, says somebody, that's a perfectly simple question. The Israelites were defeated on this occasion, says this person, because of the superior might and prowess and military ability of the Philistines. That's the explanation. The Philistines had a greater army, they had greater armaments, and they were better organized. That's the explanation. But you know it isn't. No man who's ever read the Old Testament with his eyes open can possibly accept that explanation for this reason. You will find in this first book of Samuel a little bit later on, that a great army of Philistines was defeated and routed by just two men, Jonathan and his armor bearer. So it can't be that explanation. No, no. The explanation is this and it's one of the most important things we can ever grasp and realize. The defeat of Israel was not due to the strength of the Philistines. It was due to the weakness of the Israelites. It was because the children of Israel had forgotten God and had ceased to be in communion with God. It was because in their folly they relied upon themselves and had become dissolute in their life and living. That was why they were defeated. That's the whole story of the children of Israel. When they pass to themselves, down they go. When in contrition they turn back to God, they conquer everybody. Read your Old Testament and you'll find it everywhere. And the problem with them here, I say, was the self-reliance. They'd forgotten God and he allowed them to be defeated. My dear friends, it's still the same. If you go to the annual assemblies of any one of the great denominations and listen to what they say, this is what you'll find. They'll say, well, the times are difficult and we are really having a bad time of it. But they say, it's all right, we mustn't be too despondent. You know, they say we are facing conditions which our fathers never had to face. They say our fathers never had to face the competition of the motor car, and the cinema, and the wireless, and now the television on top of everything. and commercial television coming, making it still worse. That's the position we are confronting. Look at the world. Look how highly organized it is. Look at all this that's being poured out of the presses and in every means and avenue of communication inimical to God and His cause. That's the cause of the trouble with the two world wars and all the rest of it. Brethren, they say we must go on fighting, but that's the position. And what a completely false analysis it is. No, no. When the Christian church is weak and ineffective, it's never due to anything that's happening in the world. It is always due to something that's happening in the church herself. The world has always been the same and always will be. It's always been a hater of God and always been opposed to his cause and has always tried to destroy his cause. It never varies. The variation is in the church. You read your church history and you'll find that sort of graph of the life of the church. And do you explain the rising of the church to anything in the world? Never. It's always for something that happens in the church. When the church of God forgets God and becomes self-confident, she always goes down in defeat. Invariably. But when she comes to the end of her own resources and realizes that without God she can do nothing, and waits upon him in prayer until he answers, then he raises her up and she harks her enemy. And if I say nothing else this evening, let me emphasize this. That, it seems to me, is the most important message that the Christian church has to learn at this present hour. Things are as they are in the church today because the church has been relying upon herself and her own power to organize. She is trusted to her own ability and ingenuity and God has allowed her to go down. And I am confident that it will continue to go down until we realize that in and of ourselves we can do nothing. It isn't the world, that's always the same, it's the church. And what troubles me about the church even tonight is this, that I see her still confident in herself and in her own power to organize. Whether it be an evangelistic campaign or anything else. Don't misunderstand me, I haven't come here to denounce such things, but I am here to say this. that as long as the church places her confidence even in an organized evangelistic campaign, things will continue to go from bad to worse. There is only one hope and that is revival. And that is that you and I and all other Christians realize that in and of ourselves we are helpless. I suggest to you that the position will go on from bad to worse until we are crushed to our knees. until we say to one another, no, no, it's no use having another committee and organizing this or that. The power of God must come upon us. We need a revival. And a revival and an evangelistic campaign are entirely different things. We must realize that we need such an outpouring of the Spirit that we ourselves shall be fumbled and crushed and overwhelmed and raised up. And God shall use us in a way that will amaze us as well as the world that looks on in astonishment. That, it seems to me, is the great message here. God, as it were, withdraws himself from his power and allows his people to be defeated in order to teach them this vital lesson that apart from him they are nobody and without him they can do nothing. But thank God he doesn't leave it at that. That's the great central message, but in the meantime God does some remarkable things and they're noted here, every one of them. Let me hurriedly put them to you. What does God do at a time like this? What does God do when his whole cause seems to be utterly defeated? Well, the first thing he does is that he erupts. into our perfect little world and upset them completely. Did you notice this story? Here are these Philistines, I say, full of jubilation and of happiness, having conquered their enemy and having done all they wanted to do, having captured the god, and off they go rejoicing and enjoying themselves. And these astounding things begin to happen in the temple of Dagon. What is it? Well, it's the God whom they think they've captured and whom they think they possess beginning to do things in their own citadel and in their own temple. It's God coming in and upsetting their little plans and arrangements. They thought their world was now perfect. God comes in and turns it all upside down. Have you noticed, my friends, that that is the precise thing that has been happening during this present century? Let me reconstruct the history for you. Cast your minds back, those of you who can, and those of you who are not old enough have probably read about it. Cast your minds back to the end of the last century and the beginning of this. Do you remember that Edwardian period? How confident men were. Everything was advancing, knowledge was growing, the country had never been more prosperous. Man was mastering the elements and controlling everything. in the 20th century was just going to be astounding. It was going to be like paradise. Knowledge grows from age to age, this inevitable perpetual advance. The 20th century was going to be the crowning century of all the centuries, so we were told. And indeed, at first it began to look like this. Everything was perfect. But then some odd things began to happen. I'm old enough to remember a day in 1911 Then we went down to breakfast one morning and read in our newspapers to our astonishment about some so-called Moroccan crisis. Something had happened in Morocco and it looked as if there might be a war between Germany and Great Britain. But we said, it's impossible, you can't fight your German cousins. These things are impossible in the modern world. And the crisis blew over. Reagan had fallen. Ah yes, but we took him and we put him up again and carried on. Then there was a morning in April of 1912, how well I remember it. This time what we read in our papers was that a great ship which had been built, which was called the Titanic, which was the final achievement of men's ability, an unsinkable ship. At last men had really mastered everything and he built a ship which literally could not sink. Well, we read in our papers to our consternation that that great ship was steaming across the Atlantic on her maiden voyage on a Sunday afternoon, with the jazz band playing and everybody perfectly happy, celebrating men's triumph over the waves, when messages came in to say that there were icebergs about. But what an iceberg to an unsinkable ship! The thing was laughed out of court and ridiculed. The message was full steam ahead, and on they went until that fatal thud. The Titanic had struck a submerged iceberg, and in a few minutes she sank with a disastrous loss of life. The unsinkable ship had gone down. Man's perfect world was shaken. Dagon had fallen. It's all right. We said you must have these teething troubles even with civilization. It's all right. Put Dagon back again. Let's carry on. And we did. Well, I mustn't wear you. You remember July 1914? Again the talk of war, again the assurance that it was impossible, but it came. Dagon fell again. Ah yes, but you remember the speeches of the politicians? They said, you're quite right, they said, Dagon has fallen, there is a war. But you know, they said, do you know what this war is? They said, this is the war to end war. There'll never be another. We really are dealing with it finally this time. The war to end war. And eventually we were triumphant. We put Dagon back again and now we said, well, there's nothing to do but to resume where we left off in 1914 and have this good time that has been promised us in the 20th century. Nothing can ever go wrong again. It's going to be marvelous. And we let ourselves go. Well, we hadn't gone further than 1921 before they were disastrous. lockouts and strikes. 1923-24 came, we began to read about a man called Mussolini, with a philosophy of the jungle returning, with men thought of as some sort of a beast. Back we were. Gagon had fallen again. The world seemed to be going wrong. Hurry on to 1933, a man called Hitler. He seemed to be preparing for war, but we said, you can't have that sort of thing. You can't have two world wars within a quarter of a century. The thing is just nonsense. Do you remember the dissolute thirties of this century? Do you remember, oh, we were interested in the love affairs of a monarch and anything but the reality that was facing us? No, no, this couldn't happen. And we wouldn't listen to a man who warned us, called him a warmonger, and so on. But in 1939, Deagon fell again. The Second World War had come. It wasn't the paradise we thought we were going to have. Ah, yes, we were told it's all right, there is another war, but you know, they said, this is really too bad, because it's entirely due to one man. It's this man, Hitler. If it were not for this man, Hitler, this wouldn't have happened, and all would have been perfect. They said, we've only got to destroy this man, and then we really shall have the good time. Well, after a terrible agony, In 1945, in May 1945, he was defeated and vanished off the face of the earth. And at last we said, it's come. V-E day. Put Dagon back. Now then, we really can let ourselves go. And we began to do it. But we didn't get further than August of the same year. And then we got down to breakfast one morning and began to our amazement. We read in our newspapers that something called an atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan. And our very earth beneath our feet began to rock and to quake, and it's been shaking ever since. And look at the subsequent period. Conferences are going to settle it. We're about to turn the medical corner. It's going to be all right, but it never is. And one thing after another comes. We put Dagon back. Down he falls. Back we put him. Down he goes. And on and on it goes. What is it? What's your explanation of this history? There's only one adequate explanation of it, and it's this. It's the God whom we've forgotten. The God whom we've relegated to the background, acting, interfering, upsetting. You see, our claim has been that we could make a perfect world without him, and he's proving to us that we cannot. He keeps on breaking in. He allows things to happen. There's no other adequate explanation of it all. And I've seen this not only on the world scale as I've been depicting it to you. I've seen it in many an individual life. I've known men who've looked me right in the eyes and have told me that I'm a fool because I'm a preacher of this gospel. Yes, when they said that, they were strong, they were healthy. Their wives and children were well and healthy and everything was going well. But you know, I've sometimes seen the self-same men after he's had his first attack of angina. and he's been a very different man. His God has fallen. His world has been shaking and rotting. He doesn't know where he is nor what to do. Ah, my friend, it's true of the individual and of the whole world. You put God there, and he'll smash your God. He'll throw them down. He'll upset. He'll erupt into your little world and into your little life. God always does this at such a time, and he is doing it in this present century. The Old Testament, you know, in another place puts all I've been trying to say in one place. It's this. There is no peace of my God to the wicked. There shall be no such peace. He won't allow it. There shall be no peace without him. The second thing for me to hurry on is this. The second thing that God does at such a time is that he humbles and humiliates and ridicules our God. That's what he did in the temple of Dagon, wasn't it? He not merely threw down Dagon, he eventually destroyed him, and did you notice the delightful sarcasm? Nothing was left, only the stump of Dagon was left to him. Ridiculed in his own temple and in the sight and before the eyes of his own people, his own worshippers. And who had done it? Well, it was the God whom they thought they had captured and who was no longer effective. He had smashed him, he had ridiculed him. And again I could show you that still same process taking place in this present principle. What is it that's been happening? Well, let me put it to you. What are the Gods that men have been worshipping instead of God? What are the modern beggars? Well, here are some of them. Take the great God, education. God forbid that I should be misunderstood. I haven't come here to attack education. Thank God I received a little myself. I wish I'd had much more. Education is the right of every child that's born. You'll never know too much or be too well educated. But if you turn even education into a God, don't be surprised at what may happen. And as I read contemporary history, I see that this God education is being treated by God in the same way as he treated Dagon. For the fact is that in spite of all our educational advances, one of our greatest problems today is the problem of juvenile delinquency, the problem of behavior, the problem of morality. In spite of all our advantages, look at the increase in divorce and infidelity and drinking and gambling and petty pilfering and all that you see in your newspapers, the perversions and the immoralities and all the rest of it. The God whom we were led to believe was going to solve all our problems has been humbled and indeed almost ridiculed before our eyes. And likewise with all our gods, take the god science which was going to solve all our problems, isn't it our main problem itself at this moment? And then think of all the other gods, look at politics. There was a time when men used to worship politicians. I don't think many people are guilty of that at this present time. Why? Well, we've come to know that our gods have got feet of clay. They've been humbled, they've been reduced, they've been smashed before our eyes. God humbles and ridicules our gods. And he has proceeded to do this with every single God that mankind in its folly has tended to set up in his place. He always does it, he humbles and he ridicules our gods. And of course in doing this, what he's really doing is the third thing, is namely to pronounce judgment. That was what God was doing in the temple of Dagon. He was simply proclaiming to them that though they thought that they'd captured him, that they were really in sin. He was smashing, he was acting, he was warning. And he continued to do so until the ark was sent back to the children of Israel. And surely anybody who fails to hear the note of judgment in the modern world must be tragically deaf. This atomic power is proclaiming it the scientists are prophesying the end of civilization unless something happens. What is it? Well it's God pronouncing judgment. It's God telling men that as long as they forget him they make a shambles of life. It is God I say warning us that as the two wars have brought their calamity So greater calamities yet will come unless we repent. And above all, it is God announcing the final judgment, the last of signs, the ultimate arrival of the day when the whole world shall stand before him and give an account of itself. That's the message. Well, what do we do about it? The answer is perfectly clear. We have to realize that God will either bless us or else curse. He told the children of Israel that at the beginning of their story, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it's either blessing or cursing. If we obey him, blessing. If we don't, whatever our ability, whatever our possession, cursing, he will curse us. And this century is a century of cursing. Everything's going wrong. Why? We have forgotten our relationship to God. Well then what are we to do? We have to realize these fundamental truths about God. The first is that he is the living God. You see the Philistines thought that he was something in a box which they could carry and handle. He demonstrated to them that far from his being in their hands, they were in his hands. He's not a person you can manipulate, pull down and use, and put back again when it suits you. No, no. He is the God who acts, even in the temple of Dagon, and we are in his hands, and he makes life impossible unless we obey him. He's the living God. But he is also the only God. He proved that in the temple of Dagon, he won't even share the shelf with Dagon, even in the temple of Dagon. He wants it all to himself. They put Dagon back, he throws him down. He won't share it. He's the only god. He's a totalitarian god. He's an absolute god. He wants the entire temple, and he had it. He smashed every other. And God is still the same. If you begin to worship your nation, don't be surprised if it goes down. Every nation that has worshipped itself hitherto has been destroyed. If you put your wife or your husband or your children or your money or anything by the side of God and begin to worship them, He'll rob you of them. He'll smash them before your eyes. He's the only God. He doesn't want a part of your allegiance. He says, thou shalt love the God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength. He wants the whole of men. He wants the center of the soul, the heart of your obedience. He wants the reign of you is the Lord, the living God, the only God. Yes, and he is a God who is to be approached in the way that he indicates. You can't handle him. You can't pick and choose when you want him and when you worship him. No, no. He, as I told you this afternoon, he dictates these things. And to anyone tonight who may have come to see that his or her life has gone wrong and has ended in disaster because of the forgetfulness of God, and who may be asking how can I get back to God, how can I be blessed of God, he tells you there's only one way. It is through Jesus Christ and him crucified. God sent him into the world, he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. but have everlasting life. But whosoever believeth not is condemned already, because he believeth not on the name of the only begotten Son of God. It comes to this, my friends, and that is the answer of this book and of Christianity to the world of Philistines this evening. The God who seems to be in eclipse, is still the eternal God, whose will can never be finally frustrated, and will most surely be done. And the message of this old story of what happened in the temple of Dagon is just that, that sin is tragic following. and that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that the way to him and to be blessed of him is to repent, to confess and acknowledge your sin and your fallen, to humble yourself before him and accept his gracious offer of pardon and forgiveness in the blood of Christ, new life and power and the blessed hopes set before you, to accept them humbly, helplessly, and gladly, and to take up your cross and follow Christ.