1 Samuel 4. Look at verse 22. This woman in her dying breath said, The glory is departed from Israel. for the ark of God is taken. I read a message preached by a man on this very text, read it quite some time ago, two or three years ago, and it made a great impression upon me at the time. It was his last message to his people. He was arrested shortly thereafter, and the doors of the church were shut by the authorities, and they never met again. This was his last message to them, trembling for the ark, worried that the ark might be taken. Can the gospel be removed from us? That's what the ark represents. The ark represents the gospel of Christ. We'll see that in a little bit. Can it be taken from us? It sure can. It has been. A lot of places. I look around at the church. I'm talking about those local churches that we know preach the gospel. And I know there are some, maybe many, who we don't know about. I know that. God has many that we don't know. I'm sure of that. But not many compared to the general population. But if we look around at the churches we know, you'll see we don't see a great revival going on. We don't see that. We're not seeing many souls saved, but few. And thank God for that. I would love to see him do something for especially our young people. It's been a long time. But we see in the church, I see, if you're aware of what's going on, trouble. A lot of trouble. Calamities. I mean, terrible things happen. Preachers and pastors being called in. Laborers are being called in from the field. Very few being called out. That's a sign that the harvest is over with. And I know for a fact we're living in a famine of the hearing of the Word, like Amos talked about, Hosea talked about. Not bread. There's not a famine of bread in this land. Food to eat. But there's a famine of the hearing of the Word. That's evident. Israel, in our story, was supposed to be God's people. They had the true God, the knowledge of Him, the way to worship. But it was so full of idolatry, Israel, at this time. Sin, wickedness, abounded, all manner of evil throughout that nation. Just all manner of evil and debauchery because of false creatures. That's why. That's where it comes from. Romans 1, read that. All the wickedness of a country, of a nation comes because the truth is gone. That's why our nation is like it is. But back then, Israel, they had the ark. Well, we read there that they had the ark in their midst. But it wasn't in their heart. John, they called it it, didn't they? It. Let's go get the ark and it will save us. It's not an it. They weren't calling on the Lord, Brother Henry, were they? They had the ark and there were many smitten and destroyed because they abused the ark. America today is supposed to be a Christian nation. It's founded supposedly on Christian principle, God, fear God, in God we trust. It's on our money. Now, it's against the law to even say his name, isn't it? You sure don't want to say the name of Jesus Christ. So what's happened? And the gospel is hard to find. I mean men standing up declaring the living and true God, God who is God. Sovereign. Say unto the heathen, thy God reigneth. The true gospel of sovereign Christ seated on the circle of the earth who came and did his work finished the work, accomplished redemption, went back to glory, succeeded, expecting that his enemies be made his footstool and all his elect be brought in. You've got a frustrated Jesus now that they're preaching. The gospel is hard to find. It's hard to find. We have it. We have the blessed ark right here. This little The ark was in Shiloh at that time, understand? Shiloh, the one little bitty place in the middle of all Israel. Shiloh! That's what Christ is even called in the Gospels. Shiloh. The Lion of the Tribal Jews. Shiloh. Well, my, my, the ark, the gospel needs to be in our heart, not just be in our presence. was a high priest at this time. Eli was a faithful man, a godly man. Yes, he was. A sinful man. He did not deal with his sons like he should have, and the Lord told him, I've got to deal with you because of this. You didn't honor me. You should have honored me over your sons. He didn't. But he was a godly man. He was a faithful man. He judged for 40 years. Forty years. But he let the lamp go out. He let the lamp go out. God said, don't let the lamp go out. Always had that light burning. But he let it go out. He fell asleep. The lamp went out. Nevertheless, nevertheless, in the end, the ark was being abused. The ark was being misused. He heard that his sons had taken that ark and went somewhere with it. The ark was not in its rightful place. The ark was not where it ought to be. You don't go get the ark and take it. You come to it. Beware that thou don't bring my son down again, he said. But they went and got it like a good luck charm or something and took it out. This will save us. It will save us. And he heard this and it troubled him greatly. And verse 13. It says that he sat by the wayside watching, praying, that is. He didn't have any eyes. His eyesight was gone. But he was praying, looking to the Lord, watching, praying. And it says his heart trembled. Inside he was trembling for the ark of God, it says. Trembling for the ark of God, worried about what's going to happen to the ark of God. This ark was his life. His life revolved around that ark for 40 years. And now it's in danger of being taken, and he's worried. Do you see the picture? And he's trembling. It's going to be taken from Israel. In this story, God's going to take it. He should have. It's a miracle of his mercy that didn't take it before now. Should have. They didn't deserve it. Eli knew he didn't deserve it. Eli blamed himself for the ark being taken. He blamed himself. He says, my fault. Oh yeah. That's why he was so worried. He says, my fault. If God takes this ark, it's my fault. But he's not the only one to do it, is he? And it was taken. And an unknown messenger came, you read it with me, an unknown man came and told Eli that your sons are dead, and the ark is taken. And when he heard not his sons dying, but heard that the ark was gone, he died. He killed him. And his daughter-in-law, evidently she's a believer, a lover of the worship of God, the truth. She heard she's giving birth to her firstborn child. This should be the happiest day of her life. She didn't even think about that baby. When she heard the ark was taken, it killed her. She said, the glory is gone. The glory is gone. She said, you've got a child. It doesn't matter. The glory is gone. Art's gone. Because without that art, my baby's going to grow up lost. As a matter of fact, ten, sure. It would have been better not to have any, for them to grow up and not know Christ. Right? So, art is everything. What is the art? What is the art? Let me say this. This preacher that I mentioned to you, his name was Edmund Callamay. I'd never heard of him until I read this message by him. He said this, England at the time, he said, England doesn't hold a patent on the gospel. It can be removed. He said this to his people. He said, the gospel is removable. God took it away, took the ark and the temple from Israel. Israel. He took the ark and the temple, tore it down, from Israel. He said he unchurched the Jews. Paul wrote a whole chapter, Romans 11, about that. They're divine. God cut them off. Come on. This man goes on to say he unchurched seven churches in Asia. There were seven churches. Laodicea and Philippi and Ephesus and so on. He unchurched them. Removed them. Removed their candlestick. And the man went on to say, I have no reason at all to think that the gospel will stay here for 100 more years. There's no reason to think that whatsoever. You see, if you go back through history, you'll see that the gospel doesn't stay anywhere very long at all. And sure enough, God has taken the gospel where it used to be in plenty from Asia, those churches in Asia, that's Turkey. Turkey. The gospel churches were all over Turkey. Seven! I have never heard of a church in Turkey right now. Have you? Have you heard? Anybody preaching the gospel in Turkey? No, it's gone. And then the gospel was in, well, it was all over Israel, wasn't it? Did you hear anybody preaching the gospel in Israel? It was there. It went to Asia, remember? Went to Europe. Martin Luther. Germany. Look what happened to Germany. Germany. Sherry, Martin Luther was in Germany. He, Lord through the gospel, tore that nation up through the gospel. Had a people. Germany. Now it's godless. Godless. God sent Manasseh there, Adolf Hitler. Switzerland, John Knox, John Calvin. My, my, the gospel reigned. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find one Armenian there. Brother Henry, it's gone. That's the most decadent part of this world. And then it moved into England and Scotland. Oh, what about the preachers there? Oh, there's not enough time to talk about them. This is a message to us, to me, to me, starting with me, like Eli. Eli fell asleep, and he let the light go out. And I want this to be a wake-up call to me. Don't let the light go out. to watch and tremble lest the gospel be taken from us. Can it? Absolutely. John Bradford was a martyr. You remember John Bradford, a great preacher, martyred. Queen Mary came in to that part of Then to England, Bloody Mary, you heard Bloody Mary? She's the one that put so many believers to death, put preachers out of the pulpit, closed up churches and all. Bloody Mary. She's had many of them killed. He's preached martyrdom. John Bradford was one of them. And he said, going to the stake, he said, it's my fault. It's my fault that Mary's here, because I didn't appreciate the gospel enough. Touch your heart. He did. He loved the gospel, but he blamed himself. He said, I wasn't thankful enough for the gospel. And God removed it. That's what it means to tremble for the ark. What is the ark? The ark is a symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ. The ark was a golden vessel. container that had three things inside it. All the fullness of God was in that ark, which represents Christ in whom dwelleth all the fullness of God. Three things were in that ark, and I loved it. The law, God's word, was in that ark. God Almighty said, put my covenant, my oath, my law, put my word in that golden vessel and cover it and seal it up so that it will be there kept forever, for Israel forever. Put my word where it will be kept, the word you broke in Israel, put it in that box, it will be kept there. That's Christ. Christ came. Why? To save sinners. Who are sinners? They break the law. Lawbreakers. And God ought to kill them all. But Christ came as a substitute for sinners. In Him is no sin. He kept the law perfectly. Golden man. Holy man. He kept the law of God for His people. He is the covenant of God. It's all in Him. In Christ we've kept the law. It's in Christ, and we're in Christ for safekeeping. What else was in that ark? Aaron's rod that budded. Aaron's rod. Who was Aaron? Aaron was the high priest, the one chosen by God to offer sacrifices on that very ark, the mercy seat. We'll get to that in a minute. Aaron was the high priest. Had to have one. God said, I won't listen, I won't deal with anybody but the high priest. Had to have one. Aaron was the man chosen by God. Aaron, Christ is our great high priest. There's one mediator between God and man. It's the man Christ Jesus. We have a mediator. Sinners have a mediator. Those that have broken the law have a mediator, a high priest whom God will listen to. God will hear him on our behalf every time, all the time. forever after the order of Melchizedek. Aaron's rod, thy rod and thy staff that comfort me. Aaron's rod. God gave Aaron a rod, Moses' rod, his shepherd's staff, a rod by which he did everything. It was a scepter by which he ruled and made in Israel. Aaron's rod was the rod that he used to bless the people. When they came to the Red Sea, he held out that rod and the Red Sea parted. Christ, a scepter of righteousness, is a scepter of his kingdom. He is the rod of Jesse. He is the Lord our Shepherd. He is the rod that budded, that rod, miraculously, that God had put in the ark. It was always blooming. It was always blooming. You'd think it would die out in that. Oh no, it's alive. Always alive. Budding. That means new life, doesn't it? Brand new. Young life. That's Christ. He said, I was dead, but I'm alive. I live forever. And there's new life in Him. The rod budded. And then there was something else in there. There was a bowl of bread. Manna. God said, you put a bowl of manna in there. Manna. Oh, that was a miracle of God. Sent down to a starving people, people wandering in the wilderness who didn't have anything to eat. God must provide. So God did provide bread from heaven to sustain their life. Bread miraculously came down from the sky. Bread! And they went out there and they said, look, it's white. And it's white. And they said, what is it? We've never seen it like that. What is it? That's what the name manna means. What is it? And John said, that which we've heard, which we've seen, which we've handled, which we've observed, that's word of life, came down. Christ said, I'm the bread, come down. I'm the true bread of life. No man lives but by me. And God provided life to those that need, those that hunger. Life came down. Christ said, I'm the bread. What is it? It's life is what He is. And it was sweet to the taste. That manna said it was as small as a small thing, like a coriander seed, but you put it all together and there was enough to feed everybody. And it said it tastes like wafers dipped in honey. It's the sweetest thing. When those Israelites first tasted that manna, they thought, this is the best thing I've ever eaten in my entire life. This is life. Thank you, Lord God, for the manna! And that bread is pride. A little while later, those same Israelites who said, this is the best bread we've ever had, said, We're tired of it. And God said, I'm tired of you. But that ark, you see those three things? These three were in this one vessel. These three are one. In Christ, Christ is all. And in all, the blessings of God come down from heaven and the mercy of God. That was what is in it. But this ark had a mercy seat. How often have we heard this? How many years have we been hearing this? Teaching it. I wonder how many people throughout the world have ever heard what the mercy seat is. Or even care. A mercy seat. Don't you like the sound of it? There is a place where spirits blend. Heart holds fellowship. Friend holds fellowship with friend. It's a mercy seat. It's a mercy seat. The mercy seat was the covering over the ark. The covering upon which the blood was poured. Oh, the blood. The blood of the Lamb. Without the shedding of blood, There's no remission of sin. If there wasn't bloodshed at Ark, there's no sin forgiven. Blood was poured out on that mercy seat, on the mercy seat covering the broken law, sealing it up, sealing that Ark. Mercy seat is where God said, that's where I'll be. I'll hold communion with you between the cherubs. at the mercy seat. He said, whoever comes, I'll be there and you'll find mercy. It's called a mercy seat. Who needs mercy seats? Who needs rest? That's where I'll be, God said, every time the blood's poured on. That's where I'll be. Christ is that mercy seat. Oh my, this is where God is promised to be, where the gospel is preached, where Christ is preached, the blessings of God, all the blessings of God, the forgiveness of sins, protection, Israel, the Ark was in the camp. As long as the Ark was there, God promised protection until they started trifling with it, playing with it, presuming upon it. But protection, blessings, the presence of God, the forgiveness of sin, you take away the ark and none of those things. Gone. There's no assurance that God will spare us. There's no assurance, no promise at all that God will forgive us. No blessings, no peace. You expect to be overcome in the wilderness. You expect it. Thus in our children. If the ark is taken. If the gospel is taken. The ark back then, look at chapter 5, and I'll hurry, just a few more minutes. Chapter 5, verse 2, it says, 1 and 2, the Philistines took the ark of God, brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon. They had an idol they called Dagon. They had several idols, but this was their chief idol, fish. You know what was a fish? Can you believe that? That's what it was shaped as. It had a fish head, except it had arms and legs. Fish head. And they brought this ark in. It's just another god. We have this god and that god. There's some truth in all religions. God said this one way, one truth, one life, one God, one faith, one debtor, one hope, you call it. One, one, one, one way. That's too narrow. The rest of the world lies too narrow, you Zionists. Y'all believe there's one God. We have a God. Here's our God, the fish God. And they brought that ark in and put it up beside their idol, okay? I love this story. They came in a couple nights later, and that Dagon, that fish-head god, that idol, was falling over at the feet of the ark. And the head was cut off, and the arms and legs. That's their God in it. No arms, no legs, no hands. What's your hands, John? People, America! It's such a mixture and a conglomeration of idolatry. It's just like the Scripture. Nothing's changed because people don't read the Word of God. They repeat it. But back then it says Israel even mixed idolatry with the fear of God. That won't work. That won't work. God's not there. God's not beside that idol. Come on, bless that. I love that. God cut his head off. His feet and his hands. Well, the Gospel today is being mixed, isn't it? Then it came to a town called Beth Shemesh in chapter 6. Look at this. The Gospel came to a town called Beth Shemesh, verse 19. Do you have it? I want you to read it. It says, God smoked the men of Beth Shemesh because they looked into the ark of the Lord. They were curious. Beth Shemesh is in Israel, Sam. And they were curious about it. So they opened the lid. And I know, you know, we've heard of that silly Hollywood movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and all that, and what happened, and all that. But this is true. This is true, it's not a fable, this is true. And these men, Brother Mack, they were curious about this ark and they opened the mercy seal, opened it up, began to play with it. Look at it, it says God killed a great sloth, 50,000, and 70 men. The people admit it, God admits it. The gospel is a thing of mere curiosity for a lot of people, isn't it? A mere curiosity. How many study the Word, and I see things all over TV and all that talk about the Bible, where did it come from, the Bible, you know, who wrote the Bible, is it true, and on and on it goes. You see those sort of things, don't read it. Don't read it. But they do, don't they? Curious. Curious. Men trifle with it. Rather than fear the Word of God, they're just curious about it. And men study it. Rather than tremble at it, they study it like just any old book. It's not any old book. It's an old book, all right, but it's not any old book. This is the Word of God. The only Word of God. And they trifle with it. No fear of it. These men had no fear of the ark, and they began to trifle with it. Young people, listen to me. I want you to listen to me. I see you bring people in here, young friends, who don't know anything about this gospel. You do. You've been taught the fear of the Lord. You've been raised that way. That this is not a thing to be toyed with. Not a thing to be trifled with. This house is a house of worship. This is a serious, sobering thing. I see you bring your friends in and they don't know. And I see that they begin to cut up and do things and smile and laugh and all that. This gospel is not a thing to be trifled with. Let me go ahead and say this. And maybe it's the fault of preachers, you know, myself included, that there's not more respect for preachers than there are. Like old Eli. But Elisha one time, this is a true story, Elisha, a bald headed fellow, And he came into a town one time, this really happened, and some kids came out and were mocking him. And God killed them. Sent a bear out of the woods. So this gospel is not a thing to be trifle with, and you tell them that. If you're not careful, they'll make you act that way. I see it, and I worry. I worry. They'll take your heart away. You need to pray, and may God impress upon you the serious stuff. This is life or death. If you don't have Christ, you have nothing. And this is what we're doing here. I hope you seek the Lord. You call on Him. You ask the Lord. You need to ask the Lord. We're not going to go to glory through mom or dad. We're not. We're not going to get there through dad or mom. We're going to get there if we call on the Lord and ask him to reveal himself to us and have mercy on us. So this is not a thing to be trifled with, and even the preachers should be respected. It's not a trifling matter. God's word is to be feared and reverenced. If the gospel is taken from us, there's no hope. There's no help. There's no comfort. There's no comfort. No peace now. Just worry. And no peace forever. If the gospel is taken from us, we and our children will be overcome by this world. We'll become just like it. And we'll die in the wilderness. Left out of the promised land. Like that. If the gospel is taken from us. What should we do? Let's do like Eli. Let's watch. And tremble. Our Lord said, watch unto prayer. Watch. Look, you see the signs of the times? That's when you're really on the watch. He's coming. Tremble. Blessed is the man. To this man when I look, who's a poor and a contrite heart, tremble at that, my Lord. was very concerned about the ark himself, he himself. Very few were, but he was. That proved that he loved the ark, didn't it? And those who have a concern and an interest in the gospel need to tremble for it, that the Lord could take it. Not take it presumptuously, not presume upon it. Israel had it all those years. Oh, no, don't say that. Don't say that. Don't say that. It can be gone tomorrow. Don't presume upon it. One thing needful. One thing needful. And Eli, and take it personally, Eli, as I said, Eli said, this is all my fault. God has taken this gospel because of me. It's my fault. If I had set a better example, If I'd have been more serious. If I'd have done that. He took it personally. As we should. We should. We should. I should. I should. It's my fault. But the gospel hasn't been taken from us. Has it? It hasn't. We still have it. So there's no reason to lose it, is there? What's this money all about? We've been talking about giving. Gospel. It's all about the gospel. We've got to have it. It's a shame it takes money. It's too bad we can't get by bartering eggs and flour, isn't it? Nobody operates that way anymore. We've got to have money. It's a shame, isn't it? But it's so. We support it. We reveal our love for it and we show that we tremble for losing it when we give generously to make sure that it stays here. I don't want it to go. What are you going to do about it? Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. It takes everything. It takes everything. Because without the ark... I want you to... I'm going to close the whole service with this prayer. I'm going to close with this prayer. I want you to stand. This is the prayer by that man that I told you is the last sermon he ever prayed. The last one they ever heard. Nice meeting together, Brother Jack. I want you to listen to this. May this be our prayer. Listen to it. O most holy, ever-blessed Lord God, who fills heaven and earth with Thy presence, we pray Thee, fill our hearts with the presence of Thy grace. Let it appear that Thou art in the midst of us with that powerful Holy Spirit. Let us receive a token of Thy love. It is thy favor that the doors of this sanctuary are open to us, and we meet together in thy name. We pray thee, continue it. Set us apart every Lord's Day. We confess we have forfeited all our mercies. We have heard much of God, Christ, and heaven with our ears, but there is little of God, Christ, and heaven in our hearts. We confess, we've heard many sermons, but we've grown sermon-proof. We know how to dissect a sermon, but we don't know how to live it. It is a miracle of thy free grace that you have not taken the gospel from us up to this time. But thou art a merciful God, and though we cannot please thee, yet mercy pleases thee. And we have no argument to bring unto thee to beg thy favor, to beg thy mercy, but Jesus Christ. We pray that thou wilt glorify thy sovereignty, be gracious to us, pardon our many great transgressions for Jesus Christ's sake. Lord, forgive us. We cannot sin at so cheap a rate as others do. We pray thee, humble us under our great and grievous sins. Give us repentance unto salvation and a living faith through the blood of Jesus Christ. Quicken us, forgive our sins, make us alive. Let us be such as thou wilt have us to be. Make us Christians not only in outward profession, but in our heart experience. May we live in heaven while on earth and come to heaven when we leave the earth. To that purpose we bless thy word. And we ask you give us all grace to make us conscious of what we hear and how we hear it. And call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to whom be all blessings, honor, and glory. Amen. Thank you very much.