Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Dagon and the Ark

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

We’re looking at places in the Bible in which someone, or in this case something, got near to the presence of God. Whenever a person gets into the presence of God, there’s usually some kind of physical manifestation. In other words, God connects his presence to something visible, something tangible. There’s only one object, however, in all the history of the Bible, that God routinely attached his presence to, and that was the ark of the covenant. Let’s look at what the ark is and what happens in this incident. Then we’ll look at what it teaches us about getting close to God. It shows us that 1) the presence of God is never permanently connected to any one object or method, but 2) his presence is always attached to several principles. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 6, 1996. Series: Daring to Draw Near. Scripture: 1 Samuel 5:14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel and Life. The Bible teaches us that while God is infinite, He is also intimate. In other words, it's possible for us to draw near to Him. But what does it actually look like to draw near to God? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is teaching about what it means to experience God in a way that is personal and intimate. Verse Samuel chapter 5, verses 1 to 4, after the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ash Dodd.

They then carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. And when the people of Ash Dodd rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord. His head and his hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold only his body remained. This is God's Word. What is this? What have you done?

Well, okay. We're looking in the evening services at a theme. The name of the services is daring to draw near. And basically what we have in every one of these incidents that we're looking at in the older-the-new testament is a spot in which someone, or in this case, something got near to the presence of God, to the face of God. You see, the premise behind the series is that God has a face. Those of us who are physical persons,

and that's everybody in this room, I hope, those of us who are physical persons have a face, which means we have a spatial spot that we call our face. But the face is also an idea. We talk about, say, that's my face. And we say, don't go behind my back. The face is the place where you go to really know the person. If I'm just staring at the person's back

and I don't see their face, I'm not even totally sure what they're saying and what they're thinking. It's the face that tells me. The eye is the expression, the face. It's the gate into the person. And therefore, God, because he's not a physical person, God's face is not stuck in a spot. It's not in a particular place that

you have to go. But God's face, though it's not spatially located, is a very definite thing. God's face means that though God is everywhere, it's possible to draw near to Him, to come into a face-to-face, heart-to-heart, that come into a mouth-to-mouth eye-to-eye, centered-to-center. You can draw near to God. And nowadays, there's an awful lot of talk about that. From all sides, everybody says, oh, being able to draw near to God, that's great. What is that like? Well, the Bible tells us by taking us to a number of places, we're

going and looking at all the spots where people drew near to God and we're trying to ask ourselves, what does this teach us about nearness to God? What does it show us about how we should draw near to God? What does it tell us? Now, today we come to a pretty interesting situation and for the moment, let's not think about Dagen, let's think about the Ark. You see, we've already looked at some of these incidents, but whenever a person gets into the presence of God, draws near the face of God, there is usually some kind of physical manifestation.

Abraham, when Abraham in Genesis 15 came into the presence of God, he saw a swim manifestation. Abraham, when Abraham in Genesis 15, came into the presence of God, he saw a smoking pot and a burning torch. When Moses came to the presence of God, there was a burning bush. When Jacob actually met God face to face, He was a powerful wrestler in the dark. We've looked at some of these things, and we're going to continue. When Job met God, there was a storm, there was a tornado, there was a whirlwind. There's always some sort of physical manifestation. In other words, God connects. He connects his presence.

He connects his glory presence to something, something visible, something tangible. There's only one object, however, and we have, and all I think, from what I can tell in all the history of the Bible, there's only one object that God routinely attached his presence to, and that was the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the covenant, the arc of the covenant. Now what we wanna ask ourselves is, what is the arc? What is this incident here? So let's talk about that. And then, just like we're doing every single week

in these evening services, let's draw out, what does that mean about for us? What does that mean for us? What does that mean? What does that tell us about drawing near to God? What does that tell us about how to draw near to God? How to experience this presence? Now, first of all, let's talk a little bit about the ark.

What was the ark? Well, the ark was a chest. It was a box. And it was a box approximately four feet long by two and a half feet tall, by two and a half feet tall by two and a half feet wide. Not terribly big. It looks to me like Steven Spielberg made it much too big. Four and a half, four by two and a half by two and a half. We know that it was overlaid with gold. We know that there were rings, there was a ring at every corner, a gold ring, through which you put a pole on either side. Those poles were the things by which the Levites, who alone were allowed to transport it. The

Levites, these were people who were in the same tribe as Moses and Aaron, the Levites would transport it. It was totally overlay with gold, as I said. And on the top, there was a very, very thick slab of gold called the Mercy Seat. And on both sides of the thick slab of gold, there were two gold cherubim, angels without spread wings facing toward each other, facing toward nothing, basically. And the cherubim were very important because the cherubim were the angels of God's face. They were angels of God's presence. The few people who'd ever had a vision of the presence of God like Isaiah have told us that the cherubim were,

in a sense, the signs, they were the angels of God's very presence. So the Ark of the Covenant, Goldbox, Slab of Gold, Mercy Seat, two angels, and underneath the slab, under the lid, inside the box, were the two tables of the Ten Commandments, the two stone tablets. Where was the arc put? The arc was put in the back room of the Tabernacle. Now, you know, one thing I always knew, and you should know, from movies, is that the back room is the place of the power.

You know, you might come into the front of the saloon, but it's in the back room, where the people with the power are. And it was the same with the Tabernacle. Tabernacle was the place of worship. The Tabernacle had the back room where the people with the power are. And it was the same with the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the place of worship. The tabernacle had a back room. The tabernacle had a place called the Holy of Holies. And in the middle of the Holy of Holies,

there was nothing but the ark. There was no other furniture. There was no nothing. No one could go back there, except the high priest once a year. And Moses, who was allowed to go in and look at the ark, Moses has written that over the mercy seat between the churram appeared to him the kaboath. The heavy light, you know what kaboath means?

Heavy light, it's translated glory. The heavy light of God, for God's voice, would come out of the glory over the mercy seat between the cherubim, over the ark. What does that mean? Nobody could touch the ark. Nobody could even go back and look at the ark except very unusual occasions. What it means is God temporarily attached Himself to a bush when He talked to Moses, and temporarily attached Himself to a whirlwind when He talked to Jacob and so forth.

But He routinely connected Himself to this particular thing, this object, a physical, visible, tangible object that was the sign of his presence. Now, the story that we read here is actually the middle part of an extremely important and interesting narrative. Maybe it's certainly interesting. We'll see tonight if it's important, but it's awfully interesting. And I guess you might call it the story

of how the arc was lost. There really is, by the way, a story of a lost arc. It's not the one that you're probably familiar with. And here's how it happened. The story begins back in 1 Samuel 4, and we can be fairly brief, but I have to give you the whole story in order to understand the incident right here. And it's very interesting.

Basically, Israel had fallen into a state of terrible decay, terrible social, spiritual, moral decay, and it was assimilized by the two high-priest sons, Hophni Infinius. The high priest of Israel was an old man in Eli, a well-meaning guy. But his two sons, Hophni Infinius, were really running the religious institutions of Israel and they were utterly corrupt. They stole, they embezzled, they seduced the women who came to offer sacrifices, and the sign that things were

really bad in Israel was that nobody rose up in indignation. Nobody demanded that the clergy be reformed. And you see, when a country doesn't rise up and demand that a corrupt clergy reform, what it means is that country's corrupt itself. It means that they're very happy to have a group of people up there in the clerical positions who aren't making them feel guilty about the way in which they're running their lives. And therefore, of course Israel had sunk very low. They got into a war with the Philistines and the thing was going very badly.

And suddenly somebody said, wait a minute, wait a minute. You know our history. We went up against Jericho and it was impossible, lots of what we took the ark with us and the walls came tumbling down. You know the song. And we thought we couldn't get across Jordan. The Jordan, when we tried to come into the Promised Land but we took we couldn't get across Jordan. The Jordan, when

we tried to come into the Promised Land, but we took the Ark in there and the Jordan stopped up. And it walked right across on dry land. And they remembered all the stories. Of all the times, they went into battle with the Ark, under Moses, under Joshua. They said, wow, this is it. So they sent Huffney and Phineas and they go and get the Ark. And they come back and were told in 1 Samuel 4, the chapter right before, that when they brought the ark into the camp, the Israelites shouted so much that the ground shook and the Philistines were thrown into consternation over in their camp. And the Israelites went off to battle the next day with their banners flying, the Lord

is on our side, and they were utterly slaughtered. Thirty thousand of them. Thirty thousand of them. Never happened before. Never took the ark into battle. And this sort of thing happened. And the messenger, a young messenger ran all the miles down to talk to Old Eli and Eli

said, my son, what has happened? And he says, we've been slaughtered. 30,000 men have been killed. Your two sons who carried the ark into battle were killed. And the Philistines laid their hands on the ark and nothing happened to them. And they've taken it. And Eli heard this and he fell backwards

and died instantly. That's what happens immediately before we see this. And the Philistines captured the Ark of God, and they took it from Ebenezer that was the place of the battle to Ashdod, which is one of their five main cities. The Philistines had five big cities. They bring the Ark in, and we'll get back to the actual details, but they put it into the temple of their God, Deygan.

Now one of the reasons I must tell you, and you'll see why later, that I chose this particular incident, is because Deygan was, what kind of God, anybody know? He was a corn god. He was the god of the corn harvest, which just goes to show you you can make a God of absolutely anything.

I read this and they said, the corn god. All right. Now, you know, this is New York. This is not Iowa, so many of you don't worship the corn god here. But you can make a God out of anything. And that was one of the main gods because that was one of the great crops and the farmers came and they offered sacrifices and so on. Now when the Philistines put the ark of Yahweh into the temple of Deygan, they were bearing

witness to what they considered the truth of their worldview, and their worldview was that of paganism. And what is the worldview of paganism? Because I got a chance to study the book of Galatians this summer, and it's a fascinating book it is, one of the most interesting things I saw in there was in chapter 4. Paul makes a very interesting little synopsis of pagan worldview. He says that pagans take the elements of the universe and worship them. Now this is fairly simple, but here's what he means.

What were the elements of the universe? Any basic thing, the basic things, work, harvest, beauty, athletics, wine, partying, recreation, see? The sun, the moon, the stars, the river. Every element, every basic thing, Paul says. And what the pagans did was they took those things and deified them. They saw that there was a spirit behind every one of them. And as a result, you could choose what basic element of the world you could want it to worship. Everyone had its own God, everyone had. And of course, you know, the great athlete would come and worship the athletic god and the farmers of Cornwood worship the corn god.

And a beautiful person might worship the beautiful god. And there was always back us, if you were a party animal, and you went off to Athens University and you were in the fraternities and you would worship back as there was something for everybody. But in that worldview, therefore, the real question was not which God is true but which God is the most functional. In that world, you know what he said around saying, well, is your God real? When the Philistines took the arc of the covenant, battle, they were saying, well, gee, I guess

Yahweh doesn't exist. Absolutely not. They were perfectly, they had no doubts about the existence of Yahweh, of the God of Israel, but they thought that the battle had proven that he was an as functional God as their God. The question in paganism is not what is right, what is wrong, what is true, but what works. Paganism is unbelievably pragmatic. And so what they did was they put God into the temple, the Ark of the Covenant.

Well, the first night, things must something happen. He fell down, they can fell. And they come on in the next day and it says, it's kind of funny. It says, there he was, fall on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord. And they took David and put him back in his place. Probably the priests were saying, and if I get my hands on those Philistine teenagers, I will, you know, they figured it was just, you know, the kids, you know, they're trying to figure out which one it was.

But the following morning when they rose, there was David and fall on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord and his head and hands had been broken off, and were lying on the threshold, only his body remained. The priest knew what that meant. The head is the place of wisdom, and the hands were the signs of power. What was being said here is that Dagon was utter foolishness and utterly impotent. He was utterly empty. Now, the way the story goes, and I have to finish it, but it's extremely interesting and very important.

In fact, if you read it, it goes on for a very long time in the text. But actually, it really makes more sense if you tell it, it is fascinating about the tell it over the next 90 seconds. What ends up happening is Ash Dodd, people say, well maybe it is just vandalism or something, but the fact is pretty soon there is a terrible plague that spreads through all of the city and people are dying in droves. They say, let's send the ark to Gaza. They send it to Gaza. And when they get over there, I mean, excuse me, to Gath. And when they get to the Philistine city

of Gath, the same thing happens. There's a terrible outbreak of plague. Now, the most humorous part, I guess, of the story, if there is a humorous part, is they said, let's send it to Ekron. Well, they get to Ekron and a crowd meets it at the gate. And so, they're bringing in the ark of the God of the Lord, the God of Israel to kill us and they have a riot. And finally the Philistines get together and they say, maybe this was all, maybe this was all just a, maybe it was just a coincidence. You know, it's interesting when you read the Old Testament, in fact, when you read the Bible, you'll see that it's so easy for us to think all those gullible people.

They believe there were miracles behind every bush. They get together and they say, you know what? It still just might be a coincidence. So what they do is they stick the ark of the Lord on a cart and they tie it to two cows who have just caved in the next town. And they know that absolutely, definitely for sure, if nature takes its course, they're gonna turn around and go right back to where their calves are. And instead, they turn around and head right out of town

toward Israel. And it says, and the cows took the ark of the Lord to Bethchimesh, which is the first town in Israel, lowing all the way. And when they get to Bethchimesh, all the Israelites say, this is exciting, they're, he's back, it's back. And they grab the Ark of the Lord and they set it down

and in their celebration they say, I've always wanted to see what's inside and they opened it up. And the text says, the Lord struck the men of Bethchemesh and 70 of them died. And then they put it over in another house where it stayed for 20 years until finally David said, we've got to bring it back up to Jerusalem.

He brought, he went down and they put it on a cart and they didn't listen to any of the rules that the Old Testament had said that you shouldn't touch it and you shouldn't put it on a cart but you should hold it only, leave it, should carry it and so on. And actually we looked at this on the 4th of July, most of you were not here, but that last 4th of July

in this evening service, we looked at that incident. And a young man named Aza was driving the cart and saw that the Ark of the Covenant was about to fall and put his hand out, so it wouldn't hit the dirt. And he was instantly struck dead. And eventually, David gets it to Israel, gets it backed up into Jerusalem, and that's the end of the story.

What does this tell us about drawing near to God? There have never been stronger calls for justice than those we have heard in recent years. What does the Bible have to say about it? And how does God's word help bring about justice? In Tim Keller's book, Generous Justice, you'll discover that the Bible gives us a rich and complex understanding of what justice is and what

it means to live it out. The book provides a biblical framework for justice, one that calls every Christian to a life of generous justice, fueled by grace. Generous Justice is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of the Gospel with people all over the world. So request your copy today at GospelUnlife.com slash give. That's GospelUnlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. You know, I wrote that this, I wrote that. I said, now, you know, I've just told you the text and I've explained the story and all that.

And then, of course, now is a good preacher. I turn around and say, okay, now let's draw out the lessons. What does this tell us? I'm not drawing here to God. And I suppose your first impression is, don't try. Or having a spest of suit. Or where safety goggles are something. I mean, it seems like this entire story you would think

tells us nothing about trying new to God other than, here's a capricious God, here is an unpredictable God, here is a holy God, here is a dangerous God, actually all these things are true, except the capricious. Here's what we learn. Let me let me lay one principle out right away, one principle right away, and it really doesn't have to do with what I want to really look at. That is what we taught about how to get close to God.

But the first thing I want to point out is we do not live anymore in a modern society. We are increasingly becoming what some people call a post-modern society. And even though there's a lot of difference of opinion about what those words even mean and you've probably heard the word here and there, I think at least it means this. It means the 20 to 30 years ago if somebody would come to me and say, I'm interested in becoming a Christian, but I don't believe in Christianity. So I'd like, I'm seeking, I'm inquiring, I say fine, what do you have to ask? And usually they would say, prove it to me.

They would usually tell me it's true. Show me how it's true. How do I know? What are the reasons? What are the arguments? I don't want to be a Christian unless it's true. Today, people don't ask that. Today, people say, does it work? They don't sit around and they say, is this the true God, the only God? Is this the living God? No, they say, I'll try Christianity, will it work? I've got this or that issue,

I've got this or that problem, will it work? We're going back to a pagan approach. I'm not using the word pagan in a pejorative way. At all, I'm just trying to say, when you, you know, history repeats itself. And we're going back into a situation where people believe in spirituality in a way that they didn't use to 20, 30 years ago. People believe in the supernatural, educated people.

20, 30 years ago almost nobody believed in the supernatural. If you were very highly educated today, there's all sorts of alternate spiritualities and so forth. We're going back into a pagan approach, but in this way I would like to point this out. When God knocked day and down, not just once, but twice. He didn't just say, see the first, if you don't knock him down once, you could have said, oh, God is saying, I'm superior. I'm a bigger God. I'm a better God. I'm a tougher God.

But the second time when he cut off his head and he cut off his hands, it was God saying, I'm the bigger God, I'm a better God, I'm a tougher God. But it's the second time when he cut off his head and he cut off his hands. It was God saying, I'm the only God. I'm the true God. Please do not come to Christianity because it's exciting. Tell it, I think it is. Please don't come to Christianity because it will heal you even though honestly, yeah, I think it will. Please don't come to Christianity because it's relevant. I'm quoting a friend of mine by the way at this point. Even though of course, absolutely, it's certainly most relevant.

Please don't come to Christianity because there's power in it, even though there's a tremendous amount of power in it. Come to Christianity because it's true. Do the hard work of exploring. Think it out. Don't act like the pagans. Don't say, well, you know, it really doesn't matter. There's all sorts of power centers everywhere. God says, no, no, no. I'm not one God among many. I'm the only God. I'm the only true God. And I want you to know that if you come to Christianity simply because it's functional, I want you to know there are times, there are definitely times in which it's very impractical to be a Christian, in which it's not healing, it seems to be wounding,

in which it doesn't seem relevant, it almost seems to be irrelevant, in which it doesn't seem to be exciting, it seems to be boring. There will be those times, what will keep you a Christian during those times? There will be those times. What will keep you a Christian during those times? If you know, that reason that you're a Christian is not because it's exciting or it's relevant or it's healing, but because it's true, and if it's true, it ultimately will have to be all those things.

If it's not true, ultimately, it won't be any of those things. Very important, don't be pragmatist at this point. Think about it, figure it out. Do not be such a snob that you say, well, all these books, all these arguments, I just want to know if I can really feel them. Oh, yeah, you can really feel them, but it's, it may not feel good as this, let's go on. All right. Now, what does this really teach us about drawing near to God? What does it teach us about really getting close to God? It teaches us one negative thing.

Basically it tells us one very negative thing and then it gives us a bunch of principles. In fact, it's almost a complete catalog. See, first of all, this tells us very, something very important. And that is, the presence of God is never permanently connected to anything visible or anything tangible. It's never permanently connected to any object. He is not a tame God. He is not automatic. He's a person. He's not a force. He does not always boil at 212 degrees at sea level. He is not predictable. He is not tame. And therefore though he sometimes will connect himself with a particular person, a particular method, a particular thing, a particular time, a particular place, a particular object,

he is never permanently stuck on any of those. He's never permanently attached at all. And he will show you. He will show you that he's sovereign because he will remove himself. See, the most striking thing about this particular story is that one day the arc of the covenant goes out with 100,000 soldiers surrounding it, to defend it, to fight for it, and it is absolutely impotent. And within three or four days later, it is laying waste to an entire nation

without any help at all, without a single Israelite soldier around. Now, at West Point, they're not going to tell you about this particular strategy. They're going to say it'll never work. Now, let me begin to listen. I've got to take a minute here to show you. You're saying, okay, how does this all work out?

Let me apply it to churches and let me apply it to individuals. It's very typical. As a pastor, I certainly see this over a period of time. If I meet somebody who's two, three, or four years old in the faith, if you've met God in a particular situation in a small group or in a particular church, one of the things you're going to do is if you've met, I've always found this out, if you've met Christ in another church and you come to my church, three or four years later, here's what you're going to say, well a really spirit-filled church will have this kind

of music, a really spiritual church will have this kind of program, a really spiritual church will have this kind of programs. A really spiritual church will have this kind of preaching. In other words, you met God and God attached Himself and met you in a particular place, a particular time with a particular style and particular programs. And now you think that God has automatically attached those things. You think that the only way God works is in a church like the one I came from.

Let me go a little step further. One of the things that worries me about the future of Redeemer is this. I have never met a church that went through a golden age that isn't stuck in it. There's an awful lot of churches around. Maybe you know some of them, that they had a golden age, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, which they had a particular past and had a particular way of doing things, and they're stuck. I know a church, for example, in which it grew and many, many people became Christians

because the minister at the end of every sermon for years and years gave an altar call. Now fortunately, I'm so glad in some ways that many of you don't know what that is. My youngest son recently said, what's an altar call? I fortunately, I'm so glad in some ways that many of you don't know what that is. My youngest son recently said, what's an altar call? I said, I'm glad you don't know. Because nowadays they tend to be abused, but it's a particularly fine way. An altar call is this.

At the end of this sermon, you say those of you who want to respond to the Lord, give your lives to the Lord in one of the ways on which I'm talking, I want you to come forward. Almost, by the way, almost anybody who ever gives an altar call doesn't have an altar. People with altars don't give calls and people who make the call don't have altars don't ask me why.

They do it, but the point is, they come forward. And I know churches like that, who now will say, that's the only way, you see, I'm at Christ that way. And they're insisting that their church continue to do it. God attached himself for your benefit. See, in other words, he came down in a bush. And now, can you imagine Moses come around saying, well, I can only worship in a bush.

And his relate said, this is the way in which we have military victories. You go out with the ark. And they went out with the ark ark and it didn't happen. Why do God do that? Because God is not a tame God. And because inevitably you end up worshiping not the presence of which that was just a sign, but you end up worshiping a sign.

You don't put your trust in the presence of which that was only a sign. You put your trust in the sign itself. It happens all the time. in the presence of which that was only a sign, you put your trust in the sign itself. That happens all the time. Now let me just go one step further and to say this is also true of you individually. And I wish this wasn't true. You know the story in the Narnia Chronicles, Vinnie have ever read the CSList Narnia Chronicles?

One of the themes is of course these children are always getting into this, this sort of never-never land where there's a Christ figure, the lion, as long, but the one thing that keeps coming up is you can never get back into nary the same way. Never. You get in through the wardrobe, don't try it again.

It doesn't happen that way. I know one of the things that irks me about God and yet that I worship too, that I praise him for, is that whenever I get spiritually dry, if I sit down and look at my quiet time books when I was really spiritually vital and warm, and if I feel cold in my heart, I look down and I can always see, every time the snow melts, it's a different way. There was a particular book I read, a particular set of sermons or a particular something. And I know if I go back and I try to get in to Narnia again through the wardrobe, it won't work.

And a lot of people just get stuck. This is the way I've got to do it. This is the way it has to be done. And God will thwart that. Very your devotional life. Sometimes just read a verse and meditate on it. Other times read whole chapters. Sometimes read sermons. Sometimes read really read the Bible. Sometimes meditate on hymns.

Do all sorts of things. I know this. That when God attaches Himself to a particular Bible verse even, for a week or so, it'll just really hit you. And after a while, it'll still mean a lot to you, but it will not anymore. He moves on because of way. Why?

Because he doesn't want you to put your trust in the method or the thing or the style. Listen, why do you think, and do you see how humbling this is? One day, there are 100,000 Israelite soldiers and the Arches Powerless. The next day, no Israelite soldiers and the Arches are completely powerful. What that means is that in our church, we ought to do our best to do it right. We should try to have a great small group ministry. We should try to have a great organizational structure. We should try to have a great organizational structure. We should try to have great music up here. We should make sure the people who can play up here

really are gifted to play. We should try all these things, but it is not the music. It is not the organizational structure. It is not the small groups. It's him and he can work without any of that stuff. And we have to remember that. What does it mean to remember that? You see, be careful. We should be the most creative of people. Remember that. What does it mean to remember that? Yes, please.

Be careful. We should be the most creative of people. We should be the most free of people. The Spirit of God is never attached to any one visible, you know, palatable. It is not attached to any one visible, you know, palpable. It's not attached to a method or an object. He comes in and then he lets it go.

He detached from the ark. And then he came back. Why not? He's not a tame God. Now, but this actually tells us, and in a way, I can be brief on these because there's almost a total catalog of certain things that always are attached to His presence. His presence is never attached to any object, but His presence is always attached to several principles.

It's not attached to any one method, but it is always attached to certain principles. There are certain things that always are true when a person comes into the presence of God. And they're all here. And in a way, we've been looking at some of them already, and we're going to look at some of them in the future, and I can just sort of lay them out for you because we're not going to go into all of them tonight. But here's what we have. Number one, God wants total commitment.

The presence of God is always attached to total commitment. These guys thought that they could live life the way they wanted to, right? And then suddenly get the ark. But at the heart of the ark, at the heart of the covenant, which means the relationship, the ark of the covenant means the ark of the relationship. Think of it that way. At the heart of the relationship with God is the law. It's at the heart of the ark.

It's the law. You remember last week, if you were here in the open form, sort of tongue and cheek, I stuck an old personal ad that I ran in some northeastern papers some years ago. It said, male, 22, wants female to show them the city, and then it said, no limitations or expectations, closeness is all I seek. No limitations or expectations, closeness is all I seek. Now, if you take a look at this, that's what Hoffney and Phineas and those guys were trying

to do with the ark. They said, I don't want to have to give myself completely. I don't want to have to lay myself out utterly. I want to be able to use the ark when I need it. I want to be able to pray when I need to. I want to be able to give money and do this and know that God will help me over the humps. I want to come to God when I need him.

I don't want to live in his presence all the time. I don't want to utterly give myself. He's saying God wouldn't let them use him. God will never let you use him. That's magic. Magic is I want God's power and favor without whole-hearted discipleship. In other words, I want his power without a complete relationship. He just doesn't work that way. He won't work that way. So the first thing you see here is that

the presence of God is always connected with absolute commitment, with flat out, unconditional giving of yourself and surrender. That's the first thing. He will not work halfway. He's a God of extremes. He will not let you use him. He will not let you try him. He will not let you suddenly get religious during a hard spot. He won't let you go for the ark when you're in trouble,

but the rest of the time you don't think that much about God. He won't let you do that. Secondly, so the glory of God is never, we say see, the glory of God is never. The presence of God is never connected permanently to any one thing, but it is permanently connected. First of all, the principle of absolute commitment, secondly, you knew this, right?

Secondly, the presence of God is connected to the destruction of idols. When you get near God, your idols will fall. Your gods will fall. The things that you look to for power and wisdom will have to come down. It can be a cycle. If you try to seek His presence, He will show you Your idols. But if you just try, sometimes God will show your idols in order to make you seek His presence. Do you see that?

The point of paganism is that anything can be worshipped. Paul tells us in Romans 1 and in Galatians 4, that paganism where you have literal idol worship, where every single thing, any good thing can be turned into an idol. Anything, corn, harvest, see, recreation, beauty, physical beauty, athletic prowess, any good thing can be turned into an idol. And Paul says, yeah, in paganism, you have that literally happening, but that is the universal and pervasive impulse of the human heart.

Every human being has got their own little cultists, their own little temple. Everybody does. Every single one of us are looking to something. Some God is a source of wisdom and power. Everybody has a bottom line. This is actually tied in, if any of you were here last week, it's tied into the thing I was saying last week.

Every single person has something that you say, this is my bottom line. This is the thing that if I have this is my bottom line, this is the thing that if I have this, then I know I'm somebody. And if you, that is the source of your wisdom, that's the source of your power. In order to get close to God, God will have to cut the head and the hands off of that thing.

That's the reason why William Kaupur in one of his great hymns on a closer walk with God. The whole hymn is about trying to get closer to God. And the second of the last hymn stands against this way. He says, the dearest idol I have known, what air that idol be, helped me to cast it from by throne and follow only thee. I mean, there is no getting close to God. Without God showing you the things that you really trust in for power and the things

that you really trust in for wisdom. Why are these idols things that you trust in for wisdom? Well, they're the things that basically help you make the decisions in your life. That's how you set your priorities. One person makes not a lot of this, another out of that, but everybody's got something and you will not unless they go down. God will judge them. God will take them out. He has to. Either He will show them to you as you're trying to come in or else He will show them to you in order to get you to come in.

But in the presence of God, the idols fall. Well, there is the last thing. And the last thing is this. The presence of God is always attached to complete commitment. The presence of God is always attached to the destruction of your idols, taking their heads and their hands off. By the way, when you take the heads and the hands off an idol, it's fine. By the way, you notice that?

If you don't, we can tell. It was only the heads and the hands that came off. You see, there's nothing wrong, for example, with work. If you take the heads and the hand off, work is a good thing. Harvest is a good thing. All these things are good things. The problem is that you've made them the best thing. And if you make anything the best thing, it's an idol. Demote it. Don't get rid of it. There's nothing wrong with work. But lastly, the presence of God is always connected with the mercy seat. See, why has it that God kept his presence with the ark and a way he didn't with the bush

and a way he didn't with the whirlwind? I'll tell you why, because he actually designed the ark so that it could give you a picture of how you can know him personally. God spoke out of the glory. Where did the glory of God appear? Where did the glory appear? Where did the words appear? Where did Moses say they happened? Between the cherubim, that's what was so interesting.

It looked like the Ark of the Covenant should have had an image there where the cherubim were looking. There should have been an image of God, but there wasn't an image of God. But God spoke over the mercy seat. What happened on the mercy seat? The high priest only went back there once a year,

and whenever Moses went back there to talk to God, he had to put blood of a sacrifice, of a substitute on that mercy seat, because the blood had to shield Moses or the high priest to whoever went back in there from the demands of the law underneath. If you walked in there, the demands of the law were there. You see, God says, if you want a relationship with me,

you've got to be holy like me. You walk in there, you will be slain unless something covers the law. And when you put the blood of the sacrifice there to cover you from the demands of the law, God appears. The glory appears. Why do you think the New Testament tells us they didn't put an image at that spot in the holy place, because Jesus is the image.

We weren't allowed to make an image, because God brought us an image. Why do you think the Bible says he is the express image of his glory, it's in Hebrews. It's Jesus speaking. Jesus is the glory, Jesus is the image, Jesus is the ark. And that's the reason why it says in Revelation that when the new heavens and new earth come down, the new heavens

and new earth will actually be in the form of a cube, which is the dimensions of the Holy Holies. And it says, there will not be any temple, there will not be any tabernacle in that place. Why? Because the lamb is there. Jesus is the Lamb stand, he is the show bread, he is the tabernacle, he is the ark, he is the glory. When you understand that and to the degree you understand that, you experience the nearness of God. Okay?

Those are the principles. Lay yourself out. Make sure he's true, then lay yourself out. Smash your idols, come to him over the mercy seat, knowing what it cost him. This is the way in. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for granting to us these insights. We thank you, Lord, that you have shown us that you are the true God, that you're not a tame God, that you're not a God that we can manipulate, that we don't get near through programs, we don't get near through methods, we don't get near through objects, we get near through these principles.

Show us, O Lord, how to believe in You, obey You, surrender to You, destroy those things that come between us and you, and to meet you over the mercy seat. Thank you Father, that it's possible to draw near to you. So help us to do so. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining us today. We hope you'll continue to join us throughout this month as we look at what it means to have an authentic experience with God. If you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the hope of the gospel.

Thank you again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996 and 2009. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017. Well, Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.