Dios No Es Vencido
Notes
Transcript
We Can Do It Ourselves
We Can Do It Ourselves
Israels Defeated war
Israel. In essence they were saying to God, we can do it ourselves, so God let them try, and Israel found out just what they could do without God.
It is no different with the church. we are repeating Israel’s mistakes.
We are trusting in our own abilities, our own ability to organize and plan, and we have forgotten in some instances that it’s the Lord’s church and not ours.
the Lord is allowing us to continue so that we can see just how far we can get on our own.
We have trusted in our learning and in our theology.
We have trusted in our denominations and in our organizations. And through it all we have forgotten that we are wholly dependent upon the Lord. So I believe that the Lord is calling us back to Himself.
The Ark of God taken from the tabernacle
The Ark of God taken from the tabernacle
they regarded God and the Ark as some sort religious luck charm.
This happens a lot today
as people think that they can take God with them in such things as crosses around the neck,
or beads in their pockets or
on the rear view mirror or their car.
Many think if they have a Bible on the table,
a picture of Jesus on the wall,
or a crucifix hanging over their beds that God is there with them.
Now, the text that we are going to look at tells us what happened to the ark immediately after
Read Text 1 Samuel 5:1-5
The Philistines took the Ark
The Philistines took the Ark
Their enemy, Israel, was defeated, and they had captured its God
Israel were more than likely thinking that God was now with the Philistines, and that He left Israel.
When the Philistines captured the Ark, they didn’t destroy it,
instead they kept it as a trophy because they had seen it bring great success to Israel in the past, and there may come a time when it could help them out as well.
So, they put it in the temple of their own god, Dagon.
They were merely installing another god alongside the ones they already had.
Dagon at Gods Feet
Dagon at Gods Feet
The next morning, Dagon’s temple, the statue of Dagon had fallen and was lying before the Ark of God.
So they put Dagon back up on his pedestal and went about their day as if nothing happened
the next day Dagon had not just fallen off his pedestal before the Ark of God, but now with his head and hands broken off.
Puting gods side by side with God
Puting gods side by side with God
Take for instance the rise in human intellect and understanding.
It is where they think human intellect has triumphed over biblical revelation,
People no longer believe that the Bible is inspired Word of God.
It is where philosophy and psychology have taken the place of God’s word in dealing with human behavior.
It is where Evolution, a theory taken the place of Creationism in our schools.
It is where humanity views biological knowledge over that of biblical knowledge.
And we see biblical views banned it in the social and political arenas as well.
Prayer has been banned from our schools,
The Ten Commandments have been banned from our government,
Taking God out of the pledge of allegiance and off our monetary currency.
They are also rewriting our nation’s Christian heritage
The World Today
the world, is trying to make use of God the same way as the Philistines “We’ll put the Christian God alongside our own gods
and if ever there is a time that we need Him then we’ll pull Him down from the shelf and employ His services, and return him
This is exactly what the world is doing with God today.
Even though they have ceased to believe in the God of the Bible, they are not altogether finished with Him.
they feel inclined to give to Him their lip service.
Politics when they use a Bible verse here and there when it supports their cause.
People still want God in their marriage vows, but refuse to follow His definition of what a marriage should be or whom a marriage should be between.
Service at a funeral, even though the person or the family don’t believe and have no use for God while they are living.
In our government it is no different
we have our president and elected officials put their hand on the Bible to swear them into office
or even in our courts of law.
where we raise our hand and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
and then ask for God’s help to do so: “So help us God.”
LIP SERVICE
LIP SERVICE
In essence the world pays lip service to the Lord, and only wants Him when it suits their purposes.
13 Dice, pues, el Señor: «Porque este pueblo se acerca a mí con su boca y con sus labios me honra, pero su corazón está lejos de mí y su temor de mí no es más que un mandamiento de hombres que les ha sido enseñado;
Gods People Israel Are Guilty Also
Gods People Israel Are Guilty Also
God’s very own people Israel, were just as guilty as the Philistines at making use of God.
They paid little if any respect to the Lord or to His house prior to this battle,
and then they thought that by taking the Ark God would help them win the war.
A war, by the way, that God never told them to make.
And don’t we do the same thing as Christians.
we’re not interested in God as a person, all we are interested in is what He can do for us.
Many don’t desire Him, but they do desire His help in times of need, only interest they have in God is what He can do for them.
examine our hearts in this matter is because the Bible says, “If God be for us, who can be against us”
God Interrupts and Erupts Our Plans tumbles our gods
God Interrupts and Erupts Our Plans tumbles our gods
Consider the Philistines; instead of getting the hint,they just put him back up on his pedestal,
and carry on as if nothing happened,
that is until the next day when Dagon hit the floor again, but this time with more disastre results.
We place the Lord God along side our gods, and when God knocks them down, we just keep on putting them back up.
And then, a sudden pain in our chest, or a doctor’s report saying cancer brings the world crashing in around us.
You see, God is interrupting our plans and literally erupting into our lives in order to get our attention so that we stop putting the Dagon’s of our lives back up.
And He does so by humbling and humiliating our gods.
; Dagon was humbled and humiliated, crashed down before the god of a conquered people.
In the same way God is humbling and humiliating all these gods that the world serves. The world serves the god of higher education.
God pronounces judgment on all these false gods.
God pronounces judgment on all these false gods.
God was giving both Israel and the Philistines the message that He could not be dealt with in such a casual and offhanded manner.
7 No os engañéis; Dios no puede ser burlado, pues todo lo que el hombre siembre, eso también segará,
God is active and alive, and He doesn’t reside in some box to be forgotten or pulled out when and where we need Him.
Instead He is the Almighty, Eternal, All-Powerful God in whose hands our lives reside.
But what God is teaching us, I believe, is that He cannot be man handled is these ways.
God is not defeated, nor can He be held captive, instead He pronounces judgment and knocks down all of our false gods that we have set up in His place, or have set
He is the Lord who cannot be restrained or limited; rather He is without limit and without equal, for there is only one God.
In the very first commandment given by God He said,
3 »No tendrás dioses ajenos delante de mí.
And then through the prophet Isaiah the Lord said, “Understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me.”
10 «Vosotros sois mis testigos, dice Jehová, y mi siervo que yo escogí, para que me conozcáis y creáis y entendáis que yo mismo soy; antes de mí no fue formado dios ni lo será después de mí.
And
5 Yo soy Jehová y no hay ningún otro. No hay Dios fuera de mí. Yo te ceñiré, aunque tú no me has conocido,
Today, God is calling for us to handle Him rightly.
Today, God is calling for us to handle Him rightly.
Through Jesus Christ, as Jesus Himself said,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one can come unto the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
The message today is that God is not defeated.
The message today is that God is not defeated.
He is still on the throne, and He will destroy every enemy.
no longer rely upon ourselves, upon our knowledge and understanding, or upon our institutions.
Go to God completely helpless and receive strength and fullness from the Holy Spirit. It is only then that we can meet and defeat the challenges that present themselves in our lives, in our nation, and in the world.