Holy Things in Unholy Hands - Pastor Bruce Mejia

Amen. Okay, we're in 1 Samuel chapter 5 and this is actually one of my favorite stories in the Bible.

1 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

The title of my sermon tonight is,

Holy Things in Unholy Hands.

Holy Things in Unholy Hands.

Let me give you a little bit of a background on what's taking place here in this particular story.

We're going to go through 1 Samuel chapter 5 and 6.

1 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

Prior to this, of course, we have what's called the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant was essentially a gold-plated structure that God commanded from Moses to make

where you had the Ten Commandments, you had Aaron's Raw that butted, and you had the manna as well.

And this essentially signified where the presence of God would dwell.

And essentially, as long as the children of Israel obeyed the Lord, they kept His commandments,

they did what they were supposed to do, adhere to the Covenant,

then when they had that Ark, they would essentially prosper in everything that they did,

specifically when they would go out to war, right?

So anytime they would go out to battle, as long as they had the presence of God

as signified by the Ark of the Covenant, they would be blessed, they would be victorious,

God would be with them, and so forth.

And so, obviously, this is a physical thing that God commanded to be within the nation of Israel

in order to signify that God was with that nation.

Now, by the time we get to 1 Samuel chapter 4, a lot has happened.

1 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

You know, you have a lot of corrupt leaders.

You have Eli and his sons, Hofney and Phineas, who according to the Bible were sons of Belial.

They were reprobates.

They were evil and wicked people.

And for the sake of time, we're not going to necessarily cover that entire story.

But, you know, they go to war with the Philistines, and they think to themselves,

well, you know, let's just bring the Ark of the Covenant with us,

and we will obviously be victorious against the Philistines.

So, they're essentially treating the Ark of the Covenant somewhat like a lucky charm.

They're being superstitious about the Ark of the Covenant,

thinking, well, we could just be wicked and be reprobates and disobey the Lord

and not obey the Lord in these areas.

But as long as we have the Ark of the Covenant, everything should be hunky-dory.

We should be able to defeat the Philistines.

Now, obviously, that didn't happen.

And in fact, the Bible specifically said that God wanted to kill Hofney and Phineas

because there were sons of Belial, there were godless people,

there were reprobates, children of the devil,

and the Bible says that he would destroy them.

He wanted to kill them.

And so, when this war took place, they ended up dying in battle,

and the Philistines, who are a heathen nation,

their heathen people,

ended up stealing the Ark of the Covenant and bringing it into their lands.

So, you have the children of Israel suffering a great defeat,

and this is where you have the term Ichabod,

which means the glory of God has departed

as noted by the fact that the physical Ark of the Covenant is taken.

It's essentially symbolizing that God's presence, God's glory, is not there.

Now, obviously, folks, you know, when you read these chapters,

we can see that the glory of God departed long ago, right?

As noted by the fact that Eli, his eyes were dim,

he wasn't a great leader, his sons are super wicked,

but the nail in the coffin, the straw that broke the camel's back,

that indicator that he was no longer there

was the fact that they took the Ark of the Covenant.

So, now we're in chapter 5, and in chapter 5,

we see what happens when you put something so sacred

and holy as the Ark of the Covenant

in the hands of Godless people, okay?

And that's what I'm going to preach on this evening.

Now, how do we apply this?

Well, you know, sometimes people think,

well, as long as we put someone in the right environment,

as long as we put someone around the right type of people,

they're just going to turn out, right?

They're going to be good people, great Christians,

but it doesn't necessarily work that way, okay?

You know, if you put an unsafe person in our church,

it doesn't mean that they're going to be a great person.

You know, they have to get saved.

They have to be regenerated.

They have to have their sins forgiven.

They have to have that new man,

the Holy Spirit of God in them,

and that's all based upon whether they believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ or not.

So you can have the greatest church

with the greatest of preaching.

You can have great sermons.

You can have great hymns.

You can have an environment

that is conducive to spiritual growth,

but it means nothing to the unsafe person

if they don't actually get saved, right?

You can place an unholy person

within a holy environment.

It does nothing to them

if they don't actually choose to believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, you can place a King James Bible

on the coffee table of an unsafe house

and it does nothing for them.

They can operate, they can use it like a lucky charm

and to ward off the spirits and the vampires

and you know, so that no, it does nothing.

You know, and by the way, the King James Bible

is the inspired, preserved word of God

for the English-speaking people.

It's the only Bible that Christians should be using.

You know, all other modern versions are fraudulent.

They're fake.

They're trashy.

They're not God's word, okay?

They're a corruption of God's word is what it is.

And so, but here's the thing.

If you give someone the King James Bible

which is the accurate and Aaron-inspired word of God,

you know, it does nothing to them

if they don't believe the words

that are written in that book.

Keeping it on the coffee table does nothing.

You know, you're not blessed by osmosis

by having the Bible in your presence, right?

You're like, well, you know, I have a King,

I have five King James Bible on my bookshelf.

It does nothing for your bookshelf.

It does nothing for your spiritual life.

It does nothing for you, okay?

And so, it's important for us to realize

that just because you put a holy thing

in the hands of an unholy person,

it actually does nothing for them.

We're not the superstitious type to think that,

well, you know, as long as we put this person

alongside a righteous individual,

that somehow they're gonna influence that person,

that righteous individual is gonna make them

better spiritually, doesn't work that way

because everyone has a choice.

And they have to choose to be renewed.

You know, reformation is great,

but reformation has an end.

You need transformation, right?

You can have someone come into our church

and be reformed.

What does that mean?

You know, they come in here

and maybe they're a drug addict or whatever

and they're trying to get cleaned up.

And they come here,

they hear preaching about alcohol and drugs and whatnot

and they can even clean up their lines in that regard.

They can buy a suit.

They can part their hair.

They can sing the hymns.

They can buy the Bible.

But folks, that's all reformation

and if there's no transformation

that comes about because you believe on Christ,

it means nothing.

Now, what are we talking about with transformation?

We're talking about salvation, being born again, okay?

You know, if any man be in Christ,

he is a new creature.

Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

It's referring to salvation.

And so, you know, we're not necessarily

looking to reform people.

We're looking to reform Christians

after they've already gotten saved

but not to reform unbelievers

because that does nothing for them.

It's essentially putting holy things in unholy hands.

And as we're gonna see tonight,

that is often detrimental to the individual

and it does nothing for them.

So let's read here.

Look at verse number one.

The first thing we're gonna look at here

is that when you place a holy thing

in an unholy hand,

it actually desecrates holy things, okay?

Look at verse one.

And the Philistines took the Ark of God

and brought it for Ebenezer unto Ashton.

And when the Philistines took the Ark of God,

they brought it into the house of Dagon

and set it by Dagon.

So when they're bringing this Ark of the Covenant,

they're just not like, they're not like,

hey, you know what?

We probably shouldn't be worshiping false gods.

This is the real deal here.

Let's, you know, repent of our ways.

Let's get rid of our false gods.

Let's get rid of Dagon.

Let's get rid of these devils

and start worshiping the God of the Bible.

What do they do?

What happens when you place a holy thing

into the hands of unholy men?

They just basically add God

to their plethora of false gods.

When you add Jesus Christ to your religion

and you're just like, well, you know,

I believe in Jesus Christ.

I think he is the Christ.

I believe he is the Messiah.

But you don't believe that he's God.

You don't believe that he's forgiven you

of all your sins

and that he died on the cross to pay for your sins.

Guess what?

It does nothing for you.

It changes nothing for you.

In fact, it desecrates you.

Okay?

It actually makes you worse

and it desecrates Christ.

Why?

Because Christ is not interested

in being added to

your shelf of false gods.

Okay?

You know, you ask a Hindu, a Buddhist.

If you were to give a Hindu or a Buddhist,

some idol of Jesus Christ

and we're not four idols of Jesus Christ.

But let's say you just give them

an idol of Jesus Christ.

You know, they're not,

they're not going to be against it.

They're like, oh, thank you.

You know, they view it as like a lucky charm.

Oh, this will ward off

the so-called spirits of whatever

and they'll just put it on their shelf

along with all the other false gods

that they have,

thinking that that's how

somehow going to improve their life.

But what is that?

That is a desecration of the name of God.

Thinking that you could just add Jesus Christ

to your plethora of false gods.

There should be no God before him,

the Bible says.

That's literally like the first commandment

in the Ten Commandments.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

I am the Lord

and there's no savior.

Listen to this.

Beside me.

What are they doing?

They're placing Jesus

or they're placing the God of the Bible

at this time

right next to Dagon.

Now, who's Dagon?

Exactly.

Who's Dagon?

Dagon is basically historically

referred to as the Fish God.

You know,

so it was like,

you know,

some say it was just like this anthropomorphic image

of like a half man,

half,

it's like Aquaman or something like that.

You know,

where it looked like a fish,

but it was a man

and they had this image of him.

This is who the gods,

this is who the people of the Philistines

would worship is Dagon.

Okay.

And some say he was the God of fertility,

blah, blah, blah.

It is a devil is what it is.

Okay.

There is no other gods.

There's lowercase G gods,

but these aren't gods.

These are devils,

according to the Bible.

So what are they doing?

Does bringing the Ark of the Covenant

into Philistine territory

improve the Philistines?

No,

because they just add him

to their false gods.

They're like,

well,

now we got two gods.

We have the Ark of the Covenant

and we have Dagon.

But of course,

we know that the Bible

is completely against.

Go to 1 Corinthians,

chapter eight,

if you would.

1 Corinthians,

chapter eight.

1 Corinthians,

chapter eight.

Now,

let me just remind you

that as Christians,

we should flee idolatry,

meaning that

Christians should have nothing

to do with idols.

And I'm not just referring

to idols of false gods

like Dagon.

I'm talking about idols

of images

that are made of things

of heaven above,

such as the Godhead,

images of Jesus Christ,

images of Mary,

images of the saints,

Catholics,

icons and so forth.

These are things

that the Bible renders

and classifies as being an idol.

And the Bible tells us

keep yourselves from idols.

And look folks,

idolatry is a major sin

in the Bible.

Okay.

It should not be taken lightly.

And in fact,

it's such a grievous sin

in the eyes of God

that if someone commits idolatry

in the local New Testament church,

they are excommunicated

if they're unwilling

to repent of that.

Now, what do we mean by that?

Meaning that if you're carrying

some Virgin Mary

in your vehicle

because your grandma

gave it to you,

according to the Bible,

you're an idolater.

You're like,

why don't we really worship it?

God doesn't care

what you think worship is

or not.

The mere fact

that you possess the idol

classifies you being an idolater.

And he doesn't care

if you have it

for sentimental reasons.

Oh, it's a good luck charm.

Oh, my grandma gave it to me.

Oh, I'm Mexican.

You know, oh, you know,

you don't understand.

It's made out of gold

or whatever.

He doesn't care.

Get rid of it.

And here's the thing.

He's like,

why don't I pray to it

but you have it.

And the Bible not only condemns

venerating, praying towards,

worshiping these idols.

It just condemns

having them, period.

Okay.

Especially if you think,

you know,

if you ascribe

some sort of power

to that idol.

And look,

that also includes crosses.

If you have a cross

with the dead Jesus on there,

first and foremost,

that's not Jesus.

You say,

well, how do you know?

Well, because he didn't stay

on the cross.

So why have this morbid Jesus

on a cross?

You're just carrying around.

You just have it in your church.

That's called an idol.

And look, a lot of people think,

you know,

and I used to think this

because I was a Catholic

at one point,

you know,

that if you had some sort

of Jesus cross crucifix

where he's on there

in your home,

that somehow

that would protect you

or something like that.

Right.

You know,

Catholics will often think,

well,

if I carry this with me,

this is going to kind of protect

me from the evil spirits.

It's called superstition.

That's exactly what Catholics do.

They're just superstitious people

thinking that that's going to ward

off the vampires

and the werewolves

and the zombies or whatever.

But it does nothing.

This is what is referred

to as idolatry.

It's when you ascribe

some sort of supernatural power

to that physical cross.

And look,

I'm not against people

having crosses,

you know,

as a necklace.

You know,

obviously I am against having

Jesus on that cross.

But let me say this.

If you like require,

if you need to have a cross

around your neck

because you're afraid something

might happen to you,

okay.

Now you're a superstitious person.

You're ascribing power

to a physical thing

that's wrapped around your neck

that does nothing for you.

Let me tell you

who protects you

is the Lord.

Ten thousand shall fall

on my right side.

Ten thousand on my left

shall not come nying to me.

Okay.

And we need to understand

that idolatry is a major thing.

And you know,

you may not think too much

of idolatry because we live

in the United States of America

where, you know,

in general,

people would consider it to be

somewhat of a Christian nation

as a lot of churches.

But around the world,

idolatry is extremely rampant.

Southeast Asia,

they have altars and idols

literally on every corner.

Okay.

And so,

and here's the thing.

This is what happens

when you bring people

of other cultures

into the United States

of America.

What does it do?

It actually normalizes idolatry.

Oh, that's just who they are.

They're just, you know,

that's what they believe.

That, you know,

they're Catholics,

you know,

they're Buddhists,

that they're Hindus,

they're Muslims or whatever.

This is just what they believe.

That's what they do.

Yeah.

But they're bringing in

Godless customs

that's contrary to the word

of God.

And before you know,

we're going to be like

Southeast Asia.

Whereas just you have

all these idols in the land

displeasing God

because of that.

And so,

it's important to know,

look at 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8

and look down to your

Bibles at verse number 4.

It says,

as concerning, therefore,

the eating of those things

that are offered

in sacrifice into idols,

we know that an idol

is nothing in the world

and that there is none other

God but one.

So in other words,

you know,

don't fear the idol.

Oh, Annabelle.

There's this doll.

It's Annabelle.

She might kill me.

It's a doll.

I'll whoop that doll.

Just burn it.

It's a doll.

But this is how superstitious people are.

And look, again,

Roman Catholicism is notorious for this

where they literally have

fragments of human remains

and they idolize it.

Now, a couple years ago,

they had supposedly

the hand of Jude or something.

You know,

and they brought it to Orange County

or whatever.

That's someone else's dude's hand,

but that's not Jude's hand.

They dug some random

dude out of the grave

and just say that's Jude.

They're going to believe it.

They believe everything else.

And they just got someone's corpse.

It might not even be that.

It might just be like paper mache.

We don't know.

But it's just like, oh, it has so much power.

It's just able to do so many things.

It's just, you know,

this idol, we got to be careful.

You know, I'm scared of that thing.

You're superstitious.

The idol is nothing the Bible says.

You know, years ago,

what we did in order to prevent idolatry

from, you know,

unforeseen idolatry

from getting a foothold in our church,

we had idol burning Sunday.

Because you know,

we had a lot of former Catholics

and former Orthodox.

And so we encourage everyone

to bring their idols to church

and we're going to have

a bonfire of idols.

We're just throwing them into the fire.

People just repenting of their idolatry.

And you know, we have some Orthodox guys.

So one of them in particular

just rose an idolatry.

You know, you're just bringing all kinds of images

and wood and whatnot.

And then we just had people

who were just pyromaniacs

and they just wanted to burn stuff.

Glenn was bringing like Mickey Mouse.

This is kind of like an idol, right?

Some people idol,

I was like,

I just want to burn stuff at this point.

You know, just random.

You know, covetousness is idolatry.

So you don't just throw money

in the flames or whatever.

But you know, it was good

because you know, we had,

I think we had it twice back to back.

And you know,

we would burn these idols

and the bigger idols

we gave bats to the kids.

Give them goggles, okay?

And they're just smashing the idols.

We're just teaching them

to hate idolatry, okay?

But we obviously know

that the idol is nothing.

It's not going to do anything to you.

It's not going to fly at you.

It's not going to talk to you.

It's not going to harm you or anything.

It's nothing.

The Buddha goes on to say in verse 5,

for though there be

that are called God,

whether in heaven or in earth,

as there be God's many

and Lord's many,

but to us there is

but one God,

the Father,

of whom are all things

and we in him

and one Lord Jesus Christ

by whom are all things

and we by him.

Go to chapter 10,

if you would,

chapter 10.

Look at verse 19 here.

Like, well, the idol is nothing.

Then what's the problem?

You know,

if it's not going to do anything to me,

what's the harm

of keeping my little St. Joseph

in my drawer?

You know,

what harm is it?

You know,

well,

here's the harm

is that God's going to destroy you

because you ain't listening.

And he's offended

at that idol, okay?

Because you're basically taking Jesus

and you're putting him

next to this idol.

Look what it says in verse 19.

It says,

What say I then

that the idol is anything

or that which is offered

in sacrifice to idols

is anything?

But I say

that the things

which the Gentiles sacrifice,

they sacrifice to devils

and not to God

and I would not

that ye should have fellowship

with devils.

Ye cannot drink

the cup of the Lord

and the cup of devils.

Ye cannot be partakers

of the Lord's table

and of the table of devils.

In other words,

you can't say that you're worshiping God

and you're keeping these idols

with you in your house.

You know,

it is an oxymoron is what it is.

You're contradicting yourself

by saying,

well,

you know,

I worship God

but then you have these

images,

you have these idols

in your house.

And in fact,

look what it goes on to say

in verse 22.

Do we provoke the Lord

to jealousy?

Are we stronger than he?

So what are you doing actually

when you possess these

images,

these idols?

And yeah,

you don't worship them.

You're just carrying them

for sentiment of value.

You're provoking the Lord

to jealousy.

You're making them mad.

You're basically taking

the Ark of the Covenant

and putting it

right beside

Dagon.

That's how God views it.

Okay.

So what should I do?

Burn it!

Throw it in the trash.

Stomp on it.

Have an idol burning

Sunday at your house.

Take all your idols,

throw them in the trash

and look, you know,

I feel very strongly about this

because I came from Catholicism

and I think it's very important.

And in fact, you know,

and I just don't think

Christians really think

it's that important.

They're not as zealous

about it

as they should be.

You know,

I'll give you an example.

You know,

a couple of weeks ago,

you know,

you know,

sometimes people

just give you stuff, right?

And they don't really

think about

what they're giving you

or whatever.

And you know,

people give my mom

things a lot.

Okay.

And you know,

one time I went over

to her house

and you know,

I'm just kind of talking

to my mom.

I was with my wife

and then,

you know,

my wife was like,

you know,

there's like idols in here.

I was like,

where?

I'm like,

Oh dang.

Like,

how did I not see this?

But there was like

three fat Buddhas.

And look,

here's the thing folks

is that Buddha,

he's not a God,

but it's still an idol though.

It's classified

as an idol

according to the Bible

because I don't get

my classification

or definitions

of ungodly people,

unholy people.

Well,

it's not really worship.

It's veneration.

It's worship.

I'm not asking you.

No one asked you,

bro.

Okay.

According to the Bible,

it's classified as an idol.

So my wife is like,

there's like,

Buddha's here.

And I was like,

I was horrified.

And I'm like,

mom,

do you know that there's

you have Buddhas in the house?

It's like,

oh yes.

You know,

someone sent this to me

or whatever.

I'm like,

you can't have these.

This is idolatry.

She's like,

really?

I'm like,

yeah.

I'm like,

this is,

this is,

this is,

uh,

you're provoking the Lord to

Chelsea here

because you're a saved woman.

You're having these

and she didn't really realize

how bad it was.

You know,

and I'm like,

I was explaining to her

the concept of idolatry

and the fact that

these should not be in the home.

And I said,

but don't worry.

I'm a good son.

I'll take care of them for you.

And she's like,

oh no,

don't do that.

I could just sell them.

We're not selling them

because my mom,

my mom likes to sell things.

You know,

and,

and I was just like,

no,

we're not selling them.

I'm going to give her

a room for you.

Okay.

And she's like,

oh,

do you really have?

I'm like,

yes.

And it's not because

her heart was endeared

to these idols

because she just

want to make money off of them.

You know,

she's just like,

I could,

you know,

I could sell this

to some Buddhist

or whatever

and they'll pay

a pretty penny for this.

you know,

and you know,

I said,

no,

I'm just going to

take care of them.

You know,

and so like,

when,

when she wasn't looking

and look,

I'm not saying

you should do this.

I'm just saying

what I do.

As she's distracted,

my mom just grabbed

the paper bag

just throw all the idols

in there.

I'm like,

okay,

mom got to go.

I'll see you later.

You know,

and took them

and went trash to them.

She probably looking for them.

She can't fight them.

You know,

I don't want my mom

provoking the Lord to jealousy.

Call me Jeri Bale.

You know,

and so it's important

for us to be zealous

about these things

and recognize

it's not just a matter of,

oh,

well,

I'm not praying

to this idol.

Well,

don't even have it.

Right.

Don't even have it.

Trash it.

Just destroy it.

Burn it in the fire

and teach your kids

and your family

what it is,

what the Bible

talks about idolatry

and how

we should not be idolaters.

Go back to 1st Samuel.

If you would.

1st Samuel

Chapter 5.

And so,

you know,

when you put

holy things

in unholy hands,

you actually end up

desecrating

the holy things.

Okay,

you're

provoking the Lord

to jealousy.

It's not like

God doesn't view it

as you just being

tolerant of other people

or you're just so loving.

No,

he's a jealous God

and he's not going to

share his glory

with anybody,

especially some fat little

idol

of Buddha

of someone

who's literally

burning in hell today.

Okay.

And you can insert

anybody else

into that.

And here's the thing.

You know these

you say,

what about saints?

You know,

saints are saved.

Yeah.

And you know what?

They're probably horrified

of what people

have been doing

to their names

over the last couple

thousand years.

Right.

You know,

just like I'm sure

I'm sure,

especially Mary,

I'm sure she's just

facepalming.

You know,

like someone

comes into heaven

like I got saved.

I used to be a Catholic.

You're not going to believe.

I know.

I know.

I already know.

I heard about it.

You know,

it's just,

it's crazy,

you know,

and you're like,

yeah,

they pray to you.

They call you

the Queen of Heaven.

She was like,

that's in the pie.

Like that's in the pie.

The Queen of Heaven

is not a good title.

And so

holy things and unholy hands

desecrates holy things.

But number two,

it doesn't improve

unholy things.

So when you place

holy things

in unholy hands,

it does not improve

unholy things at all.

Why?

Because again,

it's not reformation.

It's transformation.

Look what it says

in verse number three.

It says that

when they of Ashtod

arose early in the morrow,

behold,

Dagon was falling

upon his face

to the earth

before the Ark of the Lord

and it took Dagon

and set him in his place again.

So he was just coming

into the temple

and then like Dagon

is just removed

from his threshold,

falling flat on his face

right before the Ark

of the Lord.

Now obviously

you're going to see

in this chapter

that God has

a great sense of humor.

Okay,

because it's funny

because he's making

Dagon bow before him.

Right?

And these Philistines

are like,

well, that's weird.

I didn't feel any

earthquake last night

and then just kind of

set him back in his place.

Now,

what's funny about this

is that idols,

you know,

they need to be moved around.

You know,

they have all this supernatural power

to give you fertility

to bless your crops

but they can't seem

to move around on their own now,

can they?

And it just reminds me

of all these videos

of Catholics

that I see

where they're like

holding the Virgin,

Mary's idol

and they're like,

ha ha ha ha

and it just like

falls and it breaks.

It's like,

why isn't it floating?

Why, you know,

why did God

let that happen

to that precious idol?

You know,

they must need to be born.

They have no power.

So it falls over

flat on its face,

worshiping the Ark of the Lord.

It says in verse number 4,

when they arose early

on the morrow morning,

behold,

Dagon was fallen upon his face

to the ground

before the Ark of the Lord

and the head of Dagon

and both the palms

of his hands

were cut off

upon the threshold.

Only the stump of Dagon

was left to him.

You know,

it sounds like the Ark of the Lord

is not really helping them much.

It's not really improving

their quality of life at all.

So you know,

it falls the first time

and these priests

are just like,

that's weird.

They put it back up.

The second day they come,

it's fallen to the ground again

but it's decapitated

and maimed.

Okay?

So obviously,

what is God doing?

He's mocking

the gods of the Philistines,

removing their hands

and their head.

Just the stump is left.

And what is he doing?

He's basically telling these people,

hey,

your God is just wood.

A stump is just like wood.

Right?

Go to Jeremiah chapter 10

Jeremiah 10 · chapter mention

if you would.

Jeremiah chapter 10.

Jeremiah 10 · chapter mention

Jeremiah chapter number 10.

He's basically stripping away

the glory of Dagon

and demonstrating

this thing has no power.

I cut off its head,

removed its hands

and it's still bowing down

before me.

Look at Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 1.

Jeremiah 10:1

Hear ye the word

which the Lord speaketh unto you,

O house of Israel.

Thus saith the Lord,

learn not the way of the heathen

and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven

for the heathen are dismayed at them.

For the customs of the people are vain.

For one cut at the tree

out of the forest,

the work of the hands of the workmen

with the axe.

They deck it with silver

and with gold.

They fasten it with nails

and with hammers

that it move not.

Now let me just say this.

This is not talking about a Christmas tree.

Okay.

You know, oh man,

that's why I'm a guest against Christmas trees.

But you should remove anything

that's carved of wood out of your house.

Okay.

Look what goes on in verse 5.

They are upright as the palm tree,

but speak not.

They must needs be born

because they cannot go.

Be not afraid of them

for they cannot do evil.

Neither also is it in them to do good.

Now, what is he talking about?

He's talking about the fact that these heathen nations

will cut out a tree

and essentially carve out an idol out of that tree.

In other words, it's just wood.

Wood hand stubble, so to speak, right?

Meaning it has no power.

So when God, you know,

decapitates Dagon, removes his hands

and just leaves the stump,

he's essentially demonstrating

to the Philistines,

you're worshiping wood.

It has no power.

It has no value.

It's just a piece of wood, okay?

It's a stock, as the Bible says.

Now, there's an important principle

that we see, go to Haggai if you would.

Haggai.

It's important principle regarding

putting holy things

next to unholy things.

Look at Haggai chapter 2.

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

What's the point here?

When you put holy things in unholy hands,

it never improves the unholy things.

A person has to decide, right?

You know, you put someone

in a fundamental Baptist church,

if they're not saved,

they're going to be made a reprobate eventually.

You put a goddess person

in an unsaved goddess person

into the house of God.

Guess what's going to happen?

Their heart is going to be hardened

towards the things of God.

They're not going to benefit

from the preaching of his word.

They're only going to become worse.

And look, folks,

the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ,

when it shines into the person

who's receptive towards the Gospel,

it benefits them, of course.

They get saved, right?

But a person who hates the truth,

they hate the Bible,

it blinds them.

It makes them a reprobate.

It corrupts them

because that's exactly

what the light of the truth does.

Look at Haggai chapter 2

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

and verse 11.

It says here,

let's say the Lord of hosts

asks now the priest

concerning the law saying,

if one bear holy flesh

in the skirt of his garment

and with his skirt do touch bread

or potage or wine

or oil or any meat,

shall it be holy?

And the priest answered and said,

no.

Then said Haggai,

if one that is unclean by a dead body

touch any of these,

shall it be unclean?

And the priest answered and said,

it shall be unclean.

In other words,

you know, when you put the ark of the covenant

in a foreign land

that doesn't worship the God of the Bible,

all you're going to do is make God mad

because you're desecrating it,

but it's also not going to improve

the land, right?

You know what?

This goes to show us that

when we are seeking to witness to people,

our friends, family members,

you know, you don't reach them by being like them,

okay?

You reach them by condescending to men of low estate,

but eventually you got to give them the gospel,

okay?

And you know, I know a lot of times people have a burden

for their friends, family,

and you know, this is one of the reasons

they stay in contact with these people

and I'm all for that,

but eventually

you're just going to have to break the ice

and actually give them the gospel

and if they reject it,

you need to dust off your feet and move on.

Why?

Because you as a holy thing will become desecrated

by the unholy thing

if you continue to spend time with the unsafe people,

okay?

And look, I'm a firm believer that

safe people,

the friends of safe people should be safe people.

I'm talking about like the closest friends

of safe people.

Obviously you're going to associate with people

out in the world

at your job

and your family, right?

But it's important to recognize

that you can't allow yourself to be influenced

by these people

and I do think it's a problem

when safe people have more in common

with unsafe people than with safe people, right?

Why?

Because eventually you will become defiled

and look folks,

the Bible obviously teaches us to be all things

to all men,

you know, but the Bible says

not without law unto Christ though.

So if you're trying to reach your friend,

you know,

you need to just be bold

and start just giving them the gospel

and just say,

hey, we're friends,

but I need to talk to you about this right now

because it's like burdensome on my heart.

Are you 100% sure that if you die today,

you go to heaven?

Oh man, don't bring that Christianity stuff.

You know, I don't like to talk about that with you.

Then we can't hang out no more then

because this is like the most important thing

of my life.

And you know what?

I want you to be saved.

So I want you to listen to this

and they're like,

well,

if you're going to be talking to me

about this stuff,

then I don't want to be friends

and be like,

Toodles,

see you later.

You know,

I'm not interested in having a relationship

with someone

who's not interested in the gospel.

Who's not saved?

And look folks,

it's better to just step out

in faith,

give the gospel,

and then your best friend gets saved

and he remains your best friend.

I mean, that's got to be one of the best feelings ever.

Right?

I've never experienced something like that,

but you know,

I've experienced instances

where I have extremely close friends,

just friends that I love,

friends that I've experienced life with

and they came to church,

they got saved.

Praise God for that.

Because I know I'm going to know this person

for the rest of my life

and eternal life,

amen?

But,

hold on a second.

You know,

don't allow your loyalty

to an unsafe person

override your responsibility

of being a Christian

and recognize,

well,

you know,

yeah, you're right.

Sorry,

I didn't mean to offend you.

I won't be a Christian around you then.

We'll just talk about other things.

You know,

you're a compromiser

at that point.

Be a man of boldness.

Be a person of boldness

of conviction

and have loyalty

to Jesus Christ

and recognize,

you know what?

We're best friends

and because we're best friends,

I'm going to give you the truth.

I'm going to tell you what the Bible says

on how to be saved

and I want you to be saved.

I want you to have eternal life.

Because here's the thing, folks,

if you're not willing to do that,

then you're a trashy friend.

You're not a good friend,

if that's you.

Well, I'm just willing to put my differences aside.

Oh yeah,

just let your friends go to hell, right?

Just let your friends

just spend eternity in hell

just so you can keep them as friends

this side of eternity.

So there's no division

between you and your friend.

That's garbage.

I rather risk offending my friends,

giving them the gospel

and potentially them getting saved

than just not telling them anything at all

just so I can keep that relationship with them.

You don't really love your friends.

You know, when I first got saved,

I had a lot of friends

and I brought them all to church

and obviously,

when I first got saved,

I didn't really know how to communicate the gospel.

I knew I could say that I got saved

and how I got saved

but I didn't really know

how to like systematically teach the gospel.

So what I would do is I would bring people to church

and have other people witness to them.

Some of my friends got saved

and some didn't.

You know, those who didn't

and wanted to keep contact with me,

I said,

you know where to find me on Sundays?

This is where I'm at on Sundays.

Sunday morning Sunday.

Yeah, but what about Friday night?

Friday night, I'm sleeping.

Not going out anymore on Fridays.

You know, if you really value my friendship,

you're going to have to come to church, you know?

And you say, how'd that go?

It didn't go very well, you know?

I had to get some new friends.

The point that I'm making here is that,

you know, placing you

in the midst of unholy people

doesn't improve them

unless you actually give them the gospel, okay?

And so that's important to know, you know?

And we need to learn

how to dust off our feet

when it comes to it.

You know, the Bible says,

give not that which is holy into the dogs.

Neither cast your pearls before swine

lest they trample them under their feet, the Bible says.

What does that mean?

It means they take it for granted.

They don't care what you have to say.

They're not taking these things serious.

And make no mistake about it.

I don't have any friend.

Listen to me.

I haven't had any friend since I got saved

who just can blaspheme the Lord in my presence.

It's not going to happen.

It's not going to happen.

I'm not going to have some friend

just because we grew up together

just mocked the things of God

and I'm just going to kind of turn a blind eye to them.

Not going to happen.

You blaspheme my God.

You're done, bro.

First of all, you're getting a strong rebuke.

I'm going to correct you

and then you're done.

Either you apologize, you get saved

or we're just not talking again

because I'm not going to tolerate that.

You know, you shouldn't tolerate people blaspheming

your God in your presence,

mocking the things of God,

mocking Jesus Christ,

saying in all manner of evil.

And look, one of the reasons people do that

is because they want to see

if you're really about it.

You know, and if you don't say anything,

if you don't actually speak up,

they're like, oh, he's one of those.

You can say anything you want around him.

He's not going to say anything.

He's too scared to say anything.

You know, I don't want to be characterized as that

and I have no problem.

Listen to me.

I have no problem with making a conversation awkward.

Some blasphemes are like, hey, what is that?

You know I'm a Christian.

You know I believe on you.

Oh, I get all tight

because you're mocking my God.

You know, why don't you curse Allah?

Why don't you curse Buddha?

Why don't you curse the Mormon God?

Why you got to come after my God, right?

I'll tell you why because they test the waters

to see what they can get away with, okay?

And you shouldn't have friends around you like that.

The point being here is that

placing holy things in unholy hands

does not improve the unholy person.

It actually makes it worse for them.

And you know what?

God's not interested.

Listen to me.

God isn't interested in just reforming a person on the outside.

He wants them to believe the truth on the inside, okay?

Let's look down.

Go back to 1st Samuel, chapter 5, if you're already there.

Next we see here that when you place

holy things in unholy hands,

it actually ends up destroying unholy hands, okay?

So it doesn't improve it,

but it actually ends up destroying it.

Look at verse number six.

It's probably the best part of the story.

It says, but the hand of the Lord

was heavy upon them of ashtod.

And he destroyed them.

He said, how?

Did he like send down fire and brimstone?

Did he just like open up hell

and they just fell into hell?

Like what amazing thing did God do?

Did he smite them with madness?

You know, did he send locusts and lice?

It says he destroyed them and smote them with emeralds,

even ashtod and the Coaster of.

Now, what are emeralds?

Well, if you speak Spanish, I think it's emeroidus.

Emeroidus, is that right?

Okay, which means hemorrhoids.

Yes, you heard right.

So, you know, he's hitting them where it hurts.

Hitting them where the sun don't shine.

So think about this, you know,

and what an uncomfortable conversation

this must have been with everybody.

Because, you know, if someone has hemorrhoids,

they're not just going to tell people about it.

Right?

If they have hemorrhoids, they're not going to say anything,

but everyone has them.

And look, and here's the thing, like,

a lot of people in ashtod,

echron, and these regions,

there's people who are dying, okay?

So, he is killing some.

You know, he's kind of distributing the judgment.

Some are dying, but those who are not dying

are just being given hemorrhoids.

All right?

So, this is a lot of people just walking around all funny.

And eventually, someone's going to ask,

like, hey, you know, I got this problem.

I got it too.

And then everyone's like, I got it too.

You know, they can't sit down.

They can't sleep.

They got chub rub going on.

I mean, it's just like the whole nine.

Everything's just bothering them.

And you know what, God is just smiting them with that.

And I think it's absolutely hilarious.

I think it's so funny.

You know, the Bible's not boring.

Now, those of you who don't know what hemorrhoids are,

don't look it up.

And if you do, you know, get the AI version.

Don't click images, all right?

They're basically like sores in your privy parts, okay?

And you know, God is not just going to put one there.

I'm sure they got clusters of hemorrhoids there

to just make their life absolutely miserable, okay?

I think it's just funny.

I think it's hilarious.

You know, he's just, he's smote them with emeralds.

It's just, I mean, that's super painful, okay?

And there's no cream.

They could like apply, you know, there's no,

what are the creams?

God, I can't remember what they're called.

You know, there's certain creams out there that help with this.

There's nothing that exists out there.

There's nothing, they can't go to a doctor and it'll heal them.

This is God's hand against them to just make them miserable

just for desecrating the Ark of the Covenant,

destroying the people of God,

thinking that they could just add God to their plethora of false God,

just, you know, just completely desecrating the name of God.

Okay, I'm going to give you hemorrhoids, okay?

It says, when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so,

they said, the Ark of God of Israel shall not abide with us.

Listen to this.

For his hand is sore upon us, you know,

and upon Dagon of God, sore, right?

Yeah, it is.

He says, they sent therefore and gathered all the Lord's

of the Philistines unto him and said,

what shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?

And they answered, let the Ark of the God of Israel

be carried out about unto Gath,

and they carried the Ark of the God,

of the God of Israel, about thither.

And it was so that after they had carried it about,

the hand of the Lord was against the city

with the very great destruction,

and he smote the men of the city,

both small and great,

and they had emeralds in their secret parts.

So everywhere that the Ark of God is going,

it's like hemorrhoids, hemorrhoids, hemorrhoids,

everyone's just getting it.

It's hilarious, okay?

Look at verse number 10.

It says, therefore, they sent the Ark of God to Ekron,

and it came to pass as the Ark of God came to Ekron,

that the Ekronites cried out saying,

they have brought about the Ark of the God of Israel

to us to slay us and our people.

And they sent and gathered together all the Lord's

of the Philistines and said,

send away the Ark of God of Israel

and let it go down again to his own place

that it slay us not, and our people,

for there was a deadly destruction

throughout all the city.

The hand of God was very heavy there.

And the men that died not were smitten with emeralds

and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

Go to 1 Corinthians 2, if you would.

2 Corinthians 2.

2 Corinthians 2.

The story is hilarious.

So, you know, they're all,

oh, victory, victory, yeah.

You can't jump up and down.

You can't sit down.

God is smiting you with one of the most uncomfortable

things that a human can experience

and everyone has it.

Now, what does this show us?

What shows us that, you know, God,

the Ark of the Covenant,

when people are right with God,

it's awesome, right?

Obedidum.

When he came to his house,

he was living it up.

His house was being blessed

and obviously, you know, the Bible's not explicit

at what kind of blessings he had,

but I'm sure his resources

quadrupled.

There you go.

His resources quadrupled.

I'm sure his crops were doing great.

I'm sure his wife was having a lot of babies.

I mean, he was just probably being blessed

because the Ark of God,

and he's probably like, hey, David,

take your time, you know.

I know you gotta come get it,

but, you know, just take your sweet little time,

you know.

He's being blessed.

Why?

Because he's actually obeying the Lord.

He's right with God.

He's a safe person.

It's blessing him.

It's helping him.

But here's the thing.

When the Ark of God is in the midst

of a crooked and perverse nation,

in the midst of a wicked people,

it's like a curse to them, you know.

And look, the way we can apply it is like this.

You know, a fundamental Baptist church

can be a curse and it can be a blessing to a place.

It can be a blessing to a place who wants the truth.

It can be a blessing to a place who wants the gospel,

who wants salvation,

but it can be a curse into those who hate the truth.

You know, when we started our church in Omani,

we were a blessing.

It was like the Ark of the Covenant

and the city of Omani.

It was great.

But then it eventually became a curse,

not because of us, but because of them.

Because they hated the truth.

We became a pain in their hindre parts, so to speak.

Right?

We became like hemorrhoids to them.

You know, it's just like,

oh, Pastor, he has such a pain in the, you know what?

He's a pain in the hindre parts.

He's like hemorrhoids.

Why?

Because that's exactly what happens

when you place a holy thing

into the hands of unholy people.

It'll eventually destroy them, you know,

because they hate the truth.

Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14.

2 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

It says,

The Bible says here that, you know, God's people,

the knowledge of God has made manifest wherever they go.

Right?

Like, oh, you know, God is with this person.

This person is a Christian.

This person is a believer.

It says in verse 15,

You know, we affect both saved and unsaved alike.

People who want the truth, they love it.

People who hate the truth, they hate it.

We have this effect on society, right?

And in fact, look what it goes on to say in verse 16.

This is like, oh, I can't stand these people,

these Christians with their big families

and their marriages and their conservative values

and their biblical teachings and their doctrines.

It's like a saver of death and to death.

That's what salt does, right?

Salt in an open wound hurts.

But what is salt?

It's simply, when you place salt in an open wound,

it just exposes that there's an open wound there.

We didn't create the open wound.

We're just showing that there's an open wound there.

Right.

You know, when you go to a city and you preach against its sin,

when you preach against the nation, against the person,

if they start, it's because there's a problem there.

When I preach against feminism and you're like,

it's because you're probably a little feminist, right?

You know, if I preach against being effeminate,

you're just like, I don't mean you're being, there you go, right?

If I preach against fornication and you're squirming,

it's because the salt is irritating the wound.

If I preach against drunkenness, covetousness, idolatry,

and you're squirming, it's not the salt's fault.

Guess what?

It's the open wound that's in you of sin.

It's the open wound caused by sin, should we say.

And so Christians can be a saver of death and to death

and it goes on to say, and to the other,

the saver of life and to life.

You know, there's people who, you know,

they run into Christians, they meet churches, missionaries,

and you're like a godsend to them.

I mean, all of us have experienced this at one time

or another when we're out there preaching the gospel

and they're just like, man, I'm so thankful you came.

You're just like, you're like an answer to prayer.

And in fact, you know, I think it was this week

we were out souling and I was with my family

and, you know, we ran into some cholos.

And these are some like major cholos.

You guys know what cholos are, right?

Gangsters, okay, a few white people.

Mexican gangsters, okay.

And, you know, I'm talking about high socks,

you know, no ankle socks.

I'm talking about these were legit cholos, right?

But, you know, I'm not biased.

I'm not like, well, you know,

I don't want no cholos to come to my church, you know.

You know, I want them to come to my church

but I also want them to be saved though, right?

So I went up to them and there was like a group of,

I think it was like five of them

and some of them are young, some of them are older.

And I started giving them the church invite

and, you know, I was with my kids

and then I gave them the question.

They're just kind of like, they seemed disinterested at first.

But then, you know, and it's easy when people,

when you have a group like that, if they're disinterested

that you just kind of like move on.

You're just like, oh, I'm not going to waste my time.

But I just said, well, you mind if I just spend a couple minutes

showing you from the Bible

how you can know for sure that you're going to go to heaven

when you die?

And the oldest is like, do it.

I want to hear this.

All right, cool.

So I'm giving the gospel

and, you know, halfway through

like their countenance changes a little bit.

Where, you know, one of them, one of them, you know,

his eye kind of twitches a little bit.

It was just kind of doing one of these, you know.

I'm like, is he looking at me?

But he was just like, you could see the light bulb going on.

And especially when we talked about like eternal security,

he's just like, oh, okay, yeah, oh man.

You know, and they started softening up.

So make a long story short, they ended up getting saved.

You know, they called upon the name of the Lord.

They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, they received Christ.

They received the forgiveness of sins.

And, you know, I spend a lot of time

talking about the fact that you don't repent of your sins.

You don't have to change your life to be saved

because, you know, you never know

if some of these guys went to like victory outreach or something.

You just got to assume sometimes, you know.

Because these cholo churches are often like

majorly repenting your sins.

It's a false gospel.

So you just got to, it's like the way,

when you approach a Jehovah's Witness,

you got to make sure they believe that Jesus is God, right?

So, you know, and I realized later,

I found out later, should I say, is that

the guy, the older guy who accepted the invitation,

he was actually the father of two of them.

Okay, and the other one was like a neighbor.

Now, four out of the five got saved.

The neighbor didn't get saved.

But I remember just talking to him and, you know,

he's kind of like finishing the verses.

And then, you know, he's like,

he's adhering to everything.

And his sons were adhering to everything.

They ended up getting saved.

And then at the end of the conversation,

you know, the dad said this.

He said, you're like an answer to my prayers.

Like you came here, like, it was the most profound thing

I've ever heard of cholosei.

You know what I mean?

You don't really hear all the cholosei

even speak deeply about stuff.

You know what I mean?

Like, he was just like, I saw blessing it.

You know, I don't know.

He was just like, you came at the right time.

Like, I feel like God made you come here right now.

And I was just like, yeah, it's true.

And I'm never, when someone tells me that,

I'm not like, no, no, no, no.

No, I'm like, yeah, that is true.

Because it is true.

We're a saver of life into life.

And he's just like, I feel like God brought you here.

Now typically when I'm out with my family,

we're a sight because I have six kids

and they're all very little.

But Bro had me beat though.

He's like, I got 25 kids.

I didn't ask him if it was from one or many.

I'm like, oh, you beat me.

And I say, I got six, but it's all from one.

But how did he view me?

He viewed me as someone who was a saver of life into life.

And I spoke to many people that day

who viewed me as a saver of death into death.

They rejected the gospel.

The point being here is that holy things

improves unholy things if that unholy person

actually hears through the gospel

and decides to get saved.

And so if we were to put that cholo inside of a church,

without salvation, it wouldn't help them much.

We'd probably make them really mad.

But now that he has salvation,

if you were to come to a Bible-believing church,

you would actually benefit from it.

Go back to first Samuel, if you would.

Here's my last point.

Point number one is that when you put holy things

in unholy hands, it desecrates holy things.

Point number two is that it doesn't improve unholy things.

Point number three is that it destroys holy hands,

meaning that the haemorrhoids come upon people.

They're just made miserable.

They suffer the wrath of God.

They end up getting destroyed because of it.

And point number four is that holy things

cannot be understood by unholy men.

And here's the thing.

The only thing that an unholy person

can't understand is the gospel.

But anything outside of the gospel,

anything else in the Bible, they cannot understand.

Meaning that unholy people

can't come up with solutions to spiritual problems.

Now look at verse one of chapter six.

And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines

seven months.

Dang, seven months, just haemorrhoids for seven months.

That sucks so bad.

No physical activity can be done.

And the Philistines called for the priest

and the divine are saying,

what shall we do to the ark of the Lord?

Tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.

And they said, if he send it away,

if he send away the ark of the God of Israel,

send it not empty, but in any ways return him

a trespass offering, then ye shall be healed

and it shall be known to you

why his hand is not removed from you.

So they're just like, hey, we gotta figure out

how to get this thing back.

What should we do?

And the diviners and the priests are just like,

well, the most logical thing to do

is just return it back to Israel.

And then they're just like,

but make sure you send it back with an offering though.

Because we want to placate God here

because he's the one who's smiting us with this.

Don't read ahead, don't read ahead.

Everyone look up here.

Let me build up the story.

So they want to placate the God of the Bible

and so they're just like, send him a trespass offering.

So you're reading this and you're just like,

okay, these guys, they're coming up with a good solution here.

Look down at verse number four,

then say they, what shall be the trespass offering

which we shall return to him?

They answered five golden emeralds

and five golden mice.

According to the number of the lords of the Philistines

for one plague was on you all and on your lords.

Well, what?

So they're just like, so what kind of offering do you suggest?

Like a lamb offering, a drink offering

because I know the Israelites do stuff like that.

No, send them five golden hemorrhoids.

So you think of the goldsmith who's responsible for this.

I think about stuff like that,

like all right, we need you to make five hemorrhoids

and in case you need to know what it looks like.

Like what?

And then there's five golden mice

because we'll see later that basically

these cities were plagued with mice as well.

So on top of the deaths,

on top of the hemorrhoids is you also have mice rampant

and it's likely that if you have a large quantity of deaths

the mice are coming into what?

To eat the corpses.

Because that happens.

That's an actual thing.

So this is miserable.

So what a great idea, send it back with,

imagine being the Israelite who received that.

Like is this what I think it is?

Like are these hemorrhoids?

These fools are crazy.

But this is what happens

when you put holy things in unholy hands.

Holy things cannot be understood by unholy people.

You can't go to unsafe people for spiritual solutions.

What should we do?

Send them hemorrhoids.

Golden hemorrhoids.

That'll play K-God.

Golden mice, that'll play K-God.

It's the stupidest thing ever.

Oh man, I'm so sad.

What should I do?

Anti-depressants.

Oh man, I feel so sad.

What should I do?

Drink alcohol.