I hope you will make a special
effort to come Wednesday night and have a message that is burdened
about. It should be very helpful. first of all to Hebrews, the
book of Hebrews chapter 8. Our story is in 1 Chronicles,
but Hebrews 8 we need to look at briefly. Now, the Lord Jesus
was talking to a woman at a well over in John chapter 4. You remember when he said to
her, she was talking about worship, our Father's worship here in
the mountains and you worship. And the Lord said to her, you
know not what you worship. He said, salvation is of the
Jews. You remember him saying that?
Salvation is of the Jews. Well, what he was saying is that
there is but one true God. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. And he revealed himself to the
Jews only. That is what Christ said, not
my opinion. He revealed himself to the Jews,
Abraham being the father of them. and our Lord saying that there
is but one way to approach this one God. One way. There is but one way to worship
God. One way. Right? That's what he said. There
is but one way to be accepted by this God. One way. There is but one way to life
eternal, or to get to be with God in heaven someday. One way,
one way. Now, the first five books of
the Bible, the first five books of God's word, tell us about
Jewish worship. That's what the first five books
are all about, Jewish worship. Is that all it's about? Well,
to the world, that's what they think it is. And so they pretty
much discarded it. The first five books of God's
word is about Jewish worship. What God revealed to the Jews. What God revealed to the Jews,
the way to worship him. All the ceremonies, the rituals,
the ordinances, right? All these things. The book of Hebrews. defines
all of that. The book of Hebrews tells us
what these things are all about. Hebrews, all of the Jews. Look at chapter 8. I just gave
you that there for your information. Chapter 8, now, of the things
which we have spoken, this is the Son. He spent a great deal
of time talking about all those Old Testament things. Are you
with me? Don't let me lose you right now. Now here's what the psalmist
said, we have such and high priests. He'd been talking about a high
priest. He'd been talking about a tabernacle. He'd been talking
about sacrifices. He'd been talking about the tabernacle
or the tent with everything that was in it. He'd been talking
about all that. And he said, now we have, we
have one of these high priests. Or such and high priest. And it goes on down, verse 2,
says, a minister of the sanctuary of the true tabernacle, which
God pitched. Are you with it? And it goes on down to say in
verse 5, now these things are a shadow, an example, a shadow
of heavenly things. A shadow. A shadow, as you know. You see my shadow right there? That's not me. But you can tell
it's me, somewhat. Not real clearly. But you can
see that it is a man. It's a shadow. It's not the substance. It's merely to tell me that somebody's
coming. It's a shadow. My shadow's in
front of me. It's to tell you somebody's coming
behind that shadow. That represents someone coming.
Go to chapter 10. Chapter 10. I'm sorry, let me read verse
5 completely in chapter 8. I've got to. Verse 5. He says, These things serve as
an example, a shadow of heavenly things. Moses was admonished,
that he was carefully instructed by God. He was about to make
the tabernacle. He said, See now, see, saith
he, that you make all things according to the pattern, showed
they. It's got to be perfect. I want this, everything according
to a pattern. God made this pattern. Everything
God did was a pattern. You ladies make dresses, don't
you? You don't just grab a piece of material and start cutting.
This ought to look good. Now you buy a pattern. You get
a pattern that somebody's carefully drawn up, cut out. It's a pattern,
and you lay it down and you cut it to meet that pattern. And
then you have a beautiful garment, right? You men that do You don't
just start cutting trusses, and it looks short, long enough.
No, you've got a pattern that you go by. Everything fits the
pattern. Everything fits the pattern. So he said, make sure
you do it according to the pattern. Chapter 10. Now, all these old
Jewish ceremonies, symbols, types, are a pattern of something, or
rather, someone. shadow. Somebody's coming. Are you with me? Chapter 10,
verse 1. The law having a shadow of good
things to come, not the very image of the things, can never
with those things, those sacrifices offered year by year, continually
make the comers thereunto perfect. Those that use these things,
it can never, it couldn't do anything for them. Just a shadow. But when he cometh as a shadow,
somebody's coming, and here he comes. Who's he? Who's it all
about? What's the shadow? It's the shadow
of a man. Every bit of it is a pattern,
a shadow, to tell somebody's coming. Who? He. Him. Christ. When he cometh into the world,
he says, Sacrifice and offering, thou wouldst not. That is, no
more lambs, bullocks, tabernacles, and this and that and the other.
A body has to have prepared me. A tabernacle. A tent, a temporary
dwelling place. A tabernacle. He tabernacled
among us. Christ. If I don't get out of
this, it's fine. If we don't get to 1 Chronicles,
it's fine. God's word is all about it. Christ
came and tabernacled among us with a temporary body. A body
has self-prepared me, he said. I come to do what? Verse 7, I
come in the volume of the book it's written of me. You see that? The whole book. It's about me,
Christ said. They are they which testify of
me. The substance, not the shadow. You don't worship the shadow.
Shadow can't do anything for you except point you to, tell
you about the person. And when he comes up, he says,
I come and the volume of the book is written of me. To do
thy will, O God. What's that will? Fulfill the
love. Save God's people. Bring in an everlasting righteousness
and salvation. To fulfill it all. The fulfillment
of all these types and shadows and symbols. Now, in all of these things,
in all of these Old Testament things, now you can go back to
1 Chronicles, OK? I'm just going to skip over here. I've got to get going. I mean, get into the message.
I don't have anywhere to go. But all of these things, there
were so many things in the Old Testament All of these things represent
the same person. Everyone, everything. Everything,
no matter if it was a candle, a bowl of water, a plate of bread,
a table, on and on. It didn't matter what it was.
An altar, what was sacrificed on it, a veil, on and on. It all represented the Lord Jesus
Christ. But you know, in all of that Jewish worship, tabernacle
and so forth, there's one principal piece of furniture. There's one
thing that it all involved around. There's one thing that God designed,
purposed, architected, one piece of furniture in that Jewish worship
that it all centered around. It all depended on it. Everything
they prepared, everything they did was about this one piece
of furniture called an ark. the ark of the covenant. That's in the Hebrews, which
things the angels desire to look into. It was a container. A box is a container, is it not?
A container in which held some things. And God only put three
things in that box, with all the three things he put in it. The law, a perfectly, perfectly
perfect copy of the law. Moses broke the law in front
of the people, remember? To show that they'd broken it.
But God made another one, and before it got broken, put it
in that box. For safekeeping. That box is
going to keep that law. Are you with me? That box had
in it a budding rod, Aaron's rod that budded. God's word,
the rod that he did everything with. Aaron had a rod, and it
was just a dead piece of wood. No sir, it budded, brought forth
fruit, flower, perfume, beautiful smell, sweet smelling savor.
The rod budded. And then it had a bowl of manna,
heavenly food. That's what the people lived
off. It's all in this container. It
is all contained in this one receptacle. Everything held by
this container. Understand what thou hearest?
That ark is Christ's. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. A box, a plain old wooden box?
No, covered with gold. In him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. all things we need, everything
is in him. Christ is all, and in all. He is the ark of the covenant.
That ark represented God's purpose to the children of Israel. God's
presence, wherever the ark was, God was. Where it wasn't, God was not.
God's power, that ark, while it was with the people That ark is the Lord Jesus Christ.
On top of that ark, that ark had a lid on it, a covering
on it. And that covering was called
the mercy seat. I know we're going to look at
this in Exodus, and we'll look at it again, won't we? the mercy
seat. And what that ark was all about
now, although it kept these things and it was a beautiful golden
box, but really that ark was to do one thing with. The principal
purpose of that ark, around which all the Jewish worship centered
around, was that a high priest would take a lamb, an innocent
lamb, and slit its throat. Terrible, horrible death. And
pour that blood out, a blood that's so repulsive to natural
man. Blood, that's what it's going
to take. Because as a holy God, we're going to meet. We've got
to have his favor. We've got to have his forgiveness.
We've got to have his acceptance. This is the way God said, this
is the only way you're going to approach me. Only way I'm
going to have anything to do with you. This is the only way.
You're going to have to take that blood, go into that beautiful
box. One person's going to do it.
One person's going to do it. Not just anybody. One person.
Every bit of this represents the Lord Jesus Christ. We have
one high priest who goes into the holy—well, that high priest
would go into this holy of holies where God dwelled, where no man
could approach unto it. But this one man, with this blood,
would go in. And that beautiful golden box
would just dump it all, just pour it all over that box, blind,
over the mercy seat. That big basin of blood would
just cover, just covered with blood. You didn't see a beautiful
golden box, you saw a bloody box. A bloody box. And it would cover all that until
it was all sealed in blood. The law was sealed. Kept sealed up. That ark is Christ. And the great
principle purpose why Christ came and what all worship revolves
around or centers around. The only way to come to God,
the only way God will deal with man, the only way to worship
God is still true today, people, still true today. God cannot
be worshiped without the ark, the ark, not an ark, the ark,
Jesus Christ, without his blood. He is the mercy seat. God said,
I'll meet with you at the mercy seat. It's a mercy seat. How
do I know it's mercy? It's got blood all over it. That ark is cracked. Well, go
back now to 1 Chronicles, if you're not there. 1 Chronicles,
chapter 13. I'm going to try to paraphrase
this story. Now, do you understand what the
ark represents? Everybody in here, to the smallest
child, should now understand what the Ark represents. It always
did represent Christ. It never did represent anything
else. There was no intrinsic—there was no—that box was just a box. A man made it. Just a box. There was nothing in that box
powerful. It wasn't a magical charm. It
wasn't a good luck charm, per se. There's nothing in that box,
Stephen, you know that, don't you? Just a box. A material thing. But it represented, now, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Always did. Always did. If anybody
would worship God, it's not possible that the blood of lambs and bulls
and goats could take away sin. It never did. But that person
who came to worship God before Christ came, with these symbols,
these types, who had a mind thinking about the coming Christ that
that represented, who had a heart, faith, looking to, believing
in God's Lamb, God's Sacrifice, God's Tabernacle, who will tabernacle
among us, Christ the Mercy Seeker, though they didn't know his name
was Jesus. That person, that's how you worship God. And they
were accepted by God. by faith in the coming Christ,
not because they had a box. Are you with me? Not because of a
box, but who it represented. Well, the Jews, Israel, got in
a bad way. First, they had the box, they
had the ark, but they weren't worshiping God with Christ in
mind. They thought, this box will keep
us. And they were polluted and all that they did, and they thought,
well, as long as we have this box, we're okay. And God showed
them, no, you're not. And God slew them, even though
it was there in their midst. And the Philistines came and
stole it away. It didn't do the Philistines
any good. Israel got in a bad way there
for a while under Saul, the man before David. Saul, they didn't
even use Do you remember reading that here? We didn't use the ark, he said,
in days of Saul. And Israel was in a bad way,
weren't they? Okay. And when they did have
it, it was just a ritual. They weren't worshiping by faith
in Christ. And that's a type of religion,
isn't it? Well, David, God's king, God's man. David said, We've got to get
this ark back here. We've got to bring this ark back
home. We've got to bring back the ark. You can't worship God
without the ark. I've read that. I know that. Well, that's good. Yeah, you
do need the ark. You can't worship God without the gospel of Christ.
You can't do it. Stay with me now. Come on. I've
lost some of you. David, verse 1, it says, consulted
with thousands of hundreds and everybody. He consulted with
everybody. He asked the people. David asked the people, what
do you think? What do you think? Does it sound
good to you? Yeah, let's have a big meeting. So everybody got excited. Verses
4 and 5, you read it. It says that he gathered all
the people together. And it was right in their eyes to
bring the ark back. Verses 6 and 7, they were bringing the ark back,
and it says they put that ark on a cart, a new cart, a nice
cart. Somebody, Mack, somebody was
a cart builder, probably this fellow named Uzzah, and he made
a new cart. We're going to bring the ark
back. I'll make a cart," he said, a nice cart, a real nice cart. Now, you know he just didn't
build something that looked like a wheelbarrow, don't you? I'm
going to put the Ark on there. I'm going to have a big service. Everybody's going to be there
and see it. I'm going to build a nice cart with my name on the
bottom of it, a nice cart to bring back to the Ark. Bring the ark in, a nice new
one. And verse 7 says, and they put this ark on the cart, and
Uzzah was one of them on how he drove the cart, these cart
drivers. Uzzah was one of them. Well,
verse 8, you read it with me. All the people, they had a big
hoedown, a big religious hoedown, singing and shouting and harps
and psalters and timbres and cymbals and trumpets and so forth.
It was a big gathering, a lot of commotion. Everybody was so
happy and just carrying on. Here comes the arc. Verse 9, it says that the oxen
carrying or pulling the cart hit a pothole in the road. OK? And the ark wobbled. And this fellow Uzzah reached
up, put his hand forward to stay to the ark. Uh-oh, it's going
to fall. And did that. God killed him. God killed him. And David, David was right there. And all the people quit singing. They stopped what they were doing. And David couldn't understand.
He couldn't understand. He says he was displeased. It
doesn't mean he was mad at God, it means he was aggravated, upset. Something's wrong here. What
are we doing wrong? Why did God do that? And it says, verse 12, look at
it, David was afraid of God that day. He should have started out that
way. After that was over, he used
to pray, God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And he said this. He asked this.
Now, how? How are we going to bring this
art back? How? How shall I bring the ark
of God to me? All right, I've got to go to
chapter 15. Now, remember we read, God said,
see that you do all things according to the pattern. Didn't He? You're going to have to turn
over there and look at chapter 15 to get anything out of this
at all. God said, see that you make all
things according to the pattern, didn't He? No man could just
come up with, I've got a good box here. I'll make me a box
and worship God. No sir, buddy. There's one God's
design, God's purpose. One box, not a box of everybody's
making. And you read between the lines
when I say these things, huh? As one Christ, one way, he said,
I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life, and you don't make
up some Jesus according to, oh, he fits the pattern. He's exactly
according to God's word describes him, not the way you think he
is and how God says he is. And it's not just to be used
as adornment. This box is not as adornment,
religious adornment. They were bringing it in, they
were having a big time, isn't this, look at this, the box is
here. A beautiful art, or a beautiful
cart. You know, I just imagine that
that art was so beautiful that some people were taking up with
the art. I mean, that that cart was so
beautiful that some people were saying, boy, that's a good looking
ox cart. Who made that? It was a dear.
He donated it? Well, bless his heart. You understand all this? Bless
his heart for donating that. It took him some time to do that,
didn't it? Isn't that wonderful? Well, that's a beautiful cup.
Oh, and look at the Ark. So happy to have the Ark. The Ark was to pour blood on
it. That's what it's all about. It was not adornment, John. It was not for adornment. It
was for atonement. Right? Not for adornment, but
atonement. Not something beautiful to look
at, for everybody to admire, but to have blood all over it. And a beautiful Jesus and lovely
religion and all that is not what this is all about. It's
to worship Christ crucified, a bloody sacrifice. And that
art, its design, its purpose was ordered by God. It was ordered by God Almighty,
wasn't it? So was the way you handled it. Everything about
that ark was ordered by God Almighty. Not just anybody could handle
it. You can't make an ark the way you feel like it. You can't
even touch it. You can't lay one finger on it. God designed, God purposed everything
about that ark. It was complete. perfect down
to the ones, the only ones, who could carry it. Look at it, chapter
15. Now David began to inquire of
the Lord. Why didn't he do this to begin
with? Do you see the fault here, back there? What did David do
first, Rob? He asked everybody's opinion.
He got the captains. Here are some great men, and
these great men don't know what to do." No, they don't! We'll get all the captains and
the leaders and the mighty men together, and we'll have this
big religious show. Some famous football player standing
on the stage doesn't do a thing for the honor of the gospel.
It doesn't add anything to it. It doesn't even prove God's there
at all. We'll have a politician, we'll
have a famous person up here with us, and that will really
add weight to this. Everybody will get in on this
and, no sir, no sir. Be inquired of all these people. Help us out, help us out with
our gathering. The cart, beautiful handmade
cart to adorn the ark. Religious religion, with all
its buildings and so forth, people—you know that modern religion and always, ancient
religion, has always built these elaborate, elaborate religious
buildings. Most so-called church houses
are the most elaborate buildings. That's not in God's word. There's
no mention of the buildings in the New Testament of the church
where the church met. No mention. It doesn't say Corinth
had the most beautiful building. Oh, they had pews. It never mentions
the buildings they met in. Why? It's just a place to meet.
This Old Testament temple of Solomon that Solomon made, that's
where people get the license, they think, to build these adorned
labyrinths. No, no, no, no. That was all
to represent Jesus Christ. That temple, everything about
it represented Christ, and it sure didn't have gargoyles all
over it. Did it? Gargoyles. But it was all to represent Christ.
It wasn't a pattern to show us how to build our religious places. No, no, no. We just need a roof
over our heads. Make it nice, but don't put any
significance in it. Spiritual. So that ark, and then
this fellow named Uzzah. This fellow named Uzzah, his
name means strength. His name means strong man. The
ark got to wobbling. And here this big strong man
said, I'll help it out. The ark's going to fall if I
don't help it out. The ark's going to fall if I
don't keep it from falling. I'm a strong man, and if I don't
hold it up, it's going to fall. Poor God. I'll help it out. You see the picture of that?
God's gospel is his power. The gospel of Christ is God's
gospel. It's God's power. It doesn't
need any adornments. It doesn't need elaborate buildings. It doesn't need anything that
man adds to it. It sure doesn't need man to lay
his dirty hands on it, to add one thing to it, to help it out. Yes, the gospel is the power
of God, but we've got our little programs. do this and that and
the other to bring them in. The gospel is the power of God.
God says, My word has a hammer. Well, the ark was to be borne
on the shoulders of some chosen men. David had been inquiring
of the Lord in chapter 14 the whole time. The time went by.
Chapter 15, David said, verse 2, "'None ought to carry the
ark of God but the Levites, them whom the Lord hath chosen to
carry the ark of God and to minister unto him forever.'" Don't put
this thing on an ox cart. It's not in the Bible. He started
reading. He had consulted God. He went
to God's word. Not the captains and the people,
and what do you think we ought to do? No, he consulted God. How? How is it going to come
to me? First he said, how shall I bring
it? David, you're not going to bring it. It's going to be brought
to you. It's going to be brought to you.
You're not going to bring it. But my chosen man, this is how
I've always said it's to be done. Going to be laid on the shoulders
of my chosen Levites. on their shoulders as a heavy
burden to be borne. They're going to bring it to
you. If you want some reading later
on, read in Jeremiah 23. The whole chapter is about false
prophets. And God said to these false prophets, don't say burden.
Don't ever say burden. Don't talk about my word as a
burden to you. It's not a burden to you. I didn't
put it on your shoulder. It's not a burden to you, or
else you'd preach it. But he said, to Isaiah, he said,
he that hath my word now, it's a burden to him. Like David said,
it's a fire in my bones. Like Paul said, woe is unto me
if I don't preach it. Away with the rest of this stuff.
I've got a burden here to bring to you. And only that person
chosen by God, called by God, and faithful to the word of God
will bring that burden to you. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, our hope, the way, the truth, the life. This is it.
The center of our worship. Acceptance with God. I've got
this burden. Put it on a fancy ox cart, and
don't everybody lay their filthy hands on it. No, sir. Well, down in verses 12 through
14, David organized this meeting now. He said, We're not going
to do this just the way anybody wants to do it. What do you all think? I've got
a set of drums here. No, sir. He ordered it. He ordered this worship. He said,
We're going to order this thing right. This is going to be solemn
yet joyful. It's going to be in order, not
chaos. This thing of worship, what we're
about to do here around the gospel, around the ark, is not going
to be of anybody's doings or anybody's, the way they think
it. I'm ordering this thing now. I'm telling who to do what and
how you, and you better do it and prepare yourself. Verse 12,
he said, sanctify yourselves, set yourselves apart, prepare
yourself to bring up the ark. Verse 13, He said, You did it
not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, we
sought him not after the due order. That's the title of this message. Not just a formal title. God's
due order of worship is a biblical one. There's a way to worship.
There's a right way to worship and a wrong way. There is one
thing which all worship centers around. Everything else is an
abomination to God. It takes away from that one thing
that he taught. Are you with me here? There is
a way to do this. He said, prepare yourself. In
verse 16, though, he said, Now David spake to the chief of the
Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers and instruments
of music. Yes, use everything that hath
breath. They make a joyful noise, lifting up the voice with joy,
but we're going to do this in order. We're going to do this
in order. We're not going to get carried
away here. We're not going to be so taken up with the music
that everybody loses sight of the ark. I'm getting to the climax here.
The music can't take away from the ark. The receptacle, or whoever carries
it, or whatever it may be, can't take away from the glory and
the beauty and the necessity of what it's all about—the ark.
Because we're here to do one thing, to see blood poured on
the mercy seats. And it's joyful, it's wonderful,
it's great, it's a salvation, it's good news, it's glad tidings,
it's a purpose of God, the presence of God, the power of God, the
blessings of God. It's wonderful. It's a wonderful
thing, but you've got to do it in due order. God orders all
things, and so must we. So must we. Make a joyful sound,
but it better be reverent. Let everything you have breath
make a sound, but don't let it sound like Hank Williams. Don't let it sound like the world.
Make it sound like worship. Now, you play that thing, but make it worshipful and reverent. Joyful? Can you do that? Joyful,
yet reverent? You'd better find out a way,
or God's not pleased. It's all got to point to the
heart. Well, and last, now the last thing in this story, but
really it's first. It's the first thing we brought
out. The last thing. I want you to turn to 2 Samuel
6. It's the same account of this story. 2 Samuel, chapter 6, is
the same story of bringing back the ark, yet it's a shortened
version of it. Yet it has a verse here I want
you to see. 2 Samuel 6. Now, this is the
last thing, but it's the first thing. It's the most important.
The missing ingredient, the reason the Lord grew angry with that
gathering that David and the people had. The primary reason. What was missing? One thing. And David had been inquiring
of the Lord. What's this? How? How? What? How? Should we? We've got to do this right. What's
it all about, anyway? It's just a box. Oh, no. 2 Samuel 6, it says in verse 13,
it was so. These Levites had the ark on
their shoulders and were bringing it back. And when they bore the
ark of the Lord, they had gone six paces. Now, as Levites, here's the way
you've got to do it. Put the ark between these stays
on your shoulder. OK, we're ready? Everybody ready?
Singers? Everybody ready? OK. Let's go. Go back to Jerusalem. One, two, three, four, five,
six. Let's not go any further. We're going to miss it again. And they slew seven ox and seven
bull. We've got to have blood. That's
why we have that. That's what this is all about. We're going to do it again. We're
going to miss it again. If God's not going to be with
us, he's going to grow angry again. Six steps. Stop! And slew the blood. This ark is about a blood atonement. The gospel. That's why it was
made, and that's what it's all about. The only way to God is
by blood. blood. Not a beautiful box, doesn't
save anybody, but a bloody box. A crucified Christ. Not a beautiful
Jesus, but a lamb slain. Not a beautiful Messiah, going
to take us to paradise, but a butchered one. Because God is holy. God's love,
yes, God's mercy, God's grace, but it's all seen in that Bloody art, bloody art. Keep reminding you, blood, blood,
blood, blood. Don't go six paces. Don't do anything. Don't blow
a horn. Sure don't reach your hand up
and try to help it out any. Oh, no, no. This is the power
of God. This is the salvation of God. This is what it's all
about. Crucified crowd. You Levites, you bear the burden.
Hold it up for all to see. Alright, let's sing a closing
hymn. Hymn number 51, Lestane. M number 51, we'll sing verses
1, 2, and 3. Praise the Savior, you who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the thing that arms
us, people, conflict, fits and arms us. Nothing moves and nothing
harms us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, you say, world-changing ever, neither
force nor cap can sever those he loves from him. you.