Well, I want to turn your attention
this morning to some verses in 1 Chronicles, 1 Chronicles chapter
15, and the title of the message is Seeking After the Due Order. The question that I want us to
think about this morning is how should we worship God? How should
we worship God? You know, if you read the Old
Testament specification that God gave to Moses as to how he
was to be worshipped in the Old Testament, in the tabernacle
and the sacrifices, it's very, very prescriptive. It's very
precise. And the penalties for not following
it were very, very severe. Absolutely precise. But today,
this day in which we live, there tends to be a view abroad that
so long as you're sincere it doesn't matter just come anyhow
you like it really makes very very little difference so is
it okay to worship God as we please. You know there's this
lot, oh they do that, oh that's an interesting thing, oh but
those, they have this particular practice, what a fascinating
interesting thing to look at, this is the view you know, oh
have you seen how the Spanish worship God in their Catholic
parades, oh isn't that interesting? No, that's not the question,
the question is not is it interesting or is there much tradition with
it, it's what does God say about it. What's the truth of God?
Does it matter how we approach God? You see, many say it makes
no difference. And they come with a casual approach,
and all that matters is the mood that the singing whips you up
into. A place that we used to go years ago, they used to have
you know the opening readings and all the boring stuff and
then they'd have this dreadful long boring sermon at the end
of it but in the middle oh there was twenty minutes which was
the worship time and they had a wonderful time because it whipped
them up into the right sense of feeling good and gradually
it got so that actually can we just dispense with those boring
bits either side, you know the sermon we don't want that and
all that reading stuff and praying stuff and let's just have more
and more of the worship time you truly worship God when you
come before Him in the way that He has said not in the way that
makes your flesh feel happy and good you see, a casual approach
it tries to make us feel good but look at this, turn with me
to 1 Chronicles, 1 Chronicles chapter 15 and verses 12 and
13, let me read these to you I'll go into the details of the
account in a minute but it's David, King David speaking He
gathers, in verse 11, he gathers the priests, Zadok and Abiathar
of the Levites, and Uriel, and Asiar, and Shimeir, and Eliel,
and Joel, and Aminadab. And he said to them, ye are the
chief of the fathers of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, both ye,
set yourselves apart for the worship of God is what he's saying.
Both ye and your brethren, the Levites, the Levites must be
there. that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel
and to the place that I have prepared for it he made a place
for it to be permanently before the temple was built for because
look verse 13 for because ye did it not at the first They
tried once before. They didn't do it the way God
had said. And he said, the Lord our God made a breach upon us. There was tragedy occurred because
they didn't do it the way God had said. For that we sought
him not after the due order. We sought him not after the due
order. To seek God is to seek to worship
him. to bow before him in reverence
to hear his voice speaking to extol his virtues and his glories
for that great salvation that he's revealed in his word in
our Lord Jesus Christ to extol him and worship him for all of
these things but if we're going to seek him we must seek him
after the due order. David had played around with
God's order albeit sincerely he was very sincere And Uzzah
was struck dead as a consequence of his playing around with the
Jew order. And David learned the fear of the Lord. You know
what the fear of the Lord is, don't you? The beginning of wisdom,
the beginning of knowledge. David learned the true fear of
the Lord and to worship after the Jew order. That's my subject
this morning, that's what I want us to think about. We must do
that. These Old Testament accounts, Romans 15-4 tells us they were
written for our learning. The reason that we read 2nd Corinthians
chapter 3, it's pointing back to the Old Testament. These things
in the Old Testament were glorious, but that which we have today,
meeting here, not in an ornate, glorious temple, bedecked with
gold and mystery and all of those things, Paul tells us that what
we have today is more glorious. Did you see that as we read that
chapter? It's more glorious. These are for our learning, but
what we're dealing with is more glorious, because these were
the types and shadows. Now we have the substance, which
is our Lord Jesus Christ. So I want to look at the background
of this and then see what David did wrong and how it was put
right and what lessons we can learn from it. First of all then
it was to do with the Ark of the Covenant. Now you maybe remember
if you're of a certain age or you watch old films on the TV
Raiders of the Lost Ark and things like that you know Indiana Jones
and all of that sort of thing and it's all about trying to
find this box this box of the Jewish Temple the center of the
center of the worship. It was a box. It was a box probably
about as big as this coffee table here there or thereabouts, about
so long, about that wide, about that deep. And it was made of
ordinary acacia wood, ordinary wood overlaid with a thin layer
of gold. And within it there were the
two tablets of stone that God wrote with his own finger on
Mount Sinai, the tables of the law. There was a pot of the manna,
you know the people were starving but God sent them manna from
heaven. Manor means, what is it? We don't
know what it is, but it was good, did them good, it fed them 40
years. They always had enough, they never ran out, and there
was a pot of that manor which never went off, and that was
in the Ark of the Covenant. And there was Aaron's rod. You
know, Aaron, with all of his mistakes, but Aaron was God's
appointed, anointed priest. He was the high priest. And there
was Aaron's rod which budded, which showed that he was the
one that had that mark upon him. Over the top of it, the lid of
it, was of pure gold, a mercy seat where God met with his people. It says that he would speak to
Moses face to face but only on one condition, a blood sacrifice. There must be a perfect blood
sacrifice. He would come and sprinkle the
blood on the mercy seat and then God would speak with his servant
as a man speaks with his friend face to face. These are all gospel
pictures. Over the ends of it were the
cherubim, with their wings overarching the mercy seat. The word means,
it's the same word as propitiation. It means a turning away of anger.
You know, God is angry with the wicked every day. The soul that
sins, it shall die. God's justice must punish sin. There is going to be an accounting.
It is appointed to man to die once, and then this dreadful
judgment, and how can a man be just with God at the mercy seat? That's how a man can be just
with God, at the mercy seat. Oh, we don't have a mercy seat
today, do we? We can't find this lost ark. Surely if they found
it, we'd have one. We have a mercy seat. We have
an altar, says Paul. I think it's Paul anyway, Hebrews.
We have an altar to which those that came to the old tabernacle,
they've got no right to come. But by faith, we come to the
only altar that God accepts and that God recognizes, which is
our Lord Jesus Christ. Not the cross of wood on which
he died, though, you know, you can, alright, a bit of symbology,
but it's the fact that he died there that is our altar. And
what was accomplished there that is our altar. So all of those
things picture Christ and the gospel of his grace. The wood
is his humanity and it's overlaid with the gold of his deity. That's
what it's picturing. The word of God, the law, is
inside it. The bread from heaven, I am the
bread that came down from heaven, John chapter 6. If a man eats
of this bread he'll never hunger or thirst. He's our great high
priest, the rod that budded. He's our intercessor, he's our
mediator, for there is one mediator between God and man, the man,
Christ Jesus. And this ark, this wooden ark
overlaid with gold is representing God become man. The God-man is
representing him. When it was carried it was covered
from view because it had to be treated with such reverence.
It must only be carried by the priests with these acacia wood
poles overlaid with gold. It must only be carried, that
burden of the Gospel must only be carried by God's anointed,
by the priests, the Levites, they were to carry it. It was
to be kept covered so that it was protected from the gaze of
ordinary man, it mustn't be treated as a common thing. It was kept,
when they weren't on the move and it was in the tabernacle,
it was in the Holy of Holies, behind that veil. And nobody
could go in, only the high priest, and only then once a year, and
only then with an acceptable blood sacrifice. And the people
would wait outside with bated breath, with anxiety. Is the
sacrifice acceptable? is the priest going to come out
because if he doesn't come out whether we die here or now and
now or not is irrelevant we're condemned in the judgment this
is the thing do you see how important these things are to your eternal
soul is the sacrifice acceptable. Was that blood acceptable? Did
it picture that blood which alone is acceptable? Because the blood
of bulls and goats and calves and the ashes of a heifer can
never cleanse, they can never purify from sins but the blood
of Christ. Not with silver and gold but
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. You see it all pictured the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Could these people in David's
day meddle with the Ark of the Covenant? No, of course they
couldn't. Terrible consequences resulted.
Uzzah was struck dead. No more can we meddle with the
Gospel of God because that's what people are doing on all
sides. What God has declared and revealed to his saints in
his word concerning the way he justifies sinners is absolutely
clear. It's this. And anybody who says
the gospel is anything other than this, they're lying, because
this is what the book says. God the Father chose a people
in Christ before the foundation of the world, a fixed number,
a multitude that no man can number. but a multitude that God knows,
every one. He chose them out of sovereign
grace, for no other reason than love, not for any good in them,
not for anything He saw in them. And that number, those people,
out of all humanity that would live, Christ redeemed. He redeemed
them from the curse of the law, being made a curse from them
at the cross of Calvary. He bore their sins in His own
body on the tree. He paid the law's penalty for
their sins. He poured out his life blood,
because it's the blood, in the blood is the life, the life is
in the blood, and his blood had to be poured out. The life of
the Son of God, the infinite Son of God, must be poured out
that those sins be paid for. He bore, he who knew no sin was
made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. On Calvary he redeemed his people,
as Cliff was saying earlier, Some maybe who've never been
born yet, who are yet to be born, are amongst that number that
the Father chose, that the Son redeemed, but the Holy Spirit
in time comes to everyone. And Paul's confidence that the
Thessalonians were among them was that they'd believed the
truth, they'd heard the Gospel, they'd believed the truth, the
Holy Spirit had come and opened their hearts and flooded into
their hearts. And so it is. The Father chooses,
the Son redeems, the Holy Spirit regenerates and brings to newness
of life. This is the Gospel of God's grace.
And how is it proclaimed? How is it imparted? By the foolishness
of preaching. so that all who call upon the
name of the Lord when they hear the gospel preached shall be
saved, shall be saved, absolutely confidently. This is God's way. This is what we must not meddle
with. We must not make out, we must not make out that Christ
made a general possibility of salvation. We must not make out
that faith is a duty on all men to believe, and if you plead
to their flesh, you persuade them. And you do things to get
them to come and to see reason, that they'll see reason and they
will exercise their own will. You're adding the works of man
to the gospel of grace. If you do anything like that,
God will save his people in his way. We cannot play fast and
loose with the gospel that God has revealed. this Ark of the
Covenant had been captured by the Philistines, you know there
was always trouble with the Philistines they captured it, you read the
account in 1 Samuel about chapter 6, Eli the priest and do you
remember the account, he's big and old, he's about ninety years
old and he's quite a big fat hefty man, it says he was very
heavy and he's sitting, they're going out to war and they've
done all sorts of things regarding the Ark of the Covenant, regarding
it like a lucky charm, regarding it like just a religious relic
that will do them some good. Oh, if we've got that on our
side, you know, you see people do this, you know, hold up the
sign of the cross and then evil will flee. It's not holding up
a relic, it's the truth of the gospel. It's the truth of the
gospel that causes evil to flee. And the Philistines had captured
the Ark of the Covenant and the news came back to Eli and his
daughter-in-law, he had sons, Hophni and Phineas, and the wife
of Phineas, I think it was, was about to give birth And she knew
she was going to die in childbirth. And when they got the news that
the Ark of the Covenant had been captured, they said, what are
you going to call the child? And the natural thing was to
call him after his father. And she said, I want him to be
called Ichabod. You know what Ichabod means? Departed glory. The glory has gone. Ichabod.
Departed glory. Why? Because the gospel had gone. The gospel had gone. You go round
the churches of this land today and you can pronounce Ichabod
over doorway after doorway after doorway. Ichabod. The glory's
departed. Why has the glory departed? Because
the gospel of Christ is not there. And if the gospel of Christ is
not there, what glory is there? In what will God be glorified?
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Sovereign grace? The gospel of
sovereign grace is gone the glory has departed and so it was the
ark of the covenant had gone the glory had departed the philistines
had it but it brought them nothing but trouble they wanted to get
rid of it they put it in the temple of their god Dagon I think
it was and the next morning they found Dagon flat on his face
with his nose broken off and so they stood him up again and
the next night he was fallen down and another bit was broken
off the ark of the covenant brought the philistines nothing but trouble
get rid of this thing so they put it on an ox cart and they
shooed them away let it go wherever it wants to go we don't want
to touch it we don't touch it there's something spooky about
this Ark of the Covenant the Philistines thought and they
sent it away and it came to a place called Beth Shemesh and at Beth
Shemesh this is how serious this is we read these numbers and
we think oh this is just biblical exaggeration the modern man thinks
that this is just biblical fiction you know just mythology The men
of Bethamesh were curious about the Ark. They didn't treat it
with the respect that was due to that which symbolised the
Gospel of God's grace. They lifted the lid to have a
look inside. They were nosy. God struck 50,000 of them dead
as a result of that. 50,000. And it ends up in a place
called Kirjath Jerim in the house of Abinadab. And there it stayed. Now David you see it was there
for a long time a long time many many years it was there you know
throughout the reign of Saul and then David becomes king and
David loved God and David wanted to honour God and David wanted
to restore the true worship that God accepts so let's have a look
what he did, look at chapter 13 of 1st Chronicles in the first
four verses you see his heart, you know God says of David despite
the things that he did in his flesh which are absolutely appalling
but God says of David here is a man after my own heart because
God put his spirit within him and David was a man after God's
heart, he wanted to restore the true worship of the Living God.
So look what he did in chapter 13 and verse 1 of 1st Chronicles. And David consulted with the
captains of thousands and hundreds, all the army leaders, and with
every leader And David said unto all the congregation of Israel,
If it seem good unto you, and that it be of the Lord our God,
let us send abroad unto our brethren everywhere that are left in all
the land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and
Levites which are in the cities and suburbs, that they may gather
themselves unto us, and let us bring again the ark of our God
unto us. For we inquired not at it in
the days of Saul." It wasn't there. Throughout the days of
Saul, they didn't have the ark of the covenant. And all the
congregation said that they would do so. Note this. For the thing
was right in the eyes of all the people. The thing was right
in the eyes of all the people. Does that remind you of the days
of the judges when it says in the scriptures that every man
did that which was right in his own eyes? Did you notice who
David consulted? He consulted every man, Jacob.
all sorts of people. Did you notice who David did
not consult? You notice he didn't consult
God, he didn't inquire of the law how this should be done.
And so this is the first point. David neglected God's order. Look down to verse 8. You see,
they've got them together, let's have a great big celebration,
we're going to bring this ark of God back and put it in its
right place and restore true worship. Let's do this thing,
what do you think? And they all said, yeah, that
seems like a good idea to us. Why don't we have a big celebration? Let's get a big speaker who's
really good at swaying people with his particular ideas. let's
bring him along and let's have a big party and we'll have lots
of singing, I'll tell you what, what sort of music do the people
like? Oh, they like rock bands these days, they don't like him
singing, oh right, okay, well let's do some of that and let's
do all of these other things and let's have a really good
celebration, look at verse 8 David and all Israel played before
God with all their might and with singing and with harps and
with psalteries and with timbrels and with cymbals and with trumpets
So the ark's coming out, and there's all this big show and
ceremony and singing and dancing and excitement going on. They'd
done all of the planning, all of the organization, all of the
work to prepare for it, but no reverence, no prayer, no respect
for God's due order. They didn't consult his word.
They had his word, they had the books of Moses. They didn't consult
his prophets. What had they written? They didn't
consult the priests, the Levites, who were the custodians of the
right way of doing things. You know, if we're to be true
worshippers, This is what Jesus said to the woman at the well
in John chapter 4. We must worship him in spirit
and in truth. Not just external things. External
things don't matter. Spirit and truth. With reverence. With respect to God's word. With
the priests in the proper place. Now, we're all priests to God. All of God's people. All of his
believing people. We're a holy priesthood. A holy
nation. A royal priesthood. We don't
have priests like Levites because we have one high priest our Lord
Jesus Christ. This idea in the Church of England,
they've long since passed the debate which is should there
be women priests? That's not the question. Should
there be priests? If they're true believers they're
a nation of priests. And the people that dress up
in the robes in their services for sure they're not priests.
They're not priests, they're men, they're mere men. They're
not priests, they don't stand between God and us. There is
one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. No,
true worshippers worship in spirit and in truth, with the priests
in the proper place, which basically means the preaching in the proper
place. That's not saying preach as a priest, but in the sense
of bearing the Word of God. And them in front of the Ark,
God's way was that the Levites would lead in front of the Ark.
Not David and his men of war. David and his men of war were
leading. In Abinadab's house, Uzzah and Ahio were the sons
of Abinadab, if you read back in wherever it is, 2 Samuel chapter
6 or thereabouts is the other account of this. And they were
the sons of Abinadab and they'd lived around this Ark of the
Covenant in their house for quite some time. and it's quite probable
that Uzzah had become rather used to this thing, he'd become
rather familiar with it, it was just, you know, it was an ornament
in the house with some religious significance and maybe he was
special, him and his house, and you know, don't you worry about
this Ark of the Covenant, we know about this Ark of the Covenant,
we've had it around our house for quite some time and he became
rather flippant and presumptuous in his handling of this Ark of
the Covenant and so things were not done in the right way. All
of this ignored the necessity of Christ our priest. Instead
of the priest carrying it on poles they put it on a cart,
on a new cart. How many today take the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and put it on a new cart? They don't
carry it by those that are burdened of God to bear the gospel of
his grace to fallen men and women. That's God's way. That's the
right way. They invent all sorts of new
cards. Oh, you must have been to some
particular Bible school or have passed some particular theological
degree before you're qualified or eligible to bear the Ark of
the Covenant. That's not God's way. That isn't
the way that God works at all. The fatal flaw was that there
was no sacrifice. They carried this ark. There
always had to be a sacrifice before it. This is the fatal
flaw. And the fatal flaw for us, if
we attempt to worship God without an acceptable sacrifice, God
will not accept it. What's the only acceptable sacrifice? The Lord Jesus Christ. We must
come by faith, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, to his shed
blood. We must come with proper regard
for God's appointed, sin-atoning sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because outside of that, we're not accepted we never will be
accepted the people did exactly what they wanted turn with me
to Isaiah 66 Isaiah 66 and the first four verses God says this, Thus saith the
Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house that ye will build unto me? He's talking about
worship. And where is the place of my rest? For all those things
hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith
the Lord. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor
and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. he that
killeth an ox, as if he slew a man, he that sacrificeth a
lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck, he that offered an oblation,
as if he offered swine's blood, you know that was despicable
in the eyes of the Israelites, as if he offered swine's blood,
he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol, a false god,
yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth
in their abominations, I also will choose their delusions,
and I will bring their fears upon them, because when I called,
none did answer. When I spake, they did not hear.
Oh, there's such a warning in these verses. But they did evil
before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not. When
I spoke, they didn't hear. Is God speaking? Does God speak
through his word? Listen to what he's saying. Take
heed how you hear. said Jesus to the people. You
see, Uzzah had become too familiar with the ark. It represented
the gospel of Christ, but to Uzzah it was just a religious
relic. He said, albeit sincerely, no doubt he was sincere, here
it is on this ark and it comes to, I forget whose name it was,
the threshing floor, you've got it in the one Samuel account,
and the ark stumbles, the wheel goes down a pothole, and it stumbles
and it's going to fall on the floor. And what does Uzzah do?
Ah, this art that he's very familiar with, been around his house all
that time, he reaches out his hand to touch it, and he's not
allowed to touch it, because this is the gospel of God's saving
grace. And he's a mere man who's adding
man's works to this thing. And God strikes him dead, there
and then. He strikes him dead. He said,
God's work depends in some measure on men. And God killed him. And
our God Do you know where it says our God is a consuming fire? You know that? It says our God
is a consuming fire, it says it is a terrible thing, a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You'd say
oh in some Old Testament book of doom and gloom, no the epistle
to the Hebrews the most glorious epistle of what all these types
mean in New Testament language In that epistle, our God is a
consuming fire. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. We must do things according
to due order. David learned the fear of the
Lord. He was filled with fear. Look at verse 12 of chapter 13. David was afraid of God that
day. David the man after God's own heart was afraid of God that
day saying how shall I bring the ark of God home to me? Before
that he'd been furious he was angry what's he done that for?
The guy was only sincerely trying to stop the ark from falling
on the floor and God struck him dead you know but Uzzah had learned
and those around him had learned this what God says in Leviticus
10 verse 3 I will be sanctified in them that come near me and
before all the people I will be glorified you know there's
a message in that for us we've got to be careful how we come
you know we don't have any external symbols But external symbols
can be a deluding excuse for how to approach God. We approach
in spirit and truth. And God says I will be sanctified
in them that come near me. And the only way is if we come
in the right way through the Lord Jesus Christ. He was angry
with God in verse 11. He was displeased. It says in
the Samuel account he was angry with God. Dare you or I sit in
judgment on God? dare David sit in judgment he
must have suddenly then become fearful for he knew that that
was sin how could he sit in judgment on God and he was afraid of God
that day saying well how on earth am I going to do this what am
I going to do he couldn't see any way to bring the ark back
in case he too was struck dead despite his sincerity see reverence
is essential when we approach God reverence is essential Ecclesiastes
5 verse 2 says this as a lot of people, including us, need
to learn this. He says this, Be not rash with
thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything
before God. Oh, let's have an all-night prayer
meeting where we sit up all night and the longer we knock on God's
door then the more he's bound. Yes, I know Jesus teaches importunity,
persistence in prayer, but do you think we're going to twist
God's arm up his back by doing things in our way? Not in the
slightest. Let your words be few. God is
in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few.
Jesus said about the hypocrites, he said they make long prayers
in public places. He says you're not heard for
your much speaking. No. preparation for worship. When
we, let's apply it to today, when we come preparation for
worship must be heart preparation. We must come with the right attitude.
We were thinking a few weeks ago about dress and what do we
put on and our demeanor. It must be reverential, it must
be respectful. I would never want to make anybody
think that because they haven't got a nice posh suit they're
not allowed to come and worship, that's what James says, don't
give preference to those in all the shiny slick suits, don't
do that that's just external but nevertheless how are you
going to come? Are you going to come just as
if you're sort of ready to do some gardening or some maintenance
on the car or something like that? No, have some respect for
it think about if you're going for an audience with the Queen
You'd think about how you dressed for that, wouldn't you? You'd
want not to be regarded as out of place. I once spent a week
on one of Her Majesty's naval ships, and I was a guest in the
wardroom. It was expected that I wore a
lounge suit, a proper smart suit and shirt and tie, because they
were all in uniform. I couldn't just turn up in jeans
and a t-shirt. I had to dress for the occasion. Not over the top, but just not
disrespectfully to their situation. don't you think we need to give
some thought to how we come you know just as a general point
that we have some respect external things are just that external
things but you know it's an indication of what the heart is like the
things that are on our lips afterwards you know what should we fear
obviously David feared ever touching this ark again how could he bring
it because he'd be struck dead because he'd sincerely do something
wrong Should we fear today? Is this what I'm saying? No,
John says this, 1 John 4 verse 18, there is no fear in love
but perfect love casteth out fear. So if there's no fear then
what should we fear? Only one thing, being outside
of Christ. Paul said I want to be found
in him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through faith of Jesus
Christ. I want to be found in him. So David learned to worship
after Jew order. chapter 13 verses 13 and 14 so
David brought not the ark home to himself to the city of David
but carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite
and the ark of God remained with the family of Obed-Edom in his
house three months and the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom
and all that he had David consulted look in chapter 14 it's a slightly
different account of other things but look in verse 10 and David
inquired of God saying shall we go up against the Philistines
verse 14 therefore David inquired again of God you see he learned
Before you do anything, inquire of God. Inquire of God, what
does God say? What is God going to guide? What's
the message we're going to get from God? Come to Him in prayer.
Give me wisdom. If any man lacks wisdom, says
James, let him ask God. Do we lack wisdom? All the time.
Let him ask God. He followed God's way. Chapter
15, verse 2. David said, none ought to carry
the ark of God but the Levites. Don't stick it on a cart. we
can't play fast and loose with that, God has said the Levites
carry the ark for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark
of God and to minister unto him forever and then look at verses
11 to 15 of chapter 15 And so David called for Zadok,
and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, and Uriel, and
Aziah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Ammonadab, and said
unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites. Sanctify
yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up
the ark of the Lord God of Israel into the place that I have prepared
for it. For because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our
God made a breach upon us, he killed Uzzah. For that we sought
him not after the due order. We did it wrong. So the priests
and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of God of
Israel. And the children of the Levites bear the ark of God upon
their shoulders, the way that God had specified they should
do. And they sacrificed. I'm probably
not going to be able to find the verse in a great hurry. but
further down. Oh, verse 26, let's try verse
26. And it came to pass when God
helped the Levites that bear the Ark of the Covenant of the
Lord that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams. The
sacrifice was there that pictured Christ. They did all in the right
order. Now, let's apply this in the
minutes that we've got left. We must learn to worship God
after the due order. Everything with due respect to
the Ark of God. What's that? the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing twisted, nothing adjusted,
nothing edited in any way. Absolutely, as he has said, we
must approach him and come to him on the basis of the Gospel
of Christ alone, with right hearts. with our hearts prepared we must
come if we're going to worship him those who worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth with right doctrine for
if they speak not Isaiah 8 20 according to this word there
is no light there is no truth there is nothing good in them
and what is that? God's sovereignty man's depravity
God's election And if God elects, then God is sovereign. And God
is the God of reprobation as well as of election. We must
believe these things because he's revealed it. This is what
he's revealed. He's revealed what we ought to
know. effectual particular redemption,
that Christ didn't just die a death of general applicability, pick
and mix it if you want to, no, effectual particular redemption,
regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the implanting of a new man.
the preservation for he'll keep his people, the glorification
of his people, that for which we're waiting, the return of
the Lord Jesus Christ. These things, right doctrine,
this is the basis on which we come. Public worship must be
in accordance with his word. Coming to the Father only through
the Son. I am the way, the truth and the
life. You must come to the Father by Him and by Him alone. You
must honor the Son for whoever does not honor the Son does not
honor the Father. Those that say they honor Jehovah
but they don't honor the Son with the same regard as they
honor the Father are denying the Word of God. Honoring the
Son because it pleased the Father that He should have, Christ should
have the preeminence. We sing his praise, because this
is what he's ordained. The Psalms, you know? And not
just Psalms, but Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We read
his word. We pray publicly together because
all of our meetings are prayer meetings. We don't just have
a gathering where we think the longer that we speak the more
God's going to change his mind and do things the way we want,
no. But we pray publicly, we pray quietly in our hearts as
we meet together. We submit to his word preached. These are all the ascension gifts
to his church and the preaching must be Christ-centered. It must
be spirit-anointed. It must be word-based, based
on the Word. It must be not a debate amongst
ourselves as to what we think, but a declaration of the Gospel
of God alone. That's why we do things this
way, because this is what God has ordained. You know, as Cliff
was saying, the thousands that got together to listen to Whitfield,
they didn't get together for a debate. or those that gathered
to listen to Huntingdon and Spurgeon and other great preachers of
the past they got together to listen to the gospel of God's
grace declared thus saith the Lord that's what God says and
that's what we must do worship must be spiritual Philippians
3 verse 3 we are the true circumcision you know the circumcision is
those set apart for God we are the true circumcision those who
worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, who
have no confidence in the flesh. Our only ark and our only altar
is Jesus Christ himself. Hebrews 13 verse 10, as I mentioned
earlier, we have an altar whereby they have no right to eat which
serve the tabernacle made with hands, the one made with hands,
the tabernacle made with hands. If it's just an external thing
they have no right to eat at God's altar. Where's God's altar
today? it's the Lord Jesus Christ and
the gospel of his grace and that's where we gather and that's how
we worship him in Christ and him alone and we wouldn't meddle
with it we wouldn't meddle with it because I tell you you might
not be struck dead physically today like Uzzah was for touching
that ark but there's a day of judgment coming and if we're
outside of Christ and outside of the gospel of his grace just
as surely as Uzzah was struck dead we will be condemned in
the judgment Let's be in Christ. Let's be found in Him. Not having
our own righteousness, but that which is from Him alone. Because
as surely as God killed Uzzah, He will destroy in the judgment
all who are outside of Christ and outside of the gospel of
His grace. And that's why as we take bread
and wine, as we will shortly, That's why these things are so
important. He said, in this way do it, so we have unleavened
bread. Why? Surely that's trivial, doesn't
make any difference, does it? Yes, it does. If God has said,
you will represent me with unleavened bread, because you're representing
the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose body was broken
for us. And if he says, you will represent my blood with wine,
we represent it with wine. You know, we represent it with
wine. and I'm sorry people who say oh we must be careful because
there might be alcoholics who would be offended by that God
will take care of that we do what he says we're using wine
because it's what he said in his word unleavened bread and
wine so let's worship him in the right way.