Good morning. I spoke to our pastor yesterday
through text, and he wanted to make sure that I told you he
sends his love, him and Trish both. I told him I certainly
would. In his absence, he's asked me
to proclaim the gospel to you, and this morning I shall try
my best. Before I do that, I would like to ask the Lord that he
may bless our time together. Let's pray. Father, we come into
your presence on the merits of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
asking that you would send your spirit to this place and that
you would be the unseen host, that we would see you this morning
through the eyes of faith that you give. Lord, thank you for
our pastor and thank you for this gospel that you have placed
in our heart to proclaim. We ask that you would get the
glory for everything that takes place this morning. Give us clarity
of mind. Give us ears to hear. Lord, be
with those who are sick and afflicted, our brethren that are in the
hospital right now, and those that are dealing with sickness,
unable to be here, those that are traveling. We pray that you
would bring each of them safely back into your house according
to your will. It's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen. Our text is found this morning
in 2 Samuel chapter 6, if you'd like to turn there, please. 2 Samuel chapter 6. Even though we're easily discouraged
in this life, and I get discouraged even as the weather changes,
my wife was talking, coming here, how cold it is and how disappointed
I am with the temperature. But these are all purpose things
that the Lord has purposed before the foundation of the world.
We're easily tossed about with every weight and the sin that
doth so easily beset us, unbelief. This morning, I would like to
remind us that we have a mercy seat. We have a refuge. We have
help in our time of need. We have an oasis in a dry and
thirsty land here. Here is where we are reminded
that the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is not diminished by man's
unbelief. The purpose of Jehovah's sitkin
you is not discouraged by man's belief in his free will. The
power of I am is not limited by man's devices, man's vain
imaginations or choices. The sovereignty of God is not
threatened by man or principalities or powers in any way. We have
a place of refuge. We have a place of rest in our
sovereign savior. and his work. Now in this chapter,
second Samuel chapter six, David had already seen God's grace
in his life. He had defeated Goliath who represents
the flesh and the Lord had brought him through that. He had ran
for his life from Saul for many years and the Lord had brought
him through that. And in chapter five of second
Samuel, he was declared the king over Israel. And the first thing
that he does, the first act that he does as King of Israel, is
he fights the Philistines and he rids the land of the false
gospel that they brought. We can find that in chapter five,
verse 21. It says, and there they left their images and David
and his men burned them. They took the graven images left
behind by the Philistines and they got rid of every bit of
it. David had gathered together in chapter six the men of Judah
because the ark of the Lord had been taken by the Philistines
and without the ark of God, there could be no worship. God had
put in the heart of David the hope that he could worship God
by retrieving the ark. So David gathers together these
30,000 men and they put the ark on a cart pulled by oxen and
they go to bring it back to the city of Jerusalem, the place
where the Lord's temple is. They started marching back to
Jerusalem with the Ark on a cart pulled by oxen. If we are left
to ourselves, we will treat the Ark of the Lord the exact way
that David did. David believed that he had favor
with God, or he saw some evidence of his salvation because he had
just destroyed the Philistines. He was now king, and so he goes
to retrieve the Ark, but he did not magnify the Ark By exalting
it, he propped it up on a cart. This was contrary to what the
Lord had told the nation Israel how they was to handle the ark.
So who showed them how to handle the ark this way? The Philistines
did. They watched the non-believing
Philistines carry away the ark from Jerusalem on a cart pulled
by oxen. Now, oxen represents the strength
of man. And that's exactly the way that they handled the ark,
bringing it back to Jerusalem. God had given very specific instructions
on the transportation of his ark, that the Levites were the
only ones that had the ability to carry the ark. And it was
to be carried on staves and never handled or never touched, not
put up on a cart made with man's hands and certainly not pulled
by oxen. God has told you and I what worship
is as well. Worship is agreeing with him,
Worship is siding with God against ourselves. God will meet a man. God will meet you and I on the
grounds wherewith we approach him. If we come approaching him,
pleading Christ, pleading the blood alone, pleading his work,
bowing on our face before God as a dead dog sinner, he will
meet you there and he will meet me there. But if we come approaching
him pleading self, pleading our works, pleading our righteousness,
he'll meet us there as well. What we have here in this church,
and I'm talking about these four walls, what the Lord has given
us here is precious. It's rare. I've been to several
places over the last couple months to proclaim the gospel to some
dear brethren, and I've fallen in love with them, and you would
too. They don't have a pastor and they are hungry. What we
have here is a place where the Lord promises to meet his people,
where the gospel is proclaimed. What we have is a pastor that
has fed us, that is feeding us, and we pray the Lord continues
to cause him to do so. But what we have is the ability
to worship God in spirit and in truth freely. And this is
a very rare thing, even in our country. If you think about the
vast population of how many people that are here, how many places
has the Lord raised up to proclaim the gospel? May the Lord keep us from taking
worship too lightly. May the Lord remind us this morning
what we do have in the gospel, in what the Lord has given us
in this place. David took the worship of God
too lightly. But I do have hope for us this morning, and it's
the interjection of the gospel. No matter how wretched and how
bad we talk about how we are, the gospel comes in when we say,
but God, who is rich in mercy. But God, he saves unto the uttermost. But God, to the preaching of
the gospel, here will I meet with you. As they were bringing
the ark back, Uzzah reaches out because the ark is about to fall
and he touches it. He grabs hold of the ark in order
to stabilize it, in order to secure it. His intentions were
good. They were good. But our best
intentions equal our damnation. Even now, as I try to preach
the gospel to you, I am utterly sinful outside of Christ, my
substitute. Every one of us come into this
place bearing the load of sin and shame, begging the Lord to
have mercy upon us. And we can certainly relate to
us as effort wanting to reach out and try to touch it. But
I caution us this morning that we must have a substitute to
touch God. Our substitute is needed. Man's
error is I can touch God and live. Man's error is believing
God needs help in salvation. believing that Christ's blood,
Christ's work, Christ's work was not sufficient. And this
is the lie. This is the lie that was fabricated
back in the garden of Eden whenever the serpent came to Eve. And
he said to her, ye shall not surely die. He just added one
word to what God has said and changed the whole meaning of
it, didn't he? Ye shall not surely die. That's the same lie that's
being told today. Christ is not enough. that God
needs us to do something to make what Christ did enough, but God
is satisfied with his son only. And if you and I touch the ark,
we will surely die. We need a substitute. Now I want
to start in verse one, and I want to look at this whole, not the
entire chapter, but several verses from the gospel's viewpoint.
I've given you the history of everything that's happened, but
I want us to take note of a couple of names here, and maybe the
Lord will reveal his gospel to us this morning. So then verse
one, it says, again, David gathered together all the chosen men of
Israel, 30,000. This story starts with election, chosen in the
covenant of grace. David chose men, and that's how
the gospel starts. Before the foundation of time,
God elected a people. God chose a people in the covenant
of grace. Ephesians chapter one, verse
four says, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Having predestinated us, his
people, unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself
according to the good pleasure of his will. So what was David accomplishing
here or trying to accomplish as he was coming back? He desired
worship, didn't he? He desired to worship God. In
verse two, it says, and David arose and went with all the people
that were with him from Beale of Judah. to bring up from thence
the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord
of hosts that dwell between the cherubims. The ark of God is the place where
the Lord promised the children of Israel he would meet with
them. Where the gospel is preached is the place where God has promised
to meet with his people. The gospel and the ark and the
Lord Jesus Christ are all the exact same thing. Do we see that?
The word for mercy seat is capareth. And that word translated means
an atonement covering or a place of atonement. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ, is it not? This is where the Lord meets
with his people. This is the elect's atonement
covering There is no worship outside of looking to Christ,
the mercy seat, as God. And we find here in verse number
two that the ark was located in Beale. In my Bible ledger,
the center margin says that it's called Kirjath Jarim. And that's
the old Arabic name for Abu Ghosh, meaning the village of grapes. The village of grapes. So what
is the Lord selling us this morning? In order for the Lord to bring
back the ark, which is the place of worship, worship between God
and man, to redeem his people, to present them perfect before
the Father, He must elect a people. He must do the entire work in
saving the people. And how did he do that? He went
to the village of grapes and was trodden under the wine press,
the wine press of God's wrath. The scripture says in 2 Corinthians
5.21, for he, the father, hath made him the son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. In Revelation chapter
14 and verse 19, it says, and the angel thrust in his sickle
into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and cast it
into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine
press was trodden without the city and blood came out of the
wine press. He, the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
had to tread the wine press of the wrath of God alone. And he
did that for his people. Now in verse three, we've mentioned
this before, they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought
it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah and Uzzah
and Ahio. The sons of Abinadab draved the
new cart and they brought it out of the house of Abinadab,
which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God and Ahio went
before the ark. Now, I'm gonna tell you the four
names of these names that are mentioned right here and the
meaning of them, and then we're gonna reread that. Habinadab is the father
of a vow. Gibeah is a heel, a high heel. Uzzah is her strength. And Ahio is brethren, his brethren. So it literally translates this,
and they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out
of the house of the father of a vowel that was in the high
heel and her strength and the, his brethren, the sons of the
father of a vowel draved the new cart. What is the Lord telling
us this morning? This is literally saying that
the father entered into a covenant with his son, her strength, the
church's strength, for the salvation of his people, of his bride. On the highest hill, Gibeah,
which is heaven, he condescended, born as a man, born under the
law that he might redeem them that are under the law, born
to die, to be trodden under the winepress of God's wrath, to
make his bride, his elect, perfectly righteous. In Galatians 4, It
says, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law, that he might receive the adoption
of sons. Everything that the father required
for the salvation of his people, the Lord Jesus Christ provided.
For what the law could not do and that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending forth his own son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8, 3. Everything that the Lord Jesus
Christ did, his bride did in him. All the faith that he had,
perfect obedience, perfect righteousness, we did in our substitute lamb.
Our life is hid in him, and he has made unto his elect all righteousness,
all wisdom, all sanctification, and all redemption. That is why
his name is Uzzah, her strength. Now notice verse six. And when
they came to Nacon's threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand
to the ark of God and took hold of it. For the oxen shook it.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And God
smote him there for his error. And there he died by the ark.
And David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon
Uzzah. And he called the name of the place Perez-Uzzah to this
day. It's very important that we realize
if there is anything that we can say, if we think that there
is anything that we say or anything that we think we can do to obligate
God to do anything for us or to be acceptable or pleasing
in his sight, to have favor with him outside of Christ or to control
him in any way, then we do not know who God is. took hold of
this ark without realizing who God was. We are utterly sinful,
but because of Uzzah, our substitute, he saves to the uttermost. Now,
Nacon translated here is a ready place or a sure place. And pure as Uzzah means to burst
out against Uzzah. What he's saying here is, is
when they arrived at the ready place, the place appointed before
the foundation of the world, Mount Calvary, when they arrived
at this place, God burst out against her strength, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the bride strength, Uzzah. Romans 8.32, he that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Christ had to
become the substitution for the elect. Christ literally had to
become me so I could become him. God emptied the full fury of
his fiery justice on his precious son because of my error, my error. He took the elect sin into himself
and died as each of them. Her strength had to die to make
her his own. When he saw the sin of God's
elect upon him, upon his precious son, he said, in Zechariah chapter
13, awake, O sword, and smite the shepherd. There was two things
that Abraham carried whenever he was gonna make his son an
offering. One was the fire and one was
a knife. And that knife is the same sort
of justice that's referred to right here. When the father saw
sin upon his son, my sin upon his son, the elect sin upon his
son, that sort of justice pierced the heart of the king of glory.
We cannot fathom the depths of the agony that Christ had to
endure in order to save his people. This was all because we would
have propped up the ark rather than magnified it. because we
are false and full of sin, because we error in thinking we can touch
God and live. Christ, our Uzzah, Christ, her
strength, wretched out and took hold of the ark of God, and God
poured out his wrath upon his son. God executed his son on
my behalf in the elect's stead. Christ's words on the cross in
Matthew 27, 50 says, Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud
voice, yielded up the ghost and behold the veil in the temple,
what separated me from God, my sin. The veil would not allow
us to enter in to the holy place of God. The veil in the temple,
when Christ died, was written twain from top to bottom and
the earth did quake and the rocks rent. We can now enter boldly
and to the throne of grace, having obtained mercy to find grace
to help in the time of need. You know when your time of need
is and my time of need is? When we see ourself as a sinner.
That's our time of need, truly. We have one thing needful and
that's a substitute. Now notice in verse nine, David
was afraid of the Lord that day. And he said, how shall the ark
of the Lord come to me? So David would not remove the
Ark of the Lord unto him and to the city of David, but David
carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gaitite. And
the Ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-Edom the
Gaitite three months. And the Lord blessed Obed-Edom
and all his household. David was afraid when he saw
the wrath of God upon Uzzah. Now, being afraid of God is not
enough for salvation. The demons believe and tremble,
do they not? Scripture says that. You must
have faith, which is the gift of God given through the preaching
of his gospel. You must have the gift of hearing.
And the Lord is the only one that can give us ears to hear. He is the one that makes us to
differ. Now, later on, you'll see that David didn't just fear
God, but David repented. David repented of everything
he thought about who God was. And when we see a glimpse of
who God is through the preaching of the gospel, when he gives
us that faith to believe, we immediately see the center that
we are. We immediately see the wretched state that we're in.
We immediately see our thoughts are not his thoughts and our
ways are not his ways, that he is high and lifted up and we
are low in a base. David learned one thing for sure,
that God was not approachable without a high priest, a substitute. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
that substitute that entered in by his own blood. The name
Obed-Edom here literally means that, the servant of red or blood.
And we know in Hebrews chapter nine, verse 12, it says, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered
once into the holy place, having obtained. I love the wording
there. He didn't try to do anything,
did he? Having obtained, it is finished, having obtained eternal
redemption for his people. The ark stayed for three months
here, and that represents the three days and three nights the
Lord was in the heart of the earth, but death could not hold
him. Death has no claim upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, nor his people, because the father was satisfied. The evidence of the father's
satisfaction is found in Romans 4.25. It says, who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
And in Hebrews 10, it says, but this man, this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God. God was satisfied with our
substitute lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, her strength, our Uzzah. Now in closing, I wanna look
at verse 12 through 15. And it was told King David saying,
the Lord had blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that pertaineth
unto him because of the ark of God. So David went and brought
up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom under the city of
David with gladness. And it was so that when they
that bear the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed
oxen and fatlings. And David danced before the Lord
with all his might. And David was girded with a linen
ephod. David heard that the house of
Obed-Edom was blessed and David still had a need to worship God.
Believers want to worship God, but they don't want to worship
God the way that the world worships God. There is false worship happening
in churches all over this town right now. Believers want to
worship God, God's way. Believers know that worshiping
God is agreeing with God in everything that He has said, in everything
that He has done, and taking sides with God against ourself.
That's what worship is. True worship comes from the heart
that He gives unto the believer. David saw God as God, as holy. just like Isaiah did high and
lifted up higher than the heavens. They would take six paces. They would take six steps, which
is the number of man. And they would sacrifice oxen.
The same thing that pulled the ark before they would take six
places, the number of man, and then sacrifice oxen, which is
the strength of man. They literally was saying, I
am repenting of everything I am and all of my strength and everything
that I thought about who God is. And I am bowing unto the
Lord. That's what they was doing. They were confessing God gets
all the glory. This is the evidence that salvation
has come to a believer is what thank you of Christ. If that
is our attitude, David's attitude right here, the same, then that
is, what we should think of Christ, high and lifted up, exalted,
higher than the heavens. Notice that David was wearing
a linen ephod. That is a priestly garment, a
priestly garment. David became very serious for
the worship of God after he saw who God was. You and I, when
we approach God, it is a serious matter. May the Lord cause us
to realize what a precious thing we have here in worshiping him.
May he cause us and keep us looking into him. I could see them now, as they would
take the six places, they would stop everything and they would
offer these offerings unto the Lord. And as soon as the Lord
accepted the offering, they would begin to dance again and Thanksgiving
that God did not kill them for what they was that God had mercy
upon them. Can you see that? That's what
we're doing right now is we're giving Thanksgiving Lord. Thank
you for not giving us what we have merited in our flesh and
what we are by our father, Adam. Thank you for the sacrifice of
your son in substitution. That's the hope that we have
is, that's why we're here this morning is to worship God in
spirit and in truth, to agree with him that Christ is all of
our righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and wisdom. Christ
was the only one, Christ is the only one that can touch God and
not be destroyed and touch man and not be defiled. Because of
our Uzzah, Her strength, we are accepted in the beloved. We are
seated in him at the right hand of God. We are made the righteousness
of God in him. We have access to the very throne
of God. God is approachable because of
the blood of the lamb. We can approach God on behalf
of his son because of her strength, touching the mercy seat, the
holy things of God. As the center substitute, we
are made righteous in him, all because Uzzah touched the mercy
seat. Amen. Father, bless your word according
as you promised you would. It's in Christ and we pray. Amen.
Let's take a break.