Let's open up tonight's worship
service. Number one on the hardback handle, number one, oh, worship
the king, number one. Please stand. O worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, Pavilion in splendor, engirded with praise,
O tell of His might, O sing of His grace, Whose robe is the
light, whose canopy space, His chariot's soft breath the deep
thunder clouds form, And dark is his path on the wings of the
storm. Thy bountiful care, what tongue
can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines
in the light. It streams from the hills, it
descends to the plain, and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to the end, are maker, defender, redeemer, and friend. May be seated. Thank you, Bird. And I have given you a land for
which you did not labor, and cities which you built not, and
you dwell in them. And of the vineyards and olive
yards which you planted not, do you eat. We didn't do anything to deserve
this land. We didn't do anything to earn
it or fight for it. The Lord gave it to us freely
by His grace. What a blessing. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 47. Psalm 47. I had purposed to preach
from this psalm tonight and then the more I looked at the event
in the history of Israel that this psalm was written about,
the more I wanted to preach from that. So we're going to be in
2 Samuel chapter 6, which is the story of David bringing the
Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. And it's a picture of the ascension
of Christ. Oh, clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice
of trumpet. For the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the
earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance
for us. The excellency of Jacob, whom
he loved, Selah. God has gone up with a shout.
The Lord with a shout of a trumpet. You can just see the angels in
heaven who were prepared to come down and deliver Christ from
the cross. He said, I could have called
12 legions of angels. They all had their swords pulled.
They were all prepared to come, but he didn't. And now that he's
rose from the dead, he's ascended back into glory. And from earth's perspective,
we just see him as the disciples saw him being caught up into
the clouds But from heaven's perspective, can you imagine
the exaltation that those angels in heaven gave to the Lord as
he returned to his rightful place? That's the picture here. David's
writing this psalm about the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God is gone up with a shout. The Lord with the shout of a
trumpet Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises unto
our King, sing praises, for God is the King of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. Aren't you thankful to have some
understanding? God reigneth over the heathen.
God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness. The princes of
the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of
Abraham for the shields. Now those are methods of defense. So all the things that men put
up to defend themselves against God. The shields of the earth belong
to God. He is greatly exalted. No man
can say unto him, what doest thou? All the futile attempts
that men make to resist God are doomed for failure. The understanding that we have
is that salvation is of the Lord. That He is sovereign. He is omnipotent. We've come here to worship him
tonight, so let's pray together. Armita went home from the hospital
this afternoon around 4 o'clock, and she is just now beginning
to suffer some pain from her surgery. So I want us to remember
Armita. And Reynaldo and Laura are going
to have their hands full trying to provide for her. So I think
they have in-home hospice coming with a hospital bed and with
nursing care to the home. You get a chance to encourage
them. I know they appreciate that.
Let's pray together Our merciful heavenly father we come in the
name of thy dear son thanking you that we have access into
the throne of grace We thank you Lord that we have not only
your acceptance, but we have the The hope of your love and
of the promise of salvation and revelation of your glory and
your grace that you've given to us in your word. Lord, how
hopeful we are in this hour that you'd be pleased to speak to
our hearts, draw us into thy presence and cause us once again
to rejoice in you, to rejoice in Christ, to rejoice in his
finished work and to rest our souls in him. Lord, we do pray for our media
and we pray for Rinaldo and Laura and we ask Lord for your. Extra
grace and mercy to be upon them as you provide for them in every
way. Give us Lord the opportunities
to encourage and help them as we are able. We ask it in Christ
name. Amen. Would you turn to number 212?
in your hard back, number 212, Nothing But The Blood. If you'd
please stand, number 212. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus, not of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. Oh, no other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Baby, sit. Psalm 47 that we just read. David wrote after the experience
that he had in 2 Samuel chapter 6. And so if you'll turn with
me to 2 Samuel chapter 6, you know that this book is all about
Christ and all these Old Testament stories point to one event or
another in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we read
1 Corinthians chapter 15, we often think of the death, burial,
and resurrection being the summary of the gospel, and it is. But without the ascension, without
the ascension, we would not have an advocate. Without the ascension,
we would not have a man in heaven standing in our stead. We would
not have one who had presented himself before the Father on
our behalf. It's the reason why the Lord
told us in John chapter 14, let not your heart be troubled. After
the Lord had told the disciples clearly that he was going to
go to the cross, they thought, oh no, what did he say? Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God. Believe also in me, for in my
Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
so that where I am, there you may be also. Oh, The hope of the resurrection
and the hope of the ascension. You remember when Mary came to
the tomb after the resurrection of Christ and she was clinging
to the Lord and he said, Mary, don't touch me. I'm not yet gone
to my father. And what he was saying to her
was Mary, my physical presence isn't what you need. It's going
to be expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come. But when he comes, he'll lead
you into all truth. What you need is not me. You
see, Mary thought, I'm not going to lose you again. I lost you
once. I'm not going to lose you again.
The Lord was saying to Mary, Mary, my physical presence is
not what you need. What you need is the Spirit of
God to enable you to fellowship with me spiritually all the time. And what you need is for me to
go back into glory and resume my rightful place and take with
me the names of those for whom I lived and died and present
them successfully before the Father. The ascension of the
Lord Jesus Christ is essential for our salvation. And the story
that we read in 2 Samuel chapter 6 is about the ascension of Christ. And that Psalm that we just read,
Psalm 47, is about the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ who
rules and reigns uncontested over the world, over all the
shields, over all the resistance that men put up to try to deny
Him His power and His glory. He's not in the least. He's not
in the least threatened by the rebellion of men. He reigns sovereign
over the armies of heaven and over all the inhabitants of the
earth he is Lord over the living and over the dead and God's people
rejoice God's people say amen amen I've got a king I've got
a reigning king who's sitting on his throne and he's going
to come again he's gonna come again he's gonna take everyone
of us home everyone that he died for Now, you know that the ark,
when the Lord told Moses to build the ark of the covenant in Exodus
chapter 24, everything about that little box, that's what
it was. It was about 28 inches by 46
inches. So let's say it's a 2 feet by
4 foot box. That's what it was. And everything
about that ark, everything about that covenant box, pictured the
Lord Jesus Christ. It was to be made of shittum
wood, which from what I understand was a very dense wood that was
resistant to rot and that box was to be carved out of that
wood and then it was to be overlaid inside and outside with pure
gold. And there was a mercy seat on
top of that box And on each side of the mercy seat were cherubims
and the cherubims were standing facing one another with their
wings touching as a symbol of those cherubims we read about
in Isaiah chapter 6 that are hovering over the throne of God,
protecting the mercy seat and singing glory to Christ. On the sides of that ark, There
were four rings, one on each corner, and through those rings
were to be staves or poles that were also made out of shidom
wood that were covered in pure gold as well. And once those
poles were put in those rings, those poles were never to be
taken out. That's clear. As you read in Exodus 24. And
then inside the Ark of the Covenant was the tablets of stone. Inside
the Ark of the Covenant was an ofar of manna, a jar of manna
that they had collected, and inside the ark was Aaron's rod
that had budded. Now the Shittim wood represents
the physical body of the Lord Jesus Christ, his humanity. And God would not allow him to
see corruption, so even in his body he was raised from the dead.
The covering of gold, pure gold is a picture of His deity. The
mercy seat, God said to Aaron, He said, you bring the blood
from that lamb and put it on the mercy seat and here I will
meet with you. And that mercy seat is the place
where God still meets with His people through the shed blood
of the lamb that's without spot and without blemish. The tablets
of stone represent the Lord Jesus Christ as king. He's the one
who gives the law, he's the one who exercises justice against
the law, and he's the one who is able to fulfill the law. The rod, Aaron's rod, represents
the Lord Jesus Christ as priest, as our high priest. We have a
high priest who intercedes for us with God. And he not only
intercedes, but he presents himself as our intercessor to the Father. And then the Ofar of manna. The Lord said to the disciples,
he said, that manna that came down from heaven, Moses didn't
send you that. He said, that manna was sent
by my Father. I am the bread of life. I'm the
one that you feed on. And the word of God, the written
word and the living word is our soul's food. It's what we eat
on. We break the bread of life and
we eat on the revelation that the Word of God gives us about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what about those staves that
went through the rings? Well, if the ark and everything
about the ark represents the Lord Jesus Christ, then the staves
going through the rings picture how the gospel of God's grace
is always carried by men. It's always carried by men. Now,
we're going to see something different in our story tonight.
But isn't that the case now? God uses the foolishness of preaching. Everybody wants to have a personal
encounter with God. out in the woods, up in the clouds,
you know, everybody wants to feel like they have and God says,
no, I'm going to use preaching. I'm going to use a frail man
to speak to frail men. I'm going to use a beggar to
tell other beggars where they can find bread. I'm going to
use one sinner to tell other sinners about the Savior, and
I'm going to be glorified by it. And this gospel is not going
to be communicated any other way. It's going to be carried
by men into the world. Now, the gospel, the ark of the
covenant, 1 Samuel chapter 7, had been captured by the Philistines. And you remember this is the
story where Hophni and Phinehas who were the sons of Eli who
was the priest at the time who were unfaithful men and they
were both killed in battle by the Philistines and the ark was
taken and when Eli heard that the ark was taken, Eli fell over
and died. and the Philistines not knowing
what the Ark was, they just thought it was a symbol of Israel's God. We'll put the Ark in our temple. And so they brought the Ark in
and they put it in the temple of Dagon. And they came back
the next morning and Dagon had fallen over. And they put it
back in. Dagon had broke his neck on the
threshold of the temple. And so the Philistines, they
put the Ark on a cart. And the cow that was pulling
the cart had a calf back in the area of the Philistines and it
wasn't natural for that cow to leave her calf. And so she bellowed
all the way back to Israel, crying for her calf but under the compulsion
of God to take that ark back to Israel. And the ark ended
up in Abinadab's home. And now for the next 20 years,
the Ark is in Benadab's home, of Benadab. Now David has become
king and David sends for the Ark to bring the Ark to Jerusalem
and put it in the tabernacle where it belongs. Here's the
establishment of the gospel in Israel. And for some unknown
reason, David gets the wild idea that we'll do what the Philistines
did. We'll put that ark on a cart. And we'll not just put it on
any cart, we'll put it on a new cart. And you know, I got to
thinking about this. I thought, you know, Eastern
people have a cultural tendency toward things that are very ornate. You know, you think about the
The carts in India that they used that are pulled by, you
know, with all the flowers and things. I wonder how elaborate
David must have made this cart. You know, maybe it looked like
a Mardi Gras float pulling the Ark of the Covenant. And it was
contrary to everything that God said about how the Ark was to
be handled. Verse 1 of 2 Samuel chapter 6. Again, David gathered together
all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000, and David arose and went
with all the people that were with him from Bali of Judah to
bring up from thence the ark of God whose name is called by
the name of the Lord of hosts that dwelt between the cherubims.
Oh, David wanted this ark in Jerusalem. He wanted to reestablish
worship. And 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 drove the new cart. Now this was contrary to everything
God said about how this cart was to be carried. and how it
was to be moved from one location to another. And they brought
it out of the house of the Benedab, which was at Gibeah, accompanying
the Ark of God. And Ahio went before the cart,
the Ark, and David and all the house of Israel played before
the Lord of all manner of instruments made of firwood, even of harps,
and of psaltery, and on timbrels, and cornets, and on cymbals.
They were worshiping God, but they were not doing it in the
prescribed manner. And my first point is, anything
we do to dress up the gospel only takes away from it. Anything
that we do to dress up the gospel only takes away from it. And when they came to Nachan'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 of God. 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, which translated
is the breach of Uzzah. And David was afraid of the Lord
that day and said, how shall the ark of the Lord come to me? Now that's the answer we're going
to get. How is the ark of the Lord going
to come to me? It's not going to come to me
by using some method that's not been ordained of God. I hear
men talk about trying to make the gospel relevant to modern
day culture. And my response to that is there
is nothing new under the sun. Young people, men are the same
exact thing now as they were a hundred years ago, as they
were a thousand years ago, as they were 5,000 years ago, men
have not changed. Don't be deceived in thinking
because we have a different environment that our hearts are different.
We're not, we're the same. We're exactly the same. And sinners
need to hear exactly the same message. I mean, I'm so encouraged. I read sermons from the 1600s
and they speak to my heart. I read sermons from the scriptures.
that are 2,000 years old and they speak to my heart. Why?
Because the truth hasn't changed. And whatever changes have taken
place with men, I know one thing for absolutely certain, God hasn't
changed. He hasn't changed at all. And
that's why we declare the gospel. We don't try to defend it. We
don't try to dress it up. We don't try to improve on it.
Whatever men do to try to make the gospel relevant only takes
away from the gospel. We've been called to preach Christ.
To preach Christ from His word. And that's all we are to do.
And we're not making it a matter of discussion. You remember Sunday? The word didactic? Didactic teaching
is just telling men what's true. If I tell you that two plus two
always equals four and somebody says to me, well, no, you know,
I've got a way to figure it out where it might equal four and
a half. You know, we came to the point back in the 1960s where
we thought that we were too smart as a nation We came to the conclusion
that we were too smart as a nation to have to memorize things, that
we were all intelligent men and that we were free thinkers and
we could decide for ourselves what was true and what's not
true. And now we have a whole culture of free thinkers who
can't think straight about anything because they do not believe the
didactic teaching of the Bible. They want to question everything. And God says, thus saith the
Lord, there's nothing to be questioned about it. It's to be believed. And if God gives you faith, you
just say, truth, Lord. Amen. Amen. That's what I need. I don't need something I need
to think about. I don't need something I need to add to. David
put the ark on a cart because he thought this would be a better
way to carry it. What was he doing? He was following the example
of the Philistines. There's so much of that going
on in religion today. Men following the example of
the unbelieving world trying to dress up the gospel with drama
and music and dress and all kinds of things. And God said, just
preach it. Just preach it. Just tell men what I said. My
people will hear me. My people will hear my voice
and they will believe me. And they won't question it. They'll just bow to me. because
I said it. The second point I want you to
see here is that anytime man puts his hand to the ark he only
kindles the anger of God. Now what does the hand represent?
Works. The hand represents works. Who shall stand in the presence
of God? They who have clean hands and
a pure heart and have not lifted up their soul to vanity. And who's that? Who's the only
one who has clean hands? Who's the one who was pierced
through his hands, wounded for our transgressions? The Lord
Jesus Christ. But here we've got a sinner by
the name of Uzzah putting his, you say, people might read this
and say, well that doesn't seem fair. I mean the ark was stumbling,
the cows, the oxen had obviously run into a rut in the road and
the thing was about to fall off and he was walking along beside
it. It would have just been natural to put his hand up there and
hold it. And that's what happens when you don't follow the prescribed
method that God has ordained. And men put their These are spiritual
pictures. Making salvation contingent on
something that I do only kindles the anger of God and will ultimately
destroy me in the same way that Uzzah was destroyed. Or looking
to my works. looking to my works for evidence
of my salvation. That's putting your hand to the
ark. Well, you know, I know I'm saved because I don't do this
anymore and I don't do that and I do this and I do the other
and men are constantly trying to find assurance of their salvation
by looking to the works of their hands. That's putting your hand
to the ark. Assurance of salvation only comes
when we look to the ark alone. And we worship the ark and we
honor the ark and we carry the ark the way God said to carry
it. When we look to the Lord Jesus Christ, I repeated a quote
that's been told many times in that little article that was
in your bulletin Sunday. When I look to Christ, the dove
of peace flies into my heart. When I look for the dove of peace,
he flies away. If you look to an experience,
if you look to feelings, if you look to what you're doing or
not doing with your hands as evidence of your salvation, you're
putting your hand to the ark. And it only kindles the wrath
of God because it robs from the Lord Jesus Christ his glory and
salvation. So men dress up the ark. They
get in pulpits like this and they wear fancy robes or they
put stained glass windows in their churches or they have drama
and big choirs and movies and all sorts of musicals in an attempt
to try to make the ark, the gospel relevant to today's culture.
Why are we so plain? Why are we so simple? Why do
we not put all of these religious trinkets and trappings in our
worship. I remember when we built this
building, I had to fight my brother. John helped us on this building
when we were putting the trusses up. And I had to fight my brother
to keep him from wanting to, he wanted to put a steeple on.
You've got to put a steeple, man. You've got to have a big
cross up there on top of the building. No, we're not going
to do that, John. We're just going to keep it real
simple and real plain because we don't want anything to distract
from the ark. We want the ark to get all the
attention and all the glory. David thought, we'll follow the
pattern of the Philistines. We got a better way to carry
the ark than just preaching. We'll put it on a fancy cart and then we'll put our hand to
it. And David, verse eight, was displeased
because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah, and he called the
name of the place Perez-Uzzah to this day. And David was afraid
of the Lord that day. Where the ark is, there is a
fear of God, a fear of God, a reverential
fear of God. worshipful attitude of submission
to God. It's not a slavish fear. The
law has been satisfied. Oh, but it is a carefulness.
It is a carefulness where the Ark is located. Turn with me
to 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians for
the purpose of correcting the church at Corinth for some things
that they were doing that were sinful, that were destructive,
things they needed to be rebuked over. And now he's writing them
this second letter and he says, and though I made you sorry with
a letter, I do not repent. I'm not sorry that I made you
sorry. That's what he's saying. I'm not sorry that I made you
sorry. Though I did repent, I was afraid when I sent the letter
that, you know, maybe I was being too harsh. For I perceived that
the same epistle had made you sorry though it were but for
a season. Now I rejoice, not that you were
made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance, for you were made
sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us
and nothing for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.
Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. Godly sorrow changes
your mind about salvation, about God. Not to be repented of. But the
sorrow of the world, the guilt, and shame, and attempts to do
penance and to atone for one's sins, that's what worldly sorrow
is. Worldly sorrow is what religion
does when they put you under the law. Well, if I can just
be a better person, if I can just stop doing this and start
doing that, and if I can feel bad enough for my sin, then God
will forgive me. That's worldly sorrow. That's
not godly sorrow. Godly sorrow changes your mind
about salvation. Worldly sorrow puts you under
the law. Worldly sorrow leads to a, leads
to death. Worldly sorrow, it makes, makes
God angry at you and makes you a slave to his fear. For behold, the same self thing
that you sorrowed after a godly sort What carefulness is wrought
in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation,
yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea,
what revenge and all these things you have approved yourselves
to be clear in this matter. God's given you a different heart
about how salvation works and you've become careful now and
that's exactly what's going to happen. Now turn back with me
to our text. in 2 Samuel chapter 6 because that's exactly what's
going to happen with David. David's going to become very
careful. He says, you know, God just struck us a dead right there
on the spot and now David is afraid. How am I going to bring
the ark to Jerusalem? So verse 10, David would not
remove the ark of the Lord into the city of David, but David
carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. Now Gittite was an inhabitant
of Gath. And this is significant in this
story because Gath is about 20 miles from Jerusalem, 20 miles. So now the ark He's no longer
in Abinadab's home, now it's in Obed Eden's home of Gath. And David's trying to figure
out how we're gonna get this ark to Jerusalem. He's being
very careful, being very discerning now. He's not just gonna throw
it on an ark, on a cart and say, let's just carry it on down to
Jerusalem. We gotta go back and figure out what God said about
how to do this the right way. And the ark of the Lord continued
in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months. And the
Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. 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.
Where the ark of God is, there is blessings, blessings. Now the world doesn't know what
these blessings are. The world thinks blessings are
material. The world thinks blessings are
something that we have in this life that makes our life easier. The absence of conflict and that
sort of thing. These are spiritual blessings.
What's the greatest spiritual blessing of all? Where the Ark
is. It's the forgiveness of our sins and the salvation of our
souls. And if we've got that, what else
matters? What else matters? If God's pleased to have the
ark in this house, then everyone in this house will be blessed.
Will be blessed with spiritual blessings. Beyond anything this
world has to offer, the blessings are in the ark. One thing I didn't
say about, you remember the law and the rod of Aaron and the
Ophir of Manna, the Lord Jesus Christ all throughout the scriptures
is called our prophet, our priest, and our king. There he is in
the ark, everything about that ark. And where the ark is, there
is the blessings of God. The revelation of truth is where
the ark is. The world doesn't have any truth.
The world is all relativistic. Nothing's really changed about
that. You know, I made the point about our nation back in the
60s, and there's some truth to that. We used to be better than
number 40 in the world when it comes to math and science. But in fact, the world's never
changed. Remember what Pilate said to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Truth? Truth? Is that what this is all
about? What is truth? There's no such thing as truth.
Don't you know everybody decides what's true for themselves? Truth
is a nebulous thing. It's a relative thing. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the truth. I am the truth. And when the
ark is, the blessing of truth comes to the heart. Truth is
so simple, and it's so clear, and it's so liberating. Wouldn't the Lord say, if you
know the truth, the truth will set you free? Free from the law,
free from the wrath of God, free from confusion, free from discouragement. We're free. free to love God, free to worship. Now, these spiritual blessings
to most men are unimportant. They're unimportant. They're
irrelevant. To most men, they're more concerned
about their material blessings. They're more concerned about
their pleasures. They're more concerned about
their relationships with other men than they are with their
relationships with God. These blessings that God gives
with the ark, as we can tell from the number of people in
this city of almost two million people, most men are not interested. That's just a side issue. That's not really the main point
of life. The main point of life is that
I'd be happy in this world. And I've got too much to worry
about, to concern myself with for those things. God's people. I love that little
article that Joe Terrell had in our bulletin last Sunday about
having a need. God's people need the ark. Oh, they need this one who has
ascended into glory. They need to see him. They need
to know him. They need to be blessed by him. And so it was with David. David
heard the ark now had been in Obed-Edom's home for three weeks.
And I don't know what sort of blessings God gave to Obed-Edom,
but they were evident to everybody. And David said, I want to get
in on that. I need that blessing. I need that blessing. Isn't that
the way it is? That's how we encourage one another,
isn't it? Encouraging one another in the Lord. God's blessed me. He's enabled me in this trial
of mine. And He'll do the same for you.
And like David, we hear about the blessings of God on Obed-Edom
and we say, that's what I need. Oh, I need the ark in my home. I need to be in the place where
the ark is. Now, why is this 20 miles important? David now has spent these three
weeks researching the scriptures. What did we do wrong? What did
we do wrong? And he's discovered from Exodus
chapter 24 that the ark was never to be put on a cart. And God
wasn't impressed with all the extra stuff they were putting
on the ark. And that no man could ever touch the ark. The ark had
to be put through with staves. The staves could never be moved.
and it was to be carried on the shoulders of men. And a blood
sacrifice. A blood sacrifice. Now they're
in Gath. They've got 20 miles to get to
Jerusalem and every six steps, every 18 feet, David stops the
procession and kills an animal. I mean, you talk about a trail
of blood. From Gath to Jerusalem was a bloody street, a bloody
pathway all the way. What's the significance of this?
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins.
Look what happens. Look at the rest of verse 12.
Because of the ark of God, so David went and brought up the
ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into 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. Every six steps, David said,
we're not moving this ark without blood. We're not gonna move without
blood. And they were all walking in
blood. Blood has to be shed. Blood had
to be shed in the garden when Adam fell. A lamb had to be slain. Adam's attempts to cover his
nakedness with the works of his hands was not sufficient. The Lamb of God that was slain
before the foundation of the world, the only lamb that's without
spot and without blemish had to shed his precious blood. The
blood of bulls and goats did not take away our sin, but his
blood, his blood was effectual. We're not gonna know anything
about the presence, the power, and the salvation of God without
the blood. Noah, right after the flood,
first thing he does when he comes out, why did God tell Noah to
keep seven of the clean animals and only one pair of the unclean
animals? Because those clean animals had to be used as a sacrifice. And as soon as the waters abated
and they came out of the ark, the first thing they did was
they made a blood sacrifice. Abraham had to make a blood sacrifice. Remember when he divided the
animals and God spoke to Abraham? Isaac had to make a blood sacrifice. Going further back than that,
Abel. Abel made a sacrifice that was acceptable to God and Cain's
sacrifice was what? It was the works of his hands.
the labor, there's just two sacrifices. There's either a sacrifice that
man offers up because of his efforts, touching the ark and
kindling the wrath of God, or there's this bloody sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. Hebrews 9, verse 12, neither
by the blood of bulls and goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once, once into the holies of holies, into that
tabernacle, a tabernacle not built with man's hands. You see,
when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended back into glory, he took with him, all those that
he had shed his blood for. And that's what David's rejoicing
in. That's what he's rejoicing in
now. Let's finish this story quickly. Look what happens to
David. And it was so, verse 13, that
when they bear the ark of the Lord and had gone six paces,
he sacrificed oxen and fatlings and David danced before the Lord
with all his might and David was girded with the linen ephod.
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of
the Lord was shouting, and with the sound of trumpet and the
ark of the Lord came into the city of David. And Michael, Saul's
daughter looked through a window and saw David leaping and dancing
before the Lord. And she despised him in her heart."
Now, how many wives did David have? Three significant ones
that we, he had Abigail, You remember Abigail was the wife
of that churlish man. The scripture calls him Nabal. He was rude and without honor. And Abigail interceded with David. The Lord ended up killing Nabal
and Abigail became David's wife. And then we have Bathsheba. Bathsheba
being the wife of Uriah. We know all about that story
and how David had Uriah put to death and his men in order to
take Bathsheba as his wife. Now those two women represent
something about the church. David is the picture of Christ
and the wives of Christ are a picture of believers in the church. And
Abigail was saved out of a licentious, lawless world. That's what she
was saved out of. And the Lord's still saving men
and women. He's saving his lost sheep out
of an irreligious, licentious lifestyle. And then Abigail,
Abigail was married to a man of the law. Uriah wouldn't even
break the law in order to go home and be with his wife when
David tried Now, he was just the opposite of Nabal. Uriah
was a noble man. He was committed to the laws
of God. And Bathsheba's name translated
means the daughter of my oath. She's the mother of Solomon and
Bathsheba, pictures those that God has saved out of legalistic
religion. And so whether the Lord has brought
his sheep from a life of Nabal or a life of Uriah, he brings
them both into his family. Who does Michael represent? The Lord makes it clear that
there will always be tares among the wheat. Michael, whose daughter
was she? She was Saul's daughter, wasn't
she? The enemy of David. And she despised David from her
heart, and she looked through a window. Now, when I talk about
tares being among the wheat, I think, Lord, don't let me deceive
myself. Don't let me be a tare among
the wheat. If I could just be an Abigail or a Bathsheba, but here Michael despised David
in her heart. Why? Why did she do it? Well,
let's read on. Verse 17, and they brought in
the ark of the Lord and set it in its place in the midst of
the tabernacle that David had pitched for it. And David offered
burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And as soon
as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings,
he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. And
he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude
of Israel, as well as to the women as men, to everyone a cake
of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flagging of wine. So all the people departed, everyone
to his house. Then David returned to bless
his household And Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to
meet David and said, how glorious was the king of Israel today,
who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids and
his servants, and as well as these vain fellows, shamelessly
uncovering himself. In other words, she's upset because
David had made himself to be just like a common folk. You
know, my husband's the king. You're supposed to be maintaining
your position of respect and authority among the people and
you've lowered yourself to become a common man. And David said to Michael, it
was before the Lord which chose me before thy father and before
all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of Israel and
over Israel. will I play before the Lord, and I will yet be more
vile than thus, and will be base in my own sight, and of the maidservants
which thou hast spoken of, and of them shall I be had in honor."
And Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child from this
day to her death. Michael was an unbeliever. She represents those terrors
among the weak. She represents those that come
and associate with the church. Michael was concerned for her
own glory. I'm the wife of the king. You put yourself down there
with the common people and where does that leave me? David said,
you think that's bad? I'm going to make myself more
vile than that. And the maidservants and the
handservants are gonna honor me for that. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ made himself to be sin. He made himself vile. And the
maidservants and the handservants, they honor him for that, don't
they? And the Michaels, they despise him for it because they
lose, they lose their position of honor. We have a king who has ascended
into glory. He's pictured all through this
book, and what a glorious picture here. We would be faithful to
honor the gospel by never putting it on a cart, never putting our
hand to it, and making sure that everywhere this ark is carried
on the shoulders of men, that the sacrifice of blood is pointed
to, and that we would see that shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ as the only hope of our salvation. Our merciful heavenly
Father, we're thankful for your word, and we pray now that you
would bless it to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Brother Byrd, 185, let's stand,
185. Yeah. ? Glorious thing of the unspoken
? ? Zion, city of our God ? ? He whose word cannot be broken ?
? Formed thee for his own abode ? ? On the rock of ages founded
? What can shake thy sure repose? With salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou mayest smile at all thy foes. See the streams of living
water Springing from eternal love Well supply thy sons and
daughters And all fear of one removed Who can faint the Such
a river ever flows, their thirst to swage. Grace which, like the
Lord the Giver, never fails from age to age. ? Round each habitation
hovering ? ? See the cloud and fire appear ? ? For a glory and
a covering ? ? Showing that the Lord is near ? ? Glorious things
of Thee are spoken ? Zion, city of our God, he whose word cannot
be broken, form thee for his own abode. Oh, yeah.