Well, I hope to do that. For
a scripture reading, would you turn with me to the book of 1
Peter? Book of 1 Peter, chapter 1. And
while you're turning there, I heard a pastor once said that this
whole book right here is a love letter from the Lord Jesus Christ
to his precious bride. It's a poor illustration, but
it'd be like me writing a precious letter to my precious wife, describing
to her who I am and all the endearing, all the qualities of my love
for her. And she would respond, and she
would know everything intimate about me. And it would be for
her. And supposing that she left that letter, and another woman
came by and picked it up, and although she would be wowed by
it, she could not relate. to that letter because it wasn't
to her. I'm praying this morning that as we read this epistle
that the Lord would make it clear to you and to me that this is
for us. Now most of the epistles that
Paul wrote always started out like verse 1 and verse 3, grace
and peace to you, but the Lord through the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit Put verse 2 there, and that's a whole gospel message
in verse 2. So as we read this, pray the Lord will give us the
faith to believe it. Verse 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, Apopka, Sarasota, Lexington, strangers. A stranger is one that doesn't
belong. One that doesn't fit in. Brother Greg reminded us
Wednesday night. I so love that illustration.
You know, a saved mind is a sane mind. And a sane mind lives among
a people who don't believe God, you're insane. And that's what
this world is. And Peter will go on to describe who this stranger
is. And I especially like the illustration
of the zombies. Zombies are people who are dead
who think they're alive. But have you ever noticed in
those movies, the zombies are always trying to kill the people
who are alive? Verse 2. Here's a description,
brethren. Elect. If there isn't a word
in all of Scripture, that evokes in God's people a joy, a fear,
a worship, a bowing, of loving a God that would choose them? Choose me? And at the same time
evokes such hate, such angst, such gnashing of teeth from people
that would say, do you mean to tell me I can't do anything? As Brother Greg said this morning,
you know, I can't do anything? Scripture says in Isaiah that
God the Father Himself said of His Son, Behold, My servant,
in whom I uphold, My elect, in whom I am well pleased. The Father
called His Son the elect. And how is this election done?
According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, This is not
omniscience, although God is omniscient. But this is, as Greg
said Wednesday night, God is outside this little tiny bubble
of time. This foreknowledge is birthed in His heart. This is
how He chose the people. It's with God. Through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience. When the Holy Spirit comes and
reproves us of sin and convinces us, we'll believe the Gospel. And it is possible because of
the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was
slain from before the foundation of the world unto you, Christ,
the blood of Jesus Christ. After knowing all this, what
do we say? Oh, grace and peace be multiplied. It's finished. It's free. It's done. And we
have peace with God. And this is our confession, and
this is how we rejoice by the fruit of our lips. Oh, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. Scripture says that when we were
shaped in iniquity, and in sin did our mother conceive us, that
hope that we had in that birth was a hope of dead works. Well,
I hope if I did this, or I hope if I did that, I hope God is
pleased with me. Oh no, this lively hope is by
the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. When that happens,
look at the last part of that verse, by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, The core of regeneration, the foundation is the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. That's why it's alive. That's
why we need to hear about that. That's our hope. We know it's
for sure, it's for real. To an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you. Verse five. who are kept by the
power of God, true faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. That same power that saved us
wretched is the same power that has to keep me, because of I
know my heart. I just told Hugo this at the break. Aren't you
amazed that you're here this morning? Really, I mean, think
about it. Are you amazed that you can rejoice
and believe God? Hear his gospel. I'm amazed,
it's a miracle. Kept, why? That he may present
us faultless and blameless. Revealed in the last time, and
it's coming, it's here. Verse six, wherein you greatly
rejoice, though now for a season. If need be, you are in heaviness
through manifold temptations. I know there are many here this
morning who are really, really going through trials and afflictions. But as we were reminded again
Wednesday night, oh, this bubble is almost over. It's almost over. And here's encouraging news,
verse 7, and I'll quit here. that the trial of your faith
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire? This can only mean one thing,
for to me the perfect trial of faith is when you look to the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Psalm 22, a very precious
and clear song, that through His dying breath He was faithful
to the Father before His Father was about to
plunge His wrath on His Son on behalf of us. Scripture says,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, look to
Him, look to Him, Look to Him. That's our only hope. It's not
going to be long now, brethren. It's not much longer. Blessed be to God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that He'd bless that to
our hearts now. Would you bow your heads and
pray with me? Lord, we do bow before you and
worship you. Lord, we confess why you would
choose a peculiar, strange people like us. Lord, you said it was
good in your sight. We're thankful to our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our all in all. Lord, cause us to look to him,
especially when you purpose those trials and afflictions, knowing
that it is better than gold, that one day we shall see you
for who you are and be made like you. Lord, we ask again that
you would bless the message you place on our pastor's heart.
Lord, enable us to believe. Cause us to worship you. For
we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing the hymn that's found on the back of your bulletin. We're going to have some special
music now that Bri Weishi is going to bring. I ask the Lord that I might grow
in faith and love and every grace, but more of His salvation know,
and seek more earnestly His face. It was He who taught me thus
to pray, And He, I trust, has answered prayer. But it has been
in such a way As almost drove me to despair. I hope that in some favoured
hour, I've once he'd answer my request And by his last constraining
power, subdue my sins and give me rest Instead of this, he made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart Let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part Yea, more with his own hand he
seemed Intent to aggravate my woe Crossed all the fair designs
I schemed Blasted my cords and laid me low Lord, why is this I trembling,
cried? Wilt thou pursue thy warmth to
death? T'is in this way the Lord replied
I answer prayer for grace and faith T'is inward trials I implore
Thank you, Brie. I love that hymn. I asked the Lord that I might
grow in faith and love and every grace. Might more of His salvation
know and seek more earnestly His face. Instead of this, He made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul on every part. Paul called them necessities.
the things that the Lord has ordained for us. You read about
Bert in a scripture reading from Peter. These are the things that
our loving Father has given to us in order to cause us to grow
in His grace. And it's good. It's good. I like what one brother said.
He said, I never heard any bad news since I heard the good news.
And that's so true. So true. No such thing as bad
news for a child of God. Everything's working together
for good. Good. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. I want us this morning to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ
as the only arc of safety against the wrath of God. In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7,
by faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet,
moved with fear, and prepared an ark to the saving of his house,
by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the
righteousness which is by faith." God told Noah, I've seen the wickedness of men.
I'm going to destroy every living thing on the earth. You build an ark, put into that
ark two of every animal, and you warn those around you what's
about to happen. And for the next hundred years
or so, Noah worked on constructing that ark out of gopher wood. He pitched it on the inside and
on the outside and made it watertight. and warned the people around
him that judgment was coming. Now before the flood, it never
rained. From creation to the flood, the
scripture says that it never rained. We had something different
in our environment than what we have today but the water came
from the deeps and it was a mist upon the face of the earth and
it never deluged from clouds like it did when Noah's flood
came. So Noah's preaching judgment
of God and a flood that's gonna come from heaven and the people
are looking at him like he's crazy. like he's out of his mind. And
they mocked him. In 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 20,
once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while
the ark was a preparing. And the Lord said, as it was
in the days of Noah, So shall it be in the day of the coming
of the Son of Man." Now I am fully aware of the fact that
people that live today are just like the people in Noah's day.
They mock at the idea of judgment. They don't believe that there
is a place called hell. They really don't. My response to someone who would
say I don't believe in hell is just simply this. You will
one day. I promise you. I promise you,
you will one day. You'll either believe in it by
faith while you're here upon the earth or you'll believe in
it by experience. in the day of your death, but
one way or the other you're going to believe in hell. The judgment of God is real.
And the only, only place of safety is the Ark. Now that Ark is a
picture of Christ. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When Genesis chapter 6 says that Noah pitched the
ark within and without, that's the same word that we have translated
in the scriptures atonement or covering. The covering that protects
us from the wrath of God is the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is that ark. But you know who else is a picture
of Christ in the story of Noah and the ark? Noah is a picture
of Christ. Noah's name translated means
rest. Rest. That's what his name means.
And Noah prepared the ark for his family as we just read in
Hebrews chapter 11. For his family. And right now
The man of rest, the strong right arm of God that we just saw from
the scriptures, is preparing the ark for his wife and for
his children so that when the wrath of God comes, they'll be
safe inside that pitched ark through the covering of the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me in your Bibles to
2 Peter chapter 3. Listen to me very carefully,
please. I fear, well I know, that none of us
believe as we ought. None of us believe as we ought.
Lord, help thou mine unbelief. Lord, increase my faith." My
problem is my unbelief, just to believe God. But I fear that
there would be someone under the sound of my voice right now
that really doesn't live their lives with any awareness of the
impending doom and judgment that is on the horizon. They don't
even think about it. They don't even think about it. I want you to think about it.
You say, what is this? Are you threatening us? Is this
scare tactics? Is this doom? No, this is a promise
of God. It's not a threat, it's a promise.
You know, you hear somebody say, well, are you threatening me?
No, I'm promising you. This is God's Word. You have your Bibles open to
2 Peter chapter 3. Look at verse 8, verse 7. But
the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are
kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men. Now ungodly men are all those
outside of Christ, all those outside of the ark. Nobody survived
that was outside the ark. Only those in the ark were saved. But beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years and a thousand years is one day. It's 2,000 years between creation
and the Flood, 2,000 years between the Flood and the
Lord Jesus Christ, and it's been 2,000 years since then. So we're in the seventh year,
seventh day. If you go back to Genesis chapter
6 and read the description of the world as it was then and
you'll find that the world that you and I live in today is just
as wicked and just as evil as it was then. Verse 9, the Lord is not slack
concerning His promise as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward. Don't miss that, usward. The
longsuffering of God is not for the world, It's for the church. He's preparing the ark for his
wife and for his children, not willing that any of them
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It amazes
me how so many people want to pull that one phrase out of the
whole context of Scripture and say, well, God wants everybody
to be saved. And I have one response to that. If God wanted everybody
to be saved, everybody would be saved. Our God's never failed to accomplish
His purpose. Our God doesn't... God doesn't
have new thoughts. You think about that. He's never
had a new thought. He's God. He said, I'm the same
yesterday, today, and forever. I change not. God's not like
us. You know, we make God to be out
like we are, but He's not like us in any way. And because He's not thinking
new things, He's not coming up with new plans. Our God is a
God of purpose. People talk about the plan of
salvation as if God had to come up with a new plan. Scripture
never refers to God having plans. He's not a planner. He's not
a planner. He's a God of purpose. He has purposed before the foundation
of the world all that He's going to accomplish in this thing that
we call time and space, and none of His purposes will go unfulfilled. He's going to accomplish His
end. But the day of the Lord will
come. Just stop right there a moment.
The day of the Lord will come. It will come. And when it comes,
it's going to come like a thief in the night. I'm always a little
amazed. I heard somebody say this past week that so-and-so
has predicted the end of the world. Well, I don't know when
it's going to be, but I know it's not going to be that day. I know it's not going to be that
day. For no man knows the day nor the hour. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night. In other words, if you knew a
thief was coming, you'd be up waiting for him. The men are
going to be asleep. spiritually asleep, in a stupor,
in a slumber, like those five virgins who didn't have the oil
in their lamp when the bridegroom came. They're not going to be
ready. They're not going to be ready.
In the which the heavens shall pass away. with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also with the works
that are therein shall be burned up." This world, everything man's
ever done, your house, your cars, your job, this building, everything
in this world, is going to be consumed by fire in the same
way in which the world was consumed by water in the days of Noah.
Everything died. This is God's Word. Now I know
this is a message that's not preached. And I know it's a message
that people don't believe. You know, you're being awfully
negative. I had somebody ask me one time, are you a positive
preacher? Men don't want to hear this. Why? Because everything they've
got is wrapped up in this world. Don't tell me it's all going
to be taken away from me. I want you to be a stranger in
this world. I want you to be a pilgrim in
this world. I don't want you to make this
world your home. I want you to have your heart set on a city
whose builder and maker is God, a city that hath foundations. This world doesn't have foundations. There's nothing to it. Solomon
was right when he looked at this world. and all the pleasures
and all the things of this world that could possibly be achieved
or enjoyed by man. And he said, vanity of vanities,
all is vanity. It's all vanity. And the only way to enjoy the
things that God gives you in this world is to see them for
what they are. Men are so unhappy in life because
they're expecting this world to give them more than it can.
And so they live their every day in disappointment. In disappointment. What I'm saying to you is lower
your expectations when it comes to the things of this world.
You won't be disappointed. And raise your expectations.
when it comes to the things of God. And you won't be disappointed. You won't be disappointed. I
promise you that. God promises you that. Look.
Seeing then, verse 11, that these things shall be dissolved. They're going to be dissolved.
Dissolved! I mean, that means it's gone.
seeing then that these things shall be dissolved, what manner
of persons ought you be in holy conversation and godliness, looking
for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, We, according to His promise. So I say, this is not a threat,
this is a promise. This word, Bert, as you just
said, is for God's people. An unbeliever is going to read
something like this and they'll try to straighten out their lives
in fear of wrath. And that's not the message at
all. This is a promise of God. This world is going to be dissolved.
And an ark is being prepared. And what I'm saying to you is
get in the ark. Get in the ark. Don't slumber, don't wait. Get in the ark. And when Moses, when Noah and
his wife and his three sons and their wives got in the ark, the
scripture says, God shut the door. God shut the door. And when God shuts the door,
it's shut. Nobody else is getting in. Oh, to be in the ark. What does
it say? Look for new heavens. and a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." Oh, that's my hope? You mean
I have the hope of knowing that this flesh is going to be dissolved? That this mortality is going
to be made immortal? That this corruption is going
to be made incorruption? That I'm not only going to be
devoid of sin, I'm not even going to remember it anymore. That it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. The eye has not seen, nor is
the ear heard, nor does it enter into the imagination of man the
things that God has prepared for us. We can't even begin to
imagine how glorious it's going to be. But we know. that when He shall
appear we should be made like Him. I want you and I to set our affections
on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. I want us to believe that He
is the only place of safety from this inevitable, impending, judgment
of God. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such
things, are you looking for that? Are you looking for the coming
of Christ? Do you wake up in the morning
and think, I wonder if today's the day? Do you look to that eastern sky
sometimes and as the sun comes up think, boy I wonder if this
is the day when the sky is going to split and the trump of God
is going to sound and the dead in Christ are going to raise
and we which are alive are going to be caught up together with
them in the air and so shall it ever be with the Lord? Is
this the day? Or are you investing all of your
time and all of your effort and all of your energy and just accumulating
worldly things that are going to be dissolved? They're going
to be dissolved. Believe God. This is God's Word. This is not scare tactic preaching.
This is the promise of God. This is the believer's hope.
If this world is all we had, we are of all men most miserable. If there's no resurrection, we're
just a bunch of fools. I heard somebody say one time,
well, even if there was no life after death, I'd want to live
my life here for Jesus. That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says if there's no life after death, eat, drink
and be merry, for tomorrow you shall die. And you of all men
most miserable, you're just a fool to be worshiping God and expecting
pie in the sky by and by. If there's no life after death,
you're a fool. What are we doing here? Let's
just go out and enjoy ourselves. Indulge ourselves in the flesh
all we want. This is all you got. And when it's over, it's over. Oh, that God would give us a
heart to set our affections, our affections on Christ and
to get in that ark. I'm telling you, get in the ark.
Come to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. Believe on Him. Seeing that you look for such
things, be diligent. Be diligent that you may be found
of Him in peace, without spot and blameless. The only people that are going
to make it through this world are those who have peace with
God through the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are without spot and
blameless before God. Is that you? If you're in the
ark, it is. If you're in Christ, it is. If
you're in Christ, God's not looking at you. If you're in Christ, He can't
see you. That's what He says. He says,
I remember your sins no more. I've separated them from you
as far as these is from the West. I've hid you in Christ so that
we now have His righteousness, which is not by the law, but
by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The ark of God. The only thing that gives this
life any meaning, the only thing, is to be in Christ and to have
the assurance of what He's accomplished for our eternal life and to have
the hope of this promise, being without spot and blameless and
in peace with God. It's the only thing. Otherwise,
like you said, Bert, the spirit of fear, men live all their lives,
the scripture says, in fear of death. I'm not trying to put
the fear of death in you. I'm trying to put the hope of
death in you. I'm not here to make you afraid
of dying. I'm here to give you something to hope for when you
do die. For death you're not going to avoid. It's coming.
The judgment of God is coming. I want you to have hope. The spirit of fear is not of
God. The spirit of love is of God.
The love that God has shown toward us in the sacrifice of his own
dear son, the love that he spread abroad in our hearts in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love that he gives us for his
word and for his people, that's of God. That's of God. And power. Power to live our
lives without fear of death. Power to be able to come with
boldness before the throne of grace. And to find help in time
of need. That's power to be able to come
into the presence of God. And of a sound mind. A sound
mind. I made this point Wednesday night.
Burt reminded you of it. And it's so true. Have you ever
felt like the only sane person in an insane asylum? Until you get around other sane
brethren. That's really what believers
are in this world. People that don't believe God
are out of their mind. Unbelief is insanity. Someone said, well, insanity
is just doing the same thing over and over and over expecting
a different result. And that's what men are doing.
They're getting the same results, but they keep doing the same
thing over and over and over again, trying to make themselves
happy with things, with power, with whatever. And they're not
happy and they're not satisfied. They're not content. Why? Because
they don't know God. They're insane. Believers are the only people
in their right mind. And it's only because God has
given to them the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ. Now God says
that Noah did this by faith. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
doing it by faith. He did everything he did by faith.
And we're doing it right now by faith. We're believing that
if God's word is declared without apology, without compromise,
with clarity and compassion and conviction, that God will take
the message of the Lord Jesus Christ and he will bring it to
the hearts of his people and they'll get in the ark. They'll
get in the ark. There's another ark made reference
to in the scriptures. Will you turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 9? I say it's another ark. In fact,
it's the same ark. For there's only one ark. There's
only one Christ. But the Lord has given us two
different arcs in the scripture to illustrate for us the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Noah's arc was pitched, it
was sealed, and I'm convinced, and I've had boats over the years
that were old boats that had holes in them and you spent more
time bailing water out of them You know, Noah's ark wasn't that
way. Wasn't that way. The water is a picture of judgment.
Listen, Noah pitched that ark. Don't believe what you see put
out by Hollywood. Not a drop of water got inside
that ark. It was sealed. And not a drop
of God's wrath is going to pass the covering of the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. They're safe. Safe in Christ. Now in Hebrews chapter 9 verse
1, then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine
service and a worldly sanctuary. He's comparing the reformation
of the new covenant to the old. And he's saying in the Old Testament
there was a sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle, verse
2, made, the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the tables,
and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. In other words,
when he came in, there was the altar of sacrifice, there was
the table, the showbread, there was all these things. Each of
them, we don't have time to go into how each of them illustrates
a different aspect of the person and work of Christ, but trust
me, they all do. Everything about that tabernacle
was a picture of Christ. He's the one who has tabernacled
among us, and we have beheld His glory as of the only begotten
of the Father. He's the one that's full of grace
and full of truth, and everything in that tabernacle pointed to
Him. But let's watch, watch. And after that, the second veil
and the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. So
now you go through one veil into the second veil, and in the second
veil was the holies of holies. And the priests worked out in
the outer tabernacle every day. But in the Holies of Holies,
only once a year on the Day of Atonement, did the high priest
go in and take the blood of the sacrificial lamb and put it on
the mercy seat. And God said, there I will meet
with you. And they did it year after year
after year. as a type of what the Lord Jesus
Christ as our high priest would do when he took the blood of
the covenant, the atonement, the pitch and he put it on the
mercy seat and God said there I will meet with you for when
I see the blood I'll pass by your sin. I'll make you without
spot and blameless and holy before me through the work of that high
priest who goes in and puts the blood of the lamb on the mercy
seat. there I'll show mercy towards you, which had a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant,
overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot, and
had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the
covenant." Now, ark here means a chest,
a chest. It's the same word that was used
to describe a treasure chest. A chest that was filled with
precious stones and precious metals and priceless artifacts. They were put into a chest. So
God instructed Moses in the wilderness to build an ark and make it out
of shittam wood. which as I understand was a wood
that was kind of like ebony. It was a wood that was so hard
and resistant to rot and bugs that it would last for a long,
long, long time. And so the box was made out of
shidom wood as a picture of the body of the Lord, the humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the entire box was covered
with gold. which was a picture of the deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And inside this box, the scripture
just told us, were three items. There was Aaron's rod, The rod
that Aaron threw down when the magicians in Egypt were trying
to prove their authority, and Aaron threw his rod down, and
it budded, and it took over, it ate up the other rods. You
remember that? They put it out there. Aaron's
rod. Well, actually, that takes place in the wilderness when
Aaron put his rods up with the other elders, and Aaron was proven
to be the high priest, or the intercessor for the people of
God. Aaron's rod. a picture of the priestly role
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then there was a golden ophar
of manna. They took some manna that had
fallen and put it into this golden vessel and put it in the ark.
And then the third thing in the ark was the tablets of stone,
the Ten Commandments. And what those elements in the
ark were telling us is that the Lord Jesus Christ He's the bread
of life. He's the prophet of God. He's
the one that came down from heaven and brought the Word of God,
which we're reading right now. He is that Word. He's the priest. He's the one
who goes into the holies of holies. He's the one who took the blood,
His own blood, and put it on the mercy seat that we might
have access to God. And He's the King. He's the one
who established the law and he's the one who kept the law. He
established an everlasting covenant with his people and he fulfilled
the demands of the law. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. So this box, everything about
this box From its wood to its gold overlay, to the items that
are in the box, to the cherubim now at the next verse, look at
verse 5, and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy
seat of which we cannot speak particularly. Well, let me speak
particularly to it. These are the ones that hovered
over the throne of God. in Isaiah chapter 6, and cried,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth
is filled with His glory. These are those who are declaring
and, if you will, giving warning to anyone that would challenge
the holiness of God. In a sense, these cherubims that
were over the mercy seat are protecting the purity of that
gold, and the purity of that sacrifice, and the purity of
the Lord Jesus Christ as the prophet, priest, and king inside
the body. Everything about it. And so now
the Lord says, you've got an ark. You've got an ark. two times in the Old Testament.
I'll go quickly. 1 Samuel chapter 5 and chapter
6, we won't go there, I'll just tell you the story quickly. The
Israelites were in battle against the Philistines, and the Philistines
won the battle and stole the ark. and they took the ark to
their temple of Dagon and you remember the story they came
the next morning and Dagon had fallen over and they stood him
back up and they came back the next day and he had fallen over
again this time his head and his arms fell off and they said
and then God afflicted the Philistines with a plague because they had
the ark and so they took the ark and they put it on a cart
and the scripture says they put two cows that had calves and
the calves they locked up in a stall and they put the cows
on the cart and pointed the cows towards Israel and the cows while
they were lowing because they didn't want to leave their calves
but God was moving them God was moving these cows with the ark
on a cart, took it back to Israel. And the first town in Israel
the ark gets to is a town called Beth Shemesh. And the scripture
says the Israelites in Beth Shemesh took the ark from off the cart
and they opened it. They opened it. They were curious. Here's our
first chance to see what the artifacts that are in the Ark.
They touched the Ark and they treated it with curiosity. You read the story. God killed
50,070 Bethshemites for touching the Ark and treating
it with curiosity. And then later in First Chronicles
chapter 13, David's moving the ark from one place to another.
Now God had instructed the children of Israel to put rings on the
side of the ark and put staves through the ark and carry it
on their shoulders. It's very specific about how
that ark was to be treated. And David gets the bright idea,
well, we'll put it on a new cart. Where'd they get that idea from? Where'd they get the idea from?
They got it from the Philistines. And they put the ark on a new
cart. They thought, well, you can imagine what that cart must
have looked like. Boy, it was a fine cart. They put the ark
on it, and they're going down. And the oxen stumble, and there's
a man walking along beside the ark. And he reaches his hand
up to touch the ark, to steady the ark. His name is Uzzah, and
God killed him right there on the spot. Why? Because he did
what the best Shemites did. He put his hand to the ark. He put his hand to the ark. You
know, religion today is just like that. People call themselves Christians.
They gather to worship. the Lord Jesus Christ and they
follow the pattern of the world. Well, let's just put him on a
new cart. We're not worried about what
God says in His Word. We'll just dress it up. And so
they've got all sorts of styles of worship, trying to entertain
and impress men with a new cart. Don't change. Just do it the
way God says do it. Say, what's the point, preacher? Don't put your hand to the ark
of God. He'll kill you for it. Don't try to improve the way
in which the ark is to be moved about. God said you move the
ark about through the preaching of the gospel. Don't put it on
a new cart. Don't try to make it better than it already is.
The ark is complete within itself. And don't be like the Bethshemites. Don't inspect the ark out of
curiosity. You bow before that ark. You
get in that ark. Judgment is coming. Sooner than we think. And the promise of God is, there's
an ark. There's an ark. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we ask that You'd be pleased now to bless Your Word
with Your Spirit and cause Your people to flee to Christ, to
get in the ark, and to not put our hands to what He has accomplished. For it's in His name we ask it.
Amen. We'll sing this through to the
hymn or the tune, the doxology, without the refrain. Just skip
the refrain.