1 Chronicles chapter 13. 1 Chronicles chapter 13. And the title of the message
this morning is, The Improper Means of Proclaiming Christ. The Improper Means of Proclaiming
Christ. And I've had many titles, as
I've told you, to this message. That was one of them. Preaching
of the Ark of Christ is another. Or the Vanity of the New Cart.
So pick one, whichever one you like. 1 Chronicles chapter 13
and verse 1. And David consulted with the
captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader. And David
said unto all the congregation of Israel, If it seem good unto
you, and that it be of the Lord our God, let us send abroad unto
our brethren everywhere that are left in all the land of Israel,
and with them also the priests and the Levites which are in
their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto
us. And here's his purpose. And let
us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we inquire not
at it in the days of Saul. And all the congregation said
they would do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all
the people. So David gathered all Israel
together from Shihor of Egypt, even unto the entering of Hamath,
to bring the ark from Kirjath-Jerim. And David went up, and all of
Israel, to Bela, that is to say, Kirjath-Jerim, which belongeth
unto Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the Lord, that
dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it. And they carried the ark of God
in a new cart out of the house of Abinadab. And Uzzah and Ahio
drave the cart. And David and all Israel played
before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps,
and with psaltery, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets. And when they came into the threshing
floor of Chidon, Uzzah put forth his hand to hold the ark, for
the ox stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Uzzah. And he smote him, because he
put his hand to the ark. And there he died before God.
And David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon
Uzzah. Wherefore, the place is called
Peruzza to this day. And David was afraid of God that
day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me? So David brought not the ark
home to himself to the city of David, but carried it aside to
the house of Obed-Edom the Giddite. And the ark of God remained in
the family of Obed-Edom in the house three months. and the Lord
blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that he had." Now, here
we find David, God's chosen king, who was persecuted by Saul, suffered
many afflictions, but now the fulfillment of God's promise
had come. David was made king over Israel. It came to pass, and David, as
king of Israel, before this, had sought the Lord on many occasions
about the Philistines and about the Jebusites. And you remember
how he conquered the Jebusites by asking God, should he go up?
And God said, go up. And he went up and he fought
the Jebusites. And he took Zion. He fought the Philistines in
the same manner. He asked God, how shall I go
up? And God said, you should go up
this way. And he went up that way and they
were delivered into his hands. But now David here, he desires
a very good thing. He desires that they bring the
Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. That he would bring it back so
as to establish the worship of God. Now that Ark had been neglected
under the reign of Saul for over 50 years. You read of the ark
when Samuel was alive in 1 Samuel 6, but you don't read of that
ark again until I believe chapter 14 of 1 Samuel when Saul brought
it out just as a show. He brought it out because he
thought it was a good luck charm. And then after that, you don't read
much of the Ark. You don't read anything about
its worship or anything. But now David recognizes the
necessity of bringing the Ark because that was the center of
worship. That was the center of God's
worship. It was the only place God said, I will meet with you.
And it's the only place where atonement was made for sin. And so David, with all the sincerity
of his heart, desires to bring the Ark back. The problem is not his desire.
The problem is the means he chose to do it. Look at this. Instead of consulting
God and his word, what did David do? Look at verse 1. And David consulted with the
captains of the thousands. And look at verse 2. And David
said to all the congregation, if it seems good to you, So he consulted the captains,
he consulted the people, but he did not consult God or His
Word. And what was the result here?
They said, yes, that's a good idea, David, they all voted.
And everybody said, yay, let's go. And so all the people said, let's
do this. And it was good in the people's
sight. Look at that in verse 4. For
the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. David said,
that's right. Now how are we going to do this?
He consulted. And you know, they came up with
this new solution. They said, let's build a cart.
Let's build a brand new cart. The ark is worthy of a brand
new cart so as to bring the ark in. What does everybody think
about that? Oh, that's a good idea, David. Let's build a nice
cart for God. Let's build a nice place to put
that ark. And we'll get two strong ox so
that nobody would impede the progress of this. We'll get two
strong ox and it'll take that cart wherever we want it to go. And so they did, they put the
ark on a new cart. And they carried the ark on that
new cart and it was driven by two men who were priests. They
were priests. David and all Israel played before
God. They played harps and they had
beautiful music. Music like you've never heard.
And I mean shouting. There was shouting and praise
unto God all the way. But they came to a place and
the ox stumbled. And this man Uzzah, who was a
priest, he was very familiar with the ark. He had it in his
father's house twenty years or more. He was very familiar with
this ark. You know what familiarity does? Familiarity causes us to be lax. And it caused this man to be
so lax that he just thought nothing of putting his hand to that ark.
and you know the law it said if any man touch it he would
die and he sure did he put his hand to the ark he made a breach
and God killed that man dead and what happened to all the
music all the fanfare it stopped it stopped and David said I ain't
touching that thing anymore and they put it in the house of Obed-Edom
but what happened to Obed-Edom He was blessed. He was blessed. Now then, I want
us to see the error here of David as it is an instruction to us.
Now the center of all this chapter is what? It's the ark, isn't
it? The ark and the carrying of the
ark are the center of this story. The center. What, then, does the ark picture? David decided to bring back this
ark. It was the center of God's worship. It was neglected for 50 years. Now, what was this ark? Now,
I want you to see this ark as it is meant to be seen. It was
a box. It was a wooden box. made of incorruptible wood, overlaid
with gold, and there sat on top of it a gold lid, a solid gold
lid, made of one piece of gold, and the cherubs stretched forth
their wings over this mercy seat. Their heads were facing down,
and there was a crown around the edge of this mercy seat. And inside this ark there were
three things. You remember what they are. They
were the unbroken, untouched law of God. That law that Moses
took from the hand of God and he put it in the ark. It was
the rod of Aaron that budded. which represents the power of
God. That rod was dead and all of
a sudden it bloomed. Death and life. And then you
have the pot of manna. Now what does all of this represent? Now this ark, where was it placed?
It was placed in the Holy of Holies. It was a place where
God descended down in His Shekinah glory. It was the only place
where they could meet with God for the atonement of sin. And
it was only once a year that the priest was to enter into
this place and sprinkle blood on the altar. For the atonement
of who? For Israel's atonement. For Israel's
atonement. It was only here above the ark,
the mercy seat, It was the only place where the blood was sprinkled
for atonement. Yet, see that this box of gold? I want you to see this because
it's important. This box itself was not holy. It was wholly set apart by God. You know how men like to adorn
objects as holy and sinful. Objects in and of themselves
are nothing. They're objects. This, we think of holy water,
right? They say, well what water is
holy? Water is not holy, it's water. Holy land, they want to
go over there and see it in Jerusalem, they say it's the holy land.
It's just dirt. It's not holy. Not holy dirt. And so it is with objects of
sin, we say, well, man, that thing is sinful. Well, the thing's
not sinful, you're sinful. That's a problem. Man is sinful. It's not the objects that men
partake of that's sinful. It's the thing, it's not the
thing itself, but rather man. But this ark, this ark was wholly
set aside for one purpose. One purpose. And that is to picture
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. That's it. And the
reason this man died is because he defiled the picture. He defiled
the picture of the sovereign work and the perfect work of
Jesus Christ by putting his hand to it. And listen, this ark is
a picture of Jesus Christ. This ark is a picture of Christ,
and so then we know this, it is a gospel message. A gospel message. This ark, this
ark was made of incorruptible wood, wasn't it? And overlaid
with gold. What is that but the humanity
and the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what it pictured.
The lid made of solid gold, over which the angels looked. It was
upon this that the blood was to be sprinkled. And you think
of Christ as He offered Himself for our sins, as our great High
Priest. His blood was sprinkled on the
altar of His deity, and God accepted the atonement that His blood
made for our sins. This is a picture of Christ.
Here's a picture of Christ. Look at this. Go with me into
Hebrews chapter 9. The apostle tells us plainly
what these things are. What these things were meant
to be. You know, I know this. We don't have the Ark of the
Covenant because men would be bowing down to it right now. If we had it,
men would be, oh, holy box, holy box, save me. No, there's no
holiness, there's no power in the box. There's only power in
the thing the box represented. Christ. Hebrews chapter 9 and
verse 3. He said, after the second veil,
the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, in which
the golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid round
about with gold, wherein is the golden pot of manna, and the
Aaron's rod that budded in the tables of the Covenant, and over
it the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot
now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus
ordained, the priests went in all ways into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God. But, in the second, they
went to the high priest only once every year, and not without
blood. which he offered for himself
and for the heirs of the people the Holy Ghost this signifying
that the way of the holiest is not yet been made manifest while
the first tabernacle was standing which was a figure a type a picture for the time then present in
which they offered both gifts and sacrifices which could not
make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to conscience
which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and
carnal ordinances imposed upon them until when until Christ
came Christ is come, and high priest of good things, to come
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, entered he in once into the holy
place, having obtained redemption." Now, you see what the Ark of
the Covenant is? It's a picture of Christ. It's a picture of
Christ and His sacrifice for sin. Now, that, my friends, is
the Gospel. the gospel of Christ, that Christ
has entered in once into the holy place, having obtained. And you know what Christ has
done after he obtained it? He did what those priests could
never do. He sat down. He finished his
work. It's done. This man, after offering
one sacrifice for sin, has sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high. That's what's happened to Christ.
Christ is the end of this. This ark David had here. As he brought this ark, I want
you to understand the type here. This ark is a picture of Christ,
and as he brought that ark before the people, what was he doing
but preaching Christ? Isn't that the whole purpose
of the law and the ceremonies? To preach Christ. To preach Christ. He preached the gospel as he
brought that ark before the people. That Christ should come and make
an atonement and an offering for sin, and so Christ has done
this. And listen to what Christ is
doing now. Christ is sitting on his throne for this purpose,
ruling all things after the counsel of his own will. To save his
people. If you ever get confused about
the events of time and providence, you should understand he is doing
everything for the salvation of his people. Everything. As
thou hast given him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. Is there any
question as to what the Savior's done? Is there any question as
to what He is doing? No. But how should He do it? Now we know this, He'll send
the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will give life and quicken
all the elect to faith in Christ. He said this, you must be born
again. The wind bloweth where it listeth. You can hear the
sound thereof, but you can't tell whether it's coming or whether
it's going. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit of God. You see, because you are the
sons of God, Paul says, Because you are the chosen, because you
are the redeemed of Christ, God has sent forth His Spirit into
our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. But how? By what means will the Spirit
use to bring this to pass? This is not a multiple-choice
question, there's only one answer. Preaching. The preaching of the
gospel. Can a man be quickened by self-education? Now this is the thought of modern
times. We're so educated, we don't need
preaching. Matter of fact, the best kind
of preaching is this, when you say, well pastor, I knew that. Well, that's the best kind of
preaching. I'm just going to tell you something you already
know if you're a believer. I'm just going to remind you. That's
what I'm here to do. I'm here to present and to magnify
the Son of God. And it is by this means only
God has chosen. There's no way a man can self-educate
himself to be quickened. Can a man enlighten himself by
nature? People think that. Well, I'll
just get out in nature and walk around. They do. You know what the apostles said
about that? They know there's a God, but
they worshiped him not as God, but made of him as man and four-footed
beast and creeping things. You let a man go try to learn
about God in the wilderness, he'll start worshiping the trees
and the sun and the moon and rats and dogs. That's what a
man will do because he's corrupt. The answer, according to Scripture,
is only one answer, by the preaching of the Gospel. Man, by nature,
is ignorant of the righteousness of God, dead in trespasses and
sins. He cannot, by any means, give
himself life. Only the Holy Spirit can give
life. And you listen, the only means that the Holy Spirit has
chosen to use is preaching. I know men will say, well, that's
arrogant. No, it's biblical. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Read it with me. I know you understand
this, you've seen this. Let's read it together again. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but... but what? To preach the gospel. How, Paul? Not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ be made of none effect. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
But unto us which are saved it is the power of God. Verse 21,
For after that the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew
not God. Listen while we preach. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
I'll give you an illustration of this, an example in scripture.
Ethiopian eunuch. You remember him? That one that
came from Ethiopia. He drove all the way up there
to Jerusalem. He sat through all that ritual
and service. He heard those priests who did
not know Christ. And he came back. He had a copy
of the book of Isaiah in his lap. And he was reading himself. And you know what God did? He
said, Philip, go join yourself to that chariot. Why? If the Ethiopian eunuch
could have been converted by reading the scriptures or by
self-observance of rituals and ceremonies, surely he would not
need Philip. But God sent Philip because this
is the chosen means. It pleased God that by men should
men hear, by sinners who are saved by grace that others should
hear, that whereby their testimony their witness and by this man
should believe themselves on the Son of God by this means
only in second Thessalonians chapter
2 and verse 13 He says, We are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Well,
how should they be sanctified of the Spirit and believe the
truth? Whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in light of this truth,
that God reveals Himself only through preaching, that the Ark
was a picture of Christ, and the presentation of the Ark is
a picture of preaching, of declaring the Gospel. And according to
the Law, According to the law, now we see the picture of the
ark. Now then see what God prescribed about this ark and how it should
be carried. In Exodus 25, he tells them,
I want you to take incorruptible wood and make big long poles. And you overlay them with gold
and you're going to put those poles in the rings along the
side of that ark. And men shall bear the ark up
on their shoulders. Now that's how it's supposed
to be carried. If David would have consulted
the Word of God, he wouldn't have made a new cart. God didn't
say, go make a new cart. God said, take these staves and
you take men and men will lift the ark up on these staves and
they shall bear it on their shoulders before the congregation of Israel. And I want you to see this. You
can write this down and look at it later in Deuteronomy 31
verse 9 and Numbers chapter 4 verse 15. God commands that only a
select group of men were to be able to bear that ark. Not all
Levites were able to do that. Just not like all Levites were
able to be high priests. But these men were to be the
sons of Korah. You remember that guy that fell
off and God was angry? It was his sons that he put up
there. Sinners, saved by the grace of
God, they were the ones to bear this ark. Only that select few. And so what did David do? What
was his error? So that we might not fall into
the same error. This is for our learning, isn't
it? It's for our learning. So that we do not err in this
matter of God's ordained means. What did David do? He did not
consult God. He consulted the people. Isn't
this what's happened with the church today? Instead of consulting
God as to how to exalt Christ, how to worship God, instead of
consulting the Word of God, they take a vote. They stick their finger in their
mouth and they put it up to catch which way the wind's blowing,
and that's what they use in order to get people in. These false churches, they run
and exist on the grounds of popular opinion. They vote as to how
the church is to be run, how it is the gospel is to be preached,
how the ark is to be carried. And know what happened? They
do that which is right in their own eyes. Do you not see this in the modern
church? The commission of the church
and the means of the gospel is to be declared only by preaching. Simply, plainly declaring without
debate, without compromise, and without fear. Listen, I don't
care if everybody leaves. The gospel will be preached. And I don't care if everybody
comes in. The gospel will be preached. This ark is to be carried
only one way. This gospel is only to be preached
one way. That's it. by the preaching of
the gospel, by what men call foolishness, boldly proclaiming
the ruin and fall of man, boldly proclaiming the effectual redemption
of Jesus Christ, boldly proclaiming the effectual regeneration of
the Holy Spirit, boldly proclaiming the resurrection of Christ and
the resurrection of the saints, without apology. I don't apologize
for God's sovereignty. I don't apologize for preaching
man's responsibility. It is the only way God is determined
to save sinners. Through the preaching of the
gospel. Yet many like David, perhaps even filled with sincerity,
are motivated, and I'll tell you this is always the result
when you take an opinion poll. A new cart. That's what they
did. They carried the ark, verse 7,
on a new cart. This is what they saw was good.
This is what they thought was right. This is how they best
thought to honor God, in a new cart. A new way. A new way to
carry the ark. This is innovative! This is creative! We're not going to do things
like they did before those old fogies. That method of preaching
is outdated! We've got to try something new!
This is what David did. He tried something new. I like
what Spurgeon says, and you know what the newest, I mean the thing
about modern religion is entertainment. This is the new cart of today
is entertainment. Tingling the flesh and making
people feel good about themselves. Now if you can do that, you can
get a crowd. You can get a crowd. this new card. Spurgeon said
this, "...the devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting
to the church that part of our mission is to provide entertainment
for the people in a view of winning them." Providing amusement for the people
is nowhere spoken of in Scripture as a function of the church.
I hear some say, well, if the church doesn't provide programs,
then the world will. Let them. I'm not in competition
with the world. You know what? The world is better
at entertaining than the church will ever be. You'll always lose
that. You'll always lose in that arena.
They are better at appealing to the flesh. The church is not
in competition with the world. The church is above the world.
We are the light on the hill. We are the salt of the earth.
We are the reason the world still spins. The church has one mission, one
purpose, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to exalt Him,
and to abase man, to call the elect. And the elect will come.
We're not to run after the world. Friends, that's another thing.
We're not here to run. When those 5,000 men left Jesus,
did He tell Peter, Peter, I want you to run after them. Tell them
we have a better message tomorrow. You know, hey, Peter, just tell
them that we're going to have some fun tomorrow. I'm sorry.
No, He didn't run after them, and neither do we run after the
world. I'm not running after the world. I will pray for them,
I will plead with them, and I will preach to them, but I will not
run after them. I don't follow them. Neither are you. We preach
the gospel of Christ. We are to declare the gospel
of Christ and bear the ark upon our shoulders. And if I bear
the ark on my shoulders, what's above me? The ark. What's beneath
the ark? Me. I'm based and he's exalted. Every time the gospel is properly
preached. We must preach the Word. Be instant,
Paul said. When? In season and out of season. I tell you, we are in out of
season time. Does that stop us? No. We preach, whether they hear
or they don't. We preach. We preach. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering. How do we do that? I don't reprove
you, rebuke you by watching you and finding things to pick out
and then starting to get upset at you. I preach the gospel to
you. And God reproves you, God rebukes
you, God exhorts you through the Word of God. That's how it's
done. And I want you to see this. Carrying
the gospel in another way is a fatal error. What happened
as a result of the new carton? The new card idea. Was that such
a big hit? No. It went along well for a
while, didn't it? Everybody was happy. Everybody
thought God was so pleased with them. Their music was so beautiful. Their songs were so loud. Everybody
was involved. All Israel was there. You remember what happened in
the ark stumble? That ox stumbled. The ark began to fall, and what
did Uzzah do? He put forth his hand to steady
the ark. Now what happens when false religion
fails? Men try to prop it up. That's
what they do. They don't have a gospel message.
They don't know God. They don't know Christ. They
don't preach the gospel. And so when they have hard questions,
they begin to justify God. God don't need you to justify
Him. I do not need to justify to you
what God does. God does what he does, and who
are you to say anything against it? See, they don't understand
how to do that. They don't know God, so they
don't know that that's the way it is. And so what ends up happening
in this method of the new cart, entertainment or whatever, debate.
That's a new one, isn't it? Debate. Let's not preach, let's
just get up there and debate together. Nope. Nope. New cart. I know some people
are going to be angry at that. Well, how dare you tell me not...
I don't care what you do. It ain't the method God chose,
so you're doing it on your own. When it fails, guess what's going
to happen? Men will die. Men will die. Spiritually die. Because when
we fail to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, what ends up
happening? False religion creeps in. And what do men do? They put their hand to the work
of Christ. They put their hand to the work
of Christ. Free will works religion. If
you take off the rough edges of the gospel like leaven in
bread, free will works religion will fill the gap and men will
perish. Men will perish. I know this
is not popular, but this is the way God has ordained it. Now
listen, David was mad at God. Can you believe that? David was mad at God. He pouted.
He couldn't believe God did that. When a church fails because they
fail to do it God's way, then they become angry at God. Are you well to be angry with
God? No. You sinned by not heeding what
God said. You did it another way. It's going to fail. But notice
what happens to this man, Obed-Edom. When he died, this ark, David
didn't even want to touch it. They just brought it over to
this man's house, just sat it there. They were afraid of it. But you
know what happened to this man? Listen. David brought the ark
into the home, verse 13, to him as in the city of David, but
carried it aside to the house of Obed-Edom, the Gedite, and
the ark of God remained in the family of Obed in the house three
months. And what happened? And the Lord
blessed the house of Obed-Edom. and all that he had. All my friends,
if the ark is born in the proper means, God will bless that church. God will bless that church. Now
you pay attention, this church is more blessed than any of the
new cart churches. I don't care what outward things
they have I don't care of numbers or whatever God always blesses
his church when the gospel is preached for he said where two
or three are gathered together in my name there I will be in
the midst Now if a church is to be blessed,
it is only blessed by the means that God has prescribed. The
exaltation of the work and the person of Jesus Christ. Now this
morning, I want you to see the ark. I want you to see the glory of
the person of Christ. There's no power in the preacher, but there's power in Christ to
save the worst of men. And so I say, look to the ark.
Don't touch it. Don't try to put your hand to
it. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, I want to exalt
Christ so high that you can't touch Him. Gospel of the world
they put him so low that men's able to touch him. He's on an
untouchable untouchable Worship him Worship him how? The means he prescribed and we
will be blessed. I pray God will bless it to you