1 Chronicles chapter 13. God's Word, truth of the Gospel,
if properly preached, preached with the right spirit and attitude
under the power of the Holy Spirit
and heard properly, should always produce both fear and joy. In this story, we have both. We have death because of it,
and we have life in the same chapter. In Romans, Paul wrote
this. He said, Behold, therefore, the
goodness and severity of God. God is both good and God is a
consuming fire. And he said in Romans 11, he
said, "...on them which fell severity," that is, the Jews
that rejected the gospel, God dealt with them severely, "...but
toward thee, you who have received the gospel, goodness." If you
continue in his goodness, he said. If you continue steadfast
unto the end. Though it matters how we live,
just shall live by faith and worship God and so forth. Really,
the most important thing is that we die in the faith. Hold steadfast this confidence
unto the end. In this story, We see both the
goodness and severity of God, and God hasn't changed. God hasn't
changed, nor the way to worship Him. And this story is very relevant
and very needful. This could be entitled, and I'm
not sure what the title is going to be, Sam, but it could be entitled,
Judgments and Blessings Surrounding the Ark. Or, the ark, a serious
thing of life and death. Or, fear and the proper treatment
of God's gospel. That's what this story is all
about if you listen very carefully. The ark, around which this story
revolves, the ark was ordained by God. We've looked at it before. We've studied the ark before.
several times, I think. The ark was ordained by God.
It was designed by God as a symbol of salvation. A symbol only. It wasn't, it's just a symbol
of salvation. A symbol of the only way to approach
God for mercy, for grace, to worship, for pardon, for salvation. And that ark, who does that ark
represent? the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a
type, a symbol of Christ. Only a symbol. That ark really
was not a sacred thing in itself. It was just a box of wood. That's
all it was. You see, God is spirit. He always
has been. He always will be. God is spirit. They that worship
God must worship Him in spirit. And God looks on the heart, Scripture
says. This story, God kills a man for
touching this heart. Now God Almighty did not kill
this man for merely touching a wooden box. You know that. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? This is part of the reason, well,
man is confused. He's just born confused. And
when he reads these stories, an undergenerate man who has
no clue about the truth, all he sees is a strict and austere
God who killed a man simply for touching this box. This holy
thing. But that's not the case. That's
not the case. Now, this is important here as
we look into this. There are no holy things. There
is no thing holy. Nor are there sinful things. Scripture tells us that plainly.
Most people do not know this. Even today, in this modern generation,
there are still millions of people all over that think there are
holy things. Holy water, holy wafers, holy
land, dirt. They actually think dirt in Israel
is holy. They really do. And then there
are those who think that there are unclean things. When the
Scriptures plainly tell us, our Lord Himself said, there is no
thing entering into a man can defile him. Nothing. Now, the things which God ordained,
like this ark, or the things which God prohibited, represent
spiritual things. As I said, God looks on the heart. He deals with men spiritually
from the heart. He looks on the heart. The ark,
this ark was a golden-covered box. It was made of shittum wood,
which was a very common wood, a wood that was impervious to
decay. The ark, Noah's ark was made
of that. Anyway, it was made of this wood,
something like locust that we use today that will be around
for years. It won't rot, it won't decay.
That represents our Lord's humanity, His sinless humanity. He was
made in the likeness of sinful flesh, but without sin. He did not, He could not die
or decay. He could not grow old. He had
no blemishes. Literally none. And that ark
was covered with gold. Just covered with gold. Completely. That's his deity. The God-Man. This ark represents the God-Man.
The ark, this ark, was the only way to know God. God, Jehovah
God, revealed Himself to Israel through these things, right? Tabernacle, the high priest,
the sacrifices, and the ark, though, was the chief piece of
furniture, wasn't it, John? It was it. There were many things,
the altars and labors and so forth, the bread and the light
and so forth. But the principal thing in the
Holy of Holies, where God met between the cherubs over the
mercy seat, That ark was there, and that was a holy of holies,
and that's where God met with the High Priest. And that ark
represents the Lord Jesus Christ, the only way, truth, and life. Christ said, No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. No one before Christ came could
worship God apart from a temple, sacrifice, and a High Priest. And in that temple was this ark.
All right? And that ark represents Christ.
It's the only way to worship God. Christ said, I am the way. That ark contained, you know
what was in the ark? Deborah could tell us. The kids
could probably tell us. The young people. There were
three things in that ark in the beginning. Later on, there was
only one, only the law was only in there. But in the beginning,
God told Moses to put in that ark the law, a preserved copy
of the law that could not be touched, tainted, or broken. You see the picture here, how
Christ is the keeper of the law. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. Why? Because that's where Christ
is. In that ark also was the manna. It was a pot of manna.
That bread that came from heaven. Didn't we just look at that,
John? Where Christ said, I am the bread. The true bread. The bread of life. And so Christ,
the ark had that bread in there, the manna. And it also had Aaron's
rod that budded. Remember that? Aaron's rod was
what Moses used to part the Red Sea. God's power was exhibited
through Aaron's rod. Nearly everything Moses did was,
he said, give me your rod. And he would split the Red Sea
or strike the rock and water would come out of it. That represents
Christ's power. A rod. a scepter of righteousness,
a rod out of Jesse, and a budding rod, fruit, fruit in Christ's
fruitful life unto the glory of God Christ. And the ark was
covered. It had a lid on it. It was a
box, but it had a lid on it. What's the name of that lid?
Somebody. The Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat. Why it's called a seat, nobody
ever sat on it, but you could. But I think it's called a mercy
seat because we're seated with Him. But anyway, that lid, that
covering on that ark was called a mercy seat. And it had a border
and so forth and a crown around it. It had a crown around it.
Beautiful. And those cherubs that God designed, it says their
wings touched each other and the cherubs looked down on top
of this ark. And Peter wrote later on, he
said, which things, speaking of the gospel of Christ, the
angels desire to look into even now? The things of Christ. And
so that mercy seat, though, was a lid on that ark, and every
single sacrifice that was made, every single animal that was
killed, the blood of those animals, be it a lamb, a bullock, a turtle
dove, whatever it may be, that blood was brought by the high
priest into that holy of holies, between the veil, beneath the
veil, and poured on that mercy seat. of all the blood, of all
the sacrifices, rivers and rivers of blood. Everyone that died,
their blood was shed on that mercy seat. Which is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the mercy of God, because upon Him
the wrath and judgment of God against all the sin of all of
God's people fell. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. That mercy saved. Now that's
not really our subject. This is what this whole story
is about though. The Old Testament saints knew
that. The Old Testament saints knew a whole lot more than we
think they did. They knew this. Brother Tommy Robbins, never
forget his name. Brother Tommy Robbins and I were
talking about these things, the Old Testament saints, Adam lived
930 years. Now, you ought to learn something
in 930 years. He knew a whole lot more. Ed,
he could be he knew more than we did. He just didn't know Christ's
name was Jesus. I'm quite sure he knew. And all
the old saints did. Abraham did. Our Lord said he
did. Moses wrote of me, he said. Because all thy children shall
be taught of thee." God Almighty, Jehovah, has always been worshipped
in spirit and truth by His saint, not with corruptible things such
as silver and gold and so forth. But these things represented,
until Christ came, they were symbols, they were types. Scripture
calls them shadows of good things to come. Just shadows. They themselves were not the
holy thing. However, a person's treatment
of these things, like the ark, a person's treatment of these
things, like the birthright, Esau and the birthright, a person's
treatment of these things reveals the state of their heart. Those
who rejected it, the Philistines, all these people passed by. It
was nothing to them that passed by. They saw that tabernacle
and there's nothing to that. We have no use for that. We don't
believe that. It's reprobate. They're reprobate. How do you know? They rejected
the ark. They rejected the tabernacle,
right? That's how you know. And then the Israelites who claimed
to be God's people, they were around it all the time. They
saw it. They heard. They witnessed. This
was their life. Yet with many of them, Scripture
says, God was not pleased. Why? It became commonplace. They began to treat it with irreverence,
disrespect, common. Well, it's always been with us.
We're God's people. It doesn't matter. And they did
not enter in. Billions of them. And this gospel that I'm preaching
to you tonight, has been with us a long time, hasn't it? How
long have you been here now, John? Over 30 years? Been here
a long time, hasn't it? That's a long time. Well, it's
the same, this gospel is the same as that ark back then that
Uzzah touched and God killed him for it. It's the same thing. This is what we're talking about.
Look at 1 Chronicles 13, 6. It says, David went to bring
up the ark of God the Lord that dwelleth between the cherubims
whose name is called on it. The Holy Spirit saw fit to just,
when he brings up the ark, he keeps calling it the ark of the
Lord, the ark of God, the ark of God the Lord that dwelleth
between the cherubs whose name is called on it. It's not common. It well deserves our cheapest
praise. And God says, oh my, this is
the ark where God dwells, which the angels look into and whose
name is called on it, the ark of the Lord God, of Jehovah. Verse 7 says, They carried the
ark, they put this ark on a new cart, They carried it out of
the house of Abinadab. Uzzah and Ohio, his two sons,
drove the cart. The house of Abinadab in Kirjath-Jerub,
the ark was in this town, Kirjath-Jerub, for over 50 years. The ark was in this town for
over 50 years. It was in one man's house, Abinadab. This one man. It was in his house
up to 30 years. And he had two sons. They saw
that ark day in and day out. Stay with me. They saw that ark
day in and day out. And God Almighty killed one of
them. Because he treated it with disrespect. Are you getting the picture? It was in another man's house,
named Obed-Edom, three months. Just three months. And this man
had eight sons and sixty-two descendants. And God blessed
every one of them. We're going to see that. Three
months. Apparently, the whole house of
Obed-Edom was just thrilled beyond words. And God blessed them all. Now that's our story. That's
what this is all about. How long have some of us been
under the sound of the gospel? 20 years? 10 years? 20 years?
30 years or more? Now the ark, this ark, David
said, look up in verse 3, he said, let us bring again the
ark of our God to it. David was a man after God's own
ark. He knew you can't worship God without this ark. And we
know we can't come to God except by Christ, the Gospel that is. So that's why we preach Christ.
That's all we do, John, isn't it? A man after God's own heart,
a preacher or whoever, knows this beyond a shadow of a doubt. It's ingrained in his heart that
what we're all about is preaching the Gospel of Christ. Nobody,
be he old, young, male, female, can come to God, will get to
God, will be with God, except through crying. And so we preach
crying. We don't do anything else, do
we? We've got to have this ark. David said, we've got to have
this ark. And it says, sadly, verse 3,
we inquired not at it in the days of Saul. In the days of Saul, Saul was
an evil man, though he prophesied, though he seemed to be what he
was not. He had no real regard. You studied that with me carefully.
He had no real regard for the ark from 1 Samuel 6 to 1 Samuel
14, 32 years. There's no mention of the ark. Samuel was a good caretaker of
the ark. Right after 1 Samuel 6, Saul
was set up as king and he never brought it up until he got in
trouble in 1 Samuel 14. He was in a battle and he said
to the high priest, go get the ark. And then when it looked like
the battle was turned, he said, never mind. Remember that? No, forget it. We don't need
it after all. He only used it for his evil
purposes. Well, David said, we've got to bring this ark up. Well,
it had been gone for so long that they mistreated it. What
they did was all wrong here. And it's all in the purpose of
God. They put it on a cart. They meant
well. David apparently wasn't reading
the scriptures or something. Can good men do wrong? Certainly.
If they don't consult God, they can't. They don't rule or lead
according to the Word of God. Well, verse 7, they carried the
ark of God in a new cart. or made it to ride on a new ox
cart. They bought this new cart, or
somebody made it, I guess, and got the best oxen they could
find and the most beautiful harnesses and so forth, and they put the
ark up on this cart and they thought, we'll bring it in in
a glorious display and pageantry and so forth. And they did. They
had a big meeting. Singing and dancing, they were
all sincere and all that. The ark was never to be carried
or moved about but one way. Do you know how? On the shoulders
of the priests, like a burden borne by men. This beautiful,
glorious thing, way to worship God, was borne by men. They had
this treasure. carried by earthen vessels, men,
borne up by them, so that it was well above their heads. But
they bore it as a burden. And the gospel is only to be
borne or preached by men. Please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. This is the way. We're
not to adorn We're not to adorn the gospel, we're not to have
all sorts of props and so forth, all manner of things, man-made
things. We need one thing, one way to
worship God. And a man with a burden to preach
and a people to hear, to lift up Christ. That's all we do.
That's all we do. Well, Uzzah and Ahio, they drove
this cart, sons of Abinadab. The ark was in their father's
house 20 to 30 years. They were very familiar with
it. They'd been around it a long time. Too much. Verses 8 through 10. David and
all Israel played before God with all their might, with singing,
and harps, and psalteries, and timbrels, and cymbals, and trumpets.
And when they came to the threshing floor of Chiton, Uzzah put forth
his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled." The ox cart,
the oxen must have stepped in a hole or something, and the
ark stumbled. And Uzzah reached up. Oh, the
ark is going to fall. And reached up and steadied it.
And verse 10, it says, 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. He died right beside the ark
with his hand on the ark. He died with his hand on the
ark. Do you remember Joab, David's
captain? He died holding the horns of
the altar. Do you recognize the solemnity
of that, the seriousness of what we're talking about here? Can
a person die sitting under the sound of the gospel? Many do. Many do. God killed him right
beside the ark, with his hand on the ark. There's so many things
to learn here. So many things. Things we've seen before. We've
looked at this story before. But here's something. We don't
lay our hands on the sacrifice. God doesn't need our help. The
whole world, the whole religious world is doing this. They're
putting their defiled hands on this. Aren't they? Handling the Word of God, Scripture
says, deceitfully. Paul said, we are not as many
which corrupt the Word of God. Paul wrote in Romans 1, they
hold the truth in what? Unrighteousness for evil purposes. You know it so. You see it. You
hear it. It not only makes you sad, but
it angers you. This is why Jeremiah said, my
heart is broken because of these prophets. They've made void.
David said, Lord, it's time for you to work. They've made void
your law. Look at what they're doing. making God a laughing
stock, making His Bible an unholy thing. We don't lay our hands
on the sacrifice. God doesn't need our help. Christ
doesn't need our assistance. The truth doesn't need our help. The Holy Spirit doesn't need
our help. And the truth, like this ark,
is not a thing to be trifled with. God's Word is not a thing
to be used in a familiar way like we would anything else.
It's the Holy Word of God. And it angers God Almighty. And
just because God doesn't deal with men immediately like He
does Ezra, He will. He has. Now, what of all the
ways that men and women put their filthy hands on the truth? My,
my. There are too many and they are
not worth bringing up again. But God will smite. Yes, He will. For messing with His truth, for
desecrating His glory, and for treating His Word in a too familiar
way. Well, look at David here. David was shocked by this. It
says in verse 11 that David was displeased. Maybe he liked Uzzah. Maybe he liked Uzzah. Maybe he
thought he was a pretty good boy. Well, he wasn't a boy. Uzzah
was a young man, at least. He had to be to be a priest,
and he was a priest. And he was of the house of Kohath,
of Levi, who were ordained by Moses to to carry the Ark about. There were people that were ordained
for different services. Well, he was of that half, of
Benedab, Kohath, and so forth. Anyway, David may have liked
this young man. And God killed him right in front
of him. And David, it says, was displeased. It's hard to believe it. But
he was. He got bent out of shape. He was out of sorts. He couldn't
understand why God had done that. Because David was out of sorts.
And we'll see later on over in 1 Chronicles in a minute how
David the Lord put him back in his right mind. He realized that
every one of them had greatly erred concerning the ark. Romans
chapter 1, look over there. I probably quote Romans 1 these
days more than any other passage, don't I? And the reason being is because
there's never been an age fit this chapter more than the one
we're living in right now. Never been an age more clearly
described than here in Romans chapter 1. You know these verses. It says in Romans 1, the gospel,
verse 16, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believe it. The gospel is the power of God. So what are we
to do? What's the church to do? Paul said, I'm determined not
to know anything among you. Save the gospel. Christ crucified.
That's what we do. And there in verse 17 is a righteousness
of God revealed. God's holiness. God's acceptance
of us. Salvation revealed from faith
to faith. That means Abel. Abel, first
man that died, died in the faith. What faith? Believing the gospel. Right. And the last one who dies
in the faith will believe the same thing. From faith to faith. Same thing. One Lord, one faith. Faith in one Lord. Jesus Christ. Read on. Verse 17. It is written
that just shall live by faith. Live with God. Live and walk
by faith. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven. against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. And it goes on down in chapter
1, talking about verse 29, filled with unrighteousness. Filled
with it. Doing all these sort of things.
Verse 32, knowing the judgment of God, they which commit such
things are worthy of death. And God kills them. God kills. Doesn't He? God wiped out Sodom
and Gomorrah. And God wiped out New Orleans,
and God wiped out people all over. Now they don't recognize
it. Down in verse 20, it talks about God's creation, that they
were without excuse. We live in the most educated
society in the world. But they're fools. Verse 22 says,
professing themselves to be wise, they became utter fools. You'd
think that, Jenny, that the more that medicine and science would
look into this human body, the more they'd see this is the most
glorious thing ever. It's too miraculous just to evolve, I mean. Only an utter
ignorant. Not just ignorant, but a rebel. Verse 21 says, when they knew
God, these things clearly reveal Him, they glorified Him not as
God and weren't thankful. It says they changed the glory
of God. This is religion right here.
Changing the glory of God in an image. What's the first image?
Man. Make God into a man. Or birds
and so forth. Wherefore, verse 24, God gave
them up. Gave them up. Changed the truth,
verse 25, into a lie. Worshipped and served the creature
that is man or mother earth. Mother earth. More than the Creator
who is blessed forever. What do you say to that? Amen.
Well, who makes you to differ? John, you are not smarter than
these people, these doctors and lawyers and not many wise men.
You see your calling, don't you? Not many wise men after the flood.
Not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God. Aren't you
glad? The poor have the gospel preached
out to them. Poor, ignorant, fools, the wayfaring men, the
fools. They will not err. He will show them the way. He will
make known His covenant to them. He will reveal the secret of
the Lord with them that fear Him. He will teach them His covenant. God of the Bible is thankful.
We will go back to our text. God of the Bible is angry and
hates many people. That's right. And you know what? They hate
him too. They hate him too. And well, look at 1 Chronicles
15. David over here later on, chapter
15, verse 13, he finally comes to his senses. He finally comes
to his senses. In verse 13 of chapter 15, he
says, Verse 12, he says, to David called Zadok, Nebiathar, the
Levites, Uriel, and so forth. Amenadab, the father. Verse 11,
it said unto them, verse 12, you are the chief of the fathers
of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves. Prepare yourselves. We didn't
do this before. We rushed into God's presence.
Let's have a big ole whoop-de-doo meeting. Prepare yourselves, you and your
brethren, and bring up the ark of God unto the place I have
prepared for you." Verse 13, "'Cause you did it not at the
first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, all of us.
We did it wrong. We sought Him not after the due
order." We didn't do it right. And we saw a man killed before
our eyes. Now, God, Scripture says, is
to be feared and reverenced in the assembly of the saints. Isn't
that what the Scripture said? Does anybody in here think that
we are too strict or too narrow in the way that we do things?
Too strict in insisting the way we do things be respectful and
even the way we dress? Anybody think we are too strict? He meant, well, is God holy? We sing that, then
holy, holy, holy. Anybody think that? Well, if any of you have a computer,
and this might be a waste of time, probably, It probably is, but it might
open your eyes. I mentioned a modern day evangelist
the other day named John Hagin. There's other men named, and
Paul named all sorts of names. But the other man, a man like
Kenneth Copeland, he's well known. There's another man named Kenneth
Hagen. Just get to your computer and type those names in and look
up. There are videos that they don't
show on national television, but there are videos of their
services. And you can't believe it. You can't believe it. I watched
something that I wanted to look more into what that Hagee fellow
said is what it was. And I pulled up these two fellows,
Hagen and Copeland. You can't believe it. I mean,
you can't believe it. It's the most demonic thing I've
ever seen. The demon was there. Demon was there. I mean, they're
absolutely mocking God Almighty. Chapter 13 here in our text,
and maybe that was a waste of breath right there, but it shocked
me. I knew it was bad, but I didn't
know how bad it was. And the hidden things, you see,
the hidden things that aren't published too much is the hidden
corruption that goes on today. These men are evil. Look at verse
13 and 14. Alright, now let's get to the
good part. David, verse 12, says, how? He was afraid. He was shocked. He was puzzled. He was confused. He said, how are we going to
bring the ark of God home? So, verse 13, David brought not
the ark to himself that day. Three months later, you know,
they thought about it. They prayed about it. Kind of like changing the name
or building a building or whatever. Don't just decide. Just wait. But he didn't bring it home that
day. And David carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the
Gittite. A man named Obed-Edom. He just
so happened. This man named Obed of Edom.
Just so happened. His hap was to live right there. where that ark stops. It just
so happened that God Almighty stopped this whole thing, killed
one man to bless another. And that ark was brought into
this man's house. Verse 14, the ark of God remained
with the family of Obed-Edom in his house three months. a certainty that Obed-Edom heard
of the ark. Certainly he heard of the ark.
David didn't just command it. I believe Obed-Edom said, I'll
keep it. You looking for a place for it?
David said, he was afraid to move at that time. And here this
man's house was standing. And the man volunteered and said,
I'll take it. He heard of it. He heard of the
judgments of it. God killed before Israelites
got it back. God killed, I don't know how
many thousands. the Philistines for looking into
that ark. Remember? Smote them. That's when Samuel,
when they finally bought it and put it in Geriatrium. And he
heard of that. Obed-Edom heard of the judgments
of God. He heard of this. Us of being
killed for touching it. His impudence, his irreverence
concerning the ark. He heard of it, yet he wanted
this ark bad in his eye. That's a fearful thing. You reckon he feared it? You
know he did. How do you reckon he approached
it? With reverence? Respect? So here's the story. What does
all this mean? We have the gospel. Most of the
time, we hear messages of great comfort, great joy, and that's
the gospel. And just like anything good,
it will become commonplace if we're not careful. We take it
for granted. Like the manna. It says God was
angry with the children of Israel, and all through the New Testament
are sermons reminding us what happened to the children of Israel.
Why? Because it says they loathed this light bread. I know. And God forbid that we
should take this glorious gospel for granted or irreference it.
Young people. And I'm glad you're here. I'm
glad you parents. This is why I insist that we
have our young people here. They're not just hearing a sermon.
This is life or death. This is not a fable here. This
is a true story. God dealing with a young man
who was around this ark for years and took it for granted, just
took it upon himself to treat it lightly. You don't treat it
lightly. Young people, you will either live by the gospel, you
either hear Christ Confess him and live by him, or you will
die at his hands." That's how serious it is. The same hand
that killed Uzzah blessed Obed-Edom. The same hand. How much? Go over to 1 Chronicles
26. Let's look at that. The Lord
blessed, it says, all that he had. All they had, and all who
worship, all you who truly worship the Lord, fear the Lord, love
the Lord, respect, honor God's Son. And that's known by our
treatment of the gospel. Right? There's nothing holy about
this building, just like there's nothing holy about that box. Nothing holy about me. I'm just
a common fellow. But there's upkeep, isn't there? And God demanded it. And that's
how you know. That's how you know a person's
reverence for and estimation of the gospel. And that's how
it's known. Look at 1 Chronicles 26. I told
you he had seven, eight sons. Verse 4, the sons of Obed-Edom. 1 Chronicles 26, verse 4, "...the
sons of Obed-Edom were Shemaiah, the firstborn, Jehozabad the
second, Joah..." And once again, I'm glad our sons' names are
Joe, Dylan, and so forth. "...but Jehozabad,
Joah the third, Saker the fourth, Nethaniel the fifth, Amiel, 6,
Issachar the 7th, Peuthah 8, for God blessed him, the large
family. And Undeshimiah, that's one of
his sons, firstborn, were born sons, ruled throughout the house
of their father. They were mighty men of valor.
God blessed Obed-Edom with many sons, and every one of these
sons were blessed. Look at it, the sons of Shimeiothne,
Raphael, Obed, after his granddad, Eozabed, named after his granddad. That sounds familiar, doesn't
it? Whose brethren were strong men. Men. And all these sons of Obed-Edom,
they and their sons and their brethren, able men, for strength,
for what? Why were they great men? Why
were they strong men? Why did the Lord, why does it
say they were blessed men? For the service. The ark was their life. The ark was their life. God blessed
them greatly. And every one we have God's Word
on that highly esteems this gospel. God bless you. Supports it. God bless you. You have His Word
on it. Those that lightly esteem it,
serious things fall into the hands of the living God. Don't
take this lightly. We have a great blessing here,
don't we? The greatest blessing known to
man here. Brother Todd, I look forward
to men coming here to preach because I know they'll get a
great reception. Better than they get most places. People, I've preached a lot of
places. I don't think there's any like that. There's some places
I preach and I just, oh my, maybe a few that rejoice. Many of them are gospel-hardened
and it's just old hat. Oh, God forbid that it should
ever become that way here. God forbid. Because this gospel,
like that article that a fellow read and we put in our bulletin
said, we have no patent on the gospel. It doesn't have to stay
here, does it? It doesn't have to stay here.
We have no claims on it. It's of the Lord's goodness that
we have it. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You so much for
this greatest of all blessings. Thank You, thank You, thank You.
Forgive us, Lord, for our improper handling of it at times, all
of us. We're all guilty. Like David said, we've all not
sought the Lord in due order. Many times I've prepared ourselves
to take it for granted and treat it lightly and carelessly and
irreverently. Lord, forgive us. Turn us again,
as the psalmist said three times. Turn us again. Turn us again. Turn us again. We always need
turning. Revive Thy work, O Lord, in the
midst of the years. in the midst of these perilous
times, Lord. My, my. Keep this little place as the
apple of Your eye. Keep it, Lord, as a lighthouse,
an oasis, a haven, a city of refuge, Lord. Keep the gospel
here. We pray, we ask for Thy great
name's sake. For our children, our children's
children. And it's in Christ's name I met here tonight and give
thanks. Amen.