Turn back to 1 Chronicles chapter
13. 1 Chronicles chapter 13. I want to bring the message from
1 Chronicles 13 and chapter 15. What we have in these two chapters
is a worship service gone wrong and a worship service going right.
That's what we'll find in these two chapters. Now, I want to
give you just a little bit of a history lesson concerning the
ark. The chapter was read to us, and
they went after the ark. The ark had been taken by the
Philistines. I want to just give you a little bit of a history
lesson on that, and then we'll look at chapter 13. The Ark of the Covenant, it tells
us in the Scriptures, back over, I believe, in Deuteronomy, was
made of shiddom wood, and it was lined within and without
with pure gold. Within the Ark were preserved
the table of stone, the broken law which God gave to Moses upon
the Mount. That law was put inside that
Ark. Upon the lid of the ark were the figures of cherubims,
and when the ark was at rest, between the wings of the cherubims
was a shekinah that was a bright light which represented God's
presence. That light, that shekinah, what
they call shekinah glory, that was between the wings of the
cherubims, it represented God's presence among them. And the lid of the ark was called
the Mercy Seat, made of pure gold. This seat represented Christ,
who is our Mercy Seat. Christ is our Mercy Seat. Christ
is our Ark of the Covenant. In Christ, God's broken law was
kept on our behalf. The only place it could be kept
was in Christ. Also in the ark was the pot of manna and Aaron's
rod that budded. After the Ark was made in the
wilderness, it was kept in a secret place of the tabernacle. After
they made the tabernacle, they put it in what's called the secret
place, which is called the Holy of Holies. That's where the Ark
of the Covenant was kept, in the Holy of Holies. No one was
allowed in this place except the high priest, once every year,
and then not without blood. You couldn't just come into that
any time you wanted to. And there had to be blood when
the high priest came into it. These two things were established,
and these two things we're going to see were missing in chapter
13. The priest, no one ever came
before God except through the priest. And the blood, who represented
Christ. See, the priest represents Christ,
our high priest, and the blood represented the blood of Christ.
When they slay those lambs and sprinkle on the mercy seat, that
represents the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the high priest
would take his smoking stencil, and he'd go in there, and he'd
go in and sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat and make
an atonement. That's what he'd do. Then when
the ark was moved, it was covered over so that no one could see
it, and it was carried. Notice this, it was carried. by two staffs, that's how God
said you'll carry it, two staffs covered with gold, upon the shoulders
of the Levites, the priests. They were the only ones who were
to move the Ark, they were the only ones to touch the Ark, they
were the only ones to handle this Ark. It was the Levites,
the priests. The priests represent our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, this Ark that pictured Christ,
this Ark which represented God's presence, It was taken by the
Philistines during a battle. They brought it from Shiloh,
they brought it into a battle, and it was taken. The Philistines
took it. And when the Philistines took it, God's hand was very
heavy upon them. I went back and I read this portion
of Scripture, and his hand was heavy upon them. So they put
it on a cart drawn by two milk cows. They got rid of it. They
couldn't have it. This thing was causing death
and sickness. I tell you, you don't mishandle
the gospel. You mishandle the gospel, it's dangerous, it's
deadly, as it does, I found out. But they put that on a cart,
and it was drawn by two milk cows, and they just turned them
loose. Well, these two milk cows went to Beth Shemesh, providentially. Providentially, the God led them
to Beth Shemesh. Nothing's left to chance, is
it? God guides the oxen, God guides the birds of the air,
God guides the hand and thoughts of every man, God guides everything.
And he turned these oxen loose and God guided them right to
Beth Shemesh. The men of Beth Shemesh, out of curiosity, looked
inside the ark, they opened the lid of it up and they looked
inside and God killed 50,070 men. Now you say, that's harsh. You know, that's just too hard.
Look how many have been killed since Adam failed. By one disobedience,
many were made sinners. Look how many, how many billions
of people have died from that one disobedience. That's God's
strictness. That's God's holiness. And when
God says do it this way, this is the way to do it. And we'll
see this as we go along. There's not to be changed. See,
he killed 50,070 men. Then it was removed to Gerim
and taken to the house of Abinadab, where it stayed until the days
of David. And then it came into the heart of David. He wanted
to bring the ark back into Jerusalem. He wanted to bring it back to
the city of David. He wanted God's presence there. And I understand
his thoughts, and I believe God put it in his heart, but there
are some things that David went wrong on. And we'll see it, and
then God corrects him in chapter 15. We'll see that. So verse
1 in chapter 15, David consulted with his captains of thousands,
captains of hundreds, and with every leader. He consulted with
the people. Well, the first problem I see
here is David consulted with the wrong ones first. He consulted
with the wrong ones first. His first consultation should
have been with God. Is that not what he should have
done? His first consultation, when it came into his heart,
he should have went before God with this matter, but he went
before the people. It's God's art that he's going
after. It's God's presence that he desires. You'd think we'd apply to God
how to do this. How do I come into God's presence? How does
God's presence come to me? God's the one I need to apply
to to find out. I need to apply to him. So David consults with
the wrong people first. Let everything the scripture
tells us, let everything be done by prayer and supplication, especially
in this great matter of worship and seeking God's presence. My, we need to seek God in prayer
for that. And to worship, that's what we've
gathered here this morning for, to worship him in spirit and
in truth. God help us to do that. God help us to do that. If God's
presence is to be among us, how can our holy, immaculate God
come into my presence? How can he do that? It can only
be through the mediation, the blood, the sacrifice, the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That's the only way God can come
into our presence and we can come into his presence. It's
through Christ. And we're going to see if that's
what's missing. the main ingredient was missing. So in verse 2, David
said unto all the congregation of Israel, If it seem good unto
you, and that it be of the Lord our God, well, I could stop right
there. David sought the will of the
people first instead of the will of God first. It should have
been, this is what David should have said. He's the king, he's
the leader. If the Lord will, we will go
and bring up the ark to us. Period. It don't matter what
my will is. I tell you, it does not matter
what my will is. When I was teaching the disciples,
they said, teach us how to pray. And he said, thy will be done
on earth and as it is in heaven. He didn't add anything or say
anything about my will, did he? My will didn't even come up.
That's not thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and
that's what David should have done. If the Lord willed it,
this is what we're going to do. But he sought the will of the
people first. Then he said in verse 3, let
us bring up the ark of our God to us. Well, here's another problem. The wrong us is bringing up the
ark. God didn't tell David. David
was out of position. David was out of order, going
after that ark. That was the Levites' job. That
was their job. The royal heirs were going after
the ark. Only the Levites were to carry the ark, only the priests
who represented Christ. So that's very important. Who
represented Christ, our high priest, can bring us into God's
presence. Only the priest. Only our high
priest can do this. Christ is the only way to God,
and we cannot change that. We cannot. That cannot be changed.
We do not change the way that sinners are saved. We do not
change the way that we come into God's presence, which is through
Christ. We don't change that. Not at all. We do not change
the ordinances. We don't change anything God
has set down. We don't change. We must have
God's priest We must have the blood and the sacrifice of Christ
in order to truly worship God. If that's missing, this worship
service is foolishness. If Christ is not present, if
Christ is not set forth, if his blood and his sacrifice is not
in the forefront, we cannot go forward in worship. We can't
go. Christ must be there. The same
here in verse 4. The thing seemed right in the
eyes of all the people. There's a way that seems right
unto man, but the end thereof is destruction. When are we going
to learn that? The thing was right in the eyes
of the people, but not right in the eyes of God. And I put
me a little footnote here. We should have learned from Eve
about our eye problem. It's not what's right with these
eyes, it's what's right with God. It's what he set down. What
troubles we meet with when God becomes second and our will and
desire becomes first, even in a good matter. Even in a matter
of worship. We must seek his will. So what we have here in this
chapter is a worship service gone wrong. It's just gone wrong. And it keeps getting worse. When
you start without the priest, the blood, and the sacrifice,
it keeps getting worse. And that's what happens here,
we see. So David, in verse 5 and 6, David gathers all Israel together.
David gets everyone involved. David was acting more like a
politician here instead of a king. See, David's trying to just get
everybody involved here. David's the king, the leader,
let's do this thing right. He's acting like a politician
is what he's doing. This should have been a solemn occasion.
I mean, the most solemn occasion that they had. This should be
going down after the ark, bringing God's presence. You come into
God's presence, God comes into your presence. That's a solemn,
worship is a solemn, it's a solemn matter. And verse 7, they carried
the ark of God in a new cart. That's another thing. See, I
didn't say it keeps getting worse. It just keeps going downhill.
They tried to carry the Ark the same way the Theses took it.
You know, when the Philistines took the Ark, they put it on
a cart and took it back to their country. So when Israel comes
down after it, what do they do? They put it on a cart, a new
cart, and they're going to bring it back to themselves. That ain't
going to happen. God was chasing His people. God
corrects His people. That's not going to happen. They
left out the priest who represented Christ, they left out the sacrifice,
they left out the blood, and they brought a cart. They left out Christ. That's
what they did. They left out Christ. We do not
need a new car. We don't need a new way to help
us in worshiping God. We need Christ. He's the one who enables us to
worship the living God. He's the only one who enables
us to do it. No other way. He's God's appointed priest. He's God's appointed sacrifice. It's his blood that is the appointed
blood. The Ark, it says, was to be carried, that's like old
Deuteronomy. The Ark was to be carried by
the Levites, not some dumb animals. God didn't call dumb animals
to carry the Ark or to present the gospel. He called Levi. He
called men whom he has chosen, whom he has anointed, not some
dumb animals, but men chosen of God to carry it upon their
shoulders. When I read that, I thought,
They carry it from their shoulders where they can see it and everyone
else can see it. You put something up on your
shoulder, you can't help but see it, can you? It's right there for
everyone to see. And that's what they were supposed
to do. Christ is to be carried by his ministers for all his
people to see. All of them to see. God did not
appoint a new cart. And David, David should have
known this. David knew that he'd got, he
should have known this. He should have known better.
And would have if he had sought God first about this matter.
If he had sought God first and said to the people, David would
have done this thing right the first time and saved a lot of
trouble. He would have done it right the
first time if he had sought God. Leaders are the lead. They're
the lead. And then it says in verse 8,
they were all dancing. David and all Israel prayed before
God with all their might with singing and harps and psalteries
and timbrels and cymbals. They were all, I say what I see
here, everything seemed good, everything seemed good, everything
felt good, and there was no order. It was all out of order. There
was no order to what they were doing right here. Instead, they
were doing it with all their might, and you see, you've seen
some of these, sir, I've been in some services where it was
out of order, just completely out of order, and Christ was
totally missing. And that's what was going on here. Everything,
it felt good, it seemed right, until God said enough. God said enough. Now, if a bunch
of heathens who didn't know God was doing this, he'd just let
them go, as he's letting many of them go their way now. But
he's not going to let his people go. They're going to do it right.
Until God said enough, God's going to put a stop to this ignorant
zeal. That's what it is, ignorant zeal.
And he's going to do it in a very hard way. God's way is not to
be trifled with. Not at all. The oxen, it says
in verse 9, the oxen stumbled. Some of the writers said they
slipped in the mud and tripped. I put it down here,
God tripped them up. God's going to stop. God providentially
tripped those oxen up. That's what happened. God did
it. And Uzzah reached up to stay the ark. He's going to protect
it. That's God's ark. God will keep
that ark. That's God's Christ. You don't
have to feel sorry for Christ. He'll take care of himself. And
that's God's ark, and nobody's going to handle that ark but
the priest. And when Uzzah reached up to touch it, it says in verse
10, "...and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah,
and God smote him." God killed him. Because he put forth his
hand to the ark, and there he died before God. No one. This is how serious things are
with God when it comes to the gospel, with Christ. No one was to touch the ark but
the priest. God will not change the order. He will not change the order.
And sometimes the lessons are very, very hard. Very hard. And it says in verse 11 that
David was angry with God for this. David was angry with God. Can
you imagine that? A man, a sinful man being angry
with God. Everything God does is right.
Everything God does is wise and holy, and there's no flaw in
it. And yet David is angry with God
for this. Well, first of all, he still
hadn't seen the error of his ways yet, but he will. You know,
there's some things that's made us angry. I have to say, there's
things in the past that I didn't understand or made me a little
angry. But I tell you what, in time, God teaches a lesson. You
learn. You learn. David's anger in verse
12 turns to fear. First he was angry. He was angry
with God. And then it turned to fear. You see, he thought he might
be next. God is no respecter of persons. God would kill a
king as well as a pauper. You know, there's only one person
who's ever impressed God. That's Christ. Nobody else has
ever impressed him. Not one of us has ever impressed
God. Only Christ. And David realized
that God is no respecter of persons and he's the leader of this foolishness.
Now, that's a terrifying revelation, isn't it? to be the leader of
such foolishness, of what he's doing, carrying on here. The
Scripture tells us that our God is consuming fire. And usually
when we use that Scripture, we're thinking about the wicked. Our
God's a consuming fire. He consumes the wicked, and He
will. But it's our God is a consuming fire, and He's going to consume
our dross. And the closer He draws you to
Him, the more dross you're going to get burned off from And that's
what he's doing here. He's going to burn away some
of this dross and this foolishness that's going on. In verse 12,
David finally asked the right question. David finally asked the right
question. And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How
shall I bring the ark of God home to me? If he had just asked
that first. If he had just asked that first,
how shall I do this? How shall I go down and get the
ark and bring it to me? He could have avoided all this
foolishness that went on. All that could have been avoided. If he had just asked this question,
how shall I bring the ark home to me? How shall I come into
God's presence? How can I, a sinful man, be justified
with God? I tell you what, if a man really
asks that question, you'll get the answer. God will give you
the answer. He's not withholding the answer.
The answer is hidden in Christ. He's the answer. That's how. That's how I can bring this ark
home to me, Christ. That's how I can bring God's
presence in. I can come into God's presence, Christ. And you
notice there in verse 14, the ark of God remained with the
family of Obed-Edom. in his house three months, and
the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that he had. And you can write, I've written
in red ink at the bottom of that, the house is blessed where Christ
is. That ark represents Christ. The
house is blessed where Christ is. You can write that down.
Now, turn over to chapter 15, and we'll finish this message. Now he gets it right. Now the
worship service is going to go right. So it says, And David
made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place.
See, that was granted for three months. And so David prepared
a place for the ark of God, and pitched a tent for it. That's
what it was supposed to do the first time. The ark was to be
put into the tabernacle there in the Holy of Holies. It's not
going to just sit out in front where everybody can... I mean,
this ain't going to be done right. So here, David prepares a place
for the ark of God to fish a tip for. He didn't do this the first
time, but now he does. Now he does it right. Now he
makes preparations for the ark. Now it's going to be put in its
proper place where God sent it. And I thought of this. We must
always prepare our hearts to receive Christ and give him his
due respect and glory, the glory and honor that a king deserves.
We must seek God to prepare our hearts always to receive Christ. Even this morning, we seek God
to prepare our hearts that we might receive Christ once again
in all his glory, in all of it. And then in verse
2, David acts like a king. Look here in verse 2. Then David
said, Know not the care of the ark of God, but the Levites.
for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God and to
minister unto him forever." David is now acting like a king. He's fulfilling his position. He tells the people how the ark
is to be carried and who will carry it, and he doesn't ask
for anyone's opinion this time. There can be too many voices.
There can be way too many voices. I learned that in business. You
don't need too many voices at all. So David doesn't ask for
anyone's opinion. We don't need many voices in
worship. We need one. He is. We need one
voice this morning. Well, I used to go to a place
before I heard the gospel by Henry. They used to stand up
and, I mean, they'd have what they call a testimonial service.
Sometimes you couldn't get into the preaching because everybody
was standing up, all the voices. We need one voice this morning.
That's His voice. And that's through the preaching of His
word. That's how He's worshipped. Through Christ, through the preaching
of His word. We don't need many voices. Leaders must lead or
step out of the way. That's what they've got to do.
It's the duty of pastors and elders to lead and worship and
not seek everyone's opinion about it. That's right. We seek God
concerning these matters. So David in verse 3, look here.
And David gathered all Israel together to Jerusalem to bring
up the ark of the Lord unto his place which he had prepared before
it. And of course, the chapter or verse before that, he had
gotten the Levites in their place. So David gathers the people together
this time, listen, in quiet worship. I guarantee you it was quiet. It was quiet. I gave a tape to
a man one time that I've worked for. And a lady who listened
to it at Paper Henry at our church. And he came back the next morning
and he said, was there anybody there? I said, well, there's
three or four hundred people there. He said, but man, that
was quiet. He said, you didn't hear nobody.
I said, well, I said, it's part of worship. He said, I couldn't
take that. He said, I like it when it's
everybody, you know, carrying on out of order. I said, that's
not worship. And I guarantee you, this time
when David gathered them together, I bet you could hear a pin drop,
because they were listening this time for the information. They
were listening for the command. They were listening for the direction.
That's what they were listening for. So David gathered them together
in quiet worship. There was reverent awe of God
this time, as there was at the last time. David gathered the right people
this time to carry the ark and conduct the service. He gets
the right people. Without our high priest, Christ. You know, God is a God of order.
He has sent men in the church, you know, some apostles and pastors
and teachers, and they're to teach and to preach. And Christ,
our high priest, is the head of all of it. He's the head of
all of it. And without him, you can't worship
God. God cannot be worshipped apart
without being through Christ. It can't be done. And he says
to Luther, verse 12, sanctify yourselves this time. Let's do
it right. He said, sanctify, set yourselves
apart. Let's do it right this time.
That's what he's saying. This time, let's do it just as God
says. It's amazing. I thought it was amazing as I
read this how far off course you can get and not realize it.
I mean, look at David. David is a man after God's own
heart. David believed in the election
of God's people. David believed in a sovereign
God. But David attempted to worship God without the priest or sacrificing
the blind. And boy, did he pay for that
one. It's just amazing how far off you can get and just not
realize it. In verse 13, he says here, for
because you did it not at the first, what he's saying, he didn't
say he's not blaming them, he said, I didn't call you in on
this the first time. You didn't do it the first time.
You're supposed to have been the ones doing it the first time,
but we didn't. We did it all wrong, and the reason is, we
sought him not after the due order. We went to worship and didn't
ask God a thing about it. Didn't seek him at all. Didn't
seek him, the one we came to worship. The one we came to worship,
we didn't seek him at all about it. That's amazing, isn't it? But David owns up to the problem.
He said, we sought him not after the dew water. We left him out
of it. Let us never make that mistake. Never make that mistake. Let
us always seek God's presence through the high priest. through
the blood, through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Seek
to worship him that way. That's the only way. So, verse
14, they do it the right way this time. Then verse 15, this
time the right people carry the ark, the gospel. The ark is the
gospel of Christ. They do it the right way with
stabs. They took it off the ark this time. They put the stabs
in it. What they did, we're coming up
to it, I'll show you what they did. They did it here as Moses
commanded. Look over here in verse, let
me see, 15. And the children of the Levites
bear the ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves thereon
as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord. This
is important here. Get a hold of this. They did
it as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord. They
opened the book. They took the Bible down and
opened it. They didn't do it. The first time they didn't do
it, he just had a thought in his heart and went along with
it. But this time, he went and he got the Old Testament, opened
it up over to Deuteronomy, where they discussed the ark and all
the commandments about the ark's given. And Deuteronomy said,
now this is the way it's to be done, according to the word of
God. They opened the book, God's word,
sought his will in the matter, and did it as he commanded. That's
worship, and that's doing it right. And God has told us how
to worship Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way
we're going to know that, the only way we're going to know
Him, is open this book. You can't know Him apart from
this book. Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Verse
16, the right people led the whole worship service this time,
the Levites. There's an order to these things.
You know, you don't just come in here this morning and wonder
which one of us is going to do it. You know your pastor is going
to be here. You know your pastor is going to stand up here and
preach the gospel to you. Because that's the way God said do it.
That's the way he said do it. The right people led the whole
worship service. So David and the elders of Israel
and the captains over thousands went to bring up the ark of the
covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obed-Edom. Some of these names are tough.
I wouldn't dare pronounce them right. But that brought him up
with joy, he says. There's real joy in true worship.
Now, this stuff you see people carrying on and getting out of,
I mean, just out of order. That's not real joy. Real joy
is a real quiet conscience that worships God and enjoys his presence. There's real joy in true worship
and doing it right. When Christ is present, worship
is a joy. Worship is a joy. In the verse
26, it came to pass when God helped the Levites. Boy, I like
that verse. When I read that, God helped
the Levites. They didn't stumble. They didn't
stumble. Here we have two big, strong
oxen carrying that cart, and they stumbled with it. Here we
have frail men carrying that ark, and they never stumbled. I tell you what, when it's done
right, when God has sought in due order, and the gospel is
preached, The pastor doesn't stumble and the people don't
stumble. They don't stumble. He said, my Lord said this, my
yoke is easy and my burden is light. It wasn't to those oxen. It wasn't to those Philistines.
Oh, it was awful. But it is to us because he helps
us bear it. If he did not help us preach,
we couldn't do it. If he didn't enable us to worship,
we couldn't do it. We'd find a new card. That's
what we'd do. And note in verse 26, this time
there's blood in their worship. Here in verse 26, and it came
to pass when God helped the Levites that bear the Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord, that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams.
Now, you got, I wish I wrote down the scripture because I
went back and read it, but I didn't write it down. Every six paces
they did this. Every six, you know how long
it, I mean it was a long walk, fifty, sixty miles or more, back
to where they was taking it. Every six steps, you count six
steps off and off of this, count six more steps off and off, that
was a blood trail, that was a blood bath. I tell you what, the arc,
and this struck me after I preached this last Wednesday night, but
this didn't hit me until after I preached it, the arc. God's
presence, the gospel, cannot go forward except through the
blood and the sacrament. It can't do it. It can't do it. And then I thought,
when Christ, the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the
world, God could not create the earth. He would not have created
Adam had the bread already not been there. Nothing, creation
or anything, could have gone forward except the blood of Christ.
It's hard to be in front of it. And every six paces they did
this. Could you imagine walking up
on that scene? All the blood that was shed. You had the priest,
you had the sacrifice, you had the blood. Now you can have worship. That was missing. God can only
be approached in worship through the blood of His Son. Don't think that time has changed
the way God has worshiped or preached. It's not. It will always be through the
sacrifice, through the blood of God's Son, until time shall
be no more. That won't change. And let us
never be guilty of putting the gospel on a new cart. There's no better method than
preaching. is please God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them to believe. And that's the way it is to be delivered, through
preaching. How are we to guard against such
failings? I wrote down four ways, and I'll
give you a few just quickly. First of all, prayer. Seek the
Lord continually. Never attempt worship without
prayer. Be well acquainted with his word. Well acquainted. Thirdly, keep worship a solemn
matter. Keep it a solemn matter. And
then fourthly, always keep the blood and the sacrifice of our Lord in our worship service. And we'll never fail. We'll never
do what they did. Mm-hmm. I know that I have heard thy
voice, and it flows by love to me, that I love you guys in the
arms of faith, and it flows by love to me. Call me nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where Thy hand died. Call me nearer, nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Concentrate thee now to thy service,
Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul ascend with the flesh
as hope, and my will be lost in thine. Draw me nearer to the
blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. And you, you were born to know
To thy precious fleeting child There are rifts of love that
I cannot know Till I cross the narrow sea There are heights
of joy that I may not see Till I rest in peace with thee Call
me nearer, nearer than before, to the cross that I have died. Call me nearer, nearer than before,
to thy precious bleeding child. so