1 Samuel 6, and let's start reading in verse
12 here this evening, and read down to the end of the chapter. Remember they had these two milk
cows, and they put them to take the calves away from them, put
the ark on that newly made cart. and it coffereth mice and golds
in the image of the emirats. And the cows, it says in verse
12, the cows, or the kind, took the straight way to the way of
Beth-shemesh, going toward Israel, and went along the highway, lowing
as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to
the left. And the lords of the Philistines
went after them under the border of Beth Shemesh. They followed
them. Five lords and they of Beth Shemesh were reaping their
wheat harvest in the valley. And they lifted up their eyes
and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it. And the cart came
into the field of Joshua a Bethshemite and stood there where there was
a great stone. broke up or claimed the wood
of the cart and offered the kind of the cows a burnt offering
unto the Lord. And the Levites, now these are
the people that are supposed to take care of the Ark, supposed
to take care of the Tabernacle, supposed to take care of all
the furniture and everything in the and the high priest came
from the Levite Levitical tribe. And the Levites took down the
ark of the Lord, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the
jewels of gold were put, and put them on the great stone.
And the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed
sacrifices, and the same day unto the Lord. And when the five
lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron
the same day. These are the golden emeralds
which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto
the Lord, for Ashdod won, for Gaza won, for Ashkelon won, for
Gath won, for Ekron won. And the golden mice, according
to the number of all the cities of the Philistines, belonging
to the five lords, both of fenced cities and of country villages,
even under the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the
ark of the Lord, which stone remain under this day in the
field of Joshua the Bethshemite. And he smote the men of Bethshemesh,
because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. Even he
smote of the people fifty and threescore and ten, fifty thousand
and seventy men. And the people lamented, because
the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this
holy LORD God, and to whom shall he go up from us? And they sent
messengers to the inhabitants of Kirth-Jerim, saying, The Philistines
have brought again the ark of the LORD. Come ye down, and fetch
it up to you. look at that verse 19 and 20
here of chapter 6 of 1 Samuel with me. And look at this verse
19, And he smoked the men of Bethshemes because they had looked
into the ark of the Lord. Even he smoked of the people
50,000, three score and ten, 50,070 people. people a minute, because the
Lord had spitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
And the men of Bethshemeth said, Who is able, and this is my subject
tonight, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall He go up from
us? How are we going to get someone
to go to God for us? Who is able to to stand before
the Holy Lord God. That's what they said. The Ark
wasn't God, but it represented the presence of God. And what
made it so precious was this, that that Ark, when it was first
made, it dwelt between the cherubim. It was in that tabernacle behind
the holiest of holies. And the priest only went behind
there once a year into the presence of that Ark. and it had a gold
lid on it which was the mercy seat and that high priest went
in there once a year and he put blood on that mercy seat once
a year and so this mercy seat that's what this ark represents
and the law was inside that mercy seat, the broken law. So the
ark was the presence of God and who, and the scriptures tells
us who dwelt, God who dwelt between the Cherubim. This is where I'll
meet with you. He said, I dwelt between the
Cherubim. And what the Philistines had done, they made the ark equal
to their God. Well, he wasn't able to stand
before the holiness of God. He wasn't able to stand before
the Holy Lord God. He fell on his face. And then
they set him back up and they went the next morning. Not only
was he on his face, but he didn't have a head or hands either.
Now who was there to cause this to happen? Would God have somebody
there to help him? Did God have somebody sneak into
that place and tear up that God of the Philistines? He couldn't
stand. before the Holy Lord God. He wasn't able to stand. And
then they said, well, I'll tell you what, we'll send a trespassing offering to him.
five emirats and five mice, golden mice, sent by two cows over to
Israel on a new cart, and it landed in a, and it was straight
to a man named Joshua's house, and a great stone was there,
and they began to offer sacrifices unto God. But when it got there,
these men of Bethshemesh what they did they looked into the
ark and here's what they did they took the lid off that ark
that mercy seat off that ark they took it off and they laid
it aside and looked in there and when you know when that mercy
seat's not there you know all you're dealing with The holiness
of God, the justice of God, the broken law of God. They say that's
an awful cruel thing for God to do. Anybody that wants what
these fellas did, they said we don't need a mercy seat in order
to go into the presence of God. We can face him on the basis
of that law. And God said, you want to face
me on the basis of broken law and on the basis of justice?
This is what happens to men who decide that they don't need a
mercy seat, who decide they don't need a blood offering, who decide
that they can deal with God's law by itself. He said He slew
50,070 of them. And that's a drop in a bucket.
That's a drop in a bucket to how many men will perish because
they don't want a mercy seat and they don't want to come into
the presence of God based on a mercy seat. That gold, they
laid it aside. Oh, my. Here's Aaron. Here's
the thing about it. Those high priests, that mercy
seat, that mercy seat, that represents that picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And in the New Testament, he's
called our mercy seat. He's called our propitiation.
He's called our sin offering. He's called our sacrifice. He's
called the one who took his own blood into the presence of God
for us. And oh, and that's why they asked
the question. When that's 50,000 men, they
looked up and they all started weeping and lamenting. Oh, who
in the world shall stand? Who's able? We will stand here. Who is able to stand before the
Holy Lord God? Well, the Finnelsteins couldn't
do it. The men of Beth-shemesh, they couldn't do it. When God
made Adam in the garden, put him in the garden, put him in
paradise, gave him one commandment, he was in, I mean, he was in
paradise now. God would come and walk with
him and talk with him in the cool of the day in the person
of his blessed son, the Lord Jesus. And God told him one thing
not to do. Everything else, you're welcome
to it. You got this whole garden. Got plenty of food here. God
said, but one thing, don't do. Don't you eat of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. Don't you do that. Don't you
do that. Because the day you eat thereof, you're going to
die. So we see Adam in a perfect environment with God walking
with him in paradise, fresh from the hand of God himself. And
he wasn't able to stand. He wasn't able to stand. I've
read by some men seems to think that he didn't last much more
than 24 hours. I know he didn't last nine months
because they had children and she hadn't had a child yet. So
he didn't last that long. So Adam couldn't stand in the
presence of God. He wasn't able to stand in the
able to stand before the Holy Lord God. Isaiah couldn't. Look
over here in Isaiah 66, or excuse me, Isaiah 6. Look here in Isaiah
6. Isaiah couldn't do it. And this
is what he says about how God is. You know, God's holy. He
couldn't. He said, in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting on a throne, high and
lifted up in His train or His glory. Feel that tempo. Above
it stood the seraphims, each had six wings. With two he covered
his face. Oh, God's so holy, we gotta cover
our faces. With two he covered his feet.
Oh, we don't want God to see how we walk. And with two he
did fly. And one cried unto another. Those
seraphims, two of the other. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that
cried, and the house was filled with smoke, o'er the Shekinah
glory of God. But this is what Isaiah says,
when he saw this, when he saw God being holy, high and lifted
up and on his throne, he didn't jump up and clap his hands and
say, hallelujah, hallelujah, what a good time we're having
from Jesus. He said, woe is me, woe is me. I can't, what he's saying, I
can't stand in the presence of this holy Lord God. I'm not able
to do it. For I'm undone. I'm undone. I'm undone. And I tell you, Abraham
couldn't do it. Isaiah couldn't do it. Abraham
couldn't do it. Any place where you find a man,
they're not able to stand before the Holy Lord God. The apostles
couldn't do it. The apostles couldn't do it.
And they was with the Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord Jesus Christ
was on this earth and it come time for him to be led as a lamb
to the slaughter, all them disciples said, oh, we'll go with you.
We'll suffer with you. We're going to stand right with
you. Going to go all with you. But the scripture says they all
forsook him and fled. Simon Peter denied him three
times. And he had already been from
the grave for a week. He had already been out of the
grave for a week. And when he was with his disciples
inside there one day, and he was eating with them, and he
had already been away. Thomas came in and Thomas, they
said, well, we've seen the Lord, we've seen the Lord, we've been
with the Lord. And Thomas said, I don't believe anything you
say. You're just, you don't know what
you're talking about. Said, I won't believe that he
did it unless I can see myself and put my finger in his hand
and take my hand. I was there when he was crucified
and take my hand and stick it in his side. I ain't gonna believe.
He no sooner said that, Who's able to stand? Old Thomas said,
oh my Lord, and my God got down on his knees. When old Simon
Peter out there fishing, fishing, and the Lord Jesus Christ was
standing there and he said, cast your net over on the right side
and take up, you'll catch a great big draft of fishes. He said,
oh Lord, I fished all night long. This is what I do for a living.
We ain't caught a thing. But he says, nevertheless, at
thy word, I'll let down the net." And when all them fishes started
to come up there, the very fact in his heart, he doubted his
master. In his heart, he thought, well,
he don't know nothing about fishing. In his heart, he considered him
as just another man. And you know what he said? Oh,
Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. Who should
be able to stand? Who shall be able to stand before
the Holy Lord And the scriptures tells us this, all of our righteousnesses
are as a filthy rag. The best thing we've ever done
before we were saved by the grace of God and the best thing we've
done since we've been saved by the grace of God, if we think
it's righteous, God says it's a filthy rag. A human being has
never committed a righteous act that God had to do something
for. The only person who ever lived righteously, obediently,
lovingly, God-honoring, God-glorifying, sinless was the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. And He has such merit in Himself,
such worth in Himself, that God could take all of his merit,
and all of his worth, and all of his obedience, and all of
his sinlessness, and all of his righteousness, and he had so
much of it that he could give it to a multitude that no man
could number, and bless them with it. Ain't that right? Oh,
listen, who's able to stand now? We know men can't, and those
fellas lifted that lid off of there, that says, you know, they
didn't, Facing God without a mercy seat? Do you know how many people,
I got a letter today, stuck in the door there. Fellas said,
you know, called me a jerk. Called me a jerk because of some
newspaper article. Said, you're deceiving people.
He said, Walt, you just, you think you know it all, huh? I
know he's not born, he does. I wish I'd have been here when
he showed up. Stuck it in the door, I wish
I'd have been here. Listen, I'm telling you, you
don't want nobody, if they know anything about God. That's why
I said, who is able? They go from offering sacrifices
over here, and then all of a sudden they say, wait a minute. Boy,
this is a beautiful gold box. And this lids on this thing.
I wonder what's inside of it. Let's take off this mercy seat
and see what it is. And oh, without a mercy Broken law. Absolute law. Just and holy law. Good law. Righteous law. But you don't
want to do that outside of Christ. No. And God is holy. God is holy. And I'll tell you
what. Look with me in Psalm 29. He
said, oh the Lord God's holy. You know, this is what he says about him.
Psalm 29 and 2, give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in what? The
beauty of holiness. Is he not beautiful? Is he not
beautiful? Is he not holy? And how in the
world can we say that we can worship God in the beauty of
holiness, when instead of all of our righteousness is as a
filthy rag? God is holy. He dwells in the
high and holy place and have His eternity. Christ is holy. You remember when our Lord Jesus
Christ, He went in the temple. And outside the temple, you know,
this is where people went to offer sacrifices. If you was
poor, you offered a dove. If you had a little more money,
you could offer A lamb, if you had a little more money, you
could offer a bullock, if you had a little more money, you
know, you could offer. And so, they, and these fellas, they
stood, they had a business outside the tabernacle, had a business
outside the tabernacle. And what those fellas was doing
is they was making a business out of selling the things of
God to people. And they had them little concession
stands outside there. And then they had money, they'd
change money, you know, for people come from different countries
and everything, they'd change money. Our Lord Jesus Christ went out
there one day, and He's holding, and He took those money changers
and turned their tables upside down. And I mean that. And then
He took a whip, and went to whipping those fellas, selling those sacrifices.
Went to whipping them. Like God whipped these men for
lifting that cover. And Christ began to whip those
men. And you know what He said? You've made my Father's house
Into a den of thieves. You're a bunch of thieves, and
I don't want you around here. Don't want you around me. I don't
want you around God's house. I don't want you around the sacrifices.
You're just nothing but a bunch of thieves, so leave out of here!
Who's able to stand? Who's able to stand? And you
know how many people, preachers are telling people that all you
got to do is be honest, be sincere. Or this guy that got this letter
today said, who are you to say that somebody's not saved if
they reprint the sinner's prayer? How do you get saved by repeating
somebody's prayer? Christ didn't save us from repeating
the Lord's Prayer. He didn't say, I'll save you
because you say our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. That was a model prayer. But
I'll tell you where He did save us was a prayer that He prayed
for us in John 17, which is the Lord's Prayer. But I'll tell
you what, if you can't obey the golden rule, you're okay. But
Christ is holy, God is holy, and God is everything we are
not. And the reason, the reason God
guards His blessed Son, He guards all the types of His Son. And
so when those men lifted that mercy seat off of there and didn't
want that mercy seat, that mercy seat is a picture, a type of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And John 2, 1 said, My little
children, I write unto you that you sin not. Oh, I don't want
you to sin. I write unto you, oh, don't sin. But if you do, We just will say,
when you do. If you do, we have a propitiation. We have a mercy seat. We have
a mercy seat. And the blood is all over that
mercy seat. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who saved
us from wrath by his precious blood. And he said, we have a
mercy seat. We have a propitiation. Well,
who is that propitiation? Who is that mercy seat? Jesus
Christ, the righteous. Oh, bless His name. Oh, look
with me at Psalm 24. Let's look at this together.
Just deal with just a couple of things. Psalm 24, here's something
for us to consider. You know, a man thinks he can
be holy enough to come into the presence of God by his own holiness.
And I was foolish enough to believe that one time, years and years
and years ago. Oh, when I was in my early 20s,
I was ignorant enough, ignorant enough, and didn't know enough
about God, the Bible, or anything else or myself that I thought
that I could get holy enough to come into God's. And you know
what? God saved me from it. I was as lost as a snowball in
a A white goose in a snowstorm. God saved me from that. All of
us at one time thought that. All of us at one time thought
that. God had mercy on us. But look what he says here in
verse 3 of Psalm 24. Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? Who's going to go up? Who shall
stand in God's holy place? able to stand in holiness before
the Holy Lord God. Who's going to do it? Well, here's
the fellow that can do it. He that hath clean hands. And
you know what Proverbs says this, no man can say he hath made his
heart pure or his hands clean. But he that hath clean hands,
when he talks about clean hands, he's talking about hands never
contaminated with sin. He's talking about pure hands,
clean hands. never ever got dirty in any way,
handling anything but holy things. And listen to this, he that hath
clean hands and a pure heart, pure heart. Who has that? Who's got clean hands? And listen
to this, who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity? Now what
does it mean to lift up your soul unto vanity? That means
trying to make yourself look a little better than the fellow
next to you. Lift yourself, soul, up to vanity. I've accomplished
this and I'm gonna do that. Me and Bruce Crabtree was talking
the other day about ministries. I remember vividly, I remember
vividly And I remember where I was at and what I was going
on, exactly the situation. I remember vividly when I found
out that the ministry was the Lord's, not mine. The ministry's
God. I don't have a ministry. God's
ministry. And you say, well, you're a pastor.
I may be a pastor, but I don't have a ministry. It's the Lord's
ministry. And I tell you what, when we find out this ministry
belongs to the Lord, that's when we get dead serious about this
thing called preaching. That's the whole point about
it. Men are trying to establish themselves and not Christ. When
you're trying to establish a ministry of your own, then you forget
Christ. And we don't have it. But you
know, listen, God blesses a man and God uses a man. But I tell
you what, there's coming a time where that man will cease to
be. But here's what I'm trying to say is that the man who lifts
his soul up unto vanity. And you know what? That's what
Simon Peter did. He said, Oh, Lord, I'll go with
you even I'll die with you if I have to. That's lifting up
his soul unto vanity. And we lift ourselves up to be
something when we're nothing. But I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ never lifted his soul up to vanity. You know what he
said? He made himself of no reputation, humbled himself, and became a
man, became a servant. That's the way our Master was.
And look what he said, nor sworn deceitfully. I thought about
this today going over the road, swore deceitfully. Now, let's
see if this ain't right. People say, I swear on my mama,
I swear on my baby's life, I swear on my mama's grave, I swear on
my baby's, you know, trying to get somebody to believe them,
to get something, but they'll swear on anything. I swear on
a stack of Bibles, trying to, you know, trying to get something
that they want. And that's swearing deceitfully.
I don't have to swear on a stack of Bibles to get anybody to believe
me. If a fellow won't believe me, I don't know what to do about
it. You know, that's why our Lord says, don't swear by the
heavens, for that's his throne. Don't swear by the earth, that's
his footstool. So what did he say? Let your
yea be yea and your nay be nay. Say yes when it's right, say
no when it's not. And when you do that, you let
your yea be yea and your nay be nay, nobody will have to have
to say, do you swear to that? Huh? And our Lord Jesus Christ,
look what it says here. This is the man that shall receive
the blessing from the Lord. The righteousness from the God
of his salvation. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the only one it can be. It can't be us. And oh, look
over here in Psalm 15. Look at this. Oh, but I'll tell
you something. I'll tell you something. It says
here in Psalm 15. Lord, oh God, Who shall abide
sojourn in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, well,
I mean, you know, that's a perpetual thing. We don't do that. And
worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. Oh, my. He that backbiteth not with his
tongue. Oh, did you hear so-and-so? Did you hear what something happened,
this happened, that happened? Did you hear about what so-and-so
did? I can't believe that he'd do such a thing as that. He that
backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor,
nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. So I tell you what,
there's only one person that can meet that criteria, and that's
our Lord Jesus. But let me tell you something,
when our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to glory, ascended and done everything
He did for us, we stood in Him. When He lived, we lived. When
He died, we died. When He ascended, we ascended.
When He sat down, we sat down. When our Lord Jesus Christ lifted
not His soul unto vanity, God blessed us and regards us as
if we never lifted our soul up to vanity. Everything there that
it says about Christ, those of us who are in Christ, Every one
of us can say that that's where we're living at. We are sitting
in Christ in heavenly places right now. We stand in Christ. He was made flesh. He was made
of a woman. He was made to be sin, and he
was made to be the righteousness of God. So, oh, listen. God is holy. Who should be able
to stand? Those that are in Oh, listen, we're like Moses. He says, stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. We're standing still, and you
know what? We see the salvation of the Lord
every day of our lives. Don't we? We see him saving and
saving and saving. Oh my. And let me show you something. And Isaiah, this is what I'm
talking about. I'll wind this thing up here
in a minute. But look here in Isaiah 57. Look in Isaiah 57. Talking
about God's holiness and who's going to dwell with the Lord.
You know, God is holy. Who's able to stand? Now I'll
tell you what. We have to stand in Christ. Complete
in Him. Complete in Him. He's the head
of all principalities and powers, and we're complete in Him, made
perfect in Him. We stand in Him. And look what
He said here in verse 15. For thus saith the high and lofty
One that habiteth in eternity, listen to this, whose name is
Holy. See how that's capitalized? One
is capitalized, Holy is capitalized, the Holy One of Israel. And he
said, I dwell in the high and holy place, that's where I live.
But now listen, but I dwell in the high and holy place, listen
to this, with him also. Oh my, who shall be able to stand? God said, listen, I'm the holy
one, I'm the holy one, and I dwell in the high and holy place with
him that is also of a contrite and humble spirit. We ain't, none of us gonna go
before God, except as we are. And that's what he said. To revive
the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite
one. And oh my, so I tell you, that's
who God dwells with. I mean, we not able to stand
there except we stand in Christ. So God comes down and dwells
with us, with the humble, the contrite. Isaiah 66, one and
two. Say another thing or two and then we'll wind it up. Look
what he said here in Isaiah 66 in verse 1. Oh, God is holy. Who should be able to stand?
Those that are in Christ is able to stand. We're in this grace.
We're in, we stand. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven
is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that you build unto me? Where is the place of my
rest? For all those things hath my hand made. And all these things
have been. But listen to this, but to this
man, I'm going to look. We can't look. I said, I'm going
to look at him. I'm going to come down. I'm going
to look at him. Who are you going to look at, Lord Jesus? Him that
is of a poor and contrite spirit. And when he hears my word and
hears how holy and righteous and just I am, he trembles to
think. that he had ever thought for
one second he could approach God without Christ. And I tell
you what, we tremble at God's word. We don't play games with
God's words, do we? And then let me give you the
last thing. Nobody, all the people is not able. Christ is the only
one able. We're only able as we are in
Christ. But Revelations 20 says this,
I saw the small and the great. There was a great white throne
and I saw both the small and the great. People that was nobody
and people that was somebody. People that nobody was insignificant
and people who was powerful, the power and the mighty, all
standing before God. And the scripture said, and all
the dead stood before him. And he brought out of the dead,
even out of the grave, even brought the dead up. And that said all
that to say this, someday, every soul, every person will stand
before a holy God. Every one of them will. And this
is what's amazing to me. Some will argue with him. If
they argue with him here, They'll still argue with Him over there.
And I've heard people say this before. Someday, if I ever, someday
I'm going to tell God what I really think about Him. I don't like
the way He run this world. I don't like the way He caused
suffering to be in this world. I don't like the way He caused
earthquakes. I don't like the fact that people died of poverty.
I don't like the way God dealt with this world. Gave a lot of
people money and left other people poor. Let people die with this
disease and that disease. And if he's a good and a loving
God, he shouldn't let any of that stuff happen. And they're
going to stand before him. They're going to tell what they
think of him. And you know what they're going to find out? What
he thinks of them. And boy, what a shock that's
going to be. And then there's people that,
you know, I don't need blood. I can, I can, I'll plead my own
case when I get before God. I'll plead my case. I don't need
nobody to plead my case. I'll go up there and plead my
own. Thank God we've had somebody plead our case before God. Old
Bruce Crabtree said, oh Lord, plead my cause. Plead my cause. Ain't that what the psalmist
said? Oh Lord, plead my cause. But I'll tell you somebody that
won't be at that great white throne, I won't be there and
you won't be there. It says the dead are the only
ones there. We're not dead, we're alive. We're living. We got the life of God and the
life of Christ in us. Oh, we stand before God right
now. His holiness is ours. His law
has been fulfilled. His righteousness that he gave
us and we stand before him and with his, we stand before his
holiness, stand before his law and his righteousness and the
scripture says we're without spot or without blame. And I
wanna show you one verse of scripture and then I'm gonna pray. Hebrews
10, 14. Hebrews 10, 14. This is us. We ain't going to have to stand
before that great white throne. No, no. Uh-uh. We've already
been judged. We've already been raised from
the dead. We've got life. Only the dead stood before Him.
Dead in sins. But look what it said here in
Hebrews 10, 14. This is why we don't, we're not going to face
the great white throne. Look what it says now. Hebrews
10, 14. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever. Oh my. Who should be able to
stand? Everybody in Christ. Nobody's
able to stand outside of Christ. That's why we preach the gospel.
Close with Christ. Come to Christ. Submit to Christ. Right?