First Chronicles 13, titled this, How Shall We Have the Presence
of God Among Us? How shall we have the presence
of God among us? We must have God's presence here,
this morning, in order for it to be a true worship service. You cannot worship God without
His presence. He has to enable us to do it. And the presence of God is not
some spooky, eerie feeling that you see these televangelists
come up with. You know, they'll have the organ
playing while the man's preaching. That would be awful. I remember when I was a little
boy growing up on a farm, there was a farmhouse down the road
from us, and it was empty. It sat there for a long time.
And I used to go into that house every now and then, every once
in a while when I'd get brave enough, because it was empty
and I was little. But I would go in and I'd get this real spooky,
just real eerie feeling. God's not in that. God's not
in that. But that's what human nature
tries to imitate. They try to imitate or give out
that God is in that kind of atmosphere. God's not in that. We'll see
this as we go along here. Now the Ark of the Covenant was
taken by the Philistines Back over in 1 Samuel, over there
in 1 Samuel, sometimes you may want to read it. Over in 1 Samuel
4, verse 11, it says, the ark of God was taken. And the two
sons of Eli, Hopnah and Phinehas, were killed. They took the ark. And this ark was very important
to Israel. God gave it to Israel. He did
not give it to the Philistines. It became a plague to the Philistines.
They finally got rid of that ark. They finally sent that thing
out of town, because it was causing nothing but plagues and destruction
on them. But it was a great blessing to
Israel. It says the Gospel is a great
blessing to us. Great blessing to us. But you
put it in the hands of someone else that's wrong, and it becomes
a problem. Now this Ark of the Covenant
was made of Shittam wood. You find that over in Exodus,
I believe it's 25. And it was lined within and without with
pure gold. It was something to look at.
And within the ark were preserved the tables of stone, the broken
law, which God gave to Moses upon the mount. And upon the
lid of the ark, upon the lid of that ark were the figures
of the cherubim. When the Ark was at rest, between
the wings of those cherubim was a bright light called the Shekinah
Glory, which represented the presence of God among the people.
And the lid of the Ark was called the Mercy Seat. It was made of
gold. The lid was made of gold. And
this seat represented Christ, who is our Mercy Seat. Christ
is our Mercy Seat. He is our Ark of the Covenant.
He is. In Christ, God's broken law was
kept on our behalf. It was kept by Him. Kept in His
heart. He loved the law of God. He kept
the law of God perfectly in thought, word, and deed. Also in the Ark was the pot of
manna. You know that Christ is our manna.
He's the true manna container. And after the ark was made into
wilderness, it was kept in the secret place of the tabernacle
in the Holy of Holies. It was put in that secret place
and it had this veil that covered it. You couldn't see it or enter
into it except the high priest. No one was allowed in this place
except the high priest. And only once every year was
he allowed in there. Only one time a year. And then,
not without blood. He had to go in there with blood. These two things were established
by God. The high priest, who represented
Christ our high priest, and the blood, which represented the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it represented. And
the high priest would take his smoking censer and he would go
in and he would sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat and
he would make an atonement. This is all prescribed by God. And when the ark was moved from
one place to another, it was covered over so that no one could
see it. And it was carried by two staffs, covered with gold, upon the shoulders of the Levites.
This is important. Upon the shoulders of those priests.
Now this ark that pictured Christ, which represented God's presence,
was taken by the Philistines during the battle with Israel.
But when the Philistine took it, God's hand was heavy upon
them. So they put it on a cart, a new cart. It says they put
it on a new cart and put two milk cows up to it and sent them
out. They just sent them out. And
if you go over there and read sometimes, over there, I believe
it's over in 1 Samuel, they sent those two milk cows out and they
said, now if they go to Bathshemus, Then it's of God. This was of
God. His plagues and all this. But
if they go somewhere else, then this was all by chance. Well,
guess what? They went straight to Bethlehem. They went there. And by God's providence, they
went there. No man guided them. No one took
hold of the bridle and guided them there. They sent those two
milk cows out with that new cart and that Ark of the Covenant
on it. And they went straight to that place where God appointed
them. But after it was there, the men
of Bathshemesh, out of curiosity... We don't look into the gospel
out of curiosity. The gospel is not a matter of
curiosity. It's a matter to be bowed to
and believed and received. But out of curiosity, they said,
I want to see what's in this ark. Let's look into this ark. Let's open this thing up. They had not been appointed to
even be around that ark or touch that ark. All the priests were
leaving. They looked inside of it, and
you know what God did? He killed 50,000 out of 70 men
for looking into that ark. I tell you, God's a God of order.
And He's strict. And He's strict in His matter
of worship. Then it was removed to Kyrgyzstan
and taken to the house of Abinadab, where it stayed until the days
of David." Now we come to 1 Chronicles 13, verse 1. David wants to bring
the ark back to Jerusalem. If you read chapter 12, David
has been made king. All these men of valor are coming
over to David. They're all gathering around
David. It says in verse 39 of that chapter, And there they
were with David three days eating and drinking for their brethren
had prepared for them. It was back in verse 38. And
all these men of war that could keep rank came with a perfect
heart to Hebron to make David king over Israel. And all the
rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king. And
then they had this feast. I mean, everything was great.
David was made king. Israel was following him. He
said, there's one thing missing, the ark of God, which represented
God's presence. David said, we need that. If
we need anything, we need God's presence among us. So David wants to bring the ark
back to Jerusalem. He wants God's presence with
him, just as we want God's presence with us. And David consulted
with his captains of thousands, you'll see there in verse 1,
and captains of hundreds, and with every leader. David consulted with the wrong
people first. Now this looks good outwardly,
but he consulted with the wrong ones first. His first consultation
should have been with God. He should have sought God. We'll
see this as we go along here. He should have sought God in
this matter. It's God's art. It's God's presence
that he wanted. He should have sought the Lord
in this matter and how to go about it. That's what he should
have done. Well, Paul said, let everything
be done by prayer and supplication first. Let's not get together
and say, well, how do you think we ought to do this? No, we take
the Word of God and prayer and supplication and seek God's direction
in it. That's what we do. especially
in this matter of worship and seeking God's presence. His presence
is not everywhere. We know God is everywhere, but
it's not everywhere in worship in the sense that all these services
that are going on this morning, God's presence is not in all
that. It's not in all that. If God's presence is to be among
us, how can that be? How can it be? I know this. It can only be through the mediation
and blood and sacrifice and righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's the only
way God's presence can be among us. And David said unto all the
congregation of Israel, if it seem good unto you. You're going
to see the politician here before you ever see the leader. He's
playing the politician here. All these people have come in.
They're all behind him. So now he's playing the politician.
You're going to get in trouble for it. And that it be of the
Lord our God, he said. David sought the will of the
people first instead of the will of God first. David should have
said this. He should have said, if the Lord
will, if the Lord will, we will go and bring up the ark to us.
Period. It doesn't matter what I think.
It doesn't matter. If the Lord will, we'll bring
the ark here. If the Lord will, we'll have
this service here. If the Lord will, we'll preach
the gospel at this place or that place. If the Lord will. It doesn't
matter what my will is, really it doesn't. It's thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. He said in verse 3, let us bring
up the ark of our God to us. Well, the wrong us is going after
the ark. The wrong us is going after it.
Only the Levites Only the Levites were to carry the Ark. Only the
priests who represented Christ. They were the only ones who could
bring us into God's presence, to bring God's presence to us.
They were the only ones. The wrong us is going after the
Ark. Christ is the only way to God.
We must not change that. Well, if you do, you've got to
ask. You've got to ask. We do not
change the way We do not change the ordinances that God has set
down. We don't change them one iota. Ever. We must have God's priests,
the blood, the sacrifice in order to worship Him. We must have
the gospel. That's the gospel. Christ crucified. That's what
we must have in order to worship Him. Now the thing seemed right
in the eyes of all the people. This seems the right thing to
do. Let's go get the ark. That just seems right. There's nothing
wrong with that. Not outwardly. There's no outward
appearance of anything wrong with that. The other scripture
says there is a way that seems right to man. But the end thereof is destruction. There was a man who died over
this. The thing was right in the eyes
of the people, but not right in the eyes of God. We should have learned from Eve
about this eye problem. Eve had an eye problem. She saw
that tree and desired to make one wise. We should have learned
from her about this eye problem. What troubles we meet with when
God becomes second. Really, when God becomes second,
and our will and desires become first, even in a good manner. Even in a good manner. What we have before us here is
a worship service gone wrong. That's what you have. You have
a worship service that has gone wrong. And David gathers all
Israel together. There in verse 5 and 6, he gets
everyone involved. He's acting here now, like I
said, like the politician, not the leader. He's getting everybody
involved here, all the important people, giving them jobs, and
we're all going to go down. This should have been a very,
very solemn occasion. They were going to go get the
ark of God. They were going to seek God's presence. The worship
of God is a very solemn matter. And they went. I'm sure they
were all happy on the way down and just giggling and tossing
and having a good time with everything going. And they carried the Ark
of God in a new cart. You know what they did? They tried to carry the Ark of
God the same way the thieves carried the Ark of God in a new
cart. A way that God did not appoint. That's what they did. When those
Philistines took that ark, they took it in a new cart. And when
Israel went down, they took it the same way that it was stolen,
in a new cart. They left out the priest, the
high priest. We can't come into God's presence,
and God's presence can't be with us apart from the high priest.
They left out the priest that God appointed, that represented
Christ. They left out Christ. We do not need a new carp or
a new way to help us in worshiping God. We don't need that. We need God's appointed priest. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Ark
was to be carried by the Levites, not some dumb animals. Not two
oxen, but men chosen of God. This is like preaching the gospel.
God chooses men. He's chosen all his people as
far as salvation goes, but he's had chosen so many pastors and
teachers, and they are to carry him. They are to proclaim the
gospel. And there are some who go that's not sin, and they mess
it up, like these dumb animals. Sooner or later they'll stumble. Look what these oxen did. This
ark was to be carried by men chosen of God, upon their shoulders,
where all the people could see it. Christ is to be carried by
His ministers, to preach it to all the people. All of God's
people can see it. God did not appoint a new cart. He did not tell David to make
a new cart and do that. And David should have known better.
And he would have known better if he had sought the Lord first.
If he had sought the Lord in due order. If he had sought the
Lord's will, this wouldn't have happened. This would not have
happened. And in verse 8, they were all
dancing and singing. No order going on here. No order
going on in this matter of getting to Ark and worship. Everything
seemed good. Everything seemed great. Everything
felt good. That's a motto for this generation.
If it feels good, do it. One businessman I used to run
a business for, whenever we were going to make a decision on something,
he'd say, does it give you that warm, fuzzy feeling? Every time,
he'd say, does it give you that warm, fuzzy feeling? Usually never. But that's what
they had. They all had that warm fuzzy
feeling. This just feels right. It feels
good. Everybody's laughing and everybody's
carrying on. Until God said that's enough.
He said that's enough. He's going to put a stop to this
ignorant zeal. That's what it is. It's ignorant
zeal. In a very hard way, He's going
to put a stop to it. So the oxen stumble. Those big
ox stumble. By the providence of God, they
stumble. God stumbled them. He tripped them up. God tripped
up those oxen. He's going to put a stop to this
thing. And those of us that reached up to stand at the ark, He's
going to keep it from falling like us worms are going to keep
the gospel from falling. That's the power of God. He reached up and he steadied
the ark, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah,
and God killed him for touching that ark. He put forth his hand
to the ark, and there he died before God. No one was to touch
the ark but the priests, the ones whom God appointed. And
God will not change the order. This is how strict God is. He will not overlook this. You and I overlook a lot of things.
We do. We overlook them. And we have
to get along with each other. We have to overlook a lot of
things, but God does not overlook things. He doesn't overlook. And he's not going to change
the order. And sometimes the lessons are very hard. And David
was upset. He got angry with God for this. David still hasn't seen the error
of his ways yet, but he will. He will. God chases his own. They'll see it. And David's anger
turns to fear. See there in verse 12. He might
be the next. He might be the next to see that
God is no respecter of persons. And he's the leader of this foolishness.
It dawned on David. You know, the Lord could kill
me right here. I've been set up as king, but
that doesn't make, that doesn't give me any preference. He's
no respecter of persons. Our God is a consuming fire,
and he will consume our dross. Now, David finally asked the
right question. If we could learn to do this
first, if we could just learn to do this first, how shall I
bring the ark home to me? How's that going to happen? How
can I come into God's presence? How can God's presence come to
us here in this worship service? How can that happen? How can
I come into his presence and be accepted and not annihilated? the Lord Jesus Christ. If we leave him out of it, we're
in great trouble. Because you're not going to have
God's presence. You'll have His anger, but not His presence. Not His
presence of grace and mercy. And I want you to notice something
here in verse 14. Look in verse 13. So David brought
not the ark home to himself, to the city of David, He stopped. He said, there's something wrong
here. I've done wrong. David's going to seek the Lord
after the due order. But he carried it aside into
the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite. And the ark of God remained with
the family of Obed-Edom in his house three months. And listen,
and the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that he
had. And I have written under that
verse, the house is blessed. where Christ is. You just write
that under there. The house, the home, the family
is blessed where the Lord Jesus Christ dwells. Now we get to chapter 15. Now David gets it right. Now
he's going to get it right. In verse 1, David builds him
a house. He builds him houses. pitch for it a tent. You know,
the first time it doesn't say anything about David preparing
a place for the ark of God, does it? This time he did. This time David's heart was prepared
to receive this ark. This time David's heart was prepared
by God to do this matter in due order and in reverence. We must always, always Prepare
our hearts to receive Christ. If you really want to get a blessing,
I believe you mentioned this in the lesson, if you really
want to get a blessing, it's not always my fault. I'll take
most of the blame, but there's a preparation of
the heart to receive. There is this thing of prayer
and supplication and recognizing whose presence we are coming
before, recognizing who we are calling upon to come in and meet
with us. I'm not asking the President of the United States. We're asking
the Creator of the Universe. We are asking the Savior of lost
men. We are asking the God of God to come in here. We must always
prepare our hearts to receive Christ and give him his due respect
and honor. As I read you, give him the glory
that's due unto his name. Give him the respect and the
honor that's due a king. The king of kings and Lord of
lords. Lord, prepare my heart. Lord,
enable me to hear. Lord, enable me to listen. Enable
me to pay attention. Enable me to receive. Prepare
my heart. That's you preparing your heart.
That's God preparing your heart. Asking God to do it. In verse 2, David finally acts
like a king. A leader. A leader ought to lead
or just quit. Get out of the way. David acts like a king now. He
tells the people, listen, he tells the people how, 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 now. He doesn't ask, what do you people
think about this? He now steps before the people
and says, this is how it's to be done. And this is the way
we're going to do it. We don't need many voices, do
we? We just need his voice. You need and I need to hear his
voice this morning. That's what we need. We need him. It's the duty of
pastors to lead in worship and not seek everyone's opinion about
it. It is. It's their duty to do that. God
holds them responsible for this, and we seek God concerning these
matters. Now David, in verse 3, gathers
the people together, and I'm sure this time when he gets them
together, it's in quiet worship. I bet there's not a lot of giggling
going on there. Quiet worship in all of God. They all know
about Uzzah. They all know now that they messed
up. They know that. I bet you could hear a pin drop
in that place. There was reverence, respect,
and awe of God now. And David gathers the right people
this time. David gathers their verses 4
through 12. David gathers the right people
this time to carry the ark and conduct the service. And that's
the Levites, the priests, the one appointed of God, the ones
who represented the Lord Jesus Christ. Without our high priests, God cannot be worshipped. God
can't be here. Not without Him. And He said
to those priests, sanctify yourselves. This time, let's do it just as
God said. It's amazing how we can get off
course, isn't it? It's so amazing. And he says
in verse 13 of chapter 15, For because you did it not at the
first, you didn't do it right the first time. We did it all
wrong, and the reason is we sought Him not after the due order. We didn't seek Him first. Let
us never make that mistake. Let us always seek God's presence
through the High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, through His
blood, through His righteousness, through Him. Always seek God
through Him. So they did it right this time.
This time the right people carried the ark, the priest. And they
did it right, they did it with staves. They put them staves
through there, and the priest put it on their shoulders, and
this time they carried it as God said. And they did it, listen,
they did it there in verse 15. As Moses commanded, listen, according
to the word of God. This time, this time they went
and got the book. This time they went and they
got the book. And they opened the book. And
they said, now let's see how we're supposed to do this. First
time they did it, they said, you know, let's go get the ark.
Let's just go down there and get the ark and bring it up here
to the city of David, where it belongs. They didn't use the
word of God, did not consult God. They said, this is just
a good thing to do. But this time, they took the
book, and the command that God gave to Moses, and how these
things were to be done, and how this ark was to be carried. This
time they consulted the word of God, and they did it right.
They opened the book. Sometimes you want to do it,
not right now, but Exodus 25, 10 through 22, Don't read that. This time they opened the book
to God's Word, they sought His will on the matter, and they
did it as a commander. We have all we need in this book.
We don't need anything else other than what we have here. I had a Mormon that I used to
work for. He told me, he said, now you can't tell me that all
that God has to say and reveal is in that book and He's not
making any new revelations. I said, that's what I'm saying.
He said, I don't believe that. It doesn't matter whether you
do or not. It doesn't matter if you believe the moon is square
or round or whatever it is. The moon is what it is. I tell
you this. And God's Word is what it is. And we don't need any
other new revelations. What I believe doesn't change
anything. It doesn't add or take away. We don't need anything
else to add to that. Now, verse 16 through 24, the
right people led the whole worship service now. The right people
conducted the ark, they picked it up, it was stashed, put it
on their shoulders, and they carried it back to Jerusalem.
And over there in chapter 15, the right people led the whole
worship service now. It wasn't out of order. He appointed
those Levites to be singers and to play the instruments. He appointed
them to do it. I tell you, it's something when
things are done in order, isn't it? This time there's order as opposed
to chapter 13 where there's no order. 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 with joy. This time it was with joy. I
believe the first time it was with ignorant zeal. Paul said,
they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And
I believe you could say it this way, they have a zeal of God,
but not according to the Word of God. Not according to the
word. There is a real joy in true worshiping
and doing it right. There's a real joy in this. Coming
together, hearing the gospel, singing praises unto God, there's
a real joy in that. And Christ is present. He's present. Worship is joy. And God helped the Levites. He
didn't help those dumb oxen, did He? They stumbled. He tripped them up. But He helped the Levites. They
did not stumble. He helped the Levites bear the
Ark of the Covenant. Our Lord said, My yoke is easy,
my burden is light. How's that? Because He helped
us bear it. That's why. Oh, we're not carrying
much of a load. He's carrying the load. He's
always carried the load. We bear a small portion of it. If he didn't help us preach and
teach, we couldn't do this. It'd be useless. It'd be totally
useless. You know what we'd do? We'd soon find the new car. And that's what happened. You
look at all this religion out here, they've all found a new
cart. Because God's not in it. He's not going to help them.
So they find a new cart to promote themselves really. And verse 26, this time there
was blood in their worship. The first time there was no blood. See that? The first time there
was no blood. There was a new cart, a way that
God did not appoint. There was no priest. There was
no blood. There were no sacrifices. But
this time there is. This time there is. Scripture
says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sins. God can only be approached and worshipped through the blood,
the priest, and the sacrifice. And we have all that in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, in closing, don't think
that time has changed the way God has approached and worshipped.
It does not matter how modern we become. I'll tell you, a hundred
years from now, we'll look ancient. We will. But the way God has
worshipped will change. It will not change. It will always
be through the blood, the sacrifice, the righteousness of God's Son
till time shall be no more. Time shall be no more. And let us never be guilty of
putting the gospel on a new cart or use better methods than preaching. It is pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe, no matter how long this
thing lasts. Now, in closing, how are we going
to guard against such things? How do we guard against such
things happening to us? Look, David, David was a man
after God's own heart, and it happened to him. I read things
like that. Now, I read things like that,
and it makes me scared. I realize, it makes you realize
how weak you really are. You look at men like Abraham,
David, and those men, and look how they stumbled and fell, Who
am I? Who am I? How are we going to
guard against such things? First of all, prayer. Prayer. Seek the Lord continually. Seek
him continually. Never attempt worship without
prayer. Never. Secondly, be well acquainted
with his word. If David had consulted the word
of God first, this wouldn't have happened.
Be well acquainted with his word. Thirdly, keep worship a very
solemn matter. This is a very solemn matter,
worshiping God. And last of all, always, always
keep the blood in our worship service. Always to sacrifice, always to
our high priests, if we are to worship God. Those things will
help guard against such things as this.