into the city of David, but David
carried it aside into the house of Obededim, the Gittite. And
the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obededim, the
Gittite, three months, and the Lord blessed Obededim and all
his household. And it was told the king, David,
saying, the Lord hath blessed the house of Obededim, and all
that pertaineth unto him because of the ark of God. So David went
and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom under
the city of David with gladness. And it was so that when they
bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed
oxen and fatlings. And David danced before the Lord
with all his might And David was girded with a linen ephod.
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of
the Lord with shouting and with the sound of trumpet. Let's pray
together. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would be in our midst that you would be pleased to
speak to us from your word. Lord, we ask that we might be
enabled by your grace and by your spirit to dance just like
David did at the hearing of your gospel. Lord, we confess our sin. We pray for forgiveness. Pray
for cleansing. We pray that we might be found
in thy dear son. Lord, we ask that your gospel
would be preached in the power of your spirit. Lord, what else could we ask
for? Lord, be with our friends that are sick. Heal them according
to your will. Lord, we would especially pray
for Albert that you give the surgeons the ability to Heal him according to your will. Lord, we pray for my mother and
father that you'd be pleased to preserve them. Lord, we pray
for your blessing upon all your people everywhere. I bless us
for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. Um,
Albert is going to have some kind of surgery at, um, somewhere
in Alabama, uh, in a couple of weeks. They found a cyst on his
pancreas. It's pre-cancer, and they're
going to do it there. That's supposed to be the best
guy at doing this particular surgery. My mom and dad, I took
dad home Friday. He's not going to be able to
help my mom the way he used to, and it's their piece of work. We're thankful
for them. And would you turn with me to
Exodus chapter 28. I want to read about the ark. Beginning in verse 10. I gave the wrong verse, wait
just a minute, let me see what I put. It must be Exodus 25. Yeah, Exodus
25, I'm sorry. And they shall make, verse 10,
and they shall make an ark of Shittim wood, two cubits and
a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth
thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou
shalt overlay it with pure gold within and without, shalt thou
overlay it, and thou shalt make upon it a crown of gold round
about it, and thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it and
put them in the four corners thereof, and the two rings shall
be in the one side of it and the two rings in the other side
of it. And thou shalt make staves of shittum wood and overlay them
with gold, and thou shalt put the staves in the rings by the
sides of the ark, that the ark may be born with them. The staves
shall be in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken
from it, And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I
shall give thee, the word of God. And thou shalt make a mercy
seat of pure gold, two cubits and a half shall be the length
thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou
shalt make two cherubims of gold, a beat work shalt thou make them
in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on
the one end and the other cherub on the other end. Even of the
mercy seat shall you make the cherubims. On the two ends thereof,
and the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering
the mercy seat, and with their wings and their faces shall look
to one another toward the mercy seat, shall the faces of the
cherubims be, and thou shalt put the mercy seat above the
ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall
give thee, the word of God, the commandments. Verse 22, this
is what I want you to pay particular attention to, and there I will
meet with thee. and will commune with thee from
above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims, which are
upon the ark of the testimony of all things which I'll give
thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." Now this
ark we just read about is the most prominent piece of furniture
in the tabernacle. It's the most important piece
of furniture in the tabernacle for what it signifies It signifies
and represents the presence of the Lord. There will I meet with
thee, and there will I commune with thee. The worst thing I can think of
is not having the presence of the Lord. That's the absolute
worst thing I can think of, to be left to myself and to not
have the presence of the Lord. Now, in this ark, you have the
word of God, the testimony of the Lord. You know, there's no
worship of God apart from the word of God. Not my thoughts
and your thoughts, but the word of God. And there's no understanding
of the scriptures, the word of God, without some understanding
of our ark, the Lord Jesus Christ, and everything he represents.
Now, the greatest of all blessings is His presence. Turn with me to Psalm 42. You know, only a believer can
really understand this because the unbeliever doesn't have God's
presence, doesn't even know what it's like to have God's presence,
and they don't have any awareness of this. But look here in Psalm
42, verse 5. David said, why art thou cast down on my soul,
and why art thou disquieting me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance. And my marginal
reading says, for his presence is salvation. His presence. There's so much we could say
about that. His presence is salvation. His presence is maturity. When
everything that God required of me, he said, I stand responsible
for. Oh, when he stood as my surety, his presence is salvation. When he walked upon this earth
and kept the law, his presence is my salvation. When he died.
That's the most mysterious thing, the fact that Jesus Christ could
actually die. The God-man died. That's just one of the great
mysteries of the gospel. But his presence in death is my salvation. He took what I deserved. His
presence right now when he raised from the dead and went to the
Father at the right hand of the Father, his presence is my salvation. And what an experience it is
when we're enabled by the grace of God to feel his presence. Sometimes we don't feel his presence.
Sometimes we don't feel anything. But sometimes by the grace of
God, he enables us to know he's there. His presence is salvation. Now, Doesn't everybody have his
presence? You know, after all, he is omnipresent. That means he's everywhere at
once. Doesn't everybody have his presence? No, because this
is talking about the presence of his favor. Turn with me to
Exodus 33 for a moment. This is after the children of
Israel had made the golden calf. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast
brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I
swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, unto thy seed will
I give it, and I will send an angel before thee. I'm not going. I'll send an angel before thee. He's saying you're no longer
going to have my presence. I'll send an angel before thee out
of the land of Egypt, into the land which I swear unto Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, unto thy seed will I give it.
I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite,
and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite,
and the Jebusite, into a land flowing with milk and honey.
For I will not go up in the midst of thee. For thou art a stiff-necked
people, lest I consume thee in the way. And when the people
heard these evil tidings, they mourned. and no man put on his
ornaments. Now, down to verse nine, it came
to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar
descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord
talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy
pillar stand at the tabernacle and all the people rose up and
worshiped every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto
Moses face to face. as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the
camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle, and Moses said unto the Lord,
See, thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast
not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said,
I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.
Now therefore, I pray thee, if I found grace in thy sight, show
me now thy way, that I might know thee, that I might find
grace in thy sight, and consider that this people is thy people.
And he said, here's the promise, and he said, my presence shall
go with thee and I'll give thee rest. And he said unto him, if
thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence, for wherein
shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? Is it not that thou goest with us? So shall we be
separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I'll
do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found
grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. the promise of
his presence. He told him, you're not going
to have it. And Moses couldn't deal with that. And then he said,
you are going to have it. Now, the difference between a
believer and an unbeliever is the presence of God. The unbeliever doesn't have his
presence, his favor. The believer always has his presence
and his favor. I think this is interesting.
What did Adam and Eve do after the fall? They ran and hid from the presence
of the Lord. That word presence is the face,
the countenance, the favor. They ran and hid what they once
relished they no longer desired. Now, that's not a description
of what human sin and human depravity is. I don't know what it is.
They no longer wanted to be in the presence of Him who is altogether
lovely. They hid from the presence of
the Lord. Now, back to 2 Samuel. We need to understand that the
ark represents the presence of the Lord. We read in verse 12, and it was
told the king, David, saying, the Lord hath blessed the house
of Obed-Edom and all that pertaineth unto him because of the ark of
God. So David went and brought up the ark from the house of
Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness. Turn to 2 Chronicles
chapter 15. This is the Chronicles account. 1 Chronicles 15, I'm sorry. And David, verse 1, And David
made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place for
the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent. Then David said, None
ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites. Now you remember
they put it on a new cart. And God killed Uzzah when he
touched it. And now David has gone back to
the scriptures. In this sense, the death of Uzzah was a blessing
to them because it brought them back to the scriptures to find
out how the ark was to be transported. Then David said, none ought to
carry 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.
And David gathered all Israel together to Jerusalem to bring
up the ark of the Lord into his place, which he had prepared
for it. And David assembled the children of Aaron and the Levites
to bring back up the ark." Now, look in verse 11 of this same
chapter. And David called for Zadok, and Abathar, the priests,
and the Levites, and Uriel, and Uzziah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and
Eliel, and Ammonit. Boy, these words are, I get,
not easy. Amenadab. And said unto them,
ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites, sanctify yourselves,
both you and your brethren, that you may bring up the ark of the
Lord God of Israel unto the place that I prepared it, for because
you did it not at the first. The Lord our God made a breach
upon us. I think it's kind of funny how David says that to
him. It's David's fault. But he says to the priest, you
didn't do this right. And this is why the Lord made
a breach on us. You put the ark on a cart. Because you did it
not at first, the Lord our God made a breach on us, for we sought
him not after the due order, after the way the scripture says
to do. So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves
to bring up the ark of the Lord God out of Israel. Now, back
to 2 Samuel chapter 6. Now David is so happy at this
time, and I love to think about this. I love to picture in my
mind seeing what was happening. He was bringing the ark up with
gladness, and I think this is so interesting, verse 13, and
it was so that when they had bared the ark, the Lord had gone
six paces, they stopped, and they offered sacrifice. Now this
wasn't done the first time. I'm sure that they were afraid.
They were afraid of doing something wrong. So what'd they do? Six
paces. The number of man. That's what six represents. Adam
was created the sixth day. You know that number 666 in the
book of Revelation means failure upon failure upon failure. That's
man. Man. He's not gonna win. But
they took this six paces of their recognition of their own sinfulness
and inability, and they offered up sacrifices. And I'm not sure
that they didn't do this every six paces. It would have taken
a long time, but every six paces they came offering these sacrifices.
Because whenever the Lord revives you, the one thing you know more
than anything else is your need of a sacrifice, the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So they offered these sacrifices.
And look in verse 14, and David danced before the Lord with all
his might. and David was girded with a linen
ephod. So David and all the house of
Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with
the sound of a trumpet." Now, I think that they had lost the
meaning of the ark at first. I think even David did, or he
wouldn't have allowed this to take place. They looked at it
kind of as a superstitious, this Ark will save us. As a matter
of fact, if you looked back in 1 Samuel 4, they said the Ark will deliver
us. They had made an idol out of this Ark and we're all so
prone to something like that, but now when they see the reality
of the Ark and the reality of the need of sacrifice, all of
a sudden David begins to dance. Now the first thing I would notice
before we consider his dancing is that he takes his kingly robes
off and he wears a humble linen garment. When you're in the presence of
the King of Kings, There's humility. Always. If you're in his presence, if
you're proud, if you're cocky, if you're arrogant, you're not
in his presence. David couldn't wear these kingly robes when
he was in the presence of the great king. And the scripture
says he danced. Literally, he whirled. He whirled.
He was dancing with all of his might. This is the response of pure
joy. That's all you can call it. The response of pure joy. This
is the spontaneous joy and happiness of David at the presence of Christ
at his sacrifice. Now, if you're a believer, I'm
not going to get up and start whirling and jumping and dancing
in front of you. But if you're a believer, you have in your
heart, maybe you've done it physically when nobody else is around. Because
remember, David was dancing before the Lord. He wasn't dancing before
me. Scripture says he was dancing before the Lord. This is the
response of pure joy at the gospel. That's all it is. It was natural,
spontaneous. The analogy I thought of, and
I know some of you will think, well, that's so shallow and stupid.
You shouldn't be saying something like that. I know, but I'm going
to do it anyway. The analogy I thought of is the way I feel
when one of my teams wins. I get up. I'm shaking my fist.
I'm whirling. I'm running. I'm jumping. I'm
shouting. I'm happy. I'm happy. And there's
nothing premeditated about it. I don't think, well, I'm going
to get up and jump. No, I mean, I just jump for joy when my team
wins. I'm happy. I'm happy at the victory. And it just comes natural. And
some of you, if you're not sports fans, you think, Al, shallow
and dumb. I know, I know, but that's me, that's me. But in my heart, I have danced
with all my might and joy at the victory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We are spontaneous to victory. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
said, it is finished, how my heart jumps for joy. To know that all that God requires
of me, I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I jump for joy. This dancing is a response to
His victory. Would you turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15? Have you in your heart, I spoke a month or so ago, I
can't remember what it was, I talked about, I had that picture of
Snoopy on the doghouse, the way he's jumping. Brian sent me a
picture of it. But I felt like that, you know,
just jumping for joy at the thought of the freeness of his grace,
at the thought of the perfection of his sacrifice, the fact that
all God requires of this sinner, I have it. I have it right now. And it makes me jump for joy
in my heart. I don't need anything else. Well, look here in 1 Corinthians
15, beginning in verse 51. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment.
In the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we
shall be changed. For this corruptible must Oh,
I love that word must. It's absolutely necessary. This
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death
is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is thy sting?
Oh, grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in
vain in the Lord. Thanks be unto God that giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, turn with me to Colossians chapter
2. Colossians chapter 2. Now I hope the Lord will be pleased
to enable me and you to dance just like David did. Now, I'm
I want to be careful, because if I'm looking for a feeling,
I can work one up. And I don't want to do that.
And I don't want you to do that. And if we're looking for a feeling,
we're looking in the wrong place. We're looking to Christ, not
a feeling. But oh, how I would be thankful if the Lord will
enable us to hear and see his gospel to the extent that we
dance for joy before the Lord just like David did. Now look in Colossians chapter
2 verse 9. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you are, what's that next
word? Complete. You not will be complete. You
are complete in him. Now in myself, I feel so incomplete,
don't you? So lacking. I mean, we talk about that all
day. In myself, I feel so incomplete. But thank God, in Christ, I am. Every believer is complete. When God looks at me, He doesn't
see anything missing. He sees someone who's perfect
in His sight, exactly like His Son. And He sees me that way
right now. And I, in my heart, jump for
joy, dance and whirl in his presence at my completeness in Christ. I love to think of David dancing
with all his might, don't you? Now, I can't dance. I don't have
rhythm or whatever it is, but whatever was going on in his
heart, I believe that the Lord has Well, if we believe we're
complete in Him, if we really believe that, we will dance for
joy. Now, back to our text in 2 Samuel. Now, remember, this was 30,000
people. So David and all the house of
Israel, that 30,000 people, brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting
and with the sound of a trumpet. I love these references in the
scripture of the trumpet. I guess you do too, Rich, don't
you? I mean, trumpets in the Bible a lot. You know, when the Lord
comes, a trumpet shall sound and so on. But what I thought
of when I thought of this, this just came to my mind. Turn with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Verse eight. For if the trumpet give an uncertain
sound, an indistinct sound, so you can't really tell what it's
saying, who shall prepare himself to the battle? An uncertain, indistinct sound. Now, I want a distinct sound. You know what it is? You are
complete in Him. How many different ways are there
to take that? How many different? There's only one thing that means.
It means you're complete. You're complete. When Christ put away
my sin, my sin was put away. Distinctly. It is no more. When Christ gave me his righteousness,
I have it. I have it. Distinctly. Christ
preserves me all the way. Distinctly. Distinctly. We're
not giving an uncertain sound where you wonder, what's that
mean? No. Trumpet give an uncertain
sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle, but oh may the
Lord enable us to blow this trumpet in a very distinct way in preaching
the gospel. We won't do it unless He enables
us, but we're looking to Him to enable us to give this distinct
sound. of the gospel. But don't you
love to think of them coming up shouting, 30,000 people blowing
the trumpet. What a blessing. May the Lord
enable us to be just like David in our hearts.