Let's open our Bibles this evening
to 2 Samuel chapter 6. 2 Samuel chapter 6. Let's begin
reading in verse 11 through the end of the chapter. And the ark
of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite,
three months. And the Lord blessed Obed-Edom
and all his household. And it was told 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 of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of
David with gladness. And it was so that when they
that bear 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 the
linen ephod. So David and all the house of
Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and with
the sound of the trumpet. And as the Ark of the Lord came
into the city of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, looked through
a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord,
and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of
the Lord and set it in his place in the midst of the tabernacle
that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings
and peace offerings before the Lord. And as soon as David had
made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings,
he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. And
he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude
of Israel, as well as to the women as men. to everyone a cake
of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flagon of wine. So
all the people departed everyone to his house. Then David returned
to bless his household. And Michael, the daughter of
Saul, came out to meet David and said, how glorious was the
king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of
the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly
uncovered himself. And David said unto Michael,
It was before the Lord which chose me before thy father, and
before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the
Lord, over Israel. Therefore will I play before
the Lord, and I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base
in mine own sight. And of the maidservants which
thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor. Therefore,
Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child unto the day of
her death." We have been looking for several Wednesdays at what
is recorded about the Ark of God at this point in the history
of the nation of Israel. Let me just remind us once again
that the Ark of God was purposed and designed by God to be a type
of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that
his person is pictured in the two materials with which it was
made, speaking of his two natures, the gold representing his deity
and the incorruptible wood, his sinless humanity, his sinless
humanity. His work of atonement was pictured
by the blood of a substitute placed on the mercy seat that
covered the ark. It was there that God promised
to meet with Israel. I want you to keep your places
here, but let's turn back to the book of Exodus, and let's
see this once again in Exodus chapter 25, that it was here,
that is above the mercy seat, that God promised to meet and
to commune. with the nation of Israel, with
the people of God. In Exodus chapter 25, let's just
read verses 21 and 22. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the
testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee,
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat. from
between the two cherubim, which are upon the ark of the testimony. We see that it was there, and
only there, that God promised that He would meet with the people
of God, His people, the nation of Israel, not only meet with
them, but commune with them. And you and I, tonight, we know
that it is only in Christ only in the Lord Jesus Christ that
God will meet a sinner and reveal Himself unto, only in Christ. It's only in Christ that we may
meet with God and commune with Him. If you want to turn to 1
John, before we go back to 2 Samuel, let's just see this again. In 1 John chapter 1, And let's just read verses 1
through 3. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word
of life, we know that's speaking of Christ. For the life was manifested,
and we have seen, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal
life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. Now notice, that which we have
seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us. And truly, our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. It is only
in the Lord Jesus Christ that men may know God. Remember the
verse we looked at last Sunday morning, that of God He is made
unto us wisdom. That's the only way that anyone
comes to know God. And that is through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And not only do we come to know
him through Christ, but fellowship and communion is only with God
through Christ. He said in Matthew 11, the Lord
Jesus Christ said, all things are delivered unto me of my father,
all things. All things are delivered unto
me of my father. You say, what does that mean?
It's very easy to understand, isn't it? It means he's the sovereign
ruler of all things, over all things. All things are delivered
unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father. Neither knoweth any man the father
save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. The only way anyone may come
to know God is through the Son. Just as this ark of God pictured
his person and his work, and it was there God told the people
of old, I will meet with you and commune with you. We ended,
let's go back now to 2 Samuel 6. We ended last week with the ark
of God taken into the house of this man named Obed-Edom. God showed his displeasure with
David with the way he was attempting, at least, to transport the ark
of God to Jerusalem. David set aside God's word, God's
way in transporting the ark. And God showed his displeasure. He killed this man by the name
of Uzzah. And when he did, David was afraid
of God. And they didn't move any further.
They took the ark into the house of Obed-Edom. Now tonight, we're
looking at scripture which tells of David bringing the ark The
Ark of God to Jerusalem. There are five things I want
to point out to us in these verses. First, David heard the good news. David heard the good news. If you notice in verses 11 and
12. And the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-Edom the
Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all
his household. And it was told King David, saying,
The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that pertaineth
unto him because of the ark of God. David heard good news. And two things I want us to note
under this heading, the good news that David heard was told
unto him. The good news, David heard good
news and the good news that David heard was told unto him. You notice that in verse 12,
it says, and it was told King David. It was told him, this
good news was told unto him. And the good news that David
heard was what the Lord had done. He heard good news, it was told
unto him, and the good news that he heard was what the Lord had
done. The Lord hath blessed the house
of Obed-Edom and all that pertained unto him. Now the ark of God,
we're told, was in his house three months. Three months. And yet God so blessed this man
and his household that it was apparent, it was obvious, it
was evident to everyone that because the ark of God was in
his house, that God blessed him. Now three months is not a long
time. It's not a long time. So it tells
me that for these blessings, to be noticed, to be observed
like they were for this to have happened, these blessings had
to have been great blessings. They had to have been rather
great blessings for the blessings to be noticed like they were. The blessings probably included
material things. No doubt about that. I thought
about Job. When God turned his captivity,
the scripture says God blessed him and gave him double everything
that he had allowed Satan to take away. God blessed him. But
in three months, the fact that animals, that's the way most
of these people lived. They had their flocks. Job certainly
did. But three months is not enough
time for any animal to be bred and deliver an offspring. So
these blessings, these blessings, which were so apparent and so
obvious to everyone, I think for the most part were spiritual
blessings. And those always are the best
blessings. We, by nature, think of material
things as the best blessings, but let's not be deceived about
that. Because many people who have
great wealth and great abundance of material things are going
to be turned into hell. The great blessings must have
been spiritual blessings. And I thought about this And
I read that this man by the name of Obed Edom had eight sons. That's a goodly number of sons,
isn't it? Eight sons. And I thought this,
well just maybe, I'm not saying for sure, but I'm just suggesting
the fact that his blessings were so great and so noticed, just
maybe one of those sons was like the prodigal in our Lord's parable. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe one
of those sons, long time, or sometime before the ark of God
ever came into the house of Obed-Edom, one of those sons had told his
father, like that prodigal, give me that which pertains to me,
and he took it and went away and wasted it in righteous living. I don't know. But after the ark
of God came into his house, maybe Obed-Edom no doubt had been praying. He'd been praying if this was
the case, that God would grant his wayward son, his lost son,
repentance, and he would see him come home. And it may just
be that While that ark of God was in his house, he looked down
the road like the father of that prodigal in the parable, and
there came his son. And people realized God has blessed
Obed-Edom. That son, that son that looked
like, and as the father in our Lord's parable said, this my
son was lost, and now he's found. Maybe, maybe that's what it was. Within the three months that
the Ark of God was in his house, maybe the blessings were other
things that Obed-Edom had been praying for. Many of us, I think
most of God's children, experience this. Not all of our prayers
are answered immediately, are they? They really aren't. Some things we've prayed for
for years. And as of yet, God hasn't answered. Maybe that was the case here.
I heard just recently a pastor friend of mine who since passed
on, gone to be with the Lord, that now about four or five years
after this, his daughter-in-law has come to know the Lord. And
his sons, I think one or two of his sons have been saved since
then. I remember Charles Spurgeon pointed
that out in a message about prayer, a message I read many years ago,
but some of our prayers may be answered after we're removed,
after we're gone. I don't know what it was, but
I'm just convinced that whatever the blessings were that were
so obvious and so noticeable, about Obed-Edom having the ark
of God at his house, that they were spiritual blessings. One thing is sure, one thing
is sure, the Lord blessed him. We're told that. They told David,
they brought him good news, and it was told King David saying,
the Lord, the Lord hath blessed the house. of Obed-Edom and all
that pertains unto him." Doesn't this remind us about the good
news, the gospel? The gospel is to be told. It's
not to be hidden. It's not a light that's to be
hidden under a bushel. The gospel is to be told, just
like these came and told David. So the gospel is to be told.
We read in the book of Acts of the early church, when it was
scattered abroad, they went everywhere. And some say that could be translated
gossiping the gospel, preaching the word, preaching Christ. I remember that demoniac of Gadara,
out of whom the Lord cast those many demons. And the scripture
says, when the people came back, he was clothed and in his right
mind and sitting at the feet of Jesus. Remember that? And
then when the people of that town, they asked the Lord to
leave. And as our Lord was leaving them, that man who had been delivered,
he said, let me go with you. Let me go with you. And the Lord
said, no, you go back to your house and you tell them what
great things the Lord had done for you. Has God done something
great for you? Has He? If we're saved, if we
know Christ tonight as our Lord and Savior, He's done the greatest
of the greatest things for us. The gospel is to be told, and
secondly, the gospel is good news. Just like this was good
news that David heard, and the gospel, the good news was the
Lord has done something. The gospel, the good news is
not to tell people what they need to do. The gospel is declaring
what God has done in Christ. He has blessed us. in sending
his son into the world to save his people. We read this a few
minutes ago in 1 John chapter 4. Herein is love. Not that we
love God, but that he loved us, and listen, and sent his son. He only has one only begotten
son. and sent his son to be the propitiation. That sacrifice that appeased,
that pleased God, sent him to be the propitiation for our sins. David, the psalmist, would later
write in Psalm 89, blessed, blessed is the people that know the joyful
sound. They shall walk O LORD, in the
light of thy countenance. So that's the first thing that
I see here. David heard good news, and it
was told unto him. And the good news concerned what
the Lord had done. The second thing we notice here,
David followed God's word. Notice in verse 13, it says,
And it was so, that they that bear the ark of the Lord had
gone six paces. David before, in the study last
week, in the passage before this, David had followed the false
priest of Dagon. He had followed their idea of
how the ark of God was to be transported, to put it on a cart. But now we see he is doing it
God's way. He's doing it God's way, according
to God's Word. The Ark of God was now being
born on the shoulders of the Levites. I want you to look in
1 Chronicles. Keep your place here. We have
a parallel passage here in 1 Chronicles of this episode, this history,
1 Chronicles chapter 15. Let's see what we find here. 1 Chronicles chapter 15. Let's
read verses 1 and 2. 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. You see, now he's going by what
the word of God declares. 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. Now, I think we can be sure tonight
that during the three months The three months that the Ark
of God was in the house of Obed-Edom, among other things that David
was doing, one thing was he was reading God's Word. He was searching
the Scriptures. And that's what a king was to
do. Keep your place here. Let's go back to Deuteronomy
just a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 17. And these are the words of God
through Moses to the nation of Israel before they entered into
the land of Canaan. They're right there on the border.
And Deuteronomy chapter 17, verses 14 and 15, we're told, When thou art come unto the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and
shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me,
like as all the nations that are about me. Now they haven't
got into the land yet, but God is telling them what they would
do. You see, God knows the end from the beginning, doesn't He?
And God knew that the day would come when they would reject Him
as being their king and they would want to be like all the
other nations. They would like to have a man
as their king instead of God. And they would ask for a king.
Notice the next verse. Thou shalt in any wise set Him
king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose. One from
among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayest
not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. Now,
look down to verse 18. What is the king supposed to
do? What is he commanded to do? And it shall be, when he sitteth
upon the throne of his kingdom, now notice this, remember David's
a king, he's on the throne now, it shall be, that he shall write
him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the
priest of the Levites. It was commanded, it was incumbent
upon the king to write his own copy of the law. And it shall
be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life,
that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the
words of this law and these statutes to do them, that his heart be
not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from
the commandment, to the right hand or to the left, to the end
that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children
in the midst of Israel. Don't you know? Don't you just
know tonight that many times during this, these three months,
David, he read that part of the Bible that we have Numbers chapter
four about the Levites. I'm sure he read that many times
and he saw there how that God said, if you touch the ark, you're
going to die. He saw that God commanded only
the Levites, the family of the Kohath, to carry the ark. And now, as we just read in 1
Chronicles chapter 15, he says to all the people, none ought
to carry the ark of God but the Levites. I'm going to obey the
word of God. This must be done according to
God's Word. And later in that chapter, we
didn't read it, 1 Chronicles 15, but he said this, for because,
speaking to the Levites, for because you did it not at the
first, the Lord our God hath made a breach upon us, now listen,
for we sought Him not after the do In other words, we did not
obey, we did not follow God's Word, and God made a breach upon
us. He killed us. So, that's the
second thing we see, David following God's Word. Now third, David
rejoiced in the Lord. Back in 2 Samuel chapter 6, David
rejoiced in the Lord. as they are bringing the Ark
of the Covenant into Jerusalem. Verse 14 says, And David danced
before the LORD with all his might, and David was girded with
a linen ephod. Now again there in 1 Chronicles,
you can look at this later, chapter 27, we're told there that he
was clothed with a robe of fine linen. And then upon that, he
had this ephod upon him, which was more like a vest. In other
words, David put off his kingly robes. I mean, we've seen some
robes that are stately, right? I mean, they're elaborate. I'm
sure he had robes that had jewels in them and maybe a crown. He put all that off. And he put
on clothes. that were appropriate, a linen
garment, a linen ephod, appropriate to worship God. And that's what
he was involved in, that's what he was engaged in. And you know,
when we read that David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, now
think about that, fine linen. Where do we hear that? How about
in Revelation? How about in Revelation? chapter
19 in verse 8, and we read of the Lamb's wife, the bride of
Christ, the Lamb's wife, the church. And we read, and to her
was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. In other words, that fine linen
pictures the righteousness the righteousness of God that is
imputed unto everyone that believes. Your righteousness tonight before
God, if you trust in Christ, is compared to fine linen, white,
and perfect righteousness of Christ. And I'll just say this,
that's something to rejoice in. Paul said, rejoice in the Lord
always. And again, I say rejoice. That's
something that we have every day. If we know Christ tonight,
every day, every hour, no matter what the situation we find ourselves
in, we always have cause to rejoice in the righteousness of Christ.
David rejoiced before the Lord. He rejoiced in the God of his
salvation. Now here's the fourth thing.
David was despised by one of his family. Verse 16. And as the ark of the Lord came
into the city of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, looked through
a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord,
and she despised him in her heart. You know, there may have been
a legitimate reason for Michael not to be involved in this celebration. Why wasn't she out there? Maybe
that wasn't permitted. I don't know. There may have
been a good reason, but not for her conduct. There was no reason
here for her conduct, despising David because of his zeal his
zeal in worshiping the Lord, conduct which she did not think
was appropriate for a man who was a king. She despised him
in her heart. And as I looked at that, I thought
about Judas, the traitor, the one who betrayed the Lord Jesus
Christ. I thought about that time when
Mary brought that That ointment, costly ointment, the scripture
says. And she anointed the Lord Jesus
Christ with that ointment. And you remember what Judas said?
Why was this not sold and given to the poor? And John tells us
it wasn't because he was concerned about the poor. It was because
he kept the bag that held the money. Mary, you know, nothing was too
good for her to give to her Savior. And David felt the same way.
Nothing was too much in this matter of zeal in worshiping
the Lord. But Michael, evidently, she had
no interest in the things of God. And Michael, let me say this,
Michael showed her disdain for David's worship, and she was
corrected by him, and then she remained childless. If you look
down to verse 20, and David returned to bless his household, and Michael,
the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David. It appears to
me that when she looked out the window and saw David, his zeal
in worshiping God. She thought that was inappropriate
conduct for a man of his stature. She didn't have any love for
God. She couldn't understand how he could act like he did. Well, that she despised him in
her heart. The scripture says, and I believe
she just kind of let that simmer, you know, instead of asking the
Lord to forgive her, And to remove that sin, that trespass from
her heart, she just allows that to simmer up. And so when David
comes home, she feels she's got the right to correct him publicly. He was her king. He was her husband,
all right, but he was her king. And David rebuked her sharply. That's sad, isn't it? Let me
tell you, I think this is so sad because at one time, humanly
speaking, this woman, Michael, his wife, she saved his life. Remember that? When her father
Saul sent those executioners to their house to take David,
to kill him. And she led him out the window,
and then she put off those executioners, put some statue or something
there in that bed, covered it up. And when they went back and
told Saul, well, David's sick, he can't come. Saul, he was such
a wicked man, he said, you go back, and if you have to, just
bring him on the bed. But when they got back, they
looked under the cover, and David wasn't there. He had escaped.
Michael, this woman, humanly speaking, she saved his life
that time. And I tell you this, David loved
her, I believe, because when Abner, who was the commander
of the forces of Israel, came to David and was ready to reunite
the tribe of Judah with all the other 11 tribes, make him king
over all of Israel, David gave him one requirement. Don't expect
to see my face if you don't bring my wife, Michael. You either bring her or there's
no need of you coming. But you know, it's sad, isn't
it, to see what happened. But one writer pointed this out,
her remaining childless It was so ordered in providence that
the seed of David and the seed of Saul might never be mixed. Now here's the last thing. Fifth,
David worshiped God and served the people. Verses 17 through
19. They brought in the ark of the
Lord and set it in his place in the midst of the tabernacle
that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings
and peace offerings before the Lord. And as soon as David had
made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings,
he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and
dealt every one of them some food. He worshipped God and served
the people. He worshipped God in offering
these burnt and peace offerings and he served the people. Not
only in words, he blessed them. He blessed them with his words,
but he also, in deeds, he doled out to all of them an ample supply. Now let me just close with this.
We might think of these five things in the life of a child
of God. Every child of God, first of
all, he hears and believes the good news. He hears the gospel,
and he believes in Christ. Number two, he follows God's
word. From the time he believes in
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible, the word of God, becomes his
rule of life, his rule of practice. Number three, he rejoices in
the Lord Jesus Christ. As we go through this life, we
go through this world rejoicing in Christ and in his perfect,
imputed righteousness. And number four, the believer
has his enemies and sometimes they are those of his own house.
Our Lord told about that. And number five, he continues. He continues to worship God and
serve others. That's his life, as long as he
or she is in this world. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless this message to all of us here tonight.