Let's open our Bibles tonight
to 2 Samuel chapter 6. 2 Samuel chapter 6, and I'll
read verses 1 through 11. And the ark of the Lord was in
the country of the Philistines seven months. I'm in 1 Samuel. 2nd Samuel. That's bad when I start off in
the wrong place. And it's 2nd Samuel, chapter
6. Again, David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel,
30,000. And David arose and went with all the people that were
with him from Bilye of Judah to bring up from thence the ark
of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts.
that dwelleth between the cherubims. And they set the ark of God upon
a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, that
was in Gebeah, and Uzzah, and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drave
the new cart. And they brought it out of the
house of Abinadab, which was at Gebeah, accompanying the ark
of God, And Ahio went before the ark. David and all the house
of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments
made of firwood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels,
and on coronets, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nacon's
threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God and
took hold of it, for the oxen shook it, And the anger of the
Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his
error, and there he died by the ark of God. And David was displeased
because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah, and he called the
name of the place Berez Uzzah to this day. And David was afraid
of the Lord that day and said, how shall the ark of the Lord
come to me? So David would not remove the
ark of the Lord unto him into the city of David, but David
carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 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. For the last several
Wednesday evenings, we've been studying scriptures which all
have had this common thread, and that is the Ark of God. And we all know that the Ark
of God was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was made of two materials,
incorruptible wood, which pictures the sinless humanity of Christ,
covered over with gold, which pictures to us his deity. And
in the ark, it was about this long, I believe, and about that
wide, in the ark was the law of God, the Ten Commandments. The law which was written on
tables of stone was placed in the ark. The ark is a picture
of Christ. And we think about in Hebrews
chapter 10, the apostle Paul quotes this verse from the Psalm,
Psalm 40, and this is what it says. Lo, I come, that is Christ. Lo, I come, and the volume of
the book, the head of the book actually, which I believe goes
all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. Lo, I come, and
the volume of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do
thy will, O my God, yea. Now listen, thy law is within
my heart. They put the law in the ark. And Christ, when he came into
this world, he said, I delight to do thy will, O God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. And then, of course, it was covered
over with a plate of gold called the mercy seat. And it was there
that atonement was made and God met with his people. And around
the edges of it, there was a crown. That's what it's called, a crown
of gold. And I cannot help but think of
our Savior tonight in heaven, crowned with many crowns. In Revelation chapter 4, when
John had that vision into heaven, and remember he saw the 24 elders
around the throne. The 24 elders represent God's
people from both dispensations. The old dispensation, 12 patriarchs
of Israel. The new dispensation, 12 apostles
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all the people of God bowed down
before the throne and they cast their crowns before the throne. And who's on that throne? God
is, and the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is
just one of the many pictures, one of the many types in the
Old Testament that told of the Lord Jesus Christ. Granted, granted,
it's much easier for us tonight to look at these Old Testament
types and see how they pictured Christ than it probably was for
those who lived in that dispensation. God, remember, has some better
thing for us. We live when the promises have
all been fulfilled. Now we've seen several things
about the ark of God at this particular time in the history
of the nation of Israel. And it was a low point in the
history of the nation of Israel that is spiritually It was a
low point. In our first study, we saw how
that the Israelites thought that bringing it, that's the way they
referred to the Ark of the Covenant, not God, but it, bringing it
into the camp would assure their victory over the Philistines,
but they were defeated, and not only were they defeated, but
the Ark of God was taken by the Philistines. And taken into the
country of the Philistines, we saw in our second study how that
God smote the gods, the false gods of the Philistines as well
as the people, the men of the Philistines. And then we saw
in our third study, I believe it was, how that they put the
Ark of God on the cart with those sacrifices or offerings they
made and sent it back and it came to that place called Beth
Shemesh. And it was received there by
the men of Beth Shemesh. It was welcomed there. And then
some of them at least looked into it. And God killed a number
of the men of Beth Shemesh. So they called the men from Kirjeth-Jerim
asked them to come and fetch the ark. And they fetched the
ark to Kerjeth Jerom, and they put it into the house of this
man that we've read about tonight in our text, that is Abinadab. Now it was there a long time. I don't know exactly how long,
but I know that Saul, it was there all during the reign of
King Saul, and Saul reigned for 40 years. David, in our text tonight, he's
now king over all of Israel. And for seven years, he only
reigned over Judah. So the ark of God was in the
house of Abinadab for many years. And I have several truths that
I want us to see from this passage of Scripture. But first of all,
before we look at these four truths I want to bring out to
us tonight, first of all, we must see this. We must see that
things did not go well with David's attempt to move the ark of God. We must recognize that things
did not go well for David in his attempt to move the ark of
God. I see three things here that
convinced me that things did not go well. First of all, God
killed one man. God killed Uzzah. He was a son
of Abinadab. When he touched the ark to steady
it, God killed him. Notice again in verses 6 and
7, And when they came to Nacchan's threshing floor, Uzzah put forth
his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it. For the oxen
shook it, and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah. And God smote him there for his
error, and there he died by the ark of God. Things did not go
well with David's attempt to move the ark of God to Jerusalem. First of all, God killed Uzzah. Secondly, David, David himself,
was smitten with fear of the Lord. You notice it says that
he was afraid of God. He was afraid that God would
kill him. He was afraid that God would
kill him. And third, His plans to bring
the ark of God to Jerusalem were frustrated. In other words, in
verse 10, so David would not remove the ark of the Lord unto
him into the city of David. Things did not go well with David's
attempt to move the ark of God to Jerusalem. I think we all
can see that. One man was killed. David was
afraid that God would kill him. And he was completely frustrated
in his desire and plan to bring the ark into the city of Jerusalem,
the city of David. Now, I have four things. First of all, this shows the
fallacy of one of Satan's favorite lies. This shows the fallacy of one
of Satan's favorite lies. You say, what is it? And remember,
Satan is the father of lies. He was a liar from the beginning.
There's no truth in him. When he speaks, he speaks a lie. And this shows us the fallacy
of one of his favorite lies, which is, as long as a person
is sincere, all is well. That's all that matters. That's
all that counts, is that a person be sincere. As long as he or
she is sincere, that's the issue. And everything's well if a person
is sincere. That somehow God is indifferent. He's indifferent to faith. That
is, He's indifferent to what people believe. He's indifferent
to practice, that is, he's indifferent to how men live. The only thing
that is important is that a person be sincere. That's it, just be
sincere. Now I ask you tonight, who would
question, I don't think anyone would, who would question either
the sincerity of Uzzah or David? No one would question their sincerity. Uzzah was sincere. He did not
want the ark of God when the oxen stumbled and maybe the cart
could possibly turn over. I'm not sure, but I believe he
was sincere in putting his hand to the ark that he did not want
that ark to tumble to the ground. He was sincere. And David, he
too, was truly sincere when we see him at the head of all of
these people playing on their instruments of music, showing
their joy, their rejoicing, their delight, their longing to have
the ark of God in the city of the great king in Jerusalem.
They were both sincere. They were both sincere. But their
sincerity did not excuse their error. It didn't. It did not excuse their error. It is a soul-damning error. A soul-damning, a soul-destroying
error to believe that as long as a person is sincere, that's
all that counts. What a lie. And this shows the
fallacy of that lie. As long as a person is sincere,
a person is religious, doesn't matter what kind of religion,
just as long as you're sincere, all these various religions,
they're all different roads, but they're all leading to God. As long as a person's sincere.
It doesn't matter if a person believes, And the Lord Jesus
Christ or not, he's not the only way. But what is all important
is that a person be sincere. Isn't this one of the lessons
easy to see from this history? Isn't it? Who can miss this? No one except someone who's blinded
by the God of this world. Sincerity. is not the issue. Now, believers are sincere. Those who know Christ, trust
in Christ, we are sincere. But you can be sincere trusting
in a lie and die and go to hell. You can be sincere in desiring
to go, as an example, to go to Galveston tonight And I-45 goes
to Galveston. I've gone to Galveston many times
on I-45, haven't you? But if you go down here to the
intersection of Greens Road and I-45 and turn left and go north,
no matter how sincere you are of going to Galveston, just keep
on going, you'll never get there. You'll never get there. Go out
to the airport and buy a ticket and be sincere that you want
to go to a certain destination and tell the person that you're
buying the ticket from. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter which city. Just give me a ticket. I'm sincere. Put me on the plane and I'll
end up at the destination where I want to go. No, you won't.
You get on a plane going in the opposite direction. you're not
going to end up at the place you desire to go, no matter how
sincere you are. That's not the issue. The second
lesson for us is, this shows the fallacy of setting aside
God's word. The fallacy of setting aside
God's word. One of the proverbs, in fact,
we find this two times in the book of Proverbs. Two times this
same proverb is given to us. There is a way which seemeth
right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. What Uzzah
did in putting forth his hand, I'm sure it seemed right to him. It seemed logical to him, the
right thing to do. What was wrong with it? What
was wrong with what Uzzah did when he put forth his hand to
steady the ark? What was wrong with it? Well,
what was wrong with it was it was contrary, absolutely contrary
to the Word of God. Absolutely. Completely. Keep your places here, but look
back with me to Numbers chapter 4, just a moment. Numbers chapter 4. There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. In Numbers chapter 4, And with
verse five, God begins to give his instructions to what should
take place when they dismembered the sanctuary, the tabernacle. Remember, they were in the wilderness
for 40 years, and they didn't stay in one place. They moved
from place to place. And every place where they moved,
the tabernacle was to be in the dead center of the camp. There were to be three tribes
camping to the north, three to the south, three to the east,
three to the west. The tabernacle was to be right
in the very middle of the camp. Now, they had to take it down. They had to take it apart and
move it. from one place to another. So
God gives them instructions here as to how this would take place.
And when the camp, notice verse five, and when the camp set it
forward, in other words, when the camp is moving, Aaron shall
come and his sons. Now, Aaron was the priest. He was a high priest. His sons
were priests. Aaron and his sons, that is the
priests, they shall come and they shall take down the covering
veil. Now that veil that separated
the holy place from the most holy place, they shall take that
down and cover the Ark of Testimony with it. Here's the Ark of God,
the Ark of Testimony, the Ark of the Lord. Take that veil down,
wrap up the ark in that veil, I'm not sure how this was done,
and then spread over it a cloth wholly of blue. A blue cloth
enveloped the ark after they clothed it or wrapped around
it, the covering veil, and shall put thereon the covering of badger
skins. And above that, got that out
of order. It was the veil first, then the
covering of the badger's skin, and then the cloth, holy of blue,
and the last thing they were to do, put the staves in those
loops, those loops that were built onto the ark. So these
staves were, you know, you know what a stave is, about that long,
and they put those in there. The priests did. So that when
the Levites, the one family, there was really three families
of Levi, and of those three families, God chose the Kohaths. I believe that's the way you
say that. Here again in Numbers chapter four. down in verse 15. And when Aaron
and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary and
all the vessels of the sanctuary, that includes the Ark of the
Covenant, as well as those other vessels, as the camp is to set
forward, after that the sons of Koeth shall come to bear it,
but they shall not touch any holy thing lest they die. They're to come in. They're to
take the staves. I suppose there would be four
men. They would put the staves on their shoulders and carry
the Ark of the Covenant. That's the way God said it was
to be done. That was His commandment. and
he threatened, he told them, lest you die. You touch that
ark, anybody but the priest, you touch that ark, and you're
going to die. Uzzah, he was not a priest, and
he touched the ark. You know, if you look in Numbers
chapter seven, since you're already there, this is interesting. Numbers chapter 7, and begin
with verse 4. It says, And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Take it of them that they may be to do the service
of the tabernacle of the congregation. In other words, people were,
the tribes, the nation of Israel, were giving offerings. And so
Moses was told by God how the wagons and the oxen were to be
distributed. Now, I told you there was three
families of Levi. Two of those families were to
receive wagons. You know, part of that tabernacle
was heavy, and I'm not saying the Ark of the Covenant wasn't,
but it wasn't nearly as heavy as those boards and things that
put the tabernacle together. So God supplied them with wagons. Notice verse 6, And Moses took
the wagons and the oxen, and gave them unto the Levites. Two
wagons and four oxen he gave unto the sons of Gershon, according
to their service. And four wagons and eight oxen
he gave unto the sons of Mariah, according unto their service,
under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. But,
now here's the family. that's going to carry the vessels. But unto the sons of Coeth he
gave none, because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto
them was that they should bear upon their shoulders. Uzzah was
not of the house of Coeth. When you turn back here, to our
text tonight. I said, secondly, this shows
the fallacy of setting aside God's Word. God's Word was clear. God's Word was plain. How the
ark was to be carried. When you think about this, Abinadab,
now let this sink in, this man by the name of Abinadab, He housed
this Ark of the Covenant for many years. We've already said
that. For many years it was in his
house. And yet God killed one of his
sons. David is the only man in scripture
that God said about him, he is a man after his own heart. Even those Even though these
things were true, it doesn't change the fact that God's word
is to be received, to be believed, and to be obeyed. Think about Abinadab, housed
in that ark all of those years, and here God kills one of his
sons. David, man after God's own heart. And yet he was afraid. Nothing changes God's word. His word is like himself. His word is settled, the scripture
says, forever in heaven. And one verse I looked for is
Psalm 138 in verse two. It says, thou hast magnified
thy word above thy name. God, thou hast magnified thy
word above thy name. And John Gill commented, it is
to be understood his word of promise and his faithfulness
to fulfilling it. In other words, God, when he
says something, he will fulfill his word. Now that's a great
blessing to you and I, isn't it? That's comfort to us. Why? Well, think about this. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He's faithful. That's his word. That's his promise.
He's not going to renege on that. He's going to fulfill his word. As we see in this case, if you
touch it, you're going to die. As it touched the ark, God killed
it. Here's the third lesson for us. This shows the fallacy of adopting
the methods of this world. The fallacy of adopting the methods
of this world. Where do you suppose, where do
you suppose David ever got the idea to transport the Ark of
God on a cart? You know, don't you? You know
where he got this idea. He got it from the false priest
of Dagon and the diviners. That's who came up with this
idea. Remember when the Philistines
thought, how shall we take this ark back? Then it was the false
priest and the diviners, the astrologers, who came up with
this plan, in other words, the world, they came up with this
plan, put it on a card. That's the way to do it. It worked for them. Why shouldn't
it work for us? I saw a sign the other day in
front of a church building inviting people to come to a meeting of
fun and magic. Fun and magic. How in the world
do you bring magic into a church? Magic. Magic. I think we're here to worship
God, don't you? Not for fun and magic, but those
are the ways of the world. And that's just one illustration.
You know, there are hundreds of things that people in so-called
churches use to try to attract people. The fallacy, we see the fallacy
here of adopting the methods of the world. God's method, God's
way of saving sinners is still as it was in the days of the
apostles by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Now here's the last. This shows
the fallacy of believing that God is only a God of love. We thank God that He is love. I do, don't you? God is love. That's what we read in 1 John. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful
that He is a God of love, but this doesn't mean that He doesn't
have other attributes as well. And one of those attributes is
his anger, his wrath. Now we know that there is no
imperfection in God, no imperfection in God. And we should know that
there is no perfection in God that is less perfect than another. In other words, his love is perfect,
so is his wrath. His long-suffering is perfect,
so is His anger. Every attribute of God, every
characteristic of God is perfect. We like to think of His holiness
as being His chief attribute. And I read this years ago and
I've used it many times, but you think of a wagon wheel and
the spindle in the middle, and you've got all these spokes going
out all around. And if it's love for one spoke
and mercy and patience and wrath and, and anger and long suffering,
all these spokes, but they all feed in to God's holiness. And every one of his attributes
is holy. He is the thrice holy God. Now, let me close with this. Arthur Pink, in his book on the
attributes of God, he has a chapter on the wrath of God. And he gives
three reasons why God's people, you and I, why we should frequently
meditate on the wrath of God. Number one, that our hearts may
be duly impressed with God's hatred of sin. We're all prone
to make light of sin, to gloss over it, to make excuses for
it. So he said, number one, we should
meditate on the wrath of God that our hearts might be duly
impressed with God's hatred of sin. Number two, to beget a true
fear of God in our souls. A true fear of God in our souls. The apostle closes Hebrews with
these words, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. And number three, to draw out
our souls and fervent praise for having delivered us from
his wrath." Oh, we should praise God, shouldn't
we? You read that case of that man in hell in Luke chapter 16.
Our Lord spoke about him. He said, I'm tormented. I'm tormented
in these flames. He's still there tonight. And
He'll be there throughout all eternity, suffering the wrath
of God. And yet if you trust in Christ,
if you know Him tonight as your Lord and Savior, Christ bore
that wrath for your sins in your place on the cross. And you'll
never experience that wrath. how we should praise Him for
His wonderful mercy and grace in saving us from His wrath. I pray the Lord would bless this
message. I think we'll sing a couple of verses, Bill, of a hymn before
we're dismissed. We'll be dismissed with