This might be the most to use quote in our SPMC sermons
history. It's from CS Lewis, Chronicles
of Narnia, and it's easy, safe, safe, said Mr. Beaver.
Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he
is good. He's not safe, but he is good.
Of course Mr. Beaver is referring to Auslan who who who
who was portrayed as God slash Christ figure in the books.
He isn't safe, but he is good. That's who God is.
And God never presents himself as safe.
From the very beginning of scriptures, Adam and Eve, after
they sin, they are cast out. Lot's wife turns around he will
she wasn't supposed to and turns into a pillar of salt.
Isaiah meets God and says woe to me for I have, you know, unclean
lips. Peter meets Jesus on the boat,
on his boat and says depart from me for I am a Sinner.
God says to Moses, no one can see me and live.
God is not safe, but he is good. In today's passage, David
realizes both. He sees how unsafe God could be,
and he also sees the goodness of God.
And we're going to figure out how both of them could be true
at the same time. So we're going to answer the
question, how can sinful people experience the presence of God?
How can sinful people experience the presence of God #1 recognize
we often approach Him the wrong way.
We must recognize how we approach Him the wrong way.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Second Samuel chapter 6.
Otherwise it will be posted behind me as well.
I'll be reading one through 7 for now, from the last sermon
till today's sermon, and it's only one week for us.
But in the story, about 10 to 15 years have passed.
David is no longer running from Saul, but he has become king.
In chapter 5 he becomes king and this is chapter 6.
So he just becomes king of all over Israel and and this is the
first thing he does. OK chapter 6 verse one, David
again assembled all the fit young men in Israel. 30,000 He
and all his troops set out to bring the ark of God from Baal
Judah. The ark bears the name, the name
of the Lord of armies who is enthroned between the cherubim.
They set the Ark of God on a new cart and transported from
Abinadab's house, which was on the hill.
Uzza and Ahil, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the cart and
brought it with the Ark of God from Abinadab's house on the
hill. Ahil walked in front of the ark.
David and the whole House of Israel were dancing before the
Lord with all kinds of four wood instruments, liars, harps,
tambourine systems and symbols. When they came out to Nakon's
threshing floor, Uzza reached out to the Ark of God and took
hold of it. Because the oxen has stumbled.
Then the Lord's anger burned against Uzza, and God struck him
dead on the spot for his irreverence, and he died there
next to the ark of God. I know right away your mind
might be wondering, OK, why did he have to die before we get
there? We got, let's start from the
beginning. If you go to this, go to the
verses before this, the ark represents God's presence.
This is the same ark if you watch the movie Indiana Jones,
that's the one that he's looking for.
The ark is basically a big box and it has 10 commandments in
there along with Aaron's rod. It has a part of manna from
Moses time. Ark was not actually just a
symbol of God's presence. God's presence was actually
there. His presence is manifested in a
concentrated form. So there's a greater Prince of
God on the ark than anywhere else.
God is everywhere, but sometimes he chooses a specific spot for
his more intense presence, and the ark was that place.
Chapter 5. David becomes king and the first
thing he does, the first act of being him being a king, is to
bring the Ark back to Jerusalem. For the past 40-50 years, the
Ark was kind of near the Philistine Israel border.
Saw this entire time he was king, he just left it there even
before Saw Eli's sons actually because of them, it kind of
ended up there. Kind of shows that Saul really
didn't care about God's presence or worship or anything like
that. And David here does the right
thing. He's absolutely right in this.
He says we need the presence of God and he brings the ark back
to Jerusalem. This was his first order of
action, and it should also be our first order of action in our
lives that we have the presence of God.
We don't need any more. We don't need just information
about God. We need God's presence.
Without it, we are constantly trying to build our own
identity, carry our own burdens and and really secure our own
lives without God's presence. We're we're anxious, we're
exhausted. We're never sure if we're
enough. And the Bible says, you know,
really, you don't need anything else.
What we actually need is God himself.
What I found is that what I just explained, we need the praise of
God. I really need to convince
people. I think most people will say,
especially if you're Christian and you're coming here like,
yeah, well, obviously that's why I'm here.
That's why I came to worship. The problem is really the desire
that's kind of innate in us as Christians.
But it's the approach. It's the approach in in how to
be in Prince of God. Let's examine Ouza.
OK, It's this is one of the passages where people get turned
off about our faith. They read stuff like this and
they're like, see, This is why I'm not a Christian.
This is why I don't read the Bible.
There's one thing wrong and boom, God zaps him and then he's
dead. And and these are parts of the
Bible that if you're not believing, friends came up to
you and like explain this and you're like, oh, do I have to it
it? It's a difficult thing to
explain, but let's try. Let's try to figure out why God
might do such a thing. They are bring carrying the ark
back to church women and it is a celebration and verse one it
says David is bringing 30,000 men, which means they're not
going to war. They're not afraid that they're
going to get attacked or anything like that.
They wanted like a like a professional, a parade.
Just imagine 30,000 men, soldiers and other people too
right People play instruments and and carrying the ark of God
back to Jerusalem. It's supposed to be a
celebration. Apparently it was at this guy
named Ooza's house or his binnadab, his dad's house for
somewhat years. And, and so so they've been
taking care of it and, and they are in charge of of kind of
bringing the art back to Israel. Along the way, the oxen stumble
and Ooza reaches out only to prevent it from falling to the
ground. Then maybe it's a bumpy Rd.
It's shaking and Ooza grabs the ark and boom God strikes him
dead. I know that sounds harsh and
even unnecessary but try to understand this.
This is the issue with Oozes approach.
He has a casual view of God. The problem is not that he
touched the ark and it was just arbitrary rule that God made.
When I was in elementary, when the bell rang, you have to
freeze. My son Micah and Maddie, they
went to the same elementary as me.
And my God, when he got a detention and I said what
happened, he said he moved for two seconds after the bell.
I did not get mad at him at all. You know why?
Because I got detention for the same thing 30 years ago.
It's not a stupid rule like that.
It's a random rule God says. You know what?
I don't want anyone touching this.
Someone touches it, bam, you're dead.
The problem with this is Luza, even though he had to arc for 20
years, he really has no idea how holy God is and how sinful he
is. He has a low view of sin and a
high view of self, Low view of God.
You know, the, the, the, the laws that God gave about
handling the ark. We're very clear.
OK, you actually, they weren't even supposed to put in another
cart. That wasn't allowed.
So they weren't, they weren't supposed to do that.
Only Levites, a tribe or it's a priestly tribe.
Only they could handle it because they're trained in it.
And certainly nobody could touch it.
Luzza doesn't follow any of that and he touches the ark.
See, from the beginning of time, God has been trying to teach his
people about this reality. He's saying any other God, all
the other gods that were worshipped at this time, they
were the same. You were to impress God, have a
perhaps a 30,000 soldier processional for God.
Do crazy sacrifices for God. Impress them enough where God
says, OK, I accept you, you've shown enough.
But the true God is saying that's not how I operate.
It's not about impressing me, it's not about performing front
of me. It's about my presence, the
presence of God and man. The only thing that comes
between US and God is sin. That's why from day one God was
always serious about sin because that is the only thing keeping
us away from God. So he gave clear instructions
how to deal with it. The one obstacle for us to get
through God. God gives us clear instructions.
Once a year the high priest goes in to the Holy of Holies,
sprinkles blood into the ark and and man sins are.
It wasn't technically forgiven, it was delayed.
The punishment was delayed all the way until Christ dies for
us. Jesus pays for our sins every
year. God teaches a way for people to
deal with their sins so they could have the presence of God.
Luza didn't just break a rule, he was rejecting the core of the
gospel. When he touched the arc, there
was assumption on his part. His assumption was my hand is
cleaner than the dirt. Imagine there is some dog poop
on your hands. I say this because it recently
happened. I was with actually, you know,
Mike Albert practice baseball. It was at like their friend's
backyard. They have a batting cage and and
there's poop every worse, they have a dog back there too.
And you know, with the bag, we clean up and then we and then we
practice and there was a little bit of poop in my hands.
So I have to wash it and all that.
But imagine the poop was in my hand and I was, I don't know, I
was hanging out, right? I don't normally do that.
But let's just say I have poop in my hands and Micah has his
water bottle and then he's about to drop it.
Would I go Micah let me save her water bottle.
Here you go. No, I let it drop because my
hand is dirtier than the grass. There's assumption that Ooza
makes that I am. My hands are not that dirty.
My sin is not that bad. There's assumption that Ooza
makes that God is not that holy. I could touch the ark, at least
the dirt, it's not sinful. At least Jesus didn't have to
die for the dirt. Dirt you could wipe off.
But God is very serious about our sin.
He's saying that sin problem we cannot figure out on our own.
Even if I explained this to many of us that will still not
understand. I don't know Pastor Tim, but
Uzza had good intentions. Why?
Why did God have to be so severe?
Unfortunately, good intentions don't override God's holiness.
God is so holy he cannot intermingle with sinful people.
He just can't. It's not his nature.
It seems harsh, but God has always been harsh when it comes
to sin. God is harsh to the point where
if you do not accept the gospel, you don't go to heaven.
That's harsh. When sin came to to the Garden
of Eden, they were kicked out. That's harsh.
God's been harsh with sin because that's that important.
Ultimately, he sent his Son to die for our sins.
That's why he didn't want us to take it lightly.
He didn't want us to have good intentions and go to God saying,
God, I did all these great things for you, now accept me.
You have great intentions, but God is saying that is not
enough. Lord, I've done so much for you,
You must accept me. That's good intentions, but it
is not enough. And David, he sees all of this
happening before him. He sees Ooza die.
And then in verse 9, do we have verse 92 slides down.
David feared the Lord that day. There was fear in David and he
says, how can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?
Now he's saying I'm sinful. How can God's presence come to
me? He's fearful.
But God doesn't leave David there.
He provides a way which leads us to point #2 Remember, it is not
just that God is unsafe, He is good .2 We can only experience
God's presence through His provision of grace.
Let's read verses 11:50. So he was not willing to bring
the ark of the Lord to the city of David.
Instead, he diverted to the House of Obed Adam or Edom of
Gath. The ark of the Lord remained in
his house for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed Edom and
his whole family. It was reported to King David.
The Lord has blessed Obed Edom's family and all that belongs to
him because of the ark of God. So David went and had the ark of
God brought up from Obed Edom's house to the city of David with
rejoicing. OK, I don't know if this is
messed up, but David's like, Oh no, the ark kill somebody, let's
drop it off of somebody else's house and that it remains in the
house for three months. Same presence of God, same ark.
It kills Ooza. The same ark blesses Obed Edom
and his family. How is that possible?
It's God dangerous or is He good?
You know Mr. Beaver already gave us the correct answer.
He is both. He's not safe and He is good.
He is dangerous in His Holiness, yet life giving in His grace.
Let me put it this way, God is not safe to sinners who approach
Him on their own terms, but God is safe to sinners who are
covered by His grace. Oba Edom's name is listed in
First Chronicles and it turns out he was a Levite, which means
he was trained in how to deal with the ark.
It means he he had a proper respect for it and he followed
all the rules. He knew how to handle the ark in
God's way. And what is the result of that?
It says with rejoicing. David sees this and he says
something clicks. Ah, it's not that God is just
unsafe, but he's also good. He also brings blessings and he
brings it back with rejoicing. And we see more of that next
verses. Let's go to the next one, 13 to
16. When those carrying the ark of
the Lord advanced just six steps, He sacrificed.
That's key. We'll come back to it.
He sacrificed an ox and fan calf.
David was dancing with all his might before the Lord, wearing a
linen effing. He and the whole House of Israel
were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts.
And the sound of the ram's horns.
There's a lot of celebration going on.
As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David,
Saul's daughter Mikhail looked down from the window and saw
David leaping and dancing before the Lord.
And she despised him in her heart.
So we see two groups of people a little contrasting here.
OK, so David says, OK, God is good, now let's bring it back.
And the ark is this time carried properly and within 6 steps
sacrifices are made. To me, that is proof that David
saw this correctly. Let me explain.
Why does God require sacrifice? It's not.
Again, the other gods require sacrifice.
Because it's like, pay me, I'm going to protect you.
It's like the mafia, I'll protect you, but you got to pay
up. But when it comes to our God, it
is not a payment sacrifice, it is it it points to Jesus.
Sacrifice is not saying let me pay you back.
Sacrifice signals the right approach to worship, right
approach to his presence. Sacrifice is saying I deserve
judgement, but another takes my place.
That's the only way into God's presence.
Not by effort, not by just sincere heart, not by emotion,
but by substitution. That's the whole point of the
story of David and Goliath, right?
That is not that be brave like David.
No, it means we couldn't defeat Goliath.
So somebody else had to step in to defeat Goliath.
We needed a substitute. David worshipped God and made a
sacrifice, saying we deserve this, I deserve the punishment.
But this punishment now goes to the sacrifice.
We need a substitute. We need a substitute in Jesus
Christ to defeat sin for us. And David figures this out and
the result is always great joy. When you realize what the grace
of the gospel is, what a gift of salvation is, the result is
always great joy. And look at this.
This is the king of Israel. It says here he was dancing with
all his might. He's dancing so hard that it
says in later, we didn't read it, but later verses that some
of his skin was showing, which is a great no no to somebody in
somebody in the royal family and his wife sees him and says she
says she despised him in her heart.
Now why do we see two different responses?
Before this moment, David is afraid of God, but after this
moment, when he realizes the grace of God, he is dancing
before the Lord. He is free, he is humble, he
doesn't care about reputation, dignity, image.
This is true worship coming out. But his wife, she doesn't have
joyful worship. She's embarrassed of her husband
and later tells tells her husband, you have embarrassed
yourself. You have embarrassed me.
This is David's response in 21 and 22 and David reply to Macau.
It was before the Lord who chose me over your father and his
whole family to appoint me a ruler over the Lord's people,
Israel. I will dance before the Lord,
and I will dishonor myself and humble myself even more.
Perhaps the NIV version is more memorable to to us.
It says I will be even more undignified than this.
I will dance before the Lord. I will even be even more
undignified than this. Of course, David Crowder and his
band made a lot of money singing about that true worship, true
experience of God, experiencing the presence of God.
It makes you think less about yourself.
You you care more about what God has done for us.
You see what Jesus did and what he has accomplished to the to
the cross. For people who have not
experienced grace, who have not experienced the gospel, you care
more about yourself, yourself image, your reputation.
So for me, Cal, it's like, well, I'm royal family, I'm the queen.
I got to be dignified. I have a reputation.
And here's my husband showing his belly button because he's
dancing like a commoner. But David, he says I will
dishonor myself and humble myself.
You know why? He says humble myself.
People who receive grace, they naturally become humble because
they knew they didn't deserve it.
There's a Korean player in the Dodgers, and I root for him.
And he was part of the championship team last year, but
he did nothing. Not one hit, not nothing.
He was a pinch runner a couple times.
And even that he almost made him.
He made a mistake, almost got out, but he still gets a ring.
I don't know him personally, but I bet you he's not going around
like, hey, I'm a champion. I think he's like, I'm glad to
be a champion. Even though I was just on the
roster and did almost nothing, Man, I'm glad I'm a champion.
He knows he had no part in winning that trophy or that
ring. If you know that it was because
of somebody else that you received something, it makes you
humble. And what humility does is it
allowed David to worship God with all his might to the poor
people like you, worshiping God like a commoner, like a servant.
Mikel doesn't know what joyful worship is.
She's worrying about her reputation, her status, her
performance. You embarrassed me, husband.
This is probably something you could do at home or in your
community groups sharing. But if you care a lot about what
people think about you, that means your attention is on
yourself. That means the grace of the
gospel has not impacted you in a deep way yet.
Or it has in the past, but you have forgotten it a little bit.
As grace changes you, the attention of the focus goes away
towards others, towards helping others, towards God, towards
missions, and you start getting excited and energized to see
what God is doing in your, in the world and in your heart.
Something to think about. We all need the presence of God,
but thankfully we don't need the ark anymore.
When Jesus died on the cross, the separation between man and
God was removed. Literally the curtain that
divided the Holy of Holies where the ark is and everyone else,
that curtain it really ripped. Now God's presence lives in us.
You are the ark, the Holy Spirit lives in you.
And if you are a Christian, if you have salvation, if you have
said Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, then God is safe.
He is your mighty fortress. He is safe to those who know
that they are sinners and that they need a Savior in Jesus
Christ. Main point, we can only
experience God's presence through His provision of grace
rather than our own performance. Let's pray.