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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Second Samuel chapter #6 is where we will be in the Word of
God as we continue our series, A Man after God's Own Heart.
And you know, there's a lot of different philosophies that are
out there today about how to bring people into church.
How do we bring people into church?
And a lot of those philosophies deal with this, with the belief,
and I would say a mistaken belief, but the belief that
church has largely become irrelevant today in society.
And maybe you've heard something along these lines.
Well, the church just isn't what it used to be.
And so the church is going to have to adapt or the church will
have to change if it wants to remain relevant within today's
society. And usually when those kind of
conversations take place, there's a lot of changes that
take place within the church house then.
A lot of. Changes, for instance the
presentation of how the church is portrayed.
It could end up looking a lot more like something you would
see at TD Garden or something from Great Woods or City Center
or whatever you called it whenever you were a kid when you
went over to those places that it looked something more that
was out of one of those large arenas than something that
maybe, well, felt like church. Perhaps the music started to
change and the music sounded like something that was more at
those venues than what you would expect it to be from a House of
God. There's a pastor that has
decided to look sloppy and he looks sloppy on purpose because
he wants to be able to kind of be more relatable.
In fact, it was ironic that I was coming in tonight.
I was dressed with the clothes that I was grilling in because I
had to change into my suit here this evening.
I thought, wow, I'm here for a laid back on church service
night in my khakis, my shirts, untucked, everything.
Maybe I should just preach like this.
Like, no, that's I don't think that's what I want to do this
evening. But there are churches where
that is a purposeful decision for the pastor to go up into the
pulpit. If they have a pulpit with
ripped jeans or a untucked shirt and have that kind of look to
look maybe more relatable, perhaps a church building that
looks a lot more than like a nightclub than something that
you would be able to relate to as a typical looking church.
So are churches irrelevant and need to be made relevant by
making these changes? My answer, as you could probably
imagine, by the suit that I'm wearing.
Tacky, maybe, but at least it's a suit all right.
But by the way, the building is, and by the type of music that we
have at all these things, the answer is this.
Are we irrelevant because we choose to make a difference
between US and the world? My answer would be no.
Actually, you're making ourselves, I believe, as
relevant as ever. Because if we attempt to look
like the world, then we just kind of get combined with
everything else that happens out in the world.
And it's our desire to be different from the world, not
for the sake of being different in and of itself, but to be able
to follow that which the Lord says, whether it's in precept or
in principle, that when the Bible speaks clearly about
something that we follow it. And when the Bible gives us
principles, we try to make sure that we follow those principles
within the church as best that we can as we apply them with the
Holy Spirit's help. Well, tonight we're going to see
that David is going to make his first administrative decision.
We already seen him go to battle the last time that we were in
the book of Second Samuel. But he's going to make an
administrative decision that's this, that the Ark of the
Covenant needs to go to the new capital city, what we would call
the city of David, Jerusalem. Remember how he took the city of
Jerusalem from the Debbie sites? It should have been taken over
300 years ago. The people of Judah forsook that
command that was placed upon them.
But David says, I'm going to go in and I'm going to take
Jerusalem as it should have been all that time ago.
Jerusalem is now being established as the capital.
And as such, Dave has a great desire for the Ark of the
Covenant to come into the capital city where the
Tabernacle will also reside. However, there's going to be
some problems. It's not going to go the way
that he expected. In fact, I would say that the
end result was nothing short of a catastrophe.
But as we look at that this evening, I believe there's some
principles that will help us as we understand how we have the
church services that we have, how we execute the philosophies
that we have here within the church, and why, why we have
church the way we do, why we do the things that we do.
Are we old fashioned just because we like old fashioned
things? Do we just want to be old
fashioned because that's just the way to go?
Or is there a greater principle that we really need to hold on
to? I believe David gives us the key
here in Second Samuel chapter #6 So why don't you stand with me
for the reading of God's Word? Second Samuel chapter #6 and
we're going to read beginning in verse #1 and says 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
Baal of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose
name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts that dwell
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 Gibeah and Aza and Ohio. The sons of Abinadab drave the
new cart, and they brought it out of the House of Abinadab,
which was at Gibeah accompanying the Ark of God in Ohio, went
before the Ark. And David and all the House of
Israel played before the Lord on the manner of instruments made
of fir wood, even on harps and on sultries and on timbrels and
on cornets and on cymbals. And Can you imagine that this
would have been a glorious scene?
The Ark of the Covenant is making its way back to
Jerusalem, and there's all of this incredible music that's
being played, and all of them are praising the Lord Almighty.
I mean, nothing could go wrong, right?
But when they came to Nakon's threshing floor, Aza put forth
his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it for the ox and
shook it. And they angered the Lord, was
kindled against Aza, and God smote him there for his error,
and there he died by the Ark of God.
You want to talk about a party ending?
That'll do it right there. And David was displeased because
the Lord had made a breach upon Aza, and he called the name of
the place Parizaza to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord
that day, and said, How shall the ark of God, or whether 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 a side into the House of Obed Edom the get
tight. And the ark of the Lord
continued in the House of Obed Edom, the get tight three months
and the Lord. Bless Obed Edom and all his
household. There were a lot of people.
Who were out there on that parade route in their sincerity,
believing that nothing could possibly go wrong.
However, there was several things that were sincerely wrong
with the scene that we have. And although sincerity is a
wonderful thing when it comes to worshiping our Lord, there is
some greater principles that are even above sincerity that I want
us to look at here tonight. So why don't you be seated and
let's pray together our only Father.
Do you just pray to help me to be able to say clearly and
kindly what I believe is in your word tonight?
Lord, help us to be able to be the church that we need to be,
not because we just want to be old fashioned for the sake of
old fashioned. I don't think there's anything
to glory in of that. But Lord, because we want to be
biblical in everything that we do and that when you command us
to do something in your Word that we do it, or when there's a
principle in your Word that we want to follow that principle
within our. Church the very best that we
can. Lord help us to be able to have
the wisdom to know and to discern these things and to see
this from the life of David and we do ask it in Jesus name,
Amen. Well, you can see that a joyful
event turns to tragedy here in just a matter of moments.
Here within our text, David gathers together about 30
thousand of his choice men, 30,000 of the men who he knows
are going to be thrilled to be able to be on.
Could we call this a detail to be able to bring the Ark of the
Covenant there to the city of David?
And so this procession begins. The music is playing and they've
got all these instruments, and it really would have been a
wonderful scene. And so as it begins, the Ark of
the Covenant has been loaded up onto what the Bible calls a new
cart. And there's two men that are
responsible for directing and driving this cart.
One man is named Ohio and the other is named Aza.
And so the Ark of the Covenant has been placed within the cart.
And now these oxen are pushing this cart and they are going
straightway towards Jerusalem. And again, it seems like nothing
could go wrong. Everyone is rejoicing.
It's a wonderful day there. The Ark of the Covenant, which
had been really placed off to the side for quite a while.
Remember in First Samuel that it had been taken away by the
Philistines for a while, but then returned back to the people
of Israel. And really it had been more of a
sideline more than anything else.
But David says this Ark of the Covenant represents the very
presence of God, and it's important that we give it the
place of prominence because it just shows that we are putting
God in the place of prominence that we should within our own
nation. And so he decides that it's
supposed to come and everything is going well.
But the Bible says that the cart gets near the threshing floor of
one named Obed Edom. And as this cart gets to the
threshing floor rather that Nakon and his threshing floor,
Obed Edom comes just a little bit later.
But as the cart is coming towards Nakons threshing floor,
there's a little bit of a problem.
Now understand this that the roads that they would have had
there would have likely just been dirt roads, muddy roads.
We're not talking about pavement, asphalt, concrete,
anything like that. They're just dirt roads.
And if you are going into a threshing floor, you know
threshing floors where they would have threshed wheat and so
there'll be carts that would be going in and out there all the
time. As carts are going in and out of
that threshing floor, there's going to be ruts.
I mean, that's what happens when you have dirt roads.
Ruts begin to form as carts over and over go through that same
place. And so there's going to be ruts
that are carved into this dirt Rd.
But as this cart that Aza is driving is going down the road,
it's not turning into the threshing floor.
Rather it's continuing straight towards Jerusalem.
And so because of that, it is not going to go into those ruts
that have been developed. It's going to be going over
those ruts. It's going to be going right
over them. And So what does that mean?
Well, if you're driving a cart, it's going to be a little bit
bumpy for a minute because you're, you know, going through
these undulations in the ground, up and down.
And so as this is happening, Aza realizes as the cart is bouncing
up and down, the Ark of the Covenant could possibly fall out
of the cart. Now, could you imagine being in
charge of the Ark of the Covenant and you drop it on the
ground? Could you imagine how bad that
would be with all of Israel watching with God and man before
you, and you are the one in charge of the safekeeping of the
ark and it falls on the ground, possibly breaks.
Who knows what would happen, But I could imagine in that moment
he panicked. In that moment he didn't know
what to do. In fact, he did the only thing
that he knew. Which to do?
Which was to grab the ark and try to stabilize it.
I I got to grab it and I got to make sure it doesn't fall.
But in that moment that he grabbed it, what happened?
He died and immediately party's over.
Immediately the music stops. David, who is rejoicing, is now
confused. What happened?
How could this be? In fact, verse 8 says that David
was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Aza.
That breach is literally the power of God coming upon Aza and
resulting in his death. How could something like this
happen? How could they get to the place
where it was just so wonderful and it seemed like everybody was
sincere in how they were praising God and it seemed like
everything was God focused and God centered, and now God comes
in as displeased with this whole thing just because a man touches
the ark of the covenant. For a moment and.
And he did it for a good reason. It wasn't even like those in
First Samuel who tried to look inside.
Do you remember when they tried to look in the Ark of the
Covenant and they died? Because, you know, you're not
supposed to look inside the Ark of the Covenant.
That's not a Hollywood thing. That's a Bible thing that God
had said that they weren't supposed to do that.
And so, yes, now, as in his sincerity, he's a good guy.
All he's trying to do is touch the ark to make sure it doesn't
topple over. And now he's dead.
And David said, how could this be?
Well, the answer to that is this.
There were a series of bad choices that had been made that
brought them to the point while they were sincere, they were
sincerely wrong about a lot of different things.
Now, I want to kind of take a look at our Bibles here for just
a few minutes so I can explain it to you so you can see exactly
what happened. So we're going to work our way
back to Second Samuel, but first.
So leave your spot there, but go to Exodus chapter #25 Exodus
chapter #25 When you get there, look at verse #10 Exodus 25,
verse 10. And there are instructions now
about the Tabernacle being constructed.
And you remember that when God gave Moses the instructions for
constructing a Tabernacle, there was no leeway.
There was no ability for them to make their own particular
flourishes or designs. God said this.
This is the way that it must be made.
You make it to the exact specifications.
You say, well, why would God do something like that?
Well, one, because he's God and he's allowed to.
And two, because the Tabernacle was a picture in every corner,
in every edifice, a picture of the coming Jesus Christ.
And so for them to put their own marks upon the Tabernacle was in
essence for them to say that Jesus would not be enough.
Now they wouldn't have realized that, but that's what it would
have been. And so God was very particular
about how this was to be constructed.
So look at verse 10. And they shall make an arc of
shit wood, 2 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 shalt
make upon it a crown of gold roundabout.
And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in
the four corners thereof. And two rings shall be in one
side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.
And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them
with gold. And thou shalt put the staves
into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be
born with them. And the staves shall be in the
rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it.
What do we find from this text? That God had a very particular
way for the ark of the Covenant to be transported.
And that was this. That there were rings on the
side of the ark of the Covenant. That there were staves that fit
inside of those rings. And that the ark of the covenant
was never supposed to be put into a cart.
It was always supposed to be born or carried.
The ark of the covenant was supposed to be carried.
And so because of that, what do we see?
We see that when we get to Second Samuel chapter #6 that
they were not following God's plan for the transportation of
the ark. No, no, what they said was for
whatever reason, we are going to do this our own way.
Then that's the only place. Go to Numbers chapter 4.
Numbers chapter #4 because it wasn't just supposed to be
carried. There was more than that as
well. Numbers chapter #4 Look at verse
#15 give you a second to get there and says this.
And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the
sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary as the camp is
set forward, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it,
but they shall not touch any holy thing.
What are those next 3 words, lest they.
Die and it was said two things quite important here from what
we just read 1. It wasn't just that the Ark of
the Covenant was supposed to be carried, but it was supposed to
be carried by the sons of Levi, and particularly the sons of
Kohath, which were a family within the tribe of Levi.
But on top of that, they were told these particular men are to
carry it, and these particular men are not to touch it.
They can touch the staves, it's going to be over their
shoulders, but they cannot touch the Ark of the Covenant.
They cannot touch the other vessels.
Why? If they touch it then.
Hey. Will die.
Seems pretty clear to me. This isn't one of those things
in the word of God where you go, well I don't know, I maybe could
see it a different way. The Bible was so clear that what
David and Aza and Ohio and all those who were involved with the
debacle that took place of the Ark of the Covenant on its way
to Jerusalem, all of them for whatever reason ignored,
neglected, or were ignorant of the fact that the Word of God
says this. This isn't the way you're
supposed to do it. You say, well, I mean, is it
really that big of a deal? Again, when it's the Lord who
says this is the way to do it? You have to follow what the Lord
says. It's the Lord's ark.
It's the Lord's rules. It's the Lord's house.
It's the Lord's way. That's the way it always has to
be. So it begs the question here
tonight, where on earth did they get the idea to put the ark in a
cart? I mean, if the Bible is so clear
about what they should have done, the book of Exodus, the
Book of Numbers, this is the way you need to do it.
You need to carry it. These are who needs to carry it.
Don't ever touch it. And a clear warning, if you
touch it, you die. Why on earth would they have
done anything else? And believe it or not, the
answer is hidden in a text that we studied about a year ago.
So I want you to keep moving closer to Second Samuel, but I
want you to stop in First Samuel.
First Samuel chapter #6, First Samuel chapter #6.
Now you'll remember that back when Samuel was a young lad that
Eli was the high priest, Hofni and Phineas were his wicked
sons, and that there was a time when the Philistines were coming
to battle, and Hofni and Phineas had this idea that we should
take the Ark of the Covenant and we should take it with us out to
battle. Remember Hofni and Phineas.
Nor did the men of Israel have any desire to worship the God of
the Ark. They were using it as a good
luck charm. By the way, the Ark of the
Covenant is not some good luck charm.
Well, whoever holds it holds the power.
Listen, God has the power, friend.
It's not about who holds it holds the power.
Again, that's a Hollywood construct that's being thought
of. That is not what the Word of God
talks about. The Philistines have in that
battle take possession of the ark.
But then you remember what happens.
They take possession of the ark and they put it in the House of
their gods. And at first the statue falls
down in front of the ark. They put the statue back up.
They say, let's kind of strange. The statue falls down again and
now the statue is broken before the ark.
And then all of a sudden things start getting weird.
You know, they start having some personal problems.
Do I need to go back into all that?
They were having some of those boils and some very sensitive
places in their bodies. And a lot of things are going
on. And they say, man, this is
really weird. You know, and it really all
started back when this ark came in.
We ought to just send it back to Israel.
But, you know, we want to know if it really is the ark or not.
And so they constructed this weird.
Way of trying to figure out whether it was the arc that was
causing all these problems or not.
And look at what happens in chapter 6 verse #1 it says and
the ark of the Lord is in the country, the Philistines seven
months. And the Philistines called for
the priests and the diviners saying, What shall we do to the
ark of the Lord? Tell us wherewith we shall send
it to his place. And they said, if you send away
the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty, but in any
wise return him a trespass offering, then he shall be
healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed
from you. Then said they, what shall be
the trespass offering which we shall return to him?
They answered 5 golden emeralds. There's that well sensitive boil
that is mentioned there, and five golden mice according to
the number of the For one plague was you on you all, and on your
Lords. Wherefore he shall make images,
your em rods, images of your vice that mar the land.
Give glory unto the God of Israel, Peradvention.
Peradventure He will lighten his hand from off you and off your
gods, and from your land. Wherefore then, do you harden
your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh harden their hearts when
he had wrought wonderfully among them?
Did they not let the people go and depart us?
Stop right there, just a moment, they said.
They said, we've got to be smarter than Pharaoh.
We've got to be smarter than the Egyptians.
They allowed their whole nation to almost be burned down to the
ground because they refused to see the clear hand of God.
And the Philistine says, we can't do that.
We've got to make sure, we've got to make sure with what we
have in front of us that we give glory to the God of Israel.
They're not talking about salvation.
They're just talking about the fact that they recognize that
there is a God who is doing something here.
And so they said so. So we need to humble ourselves
before him in this manner. But then look at verse #7 well,
how do they do this? Now?
Therefore, make a. What are those next?
2 words a new cart. And take two milk kind of which
there had come no yoke, and tie the kind of the cart and bring
their calves home from them. So where did the Israelites get
the idea of transporting the ark on a new cart?
It didn't come from the Word of God.
It didn't come from the commands and precepts that God had given
back in the wilderness. The whole idea of this new cart
theology came not from God, but came from the Philistines.
They had seen the Philistines. No, no, they had seen the world
having transported the ark in this way.
And somewhere in their memory they decided, I've seen this
before. I think we can do this too.
Listen, the word of God is so precise.
The word of God, every word, every letter, every jot, every
title is there for a reason. Do you think it's an accident
that a new cart is mentioned here in First Samuel chapter 6
and a new cart is mentioned? The exact same phrase, the exact
same way, the exact same adjective there in Second Samuel
chapter 6. No, it's there as a warning and
a signpost to us that we are not to look to the Philistines to be
able to craft our. Own worship and practice when it
comes to the things of God. See, here's the issue tonight.
You Baptist. You independent Baptist.
You're so old fashioned, you like everything old.
Well, I would argue that point a little bit tonight.
I'm arguing that because I look to my right and I see a
television screen. I'm Bart, look at the back and I
can see myself because there's a television there showing me.
We're live streaming to thousands and thousands of
people minus a few 1000. We have technology, there's a
board back there filled with technological things.
No, no, the issue is not whether something is old fashionable.
You just like old fashioned things because you're
independent about. No, that's not the issue at all.
The issue was not new versus old.
You know, when it comes to this issue that we're looking at
tonight of new cart theology, it really comes down to this not
what is new versus what is old. It's what is true versus what is
false, because that's what this comes down to.
Newcart theology isn't dangerous because it's new.
Newcart theology is dangerous because it's false and contrary
to God's. Word.
There's nothing that we do as a church that was should resemble
what the world does in their worldliness.
The world has its place outside of these doors, but in this.
Church. We should be a refuge and a
haven from the things of the world.
We deal with the things of the world all the other days of the
week. And by the way, God has called
us to do that, hasn't he? He's called us to be
missionaries to the world, to love the world.
But at the same time, when we come into the God's house, this
is to be a refuge from the things of the world.
No, no, it's not to be a refuge from the people of the world
because we should see people from the world coming in here
and coming to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.
And we should love them with the gospel, but we should love them
with the gospel and not love them with the very world of
which they are looking at and living it out there.
And they need to be saved from. And new cart theology says this,
we need to be as much like the world as possible.
And we'll show them the world and then eventually we'll show
them Christ. And that makes us relevant.
But the Bible says this. We're called to be lights in a
Dark World. We're called to be salt.
We're called to be water in a dry and barren land.
You know, God's called us to be different.
Remember, Titus chapter #2 calls, tells us that we're
called to be a peculiar people. And I'll tell you, some of us do
that peculiar thing pretty well. We're to be different, zealous
of good works. There is a line of theology,
there's a line of thinking that is out there today and is
prevalent in churches that is very sincere.
Oh no, David was sincere in Second Samuel chapter 6.
Aza had a good heart. Look, I'm not as mean as you
think I am tonight, all right? Haza had a good heart.
He didn't want the ark to fall. But the problem was this.
Even though he was sincere in what he was doing, he was
sincerely wrong. And the issue is not sincerity
in and of itself. The issue is this.
Will we stand upon the truth of God's word, whether it's in
principle or in precept? And everything else ought to be
rejected, particularly when it comes to our worship of God. 2nd
State 2nd Corinthians 614 through 17.
I've read these verses before, but I have to read them here.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship hath the righteousness?
With unrighteousness? What?
Communion hath life with darkness.
What conquered and brought Christ with Belial?
What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
What agreement had the temple of God with idols for you, the
temple of living God? As God has said, I will dwell in
them and walk in them. Will be their God, they shall be
my people. Wherefore come out from among
them and be separate, saith the Lord.
And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.
James 44YE adulterers and adulterer, says, No, you not
that friendship. The world is enmity with God.
Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy
of God. Again, this is not me being
against things that are new. That's what not.
That's not what this is about. Believe it or not, not
everything that is new is evil. However, we must be careful when
incorporating new philosophies and new items within a church to
make sure that we are not simply doing it to be carbon copies of
the world. There's a lot of questions that
are out there today that we have to grapple with on a regular
basis of church. How do we use social media?
How do we use it in a way that's pleasing to God?
How do we? Use our live stream there.
Do we even use live? There are churches that have
different philosophies about live streaming and what it
means. I know some churches that won't
even let you use a live stream unless you remember they have to
come to those conclusions on their own.
These. I'm not saying that's the right
way to do it, but I'm saying these are questions that
actually need to be grappled with.
The use of AI within a church. How do we use AI?
Is there ever a place to use it? Do we use it rightly?
Do we use it wrongly? Replacing church services with
small groups and instead of having a church service, just
meeting at different people's houses and to be able to do
things. These are questions that
churches and pastors have to grapple with.
And we have to ask ourselves this question, why are we doing
what we're doing or why would we change that which we're already
doing? For what purpose?
You know, there's a time when a lot of things were new again.
New is not the enemy. There was a time when the piano
was new. Churches and incorporate piano
was unthinkable at a point about 150 years ago, but we don't
think anything now in fact, our piano is electric we don't have
a piano it's a keyboard that. Mimics a piano.
Church chairs. You know, there's an argument at
some point, though, about whether churches have chairs in
the auditorium or not. Say, well, what do you mean?
Well, like pews instead of chairs?
Can people argue about stuff like that?
You ever been around church? We can find all kinds of stuff.
To argue about. Use chairs, TV's, as screens in
a church, even the live stream itself, whether it should be a
thing or not, or whether you're in church and that's it.
And we don't live stream at all. These are all questions.
But again, the issue is not whether something is new if it's
the enemy. The question is this, does what
we see violate the word of God in precept or in principle?
And if something is changed within our worship of God,
within our service to God, simply to.
Be like the world. It's Newcart theology, and we
must keep it at arm's length. How do you identify this Newcart
theology? I'm going to give you 5 things
very quickly here from our text, five ways you can identify this
Newcart theology because I believe our text gives us, if we
go back to Second Samuel, some clues as to how we can identify.
It first of all #1 Newcart theology focuses on thrills
before theology. Newkart theology focuses on
thrills before theology. What we see here in Second
Samuel chapter 6 was an exciting day.
And by the way, if it had been done right, it would have been a
very exciting day. However, it could be argued that
David's excitement clouded his judgement as to what the
scripture said because David did not search the scriptures to see
how it should be done. You know what's ironic after
what we read in verse #11 if you were to go to First Chronicles
15, don't do that right now, but you can later and see a
companion passage because you know, we're at the place now
where the kings and the Chronicles are starting to align
a little bit. If you were to see this in First
Chronicles 15, verses 1/2 and 13, it says this.
And David made him a house in the city of David, prepared a
place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent.
And 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.
For because he did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a
breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due
order. So what happened after
everything came crashing down? David went to the Scriptures.
He said this isn't about the feeling, it's about making sure
that we are not violating the word of God and doing what God
wants us to do. And listen, emotions aren't the
enemy. We are emotional creatures.
God created you. OK, God created most of you with
emotions here tonight. All right.
I would say a good 90% of you tonight, God has created you
with emotions, all right? And it's a good and it's the
right thing. But when emotions drive us and
propel us, instead of being the reaction to what happens,
instead it becomes the action. It is a very dangerous place to
be. So I don't see that, Pastor.
Oh, yeah, That rage text you sent, that phone call that you
made in the heat of the moment. Oh, yeah.
Emotions can get the best of us can.
And should church be an emotional place?
Well, I mean, I would say yes, in a lot of ways.
We meet with God here. He teaches us, He convicts us,
He encourages us. I think many times I just get to
sit here and enjoy the special music that we have.
And then I look out in the crowd and realize that other people
are moved in the way that I'm moved.
Hey, that's a blessing. But I will say this, it's not
something to be manufactured. It's not something that we
purposely put together to make sure that the lighting package
is right and the fog machine is right and that the lights go
down low. You say, pastor, that's not a
thing that is very much a thing to manufacture a feeling.
It's a dangerous thing. New cart theology takes the
thrill and kicks the theology out.
That's what happened here. First of all, new cart theology
focuses on thrills before theology #2 novelty becomes the
old habit, novelty becomes the old habit.
The new part of the cart is. Interesting.
Again, this was given to us by the inspiration of God.
He could have just said it was a cart in both places, but he
purposely said that it was a new cart.
I will say this, a large part of the New Age church movement is
incorporating that which is new. Like it's a Christian arms race.
We've got to have the newest and the best and the biggest and the
brightest. And if we're going to have a
successful church, if we're going to reach people, we've got
to have more stuff than the other people have stuff.
Now, this is very graphically shown, not necessarily here in
New England, but I will tell you just.
Even last week or a couple weeks ago when we were in Springfield,
MO. And Springfield, MO had the
largest concentration of not just independent Baptist
churches, but if I have my understanding, churches in
general per capita in the United States.
About 50 to 60 years ago, a lot of what we would call old
fashioned type churches and not the fact that they were again
right because they're old fashioned, but because there was
a definite type and style of worship and honoring of the
Lord. But times change and churches
want to remain relevant. And it shocked me over the times
that we've been able to be out there to see churches with play
zones that would make a YMCA jealous.
I mean, I'm talking about those tubes, you know, that the kids
always want to go through and they're crawling through in the
ball pits and all that stuff. Video games, beach volleyball
for the adults, pickleball, all of these different things that
are available. Basically the church becoming
like a small social club or maybe a large social club.
And in the mix with that is also a little bit of church.
You know, the problem with novelty, The problem with
novelty is that novelty wears off and you need more novelties.
You get bigger novelties and better novelties and. 1st
Corinthians 1558 says this. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain
with the Lord. This is an interesting verse
because it says to be steadfast and unmovable, and in our
Christian walk we are to be steadfast and unmovable, but
then it says always abounding. You know, it's interesting that
oftentimes if we're not careful, we think that abounding means we
have to constantly. Change with the times to keep up
with what other people are doing.
But the Bible actually makes it clear that if you want to
abound, be steadfast, unmovable, stand on the word of God for
what it is. Am I for activities?
I'm for activities. We had children's activity this
afternoon. It was a disaster, all right,
kind of like the children's activity we had before where I
couldn't somehow hook up the airplay to my to the TV and it
was awful. But you know what I found out
through all that? There was a young lady that got
saved, is baptized. I'm thankful for activities and
things like that. But when the tail starts to wag
the dog, what's the point of having activity, by the way?
Well, an activity ought to fulfill one of the purposes of
the Great Commission to bring people to Christ, to help people
to grow with one another. Oh yeah.
Pastor, how does a church picnic help people to grow together?
We got new believers with older believers.
You mix them together, they talk, they fellowship, they get
to know one another. That's part of discipleship.
That's the older teaching. The younger, well, it's just
about novelty. We've got to have new things,
new stuff, new stuff, new stuff, new stuff.
Be careful. That's new cart theology.
Novelties come and go, and they require more and more novelties
to keep people plugged in. By the way, what you win people
with is what you got to keep them with.
So to be so careful, new cart theology, novelty becomes the
old habit. Also #3 it's big on sincerity,
but it's lacking in Scripture. It's big on sincerity and
lacking in scripture. Listen, good intentions do not
compensate for going the wrong direction.
I'm going to say that again. Good intentions do not
compensate for going the wrong direction.
David was sincere, Aza was sincere, Ohio was sincere, but
they all were sincerely wrong. Now, I want you to listen very
carefully to what I have to say. There are a lot of New Age
Christian believers that are very sincere in what they
believe. I'm not here to mock them
tonight, to make fun of them tonight, or to try to make any
type of joke about who they are. I'm not trying to do that at
all. I believe they can be very
sincere. I believe sometimes they can be
even more sincere than some of us if we're not careful.
But I will say this, that that sincerity does not compensate
for a lack of being grounded in the Word of God.
It's so important to be grounded in the Scriptures, by the way.
That's why it's important we bring our Bibles with us to
church. A lot of churches today, they
have the. Bible verses on the screen and
people are encouraged not to bring your Bible.
In fact, oftentimes it's a choice that pastors make to show
lots of different Bible versions in they're sermons.
Why? Because you get to the place
where you say this. I don't even need to bring my
Bible to church with me because I'm I can't carry 5 Bible
versions with me. No, no, you know what I want you
to do? I want you to be able to bring
your King James Bible to church and I want you to write what God
has done for you in your life, to mark verses, to put quotes
and to learn and to grow to be a Bible.
Believer. See, once we're in the
Scriptures, that builds sincerity, true sincerity.
I want you to be Bible literate. I want you to have a walk with
God. This is my desire.
No, sincerity is great, but it does not compensate for a lack
of Scripture. New cart theology.
Listen, the world is the template and not the Word.
The world is the template and not the Word.
You know, Israel had this weird infatuation with the
Philistines. It was weird.
Like they kept trying to be like the Philistines.
Remember when the Philistines took over and then Samuel was
this judge for a while And then they said, you know, we want a
king to be just like all the other nations.
Why do you want to be like the Philistines?
Hey, we got to move. We got to move the ark back to
Jerusalem. Hey, you know who did that
really well a few years ago? The Philistines.
And it was the very people who were there were oppressors who
they were trying to copy. Again, may I remind you, the
world is not your friend. No, I want to be careful.
I'm not talking about the people of the world that we were
supposed to be friend and love them to Christ.
What I'm saying is this, the world system of which Satan is
intimately in charge of, remember the Prince and the
power of the air? This world system of which he
administrates today that we see manifest itself in so many
different ways that Satan himself is in charge of the
system. The world is not your friend.
So why would we turn around and bring the world's music into
God's house and just change a few words?
Why would we take the world's methodology and bring it into
the church and just sanitize it a little bit?
No, this place must be different.
This place must be a haven. No, again, not old fashioned for
the sake of being old fashioned, but just being right because we
want to be right with God. And how do we know that we're
right with God? We search the scriptures and we
use the Word as the template, not what we see out in the
world. We don't need the world's music,
the world's methods, the world's modes, the world models, nor do
we need the world mentorship. What do we do?
We do what we do. Because it says it in the word
of God. Hey, why do we preach?
Wouldn't it be better just get rid of the pulpit, move these
chairs up a little bit and have an Oprah style talk every
service? I probably need less.
Preparation, I can tell you that.
Could we get rid of preaching all together and maybe just have
a drama or some type of video? Could we just change the
elements of the Lord's Supper to make them more interesting?
Couldn't we just use music that sounds more like a rock concert?
That if you were outside the church that you couldn't tell
the difference between being a church or great woods?
Couldn't we just do that because won't that bring the people in?
I mean, isn't that what people are looking for?
Well, it is what people are looking for, but what they
really need to be looking for is Jesus.
And if we obscure Jesus with the world, you know, it's like, it's
like giving your dog a pill. Anybody ever do that before you
have a dog that needs a pill and they don't want the pill.
Our dog, Bonnie, bless her heart.
Well, anyway, I was going to mention she's no longer with us,
but Bonnie is. She didn't want a pill.
So you know what we did? I knew she.
Didn't want the pill, but it's good for her, right?
So what do you do? You wrap it in something, get
some peanut butter, you get some cheese, you get some cream.
I would get anything. And we get, you know what she
would do? She would lick the peanut butter
and she'd spit out the pill. And we're getting near the end
of her life and I'm and I'm like, get a pill, carry your,
carry your body. You got to stay alive and.
Eventually I said she has no more will to live.
I can't because if she's going to live, it's going to because
of that peanut butter. It's not going to be because of
the pill. Why would a church treat Jesus
Christ like the pill? That's not good.
And. Wrap it up.
In that good taste in peanut butter.
But we don't. Want him to know about Jesus
until it's. Too late now.
Why don't we show them Jesus when we come in the door?
Why don't we show them Jesus when they sit down here?
Why don't we, Why don't we show them Jesus in the parking lot
when they're coming in? And we don't act like crazy
worldly people honking at each other and, and do all crazy
stuff. And we just, we love each other
in the parking lot and in the Pew and, well, the chairs or
wherever we are that we just show them love.
The word is the template, not the world.
If if the world had good ideas, it could redeem itself.
Now what the world needs is Jesus Christ, and we can't
obscure Him. The last part of Newcart
theology is this that I see from our text.
The sacred becomes standard. It almost feels like nowadays
there's nothing left that's sacred.
It would become so casual in so many areas of our life as a
touch. The sacred ark.
He was not supposed to touch. Now listen, God is love.
God is mercy. God is grace.
Aren't you glad he's those things?
If you can't say Amen to anything else tonight, you can
at least say Amen to this. God is love and mercy and grace,
and all God's people said Amen, but you know this.
God is also this. He's holy, He's just, He's
truth, He's all those things. You know what I found?
New cart theology often does. It emphasizes the one side and
tries to eliminate the other. It makes God your cosmic buddy
and not the thrice holy God. Now listen, do we have a friend
that sticketh closer than a brother in Jesus Christ?
Yeah. Do we get to call him ABBA
Father, which connotates A closeness?
Oh, yes. But you cannot eliminate the
holiness, the truth and the justice of God.
The sacred cannot become standard.
Yeah, I want to be careful about this, I really do.
But when we come to church, it's a special place and we do a
special things when we come to church.
I, I, I purposely dressed the way to do.
Why don't I wear ripped jeans? Well, one, because, you know, I
don't have any ripped jeans. I guess if I ripped them, I'd be
working and well, anyway, so, you know, but why?
Because I want my dress to show that what's taking place is
serious. What takes place behind this
pulpit is Kingdom work. Well, you'd be a lot more
relatable if you wouldn't wear tacky suits like that.
Well, that may be the case. And maybe this is a little bit
loud. All right, I'm still praying
about that. But anyway, I do know this
because I want to show to those who are here what we're doing is
serious. And so I want my dress to show
how serious. Listen, if I can dress up to go
to a nice restaurant, then I can dress up to go to the House of
God. Now we have to be careful about
this. We.
Don't want to become Pharisees? Look down at people.
I've had people apologize on when I just came from work, I
said. You just came from work and you
came to church. Praise God, I'm so happy you
came to church. We don't be Pharisees about
this. The Pharisees, they were caught
up in the long roads, weren't they?
They were caught up in all those things, but they didn't have it
in the heart. I want to be very careful about
what I say here tonight, but I do want to say there is a heart
attitude. Of just I.
Want to give God my best? Why?
Because there's still some things that are sacred.
The House of God is sacred. The worship of God is sacred.
Our praise of God is sacred, and we don't want any of it to be
tainted with any part of the world.
We want to be pure and we want to be good and we want to be
right, and we want to be pleasing to our Lord because we
want everything we do to be pleasing to our Lord.
But new cart theology focus on thrills before theology.
Novelty becomes the old habit. It's big on sincerity but
lacking in Scripture. The world is the template and
not the Word, and the sacred becomes standard.
We got to beware of new cart. Theology as a church we must now
and for as long as this church is here, which I pray for a very
long time, that it rejects new cart theology and says we just
want to do what the Word of God says, how the word of God says
it. And if there are philosophies
that we find in the word of God that aren't expressly stating
what we should do, the Bible doesn't tell us whether we
should have a live stream or not.
That we apply Scripture the best that we can and we prayerfully
ask the Lord to help us with these things.
I'll say a couple things and I'll be done.
To make a difference, you have to be different.
You can't change something by adding more of the same.
I, I, I love everything about New England.
There's one thing that's bugged me for 12 years, and that is the
lack of sweet tea. Yes, someone for tea up here,
they'll give you a cup of hot tea.
Like, that's not what I'm asking for.
I'm asking for like, iced tea, you know?
And there's not a lot of sweet tea up here, is there?
I like sweet tea with a lemon, lots of sugar.
It's the way to do it. All right, You say, well, that's
unhealthy, right? Well, you know.
Yeah. Anyway, I'm not even disagreeing
with you. I'm in the pulpit.
I got to tell the truth. That's not good for you, but it
tastes great. But up here, a lot of people
will give you, you know. Unsweet tea, it's cold, they'll
give you sugar. And you know what you do you
like stir it for an hour and that sugar just comes, travels
around in there. It's like you have the sugar
vortex that settles to the ground and that's it.
You know, if I want to make sweet tea, I don't just add.
More unsweet tea. I have to put something.
In that will make a. Change.
Say, pastor. That's common sense, like you're
talking. To us like we're.
Infants. I mean, that is common sense,
but you know, when it comes to our Christian life, we don't
take that very common principle and apply it if we want to be
relevant. We don't need to look like the
world. We need to look different than
the world if we want to be relevant.
We don't need to copy. What the world does, this needs
to be a haven from the world if we're to be relevant.
We are not to hide Jesus Christ. We're to make sure that
everything we do uplifts Jesus Christ and that we don't hide
the message by the other things that we do.
That. Everything uplifts Jesus Christ.
I pray that at Liberty Baptist Church, this is who we are and
this is what we do and this is what we do in the future.
But I will give you one piece of warning that we can have
theology that's correct. We can be orthodox in.
Everything that we do, we can have the right music.
The right standards, the right approach and all these things,
but listen. We can be lifted.
Up in pride? Well.
All those other people are using new carts.
But we use staves. We we know who we are.
Those other people. Listen, just because you have it
right doesn't mean you're getting it right in your.
Heart. So we need to be very.
Careful, as a church, that we don't.
Look at our who we are as a church, as a source of pride.
You know who we are. We're old fashioned.
That's probably not the way we need to go around.
Who are we? We're disciples of Christ and we
just want to, in every fiber of our being, radiate Him inside
the church house and outside the church house.
New cart theology is dangerous. It's sincere, always.
It's sincere, it's exciting, it is so exciting.
It's got elements that just thrill.
You down to. The core, but.
That. Doesn't make it right.
If you're not sure you can ask Aza.
Well, you can't ask Aza because he's dead and there are many
people who will be actually LED astray by following new cart
theology instead of getting what they need right from the
scriptures. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit. Of Liberty Baptist Church If
this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.