1 00:00:02,760 --> 00:00:05,080 If you would please remain standing here for the word of 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:07,840 the Lord, as we hear the Lord speak to us this morning from 3 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:12,840 Second Samuel chapter 6, David again gathered all the chosen 4 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:17,320 men of Israel, 30,000 of them. And David arose and went with 5 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:21,320 all the people who were with him from Baal Judah to bring up from 6 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,040 there the Ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord 7 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:26,680 of hosts, who sits enthroned on the cherubim. 8 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:31,440 And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out 9 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:36,840 of the House of Abyad Abinadab, which is on the hill and Aza in 10 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:38,920 Ohio. The sons of Abinadab were 11 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:42,000 driving the new cart with the ark of God. 12 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:46,440 And Ohio went before the ark, and David and all the House of 13 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:49,480 Israel were celebrating before the Lord with songs and liars 14 00:00:49,480 --> 00:00:52,880 and harps and tambourine tambourines and castanets. 15 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,400 And some castanets are those little finger symbol things that 16 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:56,760 just smack around and stuff like that. 17 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:00,080 So David in the whole House of Israel, we're celebrating verse 18 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:01,880 6. And when they came to the 19 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:06,400 threshing floor of Nakon, Aza put out his hand to the ark of 20 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:10,000 God and took hold of it. For the oxen had stumbled. 21 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:13,760 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Aza, and God 22 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:16,920 struck him down there because of his error, and he died there 23 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:20,800 beside the ark of God. And David was angry because the 24 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,680 Lord had broken out against Aza. And that place is called Perez 25 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,040 Aza to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord 26 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,040 that day. And he said, how can the ark of 27 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:35,360 the Lord come to me? And this is the word of the 28 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:37,160 Lord. Thanks be to God. 29 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:39,880 Let's pray together. Gracious Lord, we ask for your 30 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:42,920 blessing here upon us. As we look at this text, help us 31 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,880 to understand it and more importantly, to live faithfully 32 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:47,840 according to it. We pray through Christ our Lord. 33 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:52,600 We ask, Amen. Please be seated again if you 34 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:55,680 have before you the scriptures second Samuel chapter 6, it 35 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:58,440 would be good to have it before you as we look through this 36 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:01,480 passage together. This is an incredibly distort, 37 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:06,200 disturbing story. This is a disturbing story. 38 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,479 God comes across looking really petty. 39 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:15,480 God looks bad in this story. I think even if you understand 40 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:18,720 the story, even if you understand what's going on, if 41 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:25,000 you're not disturbed by what God does here, I have to question 42 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,520 your sense of compassion or your care or your sensitivity. 43 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:36,400 The ability to read a passage like this, to see God act in a 44 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:39,120 way like that. When we spend so much time 45 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:42,080 proclaiming His love, when we proclaim the majesty of our God, 46 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:45,080 the glory and the wonder, the marvelous character of our God, 47 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:53,720 and then to read something like this where he appears almost 48 00:02:53,720 --> 00:03:00,840 like a tyrant, certainly petty. Now, one of the things that I do 49 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:03,840 as a pastor, I think it's part of my responsibilities whenever 50 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:08,040 confronted by a text like this, to stand before you and seek to 51 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:09,720 try to understand it a little bit more. 52 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,640 My hope is that by understanding the passage, by covering a 53 00:03:12,640 --> 00:03:15,360 little bit more, sometimes we clear up the misunderstanding 54 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:18,840 even to the spot where maybe it does not appear to be so petty 55 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:21,080 or childish. Or we come to appreciate what 56 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:23,760 God's trying to communicate in the passage and it becomes much 57 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:28,600 less disturbing to us. I'm not going to do that today. 58 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,440 I don't think you can do that today with this text. 59 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:37,080 This is a disturbing text. Now, a lot of people will brush 60 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:41,160 it off and say, hey, that's why that's the God of the Old 61 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:43,360 Testament. That's the Old Testament, and 62 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:46,360 that's why we are worshipping the New Testament God. 63 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:50,400 And some of you might have been noticing that we read the story 64 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,280 of Ananias and Sapphira. If the ark of the God is a 65 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:56,960 representative representation of God's presence among his people, 66 00:03:57,160 --> 00:03:59,880 and as it gets zapped because he reached out and touched it, 67 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:05,080 because he defiled it by touching the ark in the same way 68 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:08,680 in the New Testament, if the church is the presence of God's 69 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:13,120 people, the presence of God in the midst of his people, Ananias 70 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:17,040 and Sapphire were defiling that with their presence, and God 71 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:21,399 zapped them. Maybe we resist the urge to take 72 00:04:21,399 --> 00:04:25,040 the passage seriously because, you know, it's so out of 73 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:28,000 character with everything else in the Scriptures that maybe we 74 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,720 just don't bother contemplating it. 75 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:33,640 Maybe we and when we're reading the scripture, this is one of 76 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:38,400 those quick and easy stories we can pass right over, but we 77 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:42,960 certainly can't. This is a disturbing text. 78 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:48,520 It should be a disturbing text. Let's put some context on it. 79 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:49,960 The travels of the ark for a little bit. 80 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:52,520 This is the Ark of the covenant. Now, there's a wonderful 81 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,280 description of the ark of the covenant when the Israelites 82 00:04:55,280 --> 00:04:58,880 originally made the ark, about 400 years or 500 years, even 83 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:00,880 before the events in which we just read about. 84 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:03,560 As the Israelites are wandering through the wilderness, they 85 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:06,800 prepare this ark of God, which again is representative of God's 86 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:09,560 presence, God's holy presence in God's people. 87 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:11,800 And we have a wonderful description of it in the 88 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:13,360 Scriptures. But my guess is that your 89 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:15,560 picture of it doesn't come from the Scriptures. 90 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,240 My guess is your picture of it comes from Deanna Jones. 91 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:21,600 It's certainly my picture of it. And I do have to say this, that 92 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,800 if you've seen this, The Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Indiana 93 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,280 Jones story, the arc that they have portrayed there is actually 94 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:31,360 a pretty good facsimile representation of the way the 95 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:33,920 scriptures describe it. So if you have the Ark in mind 96 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:36,640 from The Raiders of the Lost Ark, and if you haven't seen 97 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:40,680 that movie, why not? That's a great move. 98 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:42,520 So you've got the Ark of the Covenant. 99 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:46,240 This is kind of the picture of what we have in the ark of God 100 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,560 was with God's people and represented his presence with 101 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:52,560 God's people consistently. It was a tangible expression of 102 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:56,520 God's presence with his people, much like the table or communion 103 00:05:56,520 --> 00:06:00,000 serves for us today of the presence of God with his people 104 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:03,440 in that unique tangible way. And so the ark carried, went 105 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:05,800 with God's people as they traveled through the wilderness. 106 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:08,840 And then as they conquered Canaan land, the ark was present 107 00:06:08,840 --> 00:06:10,880 with us. And then we read in first Samuel 108 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:14,920 chapter 4 that the ark of God is captured by the Philistines in a 109 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:17,000 war. In a war with the Philistines, 110 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:19,680 the Israelites lose track of the ark of God. 111 00:06:19,840 --> 00:06:22,480 Then the ark of God moves, move down to Philistine. 112 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:24,960 The Philistines capture the ark and they take it to their own 113 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:29,360 land where it causes chaos. The presence of God causes chaos 114 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:32,280 in the midst of God's enemies until they just get rid of the 115 00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:34,280 ark. They just send it back to Israel 116 00:06:34,280 --> 00:06:37,840 and say here take the ark and the ark goes to this small 117 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:44,800 farming village, basically Baal Judah and ends up staying 4050, 118 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,480 sixty years with the family of Abenadab. 119 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:54,600 And while the ark is there, the God is blessing the family of 120 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:57,360 Abenadab. The capture of the ark by the 121 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:00,280 Philistines is one of the things that prompted Israel, the people 122 00:07:00,280 --> 00:07:03,680 of God, to go up to Samuel, the prophet of God, and say, give us 123 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:05,480 a king like all the rest of the nations. 124 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:08,000 We wouldn't have lost this wonderful treasure, we wouldn't 125 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:11,120 have lost this symbol of God's presence with us if we would 126 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:13,400 only have a king just like all the rest of the nations. 127 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:16,560 And so they got a king just like all the rest of the nations, 128 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:20,480 King Saul and King Saul ultimately lives a debauched 129 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:24,080 life in so many different ways and is rejected by God as king 130 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:27,720 over Israel. And so at the end of the first 131 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:32,240 Samuels, Samuel one First Samuel, sorry, at the end of 132 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:37,080 First Samuel, we read about how Saul, King Saul, the rejected 133 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:40,080 leader of the Israelites, is killed in battle with the 134 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:44,640 Philistines. And that then elevates David to 135 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:46,720 the kingship. We read about David being 136 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:51,200 anointed as king way back in chapter 15 of First Samuel. 137 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,400 And it takes till the end of First Samuel and then even into 138 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:58,240 the beginning chapters of Second Samuel before David then 139 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,880 consolidated his power. David that was king over Israel 140 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,080 and he consolidated his power. But he does so by doing two 141 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:07,040 things. This is the way that most king, 142 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,480 most changeover of political leadership happens. 143 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:13,240 You know, the old advisors go, the new advisors come. 144 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:15,480 We have this consolidation of power. 145 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:19,120 One of the things that David does is he conquers nearby city 146 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:22,640 of Jerusalem and says this now is going to be the capital of 147 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:25,560 our new nation. And so he consolidate the power 148 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:29,880 by centralizing things around Jerusalem, the new new city of 149 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:32,400 God. Not just around Jerusalem, the 150 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:36,000 new city of God is the political power, but he is also intent on 151 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,600 consolidating the spiritual power of the Israelite people, 152 00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:43,960 the religious fervor and the cultural intents and power, 153 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:47,440 societal power behind the Israelite religion. 154 00:08:47,680 --> 00:08:51,520 So he intends to bring the visible presence of God into 155 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:53,600 Jerusalem. Now ultimately David is going to 156 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:56,400 want to build a temple for God, and we're going to read about 157 00:08:56,400 --> 00:09:01,720 that in weeks to come because he's intent on making Jerusalem 158 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:06,760 and his Kingdom the central focus of the people's focus, 159 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:10,280 which of course resides upon their relationship with the 160 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:12,600 Lord. And so he desires to bring the 161 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:16,480 ark of God, this visible, tangible presence of God to 162 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:20,160 Jerusalem as a way of consolidating his power. 163 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:24,760 So in verse one, in chapter 6, King David then gathered all the 164 00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:26,760 chosen men of Israel, 30,000 of them. 165 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:28,480 So another who did the chosen men? 166 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:32,080 The chosen men is his army. So he lines the roadway with the 167 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:35,440 army. And so it's about 6 miles or 8 168 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:39,520 miles or so from Judah Bale, from Bale, Judah where the ark 169 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:42,800 had been to Jerusalem. So he lines the road with the 170 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:47,120 army so that when the ark goes by, the whole army will bow down 171 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:49,680 and they will submit themselves to God's presence. 172 00:09:49,680 --> 00:09:52,760 A very tangible picture of this. And he brings out all the people 173 00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:54,720 of God. So the whole people of God are 174 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:57,200 behind the chosen men of God. You've got the whole nation that 175 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:00,160 is surrounding them. And we've got the big cheers and 176 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:02,440 the excitement and all the enthusiasm. 177 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:04,280 Everybody. They've got all these musical 178 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:09,640 instruments and they carry the ark on a cart called by two 179 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:12,480 oxen, which is exactly the way the Philistines did it. 180 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:15,920 Now, if you'll remember, the Philistines are the culturally 181 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:18,040 mature people. They're the advanced, 182 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:23,200 technologically superior people. And so David here is intent on 183 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:27,800 bringing the ark into Jerusalem in the best possible way he can, 184 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:30,800 with the submission of the army, with the submission of all the 185 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:33,040 people, with this massive celebration. 186 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:36,520 In other words, David's heart. This is all about his 187 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:39,520 intentions. David has these wonderful 188 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:45,320 intentions and he wants to demonstrate his his love of God, 189 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:48,520 his commitment to God, his passion for God. 190 00:10:48,680 --> 00:10:51,640 He wants to demonstrate this by by pulling out all the stops, 191 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:55,920 doing everything he can to try to elevate God and to try to do 192 00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:01,120 things the way that that David thinks it would be best for God. 193 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:08,160 Along the way we have the Abenadab and his family are 194 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:11,480 bringing the Ark along. So they load the ark onto a cart 195 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:17,760 and Abenadab sons Ohio and Aza are walking with the cart. 196 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:21,360 Now Ohio and Aza have grown up with the Ark. 197 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:23,920 The Ark has always been in their family. 198 00:11:24,400 --> 00:11:26,240 They are ministering before the ark. 199 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:30,440 They know about the Ark, they care for the Ark, And as the Ark 200 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:34,160 is being carried on this cart and oxen stumbles because he 201 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:37,400 hits a pothole, PennDOT hadn't quite gotten there yet. 202 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:41,560 And so they hit some kind of a stumble of a spot or something 203 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:44,400 like that. The oxen stumbles and the ark 204 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:49,800 begins to shift and slide off the cart and Aza, who's 205 00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:51,480 carrying, who's standing behind it. 206 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:57,040 Now again, if you're not disturbed by this, by God's 207 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:01,920 actions, you have no compassion or sympathy at whatsoever. 208 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:08,520 What is Ozza doing? OK, when I was about 5 years 209 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:12,320 old, I was carrying a mug of tea or something like that, or 210 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,240 water, and I dropped the mug. The mug slipped out of my hands 211 00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:18,080 and fell to the ground. And immediately I dove after it 212 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:20,360 to try to capture it, to catch it before it hit the ground. 213 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,400 Some of you know what happens, The ark hit the ark, the cup 214 00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:27,160 hits the ground before I grabbed it and shattered, and I came up 215 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:30,440 with a handful of broken glass and my hand was all torn up. 216 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:34,680 About 12 years later, I was carrying a glass vase, glass 217 00:12:34,680 --> 00:12:37,680 vase. I was carrying this glass thing 218 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:41,400 and it slipped out of my hands and as it went down to the 219 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:44,240 ground, I dove after it again. Once again, it hits the ground 220 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:46,680 beforehand and I come up with broken glass all over the place. 221 00:12:46,680 --> 00:12:49,040 What's the story? It's not that I am stupid. 222 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:51,600 And the moral of the story, by the way, is don't let me carry 223 00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:55,120 anything glass. But the, the, it was just a 224 00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,120 reaction. It's not that I thought about 225 00:12:57,120 --> 00:12:59,120 it. It's something that my mother 226 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:01,200 loves has fallen to the ground. I reach out and grab it. 227 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:02,440 I want to keep it from doing this. 228 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,680 Aza here is walking beside the ark of God, this marvelous 229 00:13:06,680 --> 00:13:09,960 representation of God's presence before the people. 230 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:12,480 And the oxen stumbles and the ark starts to slide to the 231 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:14,840 ground and he reaches out. It's just automatic. 232 00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:21,880 And God, this is a man just like you. 233 00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:28,040 He has hopes, He has dreams, He has desires, He has a life just 234 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:30,960 like you. He has every. 235 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:36,680 He is like you. And God zaps him. 236 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:41,720 We don't know if it was the lightning bolt, we don't know 237 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:45,160 what it was, but here he is. He just wants to reach out and 238 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:49,520 steady the ark. And God zaps him dead. 239 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:56,200 And we know that you should be disturbed by this passage 240 00:13:57,400 --> 00:14:04,520 because of how David reacts. David is immediately angry. 241 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:09,760 Angry at who? He's angry at God. 242 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:15,160 And he's filled with fear, so much so that he abandons the 243 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:17,480 ark. He says, hey, everybody, go 244 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:18,880 home. We're just leaving this thing 245 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:21,680 here and leaves. It have been a dab's house 246 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:27,600 because he can't believe that God would act this way. 247 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:34,680 CS Lewis tells the story of four children that get swept into a 248 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:37,520 magical land, Narnia. And while they're there, they 249 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:40,840 end up having a conversation with talking Beavers. 250 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:44,720 And so, you know, Mr. Beaver and Missus Beaver are explaining the 251 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:46,880 roller of the land. And the roller of the land is 252 00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:50,720 this marvelous, great, amazing character and all this kind of 253 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:51,520 stuff. They're talking about how 254 00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:53,240 wonderful he is and all these kind of things. 255 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:59,320 And then Mr. Beaver says he's a lion, he's the great lion, and 256 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:03,800 Susan says a lion. I thought he would have been a 257 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:09,640 man. Because Susan's thinking, 258 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:15,920 certainly this roller, this majestic roller is just like me, 259 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:22,200 only bigger and better. And we talk about God is love. 260 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,320 We talk about God is gracious and kind. 261 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:31,760 And what we mean is that God is just like me, only even better. 262 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:37,440 God is just like me even better. Because I know when I love and I 263 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:40,840 know when I am gracious to people, and I know when I'm kind 264 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:43,400 to people, and I know when I'm forgiving of people. 265 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:47,680 And God does that even more so, even greater. 266 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:55,560 Mr. Beaver looks at Susan and says a man, not a man, because 267 00:15:55,560 --> 00:16:01,040 God is holy. Yes, he's love. 268 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:05,640 Yes, he's gracious. Yes, he's compassionate. 269 00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:11,040 Yes, he's forgiving. But he is also holy. 270 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:16,120 When we think of holiness, we tend to think of moral 271 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:20,040 righteousness. Or he's a wonderful God. 272 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:23,560 He's good in lots of different ways, and we think of positive 273 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:26,280 qualities and we just amplify them. 274 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:30,840 Holiness by definition means separated apart. 275 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:38,160 God is separated apart. God is separated apart from who? 276 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:45,360 From what, from us. God is not just like me only on 277 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:49,960 steroids. God is totally separated. 278 00:16:50,640 --> 00:17:01,440 He is different from us. I am twitchy about the way God 279 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:09,680 treats other because me on steroids would never do that. 280 00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:16,920 But God is holy. He is holy, holy, holy. 281 00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:24,040 God is set apart and Aza forgot that. 282 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:33,120 In addition to which, God is so much more holy than we can ever 283 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:38,200 imagine. Aza is so much more sinful than 284 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:42,840 we could possibly believe. God is so much more holy than we 285 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:49,680 could ever imagine in Aza, like us is so much more sinful than 286 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:51,920 what we can possibly believe. Here's this ark. 287 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,920 It's a beautiful expression of God's presence. 288 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:58,080 It's gold, it's majestic. It's everything in which Indiana 289 00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:01,080 Jones shows it to be. It's this great and glorious 290 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:03,280 thing and it's sliding towards the ground. 291 00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:07,000 It's going to fall off the ark cart and it's being pulled by a 292 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,040 couple of oxen. I don't know, but I suspect that 293 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,560 oxen do what horses do. And you know, the ground is 294 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:14,000 covered with oxen crap and stuff like that. 295 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:16,640 And it's muddy because there's potholes everywhere. 296 00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:21,320 And the ark is sliding. This gold plated, beautiful ark 297 00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:25,720 that represents the presence of my God is sliding and going to 298 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:27,920 get on the ground. It's going to get dirty by the 299 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:29,120 ground. I'm not going to let that 300 00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:30,440 happen. I'm going to keep it. 301 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:32,760 I'm going to protect the ark. I'm going to guard the ark. 302 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:35,720 I'm going to stick myself between it and the ground so the 303 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:38,600 ground doesn't get. God's not concerned about the 304 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:45,240 dirt from the earth. He's concerned about the dirt in 305 00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:49,760 my heart. He's concerned about the dirt in 306 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:54,360 your heart. Ozzy here feels somehow that 307 00:18:54,360 --> 00:18:58,240 he's above the ground. Oz is on top of the ground. 308 00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:02,080 Oz is better than the ground, Ozza thinks. 309 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:04,720 Well, I know I'm not supposed to touch the Ark, but it's better 310 00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:09,760 me than the ground. Because Ozza is so much more 311 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:13,720 wicked than he could possibly imagine. 312 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:21,680 And that's where the story ends. The story ends with the ark of 313 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:24,800 God abandoned in the middle of no place. 314 00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:30,920 Because David, the man after God's own heart, is terrified of 315 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:36,440 the holiness of God and the sinfulness in his own heart. 316 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:45,720 And we've got this massive other channel chasm that separates the 317 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:50,160 holiness of God and His presence from those of us that are 318 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:53,040 separated from the Lord because of our brokenness and sin. 319 00:19:55,960 --> 00:20:01,120 And that's where the story would end if it were up to us. 320 00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:08,320 And that's why 1000 years later, we are sent the Righteous One, 321 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:12,680 the Holy One. The one who can indeed be in the 322 00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:17,720 presence of God, who can touch the presence of God, who can 323 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:20,680 reflect completely and totally the presence of God. 324 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:24,640 And what it means that I, as a believer of Jesus Christ, am 325 00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:27,960 united with him. I come to the presence of God 326 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:32,200 not in my own power, not with my own abilities, not denying or 327 00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:35,640 ignoring the holiness of God or thinking it's not, as much as it 328 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:38,800 is with full awareness of the brightness and the holiness of 329 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:40,880 God. I come into God's presence, I 330 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:45,720 come covered in the blood of Jesus Christ I come with the 331 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:48,000 goodness, with the righteousness, with the holiness 332 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:52,280 of God himself, of Christ himself as we come to stand 333 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:55,800 before God. Otherwise that chasm would chasm 334 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,600 would exist and there's nothing we could ever do about it. 335 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:01,720 Nothing we could ever do about it but abandoned the presence of 336 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:04,800 God and walk away in fear of our own horror. 337 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:12,480 We have to realize that we are so much more broken than what we 338 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:16,720 imagine we are. The God is so much more holy 339 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,920 than what we imagine are. And our failure to think about 340 00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:26,320 those things robs us of the ability to appreciate what it 341 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:31,400 means that Jesus Christ died for us, that the Holy One of Israel 342 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:36,240 is present here in God's sight, in the presence of God himself, 343 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:41,760 and he brings us with him. We are able to touch the ark of 344 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:43,960 God. We're able to exist in the 345 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:47,680 presence of God, not because we have become made righteous or 346 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,880 holy or anything like that, but because we stand covered in the 347 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:56,840 blood of the one who is holy and righteous before the Lord. 348 00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:03,360 God is so much more holy than you imagine. 349 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:11,960 I want you to dwell on that. You are so much more wicked than 350 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:16,520 you could possibly accept. I want you to dwell on that. 351 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:24,600 And because of that, the chasm is breached by Jesus Christ. 352 00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:39,520 Let's pray. Lord God, you are so much more 353 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:43,840 holy than what we could even begin to imagine. 354 00:22:54,940 --> 00:22:58,980 Lord, we are so much more sinful than what we can even begin to 355 00:22:58,980 --> 00:23:12,390 confess. Jesus Christ, you have bridged 356 00:23:12,390 --> 00:23:17,600 the gap for us to stand in God's presence, to revel in His 357 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:23,080 beauty, not because of our work, not because of our holiness, but 358 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:24,120 because of yours.