Good morning.
It is a real joy to be with you these three days. I want to thank you for inviting me. I have learned much from your fellowship, and I appreciate what the Lord is doing here. It is a great encouragement to see how God has worked in the last year since we were here last.
We started the first evening by speaking of the onward progress of the Lord and His purpose. If there has been any one thing that I have been keenly aware of these last few years, it is that God has been saying to my own heart that He is very jealous for the purpose that He is working out. If I have a heart really toward Him, I will continue to be sensitive to this onward progress. I called it last night the line of purpose.
The first night we were speaking about Moses, God’s servant, and how he was used of the Lord in bringing Israel out of Egypt, and hopefully to bring them through the wilderness into the land. Last night we went on to Joshua.
It is interesting that Moses is known as the great deliverer of God’s people. He fulfilled his place in the onward progress of God’s purpose. Joshua comes along, and he is the great possessor. Standing on the shoulders of Moses, he takes the people on into the possessing of the land. This is an onward step in God’s progress in His purpose.
Then, after Joshua leaves the scene, we go through a little period of declension. It is a sort of decline during the time of the judges, and you do not have a very clear sense of the onward progress of the Lord in purpose. Much of the glory is fading.
Finally, in due time, God raises up Samuel. In some ways, he is a bridge. He is the recoverer, the one who begins to prepare the hearts of the people to come back into the line of purpose. What God has for them is the kingdom of priests.
Then we come to David, who is the unifier of God’s people. Here are all these motley tribes who have gone in to possess their various areas—so disorganised, so lacking a sense of vision and purpose. But God raises up David to be the great unifier of the Lord’s people.
Can you see something of the onward progress? Can you look back through your own history here for ten years and see something of the onward progress and the fulfilling of purpose?
I want us to go into a simple little lesson this morning in the life of David. I speak of Moses in the schoolroom where God was teaching and working, teaching him the ways of the Lord. Last night, we were dealing with Joshua in the school, and this morning we are going to look into the life of David and see how he learns.
Now, I hate to tell you, but David learned a lot by trial and error. And he has a few friends around, I think. We sort of learn by the mistakes. It would be wonderful if we could learn intuitively, by the revelation of the Lord, and be very clear in what God wants. But so much of the time we learn by failure, and we learn by mistakes.
We are going to speak for a little bit this morning as we look into this lesson on discerning the ways of the Lord. I said last night, and I repeat again: I believe that one of the great needs of the hour is for us to be discerning and to know the ways of the Lord.
A little background before we turn to 1 Chronicles. We will turn there and have you look with us: 1 Chronicles 13.
The burden that I have in sharing this morning is to recognise that, in God’s ways, there seems to be one thing that He has been very jealous for: the ark, and God’s working in relation to the ark.
You remember, it was Moses who received the blueprint for the tabernacle of worship, and the ark was built. All through that wilderness-wandering period, every time the cloud would move, the priests would pick up the ark and lead out. Until the cloud stopped, they learned to follow the cloud, or follow the ark. They would pitch tent and stay there until the cloud moved again.
Then there came a time when God spoke to Joshua and said, as we were referring to last night, “In three days, we are going to go over.” You know how the priests picked up the ark again, and they got their toes in the water. God caused the great bank of the Jordan—the water—to hold back, and the people went through on dry ground over into the land that they were to possess.
The ark was very significant. You remember when they came to Jericho? The priests carried the ark around in the seven days. The seventh time, on the seventh day, they blew the trumpet, and the walls came tumbling down.
It seemed like this people were very conscious of a very special box—an ark. What did the ark represent?
Well, it was called the Ark of the Testimony. There was a people who were bearing a significant testimony of the one true God. It speaks of the glory that departed when the ark was carried away. I believe the ark represented something of God’s glory being manifested in their midst. The ark represented something of the presence of God.
I believe the ark is something that God was saying back there had a very distinctive meaning. Sometimes I almost feel that today we get so caught up in our working and going on in the things of the Lord that we might well ask the question, Where is the ark today?
Well, I am not speaking of that physical ark. I am speaking of the sense of where the glory of God is being manifested. Where is the purity of a testimony being represented? Where are God’s presence and glory? Where do you find that?
If I were to move into a city, looking around for some fellowship and to be with God’s people, I might not be understood, but I would probably be putting my antenna out to see, “Where is the ark?”
Not an old box, now, but where is the ark? Where is God manifesting Himself? Where is His glory being uncovered? Where is there a sense of the revelation of the purpose of God and the onward progress of things?
A little more background before we read here in Chronicles. You know that for quite a period of time after they got into the land, the ark had been down at Gibeon, also called Shiloh. The people had really lost the sense of vision and something of the divine purpose of God.
Over in the land of the Philistines, five lords—five of the Philistine kings—were constantly raiding and keeping Israel in servitude. There came a time when there was a great battle raging, and the people of God sort of remembered the ark. So they brought the ark out of the tabernacle over to Ebenezer, where they were pitched. They brought it into battle, thinking, “Well, maybe we can use the ark to help us against the Philistines.”
I want to mark one thing very carefully this morning: you cannot use the ark to your own ends.
The Philistines heard the shout as the Israelites brought the ark in. Suddenly they were filled with fear, and they said, “Something has happened.” Then they realised that this strange box was there, and they said, “God is in their midst.” They stirred up their courage and came out to battle at Aphek. They won the battle that day against Israel and carried this very precious box over into their own midst, thinking, “Now we have it. We can use it.”
They put it in their room with their god. Guess what? The next morning, when they came into the room, their god had fallen over and was bowing before the ark. The following morning, they came in and once again their god had fallen over, and his hands were broken off.
The ark went to about three different areas: from the first place to Gath, and then down to Ekron. They all had a similar situation. Instead of the ark being a blessing and working to their favour, it brought great misery and difficulty to them. So they went to their diviners, some of their prophets, and the prophets said, “You had better get rid of this.”
They decided to send the ark back. The prophets told them, “Put the ark on a new cart, tie some milk cows to it, and let the cart and the cattle carry the ark back.” They selected two milk cows that had calves, put the calves in the pens, and watched to see whether the cows would carry the cart and the ark away.
To their utter amazement, the old cows put their heads down, disregarded their bawling calves, and headed right toward Beth-shemesh, where Israel was harvesting at that time. When all the people saw their cart coming, they were thrilled and greatly encouraged.
The story we are after is basically this: when we open 1 Chronicles 13 this morning, we come to grips with the fact that this ark had been out of the tabernacle for twenty long years. The people had been lamenting and mourning because of their decline and their condition. All during the reign of King Saul, the ark had not been at the centre of their worship.
David comes to the throne. Being a man after God’s own heart, a man who knows the importance of worship and all that God had in His line of purpose, David begins to cry out and say to the people, “We really need the ark in our midst.”
We pick the story up in 1 Chronicles 13.
And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader.
And David said unto all the congregation of Israel, If it seem good unto you, and that it be of the Lord our God, let us send abroad unto our brethren everywhere, that are left in all the land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and Levites which are in their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us:
And let us bring again the ark of our God to us: for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul.—1 Chronicles 13:1-3
I would like to draw some simple distinctions as we look into the life of David and make some practical applications for us.
One of the great needs that I see so often today among God’s people is what I call seeing a need, and the difference between seeing a need and receiving the burden of the Lord.
As I look back through years of ministry, especially in our fellowship in Indianapolis, I have been constantly amazed at the folk who, about every Sunday, rush up and say, “Brother, I see a need.”
I did not used to know how to handle all the people who came having seen the need. I let them give me their burden. But I learned from one of my Chinese brothers some years ago, who said, “Oh, praise the Lord, God is working. He is giving you the sense of need. You carry the burden. Do not give it to me. You take it.”
How many of you look around and see needs? Well, needs are not wrong. God could be in a lot of the things that He is opening your eyes to see.
David looks around, and there is a sense of purpose and a sense of what God is wanting to do. He says, “If it seem good unto you, and that it be of the Lord our God.”
How often we say, “The Lord willing.” It is kind of a little postscript we put in. We know very well we are going to be there—it is just unless the Lord, in a royal way, sidetracks this, and we cannot.
Here is a seeing of a need. I believe that God starts with need. He shows us and gives us a sense in our own heart of a need. But we must never stop with just seeing a need.
If we do, we will know what to do—or at least we will have a sense of what to do. But God, I believe, wants to bring His people to the place where we take this back and say, “Lord, is this something just natural that I have seen, or is this initiated with You?”
We begin to inquire. We bring it back to the Lord, and we say, “Lord, I really want to know what You want.” I believe it is at that point that the need turns, and God helps us to see the burden—that is, the real concern that He has.
The difference is that instead of just knowing something needs to be done, God gives us the how and the when.
Are you folk out there? Any of you kind of need-conscious? Okay, that is all right. You can start there. But that reveals something, because the Lord begins to work in our hearts by uncovering some need and helping us to see.
We usually try to give burdens or get others involved, and I believe it is at this point that David does the wrong thing. He goes to the congregation and says, “Now, I see a need. We really need to bring the ark into our midst. And if it is good unto you…”
Here is another distinction that we all need to be careful about: there is a difference between a unanimous vote and one mind.
Those who are in responsibility know that after the meeting has gone on for five hours and there has not been much progress in really getting through, it is not too hard to get a unanimous vote so you can go home. Get rid of the thing.
I am convinced there are lots of times that folk think they have come to the mind of the Lord and are in one mind and accord with Him, and they have had a unanimous vote. But that is all they have had.
David had a unanimous vote that day. Did you see it?
And all the congregation said that they would do so: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.
—1 Chronicles 13:4
What version do you have? Just checking on you. How does it read? The thing was right in the eyes of all the what?
Listen to me: if we could get a one-hundred-percent vote here this morning, would that make it right? You know, the whole world, except for Galileo, believed that the earth was flat for quite a while—except for poor old Galileo and a couple of friends.
Just because the majority are in agreement, or you have a unanimous vote, is no evidence that it is the mind of God. To have one mind really coming to know His mind is one of the most dangerous things.
Now, I am a thoroughgoing, loyal, loving American. But at this point, democracy does not work. God is very theocratic.
The thing was right in the eyes of all the people. Well, it was a good thing to do. It was the right thing in some ways. Let us bring this ark. All this time it has been in this home, and there has been blessing in the home. But the people have not had a real awareness of inquiring at the ark.
The one mind is the mind of the Lord, and it is something born in a corporate way, when somehow the Spirit of God turns people from all the realm of, “Well, I think this, and I think this.”
I have been in meetings. I heard Lance Lambert say one time that at Halford House they started praying about certain things, and it usually took twelve hours of praying with the whole group before people got rid of all their own plans and ambitions and finally, in exhaustion, said, “Lord, what do You really want? Would You give us Your mind? Would You help us know what You really want?”
God is today bringing us into His mind—the mind of the Lord, one mind. It will not be something imposed by brothers upon one another, but something born of God in the midst.
David is a leader, and David has some desires and ambitions. Here is another thing that I believe God’s children need to be very careful of: the difference between guidance and confirmation.
If David had really inquired of the Lord, I believe God could have brought him into knowing how things were to be done and the timing of this whole operation.
When we go to people for guidance, you have got problems. You go to this brother, and then you are not sure, so you go to this individual, and then another. You run around in the multitude of counsellors and really find difficulty.
I am not saying we should never go to people. I believe people can become a confirmation. But God wants to teach us how to get through to Him—to Him.
It seems to me that David has his feelers out, and he is trying to get guidance from people: “If it seem good unto you.” Do you know when you are doing that?
These are days when prophecy is very much in the forefront in many assemblies. I am constantly having to deal with it wherever we go, because people are getting direction and far too much guidance through prophecies that folk give.
It is not a very popular thing to say, but I have to say it: confirmation could come through prophecy. But I believe that God wants you to get through to hear and know from Him personally.
Acts 13 is a good example:
Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers.
And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.—Acts 13:1-2
I do not think that just came out of the blue. I really believe that God had already been exercising the hearts of Barnabas and Saul. They had something of a sense of what God was going to do, and then the prophecy came. As God’s folk ministered to the Lord, it came as confirmation.
I am not even sure we should use a lot of circumstances to get guidance. It can be one of the most dangerous things.
You could be like David in the cave when he was being chased by Saul. Here he is in this cave with his men, and suddenly the men whisper, “Look, your adversary Saul has come in.” He listens to them for a moment. It seems like God has put his enemy right in his hands, and David is almost ready to kill Saul. In fact, he takes his sword and cuts the skirt.
In that moment, God gets through, and the principle that has been woven into his heart—“Touch not the Lord’s anointed”—becomes clear. This is why we need to be rich in the Word and in the principles that God has.
Guidance is something God wants to bring His people into. Confirmation comes in various ways: circumstances, people, and possibly other things.
Let us go a little further. It seems that David is feeling out and finding his guidance among the people.
Let us bring again the ark of our God to us: for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul.
And all the congregation said that they would do so: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.—1 Chronicles 13:3-4
So David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kirjath-jearim.
And they carried the ark of God in a new cart out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio drave the cart.
And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.—1 Chronicles 13:7-8
I do not know if you can appreciate David like I do. I think he was so excited that finally he was going to restore and bring that ark back to its place, where Israel could have worship. The procession is moving along with the new cart carrying the ark.
Then the strangest thing happens. Right in the midst of what seems like a real glorious time, God intervenes.
And when they came unto the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and He smote him, because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before God.—1 Chronicles 13:9-10
David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzza. That place was called Perez-uzza. David was afraid of God that day, saying, “How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?”
I wonder if you have ever considered another little distinction that may be helpful for God’s people: the difference between sovereign intervention and what I call divine naturalism. I will explain that in a moment.
When this procession was moving along, the oxen came to a rough place, and they stumbled. It caused the cart to wobble, and the ark was about to fall off. Uzza put up his hand to steady it. I believe he was a Levite who had been trained in the household concerning the significance and God’s value of this ark. In that moment, he put his hand up to steady it, but God put His hand down and sovereignly intervened in the midst of it.
He sovereignly intervened and stopped the whole jubilant procession. It became a funeral.
A lot of folk say, “Oh, I wish God would sovereignly intervene. I wish He would demonstrate His hand. I wish He would be more manifest and explicit.”
Well, knowing how much of the time we err, and how often He would have to sovereignly intervene like this, I say, “Lord, I am glad You hide Yourself in Your ways more often.”
When I speak of divine naturalism, I am trying to find a better word. If you can come up with one later, I would appreciate that. I mean God continually working—wonderfully working—and yet hiding His working in natural ways, until you cannot see that it is really God until He gives eyes to see.
The lust of our flesh today is, “Lord, send a raven and feed us. Lord, put a cloud over this place until everybody will know this is where the ark is in Richmond. How about a pillar of fire?”
That is what I mean by something very sovereign, very spectacular. Come on now, tell me you like it. Be honest. You know what would happen? Next week you would be praying, “Lord, make it a little bigger, a little warmer. Do it because I have invited all my friends.”
We just love the sovereign display. But I believe that the more spiritual we become with the Lord, the more alive we are, the more our eyes are opened to see: “God, You are at work. You are a God who hides Your working in very natural ways. I see the divine hand, the working of God.”
I like sovereign things, but I believe that in this particular case, when God reached down, it was not very hidden. Amen? It was a very sovereign intervention. God was demonstrating His anger in it very definitely.
Those who really become sensitive to the ways of the Lord begin to see God’s hand working in a hidden way. It is there, but unless the eye of faith helps you, you really do not see it.
You remember when Abraham sent his servant to get a bride for Isaac? He comes over the hill and looks down at the watering place where all the maidens are coming. He puts his prayer up and says, “Lord, cause that the one You are choosing will answer thus and so, and she will say she will do this.”
Of course, he meets Rebekah, and she completely fulfils it. In fact, she has learned such a servant spirit in the home that she not only waters Abraham’s camels, but all the rest of the group. Somebody says there must have been ten camels, and they each drank sixty gallons. I tell you, she carried lots of water. She had a servant spirit.
Somebody could say, “Well, I think it just happened.” God hides His working, but He was there working.
We were visiting one of the fellowships in Kokomo a few weeks ago. Here was a wife—I had seen her for two or three years—who had been praying for her husband, really claiming that God would lay hold of him.
That Sunday, to my amazement, I saw a man sitting by her. I assumed it was her husband. Immediately after the message, he came rushing up and said, “I have been saved.”
He said, “My wife and all of you prayed for a couple of years. I saw such a submissive spirit in her. I saw such reality. I just had to give up.”
He was so alive, I thought, “Lord, You really did a good job on this fellow.” Some folk are really born alive, and some are born asleep. It takes so long for them to awaken to the Lord. Well, he was born alive.
He said, “I had read so many places in Scripture where God would sovereignly intervene and demonstrate and manifest Himself. A week after I was saved, I was driving and I said one day, ‘Lord, would You demonstrate and prove Yourself to me like You did in the Old Testament to some of these folk? I believe You are the God who does it today, so that I will have my own testimony.’”
Last winter, just a week after he had met the Lord, they had one of their terrible snowstorms in Indiana. His driveway was filled with almost two feet of snow that had blown into a great drift.
He said, “That morning I walked out and I said, ‘God, You are able to do anything. Would You demonstrate Yourself to me by sweeping my driveway clear without my having to shovel?’”
About that time, I say, “Oh, Lord, he really needed help.” And you know what he said next? “I stood there with my shovel, and I saw a wind come around the corner and literally sweep my whole driveway clear.” His wife walked up and said, “Brother Vern, that is right. I looked out the window.”
Some of you are going to go home saying, “Lord, do it again.” I know human nature. I know our hearts. “Then I will have a real good testimony.”
You know what he said next? “I am not asking the Lord for any more. I just needed that.” I said, “That is safe, brother.” But He might. Who knows?
Are you getting what I am trying to say? Sometimes God sovereignly intervenes. We would like to make Him do it all the time, would we not? Except that it would become old and commonplace, and no eye of faith would be needed.
But I believe that the God who works in hidden ways is working here this morning—divinely, in very natural ways, manoeuvring and manipulating things. Under the eye of faith, the only way we can really see that God is working is when He helps us to see it. But He is working. So be careful when you plead, “Lord, intervene.” He just might.
In this particular case, the zeal of the moment was to bring the ark into their midst. One of the other portions says that when Uzza put forth his hand, God was angry, and he was slain for his error.
That brings me to another distinction. I hope you can receive this: the difference between temporal judgment and eternal judgment.
Here was an error. Here was this poor Levite, trained, but in this moment, in the expediency of trying to steady the ark from falling off, God put His hand down.
I am going to put you on the spot. Do not answer, but just think about it: how many of you think that God sent Uzza to hell for steadying the ark and gave him eternal judgment?
Do not answer, please. Think about it. Sometimes we are very quick in our judgmental attitudes.
All I have to say is, “Lord, I do not believe that this error, this quick impulsive thing, was an eternal judgment. I believe it was temporal judgment.” I just think God took him quickly to Abraham’s bosom, so to speak. Are you following?
In line with what I was saying last night and the night before, many of God’s children are getting temporal judgment all along the way. So often we violate a principle, or even break some laws, and we get the consequences from it. Some get them quicker than others.
Some are weak and sickly among you, and some go to sleep, simply because of violating. I read the other day of a doctor saying that most people were getting the judgment of breaking the laws of their physical well-being. You do not have to wait until the end. It accumulates, and you get temporal judgment all along the way.
Eternal judgment is a final separation. But here is temporal judgment. I believe that what happened to Uzza that day, with God stepping in and saying, “There is an error. I cannot put up with it,” was a very severe dealing. But I do not believe it was a matter of salvation.
It says in 1 Chronicles 13:14:
And the ark of God remained with the family of Obed-edom in his house three months. And the Lord blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that he had.
—1 Chronicles 13:14
I was saying the first night that with the line of purpose there is also the line of blessing—something of the blessing of the Lord.
When I read that little chapter, “Expecting the Lord’s Blessing,” my heart began to say, “Lord, Your people are uniquely and distinctly called into something of what You are working out. Help us, help us, to be more expectant.”
The God who is working out a purpose waits to pour blessing through, that we might be world blessings. Here was this ark in this home during this period. After David was afraid and did not know how to bring the ark, they put it in this house for three months. How wonderfully the blessing of the Lord was there.
We read 1 Chronicles 14, and we do not find much of an answer, except two little phrases that I want you to get hold of:
And David inquired of God.
—1 Chronicles 14:10
Therefore David inquired again of God.
—1 Chronicles 14:14
Now he is talking about other things, but then we get over to 1 Chronicles 15.
And David made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent.
—1 Chronicles 15:1
One thing that was really amazing to me—I had not realised it for quite some time—was that Gibeon, or Shiloh, was where the tabernacle and the ark had been before they carried it out to battle. Then it spent this time in Philistine country.
The amazing thing is that when David starts his procession and stops for a while, he does not bring the ark back to the tabernacle. He does not bring it to Gibeon or Shiloh. Do you know where he takes it? To Jerusalem. He pitches his own tent there for it.
Some say that he moved the tent from Shiloh up there and that it was the tabernacle. No. Go back and read it. David pitches his own tent.
The first question I would like to ask David is, “David, in this first little episode, when you started out to bring the ark, where were you going to take it?” You know why? I am sure he saw a need, but he did not have the burden of the Lord. He did not have the how, and he did not have the when.
In this chapter we are reading, it says David prepared a place for the ark and pitched a tent. Then God had given him further insight:
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 for ever.
—1 Chronicles 15:2
The next question I would ask is, “David, where did you get the idea of using a cart?”
This is not new to most of you. As you well remember, the Philistines had to use a cart because they did not have any prepared Levites. They used a cart. In fact, the Philistines had a brand-new cart. A lot of people say, “Nothing but the best for the Lord.” Sounds good.
But oh, how Christendom, how religion, and how things today have devised their machinery to get things done for God.
If David had inquired, “Lord, we must be able to inquire at the ark. We need it in our presence. All these twenty years during the time of King Saul, the people have not been really concerned,” then God could have shown him the way.
There is something rather significant in the fact that he did not bring it back to the old tabernacle, but pitched a new tent. Here they began to worship, here they gathered, and there were priests who ministered. I do not think it is the normal order or the real thing that God is after. It is one of those expedients until the temple was finally to be built.
It does not represent all that God is after, but it does say to us in this lesson that David did prepare. God gave him the sense that it needed a place, and not only that, but he needed prepared Levites to carry it.
Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it.
—1 Chronicles 15:12
David, if you had gone to the Lord with your need, He could have given you the real burden He had, and you would have known how to do it. The when would have been right because you would have had the place prepared.
For because ye 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.
—1 Chronicles 15:13
I guess the reason I can identify with David is because I have pulled this so often. I have sensed how many times, in my ambition, eagerness, and desire to do, I have rushed off with seeing a need.
I could pray that somehow the Holy Spirit would allow us to be sensitive to needs. The need was right, but not quickly to rush out to try to fulfil it or do it. Rather, let us turn our hearts and say, “Lord, I do not want to just see out of natural eyes something that needs to be done. Let me be able to inquire. Let me be so attuned to You that I know that which is Your burden and Your concern.”
Then I will know how, and I will know when.
David prepared. The Levites were prepared; they were sanctified, set apart. God never planned to use a cart or machinery to do His work.
You would be surprised how difficult it is for people to make a distinction between the machinery we devise to get the job done and God’s methods. God’s methods are still men—sanctified.
You can sanctify machinery by separating it, but God’s methods are men, individuals. Sometimes I watch in our own area, in the fellowships, how easy it is to let the responsible brothers, the elders, become machinery. It is a very subtle thing.
All the brothers, all of God’s people, are open to Him. But it is God who sets apart, who may will, and who gives burden and vision.
So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel.
And the children of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord.—1 Chronicles 15:14-15
David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers with instruments of music, psalteries, harps, and cymbals, sounding by lifting up the voice with joy.
So David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obed-edom with joy.
And it came to pass, when God helped the Levites that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams.—1 Chronicles 15:25-26
David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who bore the ark, the singers, and Chenaniah, the master of the song. David also had upon him an ephod of linen.
Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, with the sound of the cornet, with trumpets and cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps.
As the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, David’s wife, looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and playing, and she despised him in her heart. Read the rest of the story in another portion, where she was barren from that time on.
I want to make one thing finally clear this morning, and then we will close.
One of the difficulties we run into so often is that we try to interpret the New Testament by the Old. It is very dangerous. The Old Testament must always be interpreted by the New.
These three days I have been with you, we have been in the Old Testament with Moses, Joshua, and now David. We have been speaking about the goal that God had, the principles, and this morning the ways of the Lord.
Could I make one real correction in the whole thing, to focus our attention? God today, in the New Testament, in His new way of working, says, “I wish you would discover that all My ways are summed up in the Way—doing everything in and through My lovely Son, the Lord Jesus. He is My way.”
Are you following me now?
The tendency today in so many areas is for people to set goals. There is an awful tyranny in goals, even the tyranny of looking like Jesus, trying to be conformed to His image. If that is your goal, you have come short because, as the songwriter says, “My goal is God.”
I am convinced that if we become occupied with goals, principles, or ways, we are still short. It is an Old Testament level. God says, “All My goals, all My principles, all My ways are now summed up, and there is just one simple way you inquire.”
We had it at the table this morning: looking unto Him. Lord, You are the way, the truth, and the life.
Wesley caught this when he wrote in one of the hymns, “Lord, there is a divine Principle. Plant that divine Principle within me.” It is a capital P—the indwelling Principle of the Lord Himself.
We come short if, in getting knowledge, in knowing goals, even in getting clarity of principles or learning the ways of the Lord, our final preoccupation is anything short of God’s way in His Son.
Lord, do not let us miss this.
How does that way work? The indwelling Principle, the indwelling Way, the life of the Lord Himself.
All that the old represented has its fulfilment in the Lord Jesus. All that the law represented, we now have literally in Christ. We are governed by four lovely laws—or I would use the word principles:
All of this is comprehended in our New Testament way. In the Lord Jesus there is life, there is love, there is the principle of liberty, and there is the principle of faith. As I am occupied with Him, God gets His way.
It is all in the Lord Jesus.
Father, we bow before You this morning.
We know all the tendencies and anxieties of our hearts to do things, to get things done for You. Lord, I confess I have been most guilty, leading the way so often and being need-conscious instead of being alive and conscious of You.
You are the One who gives burden, and with the burden You will always give a way of discharge. You help us to know how and when.
I pray for my brothers and sisters as they are moving along and there are new horizons and new opportunities before them. Oh God, help us to be more expectant. Help us to be more alive to claiming and believing You to give us much more—the real blessing of the Lord.
But let us learn how Your way works as we are occupied with You, Lord Jesus. You are the divine Principle, the anointing that works within. It gives us the inward yes or the inward no.
Our minds sometimes, Lord, cannot comprehend which principle is right, because principles themselves seem so good. So we have to just shut ourselves up to You and say, “Lord, the inward anointing teaches.” By the inward registration of life to our renewed minds, we can say, “Lord, You will give guidance. You will help Your Davids to know.”
I claim for my brothers here that there will be a new corporate sense of the mind of the Lord as they expect, go on, and believe You.
Lord, may there be in this community a people who really sense what it is to long for the place for the glory of the Lord, the presence of the Lord, and the testimony of the Lord—all the unique, singular purpose of God being worked out for this generation.
Lord, help us to be in the line of Your purpose, the onward progress.
We remember how finally Solomon came on the scene and built the temple. It was not a place You wanted; You wanted always to dwell in the lives of Your people. You are building a corporate building today, living stones that are being framed together.
We thank You for this, and we pray, Lord Jesus, that You will take us on more and more, in a fuller way, to realise that we are more than a gathering of people. We are a building that You are working on.
Bring this into such reality that the folk around about in the community are caught. May the Lord Jesus make home and rest in a group of people who have come to dwell together in unity, for there You command the blessing of the Lord.
We believe You to do it. Help us to know the way of the ark, the way of the Lord. Spare us from machinery, whatever it represents. Let us be men who have really been alive to You, we pray.
In Jesus’ name we ask with thanksgiving. Amen.