Death reigned through one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, even Jesus Christ.
That same abundance of grace Varney was talking about here this morning.
Now, who are these people? Some super-duper saints off in some fellowship that we’ve heard about or read about in a magazine? Who is it? Who is He talking about?
But you know by now—you’ve got to tell me, or I won’t go on. Those who receive? Well, who are these people? I want some identification.
Us. Okay, that’s the word I wanted. That’s who He is talking about: us. We are the ones He is talking about.
And here is a possibility of reigning in life. Does that sound like a mere hand-to-mouth existence, barely struggling to keep your head above water in the vicissitudes of life? Reigning is the sense of ruling by the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, in our last discussion together, we saw the end of Saul: this man who was not a man after God’s own heart, not a man who had learned even the basic lessons of how to serve God.
He was a good king as far as the national and political interests were concerned. But as far as what we might call the religious or spiritual interests in the nation were concerned, he could not meet the Lord’s need at all. He had not learned the basic lessons: the lesson of obedience, the lesson of waiting on God.
Many of us learn to come when the Lord calls us and go where the Lord sends us, but we cannot even learn that much more difficult lesson of waiting on God until His time for something.
Saul had not even learned the basic lessons. God had sought Himself a man after His own heart, who was still very much a youth at the time Saul began to reign and demonstrated his unfitness for the kingship.
Now, the people of God had carried the ark out to battle with them, hoping that it would save them against an enemy who was too much for them. But their spiritual and moral character was such that God had left. The Lord had actually let the ark fall into the hands of the Philistines.
The ark had proven its superiority. The five lords of the Philistines, and Dagon their god, all had found the impact of God’s presence and power too much for them. They had sent the ark back to the land of Israel.
We have described twice how it was put on a cart. Two cows that had newly calved were hooked to the cart, and the Philistines said, “If this cart goes to the land of Israel behind these two cows, we will know the Lord is in this thing.” So, contrary to their nature, lowing all the way, these two cows took the ark into the land of Israel.
It was taken down by the Levites in Beth-shemesh. They peered into the ark, and they were smitten by God. These were God’s people.
The ark then ends up in Kiriath-jearim.
Where is the tabernacle at this time? See if you are learning your lessons at all. See if you are awake. Where is the tabernacle at this time? Wasn’t it Shiloh? Or was it?
No. After the ark was gone, the glory was departed for some reason or other. The tabernacle was moved to where? Gibeon.
The tabernacle was in one place and the ark of the covenant was in another place. It was in a tent in Kiriath-jearim. And we liken the situation at that time to the situation we have now: circumstances among God’s people in the earth at this time.
Later on, when Solomon went up to offer offerings when he was made king, he went to Gibeon. But when the wisdom of God was given to him after his night of dream and request that was granted for wisdom and understanding, we find him going down to Jerusalem to offer offerings before the ark was.
But at this time, the ark is not even in Jerusalem. At the time that we are talking about today, in our consideration, we would like to get the ark down to Jerusalem. If I do not get there, I shall be disappointed—and so will you—because we will have spent about an hour talking about these things and never got into the real climax.
But among God’s people today, you can go where His people are found, and you will find the Word of God. There will be some cleansing because the laver is there.
You will find that there is some food because the table of showbread is there; some light, because wherever the Bible is opened and preached out of, there is always some light imparted. The candlestick is there.
I do not know that I can say that the golden censer is there—the altar of incense. Probably it is there in some measure. In some places, you can find some prayer, but not very much.
But the two things that are typified by the ark of God are significantly absent in the general congregation of the people of God today. One is the speaking. God spoke from between those cherubim. The other is the glory.
The glory—the Shekinah glory—that was found in the Holy of Holies when the ark was there and God’s presence rested upon it.
And the Lord is busy in the earth right at this time to get what He got in type in Solomon’s time.
Solomon built the temple—finally, and then after three or four messages, we are going to get there. He built all of these things new except one. He built a new table of showbread, a new laver—a tremendous thing—a new candlestick, and a new golden altar of incense.
When it was all built, they came and brought the ark into that temple, and the glory of God filled the temple. The priests had to stand back. They could not even minister by reason of the cloud of glory that filled the temple.
That is what the Lord is in the process of doing now, in the earth and in the heavenlies. He is building a temple into which He can put the ark of the testimony.
And that ark merely means the impact, the glory, the life, the presence, the power of the Lord Jesus Christ—naked and unhindered.
And, dear friends, when some of us catch a glimpse of what the fellowship, the ministry, the life, the joy, and the glory of God’s people, when they come together, is meant to be, our lives are going to have a completely new motivation.
Truly, the Lord revealed in His wonderful presence to the hearts of His people has an impact, satisfies the need, and brings in something that we find worthwhile to meet all of the conditions that the Word of God imposes for that kind of a release, for that kind of a testimony.
It is just the testimony of Jesus. And, friends, it is just a normal Christian experience that God is trying to bring us to. We are subnormal.
Lewis was at our house for dinner last night, and he read us a poem in which someone with the prettiest discernment and a fairly high IQ tried to take the place of a retarded child and wrote a most poignant account of the feelings of that child: “I just want to be regarded as a person.”
And I thought, boy, that was certainly written by no retarded child. A retarded child could never express those things.
And, dear friends, that is our problem. We had some wonderful expression of our appreciation and love for the Lord here this morning from some people who are growing up into Christ in a normal fashion.
I wonder where that puts the rest of us. If you carry forth to its conclusion all that I have said, I will not even say it, because some people will get mad at me and will not listen to the rest of my message if I say it.
Well, dear friends, I will even say it. I fear that many of us are retarded children of the Lord.
And those of us who do get out to a place where the overwhelming glory and worth and wonder of Jesus Christ and His testimony simply takes over our lives—you think there is something wrong with us. We are funny. We are strange, to go to all that expense and all that loss and all that suffering.
Dear friends, that is what the testimony involves: an actual position that brings you out into practical situations where you pay the price to have the reality of the glory of the Lord in your life.
I told you, when we started talking about the ark, that we would go back to the root cause of this division between the ark and the rest of the tabernacle. What was the root cause?
So, if you will turn to the book of Judges, which you have already done, the first chapter, verse 21.
And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwelt with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.
We are going to get those Jebusites out of there today. You cannot abide that.
Verse 27: neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns.
And so on. Verse 29: neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, and the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. Verse 30: neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron. Verse 31: neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho. Verse 33: neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh.
And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain. This is verse 34: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley.
Look, something is wrong, isn’t it? God had sent His people into the land, and He said, “Drive out the inhabitants.”
One Scripture I failed to read in Ephesians—let’s look at it. It is very familiar to most of us; too familiar, much too familiar. Chapter 6 of Ephesians.
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
Now, I was reading something on spiritual warfare just recently, and the brother emphasized greatly the fact that once you got on this armor, all you had to do was stand.
I want you to look at this very closely. Is that what it says here? Is that what it really says here? Or is there one little phrase that might give you a clue that there is more to it than that?
“Having done all to stand.” Thank you for the call. That is right.
Now, you see, the children of Israel had come to a point where they had enough land to settle in, make their homes, raise some crops, and live a fairly comfortable life.
They said, “This business of really subduing the land and driving out the enemy is just too costly.” And they simply made a tacit—that merely means unspoken—agreement among themselves. They said, “We will just settle down, and we will live at peace with the inhabitants of the land.”
So, for three hundred years during the time of the judges, they had nothing but trouble. When they were not fighting to maintain a mere livelihood and their crops, they were fighting and killing one another.
And the enemy was there in the land. Ah, dear friends, the Lord has given us a land. We know the teaching well; some of us have heard of it for years.
This land is Christ. This land is to be entered into and taken for the Lord. But it requires a warfare.
And this warfare merely means that we never come to a place where we can settle down and rest and quit. There is a wonderful rest in the Lord, and the secret of winning this warfare is finding this rest in the Lord, which merely means we have ceased from our own works and the internal—the internal civil war has ceased—and we are able to turn our attention to taking some real ground for God.
Too many of God’s people—I remember years ago, a sister was talking to me, and she said, “I am saved, I am sanctified, I am solid.”
I said, “Sister, in about two weeks, you are in trouble.”
She looked at me: “What kind of a prophet do you think you are?”
In two weeks’ time, she was in serious trouble on all fronts.
And I sat down and told her some of these things. The minute you think you are saved, and you are sanctified, and you are solid, and you settle down, the enemy is waiting for that hour to encroach on all the territory that you think you have taken, and entrench himself. Then he is going to give you an awfully bad time.
Friends, we are in warfare until that ark is in that temple at rest that God is building.
Satan will never cease to retake in our lives the territory that we have taken, or think we have taken. And even if we can hold that territory, there is a lot more of Christ to be known. There is a lot more to the Christian life than any of us here have hardly begun to know.
If we could only be convinced of that and put ourselves on a stretch for the Lord to work out in our lives the things He wants to do, to carry us on and on and on into Christ.
Look at Hebrews 6: “Let us go on.”
And, friends, ninety-five percent of the New Testament is written for believers to get them to go on with the Lord.
So the Lord, in His earthly purpose at this time, is out to get this land into proper condition so He can raise up the proper people to build that temple and get the ark into it, finally at rest.
And when we come into Revelation 11, right before the man child is caught up to the throne, heaven is opened for a minute. John looks into it, and he sees the ark of God at rest in God’s temple, built by Him.
A lot to be done. And this is just about where we are, dear friends: right where we find the people of Israel at this time.
Will you turn to 1 Samuel 16?
And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.
And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go: I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided Me a king among his sons.
Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hear it, he will kill me.”
And the Lord said, “Take an heifer with thee.”
There is one tremendous lesson that anyone who is concerned with the real testimony of Jesus needs to learn from this account.
Samuel was sent to Jesse. As each of Jesse’s seven sons passed before Samuel, the Lord said, “This is not he. This is not the man after My own heart who is to lead My people Israel.”
Now, there was one, Eliab: tall, strong, beautiful, a goodly man. Samuel, as smart as he was and as experienced as he was, was about to make the same mistake that we so often make again. He was about to get another Saul on the throne, wasn’t he? The Lord said, “No.”
Oh, friends, this is a difficult one for us. We are such a people of knowledge and understanding of natural graces and gifts. Gee, what flattery!
We often have the idea—and this is a tremendous mistake that is made and is a source of immense difficulty among the people of God today. Here is what we think, the whole thing in a nutshell: we think that God is after our natural gifts consecrated to Him. And that is a mistake.
You say, “Well, I thought that was pretty good, sound Christian doctrine.” Friends, that is a mistake.
God cannot use for the building of His temple your natural gifts consecrated to Him. I am saying a lot. I am erasing at one fell swoop seventy-five to ninety percent of what is going on in Christendom today.
What God must have is a natural disqualification, so that we allow Him to exercise His spiritual gifts through us.
Now, I could go into Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 and show you that God has given to everyone who is in the body of Christ a unique bit of His Son with which He intends to build His church.
We do not like that. As a matter of fact, it is very fashionable today, and you can show that you are a rational, upright, understanding, fundamental, biblical person by sneering at the gifts, because some of them have been taken all out of proportion to what they were supposed to be used for in the church, exploited, and put on display.
But, friends, one of the things you will have to learn—we will have to learn—if God is going to build that tent here in Whittier for the ark, is that He is not interested in the consecration of all that you are by nature. So, hardly.
But He has given you something: a gift and a measure of His Son, which alone will contribute to the corporate measure of Christ.
And do you know what that means, dear friends? It means you are going to have to learn to walk in the Spirit. It means you are going to have to learn to walk with God.
So many of us cannot contribute that gift and that measure to the fellowship because we are not in the Spirit, and all we have is our natural equipment.
And, friends, it should not be so tough. It ought to be a comfort to you. On the other hand, you see, that does not disqualify the people whose natural equipment is so meager.
A lot of us are discouraged. “Brother So-and-so can speak, and I cannot. He has this, and I do not. He has that ability. He can earn money. He is so much better all-around person than I am. Therefore, I will let him carry on.”
And guess who is ruling in Israel? Saul.
When that happens, there is a great, swelled-up, insensitive-to-the-Spirit natural man.
So the Lord told Samuel, “Do not look on his countenance, or on the height of his stature. I am looking on his heart.” And God is looking at our hearts today.
Friend, superfluity of natural ability does not matter at all. I have just said a tremendous thing. I hope you are hearing.
Now, let us see what the Lord did with David to make sure that he would walk with Him. Chapter 17 of 1 Samuel.
And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.
And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
Some over nine feet tall—maybe about nine feet six inches. That is a very minimum. One of the giants.
And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.
And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a javelin of brass between his shoulders.
And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron.
A two-by-four. Anybody know how much that is in pounds? It will be easier when we get to grams and kilos, but right now it is pounds. Eighteen pounds his spearhead weighed—at least eighteen pounds.
And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
But you know the story. This is Goliath the giant. David’s father sends him out to the army where his older brothers are and sends him with some food.
Verse 26:
And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
Verse 28:
And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
Verse 32:
And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep; and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock.
And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.
And Saul said unto David, “Go, and the Lord be with thee.”
Well, we know the story. He slew the giant. But what we do not know, and what I have never yet heard properly emphasized, is this: exactly what did David predicate his ability to slay Goliath upon? Exactly what?
Well, we glibly say his trust was in the living God. Yes, that is true. And we could all of us here say we trust the living God. But when we are faced with an exploit, when we are faced with a giant, so often some of the brothers and sisters have to come and pick us up, brush us off, set our bones, and get us back into the action.
What is the difference? Experience? Experience, okay.
David had met a lion, and he had met a bear. Now tell me, is a man with a staff a proper match for a lion or a bear? No, not a bit of it.
David had proved his faith in God. He had met danger.
Now, let us see. He was out there with his father’s sheep. He could very easily have run and let the lion take one sheep, or maybe two. The bear, you know, could leap on one and the others would run. After all, that is not so costly. What is a sheep compared to his son?
He could have reasoned thusly, turned his back, and fled, as any hireling might have done—as we might have done, and, dear friends, as we so often do.
The Spirit of God came on David from the time he was anointed, and he was being taught to walk with God. He was being taught to learn the reality—the reality of God’s sufficiency against a lion and a bear, real-life situations in which hurt and loss were threatening.
We come to the Lord, and the Spirit of God comes upon us in innocence. We go quoting Scriptures galore all over the place, and when a lion and a bear come, we quote a Scripture which says somewhere—I have never been able to find it in the Bible—it says, “Discretion is the better part of valor.” I wish you would tell me where that reference is. I have never been able to find it.
No help from the audience? Oh, it is not in the Bible. Thank you.
No, friends, David had behind him a history, an experience, of the sufficiency of the living God. And, oh, how many times we have given to us by the Lord, arranged by His wonderful providence, a lion and a bear right in the way, and the interests of God at stake—not our own interests.
You see, we can turn and run without a bit of personal loss. But who loses? The Lord does, His people do, and we do in the long run.
You might say, “Well, I do not know. You had better come down to earth a little bit more and describe this lion and this bear.”
Well, I find it easier to describe the giants in the way than I do the lions and the bears. We each have a natural temperament.
Sometimes the lion is just pride. For young people today, it is a home situation where they have to learn obedience and submission. For other young people, it is that demon lust—sensuality. For others, it is the kind of music others are drawn into.
You should see some of the young people who came to our house on Tuesday night. One boy in particular, who a couple of years ago was dressed practically in rags, thin as a rail, with all the marks of drug addiction on his face—he was the biggest help in the meeting.
If Goliath had appeared on the scene, he would have leaped right in. He had met a real bear. You would see him now, you would not realize it was the same boy.
Friends, if you will walk with God, I can promise you that in your walk you are going to meet situations where the interests of God are at stake, and you have an opportunity to face enemies who would undo you but for His divine intervention.
But if you do not walk with God, you do not have that incentive to follow Him, to walk in His way, to seek out His direction for your life. You are not going to be ready when the real giants come along. And there are some giants.
Some of us right here in this room now are facing giants. Some of us are facing the giant of sophistry. Well, I could make a sermon on this to last the next couple of hours.
The biggest giant I see among us is the giant of sophistry. What in the world is that? He has got a funny name, hasn’t he?
I just said the giant despair. He is one of them. The giant doubting—he will put you in Doubting Castle, where you will stay for a long time.
But this giant is the peculiar affliction of people of our ilk. We know too much. We just know—or we think we know. We can quote Scriptures right and left. We have an answer for everybody and for everything, goodly right off the tip of our tongue. We have got the answers.
The only problem is, when we apply them to the giants that threaten our own existence, it simply does not work. They do not work. And we are slaves.
And we are picked up by the Lord’s people, and we are picked up by His resurrection life. Thank God there is a resurrection for all of His people.
Well, this lion and this bear take many forms. In some of our households, there is a disorder. And, dear friends, you are not going to be able to face the giant until that disorder is set right. It may be children and parents. It may be wife and husband.
And we think, “Well now, really, this is not too important to the Lord. I can ignore this one and go on. We will go on together, my wife and I, as partners, you know. The old gal is too tough for me anyway. We will go on as partners in the things of God.”
And we ignore God’s plain statement and His order. There are other things, and if I get into them, I would really be meddling. Gee, I would like to.
But they are all important, because when the day comes when we face the giants, we face those giants stripped of our spiritual ascendancy and power. And that is what it is all about.
Well, David slays the giant, and he is on his way. He becomes captain of a thousand under Saul. Then the children of Israel come in singing, “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
Saul eyes him from that day forward. Saul tries to kill him. He goes down into Philistia and almost has to fight the people of God, which would have been the end of him.
And for eight to ten years, he is chased as a partridge on the mountains. Gee, that is a pretty rough history to go through, isn’t it?
But you see, he is being prepared for a throne. He is being prepared to rule God’s people, to sit on a throne.
Well, not you and me, you know. We are being prepared to be humble, self-effacing, meek, quiet nonentities in the church, aren’t we? We are certainly not being prepared for a throne, are we? Or are we?
Oh, we are? Yes, we are. And when does that reigning begin? Now. Yes, indeed. God wants us to learn to reign in life now.
So David was going to rule among heathen nations. He was going to rule God’s people, and it took a lot of preparation. That is what it takes for us, because David was already a king. He had been anointed king. That was the first time he was anointed king.
Then, in 2 Samuel 2, shall we look at this? This is the second time he is anointed king. Saul is dead now, and the children of Judah—
Let us read 2 Samuel 2:
And it came to pass after this, that David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And He said, Unto Hebron.
So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail Nabal’s wife the Carmelitess.
And his men that were with him did David bring up, every man with his household: and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron.
And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
And they told David that the men of Jabesh-gilead were they that buried Saul, and David sent a word of encouragement and blessing and a well done to the men of Jabesh-gilead because they buried Saul. David also was a right kind of man.
Chapter 5 of 2 Samuel. Then there is a history of civil war. Ish-bosheth is king over Saul’s domain, and David is king over Judah, and probably Benjamin.
Chapter 5 is after the murder of Ish-bosheth by a couple of his commanders, and David puts them to death. They thought they would come to David and get a reward.
Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, it was thou that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed My people Israel, and thou shalt be prince over Israel.
So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord: and they anointed David king over Israel.
Third time. Gee, it takes a lot of kinging to get this fellow up as king, doesn’t it?
And David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
So, if you look at it very carefully, you will see that David was forty years old before he finally became king over all Israel.
He was first crowned king by Judah there in Hebron, and later on Israel comes to Hebron and crowns David king. This was a tremendous thing, no small thing.
We could make a lot of this matter of Hebron. Fellowship is the meaning of the word. Hebron is a place where Caleb had to displace the sons of Anak in order to take it. There were giants there.
And, dear friends, there are giants in the way of this matter of crowning the Lord King in our fellowship and making Him Lord, so that we have an order of things.
Yes, I know, we all love the Lord, and we all take our orders from Him. But some of the things some of us are going to have to learn are that our orders from Him can only be gotten through some other people in an order that He sets up. And that is a tremendous statement.
Now, the first thing David does in verse 6 of chapter 5—we are getting near the end here. Here is the first thing he does, and the second thing he does is the thing that we really want to get at.
And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither.
Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.
This elevated portion of Jerusalem was held by the Jebusites since the time the people first came into the land. Over three hundred years they had held this fortress.
And David goes in there and takes that fortress. It was impregnable. They said, “If you come up to fight with us, we will send out the lame and the halt and the blind, and they will turn you back, because the pass is so narrow, it is so difficult.”
Nevertheless, David took it.
And we know that this Zion represents the highest scriptural typology of the church. David was able to go in right into the stronghold of the enemy.
And, if we had time, we could bring in here that our greater David, in order to procure the church, had to go right into the stronghold of the enemy—into death—and bring up out of that death the new creation and the body of Christ.
And, dear friend, when you were born, you were baptized into the body of Christ. When you were born in the Spirit, you came up out of death in His resurrection, and you now have resurrection ground to stand on.
Now that David has taken the city of the great King, he is ready to bring the ark down from Kiriath-jearim.
And in 2 Samuel 6, we are finally going to get the ark to Jerusalem today. We are almost finished. Take heart, dear friends.
And David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.
And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him, from Baale-judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts that sitteth above the cherubim.
I thought the ark was at Kiriath-jearim. Hmm? I want to see if you have been doing any homework at all. That is just another name for Kiriath-jearim.
And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah.
Verse 6:
And when they came to the threshing-floor of Nacon, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen stumbled.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error.
Verse 9:
And David was afraid of the Lord that day; and he said, How shall the ark of the Lord come unto me?
So David would not remove the ark of the Lord unto him into the city of David: but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
And the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months: and the Lord blessed Obed-edom, and all his house.
And it was told King David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with joy.
And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.
Well, we know the story all too well, we think. Again, friends, this giant is going to get the better of us.
Many of the Lord’s dear people come among us here and wonder why we do not do things a different way, in a certain way which they know would be a lot more advantageous. And many times they say things.
Now, dear friends, I thank the Lord that the women of God today may be men of God. I do not think for a minute I am so chauvinistic as to think that the Lord does not have some tremendous functioning priest among the sisters. He does.
Thank God He does. Brothers, we would be left high and dry a good deal of the time.
I say that rather practically and wryly, but I mean it. That is the only way the testimony can be true.
And how many men? How about one good man? Could you have one enormous, strong, holy—the Christian counterpart of Goliath of Gath? Could you not have him put the ark on his shoulder and carry it? How about that? Wouldn’t that do? Save a lot of trouble, if you could find one.
Well, a lot of people think they are such a man. I have gone a lot of places and found him bearing the ark—or at least his brothers’ and sisters’ tent is bearing the ark—all under the one shoulder.
Now, this is a plurality of men, and David had to learn this lesson.
Bring the ark down there into that tent in Jerusalem. And David danced with all of his might before the Lord. He sacrificed an enormous number of sacrifices. Every time they went six paces, he made a sacrifice.
Hey, he made a downright fool of himself bringing that ark down into Jerusalem, didn’t he? And there was somebody there to tell him, right? Who was it? The wrong wife—the wrong wife.
Now, thank heaven, my wife does not do that. Let me exonerate her immediately. I could make ever so much a fool of myself, and she would not complain; she would say, “Hooray!”
Bringing the ark down into Jerusalem—the enemies, you know, shall be they of his own household, the Lord Jesus said. And it is true.
Here, friends, when we see the way of God and we see that He needs His tent in Jerusalem for the ark of His testimony, oh, how many people are going to think we are so foolish. “That just does not work. It just will not bring about the desired result.”
And let me tell you, dear friend, God’s hope, His plan, His purpose, the glory of His Son, the fulfillment of everything He has in His heart, is dependent upon His getting tents in the church that will be a sanctuary for the ark of God, the testimony of Jesus.
That is how important it is to Him. But it costs. It is nose-to-the-grindstone reality. It is laying aside of a great deal that Christendom has done and brings forth as the way to do it, even though they will tell you that way of doing it does not really bring the desired result.
Well, you have the tabernacle and all of these things of the tabernacle. The first thing they will say to you, “Yes, the ark is missing. The impact is not there.”
And one of the first things they will say when they come among a small company like this is, “I wonder where you get all of that light.”
Those who have their spiritual antenna unretracted and are unprejudiced say, “I wonder why you do not just share all that light with everybody?”
Friends would be blasted.
We could have classes. We could do it in the way of the Lord. Yes, you are circumscribed. You are limited in doing a lot of things. You are not limited in understanding. You are not limited in blessings. You are not limited in your giant-killing ability.
Some of us here have still to learn: these giants go down. They go down before those who have their faith in the living God and have a history with Him, facing the lion and the bear—a threat of great personal loss at home.
So the Lord is doing it. I do not think for a minute I am saying that here in Whittier we have the only little tent on earth in which the ark may be held. There are many of them. Many of them have gone on longer than we have, and there is much more of the glory, the impact, the life, and the speaking.
But, dear friends, take heart. We are in the way. God will honor our faith in Him.