Let us turn in our Bibles now as we hear from
God. Let's go to 2 Samuel chapter 6. What we're
doing, as we have been for a while, is a series
on the life of David. I hope this has been a
good series for you and we're going to continue
that with what I'm going to say is it's a difficult
passage. And yet there's something that's very
very good for us And so let us give special attention
to the reading of God's holy word second Samuel
6 I think the bulletin says 1 through 15. I'm
going to stop at verse 11 David again gathered
all the chosen men of Israel 30 ,000 and David
arose and went with all the people who were with
him from Baal -el -Judah to bring up from there
the Ark of God, which is called by the name of
the Lord of Hosts, who sits enthroned on the
cherubim. And they carried the Ark of God on
a new cart and brought it out of the house of
Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and
Ahiyo, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the
new cart with the Ark of God. And Ahiyo went
before the Ark. And David and all the house of
Israel were celebrating before the Lord with
songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and
castanets and cymbals. And when they came to
the threshing floor of Nakkan, Uzzah put out
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 struck him
down there because of his error. And he died
there. beside the Ark of God. And David was angry
because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah.
And that place is called Perez Uzzah to this
day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day
and he said, how can the Ark of the Lord come
to me? So David was not willing to take the Ark
of the Lord into the city of David. But David
took it aside to the house of Obed Edom the Gittite.
And the ark of the Lord remained in the house
of Obed -Edom the Gittite three months. And the
Lord blessed Obed -Edom and all his household.
This is God's holy word. Let's pray. Father in
heaven, we thank you for your word that is a
lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We
thank you for your word that is living and active
and sharper than any two -edged sword. We thank
you that you've given us what we need. And so
Lord, we trust that you will grant us understanding
and application of this text now. We pray in
Jesus' name. Amen. In 2005, there was a news
item that caught my attention. Maybe it caught
yours. The Northwestern University women's lacrosse
team was invited to the White House to celebrate
their championship. That's not really all that
noteworthy. That happens a lot, that sports teams
are invited to the White House. But what caught
the media's attention was the fact that the athletes
were all wearing flip -flops to the White House.
It caused quite a stir. It became known as Flip
-Flop Gate. Now, the real issue behind that incident
wasn't really the flip -flops. It was more, how
are we to be in front of, before people who are
deserving of honor and respect. So if you're
wearing flip -flops today, no condemnation. But
it did generate a lot of interest. And I got
to thinking this week, especially in light of
this passage, which is about reverence. Have
you ever been in a situation in which you needed
to show reverence? You might be racking your
brains, but you don't have to, because you are
in one right now. You are in a reverential situation
right now, today, that as we gather for worship,
we do so to give glory to God, because he is
holy. So when we come into worship, we are to
offer our best in worship. But you might say,
how? How do I regard God as holy? How do I really
revere God? I want to offer you... three ways
from our text today, that since God is holy,
we must revere him with a right relationship
for him. We must revere him in obedience, and
we must revere him in preparation. Now, before
we even get to those, you might be asking, well,
what is the holiness of God? This is an incredibly
big question and big topic. What is the holiness
of God? Have you ever thought about that? Probably
the quickest answer we would say it's moral perfection
and that is true, but it's more than that. God's
holiness is his supreme absolute greatness over
everything that he has created. God is completely
transcendent above all of his creation. And we
believe that because we've prayed that today.
How does the Lord's Prayer begin? Hallowed be
thy name. We as Christians are to regard God
as holy. And so how do we do it? Looking into
our text, well, we're reminded that God had covenanted
with the Israelites. He had covenanted with the
Israelites. He had not covenanted with the Philistines
or any other people group. God had covenanted
himself with the Israelites. And one of the ways
in which we can see that he did that is he gives
them an ark of the covenant. If you wanted to
know more about the Ark, you could go to Exodus
25 and chapter 37 to read about it. It was ornate.
It was a beautiful box made of this beautiful
wood. It had gold on it. It had the cherubim
on it. And it was the furniture in the Holy of
Holies. And it was where Moses met with God to
represent the people in prayer. No other people
group had the Ark of the Covenant. But some of
these other people groups did know. about the
Ark of the Covenant. You don't have to turn there
unless you just want to. It's not far away. But
1 Samuel chapter 4, 5 through 9. Listen to this.
1 Samuel 4, 5. As soon as the Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave
a mighty shout so that the earth resounded. And
when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting,
they said, What does this great shouting in the
camp of the Hebrews mean? And when they learned
that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp,
the Philistines were afraid, for they said, a
god has come into the camp. And they said, woe
to us, for nothing like this has happened before.
Woe to us. Who can deliver us from the power
of these mighty gods? These are the gods who
struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague
in the wilderness. Take courage and be men, O
Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews
as they have been to you. Be men and fight. God
had not covenanted with the Philistines. The
Philistines didn't have the ark. They didn't
have the meeting place. They didn't have the
tabernacle. They didn't have the Ten Commandments.
They didn't have the Holy of Holies. They did
not have God. And so as the Philistines and as
the Israelites are gearing up for this battle,
knowing the Israelites have God and have his
ark, this must mean that the Israelites won the
battle, right? Wrong. The Israelites were obliterated.
The Israelites were destroyed in this battle.
So what gives? What was going on there? At times
throughout history, ancient history with the
Israelites, they had a much better relationship
with the Ark of the Covenant than they had with
God. The Israelites had a better relationship
with the Ark of the Covenant than they had with
God. The Ark is a great thing. It symbolized
God's presence for sure. But the Ark, and please
hear this carefully, the Ark was not God. Any
more... then your church membership is God or
your baptism is God or the Lord's Supper is God.
To be sure, great things, pictures of God's mercy
and grace and holiness and presence. And when
we gather for worship, even with those sacramental
things, something glorious is going on for us.
We are giving glory to the Father through the
Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. But in order
for any of those signs and seals, to mean anything,
we have to have a right relationship with God
through Christ. And so friends, it's not enough
to just be a member of the church. That's a good
thing. And I'd be glad to talk to you about membership
any other time. And to be sure, it's a good thing
to have right theology. And I would love to talk
to you about theology. Do it any time. And to
be sure, it's a good thing to listen to praise
music on the way to work in the morning or a
good podcast. I love those things, too. But we
have to have a right relationship with God through
Christ in order for that to mean anything for
us. Jesus laid his life down so the veil was
torn, so that you could, through the Son and
by the power of the Holy Spirit, be declared
righteous before God. You Christian, born again,
indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You are justified
and you are secure in Christ, but saved people.
People who have a relationship with God revere
God. God's people are his saints. The word saint
comes from the word holy. And saints regard God
as holy because he is. And so you have to have
a right relationship with him. But secondly,
we also must be obedient. Christians are to be
obedient people to God. The Israelites show us
that through their lack of reverence for God,
they plunged into disobedience within the story.
The Israelites, you'll remember, they bring the
ark into battle and then they lose, they're crushed.
What's really happening there is the Israelites
were treating the ark of the covenant like a
good luck charm, as if it would save them. And
so they lose the ark It goes to the Philistines.
And you might remember that the Ark ends up in
different Philistine cities. And what happens
in each one of those cities, the people are afflicted
with harmful tumors on their bodies, right? Until
finally, they say, we can't take this anymore.
Get it out of here. Let me read to you 1 Samuel
6, 7 through 9. 1 Samuel 6. This is the Philistines
returning the Ark. Now then, and as I read this,
pay attention to the language of this and see
if it sounds anything like our passage for today.
Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two
milk cows on which there has never come a yoke,
and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their
calves home away from them. Take the ark of the
Lord and place it on the cart and put it in a
box at its side the figures of gold Which you
are returning to him as a guilt offering then
send it off and let it go its way and watch Did
you hear any similarity in the language of first
Samuel 6 with second Samuel 6 There's a phrase
in there that's present in both chapters and
it's this phrase the new cart and basically what
this tells us is is the Israelites are treating
the Ark of the Covenant in the same way as the
pagan Philistines. Both of them put the Ark on
a new cart. We might even argue the Israelites
get the idea from the Philistines. You might
say, what's so wrong about that? What's so wrong
about transporting the Ark on a new cart? After
all, we know the Israelites as they were being
led by David. They had several miles to go. So
what's so wrong about this transportation of
the ark by cart. Well, quite honestly, it's disobedient.
It's disobedient. Listen to this from Exodus
25. Exodus 25, 13 through 15. These are instructions
regarding that ark. You shall make poles of acacia
wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall
put the poles into the rings on the sides of
the ark to carry the ark by them. The poles shall
remain in the rings of the ark. They shall not
be taken from it." The ark had handles. Why does
anything have handles? For the purpose of carrying,
listen to this from Numbers 415. Numbers 415.
And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering
the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the
sanctuary, as the camp sets out after that, the
sons of Kohath shall come to carry these. But
they must not touch the holy things lest they
die. The job of the Kohathites was to care for
the holy things of God. And Uzzah, the one who
reached out and touched the ark, was most likely
And so his job description was clear. Here's
how you're supposed to transport this. So we
see from it that the disobedience of the Israelites
and the disobedience of Uzzah actually happened
a long time before he ever reached out his hand.
Now you might say, well, wasn't this a good thing
that he did? Wasn't Uzzah preventing catastrophe?
We almost expect God to say, Uzzah, thank you.
We don't know of his intentions, but it sounds
reactionary, just like he reached out as you
might catch something that was falling. It sounds
like good intentions, right? It's hard to rely
on our good intentions, though. As Christians,
we have to rely on the very word of God and obey
it. That was the problem here. The problem was
a lack of preparation. Oftentimes, our visual
disobedience is generated by a secret lack of
preparation over time. The problem is that we
sometimes neglect the things of God, the things
that were created and given to us for our good,
for our growth and grace. Sometimes we've been
doing this Christian thing for a good long while
and we start to fade away from these things and
we start to think that they are mundane. That
the holiness of God becomes the half -heartedness
for God, becomes the hostility toward God. I
heard a term not too long ago that has stuck
with me that I think really defines the American
church and defines the church really in the West.
It's apotheism. Apotheism. That if we're not
careful to tend to the means of grace, we become
indifferent to the things of God. We become indifferent
to the maker of the heavens and the earth. We
become indifferent apathetic to the author of
our salvation. But friends, God is holy. R .C.
Sproul used to put it like this. He would read
portions of scripture and he would say, God is
holy, holy, holy. And then he would point out
that while God is just, scriptures don't say
that he was just, just, just. The scriptures
don't say that God is kind, kind, kind, or that
he is love, love, love. He is those things. But
the scriptures say that God is holy, holy, holy.
And if you could use one word to sum up God,
it would be holiness. And so Christians, we need
to see worship as anything but mundane. We need
to see it as the most important thing that we
do, that we give glory to God. That's why we
were made. And do you know this today? That God
is in your midst. That he is in our midst as
we worship him. And that he is greatly to be
praised. Knowing that, shouldn't that cause us
to really consider who we are as Christians?
Shouldn't that cause us to really consider what
we're doing when we worship? Shouldn't that cause
us to consider how we approach God in prayer?
God condescends to be with us in worship. This
change is who we are in this space, and this
change is who we are outside of this space. And
so for this reason, whether you've been at this
church for nine weeks or 90 years, you've probably
seen that the elements of our worship don't change
a whole lot. We can evaluate how we worship,
but the elements don't change a whole lot. And
the reason for that It's because the elements
of worship are derived from scripture. We believe
in a holy God and this holy God tells us how
to worship him from scripture. And so you're
always going to have a reading of scripture.
And you're always going to have prayer. You're
always going to have preaching. You're going
to have the tithes and the offerings. You're
going to have sacraments on occasion. We don't
have to get innovative with our worship because
God tells us how. And yet if I can compare worship
to the Israelites and what was going on in second
Samuel Six, we can say that the Israelites, they
were getting innovative with this, weren't they?
They took notice of what the Philistines did
and they transport the ark in this way. They
put the cart before the ark, so to speak. They
tried to follow a better way. They're godless
neighbors. They put the Ark of the Covenant on
the new cart and the oxen stumbled and Uzzah
reached out his hand to study that. R .C. Sproul
once said, it wasn't the ground that would defile
the Ark of the Covenant. It wasn't the ground.
Because the ground does what the ground's supposed
to do. What defiled the ark was the touch, a
sinful man. Now this is a sermon series on the
life of David. And so you might be saying, where's
David in all of this? Where's he at? Well, you
can see from the text, he's leading the people.
He's doing a good thing. He's leading worship.
But after this happens, he's grappling with what
has happened. He's trying to figure it out. He's
angry, and then he's afraid, and then he's back
to dancing David, but he's showing us emotions
that you may have right now. As you read this
text, you may be angry. As you read this text,
you may be afraid. If you're feeling any of those
emotions, you're probably like me. You're probably
like me in that we are all still grappling with
the idea of God's holiness, and we are still
grappling with the heinous nature of our sin.
If you're feeling those things, I understand
you. And yet the more that we give ourselves
to the worship of God and the study of his word,
we have a greater understanding of his holiness.
But all of this, David shows us that leadership
is critically important in matters of holiness.
Why does God assemble everybody there? What are
they doing? They're assembling for worship. And
so we need godly worship to remind us of the
holiness of God. The church must hold fast to
the gospel of the holy risen Jesus Christ, and
we must trust the Lord of this church to provide
that whatever our days ahead, whatever our weeks,
whatever our months in our year, we must grasp
two things, and I begin to close. We must grasp
two things. One, God is holy. Period. Nothing
else to add. But secondly, through Christ, by
His life and His death and His resurrection,
God has provided a way for unrighteous people
to be declared righteous. God, through His risen
Son, has provided a way for unlovable people
to be loved. God, through His Son, has provided
a way for unholy people to be holy. And it's
only by the grace of the holy, holy, holy God
Christ by His Holy Spirit. Let's pray.