And the title of the sermon this evening is Doing Things God's Way.
Doing Things God's Way.
And what I want us to get from the sermon is that we must learn how God wants things
done and then we must do them the way that God wants things done.
And we see here this example of David is somebody who learned from his failures and mistakes.
He's the one who is somebody who failed to do things God's way and then learned to do
things God's way.
I think it's a good example because of the fact that we as sinners, we as just the flesh
that we are in, we are going to make mistakes.
We are going to fail.
We try to minimize that, but we have to be careful today because there's people out there
that will tell you that if you're truly born again, if you're saved, that you are to strive
to attain some sinless perfection and that people will teach you that you can reach a
level where you no longer sin anymore, that these people are out there.
And that's just not true and it's dangerous.
And what you're doing is you're setting yourself up for an even bigger fall.
It's a person who realizes that they have feet of clay.
It's the person who realizes that they are capable of sin that is going to do better,
that they're the ones that are going to be more careful, they're the ones that are going
to exercise more discretion and judgment and caution in their life and trying to minimize
the amount of sin that is able to creep into their life, minimize the mistakes that they
make and spare themselves of any suffering as a result.
You see, the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 24, I'll read for you, it says, For a just
man falleth seven times and riseth up again.
You know, the just man, the one who's justified, the one who's saved, the one who's born again,
he is going to fall.
In fact, the Bible says here, a just man falleth seven times.
He didn't fall just once or twice.
He falled many times.
He falls multiple times.
But the Bible says that he riseth up again and he goes on to say, but the wicked falleth
into mischief.
Both of these men fell.
One rose, one didn't.
What makes the difference there?
I believe the Bible tells us the difference between the two in Proverbs 28 where it says,
He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall
have mercy.
Happy is the man that feareth always, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into
mischief.
That's that phrase again.
The wicked shall fall into mischief.
The one that hardens his heart shall fall into mischief.
He does not rise again like the just man, because the just man is the one that realizes
that he has to confess his sin, that he has to forsake his sin.
He's the one that's going to say, I've fallen, I've erred, I've made a mistake, I've sinned
against God, and confess it and ask for forgiveness.
And he, the Bible says, shall receive mercy.
He that who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
But it's the wicked man, he won't do that.
He's going to fall into mischief and say, you know, I didn't do anything wrong.
You see, the wicked, he that hardens his heart, he's the one that doesn't rise again.
They both fall.
They both make the mistakes, but one is willing to say, you know what, I've fallen, I'm sorry,
I've done wrong, and he is able to rise up because of the mercy of God.
Bible says in Proverbs 30, such is the way of an adulterous woman, she eateth and wipeth
her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.
The truly wicked person is somebody who's not ever, you know, is somebody who would
never be willing to admit wrong to him.
That's an evil and wicked heart to say, you know, I've never made a mistake, I've done
no wrong, as this woman has said.
I mean, the picture that it's painting there, you know, it's kind of shocking, such is the
way of an adulterous woman, and that's a wicked sin.
She eateth and wipeth her mouth, I mean, she sits down and eats like nothing happened,
like it's just another day.
She might have gone and wrecked some home, ruined some life, destroyed some family, and
she just sits down and eats, and she wipes her mouth, and gets up, and says, I have done
no wickedness.
Well, that woman has fallen, and she is going to suffer the consequences, and she will have
no mercy.
The Bible says in 1 John, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
You know, we're not fooling anybody else.
You ever run into that person out soloing and says, well, you say, hey, you know, we're
all sinners.
Well, not me.
It's very rare, but I've actually met people like that and say, well, I don't sin.
I don't sin.
They're not fooling me.
You know, I know what the Bible says.
The only person they're fooling is themselves.
They're not fooling God.
God sees them, and the Bible says that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not on us, but if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That's the difference between the just man who's able to fall and rise seven times.
He has the humility to say, you know what, forgive me, Lord Jesus, to confess, to forsake,
and understand and rest upon the promise that God is just and that He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.
The just man, he that confesses his sin is the one that rises again and finds mercy.
And I believe as we do that, as we go through our Christian lives and we grow and we make
mistakes and we fall and we confess and we rise again, we begin to experience the mercy
and the grace of God in our lives, in that process we start to learn about God's character.
We start to learn some things about the way God is.
And one of the first things that we learn is that God is merciful, and that's an attribute
that God ascribes to Himself in the Word, that He is long-suffering, that He is ever-merciful,
and that He's quick and ready to forgive.
We learn in that process that God is merciful, but we also learn that He expects things done
a certain way.
We start to learn, well, why is it that I fell here?
Why is it that I made this mistake?
It's because I didn't understand how God wanted things done.
I didn't realize that this was something that God disapproved of.
Why didn't I realize God wanted this certain thing done in another way?
That's something else we'll learn, not only will we learn that He's merciful and kind
and willing and ready to forgive, but also learn along the way that He wants things done
a certain way.
And I believe David here in this story of 1 Chronicles 13 and 14, we'll see that, that
David is someone who made a mistake, and then he learned that God wanted things done a certain
way.
The Bible says in 1 Chronicles chapter 13 verse 1,
And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader.
And he said unto all the congregation of Israel, If it seemed good unto you, and if it be of
the Lord our God, let us send abroad to our brethren everywhere, that are left in the
land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and Levites, which are in the cities
and the suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us, and let us bring again the ark of
our God to us, for we inquired not it at the days of Saul.
So David here is actually wanting a good thing.
His heart is probably in the right place, wouldn't you say?
He wants the ark of God taken out of those heathen lands.
He wants it back in its homeland, he wants to be able to inquire at it.
But that's really where he makes his first mistake, because he forgets that he should
have began inquiring in the first place with God.
Because what does it say in verse 1?
It says, He consulted with the captains, and thousands and hundreds, and with every leader.
He didn't consult with God.
He didn't inquire of the Lord.
Lord, I want to bring the ark back.
What would you have me to do?
How are we to do this?
What's the process here?
Would this please you?
No, his heart's in the right place, yes, but he doesn't take the time to find out the way
God wants things done.
And he goes to every leader.
You see, the Lord often, that ought to be the first person we ask.
When we're wondering about what's God's will in this situation, what does God want me to
do in this situation, what does God...
It's great to go to God to counsel, you know, the multitude of counselors that are safety,
the Bible says.
It's great if we're surrounded by people who know the Bible, or have lived a Christian
life, people that have experienced certain things that we can go to and ask, why is counsel
up?
But they should not be the first people we go to.
They should be a very close second, but the first person we need to go to is the Lord.
We need to go to the Lord and ask him in prayer, and ask him to show us in his word what it
is that he expects in this situation.
The Lord should be the first person we ask, and that's where David went wrong here.
And you have to wonder, when he went to these leaders, what kind of advice did he really
get?
What was the quality of the advice?
You know, did any of these leaders suggest David to inquire of the Lord?
Did they say, hey David, maybe you should go ask God?
No, it sounds like they just said, yeah David, go ahead, that sounds good, why don't we get
everybody together, we'll get the Levites and everybody, and we'll bring again the ark,
we'll gather all the people together, that sounds good, let's do it, we'll kind of figure
out as we go along, you know, we'll find a cart, and we'll draw it out, and we'll just
do whatever.
I mean, after all, the point is, we're just trying to get the ark back.
Who cares how we do it?
We're trying to do a good thing.
You know, we'll make an application, just some specifics in our life a little bit later
in the sermon, but apply that where you will, whatever area of your life, hey, it doesn't
matter how I do it, as long as I just do this.
We have to be careful that we're doing things God's way, especially leaders like David.
They must take it upon themselves to seek God's leading.
They have to look for what God wants them to do, how He wants them to do it.
You see, good intentions and enthusiasm do not make void God's method.
Just because your heart's in the right place, just because you're enthusiastic about it,
just because you're well-intentioned, just because you think you're doing the right thing,
if you're not doing it the right way, that's going to be a problem.
You don't just get, it doesn't make it the way, avoid God's methods.
God still wants things done a certain way.
The Bible says there in verse 6, and David went up in all of Israel to Bela, that is,
which belonged to Judah, to bring up fence the ark of the Lord, and that dwells between
the chariot of him, so his name is called on it.
And they carried the ark of God in a new cart, in a new cart.
Now if you recall, we're going to get into this, that's not how they were to do it.
They carried out the ark of God in a new cart out of the house of Abinadab, and Uzzah and
Ahaiot raved the cart, and David and Israel played before the Lord with all their might.
I mean these guys are enthusiastic, they're excited about what they're doing.
They say, here comes the ark, and they play with all their might, they had all the instruments
out singing and hearts and psalteries and timbrels and cymbals and with trumpets.
I mean this one's a big to-do.
They've got all these people, got a lot of eyes on the situation, a lot of people cheering
them on, it was like a big parade it sounds like.
They're making a big deal out of it.
The ark's coming back, it's been gone, we didn't acquire it all the days of Saul, that's
let's get this thing back where it belongs.
Good intentions, a lot of enthusiasm, but they're not doing it right.
You see in verse 7, amidst all of that pump, amidst all of that show, everything that man
would look at and say, wow what a day, wow look at the cymbals, listen to the trumpet,
look at how they're dancing and singing and playing with all their might, look at the
ark how beautiful it is.
Isn't this great?
Amidst all of that that was going on, it was verse 7 that caught God's eye.
Bible says in verse 7, they carried the ark of God in a new cart.
God looked down and saw that and said, wait a minute, what's this?
What are you doing right here?
That's not how I told you to do it.
Let's go ahead and see how they were supposed to do it.
You see, God's not going to get distracted by all the puff and all the pump and everything
that man puts on and all the enthusiasm that we get worked up.
Go ahead and turn to Numbers chapter 4.
He's not going to get distracted by that and neglect the details, the things that He told
us to do.
You see, the Lord had given very specific details concerning the moving of the ark over
in Numbers chapter 4.
We're going to read some scripture here, Numbers chapter 4 and verse 1.
Pay attention here, because God, see how specific and how detailed God gets when it comes to
moving the ark.
He says in Numbers chapter 4, beginning in verse 1, the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron,
saying, take the sum of the sons of Kohath, for among the sons of Levi, after their families,
by the house of their fathers, from thirty years old even upward, even until fifty years
old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.
This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation about
the most holy things.
And when the camp seteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down
the covering veil, and cover the ark of the testimony with it, and shall put there on
the covering of badger skins, and shall spread to it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put
in the staves thereof.
And upon the table of the shewbread, they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put there
on the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and to cover withal, and the continual bread
shall be thereon.
And they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with the covering
of badger skins, and shall put in the staves thereof.
And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick of the light, and his lamps,
and his tongs, and his snuff dishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister
unto it.
And they shall put it, and they shall put it, and all the vessels thereof, within a
covering of badger skins, and shall put it upon a bar.
And upon the golden oracle shall they spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with the covering
of badger skins, and put to the staves thereof.
And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanctuary,
and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with the covering of badger skins, and
put them upon a bar.
And they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a cloth, a purple cloth
thereon.
And they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof, wherewith they minister about it,
even the censors, and the flesh hooks, and the shovels, and the basins, all the vessels
of the altar, and they shall spread upon it a covering of badger skins, and put it to
the staves thereof.
God was very specific, down to what color the cloth was going to be.
It's going to be blue, it's going to be purple, it's going to be scarlet, it's going to be
the cloth, then the badger skins, then this, then that, you're going to put this here,
you're going to put that there.
He's very specific about the details, but did they do any of this, is this how they
moved the ark?
I mean the ark was the very first thing that he tells them about.
He says, and when the camp said that a foreign heir shall come and his sons shall take down
the covering veil, and cover the ark of the testament, this is verse 5, with it.
They were to take the veil between the most holy and the holy place, sons of Aaron were
to take it down and cover it, that veil over it.
And then they were to put upon the covering of badger skins, and spread it over a cloth,
holy of blue, and put in the staves thereof.
And that's how they were to carry it.
And it was to be the sons of Kohath.
He said, hey the sons of Kohath, from 30 to 50 years old, this is going to be their job
to move these holy things.
And this is how they're to move it.
Not on a new cart.
See God wasn't impressed with everything, he was more concerned about how things were
getting done.
The Lord had given very specific details concerning the moving of the ark.
You see, and they learned very quickly here, and unfortunately, that disregarding God's
directions, it comes with consequences.
God's not just going to go, well, you know, I prefer he did it this way, you know, I know
I asked you to do it that way, but that's okay, do it however you want.
No, God said, this is the way I want it done, do it this way.
And it comes with consequences when we disregard the way things God wants done.
Doing things the way God wants things done.
Look at verse 9.
And when they came under the threshing floor, or verse 9, I'm sorry, I should have told
you to keep something there in 1st Chronicles 13.
Just keep something in 1st Chronicles if I have you moving in.
And we're going to be back in Numbers 4, so keep that in mind as well.
So 1st Chronicles 13 and Numbers 4, I need you to stay there.
But if you go back to 1st Chronicles 13 and you look at verse 9, we'll see the consequences
that came when they disregarded the directions that God had given them.
I mean, were those not very specific directions?
Could not God have been any clear about the way he wanted it moved?
Who he wanted to move it, what he wanted on it, and when and where they were to move it.
It says in verse 9 of 1st Chronicles 13, And when they came under the threshing floor
of Kaidan, Uzzah put forth his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled.
It wasn't even that Uzzah was curious, but wondered what the ark feels like.
Or he didn't want to go, hey, I want to go back and say, hey, I touched the ark.
It was because the oxen stumbled, he was concerned.
He was worried that the ark was going to fall off onto the ground.
And how embarrassing that would have been to him.
He wanted to stop it, put his hand to it, but his intentions were good, weren't they?
Verse 10, And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he smote him, because he
put his hand to the ark, and there he died before God.
Now remember we talked about Bible reading this morning?
This is one of those shocking stories, wow, God killed a guy for just touching the ark?
He did.
There's a reason why.
The Bible says in verse 11, And David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach
upon Uzzah.
Therefore, the place is called Perez-Uzzah to this day.
And you say, that's pretty harsh of God, wow, that's a pretty stiff punishment for just
touching the ark.
But when we think about it, God was already cutting them a lot of slack, and you'll see
here in a minute just how much slack God was cutting these people.
Because I'm telling you right now, these people weren't even to be looking at the ark, let
alone touching it.
Uzzah never should have laid his eyes upon the ark, let alone touched it.
If you're still there in Numbers 4, turn back.
Numbers 4.
They weren't even to see the ark.
David shouldn't have been looking at it.
Most of the people there shouldn't have been looking at it.
Very few people in the Bible were allowed to look at the ark.
It says there in Numbers chapter 4 in verse 18, Numbers 4, 18 says, Cut ye not off the
tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites.
Now remember in the beginning of the chapter, it was the Kohathites that were to move everything,
right?
Well how are you going to move something without them looking at it?
And now here he is saying in verse 18, cut ye not off the tribe.
You know what cut ye off means?
It means don't kill them.
He says, hey look, don't kill the Kohathites.
He says, I don't want these guys to die.
Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites, but
thus do unto them that they may live and not die, like Uzzah did, right?
When they approach unto the most holy thing, Aaron and his son shall go in, not the Kohathites,
Aaron and his son shall go in and appoint unto everyone to his service and to his burden.
But they shall not go in to see the holy things that are covered, lest they die.
They were not to go in and see it.
See if you remember in the story, Aaron and his sons were the ones that were to take down
the covering and cover the ark and put the badger skins on and put the cloth on and make
sure everything was covered so that when the sons of the Kohathites came to grab that thing
by the staves that were put there in, that they would not see it, lest they die.
He's saying, don't kill them.
I don't want these guys to see it because it was only Aaron and his sons that were to
ever see the ark.
It was very select people.
So really, when we read this story back in 1 Chronicles 13, and we say, wow, God killed
a man for touching the ark, well hey, you know what, God didn't kill everybody for looking
at it, which they were not supposed to do.
God already cut them quite a bit of slack.
They put it on a new cart and they had some oxen dragging the thing out.
They said, well maybe they didn't know, they had the Bible.
They knew this.
They had all this written down.
This is one of the first things God gave them, the word.
They said, hey, this is how I want it done, and they just completely disregarded it.
Maybe some of them didn't know, but some of them certainly should have known.
You see, God should have killed Uzzah just for looking at the ark.
What does it say in verse 12?
Go ahead and turn back to 1 Chronicles 13.
Bible says, and David was afraid of God that day, saying, how shall I bring the ark of
God home to me?
So David brought not the ark home to himself to the city of David, but carried aside into
the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
Now David has the right attitude, doesn't he?
Doesn't say, David fumed, he got bitter and angry and said, how dare God, Uzzah was my
buddy.
We were trying to do something for God, what was wrong about the way we were doing things,
Lord?
It doesn't say that.
It says, what does it say in verse 12?
And David was afraid of God.
That's what a story like this should put into our hearts, a fear of God, of knowing that
God, He wants things done a certain way.
And if we just get loose in our life and just feel like we can just do whatever we want,
or maybe we're doing this so it's okay if we go and do some bad things, maybe we're
going to church and we're going soul winning, so now it's okay for me to go out and commit
this sin, God will understand, God will give me some grace.
Think again, God, the proper attitude should be fear.
We should say, wow, God is not to be trifled with, God is somebody that takes things very
seriously.
And David has the right attitude, he got his heart right, but at what price, Uzzah?
That's what it took.
It took a man who had to die before David got the fear that he should have had in the
very beginning.
When he got the idea to move the ark in the first place, he should have said, let's make
sure we do this right.
He should have had that fear then.
Uzzah still would have been around, probably a good guy, Uzzah, Uzzah, Uzzah, I keep going
back and forth, I don't know if he's right, but he might have been around, he might have
made it, I wonder if that guy had a wife and kids, what it cost him.
That's why it's important for leaders, men in our homes, even moms, leading children,
they need to make sure that they have that right attitude, that fear, to making sure
they're doing things right, not after the consequences, but so that those consequences
never have to come.
The Bible says in Proverbs 9, I'll read for you, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom.
So David's got some fear in him now, and now he's able to start to get some wisdom.
You see, when we have a fear of the Lord, when we have a reverence for God and a fear
of God, that's when I think God is ready to start imparting to us some wisdom, where
he's starting to say, okay, now I'll start to teach you some things, because you're not
so puffed up and full of yourself to think that you've got it all figured out.
You understand that there's consequences for doing something wrong, you've got some fear
in your heart, and now I can start to teach you.
That's why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Now if you would, turn over to 1 Chronicles 14, just one page over.
And David in 1 Chronicles 14, this thing happens, this happens, Uzzah dies, they turn the ark
into the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite, and God starts blessing Obed-Edom, and that's
really another interesting sermon, the fact that God would bless a Gittite, if we recall,
the Philistine of Gath, he was the Gittite, Goliath was a Gittite, so here's God blessing
a heathen nation, a heathen man living in a heathen nation, a man who was not of the
children of Israel, for having the ark in his house, that's another kind of separate
thing.
But that kind of takes place, and David just kind of goes back to Jerusalem, the Bible
says there he kind of marries a multitude of wives, he's just kind of going about his
life.
If you recall, he ends the chapter kind of saying, how shall we bring the ark of God
back, how are we going to do this, he didn't really know, he just puts the ark away, stops
what they're doing, you know, at least he had enough sense to stop, at least he had
enough sense to say, whoa, we must not be doing something right, let's put this aside
and not do it anymore until we figure out how to do it right, that's a good philosophy.
But then I think, you know, because he had that fear and God recognized, okay, now David
starts, he's ready to learn the lesson I want him to learn, and the lesson that he wanted
him to learn from all this is that God wants things done a certain way.
Look at 1 Chronicles chapter 14 verse 8, you know, David's back in Jerusalem, kind of living
out his life, things are moving along.
The Bible says in verse 8, 1 Chronicles 14, it says, And when the Philistines heard that
David was anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went out to seek David, and David
heard of it and went out against them.
And the Philistines came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
And David inquired of God, and David inquired of God, who's the first person he goes to,
he's starting to learn his lesson, he's got a problem on his hands, he's got something
he's not sure how to handle, the Philistines have come up, they spread themselves in the
valley, a worthy adversary, someone they've been going back and forth with, you know,
people, I mean the Philistines, if you recall in David's early life, were whipping Israel.
It wasn't until David showed up and defeated Goliath that they were able to do anything
about him.
So here's this, this, this adversary, this worthy adversary that's come back, and David
the king has the right attitude, because he's finally got some fear in his heart.
But how does God want things done?
What's he do in verse 10, And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the
Philistines?
Look, Lord, do you even want me to go do this?
I wonder if he would, why didn't he ask that back in the beginning of chapter 13?
Lord, do you want me to bring the ark back?
Would this be pleasing to you?
Yes, David, remember, here's how it's to be done.
No, he just jumps into it.
So David inquires of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines, and wilt thou
deliver them in my hand?
And the Lord said unto him, Go, go up, for I will deliver them into thine hand.
You see, David here, he finally has the right response, and he's ready to learn.
When we do a thing the way God has instructed us, it is God that gets the glory.
When we finally learn to say, You know what, I'm just going to do the way God wants me
to do it.
And people will say, Hey, good job on that, or that turned out really well, you did a
good job there.
Well, I just did it the way God wanted it done.
Man, your family, your kids are so well behaved, you guys got such a good marriage.
That's really great.
Well, it's because I'm doing things the way God wants them done.
But God gets the glory, doesn't He?
That's what happens here in the story in verse 11.
So they came up to Baal-parasim, and David smote them there.
Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by my hand.
He said, Yeah, it was my hand, but it was God that did it.
God was the one that told me to go up.
God was the one that said, Yeah, I will deliver them into thine hand.
Like the breaking forth of waters, therefore they called the name of the place Baal-parasim.
He said, by my hand.
We can rejoice when God works through us, but we always remember that it was God working
through us.
So David's got this right attitude, finally.
He's fearing God.
When he comes up against the situation, what's he doing?
He inquires of God.
Should I do this?
How should I do it?
So it seems like David's got it down, right?
He's learned his lesson.
God tests him again, almost in just a few verses later.
Look at verse 13, and the Philistines yet again spread themselves abroad in the valley.
He feeds them, God delivers them, he goes, and the Philistines yet again spread themselves.
They come right back.
It's the same enemy in the same place.
And to David's credit, he has the same response.
Think how easy it would have been for David at this point to say, Well, we just went through
this.
It's the Philistines.
They're in the valley of Rephaim.
We just beat them.
This just happened.
Of course God wants me to go up and have that attitude to just say, Hey, no problem.
We got this.
And not acquired of God.
Is that my kids?
Linda?
She's out cold.
It's past her bedtime.
And to David's credit, he has the same response.
The Bible says in verse 14, Therefore David inquired again of God.
He inquired again of God.
He didn't have that attitude.
He said, You know what?
I still fear God.
I know we're going to whip these guys, but let me make sure.
I know we just beat these guys, but let's make sure that's what God wants.
Why are these guys back?
And that's when God starts to deliver, I believe, his lesson, where he starts to really drive
home the fact that God wants things done a certain way.
Look what it says there in verse 14, And God said unto him, Go not up after them.
Turn away from them, and come up over against the mulberry trees, and it shall be when thou
shalt hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt go
out to battle.
For God has gone forth before thee to smite the host of the Philistine.
You see, God has a completely different method of attack, despite it being the same enemy,
in the same place.
Why?
Why is it that God chose a very different way?
In fact, he said, Don't go up that way.
Come around this way this time.
It's the same enemy in the same place.
They just went through this.
Why is God changing things?
So that David would learn God wants things done in a specific way.
David learns his lesson, and he goes up, and if we read the story, he goes up and he defeats
them.
He wins the battle again.
He does exactly as God has said.
He goes up to the mulberry trees, he listens for the sound of going, and he goes out and
defeats his enemy.
He inquired of God, and did it exactly as he was to do.
And David learns his lesson.
If you look over there, and look at chapter 15 verse 1, David's going back.
Now that he's learned this lesson, all of a sudden he's figured out, oh God wants things
done a certain way.
Maybe we should take that and apply that knowledge to how we're going to move the ark.
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.
And David said, not to carry the ark of God but the Levites.
Is that right?
Yep.
They figured it out.
Oh!
We just can't have these oxen dragging them on a new cart, the ark on a cart.
It's the Levites that are supposed to do it.
For then had the Lord chosen to carry the ark and to minister unto him forever.
And David gathered all of Israel together to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord
unto his place, which he had prepared for it.
And David assembled the children of Aaron and Levites of the sons of Kohath.
So who does he get?
He gets the Kohathites, the people that God said, they're the ones that moved the ark.
So David's learned his lesson, oh that's why he took out Uzzah, because God wants things
done a certain way.
Yeah, he had to go through the battle of the Philistines, but he learned his lesson that
God wants things done a certain way.
And he owns up to his mistake and gets it right.
Like the just man that fell, he confesses it, he understands now, and he's given mercy.
He owns up to his mistake.
The Bible says in verse 11, David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priest and for the
Levites, and for Uriah, and Messiah, and Joel, and Shemaiah, and Eliyahu, and Amenadab,
and said unto them, 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 our God of Israel unto
the place where I have prepared for it.
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.
He's owning up.
He's saying, look, I made a mistake, we messed up the first time.
But now I understand that God wants things done a certain way.
He wants things done after the due order.
So the priests and the Levites sanctify themselves to bring the ark up the ark of the Lord God
of Israel.
See, he confesses his sin here in this passage, and he finds mercy, and joy is restored once
obedience is established.
Once he says, you know what, I made a mistake, I messed up, let's do it this way, let's do
it the way God wants, let's do it at the due order, then they are able to have joy.
It's the same way in our life.
We mess up, we've been doing things the wrong way, we find out, oh, this is how God wants
it done.
That's why I was having all this trouble.
That's why it seemed like God was against me.
That's why I had all these troubles in my life, because I wasn't doing the ways God
wanted them done.
And then we say, now let me do them the way God wants them done.
And what do we get?
We get mercy.
And after that, what do we get?
Joy.
That's when we're able to have joy in our life, when we begin to walk in the commandments
and the ways of God.
The Bible says in verse 25, so David and the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands
went up to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obed-Edom with
joy.
They weren't even afraid of what might happen because they knew they were doing it right.
Don't you think they might have been a little gun-shot after what happened to Uzzah?
Hey, let's go get the ark, uh, David.
Do you remember what happened last time?
Remember what happened to Uzzah?
Yeah, yeah, I know.
Right?
But they learned their lesson.
And he's able to go get it, and he knows because he's doing things the way God wants them done,
he's able to go there and do it with joy.
Not with fear, not having to look over his shoulder, wondering if God's going to crack
him over the head, wondering if something's going to go wrong, wondering if he's going
to get punished because he knows he's being obedient, because he knows what God wants
and now he's going to do it the way God wants, he's able to do it with joy.
We can apply that to so many areas of our life.
However we want to, you know, God's, you know, I pray God's moving upon your heart, speaking
your heart now, about where you need to apply this lesson in your life.
But one area of application I think we can apply this is in the area of soul-winning.
Now I've often read this passage in chapter 14 where he talks about the sound of going.
And then I've always wanted to preach, I always thought that would make a great sermon to
the man, the sound of going.
And I've really tried to squeeze a sermon out of that phrase, but I can't.
Because it's in the context of this chapter, right?
And I believe that's what we need to preach, is in the context.
It'd be great to just tear that out and say, the sound of going, preach, try to preach
some great soul-winning sermon, and maybe one day, Lord willing, I'll be able to, but
I think if we look at this, but if we look at this in the context, we can apply this
lesson that we've learned in here about obedience to the area of soul-winning.
And there are some parallels, let me get over there to 1 Chronicles with you.
I'm going the wrong way.
1 Chronicles chapter 14.
You see one area where we can draw some parallels is the fact that David was told to go up.
When he's listening to God, how does God want things done?
When he inquired of the Lord, when he had some fear in his heart, the Bible says David
was told to go up, look at verse 10.
Therefore, David inquired of God, and God said unto him, verse 10, David inquired of
the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines, and will thou deliver my hand?
And the Lord said unto him, Go up.
Now are we not also told to go today?
Are we not also told, does the Lord not tell us today to go?
He does.
We did that this afternoon, didn't we?
We came back from lunch, we got some supplies together, we took a look at the map, and we
walked out that door to go knock on the doors of our neighbors to try to preach to them
the gospel.
But what did it take?
It took us going.
It took us having to get up and walk out and put our feet one foot in front of the other
and get out there.
The Bible says in Mark 16, and he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel to every preacher.
And it sounds like such a simple command, and it is.
And that's why it's so dumbfounding that so many people don't understand it.
And when I say people, I mean independent, fundamental Baptists.
People who ought to know the command of God is to go, that if they want to see souls saved,
that they want to see their churches grow, they need to obey God in this area and go
and preach the gospel.
And I'll never forget the time I heard an independent, fundamental Baptist preacher
stand up and say, God, send us a great harvest of souls.
And that's what they do.
They build these buildings and they say, send us souls, Lord.
And God says, go!
Go get the souls.
They're already there.
I've already sent them.
They're waiting for you.
You're the one who has to go.
But people, they'll say up and down, one side, down the other.
Well, we're not Calvinists.
But God send us the souls, if they're supposed to get saved, they will.
That's Calvinism, buddy, you know, creeping into your heart and putting a wet blanket
on your soul winning, on your evangelism.
The clear command is to go.
So that's the first parallel we can see in this passage.
David was told to go.
We need to learn the obedience here, that God wants things done a certain way in soul
winning.
That God wants things done in soul winning is for us to get up and go.
The word to God that the Baptist churches in Tucson and Phoenix and Arizona and this
country and the entire world would understand this, this one command, to go.
Notice also in this area, this parallel I want to draw here, that David was also told
to turn away, wasn't he?
Look at verse 14, Therefore David inquired, this is after the Philistines come back up
again, right?
Therefore David inquired again of the Lord, and God said unto him, Go not up after them,
turn away from them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.
Here he's telling them, retreat, and say no, don't go up that way, he's saying turn away
from them, come up another way.
You know, we're also told to depart in certain circumstances.
Once we go out there, we're going to run into people that God wants us to depart from.
We're going to run into people, if we're obedient to that first man to go out and go and knock
on doors, we're going to have some people open those doors, there's going to be some
people standing on the other side of that door that God expects us to turn away from.
That God wants us to go away from and come up another way and go knock on another door.
You know, the Bible is very clear about this, Matthew 10, and whosoever shall not receive
you, nor hear your words, when ye depart of that house or city, shake off the dust of
your feet.
God says if there's some city that doesn't want to hear what you have to say, don't even
let the dust of their city clean to your feet.
Have nothing to do, you know, and we can really apply that soul winning, this is something
I think especially early on in my soul winning career, whatever you want to call it, is shaking
off the dust.
It's one thing to say, you know, okay, I'm going to leave this, you know when you should
leave the house, but then you walk away and you're constantly thinking about it, you have
some bad experience, some cantankerous jerk at a door who's like, ah, you said be here,
this is trespassing.
Well, how did you get in here?
There's a lock on that gate.
And you can say, you know what, we're going to go and you leave and you leave, well, maybe
even you don't even get upset, but it's in the back of your mind and you're thinking
about what a jerk, oh this guy, okay.
Those type of experiences, and this is a good soul winning tip, try as hard as you can to
put, immediately put that person out of your mind and move on to the next door.
Always keep in front of you the fact that there's somebody out there that wants to hear
it.
That if you go long enough and you knock long enough and you sleep long enough, you're going
to find somebody who's going to say yes, yes, I want to hear, preach me the gospel and they're
going to receive it.
So don't let the jerk at the door, don't let that dust of that guy that doesn't want to
hear your words cling to your feet, cling to your mind, cloud up your mind.
God tells us to leave certain people, but when they persecute you in this city, flee
you into another.
Don't stick around.
What good does that do to the work of God to sit there and argue with somebody?
For verily I say unto you, you shall not go to the city of Israel, for the son of man
be come.
Titus chapter 3, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings
about the law for they are unprofitable in vain.
A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition, give four, five or six
more admonitions to.
Is that what it says?
It says reject him.
The guy who does it just wants to argue and start throwing out just all these stupid,
ridiculous arguments and is a heretic and is spewing blasphemy and let me just be real
clear what I mean by this.
I'm not talking about an unsaved person who is just not getting it.
That's not a heretic.
That's not what I'm saying.
Well I've tried to preach this guy the gospel once or twice.
I have this family member that I've preached the gospel to and they're just not getting
it.
They don't want to get saved.
That doesn't mean they're a heretic.
It's when they start saying things like, well you know I believe that Jesus and the devil
are the same person or that they're brothers like the Mormons believe.
They start just spouting out some heresy.
That's a heretic.
That's the guy that you reject.
You know I can think of a guy that was out soloing a few weeks back, knocked on his door,
said yell, go ahead, give me what you got, started taking it to Romans, got into the
devi of Christ.
Well Jesus and the devil are the same person.
Gave him a few scriptures, gave him one, gave him another one a little more sternly and
then I just told him, look, what you believe is wrong, the Bible is clear that Jesus is
God and that Satan and the devil are not God and I just gave him a real stern rebuke
and I politely said, have a nice day, sir.
I have to go.
I didn't sit there and argue.
God expects that God wants things done a certain way and this area of soul when God does not
want us to stand there and argue with people.
Just reject him.
Give him a couple of admonitions and then get out of there.
He that is such subverted and sinneth be condemned of himself.
He's condemned of himself.
There's nothing you're going to say to sway him.
Another thing of application here we can make in this passage in 1 Chronicles 14 about how
God wants things done in the area of soul winning.
God was told to look for God, David was told to look for God's moving.
You look there in verse 15, and shall it be when thou shalt hear a sound of going in the
tops of the mulberry trees and then thou shalt go out to battle for God has gone forth before
thee to smite the host of the Philistines.
God was so awake until I moved.
When you know that I'm with you and you see me moving then you'll know that I'm with you.
We should look and we go out, we pray before we go soul winning and one of the things we
pray and ask is God go out before us.
I pray that your spirit would touch the hearts of the people that we're going to speak to
and that you would guide us to those doors that would be receptive and you'd help us
to quickly depart from those doors that would not be receptive.
We should look for the spirit to move upon and sway the hearts of those that we preach
the gospel to.
And a lot of times I think people need to look for this while they're preaching the
gospel to somebody.
You know, I've seen people, they'll be deep into their gospel presentation and the person's
just like, yeah, uh huh, yeah, yeah, yeah, half paying attention.
Be very careful with teenagers about this because teenagers and young people often they're
still too shy to say, no, I don't want to hear what you have to say.
They'll go ahead and say, yeah, go ahead because they, they're awkward.
They don't know how to say no to an adult sometimes, often in fact.
So that I've, and I've done it myself and I start preaching, you know, I'm 10 minutes
into a gospel, five, 10 minutes in the gospel presentation where it finally dawns on me,
this kid does not care at all what I'm saying.
They want to go back to their Insta Twitter and their, you know, all that, everything
else they're into and they don't want anything to do with me.
And I'll ask them sometimes, so what I do now, if I sense at all that a young person
is just giving me a yes because they're too shy to say no, I'll say, are you sure?
I said, there's nothing wrong with saying no, I really want to preach this to you.
And then I'll say, no, because here's the thing, you say, well, you should preach it
anyway.
They don't want to hear it.
The Spirit of God isn't, isn't moving on their part.
They're not allowing that to be, they're not allowing themselves to be swayed.
They're not even there with you.
They're not listening.
Why would you waste your time there?
Why would we sit there and say, well, you know, I want to plan a seed, you know, give
them a verse, say, hey, you know, I'm going to go, but I want you to think about this
one verse.
You probably do more of one verse in that circumstance, give them one thing to think
about than to sit there and go, try to go through the whole, the whole thing when they're
half listening and they're half getting it because by the time you get to the end, you
start asking questions, they're going to give you all the wrong answers and you just wasted
all that time.
We should be looking for the moving of God's Spirit when we're preaching to these people.
You know, I just, I really love the, the language in that verse, it says when you hear the sound
of going in the tops of the mulberry trees.
I've often thought about that verse when I've been out soloing and I'll be the silent partner
sometimes.
I can think of more than one instance where I've been just listening, seeing somebody,
you know, tentatively just paying attention, hanging on to every word of some soul winner
and he's preaching them the gospel and you can hear the rustling of the leaves of the
Bible and it reminds me of the Spirit, you know, just moving the, you know, the moving
upon those trees and the story and you can start to see the heart, their hearts begin
to sway and bend as they start to, you know, become tender to the things of God and understand
the things of God, become convicted about the things of God by the Spirit of God.
It's a really, it's really something to sit there and see that happen.
To see the Spirit of God move upon somebody's heart through the power of the gospel, not
through the power of the wisdom of our own words, not through our own clever illustrations,
not through our own assertive personalities, but by simply opening up this book and showing
them and watching God move through His word and sway their hearts.
It's powerful, it's amazing, gets me every time I see it.
Jesus said in verse 3, verily and verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou is here's not the sound thereof.
Thou here's the sound thereof, but canst not tell where it cometh and where it goeth.
So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
We should seek to know and obey God's commands.
In this area of so many, you know, go, first off, I think we drove that point home, go.
You know, and know when not and when to leave, and know how to look for the moving of God
and moving His Spirit and moving upon these people.
Are they with you?
Are they with you as you present the gospel or are they just half-heartedly listening?
We should know when to seek and obey God's commands in all areas of life, not just so
many.
You know, and really I was thinking about this, life really isn't that complicated,
you know, in all the areas of life, you know, and as we grow older, there's just, it seems
like life is compartmentalized into just some big categories, church, family, work,
you know, what in these areas are we should, where we should allow God to instruct us what
it is that He wants, how we should conduct ourselves to be obedient to God's commandments
in these areas.
Because here's the thing, ignorance is not an excuse.
I didn't know God, sorry.
Well, did you have a Bible?
Did you have the Spirit living in you?
Did you have a preacher?
Did you have godly friends?
Did you have the opportunity to pray?
Ignorance is not an excuse.
We can't say, well, I didn't know God, why are you punishing me?
You should have known.
Uzzah might not have known better.
Uzzah might not have known, hey, it's not for me to be moving the ark, I certainly shouldn't
be touching it, but did that change God's mind when His hand reached out and touched
the ark?
Oh, Uzzah doesn't know any better.
It's not his fault.
He should have known.
David should have known.
You know, it's interesting in that story, you never see David, and then David got out
the book of Numbers and read in the law where it says that none but the coethite should
move the ark.
It just says in the next chapter, after he fights the Philistines and learns that lessons,
none but the coethite, the sons of Levi, should move the ark.
I tend to think that he already knew that.
Maybe he had forgotten.
We don't see in the story where he learns that knowledge.
He just knows it all of a sudden in chapter 15.
But even so, ignorance is not an excuse.
And if you aren't ignorant, if you do know these things, how you ought to conduct yourself
and obey the Lord and what His commandments are and what He expects, that makes you all
the more accountable.
The scripture doesn't state that David learned how to move the ark after the death of the
Uzzah, but he knew somehow.
You see, when we know what it is that we're supposed to do, we're more accountable.
Jesus in the parable of the servant said, and that servant, which knew his Lord's will,
he knew his Lord's will, and paired not himself, neither dead according to his will, shall
be beaten with many stripes.
He's going to get a sore punishment.
But he that knew not, the guy that was ignorant, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall
be beaten with few stripes.
Ignorance is not an excuse, but you might get a little bit slacker punishment.
Who likes getting punished at all?
The options aren't just many stripes and few stripes.
There's also the option of no stripes.
But if we just did the things that God wants, if we know what God wants us to do and we
just did them, then we could do those things and have joy in our life and know that we're
being obedient to God's commandments and that God can bless us.
I hope that's been a blessing to us.
Let's go ahead and pray.
Heavenly Father, again, thank you for the Bible, thank you for the clear instructions
that we have from it.
Lord, help every one of us to take heed to our ways, Lord, as we read the Bible, as we
gain knowledge, as we understand and grow and know more about your will and what it
is you want for us to do in this life and how we ought to live, to be pleasing to you.
Help every one of us to take heed, and Lord, help us to seek to please you in all areas
of our life.
And Lord, if there's something we don't know, if there's some area of life that we're not
sure what it is you would have us to do, help us to inquire in you.
Help us to go and seek your face and to seek your will and your word, to know what it is
that we ought to do, so that we wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of disobedience,
which are sure to come.
Father, I pray that you bless everyone here this evening, thank you for them.
Help us all to go back safely to our homes, and that we be back this Thursday for a midweek
service.
We love you and thank you.
In Christ's name, amen.
Amen.