1 Chronicles 13, I do as we read these two different sections, we'll just read the first one and then later on read the chapter 15. We want to see the similarities and also the differences. And we'll notice that their worship is the same in both, but there's a drastic difference between the outcome of either. There in 1 Chronicles 13.1, and David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds and with every leader. And David said unto all the congregation of Israel, it seemed good unto you that it be of the Lord our God. Let us send abroad unto our brethren everywhere that are left in all the land of Israel and with them also the priests and Levites which are in their cities and suburbs and may gather themselves unto us. and let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we inquired not in it in the days of Saul. And all the congregation said that they would do so, and the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. So David gathered all Israel together from Shirah of Egypt unto the entering in of Hamath to bring the ark up from Kerjah Jemrut. Let's pray together, please. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for all Thy blessings You give us in Christ Jesus, and help us to understand and realize the good worship and proper worship before Thee, and that we not be carried away by things, but we see and check that Thy Spirit is in it, and we're led and directed by Him. And Lord, we just look that You'd bless each one here. We pray Your mercies be upon those without Christ. And Lord, that You would energize all of us and strengthen us. that in all things you might receive honor and glory. For in Jesus' name I pray these things and for his sake. Amen. Then in verse 9, And when they had come to the thrashing floor of Chittim, and then Uzzah put forth his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he smote him. And because he had put his hand on the ark, and there he died before God. And David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah. Therefore, the place is called Persia-Eusuf at this day. And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me? and we know he left it there with the family of Obidum, and then they departed. Now, we see David loved God and reverenced Him, and this was the symbol of God's presence, the Ark of the Covenant. It had gone with Him through the wilderness, and of course it was built at the time of Moses and it came through and they kept it in a tent and part with all the sanctuary stuff there, the Holy of Holies and the candlesticks and the holy place and all those things were kept under cover and then wrapped up when they went forward. And then in the time of Levi, the priest, his two sons, if you remember, were wicked sons, and they took the Ark of the Covenant to fight when they were fighting against the Philistines, and they took the Ark of the Covenant, and the Philistines told them, so us be brave, let's fight like men, and they took the Ark. And then we know their god Dagon fell down once, And the part fell off, and then the next time it fell down again. And then there was all the diseases that was connected with it. And so the fellow steams kept it seven months. And then they brought it out and back to Curgeon-Gibbon. And it abode in a house there for a time. And it sat there for about 100 years. And then, of course, David said, in all the days of Saul, they hadn't inquired of it. They didn't make the journey over there. And it's about 7 to 12 miles. As the crow flies, it wouldn't have been that far, but as the roads would go, it's around 7 1�2, 12 miles to where the ark was. And they made arrangements that they would go there, as we read, and that they would take up the ark. And so they, in verse 7, and they carried the ark of God, a new cart, out of the house of Ambenadab. And Uzzah and Aho drove the cart, and David and all Israel played before the Lord with all their might, with singing, and with harps, and with psalms, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpet. And so there was a big celebration, and they were rejoicing in the streets. I mean, that would be just a minor thing to say compared to what they were doing. You had all these people from Egypt all the way up into the far reaches of Israel, and a large group was there to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. happy, they were celebrating, they were dancing before the Lord, they knew they were doing the will of the Lord, as we read in the first few verses there, that they thought it was of the Lord, and all the counselors said they believed it was of the Lord, and David consulted with two different groups of counselors, if you noticed, they all said they thought it would be a good thing to do, and so they were all doing it, and they were bringing it in, and they were celebrating and praising God all the way, and yet in this joy it turned to sorrow at the death of Yusuf. And we would say from that they had a high service until that point. Now when Jusa died, then we say, well, that wasn't such a high service. There was something wrong here. Did God intentionally send them that way that this man would die? Well, what was the cause of it? What was the problem? And David didn't know. Others standing around him didn't know at this time what the problem was. And so David was greatly afraid of God at that time. The tragedy of Jesus' death was the first inkling that something was wrong. Up to that time, they thought everything was perfect. And I would say you had never been in a service like they was having that day. I mean, we would call that a high service that they were having, and yet, in the end, we know that God wasn't in it. And the reason God wasn't in it, because they wasn't doing it God's way. We find that he did not seek God, he did not seek God's way. We know that the king was to write a copy of the law. This was one of the requirements God required of all the kings when they became kings. They was to make a handwritten copy. They would copy it themselves, and then they were supposed to read it every day, and so David should have known how the ark was to be carried, but whether he had done, obeyed God in that, we don't know for sure. They tried again to bring the ark from Obedom's house to Jerusalem. About halfway they made it, and as before, they were celebrating. They were praising God. And this time, though, they went all the way to Jerusalem because it was after the due order, because they had done it God's way and not man's way. So there are several things we want to look at between the two of those celebrations. The failure in 13, there were a multitude, and David and all Israel, and yet the bitterness came to naught. And so the number of people doesn't make a difference of whether it's of the Lord or not. We see as they come together, the large crowd. didn't ensure that God's blessing was upon it. They had the best music you could imagine. I think that all the primary musicians were there. The choir was tuned up, and they was all happy as they went along. And if you remember about the Levites, there was a group of them that was the choir, and they would sing, and all the musical instruments and all these things would have been played, and they sang with hearts and trumpets. It was something to behold, the glorious celebration. It had no guarantee, though, of grace and mercy. They thought that God would be enthused, if you will, as they were about bringing the Ark up. And again, it was the will of the Lord for the Ark to go to Jerusalem. That is absolute fact. But the way and method that they used was the problem. They were very energetic, enthusiastic. They played before the Lord God with all their might. And so, again, it wasn't a sleepy service. It wasn't, you know, people sitting there saying, oh, the preacher through yet? Or, you know, that was a draggy song or something like that, you know, just looking out the window. And, of course, when I was a kid, we had bigger windows to look out. And people would look out and just trying to, you know, pass the time away, get it away from them. But that wasn't the kind of service this was. I mean, this is a foot-tapping, celebrating, shouting service that they had that day. They had no thought that God's command, and David confessed it in 1 Corinthians 15, 13, "...because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for we sought Him not after the due order." And so no matter how enthusiastic we are, no matter how grand the service, no matter how wonderful everybody thinks it's going, if it's not after what God calls us to do, then it's not pleasing in sight of God. And let me say as we get into the other passage in a little bit, that we'll see it's the same identical thing. I mean it's the same thing, only one of them was accepted by God and one of them wasn't. It was again a high service. exceptional music, everything, everybody was there, and they were excited about getting the Ark to Jerusalem. And the priests and the Levites were there, but they used neither of them to carry the Ark. They used modernized methods. They had an ox and a cart, and they had taken their place. Maybe David had Time time restraints we could say well. He's just in a hurry had to get it done that that seven and a half twelve miles and They arc would fit better on the cart And they wouldn't be so much trouble and it would be a short time and duration to get a home quick And they it could have be thought that God forbid giving them a cart that carried the Holy Spirit place and the holy things and furniture in the wilderness, but they was no longer in the wilderness. They's in modern times. They was in Jerusalem now. They's in the promised land. They weren't out in the wilderness no longer. I know that some doctrine changed because of the way people think that we're modern now, and the old methods are just wasteful or we shouldn't neglect them because they have nothing to do with the church today because we're a modern church. We're modern people. And yet there are things that God requires, whether we're modern or old, it doesn't matter what age you live in, the requirements of God are still the same. as we mentioned, would not now forbid the cart. It was more expedient and less trouble in the eyes of the people, and they could spend all their time serving God, and the priests could join in, the Levites and the Kohathites could lead in, I mean gather in for all the people, and instead of having to carry all the furniture and all this stuff, they could be part of the celebration as they went along. And so they was on their way to Jerusalem. It was much faster, much easier. Everyone used the oxen by that time in the cart in 1 Kings 12, 28, and 32. Wherefore the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go to Jerusalem. This is Jeroboam. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And Jeroboam ordained the feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and offered upon the altar. So did Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made in a place in Bethel, and priest of the high places of which he had made." Sometimes the church is just too far away. It's just too far away to go to a true church, a real church. It's just too far away. But we've got one down the corner here. We've got a church on every corner. We're still amazed. I mean, we have a lot of churches out there. Not like we got here. I mean, not churches. Also, how many churches, as we turned in, are there here? And you've got churches everywhere. So why should it make any difference where you go to this church, that church, that and over there? It doesn't make any difference. And Jeroboam, He was afraid they would go down to Jerusalem and they would want to reconnect with the southern kingdom and they would come up and kill him. So he invented a new religion. He got the two calves and he put them in Bethel and Dan. and he ordained priests of the lowest kind for that, and he offered the sacrifices, and their worship times happened to coincide with the worship down in Jerusalem. So there's no use in going to church down there where God is. Just stay up here and worship the calves, and so it's more expedient, and sometimes God's people think that expediency is the best. And whether David and them thought expedient for the cart, we don't know. The only thing is they've done it the expedient way. cost them a life. There's no sacrifice nor anything that said about sanctifying outside of God's given methods for them to do. And all of these things pointed to Jesus Christ, if you will, in the original temple worship. And here Jeroboam, he just scrapped all of that and said, We've got a religion just like that. It's just a little different. And you know, they had built the calf in the wilderness And they had washed them in Egypt, so you know it was kind of reverting back and bringing to remembrance these. And He called it, of course, the God that brought you out of Egypt. Yet another fatal flaw, or we cannot serve the Lord a part and a sacrifice. In Hebrews 13, 15, By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. We notice in David moving the cart the first time, no sacrifices. They just went up, picked it up, put it on the cart, and they just started singing and praising and moving on down the road. until they come to the threshing floor. And so they was doing it their way rather than God's way. And there was a little reverence, if we hear just maybe a little prayer, get things started, hear much about the ox and the cart, and then the fatal hand, or the too familiar hand of Usa. Now even David must keep his place. Wheel worship is not accepted by God at all. We might think what we're doing is wonderful. You can be doing what you think God would have you to do, but if you're not dependent upon God and you're just dependent upon yourself, then it's willed worship, and God doesn't receive or accept that. He was supplanted, if you will, God's command. Therefore the Lord made a breach upon Usa, and David was much afraid. Now God blessed when the Philistines put the ark on the carpet. Just think about it. The Philistines. When they said, we've got to get rid of this thing, it's killing us. And so what they did, they got them a new cart and they got them these oxen and kept the calves tied up and said, well, if it goes over there, then it is the God of Israel. If they don't, if they just go off the road, then it wasn't them. So they put the ark on a cart, and they went on down the road, and of course they took it into Curjah-Jerum, and the oxen went all the way. They didn't go to the left, they didn't go to the right, they didn't stop to eat, they just went on down the road until it was where they were supposed to be. The Levites took the ark off and put it down, and that's where it stayed until the time of of David and them. Of course, we know that there was many killed that look in the Ark. I thought, you know, this is the way it is with people. They knew, God forbid it, them looking in it. And I would think after the first ones looked in, they would think maybe that wasn't a good idea. But there was many that died because they looked into the Ark. Now, David could have said, well, the Philistines did it. They put the Ark on the cart. and they pulled it with oxen, and they had no problem. As a matter of fact, God blessed them, and that is that the plagues just quit, went away when they got rid of that ark out of the land. Then they was restored, and so they was blessed by it. So they could say, well, God blessed that, so He's going to bless us doing the same thing. Let me say what God blesses evil and wicked people with. It is that He allows them to do toward Him is one thing, but what He allows His people to do is an absolutely altogether DIFFERENT thing because we're supposed to know better. We are supposed to be the children of God, the examples of God, the ambassadors of God, and so we must do it God's way and not men's way. They may have expected similar things that would happen to them. God would bless it with an ark and a cart, but it didn't bless it at all. Are all observance and practice of our church spiritual? And are they scriptural? And we need to know that what we're doing is what God would have us do, not say, well, I don't think it matters if we do it this way or that way, you know. We could say, well, the baptistery only fill up halfway and we can't get them all the way under. We'll just kind of slosh some water over them and call that baptism. Well, God might let some ignorant people, if you will, lost people or somebody get by with that, but He wouldn't let His people get by with it. It's just like looking out the window at the church next door, and they're doing all kinds of things. It seems like God's blessing them in it. And you think, that's what we need to do, preacher. We need to do that. And we do that and almost go under. Why? There's a difference between God's people and those that are not His people. That is, His church and those that are not. His church cannot do what the world can do. Even though they may be Christians in the groups they're in, but still yet, those that are God's people in His church, there's a difference. The fear came upon them in 1312. The terrible death, the Yusa, caused great fear among them, especially David. The Lord slew Nadab and Amihu for offering strange fire before him there in Leviticus. Because they went in there, they offered not according to the custom, not according to the way that God told them to, because we know they were drunk when they went in there. But nonetheless, they offered strange fire, and God burned them up in that. Well, the Scripture says, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh on me, and before all the people I will be glorified, and Aaron held his peace. And God sanctified them by fire. It's a severe thing, and it's a foolish thing to go against what you know to be God's Word. He said, Well, it doesn't matter. You know what that is? Lack of faith. That's a lack of belief in the Lord God. That is the evidence that we don't believe the Scriptures when we can go off script and don't really think it matters. If we're God's people, we can't go off script. God just won't bless us. Then David said again, Verse 11, David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Usa. The word displeased here is to be red-hot mad. He was ANGRY because of the Now he had done everything. He had got the ark, he had got the cart, and he had the oxen hooked up, got all Israel there. He is leading the celebration as they are going down the road to the threshing floor, and as they reach the threshing floor, that's when it happens, and David got extremely mad. And he had such a sense of unworthiness, and then we find that he feared the Lord. And when he feared the Lord, that means he is devastated, filled with fear. And so he is mad and he is fearful of God. And he says, how can I bring it home? In other words, this is it. I am gone. I am getting away from here because this is too tragic a thing that has happened. And David went away, and of course all Israel did. There's an intervening chapter there. David meant well, but sin. The ark of God remained with Obedem three months. 1 Chronicles 13-14. Some make the holiness of God and the strictness of His rule an excuse for wicked neglect. Well, you know, if we do that, we might get in trouble. We don't do it right, so just don't do anything. God's not going to bless that either. Others are overwhelmed with holy fear, therefore they pause a while until they get, if you will, settled and prepared for the holy service. Then in 1 Chronicles 15 and 1, And David made his house in the city of David, and prepared a place for the ark of God. and pitched for it a tent. And then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God, but the Levites. For them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever. And David gathered all of Israel together to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the Lord into his place, which he had prepared for it. And David assembled the children of Aaron, and the Levites, and sons of Kohath." And of course Kohath is the one that's supposed to carry the ark. of that tribe or that family. And we'll take up our reading a little bit later in the passage. In 2 Samuel 6, 12, and it was told David, saying, The Lord has blessed the house of Obedom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. This was what stimulated me, if you will, guided me, gave me the idea, again, we need to search into this and bring the ark unto Jerusalem. God blessed those that took care of the Ark of the Covenant as God does bless all those, if you will, that show Him favor and that do the things that He calls us to do. And especially in this situation where there had been a breach in the way that they served. And David, a man after God's own heart, is the one that if anyone was terribly mad, and fiercely so, and also at the same time terribly afraid. Preparation was made and thought was exercised by David this time, and this time they did it after the due order. And he says, so the priest and the Levites sanctify themselves. God must rule over all of our methods that we use that it might be to the honor and glory of God. There in 1515, And the children of the Levites bear the ark of God upon their shoulders and staves their own as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord." And so they, and we see that, let's go ahead and read the next verse. And so the Levites appointed Heman, son of Joel, and of his brethren, Asop, and son of Bererach, and sons of Merah, their brethren, Ethan, and son of Koshemoth. And so they, the singers we see is later on, they're going, verses, let me skip down to verse 26. And it came to pass when God helped the Levites that bared the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and they offered seven bullocks, seven rams, and David was clothed with a robe of linen, and all the Levites that bared the ark, and the singers, and Chinnereth, the master of the songs with the singers, David also had upon him an ephod of linen. Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant, of the Lord was shouting with sound of cornets and trumpets and cymbals, making noise with psalm tree and harp. And it came to pass as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michelle, the daughter of Saul, looking out at the window, saw King David dancing, playing, and she despised him in her heart. And so even this, everything was going right before God, but there was a problem at home. David did everything like God had had him do. Sacrifices must be thought of from the first and not as an afterthought. The things we do for God, we're not just saying, well, let's try this. We're to think about it. We're to look to God and have His leadership in the things that we do. We can imagine the stress in the air as the Levites lifted up the ark, and they started walking and carrying it. all waiting for some failure or something to happen. I mean, after all, they were human like us, and as God blessed them, and as they carried the Ark of the Covenant, so they sanctified the Lord God, Look to his help. God bless their labors in it. And 1 Chronicles 15, 28. Thus all Israel brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and with shouting, with sound of the cornet, and with trumpet, with cymbals making a noise in Psalm 3. at the heart. So we draw near to God and all holy exercise with careful spiritual reverence and fashion, if you will. That is, we honor God, we shout, we glorify God, we sing to God, and yet it's reverence that we reverence God with. He is not just our buddy. He's not some people exercise and look toward God as sometimes even less than they are. But God is God over all, and Jesus speaks of His disciples and says, You are my friends. Well, when were they His friends if you do what I say? And so there is a connection there. He is Lord, and He's not someone that we look down on. He's someone we look up to. It would be like being serving a king. If we lived in a place that had a kingdom, we'd have a president, and it's not quite as regal as a king would be. He might be your good friend. He might be wonderful. You'd still call him lord, or you'd still call him master. You'd still give him respect to his office as king. And especially when he was around other people, you'd honor him with who he is. And so too we should honor the Lord our God. Do we draw near to God in all holy exercise after the careful and spiritual reverent passion, that is, even though we sing, rejoice, and happy in the Lord, and yet we realize it's God we're worshiping. We're not just worshiping some thing or some person that's irrelevant, but worshiping Him that created the heavens and the earth and all things that therein is. He is the one that's the life giver. We live and breathe by His hand according to His ability or according to His goodwill and pleasure. If so, we may safely exhibit our delight in the Lord according to His way. King David did. He humbled himself before God, as anyone should, and brought the ark home to Jerusalem. The doing of a duty in a wrong manner," this is copied, "...alters the nature of it, makes it sin. Hence, the plowing of the wicked is sin." Proverbs 21.4, hence prayer is accounted a howling upon their beds, Hosea 7.14. Unworthy communication is not counted as eating the Lord's supper, 1 Corinthians 11.20. If a house is built of never so strong timber and a good stone, yet if it not be well founded and rightly built, the inhabitants may curse the day he came unto the roof of it, duties not performed according to the right order, but half of the service that we owe God, and worst half too." That's Thomas Boston. Before David made the blunder in his worship, before he used his own ideals rather than God's ideals, before he did all these things and made a tremendous mistake. Yusa is the one that paid the price for it. He's the one that died because he touched the ark. He can make this mistake, but I'm sure as he was required to copy the law, he should have known what God required. How they brought the ark to Jerusalem, David may have thought, well, the Philistines carried it this way, they carried it on the ark. Pulled it by oxen. So they had an ark and a cart and an oxen, but they weren't God's people. They weren't Israel. They weren't the ones, God's chosen people. And so the ark was not sufficient, the way to carry it. We must walk by the rule, not by example. When it varies from the rule, no, not even by those examples which Providence has owned. And that's Spurgeon. But the point I'm making is just because we think it's good, just because we think it sounds good, and just because the church may vote to do it, that don't make it God's will. We need to do things after God's order and His due order and that we know the difference between the two. You think about this. this arc and the cart and the breach that was made, the men that died. And it was all done because they didn't do it at the first as God commanded it to be done.