This is the Chancellor's Program. At his homegoing in November 1997, Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. left a legacy of lifelong ministry to students as Chancellor and former President of Bob Jones University. He also left a wealth of recorded sermons which we now present on the Chancellor's Program. Today's sermon was recorded during a Sunday morning worship service held on the campus September 11, 1960. This message is based on events found in the 13th through 15th chapters of 1 Chronicles. It's titled, Obedience to the Expressed Commands of God. You remember that in the time of the judges, the children of Israel went up against the Philistines and were defeated. And they said at that time, let us bring up the ark and it will deliver us. I pointed out the fact that their faith was fixed in the symbol instead of the God whom the symbol represented. And with superstitious awe, they expected a mere symbol to bring relief from the enemies, when they should have sought the will of God instead. The ark was brought up by the two sons of Levi, who were sons of Belial, though acting as priests of God. We are told they were strangers to God. They knew not God, but were servants of Satan in the office of the priests. They were identified with the ark, and they brought it up, and the slaughter was greater than ever. Not only were the children of Israel more abundantly defeated, but the Philistines captured the ark. And they took the ark to the house of their god Dagon and put it there. When the ark was brought there into the house of Dagon, the next morning the priests came and found that the god, the image of their god, had fallen over. They put it back up on its pedestal. They came again the next day and found that this time it had fallen off and the hands and the head were cut off and there was nothing left of their god unbroken except the fish tail. But Dagon is a god who was represented as half man and half fish. They decided they'd better get the ark out of their house of their god. They took it out, and wherever they took it, the people were afflicted. They took it from city to city among the cities of the Philistines, and the people were afflicted with swellings in their bodies, and great plagues of mice came on all the land. And finally they determined after seven months that they must get rid of the ark. They put the ark of God on a cart, and they harnessed to the cart two milk cows, and they let the cows take the cart with the ark over the frontier back into the country of Israel. The ark had remained there in the house of a family near the frontier. David decides that the ark of God ought to be brought to the holy mountain and placed there in the capital city Jerusalem, which he had established, that all people might be able to come up to the hill of God where the center of worship should be. And God had ordained that this thing should be, and it was God's will that in the time of the son of David, King Solomon, a temple should be built there. And God decreed that all sacrifice must be made on this holy mountain, and that this was to be the place of sacrifice where the temple was. And God was very definite about the fact that this was, after the ark was brought there, to be the only place of sacrifice. God has a will about everything that touches upon our lives, particularly as our lives are related to his worship and his honor. So David went out with a great crowd of the people, and they took the ark, and they put it upon a cart, and they started out to bring the ark up toward Jerusalem. Now I'd have you notice something about what happened. The ark was placed upon a cart. This was not God's way that the ark should be moved. This was man's way. The Philistines, who were pagans, had devised this means of getting rid of God's ark out of their midst, that they might be freed from it. from its punishment brought upon them as they captured it and held it. It was their idea that the Ark of God should be moved as the images of their gods were moved on a plain ordinary cart. Well, David was very considerate about the Ark. He didn't bring a cart that had been soiled with the harvest and the fertilizer of the fields. He didn't bring a cart that had been used for moving anything else. He had a special new cart made and undoubtedly it must have been a very attractive thing probably richly ornamented and adorned with gold and precious stones. A new cart, very attractive. And David took special pains to provide this new cart for the moving of the Ark. But God had decreed that the Ark of the Covenant should be moved in only one fashion. There were staves put through the slots on the side of the Ark. And a certain family of the priestly tribe, only one family, in the one tribe were ordained of God to carry the ark, and they got on either side the sons of this family, the Koathai. They put the poles across their shoulders, and the ark was carried by walking men, supported by the staves on their shoulders. God ordained that no man should touch the ark, the high priest alone, when he came in to sprinkle the blood on once a year. had the privilege of touching the ark. Nobody else could. The staves were slipped through that men might not touch the ark itself. The ark of God was very sacred and against it no man might lay his hand. I'm sure from the context of the scripture that they used the staves to place it upon the cart because no judgment of God fell upon a man for touching the ark. Every provision was made and there was every good reason from a human standpoint why a cart should be used. It was a long journey. would have been hard on men even in relays to carry the ark, for the ark was made of heavy wood. It had stone tablets in it, the figures of the Cherubim on top. It was covered on the outside with beaten gold. It weighed a good yield. It would have been a hard thing to carry it up the mountainous roads and over the rough terrain that it had to go. From every human standpoint, what had been done was revered and wise. The new car, the care for the priest, the expediency of the journey. From every human standpoint, what David had decided to do was wise and reverent, but it was contrary to God's express command. It was a good work, but it was done in the wrong way. It was God's work, but it was done in man's way, and God refused to bless and prosper it. You know, young people, there is only one way to do what God commands, and that is in the manner in which God commands it. What would you think of a soldier in the day of battle if he disregarded orders, believing that by disregarding orders he might accomplish something good for his country? I heard about a man who's rather prominent in public life today, a man whose name we hear a good deal about as he seeks a high office, who in the Navy during the war, according to General MacArthur, disregarded the orders given to him and lost a crew as a result of it. A man who will not follow orders is no good as a soldier. In a moment of crisis, when there's no officer there to give a command and no instructions to follow, a man has to move instinctively and follow his own judgment. But where the orders are explicit, the man who disregards orders places himself in the position of treason and disobedience, and asks for court martial. Do you not believe that the captain of our salvation has a right to ask of us the same obedience that the government asks of a soldier? The faithful carrying out of his commands, and the man who disregards God's word with the idea that God shall be honored through his disobedience, that man is foolish, And God will judge and punish the man who fails to obey his word. David followed the line established by pagans. We are seeing that done in Christian work all across America today. We feel we have to use the same means of attractions to bring in the crowd that the world uses. Nothing is sadder than to see a church that tries to bring people in even to hear the gospel with pie suppers rummage sales, vaudeville acts. In the work of God, sometimes in good organizations, we think we have to stoop to the beat of the world's music, the cheap and sordid, tawdry, worldly approach to bring young people to hear the gospel. You have no right to disregard the clear commands of God for separation, even that souls may be one to Jesus Christ. In ecclesiastical organizations, we ally ourselves with those who are the enemies of the gospel in order that the gospel may be preached. Hear me, young man, young woman. God will be more honored if you never preach the gospel than if you preach the gospel in direct disobedience to the Word of God. For God is never honored in disobedience. Now, no man has to disobey God in order to preach the gospel. You may have to go to jail for your refusal to disobey God. But what's jail if you're God's servant? Paul and Silas went to jail. Joseph went to jail because he refused to sin. But out of his jail sentence came the contacts that led him to the throne of Egypt and to the very presence of Pharaoh, to a place of sovereignty in the land under the king. When you obey God, God puts about you all the protection of angelic hopes. And when you disobey God, even that God may be glorified, you take yourself out from under the protecting hand of the Almighty. And when David took the ark up on the cart, though he wanted to do right, he sought to honor God, God was dishonored by David's disobedience. And what happened? Well, they came along and one of the men who was driving the oxen came to rough ground The ark began to slip and totter in the cart. The fact that the ark was in danger of being overthrown from the cart indicated the fact that the method they were using was an unscriptural method. If they'd followed God's orders, this situation would never have occurred. God knew that when he gave the order as to how the ark should be carried. God's provision was a reasonable provision. It might work more hardship on God's servant, but it brought safety to the to the symbol of God's indwelling presence in the land of Israel. God knows what he's doing when he's making his command, and there's a definite reason back of every command that God gives us. But if we cannot see the reason, we have no right to disregard the command because of our own human stupidity and failure to understand God's purpose. God doesn't command you to understand his purpose. God commands you to obey the path he marks out for you and walk therein. God doesn't tell you that you have to be able to think his thoughts after him. But God calls upon you as a Christian to obey the clear command of God as revealed in the Word of God. That's the only place God does reveal his commands. If anybody from this platform ever commands you to do anything that's unscriptural or suggests that it would be wise for you to do so, you can know that that man is not preaching in the power of God That man has no place on this platform and you disobey his commands. God forbid that any man should ever stand here and urge you to follow a course of action contrary to the word of God. But if a very angel of heaven does so, you let him be accursed. You stand in line with the word of God, the clearly revealed word of God. This man turning around laid his hand against the ark. His purpose was good. He didn't want the ark to slide off the cart and be overthrown and damaged. But he disobeyed God. God had said, no man shall lay his hand against that ark. And God smote him and he died there in the cart by the ark. And when David saw that, David got afraid. He said, why should the ark of God come up to me if this is going to happen? I don't want the ark. It'll bring curse instead of blessing. Wait a minute, the ark brought always blessing. to those who knew God, who loved God, and who obeyed God. God's Ark never brought the curse of God upon any except those who worshiped false gods and who disobeyed God's command in the dealings with the Ark of God. This man, his motives were good, but he disobeyed God's command and God's anger was stirred. Here's a man who sought to protect God's But he disobeyed God, and God smote him, and he died. The result of disobedience will always be God's judgment and fear upon those who disobey. This man was judged by God and died, and David was smitten by God with fear. And if David had touched that ark, though he was a man after God's own heart, David would have been smitten too, for there is no respecter of persons with God. It doesn't matter whether a man's the greatest evangelist in the country or a humble country preacher. If he disobeys God, God's going to judge him and God's going to punish him. And God's anger smoked the man to die and caused David to be afraid. David turned aside. That which had started out as a great triumph just fizzled out to nothing. And the ark was placed in the house of a Gentile that lived nearby. His name was Obed-Edom, and the ark left in the house of this Gentile who lived nearby brought such blessing to the house of the Gentile. I've often wondered what they did with that ark. Those houses were usually one-room affairs, or maybe two stories with a room on each floor. I've wondered where they put it, whether they put it in the corner of the house, covered it over with the coverings that went with the ark when it was moved about. I don't know whether they had a closet to put it away in. I've often wondered what they did with it. But the Shekinah glory of God dwelt on that ark, and I'm sure that whole house was bright with the light of God's presence on the ark, though it was covered away. You see, the ark of God, made of special hard wood and covered over with gold, had on each end the cherubim that bent down over the mercy seat. That's where the blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement. In the ark under the mercy seat were the tablets of the law that God had given to Moses on Mount Sinai. The law was there, but over the law was sprinkled the blood as an atonement for the violation of God's law by the people. When we meet Christ, we have to meet Him at the mercy seat where the blood is shed to atone for the violated law. Our only hope is that blood of the everlasting covenant sprinkled on the mercy seat to cover our sins from the eyes of God, for we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and we're all condemned because we've broken the law. And God's glory dwelt there above the shed blood on the mercy seat. Those carved cherry of them there looked down on the mercy seat. There's a reference in the New Testament, this thing the angels desire to look into, speaking of God's dealings with man in salvation. In other words, the angels would like to look down and understand this thing, to peer right through and see the very bottom of it. It's so deep they can't begin to understand it. And these carved cherubim were peering down. Their gaze was fixed upon this shed blood there, spread every year on that mercy seat. And God's shining glory dwelt there. God is nowhere so glorified as He's glorified in redemption. Nothing glorifies God more than a redeemed sinner. God is most glorified in that divine love manifest in salvation. The heavens declare his glory and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day utter his speech and night unto night showeth knowledge, but one redeemed sinner is more to God's glory than all the stars of the heavens and all the rich expanse of his universe. Nothing speaks of his greatness as the power of God to take a sinner and make him into a saint in a moment. That's the very heart of God's glory. His love for sinners manifests in redemption and the power of the cleansing of that blood. And in the house of this Gentile, this covenant image dwelt, this symbol, this ark. And God blessed the whole household because of it. Happy the household that knows the blessing of the mercy seat of God. And when David heard about it, after several months, meantime God had been dealing with David too. He'd gone up against the Philistines seeking God's will and God gave him the victory. Second time he said, shall I go? The Philistines had heard that the kingdom was well established now, that David had prepared a very elaborate tent for the ark and built a house for himself. David said the second time, shall I go up against these Philistines? And God said, no, wait a while. When you hear the sound of the going in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you go up. That'll be the sign that God's moving up ahead of you. David waited until he heard the sound of the mulberry trees, and then he went up and again he was victorious, and the Philistines left him alone after that. Now David said, I'm going to go down and get the ark. But this time, David searched the word of God to find out how God wanted it done. And he said to the high priest and to the chiefs among the Levites, He said, you purify yourself and you prepare yourself for this thing we're going to do. Because we did not do it before according to due order. Note those words. Due order. Because we did not do it according to due order, we failed and God made a breach and we made a breach between ourselves and God. Now you prepare yourself. Say, David's first failure David was in a sense responsible for, but the priests were responsible too. Those priests should have warned David against going down to put the Ark of God in the court. But the priests were silent. Apparently they were ignorant of the Word. They'd failed to search it too. Or at least they were afraid to warn the king, and they went along. Whenever God's servants go along with that which is wrong, God's servants are partly to blame. It's our business to cry out against that which violates the Word of God. Hear me preaching. You are not only supposed to preach the Word, but you are to be instant in season. Take the whole passage. Preach the Word the instant in season, the instant out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exalt. The preaching of the Word involves all those three things. God's Word reproves, God's Word rebukes, and God's Word exalts. It isn't enough simply to preach a positive gospel. You cannot preach a positive gospel in power and in the anointing of God's Holy Spirit unless you rebuke sin, unless you reprove that which is contrary to God's Word, and unless you exhort men to be reconciled to God. It isn't enough to preach the gospel. You've got to preach the gospel with a reproach for sin, a rebuking for unrighteousness, and an exhortation to men to be reconciled to God. Preaching without those three things is powerless preaching because it's unscriptural preaching. Preach the Word instant, in season and out of season. That means be full of life. Don't miss an opportunity, whether it's the time for the opportunity or not. You be instant and quick about it. And as you do, you reprove, you rebuke, and you exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. That means you've just got to keep doing it over and over and over and over. That longsuffering doesn't mean be patient with people. It doesn't mean that. It means you've got to be willing yourself to be patient with yourself as you do it over and over and over. And you've got to do it all with doctrine, that is, with the instruction of the Word of God. That's the scriptural method of preaching. You can write textbooks on preaching, and I've written one. I think you preachers ought to read all the good textbooks on preaching you can find. You can train your voice and develop your style, and you can study the Word of God, and there's much you can learn to make you a better preacher. But when you come down to scriptural preaching, it all boils down to that one command in the Word of God. Preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine. That's the great basic rule for scriptural preaching, that's it. As you neglect any part of that command, you're not preaching in the line of the word of God. And because these priests had not been faithful in their duty, this calamity had come, a man had died, poor fellow, he'd been uninstructed. But God had to be faithful in his command. I've heard men say, wasn't God unreasonable to kill this man who just meant well? Well, God had his own honor to defend, and God had a testimony to his people to maintain, and God had a lesson for David and all Israel. It was necessary that this man die, or God would have proved himself unfaithful, and God cannot lie. This time they went down. They followed the command of God, the priests were purified, the people were made ready, and according to order, to due order, it was done. The staves were put in, and the Levites of this particular family took the ark upon their shoulders. And it's a very significant thing we read here. You find this in the other place in the Word of God where this same story is set down. God helped the Levites. They didn't need a cart. All they did was to obey God, and God helped them to carry that ark. You hear me, young man, young woman? If you set out to do God's will, you'll find you don't need the support of man-made methods. You won't need any cart to help you carry the load. You won't need any denominational machine to help you get a church. You won't need any pension program that asks you to sacrifice your conviction in order to get the pension. You don't need anything but to lift up the ark of God and move out according to God's command. And God will help you. He'll put strength in your shoulder. He'll make your feet light. And He'll make the path, if not smooth, at least aglow with the light of His presence, who's the God that goes before. This time they went triumphantly up to Jerusalem. And instead of the wailing for a dead man who disobeyed God, this time there's the song of singing, of shouting, and of the trumpet. God's work has to be done in God's way, or God comes with judgment and with fear, and the work's defeated and destroyed. But when God's work is done according to God's command, God comes with blessing and with power, and the work is completed, and there's rejoicing in the hearts of His own, and there's blessing upon the land whose God is the Lord. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we pray Thee that we shall not try to reason out for ourselves how things look to us, how it appears to us, how it seems to us to be wise. But may we be satisfied to say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant hearing. And hearing, Lord, may we be swift to obey. May we follow the command and search the Scriptures diligently. For in them we think we have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me, thou hast said. And as we search the Scriptures to obey them, we shall find thee revealed in every command, though we may not understand it. For these are written for our instruction, for our protection, for our edification, and for our sanctification. May we love the Word and obey it. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You've heard a message by Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., who during the latter part of his life served as Chancellor of Bob Jones University. Today's sermon was recorded on the campus September 11, 1960. You can order a cassette copy from the campus store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. Please enclose a check for $5.13. Listen each week at this time for the Chancellor's Program, sponsored by Bob Jones University.