2 Samuel 6 we read from verse 1,
Again David gathered together all the chosen men
of Israel, 30,000.
And David arose and went with all the
people that were with him from the valley
of Judah to bring up from thence the
ark of God, whose name is called by
the name of the Lord of hosts that
dwelleth between the cherubims.
And they set the ark of God upon
a new cart, and brought it out of
the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah,
and Uther and Ahiel.
Ahiel, that's not a state, that's the name
of a man.
The sons of Abinadab drove the new cart.
And they brought it out of the house
of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah, accompanying the
ark of God.
And Ahiel went before the ark.
And David and all the house of Israel
played before the Lord, and all instruments, none
of instruments, made of firwood, even on harps,
and psalteries, on cinders, on carnets, and cymbals.
And when they came to Nacombe's threshing floor,
Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark
of God, and took hold of it, for
the oxen shook it.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled
against Uzzah.
And God smote him there for his error,
and there he died by the ark of
God.
Let's look a minute here in the 25th
chapter of Exodus, Exodus chapter 25.
Remember the beginning of this chapter is where
the Lord is selecting, he's going to do
what I think must have been very strange
to Israel.
They had never had any covering in the
sense of a tabernacle.
They'd been nomads, they'd had no priests, they'd
had the heavens for the ceiling of their
church, if you like.
And now suddenly, instead of being enlarged, they're
contracted to a small space that's called, has
been called again, the tabernacle in the wilderness.
And God gives specific instructions to this amazing
man Moses about the, about the building.
It's very interesting that he had no choice
in this.
He obeyed every commandment God gave to him.
He had no more choice in the colors
of the thing, any more than Noah had
a choice of what kind of a rainbow
he wanted.
He never wondered what kind of a rainbow
he might have chosen.
If the Lord said, you choose the colors,
it would have been a mess.
If he'd asked me, I wouldn't know the
colors.
But he just did as he was commanded.
And it says in verse 8 of the
25th chapter of Exodus, let them make me
a sanctuary that I may dwell among them
according to all that I show thee after
the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern
and the pattern of all the instruments thereof,
even so shall he make it.
Okay, come down to verse 17.
Thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure
gold, two cubits and a half shall be
the length thereof, and a cubit and a
half the breadth thereof.
And thou shalt make two cherubins of gold,
a beaten work shalt thou make them in
the two ends of the mercy seat, and
make one cherub on one end and the
other cherub on the other.
Even of the mercy seat shall he make
the cherubins on the two ends thereof.
And the cherubins shall stretch forth their wings
on high, covering the mercy seat with their
wings, and their faces shall look one to
another.
Towards the mercy seat shall the faces of
the cherubins be.
And thou shalt put the mercy seat above
upon the ark, and in the ark thou
shalt put the testimony that I shall give
thee, and there will I meet with thee."
Now that's the first piece of furniture mentioned
as regards the tabernacle.
It was roughly 54 inches long, this ark.
It was three feet high and three feet
wide, and it was a visible presence of
an invisible power.
It was a kind of an earthly resting
place where God put his power between those
awesome cherubins.
Remember how often the psalmist cries, "'O thou
that dwellest between the cherubins, shine forth!' Psalm
80 particularly, before Ephraim and Manasseh, "'Stir up
thy strength and come and save us.'" If
you talk about the ark, usually people think
you mean the ark where, you know, the
children play with at home, little animals, and
they go into Noah's ark.
Well that was an ark all right.
Now do you remember another ark beside that?
Well it was a little thing a woman
made to put a baby in.
She made an ark of bulrushes.
And thirdly you have this ark.
Now the ark, actually the word really means,
if you get right to the bottom of
it, it means a place to preserve something
intact.
It has complete coverage.
You know I've said so often that faith
does three things.
It reckons, it risks, and it rests.
I think the mother of Moses must have
been, well she sure was a wonderful woman.
And she put that baby in that little
ark and pushed it out onto the waters
of the Nile.
I think it's a horrible risk.
Now did she know a crocodile wouldn't eat
it before she had hardly turned her back.
Or the lid could have blown off and
the sun might have scorched the baby crisp.
Or it could have been carried away on
the on the flood, or somebody could have
stolen it.
But you see when you get a word
from God, you're not going to be shaken
by the Philistines or anybody else outside.
God had told her what to do and
she obeyed.
And again that's the key, that's the anchorage
of spiritual success.
Spiritual maturity is obedience.
To obey is better than sacrifice.
Remember King Saul filled the whole of that
that valley with beasts, and yet he retained
a few of the price stock.
And when Samuel came up to him and
stopped him, he said, well I've done as
you said.
And the little sheep gave the story away
enough.
Wonderful what little animals have taken important parts
in the Bible isn't it?
And Samuel said, if you've done what you
said you've done, what meaneth this bleating of
the sheep?
And the lowing of the oxen which I
hear.
To obey is better than sacrifice.
There is no substitute for obedience.
No, not there, not now, not ever.
Again trust and obey, there's no other way,
there's no other outlet.
You either do as God says, all right,
he's beginning to shrink, he's beginning to wither.
Now here is the ark, and the measurements
given to us.
Verse 22 says, there will I meet with
thee.
And that was the supreme desire of God.
It's the supreme desire of God today, that
when we come together we meet with Him.
As I usually ask people when somewhere in
a meeting, did you come here, or did
you come here tonight to meet God, or
did you come to hear a sermon about
Him?
I talked with somebody today, an internationally known
figure who said, you know, I'm realizing how
little I know of God.
And I had offered somebody a sermon that
was the most profound thing I've ever heard,
and this person said, I don't, I feel
as though I don't want to preach anymore.
I said, well that's how I felt when
I, when I heard the depth that this
man has.
Talking about Jesus laying His glory by and
being wrapped in our clay.
Oh God pity us, we're so commercialized, we're
so regulated by circumstances, we get up with
the clock, the clock runs our lives, that
we lose sight of eternity, we lose sight
of the wonder of God's salvation.
And the chief concern is about the whole
of the building of this marvelous, you know,
if you want to call it, kind of
a private area that was to be roped
off, and again when you think of all
the linen that was put round, and every
thread, billions of them were put in there
by hand.
Rather staggering isn't it?
And then there's to be a place, a
holy place, and then not only a holy
place, but the holy of holies.
And this ark was put not in the
holy place, it's put in the holy of
holies, and it has the chief place in
the holy of holies, and inside of it
you have the rod that budded, and you
have a sample of the manna that fell
from heaven, it didn't get worms in it
either, and there you have the tables of
stone.
This testimony of God has to be preserved,
and the ark is an abiding place for
God on earth.
That is, he manifests himself there.
Let's skip over a minute here, I am
reading the first book of Samuel, chapter 5,
sorry.
We can't go through the whole thing, this
is a fantastic study.
I'm going to do it myself, but I
couldn't do it tonight because it would take
up too much time.
But if you want to find a minute
account of this ark, and God's desire and
the way it moved around, you'd have to
go to the first book, go to the
first book of Chronicles and chapters 12 to
16, and you'll find a very marvelous account
of the moving of that wonderful ark.
And then of course you'd have to read
Psalm 68 and Psalm 101, which also deal
with him, and this and Psalm 24.
You see, this is some little bit of
furniture that's tucked away in a corner that
has no meaning.
Meaning, it's the abiding place.
If you like, it's the seat, it's the
dwelling place.
You have the ark, and then on the
top of the ark you'll have a mercy
seat.
The Salvation Army never used to talk about
coming to the altar, they used to sing.
I remember years ago, 60, 70 years ago,
when the army used to sing, come to
the mercy seat, fervently kneel.
Here bring you wounded heart, here tell your
anguish.
Earth has no sorrow, that heaven cannot heal.
There's a mercy seat, a blood-sprinkled mercy
seat.
Somebody afterwards removed that lid and looked inside,
and because they did, they got into serious
trouble.
Now if you read those Psalms again, 68
and 101 and Psalm 24, you'll find this
thing goes immensely, immensely interesting.
Okay, we're now in the first book of
Samuel, chapter 5.
The Philistines took the ark of God and
brought it from Nebenezer to Ashdod.
When the Philistines took the ark of God,
they brought it into the house of Dagon
and set it by Dagon.
Now when there of Ashdod rose early in
the morning, behold, Dagon had fallen upon his
face on the earth before the ark of
God.
And they took Dagon and set him on
his place again.
And there arose early in the morning, and
he was fallen on his face, and his
head and his hands had broken off.
Now you see here the peril of toying
or playing with holy things.
There's a verse I didn't look up, but
it talks about the iniquity of holy things.
Now that's something to really turn over, isn't
it?
How in the world can you have the
iniquity of holy things?
These people have captured the ark of God.
They thought it would do them good.
Instead it did they put it at the
side of their God.
This monstrous God Dagon with the upper part
of his body was a man and the
lower part a fish.
Something like a mermaid you would say today.
And there he stood in a temple where
people worship him, and as soon as they
put the ark of God there without anybody
doing a thing, big old Dagon fell down
on his face.
So they stood him up again.
And they went in next morning, he was
worse off.
He not only fell down, his hands had
broken off, his feet had broken off, just
because of God's presence being there.
Now see what happened further in the chapter.
When it was early in the morning, behold
Dagon was fallen upon his face to the
ground before the ark of the Lord.
And the head of Dagon and both the
palms of his hands were cut off upon
the threshold.
Only the stump of Dagon was left.
Therefore neither the priest of Dagon nor any
that came into the Dagon's house dared tread
on the threshold of Dagon to this day.
You see, just that one visitation, that one
movement of God terrified them.
So in a sense, Dagon had to go
out to business.
Verse 6, The hand of the Lord was
heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed
them and smote them with emeralds and Ashdod
and the coats thereof.
And when the men of Ashdod saw that
it was so, they said, The ark of
God of Israel shall not abide with us,
for his hand is sought upon us and
upon Dagon our God.
Going to the end of the eighth verse,
And they carried the ark of God, the
God of Israel, they carried the ark of
the God of Israel out thither.
And it was so, after they had carried
it out, that the hand of the Lord
was against the city.
Now here you are again, you see the
peril.
What I want to emphasize, two things I
want to emphasize, the peril of having these
holy things and misusing them.
And yet the peril is obviously the opposite
to the power.
Remember the children of Israel, one of their
marvelous escapades, they walked around the city seven
times.
What did they do?
They carried the ark of God.
So then that was the very presence of
God.
Can you imagine people on the walls looking
down and say, Well who are these lunatics?
I mean what are they doing?
They were not allowed to speak.
That must have been tough on some of
them.
They were not allowed to speak.
They walked around in silence.
They carried the ark.
What have they got there?
Is that a coffin?
What is it?
It's a casket.
You see they were not allowed to mount
it.
When Moses was sharing out some of the
property of Israel, he gave various things to
various people.
But the sons, I've forgotten his name, I
think it was.
His sons were not allowed to have any
cattle or any of the possessions.
They were separated to carrying the ark of
God.
Now the peril is this, and I think
to me it comes home with great force.
Well let me go to the other scripture.
Where did we read a bit earlier?
I've forgotten that chapter.
2 Samuel 6.
Okay.
2 Samuel 6 and verse 6.
When they came to Nacum's threshing floor, Uzzah
put forth his hand to the ark of
God and took hold of it, and the
oxen shook it, and the anger of the
Lord was kindled against it.
Why?
Now they'd made a new cart for it.
God said it never had to be on
a cart.
God said it had to have four gold
rings, one on each corner, and put a
staff through it, and the men had to
carry this thing.
So they made a new cart.
You know the Jews then, I don't know
about today, they love new things.
Remember what Samson said, if you fasten me
with seven new ropes then I shall be
like other men, or then I shall be
weak like other men.
Rather insulting to us, isn't it?
Remember it later when Jesus died, they put
him in a new tomb.
When Jesus rode an ass, he rode one
that nobody had brought in.
It was entirely new.
They love new things.
And these people thought they were doing God
a favor by, you know, modernizing this thing.
I mean why carry the thing on your
shoulders anyhow, when oxen can do it.
Now I don't know what happened to these
oxen.
You know it says that when they came
to the threshing floor of Uzzah, maybe they
thought it was lunchtime.
You know they could smell, hmm that's the
stuff we eat, and hmm right now they're
threshing some new wheat, hmm we should stay
and have some.
And maybe the very action of those creatures
that swayed the ark.
Now isn't it really awesome?
They didn't decide to paint it another color.
They didn't decide to put a second deck
on it.
They didn't disfigure it in any way.
The men didn't go in front of it
and start blaspheming.
The man somehow thought he do got it,
oh look the ark is going to topple
over, oh I'll hold it.
So he once asked Mr. Sturgeon if he
would join a society for the defense of
the bible.
And he said you don't usually walk before
a lion with a sword.
Why do you need to defend the bible?
All this man did was put his hand
up to stay the ark and immediately he
was smitten.
What do you think we're doing with the
gospel today?
Dressing it up?
Painting it up?
Somebody told me this week of a christian
group, a rock band, christian, christian rock band.
But anyhow uh whatever they are they go
around and now they've got sequins on their
coats.
Well why not?
Johnny Cash has them.
And all the other guys have them.
I mean if the world can have them
can't we?
Glitter, I mean if we've no other glitter
we may as well stick it on the
outside if it's not on the inside anyhow.
And we try to steady the ark of
God.
We're trying to put some improvement on the
ark of God.
We try to do that I think with
the translations we make of the word of
God.
We try and make sure those words just
a little bit more easy.
As I said to some preachers I've preached
with this week that that if we go
back and maybe mentioned it here before if
we go back to bible language and and
call sin what it really is.
Instead of saying somebody you say that girl's
a whore you say no no she's a
call girl.
Huh?
You say about a dirty filthy sodomite.
Oh no no he's not a sodomite he's
just gay.
There's nobody wicked they're just weak.
There's no iniquity it's just infirmity.
No backsliders anymore that's a dirty word.
A lot of people have a fellowship but
backsliders you don't use that word.
Oh how smooth.
I remember reading a story of Mr Whitfield
where he was particularly angry one day.
I'd like to have heard Whitfield I think
it had been right up my alley.
He got mighty furious about the possessions the
devil had.
He was always wanting the church to pull
down strongholds.
He was always seeing the enemy doing his
evil work getting people to submit to him.
And one day he said I'm going to
shoot the arrows of God into your heart.
And he said he mentioned an arrow and
he pulled it the arrow back like this
with the congregation ducks you know.
And that's the way to preach if you
can get them to do that at least
you've got them halfway down to the ground
and maybe when you get them halfway down
you can push them the other half.
But the anger of the Lord was kindled
against this man and not only smote him
but killed him.
Come on in God's name what are we
doing with the gospel today?
Isn't it getting more emasculated?
Isn't it getting more Hollywood style?
Don't you don't you miss the absence and
the glory of God?
Why they got the they got the they
got the very presence of God in fact
and that's all they are we need?
There's an old hymn that says God's presence
and his very self an essence all divine.
I'll ask you again I've asked you before
when did you last go out to the
sanctuary?
Tiptoe because God would reveal his holiness and
his majesty.
We go out very much in the same
way we came in.
Go out we say hey I like your
dress.
Someone like that infers myself.
Wish I'd have got it.
Well I like some other trivial thing that's
got nothing to do with eternity and nothing
to do with God.
Oh my.
Notice in verse 5 now go back a
minute here.
David and all the house of Israel played
before the Lord and all instruments made of
fur, wood, even hearth and psalteries and timbrels
and coronets and ensembles.
Now that there is ecstasy.
Now come down to verse 9.
This same David was afraid of the Lord
that day and he said how shall the
ark of the Lord come to me?
That's a big switch.
He's excited they have their band music everything's
having a wave of the time and then
suddenly God intervenes and suddenly his all emotional
life does a summersault.
He realizes what an awful God he serves.
What a God of majesty.
What a God of glory.
One minute everybody's excited the next minute.
Wouldn't that be something it'd be like going
into the uh that experience you know when
Ananias and Sapphira went to church.
That must have been a great morning.
I would have enjoyed that I think.
I said well Lord why do you why
did you stop with two hypocrites?
I'm sure half the congregation could have wiped
them out at the same time.
It would have been more spectacular but God
doesn't do it that way.
But what I'm trying to say rough as
and tumbled as it may be because I've
had such a hectic day today that the
anger of God was kindled for a very
simple thing.
He did not take a hammer and break
the ark.
He didn't say this old piece of furniture
we can do without.
Do you know the ark is the only
thing that was taken out of the original
tabernacle and went into the temple of the
most high God.
Do you know afterwards in the book of
the revelation it says that's preserved the testimony
of God in an ark.
Now scholars will tell you that the ark
was destroyed in the uh second invasion and
the burning of Babylon and maybe it was.
And yet God's presence and that's what it
matters.
It isn't a case of having a wooden
box here.
What it's telling us is that God makes
their place in habitation.
Now as I said to somebody today this
is this is awesome this is breathtaking when
when you say well I'd like to go
and I wish we had a box and
you can say God's presence is there.
He's there in his wholeness, there in his
majesty, there in his glory.
Be careful how you handle this thing.
Well we don't need a box, we don't
need a presence.
Why?
Because it says you're the habitation of God.
There's only so much of God's wholeness in
this meeting as you and I fill with
the spirit the holy spirit of God, the
pure spirit of God.
He doesn't dwell in temples where oh you
can make him a thousand crystal palaces like
they've done on the west coast there.
So what?
You can't sanctify a building in the new
testament since they didn't do that.
Well even Solomon said and I guess he
built the most expensive building ever made.
Imagine the life he used gold to walk
on.
He used gold on the walls.
He was the most extravagant building ever made.
He used gold uh more easily than we
used cement.
And he built the altar and he had
all the priests in total correct display there.
And yet when he made his intercession to
God he says look I put up this
building I've done everything according to your commandment.
We've even got an altar.
We even got a sacrifice on the altar.
Now what's missing?
Nothing except the fire of God.
What good is a house that I've built
if God's presence isn't there?
What's it going to make in a showpiece
and say we've got the best choir.
We've got the most brilliant preacher.
We've got this time.
So what?
In God's name does it matter?
Don't you think we're putting our hands on
so many things these days?
You've got to start this way and finish
that way and do something else.
We're getting so mechanical.
Since when did the gospel need trimming up?
I would have to go to a meeting
this week.
There was a five-piece band there.
It was band.
B-A-N.
If I had ought to do it it
was B-A-N-N-E-D.
Band.
I'd have banned the whole thing.
Oh how they swerved and jazzed and whatnot.
They didn't do that too long after I
really got going.
The preacher said amen for 10 minutes then
he lost all his pump, his energy and
from there I lost his voice.
Who's touching the ark?
David was afraid of the Lord.
He hadn't been afraid before.
Isn't it incredible that this people that knew
God in such an intimate way, this people
who had gone round the city without a
gun, the most despised people of all, and
they went round one day, round another day,
round another round another.
On the last day they went round seven
times, so 13 times they went round.
That's pretty unlucky isn't it?
And they kept dumb and they stood all
the criticism of the people that were watching
and all they had to do on the
last day was shout with a great shout.
Why?
Because God was there and I don't see
any fun in shouting and carrying on in
a meeting.
Oh you can clap your hands that's okay,
but mercy if that's all you have to
do.
You have to whip people up.
You know I thought my dear friend there
Dale there, his father belonged to a tribe
called the Quakers and I thought about when
God said I want a tabernacle and there
at the mercy seat will I meet with
thee.
God wants me to meet with him.
It's more than me preaching for him, it's
more than me being a missionary for him,
he wants to meet with me.
He wants to reveal himself to me, he
wants to talk to me, he wants to
come and work in this being of mine.
And then he called me from the border
of Mexico today and she said she was
weeping and she said that God has called
us here, we're Hispanics, God has really blessed
us but oh we do want to be
such great soul winners and she went on
and I said my dear look the first
commandment is not thou shall be a soul
winner.
The first commandment is thou shall love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart soul
mind and strength.
There are lots of missionaries that don't love
God.
There are lots of missionaries should have returned
to the from the field six months after
they got there.
They're doing a thing mechanically and it's hard
to enjoy that kind of good when you're
doing it mechanically.
But when they do it under the anointing
of God, when they do it with the
love of God, can you imagine this procession
stopping?
They had harps and psalteries and timbrels and
cornets and they're having a great time and
suddenly death came.
Do you wonder that David was angry, afraid?
And he said how shall the ark of
the Lord come unto me?
Verse 12.
It was told King David saying the Lord
blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all
that pertaineth unto him because of the ark
of God.
So David went and brought up the ark
of God from the house of Obed-Edom
into the city of David with gladness and
it was so that when they that bear
the ark of the Lord had gone six
paces he sacrificed oxen and fatlings and David
danced before the Lord with all his might
and he was girded with an ephod.
Now notice what he danced with.
He danced with all his might.
It doesn't say dance with a girl.
He said he danced with all his might.
He danced in the presence of God.
There's nothing sensuous about it.
He isn't linked up with some woman in
his arms.
He's dancing in God's presence.
God has turned his sorrow into joy.
He started off in joy.
There comes bereavement.
There comes sorrow.
They've disobeyed God.
They've hurt God.
They've transgressed against God.
Do you ever wonder if you're getting insensitive
to what God's trying to say to you?
Do you ever wonder when when a certain
thing has happened somewhere in your nervousness you
put your hand up to steady the ark
and somehow that sensitivity went and the compassion
you had went and and the concern you
had went?
Again this man didn't take an axe and
split up the ark.
He didn't say we've carried this thing long
enough.
We need no no no no.
All he did was try to steady the
ark of God.
Oh mercy how we're trying to steady the
ark of God these days.
We want to do some new thing.
We wouldn't we wouldn't we wouldn't just steady
it.
We'd paint it.
We'd put a musical box inside of it.
We'd put the priest in some new garments.
We'd try and make it more acceptable.
You know there's nothing nothing this generation needs
more than a baptism and old-fashioned hellfire
preaching.
I'm sure of that.
The power and the presence of God were
resting on that tabernacle and while they were
obedient they had success.
Doesn't matter if you have to get a
city down.
Again the most ridiculous thing and they stood
all the criticism and scorning and yet on
that final day when because they'd obeyed God
the whole place came tumbling down.
Well uh let's not be too critical about
them because you know you and I again
have more um we've more to answer for
than they have.
We've seen the mighty workings of God.
I don't know anybody that's pulling Jericho's down
do you?
Can you think about obligation that we have
as a nation with all our bibles all
our broadcasts?
Well aren't we steadying the ark of God
in the way we're presenting the gospel these
days?
The gospel is still the power of God
unto salvation to all who believe.
And when I hear people I heard somebody
say well you know there's a different approach
today.
Is there?
Is there really?
You go tell a woman who's just lost
her child.
Well these are modern days you don't have
to weep over it and groan over it.
I mean they did that in the bible
days that of course women were women then.
But nowadays it doesn't matter.
All they've done is lost a child.
Is there any difference between the grief of
somebody who's heartbroken today than there was in
the grief of somebody who three thousand years
ago?
We say human nature has changed.
Human nature has not changed.
Human nature is still a sinful nature.
Human nature still needs God.
And I think there are times when God
tries to stop the business you know.
When I think of again they all they
did was put his hand up to the
ark.
He didn't curse God.
He didn't take a hammer and smash it.
He didn't say now you're all lunatics for
going this way as if it's too old
-fashioned.
Well do you think that God maybe has
been speaking?
Have you noticed how many tragedies we've had
this winter?
One whole town swept away with a mudslide
just like that.
People went into eternity.
Mississippi has covered more area than ever.
We came down past there just the other
day.
Acres hundreds of acres just just little bits
of roofs standing up out of the water.
And all you could see it looked like
you could see for 50 miles just straight
through the water.
And some farms just standing on a little
island.
They'll never get any crops in there this
year.
There's sludge will be left behind.
They can't do with cattle.
It seems though God is trying to check
us but we we won't take the checking.
We we won't take the warning.
And again I say to you the most
distressing area I believe is the area of
the church itself.
They're trying to study the art.
We don't want God Almighty to govern the
whole thing.
We want a little bit of flesh in
it.
Want a little bit of humanism in it.
Want a little bit of organization in it.
Want some of our skill in it.
And God holds off.
Want to do it in the flesh.
By the word of God says some trust
in chariots and some trust in horses.
But we will trust in the name of
God alone.
Oh I'm aching on the inside to see
somebody that will really really really have no
confidence in the flesh.
Won't try to organize.
It's a horrible one to try and subsidize
God's cause with a few dollars in a
collection there and something else.
Now either God is God or he isn't.
As I've said before this book is either
absolute or it's obsolete.
There's no middle course.
It either has all the answers or it
has no answers.
I've got to get to the place where
I say Lord you can strip everything else
away from me.
I'm on Christ the solid rock I stand
or on the ground it's sinking sand.
I'm not going to study the art.
I'm convinced God's going to do new work.
I've talked the last two or three days
with a brother I love very dearly and
he's at a crossroads in his life and
I know others who are men that you
think are at the top of the tree.
You think they should be satisfied with what
they've got and they're not.
They're suddenly realizing there's a new dimension that
God wants to bring to our generation.
A new revelation.
A new unfolding of the word of God.
If you like men that don't try to
study the art by organization and saying you
must do it this way and you must
do it that way.
You must do it this way.
No listen to it.
We're going to follow if it takes us
we have to follow those loin oxen.
They look pretty scruffy things.
But before long you remember that David he
went and slew the oxen and and he
took the fatlings and he made a sacrifice
to God and then he danced before God.
Why?
Because he got rid of many of his
obstructions.
The Lord is very merciful.
You know how merciful he is?
He's so merciful he'll strip us right down
to the place where we haven't a thing
to stand on.
We haven't a thing to lean on.
We're cast in nakedness and we we say
and despair.
You know the church that was rich and
increased in good?
That's where the church is today.
She's rich, she's increased in good, she's in
need of nothing.
Which church was it Jesus spewed out of
his mouth?
I would I was either hot or cold.
So then because I was neither hot or
cold I'll spit.
It didn't spew the cold one out of
his mouth it never been in.
It was his church that he spewed out
of his mouth.
It wasn't a heathen religion it was his
church.
They were neither hot or cold.
They were kind of midstream and because they
were neither one thing nor the other he
vomited them out.
He didn't vomit the cold church out.
He didn't bother with it.
God will not stand for mediocrity.
I think I need to sit down.
In fact I've said to somebody today I'm
going to do less preaching in the next
few months as little as I can and
I'm going to meditate on certain things.
I'm not young anymore.
I'm getting older and older but that doesn't
mean you can't.
I mean Moses was 80 when he started
and I'm not 80 yet.
So maybe when I'm 80 I'll wake up
and start doing something.
But there's a hunger.
There's a the class we talked to the
last Saturday morning there's some five young men
maybe about 30 of them 32 or three
and half of them were zealous.
They were sitting on the edge of their
seats with all prospects.
Most of them there were seminarian fellows.
Eager, keen, even asking afterwards well Mr. Raymond
what's the secret really of abiding?
What's the secret of abounding in the Christian
life?
What's the secret of not being a failure?
What's the secret of not letting your branch
get withered up?
I had somebody calling today for prayer again.
Every day they call.
I'm sorry for the situation some of them
are in but it's the only way they'll
go in grace anyhow in the knowledge of
God.
They've been leaning too much on what they
have and now God's going to dry up
their souls so that they only have God
on whom they can lean.
They've had so much flesh.
They've had so much ability.
They've had so much organization.
They've had so much security.
God says well let me pull it all
away.
Doesn't the word say trust in the Lord
forever?
For in the in the Lord is everlasting
strength.
I think one of the shocks in eternity
will be to discover how little we've ever
used of the available power of God.
Not for our own mean silly self but
there's a world out there that's going there.
Does God have resources to meet this generation?
Come on.
I learned to my horror just while I
was in Brooklyn that a man who is
a professional in this realm, a very fine
Christian man.
Last year the churches in America spent close
on two billion dollars on radio and tv
preaching.
Two billion.
Do you know how many people we reach?
Less than four percent of the national family.
Less than four percent of Americans listen to
a gospel.
And we spent nearly two.
Can you imagine how many how many mission
stations that would have built?
How many churches that would have built in
some other country?
I think we're putting our hands on the
ark.
We're rather afraid that we might go a
bit overboard you know.
Doctrinally somebody comes and says hey well steady
a minute.
And he hardly knows he's putting his hand
on the ark anyhow.
We're just afraid it seems there's some new
revelation, some new some new demand that God
will make upon us.
Not just individually.
Well it is individually of course and collectively.
Now I guess I didn't get this over
to you as it came to me but
I'll tell you when I read it the
other day.
I was shocked to realize that again this
man did not smash up the ark.
He didn't tell all the people to rebel.
He didn't tell the priest to do it.
All he did was spit at the ark
thinking he was doing God a favor.
All he did was disobey.
Is that all?
Well that's all Adam did in the garden.
All he did was disobey.
He didn't curse God.
And it seems the hardest thing that we
have in the in our lives to learn
is is how to obey in in the
very very very simple things that God challenges
us with.
I still say you know if I were
a kind of protestant Pope I'd close every
church down for a month.
We're preached to death.
Why do we keep going to conferences?
You can't handle the light you've got.
Why do you want some more?
Huh?
Turn it on when you go home tonight.
The next conference you go with it.
This weekend the next week.
You'll have more light therefore you'll have more
to answer the judgment seat.
Haven't you got enough to answer for?
Aren't there areas in your life where you're
still not obeying even though God said do
this?
You put your hand on the ark because
it was coming toppling over on you?
It's a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of a living God the word of
God said.
Robert Louis Stevenson said I only know one
thing and that's when you fall out of
the hands of the living God.
And that happens.
There comes a time when God says to
a nation all right you've been putting your
hand on my truth.
You've been withholding my truth.
Job said I have not eaten my morsel
alone.
You say well we've given money to missions.
So we have.
You know this came to me.
I mean last night before there were a
number of preachers in that place and I
said this.
I said you know we had a national
day of prayer last week.
No we didn't have a national day of
prayer.
We had a national suggestion.
If we had a national day of prayer
the president would have said every factory is
closed down.
Every school is closed down.
Every shopping mall is closed down.
Everything's going to stop.
It's time we listened to God.
It's time we humbled ourselves before God.
But when God wants it that way, which
he does, we put our hand on the
ark and say well we'll steady it and
make it a little bit convenient.
Dear God there was a time when they
were so concerned about revival they even put,
remember they put what, um stack cloth on
the animals.
If you wear stack cloth they think you're
a crackpot.
If you don't think so get a sack.
Get an old potato sack and put a
hole in the top.
Put it over your head and get your
wife to cut some holes so you can
put your arms in and go to church
like that.
And say this is an outward sign of
an inward sorrow I have.
I don't care about the style of my
clothes.
I don't care what you think anybody else
thinks.
We've got to have revival.
We've got to have a move of God.
And we haven't had it by all our
financial efforts and all our geniuses of evangelism.
All the other things.
We get so far then we put our
hands on the ark.
There's going to be a conference shortly and
I am not in any way troubled that
I wasn't invited.
But I know some of the godliest men
in the world and they're not invited to
that conference in Amsterdam.
2,500 itinerant evangelists.
I guess that's why they'll get to say
well they're not itinerant evangelists.
They're going to meet and they're going to
go through a rigmarole again.
Workshops, workshops, workshops.
There's a workshop for this and there's a
workshop for that.
The hardest work in the whole world is
prayer.
There are workshops on prayer.
No.
The ark is for it.
We're going to study it.
We've got a new idea.
Every magazine I pick up now, Christian magazine,
is how to make your church grow.
I'm looking for one that says how to
take your church deeper.
Somebody said to a preacher, you're the biggest
church in.
How big is your church?
He said three miles wide and an inch
deep.
I think that's true of a lot of
them.
Three miles wide and an inch deep.
And while it's for you it's tangy.
Are we going to change the style?
Are we going to keep studying the ark?
Are we going to say no, no, no,
we're not going any further like this.
This old cart, you've got it on with.
New cart, we're taking it off.
We're going to do it God's way.
And it looks silly to carry it on
your shoulders.
It looks silly to walk around when you
can mechanize the thing or organize the thing
or paint it up or make it more
attractive.
What in the?
How can you make God's presence more attractive?
That's about the height of insanity.
Isn't God himself in his holiness attractive?
For some reason, I don't know why I
thought about Westminster Abbey, they recently redecorated it.
Oh, they climbed up there and they put
pure gold leaf.
It's worth millions of dollars now.
I don't think God ever enters the place
to tell you the truth.
You know, the less of the glory of
God we have, the more showmanship we need
inside.
A fancy, good-looking choir with marvelous robes
on, lovely church building, everything.
And the more we get of that, it
seems as though God says, I don't dwell
in temples made with hands, I'm not comfortable
here anyhow.
You know what we need to do?
We need to do what David did.
We need to take all the implements.
We need to take the cart and break
it up, and we need to get hold
of the bullets and chop them up, and
have one big Holy Ghost bonfire and say,
Lord God, I'm going to on the stretch
for you from now till I die, whether
I die tomorrow or 10 years from now,
I'm going to meet with you as I've
never met with you before.
I'm going on the stretch for God as
I've never been on the stretch before.