Who's Touching The Ark - Part 4

The preacher said amen for 10 minutes, then he lost his, all his pump, uh, what's it say, his energy, and somehow lost his voice. Who's touching the earth? David was afraid of the Lord. He hadn't been afraid before. And isn't it, isn't it incredible that this people that knew God in such an intimate way, this people who had gone round a city without a gun, the most despised people of all, and they went round one day, round another day, round another day, round another day. 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, if you have to whip people up. You know, I thought my dear friend Dale there, his father belonged to a tribe called the Quakers. And I thought about when God says, 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, wants to talk to me, wants to come and work in this being of mine. A lady called me from the border of Mexico today, and she said, she was weeping, and she said, God has called us here, we're Hispanics, we, God has really blessed us, but oh, we do want to be such great soul winners. And she went on, I said, my dear, look, the first commandment is not, thou shalt be a soul winner. The first commandment is, thou shalt 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 from the field six months after they got there. They're doing a thing mechanically, and it's hard to endure that kind of burden 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 hearts, and sultries, and tingles, 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 there 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 a linen ephod. Now notice what he danced with. He danced with all his might. It doesn't say he danced 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 a certain thing has happened that somewhere in your nervousness you put your hand up to steady the ark, and somehow the sensitivity went, and the compassion you had went, 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 just steady it, we'd paint it. We'd paint it. We'd put a musical box inside of it. We'd put the priests 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. It 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, because they'd obeyed God, the whole place came tumbling down. Well, let's not be too critical about them, because you know you and I again have more, we've more to answer for than they had. We've seen the mighty workings of God. I don't know anybody that's pulling Jericho's down, do you? Can you think of our 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, isn't there? Isn't there really? You go tell a woman who's just lost a 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, but 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 lived 3,000 years ago? We say human nature's 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, 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, this is 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 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 stretches of 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 as though God is trying to check us, but we won't take the checking, 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. We're trying to steady the ark. 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? Why 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.