Sermon: A Holy God and An Unholy People

If you take a copy of God's word this morning, we're gonna turn open to the book of two Samuel. If you wanna grab a Pew Bible, you can turn right Page 2 5 8 in the Pew Bible 2 5 8. This morning we are looking at two Samuel chapter six verses one through 11. Samuel chapter six verses one through 11 this morning.

Let's pray before we open up God's word together. Our

Father, we sit here this morning as those who are in need of an authoritative clear word. We're thankful that there is clarity in your word and we're thankful that you are a God who presses these things home by the power of your spirit that you have poured out upon men. We pray this morning that as we sit and as we stand in this place, that your spirit would stir, that he would attend to the word as you have promised,

that it would not return void, but it would accomplish your purposes. You know what each of us need in this room. You know where each of us are at. And so speak to each of us as only you can and we pray all of us in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Two Samuel chapter six verses one through 11. This is the holy iner, sufficient word of God. David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000 and David arose and went with all the people who were

with him from Baal Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of Host who sits in Throne on the Cher Bim. And they carried the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of a bi, a beda which was on the hill and Za in Ohio. The sons of Beda were driving the new cart with the Ark of God. Ohio went before the ark and David and all the house of Israel were celebrating

before the Lord with songs and liars and harps and tambourines and castanets and symbols. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon as a put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen stumbled and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Aza and God struck him down there because of his heir. And he died there beside the Ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Za.

And that place is called Perez Za to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day and he said, how can the ark of the Lord come to me? So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord and to the city of David, but David took it aside to the house of Obed. Edam, the Tite and the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Oed, Edam the Tite, three months. And the Lord bless Oed, Edam and all this household though the grass withers

and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

At first glance, this may seem like an odd Easter text fair. I'll give that to you. Uh, this is where we are at in the book of second Samuel here at University Reformed Church. We're walking our way through it and so we're just going to continue to go through it. And I actually believe that this is a passage that captures the very core and the essence of Easter and hope to show that as we go through it this morning. And that is this God's holiness

and how are we and unholy people? How can we be in his presence? Lemme give a little background to those of you that are visiting with us this morning. We are in the book of Second Samuel and up to this point we've seen that David has a risen to the throne of Israel. He is the second king in Israel and he has united the 12 tribes of Israel underneath him as king. And now as king, he desires to bring the Ark of the covenant

or what you see in our text called the Ark of God into the capital of Jerusalem. And this is right and it's good. It's called the Ark of God. Verse two tells us why the Lord of host sits enthroned on the cherubim. In Exodus 25, God gives instructions for the building of this arc of the covenant or this arc of God. And he says that it is to be made out of wood and then it is to be overlaid with gold. And in that wooden chest, he, they were

to place the 10 Commandments, the summary of the moral law of God where we are told that God took his finger and he wrote the 10 commandments on those two stones and they were placed within that wooden chest. And on the top of that chest was a lid, a lid that was also fashioned and that was covered with gold. And on that lid there was what was called the mercy seat. You had two cherubim, two angels that were facing towards each other

and their wings were meeting together at a point on that lid. And God said in Exodus 25, there I will meet with you from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim. And thus the arc of the covenant was, was not just a furniture piece, it was much more than that. It it represented and had deep significance and the life of the people of Israel because it represented God's presence, God's covenant and God's holiness.

First it represented his presence so closely was the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark of God tied together with a person of God that it was often spoken of as if because it was there, God's presence was there. It's what we would call sacramental language. So if you think about the sacraments in the New Testament, we take one of them, take the Lord's table at the Lord's table. The Lord Jesus says as he takes the bread, he says,

this is my body. And then when he takes the cup, he says, this is my blood. Of course that bread is not his body. That cup is not his blood, but it represents his body and represents his blood. And there is such a close relation between the sign, the bread, the cup, the wine and the thing signify Jesus's body, Jesus's blood. That one can be substituted for the other. And so it is true here. The arc of God is often spoken of as God's presence

because it's so symbolized God's presence with his people. And it was so represented God's presence with his people that forsaking the ark was tantamount to forsaking God.

It also represented God's covenant with Israel. No other nation had this privilege. God promised to be with them. He promised to bless them. He promised that through them would come the Messiah into the world. That would be a blessing to all of the nations. They were his people, he was their God. And the Ark was a visible representation of visible sign of this bond that God had entered into with the people of Israel. And finally, the ark represented God's holiness.

As we said. Inside that ark were these two tablets of stone that were written, the summary of the moral law, the 10 Commandments that every Israelite was to obey, that every man and woman and child born into this world is to obey. And yet what? Every single Israelite and every single man, woman, and child ever born in this world except for one, every single one has disobeyed over and over and over and over again.

And even as it contained that summary of the moral law, it also answered the question, well, how does a holy God dwell among such an unholy people who break that law over and over and over again? And that was answered in the ark's design. So he said on the top of that, ark was what was called the mercy seat. And it was there that once a year on the day of atonement that the high priest having sacrificed a lamb would then

take that lamb's of blood into the 10th of meeting or into the tabernacle or later into the temple. And there he would sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat and there he would atone for the sins of the people of God.

And there the people of God, sinful people were reconciled to a holy God. The ark was significant. It represented God's presence with his people. It represented his covenant with his people and it represented his holiness and how unholy people could meet with a holy God.

And because of this significance, God gave strict instructions regarding the arc of God or the arc of the covenant in numbers four, about how it was to be transported, how it was to be moved, how? How do you move this, this ark? Well, only the Levites from the family of COAs were allowed to carry it. And first they were to take down the veil of the screen and they were to place it over the ark and then they were to cover it with goat skin

and then they were to cover it with a cloth made of blue. And then they were finally to carry it with poles on their shoulders

only on polls. Number seven says, and then in numbers four 15, God makes it quite explicit to them. He says, they must not, they must not touch the holy things lest they die. So now let's go back to the picture here in Second Samuel chapter six, understanding this arc of the covenant and understanding what it is that they are dealing with. This is new small thing. It is not insignificant. David is rightly trying to bring the arc

of the covenant into the capital city of the nation that has been united and David and his men, he has gathered together 30,000 of his mighty men and he and his mighty men have put this ark of the covenant on a new cart. Likely they were imitating the Philistines who had done this in one Samuel, not on polls, but the carts are new, that they're clean, they're trying to honor God, and they're trying to honor the Ark David

and his 30,000 men. They surround this ark. It's a kind of royal procession. It's a national celebration.

Here they are. Verse five tells us they were quote celebrating before the Lord. There are songs, there are liars, there are hearts, there are tambourines, there are castanets, there are symbols. It's a joyful celebration. Think this is New Orleans having met Jerusalem.

But then there's a stumble.

The oxen stagger the cart wobbles, the oracle Lurches

and Za who is trailing behind the ark, reaches out to brace it

and he's struck dead.

And that moment of celebration is turned into a moment of grief and mourning

who struck dead by God.

Now this offends our modern sensibilities, but we're not to soften this. Maybe it's not just our modern sensibilities because David responds by being offended as well. Verse eight, David was angry and it's striking. It's the same phrase, the same word that is used of God earlier. God's anger is used here for David's anger. Their quote, their their anger was kindled. In both cases, offense was given and it's responded too,

but only one was righteous anger and that was God's not David's,

but we may hesitate. We don't like that. Some may even say as you're sitting here this morning, well, my God doesn't act like that.

Indeed, the God of our making wouldn't act like that.

Dale Ralph Davis wrote this. He said, this is precisely the kind of passage that confirms the Bible's truth. He said, quote, we would never have invented a God like this. Not if we wanted to win converts and influence people. It offends us.

Let's engage that objection. My God doesn't have wrath. He wouldn't act like that.

You might like a God say, who is only loving, who's kind and compassionate, but if your God has no wrath, then he isn't just, and if he isn't just he's not holy. And if he's not holy, he's not good. And if he's not good, he's not loving.

Let's do that in the reverse. If God is love, he must be good. And if he's good, then he must be holy. There can't be any wrinkle in him. There can't be any stain in him. There can't be any kind of foreign substance about him. He must be pure and holy.

And if he's a holy God, he must uphold holiness. He must be just. This means that sin must be punished. If he's truly holy, he must be just because he has to uphold holiness and wrath is the righteous expression of justice in the face of sin. It's not an outburst or a mood swing on God's part here. It's measured, it's principled and it's always consistent with God's goodness.

I remember a sermon John Piper preached here years ago. He had just come from the Middle East and while he was there, he had been at a mosque and he was reporting to us in that sermon that at that mosque, he looked up at the the rotunda of that mosque and at the top of that rotunda, there were single words all the way around that rotunda. These were different attributes that were attributed to Allah. And he said there was one that stood out to him.

Capricious, capricious. That's not a word we use every day.

V for dictionary says it means given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior. Allah is moody. He's impulsive, he's fickle, he's unpredictable. The God of the Bible is not like that. His wrath is tied to his unchanging character.

So why are we so offended by this passage or passages like this? Because we underestimate God's holiness and we overestimate our own.

He's holy.

He's always been holy. He is holy forever shall be holy. That never changes.

Remember that vision that Isaiah has in Isaiah six when he has a vision of God in heaven? Do you remember what the angels are crying out before his throne singing before him night and day over and over and over again. It's holy, holy, holy.

That's his character. And we we are very unholy, unholy, unholy.

That's the picture of two Samuel six.

Cy Sproul writing about this passage said this. He said as Za was not an innocent man, he was not punished without a warning. He violated a clear law. There was no caprice in this act of divine judgment.

What was zas heir as it's called here in verse seven? What was the mistake that he made

was Spro channeling. Jonathan Edwards said it plainly in a sermon I remember hearing years ago, he said, za made the mistake of thinking he was cleaner than the mud.

There goes the ark, let me save it from the mud. And he reaches out.

But it's mud mud's, just dirt and water mixed together. There's no sin in mud

as a thought. The ark fall falling into mud would defile it more than his hands would.

We are much more unclean than mud and we are much more unclean than we want to admit.

But he had such good intentions, wasn't also intending to do the right thing.

Yes, but our intentions, even good ones, are not a substitute for obedience.

Think about that scene at the foot of Mount Sinai. When Moses is up on the mountain, he is meeting with God and the nation is gathered there at the foot of the mountain. What are they doing? They're they're fashioning a, a golden calf. Why are they doing that to worship God? They were sincere in their worship of God,

but they were sincerely wrong in their worship of God. And that's the core issue. We are more unholy than we want to admit. We're sinners, we're unclean.

We've violated this holy law over and over and over. We've committed cosmic rebellion over and over and over. We have fallen minds and we have fallen hearts and we have fallen lips and we have fallen eyes and we have fallen ears and we have fallen affections and we have fallen wills and we have fallen lives.

You're a sinner. So am I through and through

much more unholy than we want to admit. Admit

David, to his credit, will later understand this.

In one Chronicles 15, he's preparing to move that ark a second time and he tells the Levites to consecrate themselves. He says, quote, because you did not carry it the first time. The Lord our God broke out against us because we did not seek him. According to the rule, God isn't capricious. He established a law for our good and for his glory. And he's made it known His wrath is but his justice according to the law.

If we remove wrath from God, we remove his justice, we remove his justice, we removed his holiness and his goodness and his love. A loving God must hate sin. If your God has no wrath, you don't have a loving God.

And if we deny sin in ourselves, we deny the very heart of the gospel. Christianity begins here. God is holy and we are unholy.

Now that's offensive to sinful hearts and it's always been offensive.

Liberal theology in the 20th century tried to erase this offense. Nobody likes to be told that they're bad.

Richard Neber once summed up, liberal theology as this, a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the administrations of Christ without a cross. And today we might add a Christ without a resurrection. And there are all kinds of so-called churches that are meeting this morning and they're offering platitudes and they are offering turns of phrase and niceties and empty promises and kind of chicken soup for the soul kind of thing.

The truth is, the truth of heaven and earth that is revealed by the scriptures is that God is holy and you and I born into this world are sinners and we are very unholy

and he is, and he must be a God of justice and wrath or he is not a God of goodness and love. You see, you have to understand the bad news before you can ever get to the good news.

Oh, but there is such good news

and this is where Easter breaks in this God is good and this God is loving How? How good is this God? And how loving is this God? He is so good and he is so loving that he sins his own son, holy and blameless to die for the unholy and the guilty. The son of God becomes flesh and he lives among sinners and he is mistreated by sinners and he is beaten by sinners and he is put on a cross by sinners and he is put to death by sinners so

that he might atone for sinners.

Jesus who knew no sin

became sin for us. The apostle says so that we might become the righteousness of God. He lives that perfect life according to the law. He fulfills it all

and then he dies an atoning death on the cross pain for sin, not his because he committed no sin,

but pays for our sin

so that an unholy people could be reconciled to a holy God and live in his presence. For God so love the world that he sent. His only begotten son

gave him up for us.

How do you know this worked?

How do you know it was enough?

Because he rose.

He rose on the third day from the dead. You sang it this morning. He put to death, death. He triumphed over death. Death is the penalty for sin and death could not hold him. And he's just the first fruits of the resurrection. Death cannot hold the sinner saved in Christ 'cause he triumphed over it

and his resurrection is our assurance.

Paul says it beautifully in one Corinthians for 15, for I delivered to you as a first importance. What I also received, that Christ died for sins, that he was buried, that he was raised, and that he appeared. He appeared to Peter. He goes on to say to the 12 to more than 500 did James to Paul. These weren't vague impressions. They were true appearances.

Peter Williams notes that quote, the resurrected Jesus is recorded as appearing in Judea and in Galilee, in town and countryside, indoors and outdoors in the morning and the evening by prior appointment and without prior appointment, close and distant on a hill by a lake to groups of men and groups of women to individuals and groups of up to 500, sitting, standing, walking, eating and always talking. Many are explicitly closeup encounters

involving conversations. These were not vague visions. They were physical, personal, and plentiful. More than 500. And Paul starts naming names. Why? So the Corinthians, when they read the letter, if they have questions, they can go ask those people.

That's one. New Testament scholar has pointed out the empty tomb and the eyewitnesses together. They are absolutely powerful. Either one might be easily dismissed, but both empty tomb alone, you could say, well, you know his body was stolen, the eyewitnesses alone. You could say, well, that's a little bit of hysteria. But the two together, they make a case that demands belief or at least an alternative explanation for better,

for something much better than any skeptic has offered so far, and the meaning of the resurrection.

It means that a holy God

has made a way for an unholy people to be reconciled to him.

You can have peace with your creator

and that we now have access to his presence without fear of condemnation, as Paul will write.

You see, Christ is where the unholy and the holy meat,

he's the Ark of God. He's the true mercy seat.

He bore the wrath of God so we could receive the mercy of God. He died so we might live. He rose, so we might rise

and one day we will dwell in his presence with him in glory forever.

That's the promise of Easter. For those who believe in Jesus,

it's good. God has provided in the most costly of ways because he loves us

and he upholds justice and maintains his holiness for all of eternity.

Holy God, a broken law, a trembling hand of fatal flaw. No one can touch the sacred place. No one can stand and plead their case. But mercy came not in a cloud, not thunder wrapped or trumpet loud. He came with thorns upon his head to bear the wrath to stand. Instead, the ark has moved, not wood but flesh, where justice kissed the guilty's death. The veil was torn, the way was made. The debt was paid, the stone was laid,

and then the dawn, the breath, the light, the lamb who rose now robed and might He is the door, the truth, the way the holy one we sing to today.

You have a true living hope today, Christian 'cause He has risen.

He's risen indeed. Pray.

Our Father, we are thankful.

Thankful for so great a salvation, thankful that you are so great to God that you are loving and good and holy and just what a delight it is to be your people. To have a true living hope and anchor in heaven above to know that all of our enemies have been defeated. Even that last enemy death itself, that the grave could not hold him who is our savior. To him, we look with the eyes of faith and to you and to him and the spirit are one triune God.

We sing praise to you with thanksgiving for so great a savior and so great a salvation. It's in the strong name of Christ we pray. Amen. A.