Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Worldly Wagons or Sanctified Shoulders? Pt.1

Do you have the victory this morning? Amen. It's in Jesus. Our faith is the victory, amen? It's exciting. Praise God. Amen. You got healed this morning, didn't you? Glory to God. Hallelujah! The anointing of God's presence, the power of God here to minister to us, and we're just excited about it.

Let's turn to the book of Luke. Excuse me, Matthew--let's start off there. Matthew, the ninth chapter--there's nothing like the visitation of God's presence. Just coming and bringing His peace and His joy and His power. Just fellowshipping with Him, not because of what we can get out of Him, just because of who He is. Amen? Just wanting to be with Him and the presence of God.

Matthew, the ninth chapter, let's get right into our study for this morning. We've got a lot of ground we want to cover; we're not going to get it done this morning, but we will get started anyway. Verse 35, "And Jesus went about all the cities and [the] villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." Whose harvest is it? It's God's.

Isn't it funny how so many times we take the responsibility of ministry upon ourselves? We think it's our job, that it's going to be in our timing, it's going to be by our efforts and our expertise. This is God's program, isn't it? He's well able, praise God, to take care of it. In fact, the Word of the Lord came to me as we were in worship, and the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and said, "Learn the wisdom of the husbandman and the mystery of sowing and reaping. For everything there is a season. There's a time to sow, and there's a time to reap." The husbandman's been laboring in our midst. He's begun in our midst by the breaking up of the fallow ground and a turning over of the crust that had come over hearts and lives of individuals. The promise of God is when the fallow ground is broken up, then the Lord of Righteousness will look down upon us in the last days, and the former and the latter rain will come, and He'll rain righteousness upon us. As seed, we've been scattered into a new ground. Many have learned that except the seed fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, but by death to self, by death to self-ambition, by death to self-interest, the seed is germinated. The life of God has begun to manifest, and the raining of the latter rain of righteousness is falling upon us; and fruit will come forth to righteousness. Then we'll know the visitation of God. For the last visitation shall be this, "Come, and blow upon our garden." As the Spirit of God comes and breathes life, it will bring forth glory to God, the breath of God, to where men will know that what they've seen through the germination and through the resurrection is of God, and it's not men. We're going to see it. It will come to pass, praise God!

The Lord looked upon the multitudes, and He was moved with compassion upon them because there wasn't any shepherd. There wasn't anybody there to lead the flock. Now, let's stop and understand what Jesus was saying.

First of all, we have an organized religious system that's well intact, isn't it? Probably the best organized and most powerful religious system ever known on the planet was in existence at that time, as the Pharisaical dictates were coming forth loud and clear. There was the established temple worship. There were many years of history and tradition that they could draw upon, but the masses had no direction. They had religion, but they had no direction. They were wandering like sheep without a shepherd. Sound familiar?

We see today that all over our nation there are people that are wandering in and out of churches and changing churches and running from this denomination to that denomination and still haven't come under the dictates of the chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus. Jesus' heart is broken, and He's moved with compassion. Because of that, He says, "Beloved, I want you to begin to pray the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into the harvest." This isn't just the heathen. These are people that are religious folks also that don't know Jesus, that need the shepherd; amen? He's talking to us.

Now, look what happens here. We're going to get into something that we're going to spend some time on, probably a number of sessions anyway. He said that if we would pray the Lord of the harvest, He would send forth these laborers into His harvest.

Now how many--we've found out a lot of times when we pray, "Lord, send forth laborers," who's He going to send?--you; isn't He? When you pray that, "Lord, send forth laborers," He's going to say, "Okay, go!" That's why most of us don't really pray in faith. You know, we say, "Here am I, Lord, send Tony." Right? I'll pray for him, and I'll give him money because we know that he's a faithful man; and he's paid the price, and he's praying and seeking God, so we'll support him. But every one of us have been called to bring forth fruit, amen? There's none of us that are exempt of the responsibility to be laborers in this field. He said, "Pray the Lord of the harvest, and He will send you forth." That's paraphrased, but that's what it's saying to us there.

The good news is, as He goes into the next chapter, He's not going to send us forth without power. Amen? So He calls the twelve together, and it's obvious that they prayed because He calls them together; He's getting ready to send them now; compassion that He has for the multitudes. It says ". . . [and] he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." Then in verse 7, He tells them to do something. He said, ". . . go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. [Pastor's emphasis] Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: [here's the mandate]: freely ye have received, freely give." Then He goes through the dictates here and tells us in this tenth chapter some of the things that we don't really like to hear. We get down into verse 22 and He says, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." Praise God. Then He comes and gives us verse 34 and absolutely blows away the religious minds of our day, because this is the central message of organized religion today.

The central message of organized religion is unity at any cost. "We've got to be a united front before the world. If we're going to accomplish anything, we've got to join together. Let's lay aside all of our doctrinal disputes. Let's lay aside all of the apparent divisiveness that the world sees, so they can see a united front." That sounds good, doesn't it? In fact, my heart was grieved. I was just meeting with some men of God from this area--pastors that you would know. A number of them told me this, they said, "To give the appearance of unity and to be able to get together for a common cause..." they saw no problem with joining hands with an atheist on this side, a Unitarian on this side, and standing together united for the cause, whatever the social need might be.

That grieved me. I left that meeting literally sick, grieved. In fact, my wife, when I came home, she said, "What's wrong?" She could tell; you know how wives are. She instantly knew. I was ill. I was grieved in my spirit, and I thought, "Where is the Word of God that says, 'How can two walk together except they be agreed?'" What is it we're supposed to agree on?--the Lordship of Jesus Christ, amen?

I'm not going to get into the details of that at this time, but I want you to see that what God has called us to is a ministry of "The-Kingdom-of-Heaven-is-at-hand," praise God. We're not to be trying to clean up this world. We're to be letting people know that their lives are to be cleaned up because there's a new world coming, praise God. There's a new Kingdom that's been introduced into this realm, and the citizens of it are going to be citizens of righteousness and men that walk in the spirit, praise God, and not in the flesh. Jesus is setting forth some responsibility here.

Now, watch this. He says in verse 34, and I've told you that what's being propagated by so many people is we got to bring about unity, and there needs to be a peace, and He says, "Think not that I am come to [bring] peace [this absolutely flips people out, He said] I came [to bring] a sword." Now, beloved, I'm not making this up. You read it along with me, and those of you that have this type of Bible, you can see this is red ink. This is The Man talking. This is the Boss. This is not up for interpretation. This is pure revelation. If you've got a fourth grade capacity, you can understand what the Spirit is saying in Jesus to the church. "For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."

Now, we don't like this. Maybe we ought to skip this for this morning. Let's find a passage we can all shout and say, "Oh, Hallelujah! Preach it, brother! Glory to God! Amen!" Let's talk about getting rich. You want to talk about getting rich, and God going to bless us? You can drive a new Rolls Royce and fly your own Lear jet. How many of you would like that message this morning? Let's talk about how there's no problems in life, and we've been made more than conquerors, praise God, and every place we put our foot, God will give it to us; and every place we put our hand, it will prosper. Praise God, and there's no weapon formed against us that can prosper, and every tongue that rises against us in judgment, we'll condemn; for that's the heritage of the servants of the Lord. God is with us; therefore, nobody can be against us. In all things, we are more than conquerors. Don't you like that message? I do. That's a good message. I believe it. I walk in it. I practice it. It's life to me. But at the same time, if I'm going to be more than a conqueror, that means I have to have some opposition. Amen?

You're not going to go through this life without a war. The war is on. Are you all aware of that? There's a big bad devil out there wanting to blow your house down; therefore, don't build on sand. Amen? Dig deep into the rock, praise God, and when the wind blows and the waves come and beat vehemently upon your house, the Bible says it didn't even shake. Glory to God! People's houses are falling around, and yours didn't even shake. Are you unshaken this morning?

We've been sharing with you the state of our society, and I've been watching some of you; and you're going, "Huh, huh, huh, it's bad!" You're not supposed to be shaken if you've built on the rock. Amen? This thing doesn't shake! There's no shaking. Now, I know the song says there's a whole lot of shaking going on, but there's no shaking in the Kingdom of God. I'm not shaken by what I see. I'm not moved by the circumstances, but I'm not ignorant of them either; and I know, beloved, that things are going to get worse, and the worse they get, the less I'm going to shake. The less I shake, the more other people will be going like this, say, "There's somebody over there not shaking [voice shaking as with fear]. Let's go over and see what he has to say about this." Amen.

That's where ministry's going to begin to open up for us in these last days. Right now, basically, all we've done is exchange rhetoric with these people. "Jesus is Lord." "No, He's not." "Yes, He is." What we're doing is arguing with folks because their God hasn't shaken yet.

I want to tell you, bless God, that their god, Dagon, is going to fall--one of these days soon--on his face. They're going to see Dagon bow before the glory of God, and they're going to know who God is by the visitation of the Spirit of God in these last days. They're not going to be able to tell any difference until everything that they've got their confidence in shakes down. You better be ready with a message in that day! You better be able to give an answer of the hope that's in you in that day!

Tragically, what we've done since we've gotten into this rhetoric exchange, and apparently our weapons have been ineffectual, apparently, we've decided, organized religion, to reach them with some "new methods" that they will accept because we want them to hear the Gospel message. We want them to accept Jesus so badly, that we'll wrap it in any package that's palatable to them, and Jesus said, "That's not my ministry." He said, What I came to bring was a clear division, a sword, that will divide families. It will divide three against two, two against three. It will divide households, but there will be absolutely no question that it's My presence and My Word. A choice that affects your life has been made because you can't come to Him if you don't hate your life and lay it down.

Now, watch what He goes on to say here. "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not [up] his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." If you find your life or try to hold onto it, you will lose it; but if you'll lay it down for my sake, you will find it. "He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." Here we are, and we're finding the mandate that Jesus is bringing forth. He said, "Behold, I give you power."

How many of you are Spirit-filled this morning? Let me see your hands? Amen. What comes along with that? We realize that when you're baptized in the Holy Ghost, the first thing that ought to happen to you is you ought to experience some sanctification in your life because it's a baptism of fire; amen? Fire is always a sign of purification.

If the sanctification didn't come, there's a good chance you didn't get the baptism. Maybe you just got tongues, because tongues, though it's the initial outward evidence, it is not the exclusive evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Now, I don't have time to get into all that. We have a tape on that if you're interested in that subject. But, there's a lot of things that deal with the baptism in the Holy Spirit. One of them is sanctified living, a clean life, a clean vessel. Yes, speaking in other tongues is the initial evidence to where we can pray, and what is the purpose of us praying in tongues? The Bible says that we pray in the Spirit that we might do something. What is it?--edify ourselves, praise God.

The question is then, if you're baptized in the Holy Ghost, is your life consistently being built up? Or are you on one of these, up and down, up and down? We're to pray in the Holy Ghost. This is the refreshing, the Scripture says, praying in the Holy Ghost.

When you pray in tongues, do you just make noise, or do you get refreshed? When it's the Holy Ghost praying through you, you come out refreshed. Hallelujah! Went in--it was tough, but I've come out fresh, praise God! That's what ought to happen when you pray in the Holy Ghost. This is the refreshing.

When you're praying in the Holy Ghost, you're praying according to the will of God, the Bible says. Jesus said, "If you ask anything according to my will, I will do it." That means you're getting prayers answered when you're praying in the Holy Ghost. We're not going to teach on that this morning. [I'm going to get off here in just a second. I know I can.] We realize then that these are evidences of the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

He also says when you've been filled with the Holy Spirit, you shall receive power to become witnesses. How's your life as a witness this morning?--if you're full of the Holy Ghost. You see, when you're full of the power of God, you shall be. It didn't say you might be or you can choose to be. It said you shall be witnesses unto me. Amen? Amen? When you're full of the Holy Ghost.

Those that got filled with the Holy Ghost in the book of Acts, it said they couldn't help but speak the things that they had seen and heard, praise God. You want to know why they were seeing and hearing stuff? Because they were full of the Holy Ghost. They were laying hands on the sick, and they were recovered; and they were casting out devils, praise God, because freely they had received, freely they were giving, and they had something to talk about. Do we?

You see, this is what the Spirit of God is saying to us today, and we need, beloved, to lift up our eyes and look on the fields that are white unto harvest. There's a mass of people out there that are wandering as sheep without a shepherd, and they need somebody that knows where they're going to say, "This is the way; walk in it, praise God. Follow me as I'm following Christ."

But, there will be a price to pay in this thing if we're going to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and know the power of God. There's a price. Instead of being willing to pay the price, we come up with some real good ideas that can shortcut the "sowing-and-reaping-to-everything-there-is-a-season" process and give people instant results, because that's what they want to hear. I can get saved right now and be instantly a king, and a priest, and a conqueror, praise God, and, automatically, I'm so blessed! Glory to God. I'm not ever going to have any trials, or tribulations, or any problems, and this is the gospel that sells real easily. God is a God of love, and you can live any way you want, and He's going to embrace you and wrap you in the robe of asbestos to where Hell will never harm you. Salvation isn't for asbestos; it's for righteousness.

Now, watch what's happening here, and let me give you the illustration of what I mean. Turn to the book of Samuel, if you would, and look at 1 Samuel first. In 1 Samuel 6, there's something going on, and we won't spend a lot of time in 1 Samuel; but I want to set something up for you, and you'll see how these tie together. I want to set something up for you that's really interesting here. Chapter 4, 1 Samuel--Eli's sons, as you know, were living lives that weren't righteous. They were robbing from the people. They were living immoral lives in the temple. The indication is that they were sleeping with women in the temple. Can you imagine that? They're robbing people in the offerings, and, finally, God said, "That's enough." How many of you would have got them before this?

Aren't you glad the Lord's merciful? I'm glad God is longsuffering, praise God. I'm so glad that He doesn't snuff us the first time we blow it, aren't you? Because we'd all be snuffed; there's not one of us that would be here this morning.

He's longsuffering, and He's full of tender mercies; and He's not willing that any would perish, but He's also a God of justice. God will not always strive with a man. When a man's heart becomes hardened, and his conscience seared, they'll know the judgment and the visitation of God. If they're not judged of God instantly, they'll deceive themselves into thinking that they're just; but God is only reserving them for a day that will bring more glory to His name. But judgment will come; that's another story--won't get into that.

Eli, having heard the report, Chapter 2 says, [if you want to go back a little further] that they were lying with the women, verse 22 [I couldn't let you not see this; you won't believe this. Can you believe this?]. He heard that his sons lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. "And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons; [it's not a] good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's people [sin]. . . .Notwithstanding they hearkened not [verse 25] to the voice of their father . . . [But] the child Samuel [now, watch the contrast] grew on, and was in favour [with] both the Lord, and with men."

Now, let me show you something. These guys are being raised in the same temple, under the same teaching; aren't they? One's sleeping with women in the church, and the other's growing in favor with God and men. God, in His mercy, doesn't just bring judgment but comes and brings first of all to these young men, what? Reproof. The Word is profitable for reproof, and then we have to deal with it. It says even though their father came and brought them reproof, they did not hearken to the word of the Lord.

Now, we know the sequence and what takes place here. Samuel's growing in favor with the Lord. We come into the situation, and turn over, if you would now, to that fourth chapter. God has appeared to Samuel at this time. He's becoming familiar with that voice. The Philistines now begin to move in and bring a siege upon the nation Israel.

When trials come, now watch this, when trials now come, the hard times come, they expect God to come to their rescue. Sounds familiar; doesn't it? They're living any way they want in the temple, have no regard for God's glory or holiness, as they profane the temple with their lifestyles, yet now, when the enemy comes upon them, when Satan comes upon them, they run down, grab the ark, and run out to destroy their enemies. Hophni and Phinehas come out and expect God to rise up and bring deliverance. But, in fact, the prophetic word came and said the judgment of God was going to come upon them. We know the story. Hophni and Phinehas die. The ark is taken captive. Eli, the judgment comes, as he falls and breaks his neck. Phinehas' wife has a child now at the time of hearing the report of the loss of the ark, and that child is named in verse 21, Ichabod, for the glory is departed from Israel. Is that one of the saddest commentaries you think that we can find here in this Old Testament? The glory of the Lord is departed. The glory of the Lord is departed.

Beloved, my heart breaks as I look around within these walls and others that I'm able to fellowship with. I look around, and my question is, where's the glory? Where is the glory of the Lord? Now, I'm not going to get into this part of it. I know enough. I know Scripture. I know enough to know that, that glory tabernacles in each of our temples. I know that. I know that one person can be in this chair and be in total revival, and the other person next to him be totally backslidden; I'm aware of that. My question this morning is, "Where is the glory of the Lord, and how is the church bringing it forth to a depraved, lost, society?" We're going to see this morning that there's two ways that this can be brought, and only one is acceptable to God. It brings us to the title that I shared with you the other day, "Worldly Wagons or Sanctified Shoulders?"

The ark was lost here, and as you'll read through; and I'm not going to spend any more time, that you'll find that for twenty years, now, the ark was missing. Isn't it amazing how you can go to church for twenty years without the presence of God? Things just went on. The system operated. Nothing was different. They just went to church, came back, went through all of the different rituals, hands lifted, sing the choruses. There's only one thing missing, the presence of God--twenty years.

We're going to find David, in just a moment, going to fetch the ark back. Prior to that, I want you to see a couple of biblical truths that are very important. In that twenty-year period, God was able to take care of Himself. Isn't that good news? Yet, today, we seem to think that we have to protect God. I mean, we've got to come up with some plans that will help God out.

Let me show you something that God did all right for Himself. Ichabod, the glory of the Lord departs, they take the ark captive. I wonder if we have a scene coming on here like in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Chapter 5, verse 2, says, They brought the ark. Look at this. The Philistines bring the ark into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. "And when they of Ashdod arose early [the next morning, they came and] Dagon was fallen upon his face . . ."

Don't you love this? I don't know how many times I've read this, but every time I read it, I just love it. Something inside of me; I just laugh at the devil. I can see it. I can see that idol down on its face before the ark, and all the priests come in and go, "Whoa! I don't understand this." They, like the world's system does--you would think that they would say, "Whoa, this must be the living God!" No, they prop their god up just like we prop up religious systems, worldly wisdom, all of the false doctrines that are proven false. We can't say, "I was wrong," and repent. We just prop our idols back up.

This goes on, and the next thing you know, they come in--and you'd have to understand what this idol is like, but it was an idol that had its hands similar to this and Dagon, the weird looking guy, the fish god. They come in the next day, verse 4 says, and I like this. The head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold. He fell, and it broke his head off right over the threshold, puhhhttt, rolled out across the . . . The priests come in the next morning and find him broken. Instead of repenting and understanding that the visitation of the living God had come into their presence, what do they want to do? They want to send the real thing away, so that they can fix their broken god. Now, isn't that smart! But is that where the world is today? Professing themselves to be wise, they've become fools. They are willingly, Romans says, ignorant of the presence of God, willfully choose to disbelieve what they know is truth. They're not without knowledge. Romans 1 says none of them are without knowledge. They have chosen to worship the creature more than the Creator. Isn't that what Romans tells us?

Is that who we're dealing with today? Is that the society that we're dealing with today? Sure it is. Then how is it that we're going to affect these people? We're not, but God's going to deal with them. Amen? Now, I'm going to show you how. I'm going to show you what's going to take place here in this time that we're living in.

Now, Dagon's broken, so they say, "We've got to get rid of the ark." They run the ark off, and I don't want to get caught up in this, but there's a couple of things that are happening that they're sending the ark of God back; for the twenty-year period now that this is taking place, the absence of the ark, we find the ark settling in the house of Abinadab, chapter 7. Abinadab means the father of generosity. They sanctify his son, Eleazar, to be keeper of the ark. Now, there's something interesting about the name Eleazar; it means "God is our helper." as opposed to "We are God's helper." Okay? See, this is what we're coming to, and I'm going to show you this in just a moment. Eleazar, God is our helper. Aren't you glad that He's our very present help in the time of trouble?

Then it says, verse 2, it says, "For twenty years the ark was absent." Now, change with me over to the second book of Samuel, the sixth chapter, and we're going to find that after this period of time now, David is king. We know the fellowship that he's had with the Lord, and, now, he's wanting to see the restoration of the ark into the house of God. There's only one thing wrong. The glory's been gone so long. They still have religion, and they still have tradition; but they've not had fellowship with God. They don't know how to act around God.

They go down now to fetch up the ark. We're going to bring it back. As we begin to find this, they go down in 2 Samuel, chapter 6, and it says, "And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab . . ." Verse 5, "And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments [what a praise time; look at this. The instruments] made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals." Sounds like the new emphasis that we've come out of here just recently, the praise fad, and everybody worshipping and dancing and jumping and screaming and hollering for God, and I'm not opposed to any of that. Probably be better for some of us if we did more of it. I'm not opposed at all, unless it's done in the flesh. I've found that there's a lot of things that we can do unto the Lord for our own gratification, because it makes me feel better, but I'm doing this unto the Lord. See, now, watch; I want you to grab hold of this thing. They're singing and praising, and all of this is taking place. Then, all of a sudden, "And when they come to Nachon's threshing floor, [it says] Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for [What happened?] the oxen shook it." If you'll read the account over in Chronicles, you'll find that the oxen stumbled, and it caused the ark to shake; and he reached up to steady it.

Now, let's go back and run through this scenario here for just a moment. See if we can draw some analogies as to what the Spirit of God is trying to say to us. First of all, now it's time to fetch the ark. They come, and wasn't it nice that they built God a new cart? Sacrificially, they labored and they built God--I mean, they weren't going to give God an old cart. They built God a new cart.

I think it's interesting for us to stand today and look at all the new methods that people are trying to transport God to a lost world. All the new vehicles that man has built (listen to me) to move God--doctrinal, organizational, philosophical; all the new financial methods. You ought to see all the new Christian lending organizations to get you the money to build the new tabernacles, so that people would want to come to your meetings because of the new edifice. We will help you get in debt to draw people into your congregation that don't tithe in the first place. The new vehicles to transport God; it's always something new.

God's not looking for any new methods. The Apostle Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation." Amen? We don't need any new methods. All we need is to go back and preach the cross, praise God, Jesus, and Him crucified. It's a stumbling block to those that are worldly minded, but to us it's the power of God unto salvation. Amen?

The pure Gospel offends the carnal, the worldly, the cart builders. They don't believe that the preaching of the cross is sufficient. They don't believe that the Gospel has enough dynamics behind it to draw a world that's lost! We've got to somehow provide some new method that will entice them.

The only problem with that is this--read the story. Let's find the analogy. All of the religious form was there, the singing, the dancing, the praising, but they didn't know who they were praising because if they did they would have known that God didn't need a steadying hand from man to prop up His program. I'll show it to you as we go on. We'll look at it in just a moment; God's little helper, Uzzah. You know what the word, Uzzah, means?--stout, hard, self-secure and majestic. We'll help you out, God. We've got this thing all planned out. We are bold. We know where we're going. We have the capacity. We're taking you back to Jerusalem, God! Now, don't worry; if anything happens, we'll take care of you.

Uzzah reaches up to steady the glory of God. Can you imagine? We sure wouldn't want God to get hurt. When he does, he's instantly smitten, and dies. David, then, in verse 7 (look what it says, or verse 8), "And David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah: and he called the name of the place Perezuzzah to this day."

Isn't it interesting how man can judge God? David was displeased with God. "God, we were only trying to help you. I mean, after all, your program was failing. You were getting ready to fall off the cart. We were just trying to prop you up, and you judge us? Our hearts were right. We wanted you back in Jerusalem. We wanted your name glorified. Our hearts were right!" Maybe they were, but your methods were wrong. So much for the good heart theory. Their hearts were right; they were wanting God glorified. They wanted the presence of the Lord. They were moving in pride against the wisdom of God. You want to know why?

Turn over to Chronicles for just a second, and let me show you something in 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 15 tells you why Uzzah got snuffed. (Did I say second?--first. It's close; I only missed it by one.) As you begin to read this thing, there's some interesting things that are happening. Look at--let's start at about verse 12, fifteenth chapter. (The chapter's right; we only missed it by a book.) He says in verse 12, ". . . Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord . . . as I have prepared for it. For because [and look at verse 13, and this tells you why] ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we [What?] sought him not after the due order. . ." Interesting; isn't it? Why did God visit Uzzah? David was upset with God. Who should David have been upset with?--himself and the priests. They didn't take time to seek out the will of God or the method of God as to what He said would bring His visitation and the manifest of His glory. They decided that whatever program they built God would bless. "After all, our hearts are right, and we want God to get the glory." Really? "Yes, we want God glorified. I mean, our motives, our hearts are right. We want God glorified." Stout, hard, self-righteous, self-serving, concerned with one's own majesty; I would say Uzzah probably wasn't as concerned about the ark as he was the wagon. He wanted his wagon recognized because it was transporting the ark.

The Scripture goes on. Now, watch what's happening here. You see, it says, we sought not God after the due order. Can I share something with you today? Do you know it's a lot easier to build carts than to sanctify your life? It's a lot easier to sit down and brainstorm an idea and come up with a plan and go out and use man's methods, whatever they might be, any programming method you want. I mean, let's use mass mailing. Let's use television. Let's use no interest financing. Let's take credit cards in church. You know there's churches today that, cha-ching, you go through, and they pay God on credit. I'm serious. They take credit cards in church for offerings. You say, "Well, that's a good idea." What's a good idea? Paying fourteen percent to the world to use the credit card? Why don't you give fourteen percent to God, cash? (That's another story.)

Anyway, we're looking at what's taking place here. The point I want to make to you this morning is this: Beloved, it's a lot easier to build carts than to sanctify a life, but God doesn't accept our carts and our methods of transportation. He wants sanctified shoulders. He said, "I have an order that I've established, and I want clean priests bearing me on their shoulders, not man's programs, not man's methods."

Now, if you'll look at this thing, you'll find that what happens is, it has similar evidence of what took place the first time. Now, we find David in there dancing before the Lord again, praising God. Music's playing--naahhhh, naahhhh, naahhhh, naahhhh, bloop. They're playing horns, and everything's going on; and people are dancing, spinning around, praising God, and nobody's getting killed yet because, now, it's being done God's way. The ark's coming in, and the priests are carrying it on sanctified shoulders; and David's praising God, and he's blessing the Lord. Looking good, but something interesting happens here.

You remember we said that Jesus came not to bring peace, but He came to bring a sword? Verse 25 says, "So David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over the thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obed-edom . . ." They're worshipping God. There's a whole lot of shaking going on. Now, something interesting happens.

Turn back to 2 Samuel with me for just a second. Keep your finger here. This time, verse 13 says, instead of transporting God via oxen, every six paces they stopped and sacrificed oxen unto the Lord. David's dancing with all of his might, leaping and dancing, and it says Michal, Saul's daughter, looked out and saw him and despised him in her heart. Now, why would she despise David for dancing before the Lord? He comes in the house, and she gives him one of these drip, drip, drip, things. The contentious woman, drip, drip. "How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself in the eyes of the handmaids. Hey, we've got status; we've got people watching us. I mean, we've arrived! What are you doing? We're rubbing shoulders here with the elite, the nations of the world. What are you doing out there as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovering himself?" David said, "It was before the Lord."

You see, the problem is this--turn back; keep your finger there, and turn back to the Chronicles passage. The problem was this. Verse 27 says, David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and David also had upon him an ephod of linen. You see, the robe was his secular, worldly position of majesty and power. The ephod was the priest's garment. The robe was the king's, and the ephod was the priest's. David stripped himself of all the natural honor and took off his majestic robes and laid them aside, and danced before God and worshipped God in the linen ephod of the priests to sanctify himself before God, and he's despised of his own household. I mean, God deserves the approval of the scepter of the king. "I mean, we've got to get political approval, economic sanction. You're just down there like some old priest dancing before God. We've got to keep God on a level to where He's impressive to the world." Interesting analogy's going on here, isn't it? Does it sound like anything you've been hearing recently?

Why are the most popular messages today in Christendom coming from psychologists and politicians and economists? Why is the church being dictated to by all types of social issues and being compelled to minister to them in the arm of the flesh rather than in the unction of the Holy Ghost through the blood of Jesus, through the resurrection power, through the presence of the Holy Ghost, through the foolishness of preaching the Gospel? We want to begin to build carts and bring God to the public where He's acceptable of them. You know what it will bring? It will bring the death of Uzzah, and it will bring the barrenness of Michal. Did you hear what I said?

As we begin to look into these things, Michal wanted that position so bad; and you know within her she wanted to bear a little prince to take over that throne that she held so dear to her heart. God said, "You're not having any children. I want priests; I'm not interested in kings."

Now, the world's system would have us believe something else. The wisdom of the world would have us believe that if we're going to be effective in our generation, somehow, we've got to get into strategic positions so we can minister the Gospel. I want to tell you the strategic position that Paul was in to shake Rome: the Mamertine prison, the sewers of Rome. Do you know that's where he was? How many of you know where that's where the--the prison was in the sewers. I've been there in Rome. The sewers of Rome, the sewer rats running around, the waste of men, the stench of humanity; he's down there writing Epistles, and guys are getting saved. Even in Caesar's house, they're getting born again, praise God. People would have us believe that it was the men in Caesar's house that had an influence; it was the guy in the sewer that was moving Rome, praise God. We don't believe that if we're moving in the wrong wisdom. "If somehow we can move men into strategic positions, oh, we could have such a revival, how we could affect our nation.

Seems to me, unless my Bible reading is wrong, that one day there was a man in a very strategic position. His name was Moses, and there was a task at hand that needed to be done. God's people needed to be free, and the man with the greatest power, the greatest knowledge, trained in all of the wisdom of Egypt--do you know what was going on in Pharaoh's court? The magicians just thought he was pulling some of the tricks that he had learned in magic school. He was trained in magic--he had to be--and all of the sorceries that were going on.

All of a sudden, those guys begin to say, "Wait a minute, we didn't learn that in school! I mean, we could turn the rods into snakes, but we couldn't get them to go back; and this eating thing, that's a new trick. He was trained in all of their wisdom. He was in the strategic position. What had to happen before God's will could be done? God had to get him out because he went in his own strength, failed, comes back to visit God for forty years in the backside of the wilderness and comes back with his robes of majesty stripped from him. Now, in a shepherd's garb with a staff, but the difference was, he knew I Am. He counted all of the other things, as the Apostle Paul did, loss that he might gain Christ. Leaving the pleasures of sin for the knowledge of God.

Now, watch. Is that opposite of what we're hearing today? Are you all hearing the same messages that I'm hearing out there on the horizon? I mean, we have to get people in strategic positions economically, politically. "We need movie stars to get born again to propagate the Gospel because, I mean, after all, they've got movie stars that are coming that are pro-abortionists. We've got to get some movie stars that aren't." Why? "We've got to get politicians who are born again to steady the cart. I mean, this thing's shaking; let's prop it up. We've got a problem in our country with drugs and abortion, and God's not doing anything; so we will." Now, how many of you are hearing that message preached? You're not hearing those words spoken, but that's the message. "What are we going to do? What are we going to do?" Well, the one thing we're not going to do is ignore the needs. I'm not talking about the church of Jesus Christ shutting itself into a building, wrapping its Pharisaical robes around itself and saying, "Unclean." I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about the fact that we have the answer to the drug problem. We have the answer to the abortion problem, and the answer is the blood of Jesus Christ. The answer is you must be born again, praise God. The answer is we'll cast out those murdering demons out of these women who think they need to kill their children to protect their rights. There's people that are flexing their muscles right now saying, "We're going to get it reversed, Rowe versus Wade, Hallelujah! It's going to be reversed."

I want to tell you something. God will not get the glory if it is reversed, and if it is reversed, it won't change anything. I just saw last night; you can buy your own home suction kit. They were advertising on TV last night, women, all you had to do was buy this little kit, just insert this thing, swoooohhh, suck that baby right out of there. Do it in the comfort of your own home. Did you all see it? They were showing how to use it on TV last night to "protect our rights." Reversing Rowe versus Wade won't stop the murders; changed hearts will stop women from killing their babies. You know who will get the glory?--President Reagan for appointing the new justices who reversed the decision. That tells me, and brings us to the last point. (We're just introducing this thing; we're not done.)

The last point I want to deal with this morning--how do we know when it's God? How do we know when we've built a cart as opposed to carrying this thing upon sanctified shoulders? How do we know? What if Moses had been able to somehow bring a coup and usurp authority in Egypt and make a decree then that the people would be free? Would that have brought glory to God? They would have had to this day, images of Moses erected because he fulfilled the will of God. When the story came down the way we read about it, is there any question who the deliverer was? This is bottom line, and let me show it to you, and we'll end with this.

Turn to 1 Corinthians, if you would. We'll shut it down for this morning. We're just about through the introduction to what we want to share with you in this subject. It's a big subject and, beloved, you better know what you believe before you go out there. Because if you don't know what you believe, we're going to get caught up, and we shared with you out of Colossians, "Beware, lest any man spoil you through vain philosophies, through the traditions of men, through the rudiments of this world; and you begin to walk in that avenue and not after Christ." You remember what we shared with you the other night?

The rudiments of the world, the word "rudiments" means what? We shared it with you the other day. It has to do with the elementary principles that have sequential response to them. In other words, the origin will have natural sequential events that will follow it to its end, and whatever the origin of a particular matter is, is going to be the end of it. It will take a lot of different personalities in the process, but the spirit that originated it, we have to realize, is the truth of that particular situation.

Therefore, we share that not everything that is good, is good, because its origin, if it's in the world's system, all, the Bible says (Listen to me!), all that is in the world's system is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Now, is that, or is that not, all that is in the spirit of the system of the world? Is that what the Bible says? The Bible says there's a wisdom that is not from above but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. We have in this world that you and are living in (we're going to deal with this in our next session) two wisdoms that we have to choose from. Both will produce results. Both can make you a winner in this life, but only one will make you a winner in the life that's coming. You can be a success by using this world's wisdom, mega success. You can even do it in a moral guise, but without Christ, its vain; it's foolishness, and it's damnation. The problem is most of us Christians don't want to draw with that sword the fine line that says, "If it's not Jesus, if it's not Bible, I don't accept it." You want to know why?--because that brings conflict. It makes people uncomfortable. After all, we're Christians, and we're supposed to make everybody happy because that's what Christians do, make everybody happy. We come up with a new fad and a new phrase, "Don't worry; be happy." You'd better worry, Jack. You're going to Hell, and you're not going to be happy down there.

Now, that little phrase applies to me because I cannot worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, I let my requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding keeps my heart and mind through Christ Jesus. I don't worry, and I'm happy; and I'm going to Heaven. Amen. Got my cake and eating it, too. Amen.

There's a way that seems right to a man, and the end is destruction. There's a wisdom in the world's system, but it's earthly, sensual, and demonic; and, beloved, I want you to understand what James 4 says. It says if you are a partaker or a friend, you've stricken hands with the world's system, you are the enemy of God. Is that what James 4:4 says or not? Now, here we are. If you're a friend of the world, you're the enemy of God. Can you get any more plain? That's what I like about James; the guy talks plain. Don't you like James, the Epistle of James? You just read that book, and he tells it like it is. He just smacks you right up side the head and says, "Get in line." James is--just read James; he tells you.

He talks about false religion. He talks to people, says, Don't be given me this, I'm going to pray for you, brother, be warmed and filled, and go your way; and you have the need to take care of this guy. He says, You're a fraud; you're a hypocrite. Your religion is in vain. Be warmed and filled, brother, be warmed and filled. Give him a sandwich. Don't tell him you're going to pray for him; amen?

Now, contextually, I don't want to get off on the subject; he's talking about brothers. He's talking about somebody that came to you with a need. Somebody that came to you that prayer will affect their life. Now, don't just give him a sandwich either. Give him some direction and counsel. The sandwich will keep him from passing out when you kick him in the rear and tell him to go to work. That's another story.

Anyway, we're looking at how do we discern? What is this thing? Look at Corinthians, and we'll end for this. This is precious. We have a couple minutes left here. I want to--let's start, we'll run through it quickly. Start at verse 17. "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; [the first chapter, verse 17.] He sent me to preach the Gospel; [now, check this out.]: not with wisdom of words, [See, we're not talking about, again, philosophies. We're not talking about debating religion. He said, "Don't bring this thing in the wisdom of words"] lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness . . ."

Now, see, it's very simple. You go out and preach the cross, Jesus crucified. Jesus was made sin with your sin that you might be made righteous with His righteousness. God became flesh and took your sin upon His body and died on that cross, that you could be free from your sins and not have to go to Hell. Do you believe that? "No." You're a fool.

Now, you don't have to respond to them in that way, but, you see, now I know where this guy's coming from, because he's taking that cross, the vicarious work of Jesus, God's plan of redemption, incarnation--the natural mind won't receive it. Because of that, I know now that the Spirit of God is not drawing him, so it doesn't do me any good to sit down there and try to convince this guy intellectually that Jesus died for him. Yet, some of us will spend hours trying to convince him. Even if somehow you can convince him intellectually, and he makes an intellectual assent to the fact, "Well, maybe you are right," does that cause us to be born again? No, and, therefore, we have people filling our churches with an intellectual assent of the lordship of Jesus but not a changed heart. Therefore, the preaching of the Gospel to them is an offense, and they come to church and they get offended and think, "Oh, euuu, that's not what I want to hear; it doesn't go into my categorization of love and how God moves. That doesn't fit on my cart." Now, watch.

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise . . ." What is God going to do with worldly wisdom?--destroy it. You'll find out that He's talking clearly in this passage, comparing worldly wisdom with divine wisdom. "And [I] will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God . . ."

That's quite a statement, isn't it? I don't want to get into that right now. We'll bog down on it, but did you grab what he said there? Powerful statement--by the wisdom of God, by the wisdom of God. God allowed a world system to be formed whose wisdom could not accept Him, so that we could have a clear understanding of who's on whose side. We can talk, and they look at you and go, "What?" and you know they're not of us. They think we're talking in code. I'll prove it to you. Had the princes of this world known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Jesus went around telling them what He was going to do and the devil couldn't figure it out and still killed Him, and by doing it killed himself because there was a wisdom that they operated in. The devil was moving perfectly; he's the author of worldly wisdom, and he used every worldly tactic possible. He finally killed Jesus and got Him right where he wanted Him--he thought. He finally persecuted the first century church and got them right where he wanted--he thought. He dispersed them into all of the world. Whoops--made another mistake.

You know the best thing the devil can do (Listen to me, Devil.), and he figured it out. He did it in America. The best thing he can do is just back off and let everybody do their thing. Don't persecute Christians. See, when you're persecuted, you grow. When you're persecuted, you have to make quality decisions. When times are hard, you've got to begin to decide if you're going to believe God or serve Dagon. But if things can be easy, and the flesh is being ministered to (read the prophets), it says anti-Christ will destroy them by their prosperity. You better know what your source is. Whatever you've accumulated, it better be accumulated by the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of the world. God's not afraid for you to prosper. God will bless you, but you can find out whether the blessings are God's or man's by how you respond to them, and who's getting the glory. We're just--I've got to get going to this. Watch this. He makes a statement; it's interesting.

Verse 24, we'll skip a few here, and see if we get through this here in the next couple of minutes. "But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God, and [Christ is] the wisdom of God." Therefore, if we're going to get involved in anything, and I'm going to give you some parallels as we go on into this study, and I'm going to show you about, for instance, the abortion issue, the poverty issue, the drug issue. Are we as Christians to be ministering to these needs? Yes, of course, of course. What's the method?--the power of God. There's only one message to help these people. The message is not giving the hungry guy food, the naked guy clothing, because the hungry guy's going to end up hungry again, and the naked guy's going to end up naked again. Lives have got to get changed. People have got to begin to fellowship and trust God. The message is the cross. Now, watch! He says that Jesus is the power and the wisdom of God. Therefore, everything we do has to be done how?--in the name of the Lord.

I shared with these guys the other day, I was talking to you about, the ones who were going to hold hands with the atheist over here and the Unitarian over here to promote the cause. I told them, I said, "If I came down to help you guys out, you'd throw me out of there because I'd bring confusion to your cause because I'd want to be ministering to the Atheist; and I'd want to be getting this guy free from the demonic deception of Unitarianism, and here we would; and they'd be going on, and we'd be ministering here, all of a sudden, your cause would not be the focal point; getting people born again would be. You'd want me gone because I'm confusing the cause when I'm fulfilling the commission." "We're here for a reason." "Yes, to get people saved!" Is that what Jesus called us to do? Yes, He said, "Minister to the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked." It's all part of the Gospel. You want to know how man does it? Free meals, everybody come on and eat; come on, free meals. They all come in, and they're all eating. We sing, Jesus loves you, and they all go out and come back and eat tomorrow; and we keep doing this, and we feel good about ourselves because we're ministering the love of God.

I think we ought to read the Bible and see how Jesus did it. Jesus went out and preached, and all of these guys showed up. He preached and preached and preached and preached and preached and preached and preached and preached and preached, and when He got done, He said, "These guys are going to pass out on the way home. They've been sitting here so long listening to the Word of God, they don't have enough energy to get home; let's feed them. They've sat under the unction and the presence of God; let's feed them." He fed them, feeds them. They want to rush Him and make Him king, best welfare program they've ever heard of. It did, and they said they were going to force Him to become their king. Well, why not? See, Jesus knew what's in the heart of man. It says He never gave Himself to men.

He takes off, and John 6 tells us, finally, He's coming along, and all the crowd comes. Here they are again. Man, what a crowd. He looks at them and says, "You're not here because of the miracle power of God, you're not here because God's presence visited us and multiplied the loaves and the fishes, you're here because I put food in your stomach." He said, "But I want to tell you something. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you can't have any part with me." They said, "That's a hard saying." and it says they all left Him. He turned to His disciples and said, "Are you going, too?" They said, "Where can we go? You're the man that has the words of eternal life."

The welfare program ceased. When they followed Him for the food, they didn't get it. When they came for the food, they weren't served. But when they came seeking God, every need of theirs was met. Every need of theirs was met. If we'll move in the power of God in that way, we'll be fulfilling God's will in ministry to the poor and not in the ways of trying to appease. "Come on, we'll pay you to come and hear about Jesus." No man can come except the Spirit draw him.

Now, we've got this thing out of whack, folks. We got wagons running up and down the street carrying arks, voom, voom, passing each other on the streets. Where are the sanctified priests that will bring the cross of Jesus Christ? You're it. You're it. You're part of that. God has ordained you to be a part of that. God has ordained you to hear the Word of God and to search these things out with the wisdom of the Bereans, and find out if what I'm telling you is true. Be noble, be noble, as the Bereans, and sit down and study the Word and find out, "Is what he's telling us real? Is this it? Is that really what God is saying to us?" We're going to study the two wisdoms in our next session. He says, Not many mighty, not many noble, after this world's system have been called. I'm not going to get into that right now; we'll grab it next time through. The bottom line is this: I wanted to tell you; I was going to give you the three, the basics, of how to discern the difference.

So that, verse 29, no flesh would glory in His presence. Verse 31, "That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him [What?] glory in the Lord." We'll end with 2 Corinthians 4 this morning. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 says, ". . . the god of this world [system has] blinded the [eyes] of [man], lest [they should believe through] the light of the glorious gospel . . ." Then he makes this statement, "But we [verse 7] have this treasure [he's making reference to the glory of God] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may [What?] be of God, and not of us."

If you want to begin to discern, then you're going to have to ask yourself the question, "Who really is getting the glory out of this thing?" Was it done so purely, as was Moses? Is it being done so purely as was Jesus' multiplication of the loaves and the fishes that no one but God can be glorified, and a clear line has to be distinguished as to who you're going to follow? If that clear line is not there, then it's being done in man's wisdom, in the arm of the flesh, and if we're not careful, we're going to fall into the wisdom of man. It's a way that seems right. The end is destruction. Unless the Lord builds the house, our labor's in vain.

Father, we thank You for the Word. In the day that we're living in, we know that there will arise doctrines of devils, seducing spirits, false teachers, people raising up to themselves teachers, having itching ears wanting to hear the smooth prophecies of the prophets of the day of Jeremiah, peace and safety. Yet, as we study the Word we find out that in the last days many will depart from the faith. But, also in the last days, You'll pour out your Spirit upon all flesh that will receive it. In the last days, there will be doctrines of devils, and in the last days, there will be new revelation of the Word of God that causes us to stand. For where iniquity abounds, the grace of God does much more abound. Father, we just rejoice in the day that we're living in. We thank You for the opportunity of being the generation to know the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in power in this last day. As you're preparing our hearts to go into the highways and the byways, Lord, as you're strengthening us in the inner man to go out and decree the Word of the Lord, we know that we're going to be opposed on every side. The world is going to hate us. The religious people are going to hate us, but he that endures to the end shall be saved. Father, You said, I'll give you power. I'll give you power to be witnesses, and in My name, you shall lay hands on the sick, you shall cast out devils. You'll raise the dead. Their programs won't do that. They don't cast out devils; they send them to psychiatrists. They don't lay hands on the sick; they send them to Christian doctors. They don't raise the dead; they rejoice that they went home to be with God. Now, Father, there's a wisdom and there's a power that's available to us, but we're going to have to sanctify ourselves to carry this glory. There's a price of how we act in the temple. There's a stripping of the kingly robes to take on the priestly ephod. We'd rather have the robes.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print