Latest / Fairview Presbyterian Church (PCA) Sermons / The Holiness of God (2 Samuel 6:1-11) - Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple

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The Holiness of God (2 Samuel 6:1-11) - Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple · Fairview Presbyterian Church (PCA) Sermons

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  Let us turn in our Bibles now as we hear from
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  God. Let's go to 2 Samuel chapter 6. What we're
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  doing, as we have been for a while, is a series
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  on the life of David. I hope this has been a
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  good series for you and we're going to continue
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  that with what I'm going to say is it's a difficult
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  passage. And yet there's something that's very
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  very good for us And so let us give special attention
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  to the reading of God's holy word second Samuel
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  6 I think the bulletin says 1 through 15. I'm
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  going to stop at verse 11 David again gathered
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  all the chosen men of Israel 30 ,000 and David
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  arose and went with all the people who were with
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  him from Baal -el -Judah to bring up from there
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  the Ark of God, which is called by the name of
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  the Lord of Hosts, who sits enthroned on the
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  cherubim. And they carried the Ark of God on
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  a new cart and brought it out of the house of
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  Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and
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  Ahiyo, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the
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  new cart with the Ark of God. And Ahiyo went
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  before the Ark. And David and all the house of
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  Israel were celebrating before the Lord with
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  songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and
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  castanets and cymbals. And when they came to
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  the threshing floor of Nakkan, Uzzah put out
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  his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it,
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  for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord
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  was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him
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  down there because of his error. And he died
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  there. beside the Ark of God. And David was angry
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  because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah.
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  And that place is called Perez Uzzah to this
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  day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day
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  and he said, how can the Ark of the Lord come
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  to me? So David was not willing to take the Ark
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  of the Lord into the city of David. But David
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  took it aside to the house of Obed Edom the Gittite.
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  And the ark of the Lord remained in the house
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  of Obed -Edom the Gittite three months. And the
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  Lord blessed Obed -Edom and all his household.
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  This is God's holy word. Let's pray. Father in
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  heaven, we thank you for your word that is a
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  lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We
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  thank you for your word that is living and active
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  and sharper than any two -edged sword. We thank
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  you that you've given us what we need. And so
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  Lord, we trust that you will grant us understanding
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  and application of this text now. We pray in
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  Jesus' name. Amen. In 2005, there was a news
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  item that caught my attention. Maybe it caught
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  yours. The Northwestern University women's lacrosse
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  team was invited to the White House to celebrate
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  their championship. That's not really all that
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  noteworthy. That happens a lot, that sports teams
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  are invited to the White House. But what caught
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  the media's attention was the fact that the athletes
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  were all wearing flip -flops to the White House.
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  It caused quite a stir. It became known as Flip
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  -Flop Gate. Now, the real issue behind that incident
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  wasn't really the flip -flops. It was more, how
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  are we to be in front of, before people who are
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  deserving of honor and respect. So if you're
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  wearing flip -flops today, no condemnation. But
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  it did generate a lot of interest. And I got
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  to thinking this week, especially in light of
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  this passage, which is about reverence. Have
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  you ever been in a situation in which you needed
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  to show reverence? You might be racking your
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  brains, but you don't have to, because you are
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  in one right now. You are in a reverential situation
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  right now, today, that as we gather for worship,
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  we do so to give glory to God, because he is
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  holy. So when we come into worship, we are to
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  offer our best in worship. But you might say,
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  how? How do I regard God as holy? How do I really
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  revere God? I want to offer you... three ways
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  from our text today, that since God is holy,
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  we must revere him with a right relationship
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  for him. We must revere him in obedience, and
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  we must revere him in preparation. Now, before
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  we even get to those, you might be asking, well,
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  what is the holiness of God? This is an incredibly
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  big question and big topic. What is the holiness
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  of God? Have you ever thought about that? Probably
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  the quickest answer we would say it's moral perfection
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  and that is true, but it's more than that. God's
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  holiness is his supreme absolute greatness over
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  everything that he has created. God is completely
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  transcendent above all of his creation. And we
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  believe that because we've prayed that today.
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  How does the Lord's Prayer begin? Hallowed be
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  thy name. We as Christians are to regard God
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  as holy. And so how do we do it? Looking into
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  our text, well, we're reminded that God had covenanted
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  with the Israelites. He had covenanted with the
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  Israelites. He had not covenanted with the Philistines
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  or any other people group. God had covenanted
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  himself with the Israelites. And one of the ways
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  in which we can see that he did that is he gives
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  them an ark of the covenant. If you wanted to
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  know more about the Ark, you could go to Exodus
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  25 and chapter 37 to read about it. It was ornate.
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  It was a beautiful box made of this beautiful
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  wood. It had gold on it. It had the cherubim
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  on it. And it was the furniture in the Holy of
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  Holies. And it was where Moses met with God to
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  represent the people in prayer. No other people
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  group had the Ark of the Covenant. But some of
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  these other people groups did know. about the
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  Ark of the Covenant. You don't have to turn there
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  unless you just want to. It's not far away. But
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  1 Samuel chapter 4, 5 through 9. Listen to this.
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  1 Samuel 4, 5. As soon as the Ark of the Covenant
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  of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave
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  a mighty shout so that the earth resounded. And
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  when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting,
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  they said, What does this great shouting in the
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  camp of the Hebrews mean? And when they learned
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  that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp,
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  the Philistines were afraid, for they said, a
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  god has come into the camp. And they said, woe
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  to us, for nothing like this has happened before.
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  Woe to us. Who can deliver us from the power
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  of these mighty gods? These are the gods who
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  struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague
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  in the wilderness. Take courage and be men, O
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  Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews
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  as they have been to you. Be men and fight. God
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  had not covenanted with the Philistines. The
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  Philistines didn't have the ark. They didn't
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  have the meeting place. They didn't have the
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  tabernacle. They didn't have the Ten Commandments.
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  They didn't have the Holy of Holies. They did
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  not have God. And so as the Philistines and as
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  the Israelites are gearing up for this battle,
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  knowing the Israelites have God and have his
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  ark, this must mean that the Israelites won the
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  battle, right? Wrong. The Israelites were obliterated.
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  The Israelites were destroyed in this battle.
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  So what gives? What was going on there? At times
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  throughout history, ancient history with the
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  Israelites, they had a much better relationship
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  with the Ark of the Covenant than they had with
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  God. The Israelites had a better relationship
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  with the Ark of the Covenant than they had with
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  God. The Ark is a great thing. It symbolized
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  God's presence for sure. But the Ark, and please
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  hear this carefully, the Ark was not God. Any
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  more... then your church membership is God or
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  your baptism is God or the Lord's Supper is God.
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  To be sure, great things, pictures of God's mercy
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  and grace and holiness and presence. And when
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  we gather for worship, even with those sacramental
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  things, something glorious is going on for us.
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  We are giving glory to the Father through the
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  Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. But in order
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  for any of those signs and seals, to mean anything,
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  we have to have a right relationship with God
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  through Christ. And so friends, it's not enough
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  to just be a member of the church. That's a good
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  thing. And I'd be glad to talk to you about membership
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  any other time. And to be sure, it's a good thing
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  to have right theology. And I would love to talk
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  to you about theology. Do it any time. And to
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  be sure, it's a good thing to listen to praise
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  music on the way to work in the morning or a
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  good podcast. I love those things, too. But we
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  have to have a right relationship with God through
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  Christ in order for that to mean anything for
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  us. Jesus laid his life down so the veil was
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  torn, so that you could, through the Son and
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  by the power of the Holy Spirit, be declared
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  righteous before God. You Christian, born again,
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  indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You are justified
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  and you are secure in Christ, but saved people.
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  People who have a relationship with God revere
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  God. God's people are his saints. The word saint
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  comes from the word holy. And saints regard God
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  as holy because he is. And so you have to have
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  a right relationship with him. But secondly,
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  we also must be obedient. Christians are to be
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  obedient people to God. The Israelites show us
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  that through their lack of reverence for God,
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  they plunged into disobedience within the story.
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  The Israelites, you'll remember, they bring the
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  ark into battle and then they lose, they're crushed.
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  What's really happening there is the Israelites
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  were treating the ark of the covenant like a
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  good luck charm, as if it would save them. And
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  so they lose the ark It goes to the Philistines.
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  And you might remember that the Ark ends up in
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  different Philistine cities. And what happens
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  in each one of those cities, the people are afflicted
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  with harmful tumors on their bodies, right? Until
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  finally, they say, we can't take this anymore.
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  Get it out of here. Let me read to you 1 Samuel
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  6, 7 through 9. 1 Samuel 6. This is the Philistines
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  returning the Ark. Now then, and as I read this,
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  pay attention to the language of this and see
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  if it sounds anything like our passage for today.
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  Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two
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  milk cows on which there has never come a yoke,
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  and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their
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  calves home away from them. Take the ark of the
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  Lord and place it on the cart and put it in a
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  box at its side the figures of gold Which you
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  are returning to him as a guilt offering then
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  send it off and let it go its way and watch Did
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  you hear any similarity in the language of first
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  Samuel 6 with second Samuel 6 There's a phrase
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  in there that's present in both chapters and
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  it's this phrase the new cart and basically what
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  this tells us is is the Israelites are treating
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  the Ark of the Covenant in the same way as the
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  pagan Philistines. Both of them put the Ark on
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  a new cart. We might even argue the Israelites
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  get the idea from the Philistines. You might
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  say, what's so wrong about that? What's so wrong
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  about transporting the Ark on a new cart? After
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  all, we know the Israelites as they were being
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  led by David. They had several miles to go. So
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  what's so wrong about this transportation of
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  the ark by cart. Well, quite honestly, it's disobedient.
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  It's disobedient. Listen to this from Exodus
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  25. Exodus 25, 13 through 15. These are instructions
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  regarding that ark. You shall make poles of acacia
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  wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall
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  put the poles into the rings on the sides of
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  the ark to carry the ark by them. The poles shall
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  remain in the rings of the ark. They shall not
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  be taken from it." The ark had handles. Why does
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  anything have handles? For the purpose of carrying,
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  listen to this from Numbers 415. Numbers 415.
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  And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering
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  the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the
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  sanctuary, as the camp sets out after that, the
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  sons of Kohath shall come to carry these. But
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  they must not touch the holy things lest they
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  die. The job of the Kohathites was to care for
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  the holy things of God. And Uzzah, the one who
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  reached out and touched the ark, was most likely
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  And so his job description was clear. Here's
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  how you're supposed to transport this. So we
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  see from it that the disobedience of the Israelites
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  and the disobedience of Uzzah actually happened
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  a long time before he ever reached out his hand.
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  Now you might say, well, wasn't this a good thing
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  that he did? Wasn't Uzzah preventing catastrophe?
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  We almost expect God to say, Uzzah, thank you.
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  We don't know of his intentions, but it sounds
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  reactionary, just like he reached out as you
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  might catch something that was falling. It sounds
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  like good intentions, right? It's hard to rely
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  on our good intentions, though. As Christians,
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  we have to rely on the very word of God and obey
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  it. That was the problem here. The problem was
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  a lack of preparation. Oftentimes, our visual
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  disobedience is generated by a secret lack of
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  preparation over time. The problem is that we
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  sometimes neglect the things of God, the things
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  that were created and given to us for our good,
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  for our growth and grace. Sometimes we've been
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  doing this Christian thing for a good long while
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  and we start to fade away from these things and
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  we start to think that they are mundane. That
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  the holiness of God becomes the half -heartedness
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  for God, becomes the hostility toward God. I
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  heard a term not too long ago that has stuck
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  with me that I think really defines the American
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  church and defines the church really in the West.
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  It's apotheism. Apotheism. That if we're not
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  careful to tend to the means of grace, we become
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  indifferent to the things of God. We become indifferent
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  to the maker of the heavens and the earth. We
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  become indifferent apathetic to the author of
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  our salvation. But friends, God is holy. R .C.
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  Sproul used to put it like this. He would read
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  portions of scripture and he would say, God is
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  holy, holy, holy. And then he would point out
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  that while God is just, scriptures don't say
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  that he was just, just, just. The scriptures
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  don't say that God is kind, kind, kind, or that
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  he is love, love, love. He is those things. But
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  the scriptures say that God is holy, holy, holy.
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  And if you could use one word to sum up God,
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  it would be holiness. And so Christians, we need
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  to see worship as anything but mundane. We need
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  to see it as the most important thing that we
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  do, that we give glory to God. That's why we
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  were made. And do you know this today? That God
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  is in your midst. That he is in our midst as
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  we worship him. And that he is greatly to be
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  praised. Knowing that, shouldn't that cause us
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  to really consider who we are as Christians?
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  Shouldn't that cause us to really consider what
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  we're doing when we worship? Shouldn't that cause
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  us to consider how we approach God in prayer?
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  God condescends to be with us in worship. This
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  change is who we are in this space, and this
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  change is who we are outside of this space. And
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  so for this reason, whether you've been at this
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  church for nine weeks or 90 years, you've probably
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  seen that the elements of our worship don't change
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  a whole lot. We can evaluate how we worship,
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  but the elements don't change a whole lot. And
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  the reason for that It's because the elements
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  of worship are derived from scripture. We believe
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  in a holy God and this holy God tells us how
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  to worship him from scripture. And so you're
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  always going to have a reading of scripture.
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  And you're always going to have prayer. You're
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  always going to have preaching. You're going
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  to have the tithes and the offerings. You're
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  going to have sacraments on occasion. We don't
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  have to get innovative with our worship because
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  God tells us how. And yet if I can compare worship
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  to the Israelites and what was going on in second
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  Samuel Six, we can say that the Israelites, they
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  were getting innovative with this, weren't they?
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  They took notice of what the Philistines did
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  and they transport the ark in this way. They
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  put the cart before the ark, so to speak. They
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  tried to follow a better way. They're godless
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  neighbors. They put the Ark of the Covenant on
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  the new cart and the oxen stumbled and Uzzah
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  reached out his hand to study that. R .C. Sproul
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  once said, it wasn't the ground that would defile
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  the Ark of the Covenant. It wasn't the ground.
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  Because the ground does what the ground's supposed
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  to do. What defiled the ark was the touch, a
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  sinful man. Now this is a sermon series on the
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  life of David. And so you might be saying, where's
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  David in all of this? Where's he at? Well, you
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  can see from the text, he's leading the people.
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  He's doing a good thing. He's leading worship.
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  But after this happens, he's grappling with what
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  has happened. He's trying to figure it out. He's
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  angry, and then he's afraid, and then he's back
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  to dancing David, but he's showing us emotions
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  that you may have right now. As you read this
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  text, you may be angry. As you read this text,
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  you may be afraid. If you're feeling any of those
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  emotions, you're probably like me. You're probably
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  like me in that we are all still grappling with
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  the idea of God's holiness, and we are still
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  grappling with the heinous nature of our sin.
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  If you're feeling those things, I understand
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  you. And yet the more that we give ourselves
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  to the worship of God and the study of his word,
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  we have a greater understanding of his holiness.
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  But all of this, David shows us that leadership
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  is critically important in matters of holiness.
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  Why does God assemble everybody there? What are
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  they doing? They're assembling for worship. And
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  so we need godly worship to remind us of the
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  holiness of God. The church must hold fast to
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  the gospel of the holy risen Jesus Christ, and
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  we must trust the Lord of this church to provide
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  that whatever our days ahead, whatever our weeks,
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  whatever our months in our year, we must grasp
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  two things, and I begin to close. We must grasp
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  two things. One, God is holy. Period. Nothing
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  else to add. But secondly, through Christ, by
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  His life and His death and His resurrection,
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  God has provided a way for unrighteous people
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  to be declared righteous. God, through His risen
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  Son, has provided a way for unlovable people
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  to be loved. God, through His Son, has provided
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  a way for unholy people to be holy. And it's
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  only by the grace of the holy, holy, holy God
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  Christ by His Holy Spirit. Let's pray.