Who Is Touching the Ark? - Leonard Ravenhill — From the Pulpit & Classic Sermons

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This week we have Leonard Ravenhill with his message, Who is Touching the Ark?

David, the Ark, and the Consequences of Disobedience

To Samuel 6 we read from verse one, again David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, 30 ,000, and David arose and went with all the people that were with him from the valley of Judah to bring up from thence the Ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of Hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims.

And they set the Ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah and Uther and Ahio, Ahio, that's not a state, that's the name of a man. The sons of Abinadab drove the new cart.

And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was at Gibeah, accompanying the Ark of God and Ahio went before the Ark. And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all instruments, none of instruments, nay, the fir wood, even on harps and psalteries, on timbres, on comets and cymbals.

And when they came to Naakon's threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And God smote him there for his error and there he died by the Ark of God.

The Tabernacle and God's Exact Instructions

Let's look a minute here in the 25th chapter of Exodus, Exodus chapter 25. Remember the beginning of this chapter is where the Lord is selecting, he's going to do what I think must have been very strange to Israel.

They had never had any covering in the sense of a tabernacle. They'd been nomads. They'd had no priests. They'd had the heavens for the ceiling of their church if you like. And now suddenly, instead of being enlarged, they're contracted to a small space that's called, being called again, a tabernacle in the wilderness.

And God gives specific instructions to this amazing man Moses about the building. It's very interesting that he had no choice in this. He obeyed every commandment God gave to him. He had no more choice in the colors of the thing any more than Noah had a choice of what kind of a rainbow he wanted.

You ever wondered what kind of a rainbow he might have chosen? If the Lord said, you choose the colors, it would have been a mess. If he asked me, I wouldn't know the colors. But he just did as he was commanded.

And it says in verse eight of the 25th chapter of Exodus, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I show thee after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall he make it.

Okay, come down to verse 17. Thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubins of gold.

A beaten work shalt thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on one end and the other cherub on the other. Even of the mercy seat shall he make. The cherubins on the two ends thereof.

And the cherubins shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings and their faces shall look one to another. Towards the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubins be.

And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark. And in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee and there will I meet with thee. Now that's the first piece of furniture mentioned as regards the tabernacle.

It was roughly 54 inches long, this ark. It was a three feet high and three feet wide. And it was a visible presence of an invisible power. It was a kind of a earthly resting place where God put his power between those awesome cherubins.

The Ark as a Place of Preservation and Trust

You remember how often the psalmist cries, all thou that dwellest between the cherubins, shine forth. Psalm 80 particularly, before Ephraim and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us. If you talk about the ark, usually people think you mean the ark where, you know, the children play with at home, they have little animals and they go into Noah's ark.

Well, that was an ark, all right. Now do you remember another ark beside that? Well, it was a little thing a woman made to put a baby in. She made an ark of bulrushes. And certainly you have this ark.

Now the ark, actually the word really means, if you get right to the bottom of it, it means a place to preserve something intact. It has complete coverage. You know, I've said so often that faith does three things.

It reckons, it risks, and it rests. I think the mother of Moses must have been, well, she sure was a wonderful woman. And she put that baby in that little ark and pushed it out onto the waters of the Nile.

I think it's a horrible risk. Now did she know a crocodile wouldn't eat it before she had hardly turned her back? Or the lid could have blown off and the sun might have scorched the baby crisp. Or it could have been carried away on the flood or somebody could have stolen it.

But you see, when you get a word from God, you're not going to be shaken by the Philistines or anybody else outside. God had told her what to do and she obeyed. And again, that's the key. That's the anchorage of spiritual success.

Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice

Spiritual maturity is obedience. To obey is better than sacrifice. Remember King Saul filled the whole of that valley with beasts and yet he retained a few of the prize stock. And when Samuel came up to him and spoke to him, he said, well, I've done as you said.

And the little sheep gave the story away, you know. Wonderful what little animals have taken important parts in the Bible, isn't it? And Samuel said, if you've done what you said you've done, what meaneth this bleating of the sheep?

And the lowing of the oxen, which I hear. To obey is better than sacrifice. There is no substitute for obedience. No, not there, not now, not ever. Again, trust and obey, there's no other way. There's no other outlet.

You either do as God says, all right, then you begin to shrink, you begin to wither. Now here is the ark. And the measurements are given to us. Verse 22 says, there will I meet with thee. And that was the supreme desire of God.

Meeting God in His Presence

It's the supreme desire of God today that when we come together, we meet with him. As I usually ask people when somewhere in a meeting, did you come here or did you come here tonight to meet God or did you come to hear a sermon about him?

I talked with somebody today, an internationally known figure who said, you know, I'm realizing how little I know of God. And I had offered somebody a sermon that there's the most profound thing I've ever heard.

And this person said, I don't, I feel as though I don't want to preach anymore. I said, well, that's how I felt when I, when I heard the depth that this man has. Talking about Jesus laying his glory by and being wrapped in our clay.

Oh, God pity us, we're so commercialized, we're so regulated by circumstances. We get up with the clock, the clock runs our lives, that we lose sight of eternity. We lose sight of the wonder of God's salvation.

And the key concern is about the whole of the building of this marvelous, if you want to call it, kind of a private area that was to be roped off. And again, when you think of all the linen that was put around and every thread, billions of them were put in there by hand.

Rather staggering, isn't it? And then there's to be a place, a holy place. And then not only a holy place, but the holy of holies. And this ark was put not in the holy place, it's put in the holy of holies.

And it has the chief place in the holy of holies. And inside of it, you'll have the rod that budded and you'll have a sample of the manna that fell from heaven. And it didn't get worms in it either. And there you have the tables of stone.

This testimony of God has to be preserved. And the ark is an abiding place for God on earth. That is, he manifests himself there. Let's skip over a minute here. I am reading the first book of Samuel. And chapter five, sorry.

The Ark Among the Philistines and the Fall of Dagon

We can't go through the whole thing. This is a fantastic study. I'm going to do it myself, but I couldn't do it tonight because it would take up too much time. But if you want to find a minute account of this ark and God's desire and the way it moved around, you'd have to go to the first book, go to the first book of Chronicles in chapters 12 to 16.

And you'll find a very marvelous account of the moving of that wonderful ark. And then of course, you'd have to read Psalm 68 and Psalm 101, which also deal with him, and then Psalm 24. You see, this is some little bit of furniture that's tucked away in a corner that has no meaning.

Meaning, it's the abiding place. If you like, it's the seat, it's the dwelling place. You have the ark, and then on the top of the ark, you have a mercy seat. The Salvation Army never used to talk about coming to the altar.

They used to sing. I can remember years ago, 60, 70 years ago, when the army used to sing, come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel. Here bring you wounded heart. Here tell your anguish. Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

There's a mercy seat, a blood-spinkled mercy seat. Somebody afterwards removed that lid and looked inside, and because they did, they got into serious trouble. Now, if you read those Psalms again, 68 and 101 and Psalm 24, you'll find this thing goes immensely, immensely interesting.

Okay, we're now in the first book of Samuel, chapter five. The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon.

Now, when there of Ashdod rose early in the morning, behold, Dagon had fallen upon his face on the earth before the ark of God. And they took Dagon and set him on his place again. And there rose early in the morning and he was fallen on his face, and his head and his hands had broken off.

Now, you see here the peril of toying or playing with holy things. There's a verse I didn't look up, but it talks about the iniquity of holy things. Now, that's something to really turn over, isn't it?

How in the world can you have the iniquity of holy things? These people have captured the ark of God. They thought it would do them good. Instead, it did evil. They put it at the side of their God. This monstrous God, Dagon, with the upper part of his body was a man and the lower part, a fish.

Something like a mermaid, you would say today. And there he stood in a temple where people worship him. And as soon as they put the ark of God there without anybody doing a thing, big old Dagon fell down on his face.

So they stood him up again. And they went in next morning. He was worse off. He not only fell down, his hands was broken off, his feet was broken off, just because of God's presence being there. Now, see what happened further in the chapter.

When they rose early in the morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold.

Only the stump of Dagon was left. Therefore, neither the priest of Dagon nor anybody came into the Dagon's house. They are tread on the threshold of Dagon to this day. You see, just that one visitation, that one movement of God terrified them.

So in a sense, Dagon had to go out to business. Verse six, the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod. And he destroyed them and smote them with emeralds and Ashdod and the coats thereof. And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, the ark of God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sought upon us and upon Dagon our God.

Going to the end of the eighth verse. And they carried the ark of God, the God of Israel. They carried the ark of the God of Israel out thither. And it was so after they had carried it out that the hand of the Lord was against the city.

The Peril of Misusing Holy Things

Now, here you are again, you see the peril. What I want to emphasize, two things. I'm going to emphasize the peril of having these holy things and misusing them. And yet the peril is obviously the opposite to the power.

Remember the children of Israel, one of their marvelous escapades, they walked around the city seven times. What did they do? They carried the ark of God. To them, that was the very presence of God. Can you imagine people on the walls looking down and say, who are these lunatics?

I mean, what are they doing? They were not allowed to speak. That must have been tough on some of them. They were not allowed to speak. They walked around in silence. They carried the ark of God. What have they got there?

Is that a coffin? What is it? It's a casket. You see, they were not allowed to mount it. When Moses was sharing out some of the property of Israel, he gave various things to various people. But the sons, I've forgotten his name, Athon, I think it was, his sons were not allowed to have any cattle or any of the possessions.

They were separated to carrying the ark of God. Now, the peril is this. And I think, to me, it comes home with great force. Oh, let me go to the other scripture. Where did we read a bit earlier? I've forgotten that chapter.

2 Samuel 6, okay. 2 Samuel 6 and verse 6. When they came to Nacob's threshing floor, Uzar put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, and the oxen shook it, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against it.

Why? Now, they'd made a new cart for it. God said it never had to be on a cart. God said it had to have four gold rings, one on each corner and put a staff through it, and that men had to carry this thing.

Modernizing the Gospel and “Steadying the Ark”

So, they made a new cart. You know, the Jews then, I don't know about today, they love new things. Remember what Samson said, if you fasten me with seven new ropes, then I shall be like other men, or then I shall be weak like other men.

Rather insulting to us, isn't it? Remember it later, when Jesus died, they put him in a new tomb. When Jesus rode an ass, he rode one that nobody had brought in. It was entirely new. They love new things.

And these people thought they were doing God a favor by, you know, modernizing this thing. I mean, why carry the thing on your shoulders anyhow, when oxen can do it? Now, I don't know what happened to these oxen.

You know, it says that when they came to the threshing floor of Uzzah, maybe they thought it was lunchtime. You know, they could smell, hmm, that's the stuff we eat, and hmm, right now they're threshing some new wheat.

Hmm, we should stay and have some. And maybe it's the very action of those creatures that swayed the ark. Now, isn't it really awesome? They didn't decide to paint it another color. They didn't decide to put a second deck on it.

They didn't disfigure it in any way. The men didn't go in front of it and start blaspheming. The man somehow thought he do got it. Oh, look, the ark is going to topple over. Oh, I'll hold it. So, he once asked Mr. Spurgeon if he would join a society for the defense of the Bible.

And he said, you don't usually walk before a lion with a sword. Why do you need to defend the Bible? All this man did was put his hand up to stay the ark, and immediately he was smitten. What do you think we're doing with the gospel today?

Dressing it up? Painting it up? Somebody told me this week of a Christian group, a rock band, a Christian, Christian rock band. But anyhow, whatever they are, they go around, and now they've got sequins on their coats.

Well, why not? Johnny Cash has them. And all the other guys have them. I mean, if the world can have them, can't we? Glitter? I mean, if we've no other glitter, we may as well stick it on the outside if it's not on the inside.

Anyhow, and we try to steady the ark of God. We're trying to put some improvement on the ark of God. We try to do that, I think, with the translations we make of the word of God. We try to make some of those words just a little bit more easy.

As I said to some preachers I preached with this week, that if we go back, and maybe I mentioned it here before, if we go back to Bible language and call thin what it really is. Instead of saying somebody, you say, that girl's a whore, you say, no, no, she's a call girl.

You say about a dirty, filthy sodomite, oh no, no, he's not a sodomite, he's just gay. There's nobody wicked, they're just weak. There's no iniquity, it's just infirmity. No backsliders anymore, that's a dirty word.

A lot of people out of fellowship, but backsliders, you don't use that word. Oh, how smooth. I remember reading a story of Mr. Whitfield, where he was particularly angry one day. I'd like to have heard Whitfield, I think it had been right up my alley.

He got mighty furious about the possessions the devil had. He was always wanting the church to pull down strongholds, he was always seeing the enemy doing his evil work, getting people to submit to him.

And one day he said, I'm going to shoot the arrows of God into your heart. And he said, he mentioned an arrow and he pulled it, the arrow back like this, the congregation ducks, you know. Well, that's the way to preach, if you can get them to do that, at least you've got them halfway down to the ground, and maybe when you get them halfway down, you can push them the other half.

The Holiness and Glory of God

But the anger of the Lord was kindled against this man, and not only smote him, but killed him. Come on, in God's name, what are we doing with the gospel today? Isn't it getting more emasculated, isn't it getting more Hollywood style?

Don't you miss the absence and the glory of God? Why, they got the very presence of God, in fact, and that's all we need. There's an old hymn that says, God's presence and his very self, an essence all divine.

I'll ask you again, I've asked you before, when did you last go out of the sanctuary? Tiptoe, because God would reveal his holiness and his majesty. We go out very much in the same way we came in, go out, we say, hey, I like your dress.

Someone like that infers myself, which I've got it. Well, I like some other trivial thing that's got nothing to do with eternity, nothing to do with God. Oh my, notice in verse five now, go back a minute here.

David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord, and all instruments made of fur, wood, even hearth, and paltries, and timbrels, and coronets, and ensembles. Now that, there is his ecstasy. Now come down to verse nine, this same David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, how shall the ark of the Lord come to me?

That's a big switch. He's excited, they have their band music, everything is having a wave of the time, and then suddenly God intervenes, and suddenly his all emotional life does a somersault. He realizes what an awful God he serves.

What a God of majesty, what a God of glory. One minute everybody's excited, the next minute, wouldn't that be something, it'd be like going into that experience, you know, when Ananias and Sapphira went to church.

That must have been a great morning, I would have enjoyed that I think. I said, well Lord, why do you, why did you stop with two hypocrites? I'm sure half the congregation, if you'd have wiped them out at the same time, it would have been more spectacular, but God doesn't do it that way.

But what I'm trying to say, rough as and tumble as it may be, because I'm up to the hectic day today, that the anger of God was kindled for a very simple thing. He did not take a hammer and break the ark.

He didn't say, this old piece of furniture we can do without. Do you know the ark is the only thing that was taken out of the original tabernacle and went into the temple of the Most High God? Do you know afterwards in the book of the Revelation it says, let's preserve the testimony of God in an ark.

Now scholars will tell you that the ark was destroyed in the second invasion and the burning of Babylon and what have you got, and maybe it was. And yet God's presence, and that's what it matters, it isn't a case of having a wooden box here.

What it's telling us is that God makes their place in habitation. Now as I said to somebody today, this is awesome, this is breathtaking, when you say, well I'd like to go and I wish we had a box and you can say God's presence is there.

He's there in his holiness, he's there in his majesty, he's there in his glory. Be careful how you handle this thing. Well we don't need a box, we don't need a presence. Why? Because it says you're the habitation of God.

There's only so much of God's holiness in this meeting as you and I fill with the Holy Spirit of God, the pure Spirit of God. He doesn't dwell in temples and say, oh you can make him a thousand crystal palaces like they've done on the west coast there.

So what? You can't sanctify a building in the New Testament sense they didn't do that. Well even Solomon said, and I guess he built the most extensive building ever made. Imagine the like, he used gold to walk on, he used gold on the walls, he was the most extravagant building ever made.

He used gold more easily than we used cement. And he built the altar and he had all the priests in total correct display there. And yet when he made his intercession to God he said, look I put up this building, I've done everything according to your commandment.

We've even got an altar, we even got a sacrifice on the altar. Now what's missing? Nothing. Nothing except the fire of God. What good is his house that I've built if God's presence isn't there? What's the good of making a showpiece and say, we've got the best choir, we've got the most brilliant preacher, we've got this time.

So what? In God's name does it matter? God do you think we're putting our hands on so many things these days? You've got to start this way and finish that way and do something else. We're getting so mechanical since Wendy the Gospel needs trimming up.

Worship, Emotion, and the Presence of God

I would have to go to a meeting this week, there's a five-piece band there. It was band, B-A-N. If I had the ought to do it, it would be B-A-N-N-E-D, band. I'd have banned the whole thing. Oh how they swerved and jazzed and what not.

They didn't do that too long after I really got going. The preacher said amen for 10 minutes, then he lost his, all his pump, uh what do you say, his energy and somehow lost his voice. Who's touching the ark?

David is afraid of the Lord. He hasn't been afraid before. And isn't it incredible that this people that knew God in such an intimate way, this people who had gone round the city without a gun, the most despised people of all, and they went round one day, round another day, round another day, round another.

On the last day they went round seven times, so 13 times they went round. That's pretty unlucky isn't it? And they kept dumb and they stood all the criticism of the people that were watching. And all they had to do on the last day was shout with a great shout.

Why? Because God was there. And I don't see any fun in shouting and carrying on in a meeting. Oh you can clap your hands that's okay, but Murphy that's all you have to do, is you have to whip people up.

You know I thought my dear friend there Dale there, his father belonged to a tribe called the Quakers. And I thought about when God said I want a tabernacle and there at the mercy seat will I meet with thee.

God wants me to meet with him. It's more than me preaching for him, it's more than me being a missionary for him. He wants to meet with me. He wants to reveal himself to me. He wants to talk to me. He wants to to come and work in this being of mine.

Loving God Before Serving God

And then he called me from the border of Mexico today and she said she was weeping and she said that God has called us here. We're hispanics. God has really blessed us, but oh we do want to be such great soul winners.

And she went on and I said my dear look the first commandment is not thou shall be a soul winner. The first commandment is thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength.

There are lots of missionaries that don't love God. There are lots of missionaries should have returned to the from the field six months after they got there. They're doing a thing mechanically and it's hard to enjoy that kind of good when you're doing it mechanically.

But when they do it under the anointing of God, when they do it with the love of God. Can you imagine this profession stopping? They had harps and psalteries and timbrels and cornets. And they're having a great time.

And suddenly death came. You wonder that David was angry, afraid. And he said how shall the ark of the Lord come unto me? Verse 12. It was told King David saying the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that pertaineth unto him because of the ark of God.

So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness. And it was so that when they that bear the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.

And David danced before the Lord with all his might, and he was girded with an ephod. Now notice what he danced with. He danced with all his might. Didn't say dance with a girl. He said he danced with all his might.

He danced in the presence of God. There's nothing sensuous about it. He isn't linked up with some woman in his arms. He's dancing in God's presence. God has turned his sorrow into joy. He started off in joy.

There comes bereavement. There comes sorrow. They've disobeyed God. They've hurt God. They've transgressed against God. Do you ever wonder if you're getting insensitive to what God's trying to say to you?

Hmm? Do you ever wonder when a certain thing has happened that somewhere in your nervousness you put your hand up to steady the ark, and somehow that sensitivity went, and the compassion you had went, and the concern you had went?

Again, this man didn't take an axe and spit up the ark. He didn't say, we've carried this thing long enough. No, no, no, no. All he did was try to steady the ark of God. Oh mercy, how we're trying to steady the ark of God these days.

We want to do some new thing. We wouldn't, we wouldn't, we wouldn't just steady it. We'd paint it. We'd paint it. We'd put a musical box inside of it. We'd put the priest in some new garment. We'd try and make it more acceptable.

You know there's nothing, nothing this generation needs more than a baptism, an old-fashioned hellfire preaching. I'm sure of that. The power and the presence of God were resting on that tabernacle. And while they were obedient, they had success.

Doesn't matter if you have to get a city down. Again, the most ridiculous thing. And they stood all the criticism and scorning, and yet on that final day, when because they'd obeyed God, the whole place came tumbling down.

The Gospel as the Power of God

Well, let's not be too critical about them, because you know, you and I again have more, we've more transfer for than they have. We've seen the mighty workings of God. I don't know anybody that's pulling Jericho's down, do you?

Can you think about obligation that we have as a nation, with all our Bibles, all our broadcasts? Well, aren't we steadying the ark of God in the way of presenting the gospel these days? The gospel is still the power of God unto salvation, to all who believe.

And when I hear people, I heard somebody say, well, you know, there's a different approach today, isn't there? Isn't there really? You go tell a woman who's just lost her child, well these are modern days, you don't have to weep over it and groan over it.

I mean, they did that in the Bible days. Of course, women were women then, but nowadays it doesn't matter. All they've done is lost the child. Is there any difference between the grief of somebody who's heartbroken today, than there was in the grief of somebody who lived 3 ,000 years ago?

We say human nature has changed. Human nature has not changed. Human nature is still a sinful nature. Human nature still needs God. And I think there are times when God tries to stop the business, you know.

When I think of, again, they, all they did was put his hand up to the ark. He didn't curse God, he didn't take a hammer and smash it. He didn't say, now you're all lunatics for going this way. This is too old-fashioned.

Well, do you think that God maybe has been speaking? Have you noticed how many tragedies we've had this winter? One whole town swept away with a mudslide just like that, people went into eternity. Mississippi has covered more area than ever.

We came down past there just the other day. Acres, hundreds of acres, just little bits of roofs standing up out of the water. And all you could see, it looked like you could see for 50 miles, just straight through the water.

And some farms just standing on a little island. They'll never get any crops in there this year, the sludge will be left behind, they can't do with cattle. It seems as though God is trying to check us, but we won't take the checking, we won't take the warning.

The Church and the Danger of Compromise

And again, I say to you, most distressing area, I believe, is the area of the church itself. We're trying to study the art. We don't want God Almighty to govern the whole thing. We want a little bit of flesh in it, want a little bit of humanism in it, want a little bit of organization in it, want some of our skill in it.

And God holds off. Want to do it in the flesh? By the word of God says, some trust in chariots and some trust in horses, but we will trust in the name of God alone. Oh, I'm aching on the inside to see somebody that will really, really, really have no confidence in the flesh.

Won't try to organize. It's a horrible one to try and subsidize God's cause with a few dollars in, a collection there and something else. Now either God is God or He isn't. As I've said before, this book is either absolute or it's obsolete.

There's no middle course. It either has all the answers or it has no answers. I've got to get to the place where I say, Lord you can strip everything else away from me and on Christ the solid rock I stand, or on the grounded sinking sand.

I'm not going to step in the ark. I'm convinced God's going to do new work. I've talked the last two or three days with a brother I love very dearly, and these are the crossroads in his life, and I know others who are men that you think are at the top of the tree.

You think they should be satisfied with what they've got, and they're not. They're suddenly realizing there's a new dimension that God wants to bring to our generation, a new revelation, a new unfolding of the word of God.

If you like, men that don't try to study the ark by organization and say, you must do it this way, you must do it that way, you must do it this way, say, no listen, we're going to follow, if it takes us, we have to follow those loin oxen.

They look pretty scruffy things. But before long you remember that David, he went and slew the oxen and he took the fatlings and he made a sacrifice to God, and then he danced before God. Why? Because he got rid of many of his obstructions.

God's Mercy in Stripping Away Human Dependence

The Lord is very merciful. Do you know how merciful he is? He's so merciful he'll strip us right down to the place where we haven't a thing to stand on. We haven't a thing to lean on. We're cast in nakedness and we say in despair, you know the church that was rich and increased in goods?

That's where the church is today. She's rich, she's increased in goods, she's in need of nothing. Which church was it Jesus spewed out of his mouth? I would, thou art either hot or cold, so then because thou art neither hot or cold, I'll spit.

He didn't spew the cold one out of his mouth, it never been in. It was his church that he spewed out of his mouth. It wasn't a heathen religion, it was his church. They were neither hot or cold, they were kind of midstream.

And because they were neither one thing nor the other, he vomited them out. He didn't vomit the cold church out, he didn't bother with it. God will not stand for mediocrity. I think I need to sit down, in fact I've said to somebody today, I'm going to do less preaching in the next few months, as little as I can, and I'm going to meditate on certain things.