Approaching God in His Holiness

Open: Consider a situation in which a 14 year old boy is caught stealing and his punishment is having his hand chopped off. BTW, this is his first offense. Further, consider this same situation, but now the sentence is execution

Transition: We are offended by the harshness of the sentence in both cases, but especially in the 2nd. Such a thing is unjust and should not take place. And this reaction, I think is right, we should be offended and moved to action against such injustice.

Unfortunately, some of us have similar thoughts about God being unjust in the way He deals with us as His creation. This morning we are going to look at a passage that many find disturbing. Some will see a God who is unjust and who simply is not fair. I want to encourage you to see God for who He really is, and to understand that He is never unjust.

READ THE TEXT: 1 Chronicles 13:1-14

APPROACHING GOD IN HIS HOLINESS

Having the desire to Honor God is good (1 Chronicles 13:2-6)

Explanation: David is now reigning as King in Jerusalem and the nation is united. As he begins his reign as King, David wants to set things right in the area of worship. He reminds the people that the Ark of the Covenant had not been consulted in during the reign of Saul (a 40 year period).

The Ark had been captured by the Philistines at the end of Eli’s service as High Priest (1 Samuel 4) and when the Philistines returned it to a border town, Saul allowed it to stay there (1 Samuel 6)

David, recognizing the Ark was the symbol of the Presence of God, desired to return the Ark to a central place for worship. David recognized that the Ark was where God chose to locate His Shekinah Glory, so he (David) wanted to honor God.

Illustrate:

Argument: David gathered 30,000 chosen men of Israel (2 Samuel 6:1) and prepared for a real celebration. David had singers and dancers and instruments. He wanted this to be a big deal and wanted the people to know that he wanted to honor God.

Consulting with men instead of God is NOT good (1 Chronicles 13:1)

Explanation: While David had good intentions, he started with an incorrect approach. The text states that he consulted other men. He did not consult God for direction in this very important matter. Had David checked with God first, the tragic episode of Uzzah and the Ark could have been avoided.

Illustrate: charting a course with a compass. Being just a few degrees off will result in failure to reach the desired destination

Argument: How many times are we guilty of doing the same thing? When a situation arises in our life our first inclination is to ask a trusted friend. We go to another person instead of consulting God.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Asking advice of trusted Christian brothers or sisters is a good thing to do. But this is something to do after we have been to the Lord. We are to look to God’s word first to find our answer. The ideas and opinions of others can be valuable in shaping a specific type of direction, but the direction is to come from God.

There are consequences for approaching a Holy God in a man-centered manner (1 Chronicles 13:7-10)

Example: The King went with his man-centered approach [hey, this sounds like a good thing - let’s go ahead and do it] and the result was the death of Uzzah. Uzzah was the one driving the cart that was carrying the Ark. When the oxen stumbled, Uzzah simply reached out his hand to steady the Ark. When he touched the Ark, God immediately struck Uzzah dead.

Example: Choices have consequences. The consequences of most of our choices are not so immediate or dramatic, but they still have consequences. The evangelical world is now seeing the consequences of the seeker driven worship model that was big in the 80’s & 90’s.

The idea was to discover what lost people wanted in a church service, and then to cater to those needs. This introduced skits instead of sermons, felt needs instead of real needs, and was geared toward making people feel comfortable in Church

Argument: God is not overly concerned with how comfortable lost people are in His house. He is very much concerned with His holiness, and that all of us, saved and lost should recognize Him as Holy. Throughout the Scriptures He makes this abundantly clear. I will direct us to just one such passage as found in Malachi 1:11

Application: We are exhorted in Scripture to worship God in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24). Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find God’s people asking the unbelievers what they want or what will make them comfortable. In fact, repeatedly, God commands His people NOT to be like the world. He tells us NOT to follow their practices or customs. The Church needs to stop letting the tail wag the dog.

God is Holy and He is Just (Isaiah 42:8; 57:15, Acts 5:1-11; Matt 25:50)

Explanation: David was angry with God and he was afraid of God because of the death of Uzzah (1 Chron 13:11-12). David was so distraught by this turn of events that he quickly abandoned his plan to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. Instead, he had it sent to the house of a man named Obed-edom.

David was afraid that more people would be killed, so he pawned the Ark of the Lord off someone else and went back home. David may have failed to realize this truth, but he was acting just like the pagan Philistines who had captured the Ark some 40 years prior. They recognized the Ark as deadly and they too wanted to get rid of it (1 Samuel 6).

David recognized that God was the One who killed Uzzah, but unlike the pagans, David knew better to respond in the way he did. David was acting like God was being unfair; David thought God was being unjust and acting in too extreme a manner. After all, Uzzah simply reached out his hand to steady the Ark. Was that a crime worthy of instant death?

Argument: If we are honest, we have similar thoughts when we read a passage like this. We too can think, “wow, that was an over-reaction; I am so glad we no longer have to deal with the angry God of the OT - we get to deal with love and grace in Christ.”

Two very important truths that modern Christians fail to realize. First, the God of the NT is the exact same God as seen in the OT. God is immutable: He does not change in character (James 1:17; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8)

Second, God is Holy AND Just (Isa 57:15). We look at the Uzzah situation or the case of Ananias & Sapphira in Acts 5, and think that God is not being fair - that He is being unjust. We could not be more wrong. God is never, ever unjust.

God gives His creatures either justice or He grants mercy, but He never acts in an unjust manner. We quickly forget that we were rebel sinners who were under the wrath of God. In His sovereignty, God could dispense His justice at any time in our lives and we would be in a godless hell.

Illustrate: Dr. Bush with his open-book exam in Philosophy of Religion class. He told students that unless they were very, very familiar with the material they would not do well on the test. He was right. Many struggled or even failed, and then complained, but he told us up front what to expect.

Instead, in His grace, God has extended to His children mercy. God has overlooked our sins and instead has given to us the alien righteousness of Jesus. God is never obligated to any of His creatures to extend grace. If Grace can be demanded, it is no longer Grace.

Our problem with passages like this is that we are far more used to seeing God dispense His grace instead of His justice. And, truth be told, we are much more comfortable with seeing God extend grace - it gives the appearance that He is somewhat “safer.” To think this way is a mistake!

It is not that the God is more safe, but that He is more gracious than we can imagine. The reason that He withholds His justice is to give space for repentance.

King James Version Chapter 3

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; BUT is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, BUT that all should come to repentance.