[0:00] And all glory to God. Turn to 1 Chronicles 6. That big, beautiful building, they built that themselves. They paid for it themselves. All the wood, the cut timber, my coworker at the time, Andrew Schellenberger, ran the sawmill.
[0:13] We have a portable wood miser sawmill. And Andrew ran that sawmill, and that's all he did was cut the timber. They cut the trees. They pulled the trees. They carried the wet timber back down, stacked it, and dried it.
[0:23] They hired a carpenter from the coast, a national guy. He came in. He built it. He said, you do this. You do that. And they built that building. All we did was we went to town. And in fact, I think Matt did it.
[0:34] Went to town, took their money, bought that metal for the side of the building, bought metal for the roof, took it back and flew it back in for them. And they built that. And that's God. That's God. That's their fifth building. And I wish they'd outgrow it, but I don't think they're going to grow it for a while.
[0:47] They can seat about 400 in there. You've been in a lot of services in that building. Hallelujah. 1 Chronicles 26, 18. I'm a Bible translator.
[0:58] I'm a King James Bible believer. I have been told those are incompatible. They are not. The more I translate, the longer I spend in the text, the more I think this is the most fascinating group and choices of words.
[1:12] And that's not my topic tonight, but the verse I'm picking tonight is one of those odd verses that maybe you heard at camp. 1 Chronicles 26, like you to verse 18. It's a complete sentence. It's what it says.
[1:23] It's at Parbar, westward, 4 at the causeway, and 2 at Parbar. Missionaries, grab that text and run with it. We're actually going to do that.
[1:37] We're going to do that. This is a text like you're like, okay, as a translator, you just can't skip over it. You got to. And we have not translated 1 Chronicles. But every time I had read that, I was just like, wow, what does that mean?
[1:48] And I got to looking at it. Tonight I want to talk to you about second chances. Second chances. And in this passage right here, you know, if you don't know what something is, context, context, context. I mean, you need to know the context.
[1:59] Missionary, if you have not read your Bible through and you do not continually read your Bible through, don't go to the field. Until you get in the habit of spiritual discipline of reading this word. Because your people are going to hit you with questions.
[2:10] If you've not been there yet, they're going to hit you with questions you never thought of. And when you get to the field and you learn the language, and you will learn the language. And I'm glad that Pastor hammers that down. You will learn the language. You will learn it well. And you begin to preach out of that Bible.
[2:21] Put your English Bible to one side and start reading the Bible that you're doing when it comes to preparing your messages. When I got there, I had been in the ministry for 27 years when I arrived in Papua New Guinea. And I thought, man, I had sermon books and all this great stuff and all this teaching.
[2:34] And I'm the great hope. And it didn't take but a year before I finally closed the last one and set it aside. And said, I've just got to start with their text and what it says here and work through it.
[2:45] And that was when God began to open my eyes in their text in the Bible that they were reading. And I'm talking about, this is the Melanesian Pigeon, the trade language Bible. And God began to open my eyes about their text.
[2:55] And I could preach about their text. And not say, well, in my Bible it says. No, your Bible says. Well, your Bible, in your lap tonight, is the King James Bible. And it says something about Parbar and Causeway. And so I got digging through this.
[3:08] And in this chapter right here, if you just look at the heading in the chapter, verse 1, it said concerning the divisions of the porters. This whole chapter is about the porters. Now, English words change meaning over decades and centuries.
[3:23] Now, if you were to say a porter today, I don't know, most of you might think the guy that carries your bags. But actually, that word porter in English comes from a Latin word which means portal, which means an opening or a doorway.
[3:35] And so the porter has to do with the guy who's at the doorway. Real quick, flip over to John chapter 10. You'll see what I'm talking about. It's defined. Your Bible has its own dictionary. It's right there. If you'll look at John 10.
[3:50] It talks about Jesus said he's the door, right? If you look at John 10, verse 1, So it's the guy who's at the gate.
[4:08] He's at the door. It's his job in some senses to protect the gate. And it's in some cases, as we would see here in this context in 1 Chronicles, his job to be there to meet people coming through. Now, you can imagine, as this has been written, Chronicles is looking back over the history of Israel.
[4:25] Porters started their ministry. It began when the tabernacle was built. But after the tabernacle, it continued on to the time of the temple. These guys, you would think we would know about this.
[4:37] You would know about how many porters there are. Let me just ask this. Jesus fed how many people once with two loaves or two fish? 5,000. And Pentecost, how many people were saved?
[4:48] 3,000. You can just write it down. Chapter 1 Chronicles 23, verse 5, there were 4,000 porters. 4,000. You're like, how come I never heard of them? Well, they're in your Bible.
[4:58] Just keep reading because they're there. It's like 4,000 porters. Why did I never know it? What about this? Well, first, before we talk about Parbar, just Parbar. The only way you're going to find out about Parbar is just digging into history.
[5:08] And if you look at the temple complex at the time of Solomon, it was a western side of the temple complex. And the fact that it's a causeway, there was probably some sort of a bridge.
[5:21] Because if you're familiar with the geography of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the city of David are kind of a mountain that comes down. Mount Zion at the top comes down. Two valleys on either side. The other valley on the other side was the Valley of the Merchants.
[5:36] And there was apparently some kind of a bridge there. Because the rich people lived to the west. And the rich people didn't want to walk down in the valley and walk back up. Where we live in Kodidanga, everywhere you go, you walk down and you walk back up.
[5:46] It's down and up. And you get pretty sweaty going back and forth. Nobody wants to get sweaty going to church. And they built a causeway across there. These guys, their job, that was where they were stationed. They were stationed there. You're like, wow, what an obscure thing.
[5:58] That's what I want to point out tonight. It's about second chances. Well, preacher, how can you say that? Well, who got this job? Who got this job of being porters? Look back in chapter 9. Let's look back in chapter 9.
[6:11] 1 Chronicles. I know, those pages where they're stuck together? 1 Chronicles, chapter 9. I'm picking on you. This is a Bible-loving church. 1 Chronicles, chapter 9.
[6:24] Look down at verse 19. There's a list here. Verse 17 says, The porters were, and it comes down in verse 19. It's listing there a little bit of their genealogy. And Shalom, the son of Korah, the son of Abiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brethren of the house of his father, the Korahites, were over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the tabernacle.
[6:45] And their fathers, being over the host of the Lord, were keepers of the entry. So these porters are keepers of the gate. They're the gate keepers. And you'll notice there that it did mention they're from a family.
[6:57] They're the Korahite family. What did they do? Real quick. Let's just look at what they did. They just opened a gate. They stand at the gate. Come down to, let me see here, verse 27. 27.
[7:08] They lodged round about the house of God. Their housing was around the temple because the charge was upon them, and the opening thereof every morning pertained to them. Now listen, if you were not a morning person and you were a porter, tough buddy.
[7:21] They say that the beautiful gate, the one where the lame man is healed in the New Testament in Acts chapter 3, they say that it took several men to open each leaf of that gate. Now can you imagine if it takes exactly a certain number of men to even move those leaves of those gates, those big doors out, and you imagine like two of the five are late.
[7:40] And like it's time. And so you've got a Levite up on top of the temple, and he's blowing the trumpet, and it's time. And eight of the ten guys are there. And they're trying, Where are you?
[7:50] And here he comes. Here comes Judah. I'm coming, guys. I'm coming. It's just late, man. I haven't had my coffee yet. In ministry, even then, you've got guys early morning. Their ministry fell to them morning and evening.
[8:03] And can I just point this out? We talk about instant in-season and out-of-season. Ministry, if you haven't been in it long enough yet, you're going to find out. It is a 24-7 thing.
[8:14] We're here in the States. We get texts from Papua New Guinea all the time. There's only one problem. They're 14 hours ahead of us. So I wake up during the night, and I'm wondering, like, why did I wake up?
[8:24] And then there's that faint little blue grow from the magic stone in my bed. And if I totally wake up, my wife will show me the picture of this horribly twisted arm that's broken, like last night.
[8:35] And the nurses are there, and they're like, exactly how do you think we should reduce this and whatever? And I roll over, preacher. I just go to sleep. Not my monkey. I can't. I cannot help. But it's a 24.
[8:45] Some things are a 24-7 ministry. These guys did this. Every morning they opened it. But this is other things that they did. Verse 28. Certain of them had charge of the ministering vessels, that they should bring them in and out by tail.
[8:57] Tail. Like the word tell. Teller. Count. They kept count of how many ministering vessels there were. Can you just imagine? Let's just go with Solomon's temple. How many ministering vessels there were?
[9:08] You're like, they didn't have one pot to catch the blood and one pot for incense. They had lots. They made it. Do you remember the listing in here that you read through that boring section back in the law?
[9:18] About how many snuff dishes and golden spoons and all that stuff? These guys were responsible for the count of how many of them there were. Putting them in order. Can you imagine? Priest goes, bowl. I mean, he's Pastor Gardner.
[9:30] He's not going to get the bowl. He's like, bowl. He's got a bowl here. Right? You with me on? He's like, bowl. He's got that knife. He's ready. Bowl. I said, bowl.
[9:44] Can you see this guy? I can't find it. Late shift didn't put him away last night. You think this is funny? Read the text and put it in there. This is it. This is their job.
[9:54] This is what they did. Hey, listen. You don't think people had sticky fingers in those days? You got gold things all over the place. You don't think somebody's going to try to come by and lift a couple of golden spoons?
[10:05] Somebody's got to be counting. Somebody's got to do it. Oh, no. They were all holy. They were all Israelites. Follow me here. These guys had a job to do, even though it wasn't always the gate.
[10:16] There's things there. Verse 29. Some of them were appointed to oversee the vessels and the instruments of the sanctuary and the fine flour and the wine and the oil and the frankincense and the spices. Oh, my goodness.
[10:26] It's time to go in and do the incense thing. And the priest goes, censor. Incense. He's going to go in there and throw it on top of it. And one of the guys goes, we forgot to mix it last night. This is all stuff that's being done all the time in the temple.
[10:40] And you and I just get the glory picture of the temple itself. These men had this job. You're looking. This is a menial job. Do you realize nothing happens if they don't do it? It doesn't happen. What you've got is this well-clad man out there ready to do all these ceremonies and nothing to do it with.
[10:55] Standing there with a breastplate on and that fancy hat. And there ain't nobody helping him. There is a lot that it takes to make ministry run and to make it work. And these guys here that maybe you never thought of before.
[11:07] They're right here on the pages. Hopping right out. 4,000 of them doing it. Now, it's probable when I say 4,000 that they did it. If you would know the story of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, that they would do things by course.
[11:20] They would come into the temple and they would only work there for a certain period of time. Two weeks, four weeks, a year. They would rotate through. It's probable that that's how it was done. But what I'm getting at is you see these menial tasks are not that menial.
[11:32] But what I find is really, really interesting about these guys who do an unseen ministry is their heritage. Their heritage. You remember back what it said there in verse 19? It says, Shalom, the son of Cori, the son of Abiasaph, the son of Korah.
[11:48] Ever heard of that guy before? Go back with me to Numbers 16. Let me refresh your memory. Numbers chapter 16, Korah. Well, this is pretty interesting. You say, it can't be that Korah.
[11:58] Yeah, it's that Korah. It's that Korah. Numbers chapter 16. The guy who with his friends Ahn and Dathan and Abiram rebelled against Moses and said, You take too much on you.
[12:10] All the people are holy. Look at Numbers chapter 16. It says in verse 1, Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and Ahn, the son of Peleth, sons of Roman, took men and they came and they rose up against Moses and Aaron.
[12:23] And if you look down in verse 19, Korah gathered all the congregation against them under the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now, if that is literal, which there's no reason to believe it's not, he literally turned the nation against Moses.
[12:36] This Korah is one church splitter. Know this. There will always be three things in your ministry. Judas's, Korah's, and Potiphar's wives.
[12:50] Just write that down. They'll always be there somewhere. Guard yourself. Be holy. Because there's always going to be a Korah. There's always going to be a Judas. And there's always going to be a Potiphar's wife. And don't run around being suspicious on everybody.
[13:02] But just know that. Be alert. Because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion. Walketh about seeking whom he may devour. And he knows where your weaknesses are. And, brother, hear it good. He knows what your strengths are. And those, Samson, you may not guard as well.
[13:16] That was free. Korah gathered them. They turned on Moses. Look down in verse 21. This is the Lord. Verse 20. Speaking to Moses and Aaron. The Lord says, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them.
[13:29] In a moment, the Lord is ready to nuke the entire nation. Moses and Aaron fall on their faces. 22. And say, O God. The God of the spirits of all flesh. So one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation.
[13:40] And so the Lord pulls back. And he gives this to Moses. Moses says it in verse 26. He spake to the congregation. This is what the Lord gave him. He said to the people, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.
[13:57] I just want you to hold something in memory. I'm going to come back at the end of the message. Depart ye. Get away from the tents of these wicked men. And so, you know, the story is they did. The people pulled back.
[14:08] Look down at verse 30. And Moses makes this statement. As the congregation steps back, Moses said in verse 29, If these men die the common death of all men, or they be visited after the visitation of all men, if they just go through life, and nothing happens, then the Lord hath not sent me.
[14:24] Verse 30. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then you shall understand that not that I am the servant of the Lord, but that these men have provoked the Lord.
[14:38] Ouch. I mean, Moses just put God on the line right there. But do you realize what happened? Verse 30. Or verse 31. It came to pass, as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods, they and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation.
[15:06] Horrid scene. Nothing for anybody to go amen about. But then there's this other obscure verse that pops up. Look at chapter 26. Numbers 26.
[15:17] I'm reading through my Bible. I read through this several times, and I just couldn't figure this verse out. Numbers 26. Verses 10 and 11. It's talking about that same story in verse 10.
[15:31] And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up. This is Dathan and Byram, those guys. Swallowed them up with Korah when that company died. And in what time? The fire devoured 250 men. That came up right after that. Verse 11.
[15:42] Notwithstanding, the children of Korah what? Did you know that the other guys, Dathan and Byram, their entire families were said, they said, they died. Korah's children did not die.
[15:53] Now, why the other two guys and not Korah? Korah is actually the ringleader. I don't have an answer for that, except for God's providence and his foreknowledge of what he wanted to do. You see, the most famous, I think, of the descendants of Korah was a little boy that his mom had prayed for.
[16:08] Lord, give me a son, and I shall lend him to the Lord all his days. And his name was Samuel. But the sons of Korah affect us much more than you realize. The sons of Korah.
[16:19] You see, they became the gatekeepers, the porters. And they're also mentioned another place in Scripture several times. Go with me to the book of Psalms. Go with me to chapter 42, this 42nd Psalm.
[16:32] I mentioned this in class this week, for those of you that know or not. Does anybody know why we have italics in our Bible, in our King James Bible? What do the italics show?
[16:44] The important words, right? What do the italics show? Okay, words that were added by the translators to make it make sense in English. They were words that were added to make it, so he didn't sound like Tonto.
[16:58] That's an older one for you younger people, go look up Lone Ranger, okay? But Tonto did not speak in complete sentences, pretty much like you gringos are going to do when you first get to the field. I've been the gringo in two foreign languages, okay?
[17:12] I know what that's like. You ought to hear me speak our tribal language. I speak our tribal language, and then I go, And they're like, And they're like, no, just say it in Pidgin.
[17:22] Okay. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. But in chapter 42, the 42nd Psalm, you see that phrase there underneath that? That is part of the original Hebrew text. It's not in italics.
[17:35] If you go through in Hebrew, the part in Psalm 42 that says, To the chief musician, Maskeel, for the sons of Korah. You go through all of those headings, you'll find some of the headings, part of them in italics, part of them not.
[17:46] Another translator pointed out to me, I'm like, no way. You see, in a Hebrew Bible, that's actually the first verse. To us, we have verse 1. I'm not correcting our Bible, but I'm pointing this out. This is important.
[17:57] This was part of the text. And it's for the sons of who? For the sons of Korah. Did you know that Psalm 42, 43 isn't marked, but 44 is, 45, 46, those are psalms for the sons of Korah.
[18:15] Do you know what significance they have to us today? You've probably sung Psalm 42 in the last month. Have you? As the heart, great King James translation, as the heart panteth after the water brooks.
[18:30] In Psalm 63, I think it says, my heart pants after you. That's why they chose the word heart. They could have used dear. But we sing, as the deer. That's Korah. That's a Korahite song for the sons of Korah.
[18:43] Psalm 46 is another one. Psalm 46, to the chief musician for the sons of Korah. God is our refuge, and God is our strength. A very present help in trouble. Psalm for the sons of Korah.
[18:56] Look at Psalm 48. One that our Papua New Guineans love to sing. We usually sing it in three languages when we do sing it. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.
[19:06] In the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. A psalm for the sons of Korah. Do you see this? Do you see these are praise hymns? From a family that shouldn't even be there.
[19:20] I said this message was about second chances. To me, I think that the most significant of the psalms of the sons of Korah is Psalm 84. Psalm 84.
[19:30] It is a familiar psalm. You might not remember it, but once you hear the words, you will know. Now listen, this message I'm speaking to you tonight is to encourage you about God is never going to give up on you, and just keep turning your nose toward home.
[19:45] He's going to give you second chances. You'll fall flat on your face. I'm not always talking about in sin. You're going to be discouraged. Just keep turning your nose toward home. Because if God didn't give up on the sons of Korah, He is not going to give up on you.
[19:56] He redeemed you by the blood of His Son. You are His child. You belong to Him. You are His property. And if you have decided to be something for ministry, either in the front lines, or one of the people who is supporting, and pushing, and providing, and making sure people can go, there is a target on you.
[20:12] And He wants to take you out. That's the good news. Because God is over all. And God knows that. And God is fighting for you.
[20:23] And this will help you to remember how much God cares for you, and you can return praise to Him. The 84th Psalm. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord.
[20:38] My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house. And the swallow, a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.
[20:49] Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. When I read verse 3, and I know that the porters are guys doing the menial tasks, I just wonder if those guys are the guys who have to go and remove the bird nests.
[21:01] This is the only place you find this kind of thing in here. And I can just picture these guys doing this in a sweet heart and going, Ah, little bird, if our people of Israel would just love God like you do.
[21:14] Look at you, built this nest here so you could lay your eggs here, so your children could be next to the... I've got to move you, bird. I've got to move you. I've got to go put you somewhere else. They put it in a psalm inspired in Scripture.
[21:25] Don't ever think anything in the Bible is mamby-pamby. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Soak in it and say, why did God do that? But verse 4, Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee.
[21:40] And the one that I think you probably know most in and out of its context is verse 10. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. Some of you sing that song. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to do what?
[21:58] Where did that come from? It came from number 16. Up, depart you and get away from the tents of these wicked men. And then the Lord judges Korah and judges those people.
[22:12] Do you realize if Korah had succeeded and this had continued in some way, shape, or fashion as a fake religious enterprise of Israel. Korah, his sons, would have been leaders in Israel.
[22:25] Their group would have been the priesthood. They would have been the guys serving there. And they never, if I read that psalm right, never forgot that the judgment that fell on their forefather did not fall on their parents and did not take them out of the lineage.
[22:39] And they put it in their song. I'm glad that this is what I do. I'm glad that I pick up and clean the pots and put them back. I'm glad I mixed the incense.
[22:50] And I'm glad that I stand at the gates and I'm a doorkeeper because I would rather do this than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Men, there are going to be temptations to you to shortcut in ministry, to do things that are unethical and wrong.
[23:06] My son Matt is in a country, and most countries have these problems, where if you will just slip a hundred or a thousand under the table, stuff gets done and you can move on in ministry. Don't fall for that.
[23:20] You say, what if God wants you to do it? You better make sure God wants you to do it. Now, you may have that principle. You do what you want. We decided we are not going to do it, and it's made a name for Matt in the city. It's made a name for Matt in the government.
[23:32] Matt's met with the prime minister. The prime minister, that's the president, the head, the big dog of Papua New Guinea, because he said, I will not bow, I will not bend. We are not going to pay bribes to your under officers to get this land cleared.
[23:45] Twenty-eight times it's been in court, and it just got deferred indefinitely to January. They just said, push it off one more time. Not paying it. We'd rather open doors a thousand times to keep cramming people in here than to be able to say we got the land, but all the rest of our lives go, but we had to do what they did.
[24:04] Don't submit, because then you'd be able to say, God, I'm just glad. I'm just glad I get to do this. I'm just glad I get to give to you.
[24:14] I'm glad that I get to do this. I'd rather be a doorkeeper than to have those other blessings. God is about second chances. If you failed, get up. Get up. Get up and get on your knees and say, Lord, I'm ready.
[24:26] I want to go. Let's go one step further. God, help me. The Lord being my helper, I want to advance the gospel in my country. I want to advance it here in Alpharetta. I want to see God do things in my generation. I know that's your mantra here.
[24:38] It's what you guys chant, but hear me. Don't be afraid to do it right. And if you're never seen and never noticed, heaven notices. And that heart cry of the sons of Korah is inspired scripture.
[24:52] That's how important God holds it. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.