All right, now let's open our
Bibles to Exodus chapter two. Exodus, the second chapter. And there went a man of the house
of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived
and bare a son. And when she saw him that he
was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could
not longer hide him, She took for him an ark of bulrushes,
and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child
therein, and she laid it in the flags by the river's bank. And
his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river,
and her maidens walked along by the riverside. And when she
saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
And when she had opened it she saw the child, and behold the
babe wept. And she had compassion on him
and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children. Then said
his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call to the nurse
of the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for thee?
And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. And the maid went and
called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto
her, take this child away, nurse it for me and I'll give thee
thy wages. And the woman took the child
and nursed it and the child grew. And she brought him unto Pharaoh's
daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses.
And she said, because I drew him out of the water. We'll end
our reading there. Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, we come before thy
throne carefully and reverently, thankfully and joyfully. Father,
how thankful we are that we can come into your presence and cry,
Abba Father, and be heard as your children for Christ's sake.
And we dare only come pleading his obedience as our only righteousness,
pleading his sacrifice as the only cleansing of our sin. Father, how we thank you for
a Savior who completely saves his people from their sin. Father,
I pray this evening that his name would be exalted and lifted
up in everything that is said and done here this evening. The
reading of the word, the singing of the songs, and Father, especially
the preaching of the gospel. Bless your word as it goes forth
to bring glory to your name. Apply it to the hearts of your
people that we might learn more of Christ our Savior. Fall more
in love with him, learn to depend on him more fully, And Father,
truly worship him in spirit and in truth. Father, I thank you
for a place that you've provided where your gospel is preached
and your people meet together in unity and love and one accord. And Father, I pray that you would
protect it and also that you'd give us the wisdom to protect
it. Be careful not to put a stumbling
block in the way of our brothers and sisters. And Father, we pray
a special blessing for those that you've brought in the time
of trouble and trial. We continue to pray for our sister,
Andrea, that you'd be with her in a special way, that you'd
be with the Sparks family. Father, that you'd be pleased
to touch Novi and Ed, that you'd be pleased to heal their bodies.
Father, restore them to us, if it could be thy will. All these
things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. I titled the message this evening,
Three Arks. Three Arks. Our text will be
the first three or four verses here of chapter two. And there
went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of
Levi. And the woman conceived and bare
a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid
him three months. And when she could not longer
hide him, took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with
slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and she laid
it in the flags by the river's bank. Now this is the account
of the birth of Moses. And Moses was a remarkable man. He was a man greatly used of
God. People often think of Moses as
a type of the law, because the law came by Moses. And it's true,
Moses is a type of the law. God gave the law to Moses. He
turned and gave it to the people. That's the very reason that Moses
could never lead the children of Israel into the promised land
because Moses is a type of the law and the law can never give
anybody anybody one rest. The law can't do it. That's why
Joshua had to come up, come along that type of Christ. He could
lead the people into rest, but Moses couldn't do that because
the law can't give you a me rest. And there's a good type of the
law in Moses birth that most of us miss. At least I've missed
it my entire life until I was studying this this week. It says
in verse two that Moses was a goodly child. Moses was a beautiful
baby and he was a very handsome man. Now I know his mother and
father saw him that way and I defy you to find a mother that doesn't
think her newborn is just utterly beautiful. But Moses was a beautiful
baby. He is a very handsome man. Now
that's a picture of what the law looks like to the natural
man. It looks so goodly, it looks so beautiful, it just entices
us so much. We think here's something that
I can do. Here's something that I can keep to make myself righteous
enough that God will accept me. And our flesh loves nothing more
than that. That I can earn some glory, earn
some credit by earning some of my own righteousness. But if
the Lord gives us eyes to see what the law really says, We're
not gonna be attracted to the law anymore. It'll be the, we'll
see the terror of the Lord. The Apostle Paul told us about
that. When he was Saul of Tarsus, he said, I was alive once. I
thought I'd outwardly kept all these things, you know. He said,
then the Lord showed me what the law really says. What the
law really is, then I died. The law wasn't attractive to
him anymore. So Moses is a type of the law. But Moses is also
a great type of our Lord Jesus Christ too. Moses is the deliverer,
the one who will be raised up to deliver Israel from bondage
in Egypt. It's a wonderful picture how
Christ delivers his people from bondage to the law and bondage
to sin. He sets them free. Christ sets
you free. The son shall make you free.
You're free indeed. He came to deliver his people. Moses is
the intercessor. How often do we read just such
heartwarming stories, really just heartwarming? How the people
treated Moses so bad and they just rebelled against God, but
Moses would intercede for Israel. He interceded to God for Israel,
begged for mercy, begged that God would forgive him. He made
such, it was just such a loving intercession for these stiff-necked
people. They're stiff-necked, they gave
him a lot of trouble, but he still loved them, didn't he?
Isn't that a wonderful picture of Christ our Savior? He makes
intercession for his people. because he loves him. And when
Christ makes intercession for his people, he's not just like
Moses. Moses was pleading for mercy.
Moses would plead, Lord, don't destroy Israel. Don't destroy
this people, even though that's what they deserve. When Christ
pleads for his people and mercy, he pleads for justice. He pleads
his blood. Father, forgive him because of
my blood, because of my sacrifice. Can you think of anything more
loving than that? that the Savior would lay down his life, that
he would be sacrificed and slaughtered for the likes of us, and then
always plead his blood for us, for our forgiveness. Moses is
a good type of Christ the intercessor, isn't he? Moses was the builder
of the tabernacle. The Lord called Moses up in the
mountain, gave him the instructions for the tabernacle, and that
tabernacle, every piece of furniture, every stitch of it, piece of
it, every element of it is all a picture of redemption in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Moses built that tabernacle and
then Christ came and he fulfilled every picture in that tabernacle
when he came to tabernacle among us. To obey the law, establish
a perfect righteousness for his people, to suffer and die, to
shed his blood as an atonement for sin. He fulfilled every picture
of it, didn't he? And then Moses was a great prophet.
Moses wrote of Christ. We know he did because the Lord
said it. Moses wrote of me. Moses wrote of Christ. He told
us that Christ was coming and he told us what he was going
to do when he gets here. And so few people listened. So few
people believed. But Moses was faithful. He was
faithful in all of his house. That's what we're told. Well,
that's a picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
prophet. He's that prophet that should
come. And when Christ comes to His people, Christ speaks to
the hearts of His people, He speaks life to their hearts.
He speaks salvation. He speaks forgiveness. He speaks
peace. You can hear preachers. You can
hear a lot of preachers. A lot of preachers. And it might not amount to a
hill of beans. But when Christ speaks to your heart, all you
believe, you love. Now you see. The elect always
here because Christ our prophet speaks in power. And Moses could be that type
of Christ because Moses, he was beautiful to his parents, but
he was beautiful to God too. I can show you that Acts chapter
7. Acts chapter 7. This is Stephen preaching before
he was stone to death in Acts chapter seven in verse 17. But when the time of the promise
drew nigh, which God has sworn to Abraham, the people grew and
multiplied in Egypt till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
The same dealt subtly with our kindred and evil and treated
our fathers so that they cast out their young children to the
end that they might not live in which time, Moses was born
and was exceeding fair and nourished up at his father's house three
months. Now it says here, Moses was exceeding
fair. And you know what those words
mean in the Greek? This is literally what Stephen
said, that Moses was fair and beautiful to God. Fair and beautiful
to God. Now, Moses was a man greatly
used of God, but he's still a sinful man. Can anybody please tell
me how it can be that that sinful man was fair and beautiful to
God? Well, it's the same way every
believer is fair and beautiful to God. It's by being found in
Christ. The believer's union with Christ. I love to talk about this. I
love to think about this. The believer's union with Christ
is so real that every believer is what Christ is. It's not like
we are what Christ is. We are what Christ is as he is. So are we in this world. Now that is astounds me. I can almost understand how God
could say that about Moses. I can't understand how he'd say
about me. The amazing thing is it's true of you and me too.
If we believe Christ, if we're found in Christ, I mean, I hope we never become so gospel-hardened
that that doesn't just grip our heart every time that we hear
about what God's, that we have union with Christ. There's such
comfort, there's such joy in that. Almighty God sees everything
as it really is. So when he says, I see my people
righteous, it's because they are righteous. That's what Christ
made them. They're as righteous as the sun. There's loved of the father as
the son. They're accepted, as accepted
of the father as he accepts the son. You just can't make too
much of this thing of union with Christ. That's how we're beautiful
and acceptable to God. I think this bears saying, it's
not just that, all right, the father says, I have to accept
them because they're in my son, even though I know their sin,
I know what they are, I know what they've done, I know what
they are in Adam. But I have to accept them, because
they're my son. There's no grudging acceptance here. The father sees
his people as fair and beautiful and delights to accept them.
Delights in it. Now, in the coming weeks, we're
gonna spend some more time looking at Moses, but this evening, I
wanna look at this thing about the birth of Moses and how his
mother hid him in this ark. and cast him out into the, I
guess it was near the shore, it was among reeds or something,
but she put this kid in the River Nile. You know, we live down
by the river, and we'll take walks and stuff down there, and
every time we've had little children and stuff with us, little children
always want to go down to that river. And, you know, when I
was younger, it didn't have no sense, you know, I would walk
down there with them, and now it's just like, no, no, we're
not doing that, no, it's too dangerous, This woman put her
three-month-old in the river. And the writer to the Hebrew
says that was an act of faith. That was an act of faith. Now,
the ark that Moses' mother built for him first, this is the first
ark, pictures salvation from sin in our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, Pharaoh's commandment
was all the boy babies are to be killed. If the parents, you
know, they give birth, the mother gives birth, then it's a boy,
They're supposed to, they have to, he said, throw it in the
river. And if they don't, anybody else sees, oh, here's a little
boy running around. You take him and throw him in
the river. You drown him. That was Pharaoh's commandment.
And I can't think of a worse trial for a parent. Can you? I mean, I can't fathom anything
worse than that, how anybody could ever endure that. And here,
lo and behold, these two, this young man, this young woman from
the tribe of Levi kept Mary. And she gets pregnant. And I
mean, would it surprise you to think she's praying for a little
girl so she don't have to go through this? And lo and behold, it was
a boy, Moses. Now, it wouldn't be surprising
to any of us that she tried to hide that baby and keep her boy
alive. That doesn't surprise anyone.
Every one of us would at least try it, wouldn't we? Of course
she did. But again, the writer to the
Hebrews says this was an act of faith. This was done in faith. The Lord must have told Moses'
parents, this child is the deliverer. And they believed God. And they
did whatever it is they had to do to keep him alive because
they believed that when this child comes to age, he's going
to deliver Israel from Egypt just like God promised he would.
They believed God. I don't know how else they could
have believed God unless God told them, this is the deliverer. So they hid that baby for three
months. And then that mother made a little ark and she put
her baby in it and she put it loose on the Nile River. Left her daughter there, seven,
eight, nine years old maybe, to watch it and she went back
home. Now that took faith. That took
God-given faith to believe her baby boy is gonna survive this
ordeal. I mean this thing, is made of
reeds, is what they used to make paper out of. She put her son
in a paper ark and set it loose. I mean, can you think of anything
in a more precarious situation than that, than a three month
old in a little paper ark floating on the river? But she believed
God. She believed God. And we all
know how the story ends, how Moses was delivered from the
river And Pharaoh himself raised and
educated that boy. Raised him as his own grandson.
I just love God's poetic justice. He had Pharaoh raise and train
and educate the one who was gonna destroy him. That's God's poetic
justice. We'll get to more of that, but
I just, That's just gripping to me every single time I read
it. Here we say we're sovereign gracers,
don't we? How often do we forget God is
sovereign over everything? Sovereign over everything. I
don't know how many boy babies were killed, but Moses wasn't.
Moses was raised in the palace. But I want us to look at this
ark that Moses' mother made. It's a picture of salvation from
sin. This ark was made out of bulrushes,
and the word means papyrus reeds. It's what they made paper out
of. I mean, that's a pretty flimsy boat to put your baby in, isn't
it? Papyrus. But that picture's the humanity
of Christ. The God-man became a real man
with flesh and blood and bones Just like we had. His flesh is
as easily torn as ours is. It easily felt pain. Just as
easy as you rip a piece of paper, you could rip his flesh. And
a cavalry it was, wasn't it? Then Moses tells us that his
mother daubed the ark with slime and pitch. That word daubed,
it means to smear, but it also means to foul. To foul. And the slime, the word means
slime pits. It just shows us, gives us a
picture of the depths of the depravity of our sin nature. It's what you find in the slime
pits. This word slime is the same word
used to describe the mortar that they used to try to build the
Tower of Babel. All of that pictures self-righteousness. It's the worst sin. The worst
iniquity, the worst depths of depravity that we can show in
ourselves is trusting in our own self-righteousness rather
than trust Christ alone. That's what that slime picture
is. But then it also says she daubed it with pitch. Now I was
sure that I knew what that word meant, but I looked it up and
I'm glad I did because it does not mean what I thought it would
mean at all. It means black tar, black tar. It's a picture of the blackness
of our sin. Now that was the ark that Moses
made. She put those reeds and she fouled
it with this slime and this black tar. And that's what she put
her son in. And that's what saved his life.
Now you put all that together and that's a picture of what
happened to our Savior on Calvary's tree. In eternity, before he
created anything, The father chose a people to save, and he
put those people in his son. They were in his son as their
surety, they were in his son as their representative, they
were in Christ. That's where they were, that's
where they were found, that's where they would be saved alive.
And at Calvary, the Lord Jesus, the holy God man, who did no
sin, knew no sin, was acquainted with no sin, was made sin. Now, we cannot ever fully understand
what that means, but that's what the scripture says, isn't it?
He was made sin. Just like that little ark that
Moses' mother made, he was fouled with sin. He was smeared with
sin, covered with sin, with the black sin of his people, and
he suffered and died to put all that sin away, to make his people
white as snow. All God's people are saved from
their sin by being in Christ. This is surely as Moses would
say, by being in that little ark, you and I find salvation
in Christ. Being in Christ. And if we trust
Christ, all of our sin is put away. It's gone. It is no more. It's been put
away by His precious blood. That means, as guilty as we feel
about ourselves, about the sin that we commit, about the sin
that we are, about how easily just we're drawn to sin like
steel to a magnet, aren't we? No matter how guilty we feel
about that, no matter how much our conscience bothers us about
that, no believer can ever be charged with any sin. Because
there's no sin left to charge them with. None. They can never
die. They can never be condemned,
never, never. Come hell or high water, nothing
can ever happen to ever condemn them because Christ took their
sin away. And they're saved from sin in
Christ. That's the ark that Moses was in. Now second, there's the
ark of Noah. The ark of Noah pictures salvation
from God. Remember the ark that Moses was
in, now that's a picture of salvation from sin. The ark that Noah built,
is a picture of salvation from God. We must be saved from God. From God's wrath against our
sin. God told Noah, you know the story. He told Noah, he's
going to destroy the world with a flood. The sin of man is just
so great, he's going to destroy the world with a flood. And that's
what all sin deserves, isn't it? It deserves to be destroyed
by God's wrath. You think about our sin. Not
just the sin of the people that was in that day. I'm talking
just to us here tonight. You think about our sin. Our sin
is sin and rebellion against God who has never been anything
but good to man. Never. And that's especially
true of the people in this room. Every one of us has to say, God
has never been anything but good to me. That's the only thing
He ever has been. Yet how easily and willfully
we sin against him. That's betrayal. It's ungrateful. It's open rebellion, isn't it?
No wonder that's going to draw the wrath of the father. So God
told Moses, now I'm going to destroy the world with a flood
because of this sin. But Moses, you build an ark and
you get in that ark and you'll be saved from this flood that's
to come. Now I want you to look at something
here. Look at back at Genesis chapter six. Genesis 6. Verse 14, the Lord tells Noah,
make thee an ark of gopher wood. Room shalt thou make in the ark,
and thou shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. Now God
told Noah, you make this ark, you build this ark out of this
wood, and you pitch it on the inside and out. so that it's
watertight, so it's seaworthy. It's gonna have to be out there
on open water for a long time. Well, I just assumed that this
word pitch is the same word pitch in Exodus when Moses' mother
built him a hymn heart. But it's a completely different
word. The word pitch here means atonement. The other word pitch means a
black tar. This word pitch means atonement.
It means reconciliation. It means a ransom. This pitch
that Noah used pictures atonement for sin in the blood of Christ. This pitch shows us how the Lord
Jesus Christ made reconciliation for the sins of his people. It's
by sacrificing himself. By his blood, he made reconciliation. He atoned for the sin of his
people. This pitch is also a picture
that shows us God's wisdom. God found a ransom for the sin
of his people. We got a problem with sin. God's
going to save a people. What are we going to do about
this sin? Well, you and I can never come up with an answer.
God and his wisdom found a ransom that enables God to be both just
and still justify the ungodly. It's the sacrifice of the substitute,
the sacrifice of God's son. And that's what's pictured in
Noah's ark. You know, Noah finished building that ark, and God told
him, now you go in. The animals all came in, and
he told Moses, now you go in, Moses. And Moses went in, and
God shut the door. No getting in, no getting out.
God shut the door. And then the rain fell. The fountains
of the deep opened up. And every human being alive at
that time was drowned. Every animal. was drowned with
the exception of those in the ark, those animals and those
eight souls in the ark. Well, what about their sin? Isn't
their sin just as great as every other son of man that was living
on the earth at that time? It absolutely was. Boy, it didn't
take long for Moses and his sons to show it when they got off
the ark, did they? What about their sin? Well, God's wrath
against their sin still fell from heaven, didn't it? The difference
between Noah and his family and every other son of Adam is this.
Noah was in the Ark. The wrath against Noah's sin
fell on the Ark. The Ark took it all and not a
drop of it fell on Noah. Not a drop. I was going to say,
maybe I shouldn't say this, but I started. So I'm just going
to say, I saw a movie one time about Noah building the Ark and
all these things, you know, And the terror that they had because
that ark was leaking and water was falling all over them. They're
all getting drenched and stuff. Didn't happen. Didn't happen. Not a drop of God's wrath fell
on Noah and his family. The ark took it all. Because
the ark is a picture of Christ. God's justice. His fiery wrath
against the sin of His people, it still fell. Just like it will
fall on every person that spends eternity in hell, God's fire
against the wrath of every one of His elect still fell. Their
sin was still punished. The difference is, for the sin
of God's elect, that fire fell on Christ, on Christ our Ark. And we're safe in Him. That,
the fire of God's wrath, will never touch you if Christ died
for you. Never. Never. You don't have
to fear death. You don't have to fear facing
God in judgment. None of God's wrath will ever
fall. Not even a drop. Not even a drop. It all fell on Christ. That's how we're saved from God.
It's by being in Christ. And I love this. God told Noah,
put the pitch within and without. Now you'd think, well, if it's
covered good enough on the outside, why do you have to put it on
the inside? Because God said so. Because it's a picture. This
is a picture of salvation. The pitch on the outside of the
art pictures salvation done for us. See, something has to be
done for us, outside of us. That's the transaction that was
made between God and God at Calvary. That was the work done for us,
to pay for the sins of God's people, to atone for their sins.
But then there's salvation in us. When God the Holy Spirit
causes us to be born again with a new nature, a nature that cannot
sin, a nature that can trust only Christ. Any real salvation
is salvation both without and within. How's it get in us? God puts it there. And he's gonna
put it in every one of his people. completely saved from the wrath
of God in Christ. All right, here's the third ark.
The ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant pictures
mercy from God that's in our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember
that ark, it was a box. It was a box made of incorruptible
wood and they covered it with gold. And on top of that box
sat a mercy seat. It was made of pure gold. solid
gold, and the angels came up with their chairmen with their
wings over top of the mercy seat. And once a year, the high priest
took the blood of the sacrifice, and he went and he sprinkled
with his fingers seven times on that mercy seat. Eventually,
before too long, that gold mercy seat was absolutely covered with
blood. giving us a picture. There is
a place God will meet with man. There's a place God will meet
with man in peace. It's at the mercy seat. It's
at Christ our propitiation, Christ our mercy seat. With his blood,
the blood of his sin offering gives God's people peace with
God. Peace. The blood of Christ made
peace. The blood of Christ offered to
the Father Made peace. The Father's at peace. He's not
angry anymore. Sin's been paid for. And that
same blood. Oh, and you hear about the blood
of Christ. The blood He willingly shed to
pay for your sin. Doesn't that make your heart
at peace? Don't you find yourself being at peace with God because
you find yourself just throwing yourself down His feet? That's
where peace is found. It's in the blood. It's because
of the blood. And this Ark of the Covenant shows us this. The
salvation is entirely in Christ. Don't go looking for 0.00001%
of it outside of Christ. It's all in Christ. You know
what they did with that Ark? They put the broken law of God,
kept it safe, put it in that Ark. That's where it was kept
so Moses wouldn't take it and get mad and throw it down and
break it again. That's the picture. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming.
He's going to keep the law for his people. It's in Christ. It's
not put in our hands to have to obey it. And aren't you glad?
It's a burden we could never bear. But Christ took it. And
he obeyed all of it perfectly. Giving his people a perfect righteousness. If you're in Christ, You have
kept the law. You have kept the law. In Christ,
you're representative. The same way you sinned in Adam.
Now, we weren't there, but we were. I mean, we're in Adam's
loins. We sinned in Adam. Can't deny it, can you? Everyone
who's in Christ, who is in his loins, kept the law perfectly. Perfect righteousness. It's our
guilty conscience that makes us think this. We want to keep
looking over our shoulder because we're afraid God's law and God's
justice is finally going to get us. Isn't that what we think? Listen to me. If Christ died
for you, God's law and God's justice is not even looking for
you. It doesn't care one thing about
you because of your obedience to it in Christ. See, it's all
in Christ. The second thing they put in
the ark was a pot of manna. That manna, you know, is a picture
of Christ, the true bread that came down from heaven. But think
about that bread. I mean, this bread is a picture
of Christ. How'd they make it? How did it
start out? Well, it started out as a little
old seed of wheat they put in the ground and buried, didn't
it? Eventually that wheat, it grew to a full stalk and they
harvested it. You know how they harvested it?
They cut it down. They cut it down. Then they took
it, took that grain, they separated the wheat from the chaff, and
they ground, they ground, those wheels of ground that grain down
to a fine powder, and then they made it into dough and baked
it in a burning, fiery oven. Now all of that is a picture
of Christ, the bread of life. He came forth as a root of a
dry ground, didn't He? Just an embryo in Mary's womb. And He came forth. He grew to
full life. And the prime of His life, He
was cut down. And how He suffered. His body
was torn. His body just ground in the wheels
of God's justice. His body and soul burned in the
fire of God's wrath against sin. And He came out whole. on the
other side. He died, but he came out whole
on the other side, didn't he? That's Christ, our bread of life.
He died to give his people life. He's the one who gives his people
life. He said, now you take, eat. This is my body, broken
for you. It's believing Christ that gives
life to his people. Just like eating bread gives
us life, isn't it? continuing to believe Christ.
It's continuing to cling on Christ. It's continuing to feed on Christ
that sustains our life. The believer cannot live without
Christ, the bread of life, because He is our life. It's not just
He gives us life, He is our life. That's what was in that part.
And the third thing they kept in the ark was Aaron's rod that
budded. You remember there was a big rebellion against Moses
and Aaron. God's told a man from every tribe,
now you lay your rods down here, your walking sticks down here,
and the one in the morning that buds, how's a dead stick gonna
bud and have life come from it? It's dead. It's been cut off
from the root a long time, you know. But God said the one that
buds, the one that has life, shows evidence of life in it,
that's my high priest. Sure enough, Aaron's rod budded.
This was God's high priest. That's a picture of Christ. He's
the true high priest, the great high priest. And what does a
high priest do? He offers sacrifice for the sin
of his people. Now Aaron and his sons, they
offered sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice, morning, noon,
and night. Every event in your life that come up, you had to
go down to the priest and had to offer a sacrifice. There were
monthly sacrifices, annual sacrifices, just sacrifice After sacrifice,
after sacrifice, rivers of animal blood never took away one sin. All they were was a picture of
Christ. Then Christ, the great high priest,
came. He offered one sacrifice for sin forever. And then he
sat down. He sat down because the work
was finished. He sat down because sin had been paid for. The work
of redemption was finished all by Christ. our great high priest. I was talking with the pastor
friend of ours earlier this week. And I told him, I love it. How
easy the Lord makes it for us in every situation and everything
you think about and every whatever it is, look to Christ. Christ is the answer. I wish
tests were like that when I was in college. I struggled a lot,
you know, in college. But if the answers, there's only
one answer. It's always the same. I believe
I could ace that test. And this is what my friend said.
Me too, sometimes. And isn't that us? Isn't that
us? Yet the Lord knows our frame. He remembers that we're dust.
So he made it this easy. It's always one answer. There's
only one place to look. There's only one place to go
is go to Christ. And he didn't even make it optional
for us. He commands us to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, doesn't he? See, it's all in Christ. Christ
is the one who has made sin for his people. Christ is the one
who took their sin away. Christ is the one who bore the
punishment left. All the punishment that his people
deserve So they don't have to fear the wrath of God. God says
there's no fury left in me. I pour it all out on your substitute.
Christ is our propitiation. He's the one that's covered our
sin with his precious blood so that we can find mercy in him.
Christ is our life. Christ is our high priest. Christ
is our king. Christ is our prophet. We don't
need anything or anyone but him. I wish we could really believe
this. Maybe you do. Maybe I should
just say I wish I would really believe this. But this is so.
If we have Christ, we have it all. If we have Christ, we have
it all. Now, if that don't let you breathe
a sigh of relief, I'm afraid you don't know him. I pray you
do. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, How can we even begin to start to thank You for our
Lord Jesus Christ? But with what tongues that You've
given us and the hearts that You've given us, Father, we thank
You. And oh, how we pray that You'd show us Your glory, show
us the glory, the redemptive glory of Christ our Savior. And Father, cause us to believe
Him, to cling to Him, to rest in Him, to find our all in in
him. Father, I pray you bless your
words that's been preached to your glory and to the hearts
and the good of your people here to hear it. Father, it's in Christ's
name, for his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.