I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Joshua, chapter three.
Joshua three. As I was going through this passage,
I'd like to look in this first service, Joshua three, verses
one to three, and then Joshua three, verses three to six. And there's something that's
in common with these two messages. And it's verse three. If you
notice, I said one to three in the first one, and then three
to six in the second one. There's something in the third
verse that I want us to consider in these two passages, and I'm
gonna try to tell you what I'm gonna try to do. in the third
verse of Joshua 3, and they commanded the people, saying, When you
see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priest,
the Levites, bearing it, and you shall remove from your place
and go after it. Now, that statement, that truth, just really bore to my heart
the importance of us looking in these two messages at the
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God. And I want to, in this
first message, my focus is going to be on the Ark of the Covenant,
but the lower part, of the ark that was there carried by the
priest in the wilderness. I say the lower part, I'm talking
about the actual box. When you look at ark, it means
the chest. And there was something about that. I want to look at
the lower part. And then in the second message, I want to look
at the upper part, which was the mercy seat that sat on it. At first, I tried to see if I
could put all this in one message, and I thought, no, no, that's
gonna be a little bit more. So I want us to look at this,
at this art. Now, first verse, the Lord, by
the Spirit of God, the Lord moved Moses to write, and Joshua rose
early in the morning, and they removed from Shittim, came to
Jordan. He and all the children of Israel
enlarged there, before they passed over. Now, the spies, a lot has
taken place, and we've been looking at this. A lot's taken place,
but just in a very short period of time. The spies have returned
from being in Jericho, meeting with Rahab. Joshua has obviously
slept, mused upon what not only what the spies have related,
but what the Lord told him in Joshua 1, 2. In Joshua 1, 2,
it says, Arise and go over this Jordan, thou and all this people,
unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children
of Israel. So Joshua got up early in the
morning. This was his heart. He wanted
to get up. The Lord had instructed him,
and the business of God was his Desire. Oh, may we just learn
something here. The Lord instructed him on what he was to do. He told
him, he said, you're going over Jordan. Sent some spies over
there to search out the land, find out what's going on. And
he gets up the next morning. Matthew 6, 33 says, seek you
first. the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these
things shall be added unto you. Now, verse 2 says, they removed
from Shittim. And verse 2 says, and it came
to pass after three days that the officers went through the
host. Now, they've gotten up, they've
removed from Shittim, come to Jordan, and all the people of
Israel are standing there. They've lodged, verse one says,
before they passed over. Why? Because the Lord has not
told them how they're going over. You're going over, but you just
don't know how you're going over. They're gonna walk in the light
that they got. That's all they got. And that's what we do. We walk in the light that the
Lord has given us, how precious is it that the Lord often does
not tell us all things immediately. We don't know. We don't know
why. We're walking by faith. We're
walking in what we know. We're gonna have to trust the
Lord, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will, That's the safe way. Don't presume on things. Wait. So it came to pass, verse
two, that after three days, the officers went through the host
and they commanded the people saying, when you see the ark
of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priest, the Levites
bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after
it. Now here, It appears that the
three days that were spoken of in chapter one, verse 11, three
days, we're going over, we're going over. Now this is, it's
arrived and the people, they're given light, but this, now this
is the light that they have. They're going over, that's what
they knew. And they walked up to the river and they lodged,
that's what they knew. And now they're telling them
to say, okay, now listen, these officers, they're looking for
one thing. This is the only thing they're
watching. When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your
God and the priest, the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove
from your place and you go after it. Now, until that ark moves,
Don't you move. Just wait. The Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord was the visible place of God's presence in the midst
of the people. That's what it was. Psalm 99.1
says this, The Lord reigneth. Let the people tremble. He that
sitteth between the cherubim. This ark, I want to focus on
this because, you know, a lot of times we just, we read things
and we just read them, read over them, and we just miss it. I
want us, I want us to just settle down right here and just muse
on this for a minute. The ark was the perfect symbol
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God Almighty enthroned in human
flesh, and when the people saw the ark and the priest bearing
it, go after it. Now this is what I'm going to
say. There's a beautiful picture here.
I want to know what that ark meant, because when they saw
it move, they were to go after And I know that that arc is a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The officers told him, when it
moves, you go. Think about what we're being
told today. This is relative for us, Matthew 8, 34. And we
had called the people unto him with his disciples also. He said
unto them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me. Now, I want to know something
about that. Demons know who Jesus is. Jesus,
that's right, yeah, that's right there. Let me tell you something. Whenever you refer to our Lord,
don't call him by that name, Jesus. The Spirit of God refers
to him that way in the scriptures. But when we refer to him, he
is the Lord, Jesus Christ. Speak with some respect. This is a picture of our precious
Savior, our Lord and our God. And the one that we're following
after I don't want somebody in this world to tell me, somebody
that doesn't know him, standing in a pulpit and telling me who
the world thinks he is. Don't tell me about him who hung
on the cross and died, you know, he just died for the sins of
the whole world and everybody's sins are paid for and it's up
to you. Don't tell me that. because you're
a thief and a robber. I want you to tell me who God
is. I want you to tell me who this, who's being pictured in
this arc right here. Because the scripture is saying
you go after it. You go after it. I want to know
what this arc set forth. Now I want us to consider for
just a few minutes, I want you to take your, I'm gonna turn
to quite a few scriptures. And if you'd like to turn there,
okay, if you want to, write them down, go back. But I want to
prove what I'm saying. This is what I challenge every
man that stands in a pulpit. If you can't show me in the scriptures
what you're talking about, then hush, just be quiet. Because the only thing that matters
is what God has to say. So I wanna know what does God
have to say about this ark that these officers, turn with me
to Exodus 25. 25, Exodus 25. I'd like to read verses 10 to
15. Exodus 25, 10 to 15. And they shall make an ark of shittum
wood, two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a
cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half
the height thereof. Thou shalt overlay it with pure
gold. Within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make
upon it a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt cast four
rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof. Two rings shall be in one side
of it, and two rings in the other side of it. And thou shalt make
staves of shittum wood, and overlay them with gold. Thou shalt put
the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark that the
ark may be born with them. The staves shall be in the rings
of the ark. They shall not be taken from
it. Now, this is the way this ark
was gonna be made. Get them wood, I found out, which
is acacia, acacia wood. And I found out it's very, very
dense. Dense, dense, dense. Much denser
than the hardest of woods that we consider oak. It's just much
denser. It was highly resistant to corruption. But this wood, this box, this
art, this chest, it was made out of shitum wood. And that
wood, that type wood, was a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. the eternal, sinless, incorruptible. A picture, it was a picture of
him. Sinless, incorruptible in his conception, he was conceived
of the Holy Ghost. Sinless in his life and character,
the Father gave this word to him. This is my beloved son,
whom I'm well pleased. You hear him, you hear him. This
was a wood, it was a type of our Lord's humanity. But the
scripture declares, and what I just read, it was covered within
and without with pure gold. There a beautiful picture of
our Lord's deity. Two materials, wood, gold, in
beautiful harmony, setting forth picturing the indivisible personality
of our Lord. He is God Almighty, totally God,
totally God, totally God. Never, he was not half God, half
man. He was totally God and totally
man, perfect man, perfect. And the scripture declares in
Exodus 25, I'm gonna read again where it says in verse 11. Thou
shalt overlay it with pure gold within and without, and shalt
make upon it a crown of gold round about it. Now you got a
box. It's made out of wood. It's covered
with gold without and within all the way around. And it's
got a crown of gold. It was a rim that went around
the top of it, in that rim. It sets the mercy seat, but it's
got this rim. It's called a crown. That crown
means a circlet or a border of gold. And that crown, which was
set upon the top of the ark, set forth, beautifully set forth
the kingship of our Lord. He is the king. He's the king
of kings, the Lord of lords. The spirit of God moved the rider
in Matthew 2, 1, to declare him, Matthew 2, 1 and 2, declare him
who is the king. The scripture says, Matthew 2,
1 and 2, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the
days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the
east of Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born king of the
Jews? For we've seen his star in the
east and are come to worship him. So the Spirit of God declared
who he is. The Spirit of God moved upon
the writer John 12 to set forth him who is king as he rode into
Jerusalem. John chapter 12. John 12 verses
12 to 13. The next day much people were come
the feast, and when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him and cried,
Hosanna, blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the
name of the Lord. Who penned that? One of the apostles,
one of the writers. Who instructed him to say that?
The Spirit of God. The Spirit of God said, He's
the King. He is the King. The Spirit of God moved Pilate
in John 19. He moved Pilate when the Lord
stood before Pilate, ordained of God to stand there to be condemned,
falsely accused and condemned, but it was the will of God. In
John 19, verse 14, verse 1914, Pilate is standing there and
Pilate speaks these words. He was in the preparation of
the Passover about six hours. He saith unto the Jews, behold
your king. Did he believe that? I don't
know, I doubt it. Did the spirit of God tell him
to say it? Yes, sir. And that's what he
said. You behold your king. He even
instructed when the Lord was going to be crucified upon that
cross, he made a placard and he wrote on these, Jesus of Nazareth,
the king of the Jews. The Spirit of God moved upon
him. Turn to Revelation 19. Revelation
chapter 19, verses 11 to 16. Revelation 19. Here's the king
of kings and the Lord of lords who came the first time in humble
submission to be the redeemer of his people, sent by his father.
He's coming back, I'm telling you. He came the first time.
In humiliation, he suffered, he was accused, he was lied on,
he was spit on, but he came to humble himself and die for the
sins of his people. That's what he said. John 10,
I lay down my life for the sheep. He told those Pharisees that
mocked him and said, why are you telling us all this? Why
don't you tell us the truth? He said, I told you the truth.
You're not my sheep. You believe not because you're
not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. Let me tell you who's
coming back. Revelation 19, 11. The scripture
says, and I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse, and
he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness
he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that
no man knew but himself. He was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And
the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth
goeth a sharp sword, and with it he should smite the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. He treadeth the winepress
in the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, And he hath on
his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings
and Lord of lords. Now, I'm gonna tell you something.
Whenever the Lord told Moses, he said, this is the way I want
you to build this ark. You build it out of sheddum wood,
and you cover it on the outside, you cover it on the inside, and
you put a crown around it. Why? Because he's the king. And
then scripture also sets forth that this ark back in Exodus
where I read, it had four rings of gold, one of them on each
corner of this ark. And there were two staves, it
was two sticks, it was two rods, it was two, this is what those
priests were gonna carry it on. They were gonna carry that thing.
And that rod was made out of shittum wood, that's what we
just read, it was overlaid with gold. That rod, that stave was
a picture. of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you happen to be back in Exodus 25, you can look at this, but
I can tell you this. It's Exodus 25 and verse 15. Let me tell you something. I
thought this was very, very interesting. The staves, Exodus 25, 15, shall
be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from
it. You put those staves, it's made
out of shidom wood, just like the ark, covered, overlaid with
gold, just like the ark. Those staves were a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that that ark symbolized,
Christ. Everything that those staves
symbolized, Christ. He said, you put those in that,
those rings, and don't you ever take them out. Why? There's never
a separation of the unity Him who is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. Don't you take those staves out
of there. You put them in there, you leave them there. They stay
right there. God is one God. There's nothing
of Him that's ever separated. And in that ark, turn over to
Hebrews 9. In that ark, it was found some
things. Three things. Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews chapter nine, verses
one to four. Now here's what was in it. Then
verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service
and a worldly sanctuary. There was a tabernacle made.
The first wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, here
was the tabernacle. I remember we talked about this.
I've kind of figured out the dimensions. How big was that
tabernacle in the wilderness? And I figured it out, it was
about from that wall to about this right side, right here,
these things. And it went just about to the
last pew where Gene and Doris is sitting. It was about that
big. That was the overall. But just this side of it, come
up here, there's a veil that went, it was within that tabernacle. And behind that veil, there was
one thing back there. One, one thing. The Ark of the Covenant. That
was there, and one time a year, that ark could be seen. One day a year, and only by the
high priest. Before I get to it, I'm getting
ahead of myself. All right, Hebrews chapter nine, here's what was
in it. Verse three, after the veil, the tabernacle should be
called the holiest. It had the golden censer of the
ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold. wherein
was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded,
and the tables of the covenant. Here's what was inside. It had
a golden pot, it had some manna in it, and it had the rod of
Aaron, that staff that he had. His staff was in it, that staff
that budded, and the tables of that had been given to Moses
when Moses went out. First set, he broke them, remember
that? Came down from the mountain,
they were worshiping that golden calf, he threw them, broke them. Went back up there, God told
him, he said, you make two more tables just like the first two
I gave you. He did, and God rode him again,
and he took those tables right there that were in that ark.
Now that manna, here's what it had in there. It had a golden
pot, it had a golden pot. Exodus chapter 16, turn back
there. Exodus 16. There was a golden
pot and it had some manna that was in it. Now this is what's
in there. Exodus 16, verse 11 to 15. And the Lord spake unto Moses
saying, I've heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak
unto them saying, and even You shall eat flesh, and in the morning
you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am
the Lord your God. And it came to pass that at the
evening the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the
morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that
lay was gone, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there
lay a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, it is manna. Or my margin says,
what is it? Or it is a portion. It is manna,
for they wist not what it was. And Moses said to them, this
is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. So found in that box, in that
ark, that lower portion, was manna, but that manna was more
than just the temporal, which it did feed the people in the
wilderness, but it was more, it meant more than the temporal
sustaining of the people in the wilderness. It spoke of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is declared to be, turn to John 6, declared
to be the bread upon which his people, his people, he who is
The bread of life. Lord willing, we're gonna have
the Lord's Supper after this second service right here. We're
gonna remember him. We're gonna remember the way
he said that we remember him. He is the bread upon whom the
people of God feast. The bread of heaven. John 6,
48 to 51. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness. and are dead. This is the bread
which cometh down from heaven that no man may eat thereof and
not die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat this bread, he
shall live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh,
which I will give for the life of the world. So let me tell
you what this bread means. That manna that was in there,
that manna set forth the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
was made flesh. In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. He came into this world made
flesh that he might die. God can't die, but man can die. And God Almighty, the God-man
mediator, died. That is a miracle that I can't
even comprehend. He who is God, he who is man,
totally God, totally man, and he died. Acts, in the book of
Acts, it declares that we were redeemed by the blood of God. So in that arc, here's a golden
pot that sets forth His deity in that pot was manna, that manna
that was in the wilderness, that manna that if they left it for
the second day bare, it corrupted, they couldn't do it. You had
to get it every morning, except on one day, the Lord would allow
it to be two days, on the day of rest, it would last two days. But every other day, you tried
to hold it over and say, well, give me a little bit in the morning,
just save a little bit for in the morning. Uh-uh, no, you're not, it's gonna
corrupt, worms gonna be in it. That man has set forth his perfect
humanity in that golden pot, perfect deity. And then there
was another thing found in there. You can turn over to Numbers
chapter 16, that's where I'm going, Numbers 16. There was the rod of Aaron, the
rod of Aaron that budded. And let me tell you where all
this started. There was an uprising. There
was an uprising. Now, God had chosen Aaron, Aaron,
to be the high priest, Aaron. And there was an uprising found
within the people. And three fellows, 16, 16 verses one to five talks about
an uprising. It says, now Korah, the son of
Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram,
the sons of Eliab. I want you to notice something.
They were of the tribe of Levi. Korah, these guys, okay, look
at it, and I'll start over. Now Korah, the son of Ishar,
the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, they were in the right
family. The sons of Eliab and On, the
son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. They rose up before
Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the
assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. These were men
that were elevated. They were pretty important guys.
They gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron,
and said unto them, You take too much upon you, seeing all
the congregations holy, every one of them, and the Lord is
among them. Wherefore, then, lift up yourselves above the
congregation of the Lord. And when Moses heard it, he fell
on his face, and he spake unto Corin under the company, saying,
Even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his, and who is holy,
and will cause him to come near unto him, even to him whom he
has chosen will he cause to come near to him. What happened? Let me tell you what happened. The Lord had directed, commanded,
the high priest is Aaron. It'll be Aaron and Aaron's sons.
That's what God said. Well, these fellas, you know,
Korah Dathan and Abiram, they said, well, now wait a minute,
wait a minute, whoa, whoa, whoa. I think you're taking just a little
bit too much on yourself. We think that you've kind of
elevated yourself just a bit. We're holy, too. We're of the
people of God, too. We have just as much right to
do what you're doing as you do. This was the issue. For the sake of time, I'll just
go ahead and tell you to read the rest of the chapter, but
I'll tell you what happened. Whenever they decided that they
were going to stand against the man that God had raised up. You
know what happened? God killed him. I'm going to
tell you something with all of the simplicity that I possibly
can. I know, I know. A man by nature,
he's got an air of pride about him and he thinks, I'm just as
good as you are. I can do, I mean, I'm just as
capable. I'm just as qualified as you
are. You're just a sinner saved by
the grace of God. I can do what you can do. Well, all I'm gonna say is this. The Lord places who he will where
he will. when he will, and how he will. And they withstood Moses and
Aaron, and God opened the earth and sent them to hell. I'm telling
you, God Almighty sets forth that he's God. He does. Well, to prove that point, chapter
17, and I'm just gonna, I'm gonna read It's not a long chapter,
chapter 17. I'm gonna read chapter 17, and
this is what God did. Romans, uh-uh, no, number 17,
and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, after he had done sent
these guys to hell, and all their stuff, their families, everything,
he sent them all to hell alive. He killed them. And then in chapter
17 of Numbers, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, you speak
to the children of Israel and take every one of them a rod
according to the house of their fathers. Now we're going to have,
they got, you know, we've been going through the book of Genesis.
Now we've got how, how the Lord has taken all the sons of Jacob.
Now he said, I want you, all of them, you take every one of
them. I want you to take every one.
of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all
their princes according to the house of their fathers, twelve
rods. There's twelve sons of Jacob. They all came from Jacob. They all come from the same daddy. He said, now I want you to take
twelve rods and you write down every man's name on his And thou
shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi. For one rod
shall be for the head of the house of their fathers. And thou
shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the
testimony where I will meet with you. And it shall come to pass
that the man's rod whom I shall choose shall blossom, and I will
make to cease from the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby
they murmur against you. And Moses spake unto the children
of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece,
and each priest, according to the father's houses, even 12
rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses laid
up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of the witness,
and it came to pass that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle
of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi
was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and
yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the
rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel, and
they looked and took every man his rod, and the Lord said unto
Moses, You bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to
be kept for a token. against the rebels, and you shall
quite take away their murmuring from me that they die not. And
Moses did so as the Lord commanded, so did he. And the children of
Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we
are all perished. Whosoever cometh anything near
unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die. Shall we be consumed
with dying? God said, I'm gonna settle this
thing. The one that I've chosen is Aaron.
And here's the beautiful picture. The one he's chosen is the one
whom Aaron is a picture. Aaron's a picture of Christ.
Man elevates himself, and man says, I've just got just as much
ability. I've just got as much right and
power. I can approach God by my own
will. You see the picture here, Brian?
See what I'm saying? This is what man says. I can
do this. You take way too much. I'm telling
you what they're doing. They're talking against God.
They're speaking against God. A man sat around and said, I
got a free will. I'm going to tell you something.
You want to know God's going to settle this issue. He settled
it in the wilderness. It opened up the earth and sent
them all to hell. He said, this is the one I've
chosen. And Aaron, again, is being a
picture and type of Christ. He is the one that blossomed.
He is the fruitful. He's the vine. That's what you
read about, Dick. He said, I'm the vine. You're
the branches. I'm the vine. Without me, you can do nothing.
So in that ark, there was that golden pot filled with manna,
a picture of his deity and his humanity. And then there was
Aaron's rod that blossomed, beautifully blossomed. There's a picture
of the Lord. He is the fruitful vine. He's the one, not us. Shun the
thought. Then lastly, lastly, it was in
that, in that, and I'll, I'm going to end with this right
here. In that ark was found the tables of the covenant at the
tables of that covenant, that, that law that was given to Moses
on Sinai. Not for the means of our righteousness
before God by earning it, but rather that those tables was
to show us something. Turn to Romans 3. I'm wrapping
it up. Romans chapter 3. It was showing us something.
The tables of the law. They set forth the demand of
God. The tables of the law, they did.
They set forth God's demand for righteousness. But let me tell
you what, I'm gonna read this right here. I'm gonna show you
this. It's to show us we can't please God by our works. You
can't please God by your works. Do you realize what, whenever
we talk about, you know, just our doing something for the Lord,
everything we do is filthy. We've never done anything perfectly.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul.
Now let me ask you, who in the world would be foolish enough
to stand there and say, I've done that? You've never done
that. No, look at Romans chapter three, 19. Now we know that what
thing soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty. before God. Now, this is what
the law says. You can't obey me. You can't
obey me. Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
This is the purpose of the law, to show us what God demands,
but to show us you can't keep it. You can't keep that. But
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe. For there's no difference for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. Let me
give you a secret right here. I'm gonna give you a secret.
I'm gonna tell you this right now, and then I'm gonna repeat
this. But you see that word right there, propitiation? Let me tell
you what that word propitiation means. Mercy seat, mercy seat. Lord, I'm gonna try to deal with
that in a minute. But whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Where's boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that man
is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Let me
tell you what that, let me tell you what those tables inside
that ark meant. that was born on the shoulders
of those priests, what it meant was Christ kept it. And there, that ark was a beautiful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose law was in his heart. That's what Psalms 47, eight,
thy law is within my heart. There, that box that pictured
him, that chest, should of wood covered, gold inside, outside.
golden crown around the top of it, and you put it in here, and
this is what, this is what those, those priests were pictures of
Christ. The staves was a picture of Christ. The box, the mercy,
all of it was Christ. And here he is, he bore it all,
he bore it all. And here's all of our hope, and
Joshua sold those offices, he said, now you go through the
host, and you tell the people, when you see the ark of the covenant
of the Lord your God, and the priest, the Levites bearing it,
you go after it. That's where your hope is. I
pray God bless this to our hearts. Let's take a few minutes break
and then we'll look at the next part, okay?