All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn back to Joshua chapter three. Joshua three. Nation of Israel has been led
to the edge of the Jordan. Instruction has been given by
the officers. When you see the ark of the covenant
of the Lord your God and the priest of the Levites bearing
it, then you shall remove from your place Go after it. Now, we just finished in that
first message, looking at the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord
our God, the lower portion. Now, I want us to consider, in
this second message, the upper part, the top of that Ark. It was an Ark made of wood, covered
in gold, within and without. But on the top of that ark, turn
with me to Exodus 25, verse 17. Exodus 25, verse 17, 21. Exodus
25. God's gonna tell us how that
mercy seat, the top. I can tell you this, you can
look, Exodus 37, verse six and seven, said this mercy seat's
made out of one piece of gold. Whole thing. Formed out of one
piece of gold. Exodus 37, but in Exodus 25,
this is what scripture says, the way that it's gonna be made.
Exodus 25, 25 verse 17. Thou shalt make a mercy seat
of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be
the length thereof, a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. Thou
shalt make two cherubims of gold of beaten work. Shalt thou make
them in the two ends of the mercy seat. And one cherub on one end
and the other cherub on the other end, even of the mercy seat,
shall you make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch
forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings,
and their faces shall look one to another toward the mercy seat,
shall the faces of the cherubims be. Thou shalt put the mercy
seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the
testimony that I will give thee." And we considered what was put
in it. All right, here's what the Lord
told Moses to do. You make this top. You make the
top, and it's gonna be out of one piece of gold, It's going
to have two cherubims and they're going to have their wings and
they're going to be stretched up on high and they're going
to cover the mercy seat. And these cherubims are going
to be looking one to the other. And the scripture says in Exodus
25 verse 22, and there I will meet with thee. I will commune
with thee above the mercy seat from between the two cherubims,
which are upon the ark of the testimony of all things, which
I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. Now, these cherubims, we're going
to look at, I want to look at, I'm going to look at what scripture
has to say, but I mentioned this in the first message in Romans
3 25 that our Lord was set forth to be a propitiation. And I looked that word up and
I can tell you what it means. You look at propitiation, it
is mercy seat, mercy seat to be a propitiation. God has set
forth Christ to be a mercy seat through faith in his blood. Mercy
seat. So this mercy seat sat on top
of that box. Now the mercy seat and the ark,
the bottom part of it, could only be seen. I mentioned this
last message. Turn with me to Leviticus chapter
16. Leviticus 16. It could be seen,
it could be viewed one one day in the year and by the high priest
only. Leviticus chapter 16 verse 7
to 10. Now this is what the scripture
sets forth was going to happen. Leviticus 16 verse 7. Talking about Aaron the high
priest, he shall take the two goats present them before the
Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron
shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord,
the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering,
but the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall
be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement with
him and let him go for a scapegoat into the Now, scripture sets
forth concerning this mercy seat. It was a mercy, it was an actual
box, and it was an actual golden lid that was sitting on it, and
it had these cherubims on it, and this is what would happen.
In Leviticus 16, verse 15, and he shall kill the goat of the
sin offering, that is, for the people, and bring his blood within
the veil. He'd come inside that goat, He
had the holy place on the outside, and that's where the showbread
was, and golden laver, and the candlestick, and there was a
veil. And on the other side of that
veil, that's where this box was, this Ark of the Covenant of the
Lord. And that mercy seat, he shall bring his blood within
the veil, and do with the blood as he did with the blood of the
bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the
mercy seat. And he shall make an atonement
for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children
of Israel, and because of their transgressions, all their sins,
so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation that remaineth
among them in the midst of their uncleanness. And there shall
no man, there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation
when he go within to make an atonement in the holy place until
he come out and have made an atonement for himself, for his
household, for all the congregation of Israel. He shall go out under
the altar that is before the Lord and make an atonement for
it, shall take of the blood of the bullock the blood of the
goat and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. He
shall sprinkle the blood upon it with his finger seven times
and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children
of Israel. And when he hath made an end
of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation
and the altar, he shall bring the live goat and Aaron shall
lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel. and all
their transgressions and all their sins putting them upon
the head of the goat shall send him away by the hand of a fit
man into the wilderness. Now here's what happened. On
the day of atonement, two goats were brought to Aaron. Lots were
cast. One of them was gonna die. One
of them was gonna be a scapegoat. The one that was gonna die was
killed on the brazen altar. His blood was taken and Aaron
the high priest would go in behind the veil and sprinkle that blood
on the mercy seat. Blood that was shed symbolizing
the price that must be paid for the sins of the people. Price
was paid by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people.
He is our propitiation. He is our mercy seat. And that
blood was spread on that mercy seat before God, saying this
is the payment. Wages of sin is death. The soul
that sinned is gonna die. And Christ bore the guilt of
all his people. And then Aaron would take his
hands and he'd put his hands on top of the scapegoat. And
he confessed all the sins. What did I just read? All the
sins of the children of Israel. What does that mean? That means
that all the sins of the children of Assyria and all the sins of
the children of the Hittites and Perizzites and the Hittites
were not confessed symbolically upon that scapegoat, setting
forth that all the sins that were born by the Lord Jesus Christ
were born for the people of Israel, true Israel, God's Israel, God's
elect. That's what it means. He died
for the people that God had given him. He did not die for everybody. He died for his people. He said
that. He said it. And that scapegoat
was carried away by a fit man into the wilderness. Where are
the sins of God? I don't know. They're put away. I don't know. They're not there.
They're not there behind his back in the depths of the sea. They're just not there. There's
no record, they're justified by the grace of God. Well, after
that sacrifice was given, now we see the picture. Christ is
our propitiation. Now the construction, I want
to talk about the construction. God said, you make it like this,
you put these two cherubim. Now let's talk about these cherubim
for a minute. It's amazing to me how many times we find the
cherubim being spoken of in the Holy Scriptures. Turn to Genesis
chapter 3. First time it's ever mentioned
anything about a cherubim. Genesis chapter 3, verse 22 to
24. Whenever Adam and Eve sinned
against God, God put them out of the garden. Genesis 3, 22
and 24. After they'd sinned, they tried
to cover their nakedness with fig leaves. God killed an animal,
covered them with skins of goats, And then the scripture says in
Genesis 3, 22, and the Lord God said, behold, the man has become
as one of us to no good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his
hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent
him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from
which he was taken. So he drove out the man and placed
at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims and a flaming
sword. which turned every way to keep
the way of the tree of life. Now, this is what I know so far
about cherubim. God put them at the east of the
garden with a flaming sword to keep the way to the tree of life. That's all I know about them
so far. I'm gonna do one of these clean slate things. This is all
we know about them. Now, here's the next thing I
know about them. Excuse me, turn to 1 Kings chapter six, 1 Kings. Chapter 6, 1 Kings 6, whenever
Solomon was building the temple, Solomon's temple, it's a glorious
temple. 1 Kings 6, and here's what verses
23 to 30 says concerning these cherubims. 1 Kings 6, verse 23,
and within the oracle, He made two cherubims of olive tree,
each 10 cubits high, and five cubits was the one wing of the
cherubim, and five cubits the other wing of the cherubim from
the uttermost part of one wing to the uttermost part of the
others were 10 cubits, about 18 feet, and other cherub was
10 cubits. Both the cherubims were of one
measure, one size. The height of the one cherub
was 10 cubits, and so was of the other cherub, and he set
the cherubims within the inner house, and they stretched forth
the wings of the cherubims so that the wing of one touched
one wall and the wing of the other cherub touched the other
wall, and their wings touched one another in the midst of it.
And he overlaid the cherubims with gold and carved all the
walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims. palm trees and open flowers within
and without, and the floor of the house was overlaid with gold
within and without. Now here's what I know about
cherubim so far. They were at the east side of the Garden of
Eden, keeping the way. When Solomon built his temple,
these were cherubims, and they had wings. That's what I know
about them. They had wings, and they were
carved, they were carved on the walls, and there was a big cherubim
in the whole thing, and this whole thing, like 18, 18 feet
wide and their wings touched. And this, that's how much I know
about so far about these cherubims in the prophecy of Ezekiel, Ezekiel
chapter one, turn to Ezekiel one, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Ezekiel chapter one, Ezekiel one, verse one to 11. It came to pass in the 13th year,
fourth month, fifth day of the month, I was among the captives
by the river of Kibar and that the heavens were open and I saw
visions of God. In the fifth day of the month,
which was fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, the word
of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel, the priest, the son
of Buzi. in the land of the Chaldeans
by the river Kebar, and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.
And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great
cloud of fire enfolding itself, and brightness was about it,
and out of the midst thereof was the color of amber, and out
of the midst of the fire, also out of the midst thereof came
the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance.
They had the likeness of a man, and every one had four faces. Every one of them had four wings,
and their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet
was like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like
the color of burnished brass. They had the hands of a man under
their wings on their four sides, and their forehead, their faces,
and their wings, and their wings would join one to another, and
they'd turn naught when they went, They went every one straight
forward. As for the likeness of their
faces, their faces had the face of a man, the face of a lion
on the right side, their forehead, the face of an ox on the left,
and the forehead, the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces
and their wings were stretched upward. Two wings of every one
were joined one to another. Two covered their bodies. Here's what happened. Ezekiel
said he was by this river, Kedar. And he said, and I saw visions
of God. The hand of the Lord was on him.
He says, I saw this and it was a vision. It was like fire unfolding. And there were these living creatures. It came four, verse five, out
of the midst thereof likened to four living creatures. And
he said they had wings and all of them had a, they had faces. They had four faces. Each one of them had the face
of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face
of an eagle. And that same illustration was
given in Revelation. Turn to Revelation 4. Revelation
4. John, on the Isle of Patmos,
he saw this too. Revelation chapter 4, verse 6
to 8. Here was John writing. John's vision. God's throne.
John 4, Revelation 4, I mean. Around about the throne, he gets
a vision of the throne of God. Around about the throne were
four and twenty seats, and upon the seat, now these four and
twenty seats, I'll just tell you this, and this is a picture
of the entire redeemed and exalted and glorified church. He's seeing
a picture, the four and twenty oaths. It said, round about the
throne were four and 20 seats, and upon the seats I saw four
and 20 elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had
on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded
lightnings and thunders and voices, and there were seven lamps of
fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of
God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like a crystal. In the midst of the throne, round
about the throne, were four beasts, full of eyes before and behind,
and the first beast was like a lion, second beast like a calf,
third beast had the face of a man, fourth beast was like a flying
eagle, and the four beasts had each of them six wings about
them, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day
and night, saying, holy, holy, holy, God, Lord God Almighty,
which was and is and is to come. Isaiah saw in David, king Uzziah
died. I saw the Lord. So these beasts,
these living creatures, and they've got wings, and they've got faces,
and concerning the meaning of this, I'm trying, I hope I'm
not being confusing, but the meaning of this, I'm just telling
you what the scripture says about it. I'm looking at them, I see
what the scripture says, that they look like, but back in Ezekiel,
Chapter 10, Ezekiel 10. Okay, Ezekiel saw, John saw,
Isaiah saw. Ezekiel chapter 10, verse 114. Then I looked and behold in the
firmament that was above the head of the cherubims. There
appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance
of the likeness of a throne. And he spake unto the man clothed
with linen, and said, go in between the wheels, even under the cherub,
fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims,
and scatter them over the city. And he went in my sight, and
the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, and when the
man went in, and the cloud filled with the inner court, and the
glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the
threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud,
The court was filled with the brightness of the Lord's glory,
and the sound of the cherubim's wings were heard even to the
outer court. In scripture, in verse 10, and
as for their appearance, they four had one likeness, as if
a wheel had been in the midst. And when they went, they went
upon their four sides, and they turned not as they went. But
to the place where their head looked, they followed it, and
they turned not as they went, and the whole body, their backs,
their hands, their wings, the wheels, and full of eyes, round
about, even the wheels that the four had. And scripture sets
forth that these chariots They, here they are, they see
them again and again and again. They're always described to the
same. And then Ezekiel said this, he concluded under the spirit
of God, verse 15 of Ezekiel 10. He said, the cherubims were lifted
up. And this is what he said, this
is the living creature that I saw by the river Kibar. So he's seeing these creatures. They're described. as they are
with the faces, those faces, those wings. They're always set
forth as being these glorious living things. But the one thing
about them is that this is where the Lord said, on that mercy
seat, you build that mercy seat, and on each end of that mercy
seat, there's gonna be a cherub, and their wings are gonna come
over. They saw them, they saw them. They had wings. He saw him. Ezekiel said, I saw
him. He said, that's the living creatures. I saw at Kibar. John
saw him. He said, I saw him. They were
cherubs. Isaiah, all of them. And they said this, this is what,
this is the point that I want to make. God said, I will meet
with you. I will commune with you above
the cherubs. No other place. Now let me just
ask you this before I go any farther, and I'll try to be brief.
Where, how, with whom must we meet with God? There's one mediator between
God and men, and it is the man, Christ Jesus. So I'm going to
tell you based upon what I know, The only place that God's gonna
meet, build this mercy seat. You build this propitiation.
God has set forth Christ to be a propitiation, a mercy seat
for his people. He's gonna meet. But what about
those faces? What about that? What about those
wings? What's set forth? Well, face
of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, the face of
an eagle. Knowing that this mercy seat
would be where God's going to meet his people, I know this,
those cherubs, and every time they were seen, they always had
those faces, every time. Face of man, ox, eagle, lion. The face of a man. Here we consider
our Lord's condescension. John 1 14, and the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. the glory
as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, the
Lord Jesus Christ in human flesh, he himself enthroned in flesh,
that we might have a fit mediator, one made like unto ourselves,
yet without sin. He himself, God made him Sin
and as a man he died as our Redeemer so that cherubim had the face
of a man, but it also had the face of a lion and Revelation
5 5 I'll just tell you this is where here it speaks Christ as
being the lion of the tree of the tribe of Judah the mighty
God able Savior strong Redeemer Avenger of his people So here
is a cherubim, he's got the face of a man, a picture of Christ.
Face of a lion, picture of Christ. He has the face of a calf, and
here we behold Him who is God's sacrifice, the Lamb of God Himself,
God's fit sacrifice. God the Father in electing grace,
chose a people in Him who would provide Himself as a sacrifice,
this living creature that Ezekiel saw, and John saw, and Isaiah
saw, and was placed over in the, hear that? It's a cherubim with
a face of a calf, we see. And then there were the last
one, the face of an eagle. Turn to Exodus 19, face of an eagle. Now here we behold our Lord.
Exodus 19, we behold our Lord, who is our great deliverer from
the bondage of sin. Exodus chapter 19, three and
four, Exodus 19, three, and Moses went up unto God, and God called
unto him out of the mountain, saying, thus shalt thou say to
the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, ye have
seen what I did unto the Egyptians, how I bear you on eagles' wings
and brought you unto myself." Deuteronomy 32. Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32, verse 9. Deuteronomy 32, 9. For the Lord's
portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his heritage. He found him in a desert land,
in the waste, howling wilderness. He led him about, he instructed
him, he kept him as the apple of his eyes, as an eagle. stirreth
up her nest, fluttering over her young, spreading abroad her
wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings. So the Lord did
lead him, and there was no strange God with him. Can you see the
beautiful picture? Here's these cherubim. All four
of them, they had these faces, these living creatures. They
all had to face, all of them had to face, face of a man, face
of a lion, face of an ox. face of an eagle. And the Lord
said, I'm the one, I found you in the wilderness. I bore you
as an eagle under the covering of my wings. And the Lord said,
when you make that mercy seat, this is how I want you to make
it. You make them as cherubims. These ones that God was pleased
to reveal in scripture. This is what they look like.
These that set forth. You spread those wings over and
the scripture sets forth. He said, I'm gonna meet you.
I'll meet with you right there. So back in Deuteronomy, Joshua,
back in Joshua chapter three, I'm gonna wrap this up and show
you what I believe they set forth. Joshua chapter three, this is
what Joshua told those officers. 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, Levi's bearing it, and
you shall remove from your place and you go after it. Oh, what greater encouragement
could we have? These glorious cherubim set forth,
and let me tell you what I truly believe, that these cherubim
set forth. Now, they are living creatures.
They're creatures. But being what they are, These
creatures set forth. Now, you know, I've always said,
in this world, we've seen types and pictures in this world. You know that the brazen serpent,
when Moses made that brazen serpent and he put it up on a pole, what
did the Lord say about that brazen serpent? He said, as the serpent
was lifted in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up Okay, that brazen serpent was an earthly picture and type
of the glory of our Lord as he was made sin. The serpents were
biting him. They made a snake out of brass.
You look at him who was made sin. That rock that was smitten
by Moses, what was that picture? Scripture says that was Christ.
Christ was the ark in which Noah was delivered from the flood.
That was a picture of Christ Jesus, the ark in whom Noah,
being a picture of God's elect, was delivered from the wrath
of God. Picture type after type after type. These glorious living
creatures are heavenly types. They're types that were visible. God showed them they were heavenly
types. There were four of them. You'd
see them, these cherubim, they had cherubim, I say four faces,
they had four faces. And I wrote this down, the Lord
Jesus, God himself in human flesh, because he betrothed himself
to be his bride eternally, made like unto his brethren, he redeemed
us from the curse of the law. And these glorious cherubim,
we consider these cherubim, they set forth in type, in picture,
the glorious person of our Lord in his covenant engagement to
redeem his people from sin, from the curse of the law. They're
glorious creatures, they're types. I can show you in the book of
Revelation when they stood around. Let me, I'll do that now. I'll
try to wrap it up. And I'm going from memory here. I hope my memory serves me correctly.
Genesis chapter I'm going to say five. Revelation, I don't know what
I said. Revelation. And he said, he came in verse
seven, Revelation five, seven. He came and took the book out
of the hand of him that sat on the throne. When he had taken
the book, the four beasts, now these four beasts right here,
that's what Ezekiel was talking about. I saw these four living
creatures, these four beasts, these four beasts. Four twenty
elders fell down before the Lamb. Every one of them having golden
harps, vows, full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints.
Now these four beasts, they're with the four and twenty elders.
But they are pictures. They're bowing down to the Lord.
They're types. They're heavenly, glorious types
of our Lord setting forth symbolically His mediatorial work. in the
redemption of his people. What did it take? It took Christ,
the lamb, the lion of the tribe of Judah, who bears his people
as eagles' wings, the ox who sacrificed himself. These beautiful
cherubims, all of them were set forth, and you set forth these,
the scripture says, on this mercy seat. Back in Joshua 3, all right,
I'm almost done. Verse four, and there shall be
a space between you, about 2,000 cubits by measure. Come not near
into it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for
you've not passed this way before. Now, here they are. That ark's
gonna start moving. And Joshua told those officers,
you tell the people, and then when you see it, you go after
it. But he says in verse four, he
said, you make sure there's a space between you and that ark and
those priests. About 2,000 cupids, I read where
one of them said it was approximately close to maybe a half a mile. You maintain a reverential distance,
regard for that arc, that token set forth, God's presence. You know, we are commanded, we
can, with boldness, approach unto the Lord in the holiest,
by the blood of Christ, but our approach unto him is to be rendered
with respect. When you talk to him, I've told
people this before. You can, if you want to tell
me, I'd rather somebody tell me the filthiest joke you've
ever heard in your life than to start off something that says,
well, there was this man, he went up to heaven and St. Peter
said, don't even, don't, don't tell me. Don't tell me. Don't
tell me. Moses, I mean, Joshua told me,
he said, when you move, You make sure that there's a space between
you and that ark, about 2,000. Whenever Moses stood before the
burning bush, what did God tell him? He said, you draw not nigh
hither. You put off thy shoes, off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Psalm
33.8, let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants
of the earth stand in awe of him, man by nature. is irreverent. He's irreverent
when it comes to the things of God. Habakkuk 2.20, but the Lord
is in His holy temple that all the earth keeps silence before
Him. He said, you let there be a space
between you and that ark because you never passed this way before. What it means is you've never
been led this way before. It was a cloud. It was a cloud
that led them. When the cloud move, they move.
That's according to Romans 9.21. When the clouds stopped, they
stopped. He said, now you keep a distance between this. You've
never been led like this before, but this is the way you're gonna
be led from now on. And then verse five back in Joshua. And Joshua said unto the people,
sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among
you. You sanctify yourself. You know,
I read that, and I thought, I'm gonna just read James 4 to you.
You know, how do you sanctify, set yourself apart? Set yourself,
make yourself, you know, set apart. Here's what James says
concerning this thought, and this is what we ought to keep
in mind. James 4, 8 to 10. Draw nigh to
God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you
sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted
and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to heaven. to heaviness, humble yourself
in the sight of the Lord. He will lift you up. You know,
to think about sanctifying ourselves, before you come to these services,
ask the Lord, Lord, would you speak to me? Lord, would you
say something to me? Humble yourself before him. Lord,
I'm not worthy to hear your word. Thank you for allowing me. And
when we're here, let's think on him. Let's reverence him.
And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, You take up the ark of
the covenant and pass over before the Lord. And they took up the
ark of the covenant and went before the people. You know,
this last verse, it's so beautiful. Even the very words, the priest,
it was the priest, the Levites. They were the ones that were
to bear the ark over. That ark, the bottom part, picture
of Christ. Picture of Christ. The staves,
picture of Christ. Those carrying the ark, picture
of Christ. You know what I say in ending?
Salvations of the Lord. The Lord. I pray God bless this