Let's go to Hebrews 9 real quick. We're going to be talking about
the ark. And so I want to show you just one more time here that
this ark pictures Christ. I'm going to say that, but I
want you to see that that's scriptural. Hebrews 9 says in verse 1, the
first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly
sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was the candlestick, the table, the showbread, which
is called the sanctuary. That's that first room, you know,
we went into. And then after the second veil,
or in the holiest of holies, the tabernacle, which is called
the holiest of all, which had the golden censer and the Ark
of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold. Wherein was
the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded.
We'll talk about that later when we get to it, but today we'll
see it had the tables of the covenant in it. over at the cherubims
of glory, shadowing the mercy seat. He said, right now we don't
have time to speak on that. I actually may not have time
to speak on it in my message either. He says, verse six, but
when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the
first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God, but into
the second, went the high priest alone, once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people.
The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit is signifying that the way into
the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as yet that
first tabernacle was yet standing. It was a figure. It was a picture
for the time then present. and which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect, as pertaining to the conscience. But you drop down
to verse 11, he says, but Christ being come a high priest of good
things to come by greater, more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this building, Neither by
the blood of bulls and goats, but by his own blood he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. So that ark we're going to be
looking at now. Let's go to Exodus 25. This ark
was a picture of Christ. Everything about this tabernacle
pictured Christ. And the ark is no exception.
That begins in verse 10. Exodus 25.10, it says, and they
shall make an ark of Shittemwood. Now, this is interesting that
even in the pattern, the order of this pattern, the order in
which God gave it even preaches the gospel to us. He's going
to begin with the ark, which is in the very center of the
tabernacle in the holiest of holies. This is the innermost
central part of that tabernacle. And then as we go through these
chapters, we're going to see, he's going to talk about the
table, he first talks about the ark, then he talks about the
mercy seat, then he's going to talk about the table of showbread,
then the candlestick, then the curtains, then the boards, then
the separating veil, then the brazen altar, then the hangings
of the court. He's going from the inside Little
by little, he's working his way out and showing us about everything
about this tabernacle from the very central part out, that central
place where this ark is, where this mercy seat is. This is where
God's presence was in the midst of the children of Israel, where
his presence was. It pictured where God dwells
in heaven in the holiest of holies is what it pictured. And even
in this order where he starts in the inside and works his way
out, God is showing us the truth of God's sovereign grace. Because
of our sins, we've been cast out. We're on the outside. And
we can't just pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and decide
we're gonna march into God's presence and come into his presence.
God, from his dwelling place, has to come out to us. and save
us and draw us and give us access into his dwelling place. And
so even in the order starting in the center part of this where
God dwells in working out, he's showing us a picture of the gospel
even in that. Now I want to look at this ark.
This ark of the covenant typifies our Lord Jesus Christ and the
propitiation he accomplished for his people and the propitiation
that he himself is. through faith in his blood. And
I'm just going to go little by little here and read a few verses
at a time. Let's begin here. First, we see
Christ's person. We see his two natures. His human
nature is typified in the shittum wood, and his divine nature is
typified in the pure gold. He says in verse 10, thou shalt
make an ark of shittum wood, two cubits and a half shall be
the length thereof, a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and
a cubit and a half the height thereof. about the size of that
table right there. Really, about the size of this
ark was. Maybe not that big, actually.
And it says, and 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. Now this shouldem wood is sort
of comparable to what we have cedar, you know, cedar wood.
It's sort of like that. It never rotted. We looked at
this last week. It typifies our Savior's perfect
human nature, perfect human nature. If Christ would represent his
sinful people we fell in sin, and so if he's going to represent
his people, he's got to be a man. The Son of God had to take flesh. He couldn't be sinful himself. His flesh couldn't be sinful.
If he's going to represent his people under the law and as our
sin bearer, he's got to be sinless. He's got to be holy and spotless,
and he is. He's the holy one. He's the only
man since Adam that started out in this world with no sin. Everybody
else comes forth a sinner from the womb, not our Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the holy man. And then this
pure gold here with his crown, it typifies the gold of his deity
spread over his humanity. King Jesus, this crown here shows
there's some kingship connected, and he's the king. Jesus is Lord. He's the king. And that one,
King Jesus, that man who walked this earth is not just a man.
Muhammad's just a man. Buddha, I don't know what Buddha
is. But anyway, King Jesus is just
a man. I mean, he's not just a man.
He's God. He's holy God. And now, you don't
have to try to figure out this, and this is something God has
to give you faith on. Because scripture says, without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. I can't explain that. I can't
tell you how it could happen. But I'm thankful I can't because
that means I'm not as big as my God. And that's fine with
me. I just believe God's word. God
was made flesh and dwelt among us. See, as eternal God, everything
he accomplished for us as a man is eternal. You see, as a man,
God couldn't die. God couldn't redeem us just as
God. He had to be a man. so he could
suffer and obey under the law because he is saving men. So
he has to be a man. But then at the same time, if
he was just a man, he wouldn't be eternal. So his redemption
wouldn't be eternal. But he is God. Therefore, the
redemption he accomplished for us as a man is eternal redemption. It is eternal salvation. It is
forever. Because he is eternal God. We're thankful for this. Now,
let's go secondly here and let's look here at the work
he accomplished. And he accomplished his work
by himself without any help from the hand of his people. He says
here in verse 12, Thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it,
put them in the four corners thereof. Two rings shall be in
the one side of it, two rings in the other side of it. You
get the picture. At the bottom of the ark was
two rings on one side and on the other side at the bottom
of the ark there was two rings. golden rings. And it says, And
thou shalt make staves of shit and 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 borne with them. The staves shall
be in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken from it. So
these staves were put into those rings and left there all the
time. God wouldn't even allow them to touch the rings by putting
the staves in it. They had to put the staves in
it and leave them there so that they could just pick the staves
up and they didn't touch the ark at all. And he says, verse
16, and thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall
give thee. Now, these two things here combined,
they typify one very important truth. One is the fact that nobody
could touch the ark. That declares something very
important. Two is that within the ark was the law. Now, you
put these two things together, and there's a truth in this that
is very, very important to understand. This ark was to be carried by
these staves because no man could touch the ark. A man touched
it once. A man touched it once, a man
named Uzzah. It says in 2 Samuel 6, 6, when
they came to this particular threshing floor, Uzzah put forth
his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen
shook it. At this point, they had it up
carrying it on some oxen, and Uzzah thought it was going to
fall, and he reached out to just stabilize it. That's all he was
going to do was make sure it didn't fall. And I'm sure he
had the best of intentions. This is the ark of God. He don't
want it hitting the ground. And so he's just trying to stabilize
it. But God said don't touch it. And so what happened? The
anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote
him there for his error, and there he died by the ark of God. Whew. God's serious about not
touching this ark, huh? What does that mean? Well, within
that ark was the testimony. Within that ark was the law of
God. When God, He hasn't even come down out of the mount yet.
Moses is still in the mount, but God's gonna write with His
finger on these tables of stone and bring it down. He's gonna
put it in that ark, and that's where it's gonna be. And it pictures
how Christ had the law of God in His heart. The Lord Jesus
came forth and said, I'd like to do thy will, O God. Thy law
is within my heart. That means He, every day of every
hour, constantly, And he delighted in God's law. It wasn't like
he was having a strain to do it. It was just natural for him
to do God's law, to obey it constantly, all the time, perfectly, because
he was holy. And he was delighted in it. That's
so different from me and you. You and I never obey God's law. We've never done it. We come
forth sinners. Most people don't even know what
God's law says, much less able to even entertain the thought
that they've kept it. But the Scripture tells us plainly,
no man should be justified by the law. By the law is the knowledge
of sin. God gave this law to teach you
and me we're sinners, and he gave it to us to show us something
of how holy Christ is, because Christ kept this law without
any problem. whatsoever. And then when he
got through keeping this law, our Lord Jesus Christ delighted
in the law so much that he went to the cross, now he's representing
his people, made under the law, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. He's buying us
out from under the curse of that law. That law, if you meet God
in that law, that law is going to say to you, condemn him. He's
a sinner. Condemn him. He's got to die.
Cast him out into eternal darkness, into eternal hell. Cast him out. He's got to die. But our Lord
Jesus Christ came and made himself under that law in the flesh of
his people, and he walked obediently, serving God the Father for his
people, giving that law perfect obedience. And then after he
obeyed it all the way throughout his life. Then he goes and has
God take all the sins of all his people and put them on him. See, the law has a positive-negative
side. You not only have to give it
perfect obedience, but if you don't give it perfect obedience,
you got to pay the penalty it demands, too. Well, he gave it
perfect obedience, so then he was fit now to where he could
go and take the place of his people. and be made the sin we
are before God, before his law, so that he could bear the judgment
of God that his people deserve and bear that in place of his
people. And so that's what he did. And so the wrath of God
was poured out on him and he satisfied the justice of God. So the law has been fulfilled
completely by the Lord Jesus. And so Isaiah 42 verse 21 says
this, speaking of Christ, the Lord God Jehovah is well pleased
for Christ's righteousness sake. He has magnified the law and
he's made it God's pleased with His obedience, His obedience,
just His obedience, just Christ's obedience. The Father's pleased
with His Son. And this is what He says about
you and me. If you and I want to try to keep the law and we
want to come to God, we don't want His Son. We're going to
try to come another way. Christ said, I am the way. There's
no way to the Father but by me. Believe on Him and God will be
well pleased with you. But if you try to come your own
way and we try to keep the law and we try to come to God by
the works of our hands, here's what God says, Isaiah 57, 12.
He says, I will declare thy righteousness and thy works. They shall not
profit you. That's God's word. That ought
to put an end to you and me thinking we can come to God some other
way than through faith in his son. God said it will not profit
you. Your works will not profit you.
So, that point of uzzah is this. If you and I try to put our hand
to Christ the ark and try to put our hand to the law that
he's fulfilled perfectly, God's delighted in it. We try to put
our hand to the work, it's going to anger the Lord God, and He's
going to smite you, and you're going to die just like us. We
can't even touch this work. We can't touch Christ. We can't
touch Him. We can't even try to put our
hand to the law. Turn from that and rest in Christ.
Here's what Paul said in Galatians. He said, I do not frustrate the
grace of God. What I'm talking to you about
today is grace. This is what we call grace. By
grace, not based on anything in us, chose his people. By grace,
he sent his son who worked out a righteousness for his people.
By grace, he calls us and teaches us Christ. By grace, he preserves
us. By grace, he brings us into his
presence and accepts us. Grace. Salvation by grace. There's
only two religions in the world. Salvation by works. Salvation
by grace. Cain and Abel. Cain came with
the works of his hands that he had grown, the fruits and vegetables
he had grown, but there was no blood in it. Life's in the blood. Without the shedding of blood,
God said, there's no remission of sin. There's got to be a substitutionary
death in place of his people. He came with no blood. And God
didn't receive him. That's the majority of religion
is that. And I don't care if it goes by
the name Christianity or what it is. It doesn't matter. Every
religion, I'm going to save you a lot of time of trying to dabble
into all these religions, every single one of them gives you
something to do. Every single one of them. including
99.9% of Christianity. But then there's the religion
of grace. Abel came with a lamb, and by
that he said, I deserve what this lamb got. He killed the
lamb and brought the blood and poured it out, and God said,
I receive it. He came through faith in Christ. He came bearing
witness of Christ in that lamb, saying, I must die, and Christ
has died for me, and I'm accepted of God through faith in his blood.
Salvation by works or salvation by grace. Don't put your hand
to the work or you will die. Don't put your hand to Christ
or you'll die. Believe on him and rest. And that's so much
better. Isn't that so much better? This
is the one area in a man's life where they won't take rest over
work. All right. Now, thirdly, we see
the mercy seat, the propitiation. Verse 17. Thou shalt make a mercy
seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be
the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold of beaten work, shalt
thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat. You'll make
one cherub on the one end, the other cherub on the other end.
of the mercy seat shall ye 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. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above upon the ark, And in the ark you shall put the
law, the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet
with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy
seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the
testimony concerning all the things which I give thee in commandment
unto the children of Israel. Now, I'm just going to say this
quickly about these cherubims so I can go on. These cherubims,
also called in scripture, seraphims, they're pictures of God's preachers. They're pictures of his prophets
of old and his apostles in this gospel age. His preachers of
old and his preachers today. And just like these, look to
the mercy seat So his preachers are always looking to Christ,
always speaking to Christ. And that's the picture here.
There's a lot of other pictures in it too, but I'm going to skip
all this since I kept you so early in the first hour. But
I want to show you what they bear witness to. They bear witness
to the mercy seed. They bear witness to Christ,
the propitiation that God has provided. Now, in Romans 3.25,
it says this. Christ is He whom God has set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. That word
propitiation means mercy seat. Christ is the one God has set
forth to be a mercy seat through faith in His blood, through faith
in Christ's blood. Now, the word mercy seat is propitiation. They're the same word. The true
propitiation The true propitiation, the true seat of mercy, that
place where God will be satisfied, where God's justice is satisfied,
that seat of mercy is Christ. That's where God's honor was
vindicated. We injured God's honor by our
sin, but at the mercy seat, in Christ, God's honor's been vindicated.
There, His justice has been satisfied. His law's been upheld. God's
wrath has been appeased toward His people. That's what mercy
seat means. That's what propitiation means. God is satisfied toward
His people. His wrath's been appeased. He'll
receive His people. Atonement's been made. And how
amazing is this? How amazing is this? The God
against whom we sin. is the God who provided the mercy
seat. He provided the place where he
would be satisfied and where he could have communion with
his people. And that mercy seat he provided is his own only begotten
son. Now that's amazing. That's absolutely
amazing. Now on the Day of Atonement,
here's the picture. That high priest by himself He
took the blood of a lamb. This lamb was spotless. Picture
Christ, the spotless lamb of God. This lamb had all the sins
of the people, just the children of Israel, not the world, just
the children of Israel, put on the lamb. Picture Christ being
made sin for his elect. Then that lamb was killed. Picture
Christ dying under the wrath of God for his people. Then the
high priest took the blood. He didn't take the slain body,
he took the blood and he goes into the holiest of holies with
the blood of that lamb. That's a picture of Christ our
high priest entering into God's presence with his own blood. I read that in Hebrews 9. And
he enters in and the high priest takes that blood and he sprinkles
it seven times on that mercy seat. That's a picture of perfection. Seven being the number of perfection
in scripture. Now, when you read the measurements
of that mercy seat, you're going to read that it's the exact same
measurement as the ark. So it sits on that ark and completely
covers it. And you know what's in the ark?
The law. The law. Now in Christ, in that
ark, that law wasn't broken. that tablet wasn't broken. And
it hadn't even got to it. Yet, before Moses gets out of
the mountain, they're going to break the law. They're going
to break it. And Moses is going to throw those
tablets down. It's going to be broken. God's going to bring
it back up. He's going to write the law on it again. And he's
going to say, now you put it in the ark. Don't even go down
with these tablets. Put them in the ark. So there
you have a picture of the law being unbroken by Christ. He
fulfilled it, but it's the law we broke, but it's under that
mercy seat, and that blood is on that mercy seat, covered that
law so that atonement's been made, satisfaction has been made,
justice has been satisfied, and God's pleased. And so that high
priest would come out of that holy place, and when the people
saw him come out of that holy place, they knew God received
the sacrifice, atonement's been made, we're passed over. God's not going to kill us. But
it would only be for a year, because the blood of bulls and
goats can't take away sin. But brethren, here's what Scripture
says about Christ. Go to Hebrews 10, look at verse
12. Now you can read about everything
I'm telling you in Hebrews 8 and 9 and 10. Read the whole Hebrew book if
you want to. It's telling you all about it.
Hebrews 8, 9, and 10 especially. Look at Hebrews 10. It says, Hebrews 10, 12 says, but this
man, Almighty Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for
sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, because by
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Have you ever made anything that's
been perfect? I mean, as far as we call it
being perfect, you know, say you built something, and you
get finished with it. And, you know, as far as we make
things, okay, it's finished, it's perfect. When something's
finished like that, what do you do? Nothing. You don't add anything
to it. It's done. It's finished. What do you think God would think
if you came and tried to add something to what Christ finished? He perfected his people forever. Them that are sanctified. What
does that mean? It means them God set apart in eternity and
gave to Christ and Christ promised to come and redeem. He perfected
them forever. Nothing to do. Nothing to add to it. and perfected
forever. That's what Christ did. He exactly
fulfilled all the law for His people. Just like that mercy
seat exactly covered that law, and that blood covered all over
that mercy seat. Perfect. Christ exactly fulfilled
the law for His people. He exactly fulfilled the law.
He exactly made perfect propitiation to God for His people. He made
satisfaction to God by His blood. through His blood, God says this,
look down at verse 22, Exodus 25, 22. God says, and there I will meet
with thee and I will commune with thee from above the mercy
seat. You want to come to God and you
want to be accepted of God and you want to have communion with
God, fellowship with God. He says it's going to be in Christ
Jesus, the mercy seat, alone. That's it. That's the only way. Only in Christ, the mercy seat,
this mercy seat was made of pure gold. Just like that, all that
ark was made of pure gold. And I'll tell you something.
If you ever find yourself to be a true sinner who can do nothing,
who's facing death, and you know you're going to die. face God
and you can't do anything to make yourself accepted of God.
If you find out that's what kind of sinner you are, Christ Jesus
the mercy seed will be more valuable to you than pure gold. I promise
you. you'll be willing to give up
all your gold and all your silver and whatever else it is that
you put any confidence in in this life and leave it all for
Christ Jesus alone. He'll be that perfect. Go to
1 John 2 verse 1. 1 John 2 verse 1 says this. My little children, these things
I write unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin or win,
you do. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the propitiation for
our sins. He's the mercy seat for our sins. He's the place where, despite
our sins, God will receive us and he'll commune with us in
Christ. And he says, and not for ours
only, talking to Jews, he said, not for ours only, but for the
sins of the whole world. Wherever his people are, wherever
a believer is, anywhere in this world that trusts Christ only,
God says, I'll meet with you in Christ. I'll meet with you
in Christ. Look at 1 John 4, 1 John 4, verse
10. Now herein is love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us. and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. That word propitiation is satisfaction. It's perfect atonement. It's
perfection. Christ accomplished by His one
offering. We saw that. Perfecting forever
His people. That's what God sent Him for.
To be the propitiation for our sins. That tells you who He died
for. Everybody that he died for, he
accomplished that for them. God's not going to pour out justice
on them. If he made atonement for them,
when that high priest come out every year and that atonement
was made, God didn't pour out wrath on the people. He received
them in the blood on the mercy seat. And everybody for whom
Christ died, he's made propitiation. God loved his people and God
sent Christ to be the propitiation for his people when we did not
love him. When we did not love him. And
so he tells you and me, beloved, if God so loved us, there's that
word we saw in the first hour again, if God after this manner
loved us, That's what the word so means. If God after this manner
loved us, we ought also to love one another after the same manner. You mean God's telling me I should
love my brethren even when they don't love me? That's how God
loved you. That's how God still loves you.
We don't nearby love him like we ought to. Sometimes we act
like we don't at all. but he don't ever stop loving
his people. He said, I've loved you with an everlasting love.
I pray, brethren, God will bless that. And we come to the mercy
seat. Christ is the mercy seat. All
right, we're going to observe the Lord's table now.