We are pleased the Lord to bless
us together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn
to the second book of the Chronicles, chapter 5, and we'll read verse
10. The second book of the Chronicles,
chapter 5, and reading verse 10. There was nothing in the
ark, save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb, when
the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel when they
came out of Egypt. This occasion that we read of
together this evening in this fifth chapter of the second book
of the Chronicles is very significant. It sets forth one of the most
wonderful occasions in the history of the world. And the occasion
was when the temple that Solomon had built was complete and the
Ark of the Covenant was brought to be placed in the Holy of Holies. The Ark had been in existence
for a long time. Ever since it was made when the
tabernacle was erected So, quite a few hundred years previously,
and the same ark had travelled around. And now, God had heard
David's desire that there might be a permanent dwelling place.
And that permanent dwelling place had been built by Solomon. It had taken a long time. It
was a most wonderful and a most glorious place. And we read together
that Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of
the tribes, the chief of the fathers and the children of Israel
unto Jerusalem. And the purpose was to bring
up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David,
which is Zion. That was the purpose for all
these people to gather together. And so they brought it up and
they placed it into the holy place. And they removed the slaves. The slaves had been needed. They'd
been left in. Hadn't been taken out all this
time. And now this permanent resting
place for the Ark existed, had been made. And so there was no
need for those staves to carry the ark anymore. And so they
were removed. And the result was then the Lord
came down in that cloud. And we read, it came even to
pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound
to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. And when they lifted
up their voice for the trumpets and cymbals and instruments and
music, Praise the Lord, saying, for he is good, for his mercy
endures forever, that then the house was filled with a cloud,
even the house of the Lord, so that the priest could not stand
to minister by reason of the cloud. for the glory of the Lord
had filled the house of God." Well, what an occasion that was. And the Ark was central. The Ark was always central. The
Ark had always been central. When Moses was instructed with
regards to the Ark, It was rather tabernacle. It was the first
thing that was mentioned, the first thing that was described.
And we read in 25th of Exodus, And they shall make an ark of
shitting 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. It was really quite small. It was just a little more than
a metre long and less than half a metre high and wide. So it
was relatively small. And he was told, 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, and thou
shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four
corners thereof, And two rings shall be in the one side of it,
and two rings in the other side. And thou shalt make staves of
shitting wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put
the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, and the
ark may be born with them. The staves shall be in the rings
of the ark, they shall not be taken from it. And thou shalt
put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. and
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 and so
that's a description that Moses was given with regards to this
wonderful art that was to be positioned first of all in the
tabernacle and now in the temple. We need to understand really
what the picture shows to us. It was the centre of the worship
of ancient Israel. And if it was the centre of worship,
it must have represented something very important. And it did represent
something very important. And that which it represented
was none less than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the wonderful truth
is that as Israel travelled, and after that it went with them
wherever the tabernacle went, The truth was that God was in
the midst of them. God was in the midst. Wonderful
thing. Whenever it came to pass and
it stayed still and the tabernacle was erected, then the Lord came
and dwelt in the most holy place, the holy of holies. And it was
so in the tabernacle, as it was in the temple, You will know
that there was a candlestick in the holy place to light that
place, but there was no candlestick in the most holy place. What
lit the most holy place? The glory of the Lord lit the
most holy place. And we can think of that because
it was light at night, It was light in the day. It was always
light in the holy place. And as we think of the picture
we have there, the Ark of God representing the Lord Jesus Christ,
the truth very simply is this, Jesus in the midst. Now ponder that for many, many
years, centuries, Ancient Israel had to be blessed with living
faith to look forward to the coming of the Messiah. And they had these symbols before
them to encourage them in that belief. But you see, it wasn't
easy to understand. The glory of it was veiled. But
what a wonder it was for those who were blessed with that spiritual
sight to behold the saviour of the world in that form, in that
ark. Now, the ark was in the middle
of the temple and also the tabernacle. And both of those places were
a cube. They were the same width and
breadth and height. They were a square, a cube. And in the centre was the Ark
of God. What did that show to us? It shows us really, because the
Holy of Holies was completely faced in gold. It was a very
beautiful place. And it really gave the picture
of heaven. It really gave the picture of
glory. We can see that in a natural
way, the Lord provided this picture of heaven itself with the ark
in the midst. And that represents to us today,
as we look at the scene in heaven, that perfect place. And you may
remember when John was on the Isle of Patmos, he saw the angel
came and he measured the city. And it was four square, it was
the same height and length and breadth. I think it was 1500
furlongs, or reeds rather. 1500 reeds. It was quite a long
way. It was a large site. And we have
a little description really of glory as we come to the end of
the Word of God and we come in Revelation. Revelation, again
we see John here describing a little of the glory that was to be seen. And towards the end of the 21st
chapter we read this, And the city lieth foursquare, and the
length is as large as the breadth, and he measured the city with
a reed twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal. And then we get a A further description
of it later on in verse 22, And I saw no temple therein, for
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of
God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the
nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it,
and the kings of the earth to bring their glory and honour
into it. And the gates of it shall not
be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there." So
we see the view that the Apostle John had given to him, and we
can acknowledge the similarity in a small version in that which
was before ancient Israel, in the tabernacle and in the temple. So, we have a very special view,
a very special situation. And we know that in glory, what
will be the centre of glory? What will be the centre of heaven?
I think there will be no doubt, the Lord Jesus Christ will be
all the glory. He will be the glory in the midst. He will be the one the Church
of God will bow down to and worship and praise and honour and glorify
throughout eternity. In that time when there is no
time, when there will be no night and it will be all light. Well,
we have that picture before us. And now as we come down to think
perhaps more particularly, there was nothing in the Ark save the
two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb. when the Lord made
a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out
of Egypt. The ark was made of two materials. One was wood and the other was
gold. And the wood was indeed a very
durable wood. It was shittim. And that's a
very durable wood. It's like our acacia today. And
that set forth and the gold set forth the two natures of the
Lord Jesus, his human and his divine. What a wonderful picture
then we have. And round the top of the ark
there was that crown which really secured the mercy seat. We see then the kingship of the
Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So we have a picture there of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the very wonderful significance
that we have here tonight is this. There was nothing in the
Ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb. You may remember that Moses had
been given the two tables of stone with the Ten Commandments
written on them. The Lord had given him the stone
and the writing thereon. When Moses came down from the
mountain and he saw the evil of Israel, they were dancing
and worshipping that golden calf, he threw those tables of stone
onto the ground and they broke. Now that represents the broken
law of God. And we have broken the holy law
of God. It was a very vivid picture then,
it's a very vivid picture for us today to realise that broken
law. But we see the amazing mercy
of God. We see the amazing love of God.
When we think how ancient Israel had been so evil in their actions,
just a few days, having to wait for Moses, and they got tired
of it, forgot all the promises that God had given to them, and
they went about worshipping that idol, that calf that they instructed
Aaron to make. So it was a very sad occasion.
The Lord very graciously told Moses to go and to carve out
two further tables of stone. Moses then took them up to the
mountain and the Lord graciously wrote again those Ten Commandments. And it was a holy and a righteous
law. I'm sure if you and I are honest
and read those Ten Commandments, which we can do so very clearly
in the 20th of Exodus, They set before us righteous things. And they also set before us the
prime importance of worshipping the Lord God. How essential it
was that Law was written on those tables of stone. Now, the first
set had been broken. The second set were put in the
Ark. They were placed in the Ark.
Now we've drawn the illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ as being
the Ark. We have the picture here of the
law placed in the Ark. You might think of that, the
law placed indeed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have confirming
words in the Word of God to encourage us in that, in the Psalms, We
read in Psalm 37, the psalmist speaks there of the wonder of
this situation. In verse 31 he says, the law
of his God, he's speaking here of the law of Jesus, the law
of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide. What a wonderful prophecy that
was. And of course, the ark was about
when this psalm was written by David, but of course the temple
hadn't been built, but David had been aware of the situation
and the Spirit of God moved him to write a statement like this,
the law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall
slide. What a wonderful picture it is
indeed of the Lord Jesus Christ. To know the truth of that. And
then also in the 40th Psalm we read, Then said I, I come, in
the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do
thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. So we have there two very clear
references to the law of God and the law being in the heart
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we read these words here,
there was nothing in the ark, say the two tables which Moses
put therein. There was only that. But how
significant it was and how important it was and what a wonderful and
glorious picture we see. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
keeping that law for us. That law which we would break,
we have broken. The broken law. Our sins have
broken that law. The Lord Jesus Christ, He kept
that law. He made it honourable. And there
was no sin. And therefore we see that picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ in all his purity, and in all his life
we see the humanity, we see his Godhead, it's all portrayed therefore
in that glorious picture of the Ark of the Covenant. No wonder
surely, when that was placed there, and that was the fulfilment
That was, as it were, the last stone, the cornerstone to complete
that building. There would have been no benefit,
no blessing to truly worship without the Ark in that place.
But when that Ark came, you see, into that place, well, the priests,
the Levites, they couldn't stand before the glory of the Lord.
The priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud
for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. Now, they saw it in that physical
way. We of course today do not see
it in that physical way. But I wonder if by living faith
we view the glory of it. They could not stand before that
glory. And I believe when the Lord comes
and touches our hearts and shows us something of His wonderful
mercy and favour and glory in redeeming our souls from the
pit of corruption. Does it not produce in our hearts
that willingness to fall down and to worship before the Lord
God Almighty? Yes, it was a wonderful blessing
for Israel of old. My friends, it's a wonderful
blessing for us today to be able to come and to realise that the
Lord Jesus Christ, in his perfect life, yet he died to fulfil the
demands of God's law, that righteous law. The Lord Jesus had not fulfilled
that on our behalf, then we would not be righteous at all. We would
be unrighteous. We would die unrighteous. And
there would be no hope for us because of what the Lord Jesus
Christ did in dying upon that cross at Calvary. What did he
do? He took our sins. Our sins which
had broken the holy and righteous law. And he took them all away. They were washed away in his
sin-atoning blood. Now, the wonderful ceremony,
which occurred once a year in the most holy place, was when
the high priest came in. He came through that veil, that
dense veil, so the light would not have permeated through that
dense veil. But when that veil was drawn
aside, then you see the high priest, he went in with that
cloud of incense first. The cloud of incense went up
and then he came and brought that blood, that blood of atonement,
that blood of the slain beast, typifying the death of the Saviour. And he went into the holy place,
And he sprinkled that blood seven times, where? On the mercy seat. On the mercy seat. Yes, and the
truth was, as it was on that Passover night, so it was on
the Day of Atonement. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. The keeping of the law. That
was the cost. to keep that law, the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. How important it was and how
valuable it was. Just try and comprehend the value
of that cleansing blood of Christ. You know, it was a wonderful
day, that annual occasion. Israel looked forward to it.
Yes, it was a day when they could believe their sins were washed
away, their sins were forgiven. And the element to show that
so clearly was the shed blood. And only the high priest could
go into that holy place and sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat. You see the people here that
we read of when they came into the holy place and They cried
out, didn't they? For he is good, for his mercy
endures forever. The mercy seed. His mercy endures
forever. The blessing that is for us tonight. If it wasn't so, we would not
be here. There'd be no hope for us. Can
we bless God for his mercy? which endures forever. And the
picture that we have of that mercy seat and that blood sprinkled
upon it, and it's through the shed blood of the Saviour that
we have hope of His mercy. No blood, no mercy. No blood, no mercy. There wasn't,
in ancient Israel, there wasn't on the Passover night, there
was no blood upon the doorposts and lintels, there was no safety.
And there's no safety tonight, outside. of the sprinkled blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have this wonderful statement,
and there was nothing in the ark save the two tables which
Moses put therein at Horeb. They were there. Moses was instructed
to place them there. We're not told what he thought.
He obeyed the Lord and he placed them in the ark. And there they
remained. And so today we can look back
over all those centuries and see that wonderful picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. dying to atone for our sins,
as our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It was that crown you
see, that which circled the Ark, that golden crown, which signified,
yes, He was a King, but there was mercy with Him. Mercy indeed
is today welcome news to those who guilty stand. Well, I believe
mercy is welcome news to all the Church of God. And that mercy,
as we look at it, we behold the Lord Jesus Christ. We think perhaps
of those words that John the Baptist spoke, Behold the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And he only took
that sin away because he was sinless himself. Because he kept
that holy law of God which we could not keep. Because we are
born in sin and shaped in iniquity. Because we are imperfect. Because
sin is within us and remains in us. And we need that sin to
be taken away. We could never justify ourselves.
We could never redeem ourselves. So what a wonderful thing it
is to have a Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, so willing to pay
the price for your sin and my sin. Sometimes it's good that
we might try and meditate upon the bulk of our sin, not those sins perhaps which
we first were made aware of, but as the light shines brighter
into our hearts and we see more sin and more sin. And the effect is, we cry out,
can ever God's will hear in such a base heart as mine? Well, are we not thankful the
Lord Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. He didn't come to seek the righteous.
came to seek and to save sinners. What a wonderful thing then to
know that He's come to seek and to save you and me. Now I believe
if that is true, and if the Spirit of God applies His Word to our
hearts, it will mean that we desire the Lord Jesus to be as
that Ark of God Indeed, it's the centre of our life, the centre of our religion, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Or is he central in our hearts? Well, I remember John Tyler many
years ago saying, repeating a couplet, there is room in my heart for
the Lord Jesus." Well, I wonder tonight if you and I know that
there is room in our heart for the Lord Jesus. Our heart which
is full of sin, the Lord can come and cleanse us from all
iniquity. David came and David cried out,
created me a clean heart, O God." Created me a clean heart. That
was his desire, and also that he might be cleansed from all
his sins. He asked, O God, renew a right
spirit within me. He knew the evil of his heart,
he knew how deceitful he'd been, how he'd tried to hide his sin. But when the Spirit of God came
through Nathan the prophet and directed him so that he had to
come and fall down before those words, Thou art no man, he wasn't
able to then justify himself. No, he fell down and desired
that the Lord would indeed bless him and create that clean heart
and cast it not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy
Spirit from me. He was fearful, and we perhaps
may be fearful because of our sin. The Lord may take His Holy
Spirit from us, and we should be left to perish in our sins
in a deserved condition. And thus perhaps we cry out to
this God. This God who we see is set before
us as the Ark of the Covenant. and that One who kept the Law,
that Holy Law for us. So when we approach to God, it
is the Saviour we see. He sees His Son. Instead of us
as poor, miserable, hell-deserving sinners, He views His Son in
all His righteousness and in all His glory. And so may our
hearts be lifted up in praise and adoration that this Son of
God, the Man of God, should have willingly come into this world
to save our souls, to save your soul and to save my soul. Real religion must be personal. It's not a general situation.
It affects you and it affects me. And it affects our eternal
state as to whether this blessed Lord did keep the law on our
behalf. We broke it, but he kept that
law. There was nothing in the ark
save the two tables which Moses put therein. Well, I hope we
have a little a little sight of the importance of those tables
being placed in the Ark. It wasn't anything haphazard.
It was in the ordered purposes of God, from eternity past, that
this should be done. That this picture should be before
Israel for so many, many years. Yes, the shed blood of the Saviour,
the mercy seat and the glory All there together, what a wonderful
view it was. And now today, for the mercy
of God, we're able to come to a natural knowledge. God bless
God if we're able to come to a spiritual knowledge, so that
we understand the real blessing of these things, and the wonder
of them, so that we come and bless God for them. We're able
to bow down and worship the Lord as it were, in the beauty of
holiness. The Apostle Paul had a view,
really, of the significance of the law of God, and he tells
us this in the 2nd Corinthians in the 3rd chapter. Forasmuch
as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God. Not in tables of stone, but in
fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we, through
Christ, to God-ward. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. Well, the Apostle knew the blessedness
of that sufficiency. And what a good thing it is if
we know the blessedness of that sufficiency, the sufficiency
of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ in keeping that
law. And may that law indeed have
been written in our hearts, the fleshy tables of our hearts.
May it have had a great and a glorious effect. No wonder it is when
we have a little understanding of the blessing of the work of
the Holy Spirit of God. You know, the Apostle carries
on and in the Galatians he speaks to us, he tells us in the third
chapter, that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
It is evident. We can't be justified by that.
For the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. What
a favour it is to realise we have words to encourage us in
these things. He goes on in the fourth chapter
of this Galatians, he says, Now I say that the heir, as long
as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant. They be lord
of all, but it's under tutors and governors until the time
appointed of the father, even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. What a blessing, isn't it, if
we are brought to see the wonder of this work of the Saviour,
keeping that holy, righteous law of God. There was nothing
save the two tables of stone. I believe we can very easily
and very simply pass over such important statements in the Word
of God and not appreciate the significance of them. There is
great significance in the truth of God's word. Isaiah picks up this same theme
in his prophecy and tells us, seeing many things but thou observest
not, opening the ears but he heareth not. The Lord is well
pleased for his righteousness sake, he will magnify the law
and make it honourable. And he goes on, but this is a
people robbed and spoiled. They are all of them snared in
holes and they are hidden in prison houses. They are for a
prey, and none delivereth for a spoil, and none saith restore. Who among you will give ear to
this? Who will hearken? and here for
the time to come. It is indeed a time to come,
a time the Lord look upon us and remember us for good. Remember what his son has done
for us in redeeming our souls. There was nothing in the ark,
said the two tables, which Moses put therein at Horeb, when the
Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel when they
came out of Egypt. You see, he made a covenant.
He fulfilled that covenant. He came out of Egypt. My friends,
he's made a covenant with the Church of God. That new covenant,
that New Testament, which resides in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was indeed a covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. It's being fulfilled. Oh blessed be God, that wonderful
covenant the Lord Jesus Christ entered into and he fulfilled
the requirement by giving freely his life as that perfect sin-atoning
sacrifice that we might be forgiven all our sins. And so tonight,
let us ponder and think of this Ark of God. This Ark of God,
so symbolic, so wonderful in the elements which it contains,
and so glorious to realise as an application through the Saviour
to us today. You know, just one further comment,
it was of course the golden pot, the manna, which was also placed
alongside these tables of stone. And that was the golden pot of
manna. And what did it signify? It signified
a supply of food. And it signifies a supply of
spiritual food to us today. And where is that spiritual food
to be found? It's to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. In His death. As the Saviour
tells us, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of
the Son of Man, there is no life in you. There is a great separation
between natural religion and true God-given religion, and
true God-given religion feeds upon Christ, we meditate upon
Christ, we love to hear about Christ, we rejoice in Christ
and we're thankful to think that we have these wonderful illustrations
in the Old Testament to point us so clearly to the Lord Jesus
Christ and here this wonderful evidence that he has kept that
holy law and made it honourable and that we are saved through
his death. there was nothing in the ark
save the two tables of stone which Moses put therein at Horeb
when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel when
they came out of Egypt. Amen.