Before turning with me to Exodus
chapter 25, would you look at Revelation chapter 11 with me
please? Revelation chapter 11. Last verse of the chapter, verse
19. Revelation 11, 19. Here the beloved John, the disciple
whom Jesus loved, gives us a glimpse into eternity. And we read here
in verse 19, and the temple of God was opened in heaven. And there was seen in his temple
the ark of his testament. And there were lightnings and
voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail. Now the one and only thing that
is seen or mentioned for that matter in the temple of God in
heaven, in glory, is the ark. of his testament. Now I want
us to be sure that we understand this. When the temple of God
in heaven is open, there's only one thing that we'll see. Only one thing that the true
child of God will see. And that will be the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the ark of God. He is the ark of God's testament. He's the testimony of God. Jesus
Christ is our message of salvation, isn't he? Jesus Christ is the
Word of God. In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became
flesh. Jesus Christ is the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the believer's
righteousness. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He's our only righteousness,
and He's our perfect righteousness. Jesus Christ is the Christian's
gospel. That's a term that we almost
cringe to use anymore because of what men and women have made
it. But Christian means to be Christ-like. And Christ is the
believer's gospel. He is our good news. He's what
the child of God wants to hear more and more about Jesus. He's the good news for sinners.
Jesus Christ is the only one who can save His people from
their sin. These are all things that you've
heard many times. I was thinking today, our message
never changes. The message is always the same.
We just find it in the passage that we're in. We just dig for
those nuggets of Christ and Him crucified. And we see here that
Jesus Christ is the ark of God. That's what I want you to see.
He is the ark. He's the vessel of God. And we see that so beautifully
in the verses before us tonight. Go ahead and turn with me, if
you would, to Exodus 25. And we'll begin reading in verse
10, Exodus 25, verse 10. It says, and they shall make
an ark of Shittim wood. Before we go any further, have
you ever really thought about what an ark is? What is an ark? I was surprised to find, both
in the New and the Old Testament, that the words ark, though one
a Hebrew word and one a Greek word, are both defined the same
way. If you looked them up in a concordance,
you'd see that the word ark means a box or a chest. When you consider how God used
the three arks mentioned in the scripture, the word box or chest
kind of takes on the meaning of a vessel, a vessel of mercy,
a vessel of deliverance, a vessel of shelter and safety and security. That sounds a lot like the Lord
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Ark of God. You take the Ark of Noah. It
provided mercy, didn't it? It provided deliverance. It provided
shelter and safety and security from the storm of God's wrath
and judgment. God's wrath poured down and destroyed
every living thing upon the earth, man and beast. except for those
eight souls that were in the Ark and the animals that were
found there also. That Ark is Christ. And the other
Ark mentioned, the one in Exodus, the Ark that preserved the infant
Moses from being drowned in the same water the other male children
of his age were drowned in. You remember that. The Ark of
Moses was that vessel that God used to preserve Moses and to
bring him to safety in the house of Pharaoh, who was the very
one who purposed to kill him. Christ is that heart. And then
the third object in which the word ark is found is right here
in our text. And it's in the most important
and integral part and pattern of the tabernacle, the ark of
God is. Everything else in the tabernacle
revolves around the ark of God. The first order of business here
in the revelation of God to reveal to Israel the tabernacle. The
pattern of the tabernacle is the ark of the covenant or the
ark of God. Now that's very important. There's
a reason for that. Christ is that ark. He's the
center of everything. And it's the same today. The
first order of business in the revelation of God to His people
is the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God's tabernacle. God's Ark. He's the only just
vessel, Peter said, that can bring unjust sinners to God. He died the just for the unjust
that He might, what? Bring us to God. He's that vessel
of mercy in which we're brought to God. The Ark of the Testimony,
the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of God, the Ark of the Lord. It's mentioned so many different
ways. is the first thing God brings attention to here. And
that's because it's the most important thing. Most important
thing in the tabernacle. The gospel of God's grace is
also declared in the order in which God gave Moses these patterns. Now, think with me for a moment. As we see here, God begins with
the Ark of the Covenant, and then he goes to the mercy seat.
which covered the ark. That's God's dwelling place in
the holiest of holies. What a beautiful picture it is
of God's dwelling place in the holiest of holies upon the throne
of God. If not for Christ, our mercy
seat, we would have no access whatsoever to the throne of grace. But because of Christ, who He
is and what He's done, we're able to come boldly into the
holiest of holies, into the throne of God's grace, to find grace
to help in time of need. Christ our mercy seat is forever
making intercession for us so we can come at any time. And
first we see Christ's person in the ark. I want you to see
this. We see then Christ's work in the mercy seat. In the next
chapter, chapter 26, God gives us the pattern of the table of
the showbread. Then the candlestick, and then
the curtains, and then the boards, and then the separating veil.
And all of them picture the Lord Jesus Christ, everyone. In chapter
27, God gives Moses the pattern of the brazen altar and the hangings
of the outer court. But God begins his pattern of
the tabernacle in the holiest of holies, that place where God
dwells. And then he proceeds outward
to the exterior where the children of Israel dwell. What's the significance
of that? Well, there is great significance
to it. Everything God does has a reason
and a significance. Due to our sin, we cannot go
from where we are to where God is, regardless of what men think. I heard a long time ago that
the problem with a dead man coming to God is with the first step.
If a dead man can take the first step to go to God, then he can
go all the way. But the problem is with the first
step. Dead man doesn't have any ability. Everything God does,
He does for a reason. Due to our sin, we can't go to
where God is. God has to come to us. Salvation
has never been about what we do. We didn't pull ourselves
up by the bootstraps. Had somebody tell me that not
long ago. You know, I pulled myself up
by the bootstraps. Dead man can't do that. Salvation's
never been about us finding God. Salvation is God coming to us. We can't go to him. I'll give
you the most obvious answer as to why. I just did. We're dead.
We don't have the ability to come. What's the significance
of the order here? Well, by beginning with the holiest
of holies and working out to the exterior where God's people
dwelt, it teaches us that we are saved by God coming to us
in sovereign grace. Our Lord said, what man of you
having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave
the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost
until he find it? Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. It was God that gave this pattern,
and in verse nine, God said, according to all that I show
you. This isn't something that Israel came up with. Can you
imagine two old fellas walking there in the wilderness? Hey
Joe, I've been carrying around some extra gold and I see there's
some shittem trees over there. Let's just cut them trees down
and make a big box and cover it with gold and carry around
some stuff in it. Maybe God will accept what we
carry around in that box. That sounds like a good idea.
No, it didn't happen that way at all. That's ridiculous to
think that. But no more ridiculous than folks
today acting like that salvation is something that they come up
with. They've imagined God to be one like them. So men have
created the God that allows men and women eternal life by simply
doing the best they can. I'm so tired of hearing folks
say that, well just do the best you can. God is love, God is
forgiving, God not willing that any should perish. We've all
heard Heard the nonsense. Do the best
you can. Treat people like you want to
be treated. God doesn't expect you to be
perfect. Yes, He does. Yes, He does. The God of the
Bible does, and He accepts nothing less than perfection. People
have been taught wrong. Doing the best you can is not
enough, and your best is not good enough. God set the standard. God set the pattern, and it's
got to be perfect to be accepted. That's our dilemma. We can't
provide what God demands. So God and mercy provided it
for us. Again, verse 10. And they shall
make an ark of shiddom 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. 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 is what God provided. In verse 22 here, he calls it
the Ark of the Testimony. In Numbers 10, it's called the
Ark of the Covenant, same thing. In 1 Samuel 3, it's called the
Ark of God. It was, it was God's Ark. In
Joshua 4, it was called the Ark of the Lord. This Ark is always
identified with Christ, because Jesus Christ is the Ark of God. Now, in the Ark of the Covenant,
we see, first of all, the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Ark's construction here typified the Lord's two natures. His human
nature is seen in the Shinnom wood, and His divine nature is
seen in the pure gold. As we briefly discussed last
time, the Shittum wood, I think known today as acacia trees,
which supposedly never rotted. It was an incorruptible sort
of imperishable type wood, which never was supposed to rot. And how well that typifies our
Savior's perfect human nature. As we discussed briefly last
time, Shittam wood is what is commonly called Acacia trees
today. And it was a tree that grew in
a dry and barren land to grow in Egypt's wilderness. The tree survived in a desert
wilderness. A lot of these trees are seen
growing wild in Africa. This wood wasn't affected by
the elements. It seemed to thrive and it grew
in a harsh environment. What does that sound like? If Christ would mediate and substitute
Himself in the place of His sinful people in order to be obedient
to God for them, that's what it's going to take. God fulfilling
the law in our room instead and satisfying God's justice for
us. He must first become flesh and
blood, like those that he must represent. And that's what this
acacia wood pictures and typifies the unique God-man, both man
and God, the Shittam wood and then the pure gold. The pure
gold with the crown typifies the Lord's deity, his majesty
spread over his perfect humanity. We can't figure these things
out. God becoming a man? Who can understand that? It's
beyond our human comprehension. But we simply, by God-given faith,
believe it, don't we? That's what Paul told Timothy. He said, for without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
We don't understand that. But by faith, we believe it.
And that's what we see in the ark. The person of Christ in
the wood and in the gold foreshadow for us the union of the two natures
of the God-man. 100% God, 100% man. So unique that He's the only
one who could redeem us from the curse of the law. And again
we see how the order of the tabernacle's furnishings speak volumes. God begins with the wood and
the gold, typifying Christ's person, His holiness, Him being
separate from sinners, and then He speaks of the mercy seat.
which typifies the Lord Jesus' work. Truly salvation is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. We say that all the time, but
that simply means it's talking about who Christ is. He's God. And what Christ did. He died
to put away your sin. Truly salvation is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And that's what we have in the
Ark, and that's what we have in the mercy seat here. The perfect
righteousness and holiness of God is provided in, by, and through
the person of God and the Son. And his work is made effectual
by what he provided on the mercy seat. No wonder God calls a man
ignorant who goes about to establish his own righteousness. Only an
ignorant man would do that when he sees that Christ has provided
for him the perfect righteousness he needs in order to be reconciled
to God. Only one who is foolish wouldn't
submit themselves to the righteousness of God. To go about to try to
establish our own righteousness shows us to be the fools that
we are by nature. God here in the giving of the
tabernacle and giving of his ark, the ark of his covenant,
his promises, and the giving of the mercy seat shows us that
when it comes to saving sinners, God needs no help. Look at verse
20. And thou shalt cast four rings
of gold for it and put them in the four corners thereof. and
two rings shall be in one side of it, and two rings in the other
side of it, speaking of the ark of the covenant, and thou shalt
make staves of shittum wood and overlay them with gold. And thou
shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark,
that the ark may be born with them. And the staves shall be
in the rings of the ark, and they shall not be taken from
it. Now God here makes it very clear. We looked at this not
long ago, the ark. you know, touch the Ark and die.
God makes it clear here that none of us are to touch the Ark.
God is too holy. It's got to be carried by these
poles and these rings, those poles through the golden rings. And not just anybody could even
carry the Ark. To touch the Ark, oh, it meant
certain death. And a man named Uzzah touched
the Ark once just to keep it from falling. You know, the oxen
shook it, it became unstable. He reached up his hand to just
steady it. What did he do wrong? He touched
the ark. God doesn't need any help. And
as I died by the ark of the Lord, if a sinner endeavors to help
God in any way, if a sinner adds his hand to anything that Christ
has done, he'll die in his or her error. That's just how serious
this matter is. We dare not add anything to the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvations of the Lord. God is
very specific. He will not give his glory to
another. And then secondly, within the
ark, here was the testimony, the stone tablets on which God
wrote the law. And this pictures how Christ
had the law of God written in his heart. He wrote the law. The law had been fulfilled by
Christ, and as far as the believer's concerned, it's put away in Christ. Without the help of our hands,
that's the picture of the tablet of stones being in the ark of
God. Christ fulfilled the law, and
there's nothing for us to do but to rest. I wish we could
do that, don't you? I wish we could really rest.
Our Lord said, I've trodden the winepress alone, and of the people
there was none with me. Don't put your hand to the ark
of God. Not like us, indeed. Don't put
your hand to Christ's finished work. It's ignorant for us to
do so. The anger of the Lord's kindled
when we do. And only death awaits those who
insist on doing so. Salvation is to believe and to
trust in what Christ has already done. It's to rest in what He's
already finished. No sinner can fulfill God's law
because of our sin. Our hand only corrupts. Everything
we touch corrupts. But that's why Christ came. That's
why God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Why made under a woman? Why made
under the law? To redeem them that were under
the law that they might receive the adoption of sons. That's
why. Thirdly, where was the finished
work of Christ accomplished? On the mercy seat. Look at verse
17, 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 make one cherub on the 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. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the
testimony that I shall give thee." Now, the cherubims here, I don't
know if you've ever seen any pictures of the ark and the mercy
seed, but they're angels. And they're also called seraphims
in other passages of scripture. And the word seraph for seraphims
actually means a minister of God. These were ministering angels. They very well typify God's preachers. And I might add, no, we're not
angels, but we are messengers. And throughout the scriptures,
these cherubims and these seraphims are always directing the eyes
of needy sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what true
preachers do. They point sinners to Christ
the whole while trying to get themselves out of the way. I
think one of the greatest compliments I've ever had in preaching was
someone once said, You got yourself out of the way in that message.
What a picture of Christ's prophets of old and his preachers today.
These two cherubims placed facing each other from different directions,
both of them looking in the same direction toward the mercy seat,
toward that sacrifice that was to be made. What a picture of
Christ's prophets, old and his preachers today. Though from
different times and eras, they look to Christ and point sinners
to Christ, the sacrifice, our sacrifice. If you walked into
the holiest of holies, the cherubim's faces and wings would draw your
attention to the mercy seat. That's what preachers of the
gospel do. We draw attention to Christ, our mercy seed. Now the word mercy simply means
propitiation. That propitiation which God has
provided. And Jesus Christ is the mercy
seed. Jesus Christ is our propitiation. He is our appeasement. Romans
3.25 says, Jesus Christ whom God has set forth to be a propitiation,
a mercy seed. through faith in His blood. Only
the blood of Christ will suffice to do that when God sees His
blood. His honor is vindicated. His justice is satisfied. His
law is upheld. God's wrath is appeased. God
says, when I see the blood, what? What are you going to do? I'm
going to pass over. I'm going to pass over you. The
very God that we've offended, the very God whose law we've
broken. He's provided for His people
the propitiation for their sins. He's provided for them the Lord
Jesus Christ who is the believer's mercy seat. And Christ is the
sacrifice that is sacrificed on that mercy seat. He's all
of it. We said last week when we began this study, that everything
in the tabernacle and everything in it pictures our Savior. And on that day of atonement,
the high priest by himself took the blood of that lamb. He took
it into the holiest of holies. Oh, a picture of Christ, our
high priest, entering God's presence with His own blood. That's what
that picture is. And in the ark were the tablets
of stone that Israel had broken. Were the tablets of stone that
Israel had broken. But in Christ our sacrifice,
the laws fulfilled. The mercy seat had the same dimensions
as the ark of the covenant. So it covered the law which was
in the ark perfectly. Oh, do you see the picture there?
When the high priest sprinkled the blood seven times, meaning
completion, upon the mercy seat, that mercy seat that covered
that law. The law you couldn't see, it
was in the mercy seat, it was in Christ. God was satisfied
and God was appeased. Why? Because the blood of bulls
and goats could never take away sin. The high priest had to do
the same thing over and over again the very next year. But
this is the way in which the old differs from the new. And
we ought to be glad that it does. Christ had to offer only one
sacrifice for sins forever. Forever. Because he accomplished
God's work by the perfect sacrifice of himself. And again showing and confirming
to us that the gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I love this verse, listen, Hebrews
10 verse 12. But this man, he's a man. He's the God man, he's a man. This man, speaking of Christ,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sin. forever sit down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. For by one offering he, the Lord
Jesus Christ, our mercy seed, hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. Christ fulfilled the law of God
for his people. Christ made perfect propitiation
to God for our sin. Christ perfectly satisfied God
by his blood. Christ perfected His people forever
by the offering of Himself. Christ's blood on the mercy seat
is what assures the sinner that God will meet and commune with
them. Christ is our one mediator between
God and man. I told you this was all about
Christ. You remember what was in the Ark of the Covenant? Well,
we've talked about most of them tonight. First, a gold pot of
manna. What is that picture? That picture's
Christ, the manna from heaven, the bread of life. Secondly,
Aaron's rod that budded, showing us that only God can give life
to the lifeless. He's the vine, we're the branches.
Without the vine, we can do nothing. Thirdly, the ark of God included
the tables of the covenant, the tablets of stone, revealing that
in Christ, God's law has been kept and his justice has been
satisfied. And there's nothing for you and
I to do, it's finished. Look at verse 32, excuse me,
22, and I'll finish. God says, and there I will meet
with thee. Oh, I'm interested in this. And
I will commune with thee from 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. And it's here that we see, once
again, that our communion with God, our fellowship with God
is in Christ alone. He's our mediator. He's our go-between. He's our advocate. My little
children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not, and
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and He is the propitiation of our sins. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sin. This is the place where God meets
those that He loves. You know where it is? It's in
Christ. That's where He meets. It's in the Ark of the Covenant. It's in His tabernacle, the Ark
of the Covenant. It's at His mercy seat. There
on the altar where Christ died for His people. That's where
He meets us. He's our advocate with the father. He is a righteous
advocate. He never loses a cane. 30 years ago, I went into business
for myself. And I had a former employer charge
me, actually, with some pretty serious charges, I guess because
of competition, so I had to hire an attorney. And there was a
very well-known attorney in town. And matter of fact, Larry asked
him if he would represent me. This was 30 years ago. I was
a 34-year-old man. And this very competent attorney,
who probably wouldn't even have taken the case if he hadn't known
Larry, he took the case and he challenged the charges that were
against me. But during the process, he didn't
say much to me. He wouldn't kind of keep me up
to date on the status of the case. And I'd call him, and he'd
say, yeah, we're going to meet so-and-so. But he wouldn't tell
me anything. And I wanted to be informed. I wanted to know
what was going on. After all, the charges were against
me. I was the one who was accused
of breaking the law, and I would be the one that would have to
pay the consequence and the penalty. So I wanted to know. And one
day, I remember telling Larry, I said, I'm sure he's a good
attorney, and no doubt about that. But he's not telling me
anything. And after all, he is working
for me. And Larry said, exactly, exactly. As your advocate, he is you. And I thought about that, and
I thought, well, what does he mean by that? I know what he
means now. As my advocate, as my mediator,
when he stood before the court system, he stood as me, as my
representative, my advocate. As my advocate, The charges were
against Him. He doesn't have to tell you everything,
Larry said, as long as He rightly and justly represents you and
you're found not guilty. That's all that matters. When
all is said and done, friends, when Christ, my Advocate, with
Him as my Advocate, Everything's going to be alright. Everything's
going to be good, matter of fact. Because my Advocate is the very
One who satisfied God's law and God's justice in my place, making
my acquittal certain, not just possible. How can men say that
Christ just made salvation possible? It's in Christ our Advocate that
God meets and communes with His people. That's what He said right
here. Isn't that precious? To know that in Christ, God meets
with me, communes with me, and has fellowship with me. And not
only that, but He adopts me into the kingdom of His dear Son. And I'm not saved by what I did.
Boy, I'm sure glad about that. I'm saved by what Christ did
for me. Therefore I cannot be lost by
what I do, for it was Christ that put away my sin and made
me perfect in Him. And we really are a child of
God perfect in Him. When you stand before God and
God says, well done, thy good and faithful servant, maybe then
we'll believe it. You think? When God says, you're
perfect in my eyes, maybe we'll believe it then. I'm perfected
forever, so I cannot be lost. Isn't that what God's Word says?
Perfected forever. That's the best news I ever heard. It's all because Christ is my
mercy seed, and Christ is that perfect sacrifice that was sacrificed
upon that mercy seed. And we're going to see everything
in this tabernacle in pictures here.