So yes, we're going to look at
this mercy seat. I'm going to start reading in
verse 17 and go down through 22. And thou shalt make a mercy seat
of pure gold. A cubit 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 one end, and the other cherub on the other end. Even
of the mercy seat shalt thou 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 upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony
that I give thee. And there I will meet with thee,
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat between
the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony of all
things which I will give thee in commandment to the children
of Israel. But you can see those two cherubims,
you can see the thing made out of gold. Last week we dealt with
the Ark of the Testimony. It was overlaid with gold. It
was made out of sheet of wood. signifying our humanity, the
humanity of our blessed Savior. Then it was covered with gold,
showing the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And how that the
law was kept in that Ark of the Covenant. And our Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilled that holy and blessed law. And when we, and
I want to talk tonight about Christ being our mercy seat.
You know, when we say that Christ is all and in all, it's not just
religious talk. It's not just religious words
without meaning. When we say Christ is all and
in all, we really know that. We really, really believe that
Christ is all and in all. And I tell you, and it's true,
it's real, it's scriptural. And it's our experience that
Christ is all. God made His blessed Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, His blessed and beloved Son, unto us, unto
us, all that we need while we're here in this time. Everything
we need right here while we're living in this world, God made
Christ unto us all we need now. And He made Christ all we'll
need and all we want throughout eternity. If you think he's all
in all now, wait till you get to eternity and see if that's
he is. In the Old Testament, I've told
you this time and time again, it's full of pictures and types
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's one is the mercy seat
and the tabernacle. And wherever you find a type
in the Old Testament, you'll find its fulfillment in the New
Testament, in the substance of it. You'll find, if it's a type
here, you'll find its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ in the
New Testament. First thing I want to talk about
is this mercy seat. Look what it says there in verse
17. And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold. Ain't gonna be no wood involved
in this. Pure gold. When they put that Ark of the
Covenant and they laid that mercy seat on top of it, pure gold. Solid gold. It was about that
long and about that wide. Pure gold. Pure gold. Solid gold. And it was the little ark that
was made, overlaid with the gold. And according to what was the
most worth thing, the thing that had the most value to it, in
the tabernacle of all the holy vessels was this mercy seat,
this one made out of pure gold. And this tells us of the preciousness
and the value and the worth of our Lord Jesus Christ to His
Father, of which that mercy seat was just a shatter, was just
a type. And I tell you what, you're talking
about gold and precious. The blood of Christ is precious. Faith is precious. And God, you're
talking about precious. He's precious to His Father.
And that's why that mercy seat was just a shadow, a type of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you what mercy
seat means. Mercy seat means perpetuating. Perpetuatory. And what that means,
it's got it's name from the blood of perpetuation. Which is sprinkled
on this mercy seat. And propitiation means this,
a sacrifice to satisfy. When someone was propitiated,
God was propitiated by the blood on that mercy seat. He was satisfied
with the blood and sacrifices put on that mercy seat. Secondly,
propitiation also means to pacify. to appease, to take away the
anger of an offended party. Well, the anger of God was taken
away through our Lord Jesus Christ. And when God saw that blood on
the mercy seat, He was pacified, He was appeased, and His wrath
was put away for another year. And then it also means to make
reconciliation, to bring offended parties together. And God himself
made reconciliation through our Lord Jesus Christ, not imputing
their sins unto them. Now I want you to show you its
fulfillment in the New Testament. Look in Romans chapter 3. I want
to show you something in Romans chapter 3. This mercy seat. This is what we're talking about
right here. But I really need to read two verses of scripture
here. Romans chapter 3 verse 24. Mercy Seat. Let's fulfill it. Here's where
we see it in the New Testament. Being justified freely by His
grace through redemption, through the payment price, through the
blood shedding, through the death that is in Christ Jesus. Now
listen to this, whom God set forth, God set him forth God
sent him forth from his birth, in his life, on his death, in
his resurrection, in his ascension. God sent Christ forth. What did
he send him forth to do? And for what? To be a propitiation. To be an atoning victim, a sacrifice
to satisfy God. A sacrifice to appease the wrath
of God. A sacrifice to reconcile us to
God. He made Christ to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. There's your sacrifice. To declare
how righteous God is for the payment of sins that are passed
through the forbearance of God. And I tell you what, beloved,
John said it like this. Little children, I write unto
you that you sin not. But if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous, who
is the propitiation. Propitiation for our sins, not
for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. And the mercy
seat is where God met them. We'll show you another one. Look
in Luke 18. Here's a perfect picture of it. Just what I'm
talking about. About how God, you know, in the mercy seat,
look in Luke 18 in verse 10. His fulfillment was the Lord
Jesus Christ. God sent him forth to be a propitiation,
a sacrifice to satisfy God. A sacrifice to appease God's
wrath and put it away. And reconciled us to God by the
blood of His cross. Now look what it said here in
Luke 18. I lost it again. Forgive me. I was looking at
something else. Talking about something else. Can't do two
things at one time. You know people talk about being
multitasked. I'm not one of them. I'm not
one of them. I don't do one thing at a time.
You know, if you get me trying to do two things at the same
time, you're done messed up. But look what it said here in
Luke 18, verse 10. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank thee that I am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and I'm not
even like this publican that's standing over here praying. And
I fast twice in the week and I give tithes of all that I possess
and the publican standing afar off. This is the difference,
I'm standing afar off. would not lift so much as his
eyes unto heaven. But smote upon his breast, because
that's where his trouble was, his heart, and saying, God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. And that word merciful means
God be propitiated toward me. Please let that sacrifice that's
on that altar, let that blood shedding on that altar, let it
Let it be a satisfaction to you. Let it take your wrath off of
me. And O God, let me be reconciled
to you. And that's why he said, God be
propitiated toward me, the sinner. Let you be satisfied with that
sacrifice. Let you be appeased with that
sacrifice. Let me be reconciled according
to that sacrifice. And that's what he's saying.
And that's the only thing we can say. Oh God, be merciful
to me. And be merciful to me for Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake. Now back over
in our text here. Back in Luke 25. Exodus 25 and
verse 22. This mercy seat. This mercy seat. Oh, this pure gold mercy seat.
Valuable. Oh, the most valuable piece of
furniture in the tavern now. And he said, God said in there,
verse 22, 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. This mercy seat was
where God met man. This is the place where God met
man. God, the scriptures tells us,
he said, there I'll meet with you. There I'll commune with
you. You know, when that God only met with men, There on the
mercy seat, it was after the blood was sprinkled. After the
blood was shed. After the blood was put on that
mercy seat. And I tell you, God's wrath was
appeased when that sprinkling of blood was put on there. His
law was honored in that Ark of the Testament. God is satisfied
when He sees that blood. It's a sweet-smelling savor unto
Him. And God gave His rest to be on
that mercy seat. And God, our Lord Jesus Christ,
has become God's rest, if I can say it that way. And that place
where He meets us in now, and can meet sinners in all of His
glorious grace, is in one place. That's His blessed Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. God will not, as God said, I
heard Him said, I couldn't tell you the times, God will not speak
to nor be spoken to by any member of the human race except through
His blessed Son. And God can meet us in grace
because of the propitiation that our Lord Jesus Christ made on
the cross. God said, I'm satisfied with
him. I'm arrested him. I have nothing
against the man anymore. And all of my people, I've not
got anything against them. Blood's been shed. And it's on
that mercy seat. And I'm going to tell you something
else. I was reading this this afternoon, looking at it again.
Oh my! I'm going to say this. The mercy seat was reserved for
God Himself. who sat, who sat between the
chair beds. Mercy, what he's saying is, you
know it says mercy seat, mercy sits here. That's where God's
mercy sits right here. That's where it sits, mercy sits
right there. And only person who had a seat in that tabernacle
was God himself. It was a seat of mercy. And this
was just a shadow, a foreshadow of the truth that God in His
blessed mercy would find His rest and His satisfaction in
the perfect work of His incarnate Son that He would perform. And
I show you that the mercy seat was God's throne in the midst
of Israel. Look over in Psalm 80 in verse 1. Oh, this is where
God sat. How do you think He's going to
commune with us? This is what's called a mercy seat. Psalm 80
in verse 1. Mercy sits here. Ain't you thankful
there's a place where mercy sits? That mercy's found? God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Be propitiated toward me, the
sinner. And that mercy seat was God's throne in the midst of
Israel. Look what he said here in Psalm 80 in verse 1. Give
ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that lettest Joseph like a flock,
thou that dwellest between the cherubims. Shine forth. Look over here in Psalm 99 in
verse 1. He dwells. Ain't that what I
just said? Dwells between the cherubims? Look at Psalms 99
in verse 1. The Lord reigneth, let the people
tremble. He sitteth between the cherubims. and the earth won't be moved.
God said, here's that mercy seat there. Got them two cherubims,
they're facing one another. And their wings are reaching
up like this, and their faces are showing toward one another,
right over that mercy seat. And God's right there. He says,
My throne, My throne, that mercy seat is My throne. That's where
I dwell. That's My throne. That's where
I dwell between them mercy seats. Between them cherubims. Now here's
the eternal question. Here's the eternal question.
How is it possible? How is it possible for God? This is an eternal question.
How is it possible for the thrice holy God to dwell, dwell in the
midst of a sinful people? How is it possible? How is it
possible? Only one way, by an acceptable
sacrifice. That's the only way. By a sacrifice
that He provides and what He provides, He accepts. And the
sacrifice, the bloodshedding, actually took place outside. When they first went in there,
there was a big brazen altar. And that altar was made out of
brass, a big brazen altar. And they had that grate in there
and they had four horns on either corner of it. And they would
bring a sacrifice in there. And they would cut its throat
and drain its blood into a basin. And the blood shedding actually
took place at the brazen altar. But when the high priest went
once behind that veil, once a year, and sprinkled upon the mercy
seat, we see the Father accepting that sacrifice. Look with me
in Leviticus. Leviticus. Next one right after
Exodus. Leviticus 16 and verse 14. Oh, the blood shedding was out
there on the brazen altar. That's where the sacrifice was
consumed. But he took that blood and he
took it into that holy place, the holiest of holies. And that
blood was shed there and sprinkled. Look what he said in verse 14. And he shall take of the blood
of the bullock and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy
seat eastward. And before the mercy seat shall
he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times Then shall
he kill the gold of the sin offering that's for the people and bring
the blood within the veil And do with that blood as he did
with the blood of the bullock and sprinkle upon the mercy seat
and before the mercy seat Oh my when that high priest When
that high priest went behind that veils two veils two veils
in the tabernacle. There was a veil into the holy
place where the furniture was and then there's a veil And then all the furniture inside
behind that veil of the holiest of holies, 15 by 15. There was
an altar of incense in there, and there was a mercy seat, that's
all that was in there. Now how that high priest went
behind that veil, I don't know. And you can see what the veil's
like when you go through there and see the color of it. Whether
he went behind it, whether he raised it up and went under it,
I don't know how he went behind it. But I knew though that he
had to go behind you and he had to take blood behind you. And
when that blood, when that high priest went behind that veil
and he got to that mercy seat, He took that basin of blood and
sprinkled it seven times. Seven times. And when he was
there, he was under the all-searching eye of God Almighty. And if he
didn't bring the right sacrifice and didn't do the blood right,
and didn't do everything just exactly like God told him to,
that meant that beloved God would kill him. And that's why that
shepherd's hook was for, to reach under there and get him by the
ankle and pull him out. And that's why he had bells.
You look on his garments when you look in that thing, he had
bells on the bottom of his garments. So that when he was moving around
in there, the priest outside there could hear him. And he's
moving around behind there, and I tell you what, if that God,
if he come back from out behind that veil, and the blood hadn't
been sprinkled, you know what that meant? that God said, I'm
satisfied. I accept that blood. That blood
satisfied me. I accepted that sacrifice. I
accepted that blood. Sins put away for one year only. Christ put a sin away once and
for all. And God is satisfied. Our Lord
Jesus Christ's death has brought us life. You know how death was
defeated? through death. Christ had to
die. to destroy the power of death.
And Christ was raised from the dead to destroy the power of
the grave. And beloved, God is satisfied
with the death of His blessed Son. And His death and His blood
secured our life in this world and especially in the world to
come. And now God, as I started out saying, this is the eternal
question. How can God, a holy God, dwell among a sinful people? I'll tell you how He can do it,
because Christ died, Christ secured our life, Christ put away our
sin, Christ is our mercy seat, and now God can righteously come
and dwell among His people for Christ. bless his holy name and the mercy
seat the mercy seat was where Jehovah met the sinner listen
to this in the person of a representative you know when that high priest
went behind that veil he was just a representative he was
representing all of Israel he was in there one man was representing
everybody else And there's only one man that represents all of
us. You know, only the high priest
was allowed to go by there once a year. But you know what it
says about our Lord Jesus Christ now? About where our high priest
at? It said, He appears now in the
presence of God for us. Not in the holiest of holies,
in the presence of God for us. And all that mercy seat that
was in that Holy of Holies, listen to this, was hidden from view
of the sinner. Yeah, but you know the people
sitting outside, the folks standing outside that tabernacle, all
those tribes gathered around there knowing it was the day
of atonement, knowing it was the day to put sin away. They
couldn't see behind that veil. They couldn't see that mercy
seat. That thing was out of sight. That high priest was out of sight.
And they desired to approach God. But yet they couldn't approach
Him because it was out of sight. They couldn't see it. And I'm
telling you, beloved, our salvation was accomplished for us before
you and I ever existed. We never even thought of it.
We never saw it. We didn't know anything about
it. And yet, He was the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. He was the One. That God set
forth to be our propitiation. And God's throne of grace is
not visible only by faith. And I tell you that mercy seat,
that was hidden from view. And you know, Christ when he died 2,000 years
ago, my salvation was perfect and complete and as good as done.
It was done. It was done. When did I find out it was done?
Oh, I was probably 30 years old. Might have been younger than
that, might have been older than that. But me knowing it, make
it any better, make it any real, make it more accomplished? So
those folks not seeing what went on behind that holiest of holies
and that blood shedding, it never changed what happened to them
on the outside. They never saw it. And we never
saw it until God came and revealed it to us and made us to know
it. And I tell you something, beloved, we've never ever seen
into glory itself except by faith. We've never seen the throne of
grace except by faith. the truth of his mercy sheet
and the blood sprinkled on it is that God has entirely entirely
listen to me now listen the truth of this mercy sheet and the blood
sprinkled on it that God set us aside set us entirely aside and acted for himself in saving
us You know that's what I'm telling you. You know that mercy seat,
those people weren't there at that mercy seat. They couldn't
even see it. And God set everything aside. And He had this blood
shed on there just for Himself. To satisfy Himself. To honor
Himself. To satisfy Himself. And beloved,
and God set us aside and the Lord Jesus Christ is our mercy
seat, is our blood sacrifice and our atoning. Bless His holy
name. The only way we're accepted in
that is because He went behind the veil. He went into the holiest
of holies. And now, beloved, everything
He accomplished is ours. It's ours. To God be the glory,
great things He hath done. I want you to look at this over
here in Exodus 25 and verse 11. It said it had a crown of gold on
it. Look what He said in verse 11.
And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without
shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make a crown of gold round about
it. Now the ark had a crown of gold
around it. So when they put that mercy seat
in there, that crown of gold held that mercy seat down, held
that mercy seat in there. It couldn't slide, it wouldn't
slide, it wouldn't move. Wouldn't move. And if you removed that
mercy seat, lifted it up and looked in it, you know what happened
to you? I'll show you. Look over in 1
Samuel 6. Look over here in 1 Samuel 6.
That crown of gold was on there to show you how glorious this
was. 6 and verse 19, 1 Samuel 6, 19. You know, the Philistines sold
the ark, stole it. And they, he smote the men of
Beth Shemeth because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. he even he smote of the people
fifty thousand three score and ten people fifty thousand and
seventy men and the people amended because the Lord has smitten
many of the people with a great slaughter and listen to this
now and the Ben of Veshemeth said this who is able to stand
before this holy Lord God and to whom shall he go up from us? You take that mercy seat away,
what do you got? Judgment, condemnation, and wrath. And the scriptures tells us that
our Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God was crowned with
glory and honor. And He's crowned with glory and
honor. And He'll always be crowned with glory and honor. And He
sits upon His Father's throne. And as long as I, Lord Jesus
Christ, is acceptable to His Father, mercy, mercy, mercy is
sure to all His people. Even the sure mercies of David.
His mercy is sure to all His people. When He arises, mercy
stops. What's going to happen then?
Judgment's going to fall. Judgment's going to fall. And
it'll be awful when judgment falls. Judgment begins at the
house of God. God's done judged this generation
for the last few decades by turning it over to a reprobate mind with
reprobate preachers. But the mercy seat is also a
place of communion. Ain't that what he said in verse
22? I'll meet you there and I'll
commune with you. Communion means to be one with,
to be in union with. There I'll meet with you. I'll
commune with you. On what basis? On the blood that
was sprinkled on that mercy seat. I'll commune with you, cause
blood's been here. This is where mercy sits. And
when that blood was sprinkled on there, God was satisfied. And when he sprinkled it seven
times, that shows our perfect and complete standing before
the Father. And no wonder the Apostle said,
let us come bold. Let us come bold under the throne
of grace that we may attain mercy and find help in time of need. Our Father, in the precious name,
blessed name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you
for your gospel. I thank you for our Lord Jesus
Christ, for being our mercy seat, for being our propitiation, for
being the one that satisfied you, that took your wrath away
from us, that reconciled us by his blood. Lord, our Lord Jesus
Christ did it all. All to Him we owe. And we're
so thankful, and we bless your holy name, that you sit at a
seat of mercy. And we can come to a throne of
mercy, throne of grace, find mercy and obtain mercy. And Lord,
we come because we're a needy people. We have no abilities
of our own, but what you gave us. We have no gifts, but what
you gave us. We have no understanding, but
what you gave us. We have no hope, but what you
gave us. We have no salvation, but what
you gave us. And so Lord, we bless you. We
bless you for this glorious, blessed salvation you gave us
in your Son. And you taught us in your Word.
how that He's everything in Your Word, that He is all and in all,
and we see it over and over and over again. God bless these dear
saints as they go home, and we pray for the sick among us, the
frail among us, we pray for Bill and Dorotha, Bruce and Sandy, pray for Annie, pray for Fran, Lord, these are
people you love. Bruce and Joe, these are people
you love. And we bring them to you, knowing
you'll do what's right with every single one of them. We praise
you and bless you in Christ's name. Amen. O how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. O how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. See you Wednesday, God will it.