Good evening, everyone. If you
would open your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 18. Luke 18, we'll begin our reading
in verse nine. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. 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, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalted himself should be amazed, and he that humbleth
himself should be exalted." We'll end our reading there. All right,
let's sing a chorus to open the service, Sweep Over My Soul.
Sweep over my soul, sweep over my soul, sweet spirit, sweep
over my soul. My joy is complete. When I sit at His feet, Sweet
Spirit, sweep o'er my soul. All right, now let's turn to
page 126. 126, we'll sing Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed Be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These four sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown
and behold thee on thy throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. All right, now, if you would,
open your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter 25. Exodus chapter 25. We'll begin our reading in verse
10. After I read this, Gary, would
you come and offer prayer for us, please, sir? Exodus 24 verse, or 25, excuse
me, 25 verse 10. And they shall make an ark of
shidom 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 shall
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 of it. And thou shalt make staves
of shit and 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. 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 one cherub
on the 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 above, upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put 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,
of all things which I will give thee in commandment. under the
children of Israel. All right, Gary, if you would
come lead us in prayer. Our dear and most gracious and
merciful Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, this evening
for your word For these words in which we have just now read,
we know that these are truly the words of eternal life. And
we also know, Lord, for you have made us to know by this true
place of worship in which we have, that these words is our
only means in which we can and will have the faith, the God-given
faith that we have that comes by hearing these words. So, Lord,
we pray this evening that would you be so Gracious and give us
ears to hear these words in which we're about to have preached
unto us Give us ears Lord Make these words and effectual make
them factual to us Let us hear these things Lord in a way of
which only you can send forth and that's in power and in spirit
Let us hear in a way in which Brings joy and peace to our heart
and we can rejoice in that in which we hear Now these things
we pray, we pray these things in Christ's name, for his sake,
amen. All right, if you have your Bible
still open there to Exodus chapter 25. Last week, you remember,
we looked at the Ark of the Covenant. And tonight we're gonna look
at the mercy seat. And I've titled the message,
Christ Our Mercy Seat. And you'll recall that the Ark
was here in the tabernacle, and the Holy of Holies kept in there
the mercy seat on top of it. Now there is no question in anybody's
mind that the mercy seat that we're going to look at tonight
is a picture of redemption, or a picture of, I wasn't going
to say redemption in Christ, Actually, this mercy seat is
a picture of Christ, Christ himself, his person. If you hold your
finger there in Exodus 24, look quickly at Romans chapter 3. Romans 3. Beginning in verse 24. Being justified freely by his
grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now this is what Paul's
saying here. In verse 25, that word propitiation
is mercy seat. whom God has set forth to be
a mercy seat. This mercy seat is a picture
of Christ. And when you begin studying this
mercy seat in the scriptures, this mercy seat is filled with
pictures of Christ. As I was studying this week and
last week looking at this, I thought, I could bring two messages on
this. This is so filled with pictures of Christ. And everything
about this mercy seat is a picture of Christ. This is what it tells
you. You come to God in Christ and
you'll be accepted. God sent him to be a propitiation,
a covering, to make an atonement for the sins of his people. And
if you come to God in Christ, you'll be accepted. God will
meet you here in the Lord Jesus Christ in mercy. So first thing
we know about the mercy seat, it was made of pure gold. Verse
17 says, and thou shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Now that gold, just like I told
you last week about the wood covered with gold, the gold is
a picture of the deity of Christ. Here, this mercy seat is made
of solid gold. It tells us about the power of
Christ to save. It's pure gold. Jesus of Nazareth,
a man who lived among the Jews and people saw him, they knew
his family. That man, Jesus of Nazareth,
is God. He's pure God. He's pure man,
but he's pure God. And since he's God, he's got
the power to save. He's got the omnipotence of God
so that he has the power to save to the uttermost all that come
to God by him. And since he's God, he's got
the right to save. He has the right to forgive sin. You know, if someone sinned against
Earl, well, I don't really have the power or the right to forgive
them because they sinned against Earl, not me. All of our sin
is against God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And since he's God, he has the
right to forgive sin. He has the right to save from
sin. And since he's God, he's got the character. He's got the
character to be the Savior. He's got the mercy of God, the
grace of God. He's got the ability to satisfy
the justice of God. Because he's God, he can save
sinners. And the mercy seat is a slab
of pure gold. It says here, verse 17, two cubits
and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half
the breadth thereof. It's four feet long, but two
and a half feet wide. And it's got these cherubim on
either end of it, facing each other with their wings spread
out towards each other. And it's all one piece. They
didn't make the mercy seat and then make the cherubims and glue
them on or weld them on or something. It's all one piece. Now, nobody
knows in today's dollars what this amount of gold in the mercy
seat would be worth. You know, a lot of the other
pieces of furniture you see in the tabernacle, we got a pretty
good idea what they'd be worth in today's money, just based
on the amount of gold or silver, whatever's in it, because we
know the amount of it. Here, we don't know the thickness
of the mercy seat. I mean, it could have been that
thick. It could have been this thick. I mean, we don't know. Nobody
knows in today's dollars how valuable this gold would be.
But everybody pretty well agrees, all the writers and stuff you
read, everybody agree, the mercy seat was the most valuable piece
of furniture in this whole tabernacle, because it's pure gold. And what
a good picture of Christ that is. He is so valuable. The value of the person of Christ,
the value of who he is, is so high It can't be calculated. He's valuable to the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man,
is valuable to the Father. Peter told us in 1 Peter 1, verse
19, that we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
That blood, the blood of Christ, was so precious to the Father,
it bought redemption for a number of sinners that is so high, you
and I can't count them. That's how valuable He is to
the Father. You know, we can't really know,
really, what did it cost the Savior? How much did it cost
Him to save the likes of you and me? But here's what we do. We don't know the depths of His
suffering. We don't know the depths of the cost. But we do
know this, the value of Christ's perfect obedience is so valuable,
it's so precious, it makes all of God's elect righteous, makes
them perfectly righteous. The value of the sinless blood
of Christ is so high, just so high you can't calculate it,
but it was high enough to purchase redemption for all of God's people
and wash them white as snow by just one sacrifice, just one.
It saved the people who lived on earth before him and the people
who lived on earth after him. What a precious, precious savior
he is. And I don't know whether to say
that it annoys me or it amuses me. I've told you before, I'm
trying not to be a grouchy old man. So I'm trying to say maybe
this doesn't annoy me, but it amuses me. But you've seen this
in movies where archeologists, they find the Ark of the Covenant.
And when they show it on camera, how do they show it? It looks
a lot like this, doesn't it? All shiny gold, it's just so
gold, it's so bright, you can't really look at it, it's all.
But nobody's ever gonna find the Ark of the Covenant. You
just mark it down, I said that. But if they did, it would not
look like all shiny gold. Because every year, on the Day
of Atonement, how many times did that high priest go in and
sprinkle blood on the Ark and on the Mercy Seat? Over the course
of just a few years, this thing was covered with blood so that
you couldn't even see the gold. As our Savior hung on Calvary's
tree, His visage marred more than any other man. You could
see the blood, but you couldn't tell that was God. Now, without
eyes of faith, you couldn't. He's covered with blood, and
that blood is what was his power to save his people from their
sin. It's the blood put on the altar,
on this mercy seat. It's a picture of what was so
valuable to the father that it redeemed all of his sinful people.
Christ is valuable to his father, but he's also valuable to sinners,
isn't he? What is the value of knowing
Christ. You think, what's the value of
knowing him? Of everything else that you can
have or couldn't have on this life, what's the value of knowing
Christ? What is the value to your heart,
to your conscience, to your soul, of knowing that Christ has covered
your sin? Just like this mercy seat covered
everything that was in that ark. What is it worth to know that
Christ has covered your sin? You know, to most people out
in the world, there's no value to that whatsoever, is there?
And you know why there's no value to it? They don't know they're
sinners. But if God ever teaches us that
we're a sinner, there'll be nothing more valuable to us than knowing
Christ and knowing that His blood has covered our sins. You know,
Peter said, unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. He is precious, he is. And if
you look it up, if I'm not mistaken, that word precious actually means
preciousness. Christ is not just something
that is precious among a whole bunch of other things that are
precious. Unto you therefore which believe, if you believe
him, if you know him, Christ himself, is preciousness. His blood is precious. Oh, how precious is it to be
washed in his blood? His person is precious. His person
that he's both God and man, and he could still love the likes
of you and me. He would still stoop so low as to call himself
our brother. that he wouldn't be ashamed to
call us brethren. How precious is that? How precious
is his gospel to you? Oh, I'm afraid, just because
of this flash, that sometimes maybe it's not quite as precious
to us as it should be. But let the Lord turn the screws.
Just a hair. Let the Lord pull back the veil,
just a hair, so that we see who and what we are. Let the Lord
salt us a little bit. The old timers used to say, if
you become thirsty, let the Lord salt you. Let him make you thirsty. Let him withhold the bread of
life for a little bit till you're hungry. Then tell me when you
come in here, how precious is the gospel? to your soul, that
feeds your heart, that feeds your soul. It's the only thing
that can comfort your heart as you go through this world below.
It's the only thing that can give you the gumption to get
up and keep going. It's the gospel. How precious
is that? How precious is his comforting
presence in your heart? Oh, it's precious. Something that I've learned in
the midst of different trials that I have been in. I could have understood this
till I actually went through it and actually experienced it. But having his presence in your
heart, you'd rather have that than relief from the trial. That's
how precious he is, how precious his His presence is in your heart,
that Christ is always enough to save you and to keep you saved. Oh, it's precious. It's precious. And someone might think, well,
preacher, you don't know me. I'm such a sinner. I'm so vile. I'm ashamed to even tell you.
I got a pretty good idea. I got a pretty, because I'm just
like you. And you know what the message
of the mercy seat is? Fear not. Christ has you covered. Especially when our girls were
in college, you know, now they got jobs and they can afford
to get all kinds of stuff and do all kinds of things, especially,
you know, when they were in college. The car would break down and
we'd go out to dinner and, you know, they'd say, you know, you
want this split up three or four ways? You want one check? And
I got in the habit of telling them, girls, don't worry, I got
you covered. I got you covered. That's what the mercy seat tells
us. In all of our sin, in all of
our weakness, in all of our need, Christ has his people covered. It's covered. Whatever the requirement
is, it's covered. Whatever it is you need, it's
covered. Now come rest in him. The Lord Jesus Christ is so precious. He's everything that you need.
I really can't think of a better reason for us to trust Him than
that, can you? Well, all right, here's the second thing. Christ
is an exact fit for everything that we need. The dimensions
of this, the mercy seat, says two and a half cubits shall be
the length thereof and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
That's the exact measurements of the top of the Ark of the
Covenant. so that it fits on there exactly. It's not too short. It's not too narrow. It's an
exact fit. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
to us. He's an exact fit for everything that we need. He's
an exact fit to pay the redemption price for an exact number of
people that the father gave him to save in the covenant of grace.
His righteousness is an exact fit to make all of his people
righteous. His sacrifice is an exact fit
to pay the price for the sin of all of his people. I can't really show, but just
imagine if it you know, kind of look like this. Christ is
not too broad. So there's some hanging over
here and wasted. There's none of his sacrifice
wasted. It's not like, Oh, you know,
Christ died for you, but if you don't accept him as your personal
savior, that he's, he's wasted his blood. Don't, don't you feel
sorry for him? He, he suffered in vain. No, no, no. He's not
too, he's not too long. So that there's some wasted and
he's not too narrow. so that he's not able to save
any sinner that comes to him begging for mercy, begging for
salvation on God's terms. He's not too narrow. He will
save every, he's an exact fit to save every sinner that comes
to him begging for mercy. Christ died to make salvation
sure for every sinner that wants salvation. He died to make salvation
certain for all of God's elect That's why he's an exact fit.
And when they put this mercy seat on top of the ark, you know
what it covered. It covered the law. Remember
last week we talked, we looked at how they put the 10 commandments
and they put the pot of manna and they put Aaron's rod that
butted in it. And then they put the mercy seat on top of it.
It covered it all. Christ has covered the law, all
of it for his people. He was obedient. to every point
of the law. Not just outwardly, but in motive,
in heart, in desire. He kept all of God's law perfectly. He completely covered every requirement
in God's law. And here's the amazing thing.
He freely imputes that righteousness, that obedience to his people.
He gives it to them for free to make them righteous. You don't have to worry. Whatever
it is that you read in the law, that the law requires of you,
you don't have to worry about it. Christ has got it covered.
He's an exact fit for everything that we need. And not only is
Christ an exact fit for everything we need, He's an exact fit for
everything that the Father requires too. Christ's perfect obedience. makes his people righteous, makes
his people what the Father must have them be in order to accept
them in his presence. Once Christ has made his people
righteous, now the Father's right to accept them. Now he's right
to say, come boldly before the throne of grace that you may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Come boldly
because Christ has made you everything the Father requires of you. The
blood of Christ's sacrifice, that precious blood, we're redeemed
with that precious blood. It was so precious, the father
said, that's enough. He quit pouring out his wrath
upon his son on Calvary's tree because the father said, it's
enough. He's paid the price. If you and
I suffered in hell for eternity, we wouldn't even start to pay
for one's sins. But in those three hours on Calvary's
tree, the suffering of Christ, who is so precious, who is so
valuable to the Father, the Father said, it's enough. The debt's
paid in full. See, the blood of Christ has
covered the broken law. It's covered it, so even God
can't see it. You know, when we think of covering
something, Earl was talking about his dad making him whitewash
the fence. I would imagine all their imperfections and dirt,
whatever on that fence, you just whitewashed over it. It was still
there, just nobody could see it. That's not what God means
when he says the blood of Christ has covered our sin. He's just
using a word you and I can understand. Our sin, the sin of God's people
is not still there. It's just that God can't see
it because it's covered, you know, with the blood. If that
was true, God's all-seeing eye would still see it, wouldn't
he? He'd see past that, he'd see that. When Christ covered
the sin of his people, his blood was so precious, it was so powerful,
it made the sin of God's elect to not exist anymore. So that Christ, by his sacrifice
and by his obedience, made it right. for the father to show
mercy to his people. That just makes me, I mean, I
guess I probably say that in almost every message I preach,
but I'm telling you, that makes me wanna jump up and down for
joy and happiness. The sacrifice of Christ made
it right for the father to show mercy to me. I just, what a covering,
what a savior. Pictured in that slab of gold. Isn't that something? However
valuable that thing would have been, it doesn't compare to the
value and preciousness of Christ, does it? Then thirdly, this mercy
seat gives us a picture of the power of Christ to save. Verse
18 says, and thou shalt make two cherubims of gold. A beaten
work shalt thou make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
and make one cherub in the one end of it, and the other cherub
in the other end. Even of the mercy seat shall
you make the cherubims in 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. This mercy
seat was all one piece, and these cherubims were on either end
of it. You know, cherubims are not like
you see on these greeting cards, this kind of chubby, cute little
child with wings. That's not what a cherubim looked
like. They were fearsome, fearsome creatures. These cherubims are
pictures or symbols of power, of heavenly power. These are
mighty living creatures, all one piece, all one piece. If you tried to separate the
cherubim from the mercy seat, you'd destroy it because it's
all one piece. And this is the problem about
men preaching a Jesus who does not have the power to save without
your input. You gotta help him, you gotta
do something in order to make that sacrifice effectual for
you. When they do that, they've destroyed the gospel because
they've preached the sacrifice of Christ without the power of
Christ. That's what these cherubims are
a picture of, his power. Here's the way a sinner comes
to Christ. It would be nice someday in glory
if I could meet this fella. I think about him a lot. The
leper that came to our Lord as he came down from the mountain.
He came and bowed at the feet of the Savior and scripture says
worshiped him. He worshiped him. He wasn't worshiping
him because the Lord had done something for him, because the
Lord hadn't done anything for him yet, and he didn't know if the
Lord would do anything for him or not. But this is what he said,
and this tells us what is the heart of true worship. Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. And he shut up. And he stayed there at the feet
of Christ. Here's one thing I know, there is no lack of power on
the part of God in order to save me. What I don't know is, is
he willing to? I don't know, but I'm gonna find
out if I stay at his feet. One way or another, whether he
has mercy on me or not, whether he reaches out and touches me
or not, I'm staying at his feet. Because if he will, if he's pleased
to do it, he can make me whole. That dependence on Christ, and
that waiting on him to do what he will, and whatever he does
with me is right. Just waiting on him to do whatever
it is that he will, that's at the heart of worship. And these
cherubim, like I said, they were one piece. Scripture says it
was a beaten work, a beaten work. Now you think of the skill. I
mean, the scripture talks about the Lord giving people special
skills in order to make these things in the tabernacle. But
you think of the skill that it took to take a hunk of gold,
and they probably got it from, remember all the jewels and all
the stuff, you know, that the Egyptians gave Israel as they
were leaving? They took a bunch of that gold and melted it down.
And now they got it in just a big old hunk of gold. And some man
took a hammer and chisel and whatever it was he took and started
beating on this thing until it was one piece that looked like
that with the cherubims on the end of it. That's the kind of
skill and artistry I don't know anything about. I just don't
have the slightest skill. I still can't even color in the
lines. I mean, I don't have any of that kind of skill. But this
man, whoever was made this did. Well, I'll tell you what that's
a picture of. I don't know if you want to call
it the skill or the ability, whatever you want to call it
of the father. The Savior said, a body has thou prepared me. The father prepared a body for
his son, the body of a man, a human being who is able to live for
roughly 33 and a half years on this earth, satisfying the Holy
God completely every second of that time. What a body that that
was. But that man, in order to redeem
his people, he had to be beaten, didn't he? He had to be punished. He had to be beaten for the sin
of his people. Mercy to sinners requires the
Lord Jesus Christ take a beating for you and me. Remember, mercy
is God not giving us what we do deserve. The only way God
can give me what I do not deserve is if he gave Christ what I deserve.
And that's what happened at Calvary. He was beaten. He was beaten
and wounded and bruised for our transgressions. In order for
there to be redemption, there must be suffering. There must
be blood. And that's what these cherubim
are constantly looking at. Their faces are toward each other,
and they're constantly looking down on the mercy seat where
the blood's gonna be sprinkled, where the blood's gonna be sprinkled
by the high priest. Okay, here's the fourth thing.
The only place for sinners to hide is in Christ. These cherubims are stretching
out their wings toward each other, and ours are kind of towards
each other, but I think actually what it was is they kind of formed
an umbrella over this. Their wings covered the mercy
seat, And when light shone down on it, there's a shadow made
by their wings. David referred to that shadow,
the shadow of thy wings, four times. And when he does, I'll
tell you what he means. He means a place of mercy, the
mercy seat. Psalm 17 verse eight, David says,
keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy
wings. Psalm 36 verse seven, How excellent
is thy loving kindness, O God. Therefore, the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They put their
trust in that blood that's been sprinkled under the shadow of
these wings. Psalm 63, verse seven, because thou hast been
my help, therefore, in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. Here's what a believer rejoices
in, what that blood that's been sprinkled in the shadow of these
wings what that blood accomplished. That's why we rejoice. Now the
last one, Psalm 57, turn over there with me. Psalm 57, David
wrote when he's on the run from Saul. Not only does David need
mercy for his soul, he needs mercy for God to protect him
from Saul. Saul's seeking to kill him. Saul's
the most powerful man in the Well, the whole world that's
known to David anyway, he's the most powerful man in the world
is seeking David's life to destroy him. David needs help. David
needs mercy. And look what he says, verse
one, Psalm 57. Be merciful unto me, O God, be
merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the
shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, and to these calamities
be overpassed. I've come to the conclusion that
this life is a calamity. I mean, it's not
just a series of calamities, although it is, it's just a calamity. I mean, it's just, what a mess. Where are you going to hide?
Where are you gonna find protection? Where are you gonna find hope?
Where are you gonna find comfort? It's in the shadow of His wings,
isn't it? I need mercy for my soul. I need mercy to save me. I'm
guilty, I'm vile, I need mercy to save me. Where are you gonna
find it? In the shadow of His wings. And the Lord sends us
one trial after another, after another, after another, For a
variety of purposes, but this is what's behind every one of
those trials, to teach us to trust Him. We've got to be taught
trusting, trusting. Well, where are you going to
hide when you need help, when you need comfort? Until this
calamity of this trial is over, is passed, where are you going
to find help? In the shadow of His wings, in the shadow of His
wings. There's just one place for a
sinner to hide against God's wrath, against our sin. Isaiah
told us about it. If you hide in Christ, when the
overflowing scourge of God's wrath passes through, it won't
touch you. It won't even come near you,
because Christ, your refuge, is taking it for you. Just like
the ark took the punishment for Noah's sins and the sins of his
family in there, Water still fell on their sin, punishment
still fell on their sin, but it didn't fall on them, because
the ark bore it. That's what David's talking about
here. I'm going to find protection in the blood of Christ, where
this blood is sprinkled because he bore the punishment that I
deserve. That's where I'm hiding. I'm
hiding in him and him alone. And I tell anybody here that's
seeking mercy from God, If there's anybody listening to this recording
later on, if anybody's seeking mercy, I got good news for you. You come to Christ and you'll
find it. You come to Christ and you'll find it. God meets with
sinners in both mercy and truth in Christ, in the shadow of these
wings, where the blood of Christ has been sprinkled. All right,
here's the last thing. There's one place. A sinner can
meet with God in peace, and it's in Christ our propitiation, Christ
our mercy seat. Back in our text, verse 22 says,
verse 21, he says, and thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon
the ark, and in the ark shalt thou put the testimony that I
shall give thee, and there, on top of that mercy seat, will
I meet with thee. And I'll commune with you. I'll
talk with you. I'll 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 shall give thee in commandment
under the children of Israel." You know, the Shekinah glory
of God shown between these wings of the cherubim above the mercy
seat. The glory of God dwelt above
this mercy seat that was under those coverings inside the Holy
of Holies, the presence of God, the glory
of God dwelt there. And we'll have to get to that
later on, but that's a picture that the glory of God dwelling
inside the tabernacle, the body of Christ as he tabernacled among
us. But this is the question I really want us to think about
tonight. How is it that the Holy God, can dwell in the midst. The tabernacle is in the middle
of the camp, and all 12 tribes camped around it. And their rebellion,
and their lack of faith, and their sin is renowned, isn't
it? How could God dwell in the midst
of that sinful people? The same way he can dwell in
the midst of this sinful people, it's in Christ. It's by the blood
of Christ's sacrifice. See, in order for God to save
a sinner, the first thing God's got to do is something for himself. He's got to do something for
himself. He can't violate his holiness. He can't violate his
righteousness. He can't violate his justice. He can't violate any of his character
and ignore our sin and accept us into his presence. God's justice
must be appeased. There must be holiness. There
must be righteousness. but the propitiation of Christ.
The sacrifice of Christ that made a covering, put away the
sin of God's people, enables God to stay God, to stay holy,
to stay just, to stay right, and still show mercy to a poor
sinner. Because their sin's been forgiven.
It's been paid for, it's been covered, it's been removed by
the blood of Christ. See, once sin's put away, now
God, with a smile on his face, shows mercy to his people. It's
not like he's showing mercy because I got to, you know, your sin
has been paid, but you're still sinning. No, with a smile on
his face, because there's no more fury left in him. He shows
mercy to his people because of the sacrifice of Christ. I want
to show you in closing, just a couple of scriptures. Look
first at Hebrews chapter two. The Hebrew word that we translate
has been translated mercy seat. is the Greek word that's translated
propitiation. And the word means to appease. It means to make satisfaction.
And here that word's used in Hebrews 2 verse 17. Wherefore
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. Now
the way this word should, propitiation, or yeah, reconciliation, the
way that should have been translated is to make a propitiation, to
make a mercy seat, to make a mercy seat. Christ was a faithful high
priest and things pertained to God to be a mercy seat that would
cover the sins of his people. Now look at 1 John 2. That's
who Christ is. That's what he came to do. That's
what he came to be for his people. And this thing of propitiation
goes far, far, far, far past just a legal thing. The propitiation,
the mercy seat is a person. It's a person. First John two,
verse one. My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, 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,
and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Christ is the propitiation. He doesn't just give us propitiation.
He is the propitiation for our sins. Look at 1 John 4, verse
10. He says the same thing here. Herein is love. Now, if you want
to know what love is, John says, here it is. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us. And he sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. He didn't send his son to give
us a propitiation. He sent his son as the propitiation
for our sins. And as I told you in the opening
of the service, everything about this mercy seat, when you look
at it all in total, this is what it's all telling us. Come to
God in Christ and you will be accepted. And the best example
that I can think of of that in scripture is the passage I read
to open the service. The publican and the Pharisee
that came into the temple to pray, the Pharisee prayed with
himself. He's just bragging on himself,
isn't he? But that publican prayed. He prayed. He wouldn't look up. He's too ashamed. He's too guilty.
He can't look up to God. He's not going to look God in
the face. He's ashamed. He's hanging his head in shame.
And he's beating upon his chest. He's beating upon the root of
the problem. It's his heart. And he cried, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. And you know what that word merciful
is? Make propitiation. Or be propitious. God make propitiation
for me. God be propitious. God cover
my sin. He met God at the mercy seat,
didn't he? He met him in Christ. And what did the Lord say of
that sinful man? He went down to his house justified,
made sinless, accepted in Christ. And I'm confident of this. If
you and I come the same way, we'll go down to our house justified
too. because of Christ our Mercy Seed. Oh, he's so precious. All
right, I hope that'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for Christ our Mercy Seed, the one who made propitiation for
our sin, the one who came to be the propitiation, the sin
covering for his people. Oh, how we thank you. What little bit of our sin that
we see is so great and how it makes our hearts rejoice to hear
one more time that Christ has came and covered the sin of his
people, put those sins away and made us accepted in him. Father,
how we thank you. Father, I pray that you would
bless your word to the hearts of your people and that you'd
bless it to your glory, that we might see your glory that
our faith and hope and trust might be in Christ and Christ
alone. Fathers, for his sake, his glory we pray. Amen. Well, I really can't think of
a better chorus for us to sing after that message on the mercy
seat than, Oh, How Merciful. We'll sing it through twice.
It's kind of short. We'll sing it through twice. Oh, 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. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. All right, you're dismissed.