Okay, Exodus 25, begin reading
in verse 10, where we have the instructions for the Ark of the
Covenant. And they shall make an ark of shed of 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. 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 borne with them. The staves shall be in the rings
of the ark, they shall not be taken out of it. And thou shalt
put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee." in here. They put it in here.
The only piece of furniture is here in the Holy of Holies. The
Ark is the crown jewel of the tabernacle. God gave instructions
for the Ark first. Now, we've kind of looked at
everything from the outside in, but when you look at the order
in which God gave instruction, He gave the instruction for the
Ark first. And all the writers say that's
because it's in the order of importance. This is the most
important piece of furniture in the tabernacle. The whole
tabernacle was built to house this ark. When Solomon, when
he built the temple, he remade every piece of furniture except
the ark. One ark was all they ever used.
One ark, one mercy seat. He never had to remake it. And
they called the ark the throne of Jehovah in Israel. This was
considered God's throne in Israel. And like I said, the whole tabernacle
was built. Everything we've studied so far
was built for this purpose. So there'd be a place to house
the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat. And that's a picture
of Christ. God prepared a human body for
our Lord Jesus Christ for this reason. God created the earth,
he did everything he did, everything he created, and then he prepared
a body for his Son. So there'd be a place where God
dwelt with men. And this is where the person
that the salvation of God's elect will be accomplished. It's going
to be accomplished in him. And that's what's pictured in
this Ark of the Covenant. Now, we've looked at all these
other pieces of furniture and they all told us something that
Christ did. Usually, they're not showing
us something about the person of Christ. They're showing us
something that Christ did or that he does for his people.
The Ark is different. It doesn't so much tell us what
Christ did. It tells us who he is. Who is he? What does it tell
us about his character and his person? Now, the Ark was four
feet long, two and a half feet wide, two and a half feet tall,
and it was made, we read that, of
the incorruptible wood covered with gold. Every week we're hearing
this talk about these two elements of wood, the gold or wood and
the brass. You know what it means. It's
a picture of the two natures of Christ. He's God and man.
That incorruptible wood is a picture of his sinless humanity. The
Lord Jesus was a real man. I mean, you can't. This is so
important. We understand this. It's not
he wasn't like he was a man. He was a man just like we are
human being just like we are. But he was sinless. And that's
why even even though on the cross, God made him to be sin for his
people. He put that sin away of his blood. When they put that
dead body in the tomb, his body didn't decay. Our body would
decay, because we're sinners. His body saw no decay, because
he's sinless, he's perfect. And in that sinless humanity,
that wood was covered with gold, which is a picture of his deity.
The Lord Jesus Christ was a real man, and he's God. Who can explain that? Nobody
can, but he's the God-man. There's two natures, God and
man. But there's one man, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Just like there's two materials
made this art, wood and the gold, but just one box. That's a picture
of Christ. And the humanity of Christ, the
fact that he was a man is important. And that's this wood, you know,
we talked about this wood, this incorruptible wood, every week
seems like we're talking about it, aren't we? What we're talking
about every week must be important. If God showed it to us over and
over and over again, the sinless humanity of Christ. Christ must be a man. or you
and I have no hope of salvation. The Savior must be a man. If
he's going to be our representative, if he's going to be our substitute,
he can't be God, because you and me don't have the nature
of God. He had to become a man. He had to have our nature so
he could be our representative and our substitute. And since
Christ is a man, now you get a hold of this. He's a man. Right now, there's a man. and
glory at the right hand of the Father. And because He's a man,
He can have compassion on you and me. He can have compassion
on the weakness of our flesh. You get tired and you... Our
Lord understands. He got tired. You get hungry,
thirsty and... He understands. He got hungry
and thirsty as a man. He understands. He has compassion. Now, if our Lord became a man,
If God became a man, don't you reckon He must love men? He must! Kendin, would you become a maggot?
I wouldn't either. Not in your life would I become
a maggot. You know why? I don't love them. I hate them. They're gross. I don't want to
look at them. I don't want to see them. I don't want to think about
them. I wouldn't become a maggot. I'd turn up my nose and just
talk this thing to words. I just became a man. And he went down a whole lot
further to become a man than we'd go down to be a maggot.
Why would he do that? Because he loves his people.
He loves men and women, boys and girls. He has a compassion
for people. Now the wood that they used to
build this ark, we've talked about it over and over and over
again, this shidum wood, came from the acacia tree. I think
that's how you say it, the acacia tree. That's the only tree that
grew to any size in this desert. Well, they're going from Egypt
to the Promised Land. They're in that desert area. It's the
only tree that grew to any size at all in that desert. And it's
a picture of Christ. Like I said, it's incorruptible.
It won't rot. Just like the body of our Lord
Jesus Christ was incorruptible. It saw no corruption because
it's sinless. But it pictures Christ in many
more ways than it's incorruption. That acacia tree grew in the
desert. It could thrive in an area where
there's very little water. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
How is he described? Isaiah said he's a root out of
dry ground. Not only did our Lord just grow
and be and become a man, he thrived. He was the perfect man. Even
though he was a root out of dry ground, he thrived as a man.
He was perfect. And that acacia tree, you know
what grows around that wood? Long, sharp thorns. In that picture
of Christ, at Calvary, what was he crowned with? A crown of thorns. Long, sharp thorns, just like
the thorns that grow in this tree. And about nightfall, you
know what the people would do to that acacia tree? They wouldn't
do it during the daytime. At nightfall, when it started
to get dark, they'd go pierce that tree to get the sap out
of it. And you know what they'd use that sap for? To make medicine. That tree, the sap of that tree
had healing powers to heal different kinds of diseases and things
that they had. That's a picture of Christ. When he is pierced,
God shut off the sun. It's the middle of the day, but
when he is pierced, God shut off the sun. And in that darkness,
he was pierced. And out from him came the Bible
of Gilead. In him, diseased sinners are
made perfectly holy and healthy. in Christ. He's the great physician
who died to make sinners whole. So that's the wood that they
used. All the different features of that wood are a picture of
Christ. But then they covered it with gold. Christ was a man,
but he never stopped being God. He was always God. And they put
around the top of this box a crown. And that's showing us the kingship
of Christ. And the kingship of Christ is
always tied to the sacrifice. Now, we'll look at the mercy
seat next week, but that mercy seat fit in exactly inside that
crown. It was a perfect fit. And once
a year, what happened to the mercy seat? The high priest sprinkled
the blood of the sacrifice on it. It got on the mercy seat.
It got on this crown. This crown is tied to the sacrifice,
how God forgives the sin of people. And we talk a lot about the kingship
of Christ, the sovereignty of Christ. That's not, you all are
very familiar with that. You hear it a lot. God's sovereign.
You know that, don't you? God's sovereign. Well, you know,
that's not just a point of doctrine or some true statement about
God that we make. God's sovereign. I'll tell you
how important it is. If we do not preach and declare
God's sovereign. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Sovereign Savior. If we don't declare that, we're
not preaching the gospel. You cannot preach the gospel
without preaching the sovereignty of God and salvation that Christ
is the Sovereign Savior. When He came into this world,
when He was born, He was born the King. They came looking for
Him. He was born King of the Jews.
He's already king. He didn't become a baby and grow
and somebody crowned him king. He was already king. He was born
king. We wrote him in Jerusalem before he was crucified. How
did the people hail him? Hail King of the Jews, they said.
He's king. When he died on the cross, he
died as king. What was the charge Pilate wrote
to put above his head? King of the Jews. He's king. And he never stopped being king.
At this moment, Christ sits on a throne in glory because he's
king. The father told him, you sit
here on my right hand. I'll make your image your footstool.
He's sitting there as king. So everything that happens, everything
that we see happen in our lives happens at his will and his permission,
by his permission, because he's king. And when he returns, he's
going to return as king. When he walked this earth, everybody
didn't see him as king. They thought he was just a man.
They thought he was a carpenter's son. They thought he was a homeless
man. He's a radical. People today don't see him as
king. You know, they hear people preach, I don't preach a sovereign
savior. They don't see him as king. But
I tell you this, when he returns, every eye is going to see him
as king. And it's God's grace, it's God's
grace that you know he's king. And the only way we'll bow to
him as king is if God gives us grace. Isn't it Eric? It takes
his grace. And if God's gracious to you,
I'll tell you the first thing you'll do. You'll bow to the
kingship of Christ. He's king. I'm in his hands to
do with me as he pleases, whatever he pleases. Whatever! Our just
thankful he's pleased to be gracious to his people. That's the grace
of the king, the sovereign king. We talk about God's sovereignty.
This is not just a point of doctrine. You know, we're going to be right
on this doctrine and everybody else is wrong. That's not why
we make this point so plain, so clear. We preach Christ as
king, first of all, for his glory, because that's who he is. He's
king. But it's also for the comfort of his people and the encouragement
of his people. You don't have to worry about
this thing. Our God's in control. He's king. So that's what this
crown represented. And then they went to carry the
Ark with these staves that they put through the rings. And they're
made just like the Ark. They're made of incorruptible
wood covered with gold. And they never took, once they
put these staves into rings, they never took them out. Or
they weren't supposed to take them out at any rate. And you
know why they had to carry it by these staves? Men couldn't
touch the Ark. No man was allowed to touch the
Ark. If you touched it, you'd die.
You could carry it by the stage, but you couldn't touch the Ark.
Uzzah learned that lesson, didn't he? One day, the Philistines
captured the Ark, and they kept it for a while. And God smote
them with all these kinds of diseases and stuff, and they
sent a message to David, you come get this Ark and get it
out of here. And God's punished us for having this Ark. So David,
he didn't send the priest to get it, did he? He had a new
cart made. Big strong oxen said, put the
ark on the cart and bring it back to Israel. Well, they were
bringing it back. The oxen stumbled. The ark started
to slip. Uzzah just reached up. He didn't want God to fall on
the ground. He just reached his hand up to steady it. And the
moment he touched it, God killed him. Now, it wasn't just that
he broke a commandment of God. Well, that's bad enough. He violated
the picture. No man can come to God and live
unless we come through Christ. We have to come through Christ
the mediator. We can't trifle with God's holiness. When we preach the gospel, we
can't gloss over the fact that God's holy in order to make people
happy and make people accept the message. You can't trifle
with that. You can't trifle with God's Son. You can't trifle with anything
about Him. You can't trifle with anything that He did. God won't
have it. Just like He wouldn't even let
us Touch the Ark to keep it from falling on the ground. You can't
trifle with God's Son. Now, there are three things that
they kept inside this Ark. And all these things tell us
something about the person of Christ. First, they put the tables
of the Law. The two tables with the Ten Commandments
written on them. And they kept them in this Ark.
Now, you remember, God wrote the Law on tables of stones two
different times. The first time He wrote them,
He gave them to Moses. And Moses is carrying down those tables
of stone. He's carrying down the law with
him to give to the people. And he got down from the mountain.
He'd been up there so long that people thought he's not coming
back. And they got Moses' brother Aaron to make them an idol, a
golden calf. And they're dancing around that
thing, worshiping it, when Moses comes down from the mountain
with the law of God. And he was so angry. He'd just
been up there with God for 40 days. Oh, he was just rejoicing. I'm sure he comes down, saw the
people worshiping that idol, and in anger, he threw those
stones down, broke them. A little while later, God called
Moses back up. He wrote the law again on another
set of tables. But this time, he told Moses,
don't you keep them. You put them in the ark for safety.
And it's a good thing. Moses broke God's law. Adam broke
God's law. Man can't be trusted with God's
law. We can't keep it. So God said, put it in the ark
and it'll be kept safe in there. Well, that's a picture of Christ.
As a man, he kept God's law perfectly. It never was broken a bit. Look
in Psalm 40. Psalm 40, verses 7 and 8. Two
verses, so I've got to volunteer. You want to read it, Lucy? Verses 7 and 8. Got it? Good, thank you. Thy law is within
my heart. Christ kept that law in him the
same way the tables of stone were kept in the Ark. Now, the
Ark, he calls it the Ark of the Testimony. When you put in the
Ark, you put in the Testimony. Why did God call his law the
Testimony, those Ten Commandments? He called them the Testimony. Because God's will is revealed
in those Ten Commandments. His will for perfection, his
will for worshiping God. That's what man is supposed to
be. We can't keep that. But Christ did. He revealed God's
will. He revealed what man is supposed
to be when he kept that testimony, kept that law perfectly. And
he didn't just keep it perfectly because he had to. Well, we just
read there, I delight. I delight to do thy will. I delight
to keep thy law." He delighted to keep that law perfectly for
his people, and give them his obedience, give them his righteousness
so that they'd be accepted in him. But in order to keep the
law, God's Son had to become a man, didn't he? Of course he
kept the law. He's holy, he's God, but he had
to keep the law as a man. He was born under the law as
a man, and he kept Every jot and tittle of the law. He circumcised
eighth day. He kept every Passover. He kept
every Sabbath day. Every day, he obeyed God perfectly. Every day, he loved God with
all his heart, mind, and soul. He kept it perfectly. Christ
not only kept the law, he magnified it and made it honorable. The
way the Pharisees treated the law, they made it bondage and
they made it sound like a horrible, ugly thing. Christ honored the
law, magnified it, made it beautiful. So the believer says, I love
your law. Nothing wrong with the law. I love your law. Because
Christ kept it for us. Christ kept the law outwardly
and inwardly. This law was kept inside the
ark. He didn't just keep the law outwardly.
Nobody saw him commit any sin. He kept the law outwardly in
the eyes of men. So men never saw him sin. But
he kept it inwardly, too. In the eyes of God, where God
looks, on the heart. He kept the law perfectly. And
he didn't just do that for himself. He had no need to become a man
and keep the law. He's already holy. He's already righteous.
He didn't do that for himself. He did it for somebody else.
He did it for his people. So he could have an obedience
to give to his people. And we stand before God righteous.
He imputed that to us. And Christ not only kept the
law, Christ satisfied the justice of the broken law. He kept the
law, and then God made him to be sin for his people. He made
him to be sin for us who do no sin. And he died under the demands
of God's broken law to satisfy God's justice. And now, the law
has no claim on anyone for whom Christ died, because he satisfied
the law. He kept it perfectly, imputes
that obedience to his people. And then he satisfied the justice
of the broken law for his people. So the law says everyone for
whom Christ died is perfect and righteous. How can I have that? That's what
I want more than anything else. I want to be like Christ. I want
to be made not what I am, but what he is. How can I have that?
By faith. Scripture says it's by believing
Christ. Christ is the end of the law.
for righteousness to everyone that what? Believes. Trust in, believes, has faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we say Christ is the end
of the law, it means he's the goal. The goal of the law is
to show us who and what we are, show us how sinful we are, and
point us to Christ, who kept the law perfectly for his people.
And I promise you this, if God ever gives you eyes to see, The
Lord Jesus Christ, that'll be the end of your law keeping.
That'll be the end of your law keeping trying to please God. It'll be the end of it. You'll
quit trying to earn your salvation the moment you see Christ. You'll
rest in Christ the moment God gives you faith to believe Him
and see Him. So that's the law. Then secondly, they put manna
in the ark. Look in Exodus chapter 16. Moses said unto Aaron, Take a
pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up
before the Lord, to be kept for your generations. As the Lord
commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to
be kept." It was kept there always. In Hebrews chapter 9, we read
that that pot was a golden pot. It's a picture of the deity of
Christ. Kept that bread in the golden
pot. And that is the bread of life. Now, in order for our life
to be sustained, in order for us to keep life, we've got to
eat. If you don't eat, you're going
to die. That's Christ, the bread of life. And Christ is food to
the believer this way. Christ is everything we need.
He's everything we need for life. It's all in Him. Now, while the
children of Israel were in the wilderness, they ate manna. Every day they ate manna. The
moment they came into the promised land, the manna quit coming.
The manna was over when they entered into the promised land.
God's people feed on Christ, the bread of life, by faith,
while we're on our pilgrimage through this wilderness of sin
below. The moment we enter glory, And
we don't, we won't feed on Christ by faith anymore. We'll have
him in person. We'll see him in person. But
the manna, you know, the children of Israel put this, they almost
made an idol out of the manna. All the manna did was give physical
life to the children of Israel while they were in that wilderness.
That's why our Lord told the Pharisees, your fathers did eat
the manna in the wilderness, but they're dead. They died because
all it could do was give physical life, no spiritual life. They
still must die because of sin. But Christ is the true bread
that came down from heaven. Look at John chapter 6. All that manna was, was a picture. But Christ is the true bread. I have two volunteers, somebody
read verse 50, somebody read verse 51. John 6? Maggie? Who's going to read verse 51?
Okay. Good, thank you. Christ is the
bread of life. That can't be more plain, can
it? Christ is the bread of life. And we eat Him, we take Him,
we lay hold on Him by faith. And I'm telling you, if you have
Christ, you'll never starve because He's eternal. You'll never run
out of bread because He's eternal. He's all the believer will ever
need. And that bread of life was pictured
by the manna that was kept in the Ark. And then last, Aaron's
rod that budded. Now, you can read about, if you
want this afternoon, number 16, the rebellion of Korah. And that rebellion was all over
this issue. Who's priest? Who's in control? Korah said, Moses and Aaron,
you're taking too much on yourself. Anybody can do that. I'm going
to do it. I'm going to take some of your power, some of your authority
and responsibility here in Israel. Well, God opened up the earth
and swallowed him up, so that's the end of that. But then number
17, God showed everybody, unmistakably, who's God's high priest, who
is God appointed to be the high priest. And they picked a prince,
one prince from every tribe, and they took their walking stick,
and they laid it down before the ark, and left it there overnight.
Aaron's rod was from the tribe of Levi, laying there overnight. They came in the next morning,
and look at number 17, see what happened. Number 17, verse 8, And it came to pass that on the
morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod
of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, brought forth buds,
that bloomed blossoms, and it yielded almonds. Now, there were
buds, there's blossoms, And there's proof. All three stages of life
bloomed on that rod overnight. And that rod, look at verse 10. The Lord said to Moses, bring
Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token
against the rebels, and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings
from me that they dine on. So they put this rod in the ark.
Now this rod that budded was a reminder to people. Don't you
murmur against God's high priest. Don't do it. Christ is God's
anointed. Christ is God's appointed high
priest. He's ordained of old to be the
savior of his people. Now don't murmur against him.
He's the only savior. If you murmur against him, you've
murmured against the only way to have life and you'll die in
your sin. Don't murmur against him. After this plague, Israel
lived. You know why? Only one reason. Aaron, the high priest, went
and made intercession for them. He made an atonement for them
that they died not, because he's the high priest, and God accepted
it. Now, Aaron died. Christ is not the high priest
after the order of Aaron. Christ is the high priest after
the order of Melchizedek. Christ has an unchangeable eternal
priesthood, and there he is. He's still the high priest. Aaron
wasn't a high priest for very long. Christ is the High Priest
forever, and God's people live in Him, because Christ ever liveth
to make intercession for us. Christ has been chosen by God
to be the High Priest that will make the one sacrifice for sin,
for the sin of His people, and put it away. So don't look for
another one. Christ is the High Priest. Don't
look for another High Priest. Don't look for another sacrifice.
Christ is God's appointed High Priest. And second, this rod
shows us this. We have life in Christ. Do you think about those 12 walking
sticks laying there in front of this ark? That's a dead stick. Aaron's rod was a dead stick
just like the rest of them. He cut it off a tree a long time
ago, been using it as a walking stick ever since. It was dead.
It was dry. There's no life in it. Yet overnight,
it blossomed. It had buds and blossoms and
fruit on it. That's a picture of Christ. Christ
did die. But he was raised again, wasn't
he? He raised himself from the tomb and he'll never die again. And he bears much fruit in this
way. He's going to make many more
people just like him. Many more people. And this is
showing us spiritual life is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only place you'll find it. It's in Christ. And a sinner
like you and me has eternal life by union with Christ. We talk
about this vital union with Christ. It means we're joined to Christ.
So we have from Him everything He is because we're joined to
Him in union with Him. God's elect live because Christ
was raised from the tomb. His resurrection is our life.
And we get that life from Him. He's the vine. We're the branches.
All we are is dead sticks. We've been dead a long time.
However long ago it was, Adam fell. That's how long we've been
dead since. But even though we've been dead all this time, we're
born dead, it seems. We have life by being joined
to Christ. He gives his life to his people. And we have it by faith. Our
Lord said, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I'm the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live. It's through faith. Have that
life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then last,
quickly, let me give you this. I like this. Whenever they packed
up the tabernacle to move it, God gave instructions for how
to move everything. And the instructions for moving
the Ark, you can read about it in Numbers 4 this afternoon,
if you'd like. Nobody ever saw the Ark. They
took down that veil and just put it over top of the Ark so
nobody ever saw it. And they wrapped it up And that
veil, which is, we looked at that last week, is such a glorious
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they covered the veil with
badger skin, a picture of the humanity of Christ, this Savior,
the one's going to come where the mercy seat is, the King.
He's going to be a man, a real man. And last, they covered it
with the blue cloth. Blue is the color of heaven,
telling us this one is coming. He's coming from heaven. He's
gone. Now they used those claws to cover the different pieces
of furniture as they moved around. You've heard that before, right?
But this order's different. Normally the badger skin's on
the outside. Everything's covered with badger skin. The only piece
that was covered last with blue is the ark. So when they moved,
They saw the pieces of furniture going. They might not have known
what the other pieces of furniture were, but when they saw the balloon,
that's the Ark. Everybody knew immediately where
the Ark was. It was identified by a different
color than everything else. That's how we must preach the
Lord Jesus Christ. So clearly, everybody knows He's
the Savior. If we don't clearly point out
the Lord Jesus Christ, we've wasted our time. We can talk
about morality and law and doctrine all we want. That's not going
to do anybody a bit of good. But if we preach Christ, if we
point out the Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer for you children every
single day is you'll see Christ, that God will show you the Lord
Jesus Christ, your teachers, your pastor, People fill in teaching
your classes, your parents, this is our responsibility. Point
out Christ. At every opportunity, point out
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our function. And if people
see Him, God gives them eyes to see, that's salvation. That's
salvation. Alright, well, God bless that.