In Exodus 25, beginning in verse
10, we see the instructions given to Moses for the ark. And they shall make an ark of
shitem 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 thou
shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt
pass 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 shiddom 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 from it. And thou shalt
put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. Now
back a number of weeks ago, we began our study in the tabernacle. Janet told her class, three,
four, and five-year-olds back there, that there was a, she
said, it's a small house-looking thing, she said, out in the auditorium. She said, Frank's using it to
teach from it this morning. She said, there's something in
that. You might know what it is. That's all she told them.
She said, if you want to know what it is after Sunday school,
she said, I'll show you. So after Sunday school, Kendon
and Sidney wanted to see what was in this house looking thing. And Janet came, she took the
coverings off, and they looked inside that thing, and Kendon
said, ooh, it's the Ark of the Covenant. Janet said, that's
right. She stuck her finger in there
and pulled off the lid. And Sidney said, it's the Mercy
Seat. Five years old. How many adults
wouldn't know that? But you know the thing that got
me excited, I'll stand here watching that, is those children were
excited to see that, and they showed reverence when they saw
that. And I prayed this week that the
Lord would make us excited, and make us reverent, and enable
us to see Christ our Lord, Christ our Mercy Seeker. Kind of intimidated preparing,
knowing this was coming and preparing for this lesson. The ark is the
crown jewel of the tabernacle. A lot of the old writers say
the whole tabernacle structure was built to house the ark in
the mercy seat. God gave Moses the instructions
for the ark first, and he built it first because it was built
in order of importance. This is the crown jewel. This
is the, people called it the throne of God, the throne of
Jehovah in Israel. It was about four feet long,
about two feet or two and a half feet wide, two and a half feet
high. It was made, as we've seen so many times, of furniture and
pieces of the ark. It was made of the incorruptible
wood covered with gold. A picture of the God-man, the
two natures of Christ. The incorruptible wood is a picture
of his sinless humanity. The gold is a picture of his
deity. Two materials, but just one locks. Just like there are two natures,
but one man, the God-man, the man Christ Jesus. But it's interesting,
the wood that was used to make this box, this ark. Shittam wood
is made, I think I'm saying this right, the acacia tree. It was
the only tree that grew to any size there in the desert where
Israel was. And that wood that came from
that tree is incorruptible wood. It wouldn't rot. You cut it down,
use it for whatever you're going to use it for, it wouldn't rot.
And that's a picture of the sinless humanity of Christ. Even in death,
his body saw no decay because there was no sin in that body.
There's no sin in him at all. And the acacia tree, can thrive
in dry soil. In that desert land, that dry,
sandy soil, that tree can thrive. Well, that's a picture of Christ.
Isaiah said He's a root out of dry ground. And I'm telling you,
He thrived. He was a successful Savior. And
the acacia tree is known for its long, sharp thorns that grow
on it. Just like our Lord, He wore that
crown of thorns at Calvary. But here's something else interesting
about this tree. The people would take sap from
the acacia tree by piercing it at nightfall. From what I read,
they didn't pierce it during the day to get the sap, it was
always at nightfall. They'd pierce this tree to get
sap from it, and they'd use that sap to make medicine. Well, Christ
our Lord was pierced at Calvary, and when he was pierced, the
sun refused to shine. It was the middle of the day,
but the sun refused to shine, and he hung there in darkness.
But out of him flowed the balm of Gilead. Out of him, our great
physician, flowed the balm of Gilead to make sinners whole.
So that's the wood that was used to make this ark, and then it
was covered with the pure gold. And around the top of it was
a crown made of gold, which is a picture of the kingship of
Christ. Now the crown, the kingship of
Christ, is almost always tied to the sacrifice of Christ. We'll
see this here in a week or two, we get to study the mercy seat.
The mercy seat fit exactly in this crown of gold that pictures
the kingship of Christ. And what happened to the mercy
seat? Every year on the day of atonement, the high priest would
come in with the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkle it on
that mercy seat. And I'm sure some got on the
crown. The mercy seat's tied to the crown. The kingship of
Christ is tied to the sacrifice of Christ. He was born king. He was hailed as king when he
rode into Jerusalem. You know, the wise men said,
where is he that's born king of the Jews? He was hailed as
king when he rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. They hailed him
king of the Jews. He was crucified as king. This
is Jesus. King of the Jews. And at this
very moment, he sits on the right hand of God, enthroned as King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. And that tells me we must preach
Christ, the kingship of Christ. You cannot preach the gospel,
you cannot preach Christ without preaching the sovereign kingship
of Christ. Nothing, I don't care how minute
or how huge, nothing happens in this creation without the
express permission and will of Christ the King. Absolutely nothing
does. And that allows God's people
to take courage and find comfort. I don't care what it is that's
happening to us. It didn't happen to us by accident.
It happened to us from the will of our father. Something didn't
happen that's out of his control, out of his purpose. He's king. He is in control of his creation. And when it came time to move
the ark, the priests took the stays that were made of the incorruptible
wood covered with gold, and that's how they carried the ark. They
bore it upon their shoulders. And the slaves were never taken
out of the ring. Once they put them in, they were
to stay there forever, because this is the way the Ark was to
be carried. And God did that to show us no
man can approach God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Uzzah
and all of Israel learned that lesson. There was a time the
Ark was captured by the Philistines. And the Philistines suffered
so much trouble with the ark in their midst, they finally
called Israel, told David, get it out of here. Bring it back.
We don't want it anymore. And David sent a cart with oxen
to bring the ark. He didn't send the priest to
carry it back. He sent a cart with those oxen. And as they
were bringing it back, the oxen slipped and stumbled and the
ark started to fall. Well, nobody wants to see the
ark fall to the ground, do they? Us had just reached up to steady
it. And God killed him. No man can approach God apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot trifle with the holiness
of God. You cannot trifle with the Son
of God. I sat in my study yesterday.
And it's a fearful thing to prepare to teach and so forth. But it's a fearful thing. Fearful
might not be the right word. An awesome thing. to come worship
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not just here playing games.
We're not here trying to, you know, somehow be a little bit
different than somebody else and differentiate ourselves from
somebody else. We're here to worship the Lord
Jesus Christ. All my life, I mean as long as
I can remember, every Sunday, we come to worship the Lord.
We come to church. I'm 45 years old. I don't do
that just because that's what I did before I could even remember.
My mother brought me. It's not a habit. It's not a
social event. I'm glad to see everybody, but
it's not a social event. We're here to worship the Lord
Jesus Christ. You don't trifle with this blessed
privilege of worshiping God, having his word opened to us
from a servant of God that he's given the message to. You can't
trifle with that. Just like you could not trifle
with this ark. This is the crown jewel of the
tabernacle. And this whole ark, everything
about it, pictures the person and the work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It pictures his character and the work that he accomplished.
It did that through the three things God told Moses to put
in the ark. The first thing he told Moses is to put the Ten
Commandments, those two tables of stone. God told Moses, you
put it in the ark. Now you remember Moses received
two sets of those tables of stone. The first time, God told him,
you prepare the tables of stone and come to the mountain. He
did. God, with his finger, wrote on both sides of those tables
of stone the Ten Commandments. Gave them back to Moses. Moses
came down from the mountain, and how did he find the people?
In idolatry, worshiping a golden calf. And in anger, believe me,
I can understand it, Moses' anger. He threw those stones down in
anger, broke them. Well, a little while, God called
Moses back to the mountain. He said, make two more tables,
bring them back up to the mountain. Again, with the finger of God,
he wrote on those ten commandments, the law, the testimony on those
two tables of stone. But those two tables are not
left in the hands of a man. And it's a good thing. And Moses
both proved, don't you leave the law in the hands of a man,
they'll break it every time. God told Moses, you take those
stones and put it in the ark. That's where it'll be kept, in
the ark for safekeeping. Look over at Psalm chapter 40.
That's a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. He came to keep
God's law. The only one who ever did. And
the law was put in him. In Psalm 40 verse 7. Then said I, Lo, I come, and
the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do
thy will, O God. Yea, thy law is within my heart."
It was put in him, just like those two tables are put in this
heart. Christ was born under the law,
and he delighted to do the law. We chafe under the law because
our nature is sinful. He delighted in the law of God.
He delighted to do it. In every moment of his life,
he kept that law perfectly in his heart. He was circumcised
the eighth day. He kept every Sabbath day, never
missed one, never violated it in a moment. He kept every feast. Every day of his life, he loved
God with all his mind, heart, and soul. He not only kept the
law, he delighted to keep it. Scripture says he magnified the
law and made it honorable. Now, the law is spiritual. Not
only did Christ keep the law perfectly, outwardly, in the
eyes of men, he kept it spiritually, inwardly, in the eyes of God.
Kept it perfectly. But our Lord Jesus did not keep
the law as a private person. Now you and me, we can be private
people. Christ kept the law as a representative, the federal
head of his people. His obedience is our obedience. It's imputed to us by the Father.
And even though he kept the law perfectly in every jot and tittle,
Christ Jesus died under the justice of that very law. God made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, and he died under the just
demand of the broken law. He kept the law perfectly for
his people, and then he died to satisfy justice, the just
demands of the law. So now the law has absolutely
no claim on anyone for whom Christ died because he kept it, saved
it, perfectly in him. And scripture says that Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness, for everyone to believe it. Now
Christ is the end of the law. He's the goal of the law. The
goal of the law is not that we would keep the law and earn our
salvation or earn some sort of acceptance with God that we please
Him in any way through our law keeping. The goal of the law
is to show us how sinful that we are and point us to Christ
who kept the law, who always kept the law perfectly. And if
the Lord ever gives you eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ,
I promise you that's going to be the end of your law keeping.
That will be the end of your law keeping as a way to earn
salvation. Instead of working, working,
working, working, working to keep the law, you'll find rest
in Christ, who kept it for you as your substitute. So the law
was put in the ark for safekeeping. Second, if you look over in Exodus
16, the manna was put in the ark. Paul mentions that in Hebrews
9 verse 4. And here's where he got that
from, in Exodus 16, verse 33. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take
a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up
before the Lord, to keep for your generations. Now they took
this bowl, this pot, and we read in
other places in scripture it was a golden pot, pure gold,
which is a picture of the deity of Christ. And in that golden
pot they put an omer, I don't know how much that is, but it
was an omer of manna. And that manna is a picture of
Christ, the bread of life. Bread is almost always in scripture
given to us as a picture of life. Our physical life cannot be sustained
unless we have food to eat. Well manna, every day was there
on the ground, every day for 40 years manna gave physical
life to Israel. All that time they were in the
wilderness. But it was only physical life. What did our Lord tell
the Pharisees? Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness, but where are they? They're dead. It just gave
them sustained their physical life. But look at John chapter
6. Christ is the true bread which came down from heaven. His deity,
that golden pot, he came down from heaven. The true bread.
In John 6 verse 50. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread." The bread
is not a thing or something that the Lord gives us. He says, I
am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I
will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world. Christ is the bread of life.
Now you come lay hold on him. You lay hold on him by faith
and eat him. Take him into yourself. Lay hold
on him and you'll have eternal life. And listen, once you have
Christ, you will never die of hunger. Spiritually, you'll never
die of starvation. You won't run out of bread. You
know, there's mornings I get up for work and look, there's
no bread. We forgot to go get it. It's
not up to you to keep the spiritual bread. It's the Lord Jesus Christ
God gives in you. You're not going to run out of
it. You're not going to forget to buy it. You're not going to waste
it all, it'll all be gone. It's kept safe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And really it's, that's, I didn't
say that right. It's not kept safe in Christ,
is it? Our bread is Christ. And once you have him, you have
the bread of life. So there's a law kept safe in
the ark. The bread of life kept safe in
the ark. Third thing that was in the ark
was Aaron's rod that budded. I preached from this last week
in Pikeville. You can read about it in number
16, the rebellion of Korah. And after that rebellion, God
destroyed the rebels. In number 17, God showed everyone
who his high priest was. That was what the rebellion was
over. Who's God's leader? Who's his high priest? Well,
God showed everyone who his high priest is. He told Moses, he
said, you take a prince from every one of the 12 tribes and
you put their name on their staff. You lay the staffs before the
ark overnight and come back in the morning and you'll find out
who God's high priest is. And Aaron's staff was there from
the tribe of Levi with his name on it. And look back at number
17. They laid those staffs before the ark overnight. In Numbers 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,
and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. On that rod there were
buds, there were blossoms, and there was full fruit ready to
eat. All different stages of life were there on that rod.
And look at verse 10. And the Lord said unto 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 die not. And they put that
rod in the ark as a reminder to Israel who God's high priest
is and not to murmur against God. And that shows us a couple
of things. Christ is God's anointed. Aaron's long gone. He's dead
and long gone. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
anointed. He is ordained of old to be the
Savior of His people. And we're warned in Scripture,
do not murmur against Him or you will surely die. You imagine
someone murmuring against your children. We were talking about
this last night, years ago, this man, long story, murmuring against
my daughter Holly, I still find it very difficult, that forgiveness
in my heart for that man. I mean to tell you, this is God's son. I'm nothing. This is God's son. Don't murmur
against God's son. Kiss the son, lest he be angry
and his wrath is kindled but a little. And even though the
people murmured against Aaron, rebelled against his priesthood,
Israel lived. For one reason, Aaron went and
made an atonement for him. That's why they lived, because
Aaron, the high priest, made an atonement. And our Lord Jesus
Christ is not a high priest after the order of Aaron. He's not
a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. We live forever
because this man has an unchangeable priesthood. He ever lived to
make intercession for them. And we live because he lives.
So he's the God's anointed. He's the high priest. And second,
we have life in the Lord Jesus Christ. That rod that budded
in this ark was a constant reminder of life from the dead. Aaron's
rod was a dead stick. He probably cut that thing off
of a tree in Egypt years and years ago. The top of it, I'm
sure, was worn smooth from him using it as a walking stick.
It was a dead stick, yet laid in front of this ark, Overnight,
just eight hours, that thing had buds, it had blossoms, and
it had fruit on it. Life came from that dead stick. Well, that's our Lord Jesus Christ.
He did die, but he was raised again, never to die again. And you talk about the fruit
that he bore, the people that are saved from his life, life
from the dead, a number no man can number, life from the dead. But secondly, spiritual life
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have eternal life by union
with Christ. He's the vine, we're the branches.
We draw our life from Him through union with Him. Now, we're dead
sticks by nature. I mean, Aaron's stick may have
been cut off eight or ten years ago. We died in Adam over 6,000
years ago. When he died, we died. We are
dead sticks. Dead, dry sticks. Jim Meadows used to tell him,
Janet loves antiques. He said, don't buy antiques.
He said, all you're buying when you buy an antique is old, dried
out wood. It's ready to crack and fall
apart. And every time something happens to fall apart, you have
a little find. Janet finds it. See, you ought not to buy an
antique. It's just dry wood. That's what we are. Dry, cracked
wood. dead wood. Yet that dead stick
can live through union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We draw our
life from Him through a vital union with Him. And we have it
by faith. He that believeth on me, our
Lord says, hath everlasting life. We have it through faith. He
told Martha, He said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He
that believeth on me. though he were dead, even though
he's a dead, dried-out stick, he shall have life. We have that
life through believing Christ. And just like the bread, and
just like the law, you cannot lose that life. And it's a good
thing, because if it was given to me to keep, I'd lose it. I'd
lose my keys, I'd lose my ink pen, I'd just, where'd I put
that? I'd lose it, sure as the world.
But that life is safe. And again, it's not just that
it's because it's in Christ, it's because our life is Christ. He is our life. We're waiting
on Christ, who is our life, to appear. That's what we're waiting
for. He is our life. And as long as He lives, we live. Because our life is drawn from
Him. And last, let me give you this. There's instructions for
moving this ark. If you want to read in Numbers
chapter 4, you'll find them, and if you read there, it's what
you're going to find. When it came time for them to move, they
would pack up the tabernacle and all the pieces of furniture,
and when it comes time to pack up the ark, they'd take that
veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies,
they'd take the veil down, they'd carry it in and put it over top
of the ark, and they'd wrap it all around that ark. So even
when they moved the ark, nobody saw it. It's wrapped in the veil.
Wrapped in that picture of the perfect, glorious, sinless humanity
of Christ. Then they covered the veil with
badger skin. And we've seen that many times
in the tabernacle, the badger skin. That rough, ugly badger
skin. Just no beauty about it that
we desire it. A picture of the humanity of
Christ covered that veil. But unlike all the other pieces
of furniture, remember when they moved it, the badger skin was
the outer covering, and that's all people saw. If you're going
to understand what's behind that badger skin, God's got to give
you eyes to see what's underneath it. But the Ark was different. Over that badger skin, they took
a blue cloth and wrapped it around it. And that's what people saw,
blue, the color of heaven. stood out from every other piece
of furniture as it went and clearly stood out. It was wrapped in
blue. Everything else in that badger skin, but the ark in blue. People always know what that
was and they know where the ark was by seeing the blue covering.
It was different from everything else. The Lord Jesus Christ must
be in our preaching set apart from everyone and everything
else. We don't preach about Christ.
I told the folks in Pike for this last week, I never want
to be guilty of preaching about Christ. I always want to preach
Christ and Him crucified. There's a difference. We must
preach Christ so clearly that He's set apart from everyone
and everything else so that men will know the Lord Jesus Christ
is the place God will meet with sinners. We'll see this when
we look at the mercy seat next week. Well, in two weeks, I won't
be here next week. But God said about that mercy
seat, I'm going to dwell above that mercy seat, and there will
I commune with you, above the mercy seat that sat upon the
ark. We must preach Christ so clearly
that men make no mistake that the Lord Jesus Christ is the
place that God will meet with That's the only place. He's the
only person. If you want salvation, if you
want communion with God, you go to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You go to Him. Life's in Him. God will communicate
with you in Him. I told the folks in Madisonville
a couple of weeks ago, I had a text. I was convinced it was
the text, the message from the Lord for the hour. There's a
blessing there. And I told them, you'll have the blessing. If
I can preach it and get out of the way so that you see the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's the way we're to preach.
Preach Christ so clearly that people don't even remember the
sermon, but they remember the message. They've seen the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's why they covered that
in blue to set it apart. So people would know here is
where God will commune with you and meet with you. Okay. Lord
bless you.