Exodus chapter 25, and we are
going to read from verse 17. The Lord is speaking to Moses and
he says, And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be
the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims
of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends
of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one
end, and the other cherub on the other end, even of the mercy
seat shall ye 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 unto the
children of Israel. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading also. The covering or the lid of the
Ark of the Covenant was called the Mercy Seat. And it's the
Mercy Seat that we're going to be thinking about primarily today. Last time we spoke we mentioned
about the Ark of the Covenant and we described it as a chest,
a chest that was made of wood covered inside and outside in
gold. And this Ark of the Covenant
was located within the tabernacle in a little section called the
Holy of Holies. in the Ark or the chest were
kept several things, but principally the two stone tablets of the
Ten Commandments. So the Ark of the Covenant was
basically a box or a chest in which the stone tablets were
positioned and kept. Today, we're going to be speaking
about the lid of the chest, because the chest, or the Ark of the
Covenant as such, was separate from the lid that went over it. And that lid is called the mercy
seat. Now the Bible calls all of these
items for tabernacle worship, pieces of furniture and instruments. And so far we've identified six
and this is the seventh one today. Perhaps you'll remember outside
the tabernacle tent was the brass altar where sacrifices were made. There was a brass laver where
the priests washed their hands and their feet before entering
into the tabernacle itself. Then inside the tent, on the
left-hand side, there was a golden candlestick with seven arms that
illuminated the otherwise darkened room. And then to the right,
there was a gold table containing 12 loaves of showbread. Straight ahead, there was an
altar of incense separated with a curtain from a little part
beyond which was called the Holy of Holies. And in the Holy of
Holies was the Ark of the Covenant containing the stone tablets.
So that this final piece of furniture or instrument was the lid that
sat upon the Ark, or as it is called, the mercy seat. and it
was made of pure gold and it had two winged cherubs on the
top side facing each other with their wings outstretched towards
each other. The mercy seat was symbolic of
God's throne, the place where God sits in power to receive
those who approach him to worship him and seeking his help. Now of course God is a spirit
and we mustn't think of God as we would think about a human
being sitting upon a throne like a king might in his palace and
yet the Lord does use these words in order to help us to understand
something of his majesty and his rule. And so here we think
about the throne of God, not because God sits upon a solid
physical throne, but because the purpose of the tabernacle
was to allow people to enter into his presence and to worship
him. It was to allow the sinners amongst
the children of Israel to approach God. And so here God promised
he would come and he would remain with his people. So in the Holy
of Holies, between the cherubim, on the mercy seat, above the
Ark of the Covenant, the presence of the Lord dwelt amongst the
children of Israel. And here it was that once each
year, God was to be approached for mercy by the high priest
alone on behalf of the people. And the high priest must bring
with him blood for a sacrifice, for mercy and for forgiveness
of sin. and therefore this lid on the
top of the Ark of the Covenant was called the Mercy Seat. And again, we see in this piece
of furniture much of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, in some
ways, perhaps this final piece of the tabernacle furniture is
the most important type and the most important emblem of the
saviour's saving work and sacrifice. Yes, the Lord can be seen in
the sacrificing of the animals, and yes, he can be seen in the
washing of the labour, the light from the candlestick, the bread
from the table, the sweet incense, which is a picture of Christ's
intercession, and yes, he incorporates that law for us as the fulfiller
of it, but here, On the mercy seat there is something special
and something peculiarly distinct about the Lord's work because
here we see in symbolic form the great work of atonement clearly
displayed. In fact, that one day of the
year in which the high priest approached God in the Holy of
Holies, carrying that blood which was sprinkled on the mercy seat
and before the mercy seat, was called the Day of Atonement. The only time that the priest
could go behind the veil and enter into the presence of the
Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat and God himself who dwelt
upon that mercy seat was on the day of atonement. The day on
which the sins of Aaron and the people were symbolically removed
and put away by the sacrifice of the bullock and the goat. So here are a couple of lessons
that I think can be learned from the type or the picture or the
symbolism of this mercy seat as it is seen to be typical of
the Lord Jesus. The first thing is this, coming
to or the coming of, I'm sorry, the high priest into the presence
of God with blood each year on the day of atonement shows us
that forgiveness of sin and mercy from God and redemption and atonement both for the Old Testament saints
and for New Testament believers were all alike included in the
merits of the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. And that tells us that God looked
upon Christ in eternity and he blessed his people with the mercy
that they needed and the forgiveness of sins whether they lived before
the time of Christ's crucifixion or after the time of Christ's
crucifixion. So that both Old Testament saints
and New Testament believers looked in faith to the merits of Christ's
accomplishments on the cross. The symbolism of the mercy seat
tells us that. They were looking for atonement
by blood. And this is what we mean when
we talk about the merits of Christ's blood and sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ was set
apart in the everlasting covenant of grace and peace, as it is
called in scriptures, to reconcile his people to God. He would do this by carrying
their sins, bearing their punishment, dying in their place and redeeming
their lives. And in the Bible, this work is
called the atonement, whereby the Lord Jesus Christ made peace
between the holy Lord God and sinful people. He brought us
together like the mediator, like the one who reconciled. He atoned,
he made us to be at one with God. And this is the great accomplishment
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And this was symbolised
by the offering of sacrifices and the sprinkling of blood on
and before the mercy seat in the tabernacle in the presence
of God. These Old Testament worshippers,
they weren't saved by their sacrifices or their ceremonies. They weren't
saved by the blood of the bullock or the goat or the dove or whatever
it might be that they were offering. They were accepted by God upon
the merits of Christ's blood, though it was yet to be shed. it was nevertheless prefigured
in the tabernacle instruments and in its worship. New Testament
worshippers, New Testament believers no longer require all the instruments
and the furniture and the animals and the incense because the real
sacrifice has come. The real mediator has appeared. The one who intercedes for us
in the presence of God is no longer a man who is a high priest
like Aaron, but rather is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who
has ascended into heaven. He offered himself and his blood
became the offering for the atonement that we require. And the Lord
Jesus Christ succeeded on the cross in securing once and for
all time the atonement and the peace that God required to accept
us as his friends. Here's another lesson that we
can draw from this mercy seat. Our faith is trusting in the
merits of Christ's sacrifice. That was what the Old Testament
people were doing and that is what we do. We look beyond the
things to the work of Christ on the cross, trusting that what
the Lord Jesus Christ did in his suffering and his dying and
his shedding of blood was accepted by God and obtained the forgiveness
that we need. After the high priest entered
into God's presence in the Holy of Holies to atone for the sins
of the people, the people rejoiced to see him re-emerge out of the
tabernacle out from the presence of God because that told them
that the offering had been accepted and they trusted the promise
of God that their sins had been forgiven. And similarly, we trust
God's promise to forgive our sins by the merits of Christ
and his blood and his sacrifice. So that trusting in the promises
of God or having faith means that we believe our sins are
taken away, we believe our atonement and peace with God has been made,
and that we have been restored to friendship with God and God's
salvation and God's blessing of eternal life has been gifted
to us. It is our faith that appropriates,
it's our faith that gets and gains and takes the blessings
which the Lord Jesus Christ has secured and accomplished. And
this is what faith in Christ means. We trust the Lord Jesus
Christ as the way of salvation. through his blood shed to obtain
mercy and atonement for our sins. And here's my third point. Each
year, the high priest re-entered God's presence to do the same
job, to make the same offering of blood. year after year, year
after year. It was a continuing activity
but now there's a difference. Hebrews chapter 9 tells us, for
Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, because
remember God was telling Moses and he was telling the craftsmen
and the craftswomen how they were to make the tabernacle,
and how they were to make the instruments that would be used
in this tabernacle worship. So the tabernacle, and later
the temple, were things that were made with hands. But Christ
has not entered into the holy places made with hands, the tabernacle
or the temple, which are figures, says the writer to the Hebrews,
or types, we know that word, of the true, of the real. But Christ has entered into heaven
itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. So the high priest
entered into the Holy of Holies to appear before God. It was
a picture. But now Christ has fulfilled
the reality. He has entered into heaven, into
the presence of God for us. The writer to the Hebrews goes
on. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest
entered into the holy place every year with blood of others. For then must he, Christ, often
have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once in
the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. You see what the writer to the
Hebrews is saying here? He's saying that the Lord Jesus
Christ doesn't have to repeat this sacrifice every year like
the Old Testament priests did. But because it is an infinite
sacrifice, because it is the reality of the sacrifice, because
it is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who has made that sacrifice and
entered into the presence of God, it is a once and for all
work. So that we believe in the merits
of the death of Christ for our salvation and atonement with
God. These Old Testament figures,
these types, these symbols are no longer necessary because the
fulfilment has come. In fact, we don't even know what
happened to the bits of the tabernacle. Sometimes there are ideas that
some of them might even exist today, although that's probably
doubtful. However, there are still useful,
there is still usefulness in us thinking about these instruments
in order to help us understand what the Lord has done and the
significance of all that Jesus Christ accomplished for us. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation We are all sinners,
and no sinner can receive forgiveness of sin from God except by the
atoning work of Jesus Christ. Paul says, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. That's our
atonement and that's the mercy of God towards us. May the Lord
bless these thoughts to us today. Amen.