Evening, everybody. If you want
to turn over to 1 Samuel chapter 6. 1 Samuel chapter 6. We're going to look at this entire
chapter tonight. This is going to be more of a Bible study than anything else. We're
going to look at some of the high points of this chapter and see if we
can just pick out some of those types and pictures of the Lord
Jesus Christ and that salvation he provided for us. That's my
goal here tonight. Let's read the first two verses
here, 1 Samuel chapter 6. And the ark of the Lord was in
the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines
called for the priests and the diviners, saying, what shall
we do to the ark of the Lord? Tell us wherewith we shall send
it to his place. Now, what's going on here? Well,
here's what's happened. The Philistines are in possession
of the Ark of the Covenant, that symbol, that type of the Lord's
presence with his children, with Israel. They have possession
of the Ark right now. And what's interesting here is
they are feverishly trying to give it back. Why and how did
we get here? To learn that, we got to go back
to chapter four and I'll just tell you what happens. So the
children of Israel go to battle with the Philistines, right?
They go into a fierce battle, and they get whipped. They come
out of the battle, and they lick with their wounds. They've lost
about 4,000 men. And they sit around, and they're like, we
don't understand. Why didn't the Lord give us the victory? So they get together,
and the elders decide something. They're like, here's what we're
going to do. We're going to go down to Shiloh, where the tabernacle's at, and we're
going to go get the Ark of the Covenant. And we're going to
bring it up here, and we're going to mark that thing into battle.
He'll have to give us the victory then. He'll have no choice. What
are they trying to do there? They're trying to manipulate
God. That's exactly what they're trying to do. He wouldn't grant
us the victory in the battle the first time, but now we're
going to go get the ark? He's not going to have a choice. Now
we're going to bend his arm. We're going to make him do exactly
what we want him to do. And they learn a very, very painful
lesson in all this, is that the true and living God of the Bible
is not manipulated by men. He only manipulates men. He's
the absolute sovereign. Everything that happens just
as according to his sovereign purpose and will. And as far
as salvation goes, it's already done. He's already made the decision. All the work of salvation for
God's people, it's already been accomplished. Books are closed.
The only thing that's happening right now in time playing out,
the Lord's calling out his people, those he chose. That's what's
going on. And they learned this lesson the hard way because they
marched into battle the second time. They got whipped by 4,000
men the first time. That's how many they lost. They
lose 30,000 during the second battle. And the worst of all,
the Ark goes to the Philistines. They take it. And the Philistines
say, we won, right? This is a great victory. And
we get over to Chapter 5. So the Philistines take the Ark,
and they bring it down. They put it in their temple in
Ashton. And as soon as they put it in there, the whole city,
it's smitten with these things called emirates. If you don't
remember what it is, it's an old timey word for hemorrhoid.
So all the people in the city are smitten with hemorrhoids.
And many people die from this. That's the curse. And at some
point, the Lord sends this horde of mice to come in. You can imagine
how terrible a curse that would be. They eat all the crops, spread
disease, things of that nature. So the people of Ashton get together,
and they talk to the leaders of the Philistines. They say,
get this ark out of here. There's a curse to us. Get this
ark out of here. So they do. They pick it up. They take it
to the next city. And the exact same thing happens. And so they
pick it up, and they take it to the third city. And the exact
same thing happens. Finally, they just take it out
to the middle of a field, and they back up. They say, what
are we going to do with this? And if you think about it, I'm
sure there's deliberation. You probably had somebody saying, let's just
chuck it off a cliff. Let's just get rid of it. And
another guy saying, he just destroyed three of our cities and killed
a third of our population. Let's not throw it off a cliff.
That's probably not a good idea. And they finally deliberate and
say, you know what we're going to do? Let's just give it back. We're done
with the God of Israel. We're done with the true and
living God. We just want Him to go away. We want Him out of
here. Let's just give it back. What does the natural man want
with God? And I'm not talking about the
idols that men make. There's plenty of people who
are meeting tonight and other nights this week, they're meeting in a place
like this, they're listening to a man speak, and the Christ
that is preached is not the Christ of this book. He's defeated weakling,
he wants to save all men, he's trying to, but he just can't
have his way, you gotta do your part. And men are comfortable
with that, they love that God, they're comfortable with that
Christ because they're in the driver's seat. But this true and living
God, who saves whom he will, and he passes by whom he will,
what does the natural man want with him? Just get him out of
the way. Just get rid of him. Get God
away from me. Just have him not intervene with
me. I don't want him messing in my life. I just want to go
my own way. I want to march down that broad
way that leads to destruction. I want to trust in my own works.
I want to trust in my best deeds, my best decisions. I just want
to go my own way, and I don't want God to intervene with me.
Just have him leave me alone. Now, I want you to think about
that in light of divine election. that before the foundations of
the world were ever built, God, in his sovereignty, he chose.
He chose to intervene for some people, for those he loved. He
chose to save them, and he chose in judgment to pass by others,
to not intervene on their behalf. And the call of the natural man,
when he hears about election, he says, that's not fair. It
is not fair that God does not intervene on every man's behalf.
It's not fair that he doesn't save all men. Why is that unfair? That is God just giving man exactly
what he wants. He wants no intervention from
God. He wants to get away from God. That's what he wants. This
is a good statement. You can write this down. The
Lord is going to give every man exactly what he wants. And if
you want to be separated from the true and living God, you
just don't want His intervention, you don't want Him to meddle
in your life, He will give you that. He will leave you alone
to walk down that broad way that leads through that path of destruction.
He will do that. But here's the comforting part. If you want
Him to save you, if you want Jesus Christ to represent you
before the Father, Him having done everything to make you acceptable
before Him, if that's what you greatly desire, you have it. And I'm not saying you will have
it, I'm saying you have it. The work's already been done.
Believe on Christ. He died for sinners. He's going
to give every man exactly what he wants. Now, look over at verse
three. These priests and these diviners,
they have a plan to give the ark back. Here's what they do.
And they said, if you send away the ark of God of Israel, send
it on empty. But in any wise return him a
trespass offering. Then he shall be healed. And
it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from
you. Then said they, what shall be the trespass offering which
we shall return to him? They answered, five golden emirates
and five golden mice according to the number of the lords of
the Philistines. For one plague was on you all
and on your lands. Wherefore, you shall make images
of your emirates, and images of your mice that moor the land,
and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel. Peradventure,
he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods,
and from off your land." Now, these Philistine priests and
diviners, here's their job. Here's what they get paid to
do in Philistia. They are paid to understand their enemy, to
understand the religious practices of their enemy, to understand
the customs of the enemy, that's what these guys know, and they
know all about the God of Israel. They particularly know about
him and how he dealt with Egypt, how he dealt with Pharaoh, and
all the plagues that came down upon Pharaoh because he wouldn't
let the people go. They're very well versed in this, right? And
here's what they know. They know we've offended against
this God, and he demands an offering for that offense. And I find
that very interesting. You know what? Intuitively, the
natural man knows this. He knows he's offended against
God. And he knows God demands an offering. Now here's what
he doesn't know. He doesn't know he's truly a sinner before God.
You might meet a man who will say, listen, I'm no good. Never
done anything good. Never had a good thought. But
I at least have the capability of getting better. If I try hard
enough, I can at least be good. I have that capability. What
the natural man doesn't know, he doesn't even have the capability
of being good. He lacks the ability. And he does not know that the
only acceptable offering, the only trespass offering that God
would ever accept is the shed blood of Christ and absolutely
nothing more. He doesn't know that. That's
only spiritually understood by the new man. But he knows this,
I've trespassed against God and he demands an offering. And they
do this ignorantly. They come up with this offering,
and they do this ignorantly. But even in all this ignorance,
it's a beautiful type and picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want
you to think about this for a second. They said, take gold. Take that
which is most precious. And what you're going to do,
you're going to make images of your curse. Five emeralds and five mice. Make images of your curse out
of this gold. make five of them the number
of grace. Now, where do we have another
example of something like that in Scripture? You remember Numbers
chapter 21. The children of Israel murmur
against the Lord. The Lord sends fiery serpents
into the camp, bite the people. Everybody gets bitten, many people
die. They ask for a cure. The Lord says this, you take
a serpent of brass, you make an image of the problem, You
put it on a pole, everybody who looks lives. That's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that brass, his deity and his humanity. Christ being made the sins of
his people, he was made the curse. He was crucified on that tree
under the curse of God, God's wrath for the sins of his people
falling down upon him. Everybody who looks to him and
looks to him alone, they live. Same principles apply here. Who
did God sacrifice for his people? The gold. He sacrificed that
which was most precious to him, his son. The curse, the emirates,
and the mice, Christ being made the sins of his people. The number
five, grace. When the curse was laid upon
Christ and the wrath came down upon him and he swallowed up
all the wrath, what did that do? It opened the door of mercy
and grace to all God's people because there was no offense
to God's perfect justice. This is a beautiful picture and
type of our Lord Jesus Christ. They did this ignorantly, but
we have this beautiful type. Now, The last thing I notice about
this offering is this. In the following verses, they're
going to prescribe many things that represent several different
aspects of salvation. They first mention the offering.
That's the number one thing they mention, the very first thing.
And that is because the offering is everything. Christ and Him
crucified to the believer is everything in our salvation.
It's number one, and it's the end as well. Here's what I was
thinking. Number one, the cross is the reason that
every believer will be saved. The wrath of God coming down
on Christ for our sins. The cross is the reason for the
fall of man. Many people have said that the
cross was for the fall, as if it was God's plan B, man fell. And so the cross came along as
a plan B to save man. No, no, the fall was for the
cross, that the glory of God, he would achieve his greatest
glory through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the singular hope of
every believer. Paul said this in 1 Corinthians
2, 2. He says, for I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, that's not that Paul didn't
know other things. Paul was a very well-educated
man. He was taught the gospel by God himself. But here's what
he's saying. My only hope, the only thing I have, is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's all I've got before God.
Now, look down at verse 6 of your text. These priests are speaking again.
They say, now therefore make a new cart and take two milk
kind, those are milk cows, on which there have come no yoke.
And tie the kind to the cart and bring their calves home from
them. And take the ark of the Lord and lay it upon the cart
and put the jewels of gold which you returned him for a trespass
offering in a coffer by the side thereof. And send it away that
it may go. and see if it goeth up by the
way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great
evil. But if not, then we shall know
that it is not his hand that smote us, it was a chance that
happened to us. Now this is almost comical. So
what they're doing here, they're saying, we're going to take a
new car made out of wood, and we're going to put the Ark of
the Covenant in the back, and we're going to put the trespass
offering, and we're going to hitch it to these two milk cows that have
never known any yoke, and we're going to leave them leaderless.
No one's going to guide these cows. We're going to take them
out to the road, and if they go straight back to Beth Shemesh,
and that is a border town. Beth Shemesh is in Israel. It's
where the Levites live. If it, without a leader, goes
straight back to Israel, we're going to know the Lord did this.
that this curse that fell upon us, we're going to know that
the God of Israel, He truly is God. He truly is sovereign. He
truly is omnipotent. But if it doesn't, right, if
it just does what it should naturally do, which is maybe go around
in circles, we'll know there's a chance, right? There's still
clinging to some hope that this God, this true and living God,
that He's not in control. that he's not sovereign, that
he's not omnipotent, that it's just fate that happens to us.
But all these things that they prescribe here, these are beautiful
aspects of salvation. And here's the first thing they
say, there's a new court that speaks of the new covenant. Now,
the Old Covenant. What is the Old Covenant? The
Old Covenant is the covenant that was made with Adam in the
garden, do and live. The Lord brought Adam into the
garden, made him upright and innocent, and he said, here you
go. You can eat of all the trees, of all the fruit, of all the
trees of this garden, except for this one, the tree of the
knowledge and good and evil. In the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. One upright and one innocent
man with one command. His blessedness with God rested
on him keeping this one command and he wasn't like you and me.
He didn't have that fallen sinful evil nature yet. He was upright
and he was innocent and he only had one command and he couldn't
keep it. Any covenant that is made between God and man to where
man must hold up his end of the bargain in any way, shape, or
form, it is doomed to failure. If this was the mechanism of
salvation, if the Lord said, Christ is going to do 99% of
it, but you've got to do 1%. There's something you need to
do. You have to muster your own faith. You have to bring yourself to
repentance. You have to muster some love to God. You have to
do an acceptable work. Just once before me, if just
1% was on us, nobody would be saved. Adam proved it. The old
covenant, it's no good. But they said you can't have
an old cart. You've got to have a new cart.
You've got to have a new covenant. What was in the back of that
new cart? The ark, God the Father. and
the offering, God the Son. That new covenant that in reality
is actually older than the old, this is the eternal covenant
and it wasn't made with a man. It was made between God the Father
and God the Son. And here's how this new covenant,
this new court worked. The Father went to the Son and
said, these are my people and these are your people and I'm
giving them to you. Everything I require of them, you're gonna
do. I'm gonna look to you for it
100%, and I'm not gonna look to them for any aspect of their
salvation whatsoever. And Christ said, I will. That's
the new cart, that's the new covenant. Has absolutely nothing
to do with man, has nothing to do with the Lord's people. It's
not on us in any way. It all rests on the shoulders
of that one who cannot fail, Christ himself. Not only did you need a new cart,
you had to have two milk cows, two milk kind. No doubt this
speaks of the dual nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, altogether
God, and yet he was made a man. Everything God is, sovereign,
holy, omnipotent, omniscient. Everything God is was made in
Jesus Christ. God inhabited the body of a man,
and yet he was still a man. This is a comforting scripture
to me. I want to read this to you. This is Hebrews 4.15. It
says, For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all point tempted,
like as we are, yet without sin. Now when we go to the Lord and
we come to him with our earthly troubles, our sicknesses, our
loneliness, we're hungry, we're tired, all these different things,
he knows exactly what we're talking about. We have not in high priest
who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
He understands what it's like to be betrayed. He understands
what it's like to be lonely because he took on the personification
of a man. But there's a huge difference
between him and every other man. He was without sin. Did you notice
about these two milk cows, a very particular thing is said about
them in our passage of scripture here. It says, they could never
known a yoke. No yoke had ever been put upon
them. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's never
had a yoke of bondage on him. He didn't have that sinful, evil
nature you and I were born with. He never did any sin. He never
knew any sin. He always obeyed his father's
holy law in every jot, in every tittle, during his entire life. And folks, that truly is the
obedience of all of us. Of every single believer, when
God the Father looks at us, they see that wand, he sees that wand,
never had a yoke on him. He's completely and utterly without
sin. He's always done that which is right in the sight of God. Now look down at verse 10. And the men did so, and took
two milk kind, and tied them to the cart, and shewed up their
calves at home. And they laid the ark of the
Lord upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold, and the
images of their emirates. And the kind took the straight
way to the way of Beth-shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing
as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to
the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them unto
the border of Beth-shemesh." Now, I think this is interesting.
They start off. They say, all right, if these cows take off
straight for Israel, we're going to know the Lord's behind this.
He's the one who's controlling all this. But if not, It was
just happenstance, right? And as soon as they turn those
things loose, they take off. They're heading right back towards
Israel. The Lord's in control of all this. But everything we
just read here in these last couple of verses, they speak
of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world. Number one,
it speaks of his motivations. If you notice here, these cows
are lowing. It says they're mooing. That's
what that means. Why are they mooing? Why are they lowing as
they take this highway? Well, it's because their children
have been shut up in the barn. Their children are in bondage
right now, and they love their children, and they miss their
children, and they're loathing after their children. Now, what
was the motivation of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this
world, being made flesh, being made the sins of his people,
dying under the wrath of his father? He loved his children.
His children were in bondage. His children were shut up in
the barn, in the bondage of the law that they couldn't keep,
in bondage of sin they couldn't get away from. And he came into
this world out of love for his people, loving his own, He loved
them to the very end. Also says here, these cows didn't
turn to the left or to the right. When they turned them loose,
they shot straight down the highway. Never turned to the left or the
right. Here's the other motivation of the Lord Jesus Christ, obedience
to his father. In that covenant, his father
gave him a task. Everybody I gave you, you're
gonna save them. You're gonna do it all by yourself. You're
gonna get all the glory, but you're gonna be the one who does
it. When he came to this earth, he set his face like a flint. He
never turned to the right. He never turned to the left.
He obeyed his father in all things, and he had one singular purpose. John 6, 39, and this is the father's
will which is sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I
should lose nothing. but should raise it up again
at the last day. He never turned to the left.
He never turned to the right. He was always about his father's
business, and it's that business right there. Now, did you catch
the pathway that the cows took? Look back at verse 12 real quick. And the khan took the straight
way to the way of Beth Shemesh and went along the highway. When
the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, he came for his people. Where are you gonna find the
Lord's people? How can you identify the elect in this world? They're
along the highways. But who's along the highways?
Mark 10, 46 says this, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the highway side, begging. These are the Lord's people right
here. Number one, they're blind. What does that mean to be blind?
This is what this means. When you look inside yourself,
you can't find one reason that the Lord will show you mercy.
When you look inside yourself, you can't find one reason that
he would choose you. And he's a beggar. That's the
other attribute. You know what a beggar is? It's
one who is completely and utterly dependent on the unmerited kindness
of someone else to have what he needs to live. That's it.
And if you're one of those people that's blind, you can't find
a reason in yourself that the Lord would show you mercy and
you are completely and utterly dependent upon grace. Just free
unmerited favor from God, completely and utterly based on what the
Lord Jesus Christ has already done. You're one of these people
on the highways. You're one of these people, the
Lord said, my father told me to come save you, so you're coming
with me. Now look at verse 13. And they of Bethshemesh were
reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And they lifted up
their eyes and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it. And the cart
came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite. and stood there
where there was a great stone. And they claimed the wood of
the cart and offered the kind of burnt offering unto the Lord.
And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the coffer
that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put
them on the great stone. And the men of Bethshemesh offered
burnt offerings and sacrifices the same day unto the Lord. And
when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to
Ekron the same day. And these are the golden emeralds
which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto
the Lord, for Ashted one, for Gaza one, for Ascalon one, for
Gath one, for Ekron one, And the golden mice, according to
the number of all the city of the Philistines, belonged to
the five lords, both of fenced cities and of country villages,
even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they sat down the
ark of the Lord, which stone remaineth unto this day in the
field of Joshua the Beshamite. Now see if you can visualize
this. The Philistine leaders are following behind this court
and these cows, and these cows are just making straight way
for Israel, straight way for Beshamesh. And they turned right
into the field of Joshua, the field of the Savior. And they
come across this great stone, great big rock that had been
there forever, stone of Abel, and all of a sudden they just
stop. They hold right in place. These Philistines know it's the
Lord. That God of Israel, He's the
true and living God. And they just turn around and
go away. We can't win. We got nothing here. We're leaving.
And what we have here, it's so beautiful. And you see the Lord's
providence in all things in this. He returns the cart and the ark
to Beth Shemesh. You know who lives in Beth Shemesh?
The Levites, the priestly tribe. These are the ones that could
actually deal with the ark. These are the men who are devoted to
this thing. The Lord's in control, and everything
He does, He does according to His good purpose. It's always
good. But what we see here with these
Levites is a beautiful picture of the cross. Now the covenant
was made, and Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. There's always been a sacrifice for the elect, but
that sacrifice had to happen in time, and that's exactly what
they did. They took that cart, that wooden cart, and they chopped
it up and they made firewood out of it. And they took those two
milk cows, and they sacrificed those milk cows, and made a burnt
offering unto the Lord. And they took the Ark of the
Covenant, and they took the offering, and they put it on the great
stone, the great rock of a... There's a scripture I was thinking
of when I was looking at this. I want you to turn to it. It's
Matthew chapter seven. Look at verse 24, Matthew chapter
7. It's our Lord speaking. He says, therefore, whosoever
heareth these things of mine, and doeth them, I will liken
him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and
it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall
of it. You guys might have heard, so
a man who used to attend our church for many, many years,
his name was Mark Daniel. He died last night. He attends
now in College Grove. He wanted to be with his family.
And I was talking to his brother today, and I asked him if he
had got to talk to Mark before he died. And he said he got to
talk to him twice. And he said on both those occasions, here's
what he told him. He says, I'm only concerned with one thing
right now. I just want to be found in Christ.
He's all I've got. That man died with a good hope. That man's hope was in the rock. This is the rock the man built
his house there in Christ and him crucified alone, looking
nowhere else but the shed blood of Christ. That's the rock right
there. And that's a good hope. And that's a good way to die. And here's the reason. that everyone
builds their house on the rock. Your hope, your comfort is on
this rock. That's why this is a good hope. Now, five cities
are mentioned in here, these five cities of the Philistines.
Each one of these cities have a meaning, and each one of them
speak to actually what happened on that cross. I'm going to read
these to you. This city is called Escalon. It means the fire of
infamy, I shall be weighed. Now, this is what happened on
the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ being made the sins of his people,
he would wade in the balances of God's perfect justice, and
he was found wanting. And because of that, the fire
of God's wrath came down upon him. Gath means winepress. He tread the winepress of God's
wrath alone. He was crushed under the wrath
of God because of the sins of his people. Ashdod and Gaza mean
powerful and strong. Now, in every other sacrifice
that was ever made, the fire would come down, and the fire
consumed that sacrifice. It ate it all up, and that sacrifice
was gone. But this sacrifice was completely
and utterly different. This sacrifice was omnipotent. This sacrifice
was so strong, this is the only time in history this ever happened.
The fire came down upon the sacrifice. The sacrifice actually consumed
the fire. He swallowed up all of God's wrath for sin. He actually
took it all. And this is what Ekron means.
It literally means eradication. This is what happened on the
cross. All that wrath that fell down upon our Savior for our
sins, he swallowed it all up, having eradicated the sin and
having eradicated the wrath. And folks, sin can't be in two
places, and wrath can't be in two places. And if Christ already
bore it, and he already put it away, and he ever suffered the
wrath, that means concerning for all his people, Everyone
who's looking to Him, there is no more for us. Our sin truly
has been eradicated. It truly has been put away. That
means there is true peace with God through what happened on
that cross. Now, go back to your text and
look at verse 19. This is how the story ends, and
it ends in a very unusual way. And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh,
because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. Even he
smote of the people 50,000 and threescore and 10 men. And the
people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the
people with the great slaughter. And the men of Beth-shemesh said,
who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall he go up from
us? And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Cur Jathredurum,
saying, the Philistines have brought again the Ark of the
Lord. Come ye down and fetch it up to you. Now, why did they
do this? Why did they look inside the
Ark? I suspect they were curious.
I suspect they thought that maybe the Philistines had stolen the
contents of it, and they wanted to make sure they were still
there. But this is what they did. They looked inside the Ark,
and the Lord killed 50,070 men because of this. Why was this such a great offense? They ask a question here. Who
can stand before this holy Lord God? To look inside that ark,
you had to remove something. Can you think of what you had
to remove? The mercy seat. That lid that sat on top of that
ark that covered the lull, those two cherubims facing each other. And this was the promise to Israel.
I'm going to meet with you in one place. I'll meet with you
above the mercy seat. They came into the presence of
the holy Lord God without the mercy seat, without the covering.
Now here's the point. Who can stand before this holy
Lord God? Everyone in this room, in and
of ourselves, absolutely none of us. God won't accept a thing
from me and you. And if we come without the mercy
seat, we'll be destroyed just like these people. How do we
come in the mercy seat? We look to Christ. We look to
Him. We look to that cross. We look
at the accomplishments of that cross. Truly the offering is
everything. That is our salvation. That's
where the Lord meets with us and we live. I'm gonna leave
you there.