I'm not going to have you turn
to a text, but if you'd like to study our lesson, it begins
in Exodus chapter 25 and verse 10. and goes all the way through
the book of Malachi. So, our subject is Christ, our
ark. He's our ark. He calls this in Exodus 25.10
and throughout the Old Testament, he calls this the ark of the
testimony. The ark of the testament, the
ark of the testimony. Well, what did this Ark testify
of? It was God's Ark. He gave commandment for it to
be built in such and such a way, with such and such things, overlaid
with gold. What did it testify of? Why did
he call it the Ark of the Testament? Well, it testified of the gifts
of God sealed in the person of God's Son, our Savior. Now, there were three arcs. If
you read through the scriptures, you're gonna find three arcs.
The first thing you're gonna find is Noah's Ark. Well, what
did God do with that ark? Everything he intended to preserve,
he put in that ark and sealed it in. And then there was the
Ark of the Bulrushes. They built an ark and pitched
it within and without, and that word pitch, both the Noah's Ark
and the Ark of the Bulrushes, that word pitch is the same as
atonement. They were sealed in by the atonement.
And God preserved Moses, whom Pharaoh intended to kill, God
preserved him in this ark. And so you can see, and now comes
the Ark of the Testimony, And sealed inside are all God's promises
to his people, and they're sealed up in his Son. And this, I believe,
is what this Ark of Israel represents. It's Christ, our Ark. And I don't
know if I can get all this into 30 minutes. But if I can, I have seven things
for you to consider about the ark. And we'll just touch on
these things briefly. And first of all, and this is
what I just was talking about, was God's testimony to men. He says in Exodus 25, 16, thou
shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. The Ark was a testimony of God's
purpose and grace, of His holy presence with them, of His good
will toward them. And even so, Christ is God's
testimony to men. God has nothing to say to sinners
outside of Christ. Now you just let that sink in
for a minute. He's got nothing to say to sinners
outside of Christ. He says in Hebrews 10 after telling
us plainly that Christ is that sacrifice. He is the one of whom
all the scripture testified of. And then he gets on down the
line and he said, now if we sin willfully, having received the
knowledge of the truth. What in the world are you talking
about? Talking about leaving that testimony. Then he said,
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Christ is the way,
the truth, and the life. To leave him and go back to some
old imagination, concept, or image, there remaineth no more
sacrifice for sin. There's no sacrifice for sin
in religion. There's no sacrifice for sin
in this world. The sacrifice for sin is in Christ. It's in Christ. You leave him
for anything, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins for
you. You'll come to God by way of
Christ or you'll die in your sins. And then you think about
this, in all the world there was just one ark. Just one ark. And that ark was in Israel. That's the place of God's testimony. And then secondly, the ark was
the assurance of God's presence and favor with His people. He
says this back in Exodus 25, 22. There I will meet with thee
and commune with thee. That's where I'm going to do
this, where the ark is. And even so, Christ is the assurance
of God's presence with us. And not only His presence with
us, but His presence with us in a gracious way. You see, that
Ark of the Testament was put in there and a mercy seat was
put on top of it. Maybe we'll consider that in
a lesson all by itself. But the Ark of the Testament
didn't sit over here and then the mercy seat was over here.
The mercy seat was above the Ark and somehow resting on the
Ark. I remember going to a revival
meeting in a little country church years ago and in that meeting
a blind woman got up to sing, and they led her up, and she
played that little instrument, whatever it's called, that Danny
Parks, Moose Parks plays when he sings, and she played that,
and her voice was just like an angel. I mean, she had a beautiful
voice. Everybody in the place was just
moved by what they heard, and they were all in tears. And when
we got home that night, we talked about how the Spirit of God and
God's presence was in that place. God's presence wasn't there.
There was no gospel there. There was no truth there. All
we heard was a lot of lies, a lot of empty promises. The God they
described, nothing like the God of the Bible. The Christ they
set forth, nothing like the Christ of Scripture. God's presence
wasn't there, it was just emotion. That's what was there. Something
to move us. There was no Christ in the service,
no gospel priest, no knowledge of God set forth. Just music
and emotions and the wicked imaginations of men. God the Holy Spirit,
when we talk about God's presence with us, God the Holy Spirit
is the revealer of Christ. Where Christ is exalted, will
you feel it or will you don't? Where Christ, where His Spirit
is and Christ is exalted, that's where the presence of God is. He's the revealer of Christ.
He takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us. And when Christ is sent before
his people, he is the assurance of God's presence in a gracious
way. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name. Now that's important. Not gathered
together, but gathered together in my name. There am I in the
midst. And because men build a Building
and call it a church and gather there and go through the motions
of worship is not an evidence of God's presence and favor. God's presence is where his son
is preached and exalted and set before chosen sinners. And in
both the tabernacle and the temple, the ark had the preeminent place
in the house. And so in the church, and especially
here in the local church, Christ occupies the preeminent place
in our worship. There is no worship apart from
the preaching of the gospel. This is the assurance of God's
presence and favor with his people. All right, thirdly, where the
ark was, it was lawful to offer sacrifice and nowhere else. Nowhere else. Peter said, ye also as lively
stones are built up a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.
Now watch this. To offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Everything that Israel brought,
they brought it out to the priesthood and it was accepted because of
that ark and the offering that was sprinkled above it. Their gifts were not acceptable
in themselves, and neither are ours. We're accepted in our services,
accepted of God by Jesus Christ. And not only is our persons accepted,
but our service and sacrifice. We don't think much about that,
do we? We don't want to because it pricks our conscience and
we're guilty. We're guilty, guilty. We don't
like to think much about that. But our service, as pitiful as
it is, is accepted of God by Jesus Christ. In the book of Malachi, God speaks
to Israel of their contemptible worship. Oh, they still gathered. They still gathered, and they
went through the motions, but they didn't come in faith, and
they didn't come in fear, just cold, dead, dry ceremonialism. And God said, if I be a father,
that's what they called him, our father. We have one father, they said,
even God. And God said, if I then be a
father, where's my honor? If I be a master, they called
him master. He said, if I be a master, where's
my fear? But you despise my name, he said. And then you'll say, wherein
have we despised thee? We don't despise God. You offer polluted bread on my
table. Took old, four day old bread,
took it and put it on the, or show bread on the table. What's that talking about? That's
talking about Christ mixed with man's works and evil imaginations
and false doctrines. Not true bread, it's contemptible
bread. Corruptible bread. And then he
said, you offer the blind for a sacrifice. Had old blind sheep
out there, and they'd bring it in, sacrifice it. And the lame and the sick. He
said, give it to your governor. Will he accept it? You're going
to give the governor a gift. You're going to take your blind
goat down there and give it to him? Will he accept your person? Oh, and then you said in your
heart, what a weariness it is. You snuffed at it. You snuffed
it, my worship. And you brought that which is
torn and lame and sick. Should I accept this at your
hand? But cursed is the deceiver. Cursed is the deceiver. that brings the Lord a corrupt
sacrifice. A corrupt thing. For I am a great
king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among
the heathen. Oh, you priest, if you will not
hear, if you will not hear, if you
will not give glory to my name, I'll send a curse upon you. Now
listen to this, here's what I'm getting at. I'll curse your blessing. What's he talking about? I'll
curse your hope. You had hope, even when you brought
that old blind sheep down there, you thought you had a hope. I'll
curse that hope. You thought your sins was taken
away. How many people have I heard
talk about their sins being taken away because they accepted Jesus
as their personal savior? I won't throw up when somebody
tells me that. It just makes me ill, makes me
sick. I curse your blessing. You have
hope that you're going to go out and meet God, but my worship's
being contemptible to you. I'm not going to accept that. And then think about this. What
an amazing thing it was that even an unblemished lamb should
be accepted of God. There was nothing in that lamb,
the man who brought the perfect lamb. There wasn't anything in
that lamb. Was there? No. They brought that lamb by faith
looking to the lamb that was yet to come, the lamb of God. But to know this and still find
his bread contemptible and bring him the sick and the lame and
the blind and pretend to worship him in total disregard of his
person and snuffing at all these things. It's just, it's unthinkable,
just unthinkable. Jesus Christ is our acceptance
with God, and through him by faith, our service and sacrifice
is acceptable. And this is exactly what Paul's
alluding to in Hebrews 10, 22, when he says, let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Where the ark was, there and
there alone their service and sacrifice was accepted. And then fourthly, in this ark
were three things preserved for true Israel. The tables of the
law. Where is that law honored and
exalted? Where is that law kept without
blemish in Christ? Israel, he couldn't even get
down off the mountains with the law before Israel had sinned
and was committing idolatry and worshiping a golden calf and
dancing naked before it and just having a good time. Now he took that law, he said
I'm going to rewrite, I'm going to write that on two new tables
of stone and when you come down you put it in the ark. Don't
put it in your tent, put it in the ark. I mean, I saw a sign going over
to Mississippi one time when we were driving over there, and
it had a, looked like a scroll. The sign
was built like a scroll, had the Ten Commandments on it, and
they said the Ten Commandments is enough for us. Well, they're
too much for me. They're too much for me. Don't
take his law home. Take that law and put it in the
ark, that's what he told Moses. Put it in the ark, seal it in
the ark. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And then also
there was a golden pot with an omer of manna inside the ark. And we know what manna was. It
was the source of the bread of God sent by God down from heaven,
which was typical of Christ. But what's the significance of
the omer? He said, take an omer and put
it in the golden pot and put it in the oven. Well, what was
an omer? I was trying to find out how
much an omer was and I looked and here's what it said. All
that one man could eat in one day. That's what an omer is. All you can eat for one day. Put it in there, preserved it
forever. Small like coriander seed and
had to be gathered and prepared before it could be eaten. And
this speaks to the preaching of the gospel of Christ which
takes of God's testimony and prepares it to be eaten and sets
it on a table before his people. Christ is our heavenly bread
prepared and set before his people in the light of the Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the gospel. And then also in the
ark is Aaron's rod that budded. What does that mean? It means
that Christ alone is our high priest, and he stands in glory
as a token against all rivals and all rebels. When God told
him to take that rod that budded, that's when
Cora, Nathan, and Abiram came up against him. And he said,
OK, here's what we're going to do. Each of you is going to get
a rod, and we'll see who holds the rod of God. And Aaron's rod
not only budded, but it produced almonds. It produced fruit. And
he said, now you take that rod and put it in the ark. Preserve
it in the ark. And he said this. He said, this will be a token
against all rebels. All rebels. Christ alone is our
priest. And then fifthly, the Ark of
the Testament had a golden crown about it. And perhaps the most denied of
all doctrines is the Lordship of Christ. He Lord. He King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. He's the blessed and only Potentate. And many there be that profess
Him as Savior and Substitute and Representative and redeemer,
but few there be that bow to his lordship and acknowledge
and rejoice in his being king. We bow to him, he king. Who do you think's running Providence
right now? Huh? You got a future marked
out that you don't have a clue. Well, who's running that? Who's
running the shelf? Christ is. Christ is. He's Lord. He's Lord of the dead
and He's Lord of the living. He's Lord. And let me tell you something,
you can't have Jesus Christ as your Savior and not bow to Him
as your Lord. In fact, His Lordship is the
first act of faith to be followed. If you study Peter's sermon at
Pentecost, you'll discover that it was the lordship of Christ
that broke their proud hearts and brought them to the feet
of Christ. He said, let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom
you crucified, both Lord and Christ. And when they heard this, They
were pricked in their heart, and they said, what are we going
to do? What are we going to do? And he said, repent and be baptized,
every one of you, in his name. And then, sixthly, where the
ark rested, it had preeminence. It had preeminence. Dagon could
not stand before the ark of God. The Philistines took that ark
and they took it over there and they put it in the temple of
their god Dagon. And Dagon fell on his face before
the ark. And they stood him back up and
they come in next day and he's down on his face. And they stood
him back up and the next time they come in he was laying there
not only on his face but in pieces. where Christ is set up in the
hearts of chosen sinners, idolatry and wicked imaginations cannot
continue. The word of God and the preaching
of the gospel are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
tearing those strongholds up, casting down imaginations, those
old I don't even know the word to
use. Those old cherished imaginations, those false imaginations that
we had of God. It casts them down, and every
high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
and then it brings into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. You quit thinking about your
obedience and start looking at His. No enemy could stand before the
Ark of God. Even the floodwaters of Jordan. Did you know when the Israel
was commanded to go over the River Jordan into the Promised
Land, that it was at flood stage? It was up over its banks and
it was as big as the river ever got. And he said, this is gonna
be a token to you. When those priests that are bearing
the ark, when they come up, when their foot touches the water,
Jordan's going to pile up. It's just going to pile up. It's
not going to flow anymore. It's just going to pile up. And
you're going to walk across on dry ground, just like you did
when you crossed the sea. And then when they get down in
the middle, they're going to stand still, Winston. And the
people are going to go down, and they're going to gather out
12 stones. out of that dry river bed, they're gonna gather 12
stones, and when they get on the other side, they're gonna
build a memorial there. And when your children ask what
that memorial is, you tell them. You tell them where those stones
come from and why. And then lastly, where the ark
resided. the glory of God was manifested. When Moses had set up the tabernacle
and finished the work in Exodus 40 verse 34, it says, then a
cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of
the Lord filled the tabernacle. Where the ark rested, God manifested
his glory. Now you think about that. And
we know what that ark is, that ark is Christ. And where the
ark is set before the people, that's what the tabernacle's
about, it's setting Christ before the people. When Christ is set
before the congregation, that's where God'll manifest His glory,
and God's manifesting His glory is what salvation is. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to show us the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, our Lord. But where Christ is not preached,
you can write Ichabod on the door. Israel went out to do battle
with the Philistines And they were defeated. And when that
handful that was left, when they come back, they said, oh, we
know what the problem was. We didn't have the ark. So they sent Phineas and I can't
remember the other one's name, Eli's two sons. They sent them
back to get the ark. You go get the ark and bring
it back down here. But it didn't make any difference.
It didn't make any difference. They brought it for the wrong
reason. They went out to battle without consulting God at all,
and then they come back and tried to fix the problem themselves,
and that didn't work, and the Philistines took the ark and
slayed, oh, I forget how many thousands of Israel died, and
then one of the guys that escaped this, he come back to tell Eli
what had happened. And Eli was an old man in his
nineties and he was sitting there on a seat or whatever it was
and they come running up to him and they said, Israel's been
defeated by the Philistines and your two boys have been killed.
They're dead. And they took the ark. Now his
two boys being dead didn't hurt him. But the Ark, when he heard
about the Ark, Eli went backwards, broke his neck and died. And
about this time, one of Eli's sons, his daughter-in-law, Eli's
daughter-in-law, the wife of one of the sons that had died,
was having a baby. And when she gave birth to the
baby, she died shortly thereafter, but she lived long enough to
name the baby, and when she heard that the Ark of God had been
taken, she said, you just call him Ichabod. The glory hath departed. Now where Christ is not set before
the people, you write Ichabod on there. This is Ichabod. The
glory hath departed. Where the Ark abides by God's
decree, the glory of God is manifested. And where it is not, the glory
is departed. All right. Thank you.