Last week, I gave you a kind
of overview of the tabernacle of its courtyard, about 450 feet
in length, with a snow-white, pure linen fence, 7 1�2 feet
tall, stretching all the way around. And then the furnishings within,
we talked a little bit about that. And tonight I want to kind
of zero in on the very heart of the tabernacle, which is where
God begins His instruction with Moses. And that is the Ark of
the Testimony. This Ark is at the very beginning. We talked about that last week.
God reveals Himself from the inside out on the tabernacle. He doesn't start out in the courtyard
with a white linen fence work his way past the labor and past
all the furnishings in the courtyard and the altars and all those
things and then the inside. He starts at the very beginning
on the inside. That's where we see the glory
of Christ, on the inside. And so I want to zero in on that.
And this order itself speaks to me of the grace of God and
the salvation of sinners. Salvation begins with God. This is where it begins. We want
to talk to folks about salvation, and we begin to talk to them
about sin, and we begin to talk to them about all kinds of things.
But salvation begins with God. That's where it begins. It begins
with Him. If you have an interest, that
interest began with Him. If you have an opportunity, that
opportunity began with Him. Salvation is of the Lord. And
it's of the Lord in its beginning. It begins with God. And it begins
with God establishing here His throne in Israel. This is where
God will sit and rule Israel. He'll sit between the cherubim,
above the ark of the testimony, and that's where He'll abide
in Israel. You talk about this ark and this
mercy seat which he describes in detail here in Exodus. And
God will be worshipped. That's what he's going to teach
us in these next several chapters. He's going to be worshipped.
This is where God will instruct, teach, and rule his people from
between these two cherubims above the mercy seat which rests upon
the Ark of the Testimony. Now I just want to begin tonight
by kind of refreshing your memories, or perhaps you've never heard
this before. Did you realize that the Ark
has different names? None of the writers that I read
on this had anything to say about this, but I want to begin here
that the Ark has different names. Here in Exodus chapter 25, verse
22, he calls it the Ark of the Testimony. The Ark of the Testimony. You can jot these Scriptures
down. We're not going to turn to them. But in Numbers 10, verse
33, he refers to it as the Ark of the Covenant. In Joshua 4,
he calls it the Ark of the Lord. And then in 1 Samuel 3, verse
3, he calls it the Ark of God. And then in 1 Samuel 5, verse
7, he calls it the Ark of the God of Israel. All of those names are names
identified with Christ. All of those names identified
with Christ. And then in Revelation chapter
11 and verse 19, it's called the Ark of His Testament of God's
will. Now, all these names have to
do with the name of Christ as the one place where God will
meet men and where men will meet God. If God will meet men, here
is where you are going to meet them. If men will meet God, here
is where you are going to meet them. This is the only place. There is one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There is just one place. And
the first order of business in the revelation of God to Israel
is the ark. Why? Because God's name was in
the ark. This is where this revelation
begins. It was the ark of God. His people's
name and their union with God is declared in the ark. That's
the ark of the God of Israel. The name of Christ is in the
ark. It's the ark of the Lord. Christ's testimony to Israel
is sealed up in the ark. It's the ark of the testimony.
It's sealed up in Him. And God's covenant redemption
is sealed within. It is the ark of the covenant.
And His will toward His people is sealed up in this ark. It is the ark of the Testament. So God's name is in this ark. So as we study these things and
we look at these things, you remember that this ark is a picture
of Christ in whom God's name is declared. And so the beginning
of this thing in its picture form and in its typical form
is in this ark of the covenant. You remember what he said over
in the book of Acts, upon the coming of Christ and His resurrection
and ascension back to glory? He said, there is none other
name given under heaven whereby men must be saved. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, then the second thing
I want you to see here about this ark is that God gave the
ark to Israel. This wasn't something Israel
sat around and talked about and said, well, I've got an idea,
let's build an ark. I'll tell you what let's do.
Let's build it out of wood, and then we'll put some gold on it,
and then we'll put these cherubim on here, these angel-looking
things with the wings, and we'll bow them over here, and this
will really look cool. You know, we'll build this thing.
No, God gave this to Israel. All of it. They had no idea what
God was doing here when He began to give them these things. In
John 6, verse 38, our Lord said this. Now, I'm going back and
forth between the New Testament and the Old, because we're talking
about something typical of Christ. And in this second point here,
I'm telling you that this ark was given of God. And so it is
here in John 6, verse 38, our Lord said, For I came down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. God sent Him. God gave Him. And this is the
Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath
given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the
last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every
one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting
life, and I'll raise Him up at the last day." The Lord Jesus
Christ is God's unspeakable gift to His people. He could have
just left us in our sins, couldn't He? He could have left Israel
down in Egypt in that hogwalla of idolatry and oppression. He could have just left them
there. Could have just left them there. But he didn't. And he
could have left us in our sins and ignorance. He could have
left them under the wicked influence of heathen idolatry and left
them to their own reasoning and ideas. But he didn't do that.
He gave them a divine revelation of Himself, and of Christ, and
of the way of redemption. And He did not leave us to interpret
the giving of this ark, but gave plain instruction as to what
it was, and how it was to be used, and how it was to be moved
about. This ark didn't stay in one place,
Russell. When God made it, He designed
it to be moved. But He gave instruction as to
how it was to be moved and how it was to be carried, how it
was to be handled. It was given to Israel. It wasn't
given to the Gentiles. It wasn't given to the Canaanites
and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Jebusites and all the
otherites. The Ark was given to Israel.
God gave it to them. Now I want you to think about
that. And despite the superstitious ideas about it, it brought no
power. It brought no comfort. It brought
no victory to anyone except Israel. You remember the Philistines
got the Ark? They got a hold of it. They stole it. They got
the Ark. And they said, man, we've got the power of God with
us now. We've got the Ark. We can whoop anybody. They stole
it. But it was nothing to them but
a plague. It destroyed Dagon, their god.
He fell over on his face. And then it left them with emeralds. You remember our study of the
curses back in Egypt? You remember what emeralds are?
That's hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids. And everywhere that
ark went, he cursed them with hemorrhoids. I'm talking about
bad stuff. I ain't talking about, you know,
just a nuisance. But I'm talking about very bad
stuff. It was God's ark. And it was
given to whom God would give it. And He gave them all these
specifications for its design. And these things, it showed His
design in Christ. His design in redemption. And
it was for His glory. And it was to be carried about
a certain way by certain men, and when it wasn't, it would
become a curse to them. Do you remember who it was that
reached up there to steady that ark? Well, number one, I just
read to you where there were rings in this ark. It was a big
box with its covering, and it had golden rings in each corner.
And it had these staves, these long poles made out of chitinwood. Overlaid with gold. They was
never to be taken out of those rings. They put those poles through
that rings and the priest was to bear that ark everywhere it
went. Well, David loaded up on a wagon. God didn't tell him
to load that thing on a wagon. Down the road they went. Sure
enough, that ark went to tip over and old Uzzah reached up.
God smote him dead right there on the spot. It was God's ark, and it was
to be carried a certain way by certain men. And when it wasn't,
it become a curse to even them. And then third thing I want you
to see is the ark itself. It's the single most important
piece of furniture in the tabernacle. Everything revolved around this
ark. He starts with the ark, and then
he moves around and begins to describe all the else in the
tabernacle. It's got to be the single most
important piece of furniture in the tabernacle. Do you know
when they built the temple, do you know what they carried from
the tabernacle into the temple? Only the Ark of the Covenant.
That's the only thing that came out of that old tabernacle and
went into the temple. The only thing carried over.
And so in John's vision, of the glorified Redeemer. That's what
this Temple of Solomon, this was the permanent place of worship. This is showing our Lord resurrected
and in glory, fixed. Fixed. It wasn't covered. The
temple wasn't covered with badger skin. The temple was beautiful
inside and out. You remember that occasion when
the disciples just stood back and looked at all at the rebuilt
temple. They weren't looking at the original.
when Solomon finished it in all of its glory. But they were looking
at it after it had been rebuilt. And they were just in awe of
its beauty, even on the outside. In John's vision of the glorified
Redeemer, he tells us in Revelation 11, verse 19, And the temple
of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple
the ark of the Testament. This ark is Christ and Christ
is the ark. So God begins with the ark because
without the ark there is no need of the rest of the tabernacle.
What use would you have of a tabernacle with no ark? No mercy seat. What sense would there be of
that? And then I want you to see also that this tabernacle
is a picture of the body of Christ. This ark on the inside, this
is talking about the Our glorious Redeemer, this is talking about
his substitutionary sacrifice. This is talking about the very
glory of God in redemption. What need would there be of a
body without that? What need would there be of a
tabernacle without that? It'd just be a hollow shell of
religion. Be no need of tables of showbread
or candlesticks or courtyards or incense or labor. Establish first the ark and then
the tabernacle will have meaning and beauty and glory. And that's
what I want you to see as we go through this. Religion today
would focus on the work. They'd start out here where the
work began. They'd start out here at the laver and at the
gate out there. There was a 30 foot wide gate
that faced the east and a big high fence. And that's where
they'd start. They'd start out there with the
work and they'd work their way back in. They'd focus on the
work and then mention the person in passing. But the opposite
is when God gives you the revelation. He begins with Christ. He begins
with Christ. First the inside and then the
outside. First the person and then the
work. The work means nothing. Listen
to Him talk about the work. Listen to Him preach about the
work. What have they got it boiled down to? What is the work of
Christ anymore in religion? Just walking down an aisle, shaking
somebody's hand, making a profession of faith, making a decision,
accepting Jesus as your personal Savior. There's nothing to the
work. All the glory of the work is gone because all the glory
of the person is missing. You begin with the person. That's
what gives value to the work. Old John the Baptist, he stood
there in the path and he saw the Lord coming down that trail. And what did He say? What did
He say? Did He talk about sins being
taken away? Is that what He said? No. He
said, Behold the Lamb. That's first. Behold the Lamb. Learn who the Lamb is. Learn
something about the person. Learn something about His glory.
And then He tells you the second part, Who taketh away the sin
of the world. It's the person first, and then
the Word. The glorious person of Christ
that gives power to the sacrifice, glory to the work of redemption,
and meaning to the substitutionary offerings of the priest. The
world in that day was filled with every kind of twisted, idolatrous
religion imaginable. You can't even imagine some.
We'd laugh at them today. With what little bit of knowledge
we have, we'd laugh at this. But it's going on today, too.
Same thing. Just as twisted, just as wicked,
just as crooked. But there was everything under
the sun. They changed the glory, Paul said in Romans chapter 1,
of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto man,
birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things. They made gods
of the planets, Jupiter, Mars, and Venus. Gods of the elements,
fire, wind and earth, gods of nature, the water and the sun,
and half-gods and half-men. They had gods who were half-man
and half-fish and half-man and half-horse and half-man and half-birds. But there was only one place
given, only one place given of God. where he would meet with
Israel and reveal his name, and that was between the cherubim.
If you want to know who God is, you had to learn something about
the ark. Something about the ark. Even so, today we're built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly
framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord." Everything else around this ark
was just a house for the ark. Just a house for the ark. Our
Lord Jesus Christ was made of a woman, it says. Made under
the law. Why? Why? Why must He become a man? Why
must He be as we are, servants of the law? Why couldn't He save
men from heaven? He was God. He was equal with
God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Why couldn't
He save men and just stay on the throne? Why did He have to
come down and take to Himself human flesh? Why must the Word
come into the flesh? Why must that be? and dwell among
us. Why must He come in and be born
as a servant? Why must He be made of a woman
and made under the law? Well, it says in Galatians, in
order to redeem them that were under the law. He came as a substitute. He came as a representative.
Our representative must be made like unto we are. He must be
put in the same situation we are, under the curse. It says
He was made a curse for us. His earthly body was but a tabernacle
to house the ark. In Hebrews 9, verse 11, it said,
But Christ, being come an high priest of good things to come
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, neither of the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption. for us. And then
fourthly, let's look at the materials of which the ark was to be constructed. We're told here that his ark
was to be made of wood and gold. Wood and gold. Sounds strange,
doesn't it? These two materials have to do
with his two natures. Christ had two natures. He was
both God and man. Christ is both God and man in
one person. So let's consider first the wood
of which the ark was made. It said it was made of Shittam
wood. Shittam wood. The old writers say that Shittam
wood is what's commonly called today the Acacia tree. The Acacia tree. The Acacia tree
has three prominent things that point to the person of Christ.
First of all, this tree You remember where Israel was when the tabernacle
was built? They were in the wilderness.
This tree lived in a dry, thirsty land. This tree survived in a
desert wilderness. That's Christ, isn't it? This wood was incorruptible wood. This wood lived there under the
elements and wasn't affected by it. It thrived and grew in this harsh
climate. Dry. No water. And so the Lord
Jesus Christ was uncorruptible. He did no sin. He thought no
sin. He had no affection for sin. Satan came to Him to find something
to exploit. Some point somewhere, some common
ground that He could get on and exploit like He did with Eve.
But He found nothing in Christ. He found nothing in Him. He was
the sinless Son of God. And then secondly, the acacia
tree has long thorns on it. It's a thorn tree. Like our locusts,
like our old native flowering locusts got thorns that long
on it. On the outside, all this world had to offer Him was a
crown of thorns. You look at Him on the cross
and you see a crown of thorns upon His head. That's what you
see from the outside. That's what this world sees.
They saw nothing in Him. What is thorns and thistles?
Are not those things the sign of God's curse upon men? That's
what they saw. They saw the curse of Christ. To them He bore nothing but the
sign of the curse of Adam. But He bore our thorny curse
in His flesh. Galatians 3.13. He hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. And
then the third characteristic of this acacia tree is that it
puts forth a gum. It kind of oozes forth out of
the little knot holes and things. And they rake that gum up and
they use it for making medicine. Isn't that something? The blood of Christ has a healing
virtue on it. A healing virtue. He is every wit man, and yet
He is a man apart from every man. The Scripture said there
is one God, one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ
Jesus. He is a man alone. Alone. There is not another man like
Him. Never was. in all eternity. He's called
the second man by way of revelation, Adam being the first. And in
this sense, Adam was the covenant head of all men. And all men
fell in him, was judged in him, and cursed in him. Christ is
the covenant head of God's elect, and they receive His benefits
as such. He is the covenant head of God's
elect. And then it was not only wood,
but it was also overlaid with gold. Within and without, it
says, pure gold. Golden rings by which it's to
be born on golden staves. And a golden mercy seat above
it. A golden pot within it full of manna. There was wood in it. But all that was to be seen by
the priest who approached this The Ark of the Covenant was pure
gold. Pure gold. Gold speaks of the
deity of Christ. Gold speaks of the preciousness
of Christ. Unto you therefore which believe,
Peter said, he is precious. All the rest of them, when he
started talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood,
Natural man reasoned that he was talking about cannibalism.
They couldn't reason spiritually that he was talking about his
gospel, that he was talking about his person and work being our
bread, our daily sustenance, our very life. And they turned
away and walked away from him. Those had been following him
for a long time. And he turned around to the twelve
and he said, will you go too? And they said, where are we going
to go? You have the words of eternal life. You are our ark. And we see in you pure gold.
They saw God in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. God in Christ. In the book of Colossians, He
said, the believer is a man who knows his life is hid with God
in Christ. He said, don't get too wrapped
up in these things in this world, but set your affection on things
above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your
affection to that. Pure gold. Pure gold. And then last of all, let's look
at the contents of the ark. There's a golden pot full of
manna set inside this ark. A golden pot full of manna. And
Aaron's rod that budded. A shepherd's rod with buds on
it. Getting ready to have leaves
on this old rod. And then there's the tables of
God's law written by his own hand. up on tables of stone. Let's think about this first. Let's look at this thing about
the manna. Christ is the bread of God. Those old Jews, they looked at
Christ and they said, Moses gave us bread. What are you going
to do? What are you going to do? He caused it to rain bread
down in the wilderness. He said, Moses didn't give you
that bread. My Father gave you the bread
from heaven, and He said, I'm the bread. I'm the bread. That's what that golden pot full
of manna, Christ our bread. He's the heavenly bread of His
elect, and they gather up where God rains it down. You couldn't
just gather manna anywhere. You had to gather it where God
caused it to fall. And then you couldn't just pick
it up like popcorn and eat it. It was tiny like coriander seed,
but it was too big to make bread. And so they took it and they
processed it. A lot of times I'll stand up
here and I'm preaching things to you tonight. You maybe just
can't eat these things that I'm giving you tonight. You're going
to have to go home and process these things. We process them
through the Holy Spirit. That's what they did with this
manna. It was beaten down fine into a flour and then they put
it in an oven and bake it and it made bread. And that's how
God's gospel is. He rains it down where He pleases. And men gather it up. They gather
it up. And then they process it by the
Holy Spirit and they eat it as bread. And so they come back
over and over and over. Christ is our manna, and Moses
didn't give them the manna, God did. Here's what I want you to see,
the very bread of life was sealed within this ark and preserved
as a testimony of God. This is my bread, right here. And so it is, he puts his bread
in Christ, and he said, here it is. And except, he said, you
eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no life in
you. And then Aaron's rod that budded.
There was a revolt that took place against Moses. And if against
Moses, then it was against God. Cory, Dathan, and Abiram, you
remember the revolt. And to settle the matter, 12
rods were laid before the ark. God gave him instruction. He
said, you take 12 rods, a rod for each tribe. Now remember,
Aaron was a Levite. He was the high priest. And so
this rod, this one rod representing the Levites, he laid it out there
and 11 others before the ark. God said in the morning, whichever
ark buds, that's where my authority lies. That's where my name lies. And Aaron's rod was the only
one that budded. Now God said, you take that.
That's where my authority is. And he said, you take that rod
and you put it within the ark. That's where God's authority
was to be manifested. The rod of Aaron, the high priest,
was to be kept in there as a testimony. You can read about this over
in Numbers chapter 17. He said over there, he said this,
when this rod was laid up in the ark, God said it is a token
against the rebels. A token against the rebels. And
he lays that same rod, that resurrected rod, that authority of God that
he's confirmed. He's laid that up in Christ. And Christ is a token against
rebels. And this whole dispute was about
a priestly ministry and who had the right to do it. That's what
it was all about. Isn't that what that's all about
today with the preaching of the gospel? Isn't that what they're
saying? We say everybody has the right.
I'm telling you, they didn't have the right here. God took
it away from them. And He settled that thing right
there. And this was then and is now a token. And this thing
was taken completely out of the hands of man and decided by God
alone. Moses and Aaron, God's prophet
and God's priest, were types of Christ and the rebellion of
the people pictures the rebellion of men and women today against
Christ. And this budded rod is a figure
of the resurrected Christ. And then the third thing, and
I'll quit, was the tables of the law. Now, I don't know if
you've ever thought about this, but God gave these tables, which
He wrote out with His own hand, took His finger and wrote these
laws on these tables of stone up on that mountain before Moses.
twice. Do you remember the first occasion?
God wrote it down. He was up there 40 days. And
God gave Moses all these instructions. And He wrote that law, these
Ten Commandments down on those tables of stone. And when Moses
came down, what did he find? All the people were dancing naked
around a golden calf. They took all their gold melted
it down and they molded this big old calf. And Aaron was afraid
of them. And he went ahead and did this. And Moses came down and found
them dancing around there and he got angry and he threw the
tables of stone down and they shattered on the ground. And
after this was over, he went back up on the mountain and God
gave him those tables of stone again. And this time he said,
When you go back down, you take these two tables and you put
them in the ark. Because the first time ought
to be proof enough to us that we can't keep this law. We can't
keep it long enough for God to give it. We can't keep it. We'd
be just like him. If God lifted his hand, we'd
all be dancing naked around a calf. That's what we'd be doing. And he gave him that law the
second time, and he said, you put that law in the ark, and
it'll be sealed and honored and glorified below the mercy seat,
under the mercy seat. Christ is the end of the law. Isn't that what the Scripture
says? The end of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believes. Now next week, Lord willing,
we'll get into this thing of the mercy seat. I love the wording
of it. He said, the mercy seat that
rests upon the ark.