Bibles tonight to Exodus chapter
25. Our subject is the Ark of the
Covenant, Exodus 25. After commanding Moses to take
offerings from his people and telling him specifically what
offerings to require of the people and telling him that he must
take offerings only from those people who offered these things
willingly, The Lord God gave Moses specific commandment as
to how he would use the offerings God's people brought. He said,
you use these offerings to make for me a sanctuary, a tabernacle,
a place where I may meet with and dwell with my people. And he gave Moses specific instructions
about how the tabernacle was to be made, and what furnishings
were to be put within the tabernacle, and exactly how those furnishings
were to be made. In verses 10 through 22 of Exodus
25, the Lord God here speaks to Moses about making an ark. Verse 10, they shall make an
ark of Shittim wood. a cedar type of wood, a wood
that wouldn't rot and decay. 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. Just about the size
of this communion table, just about that size. And thou shalt
overlay it with pure gold. Within and without shalt thou
overlay it. and shall make upon it a crown
of gold round about. And thou shalt cast four rings
of gold for it, and put them in 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
shittom 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, or carried by those staves. 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, the commandments of the
law, the two tables of stone. And thou shalt put into the ark
the testimony which I give thee, and thou shalt make a mercy seat. 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. The mercy seat is to be made
exactly the same size as the ark itself. And thou shalt make
two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, and
two ends of the mercy seat, and make the one cherub on the one
end, and the other cherub on the other end, even of the mercy
seat shall you make them, the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubim 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. That is, the cherubim stretch
out their wings facing one another but looking down on the mercy
seat, formed with the mercy seat, one on each end, one with the
mercy seat. Verse 21, 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. He hasn't said anything
here yet about the law being broken. He says, put the testimony,
the two tables of the law that I shall give thee, the law that
you've broken. I'm going to write it again.
And you put this testimony unbroken inside the ark beneath the mercy
seat. Verse 22, 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."
What heart can conceive? What mind can comprehend? What tongue can describe the
blessedness of this word from our God? What a wonderful heavenly
revelation this is. The God of all grace has fixed
a place where God and sinners can meet. A place where I can
draw near to God and God can draw near to me where God can
commune with me and I can commune with God. A place where you,
from any point on the earth, no matter how distant it may
seem from God and the things of God, a place no matter how
dark the circumstances in which you live, no matter how heavy
the load you carry, a place where you can come to God and God will
meet with you. A place where you and God can
meet together with no hindrance, with no barrier, anytime and
all the time. It's called the mercy seat. The mercy seat on the ark of
the covenant. Thy night on our bed, thy day
in our occupations, in crowded streets, or alone in the open
field, whether surrounded by ungodly, reprobate men, or gathered
here with God's people in His house, you and I can meet God
Himself in heaven. We can lift our hearts if it's
with nothing but a sigh Nothing but a groan that words cannot
express, a desire that can't be put into words, our songs
of praise and thanksgiving. We can lift our hearts to God
and be in communion with God from any place at any time on
the mercy seat. And that mercy seat is not a
material thing. That mercy seat is not a physical
thing. It is called the throne of grace.
It's called the mercy seat. and God himself bids us come
there. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. And the Lord God makes this promise,
there will I meet with you. I read a few minutes ago the
27th Psalm to you. In that Psalm, David said, said
from the secret place or in the secret place I will offer sacrifices
of joy from the secret place the secret place being the holy
of holies the tabernacle in the holy of holies in the tabernacle
and the mercy seat in the ark from that place, from that place
into which no man could come but God's priest," David says,
I'll offer praises to you. Songs of joy, sacrifices of praise. You have set me on the rock in
the secret place. So the psalmist understood clearly.
He understood clearly that the physical tabernacle and the physical
mercy seat and the physical ark represented something far superior
to anything physical, even that which was made of pure gold.
It represented Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, our substitute,
our refuge, our ark of safety, our mercy seat, in whom we draw
near to God and God draws near to us. We meet Him with our sin. He meets us with forgiveness.
We meet Him with guilt. He meets us with pardon. We meet
Him with our nakedness. He meets us with garments of
salvation. We meet Him in need. He meets
us with boundless supplies of grace. We meet Him in weakness. He meets us with strength. He
says, I'll meet you on the mercy seat between the cherubims. I
will meet you and commune with you there. How can this be? How can God and sinners meet
together? And God meet with us with delight
and satisfaction. And us meet with him with no
fear and no dread and no trembling. If God the Holy Spirit will open
the picture to us and give us eyes to behold that which is
here set before us in type, you will see clearly how it is that
God meets with sinners in Christ Jesus the Lord. I want you to
see and see for yourself that the things we've read speak of
our Redeemer. Hold your hands here in Exodus
25 and turn to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews the ninth chapter. The Holy Spirit uses the tabernacle
and its furniture, all these typical things to show us the
excellence and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ as our divine
Redeemer and Savior. Hebrews chapter 9. He spoke in
chapter 8 of the Lord taking away the first covenant and establishing
the second, and the second covenant being the covenant of his grace.
Now he speaks in reference to that old covenant and the old
ways of the ceremonial law. Then verily, the first covenant
had ordinances of divine service and worldly sanctuary. For there
was a tabernacle made, the first, that is the first or the outer
tabernacle, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. The tabernacle
called the holiest of all, which had the censer, the golden censer,
and the ark. The ark of the covenant overlaid
round about with gold, wherein was the pot, the golden pot that
had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. and the tables of the
covenant, or the testimony, and over it the cherubims of glory
shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. In its day, the ark of the covenant
was the centerpiece of Jewish worship. It was the centerpiece
of the religion of the Old Testament. It was the centerpiece of the
ceremonial law. It was the centerpiece in all
the services that were offered to God in the tabernacle and
in the temple. The Ark of the Covenant is that
which pictured the Lord Jesus preeminently. And by the Ark
of the Covenant, everything that had to do with the Ark of the
Covenant portrayed our Savior. John saw this clearly. When he
saw heaven opened, he said the temple of God was opened in heaven
and there was in his temple the Ark of his Testament. Tonight,
I want by the Spirit of God to stir your heart and mine to seek
Him of whom the ark speaks. All these ordinances of divine
services, all the rites and ceremonies of the Old Testament picture
our Savior. I don't need to tell you that
or show you that. I simply repeat it to remind
you lest you forget everything in the Old Testament points to
Him. And there is no understanding
of that which is written in the Old Testament except we understand
it as it relates to Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Now having said
that, I've been in the last few months reading, studying a number
of books I have in my library on the tabernacle and the priesthood
and all the typical significance of it. And the typical significance
is not to be looked at lightly, but most seem to take the things
as just being physical material things and relating them, how
those physical material things may have referenced our Redeemer.
That's very good. But I want you to see that these
things relate not just to our Lord Jesus in a physical way.
but that these pictures in the Old Testament are pictures of
Christ personally and of that which he has accomplished and
is accomplishing for us and in us by his grace. Now, there are
many good studies about the tabernacle, but I'm not going to deal so
much with physical things. I want us to see God's message
in each portion of the book of Exodus and each part of the tabernacle
as we read it. Tonight, let's just look at the
ark. And I want us to do what no physical
eye could ever do. Remember the men of Beshemus
who were slain because they pried into the tabernacle. They dared
to lift the lid and look in there. You remember Uzziah was killed
because he put his hand on God's tabernacle. Tonight, I want us
to lay the hand of faith on the tabernacle. And I want us to
lift the lid and see what's inside there. Let's raise up the mercy
seat and see what God reveals in his word about this tabernacle. I see six things in it. Six things
in what we've read. It won't be difficult for you
to follow me. The first thing I see in this tabernacle, in
this ark, is God's preachers. God's preachers. If you could
go behind the veil with the high priest on the Day of Atonement,
go into the Holy of Holies, the very first thing that would strike
you, the very first thing you'd see are those magnificent golden
cherubs on each end of that mercy seat. I'm just certain that'd
be the first thing you'd see. Oh, those magnificent golden
cherubs. Those cherubs Cherubims of glory
shadowing the mercy seat is how they're described. Those cherubs
represent gospel preachers. Look in Exodus 25 verse 18. Thou
shalt make two cherubims of gold. A beaten work shalt thou make
them in the two ends of the mercy seat. Now we know these cherubs
do not represent heavenly things, because in Exodus 20 God forbade
the making of any image of heavenly things. That ought to tell you
something. These cherubs do not represent
angelic beings, and it's wrong to make them represent angelic
beings. Angelic beings look upon the mercy seat desiring to understand
redemption, but they have no understanding of it. Angelic
beings protect and care for God's elect who are the objects of
redemption, but they have nothing to do with carrying the message
of redemption. These cherubs represent God's
preachers. Verse 19, Make one cherub on
the one end, and the other cherub on the other end, Even of the
mercy seat shall you make the cherubims, on the two ends thereof. And the cherubim 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. Hold your hands here and turn
to Isaiah chapter 6. A very, very familiar portion of scripture. Our Lord Jesus refers to this
in John 12, and he says, Isaiah saw me in my glory. He sees the
Lord Jesus here. O shepherd of Israel, thou that
leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the
cherubims, shine forth. Isaiah chapter 6. In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne. throne of grace, the mercy seat,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. He filled
the temple. His glory Remember he told Moses,
I'll make my back parts, you'll pass before you and you'll see
my back parts. That's what he's talking about here. The same
thing that Moses saw when he was hidden in the cleft of the
rock. Isaiah said, I saw him. I saw him sitting on his throne,
high and lifted up. The crucified Redeemer, above
it, above the throne, above the mercy seat, stood the seraphims. They were called cherubim back
in Exodus. That's all right. He's speaking
of messengers, heavenly messengers. Each one had six wings. With
twain, with two he covered his face in humility. With two he
covered his feet, showing his humility again, covering his
filth. And with two he swiftly flew,
flew to do the will of him who sat on the throne. And one cried
unto the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Thrice holy is the Lord of hosts,
the one God, three persons in one Godhead, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. The whole earth is full of His
glory. The whole earth is made and designed
and ruled to show forth His praise. And the post to the door moved
at the voice of Him that cried, And the house was filled with
smoke, august wonder and majesty. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. I have seen Jesus Christ crucified
in the flesh, sitting on the throne, the God of glory. Then
flew one of the seraphims unto me. having a live coal in his
hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar. And
he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy
lips. Thine iniquity is taken away. Thy sin is purged." Brother Don,
how can you be sure this is talking about God's servants, gospel
preachers? Let me show you one more passage,
Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. These are the same living creatures
that John saw before the throne. The picture is exactly the same.
What John has before us here in Isaiah, or in Revelation 4,
is exactly what Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter 6, beginning at
verse 6. Before the throne there was a
sea of glass likened to crystal. And in the midst of the throne
and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes. If
you have a modern translation in the margin of your Bible,
four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. And the
first beast was like a lion, bold. The second like a cast
strong. The third had the face of a man,
tender and compassionate. The fourth like a flying eagle,
soaring to do God's will with wisdom that God alone can give.
And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him.
And they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night,
saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is,
and is to come. And when these, when those beasts
give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne,
who liveth forever and ever. The four and twenty elders fall
down before him that sat on the throne and worship him, that
liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the
throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and
honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy
pleasure they are and were created. These four living creatures are
here presented as four rather than two, because the servants
of God proclaim the gospel in the four corners of the earth,
and they take the message continually to the four corners of the earth.
And as they are heard, God causes His chosen, the 24 elders out
of every nation and kindred and tribe and tongue, making up all
the tribes of His Israel to fall down and worship Him. Now hear
what I say. Hear what I say. It is not possible
for any sinner in this day to find, to know, or to come to
God apart from the instrumentality of gospel preaching. It's just
not possible. How can that be? Because God
has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. He's limiting God. No, no. Now I'm telling you what God
says. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. This is how God saves his people. I know people all the time ask,
well, what if there's not a preacher around? When God comes to save,
there'll be a preacher around. You just mark it down one way
or the other. He has no difficulty taking Philip
and suddenly planting him in the middle of the desert, walking
beside one of his elect, for whom the time of mercy has come,
and causing that eunuch to hear his word. God's preachers are
not priests. We detest idolatrous priestcraft. I detest every notion of it.
Doesn't matter whether the priests are Roman, or Buddhist, or Mormon,
or Baptist. We detest priesthood. When you
observe the Lord's table here every Sunday evening, I deliberately
do everything I can not to be in any way intrusive. Men come,
they serve the bread and wine, seldom do I even say anything.
Why? Because I don't want it to appear
that somehow there's something magical about me having something
to do with this. We detest priesthood. But God's
servants are God's messengers. They're described in Revelation
chapters 1, 2, and 3 as the angels of His churches. Angels simply
means messengers. They are the men God Almighty
raises up and calls and gifts and uses to preach His gospel
to His people. And God's servants are to be
treated with respect as God's messengers. I can't stress this
sufficiently. I can't stress it adequately.
I stress it not for my benefit here. No man is treated more
respectfully and honorably as God's servant than you treat
your pastor. I say this for the benefit of
everybody else in the world who hears this message and for your
sons and daughters who may hear it. God's servants are to be
treated with respect as his messengers. Isaiah 52. How beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation, that saith to Zion, thy God reigneth. These are God's
messengers. And the very next word is, they
all see eye to eye. All of them do. How come? Because
they're all looking at the mercy seat. They're all fixed on the
sacrifice. They're all fixed on Christ Jesus
the Lord. Their eyes are always toward
the mercy seat. Their message is the message
of sins forgiven by blood atonement. The glory of God is revealed
by the very message they bring and only by the message they
bring. Second, I see here in this picture, this type, this
representation in Exodus 25, this Ark of the Covenant. God's
propitiation. The mercy seat represents Christ
who is the propitiation for our sins. Exodus 25 verse 17. 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.
exactly the same measure as the top of the ark, which contains
the law that we've broken, but the law that He has kept. Verse
21, 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 will I meet with thee. On the mercy seat, over the ark,
over the testimony, there will I 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 that I will give thee in commandment unto the
children of Israel. You turn to Romans chapter 3
one more time, will you? Romans chapter 3. The mercy seat is the place of substitution. It's the place of sacrifice,
the place of divine satisfaction, the place where righteousness
is brought in and justice is satisfied. In this was manifested
the love of God toward us because God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. Now listen,
herein is love, not that we love God. but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The Word is mercy-seeked. Romans 3 verse 24. Being justified
freely. Freely as far as we're concerned. Being justified with no cost
on our part. Being justified with no effort
on our part. Being justified with no contribution
on our part. By His grace, But it cost him
dearly through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation, a mercy seat through faith in
his blood. Now our faith in his blood doesn't
make him a mercy seat. He is the mercy seat. He is the
propitiation for our sins. Our faith in His blood is that
by which we apprehend the mercy that is ours through His blood.
To declare His righteousness, to declare God's righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, God's righteousness
that God in glory may be just and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus. Propitiation. What's that talking
about? On the day of atonement, Aaron
took the blood of the lamb and he caught it in a basin and he
sprinkled it on the mercy seat to make atonement first for his
own sins and then for the people. Over that sacrifice, Aaron had
laid his hands on the head of the sacrifice and confessed all
the sins of all Israel, bearing their names on his breastplate.
And when he went into the Holy of Holies, he took off his gorgeous
priestly apparel and put on those white linen garments and went
in there and made atonement for sin. And he came back out and
put on those same gorgeous priestly garments. that same breastplate
wearing the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel,
and he took another goat, the scapegoat, and he laid his hands
on the head of the scapegoat. And it confessed all the sins
of Israel. It took the two goats to show
the picture that's represented. And it turns the scapegoat loose
in the hands of a fit man who carries him into a far distant
place so that the sins of God's people symbolically are carried
away completely gone. That's propitiation. That's what
Christ did for us in the sacrifice of Himself. So that now the law
of God as well as the mercy of God, demands our release. Did you hear me, children of
God? Propitiation means that the law of God, as well as the
mercy of God, the justice of God, as well as the grace of
God, the righteousness of God, as well as the love of God, demands
the release of every ransomed soul, because justice has been
satisfied. Third, standing in the holiest
of all with Christ, our Aaron, our great high priest. Here we
are. I hope you can do this when you
read the scriptures. In your mind, enter into what
you're reading. Here we stand in the holy of
holies, within the veil, where God's
glory is. And suddenly, we discover ourselves
standing in God's presence. God said, there will I meet with
you. That's where God met his people
throughout the Old Testament. That's where God gave his instructions.
That's where God communed with his people. That's where God
taught Aaron and taught his people all things in his law. He said,
I'll commune with you. In Christ, God not only meets
us upon the mercy seat, He abides with us. So that no matter where
we are, no matter what we're doing, if you're in Christ, the
name of that place where you are is Jehovah Shabbat. The Lord is there. The Lord is
there. Jehovah Shammah Baptist Church
meets right here. That place over there, right
behind this building here, called Jehovah Shammah. That's where
we live. The Lord is there. You get in your car heading down
the road, it's called Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is there. The
Lord is there. Can you get a hold of this? God's
with us all the time. For we're in Christ all the time. And as God is with him, so he's
with us. He says, I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee. Now, we lift up this lid on the
mercy seat and we see inside what God required Moses to put
there. And there we see God's purpose.
The law of God was written on tables of stone, representing
both the hardness of our hearts and the inflexibility of God's
law. That law represents our curse and our condemnation by
reason of sin. But that law is kept in the ark
under the mercy seat. It's kept in the ark under the
mercy seat. And it's never broken. It's never
violated. It's never corrupted. It's never
bent. Nothing's ever scratched out.
Nothing's ever changed. There it is. What's that talking
about? Well, Christ kept the law. Yes,
he did that, but more than that. Christ satisfied justice, so
now we're justified in Christ from all our guilt. Yes, that,
but more than that, more than that. That's the testimony of
the covenant. And this ark is called the Ark
of the Covenant. Look at verse 16 in our text,
Exodus 25, 16. Thou shalt put into the ark the
testimony that I shall give thee. Verse 21. Thou shalt put the
mercy seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put
the testimony that I shall give thee. What's that? It's the whole
purpose of God. The law is the revelation of
the whole purpose of God. The law fulfilled, the law kept,
the law magnified and made honorable is the whole revelation of God
in Jesus Christ who is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. The law represents perfect redemption. for God's elect by the sacrifice
of God's son when that law stands intact in the ark of the covenant
under the mercy seat, under the blood because Christ is our ark,
he's the mercy seat, he's our sacrifice, Christ is our righteousness
and our holiness. Look again, there's something
else inside the ark. There's a symbol of God's power.
This is not in our text, but if you'll turn over to Numbers
chapter 17. Numbers 17, verse 10. God commanded Moses to put Aaron's
rod in the ark. Aaron's rod that budded with
life. That piece of wood. That piece of wood that sprang
forth with life. Number 1710, the Lord said unto
Moses, bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony. Bring Aaron's
rod before the law that's unviolated, the law that's unbroken, the
law that's magnified and made honorable, the law that my son
has kept and my son has satisfied, the law that my son declares
perfect in the saving of my people. Bring Aaron's rod to be kept
for a token against the rebels. Don't you dare break out against
God. And thou shalt quite take away
their murmurings from me that they die not. You'll remember
Christ. Our rock was smitten by Moses'
rod, the law. But the water of life flows out
to sinners by that which is represented in Aaron's rod, the gospel of
God's grace. Because the gospel of Christ
is the power of God under salvation. The power of God, the dynamite
of God under salvation to everyone that believes. And here's the
sixth thing. In this ark, under the mercy
seat, is God's provision. Turn back to Exodus chapter 16.
Exodus 16. These are the things that were
in the ark. There was blood atonement there.
God's glory is there. God put his law there. God put Aaron's rod there. And
God put something else there. Moses said unto Aaron, take a
pot, a big pot, and put an omer full of manna therein. and lay
it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations. As the
Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony
to be kept. Here's the Ark of the Covenant.
Inside this Ark of the Covenant is God's law, His holy law intact,
His perfect, perfect obedience of His Son, perfect, perfect
righteousness, complete holiness through the blood and obedience
of His Son. That's the testimony. There's
Aaron's rod, the proclamation of it, the gospel of His grace.
And right there before the testimony is a big pot, a big gold pot,
big enough to hold a whole armor Not like a bushel basket, a big
gold pot, full of bread, full of manna, manna that dropped
out of heaven. Christ the bread of life. In the ark, Christ Jesus, the
cause of the blood on the mercy seat is God's provision. Every provision of God's grace. every provision for his house,
every provision for his sons and daughters, for time and eternity,
world without end. Amen. Turn to Psalm 61. I'll wrap this up. Christ, the bread of life, is
all the provision of grace and all the provision of providence
and all the provision of eternity. Hear my cry, O God. Attend unto my prayer. From the
end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that's higher
than I, for thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from
the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle
forever. I will trust in the covert of
thy wings. Now take that home with you and
roll it around in your heart. Roll it around in your soul's
memory for the glory of your Redeemer that you may live continually
in the secret place of God, on the rock where he's planted you.
Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, our mercy seat, our ark, our salvation. Amen.