We're gonna be back in Hebrews
chapter nine if you would like to turn there. Last week we spent some time
examining the items that are found here in the first five
verses of Hebrews chapter nine and We briefly talked on some,
and others we elaborated on more so. I don't like to squeeze too
many things into one message. It's too much information. Sheeps
can't digest really fast. Did you know that? You know what
can, though? A goat. A goat can digest really fast.
They eat everything, don't they? Those who are in false religion,
actually they pride themselves on their intellect. That's what
they want is more intellect. Give me more information, more
information. But the believer, just tell me Christ. Just give
me Christ. Give me the simplicity of the
gospel. That's what we want. And my hope
this morning is the Lord would do just that. Hope he would cause
us to know nothing among us save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
If you need something other than Him, you don't know Him. If you need something other than
the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't know Him, because He's all in
all to His people, all in all. If He's not enough for you, it's
because you've never met Him. God must make you have a need,
God must make me have a need, and then fill that need as only
He can with the Lord Jesus Christ, and He does for His people. Let's
read our text here in Hebrews 9, 1 through 5. Then verily the first covenant
had also ordinances of divine service and worldly sanctuary.
For there was a tabernacle made, the first, 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, which had the golden censer, and the ark of
the covenant, overlaid round about with gold, wherein was
the golden pot, and that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. and the tables of the covenant,
and over it the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat
of which we cannot now speak particularly. I've titled this
message, Christ, Our Mercy Seat. Christ, our mercy seat. Every
description given here in these five verses, or actually, but
it's just primarily the verse four, really, is where they give
the description of the mercy seat. It's overlaid with gold
and the three items that were inside of it. Then the cherubims
on top of it. All of those are signifying what
the Lord, who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And for this hour,
I want to look at Christ, our mercy seat. The mercy seat is the place,
the only place you'll find in scripture where the Lord said,
here will I meet with you. Here will I meet with you. Nowhere
else. Nowhere else. If he doesn't meet
with us in mercy, it's going to be in judgment. There's no
other way. And this mercy seat is where he said, here is where
I'll meet with you. Here is where I'll meet with
you. If you want eternal life, it
will only come to you God's way. God's way. His saving. His calling. His keeping. It will come to you God's way.
And as we heard the first hour, there's only one way, and it's
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He is the way made for the Lord's
people. He is the mercy seat. He is the
place. He is the person where we will
meet God in mercy, or we will not have mercy at all. Notice
verse four, the description of this mercy seat and its contents,
and I want us to focus on the mercy seat this morning. Verse
four, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid
round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna,
and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant.
First of all, it was overlaid with gold. This represents Christ's
royalty, his royalty. He was king of keys, well not
was, he is. He is King of Kings, and He is
Lord of Lords. And that's what this gold signified. He's King. He is the King. He alone is sovereign. All time
was created by Him and for His purpose. Everything that was
created was created because He desired to create it, and He
did so according to His purpose, according to the good pleasure
of His will. He is the King. That's what the gold represents.
Everything that's in the earth obeys his word, obeys his will. He's sovereign. Somebody said,
well, what about these people doing this or that? Lord leaving
them to themselves is what's happening, but there's nothing
that takes God off guard. There's nothing that makes him
scratch his head. He's not pacing the floor. We got a, an election
coming up and I'm not getting political with you, but the fact
of the matter is, is the Lord has already purposed all things
according to his determinant counsel, rest. rest in the Lord's
providence, rest in the Lord's power, rest in the fact that
He is the Lord Jesus Christ, He's God. That's what this gold
represents. All the inhabitants of the earth
are subject to him. They're subject to him. I was
speaking to a lady just this, I guess it's two weeks ago now,
and she asked me, well, what if God wants me to get to point
B in life? What if I start at point A and
God wants me to get to point B, but I end up at point Z? What
does that mean? I said, well, first of all, your
mentality of who God is is wrong. Let me explain it this way. God
doesn't want anything. God doesn't want for anything. He owns everything. He has everything. What would we offer him that
he does not already own? He doesn't want anything. He
doesn't need anything. He doesn't have a need. And as
I was talking to this woman, I said, "'Who hath resisted his
will? "'Or who hath said unto him,
what doest thou?' And that was Nebuchadnezzar, wasn't it? Whenever
his eyes were opened, he said, well, who could resist this?
Who could even reply unto him, what doest thou? And then we
hear Paul in Romans, "'Said hath not Potter power over the clay
"'to make one lump of honor and another to dishonor?' Yes, he's
the Potter. He's the Potter. God doesn't
want anything, nor does he want for anything. But men have spent
their lifetime in religion preaching just that. There's a mild baby
Jesus that loves everybody and wants to save everybody, that
wants everybody to love him back. And that's not true. He doesn't
want anything. He's God, he's the king. That's
what this gold represents. He's the king, he's the sovereign. In Christ Jesus being the mercy
seat, in Christ Jesus being the king, the fullness of the Godhead
bodily dwelt upon him. What that means is as sovereign
as the father is, that's how sovereign he is. As holy as the
father is, that's how holy he is. As holy as the spirit is,
that's how holy he is. This is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He's God, he's king, he's Lord. He reigneth over the inhabitants
of the earth and all of the hosts of heaven bow to his will. Everything
in hell, he is purposed. He alone is king. He alone is
king. You know why men won't bow to
him? Because they don't want him to be king. They want to
be king. In the garden, Eve wanted to
be God, didn't she? That's what it all was about.
He said, the day you eat of the fruit, you shall surely die.
But the serpent beguiled Eve and said, Lord knows in the day
you eat of that fruit, you shall not surely die, for you'll become
like gods. The translators put an S on the
end of that, but really it's the same word as the first one.
It's God. You'll be God if you eat that. And he said, well,
that would be nice. I think I will. I'm gonna be God. And that's
exactly what's still happening today. Everybody wants to be
their own God and their own king, except a select few individuals
that no man can number that are saved by the grace of God alone,
called out of darkness according to his sovereign will, elected
unto eternal life and redeemed. They're called his elect. Those
are the ones that bow to him being king. Those are the ones
that love his deity and his humanity. They love his holiness and his
sovereignty. They've been given that love by him to do so. Without him, there was not anything
made that was made. He's the king. He's the king. Now notice the contents of this
mercy seat. You have the three, the manna,
the rod, Aaron's rod that budded, and you have the tables. These
we mentioned briefly last week, but I want to examine these. I want to examine these and look
in parallel to Christ on all three of these. This is, we're
talking about Christ, our mercy seat. First, he's overlaid with
gold. He's royalty. He's the son of God. He's king
of kings and Lord of lords. Second of all, we see the Lord
as the mercy seat in the manna, Christ in human flesh. Christ became a man. Christ is
the God-man, 100% God and 100% man. And we don't understand
that, but we believe it. We know it's true. He is the
bread of life. He's called the bread of life.
When he told the disciples, we were talking last service about
the ordinances we observed, we talked about the Lord's table.
He told the disciples, this is my body broken for you, speaking
of the bread. This manna was the manna that
came down in the desert when the children of Israel had no
food. So this is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ being the
life-giving sustenance to his people according to his will.
Did manna reign all over everywhere at that time? No, it just came
down to the Lord's people. The manna is Christ. Scripture tells us in John chapter
one that Christ is life. And that life is the light of
men. And if we ever think that there's
life outside of Christ, we're badly mistaken. The scripture
says, in him was life and the life was the light of men. But
without him, there is no life. There is no light. He is the
light. He is the life. And that's what
this manna represents. If we're going to have life,
it's going to have to be through and by him alone. It can't be something
we're doing. He is the singular source of life for his people.
He that hath the Son, 1 John 5, 12, he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. That's pretty simple, isn't it?
He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. I love the scripture. It's not
complicated. Men just refuse to believe it because they want
to be king. They want to be king. But our king says this. Our king
says this. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son hath not life. Why? Because he
is the manna, the life-giving sustenance to his people. If
we have Christ as our all in all, we have life. We have the
manna from heaven. We have the manna from heaven.
That's what we have in Christ. If I do not, then I have no life.
Turn with me to John chapter six. The Lord was talking to
the Pharisees regarding that exact subject. They refused to
believe the Lord. They hated him. Hope to read several verses here,
but I wanna elaborate as we go. So as I pause, just pause with
me and I'll try to elaborate what the Lord's revealed to me
in each of these, this passage. John chapter six, starting at
verse 41 says, The Jews then murmured at him because he said,
I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, it
is not this, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? They could not see the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Lord Jesus Christ, could they? And we scratch, we,
if he was, present among us. We would not be able to see him
if it was not through the eyes of faith that the Lord gives.
That's the point. That's the point. Jesus therefore
answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourself. No
man can come to me except the father which hath sent me draw
him and I will raise him up at the last day. That's the reason
they couldn't see him. They were not given of the father.
No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me
draw him. If the Lord doesn't draw you, you will never come
to Christ. That's what the Lord just said right there. If the
Lord never draws me, I will never come to Christ. Verse 45, it
is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that
any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath
seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the bread
of life. He's saying to us here that it's
going to be the Lord that calls us, the Lord that draws us, and
we have, and the purpose of that, the reason of that is because
we have everlasting life. The Lord's saying here that no
one, can come except the father draws him, and no one has seen
the father except they were taught of the father. And the ones that
are taught, they're the ones that see. See, religion has it
all backwards. Everything hinges upon what man
does, but what the Lord's saying here is the reason you don't
see me, the reason you don't know who I am, is because you
don't know my father because he has not drawn you, he has
not revealed to you who I am. But if he reveals to you who
I am, you will come to me. because you have everlasting
life. Verse 48, I am the bread of life.
Your fathers did eat manna, there it is, the manna. Fathers that
eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which
came down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I
will give is my flesh. which I will give for the life
of the world. That's it right there, isn't
it? The manna that's in this mercy seat. It is the bread,
represents the bread of life. The bread of, that's the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Now he said to him, I will give you my flesh. And they didn't
understand it. Here's their response, verse
52. The Jews therefore strove among themselves. How can this
man give us his flesh to eat? They thought he was talking about
cannibalism. See, that's us by nature. You and I by nature would
have heard the words of the Lord the same way, and we would come
up with the same conclusion. Well, how is he gonna give us
his flesh to eat? We're not cannibals. I mean, that had to be what they
were thinking about. He wasn't talking about cannibalism, was
he? He was talking about spiritually speaking, spiritually speaking.
He's gonna lay down his body on the tree to give us life,
and we're gonna eat it spiritually speaking. We're gonna eat that
manna spiritually speaking. Verse 53, then said Jesus, verily
I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the son of man and
drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise
him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed and
my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. And the living father has
sent me, and I live by the father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. This is the bread, this is that
bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers that eat
manna and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. goes on to say that he taught
these things, but they didn't understand what he was saying.
How is this possible? And is that not the case? Nicodemus
came to the Lord, asked him about how can you inherit eternal life?
The Lord said, you must be born again. He didn't understand that
it went over his head too, just like it did here. What's the
point? The point is, is everybody's just going to see a loaf of bread.
They're just going to see this manna as being just a loaf of
bread. Something that came down in the wilderness as a reminder.
Well, that's where we came from. That's what the Lord brought
us out of. But you and I get to see the truth of it. It is
the life giving sustenance to the Lord's people. We believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life, who is
our life. Because the Lord hath drawn us
unto him and revealed him unto us. That's what all this is talking
about. And he is exactly what we're
eating right now. Right now, we don't eat it physically.
It's a spiritual meal, isn't it? And it's good. It's good. Somebody came up to me after
service. I can't remember which service.
I don't even know if I was preaching or not, but somebody said, boy,
that was a good meal. That was a good meal. I said,
that's exactly what it is. Every time we gather together, we're
eating, we're feasting on our Lord, His finished work. We're
eating spiritually that milk and honey. We're feasting upon
the bread and the wine. It satisfies us. Can't have anything
else anymore, don't want anything else anymore. If we have not this manna, we
have not life, but if the Lord in mercy hath made us alive to
the riches of his grace, we have life in Christ and more abundantly. Now let's go back to our text
in Hebrews chapter nine. The next thing that we see, is Aaron's rod that budded. Aaron's rod that budded. It was the golden pot that had
manna and Aaron's rod that budded. I don't know how long people
normally carry walking sticks. You carve out a walking stick,
you I know somebody that has their favorite walking stick.
It was my grandmother. She passed, but that was her
stick. Don't you dare touch her stick.
And she took it every day, and she would go outside with her
walking stick. And she had it for years and years and years and
years. So that thing is really dead, really dead. There's no
life in this walking stick anymore. That's what a rod is. It's a
walking stick, the purpose of it. Aaron's rod was dried up
completely. Completely dried up just like
the Lord Jesus Christ was completely dried up on the cross of Calvary
He emptied his life's blood for his people The soldier pierced
his side and forthwith came water and blood he emptied everything
that he was for the salvation of his people he was completely
dried up and yet we see life and when he was resurrected. So we are, when we died in him,
we died with him to sin, we died to self, we died to the law,
we died to Satan, we died to death, hell, and the grave. We
died to all of those things. Now we've been resurrected with
him. That's what the bud represents. This dead stick, this dead stick,
life coming from death, life out of death. And every time
the Lord brings a sinner to repentance, that's exactly what he's doing.
He's taking an old dead stick and he's saying, live. And you
know what that stick does? It buds and brings forth fruit,
brings forth fruit. Men believe that they can make
a decision in this matter. They can get a dead stick and
tell that dead stick to live, or I'm gonna choose to bring
this dead stick back to life. It can't happen, that's impossible.
But with what's impossible with man is possible with God. That's
exactly what he does for his people, is he brings his people
back from the dead. Our hope is not what we do, but
it's what he has done to accomplish salvation. Only by the Lord's
death could we be made alive. That's what this law represents,
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the life that we have in
him because of him. Weren't you thankful for Ephesians
2, 1, and you hath he quickened who were dead, that's past tense,
in trespasses and in sin, he quickened us. He quick made us,
that means made alive. We were just a bunch of old dead
sticks, weren't we? What's a dead stick good for?
Well, you can burn them. That's about it though, isn't
it? You can maybe put some, I don't know what you could do with this.
There ain't not much you could do with them, that was my point.
But now we're bearing fruit unto the Lord because of what he did,
not because of what we do. We're bearing the perfect fruit
of the Lord unto him now because of what he did. When we were without hope, when
we were helpless, Christ died for his people, making us the
very righteousness of God in him from death unto life, dead
sticks unto budding rods, This is the good shepherd's, this
also represents the good shepherd's rod, doesn't it? The rod and
staff that David talked about in Psalm 23. His rod and his
staff, they comfort me. Well this is the comfort to the
believer. The life from death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have life because he died,
that is our comfort. That's the comfort of the shepherd's
rod, isn't it? Now the next thing we notice
is the tables. 4. The golden censer in the ark
of the covenant, overlaid around about with gold, wherein was
the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded,
and the tables of the covenant. The tables, that's the law, isn't
it? Well, why would the law be in the mercy seat? Well, because
the law could only be kept by the Lord Jesus Christ, our mercy
seat. He was the only one that had the ability. He was the only
one that had the capability. He was the only one that could
keep the law and he kept it perfectly. He kept it perfectly for his
people and his father. Galatians 4.4 says, but when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoptions of son. How did
he do that? He met the law's demands on the
cross of Calvary. Whenever justice fell upon him,
he met the law's demands throughout his life. and he died in our
room instead, in our place, as the substitute surety of his
elect. Turn with me to Romans chapter eight. Let's read verse one through
four. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemn sin in the
flesh. that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Because our substitute satisfied
the law's demands, God's people have the righteousness of the
law fulfilled in us. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
satisfied the law's demands, in our room instead, we have
the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us. By the sacrifice of himself,
by his perfect offering, the sinless savior died, bearing
the sin of all his people in his body. You and I couldn't
keep the law. And the Lord wasn't guilty. We
were guilty. So what did he do? He took, he
lived the life perfectly under the law, lived it perfectly. And the Lord laid the iniquity
of his people upon him on the cross of Calvary. And by the
time everything was finished, justice was satisfied. The law
is now satisfied with the Lord's sacrifice. He's pleased to look
at you. The Lord's pleased to look at
you and say, perfectly righteous because of that sacrifice. The
law now looks at all the elect of God and loudly declares righteous,
not guilty, not one sin ever. Not one sin ever. Perfectly righteous
because of our mercy seeking his work on Calvary. Now, I wanna
look at one more thing. Lastly, let's go to Hebrews nine
again, back to our text. Verse five is the very last verse
we'll look at. And over it, over the mercy seat,
the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot
now speak particularly. Now the other items that were
mentioned thus far, I was able to understand the parallel. The Lord revealed that pretty
quickly to me. But what was the purpose of these cherubims? And
what was the purpose of the the glory shadowing the mercy seat. And I prayed about this. I was
seeking the Lord's face. Lord, you got to reveal this.
I don't under, I don't understand exactly what's, what is going,
what, what's your saying here? This is where the glory of the
Lord is revealed. They're overshadowing the glory
of the Lord. This is where the glory of the
Lord is revealed is on top of the mercy seat. What was placed
on top of the mercy seat every year? It was the blood. That's what those angels are
overshadowing. What is their job? They're the ministers. That's
what an angel is. They're ministers. What are they
ministering? It's the blood alone. It's the blood alone. They're
ministering the gospel. That's the glory of the Lord.
That's the glory of the Lord. It's where the gospel is preached
according to the will of God. That's what this represents.
Everything required for salvation of God's people was accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what they minister. This
is what the top of the ark is telling us. It's the blood alone.
It's not what you do. It's not by works of righteousness
which you have done. It's the blood. It's the blood. These cherubims are messengers
that just keep saying, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's what they're declaring.
That's what they're declaring. Nothing else will reveal his
glory, but his gospel. Nothing. Upon the top of this
mercy seat is the blood atonement for the elect. This is what the
cherubims declare. It is finished. It is finished. See, this is
Christ our mercy seat. Everything about it is about
him. He's the manna that came down. He's the broad that budded,
and he's the only one that could keep the law. And now we hear
the declaration of the top. It's nothing but the blood is
gonna save you. I've done all this for you. Nothing
but the blood will save you. And he did it all. They didn't
have a They couldn't have had a clue about all that we can
see now. They look through a glass darkly
to the future of what was gonna be the fulfillment in Christ.
We get to look back to see what he fulfilled and the glory and
the splendor of all of the ordinances. We can see our Savior so clearly,
so clearly, and none more clearly than this precious mercy seat
where God said, I'll meet with you. Our mercy seat was successful.
Believe on Him. Believe on Him. This is the only
place, God said, I'll meet with you here. I'll meet with you
where the blood is. The only place I'll meet with
you. I'll meet with you where the manna and the rod, I'll meet,
Christ is the only place, He's the only one that can fulfill
the law. That's where I'll meet with you. I'll meet you In mercy
in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. There's no obligation remaining
for you and I. Whenever I say believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, it'll be because he enables you to believe. Believe
on him. Believe on him. If you desire
eternal life, this is the only place God reveals at the mercy
seat. Our mercy seat, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the king
of kings. This is what we've seen this morning. He's the king
of kings. He's overlaid with gold. He's
the manna that came down from heaven. He's the rod that budded.
He brought life out of death. He's the keeper of the law for
his people, the substitute, the surety of his people, who gets
all the glory for his gospel in redeeming his people. People,
it's all by his blood alone. It's all by his blood alone.
He's God's mercy seat. And by God's grace, the Lord
Jesus Christ is our mercy seat. Let's pray. Father, bless this
to our understanding according to your will. In Christ's name,
amen.