Joy to be with you all.
Those of you who know a little bit
about West Africa will know that all up
and down the West Coast there are religious
societies.
They are the results of one or two
revivals which went wrong.
The Africans were stirred by the Holy Ghost.
There was a great turning away from idols
and a reaching out to the living God.
And there were no missionaries who would give
themselves entirely to the African people.
They all came as representatives of denominations and
they wanted to turn them all into various
kinds of European denominations with all the European
mannerisms.
And so, out of the stirrings among the
eager hearts of our dear West African folk
grew group after group of people who were
halfway into truth.
And one of those groups is known as
the Cherubim and Seraphim Society.
And they're numbered in hundreds of thousands if
not millions.
Their priests dress in scarlet, their people dress
in white.
You may see them holding large processions all
the way from, I'm trying to think, Sierra
Leone right down to Cameroon if not further.
And you will find similar groups on the
East Coast of Africa.
People who were hungry for God but had
no one to lead them straight into New
Testament truth.
And so, you have them by the thousands.
And the Cherubim and Seraphim Society started by
a woman who believed herself to be a
prophetess.
And she had heard the hymn in the
Anglican church, Cherubim and Seraphim, falling down before
him.
Is that right?
Before these.
Yes.
And she had a glimpse of a great
company of people all dressed in white worshipping
the Lord.
And so she started her society.
I have ministered among them on one occasion.
And I found that the common people were
hungry for Jesus.
But the priesthood were very cheery and I
never got invited back again.
What a tragedy that once again a whole
harvest was being lost.
And I rejoice that now God is moving
again the third time through West Africa.
And this time the Lord is sending out
brethren and sisters, some of them known to
you, who are sharing and reaping the harvest,
not anxious to build a European denomination, but
just to share the Lord Jesus with these
hungry and eager people.
Hallelujah.
Isn't it good?
We're living in a tremendous age.
And I'm thrilled to have a little part
in all that.
It just stirs my heart with joy.
Because I want to talk about the Cherubim.
Maybe I should say Cherubim.
And every now and again I'll get mixed
up between the two.
But please just overlook that because I'm liable
to such confusions.
And we'll start with Hebrews chapter 9.
This wonderful inspired writer has been showing us
step by step the great truths underlying the
New Covenant.
And he's sweeping on into that truth in
chapter 9.
And as he develops his theme he draws
time and again on the mighty Old Testament
pictures of God's New Testament truth.
And here he refers us to the tabernacle.
And in chapter 9 verse 1 he says,
Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances
of divine service and a worldly or an
earthly 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 that had manna and Aaron's rod
that budded and the tables of the covenant,
and over it the cherubim of glory shadowing
the mercy seat of which we cannot now
speak particularly.
Now when these things were thus ordained the
priests went always into the first tabernacle accomplishing
the service of God, but into the second
went the high priest alone once every year
not without blood, which he offered for himself
and for the errors of the people, the
Holy Ghost this signifying that the way into
the holiest of all was not yet made
manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet
standing, which was a figure for the time
then present in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that
did the service perfect as pertaining to the
conscience which stood only in meats and drinks
and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed upon
them until the time of reformation.
But Christ being come, and 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
by 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 maybe we should refer in a few
moments to Exodus 25 where the original instructions
concerning the cherubim of glory were laid down.
Cherubim, an old Hebrew word meaning living one.
I think the first reference to those mighty
living ones is in Genesis chapter 3 where
after sin came in and death by sin,
Adam and his descendants were not only driven
out but kept out of the garden that
Adam had first known, kept out by a
flaming sword which turned every way lest Adam
in his sinful rebellion should find access to
the tree of life and become himself a
devil.
God in mercy kept him out of favor
that we might find favor through redemption.
And at the same time at the east
end of the garden were placed cherubim, living
ones.
We are not all certain what their function
was.
Did they together with the sword guard the
entrance to the tree of life?
We do not know.
Were they representatives conveying with their living presence
there in the otherwise deserted garden the hope
of a future restoration to divine favor?
We don't know.
The Bible does not tell us.
But there is the first reference to the
living ones.
You will find them again in Ezekiel's vision
where he has a glimpse of the throne
of God in heaven.
And as it were supporting the throne are
the four living creatures, the four cherubim.
And as they move, they move in complete
harmony with the will of him who occupies
the throne.
And beneath them the wheels of the chariot
of divine purposes move also in perfect union
and instant response to God's will.
Ezekiel looking out of the darkness and confusion
of the era of captivity saw that nevertheless
God had his throne eternal in the heavens
and there are living ones supporting the throne
and moving in perfect response to the divine
will of God.
And the wheels of this mighty system are
actually at times touching the earth.
Alleluia.
And I believe they still touch the earth
in this our day.
And we feel the impact of the divine
government touching the lives of men.
And then you see them again in Revelation.
Revelation chapter 4 as John too looks into
heaven and he sees those living ones and
this time he gives us a further little
link.
When John sees into heaven he writes down
in his record words which are always giving
us links with other parts of the scripture
but are never, I think, quite the same.
He always gives it an additional touch.
And when he shows us the living ones
in chapter 4 he hears them, the four
living creatures.
They're just like the ones that Ezekiel saw.
He sees them having six wings about him
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 in the little touch that John has
given us he has directed us into a
different avenue back this time not to Ezekiel
but to Isaiah where Isaiah sees the seraphim,
the burning ones living ones, burning ones and
John says, indicates that they are two aspects
of the same glorious beings.
In the one they are called living because
they are represented by an inanimate object and
they need the title living ones.
In the other they are called seraphim, burning
ones because they are already living and moving
and worshipping and we need to know their
quality of holy fire.
In the tabernacle there was a direct representation
of them, Exodus 25.
Let's listen to these fascinating instructions God gave
to Moses concerning the details of a part
of the tabernacle the most intimate, the most
secret, hidden part, the holy of holies.
Verse 10, or let's see verse 9.
According to all that I show thee, Exodus
25 after the pattern of the tabernacle and
the pattern of all the instruments thereof even
so shall ye make it.
And they shall make an ark of chitim
wood two cubits and a half shall be
the length thereof a cubit and a half
the breadth thereof a cubit and a half
the height thereof.
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 cast four rings of gold for
it and put them in the 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 chitim 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 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,
that is the tables of stone and 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 and thou shalt make two
cherubim of gold of beaten work shalt thou
make them in the two ends of the
mercy seat and make one cherub on the
one end and the other cherub on the
other end even of the mercy seat shall
ye make the cherubim 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 cherubim be and thou shalt
put the mercy seat above the ark and
in the ark thou shalt put the testimony
that I shall give thee and there will
I meet with thee and I will commune
with thee from above the mercy seat from
between the two cherubim which are upon the
ark of the testimony of all things which
I will give thee in commandment unto the
children of Israel."
I think all folk who study their Bible
and try and teach it to other people
recognize that the tabernacle is a great object
lesson of divine and spiritual truths in which
we have a personal and a completed interest
as individuals and as a company we should
be interested in those secrets which were tucked
away in the tabernacle.
The book of Hebrews and other parts of
the New Testament give to us certain keys
and those of us who love to teach
from type like to look into the tabernacle
and see something of the hidden meanings.
But you will find that we don't all
agree in all that we say and you
will also find that the tabernacle has varying
teaching aspects.
For instance, one man might say that the
tabernacle represents in its outer core the body
in its holy place the soul and in
its holiest place the spirit and I think
we could develop some very helpful thoughts in
that area.
Others say the tabernacle represents the three heavens
the heaven in which the wind blows which
we feel upon our faces the winds of
heaven that is the air around us the
first heaven the heaven in which we see
the stars and the moon at night time
the starry heavens the second heaven and ultimately
the third heaven where God dwells.
Paul, you remember, was caught up to the
third heaven and beheld things and heard things
unspeakable.
And I guess we could get a few
other meanings from the general structure of the
tabernacle and find it profitable to look at
each of them.
So when it comes to the cherubim well,
even the writers of Hebrews say that we
can't speak particularly of all these things.
Obviously he was full of matter about them
he would have loved to have gone on
chapter after chapter but the Holy Spirit said
now steady or you'll get all these people
mixed up you just keep to the new
covenant and get them firmly founded there and
we'll leave the rest for other occasions.
And what a piece of cheek it is
for me to even presume to step in
where the writers of Hebrews did not tread.
Here I should sit down covered with confusion.
But I have a sort of interest in
these things and I would love to at
least guess what he might have seen in
the cherubim of glory.
And while I may not have all the
answers at least I can suggest some to
you.
Some think that they signify the host of
angelic beings who worship God in perfection.
And there's a little hint in 1 Peter
chapter 1 where he talks about the mystery
and wonder of our redemption and he says
which things the angels desire to look into.
And as you see these two cherubim worshipping
in symbol above the mercy seat we might
see in them a picture of the angelic
creation looking in wonder and amazement and adoration
at the mercy of God towards sinners like
you and me.
Almost speechless in worship as they listen to
our redeemed hearts uttering in pure praise and
worship our thanksgiving and joy in the presence
of Him who has redeemed us.
And some think, of course, and probably rightly,
that they represent something high and real in
the eternal governments of God.
Ezekiel's vision showing the link between the throne
of God in heaven and God's business on
earth conveyed by these mighty, wonderful living ones,
burning ones moving in instant obedience to the
Almighty's will.
But just as in other parts of the
tabernacle we may see over and over again
varying meanings I am going to have another
look at the cherubim and suggest a third
symbolism which may interest you and me.
Let me take you on a little journey
into the tabernacle.
It's set up in the wilderness probably, certainly
in the center of the camp and probably
as it was placed there at the beginning
of the camp it would be on the
highest elevation in that part of the desert
because the curtain around the tabernacle was
just too high to let ordinary people look
in out of curiosity from outside.
If you wanted to do business with God
you had to come to the gate of
the tabernacle where there was a break in
the curtain and there was a doorway hung
up on, what was it, four posts?
That's right, four posts.
A doorway which may well represent Christ the
only way to God.
Held up for our gaze with Matthew and
Mark and Luke and John to display him
before us and yet, even as he is
displayed we find a way through as we
seek God and no man comes to the
Father but by him.
There is a symbolism in the Old Testament
worship.
But we have come through that curtained gate
and find ourselves in the courtyard.
It's not very big.
It's, what, 50 cubits long?
What's that?
30 yards long?
Half the width?
Not very big.
And at one end of it is the
tabernacle proper for that tent in which God
deigned to dwell.
A picture of him who tabernacled among us.
Jesus said, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God.
A body hast thou prepared me.
And there was on earth Jesus' body was
a tabernacle, wasn't it?
He was made flesh and tabernacled among us.
And as we draw near to that sacred
tent where only priests may enter there is
not a meeting place for the congregation.
It's only a meeting place between God and
those who represent the people.
As we draw near, we find in front
of it the great brazen altar.
A wonderful altar.
Its major construction being of wood.
It is covered with bronze and no doubt
filled with earth when it's functioning.
For there, the sacrifices are offered morning and
evening.
Blood sacrifices essential to retaining that fellowship between
God and man.
There may the offerings brought by the guilty
Israelite be offered and slain and by the
priest presented before God.
Then beyond the great altar is the laver
where the priests wash.
A great basin set up there where they
wash themselves for service and other vessels of
the temple are cleansed.
And beyond the laver, again, the door of
the tabernacle.
Once again, a beautiful curtain of fine linen
and purple and scarlet and gold hung there
on its five pillars.
Some see in the five pillars, and I
don't know if this is right, I think
it is, the five ministries, the fivefold ministries
of the church.
You know, Jesus is proclaimed especially through the
great ministries that God has given to the
church.
Some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors,
some teachers for the perfecting of the saints
for the work of the ministry.
Thank God, Jesus isn't only portrayed in the
Word or through the Gospels.
He also ordains that he may be made
known through the manifold ministries of the church
of God.
And beyond there, the cleansed priest may go
further into the service of God.
Let us imagine that we go in with
him.
We find ourselves in a small oblong tent.
It was very plain, badger skins without, very
beautiful within.
The boards of the sides are overlaid with
gold.
On the one side is the seven-branched
candlestick.
On the other side, the table of showbread.
Each speaking of Christ our light and of
Christ the bread.
Everything about the tabernacle speaks of Christ.
In front of us, by the dim light
of the seven-branched candlestick, we can see
a further veil with cherubim worked upon it.
Once again, in blue and scarlet and gold
and fine twine, linen.
And beyond that, the ordinary priest dare not
go.
In front of it, and closely associated with
it, is a smaller altar, the altar of
incense.
There, the priest offers incense of prayer and
worship and swings his incense before the veil,
indicating, as he represents his people, the prayer
of Israel going up to God.
That beyond the veil, in the holiest place
of all, were we permitted to go, but
only the high priest could normally go, were
we permitted to go, we would find in
that inmost, smaller tent, the sanctuary, one outstanding
object, the Ark of the Covenant.
A box, a little bigger than that table,
overlaid with gold, and it has a mercy
seat on it.
The lid of the box is called the
mercy seat, or the propitiatory.
And there, once a year, the blood of
the atonement, the blood of the atoning goat,
is sprinkled on behalf of the people.
It is essential to them, and on that
day of atonement, they mourn and fast and
seek God, while the high priest himself goes
into the inmost sanctuary and sprinkles the mercy
seat with that atoning blood, making intercession on
behalf of those failing people.
And we know, happily for us, the meaning
of the mercy seat.
For John tells us, my little children, these
things write I unto you, this is in
his first epistle in chapter 2, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not.
And then he ends a little rider.
And he says, but, if any man sin,
and he doesn't regard that as normal at
all, he says, if any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and he is the mercy seat.
The propitiation for our sins, and not for
ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world.
So we know that the mercy seat represents
in purest and deepest symbolism our Lord Jesus
Christ, who was slain for us, and who
rose again, and who ever lives to make
intercession for us.
That is absolutely plain and clear.
Here we can stand in our understanding, and
the reference is in 1st epistle of John,
chapter 2 and verse 2, if you really
want to fix it.
1st epistle of John, chapter 2 and verse
2.
He is the mercy seat for our sins.
The mercy seat was made in a different
way from the other furniture of the tabernacle.
The other furniture was made of chitin wood,
and was overlaid with gold.
But the mercy seat was pure gold through
and through.
Speaking of Christ in the perfections of his
deity.
Pure gold through and through.
He always was perfect from the very beginning.
Not merely a partaker of divine nature, He
was truly God.
The Word was with God, and the Word
was God.
And even though men could touch Him and
handle Him, and others could spit upon Him,
still He is truly God.
Pure gold.
Alleluia.
Every part of Him.
Praise God.
But it wasn't just as gold that the
type was presented.
It had to be beaten into shape by
those cunning workmen.
Holiab and Bezalel were the two leaders.
Skilled men.
And they had to take that lump of
gold and with fire and with hammers beat
it and beat it and beat it until
at last the pure gold was forged into
a propitiatory, a mercy seat to deal with
the sin question.
Glory to God.
None less than Jesus in the fullness of
His deity is able to deal with the
awful curse of sin.
Not only ours, but the sins of the
whole wide world.
And that's why it is written in Hebrews
chapter 2 that it pleased Him in chapter
10, it became Him for whom are all
things and by whom are all things in
bringing many sons unto glory to make the
pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.
He was always perfect in His deity.
Always perfect in the purity of His nature.
But in order to be a mercy seat
for us, He had to be shaped and
shaped in suffering.
From His childhood right the way through that
sojourn on this unhappy earth, He was being
shaped to become a mercy seat.
And He learned obedience through the things which
He suffered.
The perfect One became so tempted in all
points like as we are, yet without sin,
that He learned step by step from childhood
upwards and all the way to the cross.
He learned obedience through the things that He
suffered and with every suffering blow.
He was being shaped, shaped, shaped until the
day came when He would be the mercy
seat for the sins of the whole world
and mine.
Hallelujah!
He was made perfect.
He who was perfect was made perfect.
He who was perfect in His essence was
made perfect in His divine purpose.
He who was one with God from the
beginning became one with man as a mercy
seat through His sufferings.
Blessed be His lovely name.
Hallelujah!
I was turning to the hymn book just
now and I was looking at an old,
old hymn by Samuel Crossman and I want
to read you a few stanzas of it.
And it goes like this.
My song is love unknown.
My Savior's love to me.
Love to the loveless shown that they might
lovely be.
O who am I that for my sake
my Lord should take frail flesh and die?
He came from His blessed throne salvation to
bestow but men made strange and none the
longed for Christ would know that all my
friend, my friend indeed who at my need
His life did spend.
Sometimes they strew His way and His sweet
praises sing resounding all the day.
Hosannas to their King then crucifies all their
breath and for His death they thirst and
cry.
Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run.
He gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries.
Yet they at these themselves displease and against
Him rise.
They rise and needs will have my dear
Lord made away.
A murderer they save.
The Prince of life they slay.
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes that He
His poles from vents might free.
In life no house, no home my Lord
on earth might have.
In death no friendly tomb but what a
stranger gave.
What may I say?
Heaven was His home but mine the tomb
wherein He lay.
Here might I stay and sing no story
so divine.
Never was love, dear King.
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my friend in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.
Made perfect through sufferings, blessed Jesus, that there
might be provided a mercy seat, a place
of atonement for the sins of all mankind.
And John is careful to include in his
lovely holy epistle a clause for anyone who
may have failed in this gathering.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Wonderful Jesus.
He is the mercy seat for our sins
and our shortcomings.
And there are some sins of which we
are scarce aware and which the angels look
down on in horror.
Jesus, blessed be His name.
Aholiam and Bezalel swinging their hammers on that
mass of gold shaping it, shaping it into
a mercy seat.
Wonderful Jesus.
Son of God.
Made perfect through sufferings.
But Aholiam, you've left a lump of gold
at one end.
And Bezalel, you've left a lump of gold
at the end there.
Have you forgotten?
No.
For these are to be part and one
with the mercy seat.
And when they have finished their skilled work
until the mercy seat so fits in place
that it covers the tables of the Lord
that they could not keep, then the same
skilled workmanship goes into the formation of the
cherubim.
I believe that there was a company formed
out of the sufferings of Christ which were
prefigured in the cherubim of glory.
A people who are made partakers of divine
nature.
Having escaped the corruption which is in the
world through lust.
And how are they made partakers of divine
nature?
Peter says, by the knowledge of Him who
hath called us to glory and virtue, who
hath given us exceeding great and precious promises.
That is how.
And if you have laid hold of those
exceeding great and precious new covenant promises of
a new heart and a new nature, hallelujah,
and you have come to know Him who
is the mediator of the new covenant, then
you are already made a partaker of divine
nature.
And already the mighty operations have taken place
which separate you from the corruptions which are
in the world through lust.
Hallelujah.
It is not merely cleansing.
It is new creation which is in our
gospel.
These two, they were a witnessing company.
Number two.
That means witness, doesn't it?
In the mouth of two or three witnesses
shall every word be established.
These are formed to bear witness to the
divine transactions upon the mercy seat.
There is their witness, and there is their
worship in symbolic form.
And blow by blow, they too are beaten
out with intricate cunning from the very substance
of the mercy seat until they are one
with the mercy seat.
And as the blessed operations continue, so their
forms are perfected until they extend their wings
covering the mercy seat.
They are there representatives of a perfected company
of a redeemed people.
Hallelujah.
So nigh, so very nigh to God, nearer
I cannot be.
I've forgotten how those lines go on.
Hallelujah.
Thank you.
Brought nigh by the blood of Jesus, not
just to the outer court, not just to
the holy place where we witness the lampstand
and the showbread, but through the veil.
Doesn't Hebrews tell us that?
We have boldness to enter through the veil,
through the blood of Jesus, through His flesh
by a new and living way which God
has prepared for us.
God brings us nigh by the blood of
Jesus to a degree that the Old Testament
saints did not know.
Something which was only entered into by the
high priest once a year, that with fear
and trembling, often wondering whether He would ever
withdraw from the divine presence alive, or whether
some uncleanness would have caused His destruction.
There was awe and fear concerning the ark
of the covenant.
But we have been made nigh by that
precious blood.
Let me read a little bit from Exodus
again.
Verse 18.
Thou shalt make two cherubim of gold of
beaten work shalt thou make them.
Maybe we thought when we first came to
Christ that everything would be happy and all
our troubles would be over.
Maybe some of the choruses we used to
learn sort of suggested that kind of thing.
And perhaps you have been surprised and disappointed
because the promises that your eager evangelist made
to you in those early days to persuade
you haven't quite worked out in life.
And you have had not only the rebuffs
of this world, but you also felt the
swinging blows of the divine designer.
Of beaten work shalt thou make them.
We are partakers of Christ's sufferings in more
than one way.
We are partakers vicariously.
He suffered in our stead.
Thank God.
He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree.
He was made a curse for us.
We suffered vicariously.
He was in our place.
His the curse.
Mine the blessing.
Mine the sin.
His the death.
It was vicarious.
Thank God.
But there's something more than that.
There is a suffering in which we enter
into His sufferings.
And in our daily living, we feel not
only the rebuffs of the world, but the
constraining of the Holy Ghost to be one
with Christ until we know the fellowship of
His sufferings being made conformable unto His death.
You have been made a partaker of divine
nature.
Now the Holy Spirit is at work and
circumstances are at work to make you conformable
to His death.
And the very worst things that seem to
happen to you in this life are still,
if only you will understand, under the control
of the great Designer.
And every hammer blow is designed to make
you more and more shaped to God's divine
perfections.
Alleluia.
Glory to God.
It's hard to learn sometimes, especially when sufferings
come upon us through our own mistake.
We recognize it.
We see our folly.
We grieve over our mistakes.
And we forget that there is a great
Designer who is able to use the worst
things that have gone wrong to shape us
into His perfections.
If only we would understand and yield to
His control.
Alleluia.
God is at work.
There's the gold and there's the glory, but
there are also the hammer blows.
And we welcome.
Glory to God.
We welcome each true blow which makes you
and me what God intended us to be.
Praise the Lord.
God is in it.
The worst things that happen to you, God
is there behind the scenes shaping.
Alleluia.
Oh, we should learn to even, says James,
count it all joy when we fall into
divest temptations.
Now that's quite a long way along, isn't
it?
We get, as Peter says, in heaviness from
manifold temptations.
But there is a place where we can
count it joy.
Praise the Lord.
We can know that God is working toward
His tremendous perfections.
Of course, none of these things happen unless
you are a partaker of divine nature.
And then, this witnessing company, these two, have
a fellowship.
They are one, but not directly one.
Man and wife are directly one.
But these two are not.
Their union is, you can understand this perfectly
well, in the mercy seat.
One on this side, one on that side.
And they are each part of the mercy
seat and so their oneness is here.
And you and I are made one in
Christ Jesus.
We have all sorts of different temperaments, different
backgrounds, and all that sort of thing.
In the natural, many of us wouldn't be
one at all.
We'd go the other side of the street.
But we are made one in Christ Jesus.
And it's because I am in Him and
you are in Him, that we have fellowship
one with another and our fellowship is in
Him.
Barbarian, Scythian, bond-free, Jew, Gentile, male, female,
all one in Christ Jesus.
That's why I'm a little bit scared about
over-emphasis upon what they call horizontal relationships.
They are good in a way.
But our real relationship is in Christ Jesus.
Alleluia!
And when you try and shortcut that, bypass
it, you can run into all kinds of
trouble and confusion that will not bring glory
to God.
But all when you know that it's because
He loves you and you love Him and
it's Christ loves you and you love Him
and I love Him and He loves me
that we are one in our Redeemer, then
there is a tie that cannot be broken.
It's pure gold.
Alleluia!
And that is the kind of fellowship that
God planned from the beginning for His church.
One not in some sort of social institution,
but one in the Beloved One in whom
we are accepting.
Alleluia!
And later on I'm going to show you
another point at which they make contact.
We'll leave that a bit later.
And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings
on high, covering the mercy seat, and their
faces shall look one to another.
Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of
the cherubim be.
They have a focused gaze.
They're wrapped into a one-track mind.
Mercy seat warrants.
Toward the mercy seat shall their faces be.
Praise the Lord.
Is that where you're looking?
Is that where your focus is?
Are you taken up with Jesus, the One
who made peace between you and God, where
the atoning blood was shed?
Is that your object?
Your point of attention?
Or are you looking everywhere in this wide
world for things to satisfy your heart?
My friends, if God has apprehended you, nothing
will satisfy you except Jesus.
Alleluia!
You'd better get along with it and let
your gaze be mercy seat warrants.
Not just this morning, but get into the
habit, the blessed eternal habit of being taken
up with Him.
Oh, I still find myself wandering off onto
secondary things.
What a joy it is, whether you are
gardening or whatever you're doing, to be aware
all the time of your fellowship with Jesus.
Praise the Lord.
Some have learned this holy secret which makes
all life holy because the faces of the
cherubim, to put it in a symbolic language,
are mercy seat warrants, looking towards the mercy
seat.
And do you know what they see as
they look to that mercy seat of gold?
Now, if you've read your Old Testament well
enough, you will know that this holiest place
of all was not unoccupied.
There was one who could be known as
resident there at times in blazing glory, in
Shekinah glory.
And he was between and above the cherubim.
His manifest, blazing, glorious presence.
He wasn't always there.
For you will remember that Hophni and Phinehas,
the sons of Eli, were able to go
in and take the ark out and display
it in public, weren't they?
You know, and make it a common thing.
And they died, but not directly.
Uzzah went to steady the ark with much
better motive, and he died too.
There was a presence there, but not always
visible.
But there were times when between the cherubim
and above the mercy seat, the blazing glory
of God on whom no man can look
was there.
And the cherubim weren't looking at that glory.
They were looking down at the mercy seat.
And there they saw not the direct glory,
but the reflected glory.
Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord.
2 Corinthians chapter 3.
Thank you, Jesus.
Oh, can you picture those two wonderful beings
there in their gold and glory, dwelling so
near to God, and looking at mercy seat
wards.
And they are looking there at the pure
gold, and beyond the pure gold they see
the glory of the Lord.
2 Corinthians chapter 3.
And verse 17, where the veil is taken
away.
Verse 16, where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty.
And verse 18, but we all, with open
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory
of the Lord, the glory of God, not
directly, but mediated to us in Christ Jesus,
we all beholding as in a mirror the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as
by the Spirit of the Lord.
So, you are not wasting your time when
you gaze upon Jesus.
You are not wasting those precious moments when
the glory of God comes to you reflected
in Christ Jesus.
No, these are profitable moments, for we are
changed from glory to glory, even as by
the Spirit of the Lord.
In the light of that radiance our miserable
little earthly ambitions fade away.
Our poor selfishnesses and securities mean nothing to
us.
We see the glory of God and our
spirits are expanded.
We are changed from glory to glory, even
as by the Spirit of the Lord.
God still operating to make us what He
intends us to be.
And looking down in the next chapter, verse
6, God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness hath shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God where?
In the face of Jesus Christ.
Mercy-seekers shall their faces be.
Hallelujah!
God's glory which would destroy us is mediated
through Christ, our mercy-seat.
And that which would have destroyed us now
transforms.
Hallelujah!
They hold it.
Here is your life.
Here is your secret of transformation.
Not in January resolutions, but in getting to
know Jesus.
Hallelujah!
And finding not just the beauty of His
humanity.
That's good.
But the radiance of divinity.
Hallelujah!
Mighty, creative, transforming.
But they're not just gazing at gold.
What's that stain that appears on the gold?
What's that mark there?
Perhaps without that, the blaze would still be
unbearable.
Eternal light, eternal light, how pure the soul
must be when placed within thy searching sight.
It shrinks not, but with calm delight can
live and look on thee.
Yes, for on the mercy-seat is the
stain of the blood of the atonement.
Hallelujah!
And they see the reflected glory mediated to
them through the shed blood of that great
sacrifice.
Hallelujah!
Draw near this morning.
Draw near to the glory of God.
Draw near with fear.
It is true.
Draw near with fellowship.
That's right.
Draw near beholding the Lord Jesus.
Draw near beholding the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ.
But above all, draw near because the blood
has been shed and atonement has been made
once for all.
Hallelujah!
I tell you, our portrait was painted way
back in the heart of the tabernacle all
those years ago.
God longing to have a people who would
fulfill his typology.
And he saw, I believe you and me,
in that symbolism.
And they had wings.
Wings which overshadowed the mercy-seat.
Wings of worship.
Wings extended in adoration.
When Isaiah saw the seraphim, he speaks of
them as having six wings.
A superabundance of spiritual power.
And he tells us, with twain, they covered
their feet.
They didn't say, well, we've been all around
the world once.
Like I do.
With twain, they covered their feet.
And with twain, they covered their face in
worship, giving all the glory to God their
Creator and unto themselves.
And with twain, they did fly.
Their worship was limited by their humility.
Hallelujah!
Get hold of that one.
Worship limited by balancing humbleness of heart.
Glory!
And then it's pure, and then it's sweet.
But sometimes we get so taken up with
our worship that we want to fly with
all six wings and make confusion.
And as they spread out their wings, they
touched each other.
Hallelujah!
Oh, are we not all good conversationalists?
Often I find myself completely dumb when I
should have whole welfares of words to produce.
I feel like sitting in a corner and
saying nothing.
But when we worship Jesus and the Father
by the Holy Ghost, when we understand the
power of the atoning blood and the reality
of our Mediator and the wonderful way He
has brought us through the veil into the
holiest of all, and we worship the Father
in spirit and in truth, without pretense, without
self-deception, or trying to deceive anyone else,
when our worship is pure and holy, we
touch one another in spirit in a way
that we could never have fellowship on any
other ground.
Hallelujah!
One in Christ Jesus by redemption and new
creation.
One in the fellowship of a pure and
holy worship.
Glory, glory to God.
And listen, God said, That's where I'll meet
with you.
That's where I'll talk with you.
Between the cherubim.
Psalm 80 Great cry of praise goes like
this.
Hallelujah!
Thou Shepherd of Israel, give ear, O Shepherd
of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a
flock, Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine
forth.
Hallelujah!
We shall at some time, I don't know
if this morning or at some later time,
be drawing near to share the table with
heart examination and with worship in spirit and
in truth, made nigh by the blood of
Christ, made aware of our oneness with Him,
extending our spirits in worship to Him.
God says, I'll meet with you.
I'll make my presence known right there.
Hallelujah!
This is better than being in a tabernacle.
That was only a picture, only a figure
of things to come.
Only a little glimpse of what God would
see in His people in reality in this
our day.
And we can move in, in spirit and
truth, and know the awesome presence of a
holy God, drawing near where the blood has
been shed and recognized, drawing near where atonement
has been made, drawing near that we might
not only worship Him, but be transformed, drawing
near that He might shine forth through a
transformed people to this needy world.
Praise the Lord!
O thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine
forth.
Maybe this is why Satan loves to create
division among God's people.
He doesn't want us to know that we
are one in Christ Jesus.
He wants us to be broken up, separated,
that the presence of God cannot manifest itself.
O thou that dwellest between the cherubim, between
those who are one in Christ Jesus, who
touch one another in spirit and truth, O
God, shine forth.
Amen.