Once again,
we turn to the book of Exodus, chapter
twenty-five, back again to where we made
our beginning.
Exodus, chapter twenty-five, reading from verse ten,
And they shall make an ark of acacia
wood, 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.
And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold,
within and without shalt thou overlay it, and
shalt make upon it a crown of gold
round about.
And thou shalt 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 acacia 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.
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,
upon the ark, and in the ark thou
shalt put the testimony that I shall give
thee.
And there I will 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.
That is our reading this evening, bringing before
us the ark, the mercy seat, the cherubim
of one piece with it.
Now, as you will all realize, we are
right back at the very beginning.
Because when we started these talks on the
tabernacle, we took particular notice of how God,
in dealing with it, called Moses up into
the mount, and there gave him to see
by way of vision just what he wanted
as a dwelling place in the midst of
these people.
And having shown him the layout, the fashion
of it, then he wanted him to see
it in detail so that he would be
able to make all these vessels according to
the pattern thereof.
And we noted that God began not with
something outside, but he began with what we
find in the holiest of all, and what
we have read about this evening.
The ark, the mercy seat, the cherubim.
The very throne of God set up in
the midst of these people, Israel.
Beginning there with his own very throne, you
remember, he came out and he dealt with
the table on the far side, the north
side, and then he dealt with the lampstand
on this side, the south side, but not
a word about the offer of insects.
Then he came down, looked back at the
building to speak about it, and then moved
past the laver.
Inside he didn't say a word about the
altar of incense, and outside he doesn't say
a word about the laver.
But he comes down to the altar, burnt
offering, and then looks around at this court
of fine twined linen and the gate with
its blue-purple scarlet, and then decides to
bring in the priesthood.
And we have been centering our thoughts on
this priesthood because it is typical.
As we saw last evening, how that Aaron
the high priest is that wonderful type of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then Aaron's sons, the priests, are types
of Christians because every Christian is a priest.
And so he was particularly interested in the
priesthood.
Now we saw that as God dealt with
the priesthood, he said to Moses, you are
to be bathed and clothed with the priestly
garments, and then you shall take a sin
offering, and a burnt offering, and an offering
of consecration.
We saw how that the priest had to
press their hands upon the heads of these
offerings, and then we find first of all
the sin offering being dealt with, and after
it had been slain, then the fat, the
kidneys, midriff were burned in the altar, but
the sin offering itself was carried to a
clean place outside the camp.
A long way to go, because if you
have about 2 million people in camp, then
you probably have an encampment that would be
something like 13 or 14 miles in circumference.
And if the tabernacle was fixed in the
midst of that great encampment, then they must
have travelled a long way to get from
the north side of that altar to the
outside of the camp.
But that's where the sin offering was to
be burned with fire.
Right away outside the camp, in that place
of distance, that place of separation, that place
of isolation, right away out there, the sin
offering was burned to ashes.
Not on an altar, the altar was there
inside the court.
And the fat, kidneys, midriff were burned in
that altar, but the sin offering itself had
to go right outside the camp.
And then when God had dealt with the
sin offering, he came in to deal with
the burnt offering and then the offering of
consecration, and in this way the priests were
established in the priesthood.
Now having dealt with that, God moved back
into the sanctuary to deal with the altar
of incense, which he did not deal with
when he came out.
And then he came outside to deal with
the labour that he did not deal with
when he came out.
So we've had before us this particular method
God used in bringing before Moses his dwelling
place.
That he began with that which speaks of
his own very throne, and came out step
by step until he's bringing in the priesthood,
and he reaches the furthest place from where
he made the beginning.
He began with his own very throne, and
he reaches the place of the sin offering.
And of course it's the place of sin
as well, because the same word in the
Hebrew and in the Greek stands for sin
and for sin offering.
So God comes right away out to that
place of sin, and he makes Christ to
be a sin offering.
God was manifest in flesh.
God was in Christ.
And there on that cross, Christ was made
to be sin, and made to be a
sin offering.
And God was in Christ.
Making it possible for these priests to make
their way into his presence, that they might
have that communion with him.
That they might serve, that they might have
that communion with him in the sanctuary.
So this is the picture we've been following,
how God came out.
Beginning with the throne.
So he comes to the place of the
sin offering.
We began at the place of the sin
offering, realizing how we would have to avail
ourselves of what God has provided for us
in that sin offering, just as these priests
avail themselves by pressing their hands upon the
head of the sin offering, the burnt offering,
the offering of consecration, identified with the offerings
in that way, and then we ourselves see
that we must need to go to the
cross, to Christ the sin offering, burnt offering,
offering of consecration, by faith, our hands pressed
upon his head, and all the value of
that work of his is made over to
us, and we are established in the priesthood.
A work which was perfect and complete.
And we thank God for that.
No condemnation, no judgment to those who have
been brought into all the value of the
finished work of Christ.
And it's a work that cannot be undone.
It's a work that cannot be ruined.
It's a work that depended entirely upon the
Lord Jesus Christ, depended entirely upon what he
accomplished at the cross.
In no way does it depend upon us.
We receive all this as a free gift
by the grace of God.
So then with regard to that position that
we are brought in, nothing can change it.
But we noted that the priests could become
defiled, and so God had to put there
a labour at which they must wash hands
and feet.
So if they became defiled, they did not
go back again to be bathed and clothed
a second time, nor for a sin offering,
a burnt offering and an offering of consecration
a second time.
But if they became defiled, they made use
of the labour.
So we are also brought into all the
value of the finished work of Christ and
established as priests and able to enter the
presence of God and offer up our spiritual
sacrifices, neither do we ever go back.
That is a work finished once and for
all.
But if we become defiled, God has provided
for us a labour.
So that if as the children of God
we sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, not with God, with the Father.
We are in a relationship, we are his
children.
And if we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father.
And the moment we sin as the children
of God, our advocate pleads on our behalf.
Then we have another advocate, the Spirit within.
And he convicts us, and then we have
to take heed to this and we have
to make use of the labour.
Otherwise our fellowship and communion is broken.
And that's a very serious thing.
The priests had to wash hands and feet
thereof that they die not.
And it's a very serious thing for a
child of God.
Brought into all the value of the finished
work of Christ, should he sin?
Or should he be found doing sinful things?
Remember, he that is born of God does
not practice sin.
No true child of God will go on
living in sin.
For anyone who professes to be a child
of God and yet lives in sin or
practices sin, it would be evidence that he
had never truly been born of God.
But all this is for us.
And we've realised that as God has made
all this and brought it all in according
to his own thought, that we realise we
have to be brought into all the value
of it, not as something in itself, but
enables us to go on.
As it enabled the priest to go on
and into the sanctuary.
So, coming into all the value of that
finished work of Christ enables us to go
on and in.
So we notice the difference down here.
All is making known to us Christ and
him crucified.
But the moment we step through the door
into the sanctuary, then we leave all that
behind us.
No suffering, agony, bloodshedding and death in there.
That's all down here.
That's at the cross.
But that cross enables us to go on
to something else.
As the priest went on and in.
All this being sight and figure and shadow
and all brought in for our learning.
We upon whom the ends of the ages
have come.
And so then the moment we step inside,
it isn't Christ down here, Christ suffering, shedding
his blood, dying.
It's Christ up there at the right hand
of God.
Christ glorified because in there all is glory.
There's no glittering blade doing its deadly work
in there.
No bloodshedding, no agony, no death, no.
That's all down here.
Inside is all quiet and calm.
All is glory.
Christ up there.
So he's the altar of incense.
He's the table.
He's the lampstand.
And we try to take all this in.
And I haven't got the time to go
into it again.
So let us remember whilst God has opened
the way for the priest to enter in
to the altar of incense, to bring out
that sweet perfume, he wants them also to
take in the table and the lampstand.
We too, whilst we have access to that
altar of incense, Christ up there, God wants
us to take in the table and the
lampstand.
And we've been trying to do that.
And I believe that the Lord has opened
our eyes to see some things that have
been hidden.
You know, I marvel greatly because as I
move around, so many of the Lord's people
come to me and say, you know, I
never knew that.
I've never seen that before.
I've never heard that.
And I think, you know, the devil is
very subtle.
And if he possibly can, he will hide
from us truth which is really precious to
us and of vital importance to us.
He'll do his best to hide it from
us.
Well, I trust that this ministry has been
an eye-opening ministry, that the Lord has
been opening our eyes to see things that
perhaps we've never seen before.
So then, as we've moved on and into
the sanctuary, we realise that we couldn't go
very far because there was a veil there.
And the veil plainly said, no way in.
And we have realised that there within the
sanctuary was the very throne of God.
There was the very presence of God.
He was there.
But there was no way in to his
presence.
Once every year, Aaron the high priest made
his way into that holiest of all with
blood which he sprinkled on this mercy season
before it.
But he didn't open a way.
This was only that God might go on
with these people for another year.
So once every year, he entered.
But no way in.
As long as all this is going on,
as long as all these sacrifices and offerings
brought in by these people of Israel, as
long as they were on this probation, there
was no way in to the presence of
God.
They said, when God made clear to them
that if they would obey his voice and
if they would keep his covenant, that they
would be to him a kingdom of priests.
They said, yes we will.
And God took them up on that.
And in his own way, his thoughts, his
ways, not like our thoughts and our ways,
God works in strange ways.
And so he took these people up according
to their thought.
They verily believed that they could do what
God said.
And God said, well the best thing is
for them to prove this experimentally.
And in doing that, it will bring them
where I can really and truly bless them.
And so when they said, yes we will
do it, God said, alright.
So then these people are on probation.
They are on probation to produce a righteousness
that God can accept.
And God made the arrangements for that.
He gave them the law.
And we remember that the law is not
God's thought.
It cannot be God's thought.
It's God's law.
But, it's not God's thought.
God's thought was justification on the principle of
faith.
But the law is not of faith, so
the law could not be God's thought.
It's really man's thought, because the law is
of works.
A man's thought was of works.
He verily believed that he could by his
own works stand before God in a state
of being right.
And so God says, alright, I'll take you
up on that.
I will make the arrangements for you to
try out your thought.
And the arrangements he made was the law.
But he did it because he meant that
law to be a schoolmaster that would bring
them to Christ that they might be justified
on the principle of faith.
This is how God was working.
So the veil plainly said, there's no way
in.
And this had to go on for hundreds
of years until God eventually stepped in.
And he produced a righteousness.
They failed.
The time came when the verdict went forth
there is no righteous, nor not one.
Every mouth is stopped.
All the world is guilty.
That was it.
And then God steps in.
And in the cross, he produces a righteousness,
a state of being right.
They couldn't do it.
He did it.
He produced a state of being right through
Christ and his sufferings on that cross.
And that righteousness could be made over to
them, it could be reckoned to them, it
could be imputed to them.
It can be reckoned to you, it can
be imputed to you, you see, on the
principle of faith.
So God produced that righteousness in the cross.
It can be ours through faith.
And so when God produced the righteousness, we
remember that the veil of the temple, not
the tabernacle, we know of course the tabernacle
of God at the time of Christ, but
the temple was there, and in the temple
there was a veil.
And that veil in the temple was rent
from the top to the bottom, a divine
act and very significant because it was rent
at that time when Christ was on that
cross and God in Christ was producing that
state of being right, a righteousness.
And the veil was rent.
Which means a new and a living way
had been opened up right into the very
presence of God.
So here in the tabernacle, you see, God's
making it perfectly clear that in bringing in
the priesthood they could move around in the
court and they could enter into the sanctuary
and they could stand before the altar of
incense.
They could take in that bread, they could
take in that lunch, but they couldn't go
beyond the veil.
God was there.
And He was there waiting for a righteousness
that would enable His people, that would enable
man to stand in His presence without fear.
A righteousness that meant they were justified in
the sight of God.
So there was the veil.
And it speaks of Christ.
So the new and living way was opened
up in the rent veil.
That is, through Christ and His sufferings and
death on the cross.
Through the veil, that is to say, His
flesh which brings before us the thought of
that suffering and death of Christ on the
cross.
So they had no way in.
But we have.
We have the rent veil.
So you'll notice that I've taken the veil
down.
They didn't take it down.
The veil was never taken down.
It was rent, it was still there.
But I've taken it down, I've taken the
pillows away and I've also moved the altar
of incense to one side so that if
you can see from where you are you've
got a glimpse of that ark and the
mercy seat with the cherubim of one piece
with it.
Now that's what we've read about this evening.
So we moved on, having availed ourselves of
what God's provided for us.
We moved on, entered into the sanctuary, realized
the veil was there and then seeing what
happened to that and now we find we're
able to go in by this new and
living way and we stand there and we
see the very throne of God.
God set up a throne in the midst
of these people's Israel.
He said to Moses, you shall make this
ark of the case you would bringing before
us that perfect humanity of Christ.
And then you shall overlay it within and
without with pure gold and that's bringing before
us the deity of Christ.
So God means this ark in some way
to be a type of Christ.
And as we think of the case you
would, his perfect humanity, we think of the
gold, his deity we have before us Christ.
Then God said, now Moses when you've made
that ark and overlaid it within and without
with pure gold then you should take the
testimony and place it within the ark.
The testimony was the law, the ten commandments
written on those two tables of stone.
These were to be placed within the ark.
Now again we can see how this is
brought in to be in some way a
type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because when he came into the world you
remember he said, in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hadst no pleasure.
God couldn't have pleasure in burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin.
These never sufficed before God.
For the time being God allowed all this
to take place.
But these burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
could not put away sin.
They could only cover it for the time
being and that was the meaning of the
word atonement to cover over.
And so we have atonement brought in.
But these things could not put away sin.
And so now as we are thinking of
this ark and mercy seat, he coming into
the world and saying in these burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure
then said I Lord I come.
In the volume of the book it is
written of me I delight to do thy
will O God.
A body hast thou prepared me.
Thy law is within my heart.
There you have the ark, the acacia wood,
the gold and now within the ark you
have the law.
He says thy law is within my heart.
So there we have that which brings before
us the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now God says I want you to make
a throne.
Make it of pure gold.
I have a talent of pure gold and
these cherubim of one piece will it.
One cherub on the one end and the
other cherub on the other end and they
shall stretch their wings above the mercy seat.
Their faces shall be towards one another and
they shall be looking down upon that very
throne of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ was the only one
through whom God could possibly set up a
throne and there we have it in the
tabernacle.
Christ is there before us in the ark
with the law within and now the throne
of God is set up on the ark
with the cherubim of one piece with it.
Now it all brings before us Christ but
let us remember Christ in all that moral
glory with regard to the law was no
saviour.
Something else had to be done before we
could be satisfied before God could be satisfied.
Something else had to be done.
Not simply that Christ came and lived that
perfect life and was perfect with regard to
the law in all its detail but more
than that.
Up to that point he is no saviour.
So now we are thinking of the very
throne of God and the cherubim of one
piece with it.
Now we've looked back and we've seen how
that when man and woman were driven out
of the garden of Eden that God placed
cherubim and a flaming sword to keep the
way of the tree of life.
He tabernacled.
That's the word.
God tabernacled cherubim right there at the entrance
to that garden to keep the way of
the tree of life.
That was a primitive tabernacle.
That declared there was the very presence of
God.
Now we turn to the tabernacle and there
within the holiest of all screened by the
veil we have the very throne of God.
The very presence of God and the cherubim
of one piece with it.
Now those cherubim always seem to be connected
with judicial authority.
They are there as part of the very
throne of God because they are God's executive.
They are there as the guardians of the
very throne of God.
They are there to preserve the majesty of
that throne of God.
Should anyone in any way violate the throne
of God, the righteousness of God, the holiness
of God, then the cherubim would be the
assurance of the judgment of God taking place.
So they are there to preserve the majesty
of the very throne of God.
Now as we are thinking of this I
want us to remember that God found himself
in a very, very difficult position.
He had tremendous problems to solve.
Of necessity man was outside.
God is a holy God.
As a holy God he cannot go on
with sin, he cannot ignore sin.
God of necessity must show his wrath against
sin.
And the wrath of God is the necessary
expression of God's essential holiness.
He cannot go on with sin, he cannot
ignore sin, he must of necessity deal with
sin.
So then, we think of God himself a
holy God.
But now God has the people and he
brought those people in because he wanted them.
He brought in a race of men because
God wanted to have fellowship and communion.
God wanted that he as God and they
as his people would be able to have
that fellowship and communion, that they would be
together and what God had in his mind
was something tremendous and it hasn't yet been
seen.
There was the intention on God's part to
develop all the resources of the world and
to do it in such a way that
it was all worth for his glory and
for man's good.
This is what he intended.
But then you see, sin came in and
it separated the man from God.
So the man is at a distance and
of necessity, because God is a holy God
and he cannot go on with sinners in
that way.
So, they're outside.
But then, God isn't satisfied.
He still wants that fellowship and communion.
But in order to have it, he has
problems.
You see, as a holy God looks at
the creature whom he has created and sees
that that creature has become a sinner, God
says the penalty is suffering and death.
Now, there's no way of getting around that.
It's a holy God and according to that
holiness, sins must suffer.
There's no possibility of escape.
There can be no mercy where there's sin.
No mere forgiveness.
God, as a holy God, has got to
deal with that sin.
Now, how is he going to deal with
it?
Remember, we are human beings.
Is God human?
Is God a man?
No.
Well, then, we are human beings and we
have sinned and therefore, having to do with
a holy God, we must suffer and die
for our sins.
Or, someone else must suffer and die for
our sins.
But our sins have got to be suffered
for and got to be died for.
Because God is a holy God.
He cannot ignore sin.
He must deal with it.
And he deals with it in suffering and
death.
So now, God looks upon the people who
are sinners.
Who must suffer and must die.
Or find somebody else to suffer and die.
But who can they find?
Can someone, some man, redeem his brother?
Can someone say, well, I'll suffer and die
on behalf of the others?
No.
They're all in the same position and the
same condition.
All under the sentence of death.
So here's God's problem.
How, then, is he going to save these
people?
How bring them into the fellowship and communion
with himself?
There's only one way.
God, as God, cannot suffer.
He cannot die.
What a problem.
So God decides that he himself will solve
this problem.
And he'll solve it in this way.
He will send his son who shall come
as born of a virgin made in the
likeness of man.
Taking a body that God prepared for him
that he might acquire the capacity to suffer
and die.
God, in Christ, is going to suffer and
die.
That man might be able to have that
fellowship and communion with God.
This is the problem God had to solve.
So he decides, then, that he will send
his only begotten son.
That he will come into this world as
man.
As born of woman.
As born of a virgin.
How is he going to do it?
I read in my Bible these verses.
Can anyone bring a clean thing out of
an unclean?
A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a
child.
Can you bring a clean thing out of
an unclean?
God does it.
The woman conceives by the Holy Spirit.
And she brings forth a child, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sin.
He does it.
But he's still got a problem.
He now is going to make that one
suffer the just from the unjust.
That is not just.
How can you make the just suffer for
the unjust and still remain just?
That's another problem.
God has all these problems to solve in
order that we may have fellowship with him.
And he's doing it through the person of
his beloved son.
And he made him to be sinned.
And he made him to bear sins.
And he made him suffer.
He didn't show him any mercy.
And yet he was just.
You see, if God had made Christ to
suffer, to bear our sins, and to exhaust
the wrath of God, and had left him
then, as having paid the penalty, being taken
down from the cross and buried in the
tomb, and left him there, he would not
have been just.
But he didn't leave him there.
He raised him from among the dead.
And he gave him a name which is
above every name.
And at the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow.
Things in heaven, things on earth, and things
under the earth.
So the one that God made to be
sinned and to endure and suffer on account
of sin, he's going to be glorified.
A name above every name.
He's going to see the travail of his
soul.
He's going to be satisfied.
How wonderful God has dealt with this situation.
To enable us, alienated from him afar off,
to be able to draw nigh, he did
it.
What a problem.
And so there we think of God.
He's in the holiest.
And something has to be done to enable
these people to have that fellowship and communion
with him.
And all this a picture, a type, that
we may look at it and see how
God, in his own wonderful way, has made
provision.
This is a tremendous problem.
God, because he is a God of love,
having brought in a people, he loved them.
Because they had sinned, he didn't cast them
off forever.
They were not driven out of his presence
forever.
They were not banished eternally.
And now God wants to do something about
it.
And then his great heart of love, because
he brought them in, as a father bringing
in his children, in creation, God longs to
bring them back.
So now you have this great heart of
love, longing to bring them back.
But if he just brings them back, he
must judge them for their sin, make them
suffer and make them die.
Now isn't this a problem?
He longs to bring them back.
But if he brings them back, he must
judge them and put them to death.
You know David was in something like that
position.
He had a son and he loved him
with all his heart.
And that son of his was guilty of
murder.
And he fled away into exile.
And David's heart was after his son.
It was after his son.
He loved him as he loved his own
soul.
And he wanted to bring him back, because
he loved him.
But he knew that if he brought him
back, he would have to judge him for
that crime and have him put to death.
What can you do?
Can you devise means in some way?
David, can't you do something?
Do you want to bring that son of
yours back?
Yes, I do.
Well, just bring him back and forgive him.
Ah, says David, if I do that, there
are people who will stand and say, you're
not fit to be a king.
You should never be found sitting on that
throne, because you are showing mercy to your
own flesh and blood.
But you're letting others suffer and die.
Oh, he had a problem, and he didn't
know how he was going to solve it.
Until a woman came to him, and she
was a very wise woman, and she caught
him out.
He was caught out.
He said, you know, I had two sons,
and they started fighting, and one killed the
other.
And now they're saying, hand over your son,
the one that remains.
You're a poor widow, hand him over.
We're going to slay him because he murdered
his brother.
What am I going to do?
And David said, no, not on your life.
I shall not touch you.
You go your way.
I'll give charge concerning you.
Caught out.
He had exercised his mercy at the expense
of justice.
He should have said to that woman, I'm
sorry for you.
You're a poor widow woman.
You've lost one son.
Now they want the other one.
I'm sorry.
If that son of yours slew his brother,
then he's got to pay the penalty for
it.
I'm sorry.
I'm in the same position myself.
I've got a son out there.
He murdered his brother.
What can I do about it?
No, David was there listening to the woman.
His heart went out of a poor soul,
and he said, no, they shall not do
it.
And she turned around and said to him
very nicely, the king doth utter this thing
as one of his faulty.
Why don't you show mercy to your son,
David?
You've shown mercy to mine.
I'm not yours.
And what was the result?
The result was dreadful.
He exercised mercy at the expense of justice.
And the results were terrible.
God will never do that.
He will never exercise his mercy at the
expense of justice.
God must meet the demands made by his
own holiness.
Now you will probably agree with me when
I say when man sinned against God, something
happened in the man.
The man became other than he was.
He became a sinner.
It's not simply that he did something sinful
and he was a sinner because he did
something sinful.
It's more than that.
That when he did that which was sinful,
he didn't only just become sinful because of
what he did, but he became sinful in
himself.
His constitution was corrupted.
He became other than he was.
He became a sinner in himself.
And God has to deal with that situation.
Not simply what a man does, but what
a man is.
God's got to deal with that.
And he did deal with it.
But when I say to you, not only
did something happen in the man when he
sinned against God, but something happened in God.
Oh, you say, no.
I say that when man sinned against God,
not only did something happen in God, but
something happened in the man.
Not only did something happen in the man,
something happened in God.
What could have happened in God?
Well, I believe that when man sinned against
God, the harmony of the Godhead was disturbed.
That the attributes of God were set one
against another because a man sinned.
What are the attributes of God?
Mercy and truth, righteousness and peace.
Ah, Mr. Brown, you've left out the greatest
of all the attributes of God.
What's that?
Well, surely the love of God.
Well, to me, the love of God is
the sum total of all those attributes.
Mercy, truth, righteousness and peace.
Now, when man sinned against God, he violated
the truth of God and the righteousness of
God and he's the sword and there's no
peace.
Those attributes of God are set one against
the other.
The harmony of the Godhead is disturbed by
man's sin.
Now, the position is that mercy must become
active and we see how God divides means
and he divides such means that he did
not exercise his mercy at the expense of
justice.
He divides means.
In the Lord Jesus Christ, there are the
means divided by God.
No mercy.
Not a trace of mercy shown to Christ
on that cross.
He was made sin and endured the wrath
of God on account of that sin.
There was no mercy shown to him.
God there divides the means.
Not only meeting the demands of his own
holiness, but he meets the deep and dire
need of man.
These two things have got to be met
and he does it through Christ and him
crucified through that precious blood of Christ that
was there on the cross.
Now, we've noted that on that great day
of atonement, when Aaron the high priest took
the blood, he passed through the court, through
the holy place and into the holiest of
all and he stood before that very throne
of God.
The cherubim were there, stretching their wings on
high, faces toward one another, looking down.
What are they waiting for?
This is a throne of judgment.
They are there to preserve the majesty of
that throne of righteousness.
Should anybody approach that throne without the evidence
of suffering and death, it would mean the
judgment of God coming upon them.
Here is Aaron, the high priest, with the
blood of the sin offering, entering in, passing
through the veil, standing before the very throne
of God.
And he dips his finger in that blood
and he looks up at these cherubim and
he sprinkled the blood once upon that throne
of God and it became a mercy seat.
It became a blood-sprinkled throne, a blood
-sprinkled mercy seat.
God is devising means whereby these people who
are at a distance, banished but not banished
eternally from him, these may be brought back
again into that fellowship and communion with him.
So only by the shedding of blood can
the demands of a holy God be met
and can the need of the sinner be
met.
And so there is our high priest, our
great high priest, moving in and sprinkling the
blood once on the mercy seat and then
he sprinkles it seven times before it.
God has devised means.
David, he didn't manage it.
He was caught out and the results were
very tragic.
There are instances where men have tried, you
know, they've tried to devise means.
I remember reading about an old eastern monarch
they brought news to him that a crime
was being committed in the kingdom which was
of a very serious nature and that something
drastic would have to be done about it.
And when he and his counsellors had talked
it over they decided to publish throughout the
kingdom that anyone in the future found guilty
of committing that crime would lose the sight
of both eyes.
They would be blinded for that crime.
And for a time when this was published
throughout the kingdom there was no more crime
of that kind.
And then one day they came in to
the old monarch and said we want you
to come and sit on your throne in
the courtroom and we've got a prisoner to
bring in a man who is being guilty
of that crime.
So he went and he sat on the
throne and his counsellors came in and took
their seat and then they brought in the
prisoner.
You can imagine the old monarch's feelings when
he looked at the prisoner and he saw
that it was his own son.
He longed to forgive his son but he
was sitting there as a sovereign.
He had to see that justice was done.
How is he going to devise means?
What a position to be in.
What he said my own very son guilty
of that crime, yes.
Are you going to pass a sentence on
him?
Are you going to show him mercy?
What?
Show mercy at the expense of justice?
What will my people say about me?
Not fit to be a king.
You allow others to pay the penalty because
he's your flesh and blood, you forgive him.
Said the old monarch, no.
I don't show him mercy.
I pass the sentence upon him that he
lose the sight of two eyes and carry
out the sentence immediately.
And they took his son and they bound
him to a table and they took this
white, hot, seething iron and they passed it
across one of his eyes and they destroyed
it.
But before they could do the other one
the old monarch said, hold!
Loosen.
Let him go.
Ah, they said.
He's going to show him mercy.
His own son, you see.
Loosen and let him go.
And he descended from his throne and he
went across to the table and he said
bind me upon this table.
What?
Bind me upon this table.
Never.
I said bind me upon this table.
And they bound him.
Now he said destroy this eye.
We cannot.
You destroy this eye.
The penalty is two eyes.
One of his.
One of mine.
He was trying to devise means whereby his
son might in some measure be delivered and
might too never forget what his crime had
caused.
As he looked at his father and saw
he was blinded in one eye.
God devised means.
There at the cross but no mercy.
His beloved son there paid the price in
full.
And so as we think of this high
priest going into the holiest with the blood
of the sin offering we know it's the
type of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He goes into the very presence of God
in all the value of that blood that
he shed on the cross.
Aaron went into the holiest carrying the blood
of the sin offering.
Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't go into the
presence of God carrying his blood.
He shed the blood there on the cross.
And then when he entered into the very
presence of God it was in all the
value of that shed blood.
And just as that very throne of God
became a throne of mercy a mercy seat
so our Lord Jesus Christ up there in
the presence of God has become our blood
-sprinkled mercy seat.
He is our great high priest.
He's our blood-sprinkled mercy seat.
These are the means devised by God.
Let's remember.
Christ never experienced one little bit of mercy.
He had to pay the price in full.
If ever we stand before God with any
thought in our minds that God is a
God of love and that although we have
failed although we have sinned although we have
not been what we should have been he
will understand and when we do stand before
him he will say well I knew you
tried.
You didn't succeed but you tried and so
I'm a God of love and I forgive
you.
Never.
If you can find a trace of mercy
in God's dealing with Christ when he was
on that cross representing the sinner then I
grant you will find mercy when you stand
before God if you are there without personal
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But there was no mercy there and there'll
be no mercy for you.
Mercy, yes mercy has been exercised.
The attributes of God set one against another.
Mercy became active and we see that mercy
active in the cross in that blood shed
by the Lord Jesus Christ and when that
took place then we read that mercy and
truth have met together but they must have
been separated.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other and
they must have been estranged.
So the harmony of the Godhead was restored
by that precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
There the blood sprinkled upon the mercy feet
and the cherubim are there and mercy and
truth meet together and righteousness and peace kiss
each other.
I do remember last night as we looked
at the high priest people had in their
minds that on that great day of atonement
when Aaron the high priest went into that
holiest taking the blood of the sin offering
that he went in dressed in these garments
of glory and beauty.
Now this has been said and it's been
taught and there are so many people who
come to me and say well I always
understood and we were always told and we've
also read that Aaron on that great day
of atonement was just clothed as you see
him there in his garments of glory and
beauty.
So he went through the court and through
the holy place through the veil into the
holiest of all and the bells were tinkling.
The people were gathered outside no man to
be in the sanctuary when they went in
but the priest was standing in the court
listening to the tinkle of the bells and
then signaling to the people outside that everything
was well they could still hear the tinkling
of the bells.
If the bells ceased for a moment then
they would conclude that the judgment of God
had come upon Aaron.
And I had to say last evening that
this is all wrong.
That Aaron never went in to the holiest
with these garments of glory and beauty on
the great day of atonement.
He had to go into the sanctuary and
take these garments of glory and beauty off.
And so I clothed him for you and
I want you to see again it will
impress it upon your mind that on the
great day of atonement Aaron dressed in these
garments of glory and beauty he went into
the sanctuary and he took them all off.
He removed this ribbon of blue with that
plate that golden plate withholding the son of
Jehovah he took off this breastplate of judgment
and he laid it one side he took
off this ephod with its blue purple scarlet
the two stones on the shoulder with the
names of the tribes engraved on it and
he took off this robe of the ephod
that had these golden bells and pomegranates on
it and he laid that at one side
and he even took off this fine twine
linen tunic and replaced it with another linen
tunic a different kind of linen and then
dressed as you see him in that linen
he took the blood and he made his
way through the court through the holy place
and into the holiest of all no tinkling
bells this was the great day of atonement
and the great thing was that God was
dealing with sin and there could be no
glory in that and our attention is directed
altogether upon the holiness of God and when
Aaron put these garments upon him they were
holy garments and he a holy man was
going into the presence of a holy God
and he was going in on account of
sin what glory can you bring in there?
so there in the holiest of all was
a holy God alone and into that holiest
went Aaron the high priest in holy garments
alone and there two were together in there
and they were dealing with sin and when
we turn our attention to that cross of
Christ there we see there a holy God
alone and we see the Lord Jesus Christ
our great high priest we see him going
there alone and there two were together there
and they were dealing with sin a means
devised by God that we should not be
banished eternally from his presence but that we
might find that we've got access that a
new and a living way has been opened
up for us into his own very presence
how wonderful are the ways of God how
we can bless and praise him tonight that
all this that we see in the tabernacle
we have that which is the real thing
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ
we can think of him there as our
great high priest as our blood sprinkled mercy
seat as one ever living to make intercession
as able to save us unto the uttermost
right away through to the end what marvelous
grace how we can thank God for it
shall we pray O God our father to
thee we would give our grateful thanks again
for thy great love and thy rich mercy
that thy mercy became active that thou did
solve all these problems as God not able
to suffer and die but as coming out
manifest in flesh in the person of thy
son he taking that body prepared for him
God was able to suffer shed blood and
die and all this that we might avail
ourselves of what thou hast accomplished on our
behalf and find we have boldness to enter
into thy very presence in this new and
living way by the blood of Jesus our
God we give thee thanks for the rent
veil we give thee thanks for the sufferings,
blood shedding and death of our Lord Jesus
Christ we thank thee for our great high
priest in thine own very presence there on
our behalf our names upon his shoulder our
names upon his breast he will never fail
us for all this we give thee our
grateful thanks and we bless thee