Exodus

[0:00] I would draw attention this evening to a portion of the Word of God found in the book of Exodus, 25th chapter, and words that are found in the 22nd verse.

[0:27] 25th chapter of the book of Exodus, verse 22.

[0:42] And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee, from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

[1:10] We have in this verse four very great and important things.

[1:24] We have, first of all, a place. There will I meet with thee. We want to try to discover where this place is and what it is, whether there is any prospect whatever of our finding this place.

[1:57] Secondly, we have a very wonderful purpose, a purpose that God declares is his purpose.

[2:09] And he says that he will meet his people. And that must ever be one of the greatest purposes that has ever been declared in the Word of God, for God to declare that he, his purpose is to meet with his people.

[2:37] True enough, it was Moses that benefited first personally and individually from this purpose.

[2:51] But Moses was a representative. And he represents the whole entire people of God, both in the Old Testament and in the Middle.

[3:06] And he says, well then, thirdly, there's a promise here. God says, I will. I will give all.

[3:19] And if you look at those words towards the end of the verse, think of the immensity of them. I will give all.

[3:32] The word things is in the italics, and therefore it is a supplied word. But the original simply means this.

[3:43] I will give thee all. And then, fourthly, finally, we have a person.

[3:55] A person that is speaking this word to the Lord's servant Moses. And also, a person that is described in the figure that we have before us.

[4:14] Then again, looking at the text itself for a moment, there are three very important and precious things where God says, I will.

[4:29] He says, I will meet thee. And secondly, he says, I will commune with thee.

[4:43] And then thirdly, I will give. So, if you only look at those few things in the text, it shows what a very wonderful and all-important text it is.

[4:59] Three times, then, God, in this very short and yet wonderful word, declares that he will, what his will is. And we know from experience, we know from the teaching of the word of God, that God's will is unalterable.

[5:21] We know also that it is all-sovereign and almighty, invincible. None can stay the hand of God or say to him, what doest thou?

[5:36] When he says, I will, he will perform to the very fullest extent everything that he declares is his holy will.

[5:54] Well, now, when you come to think of those few things that I speak of this evening in opening up this word, how very wonderful they are and how very precious they must be to the believing people of God.

[6:16] Because I would emphasize this, that if we have life in our heart, the greatest desire that we can have and will have is this.

[6:35] We shall desire the Lord's presence with you. We shall be concerned to find out where he is.

[6:47] We shall want to have some discovery to our own heart of his willingness to show himself and to be near to us.

[7:04] As one says, he near my soul has always stood his loving kindness. Oh, how good. And therefore, this text of mine tonight is something that speaks volumes to such souls who, as I have been describing, find it in their hearts increasing sometimes more than others but nevertheless ever-present more or less a real desire to find out where God is.

[7:47] Be then near to him and to enjoy his wonderful prayer. This is the mark of real faith and real religion and there's no question whatsoever about it.

[8:04] Now, God, when his people had been brought out of Egypt, they had seen the terrors of God in ten terrible plagues that God had sent upon the Egyptian people and, of course, the notion of God was a terror really in the eyes and minds of these people.

[8:33] As they went into the wilderness, they were dreading meeting God. They were told by Moses that they were going three days' journey into the wilderness to worship God and to meet with him and really, you could well believe it, you could well understand it, they were almost dreading the thought of coming into contact with God.

[8:57] He was so great, so awful and in majesty, so terrible in his ways and in his words. How could they possibly come to meet with God?

[9:11] Now, how important, and this is so highly significant, one of the first things that God does in order to correct that notion of the terror of God, to bring his people and himself together and to show them that he was a compassionate, forgiving, merciful God that was not far distant from them but ever-present, really, and kind and gracious and good in the greatest degree and extent.

[9:58] Now, how does he do that? Not merely by declaring that truth through the lips of his servant Moses, but by demonstrating the fact in a very striking, wonderful way and that was in causing this tabernacle to be erected in the heart of the nation, the tribes of Israel.

[10:28] And in so manipulating and in so ordaining this construction, this strange, mysterious construction that was an anathema to the whole world that looked on and saw it, it was an enigma even to the children of Israel and certainly to the people that may have witnessed it like Balak did from a distance.

[11:01] But it was God's way of teaching his people that there was a way in which they could come near to him and he would come near to them and this is how he does it.

[11:20] He gives instructions to Moses to build and this is the first point that I want to make, the place. He first had in his purpose a place in which they could meet with him and he could meet with him.

[11:44] And when you come to think of it, this God fills all eternity. There's no measurement that can encompass the being of God.

[11:58] He is infinite, inhabiting eternity. He is omnipresent, he is everywhere, everywhere, and yet in the wondrous compassion and condescension of his being, he appoints a place, a very small place, where he says, there, I will meet with thee.

[12:29] Now he commands Moses then to build an ark, two and a half cubits long, and a cubit and a half wide.

[12:44] It was to be made of shitting wood, which I think is the Arabian acacia, which is known to be a very hard wood indeed, and a very beautiful wood.

[13:00] we always admire our English oak, the grain is a great admiration to all who know anything about wood and furniture.

[13:15] Well, the acacia tree, the Arabian tree in the desert, and that was practically the only wood that was available, but it was the very best, not only because of its beauty, but because of its endurance, and its strength, and God said, now take this wood and build an ark, and build it in this size, two and a half cubits long, and a cubit and a half wide, and overlay it with pure gold, and put a crown of gold on the top of it.

[14:05] And then he tells him to perform work with great skill and cunning. The figures of two cherubins gold, with their wings stretched out high above this ark, their faces toward each other, and towards the face of the ark.

[14:35] And on this ark, there was to be placed the same measurements, there was to be placed a pure plate of gold, which was to be called the mercies.

[14:52] Now, this place you think of, it was only two and a half cubits by one and a half. A really small area indeed, but God says, there will I meet with thee.

[15:07] The great God, the infinite God, the God as I have said, that inhabited the eternal and filleth all things, he says, there will I meet with thee.

[15:18] about the mercies see. Now, what was this? Why did God do this?

[15:30] What is all this teaching mean? Well, I believe we shall be right if we say this tonight, that that ark, by its very nature, figure, by the wood which was natural, and by the gold that was imperishable, we have in the figure, we have a beautiful type of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:07] we have his humanity in the wood set forth there, in that endurable wood of exquisite beauty, and we have his divine nature set forth in the pure gold that's overlaid.

[16:25] so we have wood and gold in the construction of this ark. And it was to be, it was to be called a propitiator or in other words, in the more familiar words, it was to be called a mercy seat.

[16:51] And that's a beautiful term, really, a mercy seat. And it is a place where God says, I will meet with you.

[17:04] Now, as we think of these things, it stirs up our hearts, at least one hopes it will do, as we think of the mercy seat, which is so meaningful and so all important to you and to me in our lives, in our seekings after the Lord, in our watching and waiting upon him for guidance and for help in our weakness and for strength to do his will day by day, what could we do, what should we do without the mercy seat?

[17:46] We sometimes despise it and we sometimes neglect it, we sometimes think lightly about it but really when we come to weigh it all up it's the most important place, it was so in God's eyes and therefore we may be sure of this it will be in the eyes of his people.

[18:11] Mercy seat. Now this is the place and why was it the place that God selected so pointedly and purposefully because blood was to be sprinkled upon it.

[18:29] The blood of the offering, the sin offering was to be sprinkled once a year only upon this plate of gold.

[18:43] The high priest had to go within the veil and sprinkle the blood of the offering to make an atonement for all Israel and God looked upon this with acceptance and with passion.

[19:05] This is the place he says I will meet with you. Well now I needn't try to emphasize it because I'm sure you realize it and know it fully that here we have this beautiful type of Jesus Christ the one in whom God is well pleased and the one that God meets his people and they meet with him upon the mercy seat.

[19:41] Well then we come to the purpose and that purpose is this meeting I will meet with thee and secondly I will commune with thee and then thirdly I will give to thee you think of those three things how important they are I will meet with thee that's the first great thing and if we have ever been met with by God the next great thing that we shall be looking for and experiencing is communion with God we shall enter into a condition a situation in which there will be conversation between our soul and God there will be communication our religion will not be simply lying in dead form or dead round it will be a vital religion a living one it will be one in which there is contact with

[20:59] God spiritual contact with him there will be communion with him and in fact the real Christian cannot live without communion they must have that sweet inward communion with God they wanted more and more it must be in some measure broken now here in this world that there will be a time when it will be unbroken communion that will be in heaven that all the touches of it now are so essential and precious to the believer they cannot live without it now God says my purpose is this that my people shall have communion they must be in the right place for it they must come and find their way to the

[22:01] Lord Jesus they must realize that he is the way to God and he is the one through whom God sends down his blessings and his gifts but God's purpose is that his people shall have this communion with himself in Christ so then we cannot do without Christ and just as the children of Israel couldn't do without the ark of the covenant and without the yearly performance of the sacrifice it was everything to them because it meant that God was in the midst of them and they could talk and commune with God then we have this promise then this promise that God says there

[23:02] I will meet with thee and commune with thee from above the mercy sea and if you look into the scriptures you'll find how meaningful this was to the various saints of God in the Old Testament day now David in the 80th psalm he says shine forth oh thou shepherd of Israel thou that leadest Joseph like a flock thou that dwellest between the cherubim shine forth you see David recognized that God shines forth from the mercies from between the cherubim and then again in the 37th of Isaiah Hezekiah received a letter terrible blasphemous letter from

[24:09] Sennacherib who was invading Jerusalem and threatening the children of Israel and he did the best thing that any man could do with such a letter he took it into the house of the Lord and he spread it before the Lord and he said this oh Lord thou that dwellest between the cherubim look upon us have mercy upon us thou that dwellest between the cherubim you'll time all the way through the Old Testament scriptures the Old Testament saints had special reference and respect to this great truth this great unfolding of God's purpose and his promises that he says I will dwell there between these cherubims I will visit you

[25:11] I will commune with me and then he says in promise I will give I will give all he says to Moses I will give all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel in other words everything that is needed by the children of Israel I will give now that's a tremendous promise and it really brings us again to see this that God was showing to us in this wonderful typical way how everything is given to his people through Jesus Christ well this is then the promise it's a guarantee for all times that

[26:11] God will be faithful to his promise it's a guarantee to you and to me that he will meet with us and there will be no such thing as being cast completely out of his presence or denying his mercy or his goodness then we have the person and what a wonderful that is this wonderful person that is here speaking here to us in this word of truth I will meet with thee not by a proxy not by messenger not by any instrumental way whatever but I will commune with thee

[27:15] I will meet with thee well when you come to weigh up this wonderful truth you see how much there is in it that you and I will require seek after and long for in our own personal experience well now let us just think then weigh up these great matters that come before our minds in this respect the meeting of God with his people that's a very wonderful thing when you think of the fact just simply look at the fact itself it's a wonderful fact to think that God intends meeting with his people when you realize they are poor sinners like

[28:22] Israel they oft times murmured against God they did not understand his ways they rebelled against him they could not believe always that he was going to bring them into a promised land and they cut a sorry picture really of disunity and disarray in the wilderness where God says I will meet with thee and he goes about in this most wonderful sacred way of making that to be a reality and a truth I will meet with thee I think it's the most important thing to come to terms with this great all important matter we want to meet with thee looking at it very simply and clearly and elementarily this evening our great need is to meet with

[29:33] God we have to meet with him one day all men will as we read tonight it is appointed unto man once to die and after death to judgment there's no alternative there's no way of escaping if only men could realize this and receive it and take it home to their hearts they would be very different people from what they are but it all means this that every man in the world will have to meet with God they'll have to stand before him and receive his sentence and justice dealings and deserves but what a wonderful mercy have we brought in this life of ours to meet with him and if he meets with us you see there are two things and the word in the original bears this interpretation we might read it like this there will

[30:50] I meet with thee by appointment by appointment that's really what the word means originally in the people now that opens up a great many thoughts in my mind when a person may go about this world may go on a travel or a journey they may meet people may meet somebody they know quite unexpectedly and surprisingly and that sort of makes a great turn an ordinary thing sometimes into a great event but that's not by appointment of men is it that is what they may call an accidental sort of meeting but all the meetings of God are by divine appointment he never meets with any sinner but what he has appointed that meeting he's appointed the place for the meeting he's appointed the time of the meeting and that means to say

[32:09] God's hand is before everything and his purposes are before everything and there's nothing accidental or surprising in anything that is experienced by any soul in meeting with God it's all by his appointment now that's a very wonderful thought really when we come to ways up and to think of it when we come to the throne of grace we may be in great trouble and difficulty we have to rush to the throne of grace and we come as if thinking perhaps in our hearts and minds that God doesn't know anything about us we've got to hasten and tell him about it but you see God has appointed the very thing that has driven us to the throne he's appointed everything and it's that appointment that brings us to meet the ten and he to meet with us all the appointments of God when you look at it in this night and that is really what this word means

[33:23] God said to Moses I will appoint I will meet thee I will meet with thee by appointment you see God had already appointed all these wonderful things for Moses to make to make a place where he would meet with pleasure and acceptance when you come to think in your own lives and in your own experience how very wonderful when we believe that all our meeting with God are by his appointment and that gives us hope it gives us comfort it gives us a consolidated belief that we shall endure up to the end because God will never fail to appoint all that we need and as for feeling sometimes shut right out from the throne of grace or the mercy seat to use the figure that is before us we know this

[34:44] God has appointed to meet his people and they can never be in such a desperate place or position where God will not meet with them let us hold on then to this precious promise I will meet with them yes and secondly what a wonderful thing it is to commune with God and when God says I will commune with thee you see there can be only really one ground or condition for communion if you have in your heart and mind some evil purpose some irritating aggravation some bitterness either about your pathway or about some person that may be at the present moment hindering you or disturbing your peace you can't have real communion with God it is totally impossible what you need is to shelve and remove from your heart and mind all those hindering things and the poet says what various hindrances we meet when coming to the mercy seat and the real praying soul knows it there's nothing really they know more or know better than theirs and so if they can only come humble themselves down at the feet of Christ and view his sufferings his marriage his sacred death and his shedding of his precious blood and have a sense of that inspiring love conveyed into their heart they can commune with

[37:00] God and he will commune with them but he will never commune with his people while they are entertaining all kinds of opposition and adversity and enmity they need to be very much in the mind of this truth they need to be at the place where God says I will meet with thee in Christ in the view of his precious blood then lastly he says I will give you all no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly says David in the 84th psalm well if you are walking in this way if you're walking with your eyes on the mercy you're walking uprightly

[38:03] I dare say a good many people have looked at that word in the 84th psalm and said yes well that's all very well but how can I claim to be walking uprightly and you look at all kinds of things of standards and requirements and necessities to walk uprightly but really what he means is with your eye upon the mercy seat with your eye upon the propitiatory sacrifice of the Lord Jesus that's what it means to walk uprightly and God recognized that as being upright and he says I will give you all nothing as Paul says in the Romans the 8th chapter he that spared not his own son delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all with him oh my text is a wonderful text it's full of hope full of comfort full of real precious truth and blessing

[39:22] I hope we shall lay hold upon him and that as a result of our meditation on this word we may come to meet with the Lord and he meet with us we know the precious power and blessedness of the mercy seat where we love to become waiting upon the Lord we close our service by singing him 942 to the tune Niagara 877 TOGETHER Amen.

[40:46] Amen. Amen.

[41:46] Amen. Amen.

[42:46] Amen. Amen.

[43:46] Amen. Amen.