Those that I gave you last evening, you'd probably stay home and chew the cud. But, uh, it's great to see you, and I appreciate, on a blustery night, that you have come to join with me as we explore together again in the Word of God. There are quite a number of you tonight who will be here for the first time, so just this, uh, very brief word of recapitulation to bring you into the picture. The King David called a great convocation of his people, and the proposition that he put forward to them was this: Let us bring again the ark of our God to us. That was the proposition. Let us bring again the ark of our God to it. Because the ark had got out of context. The place where it should have been was in the holiest of all, behind the second veil and beneath the mercy seat that once a year was sprinkled with blood in anticipation of that redemptive transaction of which it was the foreshadowing when the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Word, would give his life upon the cross, a ransom for many, to reconcile us to a holy God. And the ark with its content, some of which we're going to examine tonight, represented God's covenant, God's pledge to his people. It represented the, the spiritual content of that salvation that is to be ours through the Lord Jesus, but the content of which is only valid in context beneath the mercy seat sprinkled with blood. But the ark was out of context. And last evening we spent some time seeing how it happened. At a time of great spiritual decline, when a man called Eli, a pathetic old man, who had judged Israel for forty years, settled for something less than God's best. He came to be acclimatized to the social conditions of his day, and he learned to live with sin. Ritual had taken the place of reality, and token obedience had taken the place of total obedience. The priesthood was in a state of apostasy. And because ritual had taken the place of reality and token obedience had taken the place of total obedience, the ark with its contents had taken the place of God himself, and it became the object of their idolatry. And it fell into the hands of their enemies. And Eli, as we saw last evening, when his sons slain and the good, the bad news came to him that the, the ark of God's covenant was in the hands of those who were gods and their enemies, fell backwards off his bench and died of a broken neck, just before he could die of a broken heart. And the Ark of God finally found its place in the house of Abinadab in Kirjathjearim, and there it remained. And during the reign of King Saul, the first of the kings, who superseded the judges, David says, we never inquired of it. Because, you see, the ark was to be in the holiest of all, where God would meet his people and by his presence fill his temple with glory. It was to be the place not where they came to it, but where they worshipped and communed with him. And there had been aroused within the heart of King David a holy ambition to get the ark back to where it belonged, that once more, in context, they might meet with their living God in the place where he would once more speak and commune with his people. Now that, that's the background of the story. Now the content of the ark. How is it that its contents represented the spiritual content of that salvation that God has provided for you and for me in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus, who is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, was to shed his blood as the Savior foreshadowed by the splinting of the blood by the high priest once a year upon the mercy seat in the holiest of all. So will you turn with me to the, uh, ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews? The Epistle to the Hebrews, and chapter nine. And here the apostle says in the second verse of chapter nine, 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. Now you get the picture. There were two tabernacles. The first was called the sanctuary, and the second was called the holiest of all, the holy of holies. And there was a veil between the two. And just to remind you, it was this veil that forbade entrance into the holiest of all that was rent in twain, ripped in two, from the bottom to the top, when the Lord Jesus accomplished his redemptive work in that he died for you and for me and rose again from the dead. And that, of course, was gloriously symbolic of the fact that when the Lord Jesus, in the sinlessness of his humanity, died upon the cross and paid the price of our redemption, the door was flung wide into the presence of a holy God for every boy, for every girl, for every man, for every woman who, pleading his name, received forgiveness and would be accepted by a holy God as one cleansed in his blood and clothed with his righteousness. Beautiful picture that God gives. And that's why this veil was actually ripped in two at the time that the Lord Jesus rose. After the second veil, verse three, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid around with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. Now, those were the three items that were contained within the ark. The golden pot that had manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, those three things. And over it, verse five, the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat. Because the content, the golden pot with manna, Aaron's rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant, and all that symbolically they represented, all this was valid only in context, beneath the mercy seat, sprinkled with blood in the holiest of all. Its fulfillment to await the coming of the Lord Jesus as the one whom some of us this morning reminded ourselves was the seed promised to faithful Abraham when God preached before the gospel to his faithful servant Abraham, saying, in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And in the meantime, all this that was pictured so beautifully in the temple was a foreshadowing of his coming. When these things were thus ordained, verse six, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second, the holiest of all, went the high priest alone, once every year, and not without blood, which he offered for himself, for the errors of the people. Because, you see, he too was a sinner. The high priest, who was allowed on pain of death only to go into the holiest of all once a year, first had to offer blood for himself, and then for the errors of his people. The Holy Ghost, this signified, verse eight, 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 cause. Because that first tabernacle simply represented the law that foreshadowed the coming of the Lord Jesus, in whom the second and greater covenant was vested in God's promise to Abraham, saying, in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. The Old Testament simply foreshadowed the coming of the Lord Jesus in fulfillment of the New Testament. For the law, chapter ten tells us in verse one, having a shadow only of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year, continually make the comers thereunto perfect. This is what the law, as we saw some of us this morning, cannot do. It cannot make anybody perfect, but it can prove us guilty in need of the one who does make us perfect. The Lord Jesus. So, you see, the Old Testament is characterized by the fact that it cannot. The New Testament is catra- characterized by the fact that he can. For every priest, verse eleven of chapter ten, standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never, can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. So the Old Testament is characterized by can never, and the offering that the Lord Jesus brought is characterized by the fact that it forever sanctifies them who claim redemption through the blood he shed. Because Christ, verse twenty four of chapter nine, is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are only the figures, the pictures, the symbols of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin under salvation. And it's to his glorious appearing now to which we look forward. So the Lord Jesus is the one who came to fulfill gloriously that of which these things that we are now discussing are but the shadow of good things to come. Now, the golden pot with manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the law, these represented a salvation process that God enacted in the process of getting his people out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. And that story, God's dealings with his people Israel in bringing them out of Egypt into Canaan, is one of the most magnificent pictures that's given to us in the Bible of God's redemptive and regenerative purpose in your life and mine, which he fulfills in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus. But remember, the ark with its context, with its content, is only in context beneath the mercy. There must be the shedding of blood to make it valid in your experience or mine, for without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. So the beginning of that process that represents God's salvation made available to you and to me in Christ began with what is described as the Exodus, twelfth of Exodus, which we shall turn to, beneath the shadow of the shed blood of an unblemished land. That's where the story begins. And we'll turn to that. Exodus in chapter twelve. The Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. In other words, something is going to happen this month, which will be so significant that it'll be as though you had never lived before. It's going to be the beginning of months, and it will become the first month of the year. Now, this is precisely what God says about that personal encounter with the Lord Jesus that we call redemption, that introduces us to a peace relationship with God our Maker, who thereby, on the grounds of redemption, can restore to us that life for which you and I were created, which was forfeited in Adam. So that if any man, by an act of faith, step into Christ, he becomes a new creation. All things have passed away, everything has become new. New birth. That spiritual regeneration, whereby a boy, a girl, a man, a woman becomes a new creation. That was certainly true in my experience. I was converted as a boy of twelve. but quite frankly, as I look back now, I can hardly remember anything that happened to me before the age of twelve. I can hardly remember anything that happened to me before quarter to nine Saturday night, thirteenth of August nineteen twenty seven. That was the beginning of months for me, and it became to me the first month in the year. That's when I began to live. And this is what God said to his people, Israel. Something is going to happen of such amazing significance that from now on, life for you will never, never, never be the same again. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the tenth day of this month shall they take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb from house. Your lamb, said he, verse five, shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. It's got to be perfect, without any blemish whatever, of any description. This is particularized for us. Don't bother to turn to this, allow me to read it to you. In the twenty second chapter of the Leviticus, you shall offer at your own will, of your own free volition, a male without blemish, or of the bees, or of the sheep, or of the goats, but whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall you not offer, for it shall not be acceptable for you. Whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord to accomplish his vow, or a free will offering in bees or sheaf, it shall be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein, blind or broken or maimed or having a wen or scurvy or scabs. You shall not offer these unto the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the Lord. You shall not offer unto the Lord that which is bruised or crushed or broken or cut. Neither shall you make any offering thereof in your land. It must be perfect. I don't have to tell you that this pictured the coming of the Lord Jesus as the incarnate Word of whom the Father could look down from heaven and say, this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. For God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin. He suffered the just without blemish for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. The lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, and you will keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening, and they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses wherein they shall eat. And thus shall you eat it, Exodus twelve eleven, with your loins girded, shoes on your feet, staff in your hand, and you will eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. And of this unblemished lamb, in verse forty six, neither shall ye break a bone thereof. Not a bone of its body is to be broken. Why not? Well, you see, because when the Roman soldiers came out, at the request of the Jews, lest the Sabbath should be contaminated by bodies still hanging on a cross, to ensure that those who were being executed were dead, they smashed the legs of this one, and they smashed the legs of that. The thieves who on either side were crucified with God's dear son. But when they came to smash his leg, they found that he was already dead. For he laid down his life, a ransom for men. And that unblemished lamb, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, died on that cross, but not a bone of his body was broken. And it was to be eaten by them with their loins girded, with shoes on their feet and a scarf in their hands. And I like the, the German translation here, aus die die hinwetilen. That means it was to be eaten as those who were just on the point of hurrying away. It was a the threshold of a journey. At this point, they were going to turn their back upon the past, and they were setting their face toward the future. This, said God, is how you are to eat the Passover, as those who are saying goodbye to the past and saying good morning to a future that will be so fantastically different that it will be as though you had never, never lived before. Now, that's the picture given to us here of God's plan of redemption. That when you and I enter into a faithful relationship with the Lord Jesus and come to him as the one who is the Lamb of God, laid down his life and shed his precious blood that our hearts might be cleansed from sin. It is as those who are embarking upon a journey, who say goodbye to the past, and who say good morning to the future. As those who have become new creatures in Christ Jesus, and for whom life now can never, never be the same again. And I will pass through the land of Egypt, God said this night. And I will smite all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord, and the blood shall be for you a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. In other words, the blood is going to protect you, and when my judgment rests upon this land, those who are beneath the sprinkled blood painted upon the doorposts and the lintels of their hearts. I will remember your sins no more. I have blotted them out as a thick cloud. Though your sins were as scarlet, they will be white as snow, though red like crimson, whiter than wool. Accepted. Accepted in the beloved. That's redemption. And that's where the Christian life begins. Has it begun for you? Can you remember the day when, conscious of the fact that you are a sinner, you humbly said, thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying for me. Thank you for the blood that was shed as of a lamb without blemish in that day when, dying on a cross, not a bone of your body was broken, but they pierced your side and press a crown of thorn upon your brow. Thank you, Lord Jesus. I'm stepping out into a future at peace with God, my maker, knowing now that I have boldness of access into that holiest of all through the blood of Jesus, because by the breaking of his body, the veil of the temple has been rent into. Now, as well you know, it was from this occasion that was, there was introduced what we celebrate today as the communion, or the breaking of bread, the Lord's Supper. It was at the commemoration of God's intervention in bringing his people out of Egypt through the Red Sea, that he might lead them on and into the land of Canaan, that the Lord Jesus gathered with his apostles at the Passover supper, and it was no coincidence that the Lord Jesus was crucified on the occasion when the whole of Israel were remembering, in obedience to God's command, that occasion when beneath the shadow of the shed blood of an unblemished lamb painted upon the doorpost and the lintel of their home, they were led out of slavery to begin a new life. Was that a coincidence? This is why in the first of Paul's epistles to the Corinthians, chapter five and verse seven, Paul says, Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. And as he took the bread and broke it, this is my body broken for you. As he took the cup and passed it, this is my blood to be shed for you. The Lord Jesus knew that that moment, he in his own person was to become the substance of which that Passover lamb had been but the shadow. This day, said God in the fourteenth verse of Exodus twelve, shall be unto you for a memorial. You shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. It shall come, verse twenty five of chapter twelve, it shall come to pass when you become to the land which the Lord will give you according as he had promised, that you shall keep this service, and you shall come, it shall come to pass when your children shall say to you, what mean ye by this service? That you will say it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our house, and the people bowed their head and worshiped. God said to Moses, this is a service that is to be kept by my people when they enter into the land to which I lead them from this place of slavery, and when their children ask, what are you doing? Why is the little lamb being slain? Why shed its blood? You'll say, because there came a day when God intervened into our unhappy lot, and beneath the shadow of the shed blood of an unblemished lamb, he led us out of Egypt. Moses said, chapter thirteen and verse three, remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. And it shall be, verse five, when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, that thou shalt keep this service in this month, verse eight, and thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, this is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. He redeemed me. And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth. In other words, when you keep the Passover, it is to indicate the fact that on the basis of that redemption that God wrought when he brought you out of Egypt through the Red Sea and poised you upon the threshold of a new life, that it would change everything you do, a sign upon thine hand. It'll change all the things you think, a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord's word may be in your mouth. It'll change all the kinds of things you say. It'll change what you do, it'll change what you think, it'll change what you say. In other words, it's going to precipitate a radical transformation of character. Now, this was the purpose that God had in mind when he brought his people out. What actually happened after God, by the hand of Moses, led them through the Red Sea, and they went through on dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do were drowned, so that their enemies were left buried in the place of death, while they, by God's miraculous intervention, were brought out of the place of death upon the threshold of a new life. What actually happened during those first forty years in which they wandered in the wilderness? It is to be a sign upon thine hand that everything you do has been changed. It is to be a memorial between your eyes that everything you think has been changed. That the Lord's law may be in thy mouth, that everything you say has been changed. What actually happened? Well, if you turn to the book of Deuteronomy in chapter twelve, Moses said, these are the statutes and judgments which you shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that you live upon the earth. There, verse seven of chapter twelve in the book of Deuteronomy, you will eat before the Lord your God, and you will rejoice in all that you put your hand unto, you and your households wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. Everything to which you put your hand will be a source of unparalleled joy and blessing to you. You will not do after all the things that we do here this day. Every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. For you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth. Moses said, you're not going to do there in the land what you're doing here in the wilderness. A redeemed people. But what were they doing in the wilderness? Verse eight: Every man, whatsoever is right in his own eyes. Everybody was still pleasing himself. Because Moses said, you haven't yet entered into that rest for which God redeemed. So we have a redeemed people who have come out, but who have not yet got in. And it hasn't changed what they're doing, because every man still does what is right in his own eyes. He claims the right to exercise jurisdiction over his own life. That was the first thing they did in the wilderness. They did as they pleased. Since you became a Christian, since you claimed redemption through the shed blood of Christ, since you made your profession of faith, who's been calling the shots? Has it changed the things you do? Have you come to the place where you've recognized that the Lord Jesus, who died to bring you out, is the one who, by his indwelling presence through the Holy Spirit alone, can bring you in to that relationship to God that allows God to be king in his kingdom. So that every morning when you get up and say, Lord Jesus, thank you so much, you not only died for me, I know that you rose again from the dead to come and indwell me by your Holy Spirit, that every part of my being, body, soul, spirit, mind, emotion, and will, the totality of my personality, my body shall be yielded to you, a living sacrifice, not conforming to this world or aping its patterns, but being transformed by the renewing of my mind, having that mind which was in Christ Jesus, adopting that attitude towards you, Lord Jesus, that you was a man constantly adopted toward your Father, allowing your Father to be who he is in you in action. I'm happy now to allow you to be who you are in me in action. My hands are yours to work with, my feet are yours to go with, my lips are yours to speak with, all that I am and have, this flesh and blood to clothe your divine activity. I'm so glad that when the blood of that unblemished lamb was slain upon the cross, it was that he who died for me, risen from the dead, might come and take up residence within me and give to me the priceless, unspeakable privilege of being that humanity on earth today in which he, again in the twentieth century, incarnate, can walk the streets of this city. Is that your Christian life? Or do you still say, I'll do as I please? Even Christ, Romans fifteen three, could not please himself. What were they doing in the wilderness? Pleasing themselves. What were they thinking about in the wilderness? Well, in the eleventh chapter of the book of Numbers, it says in the fourth verse that the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. What were they thinking about in the wilderness? Egypt. We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt, freely. The cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. Strange that they should remember these things and somehow forget the lash of the Egyptian past, master. Strange that they should go a lusting after these things and forget that they were an enslaved people. What are they thinking about in the wilderness? They were thinking about in the wilderness as a redeemed people, the things that they had left behind in Egypt. Since you became a Christian, what preoccupies your mind? What fills your imagination? What's the kind of literature that you read? What's the kind of program that you watch? What are the things that fascinate you and amuse you? Egypt? God said, when you remember, as you keep the Passover, it's going to be a sign upon your hand that everything that you do has changed. It's going to be memorial between your eyes that your thoughts and your mind and your imagination, the things you think about, have been completely changed. Quite frankly, since you became a Christian, have you lost an appetite for the things that were characteristic of that unregenerate life that you left in the day that you claim Christ as your redeemer? Or, quite frankly, is your salvation simply a date on a calendar? All that you can say about your conversion is that such and such a day, yes, I walked the aisle, or I put my hand up, or I knelt by my bedside, or I counseled with a man, and I received Christ in my life. Quite frankly, that's all you can say about your Christian life. If I were to ask you, are you saved? That's really what you would understand me asking you. Have I made a decision for Jesus? And that's the content of your salvation, just a date on the calendar, a decision that you made, an occasion in the past when you claimed in receiving Christ as redeemer to escape hell and have assured the fact that one day you'll get to heaven. That's your salvation. That it should change your appetites, change your ambitions, completely revolutionize and transform the things that preoccupy your thinking and your mind. Never dawned upon. What were they still doing in the wilderness? They were still enslaved within their minds and their imagination and their thoughts by those things that were characteristic of that slavery from which they had been redeemed. They were still in their minds enslaved to that which God had buried in the Red Sea. Why? Well, because they'd never got to Cain. They'd only heard about it. It was a land flowing with milk and honey, with the new corn in the land and the pomegranates and the grapes. But you see, if you don't go on and get in and enjoy what God has provided for you on the other side of Jordan, living in the wilderness. You'll feast upon the memories of the past and everything that was characteristic of Egypt, the land of your captivity. There's one thing absolutely certain, if you won't go on to enjoy Christ, you'll want to go back to enjoy the world. What were they doing? Pleasing themselves. What were they thinking about? Egypt. What were they saying? In the womb. Numbers chapter sixteen. Sixteenth chapter of Numbers. Now Korah the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, and a few other folk, and Dathan and Abiram and Arnon, they, verse two, rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. I want you to notice that. These who were named were identified with two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. In other words, those whose names made news, those who held office, those who considered themselves to be of some personality and influence, those who considered themselves to be the pillars of the church, men of renown. They were the ones whom they considered should be consulted. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and they said this: You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. You see, because what Moses and Aaron had to say to this people was this: God never brought us out of Egypt to s- to dump us here in the desert. God never brought us out of Egypt to stay in this place. God brought us out to take us in. God brought us out to enjoy the land. God brought us out that we might enjoy the golden corn and the milk and the honey and the pomegranates and the grapes. And they said, get off our backs. Get off our backs. You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregations are holy, every one of them. Where? In the wilderness. How holy? Holy enough. By whose standard? God's? No. By their own. You see, you can always be holy enough. By your own standard. And by and large, as evangelical Christians, we have settled for the standard. You attend church once a tithe. You may or may not tithe your income, tax deducted. You witness to a few folks and support a few missions. The rest of the time's my own, the rest of my money's my own. Where I spend my vacation, how I spend the rest of my money, what I do with my home, what I do with my life is nobody's business but mine. And having established this as the pattern and the standard, we are holy enough, every one of us. How many members of churches that would claim to be redeemed, saved, have settled for once a week in church. And would feel almost entitled to launch a, a libel suit, if you were to suggest that they were less than holy enough. What were they saying in the wilderness? What were they saying in the wilderness, these who worship the golden calf, and whom Moses found half naked and half drunk, as the tables of stone were shattered at his feet. Do you know what they were saying? We're holy enough, every one of us. Get off our back. In the wilderness. Say, excuse me, may I ask you, how holy are you? You holy enough? By whose standard? God said, be ye holy even as I am holy, as we allow him to be who he is in us. Not once a week, but twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. That's holy enough for God. When you and I can say, I, for all that I am, apart from all that he is, am crucified with Christ, because that's all I'm fit for. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I. Christ lives in me because he's the only one who can. He's the only one of whom the Father can look down from heaven and say, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He is the only man that ever walked approved of God. Since Adam fell into sin. So I know now, if I am to be holy, even as he is holy, all I can do is to bow myself out and take my place on that rugged Roman gallop where God sentenced him for what I am, for what I deserve. I am crucified with Christ. Never yet, nevertheless I live, yet not I as I bow myself out, I bow him in. Christ lives in me. And the life it is now my privilege to live is the life of Jesus Christ, to whom I have presented my body, a living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God, it's my reasonable service. He's the only one who can. So he is the only one who must. And any measure in which you may recognize in what I do or say or am his righteousness, please bear in mind that there is only one person to be congratulated, Jesus Christ, because he's the only one who can, and he's the only one who must. To me, to live now, is Christ. Because, you see, God has not appointed me to a- to wrath. He's appointed me to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ, because he died for me, that whether I live on earth or live in heaven, whether I'm physically alive or physically dead, whether I wake or sleep, whether I'm here or there, whether I'm earth or in heaven, I am to live every moment together with him. In that identity that is made possible alone by the gracious presence that is divine spirit, through whom he has come to take up residence within my human spirit, that from within my human spirit he might have unchallenged access to every area of my soul, to think through my thinking, to love through my loving, to decide through my deciding, so that controlling my mind and my emotions, he may control my will and control my behavior, so that my humanity may give a valid expression of his invisible person, and others in my presence may know that Jesus Christ is Lord. That he dwells within my heart, and that he's king in his kingdom. That's holy enough for God, when your holiness is Christ himself, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That's why you see in the twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus. God made it abundantly clear to Moses that this day, the day of their redemption, when they were to be led by the hand of Moses through the Red Sea and out of the place of death, be poised upon the threshold of a new life, this day was to be remembered in a land to be possessed. It was a not, it was not a day that they could legitimately remember in the wilderness. And in point of fact, after the second year, the Passover was not celebrated for thirty eight years until finally, by the hand of Joshua, they were led through the Jordan, and at last, with their feet in the land, for the first time in thirty eight years, they celebrated the Passover and had the right to remember. What for thirty eight years they'd forgotten. That redemption is calculated not just to get a man out of hell and into heaven, it's calculated to get God out of heaven into a man, that he may be king in his kingdom. Well, what has all this to do with the golden pot with manna? Well, quite a lot. And for our encouragement. Because, you see, hardly had they been led by the hand of Moses through the Red Sea and arrived in the wilderness on the threshold of that journey that was ultimately to lead them on and in to the land of Canaan. The true content of their faith, not heaven, but Christ. They began to murmur and to grumble. Look at Exodus 16. They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing of the land of Egypt. They had hardly been redeemed before the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses, and they murmured against Aaron in the wilderness. Would to God, they said, we died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full. For you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Which, of course, was utter nonsense. God brought them out to bring them in. It was an eleven days journey from the borders of Egypt to the borders of Canaan. They could have done it in eleven days, and it took them forty years, and they grumbled all the way. Then said the Lord to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day. And when the dew, verse fourteen of chapter sixteen, that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna. For they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. Manna. The word manna means, literally translated, what is it? Never tasted this before. Something entirely new. They said it is manna, for they wist not what it was. What is it that any boy or girl or man or woman receives the moment they are redeemed through faith in Christ and cleansed in his blood and accepted in the beloved that they have never, never, never tasted before? What is it? If you want the answer, you'll find it in the fourteenth of John. John fourteen. Said the Lord Jesus, verily, verily, I say unto you, verse twelve of John fourteen, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I'm going to my Father. And I will pray the Father, verse sixteen, and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. You know him. For he dwelleth with you, and he shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come. The Holy Spirit is that which the world cannot receive. It sees him not and knows him not. The presence of the Holy Spirit, the experience of his indwelling, is open only to those who've claimed redemption in the blood of Christ. No boy, girl, man, or woman ever born into this world or ever yet to be born will ever or can ever receive or experience the presence of God the Holy Spirit unless they first have been redeemed through the blood of Christ. But the first thing that happens when any boy, girl, man, or woman convicted of their sin in humble repentance toward God puts their faith in Jesus Christ is that instantly they receive what only God can give, life. And that life is imparted by the gift to them of the one who was forfeited in Adam when he fell into sin, the Holy Spirit. So if you turn to the Ephesian epistle in chapter one, Ephesians in chapter one and the sixth verse, to the praise of the glory of God's grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. And this, of course, is written by the apostle to those who have already entered into a redemptive relationship with Jesus Christ. They have been converted. They are genuinely redeemed. And of such, the apostle says, we have been made accepted in the beloved. We have been credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and the Father God accepts us as those who, washed in his blood, now have boldness of access into the holiest of all, for we enter through the veil of the temple that has been wrenched from top to bottom. Because our high priest has already gone ahead, who died for us and who rose again from the dead. He has sprinkled the mercy seat with his blood. In whom, verse seven, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. The lamb that was slain. In whom you also trusted, verse thirteen, uh after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. First of all, you had to hear clearly enunciated God's terms upon which he, as a holy God, would be prepared to receive back to himself a guilty sinner. And when you heard the word of salvation, you believed, Paul said. In repentance toward God, you put your trust in Jesus Christ, in whom, verse thirteen, continuing also after that you believed, not after time-wise, but actually literally translated when, in consequence of, as an immediate consequence of your faith, in whom also, when you believed, in consequence of believing, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. The moment any boy, girl, man, or woman conscious of their sin turns to Christ and claims redemption, God immediately accepts that individual in honoring his son, accepted in the beloved. When he receives you, he does not honor you, he honors his son. For the moment you call upon the name of Jesus, who saves his people from their sins, God the Father is in honor bound to God the Son to accept you, otherwise he would betray the Lord Jesus. He cannot and he will not. And the moment he accepts you in the beloved, instantly that redemptive transaction is sealed by the restoration to you of the Holy Spirit of promise. The one who was forfeited in Adam, when falling into sin, he died. For Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, that we might receive the promise that God pledged to faithful Abraham through Jesus Christ, that is, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Galatians three thirteen and fourteen. So when you believed upon the Lord Jesus and claimed him as your redeemer, you were sealed instantly with the Holy Spirit of promise, whose presence within you is the earnest or guarantee or hallmark or stamp or down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. That word earnest is an old English. It means guarantee. It's still used in cattle markets in the north of Ireland. If you want to buy a cow, then you bargain with the man who wants to sell you a cow. He asks for seventy pounds, you ask for, you, you offer fifty pounds, and finally you settle on sixty pounds. And the moment you've agreed on the price, he claps his hand. That means the deal is done, and immediately then you pay him what's called the earnest, which is the down payment, and that seals the transaction. And the earnest that seals the transaction when a sinner is redeemed in the blood of Christ is the gift by God of the Holy Spirit, restored to the human spirit, by whose presence, who is the other self of the Father and the Son in co-equality with the Godhead in total Trinity, in whose presence a guilty sinner receives life, the life of God restored to the soul of man, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, restored to the human spirit. And the manna in the golden pot is a picture of the gift by God of the Holy Spirit to every boy, girl, man, or woman who has been redeemed in the blood of Jesus. Sealed by the Holy Spirit. If you have never received the Holy Spirit, you are not yet a Christian, period. If you have never received the Holy Spirit, you are none of his. If you are son, then God has given to you the s- the spirit of his son. For when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are son, because you are son, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your heart, crying, Abba Father, testifying to this new relationship. How do you become a son of God? John one twelve, as many as, not one more, not one less, exactly as many as received him, believing on his name, Jesus. To them gave he power to become the sons of God, and because you are the sons of God, he has sent forth a spirit of his son to live within your heart, crying, Abba Father. So Romans eight verse sixteen tells us that self same spirit bears witness with our spirit that we have become the children of God. And this is the sealing of the Holy Spirit, and it's the first content of the ark, divinely sealed. Just only a word or two more, then we're finished. You've been very patient. But I want you to notice what it tasted like. Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord give- hath given you to eat in the wilderness. And in the sixteenth of Exodus and the thirty first verse, it says, the house of Israel called the name thereof manna. What is it? Something entirely new. Never tasted this before. And it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. So it had a double taste. First of all, it was like coriander seed. When the children of Israel in the wilderness fought back and lusted after the things they had left behind in Egypt, they said, we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes, and the manna was as coriander seed. Numbers eleven and verse eight. and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. Say, what does oil speak of in the Bible? Always, Old Testament and New Testament, the Holy Spirit, always. And the taste of manna was as the taste of fresh oil. For by the coming of the manna, God daily stamped this people as a redeemed people. As the Holy Spirit comes the moment you claim redemption to seal you as a redeemed child of God. But it not only tasted of oil, the Holy Spirit, but it was like wafers made with honey. In other words, tasting as it did of oil that spoke of the sealing by the gift of God of the Holy Spirit to those whom he redeems, it gave a, a foretaste, just the tiny, thin wafer foretaste of the land of Cain. It wasn't honey in itself, because that was reserved for God's people in the land to which he would lead them. But the Holy Spirit in the wilderness gave them just the tiniest foretaste, just to arouse their appetite for what God could only give them in plenitude on the other side of Jordan. Now, every redeemed sinner has received the Holy Spirit, by whose presence they are sealed as those redeemed but to become the children of God. And the office of the Holy Spirit within the human spirit of the redeemed sinner is to introduce that sinner to the plenitude that God has provided for them in the fullness of Christ. But you can never enjoy it in the wilderness. You can only have your appetite aroused. That's why it says, in the eighth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, concerning God's people in the wilderness, he humbled thee, verse three of chapter eight. he suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna. That's a strange thing to say, isn't it? In the wilderness, God suffered them to hunger, but fed them with manna. In other words, what God gave them as manna in the wilderness was never designed to satisfy them. It was designed only to sustain life until they were prepared to get to the place for which God had redeemed them out of Egypt. In other words, God sealing you by his Holy Spirit will demonstrate the fact that you have been redeemed by his immutable promise. He will never forsake you, He will never leave you, but He will never satisfy. God did not satisfy them in the wilderness because the table was laid on the other side of Jordan. He simply sustained. And the tragedy is that the vast majority of those who claim redemption through the blood of Jesus are on a starvation diet, wandering around in the wilderness, what they do unchanged, what they think unchanged, what they say unchanged, wholly enough, never to be satisfied. Always grumbling, always complaining, always saying, get off my back. Because God refuses to satisfy his people in the wilderness. He simply sustains until they get into the place where they belong. Thou gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promised them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give. But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks, and they hearkened not to thy commandments. They refused to obey, neither were they mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them. They hardened their necks in their rebellion. They appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. And you forsook them not. Numbers chapter nine verse eighteen. Yea, I beg your pardon, Nehemiah chapter nine verse eighteen. Yea, when they had made them a molten calf and said, this is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt and had wrought great provocations, yet, yet thou in thy manifold mercies forfo- forsookest them not in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way, neither the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way wherein they should go. Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth and gavest them water for their thirst. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that absolutely fantastic? That as a redeemed period, as a as a redeemed people, hard-necked, proud, arrogant, complaining, grumbling the whole time, disobedient, a people whom God brought out that he might bring them in, but insisting on staying dumped in the wilderness, worshiping a golden calf, saying this is the God that brought us out of Egypt. He never forsook them, never forsook. And do you know, on the very morning they worshipped that golden calf and the shattered tablets of stone with the demands of God's righteousness in pieces on the ground. That morning, there was manna in the wood. For you see, when God redeems you, other foundation can no man lay than that is laid. Of course, let every man take heed what sort of a found- what sort of a building he builds thereon. Gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, stubble. Every man's work will be tried in that day. If any man's work abide, of course, the gold and the silver and the precious stone, he'll receive a reward. If any man's work be burned up because he lived all his life as a redeemed sinner in the wilderness, doing as he pleased, dreaming of Egypt, wholly enough. God says he will suffer loss. He'll stand in that day, eyes cast to the ground in utter shame, in the presence of his redeemer, in a heap of ashes. But he himself, one Corinthians three, he himself shall be saved. So is by fire. Sealed. By the Holy Spirit of promise. Unto the day of Jesus Christ, by a God who refuses under any circumstances, for the sake of his dear son, to forsake any whom he redeems. Amazing. Divinely sealed. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest, and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you. Fear not. And the glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Haggai, chapter two and verse five. The golden pot with With manna. man. Valid Valid. beneath the mercy seat sprinkled with blood. That tells you that if there came a moment when, in genuine repentance toward God, you claimed redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, though you worship the golden calf and throw it all back into his teeth. There'll come a day when you'll stand before your Savior, and he'll show you his hands and his feet again, and will remind you. These are the hallmarks of my saviorhood. You asked me to redeem you, and I did, and I sealed you by my indwelling spirit, and you wandered in the wilderness. I brought you out to bring you in, to share my life on earth twenty hours, twenty four hours every day. But you got stuck in the wilderness. You did as you pleased. In your heart, you still lived in Egypt. Though I pleaded with you, you were always holy enough. But I never forsook you. Never. Because you asked me to redeem. And I think in that day, your eyes will fill with tears as you look back over a wasted Did life. life. And stand empty-handed in the presence of a savior with whom you're going to share his kingdom forever. And of which place he says, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. You'll almost wish you'd never got saved. When you realize how little you deserve... what he so graciously provides. It's a golden pot with manna. Divinely sealed. All right, let's have a word of prayer.