Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2590
“Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the woods. We will go into His tabernacles: we will worship at His footstool.” Psalm 132:6, 7.
LONG before David’s time, the Ark of the Lord had been almost forgotten by the children of Israel. It formed a most important part of the Ceremonial Law which God had ordained. I may almost call it the central portion of that pattern which was shown to Moses in the mountain. But the Ark had been carried into captivity by the Philistines and, afterwards, the terrible judgment worked upon the men of Beth-Shemesh may have made many afraid to go near it. So it remained a long time in Kirjath-Jearim and there David found it. And, after leaving it for a while at the house of Obed-Edom, brought it up to Jerusalem with great rejoicing. David’s heart was so full of zeal for God that he desired that every part of the Lord’s worship should be carried out with due order and proper solemnity. He wished to see a sanctuary built in which the Ark of the Lord should rest in its place and the worship of God should be carried out as He judged was meet and fit.
The first thing, therefore, for David to do was to find the Ark, for, as I have already said, it was a central portion of the Divinely-ordained Ceremonial Law. The Ark was put away in the Most Holy Place and it was an express and notable symbol of the Presence of God among the people. It was there, from above the Mercy Seat, that God met with man and communed with him in the person of the High Priest. It was there that the Shekinah glory, denoting the special Presence of God, shone forth between the cherubim. It is clear, therefore, that if David meant to restore the worship of God to its due and proper order, his first business was to find the Ark. Yet, without forgetting that fact, I am not going to talk so much about David finding the Ark as to think of some who are in the condition in which I once was. When I desired to find God, I longed to meet with Him, in the Person of Christ, in His own appointed way, but I could not find Christ. My heart was dark, my eyes were blind and I looked everywhere but in the right place. I did not look where the true Light of God was shining. But, at last, I resolved that I must find Him and I did, by His Grace, find Him! I found Him where I little expected to find Him and now, having found Him, myself, I have it on my heart to come and speak to everyone who is saying, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!” It may be that my message shall be like the voice that reached poor Hagar in the wilderness, when she and her son were ready to perish with thirst, though there was a well of water close at hand. As the Lord said to her, “What ails you, Hagar?” so would I ask, “What ails you, poor seeking Soul, when Christ is so near?” His people will breathe a prayer for you that you may find Him even while I speak to you.
I. My first remark will be that, LIKE DAVID, WE WISH TO FIND THE ARK, THAT ARK BEING CHRIST.
Dear Friends, most here present—and I should suppose, all—are well instructed as to where God will meet with us as our reconciled God. The symbol was the Ark of the Covenant. And the Mercy Seat, the reality, we know is Christ. We know this, I say, for most of us have been instructed in the Scriptures from our youth up. Oh, that we all knew it in our hearts!
Now, concerning that Ark, the first point to be noted is that it was covered with a golden Mercy Seat which was the place of forgiveness when it was sprinkled with the sacrificial blood. Those who came to it, through the High Priest, knew that God had accepted them and forgiven their sins. You and I know that we can never meet with God except at the Mercy Seat which is Christ Jesus, the Lord! Christ made an Atonement, a Propitiation, for our sins—He “offered Himself without spot to God.” Though in Him was no sin, yet He was made sin for us. For our sake He came under the curse of the broken Law of God and now, if we want to meet with God, it must be at the Mercy Seat, by the Propitiation which Christ has made. You say that you know this is the case—then never try to meet God anywhere else, for remember that He is a consuming fire! There is no safety in making any attempt to come to God except by Christ Jesus, the one Mediator between God and men. His pierced body, that torn veil, is the only means of access for a sinner to a holy God!
In addition to this, the Ark was not only a Mercy Seat, but it was a Throne of Grace. God sat there, as it were, upon a throne of mercy and to us, today, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Throne of Grace. God in Christ Jesus is our reigning God, stretching out the silver scepter of His mercy and accepting all who come to Him. Do you want to pray, poor Soul, so that God will hear you? Then plead the blood of Christ! Do you wish to pour out your burdened spirit before the God of Grace? Then come with the name of Christ in your mouth and His blood trusted in your heart—and you shall not be refused! There is no meeting place with God, there is no place for prevailing prayer, but where you meet God in the Person of Jesus Christ the one great Sin-Offering!
Then, further, the Ark was the place of God’s Manifestation. As much as could be seen of the Glory of God was seen between the cherubim. It is said that a bright light alwaysrested there as a token of Jehovah’s perpetual Presence—and if you would see the Glory of God, you must look into the face of Jesus Christ. “No man can see God’s face and live.” But we may see the face of Christ and live by seeing it! But only through the veil of Christ’s Humanity can we see it. I have noticed that when men look at the sun, it has to be through smoked glass. And when we look at God, it must be through the Incarnation of Christ, who was found in fashion as a Man, though He thought it not a prize to be grasped to be equal with God.
Furthermore, David knew, and you also know, that there were within the Ark three notable things—first, the tablets of stone which God had ordered to be placed there for preservation. There was, next, the golden pot with manna. And then there was also Aaron’s rod that budded. Now, if you come to Christ, you will find in Him all that these things represented and all that you need.
First, there is preserved the complete, vindicated and honored Law of God. You will never be able, in your own strength, to keep the Law of the Lord—you will break it as surely as you live. Yet you cannot be accepted without a perfect righteousness! Unless God sees you clothed in the garments of righteousness, He will never admit you to the wedding feast. So where are you to get that spotless robe? It is in Christ, for faith is imputed for righteousness to him who believes in the Son of God, even as Abraham believed in God and it was accounted to him for righteousness! But how is righteousness imputed to the guilty? Why, the Believer lays hold of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and it is reckoned as if it were his own! “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” That “One” is the Lord, our Righteousness, and when we put on His robe of righteousness, we stand before God, “holy as the Holy One.” If, then, you need a perfect Law, you will only find it in Christ. If any say that they have it in themselves, I believe that is only setting up another and a false Christ, for it is a derogation to the special Glory of Christ, of whom alone it can be said that He has magnified the Law and made it honorable by keeping it perfectly! I have no righteousness in and of myself, nor has any child of God any of his own—any that we once thought we had, we do count but dross and dung—that we may win Christ and be found in Him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Oh, how we need, then, to find the Ark, Christ Jesus, that we may see, there, the unbroken tablets of the Law of God!
But every child of God also needs spiritual food. If the Lord has quickened you, He has given you hunger with your new life, for spiritual hunger always goes with spiritual life and you are saying, “Oh, that I might but eat of the crumbs that the little dogs get under their master’s table—I must have some spiritual meat!” You will never have it till you get where the golden pot of manna is to be found. There is the food of the saints treasured up in Christ! There is no food for a soul even in Heaven except in Christ Jesus. He is the Manna, of which, if a man eats, he shall live forever! This shall satisfy his soul, strengthen him, build him up and develop him into a perfect man in Christ Jesus! But you must come to Christ for the food that was typified by the golden pot full of manna.
I think that I hear someone say, “I remember that a third thing that was in the Ark was Aaron’s rod that budded. And that reminds me that I need a power that can rule me, that can say to my rebellious passions, ‘Be still,’ and that can make me walk in the way of God’s commands, even bringing every wandering thought into captivity.” Well, there is no rod that I know of that can rule our rebellious nature but the rod of Christ Jesus, the great High Priest of God! Once let that blessed rod be all-powerful over us, and with it shall come all manner of buds, blossoms and ripe fruit to our soul.
Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls.” Only from that rod can come the perfect fruit-bearing that every true child of God desires to produce!
II. This leads me to my second remark, which is that knowing what we do about Christ, the Ark, WE DESIRE TO