Close
Romans
3:24&25
THE
SPRINKLED BLOOD
Romans 3:24-25, "Being justified freely
by his grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his
blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins
that are past, through the forbearance of God."
"This morning I would like us to think about what it meant
to stand before a Holy God. I want you to turn to the book of Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 16, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, all of
Israel
stood wondering
whether or not they were good enough to be accepted by God. Once a year, according to Leviticus 16, one
man on the planet could enter into the presence of God in
the temple, and bear stepping in through a cloud of incense
he put in before, and he would fan the incense before him,
he would step into the Holy of Holies, going through the great
vale that divided the Holy place from the Most Holy Place. He would step into that room. And there he was in the presence of God, a Holy
and Righteous God. And
there he would take the blood of the sacrifice that he had
offered to God and he would sprinkle the blood once on the
top of the Ark of the Covenant, seven times in front of the
Ark of the Covenant. And
he would hope and pray that what he had done was enough to
save not only his own life, but the life of the whole people
of
Israel
. On the outside, the people were fearful. They saw their high priest take off his crown,
they saw him take off his jewels, they saw him take off his
beautifully embroidered robes and instead he put on just the
simple plain white linen robe of a common priest. They saw him go into the Holy of Holies with a rope
tied around his ankle. That rope was there just in case what the priest
offered wasn't acceptable to God. If it wasn't acceptable to God, then the priest would
be struck dead, and you couldn't go in after him. Any man, any woman, anyone who went into the Holy of
Holies uninvited and at the wrong time and without the right
sacrifice, that person would be struck dead. So if the priest dropped dead, you couldn't
have a guy go in and rescue him, he'd drop dead, and the guy
who went in after him would drop dead, and you'd have a real
mess on your hands. So they tied a rope around his ankle, they really
did. And if they heard
a klunk and a censor drop and a bowl of blood fell, they knew
it was all over, we're lost. Drag him out and we're all going to hell. On the outside, the people waited around the temple. And in earlier and earlier days, it was the tabernacle,
and there they would put on rough clothing, they called it
sackcloth. We call
it burlap. They'd wear
that next to their skin. They'd
lift up dust and drop the clods of dust on their heads, symbolizing
their sorrow for their sins. And some of them you would see expressing their
grief by beating their chests, and wondering 'Would God accept
us? How can we stand before a Holy God?' Once a year this happened, every year you'd
have to go through this again--'Will God accept me?' 'Will God forgive me?' 'Will God redeem me?' 'Is the sacrifice good enough?' 'Have I confessed enough?' And there was this wondering and this doubting. Some of you can relate to that, can't you, wondering
whether or not God would accept you. Leviticus chapter 16 describes how the priests
would take a sacrificial animal, and then he would enter inside
the veil, verses 15-17, "then he shall slaughter the goat
for the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its
blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with
blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in
front of the mercy seat, and he shall make atonement for the
Holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel
and because of their transgressions in regard to all their
sins. And thus he shall
do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst
of their impurities. When
he goes in to make atonement in the Holy place no one shall
be in the tent of meeting until he comes out, that he may
make atonement for himself and his household, and for all
the assembly of
Israel
." A very solemn day. A very scary thing to have to walk into the
Holy of Holies, and there you saw the most awesome piece of
furniture that's ever been made by any human being. You saw the Ark of the Covenant, (and I know, you're
all experts on the Ark of the Covenant because we've all seen
Indiana Jones searching for the lost ark, right?). But really, what is this
Ark
all about? Why is it so important? Well the
Ark
was a picture, you see, of the very throne
of God. That was a
crude drawing, a crude human sketch, if you will, of what
God's throne in heaven is like. And so the Holy of Holies was like actually
stepping into the throne-room of God. It was like stepping into judgment day, a very scary
thing to do. Let's look at the Ark of the Covenant for a
moment, in Exodus. Go
to the left, Exodus chapter 25 and we see God gave instructions
of how the
Ark
should be made. The
Ark
was about the size of a nice size cedar chest. How many of you have cedar chests at home? Raise your hands, cedar chests. So you know, most cedar chests are made, not
just to be a chest, but some of them now
ada
ys
are made to sit on, aren't they. They've got a little pad on top, and so their sort
of like a seat-chest. Well the
Ark
was the same way, it was designed to be
a portable chair or seat or throne. But it was about the size of a cedar chest. The instructions are that they were to take, verse
10, 'And make a box, an ark of acacia wood, cover that wood
on either side with pure gold. Then they were to make little rings on the four
corners of the ark, and they were to take a pole and cover
it with gold and slip it through these golden rings, and the
way you would carry the chest would be with these two poles. And then there was to be around the top of the
Ark
a crown of gold, and
the crown of gold would hold the lid in place. The lid is described in verse 17, "you shall make a
mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long, one and
a half cubits wide, and you shall make two cherubim of gold,
and make them hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat,
one cherub at one end, one cherub at the other end, you shall
make the cherubim of one piece, with the mercy seat." This is an awesome piece on top. The lid was actually this solid slab of gold, and out
of that very same slab of gold, two huge cherubim were made. And artists have tried to depict what the Ark of the
Covenant may have looked like, and here is one depiction of
the Ark [guess he's holding up a drawing], and as you can
see, inside the Ark were the two stone tablets, the Ten Commandments,
there was a golden pot of manna, and there was Aaron's rod
which budded, and they were placed in the base of the Ark. Then next piece was the lid, called the mercy seat,
and you can see the slab there of pure gold forming a seat
or a top, and then the cherubim.What was God doing here? What is the reason for designing this box and making
it the way he did? Well,
God wanted his people to get an idea of what his throne-room
was like. And so his
throne-room is filled with angelic beings which he created,
and they are called cherubim. 'im is plural, so when you get more than one
cherub, you have, not cherub you have cherubim. And so his throne-room is filled with cherubim, and
these are awesome creatures. Turn to Ezekiel chapter one. The Bible says over and over again, in 1 Samuel, 2
Samuel, a couple of times in Psalms, 'Oh Lord, thou art enthroned
above the cherubims, it says that very phrase five or more
times in the Old Testament, 'Thou art enthroned above the
cherubim.' In other words, the throne of God is above the
cherubim. Ezekiel,
where in earth is Ezekiel? That's a good question, just keep looking gang, page
808 in my Bible. Wouldn't
that be neat if they all had the pages in the same way, that
would be a good idea.OK, Ezekiel chapter 1, Ezekiel had a
vision of what these cherubim looked like. And this is a pretty awesome vision. When I think of the cherubim, what do you think of? I think of some fat baby flying through the air, don't
you? Some little baby with a real fat bottom and
two stubby wings just sort of buzzing through the air like
a bumble bee you know. And
a lot of ladies have these [images] spray painted gold and
they're hanging on their wall or around their mirror or something,
we use them to decorate with. 'Cherubs, oh when we go to heaven we'll be little
cherubs.' I'm sorry,
you don't understand the Bible if you are thinking those are
cherubs. These beings are anything but fat babies, I'll
tell you that much. Look
at Ezekiel 1:1, "Now it came about in the thirtieth year on
the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river
Chebar among the exiles that the heavens were opened, and
I saw visions of God." Now
what did he see? You're
going to see the very throne of God. And what is conspicuous around the throne of God? Verse 4 says, "And I looked, and behold a whirlwind
was coming up from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing
flashing forth continually, a bright light around it, and
its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of fire, and within it were figures resembling four living beings." He doesn't even know what to call them. They're beings, you know. [This is God's portable throne, maybe like a
starship, who knows, but it moves, it's moving in this description, with four living creatures within it, along with the Lord.] Never seen anything like them before. "And this was their appearance, they had human
form, each of them had four faces and four wings." Incredible, you can be two-faced, you can be
four-faced. "And their
legs were straight and their feet were like calves hoofs,
and they gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides were human hands,
as to the faces and the wings of the four of them, and their
wings touched one another and their faces did not turn when
they moved. Each went
straight forward." Well that's obvious, if you've got four faces
you don't have to turn around and look, you're looking already. 'I want to go this way, I want to go that way.' That's awesome.He goes on, verse 10, "And the form
of their faces, each had the face of a man, all had the face
of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left,
and all four had the face of an eagle." So they got a man's face, a lion's face, a bull's face,
and an eagle's face. Incredible. "And such were their faces, and wings were spread out
above, each had two touching another being, and two covered
their bodies. And each went straight forward, whenever the
spirit was about to go they would go without turning as they
would." Awesome. [Reading
on through verses 13-14 it says, "As for the likeness of the
living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals
of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and
down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright,
and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as
the appearance of a flash of lightning."] Look at chapter 10. Ezekiel 10, he sees them again in another vision in
verse 4 [read verses 15-20 of Ezekiel 1 first, then Ezekiel
10:1-3 for context, to see this is describing the same portable
throne of God.] "The
glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold
of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud and
the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of God."
and then look at verse 18, "And the glory of the Lord departed
from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim." Again, all through the Bible the glory of God
is above the cherubim. And
then verses 20-22, "These are the living beings that I saw
beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar and I knew that
they were cherubim. Each one had four faces and each had four wings,
and beneath their wings was the form of human hands. As for the likeness of their faces they were
the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the river Chebar,
and each went straight ahead." Now John has another vision. Thousands of years later he has a vision of the throne
room in Revelation chapter 4. And guess what he sees? He sees the same cherubim there in the throne
of God. Look at Revelation
chapter 4. Did I say
something weird? Revelation, chapter 4, John, yeah. He's talking in Revelation. He records the throne-room worship, and we see
that these cherubim not only guard the glory of God and proclaim
the Holiness of God, they lead the worship, too, in heaven. And, verse 5, "from the throne proceeds flashes
of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder, and there were
seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the
seven spirits of God, and before the throne was as it were
as sea of glass like crystal. And in the center and all around the throne
four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind."--well
sure, two, four, six, eight eyes--"And the first creature
was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and
the third like the face of a man, and the fourth creature
like a flying eagle." Now
there is no discrepancy here. Ezekiel got to see that each one of these cherubs had
a different face, but John just sees them standing in place. And he doesn't see them move, so it looks like each
one has a different face, but they all have four different
faces. And he just
sees from his angle of observation each one of them has a
different face. And he goes on to say that they have the six
wings full of eyes around them, within, and verse 8 says,
"they do not cease day and night to say 'Holy, holy is the
Lord God, the Almighty who was, who is, and who is to come. And when the living creatures give glory and honor
and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives
forever and ever, then the twenty-four elders will fall down
before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives
forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the Lord." And so this is the worship of heaven. You go into chapter 5, you see there again they're
worshipping the Lamb, and these mighty beings are the guardians
of God's throne--his holiest, his special elite guard, you
might call it. Not
that he needs them. He
created them. They are musicians, pare excellence. We read in Ezekiel 28, verse 14, that Satan
was one of these cherubim. Satan in Ezekiel 28 was one of these. You want to know what the devil looks like? You just read a description of him. Ah, he might have aged some. I don't know, you know, but it does lend some credence
though, to those who've said they've seen the devil, and there's
always talk about cloven hoofs, you know and things like that. If he was a cherub, then his legs do have feet like
a cow's. But it says
in verse 14, "You were the anointed cherub who covers and
I placed you there. You were on the holy
mountain
of
God
,
you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the days your
were created until unrighteousness was found in you." And he talks about how in verse 17, "your heart was
lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor,
and I cast you to the ground [cf. Luke 10:18], I put you before
kings that they may see you." And then it talks about his doom. Ah, beautiful creature there in verse 13. Verse 12, "Well, son of man, take up lamentation over
the king of
Tyre
." And here the king of
Tyre
is a type of Satan. "Say to him, Thus says the Lord God, you have
the seal of perfection, full of wisdom in
Eden
." "You were in
Eden
the
Garden
of
God
",
obviously that's not the king of
Tyre
,
he wasn't in
Eden
. It's talking about Satan. "Every precious stone was your covering, the
ruby, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper,
the lapis lazuli, the turquoise, the emerald, the gold, the
workmanship of your settings, your pipes and sockets was in
you", some seem to think that he has a built-in pipe organ,
Lucifer, who's called the star of the morning, was one of
the worship leaders in heaven. Got to watch out for these worship leaders, you know. You know, he was an awesome creature, and even to this
day the apostle Paul says watch out, because Satan can transform
himself into--what?--an angel of light. So, he was a mighty being. Well, this isn't what I wanted to share with you today. You're probably wondering, 'What are we studying today,
Mark?' Well, there
is a reason for all of this, because the Ark of the Covenant,
when the priest came in and he stood before that
Ark
, it was like he was standing before God
on the day of judgment. And
there it was what looked to him like the throne of God, the
cherubim, there was the throne, and at the base of the throne--what
was in the bottom of the ark?--the Law, right? Righteousness and truth were there at the foundation
of the throne, and Psalm's says in 89:14, "righteousness and
justice are the foundation of thy throne." And so this whole box, whole throne, it's not
really a box, it's a throne. It was created to show men what God's throne was like. God, the foundation of his throne is righteousness,
the foundation of this box, the foundation of it was the Law,
righteousness and truth. Above it were the holy cherubim, and above that
the glory of God would dwell. What do you do when you're standing before God in judgment? What do you have to plead? The priest would come, trembling in. We're told that he would come in, and that he
would actually enter into the Holy of Holies, he would get
through the veil, and he would get the incense fanning so
that there was this huge thick cloud of incense, and he would
just sort of sneak in through that incense. It's like, 'I'm not really here, it's just this
incense, Lord.' Because
the sweet smell of the incense was something God wanted, it
represents the righteousness of God [it also, as Revelation
brings out, represents the righteous prayers of the saints]. And then he would come with a bowl of blood, trembling
he would come. And
you know where he would place that blood on judgment day? He would place that blood on a place called
the Mercy Seat. The
very top of this ark, between the cherubim, on the very top,
was the place, encircled by that crown, that is called the
Mercy Seat. The word
in Hebrew means "to cover." It's related to the Hebrew word for "atonement", kafar. And it means "to cover", and it was the place
there the blood of the sacrifice was to be applied, and then
they'd wait to see, 'is the sacrifice good enough to forgive
us of our sins?--if not, the priest will drop dead, then God
will slay us.' It
was a fearful thing that happened every year. 'Well, it's that time of year again.' I would dread it, wouldn't you? Every year I would dread, judgment day, not
again!--oh when is this going to be over!' 'When can we know for sure?' 'When can we know once and for all that we're accepted
by God and we don't have to go through this insecurity and
this wondering?' Oh, for the day when we'll know.' Now we're ready to go to our text in Romans
chapter three.
Romans 3, verse 23-25a, "For all have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his
grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom
God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through
faith." You
know that the word "propitiation" is translated "mercy seat". You can translate this, if you look at Hebrews
9:5 it's translated, the same word is translated "the mercy
seat." The word "propitiation" means "a making right
with God." And they
use the word to mean "mercy seat" everywhere else in the Old
Testament. In the Greek version of the Old Testament they
use the same word for "mercy seat", everywhere. So we can read it, ".being justified as a gift
by his grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ,
whom God displayed publicly as a mercy
seatin his blood through faith." The question is, 'When will the day come when
we can know for sure that we are right with God?' When can we know and not have this Judgment
Day coming up every year, worried and wondering 'Is God going
to accept us?' Saints,
the day has come. God has publicly portrayed Jesus Christ [Yeshua
Moshiach] as a mercy seat for our sins. In other words, God is saying, 'Jesus became the place
where the blood would be sprinkled, the place where I would
either accept you or reject you.' Well how do we know whether or not God has accepted
Jesus, and us? We know
that by his resurrection from the dead. There is no doubt according to chapter 4 of Romans,
verse 25, "he was delivered up because of our transgressions,
and was raised because of our justification." Jesus became the mercy seat for us. The mercy seat was that which covered the Law. Right? You look at this, it covers the Law doesn't
it? Now that's important,
because you know what happened once when some guys at a place
called Beth Shemesh, they were guys that were very curious. The ark had been ripped off by the Philistines, they
[themselves] had had a terrible experience. They put the
Ark
in Dagon's temple, and they would come in, in the morning,
and Dagon's statue had been mutilated, and was fallen on its
face before the
Ark.
And then a lot of other things started happening
and they had to buy preparation-H and everything else, because
they had some real problems the Bible says. But anyway, the thing was, they said 'Let's get rid
of this
Ark.
' And they just let it lose, and they put these
oxen in front of it [on a cart they had placed it on], and
they just let the oxen take it wherever God would lead them. Well it came to Beth Shemesh and there some curious
guys decided they wanted to peek in. 'Yeah, I heard the Ten Commandments were in
there. I heard the
Manna's in there, I've heard Aaron's Rod is in there--I want
to see it, don't you? Yeah I do too!' So they lifted the lid of the Ark! And you know what? They were struck dead. In fact, 50,070 of them where struck dead that
day, we're told. The
moral of the story is, a sneak peek can hurt. Right? No, the
moral of the story is, that you can't stand before the Holy
Law and not be struck dead. The wages of sin is what? Death [Romans 6:23a]. You need something covering the Law for you! You need the Mercy Seat covering the Law for you. And when they removed that Mercy Seat [which happens
when you lift the lid of the Ark], man, wham!--they were dead,
50 thousand of them! That's
what happens when the Law gets a real chance to strike out
at us. I don't want to stand before the Law on Judgment
Day! I want the Mercy
Seat! Jesus covers
the Law. And when you think about the Mercy Seat, it
was pure gold. Right? So that when the Law looked up and the Mercy
Seat was in place, what did the Law see? The Law. Right? It reflected just like a mirror, it saw itself,
and said, 'I'm satisfied, this is great, perfection, perfect,
the Law, the Law.' When
God looked down, what did he see? The blood. He would look down from above the cherubim and
what did he see? He
saw the blood, as he looked through the Mercy Seat he saw
the Law, but there sprinkled on the Law was the blood. In other words, the wages is sin is death, yes, but
someone has died. A life has been given, justice has been satisfied
[Romans 6:23, whole verse]. But the glorious thing, gang, it wasn't our blood it
was the blood of a sacrifice, it was the blood of a spotless
sacrifice, Jesus Christ. Isn't that neat? God is so good. We have a Mercy Seat. The blood speaks, you see. You say, 'What do you mean?' When you go back to Genesis chapter 4, and you
see the very first murder, and Cain is jealous over Abel's
offering being accepted because Abel offered a lamb, Cain
offered his good works, the fruit of his own labor, and God
said, 'I can't accept your good works, it's not good enough.' 'But Lord, this is wonderful fruit I've raised.' God's said, 'It's fruit from a ground I've cursed, I can't
accept it.' And so
he rejected Cain's offering, but had favor on Abel's. This made Cain jealous and he got so mad he killed
brother, killed Abel, murdered Abel in such a way that Abel's
blood was shed and spilled on the ground. And the Lord came to Cain and he says, verse 9, "'Where
is Abel your brother?' And
he said, 'I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?' And he said, 'What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying
to me from the ground.'" You
see, the blood speaks, that's what the Bible is telling us. According to the law first mentioned in the
Bible, whenever a topic is first mentioned in the Bible, it
will lead you to interpret it that way all through the Bible. Here the Bible is telling us 'the blood speaks.' Whenever we see the blood we know that it speaks
something to God. And
here was the blood of an innocent victim that had been slain,
and his blood was crying out for vengeance, and so God cursed
Cain, didn't he? And the curse, by the way, was not a skin color
change, as some bigoted people have tried to make it out to
be, it was a mark of some kind that God place on him. I don't know exactly what the curse was, except that
finally God put a mark on him. Actually it says he was scared because of the curse,
he said 'Now I'm going to be a fugitive all my life, and people
are going to try to kill me every time they see me. You've made me a miserable man, I'm going to
be murdered by somebody someday.' And the Lord said, 'Ok, I'll put a mark on you to keep
that from happening.' And actually in Hebrew it says, "The Lord placed
a Tao on him", which is the sign of the cross. And he placed that on Cain. And that was to protect anyone from coming against
him for murdering his brother. [a tiny bit lost in tape transition
from side one to side two on master tape] .12, he's talking
to Hebrews. Talking to Jews, trying to help them see that
they've got it made with Jesus [Yeshua] now, they don't have
to wonder about Judgment Day, because the sprinkled blood
has been applied. They're secure, in Christ. And in Hebrews chapter 12, he begins this grand
climax of his letter. And
the writer of Hebrews says in verse 22, and before that he's
just telling them, 'Hey, you haven't come to Judgment, you
haven't come to Mount Sinai where judgment is falling, you've
come to Mount Zion. Hallelujah! I'd rather have the view from Mount Zion any day, than
the view from Mount Sinai. Wouldn't you? "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the
Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriad's of angels,
to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn who are
enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all"--but don't
be worried now, don't be worried, you're coming to God, the
Judge of all, 'Oh no, we're coming to God, the Judge of all!' Don't worry [he's got you covered]--verse 24,
"and to Jesus, the mediator of a"--what?--"new
covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than
the blood of Abel." You see, as a believer in Christ, I don't have
to fear standing before a Righteous and Holy God, because
the blood has been sprinkled on the Mercy Seat. Romans 3:25 says that God has publicly displayed Jesus
as a propitiation for my sin, as a Mercy Seat for my sin he
[Jesus, Yeshua] covers the Law. His perfect life perfectly satisfies the Law. And then he himself became the sacrifice. He's the priest, he's the sacrifice, he's the altar,
he's everything we need. We've got the package deal with Jesus. You don't need a human priest. You have a great high priest, Jesus Christ. You don't need to bring a sacrifice to God,
he is your sacrifice. You
don't need an altar upon which to worship, because he is the altar himself. He's
everything you need. His blood sprinkled before the throne of God
has transformed the throne of God from a throne of judgment
to a throne of grace. Now, it makes sense when we read in Hebrews chapter
4, verse 16, "Let us therefore draw near with"--what?--"confidence
to the throne of"--what? I mean, listen gang, you don't have any idea
what revolutionary ideas those were when these guys got this
letter. "Draw near to God with confidence"? Are you kidding? Every year it's re-affirmed to us that we can't
have confidence-are we going to be accepted or are we going
to be rejected? Is
the sacrifice good enough? I mean, what if that high priest went in there and
he had a fight with his wife this morning and didn't confess
it before God? We're
all goner's. What if the animal wasn't absolutely spotless,
what if they missed a blemish on the animal. Then God's gonna go "no way" and we're all going
to be dead. We can
draw near with confidence? [The whole set of verses is Hebrews
4:14-16, "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that
is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold
fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of
need."] Yeah, that's one of the words of Christianity, confidence. Why? Because what Jesus did for you and for me was
enough. How do I know? On the cross he cried out "It is finished." How do I know? He was raised from the dead three days later. How do I know? He's ascended into heaven. How do I know? He gave the Holy Spirit and gave gifts to his
church. How do I know? I've seen him transforming lives today. What he did was enough. He's alive, he's alive. Our salvation is secure. Israel's never was. Ours is, because the blood speaks better things
than any blood of bulls and goats, or lambs. The blood of Jesus Christ [Yeshua Moshiach]
speak peace to those who've been at war with God. It speaks mercy to those who have disobeyed. It speaks perfection to those who are imperfect. It covers all of our sins. Like we read, "The blood that Jesus shed for me, way
back on Calvary, the blood it reaches to the highest mountain,
the blood it flows to the lowest valley." The blood, that's all you need. It can make you white, it can make you clean,
it can make you pure, it can make you spotless before God
right now. "It soothes my doubts, it calms my fears, and
it dries all my tears. The
blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus? What can give me peace within, nothing but the
blood of Jesus. This
is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus." The sprinkled blood has been applied, gang. The blood is what secures our salvation [just
as the blood of the very first Passover lambs, applied to
the door posts of the Israelites secured their physical salvation
from the death angel, the blood of Jesus secures our eternal
salvation from the second death spoken of in Revelation 20]. That with confidence we may draw near to a throne of
not wrath, but grace. When Jesus died, the record indicates that the
temple veil that separated people from God's presence [separating
the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies] was torn in half from
top to bottom. They don't know how it happened. I think God sent one of those cherubim with
a mighty sword and cut the thing like butter. It was about eighteen inches thick, that curtain was. Now, the awesome thing was not that he cut a
curtain, but that God himself would open the way for us to
come into the Holy of Holies. For before, it was always, "Stay away, stay away, you'll
die if you come near, stay away, you'll die. You're not right, you're not holy, you're not
good enough, stay away!" Now
it's "Come unto me, all you who labor under heavy laden, I'll
give you rest." 'You'll find rest for your souls, come, come. Whoever comes to me, I'll never reject.' You see, the way into the Holiest has been made by
Jesus' blood, Jesus' righteousness, and we can go into the
presence of God. He
covers the Law for us. He
covers our sins with his blood. He makes us right with God. He's the place where justice and mercy kiss. He's the place where God provided what he declared
himself what we had to have. We didn't have it, so he made it for us. It would be as if you owed a fine of $10,000 and the
judge said, 'You got to pay it, that's what justice demands!' You say, 'But I don't have it!' And it's off to jail for you, the ruin of your family,
the ruin of your life. You
can't borrow it, you don't have the money. And that judge gets off the bench and he goes with
you and he goes to the cashier, and he says, follow me. You follow him, and there he pulls out his own check
book, and he writes you a check and he pays in full all your
debts. That's what
the judge has done. The
judge has provided what we need. And so now it makes sense, gang, when you hear that
Jesus has become your Mercy Seat, maybe you'll understand
it means Judgment Day is over for you. Hallelujah! Look
at John chapter 5, verse 24. I was raised in a church that believed that any time,
any moment our names could come up in judgment. And it was a judgment for salvation, it was a judgment
weighing my good works and my bad works. Can you imagine that? Any moment, we were taught, our names could
come up in judgment. At
any moment God could say, 'Mark Martin, (and maybe he would
use my social security number, I'm not sure, but) he knew
who I was. And then
he would say, 'Let's see the good works. Now let's see the bad works.' Gulp.and hopefully in the big giant scale in heaven,
you know, my good works would outweigh my bad works. But I had a pretty good idea they probably wouldn't. It was so discouraging. But look at what the Bible says, there's no judgment
for you if you believe in Christ. John chapter 5, verse 24, read it out loud. "Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and
believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out
of death into life". Amen! We've
passed out of death. We
never come into judgment for our salvation. Why? Because Judgment Day occurred at the cross! The blood was applied at the cross and was sprinkled
on the Mercy Seat, and was accepted by God, there is no Judgment
Day left. Unless you
are telling me that what Jesus did wasn't good enough [and
before making a foolish statement like that, go watch Mel
Gibson's movie The Passion of Christ [http://www.thepassionofchrist.com]. Then I'll tell you that if what he did wasn't
good enough, what do you have to offer that's better? It comes down to your trusting Christ or not
trusting in him, because you know you'll never cut it. I thank God, I put my faith in Jesus. There's no judgment for me, I have passed out
of death and into life. I
am a child of God, the Mercy Seat has blood
on it and that's enough. God rested with that. God said, 'OK, good.' Interesting, it was sprinkled just once on the
Mercy Seat, and God said, 'Once is enough. I accept it.' But
seven times in front of the Mercy Seat, seven times for our
benefit. Seven is the number of completion, of perfection,
of rest. In other words,
the Lord's saying 'Rest, right here.' 'Rest right here in the blood. Rest in what the blood has done for you.' 'It's enough for God, once at the end of the ages he
has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. It's enough, I God, the ruler of the Universe, I say
it's enough. Oh sinner, oh doubter, oh little faith-er, rest
in what the blood has done for you. It is enough. It's enough.' I think the whole Mercy Seat idea made a tremendous
impact on the early church. I often wondered what was it that Mary and the disciples
saw when they ran to the tomb, and it says they just looked
in and they saw and they believed. And yet it goes on to say that they didn't believe
he had risen from the dead. They didn't understand that he was to be raised from
the dead. And I thought,
'Well what did they believe then?' Look at John 20, John chapter 20, verse 6, "Simon Peter
therefore came following him and entered the tomb and he beheld
the linen wrapping was lying there and the facecloth which
had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings but
rolled up in a place by itself. Then entered therefore the other disciple that"--John
describing himself--"who had first come to the tomb, and he
saw and believed." He saw what and believed? It goes on to say "For as yet they did not understand
the Scripture that he must rise from the dead" (verse 9). I'll tell you what they saw. Look at verse 11, I'll tell you what they saw,
and every Jew that would look in that tomb would immediately
see this, that saw that! 'They
saw what, Mark?' Look,
John 20 verse 11, "But Mary was standing outside the tomb
weeping, and so as she wept she stooped and looked into the
tomb." And what did
she see, gang? "two
angels in white, sitting one at the head and the other at
the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying." What those guys had seen was, was they looked in and
it was like they had seen 'Ahh, that was just like the Ark
of the Covenant!' Two
mighty angels sitting on either side, with the remains of
the sacrifice in-between, on the Mercy Seat. That's what they saw, and they go That's
it!-Wow!-They just didn't understand that
Jesus' sacrifice was so great that he would rise from the
dead. I mean, that just didn't compute yet. It's an incredible thought, but that's what
they saw. It wasn't
made out of gold or anything, but I looked into that tomb
that they think he was buried in, in the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem,
and you know what? It's
not a very big space at all, it's just about like the space
for a long cedar chest, very narrow, and if you put two mighty
angels on either side of it, sitting there like this, you
would have shades of the Mercy Seat, shades of the Ark, seeing
those linen wrappings there where the blood would have been
sprinkled on the real Mercy Seat. You know, maybe that's what they saw and believed. But you know what you're going to see in heaven? You know what's going to be your joy in heaven? Let's turn now to Revelation 5. Wait, before you go there, stop off at 1 John. 1 John 2:1-2, it's right before Revelation. Ok, 1 John 1:1-2, "My little children, I am writing
these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he himself is
the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also
for those of the whole world." And what did I say you could translate that
word as? Let's read
it that way, verse 2, altogether, "And he himself is the Mercy
Seat for our sins, and not for ours only but also for those
of the whole world." Let's
do it again in 1 John 4:10. Read it together and we'll substitute propitiation
for Mercy Seat. Chapter 4, verse 10. Ready, let's go. "And this is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his son to be the Mercy Seat for
our sins." Wow. Now, you know what you're going to see in heaven? You're going to see Jesus Christ, standing in the midst
of the throne, like a Lamb that has been slain. When we get to heaven, we're going to see the throne
of God, which the Ark was designed on, and you're going to
see Jesus standing where the blood was sprinkled, you're going
to see him standing there. How awesome it is to think that not only do we have
the Savior's sprinkled blood before God, we have the Savior
before God, who's alive. We
don't just have blood before God, we have a living Savior,
an Advocate with the Father before God right now. He speaks, you see, his blood speaks better things,
because he is speaking, he's alive. Isn't that neat? Ok,
Revelation, chapter 5 of Revelation, verse 6, "And I saw between
the throne the four living creatures [cherubim] and the elders,
a lamb standing as if slain." [Talk about Passover lamb analogies!] He's standing in heaven for you, the precious
Lamb of God. His shed
blood, his glorious life should sooth your doubts, calm your
fears, dry your tears. Because the blood that Jesus shed for you, it
will never, never, never lose its power." [This is a transcript of a sermon given by J. Mark
Martin of Calvary Community Church, P.O. Box 39607, Phoenix,
AZ 85069.]
|