Exodus (Lesson 46)

Welcome to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delane, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in today.

I'm Brother James, and I greet you as always in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

This is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

We hope you can stay with us for the next half an hour.

We are going to do our very, very best to expound God's Word.

We're going to do our best to teach you truth from God's Word and encourage you in the things of the Lord.

We've been studying together the Bible book of Exodus.

In fact, this will be broadcast number 46 in our series of studies on Exodus.

And we come on the program today to chapter number 25.

Exodus chapter 25.

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

If you can follow along with us in your Bible, that would be a help to you, I am sure.

We are moving into the material that gives the instruction with regard to the Ark of the Covenant.

And rather than explain to you what that is, we'll read the Bible text together and see what God has to say about it.

Exodus 25, verse number one.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering.

Of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart, ye shall take my offering.

Everybody spends money on what's important to them.

Everybody gladly parts with their money for something they consider valuable.

And so why wouldn't people who have been redeemed by God offer unto God?

Then he says, I want every man to do it willingly, not under force, not under threat, not under pressure, but as an act of his will.

I will do this.

I want to do this.

I desire to do this, to give unto the Lord.

And then it says, willingly with his heart, with his heart.

Give from the heart.

Not out of knowledge.

I know I'm supposed to do this.

I know I'd better do this.

I know God demands that I do this.

Oh no, no, no.

I love the Lord, so I want to give to the Lord, and I bring this offering from my heart to my God.

That's how it ought to be.

Verse 3, and this is the offering which he shall take of them: gold and silver and brass, and blue and purple and scarlet.

These colors are connected with the crucifixion.

Matthew 27, 28, and John 19, 2.

And these colors are also connected with the bride of Christ.

Revelation 19, verses 13 and 14, and Proverbs 31, 22, where that virtuous woman stands, is a picture of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 19:13

And so verse 5, ram's skins dyed red, and badger's skins and shittim wood, oil for the light, spices for anointing oil and for sweet incense, onyx stones and stones to be set in ephod and in the rest plate.

So God's people give what is necessary to sustain and to maintain the worship of God and the place where God is worshipped.

That ought to be understood by all.

It's not.

It's not every church has muters in it.

Every congregation has people who take and take and take but never give.

Every congregation has people who justify their lack of giving.

Well, there's something here I don't like.

Well, there's a verse that I'm using to justify, so on and so forth.

But the fact of the matter is, in every society there are givers and there are takers.

It's true nationally.

If you live in the United States or any other land, you have people who contribute to the well-being of your nation, and then you have people who are parasites who take and take and take and uh and never give.

And then in churches, it's the same way.

You have those faithful people who know, who know that it requires offering and sacrifice to keep these things going, and they gladly contribute, and then there are others who wouldn't give a dime if their life depended upon it, but they never miss a fellowship dinner or a free activity.

So that's just how that goes.

Verse number eight says, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.

And that's ever been God's desire.

He made man to fellowship with man.

He came to the garden seeking fellowship with man.

When he saw that man had fallen and destroyed that fellowship, he immediately took steps to begin the restoration process so that he and man could dwell together.

In fact, the Bible says, the Bible says, of the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city, more important than the pearl gates and the gold streets, more important than the mansion houses, the Bible says that God shall be with them.

That's his desire.

Fellowship with these people.

He wants a sanctuary where he can meet together with his created beings.

Verse 9: According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

So the model is given.

Bible says this, who serve under the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle.

For see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed thee in the mount.

So all that is in this tabernacle, made according to the pattern that God gave Moses when he was up on the mountain, reflects or shadows a real, the the real true sanctuary where God really and truly meets and fellowships with his own in heaven.

That's what we have.

And so this is true also of the temple.

1 Chronicles 28, 11 and 19 says that temple was built along the same pattern to reflect, to manifest, to show forth things in heaven.

Now great measure is taken to give the representative dimensions, but nine portions were essential to the construction of this tabernacle.

They're not for significance, they're omitted from the text.

The omission is probably to make impossible the fraudulent building of unauthorized structures.

That is, God gives us enough information so we can know and understand what the tabernacle looked like.

He does not give us enough detail to precisely reconstruct it.

Lest someone should think it was some sort of a magic tent and that somehow this uh this building, this structure, once constructed, had some sort of supernatural power or blessing to it.

That wasn't the case at all.

The supernatural power is God.

The blessing comes from God.

Men have always gotten confused.

They've always uh sought to make uh idols out of their out of the buildings rather than worshiping the God that meets with them in the building.

Nevertheless, here's the here's the details that you don't have the thickness of the sides and bottom of the ark, the thickness of the mercy seat, and details of the cherubim, the thickness of the table, the dimensions of the lampstand, the thickness of the boards, the middle bar dimensions, the size of the ramskins, the size of the badger skins, and all the thicknesses of the brazen altar.

You say, Why aren't these things in the Bible?

They're not in the Bible because God doesn't want anybody else to ever make a tabernacle or tabernacle furniture.

Verse number ten.

And they shall make an ark of shed of wood, two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

It's a rectangular box, wooden box, that's what it is.

And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold.

Within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.

Now there's three things in this tabernacle that were crowned with gold, the ark, the table of showbread, we'll get to that in verse twenty-four, and the altar of incense, chapter thirty, and verse number three.

Now shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof, and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it, and thou shalt make staves of shit'em wood, and overlay them with gold.

And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be born with them, and the staves shall be in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken from it.

And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.

Okay, so this Ark of the Covenant that has been the subject of so much fairy tale and fraud and fantasy, is a wooden box overlaid with gold.

It has no supernatural power, it has no life-giving powers, none whatsoever.

It is a place to keep God's words.

The words that God gave to Moses for the children of Israel were to be kept in this Ark of the Covenant.

Now, sadly, sadly, men make more of the Ark of the Covenant than they do of the covenant.

Men make more of the wooden box wherein the words of God were placed than they do the words of God.

You could make a zillion dollars.

If you put out a movie where somebody was looking for the Ark of the Covenant, if you tried to put out a movie where somebody was trying to find the words of God written on tables of stone, you'd be hounded out of Hollywood.

That's just how it goes.

All men will spend a fortune building grand and glorious cathedrals and chapels and churches and worship centers, and think little or nothing about the Holy Bible collecting dust on the communion table or in the pulpit.

Sad but true.

Why why the fascination with the Ark of the Covenant?

And so little seemingly so little concern for the covenant itself?

What was in the ark is far more important than the Ark?

Why, if the Ark of the Covenant vanished and the words of God were still in the possession of the people, wouldn't those people be just fine?

Absolutely.

But if the word of God vanished and the Ark of the Covenant were found, so what?

It's another money-making tourist attraction.

It's another religious relic or idol to distract the simple-minded.

Come on, brother, come on, sister.

What's more important?

The building you meet in, or the Bible?

The decorations or the Bible?

The furnishings and carpets and landscaping or the Bible.

You know why they built that tabernacle?

You know where they put that Ark of the Covenant?

Right in the very heart of the thing.

You know what was in the Ark of the Covenant?

The Word of God.

The focal point of the people's gathering to meet with God, the focal point of God's meeting with his people was the Word of God.

Oh, how we do play up what is not important, and how we do play down what is important.

I'm not making light of the Ark of the Covenant.

I am concerned, I am concerned that it is considered more valuable than the covenant, and such should not be.

Now the Ark is a chest in which to preserve something precious.

Noah's Ark preserved the godly seed, speaks of the sinner's Savior.

There was a coffin in Egypt.

It preserved the bones of Joseph, a great ruler.

There was the Ark of Bullrushes, remember?

Miraculously preserving the coming deliverer.

Little baby Moses.

There's the Ark of the Covenant.

It preserved intact the law of God on the tables of stone.

There was the chest in Josiah's time, where the gifts of God's people for the temple service were placed.

Now the Ark of the Covenant had a threefold purpose.

Number one, it was a keeping place for the unbroken tables of stone.

Christ.

Christ is pictured by this ark, for he alone kept the law unbroken.

Secondly, the Ark of the Covenant was a meeting place between God and man.

The blood-stained mercy seat.

You can't meet God without the blood of Jesus Christ.

Oh, God will have mercy upon the sinner, but not without that blood.

Third, the ark was a guide through the wilderness.

All of this speaks of Jesus Christ.

All of this speaks of Jesus.

He is the one who kept the law.

He is the one whose blood makes it possible for us to commune with God.

And he is the one who leads us, praise his holy name, through the wilderness of this old world.

Now, this ark is mentioned one hundred and eighty-five times in the Old Testament.

And it's called by eleven different names.

It's called the Ark of the Testimony in Exodus twenty-five twenty-two.

It's called the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, Numbers ten thirty three.

It's called the Ark of the Lord, Joshua three thirteen.

It's called the Ark of God, 1 Samuel 3 3, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts, 1 Samuel 4 4, the Ark of the God of Israel, 1 Samuel 5 7, the Ark of the Covenant of God, Judges 20 27, the Ark of the Lord God, 1 Kings 2 26, the Ark of our God, 1 Chronicles 13 3, the Ark of Thy Strength, 2 Chronicles 6 41, and the Holy Ark, 2 Chronicles 35 3.

I would say again, all of this points to Jesus Christ.

All of this should draw our attention to the Son of God.

Is he not the one in whom God's testimony ultimately rests?

Is he not the one and only true testimony of God's person and character?

As the ark of the covenant of the Lord, is Jesus Christ not the one?

In whom all the promises of God are established, by whom all the promises of God are kept and preserved.

It's the Ark of the Lord, it's the Ark of God, and surely Jesus Christ is both Lord and God.

Thomas rightly said it when he met the resurrected Savior, and he said, My Lord and my God.

He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords.

He is the God of gods.

That's Jesus.

Christ, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of hosts, those hosts, the great armies of heaven, mentioned in Malachi 4, mentioned in the book of Jude, mentioned in Revelation 19, and many other places throughout the Word of God.

Who is the head of this great army?

Who is the man with a sharp two-edged sword, wherewith he will smite the rebellious and unbelieving nations?

The captain of the host is Jesus Christ the Lord.

And yes, he's the God of Israel.

And yes, he is our God.

He's not just God, he's our God.

He's not just the almighty creator and master of his universe.

But he's ours.

It's personal.

He's not unknowable.

He's not beyond reach.

He is not detached and separated from his people.

He has made himself known to man.

He seeks and desires fellowship with man.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

He's ours.

He's ours, it's personal.

Strength, strength, strength on our behalf, strength imparted to us.

Death was stronger than man, but Jesus was stronger than death.

Fear was stronger than man, but Jesus was stronger than fear.

The devil, stronger than man, but Jesus stronger than the devil.

Whatever foe, could it be sin, could it be temptation, could it be vice or habit?

Jesus Christ is stronger than that which oppresses man, than that which weighs man down, than that which drives man to his grave and to his destruction.

Jesus Christ the Almighty, pictured in the names and titles of this Ark of the Covenant, and then the last name given to this Ark, the Holy Ark.

The holy ark.

And Jesus Christ is spotless.

Jesus Christ is harmless.

Jesus Christ is sinless.

He is absolutely pure from eternity past to eternity future.

Jesus Christ is forever what he has been forever.

Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.

My friend, since all have sinned, no sinner can be the Savior.

My friend, since all have come short of the glory of God, no one short of that glory could bring us to God.

But but my friend, Jesus Christ because he is holy, Jesus Christ because he is sinless, Jesus Christ because he is God can reconcile man to his Maker.

What a wonderful thing.

What an amazing truth.

And thanks be to God that we don't travel this earth in search of some mysterious missing box.

We have the precious words that were placed inside that Ark of the Covenant.

And those words speak to us of the one of whom that ark was just a picture.

Now think of it.

This Lord Jesus Christ was made flesh.

He grew up on this earth as a root out of a dry ground.

He took upon him the form and fashion of a man.

Look at that wood growing out there.

Look at that wood.

And yet we see, we see that wood overlaid with gold.

What a strange thing this is.

But he's not just God.

He is, or not just man, he is God manifest in the flesh.

Wood overlaid with gold.

Humanity, humanity, but deity all in one.

And inside, inside that human deity, inside that one who is both God and man, he's not half God and half man.

He's all God and all man.

Never never never but one.

He's the only one.

That Lord Jesus Christ inside of him is the very fulfillment of the living words of the living God.

He alone kept every word, every commandment, every jot, every tittle.

He alone is the word made flesh to dwell among us.

He alone is God and all that God has said manifest in the flesh.

Why, why be excited?

Listen, now don't get me wrong.

It's wonderful to read and study all the Bible says about this Ark of the Covenant.

But if you found the Ark of the Covenant and you didn't find Jesus Christ, you'd lose your soul.

If you came into possession of the Ark of the Covenant, but you didn't possess eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, you'd lose your soul.

So we're fascinated by the Ark of the Covenant.

We enjoy studying what the Bible says about the Ark of the Covenant.

But we're far more impressed and far more excited about and far more thankful for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, that Ark of the Covenant didn't die to pay for your sins.

That Ark of the Covenant didn't rise from the dead to give you eternal life, but Jesus did.

And so the Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

Neither is there salvation in any other.

There's none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

My friend, be sure, be certain.

You're trusting Jesus, not curiosities.

Be sure you're trusting the word of God, not a container that once held it.

Amen and amen.

This is the preaching of the cross radio broadcast.

We are on the air by the grace of God and through the prayers and help of God's people.

We don't solicit funds, we don't ask for money, but you know, you know what it takes.

If you can help, would you pray for us?

Would you pray that God would enable us to continue to preach His Word on six continents and over 150 nations around the world?

Thank you.

Our mailing address, if you'd like a copy of today's program or a catalog listing all of our available materials, and there are plenty, over 5,000 hours of recorded preaching materials, teaching materials, and dozens of books, we can help you.

Write to us our mailing address, 872 Glenwood Road.

872 Glenwood Road.

That's in D-Land, D-E-L-A-N-D, D-Land, Florida.

The zip code number 32720, 32720.

Or you may visit us online at jamesnox.com.

You type in the preaching of the cross or JamesKnox.com, and that will take you right to the website and everything there be very self-explanatory.

All right, this program is heard at many different times over many different radio stations, and we'll trust the announcer to come on now in just a moment, let you know when this program will be heard again over this station.

We hope you'll join us then for the preaching of the cross radio broadcast.

Until that time, I'm Brother James.

May the Lord richly bless you, and good day.

Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast.

For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W.

Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptistoland, or our website, Bible BaptistToland.com.

Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.