“The Ark of His Covenant”

"The Ark of His Covenant"

(No. 2427)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY MORNING, AUGUST 25, 1895.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, DELIVERED ON THURSDAY
EVENING, AUGUST 18, 1887.

"And the Temple of God was opened in Hea ven, and there was seen in His
Temple the ark of His testament [covenant–R.V.] and there were
lightning, and voices, and thundering, and an earthquake, and great
hail." Revelation 11:19.

I shall take the passage quite by itself. I do not fully understand its
context, whether it relates to that which goes before or to that which
comes afterwards, and happily, it is not necessary for us to know this,
for the passage stands complete in itself and is full of valuable
instruction.

Dear Friends, even we who believe have as yet failed to see much of the
Truth of God. We know enough to save us, to comfort us and to help us
on our way to Heaven, but oh, how much of the glory of Divine Truth has
never yet been revealed to our eyes! Some of God's children do not
fully know even the common Truths of God as yet, and those who do not
know them realize but little of their depth and height. From our text
it appears that there are certain things of God which as yet we have
not seen–there is need that they should be opened up to us–"The
Temple of God was opened in Heaven." When our Lord Jesus died, He split
the veil of the Temple and so He laid open the Holy of Holies. But such
is our dimness of sight that we need to have the Temple opened, and we
need to have the Holy of Holies opened, so that we may see what is not
really concealed, but what we are not ready to perceive by reason of
the slowness of our understandings.

The two words for, "Temple," here, may relate not only to the Temple,
itself, but also to the Holy of Holies, the innermost shrine. Both of
these, it seems, need to be opened, or else we shall not see what is in
them. Blessed be the Holy Spirit that He opens up one Truth after
another to us! Our Savior's promise to His disciples was, "When He, the
Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all Truth." If we were
more teachable. If we were more anxious to be taught and waited upon
Him more, He would, doubtless, lead us into many a Truth of God which,
at the present moment, we have not fully enjoyed. It is a happy thing
for you and for me when at any time we can say, "The Temple of God was
opened in Heaven so that we saw even that which was in the innermost
shrine of the holy Temple."

The saints in Heaven doubtless behold all the Glory of God so far as it
can be perceived by created beings, but we who are on the right way
there behold as in a glass darkly, the Glory of the Lord. We know only
in part, but the part we know is not as great as it might be–we might
know far more than we do even here. Some suppose that they can know but
little because, they say, it is written, "Eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
has prepared for them that love Him." Yes, but why do you stop there?
Half a text is often not true– go on to the end of the passage–"But
God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searches
all things, yes, the deep things of God." And that which your eyes
cannot see, and your ears cannot hear, and the heart of man cannot
imagine, can be revealed to you by the Spirit of the Lord! Oh, that we
were more conscious of the power of the Spirit and that we waited upon
Him for yet fuller instruction! Then I am persuaded that in our measure
and degree, it would be true to us, even as to the perfected ones
above, "The Temple of God was opened in Heaven," and they saw that
which was in the holiest place.

What did they see when the Temple was opened? When the secret place was
laid bare to them, what did they see? That is to be my subject. "There
was seen in His Temple the ark of His covenant." If we could look into
Heaven at this moment, this is what we would see, "the ark of His
covenant." O Sinner, you think that you would see an angry God, but you
would see the ark of His covenant! O child of God, perhaps you dream of
many things that might distress you in the glory of that sight, but
rest content, this would be the main sight that you would see–Jesus,
the Incarnate God, the great Covenant Surety! You would see there,
where the Godhead shines resplendent, the ark of His covenant!

I. I shall begin by noticing, first, that the ark of His covenant is
always near to God–"There was seen in His Temple the ark of His
covenant."

Of course, the outward symbol is gone–we are not now speaking of a
Temple made with hands, that is to say, of this building. We speak of
the spiritual Temple above. We speak of the spiritual Holy of Holies.
If we could look in there, we would see the ark of the covenant and we
would see the covenant, itself, always near to God. The covenant is
always there. God never forgets it–it is always before Him–"There was
seen in His Temple the ark of His covenant."

Why is this? Is it not because the covenant is always standing? The
Lord said concerning His people of old, "I will make with them an
Everlasting Covenant," of which David said, "Yet has He made with me an
Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure." If God has made
a covenant with you, it is not simply for today and tomorrow, nor
merely for this life, but for the ages of ages, even forever and ever!
If He has struck hands with you through the great Surety, and He has
pledged Himself to you, remember, "If we believe not, yet He abides
faithful: He cannot deny Himself." Jehovah has said, "The mountains
shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not
depart from you, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed."
What He has said He will stand to forever. He will keep His Word. He
said to His Son, "I will preserve You, and give You for a covenant of
the people." And He will never revoke the gift. This covenant stands
secure! Though earth's old columns bow, and though my spirits sink, and
flesh and heart fail me, yet this covenant shall bear me up even to the
end.

The Covenant of Grace is forever the same, because, first, the God who
made it changes not. There can be no change in God. The supposition is
inconsistent with a belief in His Deity. Hear what He says–"I am the
Lord, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed." The
sun has his changes, but the Father of Lights is without variableness,
or shadow of turning. "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither
the son of man, that He should repent: has He said, and shall He not do
it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" God has never to
alter His purposes–why should He? Those purposes are always infinitely
wise. He knows the end from the beginning, so His Covenant, which He
made with such deliberation in the councils of eternity, that Covenant
which is sealed with the most precious things He ever had, even with
the blood of His only-begotten Son, that Covenant upon which He stakes
His eternal honor, for His Glory and honor are wrapped up with the
Covenant of Grace–that Covenant cannot be changed because God,
Himself, changes not.

Then, next, the Christ who is its Surety and Substance changes not.
Christ, the great Sacrifice by whose death the Covenant was ratified.
Christ, the Surety, who has sworn to carry out our part of the
Covenant. Christ, who is the very Sum and Substance of the Covenant,
never alters. "All the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him,
Amen, unto the glory of God by us." If we had a variable Savior,
Brothers and Sisters, we would have a changeable covenant! Look at
Adam–he could change and, therefore, he was a poor representative of
the human race. Our first federal head soon fell because he was a mere
man! But the Surety of the New Covenant is the Son of God, who, like
His Father, fails not, and changes not! Though He is of the substance
of His mother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh and, therefore,
can stand as man's Representative, yet is He Light of Light, very God
of very God, and so He stands fast and firm, like the unchanging God,
Himself! In this great Truth of God we do and we will rejoice! The
Covenant is always before God, for Christ is always there. He, the Lamb
in the midst of the Throne of God, makes the Covenant to always be
close to the heart of God!

And, Beloved, note this. The Covenant must always be near to God
because the love which suggested it changes not. The Lord loves His
people with a love which has no beginning, no end, no boundary, no
change. He says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore
with loving kindness have I drawn you." When the love of God's heart
goes forth toward the Believer, it is not changeable like the love of
man–sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes strong and sometimes
weak. But, as it is said of our Savior, "having loved His own which
were in the world, He loved them unto the end," so can it be said of
the great Father, that His love is always the same! And if the love
which dictated the Covenant is always in the heart of God, depend upon
it that the Covenant which comes of that love is always there in the
secret place of the Most High!

Reflect also, beloved Brothers and Sisters, that the promises contained
in the Covenant change not. I quoted to you, just now, one passage
about the promises, and that is enough–"All the promises of God in Him
are yes, and in Him, Amen." Not one single promise of God shall ever
fall to the ground unfulfilled! His Word, in the form of promises, as
well as in the form of the Gospel, shall not return unto Him void! O
Souls, you may hang your whole weight upon any promise of God! You need
not fear that it will break. Though all the vessels of the King's house
were hung on one nail made by Him, that nail would bear them all up, as
well as the flagons as the vessels of smaller measure. Heaven and earth
may hang upon a single promise of God! The Voice that rolls the stars
along and keeps them all in their orbits is that Voice which spoke even
the least of the promises and, therefore, every promise of God stands
secure forever!

And once more, not only the promises, but the force and binding power
of the Covenant change not. All God's acts are done with a reference to
His Covenant and all His Covenant has a reference to His covenanted
ones. Remember what Moses said of old, "When the Most High divided to
the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He
set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of
Israel." Everything that He does follows the line and rule of His
Covenant. If He chastens and afflicts, it is not in anger, but in His
dear Covenant love. When first that Covenant came into full action with
the redeemed, it was all powerful–and it is still just as powerful.
All that God does is still guided and directed by His eternal purpose
and His Covenant pledges to His people. Stand still, then, and when you
look up, if you cannot see that Temple because your eyes of faith are
dim–if you scarcely dare to look within the secret place which is the
holiest of all–yet know for sure that the Covenant is still there, and
always there, whether you see it or see it not!

I will tell you when, perhaps, you will best know that the Covenant is
there–when the storm clouds gather the most thickly. When you see the
black masses come rolling up, then remember that the Lord said to Noah,
"I do set My bow in the clouds and it shall be for a token of a
Covenant between Me and the earth." Then shall you know that Jehovah
remembers His Covenant! You may even be half glad of a black cloud,
that the sun of the Divine Love may paint upon it the many-colored
rainbow, that God may look on it and remember His Covenant! It is good
for you to look on it, but what must it be for Him to look on it and to
remember His Covenant? Be glad that the Covenant is always near to God,
as our text declares, "And the Temple of God was opened in Heaven, and
there was seen in His Temple the ark of His covenant."

II. Now, secondly, the Covenant is seen of saints–"There was seen in
His Temple the ark of His covenant."

First, we see it when, by faith, we believe in Jesus as our Covenant
Head. By faith we know that God has entered into covenant with us. He
that believes in Christ Jesus is in covenant with God. "He that
believes on the Son has everlasting life." "He that believes on Him is
not condemned." He that believes in Him is at peace with God–he has
passed from death unto life, and shall never come into condemnation.
You are in covenant with God, Believer! Wipe your weeping eyes, ask God
to take the dust out of them that you may see that there is an
unchanging Covenant made with you tonight and forever!

Next, we see this Covenant when, by faith, we perceive it in God's
actions toward us. Faith may see the Covenant of God in all His
actions. Do you not remember how the old Scotch woman blessed God for
her porridge, but she blessed Him most of all because the porridge was
in the Covenant? God had promised bread and water and, therefore, it
was sure to come to her! God sent her bread to her in the form of
porridge and she blessed the Lord that it was in the Covenant. Now, I
thank God that food is in the Covenant, and that raiment is in the
Covenant. It is written, "Your shoes shall be iron and brass," so they
are in the Covenant. Life is in the Covenant and death is in the
Covenant–"To die is gain." Everything that is to happen to us is in
the Covenant! And when faith sees it so, it makes life a happy one. Am
I chastened? I say to myself, "Well, the rod was in the Covenant, for
the Lord said that if His children disobeyed Him, He would chasten them
with the rod of men. If I never had the rod, I would be afraid I was
not in the Covenant." Is it not written, "In the world you shall have
tribulation?" That is a part of the Covenant, you see, so that when you
get it, say to yourself, "The God who is evidently keeping this part of
His Covenant will keep the rest of it for me, His child."

Brothers and Sisters, we get, perhaps, the best sight of the Covenant
when, by prayer we plead it. In that hour of our wrestling, in the time
of our inward craving of mercies from the hand of God, we come, at
last, to this, "Lord, You have promised. Do as You have said." I love
to put my finger on a promise and then to plead it with the Lord,
saying, "This is Your Word, my Father, and I know that You will not run
back from it. O God, I believe in the Inspiration of this Book and I
take every word of it as coming from Your lips. Will You not seal it to
my conscience, my heart, my experience, by proving it to be true?" Have
you ever found the Lord's promises fail you? I remember one who had put
in the margin of her Bible in several places, "T and P"–and when she
was asked what those letters meant, she said, "They mean, 'Tried and
Proved.' As I go through life, I keep trying and proving the promises
of God and then I put a mark in the margin of my Bible next to each one
I have tested, that I may not forget it the next time I have to plead
it." That is the way to see the Covenant at the right hand of God, when
you plead it in prayer!

And there are some of us, I think, who can say that our experience up
till now proves that God does not forget His Covenant. We have
wandered, but we have been able to say, "He restores my soul," for He
has restored us! We have needed many things and we have gone to Him in
prayer and pleaded that word, "No good thing will He withhold from them
that walk uprightly," and He has listened to the cries of His servants!
He said He would do so–"Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will
deliver you, and you shall glorify Me." He has remembered us in our low
estate, for His mercy endures forever and some of us who are no longer
young can set to our seal that God is true because of many experiences
of His faithfulness! If they tell us that there is nothing in the
Bible, and nothing in God, and nothing in the Gospel of Christ, we
laugh them to scorn! We have now, for many a year, lived upon the
faithfulness of God, and we cannot be driven into a distrust of Him. He
is faithful and His mercy endures forever!

Do you not also think that, when we arrive in Heaven, we shall have a
wonderful retrospect, and that retrospect will all come to this–"The
Temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in His Temple
the ark of His covenant"? Miss Hannah Moore very prettily puts it that
we do not often see the right side of things here. She went into a
carpet factory and she looked at what the workmen were doing–and she
could see nothing that looked like beauty of design. There were tags
and ends hanging out and she said to the men, "I cannot perceive any
design here," and they answered, "No, Madam, for you are on the wrong
side of the carpet." When she went round to the other side, she saw the
beauty of the workmanship! Alas, we are at present on the wrong side of
God's work–we must get to Heaven to see it perfectly! And when we get
there, we shall–

"Sing, with wonder and surprise, His loving kindness in the skies, and
we shall say, "It was all right. It could not have been better."–

"Every dark and bending line Meets in the center of His love." God has
not erred. He has not gone abut the longest way to do His work, but He
has done it in the wisest and most prudent manner, all that was for the
best and highest interests of His dear covenanted ones!

Thus I have shown you that sometimes, and it should be always, God's
people see that glorious Covenant of Grace which is in the Temple
above.

III. Now I want to have your attention while I say briefly, in the
third place, that the Covenant contains much that is worth seeing.

Let us think of what was in the ancient Ark of the Covenant, for all
that was in that ark as a type is to be seen in Christ, our heavenly
Covenant Ark above.

In that ark, if you and I could have gone into the Holy Place, and have
had our eyes strengthened to look, we would have seen, first, God
dwelling among men. What a wonderful thing! Over the top of the lid of
that sacred coffer which was called the ark, there shone an amazing
light which was the index of the Presence of God. He was in the midst
of the camp of Israel. He that fills Heaven and earth, the infinite
Jehovah, deigned to make that place His special dwelling place, so that
He is addressed as, "You that dwells between the cherubim." Here is a
part of the New Covenant–"I will dwell in them and walk in them." It
is marvelous that God speaks with men. He whom you heard thundering,
last night, as He drove His chariot through the sky–that God in
infinite condescension speaks with us–He has come down to us and taken
us into relationship with Himself in the Person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is at once the Fellow of the Almighty, and the Brother of
the sons of men! O Beloved, rejoice in the Covenant, that God is no
longer divided from men! The chasm made by sin is filled! The gulf is
bridged and God now dwells with men and manifests Himself to them! "The
secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him."

Next, in that ark you would have noticed, if you could have seen into
it, God reconciled and communing with men upon the Mercy Seat. Over the
top of that ark, as I have told you, was a golden lid, which fitted it
and covered it exactly. That golden lid was called the Mercy Seat, the
Throne of Grace. There God spoke with men. He sat there, as it were,
enthroned as the Friend of men. Now, it is a part of the Covenant that
God hears prayer, that God answers our petitions, that He meets us in a
way of reconciled love, that He speaks to us in tones which the spirit
can hear though the ear cannot. Thank God for a blood-sprinkled Mercy
Seat! What would we do if we had not that as our meeting place with the
thrice-holy Jehovah?

Then, within the ark, underneath the lid, if we could have looked in,
we would have seen the Law, the two tablets of stone which represent
Law fulfilled in Christ and forever laid up in His heart, and laid up
in our hearts, too, if we delight in the Law of God after the inward
man! Now, this is our joy, that the Law of God has nothing against the
Believer. It is fulfilled in Christ and we see it laid up in Christ,
not to be a stone to fall upon us to grind us to powder, but beautiful
and fair to look upon as it is in the heart of Christ and fulfilled in
the life of Christ. I rejoice in the Covenant which contains in it
stipulations all fulfilled and commands all executed by our great
Representative!

Together with those tablets of the Law there was laid up a rod, a rod
which had originally been a dry stick in the hands of Aaron, but when
it was laid up before the Lord, it budded, and blossomed, and brought
forth almonds! So, in the Covenant of Grace, we see the Kingdom
established and flourishing in Christ, and we rejoice in it. Oh how
pleased we are to bow before His fruitful scepter! What wonderful fruit
we gather from that blessed rod! Reign, reign, Jesus, reign! The more
You rule us, the more You are absolute Sovereign of our hearts, the
happier shall we be, and the more shall we delight ourselves in You!
There is no liberty like complete subjection beneath the sway of Jesus
who is our Prophet, Priest and King!

Then, by the side of that rod there was laid up the golden pot full of
manna, the provision made for the wilderness. Let us rejoice that there
is in the Covenant all the provision that we need. God has laid up for
us in Christ all our spiritual meat, all the food that we shall ever
need between here and Heaven. "Feed me till I need no more," we cry to
our blessed Covenant Representative–and He will do so!

Then, over the top of the ark, sat the cherubim with outstretched
wings, as, I think, representing how the angels are in league with us,
and with the angels all the forces and powers of the universe. This day
the beasts of the field are our friends and the stones of the field
have ceased to be our foes. Child of God, you may travel by land or
sea. You may go where you will, for everywhere you are in your Father's
house! All that you see about you is a friend to you, since you are a
friend to God. I often wonder that the earth bears up ungodly men. It
must groan beneath the weight of a swearer! It must wish to open and
swallow him up. But with the gracious man, the man who fears God, all
things are at peace, and we may know it to be so. "You shall go out
with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills
shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the
field shall clap their hands."

We do not often enough realize, I think, the friendship of all God's
creatures to those who are His children. St. Francis, though he was a
Romish monk, yet had a true idea when he used to regard the sparrows
and other birds of the air, and even the dogs in the street, as his
friends and his brothers, and talked to them as such. And Luther was
much of the same mind when he opened his window and listened to the
chirpings of the robins in the early spring, and felt that they had
come to teach the theological doctor some lesson which he had not
learned. Oh yes, oh yes, we are quite at home anywhere, now that God is
our God! True, the earth travails, and is in pain, and the creation
suffers and will suffer till Christ comes again, but still, her travail
is our travail, and we are in sympathy with her, and when she reflects
the Glory of her God she is our mirror in which we see our Father's
face.

Thus, I think, I have shown you that there is much to be seen in the
Ark of the Covenant. God give us Grace, like the angels, to fix our
eyes upon it! "Which things the angels desire to look into." We have
more to do with the Ark of His Covenant than they have–let us be more
desirous, than they are, to look therein!

IV. I close with this fourth point. The Covenant has solemn
surroundings. Listen–"There were lightning, and voices, and thunder,
and an earthquake, and great hail."

When the people entered into covenant with God on Sinai, the Lord came
down upon the top of the mountain and there were thunder, and
lightning, and voices, and an earthquake. There were all these tokens
of His Presence and God will not leave the Covenant of His Grace
without the sanctions of His power–that thunder, that lightning, that
storm–all these are engaged to keep His Covenant! When they are
needed, the God who smote Egypt with great hailstones, the God who make
the Kishon to sweep His enemies away, the God who made the stars in
Heaven to fight against Sisera will bring all the overwhelming forces
that are at His command to the help of His people and the fulfilling of
the Covenant which He has made with them!

O you who are His people, fall back in confidence upon the God who has
treasures of snow, and hail, and the dread artillery of storm and
tempest! Most of you, my Hearers, have never seen a great storm, nor
heard in its majesty the thunder of God's power. You must be in the
tropics to know what these can be–and even then you would have to
say– "These are but parts of His ways." Oh, how the Lord can shake the
earth and make it tremble, even, to its deep foundations when He
pleases! He can make what we call, "the solid earth," to be as weak as
water when He does but lift up His finger! But all the power that God
has–and it is boundless–is all in that right hand which has been
lifted high to Heaven in the solemn oath that He will save His people!
Therefore, lean upon God without the shadow of a doubt! He may well put
all your fears to rest even by the thunder of His power!

Then reflect that there is another side to this Truth of God. You who
are not in covenant with God, you who have not believed that Jesus is
the Christ, you who have never fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope
set before you, you who refuse the Divine mercy which comes to you
through the bleeding Person of the suffering Christ–remember that
there will be for you the thunder, the lightning, the voices, the
earthquake and the great hail, for these set forth the terrors of
eternal Law overthrowing God's adversaries! You have no conception of
what God will do with the ungodly! False teachers may smooth it down as
much as they like, but this Book is full of thunderbolts to you who
refuse God's mercy! Listen to this one text–"Consider this, you that
forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver."
Can you sport with that?

Listen to another–"Ah, I will ease Me of My adversaries, and avenge Me
of My enemies!" What will you say to that, or to this? "And again they
said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up forever and ever." "The same
shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without
mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the
Presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever
and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast
and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." They talk as
if we invented these terrible words, but we did not–we merely quote
the Scriptures of the Truths of God and they are terrible, indeed, to
the wicked! They should make men start in their sleep and never rest
until they find a Savior!

A Universalist once said to a Christian man that whatever he did, God
would not punish him. And the other replied, "If I spit on your god, I
suppose he will not punish me. If I curse him, if I defy him, it will
all come right at last?" "Yes," said the Universalist. "Well," answered
the other, "that may be the character ofyour God, but don't you try
that kind of thing with my God, the God of the Scriptures, or else you
will find that because He is Love, He cannot and He will not suffer
this world to be in anarchy, but He will rule it, and govern it, and He
will punish those that refuse His infinite compassion."

So I beseech you, my Hearers, fly to Jesus at once! Weary, and
heavy-laden, look to Him, for He says especially to you, "Come unto Me,
and I will give you rest." The Lord add His blessing to His Truths I
have tried to preach to you, the sweet and the terrible alike, for
Jesus' sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Hebrews 9

Verse 1. Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of Divine
service and a worldly sanctuary. That is to say, a material sanctuary,
a sanctuary made out of such things as this world contains. Under the
Old Covenant, there were certain outward symbols. Under the New
Covenant, we have not the symbols, but we have the substance itself.
The old Law dealt with types and shadows, but the Gospel deals with the
spiritual realities themselves.

2, 3. For 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. All this was by Divine appointment–the form of the
rooms, the style of the furniture–everything was ordained of God and
that not merely for ornament, but for purposes of instruction. As we
shall see farther on, the Holy Spirit intended a significance, a
teaching, a meaning, about everything in the old tabernacle, whether it
was a candlestick, or a table, or the showbread.

4, 5. Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid
round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and
Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and over it
the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now
speak particularly. It would not have been to the point which the
Apostle had in hand, so he waived the explanation of those things for
another time.

6-8. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always
into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into
the second went the high priest, alone, once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:
the Holy Spirit this signifying. It is from this sentence that I am
sure that the Holy Spirit had a signification, a meaning, a teaching,
for every item of the ancient tabernacle and Temple, and we are not
spinning fancies out of idle brains when we interpret these types, and
learn from them important Gospel lessons. "The Holy Spirit this
signifying"–

8. That the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest,
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. It was necessary that
you should take away the sacred tent, the tabernacle, yes, and take
away the Temple, too, before you could learn the spiritual meaning of
them. You must break the shell to get at the kernel. So God had
ordained. Hence, there is now no tabernacle, no Temple, no holy court,
no inner shrine, the Holy of holies. The material worship is done away
with in order that we may render the spiritual worship of which the
material was but the type.

9. Which was a figure for the time then present. Only a figure, and
only meant for "the time then present." It was the childhood of the
Lord's people. It was a time when, as yet, the Light of God had not
fully broken in upon spiritual eyes, so they must be taught by picture
books. They must have a kind of Kindergarten for the little children,
that they might learn the elements of the faith by the symbols, types
and representations of a material worship. When we come into the true
Gospel Light, all that is done away with–it was only "a figure for the
time then present."

9. In which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make
him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience. All
these rites could only give a fleshly purity, but they could not touch
the conscience. If men saw what was meant by the outward type, then the
conscience was appeased, but by the outward sign, itself, the
conscience was never comforted if it was a living and lowly conscience.

10. Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and
carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. These
ordinances were only laid upon the Jews–not upon any other people and
only laid upon them until the better and brighter days of reformation
and fuller illumination.

11. But Christ–Oh, how we seem to rise when we begin to get near to
Him, away from the high priests of the Jews! "But Christ"–

12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He
entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. The Jewish high priests went once a year into the Holy of
Holies. Each year, as it came round, demanded that they should go
again. Their work was never done! But, "He entered in once," and only
once, "into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."
I love that expression, "eternal redemption"–a redemption which really
does redeem and redeems forever and ever! If you are redeemed by it,
you cannot be lost. If this redemption is yours, it is not for a time,
or for a season, but it is, "eternal redemption." Oh, how you ought to
rejoice in the one entrance within the veil by our Great High Priest
who has obtained eternal redemption for us!

13-15. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an
heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the
flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause He is the
Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
When you come to deal with Christ, you have to do with eternal things.
There is nothing temporary about Him, or about His work. It is "eternal
redemption" that He has obtained for us! It is an "eternal inheritance"
that He has purchased for us!

16,17. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the
death of the testator. For a testament is offorce after men are dead:
otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives. Or,
"Where a covenant is, there must also be the death of him who
covenants, or of that by which the covenant is established." Or read it
as we have it in our version, for it seems as if it must be so,
although we are loathe to give the meaning of "testament" to the word,
since its natural meaning is evidently covenant–"Where a testament is,
there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a
testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no
strength at all while the testator lives." Or, if you will, while the
victim that was to confirm the covenant lived, the covenant was not
ratified–it must be slain before it could be thus effective.

18-22. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without
blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people
according to the Law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with
water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and
all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God
has enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the
tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things
are by the Law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no
remission. There is no truth more plain than this in the whole of the
Old Testament! And it must have within it a very weighty lesson to our
souls. There are some who cannot endure the doctrine of a
substitutionary Atonement. Let them beware lest they be casting away
the very soul and essence of the Gospel! It is evident that the
Sacrifice of Christ was intended to give ease to the conscience, for we
read that the blood of bulls and of goats could not do that. I fail to
see how any doctrine of atonement except the Doctrine of the Vicarious
Sacrifice of Christ can give ease to the guilty conscience! Christ in
my place suffering the penalty of my sin–that pacifies my conscience,
but nothing else does! "Without shedding of blood is no remission."

23. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the
heavens should be purified with these. These things down below are only
the patterns, the models, the symbols of the heavenly things! They
could, therefore, be ceremonially purified with the blood which is the
symbol of the atoning Sacrifice of Christ.

23, 24. But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than
these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,
which are the figures of the true; but into Heaven, itself, now to
appear in the Presence of God for us. He never went within the veil in
the Jewish Temple–that was but the symbol of the true Holy of Holies.
He has gone "into Heaven, itself, now to appear in the Presence of God
for us."

25-28. 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 has 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. There is no need that He should die again, His one offering has
forever perfected all His people! There remains nothing but His final
coming for the judgment of the ungodly and the acquittal of His
redeemed.

28. And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time
without sin unto salvation. Christ's second coming will be "without
sin," and without a sin offering, too, wholly apart from sin, unto the
salvation of all His chosen. May we all be among those who are looking
for Him! Amen.