2Co 1:3 Blessed be
God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the
God of all comfort;
God is the father of mercies! He is the God of all comfort.
2Co 9:8 And God is
able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all
sufficiency in all things, may abound to
every good work:
Always! That ye,
always.... That ye always…. Every one of us has inadequacies and has
great challenges to face. Always have
all sufficiency in all things.
Everything that would tax us, God has what we need so that we can be
sufficient in all things. He has
everything that we need so that we can abound to every good work.
There is a place of all sufficiency. There is a place where all sufficiency is
supplied. God gave the pattern to Moses
and it has carried to the Gospel Day.
There is a reference made of the pattern even in heaven. God gave Moses the pattern of the Tabernacle.
The Tabernacle was about fifteen by forty-five cubits. Outside the Tabernacle was the brazen altar
and the laver. I want to get to the fact
that there is a place of all sufficiency.
Inside there is the table of shew bread, there is the candlestick, the
golden altar and a way into the Holiest of Holies where is the Ark of the Covenant
and the mercy seat.
I’m glad that the mercy seat is still a part of the glorious
Gospel. I think of the prayer requests
that come in. Some are for those that
are so innocent: Little children that
are in homes and those that come to vacation bible school.
But there are those that this congregation is burdened for
that are as Paul described of the Corinthians as to how they were before
salvation. I’m talking about my
family. My heart is broken when I think
of where some of my family is this morning.
Think of being in this maze not that was created by man but by
the prince and power of darkness. The
only hope is that someone can find the mercy seat and pray, supplicate, worship
and pleed with almighty God for souls.
The brazen altar was where in the Olden Testament the
animals were offered. In the New
Testament it is where Christ was offered to bear the sins of many. He bore our sin, who knew no sin. I feel that I was the chief of sinners.
When we go back to tabernacle worship and stop and pause to
think that there was the very son of God offered so that you could be rid of
your past and have a new presence. There
is much more to be said, it is a wonderful study. If you have the Bible Readings for Bible
Students, it is page 113.
You don’t stop with the beginning, the brazen altar; you
have the privilege of going to the laver.
You tell God, “You have washed me, but I will be washed.” When men and women become desperate before
God they say, “Heavenly Father, I so need you that I don’t care what you wash
away. I so need to meet with God and
mercy.”
It doesn’t matter who in this world what your heart may be
burdened for. You should pray for
children, they are often the target of evil.
You should pray for the sinner. “Father,
anything in my personality that needs to be changed, anything in the way that I
think about things, anything in the way that I handle my time, my business,
anything that makes me draw back in a shell and not do what you want me to, I
must be washed of that because I must obtain mercy for this one.”
We saw a young school teacher that had a golf cart accident that
is no longer with us, so we know how serious accidents are. We must reach the mercy seat for this granddaughter
of Sister Sharon’s.
We have a God of miracles.
If you can see Jason, you see a miracle.
I like to look at miracles every once in a while. There is a boy that never would have been
normal and may have been in eternity if it had gone as the doctor said it
could. There were those that were willing
to take the time and go before the mercy seat to plead with God.
There are not any that have tasted of sin that doesn’t
realize, “I could have gone past what anyone would have imagined but someone
reached the mercy seat, someone cared for me.”
You pray and think, “This is how I am about stuff, this is
how I hang onto stuff, and this is how I deal with the factor of time.” If there is anything to be washed in your
life, if there is any hesitation, perhaps because of trespassed of the past, perhaps
you don’t want to give everything to God and reach out to the saints because:
what if you are hurt again? You cannot
have self preservation and reach the mercy seat.
You cannot hold back and reach the mercy seat. This is the day to give. I’m not talking about your money, we need to
give of ourselves and be willing to say, “I’m willing to risk what I thought I
would never risk. I’m going to give, I’m
going to love, and I’m going to sacrifice.”
We enter the door of the Tabernacle.
That is the only way to reach the mercy seat and that is to go through
the door.
In order to reach the mercy seat, you must come through the
door. In order to get through the door,
you must unload everything. Unload
everything, “I have to get though the door.”
As you enter the door, there are things that are already prepared. The table of the shew bread is ready. There is a lot of food for you
spiritually. There was a fresh olive oil
with herbs that makes that literal bread taste even better to you.
We set down to the Word of God today and it speaks to us
over and over. We enjoy it with the Holy
Spirit of God. It isn’t long until the
light from the candle stick, the light of regeneration yes, but it is not only
that, it is light. It is so awesome when
light from the Word of God and spiritual light comes. It comes as a focus on the fleshly tables of
our soul. It sheds light and we say,
“Thank you for the light.”
We don’t want to get to the mercy seat to just pray for
loved ones; we are worshipping God.
We come to the golden altar where we present our self a
living sacrifice. We count the cost and
give ourselves wholly to God and ask that the Holy Ghost purify us and that every
trace of carnality be cleansed from us.
I will be found here over and over again offering the sacrifice of
praise.
It is wonderful when God says, “Come to the Holiest of Holies. Let me introduce you to the Ark of the
Covenant. In the day of Moses, I wrote
with my finger on the tables of stones the commandments. Today as you come in, I am writing on the
fleshly tables of the heart.” It isn’t a
head knowledge only it is a heart knowledge.
God ordained in Exodus 25:16-22, Moses this is how it is
supposed to be, you build the ark a certain size, and put the things to the
carry the ark just so. Build the mercy
seat out of pure gold.
When I read this of the pure gold, it spoke to me so strong
of the purity of God and the purity of His mercy. I thought of the word mercy, I thought of the
word, compassion. They are words that
came into being to describe God. He is
merciful, compassion describes God.
I think of the two Timothys that are guilty. The one is in prison because, as he said, “I
am here because I deserve to be here.”
Everyone must come to the position of saying before they get saved, “I
am here because I disobeyed God.” The
first Timothy was shot by his own father.
It is a world that I cannot even grasp.
It happened in our own area. This
is a horrible world and it is using all its powers, its distractions, and all
it offers to keep you from getting to the ark of His mercy.
All the principalities of the air are working with all their
powers. In Pilgrim’s Progress it speaks
of this. We are blessed to have the
power of the word of God so that we can worship at the Ark of the Covenant.
Build the mercy seat of pure gold. Build two cherubims of gold. I wish I knew how to describe these cherubims. I think of them of as angels. They were to be on either side of the mercy
seat. Their wings were to come up and
meet the other’s over the mercy seat.
Exo 25:22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will
commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims
which are upon the ark of the testimony,
of all things which I will give thee in
commandment unto the children of Israel.
Everyone in this audience gets lonesome for someone. We’d like to meet with them. There is a natural built in part of us that
hungers for God. It needs to meet and
commune with God. It is not just the
thought, “I need to get a hold of God and tell Him that I need…” No, it is like meeting an old acquaintance
and you say, “Let’s just visit. Let’s
just be together.”
This is how it was when God was dealing with Moses. “There is going to be a place where I can
meet and commune.”
Mercy and compassion describe God. I preach openly this morning and ask this not
of you but of myself. “How can I receive
mercy?” My insufficiency is so great and
my burdens are heavy. The answer is to
go to the sanctuary. It is not just this
building. Yes God will help us in His
house, but it must be more than just the little bit of time that we spend
here.
We recognize that we are so inadequate and are not
sufficient in ourselves. We hear the
burdens of the family of God. What
answer do we have for our self this morning.
Psalm 84 was written for the sons of Korah. They had chosen to be different than some
other family and different than their influences. It was Korah that rebelled and the earth
opened up. It is wonderful that there
have been sons and daughters clear back to Korah that had something in them
that hungered for God.
I am in the same generation, I hunger for God. I must have mercy on my life and on my prayer
life.
How amiable are thy tabernacles. How beautiful it is that there is a place of
sacrifice. What sacrifice do I have to
give? Nothing to atone for my sin. Jesus made the sacrifice. We are not worshippers of statues, or of the
hill where Jesus was crucified. Spiritually
I go back there and thank God that the price was paid that I could be forgiven.
It is wonderful that spiritually there is a place where you
can go and wash. We can be washed from that
thing that makes us so ugly in the human and makes us so that we are worthless
to God’s purpose.
There are places where there are so many middle walls of
partition. Aren’t you glad that we serve
a God that takes the middle wall of partition out of our heart? I’m not against any culture. But it is a mighty sad thing when people have
never gotten in here far enough to get the middle wall of partition taken care
of. It is of our benefit to be able to
get to the mercy seat of God.
Psa 84:1 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A
Psalm for the sons of Korah. How amiable are
thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
Psa 84:2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the
courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Psa 84:3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the
swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and
my God.
Psa 84:4 Blessed are
they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
It is a blessing to be able to get to the shew bread, to be
able to get light, and to be able to get understanding. If you need wisdom this morning, you can get
it right here. You must pass the
laver. If you are going to hold onto self
then you will never get to God. If you
are hanging onto self, I’d get rid of self, I’d get rid of the attitude.
When light from heaven shines into your heart and says, “Son
or daughter, this is not making you pretty, leave it here. I can separate it from you and you will be
praising God.”
There is no getting into the door and getting all these good
things without praise.
Blessed is the man that gets his strength from tabernacle
worship, from having the very presence of God, from coming here and saying, “I
just want to praise you for what you have done.
I remember coming in so needy and you saved me. I remember when you delivered me from the
broad-way.”
If you haven’t studied the broad-way then you should. Everything goes. “Don’t say anything about anything. Anything goes. Who are you to say?” If the Spirit of God convicts my heart than I
can say that it is wrong. It is wrong if
it happens to other people and it is wrong if it happens to your own.
Psa 84:5 Blessed is
the man whose strength is in thee; in
whose heart are the ways of them.
Psa 84:6 Who
passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the
pools.
Passes through the valley of weeping: That is life.
Our heart will be broken. We will
know disappointment, sleepless nights, and having hope and being
disappointed. When that happens, and it
will, there is a wonderful teaching: Go
to tabernacle worship, pass by, and remember where you before and how you got
to where you are.
Remember that the words mercy and compassion describe God
and as you pass through the valley of weeping you make it a well, a place to
draw fresh and refreshing waters from.
We have been taxed and we will be taxed again, but there is a place to
be filled.
The rain of the Word of God falls gently and then you can go
and say, “I’ve suffered loss but God gave me this song and God gave me this
scripture.”
Psa 84:7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
This is appearing before Zion and appearing before the mercy
seat.
Psa 84:8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give
ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
Psa 84:9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the
face of thine anointed.
Psa 84:10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Psa 84:11 For the LORD God is
a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly.
Psa 84:12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
Get to the mercy seat.
Do you need healing emotionally, physically, mentally? Then get to the mercy seat. Do you have a burden for someone? Do you know someone that has a great
need? We must get to the mercy
seat. God promised, “I’ll commune with
you there.”
I think of people that are so devil possessed that there is
no hope in the world for them. There is
hope if someone can reach the mercy seat.
I think of individuals that have made such a mess. Someone would say, “They are gone. They are totally gone.” Yes they are except
someone reach the mercy seat on their behalf.
Someone says, “I’m going to get to the mercy seat.”
We have parents, grandparents, and great grandparents here
this morning. You say, “I am so
burdened.” Let me help you, God has made
a plan whereby you can bear that petition to Him from a place where he waits to
meet and commune.
I think of individuals that plead for someone with the court
and with the teacher. It may be that
there is some mom or dad that comes in to talk to a teacher in this audience,
“My son is struggling will you give him another chance?”
There are some that have said no so many times that they
don’t hear God speaking to them anymore.
They have handled strange doctrines, strange ideas, and strange
spirits. Yet, so had the
Corinthians. They had imbibed so many
things that it had messed them up.
As far as the world, it will try to put a big Band-Aid on
them. There is a place called the
Holiest of Holies that men and women can go into and meet with God. I was there this morning. I was pleading with God for things that only
God can change. You can by faith reach
there and you can tell God how much you want your daddy to be saved. For you with unsaved family, you can tell God
how much you want them to be saved.
Life can experience great changes because of the mercy
seat. Timothy 1 can experience great
things because God moves on them.
There is a place called the mercy seat. It is alright to go there and plead for sons,
for daughters, for those that you love.
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