The Ark of the Covenant and the Day of Atonement

Well, good afternoon, everyone. I thought I could sneak in and not have to speak today. And Mr. Cowan caught me at the door, and he can be a very persuasive man. So I really enjoy the opportunity. You know, last time we were here about a year ago, it was in the summertime, we were talking about how the building you were in then, you were outgrowing. And we were going to have to move. Well, you outgrew that building, and you filled this one up, too. So it's nice to see that kind of growth happening in some of the churches. We're having some growth in San Antonio. We're up now to our average attendance is probably...

Well, we average about 170. We'll hit 180 from time to time. Austin has grown from about 30 to over 80. And Waco has grown from about 15 to almost 30. So it's taken about the last five years, but this growth is beginning to happen. God's beginning to call new people. We had a baptism last month in Waco with a man who had never... He had heard of Herbert Armstrong sometime in his youth, but he had never been associated at all with the Worldwide Church of God. And so he was a man who basically was a brand new person and baptized him as he came into the church.

His story was like Job. I mean, the man found the truth, decided... He started to get the magazine. He got on the Internet, decided this is what he wanted to do, and he wanted to live this way. So he started to keep the Sabbath. And I've never seen someone's life fall apart quite like his life fell apart. I mean, he got fired. He became so ill that he couldn't get out of bed, and so his wife left him. So he lost basically everything he owned. His wife left him. He was ill, and he didn't have a job. And he lived way out in the country, so he couldn't come to church because he lived about 50 miles from church.

For about six months, that man was totally alone. We lost contact with him. We didn't know what happened to him because he left him. He wasn't in his house anymore. And then he said, no, I'm going to continue to obey God. And he got better, got his job back, got another wife. Life got good for him again. So things got better. How many of you saw the 1981 movie Raiders of the Lost Ark?

How many of you have seen that movie? Almost everybody. Of course, the big adventure film has nothing to do with reality. The archaeologist, Indiana Jones, is looking for the Ark of the Covenant. And of course, the Nazis are too. And it's amazing how German soldiers were such bad shots because they could never shoot him. And he could do all these stunts. There was one thing in the movie I just laughed when I saw it because he gets on the back of a U-boat. And the U-boat goes across the Mediterranean and gets off at a port and he jumps off the U-boat.

Now, for one thing, that means that U-boat never went under the water or he learned to hold his breath for a long time. So there's all these, you know, it was just a silly movie, but the whole thing about it was the Ark of the Covenant. And there's a fascination with the Ark of the Covenant.

What happened to it? You know, archaeologists are looking for it today. I just saw something on the History Channel in the last two months about the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia. There's a place in Ethiopia where the Ark of the Covenant is supposed to be there. That they took it after the time of Solomon and there's a group of priests that protect it and nobody can go inside.

So there's no proof that it's in there except those priests say it's in there and nobody can get in to see it. There's archaeologists who have claimed to have actually found the Ark of the Covenant under the Temple Mall. But the Israeli government won't let them go get it.

According to the first Maccabees, the ancient Jewish writings from the time of a century and a half before Christ, Jeremiah took the Ark of the Covenant and buried it in a cave. And it's going to be in that cave until the Messiah comes. Well, the Ark of the Covenant actually is very important in this day. And the Day of Atonement in ancient Israel centered around the Ark of the Covenant. And it has a lot to say about our keeping of this day, too, and understanding the Ark of the Covenant and a certain part of it. Let's go to Exodus chapter 25.

We'll start at verse 10. These were the instructions that were given to Moses about the construction of the Ark.

He says, you should make an Ark of a case of wood. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half of it will be its height. Basically, that's about two and a fourth feet high and about three and three quarters feet long. So it's not a very big box. It's just a big box is what it is. Or not a small box. Small box. And it's made out of this special kind of wood that they had to select. And then in verse 11, you shall overlay it with pure gold. Inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make it a molding of gold all around. So they had to take then this wooden box, and they had to just really just thick layer of gold. So it must have been pretty heavy. Because now it's thick layer of gold all over this wooden box.

And you shall cast four rings of gold for it. This is verse 12. And you shall put them in its four corners. Two rings shall be on one side, two rings on the other side. And you shall make poles of this special case of wood and overlay them with gold. So now there's four rings, golden rings, and there's two long poles overlaid with gold to put in those rings. And they were given very special instructions on how that was to be carried. If you remember at the time of David, a man tried to catch the ark as it was falling off a wagon. And God killed him. Because it wasn't supposed to be carted around in the wagon. It was supposed to be carried in a very specific way because this box, this little box, had incredible symbolism in their understanding of who God was.

And this day centered around this box. He says, verse 15, the pole shall be in the rings of the ark, shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I give you. Now the testimony was the Ten Commandments. Sometimes this is called the ark of the testimony.

And so the tables of stone that had the Ten Commandments were to be put inside this box. And you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. This is what we're really going to center on today. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit in half its width. And you shall make two carabium of gold of hammered work. And you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.

And so the top of this box was to be solid gold. There was no wood in it. It was solid gold. And it was to sit on top of it. And on both ends of this box were to be the symbolization of two carabs, two angels. He says in verse 19, Make one carab at one end, the other carab at the other end. And you shall make the carabium at the two ends of one piece with the mercy seat. So this had to be made of one piece. This top and these two angels were all made of one piece. It wasn't like they made one piece and then welded it on somehow. It was all solid gold and had to be handcrafted.

This was the crowning point, and it was called the mercy seat. And it was called the mercy seat, and it sat on top of the ark.

And the carabium shall stretch out, verse 20, their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings. And they shall face one another. The faces of the carabium shall be toward the mercy seat. And if you see representations of this, you know, what you have are these two winged creatures with the wings stretched out and pointed towards each other, towards the center of the top of this box. Now, the ark of the covenant also would eventually contain a jar of manna, and it would contain Aaron's rod, which budded all the time. You know, it was these miracle things that God did would be put inside this ark. And that's all that was in it.

And every place that Israel went when they were in the wilderness, the ark had to be carried in front of them. When it would go someplace, they would stay there, and they would know it was time to go because they would sound the trumpets, and they would see the Levites tearing down the tabernacle.

Now we got to go. Where do we go? Notice chapter 10 of Numbers. Numbers chapter 10.

So this is the real ark of the covenant. Of course, if you remember the movie, everybody was trying to get a hold of the ark of the covenant, because whoever had it had these magical powers. Whichever army in which this ark was with would be victorious. And so the Germans wanted it because if they had it, they could defeat all the armies in the world. And of course, Indiana Jones wanted to make sure they didn't get it, because then they would be able to defeat the United States. And it was like the whole concept of the movie was quite... They took this whole thing and paganized it is what they did. The whole idea was that there was magic in the box.

And God somehow put magic in this box. And if you controlled the box, you controlled God, which is the whole idea of paganism, by the way. That's why you have rain dances, and that's why you do sacrifices. The sacrifices of the Old Testament have a totally different purpose than the sacrifices of paganism. Rituals of paganism was in order to manipulate the gods, so they had to do what you wanted.

And so human beings could learn to somehow control the gods if they did the right things.

Well, this idea that this box was magic, misses the whole point. The box was a symbol of something. And yes, there was a power in it. When Israel had this with them, they did win battles. Except when they turned against God.

Saul thought if he took it with him in the battle, he would have to be victorious. He could control God by having the Ark of the Covenant. Remember what happened when Saul took the Ark of the Covenant in the battle? He lost. The Philistines stole it and took it off. So it's wood and gold. And yes, what was in it was amazing. Mana created by God, and it didn't rot. In a piece of wood, a staff, a rod that kept budding after it was dead. And yes, two tables of stones. Wonderful, incredible things. But there was no magic to this. But there was an incredible symbolism to it.

Numbers 10, verse 33.

This is when Israel left Mount Sinai after they had received the Ten Commandments. They departed from the mountain of the Lord on a journey of three days, and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord went before them for the three days journey to search out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the Lord was above them by day when they went out from the camp. So it was whenever the Ark set out that Moses said, Rise up, O Lord, let your enemies be scattered. Let those who hate you flee before you. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel. So whenever the cloud would move, pack up the tent, pack up the stuff.

The specific Levites who were chosen to do so would pick up the Ark, and off they would go. And the rest of Israel would start tearing down their camp and get in their order. There was a certain order in which they were supposed to follow the Ark.

And they would get in their order. You can imagine millions of people. It would take days for the last group to get started. When you think about millions of people breaking down, so the Levites start out, and each tribe falls in behind, and they go on for days. If they go on for three days, probably about the time the first group was sitting down and said, Okay, the last group is leaving the last camp.

Because it would take that long to pack up everything, get everybody moving, get the herds going. But they were always following the mercy seat. The top of the concept of the mercy seat, that this represented the very throne of God.

It's interesting, of course, when they created the tabernacle, and then the temple that was mentioned in the sermonette, that when these things were created, there were two rooms. And the inner room, or the Holy of Holies, or the holiest place, is where the Ark was put. It was the only thing in that room. All the sacrifices, everything else was done outside that room. But in that room, there was this one thing, this little box, covered with gold, with two poles, and this heavy gold top with these two angels stretched out, pointing towards each other, their wings, representing the mercy seat. And whenever God wanted to interact with Moses, whenever God wanted to let Israel know something, he would come down, that cloud, that pillar of cloud and that pillar of fire, would come down and rest in the temple and fill this room. Nobody was allowed to go into that room, except once a year on the Day of Atonement. No one was allowed to go into that room on penalty of death.

And in Solomon's temple, the same thing. If you read about when Solomon dedicated the temple, he built that the inner room, the outer room, and then the court of the Gentiles, all the things he had around it. And on his prayer of dedication, the Shekinah, that's what it's the glory of God. A cloud appeared and came down and filled that room of the temple. All the priests had to leave the temple. The power, the energy that was coming from that cloud, was so great they all left the temple because the glory of God filled that room and came upon this little box, the mercy seat. Now we know what happened on this day, all the different sacrifices that took place. Many times we go through them in detail. We'll just mention them today. The sacrifices, the bull that had to be sacrificed, and the blood sprinkled on the priest. And there was two goats, one goat representing Satan. And many times we just zero in on that. I want to zero in on the mercy seat today. The other one that represented Jesus Christ and that sacrifice. But I want to go to Leviticus 16 and just look at the first couple verses. Leviticus 16. The sermonette, they were just a perfect introduction to where I want to go today, so it was good. Which is really amazing when you figured I didn't know I was going to speak today. So God had something to do with that. Leviticus 16. Verse 1. Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they offered profane fire before the Lord and said. So here's what happened. You know, Aaron's two sons decided that they didn't have to do the worship services exactly like God wanted. There was a special fire that had to be kindled all the time by the priest. They must have let it gone out and they just went and grabbed some fire and went in to do some of the services. God killed them. God said, there's a holiness here.

Part of the purpose for this day is for us to understand exactly what the holiness of the mercy is and to understand that it is only by the mercy of God that we're allowed to approach it.

This day is linked profoundly to the Passover. The Passover is centered around Balaam.

It is centered around, and we understand that that was a symbol, it was centered around the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins and His resurrection for our sins so that we can be saved. So we're steering at that time of year on the Lamb, and Jesus Christ is the Lamb.

Now, this time of year, we're centering on Him as a resurrected person and what He does is High Priest. And so they're linked together. One is His sacrifice, the other centers in on His present work. And His present work as High Priest is to bring the people God calls to the mercy seat.

And this is why this day is linked to the Passover. We understand it more profoundly than they could have ever understood it because we're looking at two of the the jobs of Jesus Christ. Sacrificial Lamb, High Priest. In a few days, we're going to be celebrating Him as King. Okay, we have those three aspects of the Gospel. Christ comes to save mankind's humanity from sin. He then acts as High Priest who changes. This is what modern Christianity has missed. They want to accept Jesus Christ as Savior because everybody wants to be saved. Nobody wants to accept Him as High Priest. No one wants to accept what this day is about. That you have a Lord and a Master, and that He is your High Priest, and you obey and follow Him. And we are profoundly today, profoundly here doing a simple thing like fasting. You know, you think of what God asks of us. It's usually very simple things. You think about that. You know, the ceremonies we do, we get anointed for being sick. Just very simple ceremonies in the New Testament. We fast on the Day of Atonement as we come to humble ourselves before the mercy seat and before the High Priest who takes us to that mercy seat. Because you and I have the opportunity to go before that mercy seat every day of our lives because of our High Priest. Every day of our lives.

That's what makes Hebrews 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 so profound. Because Paul explains to the New Testament church the entire day of Atonement. What it all means, all the symbols involved. Well, he doesn't go through the Azazelgo, but he goes through the symbols of the High Priest on this day. He goes through the symbols of the mercy seat on this day. And he explains all about it. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 9. Pick up here a section, putting in some details of what was mentioned in the sermon at. I thought about just getting up here and reading Hebrews 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. But then I thought, well, that might be a little too much. But, I mean, that would cover everything. You really understand this day when you read those chapters. But let's look at chapter 9 of the book of Hebrews. And verse 1. Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. See, that covenant given to Israel, we know we're under the new covenant. He says, let's look at that covenant and look how important those divine services were. For tabernacle was prepared in the first part, which was the lampstand, the table, the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. Behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant, overlaid on all sides with gold, to which there was a golden pot that had manna, errands rod that butted, and the tablets of the covenant. And above it were the caribbean of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat of these things we cannot speak in detail. He says, you know, Paul basically says, I could just spend hours writing to you about what that means. He says, I can't even give you in detail what that means. Because that was the center of the entire Old Testament worship system. The center of it was the mercy seat. All the sacrifices happening outside was so that you could have the privilege of coming to the mercy seat. So what happens is we can get so into the, or the Israelites got so into the sacrifices, it could become a form of paganism to them. I can manipulate God by going and doing a sacrifice. But the sacrifice was to come to accept, I must have a substitute. I must have a substitute. If I come before the throne of God, I am unworthy and God requires my life. So I must bring a substitute for my life. That's what a sacrifice was. It wasn't that manipulate God like in paganism. You were bringing a substitute. If you didn't bring a substitute, you didn't get to come before the mercy seat. You had to forfeit your own life.

That was the concept behind it. And so they brought the substitute. You and I have a substitute. We celebrated that at the Passover. That substitute has been brought before the mercy seat. So guess what that priest now does? He brings you and I to the mercy seat of God to have a relationship with the Almighty God. We're brought before that mercy seat. Mercy in Hebrew, the word mercy in English doesn't have the same subtleties. We talk about mercy. You can think of a despot saying, oh, I have mercy on you. Go ahead. I'm just showing you how good I am. I'll have mercy on people to show how wonderful I am. Mercy in Hebrew, to really show mercy, you had to have compassion on the person. There was an emotion attached to mercy. In English, you don't have to have an emotion attached to mercy. Mercy is just you got off, right? The policeman said, oh, go ahead. I won't give you a ticket today. No, he may not have any emotion at all. He might have just been having a bad day. He was thinking about something else and didn't want to do the work. We saw, wow, great, he was merciful. But in Hebrew, the word has so much more context and so much more meaning. And that there's an emotion. The person showing the mercy is extending an emotion towards the person.

An emotion of compassion. That they actually desire the person not to have the penalty. They desire to give that person forgiveness. True, complete forgiveness. And so the person's sins are wiped out. So this mercy seat is the place you go to receive compassion. Not just forgiveness, it's just not God impersonally saying, oh yeah, yeah, you're a sinner. I apply Christ's sacrifice. Go ahead. This is coming before God where compassion is given. He's saying, come, I am willing to take you now into the Holy of Holies. You can come into my inner sanctum. You can come into where I am, God says, and you can become part of me and we will have a relationship. And that's what this is all about. You know, if we come and we fast and we do the simple ceremonies of coming to church on the Day of Atonement, and that's all we do, we've missed the point. The point is that one meant with God. It is relationship with God. It is a compassion. It is the grace of God that reaches out to people who have accepted the Passover, that accepted that part, and now are willing to obediently give themselves to God. And the high priest brings them into the Holy of Holies.

And so on this day, you're reminded that not just on this day, but all the other days, you get to go to the Holy of Holies. You get to go to the very mercy seat of God.

He goes on, he says, now that when these things had been prepared, verse 6, the priest always went to the first part of the tabernacle before performing the services. But into the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way of the Holy of Holies was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. As long as this was the form of worship, people could not have an intimate relationship with God where they were given His Spirit, except for a few. But the majority of Israelites never received God's Holy Spirit. We see the few that did. We see David, and we see those great examples who did. Most did not. Because as long as this was the form of worship, there was a barrier between them and God, and the mercy seat was simply symbolized. They were given mercy, and they were given a physical relationship with God. They related to God physically. What did He do? He gave them good crops. He protected them from armies. Right? But we have the opportunity because of what this symbolized becoming reality with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Him taking His place as High Priest. Under this priesthood, we have the reality every day of a spiritual relationship with God.

And we come into that relationship, and we receive those blessings every day. He says, verse 9, It was symbolic for the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make Him who has performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. He says, they can keep doing those things, but it doesn't change the man's heart. God doesn't come and live in that person through the Holy Spirit, concerning only with foods and drinks, various washings and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation. But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation.

And so verse 12 says, He entered that holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. All those things that were happening on the Day of Atonement for all those hundreds of years was like a big play, and they symbolized what was actually happening in heaven.

When Christ was resurrected and went back to heaven, the play was no longer needed. The reality was taking place. The shame is, is the belief that somehow, oh, now we don't have to keep the Day of Atonement. Now, now the Day of Atonement has its real meaning.

Now it has its real meaning. It can be stripped of what had to be attached as a teaching tool. What had to be attached as a play to teach people can be, that can be removed. And we can now observe this day in the reality of what's happening. You and I now today can praise God. You and I now today can get on our knees at the end of this day and thank Jesus Christ for being there.

That He's actually there as High Priest. He's fulfilling a function that when you and I come before God, He turns to the mercy seat where the Father is and says, apply my sacrifice to this person and let this person be your child. And the Father says, you are my child.

That's the reality that happens. That's what this day is all about.

Not keeping this day is one reason why mainstream Christianity just keeps moving farther and farther away from the Bible. Farther and farther away from what this really teaches. We're in the New Testament right now. We're not in the Old Testament.

Paul explains what it all meant.

How much meaning this has when we understand that those symbols, the reality is now taking place. You know, when we keep the Feast of Tabernacles, we will be celebrating a totally future event when Christ comes down and sets up the kingdom on the earth. You and I on the day of Atonement, we're celebrating an event that is already partly happening because Jesus Christ is already the high priest. It's not totally fulfilled, but it's partly fulfilled.

It's not totally fulfilled until all the world comes under His priesthood, but it is now partly fulfilled. You know why? Because you're under His priesthood, because I'm under His priesthood.

So this day is already being fulfilled right now in your life. In your life.

He goes on and talks about how the different ceremonies and the sprinkling of blood.

Verse 23 says, Well, verse 22, And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in heaven should be purified with these things, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices for these. In other words, Jesus Christ then is the better sacrifice. But notice you have to have blood for purification. It's interesting that in the different, you know, you have the Orthodox Jews, and you have the Reform Jews, and you have the Liberal Jews, in these different Jewish denominations, they do different things on this day.

They are presented with an incredibly difficult theological problem.

In order for them to come before the mercy seat, they understand the symbolism you have to come before God. The mercy seat is God where God sits. It is His mercy, it is grace that allows people to come before Him. It's only through forgiveness that anybody's allowed to come. They understand that. They have no temple. They can't carry out the commands. And since things have to be purified, how can they keep this day? In some Jewish synagogues today, they will take a chicken, and a person will stand up and rip that chicken around until they break its neck, and blood pours out. And they will say, blood has been shed so that we can now come before the mercy seat of God. In some Jewish synagogues, they will waive money in the air.

We have brought a sacrifice, which I understand why they're doing it. Without the hope and knowledge of Christ as the sacrifice, they must come before God with something on this day to appear before the mercy seat, and they have nothing to give. There is no temple. They can't bring a lamb and sacrifice it. They're not allowed to. So they'll kill a chicken, or they'll waive money, and put it in the pot.

If I get, God, this is my sacrifice. A hundred dollars. Can I now come before your mercy seat? Will you now accept me?

You know, you brought an offering, but your offering, your acceptance of God on this day was not dependent on your offering. Aren't you glad of that?

How much money could you bring? Or the way the economy's gone, you know, it's probably less than it was in the past.

You know, if our acceptance by God was based on the amount of money we brought today, we're all doomed.

Our acceptance before God today was based upon the fact that Jesus Christ was the sacrifice. He now is the high priest carrying out that sacrifice. Apply my sacrifice to these people. And on this day, you and I come before God's mercy seat.

And we can now enter into a relationship with Him at one moment.

We begin to enter into this relationship with Him.

And we look forward to that resurrection when that relationship is truly completed. I mean, there's always a gulf between us and God, even with His Spirit, as long as we're physical. That'll all be gone. That's what Paul said. I really want to be there. He says He'd be better to die. At one point, he said, if it wasn't for the church and my responsibilities for the church, I'd just soon die. Come out in the resurrection and see God as He is. Be with God as He is.

He longed for that one moment with God. But he also understood the reason he longed for it is because he was already beginning to understand it. He was starting to experience it in a limited way. You and I are experiencing it one moment in a limited way. Because you and I were incomplete, we were incomplete people at one time. You were an individual at one time. If you received God's Spirit, you're not an individual anymore. God's in you. It says He comes and dwells in us.

You're in a relationship with God where He's in there. Everything we think, everything we do, He's there. He's actually inside us. We're already entering into an intimate relationship with God because of what Christ is doing and what this day symbolizes. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 3, and we'll get just an understanding of how the two covenants play into this day in the mercy seat. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and verse 7.

Here Paul is showing that the difference between the two covenants isn't the total abrogation of the first one, but a totally different administration of God's law. You have to understand that 10 commandments weren't done away with. I mean, you know this, but it's just frustrating that when you try to tell people the 10 commandments weren't done away with, they are administered differently because we're under a different priesthood. So all the priesthood rituals we don't do because that priest is doing those realities.

That priest is carrying out those things every day before God. So we don't need to act out of play.

We need to act out of play to learn he's doing it.

But the Day of Atonement wasn't done away with. It's administered totally differently. You and I didn't come here with the sacrifice today. You and I didn't watch the high priest slay the animals and sprinkle blood all over us. It's administered totally differently. And that's what he's talking about. When you see the word ministry in 1st in 2nd Corinthians 3, it would actually be better translated, administration.

It captures the full meaning of the Greek word. So the administration. So if we look at we start in verse 7, he says, but if the administration of death, you know, that's the problem trying to earn salvation through the law. The law is wonderful. We love the law. The law teaches us good from evil. But if I believe I can, if I learn to keep the law perfectly, God will have to accept me and I can appear before the mercy seat without a sacrifice. You talk about a useless waste of your life because the moment you commit a sin, you're doomed. You break the law one time, you're doomed. So the problem is you can't earn it by keeping the law. Don't do this. Do this. This is right and wrong. But you can't use it as your means of salvation, which is Paul's argument all the time. Christ came because we're all sinners. We all have to be saved. Now let's go keep the law. Okay, that's it's a simple argument, but let's keep it under his administration. We don't have to keep it under the Levitical administration. We don't have to keep it under the way it was done then.

So he says, if the administration of death written engraved on stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, whose glory was passing away. Remember, when he went up and got those tables of stone and he saw the backside of God, you know, his back when he walked it, he saw that he came down, his face was glowing for days. They had to put something over him because the people couldn't stand to look at him. And he says, if that was so powerful and so glorious that Moses was shining after receiving, how will the ministry of the Spirit be more glorious?

So now we're under the administration of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is poured out on those who accept the Passover and come under the priesthood of the atonement symbolizes. He says, for the ministry of condemnation had glory, all the law eventually could do was kill you.

That's why you had to keep bringing animals every day. You had to keep coming for the mercy seat and hoping that your sheep was good enough as a very poor substitute. The substitute for my life is a sheep. I sure hope God accepts that sheep. One thing about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has already been accepted because his life was worth more than all of ours and all human beings in history put together. So easy, easy. This one was worth more than all of ours. So that sacrifice has been accepted. You don't have to worry. You don't have to bring a lamb today. The lamb was already sacrificed. So we're accepted. He says, if the administration of condemnation of glory, the administration of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels. In other words, he says that was glorious, but compared to what's actually happening right now, it just almost pales into insignificance. A temple, a building, you know, a tent made out of animal skins. He says that just pales into insignificance. Well, we understand what's happening now. For if what is passing away was glorious, and it was still passing away then, the temple still existed. And as long as that temple existed, and as long as there were Jews doing sacrifices at that temple, the old covenant still existed.

But he said it's going to pass away. And he says, what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech. Unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face, said the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of which it was passing away. But their minds were blinded, for until this day the same veil remains un-lifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. And that's why Leviticus 16 will be read in synagogues today.

And someone will stand up and ring the neck of a chicken.

And they will still be trying to somehow have God accept them into a mercy seat in which the ways in which it was done have been destroyed.

They can't do it. I wonder if there's frustration sometimes in the rabbis when they say, how are we supposed to do it? The temple no longer exists. And yet because of not an understanding of Christ, they're still desperately trying today to be able to appear before that mercy seat.

He says, Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And so there's a liberty. There's a freedom. A freedom from guilt. Not a freedom to go break the law.

There's a freedom of forgiveness. There's a freedom that comes from forgiveness. There's a freedom that comes from mercy. There's a freedom that comes from that grace of God when it's given to us. That we're now free to go live our lives the way we're supposed to. He gives us the power. And when we do fail, we don't want to go back under that slavery. When we do fail, we want to go ask for forgiveness, and we want to stop doing what we're doing. That's not a freedom of sin. It's the opposite. The exact opposite.

And so we're here on this day without the veil. Remember when Jesus was killed, the veil in the temple that separated the rest of the temple from the Holy of Holies was ripped in two. And there was nothing in there. There was nothing in there. God wasn't there. In fact, from accounts, it's possible that the Ark of the Covenant wasn't even there. The veil was ripped to say, the mercy seat is now open to those who accept this sacrifice. And this sacrifice now, there's no need for the others. So we are free today from having to bring sheep and bulls and goats and getting all sprinkled with blood. We're free from that.

Because we understand the reality of what's happening. Now, it's interesting, you and I just observed the Feast of Trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets, of course, we celebrated the return of Jesus Christ and the Day of the Lord and that war that takes place and Christ coming in the clouds. And I'm sure you all had sermons about that. And we look forward to that time.

Something very interesting happens. Now, remember in Hebrews, it said that all these things the priests did was because there were copies in heaven. Remember that? So there are copies in heaven? Okay, let's go to Revelation 11. Because this happens at that time of the Day of the Lord, symbolized by the Feast of Trumpets. Revelation 11.

And verse 15, picking up here at the beginning of the sound of the seventh angel. That seventh trumpet. You know, the Feast of Trumpets. We have those seven trumpets that sound. The Day of the Lord happens. And this is the seventh of that trumpet. It's at this trumpet that the resurrection of the dead takes place. Then the seventh angel sounded. There was a loud voice. There were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders who sat before God in their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give you thanks, O Lord, God Almighty, the one who is and who was and who is to come, because you have taken your great power and reigned. The nations were angry and your wrath has come. And the time of the dead, that they should be judged. That you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, small and great. Who should destroy those who destroy the earth. And so that's what happens. The resurrection takes place and the saints and the prophets and all those who fear God are rewarded. And notice though verse 19, then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple, and there were lightnings and noises and thunderings and earthquake and great hail. That copy made out of wood and gold, the reality is there. And at that time, those heavens opened and that ark of the covenant sits there and God sits on that ark of the covenant, on that mercy seat. And there are two caribbean on both sides of it. And He determines, I will give my grace to this world, or I'll destroy it. Remember, He could do whatever He wants. It is only through God's mercy. And remember, there has to be compassion. People say, we don't understand grace. Oh, we understand grace. We understand how unworthy we are without it. That's what we understand. Grace is a license to sin. It's not understanding grace at all. It's a perversion of grace. That compassion that comes with that mercy that says, I want you rebellious humanity to be my children, you must repent. Of course, it takes a lot of beating to get humanity to repent. I want you to come before this mercy seat. I'll give you mercy if you'll just accept. If you'll change. If you'll submit yourself to Him.

Now, where is the Ark of the Covenant? I don't know if it still exists. I mean, the physical one of Aaron's. I don't know if it still exists. I don't know if it's under the Temple Mount. It'd be neat if they could find it. I can guarantee you there's no magic involved in it. Now, maybe it is in that little temple in Ethiopia. Maybe it was destroyed a long time ago. I mean, there are legends that Nebuchadnezzar just took it to Babylon, and over the years it just got destroyed. Now, someone melted it down for something else. That may have happened to it. It's not important.

According to the Maccabees, Jeremiah took, as I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, Jeremiah took the Ark of the Covenant and hid it in a cave. Well, you know, there is a prophecy given by Jeremiah about the Ark of the Covenant. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 3. Wrap things up here in Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 3.

Jeremiah is telling the ancient Israelites to repent. Of course, they didn't.

The day of the Lord came upon them. There's a day of the Lord coming on this nation. There's a great day of the Lord coming on the whole world when God judges the world. But he said, returning backsliding children, says the Lord. This is Jeremiah 3 and verse 14. For I am married to you, and I will take you one from a city, two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. So this prophecy then goes out, stretches out across the future when he's going to bring Israel together. There are going to be physical Israelites survive the tribulation. The church is made up of Israelites, non-Israelites. The church is made up of all kinds of people. But God hasn't abandoned the physical promises he made to the descendants of Abraham.

Some of them are going to survive, and they're going to be brought back into that land where they're going to represent God as a physical nation. Verse 16 says, And then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied, and increase in the land of those days. I'm sorry, verse 15. And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. So this is now looking towards that millennial time when the physical people of God are brought back together to use as teachers to teach the world. That was their job, anyways. They weren't superior to anybody else. They were supposed to teach everybody else. They were supposed to be the examples for the world, and they failed at it.

But they will be brought together, just like the church will be resurrected to be the teachers of the world as spirit beings. Physical Israel will be brought together to be the physical teachers of the world, to bring everybody into this at-one-ment with God. You know, God is concerned with everybody.

It's the world He wants to convert. They're all His children.

He says, And then it will come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land of those days, says the Lord, that they will say no more. People won't say in that day that, you know, you know, we found the ark. We finally found it. Dug it up. It wasn't Ethiopia all this time. They will say no more, the ark of the covenant of the Lord. It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore. The ark of the covenant, that physical box, is absolutely immaterial once Christ comes back. It has no purpose. It has no purpose now. It just be a nice artifact. It has no purpose now.

Because it was just a symbol of a reality that's taking place every day. Every time we baptize somebody, they come before that mercy seat. Every day when you get on your knees, you come before that mercy seat. And that high priest allows that to happen. Verse 17, At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord to Jerusalem. No more shall they say, follow, the dictates of their evil hearts.

Mercy, the law, the teachings of God, the Holy Spirit, will be poured out from Jerusalem in that day.

And no one will even wonder whatever happened to the ark.

What do they mean?

We are gathered here today, and we're humbled by our fasting.

Not come together before God in the physical tabernacle.

We don't even own this building.

And there's not too much the Unitarians believe that we would agree with.

We're here today because there is a high priest interceding for us, but it's not of the descendant of Levi. You know, it's very interesting there in Hebrews.

He says, you know, the priest used to come from Levi, and now we have a priest that came from Judah.

Whole priesthood system.

In the time of the church, there's no need for it. There's no need for any of those things. There is a need to keep this day.

A need to keep this day.

It is still a shadow of things to come.

Now, the liturgical priesthood doesn't need any more because there's no more shadow for them. The reality of Christ is high priests, but there's still lots of shadows this day still casts. There's lots of things this day hasn't been fulfilled. There's aspects of the Passover that haven't been fulfilled yet.

So we still keep these days. We still do these times. Instead, we're gathered here today. We're literally in the presence of the mercy seat of God.

We're gathered here to worship Him. When you sing those songs, you're worshiping Him. God is paying attention.

God is paying attention to what happens here today, which means that that veil's gone, and He's sitting on that mercy seat, and He's here with us. And we're before that mercy seat.

That's the power of this day. That's why Satan's not allowed in here today. You're not going to go wrestle with Him when we leave, but he's not allowed in here today.

Because we are actually before that mercy seat, and from that mercy seat, He pours out His compassion and His mercy on you.

They bring you into a relationship of atonement with Him. And Jesus Christ is that high priest interceding for you.

So now you can leave here. Knowing that you have been accepted by God.

Go keep the Feast of Tamarindacles. Go look forward to that time. No matter how bad times get from now on.

And you know, one of these days, they're going to get real bad. We all know that. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Because you and I can go before the mercy seat of God. You and I are in a personal relationship with the Creator, and you and I know that Jesus Christ is coming back to this world. For the resurrection of the saints.

And so that the entire world can be brought before the mercy seat of God.