Subject 11 : The Tabernacle
[11-16] The Spiritual Mysteries Hidden in the Ark of The Testimony (Exodus 25:10-22)
(Exodus 25:10-22)
“And
they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be
its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its
height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you
shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. You
shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners;
two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. And
you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. You
shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark
may be carried by them. The poles shall be in the rings of the ark;
they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the
Testimony which I will give you. You shall make a mercy seat of pure
gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half
its width. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you
shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at
one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the
cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. And the
cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat
with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the
cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on
top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will
give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from
above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the
ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in
commandment to the children of Israel.”
Today’s
topic is the Ark of the Testimony. The Ark of the Testimony, measuring
113 cm (3.7 feet) in its length, 68 cm (2.2 feet) in its width, and 68
cm (2.2 feet) in its height, was made of acacia wood and overlaid with
pure gold. Inside this Ark, there were two stone tablets engraved with
the Ten Commandments and a golden pot of manna, and later, Aaron’s
budded rod was added to them. What, then, are these three items placed
inside the Ark of the Testimony telling us? Through these items, I would
like to provide a thorough explanation of the three ministries of Jesus
Christ. Let us now examine the spiritual truth manifested in these
three items placed inside the Ark of the Testimony.
The Two Stone Tablets Engraved with the Law
The
two stone tablets engraved with the Law that were placed inside the Ark
of the Testimony tell us that God is the Lawmaker who has given us His
laws. Romans 8:1-2 states, “There is therefore now no condemnation to
those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh,
but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” From this
passage, we can see that God has established two laws in our hearts: the
law of life and the law of condemnation.
With
these two laws, the Lord has brought condemnation and salvation to all
human beings. First of all, we can recognize through the Law that we are
sinners inevitably destined to hell. However, to those who know their
sinful nature and doomed fate, God has given His law of salvation, “the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” God has become the true
Savior for all by giving them these two laws.
The Manna Contained in the Golden Pot
The
golden pot that was also found in the Ark had manna. When the people of
Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, God brought them food from the
heavens, and the Israelite lived on this manna cooking it in various
ways. And it was like white coriander seed, and its taste was like
wafers made with honey. This manna that God had given to the people of
Israel sustained their lives until they entered into the land of Canaan.
As such, it was to keep this food in remembrance that it was put in a
pot.
This
tells us that we, today’s believers, also should eat the bread of life
that the spiritual children of God must feed on while in this world
until they enter Heaven. But there are times when we want to have the
bread of the world, that is, the teachings of this world instead of the
Word of God. Still, what the children of God must truly and actually
live on before reaching the spiritual land of Canaan is the Word of God,
which is the spiritual bread of true life that comes down from Heaven.
One
never gets tired of always having the bread of true life. The more we
have this spiritual bread, the more it become true life for our souls.
But if we feed on the bread of the teachings of the world instead of the
Word of God, our souls will ultimately end up dead.
God
commanded the people of Israel to put the manna that came down from the
heavens in a pot and keep it. As shown in Exodus 16:33, God said, “Take
a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the LORD, to
be kept for your generations.” The manna that came down from the
heavens was the bread of true life for the people’s souls. “So He
humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did
not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that
man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Who Then Is the True Bread of Life for Us?
The
baptism that Jesus Christ received to take our sins upon His body and
His crucifixion and bloodshed are our bread of true life. By giving us
His flesh and blood, Jesus Christ has become the bread of eternal life.
As John 6:48-58 tells us: “‘I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the
manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes
down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living
bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will
live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I
shall give for the life of the world.’ The Jews therefore quarreled
among themselves, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?’
Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in
you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I
will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My
blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides
in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of
the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the
bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and
are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.’”
Our
Lord said, “This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your
fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live
forever.” What was “the bread which came down from heaven”? It meant the
flesh and blood of Jesus. In the Bible, the flesh of Jesus tells us
that Jesus Christ took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by
John in the Jordan River. And the blood of Jesus tells us that because
Jesus was baptized, He carried the sins of the world and bore the
condemnation of sin by being crucified.
The
manna in the pot that was placed inside the Ark of the Testimony was
the bread of life for the Israelites when they were in the wilderness,
and in New Testament’s time, its spiritual meaning refers to the flesh
of Jesus Christ. This truth shows us the baptism through which Jesus
Christ took upon the iniquities of all sinners and the blood that He
shed on the Cross. Because Jesus Christ took all the sins of this world
upon His body through His baptism and shed His blood and died on the
Cross, His baptism and bloodshed have become the everlasting
fountainhead of new life that enables believers to be born again.
The
flesh that Jesus gave up to take upon the iniquities of sinners through
His baptism and the blood that He shed on the Cross are the bread of
life that enables all sinners to receive the remission of sin. We must
therefore realize the reason why Jesus said, “unless you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John
6:53).
Who Is Greater?
When
we look at John 6, we can see that most Jews at the time considered
Moses to be greater than Jesus. When Jesus came to this earth, they
asked Him, “Are you greater than our father Moses?” In fact, they
considered Moses to be the greatest of all. Because the Jews had failed
to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, they saw Him as an eyesore. So they
challenged Him by asking, “Are you greater than Moses?” The people of
Israel believed in Jehovah God, and along came a young man of only 30
years of age claiming, “Though your fathers ate the manna and died,
those who eat the bread that I give will not die.” This is why they came
to compare the power of the two, Moses and Jesus.
As
Jesus declared later, “Before Abraham was, I am,” He is greater than
any human being of the entire human history, for He is the Creator
Himself. How could mere creatures even dare to challenge their should be
Creator? Even so, some people still say that Jesus is only a great
teacher, merely one of the great sages in human history. What a
blasphemy! Jesus is God, the King of kings, and the Creator of the whole
universe. He is the omnipotent and omniscient God. Yet He humbled
Himself and came to this earth in the flesh of a man to save you and me
from all our sins and eternal death, to become our true Savior.
Jesus
Christ said, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be
taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the
Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who
is from God; He has seen the Father.” In the end, Jesus was ultimately
saying that He is the Christ that the Jews had been waiting for. But
they failed to understand what Jesus was saying, neither able to believe
nor to accept it, and this resulted into a serious misunderstanding, as
they wondered, “How can you give us your flesh to eat? Are you saying
that we would attain eternal life if we actually eat your flesh and
drink your blood? Do you think we are some kind of cannibals here?”
But
those who eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood will live forever.
The flesh of Jesus is the bread of life. The real substance of the
manna that was put in this pot, the bread of life, is the flesh and
blood of Jesus Christ. By coming to this earth and giving up His flesh
and blood, Jesus has enabled us to eat the bread of life and receive
eternal life.
How,
then, can everyone eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood? The only
way to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood is to believe in the
baptism of Jesus and His blood of the Cross. We must eat the flesh of
Jesus and drink His blood by faith. To give you and me the remission of
sin and to enable us to live forever in the Kingdom of Heaven, our Lord
has blotted out our sins once for all by being baptized and shedding His
blood, and He has thereby become the food for our souls. Now, by
believing in God’s Word of the water and the Spirit, we must eat this
spiritual food and receive eternal life.
Let
me testify in more detail just how we can eat the flesh of Jesus and
drink His blood. As you and I know very well, Jesus Christ came to this
earth and took upon the sins of mankind by being baptized by John at the
age of 30, and then, He bore all the condemnation of our sins by
bleeding to death on the Cross. It is by believing in this very truth
that we can eat His flesh and drink His blood. The washing of sin was
fulfilled as the sins of mankind were passed onto the body of Jesus
through the baptism that He received. Drinking His blood means that as
Jesus was baptized and shed His blood on the Cross, this blood that He
shed bore the condemnation of our sins.
As
such, those who believe in the blood of Jesus in their hearts are
quenched of their thirst, for the condemnation of all their sins ended
completely with the punishment of the Cross that Jesus bore. We must
realize this truth. And we must believe in it. Because Jesus Christ came
to this earth and accepted our sins by being baptized by John, by
believing in this truth we have been cleansed of all sins once for all.
God
told us to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood by faith. Because
Jesus took upon all sins through the baptism that He received from
John, leaving the iniquities of no one, and because He gave up His body
to the punishment of the Cross and shed His precious blood, the hearts
of those who believe are now clean and thirst-free, as they have washed
away all their sins and bore all the condemnation of sin by faith. This
is why Jesus said, “My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink
indeed” (John 6:55).
Most
assuredly, this Jesus is the Savior indeed, the Son of God who has
washed away our sins and bore the condemnation of our sins. To free us
from the law that declares the wages of sin to be death, to wash us from
all our sins, and to deliver us from all our punishment, this One, the
Savior and the Son of God, gave up His own body on the Cross, shed His
blood, and thereby cleansed the hearts of those who believe and quenched
their thirst. This is the effect of the flesh and blood of Jesus.
Jesus
is the Savior who took care of the sins and condemnation of mankind.
Jesus is the Savior who accepted the sins of mankind through the baptism
that He received, who was crucified and shed His blood to bear the
condemnation of these sins. It was because Jesus had accepted the sins
of the world passed onto Him from us that the punishment of sin that He
bore by being crucified could become the punishment of our own sins.
It
is by believing in the truth of the water and the Spirit that we can
receive the remission of sin. You must all believe in the baptism of
Jesus and His bloodshed as your own remission of sin. It is by believing
in this gospel of truth that we can eat and drink the flesh and blood
of Jesus spiritually. It is by believing, in other words, that Jesus
Christ the Son of God came to this earth, took upon our sins through His
baptism, and bore all the condemnation of our sins on the Cross that we
can become the ones who are able to eat His flesh, drink His blood, and
thereby receive eternal life. By believing in the baptism and bloodshed
of Jesus, we can now eat His flesh and drink His blood. By eat the
baptism of Jesus and the blood that He shed on the Cross as our own food
of the remission of sin, we can be remitted of all sins. It is through
this faith that we have been able to receive the remission of our sins,
become God’s children, and live forever in the Kingdom of God.
Aaron’s Rod That Budded
Among
the items placed inside the Ark of the Testimony, Aaron’s rod that
budded refers to Jesus Christ as the everlasting High Priest of the
Kingdom of Heaven. It also tells us that eternal life is found in Him.
To facilitate our understanding of this, let us turn to Numbers 16:1-2:
“Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with
Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of
Reuben, took men; and they rose up before Moses with some of the
children of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation,
representatives of the congregation, men of renown.”
The
passage here tells us that among the Levites, 250 famed leaders of the
congregation drew together and rose up against Moses. They said, “What
have you, Moses and Aaron, done for us by leading us out of the land of
Egypt? Have you given us vineyards? Have you led us to an oasis? What
have you done for us? Have you not brought us to the wilderness only to
die on desert sand in the end? How can you call yourselves as the
servants of God? Does God work only through you?” There arose, in other
words, a rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
At
that time, God said to Korah, Dathan, On, and other leaders of the
congregation who led the rebellion, “Bring a rod from each father’s
house and write each man’s name on his rod. Then place these rods in the
Tabernacle of Meeting. Leave them there for a night and check them the
next day.” God then said, “It shall be that the rod of the man whom I
choose will blossom; thus I will rid Myself of the complaints of the
children of Israel, which they make against you” (Numbers 17:5). In
verse 8, we see that “the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had
sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe
almonds.”
Then
in verse 10, we see, “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Bring Aaron’s rod
back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that
you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.’” This is how
Aaron’s rod that budded came to be placed and kept inside the Ark of
the Testimony.
This
shows that Aaron, a descendant of Levi, was anointed as the High Priest
of the people of Israel. Moses was God’s prophet and Aaron and his
descendents were the High Priests of the people of Israel. God Himself
had entrusted the duties of the earthly High Priest to Aaron. God had
shown the sacrificial system to Moses, where the people of Israel
brought sacrificial offerings and offered them to God whenever they
sinned, and He had made Aaron oversee the giving of these offerings in
accordance to the requirements of the sacrificial system.
Even
as God had entrusted all priestly duties to Aaron the High Priest,
there were still people who challenged against his priesthood, and this
is why God brought Aaron’s rod to bud, demonstrating that his priesthood
came from God. He then made the people of Israel keep this rod inside
the Ark of the Testimony in remembrance of this lesson. This is how the
two stone tablets of the Law, the pot that had the manna, and Aaron’s
rod that budded were all placed inside the Ark of the Testimony. To what
do these three items refer spiritually? They refer to the ministries of
Jesus Christ our Savior.
What Ministries Did Jesus Christ Fulfill to Blot Out All Our sins?
First,
He fulfilled the ministry of the Prophet. He is the Alpha and the
Omega. He knows the beginning and the end, and He has taught us all
about the first and the last. Our Lord knew what would happen to
mankind, to you and me, if we had remained sinful.
Second,
Jesus has become the everlasting High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven.
He came to this earth because He wanted to save us from sin by becoming
our own Savior Himself, to save us wholly by becoming our true High
Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Third,
Jesus Christ is our King. The Bible declares, “And He has on His robe
and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS”
(Revelation 19:16). He is the very Creator of the whole universe, and
thus has the authority to rule over everything in it.
We
should all realize that Jesus Christ, who is our true King, the Prophet
who has taught us the truth of our salvation from sin, and the eternal
High Priest of Heaven, has now become our true Savior.
Our
Lord has delivered you and me from sin, made us God’s people, His
children and His workers, and He has enabled us to do good works. He has
made our souls be born again so that we may live new lives even on this
earth, and He has given us new life so that when the time comes, He may
raise our bodies and enable us to live forever with Him in Heaven. Who
is Jesus Christ for you and me? He is our true Savior. And Jesus Christ
is our Prophet, our everlasting High Priest and our King.
Although
we do not want to disobey the will of God, we are so insufficient and
weak that we cannot help but sin all the time. If we continue to live
like this, die like this and then stand before God, what would be the
proper place for us to go? Would it be Heaven or hell? If all of us were
to be judged according to the Law that declares, “The wages of sin is
death,” would we not all be destroyed? He who has saved such people as
us from sin and destruction and become our Savior is Jesus Christ. He
Himself came to this earth, loved us, and has become the Savior who has
delivered us from sin, thereby becoming the Great Shepard of His flock.
John
3:16 states, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.” God loved you and me so much that He Himself came to
this earth for us, was baptized to take upon the sins of the world, was
crucified and died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has
thereby truly become our Savior. Therefore, by believing in Jesus Christ
who has become our Savior in our hearts, we have become the ones who
are cleansed from sin, who have received the gift of salvation, which
has enabled us to become God’s children and attain eternal life.
There
is one thing that we must absolutely make sure to believe before God.
It is that because God loved us, and to blot out our sins, He came to
this earth incarnated into the flesh of a man, was baptized, died on the
Cross, rose from the dead, and has thereby become our true Savior. It
is by eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking His blood by our faith in
our hearts that eternal life can be added to us. Because nothing can be
clearer than this fact, we cannot help but acknowledge this and believe
in it.
We
must eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood by faith. And anyone
can have this one faith that recognizes and believes in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit fulfilled by Jesus as it is. What else is there
for us to do but believe? We cannot do anything else but stand against
God. We are quick to disobey God and to sin. But God has still saved you
and me from all our sins once for all, for He loves us all.
How Did God Speak of His Salvation in the Old Testament’s Time?
Through
what method, then, has the Lord saved us? In the Old Testament, He
spoke of this salvation through the colors manifested in the door of the
Tabernacle and the garments worn by the High Priest. The colors of the
blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen manifested in
the door of the Tabernacle are the revelation that shows us His perfect
salvation. And on the garments of the High Priest, gold thread was
added.
The
blue thread tells us that Jesus Christ came to this earth as our Savior
and took upon our sins by being baptized. The purple thread tells us
that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and God the Creator who made the
universe. The scarlet thread tells us that because Jesus Christ took
upon our sins through His baptism, He carried the sins of the world and
was condemned for them on the Cross by shedding His blood and dying,
thereby giving us the salvation that has delivered us from the
condemnation of all our sins.
The
fine woven linen means the elaborate Word of the Old and New Testaments
which tells us that our Lord came to this earth, was baptized, died on
the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby blotted out the
sins of those who truly believe, cleansed their spirits as white as
snow, and saved them. The gold thread signifies the faith that believes
in what Jesus Christ has done for us. This is why the gold thread
shines. You and I have nothing to boast of, but when we wholeheartedly
believe in what Jesus Christ, God Himself and the Son of God, has done
for us. We can truly be clothed in the love of God, receive His
blessings, and be cherished by Him only by having faith in the righteous
acts that He has done. This is what God is telling us through the
Tabernacle.
We
must realize what God is telling us through the Ark of the Testimony
that was placed inside the Tabernacle. We must know and believe that
Jesus Christ came to this earth, took upon the sins of mankind and all
ours by being baptized by John the Baptist, bore our condemnation of sin
by dying on the Cross, and rose from the dead to live again. Through
the Ark of the Testimony, God is making it manifest that we must truly
believe in Jesus Christ as our own Savior, as our own God. Those who
believe in the baptism of Jesus as the taking of their own sins, in
Jesus’ bloodshed of the Cross as the condemnation of their sins, in the
death of Jesus Christ as their own death, in His resurrection as their
own resurrection-these are the ones whom God has saved.
So,
to whom does this Tabernacle refer then? It refers to Jesus Christ. It
tells us of the method of salvation with which Jesus Christ has saved
you and me from our sins. In the New Testament, it was Jesus Christ who
was baptized and died on the Cross, thereby blotting out all our sins,
washing them all away, being condemned for all our iniquities, and
saving us from all sins once for all.
In
the Old Testament, it was the offering of sacrifice that saved sinners
by accepting their iniquities as their hands were laid on its head, and
by shedding its blood and dying. The Old Testament describes the death
of the sacrificial offering that took upon the sins of these sinners
through the laying on of hands and died in their place as the death of
atonement. The sacrificial system of atonement manifested in the Old
Testament, when juxtaposed to the New Testament, refers to Jesus Christ,
the accomplisher of the gospel of the water and the Spirit who came of
baptism and blood.
Who,
then, made and set this law of salvation? God our Savior set it. God
established the law of salvation that delivers sinners from sin, and He
has given this law to us. In the Ark of the Testimony were the two
tablets of the Law, the pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and
all these things speak to us about the attributes and ministries of
Jesus Christ.
Aaron’s
rod that budded tells us that God saves us when we believe in Jesus
Christ who has spiritually become the High Priest of the Kingdom of
Heaven and our Great Shepard. The pot of manna also tells us about the
flesh and blood of Jesus Christ who has become our bread of life. The
two stone tablets of the Law also tell us that God is the Lawmaker. The
laws established by God are the law of sin and death and the law of the
remission of sin and salvation. As our God, Jesus has established the
law of life and the law of condemnation to us.
Like
this, the Ark of the Testimony and everything in it all speak to us of
Jesus Christ. It is by believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior that we
can be cleansed from all our sins and received our salvation. No matter
how insufficient and weak we may be, if we accept and follow the two
laws that Jesus Christ has established, we can then become sinners once,
and then become righteous by receiving the remission of all our sins
once again and thereby become God’s own people. Do you believe?
Now
at this present time, almost all Christians throughout the world are
prone to believe in Jesus in vain, for they do not know the truth
manifested in the Tabernacle. They believe that they can receive the
remission of sin just by believing in Jesus’ blood of the Cross alone.
They believe, in other words, that Jesus has saved them only with the
blood of the Cross. But did Jesus in fact just die on the Cross for our
salvation? Is it all that He did for our redemption? Did He not, on the
contrary, take upon all the sins of the world once for all by being
baptized by John (Matthew 3:13-15, 1 Peter 3:21,1 John 5:6)?
Yet
today’s Christians believe only in Jesus’ blood of the Cross, receiving
the remission of sin only by half. So having been remitted of their
original sin by believing in Jesus Christ as the Savior, they give their
prayers of repentance everyday trying to wash away their actual sins on
their own. How contradictory is this salvation? It is like washing only
half their sins by faith, and then trying to wash away the rest through
their own efforts.
When
this is the case, how can I not help but continue to preach by
repeatedly bringing the baptism and blood of Jesus together? Until now,
many Christians of this world, apart from the Christians of the Early
Church period, have believed in half-empty salvation. Isn’t this why
people now believe in Christianity as if it were only a worldly
religion?
Not
too long ago, a woman named Valeria Jones from the United States
received the remission of sin after reading the first volume of this
Tabernacle series. Before she read this book, she had already read
several of our other publications. Although she agreed with what our
books were saying, she could not yet quite bring herself to be totally
convinced of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. She told us that
she still had some doubts, wondering, “This seems to be right, but then
how come so many people are not preaching it?” But she confessed that
when she finished reading the first volume of the Tabernacle series, she
came to have the clear faith of salvation, believing that the gospel of
the water is right, that it is the very truth manifested in the
Tabernacle.
A
reader of the same book from Benin also wrote to us, “You would be
greatly surprised to know that after receiving the remission of sin by
reading your book, I have now left my church. Why did I leave the church
that I had been attending? Because they preached the doctrine of
incremental sanctification, something that is not taught in the Bible.
This doctrine of incremental sanctification was completely unbiblical.
As they kept teaching that I must and can be sanctified when in fact my
flesh can never be sanctified, it was unbearable for me to sit and hear
such sermons.
That
is why I came out of this church and separated myself from it. Because I
have received the remission of my sins by reading your book, I had no
choice but to leave the church that I had been attending and separate
myself from it now. As we who have gone through all this have now become
the people of faith and united ourselves with God’s Church, all the
people of this world can change also if they only know the truth, as the
Word says, ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you
free.’”
The
Tabernacle’s Ark of the Testimony also manifests Jesus Christ. This Ark
of the Testimony was placed in the deepest part of the Tabernacle. One
could see it only by lifting the screen of the Tabernacle and entering
into it, and then lifting the veil of the Most Holy and walking into it.
In other words, the door of the Tabernacle was located at the east, and
the Ark was placed at the far west end of the Tabernacle.
The Poles Shall Not Be Removed from the Ark
Exodus
25:14-15 says, “You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of
the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. The poles shall be in the
rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it.” What do these verses
mean? With these verses, God is telling us that we should serve the
gospel of the water and the Spirit by dedicating ourselves to Him. The
gospel is spread only when we devote ourselves to His work. To serve the
Lord by devoting ourselves to the gospel is to follow the way of the
Cross that our Lord had walked before us. That’s why He said to His
disciples, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).
To
spread the true gospel all over the world, tremendous sacrifice,
endeavor and suffering are asked. We can find this out from seeing just
how much the Apostle Paul suffered for the gospel of the water and the
Spirit: “Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in
labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty
stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was
stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in
the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers,
in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in
the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils
among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the
other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the
churches” (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).
However,
those who love themselves more than the Lord who gave Himself up to
deliver them from all condemnation cannot sacrifice themselves for the
Kingdom of God. There is no easy way to serve the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. How can a farmer expect to have a good harvest without
any sweat?
Like
this, the Ark of the Testimony should be carried by our sacrifices.
King David once tried to bring the Ark on a new cart pulled by oxen,
instead of carrying it with the poles by his men as it was supposed to
be carried. On their way, the oxen stumbled, and a man named Uzzah
reached out his hands to the Ark of God and grabbed it. The anger of the
Lord was then aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his
error. Uzzah died there by His Ark (2 Samuel 6:1-7). So David, terrified
by this and afraid of the Lord that day, took the Ark aside into the
house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. It was only by bearing the Ark on his
men’s shoulders that he could bring it up to his castle three months
later. As this account illustrates, we must carry the Ark of the
Testimony exactly as God has told us, with our sweat and blood, with our
sacrifices, with our unrelenting devotion to His gospel.
Those
who have really received the remission of sin with great thankfulness
are more than happy to dedicate themselves to the Lord who has dedicated
Himself to us. We give our thanks over and over again to the Lord, our
Savior and God. We thank Him for allowing us to serve the gospel on this
earth.
We
are all marveled and overjoyed by this dream-like fact, that the Lord
has chosen us to make us serve this gospel of truth, to follow Him and
live the kind of life that pleases Him. Allowing us to know the truth of
salvation alone would have sufficed to overwhelm us with joy, and yet
the Lord has permitted us to even serve this gospel. Given such great
blessings, how could we possibly not thank Him? We give all our thanks
to God. That is why we are willing to sacrifice ourselves to spread the
true gospel, sparing no time, effort, or possession of ours to this holy
task of world evangelism.
That
we have received the remission of sin, in fact, is in itself something
for which we are infinitely thankful. But God has not stopped at this,
but He has moreover enabled us to encounter and spread the gospel of
truth, the gospel of the water and the Spirit—what is this but a great
blessing for us?
Who
else can even dare to serve this gospel of the water and the Spirit?
Not just anyone can serve this gospel. Can politicians serve it? Mayors?
Presidents? Kings? No matter how high such people’s social positions
are, if they do not know and do not believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, they can never serve the true gospel. Yet God has given
us such an undeserved opportunity and actually enabled us to serve this
gospel. What a great blessing is this?
I
thank God for the grace that has saved us, for He has loved us.
Brothers and sisters, we believe that Jesus Christ is our God and
Savior. We are the people of God who eat the flesh of Jesus and drink
His blood through our spiritual faith. The Bible says that Jesus is not
the God of the dead, but of the living (Luke 20:38), and the living here
are none other than those who have received eternal life by believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Whoever does not believe in
the truth of this gospel is spiritually dead, and whoever believes in it
is spiritually alive. God is indeed the God of those who believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Brothers
and sisters, Jesus Himself has given us the remission of sin through
His own flesh and blood. You must realize that if you do not believe in
this truth, then you will have nothing to do with Jesus. Jesus Christ
gives you heavenly blessings, eternal life, and the remission of your
sins. Who is the One that has become the Shepard who bestows you with
everlasting blessings, who leads and keeps you? It is Jesus Christ the
Accomplisher of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus is this
God. I hope and pray that each and every one of you would all believe in
this Jesus as your God.
As
for me, not only do I believe in this truth and serve God now, but I
will always continue to do so in the future. But what about you? Do you
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? And do you believe
that you must dwell in God’s Church and the love of Christ by your
faith? Let us all live our lives by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit until the day we meet our Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment