Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for who you are and what your magnificent plan is. All that's been enacted so far, all that has been promised and will be fulfilled at the perfect time. Father, that we might grasp the wonder of what you have provided for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, this salvation that is beyond wonderful. Father, we just thank you. May these things be impressed on our heart as we look at them this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. We're in 1 Peter, chapter 2. I'm gonna read from verse six. For this is contained in scripture. First Peter 2, six. Behold, I lay in Zion. This is looking forward to Jesus Christ, Old Testament prophecy. Behold, I lay in Zion, or Jerusalem, a choice stone, a precious cornerstone. So we're looking at a building analogy. And Hugh believes in him. This is a person. I love this. Shall not be disappointed. Think of all the people down through history who have put their faith in Jesus Christ and him alone, and God promises you're not gonna be disappointed. There's gonna be nothing in eternity future that is gonna disappoint in Christ. Okay, this precious value then is for you who believe So if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you have this precious value stored up for you. And then the tragedy, but for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, those are the leaders in Christ's day, rejected him, not only rejected him, put him on the cross, crucified him. The stone which the builders rejected, crucifixion of Christ, this became the very cornerstone. He was raised from the dead. They weren't done with him. He then is raised to be their judge. And it says, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they stumble, here's the reason, because they're disobedient to the word. And to this doom they were also appointed. But you, Oh, how important those words are. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. For you were, for you once were not a people. We Gentiles, We weren't part of the people of God. We weren't part of Israel. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. And now we come to where we are at this morning. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. And with this word mercy, spills out this magnificent truth that God has developed all down through history to tell us more and more and more about his mercy to us. I was thinking as we were singing this morning, what if, let's say, Adam had to write a hymn book What would he write about? What would his song say? And even Moses, what if Moses had to write hymns? You think they'd look like our hymn book? I don't think so. This wonderful grace of God has been progressively revealed so that now we can sing so wonderfully. I suspect the hymns in heaven will be even better. Okay. So we come to this word mercy, let me remind you of, we've got quite a journey to go on here. Webster says, 1828 dictionary, mercy, that benevolence, goodness, mildness, or tenderness of heart, which disposes a person to overlook injuries that that person suffered or to treat an offender better than he deserves. The disposition that tempers justice and induces an injured person, of course in our study would be God, to forgive trespasses and injuries and to forbear punishment or inflict less than law or justice will warrant. You know, they have this thing in the study of scripture they call the law of first mention. And that means you take, well, what I did, you take the word mercy, and you find where mercy is first mentioned in the whole Bible. As an aside, if you have a concordance, this is easy to do. That's a book, usually pretty big. that you can look up any word in scripture and find every place where it is. Now, I'll just say this. There's a free app called eSword. The guy does it for free. It's all over the world in all these different languages. E, what is it, E-S-W-O-R-D. Just type it in. He says, you go on your internet and get somebody to do it for you. If you don't, you can't do it. And you download this thing, and you have all these tools, all these different translations of the Bible. You know, I used to be, I'll be honest, I used to be I'm a book guy. Don't tell me about some way to do this on the internet. kept saying to me, Lanton, this is really great, this is so helpful, and you can pull the screen up and be looking at the scriptures, and look at commentaries by other people, and I mean, it's just, and so I don't know, right? So I finally, my own stubborn heart broke down a little bit, and I started to do that, and it's been, It's been such a blessing to me. So, I didn't know I was even gonna talk about that, but it's worth doing for your own individual study of the word. So, first mention, where is the word mercy first found in scripture? And so, here's where we're going. Let's go back to Moses in Exodus chapter 25. And verse 17. Exodus 25. And verse 17 is where we'll start. So God is telling Moses about this tabernacle where they're gonna center their worship of God and what is supposed to go into it. And so he says this. After he talks about the Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, he says this. And you shall put, I'm gonna, verse 16, and you shall put into the ark the testimony, that's the law, which I shall give you. And you shall make, here's our first mention, and you shall make a mercy seat. You look in your margin and it may say a propitiatory. You know we talk about propitiation? and that is a doctrine, propitiation means satisfaction. Now, that God is satisfied at the mercy seat, okay, or I should say that God is satisfied at what the mercy seat represents concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide. That's 45 inches by 27 inches, roughly. And you shall make two cherubim. These are pictures of actual, what would I say, rendering, so to speak, of these powerful angelic creatures. And you know, when we read about cherubim, we just, I finally, it wasn't that many years ago, I thought, Whittles, what are all these cherubim doing everywhere? I mean, you look in the tabernacle, and there's cherubim here, and you look in the temple, and they're on the walls, and carved, and they're all over the place. And here at this most, This mercy seat, this propitiatory, this place where God is satisfied, we have two of them looking down on the mercy seat with their huge wings, all looking down and covering that mercy seat. And God, we'll see, God says, that's where I'm gonna meet with you, okay? So. and you shall make a mercy seat, verse 18, and you shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. I can't imagine the ability that God gave to his servants to take a block of gold and make it into anything without melting it. You know, it's just, they made the golden lamp stand, they hammered it out from one thing of gold. Well, okay. And make one cherub at one end, and one cherub at the other end, you shall make the cherubim of one piece. with the mercy seat at its two ends. And the cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and facing one another, the faces of the cherubim, to be turned toward the mercy seat. And you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony, the tablets of the law, which I shall give you. Verse 22. and there I will meet with you, he says to Moses, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel. Now that's just, of course, a brief look at that. But let's go next to, now let me back up and say this. Why does there have to be a mercy? What is this about? I said, why does it have to be any of this at all? Why doesn't God just say, well, you people just love me. But there's two things that I see coming head on into each other. And what is, and this is what I think the cherubim are representing, there are righteous angels, holy angels that didn't follow Satan, and they're rabid about God's righteousness and holiness. And they're looking all the time. We find them in Isaiah 6, and what are they saying? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. Whoa. And so where you find these cherubim, they're talking about, they're representing this whole, that we know so little about, this whole angelic being realm which is huge and there's this battle that is going on all down through history because scripture teaches that all the angels were righteous and holy and then led under the leadership of Satan, there was a rebellion. And out of pride, Satan said, I'm gonna make myself like the most high. And we gather from scripture that a third of the angels rebelled with them. That's what we have when we come into the Gospels and Christ is casting out spirits, demons. Those are fallen angels that went with Satan in that rebellion. So there's this whole level that we have So much more to learn about, I think, in eternity. And here, too, but it's just incredible breadth of things that, for the most part, we just don't think about them. But scripture says, You Christians now, you believers in me in the church, you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against these forces of darkness and evil and God says I'm gonna put you in the ring with them. Okay. Leviticus 16. And in 16, Verse one, now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron. What a shocking thing that was. When they approached the presence of the Lord and died, remember they said, let's offer some incense. God didn't tell them to do it, and they were totally out of line, and they put incense in their censers, and God struck them both dead. Okay. So here's what God says after this. And the Lord said to Moses, tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil. Now remember, the tabernacle had an outer court. Then it had an inner, an inner place in the tent that can be called the holy place. But then at the end of that, there was a veil. And in that, beyond that veil was the Ark of the Covenant with its what? Mercy seat, okay? And nobody could go in there except the high priest, that's gonna be Aaron here, on the Day of Atonement, which they call today Yom Kippur. I think it's in October this year, okay? For the Jewish people that don't know that we're beyond that. That the real, that the mercy seat has served its purpose and Jesus Christ has borne our sins in his body on the cross. Okay, so. And the Lord said to Moses, tell your brother Aaron, verse two, that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat, which is on the ark, lest he die. This was so serious. If he said, oh, I just wanna see, I just wanna see in there. You know, when he went in there, he couldn't see anyway. We'll see that. He never looked, once that mercy seat was in place, he never looked on that mercy seat, as far as we can tell. That's my understanding of it. At any rate, Aaron shall enter the holy place with this. I gotta back up to verse two. Lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud. Notice, in the cloud. above the mercy seat. Aaron shall enter the holy place with this, with a bowl for a sin offering and a ram for a burn offering. He has to put all these things on because he represents Jesus Christ. He shall put on the holy linen tunic and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban. These are holy garments that he shall bathe his body and water and put them on and he shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats, but we're not going to go into that part now. Come down to verse 11. Then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering, there was a altar outside of this inner tent, and there the bull would be offered, which is for himself, because he was a sinner, so if he's gonna represent Christ, first his sins have to be symbolically taken care of, and make atonement for himself, and for his household, and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself. Now notice this. "'And he shall take a firepan full of coals of fire "'from upon the altar before the Lord, "'and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense, "'and bring it inside the veil.'" Look what's happening. "'And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, "'that the cloud of incense, may cover the mercy seat. What happens? He has this sensor. It's full of hot coals. He takes this incense. He puts it on there. And all of a sudden, these huge billows of smoke come out of this sensor. And he brings that in. And it covers the mercy seat. So he can't see the mercy seat. All right. Of course, he knows where it is in the plan of God, because they know all about that, and it's just a small room. All right, moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side, also in front of the mercy seat, and he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Now, I want you to go back to verse 13, where the end of the verse says, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the covenant, and then what does it say? Lest he die. He just says, well, I'm not gonna do the incense thing. and he just goes in there, he's dead. And there's accounts that on the day of the atonement, when the priest went in to the holy place, they were so frightened, that he could lose his life in there, that he actually had a rope tied to his ankle so they could pull him out, because nobody was going to go in there and bring him out, so that they could pull him out of there. OK. Now, let's go next to Hebrews chapter 9. Now, remember I said this is why we can sing better hymns, because now we're in the New Testament. So we're gonna go to Hebrews chapter nine, verse one. Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. For there's a tabernacle prepared, that's the tent, the outer one, in which were the lampstand, that presents Christ as the light of the world, and the table, that's the table, and the table and the sacred bread. Christ says the bread come down out of heaven, the true manna. This is called the holy place. And behind the second veil, there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies. Having a golden altar of incense. Now, here's the thing. If you study this, you're gonna have a question. You're gonna say, well, in everything I can see of the setup of the tabernacle, the altar of incense is outside the veil. But here's the thing. The word for the altar of incense is the same word for a censer, and it's the censer that enters in with Aaron, you with me? When he goes in there and the smoke covers the mercy seat. Now that may not mean much to you, but that was really troublesome to me. I couldn't rectify, how can you have it outside, and yet it's mentioned inside? Well, the same word for the altar of incense on the outside, where he gets the coals, puts the incense on, and it's the same word for the censer that he takes inside there, okay? You okay with that? It may not be a problem for you anyway. Okay. So verse four, having a golden altar of incense, sounds like it's on the inside, and it is with the censer, and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold, on which was a golden jar, I'm sorry, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, God had that in there for a while, and Aaron's rod which budded to show that Aaron was the one who was the high priest, and the tables of the covenant. And above it, here they are, the cherubim of glory, cherubim that are concerned about God's magnificent holiness, his glory, his character, overshadowing the mercy seat. And in these words that always strike a little bit of sadness in my heart, but of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Oh my. What else would you say? Okay. Now when these things have been thus prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship, but into the second only, Holy of Holies, the high priest enters once a year, Day of Atonement, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. Now here's a huge verse. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing. the provision of Christ's death on the cross hasn't taken place yet. And so that holy place, we could say, is almost entirely off limits. There's only one person could go in there once a year, and he can't go in there without taking blood for his own sins, and then goes in a second time, if you study it, with blood for the sins of the people. All right. Which is a symbol for the time, then present, according to which both gifts and sacrifices, Old Testament now we're looking at, are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience? Here's the thing. Can you be perfect in conscience? In Christ? Yes. See, here's the problem. In this Old Testament times, had to do this every year. Which meant sins were not, You know, you're not made a holy person. It's a constant reminder of your own sin. And it's all throughout the law. If you do this, bring a lamb. If you do this, bring a dove. Always a sacrifice necessary. Okay, now. Go down to verse 22. And according to the law, Old Testament, one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness. Now let this, these next verses seep into your soul, your spirit. Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of things in the heavens Whoa, what does that tell us? All these Old Testament things that Moses was told, build this, make this, set it up this way, they're all copies of something in heaven. Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, the blood of animals, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. What's the better sacrifice? Our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we can sing about our sins are forgiven. Okay, for Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands. The Old Testament one was made with hands. a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us as our wonderful, glorified Savior. Now notice this. Nor was it that he should offer himself often. What happens, Day of Atonement, Often, again, again, again, again, again, for hundreds of years. Nor was it that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Speaking of Christ, otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the consummation, He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment, you know, a whole part of the world believes in reincarnation. God's word says no. You die once, and after that comes judgment. And your judgment better have been taken on the cross by Jesus Christ. After this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, not to bear sin, that's over, to those who eagerly await him for salvation. All right, now. Matthew chapter seven, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 27. As we follow this through. Matthew 27 and verse 50. Here's our Lord on the cross. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit And behold, the veil, that veil that protected the holy of holies, and behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Who tore it? God did. God says, can you imagine? God says, the holy of holies is open. You can all go in there. In other words, anyone who's come through Jesus Christ, it's wide open. It gives me shivers. This place, it was so off limits. This place, if I had lived back then, it would scare me to death. I'd be afraid if I knew anything at all. I'd be afraid to have God even in the camp. Such kind of glory over that place, because it means we've gotta be a godly people. And you look at yourself and you say, I'm not. Okay. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. Now, next, go to John chapter 19. John tells us about some very important words. John, and you would know these, but John 19 and verse 30. When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. Now we can look at it that way. All of history is in infinite need of the payment, because nobody can pay this but Jesus Christ, nobody. not the finest person that you ever heard about, only God's son, both God and man, the mediator who can put his hand on the shoulder of God and put his hand on your shoulder. He's the only one that could go and be to appear in heaven for us, having died on the cross. Now there's a question, does he bring his blood into heaven? I'm not gonna go there, I don't know how that works. But he's there, having borne our sins on the cross, he's there and he's appearing for us as our great high priest ascended to heaven. So he says, it is finished. That was what they put, as you know, on the bills when they were paid, paid in full. I think of what that must have been like in the wonderful humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ to say, it's done. Because remember, as he was coming up to that, he says, I'm troubled in spirit. And when he's in the garden, he's actually, it's sweat. It's got blood in it. So awful what he's facing. and then to come out of it. You ever face something that, I mean, it's so trivial compared to what he did, but you face something that just got you thinking about it all the time, and you're worried about it, can't sleep, whatever, and then it's done, and it comes out okay. And you just say, oh, oh, how nice. Okay. Luke 23. Luke 23 and verse 44. And again, we're looking at the cross. Luke is telling us, and it was now about the sixth hour, that's noon, and the darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, the sun being obscured, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. But the thing I think about here is, God, even in the copy, God didn't let even the high priest see the one representing Christ. He had to put the incense on, and so I say, that's similar, this is just my thinking about it, that's similar to the darkness. God said, nobody can look on this transaction. which is taking place between myself and my son. And I'm going to pour my wrath out on him for the sins of the world. And he is going to be judged for our sins. It's just... I can never wrap my mind around the awesomeness of what took place there. But God said, gonna be dark. Okay. Hebrews chapter 10. Add some more to it. So our hymns can be better. Hebrews chapter 10. We're gonna go to verse 19. Notice what this says. Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. Aaron, he couldn't. He had to bring in the blood of an animal that represented Christ, that couldn't take away sin. But notice, we're entering only by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for us. And then it says this. Notice the subject is, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. What a picture. God's saying the ripping of that veil is a picture of the ripping of Jesus Christ for us. He's called here in Hebrews the veil. He's the go-between. He's the one that had to be torn. Oh my. So finally, Hebrews chapter four, verse 14. What a great passage. Since then, we have a great high priest, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who is tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Now get verse 16. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. What's God saying? Come on in. Come on in. There's an Old Testament verse where God is addressing Israel and he says to them, bring words with you. I love that. Talk to me. Okay, but what does he say to us? Come on in. And then what? Let's draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and may find notice, we may see what? Mercy. and may find grace to help in time of need. You got a time of need? Do you have one now? Did you have one last week? Do you think one's coming this week or more? God says, the veil's been rent. Jesus Christ was rent for you. His blood was shed for you. Come on in. Most wonderful thing. And so that's a quick look at mercy. Wonderful thing. Father, how we thank you for your wonderful mercy to us. We who were enemies, hostile. that you would bring us to this place of mercy and all that mercy and grace have poured out and will pour out forever and ever for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for these things in his name, amen.