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SUBJECT: 10 REV 11:19 The Ark of His Covenant
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The Ark of His Covenant
August 18th, 1887
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple
the ark of his testament [covenant-R-V.]:, and great hail."- Rev_11:19.
I shall take the passage quite by itself. I do not fully understand its
connection, whether it relates to that which goes before or that which comes
afterwards; and happily, it is necessary for us to know this, for the passage
stands complete in itself, and is full of valuable instruction.
Dear friends, even we who believe have as yet failed to see much of the truth
of God. We know enough to save us, to comfort us, and to help us on our way
to heaven; but oh, how much of the glory of divine truth has never yet been
revealed to our eyes! Some of God's children do not fully know even the
common truths as yet, and those who do not know them realize but little of
their depth and height. From our text, it appears that there are certain
things of God which as yet we have not yet seen there is need that they
should be opened to us: "The temple of God was opened in heaven." When our
Lord Jesus died, He rent the veil of the temple, and so He laid open the Holy
of Holies but such is our dimness of sight, that we need to have the temple
opened, and we need to have the Holy of Holies opened, so that we may see
what is not really concealed, but what we are not ready to perceive by reason
of the slowness of our understandings. The two words for "temple" here may
relate not only to the temple itself, but also to the Holy of Holies, the
innermost shrine. Both of these, it seems, need to be opened, or else we
shall not see what there is in them. Blessed be the Holy Spirit that He does
open up one truth after another to us. Our Savior's promise to His disciples
was, "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all
truth." If we were more teachable, if we were more anxious to be taught, and
waited upon Him more, He would, doubtless, lead us into many a truth which at
the present moment we have not fully enjoyed. It is a happy thing for you and
for me when at any time we can say, "The temple of God was opened in heaven,
so that we saw even that which was in the innermost shrine of the holy
temple."
The saints in heaven doubtless behold all the glory of God so far as it can
be perceived by created beings; but we who are on the right way thither
behold, as in a glass darkly, the glory of the Lord. We know only in part,
but the part we do know is not so great as it might be, we might know far
more than we do even here. Some suppose that they can know but little,
because they say that it is written, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him." Yes, but why do you stop there? Half a text
is often not true; go on to the end of the passage: "But God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God"; and that which your eye cannot see, and your ear cannot
hear, and the heart of man cannot imagine, can be revealed to you by the
Spirit of the Lord. Oh, that we were more conscious of the power of the
Spirit, and that we waited upon Him for yet fuller instruction! Then I am
persuaded that, in our measure and degree, it would be true to us, even as to
the perfected ones above, "The temple of God was opened in heaven," and they
saw that which was in the holiest place.
What did they see when the temple was opened? When the secret place was laid
bare to them, what did they see? That is to be my subject now. "There was
seen in his temple the ark of his covenant." If we could look into heaven at
this moment, this is what we should see, "the ark of his covenant." O sinner,
thou thinkest that thou wouldst see an angry God, but thou wouldst see the
ark of His covenant! O child of God, perhaps thou dreamest of many things
that might distress thee in the glory of that sight; but rest thou content,
this would be the main sight that thou wouldst see, Jesus, the incarnate God,
the great covenant Surety! Thou wouldst see there, where, the Godhead shines
resplendent, the ark of His covenant.
I. I shall begin by noticing. first, that THE ARK OF HIS COVENANT IS ALWAYS
NEAR TO GOD: "There was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant."
Of course, the outward symbol is gone; we are not now speaking of a temple
made with hands, that is to say, of this building. We speak of the spiritual
temple above; we speak of the spiritual Holy of Holies. If we could look in
there, we should see the ark of the covenant; and we should see the covenant
itself always near to God. The covenant is always there. God never forgets
it; it is ever before Him: "There was seen in his temple the ark of his
covenant."
Why is this? Is it not because the covenant is always standing? The Lord said
concerning His people of old. " I will make with them an everlasting
covenant," of which David said, "Yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure." If God has made a covenant with
you, it is not simply for today and tomorrow, nor merely for this life, but
for the ages of ages, even forever and ever. If He has struck hands with you
through the great Surety, and He has pledged Himself to you, remember, "If we
believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." Jehovah hath
said, "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness
shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be
removed." What He hath said He will stand to forever. He will keep His Word.
He said to His Son, "I will preserve thee. .and give thee for a covenant of
the people"; and He will never revoke the gift. This covenant stands secure.
Though earth's old columns bow, and though my spirits sink, and flesh and
heart fail me, yet this covenant shall bear me up even to the end.
The covenant of grace is forever the same, because, first, the God who made
it changes not. There can be no change in God. The supposition is
inconsistent with a belief in His deity. Hear what He says: "I am the Lord, I
change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." The sun hath his
changes, but the Father of lights is without variableness, or shadow of
turning. "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that
he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken,
and shall he not make it good?" God has never to alter His purposes; why
should He? Those purposes are always infinitely wise. He knoweth the end from
the beginning; so His covenant, which He made with such deliberation in the
councils of eternity, that covenant which is sealed with the most precious
things He ever had, even with the blood of His only-begotten Son, that
covenant upon which He stakes His eternal honor, for His glory and honor are
wrapped up with the covenant of grace-that covenant cannot be changed because
God Himself changeth not.
Then, next, the Christ who is its Surety and Substance changes not. Christ,
the great Sacrifice by whose death the covenant was ratified, Christ, the
Surety, who has sworn to carry out our part of the covenant, Christ, who is
the very sum and substance of the covenant, never alters. "All the promises
of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." If we
had a variable Savior, brethren, we should have a changeable covenant. Look
at Adam; he could change, and therefore he was a poor representative of the
human race. Our first federal head soon fell because he was a mere man; but
the Surety of the new covenant is the Son of God, who, like His Father,
faileth not, and changeth not. Though He is of the substance of His mother,
bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and therefore can stand as man's
Representative, yet is he Light of Light, very God of very God, and so He
standeth fast and firm, like the unchanging God Himself. In this great truth
we do and we will rejoice. The covenant is always before God, for Christ is
always there. He, the Lamb in the midst of the throne, makes the covenant
always to be close to the heart of God.
And, beloved, note you this. The covenant must always be near to God because
the love which suggested it changes not. The Lord loves His people with a
love which has no beginning, no end, no boundary, no change. He says, "I have
loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-Kindness have I
drawn thee." When the love of God's heart goeth forth toward the believer, it
is not changeful like the love of man, sometimes high and sometimes low,
sometimes strong and sometimes weak; but, as it is said of our Savior,
"having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end,"
so can it be said of the great Father that His love is evermore the same; and
if the love which dictated the covenant is always in the heart of God, depend
upon it that the covenant which comes of that love is always there in the
secret place of the Most High.
Reflect also, beloved brethren, that the promises contained in the covenant
change not. I quoted to you, just now, one passage about the promises, and
that is enough: "All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen."
Not one single promise of God shall ever fall to the ground unfulfilled. His
Word in the form of promises, as well as in the form of the gospel, shall not
return unto Him void. O souls, you may hang your whole weight upon any
promise of God! You need not fear that it will break. Though all the vessels
of the King's house were hung on one nail made by Him, that nail would bear
them all up, as well as the fagons as the vessels of smaller measure. Heaven
and earth may hang upon a single promise of God. The voice that rolls the
stars along, and keeps them all in their orbits, is that voice which spoke
even the least of the promises, and therefore every promise of God stands
secure forever.
And once more, not only the promises, but the force and binding power of the
covenant change not. All God's acts are done with a reference to His
covenant, and all His covenant has a reference to His covenanted ones.
Remember what Moses said of old, "When the Most High divided to the nations
their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of
the people according to the number of the children of Israel." Everything
that He does follows the line and rule of His covenant. If He chastens and
afflicts, it is not in anger, but in His dear covenant love. When first that
covenant came into full action with the redeemed, it was all powerful; but it
is just as powerful still. All that God doeth is still guided and directed by
His eternal purpose and His covenant pledges to His people. Stand still,
then, and when thou lookest up, if thou canst not see that temple because
thine eye of faith is dim, if thou scarcely darest to look within into the
secret place which is the holiest of all, yet know thou of a surety that the
covenant is still there, and always there, whether thou seest it or seest it
not.
I will tell thee when perhaps, thou wilt best know that the covenant is
there; that is, when the storm-clouds gather the most thickly. When thou
shalt see the black masses come rolling up, then remember that the Lord said
to Noah, "I do set my bow in the loud, and it shall he for a token of a
covenant between me and the earth." Then shalt thou know that Jehovah
remembereth His covenant; thou mayest even be half glad of a black cloud,
that the sun of the divine love may paint upon it the many-colored bow, that
God may look on it, and remember His covenant. It is good for thee to look on
it; but what must it be for Him to look on it, and to remember His covenant?
Be thou glad that the covenant is always near to God, as out text declares,
"And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple
the ark of his covenant."
II. Now, secondly, THE COVENANT IS SEEN OF SAINTS: There was seen in his
temple the ark of his covenant."
First, we see it when, by faith, we believe in Jesus as our Covenant-head.
By faith we know that God has entered into covenant with us. He that
believeth in Christ Jesus is in covenant with God. "He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life." "He that believeth on Him is not condemned." He
that believeth in Him is at peace with God, he has passed from death unto
life, and shall never come into condemnation. Thou art in covenant with God,
believer. Wipe thy weeping eyes, ask God to take the dust out of them, that
thou mayest see that there is an unchanging covenant made with thee tonight
and forever.
Next, we see this covenant when, by faith, we perceive it in God's actions
toward us. Faith may see the covenant of God in all His actions. Do you not
remember how the old Scotch woman blessed God for her porridge, but she
blessed Him most of all because the porridge was in the covenant? God had
promised bread and water, and therefore it was sure to come to her. God sent
her bread to her in the form of porridge, and she blessed the Lord that it
was in the covenant. Now, I thank God that food is in the covenant, and that
raiment is in the covenant. It is written, "Thy shoes shall be iron and
brass," so they are in the covenant Life is in the covenant and death is in
the covenant: "To die is gain." Everything that is to happen to us is in the
covenant; and when faith sees it so, it makes like a happy one. Am I
chastened? I say to myself "Well, the rod was in the covenant, for the Lord
said that, if His children disobeyed Him, He would chasten them with the rod
of men. If I never had the rod, I should be afraid I was not in the
covenant." Is it not written, "In the world ye shall have tribulation?" That
is a part of the covenant, you see; so that, when you get it, say to
yourself, "The God who is evidently keeping this part of His covenant will
keep the rest of it to me, His child."
Brethren, we get, perhaps. the best sight of the covenant when by prayer we
plead it. In that hour of our wrestling, in the time of our inward craving of
mercies from the hand of God, we come at last to this. "Lord, thou hast
promised; do as thou hast said." I love to put my finger on a promise, and
then to plead it with the Lord, saying, "This is thy Word, my Father; and I
know that thou wilt not run back from it. O God, I believe in the inspiration
of this Book, and I take very word of it as coming from thy lips. Wilt thou
not seal it to my conscience, my heart, my experience, by proving it to be
true?" Have you ever found the Lord's promises fail you? I remember one who
had put in the margin of her Bible in several places, "I and P"; and when she
was asked what those letters meant, she said, "That they mean, 'Tried and
Proved.' As I go through life, I keep trying and proving the promises of God,
and then I put a mark in the margin of my Bible against every one I have
tested, that I may not forget it the next time I have to plead it." That is
the way to see the covenant at the right hand of God, when you plead it in
prayer.
And there are some of us, I think, who can say that our experience up till
now proves that God does not forget His covenant. We have wandered, but we
have been able to say, "He restoreth my soul." for He has restored us. We
have needed many things, and we have gone to Him in prayer, and pleaded that
word, "No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly," and He
has listened to the cries of His servants. He said He would do so: "Call upon
me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." He
has remembered us in our low estate, for His mercy endureth forever; and some
of us who are no longer young can set to our seal that God is true because of
many experiences of His faithfulness. If they tell us that there is nothing
in the Bible, and nothing in God, and nothing in the gospel of Christ, we
laugh them to scorn. We have now for many a year lived upon the faithfulness
of God, and we cannot be driven into a distrust of Him. He is faithful, and
His mercy endureth forever.
Do you not also think that, when we arrive in heaven, we shall have a
wonderful retrospect, and that retrospect will all come to this: "The temple
of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his
covenant?" Miss Hannah More very prettily puts it that, often, we do not see
the right side of things here. She went into a carpet manufactory, and she
looked at what the workmen were doing, and she could see nothing that looked
like beauty of design. 'There were tags and ends hanging out, and she said to
the men, "I cannot perceive any design here," and they answered, "No, madam,
for you are on the wrong side of the carpet"; but when she went round to the
other side, she saw the beauty of the workmanship. Alas! we are at present on
the wrong side of God's work; we must get to heaven to see it perfectly, and
when we get there, we shall-
Sing, with wonder and surprise,
His loving-kindness in the skies.
and we shall say, It was all right; it could not have been better.
Every dark and bending line
Meets in the centre of his love.
God hath not erred. He has not gone abut the longest way to do His work, but
He has done in the wisest and most prudent manner all that was for the best
and highest interests of His dear covenanted ones.
Thus, I have shown you that sometimes, and it should be always, God's people
do see that glorious covenant of grace which is in the temple above.
III. Now I want to have your attention while I say briefly, in the third
place, that THE COVENANT CONTAINS MUCH THAT IS WORTH SEEING. Let us think of
what was in the ancient ark of the covenant, for all that was in that ark as
a type is to be seen in Christ our heavenly covenant ark above.
In that ark, if you and I could have gone into the holy place, and have had
our eyes strengthened to look. we should have seen, first, God dwelling among
men. What a wonderful thing! Over the top of the lid of that sacred coffer
which was called the ark, there shone an amazing light which was the index of
the presence of God. He was in the midst of the camp of Israel. He that
filleth heaven and earth, the infinite Jehovah, deigned to make that place
His special dwelling-place, so that He is addressed as, "Thou that dwellest
between the cherubims." Here is a part of the new covenant: "I will dwell in
them, and walk in them." It is marvelous that God does speak with men. He
whom you heard thundering, last night, as He drove His chariot through the
sky, that God in infinite condescension speaks with us, and has come down to
us, and taken us into relationship with Himself in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is at once the fellow of the Almighty, and the brother of
the sons of men. O beloved, rejoice in the covenant, that God is no longer
divided from men! The chasm made by sin is filled, the gulf is bridged, and
God now dwells with me, and manifests Himself to them; and "the secret of the
Lord is with them that fear him."
Next, in that ark you would have noticed, if you could have seen into it, God
reconciled and communing with men upon the mercy-seat. Over the top of that
ark, as I have told you, was a golden lid, which fitted it, and covered it
exactly, and that golden lid was called the mercy-seat, the throne of grace.
There God spoke with men. He sat there, as it were, enthroned as the Friend
of men. Now, it is a part of the covenant that God hears prayer, that God
answers our petitions, that He meets us in a way of reconciled love, that He
speaks to us in tones which the spirit can hear though the ear cannot. Thank
God for a blood-besprinkled mercy-seat. What should we do if we had not that
as our meeting-place with the thrice-holy Jehovah?
Then, within the ark, underneath the lid, if we could have looked in, we
should have seen the law, the two tables of stone, which represent law
fulfilled in Christ, and henceforth laid up in His heart, and laid up in our
hearts, too, if we delight in the law of God after the inward man. Now, this
is our joy, that the law of God has nothing against the believer. It is
fulfilled in Christ, and we see it laid up in Christ, not to be a stone to
fall upon us to grind us to powder, but beautiful and fair to look upon as it
is in the heart of Christ, and fulfilled in the life of Christ. I rejoice in
the covenant which contains in it stipulations all fulfilled, and commands
all executed, by our great Representative.
Together with those tables of the law there was laid up a rod, a rod which
had originally been a dry stick in the hands of Aaron, but when it was laid
up before the Lord it budded, and blossomed, and brought forth almonds. So,
in the covenant of grace, we see the kingdom established and flourishing in
Christ, and we rejoice in it. Oh how pleased we are to bow before His
fruitful sceptre! What wonderful fruit we gather from that blessed rod!
Reign, reign, Jesus, reign! The more Thou dost rule us, the more Thou art
absolute Sovereign of our hearts, the happier shall we be, and the more shall
we delight ourselves in Thee. There is no liberty like complete subjection
beneath the sway of Jesus who is our Prophet, Priest, and King.
Then, by the side of that rod there was laid up the golden pot full of manna,
the provision made for the wilderness. Let us rejoice that there is in the
covenant all the provision that we need. God has laid up for us in Christ all
our spiritual meat, all the food that we shall ever need between here and
heaven. "Feed me till I want no more," we cry to our blessed covenant
Representative, and He will do so.
Then, over the top off the ark, sat the cherubirm with outstretched wings,
as, I think, representing how the angels are in league with us, and with the
angels all the forces and powers of the universe. This day, the beasts of the
field are our friends, and the stones of the field have ceased to be our
foes. Child of God, you may travel by land or sea; you may go where you will;
for everywhere you are in your Father's house. All that you see about you is
a friend to you, since you are a friend to God. I often wonder that the earth
bears up ungodly men. It must groan beneath the weight of a swearer; it must
want to open and swallow him up. But with the gracious man, the man who fears
God, all things are at peace; and we may know it to be so. "Ye shall go out
with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall
break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall
clap their hands." We do not often enough realize, I think, the friendship of
all God's creatures to those who are His children. St. Francis, thought he
was a Romish monk, yet had a true idea when he used to regard the sparrows
and other birds of the air, and even the dogs in the street, as his friends
and his brothers, and talked to them as such. And Luther was much of the same
mind when he opened His window, and listened to the chirpings of the robins
in the early spring, and felt that they had come to teach the theological
doctor some lesson which he had not learned. Oh yes, oh yes, we are quite at
home anywhere, now that God is our God! True, the earth travaileth, and is in
pain, and the creation suffers and will suffer till Christ comes again; but
still her travail is our travail, and we are in sympathy with her, and when
she doth reflect the glory of her God she is our looking-glass in which we
see our Father's face.
Thus, I think, 1 have shown you that there is much to be seen in the ark of
the covenant. God give us grace, like the angels, to fix our eyes upon it!
"Which things the angels desire to look into." We have more to do with the
ark of His covenant than they have; let us be more desirous even than they
are to look therein.
IV. I close with this fourth point. THE COVENANT HAS SOLEMN SURROUNDINGS.
Listen: ''There were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an
earthquake, and great hail."
When the people entered into covenant with God on Sinai, the Lord came down
upon the top of the mount, and there were thunderings, and lightnings, and
voices, and an earthquake. There were all these tokens of His presence, and
God will not leave the covenant of his grace without the sanctions of His
power; that thunder, that lightning, that storm-all these are engaged to keep
His covenant. When they are wanted, the God who smote Egypt with great
hailstones, the God who make the Kishon to sweep his enemies away, the God
who made the stars in heaven to fight against Sisera, will bring all the
overwhelming forces that are at His command to the help of His people, and
the fulfilling of the covenant which He has made with them. O you who are His
people, fall back in confidence upon the God who has treasures of snow, and
hail, and the dread artillery of storms and tempest! Most of you, my hearers,
have never seen a great storm yet, no r heard in its majesty the thunder of
God's power. You must be in the tropics to know what these can be, and even
then you would have to say, ''These are but parts of His ways." Oh, how the
Lord can shake the earth, and make it tremble even to its deep foundations
when He pleases! He can make what we call "the solid earth" to be as weak as
water when He doth but lift up His finger. But all the power that God hath-
and it is boundless-is all in that right hand which has been lifted high to
heaven in the solemn oath that He will save His people. Wherefore, lean upon
God without the shadow of a doubt. He may well put all your fears to rest
even by the thunder of His power.
Then reflect that there is another side to this truth. You who are not in
covenant with God, you who have not believed that Jesus is the Christ, you
who have never fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before you, you
who refuse the divine mercy which comes to you through the bleeding person of
the suffering Christ, do remember that there will be for you the thunderings,
and the lightnings, and the voices, and the earthquake, and the great hail,
for these set forth the terrors of eternal law, overthrowing God's
adversaries. You have no conception of what God will do with the ungodly.
False teachers may smooth it down as much as they like, but that Book is full
of thunderbolts to you who refuse God's mercy. Listen to this one text:
"Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be
none to deliver." Can you sport with that? Listen to another: "Ah, I will
ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies!" What will you
say to that, or to this? "And again they said Alleluia. And her smoke rose up
forever and ever." "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he
shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy
angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day not night, who
worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark; of his
name." That they talk as if we invented these terrible words, but we do not;
we merely quote the Scriptures of truth, and they are terrible indeed to the
wicked. That they should make men start in their sleep, and never rest until
they find a Savior. A Universalist once said to a Christian man that,
whatever he did, God would not punish him, and the other replied, "If I spit
on your god, I suppose he will not punish me. If l curse him, if I defy him,
it will all come right at last?" "Yes," said the Universalist. "Well,"
answered the other, "that may be the character of your god; but don't you try
that kind of thing with my God, the God of the Scriptures, or else you will
find that because He is love He cannot, and He will not, suffer this world to
be in anarchy, but he will rule it, ;and govern it, and He will punish those
that refuse His infinite compassion." So I beseech you, my hearers, fly to
Jesus at once; weary, and heavy-laden, look to Him, for He saith especially
to you, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." The Lord add His blessing
to the truth I have tried to preach to you, the sweet and the terrible alike,
for Jesus' sake! Amen.
Provided by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, NJ, USA 08022
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