Embracing Divine Mercy: A Call to Serve

The question has been asked before: Have you ever received a miracle in your life?

And before you answer that, I want you to understand what I'm preaching about today: the miracle of mercy. You may be seated. I'm changing up your list, media department.

Romans chapter 12 and verse 1. Paul had a revelation that we have all received a miracle that we did not deserve, and that is called mercy. Notice how Paul would address his audience: "I beseech you" or "I beg you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice." He said, "I'm imploring you. I beg you. I instruct you with fervency according to the mercies of God, with the understanding of God's mercies, that you would present your body a living sacrifice."

You see, I don't serve God to gain God's favor. We serve God because we understand His mercy. We love Him because He first loved us. We love Him too. Jesus says, "I love you first." We say, "We love you back."

I say it again: I get real scared of people that have a religious spirit that think they have earned the goodness of God. "Well, I fast and I pray, and God deserves to give me blessings." No, a thousand times no! You're under the curse of sin. You're broken on the inside. All seek their own; all do what's right in their own eyes.

And there is the power of the blood of Calvary that comes up and makes a difference in our heart and life. So when God decided to have a people, He called Moses and He said, "Come up to the mountain. I want to give you a commandment because I want to make a covenant with you."

We find it in Exodus chapter 25: "And let them make me a sanctuary, why? That I may dwell among them." Verse number nine: "According to the pattern of the Tabernacle, the pattern, the instructions thereof, even so shall you make it."

And they shall make an ark of acacia wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. He said, "I want you to make this Tabernacle after the pattern of Heaven because I desire to dwell among my people. I desire to have a relationship with my people just like I had in the garden."

But sin entered in, and that relationship was broken. Exodus 31 and 2 tells us there was a special carpenter. Bezalel was the carpenter. Verse two and three says God filled him with the Spirit of God, filled him with wisdom and understanding and knowledge in all manner of workmanship. He wasn't just a skilled person naturally; he was supernaturally filled with God to build physically the Tabernacle that God would dwell in.

I'm going to tell you this: the Holy Ghost is more than just going to church and singing a little song. This Holy Ghost will go with you to the job. This Holy Ghost will help you around the house. You could even forget something and say, "Jesus, I need you to help me remember what I was supposed to remember." Because if He can help this carpenter know how to work craftsmanship, He can help us in all things.

Now watch this: notice the order in which they started. He started with the vessel of the holiest of holies, and then He went to the holy place. The very first piece of furniture, before He talks about a priesthood, before He talks about the Levites, before He talks about Aaron, before He talks about the priest's garment, He said, "The very first thing I want you to make, first in order, first in preeminence, is the Ark of the Covenant."

It's called the Ark of the testimony, the Ark of the Holy Ark, and the Ark of my strength. It represented the presence of God. They would take it into battle, and they would take the Covenant that God was with them. When the ark was stolen, it was as if the blessing of God was taken away. Ichabod was written upon the name of one because the ark had been stolen.

What made this Ark so incredible was the contents of the ark. Of course, there was the pot of manna. The pot of manna was that people would forever remember that God miraculously rained manna when they had a need. The Great I Am fulfilled whatever need they had. Every day they would go out, except the Sabbath, and they would pick up what God provided for them.

"I want my people to forever remember that I am the God of provision, and I am the God of miracles." This, of course, would foreshadow in the New Testament fulfilled in the face of Jesus Christ. He said, "I am the bread that came down from above."

And then the Ten Commandments would represent direction, instruction, and obligations of God's chosen covenant people. "I want my people." No wonder Jesus said, "Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have life, but they are they which testify of me."

And then they wanted to have Aaron's rod. God wanted to have Aaron's rod forever as a reminder that there was the budding of new life, but more than that, it was spiritual authority. There were some that rose up. Numbers chapter 16 said, "You take too much upon yourself. We know God just like you know God."

And so they laid the sticks down, representing from each tribe, and the one that budded overnight miraculously would be the one that would have spiritual authority. And it was Aaron's rod, representing God's chosen for that power.

The whole sanctuary was built for no other purpose; it was the house and the habitation for the ark. Everything was for the ark. Every piece of furniture was for the purpose of the ark. Everything else was preparatory. Everything else was important, but not the main event. The furniture, the service of the Tabernacle was meaningless; it was valueless without the Ark of the Covenant being there.

The Tabernacle symbolized the way that a sinner would make their way and approach God. The Tabernacle, of course, had two rooms: the outer court and the inner court. There was the Holy Place and the Holies of Holies, and there was only that one piece of furniture in the Holies of Holies. It was the Ark of the Covenant, four golden rings on the corners. It was for the poles that would rest through them and rest upon the shoulders of the priests that would carry them.

But what I want to show you is in First Chronicles chapter 28 and verse number 11. As God revealed to Moses the pattern of the Tabernacle, in like manner, God revealed to David the pattern of the temple and its furniture.

Watch now: "Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch and of the houses thereof, of the treasuries thereof, of the upper chambers thereof, of the inner parlors thereof, and of the place of the Mercy Seat."

You see, what made the ark so powerful, what made the ark so valuable, was the fact that it had on top of it something called the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat is not just a cover to keep the pot of manna, tables of stone, and Aaron's rod; it actually had its own identity and it had its own purpose.

The significance of this is that He wanted to have a place for the Mercy Seat. Notice it does not say a place for the ark, but specifically a place for the Mercy Seat. Leviticus 16 and 2: "The Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the Mercy Seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not. I will appear," God said, "in the cloud upon the Mercy Seat."

He said, "It's the Mercy Seat that I'm going to dwell in. It is the Mercy Seat that if he were to transgress and go through that veil, that he would automatically, immediately die."

Come with me to Exodus 25. It tells about this Mercy Seat: "And thou shalt make a mercy seat," verse 17, "of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold; a beaten work shalt thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on one end and the other cherub on the other. Even of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubs on the two ends thereof. And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings. Their faces shall be pointed towards one another, but towards the Mercy Seat shall the faces of the cherubims be."

And the Bible tells us in verse 22: "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two cherubims that are upon the ark."

Why is that of significance today? Because if you didn't have the mercy of God, you would have the judgment of God. If He wasn't communing with you from a place and position of mercy, none of you deserve to be in this house today.

I know you look prettier; your babies look cute, and you're here all packaged together. But all of you would be in a pile of heat somewhere. But it was the mercy of God that reached down to each and every one of us individually, and what a difference He's made in our heart and life.

You have all experienced the miracle of mercy. He said, "I want this to be a solid piece. It's beaten out of pure gold, a golden plate of propitiation."

He said, "I want their wings that are on either end to be outstretched. I want them to be touching, but I want their face to always be looking at mercy." In fact, it's a picture of God's throne. It is that place where God enthroned Himself, that place where the angels continually look down on a blood-splattered place of mercy that He enthrones Himself and communes with His people.

Psalms 80 and 1: "Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth." Psalms 99 and 1: "He sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved."

It was on the Mercy Seat that on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go in and he would sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat seven times. And each time he would do it, there would be mercy that was imparted to the nation of Israel. Their sins would be rolled ahead another time. They would kill that sacrificial goat; they would tie the red ribbon upon the escape goat, and the fit man would take him away.

And into that Holies of Holies, they would change their garments and do it again. There was an atonement that was made on that great Mercy Seat on that day. There is no other way you could approach God. There is no other way you could come into the presence of God. There is no other way you could stand to be in this house today in His presence without Him being on the Mercy Seat today.

So when God looks down, you better thank God that He doesn't just see His law. But before He sees the law, He sees the blood that is splattered and sprinkled there. Before He sees the law, before the angels, they looked down and they don't see the law.

And so I've come to ask this great people here today: Why would anyone leave with condemnation? Why would anyone leave hopeless? Why would anyone leave without a shout in your step, joy upon your lips? You want to talk about a reason to rejoice? Everyone is a miracle of mercy in this house today.

If you got what you had deserved, you would go straight to hell, wouldn't pass go, wouldn't collect 200. But for the mercy of God, we are redeemed by His blood. That's why I come to the house of God and I get loud and I sweat because He's been so good to me. I cannot tell it all; He's taken my sin away.

So the Shekinah glory is mingled with the blood and the Mercy Seat. You can't separate the glory of the cherubim. He rests; He says, "I commune from that place, and I speak from that place."

Yes, we know what the scripture said: "The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. The wages of sin is death. Sin has separated me from you."

Yeah, but the Bible also does say, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

What is Psalms 91 and 1 talking about? It's talking about that place of mercy. "I will trust in the Lord." You see, when you understand mercy, you can say, "I trust in Him because I know what He has done for me."

One day, a sinner went to pray in Luke chapter 18 and verse 13. You know what he actually said in the original? "Republican, standing afar off, he lifted his eyes to heaven and he beat on his breast. He said, 'Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.'"

Same word: "Be merciful to me, a sinner." It was because of the Mercy Seat that God spoke to His people. It was because of the Mercy Seat that the Shekinah glory was revealed to mankind. It was because of the Mercy Seat that the glory of God could feel comfortable to come near mankind.

It's because of the Mercy Seat that an unknown God could be known by mankind. That's why I shout over our text today because it says, "My soul hath remembered my affliction and my misery and my wormwood. It humbled me."

But then I called to remember: there's something else I've got to remember. Not just my transgression; I've got to remember the Mercy Seat of Him, and His mercies are new and fresh every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness!

You see, my job is so difficult today because you live in the presence of the Lord. But if you were alive during this time, everything said, "Get out." You didn't hang out around the Tabernacle and play games at the Tabernacle. You did official business very reverently and very carefully because if you messed up, it was death for you. It was death for your family.

You didn't just chew bubble gum and drink lattes when you came into the sanctuary. Everything said, "Get out." Everything said, "Barrier." Everything said, "Beware." Everything said, "So cross the line, no trespassing."

But Calvary's cross, He hung His head and He said, "It is finished," and the veil was ripped from top to bottom. That gave the likes of you and me access to come into His presence.

That's why I sing. That's why I'm faithful to the house of God. That's why I'm paying my tithes and living holy and righteous because of the mercies of God.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood." What boldness to enter into the holiest! That which the high priest could do one time a year, only if he had the proper clothing on, only if he had the proper amount of blood, only if the sacrifice was perfect.

Now the likes of you and I have boldness and a guarantee by a new and living way which He had consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, having a high priest over the house of God.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. How do you know? Because the book declared He is my Mercy Seat.

Hebrews 4 and 16: "Let us therefore come how boldly." In the original, it's written as "in the tents." Let us keep coming continually with boldness unto the throne of grace. Why? That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.

First Peter chapter 2, verse 9: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light."

Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Thank you. I don't think it registered.

First Peter chapter 2, verse 9: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His light."

You were not a people, but are now a people which had no mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Let's try one more time: First Peter 2:9. "You're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth praises because you didn't have mercy, but you now have mercy."