Destined to Reign (25 page)

Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment

There’s more. The mercy seat also speaks of the person of Christ. The Bible says that “He Himself is the
propitiation
for our sins”
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. This means that Jesus became our sacrifice to divert God’s wrath meant for us to Himself. “Propitiation” is a beautiful word. On the cross, Jesus became the propitiation for our sins. If you study the word “propitiation” in the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament), you will find that it is the same word as “mercy seat”
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.

So when Apostle John said that Jesus is our propitiation, he was saying that Jesus is our mercy seat. The mercy seat was made of one solid slab of gold that was beaten into shape. In the same way, for Jesus to take our place and be our mercy seat, He had to be brutally beaten and scourged, so that by His stripes, we are healed.

When you look at the illustration of the ark of the covenant, you will also see the crown on the mercy seat. This crown typifies Jesus’ majesty, glory and kingship. He was the only King who came not to be served, but to serve. He became a servant-King for us on the cross.

So the ark of the covenant is a shadow of our Lord Jesus Christ, His person and His work. Because of His blood,
all
our sins have been cleansed. That is why it was dangerous for anyone back in those days to lift the mercy seat to uncover the sins and rebellion that God had covered. The mercy seat was not to be lifted at any time and the consequences for doing so were severe. The Bible records that when the people in a village called Beth Shemesh lifted the mercy seat to look inside the ark, many of them were destroyed
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.

Nobody was supposed to even take a peek at the Ten Commandments. God doesn’t want the law to be exposed because it represents our rebellion, and it will only minister death and condemnation. The peculiar thing is that people have made the Ten Commandments into posters that are hung in homes today, when even in the Old Testament, God kept the law hidden under the mercy seat!

Don’t you think that believers today should be exalting God’s mercy and His grace above the law? Notice that the mercy seat is placed over the law. This tells us that God’s mercy triumphs over judgment
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! God’s grace is above God’s law. God executes judgment because He is just, but His delight is not in judgment. His delight is in mercy and grace. The Bible tells us that God’s anger lasts only for a moment, but His mercy endures forever
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.

The way some people portray God today creates the false impression that His mercy lasts only for a moment, but His anger endures forever! That is just not true. His anger ended the moment it was exhausted on Jesus at the cross. In fact, even His judgment demonstrates His grace because instead of judging us for our sins (which we deserved), the judgment fell on His Son, Jesus Christ, in whom was no sin! That’s grace, my friend. The judgment that we deserved fell on Jesus, while the blessings that He deserved fell on us! That is the undeserved, unmerited and unearned favor of God.

Don’t uncover your sins or the sins of others. They have been completely forgiven by the blood of Jesus.

So my friend, don’t lift the mercy seat to uncover your sins or the sins of others. They have been completely forgiven by the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah!

Bring The Ark Of The Covenant Back

Let’s get back to what David vowed to do — bring the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. For more than 20 years, the ark had been in a hilly place called Kirjath Jearim, which means “the fields of the woods”
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. David had heard about the ark since he was a young boy growing up in Bethlehem Ephrathah (the same Bethlehem where Jesus would be born), which is why he said, “We heard of it [the ark] in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of the woods,”
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referring to Kirjath Jearim.

Growing up, David must have wondered why nobody made a move to bring the ark back to Jerusalem where it belonged. Saul was king at that time, but he never had the heart or desire to bring the ark back to Jerusalem. He simply left it there in Kirjath Jearim. So David made it his passion to bring the ark to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, for the Lord had chosen Zion as His dwelling place. God Himself said of Zion, “This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.”
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Do you know why God chose Mount Zion and not Mount Sinai? This is because Mount Zion represents His grace, while Mount Sinai represents His law. On the first Pentecost, 50 days after the first Passover, God gave the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, and 3,000 people died
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. On the day of Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus, God gave the Holy Spirit at Mount Zion, and 3,000 people were saved and the new covenant church was born
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. The law kills, but the Spirit brings life. The law condemns, but grace saves. God has chosen grace over the law, Mount Zion over Mount Sinai!

When you understand the typology of the ark of the covenant, you will see that bringing back the ark of the covenant is the same as bringing Jesus Christ back into a place of prominence, and making Him and His finished work the center of all our teaching and preaching.

A long time ago, the Lord said this to me, “Son, bring Jesus Christ back to the church.”

You know, it saddens me that in many churches today, you hardly hear the name of Jesus being mentioned. Instead, you hear psychology being taught. You hear motivational teachings. You hear “doing, doing, doing”, “vision, vision, vision” or “calling, calling, calling”. You hear very little of Jesus Christ and His finished work being taught. Is this what Christianity is about? Your doing, your calling and your vision?

There is a popular verse from the book of Revelation, which Christians use for unbelievers. It says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
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When you look at the context of this verse, it is actually not written to unbelievers, but to the church of the Laodiceans
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! Now, why is the Lord standing outside the church and knocking?

It Is All About Unveiling Jesus

When I travel around the world to preach the gospel of Jesus, my greatest reward as a pastor is to be able to meet precious believers and unveil Jesus Christ to them all over again. There is no greater reward than to know that I have opened their eyes to see more of Jesus, His grace, His beauty and the perfection of His work, because I know that this is my calling in life from the Lord.

I still remember how Wendy and I were living in a very small place when we first got married. It was our first apartment. Our study room was so tiny and it didn’t even have a chair at that time. As I sat on the floor of my study room reading the Scriptures, God spoke to me. He began to show me more clearly than I had ever seen before that Jesus Christ was not being given central place in the body of Christ, and as a result, the fullness of His blessings was not flowing as it should.

When Jesus Christ is not given central place in the body of Christ, the fullness of His blessings is not flowing as it should.

When He showed this to me, I said, “Lord, if I preach sermons that are full of Jesus, and if all my sermons are about Jesus, I think that nobody would want to listen to them.” Then, I heard Him say this: “Son, will you still be willing to do it even if nobody comes? Even if nobody wants to hear them, will you still preach every sermon full of Jesus?” I was stunned by His question and I thought through it for a while because as a young pastor, I was ambitious and wanted to grow the church. Then, I said this to Him, and I will never forget what I said: “Lord, even if our church becomes smaller after that, I am willing to do it.” So I didn’t care whether people would accept it or not. I just began to preach about Jesus Christ and His finished work.

Many years have passed and I now know that the question was a test from the Lord. Our church did not become smaller. No, it exploded right after that encounter with the Lord. From only a few hundred people at that time, we have grown to more than 15,000 people as of this writing. I still remember exactly where I was sitting in my study room when God gave me that challenge. From that point onwards, He has given me everything I need to fulfill this calling. He has given me an amazing wife, a wonderful daughter (when He spoke to me, Jessica was not even born yet) and great leaders to support this call. Everything that He has given me in my life has been to bring me to a place where Jesus can be exalted.

Many have told me that I am called to preach grace, but my main calling is not just to teach on grace. It is to bring Jesus back into the central place of the church and His grace is part of that. You cannot separate Jesus from His grace anyway. The Bible says that “the law was given through Moses, but
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ
”
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.

It is actually not easy to preach grace because when you preach grace, you make nothing of man and everything of Jesus. And man does not like that. Man likes to think that he has fasted 40 days and 40 nights to get the anointing. He wants to be able to say, “I paid the price for spiritual power.” Hey, my friend, Jesus paid the price already. It is not about your fasting. It is all about the work of Jesus Christ!

Bringing Jesus Back To Mount Zion

Let me explain to you what it means to bring Jesus back to Mount Zion. Bringing Jesus back to Mount Zion is to bring Jesus back to the place of grace. Have you heard sermons where they preach about Jesus, but the sermons are very hard?

As a teenager growing up in my previous church, I remember one sermon that really frightened me. The preacher said, “Jesus Himself said that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. “Then, he said, “If the Pharisees had this standard, then we must have even higher standards than them.” I felt really condemned. What hope was there for me, since I did not even measure up to the standard of the Pharisees?

Even though that preacher was preaching from Jesus’ words, he never brought Jesus into the context of grace. He made Jesus appear hard and legalistic. He did not bring the ark back to Zion. Now, let’s interpret what Jesus was really saying in the context of grace. He was saying that the only way to enter heaven is to have HIS righteousness that exceeds all other standards of righteousness. His righteousness is far above the self-righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees! And guess what? HIS righteousness is a gift to be freely received. It is yours today!

Be A Man After God’s Own Heart!

This is the secret to David’s blessings. He pursued the ark of the covenant and God called him a man after His own heart. Today, you too can be the man or woman after God’s own heart. You can pursue Jesus and bring Him back into the center of your life. Make Jesus the centerpiece of every aspect of your life. The Bible says that where two or three are gathered in His name, He will be there in the midst of them
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If your marriage is breaking down, let me tell you this, most likely, you are putting your demands on your husband to supply you what only Jesus can give, or you are looking to your wife to give you what you should get only from Jesus. You end up over-pressurizing each other. Every marriage needs a “third party”. His name is Jesus. He must be in the midst of every marriage.

Today, you can be the man or woman after God’s own heart by making Jesus the centerpiece of every aspect of your life.

Make Jesus, His finished work and His grace the center of everything in your life. Make Him the center of your marriage, family, career and finances, and allow the fullness of His blessings to flow in your life today!

Chapter 17: Picture Of Pure Grace

When my daughter Jessica was about five years old, I asked her, “What is a Bible?” She replied, “It is a book that is all about Jesus, with a red string in it.” Oh, I love that! Isn’t it so precious to see things from a child’s perspective? She did not describe the Bible in religious terms that we adults are fond of. She just saw the Bible in its simplest and purest form — a book that is all about Jesus, with a red string in it! Of course, I had to explain to her that the red string is a bookmark. But you know what? There is indeed a “scarlet thread” that runs through this book, from the beginning in Genesis to the end in Revelation. It
is
all about Jesus and His finished work at the cross.

When new believers read the Old Testament for the first time, they might wonder what all the slaughtering of animals, sacrifices and sprinkling of blood are about. Well, when you understand that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins, you will begin to appreciate the value of the blood, especially the blood that Jesus shed for our sins.