Hebrews chapter 9, as we were
singing that song, as I was thinking about what Rommel said from Romans
chapter 1, how the Apostle Paul was not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. You can see how a woman who is
loved by a man, her husband, is content, is assured and at
peace with that love when she knows her husband loves her without
consideration of her own strength, but just because he loves her.
Such love compels a woman to love her husband, and it's a
love that is not ashamed of her husband, because his love to
her is so faithful, so loyal, so unconditioned on her own performance. He finds her attractive in every
way, and he loves her. And it's in the Lord Jesus Christ,
he has loved his people from eternity. The beauty he sees
in them is his own. He's given them his own beauty,
and he loves them because he is love, not because of something
he finds in them. And this constancy of His love
that springs from His heart, not ours, and the work that He's
done for us, declared to us by the gospel of His grace, compels
us and constrains us to love Him. And that is something that
comes to us as a fruit of faith in Him. God gives us complete
assurance that He has provided and accepted His Son for us and
accepted us in Him. And seeing God's love for His
Son, seeing God's love for His people in providing His Son,
and seeing Christ's love for His people in giving Himself
for them, and then the continuance of that love. It doesn't fail.
It keeps going, bringing them to Himself. All those things
compel us to love our Savior. I think the reason we are naturally
ashamed of the gospel is because we're naturally ashamed of what
it cost our Savior to save us from our sins. He hung bloody
and in humiliation on the cross. There was nothing about Him that
men saw that was desirable. They rejected and despised Him.
In fact, it was his humility that offended the Jews, because
his humility was bearing his people's sins. That was necessary. It's a shame when you think about
our sins, what they did to our Savior. But when you realize
what he did to save us, then we're not ashamed. We're actually
boasting in Christ and in his cross that he would stoop so
low and take our obligations and answer for them. to make
us holy in God's eye, bring us into His own presence without
compromise. What a Savior, what a God. This
is the heart and purpose and will of our God and Father. Let
me turn now to the book of Hebrews, chapter 9, and let's open up
with a word of prayer and ask the Lord to be with us. Father,
thank you for your word concerning your Son. Help us to see in him
yourself, in your own heart, in your purpose, your work, your
glory. and help us to know you and to
be compelled in our hearts to come to you by him alone and
honor you because of him and worship you because of him, because
of this salvation. Thank you for your grace, Lord.
And help us at this time. Help us as we look into your
word. We pray that you would apply it to our hearts. You would
give us life and give us faith and cause us not only to not
be ashamed but to boast in our Savior and to speak about his
glory that he would save us from our wretchedness and our sinfulness
and still be so good and holy in himself. In Jesus' name we
pray, amen. Now, we're reading here in Hebrews
chapter 9. I want to read through the first
15 verses with you. I've entitled this message, The
Many Shadows of the One Savior. The Many Shadows of the One Savior. See how the Lord has done this
in the Old Testament and see how extensively and how long
He has held up His Son in these shadows. Hebrews 9 verse 1, then
verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service. Ordinances of divine service.
That means it was all done because God required it. It was serving
Him, His purpose. It was designed to set forth
his glory. And we have to get this because
we think of the word of God as a self-centered thing. We think
about ourselves. God had to do this for his own
self, for his namesake. That's the reason we're saved.
So notice the ordinances are of divine service and of a worldly
sanctuary, a sanctuary on Earth Verse two, for there was a tabernacle
made, and in that tabernacle were two chambers. The first
wherein was the candlestick and the table. The candlestick sat
on that table, I think, at least. And the showbread, which definitely
sat on that table, which is called the sanctuary. That first part
of the tabernacle is called the sanctuary. And after the second
veil, because there was a veil that separated the first from
the second. After the second veil, the tabernacle, which is
called the holiest of all, there was a separation between these
two chambers. It was a large area. God's not
describing the dimensions here. He does that in Exodus. What
he's trying to focus on here, not just trying, but is focusing
our attention on, is the service, the divine service. And so he's
going to mention these things because they were there to teach
us about that divine service. Verse four. So the second tabernacle
behind the veil was called the holiest of all. And in that,
he says, which had the golden censer, in that section of the
overall tabernacle, that holiest of all had the golden censer.
The golden censer was a small device held by the high priest
with coals on it. And he would put incense on that.
And putting that censer in the holiest of all, that place was
filled with the smoke from the incense. So that second tabernacle
behind the veil, the holiest of all, had the golden censer.
And it also had the Ark of the Covenant. overlaid round about
with gold. So it was all covered with gold.
And in that, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and
Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. Those
three things were in that ark. The pot, God had told Moses,
put the manna in the pot, and put that in the ark. And take
Aaron's rod, because shepherds carried rods, and he was a high
priest, and God had chosen him out of all the other tribes to
be the high priest, his tribe, and Aaron specifically, to be
the high priest. And the tables of the covenant,
those two stone tablets on which God, with his own finger, had
written the Ten Commandments. That was all in the ark. And
over it, over the ark, the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy
seat. So rising up off that lid on the ark were these two cherubim,
they're called. And they had wings that touched
each other at the tips. And their faces looked down toward
the lid, the mercy seat, it was called. So these things are right
there, and the holiest of all, the censer, the Ark of the Covenant,
inside of it, those three things, the pot that had manna, Aaron's
rod that budded, the two tables on which the Ten Commandments
were written, and then over that ark, the lid of that ark was
a mercy seat on which were mounted, as one part of that lid, these
two cherubim looking down upon the mercy seat. So it says, and
over it, the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat of which
we cannot now speak particularly. Now, when these things were thus
ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. So the priest, not necessarily
the high priest, but specifically the priest who were not the high
priest, the ordinary priest, if you will, they were always
going into the first tabernacle, always accomplishing the service
of God. They were always in there every
day. Verse seven, but into the second, into that chamber behind
the veil, the holiest of all, went the high priest alone and
only once every year. Not without blood. He didn't
go in there without blood. Blood was required to enter into
that holiest of all. That blood which he offered for
himself and for the errors of the people. Now, there was something
that was intended to be learned by this. Verse 8, the Holy Ghost,
this signifying, this is what the Holy Spirit of God is revealing
by those things, that the way into the holiest of all was not
yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.
Why was that veil there? Because the Spirit of God is
declaring to us that the actual way into the true holiest of
all would not be declared and revealed by God until that Old
Testament, that Old Covenant, and the tabernacle with it was
done away. Remember what happened when Jesus
hung on the cross and he breathed his last. After he cried, it
is finished. You know what happened next?
It says in Matthew that the veil of the temple, separating the
holy from the holiest place, was torn in two. From top, it
was God's doing, to the bottom. Huge veil. And suddenly, access
was had into that holiest of all. And also, that old tabernacle
had lost any more function, no more purpose, because there was
no more hiding now. The high priest had entered heaven.
The veil of his flesh had been torn, and now access was given. Amazing, isn't it? The Holy Ghost
is signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet
made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing,
which was, that tabernacle was, here it clearly says it, a figure
for the time then present, not now, but then, in which in that
tabernacle were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could
not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the
conscience. The priests that did the service
then were not perfected in their conscience, because those gifts
and sacrifices never accomplished anything spiritual. It was only
a reflection of that truth. So their conscience wasn't cleared,
because the Spirit of God didn't sprinkle the blood of Christ
on their conscience to make them pure, because His blood had not
yet been shed. It had not yet been manifested.
Verse 10, that tabernacle stood, and those sacrifices and those
gifts, they stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings,
or various kinds of washings, and carnal ordinances, in other
words, ordinances of earth, temporal, physical things, imposed on them
by God under the law until the time of reformation. Until that
time, this is the true reformation, by the way. This is the reformer. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the reformer. He's the one that entered into
the holiest of all. And then the old was done away.
But Christ the true reformer, being common high priest of good
things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Nothing could be more clear here,
is it? Jesus Christ, by His blood, entered into heaven itself and
obtained, actually, successfully, completely obtained for us, not
a temporary, not an annual, yearly, but an eternal redemption for
us, not a shadow, the real thing. Verse 13, For if the blood of
bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the
unclean, all of us are unclean, sanctifyeth to the purifying
of the flesh. It only washed their outward
bodies. It only made them fit to perform that earthly, temporal,
shadowy, reflective service to God. They didn't actually do
anything. It was just an outward sign of
what was to come. But their bodies had to be prepared
for this according to strict conformance to those rules under
the law. If those animals and their ashes made them holy for
that service then, well, how much more shall the real blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
spot to God, Purge your conscience from dead works, works done out
of a dead spirit, works done that don't profit, to serve the
living God. For this cause He is the mediator
of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they
which are called called by God, by His Spirit, to the gospel,
might receive the promise of eternal inheritance, all by Christ. Amazing. So this is what we want
to speak about this morning, the many shadows of the one Savior. I mentioned these things in our
last sermon, but I want to give some more detail on these as
we look at these first few verses here for the confirmation from
scripture of what we said last time, and also to reassure us,
because we need a constant reassuring. The priest went always into the
first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. In Revelation
chapter one, just one place in scripture, in verse five, it
says, they said unto the Lord Jesus Christ, thou hast washed
us from our sins in your own blood, and made us priests and
kings to God. We who believe Christ are made
priests. We enter all the time into the
real, the actual place. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
alone entered into heaven with his own blood as the high priest
for his people, according to God's will, to accomplish God's
will for his people to take away their sins, to cleanse them,
to wash them from their sins. and to make them holy all by
his blood, to actually present them in the presence of God's
glory without fault, spotless, blameless, unreprovable. This
is all spoken of throughout the New Testament in Colossians 1
and Revelation 5 and various places. That work of the Lord
Jesus Christ is something he did. He actually went into heaven. But we, as priests, We actually
go into the presence of God now by faith, in Him. In seeing what
God has declared that He did, and laying hold on Him, and so
coming to God by Him, we enter in now, with Him, in Him, in
the presence of God, according to God's word. we're entering
there now. So we see these things spoken
of here. In the Old Testament and that
Old Covenant, the priesthood, the tabernacle itself, all the
sacrifices and the gifts, all of the service that God made
much of in those things, in order for this divine service here,
all of them reflected Christ in his service as our high priest
doing service to God in the presence of God for us, for our sins,
and for our eternal salvation. The Old Testament tabernacle
and priesthood and sacrifices were but shadows, but all of
them pointed to one Savior. to his service as our high priest,
to his sacrifice of himself, to the salvation that he accomplished
and obtained, and to our great God in the revelation of himself,
in his glory, in that service, in what he did in heaven itself.
We can't enter into heaven, can we? Can you go there now? Not
physically, But we see that Christ did, and seeing what He did,
and how He fulfilled God's will, we understand God Himself. We
see God's glory in Him, and so by faith we enter in there, and
we behold. We behold the nature and character,
the names of God, and we know His glory. We see His glory. So we know this is the case. We know that the Old Testament
was but a shadow, a figure. He says it here in chapter 9.
Notice, I'll point it out to you again. He says in verse 7,
into the second went the high priest alone once every year,
not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the heirs
of the people, the Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way
into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the
first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure, that's the
word, a figure, for the time then present, in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the
service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood
only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinance
imposed on them until the time of reformation. So it was just
a figure, a shadow, a reflection. But in all those things that
we see there, the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the service,
the high priest, the blood, everything, the table, the candlestick, the
veil, the altar, the ark, the testimony in it, the golden pot
that had manna, the censer, the rod that was errant, all those
things, the mercy seat, the cherubim, they all are shadows only. But
they all together, each one, point to the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's like a prism. You've seen it where maybe when
you were in school, they shine a white light into a prism. And
on the other side, you see all the colors. And you're amazed. How could all these colors appear?
Because that one light that's white contains the spectrum of
all the components that make up that white light. They're
all blended together. And to our eyes, it looks as
one light. But within that light, there's many colors. Because
God's revelation of his son comes to us in many different ways.
And so the Old Testament covenant had many shadows. All of them
were representative of the one substance, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is so significant. It's
so significant. How important if the Old Testament
shadows all ultimately pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified, to His service to God for us as our High Priest,
and to our salvation by Him. And if they all pointed, in pointing
to Him, revealed God to us, even in His glory, in His righteousness,
in His grace, in His justice, in all that He is as God. And
how significant, how important then, how utterly preeminent
must Christ in his precious blood be? You see, if everything points
back to its source, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the
true. In Hebrews chapter 3, just to
remind you what God told Moses, he says in verse 5, Moses verily
was faithful in all his house as a servant. for a testimony
of those things which were to be spoken after. Moses himself
was just there to speak of things that were to come. And then in
chapter eight, where we just read in verse five, Chapter 8,
which we had looked at a couple weeks ago, he says in verse 5,
"...who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,
as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the
tabernacle, for God said to him, saith he, that they'll make all
things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.
In the mountain, in Mount Sinai, God revealed to Moses what was
true in heaven. And he said, I want you to make
it according to this pattern. The shadow doesn't exist without
the substance. The true had to be there first.
Something had to be established before the shadow could shine
forth. And from eternity, God had set it up. The Lord Jesus
Christ was chosen and appointed. And in due time, He would come. He would be our Redeemer and
fulfill all that. But until then, God cloaked the
true behind the shadow. He only showed it. But how important
it must be that the Lord Jesus Christ would be the one to all
these things would point to. How important then must He be
to our God? You can see that in this, God
is making himself known only in his son. Remember in Hebrews
chapter 1, let me remind you of these words here. He says
in Hebrews chapter 1, God, who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, or in his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the world, who being the brightness of his glory, and
the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he, this one who is God the Son, God over
all, equal with the Father, the same, all that God is, He is. When He, by Himself, purged our
sins, this is where God's glory is seen. He sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. The majesty of God is seen in
the one who purged our sins. This is where God is seen. And
that's why in the tabernacle these things were set up. So
that the service that Christ performed is the way in which
we understand and know God and see his glory. By looking at
the son, we see the father. Everything that Christ is, is
his father's revelation to us of himself. And he won't disclose
himself to us in any other way. God could not be seen, except
in the Old Testament, except in the tabernacle, in that temple
there. Well, it wasn't a temple, it
was a tent. Now, think about the extent of the Old Testament
law. There's so many laws over every area of our life. And think
about the extent of the service in all those things pertaining
to God and the worship of God. And think of the time that that
law was imposed on these people. And think of how many different
ways all of these shadows all reflect to that one substance
and reality. And then realize that nothing
could possibly be added to Christ and Him crucified, because all
these things pointed to Him. God is saying, there's only one
message here. It's my Son. You have to look
at Him. You have to hear Him. You have to behold Him. You have
to trust Him. You have to come to God by Him
alone. Now, I want to look at, first
of all, again, this candlestick with you. I mentioned this last
week, but I want to enlarge on it just a little bit. In Revelation
chapter 1, as we read last week, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared
to the apostle John among the seven golden candlesticks. And
in Revelation chapter 1, we also saw in the last verse that the
candlesticks were the church. the Church of God. Now, the candlestick
of the Old Testament tabernacle is representative of, first of
all, who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Remember,
every shadow has to point back to Him because we only see God
in Him. We only know God in Him. We see
His glory. He is the brightness of His glory, the express image
of His person. When we worship God, how do we
worship Him? In His Son. We see the salvation he has accomplished,
and we worship God. Remember what Jesus told the
woman of Samaria? You worship, you don't know what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. We worship God because of his
saving work in Christ. So the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the light of the world. Do you doubt that? He is the
light of the world. Remember John 8, verse 12, I
am the light of the world. In the tabernacle, that candlestick
was always giving light. It never stopped. They had to
keep the wick trimmed. They had to keep oil in the candlestick. And that light was always burning.
And what is this teaching us? It's teaching us that the light
of Christ is both eternal and God's ministration of Christ's
light to us never fails. To every believer, through faith
in Him, we continuously see, in His light, we see light. In
His light, we see the glory of God. In His light, we see the
truth of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. So this
light that Christ is, is given to us, the church. That's why
in Revelation chapter one, verse 20, the Lord Jesus Christ walking
among the seven golden candlesticks, he says, the seven golden candlesticks
are the church. Because his light is given to
us. The light of Christ is not seen in this world except in
the church, in the believer. And where does the believer see
it? By faith in Him, we see it again. We enter into the holiest
of all, looking to Christ, seeing what God has done in Him. We
see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
How? Because God commanded the light
to shine in our hearts. Remember 2 Corinthians 4, verse
6? For as God commanded the light
to shine into the darkness, He has commanded the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God to shine in our hearts in the
face of Jesus Christ. So the candlestick is the light
of Christ and Him crucified, which is the light of this world,
only given to the Church, which we see by faith and God through
His Spirit, because the Lord Jesus Christ is continuously
giving us supplies of His Spirit so that the spirit in us shines
forth Christ to us through that grace of faith. How precious
that faith is, isn't it? Through His Word, it's through
the hearing of the Word of God that we believe Him. We're continuously,
like priests, going into that first tabernacle. We're looking
at that candlestick. That's the service of God. We're
constantly going in, in our hearts, we're going into heaven itself
and looking upon our Savior and seeing His service, His work
as our high priest, His sacrifice as the Lamb of God. and the acceptance
of him by God himself. We meditate on these things.
I was just reading in the book of the Gospel of John this week. I was amazed at how the Lord
Jesus Christ walked among and talked to his disciples. So endearing. So much love he had for them.
He laid his life down and so humble he was towards them. The love he had for them became
the template, the example that he held up to them to love one
another. It was a selfless love, a life-giving
love. But all these things show us
the intimacy the Lord Jesus Christ has with his people. Now this
is the one. who entered into heaven with
his own blood for us. The one who walked among the
disciples that they were familiar with, they handled him, they
touched him, they looked upon him, they heard his words, they
loved him. They didn't want to do anything
but what he approved. That endearing intimacy that
he showed to them was there, and they knew it in some measure. But the depths of it can only
be seen in his propitiating sacrifice to God for our sins. The high
priest himself loved us and gave himself for us. And so that's
all seen here in the candlestick. The candlestick never went out.
The oil was always poured into it. And so the Spirit of God
by the Lord Jesus Christ is given to every believer. And so the
light of our salvation never goes out. That flame of Christ
and him crucified is always held and clung to by us. We come to
God in that light. This is the way God accepts us.
This is the way God himself is glorified. Why are we ashamed
of the gospel? In it, the righteousness of God
is revealed. And it's not dim either. It's
brightly revealed in the sacrifice of his son. The power of God
to cleanse us from our sins at the highest cost and the power
of God to raise us from the dead. So each one of us in this world
are lights because we hold this light in our hearts, the light
of Christ. And we proclaim it, don't we?
Isn't that the gospel that we proclaim? It's our own salvation. He says in Philippians chapter
2, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you
both the will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things
without murmuring and disputings that you may be, listen, blameless
and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights
in the world holding forth the word of life. The gospel points to Christ.
Christ is made known to us in the gospel. God is made known
to us. And so the apostle, that was
in Philippians chapter 2, 12 through 16. But in another place,
in Philippians chapter 1, you see how that as the spirit of
God is what lights Christ to us, he's the one who reveals
him to us. So the apostle prayed this. He
says he rejoiced that Christ was preached. In Philippians
1, verse 19, he said, Therein I do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice,
for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your
prayer and, notice, the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The pattern in the Old Testament
was the candlestick. The reality in the New Testament
that's fulfilled and made known to us is Christ and Him crucified,
made known to us by the Spirit of God and given to us through
this grace of faith. We're constantly going to Him,
constantly seeing Him in the Gospel through hearing His Word.
It's a necessary service, and as priests of God, we're continuous
in this service. God upholds us in it. He won't
let that light go out. He's the one who provides the
Spirit. He's the one who makes Himself known. The second thing
we saw here in Hebrews chapter 9 was this table. It says, there
was a tabernacle made, verse 2, the first wherein was the
candlestick and the table. Now, the table was made of wood,
but it was covered with gold, pure gold. And over that table
was a blue cloth laid. And on that cloth, there were
dishes and bowls and spoons that were placed. But most prominently
on that table were these loaves placed, called the showbread.
And so they were laid on the table. It says this in Numbers
chapter four, verse seven, upon the table of showbread, they
shall spread a cloth of blue and put thereon dishes and the
spoons and the bowls and the covers to cover with all and
the continual bread shall be thereon. So this table was called
the table of the showbread. So it was a table that was set,
like you would set a table for a meal, and it was provided by
God. Notice how significant this is. God provided this table and the
bread by his ordained will for the priest. Not only did he provide
it, but it was done in the presence of God. And those priests who
performed the service were performing the service of divine things.
They were serving God in this. Now, understand the significance
of this. Every believer, as a priest,
serves God according to his will in coming to him and worshiping
him through the broken body and the shed blood of his son, our
high priest, who offered himself to God." That's our bread. In
Isaiah 55, he says, "'Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters, and he that hath no money, yea, let him come, buy and eat.'"
Buy and eat what? Buy and eat milk and wine, bread,
without price, without money. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
in John chapter 6 said, I'm the true bread. My Father gives you
that true bread from heaven. Now, the word showbread in scripture,
if you look at this in different places of scripture, it means
something. We shouldn't pass over it quickly.
Showbread means a setting forth of something. And it was also
placing it in the view. So setting it forth, placing
it in view. And it was placed in view according
to that true bread that was in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's also called, showbread is also a word that's sometimes
translated in the New Testament as purpose. So you could say
it's the purpose bread. And it's done in the presence
of God. Let me give you a couple of verses
for this. In Romans 8, 28, what does it
say? All things work together. We
know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them that are called according to His purpose. The same word
as showbread is in Hebrews 9, verse 2. Isn't that interesting?
This bread was God's purpose. He was set forth according to
His purpose in plain view. in his presence. In 1 Chronicles 9, verse 32, it says,
the sons of the Kohathites were over the showbread to prepare
it every Sabbath. And Solomon said in 2 Chronicles, chapter, well, I didn't write down the
reference here. I think it's 2 Chronicles 2, verse 4. But he says here,
he said, behold, I build a house to the name of the Lord my God
to dedicate it to him and to burn before him incense and for
the continual showbread. In Exodus 25, verse 30, thou
shalt set upon the table showbread before me always. And then in
verse 29 of Exodus, he says, of Exodus 25, verse 29, he says,
thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers
thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover with all of pure gold shalt
thou make them. So you can see God is setting
forth the bread on this table as a meal according to his purpose
in plain view to set forth. To set forth what? The bread
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, in this setting forth according
to God's purpose in his presence, bread was to be continually there.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the eternal purpose
of God, is set forth for the life of his people. That bread
was not there accidentally as bread. Bread was to be consumed. And they ate the manna in the
wilderness for their life. Jesus said, whoever comes to
me, whoever believes on me, is eating of me. He has everlasting
life because of me. I'm going to read that to you
in John chapter 6. In verse 33, he said, for the
bread of God is he which comes down from heaven and gives life
to the world. In verse 35, Jesus said, I am
the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never
hunger. He that believes on me shall never thirst. So in believing
Christ, we're doing in fulfillment what those priests did when they
physically ate that bread or in the wilderness when the children
of Israel physically ate that manna every day. What are we
doing? Why was the bread broken? Why
was Christ given for the life of the world? But how? Because
his body was broken for our sins. He had to give his life to break
his body. His blood had to be shed. He
had to lay down his life so that we could live. And faith comes
to him and lives before God, accepted by God, raised from
the dead because Christ laid down his life. And we're continually,
by faith, coming to God and living upon the Lord Jesus Christ as
our crucified Savior. If he hadn't given himself for
us, we would have no life. And if God didn't give us this
grace to believe him, we couldn't come to God. We wouldn't come.
We wouldn't be setting forth by faith what God set forth to
us. You see, there's this provision
by God in the presence of God. He's approving of it. You come,
you take, you eat, you live upon my son. That's what he says to
his people. And his people have a reciprocal
response. I need him as a sinner. I must
have Christ. And so coming as a sinner, we
find our delight in him, so that even when we find ourselves to
have been forgiven, we still want him. We don't come for forgiveness
and then leave Christ. We find, like that woman, loved
of her husband, a delight in him. He loved me. He gave himself
for me. The Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. So he laid his life down as the
shepherd for the sheep because he loved them. And that love
is seen, and that sacrifice of Him, which is all of our salvation,
is seen. And we live upon Him. So this
is the bread. In the presence of God. Now,
understand, this is very significant here. In the purpose of God,
in the presence of God, there was this setting forth of things. Nothing was done in compromise. Nothing was hidden and sort of
swept aside. God gave the law, didn't he?
Could we keep it? Of course not. We failed in every
way. We continuously fail. Did God
sweep that aside and say, well, I know they can't keep the law,
so I'm going to forget the law. We're going to start over again.
We're going to do something different now. No, he brought that law
right into his presence. He put it right there in that
ark of the covenant. Let's set it all out here in
plain view. The manna that they rejected, put it in a pot. Put
it in the covenant, the Ark of the Covenant. The two tables
that they broke, and when Moses comes down from the mountain,
God had written that first copy of the two tables on stone. He
took them, he saw them in their idolatry, and he smashed them
on the ground. They were smashed smithereens.
And God gave him a second copy. He wrote it with his finger,
gave it to Moses, and said, now put this in the Ark. Put that
in the Ark. The rod. They rejected Aaron. Kohath,
the sons of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, remember the earth swallowed
up? They rejected Aaron. They wanted to be priests. They
thought that they had a right. They were entitled. They had
pride. No. God chose one man. Only through
that man can you come to God. God only gives life through that
man. That's why his rod budded. Life
from the dead. were justified in his resurrection. See, all these things pointed
to Christ, but God laid in that ark and over that ark a full
display. First, he set forth our sins,
and then he made provision for them in his Son. It was all done
in full disclosure, and it had to be done that way in order
for us to understand and see the glory of God, that he could
be both just and justify the ungodly. In fact, turn to Romans chapter
5. I didn't put this in my notes, but look at this with me. We
talked about the ministration of the Spirit of God sending
forth Christ to us. Isn't that his service? When
he shall come, he shall take of mine and he shall show it
to you. That's what he says in John 14, 15, and 16. He's going
to take the things of mine, he's going to show them to you. He's
going to bring to remembrance everything I told you. He's going
to point you to Christ. The Son points to the Father,
the Spirit points to the Son. And God the Father holds up His
Son and says, hear Him. But look at Romans chapter 5
and verse 5. You see the same oil of the Spirit.
After he introduces our life in this world, he says, we have
access. We're justified by faith in verse
1. We therefore have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And by the Lord Jesus Christ, we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand, and we even rejoice in expectant
hope of the glory of God, and not only, notice, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation works patience,
patience experience, and experience hope. The providence of God in
our lives is to use the details, the circumstances, the situation,
the thoughts that pass through our mind, and things that come
from outside and within us to direct us into one channel. Notice
verse five. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given to us." And what is that? The verses
that follow. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. In verse 8, God
commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Here's God's declaration, His
revelation of Himself. God Commence His love toward
us while we were yet sinners. Christ died in verse 9. Much
more than being now justified by His blood. How is it that
we're justified before God? By Christ shedding His blood
in answer to God for our sins. Making up that compensating God
for what we took away. Paying our debt. and we're actually
justified by God himself because of Christ's blood. That's incredible. That's the truth of the gospel
that continuously captivates our affections and our attention,
that God would receive us for Christ's sake because of what
he thinks of his son. amazing. And then he goes on,
and for when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. This
is the ministration of the Spirit of God. He works in our hearts,
declaring to us the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, back to the tabernacle
in chapter 9. He says, not only were these
things there, the table, the showbread, the candlestick, the
table, the showbread in chapter 9. But he said, well, he doesn't
mention it here. Oh, there it is in verse 4. And
after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of
all, which had the golden censer. the golden censer. Remember I
mentioned that censer that high priests carried had coals in
it. They would take incense, they
would put them on those coals, and it would fill the holiest
of all with incense smoke. And we're to understand by that
the prayers. Incense in the book of Revelation
was the prayers of the saints. But whose prayers were those
that filled the holiest of all? Was it our prayers? Or were those
prayers actually the prayers of our Savior as our High Priest? Whose prayers were heard? Weren't
they His? Remember, look at Hebrews chapter
5. This is a very precious thing
in Scripture. Hebrews 5, verse 7. Who in the days of His flesh,
our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the days of his
flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him
from death, and he was heard in that he feared. He feared
God. You know the Proverbs say that
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Lord Jesus Christ
had a holy respect and awe of God as his God, as man. Christ
as man perfectly feared God. And he submitted himself to all
things out of this fear of God in obedience of love. He held
such a high regard of his God as his God. the one he worshiped
and submitted to in everything, his will. His will was in, his
delight was his law, it was in his heart, and he submitted to
it in everything, even to his own hurt. He gave himself to
do the will of God. It was in his heart. He did it
to his own humiliation. He humbled himself to do it.
And all these things that the Lord Jesus Christ did, he was
acting as our surety, our mediator, the one who did all that he did
for us as our high priest. So that what Christ did, his
fear of God, that perfect fear that he had, and the prayers,
the cries of Christ under the suffering he experienced and
the shame that he experienced in willing submission out of
love to his Father and for his people, He had obligated himself
to fulfill these vows from eternity, and now he did it, setting his
face like a flint to do it. All this experience of Christ
and his prayers that flowed out of that, those prayers are the
incense that filled the holiest of all when he went in with his
own blood. And God accepted his prayers.
He heard him. He didn't deny him anything.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, under the suffering for our sins, even
though God himself had forsaken him, yet he trusted his God.
So that the faith he had in God as man is that perfect faith
out of which all of his submission and obedience and love flowed
so that we can say that we're justified by the faith of Jesus
Christ. Because everything he did flowed
out of that confidence he had in his father. And we see this
throughout scripture. I want to just give you an example
of these things, and we won't be able to finish this this week,
but I want to give you an example of these. Turn to the Psalms.
I was looking through the Psalms and I was amazed at the prayers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Psalm, we'll start with
Chapter 3. We're going to flip through the
Psalms to see this. Look at Chapter 3. Verse 1, Lord,
how are they increased to trouble me? Many are they that rise up
against me. Many there be that say of my
soul, there is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O Lord,
art a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I
cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy
hill. Now we hear these prayers and we immediately gravitate
towards those prayers. We want to take them and borrow
them as our own. And it's right that we do. But
we must understand first and foremost, these are the cries,
the supplications, the pouring out of the heart of our Holy
Savior as man towards His God in absolute trust and submission
to His will in obedience, perfect obedience. And so that was Psalm
3. Look at Psalm, verse chapter
5. Give ear to my words, O Lord.
Consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my
cry, my King and my God, for unto Thee will I pray. OK, let's
look at another one. Look at Psalm chapter 22, verse
1. My God. My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Why art thou so far from helping
me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the
daytime. Do you see how, even in coming
to God under the duress of the hand of God against him, he came
to the one who was smiting him? That's trust. Coming to God under
the affliction at God's hand is trusting God as our Savior. He's the only one who can deliver
us. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as a perfect man, trusted him
in this. He says in verse 2, Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not
silent, but thou art holy. O thou that inhabitest the praises
of Israel, our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou
didst deliver them. They cried to thee, and were
delivered, they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But
I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. O they that see me, laugh me
to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
He trusted on the Lord, that he would deliver him, let him
deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. Thou art he that took
me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when
I was on my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not thou far
from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. These
are the prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ, undoubtedly, unquestionably. And he was heard because he feared. He submitted himself to his own
hurt, his own humiliation. shame and spitting he gave his
back to the smiters, his face to those that pluck off the hair.
He didn't turn away his face from shame and spitting. He trusted
in his God and he prayed to his God as incense it came into the
holiest of all as a high priest. It was for himself but not for
himself only because he came with his people. It had been
laid upon him to do so. That's what the nature of the
high priest is. He serves God for the sins of the people, for
his people. And he laid his life down and
he was heard. Isn't it wonderful to realize
that the attitude Christ had, the trust that he had, the prayers
that he offered, the sufferings he bore, the obedience he rendered,
The answer he was given, the salvation that he obtained, all
of it was done by him for us. It makes these things in the
Old Testament that were so long imposed on them come to light
as we look back from the substance to the shadows and back from
the shadows to the substance. The prism of God's glory is exploded
in the death and the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ
for us. That God had appointed this and God ordained it in His
presence without compromise. Everything is set forth in order
and Christ's blood answers for all. It answers every accusation
of His law and it answers all of our need because the bread
is given to us to see what He did for us there and to see God
in it. To see His own glory, His own
love, His grace towards us. And we depend upon Him now. By
faith we enter into the holiest of all. We come by the blood
of Jesus. We come by Him. We trust in Him. And so in all the circumstances
of our life, what do we do? The Spirit of God continuously
sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God for us. He lays forth
Christ when we were without strength. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. And all of the despondency that
could come upon us because of our sin, the feeling of utter
failure and weakness, Christ died for the ungodly when we
were without strength. When we were the enemies of God,
how much more then shall we be saved by His light? That's the
argument. That's the ministration of the
Spirit of God. And so we take that light. By
faith, we take that bread. By faith, we see the incense
on that censer entering into the holy place and Christ himself
entering with his own blood. The veil rent. Every accusation
of his law in the Ark of the Covenant answered. The mercy
seat sprinkled with blood. The glory of God looking upon
that mercy seat where the blood is sprinkled and being made known.
God meets with us there. He discloses himself there. This
is where God speaks from. He dwells between the cherubim,
where Christ offered his blood. Nothing more could be added. Every reflection points back
to its source, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's trying to drive
this home to us. Christ came, he offered himself,
he obtained eternal redemption for us. Our conscience now is
sprinkled. And therefore, because he has
done this, we enter in by faith. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we pray
that in all the details of our lives and all the failures of
our sins, we would see what you have held up to our eyes. We
would cling to the Lord Jesus Christ and not be ashamed of
our hope. We would not be ashamed because He who saved us from
our sins loved us and gave Himself for us. And even though it was
a shameful death, it was a death that was repugnant to those who
saw it. And it was a setting forth of
the reproach of our sins laid upon the Son of God as our Savior.
And yet we see that he bore it all out of love, in honor to
your law, in honor to your justice, in the revelation of yourself
and your glory. Lord, help us to find our hope, our salvation,
our all in him, and never deviate, but always come into the temple
where the Lord Jesus Christ has given himself for us. In full
disclosure, in full answer to God, nothing set aside, everything
answered. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.