That's what we need. We need
the Lord's presence. That's what we need. You know,
and I want to look here in verses 23 through 30. I've dealt with
this before, but I want to bring out a few things more about it. This is the Lord telling Moses,
Thou shalt also make a table of sheet and wood. Two cubits
shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof,
and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay
it with pure gold, and thereto make a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt make unto it a
border of a handbreadth round about, and thou shalt make a
golden crown to the border thereof round about. And thou shalt make
it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners
that are on the four feet thereof. Over against the border shall
the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table. And
thou shalt make the staves of sheet and wood, and overlay them
with gold, and the table may be borne with them. And thou
shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers
thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover with them of pure gold
shalt thou make him. And thou shalt set upon the table
showbread before me all way. He's talking about making the
table for the showbread. Making the table for the showbread.
Let me make a couple of comments about a table. You know when
somebody has a meal prepared, the table put the food on the
table. Everybody come to the table.
It's time to eat. The table is for food. And the
food is appointed. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I prepare a table. David said, He prepared a table
for me in the presence of my enemies. And also, when you take
this table and this bread, when you mention the table and the
showbread, they go together. You can't mention one without
the other. The table and the bread. You mention bread, it
goes with the table. Table and the bread, they're
considered one. They're always mentioned together.
Now, I want you to hold this and look with me over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 10 and verse 17. Now, this is talking about the
table. The bread they're all considered
one and as he read this evening. We're considered one in Christ
Christ died unto sin was likewise reckon yourself to be dead, too And so we want to talk about
this bread at this table tonight Again a few things about it.
But look what it said here in verse 17 the table and the bread
are considered as one and considered as one. The bread which we break is not
that the communion of the body of Christ, for we being many
are one bread and one body. And listen to this, for we are
all partakers of that one bread. One with Christ, one table of
bread, and we are one with Christ. And I tell you what, It's like
Mephibosheth. Y'all remember the story when
David said, is there yet any of the house of Jonathan that
I may show mercy to? And he said, yes, there's one.
His name Mephibosheth. And said, but he's lame on both
his feet. He can't walk. He can't come.
said they was fleeing from the enemies and his nurse fell with
him and his legs became lame and he can't go. David said,
well fetch him, go get him, bring him here. And then after he faced
David and David received him, you know what it says about him
from then on? It said he sat at the king's
table continually. So there's a lot of things about
the table. We sat at the King's table continually. Now we saw many things about
our Lord Jesus Christ being the bread of life. And we feed on
Him. He's our bread. He's what we
live on. We live on Him daily. We live
on Him continually. Without Him we cannot do nothing. We're joined to Him. And we also,
when we looked last week, we remembered that only the priest,
when he had come by way of the brazen altar and the sacrifice,
it's only after that sacrifice was over, and that brazen altar,
could he eat the bread. Could he eat the bread. And it's
only after Christ is our sacrifice, offered for us, made himself
an offering to God, made himself a sin sacrifice to God, a sin
offering to God. That's only after we know him
as our sacrifice that we can feed on him as the bread which
came down from heaven. It's knowing him before you eat
on him. We got to go by way of the blood and the sacrifice. And when we know him, then we
feed on him continually. Now I want to say a few things
about this crown and this gold that's on this altar. It says
there in verse 24, it says this in 25, and thou shall overlay
it with pure gold and make a crown of gold round about it. And thou shalt overlay it with
gold, and thou shalt make a golden crown round about, and thou shalt
make unto it a border of a hand's breadth round about, and thou
shalt make a golden crown to the top of the border of round
about. Now if I understand this right,
they made this table, and then they made a border around it.
A hand's breadth of a border. That's a hand's breadth. I want
that put around that table. That's the crown, that's the
crown of gold going around it. And then on top of that, He said,
I want you to put another crown of gold right on top of that.
And so you got the hands breath here, you got that, and then
you got the crown of gold on top of it. And when we talk about
a crown border on top, it was a border around that table. The crown of border on top of
that table was for the purpose, and this speaks of our Lord Jesus
Christ being glorified. But we see Jesus made a little
lower than the angels. for the suffering of death, but
crowned, crowned with glory and honor. Revelation said on his
head are many crowns, many crowns, but that crowned border on that
top of that table was for the purpose, and it was there to
protect, guarding, while it was placed on it. And that bread,
when it was moved about, and they had them staves on there,
they could pick it up and carry it. And that bread on that table,
it couldn't fall off. It was protected. It was purposed. It couldn't fall off. It was
secure. And that raised border held the bread in place. And
of course this tells us of our absolute security in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We can't get out. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, the incarnate Son of God, He identified with himself
with vile sinners. And so, beloved, when we... He
protects us. He protects us. I'll tell you
one thing I know for sure. If my security is not in me,
my security is not in doctrine. My security is not in the church
membership or being a preacher. My security is only in Christ. The shepherd's responsible for
the sheep. The sheep's not responsible for
himself. Thank God that we're not. You know, he's the one who put
us in the sheepfold. And he said, you can't go in
and out unless I let you. And I've heard people, you know,
he said, you know, he said he puts us in his hand. Nobody's
able to pluck us out of his hand. And I've talked to people about
that, and Armenians, I mean people that just deliberately, deliberately
deny the scriptures. They'll say, well, a person can
take himself out of his hand. I said, who in the world would
want to take their, ever take their self out of the hand of
Christ? You didn't put yourself in it. How can you take yourself
out? So this crown border was protection,
security of the Lord's people. Then look there again in verse
24, it said, a crown of gold round about it. Crown of gold. There was this border, border. I don't know if it laid like
this here and it was gold, you know, about like that. And then
a crown of gold on top of it. But I know it was a hand's breadth
and a crown of gold on it. And so the table itself was encircled
with the crown of gold. And our Lord Jesus Christ encircles
His own people. And this tells us about the glory
of His blessed grace. You know, He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
came And he talks, you know, in Ephesians 1, it says three
times, to the praise of the glory of His grace, to the praise of
the glory of His grace, and the glory of His grace that He gave
us. And this tells us, with this border around it, tells us about
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and the grace that He gives unto
us. And this border, I said it before,
it was for security, that this border guarantees the eternal,
eternal preservation of all of Christ's redeemed. Our Lord Jesus
Christ says, they shall never perish, nor shall any man pluck
them out of my hand. And that word border says, you
know, the border around that, that word border means enclosing.
That's what a border means, enclosing. Tennessee's got a border around
it. I mean, it encloses Tennessee. It's a border around Tennessee
and everything inside there is Tennessee. We got a border around America.
We're in America's enclosed inside that border. Well, God said he
put this border around him and that encloses us. And you trust
in other places, it means close places. And I'll tell you what,
we're kept enclosed by the Lord Jesus Christ in him and we don't
care how close the place gets. He's got us Him then. You know, that's what, first
thing Satan, God asked Satan, you know, he said, what are you
doing here? He said, I'm walking to and fro, seeking you my neighbor
to buy. He said, if you consider my servant Job, a perfect and
an upright man. He said, oh listen, the only
reason he serves you, you put a hash around him. Well, before I knew Him, before
I ever knew Him, He knew me. For whom He did foreknow, had
intimate acquainted with. He came, bless His name. And he put a hedge around me
and wouldn't let me go so far. Even as an unconverted man. We
was talking about the other night. All the things we did when we
were kids and growing up. You tell me why we weren't destroyed. God had us enclosed. You can
go this far and no further. I went through a war. One of the worst wars that this
country has ever known. And it wasn't appreciated for
it. Seen people go through awful things. Why wasn't I killed? Why wasn't I destroyed? I'll
tell you what, I was enclosed. And so if He enclosed us and
kept us and preserved us while we were yet in our sins, imagine
what He does for us since He saved us from our sins. He told the children of Israel,
I'll be a wall around you. I'll be a wall around you. Oh
my. So I tell you what, that border
encloses us, keeps us closed in. And this crown border was protected
by a golden crown. The border was golden and protected
by a golden crown. There in verse 25. And thou shalt
make on it a border of a hand breath round about, and thou
shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.
Oh my. What in the world does this tell
us? This tells us that the very glory of God is concerned in
the preservation of His people. You know, for God to lose one
of His honor is at stake. His honor, His very name is our
guarantee. The Lord maketh me to lie down
in green pastures. Why does He do it? for His righteousness
and His name's sake. For His name's sake. And I'm
telling you, the very glory of God is concerned in preserving
His people. He'll never forget us. You know
what He said? I want you to see this over here
in Exodus 32. Look at Exodus 32 and verse 13. You know, He'll never forget
us because He swore by His own blessed name. that he had preserved
his people. When he could swear by no greater,
he swore by himself. Look what it said here in Exodus
32 in verse 13. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self,
and said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven
and all this land that I've spoken of, I will give unto you your
seed and shall inherit it forever. And that's what Paul talked about
and he says this covenant This covenant stands sure. You know
why? Because God swore by Himself
because He could not swear by no greater. That's how secure
our salvation is. That's how God's preserved us
and going to preserve us. If one of His own, listen to
me now, if one of His own could fall, do you know what would
happen to the glory of God and the honor of Christ? If one of
God's blessed people was to fall away, and for whom Christ died,
do you know that God would lose His glory and His honor? That's
awful to think about, ain't it? I'm going to read something to
you. You don't have to look at it
yourself. I'm going to go over here and find it and read it to you
myself. Talking about being preserved.
I'm going to read two things to you if I can find them. Just
thought of them here if I can find them. I'm going to read
two things to you. Here's one of them. Now in the
hymn that is able to keep you from falling and to present you
thoughtless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. I'm going to give you another
one here just if I can find it now. Oh, I'll find it here in
a minute. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Listen to this one now. This
is Apostle Paul speaking. At my first answer no man stood
with me, but all men forsook me. And I pray God that it not
be laid to their charge, notwithstanding The Lord stood with me and strengthened
me that by the preaching might be fully known and the Gentiles
might hear that I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
Now this is what I want you to listen. And the Lord shall deliver
me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly
kingdom to whom be glory forever. How long are you going to preserve
me, Paul? Until I get the glory. You know why we persevere? Because
we are preserved. I think it's Jude, I don't know
where it's at over there, but it says, to them that are called
and preserved in Christ Jesus. And I tell you what, his crown
would be gone if he let one of his people. If a believer could
ever be lost, that border would be damaged. The crown must share
the blame, and the very glory of Christ would be alive. God
forbid. God forbid. You read it twice
tonight. And then, look down here in verse
29 at these dishes. These dishes. And these dishes, you know, they're
for the table now. And thou shalt make the dishes
thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls
thereof, to cover with them of pure gold shalt thou make them.
Now when it talks about the dishes, spoons, and covers, and the bowls,
what he's talking about in these dishes is this. They were used
by the priestly family. And when they ate that bread,
The spoons in the cover had to do with sprinkling that incense
upon top of that bread. On the loaves. And the bowls
are literally, and it says there in the margin, to pour out with
them. To pour out with them. The bowls
are literally used to, cups to pour out things in, as we find
in the margin. These cups were used in the drink
offerings which were poured out before the Lord in the holy place
as a thanksgiving. As a thanksgiving. And beloved,
thank God we don't have to use dishes. We don't have to use
spoons and we don't have to use bowls. You know we offer the
fruit of our lips, Thanksgiving. Christ by Him we offer spiritual
sacrifice made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And
so you see we don't have to, even our tears, I'm going to
tell you something. I know this, and you know, we're not, I'm
not tender hearted enough, but here's the thing. Our tears,
our tears, they're not an offering when we pray, cry before the
Lord. The only offering that God ever
accepted was Christ. And he says we offer spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And it
said over there in Hebrews chapter 12, it says this, that we offer
our fruit of our lips. Fruit of our lips. You know what
a fruit of our lips is? Giving of thanks. God would rather
be praised and given thanks to than anything we could do. What have we got that we didn't
receive? What have we got we didn't receive?
Huh? Did you ever in your lifetime
think you'd be as happy and as content and go places and do
things and have homes and cars and money and all the things
and the wives and husbands that you have? If it wasn't for Christ? You just have to stand back and
say, Lord, thank you, bless you, praise you. Me and Shirley all
the time say, this is what the Lord done. The Lord did this. The Lord gave me her. I didn't, I didn't, you know,
we gave us to one and the Lord gives us to one another. You got money in your pocket?
God put it there. There's a lot of people in this
world and they got it. You got just enough to get in
and out of the rain? A lot of people don't. They're living
in tents and living on the street and everything else and on drugs.
Why ain't we on drugs? Why ain't we on the street? God
made us to differ. Huh? So we ain't got no bowls,
we ain't got no dishes, and we surely can't dish it out with
a spoon. Ain't you grateful? Ain't you
grateful? We'll deal with that later. But
oh, look here in verse 26 through 28. And thou shalt make it, for
it four rings of gold. They had it right on the bottom.
They had four rings of gold right up under them crowns. and put the rings in the four
corners that are on the four feet thereof over against the
border shall the rings be for the places of the staves to bear
with them. They had staves that they stick
in those rings to carry it. And thou shalt make the staves
of sheetum wood and overlay them with gold and the table be borne
by them. Now you know what this is speaking
about? is talking about making provision,
making a way when those people had to travel. See, everything
that they had, had those golden rings on it. It's like this here,
had a golden ring here, golden ring over here, and they had
a stick stuck through that thing, made out of gold. And so when
those folks, when they'd take the tabernacle down, they could
pack up that tabernacle, and those fellows would pick up that
table and carry it with these sticks, these staves that's in
those four golden rings, and they could carry it around. And
beloved, what this tells us is that wherever they went, Everything
went with it. God, you know, we're traveling
in this world. We're traveling through this
world. We are truly, truly strangers and pilgrims back here. And God
made provision for his people in Christ while they passed through
this world. And wherever God led these Jews,
these Hebrews, this table, this showbread, and this gold crown,
everything about it followed them around. And so wherever
Christ may lead us in this world, whether it's troublesome times,
good times, hard times, weeping times, rejoicing times, healthy
times, sick times, We have provision in Christ while we're going through
this world. They carried that table with
them. That golden crown went with them.
And everything went with them. And I tell you when we're going
through this world, Christ. And we don't have to carry it.
He carries us. He said, I carried you from your
womb down to your old age. He said, I bore you from your
womb into your old age. Carried you. Carried you. And
oh, Christ is ever, ever precious. Ever precious to feed on with. Ever precious to commune with.
And I tell you, we ate some awful good food in my life. I ate some
good food. Andy Griffith said, good. But I'll tell you this, this
is the best food I ever ate. Right here. Christ is the sweetest,
the best that I've ever ate. And look what it says here now.
And down there in verse 29. There's three coverings. Look
what it said here. And thou shalt make the dishes, spoons thereof,
covers thereof, and bowls thereof. There were three coverings for
the table used when Israel was on the go. Now I want you to
look with me over in Numbers chapter 4. Numbers is right after
Leviticus. Numbers chapter 4. And look at
these covers. These covers that they put over
this thing. When they would travel, everything
had to be covered. Look here in chapter 4, verse
7 and 8. He says, you make the covers
thereof. Look what it says. And upon the table of showbread,
they shall spread a cloth of blue. The first thing, when he
was getting ready to move, the first thing they put over that
table of showbread was the cover of blue. And you know, you remember
I told you that blue speaks of heaven. The skies are blue, the
heavens are blue. Well this speaks of Christ being
heavenly. That bread which came down from
heaven. He said, I'm that bread which came down from heaven.
Our Lord referred to himself seven times in John chapter 6
as the bread which came down from heaven. Seven times. You
know what seven is? Perfection. I'm that perfect
bread which came down from heaven. You eat this bread, you ain't
never gonna die. Seven times he referred to himself.
This cloth of blue refers to our Lord Jesus Christ being heavenly. Heavenly. And I tell you what,
he's completely above and beyond anything that this earth could
ever possibly yield. And then look what the next one
was. Down in verse 8. And they shall
spread upon them a cloth of scarlet. Cloth of scarlet. That's the
second thing they put on it. They put on the blue and then
they covered it with the cloth of scarlet. And you know this
word translated scarlet is the same word translated worm. Worm. And that's what it was named
after. This scarlet cloth, this crimson cloth was named after
a word or a name for a worm that was named after. And that word
scarlet is the same word that was translated worm. And in Psalm
22, and I think it's verse 5 or 6, it said, Our Lord said, I
am a worm. Never forget the first time I
heard that. Tim James was preaching. Preaching up at 13th Street.
And he said, I would not say it unless the Bible said it.
I'd be afraid to speak this unless God said it. He said, Our Lord
Jesus said, I am a worm. I am a worm. He said, Thou worm,
Jacob, I am a worm and no man. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, who takes notice of a worm? Well,
He took notice of us worms. I heard Henry say one time, when
you hear flesh bragging on flesh, you just hear one worm bragging
on another worm. I'm a better worm than you, but oh my. When you're talking
about scarlet, this worm, it reminds us of the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ and what He became for us. How He identified
with us in such a wondrous way that when God looked at Him,
He saw us. And He saw our sin and He put
all our sin on Him, on that blessed cross. And there He became a
worm. And He brought forth the true
glory of God. He brought forth the salvation
of all His people. And so, bless His holy name,
that He became what we are so that we could become what He
is. Oh my. And these first two coverings,
the blue and the scarlet, were only seen by the family. And
we're God's family. The world don't see anything
heavenly about Christ. The world don't see Him taking
the place of worms. And they certainly wouldn't consider
themselves a worm. They took out of a lot of the
hymn books when it talks about Christ saved a wretch like amazing
grace that saved a wretch like me. They took that out, that
saved a person like me. But He said, Oh, wretch, And when David went into the
presence of David, he said, Why dost thou look upon such a dead
dog as me? But only the family, the priestly
family could see that blue and that scarlet. And we as the Lord's
people, we see the blue and we see the scarlet. But now watch what the other
covering is now. They shall spread the verse 8
and cover the same with a covering of badger skins and shall put
it in the staves thereof. Now all the first was blue, the
second was scarlet, and now he said the third one was badger
skins. Now the badger skins covered
the scarlet, it covered the blue, And they were seeing that badger
skin was what was seen when they carried it from one place to
the next. There wasn't nothing beautiful about a badger skin.
Nothing precious about a badger skin. What it did, it made it
look just as common. Covered up the things that, you
know, and that tells us about our Lord's humiliation. Humiliation. There's no beauty about him that
we should desire. There's no comeliness about him,
no beauty about him that we should desire. He was unattractive to
men's eyes, but this also protected the table and the other covers
from defiling them while they were being traveled and carried.
And that tells us of our Lord Jesus Christ, His holiness, His
righteousness, and how He was sinless when He was here, and
His humiliation. When men looked at Him, they
saw Jesus, they saw a carpenter's son, they saw a man who made
wild claims, but they saw no beauty about Him. But beloved,
when you look past that badge of skin, You know what's under that badger
skin? Glory, majesty, and nothing on earth, nothing on earth could
tarnish the great glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me
wind up with a few things to say. The Lord Jesus, God appointed
Him to be our bread, to be our water. God provided Him with
that for us. He provided Himself for that.
He provided Himself for that for us. And He is heavenly, oh how heavenly
He is, in His nature and in His character. When I read about
Him in the Gospels, read about Him throughout His Word, I see
this beautiful, glorious, holy, sinful, sinless nature. This sinless, holy nature of
the Lord Jesus Christ and His blessed character. Oh, what a character. What a
wondrous character He had. But He came down to this earth
and He glorified Himself. And the Father, by His obedience
unto death. And when we think on Him, and
meditate on Him, may He be the sweetest bread. You know, they
ate that man and said, it tastes like honey. Tastes like honey. May He be the sweetest bread
that we ever tasted. Christ is our prophet, Christ
is our priest, Christ is our king, Christ is our wisdom, Christ
is our righteousness, Christ is our sanctification, Christ
is our redemption, Christ is our light, Christ is our salvation,
Christ is the hope of our soul, Christ is the joy of our heart,
and Christ is the only theme of preaching and the only one
to believe in this world. He's all I know, all I desire,
all I need. And I love Shirley, she loves me.
And every one of you love your wife, you love your husband.
But He's my first love. He's the love of my heart. He's
the love of my heart above every love that's ever been in this
world. He's the love of my heart. Ain't He yours? He's the love
of our hearts. Ain't you thankful? Table, gold, gold, gold. Blessed Master, Gracious Father
in Heaven, thank you for allowing us another service, another time. to be able to speak of You and
to talk of You. Lord, we fall so far short of
Your glory. Speaking of You is what's in
our heart to say. But Lord, it's in our heart to
honor You perfectly. Perfectly. But this flesh won't
let us. And I know it's in every believer's
heart here to honor You perfectly. But Lord, this whole body, this
whole flesh, this whole nature won't let us. But Lord, we do
love you. We do need you. But we thank
most of all that you love us. You love us first. You chose
us first. You came to us first. And Lord,
draw us out after yourself. Draw us, Lord, and we'll run
after you. For Christ's sake, we bless you. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to 318 in the hymn
book. 318. Let's stand together. And when we finish this, you'll
be at liberty to go. And then I'll see you Wednesday
night. 318. Everybody knows this song. I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender force like Thine can
peace afford. I need Thee every hour, save
Thou, O dear God, to take me to Thou, with Thou, O God. I need Thee, oh, I need
Thee, I need Thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide, or life's
in vain. Oh, make me thine. God bless his son. to thee.