Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Exodus 26. Exodus 26, our subject is the
tent of goat's hair. The tent of goat's hair. Exodus
26 in verse 7, we read, And thou shalt make curtains of goat's
hair, to be a covering upon the tabernacle, eleven curtains shalt
thou make. Now we're told over in Exodus
35 and verse 6, all the women whose hearts stirred them up
in wisdom spun goat's hair. Now you think about that. The
women, here we have a type of Christ, brought forth of a woman. That's who was used to spin this
goat's hair. So you have a type of Christ
brought forth of a woman. Christ himself came forth of
a woman. He's called in Genesis 3.15 the
seed of woman. And so we're drawn to this passage
looking at it and seeing the type that this goat's hair covering
is a picture of Christ as a man, bearing the sins of his people,
carrying our sins far away, carrying them away so that God remembers
our sin no more. It's a picture of Christ our
sin offering. That's the picture here. And
we're going to see first of all Christ in the material that was
used. And then we're gonna see Christ
in the number of curtains. Then we'll see Christ in the
loops and tatches. And then we'll see Christ in
the hangings of these curtains. You know the scriptures tell
us that the whole tabernacle, everything about it, pictures
Christ. And this temple, this curtain
of goat's hair is full of pictures of Christ. All right, first of
all in the material used, it says in verse 7, thou shalt make
curtains of goat's hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle.
Now that word curtains, the root word means to fear and tremble. You picture this curtain as it
stretched out over the tabernacle and that wilderness was called
a waste howling wilderness. So you have all that wind blowing
and you can just picture that curtain trembling in the wind.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world holy. You and I didn't. You and I came into this world
with no fear of God. No reverence, no fear and trembling
in our hearts for God. That's what the scripture said.
Christ came into this world perfectly fearing God. Perfectly trembling
before God in reverence of God. And he served God the Father
in the perfection of fear and reverence so that all his people
did in him. That's one way in which Christ
is our holiness. He served God in perfect reverence
for God. And then the goat that was used. This
was a kid of the goats. It was a little goat. It was
a kid of the goats. And it pictures Christ bearing
the sins of his people. Christ the sin-bearer. Christ
the sin-offering. Now how do we know that? Well,
because God required the same goat in all the sin-offerings.
This was the goat he required in the sin-offerings. For each
individual Israelite God required sin-offerings. when they would
sin. And he required a kid of the
goats is what he required be used when they brought an offering
for their sin. And then when you had all of
the children of Israel together and they were observing the great
feasts that they observed throughout the year, God required a goat
to be the only animal used for their sin offering. That was
the only animal that could be used. Now go with me to Leviticus
4, and I'll show you an illustration of a sin offering. Leviticus
4, or an example, Leviticus 4 in verse 23. Now this was When somebody had sinned, an
individual, it says, the sinner, verse 23, it says there, he shall
bring his offering, a kid of the goats. That pictures a sinner
coming to God through faith in Christ. And it says, a male without
blemish. Christ knew no sin. He knew no
sin. He died the just for the unjust. Even on the cross, he never sinned. Not even in thought. Not even
in the intent of his heart. And it says, and he shall lay
his hand upon the head of the goat. Now this was ceremonial. This was a type only. But Christ
is the express image. He's what it pictured. And scripture
says, he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin. He made Him
sin for us who knew no sin. The Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of all His elect. And then, what does that mean?
Well, it means before God and before the law and in Christ's
suffering, He was made sin in every way except the corruption
of His nature. The guilt, He experienced that. The shame, Scripture says He
endured the cross despising the shame. The forsaking, forsaken by God. He experienced that. He was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. All the feeling that our sin
causes, He was touched with it. On the cross more than anywhere
else. It says in all points he was tempted as we are. The devil
tempted him more on the cross than anywhere else. We hear that
in the Psalms when we read the Psalms. And yet without sin. He himself never sinned. He was
made sin for us. He bore the sin of his people.
Yet he himself knew no sin. And then after the goat was ceremonially
made sin, then look here in verse 24. It says, and they shall kill
it in the place where they killed the burnt offering before the
Lord. Now they did not kill the goat
without blemish. They didn't kill the goat while
it was spotless. They only killed the goat after
the sins were ceremonially laid on it. And that's because God
is just. The whole purpose of Christ on
the cross is to teach us that God is righteous. Whenever the
sin of the people was laid on Christ, God spared not His own
son. That's how just God is. He required
a sacrifice to save His people. Now, it says there, and here's
why, it is a sin offering. The word is, it is sin. It is
sin. Verse 25, and the priest shall
take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and
put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering and shall
pour out his blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering.
Now this goat of the sin offering was the only sacrifice whose
blood was poured out. This was the only sacrifice whose
blood was poured out. And that's the picture of Christ.
The scripture says of our Lord Jesus, He has poured out His
soul. He poured out His life's blood
unto death. He poured it out. And that goat,
only the goat, a picture of a sin bearer, only His blood was poured
out. And Christ, when He bore the
sin of His people, poured out His blood. poured it out and
it says 26 and he shall burn all his fat upon the altar as
the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings and the priest shall
make an atonement for him as concerning his sin and it shall
be forgiven him. Christ made atonement. He made atonement for the sins
of his people. He didn't try to. It's not up
to you to make it effectual. He made it effectual. He accomplished
it at the cross. He made atonement for his people. And so God's just to forgive
us. He's just to forgive us. Christ
put away the sin of his people so his people have no sin. So,
do you see why I say these curtains of goat's hair? Same goat that
was used in the sin offering. This black goat's hair covering
is what pictures Christ made sin for his people and who took
our sin away. Now, back in Exodus 26, we also
see Christ in the number of curtains that was used. He says in verse
7, he says there at the end, 11 curtains shalt thou make. The length of the one curtain
shall be thirty cubits, the breadth of one curtain four cubits. And
the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure. And thou
shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains
by themselves. Now God commanded Moses here
to make a total of eleven curtains of goat's hair. He coupled five
together by themselves, and he coupled six together by themselves. And so when they're put together,
they make 11 curtains of one measure. Now, I'm not going to
list all the sacrifices, but I'll put them in my sermon notes
when I send them out so you'll have them. But God constantly
required the children of Israel to make sin offerings. They, at the very first of the
year, they were to remember the Passover, and they had to make
a sin offering. And throughout the year, all
the way to the end, all the great feasts, there were sin offerings
to be made. Sometimes they had to make sin
offerings every day of the week in some of those feasts. And
then individually, they would have to make sin offerings. Constantly,
because they were constantly reminded of their sin. Now listen
to this. For those individual sinners
who brought sin offerings, the number of sacrifices in which
goats were used for a sin offering was five. Five sacrifices requiring
a goat. And for the whole congregation
in the great feast, the number of great feasts that required
a sin offering was six. So you got five curtains here
and you got six curtains, the same as there was five offerings
for sin and six offerings for sin. And that tells us it's the
same message in this curtain. And that message is Christ. He's
the sin offering who put away the sin of His people. Now be
sure to get this. When those curtains were coupled
together, there was eleven curtains of one measure. And just like those eleven sacrifices,
if you take the five sacrifices and individual sacrifices and
those six feasts of sacrifices and you put them together, that
covers all the sin of the children of Israel. And so just like those
11 sacrifices took in all the sin of Israel, these 11 curtains
picture the truth that Christ put away all the sin of all His
elect children. All God's Israel. He put away
all the sin of all His people. There remains nothing else. This
is what the Holy Spirit, when He comes and gives us a new heart,
He bears witness in our heart. He teaches us that God remembers
our sin no more. They had to offer and offer and
offer and offer because there was a constant remembrance of
sin. Because these blood of bulls and goats never purge their conscience.
But when God enters in in spirit, He purges our conscience. He
takes this, He makes you see this blood of Christ and He purges
your conscience to know God remembers your sin no more. And where remission
of our sins is, there's no more offering for sin. So you quit
working to try to put away your sin and you rest in Christ. Do you hear me? This is what
brings a sinner to faith in Christ. When God bears witness in your
heart that Christ put away our sin and God remembers it no more. God's people can never sin before
God before the law so as to be condemned. It'll never happen
because Christ already answered for that. And when He makes you
know this in your heart that there's no more offering for
sin, that's when a man will quit working and believe on Christ.
That's when he'll do it. Scripture tells us God was in
Christ reconciling the world of His elect unto Himself. That's
full atonement. Christ made full atonement. God
reconciled his people in Christ. He made full atonement. He blotted
out our sins and therefore because the sins are blotted out, because
there's no record of sin anymore for God's people, God will not
impute our trespasses unto us. How could he do that and be just?
For he hath made him sin for us. He made Christ sin and Christ
answered the justice of God for his people. This one who knew
no sin, this one who never sinned, this one who was never corrupted,
he was made sin in every way but corruption. And he made his
people the righteousness of God in him. That's how God's just
to forgive us. Now thirdly, Christ in the loops
and the tatches. Look here back at Exodus 26 and
verse 10. It says, and thou shalt make
50 loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the
coupling, and 50 loops in the edge of the curtain which couplet
the second. And thou shalt make 50 tatches
of brass, and put the tatches into the loops, and couple the
tent together that it may be one. So they put these, each
individual curtains, they were all separated, they put them
together and they had these 50 loops and they had these brass
tatches that clamped into those loops so that all the curtains
were together and made one curtain, one curtain. Now, there were
50 loops and there were 50 patches of brass to couple these curtains
together, to bring these curtains together, that it may be one. 50 is the number of Pentecost,
that's what Pentecost means, it means 50. 50 days, and it's
the, and that festival was the ingathering of fruit, the ingathering
of the crops, and it pictured the ingathering, him gathering
together, all his people in his holy tabernacle. That's what
the picture is. And so when you look here now
at these curtains, there's 50 loops and it's bringing all these
curtains together. Picture of Christ's people being
brought together in his tabernacle. Now notice it says, only says
loops. That's all it says here is loops.
Now in the 10 white curtains, When we looked at those, that
first covering, you remember, the loops were blue. They were
blue loops. Remember, we saw blue as a picture
of heaven. And those blue loops, everything
in that first covering, in that tabernacle, those white linen
sheets with the blue loops, everything in that's picturing Christ, holiness,
and glory as the Son of God. Come down, perfect, holy. Well,
here it just says loops. It just says loops. When Christ
was made sin for us, that's what's being pictured here, and when
He was made sin for us, His heavenly glory was hidden. It was hidden. That's what is being declared
in the three hours of darkness on the cross. Everything went
dark in this whole world for three hours because Christ's
glory was hidden. as he's bearing the sin and judgment
of God, the sin of his people and the judgment of God. And
remember, the curtains of fine twine linen, they were coupled
together with tatches of gold. Again, that picture's his holiness,
gold. Well here, their tatches are
made of brass. And in scripture, brass speaks
of divine judgment. divine judgment. The brazen altar,
we're going to see when we get to it, it's all about divine
judgment. And brass in scripture pictures divine judgment. And
so the touches of brass speak of what it took to bring God's
people together in one. It took the Lord Jesus Christ
bearing our sin and then bearing the divine judgment of God, the
wrath and judgment of God. He bore the hell that His people
would have had to bear had He not done it for us. And he satisfied
that justice. Scripture says, Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts. And that's what he did to Christ.
He awoke his sword of justice and pierced it in his son. And
then, so let's put this together now. You got these curtains,
they're all separated. And we're reminded how sin divided
all God's people. Sin divided us from God. Sin
divided us from one another. Completely divided us. And we
were as helpless to bring ourselves together with God and with one
another as these inanimate curtains would have been helpless to bring
themselves together. Yet God the Father purposed from
eternity to unite His elect. Go to Ephesians 1. God purposed
this from eternity. Here was his purpose, for all
his elect Jew and Gentile, listen to this, Ephesians 1.9 says,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, and here
it is, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, that
means in the end, He's going to gather together in one all
things in Christ. He's talking about all His elect,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. Now hold your place there. So
you got the coupling of these curtains coming together into
one tabernacle with these brass tatches picturing Christ building
His holy temple, all His people together through the suffering
of divine judgment. Now look down at Ephesians 2
and look at verse 14. For He is our peace. Christ is
the peace of God's elect Jew and Gentile who hath made both
one. and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us, that middle wall was the law,
and he fulfilled it, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of two one new man, so make in peace. That's what Christ
did for His elect Jew and Gentile. And that He might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity thereby. Now that was the work Christ
did for us on the cross. Here's next is the work He did
in us. There's still another work to
be done to bring us together. Look, verse 17. And He came and
preached peace to you which were far off and to them that were
nigh. He came to you and me, Gentiles,
who were far off, and He preached peace to us, and He came to His
elect Gentiles who were nigh, and He preached peace to them.
Now listen, for through Him, through Christ, we both, Jew
and Gentile, have access by one Spirit unto the Father. You see this oneness? This oneness,
this unity Christ has created. Look, now therefore you're no
more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation. Uh oh, he's talking about a building
here, just like we're talking about in our text. You're built
upon the foundation. of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all
the building is fitly framed together and groweth unto a holy
temple in the Lord. We're looking at the tabernacle,
but it's the same picture. You grow into a holy tabernacle
in the Lord, in whom you also are builded together for a habitation. of God through the Spirit. Remember
God told Moses to build this tabernacle that I might dwell
there, that I might inhabit that place? And that's the picture
here. He's building us together as
his tabernacle where he dwells, in whom he dwells. And he did
that through the divine judgment poured out on Christ to make
peace and bring us together. Now lastly, let's look at Christ
in the hanging of these curtains. Verse 9, Exodus 26 9, at the
end there it says, And you shall double the sixth curtain in the
forefront of the tabernacle. In other words, they fold it
over That sixth curtain, that one where it came to the front,
they folded it over and it came out into view over the gate,
the entrance, the door to the tabernacle. So they could see
that black goat's hair. And it says, verse 12, and the
remnant that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half
curtain that remaineth, shall hang over the back side of the
tabernacle, and a cubit on the one side and a cubit on the other
side of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains
of the tent. It shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on
this side and on that side to cover it. Now these goat's hair
curtains, overlapped, they covered those white curtains entirely.
That white curtain picturing the glory of Christ and picturing
the holiness of Christ. This black curtain over covered
that completely. It over covered it completely.
So you couldn't see that which pictured Christ's holiness and
Christ's glory. You couldn't see it. Now brethren,
the unregenerate sinner. He looks at the man, Jesus, especially
Him crucified, and He doesn't see anything about Him. That's
beautiful. He doesn't see any glory. He
doesn't see any form there that would make Him even remotely
desire Him or this gospel. But you who are spiritual, you
who are spiritual, you behold His glory. in Him being crucified. You behold it. You behold that
glory in Him being crucified. And what this tells us, with
this all being covered over and you couldn't see His glory, you
couldn't see His holiness, you couldn't see anything about Him,
that tells us, brethren, that God, because He's holy, He couldn't
manifest His beauty and His glory openly He couldn't tabernacle
among us except first our sin be dealt with. We had to be justified. His law had to be honored. And
we had to be justified. Our sin had to be put away by
the sacrifice of his son. And you notice here now in verse
9, you shall double the sixth curtain in front of the tabernacle. Now the first thing you'd see
As you entered the door of the tabernacle, this beautiful gate,
first thing you'd see is the black covering of goat's hair
doubled over. That's the first thing you'd
see. What did that represent? God calls each of his people
into Christ the door. into the narrow gate called beautiful,
into Christ our tabernacle, one way, and that's through the preaching
of the gospel of Christ. It's through this message that
declares his glory. And as they beheld that doubled
over black cloth pictured of Christ made sin, it preached
the gospel to them. And when they saw it doubled
over, It reminded them, those that had faith, it reminded them
that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. God has
rewarded us double, double grace for all our sin, for all our
sin. Now back up there in verse 7,
that word covering, that word means clear shining. It means conspicuous even from
a distance. That's what it means. To the
carnal eye, there's no form nor comeliness in beholding Christ
crucified on the cross. But to the spiritual eye, we
behold Christ clearly. We behold the shining of God's
glory in everything I've been talking about. How come? God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so we behold the Word made
flesh who dwelt among us. We behold His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. That's what we hear in this gospel. That's what we see in these types,
in these pictures. And that's all our hope. Christ
Jesus who put away our sin. Now, sinner, you saw here how
this one who sinned, he was to bring a sin offering. He was to come with a goat that
would die in his place to answer for all his sins and make atonement.
That's a picture of a sinner coming to God through faith in
Christ. The only way to come to God with this sin offering
that God will receive so that God will receive you. The only
way is through faith in Christ. Believe it on Christ. You believe
on Christ today and you'll see the glory of Christ. You'll see
all this. God will reveal it to you. Isn't
that what he told Martha? You believe on me, you'll see
my glory. That's right. And I pray today he make you
believe on him. You'll see his glory. And for
you that have believed on him, turn to Song of Solomon. I'm
going to show you something real quick and we'll be done. This
is what every believer says right here. This is the church speaking
right here about herself. And this is what every believer
says. Song of Solomon 1 5. I'm black, but comely. O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
I'm black as the tents of Kedar. Those were made out of that black
goat's hair. And in my flesh, there's nothing good. I'm black
like the tents of Kedar, but I'm comely. Robed in Christ's
righteousness with Christ in me, I'm comely as the curtains
of Solomon. I have that fine twined linen. And when God looks upon you,
believer, He doesn't see the black goat's hair. He doesn't
see our sinful flesh in Christ. He sees only the fine twined
linen of perfect holiness and perfect righteousness in Christ
Jesus. And He receives us. Isn't that
wonderful? I pray God will bless that. Let's
stand together. Father, we thank you for your
word. We thank you for speaking to us as little children, showing
us pictures of types that we can understand. Lord, how amazing
that you sovereignly ruled this whole nation. and brought them
to build a building to show us pictures and types of Christ.
Here you are feeding us all these thousands of years later from
that structure you built in the wilderness. And how we do thank
you, Lord. You tell us what you're going
to do, just like you told us in this building, and then you
bring it to pass in your Son exactly like you told us. Lord,
let that be a instruction to us of how sovereign you are in
the salvation of your people, that you accomplish it. Forgive
us our doubting and our murmuring and our complaining, Lord. We pray you constantly keep us
ever mindful of the judgment Christ bore on our behalf to
make us one, that we might endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit
and the bond of peace. Lord, forgive us our sin now.
In Christ's name we ask it, amen.