If you would turn with me again
tonight to Exodus chapter 26, I want us to look at the last
two coverings of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Exodus chapter
26, and let's read verse 14 together. And thou shalt make a covering
for the tent of a ram's skins dyed red and a covering above
of a badger's skin. As you remember, the first covering
was the covering of fine twined linen. And this was the innermost
covering found in the tabernacle. And it beautifully pictured,
as we saw, and typified Christ in his sinless, heavenly royalty,
and showed us the work of his bloodshed at Calvary. This was
all pictured by the white and the blue and the purple and scarlet
colors of the curtains. Then the second covering that
we looked at last time was the covering of the goat's hair.
And that pictured Christ who knew no sin, but was made to
be sin for his elect people. The verse there in 2 Corinthians
5, 21, the words to be, made to be, are italicized. Christ was made sin. He was made
sin for his people. And it was Christ, our scapegoat,
who had our sins put on him and he took them away to never be
seen again. And then tonight we had the third
covering of the ram skins dyed red and the fourth covering of
the badger skins. One thing that I want to remind
you before we go any further tonight is what God told Moses
in Exodus chapter 25. Turn back a page or so and look
at verse eight with me. God said in Exodus 25 verse eight,
and let them, speaking of Israel, let them make me a sanctuary
that I may dwell among them. Jesus Christ is his people's
sanctuary. Oh, what a blessed thought that
in him alone, God dwells with his people. The tabernacle was
the one place that God tabernacled and dwelt with his people. You
see, God dwells in Christ alone, and it will be in Christ that
God dwells in us. There's no love, no mercy, no
grace, no forgiveness apart from that which is found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this earthly tabernacle that
Moses built is but a sketch, just a picture and a pattern
and a type of the Lord Jesus. And it takes everything about
the tabernacle to even come close to show us something of Christ. The tabernacle, everything in
it, including the priest and all that the priest inside the
holy place did display and picture Christ's person and work. And
even then it falls short. There are no perfect pictures
of Christ and only God can do for you what must be done in
order for you to be redeemed. And it's all in the Lord Jesus. Matthew 1.23 tells us, behold,
a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and
they shall call his name or thou shall call his name Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. Jesus Christ is God. 2 Corinthians 5 19 to wit that
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing
their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation God is in Christ friends Hebrews 9 11 and 12 but
Christ being come and a 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 and 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. So tonight
we have the covering that went over the curtains of the goat's
hair, and that was the ram skin dyed red. And then over that
was the tough covering of badger skins. The badger skin covering
was the one covering that the people on the outside saw. In
these outer two coverings, they give us a twofold view of the
Lord and during the judgment of God for the sins of his elect.
First, they show us how the Lord Jesus appeared in the eyes of
God. You see the ram skins dyed red
show us how God the Father saw his son. The ram was the victim
used at the consecration of the priest. when a priest was separated
unto the service of God Almighty, as Aaron and his sons were. Turn
over a few pages, if you would, in your Bible to Exodus chapter
29. I'd like for you to see this.
Exodus chapter 29. And look at verse one. And this
is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow, and that
word means purify them. to minister unto me in the priest
office. This is what was required to
purify the priests so that they might serve God. He said, take
one bullock and two rams without blemish. Then look down at verse
15. Thou shall also take one ram
and Aaron and his son shall put their hands upon the head of
the ram. And thou shalt slay the lamb, and thou shalt take
his blood and sprinkle it round about upon the altar. And thou
shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him and
his legs, and put them unto his pieces. and unto his head, and
thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar. It is a burnt
offering unto the Lord, and it is a sweet savor, an offering
made by fire unto the Lord. And thou shalt take the other
ram, and Aaron and his son shall put their hands upon the head
of the ram. Then thou shalt kill the ram,
and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right
ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons,
and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe
of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round
about. And thou shalt take of the blood,
and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his
sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him. and he shall
be hallowed and his garments and his sons and his son's garments
with him. And then look at the last part
of verse 22, for it is a ram of consecration. Aaron and his
sons were the priest of God in the tabernacle, but we must remember
that they too were sinners. Now hear me on this, no servant,
no minister, no preacher has any right to think that they're
special. We talked about that Sunday.
A preacher is no less a sinner than anyone else. People put
priests upon pedestals. Priests are sinners, law sinners. They too have to be cleansed
and purified by the blood of Christ in order to be saved and
to serve God. And that's what's going on in
these verses we just read in Exodus chapter 29. This slaying
of the two rams shows us what God required in their devotion
and consecration unto Him. But the bottom line is this,
Aaron and his son's acceptance by God was due only to the blood
of the rams. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. The red dye on the ram skins
picture Christ's consecration, even unto his death, the death
of the cross, where his precious blood was shed. And as our high
priest, Christ, by the sacrifice of himself, made his people holy. He has consecrated us by the
blood, his own blood, and made us priests unto God. And we see
that typified in the verses we just read. Aaron and his sons
being made priests were consecrated to God by two rams, which died
in their place, and the ram's blood applied to them." Now,
is that not a picture of Christ and what he's done for us? You
know, the ram, the male sheep being the head of the flock,
that speaks of strength and dignity. Christ is certainly the head
of his flock. Another reason the Ramskins typify
Christ's consecration to the Father is because of what we
see in Genesis chapter 22. Now, I won't turn you there,
but you know the story well. When God proved and tested Abraham's
consecration to God by offering up his only son, Isaac, and while
bound on the altar and his hand raised to slay that young man,
what did God provide? God provided a ram. And the angel
of the Lord called out unto Abraham from heaven, and he said, Abraham,
lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto
him. For now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from
me. And the scriptures say, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and he looked and beheld him, a ram caught
in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. This was also seen on Mount Calvary,
the same as it was seen on Mount Moriah. Jesus Christ in complete
and perfect devotion and consecration unto God, God, His Father, He
voluntarily gave Himself to be the Lamb of God, caught in the
thicket with the crown of thorns on His head. And Christ gave
Himself to be a burnt offering in the stead of His people, making
them holy and consecrated forever unto God. Our Lord said in John
chapter 10 verse 17, he said, therefore, doth my father love
me because I laid down my life that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I've got power
to lay it down and I have power to take it again. And he certainly
did. You know, naturally speaking
in and of ourselves, we don't have much devotion or consecration
unto our great God. But Christ is our perfection.
And Christ is our consecration. Aren't you glad? In Him, we serve
God in perfect and holy consecration. You know, the scriptures say,
to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all our soul,
with everything within us. How do we do that? In Christ. Christ did it for us. And then
secondly, in the fourth covering, the covering of badger skins,
we see something of how the Lord appeared in the eyes of men.
Over the ram skins dyed red were placed this outermost covering
of badger skins. And this alone was the only covering
that Israel saw. That's very important. It's here
that we see how the Lord Jesus appeared to man. The badger skins
picture Christ in his humility and his condescending to become
a man. The covering of badger skins
was not appealing at all. It was a dark, drab covering. But to such a degree, the Lord
Jesus humbled himself that the glory of his divine person was
hidden from the eyes of sinful creatures. Our Lord truly made
himself of no reputation. Let me read that passage to you
out of Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter two verse
seven says, speaking of Christ, he made himself of no reputation
and he took upon the form of a servant. That's talking about
God, the son doing that. And he was made in the likeness
of men and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself
and became obedient unto death. God not only became a man, God
became obedient unto death. And not only did he become obedient
unto death, but he became obedient unto the death of the cross.
The most shameful death that a man could experience. Beloved,
that's what these badger skins picture. Why he was born in a
stable. His crib was a manger. He was
brought up as a despised Nazarene. Brought up in the town of Nazareth,
which was despised. Why even one of his disciples
said, is there anything good that comes out of Nazareth? He
worked at a carpenter's bench and they saw him only as Mary
and Joseph's son. They couldn't see his heavenly
beauty. They couldn't see his spiritual
grace. They couldn't see his moral perfections. They can only see the badger
skins of his outward appearance. Natural men and women saw no
glory in his life or in his death. And just as Israel and all the
desert tribes in the territories in which Israel journeyed amongst,
all of them saw only the badger skins and not the lovely curtains
beneath its surface." Oh, what a picture that is. Immediately. My mind races to Isaiah 53, verse
2, which tells us that Christ shall grow up before Him, speaking
of God the Father, as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire
Him, and there wasn't. He looked like a normal man.
You know, he didn't walk around with a halo over his head like
some pictures depict. He looked just like every other
man. Just as there was no outward beauty in the badger skin covering,
there was no outward beauty in the appearance of the Lord and
His countenance and His body in which He tabernacled. Natural
man saw no beauty in the death of our Lord on the cross. But
let me remind you what happened there. In the same passage in
Isaiah 53, the next verse, it says, surely he has borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows. That's what he's doing on the
cross. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." You know what
I say to that? What a God. What a Savior. What a Gospel. Now that we've
seen all four of the Tabernacles coverings, what can we learn
from them? What are the spiritual lessons
taught in these coverings? Well, first I would want to make
mention to you that the first two coverings, which were fine
wined linens and the goat's hair, we were given dimensions of the
curtains. But in the last two coverings,
there's no mention of dimensions at all given. You see, there
was a depth in which our Lord and Savior's devotion to God,
such a depth of humiliation that's just absolutely and utterly impossible
for us to measure or understand. It is immeasurable. Isn't that
what the scriptures say? God's ways are past finding out,
and they are. We can never accomplish or provide
by our will, work and worth the perfection of holiness that a
holy God and His inflexible law and justice demanded and required. Why? Because it was weak through
the flesh, that meaning our flesh. And that's why God sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. In the colors of that first covering
of fine twined linen, we saw the white representing the spotless
Lamb of God. We saw the blue showing us that
Christ is heavenly. He's God the Son. The purple
representing His royalty. He's the King of Kings and He's
the Lord of Lords. And it was by His scarlet blood
that His people are washed and cleansed forever. And then the
second covering of the goat's hair, we saw Christ being made
sin for us. Like the scapegoat, all our sin
was put on Christ. It was transferred to Him. He
was made to be our sin. He truly was made sin, friends. And He took it away forever by
the sacrifice of Himself. And the goat's hair pictures
Christ's substitution for us. He's the express image of what
the scapegoat pictured and typified. But understand that that's not
symbolic as it was in the Old Testament times. Christ really
did put our sin away. The Hebrew word in the Old Testament
translated atonement was actually a word that meant to cover up.
The purpose of the animal sacrifices offered in the temple was to
cover over one's sins. But in the New Testament, the
meaning of an atoning sacrifice is to put away. Christ's sacrifice
on the believer's behalf didn't merely cover our sins, it removed
them. Yesterday was trash day at our
house. And that's my job. It's just
about the only job that I have anymore. Teresa does everything
else. But I take out the trash. Trash
is placed in a trash can and it's covered up. It's covered
up because it stings. But that trash that I covered
up was not removed until the trash man came and took it all
away. You see, man's sin could not
be removed until Christ came. He's the only one that could
take our sin and put all our sin away. And do you remember
what John the Baptist said? He said, behold, the Lamb of
God, pointing to the Lord Jesus. And he said, the Lamb of God,
behold Him, that taketh away the sin of the world. Then in
the third covering of the ramskins dyed red, as we've already seen,
we see the consecration, the devotion, and the faithfulness
of Christ as our substitute. He said, I must be about my Father's
business, and He constantly was. He said, I must work the works
of Him that sent me, and He constantly did. And Christ's consecration
and dedication to putting away His people's sin went all the
way to the cross, where He gave Himself up for a burnt offering
in the place of God's chosen. And here's the greatest news
ever. In Christ dying in my room instead, and all who trust in
Him, He made me as holy and consecrated as He is. Thank God that my devotion
and consecration to God is in Christ's devotion and consecration
to Him. Everything I need and everything
that God requires is found in Christ, our Redeemer. And then
the fourth covering of the badger skin. We see Christ's willingness
to humble himself. He voluntarily humbled himself
and he became a man. And then he humbled himself even
further unto death. And even further than that, even
the death of the cross. And our Lord's badger skin covering,
I'm telling you, was beautiful and God sucked. And by God's
grace in Christ, it's beautiful in our minds and hearts too.
I'm reminded of a little story I once heard. There was once
a young boy who had saved his allowance to buy a Christmas
present for his mother. And he saved and he saved and
he accumulated $9.11. And his sister said, well, you can't
buy a nice gift for $9.11. And he said, oh yes, I can. And his sister then replied,
well, it's going to be a cheap gift. And the young fellow said
with great conviction and tears in his eyes, he said, nothing
is cheap if it costs you all that you have. Beloved Christ
gave it all. It was free to us, but as the
God man, it cost him all that he had. And that was his life. Oh, there was no beauty outwardly
in our Savior that we should desire Him. But God said, this
is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. Have you heard the Savior say?
Thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray, find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Oh, may we
always remember that God looks on the heart Not on our outward
appearance and certainly not on what we outwardly do. Worship
is a matter of the heart. Believing, having faith, it's
a matter of the heart. Do you remember what God told
Samuel when he sent him to call David and anoint him as king?
As each of David's brothers, strapping, strong young men,
seven of them, came before Samuel, the Lord rejected each one of
them. And Samuel couldn't believe it,
while the sons of Jesse were men, strong and strapping, as
they say. But the Lord told Samuel, he
said, look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature,
because I've refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. And to each one
of these boys, the Lord rejected. And Samuel said, the Lord hath
not chosen thee. Samuel asked Jesse, he said,
do you have any more children? He said, just the youngest one.
He's just a boy. He's just a little shepherd boy.
And Samuel said, send and fetch him. When David came, the Lord
let him know right away. And he said, arise and anoint
him for this is he. Oh, dear sinner, God looks on
the heart. And this is why we must be born
again and made new creatures in the Lord Jesus Christ. Until
then, our hearts remain deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked according to Jeremiah 17 verse nine. But in the new
birth, God creates in us a new heart, a heart that beats after
God. I remember seeing a program one
time, I think it was on Dateline, I really don't remember, maybe
60 Minutes, one of those. Anyway, it followed the stories
of nine men and women who were waiting for a heart transplant.
And at the show's conclusion, the joy of those who received
the call to get the new heart was suddenly lessened by the
realization that someone had to die to make their joy in life
a realization. Child of God, for you and I to
live, someone had to die. And that someone was God the
Son. the Lord Jesus Christ. May we
always remember and be thankful that the price of eternal life
was given to us by the death of another. But amazingly, the
very one who paid that price shares in our joy. You see, death
and the grave couldn't hold a perfect man because God's justice wouldn't
permit it. Therefore, Christ, the God-man,
rose from the grave. And as the author of Hebrews
writes, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. Brothers and sisters, keep looking
to Christ. He's the author and he's the
finisher of our faith. We have faith because He gave
it to us. And we continue in the faith
because He'll see that we finish with it. He's the author and
the finisher. It's not dependent upon me. He
saved me and He keeps me. So then we find great peace and
rest and assurance that we'll keep looking to Him because He
keeps us looking to Him. All we have to do is rest. Resting
him. Oh, I'm getting pretty good at
resting. I'm going to tell myself here. I take a nap almost every
day. Oh, I know you're surprised by
that. You know, it's gotten pretty easy for me to take a nap. I
just simply lay down and go to sleep. Well, I don't have to
think about it. I don't have to work at it. I
just do it. It comes easy to me. Why then
is it so difficult for us to rest in Christ? Just stop doing,
just stop trying, and lay down and rest. Don't think about it,
don't work at it, just do it. Just rest in the one who is able
to do exceedingly and abundantly above all you could think or
ask. Did our Lord not say, come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest? Do we believe Him? If we do,
we'll do what He says to do. Oh, may God enable us to rest
in Christ.