If you would, go ahead and turn
with me again tonight to the 26th chapter of Exodus, Exodus
chapter 26. We're studying the tabernacle
in the wilderness, that tabernacle that God instructed Moses to
build according to his pattern. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 5 lets
us know that this tabernacle in the wilderness served as an
example and a shadow of heavenly things. That's speaking of Christ.
He's our heavenly substitute. He's our heavenly Savior. And
he's pictured and typified in the tabernacle so clearly. The
tabernacle had four separate coverings. The first covering
we looked at last week. That first and innermost covering
was made up with the 10 curtains of fine twined linen. What a beautiful covering that
must have been with the cherubims and the colors of blue and purple
and scarlet woven into it. As we saw last time, the colors
of blue and purple and scarlet show us something of our heavenly,
royal, and bleeding Savior. Then over that first covering
came the second one. That's what we'll look at tonight.
Look at verse seven with me, Exodus 26. And thou shalt make
curtains of goat's hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle. 11 curtains shalt thou make. So over the first covering was
placed 11 curtains of goat's hair. And as everything in the
tabernacle, this covering of goat's hair too, points to the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was thinking today as I was
looking at these verses again, how amazing God's Word is. Everything about the tabernacle
and everything in the tabernacle, pictured and pointed to Christ
our Redeemer, just as many things in the Old Testament do. Christ
is the lamb that God sacrificed to cover the nakedness of Adam
and Eve in the garden. And Christ is the believer's
righteous covering, that perfect righteousness, that perfect covering
that covers our nakedness and lack of any righteousness of
our own. Christ pictures the lamb that
Abel sacrificed, the sacrifice that God accepted while rejecting
the work done by the hands of Cain, his brother. Christ is
Noah's ark. Noah and his family were safe
from the flood of God's wrath, only being in the ark of safety
and refuge. Christ is our refuge. He's our
protection against the wrath and judgment of God against our
sin. And the types and the pictures
go on and on. That manna which fell from heaven,
well, that's Christ, the bread of life. The spiritual rock that
followed Israel, Paul said, that rock was Christ. Well, he's the
solid rock. He's the rock of ages from which
flows rivers of living water. Christ is that brazen serpent
to whom those bitten by the fiery serpents of sin look to in order
to live. And Christ is the cities of refuge,
place where a man could flee for protection and safe haven.
Christ is our hiding place, is He not? How is it that folks
don't see these things? Well, the answer is simple. God
doesn't reveal it to everyone. He reveals these hidden things
to whom He will, just as He has mercy on whom He will have mercy. You see, on some, God doesn't
have mercy. It's His prerogative. So it should
be of no surprise that we see Christ in this second covering
of goat's hair. Looking at the different references
found in the scriptures concerning these curtains of goat's hair,
I found a passage in Exodus 35 that I would like for you to look at. I believe
it'll shine some light on this unique covering. Would you turn
there with me? Exodus chapter 35. Look at verse
25 of Exodus 35. And all the women that were wise-hearted,
now that word wise not only means wisdom and intelligence, but
here it also, it means skillful and artful. These skillful and
creative women did spin or weave with their hands and brought
that which they had spun, both of blue and of purple and of
scarlet and of fine linen. Well, that's speaking of that
first covering that we looked at last week. And let me pause
for a second before moving on. Have you ever given much thought
to all gifts and talents that we have coming from the Lord?
What talent you may possess? Well, it's God's gift to you.
Any skill you have, maybe a musical talent or the ability to make
and do creative things with your hands, anything from gardening
to carpentry to knitting, sewing, cooking, whatever it is, it's
a gift from God. Any intelligence and wisdom and
talent that we have was God's gift to us. So God gave these
women this gift of weaving, and it was a special gift to do what
they could do. Well, they had the gift and talent
to weave the image of the cherubims and the material that they spun.
And verse 26 says, and all the women whose heart stirred them
up in wisdom spun goat's hair. That word stirred there in verse
26 means burned within. You see, God not only gave these
women the gift and the talent, but He gave them the desire.
That desire burned within them. look up at verse 21 this give
us some context to what this is talking about here verse 21
and they came everyone whose heart stirred him up and everyone
whom his God's Spirit made willing and they brought the Lord's offering
to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation and for all
his service and for the holy garments. And they came, both
men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought
bracelets and earrings and rings and tablets, all jewels of gold. And every man that offered, offered
an offering of gold unto the Lord. And every man with whom
was found blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and goat's
hair, and red skins of rams and badger skins brought them. And that's speaking of all four
of the coverings and the materials used to make them. Everyone,
verse 24, that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the
Lord's offering, and every man with whom was found should of
wood for any work of the service brought it. I was thinking about
that verse in 1 Corinthians 10.31, that says all that we do, we
should do for the glory of God. And I see a picture of Christ
in this. This woven goat's hair came from chosen women whose
hearts God stirred. And they brought these coverings
which they had spun. Our Lord was brought forth of
a woman. He's the promised seed of the woman. This covering had
something to do with Christ becoming a man, being born of a woman. And Christ is typified in the
goat's hair as a man bearing and putting away the sins of
his people forever. And we say it all the time, only
a man could redeem man. And only God could satisfy his
own law and appease his own holy justice. Jesus Christ is the
God-man. We also see Christ in the material
used to make these coverings of the tabernacle back in Exodus
chapter 26. We see in verse seven that these
coverings are called curtains, curtains of goat's hair. The
word curtains here comes from a root Hebrew word that means
to fear and to tremble. This speaks of Christ's fear
and reverence to God, his father. Now you and I are conceived in
sin and we come forth from the womb with no fear of God before
our eyes, Psalm 36 one. But our Lord, as a man became totally dependent
on God. What a thought that is. God dependent
on God. The Lord Jesus, God the Son,
didn't rely at all on His own strength, but He totally committed
Himself and depended and trusted and relied on His Heavenly Father
for everything. By birth, nature, and practice,
we're just the opposite. We have no trouble trusting in
a work of our own so-called righteousness, thinking that we can somehow
will ourselves to be saved by something that we do. That's
nothing but disobedience, especially since no man can and no man will,
apart from God giving life and making that sinner willing. But
our Lord, perfectly obedient. He perfectly trusted and relied
on the will and the purpose of His heavenly Father in all things.
Brothers and sisters, we have a representative that serves
God in perfect fear, with perfect reverence. He had no will, but
that will which He submitted unto God. And His prayer was
always, not my will, but thine be done. The God-man, Jesus Christ,
He served God, His Father, in perfect obedience, even unto
the death of the cross. But people want to work, they
want to do something for their salvation. But that's what Paul
meant when he said, work out your own salvation with what?
Fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you, both to will and to do his good pleasure. You see, you and
I cannot work out what God has not worked in us. It was God,
the Heavenly Father's will, purpose, and good pleasure for Christ
to submit to Him for everything. And with perfect obedience, our
Lord did just that. And so must we. You know, I'm
convinced that why so many of God's people have experienced
peace in this pandemic is that they believe and know that God
is on His throne and He's working all things together for their
good and for his own glory. Isn't that such a comforting
thought? I love to think about that. Now, did you notice that
the word hair in verse seven is in italics? As you know, that
denotes that the word has been added by the translators. And
in this case, rightly so. After all, you can't weave a
goat, but you can weave goat's hair. Yet, it's very interesting
to me that the word hair is not found in the original Hebrew
here. And I think Moses, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, omitted the word to direct our attention
to the goats themselves. God required a goat to be used
for a sin offering. Now let me show you that. Turn
with me to the next book in the Bible after Exodus, Leviticus
chapter 4. Leviticus chapter 4. I want to begin reading in verse
22. And I think it'll become very
clear for us to see how this relates to Christ and Him crucified. Have you got it? Leviticus chapter
4 verse 22. It says, when a ruler hath sinned
and done somewhat through ignorance against any of the commandments
of the Lord his God, concerning things which should not be done,
and is guilty, or if his sin wherein he hath sinned come to
his knowledge, he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats,
a male without blemish. And he shall lay his hand upon
the head of the goat, kill it in the place where they killed
the burnt offering before the Lord. It is a sin offering. 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 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. And if any one of the common
people sin through ignorance while he doeth somewhat against
any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which
ought not to be done and be guilty, Or if his sin, which he had sinned,
come to his knowledge, then he shall bring his offering, a kid
of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin, which he
had sinned, and he shall lay his hand upon the head of the
sin offering. and slay the sin offering in
the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take up
the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of
the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood
thereof at the bottom of the altar. And he shall take away
all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice
of peace offerings. And the priest shall burn it
upon the altar for a sweet savor unto the Lord. and the priest
shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.
And if he bring a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring it a
female without blemish, and he shall lay his hand upon the head
of the sin offering, and slay it for a sin offering in the
place where they killed the burnt offering. 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 all the blood thereof at the bottom of the
altar. And he shall take away all the
fat thereof, and the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice
of the peace offerings. And the priest shall burn them
upon the altar according to the offerings made by fire unto the
Lord. And the priest shall make an
atonement for his sin that he hath committed, and it shall
be forgiven him." Do you remember the scapegoat? A goat was sent
into the wilderness after the high priest had symbolically
laid the sins of the people on it, and that pictured the transfer
of sin from the sinner to Christ, our substitute Lamb, in picture
and in type. But friends, Christ is the express
image of what was pictured in the Old Testament. And that's
what this covering, this covering curtains of goat's hair is all
about. It's about substitution. That's
what this whole book is about. He who knew no sin was made sin. The Lord hath laid on him, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the iniquity of all his elect. So again, we
see the Lord Jesus in the covering of the goat's hair. Christ was
made sin. What does that really mean? It
means before the law of God, Christ was made sin in every
way except for the corruption of His nature. Our Lord Jesus
was made sin in the forsaking of God. When the believer's sin
was found on Christ, God turned His back on him. And that's what
His justice required. What did our Lord say when the
Lord did that? When God, His Father, did that?
He said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's because
God should have forsaken me, and God should have forsaken
you. But since the Lord Jesus was made to be sin for His people,
God turned His back on the Lord Jesus and forsook Him. Christ
was made sin and the shame of it. Christ being the author and
the finisher of our faith, who for the joy of our salvation
that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame
of it. And friends, he's now set on
the right hand of the throne of God. You know what that means?
That means his work. The work that he did for us is
finished. The Lord Jesus was made sin,
so much so that the scriptures tell us that he was touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. All the pain, all the suffering,
all the guilt, the shame should have been ours. Recently, I received
an advertisement by mail or email one, I really can't remember
which, but it was from that company, you've probably heard of them,
called LifeLock. It's a company that gives you
security against identity theft. I suppose identity theft has
undoubtedly become a real issue in today's world. Crooks and
thieves take your identity and then run up dead in your name.
And as I read over that advertisement, I was thinking that the Lord
Jesus did that to his people in reverse. Without their permission,
he assumed the believer's identity. He stepped into their personal
business, the business between them and God, and He took their
place. He took control of their account,
and He made it His own. And He didn't take control of
it to add debt like a thief does, no. He took control of the believers'
account in order to pay the debt of sin that they had accumulated. He took my debt and paid it in
full as a rich friend might do. Oh, what a rich friend Christ
is. He's rich in love, mercy, grace,
and forgiveness while he's a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
So these curtains of goat's hair picture our spotless substitute
who has made sin for his people. in order to make us the righteousness
of God in Him. Now, back in Exodus chapter 26,
and look again at the end of verse 7. 11 curtains shalt thou
make. The length of one curtain shall
be thirty cubits, and 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 to make
a total of 11 curtains of goat's hair. He was to couple five curtains
together by themselves and then six curtains together by themselves,
making 11 curtains of one measure. As we see, these curtains were
divided into two groups, five curtains in one group and six
curtains in another. Well, what's the spiritual significance
of that? Bible scholars say that the number
five in the scriptures is the number for the goodness and the
grace of God. The book of Deuteronomy is the
fifth book of the Bible, and it's said to be dedicated to
God's grace. I was thinking today, man has
five fingers, five toes, five senses, which is no doubt God's
grace to him. And we know also that the number
six is the number of man. It was on the sixth day that
man was created. Six days are the span of a man's
weekly labor. And how interesting is it that
the number six is used in the measure that man uses in connection
with his labor? They're 12 inches to a foot,
two times six, eight inches to a cubit, three by six, 36 inches
to the yard, six by six, all multiples of six. And it's the
same with man's division of time. There are 24 hours in a day,
four times six. There's 60 minutes in an hour,
10 by six, and 60 seconds in a minute. Did you know that there
are only six words in the Bible for man? Four in the Hebrew and
two in the Greek. And how fitting that Christ,
the God-man, took the place of chosen sinners and was crucified
at the sixth hour. And all the indignities that
man heaped upon the suffering Christ, it's the number six that
stamped man's vile handiwork against the Lord. First, the
scourging of the Lord's back. Secondly, the smiting of His
face with the palms of their hands. Thirdly, spitting upon
Him. Fourth, placing the crowns of
thorns on His head. Number five, driving the nails
into His hands and feet. And six, plunging the spear into
His side. And it's six that marks the religion
of the beast. Six, six, six. Man, man, man. No doubt the beast is man-centered
religion. So what does all this mean in
the 11 curtains? It means just this. It's Christ,
our covering. We're the grace of God in the
number five. meets together with the sin of
man in the number six. It's only in Christ that God
and love and mercy and grace puts our sin away. I never grow
tired of hearing that. Look at verse 10, And thou shalt
make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost
in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which
coupleth the second. And thou shalt make fifty tatches
of brass, and put the tatches into the loops, and couple the
tent together that it may be one. Now if you remember in the
ten curtains of the first covering, the covering of the fine twined
linen, They were coupled together with loops of blue. Remember
that? That picture in Christ's heavenly glory as the Son of
God. Remember blue is the color of
the heavenly. But here in verse 10, they're
just simply called loops. And I think that very well pictures
how that when Christ was made sin for us, His heavenly glory
was hidden, just as it was in the three hours of darkness after
His death. Also, do you remember How the
10 curtains of fine twined linen were coupled together? Well,
they were coupled together with gold tatches. But these curtains
of goat's hair were coupled together with brass tatches. Brass symbolizes
God's divine judgment. So the tatches of brass speak
of what it took to make us one with Christ. On the cross, our
Savior suffered the outpoured judgment of God. Now the altar
inside the tabernacle was made of pure gold, but that altar
that we read about in Leviticus 4, that altar in the courtyard
that the beast was slain upon and where its body was burned,
it was made of brass. That showed the judgment of God. Do you remember the cure for
the bite of the five serpents in the wilderness? While it was
looking to the brazen or the brass serpent raised up on a
pole? And we see there how a line is
drawn from the brazen serpent in Numbers chapter 21 to John
chapter 3, which speaks of Christ's crucifixion. All who look to
Christ high and lifted up on Calvary's cross escape the judgment
of God. And that brings us right back
to substitution. You can't get away from substitution,
and why would you want to? Salvation is found in Christ
and Him crucified. What does Christ and Him crucified
mean to you? It means everything to the child
of God. Let me tell you a little story
in closing. One time during a very dry summer,
a farmer noticed that the field next to his home had caught on
fire. Very rapidly, the pasture was
engulfed with flames and began to quickly spread. After a few
hours of burning, the fire reached his gravel driveway at the field's
edge and there was nothing more to burn. No fuel for the fire,
as they say. Just a few flickering embers
and a dispersing cloud of smoke. wanting to make sure that the
fire was truly out. The farmer entered into the blackened
field and he walked back and forth across the field, kicking
each smoldering clump of grass and burnt vegetation, hoping
to stomp out any embers that may still be smoldering. And
then near the center of the field, he kicked over a burnt clump
that startled him. Underneath the charred pile of
debris was a cluster of baby chicks that scattered in every
direction. And it was then that the man
realized that the burnt clump was the body of a hen, which
had gathered her chicks under her wings to protect them from
the flames. That reminds me of what the Lord
Jesus said in Matthew 23, verse 37. He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sin unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens
under her wings? And ye would not. Behold, Your
house is left unto you desolate. But with the child of God, the
child of God longs to be under the care and the protection of
their substitute. Christ is their one and only
mediator before God. And in Him, there's no fear of
judgment. With Christ as my covering, as
my righteousness, I now stand before God as perfect as Christ
is. And I'm accepted in Him, in the
Beloved, the Beloved of God. So I must ask you, is Christ
your covering? Is Christ your perfect righteousness? If He is, everything is going
to be all right. It's going to be all right right
now. and it's going to be all right
throughout eternity. It's all going to be right. For he or she that hath the Son
hath life, eternal life, everlasting life. On the front of our church
bulletin now for over 30 years, maybe longer, is written these
words from John 17 3. the words that our Lord prayed,
he said, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou sent. Do you know God,
the God of the Bible? Do you know the Jesus Christ
that God sent? He's not the Jesus that I hear
most proclaim. Oh, may God be pleased to make
it so.