turn with me again in your Bible
to Exodus chapter 26. Again I want to say that I have
so thoroughly enjoyed studying for this lesson and it's always
a challenge to try to be able to communicate to you that which
has been a blessing to me. That's where we depend on the
Lord wholeheartedly that he might bless the message. Exodus chapter
26 and let me say again that I believe that we have well established
that the tabernacle, our study of the tabernacle, the tabernacle
in the wilderness, pictures the Lord Jesus Christ in almost every
way. Hebrews chapter 9 tells us that
while the first tabernacle was yet standing, that it was a figure,
it was a pattern, a picture for the time then present. But then
it goes on to say, but Christ became a high priest of good
things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle. A tabernacle not made with hands. That is to say, not of this building. If our message is not Christ
and Him crucified, then our message is not the gospel. And if we
don't tell sinners the only way that they can be reconciled to
God, then we're not preaching the gospel. It's just that simple. To tell sinners that they need
to be reconciled to God, and then not to tell them how, is
actually shameful. And if we don't tell sinners
about the one mediator between God and men, there's only one. and that being the man Christ
Jesus, we're not carrying out the great commission of our Lord
and Savior who said, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Teach them what? Teach them that
God the Son willingly and voluntarily came into the world to save sinners. We must tell and teach sinners
that God the Son left His throne on high to come and to seek and
to save and to die for those that His Father gave Him before
the heavens and the earth were ever framed. That's the message. That's the gospel. The gospel,
as you know, means good news and glad tidings for sinners. And the word gospel in the original
Greek actually means a good message Not a good sermon, not a good
study, not a good lesson, but a glorious message. What is the message? The message
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The message is God had to die
to put your sin away. The message is only God could
fulfill His own law and satisfy His own justice. Let's never
ever get away from that. The gospel is not what we're
doing for God, but what Christ has finished for us. He himself
accomplished both the fulfilling of the law and the satisfying
of his own divine justice, and our redemption, our salvation,
is in and by and through Jesus Christ. Our salvation lies in
what Christ has not only done for us, but what He has finished
for us. It's by His finished work that
we've been reconciled to God. And that's exactly what Paul
said in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20. He said, Now then, we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. This
is our message and it's God's message. And he said, we pray
you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. Now, let me
remind you that in and of myself, I am nothing. Like every other
man born of a woman, I'm a wretched, depraved sinner. In me, that
is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. There's nothing good in
me except the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I'm saved, it's only because
Christ dwells in me. It's only because Christ did
for me what I could not do for myself. Christ did for me that
which God required of me. But an ambassador for Christ,
a representative, a preacher of His gospel, as an ambassador
of Christ, I must preach the truth to you in Christ's stead. And that just simply means as
if Christ Himself was here telling you these things. And this is
our message. Be ye reconciled to God. And
the gospel message is to tell you how. Now back to the tabernacle. The tabernacle, as we've already
seen in so many ways, points us to Christ. And the tabernacle
and all its furnishings picture the only way that we can be reconciled
to God, brought back into friendly fellowship and communion with
the God that we've offended. Against thee and thee only have
we sinned and done this evil in God's sight. And let me add
also that this tabernacle in the wilderness is not only typical
of the Lord Jesus, but also represents His elect individually and the
church as a whole. God instructed Moses to build
this tabernacle in the wilderness so that God might dwell or tabernacle
among His people. You know, my mind immediately
goes to the gospel of John 1.14 that says, the word, that being
Jesus Christ, who is the word, was made flesh and dwelt among
us. That word dwelt means to tabernacle,
to reside, to tent or encamp among us. You see, in Christ,
God tabernacles, God dwells with His people as He did in the tabernacle
of old. So what a symbol and a pattern
and a picture the tabernacle is of the Lord Jesus. It's dwelling
in Christ and Him dwelling in us that we have fellowship with
God. And what peace and comfort and
assurance we find in that little word dwell. Revelation chapter
21 verse 3. I'll read it to you. John said,
and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men. Oh, that's speaking of Christ.
And he would dwell with them and they shall be his people
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. Oh, I
tell you, that is the best news this sinner ever heard. Now this
evening, we're looking at the innermost covering of the tabernacle. Next study, the Lord willing,
we're going to see that the inside to the outside covering of the
tabernacle was actually made up of four different coverings.
But tonight, we'll only have time to cover the first covering,
and I'm not going to keep you long. So here in Exodus 26, God
begins His instruction with the most inner covering, and He works
His way outward. That in itself is a picture of
our salvation. Salvation begins on the inside
in the heart and it works its way outwardly. I'm sure that
it's of no surprise to you that Christ is pictured again so beautifully
in these coverings and in what they were made of. So let's begin
in verse 1 here of Exodus chapter 26. Moreover, thou shalt make
the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen." No doubt
that these ten curtains of fine twined linen, as I said, point
to the Lord Jesus, who is our righteousness. The number 10
points us to the Ten Commandments. How many times have we said that
the law of God, the Ten Commandments included, were not given for
us to keep, but to show us that we couldn't keep them? And that's
the very thing that God uses to reveal to us our need of a
substitute and a sacrifice. And that's why Paul said, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Jesus
Christ is our righteousness. It's His perfect fulfilling of
the law for us that makes us perfect and accepted of God.
And it must be perfect to be accepted. Now, this fine twined
linen, verse one tells us about, as I said, no doubt, typifies
our Lord's holiness. The word fine means the best. God provided the best when he
sacrificed his son for his people's sin. And the word twined means
double. Christ not only put away our
sin by the sacrifice of himself, but he gave us his perfect righteousness
at the same time. He, our rock of ages, is of sin
a double cure. I've learned a few things over
the years from my wife, and I now know why some bedsheets could
cost almost nothing and others cost a great deal more. It all
has to do with the thread count. I bet you're impressed that I
knew that. The higher the thread count, the better the sheets.
This linen was fine twined linen, linen with a high count. Another
interesting observation on this fine twined linen is that it
was made of one material with four different colors. The words
fine twined linen in the original Hebrew actually means bleached
or white. And that speaks of Christ's righteousness,
His holiness, and His purity. And the amazing thing is this.
His righteousness is the believer's righteousness. His holiness is
our holiness. His purity is ours. That's just
amazing why He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Everything that we need. If you
would, hold your place in Exodus chapter 26 and look to Revelation
chapter 19. If you would, I want you to see
this in your own Bible. Revelation chapter 19. Hold your
place in Exodus. We'll be coming back there. But
Revelation chapter 19 verse 7. I'm going to take a little drink
of water while you're turning. Revelation chapter 19 verse 7. John wrote here these words,
let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage
of the lamb has come and his wife, that's speaking of his
bride, that's speaking of his church, his elect, hath made
herself ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed
in fine linen clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness
of saints. Now the inner layer of the tabernacle
no doubt pictures Christ's righteousness, His holiness, and His purity.
And these things we must have, these things that God requires
can be found nowhere else but in the Lord Jesus. It's not something
that we can earn, deserve, or merit. Christ is our righteousness. He's our holiness. He's our purity. While we, we're all as an unclean
thing, and all of our righteousnesses are filthy rags. We must have
Christ's fine linen. Oh, clean and white without spot
or wrinkle to cover us. Now back in Exodus chapter 26,
verse one, we're told about the colors of the threads that this
covering was made up of. And each of these colors brings
out a separate perfection of the person of Christ, our blessed
Redeemer. Verse 1 again, Moreover, thou
shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains, of fine twined
linen and blue and purple and scarlet. So first it's the fine
white thread and then added was the color blue. Now the color
blue is said by many to be the celestial or heavenly color. Earlier today I took a walk.
It was a beautiful day and the sun was out and When I looked
upward, with the exception of a few white clouds, all I could
see was blue. Blue is the color of the heavenly. Jesus Christ is altogether heavenly. You know, in John chapter eight,
our Lord told the Jews, He said, you are from beneath and I'm
from above. And you are of this world, I
am not of this world. Friends, Jesus Christ is God,
He's heavenly. You see, all that God is, Christ
is. And that's exactly what Paul
said in Colossians 2.9. He said, For in Him, speaking
of Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, meaning
in a body. When Jesus Christ came to earth,
He was God and He was man. And in order to bless us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, Christ must
be in the heavens, right? It's God who has raised us up
together and made us sit together where? In heavenly places in
Christ. So Christ must be in the heavens
and from the heavens if we're ever to be made to sit with Him. He sits at the right hand of
God in all power and authority. And that's what the blue pictures
and represents. Christ, the heavenly one. He
who sits at the right hand of God, on the throne of God, making
intercession for you and I. What a glorious thought. Then
we have the color purple. The color purple is the emblem
for royalty. John 19 verse two tells us that
when the Lord was crucified, they placed upon his head a crown
of thorns and then put on him a purple robe. Purple is the
color of royalty. Jesus Christ is the King of kings. And a king has a throne, and
Christ's throne is in the heavens. And Christ is ruling and reigning
on His throne. Oh, I wish folks knew that. Don't
you? It's a throne of justice and
judgment. Psalm 89 14 says, Justice and
judgment are the habitation of thy throne, and mercy and truth
shall go before thy face. And our Lord's throne is a throne
of grace. Hebrews 4.16 says, let us come,
therefore, boldly into the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Do you have
a need? Come boldly into the throne of
God's grace. And our Lord's throne is eternal.
The psalmist wrote, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, and
the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. The sad fact
is that men and women by nature will not have the Lord Jesus
to rule over them, but He reigns over them whether they acknowledge
it or not. Their rebellion is futile. And
in the end, all will confess that He's Lord, but for many,
it will be too late. I was thinking today about over
the Lord's cross and mockery, they placed the royal banner. This is Jesus, the King of the
Jews. But little did they know that
He was King of all things, King of heaven and earth. All things
have been committed into His hand. All power has been given
Him. He's the one with whom we have
to do. Oh, I love the color purple, for it speaks of our Lord's royalty. Then we have the color scarlet,
the color of Christ's blood. Scarlet red vividly suggests
His sufferings. We're told without the shedding
of His blood, there's no remission for sin. Is that not what the
scarlet thread in Rahab's window pictures? Why, it was the way
of escape for the spies of Israel, and at the same time, it was
the token for Rahab to be spared by Joshua. Oh, what a picture
of Christ's precious blood. Truly, when God sees the blood
of His Son, He'll pass over you. Side by side with His purity
and His holy character and His royal majesty, the gospel brings
us the afflictions of our Savior. And Peter wrote, for as much
as you know, that we were not redeemed with corruptible things
as silver and gold. silver and gold will not redeem
you but this will the precious blood of christ but with the
precious blood of christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot
while his blood represents his suffering it also represents
his death And why is that significant? Because the wages of sin is death. Our sin's wages is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. God's law is plain and clear
on the subject. But the Lord Jesus Christ died
in the elect sinner's room instead. And they, like Barabbas, went
free. Sin's the only reason for death.
sin became his, so much so that he called them his iniquities. In Psalm 40, verse 12, Christ
in prophecy through David said, My iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head. Therefore my heart faileth me. Now we know that our Lord knew
no sin and did no sin. The scripture is very clear about
that. But we also know that God made him sin. And the believer's
sin became so much his sin that he said, my iniquities have taken
hold on me. My sin became so much his that
he couldn't even look up to his heavenly father because of the
guilt. First, the debt of our sin had
to be paid in full. But the message of Christ and
Him crucified tells me that if I belong to Him, my sin became
His sin. He that knew no sin was made
to be sin. And after He had offered one
sacrifice for sins forever, He sat down. You know what that
means. That means that His work was
finished. Do you remember where He sat
down? It was on the right hand of God. Do you know where God
sits? God sits on His throne. Do you
know where God's throne is? It's in the heavens. Jesus Christ,
the Heavenly One, is on His throne. Now, Exodus 26, look at the last
part of verse 1. It says that these ten curtains
of fine twined linen were to be made with cherubims of cunning
work. Now this fine linen of white,
blue, purple, and scarlet was weaved so to interface these
figures of the cherubims, the same ones that were found above
the mercy seat. Some say the cherubims typify
the angels of the Lord who are ministering spirits that continually
minister to God's people. But the picture here has to do
with Christ dwelling in His people while making them one with Him.
You see, it's by our union with Christ, being made one with Him
that we're saved. And the picture here is being
made holy and righteous and one with God. The picture here is
being conformed to Christ's perfect image. Therefore, in this curtain,
and the fact that the cherubims were woven into the fine twined
linen that made them to be one, we see an astonishing picture
and type of what it took for Christ to unite His people with
God. This was a cunning work, we're
told. The word cunning means imaginative, artful, skillful
work. It took some real skilled weavers
to do this, to weave the image of these cherubims in this curtain. God's elect are made holy and
righteous by Christ's cunning work. Only Christ can make us
one with Him and one with God the Father. Everywhere you look
in these verses, we can see Christ and His work of redemption. Look
at verse 2. Let's read a few verses here.
The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and
the breadth of one curtain four cubits, and every one of the
curtains shall have one measure. The five curtains shall be coupled
together one to another, and the other five curtains shall
be coupled one to another. And thou shalt make loops of
blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the self-edge in
the coupling, and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge
of another curtain in the coupling of the second. 50 loops shalt
thou make in the one curtain, and 50 loops shalt thou make
in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second,
that the loops may take hold one of another. And thou shalt
make 50 tatches of gold, and couple the curtains together
with the tatches, and it shall be one tabernacle. Now, I know
that's somewhat hard to understand, but basically these curtains
were grouped together with five on one side and five on the other. We're told that they were put
together by blue loops, blue again picturing heaven, picturing
the work of heaven here, and with the gold attaches coupling
them together. And these 50 loops and golden
tatches were to join these two hanging curtains together to
make one covering. Do you remember our study on
the Ten Commandments? The first five of the Ten Commandments
dealt with man's obedience toward God. Thou shalt have no other
gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the Sabbath and keep
it holy. Honor your father and your mother.
And then the last five commandments, on the other side, dwelt with
God's commandments of how we are to deal with men and women,
with one another. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. Now listen. Christ fulfilled both sides. He fulfilled the God side. He
fulfilled the man side. Is He not the God man? Oh, as
the representative of His people, Christ loved God with all His
heart, and He loved His neighbor as Himself. And in Him, so do
I. You know, when that man Lawyer
came that day and tried to trick the Lord and asked him what the
greatest commandment was, the Lord told him, said, love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy
mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Every time I've read that, I
thought to myself, how can I do that? I can't love God as much
as I love myself. I love myself too much. How can
I love my neighbor as much as I love myself when I'm so consumed
with me? There's the answer. Only in Christ. Christ did it for me. and how
this pictures Christ's two-fold nature. As a man, He fulfills
the law towards God, and as a man, He fulfills the law towards man. He's the God-man. In the unity
of God and man, His character was never mired. He was perfect
in every way. When evil men tempted him by
asking him if it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar or pay
his Roman taxes, he wisely replied, render to Caesar the things that
are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. The Lord Jesus
and His perfect person united the nature of God and the nature
of man, and He met all the claims of God and man. You see, only
the God-man could do that. And in Christ, side by side,
we see the dignity and the majesty of His Godhead, and also the
meekness and the lowliness of His manhood. Oh, what a What
a Savior He is. He was the only one, one who
was God and man, the only one who could perfectly fulfill the
law and satisfy divine justice. And He truly is, as Paul said,
the end of the law for righteousness for everyone that believes. Therefore,
Christ is pictured in the blue loops and in the gold couplings
or tatches as they're called. And He is the one that unites
God and His people so that they are one tabernacle, the one holy
and righteous dwelling place of our God. And it's in Christ
alone that we've been brought back into fellowship and communion
with God. Oh, don't you find such comfort
and peace and joy in that? You know, I often think about
that day when many of our Lord's disciples left to follow him
no more. And he asked the apostles, his
closest friends, if they would leave him also. And you remember
what Peter said. He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? And where else would we go, brothers
and sisters? He alone has the words of eternal
life. Heavenly Father, thank you for
the gift of life that we have in Christ Jesus. Lord, we know
that no matter what happens, whatever your sovereign providence
and purpose brings, it's well with our soul. It's well with
the believer's soul. We know that it pleased you to
make us your people. We know, Lord, that it pleases
you by the means of preaching to save your elect. Thank you, Lord, for giving us
the truth. Thank you for all the years that
you've kept the gospel in this place with this group of believers. And with David, I can now truthfully
say, I've been young and now I'm old, and yet I've not seen
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread. Lord,
you're so good to us. You're so faithful, so gracious,
so merciful. And we know that it's all in
Christ. Truly, Jesus Christ is all and
in all. And Father, we know that you
do all things well. But we ask that you might be
pleased to shorten these days and allow us to meet again together
soon, face to face as a family, around your table of grace. Lord,
we bow to your sovereign providence and purpose in all things. Teach
us, Lord, to be patient. It's in Christ's name that we
ask these things, and it's for Christ's sake that we ask them. Amen.