Turn with me to Exodus, Chapter
25. Exodus, Chapter 25. I think it's fitting that we meet
together around this table, the Lord's table,
in the study of this table. Because the first table, this
table, speaks of Christ, and the last supper or table speaks
of Christ. He's the first and the last.
This is the Alpha and Omega table that we're looking at tonight.
Christ. Like everything else in this tabernacle, His table
speaks so clearly of Christ. Let's let's read here from Exodus
25, verse 23. God's. Commandments. To Moses here concerning the
table to show bread, thou shalt verse 23, thou shalt also make
a table. Shittim would. 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 make thereto 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 for it four rings of gold, and put the rings
in the four corners that are on the four legs or 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
as long rods of this shittom wood, and overlay them with gold,
that the table may be borne or carried with these staves. And
thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof. and covers
thereof, and bowls thereof for the table, to cover it with all
of pure gold. Thou shalt make them. And thou
shalt set upon the table shewbread before me always." This table,
the first thing I want you to notice about this table up in
verse 23, it says, Thou shalt make a table of wood. It's shittom
wood. Now, this wood, I've said before,
is of this acacia family. Now, that is, it's an earthen
substance. It's wood. It comes from a plain,
ordinary tree, yet it's an enduring substance. It's a weather-resistant,
insect-resistant, repellent wood. It's a wood that is virtually
impervious to decay, much like the locust wood that we have
today. So the table was to be made of
this wood, this shittum wood. And this is a picture of Christ,
who's the manhood of Christ. Christ was a man, an earthen
vessel. Christ was bone of our bones
and flesh of our flesh. He said, after he arose from
the grave, he said, touch me. He said, I'm not a spirit, I'm
a man, like you are. A spirit hath not flesh and bones. Touch me, I'm a man. And it's
of great comfort to the believer to know that there's still a
man with a body, albeit a glorified one, but there still is a man
in glory at the right hand of God, a man that we can come near,
a great high priest. Yet, he's a perfect man. Like this chitim wood, he's impervious
to decay, to sand, to rot, to insects. He's weather-resistant.
He's able to withstand all of the assaults of sin, of Satan,
and of this world that this world threw at him. He was impervious
to it. He stood up to it without decay,
without sin, without being tempted by sin. Look at verse 24. And
this wood is to be overlaid with pure gold, pure gold. Although Christ was a man, yet
he was God Almighty, God in human flesh. God was in Christ, the
scripture says, reconciling the world unto himself. It was of
necessity that Jesus Christ be God as well as man. Man to suffer
and die, God to satisfy God's justice and God's requirements
of the law. Verse 23, look at this, he tells
us the dimensions of this table. He tells us that two cubits shall
be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit
and a half the height thereof. And then verse 25, he talks about
the depth of this border. And since this is recorded, it
must be important to know the size of this table. You must
know something about the height, depth, length, and breadth of
this table. Right? I remember seeing that
elsewhere. Paul said that you may be able
to comprehend with all saints. what is the breadth, the length,
the depth, and the height, and to know the love of Christ, which
passes mere knowledge. And I ask us, I ask myself, if
I know anything of Christ, the measure of His character, we
must. The weight of His words, do we? The breadth of His love, the
wideness of His love. how all-inclusive His love is. We don't exclude anyone from
the grace of God and the salvation that's in Christ. We include
all that want to come. We know that no man will come
except God draw them. But the wideness of Christ's
love will include any man that comes unto Him, right? If any
man does come, it's because God gave him the grace and the will
to do so. We know something of the breadth
of His love and the length of His grace. his loving-kindness,
his long—do you know anything about the length of his long-suffering? How long-suffering has he been
with you? How long has he suffered you, put up with you? How long
will he? He said, I'll put up with him forever. I'll never
leave. How about the depth of his mercy? How far did he have
to reach to get you? That's the uttermost, the guttermost,
somebody said. That song, I like that, we all
love that song, when He reached down for me, way on down. Some of us, all of us, He had
to reach mighty far to pull us out of the muck and the mire,
didn't He? The depth of His mercy, oh, the depth of mercy. The height
of His glory is our ascension to glory, and the heights that
He's going to take us. That song says, O the height
and depth of mercy, O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness
of this table of redemption, pledge of endless life above. It's all in Christ and this table.
Look at verse 24 again. He talks about a crown. Overlay
this table with gold, this wooden table is overlaid with gold,
and there's going to be a crown around it, crown molding. Crown with gold. This is just
like the Ark. The Ark had a crown, a golden
crown around it. Do you know anything about Christ's
crown? Listen, what is the crown of
Christ? Listen to this. We see Jesus, who was made a
little lower than the angels for suffering and death, crowned
with glory and honor. Crowned. Crown him with many
crowns, the Scriptures say. Look at verse 26. And on this
table you'll put four rings of gold. four golden rings, and
put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet. There
are four golden rings and two staves, that the staves may go
through these rings. Four golden rings and two staves. What are these four rings? I think we looked at it before
on the arc of the four posts in front of the gate. But you know, this generation,
you've probably seen it on some of these so-called charismatic
churches. Talk about the four square gospel church. Seen that? We're a four square gospel church.
I'm not sure what they mean by that, unless it be we're born
again, spirit-filled, tongue-talking, Bible-believing, Christian, something
like that. Terry and I were talking about
this. This man-centered religion today talks about, I this, I
that, I accepted Jesus, I got saved, I this. But ours is totally
speaking of him. Of God, ours is foursquare, yes. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us foursquare. Wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And all of this is borne by the
person and the work of Christ, these two staves that hold all
this up. And the four Gospels could be rightly called these
four rings, these four golden rings, the four Gospels that
connect this table and the person and work of Christ contained
therein that bear up these four Gospels. Four rings and two staves. And these staves, verse 28, they
were to be gold also. They'd make the staves of this
same wood and overlay them with gold. That speaks to me of that
precious blood that covered that old wooden cross. that golden
substance, the blood of God, which he purchased his church
with. The gospel of Christ. All right, look at verse 29.
And thou shalt make the dishes, here's the utensils of this table,
make the dishes thereof, and the spoons thereof, and the covers
thereof, and the bowls thereof, to cover withal, make them all
of gold. Pure gold shalt thou make them. This is the utensils. The dishes,
the spoons, the bowls, and the covers, and so forth, were all
made of this pure gold. And this speaks to me, not only
of the works of Christ, his utensils, his works, his character, his
everything about him, it also speaks of his very physical person,
his hands, his feet, his eyes. Talk about beautiful feet. You
know that scripture says, how beautiful are the feet that bring
the gospel of the Talk about beautiful feet now, those nail-pierced
feet, those nail-scarred hands. We're going to be looking for
them in heaven, aren't we, Terry? We're going to be looking for those
four golden rings, those utensils that Christ used to prepare us
a table in the wilderness, to make himself this bread. It speaks
of the very physical features of Christ that were used in the
service of God. He said it, behold my hands.
And listen to this. Over in the Song of Solomon,
this is the way we speak of Christ. O thou fairest among women, what
is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge
us? Well, let me tell you about my
beloved, she says. My beloved is pure, white, and
ruddy, the cheapest, the fairest among ten thousand. His head,
his utensils, is his most fine gold. His locks are bushy and
black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves
by the rivers of waters washed with milk, and fitly sitting
in fullness, it says, sitting in fullness, his eyes. His cheeks
are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers, towers of perfume. His lips like lilies, dropping
sweet-smelling myrrh grace pours forth from his lips. His hand
are as gold rings, also set with the barrel stones. His belly
is a bright ivory overlaid with sapphire, his legs pillars of
marble set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars towering. His mouth is most sweet. He's altogether lovely. This
is my beloved This is my friend, that's our Christ, that's who
that is. A man, yet God-man, all gold,
pure, perfect, beautiful, and glorious in his holiness. This table was well suited in
the service of God, golden, beautiful, perfectly suited, perfectly ordered
in all things, and pure for the service of God's tabernacle.
So is this man, Christ Jesus. He's suited. He's the table of
God. He's a man accepted, approved
of God for his service, for his sacrifice. God's altar. God's
table. God's Son. God's Christ. God's Lamb. His table. Now look
down at verse 30. And thou shalt sit upon the table,
shew bread. Look for me always. I like the sound of the word.
Sweet smelling bread. There's nothing, there's absolutely
nothing more that is a more sweet smelling savor to us than freshly
baked bread, isn't it? Bread. Can you smell it, Bacon?
I can smell it. How is bread made? Very briefly,
I've gone over this with you before, but bread starts out
as a little corn of wheat. And it's planted in the ground.
And it begins to grow. It comes up the blade, the stalk,
and the full ear of corn. And then right in the prime of
life, right in the full ear, full bloom, the harvest, the
Lord of the harvest, cuts it down. And then he takes it and
grinds it to a powdery fineness. And then he kneads it. He adds
water and kneads it until it's in dough. And then he places
it in an oven, closes the door, rolls a stone over the oven or
whatever, and in a little while it rises and comes forth sweet
smelling bread, a nutritional food. And that's Christ. Christ
was a corn of wheat that fell into the ground. He was a seed
of man, a seed of woman, excuse me, a seed of woman. And the
scripture says he grew up as a tender plant, as a tender plant. And he was in the prime of life,
in the fullness of his years, thirty-three years old, at full
bloom, the height of his person, he was cut down, cut down and
ground to powder, ground, wounded, bruised, smitten, stricken, and
cut down in his prime. And he was needed. You know,
you need dough. Well, he was needed by man, yes. He was laid
hold of and pummeled. and torn asunder and so forth
by man, but he's needed by man, too. I need him. We killed him,
and his blood is on our hands, yet we need his blood on us and
our children, don't we? But he was bruised and wounded
and smitten and afflicted for our sins and ground, and then
he was placed on that cross as it were an oven, and under the
hot fiery indignation of God's wrath. He bore the wrath of this
God who is a consuming fire and baked Him, literally baked Him,
consumed Him. He died under this wrath of God
Almighty and He put Him in a tomb. He rose, didn't He? He rose and
came out of there sweet smelling bread, didn't He? Sweet smelling
bread. Precious staff of life. The staff
of life. Look over at Leviticus 24 with
me. It goes a little deeper into this bread. Leviticus 24, he
describes it a little more fully, the substance of it. Leviticus
24. I thought it was interesting. The word showbread means to face
it or to look at it. That's what showbread means. Put it out there where people
can look at it. You've got to face this bread. You have to
look at it. Christ is the showbread. He's
the only God, our Savior. Look unto me. He's that brazen
serpent that we must look to for salvation. Leviticus 24,
verse 5. And thou shalt take fine flour. Fine flour. He's that pure, white,
sifted substance. Christ is. His very essence was
sifted. He was sifted by the law. and
came forth spotless. Then he was sifted by Satan. He said, found nothing in me.
I used to love to play in my mother's flower when I was a
kid. You know, it's a wonderful substance, isn't it? That Martha
White lily, white flower. There's no impurities in it.
It's just beautiful, pure. I've gotten in trouble from it,
too. But it's beautiful. It's pure, spotless, and white. And if there's any impurities
in it, you won't use it. And Christ said, Satan found
nothing in me. He was sifted, tried, tempted
by Satan and by man, and there's no impurities in it. Perfect,
lily white, spotless. And unleavened, this was unleavened
bread also. It doesn't say it here, but it
does in other places. An unleavened bread takes two
ingredients, flour and water. That's it. That's all you need
to make this unleavened bread. Flour and water. And Christ,
that this water is constantly spoken of as the Spirit of God,
the water, the Spirit. Christ was the Spirit of God
in all its fullness. And he came down, and all he
needed to be made this bread was a substance, a body. A body,
thou hast given me. I'm full of the Spirit, but this
water of life, give me this fine flour, now this fine body, and
I'll be made bread for my people, the body of a man, the Spirit
of of God, verse 5. Fine flour, and you'll bake twelve
cakes with it. Twelve cakes with this fine flour. Two-tenths of a deal should be
in one cake. Twelve cakes. Now, this tells
me of the twelve tribes of Israel. This tells me of the twelve apostles.
This tells me of all of God's people that found in the names
of those on the high priest breastplate, those twelve tribes. All of God's
people are found in Christ, the bread, all of them. And these
twelve cakes, it's called bread. There's twelve of them, but it's
all called one bread, right? And God's people all go through
the fiery furnace of affliction. They all go through the furnace
of affliction and are partakers of his sufferings, that they
might be conformed to the image of Christ. They are made into
bread. They are called Christ. They
are placed in Christ. Now, listen to this verse of
Scripture. We being many are one bread. 1 Corinthians 10, 17. We being many are one bread and
one body. We're all partakers of that one
bread. One bread, twelve cakes, one
bread, called by one name, she'll bread. Verse six, And thou shalt
set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table. Two rows, one on the right hand,
and one on the left hand, on the table. One on the right hand,
one on the left hand, upon this pure table. And all of God's
people are seated with Christ. Right? One bread, we are in Christ,
we're crucified with Christ, we go through the furnace of
affliction, we're crucified with Christ, but we're risen with
Christ, too. Risen. And we're seated in Christ,
on his right hand and his left hand. And verse 7, and now shall
put pure frankincense upon each row. Now this is some kind of
incense that was burning, this wasn't a spice, it was added
to it. This was a burning of incense, that fragrance, and
this tells me of the spirit of God, of Christ, and the prayers
of Christ that are constantly being made for his people. Okay,
look at verse 8. And every Sabbath, wait a minute,
verse 7, you put pure frankincense upon each road that may be on
the bread for a memorial, for remembrance, even an offering
made by fire. Now, every Sabbath, verse 8,
he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, every Sabbath. This bread was to be eaten daily
by these priests, and there was plenty of it, that two-tenths
of a deal in each cake. One writer said that these cakes
were huge. I don't know where he got his
measurements, but he said they were huge cakes, about ten handbreadths
long. huge big pieces of bread. He
said there's enough in one bread, one loaf of bread for two men
to eat in a day. And there were a lot of priests
to be fed, and the priests were to eat of the things of the table.
They were to partake of the things of this table. This was their
sole substance, bread and wine. And there were a lot of priests,
many, but none of them went hungry. They all had plenty to eat, plenty.
And it was daily eaten, and there was plenty of it. And every morning
by these priests this bread was eaten, but he was especially
prepared for the Sabbath. You see that? Every Sabbath this
bread is set in order. It's baked fresh and set forth
fresh on Sabbath day. And Christ is especially preached
and proclaimed and set forth in order when we gather together
to worship, isn't it? And this bread is to be eaten
by the priest, eaten daily. And this tells me that Christ
is to be, his person is to be communed with daily for our spiritual
substance, daily, daily manna. We need that manna every morning,
every morning. We need Christ daily, or we'll
lapse into some malnutrition, spiritual malnutrition. is to
be consumed, is to be eaten, is to be partaken of daily. Yesterday's manna won't do. It
spoils. Last Sunday's blessing's gone,
isn't it? You need one right now, don't you? Now, think about this, this bread.
Have you ever thought about how many different forms bread takes? It's a variable feast of food. So many varieties. of bread that you can make. There's
biscuits and buns. There's cakes and cornbread.
There's dinner rolls and donuts. Just keep on. Just keep naming
all different forms. Christ is the woman's seed. He's
the ark. He's the lamb. He's the brazen
serpent. He's the city of refuge. He's the kingdom and redeemer.
He's the shepherd. He's the bridegroom. He's the sacrifice. He's the
lamb. He's the fountain. He's the substitute. He's the
physician. He's the table. He's the bread. Just keep doing
it. A veritable feast. The word, the bread, the scriptures
are a veritable feast of Christ. Every page, everywhere you look,
he takes on a different form, doesn't he? Christ the bread.
Call it what? Christ is all. He's all. And in verse 9, and this shall
be, who shall partake of it? This shall be for Aaron's sons,
and they shall eat it in the holy place. It's most holy unto
him, the offerings of the Lord made by fire. by a perpetual
statute." This is from a covenant, an everlasting covenant of God.
Now listen, this bread was only eaten by the priests. No strangers
were allowed into the holy place. Now, none but the children of
Israel could partake of the atonement, but there were allowances made
for some strangers. to come and partake of these
things. Now here were the conditions for these strangers to be brought
in. They had to be bought, they had to be servants. They couldn't
just be free men, they had to be servants, servants of the
Israelites. They had to be bought and paid
for in order to partake of this atonement. They had to be circumcised. They couldn't partake of the
atonement unless they were bought, they were servants, they were
bought and paid for and circumcised. And no strangers are going to
partake of the gospel, the gospel of Christ, and no strangers to
the faith in Christ, but believers. Only believers are allowed to
partake of the table of Christ himself, only believers. And they are evidenced by being followers,
by being servants. Right? Bought and paid for, washed,
bought with a price. You're not your own, you're bought
with a price. Precious blood of Christ. We're bought and paid
for, washed, redeemed, bought with a price. Circumcised in
heart, in mind, in soul. That is the old flesh, the old
heart taken away and a new one given. Regenerated by the Spirit
of God. So those are the conditions for
strangers. We're strangers, we're Gentiles.
But we've been brought in by these And only the priests, though,
now the common people could, like I say, could stand out and
look within and see what was going on about the altar and
so forth. Only the priests were allowed
into the holy place itself to eat the bread. Only the priests. Believers are made, the scripture
says, kings and priests unto our God. We're made kings and priests
under our God, and we have permission, liberty, freedom, access. Scripture even says boldness
to enter into the holy place, the holy of holies, not made
with hands, but to the very place of God himself, all based upon
the promises of God, the person and the work of Christ himself. To enter into the holiest of
all, enter at the partake of the table. of Christ, the bread,
to commune with God around Christ. Believers, all believers are
made priests, kings. That's the reason we're called
kings and priests. We're kings because we're princes,
we're sons of the most high king, and we're priests because we
partake of the table and we minister about the things of Christ. All
right? Who may come to this table? Who could come? Well, Christ
said, blessed are they that hunger and thirst. Hunger and thirst
after righteousness. They'll be filled. They'll have
something to eat. They'll get something to eat.
Hungry people. Who can partake of this table? Hungry sinners
in need of Christ. We don't police this table. That is like some so-called churches
like to do. You can't partake of our table.
Well, I don't want to partake of your table. I want to partake
of the Lord's table. I didn't know this was your table.
I thought it was his table. He's the one who polices it,
as it were, but we don't exclude anybody from partaking of this,
the Lord's table. And the only conditions for partaking
of this table are belief. If thou believest, thou mayest.
If you believe that you're a hungry sinner in need of Christ, come.
Come. Christ said, have you never read
how that David—David wasn't a priest, was he?—how that David, when
he was hungry, he went in and took the bread and ate and gave
it to his buddies. You know, something else to notice,
when you read through here on your own, that the priest never
went in the sanctuary, though, without Aaron. They never were
allowed in there without Aaron. Aaron went in first, and the
priest went in with him. And that's Christ, and that's
us. We never go into the presence of God without our mediator,
right? Okay, and this bread was to be eaten standing. There was
no furniture in the tabernacle, no chairs, no place to sit down.
They would eat this standing. They all gathered around a table
standing around. This was a place of fellowship and communion.
All the priests got together around this table and ate standing
there. They had a big time, fellowship, I'm sure, talked about the day's
ministrations and so forth, talked about the sacrifice and the blood,
and they may have talked about what it meant and so forth. They
were eat this standing. It was because they were always
about the service, even while eating. And believers, like Christ
said, I must be about my Father's business. And believers are always
about the Father's business, the things of the gospel, the
things of Christ. There's just no place I want
to be but right here. I tell you, there's nothing I'd
rather do. I have to prepare these messages
and all that. Sometimes it gets laborious and all, but really
and truthfully, God is my witness. There's just no place I'd rather
be right now than right here around God's Word with God's
people, communion, taking of the bread. I'm telling you what,
this is what we're going to do throughout eternity. And if it
grows weary to us now and we have no interest in it now, I
have my doubts about being there then, but there's no place I'd
rather be right now than right here. The Passover, the Passover
was eaten, the scripture says, with your shoes on. Eat with
your shoes on, your staff in your hand, ready to go out. And
believers, believers are feasting and they're resting in Christ
yet, but we're waiting and watching too. Got shoes on, shod with
preparation. of the gospel of peace, right?
Preparation for what? He's coming. He's coming. In an hour when you think not.
Staff in hand, waiting, watching, looking, eating, ready. Here
it comes. Let's go. Let's go. Who may eat at this table? And
I'm not just talking about this table. This is just a symbol
of Christ. We've been talking about Christ,
our spiritual table, our spiritual bread. Who may eat of it? Believers. All those that come to God by
Christ. All those that are hungry, needy,
seeking sinners, in need of Christ, his righteousness, his shed blood.
Confessors. I like to make, I see the scriptures
give this, it seems to me that the scriptures say that baptized
believers were the ones that partake at the table, that were
baptized. And then they took up the table. So and that's the
first principle means of confessing Christ. What this is is remembrance,
a memorial of Christ. And but the baptism, the pool
is where you confess him. You confess your faith. This
is where you go first and confess him, confess your faith in Christ,
buried with him and risen with him. And then you partake of
this table and remember that, that sacrifice and that that
so great a salvation. And it doesn't make any difference
who baptized you, just as long as you partook of and confessed
this Christ. OK? And come, partake of Christ. There's plenty to go around.
Plenty to go around. Plenty of it. And it's still,
he's still there right now. He's still there. I want you to turn in this Songs
of Grace book with me, if you would. Sherry, come up here,
please, if you would. I'm going to sing a song, number
one, that's the words that Brother Donners really did assert, it's
by God's grace. Number one, it's such a tremendous
song for this Lord's table. It's to the tune of Brethren,
meet we have met. to worship. Okay, three verses
here, and stand with me while we sing this. of his love divine. Great as Vulcan is his body,
thrust beneath the wrath of God. Wine poured out is a free Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember
how He bought your soul and mine. In remembrance of our Savior,
eat the bread and drink the wine. came the God incarnate to fulfill
God's holy law. On the cross he laid atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us never forget the promise
Jesus made to Soon he comes acting to call
us home. Praise His name With this hope
and expectation We rejoice to keep this peace Celebrating our
redemption Jesus Christ You may be seated. That's just outstanding. Outstanding. For the stand, would you come
up here please and help me serve the bread.