Lord, we come before You in an
honest way, confessing our own sinfulness. We're transgressors,
Lord, of Your law. And daily we need forgiveness. We know that our Lord Jesus came
laid down His life as the full payment for all of our sins. And we know that He did the work
of redemption and we're forgiven by His blood because He was raised
from the dead and He ever reigns above. Lord, we need daily, daily
cleansing. The Word of God says, wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto to
the Word of God. Wash us again in the Word of
the Lord. Let us have before you a clean
conscience and honesty about ourselves, and may we receive
the truth of your holiness, your justice, your righteousness,
and of your grace and of your goodness. And Lord, make us to
see and rejoice in the work of Christ Jesus, who came and laid
down His life a ransom for your people. And may the Spirit of
God feed us this morning with this bread of life and give to
all of us an appetite to eat, to feast at the table that God
has set before us. And may we go away in a little
bit rejoicing that we have been blessed to be worshipers of God
to once again hear the good news of salvation for poor sinners
through the doing and the dying of the glorious person of our
Lord Jesus. In His name, I ask these things. Amen. Let's, as we think about the
tabernacle again this morning, I want you to think of it as
being the house of God. It is, after all, God's tabernacle. It is God's sanctuary. Right
here in Exodus chapter 25, and we've read this verse, verse
8. We've read it several times, but I'll read it again. God in
Exodus 25 and verse 8 says, Let them make Me a sanctuary, that
is, a holy place. And He says that I may dwell
among them. Consider then that this, the
Lord's sanctuary, is his dwelling place. It is his house. And everything in the house,
and that includes the outer court, of course, all of it belongs
to him. There is, first of all, the piece
of furniture that we first meet, and that is the brazen altar.
where offerings were presented to the occupant of the house, that one who is the owner of
the house. This is what he demanded. If
you're going to enter into my presence, if you're going to
come before me for any reason, worship, thanksgiving, petition,
whatever it might be, if you're going to come into my house,
I demand you have a blood sacrifice. You can't approach the house
of God without a suitable sacrifice. Anybody who wanted to draw near
to the tabernacle, they had to bring an animal, the best animal
that they had, to offer it to God if they're going to meet
with God in his house. To attempt to enter into the
house of God, into the tabernacle, or into God's presence without
a sacrifice would mean no acceptance, no welcome by God. don't dare endeavor to enter
into the presence of God without the right sacrifice. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's put it this way. For an Israelite, no blood meant
no entrance. No blood meant no acceptance. No blood meant no worship. And
the only way we can this morning enter in, as it were, into the
presence of God is by means of a sacrifice. There's just no
other way to come to God. You've got to understand, for
any reason that you want to come to God, the only way to come
to Him is by way of a sacrifice. Now this is not a sacrifice you
bring. It's not your offering that you
put in the offering boxes. We're not talking about that
kind of offering. You've got to come to God by
way of the blood sacrifice that is the offering of the Lord Jesus.
without the shedding of blood. There is no remission of sins
is what the Scripture says. And it's still that way. You've
got to come to God by way of the appointed sacrifice who is
the Lamb of God. No wonder John said, Behold the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. So would
you worship today? Do you really want to worship?
I do. I really want to enter into God's
presence. And I truly believe all of you
want that. All of you desire that. And all
of you who are watching, I trust that you desire this as well.
Let's enter into the presence of God. Well, here's the first
thing to remember. You can't enter in without the
right sacrifice. That's Christ Jesus. We've got
to come to God by Him. And then a little further, we
meet the second piece of furniture. We talked about this last Lord's
Day, and that's the brazen labor. If a priest desired to enter
into the presence of God, into the house of God, even if he
had just offered a sacrifice for somebody, and he wouldn't
even go any further, he wouldn't even go into the holy place,
yet still he had to wash. Wash his hands, wash his feet. Would it be rude of you if you
went to another person's house and your hands were filthy and
your feet were nasty? Would it be rude for you to enter
into their house? Of course it would be. It would
be rude to enter into the very presence of God. if your hands
are nasty and your feet are filthy. It would not only be rude, it
would be deadly. Because we studied this last
week. God said, if you're going to
enter into my house, you're going to enter the holy place. You
want to come in and do business with me? Wash your hands in that
labor, that brazen labor. Wash your feet. You've got to
be washed. You remember when our Lord Jesus
and those two thieves were dying on those three crosses? The Jews,
very concerned because it was a preparation day for the Sabbath.
The next day was the Sabbath. The next day was Saturday, which
means obviously our Lord died on Friday. They said to the governor,
they said, break the legs of these who are being crucified
because they've got to die and we can't leave them. We can't
leave them on the trees. We can't leave them on the crosses. They've got to be taken down.
And so they go to the first thief and they break his legs. And
then they go to the second thief with the same kind of big mallet
or whatever it was, big hammer, whatever, and broke his legs. But then they came to the Lord
Jesus. Well, he had died already. He was already dead. And one of the soldiers, he took
a spear and he thrust it in the master's side. And there came
out two things. First of all, blood, that's justification. That's how we're made right with
God. That's how our sins are forgiven.
The bloody death of our Lord Jesus. There that blood came
out. That's what it cost to redeem
us. That blood of the Lord Jesus. But something else came out.
Water. Water. The washing of water by
the Word. You see, the Word of the Gospel. That's how we wash. We wash in
the good news of Christ Jesus, His coming into the world and
His death upon the cross of Calvary and His resurrection. We wash
in Him and we're made every bit clean. And the Spirit of God
washes our hands and our feet as it were every day. Because
we pick up defilement from the world that is all around us. Think then of the blood of our
Lord Jesus as justification, and the water that came forth
from His side as sanctification. We're justified by His death
and we're sanctified, we're set apart by the Lord's gospel, which
washes us and makes us everywhere clean. And so, for the priest
to enter into the presence of God, going to enter into God's
house. Maybe here's a priest, and he tells his wife, it's my
time to serve. They had different courses of
priests, and they served at different occasions. He told his wife in
their tent, he said, honey, I'm going in to serve in the tabernacle
today. Kissed her goodbye, told his
kids goodbye. I'll be back much later. I'll
be gone all day. And so he goes to the tabernacle. There it sits. And He Himself
has got to have a sacrifice. Because every priest, even Israel's
high priest, was a sinful man. Each one of them. And so a sacrifice
is offered for Him. That blood is shed indicating
the death of the Lord Jesus. And then He goes further. Now
He has blood on His hands and He's walking through the sand
of the wilderness. And then he washes. He washes
his feet. Perhaps some have suggested a
spigot of some sort on either side of the brazen laver. Now, now, he's fit to go into
the presence of God. So let's see another piece of
furniture now. This is our first visit really
within the holy place. We've talked about what's in
the holy of holies, or the holiest of all, but now we're going to
visit the holy place. And there on one side is a table
of showbread. That's our subject today. On
the other side is a golden candlestick or lampstand. And then right
in the middle, just in front of the veil, The veil that separated
the holy place from the holy of holies is the altar of incense. Let's read now Exodus chapter
25 and verse 23. Chapter 25 and verse 23. Thou shalt also make a table
of shittim wood, Two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a
cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height
thereof. Thou shalt overlay it with pure
gold, and thou shalt make thereto a crown of gold all around. and thou shalt make unto it a
border of an handbreadth round about, and thou shalt make a
golden crown to the border thereof round about." Here's this rectangular
table. Here's this table. It has a golden
edge raised. It says about the handbreadth. About this high. And it goes
all the way around the table. Verse 26, "...and thou shalt
make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four
corners that are on the four feet thereof." In other words,
they have to transport it from location to location, so they've
got to have four rings. And that would be for the staves,
as it goes on to say, verse 27, over against the border shall
be the rings for the places for the staves to bear the table.
And thou shalt make the staves of the same thing the tables
made of, shittum wood, and overlay them with gold that the table
may be borne with them. And thou shalt make the dishes
thereof. and as well as the dishes, the
spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof to cover with
all a pure gold shalt thou make them. And thou shalt set the
table, set upon the table what they call show bread before me
always. Here's a priest, he's offered
his sacrifice, or the sacrifice of an Israelite who's coming
to worship God. He has washed at the brazen labor,
he's washed his hands, and he's washed his feet. And so now he
goes through the first veil. And as he enters in, he sees
this golden table. all he could see was gold. It
had wood, it was made of acacia wood or shidom wood, which is
a very durable wood. That wood would last longer than
a man would live. But then it was overlaid with
gold. He would see this table and as he looked upon the table
he would see there are twelve loaves of bread. Now there's
a little disagreement among commentators as to exactly how that bread
was laid out. And it isn't a big thing, but
it could be it was laid out in two rows of six. One, two, three,
four, five, six loaves there. One, two, three, four, five,
six loaves there. Or, here's what the Jews say,
they were loaves that were stacked up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6. And then a golden bowl upon each
stack that had incense in the bowls. I'm not sure which way
it was. We'll just, I'll just give you
those two things. Most of the time you see pictures
of the tabernacle. It consists of 12 loaves, two
rows, six at a time. Sometimes people say the sprinkle,
the frankincense was just sprinkled on the bread. Others say, and
this makes sense to me, that the incense was in a bowl. Because that incense is not going
to stay on the bread. And I don't think it actually
touched the bread. It would seem to me it was in
a golden bowl, and then on the next Sabbath day, those two bowls
of incense would be taken, and on the altar of incense, where
the hot coals were brought from out at the brazen altar, upon
those hot coals, that incense, that sweet fragrance, filled
the air as that incense was put upon the hot coals that came
from the brazen altar. But this bread, no matter how
well it was stacked or lined up, this bread was unleavened
bread. Twelve in number. And of course,
twelve corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. Here's sufficient
bread for all of the children of Israel in symbolism. We will be studying a little
later on the garment of the high priest. The high priest will
have a breastplate. And upon the breastplate, twelve
tribes of Israel. Here's bread for all the true
Israel of God. Here's the picture. This is the
picture. The picture is our Lord Jesus
who said of Himself, I am the bread of life. I'm the bread
that came down from heaven is what He says. Now, this table
is called the table of showbread. And it isn't any reason going
any further unless we know what is showbread. What does the word
showbread mean? It's an unusual word. It means
the bread of His presence. Or the bread of the presence
of the Lord. And so here when we get to verse
30 of chapter 25, we might read it this way. and thou shalt put
on the table the bread of presence before me always. Or thou shalt put on the table
the bread that is fit for my presence. What does that mean? Remember, this is God's house,
right? This is God's house. And this
bread has got to be fit for God's presence. It's got to be made
unleavened. It cannot have any leavening
agent in it because that's a sign or symbol of hypocrisy or sin. This has got to be fit for the
very presence of God. This is God's house. That's why
I tried to establish that right from the beginning. These men
who entered into the holy place, they were, as it were, in the
very presence of God. I know God's presence cannot
be confined to one location. God's everywhere. He's everywhere
at all times. But He specifically said to Israel,
I will meet with you at the tabernacle. This is where I'll meet you.
This is the house of His presence. The brazen altar was the altar
where sacrifices were offered to the Lord. To the Lord. The brazen laver was where men
washed so that they would be fit for the presence of God. And this table of showbread was
the table of the Lord, the table in His presence. And this bread was bread for
the Lord. It's first of all for the Lord.
There's a verse I want you to look at before I go any further.
It's back in John 6. I had Ron read some other verses,
but I do want to show you this. In John 6, you remember the story. You remember how our Lord fed
5,000 men plus women and children with a couple of loaves A couple
of fishes and some loaves of bread. You remember that. And
our Lord multiplied those loaves. They were miraculously multiplied
to feed thousands and thousands of people. And those people,
once they were fed, well fed, everybody had enough, it was
a buffet. As it were, it was all you can
eat. Anybody want anything else? Anybody want more fish, more
bread? Everybody said, we're quite filled.
You see, the Lord fills His children quite well. He feeds us with
heavenly bread and that nourishment which we need spiritually. Well,
they were ready to make him a king. And so he slips away from them. He goes around the lake. And
then the next morning, a bunch of them have followed him. They
found out where he went, and they followed him. And that's
when our Lord gave this great discourse about himself being
the bread of life. But I want to show you one verse,
what the Lord has to say. Look at verse 33. For the bread of God, the bread of God, not just the
bread from God, though he was from God, but this is bread of
God or literally this is bread for God. I know a lot of us, if you're
diabetic, you're not eating much bread, not supposed to anyway.
But we think of bread as being the staff of life, right? Bread's
the staff of life. And of course, we know wheat
today, the bread that we eat today isn't anything like bread
used to be years ago. We know that. You can do some
reading on that. And years ago, it used to be
much better for you than it is now. But this bread, this bread
that came down from heaven is our Lord Jesus. And this is bread
that is good for you. This is bread that pictures the
Lord Jesus Himself. It pictures His own flesh. But
He says here in very specific, this is the bread of God, or
the bread for God. Now we know that it's going back
to our subject in Exodus chapter 25 that the bread was to be eaten
by the priests. It was put out on the Sabbath
day and the next Sabbath day they would eat that bread. But
first of all, the bread was for God. It was for God. Bread satisfies us. Doesn't bread satisfy you? I
heard somebody say the other day when they got home from church,
they couldn't wait to get a piece of bread and put peanut butter
on it. Because that would satisfy them. Bread satisfies us. Well,
our Lord Jesus, He's the bread that satisfied God. He's first
and foremost for God, and then we feed on Him, but He is the
One who fills the heart of the Father with delight. The Father
said, this is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He's
bred fit for My presence. That's the meaning. You and I aren't fit for the
presence of God. Not as we are. We're ungodly. We're sinful by nature. We're
not fit. We're not worthy to enter into
the presence of God. But that bread, that bread was
brought in once a week, and that bread, God said, is fit for My
presence. And that's our Lord Jesus. He's
the only one who satisfies the Father. He's the only one whose
fitness meets every demand of God. Now listen to this. Those
who eat this bread, we're fit for the presence of God too.
He is our fitness. He is our worthiness. You say,
Jim, how can a holy God who charges His angels with folly and nothing
is pure in His sight, how can a holy God receive me? And all
my wicked thoughts, motives that are wrong, the wicked actions
that I have done, how can a holy God receive me? Our Lord Jesus,
through His substitutionary death and His established righteousness,
He is our fitness for the presence of God. Isn't that amazing? We're fit for His presence? This
word then, showbread, It means bread fit for God's presence. And the bread was furnished,
provided for by others than the priesthood. If you go to somebody's
house, and they say, I want you to come over for supper, you generally don't bring dinner
with you. I mean, I hope you never would.
Not if somebody says, I want you to come over after church
tonight and eat. What can I bring? I don't want
you to bring anything. We'll provide everything for all the priests who entered
into the holy place. That bread that they will eat
on Saturday. was provided for by another. They're not to bring bread for
themselves. Hey honey, pack me a lunch for
today. I'm going into the holy place.
Oh no. No. God's providing lunch for
you. That bread. That bread that is
fit for God's presence. There's your lunch. And you see,
this is how insulting it would be to God. To seek to enter into
the presence of God and you bring a dish with you. You bring your
works with you. You bring your tithing or your
attendance or your church membership or your baptism or whatever it
is. You bring that with you and say,
I know it's Christ alone who is my fitness, but just in case
I'm bringing a little bit more, you will not be accepted. You
understand what I'm saying? He is our fitness, period. Don't try to add anything to
the bread of God. The bread of God. Well, let me
give you two or three things here briefly. First of all, consider
the table itself. It is the table of God's presence,
The table fit for the presence of God is made of shidom wood,
acacia wood, a very durable wood. It would not rot, it would not
decay, and it sets forth our Lord's great humanity, which
never saw corruption. You see, in order to redeem us,
in order to save us, the Son of God took upon Himself our
nature. Our nature. He became one of
us. God said, I have chosen one out
of the people. So as we say, as the Scripture
says, He was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He was
a real man. A real body, a real soul. And He was like us in every way
except He had no sin. No sin. You see, sin is that which has
corrupted us. In fact, it's corrupted all of
God's creation, right? Everything about God's creation
is corrupted. And we're corrupt. That's the
reason when we're born, somebody said the heart begins to beat
out a cadence all the way to our death. And then it stops. Why do people die? Why do people
get sick? Why the presence of disease? Why all the hate in the world?
What do you trace it all back to? Well, it's all traced back
to sin because it's corrupted everything and it's corrupted
us. Why do thoughts that you wouldn't want anybody else to
know about, why do those kind of thoughts cross your mind?
And you're almost embarrassed when I say that because maybe
you go back to some thoughts you've had recently. Something
evil, something truly wicked. You say, I wish I could wash
my mind out. Used to be when we were little,
moms don't do this anymore, some of us get our mouths washed out
with soap. Have you ever once, I wish I
could wash my brain out, my mind out, my memory out, wash it out
with soap. And the things that come out
of our mouths, angry words, malicious words, hurtful words, rumors, It counts when we just kind of
curve the truth a little bit. We just don't tell exactly the
way it is. We kind of put our spin on things
is the word today. Well, how do we do that? Sin,
corruption. We're corrupt. Just face it,
we're corrupt from the top of our heads to the bottom of our
feet. But sin never corrupted the Savior. And even when He
bore our sins in His own body on the tree, when He died under
the wrath of God, sin never corrupted Him. He's the perfect sacrifice. It didn't corrupt His body. Therefore,
when his body went into the grave, into the tomb, it didn't begin
to corrupt. There was no corruption in it.
The Savior said, the Prince of this world, Satan has come to
me. He found nothing in me. He found nothing with which to
work. If Satan comes to you, if he comes to me, he finds lots
to work with. He just says, boy, this guy,
this gal, I've got a lot to work with right here. I've just got
to decide what is the right angle. How do I go about this? He finds
lots to work with with us. And then he went to the Savior.
He couldn't find anything in Him to work with because He didn't
have any corruption. Who did no sin, neither was guile. found in his mouth. That this
wood, this acacia wood that would not corrupt, it wouldn't rot, it pictured our Lord's sinless
humanity. But it was wood overlaid with
gold that speaks of our Savior's perfect divinity. He's God over all. He ever stands
in the brilliance, in the glory of His deity. He's God over all,
blessed forever. And though He was the perfect
man who died as our substitute, His sacrifice would not have
availed anything had He not been also God. Only God could pay
our debt. Isaac Watts wrote, and we sing
this song quite a bit at the cross. He wrote, well, might
the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when God
the mighty maker died for man the creature's sin. You say,
yeah, but in our psalm book it says when Christ the mighty maker
died. But originally, look it up. when
God, when God, the mighty Maker died. Who died on that cross? God did. The God-man. This is the way the Apostle Paul
put it. He was speaking to the Ephesian elders. He said, feed
the church of God which He had purchased with His own blood.
That blood shed at Calvary, that's God's blood. He said, I can't
comprehend that. Me neither. Here's great is the mystery of
godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. And He died. He died. Also, we know about this table.
It had a crown of gold all the way around it. This is so, one
of the reasons was so that nothing would fall off. being transported. Of course, I'm going to show
you in a little bit that there were covers that were put over
this, over the table and over the bread. But this crown of
gold speaks of our Lord's exaltation. He's not still in the tomb. People who originated false religions,
lots of them, you can go bury their tombs. Or go visit their
tombs, rather. Go visit the graveyard where
they're buried. But our Lord Jesus, He was exalted
because He finished the work that God gave Him to do. And
He wears the crown of gold. And there are four corners to
this table which tells me that this bread is for people from
the north, the south, the east, and the west. Anybody who's hungry,
made of the bread of life. So I guess a good question to
ask you, and I'll ask you this in just a few minutes again,
but here's a really good question to ask you. Are you hungry? Are you hungry for Christ the
bread of life? Does your conscience hunger for
Him? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled." Do you hunger after righteousness? Do you hunger for this bread
of life? Yes. Well, then eat. What does
that mean? Believe Him. Believe Him. So I thought this was only for
the priests. It is. But if you're hungry, go ahead
and eat. You know what that means? You
are a priest. You're qualified to enter in
and take of the bread of life and eat. Secondly, consider the
coverings of this table. For this, I want you to go to
Numbers chapter 4. In the book of Numbers chapter
4, and I'll begin with verse 5.
It's very important that you read this with me. Numbers chapter
4 and verse 5, because we know the tabernacle, this house of
God, it had to be portable. Be able to move it. So, God gave
instructions. Numbers chapter 4 verse 5. And when the camp set it forward,
Aaron shall come, he's the high priest. and his sons, and they
shall take down the covering veil and cover the ark of testimony
with it." and shall put there on the covering of badger skins,
and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put
in the stave thereof, and upon the table of showbread." Oh,
now we're at our subject now. Okay, here we go. And upon the
table of showbread, they shall spread a cloth of blue. That's
across the table itself. And then put on the table, the
dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and then the covers to
cover with all, and the continual bread shall be thereon." In other
words, don't take the bread off, bread still stays there. That's
on a cloth of blue. And then over that, then all
the utensils, these golden utensils, the spoons, the pan, the bowls,
they shall then spread upon them a piece of cloth of scarlet,
and cover the same with a covering of badger skins, and shall put
in the staves thereof. So that when they carry the table
of showbread, And here they are, here goes, they're carrying the
Levites and they've got two staves, here's two guys on this side
and they got it or however high they carried it. Were they carrying
it low or high, I don't know. But as they carried it, all that
the Israelites could see was just the badger skins. That's
all they could see. Because you see, to the ordinary
eye, all that could be seen of our Lord Jesus was His humanity. That's all. And that didn't make
Him appear to be special to anybody. Because He was a man who looked
just like any other Jewish man. But underneath, there's the blue. That stands for that which is
heavenly. He's the one from above. And
then over that, the scarlet. What does scarlet speak to us
of? This crimson material. It speaks
to us of the bloody death of our Lord Jesus. Do you know how
they came up with this dye of scarlet? Turn with me to Psalm 22. There was a worm. There was a
worm called the scarlet worm. The scarlet worm. And our Lord
Jesus actually used this with reference to Himself. Psalm 22
and verse 6. Our Savior said, but I am a worm. Literally, I'm a scarlet worm and no man. Now let me tell you
about the scarlet worm. This was the worm, the blood
of which the Jews used as a dye, a dye to make things crimson
or scarlet. And here's how they figured out
to use this as a dye. There were, in that part of the
world, scarlet worms. And when a female worm was ready
to lay her eggs, she would attach herself with her legs to a tree. She would attach herself to a
tree and actually became permanent. She never came down from the
tree. And as she would begin to lay her eggs underneath her,
such was the effort that she put forth that she began to bleed
through her skin. And then all of her young'uns,
all of the eggs, were covered with this protective covering
of scarlet. and it would actually dye the
bark of the tree. The Jews got the idea, let's
use that as a dye. Let me tell you something. Our
Lord Jesus said, I'm a scarlet worm. And my friends, He was
attached to a tree. It was called the cross of Calvary.
And there He bled. His blood was to honor God's
justice. And His blood is the covering
that protects us. His little ones. Are you underneath the blood?
Are you underneath the blood? Oh, the scarlet. Our Lord, you
see here in Psalm 22 is speaking of Himself as a scarlet worm
and no man. His blood would come out in his
death. Just like that worm died on that
tree. Never came down. She gave her
life that her little ones would live. That's why Christ died. That we would live forever. But
unlike that scarlet worm, he came down from the tree. buried,
and then He arose again for our justification. Here's the third thing I want
you to consider. I want you to consider the bread upon the table.
For this, I want you to go to the book of Leviticus chapter
24. Leviticus chapter 24. And verse 5. Leviticus chapter 24 and verse
5. And thou shalt take fine flour
and bake twelve cakes thereof. Two-tenth deals shall be in one
cake. Two-tenth deals. That'd be two
omers. If you remember when we studied
the manna that came from heaven, every man could gather one omer.
One omer, which is about a half gallon dry measure. One omer was a half gallon. So
here, every man, each of these cakes, each of these loaves that
were on the table of showbread, about a gallon each. This is
a big loaf of bread. And thou shalt set them in two
rows, six on a row. And this is why the Jews say
that it was stacked up on a row, not in a row. Take whatever you
want. I don't care which view you take
of that. But this next part, six on a
row upon the pure table before the Lord. And that expression
is used again in 2 Chronicles chapter 13 verse 11. This table
of showbread, it's a pure table. Why has it got to be a pure table? Because it's got to be fit for
God's presence. It's got to be fit for God's
house. And I'm telling you, if you're going to go to God's house
someday, if you're going to go to glory, you've got to be pure. Do you know how you can be pure?
Through Him who is pure, the Son of God. Our Savior said, I am the bread
of life. Well, keep reading. Look, verse 7. Thou shalt put pure frankincense
upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial,
even an offering made by fire unto the Lord." Because the bread
is for the priest to eat on Saturday. That frankincense, that's for
God. And it's that frankincense that
is so pleasing to the Lord. as it burns and it sends up a
sweet savor unto God. Why does it send forth a sweet
savor to God? Because those hot coals came
from the brazen altar out there, from a suitable substitute that
died. From a suitable sacrifice. Now
watch this, verse 8. Every Sabbath he shall set it
in order before the Lord. For how long? Continually. being taken from the children
of Israel. Who provided the children of
Israel? They provided the flour and so
forth. And all of the things that were
built that consisted of making the tabernacle, it all came from
the children of Israel. And our Lord Jesus, who is the
bread of life, He came from the children of Israel. God said,
I've laid help upon one who is mighty. I've chosen one out of
the people. And He says, by an everlasting
covenant. And all of this, I'm telling
you, is due to the everlasting covenant of grace. Watch it. Verse 9, And it shall be Aaron's
and his sons. They shall eat it in the holy
place. For it is most holy unto him
of the offerings of the Lord made by fire for perpetual sacrifice."
Or perpetual statute. Can you imagine this? Here are
the priests, Aaron's sons and Aaron. And they're standing around
this table and eating bread. Talking about the goodness of
God. It's a place of fellowship, that's what it is. It's a place
of communion. And as they spoke of the goodness
of God and they had already taken the frankincense and put it on
the hot coals. Oh, how delightful to be in that
room. So doesn't this smell good? This
is where we're meeting with God. Meeting with God. This was bread
that satisfied God. and bread that satisfied man. And I've just got to give you
a little bit more, okay? Every Saturday, guess what they
put on the table? Just take a wild guess. Bread. And next Saturday, guess what
they put on that table? Bread. And the next Saturday.
And the next Saturday. Every Sabbath day. What are we
having this week to eat? Mr. Aaron? Same thing we had
last Saturday. Same thing we always have when
we gather around the table. Bread. Paul said, I'm determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Every time we come together.
What do you think is going to be set on the table? Bread. Bread. But wait, every Saturday,
12 more fresh loaves of bread. Fresh loaves of bread. See, the
servant of the Lord, Here's my responsibility, is to feed you
with bread. But to go back in there in that
office and study and make sure that the bread that I feed you
with is fresh bread. Fresh bread. I tell you, only
the gospel is fit for a holy God. That's the fit message for
him. And that's the message we need.
Christ, the bread of life. So I ask you one more time. Is
there anybody in here hungry? You hungry? Do you hunger for
God? Do you hunger for salvation?
So I don't know whether my name's written down in the Lamb's Book
of Life. Well, that's not for you to know. I don't know whether
I'm one of the elect or not. That's not for you to know. Here's
what you need to ask yourself. Am I hungry? And if you're hungry,
come and dine. That's what the Savior said.
Come and dine. And when you come and dine, you
know what I can tell you? Yep, you're one of the elect.
Yep, you're one of the priests of God. Because we're a chosen
priesthood. A royal nation is what the Scripture
says. Come and eat. Don't bring anything
with you except an appetite. Don't bring dessert. Don't bring
a side dish. Come as you are and dine. And Christ said, he that eateth
of this bread that I'll give you has life. You'll have life. Sweet gospel,
isn't it? Well, let's close. Lord, we thank
You for the living bread that came down from heaven. Our Lord
Jesus. Oh God, give to us a spiritual
appetite to eat of Him. To feast on the Savior. He is
the bread. And He's the one who's fit for
Your presence. And in Him, we're fit for your
presence. Oh, God calls us to desire this
one who is the bread of life. And for those of us who already
know you, I trust that we have dined again today, that we have
eaten of the bread that came down from heaven, the bread of
God. Thank you, Lord, for your gospel
and for giving us some spiritual understanding of it. For Jesus'
name I say, I pray, Amen.