Let's go to the book of Exodus
again this morning, and we'll begin in Exodus chapter 27. Several weeks ago, I began speaking
on the general subject of the tapernacle in the wilderness. And of course, this is a big
subject, and there are lots of things to cover in this study,
and we're just kind of hitting the high spots. But we do understand
that this unusual tabernacle was God's residence among the
Israelites. And as such, it was a picture
of our Lord Jesus who himself tabernacled in a body in this
world, and in that body He suffered and He bled and He died in order
to save folks like us, and He ever lives to make intercession
for us. And we're so thankful for who
He is and all that He has done for us unworthy sinners. Now before we get into the message,
let's see God's face once again. Lord, this is to us a special
day. Certainly it is Father's Day,
and we're thankful for our earthly fathers, for their love and guidance,
for them nurturing us, for giving them wisdom, Father,
to raise so many of us in the nurture and admonition of our
Lord. But we are especially thinking
now about our Heavenly Father. And in that regard, every day
is a day to honor our Father. Lord, we bless You for adopting
us into Your family, for making us to be sons and daughters of
God, for giving to us an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled
and that fadeth not away. And we do have the delightful
privilege to bow before You and speak to You and address You
as our Father who art in Heaven. Lord, here are some of Your children
gathered together. We seek to worship You today
through that Blessed Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, give us faith in Him. Give us an understanding of the
necessity of His entering into this world and giving His life
a ransom for all of those that you chose in covenant grace to
save. We thank you, Lord, for your
mercy. Mercy that is from everlasting
to everlasting. And we thank you for this blessed
salvation that is forever. And we likewise thank you for
the record you have given to us of the tabernacle in the wilderness. And we're grateful that you've
opened our eyes and we might see the meaning and the message
of the tabernacle. Indeed, here we find our Savior
set forth in His glorious person, in His offices, in His work of
redemption and intercession, and in all of His glory. Give
us this morning hearts of worship to adore Him, to believe Him,
and to worship Him, this One whom to know is life everlasting. Give to each of us the hearing
ear, the seeing eye, and the believing heart. That which we
ask for those of us in this building, we ask for those who are watching
by way of the internet. We're so thankful for these who
you have led to be a part of our worship service this morning.
It is our privilege to Send forth the Gospel and it is our great
responsibility. Keep us always faithful to this
blessed, blessed charge You have given to us to speak of the beauties
and the glories and the work of the Savior of sinners and
the Lord Jesus. So be with us now as we go into
the Word of God. These things we ask for Jesus'
sake. Amen. You know that the tabernacle
in the wilderness had beautiful curtains that went all the way
around, almost all the way around. There was a linen fence. We know now it was seven and
a half feet high. And it went fully down the north
side and then on the west end and then the south side. And
most of the eastern part, eastern front of the tabernacle was this
seven and a half foot white linen fence. It represented the perfection,
the beauty, the very purity of our God. The Israelites knew
that God had given to Moses instructions to make this tabernacle. And
they knew that God said this is where he's going to dwell.
Now we know that the heavens above can't contain God. God
is everlasting from old eternity in the past to eternity out in
the future. God's the same. God is Spirit. You can't confine God to one
place. But God said, I'm going to dwell
with you. I'm going to meet with you. fellowship with you, commune
with you at the tabernacle. This was a wonderful privilege.
And if you had lived back then as you walked up toward the tabernacle
and you see this seven and a half foot white linen fence, just
pure white, it would remind you that the one who occupies that
tent The one who dwells there, he is immaculate in his holiness. And it would also remind you,
had you lived back then and you walked around that tent, 150
feet long, 75 feet wide, as you walked that area and you looked
at it, It would not only remind you that the one who dwells there,
he is holy, but would also remind you that you're unholy and you
can't go in there. That's two basic truths that
that seven and a half foot linen fence would remind people of. God is glorious in His holiness. Isaiah heard those seraphim calling
to one another in Isaiah chapter 6. They said, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is filled with
His glory. Those white walls, they served
as a barrier to the average Jew saying to them, you can't come
in here. The way to God is not open yet. And we read in the book of Hebrews
that that way was shut off, shut off to the average Israelite
until the Lord Jesus came. And this evening I'm going to
be talking about the red veil. And He opened up the way to come
to God. He not only opened the way, He
is the way to God. Ron read to us from John chapter
14, and the Savior said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me. So that great tabernacle
is enclosed by this beautiful fence. Now we know this tabernacle
in the wilderness consisted of three portions or parts. There
was the outer court. In the outer court, there were
two pieces of furniture. A brazen altar and the brazen
laver. And then you entered into the
holy place. In there was a table of showbread. In there was a golden lampstand. And in there was the altar of
incense. That's where they burned incense.
And then there was another part, a third part, to the tabernacle,
and that's the Holy of Holies, also called in the book of Hebrews,
the holiest of all. That's where God was represented
by the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat on top with the
seraphim, or the cherubims rather, and of course that white light
that came forth out of the top of the mercy seat. There are
the three sections of the tabernacle. Now here's what I want to talk
to you about this morning. Every section of the tabernacle
had an entrance into it. So here's the title of the message.
I want to talk about three special curtains. Now of course there
were curtains, even the linen that went all around, those were
curtains. There were curtains inside the
holy place that went from almost to the floor. There was no floor,
almost to the sand. Didn't touch the dirt, didn't
touch the sand. There were coverings there. curtains
there. There were curtains inside the
Holy of Holies, but I want to talk about the entrances to this,
first of all, to the outer court, and then the entrance into the
holy place, and the entrance into the Holy of Holies. First of all, let me read here,
and I'm going to read about each of these, these three special
curtains. So if you will, take your Bible
and let's read chapter 27, verses 16 and 17. And for the gate of
the court. That's the first one. Chapter
27, verse 16. The gate of the court. There
is a way to go in. And you read that. There's a
way. Christ said, I'm the way. There's a way to enter into the
court. There should be a hanging or
curtains of 20 cubits, 30 feet, 30 feet entrance into the tabernacle,
into the outer court. of blue and purple and scarlet
and fine twine linen wrought with needlework, and their sockets
shall be four, and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets
four. All the pillars round about the
court shall be filleted with silver." These were like rods
of silver. and it kind of bound everything
together. Though it could be disassembled
and folded up, these are rods of silver. You'll notice as we
continue our studies in the tabernacle, many of the pillars of the tabernacle,
the foundation of them was in silver. What's silver a picture
of in the Bible? Redemption. Redemption, that's
a picture. Silver is a picture of redemption.
And so these boards that held up this fence, they were all
filleted with silver. A thin band or rod of silver,
always reminding people of redemption. It was only at the tabernacle
by the blood that anybody was redeemed, but it was only a temporary
redemption, so it really wasn't a full redemption. It wasn't
a real redemption because the only redemption that really satisfied
God and bought us was the blood of the Lord Jesus. But we see
His death in this in picture and in time. It says they shall
be filleted with silver, their hooks shall be of silver, their
sockets of brass. What does brass stand for? Brass
is judgment. Brass is justice. Brass is vengeance. Here you have redemption and
you have justice. You've got to have both of them
if we're to be saved. Justice has to be satisfied.
There's gotta be death in this tabernacle. And in the outer
court, there was death. Deaths went on all day long. It began the day, the day began
for an Israelite with the death of the morning sacrifice, a lamb. That was at 9 a.m., and at 3
p.m., the death of another lamb, the evening sacrifice. Sockets of brass. There has to
be justice satisfied, and there has to be mercy. There has to
be redemption. The blood of the Lord Jesus.
Now, go to chapter 36. Let me read you about another
one. And then I'll see if I can kind of tie all of this together.
Chapter 36. So we have the gate of the court. The gate of the court. Now look
at the second one, because now we're going to look at the holy
place. And there's another curtain.
Another curtain there. First curtain's out there entering
into the outer court. Now this one is entering into
the holy place. Chapter 36. And look at verse
35. and make a veil of blue," 36-35,
make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen. Seems like we just read that,
didn't we? We just read that. That's significant. I'll talk
about that in a little bit. With cherubim, cherubim made
he it of cunning work, skillful work. Look at verse 36. And he
made thereunto four pillars of shedim wood, durable, virtually
indestructible, overlaid them with gold." There's our Lord,
both His humanity and His deity. Their hooks were of gold, and
He cast for them four sockets of silver. and he made a hanging
for the tabernacle door. So that's what we'll call this
one. This is the tabernacle door. Because really, strictly speaking,
the tabernacle itself, that tent, did not begin until you got there
at this tent door, tabernacle door. Then you enter into the
tent itself, into the tabernacle. And he made a hanging for the
tabernacle door of blue and purple and scarlet. By the way, those
are always in that order throughout reading about the tabernacle.
Every time you read about this tabernacle, it's blue and purple
and scarlet. Always in that order, 24 times. The order never does change,
and I'll give you a reason for that in a little bit. And also
fine twine linen of needlework, verse 38, and five pillars of
it with their hooks, and he overlaid their capitors, that's a gold
head on each of these posts. and their fillets with gold,
but their five sockets were of brass." Because still, justice
has got to be satisfied. Brass. And then one more, go
backwards to chapter 26 and verses 31 through 34. Chapter 26, 31. And thou shalt make a veil of blue,
and purple, and scarlet, and fine twine linen of cunning work,
with chair bends shall it be made. And thou shalt hang it
upon four pillars of sheddum wood, overlaid with gold. Their
hooks shall be of gold, and upon the four sockets of silver. Here are these three very important
curtains. The first curtain, it hung at
the entrance to the outer court of the tabernacle. The second
one, it hung just before going into the holy place. The third
one, it hung before you go into the Holy of Holies. Nobody could
go from the first entrance through the second entrance and into
that third entrance, that last entrance, except the high priest. And he could only do that once
a year. Only one man was allowed to go in through that outer court,
into the outer court. through that gate to the tabernacle,
through the door to the tabernacle, and through the other veil, the
veil, that was four inches thick. Only one man, the high priest,
and he only one time a year, and then he had to have both
incense and blood, blood. You'll notice that they were
all made, each of these curtains were made with fine twine linen. That sets forth the perfection
of our Lord Jesus Christ. His walk, His character, all
of His works, the way He conducted Himself, His spotless humanity. White linen, that's His righteousness. He is the Lord, our righteousness. When Gabriel spoke to Mary about
the fact that she was going to give birth to the Lord Jesus. He said to her, the Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee, wherefore also that holy thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God. Our Lord Jesus was not
of the seed of man. He was of the seed of woman.
He was not corrupted by sin. Now listen, neither His deity
nor His humanity could be corrupted by sin. This is the perfect Savior. This is the kind of Savior we've
got to have. Only a perfect Savior can satisfy
God and meet every need that we have. He is the spotless One. Our Lord was not of the seed
of man. If He was, if He had been, He would be sinful like
we are, and He would be incapable of saving anybody. Because we're
all corrupted by iniquity and sin. That fine, twine linen. It spoke of the perfections of
our Savior. And we know that unlike all the
priests of Israel who had to offer sacrifices for their own
sins as well as the sins of the people, our Lord Jesus never
had to offer a sacrifice for Himself. He had no sin. He's the perfect Son of God.
And then it says, not only was it white linen, fine linen, but
the scriptures say it was fine, fine twined linen. That means wound together for
strength, for strength. Our Father said in Psalm 89,
Psalm 89, 19, I have laid help upon one who is mighty. The one
who is our Savior is the mighty God. Isaiah chapter 9 tells us
that. He's wonderful Counselor, the
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. We read
in the New Testament, the Savior said, All power is given unto
Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel. He has all authority. He has
all power. He's strong. He's strong. He
created all things. By Him were all things made and
without Him was not anything made. He is the mighty God. And being absolutely strong and
invincible, He could deal with all of our enemies. He dealt
with Satan at the cross of Calvary and defeated him. He bound him,
the Scripture says. He threw him in the pit. He dealt
with our sins. He put them away. He established
righteousness by himself. And then he conquered the grave.
He beat death. And then notice the colors, and
I mentioned that, and I'm sure you noted this as well. Blue
and purple and scarlet. Never change the order. It's
always that order. Blue and purple and scarlet. Blue, that's his heavenly origin. He said to the Pharisees in John
chapter 8, you're from beneath, I'm from above. 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, Paul said, the first man was of the earth, earthy. What about the second man? Well,
he's the Lord from heaven. In John 6.33, our Lord is talking
about the bread. He said, the bread of God is
He that came down from heaven. That's where He came from. To
Nicodemus in John chapter 3, our Savior said, no man hath
ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even
the Son of Man which is in heaven. Blue. That's His origin. He's
not of this world. He's not of this earth. We are,
but He isn't. He's the Lord from heaven. What
about purple? Well, that points to His royalty. It points to His kingly origin. And both at His birth and at
His death, the focus is upon His kingship. When our Lord Jesus
was born, wise men came from the east. And here was their
question. Where is He that is born, King
of the Jews? That's who we're looking for,
king of the Jews. And at his death, first of all,
the thief on the cross, he said to the Savior, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. Who has a kingdom but a king? And even before that, when he
stood before Pilate, Pilate said, art thou a king? And our Lord
Jesus said, you said it. It came right out of your lips.
And then, of course, the governor put the accusation against our
Savior up above His head. This is Jesus, King of the Jews. There is an emphasis all the
way through the Word of God on His kingship and His kingdom. He's always been King over all
things by virtue of the fact He's God. He's the Lord over
all, blessed forever. He's the king. But the king came
down here. The king humbled himself to become
the servant of Jehovah. And as the servant of Jehovah,
he perfectly fulfilled the Father's redemptive will. Wherefore, God
has exalted him. and given Him a name which is
above every name. Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is the
King. And we read in Revelation chapter
19, His name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's purple. Royalty. Royalty. Blue points to His origin. He's
from heaven. Purple points to the fact that
He's the King. And then scarlet. That speaks
of His real manhood and His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, His
bloody sacrifice. That God who dwelt eternally
in the satisfaction of Himself, pure and holy, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, the Son of God took a body A body thou hast prepared
me, he said in Psalm 40 and also in Hebrews chapter 10. A body
thou hast prepared me, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. And in
that body he suffered, and he bled, and he died. He shed his
blood. Scarlet. Scarlet. You see, as the Spirit of God
would never leave out the blue of His origin, heavenly, and
the purple of His royalty, so He couldn't leave out the scarlet
of His bloody death. And I'll remind you of this.
I'll remind you of this. That color purple is the result
of joining blue and scarlet together. join blue and scarlet together,
you get purple. And we're just saying, crown
him the king, the king. Each of these special curtains
then were made of fine twine linen of blue and purple and
scarlet. Standing outside the tabernacle
looking at it, For those of us who are just ordinary Israelites,
there's a three-fold barrier. There's a three-fold barrier.
We can't go into the presence of God. You say, yeah, but if
you're a priest, you can enter in. Yeah, you can enter in into
the outer court, offer a sacrifice, wash your hands at the laver,
wash your feet at the laver, go through the door into the
tabernacle, and go in and eat of the bread that's on the table
of showbread. And of course, the priests had
to go in, trim the lamps, put the olive oil in, and so forth,
and then burn incense, but that's as far as they could go. Only
one could go in back into that place where God called His residence. And that was the high priest
once a year. There's a barrier. Like a three-fold
barrier. You know, the Scripture, when
it speaks of barriers for us coming to God, turn to Psalm
32. I think we ought to look at this.
There's another three-fold barrier. And it's right here in Psalm
32. You know, Psalm 32 is one of what is typically called the
penitential. Psalms. Penitential Psalms. Psalms of repentance. There's
seven of them. Psalm 6, Psalm 32, Psalm 38,
Psalm 51, Psalm 102, Psalm 130, and Psalm 143. These are Psalms
of repentance showing sorrow over sin. Look at Psalm 32, 1 and 2, and
see if you don't see a threefold barrier here of us coming to
God. This word blessed, isn't it wonderful
this starts off with a benediction? Just like the Sermon on the Mount.
Blessed well off to be envied is he whose, number one, transgression
is forgiven, number two, whose sin is covered, and then the
second verse, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. There's a three-fold barrier.
And these stand as it were gates against us coming to God. Here we are, we're transgressors,
and we're sinful, and we're full of iniquity. What does transgression
mean? To offend God's law. but blessed is the man whose
transgression is forgiven, whose transgression has been picked
up as it were and carried away. That's what our Lord Jesus did
when He died. And whose sin is covered. What is sin? Missing the mark. What is the mark? Perfection.
Perfection. You say, well, you know, I'm
a pretty good person. I've got a question for you. Have you
ever done anything perfectly? Well, no. Well, then you've sinned. Because you see, sin is anything
less than perfection. Perfection as God defines perfection. Not perfection as we say, well,
you know, she's a pretty good woman. He's a good man. No. Good as God. How good has a person
got to be to be accepted with God? And the answer is, as good
as God. And if you can't be as good as
God, you better find one who is as good as God and then hide
in Him. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, whose sin is covered. Oh, sin, missing the mark. Oh, how powerful was that bloody
death of Christ if it actually hid our sins from the view of
God. And then thirdly, blessed is
the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Iniquity is crookedness. Iniquity is that which is not
equal to perfection. Inequity is a good way to remember
iniquity. And in whose spirit there is
no God. You see, there's a threefold barrier for us getting to God. Transgression and sin and iniquity. Thank God Christ took care of
all of those things. and He put them away by His death
upon the cross. Okay, go back and let me just
make a couple of comments about these. Go back to chapter 27. Let's talk about the gate of
the court. There was only one entrance into
the outer court where the brazen altar and the brazen labor stood.
It was on the eastern side. The eastern side. That's where
the entrance was to the tabernacle. That white fence, white linen
fence, it was broke, as it were, or there was an opening 30 foot
wide on the eastern side. On the eastern side. By the way,
if you have studied in Genesis chapter 3, and you have, you
remember that God put the cherubims and the sword at the east end
of the garden. That's where God is worshipped. And to get nearer to God, you
had to go west. Here's a good study for you.
Study the rebels and the Word of God. Let's start with that
man whose name is Cain. You know when he moved, did he
move nearer to God? or away from God. He moved away
from God. And throughout the Old Testament,
you'll find men who were to worship God, the appointed place of worship
was at the east gate of the tabernacle. That's where you brought your
offering. You'll find men went further east. To go west, you
get nearer the Holy of Holies. To go east is to go further from
God. That's what we all do by nature. We wander further and further
away from God. We don't go nearer to Him. We
wander further away. The gate of the court. And when I read of the gate of
the court, do you know what I think about? There is a way to God. Here's this big... A fence, 150
by 75 feet wide. It stands there. And I ask myself,
is there a way in this place? Yeah, there's a way. There's
one way. On that Day of Atonement, when
the high priest would go worship God, he had to go in exactly
the same way that all the other priests went in. And if you want
to come to God, now you hear me, there's one way. Christ is
that way. And then look with me in chapter
36 now, the tabernacle door. As there was only one entrance
into the outer court, there was only one entrance into the holy
place, the outer veil. Chapter 36, again. 35, he made a veil of blue, and purple,
and scarlet, and fine twine linen, which cherubims made he of the
cunning work. He made thereunto four pillars
of shitum wood, and overlaid them with gold. The hooks were
of gold, and he cast for them four sockets of silver. And he
made a hanging for the tabernacle door of blue, and purple, and
scarlet, and fine twine linen of needlework. Here's the tabernacle
door. It separated the outer court
from the holy place. It was the entrance into that
area where the priests worked within the holy place. They'd
go in and eat the bread. The bread on the table of showbread
was for them. They'd go in and fool with the
Golden lampstand, as I said, trimming the lamps and filling
with oil. And then, of course, burning
the incense. Three things to remember inside
that holy place. Three glorious truths. Number
one, our Lord Jesus is the bread upon which we feed. Number two, He is the light who
illuminates us. And number three, the only basis
by which we can come to God, and you read this in John 14,
is through Christ the Lord. You see, He is the true bread. John 6 says that. and He is the
true light. John 1 says that. And He is the
true mediator, the only mediator between God and man. He is the
truth. He's not only the way, He is
the truth. He is the full embodiment of
all the truth of God. And then thirdly, go back to
chapter 26. Chapter 26. 31 to 33. Thou shalt make a veil of blue
and purple and scarlet, and fine twine linen of cunning work,
with cherubim shall it be made. And thou shalt hang it upon the
four pillars of shit and wood, overlaid with gold. Their hooks
shall be of gold, and upon the four sockets of silver." And
somebody said, this four represents the four gospel narratives. Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. And if you had noticed, if you
remembered correctly, back out entering into the outer court,
there are four there, four posts there. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John speak of our Lord Jesus Christ. But here is the veil. The veil. Though the other two
entrances were certainly beautiful, this one is exceedingly wonderful. It's said to be four inches thick.
The veil. In addition to being made of
blue and purple and scarlet, the veil had a mysterious embroidery
of cherubim with outstretched wings. And as the priests worked,
here's a table of showbread, here's the golden lamp stand,
lamp stick, here's the altar of incense, and here's this veil
with a cherubim. And I'm sure they thought of
that passage Genesis chapter 3, a cherubim there with a flaming
sword to keep the way of life. And every priest who labored
in there knew, I'll never get back there in God's presence.
Never. I can't see back there. If I
tried to peep behind that heavy curtain, which it said he weighed
500 pounds, I don't know if that's true or not, But if you could
kind of pull it back and just look around this way, it'd kill
them. And as they looked at that chair
bend, it's like that chair bend with its wings outstretched was
saying, you can't come in here. No entrance for you. But what I'm going to preach
about tonight is that when our Lord Jesus died, that veil, was
rent from the top to the bottom. And don't you know that startled
the high priest who was in there working? It must have scared
him to death. We do know this, and I'll give
you this and I'll quit. When the Jews were taken into
Babylonian captivity, and somebody wrote me about this this week,
and so I answered them this way, gave them this answer. Since
the Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat was lost or stolen
during the Babylonian captivity, and there was no more Ark of
the Covenant, there was no more mercy seat, What was the use
in the high priest going back behind the curtain then once
a year after the second temple, Solomon's temple, was rebuilt?
What did he do? What did he do? Well, the Jews say that the Ark
of the Covenant had a foundation stone upon which it was set. There was no floor to the tabernacle. It was just sand or dirt or wherever
it was that they made camp. And so it is said, this is not
Bible now, it is said that they had a foundation stone upon which
they set the Ark of the Covenant. I don't know if that's true or
not. But I do know this, that God saw to it that the ark of
the covenant with the mercy seed vanish, vanish over 500 years
before our Lord Jesus was born. And so when the high priest went,
when the worship was resumed at the temple after it was rebuilt,
because you'll remember from Babylonian captivity, the Jews
were released in waves And the first wave, and you can read
in Ezra and Nehemiah, the rebuilding of the walls and the rebuilding
of the temple. And it said when the high priest
then once a year on the Day of Atonement, when he went behind
the veil, the veil into the most holy place, that he, on that
foundation stone, which was all that was left, He'd put some
hot coals from the brazen altar on that stone, sprinkle it with
incense, and then go back and get a basin of blood, and with
that blood, he'd sprinkle it with his finger on the foundation
stone. So that's Jewish history. Truthful or not, I don't know.
But I do know this. God saw to it that the Ark of
the Covenant and the Mercy Seat were lost. And hopefully never to be found. Because they're useless. They're
useless. Our God has satisfied His own
justice through the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus. He is
the one we worship. And if men weren't to find the
Ark of the Covenant, they'd worship it. It'd be an idol to them. You see, this is kind of ingrained
in the man. Anything we can visibly hold
or observe, we will observe it or worship it instead of God. That's the way man's made. We're
that way by nature. That brazen serpent which Moses
held up He put it up on a serpent of brass. It was lifted up for
all who were bit by the fiery serpent. Look and live! Look
and live is what Moses said. And then the people were healed. You say, well, I wonder what
happened with that? Oh, somebody said, let's take that with us. They did. Later, Hezekiah found
it. He said, what? This is a brazen
serpent. What do we keep this for? He
said, no hushton, it's just a worthless piece of brass. That's all it
is. Not worth anything. You know, if they found the very
cross upon which our Lord Jesus died, still stained with His
blood, oh, men would really make an idol out of that. A god out
of that. It's worthless. If that dried
blood, the dried blood on the mercy seat, if they found that,
if somebody put their fingers in water and rubbed it and got
some of that blood and said, oh, I got blood, the blood that
the Jews put on the mercy seat, you just got... red stuff on
your hand. You've got animal blood. It'll
do you no good. Even the blood of our Lord Jesus
on the cross that stained that cross, if you could rub that
and get that on your hand, oh, it's the blood of the Lord Jesus,
that's not going to help you. You'd just make an idol out of
that. by His bloody redemption is meant
His salvation that He accomplished by His sacrifice. This is a spiritual
thing. And so tonight, we'll talk about
that rent veil. And we'll see what God has for
us this evening. Well, let's pray. Lord, we are thankful that you've
given us an understanding of how you save sinners, and the
Lord Jesus and His work of redemption, satisfaction, substitution. And we've looked briefly at these
entrances, the entrance into the court, the gate of the court,
and then the door of the tabernacle. And then the veil. The veil. And we rejoice that
though we don't have any business going into the presence of God
on our own, yet our Savior has opened up the way. And by His
bloody sacrifice, we can enter in. As we're entering in right
now, Father, into your very presence through the blood of Christ.
And we know that you hear us and you receive us for Christ's
sake. Take the Word of God this morning. Teach us of these barriers and
teach us of that one who has taken care of all barriers between
us and God. who has satisfied justice, who
has brought in redeeming mercy, who has saved sinners by His
own sacrifice, and He ever lives to represent us in glory. He
is our living Savior, who is the King of kings and the Lord
of lords. So bless these few words for
Jesus' sake. Amen.