Verse 14 with me. And thou shalt make a covering
for the tent of rams, make a covering for the tent
of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers'
skins. Now, you remember we talked about
the pens and the corns. picture the person and work of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And as the pins and the cords
were inseparable, so is the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lot make up, they make much of
his person in the sense that he's just a man and he's a good
man, a holy man. Even view him sometimes as a
savior. But they present him in such
a pitiful way that he can't do anything for you unless you let
him. Now that's not the person and that's certainly not the
work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He read it tonight. Thou shalt
call his name Jesus. Jehovah Savior. That's what that
means. Joshua, Savior. God our Savior. Emmanuel, God
with us. and said that he shall, he shall
save his people from their sins. Now that's the person of Christ
and the work of Christ. Named who he was, how he came
into this world, and what he did while he was here. Come to
save his people from their sins. And then people make much of
his work. Talk about, you know, trusting the finished work. But
beloved, you can't have one without the other. And the work is only
good as the person who does it. And the Lord Jesus Christ performed
a work because of who He was and who He is and who He'll always
be. He is God Almighty, manifest
in the flesh. And He came to this earth to
do something for a people. God gave him in eternity and
bless his holy name. He gonna do it and I tell you
what I trust him and I trust what he did and I bless him for
who he did it for and I praise him for where he is now Seated
at God's right hand Look into him Started looking gonna keep
on looking Until I don't look anymore All right, that's not my message. I just thought that's not even
my introduction. That's just what Brad stirred
up in me, reading that verse of scripture. But the person
and work of Christ, they go together. They go together. They go together. Now there in verse 14, it talks
about the coverings of the tabernacle. And the tabernacle was covered
with two materials. Badger skins and ram skins dyed
red. I want us to look at the badger
skins. And I tell you, you know, when
you see that tint, this is what the badger skin like. It just,
it looked like a skin, the skins of an animal, sewed together
and made real smooth. But they were animal skins. Inside
and outside, they were animal skins. badger skins and lamb
skins died red. And I want to look at the badger
skins tonight. And would anyone view that tabernacle,
if you stood apart from the tabernacle, all they saw was a tent. A tent
stretched out and all they would see was badger skins. There was
nothing about it that was glorious, nothing about it, had no form
about it, no beauty about it, no comeliness about it. It was
so ordinary. Nothing special about it. When
you looked at it, you just saw it, Tim, made out of animal skins,
badger skins. But look, and I will keep this,
and look over here with me in Isaiah 53. You think if I... Look what our Lord just says
about our Master, our Lord Jesus. And Isaiah 53, 1. Now let's look in verse 2, excuse
me. Verse 2. Oh, all they viewed was just
a tent of badger skins. But look what it says in verse
2 of Isaiah 53. For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. Listen to
this now. He hath no form, nor comeliness,
And when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire. And when people looked at that
tabernacle, there was no beauty about it. There's no glory about
it. No special form about it. It
looks so ordinary. But God purposed this covering
as a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ as he passed through this
world. Now He was the tabernacle of
God among men. And when our Lord Jesus came
into this world and appeared into this world, it's how He
appeared in the eyes of men. There was no beauty about Him.
There was no form about Him. There was no comeliness about
Him. He was just to them an ordinary man. And when any heathen saw
the tabernacle covered with badger skin, they'd look at that and
say, boy, look at poor old pitiful Israelites. Oh, they got a tent
they meet in. They just got an old tent to
meet in made out of badger skin. They'd scoff at it. And they'd
say, boy, look over here. We got big temples over here.
We got big, beautiful temples. We got big pillars holding them
up. We got this wonderful place that we gather in here. You all
meeting in an old tent over there? That's awful. He said, you all
need to have a building like ours. You need to have a building
made with some silver and made some gold and got some gold and
all this stuff. You need to come and worship
with us. And I tell you, there's lots
of people that believe real worship must be where silver and gold
and big fine buildings are. But I tell you what, God himself
said, I dwell not in temples made by hands. I don't care how
big the edifice is. I don't care how many millions
they spend on it. I don't care how many people
go to it. I don't care how much beauty is inside of it and outside
of it. God does not dwell in temples
made with hands. He don't do it. And I tell you
what, when our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, that's
the way people viewed Him. Mocked Him, scoffed Him, scorned
Him. But when you have real faith,
God gives you faith, you can see inside that tabernacle. You
look past the outward. You look past what you see on
the outside. And you look within what's inside
that tabernacle. And you see our blessed Savior.
When our Lord Jesus came to dwell in tabernacle among men, God
gave some people eyes to see who He really was. Who He really
was. Look over here. Our Lord, you
know, when He warned about us looking on the outward appearance.
And I tell you what, that's what men done. Look over here in Matthew
23. And people, you know, this is
a bad habit we have, but it's just one of those things we do.
It's one of those things. And our Lord warned us about
looking on the outward appearance, and that's what people do. I remember going down to Florida
one time, and a fella took me to a big, big, huge, huge edifice. Held 3,000 people. And it'd be
full. I don't know how many ministers
they had in it. And he, I mean, it was unbelievable. The cheapest, the lowest paid
minister among them was $60,000 a year. In that particular place. And
he took me around and showed me around that place and oh,
it was impressive, it was impressive. But you know, God saved him from
that and made a sovereign grace preacher out of him. That's Greg
Amquist. He said, I'm going to show you
what a mess I was in. And oh, people are going to look
on the outward appearance, but our Lord warned us about that.
Look what he said here in verse 27 and 28. Our Lord said this, He said,
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You're like unto
white as sepulchers. Oh my, like a grave which indeed
appears beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's
bones and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. And that's what our Lord says,
don't look on the outward appearance. And no one who saw the tabernacle
under the covering of the badger skin would have thought that
would have dreamed of the wealth and preciousness and glory that
was inside that tabernacle. When you went inside that tabernacle,
and we'll deal with that later, you would not have dreamed of
the wealth when you went inside that. You had the outer court,
30 by 15. The inner court, the holiest
of holies, was 15 by 15. And when you would have never
dreamed of the wealth, the gold, the form, the color, The glorious
beauty within. When you looked on the inside
of this, you know what you'd see? You'd see a golden table. Oh, when you went underneath
that badger skin, you'd see a golden table. And it had showbread on
it, talking about our Lord Jesus Christ being the bread of life.
Then over here it had a golden lamp stand. Give off light for them in there.
Christ is our light. And then they had a golden altar
of incense right there before you went behind the veil. And
oh, when you went in there, you'd breathe that incense that went
up, typifying the prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I
tell you, that was under the badger skin. And then you see
that beautiful veil that was between the holy place and the
most holy place, beautiful veil, all embroidered with scarlet,
blue, and fine silver, twine, linen, beautiful, glorious thing
hung there. And oh my, then you go behind
that veil and then you see the Ark of the Covenant with God's
Holy Law inside of it. And then by God and His sovereign
mercy, what He did is He put a golden table on top of that. And on that golden table, He
called it a mercy sheet. That God will meet us here in
mercy. that God will have a way to save
us and cover that holy law whereby He can save us and justify us
and cleanse us and declare us righteous and then you look over
that and then you see two gold seraphims two golden angels with
their wings spread way out and they both would look one toward
another and their eyes cast down on that person That's under that
badger skin. Oh, and then when you got inside
there, you know what those walls were inside there, inside that
badger skin? The walls was made of gold. The walls, you were in there
in the morns that you looked at them, Gold. Gold. That's under the badger
skin. Huh? Oh my. And then you looked at the ceiling.
Underneath those ram skins. Underneath those badger skins.
There was a linen cloth stretched over that pure white. Purest
white. Stretched over it on the inside.
And then you'll see those cherubims in blue and purple and scarlet. And then when you went in behind
underneath that badger skin, then and only then could you
say, I'm in the place where God is. I see God in this place. And it's only when you see past
our Lord Jesus Christ more than just a man, that you see the
glory and the beauty that's within him. You know you can only get inside,
you know there's only way that you can get into that beautiful
tabernacle, see all that glory and all that beauty. You know
how you got in there, first thing you done, you had to wash. And
they had to go through that labor. And then you had to go by way
of a brazen altar. You had to have a sacrifice and
you had to be made clean. You had to be made pure. You
had to be made holy. And you had to go where that
blood was shed before you could go any further. And beloved,
that's what God done for us. Oh my. And I tell you something,
probably a lot of those Israelites despised that tent too. Probably
a lot of them despised him. And I tell you, they'd gather
there and they'd despise those badger skin. But our Lord Jesus
Christ, how many people looked at him and didn't see nothing
more than a man. And not only a man, but a poor
man. And people ask oftentimes, well, what do you all have? What
do you have? We have what God provided for
us, His blessed Son. Who would want any more? God gave us all He could possibly
give us. Could not give any more. Could
not give anything more precious, anything more virtuous, anything
more glorious, anything more powerful. And we have God's blessed
Son. And He came into this world. To be as Brad prayed and talked
about being our representative. To be our Savior. To be our sacrifice. To be our sin offering. To be
our sacrifice. To put away our sins by the sacrifice
of Himself. What else do we have? We've got
an altar. We've got an altar. And our altar
is not in this world. Our altar says it does right
here. We go to an altar. I go to an altar. Don't you go
to an altar? And it's locked down here. And you go some places, they
got pads on the floor so you won't hurt your knees. Because
you know you can't pray unless you're on your knees. But our Lord Jesus Christ, I
tell you, I've found Him several times standing looking up into
heaven and He's praying with His eyes up to heaven and standing
on His feet. Oh listen, we got an altar and
we can approach God by that altar. Which is the Lord. Is that all? Is that enough? And when men saw our Lord Jesus
Christ, You know, he was so poor and
his mother and father was so poor that when he was born, they
borrowed some old clothes, some old rags to swaddle him in, to
wrap him in, to comfort him in. You'd get a baby at the hospital,
the first thing they'd do, they'd wrap him so tight that they can't
move. And they'd put it in a pocket over their head. Well, our Lord
Jesus Christ, born in a manger, where cattle was fed, animals
laid. And he is so poor, and they wrapped
him in some old clothes, in some old swaddling clothes, and wrapped
him up. Poor, poor. And then when our
Lord Jesus grew up, went out into the world to enter into
the ministry, to enter into the ministry God gave him, he wore
an old course, robe. Seamless robe. And when they
saw that, all they saw was a poor man. A pitiful man. A man that had no abilities.
A man that had no gifts. A man that had no glory. And
they treated him as one despised. They treated him with contempt.
They treated him with the awfulest scorn, despised and rejected.
And look over here in John 8.23 with me. You know, our Lord Jesus
Christ, you know what He said about some men? That's why He
said there's no comeliness about Him, beauty about Him. No comeliness about Him, no beauty
about Him. But I tell you what, they saw
beauty. I tell you what, people did see
beauty in those days. They saw those priests standing
in their robes, standing on the street corners praying, making
long prayers for to be seen of men. But oh not our Lord Jesus Christ.
They didn't see a sovereign, they didn't see a creator, they
didn't see a maker of heaven and earth. Look what it said
in John 8.23. This is our master speaking.
He said unto them, you're from beneath. I'm from above. That's a big distance, ain't
it? He said, you are from beneath.
I'm from above. I came down. I was above all
things. I was above everything. No one was above me except God
my Father. And look what he says, you're
of this world. Then I'm not of this world. I
said therefore unto you, you shall die in your sins. For if
you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. Then
listen to what they said to him now. Then they said unto him,
who in the world are you? Who are you? Who are you? Our Lord said unto them, just
like I told you from the beginning, just like I've always told you.
And see, they said, I'm from above, you're from beneath. They
still didn't recognize it. Look over here in John 8.51,
look over here in verse 51. You know, they didn't see a sovereign
Lord. They didn't see an almighty God.
They didn't see the man that created this heavens and upholds
it by the word of his power. They didn't see Him who put the
stars in the heavens, calls them all by name. That's not who they
saw. Our Lord said in verse 51, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never
see death. Now listen now what they said.
The Jews said unto Him, Now we know that you have a devil. What? Telling the Son of God? Now we
know. They're talking to God. They're
talking to Christ. They're talking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now we know that thou hast a
devil. How do you know? Because Abraham's
dead. And Abraham was our father. And the
prophets are dead. And then you turn around and
tell us, when we believe Abraham, believe Moses and the prophets,
and you turn around and tell us that if a fellow don't keep
your sin, you'll die in your sins? Never taste of death? And they ask you this, are you
greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? And the prophets
are dead? Who do you make yourself to be?
Who do you think you are? That's what they're saying. Our
Lord answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my
father that honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but
I know him. And if I should say I know him
not, I'd be a liar like unto you, but I know him and keep
his saying. Now watch this. Your father Abraham,
the one that you Put so much confidence in. Put so much hope
in. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. He saw it, and oh, he was so
glad. This sent the Jews unto. They
just keep asking him questions. They ain't seen nothing yet.
They are not yet 50 years old. And hast thou seen Abraham? You know what our master said?
Very, very last say unto you before Abraham was. Well, how the hell did they react
to that? They ought to have just rejoiced. They said, oh my, what
a blessed, blessed thing. He said, I am. We know who I
am is. I am the one that sent Moses
to us. I am the one that self-existed. I am the great and glorious God.
Oh, they should have rejoiced, but what did they do? Then they
took up stones to cast at him, going to stone him to death. But this, that's what I was talking
about. There was no beauty about him
that they saw. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
down from His eternal throne, from His blessed throne. from
rejoicing in his father daily his delight the angels worshiping
him he came down from his glorious eternal throne left his father's
bosom to come down into this earth come to sin to come down
to this earth and to visit visit came to visit came to be among
his people And he came and our Lord Jesus said it this way,
Father, all that you give me, I've not
lost a one of them. I come here, Father you gave
them to me and they were thine and I've saved them and there's
only one been lost. And he was lost from the beginning,
the son of perdition. And he came down here to save
his elect, to save his chosen people, and I guarantee you,
beloved, he came down here to do that, and that's done. It's
done. It ain't gonna be done, it's
done. There's elect, you know, if God carries his coming, there's
elect people that ain't even been born yet. And if they're
God's elect, He's already died for them. Already put their sins
away. Ain't that right? When Isaac was born, he wasn't
one of God's elect. When Jacob was born, he wasn't
one of God's elect. Esau wasn't. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
here to save His chosen people. And I tell you, no matter what
anybody saw in Him, And I'll tell you something, he's that
true tabernacle. which God pitched and not man. That one in the wilderness was
pitched by man. God pitched this tabernacle.
Our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ our Lord is the dwelling
place of God where men can know Him, men can worship Him, and
men can submit to Him, and men can rejoice in Him, and men can
fall down before Him and meet with God as men met with God
in the tabernacle. God only meets men in His blessed
Son. And there's no form or beauty
that men saw Him. And when God gives a view, gives
a man a view of who the Lord Jesus Christ is, and that beauty
that's within him, the glory that's only His, the glory that's
only His. And I tell you, He's got all
His The Word dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. His glory
as the only begotten Son of God. But when God gives a man a view
of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that glory and all that beauty,
that beauty of His grace, that beauty of His mercy, that beauty
of His compassion, that beauty of His sovereignty, that beauty
of His pity, that beauty of His mighty work, that beauty of His
salvation, when you see that beauty that's in our Lord Jesus
Christ, And I tell you, when you know how you see it, you
first of all got to go by way of a cross. You got to go where
a sacrifice is offered, where blood was shed, where death was
given. And I tell you what, when you
go by the way of that cross, you know what, you confess that
that shed blood, that work that that man did, that salvation
that he accomplished when he said it is finished, you say
that's the only hope and only salvation I have is what he did
and who did it on that blessed cross. If you ever get a view
of Christ, you'll say that's it, that's Him. I'm not looking
no place else. I'm not looking for nothing else.
I've done... If you ever find what you're
looking for, you quit looking. And listen, that's the wrong
way of saying it. Whenever God finds out who He's looking for,
He stops looking. He gets them. And God only looked
to one place, His blessed Son. But when God gives us a view
of Him, We first see His blessed, blessed place taking place for
us on that cross. I remember, and I hope I'm not
taking too long, I remember early one morning, early one morning, sitting at
the kitchen table, looking out the window, and God opened my heart to see
the Lord Jesus Christ bearing my sin on that cross. Me, just me. My heart broke that
morning. Oh, it broke. I wept and wept
and wept, not counting tears to be out of anything. But I
was so thankful. I was so grateful. I was so blessed. My heart and burdens were so
lifted. My guilt was gone. And then beloved,
He's been my only hope and He's been my only plea since then. He's only my salvation. He only
is my salvation. And if that's not good enough,
there won't be none at all. You can go home and put your
head down on your pillow tonight and if the Lord calls you home
in the morning, Christ is your only salvation, you'll wake up
with Him in the morning. I know and you know, no one will
ever love Him and behold His beauty until God takes out that
stony heart and puts in a heart of flesh. And He breaks that
heart over sin, and when that heart is broken over sin, He
got to give you a heart, a new heart that can be broken over
sin. And when it's broken over sin, it comes to see that glory
and that beauty that's only in our Lord Jesus Christ. Look with
me in Psalm 27 verse 4. And I'll close with this. You know, those that only seen
the badger skins have not been very impressed. Like those men
in the scriptures, they weren't very impressed. But when God
gives you eyes to see inside the tabernacle, God gives you
eyes to see that beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ, to see Him
in His glory. Like that woman said, left her
water pot and said, come see a man. To see him in his glory and Christ
in you the hope of glory look what it says in verse 4 Psalm
27 One thing have I desired of the
Lord That will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life and to behold the beauty of the
Lord and then to inquire of him in his temple Oh my, that's what we're looking
for. Behold the King in His beauty. Oh Lord, our gracious, gracious
Master, our blessed Savior, I thank you for what's been done
in this service, for the prayers that's been prayed, scriptures
that's been read, the songs that's been sung. And I pray that all
those things, along with this message, would cause the saints
of God to be blessed, to be refreshed, to be encouraged and be edified,
be uplifted. And Lord, we pray for your preserving
power, To keep us going out and coming in. To watch over us in
our getting up and our getting down. Lord, we are like children. It's not in us to direct our
steps. We ask you to be the one who directs them. Direct our
steps. Order our lives. And Lord, as Brad's already prayed,
God, give us a greater love and a greater, greater, deeper love
for you than we've ever, ever experienced. And give us a faith
that would never waver, never waver. And give us eyes to only,
only look to you. And we ask these things in your
blessed name. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus, He's the Savior
He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. my soul. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, He's
the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Thank God He is. See you Wednesday,
God willing.