We'll talk about the tabernacle
some more, go through some things about the tabernacle. Last week
we talked about the golden pot of manna, Aaron's rod that was
put in the ark of the testimony. Tonight I'm going to talk about
the hangings, the veils, all the hangings that were put up
outside and inside the tabernacle. The first one I want to look
at is here in verse 16 of chapter 27. Three hangings. And of course there will be a
couple more messages on this. But these were veils and curtains. And for the gate of the court,
the court, you know there's the court, the outer court, set on pillars. It had a curtain
over it. You couldn't even see inside
it. And therefore they gave the court shall be a hanging of 20
cubits of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twine linen wrought
with needlework being embroidered. And their pillars that it hangs
on shall be four and their sockets four. So this is the hanging
of the court. I think it's on the first page
of this thing. That's the court, yeah. Right there is what we're talking
about. Four pillars. And that's what we're talking
about, right there. That outward court, that hanging of the court.
And then this outward hanging, this hanging, we have the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's on that very first page.
that outer court you see the tabernacles inside that outer
court and in this hanging we have the Lord Jesus Christ as
the way you know our Lord said he's the way he's the truth and
the life and when that hanging hanging on that outer court we
have the Lord Jesus Christ as the way into that outer court
And the scriptures teaches us that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only way. There's no other way. No other
way. And that no man can find God
as the Father. No one can know Him as God. No
one can know Him as the Father except the Lord Jesus Christ.
You got to go through Him. You got to enter through Him.
And He Himself says no man. No man. So many places in the
scriptures where it says no man. no man can come unto me and here he says no man can come
unto the father but by me And I wished if I had not told you
this time and time again, if there was one message I could
preach to a great, big, huge crowd, it would be this, that
there's only one way to God. One person that God will allow
you into his presence. And there's only one way into
this tabernacle, into this outer court. And that veil hung up
there showed that this is the only way in. And the moment that
you walked behind that caning, that outer court hanging, the
first thing you saw when you pulled that back, there was a
brazen altar sitting right there. That's the first thing you laid
eyes on. And when you as Ray walked in there, the first thing
you was facing with was a brazen altar. And that brazen altar
speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ. The brass could stand the fire.
It could stand the wrath of God. It could stand the fire of the
sacrifice that's offered on it. And so when you pushed it aside,
you entered in there face to face with the brazen altar. And
when you looked at that brazen altar, there was all kinds of
blood on it and blood around it. You didn't walk in there
and see this real pretty scene, this glorious looking scene.
When you all pushed that aside, there's that brazen altar. blood
on it it had horns on one on each corner so that they put
that sacrifice on there it wouldn't fall off and they set that fire
and start burning it and they went in there with blood I'll
tell you they slew that animal and laid it on that altar and
blood was everywhere that's what you was confronted with when
you went in there and when you went in there the first thing
you couldn't come into that presence and behind that veil or behind
that entering without having that sacrifice in the shed blood
and you yourself couldn't offer it you had to have somebody else
to offer it the high priest was the only one that could offer
that sacrifice and then when you went in there you had to
say that sacrifice was for me and you confessed that you was
the sinner and that you needed the sacrifice And the only way
you can come into the presence of God is by a bloody way. You
got to have a sacrifice. You can't got one. You ain't
got a blood shedding. You ain't got one. Well, who
in the world does? the way for Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you what, when they
come in there, you had to stand on the sole and absolute ground
of your approach to God by that sacrifice, by that blood, and
by that altar that only God, the high priest, the priest himself
is the only one that can offer it. And beloved, you have to
say, it's mine. It had to be like you read tonight,
Lord, It's against you and you only
that I sin. And I confess, oh Lord have mercy
on me. Wash me. Cleanse me. Cleanse
me throughly. And I tell you when you walked
up there and saw that hanging out there. It's pretty on the
outside. Beautiful on the outside. But
boy, that's the only way. And when you opened that up and
went in there, you was faced with a bloody altar, bloody sacrifice. And he had this, you know, over
in Leviticus and Scott Richardson used to preach this and he said,
you had to lay your hands on the head of the sacrifice. Why
did you do that? To confess that this sacrifice
is mine and I confess my sins on this sacrifice so that I won't
die and he'll die. And then the priest would take
your sacrifice and go in there. Well that's what we do when we
come face that brazen altar. I need a sacrifice. I need bloodshed. That's the first thing and you're
going to approach God, that's what you got to do. First thing
you face, sacrifice. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
the only way. And secondly, our Lord Jesus
Christ is the way to the Father. Now let me tell you something,
Christ is the Son and Christ knows Him as the Father. He said,
My Father, My Righteous Father, My Holy Father, My Father, My
God. And I'll tell you what, if you
want to know God as Father, as a Father, You got to know him
through his only begotten son. And I tell you what, when you
face that brazen altar, That tells us about the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. You can't separate our Lord Jesus
Christ from His cross no more than you can separate Him from
the altar on which He was sacrificed. Now let me tell you something
that I learned years ago, and I read through Gil's Body of
Divinity, and the only thing I got out of it that really stuck
with me, two volumes of it, I read through that thing and
the only thing I got out of it that really, really stuck with
me was that Christ offered His humanity upon the altar of His
divinity. What that means is that Christ
Himself offered Himself and the altar upon which He offered Himself
was His deity, His Godhead. That cross was not an altar. You don't put criminals on an
altar. That cross was not an altar for
our Lord Jesus Christ. His own deity was His altar. I tell you what, Christ is our
altar. How did He become our altar?
How did He become one with us and how did He do that? Well,
He had His sinless humanity. And when He was on that cross,
that humanity was offered on that altar of His divinity, His
deity, His Godhead. That's the only way He could
suffer. He could suffer as a man. He could offer a sacrifice for
sins as a man. He could suffer for sins as a
man. But He could not satisfy God
as a man. How can he satisfy God as a man? Being God. That's why God said Christ became
a sweet smelling savor unto Christ. Ah, yes. And I tell you what,
and just like you got to go by way of the cross, we say go by
the way of the cross without the shedding of blood, there's
no remission of sin. And when you walk through that
veil and walk across that thing, the first thing you meet is blood
before you go any further. You can't take another step further
until you face that blood. You've got to have blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there ain't no sins going to be paid for. and just as he's
the only way and the way to the Father and just as our Lord Jesus
was that altar and led the way by that altar and blood-stained
ground and every inch of it was blood-stained and it was the
way into the tabernacle you know before you could go into the
tabernacle where there was that veil in the tabernacle, and there
were two veils in that tabernacle. Before you could go into that
tabernacle and approach where God was, the only way you could
do it was go every inch of it as a bloody way. And so our Lord
Jesus Christ is the way to God the Father, God the Son, God
in every way that He is, as you go by the cross. And there He
is, owned as our substitute for us. As our sin bearer for us. Pouring out His blood for us.
And yes, He's the way. Pictured by that curtain. And
I'll tell you something else. It was the only way in. There's
only one door in that place. One way. One door. What did our Lord Jesus say about
Himself? I'm the door. I'm the door. There ain't but
one door. They say, you know, we all go
in the same place, we just go different ways. No, no. Ain't but one way. If there was
three or four doors, how would you be sure that you got in the
right door? Somebody was going to the hospital
the other day, said the best way to get in there is to go
around this way and go in that door there. And I said, yeah.
Do you know how many doors they got in places? But if there's
only one door in the way, then you cannot be mistaken in how
to get there. And Christ is the door, the only
way. He is that door. And I'm going
to tell you something. You keep this and look in John
chapter 10 and verse 1. I want you to see this. I want
you to see this. You know, He's the door. And
religion wants to climb up some other way. They want to climb
over the fence. They want to climb over the fence.
John chapter 10, look here at verse 1. Look what it says here. John chapter 10 verse 1, look
what it says, our master says here. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, he that entereth not in by the door into the sheepfold,
but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." You know, and that's why a lot
of folks that still wanted to go through the door, they got
to figure out a way to get over. And in Bundy's Pilgrim's Progress,
they were on the straight and narrow way. Christian and faithful
were on their way to that celestial city. And they was walking along,
and they met all these different characters along the way, and
they was walking along, and as they was going the narrow way,
all of a sudden this fella jumped over the fence. And got right
up with them. And landed right where they was. And they told him, said, well,
how did you get up here with us? He said, we started way back
yonder, and we've been on this way a long time. He said, well,
I found an easier way. And I'm up here even with you,
and I just jumped over the fence. And they called him Mr. Talkative.
You know why they called him Mr. Talkative? He knew a lot
about religion, but he didn't know anything about Christ. And
Ed asking questions, he just, but he climbed over another way. And beloved, I don't care how,
any way you go, besides through Christ, you'll end up wrong. Ain't that right? If you don't
go through Christ, If you don't come to God, come to the Father,
and come by a bloody way, by way of His blessed cross and
sacrifice, you'll end up wrong. You can't get to the end without
starting out at the finish. Is that right? Starting out at
the beginning. You can't get to the end unless you start right. Huh? Let me show you something
else. Now look over here in Exodus
36 and verse 37. And we'll show you another hanging.
He's the way. In Exodus 36 and verse 37. Now this is for the tabernacle.
This is for the tabernacle. This is the tabernacle inside
there. Y'all see that? This is out of court. There's that brazen altar. Here's
the tabernacle. now he's talking about making
one for the tabernacle in verse 37 and he made a hanging for
the tabernacle door of blue and now every one of these are the
same color blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen
of needlework or embroidery so now we want to talk about the
hanging of the tabernacle if the hanging of the gate that
goes into the The outer court was the way this sets forth our
Lord Jesus Christ as the truth. Now when you went behind that
veil into the tabernacle, you went behind it, there was a revelation. When you went behind it, you
saw things that you couldn't see in the outer court. And when
you've seen behind this one, and that priest had to go behind
it, crawl under, crawl around it, get down, and all the way
through is in there to go into that tabernacle. And he come
face to face with three things, three things that told the truth
about our blessed Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. The first
thing you saw was the table of showbread. Remember that table
of showbread when you walked in there? Over here is the table
of showbread. Made out of wood and gold. Incorruptible wood and gold overlap. That incorruptible wood is the
humanity of our Savior. The gold is His deity, His glory. And there was that table of showbread.
And I say the only people that could eat that showbread was
those priests. And that tells us that we are
sons and kings and priests unto God. And we, the only bread that
we have, that they had, was the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, they told his, they told our master, said, you know, our
fathers didn't eat man in the wilderness and they're all dead. And our Lord said, Moses didn't
give you that bread, but my father gave him that bread. My father
gave it to him. And you know what he said? I'm
the true bread. Where'd you come from? From heaven. And he that eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood. Now is he talking about literally?
No, he's talking about spiritually. And I tell you what, we feed
on Christ. We feed on His flesh. We feed
on His blood. That's our life system. That's
what we live on and live by. And that showbread, that table,
bore that bread. And our Lord Jesus Christ, bless
His holy name, He is that true bread which came down from heaven.
And that's why they told Philip, said, Philip, When our Lord said
He's that bread, they said, you tell Him we evermore want this
bread. Evermore give us of this bread. Don't give us just one meal.
And I'll tell you something else. Once that bread was eaten, there's
fresh bread put in its place. You eat that bread? Wouldn't
get stale. They'd put some new on. And that's
the way Christ is. He never gets stale. He's always
fresh. And it's always new. I remember I used to bake bread
all the time. And listen, you don't want somebody
to break bread two or three times a week. And then they get it
out of the oven or out of whatever you bake it in. You don't want
to eat that three or four times a week. You get that stuff and
it's hot. And you break it apart and get you some butter and just
go slather that butter on. Next thing you know, you're 25
pounds too heavy. But I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ, listen, we can eat Him, and it's sweeter than honey,
sweeter than honeycomb. He's the most tasteful thing
I've ever ate in my life. I tell you, Christ is the most
wonderful food I've ever ate. And I've eaten a lot of good
food. We ate a lot of good food today. But there's nothing like
feeding on Christ. It gives you a lot. It gives
you life in your soul. It puts a spring in your step. It puts a twinkle in your eye. It puts joy in your heart. It puts peace in your soul. It fills you up to where you
think, Lord, I can't take anymore. And then you come back the next
morning and say, Lord, I'm empty again. Ain't that the way we
are? He's that showman. And then the next thing you saw
was that golden candlestick. That golden candlestick. And
it was made out of seven branches. This thing was solid gold. Solid
gold. Our Lord Jesus Christ pure gold. Everything about Him is pure.
No alloy in Him. No spot in Him. No blemish in
Him in any way. And that golden candlestick there
is set. And the only light that they
had was that candlestick. Now what light do we have? What's
the only light we have? Christ is the only light we have.
Lord, light my way. The path of the just shineth
more and more unto the perfect day. And that golden candlestick
gave off as the only light that they had. Only light in that
place. Only light. And bless His holy
name. Here's another thing. The only light we have is Him.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm the light. He that walketh and
followeth me shall not walk in darkness. Ain't that what He
said? You can't walk in darkness if
you follow Christ. People asked me, a couple people
asked me over the years said, how do I know that I'm trusting
Christ? I said, if you're trusting Christ it's impossible to be
fooled. You cannot be deceived and trust
Christ. You can't do it. When you understand
that He's everything and He's all you want and He's all you
need, you cannot be deceived if you trust Christ alone. It's like you know, I'm going
to jump off this cliff and I'll tell you what, I know somebody's
going to catch me just as quick as I go off. And we jump off
and beloved, guess who catches us? The Lord Jesus Christ. When we are lost, who found us?
The Lord Jesus Christ. When we are in darkness, who
brought the light to us? The Lord Jesus Christ. And right now, right now, the
only light we have, and this light I'm talking about revelation,
is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And I'll tell you something else,
there were seven, seven branches of that golden tree. And you
know what seven stands for? Perfection. We have a perfect light in Him. Perfect light in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Perfection. Everything about
Him is perfect. Perfect. And our Lord Jesus said,
I am the light, and he that followeth Me, and I love this statement,
shall not walk in darkness. He won't let you. You know why?
Because He's the light. He won't let you. And I tell
you what, the only people who need light is people who was
in the dark. Bats don't need light because
they love darkness. Well, and then there's the golden
altar of incense. When you went behind that veil,
you saw three things. Table of showbread, the golden
candlestick, and that golden altar of incense. And that golden
altar of incense, there was a certain thing that they used to make
the fragrance that they put on that altar. And they would crush
a bunch of things together and they would put it in that incense. And every day they had to light
that. Every day they kept that thing
full. And every day it was lit. And every day that thing went
up. When you went in there, you could smell that incense. You
could smell that incense. Back when I was in my hippie
days, everybody used incense. Let me tell you, this is the
truth, and this is kind of embarrassing. But back in them days, they had
what they called head shops. And you go in there and you bought
all kinds of paraphernalia and stuff like that. But you go in
there and they had every kind of incense under the sun. And
everybody, everywhere you went, they had incense stuck up. And
in there, they had three or four. And you go in there and the first
thing you smell is that incense. Boy, I like that. I want to take
some of that home with me. And you like that incense smelling.
Well, this incense right here was God's incense. God told them
how to make it. Told him exactly what to put
in it. How much to put in it. And beloved, God Himself smelled
this. Let me show you. I think it's
in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
2. I tell you the belovedness, our
Lord Jesus Christ. He's a sweet smelling savor.
In Ephesians chapter 5. Look it here with me. You know,
that table of showbread, the golden candlestick, and the golden
altar of incense. And there's lots of people still
burning incense. There's nothing wrong with it.
But look what it says here. In Ephesians chapter 5, 1 and 2.
Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk
in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself
for us," now listen to it, "...an offering and a sacrifice to God,
for a sweet-smelled savour." You know, if God smelled us as
us, but He don't smell us, He smells
Christ. because he gave himself an offering
to God as a sweet smelling savor. And I tell you what, that sweet
smelling savor goes up to God, and that sweet smelling savor
not only does it go to God, but it comes up before us. I mean,
you know, when we hear Christ preached and the gospel preached,
it's got the most wonderful fragrance and smell to us. Oh, it smells
wonderful, wonderful. And in these symbols, In all
this tabernacle and in this veil and in that hanging, we see the
truth of God's way in grace. God provided everything about
that tabernacle. It was His pattern. Everything
was made according to what He said. And that shows us that
the way into truth is by grace. God provided everything, just
like grace. God alone provided salvation
by grace. God alone provided His Son to
be our Redeemer. God alone brought glory to His
Son and His Son alone. And I tell you, outside of that
tabernacle, outside that outer court, you couldn't know anything. You couldn't know it, but when
you went in, that's when you learned something. And I tell
you what, when you got in that tabernacle, went behind that
thing, behind that veil, there you saw truth. And it can only
be revealed through our Lord Jesus Christ in God. You see,
Christ is the truth about God and the truth of God. Grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, let's look at the other
one over here in Exodus 26, verse 31. Let me show you another one. 26, 31. And we're going to have
to go back and look at these veils again. There's so much
about these veils to deal with. I've got two more messages on
the veil. I'm just hitting the high spots
tonight. Look in Exodus, this is the veil
into the holiest of holies now. There's a veil, the tabernacle
is 15 by 45. And when you went in there, then
there's another veil, 15 by 15. There's this veil here, the table
of showbread, the candlestick, and the golden altar. And then
you went behind another veil, And there was nothing there but
the mercy seat and under that mercy seat was the ark of the
testimony. So this is that veil that goes
into the holiest of holies. Verse 31. Notice every one of
these is the same color. And thou shalt make a veil of
blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen of cunning work. The only difference is they're
going to put cherubims in this one. and cherubim shall it be
made, and thou shalt hang it up on four pillars of sheetum
wood, overlaid with gold. Their hooks, what you hang them
on, shall be of gold." You know you ladies hang these curtains,
you got things that you hang them on? Well, they're going
to hang this curtain on gold. Gold hooks are going to be up
there to hold this one up. And then those things are going
to sit on four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up the veil
under the teshes, that they mayest bring it in hither within the
veil of the ark of the testimony. And the veil shall divide between
you and the holy place and the most holy." Two places, the most
holy. And as beautiful as those other
two hangings were, the one on the outer court and the one into
the tabernacle, This veil was exceptionally, exceedingly, glorious,
more beautiful. And I tell you what, we'll deal
with the color one of these days, but the color, gorgeous in color,
beautiful in color. And then, you know, when you
had that thing, you had these two cherubims embroidered in
it, just like over the mercy seat, these two cherubims, and
they're facing one another, just like over the mercies. And I
tell you when they outspread their wings and there they were
hanging there in that veil, and that showed the powers of deity
and the ability that they could fly and take the gospel anywhere
in the whole universe if they would to be. And I tell you that
the hanging of the gate represents the way, and the hanging of the
door of the tabernacle represents the truth of this veil. shows
our Lord Jesus Christ's life, the very life of God Himself.
And that's why when you went there, they said it will separate
you between the holy place and the most holy place. You know
what the difference was between this veil, this veil here and
those three pieces of furniture and that veil and this one behind
it? You know what the difference was? God dwelt behind the last
one. He sat on that mercy seat. We
sung, oh how merciful, oh how merciful. God said that He sat
on the mercy seat. God sits where mercy sits. He sits on mercy. And old John
Bundy said one time, he said, he's got bags of mercy he ain't
even opened yet. And every once in a while He'll
open one of them bags of mercy and He'll cause that just to
open up on you. A big rain of mercy, a rain of
grace come down on you. And all I tell you what, He's
the truth and the way and the life. And when you went behind
that, that's where God dwelt. That's where holiness dwelt.
That's where righteousness dwelt. That's where the blood was sprinkled
on the mercy seat was. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He's
life. You know, here's the blessed
thing about Him. There never was a time when He
wasn't life. When He was in eternity with
His Father before He ever came in time, He was life. You know
how God made the world? And created everything in the
world? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord says, It says about Him, by Him and for Him were
all things created. By Him and for Him were all things
created. And by Him, everything that exists,
exists. He was life before you ever got
here. He was light before you ever come into this world. He
was the light that lit up glory. He was the way before you ever
come into this world. And I tell you what, and when
he come into this world, that life from eternity broke into
time and took upon himself humanity. And he was eternal, he was eternity
with his father and for us to be saved, for God to redeem us,
for God to wash us and cleanse us and make us acceptable. Our
Lord Jesus Christ came down here and was made flesh and God became
visible in His blessed Son. And John said it like this, that
life, that eternal life, we have seen it, we have touched it,
and we have handled it. That's what he said about it.
He said that eternal life from the Father, we've seen it, we've
touched it, and we've handled it. And I'll tell you what, and that's
why he became visible. He could be seen and handled.
And since the veil is a symbol, this one into the holiest of
holies is a symbol of our Lord incarnate as eternal life. And it sets forth him as life
which alone any man can enter within the veil. and go behind
that veil and enter into heaven and spend eternity with him as
a child of God. Now I'm going to show you that
over in Hebrews chapter 10. Let's look at Hebrews 10 and
I'll wind this up. Hebrews 10. We're going to deal
with these veils again. But in Hebrews 10, look what
it says about our Lord Jesus Christ. Down here in verse 19.
Hebrews 10, 19. Now where God was alone behind
there, that's where life dwelt. That's where life dwelt. It dwelt
behind that veil. That's where God dwelt. That's
where mercy dwelt. That's where wholeness and righteousness
was. And you got to enter that veil.
And we'll get to enter one of these days. Look what it says
in Hebrews 10.19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
and in the margin it says liberty. Having liberty, confidence to
enter into the holiest. Now you notice what it says,
the holiest, by the blood of Jesus. And then look what he
says, it's a new way. And he says it's a living way.
A living way. You know why it is a new and
a living way? Because Christ ever lives. He is the same today,
yesterday and forever. And by a new and living way which
he hath newly made or consecrated for us Now listen to this, he
may open the way for us into this holiest of holy by his blood
and he made this new in a living way through the veil. What is
that veil he's talking about? His flesh. And that's one thing I'm going
to talk about. That veil was written in twain when our Lord
Jesus Christ said it was finished. Well, Christ, His flesh, was
a veil between us and God. And all the way there, Christ
said, that veil is opened away. Now we, ourselves, can come into
the holiest, how? By the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at this. And that veil was
His flesh. That veil is His flesh. And that
flesh, Now, beloved, he's got flesh and bone. And then he said,
and having a high priest over the house of God, whose house
are we? Let us, let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
What are you washing with? With the blood of Christ. And I tell you what, he rent
that veil in two. We're going to deal with that.
But let me close with this. Once our blessed Christ of beauty
was veiled from human view, but through suffering, death, and
sorrow, he has rent the veil in two. Oh, behold the man of
sorrows. Oh, behold him in plain view.
Lo, he is the mightier conqueror, since he rent to fail into.