to go in the tabernacle before
they even get the instructions for the tabernacle. Making all
the furniture to go in it. They haven't started on the tabernacle
yet and how it's going to be built. But at the opening of
it, the first page of that, you got the outer court and then
you got the That's where the brazen altar is, that's where
the sacrifice is made, and that's where the labor is. Then there's
a tent stretched over the holy place and the holiest of holies. It's 15 foot wide, 45 foot long. And the first 30 feet, 15 by
30 is the holy place. That's where this furniture that
we're talking about is gonna go. Behind the veil. And then there's another veil. And that 15 by 15, that's the
holiest of holies. That's where the mercy seat was.
And that's the only high priest is only one allowed to go behind
there. So I hope that we can make this understandable. But
they make this furniture before they ever started making the
tabernacle. Then he starts telling how to
put the tabernacle together. But here in verse 23, Exodus
23, Thou shalt also make a table of sheetum wood, two cubits shall
be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit
the height thereof. That's 27 by about 18 inches
if I understand it right, and I don't know how high it is,
but 27 inches high from what I understand. And thou shalt
overlay it with pure gold. and make there to a crown of
gold round about it. 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. And thou shalt make
for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners
on the four feet thereof. Over against the border shall
the rings be for places for the staves to bear the table. And
thou shalt make the staves of sheathen wood, overlay them with
gold, the table may be born with them. And thou shalt make the
dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls
thereof, to cover with all of pure gold shalt thou make them.
And thou shalt set the table of showbread before me always."
Now you can see how it was made. There's the gold crown around
it. There's the staves through it so it could be carried. and
has the crown around it. This table of showbread, there
were three pieces of furniture in the holy place. At that veil,
they went behind it, they went behind it, and there were three
pieces of furniture when they went in there. Right when you
went in and faced it, the first thing you saw was an altar of
incense. That square in the middle, before
the veil going into the holiest of
holies. And when they went in there on
the left hand side of it they had the candlestick. When they
went in the candlestick was over here. Which we ain't dealt with. When you looked over on your
right, well I'm backwards here, this is my left. When you looked
on your left over here, I told you I didn't, I'm one of them
fellas that don't know his right hand from his left. Over here on the left there was
the golden candlestick when they went in and faced it this way
and over on the right was the golden table of showbread. Now it tells us in Leviticus
24 that they would take this showbread and lay it in two rows,
six rows, six in two rows, six loaves in one row, six loaves
in the other. And then they were to take incense
and burn incense and spread incense over the top of that bread. And
that bread was then that incense was as a burnt offering. And
as in all things of our Lord Jesus Christ, this golden table
of showbread shows us our Lord Jesus Christ who speaks of Him
and God's blessed provision of grace for us for His people in
this world. And I tell you what, God gives
us everything that we have in His Son. Everything that God
has for somebody has it in His Son. And so God's grace is provided
for us and that's what this shows a picture of. It speaks of our
Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, it's called the
table of showbread. Now that word showbread means
also the table of his presence. The table of his presence. See
what he says there in verse 30. And thou shalt set upon the table
showbread before me always. In the presence of the Lord.
It speaks of the table of his presence. And this tells of our
Lord Jesus Christ always and ever present with God Almighty. And also that He's ever, ever
present with us. It's bread of the presence that
our Lord is always present with God Himself and always present
with us. Now look over in Proverbs 8.
Proverbs 8. You know, and our Lord, and this
is one thing that our Lord, it's one of those mysteries, and we
read it, Brad read it back there, you know that That the spirit
of man is the only one that knows what's in himself. And nobody
knows the things of the spirit of God but the spirit of God.
And one of the things that God has revealed unto us that our
Lord Jesus Christ said in John 3, that He was both in heaven
and on earth at the same time. Now He said, I'm in heaven, I'm
with my Father, and I'm on earth at the same time. Now that's
one of them deep things of God. But our Lord Jesus Christ is
ever present with God. And that's why when he lifted
up his eyes to heaven he could actually see. That's why when
God come down and covered him and changed his physical presence
and John and James and Peter's sight shows that our Lord was
ever present with God. And he's ever present with us.
There's never a time that our Lord Jesus Christ is not present
with us. We may not feel it, We may not
even enjoy it. We may feel like we've been forsaken
and left all alone, but there never is a time that our Lord
Jesus is not present with us. But look what he said here about
our Lord being with the Father. Again, verse 22. Or verse 23,
excuse me. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, wherever the world earth was. When there
were no depths, I brought forth the depths. When there were no
fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled,
before the hills were, I brought forth. While as yet he had not
made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the earth, when he prepared the heavens, I was there. When
he set a compass upon the face of the deep, when he established
the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, When
he gave his decree to the sea, and the water should not pass
his commandment when he appointed the foundations of the earth,
then I was by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily
his delight, always rejoicing before him. And I tell you what,
so our Lord is present with God and also present with us. And
the material here that speaks, the gold and the wood speaks
of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know when He says the sheet
of wood, that's the wood that didn't decay or wouldn't rot. It wouldn't decay or rot. And
that's what our Lord Jesus Christ. He come in the flesh. He is made
of a woman. Made under the law. He came in
here and our Lord Jesus Christ took humanity. Joined himself
to our flesh. Joined himself to humanity. But
as he was a man, he never saw corruption. Sin has corrupted
this world. Sin has corrupted you and it
has corrupted me. It corrupts everything it touches.
But it never corrupted our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean he's like
that sheet of wood, no rot or decay. He took on our nature
to redeem us. He took on our nature to save
us. He is a real man. Not a pretend
man. He is a real man. You could touch
him. You could feel him. He could
cry. He could get tired. He could
get hungry. A real man, yet without man's
corruption. And the reason he had no corruption,
because he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And God said he would not suffer,
he is the only one to see corruption. And you and I have been corrupted
since the day we were born. You and I are corrupted right
now. You know, we're decaying. You know why? Because we have
got sin in us. And sin is destroying us. Sin
is killing us. And now you know, and this old
body is decaying. And that's why, beloved, if you're
not involved, you've got to be put in the ground within 24 hours. I mean, you think we're so rotten
and corrupt that we have to use mouthwash, we have to use deodorant,
we have to use cologne, we have to use perfume, we have to use
everything to cover up our own stench. But our Lord Jesus Christ
had no corruption. Sinless man. and all beloved
when he died and was buried when I tell you the minute somebody's
dead and buried I mean they start rotting and they start corrupting
when our Lord was buried God said thou suffer not mine holy
one to see corruption he gonna die but he gonna come out of
the grave just like he was when he went in it oh bless his holy name you know
if he was anything other than Perfect humanity, sinless humanity,
took upon himself the likeness of sinful flesh. Not sinful flesh,
the likeness of it. If he had not been a perfect
man, a sinless man, then he could have never saved people like
us. That's why we can't save one
another. That's why we can't do anything for one another.
because we are all just alike but our Lord Jesus Christ so
high above us so gloriously above us and yet come down here and
identify with us to save us from our sin and then that gold he
said overlaid with pure gold pure gold and I tell you this
speaks about our Lord Jesus Christ of his perfect eternal Divinity,
His perfect, eternal Godhead. When God, pure gold, pure gold,
absolute gold, the best gold, the purest gold that there ever
was. You find Him in Revelations,
you have a golden girdle wrapped around Him. And oh beloved, as
a man he is like the sheet of wood. He wouldn't rot or decay.
And then as a man, he was united to God. God and man in one undivided
person. As God, he was able to satisfy
God. As God, he was able to communicate
with God. As God, he was able to bear our
sin. As God, he was able to meet God
on the grounds of God himself. and as a man he come and he was
able to die and to bear sin in his own body on the tree and
beloved he came and in that blessed body he came to fulfill the law
and to provide for us a perfect righteousness he is always God
but he never was a man until he come through the womb of that
virgin now once he became a man he'll forever be a man But only
God, as God He can do something for us. As man He can fill our
infirmities. Bless His holy name. Huh? And
so, oh listen, that gold talks about His glorious, perfect,
eternal deity in Godhead. And then it says, you know, down
in verse 4, it says, Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold and
make a crown of gold around it. Take a crown of gold around it.
It would be like this, the table. You know, you put a crown around
that thing, about like this here. You know, make a crown. This
table having a crown of gold, you know what that tells us about
and speaks of? Our Lord's glorious exaltation. He wears a crown of gold. His
exaltation and His glory. We have a mediator. We have somebody
to go between us and God. And he's now at God's right hand,
he's been exalted. And like that crown, that shows
us that our Lord's exaltation and glory. And then where did
that showbread stand? It stood in the presence of God. He said, verse 30, now shall
set upon the table showbread before me. This showbread stood
in the presence of God. That's why it's called the bread
of presence. It stood in the holy place before the presence
of the Lord Himself. The Lord Himself. And this bread,
this holy bread, this showbread, this bread of His
presence was symbolically set before the Lord of God Himself.
That's what He said. He said, set it before Me. You
notice everything in the scriptures is set before the Lord. He said,
you do this before me. I gave you the pattern. And beloved,
this bread was set before Him continually. And let me say it
this way, as bread, it was fit for God. As bread, it was offered
to God. As bread, it was honored by God
and accepted by God. And do you know what our Lord
Jesus said? They said to him, our fathers
didn't eat manna in the wilderness, and Moses gave them bread in
the wilderness. Our Lord said, Moses didn't give you that bread.
My father gave you that bread. And he said, and I am that true
bread. True bread, which came down from
heaven. And our Lord is the true bread
in God's presence, honoring God, fit for God, and accepted by
God. Huh? that he's the bread of God,
the true bread. And you know what they said?
And I say this too, Lord, evermore, give me this bread. Evermore,
give me this bread. And then look what it says. Well,
I need to show you this. Look over in Leviticus 24. You
need to see this. Leviticus 24. You know, I tell you, we're going
to get to the people that made all this stuff and the wisdom
God gave them to make this stuff, you know. They hadn't made it
yet. He said, this is the way I want you to make it though.
Look what he said here in verse 5 of Leviticus 24. And thou shalt
take fine flour, fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof,
two-tenths deal shall be in one cake, and thou shalt set them
in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table, listen to this
again, before the Lord, and 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. And every Sabbath, every
Sabbath, every Saturday, Friday evening until Saturday at six
o'clock was their Sabbath. Every Sabbath he shall set in
order before the Lord continually being taken from the children
of Israel. and by the everlasting covenant
shall be Aaron's and his son, and they shall eat it in the
holy place for it is most holy unto the Lord, unto him of the
offerings of the Lord, made by the Lord by fire." That's the
12th statute. Now he says 12 loaves of bread
set in stacks of six, frankincense on the top ones. Fires burn on
it and set on it. And 12 is the number of Israel,
God's elect. And you know there's a spiritual
Israel. They're not all Israel, which are of Israel. But they
that are the sons of Jacob, I mean the sons of Jacob, the sons of
Isaac. And 12 is the number of God's
Israel, His elect. And I tell you then, 12 is tribes
of Israel. 12 tribes of Israel, 12 names
upon Aaron's breastplate, 12 stones was erected by Joshua
when Israel crossed Jordan, stacked up 12 stones. And then there
were 12 stones that Elijah made an altar out of when he burnt
the sacrifices facing the false prophets of Baal. That's 12 apostles. There were 12 foundations in
the New Jerusalem. There's 12 gates of the city
of that New Jerusalem. So 12 means something. That means
it's perfect, means it's complete, and means it's accepted. And
you know what? God said this 12 cloves of bread
is going to represent my elect, my people, my people, and all
mine. And it's set upon this golden
table. My golden table, how would you
like to eat bread off a golden table? You hear about people
born with a silver spoon But you ain't never heard nobody
born with a gold one and everything God had made was made out of
gold Couldn't make it out of gold And I tell you this twelve
loaves in the holy place upon the table for God Tells us symbolically
that the high priest has an abundant supply for all the names that
was upon that breastplate for all the people that he represented
because when he took that bread he was taking that bread representing
all the names of the tribes of the children of Israel on his
breastplate. You remember the prodigal The
prodigal. You remember when he, father
gave him, he said, give me my share. I want to go, I want to
leave. I want to go out in the world and make it on my own.
Well, God gave, his father gave it to him. A little while he
spent everything that he had on riotous living. That just
means he partied. That's what riotous means. Party. and having a big time, spending,
he's a big spender, you know. Had lots of friends till everything
was gone. Then he went, joined himself
to an old fella there that raised hogs. That fella said, I'll hire
you to feed my hogs. Okay, I'll do that. And he got
so hungry feeding them hogs that he said, I would eat the husk.
I was so hungry I'd eat the husk. I thought I could eat the husk
off his corn. And he said, and he come to his
mind, his mind come back to him. He said, you know what? There's
been enough in my father's house, and there's even some spare over
there. And you know how much bread's
in our father's house? Have you ever been hungry yet
when the Lord was feeding you? Oh, we come here and we eat. Oh, we eat. He gives us the best
bread, the most precious bread, and He gives it to us Himself.
It comes from His hand. It comes from our high priest's
hand. It comes down here to feed us. Oh, He's got bread enough
and to spare. You say, boy, I tell you what,
listen, there's going to be a marriage supper. There's going to be a
marriage supper. And everyone whom our Lord Jesus
died for and everyone's going to be in glory. He's going to
have every single one of them sit down at the table. You get
what he says? You read about, you know, a great
man made a great supper. Well, I, Lord Jesus Christ, am
going to make a marriage supper. And do you know who each bride
is going to be? Paul said, I espouse you to Christ
as a chaste virgin. And the bride has made herself
ready. She is washed in white, got white
linen. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, am
going to set us all down. And the Scripture says that He
Himself is going to serve us. And I'll tell you what, he gives
us this bread, he gives us enough, and we get all we want sometimes
in the service, all we can possibly handle. Went over to Elders day and ate,
and I ate every bite I could eat and couldn't take another
bite. But God comes here and He feeds us, and you know what? We come back
for more the next time. And this bread was on the table
in two rows. Two rows, you see that, two rows
like that. And there you go in, there's
the priest Aaron and one of his sons standing before that table. Twelve loaves are before him.
He's standing before that table, standing right in front of Him.
There's 12 loaves of bread right in front of Him. Or one of His
sons standing there. Picture if you will, there's
Christ in the holiest of holies. There He is in glory. There He
is in His glory, there He is in His power, there He is in
His majesty. And He is constantly providing
bread for His children, for His people. He comes here and you
know what He gives us? He gives us a handful of grains. Some bread of grains. Young man
left this morning. He says, you know, he said, once
you hear of grace and sovereign grace and free grace, you can't
take anything else. Jesse, your son-in-law said that
today going out and you can't take anything else. I tell you, you get fed grace
and that's all you want. And God feeds him. He's sitting
up there giving us that grace. And then there's the blessed
bread of His providence that He provides for us and guides
us and directs us and provides for us and gives us all we have
in this life. And then there's when we're sorrow
and we're heavy hearted and we're worried and fretful, He comes
and brings us bread of consolation and consoles us. And then he brings us the bread
of his presence. He said, wherever two or three
are gathered together in my name, I'm going to be there. That's
the bread of his presence. And oh, listen to this. Bread
of his electing love and grace. Oh, He brings that bread of His
electing love. Makes us know where He is. Chosen
in Him. Loved of Him. And always will
be loved of Him. Loved before we were. And be
loved from before we ever were. He loved us. And you know He
loved us and He drew us with cords of a man. With the Lord
Jesus Christ. And beloved, when we get to glory,
we'll enjoy that love more than we're ever here. But I tell you
what, I sure enjoy it here awful well. But you imagine what it's
gonna be like to enjoy it there. Oh my. Oh my. I guess every man or every woman
ever once in a while thinks, do they really love me? They
sure don't act like it sometimes. But there never is a time when
our Lord Jesus Christ Don't love us. And He gives us that bread. Oh,
He gives us that bread. And then the frankincense. We read about that frankincense.
On each row of bread had some frankincense put upon it. Pure
frankincense. And it had to be burned. The
bread was to be eaten. The frankincense was to be burned.
And this bread that was to be eaten and the frankincense that
was on it, that's wonderful smell that was put upon that bread.
This speaks of our acceptance with God. That sweet smell, that
bread that's to be eaten, that speaks of our acceptance with
God. You know that the Lord Jesus Christ has to make our worship
acceptable, our praise acceptable, and our praise and worship and
prayers acceptable. We offer spiritual sacrifice
made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. That's the only
kind of sacrifices we can give to God is spiritual sacrifices. We can't give anything else. What else can we give him that
he don't already have? And when we thank the highest
of Him, speak the highest of Him, speak of Him in the highest
way, we have still fell so far short of what He's worth and
what He's worthy of. But I tell you what, you know
I've said this before, sometimes we come in service and sometimes
we get something out of it and sometimes we don't. You know
the reason we don't? It's so flesh. Sometimes I get
up and preach and the Lord blesses it and sometimes you know I have
to stay right with my notes. It's season after season. But whether I feel it Or whether
I'm struggling or whether you don't get anything out of it
or not, you know what? We're still going to come here
and we're going to make the effort to worship Him and to hear about
Him and praise Him. Ain't that right? We may come
here sometime, don't get a thing out of it, but we're going to
come back the next time. I'll get something this time. But
we come here to worship Him. And we fall so far short, but
boy, bless His holy name. We're doing it, we're going to
do it, and we're going to do it with our last breath. God
helping us. And this bread is fresh. Did you know every Sabbath, they
would take the bread and they'd bring fresh, 12 fresh loaves
into the tabernacle, put it on the table. Aaron was to set fresh
bread on that golden table every Sabbath. And I tell you what,
before we eat any bread that God gives us, it was prepared
before it was ever taken into the tabernacle. And I'm going
to use this as kind of an illustration. God helped me to bring fresh
bread every week. Yeah, fresh bread. May I bring
fresh bread to the table. There's nothing like fresh bread.
Nothing like it at all. It's so good. And then the priest
ate it in the presence of the Lord. They stood there. And they
ate that in the presence of the Lord. and we have the bread of
God we have our Lord Jesus Christ and as we sit here and eat the
bread that God provides for us the bread of grace and righteousness
and forgiveness and justification and grace and mercy and he sets
the table before us we eat we eat in the presence of our Lord
right now as we sit here You know, you watch these little
old birds, you know, their mommas run down, get something to eat,
and they get up there and their mouths go... Just go on like that. Well, that's kind of the way
we get it. You know, we come and we... Oh, Lord, fill us.
Fill our mouths. You know, preachers, there's
a verse of scripture over in the Psalm. I don't know exactly
where it's at. It says, open your mouth and I'll fill it.
And that means that God's going to fill it with food. He's going
to take care of it. Preachers used to say, Lord,
God said, open your mouth and I'll fill it, you know. So they
used to get up to preach and I prepared and they said, well,
if the Lord don't fill my mouth today, I won't have nothing to
say. That's the dumbest thing. That's an awful interpretation
of Scripture. That's why their mouth is filled
with hot air and nothing to say. Isn't that right? But boy, I tell you what, you
know, this is wonderful. This is wonderful. That God provide
for us As a preacher, I remember a preacher
tell me that he wouldn't even get ready until it was a few
hours before time to go to service. He said, I want to wait so when
I get it ready, it'll be hot out of the oven and I can bring
it to the service. Hot out of the oven and I can
bring it to the service. I hope that's a blessing. Table
of showbread. Oh, golden table. Our Father, praise your blessed
name for allowing us to meet here tonight, for allowing us
to sit in your presence again, for feeding us once again from
your hand to our mouth, from your word to us, to our understanding. Oh, how blessed we are of you
that you are high priest, that you are bread, and that you provide
our bread, and you set the bread before us. We bless you and praise
you. And Lord, we thank you for everything
in your word that speaks of you and makes you known unto us in
a different way, in a new way, a precious way. And we thank
you for it. We thank you for it. God bless
these dear saints. And Lord, those that are not
with us tonight, God continue to bless Bill, Dorotha, Bruce,
Joe, Bruce and Sandy, Fran, Patsy. Oh Lord, God bless Patsy. Strengthen her and Helen. Lord
Jesus, you got people. Help us to remember them before
you. For Christ's sake, we thank you.
Praise you. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to number 51
in the hymn book. Let's stand together. We'll sing
this and then you'll be at liberty to go. 51. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Kindly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us. Nothing fits and arms us, nothing
moves and nothing arms us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, He sings forever,
He is faithful, changing never. Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us clinging
To Thyself and still believing Till the hour of our receiving
Promise joys within I love this verse. Then we shall be where
we would be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are not and never
could be soon shall be our own. Good night and God bless you. See you Wednesday, Lord willing.