26. Now I know that I did not finish chapter 25 because in chapter 25 I made it down to verse 9 and that was just the materials that were to be gathered from the people.

And then it went to the ark and then to the table of the showbread and then to the lampstand. And as I was reading this week, I thought I would rather stay on the tabernacle and run it out. And then when I get to the ark, I want to stay with the ark and run it out until it disappears in scriptures. just trace it out. And then the table of showbread, and then the clamp stand, then there'll be the laver where the priest washed his hands, and you have the altar where they burn the sacrifice, and you have the altar of incense.

A lot to cover, and I don't want to hurry through it. As I looked at it this week, I thought, I don't want to hurry through this. there's so much in this, it can be so encouraging to us to look at it more slowly and to really see it in reference to Christ because if we miss Christ, it's just another tent, it's useless to us, it's just another tent.

And what I'm going to say this morning, I said a lot of it last week, but I do that I do that every week. I preach the gospel every week. I repeat every week. I have nothing new to say. It's the same old message and it's the same new message. It's old and it's new, isn't it? All the time. Now the theme of this message is this, and this is what I wanted to do more this morning than I was able to do last week. I really want to concentrate on this.

Concerning Christ, we have the spotless man, we have the heavenly man, we have the royal man, we have the suffering man, and we have our Savior. We have our Savior and the title, I'm about to forget to give you the title. The title is Christ is in the details. Christ is in the details. Did you notice and I had him to read this whole chapter and I'm not going to touch on everything in this chapter, too much for one morning. But did you notice how meticulous, how meticulous this This was given to Moses.

I mean, every detail down to the rings that was used on the side of the tabernacle and boards were put through it to hold the tabernacle together. And it's just all the curtains, the veil is made of the same thing that the curtain that it covers is made of. It's made of the same thing that the door is made of. It's made of the same material that the curtain, when you come into the to the courtyards made of. All of it, all of it is Christ, every bit of it.

So as we look at Exodus 26 this morning, we re not just reading an instruction manual. This is more than an instruction manual. We are standing before a portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we don t. They make these portraits of Christ and they hang them on the wall. THAT'S NOT A PORTRAIT OF CHRIST! THIS IS! WHAT WAS JUST READ TO YOU THIS MORNING, THIS IS A PORTRAIT OF CHRIST! NOT THAT GUY THAT LOOKS LIKE WILD BILL HICKOCK! THAT'S NOT A PORTRAIT OF CHRIST! THIS IS A PORTRAIT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

IT'S GIVEN TO US HERE IN THE SCRIPTURES. The tabernacle was God's dwelling, it was His dwelling place among His people. One place is called a tent of meeting. That's where God met with His people. But it's more than that. It's far more than that. For some people, a lot of the Israelites, that's all they saw. But for those who had eyes to see and ears to hear, they saw more than just the tents there.

It's more than that, it's a shadow, it's a divinely designed picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every thread, every thread, every collar, every covering speaks of Christ. It speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is in every detail. That's how I got my title. I thought of this and I realized that every, every minute thing speaks of Him. And I thought, well, Christ is in the details. Meticulously put together by God. And I noticed something here, something else just stood out to me.

The people lived in tents. They traveled in tents. So the Lord lived in a tent. He tabernacled among them. His presence was made known in this tent. This tells us and shows us and agrees with the scripture over in the New Testament. He became bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. He tabernacled among us. You know, this body we have is spoken of as a tent. We actually live in a tent. It's a tent. It's temporary. It's temporary. We see that all the time. Funerals every day. It's just temporary. That's all it is. He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He was not ashamed to be called or to call us His brethren. Not ashamed to call us His brethren. Not ashamed to be identified with us. He had this tent made that He made tabernacle among His people.

And you'll notice something else that's not here. There was no iron used. This stood out to me this week. There was no iron used. There's brass. There's gold. There's silver. But no iron. Iron rusts. Iron will rust. Iron decays. There is no decay in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything used was durable until it was needed no more because it was only a type of Christ, but everything used was durable. None of it rusted away. None of it had to be replaced. It was lasting. It was not replaced, it was lasting.

Now listen, where did all this material come from? They re in the desert. EGYPT GAVE THEM ALL THE MATERIAL AS THEY WERE ABOUT TO LEAVE, ALL THIS MATERIAL, I DON'T THINK WE REALIZE WHAT A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF MATERIAL WAS GIVEN TO THEM. IT WAS GIVEN TO THEM, IT WAS GIVEN FOR THIS PURPOSE. AND WE NEED TO REMEMBER THIS, THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, PSALM 24, THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S AND THE FULLNESS THEREOF, THE WORLD AND THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN, IT WAS ALL GOD'S. It was all the Lord's. Now listen, God made Egypt rich. Why? For Israel. He made them rich for the sake of His people. It says in Genesis 15, 14, That nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out with great substance. GREAT SUBSTANCE! THE EGYPTIANS JUST LOADED THEM UP! THEY JUST THREW THE GOLD AND THE SILVER, I MEAN, MASSIVE AMOUNTS!

We'll see here in just a little bit how much silver was given to them because all the base of this tabernacle, everything about that was made of silver. It was made of silver. Each thing of silver where the pegs went in weighed 75 pounds. And I was reading somewhere there was 100 of them. There was 7,500 pounds of silver. That's a lot of silver, isn't it? That's a lot of silver. That's a few tons of silver that was given to them. It was just thrown upon them, but we'll get to that in a little bit.

But all this material now, all this material that was given to them has to be put together. It's got to be put together. A pile of threads is nothing. You have a pile of blue, you have a pile of purple, you have a pile of scarlet, you've got the pile of the white, the fine linen. All of that separate means nothing, but all this has got to come together. All of it's got to be put together. All of it's got to be woven together by a master craftsman and craftswomen.

You know, there's a man whose name was Bezalel and another one named Aholaib. God, it says, gave them wisdom and the ability to work and put all this together. It says also that all the women who were gifted artisans spun yarn with their hands. God gifted, He blessed His people to be able to do this, to be able to put all this together. And now that all this is put together, they've woven all this together. And only God can give such a gift, only God can do that.

I want us to walk through the tabernacle and behold the man, the man Christ Jesus this morning. That's what I want to do. I want us to look at the man, this Galilean, this one they say can any good thing come from Nazareth. I want us to look at him this morning and I want to say a little more about him this morning than I was able to last week. Lord willing enable me to do so. Now outside, outside of this tabernacle, it looked like a tent in the desert. Inside was the real beauty of it.

If there were two men standing on a hill, if there were two Philistines standing on a hill and they'd look down, they'd see this tent and this fence, this white linen fence around it, they'd say, what are they doing? That must be where the captain lives. Must be where their head lives. Well, they wouldn't be far off, would they?

Because God said that's where my presence is going to be known. This is a special place. Jesus Christ is a special place. Jesus Christ is where we meet God and God meets with us. Outside of Christ, there's no meeting with God. There is absolutely no meeting with God outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this tabernacle, it looked like Any other tent, any other tent.

But I tell you this, inside, inside is the beauty, the glory, the Shekinah glory of God. In that man, in that man, Jesus Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All that God is, dwells in Him. All that God is, dwells in Him. If you and I want to know God, we have to go to Christ. We have to go to Him and in Him is where we find out who God is.

In Him is where we see the glory of God's full character. We see the fullness of His character in Jesus Christ. You don't see the fullness of God's character at Mount Sinai. You don't see it in the Ten Commandments. You see it in Jesus Christ. In Him. And this tabernacle represents Christ everywhere, Christ in all, and Christ alone, that's what it represents.

And now we come to the SPOTLESS MAN, this SPOTLESS MAN, the fine twine linen, that's where it started, that's what's first mentioned. In Scripture, this white linen speaks of purity. You go over to Revelation 19, it speaks of it being the white linen, the righteousness of the saints, which is His righteousness. His righteousness is our righteousness. It speaks of His purity. It speaks of His spotlessness is what it speaks of. He's the spotless man. He was not merely a good man, He was not a better man than others.

He was an absolutely sinless man. Now we can't comprehend that because all we have ever known is sin. That's all we've ever known. I can't imagine what it'd be to die, to finally die, and wake up and no sin. To wake up and never have a sinful thought, and wake up with no bad attitude ever again. Just nothing but purity. Purity of thought, I mean, that's incomprehensible. But he was a sinless man.

When the angel spoke to Mary in the Gospel of Luke, he declared, That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The Son of God. In Mary's womb was a full human being WHO WAS HOLY, HARMLESS, UNDEFILED, SEPARATE FROM SINNERS. HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY! That's what they cried in Heaven. And that Holy, Holy, Holy One came into this world in the womb of a virgin, Mary.

You know, God has only created two men, you know that? God only created two men, the first Adam and the second Adam. God created Adam and Eve, and we were BORN from them. And then God created the second Adam, which is the Lord from Heaven. He created in the womb of that virgin a MAN, a HUMAN BEING who is the Lord from Heaven, and we are born from Him. All who are born of God are born from above, are born from Him. Now this man, this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, He walked through this world. Now here's a great mystery. He walked through this world and was never defiled by it. He was never defiled by this world.

He touched a leper. What does scripture say? If anyone touched a leper, he's unclean. He touched a leper and was not unclean. He touched the bearer of the dead. Remember one time he stopped him and he touched it and gave life to that person that was dead? And yet he was not corrupted by that. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. As a man, he was tempted in all points. That's a far greater mystery than I can comprehend. In all points. Well, he can't identify with me. He's never had this temptation. He's never, I don't know what all, I know what the scripture says. He was tempted in all points.

And I'm gonna leave it there. as we are, and He never gave in to sin. He never sinned. Tempted in all points as we are, He never sinned. There was no inward response to evil in Him. There's no hidden flaw. There was no secret stain. Satan, He says, Satan hath come and found nothing in Me. He found nothing in Me. THAT HE CAN SINK HIS TEETH INTO. HE CAN COME TO ME, HE CAN COME TO YOU, AND THERE'S A WHOLE LOT THAT HE CAN SINK HIS TEETH INTO.

HE KNOWS WHAT OUR WEAKNESSES ARE. INDIVIDUALLY, IN HERE, HE KNOWS EVERY PERSON'S WEAKNESS. THERE WAS NO WEAKNESS IN CHRIST, THERE WAS NO CHINK IN THE ARMOR, NOT WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. NOW WHY DOES THIS MATTER? It matters because only a spotless Savior can save a sinful people. God said it must be perfect to be accepted.

If there had been one sinful thought, just one, He couldn't save us. He couldn't save us. One impure motive, He couldn't save us. One blemish, one blemish, HE COULDN'T SAVE US! HE COULD NOT GO TO THE CROSS ON OUR BEHALF! HE COULDN'T BE OUR SUBSTITUTE!

THAT TELLS US HOW PERFECT THIS MAN IS! HOW SPOTLESS THIS MAN IS! GOD FOUND NO FAULT IN HIM! EVEN PILATE SAID I FIND NO FAULT IN HIM! HE WAS EXAMINED BY MAN, BY PILOT IN THE COURT, AND HE SAID, I CAN FIND NO FAULT IN HIM! Well, there is one reason why, because there was none. There was no fault in him.

He was the fine twine linen, white, pure, and clean, perfect! THAT MADE HIM QUALIFIED TO BE OUR SIN BEARER. THAT MADE HIM QUALIFIED. HE WAS A SPOTLESS REAL MAN IN WHOM GOD DELIGHTED AND SINNERS CAN TRUST THEIR SOULS WITH. YOU CAN TRUST YOUR LIFE, THE WHOLE DESTINY OF YOUR SOUL INTO THAT MAN'S HANDS. LORD, I COME TO YOU TO SAVE ME FROM MY SINS. and from God. I can trust Him to do that.

He's got what it takes to do it. Then we come next to the heavenly man. The heavenly man, this is the blue. Now remember, all this is woven into one curtain, one covering, one veil, one door, one gate. All this is woven together. But we see here, blue is the color of heaven, as I told you last week. It reminds us that though Christ walked on this earth, He belonged to heaven. He belonged to heaven.

He said no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, listen here, even the son of man which is in heaven at the same time he's on the earth he said he's in heaven our lord never forgot where he came from he never forgot someone said this he grew weary but never worldly he hungered but never compromised he wept but never lost his heavenly consciousness THIS WORLD WAS NOT HIS SOURCE OF JOY, HIS REFRESHMENT WAS FROM ABOVE. MY MEAT IS TO DO THE WILL OF HIM THAT SENT ME, AND THAT'S TO REDEEM A PEOPLE, THAT'S TO REDEEM A SINFUL PEOPLE AND BRING THEM TO Our whole salvation rests on Him.

You know, listen, we can't even give our full attention this morning. We can't do it. We try, we try, but our mind wanders. Our worship is, I can say this, our worship is pathetic. I was thinking about this yesterday. I was thinking about what is worship? Have I ever, ever worshiped? THAT'S TO BE TOTALLY OBSESSED AND ABSORBED BY THAT OBJECT YOU WORSHIP!

We can't even think upon Him long enough. The older I get, the more I realize salvation is of the Lord, or I'd never be saved. I wouldn't, and no one else would either. He's the Lord from Heaven. Here's His glory. If we belong to Him, He's the Lord from heaven, and our life is here with God in Him, we also are of heaven. You know, we can't grasp this right now. We can believe it. We can believe this.

But I'm in heaven right now, seated at God's right hand. Everyone the whole church is gathered right now in heaven in Christ that in Christ the whole church is gathered in heaven The church on earth and the church that's there already They're all gathered in him All his children are in him Some of us are here for a little while And in a little while in a little while We're gonna be there Now I know when you're younger, I know when I was younger, it didn't, even when I was in my 40s and 50s, it didn't, it really didn't strike me like it does now.

I told someone the other day, when I was telling, I think I was telling my youngest son, Jeremy, we were talking and I, we was talking about, you know, him and Jason are in their 40s, some are in their 40s, some younger. And I said, you know, I said, and Vicki and I just celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. And you do that, you gotta be old. Young people don't celebrate 50 years of marriage.

And I said, I'll tell you what I feel like right now. I feel like I'm sitting in a recliner in an evening sunset with the day behind me. I said, that's how it feels. It feels like a beautiful, peaceful day. with most of it behind me, and I'm just sitting here waiting for the sun to go down. That's how I feel. That's where I'm at. My mind, and I believe this so with Doug and you older ones that's in the Lord, you older ones that believe, our minds are there more than it is here.

I'm not trying to get a career. I'm not trying to get an education. I've already forgotten most of what I've learned. There's no sense in trying to relearn it. I'm getting off track here, aren't I? But I heard an advertisement here not long ago of a company was coming into this, I think it's in Raleigh area, going to be thousands of jobs. And it just struck me. There was a time that I would have been so interested in that, and I'm going to go put my application in. I can get a better job.

I'm thinking, that had no effect on me at all. That had zero effect on me. And I thought, I was never so comfortable. I never felt so comfortable about it. I don't need it. I don't need it. And nobody wants a 70-year-old man. Nobody wants a 70-year-old man. And I don't want that either. HEAVENLY MINDED! HEAVENLY MINDED! SET YOUR AFFECTION ON THINGS ABOVE! But Christ sits at God's right hand. And I pray that God brings every one of His children here to that place. Every one of us.

And you'll notice in this curtain, or in this covering, this is interesting here. this curtain or covering that's on that first covering that's on the tabernacle as you walk into the tabernacle you look up and you see these cherubs cherubims now this is interesting they were not embroidered that would be easy wouldn't it they were actually in in the weaving of the curtain. Do you realize that? You know, in this day, you can just put that in a computer and it'll just put it in there. But they had to weave that cherubim into the curtain, or into the covering. And all that had to come together, and there it is, a cherub.

I mean, the timing of that, and when those shuttles and those weavers there, the way they would weave it, I mean, The gifts God gave them is astounding when you look at it. But listen to this, they are the heavenly host, and that's what you see. You walk in, you look up, and you see these cherubs overhead. He's giving his angels charge over there. But you see these cherubs, and here's what you see. You see the heavenly host under His authority. They do His bidding. Remember the Garden of Eden when Adam was cast out? Those two cherubs there with those flaming swords executing judgment.

All judgment He said is given to me. Now you go over and read Revelation. You know what you find? You find this angel had a vial, and this angel had a vial, and this angel was sent here, and this angel was sent there, and it would destroy a part of the earth. But they are all under His judgment, because all judgment has been committed to the Son. All judgment is committed to Him.

And then we come to the royal man. I am going to have to move along here. This is the purple It's the color of royalty. Christ was born king. He did not become a king. He was born king. Wise men sought Him, angels announced Him, and men rejected Him, but still yet He's the king.

He stood before Pilate, all bruised and all beaten, and Pilate said, Art thou a king? He said, Thou sayest. In other words, Thou hast said correctly, I'm a king. You know, he didn't open his mouth, but whenever, whenever, two things, Pilate said, don't you know, I have power to release you, power to, to crucify you. And he said, hold on. You have no power at all set to be given you from above. He spoke up that time because he let him know who has real power from above. You're just a worm. That's all you are.

And then when Pilate said, Are you a king? He said, Thou sayest. You rightly said, I'm a king. And above the cross was written this. Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross and the writing was, and it's in capital letters, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Earth mocked him. Heaven enthroned him. Heaven enthroned Him. Someone said this, it was written in letters of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the language of religion, science, and government. He's over all of it. He's King of all. Psalm 2, God declares, Yet have I set my King upon my holy hillside. They said, Come, let us cut their bands asunder. Let's do away with their authority over us. We'll be God. No, you won't. God set His King on His holy hill of Zion, the church.

You see, the only question is this, whether we will bow in grace now or judgment later. That's the question. That's the question. Now we come to the scarlet. Now I've got to get to this. Here's the suffering man, without this all the above will do us no good. Scarlet speaks of blood, it speaks of sacrifice, it speaks of death. We may admire the blue, it's beautiful. I wear blue a lot, I like blue. We may revere the purple, but without scarlet there's no salvation.

No red line in the window of Rahab the harlot, she dies with the rest of them. Christ said this in John 12, verse 24, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. It abideth alone. Listen, here's the message. God incarnate, God becoming a man alone will not save us. HIS TEACHING ON THE MOUNT, ALL HIS TEACHING WILL NOT SAVE ANYBODY! IT'S THE BLOOD! IT'S THE BLOOD! IT'S THE SCARLET! WOVEN INTO THAT ROYALTY! WOVEN INTO THAT BLUE! WOVEN INTO THAT REFINED WHITE LINEN! THERE'S RED IN IT! THAT'S OUR SALVATION! That's our salvation.

God's teaching alone is not going to reconcile anybody, it's the blood. He had to die on the cross, the spotless one, bearing our sins. The Holy One made sin for us. He bore our sins in His body on the tree. He took my sins, sins I haven't even committed yet. He took them to the tree and bore the wrath of God for them.

That's what He did. At the cross the scarlet thread runs freely. It runs freely. There justice and mercy met, righteousness and peace kissed each other. There the ransom was paid, and the cry goes out, Deliver Him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom. You'll find that in Job 33, 22 and 24. If we remove the cross from our preaching, And many have, most have today. But if we remove the cross from our preaching, we remove all hope.

Without the scarlet, the tabernacle is incomplete. It's just another tent that's beautiful inside, but it has no meaning. And all this glory though, listen, and all this glory is hidden by an outer covering. All this blue, purple, scarlet, fine linens, all hidden beneath this covering. From outside, you cannot see the glory inside, if that's all you see. If that's all you see. There's a goat hair, it's rough. Isaiah said there's no beauty that we should desire Him.

There's a ram's skin dyed red. You know, it really struck me this week when that Ramskins died red. Here's what I think that is, because we have the scarlet line thread running through all that curtain stuff. The Ramskins died red is his identity with us. What does Adam mean? Red Earth. Red Earth. Christ is called the second Adam. This is His identity with us.

Badger skin, tough, weathered. They said, Is this not the carpenter's son? They saw the covering, but they missed the glory. Only faith sees Christ's beauty beneath His flesh. And it's still that way today. ONLY IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST DO WE SEE THE GLORY OF GOD, WHEN GOD ALMIGHTY REVEALS TO US WHO THIS MAN IS, GOD OUR SAVIOR. The world sees religion, the world sees a good man, but faith sees the blue, the purple, the scarlet, the fine twine linen, all woven together to make one perfect Savior. That's what we see, one perfect Savior. And to close, the foundation of this is the ransom, the Savior.

The boards of the tabernacle stood in sockets of silver, silver gathered from the money of the people. As I said, each block of silver weighs 75 pounds. There's a hundred of them, there's 7,500 pounds. And here's what I thought of when I read about the weight of this. I mean, this was a tremendous burden to carry.

You know, the prophets always spoke of the Word of the Lord, calling it the burden of the Word of the Lord. I know something about that, being a pastor and a preacher. I know the burden of what it is to carry this tabernacle to you every day. I know what it is.

I mean those boards that was up the sides, I can't get into all this, but those boards, they were 15 feet tall. They're 15 feet tall. That tabernacle was 45 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 15 feet tall. And those silver things that the pegs went down in were 75 pounds, which kept the thing from blowing over in the desert and gave it stability.

But the whole structure, here's the point, the whole structure rested on redemption. It all rested on redemption. And so does our salvation. Everything stands on the ransom. My hope, your hope, forgiveness, peace, and our future in heaven. It all rests on the accomplishments that our Lord made at Calvary, all of it. So what do you see this morning? Do you see only a man or do you see the spotless man? Do you see the man of the Lord from heaven? Do you see the rightful King of Israel? Do you see the suffering Savior? Do you see the Redeemer? Do you see Him? Let me close with this. I've got a lot more but I might stop. This tabernacle had only one entrance. And all of it was made of the same material. And our Lord said, No man comes to the Father but by Me. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes but by Me. And here, let me close with this little interesting part of it. I may have told you this last week. I don't remember, I'd have to go back and listen. Like you, you'd have to go back and listen.

This entrance, this curtain, this entrance, which was in the front of the tabernacle and the courtyard, it was all facing eastward. It was all facing eastward. Now we have to go back to the garden to understand this. When Adam and Eve were kicked out, they went out, it says, eastward. They went out eastward.

So in order to come back to God, they've got to turn around and come west. They've got to come west. In other words, it's this. To come back to God, they have to turn around and come west. So to come back to God through the eastern gate, you've got to turn around. That's repentance. Repentance is turning. It's turning around. If you go eastward, you never come back to God. It's when you turn. When the Lord turns you, and that's what repentance is, it's a turning. It's a turning from and a turning to. And when they came back, they had to come back through that eastern gate. They were going away from God, now they're coming back to God. That was just a thought. It had hit me and I thought, man, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. Well, I was going to go over and read chapter 40, a few verses, where the glory of God filled the tabernacle.