This morning begins in Exodus
25, verse 23. Thou shalt also make a table
of shiddim wood. Two cubits shall be the length
thereof, and a cubit and a breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half
the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with
pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. 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 four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four
corners that are in the four feet thereof. Over against the
border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear
the table. And thou shalt make the staves
of shiddenwood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may
be borne with them. And thou shalt make the dishes
thereof, and the spoons thereof, and the covers thereof, And the
bowls thereof, to cover with all of pure gold, shalt thou
make them, and thou shalt set upon the table showbread before
me always." Once you go, two weeks ago, we looked at the door
of the past, that veil that hung there over the door, and once
you go behind the door of the tabernacle, you come into the
first room of the tabernacle, it's the holy place. You know,
the priests, when they do the work in the holy place, never
spoke. The only voices that you heard
in this first room of the Holy Place are these three pieces
of furniture, which all tell us of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the first piece of furniture we'll look at is the table of
shogren. And it was made of what we see
over and over and over again in the tabernacle, the incorruptible
wood covered with gold. And by now you know what that
is a picture of. The incorruptible It's a picture
of the sinless humanity of Christ. He was a man, but he had no sin.
And the gold is a picture of his deity. The Lord Jesus Christ
is a man. He's a man, just like you and
me. But he's God. He is the God-man. He's not God
and man. He is the God-man. He's God. That's what that gold picture
is. And the two crowns, there are two crowns, there's an outer
crown and an inner crown on top of the table that picture the
kingship of Christ. Now, every believer, I've been
to many different churches, many different assemblies of believers
all around the country, and there are differences in believers,
different cultures and different, you know, things we think about.
Every believer, without exception, knows this, Christ is King. Every believer bows to Christ
the King. And that's what those crowns
are a picture of. We'll come back to that for the end of our
lesson this morning. But then there were dishes. There
were utensils, dishes, and forks and spoons and so forth put on
top of the table. And they are made out of pure
gold. They weren't wood covered with gold. They were made out
of pure gold. And that's a picture of the gifts
that God gives us. Everything a believer eats, everything
that we receive, you know where it comes from? From God. Everything. All the physical
things, the physical food that we're all going to eat this afternoon,
that came from God. God gave it. But this is particularly
talking about spiritual food of believers. We receive that
from the gift of God, that's of his goodness, of his grace.
He gives that to his people. But now we talk about the table.
We don't just mean a table, four legs and a tabletop. We mean
everything that goes on the table. We mean the food that goes on
the table, too. The food and the table, we talk
about that, it's all one. Remember, David said, thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Well, he didn't
just mean a table, did he? He meant a table full of food
that God prepared for him in the presence of his enemies.
And this table has food on it. Now, if you look in Leviticus
chapter 24, the food that was on this table is the showbread. We read about that in verse 30,
and I should have said that on the table showbread before me
always, but here's the instruction for the showbread in Leviticus
24, verse 5. and thou shalt take fine flour,
and bake twelve cakes thereof. Two tenths meals shall be in
one cake, and thou shalt set them in two rows, six upon a
row, upon the pure table 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. Every
Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually,
being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron's and his
sons, and they shall eat it in the holy place, for it is most
holy unto him of the offering of the Lord made by fire by a
perpetual statute." Now that bread, if you look over in John
chapter 6, that bread is given to us as a picture of Christ.
John chapter 6, beginning in verse 32. Well, let's just read verse 35.
Do I have a volunteer to read verse 35 for me? Maggie? I know you want to. Could you
read verse 35 for us? Good, thank you. That bread is
Christ. In verse 51, he says, I am the
living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat this
bread, he shall live forever. The bread that I give is my flesh,
which I give for the light of the world. Now that can't be
more plain, can it? That bread is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And everything about that bread
is a picture of Christ. When they put that show bread
on the table, how did that bread start out? It started out as
a seed. Somebody planted it in the ground. And then that seed sprouted.
It grew into grain. Well, that process is a picture
of Christ. Christ is described in Isaiah
as a tender plant, a root sprung up out of dry ground. And that
grain grew until it was ripe, and somebody then harvested it.
Well, that is a picture of Christ. He was a root out of dry ground,
and he grew. He grew from a baby to a child
to a man. And he worked out as a man a
perfect righteousness. He fulfilled all the purpose
of God. And once all that purpose was
worked out, then the Jews could take him and put him to death.
But not before. They could not harvest him before
he was ripe, before he had fulfilled all the purpose of God. They
wanted to. We'll see that in the message this morning. They
wanted to, but they couldn't, because his hour was not yet
come. But when that hour was come, when he had fulfilled all
the purpose of God, Then he was harvested. He was cut down and
put to death. And that's what happens to the
grain. They harvest it, they bring it to the mill, and they
grind it under a heavy millstone. They grind it down into powder. That's a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He was taken. He was put to death,
and he allowed himself to be taken to the mill. They couldn't
take him against his will. They couldn't take his life.
He had to lay it down. He had to allow them to take
him. He allowed them to take him to the mill where they ground
his body. They whipped him, they beat him,
they plucked out his beard, they beat him with their fists, they
ground his body. And he offered his soul to the
Father. The Father ground his soul to
powder. The Father put him to death. And you'll notice here, back
in Leviticus, you remember where I read you're supposed to make
the showbread out of fine flour? Had to be the best flour, because
fine flour, flour that they ground very small, very perfectly. There
were no lumps in it. There were no grains in it. There's
no little bits of sand in it. There's no little bits of chaff
in it. It was pure, fine flour. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
When He suffered, He didn't suffer just as any man. He suffered
as the man, the perfect man, the son of God suffered. And he was ground to powder because
the father made him to be sin for his people. And he suffered
as the man, like no man ever suffered. Fine flour, perfect,
the best. That's our Lord, the man, the
sacrifice for sin. And then once they had that fine
flour, They mixed it with the ingredients, whatever you're
supposed to use to mix it to make it into bread. And they
took it to the oven and they baked it in that hot oven. That's
a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was ground into fine flour
because he was mixed. The Father made him to be sin
for his people. That's the only reason he suffered.
If Christ did not become, I can't explain how this happened. But
if Christ did not become guilty of the sins of his people, he
never would have suffered. He was made to be sin for his
people, and he suffered. He was taken from that soldier's
hall, and where they abused him, they mistreated him, and they
took him to Calvary. And there he roasted under the
fire of God's wrath against the sin that was put on him. And
now, because he suffered in that fire, Christ is the bread. that nourishes his people, that
feeds his people, gives his people life. The only reason we can
have life is because Christ died. He suffered under the fire of
God's wrath for his people. But there's one more way. These
cakes, picture our Lord Jesus Christ. These cakes were perforated
with a fork. You know how you've seen your
mother do that. She punches holes in like the top of a pie crust
or something. That's not what happened to these
cakes. They were perforated. That's how our Lord suffered.
Even when his body was dead, men's hatred of God wasn't satisfied. What did they have to do? Thrust
that sword in his side. His body was pierced, and out
came blood and water. That's what these texts picture.
When they perforated these texts, every week when they perforated
these texts, that's what they were picturing. The side of our
Savior being pierced by that Roman soldier's spear. And there those cakes were on
top of that table. But you know when it came time
for them to up and move every once in a while, the clouds would
start moving and they'd have to pack the whole tabernacle
up and they'd move it. When they moved it, they left
those cakes on top of that table, everything like it was, and they
covered it. They covered it with cloth. You
can read about this in Numbers chapter 4 this afternoon if you'd
like. They covered it with the blue cloth. Then they covered
it with the scarlet cloth. with the badger skin. And we
see this over and over again. When they move, we see these
coverings that they would cover things with before they'd move
it. The blue is a picture of heaven and the color of heaven,
telling us the Lord Jesus Christ is God's Son, came from heaven.
The red, the scarlet, is a picture of His blood, the sacrifice.
And the badger skin is a picture of His humanity. Now, nobody
ever, nobody that was a priest ever saw this table. And when
they'd come and move the table, they'd carry it out, but those
days it's covered. You couldn't see the table unless
you saw past the badger skin, saw past the red covering, saw
past the blue coverings to the table. We have to be given eyes
to see past the humanity of Christ, to see His sacrifice. To see
what does that sacrifice mean? What does it accomplish? Well,
it completely depended on who died. If just a man died, it
accomplished nothing. But if that blue cloth, the Son
of God, if He died, oh, that accomplishes the salvation of
His people. That nourishes and gives His people the bread that
we need to live. It's just like what you're holding
in your laps, the Bible. Well, you've got to be given
eyes to see past the ink and the paper and the leather binding
to see Christ. But if God gives you eyes to
see, Now I see, I see life. Now I see Christ. And if God
doesn't give us eyes to see that, we'll miss Christ in this book,
just like the Jews missed Christ when he was here in the bodily
form. We've got to be given eyes to see. Now, y'all heard the
saying, y'all are what you eat, right? You know, it's so important
that we eat a healthy diet. You know, you just, your mother
makes you eat vegetables and all these good things for you,
doesn't let you eat all this junk food and stuff, because
that's good for you. You are what you eat. It's important.
I know Sidney likes vegetables. You don't have to make Sidney
eat vegetables. But most of us, somebody has to make him eat
vegetables, right? It's very important that you
eat right, so you have a healthy body. The same thing is true
spiritually. I'm telling you, what you see
in religion today, man-made religion, what you mostly see on TV and
these just shenanigans and parties and plays, all this junk. that's going on, I'm telling
you, it's junk food. Don't get caught up eating it.
It's not good for you. Every week since we've been doing
this tabernacle, the same kids have been sitting up here. Every
week. You know why? You know why your
parents and sister are bringing you here? So that you eat right
spiritually. Nothing is more important than
for you to know the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, they come because
they need it too, but they, you know, they know. You need this. That's why they keep bringing
you back. So you eat right. And it's not just enough to know
some facts about Christ. It's not just enough to know
some true things about Christ. He must be eaten. He must be
believed. When we eat something, it becomes
part of us. When we believe Christ, he becomes
part of us. And he gives us life. That's
how we receive life. Just like looking at that bread
wouldn't do any good. Good enough just to sit and look at the bread,
would it? The only way that bread's going to do anybody any good
is if it's eaten. And Christ must be believed. And that's the way he is eaten.
We talk about eating the body of Christ. That sounds weird,
doesn't it? All that means is this. That
we believe him. That we believe him in our heart.
He becomes part of us. The bread was meant to be eaten,
but just anybody couldn't eat the bread. We just read there
in Leviticus, the high priest and his family were the only
ones that ate that shortbread. Well, then how does that apply
to us? Because scripture says that every believer is made a
priest unto God. So we have the right to believe
Christ, to eat him and receive him into our hearts so we might
have life. Believers are priests. Well,
come eat. This bread of the Lord Jesus
Christ is for you. God set it out on the table for
you. But now the table, it's a place
of fellowship. It's a place of unity. And it's
a place of nourishment for the family, for the family of the
high priest. Just like we all get together
every evening to eat dinner. Your table, it's a place of fellowship
and unity. The family all gets around together.
And you don't just eat in silence, do you? Sit and talk to one another. It's a place of unity and fellowship
and a place of nourishment. That's where you get the good
food. You don't just eat chips and junk food, little Debbie
cakes, that kind of stuff. You get good food, vegetables,
meat and potatoes, things that are good for you. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is a place of fellowship. You know why we have fellowship
here? I mean, we love each other. This is a loving group of people.
I just look forward to seeing you every week. And I think you
all do, too, look forward to seeing one another. Why is that?
Why do we have such fellowship together? We're in love with
the same person. Why do we have such unity here?
This is a place of unity and oneness. Why is that? Well, it's easy to have unity.
We're all in love with the same person. The Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a place of nourishment. I'm telling you, the most important
part of worship is nourishment. This is where we receive and
feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We gather together and we feed
on Him. We talk about Him. This is the
family. We eat upon Him. Drink His flesh
and fellowship together by talking about Him. That's what the high
priest family did around this table of service. And God never
meant for that to change for his people. Now the picture changed,
the high priest getting around eating it, but spiritually for
his people it never changed. Believers still eat Christ with
bread of life. Just as much today as they did
4,000 years ago when Aaron and his sons gathered around this
table. It's the exact same thing. We read this. This, God said,
is an everlasting covenant. It's a perpetual, continual bread. Well, if it's an everlasting
covenant, how come we still don't have the table? Because the picture
is done away. The everlasting covenant, the
eternal bread is the Lord Jesus Christ. We still feed upon Him
and meet and worship around and fellowship around Him. Now the
believer has such close union with Christ. We've been made
one with Christ so much that there's a sense that those twelve
cakes or pieces of bread represent believers too. Now that bread,
it is Christ, Christ the bread of life, but there's a sense
in which it pictures believers. There were 12 loaves on top of
this table. Well now, does that represent
the 12 tribes of Israel? Or does it represent the 12 apostles? Which one? Yes. Yes, it's both. That bread is the 12 tribes of
Israel, the Old Testament believer, and the 12 apostles, the New
Testament believer. They're both one. They're both
saved the same way through faith in Christ by eating this bread
and believing Him. And the only reason a believer
can say that bread represents us is we've eaten the body of
Christ and we've become one with Him. He's the head and we're
the body. Now, this bread and all the utensils
set on top of that table are supported by the table, right?
If it wasn't for the table, it'd all fall to the ground. Doesn't
that make sense? The believer is supported and
held up by the Lord Jesus Christ. Jude 24 says, Now unto Him who
is able to keep you from falling. That's what this table did for
the bread. It kept it from falling. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're kept by His power. And now we're coming back to
those two crowns that went around this table I told you about.
Those crowns, when they moved the tabernacle, they didn't take
the bread off and pack it up. They left everything, the dishes,
the utensils, the bread, everything was left on top of this table
and they covered it with those coverings on there and they carried
it off. What kept everything from sliding
off the table? Those two crowns that kept everything together
on there. And that's the believer. You
know how Christ keeps us from falling? his kingship, that he overrules
everything so that nothing will allow his people to fall. Sin
would cause it, Satan would cause it, we ourselves would cause
it, but Christ's power overrules all those things and keeps his
people from falling. We're kept by the power of Christ. In that, this is the last piece
that we'll look at, furniture, we'll look at this morning, Now,
if you look back in Exodus 25, beginning in verse 31, we have
the instruction here for the lampstand. And thou shalt make a candlestick
of pure gold. Of beaten work shall the candlestick
be made. His shaft, and his branches, his bowls, and his knots, and
his flowers shall be of the And six branches shall come out of
the sides of it, three branches of the candlestick out of the
one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the
other side. Three bowls made like into almonds, with a knob
and a flower in one branch, and three bowls made like almonds
in the other branch, with a knob and a flower. So the six branches
that come out of the candlestick. And in the candlestick shall
be four bowls made like into almonds, with their knobs and
their flowers. There shall be a knob under two branches of
the same, and a knob under two branches of the same, and a knob
under two branches of the same, according to the six branches
that proceed out of the candlestick. Their knobs and their branches
shall be of the same. All of it shall be one beaten
work of pure gold. And thou shalt make the seven
lamps thereof, and they shall light the lamps thereof, that
they may give light over against it. And the tongs thereof and
the snuff-dishes thereof shall be of pure gold. of a talent
of pure gold shall he make it with all these vessels. And look
that thou make them after the pattern which was shown thee
in the mount." Now we call this, it says candlestick here, but
really it's a lampstand. There weren't candles in here,
there were oils. It's really not a candlestick,
it's a lampstand. But this is a picture of Christ,
the light of the world. That's what he called himself.
He's the light of the world. But you know, the lampstand is
the light. for God's people. The lampstand
was in the holy place. It wasn't out here outside the
wall where anybody could see it. It wasn't even out in the
courtyard by the altar. It was only inside the holy place
where the priest went. This is the light for God's people. And that's what Christ is. Believers
see. You know why? Because we have
Christ. You can't see in the dark. We
have Christ who's the light of the world. Our Lord told Peter,
blessed are your eyes for they see. Well, why do his eyes see? Because he's been given eyes
to see. Not been left in the darkness of unbelief, he's been
given eyes to see. And he sees in the light of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the only way we can
understand any spiritual truth. It's the light of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In this tabernacle, there is no natural light. We looked
at the coverings. It's all covered up. There's
no way for the sunlight to get in there. There's no natural
light in the tabernacle. The lamp stand is the only light
that was in that place. All the natural light is outside. No natural light inside. You
can't see the table of showbread. You can't see the candlestick.
You can't see the golden altar in natural light because it's
never in natural light. You can only see it in the light
of the candlestick. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's revealed. Christ is not understood with
a natural mind. We just don't say, yeah, I believe
that because I understand it. Christ is revealed and that's
why we believe. He's revealed in scripture. Christ
cannot be seen with the natural light of human understanding.
I'm going to talk about this in the message this morning,
but the gospel makes sense. But that's not why we believe.
We believe Christ because He's been revealed to us. We have
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the
face of Jesus Christ. He's the light of the world.
He's the light for His people. Now this lampstand was made out
of 120 pounds of pure gold. I mean, can you imagine how valuable
120 pounds of pure gold is? I looked it up, I can tell you. 2.3 million dollars. 2.3 million dollars. You know
what that's a picture of? The preciousness of Christ. The preciousness of light. I
mean, just natural light. You know, if the electricity
goes out, the first thing everybody does is scramble for a flashlight
or for a candle. We just don't want to be left
in the dark. It's awful. If you think being trapped in
a room without light is awful, how awful is it? Not to have
any spiritual light. Not to have Christ. That's the
preciousness of Christ. He is our light. It's not just
that he gives us light. He is our light. That's why Peter
said, unto you therefore which believe, he's precious. Oh, he's precious. But that spiritual
light must be given. And when God gives that light,
like I said, He doesn't just give us light, He gives us Christ,
His Son, who is light. In Isaiah 42, verse 6, this is
a prophecy of the Messiah. God said, I will give thee for
a covenant of the people and for a light of the Gentiles.
God didn't just say, I'm going to give you a covenant. I'm going
to give you a person who is the covenant and is the light to
the Gentiles. But now, light and the sacrifice. are tied very closely together,
light and blood. This gold was beaten into shape. Remember when we read that? You
take it all and you beat it into shape. That took a lot of hammering
to take a 120 pound hunk of gold and hammer it into this thing.
I mean, that took a lot of beating. It took a lot of general beating,
probably with some kind of a big hammer to get it into general
shape, and then a lot of fine beating. to make all those almonds
and leaves and bowls and took a lot of fine-tuning. All of
that is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. At Calvary, He
was beaten. Beaten. Not just nails driven
through His hands and through His feet. Although that was painful
enough, I'm sure, but He was hammered by the justice of Almighty
God. The Father Himself beat him,
and he suffered in darkness so that his people would have life.
Redemption for sin is a painful work. The hammer of God's justice
fell on Christ over and over and over and over again. Great
hammering blows of God's justice, but there's also the fine detailed
blows, just chisel or just, I don't know how they made this, you
know, I don't know, I don't have any idea, but this is fine detailed
blow that hammered out every single sin of God's people. Every
sin was hammered and beaten out of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not
one sin was glossed over. The beating that he took in his
body is nothing compared to the beating his soul took from the
justice of his Father. to make him a sacrifice for sin. Now, compare that to an idol. An idol doesn't require that
kind of beating, does it? Remember the golden calf the people worshiped?
Moses up on the mountain, and they thought, well, Moses is
not coming back. And they told Aaron, make us an idol. Make
us a god. Moses said, all right. And Aaron
said, all right. And he gathered together all that gold. And what
did he do? He melted it and poured it into an image of a golden
calf. And they worshiped it. That calf
didn't require any beating. They poured it in the shade.
Idols never require beating. Idols never require punishment
for sin. Idols just say, well, you know,
you go through some motions and we'll overlook your sin. That's
not putting away sin. That's no beating, that's no
sacrifice, no punishment for sin. Idols never require punishment
for sin. Only the Lord Jesus Christ answers
that need for the punishment to put away the sin of his people. But now light and life go together. You know, death is darkness and
life is light. Well, light and life go together,
and that's pictured in this candlestick. When we read that, did you wonder
about what's all this almonds and these leaves and what does
all that mean? Why is that? Well, the reason
for that is a picture of life. are the first tree that buds
in Palestine, where they would live. That's the first tree that
buds every year. And they know spring's coming. Life is coming when they see
that almond tree bud. And you know, it'll bud as early
as January. When everything else looks dead,
that almond tree will begin to bud to show us life's coming. Spring's coming. Well, that's
Christ. In His resurrection, we know
there's life. Everything else looks dead. But
in His resurrection, we see the first fruits. He's raised again
to live eternally. There must be more coming. There's
more coming, and we see that in resurrection life. You can't
see that without Christ. If we don't see Christ, all we
think is this life is it. So we chase after the things
of this life, the pleasures of this flesh. But if we see Christ,
we know, oh, this is the deadness of the rest of January, he's
light. That's what those almonds are
a picture of. Now, the believer has such close
union with Christ that we're said to be light. Just like the
bread, we have such close union with Christ. There's a sense
in which that bread is a picture of the believer. Well, the same
thing is true about light. Look at Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians 5, verse 8. Do I have a volunteer? Okay,
great. You're in verse 8, of course. Good, thank you. Now, you're
like, have you? What does that mean? Well, look
over at Matthew chapter 5. Here's a good commentary on Ephesians 5. Matthew 5, verse
14. I got three verses here, verses
14, 15, and 16. Do I got a volunteer? Yeah, I
just read that for you. You're the light of the world.
God's given this church an understanding of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. Well, then we're preaching. We're preaching the only way
sinners are ever going to be saved. The only way sinners are
ever going to come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
as if we hide this. It's not like, oh, God's given
us this truth and we're going to keep it to ourselves so nobody
else can have it, you know. Like we've got something nobody
else can have. We've got something you don't have. No. We put it
on a candlestick and hold it up high. This is why we meet
together to preach. So people, sinners, can come
to the Savior. He lifts it up. Come to Him.
He's the light of the world. Now we know, I know this, God's
elect are going to be saved. He's not going to let them perish.
God's elect will be saved. God's purpose is going to stand.
But that never means the church is just to sit on our hands.
Absolutely not. No. We show forth Christ and
Him crucified so that sinners will come to Christ in the same
life, the same joy, the same meal that we have in Him. And we do that because nobody
will ever be saved unless they come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we preach Him. Alright, well, I'm out of time
and out of notes. That's good. So we'll pick up
there next week Lord willing.