In Exodus 25, beginning in verse
31, we see the instructions given 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, his knobs, and his flowers shall be of the same.
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 unto 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 in the six branches that shall come out of the candlestick.
And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto
almonds, with their knobs and their flowers, and 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
thou, that thou make them after the pattern which was shown thee
in the mount." We commonly refer to this piece
of furniture as the candlestick. Really, it's a lampstand. There
were no candles that burned in this. Oil was what was burned
in this, but I'll probably refer to it as the candlestick, as
Scripture does, but it is a lampstand. And clearly, this candlestick
is a picture of Christ. It's given to us as a picture
of Christ, the light of the world. If you care to turn over to John
chapter 1, In John 1, verse 7. Well, let's begin in verse 6.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same
came for a witness, to bear witness of the light. You notice the
light there, the L is capitalized. That's talking about a person.
Came to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might
believe. Now he was not that light. John the Baptist was not
that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light. That
was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. Now obviously that there is speaking of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the light of the world. And when he talks here
about him being the light that lighteth every man that cometh
into the world, that's a man's conscience. Every human being
is born with a conscience. But here specifically, what this
lampstand is a picture of is Christ. the spiritual light of
his people, and not just a light of conscience, a light that all
flesh has. This is a spiritual light. And
you notice where you found this lampstand. It wasn't outside
the gate here. It wasn't even inside the gate
in the courtyard. You found it inside the holy
place, the place that was reserved for the priests, where the priests
operated. This was given to the priest
as light for them. There was no natural light under
all those coverings. There was no natural light came
in that building. The only light that was in there
was the light of this candlestick. And believers, we know in scripture,
have been made kings and priests under our God. This is Christ,
the spiritual light of all his people. Not just the priest,
the Old Testament priest, but all his people. He is your light. And believers, they see. First of all, because they've
been given eyes. Our Lord said, blessed are your eyes, for they
see. Everybody doesn't see, but you see. Why? Because God's given
you eyes. And He's also not left you in
darkness. He's not left you in the darkness
of unbelief. He's given you Christ, who is our light so that we see.
Now, there was no natural light, like I said, to enter into that
holy place. All the light came from this
candlestick. If you want to see the table
of showbread, you want to see the altar of incense, You couldn't
see those things in natural light. It had to be in the light of
this candlestick. And that's our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you want to see Christ, you have to see Him in Scripture. And if you want to see Him in
His saving work, you see Him revealed in Scripture. Christ
cannot be seen or understood with human reasoning or human
logic or the light of human understanding. He's revealed. God must reveal
Him. And when you see Him, you're
going to see Him revealed in the Word. Now this lampstand
was made of one talent of gold. And one talent weighed about
120 pounds. This thing was 120 pounds of pure gold. That's over
$525,000 in today's, over half a million dollars in today's money. Now
that shows us the preciousness of Christ, unto you therefore
which believe, he is precious." And it also shows the preciousness
of light. Not just fleshly light, but spiritual
light. It's precious. You cannot see
Christ without spiritual light. If you don't believe how valuable
light is, way too much electricity goes out. First thing people
do is they go reaching for a flashlight or stumble around in the dark
trying to find a candle. I mean, you don't wait two seconds.
You don't want to be left in the darkness because life's so
valuable. You know, when the power grid fails, what do they
show you on TV? Thousands and thousands and thousands
of houses, far as you see, all in darkness. They don't show
you that picture in the daytime when their ovens aren't working,
their refrigerators aren't running. They show you at nighttime. Because
that's when it's seen how much of a disaster, you know, we think
of this power grid failure is. All these people are left in
darkness. Light's precious. A couple weeks ago, Janet was
teaching her class back there, and she's going through creation.
And she got to the verse where God said, let there be light.
And there was light. And Chloe said, Miss Janet, she
said, I like the sun. I don't like darkness. I don't
like being in darkness. And of course, that gave Jan
a perfect opportunity to talk about Christ, the light. And
Jesus saves all of us. We don't be left in darkness.
Well, how much more valuable is spiritual life? And that spiritual
life is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just something about
Christ. It is Christ. In Isaiah 42, verse 6, God, speaking
of the coming Messiah, He said, I will give thee for a covenant
of the people for a light of the Gentiles. Our light is a
personality of thee as a light for the Gentiles. Look over in
John chapter 8. We're still there in John over
a few pages in chapter 8. Verse 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but he shall have the light of life,
because Christ is our light. Now look over at 1 John 1 verse 5. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Now you see here how the
light and the blood are so closely tied together. The light and
the blood are put together. John puts them together. This
gold, did you notice when we were reading about it? was beaten
into shape. They put that 120 pounds of gold
into one lump and a man beat this thing into shape. It took
a lot of great hammering, I'm sure, to get this into the general
shape. And then the skill and the precision,
the fine points and the beating of his hammer and chisel that
he had to do to make all the glorious detail of this candlestick. I mean, this thing was something.
And that's such a picture of Christ. Christ on light was beaten
at Calvary. It wasn't just the Roman soldiers
that beat him in the face when they had him blindfolded and
said, prophesy who hit you. It wasn't just the nails that
they hammered through his hands and through his feet. He was
beaten, just hammered, hammered, hammered, hammered by the justice
of his father. Just like the man who made this
candlestick, it was the great blows of his heavy hammer that
started to put this thing into its general shape. All Saker
was hammered that way. But then those fine, pointed
blows of God's hammer that punished every sin, I mean every speck
of sin, God hammered it out of him. And he went through that
for us, for his people. Redemption. was a painful work,
how he was beaten and bruised, not just by men, not by the Jews
and by the Romans, although he was, but by the Father. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him when he hammered him with his justice at Calvary. Now contrast
this piece of gold with that golden calf that the people wanted
Aaron to make for him. Remember Moses was up in the
mountain, he hadn't come back down, so he'd never come back,
and they said, make us an idol. And Aaron got them to give him
his gold. Well, he made him an idol, didn't
he? He made him a calf. That calf was a molten calf.
He melted that gold and poured it into shade. That idol doesn't
require any beating. The idol doesn't require any
suffering for sin. But the candlestick does, because
it's a picture of Christ. It was required of him to be
beaten and suffer and die for the sins of his people. But you
know, when he died, after he suffered through that hammering,
he didn't stay dead, did he? This is interesting. Do you see,
remember when we read there how these bowls were shaped like
an almond with a knot and a flower all over the place? Well, the
Lord didn't just pick anything to make that a picture of. He
used the almond on purpose. The almond is the first tree
that buds in Palestine. It'll bud as early as January. That's the first sign that the
folks that live there have spring's coming. Life is coming. For Christ
our life, he was beaten and bruised. He suffered and died for his
people, but he didn't stay dead. He was raised again. And he's
the first sign, the first evidence of the resurrection. He's the
first fruit. He was raised again to everlasting life. And we know
we'll be raised again to everlasting life because Christ our Savior
was. And that cannot be seen in the
light of human reasoning. I mean, human beings say, well,
of course you can't raise somebody from the dead again. You know,
somebody dies, we put them in the ground as soon as we can.
They're not coming back. That's what human logic tells
you. But in the light of Christ, we know this isn't all. We take
somebody out to the cemetery. That place is a place, we think
of it as dead. That place is a place of resurrection
one day. And we know that because of Christ
our light. You could not see that in any
other way but in Christ our light. Now, like I said, there were
no candles that burned in this thing. This lampstand, the light
came from oil that the priest put in there every morning and
every evening to keep this thing burning. And oil, in Scripture,
is used for two purposes. It's used for anointing and it's
used for burning. Well, Christ, Scripture said,
was anointed with the oil of blackness above thy fellows. He had the Holy Spirit without
measure. And the Holy Spirit, this is
the picture of the oil, gives God's people the light of Christ.
What did Christ say the Holy Spirit would do when He comes?
He will take the things of mine and show them to you. He's the
one that gives us this light of Christ. But I remember we
looked at the table of showbread. I told you how that table of
showbread is a picture of Christ. He's the bread. But yet we have
such union with Christ that we are called, Paul calls us one
bread, that identification with the believer in Christ. Well,
this candlestick is the same thing. The believer has such
close union with Christ that we are said to have light and
to be light. Not in ourselves now, it's in
Christ, but it's still yet called our life. Now look over at Ephesians
chapter 5. In Ephesians 5 verse 8. For ye were sometimes darkness,
But now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light.
You notice Paul doesn't say there you were sometimes in darkness.
He says you were darkness. Totally depraved. You were darkness. But now he doesn't say you're
in light, does he? He says you are light. Now look
over Matthew chapter 5. Here's a commentary on this verse
right here. Matthew chapter 5. Verse 14. Ye are the light of the world. Well, I thought Christ was the
light of the world. Here he says you, believers, you are the light
of the world. He can say that of us because
of our union with Christ. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth
light unto all that are in the house. Now you let your light
So shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven." Now here's what we know. We know
God's elect shall be saved. We know that, don't we? There
is no doubt, no question, no moments of hesitation. We know
God's purpose shall stand. But that doesn't mean the church
says, oh well, it doesn't matter what we do and we sit on our
hands. No. We put our light on a candlestick
and hold it up for the world to see. And who is our light?
It's our message. Christ our Lord. Christ and Him
crucified. That's the light that we put
on a candlestick for the world to see. If you want light, here's
the message. Christ and Him crucified. He
is our light. Now the other piece of... Janet
glued these down so well I tore up her... However, she had that set up.
I can't put it back in, so we'll have to leave it up here. She
can do it again. The other piece of furniture
that's in the holy place is the altar of incense. And if you
look back in Exodus chapter 30. In Exodus 30 verse 1. And thou shalt make an altar
to burn incense upon, of shidom wood shalt thou make it. A cubit
shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof.
Four squares shall it be, and two cubits shall be the height
thereof. The horns thereof shall be of the same, and thou shalt
overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof
round about, and the horns thereof. And thou shalt make unto it a
crown of gold round about, and two golden rings shalt thou make
to it under the crown of it. By the two corners thereof, upon
the two sides of it, shalt thou make it, and they shall be for
places for the staves to bear it withal. And thou shalt make
the staves of chitinwood, and overlay them with gold. And thou
shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony,
before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will
meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon
sweet incense every morning when he dresseth the lambs. He shall
burn incense upon And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he
shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout
your generations. Ye shall offer no strange incense
thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering, neither shall
ye pour drink offering thereon. And Aaron shall make an atonement
upon the horns of it once in a year, with the blood of the
sin offering of atonement. Once in a year shall he make
an atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most
holy unto the Lord. This altar of incense was three
feet high, a foot and a half square. It was made of the incorruptible
wood that we've seen so often in our study, covered with gold.
This is the reoccurring theme all throughout this tabernacle
of the God-man, the two natures, the incorruptible wood, the sinless
humanity of Christ, covered with gold. Picture the deity of Christ. And the top of this thing had
a crown of pure gold that ran around the top of it, and there
was a horn on each corner. And that pictures both the kingship
of Christ and the power of Christ. Christ is the sovereign king.
The horns are always a picture of power in scripture. And we'll
see this in a minute as we go through here. This smoke that
came off this altar is a picture of the intercession of Christ.
And this shows us the power of the intercession of Christ. If
you need comfort, remember this, Christ our Savior always gets
what he prays for. There's power in his intercession.
And when they moved from place to place, they had these stage
that went through the rings that we read about, and they carried
it around. The stage were made of the same.
They were made of the shidom wood, the incorruptible wood
covered with gold. And they placed it right beside
the veil, right in front of the veil. that went into the Holy
of Holies, where the Shekinah glory of God dwelled, showing
us if you're going to go into the presence of God, you must
come through the intercession of Christ. You can only come
into the presence of God in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And they kept coals burning on this thing every morning and
every evening. And Aaron would put sweet incense on the coals,
and that sweet-smelling smoke would rise up from off the altar. And that smoke is a picture of
the intercession of Christ rising up to the Father. Now in the
first four books of the Bible, 38 times the sacrifice is referred
as a sweet savor unto the Lord. The sacrifice is offered unto
the Lord and it is a sweet savor unto the Lord. It's sweet to
Him. Because that refers to the picture of the sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ was pleasing. It was a sweet savor. to the
Father, and anything else, anything else is offensive to God. We might admire somebody going
through their religious form and ceremony and being so faithful
and consistent to do it, but anything other than this sweet
incense offered on this altar was offensive to God. Look over
in Isaiah 65. I'll show you this. It's offensive In Isaiah 65 verse 3, and this is what we're going
to see here, even if you are following the correct form, but
without Christ, it's offensive. In Isaiah 65 verse 3, God describes
Israel as a people that provoketh me to anger continually to my
face, that sacrificeth in gardens and burneth incense." Now, they're
burning incense just like God told them to do here. But look
what it's upon. Altars of brick. Not the golden
altar, made with the incorruptible wood covered with gold. And God
told them, whenever you make an altar, you make it of stone.
Don't make it of hewn stone. Don't cut it. Don't make it of
brick. It's formed of man's ability, just stones, however you find
them laying around. But here they're offering burning incense
upon altars of brick. It seems like they're following
the form. but it's without Christ. It's not following God's prescribed
way to come to Him. So look on verse 4, which remaineth
among the graves, and lodged in the monuments, which eat swine's
flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels, which
stay, staying by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier
than thou. These are smoke in my nose, a
fire that burneth all the day. Here these people are righteous
before men, They're not breaking the law. They're, you know, honorable,
upright, good people going through the form of religion. God says
there's smoke in my nose. Now look over at 2 Corinthians
2. Compare that with the message
of Christ. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 15. For we, we who believe God, we
who preach the gospel of God, are unto God a sweet saver of
Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. We are
unto God with the message of Christ a sweet saver. And Aaron
and all the high priests that followed in his line, that came
and offered incense on this altar, are a picture of Christ our high
priest. This priest was offering incense unto the Lord for Israel. He wasn't offering it for all
the other tribes that lived all around this, wherever they went.
He was offering that incense for Israel. And when our Lord
went behind the veil into heaven itself with his sacrifice on
the altar before God, his sacrifice, his prayer of intercession was
only for his elect. It can't be more clear. In John
17, Our Lord's High Priestly Prayer, he said it so point blank,
I pray not for the world. He wasn't offering that sacrifice
for the world. He wasn't praying for the whole
wide world, but for them which thou has given. He offered his
intercession, his sacrifice to the Father for his people. And I'm telling you, there's
power in the prayers of Christ, the intercession of Christ. And
a good example is the Apostle Peter. What did our Lord tell
Peter before he went to the cross? Satan has desired to sift thee
as wheat, but I prayed for him. And what did he pray for him?
That your faith fail not. Now, Peter stumbled and fell. He wept bitter tears, but his
faith didn't fail, did it? He fell, but his faith did not
fail because Christ prayed for him. There's power in the intercession
of Christ. And just like the other pieces of furniture in
the holy place, this shows a believer's union with Christ. Now this smoke
that rose off this altar clearly is the intercession of Christ
for his people. But look over in Revelations 5. In Revelations 5 verse 8. And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before
the land, having every one of them harps and golden vials full
of odors, and that is full of incense, which are the prayers
of the saints." That's not, he's not referring here to, he says,
it doesn't say the intercession of the prayer of Christ. He said
this incense that they have is the prayers of the saints. That's
how closely united the believer is to Christ. Though that intercession,
he says here, is the prayers of the saints. Now our prayers
can only be accepted in Christ. That's why we pray in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He makes intercession for us
with groanings that cannot be uttered. So many times we have
no idea how to pray. I have no idea how to pray. I
know how to pray selfishly, but you know, in a lot of matters,
I do not know how to pray. Well, here's our comfort. Christ
maketh intercession for us, even while we pray with groanings
that cannot be uttered. And if you look over a couple
pages, I'll show you that in Revelations chapter 8. I had
never seen this before. In Revelations 8 verse 3, and
another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden
censer, and there was given unto him much incense, just like the
high priest with his censer and his incense, that he should offer
it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar,
which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense
which came up with the prayers of the saints. Here it's Christ
interceding for us even while we pray. That smoke came up with
the prayers of the saints. Ascended up before God out of
the angel's hand. He's making intercession for
us even while we're praying. And there's an important union
here between this golden altar and the brazen altar, the altar
of sacrifices out in the courtyard. The power of the altar of incense
comes from the altar of sacrifice, from the brazen altar. And we
need both these altars to picture Christ, our altar. The intercession
of Christ is so powerful, and it's always accepted for one
reason. It's because of the sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ that
was offered on that brazen altar. The coals that they put on this
altar, you know where they came from? They took them from off
the brazen altar, and took him in and put him on the golden
altar, on the altar of incense. The altar of the sacrifice, that
burned up the sacrifice, was then put on the altar of incense,
to put the incense on so the intercession of Christ would
go up. His intercession is always tied to his sacrifice. Christ
must die to put away our sin. He had to shed the blood before
there's ever blood to be offered before the Father. And on the
Day of Atonement, we read that one day a year, the priest would
take the blood of the sin offering and put it on the four horns
of this altar, showing us that the power of this intercession
comes from the blood of the sacrifice that was offered on the brazen
altar. When Christ makes intercession for his people, he asks things
for his people. He's pleading to receive what
he has already purchased with the blood. In John 17, in our
Lord's great high priestly prayer, what was the basis of everything
he asked for? He said, I glorified thee on
the earth. I finished the work which thou gavest me to do. The
work is finished. The blood is shed. Sin is put
away. Now I'm pleading for my people
on the basis of that sacrifice. I finished the work that thou
gavest me to do. When Christ is pleading for us,
he's pleading for things that We sinners do not deserve in
ourselves, but he's pleading for things that we do deserve
in Christ. He's pleading for things he's
purchased for us. And this intercession is perpetual. It never ended. Every morning,
every evening, every day, without end, the high priest came in
and offered incense on this altar. And it didn't stop until Christ
died and made an end of the law. And the intercession of Christ
for his people is eternal. He's always on the job. Christ
is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. He's ceased
from all of his labors, hasn't he? Yet he's always engaged. 24 hours a day, every second
he's engaged in making intercession for his people. Now I don't care
where you are or what you're doing, you remember this, Christ
has not forgotten perpetual, without end, eternally making
intercession for his people. Paul asked in Romans 8, who is
he that condemned him? It's Christ that died. Who is
he that condemned him? Well, let's answer a question
with a question. Who is he that died? Who is he
that's making intercession? If the answer's Christ, then
the answer to the original question is no one. You cannot be condemned. If Christ died for you, if he
represented you at Calvary, I guarantee you, at this very moment, He's
making intercessions for you, representing you at the right
hand of the Father. And the only way that we can
be accepted with God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way
our prayers can be accepted is through the intercession of Christ.
Everything about us, we can only be accepted in Christ. You can
read about this, this afternoon, the first few verses of Leviticus
10. Nay, Dad, and by whom? two sons of Aaron. They got tired
of doing everything the same way every day, every day, every
day, every day. So they took strange fire and put it on the
altar and offered it before the Lord. They took incense they
made up their own way. God gave them an exact recipe
for the incense that was to be burned on this altar. They got
tired of that smell. They wanted a new smell. So they
made up their own concoction of incense and offered it on
this, on this altar. And God sent out a fire that
Scripture says devoured them, just vaporized them. Now that
happened for those two boys offering strange fire and violating the
picture of Christ. What kind of punishment awaits
those who violate the person of Christ, who refuse to bow
to the God's Son? Outside of Christ, God is a consuming
fire. But in Christ, we're accepted
in the Beloved. Every single time the priest
came with the right coals from off the brazen altar, with the
incense that God told him to bring, every time he was accepted.
Every time. Now one more thing I want to
give you in closing. When they moved this tabernacle from place
to place, and you can read about this in Numbers 4, the first
thing they did is they covered this altar with the blue covering. We've seen it over and over and
over again. The blue covering, which is a picture of the color
of heaven. This one who's making intercession
for us right now is in heaven. But they covered the blue covering
with the badger skin, which is a picture of the humanity of
Christ. In heaven, right now, there is a man making intercession
for his people. A man! Now he's the God man. He's God. So he has the power
of God to make intercession for you and me. But he's a man with
the sympathy and empathy of a man. Look over Hebrews chapter 4 and
we'll quit. You know, we can see troubles
and things that men are going through. Hard to sympathize with
them. It's hard to truly empathize
with them unless I've been through it myself. But now when I've
been through it, and I know where they're walking, I know what
they're feeling, I can sympathize, I can empathize with them. Our
high priest can empathize with you, with his people. Look at
Hebrews 4 verse 15. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. Now, let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. I do not care what situation
you find yourself in as you're walking through the valley of
the shadow of death, as you go through this life, the veil of
tears. I don't care where you are. I don't care the darkness.
I don't care the tears. I don't care the pressure. to
heartache that you're going through, as dark and ugly as it may seem,
our Lord has been there first. He's been touched with the feeling
of our infirmity, and the one who's making intercession for
us with the very power of God sympathizes and empathizes, and
He will never forget you. Well, I hope that's a blessing.