Now you may recall when we began
the study of the tabernacle that I told you all the materials
that were used to construct the tabernacle were all donated as
a free offering, a gift from the people of Israel, with the
exception of the silver. The silver that was used for
the top of the post for the fence and the foundation. And this
silver of the foundation, there were 100, 100 pound sockets. But that silver was not donated,
and you'll see that in Exodus chapter 30 in verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel
after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom
for his soul unto the Lord, when thou number'st him, that there
be no plague among them when thou number'st him. This they
shall give everyone that passeth among them that are numbered,
half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel is
twenty givings, and half a shekel shall be the offering of the
Lord. Everyone that passeth among them that are numbered, from
twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord.
The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less
than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord
to make an atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the
atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint
it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, that it
may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to
make an atonement for your souls." Now, this silver was used as
an atonement. And I'll tell you why it was
given. Numbering. You know, Moses was told to number
the people. Numbering has to do with ownership. We count what belongs to us. We don't count what belongs to
somebody else and what we do is always because of jealousy
or envy or something. But typically what we count is
ours. Well, God could count Israel.
They belong to Him. But men were not allowed to count
Israel. They don't belong to you. They
belong to God. They don't belong to you even
if you're king. David learned that lesson, didn't he? The first
problem was 21. He went out to count the people.
And the prophet told him, don't you do it. And he did it anyway.
What happened? A plague came on the people.
Those were David's people to count. They didn't belong to
him. They belonged to God. Even David, King David, the man
after God's own heart, did not want to take credit for that
nation Israel. They're God's people. They belong
to him. But Moses is told to count the people. And in order
to avoid slaves coming among the people, God told the people
to bring it home with money. Now you know good and well that
that is not teaching salvation by the words. It's not teaching
that a sinner can contribute something to their salvation.
Not at all. That's not teaching that anymore
than bringing a lamb to the sacrifice is teaching salvation by the
words. When you bring a lamb for the sacrifice, that's the
picture that's teaching salvation through substance. And when you
bring the atonement money, when the children of Israel brought
the atonement money, what that is showing us is a picture of
how precious salvation is. Each one of those silver sockets,
those 100-pound silver sockets, is worth over $7,000 in today's
money. Gives us a picture of the preciousness
of the atonement money. And we know we're not redeemed
if something is tried in silver. gold. You're not redeemed with
collectible things of silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ. And that's what that atonement
money is a picture of, the precious blood of Christ. And that silver
was used to make the sockets for the foundation of the walls
on the tabernacle. Those boards stood in those sockets,
and those sockets formed the foundation that held the walls,
held the building up. And the foundation of everything
we believe is the Lord Jesus Christ. The foundation of everything
we believe is the blood of His sacrifice. Without the blood,
without the blood of Christ, everything that we claim to believe
would fall down. Without the blood, without Christ.
Look over in Ephesians chapter 2. He is the foundation of everything
that we believe in. In Ephesians 2 verse 20, and you're built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. You're built on the same foundation
as the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself, being received
cornstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth
unto a holy temple in the Lord. and whom ye also are building
together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. You're
built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ himself. He's the
chief cornerstone. And if you start eroding the
foundation, just like I told you last week about these gold
bars that held the walls together. If you took those bars off, the
walls are going to start to fall apart. Well, if you start eroding
the foundation for long, the building's gonna fall down. You
have to have a strong foundation. And if we start eroding, or we
allow it to be eroded, what Christ accomplished at Calvary, who
He is, what He did, why He did it, where He is now, you start
eroding that. Eventually, everything we believe
is gonna fall down, and we won't preach Christ at all. It'll happen
very soon if you start eroding the foundation. If you start
taking away from the Sovereign, Christ in salvation. You don't
preach Christ at all. I mean, it's not just that you
don't start to preach Christ. If you don't preach the sovereignty
of Christ in salvation, you don't have a gospel to preach at all.
If you take away from the power of the blood of Christ to save
His people from their sins, to give them life, you don't have
a gospel to preach at all. Now, did Christ save His people
or didn't He? Did He make His people righteous
or was He just pretending? It's one or the other. You start
taking away from that, I'm telling you, you do not have the gospel
to preach at all. You start taking away from the
truth that Christ satisfies the law for His people, that His
blood satisfies the justice of God for His people. You start
taking away from that, you have no Savior to preach at all. None
whatsoever. And if you don't have Christ
to preach as a Savior, you start eroding the foundation, you take
away Christ, do you know what you're going to have? You are
the Savior. And you know what we'll do? The
building will fall down. The same way Adam did. That's
what Chip and I were talking about. Cut the same cloth, Chip.
That's what we were talking about. And we'll do the same thing.
The building will fall down. If you start allowing the foundation
to be eroded away, the building's going to fall down. But now listen,
a believer doesn't have to worry about that. There's a song that
kids love to sing in their Sunday school class about the foolish
man, the wise man, the wise man built his house on the rock.
That house stood firm because of the foundation. Because the
wise man digged down deep until he found the rock, built his
house on the rock. And every believer has the exact
same foundation. Abraham, with his great faith,
and me with my weak faith, have the same foundation. The rich,
we read, shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less.
The same foundation. The rich are not going to get
any glory for paying more, and the poor will not be shut out
because of their poverty. The rich shall not give more,
and the poor shall not give less. And we might think that we're
rich in moral character and things of a spiritual nature. We may think we're rich. But
that's only because we're looking at it from an outwardly. Outwardly,
someone might think we're rich, like Saul of Tarsus. And we know
that wasn't Satan. Saul wasn't Satan when he was
in religion. He was morally, outwardly rich.
And we may think we're a vile sinner. Well, we aren't. I'm talking about if we just
look at it from an outward sense. People might think, well, he's
morally bankrupt. He's poor. How about right after
harvest? Zacchaeus, the public, the thief
on the cross, people who say they're great sinners, vile sinners. That doesn't shut you out from
salvation because of your poverty. It doesn't leave you without
hope. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give
less. Both, rich and poor, are equally
redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both rich
and poor are equally dependent on Christ, the Savior, and from
all their sins. Christ is equal to all of their
salvation. It's the blood that maketh an
atonement for the soul. The blood of Jesus Christ, His
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. It's the blood. That's the foundation. That's where we begin, the believer
begins, and that's where we end, the Lord Jesus Christ. I've had
this in my notes for three weeks. I've been trying to get to this
for three weeks. In this courtyard of the tabernacle,
you know what we have? We've got the double cure. We've
got blood, the blood of the altar to atone for sin. And we've got
the water of the laver to cleanse from sin. And you know where
it flows? from the open side of the Savior.
That's where these were found, at the open side of the tabernacle.
That's where the blood and the water flowed from, from the open
side of the Savior. Here is the double cure. A couple
Sunday nights ago, John preached on that double cure. In David's
prayer, he prayed, blot out my transgressions with the blood,
and he cleansed me from my iniquity in the water. That's what we
have out here, the double cure, the blood and the water. After
you come through the gate and you pass the altar and the laver,
you come to the tabernacle of the congregation itself. And
hanging there was this hanging, the door of the tabernacle. And
if you look in Exodus 26, here's the instructions for this hanging
of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. In Exodus
26, verse 36, And also, make it hanging for
the door of the tabernacle, or for the door of the tent, of
blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen wrought with
needlework. Now, if you remember from a few
weeks ago, that's almost exactly the same description as the hanging
on the gateway. Exactly the same. Same materials,
the same color, everything may sound just like the same to me,
it's just a different size. There's just one message. What
this is doing is preaching the same message over and over and
over again. It's the same message because
there is just one message. And in case you forgot, from
the few feet from the gate to the door, God's preaching the
same message. In picture and in type, He's
preaching the same message to us over and over and over again
in case we forget. And it's a good thing because
we do forget, don't we? How often we forget, have to
be reminded. That's why the Apostle said,
to write the same things to you, to me it is not a great gift,
but for you it is saved. So here he is preaching the same
message again. This hanging was made of linen. Linen is white, which is a picture
of the holiness of Christ. But linen is made from flowers. It grows from the ground. That's
a picture of the humanity of Christ. There's a man coming
who's going to be holy. who will be the holiness of his
people. And in that linen, wrought with
this beautiful needlework, was the blue color. The blue is a
picture, a color of the sky, a color of the heavens, telling
us the Redeemer is coming from heaven. There's a man coming
from heaven, from glory, coming to be the Redeemer of his people.
And then there's purple. Purple is the color of oil. Now
this one who's coming is king. He's king of kings and lord of
lords. Any understanding of the kingship
of Christ will stop a man immediately from begging people to accept
him. Now he's king. This one who's coming is king.
He's coming to do his will. He's king. But you'll remember,
Samus, what we talked about here at the gate, this purple is a
mixture of the blue, the color of the heaven, and red, the color
of Adam. Adam is made from the red flesh.
The recurring theme of the tabernacle is purple. Not only is it a picture
of the kingship of Christ, it's a picture of the two natures
of Christ, God and man. The God and man is coming. And
then we have red. Well, that's the color of blood,
telling us that this Redeemer is coming, the King is coming.
first time, not to rain, but to shed his blood as a sacrifice
for the sin of his people. And the blood is pictured, and
actual animal blood here at the altar is shown over and over
and over and over again in this pattern. The blood that was shed
in this place, and all the pictures of the blood, the atonement money,
the red colors, all the blood is all given to us as a picture
of good things to come in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission. But now when scripture says that,
you know it's not talking about just any blood. It's not talking
about the rivers of animal blood that all those high priests shed
at this altar. All the blood that's sprinkled
inside that tabernacle and the Holy of Holies. This is the blood
of Christ. This is the blood of Christ that's
given us cleanse us from all of our sins. Without the blood
of Christ, we have no redemption and no forgiveness of sins. In
Ephesians 1 verse 7, in whom you have redemption, have through
his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. Redemption and forgiveness in
the blood of Christ. Without the blood of Christ,
there'd be no justification. Romans 5 verse 9, being now justified,
how? By His blood. We should be saved
from wrath for Him. How are you going to be saved
from wrath? How are you going to be justified? By His blood. And that's the only way justification
can come to a sinner. Justification with men is impossible. The Apostle Paul said in Acts
13 verse 39, From all things from which ye
could not be justified by the law of Moses. From which you
could not be justified by your opinions and your attempts at
following the law of Moses. We're justified in Christ, by
faith in Christ. For without the blood of Christ
there'd be no sanctification. Hebrews 10 verse 10. By the witch
will we are sanctified. through the offering of the body,
through the shedding of His blood, through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ, one's blood. That's where sanctification is
found. Without the blood of Christ, there'd be no cleansing from
sin, both from the guilt of sin and from the filth of sin. I
don't care how hard you scrub, how many religious ceremonies
you go through, how many things that you think are sinful that
you give up, we cannot scrub away the sin and the guilt of
sin. The only way to be cleansed from
our sin is in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John 1 verse 7, the blood of
Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Cleansing from
sin is found in the blood of Christ. The carnal mind, the
nature that we're born with, is enmity against God. And the
only way a sinner can have peace with God is through the blood.
Christ has made peace through the blood of his cross. Now look
over to Revelations chapter 12. One more thing we have that I
won't take the time to mention in the right way, in the blood
of Christ. Revelations 12 verse 10. We have
the victory through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Revelations 12 verse 10. Now our loud voice sang in heaven,
now hath come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and
the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
And they overcame him, they overcame him, got the victory, how? By
the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony,
and they loved not their lives unto death. We have victory and
we have rejoicing. Therefore, rejoice, ye heavens,
and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the
earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you,
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short
time. For woe to the inhabitants of
the earth, but rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. You've
gotten the victory through the blood of the Lamb, through the
blood of Christ. Thank God. for all this blood
that's pictured here, for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
that we have. And I tell you, I know the red
embroidery here, this is not just something we're making up
now. This red embroidery is a picture of the blood of Christ. Not just
any blood, but the blood of Christ. This is interesting. You know
where they got this red dye? You know, they took the Thread,
linen thread, I suppose, is white, and they dye it red. Do you know
where they got the red dye? They didn't go down to Hobby
Lobby to buy it. There was a red worm that they had, and they
crushed that red worm and made a dye to dye this thread red. In Psalm 22, the psalm of the
cross, what does the Savior say? I'm a worm and no man. When did He say that? at Calvary,
when the lifeblood is thrust out of them, that's where they
got the red for this prayer, from that red wine. Now, you
remember, we looked at the gate. This gate, I told you, is a picture
of Christ's way. This is the way to come into
the tabernacle, this wine. Well, now we have the hanging
of the door, and this door represents Christ the truth. where you see the truth of the
tabernacle. You have to go behind the door
to see the glory and the riches of this tabernacle. That's where
you see the truth of the tabernacle revealed. Well, Christ said,
I am the truth. He is the truth, the revelation
of God. He's the brightness of his glory,
the express image of his person. He told his disciples, if you've
seen me, you've seen the He is the revelation of the truth of
God. And everything that we know about
the Father has been revealed to us in Christ. We know the
Father loves the people. How do we know that? He sent
His Son for the people. We know the Father is merciful
and gracious. How do we know that? He sent
His Son to be our sin-bearer. So He would be merciful and gracious
to us. We know God is wise. How do you
know that? Because in Christ, God can be
just and justified. We know God is holy and just. How do you know that? Look at
Calvin. Look at the way he treated his
son when his son was made sin for us. Even his son, God killed
him. Turned his back on him and killed
him. God's holy and just. Christ is the truth. I hate to
say about God, because He's so much more than just the truth
about God is. He is the truth of God. He is
the revelation of the truth of God to men. And this door is
a single entrance into the tavern. Now, men might call that narrow
because it's single. They might think, well, you know,
what if I want to come another way? Try, I suppose, if you want. God's provided one door, and
men might call that narrow if they want to, but you know what?
This door is as wide as the whole tabernacle itself. Fifteen by
fifteen. You may fit through that. Fifteen
by fifteen. It's as wide as the tabernacle
itself. And the only way, you know what
this is a picture of, the only way is center. Come to God, and
to the truth of God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. He told
his disciples, I am the door of the sheep. The sheep don't
want one door. They only need one door. Christ is the door
of the sheep. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. The only way God can be worshipped
is in Christ. The only way the priest can come
with the blood perform the ceremonies of worship that he was supposed
to perform was to come through this one door. That's the only
way God can be worshipped, is in Christ. That's the only way
he'll accept us. And many call that narrow if
they want to, but it's just like the gate. There's plenty of wire
for any sinner who will come to Christ. If you'll come naked,
you'll close. If you'll come empty-handed and
empty, you'll fill Now, if you're going to bring your own self-righteousness
and your own works and your own deeds, you're too wide. You can't fit through. But if
you'll come naked and empty, there's plenty of room for you
for every sinner to come through. And this door, it always faces
east toward the rising sun. You know, the east is the first
place that we can get any evidence that the darkness of night is
ending, because the east is where the sun rises. You know, when
Christ was born, there hadn't been a prophet in Israel in over
400 years. 400 years of silence from God. And when God's silent, believe
me, there's darkness. There is no other darkness in
Israel. And that dark night ended when
Christ was born in Bethlehem. Look in Luke chapter 1. Here's when Zechariah, the father
of John the Baptist, is speaking at the birth of his son. Here he's speaking about the
birth of the last of the Old Testament prophets in Luke 1
verse 76. And thou shalt be called the
prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the
Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto
his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the day And that word is sunrising,
whereby the day-spring, the sun rising from on high, hath visited
them, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace. This facing
east, this door facing east, is a picture of the sun rising. That's where I said, from on
high. It's not rising from what appears to be low, you know,
the sun rises from Looks like beneath the surface of the earth
does. This sun rising is from on high. This is the son of God
coming to give light to his people. The new gospel day is dawning
in the day that Christ was born. The sun is rising. It's not really
a new message. It's the same message, but the
message now is not preached in pictures, in text. It's preached
in the person that's born. In Bethlehem, the rising of the
sun. Now look over in Exodus 36, and
I'll wind this up quickly. There were five pillars that
this door, this hanging of the door hung on. In Exodus 36, verse 38. And the five pillars of it, what
they're those, and he overlaid their cathedrals, their tops,
their crowns, and their billets with gold, but their five sockets
were of brass. Now if you look over in Exodus
you'll see that these posts were soaked like so much of the other
items of the tabernacle, they are made of the incorruptible
wood covered with gold. That's, again, the humanity of
Christ and the deity of Christ together, forming one post, one
pillar, the God-man. And the only access into the
tabernacle was through those posts, through the God-man. The only access that a sinner
has to God is through Christ, the God-man. And that shows us
the unspeakable grace of God. God is going to come as a man. God is going to become a man.
So sinful men have access to God. Now that is unspeakable
grace. Think about this. How many men
Do you know who would become a maggot? So maggots could become
men. None. You don't know anybody
that would do that. And maggots haven't done anything
to you or me, other than just be disgusting in our sight, but
they haven't rebelled against you. They haven't done anything
to you. They haven't killed your children. And we use that example,
that's an insult to maggots. An insult to maggots everywhere.
Christ became a man. He came down much further to
become a man than you and me would have to go down to become
a man. That's true. And that is the, and you know
what? And we're enemies of God by nature.
Not only did He come down to become a man. Men that are disgusting
in His sight, He did it for His enemies. Those are enemies against
Him. Now that's amazing for us. That
God's man came And like these pillars, the pillars held up
this veil. They held it up so you could
see the beautiful cunning needlework and all the colors and this amazing
veil that hung there. Runs a picture of Christ holding
up both humanity and deity. He's holding up all the attributes
of God so everyone can see them. And no one else but Christ could
bear that burden. No one else but Christ could
hold that up for men to see. And there in Exodus 36, we read
that these pillars are topped with capitals, and what that
is, it's a crown, and that is a crown of gold. Picture the
kingship of Christ, he's crowned with glory and honor. And the
sockets that those pillars stood in were made of brass. Remember,
brass is a picture of strength, and also a picture of the ability
to withstand fire. We read this last week in Revelation
1. Remember when John was on the
Isle of Cactus and he got that vision of Christ? What did he
see? He said, feet like that of fine
grass as if they'd been burned in a furnace. I wonder why John
saw that. Because his feet had been burned
in a furnace, in a hot furnace. Christ walked through the furnace
of God's wrath to give the sin of His people. And listen. He
walked all the way through. Every inch of that furnace, He
walked. Christ was not spared any of
the judgment that our sins are. That judgment was not mixed with
the first drop of mercy. He walked all the way through.
And we need to always remember this. We have a great gospel
preacher. My goodness. We preach a gospel. that declares to sinners forgiveness
of sins. We proclaim to captives liberty. Our gospel preaches to dead people
eternal life. Our gospel preaches to rebels
the precious promises of God in His Son. But we need to never
forget that all that wonderful, glorious, good news that we rejoice
in comes to us through what that brass represents, because of
the sufferance of Christ. We have access to God. A believer has access to God
at all times, but we only have it because it costs Christ the
cutoff from the Father. We have a full and free salvation. Doesn't cost you anything. We
have it because Christ paid the ransom price. through his sufferings
and death. We enjoy complete liberty, a
believer, a child of God, at their full liberty. We haven't,
at the cost of Christ, any main capital for our sin. Never forget,
I hope we never get over the sufferings of Christ, the unspeakable
agony of his soul, that this rapture presented, that set us
free. to give us this glorious gospel
to preach. It all comes to us at the expense
of the stock of crocked arsenals. All right, we'll pick up there
in two weeks, Gordon.