In our last lesson, we looked
at the fence of this tabernacle that went around the tabernacle. But you know, this fence is not
a complete rectangle that goes around this tabernacle blocking
men out from God. It's not a complete tabernacle.
There is an opening. There's a gate in this tabernacle. And if you look in Exodus chapter
26, We'll see this gate described
in Exodus 27. There is a gate coming in through
this fence in Exodus 27 verse 16. For the gate of the court shall
be a hanging of twenty cubits of blue and purple and scarlet
and fine twine linen wrought with needlework. and their pillars
shall be four, and their sockets four." Now, God did provide a
way inside this fence. You remember this fence is all
white, represents the holiness of God, keeping man out from
coming into the presence of God. But God did provide a way, and
he provided just one way, but there is a way to come through
and come into the presence of God, and it's this gate. And
this one way, now there's just one, but it was very clearly
marked. It wasn't white, solid white
like the rest of the fence. There were all these colors that
were beautifully, intricately woven through here. Probably
you could hardly see the white linen for all the colors that
were woven in there. Just beautiful, hanging a tapestry
that they used for this gate. Clearly marking the gate, the
entrance to come into the tabernacle of God. God Almighty has not
shut himself off from men. Now, in justice he could, and
probably should, but in grace he didn't. He provided a way,
and that way is the Lord Jesus Christ. This gate is a picture
of him. And Christ is clearly marked. The way to come to God is clearly
marked in scripture. Impossible to miss, unless you're
completely blind. Just utterly impossible. Nearly
everyone on earth has heard the name Jesus, haven't they? This thing wasn't done in a corner,
Paul said. Our job is to proclaim Him, to
proclaim Christ. Not just Jesus, but to proclaim
to the Lord Jesus Christ who He is, what He did, why He did
it, and where He is now, so that sinners will come to Him. Because
He is the way to God, just like this gate was the way to come
into the tabernacle. And this gate is Christ the way. Now there's just one way to God.
And that way is a person. It's not a way, it's not a system
of theology. It's a person. The Lord Jesus
Christ. In John 14 verse 6, our Lord,
you can't tell this more plainly, I am the way. The truth and the
life. I am the way. In Matthew 11 verse
27, He said, Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son.
And he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him. The only way
to know the Father is to come to him through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the way. Now look over
Matthew chapter 7. There's just one way to God.
And here in Matthew 7 he's called the narrow way. In Matthew 7 verse 13. Enter ye in at the straight gate,
and that word straight in other places in Scripture is translated
narrow. So if you understand clearly
what we're talking about here, enter ye in at the straight,
the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad
is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat. But straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Isn't that something? Few there be that find it, despite
how clearly marked. Christ the way is, few there
be that find it. And that just tells us over and
over and over again, these things must be revealed. We're not going
to figure it out with human intelligence, it must be revealed. And Christ
is called the narrow way, but now I want to tell you, there's
plenty of room for a sinner. Plenty of room. for a sinner
to come to God through Christ. Plenty of room. This gate was
not narrow. It's 30 feet wide. I mean, it's
hard to miss. It's 30 feet wide. Plenty of
room to go in and out through this gate. But Christ is the
narrow way. You know, when I was a kid, we
would vacation in the South a lot before. My grandmother lived
down there. And I don't know if you still do or not, but then,
I mean, you couldn't go anywhere and not see a sign for Rock City.
Visit Rock City. And we went a time or two, it
was a fascinating place for a kid. And they had a, I don't know,
what you'd call an attraction or something there, where the
rock, going through all these rocks, and it narrowed way down.
They called it Fat Man's Squeeze. And you want to see if you get
through there, because if you get through there, obviously you weren't
fat, right? A narrow way. Christ is not Fat Man's Squeeze. Plenty of room for a sinner seeking
forgiveness to come to Him. His arms are wide open. For a
sinner now, you come empty, come broken, come seeking forgiveness.
There's plenty of room for a sinner. But now this gate is too narrow
for a person to bring their self-righteousness. You won't fit. Bringing your
self-righteousness, you're too wide. You're going to have to
go through the wide gate. But what did our Lord say about the
wide gate? That way leads to destruction. So you come empty-handed
and come to Christ. You'll be accepted. There's plenty
of room for a sinner, even though it's a narrow way. For a sinner,
there's plenty of room. And another thing about this
gate, this gate, whenever they moved the tabernacle and set
up camp, they always set this gate up facing east, facing the
rising sun. That's a picture of Christ, the
light of the world. This tabernacle is picturing
Christ who's going to rise, the son of God who's going to rise
with healing in his wings. But now there are some requirements
about coming through this gate. The only people that could come
through this gate were Moses and Aaron, the law and the high
priest, except the third person that could come was a sinner
bringing a sacrifice. You cannot come through this
gate without a sacrifice. And it showed so plainly because
the first thing a person saw when they came through the gate
was the brazen altar where you offered the sacrifice. You cannot
come to God. Without, you've got to come through
Christ and through his sacrifice, through the blood. It's the blood
that puts away sin. But like I told you, this gate,
now we just put the colors that were represented in here so we
could see what colors there were, but it was a beautiful woven
tapestry. And the first scripture, the
first color scripture says was in here was blue. Now blue is
a picture of the sky. Meaning this one who's coming
is coming from heaven. He's going to come down from
heaven. Look at John chapter 6. That's what the blue represents. Him is going to come down from
heaven. And when he comes, he's coming
from heaven. Who lives in heaven? God. He's coming. God is coming. A sovereign savior, a sovereign
life giver is the one who's coming. In John 6 verse 32, Then Jesus
said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you
not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true
bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. He's a sovereign
life giver. He comes down from heaven. And
look at verse 38, For I came down from heaven. Not to do mine
own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the
Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me,
that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may
have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
He came down from heaven. What did Isaiah say in Isaiah
9? Unto us a child is born, unto us a son. He's given from above. He came down from heaven. Now
the next color, that's the blue. The next color was purple. And
purple is the color of royalty. This one who's coming is coming
as king. King of kings and Lord of lords.
Now you remember when we studied this white fence, we talked about
the holiness of God. The very first thing God teaches
a sinner that he's going to say is that God's holy. Right alongside
that, one of the first things God teaches a sinner, He's going
to say, is God is King. Now God is sovereign. He does
not have to save me. He does not have to have mercy
on you. God is sovereign. He saves whom
He will, when He will. God is King. He's King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. The wise men that came to Bethlehem
looking for the child Jesus, who did they ask for? Where is
he who is born king of the Jesus? They knew they were looking for
a king. In Psalm 115, wherefore should the heathen say, where
is now their God? For our God is in the heaven. He is king,
and he hath done whatsoever he pleased. He's king. Maybe Kenesha
learned that, didn't he? Daniel 4, he said, God. God is king of heaven, and he
doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
ask him, What doest thou? And Nebuchadnezzar went on, and
he said, Now God's king, Daniel's God is king, and those who walk
in pride he is able to abase. Aren't you glad those that walk
in pride? He's able to abase. He's able to take his people
and put them in the dust so that they find mercy and grace from
Him. He's King. He's Sovereign. Isaiah. When the Lord gave Isaiah a vision,
what did he see? He said, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up on the throne and His train built the temple. John. When he saw a vision of Christ
at the end of the world, what did he see? He said, I saw a
lamb in the midst of the throne. John saw a king. He's not a baby
in a manger. He's not a helpless Man on a
cross, he's king. Now kiss the son, lest he be
angry, and his wrath is kindled but a little. Come to him as
king. Now he's king. That's the purple.
And the scarlet, you know what that's a picture of? The blood. The blood of Christ. And that's
a theme that runs throughout this whole tabernacle. You just
watch the activity of this tabernacle for just a day, and you'll know
the blood is important. There's so much blood. Is it
actual animal blood? There's pictures of the blood
everywhere. The blood, the blood, the blood, the blood. We need
to make much of the blood. Scripture makes much of the blood.
We need to make much of the blood. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. Look over at Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews 9 verse 19. When Moses had spoken every precept
to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of
calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and
sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the
blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover,
he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels
of the ministry, and almost all things are by law purged with
blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things, see these
things are just patterns, pictures. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these. And that's what this blood represents,
the better sacrifice, the better blood, it's the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's the blood of Christ that
redeems, that puts sin away. Look over in chapter 9, there's
still verse 12. The blood of Christ not only
pays for sin, atones for sin, but the blood of Christ gives
a new walk. Look in verse 12 of Hebrews 9.
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls, and
of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, and
serve the living God? The blood of Christ not only
puts sin away, pays for sin, but causes you not to serve God
in fear of the law, but serve the living God. He gives a new
walk. I tell you, that's what this
tabernacle is telling us over and over and over again. Salvation,
cleansing of sin, is coming in the blood of this one who's coming. This one is pictured. And you
know, as I studied that, I thought about the song and asked myself,
are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? That's salvation, being
washed in His blood. But now this purple, you know,
it, well, I've talked about it a minute ago. It represents the
royalty, the kingship of Christ. But the purple was placed or
mentioned in scripture between the blue and the red. The purple
is mentioned in the middle. Well, blue is a picture of heaven
coming from the sky. But, and scarlet is mainly a
picture of the blood, but you know, red could also be a representation
of man. It's the color of the earth.
Adam was made from the red clay. Well, where did he get purple?
A mixture of the blue and the red. This purple, not only is
telling us the king is coming, this is telling us the God-man
is coming. Two natures, the red and the
blue in one body. The God-man. As much God as if
he were not man. And as much man as if he were
not God. You know, when I taught the lesson
of the tabernacle in Bible school a number of years ago, Holly
and Cody were children in that class. And every time I'd quote
Scott and say that about the God man, Scott's famous quote,
you know, as much God as if you were not man, as much man as
if you were not God, Cody just drew his eyes over, just can't
get your mind around that. He kept saying, explain that,
explain that. It's just the mystery of godliness. This whole theme of this tabernacle,
we're going to see it over and over again. The brass covering
the incorruptible wood, the gold covering the incorruptible wood.
A God-man is coming as king. He's coming as king. He's coming
as a man with blood to put away the sin of the people. That's
his people. That's who's coming. And all these colors were woven
beautifully into white linen. And just like the finch, the
white linen, is grown from flax, comes from the ground, which
pictures the humanity of Christ. He's coming as a man. A man is
coming from heaven who is king of kings to put away the sin
of his people. You know, these colors represent
so many different attributes of God. So many of these different
attributes of God are found in this gate. All the fullness of
the Godhead bodily dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what this is telling us. He's coming. He's coming. He's
coming. But now listen, if you want to come to this tabernacle,
you want to come to God, you've got to come through this gate. You've got to come through it.
It's not good enough to stand out here in the camp and stand
there and admire that gay boy and the pretty. It's not good
enough to stand out here outside this camp and understand how
that beautiful tapestry was made. It's not good enough to understand.
I wouldn't have the slightest clue how to do it. Mom sewed
this into this piece of linen. I wouldn't know how to do that.
Much less this beautiful tapestry that they wove. I wouldn't understand
the first thing about that. It wouldn't do you any good if
you did. Now understand all the intricacies, how that all works
together and how it was made. It wouldn't do you any good To
stand out here and know all the facts, all the history of that
hanging. The only thing that's going to
do you any good is to bring a sacrifice and come through the gate. You
come to Christ. I wish I could drive that home
to people every time I get up to speak. You come to Christ. Don't sit there and admire. How
beautiful He is. How wonderful Scripture makes
Him sound. That won't do you any good. That's
not salvation. It won't do you any good to have memorized many
facts about the Bible that you think you understand some hidden
mystery about the Godhead, the person of the God-man of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That won't do you any good. The only thing that will do a
sinner any good is to come to Christ. You come all the way
to Him. The way you come to the Father
is through the Lord Jesus Christ. You come to Him. You come to
Him and you come into Him. You in Him and Him in you. That's
that vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ and that salvation.
You've got to come through the gate. It's like you've got to
come to Christ. Salvation is entering into Him.
You see, outside the gate, all you see is the holiness of God. and this one gate. That's all
you see. But when you come in the gate,
when you come from out here, and you come bring a sacrifice,
and you come through the gate, and you come stand in here, now
you're surrounded by the white vans, aren't you? Now you're
surrounded by the holiness of God. And that's what it is when
you come to Christ. When you come to Christ and you
enter into Him, suddenly, you're not looking at Him from the outside.
Now you're in Him, surrounded, engulfed by the holiness of Christ. Now you're covered with His robe
of righteousness. But more than just covered, it
goes all the way through you too. His righteousness is imputed
to you. When you come into Christ, you're
engulfed in His holiness. Now you're made the righteousness
of God in Him by being put in Him and Him in you. Because he
was your sacrifice. You know, when you come into
the fence, you had to bring a sacrifice. Well, he's the sacrifice. He
was made sin for you, so you could be made the righteousness
of God in him. And that's what you have when
you come in the gate. It's like what you have when you come into
Christ. By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by
the obedience of one, by this one that the tabernacle says
is coming, by his obedience, shall many be made righteous. So come to Him. Come to God through
Him. Now once you'd come into this
tabernacle, one of the things that you'd see, and we're going
to talk about these pieces of furniture next week, Lord willing,
but you'd see this tent, and all it would look like to you
from the outside is a tent. That's all it would look like.
Wasn't it an impressive looking structure with all these coverings
over it? And you'd see this tent covered with badger skin. That's
what this gray represents. Look back in Exodus 26. In Exodus
26, verse 14. And also make a covering for
the tent of ram skins, dyed red, and a covering above of badger
skin. A covering above of badger skin.
And that's all we know about it. It's a covering of badger
skin. It's very, badger skin is a bluish gray color, kind
of like this. It's very, very strong. People
used to make sandals out of it even. It's so strong it would
withstand the elements, the heat and the wind and the rain and
so forth. But it's very ordinary looking. It's just so ordinary,
it's almost ugly compared to all the sort of beautiful tapestry
and fence and so forth. It just is ugly by contrast almost. And there's no measurement given.
There's no form. We don't know what form, we have
a rectangle, but it could have been an oval, it could have been
a square, it could have been just irregular shape. We have
no idea, there's no form given for it. Isaiah 53 verse 2 gives
us the picture. He had no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire. This covering would not make
you very interested. And what is in the rest of that
tent? Does this look so ordinary? He'd want to go look somewhere
else, because it looks so ordinary. That's our Lord Jesus. As a man,
He was so ordinary. He looked like a homeless man.
Because in fact, He was. He was a homeless man. Yesterday,
we were out and about with our family, and I saw a homeless
man. And my first reaction was to
turn my head, you know, and I thought, That is exactly what's in my
notes. That's what people did to our Lord Jesus Christ, a homeless
man. And they turned their head and
went the other way. There is no beauty about him
that would draw human beings, flesh to him. And he said he
was a homeless man. He said the birds have a nest,
the foxes have their holes in the dens, and the son of man
doesn't have a place to lay his head. And he did that on purpose. That was all part of his purpose.
He made himself. of no reputation. He was born
in a manger, for goodness sake. A manger! Just laid in a bed
of straw that cows would eat. No reputation. He worked as a
carpenter. Other men looked down on him. Just, ugh, he's nothing. And
that's how lowly the Lord Jesus Christ came. Just this gray,
badger skin. He looked like a common, ordinary
man. And he sat and ate with publicans
and sinners. He looked like a defeated man,
rejected of men and God, as He hung with His face, that ordinary
face, marred more than any other man, as He hung in bloody agony
between heaven and earth on the cross. They looked at Him like
any other man, He's defeated, rejected of God. But that man,
this man who made Himself of no reputation, is the God of
glory, the Creator. It's unbelievable. the levels
of condescension, how far he came down to save his people. And you cannot see him unless
you're given eyes to see. This can't see. And it's interesting
that there is no measurement given for this covering. And
it's such a good picture of Christ. It is beyond our ability to measure
how far down Christ came. Scientists measure how far it
is to the moon or how far it is to the sun or how far it is
to the next galaxy. They can tell you they know how
far it is from that galaxy to the next one. They cannot measure
what it meant for God to clothe himself in human flesh that's
represented in this baptism. You just cannot measure the blessings
that sinners have in Christ because he became bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh became a man just like us. And by looking
at this plain, rugged covering, you'd never guess at the glory
that's inside that building. You'd never guess it because
it's so different from what's inside that building. Well, the
only people who saw the glory of this tabernacle were the people
that were inside it. That's where all the glory is.
You had to go inside here to see all the glory of that tabernacle. Well, the only people who see
the glory of Christ are people who are in Christ, who God has
put in his Son. And if you see, blessed are your
eyes, for they see. The seeing eye and the hearing
ear is a gift of God's grace. If you see His glory, it's because
God in His infinite, unspeakable mercy and grace has put you in
His Son to see His glory. But you've got to get past this
badger skin before you'd ever see that glory. And underneath
the badger skin was this ram skin dyed red. And you know what
this red represents. And the ram represent substitution. Abraham and Isaac were on top
of the mountain. Abraham getting ready to quarter
his own son, slit his throat, quarter him and offer his body
as a burnt offering to God. He had the knife raised and God
said, Abraham, Abraham, don't touch the lad. And what did they
see? Behind him, a ram caught in the
thicket by its horn. And the ram was offered up in
the stead of Isaac. A substitute. Isaac lived because
the ram, substitute, died in his place. And this ramskin,
dyed red, is telling us this one who's coming is going to
come, not as a king, even though he is king, but that's not how
he's coming. He's coming to be a substitute. He's coming, not
to reign, but to die and shed his blood as a substitute for
his people. You know very well what a substitute
is. A substitute in a basketball
game sits on the bench. And then when somebody gets tired
or in foul trouble, they hurt, then the substitute goes in and
takes his place. And that player comes out. When
I was in high school, that's what I did. Adam, he played all the
time. And I was the guy that sat over there. He got tired.
I wouldn't come in. But if I go in, I mean, Adam
was good. If I go in for Adam, the coach
wouldn't leave me in there very long because it was a downward
trend here. It wouldn't happen very long.
It's just a temporary situation. Christ came as a substitute for
his people, and it was permanent. It wasn't temporary. Permanent. He became our substitute. He took the place of his elect.
And it's not just trading places with us. He became what we are,
so we could become what he is. Substitution. That's what that
is. You know, I don't know who said this, but it's good. The
only word that proves God loves sinners is substitute. It's the
only word. People say, Oh, God loves everybody.
God loves, God loves you. God loves it. How do you know?
Substitute. God loves you if he sent his
son to be your substitute, to die in your place. That's the
only way you know God loves you. He sent his son to be your substitute. Who is it that Christ died for?
Sinners. He died the just for the unjust. Are you unjust? He died for you. Christ died the just for the
unjust. He might bring us to God. In Galatians 1, verse 14,
He gave Himself for our sins. Boy, are you a sinner? Christ
died for you. He's your substitute. He died
for sinners. He gave Himself for our sins. Romans 4, verse
25. He was delivered for our offenses,
not his, ours. Are you offensive? Now think
about that for a minute. Are you offensive? If you are,
Christ died for you to be your substitute. Isaiah 53, verse
6, the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. As our substitute,
our iniquity was laid on him. Well, are you laden with iniquity?
If you are. Christ died for you. He's your
substitute. And in the wild, where do you
find a ram? The ram has got all the power. I mean, that guy's
something else. I saw a ram one time out in the
wild. I mean, he's something else. He's the head of all those
flock of sheep. He's the head of that wild flock
of sheep. Well, Christ is the head of the
church, and He gave Himself. for the body. How far did he
come down to become the substitute for his body? And you know, just
like the basher skin, there's no measurement given for this
ram skin, dyed red. And I know why. It's impossible
to measure the value of the blood of Christ. It's impossible to
value, to put a value on Christ's sacrifice, his substitutionary
sacrifice for his people, beyond measure. So that's the ramskin
dyed red, and underneath that was these goat hair curtains.
Look in Exodus 26, verse 7. And thou shalt make curtains
of goat's hair, to be a covering upon the tabernacle. Eleven curtains
shalt thou make. The length of one curtain shall
be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four And eleven
curtains shall be all one measure. And thou shalt couple five curtains
by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double
the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle. And thou shalt
make fifty loops on the edge of one curtain that is outmost
in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which
is coupleth the second. And thou shalt make fifty catches
of brass, and put the catches into the loops, and couple the
ten together, that it may be one. And the remnant that remaineth
of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth,
shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle." Now, these
goat chair curtains completely covered that tabernacle.
And goats always refer to sin. When the Lord separates the sheep
and the goats, he puts the goats on his left and the sheep on
his right. And the goats, we know, are the
wicked. And goats were always used as a sin offering. That's
what they were used for. On the Day of Atonement, they
took two goats. One of them was slain as a sin offering. The
other had all the sins of the people transferred onto its head.
And a fit man took that goat and all those sins out into the
wilderness, never to be seen again. And that's what this goat
there represents, the sin offering. Christ died as a sin offering. for his people, to put the sins
of his people away. Look at Ephesians chapter 5.
Ephesians 5 verse 2. and walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering, a
sin offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior."
This is a sin offering, and to die as a sin offering is a horrible,
horrible death for the Son of God. It would be a painful death
for you and me, but it was a horrible death for the Holy Son of God.
to be made sin for his people. Psalm 22, the Savior speaking,
said, my sins. He didn't say the sins of my
people. He said, my sins have a gap hold upon me so that I'm
not able to look up. And when Christ was made sin
for his people, the Father treated his Son as sin itself. God doesn't separate sin and
the sinner. We do that. We separate the sin
and the sinner because we want to find an excuse for people.
That's not what God does. He doesn't separate sin and the
sinner. He sees them as one. And that's why Christ, God's
only begotten Son, was forsaken to Calvary. Because our sin was
laid on Him and the Father turned His back on us because He was
the sin offering. He was offering Himself up as
the sin of His people. You see, we see sins as weakness
in a person. or mistakes a person made. God
doesn't see sin that way. God sees sin as treason. He sees it as sin against His
holiness, against Himself. And a holy God won't tolerate
that. That's why He demands death for sin. And that's what happened
to Christ. When He became our substitute,
He was our sin offering and was slaughtered for the sins of His
people. And just like I said a minute
ago, this goat's hair covering completely covered that tabernacle. Except for the doorway, it completely
covered it. When Christ bore the sin of His
people, He completely covered the sins of His people with His
blood. So that they're not seen anymore. Even God doesn't see
them. And God won't remember them because they're completely
covered. He said, their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. God cannot recall your sins if
Christ died for you, because He completely covered them in
His blood. And just like the scapegoat of old, when Christ
was made sin for us, He bore our sins into the wilderness,
never to be seen again. As far as the East is from the
West, so far have I removed your transgressions from you. Completely
took them away as our sin offering. And you know, these different
curtains and coverings frequently are joined together with gold. But did you notice when we read
this one is not joined together with gold, it's joined together
with brass. Remember, we've talked about
these brass posts, that brass can stand up to fire. It's got
that strength. The sin offering, if it's going
to put away our sin and cover our sin, must be able to bear
up under the fiery wrath of God. And he did. That's why God said
your sins and iniquities will remember no more, because He
withstood the fire of God's wrath, and instead of that fire consuming
Him, it consumed our sin and made us whole and complete in
Him. Now, last are these linen curtains
in Exodus 26, verse 1. Moreover, thou shalt make the
tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twine linen, and blue
and purple and scarlet. With cherubins of cunning work
shalt thou make them. The length of one curtain shall
be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four
cubits, and every one of the curtains shall have one measure.
The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another, and
other five curtains shall be coupled one to another. And thou
shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of one curtain and on
the self-edge of the coupling, and likewise shalt thou make
in the uttermost edge of another curtain in the coupling of the
second. Fifty loops shalt thou make in one curtain, and fifty
loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in
the coupling of the second, that the loops may take hold one of
another. And thou shalt make fifty tatches
of gold. See, this one's coupled together with gold. And couple
the curtains together with the tatches, and it shall be one
tabernacle. Now, here we have this linen
covering, and we didn't put all the colors in there, but you
know what's in there. And it's just like the fence
is made from flax, thrown from the ground, picturing the humanity
of Christ. Yet it's white. It's holy, telling
us a man is coming who will be holy, as holy as God is. He's
holy, harmless, separate from sinners. Our Lord eats with publicans
and sinners, but he wasn't defiled. The leper came to him and said,
Lord, if you will, you make me whole. Our Lord said, I will. and touched him. Now, if you
touched a leper or I touched a leper, we'd be defiled. We'd
have to go through all this rigmarole and ceremony with the priest
to be pronounced clean. Our Lord didn't become unclean
when he touched that leper. Instead, the leper was made holy.
Wasn't he holy, harmless, separate from sinners? But it's not just
that Christ came and he is holy. We're not just talking about
the holiness or righteousness of Christ. Christ is. the holiness of his people. His
holiness is our holiness. His righteousness is our righteousness. Look at Revelation chapter 19. Here's a good example of Scripture
being a commentary for itself. Revelation 19 verse 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him. For the marriage of the Lamb
is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was
granted that she be arrayed in fine linen." Just like this was
made out of fine twine linen. She was arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness
of saints. It didn't say it's the righteousness
of Christ, did it? It's the righteousness of saints.
Well, how did it become the righteousness of the saints? He gave it to
her. That's how. It was imputed to her. Christ
is our righteousness. You see, He doesn't just give
us a righteousness. He is our righteousness. And
that's what this linen represents. Christ is our righteousness.
One who is coming will be our righteousness. But as we read
here, now this wasn't just solid white like the fence. This had
beautiful embroidery in it. Just utterly stunning. And what
it says here, what's embroidered here was cherubims. I don't know about you, but it's
a problem of the day. When I think of a cherubim, I
think of a cherub, you know, a chubby little child with cute
wings. Right? That's not, look at Ezekiel
chapter 1, that is not what this cherubim was. A cherubim actually
means a living creature, a mighty living creature. In Ezekiel chapter 1, Verse 5, Also out of the midst
thereof came the likeness of four living creatures, and that
the cherubim, a living creature. And this was their appearance.
They had the likeness of a man, and every one had four faces,
and every one had four wings, and their feet were straight
feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's
foot, and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass.
And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four
sides. And they four had their faces and their wings, and their
wings were joined one to another, and they turned not when they
went, they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness
of their faces, they four had the face of a man and the face
of a lion on the right side, and they four had the face of
an ox on the left side, and they four also had the face of an
eagle. Put that on a Christmas card.
Put that image on a card. Put that image on some decoration.
That's a cherubim. That's not some cute little creature. It's a mighty, awe-inspiring
image. And those cherubims that were
embroidered in here represent judicial power, authority. When God cast Adam out of the
garden, what did he put at the east end of the garden to keep
Adam from coming back in? A cherubim. Not some chubby little
child. Awesome creature with a fiery
sword, a cherubim with judicial authority. In Matthew chapter
13, we read about at the end of time, God sends his angels
to the earth to execute judgment. Those are cherubims that are
coming to execute judgment. Fearsome creatures that represent
the authority and power of God. Well, Christ the God-man is pictured
in that embroidery. He is coming with all authority. He comes, looks like an ordinary
common man, I know, but he's got the keys of hell and death.
He's got all authority. And those priests, when they
were here in this, doing their business, you know, in the tabernacle,
the only place you could see this linen was in the roof. It's completely covered on the
outside by the other coverings. And they operated under that
embroidery, those chair pins and those wings and that authority.
That's where they operated. God's people operate under the
authority, all seeing eye of the Lord Jesus Christ, under
his power, under the wings of his grace, by his grace. And
you know why we do that? Because he's satisfied. all the
judicial requirements, all the judicial punishment that we deserve.
And to see this white linen and this beautiful embroidery underneath
all these other coverings, the only place you could see it is
inside the tabernacle. That's the only place it could
ever be seen. And to see the glory, to see
truly who the Lord Jesus Christ is, to see Him, Understand who he is and follow
his feet in worship. That leper I mentioned a minute
ago, he came and fell at the feet of Christ and worshipped. Before the Lord ever did anything
for him, before the Lord ever gave any indication he would
do anything for him, he came and fell at his feet and worshipped.
That man knew who he was. That's what you see inside Christ. Who he is. Followed his feet
and worshipped him. He's worthy. All right, Lord
bless you.