Well, come back to the first
chapter of John's Gospel this morning. John's Gospel, we saw
some very profound words. These are such profound words,
such deep, such intense words. You know, the greatest thing
for man, made in the image of God, sentient man, you and me,
is to know something of the God that made us. To know the God
that made us. Not just something about Him,
but to know Him and to commune with God. What a high aspiration
that is. It is surely the highest thing,
the highest thing that man can attain to, is knowledge of the
infinite God, knowledge of the infinite God, and communion with
God. How the fall in Eden, when Adam
gave over the creation of God to the dominion of Satan, how
much that fall has blinded humanity to the reality of God, hasn't
it? It's overwhelming the effect
it's had. You know, when you know something
of the truth, you look around, you cannot conceive of not believing
God. It's just utter stupidity not
to believe God. And yet, the vast majority have
no thought for God. Or they, in their droves, in
their hordes, run after falsehood, they run after idols. Most people
in our society, in our Western society, never question their
existence or purpose, why they're living and breathing and sensing.
Either that, or they just ignorantly accept evolutionary nonsense. The archdeacon of evolutionary
nonsense, Richard Dawkins, was being interviewed on the radio
and spouting the same rubbish that he's been spouting the last
I don't know how many years. And it's still there, and he's
revered as this great high priest of this godless society in which
we live, and he's so proud of it. He'll learn the truth one
day. But some people, praise God,
some people out of the millions and millions that there are,
some people have a seeking after God stirred in them. I mentioned
the text that Job penned last week, Job 23 verse 3, Oh that
I knew where I might find him. that I might even come to his
seat, or might come before his presence. Oh, that I knew where
I might find God. I know I'm made in the image
of God, and I know I'm separated from God, but oh, that I knew
where. I want to know where I can find
him. Oh, that I, a sinner, separated
from a holy God. And you know that you put those
two words in the same sentence and never has there been such
a wide difference, such an enormous gulf between me as a sinner and
God who is infinitely holy. Purer eyes than to behold iniquity,
cannot look upon sin. Altogether in his nature, cannot
abide sin. He would cease to be God if he
tolerated sin in any way. Oh, that I, such a sinner, separated
from a holy God, under the just condemnation of God, facing my
just dessert, which is eternal hell, eternal condemnation. Oh,
that I might come back into sweet fellowship with God. Think of
the beginning, first two chapters of Genesis. In the beginning,
God created. In Eden, the Garden of Eden,
before the fall, perfect harmony. between sinless Adam and Eve
as they walked in the garden and communed with God in the
paradise of God. There was no sin there, there
was just perfect communion. They had ready access to the
tree of life in the midst of the garden. But after the fall,
God showed them. He banned them from that paradise
of God. Sin couldn't be there in that
paradise of God. And the only way to the tree
of life was through a blood sacrifice. a blood sacrifice at the entrance
of that garden, there, that was where the altar was set up and
that's where it had to be. And that was speaking of the
promised seed who would come, the seed of the woman, the one
who would come to reverse the fall for the people of God, the
Messiah, the Christ of God who would come. And God went on revealing
to the patriarchs down the generations, as Hebrews says, God in time
past spoke unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last
days spoken to us by his son. But then along comes Moses in
the timing of God, and they're brought out of bondage in Egypt,
in the Exodus, and the law is given by God via Moses. The law comes via Moses, God's
law via Moses. which specifies God's requirements,
which specifies God's perfect holiness, which specifies in
great detail how sinners can approach God acceptably and not
be justly destroyed. How to dwell close to God is
what the law of Moses revealed to this particularly favoured
nation, the Israelites, coming out of Egypt, coming out of bondage,
going to the promised land. Sinai, when the law was given,
it was with great fear. Because for sinners to see the
holiness of God is a terrible thing. Our God is a consuming
fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. They had seen consuming fire at Sinai. They had seen
the chasm that there is between the holiness of God and the sinfulness
of people. They had seen how even if a beast
were to touch that mountain where the presence of God was residing,
giving his law, it was to be killed, it was to be shot through
with an arrow. And so he specifies how they're to come to him. And
in their wilderness wanderings on the way from Egypt to the
promised land, there they are, a wandering camp of hordes and
hordes of people, a huge number of people, the 70 that went down
with Jacob. in the time of Joseph down into
Egypt had become a huge number, a huge number. And there they
are, camping with their tents and their flocks and their herds.
And they're wandering in the wilderness and they're heading
towards the promised land. And God said he would be with
them. And God had specified in his
law that there should be a tabernacle. There should be a very special
tent. They all lived in tents, but
this was to be a very special tent. It was to be very ornately
established, very skillfully established, with the costliest
of things, with the riches that they brought out of Egypt, was
to make this tabernacle. Because that tabernacle was where
God had said he would dwell with the children of Israel, with
the people of Israel, in their wanderings until they came into
the promised land. And it was to be in the center
of the camp. All of the Israelites camped
around it. And in the middle was God, the
presence of God. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. And there he was in the middle
of them. And later on in the days of Solomon, that tabernacle
was replaced with the temple. the stone building in Jerusalem,
the temple, symbolizing the same thing. All of these are types. and their patterns of God, listen,
dwelling in the midst of his people. And how does he dwell
in the midst of his people, he who is holy, he who cannot look
upon sin, how does he dwell in the midst of a people who are
sinful and sinners and constantly condemned by his law? Answer,
he does it by effectual atonement that is accomplished. All of
the patterns and all of the pictures, the sacrifices that went on,
pictured, effectual. You know what effectual means?
It gets the job done, it works. Atonement that works, atonement. Sinners at one with the Holy
God by effectual atonement, that which works. By redemption, purchase
price, You know, they're bondage, in bondage, they've seen bondage,
freed from bondage coming out of Egypt. But we're in bondage
to sin, we're in bondage to Satan, we're separated from God by bondage. But Christ has paid the redemption
price of that bondage. The ransom price. Deliver him
from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom. He's redeemed
his people from the law's curse. And all of it was done in picture. in the Old Testament, in picture
around the tabernacle, in picture in the temple. It was all done
in picture of the reality. There's a picture and there's
a reality. I'm looking now at a picture on the wall at the
back of the room of, now which tarn is it? Loughrigg Tarn, Loughrigg
Tarn with the Langdale Pikes above it and it's an absolutely
beautiful scene and I'm in spirit, if I look at it I can just smell
the smells and hear the noises that there were and look at that
beautiful scene the day that picture was taken. But you know,
it's not the reality, is it? I'm 260 miles from that scene. I need to actually go there to
see it now. You know, the picture in the
temple, in the tabernacle, it was just a picture of that which
was to come. The reality was Christ. When
the Lord Jesus Christ, when the Word of God was made flesh and
dwelt among us, when He came among us, this tabernacle that
was in the middle of the camp pictured Christ with us. The
temple in Jerusalem pictured Christ with us. When Jesus said,
look at this temple, He said, I destroy this temple and in
three days I will raise it up again. What was He talking about?
Not the pile of stones, but Himself. For his body, his flesh, was
the fulfillment of what that temple pictured. Him as the head
and his church, living stones making up that temple. That tabernacle
as they walked through the desert, you know in a desert, we in England
crave sunshine because relatively speaking, we don't get a huge
amount of it. Today is another gray day amongst the three out
of four gray days that we get, all through the winter anyway,
we get a lot of cloud. But you know, those who live
in desert climates, you go to Dubai or somewhere like that,
you know, it's brutal to go out in the midday sun. It's absolutely
brutal. It's torture. It's so hot. It's
so burning is the sun. Oh, a cloud to come over. If
a cloud would come over, what lovely relief from that burning
sun it would give as these Israelites walk through that Sinai desert.
the cloud that was over that tabernacle, which was the Shekinah
glory of God, the presence of God. What a lovely shade it gave
them. Does it not picture the protection,
the shade from the strict justice of God that is in the gospel
that the tabernacle and all the sacrifices all spoke of? And
it sheltered them from the sun by day and it gave them illumination
by night. It showed them where to go. And
when he went up from the tabernacle, they went and they followed it.
This was a people who were truly blessed, favoured of God. They had God in their midst.
Sinners had a holy God in the midst of them by virtue of atoning
sacrifice and redeeming blood. Pictured the reality that was
to come in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, in Old Testament times,
it was a very localized thing. One small people, out of all
the nations of the earth, who had sinned and fallen short of
the glory of God, and there was sin in Israel, but nevertheless,
God had chosen by His divine decree to dwell with this people
and to favour this people. Then it was just that people.
Now look in John chapter 4. Look in John chapter 4 and verse
21. This is where Jesus meets the woman, the Samaritan woman,
at the well in Sychar. And in verse 21, Jesus saith
unto her, because she's saying, where should we worship? Where
on earth? Where is the right place to worship? Where is the
physical place on earth where God will meet with people? Jesus
saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh. when ye
shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship
the Father. Ye worship ye know not what.
We know, we Jews know what we worship, for salvation is of
the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. Not in place, in spirit and in
truth. Not in place, isn't that relevant
today? Isn't it? Here we are, a congregation,
a few of us here but many more joining with us over the internet.
Not in place, it's in spirit and in truth, for such the Father
seeketh to worship Him. God is spirit and they that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. How does the Holy
God tabernacle with unholy people today? In the Old Testament,
in the in the exodus, after the exodus, the tabernacle in the
midst of the camp. And when they came into the promised
land, still for centuries, the tabernacle was there. And that's
where God met with this people, this particular people. But how
does he meet with people now? How can you and I know communion
with God? Here we are living in this sinful
world. How can we know that God is in the midst of her? God is
in the midst of her. The God who is above all things.
God is in the midst of her. Answer, the Word dwelt among
us. Verse 14, the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. The Word of God that was in the
beginning with God and that was God, by whom all things were
made that were made and without whom nothing was made that was
made. Read it, the first two or three
verses. This Word of God, which is Christ, the Messiah, the glorious
Christ. See him at the end of Revelation.
The Word of God is his name stamped upon him. The Word of God was
made flesh and dwelt among us. He was made flesh. Read the article
I've put in the bulletin by Robert Hawker. He puts it so well. It's
not he was made man, he was made flesh. It just shows the humiliation
of the second person of the Godhead who came to be associated with
us and identified with us and to take upon Him our nature that
He might redeem sinful people of flesh and blood from the curse
of the law. He was made flesh. Look at Hebrews. You don't have to look at these,
I'll read them to you. Hebrews chapter 8 and verses 1 and 2. Now of the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum. We have such an high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens. He's speaking of Christ. A minister of the sanctuary. Now listen, of the sanctuary
and of the true tabernacle. Not that tent in the wilderness
or the tent in ancient Israel. No, not that tabernacle. The
true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. What's the
true tabernacle that the Lord pitched? The true tabernacle
that the Lord pitched is the Word who was made flesh, Christ. destroy this temple, I will raise
it up again in three days. He dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, says, I think it's Stephen isn't it, preaching in
Acts chapter 7. The Most High dwells, doesn't, you Jews, he's
saying, you Pharisees, you revere this pile of stones. God doesn't
dwell in temples made with hands. God dwells in the temple, in
the tabernacle that He has pitched, which is the Word made flesh,
which is Christ amongst His people, which is Christ, God, made manifest
in the flesh. God dwells now with His people
through the incarnation, the coming in flesh of His Son. The Word made flesh. When the
fullness of the time was come, says Galatians 4 verse 4, when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made Very significant that word. Do I understand it? I'm sure,
I don't even scratch the surface, but I'm sure there's something
deeply profound in that word. God sent forth his Son made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem those who are under the
law that we might receive the adoption of sons whereby we cry
Abba, Daddy, Father, our Father, which art in heaven. Sinners
calling a holy God, Father. He who is the express image of
the invisible God, as we saw in Hebrews 1, verses 1 to 3.
He who is the express image of the invisible God became man
to dwell among men in flesh, in the likeness of sinful flesh. Jesus Christ, you know I said
all of those tabernacles and temples and sacrifices and priests
and altars and showbread and candlesticks and so on and so
forth, were all types, Old Testament types, pictures, patterns of
redemption. But Christ is the true anti-type,
the thing that those types pointed to. He is the realization of
the things that they pointed to. If the Jews would meet God,
in their wilderness wanderings, or when they're settled in Canaan,
they would go to the tabernacle, or in Jerusalem they would go
to the temple. If we would meet God today, we find Him in the
tabernacle that God has pitched, which is the Word made flesh,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was made flesh. He wore the
substance of manhood. Why? To redeem those who were
partakers of flesh and blood, Hebrews 2.14, for as much then
as the children, the children, the elect of God, the church
of God, the bride of Christ, the multitude that no man can
number, from every tongue and tribe and kindred, as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, aren't we
all? Our existence is in flesh and blood. He also himself, Christ
also, the Word also himself, likewise, took part of the same. Why? For the purpose of death.
Because only as a man could he redeem from the curse of the
law for the sin of men. Only that way. Behold, said the
angel in Matthew 1.23, behold, a virgin shall bring forth a
son, quoting the Old Testament prophets, Immanuel, Immanuel,
which means God with us. Immanuel, this is the name of
the Word made flesh, God with us. The Old Testament saints,
as they wandered in that wilderness, and I know they're not all Israel
that are of Israel, but there were amongst them always the
true saints of God. Always among them were those
who knew what the promise of the seed was. Always amongst
them were those, and they're alone pretty much, that knew
that God had promised to send a Messiah who would redeem his
people from the curse of the law. And what they saw as they
wandered, and what they saw in the middle of Israel, and then
in Jerusalem in the temple, they saw a tent. They saw a tent,
and they saw a cloud, the Shekinah glory of God. And they saw a
light at night. And in Christ, New Testament
saints, we today, if you're in Christ Jesus, New Testament saints,
see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. If you would see the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God, look to Christ. For nowhere
else will you see it. You will not see it in any other
religion. You will not see it in any false
distortion of the true religion. You will see it in Christ and
Christ alone. You know the major error of the
vast majority of religion that calls itself Christian in this
world is that it is not Christian. It doesn't point to Christ. It
doesn't know Christ. Christ has not been revealed
in them. They don't know Him. They know nothing of Him. They
just have a system of idolatry that uses the names of true Christianity. But it is not true Christianity.
We see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament tabernacle,
in the Old Testament temple, access to the very core of God
was in the Holy of Holies. All of it symbolical, of course,
but God said, this is where I will dwell with the people. And that
was only once a year on the Day of Atonement, and only by the
high priest, exactly as specified by Moses, only once per year. But when Christ died, when Christ
fulfilled all things, when Christ made atonement in His precious
blood, when Christ did all of that, In New Testament days now,
because of that, all believers are priests unto God. All believers. You are a, Peter says, you are
a royal nation, you are a holy nation, you're priests unto God,
a nation of priests. All have access. Why? Because
the rail of the temple which kept people out, that hugely
thick veil was rent, torn, top to bottom when Christ died. and
there is now access. And it isn't with the blood of
bulls and goats that the high priest goes in, but the priests
of God who are all believers have access into the Holy of
Holies with the blood of Christ, which He has made the way in
there with before us. And this communion with God is
a foretaste of eternal glory. It's a picture of eternal glory. It's a picture of the bliss of
heaven, of the uninterrupted, intimate, sinless communion with
God, of those who are qualified by redeeming grace, whose redemption
release price has been paid with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. The apostles
saw him physically. Look in verse 14, John says,
we, he, one of the apostles, we beheld his glory. The glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
They saw him physically. They saw the Father's glory in
their midst. This is what Christ displayed.
the Father's glory. Jesus says in his prayer in John
17, before he goes to the cross, he says, now the work is done.
Father, glorify thou me with thyself, with the glory that
I had with thee before the beginning of time. Christ rightly prays. God says in the Scriptures, My
glory will I not share with another. And this man, the Word of God,
prays, Glorify thou me with thyself with the glory that I had with
thee before the beginning of time. Surely He is God. God will
not share His glory with anyone who is not God. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. They saw Him. These apostles
saw Him in their midst. The Father's glory displayed.
They handled Him. They touched Him. They communed
with Him. They ate their meals with Him.
They lived with Him for three and a half years. They watched
Him perform miracles and minister and teach. and do works of great
compassion. And they testified, you know,
anybody lives with me for five minutes will see what a sinner
I am. But these lived with Him for three and a half years, and
they could find no fault in Him. Here is the sinless Lamb of God,
spotless Lamb of God. We haven't seen Him physically
perform miracles, but with the eye of faith, we see Him full
of grace and truth. Those who are made pure in heart
by gospel grace, Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart
for what? They shall see God. They shall
see God. They're blessed in seeing God
and we see him in Christ. As in John 1 verse 18, look down
at verse 18, no man hath seen God at any time. God says, you
read it in Exodus in chapter 33, you read it elsewhere in
Deuteronomy, no man shall see me and live. And the Israelites
of old thought that to have seen God was a death sentence, because
no man shall see God and live. And yet again and again you read
of men and women experiencing God and seeing God and living. And it's a great thing. There's
a verse in Deuteronomy about seeing God and living. As if,
how can that be? It can be because we see God
in Christ, in the Word. In the Word made flesh we see
God in Christ. No man has seen God at any time
but the only begotten Son, the Word, who is God, which is in
the bosom of the Father. You can't get closer to God than
that. He's in the bosom of the Father. He's part and parcel
of God. He's as much God as the Father. He, the Word, the Son,
has made Him, has declared Him, has manifested Him, has shown
Him to us. As Jesus said to Philip, I know
I often quote this but don't ever forget it, Philip said,
you know, this aspiration, oh that I knew where I might find
Him. He said, Lord, show us the Father and that will suffice
us. And Jesus said to him, Philip, have I been so long with you?
I've been three and a half years with you, Philip. Have I been
so long with you? You've seen me, you've moved
with me, you've heard me. Have I been so long with you?
And yet you haven't known me. He who has seen me has seen the
Father. What did the disciples behold
when they beheld the glory of Christ? We beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. They saw a man, a man. As Isaiah says, in him there
is no comeliness that we should desire him. He didn't have a
halo around his head. His robes were not permanently
white. He just looked like anybody else. The Jews thought he looked
more like 50 years old than the 31, two or three that he was
when they spoke to him. But what did they see when they beheld
the glory of God in Christ? They saw a man full of grace
and truth. Pontius Pilate at the trial before
the crucifixion asked Jesus, what is truth? Is that not something
you, you don't necessarily hear those words, but you know that
sentiment is all around us. How do we know what is truth?
Answer, God alone, displayed in Jesus Christ, is absolute
truth. We don't know what truth is other
than what God alone in the Lord Jesus Christ is, and what he
has said. He is the objective standard
of truth. There isn't any other. It's all
relative. In a materialistic evolutionary
world, where there is no higher power, who says what's right
and what's wrong? It's just the force of the mass,
isn't it? It's just strength is might, that's the only thing.
We live in a world of lies. Is it not true? Is it not true? We live in a world of lies. Lies are everywhere. We turn
on the news and we don't hear truth. We hear half-truth at
best and untruth most of the time. We hear lies, nothing other
than lies. Don't worry, I'm not going off
into a big rant about the lockdowns and COVID deception that's going
on, but it's a classic example of it. It really is. In 1984,
George Orwell's novel, there was the Ministry of Truth. And
that's exactly what it feels like we're living under in these
days. We live in a world of lies, of half-truth, of untruth. Deception
is at an all-time high. Fraud, has fraud ever been as
rampant? How many times a day do you get
an email or a message from some devious character trying to defraud
you of that which is yours? It happens dozens of times a
day, doesn't it? All the time. Scams are rampant
everywhere. We live in an evil world. Oh,
this is a lie. I say to myself, what a wonderful
world, Louis Armstrong sang. I don't say that. I say what
an evil world of sin without the knowledge of God. But Jesus
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. He is the truth. What is truth?
Christ is the truth. That was the answer to Pilate.
What is truth? Christ is the truth. He exemplified
truth. But he exemplified truth. Now
listen. He exemplified truth always steeped in love. Speak the truth in love is one
of the gospel precepts. Speak the truth in love. And
he spoke the truth soaked in mercy, mercy and grace from the
mercy seat of God. Not from the judgment seat. Oh,
we must all appear at the end before the judgment seat of Christ
and receive the things done in the body, says the Scripture.
But, thank God, He speaks from the mercy seat. He speaks truth
from the mercy seat. And it's always in perfect balance
with grace, unmerited divine favor. I love that verse in Psalm
85 verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together.
It could equally say grace and truth are met together. Righteousness
and peace. Righteousness which demands strict
judgment and punishment, but peace with God. Righteousness
and peace and reconciliation have kissed each other. Isn't
the kiss such an emblem of the most intimate of affection? Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. You might come across someone
loving and affectionate, but untrustworthy. They're unfaithful,
you can't rely on them, they won't turn up when you expect
them to, and things like that. And you might come across others
who are sternly honest, you know, say it like it is and they like
it the way they say. They're very sternly honest and
truthful, but they're not kind-spirited. But in Jesus, and I use that
name because that's the name of Him as the man that the Word
was made flesh. The man, Jesus. In Jesus, there's
a perfect balance of truth and grace. He spoke grace to the
repentant publican. God be merciful to me as that
man went away justified. But truth to the hypocritical
Pharisees, you are whitewashed sepulcher, you look nice on the
outside but you're full of dead men's bones, because he spoke
truth to them. What is the particular grace
and truth he exhibits? Answer, let me just give you
some. Grace, salvation from sin. Do you know what it is? to have
that burden of sin that would condemn you for eternity lifted
from your soul to know peace with God. What grace, what undeserved
favor, effectual redemption. Ah, this isn't something that
has relied on you and your decision, this is something which is entirely
dependent on God's doing. He has effectually redeemed His
people from the curse of the law. It doesn't depend on how
good your decision was, It depends on him and what he did to answer
the demands of divine justice, in that he died and shed his
blood. Forgiveness, grace, the grace of forgiveness. You know,
when you've really hurt somebody you love, oh what a burden it
is to know, how can I be forgiven? Is that not a burden? but how
we've offended God, and yet the forgiveness in grace that He
shows us, the peace that He shows us. We who are at enmity with
God, what peace He shows us. We who are aliens from the kingdom
of God, from the realm of God, from the hope of the heaven of
God. He adopts His people into the
kingdom of His Son, into His family, whereby we cry, Abba,
Daddy, Father. The life that we have in Him.
In Him was life. And the life was the light of
men. He gives life. He who believes on Me has everlasting
life, He says. And hope. You know what biblical
hope is? You know, we know what worldly
hope is. It's like, you know, some of us are moving and we
hope all things will go through without a hitch in a few weeks'
time, but we've absolutely no way of knowing for certain. We
have no idea what spanners will land in the works. But the eternal
hope that we're talking about is an absolute confidence based
on the facts accomplished. It's a complete trustworthy expectation
that we shall be there in eternal glory, beholding our Saviour's
face. There's the doctrinal truth,
a nature of the justice of God. That's doctrinal truth, but it's
balanced with grace in the salvation that Christ has accomplished.
There's holiness. And it's contrasted with the
sin in man. There's the justice of hell.
There's the strict accomplishment of redemption for that. For he
who knew no sin, Christ, was made sin for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. That's the grace
that he shows us. Moses' law, look at verse 17.
The law was given by Moses, but as we sang in that first hymn,
the law could never, ever never ever bring the gospel to us,
could never ever bring salvation. The law was given by Moses. The
law showed us the pattern. The law showed us what God required
and how in ourselves we could never achieve it. What then is
the purpose of the law? It is our schoolmaster to Christ,
that we might come to Christ. But grace and truth which is
essential for salvation, came by Jesus Christ. Moses' law taught
truth in symbol and emblem, but Jesus Christ is the fulfillment
of it all. He is the real lamb. He is the
real scapegoat of all of those patterns. His blood, not the
blood of animals. Read Hebrews. Read Hebrews chapter
8, 9, and 10. His blood is that which cleanses
from all sin. He is able to save to the uttermost
those who come to God by Him. He is of all the acceptable offerings
required by God. He is the pinnacle, the fulfillment
of them all. What the Old Testament foreshadowed,
its truth is seen in the Word made flesh. The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. In graciously saving condemned
sinners, in graciously honoring the law of God, in graciously
satisfying its demands, in His great mercy to us, saving us
from just condemnation, and showing us His truth and His light. What
are we? What are we here for? Where are
we going? Why are we here? The truth of divine knowledge,
the wisdom of God, for in Him are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. In Him it was divinely upheld
perfectly. But you wonder, perhaps, How
does knowing this get you into communion with God? You might
know it in your head, but how does it get you into communion
with God? So that in your heart, in those quiet moments when you're
wondering what it would be like if you died tonight, you have
a sense of peace and of forgiveness and of hope. The answer is the
call of God. How do you get into this relationship?
Look, look at verse 29. I'm leaping ahead in the chapter.
Verse 29, the next day, John the Baptist, seeth Jesus coming
unto him and he says to his disciples, behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of a world of sinners. Behold the Lamb of
God, behold, look. How do I get into this relationship?
Look, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. The Old Testament saints looked
at the tent, the tabernacle, in the center of the camp. In
Jerusalem they looked at the temple. They went simply to gather
there, to look at what God had prescribed, picturing the Messiah
to come so as to be accepted by God. Daniel the prophet in
Babylon, Babylon symbolizing the world, what did he do? To
worship he threw open his windows towards Jerusalem. He opened
his windows from his world in Babylon and looked towards Jerusalem.
In this Babylon of this world, this fallen world of Antichrist,
we look to Christ. Open the windows of your heart,
by faith, that is the gift of God, and look to Christ, who
is the temple of God, the dwelling of God, the tent that God has
pitched. Look to Him with the eye of faith,
not in a physical place, in spirit and in truth. Look to Him for
He fulfills everything that they symbolized. And rejoice that
Christ has opened the way. Read Hebrews 12 with me. Just a few verses here. I won't
be long. Hebrews 12 verse 18. Ye are not
come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with
fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempers. He's speaking
about the Israelites at Sinai quaking with fear. You're not
come to the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which
voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken
to them. They were scared stiff, for they could not endure that
which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that even Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. But You're not come there, you
are come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, the kingdom of God, and to an innumerable
company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
those that have gone before, there are some still to come,
which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect. And where are you
come? And to Jesus. And to Jesus. the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks
better things. What does it speak? It speaks
redemption accomplished, not revenge required. not justice
required, for it is accomplished justice. It speaks better things.
He graciously bids you to come. Come unto me, all you that labour
and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. His truth assures you
of acceptance. All that the Father gives me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. But not just as a beginning,
but keep coming. Open your hearts' windows of
faith towards Christ, the temple of God, often, daily, many times
daily, come boldly, confidently, expectantly. And here's the basis
of the message that we have for the world around us, even in
these days of falsehood and lies. And that message is this, the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Christ has saved a multitude. God in Christ has saved a multitude. But many still don't know it.
And the only way they will know is by the preaching of the gospel,
by the testimony of those who have believed. Come see a man
who told me all things I ever did. Preach and testify this
message of Christ. the message of truth and grace
in Christ in this fallen, false, evil, lying world. Preach it
to anybody who will listen anywhere that Jesus Christ is the only
manifestation of the grace and truth of God, the only one in
whom is peace and acceptance and eternal hope. Will you believe
him? Amen.