Tuesday night, two weeks ago,
after the service, one of our young men, Samuel Torson, met
me at the door and he said, Pastor Don, what was the tabernacle? And I answered his question as
briefly as you can. After services, I said it was
a tent established by God in the Old Testament. which pictured
the Lord Jesus. It was all covered over on the
outside with skins, kind of ugly, unappealing, but inside everything
was glorious. All the furnishings were gold.
And everything in the tabernacle pictured God's salvation for
sinners by Jesus Christ the Lord, accomplished by Him. And when
I answered the question by the puzzled look on his face, I could
tell I got a lot more questions. And so I told him, if God will
give me a message, I'll try to preach on the subject in a week
or two. And I promised him a drawing.
I found a good one up here. I had these printed off for you
last night, but there's a picture of the outside and a cutaway
on the inside. If you want to pick those up,
I think it might help you to recall and remember the various
things within the tabernacle. So you can pick those up later.
For now, I want us to go to the tabernacle, Exodus chapter 33,
Exodus chapter 33. As we come here to the tabernacle
in the wilderness, as God will enable me, I want to show you
God's salvation by Jesus Christ our Lord, and I want you to come
in to Christ the Redeemer. Come in to Christ the Redeemer. into God on the mercy seat and
worship God, believing God. The whole picture given here
is of salvation accomplished, salvation accomplished, redemption
done. Let's read verses 4-7, Exodus
33, when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned and and no man did put on him his
ornaments. For the Lord had said unto Moses,
saying to the children of Israel, ye are a stiff-necked people. I will come up in the midst of
thee in a moment and consume thee. Therefore now put off thy
ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And
the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments,
by the Mount Horeb. And Moses took the tabernacle
and pitched it without the camp afar off from the camp and called
it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that everyone
which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation,
which was without the camp." Now get the background. When
Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, after receiving the law
of God, he heard the children of Israel dancing. Joshua thought
it sounded like men who had been out to war and come back with
victory. And Moses said, no, that's not the sound. That's
the sound of merriment. He found them dancing naked around
a golden calf that Aaron had made while Moses was in the mount
receiving God's word for his people. When Moses came down,
he took that golden calf with anger ground it to powder, scattered
it upon the waters, and caused the children of Israel to drink
the water with their golden calf in it. Then Moses stood in the
gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him
come to me. God had told Moses, he said,
step aside, I'll kill these folks, and I'll raise up from you a
greater nation. But Moses interceded. Before
the day was done, there was over 3,000 of those idolaters slain
by the sons of Levi, put to death by the order of God for their
idolatry, for their blatant refusal to believe God. Then Moses made
his great intercessory prayer for Israel, seeking God's forgiveness
for them. And the Lord was merciful. He
did not destroy the nation. But he said to Moses, I will
not go up in the midst of this people, for they are a stiff-necked
people. And the children of Israel, hearing
God's word, were broken, fearing the loss of God's presence. And
they sought the Lord. They sought the Lord. Come to
Him in humility, bowing to Him, confessing their sins. And they
came out to Moses at the tabernacle without the camp. Let's join
them there. Now, actually, the tabernacle
we read about here in Exodus 33 was a temporary structure,
which of course a tabernacle was, but it was a tabernacle
that preceded the actual complete tabernacle. That wasn't done
until we get to chapter 40 that we read earlier. The Lord God
showed Moses how to build the tabernacle while he was in the
mount. He showed him a pattern. And we get the idea that he looked
at a blueprint, said you do it like this. That's not what it
was. God told Moses all that he would do. and accomplish by
Jesus Christ, His Son, come into flesh. He showed him Christ and
the accomplishment of redemption by Christ, that very thing that
was promised back in Genesis chapter three and verse 15. He
said, now you make this and you make that, you make this and
you make that, you put it here, you do this with it. All of these
things, little by little, will show one Great complete work
and when the work was finished Moses pitched the tabernacle
in the wilderness in Exodus 40 When you read through these chapters
verses 20 chapters 25 through 31 where God gave Moses all these
instructions about the tabernacle You look at that and say man
that was complicated. That was complicated. I'll tell
you how complicated it was one man in one day could set the
whole thing up and Read the 40th chapter. Moses came and one day
that one man set up the tabernacle in the wilderness and the glory
of God filled the tabernacle. What a picture of redemption
by Christ. That one of whom Zacharias said,
in one day, he will remove the iniquity of the land. One man,
our Lord Jesus, by the sacrifice of himself, redeemed his people
and obtained for us eternal redemption by his shed blood. That's what
the tabernacle is all about. But Moses set up this temporary
tabernacle pitched outside the camp, and he called the children
of Israel to the tabernacle. We come to it, not to some earthly
physical tabernacle. We have no holy places on this
earth, no earthly physical places that are somehow more spiritual
than others. We call this, every time I say
the word, let's go to the church, I didn't mean to say that. We
come to church, this is just the place where we meet. This
sitting here is God's church. This city here is God's church.
We don't have a holy place. Our holy place is Christ himself. Our holy place is the altar in
heaven. We come to Mount Zion as we come
together. I can't hardly get my mind around
this. I'm sure you have difficulty as well as we come together to
worship God. We come here together around
the throne of God in heaven. with his holy angels, and with
those spirits of just men made perfect, already gathered to
glory, and with Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, whose blood
speaks better things than that of evil, not just us, but this
very hour, God's people all over the world are gathered with us
in heavenly glory. Oh, what a privilege then is
this privilege of worshiping God together in his house with
his people around his side. But the tabernacle pictured it
all. The tabernacle in the wilderness,
which this tabernacle here in Exodus 33 preceded. was made
exactly according to the pattern Christ crucified that God showed
Moses in the mount, and this is the tabernacle that gets our
attention this morning. Let me try to give you some idea
of it. It was about half again the size of this building. It
was approximately 75 feet wide by 150 feet long. It contained
in it the brazen altar and the laver. In the holy place, that
inner part of the tabernacle, just first part as you go in
through the first veil, you go in and it was about 15 by 45
containing the table of showbread and the golden candlestick and
the altar of incense. And then just at the back of
that is that thick veil that separated the holy place from
the holy of holies. And you go into that holy of
holies and there is one piece of furniture. the center of all
Israel's worship, the center of Israel's entire devotion to
God, the Ark of the Covenant. In it, the broken law, the tables
of the law, the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that
budded, and over it is the mercy seat. Everything in it made of
shit and wood and overlaid with pure gold, and that mercy seat,
a little bit bigger than this communion table here, That mercy
seat covered the whole thing and made of one piece are the
cherubims facing one another. And it was on the mercy seat
that Aaron the high priest once a year came by the order of God
and sprinkled blood, blood of atonement. In fact, the word
mercy seat means propitiatory, propitiatory, propitiation. The whole thing pictures Christ
by whose blood the sins of God's elect are hidden from God's view. Now, we use that word hidden,
but for something to be hidden from God is not like it being
hidden from you. If it's hidden from God, that
means it's not there. If it's hidden from God, that
means it's been put away. So the whole picture is Jesus
Christ, by the sacrifice of himself, through his blood, having made
atonement for sin, has put away the sins of his people, and now
sinners are welcome to come to God and find acceptance with
God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The tabernacle was the
sanctuary of God's presence. The place where God met with
his people in the manifestation of his grace and glory. Turn
back to chapter 25, Exodus 25. Let's read a few verses. Verse eight. Let them make me a sanctuary
that I may dwell among them. Make me a place where it will
be manifest that I'm with them. Make me a place where I will
show myself to them. verse 22, And there I will meet
with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy
sea, from between the two cherubims, which are upon the ark of the
testimony of all things which I will give thee in commandment
unto the children of Israel. Verse 42, This shall be a continual
burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, where I will
meet you to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with
the children of Israel and the tabernacle shall be sanctified
by my glory. In accordance with this promise,
the Lord God finished the tabernacle by the hand of Moses and those
men to whom the work was committed. And then in Exodus 40, we read
that a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory
of the Lord filled the tabernacle. There's much talk about the glory
of God. I don't pretend to have ability to declare the fullness
of something I can't begin to comprehend, but understand this. every place in Scripture where
it speaks of the revelation of God's glory, of a man seeing
God's glory, the glory of God is made manifest in the saving
of his people. The glory of God is made manifest
in the saving of his people. God's glory is is revealed in
the accomplished redemption and salvation of God's elect by the
sacrifice of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you, like
Isaiah, see how God saves sinners through his Son, you're brought
to trust in his Son, you will see the glory of God. What does
all of this mean to us? The tabernacle and its furnishings
were finished a long, long time ago. So why should we be interested
in it? Why are these detailed instructions
given in the book of Exodus? Everything concerning the tabernacle
in the wilderness was symbolically instructive, very spiritually
instructive to us. The tabernacle itself is used
in scripture and explained in scripture to represent several
things. It represents the church of God, which is a habitation
of God through the Spirit. Without question, it represents
each believer who is himself the temple of the living God.
And the tabernacle on earth was a pattern also and a representation
of things in the heavens, Paul tells us in Hebrews 9. But first
and foremost, the tabernacle was a beautiful, instructive
picture of Jesus Christ, teaching us how God saves sinners by the
sacrifice of His Son, teaching us how sinners like you and me
can come to God and have acceptance with Him. Are you interested? Are you interested in coming
to God, finding acceptance with God? Are you interested in coming right into God's face with peace and joy and assurance
of acceptance? Come then by Jesus Christ the
Lord and God accepts you. All the ordinances of divine
service All the rites and ceremonies of the worldly sanctuary, the
sanctuary, the tabernacle itself, all of these are pictures of
Christ. And you will never understand
the significance of the tabernacle, the priesthood, the ministry,
the temple, the priesthood, the ministry there. You'll never
understand what it's all about until you understand that it's
talking about salvation by Jesus Christ the Lord. Everything in
the tabernacle. Again, I remind you of the picture.
Nothing pretty about that. You know, everywhere the children
of Israel went through the wilderness, everybody had pretty temples.
I mean, they had beautiful, magnificent temples. Temples that cost a
lot of money. I mean, they were impressive.
They were impressive. Where do y'all worship God? You
see that tent down there? See those skins? That's where
we worship God. Well, don't talk to me about
gold down there. There's nothing down there for me. But what they
didn't know, everything inside was magnificent beyond compare. Everything inside was covered
with pure gold, made of incorruptible shenom wood. What a picture of
our Redeemer and of God's salvation on the outside. On the outside,
everything is despised and despicable to the eye of man, everything.
What is there about Jesus Christ of Nazareth that anybody would
want to look to him and follow him? Tell me something about
that man that anybody would think about trusting him. He died on
a cross. Oh, but that man, that man who
was despised and rejected of men, he's God Almighty. On the outside, everything humiliation. On the inside, everything glorious. And so it is with the gospel
of God's free grace. Now, let's look at seven things
in this tabernacle, just each one very briefly, and the Lord
willing, I'll come back to it tonight as well. First, as we
approach the tabernacle, the first thing you see standing
by the gate of the brazen altar is a sacrificing high priest. This sacrificing priest represents
Jesus Christ who is our great high priest. That priest who
is described in Hebrews chapter five as a man taken from among
men. A man without any blemish. He
couldn't be a fellow who had a flat nose. He couldn't have
any blemishes at all. He was a man who was merciful and compassionate. A man chosen and ordained of
God. Such a priest is Jesus Christ,
our Lord. He is a man. a man taken from
among men, chosen from among men, a man whose life is perfectly
holy, a man of perfect righteousness, a man with no blemish, a man,
not just God, but a man whose God compassionate and tender,
the man, the anointed one chosen of God. All the garments of the
priest speak of Christ, all of them. The priest had a mitre
with a golden plate right in the front. And that golden plate
had an engraving on it, holiness to the Lord. Holiness, the perfection
of Jesus Christ. That's how we come to God. That's
how we approach God. The white linen garments that
are worn by the priest speak of Christ's perfect righteousness.
When the priest went in on the day of atonement, to make the
sacrifice of the Passover. Before he went into the Holy
of Holies, he took off all of his gorgeous array, and he just
wore the white linen garments and the white breeches. And with
those things, he went into the presence of God with the blood
of the Paschal Lamb, because those white linen garments represent
perfect righteousness. And you can't come to God but
by perfect righteousness. And that's righteousness established
and brought in by Jesus Christ the Lord, the girdle the priest
wore. That girl was made to represent
his strength, his ability, his might, his power. And on his
breastplate, on his breastplate were the names of the people
he represented. The names of the 12 tribes of
the children of Israel. Everything he did, he did just
for them. Everything he did, he did just
for them. He didn't represent anybody else,
just them, just them. Everything the Christ of God
has done, is doing, and shall hereafter do, he does just for
you. You who are his, the children
of God, God's Israel, his elect, those whom he represents. And
his effort, his effort was an apron, which had the breastplate
suspended and hung on it. with the 12 stones bearing the
names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel, showing us
how that Christ bears God's elect upon his broad shoulders and
upon his tender heart in all his priestly functions. This
work, the whole work of redemption done by the priest is done by
him alone. The whole work of grace, the
whole work of salvation is done, finished by Jesus Christ alone. You contribute nothing. You contribute nothing. But a priest without a sacrifice
is as useless as a bucket without a bottom. Lots of religious organizations,
papist, Episcopal, Buddhist, I guess Mormon, tons of them
have priests, but they have a problem. They're just priests with costumes.
They don't have a sacrifice. And a priest without a sacrifice
is as useless as a bucket without a bottom. Every priest ordained
of God was a sacrificing priest. Without blood, a blood sacrifice,
no man could come to God in the holy place. And without blood,
a blood sacrifice, even the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God's
darling son, you cannot come to God. You must come to God
only by him. And all the sacrifices offered
in the tabernacle by God's priest were typical of our Savior as
well. The Lord Jesus was typified by
strong beast, males of the first year, a strong young bullock. They were typified by tame beast,
not by lions, not by elephants, but by tame beast, by a bullock,
by a lamb, by a goat, by a turtle dove. You see, these were beasts
that were not forced to the slaughter, but led to the slaughter. And
our Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, was not forced to die for us,
except by the force of his own love. He was led as a lamb to
the slaughter. And these were beasts without
blemish. without any flaw in them, innocent
victims. So is Christ our Passover. Here's the second thing. The
next thing you see as you approach the tabernacle is the brazen
altar. You can read about it in Exodus
27. This altar, And the burnt sacrifices on this
altar represent Christ who is our altar. Now, listen to me. Please listen to me. This is
hard for this religious generation to get. We have an altar. But it's not an altar in your
house. And it's not an altar at the front of the church. And
it's not an altar over in some dark corner. We have an altar. whereof they have no right to
eat which serve the tabernacle. And this is what it means. You
can't eat of our altar as long as you've got another one. Did you get that? You can't eat
of our altar as long as you've got another one. Our altar is
Christ, Christ the Lord. Our altar is he of whom all the
other altars were but pictures. Dying on the cross, the Lord
Jesus was a burnt offering to God. The fire that fell on him
there was the fire of God's wrath. And as all the excrements of
the filthy inward parts of the slain lamb were burned upon the
altar, so all our sins laid on Christ and made his were purged
away. consumed in the fire of God's
holy wrath. Here's the third thing. You can
read about it in Exodus 30. Standing between the brazen altar
and the holy place is a laver of brass. Every priest who came
to do business in the tabernacle, before he did anything, he had
to stop at this laver of brass and wash his hands and wash his
feet. Every day in Israel began like
this. Folks got up in the morning and
they offered a lamb on God's altar. The priest would come
with the lamb and he'd wash his hands and he'd wash his feet.
And so we'll start out our day looking to Christ, the Lamb of
God. We commence our day and go out
in the field to serve Christ who redeemed us from our sins
and delivered us from our bondage. And at the end of the day, they
came back and they offered another lamb and the priesthood. go to
the brazen altar, and he'd wash his hands and wash his feet,
and he'd offer lamb at God's altar at the door of the tabernacle.
And the priest would buy his sacrifice, and the nation of
Israel, watching the sacrifice, would say, at the end of every
day, the Lord, God, is our God. He bought us with his blood,
he saved us with his power. We're not our own, we belong
to him. Thank God for the day we rest our souls in him. But the priest had to wash continually
their hands and their feet in this laver of brass. That's Christ
our Redeemer, in whom we wash and bathe our souls. in whom
we wash and bathe our souls initially, believe in God, in whom we wash
by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost, as God the Holy Spirit gives us life and faith in Christ,
we're sanctified by his blood, so that before you can serve
God, People talk, I wanna begin serving the Lord. Something's
gotta happen first. You gotta be washed. You gotta
be washed. Before you can give your life
to the Lord, you gotta be washed. You gotta be washed. Washed in
the blood of Christ by God-given faith in Jesus Christ the Lord
so that we are bathed in him. Now the washing is both passive
and active. I mean by that passively, we
were washed in his blood at Calvary. Passively, us having nothing
to do with it, we were washed in his blood before the world
began. But you must personally bathe your soul in Jesus Christ's
precious blood. That's called faith. That's called
faith. The hand of faith takes what
Christ has done. And thank God this is mine. Well,
how do I know it's mine? If you can get it, it is. If you can get it, it is. If
you can get it, it is. If you believe, it's because
you've been bathed in his blood. If you can right now, right where
you sit, believe on the Son of God, it's because you have been
bathed in the blood of Christ. And we who are God's children,
like these priests, as demonstrated in John chapter 13, with our
Lord washing his disciples' feet. He said, he said, I need to wash
your feet. He said, not me. I've been washed,
Lord. He said, if I don't wash you,
if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me. He said,
well, Lord, wash my feet and my hands. Wash me all over. Peter
said, you don't need to be washed again except your feet. I remember years ago, first time
I was in Tortola visiting Brother Dan Parks down there. We were
going around the island. I don't remember whether it was
one day when we were out snorkeling or just driving around the island
or going somewhere else. But, you know, being a southern boy from,
you know, kind of conservative background, kind of conservative
society, I don't believe I had ever seen folks strip off naked
and go bathing in the beach before. And it caught my attention. And
there were some folks just taking their clothes off, getting in
the water. And I thought first they're just gonna go skinny
dipping, but no, they're right up by the highway side, took
clothes off, got in the water. And I guess Moose must have realized
it, caught my attention. He said, they like to take a
sea bath. I said, what? He said, they like to go down
to the water and take a bath in the sea. And that's interesting. Not for me, but it's interesting.
But I tell you what I observed as we were driving along. When
they came out of the water, they walked up on the beach, And first
thing they did before they put their shoes and their sandals,
clean off the feet. How come? Because just as soon
as they got out of the water, they'd stepped in dirt again.
So it is with us every day, all the time. We need our feet bathed. We need our souls bathed again
in the precious blood of Christ. Children of God, If any man sin,
that's what the book says. Write that when you sin. Write
that as often as you sin. Did you take a breath? That's
what I'm talking about. If any man sin, everything we
do, we marvelous sin. What do you do? Oh, I had no
sacrifice. Oh yes, I do. There's a fountain open for cleansing
and uncleanness to the house of David. And the fountain is
Jesus Christ the Lord. Come, bathe my soul. Oh, my soul, bathe afresh in
Jesus Christ's precious blood. You and I must be bathed and
bathe ourselves continually in the blood of Christ. I love the way scriptures deal
with things in ways that confuse me. The things that confuse other
folks make things real clear to me. I guess I have a warped
mind, maybe a God taught mind, I hope. We believe that justification
from eternity, I do too, the scripture says so. Well, you
can't talk about it in present tense. Well, let's see. We believe
we're justified at Calvary. I do too, the scripture says
so. When Christ said it's finished, it's finished. But the book says,
God justifieth the ungodly. That's present tense. The blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. That's present
tense with no end. That's continually. The blood
of Jesus Christ is a cleanseth us from all sin. We come to God
with our filth and bathe in the crimson flood
of Christ's precious blood and lift our hearts with a fresh
cleanness before God. A fresh cleanness that rejoices
the soul. You know what I'm talking about,
Bill? We bathe in his blood. Bathe continually in his blood,
and that's the blessed day-by-day experience of grace. Now fourth,
let's go with the priest into the holy place. In Moses' day,
none but the priest could enter that first holy place. None could
go into that sanctuary except priest. And we, you and I, who
are born of God, did you just bathe in the laver? Did you just
bathe? Are you clean? Clean through
Christ's blood, one of God's priests? We who believe are God's
priests, and we live in the holy place. Oh, what a place to live. We live in the holy place. What's
there? What's there? Inside that holy
place is a golden candlestick with those seven lamps, constantly
oil-fed. That lamp, that candlestick,
is Jesus Christ, the light of the world. The oil by which the
lamps are fed, giving off light, is God, the Holy Spirit. The
high priest came in and lit the candlestick. You see, all of
these emblems and all of these men and all of these sacrifices,
all of them, it takes all of them to portray the whole Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ is that one who, when his light is shined
in our hearts, giving light of the knowledge of the glory of
God, now we have light. And by the light of the Spirit,
we understand His word and we're taught of God. Candlesticks,
we're told in Revelation 3 or Revelation 1, not only represent
Christ, the light of the world, but we who are gods are in such
union with Christ. He is described, our Savior,
as walking in the midst of the seven lampstands. The local church. where God is worshiped, where
Christ is preached, where the gospel of God goes forth. That's
the lampstand. So here, Christ, the light of
the world, shines forth into all the world. On the north side
of the sanctuary, over here on your right, is the table of shewbread. Had 12 loaves of bread. 12 loaves
of bread sitting there all the time. Why on earth were there
such specific details 12 loaves of bread, always on the table
of showbread. Because Christ is there represented
the bread of life. And the bread of life is for
God's Israel. And the bread is always on the
table. There's always food for your
soul. Always food for our souls in
Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. And then sitting back against
the veil, is the altar of incense. There, the sweet incense, the
smoke of it continually going up. That's Jesus Christ, our
great intercessor, our mediator, the sweet incense. We're told
that his sacrifice is a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor to
God. God always delights with the
smell of His Son. He delights in the sweet incense
of His sacrifice, and it's always before Him, so that you and I,
coming to God by Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, trusting Christ, God takes a smell and says, that's
my Son. That's my son, my only dear son. Oh, I love the smell of my son.
The sweet incense is the acceptance of our persons and our sacrifices,
our gifts, our praises, our worship by Jesus Christ. But standing
between the holy place and the most holy place, right behind
that altar of incense is a thick, thick veil. A thick veil just
goes from one side to the other. A thick, heavy, heavy curtain. It wasn't one of those things
you could just pick up by yourself, carry around. This thick, heavy,
heavy curtain. That heavy, thick veil, we're
told in Hebrews 10, 20, portrayed Christ's humanity, his flesh. The veil is the only way of access
to God. Before any man could enter into
that veil, and have access to God, the way must be opened. The veil had to come down. The high priest went in once
a year, went in behind the veil with a blood atonement, the blood
of the Passover lamb, but no other man. But you and I have
heard the Son of God cry, it is finished. And when he said,
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit and gave up the ghost
That veil split from top to bottom. Isn't it wonderful? The scriptures
are so explicit. Skippet didn't tear from the
bottom up. Somebody says, well, it was wore out, been used for
2,000 years. No, it ripped from the top to
the bottom. From top to bottom. How come? Because Christ, by the sacrifice
of himself, represented in that veil, opened up the way to God
for sinful man. He opened up the way to God for
sinful man. What no man can do except the
God man. The rent bail says justice is
satisfied. Righteousness is established.
Sin is gone. There's no cause for separation
between me and God. No cause. For separation between
me and God, Christ has reconciled us. Come to God right now, right
where you are, believing on His Son, and I'm telling you, God
says you come to Him with, listen, listen carefully, full assurance
of faith. Full assurance of faith. but I don't feel good. I don't feel my sin enough. I
don't feel my guilt enough. I don't feel my repentance enough. I don't feel that I've turned
enough of my sin. I don't feel like I know enough.
Come to God! believing his son, and you come
with full assurance of faith. I have heard preachers say, when
Aaron had those bells and pomegranates on his garment, he said that
was so it'd make noise. And when he was in there within
the veil, as long as they heard the bells and pomegranates clinging
together, they knew everything was all right. But if they couldn't
hear the bells ring, then they knew Aaron was dead. And somebody's
got to figure out a way to get him out of there. There's a couple
of problems with that. When he went in there, he didn't have
the male pomegranates on. He had already taken that off. He
was wearing nothing but the white linen garments. And Aaron never,
never, never had to be in the least measure hesitant to pull
back that veil. and take the incense in the censer's
hand and the blood in a bowl and walked right over to the
mercy seat and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat. He did it. Lindsay, he did it
with as much confidence as you sit down beside your wife and
kiss her on the cheek. With full assurance, I brought
the sacrifice God requires. I didn't bring anything else.
I brought it to the place where God requires it. I didn't go
anywhere else. I brought it to God with nothing
else. I come to God with nothing else
but Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's all. But preacher, don't you feel,
that didn't matter, I admit, sometimes I feel things pretty
good. Sometimes, most of the time, I feel rotten, as rotten
as hell, hard and cold as steel. But I come to God. I come to
God with blood, the blood of his son. and come into God with
the blood of His Son, I come in the full assurance of faith. The full assurance of faith in
Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, you come to God by faith
in Christ. Not to me. That won't do you
any good. Not to a preacher, priest, or
soul winner. That won't do you any good. Not to an altar, not
to a morning bench, not to the front of the church, not to the
baptismal pool. Come to God right where you are. Come to God. Can you, will you come to God
right where you are? Coming to God with Jesus Christ
alone. Offering to God, Jesus Christ
alone. Pleading with God, Jesus Christ
alone. You come to God with full assurance
of faith. And I'm gonna do something. I'm
gonna sit down right here in just a second. And I'm gonna
sit down justified. Justified. and I'm gonna be like
that publican in the temple. I'm gonna leave justified, justified,
justified before God in my conscience with full assurance of faith. How can that be? I trust Christ. Now, if God's given you faith
in Christ, I urge you, I urge you, honor God, Honor your Savior,
identify with Him, confess in Christ, Lord and Savior alone,
in believer's baptism, and follow Him. Oh, God give you grace now. Come to Christ, amen.