That great, great hymn I'll be
just saying was written by a fellow by the name of Robert Murray
McShane. He pastored Christ Church at Dundee, Scotland for just
a few brief years, and God took him to glory when he was 26 years
old. And I'm sure glad he lived long
enough that he Thank you so much for your kindness, generosity,
and love to me these many, many years. I ask you to pray for
me as God will enable you as we labor in the cause of our
Redeemer. Shelby, she does everything for
me except preach. I do my own studying, writing,
and preaching. She does everything else, but thankful for our congregation
in Danville. Thank God for making you All
of you, so very much, a blessed part of my life. You men, Brother
Larry, Bruce, and Darwin, thank God for you. God make us faithful
unto death. Open your Bibles with me, if
you will, to Exodus, Chapter 25. Exodus, Chapter 25. Just hold them open there. I'm
going to be preaching to you this morning, if the Lord will
enable me. about the table of showbread. I want us to visit
the tabernacle in the wilderness. Now, the book of Exodus, when
you think about Exodus, I'll guarantee you this is what you
think about, first thing, the Ten Commandments, the giving
of the law, first thing you think about. The book of Exodus is
all about redemption, salvation, and grace. That's what the whole
book is all about. The word is deliverance. When
our Lord Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James,
and John saw him, and Moses and Elijah spoke to him about the
death he would accomplish at Jerusalem. You know what that
word death is? Exodus. That's the very word. It's exactly the same word. They
spoke to him about the exodus he would accomplish at Jerusalem.
That's what the book is all about. Exodus chapter 1 through chapter
40 is all about redemption, grace, and salvation by Jesus Christ
our Lord. It begins with the children of
Israel in bondage. They're in bondage in Egypt under
a hard, cruel taskmaster named Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Made
their lives miserable. They'd been there for 400 years.
brought there by divine arrangement, by divine purpose, exactly according
to the will and the word and the purpose of God he had given
to his servants many years before, for a specific period of time,
for 400 years. You see, God ordains everything. Everything that comes to pass
in time was ordained by God before the world was for his glory in
the saving of his people. Yes, even the fall of Adam and
the entrance of sin into the world by the allurement and temptation
of Satan who fell from heaven because he wanted to be himself
God. All this is ordained of God to
show forth his glory in the saving of sinners. And then the Lord
God raised up this man Moses at God's appointed time of deliverance
for Israel to come out of Egypt. And he sent Moses to Pharaoh.
And he said to Pharaoh, let my people go. Now you imagine this.
You imagine this. Moses had been in hiding for
40 years. He'd been in hiding for 40 years.
And he goes right smack dab into the palace of the mightiest king
on this earth who had been wanting to kill him. He had a death warrant
out for him. And he goes, what are you doing
here? He said, I've come to you in the name of God Almighty.
God says, let my people go. Do what? Who is this Lord Jehovah? He said, hang on boy, you're
about to find out. and he performed his wonders in the land of Ham. Isn't that a wonderful way to
describe those things happen? In the land of Ham, this world
is the land of Ham. The world of cursed men, the
land of Ham, serving Shem and Japheth, God's elect, in every
detail. And here God performs his wonders. The last wonder he performed
was on the night of the Passover, Children of Israel, every man
in Israel was required to take a lamb out of his flock. slaughter
the lamb and put the blood on the doorpost and the lentil,
gathers family in and roast the lamb and with their clothes on
their back and their shoes on their feet and their staff in
their hand saying we're getting ready to leave this place, eat
the lamb. That's Christ our Lord sacrificed
for us. And that night the Lord God passed
through Israel in judgment, passed through Egypt in judgment And
the firstborn in every house in Egypt, the rich and the poor,
were slain that night in Egypt. Well, not the firstborn of Israel,
I beg to differ. The firstborn of every house
in the land of Egypt died that night. In all the houses of the
Egyptians, the Egyptian himself died. In all the houses of Israel,
the Israelite died in a substitute. in a lamb, in a sacrifice, portraying
Christ, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as they ate
the lamb, God said, hurry, get out of the lamb. And they walked
out, marching out of Egypt in dress parade as armies linked
together. They marched out of Egypt. And
we're told of the millions that came out that night, there was
not one feeble person among them. Not one feeble person among them.
They all came out in the vigor and strength of whole life, and
they got to the Red Sea. The Lord God, these folks had
been in bondage for 400 years. I mean, the Egyptians hated them.
They couldn't stand them. Pharaoh said, I ain't about to
let you go. Moses said, yes, you will. Not only that, when
we leave here, we're going to take everything that's worth
anything. And they said, would you give us some silver? Why,
here, take it. Would you give us some gold?
Here it is, take it. Would you give us some pots and
pans? Here, take what you want to. And they spoiled the Egyptians,
and they marched out of Egypt, and then they came to the Red
Sea. Pharaoh decided he'd made a mistake, and he raised up his
armies and his chariots and his horsemen and pursued Israel.
And they come to the Red Sea, Breath of Pharaoh's war horses
on their back. Mountains on both sides and the
raging Red Sea before them. And the children of Israel began
to murmur. What are we gonna do? Moses said, shut up and watch. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. And Moses stepped into the Red
Sea, put his rod there and the walls of the sea God dried up
a path for millions of men and women to walk across on dry ground. Brother Darwin was mentioning
the other day in Tampa Bay, a show on television, how the hurricane
came in and just took the water out of that bay. That's amazing.
But you wouldn't want to walk in there, you'd get stuck in
the mud. When God parted the Red Sea, it was like walking
on asphalt. He dried up the waters. And the
children of Israel walked through dry shod. And they got on the
other side, and Pharaoh's still hot after them. And the Lord
God swallowed up the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. Pharaoh
and all his horses. And Israel got on the glory side
of the Red Sea and looked back. And they saw Pharaoh and his
horses and his chariots and all his armies laying on the shore.
And they said, boys, go gather up the swords and the spears
Gather up everything worth anything and let them rot. And God provided
by the hands of the Egyptians everything Israel needed for
40 years to go through that wilderness. And thus portrayed redemption
by blood and redemption by power. The power of Christ's blood and
the power of his spirit delivering us from the house of Satan, from
the curse of the law. And the children of Israel went
on And God gave them the Ten Commandments, the commandments
of the law. The commandment was such that
they understood God required perfect obedience. Perfect obedience. And they couldn't do it. The
commandment was so strict that God, in giving the law, said,
if so much as the hand of a beast touched this mountain, kill it.
If you even try, if you even try to make yourself accepted
with God by your obedience, by your doing, God will send you
to hell. Ask Uzzah. You can't be saved by doing. Not by your doing, only by the
doing of another. And then in chapter 24, God began
to give Moses instructions about making a tabernacle. Told him
exactly how it was to be made. The tabernacle, if you look at
it and read the detailed description given in scripture, wasn't much
to look at. It was a building, not really
a building, it was a tent. Just about half again the size
of our building in Danville. About 75 feet wide, about 150
feet long. And it was just covered over
with skins. I mean, these folks were, the Egyptians, my soul,
they had temples. I mean, they had palaces. They
had religious edifices that would make you just stop back and say,
wow. And they'd ask one of the Jews,
what do you worship? You go down to the altar of worship.
Who on earth would go down there? He said, nobody except somebody
who knows God. Nothing there to look at to impress
anybody, but inside, everything was glorious. Everything was
glorious. And the Lord God, the first thing
he required Moses to make, the first thing made, was the last
thing seen. He said, make me an ark. And
after he made the ark, made the tabernacle, and put the ark back
where nobody could see it until it came through the veil into
the Holy of Holies. They pitched that tabernacle,
or made that tabernacle according to the instructions God gave
in Exodus 25 and go all the way through to get into chapter 36. Everything is about the tabernacle,
the priesthood, the sacrifices, the services, and the garments
of the priesthood, what the priests were to do. And you get chapter
37, and it picks it up, tells the whole thing all over again.
I mean, chapters 37 to the end of the book are almost an exact
repetition of what you have from chapters 25 to 36, or chapter
24 to 36. And then you get to the end of the book. had appointed men to do specific
work, offerings and sacrifices made by the children of Israel
from the riches they got from the Egyptians. And they brought
it all and built a house, a sanctuary for God. And that thing was designed
by God in such a way that one man in one day could finish the
work. Isn't that amazing? One man in
one day could set the tabernacle up. The whole thing finished.
And in chapter 40, on one day, Moses put it all together. In
one day. And when the tabernacle was finished,
Moses started to approach that tabernacle and the glory of God
filled the house. so filled the house with light
that Moses dare not enter into that place because that tabernacle
was symbolically and typically a beautiful picture of the whole
of God's purpose in the universe for his glory, salvation of your
soul. Isn't that amazing? One man, who in one day, by the
sacrifice of himself, took away the iniquity of all the land,
Jesus Christ the Lord. And the glory of God is revealed
in that redemption, salvation, and grace that's found in Jesus
Christ the Lord. And if ever you experience it,
you will see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. and you'll never get over it.
Oh may God cause you this day to experience this rich grace
and God help us who have experienced it and are experiencing it again
to experience the revelation of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ as we look at the table of showbread. Exodus
25 verses 23 through 30. These verses of scripture contain
the instructions God gave Moses to give to Aaron and the children
of Israel regarding the table of showbread. Now, when you come
to the tabernacle, if you could kind of get a picture in your
eye, you walk up toward the tabernacle, the first thing you'd see is
an altar. You got to have an altar. The priest making the sacrifice,
which is Christ. And the altar on which the sacrifice
is offered, which is Christ. And then you have a labor, a
brazen labor, a sea of brass, which is where we bathe our souls
in the blood of Christ before we can come to God's tabernacle.
And as you go into the tabernacle, the first thing Abraham would
see as he came into the holy place, before he got to the veil,
sitting right against that thick veil, right here, that be an
altered incense, representing the constant intercession of
Christ for us, ascending up to God, giving us acceptance with
our God. And over here is a golden candlestick,
representing Christ, the light of the world. And over here is
this golden table, a golden table that had 12 loaves of bread.
Showbread. Bread to show us something. This
table of showbread had on it these twelve loaves of bread
in two rows with golden dishes and golden bowls and golden spoons
and golden frankincense on each row of bread. I said to Bruce
when he got done preaching last night, That was more valuable
than buckets of gold. Everything here is talking about
gold, the richest stuff. Everything, gold inside here,
the richest of materials. Now let's look at this piece
of furniture, verse 33. Thou shalt also make a table
of shittum wood. That's wood not subject to decay
for a long, long time. Two cubits, about 36 inches,
shall be the length thereof. And a cubit, about 18 inches,
the breadth thereof. And a cubit and a half, about
27 inches, the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with
pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. And thou
shalt make unto it a border of an handprint round about. And
thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about. And thou shalt make for it four
rings of gold, and put the rings in four corners that are on the
four feet thereof. over against the border shall
the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table and
thou shalt make the staves of shittum wood and overlay them
with gold that the table may be borne by them and thou shalt
make the dishes thereof and spoons thereof and covers thereof and
bowls thereof to cover with all of pure gold shalt thou make
them and thou shalt Set upon the table showbread before me
always Now that's the physical description of the table of showbread
the same description is given again in Exodus 37 verses 10
through 16 Turn though if you will to Leviticus chapter 24
Leviticus 24 Verse 9 Here the Spirit of God gives
us the instructions that Aaron was given concerning this table
of showbread. Leviticus 24 verse 5. Thou shalt
take a fine flour and bake twelve cakes thereof, two-tenths Two tenth deals shall be in one
cake, and thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon
the pure table before the Lord, before the Lord, before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense
upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial,
even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every Sabbath
day, Just in case you've been hoodooed into thinking Sunday's
a Sabbath day, that's every Saturday. Every Saturday. He shall set
it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children
of Israel by an everlasting covenant. What? This bread taken by an everlasting
covenant, how can that be? It all has reference to something
happened before the world began. It all has reference to an everlasting
covenant, a covenant of grace and peace and salvation, the
very one David sang about as he lay on his deathbed looking
for God to come take him to glory. It's all about this salvation
of ours in Christ. Read on, verse nine. And it shall
be Aaron's, it belongs to nobody but the priest and his sons,
They were priests. And they shall eat it. The only
place they could eat it is in the holy place. For it is most
holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a
perpetual statute. Now this golden table of shewbread
and the bread upon it gives us far more typical destruction
than I can give you in this message concerning our Lord Jesus Christ
and God's indescribable, infinite, everlasting, soul-satisfying
provisions of grace in Him. All right, let's look at this
together. First, look at the table. This golden table of showbread
itself is typical of our Redeemer. The name given to it, the table
of showbread, might better be translated the table of the bread
of presence. The table of the bread of presence. You see, the table of showbread
speaks of Christ ever present with God and ever present with
us. Brother Darwin, one of the things
you were saying a little bit ago, there's some things we just can't
get our minds around. We just can't get our minds around. I
can't get my mind around this, so I keep on saying it more loudly
all the time. There never was a time when I
wasn't present with God and God present with me in the sweet
favor of his grace. There never was a time when I
wasn't in Christ. There was a time when I didn't
know it, but there never was a time I wasn't in him. There
never was a time when I didn't have eternal life with Christ,
who is the life. In our King James translation,
and our King James translation is by far the best English translation
there is. I know folks, we need another
translation. You just can't get God out of
his word. You can forget the other translations. I think King
James translation is the best there is. And our King James
translators with great purpose, great purpose, deliberately translated
some words two or three different ways in the English language.
You say, well, that's not right. If a word means one thing, it
can't mean another thing. Oh, yes, it can. Well certainly can. The
word translated everlasting life is exactly the same word as translated
eternal life. Exactly the same word. Well,
why did it translate one time everlasting life and another
time eternal life? Because every time it speaks
of God's gift to us, Terry, it's that gift of eternal life we
had with Christ, in Christ, before the world was. Every time it
refers to it as everlasting life, the passage is obviously talking
about our experience of it. when life is brought to light
in the soul by the gospel. Well you mean preacher, we've
always been saved and when God causes us to experience his grace,
we just, he just lets us in on it? That's a pretty good way
to look at it. Yeah, well that's heart shell doctrine. I don't
care if it's Buddhist doctrine, it's true doctrine. We were saved
before the world was. by an everlasting covenant when
Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world was accepted
of God as our substitute. We were accepted in him, blessed
in him, justified in him, sanctified in him, glorified in him, one
with him. We were ever present with Christ
and he is ever present with us. The materials of this table clearly
speak of our Lord Jesus. the shidum wood, make it with
shidum wood. Just wood, but wood sort of like
our cedar. It was wood that didn't corrupt. It didn't decay. It didn't rot. Some of you ladies probably still
have a piece of cedar that your mother or your grandmother used
to have in the chest of drawers, stick it in there, protect the
clothes. It's staying there for years and years and years and
years. How come? Keep the balls from
getting on them. That's all. Just protect them.
It was wood that wouldn't decay, wouldn't rot. That's our Redeemer
in His humanity. He came here into this world
a perfect, righteous, holy man. A man without any sinful nature,
born of a woman, made of a woman, born of a virgin, made under
the law, made completely subject to the law, living in holiness,
righteousness, and godliness under absolute perfection, who
did no sin, and could not sin, and had no sin. That's his nature. But preacher, he was made sin.
Yes, that's not his nature. That's not his nature. He was
made sin for us when God made him sin for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him and punished him to
the full satisfaction of justice. But even then, he saw no corruption. Thou will not leave my soul in
hell, he said. You will not allow me to see
corruption, but on the third day raised him from the dead. And that should and would is
overlaid with gold. gold. Pure gold. That's our Savior's perfect deity. His divinity, His Godhood, His
eternal brilliant glory. You see, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer,
is and must be God and man in one person. as fully God as if
he were not man, as fully man as if he were not God, because
man sin, man must die, but no man could ever satisfy the wrath
and fury of God's justice if the whole world went to hell.
God's justice could never be satisfied. That's the reason
hell's eternal. Whatever it is, it never ends,
because you can't satisfy God's justice. But he who is God in
our flesh, with one tremendous draft of love drank damnation
dry. So that the fury of God, the
justice of God, the anger of God was fully swallowed up in
Jesus Christ our Redeemer when he died in our stead upon the
cursed tree. Now, be sure you don't miss the
place where the table of showbread stood. The table of showbread stood
in the holy place, in the tabernacle, before the presence of the Lord. The bread of the presence. It was symbolically set before
God himself. It stood there before the Lord
God continually. As bread, listen now, bread fit
for God. Bread fit for God. I enjoy being treated well by
ladies when I'm a guest in their house. Most of them go out of
their way to fix stuff I like. mashed potatoes and gravy and
grits and country ham and sausage and eggs and homemade biscuits
and homemade rolls. That'll be just fine for Don.
You're right, that's just fine for Don. Christ is bread fit
for God. Christ is bread with which God
is delighted. Christ is bread that satisfies
the infinite holy Jehovah in all that he desires. In all that he desires. What does he desire? He desires
his people, one with him, and he accepts us in his Son, Jesus
Christ the Lord, and delights in us. Delights in us. Did you ever shovely hands? See me when I'd sit down to one
of her dishes of macaroni and cheese when I hadn't had any
for a while. If I'm gone, I can always expect hot macaroni and
cheese out of the oven when I get home. It's always there. And
if I haven't had it in a few weeks, push the steak aside,
push the other stuff aside, let me get to that first. Oh, that's
so good. That's so good. Bruce Crabtree,
God Almighty takes you in Jesus Christ. He says, oh, that's so
good. He's so satisfying to me. He's
so delightful to me. I'm so pleased with him. Oh,
I'm so happy I've got him here. Joy in the presence of the angels,
in the heart of God Almighty over one sinner who repents.
so that God accepts us in Christ on this table of showbread. As
bread, if I can use such language, for his very soul. That satisfies
him. Bread by which Christ himself
sees of the travail of his soul and is satisfied. He accepts
us. Now listen to me. He accepts
our prayers. He accepts our works. He accepts
our sacrifices. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse
7 declares that he accepts us in the totality of our lives. In the totality. Imagine that. There's nothing about me acceptable
to me, let alone God. Oh, but in Christ, he has so
thoroughly purged away our sins, past, present, and future, that
God receives us perfection in Jesus Christ the Lord. These
12 cakes, these loaves of bread were set upon the golden table,
we're told in verse 30. And thou shalt set upon the table,
show bread before me always. We're told in Leviticus 24 again,
if you wanna look back there, verse five. Thou shalt take fine
flour and bake 12 cakes thereof. Two-tenth deals shall be in one
cake, and thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row upon
the pure table before the Lord. 12 is the number of God's Israel,
his elect. They're described as 140 and
4,000 in the book of Revelation. 12 times 12. That's the complete
host of God's elect. A specific number given for a
number that no man can number. Without question, these 12 loaves
of bread typify the Lord Jesus. Indeed they do, as we see. But
the fact that the bread is here specifically required to be in
12 loaves makes it clear that the loaves represent Christ in
connection with, in union with his people. Always through scripture
represented by this number 12. There were 12 tribes in Israel.
12 names inscribed on Aaron's breastplate. Everything he did,
he just did for those 12 names. 12 stones on the altar erected
by Joshua when they crossed the Jordan. There were 12 stones
erected by Elijah in his altar at Mount Carmel before the prophets
of Baal. The Lord chose 12 apostles. and
twelve foundations are in the foundation of the New Jerusalem
and twelve gates in the heavenly city. The twelve loaves in the
holy place upon the table before God tell us symbolically that
the high priest of God has an abundant supply for all whose
names are inscribed on his breastplate. The high priest of God has an
abundant supply of everything your soul needs for the names
of those people inscribed upon his breastplate. In other words,
in our Father's house, there's bread enough and to spare. In
Leviticus 24, we're told the supply was abundant. Did you
notice that each loaf had two-tenth deals of fine flour? That's two
omas. Do you know how much manna the
children of Israel were allowed to go out and gather every day?
An oma. An oma. But here on this bread
are two tent deals of fine flour, two overs. That's double any
man's daily provision of matter in the wilderness. In other words,
in each loaf of bread sitting on the table in the holy place,
there was symbolically twice as much bread for every person
in Israel as he could possibly need. And let me tell you what I've
read in this book and what I experience in my soul.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. There's an
infinite supply of grace in our Father's house. a boundless supply,
and all his supply is mine. All grace, all glory, all things
are yours for ye are Christ and Christ is God. Is there a hungry
soul here? Is there here a poor, needy,
starving sinner? Somebody here who hungers and
thirsts for righteousness before God? Somebody who, Oh God, I've
got to have my sin forgiven. Oh God, make me righteous before
you. Oh God, give me peace with you. Come, feast on the bread. There's
plenty for you. There's plenty for you. In Christ,
there's bread enough for you. There's such an abundant infant
supply and sufficiency of life, mercy, love, and grace in Christ
that though untold millions live upon him, there's nothing diminished
from him. There's still plenty, just as
much as there was before. Come, let us reason together. You may not know that your name
is written in the book of life. You may not know that your name
is on the breastplate of Christ, our high priest. But this you
should know, you should know it because God has told us in
his word, there's plenty of bread at God's table. Plenty of bread
for your needy soul in Christ. And you're welcome to it. You're welcome to it. Look here. You know what? I'm just almost
positive that whoever filled that glass up intended that one
for Darwin Pruitt. But he didn't take a drink. He
wasn't thirsty. I'll tell you who it was poured
for. Watch this. That was put there just for me,
Darwin. I know because I got it. I got it. You see that? I got it. Who poured
that glass? Don't ask. I don't care. Poured
it for God. There's nothing to sit back and
say. I got my name on it. I don't know who's going to get that.
This is mine. I got some. Come take the bread. Come eat his flesh and drink
his blood. and you have eternal life. Eternal
life intended, designed, purposed, and given by God just for you. You're welcome to it. You're
welcome to it. There it is. Just take it. Just
take it. Come and eat, and you'll discover
the table was spread specifically for you. But you might be thinking
to yourself, Brother Don, I've read the Bible enough and heard
preachers talk about it enough to know that no one was allowed
to touch that bread except God's priest. You're right. That's
right. Isn't it marvelous? Satan has
a fiendish way of turning the truth of God into a lie and a
way of making things that ought to be encouraging discouraging. When I talk to men and women
about their souls, folks are concerned You pastors have experienced
this. They'll raise every objection
in the world as to why they ought to be included. I think I might
be one to reprobate. I might be lost. Maybe I can't
be saved. Maybe I'm not one of the elect.
And they'll turn everything against them that's intended to be for
us. The fact is this bread was designed only for priests. Only priests could eat it. And
the only place they could eat it was in the holy place. Let's
see if I can turn Satan's lie into truth. There's the bread. It's in the holy place. I got some. I must be a priest.
I must be. I know I am because God said
you're a holy nation, a royal priesthood. I must be included in that number
because I got the bread. Here's the proof. We say the
proof's in the pudding. Come eat. If you can eat, it
was intended for you. If you can believe Christ was
the lamb slain for you. If you can believe your name
is written in the book of life before the world began. Now this
bread could only be eaten in the holy place. It was God's
provision for his priest. And if you get the bread, if
you get the bread, there it is. It's right there in the holy
place. But I'm out here. It's in the holy place. You've
got to get in there. The only way you can come is through that
sacrifice in that altar and through the blood in that labor. And
if you come in there and get that bread, you're one of God's
priests in God's holy place, accepted in the beloved. If I come to Christ, the bread
of life is mine and I eat it. I am sure, I must be sure, that
I'm one of those for whom the bread was intended. In John chapter
6, our Savior said, My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood
is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood is born of God. In spite of everything I know
about me. I eat his flesh and I drink his
blood. What's that mean? I trust him. He's my only hope. My only righteousness,
my only holiness, my only sanctification, my only redemption, my only atonement,
my only propitiation, my only acceptance with God. If I eat
his flesh and drink his blood, all that he is, is mine. That's what faith is. It's taking
Christ. Believing Christ. His righteousness
represented in his flesh. His atonement represented in
his blood. That's my hope before my God. Here we sit at this table. This table that has a golden
crown with four corners pointing to the four corners of the earth.
And it's a table crowned because this is the king's table. And
here, God's methodical chefs come, lame on their feet, and
sit under the king's table and eat bread with the king's sons,
because we're one of the king's sons. Then we're told that the
bread was to be set on the table in two rows. I'll try to picture
the scene. There's a priest, a renter, one
of his sons, standing before this table of showbread with
12 loaves before him. There is Christ standing in the
holy place, always busy. Always busy. While he walked
on this earth, our Lord Jesus seemed to be always about his
father's business. That's cause he was. And while
he is seated on the throne in heaven, our great high priest
is always busy. He's the king with the reigns
of the universe in his hands. And he is the priest taking care
of all God's house, dispensing bread all the time. dispensing the bread of his grace,
the bread of his providence, the bread of his sweet presence,
the bread of blessed communion, the bread of his word. Oh, how
we have feasted on his word. And then this bread was taken
from Israel. We're told specifically in Leviticus
24 that it was to be taken from the children of Israel. How come? because God would have all his
people know that the bread was specifically for them. Our Lord Jesus is that one who's
described by the psalmist like this, Thou hast laid a hemp upon
one that is mighty. I have chosen, I have exalted
one, chosen out of the people. You see, our great Savior, Our
redeemer, our high priest, this one who is the bread of life
upon whom we feed, is a man touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
A man who himself was compassed with infirmity. He knows everything
we know and everything we experience
and knows how to minister to us exactly as we need. It's amazing. It's amazing. I
can't begin to fathom it. But there's nothing that ever
touches you, my brother. Nothing that ever touches you,
my sister. No experience, no pain, no heartache,
no bitterness, no longing, no desires. that he doesn't know
by experience. And he's a sympathizing high
priest for us, feeding us with the bread of heaven. Now, notice
this thing. In Leviticus 24-7, you don't
need to turn there, each row of bread had to have some frankincense
on it for a memorial of a burnt offering to the Lord. The frankincense
speaks again of our acceptance with God. The acceptance of all
that we do for Him. That woman that Larry read about
in Luke 7 is described in Mark 14. And she brought that alabaster
box, spikened ointment, very precious. And Judas said, what
a waste. What a waste. She took something
worth a year's wages. That's what fellows made back
in those days, you know. They made a penny a day. That was
average wage. Our Lord said, I'll pay you a penny. All right,
we'll go work. Made a penny a day. That was a year's wages. That
old streetwalker, I expect, had been saving up her money all
her life, knowing soon she was not going to be able to make
her money on her back. And she'd been saving it up, and the Lord
saved her. She brought everything she had. Everything she had. And broke
it open just for him. Just for him. Everything she
had. And the other disciples joined
Judas. We think just like Judas. What a waste! What could have
been done with this? You wouldn't have done that with
it. No. And the Lord said, you leave
her alone. She has done what she could. And the Lord God Almighty, when I've drawn my last breath,
and in this body of flesh, with all my perverseness and
corruption and fault and failing, when I've done what I could, Take a good smell and say, oh,
that was so good. That's just perfect. That's just
what I wanted. Just perfection. Just perfection. That's our memorial as it was
hers. We're accepted of God in Jesus
Christ in the totality of our beings. And it's not that it
overlooks our faults and failures. John, he put them away. They're gone. He can't fight
them. And then this bread was given
here for God's people every Sabbath day. It was brought out and placed
in the holy place on the table on the Sabbath day. This Sabbath
day portrays Christ our rest. We rest in him. And as you come
to eat this bread, this is the place where the weary find rest. Our Savior said, come unto me,
all you that labor and have it laid, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, and you shall find rest unto your souls. I know something about both. I came to Christ with all my guilt and sin oppressed. And he gave me rest. I entered
into a Sabbath day. I quit working. You know what
I did? I quit trying to please God. I want nothing more than to please
Him. Don't misunderstand me. Oh God, keep me, keep me, keep
me from the evil that's in me. Oh God, don't let me act like
I know I am. I want that God knows my heart. I want that with a hold of my
heart. I want to honor God in everything I do. But I quit trying
to make myself accepted with God. I rest. Would you like to know how to
get to glory? Are you interested? Do you want to know how to get
to heaven? Watch me now. Watch me. If I had a bed here, I'd lay
down. You go to Christ, and you lay down, and you rest your way
home. That's all. You rest in Him.
Just rest in Him. And then He said, take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me. You have trouble come, difficulties,
temptations, falls, and you try to straighten the mess out and
it just gets worse. And you kick against the brick, and you keep
goading your own, and you kick, and the more you kick, the more
you're goaded. And finally, you can't do anything else, and you
just bow your head like an ox accustomed to the yoke. And as
soon as you bow, you find rest. Everything's all right. You'll
find rest to your souls. This bread sitting on the table
speaks of communion, oneness, unity. The union of God with
his people as we are one with Christ. And the union of God's
people with one another as we are one with Christ. Now, these
12 loaves, covered with this pure frankincense, arranged by
divine order on a table of pure gold, standing in the holy place
before the Lord, beside the light of the golden candlestick, speak
of that indissoluble union of God's Israel with God, and of
God's Israel with one another. You see, even when the Ten tribes
revolted and rebelled against God. We're told in 2 Chronicles
13 there were still 12 loaves on the table. Still 12 loaves there. Because
the purpose of God according to election must stand. Not one of God's Israel shall
perish. Oh, but preacher, we have prophets
like Baal. men like Cora, we have men like
Dayton, we have these wicked men that raise up parasites and
strife. Oh, what trouble they cause.
Don't give them that satisfaction. Don't give them that satisfaction.
You know what I do with these fellas? I try to correct them
if I can. I've had my heart been broke
more than once with men I highly esteemed who did so. I weep for them. I weep for them.
But I won't give them the satisfaction of even thinking they've injured
anything. They ain't hurt nothing. They ain't hurt nothing. Why
do Harris's come? So that they who are perfect
may be made manifest. So that they who are proved will
find out who they are. Will find out who they are. How's
that? They'll stay right here in the
holy place, looking on Christmas Eve. Oh, God, keep your faith
in Christ. And you'll see what more Israelite
brought home than you can say. And when it's done, that tabernacle
will be finished. The whole main thing is to promote
it. God's going to be there today,
and so all Israel will be.