Turn with me to Exodus chapter
26. Exodus chapter 26. We're going to look at three
verses of Scripture. And I'm going to talk to you
about the bars. The bars of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make bars of shittom
wood five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, and
five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle,
and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle
for the two sides westward, and the middle bar in the midst of
the boards shall reach from end to end." Now, in order for a
good and beneficial understanding of this type, it's needful to
know that when Christ came into this world and took to Himself
the body and the bones and the nature of a man, when He, as
Don put it, became a man, it was as a representative man. It was as though he married his
church when he become fledged. He become one with his church
when he was born of the Virgin. And this wood, all of these things
that we've been studying, the Ark of the Covenant and the Table
of the Showbread, And all of these things, they're all made
from shittom wood and overlaid with gold. And I've told you
over and over, as we've looked at those different things, that
these things typify the two natures of Christ. But in order to glean
anything from that, you have to understand what that means. When He becomes flesh, He becomes
flesh to represent us. And those dual natures, we're
in Him. We see ourselves in Him. It's not that we ignore the law.
People say, well, you just ignore the law. No, we don't ignore
the law. But I see the law exalted and honored in him. And I'm in
him. All God's elect are in him. And in order for any kind of
a good and beneficial understanding of these types, you have to understand
that. Everything that he did as a man,
he did for us as our representative and as our substitute. Listen
to this here in Hebrews 2, verse 9. It says that he was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. And he's not talking about every
man in the world. He's talking about every man
for whom he become a man. For it became him for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings." Now here's what I want you to hear. For both
he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of
one. They're all of one. For which
cause he is not ashamed, to call them brethren. Christ and His
people are one. He is the firstborn of many brethren. And with these things in mind,
I want us to look tonight at these bars and see if the Holy
Spirit will show us another picture of our Redeemer. Now try to envision
in your mind, I was reading something, I think it was by Gill this week,
and he ruled out the idea that a bar went through the center
of these boards, which I'm going to show you here in just a little
bit. The Bible plainly declares that it did. But he said those
timbers would have to have been huge. Well, they were. They were. Those timbers were 27 inches
wide. That's a fair size board, isn't
it, Winston? 27 inches wide, more than two
feet. Yeah, that's a big. We don't have anything much anymore
to make a timber like that. But these were 27 inches wide
and they were 15 feet tall and they were thick enough for one
of these bars. Now those bars would, I'm a builder
by trade, and those bars would had to have been at least an
inch and a half to two inch to have any effect on those big
timbers at all. And so that thing had to be thick
enough for that thing to go through the middle of it. So now you're
looking at about a three inch thick, 27 inch wide, 15 foot
tall timber. overlaid with gold. Now that,
I'm telling you, there ain't no one man going to pick that
up. That's a huge timber. And they're
standing there upon these silver sockets made from the Redemption
money. And upon the face of these boards
are golden rings. Now, several of the old writers
put in parenthesis there, staples. And I don't know why they did
that. I don't know if there's something in the original language,
I'm not a linguist, that suggested that or what, or if they thought,
well, it wasn't round, it was kind of like a two-by-four or
something shaped like that and went through these staple-looking
things that he called rings. But he calls them rings. And
I think that's what they were. I've got no reason to believe
otherwise. And on the face of these are these golden rings
or staples through which four bars were to pass which would
make all the boards of the tabernacle one. One. If you could just imagine looking
at the paneling here and you're looking at those different things
there, just imagine each one of them being a board. And a
ring or two rings, I don't know how many, it doesn't really say,
were fastened into each one of those. And these bars passed
through the middle of them. And it never tells you. I looked
up every single reference in the Bible to bars and rings and
so on, and it doesn't say anywhere, it doesn't give us the configuration
of those things except to say that there were, these bars were
on this wall and that wall and the west wall. They weren't on
the east side. That's where the door of the
tabernacle was. But we're not given that configuration. So,
one bar passed through the middle and you've got these other bars,
you've got four bars then on that wall. And now, some of them
say that these were half bars and only went halfway and so
there were one length at the top and one length at the bottom,
which don't make a lot of sense to me. That wouldn't stabilize
anything. And they may have been a long
bar at the top and a long bar at the bottom and the same thing
on the opposite side of the wall, which is what I think. That would
have been strong to hold that wall secure. And then this one
that went through the middle. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
36. However these things were configured,
They made the boards one unit. And then there was a middle bar.
Exodus chapter 36, verse 31. He made bars of shidom wood,
five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, five
bars for the boards on the other side of the tabernacle, five
bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward. Now watch
this. And he made the middle bar to
shoot through the boards from one end to the other. That sounds like it went through
the middle of the boards to me, don't it to you? Shot through
the boards from one end to the other and he overlaid the boards
with gold and made their rings of gold to be places for the
bars and overlaid the bars with gold. So about seven and a half
feet up, a hole was bored in each board. A hollowed out place
made in each board which would be filled as this golden bar
was shot through from end to end. And then the text that I
read to you in Exodus 26 tells us that that middle bar reached
end to end. And so it agrees here in Exodus
36. So God's church in the wilderness
is held stable by the Redeemer Himself. He's held stable by
the Redeemer Himself, both without and within. That's what I want
to preach to you about tonight. Now let me give you three things
tonight about these bars and rings on these boards. First of all, let's think about
the bars on the outside. These bars represent to me the
work of Christ, which is done for us, done without us. We had nothing to do with it.
I didn't have anything at all to do with the election of God,
nothing whatsoever. Paul said he saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. I didn't have anything to do
with that. It wasn't based on me. I wasn't present. I wasn't
asked anything. This was all done apart from
me. Now the work of Christ to me
is one of the most misunderstood of all the doctrines in the Bible.
Almost all, if not all, of what goes by the name Christianity
today sets forth Christ as an effort on God's part to show
his affection and willingness to save men and women from their
sins and from the wrath of God, which is yet to come. He set
before men and women as a last and desperate attempt on God's
part, having already exhausted other things, He exhausted the
consciences that He put in them. He exhausted His laws that He
gave them. He exhausted His patience. And
now, in a last desperate effort, He sends His Son. That's how
He set forth to give men and women a chance to be pardoned. And He set before men and women
as an effort on God's part, an offering, if you will, to make
it possible for all men and women to be saved. Well, that's not
what Christ came into this world to do. The God and Father, Paul
said, of our Lord Jesus Christ, determined to bless and save
a people for the glory of His name, and this people He chose
in Christ before the foundation of the world. before the foundation,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
and to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath
made us accepted in the Beloved. Christ came into this world to
redeem, to save a people given Him by the Father before the
foundation of the world. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sin. Ain't that what
the book says? And the life He lived under the
law was lived on their behalf. He was made of a woman. Listen
how clear this is. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. That's pretty
clear, isn't it? Sure it is. And the righteousness he wrought
out as a man both exalted the law and made it honorable, and
it furnished all his elect with a perfect righteousness. And
then the death he died on Calvary's cross was a substitutionary death. I had nothing to do with that.
That was all done without me. That's all done on the outside.
It bears strength. It strengthens God's church.
It secures God's church. But God's church didn't have
anything to do with it. This was all done without us. He died in our room instead.
He took our place before divine justice and righteous wrath and
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. In Hebrews 9, verse
26, it says, Once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He put it away. He didn't partially
put it away. He didn't make a down payment
on sin. He put it away. He put it away. He bore our sins in his own body. on the tree. And all of those
for whom he died are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10, verse 10. And then having lived and died
as our representative and substitute, he was taken down and laid in
a tomb, a borrowed tomb. And on the third day, God raised
him from the dead. Paul said he was delivered for
our offenses. and was raised again for our
justification. I had nothing to do with my justification. Nothing whatsoever. I wasn't
even alive when Christ died. I had a lady ask one of the preachers,
I don't remember which one it was anymore, but she said, I
can believe that Christ died for my past sins, but not my
present sins, and especially not my future sins. And he said,
which one of your sins wasn't future when Christ died? They
were all future. They were all yet to come. And when God raised up Christ
from the dead, He raised up the whole of His blessed church with
Him. Raised us up together with Him, Paul says in Ephesians 2. Verse 6, has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And he
tells us that we're justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in His blood. And then sitting
upon the throne of God, we have a king. A king priest who has
secured the salvation of God's elect, has received it, possesses
it, and is set down, expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, and ever liveth to make intercession for us. And
all of these outward bars represent the work of Christ for us, and
by which He has secured us as one with Him. He is the stability
of the church. He is the strength of the church.
The church has no strength of itself. It was just a bunch of
boards. These golden bars, these golden
bars, overlaid that shenum wood with gold and passed through
those rings. And then here's the second thing
I want you to look at. I want you to look at these rings,
these golden rings. These rings are what binds the
bars to the walls. If there wasn't rings, the bars
wouldn't do any good. You'd just put it up there and
it'd just fall off on the floor. It wouldn't hold anything. lay
it up on top and the wind would blow it off. It wouldn't accomplish
anything without these rings. And these rings represent to
me the faith of God's elect. They're golden rings, pure gold,
which speak of the divine origin and purpose of God and the gift
of God, which is faith. By grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Faith
is of divine origin. It's not something you have.
The potential for faith's not in man. Anybody who's ever been
born of God knows that. You couldn't believe. You wanted
to, but you couldn't. You couldn't do it. You couldn't
find peace. Now, you can accept some doctrine. If I can shut a man up to this
book, I can sit him down and I can teach him some things.
But that's not the same thing as faith. That is not the same
thing. These are golden rings which
speak of their divine origin and purpose. Faith is of God
and not of man. It is God's gift of sovereign
grace that causes a man to secure the promises of God in Christ
to himself. Peter says, listen to this, we
are kept by the power of God through faith. Through faith. unto salvation. And we're justified
by faith. Not in the sense that faith is
the justifier, but in the sense that faith secures and receives
and holds fast Christ, who is our justification. Rings above
and rings beneath. Possibly rings on both sides. All around. All around. Every board made secure with
the golden rods and golden rings. And then thirdly, let's look
at this middle bar for just a few minutes. Turn with me to Colossians
chapter 1. In the wall of the tabernacle,
you could see if you stood in one place as they were putting
this thing up, and they've got all the bars in place now, but
none of the hangings, none of those things are up yet. And
you're standing inside that 45 foot long building, 15 feet wide. And you're standing looking at
those three walls and you start counting. You'll come up with
12 rods. But there's 15 rods in the tabernacle. Three of them you couldn't see.
Three of them you couldn't see. Twelve bars, four to a wall,
and the rings that held them in place. but three bars which
no one could see but the one who put them there. Now let me
read this here in Colossians and see if you can see what this
middle bar represents. Colossians chapter 1, verse 21. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death. to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. If you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which you have heard and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister. who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church,
whereof I made a minister according to the dispensation of God which
is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God. Now watch this. Even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, But now is made manifest to his
saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory." Can you see that? Can you see that
middle bar representing Christ in you? Christ is for us, but
Christ is in us. Christ secures us. He secured
us. He actually uses the word saved
in the Scripture. He said, God hath saved us. When did He do that? When He
put us in Christ before the foundation of the world. And we're secured
in all of those things. But there's a rod. And those
rods, each one of those bars represent Christ. Each one of
them was made of shed and wood. Each one of them was overlaid
with pure gold. Be no mistake, this is Christ
that these bars represent. But this bar went all the way
through the middle. Now let me give you several things
here. First of all, this bar was the longest of all the bars. It said it went from one end
to the other. From one end to the other. That's
a long ways. That's a long way. Forty-five
feet down that wall. That's a long ways for a bar.
to extend. Exodus 36, 33, He made the middle
bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other.
Now this means of grace which Christ accomplished for us reached
from one end to the other. He said, I am the Alpha and Omega. I am the beginning and end. I
am the author and finisher of your faith. And this means of
grace reached from one end to the other. In II Thessalonians
2.13, now, we're talking about a work of God accomplished in
us. In us. Christ in you. The hope
of glory. And that's accomplished through
the preaching of the Gospel. But listen to what he says about
this. In II Thessalonians 2.13, he said, God hath from the beginning.
From the beginning. That don't sound like somebody
who got desperate in time. This sounds like somebody with
a purpose from the get-go. God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then, listen, Peter
says the same thing. Peter says, we are led according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ not
only declares a work of God done for us, but a work of God done
in us. Paul said what qualified him
actually when he wrote that letter to the Galatians, what he said
qualified him as a preacher is that in the fullness of time,
God revealed His Son. When it pleased God, He revealed
His Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen. And then
turn with me to I Corinthians chapter 2. I want you to listen to me for
just a minute. As I said to you a while ago,
if I could get you to agree to limit your arguments and objections
to the Word of God, I believe I could teach you the doctrines
of grace. I know I can. If I can get you
to agree that this is God's Word. We're not going outside the book.
accept your opinions. We're not going to accept your
theories. We're not going to accept your religious traditions.
We're going to hold everything to this book. I think I can convince
you of the doctrines of grace. I think I can teach them to you.
They're plainly revealed in the word of God and plainly declared.
And now even when you see them, having never seen them before,
will hold some fascination to you. And that fascination, men
and women mistake for a work of God, for the Spirit of God.
There's a fascination about these things because you've never seen
them. It's just like learning some secret that nobody else
knows, and all of a sudden you see it. You see it. But here's
the problem. There'll be no peace. There'll
be no rejoicing. There'll be no rest. There'll
be no putting away of the guilt. There'd be no love established
in your heart. There'd be no awe toward God
until these things are demonstrated in you. You see the difference? That's why I wouldn't go across
the street to argue these things with anybody. I'm not going to
do it. I'm going to stand here and do what God said to do, declare
these things. And when His Spirit moves in
power, He'll demonstrate those things inside men and women. You can't argue men into the
kingdom of God. They must be born again. Christ
must be revealed in them. And this gospel revelation is
what enables us to become sons of God, new creatures in Christ. Now listen to what Paul says
to this wisdom-oriented church of intellectuals here at Corinth. Listen to this. 1 Corinthians
2, verse 1. When I came unto you, I came
not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God." Let that sink in for a minute. Just roll that around in your
mouth for a little bit. I came not on purpose. He was a wise man, well-read
man, well-educated man. He had wisdom. He had knowledge. But he said, when I came unto
you, I came not with excellency of speech. Did he declare the
facts? Sure he did. Did he tell them
the way? Absolutely. Did he teach the
fall of man, redemption in Christ, and his resurrection glory? Without
a doubt. But not like a scientist teaching
chemistry. Paul declared these things in
the simplest of terms and illustrations, and he waited on the Spirit of
God. He simply declared who Christ
was, why He came, what He did, and where He is now. And he declared,
that's what he says here in this verse, he declared the testimony
of God. Verse 2. For I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness,
that is, He identified Himself with them. I was with you in
fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. Now watch this.
But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Now what in the
world is he talking about? Two things. First of all, a demonstration
by doctrine of how God can save vile, wretched sinners and still
be God. The Holy Spirit of God can convince
you of this truth. God is going to be God if He
does not save anybody. And He is not going to save anybody
at the expense of His character. And the only way God can save
vile, wretched sinners is in Christ. He must be just and justifier. If he can't be just and justifier,
you can't be saved. And then secondly, he's talking
here about an inward demonstration of that grace applied to your
conscience and heart. That rod that shot through the
center of those boards was the exact rod that was on the outside.
But on the inside, He demonstrates what that grace is, because He
shows you grace, and He shows you mercy, and He shows you pardon
and forgiveness for sin. He reveals His love in you, to
you, personally. He demonstrates it. That's how
sinners are saved. That's how they're caught. With the heart, Paul said, man
believeth unto righteousness. And over in 1 Thessalonians 1,
verse 5, there's something here that I want to show you also
along these same lines. He calls this gospel, the gospel
that came in power and in the Holy Ghost, now watch this, and
in much assurance. I've looked at that for years,
thinking that he's talking about assurance of faith, the assurance that
we get from believing. But these were brand new believers.
That's not what he's talking here about at all. I started
looking at that. It's not talking about the assurance
of faith. I mean, it could be inclusive in it. We all, your
conscience, that guilt's not going, he's not going to, anoint
that conscience and clear it of guilt without you feeling
that that guilt has been removed, but this is not what he's talking
about here. What this is, is the assurance that this man who
stood before them was God's messenger and had God's message. That's
the assurance he's talking about here, because immediately he
said, as you know what manner of man I was. And then if you
look over there in chapter 2, not too far from there, and he
said, and I thank God for this. When you heard the gospel which
you heard of me, you didn't hear it as the word of men, but you
heard it as it is in truth the word of God. The Word of God. He's talking about this messenger
who stood before them. The Holy Spirit demonstrated
His grace in them. And when He did, they had assurance
that this was a man of God. This wasn't a man just up here
talking. This wasn't a man up here trying to sell me on some
strange doctrine. This wasn't just a man up here
trying to build a name for himself. This was God's messenger. God's
messenger. How'd I know that? Because He
called me by His grace. And that calling was effectual.
That calling broke my heart. That calling convinced me of
sin. That calling convinced me that
there was a Savior at the right hand of God who could save me
from my sins without compromising the character of God. That bar
shot through the middle. shot through the middle. And
I'll tell you that bar, Christ in you. This tells me that this
thing went past that, it went to the inner core, it went into
the very nature of those boards. This bar penetrated and become
one with the very nature of those in whom he put it. He took that,
he created a hollow place in that board. Didn't he create
one in you? You better believe it. Boy, I
was empty. Empty. You can't be filled until
you're emptied. He's going to empty you. And
he took that empty place and he put that bar and filled it
up. Filled it up. Put it in. If it
was just in there wobbling around, it wouldn't have done nothing.
It fit just perfectly. Went in there and filled it up
to the max. Secured that wall as one. And
that wall stood there with no cracks. No flaws. And that wind
blew out in that desert. There was no wind inside that
tabernacle. Secure in Christ. Our Father
used the lesson tonight. Teach us something about Christ
in us. Demonstrate in us daily. Daily, as we come down here and
gather Even if we be small in number, we gather here in sincerity,
and we gather here in spirit and truth, and we worship You,
and we call upon You to accomplish these things in us, press these
things in us, change us, move us, cause us to be Your servants
in this world for Christ's sake.