I'd like for you to turn with
me to Exodus chapter 26. We've been studying the tabernacle. And the tabernacle that we've
been studying here in Exodus was basically a tent. It was
a tent. If you have a computer, there's
sites on there where you can go. And over there in the wilderness
where Israel wandered, the Jews have reconstructed a model They
don't do it for worship sake or anything like that, but they
reconstructed a model so that they could teach about that tabernacle. And on the outside, it was just
like all the other tents. It was dull and drab badger skins. If you were up on a mountain
and looking down on Israel, other than that big white fence that
went around it, it would look just like every other tent. But
on the inside, it housed a treasure which no man could imagine. I
can't recall exactly, but one of the ladies who listens to
our studies here in Exodus sent me an email and told me what
just the gold in the candlestick was valued at today. It was in
the millions. So inside this thing was a treasure. And of course, this pictured
the treasure of heaven, talking about Christ. And surrounding
this tent was a solid wall, seven feet tall, of pure white linen,
declaring this tent to be set apart by God. This tent may look
like all the other tents, but that fence declared this tent
was different. This tent was different. This
tent had been set apart by God. And as I said earlier, the tabernacle
is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ in this world. In John
1.14 it said, and you don't have to turn there, this is a very
familiar verse to you. It says, and the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. I looked that word dwelt up. Do you know what it means? Tabernacled. He tabernacled among us. And
then the word according to Strong's concordance, that's according
to Young's analytical concordance. The word according to Strong's
concordance means camped. He camped for a while among us. Now we've covered so far the
four pieces of furniture in the Ark, and tonight I want to begin
looking at the coverings. I titled the lesson tonight,
Looking Up. on the inside. Now this is a
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you think, what exactly is
it that the believer sees in Christ? The world saw nothing
in Him but another man. That's all they saw. They saw
just another man, just another tent, just like all the other
tents. And all they ever saw was what
they saw from the outside. But John said, the Word was made
flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory. We saw
on the inside. What's on the inside? That's
what the believer is, that's what's revealed to him by the
Holy Ghost. What's on the inside of this
person? What's in his heart? That's what
God manifests and what God reveals. And to see these things, one
must be called and sanctified to the priesthood. You say, oh,
we're not going to start that priesthood business. Well, in
1 Peter 2, Peter declares first our regeneration and calling. And then he moves on to describe
what this calling is. And he tells us as lively stones,
we're built up a spiritual house. and holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So to see these things, one must
first be born again, and he must have tasted. Peter said, if so
be you tasted that the Lord is gracious. Until a man's tasted
of the grace of God, he hasn't seen anything. He hasn't seen
anything. You can't see this and not taste
it. To see it is to taste it. And none but this royal priesthood
could see the glory of God inside that old tabernacle. Now, I don't
know exactly how far we're going to get tonight, but let me give
you five things that a believer sees when he goes on the inside
looking up. On the inside looking up. And
the first thing he notices when he looks up inside this tabernacle
is a glorious linen covering. Now on the outside, there's a
huge fence of white linen. And this fence is God's declaration
to all who will approach this tabernacle that it, and its furnishings,
and its hangings, and its servants, and the very ground upon which
it stands is holy. That's what that fence says.
This is holy ground. This is a holy place. Everything
here is holy. The ground's holy. Everything's
holy. They anointed everything. Everything concerning that tabernacle
was sanctified of God. And you dare not set foot in
that courtyard. That wasn't for you to do. That
was for those to whom it was assigned. You didn't do anything.
You didn't go inside that tabernacle. You didn't get to see anything.
Only the priesthood, that royal priesthood, You've got to go
in and see those things. And this ought to teach us something
about our place of worship and this time we spend here and the
things that we do. Never let these things become
commonplace to you. They become commonplace to Israel.
Just commonplace. By the time the Lord, and we're
going to get into that in our study in Matthew right away,
When he went into Jerusalem, the very first thing he did after
he rolled that wild ass's coat into Jerusalem was to go into
the temple and what did he find? The money changers. In there
selling sacrifices. In there trying to make whatever
they could make off of the very things of God. He just commonplaced
just another business to them. But this linen on the inside
tells us something about the righteousness of Christ. Now
let me Go back here now and read these first six verses to you
out of Exodus chapter 26. Moreover, thou shalt make the
tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twine linen, and blue,
and purple, and scarlet, with cherubims of cunning work shalt
thou make then. The length of one curtain shall
be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four
cubits, and every one of the curtains shall have one measure.
They're all going to be the same. The five curtains shall be coupled
together one to another, and the other five curtains shall
be coupled one to another. And thou shalt make loops of
blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvage in the
coupling, and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge
of another curtain in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops shalt
thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make
in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second,
that the loops may take hold one of another." In other words,
make the loops to line up. That's what he's saying. All
have to line up. All fifty up. "...And thou shalt
make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together
with the taches, and it shall be one tabernacle." So we walk in this sanctuary
of the congregation. You walk in that holy place and
you look up in there and here's this linen covering. This linen
covering. And it said it's made of fine
twine linen. Now let me tell you what he's
talking about here. You go down here to buy sheets.
I just learned this last year. And you look on there and they
have a thread count. You ever notice that when you
buy a sheet? It has a thread count on it. One person over
here selling sheets and they're five dollars a piece, and this
guy over here, he's selling his and they're ninety-five dollars
a piece. And you wonder, well, what's the difference? And you
start reading, and it ain't a whole lot of difference. They both
made out of cotton. They both do it. All of a sudden, you notice
the difference in the thread count. This thing over here,
It's three times heavier than this thing over here, five times
heavier. Well, this was fine twine linen,
and I don't want to get sidetracked with this, but they said that
this thing was something like 40 or 50 thread count, this linen. It was very heavy, well-made. out of fine linen, twined together,
twined so many times. And you'll have to go into the
original to get the counts and all that kind of stuff. I don't
want to get sidetracked with that. But this linen on the inside
tells us something about the righteousness of Christ accomplished
for us when he tabernacled among us, and therefore is by faith
our righteousness before God our cover. Now some say that
this white linen testifies of the righteousness and holy character
of Christ, and I know that this is so. But I think we make a
great mistake when we stop there. I think it says more than that.
This tabernacle was not given to Israel and directions given
to them to do this and to be done according to a pattern just
to give men abstract facts about God. That's not what's going
on here. The tabernacle wasn't constructed
for that purpose. It was to teach God's elect about
their union and communion with God. How a holy God could be
approached by sinful man and not die and not compromise the
very character of God. There's things involved in worship.
You don't just run down here and pile up a little pile of
rocks and start worshiping God. There's things you have to know. There's things you have to hear.
There's things you have to be taught about God. And those heathens,
they thought they were just changing God. They were just changing
from Buddha to something else. Now they're going to worship
the Hebrew God. But to them, it was still a figment
of their imagination, and they tried to worship Him in different
ways and paid dearly for it. But what's seen within this tabernacle
is the redemptive glory of God in Christ. the redemptive glory. And so then the righteous covering
above speaks of Christ our righteousness. Now this might not seem to be
so significant, and I know it's not to this generation, but I
assure you it is. It is. It means a lot. In fact, apart from this righteousness,
you can't be saved. There is no salvation apart from
this righteousness. You have to have this righteousness.
God cannot be approached by a sinful man. He must be made righteous. Paul prayed for the salvation
of his kinsmen. He didn't pray that their knowledge
might be perfected a little or that they'd been duped by the
heathens and whatever and they needed straightened out a little
bit. He prayed for their salvation. He said they wasn't saved. Well,
what do you mean they weren't saved? How do you get that? Because
they still won't submit to the righteousness of God, and they're
going about trying to establish their own righteousness. The
righteousness of Christ is the free gift of God. Listen to how
clear this is in the Scriptures. Romans chapter 3, verse 21. Paul said, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested. Just as it was in that tabernacle,
now it's manifested in this tabernacle, the person of fulfillment of
the first. It's manifested, being witnessed
by the Law and the Prophets. Even the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. And then here's another one in
Galatians chapter 2. Galatians 2 verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me in the life which I now live in
the flesh. I live by the faith or faithfulness of the Son of
God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the
grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. The Apostle Paul, at one time,
ignorant of the things of God. He was hyper-religious. He sure
was. He was at the top of his game.
He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
But he was lost. He was lost. And we can learn
something here. Religion and salvation are not
synonymous with one another. You can be religious and be lost.
A lot of folks are. But he thought he had great gain
in his heritage and in his religious sacrifices and duties and accomplishments. But over in Philippians chapter
3, verse 7, he said, what things were gained to me then, and he
names them what they were, his heritage, and his birth, and
his high attainments, and all those things. Those things that
were gained to me, he said, I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but dull that I might win Christ
and be found in Him. Now listen, not having my own
righteousness, Not having my own righteousness,
which is by the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And then
in Revelation 19, verse 8, John speaks of the marriage of the
Lamb. Speaks of that day when the bride was going to be given
to the son in marriage, in this marriage And he says, unto her
was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
And like Israel of old, God warns us of the danger of false religion,
and He shuts us up to His tabernacle. That's what He told Israel. I'm going to teach you. I'm going
to teach you. I'm going to show you. I'm going
to reveal to you these things." And so he did. And he said, you
be careful now. You be careful. When you put
these things together, you put them together exactly as I showed
it to you in the mount. Exactly. And so it is with us
in faith. We are to put these things together
by faith exactly as they were manifested in the Son of God. And Paul tells us, As plain as
words can say it, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. So that's the first thing. We
look up and we see this linen, this fine twine linen covering. That's all you could see. You
couldn't see the other layers. All you could see was this first
layer, this inner layer. And that's the righteousness. We're looking up there at the
righteousness. the believer's righteousness. And then the second
thing I want you to see is the colors that were to be woven
into this fine twine linen. It was three colors woven into
the curtains. I don't know. For some reason,
I've had it in my head for years that that whole curtain on the
inside was snow white. Is that how you felt about it?
But it's not. It's not. And that's what I want
you to see. There were three colors woven
into these curtains that's covering. Blue, and purple, and scarlet. Now somebody said blue is the
celestial color. In other words, if you walk outside,
and you're talking about the heavens, and we're looking at
patterns, we're looking at pictures. You walk outside on a sunny day,
and the sun's up, and the stars is gone, and it's light all around.
What do you see? Blue. That's all you can see
when you look up into heaven is blue. So they said blue is
the celestial color. And this tells us of the origin
of our righteousness. We're seated with Him in the
heavens. Seated with Him. Our righteousness,
the origin of it is from heaven. It's not from me. It's not from
you. But Christ is our righteousness.
When did He become our righteousness? before the world was. It tells
us of the origin of our righteousness. We're seated with Him in the
heavenlies. We're accepted in the blood. Paul said we're blessed
with all spiritual blessings, now listen, in heavenly places
in Christ before the foundation of the world when He chose us
in Christ. And then secondly, it tells us
that our righteousness is accepted by the Father in heaven itself. Hebrews 9.24 says, For Christ
is not entered into holy places made with hands, which are the
figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear
in the presence of God for us. Our righteousness right now,
right now, I tell you, if you could get a hold of that, you
could worship God. Our righteousness right now is seated, accepted,
and we're seated with Him in the heavens. You think about
that. Already accepted. Already accepted. And then the second color is
purple. That's the color of royalty. And as I read to you a while
ago, we're a royal priesthood. Kings and priests under God.
And then the third color is scarlet. And this speaks of the crowning
accomplishment of our righteousness, which is the sacrifice of Christ. You know, when there in Philippians
chapter 2, Paul said, let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus, and talked about how He took upon Him the form
of a man. And then it tells us, and He'd
become obedient. It's His obedience that is our
righteousness. And He'd become obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. So this righteousness
has to do with the King. took the King of Glory to come
down here and manifest this righteousness. And He came from heaven. He came
from God. The Word was made flesh and dwelled
among us. This is a celestial, this is
the God-man. This ain't just another man.
This is the God-man who came here and accomplished these things.
The King of Glory came down and accomplished these things. And
He did it through His blood. No righteousness can be accepted
by a holy God that does not satisfy the justice of God concerning
our sins. And if you'll read Romans chapter
3 very carefully, you'll find out that that whole thing is
an allusion back to the tabernacle where God set him forth as the
propitiation for our sins in that tabernacle. And all of these
colors were woven into this inner covering to show us that our
King Priest has come and accomplished the redemptive will of God and
sanctified us through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. And then thirdly, there was on
this covering a single symbol woven into the fabric, cherubim. Why cherubim? Why cherubim? This is a picture
of my righteousness. What in the world have angels
got to do with that? Cherubim. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
3. Cherubim speaks of God's judicial
authority concerning eternal life. In Genesis chapter 3, we
are told about the fall of man. And when man fell, his eyes were
opened, and he knew both good and evil. What he didn't know,
and still don't know, is that knowing the good, he has no power
or will to do it. And knowing the evil, he has
no power or will to resist it. And God knew that. So that for
him to take of the tree of life would be a complete and total
compromise of God's character. Now watch this here in Genesis
3. Genesis 3, verse 22. And the
Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us to know
good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his
hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him
forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which
he was taken. So he drove out the man. And
He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, what did He put
there? Cherubim. Cherubim. And a flaming sword which turned
every way to keep the way of the tree of life. The beloved
Christ Himself said, I am the way. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man can pass these guardian
angels except they go through another representative. Adam's
not coming back into this garden. Not by himself. If he comes back
in, it's going to be through another representative, not him. God drove him out of the garden.
He couldn't satisfy the justice of God. He broke the justice
of God. And no man's coming back in.
And those flaming swords are the swords of God's justice and
righteousness. And there's no way back into
God's garden except to be slain. Listen to Zechariah. Listen to
the language of Scripture here. He's not changing the meaning
of things as the Scripture goes along. They still allude to the
same thing. Listen to this. You've heard
this many times. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. And against the man that is my
fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep
will be scattered, and I'll turn mine hand upon my little one." Old Flaming Sword slew the Son
of God. But why put a symbol of God's
judicial authority upon this covering, which is a figure of
our righteousness? Because now satisfied in Christ,
the very justice of God, which once barred the way, pleads for
our entry. You see that? In the wisdom of
God, he reversed this thing. Instead of barring the way, it
guards the way and opens the way. Listen to how Paul pleads
this very thing, the satisfied justice of God, as our very assurance. In Romans chapter 8, he said,
who shall let anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justify. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather, is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. And then listen how David talks
about this in the Psalms. He sings about it. You're going
to find out when we begin to break these things down in this
tabernacle, all of a sudden, these songs and hymns and prayers
and things that you've been reading in the Old Testament for years
that didn't make any sense at all, all of a sudden are going
to take on life. You're going to say, boy, I remember
that. I remember that back when we
studied that. That's what he's talking about in that psalm.
Listen to this. In Psalm 61, 4. I will abide
in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of
thy wings." When you walked inside that tabernacle, all over those
curtains was these cherubim, these cherubim, all over that. In Psalm 91, verse 4, he shall
cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou
trust. And then in Psalm 17, verse 8,
he said, Keep me as the apple of thine eye, hide me under the
shadow of thy wings. But let me just say this, when
it was done and taken inside the tabernacle, these are the cherubims. We look
up and we saw those cherubims up there. And then we see as
we go through the scripture what these things are talking about.
And we're seeing the spiritual value of them. And we're seeing
that these things speak of Christ's satisfaction of that law and
how those things that were guarded so carefully to maintain that
justice are still guarded carefully, except they plead now for us
because justice has been satisfied. And then, fourthly, I just want
to very briefly touch on this, the dimensions of these things. Now, I'm not going to wear you
tonight with a bunch of numerology. There's all kinds of things,
and I'm sure that all these things have a meaning. I'm positive
of it. One of these days in eternity,
Lord willing, we'll look at these things and we'll say, that's
what that meant. That's what that number 10 meant, or number
12, and all of that type of thing. But I don't want to wear you
with that tonight. But let me just say this. When
these curtains were done and taken inside the tabernacle,
as it was opened up, they set up the gold boards, and they
put in the poles to latch it together. And they carried in
the furniture and put it in there. And then they brought in this
first covering to put it up. When they stretched it out, it
unfolded to all who could see everything that we needed to
know about the righteousness of Christ. It was complete. It was complete. Whatever its
dimensions were, it was enough. It was enough. And I just read
in there a few minutes ago, I'd already had my message done,
but this thing was made in such a manner as it not only went
over the top and down, but it went over the end. And so no
matter where you were or where you were looking, you were looking
at this righteousness. And then last of all, let's talk
just a little bit about these loops and tatches. the taches
of pure gold. We're told in the text that ten
curtains were to be woven, and from these ten curtains two hangings
were to be made. Five curtains sewed together
and other five sewed together. And then 50 loops and golden
taches to join these two hangings together to make one covering.
Now to me this This shows the divine imputation of the righteousness
of God by faith to us. In Jeremiah 23, let me just read
this to you. In Jeremiah 23, verse 6, it says,
In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And then 10 chapters
later, in chapter 33, Jeremiah repeats this with just a slight
difference. In verse 16, he said, in those
days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name whereby
she shall be called. Not he, but she shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. These
two curtains were the same in every detail. And then in verse
6 of Exodus 26, Thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple
the curtains together with the taches, and it shall be one tabernacle. It's going to be one hanging
over the whole tabernacle. It's going to be one. As the royal priesthood looks up
from the inside of the tabernacle, he sees his righteousness by
way of divine union with the righteousness of Christ, which
is one and the same. You see His righteousness. You
see Him before God accepted, well-pleasing to the Father.
You're looking at the believer's righteousness. It's the same. It's the same. It's so much the
same, they couldn't even tell which one went on the left and
which one went on the right. They could interchange them because
they were exactly the same. Now that's what folks don't understand
about righteousness. To be accepted of God, you're
going to have to be as righteous as God. And your duties and things
that we do are not going to stack up. They're not going to add
up. But these were the same. These
were the same. And it was a divine work. Men
did it. In fact, God gave them wisdom.
He gave them wisdom of art and talent and gifts and they took
that gold and they hammered it out and they made these tatches
and they wove these. This whole thing was woven. These
cherubims were not embroidered into that cloth. They were woven
into that cloth. And then you think about this. Man put it together. He did all
these things by the direction of God, and yet this gold attaches. Now, I want you to keep this
in mind. Gold always speaks of deity when it has to do with
the ark. This is the work of God. He attaches. He attaches. And he makes it one work. He
makes it one righteousness. Faith is the gift of God. It's
not of works, lest any man should boast. For, he said, you are
his workmanship. His workmanship. And they were
made by man, put together by man, assembled by man under God's
direction. And yet when it was all done,
it was very evident that it was the work of God. That's faith. That's faith. Now let me give you one more
verse before I quit here in Exodus 35. Exodus chapter 35 verse 25. I'm only giving you this because
I mentioned it a few weeks ago, and I know somebody's gonna call
me back and say, you told us you were gonna read that to us.
So here it is, Exodus 35 verse 25. And all the women that were
wise-hearted, now he's talking about the church here. When he's
talking about the women, he's talking about the church. And
all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands and
brought that which they had spun, both of blue and of purple and
of scarlet and of fine linen." You think about that. And they
brought it to these artisans and they said, here it is, here
it is, here it is. Everything put into this inner
chamber. was designed by God who both gifted those who made
it and put it together and made them willing and wise to do the
work. And so we are His workmanship,
created, created, ordained that we should walk in these good
works. These wise-hearted women speaks of His church, His bride,
made wise unto salvation.