Alright, let's turn now to Exodus
chapter 25. We're going to be looking tonight
at another piece of furniture in the tabernacle. The table
of shewbread. Exodus 25 beginning with verse
23. Thou shalt also make a table
of shintom wood, Two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a
cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half 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 a hand-breadth round about. And thou shalt make a
golden crown to the border thereof round about. Now, I believe what
that is telling us there that if this were the table, the crown
would be sticking up from the flat surface of the table. And
this was also so on the ark. It's identical to the way he
describes the ark and the crown. And thou shalt make for it four
rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are
on the four feet thereof. Over against the borders shall
the rings be, for places of the staves to bear the table. And thou shalt make the staves
of shiddom wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table
may be borne with them. And thou shalt make the dishes
thereof, and the spoons thereof, and the 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 here's our subject, the table
of showbread. The table was located inside
when you first, there was a veil that hung over the front door
of the tabernacle. It was a rectangular building
with a division dividing the front part from the back part.
And then the tent kind of went over it and went down on an angle
from it. So it, on the outside, just looked
like a tent. But on the inside was all of
these things. And it was located when you walked
through the front door of the tabernacle. Now remember, that
gate and the door to the tabernacle always faced eastward. Everything
is eastward in there. I don't know if you remember
I studied back in Genesis, but everything is eastward. And so
when you walked through there, this table was on the north wall.
of where the common priest went in, into the first sanctuary,
this table of showbread located on the north side. And it was outside, of course,
the veil which separated the holy place from the holy of holies.
And this table was made of the same incorruptible wood that
the ark was made from, acacia wood, which is called shidom
wood in the Bible. And it was overlaid with gold
And upon the table were placed twelve cakes of bread. And then
upon these cakes was poured pure frankincense. They came in there
with this very expensive spice. And they poured it out on top
of these cakes. And they did that because this
bread was considered an offering made by fire. Now it was required
to do that. because it was an offering. And
both the table and the bread are pictures of Christ and also
a picture of the oneness of Christ and His church. The table and
the bread are considered one. They are one as you look at it. And the table upheld the loaves
as Christ upholds His church. This table held it up. You remember I told you the ark
held up the mercy seat. The mercy seat rested on top
of the ark. And the table of showbread was
the center of the priestly family's union with God. We'll get into
that here in just a little bit. And this table was accessible.
There's something you can think about. It was accessible. And
this table was free. They could walk in under the
commandment of God. And here was this bread of God
kept there as a memorial. And then once a week on the Sabbath,
they could eat that bread. Indeed. And this table was particular. Nobody but the priest could eat
this bread. Aaron and his sons. And there's just so much to say
about this table. I think it would be impossible
to say it all in any one message. You could probably sit down one
evening and just talk about it and go on for hours and hours.
It was just, I finally just give up. I just read. There's so much
to read and the thoughts of different men over the years about all
of these things. But what I hope to do tonight
is just to excite your interest in the type by showing you a
few things that shows its connection to Christ and all those who believe. And the first thing is this,
that Peter tells us over in 1 Peter, he tells us, ye also as lively
stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We are the spiritual priesthood,
that which these things represent. So when you look back at these
priests and they're ministering in this tabernacle and they're
doing those things in that tabernacle, they have a just application
to you that believe. We do these things in a spiritual
sense as they did them in a physical, back here in the Old Testament.
So let's kind of break this down into a couple of things. First
of all, let's look at the table itself. There's a remarkable
similarity to the table and the arc. That's something I'd never
thought about before. Do you know that this table was
the exact same height as the arc? But it differed. It fell short in the length and
breadth. But in its height, it was the
same. And they were both made from
the same materials. Both the ark and the table show
us the person of our Savior, that He was both man and God. And looking again there at the
height of this thing, you might want to think about this. In Christ is revealed a fullness
before God. a fullness. But by faith, our
perception of Him is short of that. And that's what this table
is all about. This is what we eat. We eat the
gospel message. We eat Christ as He's preached
to us. And there's no comprehending that. Our comprehension of that
is not perfect. Our comprehension of that doesn't
go to the full length of it. We know in part. We see in part. We understand in part. And that
day, we'll know as we are known. We have faith, but our faith
is imperfect faith. We see Him as God come into the
flesh, co-equal with the Father, the Holy Spirit. That's the height. That's what that height represents.
Who He is. He's God. I know that He's God.
How much do I know about God? Not very much. Not very much. You see what I'm saying? When
it comes to the length and breadth of it, I can't calculate that. But I can see Him as He was in
that ark. And I can see Him equal in the
table. I can know that He is God. I
can know that He is co-equal with the Father and the Holy
Spirit. But my faith is imperfect faith. And then the table also
had a crown on top of it. A crown on top of it. Do you
remember that ark had a crown? It went all the way around it. It protruded up from it. It held
that mercy seat in place. And this table has a crown. Now
let me just read you something here. You won't have to turn
to it. But over in Hebrews chapter 2, the book of Hebrews takes
this old priesthood and takes these old types and figures and
kind of brings us up to date with what those things mean.
So here in Hebrews 2, Paul is getting started with this thing
and he said, But one in a certain place testified, saying, what
is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that
thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crownest him. He crowned
him with glory and honor, and did set him above all the work
of his hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection
under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection
under Him, He left nothing that's not put under Him. But now we
see not yet all things put under Him, but we see Jesus." That's
what we understand of this. We see Jesus. We see that man who 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. That is, for every man that
he represented. So the crown symbolizes the resurrected
Christ. He's victorious in his propitiatory
sacrifice. And now he makes it possible
for us to be in fellowship with God and receive the benefits
of that sacrifice. Having gone in there to that
altar, Having declared that propitiation, now they can come to the table
and receive the benefits. And then the table, like the
ark, had golden rings and wooden staves overlaid with gold to
move it about. This, I believe, because these
things were overlaid with gold, exactly the same as the ark,
I believe this speaks of Christ our bread as he's born in the
hearts of all them that believe. We bear that image in our heart. We carry it with us wherever
we go. As that table was carried, that
ark was carried, so we carry him with us. We don't just come
here and see him and then go home and live like we want to.
We carry Christ in our heart always. Always. We live by faith. For me to live, Paul said, is
Christ. That's Christ. Both the ark and the table had
something on them. The mercy seat sat upon the ark,
the bread upon the table. One showed mercy, the other showed
communion, fellowship, and life. And then the table, like the
ark, was a memorial. The table reminds us of His covenant
love. We come here and we hear the
gospel and our hearts are reminded of the covenant love of God.
It reminds us of who we are and how we got there and of our oneness
with Him. And you can see that. If you
want to see this demonstrated, you might want to put a marker
in your Bible at Leviticus chapter 24. Over in Leviticus 24, it
gives us a little more information about that ark. Things that it
doesn't say there in Exodus. And then in Numbers, I think
it's chapter 4 and verse 7, he gives instructions on moving
the ark. So he's got a few things there
to add to it. But this is briefly, this is
what this table is all about. This is what the table is all
about. It's a table of communion. It's that table that the priests
go in and they look at and it sits there for so long and then
on the Sabbath day, they all come in, both Aaron and his sons,
and they can eat of this bread on the table. And then secondly,
let's talk about what's on the table. In Exodus chapter 25 verses
29 and 30, he tells us what's on the table. Verse 29 says that
there's dishes on it. Did you know that? You thought
it was just bread sitting on the table, didn't you? I did
too. There's dishes. And there's spoons. And there's
bowls. And there's a cover. There's
a tablecloth on the table. What I see in these vessels is
the means whereby the bread is to be displayed and the means
whereby the bread is to be eaten. This speaks of the means. Numbers
chapter 4 verse 7 tells us that the tablecloth was of blue. What's that got to do with anything?
Blue is the color of faithfulness, isn't it? I'll tell you something
else blue speaks of. I walked outside this afternoon
and I looked up and this environment that allows us to live, that
we live in and move and have our being in, is blue. Look at
it. It's as blue as it can be. And
so is that environment of grace it speaks of blue. He was true
blue as the saying goes. And then the dishes on which
the bread was displayed. We've got dishes, we've got spoons,
and we've got bowls. I assume these dishes were vessels
upon which the bread was displayed. I couldn't find anything, but
I didn't look for it very long. And there's bound to be something
in here that will tell us something about that. But the bowls were
vessels in which the broken bread was to be eaten. This bread was
to be broken. And they put it in a bowl and
they had spoons and they ate the bread. Now, in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 it says we have this treasure in earthen vessels. In earthen
vessels. But those vessels on that table
were solid gold. But then these vessels are solid
gold too. Because we're one with Him. or
one with Him. And God puts that treasure in
earthen vessels just as He did on that table. In Romans chapter
9, He calls them vessels of honor. You remember that? Have not the
potter power over the clay to make one of the same lump, to
make one vessel unto honor and another to dishonor? And then
He goes on to tell you that He did make some unto honor. These
are vessels unto honor. These are golden vessels. These
are vessels purified of God. These are vessels justified before
God. These are holy vessels. You're
a holy priesthood, Peter said. A holy priesthood, sanctified
of God. These vessels into which this
bread is to be put and eaten. And in faith, surely faith is
represented in the spoon. All that we have, all that we
know, we know by faith. We know by faith. Somebody said that spoons are
utensils used to transport food from the bowl to the mouth. And
this seems to me to speak of the work of the Holy Ghost through
the preaching of the Gospel and that great work of faith. And
then thirdly, let's talk about debris. It's called showbread. And that name, showbread, I looked
it up. It has a two-fold meaning. You
have to go through reference after reference after reference
to see this, but when it's all boiled down, I won't worry you
with how I come up with it, except just to tell you that it has
a two-fold meaning. And first of all, this showbread
means bread of faces. Bread of Faces. We eat, keep
reminding you that this bread is Christ, and as we eat that
bread, we see not only Christ, but we see the Father, and we
see the Holy Spirit, and we see one another. It's the Bread of
Faces. Everybody's represented in this
bread. And then secondly, it means bread
of presence. Christ is our daily bread. And
we eat that bread. We take that bread. By faith,
we take that bread in us, and it becomes a part of us. He said,
I'll never leave you, but I'll come to you, he said, and I'll
sup with you. He's with us. This is the bread
of God's presence. And this bread was to be kept
always before the Lord. And everything that God will
show to the sinner comes to him by way of Christ, our bread. And then this bread must be prepared. It didn't just suddenly appear
in the tabernacle as bread. It had to be prepared. Somebody
said this. I think Brother Jack said this,
if I remember right. He said it was molded into a
loaf by a determining hand. It was molded, molded into its
shape by a determining hand, shaped by God's eternal design. Christ was made of a woman, made
under the law, and He was made this by God's own hand. Listen
to how Peter said him before. He talked about the Lord Jesus
to those Jews who had lived their whole lives under this ceremonial
law. On Pentecost, he was filled with
the Spirit and he began to preach. In his opening sermon, listen
to what he tells them. He's talking about Christ here. He said, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Sounds
molded to me, don't it to you? by a determined hand. And then
in John 1, John tells us that the Word was made flesh. He was made flesh and dwelt among
us and we beheld His glory. It must be molded by a determining
hand and it must pass through the fire. Bread is not bread
until it passes through the fire. It's just wet dough. And sometimes
that's wet goes in the trash can. But this bread passed through
the fire, the fire of God's wrath. And then the bread must be ground.
You can't take wheat seeds and make bread. It's got to be ground
into small pieces. And this speaks of the suffering
of Christ. And then this bread was set before
those who came in by way of the brazen altar. You couldn't come
and eat this bread except you stop at that altar. You've got
to come through that altar. That's the shed blood of Christ.
And then this bread was made accessible. And then think about
this. There was twelve cakes of bread
set upon that table. Twelve cakes of bread. And the
word cake which is often used, you can look it up as I did in
Strong's Concordance, and it's used often in there to describe
this bread. They called it cakes. But this
word cake, which is often used to describe the show bread, means
perforated or punctured bread. Now, when I think about bread,
you open up a loaf of bread that we get from the store and you
open it up and it's got holes in it. And so did this bread,
probably even more because it was all done by hand. But it
was called, the name, the actual name cake that they use in there
means perforated bread or punctured bread. And he who is our bread
was pierced for us. And then the 12 cakes speak of
the whole house of Israel, which we know now is made up by both
Jews and Gentiles. But those 12 cakes represent
the whole house. The whole house. This bread is
free to all those who believe. All those who are God's elect.
And He was both their bread and ours. And then these 12 cakes
were all the same size. Every one of them was exactly
the same. Upon this table is no big I's and little u's. We're
just all one in Christ Jesus. All represented the same. And
they were set before the priest in two rows. Two rows of six. Here's these six dishes up there
and six dishes here. Each one of them had an equal
size loaf of bread on it. All twelve of them set in two
rows. And I looked at that and here's what I really believe
that means. How often did Paul say, when
he's talking about salvation, to the Jew first and also to
the Gentiles. And he divides these 12 tribes
in half. I believe to show us that very
thing. Show us that very thing. That
in these things the whole house of Israel is represented. And then we also know that Pure
frankincense was used to anoint the bread. And as I said before,
they did this because it was an offering by fire which required
that this frankincense be put upon it, the sweet savor unto
God. And then also, I believe it's
emblematic of all the graces, those active graces in Christ
which we eat. And these things are not just
Word only. These things are not just doctrine. When we talk about these things,
there's active graces involved in this. In a few weeks, Lord
willing, there's a man coming down here all the way from Ozark,
Missouri to be baptized. Active graces. They're just words
when I put them on the Internet. They're just words. But they're
words that are accompanied by the Holy Spirit of God. And those
graces are active in those who hear. It brings life into those
who hear. So that just is emblematic to
me of all the active graces engaged in Christ to save sinners. And
the table and the bread were one. Where one went, so did the
other. When they moved the tabernacle,
they moved the bread. When the tabernacle rested, the
bread rested. When one was packed up, the other
was packed up. I guess I just never thought
about this before, but the bread was never removed. I just assumed
that they did. Didn't you? I just figured, well,
they take the showbread off the table and then they pack up the
table and all the stuff and then they move it exactly. They moved
it with the bread on the table. The bread never left the table.
The bread is always on the table. Always. He said, this bread shall
always be before the Lord. Never removed. Only renewed. And then each Sabbath, Aaron
and his sons would enter into the holy place and they'd renew
the bread and they'd eat what was already there. And they had
to eat this bread in the holy place. They couldn't go outside
in the courtyard and eat it. They ate it right there. Those
vessels stayed there, that bread stayed there, and so did the
priest if they wanted to eat it. They were going to eat it
on God's table. And to me, this is just the type
to me of His means. When I look at this tabernacle
and I see all of these things inside of there, I'm thinking
about things like the preaching of the Gospel. I'm thinking about
things that He's commanded us to do, to meet and to assemble
before Him. And He told them to eat this
bread there. If they wanted to eat this bread, this is where
they ate it. You couldn't go outside and get
it. It had to be eaten right here. Right here. It had to be
eaten in the vessels that He ordained. It had to be eaten
with His spoon. It had to be eaten in the holy
place. And then think about this. It was eaten on the Sabbath.
You know what that is? That's our rest. They ate this
bread on the day of rest. And they rested in their soap. And then, Here's another thing
you can think about. That bread was to be kept before
the Lord seven days on that table. Seven is the number of completion. It's the number of satisfaction.
It's the number of perfection. All of these things speak of
that bread that we eat. It stays there before the Lord.
And then on a certain day, we go in and we eat that bread. In Him, Paul said, dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He said in Him we're complete.
No need to go anywhere else. We're complete in Him. And then
also over here in Leviticus chapter 24, in verses 5 through 9, it
tells us that they ate this bread on the Sabbath. I've already told you that, didn't
I? And that Sabbath is our Sabbath of rest. we eat that bread and
rest. And then another amazing fact
about this bread is that it was made of two-tenths deals or an omer, two omers of flour. Now this testifies to me that
Christ is a double portion to us. Each loaf was a double portion. There's two-tenths or two omers
of bread, of flour, in each one of these cakes. Now, in Isaiah
chapter 40, verses 1 and 2, it says to tell God's people that
their warfare is accomplished. You remember what he says there
in Isaiah 40? He said, speak comfortably to my people. And
he said, you go cry to them and you tell them that their warfare
is accomplished. And their iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand." Now listen, double. Ain't that what they said? For
all her sins. She has received of Him a perfect
righteousness. For that old nature. They've
received a perfect righteousness. And they've also received a perfect
atonement. And their sins have been put
away. She's come both by the brazen
altar and the labor of cleansing. And now as partaker of the table.
This table was only accessible to the priest. It wasn't for
the world. And this is something that I
looked at just before I came down here. When this ark was
moved in Numbers chapter 4 verse 7, it was to be covered up. Covered up. It said, to cover
with all. You remember back in Exodus I
read that to you? And the covers, to cover with
all. He said, they shall spread upon
them a cloth of scarlet, and then cover the same with a covering
of badger skins, so that all could be seen of this world is
the badger skin covering. as it was moved. They could never
see the bread or the faithfulness of Christ or His blood. All they ever saw was a man. All they ever saw. Now you remember
this is representative of Him in this world. They are in the
wilderness. They are not yet entered into
the promised land. Now what are we going to conclude
from all this? What are we going to take away
from all of this? Well, this is what I hope you'll
take away. Let a true church, wherever it is, be it here in
Danville, up in West Virginia, wherever it is, let the true
church be taken up with Christ. Let it be taken up with Christ,
all together. Let it be taken up with the glory
of Christ, and the work of Christ, and the worship of Christ. And
Old Brother Shank said, let us rejoice in His eternal past,
and the wonder of His redeeming love, and the perfect efficacy
of His sacrificial death. Let's thank Christ, talk Christ,
eat Christ, and live Christ. That's what we're to take away
from this. Everything in this house spoke of Christ. That ark, that mercy seat, that
table of showbread, and then next week we'll look at the candle,
that candlestick, and its location.