Turn together to Exodus chapter
40. Exodus the 40th chapter. I want us to read the entire
chapter together. This will be my text for the
message. Exodus chapter 40 verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle
of the tent of the congregation. And thou shalt put therein the
ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the veil. And thou
shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that
are to be set in order upon it. And thou shalt bring in the candlestick,
and light the lamps thereof. And thou shalt set the altar
of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and
put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle. And thou shalt
set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle
of the tent of the congregation. And thou shalt set the laver
between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put
water therein. And thou shalt set up the court
round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate. And
thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle,
and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it, sanctify it,
and all the vessels thereof, and it shall be holy. And thou
shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all the vessels,
and sanctify the altar, and it shall be an altar most holy. And thou shalt anoint the laver
and his foot, and sanctify it. And thou shalt bring Aaron and
his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
and wash them with water. And thou shalt put upon Aaron
the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him, that he
may minister unto me in the priest office. And thou shalt bring
his sons and clothe them with coats. And thou shalt anoint
them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister
unto me in the priest office. For their anointing shall surely
be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.
Verse 16. Thus did Moses, according to
all that the Lord commanded him, so did he. And it came to pass
in the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the
month, that the tabernacle was reared up. And Moses reared up
the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards
thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars. And he spread abroad the tent
over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above
upon it. as the Lord commanded Moses. Verse 20. And he took and put
the testimony into the ark. And he set staves on the ark
and put the mercy seat above upon the ark. And he brought
the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the covering
and covered the ark of the testimony as the Lord commanded Moses.
And he put the table in the tent of the congregation upon the
side of the tabernacle northward without the veil. And he set
the bread in order upon it before the Lord as the Lord had commanded
Moses. And he put the candlestick in
the tent of the congregation over against the table on the
side of the tabernacle southward. And he lighted the lamps before
the Lord as the Lord commanded Moses. And he put the golden
altar in the tent of the congregation before the veil. And he burned
sweet incense thereon as the Lord commanded Moses. And he
set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle. And he put
the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of
the tent of the congregation. And offered upon it the burnt
offering and the meat offering as the Lord commanded Moses. Verse 30. And he set the laver
between the tent of the congregation and the altar and put water there
to wash with all. And Moses and Aaron and his sons
washed their hands and their feet there at when they went
in to the tent of the congregation. And when they came near unto
the altar, they washed as the Lord commanded Moses. And he
reared up the court round about the tabernacle, and the altar,
and set up the hangings of the court gate. So Moses finished
the work." Verse 34. Then, then, just as soon as Moses
finished the work, a cloud covered the tent of the congregation. And the glory of the Lord, the
glory of the triune Jehovah, filled the tabernacle. And Moses
was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because
the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled
the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken
up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward
in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken
up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.
Verse 38. And the cloud of the Lord was
upon the tabernacle by day, and the fire was on it by night in
the sight of all the house of Israel throughout their journeys. One year. One year after God
brought Israel out of Egyptian bondage, where they had been
held in captivity for 400 years, just as God told Abraham they
must. One year after the Lord brought
his people out from under the tyranny, the slavery, the cruelty,
the affliction, the adversity that they suffered in Egypt.
One year after he brought them out by a mighty hand across the
Red Sea and delivered them from Pharaoh and the Egyptian armies. One year after they looked back
and saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. One year later,
after they, in the sweet, fresh experience of God's grace displayed
so marvelously, they sang his praises. One year later, the
Lord God, by the hand of Moses, according to his pattern given
to Moses in the mount, built the tabernacle on the first day
of the first new year in the land of Israel. the first day
of the first new year they celebrated. Moses finished the work. Then
a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of
the Lord filled the tabernacle. My subject tonight is God's tabernacle,
God's salvation, the tabernacle in all its detail. was a picture,
a type, and it is clearly indicated as such through the New Testament.
It was a picture, a type of the Lord Jesus. A picture, a shadow
of the Lord Jesus and God's salvation in him so that all of it together
as it is brought together here in this final chapter as Moses
wraps up the book of Exodus, the whole picture is given and
Moses by divine design holds before us a picture of God's
salvation finished in Jesus Christ the Lord. That's what's held
before us in the shadows and types of the tabernacle. This
tabernacle, the Spirit of God tells us in Hebrews 9 was a shadow
of heavenly things. the pattern of things in the
heavens, figures of the true. Those are the words that God,
the Holy Spirit uses to describe what the tabernacle is. He tells
us that it is a a picture. It's to be understood spiritually. It's to be understood as having
spiritual connection, as having a spiritual understanding, not
just a a carnal thing. It's something that is altogether
spiritual. The meaning is altogether spiritual. And apart from the spiritual,
it's altogether meaningless. Apart from the spiritual, it
has no meaning whatsoever. I recall listening to a fellow
I thought sure knew better. I thought sure knew better. He
was preaching one night. He got to trying to wax eloquent,
I guess, dealing with the Ark of the Covenant. He said, you
know what happened to that Ark? You know what happened to that ark? Nebuchadnezzar was never known
after Nebuchadnezzar took Israel into captivity. What happened
to the ark? And he turned over and saw where
John spoke about the ark and he said it was raptured into
heaven. Oh, what foolishness. The ark
was a picture of him who's in glory. The ark was a picture
of the true ark, Christ Jesus, our Lord. Oh, and we'll read
the book of God. reading as we have these last
several chapters in Exodus dealing with the matter of the tabernacle,
we ought always pray as the psalmist, open thou mine eyes that I may
see wondrous things out of thy law. Wondrous things are to be
beheld in the law of God. In all the commandments of the
law, in all the service of the law, in all the ceremonies of
the law, wondrous things are to be beheld when we see Jesus
Christ and God's salvation in Him in those wondrous things.
Otherwise, there's no wonder to it. No wonder to it. And when you take the wonder
out of it, you've taken all the glory out of God's Word. All
right, let's look at several things in this 40th chapter.
I'll be very brief. First, its purpose. The purpose
of the tabernacle was indeed wondrous. We're told in Exodus
25 verse 8 that the purpose was that the tabernacle should be
a sanctuary, a dwelling place for God. Will God indeed dwell
on the earth? The tabernacle was designed to
be a dwelling place for God, a place where God could dwell
with his people upon the earth. A place where men could meet
with God and commune with him, and God meet with men and commune
with them. A place where God could come
down to not just occasionally visit with, Not to make his people
know his existence, but a place where God could dwell with the
people of his choice. That's Jesus Christ, the incarnate
God. His body is what's represented
in the tabernacle. The tabernacle represented his
incarnation. It represented God in the flesh. In Jesus Christ, the Lord God
Almighty dwells with his people continually. God came down here
in humanity, took into union with himself our nature. and now taking in union with
himself our nature, he is able to have compassion upon men such
as we are. Able not only to have compassion,
but able to save all who come to
God by this God-man mediator, Christ Jesus. God comes here
and meets with man, communes with man, and gives a way for
man to meet and know God. Most all of the theologians will
tell you that God is known only by self-revelation. But most
miss this. The only way you will ever know
God is if God makes himself known to you. But the only way God
makes himself known to men is in the person of his son, the
Lord Jesus. Every time in the Old Testament,
just mark it down, and when you read the Old Testament scriptures,
you're reading through the scriptures now, some of you are, and as
you do, every time you see God speaking to a man, every time
you see the angel of the Lord coming down to visit a man, Every
time you see God communicating with a man or man communicating
with God, it is Christ the Lord, a pre-incarnate revelation of
Jesus Christ as the God-man mediator. Not most of the time, every single
time. It was Christ who wrestled with
Jacob. It was Christ who spoke to Gideon. It was Christ who
came to Abraham, and Abraham worshipped him at his tent's
door. It was Christ who was seen by Manoah and his wife when they
said, we've seen God face to face. Christ is the one by whom
God makes himself known to men, and the only one. Now, in verses
12 through 16, we see something else. We read about Aaron and
his sons. and an everlasting priesthood. I thought that priesthood was
ended a long time ago. The carnal priesthood was. And the priesthood
was taken away from Aaron's family a long time ago, a long time
ago. Well, how can this be an everlasting priesthood? How can
it be? Because it represented an everlasting
priest and people who walk with God in an everlasting priesthood. Christ is our priest and he who
saves us by his blood, his righteousness and his grace makes us priest
unto God. Priest, priest, not fellows who
are pretend priest. You're not going to see me up
here wearing religious garb and put on a backward collar and
have all the mumbo jumbo. No, no. I don't need to be that
kind of priest, don't want to be, and I don't need that kind
of priest. Christ is our intercessor in
heaven, and He has made us priests unto God. Priests, men and women,
who serve God in the holy place. That's that's where we live,
Larry, is in the holy place in the heavens with Christ Jesus,
the Lord, not occasionally when we're allowed to have some sweet
in intercourse with God in prayer. No, not just then, but all the
time we do business with God in the holy place, worshiping
him in the totality of our lives, our lives devoted to him. Now
these priests all had five things in common, Aaron and his sons,
the Lord Jesus and you who are his. The priests were specifically
chosen by God. God said, Moses, take Aaron.
He's the high priest and his sons. They're priests with it.
Specifically chosen by God Christ is God's first elect and we were
chosen in Christ our head the priests were washed with holy
water Washed with holy water our Lord Jesus Learned obedience
we're told By the things he suffered. He was made perfect by his obedience
and thus became the captain of our salvation He, the man Christ
Jesus, in the experience of his life, established perfect righteousness
and God Almighty makes us to be washed in just the same way
for Christ. He puts in you by his grace,
Christ in you, the hope of glory made partakers of the divine
nature made partakers of this mediator. The priest was clothed
with holy garments. Aaron clothed with the garments
of the priesthood. and all of his sons clothed by
the same hand, clothed by the same decree, because the holy
garments of the priesthood are the garments of salvation that
are ours in Christ Jesus. The priest was anointed with
holy oil. The priest was anointed with
oil that sets him apart distinctly as God's priest. God gave his
spirit without measure to Christ. And we have that option from
the holy one, which causes us to know all things as God's priest
ever offering God the sweet sacrifices of prayer and praise and service
in the days of our lives. And the priest were sanctified. Christ was set apart for God. Aaron was set apart for God and
we who are Christ as Aaron's sons had been set apart for God
made holy by him Sanctified for the glory of his name. All right. Here's the third thing There
seems to be something very singular about the time when this tabernacle
was erected We're told in verse 17 on the first month On the
first day of the month, the tabernacle was reared up. The house of God
was to be set up in Israel on Israel's New Year's Day. God's salvation. God's redemption. God's deliverance. set up on
that first day of the first new year in Israel, when life new
began for Israel. Oh, they're probably much more
in it than this, but this much is certain. For every child of
God. When God brings his salvation
to your soul in the sweet experience of his grace, when he sets up
his tabernacle in you. That's the beginning of new life
for his own. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. A new creature. Old things are
passed away and behold, all things are become new. New life. New life. Mr. Hawker used to
publish a A book or tract, something, did some distinct work every
year to celebrate his next year or his previous year on this
earth, the year of his life. But he always was careful to
identify the year of his new life in Christ Jesus the Lord. Old things passed away. Aren't you glad? Oh, aren't you glad? God says
that he will remember your sins and your iniquities against you
no more forever that passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. He's given you a new nature and
a new record and a new name. He made all things new, made
you new in Christ Jesus. All right, fourth, the tabernacle
was very simple in its structure, and yet the very structure was
wondrous. Everything had to be made exactly according to God's
order. Everything had to be ordered
exactly according to God's will, God's decree, God's command,
God's revelation to Moses. Now, I can't stress this sufficiently,
though I'm going to say nothing more about it than this in this
message. In the worship of God, if we
would worship God, everything must be according to divine order. Everything. Everything. Everything. No room in the worship of God
for any human invention. No room in the worship of God
for any introduction of anything by any man or any group of men. No room in the worship of God
for changing anything. Nothing. Well, we've got to keep
up with the times. No Babylon has to do that, we
don't. Well, we've got to recognize what men like. No, that's what
you do when you're selling something. We don't have a product to sell.
You want to get my dander up, just dare, suggest there's a
comparison between preaching the gospel and selling something.
I've done both. No, no comparison, no comparison.
But Brother Don, that just makes us so different from everybody
else. That's intentional. That's intentional. It's by design. I was reading last night in the
book of Daniel, when Nebuchadnezzar set up his idol, demanded men
worship his idol. That idol, they worshiped the
gods of silver and gold and brass and iron and stone, and they
worshiped him with all kinds of musics. And he brought everything,
everything. David tried that one day. He
thought he'd bring the ark of God out of the house of Obed-Edom
and set it up in the proper place to build a place for God to be
worshipped, a temple. But he didn't pay any attention
to God's order. And a fellow named Uzzah went
up dead in a ditch. And David said, the Lord made
a breach upon us because we sought him not after the due order. If we worship God, we will worship
God according to his word. That means we will worship him
according to the doctrine of his word. We'll worship him by
the ordinances of his word. We'll worship him in the fashion
revealed in his word, and we will add nothing to it, and we
will take nothing from it, and we will alter nothing. Nothing. I'm often asked by people, particularly,
particularly, I don't know why this, find out we use wine at
the Lord's table and say, well, what would you do if you went
to a church that didn't use wine at the Lord's table? First time
we had it, we'd use wine. Just that simple. How can you
do that? You don't use grape juice. That's
how you do it. But what if people don't like
it? That's not a matter of concern to me. That is not a matter of
concern to me. Ought not be to you. We worship
God as God said. All right. Look here. Here's
the things Moses set up. The sockets. The sockets that formed the foundation
for everything in verse 18 were made of solid silver. The silver
came from the atonement money. So those golden boards, you remember
when that had that model of the tabernacle sitting out here,
those golden boards sitting all around the tabernacle, representing
as they do God's elect, standing before God Almighty. Those golden
boards stood upon that which represented redemption by blood
atonement. Redemption by the blood of Jesus
Christ. How can a man stand before God? How can a sinner stand before
God? Only one way. And that is by
the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer. Those
boards built upon sockets of ransom money were fitly joined
together. How is it they're fitly joined
together? They're surrounded by these bars, these bars that
hold them in, bars of omnipotent mercy, bars of divine righteousness,
bars holding them in place, bars securing them. But that's not
all. They're held erect and in their place by a bar that shot
through the middle, from end to end, Christ Jesus in you. So that we stand before God,
robed in Christ's righteousness, having Christ's nature put within
us, for Christ is in us, held upright before God and accepted
of Him. Here's the fifth thing, the contents
of this tabernacle. It spoke of things wondrous indeed.
The tabernacle itself was divided into three compartments, the
holiest of all, the holy place, and the court. In the holiest
of all, in what we commonly refer to as the holy of holies, stood
the Ark of the Covenant. Inside that ark were the tables
of the law, the tables of the law that Moses broke. And God required Moses to hew
out new tables. And he wrote again the commandments
and puts them, lays them up inside the ark as a constant reminder,
as a constant reminder that we have broken God's law. That's
all we can do with it. But God repaired it and God restored
it and God fulfilled it. That is God in the person of
his son over top. of that law. The seat, the lid
on it, it's called the mercy seat. And that mercy seat, like
the Ark of the Covenant, in which is the law of God covered with
blood atonement, represents Christ Jesus, our Lord, our mercy seat. In fact, the word in the New
Testament that is translated propitiation is the word mercy
seat. It's exactly the same word. It's
exactly the same word that is elsewhere translated mercy seat.
And then in the holy place, Moses set up the table of showbread,
picturing Christ, the bread of life, and our communion with
God in Christ and God's communion with us. We eat the bread. And Alan, that bread's ours. That bread's ours. Can you grasp
that? I don't understand much about
what goes on biologically and chemically in the body. And I
don't have to know. I just enjoy the grits and gravy
and whatever's good about it stays with me. It's mine. It becomes part of me. It becomes
part of me. It's really part of me. Is that right? What's good about
it is mine. It's part of me. It's part of
me. Believe on the Son of God. Eat this bread. Drink this water
of life. And Christ and you are one. Really, really, really, really,
inseparably forever one. And then Moses set up the lampstand
and lit the lamps. That lampstand does the work
of an evangelist, does the work of a preacher. The lampstand
is Christ, the light of the world, the light from which comes life.
And that light is held forth in the lampstand, the golden
candlesticks. That's his churches and his people
holding the light of the gospel in this dark world. Then outside
the door of the tabernacle, Outside the door of the holy place, there
stood the offering, or the altar of burnt offering. The golden
altar inside, the altar of incense, speaking of our acceptance with
Christ. But outside is this altar of
burnt offering, the place of sacrifice. And it tells you you can't come
to God but by blood. God's salvation is obtained only
by blood. And there's a labor, a labor
filled water in which you must wash. We must not only be redeemed
by the blood of Christ, but made clean in the experience of grace,
by the washing of regeneration, by the spirit of God, through
the word of God, so that we are both sanctified and justified
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now, here's the sixth thing.
Look at verses 34, 35 and 36. The tabernacle had a wondrous
glory about it. The cloud covered the tent of
the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able. Important word. Moses was not
able to enter into the tent of the congregation. because the
cloud abode their own and the glory of the Lord filled the
tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken
up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward
in all their journeys. The glory of the tabernacle.
Was the manifest presence of God. The glory of the tabernacle
speaks of Christ and the accomplishment of redemption and salvation in
and by Christ, in whom the glory of God shines forth. Clearly,
the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, representing
our Redeemer, the light of life, the brightness of the Father's
glory, the express image of his person, the Shekinah, the divine
majesty. All of that is embodied in the
humanity of our Redeemer. in whom dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. This pillar of cloud, look at
it for a minute. It was a foreshadowing of our
Lord Jesus. To others, he's without form
and comeliness. There's no beauty about him that
they should desire him. But to us, he is the son of the
living God, and we gladly confess it. He is the revelation of the
glory of God before whom we bow and worship and praise, in whom
we rejoice, for whom we give thanks. This pillar of cloud
was a symbol of God's presence with his people. God is in the
midst of her. She shall not be moved. This
pillar of cloud was an abiding testimony of God's acceptance
of his people, of God's protection of his people, of God's provision
for his people, of God, the covenant God of his people, an abiding
testimony. I'm your God and you're my people. It was a guarantee of constant
supply, unfailing protection. The Lord looked through the pillar
You remember and troubled the host of the Egyptians back in
Exodus 14. This is that same pillar, that
same pillar, only now it doesn't appear so much as a single column,
but as a huge umbrella covering the camp of Israel, the shaft
of it reaching down into the tabernacle right on the mercy
seat and the glory filling the tabernacle. It's a pillar of
cloud. is that which caused the Egyptians
to be engulfed in darkness. Read it for yourself, Exodus
14. And the children of Israel, it was light. It caused the Egyptians
confusion, led the children of Israel in a straight path. The Lord looks through Christ
and through Christ saves us by his grace. Through Christ, he
keeps us and protects us. Through Christ, he will look
in judgment upon the wicked. And through Christ, he will look
upon us with everlasting favor when the wicked are cast into
hell. This pillar of cloud was a shelter to Israel. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. This pillar of cloud is that
which in the day of adversity is constantly Sheltering us from
trials and the scorching sun of difficulty. Sheltering us
from the adversities that we think so hardly we're dealt with
in. But this pillar shelters us.
The pillar, this is their only source of light. And Christ is our only source
of light in this dark world. Our only source of light. And
this source of light is infallible. Infallible. Follow him and you
shall not err. The pillar was their guide. When the pillar arose and moved,
they moved. And when the pillar didn't move,
they didn't move. If it sat still for a day or
a week or a month, or a year, they made no move because to
move without the direction of God's light was to move presumptuously
and to walk into danger without God's direction. And one more
thing, this tabernacle had a gate, just one gate, just one gate. When Brother Larry made that
tabernacle model for me, he went over it with me. I didn't catch
most of it, but I caught one thing. He said, the way it's
put together, everything has to go together a certain way.
You can't put it, those boards, they got to go in in a precise
order with the bars going through them at exactly the right time
or they won't fit. But the way it goes together,
as big as this thing was, he says, you know, one man could
do it. One man could do it. How many take y'all to put up
that little teach yet out here the full conference half a dozen
But this tabernacle one man do it one man and we're told that
Moses did it one man One man performed God's salvation One
man Christ Jesus the Lord and it was done in one day. Just
one day. I Once everything was finished
putting it together setting it up Moses did it in one day one
day Our Lord said in Zechariah 3 the iniquity of the land I
will remove in one day One day Christ Jesus cried it is finished
and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself And there's one gate
one gate Isn't it amazing how simple,
profound things are? Most profound things in the world? Oh, brother
John, that's deep. I can't understand it. That's
not deep. That's clear. One way. One Savior. One Lord. One faith. One baptism. Just one. Just one. Thank God
there is one gate. That gate is hung upon four solid
pillars of gold. Four solid pillars righteousness
and truth and mercy and peace. That gate is made out of the
same material as that veil separating the holy place from the most
holy place. Because that veil and that gate
is one. That veil and that gate is Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer, who offered himself, our sacrifice, accomplishing
eternal redemption for us by the shedding of his blood. There
is one gate, one gate of life. One gate to glory. One gate to
God. Oh, but thank God there is one
gate. And that gate, Christ Jesus the
Lord, broad and wide as the love and the purpose and the decree
and wisdom of God himself. Broad and wide as all our need
and all our sins. broad and wide for whosoever
will let him come. And entering into this gate,
you see, you come by this sacrifice, by this labor to this God in
perfect righteousness. And that's God's tabernacle and
God's salvation. Oh, God, make it yours. Amen.