I suppose it's safe for me to
tell you that I have a message tonight that I've wanted to preach
for 21 years. I've literally had it on my mind
a good bit of time for 21 years. And it may seem that would be
something terribly deep and profound, but it's not. It's something
very simple. 21 years ago, while I was preaching
in Australia, I had an occasion to chat briefly with a preacher,
or at least he said he was, and he thought he was real smart.
But for some strange reason, he had a strong objection to
the teaching of scripture that the entire word of God is inspired
and given by God to reveal Christ and him crucified. I don't know
why some fellows object to that. But there are fellows who do,
and he, being the brilliant fellow he was, asked me a question. With a smirk on his face, he
said, well, if the only subject to the Bible is Christ and him
crucified, what did the tent pens represent in the Old Testament? And I said, I don't have a clue.
I don't have a clue how they speak of our Redeemer. I can't
begin to tell you. I wasn't embarrassed because
I didn't know the answer. There are a lot of things in
this book I don't know the answers to and don't understand. But
I had never really considered the subject. I never really thought
about it at all. What did the tent pens represent? What purpose did they serve?
Thankfully, I don't remember the fellow's name. I don't have
a clue what his name was. It doesn't matter. But I believe
I know the answer to the question now. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
35. Exodus chapter 35. The title of my message tonight
is Brass Nails and Linen Cords. Obviously, when I get done preaching,
there'll be plenty more to say about these brass nails and the
linen cords. But I do believe I've got a message
for you. Among the many things that God required Moses to make
for the erection of the tabernacle were these brass nails and linen
cords described in verse 18, Exodus 35, 18, the pins of the
tabernacle and the pins of the court and their cords. The tabernacle was secured to
its place in the ground, secured wherever it was that Moses set
it up by these huge tent pins. They're called pins here. The
word is elsewhere translated nails. It is often translated
stakes. So the, you're not, don't have
the idea of some small little thing here, but just like we
would take a large tent today, Some of you have been around
some of these large tent circuses and so on and you've seen them
set up the tents huge stakes metal stakes driven deep into
the ground and then the cords or ropes are stretched through
the eye of the stake and Stretched over the tent and through various
eyes on the tent so that it's all held tightly together so
that the winds that come Don't in any way affect the tent so
that the various storms that arise don't disturb anything
in the tent. That's just the picture we have
here of these nails and these cords used for the tabernacle. The word pen refers then to these
nails. You remember Heber's wife, Jael,
she was the lady that God used to destroy one of Israel's great
enemies, Caesarea. And she called him into her tent
and she fastened his head to the ground with a pin. And it
wasn't a hat pin. She took a huge stake and a huge
hammer and drove through his temples and secured his head
to the ground, destroying Israel's great enemy. This tent then is
held in security, the tabernacle held in security by these nails
of brass. They're used to securely fasten
it down. Can you imagine the winds that
must have often blown in the wilderness against that tabernacle?
And all these curtains and coverings and drapes that were made, the
tapestry, and the table of showbread with the cakes sitting on it. altar of incense and the fire
continually burning and the lights and the lamp stand or the candlestick
constantly burning and nothing disturbed. Though the winds blew
hard, nothing disturbed. How secure it must have been
kept. What great service these pins, these nails must have served
as they were holding everything together with the cords strapping
it all down. Now, if I still had that bottle
of Tabernacle sitting out here, I shouldn't have put it up so
quickly. You take a look at it and you think, well, man, any
wind blow that thing down. We have to handle it very carefully
because it's so fragile. I don't don't don't lay anything
on it. The fence will fall over. But that's just because it's
just a scale model. The Tabernacle itself, there
was nothing fragile about it. It was a tent, but a tent the
Lord pitched by design and a tent the Lord designed to be held
and carried about from place to place throughout 40 years
wandering in the wilderness. And all the time it was held
secure by these pins or these nails, these stakes and these
cords. Let's look first at the nails
then. Clearly, they were typical of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn,
if you will, to Isaiah chapter 22. They were made out of brass,
made out of brass, a material that would not corrupt, rot,
rust, decay, or weaken, though driven in the ground and constantly
in the ground. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
is that nail, that nail of brass by which God Almighty and all
the blessings of grace and salvation are connected to this earth and
brought to us on this earth. He's described here as a nail
in a sure place. Look here in Isaiah 22 verse
20. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will call
my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him
with thy robe. And strengthen him with thy girdle,
and I will commit thy government into his hand. And he shall be
a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of
Judah. And the key of the house of David
will I lay upon his shoulder. So he shall open, and none shall
shut. You've seen that before. Revelation
chapter 3, verse 7. The Lord Jesus says, I'm the
one who opens, and no man can shut. Clearly the prophecy then
is speaking of him. And he shall shut, and none shall
open. And I will fasten him as a nail
in a sure place. And he shall be for a glorious
throne to his father's house. and they shall hang upon him
all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the
issue, all the vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of
cups even to the vessels of flagons. Christ alone is he that opens
and none can shut. Christ alone is the one on whose
shoulders the key of the house of David rests. He alone is that
one who rules over David's house. And when you read then about
these brass nails holding the tabernacle in place, holding
all the vessels of the tabernacle secure, making certain that no
harm came to anything, think in your mind when you read of
them of the steadfast resolve and purpose of Jesus Christ,
our Redeemer and our Savior. He is that one who came into
this world for purpose. You read about it just a little
bit ago. The Lord God sent him here to save his people from
their sins That purpose for which God laid help upon one that is
mighty the Lord Jesus Said lo I come to do thy will. Oh my
god, and he never flinched He never, from the time that he
struck hands with the Father in old eternity, when he came
into this world, as he broke his mother's womb, all the days
of his life, knowing that the storm of his life must end in
the terrible judgment of God upon him, in infinite, horrid,
indescribable wrath, he never turned back, but rather steadfastly
set his face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem and suffer
and die in our stead. Listen to this. Our master speaks. You can read it later in Psalm
55. He said, My heart is sore pain within me and the terrors
of death are falling upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are
come upon me and horror has overwhelmed me. And I said, Oh, That I had
wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo,
then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness. I would
hasten my escape from the windy storm and the tempest. But the
Lord Jesus would not turn back. In spite of the fearfulness,
in spite of the dread, in spite of the horror that lay before
Him, knowing full well all that He must endure, knowing full
well all that He must suffer for the joy that was set before
Him, for the joy of having us with Him in glory, He would not
turn back. Steadfast He is. What faith what
faithfulness our Savior exemplified for us. The Apostle Paul speaks
of the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. Did Jesus Christ believe God? He believed God, Alan, as no
other man ever could believe God perfectly. All the days of
his life, He cried unto God and was heard in that he feared.
Yes, fearfulness before him. Yet he cast upon his God and
our God all the burden of his soul, all the burden of his life. He cried, not my will, thy will
be done. Behold, the God man, your savior,
fully God, he is. and fully man he is. Weak, yet
immovably firm. Can you say that he was weak?
Oh, yes. Oh, when he was tempted, the angels came to help him.
Remember? Matthew chapter 4. Was he weak? He said, now is my soul exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. Was he weak? He was weary, so
he came to Samaria by Jacob's well and sat on the mouth of
the well because he was weary. He was tired. Those things are
written for a reason. Our Lord Jesus is all human. All human and all divine. Not part God and part man, but
all God and all man in everything touched with the feeling of our
infirmities. The mighty God, yet constantly
dependent on his Father. He sets his face steadfastly
toward Jerusalem in order to suffer there as our substitute.
And yet he cries in deep distress, Oh my Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. He upholds all things by the
word of his power and yet he says I'm a worm and no man Oh
the wondrous power of that weakness Oh, the marvelous victory of
the death. He died. Oh, the eternal stability
of our unchanging, unchangeable Christ laid low in the depths
of the grave, in the tomb he's buried. And yet he is himself
life and the giver of life to all his people. Turn to Zachariah
chapter 10. Zachariah 10. Here's another
place where our Lord is referred to as a nail. The desert afforded a very poor
sifting foundation for the tabernacle of glory. But God provided for
that tabernacle sockets of silver held together with brass fasteners
and that tabernacle held firm in the desert ground by these
stakes made of brass. So the Lord Jesus Christ The
nail in a sure place is he who secures all things for us. It is he and he alone who is
our security and the security of all things relating to our
salvation. Zechariah 10 verse four, out
of him came forth the corner. Our Lord Jesus is referred to
as the headstone of the corner out of him, the nail. And out
of him the battle bow, the bow of victory. Out of him every
oppressor together. He's the one who comes to destroy
all our foes and by whom we triumph over all. But here he's called
again the nail, a nail by which are firmly secured all the purposes
of our God as we read it in Isaiah chapter 22. This nail is that
which God Almighty has set, connecting the things of heaven with the
things of the earth. A nail fixed in a firm place
by the hand of God himself. Now, back in Isaiah 22, turn
there if you will for a minute. In this passage, the Lord God
called Judah to repentance. This is during the days of Hezekiah's
reign. But the nation ignored God's prophet. The nation ignored
God's word. There was this man, Shebna, who
was set up as though he were a nail in a sure place. And he
set himself on high and exalted himself and sought to make for
himself a great name. But the Lord God says that he
will pull Shebna out of his secure place and he will set up another
by the name of Eliakim. This man, Eliakim, the son of
Hilkiah, his name shows clearly that he is a picture of our Redeemer.
His name means my God shall establish, my God shall fix, my God shall
raise up. Like Eliakim, the Lord Jesus
is that nail raised up, fixed and established by God in a sure
place. He was raised up to be ruler
over the Lord's house. Raised up during the days of
Hezekiah, Eliakim was raised up. So the Lord Jesus is raised
up to be the head over his church and his kingdom. The house of
David is his church. He's the ruler, the king, the
sovereign. He's the only door by which men
enter. When he opens, none can shut. When he shuts, none can open. The door must be opened by him. and he will bring you in, or
the door shut by him, and he shuts you out. Does he do that? Oh, yes he does. Oh, yes he does. The Lord Jesus is the only way
of access into his kingdom, and his throne, his glorious throne,
is the glorious throne of his father's house. But in order
for Eliakim to be set up, Shedna had to be overthrown. In order
for Eliakim to be set up, this one who appeared to be a nail
in a sure place had to be toppled. And in order for the Lord Jesus
to be set up in the heart of a man, in order for him to be
set up in the hearts of chosen sinners, another must be overthrown. There's a warfare, a battle that
goes on. And the prince of darkness is
in a rage, but he's overthrown. In Matthew chapter 12, The scripture
speaks plainly. Our Lord tells us about the strong
man. And he says, you can't enter
a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except first you bind
the strong man. And when Christ comes in saving
mercy, the first thing he does is bind the strong man and cast
him out. There's so little instruction
in our day of regret. So little instruction, even by
faithful men about what transpires in the experience of grace in
the hearts of God's people. Let us never, never, never imagine
that God's salvation and God's gospel is all theory and nothing
of experience. We fear too much, speaking of
experience. We do not rest our hopes upon
any experience. But I'm telling you, as plainly
as I know how to tell you, if I read this book correctly, and
I know I do, you will never know what it is to have Christ enthroned
in you until you know what it is to have Satan's throne toppled
in you. You will never know what it is
to have Christ living in you until you know what it is to
have Adam slain in you. You see, all of us have for ourselves
what we imagine to be a nail in a sure place. We all have
something that we imagine will stand us in good stead with God. Every one of us by nature are
self-righteous Pharisees. And we all think we have some
refuge. We made some some covenant with
death, some refuge of lives in which we hide. And we think that
the overflowing scourge shall not touch us because we made
a covenant with death. We think of our goodness, our
good deeds, our Imagined thoughts of good are good outweighing
our bad. How often do you hear from folks
talking such nonsense? But that's the way men think,
including you and me. And self-righteousness is the
idol to which we cling until God breaks our fingers and breaks
it from our hands. And it won't happen otherwise.
We will never wear the robe of Christ's righteousness until
God strips us of our fig leaf apron that we've made for ourselves. And Adam would never have stripped
it off on his own. Wouldn't happen. Wouldn't happen. The Lord ripped it off and there
stood Adam naked before him. And the Lord God empties, and
strips, and slays. He enters the house of the chosen
sinner, and He binds the strong man, and He casts him out, and
He sets up His rule in the house of His own. Christ will never,
never, never share His house with another. He will never share
the jewels of His own heart with another. He will never share
his love with another. All self-confidence must be cast
down. Our imaginary free will, our
resolutions, our religious activity cast down. Paul said, he said,
those things that were gained to me. What's he talking about
gain? Those things that he thought
gave him a foot up toward God. That's the gate he's talking
about. Those things that he thought put him in good standing with
God, his pedigree, his creed, his circumcision, his legal obedience,
his legal doings, all those things, all my righteousness, he said,
I count but dung that I may win Christ. And that's what it's
good for, just dung. having cast away all self-righteousness
and self-confidence, still we must continue casting it away. Brother Maurice Montgomery said
here one time years ago, he said, the way is so narrow and the
gate is so straight that you can't carry any baggage in with
you and you can't pick any up along the way. We walk this way
trusting Christ alone. Our whole hope before God is
Christ, our Savior. Not our faith in Christ, but
Christ. Not our repentance toward Christ, but Christ. Not our knowledge
of Him, but His knowledge of us. Not our feelings, but His
obedience. Not our faithfulness, but His
faithfulness. As Eliakim was in the house of
Hezekiah, so Christ in heaven's glory is a nail fixed in a sure
place. Fixed there by God's eternal
decree. Fixed there by his own obedience
unto death. fixed there at God's right hand
in his resurrection glory as the ascended king of heaven and
fixed in a sure place when God reveals him to you, giving you
faith in his son. Christ is the nail fastened in
this sure place on which hangs all the glory of the father's
house on which we hang all the hope of our immortal souls. Now,
this nail, these many nails in the tabernacle, were nails that
were proved over time. All the strains upon them, all
the elements of the earth, all the difficulties of time, all
the enemies Israel faced, never once, not once, Do you read of
anything in that tabernacle being disturbed? Isn't that amazing? Not once. Never read of that
golden lampstand, the light even flickering. Why, that happens in this building.
I've seen it happen. Have a candle sitting here with the wind when
the power's gone out? Even here, the light'll flicker a little
bit. Just a little bit of wind comes through here? Not in that
tabernacle. Everything held in security. The bread on the table, never
shaking. Everything just exactly as God
purposed it, secure and firm. As a matter of fact, the word
sure that's used in Isaiah is the very same word as we would
use commonly and find usually translated in the Old Testament,
amen. He is A nail in an amen place
because all the promises of God in him are yea and in him amen. But there's something else here.
The cords. The nail we know was made of
brass. We're told that plainly in the
scriptures. The cords, we're never told exactly what they
were made of, but if you read the verses 5 through 19 of this
35th chapter of Exodus, you'll see that the only thing that
could possibly be made of, of the gifts that were brought by
the children of Israel, are blue and scarlet and linen. And so
the cords, obviously, were linen cords. Linen cords fastened to
the nails, running through the curtains, and the coverings,
the badgerskin coverings, and holding everything taut and steady. These cords are the cords that
held everything together, gave everything stability. The cords,
speaking of the power by which our Lord Jesus holds all his
tabernacle together and holds all his people together as one. He tells us in Hebrews chapter
Hosea, Chapter 11 and verse 4 I drew them with cords of love Paul
says the love of Christ Constraineth us and the the word constraint
has the idea of drawing together pulling together so that all
the various parts of the tabernacle and the men who were given different
responsibilities for the cords of the tabernacle and the nails
of the tabernacle and the other furnishings of the tabernacle.
Everything is drawn together as one house built of God in
the wilderness standing firm. And you and I, no matter what
our place in God's kingdom, No matter what our place in God's
church, no matter what the reason for our being here, no matter
what the purpose of our service is, God Almighty makes his own
one, drawing us together with the cords of love emanating from
Jesus Christ and him crucified, our Redeemer. Turn to Isaiah
53. And I'll wrap this up and send
you home rejoicing in something even better than what we've seen
so far. Isaiah 53. Let's begin reading at verse
four. Surely the Lord Jesus has borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Oh, we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
Who's going to stand for him? Who will his children be? For
he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit found in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his
knowledge of my righteous servant justified many for he shall bear
their iniquities. Therefore, therefore, since he,
since he by himself has put away our sin with his own blood, since
he has borne our iniquities and put them away, since he has fully
accomplished redemption, the Lord God says, I will divide
him a portion with the great. And he shall divide the spoil
with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death.
And he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the
sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Now watch
this. Sing. Sing. Do you remember we're talking
about the tent nails, those nails of brass, and cords, cords of
linen. And the Lord God here refers
to those nails and those cords, but He refers to them not in
connection just with the typology of the tabernacle, not just as
a picture, not just as tents designed to hold the tent in
place, or tent nails designed to hold the tent in place. No,
no, no. They mean something. Look at it. Sing, O barren, thou
that didst not bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. You didn't
you didn't accomplish the redemption of my people Christ did saying
thou that did not prevail For more are the children of the
desolate than the children of the married wife The Lord is
going to put away the national children of Israel, going to
put away the national people that he may have mercy upon the
Gentiles so that those who were not my people now are called
my people. Those who have not obtained mercy
now have obtained mercy. Read on. More are the children
of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the
Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent. Let them stretch forth
the curtains of thine habitation. Spare not. Don't spare at all,
but rather enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch forth the
curtains of your habitation. Lengthen thy cords and strengthen
thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left. God's going to save his people
scattered through all the earth amongst the Gentiles and thy
seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities
to be inhabited. Fear not. Children of God, don't
be afraid to lengthen your cords and strengthen your straight
stakes and spread your curtains as far as you can. Fear not,
for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither Be thou confounded, for
thou shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth. And thou shalt not remember the
reproach of thy widowhood anymore, for thy maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth. shall he be called. Well, what
was the purpose of the tent pens, those brass nails and those linen
cords? Well, they were designed to show
us the absolute security of all God's grace in Jesus Christ our
Redeemer to all his people for time and for eternity. They're
designed to show us how that all the work of Christ is ours,
bound to us as one great work by the work of God the Holy Spirit,
drawing our hearts to him and drawing us together as one with
him in the work of his mighty grace. with chords of love, indescribable,
infinite, matchless, free, and everlasting love. Amen.