Without question, the tabernacle
of the congregation, which is described in such great detail
in Exodus 25 through 40, is the fullest, most instructive type
and picture of our Lord Jesus Christ given in the Old Testament. It is a picture of Christ our
Savior And it's more than that. It is a picture of the whole
work of redemption, grace, and salvation that is ours in and
by Christ Jesus the Lord. This tabernacle, like our salvation,
began with a plan. In Exodus 25, in verses 9 and
again in verse 40, the Lord God told Moses, said, you see to
it that you make this tabernacle exactly according to the pattern
showed thee in the mount. And that pattern is Christ Jesus,
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Our salvation began
with God's plan. That's not really a good word.
We make plans. Salvation began with God's purpose. And God's purpose is his determination
to save his people by Jesus Christ the Lord. It is his arrangement
of all things from eternity in divine predestination for the
salvation of his people to the glory of his name. Everything
in the tabernacle, everything. I encourage you while we're preaching
through these chapters in Exodus, often look at this model that
Brother Larry made for me on my birthday a few years ago.
It's very instructive to look at the picture. The model is
important. It shows clearly that which is
written in the scriptures. Everything you see physically
in the model pointed to and focused on one thing, blood atonement. Everything about the tabernacle
focused on sacrifice, morning sacrifices, evening sacrifices,
Sabbath sacrifices, weekly sacrifices, monthly sacrifices, annual sacrifices,
specifically the blood of the Paschal Lamb sacrificed on the
Day of Atonement every year and sprinkled on the mercy seat.
The central thing in this tabernacle was that mercy seat. That mercy
seat in the Holy of Holies where Abram went once a year with the
blood of atonement and sprinkled the mercy seat with the blood
and there God showed himself gloriously in that which is referred
to as the Shekinah. The Shekinah representing God's
acceptance of sinners. God's delight in the acceptance
of sinners. God's joy in the acceptance of
sinners by Jesus Christ, our Lord, that which is his glory. Imagine that. The glory of God's
salvation of your soul. He wrapped it up. with the redemption
of our souls. And as Manoah saw the Lord do
gloriously when he offered his sacrifice, the Lord ascended
in the smoke of his sacrifice. So the Lord God delights and
does gloriously in the saving of his people. God's glory is
wrapped up in the acceptance of our souls by the blood and
righteousness of Christ Jesus, the Lord. The bread on the table
of showbread as you enter the holy place spoke of Christ, the
bread of life. The light given in the golden
candlestick speaks of Christ, the light of the world, the curtains
over the tabernacle. layer after layer of curtains.
All speak of the garments of salvation, the covering of our
souls by which we are accepted in Jesus Christ and made righteous
in Jesus Christ. That which is our salvation is
Christ himself. the loops and the buckles, the
patches, those things that held everything together. That's the
work of God, the Holy Spirit, uniting us as one in Christ,
making all the various parts one tabernacle so that all God's
people are joined together in Christ as one in him. And truly,
we are one in him. Those 48 boards of the tabernacle
declared that God's elect are all joined together in Jesus
Christ. A few weeks ago, the last time
we met on a Tuesday evening, I preached to you about the boards
and buckles and bars and I made this statement. Those 48 boards
represent God's elect. When you read the scriptures,
the pictures given of God's elect are always represented in multiples
of 12. showing the completion and the
perfection of that great multitude, the Lord God says by His grace,
the Israel of God first represented in the 12 sons of Jacob, the
12 tribes of Israel, and now represented in these multiples
of 12. And yet that doesn't represent a specific limited number, it
represents a specific vast number. Some folks have in the past looked
at 144,000, so we've got to interpret the Bible literally. If you try
to read this book in a literal sense, you will not understand
this book. The book is to be interpreted
as it is literally intended. And it is literally intended
to portray that which is spiritual. And that which is spiritual is
talking not about a physical seat of Abraham, but about the
whole of God's Israel, the whole of God's elect. And those boards
represent them all, joined together in Christ. The boards are set
in bases, sockets of silver. sockets of silver made from the
atonement money when the children of Israel were numbered every
year. And that atonement money was taken and made into these
sockets of silver in which every board is set in its place and
each one fitly joined. Brother Larry told me several
times when he put these things together, if you look at the
boards, you can get him to tell you more specifically. Each board
has to go in in a certain order. Each one. We are a holy temple,
living stones fitly joined together in Christ. And God Almighty has
arranged the salvation of his people at a specific time. Each of them, he will call each
one and fit each one into his kingdom and into his church as
he will, according to his purpose of grace. They're all fitted
together and joined together and accepted of God on the basis
of blood atonement. And then the bars of Shittemwood
that were overlaid with pure gold. There are four of them
on each side. Twelve, sorry, five of them on
each side. Four on each side, you can see. Turn with me to
Exodus chapter 26, and let's read about it. Exodus 26, verse 26. These bars made of Shittemwood
overlaid with pure gold represent the security of God's elect. These hold the boards in place. They couldn't stand without them.
Exodus 26, verse 26. And thou shalt make bars of shitham
wood, five for the boards on the one side of the tabernacle,
and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle,
and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle
for the two sides westward. and the middle bar in the midst
of the boards shall reach from end to end. Thou shalt overlay
the boards with gold and make their rings of gold for places
for the bars and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold and thou shalt
rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which
was showed thee in the mount. These bars wrapping around these
boards. Speak of the believers absolute
security in Christ. The bars surrounding the boards
holding everything in place. Perhaps speak of God's attributes
by which we are held fixed and find ourselves secure. That which
declares our absolute security and that which gives us confidence
security is God's immutability and God's faithfulness. Faithful
is he that calleth you who also will do it. I am the Lord, I
change not. That's the only reason you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. God's grace and mercy. Oh, God
Almighty holds us by his grace and deals with us in mercy. Brother
Bobby read Psalm 25 back in the office a minute ago. David offered
a strange prayer. It would be strange to offer
this prayer to anyone else. It'd be strange to offer it to
any of the imaginary gods that men had made. He said, Pardon
mine iniquity, O Lord, for it is great. How can you dare expect pardon
by aggravating your guilt? Because we're dealing with the
God of mercy, who delights in mercy, who pardoneth iniquity,
transgression, and sin for the glory of His name. Our acceptance
with God, our standing secure in Him, does not depend on what
we do or don't, be it good or bad. It depends entirely upon
His grace and His mercy. We stand secure because of God's
truth and justice. You see, God exercises His mercy
and He exercises His grace always in strict accordance with truth
and justice. By mercy and truth, the wise
man said, iniquity is purged. What? By mercy and truth? Yes. By justice and by grace. And I said, don't give me justice.
You won't go to heaven without it. You won't enter glory without
it. God's not going to break his
justice to save you. He's not going to destroy his
character to save anybody. God saves sinners according to
justice and grace. Justice satisfied because grace
is bestowed. and grace bestowed because justice
is satisfied. It is the grace of God that moved
him to provide his son a substitute and his son having accomplished
redemption for us, satisfying divine justice, the grace of
God and all its blessings flows to us freely through his blood
of atonement by which justice is satisfied. These boards or
these bars surrounding it perhaps speak of God's righteousness
and holiness. We stand secure. We who are in
Christ, united to Christ, built on the atonement of Christ, accepted
of God in Christ, there's no possibility that one shall perish
because God Almighty is righteous and God is holy. He will not
violate himself. Righteousness now is ours because
we're made the righteousness of God in Him. We are made holiness
in Christ Jesus the Lord. We have in Him that holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. And God in His righteousness,
God in His holiness will never punish those who stand before
Him righteous and holy. And he will forever punish those
who fail to stand before him in righteousness and true holiness. But now notice carefully, Motus
speaks of five bars. I've made a good bit of this
in the last few weeks, uh, speaking to you. When I spoke from this
passage a couple of weeks ago, after the service, I called brother
Larry over here. I said, Larry, I got a problem. The scripture says there are
five bars on each side of this. And I've been had to encounter
them three times. They're not before. Scripture says that 15 bars and
all I can't count, but 12. Where's the other bar. And Larry
scratched his head and scratched his head. And I scratched mine.
We sat down and read the scriptures together. And then as I was reading
our texts. I remembered what he told me
when he gave me this bottle. He said, one of the bars didn't
come with it. Cause you can't see it. One of
the bars is hidden. And so it's not there. You just
have to realize it's there. These other four bars, I can
see them. I can touch them. I can feel them. But here's another
bar in verse 28, the middle bar. in the midst of the boards shall
reach from end to end. Turn over to chapter 36. You'll find out where this middle
bar is placed. Verse 31. And he made bars of shiddom wood.
Five for the boards on the one side of the tabernacle. And five
bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle. And five
bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward. And he
made the middle bar, watch this now, to shoot through. Man, I love that phrase. Just shot plumb through. To shoot
through the boards from one end to the other. Where's this middle
bar? Where's this middle bar? The
middle bar was seen by no one. No one ever saw it except the
man who put the tabernacle together. He's the only one who ever saw
it. When the tabernacle's assembled, everything else about this tabernacle
can be seen by human eye, either from inside the tabernacle or
outside the tabernacle. But this middle bar, no human
eye could see. When I show you what this middle
bar is, there's a sermon in that. No human eye could see it. Well,
where is this middle bar? What is it? Turn with me to Colossians
chapter 1. We'll start reading at verse
13. And when we get to this middle bar, I promise you, you'll everyone
see it immediately. God, our father made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light in Christ
Jesus, the Lord. Having delivered us, he tells
us in verse 13, having delivered us from the power of darkness,
and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom
we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins. Now, I can't stress this enough.
Always in scripture, those two things go together. Let religion
say what it will about redemption and forgiveness being separated.
If Christ redeemed somebody, their sins are forgiven. All
for whom Christ died are forgiven. And to declare that Christ died
for any whose sins are not forgiven is to blaspheme his name and
deny his eternal deity and the worth of his sacrifice. Verse
15. Who is the image of the invisible
God? the firstborn of every creature
for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers all things were created by him and
for him and he is before all things and by him all things
consist everything's held together He is the head of the body of
the church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that
in all things He might have the preeminence For it pleased the
father that in him should all fullness dwell How far do you
carry that just as far as you can carry those two words all
fullness? Oh And having made peace through the blood of his
cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him I say
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you
that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreprovable
in his sight. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which ye have heard and which was preached
to you, to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul,
am made a minister, verse 24, who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you, and fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of
Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. Where
have I made a minister according to the dispensation of God, according
to the economy or the purpose of God, which is given me, watch
this, for you. God's done all this for me, for
you. To fulfill the word of God, and
here's his word, even the mystery which hath been hid from ages
and from generations. Hid in the types and shadows
of the law. Hid in prophecies that are vague
to the understanding of men without the full revelation of Christ
himself. This mystery, which is the whole word of God, even
the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations,
but now is made manifest to his saints. What? Is this mystery, this mystery
which the whole world cannot see, this mystery that men, no
matter how learned they are, no matter how well educated,
no matter how well instructed they are, this mystery that they
cannot see, is it made manifest to his saints, to all of them?
Is it made manifest to his saints? That's what he said. Doesn't
matter how young they are. Doesn't matter how illiterate
they are. Doesn't matter how little experience
they've had. It's made manifest. It's as obvious
as the nose on your face. That's what the word manifest
means. Made manifest. You just can't avoid seeing it. You just can't help it. You just
can't help it. Well, I can't see it. That's what I said. Made
manifest all his saints. What is it? What is it? To whom
God would make known the riches of his glory the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of
glory there's the middle bar shot through every board from
one end to the other each board set up held together in his place
on the basis of atonement, held together by all the attributes
of God. But the boards and the tabernacle
and everything else stands just as an emblem of religious ritualism
until this last bar is shot through every board. Now you have a picture
of life and salvation in Christ Jesus, the Lord. Everything else
in the tabernacle, the labor, the altar, the candlestick, the
showbread, the incense, the walls, the curtains, everything else,
the mercy seat, the ark, everything, everything else in the tabernacle
represented what Christ has done and is doing for us. This middle bar, represents what
Christ has done and is doing in us by his grace. The tabernacle
could not stand. It could not have been complete
without this middle bar. And there's no salvation for
any sinner, no hope of glory until Christ is in you, Christ
in you, the hope of glory. Someone said the essence of God's
salvation is Christ himself. Simeon said, mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. Christ is God's salvation. David
said, the Lord is my light and my salvation. The essence of
God's salvation is Christ. The sweetness of it is Christ
in you. Oh, that's it. The sweetness
of it is Christ in you. The anticipation of it is Christ
in you, the hope of glory. Let me talk to you a little bit
about this middle bar, Christ in you. The middle bar is the
last thing to go in the tabernacle. The very last thing when everything
else is erected, when every bar is stood up in its place on the
basis of atonement, the last thing to go in is this middle
bar. The gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ.
Paul tells us here is a mystery, a mystery hidden from the unregenerate
and unbelieving man, but revealed by God's spirit to his saints.
He speaks here of this as the riches of glory, the riches of
the glory of this mystery. The riches of the glory of this
mystery are the riches of God's grace, the riches of free forgiveness,
free justification, free salvation, everlasting preservation, perfect
righteousness, the riches of complete, perfect, invariable,
constant acceptance with God through Christ Jesus the Lord.
That's ours in him. The riches Paul speaks of here
are the treasures of grace hid up for Christ in centers of his
fullness. John said, have all we received
and grace for grace out of out of his infinite fullness. God's elect constantly receive
grace on top of grace. Look at Colossians two verse
nine, for in him. dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him. And then this text here in Colossians
127 speaks of Christ who is himself the glory of the gospel. His
glory, the psalmist said, shall be great in thy salvation. The gospel is the revelation
of God's glory. And the glory of God is seen
only in the face of Jesus Christ. The glory of God is seen in Jesus
Christ crucified. This is what Moses desired to
see, what the Lord showed him when he put him in the cleft
of the rock, passed by and proclaimed his name. He was showing Moses
his glory. His glory in being merciful to
whom He would be merciful and His glory in absolute justice. And those things are seen only
in the sacrifice of God's dear Son. But then this 27th verse
speaks of our hope of glory. And I want to talk about that
for just a few minutes. Christ in you, the hope of glory. The cause of our hope, the cause
of our hope is the grace of God. We have a good hope through grace. The cause of our hope is God's
eternal grace given us in Christ Jesus. The basis of hope, the
only basis upon which any sinner can hope to stand before God
in heaven's glory is blood atonement. That's the basis of it. But let
me tell you something. You don't have any hope until
Christ is in you. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. There are some names you will
not be familiar with, most of you won't. A fellow by the name
of Sandeman, who's a Scottish preacher, who taught a horrible
heresy. 300 years ago. He taught that all there is to
salvation is giving assent to the facts revealed in the scripture
concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's all. He said that faith in Christ
is no more and no less than the same kind of faith that a man
would exercise in believing another man's word. In other words, it
is faith that is nothing except an intellectual acceptance of
facts. A fellow in this part of the
country came along in the middle 1800s who was a great follower
of Sandeman. Name was Alexander Campbell.
And he believed exactly what Sandeman taught and added to
it something else. He added to it the necessity
of baptism for regeneration. So that salvation by all the
churches of Christ, as they're called, Campbellites, salvation
is accepting the facts of the gospel and being baptized. And by these things, the grace
of God comes to you. amongst other people who haven't
quite gone to the extremes of Sandinman or Campbell. There
are those fellows who follow the teachings of another Baptist
preacher who was very much influenced by Sandinman's theology by the
name of Andrew Fuller. And they teach merely that this
thing of salvation is an intellectual acceptance of facts and propositions,
an intellectual acceptance of things so that Really, while
we wouldn't just out and out say that no such thing as the
new birth. We wouldn't just out and out say there's no such thing
as the necessity of regeneration. We wouldn't really say that there's
no such thing as the necessity of the supernatural. Really,
the doctrine denies the necessity of the work of God's Spirit in
you. The boards, each one, must be
shot through. from end to end with this middle
bar. Or the tabernacle can't stand.
There is no salvation. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is our hope of glory. That is, Christ in you is the
confident expectation of glory. Christ formed in you by the new
birth so that you're made partakers of the divine nature. Christ
living in you, Christ reigning in you is the confident, pleasurable
expectation of eternal glory. This is God's salvation in the
sweetness of it. I live. Day by day. Consciously aware. Oh, my God. consciously aware of my sin in
the confident, pleasurable anticipation and expectation of heavenly glory. How come? Because Christ has
taken up residence in me. There came a day when he came
to the city of Mansoul and he entered in and bound the strong
man and cast him out and set up his throne within Christ in
you, the hope of glory. Religion that's all experience,
all feeling is worthless. It's useless. I've got no use
for it. But religion that is neither
experience nor feeling. Religion that has neither that
which stirs us from within and sets our hearts upon that which
is eternal is equally worthless. Religion that's all theory, all
doctrine, all ritual, all ceremony, all creed is worthless religion. You can talk all you want to
about faith. You can Define it with unmistakable precision.
But until you experience it, you won't have a clue what it
is. I can demonstrate it for you
and you'll have a clue about it. I've talked to, I have read
books about faith written by men who were accurate in their
description of faith. And when I got done reading the
book, I was pretty well convinced they didn't have a clue what
faith is. In experience. You can read books about love. Love. Oh, folks talk about it. Ah, they write wonderful books
about it. And you hear about it. And then one day you experience
it. And you know what happens when
you experience it? You laugh at every attempt to define it.
Love? Oh, this is something experienced.
Hope. Hope is not a creed. Hope is
not a doctrine. Hope is something felt within. Hope is something that springs
with life from deep within. Christ in you, the hope of glory. John Gill wrote, Glory itself
is in his hands. The gift of it is with him and
through him. He has made way for it by his
sufferings and death. He made way for the enjoyment
of it and he's now preparing it for us by his presence and
intercession. His grace makes us worthy of
it. His righteousness gives us title to it and his spirit is
the earnest of it. Let me say three things, I'll
wrap this up. Three things about this thing of Christ in you,
the hope of glory. This glory is the eternal life
that God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began. Before
the world began, the God of heaven promised glory to somebody. He promised glory to a people
whom he had given to his son, And he promised his son, ask
of me, I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance. And this
glory he promised us from eternity in his son. Number two, the glory
of eternal life, the glory of heaven is a glory God prepared
for his elect. Turn to John 14. This preparation of eternal happiness
was made for us before the world began. In the last day, we're
told that our Lord Jesus, sitting on the throne, will say to his
own, come ye blessed my father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. Prepared in the counsels
of God, in the purposes of God, like the tabernacle prepared
in the heavens according to a pattern. This kingdom of glory was prepared
for us by our blessed savior and his sin atoning sacrifices
our substitute. John 14. Let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. Now watch
this. I go to prepare a place for you. I'm going now to prepare a place
for you by the sacrifice of myself, by my own blood, by the satisfaction
of divine justice. And this kingdom of glory shall
most assuredly be given to those for whom it was prepared. It
shall be given them, our Savior said, for whom it was prepared.
Now, one third thing. God's elect in this world are
men and women whom he has prepared unto glory. Turn to Romans chapter
9. Paul is coming to the conclusion
of his declaration concerning God's sovereignty in the exercise
of his grace, the potter in the clay, having mercy on whom he
will, of one lump forming some vessels unto honor and some to
dishonor. And those vessels of dishonor
are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. But the vessels
of honor, God's elect, are described another way. Verse 23. And that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
aforeprepared unto glory. Every work God does for His elect. Prior to glory is that by which
He prepares us for glory. Prepared in His eternal counsels,
prepared in election, prepared in the sin-atoning sacrifice
of His Son, prepared by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and
prepared by the righteousness of Christ imparted to us in regeneration. God, from the beginning, chose
us to salvation. He chose us to glory. And He chose all that was necessary
and prepared all that was necessary to bring us to glory. He chose
us unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. Now, Brother Don,
you can't say that the work of the Spirit of God is necessary
as a matter of necessity for the hope of salvation, because
then you make works to be part of it. Well, say what you want
to about it. God said this is how God brings
sinners to glory, through sanctification of the Spirit, Christ in you,
the hope of glory. He has, our Savior has it in
His hands to give to His people. And He declares that this glory
that the Father's given Him, He gives to all His own. John
17, Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should
give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And then
He said, Father, give me the glory that I had with You before
the world was. And then he says, Father, the
glory that you gave me, I give to thee. It's glory. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. We've been predestined to it
and prepared for it. And we shall have it. I recall
the first time I heard my dear friend who's now in glory, Brother
Harry Graham, preach. I recall the sermon he preached,
the text and the outline. I was sitting in the chapel down
in Winston-Salem, and this strange, tall fellow walked in, an older
man. And Brother Parks asked him if he'd preached that night,
and he said, well, sure, I'd be glad to. And he got up and asked us
to turn to Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. He said, now I want
to talk to you about a golden chain of grace that cannot be
broken. Let's read it together. And we
know that all things work together for good. To them that love God,
to them who are the called, according to his purpose. For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom
he called, them he also justified. and whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who shall be
or who can be against us? Now, here's the marvelous chain
of God's grace. It begins in predestination and
it ends in glorification. Whom he did predestinate, Then
he also called, whom he called, then he also justified. Whom
he justified, then he also glorified. Now, turn back to our text, Exodus
chapter 26. This is a pretty good size structure. This is a scaled down model of
it. It's a pretty good size structure. All these boards, all the sockets,
all the material, curtains over it and around it, the veil of
separation, all these things. Do you know how many men it took
to set the whole thing up? Take a stab at it. Look at the
last line of verse 30. And thou, singular, shalt rear
up the tabernacle. One man, one man put the whole
thing up. One man could set every board
in its place only according to the pattern. One man laid the
foundation in the sockets of silver. One man set the altar
and the laver and the table and the candlestick and the mercy
seat and the hanging curtains in their place. One man! One
man appointed by God. One man who represents God's
holy law and justice. One man, Moses. He set the tabernacle
up. Many were used to make the various
things. One man set it up. One man who represents what Moses
saw when he was in the mount and carried down from the mount
on those two tables of stone. the law of God, his holy character,
the full accomplishment of redemption in the satisfaction of everything
required to meet the demands of that law that Moses threw
on the ground and broke when he saw the children of Israel
dancing naked around that golden calf. Now Moses is ordered of
God to take this tabernacle, this one tabernacle. And put it all, he said, now
this is what you'll do. You shall rear it up. One man, a prophet likened to
Moses, Jesus Christ the Lord, by the full accomplishment of
redemption, meeting everything portrayed in that model. Meeting everything portrayed
in that model. by the sacrifice of himself,
rears up God's tabernacle to the praise of the glory of his
grace in strict accordance with his holy law in the saving of
our souls.