When a sinner has any sense at
all of guilt before God, the first thing he does, the first
thing he always does, no matter his age, the first thing he does
is he runs to make a refuge for himself by which he attempts
to hide from God. When Adam sinned in the garden,
As soon as he was made to know his sin, as soon as his eyes
were opened and he saw that he was naked, he made fig leaves
for he and his wife and they attempted to hide from God in
the forest God had made. God came seeking and Adam hid
himself in the trees of the garden. That's a pretty good picture
of the work of every sinner when first he is made aware of guilt
before God. And the first thing God does
when he comes in saving grace is a demolition work. The first
thing God always does is to destroy the refuge of lies in which men
and women try to hide from Him. Let's begin tonight in Isaiah
28. Isaiah 28 is a very familiar
text of Scripture. Sooner or later, God's going
to come and sweep away your refuge of lies, either in His grace
are in His judgment, but He will destroy your refuge of lies. I pray He will do so in grace. Isaiah 28, verse 16, Therefore
thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation
stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation,
He that believeth shall not make haste. I lay a foundation stone
on which I build my people. And you who believe on him will
never be confounded. You will never be confused. You will never be ashamed. You
will never make haste. He shall not make haste. Verse
17. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet. And hell shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow the
hiding place. And your covenant with death
shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not
stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the
time that it goeth forth, it shall take you. For morning by
morning, it shall pass over. By day and by night, it shall
be a vexation, only to understand the report. For the bed is shorter
than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower
than that he can wrap himself in it." Now, tonight, If you'll
turn back to Exodus chapter 26, I want to show you a better covering. Coverings in which you can wrap
up yourself. Covers to wrap yourself in before
God. In Exodus 25, if you want to
turn there just a moment, the Lord commands Moses to take gifts
from the children of Israel Gifts of things that he had given them
when he brought them out of Egypt and he tells them to take these
gifts Among them in verse 3. This is the offering which he
shall take of them gold and silver and brass and blue and purple
and scarlet and fine linen and goats hairs and ram skins dyed
red and badgered skins and shit of wood All right. Let's look
at chapter 26 Exodus 26, verse 1. Moreover, thou shalt make the
tabernacle with ten curtains, coverings. You see pictures or
representations of it over here on the tabernacle. Ten coverings
of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet with cherubims
of cunning work shalt thou make them. The length of one shall
be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one four cubits,
and every one of the curtains shall have one measure, and five
curtains shall be coupled together one to another, and other five
curtains shall be coupled one to another. And thou shalt make
loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the self-edge
in the coupling, and likewise shalt thou make it in the uttermost
edge of another curtain in the coupling of the second. Fifty
loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops
shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling
of the second, that the loops may take hold one of another. And thou shalt make fifty taches
of gold, fifty buckles of gold, and couple the curtains together
with the taches, and it shall be one tabernacle. And thou shalt
make curtains of goat's hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle.
Eleven curtains shalt thou make. The length of the one curtain
shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits.
And the eleven curtains shall be all one measure, and thou
shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains
by themselves, and double the sixth curtain in the forefront
of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make fifty loops
on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling,
and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the
second. Thou shalt make fifty taches
of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the
tent together, that it may be one. And the remnant that remaineth
of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth,
shall hang over the back side of the tabernacle, and a cubit
on the one side, and a cubit on the other side, of that which
remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent. It shall
hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side
to cover it. And thou shalt make a covering
of the tent of ram's skins dyed red and a covering above of badger's
skins. Now there are four curtains here
described. There are curtains put together
by curtains so that they're varying thicknesses. But the four curtains
are given here. The first, a curtain of fine
twine linen and these 10 curtains bound together making one curtain.
And then he speaks of a curtain of a badger skin and a curtain
of ram skins and a curtain that is made of goat's hair. And these
four curtains represent specific things. They represent specific
things with regard to the person and work of the Lord Jesus, of
our great salvation in Him. And I recognize that to some
measure I have to simply surmise that this is what these things
represent. But surmising them with good reason, I think these
things represent the person of our Savior, His work, like the
four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, each representing
the same person but under different characters. all put together,
giving the full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great
God and our Savior. The badger skin covering is like
Matthew's gospel. It portrays our Lord Jesus Christ,
our great King, but it portrays Him in humiliation. Matthew presents
the royal character of our Savior. He traces his pedigree in the
royal line of the kings of Israel, proving him to be the Messiah.
And yet this one who is Christ our King throughout the gospel
is represented in his humanity and represented in humiliation.
So that though he's presented as the royal king of Israel,
the true Messiah, yet he's presented in humiliation. The covering
of ram skins dyed red causes us to look toward the red earth
and speaks of our Lord Jesus in his incarnation as Jehovah's
suffering servant as Mark's gospel portrays him. The third covering
of goat's hair portrays our Savior as he set before us in Luke's
gospel, that holy one, that spotless, immaculate one who is the suitable
sacrifice of God's elect, the suitable representative of God's
elect, a sacrifice for sin, one that God will accept. And then
the innermost covering. Now, remember, as they're given
here, we're given first the fine twine linen. If you're inside
the tabernacle looking up, that's what you see. If you're outside
the tabernacle looking on the outside of the tabernacle, you
see the badger skin. In between is the ram's skin
and the goat's hair. But these things seen from the
inside, the first one described is this covering of fine twined
linen. The outer covering, the covering
of badger skin. Well, this inner covering of
fine twined linen represents our Savior as John portrays Him
in his gospel as the incarnate God, the eternal God, God the
Son, our Redeemer and our Savior. Let's look at these four curtains
one at a time, just briefly. This gorgeous covering of blue,
called a curtain of fine twined linen, is a covering of blue
and scarlet and purple. And interwoven in this curtain
are cherubims. Interwoven are these emblems
of cherubims. This curtain is the innermost
covering. It is that which is seen from
inside the tabernacle. It's made from 10 curtains looped
together. You can imagine the thickness,
the heaviness of it. It's made from 10 different curtains
looped together with these attaches, these buckles holding it together
so that it stands as one. certainly the fact that it's
10 coverings looped together, has some implication that it
represents the law of God, represents the law of God as it was given
at Sinai, that which God requires, perfect holiness, perfect righteousness. That which is perfect and pure
is that alone which can stand before God Almighty, looking
up from inside the Holy of Holies. You see this chair, you see this
curtain, fine twine linen with these magnificent colors with
the cherubim interwoven within. And yet this curtain hangs over
the tabernacle. It hangs over the very holy of
holies, that which represents the presence of God Almighty
in the full revelation of His glory. It hangs there and is
seen above the mercy seat. above the place of atonement,
above the seraphim looking down on the mercy seat, above the
ark of the covenant containing the law. What on earth does this
curtain represent? This covering of the tabernacle.
Clearly it represents that which is described in Romans chapter
10. Turn there if you will. Romans
the 10th chapter. Look back in chapter 9, verse
30. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed
not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness? Even
the righteousness which is of faith? But Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. Why? Wherefore? Because they
sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.
For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Brethren, my heart's
desire in prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God. You might
say this concerning the whole religious world around us. They
have a zeal of God. But it's a zeal of ignorance,
a zeal without knowledge, not according to knowledge. And here's
the proof of it. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness, not ignorant of the fact that God is righteous.
You've known that all your life. That's what caused Adam to seek
to hide in the garden to start with. That's the reason you sought
a refuge of lies to start with. You knew God's righteous and
you're not. It's not that men aren't aware that God is righteous.
They're ignorant of the righteousness of God. That is, of righteousness
established and fulfilled, brought in by the obedience and death
of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And being ignorant of
what Christ has done, They're going about to establish their
own righteousness. They go about by their works
of obedience, by their devotion, by their sacrifices, by their
Bible reading, by their prayers, by their tithe giving, by their
Sabbath keeping, by their law observance. They go about to
establish their own righteousness. Now listen carefully to me. If
you're still trying to establish your own righteousness, If you're
still trying to make yourself holy before God, if you're still
trying to make yourself good in God's sight by something you
do, you have not submitted yourself just like these did not submit
themselves unto the righteousness of God. What is that? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. You got that? Christ is the end
of the, he's the finishing, he's the fulfillment, he's the termination
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now,
how do you know that's what this means? How can you be certain
this is what this passage means, that Christ has fulfilled all
righteousness and we must rest in him alone for righteousness,
not obeying the law, but rather looking to him who is the obedience
of the law, not establishing righteousness, but trusting him
who's fulfilled all righteousness, he who has finished the law.
Read on and you'll see. Verse 5. For Moses describeth
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth
those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaks on this wise. Say not in thine heart, quit
asking, who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ
down from above. Or who shall descend into the
deep? That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what
saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thine heart, the word of faith which we preach. What is that, brother Don? That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, confess
with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, that Christ the man
who was born at Nazareth is seated in glory, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Now David, that does not mean
that by believing on Christ you make yourself righteous. That's
not what that means. With the heart man believes with
reference to righteousness. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation, not you get saved by confessing, I believe
in Jesus. Oh, no, no. The confession of
the mouth is with reference to salvation already accomplished
by Christ Jesus. Do you see that? These curtains,
these coverings, first described them back here in Exodus 26.
This curtain of blue and scarlet and purple with the interwoven
cherubim represent Christ who is the finishing of the law,
the perfect holiness and righteousness of his people. It was blue. Perhaps
some reference to the fact that he is our intercessor in heaven
above this world beyond the reach of man, in the blue glory of
his heavenly existence, Jesus Christ is our Savior from eternity. It was scarlet. Again, looking
down to the red earth, we see our Savior in his humiliation. This one who is the eternal God,
whose habitation is itself heaven, takes into union with himself
our nature and becomes one of us. and it's purple. Purple. Color of royalty, yes,
but if you mix red and blue together, you get purple. Christ is our
God, whose throne is in the blue heavens. He was born at Bethlehem
from the womb of the Virgin, taking into union with himself
our nature, Born of the red earth, the second Adam, the word Adam
means red earth. And he is God man. I think sometimes we ought to
say it just the reverse, just to get people's attention. He
is the man God. Our savior is a man, a real man. Oh, how can I say it like it
ought to be said so that you hear it like it ought to be heard?
He's a man who is God seated on the throne in heaven. That
means that he who is our God, he who rules the universe is
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He is a God in human flesh. with passions
and feelings. A God that can be touched and
a God that is touched. A God that can touch and a God
who does touch. You and me in all the infirmities
of our flesh for He experienced it all. He knows what you experience. He knows what you feel, the good
and the bad, and knows it more keenly, more acutely than you
and I could possibly ever know it. And brought into this curtain,
blue and scarlet and purple, are these cherubims. Perhaps
an indication that our Savior is Lord of all the angels, maybe.
The cherubims, however, do but represent angelic creatures. Maybe they have representation
of the messengers of the gospel. But the messengers of the gospel
are portrayed in the tabernacle elsewhere in the seraphim overlooking,
overshadowing the mercy seat. Maybe these cherubims have another
significance. Maybe these cherubims interwoven,
somehow marvelously interwoven with the red and the blue and
the purple of the fine men. Maybe they represent God's church,
His people, you. looped together with these loops,
one buckled to the other, so that the curtain, the covering, this thin,
thick covering, is all one. And somehow, beyond the scope
of my imagination, child of God, hear me now, You are one with
Jesus Christ, your Redeemer. Really and truly one with Him. And I think that's the representation
of this first covering. But if you get nothing else,
that'd be enough, wouldn't it? We are one with Him, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. One with Him, from
eternity, one with him when our father Adam sinned in the garden,
one with him when we came forth from the womb speaking lies,
one with him when he died in our place upon the cursed tree,
one with him when he rose again, and one with him today. Second,
there's a covering of goat's hair. This covering was pure
white, and it was laid over top of the first covering, covering
a fine twine linen, certainly it represents the spotless holiness
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is himself holiness,
that one who is himself righteousness. This curtain might also suggest
the character and privileges that are ours in him. For you
see in him, We are righteousness, and we
are holiness. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians
1. I want you to look at it. It's
a very, very familiar text. You hear it quoted here real
often. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. We're in Christ because God put
us in him. In election, in regeneration,
he put us in him. Who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is made of
God unto us. Look at just these two things.
Righteousness and sanctification. The word sanctification is holiness. He's made of God unto us righteousness
and holiness. Now, righteousness has to do
with a record. Holiness has to do with character.
Righteousness is that which is imputed to us in free justification. and holiness is the character
given to us by the righteousness of Christ imparted to us in the
new birth, so that Christ is made of God unto us, both righteousness
to give us a right standing with God, and holiness to give us
a character like His, so that we're made partakers of the divine
nature. covering this curtain of goat's
hair of pure white, tells us that we are made white through
the blood of the Lamb, resting upon Christ our Redeemer, trusting
Him who is God our Savior. And we now are accepted of God
in Him through His righteousness. And we have hope and confidence
of this acceptance because of that holiness that is given us
in the new birth. not a push-pull. Thank God that I have no holiness that
I have attained, or can attain, or shall attain, not by anything
I do. But holiness is mine, because
Christ is mine. And Christ dwelling in you is
that new man created in righteousness and truth. This new man is seeing this of goat's hair laid right on
top of this curtain representing Christ in all the perfection
and fullness of his glorious being as the God-man, our mediator. But neither the fine linen nor
the goat's hair died red. You can kill a goat without killing
it. And you can get linen with no
suffering. But if you get the skins of the
ram, you've got to kill it. And the ram's got to suffer.
And this ram skin covering represents the suffering of our Redeemer.
As He goes to Gethsemane and sweats blood oozing from the
pores of his skin. His garments are dyed red with
his blood. Can you imagine the picture when
the soldiers came to arrest him? His garments already covered
in blood, soaked in blood. They come to arrest him, not
a wound on him, but they come to arrest him. His garments are
soaked in blood. And these soldiers represent
the law, both the civil law, for they represent Pilate and
they represent Caesar and the law of God, for they represent
the Sanhedrin, who were the people who walked in the name of God.
And these soldiers come and the Lord Jesus with his garments
died in his own blood. says to these soldiers, whom
seek ye? And they fell away as dead men
when he said, I am he. And he raised them up. And he
says to the law, now, let these go their way. I'm the one you come to take,
but you can't have me and my people. And our Savior, with
his garments dyed red, as he anticipated being made sin for
us, walks away to suffer the wrath of God in our room and
in our stead freely and voluntarily. And he does so unto death. Oh. of his sufferings so intense,
angels have no perfect sense. But there would be no holiness
for me, no holiness for you, had the Son of God not suffered
all the horror of God's wrath when he was made sin for us. The white curtain is under the red curtain. It's always there. Every time
the tabernacle's pitched, they set the tabernacle up, then they
set this curtain with fine twine linen, with the cherubims interwoven,
and this white curtain, and then the red curtain. How do you reckon
that curtain was kept white? How do you reckon it was kept
white? In all the 40 years wandering through the wilderness, desert
sands blow in. How is it that this white curtain
is kept white all the time? It's always under the red curtain. It's always under the red curtain. Now listen to me. No, read it
for yourself. Turn to 1 John chapter 1. 1 John
chapter 1. We love to put God in a box.
It's just our nature. We love to put Him in a box.
And we talk about redemption and say, well, the blood cleansing
was all done at Calvary. It was. Don't misunderstand me. It was. Redemption accomplished
at Calvary. But don't ever get the notion
that There's no present reality to
that which was done at Calvary and done from eternity. In our
day-by-day experience, we are kept clean before God
by the continual cleansing of the Savior's blood, not by our
obedience. I hear people Talk about making yourself clean and keeping
yourself clean. And I read stuff just trash,
just nonsense. And just as soon as I pick up
the first line or two of it, I go read something good. I wish
I could teach you to don't read the nonsense. Man, why read the
garbage when there's good stuff to read? But folks, forever suggesting
somehow that there's something you do to keep yourself clean. We keep ourselves unspotted from
the world by continually looking away from self to the redeemer. Look at this. First John chapter
one, verse seven. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son. Read that out loud, will you?
Let me hear you. Cleanse it. I didn't hear one of you. Cleanse
it. continually, perpetually, forever,
day by day, with constant recurring power, cleanseth us, what does
it say? From all sin. How's the white
curtain kept white? All through this wilderness journey,
it's always under the blood. And God says, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. Now, look at the fourth covering.
Badger skins. Badger skins. I've never seen a badger up front
and in person, I don't guess. I've seen pictures of them. I've
even seen them on television. They're just about the ugliest
things I can imagine. They're not a thing pretty about
them. What are these badger skins for? The badger skins are what's
seen on the top, looking at the tabernacle from the outside.
And the badger skins just don't have any beauty, anything
appealing to men. The badger skins are designed
not for beauty, but for protection. The Badgerskins had to bear all
the elements of the earth, the rain and the wind and the sand
and the dirt. The Badgerskins had to bear it
all for 40 years. That's a pretty good picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ again in his humiliation as he walked
on this earth as our representative with no form. no comeliness,
no beauty that anyone should desire here. Yet in that humiliation
he bore all the fury of God's holy wrath and justice in the
room instead of his people to the full satisfaction of God's
holy justice. These four curtains Also show
us something about our experience in the knowledge of our Redeemer While we Had the chapter to open
with a picture of these curtains of fine twine linen There's no
way to see those that fine twine linen curtain Christ in all his
glory until you've been brought into the Holy of Holies, into
God's presence as one with Him. And you look up as the Shekinah
glory of God fills the room, and you see Christ in His glory.
But at first, we're just blind. And all we can see is one folks
called Messiah. Looks like badger skins. Nothing
beautiful, nothing appealing, and we wouldn't have him. And then. Lord. Sprinkles our hearts with the
blood. And we. Behold the sacrifice. Christ
dying in our state. God gives us insight. We're made to see that Christ
is the Lamb slain in our stead. And we look again and we see
that Christ seated on the throne is all our righteousness. We're
made white before God in Him. And by this time we're inside
looking up. Looking up! to see nothing but
the fullness of the glory of God in the crucified Redeemer. And that's the covering I wrap
myself in. And wrapped in this covering,
I feel no cold breeze, nothing but warmth and peace
and security. For I am now one with Christ. Not just in God's purpose. Not
just in God's decree. Not just theoretically. Not just
doctrinally. In the blessed experience of
His grace. And my God can no more cast me
away than He can cast His Son away. I'm one with Him. God make
that true of you. Amen.