Let's turn together to Exodus
chapter 25. Exodus chapter 25. If I'm not mistaken, today was the
fourth time I prepared this message. I believe I have a message indeed. I want so much, as we look at
these portions of scripture together, to give you something more than
just facts. and figures about the types and
pictures of the Old Testament. I want so much to bring you the
message they are intended by God the Holy Spirit to bring
to your souls. Exodus 25 verse 31. Now thou shalt make a candlestick
of pure gold, of beaten work shall the candlestick be made,
his shaft and his branches His bowls, his knops, and his flowers. A knop, if you're like I am,
you don't have any idea what that is. You have to look it
up. It's a gourd-like or a ball-like ornament. His bowls, his knops,
and his flowers shall be of the same. Verse 32. And six branches
shall come out of the sides of it. Three branches of the candlestick
out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out
of the other side. three bowls made like unto almonds,
with a knop and a flower in one branch, and three bowls made
like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower. So
in the six branches that come out of the candlestick, verse
34. And in the candlestick shall
be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and
their flowers, And there shall be a knop under two branches
of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and
a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six
branches that proceed out of the candlestick. Their knops
and their branches shall be of the same. All it shall be one
beaten work of pure gold. And thou shalt make the seven
lamps thereof, and they shall light the lamps thereof, and
they that they may give light over against it. And the tongs
thereof, and the snuff dishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. And of a talent of pure gold
shall he make it, and all these vessels. And look that thou make
them after their pattern which was shown thee in the mount. I want so very, very much for
you to see and see clearly, as you read the Old Testament Scriptures,
with regard to the tabernacle, the priesthood, and all the furnishings
of the tabernacle, all the sacrifices, all the laws, and all the ceremonies
in Israel, that these things were given to Israel by divine
design to show a picture, a type, of the Lord Jesus Christ and
God's salvation in Him. These things were given by God
and designed by God after a singular pattern shown to Moses in the
heavens, and that pattern that Moses saw is the incarnate God
of whom you just sang. The incarnate God, our Redeemer
and our Savior, and the salvation He accomplished by His obedience
unto God as our substitute. Now hold your hands here at Exodus
25 and turn to Hebrews chapter 9. I want you to see that I'm
not just pulling this out of the air. I'm not just giving
you what I think the Scriptures mean. I'm giving you what God
the Holy Spirit tells us the Scripture means. Hebrews chapter
9, verse 1. Then verily the first covenant,
that is the Old Testament, had also ordinances of divine service
and a worldly sanctuary. You see that? tabernacle, right
over there, that model of the tabernacle, the worldly sanctuary,
an earthly carnal sanctuary, you can see. For there was a
tabernacle made, the first wherein was the candlestick, and the
table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary, that's
the first section of the tabernacle. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle which is called the holiest of all, which had the
golden censer, and the ark of the covenant, overlaid round
about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna,
and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant,
and over it the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat,
of which we cannot now speak particularly." That is, I'm not
going to talk about that now distinctly. He just mentions
it in passing. Now, when these things were thus
ordained, The priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. That's where they went about
doing their daily business. But into the second, into the
holiest of all, went the high priest alone, once every year
on the Day of Atonement, not without blood, which he offered
for himself and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost
this signified. That is, this is the reason for
this whole ceremony. The Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest, the way to God in His glory,
the way to the Shekinah glory, the way for man to approach God
was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet
standing. as long as the tabernacle, and
after that the temple, was standing. The way to God was not yet made
manifest. That is, Christ had not yet come. All right, read on, verse 9.
Which was a figure, a figure, a type, a picture, for the time
then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, now
watch this, that could not make him that did the service perfect
as pertaining to the conscience. All these sacrifices, all these
ceremonies, performed by men for 2,000 years, every day, morning
and evening, for 2,000 years, never once gave a man peace with
God, never once put away sin, never once satisfied the conscience,
but rather the continual repetition of the morning and evening sacrifices,
the continual repetition of the Sabbath day observances, the
continual repetition of the annual sacrifices, all these things
just reminded the children of Israel that there's one yet to
come by whose sacrifice alone sin can and must be put away. Verse 10. These things, these
services, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers'
washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time
of Reformation, until the time that God changed everything.
But Christ, being come an high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." In verse
23, we're told that these carnal things were patterns of things
in the heavens. In chapter 10, verse 1, we read
that they were a shadow of good things to come. Now, that's exactly
what we read. in the closing verse back here
in Exodus chapter 25 verse 40. Look thou that thou make them
after their pattern which was showed thee in the mount. Now,
try to get the picture in your mind fixed again. If you're one
of the Jews coming to worship God at the tabernacle in the
Old Testament, you'd walk toward the house of God, toward this
tabernacle. The first thing you would see is the brazen altar. That huge brazen altar, the place
of sacrifice. Because everything in the worship
of God centers on the sacrifice. You can't come to God without
blood. You can't come to God without
a sacrifice. And the sacrifice must be a sacrifice
of God's appointing a sacrifice that God has accepted, and He'll
accept that sacrifice only in one place, the brazen altar.
Next you'd see, standing between the brazen altar and the first
curtain, going into the outer court of the tabernacle, the
labor of brass, the place of cleansing. And then you pull
back that first curtain, and as you enter into the tabernacle's
court, you see this outer sanctuary, and in it there are these pieces
of furniture, three things. First, the golden table of showbread
on your right hand side. And then, back next to the veil
leading into the holiest of all, is the altar of incense. And
on the left hand side, the golden candlestick. Then, if you would
go with Aaron into the holiest of all on the Day of Atonement,
where it goes in with blood, you would see the Ark of the
Covenant with the mercy seat, and the cherubs over top the
mercy seat. This is the place where God said,
I will meet with you and commune with you. And this picture is
given in vision over and over and over again in the Old Testament. Whenever you see a vision given
of redemption and grace in the Old Testament, often it is the
very picture of what I've described for you here. This is what Isaiah
saw in Isaiah chapter 6 when he saw the Lord Jesus in His
glory. This is what Ezekiel saw in his
vision of the wheels of divine providence. Daniel saw this in
Daniel chapter 7. And the Apostle John in Revelation
chapter 4 tells us that he saw the very same thing. Now let's
go back to Exodus 25. Hold your place here. And I want
to talk to you about this golden candlestick that's described
in verses 31 through 40. If you want to, at your leisure,
you can read another description given in Leviticus 24, and where
in that passage we're given a little bit of additional instruction.
Two things in particular. The Lord commanded the children
of Israel to bring olive oil beaten from their own trees,
and He commands that Aaron shall order the lamps in the lampstand,
and the lamps in the lampstand throughout his days while he
walked on this earth. So that in the Old Testament,
God required the children of Israel to bring the oil that
would be burned in the lamps, and the lamp was to be ordered
day and night by Aaron and his sons in the outer court. We don't
have to guess what this represents. The golden candlestick represents
the church of God in this world. John tells us so in Revelation
chapter 1, verse 20. Distinctly, the golden candlestick
represents Christ, the light of the world. He is the light. But we are Christ's representatives
in this world, so the golden candlestick, John tells us, represents
the Church of God, which in this world is the light of the world. Now, tonight I want us to look
at four things, and I'll look at them as briefly as possible.
First, we'll look at the oil required for the lamps. And then
the lamps. and then the light in the lamps.
And then we'll look briefly at God's interpretation of the whole
thing. All right, first the oil. God
required the children of Israel to bring pure olive oil for the
golden candlestick. He required them to bring the
oil from their own olive trees. to bring it to the priest. And
this oil that they brought to the priest was to be burned in
the lamps continually so that the light in that lamp was continually
supplied by the children of Israel bringing oil from their own olive
trees prepared by them specifically for this. The oil, of course,
represents God the Holy Spirit and the grace that he gives.
But there's more than that. worship, true worship, is never
haphazard. You've come here tonight to worship
God. I believe I've come here to worship God. My purpose is
not just to see you, but to worship God. I said all afternoon, Faith
kept calling, telling how bad things were over in Lexington.
I kept praying, God, don't, don't cancel us again tonight. I need
to meet you and meet with your people all to worship God. to worship Him, but it won't
be haphazard. You won't worship God without
cost. True worship always costs something. It costs time, and
it costs effort, and it costs money. It always does. We come to God freely. We can't
buy God's grace, but you're not going to worship God haphazardly.
You're not going to worship God without preparation. So the children
of Israel are required of God to bring oil, oil beaten from
their own trees prepared for the service of God. But they
bring to God, you go back and read Leviticus or Exodus 25 again,
read the whole chapter. God required them to bring gold
and silver and brass and purple and blue. He required them to
bring all kinds of things. But as I read through that again
today, it struck me one more time. Everything God requires
us to bring, everything He requires is just what He supplies. And
that which He supplies, He accepts. He requires us to bring this,
but the oil is not a tree that He created and He gave us. It's
not ours to begin with. That which we bring Him is that
which He supplies. And these things suggest that
we come to God bringing that which is our best. Oil beaten
from the olive trees, the very best of oil. Gold, pure gold. Silver, pure silver. Oh God,
teach me. Teach me to bring nothing but
my best to you. Nothing but the best of my kind
the best of my labor, the best that I have, bring to you." Our
great, gracious God, however, in all these things, would have
us to worship Him with the assurance of acceptance by Christ Jesus. In Hebrews chapter 10, I want
you to turn back there, Getty. We may look at it again in just
a little bit. By reminding the children of
Israel to bring the oil that was to be used by the priests
to be burned in the candlestick, the Lord was giving Israel assurance
of acceptance within. Accepting their oil, the Lord
God said, I'm accepting you. This seems perhaps to be an insignificant
gesture, but God was saying to Israel, this candlestick and
the light it gives burns for you. Though you're not in the
holy place personally, You're there representatively in your
priest, Aaron. And all that goes on in that
holy place, everything that transpires there in the holy place is done
for you. You are accepted of me. Everything done there declares
that you have an interest in me and I have an interest in
you. Now let's see if that's not the interpretation the Spirit
of God gives. Hebrews 10 verse 16. This is
the covenant that I will make with them after those days. saith
the Lord, I'll put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds
will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness, what a word. That's not, Frank, that's not
cockiness, that's not arrogance, it's boldness, it's confidence. The kind of boldness a child
has approaching his father. Not a child that's gotten old
enough to realize that maybe I've done something that would
cause dad to be offended. No, no, no. Not that kind of
boldness. The kind of boldness a little
child has approaching his father. A little child who has nothing
to fear. A little child who has no sense
of right or wrong. A little child who knows only
acceptance with his father. That's the boldness. You and
I, believing Jesus Christ, washed in His blood and robed in His
righteousness, have every reason to approach God Almighty with
that kind of confidence. With boldness. to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which
he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is, through the
sacrifice of his own flesh, having a high priest over the house
of God. Now watch this. Let us draw near,
draw near to God in his glory on his throne with a true heart
in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience. and our bodies washed with pure
water. All right, second, let's look
at the lamps. The lamps in this candlestick
are lamps in a candlestick God required to be made of pure gold. And the candlestick must be pure. Pure candlestick made of pure
gold. It has seven lamps. Seven lamps
at the end of each of the branches, upheld by one shaft. As such,
the candlestick is typical of God's church in this world. Upheld
by Christ, the shaft of pure gold. Constantly supplied with
light, life, and grace by God the Holy Spirit. But this, as John saw it, is given a little
bit different shade of meaning. Christ upholds and sustains his
church. John said, I saw the Lord Jesus
walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and he had in his
right hand the stars of the churches. He upholds the church, the light,
and he upholds the angels of the churches, those pastors sent
to preach the gospel of God's grace. And the Holy Spirit dwells
in his church and in each individual believer in the church. In fact,
the Church of God, this local assembly right here, I'm not
talking about yesterday or tomorrow, I'm talking about right now,
this assembly meeting here right now, is an habitation of God
through the Spirit. We come together in Christ's
name, we're brought together by Christ Jesus, and God the
Holy Spirit comes with us as we come together to worship our
God. And the Lord Jesus walks in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks. Constantly we're under his care. Constantly upheld. Constantly
protected by him. These lamps, we were told in
Leviticus 24.4, were to be kept burning continually all the time. Now, obviously they weren't kept
burning when they took the tabernacle down and moved from place to
place. But every time they set the tabernacle up, and they were
in a place for any period of time, the lamps would be kept
burning, burning all day, and burning all night. Every morning,
they would be trimmed, filled with oil, and lit. And burned
all day, every evening, trimmed, filled with oil, and lit again,
burning until the morning. You may remember that when the
Lord called Samuel, He called Samuel after Samuel and Eli had
gone to bed before the lamp of God went out in the temple. It's talking about this golden
candlestick. The Lord called Samuel before the time that the
lamp that had been trimmed in the morning went out in the evening
while Samuel and Eli were in their bed. The lamps were kept
burning continually, both in the day when the sun shined brightly. and in the night when vision
is dim. What a picture. The lamp of God,
the light that God gives in the gospel, the light he gives by
Christ. He gives in the day and he gives
in the night. And our experience doesn't change
anything. Our experience never changes
God's goodness. The lamps were permitted to go
out and were permitted to go out every morning, permitted
to go out every evening. To teach us our unceasing need
of the light and the grace of God the Holy Spirit. To show
us and make us ever mindful of the fact that all the light,
all the grace, all the benefit we have in this world, we have
by Jesus Christ our Redeemer, by the grace and power of God
the Holy Spirit. Aaron, our great Aaron. orders
the light. Our great high priest constantly
cares for the candlestick and keeps it burning before the Lord
continually, burning all through the day to teach us that we must
have something more than the light of nature to walk with
God. And it's also kept burning throughout
the night until the dawning of the day, until Christ, the day
star, arises with light. until Christ comes, either coming
in conversion to give the light of His grace, or coming in His
glorious second advent to give the everlasting light of glory.
All right, third. Let's take a look at the lamps.
The light in the lamps. There are four things I want
you to see here. First, the seven lamps of fire. Three on each side, one in the
middle. Burning before the throne of God are described by John
in Revelation chapter 4 verse 5 as the seven spirits of God. That is the seven-fold spirit
of God. Perfect light, perfect knowledge,
complete grace. The shaft speaks of Christ. The lamps represent the churches. But here in Revelation 4, John
tells us These lamps represent the sevenfold spirit of our God,
and gives us here a delightful picture. Christ is the candlestick. He upholds the lamps. But the
light we have, we have by the oil of his grace, by the power
of his spirit, as we are united to him, and the light runs from
him to us. Now, here's a great marvelous
thing. The Lord God takes this lampstand,
Christ the golden lampstand, these seven lamps, giving light
inside the holy place, portraying the Church of God in every age
and every generation. He takes such things as we are
and uses such things as we are to carry the light of of the
gospel, of the glory of God in this world. Paul said we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. God put the gospel in you in
an earthen vessel. You know what an earthen vessel
is? The word refers to broken clay
pots. That's a pretty good description
of you and me. Such worthless things as we are. But God puts
the light of the gospel in us, that we may carry it through
the world in the four corners of this dark world. The olive
oil feeding the flame is, again, I tell you, God the Holy Spirit. He's given to us by Christ, by
the merit and mediation of Christ, so that all the light shining
in the lamp comes from this oil. It's all of grace. All is given
to us. by the Spirit of God. But the
care of the lamps belongs to our priest. He pours in the oil. He lights
the wick. He trims it. He keeps it burning. He carries away the ashes. And
third, the priest setting the lamps in order daily portrays
our Savior's unceasing work of grace, causing His people to
constantly receive light from Him and give forth light from
Him. You and I have light. You've mentioned in your prayer
just a little bit ago, because He gives it. That's all. I've got a little light today.
studying his word, because he gives it. Not because of brilliance,
not because of academic supremacy, not because of anything in me,
no. And you won't get it because of anything in you, just because
he gives it. I recall years ago as a young
man preaching in Charleston, West Virginia, and an older fellow
who deemed himself an intellectual, I made this statement right before
I got up to preach. He had been doing something he
called preaching, giving a paper or something like that. And he
said, in order to understand these things I'm talking about,
you've got to have some grave matter between your ears. And I got up behind him, and
the first words out of my mouth were these. In order to understand
what I've got to say, you've got to be a sinner in need of
grace. And that's all. That's all. Not somebody who's
brilliant. No, no. The light comes by the
gift of God. And we have this light because
Christ continually gives us the light. And we shine clearly by His grace. If I stand up here
and make some sense to you about these things that maybe have
been a little mysterious to you, a little hidden away to you,
And you go home and say, man, I got something out of that.
It's because the Lord Jesus, by His Spirit, causes the light
to shine. That's all. That's all. If we
are given opportunity and the means to make the gospel known,
it's because He, by His Spirit, makes the light to shine. But
I'll tell you what's necessary for the light to shine. If it
shines clearly, some of you have used oil lanterns. You've got
to trim them. And the trimming, if that wick
could speak, would scream and say, don't touch me. But it's
not going to shine clearly unless it's trimmed. And it's got to
shine constantly. The only way we shine is by a
constant supply of oil, a constant supply of His grace and His Spirit. And the only reason to shine,
that lamp standing over here in the tabernacle, is shining. And the only thing it's shining
on is that table of showbread, that golden table where Christ
the bread of life is represented, and that altar of incense where
Christ our Savior and His intercession is represented. It shines only
on Him. Oh God, make this light to shine
on the Redeemer. Only on Him. We have no other
purpose. We have no other purpose. I was
talking to a dear friend last night. I got on the phone and
called him, and he started talking. Talking about how bad the shape
the country's in. And he just went on and on and
on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Finally I said,
well, if there's anybody on this earth could convince me the sky's
falling every day, it's you. Turn your eyes away from what
you read in the paper this morning. To Christ crucified, seated on
his throne. Set your eyes only on Him, and
fixing your eyes on Him, you will walk calmly through this
world. Oh, God, give us grace constantly,
constantly to hold before men the light of the gospel, and
to do so shining clearly, the pure light of the pure golden
candlestick of God's free grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. Alright,
turn to Zechariah chapter 4. And let me talk to you for just
a minute about God's interpretation of this. I want you to see that
the things I've been telling you are exactly what God intends
by these things. It won't do you any good at all
to hear me preach and talk about these things and say, well that's
Brother John, he's given us a good lesson. I want you to see, I
want you to see clearly that this golden candlestick and the
light shining forth in this golden candlestick, speak of God's salvation
by Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Now if you'll stop by chapter
3 in the book of Zechariah along the way, you'll see here a picture
of a sinner saved by God's grace, Joshua, the high priest in Israel. The Lord Jesus stood by as Satan
attempts to raise up Moses to accuse Joshua And the Lord Jesus
said, take away his filthy garments and put on him these clean garments. Just as I take away his sin and
make him righteous. And then we get to chapter 4. You remember what I said a minute
ago? If we see the light, it's because
Christ gives us the light. Look at this, chapter 4, verse
1. And the angel that talked with me, came again and waked
me. Imagine. Imagine. Zacharias just had a vision of
God's great grace. God's great salvation. God's
people, described as men wondered at because of His grace upon
them. They'd fall sound asleep. As soon as he speaks, just that
soon we forget, don't we? As soon as the light shines,
just that soon we close our eyes and go to sleep. But bless his name, he still
wakes us from our sleep. And he wakes that we may see.
Look at it. He waked me as a man that is
awakened out of sleep. And he said to me, what seest
thou? Well, if you're like I am, even
if you didn't have to wear glasses, when you wake up in the morning,
got to rub your eyes a few times, and then you see things kind
of fuzzy. And it takes a little while, a couple of cups of coffee
before you start to see things clearly. He said, what do you
see? And Zechariah said, I see a candlestick all of gold. and
a barrel on top of it, and seven lamps thereof, and seven pipes
to the seven lamps which are on top of it. Now, what's the
meaning of all this? What's the meaning of it? Look
at verse four. This candlestick, the light of
it is salvation by grace alone through Christ alone. Verse four. So I answered and spake to the
angel that talked with me, saying, what are these, my Lord? And
the angel that talked with me answered and said to me, knowest
thou not what these be? And I said, no, my Lord. Then
he answered and spake unto me, saying, this is the word of the
Lord unto Zerubbabel. I would have never guessed that,
would you? I would have just never dreamed that. Here's a
candlestick and seven lamps. and the oil, and the lights,
and the knots, and the flowers. What's that picture? Oh, man! Not by might, nor by power, but
by my Spirit, saith the Lord. It's the word of the Lord to
Zerubbabel. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou
shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone
thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came to me, saying, This is what the whole thing means. The hands
of Zerubbabel, our mighty Zerubbabel, Christ the Lord, have laid the
foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. Amen. And that's the message
of the candlestick. Salvation is of the Lord. Amen.