with me if you will to Exodus
chapter 25, Exodus chapter 25. And when you found your place
there, turn to Leviticus chapter 24. you might be able to just
fold the leaves of your Bible open and hold both places open
at the same time. All right now, listen carefully. I want these things fixed in
your mind as we read what God the Holy Spirit tells us here
about the table of showbread. These statements I pray he will
stamp on your heart. If you believe on the Son of
God, if you trust Jesus Christ, you are numbered among God's
elect, loved and chosen of God from
eternity, called by his grace, redeemed by the precious blood
of Christ our Savior. Second, all God's elect, that means you,
if you believe on the Son of God, are in Christ. Oh, wondrous mystery. One with
Christ. As truly one with Christ, as
He is one with the Father, as truly one with Him, as His humanity
is one with His deity, and as permanently one with Christ. Number three, if we're in Christ,
if you believe on the Son of God, you are accepted in Christ. accepted of God. Accepted in Christ, with Christ,
and for Christ's sake. But more, accepted as Celeste
just sang, as Christ himself. God forgive me. for ever letting
anything take my heart away from that fact. One with Jesus Christ
my Savior, I am as holy as God's own Son, with His sparkless garments
on, as holy as the Holy One. Number four, If we are in Christ, accepted
by God, being God's elect, we are supplied and provided for
constantly by Christ Jesus the Lord. That provision we have
of daily bread, of health, of strength, of physical strength
and spiritual strength and mental strength, of physical health
and spiritual health, all that we have, we have by the supply
of our Redeemer in exact proportion to the measure of His grace every
day. I'm just as hungry as He makes
me. and just as full. I'm just as weak as He makes
me and just as strong. All our supply is according to
the measure of His grace. Number five, we are secure in Him. If I'm one with Christ He's the
head, I'm the body, I'm as safe as the head is. Mr. Spurgeon used to say frequently,
the body can't drown as long as the head's above water. All
is well, Christ is on his throne. Number six, being one with Christ,
we are made kings and priests unto God. We are God's priesthood. We don't recognize any priest
between us and God. And we denounce with every fiber
of our being all pretense of priestcraft by papists and Mormons
and any other group of people who speak of a mortal man as
a priest. But we need no priest except
Christ Jesus the Lord. For we are ourselves priests
unto God, a royal priesthood, that is a kingly priesthood.
Priests are men who live about the sanctuary and do business
continually day by day in the sanctuary with God Almighty on
His throne. And number seven, all of us as
God's elect, If we're His. If you're God's and I'm God's.
If you trust Him and I trust Him. If you're in Christ and
I'm in Christ. If you're washed in the blood
of Christ and I'm washed in the blood of Christ. Doesn't matter
whether you're learned or unlearned. Doesn't matter whether you're
black or white, male or female. Doesn't matter whether you're
from China or from America. If we are in Christ, all God's
elect in Christ are one. in him. One church, one brotherhood,
one family, one kingdom, a kingdom of priests unto God. Now, with
that in mind, I want you to look with me at Exodus 25, verses
23 through 30. Our subject tonight is the table
of showbread. Now these verses contain the
instructions that God gave to Moses about building the tabernacle
and the furnishings of the tabernacle. And here he gives instruction
about the table of showbread. You'll remember that there were
three pieces of furniture in the first section of the tabernacle.
If you want to look at it after the service is over, the larger
sections of the tabernacle, the outer sanctuary. As the priest
walked into that first curtain, behind the first curtain The
first thing he would see back against the curtain that separates
the holy place from the most holy place. The first thing he
would see would be the golden altar of incense. On his left
side, he would see the golden candlestick representing Christ,
the light of the world. And on his right side would be
this golden table, a table made of shidom wood, overlaid with
pure gold, and sitting on it would be two stacks of bread,
two stacks of loaf bread, six loaves to a stack, and on top
of that, a little incense. Let's read about it. Exodus 25,
23. Thou shalt also make a table
of shittum wood, that's a wood much like our cedar, not subject
to decay and rot, two cubits, about 36 inches, shall be the
length thereof, and a cubit, about 18 inches, the breadth
thereof, and a cubit and a half, about 27 inches, the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with
pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. Put a crown all the way around
this thing. A crown of gold round about,
verse 25, and thou shalt make unto it a border of a handbreadth
round about and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border
put some crown molding all the way around the border of it a
golden crown to the border thereof round about verse 26 and thou
shalt make for it four rings of gold and put the rings in
the four corners that are on the four feet thereof over against
the border shall the rings be for places of the staves, staves
to bear the table, staves by which when the children of Israel
would move from place to place the priest would pick up this
table and carry it from place to place. Verse 28, and thou
shalt make the staves of Shittim wood, and overlay them with pure
gold, that the table may be borne with them. And thou shalt make
the dishes thereof, and the spoons thereof, and covers thereof,
and bowls thereof, to cover with all of pure gold shalt thou make
them. Verse 30. And thou shalt sit
upon the table showbread before me always. Turn to Leviticus 24 now. In
Exodus 25, we have the physical description of the table of showbread. The exact same description is
given again in Exodus 37. Here in Leviticus 24, the Spirit
of God shows us the instructions Aaron was given concerning this
table and the bread that was upon it, beginning at verse 5.
And thou shalt take fine flour and bake twelve cakes thereof. two-tenth deals shall be in one
cake, and thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon
the pure table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense
upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial,
even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every Sabbath
He shall set it in order before the Lord continually. Now get
the picture. The priest must come in every
Saturday, early in the morning, and he sets fresh-baked bread
on the table. And as the next Saturday morning
rolls around, the priest comes in, and some priests take the
bread off the table, and as quickly as they take it off, another
sets 12 more fresh-baked loaves of bread on the table. so that
the table is never without bread on it. Sitting there for a memorial
to the Lord continually, it's bread that is being taken from
the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. Verse 9,
And it shall be Aaron's and his sons, and they shall eat it in
the holy place. They don't take it out of that
holy place. Eat it right there in the holy place. For it is
most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a
perpetual statute. Now, this golden table of showbread
and the showbread that is on the table is full of instruction
concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and God's free grace in Him.
Let's look at the picture. First, I want you to see that
this golden table is itself typical of our Redeemer. We're told that
this table is called the table of showbread in Numbers chapter
4. That word showbread might be better translated presence
or bread of presence. It is the table of God's presence. The table set in God's presence. The table where God is present. The table at which God shows
forth his presence. It speaks of Christ ever present
with God and ever present with us. Ever present with God as
our representative and mediator, and us ever present with God
in Him. So that there never was a time,
even before time began, when Jesus Christ did not stand forth
as our surety, our mediator, and our representative in the
presence of God. Before the world was, We stood
before God in Him. And He stood before God as our
Mediator. When Adam came into this world
by God's creation, when he sinned against God in the garden and
the whole race fell in Him, nothing changed. We still stood before
God in our Mediator, accepted in the Beloved. We came forth
from our mother's womb speaking lies, Nothing changed. I'll show you in a few moments
that even when the ten northern tribes of Israel had departed
from the Lord and had separated themselves from the rest of the
children of Israel, there were still twelve loaves on the table
in the temple because God's Israel is ever safe and there's never
any diminishing of the security of God's Israel. We stood before
Christ, before God in Christ even in the days of our rebellion.
And now We stand before God in His presence, always accepted,
always the delight of our God in Christ Jesus the Redeemer.
And the materials of this table clearly speak of the Lord Jesus.
It's made of Shittam wood, a wood like our cedar that doesn't rot,
that doesn't decay. Now, I suppose, technically,
I haven't investigated it, so I'm just supposing. I suppose
in time, Cedar will actually rot. By some way or another,
it will actually decay. I don't know that that's the
case. But it portrays Him in whom is no corruption, Jesus
Christ, our Savior, the perfect man. That man who is without
sin, who knew no sin. Though he was made sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, still his perfect
humanity saw no corruption. For when he was laid in the grave,
the psalmist cried, or our Lord Jesus, speaking through the psalmist,
said, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. Thou wilt not suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption. Before his body could ever see
corruption, our Lord Jesus was raised up out of the grave. so
that even though sin has corrupted God's creation, and sin corrupts
us, and corrupts our bodies, and corrupts everything we do,
and at last these bodies shall rot in the grave, sin itself
makes no corruption upon our substitute who sacrificed himself
to put away sin. But this Shittim wood is overlaid
with pure gold. Overlaid with pure gold so that
The two are made one, and that speaks of our Lord's deity, His
perfect divinity. He, in the incarnation, took
into everlasting perpetual union with Himself our nature, so that
He is the God-man, our mediator, and the table, wearing a crown
of pure gold, speaks of our Lord Jesus in his exaltation and glory
as our mediator and as our great king. Our Lord God from eternity
determined that Christ should have the preeminence and from
eternity gave him preeminence. Even before he is sacrificed
as our substitute, the Lord God turned all creation over to him,
and he is made king over all things. And now that he has suffered
and died in our stead, the Father has openly and publicly given
all things into his hand, making him ruler over all things. Second,
don't fail to observe the place where this table of showbread
stood. It stood in the presence of God in the holy place in the
tabernacle stood before him continually as bread fit for God, bread offered
to God, bread honored of God, bread accepted of God. It stood there symbolically as
the bread of God. Hold your hands here and turn
to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. You might want to put something
there as well. We'll be back here in a few minutes. Verse 33. This is a, at first, seems to
be a strange statement. For the bread of God is He which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Now the Lord Jesus is himself
the bread of life as we'll see in a minute. But here he's called
the bread of God. Is he bread to God as he is bread
to us? Looks like that's what he's saying.
Bread. That which is necessary for the
sustaining and satisfying of our lives. He is the bread of
God. That which feasts, delights,
and gives satisfaction to the triune God is Jesus Christ, our
crucified Redeemer. Look at the loaves. Back in Exodus
25. We're told that these 12 cakes,
these 12 loaves of bread were to be set upon this golden table,
verse 30. Thou shalt set upon the table
showbread before me all way. This showbread is described in
more detail in Leviticus 24. It's the reason I read it to
you earlier. 12, that's the number of God's
elect, the number of God's Israel. The 144,000 that John saw are
multiples of 12. Those that are gathered around
the throne of God in heaven at last, standing before God with
the Lamb, these are God's elect. Now without question, these 12
loaves typify the Lord Jesus, the bread of life, as we shall
see. But the fact that the bread is
here specifically required, required to be set in 12 loaves, not one
loaf. But twelve loaves sitting side
by side makes it clear that the loaves represent God's elect,
we who are in Christ Jesus. The twelve tribes of Israel thus
represented. The twelve names inscribed upon
Aaron's breastplate. The twelve stones of the altar
that was erected by Joshua when Israel crossed over the river
Jordan. There were twelve stones in Elijah's altar at Mount Carmel
before the prophets of Baal. Twelve apostles, twelve gates
to the city. and twelve foundations of the
New Jerusalem. The twelve loaves then in the
holy place upon this table before God tells us symbolically that
the high priest of God has an abundant supply for all whose
names are inscribed on his breastplate and therefore none shall ever
perish. Our Savior says in our Father's
house is bread enough and to spare. He is that meal of wheat, or
that barrel of meal that you just keep dipping into and pulling
out meal every day with a boundless, infinite supply to fill every
need of your soul. He is that cruise of oil that
never fails. Our Lord Jesus is the abundant
supply of His people. Did you notice in Leviticus 24
that the Lord required that each loaf be made, if you're looking
at it, Leviticus 24 verse 5, each loaf be made with two-tenth
deals. Two-tenth deals of fine flour. What is that? Two omers. That's still not a good measurement
for you and I today. Let me give you a hint. An omer was what the children
of Israel were allowed to gather for their necessary food every
day of the manna. Every day. What do you need to
live every day? An omer of manna. That's all. No more, no less. But this bread
This bread sitting on the table of showbread, each cake is made
of twice that amount, so that in each cake there is double
the provision that any man needs for his constant provision day
by day. Where sin abounded, grace does
continually much more abound. There is infinitely more grace
and mercy and goodness and love in Christ Jesus the Lord than
you and I can ever need. Infinitely more. Infinitely more. But it's there just for us. All the supply of grace is infinite. All the supply of heaven's glory
is infinite so that we have a continual infinite supply in Christ Jesus. This is bread placed here specifically
in the outer part of the sanctuary, in the outer sanctuary, placed
here for the priest to deal with. placed here by the priest, placed
here by the hands of the priest, and feeding the priest. This
is bread then for folks who need it, for those who are made priest
unto God. Who are they? Any who hunger
for this bread have been made hungry by God himself. Are you hungry to be righteous
before God? Hungry to be accepted of God? Hungry for peace in your soul
from God? Hungry for God's smile? Do you thirst for peace, joy,
and satisfaction from heaven itself? If so, this bread is
for you. are one of those described by
our God as that holy priesthood. Our Lord Jesus came here specifically
to save sinners. To save sinners whom he makes
to be kings and priests unto God. This is the priest bread. It's God's provision for his
priest. And it is that provision which
is dispensed by the hand of his priest. There's much to be said
with this regard, but suffice it to say this much. This bread
is provision for God's servants, so that those who preach the
gospel are to live of the gospel. But that which is represented
here, the salvation of God's elect, is Christ's bread so that
it is that which delights the Son as well as the Father and
the same sinner. But still the showbread speaks
to us of Christ who is our bread. If I come to Christ, the bread
of life, and eat him, then indeed I must be one of those who were
described by him as his priest, a chosen generation and royal
priesthood. Have you got your mark in John
chapter 6? Let me show you. John 6 verse 54. We often say
proof's in the pudding. I tried to show you this Sunday
evening. In this case, proof's in the bread. If you eat this
bread, You're one of God's. If you believe on the Son of
God, you're one of these priests for whom the bread is set in
the holy place in the presence of God. John 6, 54, our Savior
says, Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal
life, and I'll raise him up at the last day. how often in the
Scriptures faith in Christ is compared to eating and drinking. We take His blood and we take
His righteousness, His blood and His obedience, His flesh
and His blood, the whole of His life, the whole of His being.
Believing Him, we are found accepted of God. We have eternal life. Verse 55, For my flesh is meat
indeed, Bread indeed, life-sustaining food. My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. As the living Father hath
sent me and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. For he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Oh,
come my soul, eat this bread. There's abundant bread on the
table for all who hunger. Twelve loaves, each loaf, twice
as much as you can take in. The bread sets on the table with
four corners, north, south, east, and west. It's there for sinners
anywhere, everywhere, in all God's universe. It's there on
the king's table. And all of God's people are mephibosheths,
who sit continually at the king's table, lame on both their feet,
but are mangled feet. are covered by the table, and
there we feast continually, accepted of God in Christ Jesus. Two rows
of bread. We're told the bread is set on
the table in these two rows. Aaron, or one of his sons, stands
before this table with the twelve loaves of bread before them,
and Christ Jesus Like one of Aaron's sons or Aaron himself
stands and dispenses the bread to the rest of the priesthood.
And as we go about our lives in this world, walking with God
by faith, walking near to God, we sing, nearer, nearer, my God,
to thee. And indeed, we want a nearer
communion with God experimentally. But nearer we cannot be. We're as near as Christ himself.
and walking by faith in Christ Jesus, we live every day feeding
upon this bread that He gives to His priests, who are priests
unto God in union with Him. The bread was taken from Israel. We're told in Leviticus 24, verse
8, I believe it is. It was taken from Israel as an
offering from them. meal offering taken from Israel.
Why would God require that Moses take this fine flower from the
children of Israel? So that we would be made to see
by picture and we would be reminded continually that Jesus Christ
our Savior is one of us. The sacrifice God accepts is
one of us. Thou hast laid help upon one
that is mighty, the psalmist said. Thou hast exalted one chosen
out of the people. Turn to Hebrews chapter 5. Let
me show you the significance of this. I try my best to remind you,
and believe me, what I remind you of, I try to remind myself
of. And to remind you and me often
that Christ Jesus is a real man. And I tell you why I keep trying
to remind myself. And to remind you, because He
who is one of us knows everything that affects us. Look at how
God describes His manhood in Hebrews chapter 5. It began in
chapter 2, describing the Lord Jesus who was made a man. Made
a little lower there, actually in chapter 1 verse 9. Then it
goes right on through the 7th chapter. But here in verse 1
of chapter 5, every high priest taken from among men. You see
that? Every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Because
he is taken from men, for men, he can have compassion on the
ignorant. on them that are gone out of
the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. We have not an high priest who
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He was in
all points tempted like as we are, though without sin, And
being a man taken from among men, he has compassion upon us
poor ignorant sinners that we are, who go out of the way continually,
who continually sin against him, who continually experience trials
and heaviness and sorrows such as he experienced. And he is
touched with that which touches us. My soul, remember that and cease
to murmur. Remember and cease to complain.
Remember and ever walk before God with confident faith. He who is our priest in heaven,
who rules the universe for us, who intercedes for us continually
at the Father's right hand, is in all points one who was touched
with the feeling of our infirmities because he has felt our infirmities. He was weary, sat at the well. He was hungry and took bread. He was thirsty and said, give
me some water. He was tired and laid down and
rested. He was fearful and he cried to
God. He was forsaken. He was abandoned. He was slandered. He was maligned. He bare our sicknesses, our diseases,
and our sins in his own body. Oh, blessed Son of God, one with
me, yet God forever in humanity. And then this bread. Each row of bread, each stack
of cakes, had on top of it some frankincense. And the bread was offered to
God as a burnt sacrifice. The frankincense continually
rising In God's presence, acceptable, sweet smell. When I was in college,
some of the boys, I don't know what they were doing in their
dorms. Some of you might be suspicious. But in the rooms right across
from me, burned frankincense all the time. I know what it
covers. But they burned it all the time.
And it smelled good. It just smelled good. Made that
which otherwise would have been obnoxious to the smell, pleasant
to the smell. The air in their room. I don't
know whether they were covering up dirty socks or marijuana,
it doesn't much matter. They were covering something
up. And the fragrance was wonderful. And God Almighty, accepts me,
who would otherwise be obnoxious to him, as he accepts his own
son. And he accepts my prayers, and
my songs, and my service, and my faith. He accepts me, all
of me, as sweet, a sweet smelling savor in Jesus Christ. because I'm one with him. This
bread was renewed every week. There's something to be said
there to me as a preacher and to any others who stand before
men to preach. The bread was to be prepared
fresh before it was brought to the tabernacle. You who teach
and preach here, you be sure you do so. And my brethren who
hear this, wherever it's heard, don't bring God's people stale
bread. I don't usually retaliate. I don't usually respond. I just
kind of nod and smile and grin, you know, halfway when folks
say something to me. I heard that sermon before. I've
heard you preach that before. I won't say no you haven't. No
you haven't. I don't dare. I don't dare. I don't dare bring stale bread
to you. I'll call you before service
starts and we'll cancel the service before I do. I promise you. I
don't dare bring stale bread. So I've heard you. deal with
that same subject, that same outline before I got it written
in my Bible. You may have, but I prepared it fresh today. And
if I didn't prepare it fresh today, you're not going to get
it today. I don't dare bring stale bread to you. No, not ever. And I don't dare bring anything
to you except the bread, the bread of God, the bread of life,
Christ Jesus, the Lord. That's what God's servants are
sent to preach. Jesus Christ and him crucified
to feed his people with the bread of heaven. And then this bread
was brought before the people, I'm sorry, brought before the
Lord by his priest on the Sabbath day and set in the holy place. The Lord Jesus was raised from
the dead As it began to dawn, we're told in Matthew 28, verse
1, toward the first day of the week. Quite literally, the word
is, at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the
Sabbath, he was raised from the dead. And this gospel age in
which we live is God's Sabbath day. This is the Sabbath day
of rest in which Christ Jesus is set forth the bread of life
before us. We come together in the house
of God in this Sabbath day and set before you the bread of life
in the gospel of His grace. And the Lord Jesus will at the
end of this day come again and be set forth in all the splendor
of His grace and glory. He's set forth on the table. The table to show the bread. The table where the bread of
life is shown. The table where God shows himself. A gospel table. A feast of fat things, of wine
upon leaves, well refined. The table God prepares for me
in the presence of my enemies, day by day. He sets forth Christ's
bread for the feasting of my soul and to show forth his great
grace and glory. He sets him forth in the Lord's
table we observe continually through this generation. And
soon, there's going to be a feast where God spreads another table
called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb where Christ shall be
set forth in all his majesty and glory. One last thing. These two rows of bread, six
loaves to a row sitting side by side, one on top of the other
on this golden table, suggest something of the blessed unity
and oneness of God's church in Christ. God's Israel is one Israel. God's church is one church. His
people are one people. The cup of blessing, Paul said,
which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
And the bread which we break, is it not the communion, the
fellowship of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread,
one loaf, and one body, for we are all partakers of one bread. One in Christ Jesus. God's Israel
stands forever one. forever one. What does that mean? What does that mean? It speaks
of our unity, our fellowship in the gospel, that which is
our strength, the peace, the way we are to live one for another,
caring one for another, ministering one to another, never for ourselves,
but as a family caring for one another. See if I can illustrate
it. All of us are going to have family again come Thursday. Doug
and Faith and the kids will be here sometime tomorrow evening
and then Thursday they'll go down to his folks. Have to share
them a little. You know what she's doing? You
know what she's been doing all week long? Just getting ready
for them to come and only doing other things necessarily in preparation
for those two grandchildren, that son-in-law and that daughter
of ours. And gets tired. Yeah. Sometimes you don't have
to go out in the rain to get groceries. Go get them. Stay
up in the night after they go to bed and take care of things
so they can be ready for them next morning. You mamas know
what that is. And wouldn't have it any other
way. How come? Because this is family. This
is family. This is family. This is family. God's people
everywhere is family. God, give me grace and give you
grace to live for the family, to work for the family, to labor
for the family, to do good to the family, to walk with the
family until at last all the family is gathered together in
heaven's glory. And indeed, the family shall
be. I don't have time to show you, but you can look at 1 Chronicles
13. The ten northern tribes separated
themselves from Israel. Looks like the nation is destroyed.
And you know what? It was. The physical nation. But God always intended for that
physical nation to be destroyed. But the purpose of God according
to election still stands. and all Israel shall be saved. And while the ten northern tribes
had abandoned the worship of God and abandoned the people
of God, they still set twelve loaves on the table all the time,
because none of God's elect shall perish. All God's elect shall
be with Christ in glory. He, we're told, has a name. His name is Jesus and the table
of showbread declares he shall save his people from their sins. Amen.