We'll begin reading in Hebrews
chapter 9 and verse 1. Then verily the first covenant
had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. 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. This morning we're going to look
just simply at the first room in the tabernacle. And as I was
preparing for this, since this is the first lesson that we've
had since the first Sunday when we observed the Lord's Table,
I wanted to do just a little review with you. And this is
something that the Hebrew letter teaches in which I hope that
everybody's seeing is the case with the whole Bible. And it
is that everything that's spoken in this book is concerning the
excellency of Christ Jesus the Lord, the preeminency of Christ
Jesus the Lord. I'll go through what we've seen
thus far in this study. We saw in the very first chapter
that in times past God spoke of His Son through the prophets. But ever since Christ came, He
speaks to us Himself. He spoke with His lips when He
walked this earth, and He speaks to us now through the Spirit.
The angels are His ministers, but they're below Him, ruled
by Him, bowed to Him, and serve Him. He's one with His brethren. He's the Elder. He's one with
those that He redeemed, sanctified. But we bow to Him. Through death
he purged his people of sin, and sin itself is the power of
death, and therefore by purging sin he destroyed the devil and
his power. That's the only power he had.
Moses was an apostle and a high priest as a servant, but Christ
Jesus as a son over his own house. The seventh day, the day of perfection,
when God finished his perfect creation, he rested And we saw
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the day of perfection in whom
God finished perfecting a people and rests. God is satisfied in
his son. We saw that Joshua led a people
into a land called Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.
But the promised land of rest for God's people is the same
one in whom God rests. It's Christ our Lord. He's our
Canaan. He's our milk and our honey Himself. We saw that the earthly high
priest was chosen of God. He didn't take that honor to
himself. He was chosen of God. And he was chosen to offer gifts
and sacrifices for Israel. But we saw how that office met
its fulfillment in our high priest, Christ Jesus the Lord, who was
chosen of God and who offered the gift of his righteousness
and the sacrifice of his own blood to justify us and do something
that the high priest could never do, the earthly high priest.
We saw the order of that mysterious Melchizedek who was both a high
priest and a king, the king of righteousness and the king of
peace. And Christ is made a high priest after that same order.
He's the king priest, having neither beginning of days nor
end of days, nor father nor mother. He's God. He's the king priest. And then we saw how that the
old covenant was given to show sinners that any covenant that's
conditional upon man's obedience will result in our destruction. Because we can't keep up a covenant
with God. We cannot obey a covenant with
God. And therefore, Christ is the
surety of a better covenant established upon better promises. God says,
I shall, I will and they shall. And so because he says, I will,
his people shall be saved. That's a better covenant on better
promises. And it's established in Christ
our surety. And then we come to this chapter
today. And I just want to look at these
first two verses in chapter nine. But let me give you a little
idea of what we're going to see in this chapter. We're going
to see here that everything about the old covenant service and
the tabernacle typified Christ. Is that a surprise to you? That's
what the whole book's been about. Been showing us how Christ is
the end of these things. He's that to which all these
things pointed. And we're going to see that none
of these services, nothing that was done in this tabernacle had
any power whatsoever to purify anybody, to save anybody from
their sin. And we're going to see that Christ,
therefore, is the end appointed by God of all the service and
the tabernacle itself. He's the end of all of it because
He is the very image of which all of these shadows pointed.
He is the substance of these things. Now, in Hebrews 9.1,
it says, Then verily, the first covenant had also ordinances,
ceremonies of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. For
there was a tabernacle made. The Lord said back in Exodus
25.8, He said, Let them make Me a sanctuary. that I may dwell
among them. So this was a tabernacle that
man pitched, that man made just according to the pattern God
gave for them to make. And it was typical of a holy
place where God would meet with his people. And so God set forth
that it has to be a sanctuary, a holy place where I'll meet
with them. The tabernacle itself is a type
of Christ. The whole tabernacle itself.
It is the place that God met. It's where his priests entered
into and it's where they served. Man pitched the first tabernacle. He erected the first tabernacle.
The Lord made the second. We read there in Hebrews 8 too
and it says that that Christ is the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched and not man Now you compare that verse with
Hebrews 10 5 and you can see the meaning there when he cometh
into the world He saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not
but a body hast thou prepared me He's the tabernacle that body
that God prepared The outside of the tabernacle was covered
in badger skins. Have you ever seen a badger?
It's not a very pretty animal. When you think of a beautiful
animal, badgers are not usually the first thing that comes to
mind. You don't see a lot of people in very affluent neighborhoods
wanting to have coats made out of badger skins. But there was
no form, no comeliness about Christ that when we would see
Him, we would desire Him. Outwardly, that tabernacle didn't
look like anything. But inside, it was full of gold
and precious jewels and beautiful to behold. And that's the case
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says, righteousness
shall be the girdle of His loins and faithfulness the girdle of
His reins. Outwardly, There was no form of comeliness about him.
But he was righteous through and through. He's the true tabernacle. But within this tabernacle, there
was two rooms. And this first room is the one
we're going to look at this morning. And everything that was in that
first room is not listed here. We're going to look at just what's
listed here. The first room itself was called a sanctuary. Verse
2, there was a tabernacle made. The first, or the first room
wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. And it's important to understand
that this first room was called the sanctuary, the holy room.
Because it was in this place only that God was pleased to
meet with, or let me say this, it was in this room that God
was pleased to meet only with His priests. Let me tell you
what I mean by that. There was an outer court in the
tabernacle. And anybody could come to this
outer court. Anybody could approach it. But
only God's priests, those that He had chosen and made priests
Himself, only they could enter into this first room. And the meaning of that is, is
anyone can learn of Christ. Anyone can come into an assembly
like we've done here today. Anybody can come to His written
Word and read His written Word. Anybody can learn some truths
about Christ, some doctrine about Christ. But that's coming to
the outer court only. Those whom Christ has made priests
by the power of His grace, they alone are accepted of God and
they alone can enter into Christ Himself and rejoice in Him and
bow to Him and find all their comfort and rest and assurance
in Him. That's what Scripture says He's
done for His people. Revelation 1.5 says, unto Him
that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and
hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him
be glory and dominion forever and ever. He's made His people
priests. We can have communion with Him. We can enter into this holy place. And that holy place is Him. It's
Him. Now, this first room. Let's go into this first room
and look at it. The title of the message is,
The Candlestick, the Table, and the Showbread. the candlestick,
the table, and the showbread. Now, God chooses His priests. He makes them His priests. And
they enter into this holy place, into this sanctuary. And here's
what they find in this sanctuary. Listen. There's first of all,
a candlestick. A candlestick. In that tabernacle,
when you walked into it because it was covered with badger skins
all over. No windows. There was no natural
light at all. No light from the sun. We could
open these windows right here and we have open these curtains
and we have some natural light. There was no windows, no natural
light whatsoever in this tabernacle. The only light was the light
of the candlestick. That was the only light. We can't
have any communion with God by the natural light of our flesh,
by the natural understanding, by the carnal reasoning, we can't
have any communion with God whatsoever. It's got to be His light. We've got to have His wisdom.
The Spirit itself is a part of this type and this candlestick
because when Christ was crucified, You remember, his body, as it
were, were crushed like an olive would be crushed. And when he
ascended, you remember what Peter said on the day of Pentecost.
He has shed forth this which you now hear and see. The Spirit
that poured forth. The oil is a picture of the Spirit
which lit the light. The crushed olive from which
the oil comes is a picture of Christ. They're one together. You can't have one without the
other. And that's the type here in this candlestick is Christ
Jesus the Lord. And then this lamp stand that
held this candlestick was made out of pure gold. This typified
the righteousness of Christ from which the light shines. When
Peter there at the Day of Pentecost said, He shed forth this which
you now see and hear, the conclusion of the matter was, is that God
hath made that same Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and
Christ. He's the sovereign of God's choice. He's the Lord, our righteousness.
Pure gold. No impurities in Him whatsoever. This light has to be pure light.
And the candlestick held seven candles. And the number of seven
in Scripture is the number of perfection. Christ is God, the
light which shines from heaven into the hearts of those that
He's made His priests, revealing in us that Christ Jesus the Lord
is all our perfection. He's all our perfection. That's
the light that we receive. The wisdom of Christ is gives
us the knowledge and understanding that Christ is our all. He's
our sanctification. He's our redemption. He's our
righteousness. He's everything to us. And we
don't only come into that understanding when He shines forth His light.
It can't be by natural light. Natural light will not bow to
it, but by his light we see him and we walk we walk in him No
more stumbling in unbelief. We have his light to walk by
and Then there was a table in here in this in this first room. I Believe that this table was
the table of showbread. It was the table on which the
showbread sat and But the table's significant as well as the bread.
So let's look at the table first The table was made of shitum
wood and it was overlaid in pure gold as well It was overlaid
in pure gold. It was wood overlaid in gold
Christ the lord is both man and god the wood typifying his manhood
and the gold typifying his divinity God's holy and sinners are evil. And if God's going to be just,
his law has got to be satisfied. If he's going to be the justifier,
he's got to be the one that justifies us. In the person of his son,
though God can't die, as a man, he could die. He could lay down
his life. And so the God-man can offer
up an eternal redemption. by laying down his life because
he's both God and man. That's this table. Now let me
give you something here that illustrates the importance of
this table. I was thinking about this. You know, when you have a long
day, we, in our society these days, because of fast food restaurants
and what have you, we don't Sitting down family sitting down at the
table at the end of the day and having a meal together is sometimes
neglected But after a long tiresome day of working We come home and
we sit down as a family together at our table around our table
and right there we fellowship with one another around the table
and Well, at the end of the Lord's abode on this earth, when He
walked this earth, He did that with His disciples. He called
them together, and He sat down around a table, and He made an
ordinance that we refer to as the Lord's table. And we come
together as a spiritual family, Christ's church, and we come
to the Lord's table to gather around the Lord's table, but
really we're coming to Christ. He's the table around which we
gather, where our fellowship is had. He's the table. That's
why I think it gives some more significance when you read a
verse when he says you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and
the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the
Lord's table and of the table of devils. You can take the word
table out. You can't be a partaker of the
Lord and a partaker of the devil. The table is Christ. It's the
table. He's the table. And one day in
glory, the Lord promised this. Remember when He sat there with
them and He said, I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath
appointed unto Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in
My kingdom. Who are we going to gather around?
Is there going to be a physical table there that we're going
to gather around? Or do we gather around, as Scripture
says, we're going to gather around Christ our Lord? He's that table. And that's where we're going
to fellowship. That's where we fellowship now, is around Him. Just like you sit around your
dinner table and fellowship with your family. Well, when we walk
in the light, and when we come together around our table of
communion, the God-man, Christ Jesus our Lord, and we fellowship
with one another in Him and with God, what is it that we dine
upon? What is it we eat? What's on
that table? Showbread. That's what was on the table
was showbread. The term showbread means the
bread of faces or the bread which is ever before God's face. When you come to your table and
you sit down at your dinner table, do you have a favorite meal?
We all have a favorite meal. And I like to see my favorite
meal set before my face often. It brings me great delight to
see my favorite meal set there before me that I can feast on.
Well, the Son of God, Christ the Lord, is the bread which
God is pleased to have set before His face continually. That's the bread He's satisfied
with. And He is that bread which His people love to feast upon
continually as well. Look over at Exodus 25 and verse
30. This is what the Lord told Moses. Thou shalt set upon the table
showbread Before me always It's the bread of faces or the bread
which is ever before God's face And that's why God said put it
there because I want it before my face always Always is God's
choice. It's his favorite that he delights
him and Then when he came to this earth, the Lord said I say
unto you Moses gave you not that bread from heaven But my Father
giveth you the true bread from heaven. He's the show bread. He's the bread God delights in
and the bread God's people delight in. But I want to show you something
else significant about this show bread. Look at Leviticus 24,
5. Leviticus 24, verse 5. Thou shalt take fine flour. This
bread is made out of the best 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. 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 that is the priest
Being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant
Now you look at that first those pathos those few verses and let
me ask you a few questions How many loaves of showbread were
there? There were 12 cakes. Where did this number come from?
How did it come up? What was the significance of
there being 12 cakes there? Look down at the last, right
there, the middle portion of verse eight. It says, this number
was taken from the children of Israel. There was 12 tribes in
Israel. And so there was 12 pieces of
showbread set on this table. And the day that God saves the
last one of his elect children, the whole multitude shall make
up one spiritual Israel. And they'll be made up of, they'll
make up twelve tribes, twelve tribes. And that means there
won't be one lost. Now, why was it that this number
was taken? And why was it that this number
was to be on that table always? Why was that the case? Look at
the last phrase of verse 8. It'll be an everlasting covenant. Now, what does all that mean? It means this. When God shines
His light, the Lord Jesus Christ, our wisdom, into our heart, when
He sits you down from your working to rest at His table where you
can have communion with Him and communion and fellowship with
your brethren that He sat there at that table who is Christ,
you're going to feast on one thing. And that's Christ the
bread from heaven. And the significance of all this
I just pointed out to you is, is there's always going to be
enough bread. God's covenant promise is, you'll
never lack. You'll never run out of bread.
There'll always be enough bread there. Every time you come to
this table, every time you come to His Word, every time you come
into this place, Every time that you go to Him in prayer, and
at last, when you're brought to His throne and seated around
Christ our Lord, there'll never, ever, ever be a lack of bread. You'll always have enough. Christ
is that bread. He's the light, He's the table,
and He's the showbread. God's own Son, Christ Jesus the
Lord. And then next time we'll pick
up there and then we'll look and see what's in the second
room in the temple and how that pictures Christ. All right.