I'd like to read an email I got
this afternoon from Larry Brown concerning Don's status. There
are no plans to move Don from intensive care today. They are
monitoring his kidney functions due to elevated creatins. The urologist has explained that
it's not that unusual in diabetic patients and sometimes was the
resulting effects of the anesthesia. They found him in a great deal
of pain today. Doug attributed that to their
efforts to discontinue the narcotics which are given initially after
major surgery. He was taken for a walk this
morning, which was exhausting. Doug said they were told to expect
good days and bad and will monitor the kidney problems for a while
longer in ICU. Please note, Doug asked that
I relay a request from the nurses and staff in the ICU. Please
do not call the intensive care unit to inquire about Don or
to speak with any of the family. If you feel the need to call,
call Doug's cell phone number, and that's in the church phone
book. He somehow forgot to put that
in here, or didn't put enough numbers in here, so I'm not going
to give it to you. But it's in the church phone book if you want to look
into that. We're remembering him. He's having
a hard day today, I believe. I want you to turn to Exodus
chapter 26 and hold your finger there and look once again at
1 Corinthians chapter 1. I will repeat the verse of scripture
I just read, Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. That is our subject. We preach Christ crucified. We don't just preach Christ.
We preach Christ crucified. We don't just speak of the crucifixion,
we preach Christ crucified. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter
2, And our brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God,
for I determined, I made this my resolve, not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This was Paul's
only subject, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Do you know any
message where this is not the subject? Is error. Is wrong. Whatever the subject
is, it may be, it must have this as its foundation, Christ crucified. Now, with that in mind, turn
to Exodus chapter 26. Let's begin reading in verse
15. I've entitled this message, Golden
Boards and Silver Sockets. Beginning in verse 15, and thou
shalt make boards for the tabernacle of Shittemwood. Standing up,
ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a
half shall be the breadth of one board. two tenons, or pegs,
shall there be in one board, set in order one against another. Thus shalt thou make for all
the boards of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make the boards
for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side, southward,
and thou shalt make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards,
two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets
under another board for his two tenons. And for the second side
of the tabernacle, on the north side, there shall be twenty boards,
And therefore, he saw that the silver to sockets under one board
and two sockets under another board and for the size of the
tabernacle westward, that shall make six boards and two boards
shall now make for the corners of the tabernacle and the two
sides. And they should be coupled together beneath and they should
be coupled together above the head of it into one ring. They
shall be for them both. They should be for the two corners
and they should be eight boards and their sockets of silver,
sixteen sockets, two sockets under one board and two sockets
under another board, and thou shalt make bars of shittum wood,
five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle and five
bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five
bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle for the two
sides westward. And the middle bar in the midst of the board
shall reach from end to end, and thou shalt overlay the boards
with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars,
and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold, and thou shalt rear
up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was
showed thee in the mount." Now our task, our responsibility,
is to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified from this passage
of scripture. I've entitled this message Golden
Boards and Silver Sockets. The golden boards are the person
of Christ. The silver sockets represent
the work of Christ, and you're going to see that, Lord willing,
by the time this message is over. Now in the tabernacle, you had
a courtyard with a cloth fence around it. And in the courtyard,
you had a building with two rooms, the Holy Place and the Holy of
Holies. It was a tent. We considered the coverings of
this tent last week. And this was a movable building,
and it had a framework made of golden boards, boards roughly
15 feet long. and two and a half feet wide,
made of chitim wood, a very hard wood, and they were covered with
gold. Now this represents the two natures
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wood represents His human
nature. Jesus Christ is a real man, bone
of our bones and flesh of our flesh. And the gold represents
His divine nature. His deity, Jesus Christ, is God. Now, each one of these boards
had two tenons or pegs that would fit into silver sockets, which
served as a foundation for these boards. That's how they would
stand up. They were plates of silver. They would weigh about 100 pounds
a piece. If you look at how much silver was used in making these
things, they were plates with sockets in them and the boards,
those pegs, would be placed in those sockets and that's how
they would stand up. The foundation was made of silver. When Israel traveled, they would
carry the foundation, the boards and so on, with them. And these
silver sockets, there's close to 100 silver sockets all together,
they weighed something over 5 tons. 10,000 pounds of silver. That's what
was used for the foundation. Now the question is, where did
this silver come from? That's a lot of silver. 10,000
pounds. Five tons of silver. Where did they get all of this
silver? Would you turn with me to Exodus
chapter 38? That question is answered. Verse 25. And the silver of them that were
numbered of the congregation. Was 100 talents. And 1703 scored and 15 shekels
after the shekel of the sanctuary. Now this is talking about the
atonement money that was collected when a census was taken. A beaker
for every man that is a half a shekel after the shekel of
the sanctuary for everyone that went to be numbered from 20 years
old and upward. for 600,000 and 3,000 and 550
men. And of that hundred talents that
was collected in this atonement money of silver were cast the
sockets, the foundation of the sanctuary and the sockets of
the veil, a hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent
for a socket. Now this silver came from the
atonement money. This served as the foundation
of the entire tabernacle. This is what held it all together.
The atonement money. Would you turn with me to Exodus
chapter 31? Let's read about this. Verse 11. I'm sorry, Exodus 30. Verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
this is while he was speaking to him on top of Mount Sinai.
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, when you
take a census after their number, then shall they give every man
a ransom for his soul unto the Lord. When thou numbers them,
that there be no plague among them, when thou numbers them.
Now if they would take a census without collecting this atonement
money, a plague would come. This they shall give Everyone
that passes among them that are numbered hath a shekel. We just
read about that in Exodus 38, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
A shekel is 20 giras, and a half shekel shall be the offering
of the Lord. Everyone that passeth among them
that are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give an offering
unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more.
And the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when they
give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your
souls. Now, when a census was taken,
everybody that was included in the census had to give atonement
money. Every single one of them. And
they all gave the same thing. Didn't matter whether you were
rich. Didn't matter whether you were poor. You gave the same thing,
the same redemption price. And there would be a plague if
they were numbered without the atonement. If you counted someone
an Israelite without the atonement, a plague would come in. Now what
this reminds us of is the only way you can number a true Israelite,
a true child of God, is through the atonement. Not just counting
heads. Through the atonement. That's what makes somebody a
true child of God. The atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn
over to 2 Samuel 24. Hold your finger there in Exodus
and turn to 2 Samuel 24. Look in verse one. And again, the anger of the Lord
was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to
say, go number Israel in Judah. So David had it in his mind to
take a census of the children of Israel. Now look in verse
nine of the same chapter. And Joab gave up the sum of the
number of the people unto the king, and they were in Israel
eight. 100,000 valiant men that drew the sword. And the men of
Judah were 500,000 men, 1.3 million men. And David's heart smote
him after that he'd numbered the people. And David said unto
the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done. And now
I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant,
for I have done very foolishly. Now what did he do that was so
foolish? You go on reading in this passage of Scripture, God
killed 70,000 men because of this sin. What did He do that
was so foolish? He numbered the people without
the atonement money. He counted the Misery Israelites
without the atonement money, without the ransom, without the
redemption, without the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
remember, in this atonement money, the redemption was an exact price. The rich paid no more. The poor
paid no less. Nothing more, nothing less for
my salvation than the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what is required. That's what God is looking for.
The atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. His bloody death. That's
what makes me a true Israelite. No goodness or merit in me. Not
because I deserve to be. Not even because I ask to be.
but because of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
my sin was placed upon Him. He suffered the wrath of God
in my place. His righteousness is given to me. That's what His
atonement is. His atonement puts away sin. And because of His
atonement, I am counted a true child of God. Everybody paid
the same thing. Over 600,000 men paid this. Thus, you had a huge amount of
silver. And from this silver, this atonement
money, we find the foundation of the tabernacle. So you can
see right off the bat, the golden boards, Christ, the silver sockets
crucified. Christ crucified the very foundation
of our salvation. So we see that silver represents
the atonement, the redeeming work of Christ. Now, as far as
construction was concerned, iron would have done, brass would
have done, Copper would have done. They could have made just
as good a foundation as silver, couldn't they? Maybe they would
have made better foundations. Maybe those metals are harder.
But, and it would have been a lot cheaper that way. They would
have saved a bunch of money if they would have just used iron. But
it would have destroyed the type. Christ crucified. The golden boards, the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the silver sockets, the atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's go back for a moment
to these boards. Wood covered with gold, representing the two
natures of Christ joined in one person. You know, I don't know
of anything that I enjoy talking more about. And I believe that
I could talk about this every time I preach. And I hope to
get excited about it. The person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's gold. He's God. He is absolute deity. Jesus Christ is God the Son. The scripture says in Philippians
chapter 2 that he thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. He thought it not a thing to
be grasped, to be equal with God. Now what if I said to you, I think it not robbery to be
equal with God. You would think that's the most
blasphemous thing you could say about yourself. And it would
be me equal with God. flesh. But the Lord Jesus Christ
thought it not robbery to be equal with God for this one reason. He was and is equal with God
because He is God. He thought it not robbery and
not a thing to be grasped for to be equal with God. He said,
He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. He didn't say, it's
just as if you saw the Father. He didn't say, I'm a whole lot
like the Father. He said, if you've seen Me, you've
seen the Father. Listen to this Scripture from
Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. Unto us a child is born. Speaking
of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But unto us a son
is given. That son wasn't born. That son was given. He's the
eternal Son. And His name shall be called. Wonderful. Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father. That's said of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I can't explain that, I just believe it. The Everlasting
Father. The Prince of Peace. All that God is, He is. Every attribute of God resides
in the person of Christ. Every attribute. Holiness. Absolute
moral purity. Sovereignty. He's in absolute
control. Omnipotence. He's all-powerful.
Everything that God is, Jesus Christ is. Do you believe that?
I surely do. He is. I love what Thomas said unto
him, My Lord and my God, in him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead in a body. Now this one who is God is a
real man. The son who was given is also
the child that was born. Turn with me to Hebrews 10 for
a moment. Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 5, wherefore, Hebrews 10, verse
5, when he cometh into the world, now he was before he came into
the world, he's the eternal son, but there was a time when he
came into the world. When he cometh into the world,
he says, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body,
a human body, flesh and bones has thou prepared me. and burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God." Now Christ is the eternal
Son, who is the great I am that I am, but He didn't become a
man until some 2,000 years ago. There was a time when He took
on flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He has all the limitations of
the flesh that you and I have as a man. Now, He's God. But you think of when He walked
upon this earth in John 4, Jesus. being wearied with this journey. How many people here are weary
right now? You've had a hard day. He was weary too. He had all the limitations of
the flesh. Sin accepted. He never sinned. He never sinned. But he had all
the limitations of the flesh. Amen. The Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. Now Christ is flesh and blood,
a real Now, here's my question. Why did God become a man? It's a good question, isn't it? Why would He want to? He's God. Why did God become a man? I don't think I could ask a more
important question than that. Well, if men are going to be saved,
God had to become a man. That's the answer to that question.
You and I would not be saved unless God became a man. Now, I want you to listen real
carefully. Zero in as much as you can. A holy God cannot pardon
a sinner without his justice being fully honored. And the
penalty of the broken law executed. Now, he's not going to just let
sin go unpunished. If he says thou shalt not and
you do it, the punishment must be exacted. He can't be God and
not be that way. He's just. It must be that way. A God who can pardon without
justice may one day condemn without reason. A God who can set aside
his righteousness may one day set aside his mercy. A God who
can deny his law may one day deny his gospel. A God who can
change his character may one day change and deny his promise
and not have anything to do with us. God is holy. Now, how can this holy God whose
law must be honored How can He embrace me when I've broken His
law? How can He embrace me when I'm
a sinner? How can He embrace me when in
and of Myself there's nothing there to embrace? I'm sinful,
unholy before Him. How can this holy God embrace
me and love me and accept me and receive me? How can He do
it? You see, God can only be satisfied
with that which is equal to Him. He can't be satisfied with anything
less. So how can He be satisfied with me? A man can't satisfy
God. Man sinned, man must die, but
man's death cannot satisfy God. Why is that? You know, I got
a letter from a guy just this week, and he said to me he doesn't
believe in eternal punishment. He doesn't believe anybody is
going to go to hell. And, well, you're not going to
get that out of the scriptures. But why is it? There is such a thing
as hell. I don't even like talking about
it. I don't like thinking about it. But it's the truth. It's
found in the Word of God. And hell is eternal. It lasts
forever. It's never ending. After billions
of years, it hasn't even begun. Why is that? Because no man can
satisfy the justice of God. Sin is an infinite evil committed
against an infinite God, and therefore man must suffer infinitely.
He can't satisfy the justice of God. He can't do it. Man cannot
satisfy. God can only be satisfied with
God. But there's a problem here. God
can't die. He's God. He's life. God can't
die. Man cannot satisfy. God cannot
die, but the God-man did both. He died. And that's the most
mysterious thing to me, to think that Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, the God-man, He died. And He satisfied God. That's
why God raised Him from the dead. God was completely satisfied
with what He did. That's why God became a man. to satisfy himself and to save
sinners like you and I. Now these golden sockets, or
these golden boards, the deity and the humanity of the Lord
Jesus Christ were set inside these silver plates, these foundations
with sockets in them that the boards would be held up in that
were made of the atonement money. Now, it's the redeeming work
of Christ that tells us who the God-man is. You know, his redemption,
this foundation of silver, this atonement. It tells us who God
is. It tells us who Jesus Christ
is. Now, I want you to think about this. God. God. What can you and I know of God
apart from the atonement of Christ? Apart from Christ crucified,
what can we know of God? Now, I can see the beautiful
sky. I can see this creation. And
I can see that God's mighty powerful. And I can see his providence.
And I can see he's good. He's good. There are things I
can see regarding God without the cross. But what would we
ever know of the love of God without the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ? God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. What would we know of the
justice of God without the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? God
is so just, he's going to punish all sin, even for sin found on
his Son. That's so mysterious to me, how
Jesus Christ can actually become sin. He became guilty. The sins
of God's people were placed upon him. He bore them. They became
his. He was guilty before God. And
God wouldn't let him go free. He cried from the cross, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because God is just. He had
it coming. He deserved it. We see his God's
justice in the cross of Christ. We see God's wisdom in the cross
of Christ. Now, He's made a way to be just,
and yet justify somebody like me? Oh, how we see the wisdom
of God in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every attribute
of God, His mercy, is seen in the atoning work of Christ. Now, this is an amazing thought.
The subject of the eternities. And I'm saying this out of human
weakness. I know there's no such thing as eternity past and eternity
future because time is not involved in eternity. This is just to
help us in our weakness. The eternity past, back before
there was time, what was the subject? Revelation 13, 8 calls
him the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That was the subject
in eternity past. What's the subject of eternity
future when this thing is wrapped up? What are we going to be singing
of? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. That's the subject of
the eternities. It's something that took place
in time. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ. All God is is seen in Christ
crucified. Now, redemption. This atoning work. It's the foundation
of who God is, but this atoning work is the foundation of our
relationship with him. I just thinking about this gave
me a lot of comfort. I hope it gives you some comfort
to just throw up my soul to think about this. You see, without
redemption, there is no relationship with the living God. I love what
Job said. They tell me Job's the oldest
book in the Bible. What did he say concerning The Lord Jesus
Christ, He said, I know my who? My Redeemer. I know my Redeemer
liveth. The only hope I have is that
He's my Redeemer, that He redeemed me, that He did something for
me. This is the very foundation of our relationship with God.
Now, God is pleased with me. He really is. He looks at me
and He smiles. He looks at me and He's satisfied. He looks at me and He sees nothing
but that which He is pleased with. How can that be? God is
pleased with me for one reason, the propitiation, the redeeming
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. I don't have to give
another reason. The redeeming work of Christ
on the cross. It's only His blood that makes
me holy and unblameable. and unreprovable in the very
sight of God. You see, His blood washed away
my sin. That's what His blood accomplished. That's why I can
stand before God perfect, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love the Passover. God said, when I see what? I'll pass over you. What did
He say? When I see your faith? When I see how sorry you are?
When I see how you intend to never do that again? When I see
how much you can help me and how much you can benefit me and
you can win me and influence people for me and all. Did he
say anything like that? What did he say? What's the one
thing he was looking for? One thing. When I see the blood,
the blood of my dear son, I will pass over you. That's the foundation
of why God sees me as holy. That's the one reason He is pleased
with me. Our confidence is found in His
redemption. Now, I have confidence. Listen
to me carefully. I have confidence in nothing
but a successful redemption. You see, when Jesus Christ died
on the cross, He didn't just make salvation possible depending
on whether I do something to make it work. That wouldn't do
me any good because I can't do anything to make it work. I can't
and you can't either. I don't have any confidence in
salvation made available because that won't do me any good. He
didn't make salvation possible. He didn't make salvation available.
He redeemed. When He said it is finished,
the salvation of everybody He died for was signed, sealed,
and delivered. That's what I have confidence
in, a successful redemption. You know, in my heart of hearts,
I hate, I hate that teaching that says that Jesus Christ can
die for somebody and pay for their sins, and they'll wind
up in hell anyway if they don't do something to make what He
did work. Let me tell you why I hate that. Because I'll wind
up in hell, that's true. I know it. The only hope I have
is that what He did is successful. My salvation was accomplished. It places the burden of salvation
not on the sinner, but on the Redeemer. And that's where I
want it, don't you? His abiding with us and not leaving
us is found in His redemption. I got another letter from a fellow
this week. And bless his heart. He said,
looking to Christ, don't we become less sinful, less sinful, less
sinful, I mean, doesn't don't we become less sinful? No. You see, the old nature does
not become less sinful. It doesn't happen. And God doesn't
abide with me. Christ doesn't abide with me
because I progressively become less sinful and less sinful and
more and more holy because I become more pleasing to God. That's
not why He abides with me. He abides with me because the blood
is always fresh. It's always new. It's always
powerful before Him. It's just freshly slain. That's why He abides with me. When I say that, oh, I don't want to sin anymore.
I don't want to displease my Lord. I want to honor Him in
everything I say and do. But that doesn't have anything
to do with why He abides with me. He abides with me because
of the blood of His dear Son. And our abiding in Him is because
He's our Redeemer, we just can't leave this first Peter 118. You were redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. His blood is precious to God,
isn't it? And it's precious to me. It all
his precious blood. That's that's what keeps me abiding
with him. This is the very foundation of
our theology. Now, you listen to me. I've said
this four or five times. Listen to me carefully, but please
do. Please do. Doctrinally, this
is the foundation of everything we believe. If you're wrong on
the atonement, you're wrong on it all. I said wrong on the fall,
wrong on it all. That's true, but this is just
as true. Wrong on the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you're wrong on it all. This is the very foundation of
our theology, our doctrine. But experimentally, this is The
foundation always as our hope. My hope is it never goes beyond
this. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. As far as my experience, this
is it right here. This is what makes me happy right
now. This is what makes me rejoice right now. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. And practically,
listen to this scripture, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20, for you are bought
with a price. You're bought with a price. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Is the blood of Christ
enough to cause you because of the completeness of His blood,
to give yourself lock, stock, and barrel to Him. Paul said, God forbid that I
should lower Him, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Golden boards and silver sockets. We preach Christ crucified. Amen. Let's pray.