Exodus 25. I am. Truly excited about looking
at the tabernacle now I've always known that the tabernacle pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ, I've always known that I've had the proper
information about it. I've even preached from it before.
But for some reason this time I just see it more. And it's
been a blessing to me, and I pray that the Lord will use this to
cause us to see the Lord Jesus Christ. I've entitled this message,
What Does Christ Look Like? What does Christ look like? You want to know, don't you?
The Lord said in John chapter 17, verse 3, and this is eternal
life. That they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Eternal life is actually knowing
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not simply knowing about Him,
but knowing Him. It's having a relationship with
Him. where He is my Lord. He is my Savior. He is my King. He's my husband. He's my elder
brother. He's my friend. It's a relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ where He knows me and I know Him. If I know Him, I'm not just dropping
His name. I know Him to where He'd say, I know you. Now, this
one that we have this relationship with is also one that we have
never seen. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, verse
8, Whom having not seen, what? Your love. in whom though now
you see him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. Now, although we have never seen
him physically, we still know what he looks like. The Bible
is given to tell us what he whom we love looks like. I just read
that description that John gives of the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation
chapter one. The Bible tells us what he looks
like, and you can't love somebody that you don't know. You can't
have a relationship with somebody that you do not know personally. Now, as I said, the scripture
is given to paint us an actual portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ
so we can see what he looks like. In John chapter 1, verse 14,
we read, and the word, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ,
the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Now that word dwelt
is literally he tabernacled among us. He tabernacled among us. And that's an allusion to the
Old Testament tabernacle. And you know, of all the paintings
that the scripture presented of the Lord Jesus Christ, none
is more detailed or more glorious than that of the tabernacle.
This tabernacle gives us a picture of him whom our soul loves. No, we haven't seen him, but
we see him more clearly than if we saw him physically in this
picture of him that the tabernacle presents. Now look in verses
8 and 9 of Exodus chapter 25. And let them make me a sanctuary. Talking about the tabernacle,
let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. This is what John was alluding
to when he said the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And he says, according to all
that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, And the pattern
of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it. There wasn't any room for freelancing.
God gave specific, exact instructions as to how he wanted this tabernacle
made. And he said to Moses, see that
you make it exactly as I told you. Now, in verses three through
seven, we're given the actual materials that the tabernacle,
the furniture, the priestly garments, the altar and so on is made of. As a matter of fact, he mentions
15 different things. Now let's read verses 3 through
7 together. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them,
gold and silver and brass and blue and purple and scarlet and
fine linen and goat's hair and ramskins dyed red and badger
skins, and shidom wood, oil for the light, spices for anointing
oil, and for sweet incense, onyx stones, and stones to be set
in the ethid, and in the breastplate, and let them make me a sanctuary,
that I may dwell among them." Now here are all the materials
that the tabernacle is made of. Now this tabernacle had a courtyard
roughly 172 feet by 86 feet. It had a fence around it that
was made of white linen and posts with white linen material about
eight and a half feet high. It had a courtyard with a brazen
altar for sacrifices is all that was in the courtyard, a brazen
altar for sacrifice, and then a labor that the priest would
go wash himself in before he entered into the tent, which
is called the Holy Place. There was a tent. It had two
rooms, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Now, in the Holy
Place, there were three different furnitures. There was a table,
there was an altar of incense, and there was a golden candlestick.
And in the Holy of Holies, there was the Ark of the Covenant with
the mercy seat set over it. And the high priest would go
in once a year into the Holy of Holies with blood that he
would put on the mercy seat. Now, as I said, verses 3 through
7 give us the materials of which the tabernacle and the garments
of the priest were made. And in these materials, we're
given a beautiful, beautiful picture and portrait of the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. Now, while we do know Christ,
our knowledge is small, isn't it? You know what Paul meant
in Philippians chapter 3 when he said, Oh, that I may know
Him. Paul, don't you already know Him? Yes, I do already know
Him, but I feel like my knowledge of Him is so minute, so small
compared to what it ought to be and what I want. I don't know
Him the way I want to. You know, when I talk about this
knowledge of Christ, me knowing Him, Him knowing me. I do know
Him. And He does know me. He knows
my name. He knows me. He loves me. But
yet, I still am aware of the fact that my knowledge of Him
is so small. He's so high and holy and glorious. Well, there are 15 different
materials mentioned, all of which show us something of the person
of Christ. And I hope by the end of this
message, Every one of us will know Him better than we did when
we came in here. Wouldn't that be a blessing?
To actually know Him better. Now, the first thing that's mentioned
in verse 4, or verse 3, I'm sorry, is gold. You shall take gold
and silver and brass. First thing mentioned is gold.
Now, you go on reading and you read of Shethemwood. It was wood
that was very hard, resistant to insects. And it was a wood
that was very common. And they would take this wood
to make the furniture. They would take this wood to
make the posts and so on and several other things. And they
would overlay it with gold. They would take gold and cover
all this wood. Now, in this we see, obviously,
The deity and the humanity of Christ. That wood represents
his humanity. He's bone of our bone, flesh
of our flesh. He's a real man. And that's glorious
to think about. Jesus Christ is a man. He is
a man. Just like me and you. Sin accepted.
He's a man. And this man is God. That's what
the gold represents. He is the God-man. Jesus Christ is God. I love saying that. Jesus Christ
is one whom I love. He's God. You know what that
means? That means He's the Creator. All things were made by Him.
And without Him, was not anything made that was made. Keep your
finger there and turn to Colossians chapter one. Here's a glorious
description of our Lord Jesus Christ in Colossians chapter
one. Verse. Fourteen, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
who is the image of the invisible God. You want to know what the
invisible God looks like? He looks exactly like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the image of
the invisible God, and all you and I are ever going to see of
God is Jesus Christ. Let's go on reading. Verse 16,
For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him, and He is before all things and by Him all things
consist. He has every attribute of God
because He is God. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Listen to this scripture. I love
this in Luke chapter 8 where the Lord has cast those thousand,
two thousand, however many demons there were in those pigs. And
that man is now sitting at his feet, clothed, and his right
mind. And listen to what our Lord says
to him in Luke 8, verse 39. This fellow wanted to go with
the Lord when he went back over the lake. And the Lord said,
No, you stay here. Return to thine own house and
show how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his
way and published throughout the whole city how great things
Jesus had done unto him. You know, even the newest believer
has some understanding of this, even the most uninstructed believer. I think of the thief on the cross.
Certainly he was a great believer, an instructed believer. But I
love to think of him when his buddy beside him was cursing
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, don't you fear God? He knew that Jesus Christ was
God. Don't you fear God seeing that
you're in the same condemnation? Every believer knows that Jesus
Christ is God. That's what this gold represents,
His deity. But you know what is mentioned
next? Silver. Silver. Silver was used to make
the sockets that connect the boards. It was used for making
hooks and pillars, the pillars of the tabernacle. And the silver
was used for the atonement money. Now, there was instructions also
given at this time to take this silver and make what is called
the atonement money. And when a census was taken,
everybody was to give a half a shekel of silver for atonement
money. Would you turn with me to Exodus
chapter 30? Let's read about this. This is a beautiful picture
of the atonement of Christ. Exodus chapter 30, beginning
in verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses. Remember, he's still
giving him instructions regarding the making of the tabernacle
and the priests and so on, but this is included in it. And the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the
children of Israel after their number, then shall they give
every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when thou numbers
them. When you take a census, that there be no plague among
them when thou numbers them. Now, do you remember when David
wanted to number the people and he went ahead and numbered them
and God killed, was it 50,000 or 70,000 people because of him
numbering the people? You know why he killed them?
It wasn't because he numbered them as such. It's because he
numbered them without numbering them in light of the atonement.
You see, this is the only way you can be counted one of God's
people, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where
my name gets on the census. Through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This makes me an Israelite indeed.
And what David was doing was numbering them without even thinking
about the atonement. He was just counting heads. And
so the Lord brought great wrath on the children of Israel because
of that. He failed to obey this commandment. When you number
the people, make sure they all give their atonement money, the
half shekel. This shall they give, verse 13,
everyone that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel,
after the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel is twenty gears, and
a half a shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Everyone
that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years
old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord, and look
at this, the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not
give less, than the half a shekel, which they give an offering unto
the Lord, to make an atonement for their souls, and thou shalt
take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt
appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation,
that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before
the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls." Now, this silver,
he talked about gold, that's the deity of Christ. This silver
represents his worth, the atonement money, the atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, never forget this. He actually
made atonement. Now, what all does atonement
mean? Well, I like this. It's found in the word at one. But his blood made me one with
him. I'm perfect in God's sight. He
put away sin. He actually made an atonement. And the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ cannot be known apart from the atonement of Christ. His person and His work can never
be separated. This silver represents the atonement.
And I love the way everybody had the same payment. didn't
matter whether they're rich or whether they're poor, they gave
the same thing, the half shekel of silver of the atonement money,
which why is anybody brought into the kingdom of heaven? There's
only one reason, the atonement, the atoning death, the life-giving
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's enough, though. That's
enough to make me of the number of Israel. I'm in that census
through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, His atonement
is beautiful, isn't it? Remember who it is that died.
It's Christ that died. And that's why his death is so
powerful. It's because of who died. It's Christ that died. And if he died for you, you're
fit for fellowship with God. You're fit for communion with
God. God can look at you and you smell
good to him. through the atonement of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for this silver. I
think it's very interesting that all the sockets that the boards
fit into was made of this silver atonement money. It's what held
everything together, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
we have gold, we have silver back into our text in Exodus
chapter 25, verse 3. And this is the offering which
you take of them, gold and silver and brass. Well, brass was used
to make The utensils and some of the furniture and other work.
For instance, the altar was made out of brass. What's brass? That's
what that brazen serpent was made of. Brass. What is brass? It's tin and copper melted together. It's an alloy. It's made of two
things. And what this brass represents.
And did you notice in Revelation chapter one, when I was reading
that description of Christ, his feet were spine brass. This represents
the dual nature of Christ. He's God. He's man. He has two
separate natures. Now, I've heard people have a
real hard time with, well, how can a believer actually have
two separate natures? And how can that be? Because
as far as the way we feel, we can't see two separate natures.
How can a believer actually have two separate natures? Well, the
same way that the Lord Jesus Christ has two separate natures.
He has two separate natures, doesn't he? He's got a dual nature. He's fully God and fully man.
And that's what that brass represents. He is the God-man with these
two separate natures. Now, look in verse 4. What's mentioned here are the
things that are used to make the fabrics. The fence was made of this white
linen, the different fabrics of the tapestries, the veil that
separated the holy place and the holy of holies. This is what
was used to make the clothing of the high priest. He had white
clothing and then he had this special clothing made with all
these different colors when he would go in on the great day
of atonement. He was decked out when he went in on the great
day of atonement with all these These different clothes that
we're going to see later on, but look what it says. Verse
four, blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and goat's hair. Now, here are five things that
were used to make the fabrics of everything that had anything
to do with the tabernacle. The fine linen is white, then
there's blue, purple, and scarlet, and goat's hair. Now, let's consider
these five things just for a few moments. Blue. Now, this was
a dyed fabric of some kind. I read about the different dyes
they had at this time to get these different colors. But this
blue was blue as the sky. It represents heavenly. You know,
the Lord Jesus Christ is heavenly. He's not from here. He's not
like us. He's other. He's completely different. He said, ye are from beneath. I am from above. You're of this
world. I'm not of this world. The Lord
Jesus Christ is heavenly. That means he's altogether different
from me and you. He is from heaven. He's not earthly
like us. He is from heaven. He's the Lord
from heaven. That's that blue color. It means
heavenly, a revelation from heaven. And then we read of purple. You
know, this was the most expensive one of the bunch. This guy was
real hard to get. Only royalty had this kind of fabric. This purple represents the royalty
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, my husband, my savior,
he's the royal king. Oh, he's so well able to protect
me, to provide for me, to save me, because he is the king of
kings and he is the Lord of lords. Oh, the royalty of this purple
and then scarlet is the color of blood. Oh, the preciousness
preciousness of His blood. How precious is the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, I know this. Precious to
His Father. You think of how precious His
blood is to God the Father. And His blood is precious to
me. And I'll tell you why His blood is precious to me is because
it cleanses me. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. It makes us clean and pure and
holy so I can come into the very presence of God boldly. With boldness coming into His
very presence through His precious blood. Holy in His sight, fit
for fellowship with God. That's what the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ does. And I have such confidence in His blood.
I love that phrase in Romans chapter 3 verse 24 or verse 25
where it talks about faith in His blood. Do you have faith
in His blood? Do you have faith that His blood
actually makes you holy in His sight? That the power of His
blood actually washes away your sins? He by Himself purged us. of our sins. I love this color
scarlet, the color of his blood. And then there's the white linen,
fine linen, white linen. You know what that represents?
That represents his righteousness, his perfect righteousness, his
law keeping. Fine linen, clean and white,
the righteousness of the saints. His perfect obedience charged
to me. That's my righteousness before
God, His righteousness. And here's something I didn't
know until yesterday. I thought about this goat's hair and I
started looking up goat's hair, what all that is. And I started
reading what the old writers were saying, and they said it
was the underbelly of a goat. And I thought, what is that?
I've heard that somewhere. I think I heard it from Lynn.
Lynn recently got me a cashmere sweater. Y'all have any cashmere
sweaters? They're a lot better than the
other kind. They're very soft. They feel very good. As a matter
of fact, I told Lynn, don't get me any more of those other kind.
I just want cashmere sweaters. I mean, they feel so good. And
what this is talking about is the fact that this garment, the
Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness, it's so soft. It's so comfortable. It's so warm. It's so pleasant. This wedding garment is a garment
that I feel good in. Oh, being robed in His righteousness. This is not a stiff, uncomfortable
garment that I don't feel comfortable in. No, I feel good in this garment. It's comfortable. It feels good.
I feel pretty in this garment. I feel like I look good in this
garment. That's the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
soft. It's warm. It's a cashmere sweater. That's what this goat's hair
is all about. This was not an uncomfortable. The priest's clothes,
it was not uncomfortable. It was very comfortable. OK,
let's let's look at verse six or verse five. Now, there are two things that
covered the tent. Ram skins dyed red and badger
skins, along with the chitum wood that was used for the construction
and so on, the boards and the planks and the staves and so
on. It was used for many different
things. But this tent that had two rooms, it had two kinds of
skin covering it. First, there was ram skins dyed
red. A ram is a male sheep. And you know what that represents,
this ram skin dyed red, and then there was badger skin over that.
So if you would have looked from the outside at this tabernacle
that had the Shekinah glory of God in it, it would have looked
kind of plain. It would look kind of unimpressive. As a matter of fact, I like to
think about The children of Israel around this tabernacle. You've
got several million people around this tabernacle. The Amorites
and the Hittites up on the hill. They look down and they see the
children of Israel gathered around this tabernacle and they think,
what is the attraction? What do they see in this? I mean,
badger skins. Have you ever seen a badger?
It's not very pretty skin. There's debate as to what kind
of an animal a badger was. Some said it was some kind of
antelope or a badger. I don't know, but it was brown, plain
skin. And when people saw the Lord
Jesus Christ, they didn't see Christ, did they? They just saw
a man. There's no comeliness, no form or beauty in Him, nothing
about Him that we would desire in Him. Men saw the Lord Jesus
Christ and they were not impressed. And they didn't realize that
the very Shekinah glory of God was in that tabernacle. They
couldn't see. All they saw was the exterior.
But you know, the Israelites, not the people outside of Israel,
but the Israelites knew something that was just underneath that
badger skin. It was that ram skin dyed red. A male goat. died red, representing
his bloody death on the Lord, on the cross. The Israelites
knew it was there. And this is what gave them confidence in
this building. They knew it wasn't just the
badger skin. They saw what was underneath
that badger skin, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
very Shekinah glory of God dwelled on the inside. So we have badger
skins and ram skins, died red, two layers over this building.
And then in verse six, It says oil for the light, spices for
anointing oil, and for sweet incense. Now, oil for light. Christ Jesus,
here's who he is, he's the light of the world. You know that,
don't you? He's the light of the world.
He said, I am the light of the world. And I think it's very
interesting. When he said, I am the light
of the world, you know what happened previous to that? That's when
he said to that woman who was caught in adultery, in the very
act, I mean, she was guilty. There was no getting out of it.
She was guilty. He said, I don't condemn you. How? Well, he's the light as to how.
He's the one who's made the way for God to be just and justify
the ungodly. He's the light regarding that.
He's the light concerning who God is. You want to know who
God is? He said he that has seen me has seen the Father. He's the light regarding who
you are. You want to know who you are?
Put yourself beside the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll get some
kind of idea. You see your sinfulness there.
That's how you are. That's you. Put yourself beside
Christ. Compare yourself to him. That's
you. But that's not the real you. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the real you. That's your life before God.
That is the real you. Isn't that wonderful? Yes, I
see my sinfulness in comparison with Him, but I also see who
I really am in God's sight by who I am in Him. He's the light
regarding everything else, regarding everything. I don't care what
it is regarding everything. He's the first cause behind it.
You see, He's in control. He's running the show. You want
to understand any event? It's the Lord. Let Him do what
seems to Him good. Whatever he does is right, and
he's light in that sense. Next, it says in verse six, spices
for anointing oil. Now, what's this anointing all
about? Well, Christ means anointed. He is God's anointed prophet. He's God's anointed priest, and
he's God's anointed king. And you know, this is something
I never get tired of thinking about, is his office as prophet,
priest, and king. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, the Scripture says, is born of God. And you
know, I really do believe that He's the Christ. I believe that
He's God's anointed prophet. He is the Word of God. He's all
God has to say. Jesus Christ. That's it. This
is my beloved Son. Hear ye Him. He's God's anointed
priest. Let me tell you something about
God's anointed priest. If He prays for you, you're in
good shape. If he owns your name before the Father, you've got
nothing to worry about. He's God's anointed priest. He's God's anointed king. He's the king of glory. He's the Lord of lords and the
king of kings. So we read of this, these spices
for anointing oil. And then the next thing that
is spoken of in verse six is sweet incense, spices for sweet
incense. What a wonderful aroma this must
have been. This sweet incense that represents
the prayers and the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
smell is the sense that is most associated with memory. I just
heard that this week, John. John told me that, and I got
to thinking about what he said. I've read that before, and I
can't remember anything, and I can't smell anything, so that
kind of explains me. I've got a terrible sense of
smell, and my memory is even worse. I know someone who can
smell. God, what a sense of smell he
has. And oh, the sweet smell of the
Lord Jesus Christ when he takes my prayers and offers them up
before the Father. I'm talking about my prayers,
my prayers. He offers them up before the
Father as my great high priest and they smell good to God. Oh,
the sweet incense, the sweet aroma of the Lord Jesus Christ. And like I said, smell is associated
with memory. He smells Christ and he remembers
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and he remembers me in him. Oh, the sweet incense of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse seven. We read of onyx
stones. and stones to be set in the ethod
and in the breastplate. Now, these onyx stones were used
for the garments of the priests. There were two onyx stones that
were used. They're black stones and in each one of these stones
you had six names of the six of one and six the other for
the twelve names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
Each one had these, and he always bore these on his breast, these
six names. And I love to think of this. The Lord. Bears the name of Todd
Nybert. He knows my name. And he brings
it to the father. as my great high priest, and
I'm always accepted. I'm always perfect through my
great high priest. He's always there, not pleading. In the sense of, oh, let him
get by this time. No, all he does is present himself to the
Father with my name on the ephod. And I've accepted, accepted in
the beloved. Oh, these beautiful black onyx
stones with the names of the children of Israel. Isn't it
precious to know that your name is engraven on his heart? He
knows your name. It might be that nobody else
knows your name, but he does. Isn't that all that counts? And
then we read in verse 7. of the onyx stones and stones
to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. He talks about
the stones that will be set into the breastplate. As a matter
of fact, when you go on reading about the stones that are set
in the breastplate, there are 12 different precious stones.
We'll get to that when we look at the garment of the priest.
But as far as I can tell, they're the same stones that are mentioned
in Revelation 21, the stones that are the foundation of the
New Jerusalem. Now, what do these stones represent? Whether in Revelation, I know
this, they're the doctrines of the twelve apostles or the doctrine
of the twelve apostles. It's the word of Christ. Christ
is known from his word, his doctrine, what he has to say. You can't
speak of Christ without speaking of his doctrine. I mean, what
can you say regarding the Lord Jesus Christ without saying something
about doctrine? It's the doctrine of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said the words that I speak
to you. Their spirit. And their life. Do you find his words to be spirit? And why? Well, here's what Christ is made
of. To know Christ. What? an infinite blessing to
be known of Christ. What an infinite blessing. Now
here we have a beautiful picture of him whom our soul loves. I am my beloved and he is mine. Let's pray together.