The Lord has really blessed y'all
with an abundance of good musicians. I've enjoyed the music and I
want to say thank you that I've enjoyed the time here and thank
you to Brother David and Sister Pat for your hospitality and
to each of you. You've been very attentive and
you make it easy preach the gospel, and I appreciate that. I appreciate your attentiveness. I pray the Lord will bless us
this morning. God's been gracious to give us some pictures in scripture,
very simple pictures to help us see the gospel clearly. And I want to look at one of
those today in Exodus 26, Exodus chapter 26. Some of you have commented, and
it's easy. They introduce me as being from
Princeton, New Jersey, and as soon as I open my mouth, you
know he's not from New Jersey. And I'm not. I'm from South Arkansas. And
the Lord had to have moved me to New Jersey, because I had
no desire to leave the South at all. And when they told Brother
Maurice Montgomery about that, he said, well, he said, God's
grace is something, ain't it? Exodus 26, let's read beginning
in verse 15. And thou shall make boards for
the tabernacle of Shittemwood standing up. These were the boards
that went upright, up and down, all the way around to make the
tabernacle. Ten cubits shall be the length
of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board.
Two tenons, these were like feet, shall there be in one board.
They came out under each board two feet, and they sat in order
one against another, and thus shalt thou make for all the boards
of the tabernacle. and thou shalt make the boards
for the tabernacle, 20 boards on the south side, southward,
and thou shalt make 40 sockets of silver under the 20 boards,
two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets
under another board for his two tenons. You get the picture here. These two tenons, like feet,
came out from under each board, and for each tenon there was
a socket. So there's two sockets under each board of the tabernacle. And for the second side of the
tabernacle on the north side there shall be 20 boards and
there 40 sockets of silver, two sockets under one board and two
sockets under another board. And for the sides of the tabernacle
westward thou shalt make six boards and two boards shalt thou
make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides, and they shall
be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together
above the head of it unto one ring. And thus shall it be for
them both, they shall be for the two corners. And they shall
be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, 16 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.
Now you get the picture here. These boards ran. You had the
boards running upright. These boards ran across those
boards, front to back, and there was four boards that did that,
and one of the boards ran through, one of the bars ran through the
boards. And it says here, verse 29, 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. So, you had the sides
of the tabernacle. They were made of these boards
of shenum wood overlaid with gold. And each board had two
tenons that fit into two sockets that made up the foundation,
held these boards upright. And you had five bars that went
around the sides to hold the boards together. One of those
bars went right through the center of the boards. And they were
all, it was all on this silver foundation, this silver foundation. And this foundation was comprised
of silver that had been gathered up from an offering that God
required of the shekel of the sanctuary for the ransom of their
soul. It pictured the redemption of
God redeeming them out of Egypt through the Passover lamb that
died in their place. That's what they were remembering
by offering that shekel of the sanctuary. Then he took that
silver and made this foundation. And the whole tabernacle was
fitly framed together and sat on this one foundation. Now,
that pictures Our Lord Jesus Christ fitly framing his people
together into his holy tabernacle and we're fitted together upon
the one foundation of Christ Jesus himself and the redemption
that he's fully accomplished for his people. That's what we
have pictured here in this tabernacle. Let me show you that. Go to Hebrews
chapter 8. I want to back this up with some
scripture to show you the things that that this shows us this
is true of this picture we're looking at. We read in Hebrews
8 here, it says, verse 1, of the things which we've spoken,
this is the sum, we have such a high priest who sat on the
right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens a minister
of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched
and not man. Now go with me to Ephesians 2
and look here at Ephesians 2. This chapter is so good on telling
us how that Christ is our peace because the redemption he accomplished
and also because he sent the gospel to us. and declared this
in our heart. And so it concludes here in Ephesians
2.19 and he says, Now therefore you're no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household
of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto
a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together
for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Just like that one
bar that ran through the boards, we also have the Spirit of God
dwelling in us. So we're fitly framed together
on this one foundation. So I wanna talk to you this morning
a little about this subject of Christ, our foundation. Now,
first the thing we see here in our text, in Exodus 26, is that
these boards typify Christ's people. These boards typify Christ's
people. And you think about this, these
boards were made from shidom wood, from a tree that was called
the shidom tree. And we're like a tree in a lot
of ways. When we come forth into this
world, we have our roots in this cursed earth, just like that
Shittum tree did. I remember when I was young and
I was unlike some people, I grew up sitting under the preaching
of the gospel, but I was bound and determined not to hear it.
I just was determined not to hear it. I had my roots in this
earth and I was going to go and live for the world and had my
goals and aspirations and all of it was for the world and the
Lord wasn't involved in any of it. And I was not going to hear. But God purposed differently. And contrary to me trying not
to hear, he made me hear. He made me hear. If they're going
to make these boards, they had to cut that chytum tree down.
And if God's going to assemble you and I as his people in his
tabernacle, we're going to have to be brought down. And that's
what the Lord does. He brings his people down. He
brings us down. He grants us repentance. And
he makes us to be rooted and built up in him rather than rooted
and built up in this earth. He grants his people repentance.
And only God can do that. Only God can do that. Scripture
says, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the true and living God?
He's the one who grants us a change of mind and a change of heart
and turns us from living for ourselves and for our dead works
and brings us to live for Christ. And you noticed here at the bottom
of each of these boards, they had these tenons, these two feet
that came out of these boards that were made to sit in this
foundation. And when God has given you repentance
and he brought you to behold Christ, given your faith in Christ,
he brings us like these boards stood upright on this foundation. He brings you to stand on one
foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ. brings you to stand befitted
in Him, standing upon this one foundation just like these boards.
And then we notice these boards were overlaid in pure gold. If
you looked at these boards, you couldn't see the wood. All you
could see was the pure gold. And when God has called you to
faith in Christ, here you were a sinner, separated from God
Couldn't bring yourself into God's presence. But when he's
brought you to trust Christ and trust his righteousness alone,
God imputes Christ's righteousness to us so that when God looks
upon us, he's not looking upon that sinful humanity. He's looking upon the gold of
his son's own righteousness. And that's how he receives us.
Just like when you looked at these boards and you saw the
gold. And then you see these corner
boards here were coupled together beneath and they were coupled
together above. And that's a good picture of
the Lord's people. Beneath, we're coupled together
by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. It makes us one. We're one,
trust in one Lord, of one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. We're one. And then above where
Christ is seated in glory, we're coupled together in Christ. And
we're one in him. And then of course you had this
bar, these bars holding it all together. And Christ is the bar. He's not only the foundation,
he's the bars that hold us together. And he's the bar running through
his people. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And so the whole building, you
and me, who are God's people, have been fitly framed together
by Christ our Lord, held together by Christ our Lord, all on this
one foundation. And that's Christ and the redemption
that he's accomplished. And so I want to look here now
at this foundation and see Christ in this foundation. Now verse
19 says there, thou shalt make 40 sockets of silver under the
20 boards, two sockets under one board for his two tenons,
and two sockets under another board for his two tenons. And
he repeats this. And the Lord will have us to
see here that this foundation's very important. All of these
boards were fastened and held together on this foundation.
And you picture this, I read somewhere where this foundation,
these sockets were triangular, and that they fit together, you
know, like you fit a puzzle together, so that they formed one solid
foundation, and they were very stable, so the boards fit into
this foundation, and it was held up, and it was very stable because
of this foundation. Now, I want to show you that
this silver came from this offering that God demanded that represented
redemption. Go to Exodus 30, and let's read
this. It said in verse 11, the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children
of Israel after their number, then they shall give every man
a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numbers them. That word ransom carries the
same meaning as redemption. He's gonna give a ransom for
his soul that there be no plague among them when thou numbers
them. So that there's no plague among
them. This they shall give everyone
that passeth among them that are numbered half a shekel after
the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel was like a coin. It was like an amount of money. But notice God says it's got
to be after the shekel of the sanctuary. And he says, a shekel
is 20 giraz and a half a shekel shall be the offering of the
Lord. That means 10 giraz is what they gave, half a shekel.
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, the poor shall not give less than half a shekel
when they give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement
for your soul. 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 is, make
the foundation out of it. Now watch, what was the purpose?
That it may be a memorial, something to cause us to remember, cause
them to remember. Unto the children of Israel before
the Lord to make atonement for your souls. Now, these silver
sockets typify redemption accomplished. Full atonement accomplished by
Christ Jesus for God's elect. That's what this silver foundation
represents. Now you notice he said there
in Exodus 30 verse 12, it's the children of Israel after their
number. That's who this redemption was
for, the children of Israel. There was a lot of other nations
around Israel, but this was just for the children of Israel. When
our Lord Jesus came and went to the cross, he was redeeming
a particular people. He was redeeming a particular
people called the Israel of God, made up of God's elect Jew and
Gentile. That's who he was representing.
See, redemption is a price. Redemption is paying a price.
We had a debt that we owe to God. And the price that had to
be paid had to be an exact price. It had to be the exact price
that was owed. That's why God told them this
had to be the shekel of the sanctuary. That's like saying a coin from
the U.S. Mint. You know, when we take
our money, we take our coins, we put them in our pocket, we
walk around with them, and those coins rub against one another,
and they're exchanged back and forth. And if you were to weigh
one of those coins, it wouldn't weigh what it weighed when it
came out of the U.S. Mint. because little bits have
been shaved off of it through exchange and through being used.
God said, don't offer me that. It's got to be the perfect weight
that comes out of the sanctuary, out of the mint. It's got to
be perfect. And the reason it is is because when Christ went
to the cross, he had to pay the exact payment demanded for each
one of his children. This is why it's so important
that we preach that Christ went to the cross and laid down his
life for a particular people because he went there to pay
a specific price that was owed. He didn't go there just to randomly
pay for sins in general. That's not even a possibility.
He went there to pay the sin debt, a particular sin debt,
for the particular sins of a particular people. And he went there to
pay the exact price justice demanded. That's what God told Moses in
the wilderness. He is merciful. He reserves mercy
for thousands. But he will not clear the guilty.
And all those he's gonna show mercy are guilty. You and me
are guilty. And so if he's gonna show me
mercy, he's got to do it consistent with his justice. His law's got
to be honored. It's got to be upheld so that
God remains righteous and holy. And so if he's gonna save a sinner,
Every sin that you and I have ever thought against God or spoken
against God or acted against God has got to be paid for. It's got to be paid for. Justice
has got to be poured out. And so Christ went to the cross
to take all the sins of all his people and pay the exact price
demanded. He paid the ransom, the exact
price. When you redeem somebody, to
redeem is to pay a purchase price, a price that must be paid. And
when you've redeemed an object, you've paid the price that was
demanded. And when you pay that price,
it switches owners. It goes from being an object
owned by that person to this person who paid for it. That's
why Scripture calls His people Christ's purchased possession. He bought us. He paid the redemption
price and He bought us. And we're His purchased possession.
We're His purchased possession. And this is the blessing of this
thing. He said there in Exodus 30, 12, it's so that there will
be no plague among them. This is what the Scripture says,
He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. And the scripture
tells us, God said, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions. As a cloud thy sins return unto
me for I have redeemed thee. When God says, when he imputes
righteousness to us, God's not just treating you and me like
we're righteous. We've been made the righteousness
of God by Christ. Christ actually paid the price
and actually blotted out our sin so that we've been made the
righteousness of God in Him. And when God imputes righteousness
to you, He's just making you know what's already been accomplished.
It's already been done. And that's what Christ did for
His people. Now, I want you to notice here,
watch this. It was the shekel of the sanctuary.
He said a full shekel was 20 girahs. And so a half shekel,
that's what had to be given, was a half shekel. That means
that was 10 girahs. Now in Scripture, 10 is the word
for responsibility. We have 10 commandments, 10 commandments. God gave those commandments not
for you and me to try to keep them, to come to God by them.
He gave them to show us we broke them all in the garden in Adam.
when we sinned in Adam. He gave them to us to show us
how, to show us the abundance of our sin, to make our sin abound
before us. But see, Christ came and took
full responsibility for us, for his people. And so you have a
picture here of 10 g-rods being paid. That means the full responsibility,
the full amount was paid. And do you remember back in Exodus
26, do you remember how tall each one of those boards were?
They were 10 cubits. And here's what it pictures.
Christ took full responsibility for his people. He paid the redemption
price equal to the full demand of God's perfect law, which we
had broken. And now our acceptance. And our
standing in Christ is upon that one foundation of that perfect
price that has been paid. And there wasn't some boards
that were 10 cubits long and some that were eight and some
that were seven and some that were six. No, they were all 10
cubits long in Christ. There's no some that are a little
more righteous and some a little less righteous and some a little
more accepting, some a little less accepted. God sees his people
in Christ as equally measuring up to the exact measurement that
God demands. Exactly. So we can't be looking
down on one another. You know, this is the thing about
grace. This is the thing about being made righteous in Christ.
We know, he revealed to us, we were all equally sinners. We
were all equally corrupt. But now in Christ, we're all
equally righteous in Christ and accepted in Christ. So when I
see my brother sin, I'll not think less of him because
I'm just like him. Whatever he's doing, if I'm not
doing it right now, just wait a little while. I'll think the
same thing, I'll say the same thing, I'll do the same thing.
But this I know, in Christ, he meets the full measurement God
requires, and God receives him. And he receives me that way.
He receives you that way. And all his, he receives that
way. So rather than looking down on my brother, or thinking my
brother, I should just help restore him to Christ, help turn him
back to Christ, help him to behold Christ and what Christ has done
for him because he's just as accepted of Christ as I am. His
sins just as fully put away by Christ as mine is. So we need
to look at one another like Christ looks at us, see one another
as Christ sees us and ignore the the rest. Don't you love
how in the Old Testament you read and under that legal dispensation
you read about all the sins of God's people. You go to the New
Testament, you read Hebrews 11, they don't mention any of that.
You don't hear, it doesn't say Sarah laughed when God said you're
gonna have a child. It says she believed God was
able to do what he said he would do. That's how God views his
people in Christ, like we're recorded in the New Testament
there. The sin's put away, it's gone. That's why we don't wanna
come to him in the law and in our works, we wanna come to him
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and resting in him alone. Now
let me give you, A couple applications here to end with this. One, now, if they had tried to
build that tabernacle out there in that desert, in that sand,
if they had tried to build that tabernacle on that sand, it would
have never stood up. It would have never stood up.
They couldn't have hammered them boards deep enough into that
sand to make that tabernacle stand up. But on that solid foundation
of silver, in that waste howling wilderness with all that wind
blowing and all those sandstorms they had, that tabernacle stood
firm on that foundation. Go with me to Matthew 7. Listen
to what Christ teaches us right here. Matthew chapter 7. He says here in verse 24, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, What did he teach
here and what did he say? Let me sum it up for you. Believe
on Christ. Believe on Christ. Now he that
hears this and does it, he says, I'll liken him unto a wise man.
which built his house upon a rock. He built it upon a precious,
sure foundation. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and
it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
like to a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. Whatever
you do, Don't try to come into God's presence building up on
sand. Don't try to come in building
up on sand. And if you're trying to trust
your works, if I'm trying to trust my works, that's what we'd
be doing, trying to build up on sand. Rest everything on Christ
alone. Trust Christ alone. He's that
rock. He's that foundation. God said,
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation of stone, a precious cornerstone. And he's more precious to us
than those silver sockets. We weren't redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold. We were redeemed with the precious
blood of the Lamb, as of a lamb without spot and blemish, the
precious blood of Christ. Secondly, understand this, whatever
offerings, whatever works they did when they went into that
tabernacle. They did not add to that foundation
at all, everything they did in that tabernacle in the service
of the Lord, they did on the footing of a foundation already
finished, already finished. We're not like those who say
that now we're adding something to what Christ has done for us
by whatever we do as believers. We're not adding to Christ. The
foundation's finished. Christ has finished it. We don't
do anything as we serve the Lord. We don't do anything to be accepted
of God. We do what we do because we are
accepted of God. We don't do what we do because
of work trying to gain God's favor. We do it because God has
freely bestowed his favor upon us. It's called faith which worketh
by love. And that's the rule we're under.
That's the rule of the believer. Believe on Christ. The whole
law is fulfilled by Christ. It's been taken out of the way
for us so that we can actually now live unto God. And everything
we do, we do from the principle of love for what Christ has done
for us. And now here's the last thing. These three, these bars that
were on the side, they went through the middle of these boards, or
one of them went through the middle, but the others were on
three rings. There was three gold rings that
these bars went through. Now those bars, are like Christ
holding us together by his omnipotent grace, by his power and wisdom,
holding his church together, keeping us facing upward, looking
to Christ like these boards were, keeping us together like these
boards were kept together, and preserving us in every way. And those three rings, brethren,
are the three, they're like the three gifts of his grace to us. There's three things that all
of us have in common and by which Christ is holding us together.
Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 13, 13. Now abideth faith, that's
faith in Christ, trust in him, now abideth hope, That's hope
in Christ, trust in him, and charity, love in Christ. All
of these are in Christ. Now you think about it. You think
about it every time that they picked up that tabernacle and
they moved that tabernacle. I read this, that each of those
sockets weighed 75 pounds. And so there's 100 sockets. That's
7,500 pounds that the foundation weighed. Every time they moved
that tabernacle, they were reminded of the weight of redemption. They were reminded of how heavy
that price was for them to be redeemed. We have a reminder
too. We take the bread and the wine
and we remember Christ's broken body. That's what it took to
redeem us. He gave, you ever just think
about that? He gave his life. He gave his body to be broken,
visage marred more than any man. And more than that, forsaken
of God. That's a heavy weight to pay
this price of redemption in it. And he paid it. And he paid it. And so now, brethren, he's holding
his people together because his glory's at stake. You think about
it. If he loses one that he died
for, as some of the old riders used to say, he loses more than
I lose. Because his very glory is at stake. Do you know what
that means? That means we're secure, brethren.
He's not going to lose one. He said, no man will pluck them
out of my hand. No man will pluck them out of
my father's hand. We're kept by him. Kept by him. And one
day when we get the glory, You know, he's created a new man
in us right now, and scripture says he's created in righteousness
and true holiness. But when he gets done, when he's
finished with this work, he's gonna raise us with a new body
that's created in righteousness and true holiness. And then,
within and without, we're gonna be righteous and holy, with no
trace of sin, an entirely new creation. And we're going to
worship Christ like we would like to worship Him now. Perfect. Perfectly. And this whole thing
is from Him, by Him, through Him, and to Him. I pray, God,
today, if there's somebody here that's not on this foundation,
I pray that you cast all your care on Christ. and rest in him. Do what you do for him. Amen. Thank you so much for your hospitality. I really, really, really appreciate
it. Thank you.