Years I spent in vanity and pride
Caring not my Lord was crucified Knowing not it was for me He
died On Calvary ? Mercy there was great and grace was free
? ? Pardon there was multiplied to me ? ? There my burdened soul
found liberty at Calvary ? ? By God's word at last my sin I learned
? ? Then I trembled ? Calvary ? Mercy there was great
and grace was free ? Pardon there was multiplied to me ? There
my burdened soul found liberty ? Calvary ? Now I give to Jesus
everything ? Now I gladly own him as my king ? Now my raptured
soul can only see ? Of Calvary ? Mercy there was great and grace
was free ? Pardon there was multiplied to me ? There my burdened soul
found liberty ? Oh, the love that blew salvation's
plan ? Oh, the grace that brought it down to man ? Oh, the mighty
gulf that God did span ? At Calvary ? Mercy there was great and grace Far and there was multiplied
to me, there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary. Hymn number six, Come Thou Almighty
King. ? Come Thou Almighty King ? ? Help
us I aim to sing ? ? Help us to praise ? ? Father all glorious
? ? O'er all victorious ? ? Come and reign over us ? ? Ancient
of days ? ? Come Thou incarnate Word ? ? Gird on Thy mighty sword
? ? Our prayer attend ? ? Come and Thy people bless ? ? And
give Thy word success ? ? Spirit of holiness on us bless ? ? Come holy comforter ? Thy sacred
witness back ? In this glad hour ? Thou who almighty art ? Now
rule in every heart ? And there from us depart ? The great one in three ? Eternal
praises be ? His evermore ? His sovereign majesty ? May we in
glory see ? And to eternity love and honor be You have your Bibles turn with
me to Exodus the twenty-fifth chapter. I am going to read verses thirty-one
through forty. Exodus twenty-five, thirty-one.
Now shall make a candlestick of pure gold, of beaten work
shall the candlestick be made. His shaft, and his branches,
his bows, and his knops, and his flowers shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out
of the sides of it, three branches of the candlestick out the one
side and three branches of the candlestick out the other side. Three bowls made like unto almonds,
with a knop and a flower in one branch, and three bowls made
like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and flowers. So in
the six branches that come out out of the candlestick. And in
the candlestick shall be four bowls made like almonds with
their knops and their flowers. There shall be a knop under two
branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same,
and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the
six branches that proceed out of the candlestick. Their knops
and their branches shall be of the same. All it shall be of
one beaten work of pure gold. now shall make the seven lamps
thereof. They shall light the lamps thereof,
that they may give light over against it. And the tongs thereof,
and the snuff dishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. Of a talent
of pure gold shall he make it with all these vessels. And look
that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee
in the mount. Let us pray. We thank you for your word, which
indeed is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, the
entrance of which gives understanding or light to the simple. We thank
you, Father, for we know that in matters spiritual, apart from
a work of grace, we were totally simple and had no knowledge of
anything worthwhile. And yet you and your grace gave
us faith to understand this book and appreciate it, to live off
of it, Treasure it. We thank you, Father, for doing
so. We praise you for the work of salvation you perform for
your people that you left nothing for them to do because they could
do nothing. But you gave it all in Jesus
Christ. And by his death and his life,
we stand before you accepted in the beloved. We stand before
you as perfect and without sin, though we know in and of ourselves
there is no good thing. Yet you see us in Christ and
we thank you for that. Pray for our brothers and sisters
who are sick and going through trials. Remember especially Arlene
at the loss of Fred and her family. The others who might be sick,
we pray for our, we pray for rain that this hand might be
healed pretty soon. We pray also for Those of our
shut-ins, we ask, Lord, you'd be merciful to them and fix their
hearts and minds upon Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, for this
congregation, for the love they show for the gospel of Jesus
Christ and for their pastor. We praise you. I don't deserve
the least of your mercies, and yet you've overshadowed me with
great grace and great mercy, renewed every day, always sufficient
for every need. you are to be praised for who
you are and what you have done. We thank you in Christ's name.
Amen. Now here in Exodus 25 in these
verses I just read to you, it's called a candlestick. It is actually
a lampstand as introduced. It's called a candlestick rather
than a lampstand because probably in 1611 when the King James Version
of the Bible was written Candles were the primary source of light.
And even today, the menorah holds candles rather than lamps. But in the original, it was a
lamp stand. The lamp stand was made of seven
lamps. Now, if you're thinking of a lamp, think of the Aladdin's
lamp. That was the shape of what we're
talking about. That's what each one of those lamps looked like
on the end of these six branches and on the top of this candle
stand. uh... the lamp was made of seven
lamps and had wicks and fuel uh... and the fuel was beaten
olive oil over in exodus chapter twenty seven in verse twenty it says this And thou shalt command the children
of Israel, that they bring the pure olive oil, beaten for the
light, to cause the lamp to burn always. And these lamps burn
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They always burn. So this was the lamp, and he
used olive oil. So if you can imagine, these
were seven little Aladdin lamps, six on each side and one in the
middle, and they were filled with beaten olive oil, made as
pure as possible. The beaten olive oil was built
with pressure, and he squeezed out the very best of the olive
oil, and it was used to burn on a wick of these lamps. This
lamp stand was placed on the south side of the holy place,
not the most holy place, but this holy place. You remember
on the north side was the table of showbread, and then up against
the, near the veil of the most holy place was the altar of incense,
which we'll look at next week. Now the lampstand was made up
of a beaten shaft. It was beaten gold, a talent,
a talent. Some say it's 12 to 14 pounds,
and some say it's 25 pounds, so I don't know how much gold
it is, but it was a sizable piece of furniture. And it was formed
by hammering it into shape, And the seven lamps on the three
opposing sides of the shelf, or three on each of the opposing
sides of the shelf, and one lamp atop the shelf. So you had seven
lamps that were lit all the time. The lamp stand was the only light
in the holy place, because it was covered. Now the tabernacle
outside, the congregational part of the tabernacle, was not covered.
But the holy place and the most holy place was covered. It was
dark inside. And the only light of this place
was the candlestick It said, no light from nature shone in
there. No outside light. This is all
inside light. And this pictured Christ as the
light of the world. The stand itself is personified
here in this passage. If you notice, I was reading
when he was talking about the lamp stand, he was talking about his
shaft, and his branches, and his bowls. This lamp is personified. It's said to be a male. and we
know that's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. These six
arms going out from it were going out from Him, it says. Now this
made seven lamps, and the light that proceeded from the lamps
symbolized the testimony of the gospel as a light in a dark place. Remember, that's the picture
of the gospel coming forth into a dark world. John said that
in his epistle, or his gospel according to John. He said the
light is coming to the world. Men prefer darkness rather than
light. We know that. But the men who dwelt in darkness,
speaking of the elect of God, have seen a great light. And
that light is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible talks about
the Word of God also being a light. I just said that a moment ago,
it's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path according
to Psalm 119. Now the seven lamps, therefore, pointed to the work
of the Holy Spirit in the testimony of Christ through the preaching
of the gospel. So here you have a single stand and six arms coming
out from the stand. And the design of the lamps,
they were turned so that all the light of it was cast on the
center of it, on the lamp stand. The lamp stand was one thing.
The arms were six things. designed to light up the lamp
itself. That is a picture of the testimony
of the Gospel. It has been entrusted to the believer as the ministry
of truth in earthen vessels, but their design is to light
up Christ. That is the design of the preaching
of the Gospel. Thus our Lord said, Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven. And He also said of His people
twice, once in the Gospel and then in Ephesians, You are the
light, or you are light so he's talking about not only the word
of God being light but his people being the light of the world
and he himself of course we know said I am the light of the world
now the maintenance of the lamps was the job of the high priest
now the high priest like I said The actual using of these implements
and the setting them up in the place, this has not happened
yet. This is all God has given Moses
the design. He gave the design on the mount
and now said, this is how it's to be made and this is where
it's to be set. The high priest is not involved yet, but he was
the one, was the high priest that was in charge of this particular
instrument. He alone trimmed the wicks and
lit the lamps. He was responsible for the light, for the light
to shine. This teaches that though we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, it is Christ who maintains and
keeps the light. He's the one that keeps us. Now,
He also trims the wicks and lights the fires, and that picture is
subduing our nature. Without Him, we can do nothing.
He said, I am the vine and you are the branches. Without Me,
you can do nothing. All glory for sustaining the light belongs
to who? Belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what the lampstand represents. It all is a picture of the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The shaft upon which the lamps
were held were beaten into shape. This shaft pictured the sufferings
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who learned obedience through the
things He suffered. He suffered as a human being
to make Him the perfect captain of our salvation, it says in
Hebrews chapter 5. He suffered things. It's hard
for us to think of that. He learned obedience through
the things that he suffered. You say, well, he knew all things.
He was the omnipotent God. Yes, but he was a human being,
and he learned. He learned. He learned as a human
being learns, and he learned obedience through the things
he suffered. In his saving work, he must be
obedient even to the death of the cross. Because the price
for sin to be paid is a death, and he must accomplish that.
And it even speaks of his fear there. Fearing what was to come
as a human being. You say, well, he shouldn't fear
death. He had power over death. As a human being, any human being
and every human being, it's only reasonable that they don't want
to die. I don't care who they are. Nobody wants to die. Everybody
wants to live as long as they can. So he feared death. That's
the language used in Hebrews chapter five. And it is a substitutionary
work, the accomplishment, the glory of his accomplishment that
supports the gospel we preach. So these seven, these six lights
going out on the side, they're a picture of the gospel of Jesus
Christ shining on the center of the lamp, which was Jesus
Christ, which pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what
we do, that's what we do. And it's his substitutionary
work that supports all of that, all authority is given to him.
Why do we preach the gospel? It's not a hobby. We don't get
in this thing ourselves. We're appointed to it, we're
called to it, we're put in the gospel. I've told many a young
man who wanted to preach, if you can do anything else, you
better do it. Don't preach unless that's the only thing you can
do. Unless that's it for you. That's the only thing that motivates
you and moves you. Then you preach. If you don't
have that, then stay out and find some other job. Why do we
preach the gospel? We preach the gospel because
of the guarantee that the Lord has given that it will do what
it's supposed to do. It will be a saver of life to
some and a saver of death to others. But we do it under the
authority of Christ. This is backed up with heaven
itself. The sovereign majesty of God backs up every word that's
preached of the gospel. Now, man has no power in himself. He's just a vessel. He's an earthen
vessel, a dirt pot. But Christ said, all authority
is given unto me. Go ye, therefore, into all the
world, and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." Why? You backed up.
We're not here alone. We're not here alone. In Numbers
chapter 8, we find more about the care of the lamp. In Numbers
chapter 8, it says, When thou lightest the lamps, the seven
lamps shall give light over against the candlestick. That's over
in Numbers chapter 8 and verse 2. Numbers chapter 8 and verse 2
says, Speak unto her and say, When thou lightest the lamps,
the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick.
So, it's designed, if you can imagine, imagine these Aladdin
lamps, they weren't turned outward away from the stick, the centerpiece,
the fiery end was turned inward looking toward the candlestick
and that light made that gold candlestick shine brightly and
that's a picture of the preaching of the gospel, and that is the
way it is worded also in our text. In Exodus chapter 25 and verse
37 it says, And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof, and
they shall light the lamps thereof, and they may give light over
against it, over against it. And if you look in your marginal
reading of that, it is the face of it, over against the face
of it. Now that sounds like familiar
language, the gospel language, doesn't it? What does it say
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 about the gospel we preach? In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse
5, Paul says, We preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, and
ourselves your servants, for Christ's sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So the purpose of these lamps
that were mounted on the on this lampstand was to cast light on
the lampstand itself to show its glory on the face of the
lampstand. And here we see the divine purpose
of the lamps. They were designed to illuminate
the lampstand. That's what they were designed
to do. All the light is the glory of Christ. Christ is person and
His work is the foundation of the Spirit's work. When the Spirit
of Christ came, He didn't come to make people act foolishly.
He didn't come to give power to men where they could tap into
some secret place, source of power in heaven and get things
done for them. That's the gospel that's being
preached today, and it's a lie. They make heaven some kind of
general big spigot of nice things. They say, if you believe, if
you tap into the Holy Ghost, if you get that second blessing,
if you get the Holy Ghost, then you have power. You don't have
power. You don't have power. The Holy
Ghost came for one reason. Our Lord said in John 16, He
says, I give you the Holy Ghost. When I leave, in John 16, 7 through
16, He said, when I leave, I'm going to send you another spirit.
I'm going to send you another spirit, a comforter. And when
He shall come, He shall convince you of righteousness, of sin,
and of judgment. And He says, when He comes, He's
going to teach you things you didn't know before. Can you imagine
what surprise it was? for the disciples who were sitting
and waiting for something to happen at Pentecost. When the
Holy Ghost came down and began to teach them the intricacies of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, they began to preach. Peter cowered before a woman
when she accused him three times, he cowered and lied and cussed
and said he didn t believe but Christ. But on the day of Pentecost,
when the Holy Ghost came, it was like a wind, they said, he
stood up and boldly proclaimed, This same Jesus whom you crucified,
God hath made both Lord and Christ. And he did it and he spoke in
his own language and people heard it in their languages. They saw
things they had never seen. And they understood the gospel
clearer. They didn't fully understand. They didn't even want Christ
to go to the cross. Peter, when he was confronted with the fact
that Christ was going to the cross, he said, Not so, Lord.
You don't have to do that. And the Lord said, Get thee behind
me, Satan. You desire the things of the
world, not the things of the Spirit. You desire the things
of the flesh. They didn't understand, but it
wasn't time for them to understand. The time to understand was when
the Holy Spirit came and began to teach them what it really
meant. What it really meant. Everything
hangs on that. Hangs on the Word of Jesus Christ.
Every beam of light in the church and the believer flows from Christ
and shines upon Christ. That's what it's all about. That's the whole of the Gospel. This is divine wisdom. and glorious
purpose in placing this passage where it is in Scripture. The
application is plain. We have works. Every child of
God has works. Faith without works is dead.
Now, we don t look to our works, we don t think about our works.
It s simply living in this world, loving Jesus Christ And if our
brother or sister needs something, we see to it that if we can,
we see to it that they have it. We take care of the household
of faith. If somebody in our community, may not even be a
brother or sister, needs help, we try to help them too. Those
are works, but we don't think of them as works. They need help,
let's help them. When I say they need help, this
will be a star in my crown. We don't think that way. We don't
think that way, but we do have works. But all our works are
designed for one thing, to shine back on that candlestick. to
give glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember Acts
chapter 3? When that man was sitting at the gate, beautiful,
he was crippled and couldn't do anything. He was lifting out
his hands and asking for alms, which is money. He probably made
a pretty good living. Beggars and heathens, a lot of
them drive Cadillacs once they get off the street. but he was
begging for money and Peter said silver and gold have I none but
what I do have now this is early in the days of the Holy Spirit
he said what I do have I give it to you in the name of Jesus
Christ take up your bed and walk and he leapt up he jumped up
and he was dancing and carrying on and people heard about it
now they were all kinds of religious folks came into that gate beautiful
that went to solomon's porch where they debated scripture
all manner of people came in there all religious pharisees
rabbis came through and they would all give them a farthing
here and a farthing there you know they felt good about themselves
you know and they went on in and then they heard this fellow
wasn't crippled no more that he was dancing about and they
came to peter and said how did this happen now peter had an
opportunity here he didn't need to get in trouble he didn't need
to get in trouble he could have said Jehovah did it and they
would have all applauded yes Jehovah worked a miracle right
in their midst he says let me tell you who did it the man you
crucified and slew God raised from the dead and it's by him
and in his name that this man walks before you today that's
how it happened What did he do? Peter was a lamp shining light
back on the candlestick. That's what he was doing. He did it. And that's what we
say about our salvation. The seven lamps give light over
against the candlestick. Your nature is subdued by the
word so you may serve the Lord. That is, Christ alone may be
glorified, and the seven lamps shall give light over against
the candlestick. That s what happened that day
in Acts. So what we find from this is that here s the candlestick
given, it s the picture of the light of the world which is Christ,
the light in the world which is the Word of God, and the light
carried to people BY the light which are the people of God.
and they all have one purpose and it's singular and that is
to glorify Christ in Him alone. So then boasting is excluded. Boasting is excluded. If at a
moment you seem to rise above nature and do that which is good,
the great high priest has trimmed your wick and lit your light
and your work shall bring no recognition to you but it'll
shine. The seven lamps shall give light
over against the candlestick Thank God for His Word. What
a beautiful picture this is of Christ, His Word, and His people. That's the candlestick. Father,
bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name, Amen.