Seeing The Bible As Whole In Christ

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Transcript

Let’s open our Bibles to the fifth chapter of John’s Gospel, and what we are doing this evening is a continuation and a challenge to having, now listen to this, a strategic grasp of the Bible. What do I mean by that? Most Christians kind of use the Bible. They have a grasp of verses they use to encourage people, or they have a grasp of verses they use for their family, or they have a grasp of verses they use in evangelism, or they have a grasp of the verses that they use because they love prophecy, or social issues. But this book, the entire book, is cohesively knit together around a singular theme.

Now, let me show you what I mean in the fifth chapter of John’s Gospel. Because actually, I didn’t even know I was going to start with this tonight, but this happens to be, [isn’t that how the Lord works], the very chapter that we’re on in our chapter day reading as a family. When the whole clan finally got around the table, and we were all sitting there, enjoying dinner, and then we pulled up a seat and stayed there, and this is the chapter that we read. And my portion, as I was reading along, was verse 13. Now, watch this.

Jesus is talking in John’s Gospel, chapter 5, verse 39. I was reading this out loud and hadn’t even thought about it. You search the Scriptures, this is Jesus, the fourfold witness, and He’s countering the animosity, they’re trying to kill him again. Remember this morning they’re trying to kill Him. They’re trying to kill Him again in verse 16, but He’s countering the religious leader’s animosity. Verse 39, He said, you search the Scripture, for in them you think you have eternal life. Now look at this, And these are they which testify of me. And then He goes on to say, you’re not willing to come to Me, so you won’t have life. Do you know what Jesus’ estimation of the whole Old Testament was? A book that testified of Him, Jesus Christ.

Now, keep reading down through verse 46. He continues in His message to them, and He says, for if you believed Moses, you would believe Me. Look at this, for he wrote about Me. Now, if you read Christologies, you will find specific mosaic verses about Christ. Oh, they’ll talk about the Proto Evangelium, the first time the Gospel of Moses wrote in Genesis 3. Then they’ll talk about the Scepter of Judah in 49. And then they skip all the way along to maybe the serpent lifted up in Numbers. And then they zip along and maybe they get to Deuteronomy 18 about a prophet like Moses. And then they go right by, maybe they’ll get the star or Scepter rising out of Judah destroying Moab. But whatever, there’s five or six in most Christological books. But do you know what He says here? He says, Moses, when he wrote those five books, was writing about Me. And for us who often have not taken the time or understood or been trained, we can’t see Jesus in those first five books.

So, my premise is, and what I’d like to do with you tonight is, underscoring your hearts by showing you, by you actually going with me, how beautifully Jesus Christ is in all the scriptures to give us a strategic grasp. Let’s turn back now to Exodus 24 and before we read some scripture together let me get you prepared. Let me set a stage for you in your minds.

Exodus 24, We’re on the mountain with God. That starts in verse 9. Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet, verse 10, as it were a pavework of sapphire stone, it was like the very heavens in its clarity. So many things, we don’t want to get off on rabbit trails, but every time you see God and His throne, there’s a sapphire, this clear iridescent gem that’s all kinds of green. In fact, Bible stories this week I was telling the buddies, we were talking about Heaven. And I said that Heaven is going to be a little bit like your dresser over there, this chrysoprasus type color. That’s one of the twelve stones in Heaven. Now they have told all of their Children’s Church leaders that their dresser is going to be in Heaven. I said no, no. The color of the dresser, not that old beat up dresser, okay?

You will see this beautiful blue color, this pavement. But now this is the neat part. Look at verse 16. Now actually verse 15, then Moses went up into the mountain. Remember, God told him to send the elders down, for him to come on up. Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud, verse 15, covered the mountain. Now, look at this. Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai. So, this glory… probably a flaming, fiery cloud came down on the top of Sinai and the cloud covered it six days.

Now wait a minute. If you’re a well-adjusted reader, you just go right on reading. Whenever something’s mentioned a detail, like six days, you should stop, step back, or if it says on the fifth day of the third month in the second year. The Holy Spirit doesn’t, He’s not being paid by the word. Authors, I remember the first time I ever wrote anything for publication with Navigator Press, it was $0.15 a word. I’ll tell you what, I explained everything in detail in that article. You know how fast you can write words, the Holy Spirit was not paid by the Word. And so, if there’s a word that is in the Bible, it’s there by divine, supernatural choice.

Now, look what it says. The cloud covered it six days. Now listen. Moses was invited up. The elders were invited down. Moses got there and the elevator, glory cloud, came down over the mountain, and the cloud covered it six days. That means Moses was standing there, or whatever he was doing, for six days. Now, look at this, at the end of verse 16, and on the seventh day, He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. That means Moses was up there in the top of the mountain, waiting for God to speak. And God didn’t say anything for six days.

Now the 21st century Christian would not have waited, I don’t think. Right? If you don’t get an email back within 30 minutes, you think the person’s not interested, and whatever. We live such a too fast life.

He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud, and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. Now, that big introduction for this. And the Lord spoke to Moses, verse 1 of 25. Verse 2, He told him to speak to them and to tell them to bring all these offerings, and it details what they are, all stuff that was from their treasures. Now look at this, verse 8, And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.

Now, the masterpiece of the Old Testament is the tabernacle. The dwelling place of God in the Old Testament is the tabernacle. The greatest picture of Jesus Christ that surpasses any other, including Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, the greatest picture of Jesus Christ, the masterpiece, the place of His dwelling in the Old Testament, is the tabernacle. Now in the New Testament, the dwelling place is us, the Church. He indwells us and we are His tabernacle. And in between the Old Testament and the birth of the Church, the dwelling place of God was the tenting of Jesus Christ on this Earth. He tabernacle with us. But in the Old Testament, I want to dwell among them. Verse 8.

Now look at this, verse 9, according to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings. Just so you shall make it. Underline, emphasize, “as I show it,” “just so you make it.” Fascinating concept. In Exodus 25:9, God showed Moses a pattern in the heavenly tabernacle, and starts with, look what it starts in verse 10.

Now, let me just, because I’ve been thinking about this a long time. Most of us, if we build a house, we build a house, and then we plan the furnishings of it. God starts with the furnishings and has them build a house around it. The seven articles of the furniture were so important that God, look at verse 10, and you shall make an ark of acacia wood, and He starts with the furniture. And not only does He start with the furniture, He starts with the furniture in a very specific order. The

seven pieces are listed in what we would call a reverse order. Every time you look in your Bible or anywhere else at a chart, what do you see in the tabernacle? You see the front door. Then you see the burnt offering, big brass altar. Then you see the laver. Then you see the inner tent, the holy place and holy of holies. And finally, when you get all the way through the veil, you see the Ark of the Covenant. That’s not how God looks at the tabernacle. Where does He start? With the Ark of the Testament. That’s His dwelling place. And when God talks about the tabernacle, He talks about from where He is looking out.

And then, the next time the tabernacle is described… we’ll see later how is it described… it’s described from a sinner looking in. It’s described from the gate, the outer barrier, all the way looking until finally you get into the Ark of the Covenant. Amazing the picture we have of our wonderful Lord Jesus.

Look at chapter 27 now, keep moving on in Exodus, to verse 1. The brazen altar that speaks of Christ’s cross which is the first object you bump into once you get inside the gate, is the tallest of all the pieces. You say, how do you know that? It just takes a little bit of time. Remember, every number is there for a purpose. Look what it says in verse 1, you shall make an altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, five cubits wide. By the way, acacia wood is the wood the Egyptians used to build their boats. Did you know that? When they dig up these boats, these solar barges, or barks, they call them, that are the boats the pharaohs were supposed to sail off into eternity in? Those are made of acacia wood. Because of the desert conditions, it made it a very fine grained, hard wood. Very tight. Very, very strong. But this five cubit by five cubit boat building acacia wood, the altar shall be square and its height shall be three cubits. So, it’s just about five feet high. That’s the tallest object in the tabernacle. Isn’t that fascinating? Why? What stands monumental? What did Paul catch out of this? God forbid that I should glory, save in what? The cross. And the brazen altar is the beautiful picture of the cross, and where the sinner is dealt with. Their sin is placed on Christ. Fascinating, fascinating lesson. We could go on, in fact I don’t want to because I don’t want to get off where I want to go, but just go a little bit further.

Look at chapter 36 in verse 8. Let me just show you one more thing. Because it says, then all the gifted artisans got going and among them who worked on the tabernacle made ten curtains of woven linen and blue and purple and scarlet thread with artistic designs and cherubim they made them. And on and on it goes about all the lengths and it describes all these sockets, and all these boards, and all these staves, and all these different words we don’t even know some of them what they mean. All that to tell you that God said. I want you to write all this down and make this so I can meet with you. Now, the question is, what’s the big deal? How come Genesis 1:1, God takes one verse to declare the creation of the universe? Why does God go from that and go to two chapters to describe that creation process? And then why does He go on to give us 15 unbroken chapters about the articles and furniture of the tabernacle. And then an entire book, the book of Leviticus, with 27 chapters to describe what was supposed to go on in and around that tabernacle. Why would God speak more about the tabernacle than any other single topic in all the Bible?

To explain that, let me just briefly summarize. The tabernacle is God’s photo journal that documents salvation. The tabernacle is not an afterthought. It is His premeditated explanation of what Jesus would do perfectly on the cross. Amazing to ponder that. The tabernacle is the clearest portrait of Christ and of His redemption that can be found in any part of the Old Testament. Even though God only uses one verse to record creation and two chapters to explain it, He takes 15 chapters only in the furniture and the accoutrements of the tabernacle. And then He goes on for another book to describe its actions. The task was so important that God did not depend on the ingenuity of the craftsman.

For a second, turn back to chapter 31. I want to show you Exodus 31. Because God didn’t send a little set of blueprints under Moses arms and have Moses run down and find the most gifted contractors he could find. He did not do it that way. Look what God said. He said, this is so important, the Lord spoke to Moses, chapter 31:1. And said, see, I have called by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding and knowledge and in all manner of workmanship to design. And he goes through the description of the tabernacle. Did you know it was so important? God said you’re not going to wing it. You’re going to make it precisely after the model of the heavenly sanctuary that I have shown you. And you might have got the general idea that you wrote all this down, but He said, you cannot capture what I want, and so I am going to indwell and fill that man, and that artisan is going to have a Spirit filled giftedness in building the objects which are My reflections of Christ’s work. And so, this work was so important, God didn’t depend on the ingenuity of craftsmen following a blueprint. He actually came into them through His Spirit and guided every step of their work.

Before God sent a person named Jesus Christ, He sent a picture called the tabernacle. The tabernacle Is a Photo album of the most detailed explanation of salvation in the Old Testament. The tabernacle is the ABC book of Christian doctrine. It is a systematic theology that Paul actually uses in Romans to explain salvation. Paul could not fully explain the concept of the covering of Christ’s blood without using the tabernacle. He said that’s the picture and that’s the only explanation I can come to. In fact, the writer of Hebrews had to use this to explain the fullness of Christ’s great salvation. In the Old Testament, the tabernacle is the dwelling place of God. In the New Testament, we, the Church, become that dwelling place of God.

But before the cross, and before Christ came, God established ceremonies to typify, to shadow, and to explain Christ on the cross. That was His plan. The observant would clearly see that sin must be dealt with before God could be approached. In fact, that’s what the whole tabernacle is about. You can’t even come in without an offering. You can’t come in unless sin is dealt with. You can’t come in to that beautiful… you know what the Israelites saw? They saw a white wall. That’s all they saw. These huge, high, pure white linen walls encircled that whole sacred compound saying, God’s holy, you’re not, stay out. But if you want to come in, you came in God’s way.

Now, it’s interesting for you to think through this, and we’ll get to this in a few sessions, but what was rent at the cross? The veil. Not the door. God says, the way of salvation hasn’t changed. The door to the tabernacle wasn’t ripped. The way to worship hasn’t been changed, just the way into the presence of God, the veil. That is the flesh, that is to say the flesh of Christ. Very interesting, because actually, there were three separate doorways you went through to get to God. The big one on the outside that was 30 feet wide. Then you crossed the brazen altar and the laver, and then you got to the holy place and there was a gate and a doorway and an entrance there, then you got through that, and the high priest alone could go through the third one. Significant. And each of these speak, one of salvation and one of service. And finally, the last one of intimacy and communion, which we won’t go into tonight.

On this side of the cross, God said that fellowship with Him, which in the Old Testament was only possible when the sin problem was settled at the tabernacle, now is settled through Jesus Christ. And on this side of the cross, the meaning of the death of Christ to God, the effects of Christ’s death upon us who believe, is most clearly taught in the tabernacle. Even in the New Testament, they have to revert, those authors, either Paul, if he wrote both Hebrews and we know he wrote Romans, or Paul and the author of Hebrews, whoever wrote it, the Holy Spirit guiding him. Even those two great books had to revert to the tabernacle to explain Christ’s work, as in Romans 3 and as in 9. The cross is God’s first aid plan for mankind. It’s not His contingency plan. The cross was not an afterthought, a secondary thought. It was the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. That has always been God’s plan. It was God’s plan before the foundation of the world that Jesus would be God’s lamb. The death of Christ on the cross was the plan and the purpose of God from eternity past. It was not an afterthought brought forth or an emergency solution to the sin dilemma.

So, when we say that Christ and his cross are set forth in the tabernacle, we’re only saying this. It is such a grand plan that God had, that He details every single facet of our redemption, of the atoning, efficacious, propitious death of Christ. And details it 1,500 years before the event in such beauty, that today, if you want to understand what Jesus did, you look back. And understand by the illumination of the Holy Spirit as the Apostle Paul did, and as the Early Church did, and see Christ in His beauty in this clearest portrait of all.

So, when we say Christ and His cross are set forth in a tabernacle, we are reflecting the truth that the death of Christ and the cross was not merely an event 1,900 years ago. But it was part of God’s infinite plan. Before Golgotha, the cross was God’s plan. Before Calvary, Christ’s death was God’s plan. So, in the Old Testament tabernacle, God planned out every color, every thread, every article of those seven pieces of furniture, even down to the way the tent was staked into the ground, to speak of Christ’s sacrifice.

The tabernacle is God’s portrait of Christ. We see in it revealed the key doctrines of salvation. The altar of brazen brass, altar of brass is the doctrine of satisfaction. How can a holy God be satisfied? The laver of brass is the doctrine of sanctification. How can we worship and consecrate ourselves to service? Only by regular cleansing. Our sin has been dealt with on the cross, but we cannot enter into worshipful, consecrated service to God without regular cleansing. And that’s what that laver reminded them, at all times. Also, the table of showbread, and the lampstand of gold, and the altar of incense of gold, all reflects the doctrine of worship.

Remember that only the veil into the very presence of God was rent, not the entrance into His worship place in the holy place. God says, even though now you can worship Me anywhere, you can’t worship Me anyway. That’s the lesson the tabernacle gives, and that’s what Jesus reaffirmed in the fourth chapter of John. He said, God is a spirit, and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit, that’s anywhere. But in truth, that’s only one way. And that one way is beautifully portrayed in those three elements of the holy place. And then, the veil which was rent is a doctrine of the incarnation and all the atoning work of Christ. The Ark that was made of gold and wood is the doctrine of Christology which shows the deity, the God man. And then the mercy seat is the doctrine which Paul and the Apostle John use of propitiation.

And so, the tabernacle to us as we study it has three meanings. First, it’s a visible illustration of the heavenly dwelling place of God. Which keeps cropping up by the way. The tabernacle is mentioned in Exodus and in the Old Testament account. It’s mentioned again in Acts 7 as Stephen talks about it and alludes to it. It’s mentioned again in two chapters and scattered around the book of Hebrews But it shows up as the Jewish flavor of the book of Revelation. You can’t understand Revelation until you realize that from the fourth chapter on, it goes from a Church orientation to all of a sudden in the fourth chapter to a Jewish orientation. And what we see unfolding in the book of Revelation has nothing from chapter 4 on to really do with us, and God makes that very clear. It’s nice to know what all those charts and beasts and creatures and bulls are all about, but it really has nothing to do with the Church. It has everything to do with Israel and with the Jews. And that’s why that whole tabernacle portrait comes back, and it’s such a beautiful one.

Secondly, the tabernacle not only is a portrait of that heavenly dwelling place of God, the tabernacle is a type of Jesus. He is the meeting place between God and man. And when we understand that, when we understand you cannot come to God except, first of all, having the sin problem dealt with. God’s first aid plan was portrayed in that brazen altar, so Jesus Christ is the first aid of God to a sin stricken individual, which all of us are. And so, when you understand that, you come to Christ in that meeting place, you must come to the cross.

Churches that don’t tell the Gospel are just giving out tap canes to blind people. They don’t let them have the regeneration that gives them sight because they don’t tell them you have to start at that brazen altar, and you must come to the sacrifice of Christ. Then you must live daily in the 1 John 1:9 of daily cleansing and then you go into worship and service of God.

But finally, the tabernacle, not only is a beautiful, visible illustration of the heavenly place in which God dwells, also the tabernacle is a type of Jesus, the meeting place, but finally, the tabernacle is a type of the communion of Jesus with all believers. It is a beautiful picture of how we come into His family, of how we are cleansed. But also, about how we can feed on Him, how we can be illumined by Him, and how we can have His wonderful intercessory prayer for us through that beautiful golden altar of incense.

The key to the tabernacle then, is Christ. It says in John 1 and verse 14, if you want to turn back there with me, a very, very important verse. It says, and the word became flesh and dwelt. And that word, skenoo is the actual word that is used for the tent of the tabernacle, the mishkan, the whole dwelling place of God. And so, the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And each detail typified, and symbolized, and beautifully portrays the divine incarnation and first advent of Jesus Christ and of His wonderful, efficacious work.

Just really quickly, Go back to Exodus, and I’m just going to take you through a quick summary of the tabernacles, Exodus 25, and verse 10. And let me share with you the order in which the tabernacle and its contents are described. It’s most significant. Exodus 25, verse 10. The first thing mentioned by God is the Ark, and then it’s covering, the mercy seat. Look at verse 17, that was Yahweh’s throne in Israel’s midst. The very next thing that’s described as God portrays it is in verse 23, that’s the table. Then in verse 31 the candlestick, and then in chapter 26, the first verse, as I showed you, those curtains are described. In chapter 26 verse 1, then the boards, and then the tabernacle tent itself with a separating veil, is at the end of chapter 26 and verse 31.

And then finally, last of all in chapter 27, as I pointed out to you, the tallest object of all is the brazen altar and those hangings of the court. Thus, it can be seen in the order from the interior to the exterior. It’s the order of God’s grace. It’s God coming from His throne between the cherubim, seated, right to the outer gate of the tabernacle, and looking out at the lost world. It reminds us of 2 Corinthians 5, when it says on the cross in old King James which is what I memorized, to wit, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself through the extended arms of Jesus Christ on the cross. The Apostle Paul said, God was in Christ looking out through Jesus Christ the tabernacle of God at the world. That’s exactly what you see in the Old Testament. You see God enthroned over the cherubim, over that mercy seat with blood, looking out those doors, and looking out at the lost, who need to come through Him.

That’s a picture of God’s grace. The sinner in his sins could not go from Earth to Heaven, so God in the person of His Son came from Heaven to Earth and died the just for the unjust in order to bring them to God. That’s 1 Peter 3:18. This is the emphasis of Christ in His teaching. The shepherd going after the sheep, Luke 15. The good Samaritan looking for the way laid traveler, Luke 10. Always God the seeker.

But when we come to the second description of the tabernacle, which starts after it’s constructed later on in Exodus, we find the record of its manufacture and setup, there’s a complete change. Fascinating. Now, it’s described beginning with the contents, it goes from beginning with the Holy of Holies, the order goes from outside to within. The tent curtains are mentioned first, and then onward through until it ends at the Ark of the Covenant. This order is exactly reflecting how God reveals Himself in the New Testament.

Think about the book of Romans. How does the book of Romans begin? The book of Romans begins with us, the decline and fall of the human race in chapter 1 and the utter inability of God’s ministers of His grace, chapter 2, the Jews. In chapter 3, the total decadence of the entire human race. And then finally, we get to chapter 4, after man is totally desolate with the faith of Abraham and then going into the work of the Spirit in justification. Then, on through the Christian life. 6, 7, 8. And then God’s plan for Israel. 9, 10, 11. And then the practical section. But where does it begin? It begins with the sinner and takes him to the presence of God. That’s exactly the second description of the tabernacle. That’s the Book of Romans. It portrays looking at the tabernacle from the outside as a sinner and seeing how hard it is to get to the presence of God.

How does Ephesians present God? Chapter 1 starts in the Holy of Holies. It starts chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, seated in heavenly places, and it starts as it were in the very center of God’s Holy Presence and flows outward to the sinners. And by the time we get to chapter 4, it’s unspeakable to be even speaking of the things which are done of them, in secret. And it’s an entire reverse. Ephesians starts in the holy place and goes toward the sinner. And the book of Romans starts in the declined and totally fallen humanity and lifts them and brings them to the presence of God. What a beautiful divine order in that second description of the tabernacle paralleling in Romans the sinner going to God, in Ephesians God coming out to the sinner. This double teaching, this twofold order is described in the tabernacle.

The tabernacle, and here’s my last one. Turn to Exodus 25. I want to show you one more exciting thing. Exodus 25 and verse 9. And if you’re a Bible marker, this little phrase you ought to chase down in the Bible because remember, there’s a heptadic structure and don’t get all worried about that. It means sevens. God deliberately doesn’t use fives or sixes or eights. He uses sevens in His dealings, especially when it comes to the tabernacle. Seven main pieces of furniture and now seven times, look at this, chapter 25, verse 9. No less than seven times we are informed that Moses was commanded to make the sanctuary after the pattern of which it was shown him on the mount.

Exodus 25:9, look at that little phrase at the end of the verse. And the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it, as I showed you on the mountain. That same phrase is repeated in verse 40. Zip on down and see to it, chapter 25, verse 40, that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. It’s repeated again, look at chapter 26 and verse 30. It says, and you shall raise up the tabernacle according to the pattern which you were shown in the mountain. Sounds a little repetitive to me, look at chapter 27 and verse 8. You shall make it hollow with boards, as you were shown to on the mountain, you shall make them. Did you know that even the board holders were important to God? A contractor goes by Home Depot and finds a better board holder, he’ll buy it. God says, no, no, you got to use Mine. It’s important to Me, how it’s made, what it’s made of, and what it stood for. Make it the way I showed you. And on He goes. Numbers 8 and verse 4, Acts 7 and verse 44, Hebrews 8 and verse 5.

Nothing was left to man’s wisdom, and even less to chance. Everything was to be in exact accord with God’s model. Now, why? That teaches us that everything concerning Christ and His people has been given us according to the eternal purpose of Him who works all things after the counsels of His will. And if you want to understand God’s revelation of Jesus Christ, He gave you the biggest full color portrait imaginable. And I must say that probably a generation of Christians have almost neglected it. They have pushed it off to old people’s Sunday School classes, or to whatever, the weirdos that count the tendons of the tabernacle. And what they’ve missed is, Jesus said, in the volume of the book, it speaks of Me. Moses testified of My work on the cross. And if we look, we shall see in our journey from the Outer Court to the Holy of Holies, we go from sin to purification, from grace to glory, and how blessedly this illustrates the truth of the path of the just is like a shining light, it shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Let’s bow before our perfect Lord and thank Him for this perfect picture and ask for Him to illumine our hearts to see Christ in all this book. Dear Father in Heaven, I thank you that we have the privilege to get this grasp of Your word. To see You, much like You showed those disciples on the road to Emmaus, when You explained to them Christ, Yourself in all the scriptures. I pray we would be strengthened, that we would be drawn, that we would be overwhelmed by the care to which You present this picture of Your Son. May we, with Spirit filled hearts and minds, and with blood washed hands and lives come into your holy presence through that rent veil. After we are cleansed regularly, after we have fed upon You and Your word, after we have sought Your illumination, and after we have bowed before You in prayer asking You to show us great and mighty things, may You inhabit our worship. May you consecrate our service and may You fill our hearts with Your beauty, oh Christ. In Your precious name, we ask for this. Amen.

Please open to John 5:39 and 46. Always remember to really grasp God’s Word we must see that all of it speaks of Christ.

Now turn with me to Exodus 24:16, the revelation of the Tabernacle was so sacred, so powerful, so vital to God that He made Moses stand for 6 days and didn’t speak until the 7^th day to him.

Now look at Exodus 25:9 where God showed Moses a pattern in the Heavenly Tabernacle, and then starts with the furniture. Most people fit furniture into the house; God built the tent around the furniture! Note from Ark outward is how God thinks of the Tabernacle.

Now note Exodus 27:1 the Brazen Altar that speaks of Christ’s Cross is the tallest piece of furniture in the Tabernacle. For God forbid that I should glory Paul said, in anything but Christ’s Cross.

The Tabernacle is God”s photo journal documenting salvation. It is not an after thought, it is His premeditated explanation of what Jesus would do perfectly on the Cross. The Tabernacle is the clearest portrait of Christ and His redemption to be found in any part of the Old Testament. While God only uses one verse to record Creation (Genesis 1:1), and two chapters (Genesis 1-2) to explain it, He takes 15 chapters (Exodus 25-40) to explain the construction of the Tabernacle and 27 more to describe it in action (Leviticus). This task was so important that God did not depend on the ingenuity of craftsmen to follow a blueprint, He actually came into them through His Spirit (Exodus 31:1-6) and guided each step of their work.

Before God sent a Person named Jesus Christ, He sent a picture called the Tabernacle.

The Tabernacle is a photo album of the most detailed explanation of salvation in the Old Testament. The Tabernacle is the ABCs of Christian Doctrine, it is a systematic Theology that Paul actually uses in Romans to explain salvation. In the Old Testament the Tabernacle is the dwelling place of God. In the New Testament the Church becomes the dwelling place of God.

Before the Cross, before Christ came, God established ceremonies to typify, shadow, and explain the Cross. The observant would clearly see that sin must be dealt with before God could be approached. Fellowship with God was only possible when the sin problem was settled. That was the message of sacrifice and the meeting place called the Tabernacle.

Now on this side of the Cross, the meaning of the death of Christ to God, and the effects of Christ’s death upon us who believe is most clearly taught in the Tabernacle. Even the New Testament has to revert to the Tabernacle to explain Christ’s work (Romans 3; Hebrews 8-9).

The Cross of Christ is God’s 1^st Aid plan for mankind, it is not His secondary or contingency plan. Christ was slain before the foundation of the world as God’s Lamb. The Death of Christ on the Cross was the plan and purpose of God from Eternity past, it was not an after thought brought forth and an emergency solution to the sin dilemma. So when we say that Christ and His Cross are set forth in the Tabernacle it is only a reflection of the grander truth that the death of Christ on the Cross 1900 years ago is part of God’s infinite plan. Before Golgotha, the Cross was God’s plan. Before Calvary, Christ’s death was God’s plan. So in the Old Testament Tabernacle God planned out every color, every thread, every article of furniture, and even every tent stake and all of them speak of Christ’s sacrifice.

The Tabernacle is God’s Portrait of Christ. In it we see the key doctrines of Salvation.

The Altar of Brass: The Doctrine of Satisfaction
The Laver of Brass: The Doctrine of Sanctification

The Three Entrances: The Doctrine of Worship

The Table of Showbread: The Doctrine of Worship
The Lamp stand of Gold: The Doctrine of Worship
The Altar of Gold: The Doctrine of Worship

The Veil Which Was Rent: The Doctrine of Incarnation

The Ark of Gold & Wood: The Doctrine of Christology
The Mercy-Seat of Gold: The Doctrine of Propitiation

“The tabernacle has no fewer than three meanings,

In the first place, the tabernacle is a type, a visible illustration, of that heavenly place in which God has His dwelling.
In the second place, the tabernacle is a type of Jesus Christ, who is the meeting-place between God and man.
And, in the third place, the tabernacle is a type of Christ in the Church—of the communion of Jesus with all believers” (Adolph Saphir).

The key to the Tabernacle, then, is Christ. In the volume of the Book it is written of Him. As a whole and in each of its parts the Tabernacle foreshadowed the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Each detail in it typified some aspect of His ministry or some excellency in His person. Proof of this is furnished in John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (R. V. margin). The reference here is to the Divine incarnation and first advent of God’s Sea to this earth, and its language takes us back to the book of Exodus. Many and varied are the correspondences between the type and the anti-type. We take leave to quote from our comments on John 1:14.

The order in which the Tabernacle and its contents are described is most significant. The first thing mentioned is the ark (25:10) and its covering—the mercy-seat (25:17), which was Jehovah’s throne in Israel’s midst. Then comes the table (25:23) and the candlestick (25:31), the curtains (26:1), and boards (26:15) of the Tabernacle proper, with the separating veil (26:31). Last comes the brazen altar (27:1) and the hangings of the court (27:9). Thus it will be seen that the order is from the interior to the exterior. It is the order of sovereign grace, God coming from His throne right to the outer door where the sinner was! How this reminds us of the Incarnation; the sinner in his sins could not go from earth to heaven, so God in the person of His Son came from heaven to earth, and died the Just for the unjust “that He might bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18). Blessedly was this emphasized by Christ in His teaching—the Shepherd going after the lost sheep (Luke 15:4), the good Samaritan journeying to where the wounded traveler lay (Luke 10:33), etc.
The second description of the Tabernacle, where we have the record of its manufacture and set up, there is a notable variation. Instead of beginning with the contents of the holy of holies where Jehovah dwelt, we have described the Tabernacle and curtains of the outer court, which the common people saw. Here the order is from without to within—the experimental order, the order in which Divine truth is apprehended by the soul. This same twofold order may be seen in the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians. In Romans, the Holy Spirit begins with man’s sinfulness, guiltiness, and ruin; goes on to speak of God’s provision in Christ, and then closes the doctrinal section by showing us the redeemed sinner in the presence of God, from whom there is no separation. In Ephesians the Spirit begins with God’s eternal counsels, choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and then treats of redemption and regeneration and the consequent privileges and responsibilities flowing therefrom. In Romans it is the sinner going in to God; in Ephesians, God coming out the sinner. Such is the double teaching in the twofold order of the description of the Tabernacle.
The order of the pieces that made up the Tabernacle is fascinating. Marvelous is the progressive order of teaching in connection with the various objects in the Tabernacle.

At the brazen altar sin was judged, and by blood-shedding put away.
At the laver purification was effected.
In the holy place provision was made for prayer, food and illumination. In the holy of holies the glory of the enthroned King was displayed.
The same principle of progress is also to be seen in the increasing value of the sacred vessels. Those in the outer court were of wood and brass; whereas those in the inner compartments were of wood and gold. So too the various curtains grew richer in design and embellishment, the inner veil being the costliest and most elaborate.
Again, the outer court, being open, was illumined by natural light; the holy place was lit up by the light from the golden candlestick; but the holy of holies was radiated by the Shekinah glory of Jehovah.
Thus the journey from the outer court into the holy of holies was from sin to purification, and from grace to glory. How blessedly did this illustrate the truth that “the path of the Just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:18).

The Tabernacle was dictated completely by God. No less than seven times are we informed that Moses was commanded to make the Sanctuary after the pattern of it which was shown him in the Mount—see Exodus 25:9; 25:40; 26:30; 27:8; Numbers 8:4; Acts 7:44; Hebrews 8:5. Nothing was left to man’s wisdom, still less to “chance”; everything was to be in exact accordance with the Divine model. Does not this teach us that everything concerning Christ and His people has been wrought out according to the eternal purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will! May Divine grace enable us to rest there in perfect peace and Joyous worship.

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