The most profitable way to read any part of Scripture is to find the Lord Jesus, asserting that He is present in every type and part of the Bible. Using the Tabernacle as a primary example, the message systematically explores its various components, from the brazen altar representing Christ's blood and sacrifice to the laver symbolizing cleansing by the Word, and the golden altar with its incense representing Christ's delightful life and worship. The sermon concludes that the entire Tabernacle, including the veil (Christ's flesh) and the ark (Christ's glory), ultimately points to Jesus, encouraging listeners to seek Him in all of Scripture.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.05 → restored 4.08
And we have a very simple, but I trust, a very interesting little thing in mind for our meetings during these two weeks, God willing. We wanted to try to show, especially for those that are maybe younger in Christ, that are beginning to read the Scriptures and find them interesting. We wanted to try to show that perhaps the most profitable way to read any part of Holy Scripture is to read it to find the Lord Jesus. I'm sure it must be interesting to read it other ways too, but I think that this is the most profitable way to read any part of Holy Scripture, that is to find the Savior. And what I have in mind is to try to show that in every type of Scripture, in all parts of our Bible, the Lord Jesus is there.
And it's really very easy to find him in every part of Holy Scripture. Now, we have his own authority for that because... At the end of Luke chapter twenty four, Luke's Gospel chapter twenty four, you remember that he walked to Emmaus with those two. I would be a little biased towards thinking they were a husband and wife. That doesn't matter. But anyway, he walked with two disciples to Emmaus and it must have been quite a wonderful discussion that they had together. And from all the scriptures he showed them things concerning himself. And so we have his authority for looking in all parts of our Bible for himself.
That's what we want to do during these nights now in his will. And this afternoon we want to go back to that old scripture that deals with the tabernacle, please. And I think we'll read from the last chapter in the book of Exodus. The very last chapter in the book of Exodus. And that would be the last chapter really dealing with the setting up of it, and to show in a very sketchy kind of way perhaps how the Lord Jesus is in every part of that sacred structure. The book of Exodus and chapter forty, and we read some verses beginning at verse seventeen, verse seventeen.
And it came to pass in the first month, in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was reared up. And Moses reared up the tabernacle and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up the pillars. He spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it, as the Lord commanded Moses. And he took and put the testimony into the ark and set the staves on the ark and put the mercy seat above upon the ark. He brought the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the covering and covered the ark of the testimony as the Lord commanded Moses.
And he put the table in the tent of the congregation upon the side of the tabernacle northward without the veil. and he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord as the Lord commanded Moses. And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation over against the table on the side of the tabernacle southward, and he lighted the lamps before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the veil, and he burnt sweet incense thereon as the Lord commanded Moses. And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle, and he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering, as the Lord commanded Moses.
And he set the lever between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water there to wash with all. Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat. When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed, as the Lord commanded Moses. And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate, so Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Now the Lord will bless that interesting summary of this very interesting building. Now, there are only two chapters in our Bible given over to a description of creation. And there are actually sixteen chapters given over to the description of the tabernacle, which immediately prompts us to see the importance, the great importance that God has put upon the tabernacle. This vast creation, this beautiful globe in which we live, And only two chapters, and that whole story is finished.
But sixteen chapters are given over to all the details of the rearing up of this structure. And, of course, the great importance of it is that every bit of it speaks of Christ. Now, it is a very thrilling study, and I know that some of our dear brethren specialize a little bit in a study of the tabernacle. but whether you go into all of the detail or not certainly in a broad way it's very easy to find the Lord Jesus here and I want to just suggest some of the ways in which we might see him and his ministry and his work in the story of the tabernacle now usually when we would be talking about the tabernacle maybe I speak personally we would begin outside we would sort of naturally approach the gate of the court and we would enter into that great outer court, as we call it, first of all, and we would come across to the brazen altar, and then we would come to the laver, and then we would arrive at the tabernacle proper, and we would go in through that first veil, because there were two veils, we would go in by the first veil, and we would enter into the first compartment, which was the holy place, and then we would
go back, go in through the second veil, and eventually right into the very holiest of all and there we would be occupied with the ark that is usually the way that we would approach a study of the tabernacle now it's very interesting to notice that god seems to always work in reverse to us and he actually starts right in the very inner shrine with the ark and the mercy seat and the glory and then he comes out through the veils and into the outer court and right out to that outer fencing and through the gate God it seems begins right in the very heart of the glory and he works out but our tiny little minds can't work that way we have got to somehow progress and enter in into the very holiest of all eventually now that is the way that I want to go this afternoon to begin outside to come into the outer court and to simply point out these pieces of furniture, these basic things that belong to the tabernacle, and to see how that, in a very fundamental way, the person of the Lord Jesus is seen in all of this furniture of the tabernacle.
Now, it was, as someone has said, a very beautiful house in a grim wilderness. I suppose in some respects it was very plain. from outwardly looking at the badger skins that covered it I suppose it was just a very plain and a very ordinary tent but when you did get inside if you've been privileged to see the gold and the glory of the blue and the purple and the scarlet and if we had been privileged to be in the place where the glory shone well then of course we would have recognized that it was indeed a very beautiful house in a very grim wilderness it was of course the place where God dwelt.
And that is what the shakina really means. When I was a young Christian, I searched for that word shakina for a long time, too shy to ask people where it was and I couldn't find it. I thought it was a rather majestic word and brethren kept using it, but I didn't know what it meant and I couldn't find it. Well, you won't find it, of course, actually in our authorized version. You won't find it in an English version. because it is an old Hebrew word, the shahina, as they still refer to it. And what it means simply is that it is glory dwelling. And right in the very inner shrine of that tabernacle, the glory dwelt. And I think, although some brethren don't agree, that apart from that glory shining, that inner shrine would have been in darkness.
It seemed to be completely closed in and the light closed out. and it was the Shekinah glory that really lit up that inner shrine, that holiest of all. Now, this beautiful house in the wilderness was, of course, in the midst of this great outer court. The outer court was perhaps about a hundred and fifty feet long and maybe seventy-five feet wide, and it was boundaryed off by a fine white linen fencing. And again, I think, though we're not referring to it this afternoon, that all of that in some way or other speaks of the Lord Jesus. I take that little word in the Psalms to do with the temple.
I take it to be applicable to the tabernacle. and that every wit of it uttereth his glory, and that we are expected to see from the moment we approach it, even looking at this plain and ordinary structure in the wilderness, we are expected to see something of the man in whom the glory of God dwelt in the wilderness as he walked, and apparently ordinary Galilean amongst men. Just a carpenter, many thought. and in many respects just a very ordinary person in Galilee and coming down now to Judea but nevertheless in that very ordinary person in that apparently usual ordinary Galilean carpenter there actually dwelt the very glory and this to me is what the tabernacle is all about it is the glory of God residing dwelling and emanating from his own son Now I know that some brethren will approach the tabernacle and they'll see in it a picture of the assembly.
Now I would be as true and as faithful I trust to the assembly as any brother. But to me to go to the tabernacle and to look for the assembly or to try to find the assembly everywhere in Scripture to me is a gross misunderstanding of those scriptures. And to go to the... tabernacle and to find in the tabernacle some reason there for condemning or judging television or that sort of thing well to me whether you agree with the television or not it seems to me to be a gross understatement of the truth of holy scripture and of the tabernacle and a terrible mishandling of it and I'm making of it as a very ordinary thing.
There is a beautiful thing here that speaks of the person of the Lord Jesus, and I trust that we'll be helped to see that glory and all that majesty. This to me is the way to understand the tabernacle, to see it always as bringing out the glory of the Lord Jesus. And so as we look at the furniture and some of these vessels this afternoon, Every time we put our hand to any one of these vessels or pieces of furniture, it is just to see Christ and his ministry to see his work. Now, in the midst of that great outer court, a hundred and fifty feet long, by seventy-five feet and boundary by the white linen fencing, well, there was then, of course, this structure of the tabernacle.
It was perhaps about forty-five feet long, maybe fifteen feet wide. And here it was covered over with the ordinary badger skins and looking very plain from the outside. But when you went through the veil, of course, then immediately you began to see the glory. And over here was the candlestick. which is our Lord Jesus as the light, of course. We'll see in a moment not the light of the world, by the way, but the light of the sanctuary, which is a different thing. And then you look over here, there was this lovely table, and upon the table the bread, and right directly in front of you, and just before the veil, there was, of course, the golden altar.
So there were three pieces of furniture in the holy place. Then that veil, which was really something special, which was all blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen and the chariot in upon it, And when you were, if you were privileged to go beyond that veil, then of course the golden ark, the mercy seat, the cherubim beaten out of pure gold and shining in the light of the glory, and perhaps the marks of blood still upon the mercy seat. And if you had been allowed to look inside the ark, well then in that golden chest, of course, There were those other three things. There was the tablets of stone with the law written upon them, and there was the rod that had miraculously budded, and then there was the golden pot that had manna in it, and these three things, and the ark itself, they all again spake in some way of the person of the Lord Jesus.
Now, I don't mean that these people originally were able to see the Messiah in all of these things. But we, of course, have an advantage, and we now live in the days of Revelation and in the days of the New Testament. And we can look away back from the days of Revelation, and we have the authority of the epistles of the Hebrews, and particularly chapter nine, to find the Lord Jesus in these scriptures. and when the writer to the Hebrews outlined some of these things and he spoke about one or two of them but then he mentioned others and he says now we can't just now speak particularly about these things now that implies to me that had it been had there been time or had it been the occasion he could have spoken particularly about them but he's not doing it just now particularly, I judge them that in all the details of these things, he would have continued to find the ministry and the work of the Lord Jesus.
Part of Hebrews nine, there you have the authority for seeing Christ in an echo. Now, for the benefit of those that are younger in Christ, because... My older brethren and sisters have been reading these passages for a long time. But for those that are younger, if I could just whet your appetite this afternoon to see that there is so much of the Lord Jesus in these tabernacle scriptures and then get all the helps you can and get to a study of them and see how in this lovely structure Christ is shining in every part of it. And you'll find glories of the Lord Jesus here that maybe you never dreamt were there.
And then the scriptures will live and you'll want to keep at the reading of them. If only I think we can show young people in our day that the Bible is an interesting book, that it is a thrilling story, that there is so much there of Christ to be seen and to be learned. Well, that is a tremendous thing. Well, now we come to this outer court and we pass through the beautiful gate at the end, at the eastern end of that court, and we begin to cross, and here's a wonderful thing, that we're actually walking on desert sand. As you walk across that outer court, there's no floor to it. It's just the sand of the wilderness. And this is what we're doing this afternoon, crossing the outer court.
And with our feet upon the very sand of the old wilderness in which we live, we are nevertheless going to see something of the glory of Christ in this structure. And so we cross that part of the outer court and we come to the very first piece of furniture or the first vessel, if you like, and this is what we call the brazen altar. Now, with each of these pieces of furniture, I want to link another word. And with the brazen altar, well, the word to link with that, of course, is the word blood. The brazen altar and the blood seem to be ever flowing at that altar. So when you think of this brazen altar, you always think of Calvary and you always remember the blood of Christ and the value of his sacrifice.
Now, the brazen altar, we call it the brazen altar because there was another altar. It's not just sufficient to say the altar because there was a golden altar as well. And they had two entirely different ministries. So when you're speaking about that big altar, which was in the court, which sat in the sand in the court, then you think of it's the brazen altar and you think of the blood that ever was being shed and poured out around and about it and flowing over it. It wasn't a very pleasant sight in some respects, you know. It must indeed have been a very gory business and a very horrifying sight sometimes to see the blood that flowed at the brazen altar.
And, of course, in some respects, Calvary was a cruelty, too. And we come to Calvary again, and we see the blood flowing, and we think of the physical injuries that were done to the Lord Jesus. And... We tried to contemplate what men did to him, and outwardly, physically, Calvary was not a pleasant sight. But there were truths there, great things enacted there, and there were great things done at the brazen altar, and great things accomplished at Calvary. And when we come to this brazen altar, one very interesting thing to remember about it is this. Now, if you don't remember the dimensions, And they're very difficult to remember.
And if you don't remember even the dimensions of the brazen altar, they were, in fact, about seven and a half feet by seven and a half feet and about four and a half feet high. It was a great thing, a great big square altar. But if you don't remember those dimensions, just remember this interesting but very simple thing about the dimensions of the brazen altar. That every other measured piece of furniture every other vessel that's mentioned whose dimensions are given would actually go right inside the brazen altar now we don't know the dimensions of the labor we don't know that so we can't say about the labor but everything else that is met that is measured every other piece of furniture whose dimensions are given will actually go right inside the brazen altar and come out of it again it seems as if calvary is big enough to embrace everything and that all we have comes from calvary and is based upon calvary this is the largest of all the pieces of furniture whose dimensions are given And so it's very fitting that, first of all, we should be confronted with
the work of the cross. And here, then, is the brazen altar, and ever linked with the brazen altar is the question or the subject of the blood. So, sacrifice and blood now is the basis of everything, and you know, of course, that that is true with our gospel, that everything that we have is based upon Calvary. So, as we come through the outer court, this is the very first thing that God will remind us of. The very first thing that he will say, that here is his son in the brazen altar, here is the cross, the blood of Christ, the work of Calvary, and everything is based upon that.
Now, a very, very important thing, and one, mind you, if you can see it when you're young, I think that it will save you a lot of trouble later on, and with the greatest of respect, some of our dear brethren have never seen it yet, and it's a very, very important thing. After the priest left the brazen altar, and perhaps he was defiled before he was going into the holy place, You know, his next cleansing had nothing at all to do with blood. It had to do with water. And so when we leave the brazen altar, and before we get to the actual tabernacle proper, we come to this next great vessel, which was, of course, the brazen lever, and it was between the altar and the door of the tabernacle, and it had to do with the cleansing of defilement.
Now, here is the thing to remember. When once you have been to Calvary, that is the end of the ministry of blood. After that, if there is defilement, and there is, of course, it is then the ministry of the water of the word, and of communion with the Lord Jesus himself, who is the living word. And that is the ministry of the liver. And the priests washed their hands and their feet. They washed at the liver. But when once a person has been to the brazen altar, that is the end of the ministry of blood and blood. My appreciation and my appropriation of what was done at the cross has to be done but once.
And after that, of course, I live in the enjoyment of it, but I need never ask, as some do unintelligently, although sincerely, I need never ask for fresh applications of the blood of Christ and all that sort of thing that is not at all scriptural, And when once I have been to the cross, my sins are gone, past, present and future, they're every one of them gone, dealt with by the blood of Christ, and that blood never needs to be applied in any sense to me again. That is completely and totally an unscriptural request that we have the blood applied again.
We know, of course, what our brethren mean, but the thing has no foundation in Scripture, and after that my cleansing is by the labor, by the water, and that seems to be by the Word of God, and by my constant communion with the Lord Jesus. Now, you see what is wrapped up here in other great truths. It is that great truth that we call eternal security. That is wrapped up here, you see. Some young believers come and they say, now, I'm a little bit worried, you see, because... I can understand that all my sins up until the night that I was saved, I can see that all of that past was blotted out when I came to know the Lord Jesus.
And of course, you remember the night you were saved, and you came with all your problems about your sin and your guilt, but you came to Calvary that night, and you maybe heard that word from Isaiah, I have blotted out thy transgressions. and your sins were gone and your past was finished with you knew that but then the young believer begins to wonder what about the sins that I have committed since then what about sins that I have committed since the night of my conversion here is a very important truth that not only my sins before the night of my conversion But the sins that would ever be linked with my name, after the night of my conversion, they were every one of them dealt with at my one visitation to the brazen altar.
They have every one been blotted out, past and future, and even the sins of this. Present fleeting moment, they have every single one of them been blotted out by the ministry of Christ at the brazen altar. So the great truth of eternal security is there. How could you possibly be lost now if all your future sins are already blotted out? You see, whenever Christ died, all of your sins were future. All of them, what you call the sins of your past, they were future. What you call the sins of the present or your future, they were all future when he died. And if it is true as we sing that all my sins were led upon him, and Jesus bore them in the tree, if that is true, and it is true, then that means that every single sin...
that has ever been or can ever be linked with my name has already been dealt with at the brazen altar and we never need any repetition of what happened there the blood of Christ has blotted all that out it's gone completely all of my guilt is completely expiated and so that's a tremendous truth and after that my cleansing is by the word and by communion with the Lord Jesus So the priest is not the prison out there. That's the ministry of Christ. And the shedding of his blood. But then he comes to the labor. And this now is the place where we have our defilement, by the way, cleansed away.
And of course, you must keep reading the word of God. That you must keep reading even when you don't understand. That perhaps for some of us is very often we've got to keep reading when we don't understand. But keep reading anyway. And even when you think you're not remembering. Still keep reading anyway. Keep at the reading of God's word. And then, of course, that means that if you arrive at a moment of temptation, well, some little verse that you have read, God can resurrect it, he can bring it up in your mind, but he not do that miraculously if you haven't read it, but if you have read it at some time and even think you've forgotten it, he can then bring it up in your memory again, and it will be the very strength that you need then to resist that temptation when the moment of temptation arises.
I was a very young believer. I had this problem that I couldn't remember what I had been reading, and it used to trouble me quite a lot. I tried to read, I tried to be interested, but I read and I wasn't piecing things together the way I could see others putting them together. I certainly wasn't remembering and I came to the conclusion that I wasn't growing either and that, well, the whole thing just seemed to be nearly like a waste of time and I was very frustrated and very disappointed. And I went to an old brother at that time and I put my problem to him. I was in my middle teens, I suppose, and I said to him, Luke, I said, I keep reading, I try to read, but I can't remember and most of it I can't understand anyway.
And he told me a story. was a very simple story but i never forgot it he told me about a young man who went to an old man with the very same problem the very same problem and when this young man went to see the old man he found the old man standing at the kitchen sink and he was washing up you see wife had been baking or something and she had had to go out and she'd let these things and he was standing tidying up clearing up you see and uh he listened quietly to the young fellow while he talked about this reading the scriptures and reading and not being able to remember and not being able to understand and the old man he walked away for a moment and then he pointed to a sieve sieve with a lot of flour sticking about it and he asked this young fellow to fill it with water and of course the boy he looked back and see that won't hold water oh well he said I want you to try to fill it anyway he said you can't you can't you can't fill a sieve with water but he looked would you mind turning on the tap he said and trying to fill it he said I want to see what happens when you try to fill it and young lad shrugged his shoulders and the old man wouldn't
be put off so he turned the tap on and he held the sieve and the old fellow went about his business over here at this end of the kitchen for a while And kept looking over and over and again, well, filled yet. No, you see, the young man, you can't fill a sieve of water. He said, this won't hold water. Let me see, said the old man. He had a look. And he said, no, no, true enough. He said, it's not holding anything. See, look how clean it is. Look how clean it is. And it hasn't held anything. But isn't it clean? And true enough, of course, it had cleaned up tremendously just by being held under the flowing water. This old brother that told me the story, he sort of chased me after that.
He said, don't you worry about what you're containing or what you're holding or what you're remembering or what you're understanding? He said, you keep at the reading, you keep and you don't know what's happening. But he said, I can tell you that as the Word of God is getting into your mind and into your life, and flowing through you he said it's keeping you clean and if you're not holding much you're being kept clean anywhere anyway don't forget don't forget about the sieve he said and I never forgot that and so it encouraged me to keep at the reading and true enough you find yourself in a problem you find yourself in a difficulty and you remember a little verse that you read You know, you think to yourself, I thought I'd forgotten that little verse, but here it is, and it's just applicable to the very moment, and how sad it would have been if you'd never read it, but you did read it, and now at the right moment God brings it up.
So keep at the reading of God's word, and that's the ministry of the lever, and that's an old question from the Psalms. Well, with shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto, according to thy word. And then, of course, not only does it save us from doing things that are wrong, But when we sometimes do the thing that is wrong, then we go to the Word of God and we find, of course, that we are guilty now of doing something that has grieved him. What now? Back to the brazen altar? To have it cleansed? No, no, no. To the labor again, to God and His Word. And when we come to God and His Word, all we are asked to do is to confess.
that we have done wrong do you know that we are not even asked we are not instructed to ask for forgiveness is an interesting thing we are not even encouraged to ask to be forgiven we are simply encouraged to come and confess that we have sinned and if we do that if we come and acknowledge then he is righteous and just faithful and just to forgive us our sins and the unrighteousness is gone and the communion is restored again you see if your boy does something wrong and boys will always do things that are wrong and your boy comes back to you again and there's a strained atmosphere in the home because the boy's done something that has grieved the father tell me do you make your boy come and cringe and beg for forgiveness no no not at all there's no father will do that but all the father wants is this the boy comes and says dad I'm sorry I'm sorry that's all he doesn't even need to ask you to be forgiven you're too quick to forgive if only he'll say I'm sorry and this is exactly what God wants and that
is the ministry of the labor showing us where and when we have done what is wrong and often keeping us from the doing of the wrong thing so keeping at the word of god and that's the ministry of the lord jesus in the word the brazen altar is lit with blood we get there once at the night of our conversion and of course we never forget it but when we come now for cleansing from defilement we come to the labor and the water and this Lever again was brass, which speaks of judgment, usually, so we judge ourselves in the light of the word of God. Now we leave the outer court, and we come through this first veil, and everything yet is speaking of Christ, entering in now through himself into the enjoyment of holy things.
And as we enter through that first veil now, and we let it fall behind us, and we stand in this outer compartment, this first compartment, which we call the holy place, not the holiest, but the holy place. And you look here, and you see these three items of furniture or vessels, whichever you like to call them. Here, over here, is the candlestick with its branches. Some say six branches and the candlestick proper in the center. Others say a seven-branched candlestick or a seven-branched lampstand. But here it is and it sits over here as we approach the veil. And over there there is the table and the bread upon it, and right directly in front of us another altar, smaller altar this time, and this is the golden altar, and it is linked with incense.
Now, the table, of course, over here, the table is linked with bread, and the candlestick, obviously, is linked with light, and the altar here in front, the golden altar, is linked with incense. So now you see what we have. We have blood at the brazen altar, water in the labour, bread on the table, light in the candlestick and incense at the golden altar. Now all of this again is speaking of the Lord Jesus. Now here, over here is the table and the bread upon it. What a lovely thing this afternoon to remember. That when we are feeding upon Christ, we are actually feasting upon one who have satisfied the heart of God.
That is a tremendous thing. That we are actually sharing the very food of the altar. The bread of the table is the food of the altar. It is the very bread of God upon the table. And when you come looking for Christ in the Scriptures, you are looking for the man who has delighted God's heart. And that is a tremendous thing. So, when you come to the New Testament, you find the Lord Jesus is called the bread. And you'll find that in about six different ways. In fact, in John chapter six, the Lord Jesus is referred to as the bread. He's the bread of life. He's the living bread. He's the bread of God.
He's the bread, the true bread. He's the bread which came down from heaven. And then the tense has changed. And he's called the bread which cometh down from heaven. In the present and continuous, he's coming down from heaven. And, of course, when he came down, first of all, he came to Bethlehem, which means the house of bread, and there is no doubt at all that the bread of the table is the Lord Jesus satisfying God and satisfying me. And when we come together and feast upon Christ, I repeat that we are feasting upon one who has delighted the heart of God. Now, isn't that great encouragement to be keeping looking for Christ in the Scriptures?
You are looking for the only man of whom we can speak only well. And we are speaking of the only man that has ever fully delighted the heart of God, God feasting on his own son. And the Lord Jesus is the bread of the table. Now, I know that when some of our brethren are speaking about the tabernacle, they can spend a whole evening at the table. And I know, of course, that there is so much more detail. But I'm only trying to show the young believer that Christ is there in this lovely, lovely furniture. And in the table he is the bread, the bread of God and the bread of the priest.
Now can I ask you, what are you feasting upon? Where do you look from day to day for satisfaction? Oh, I trust that we have by now recognized that any satisfaction that is lasting and real is in Christ only, and you'll find the answer to all your yearnings in Him. That's where God met the yearnings of His heart. And if God is satisfied with Christ, Well, then so shall we be. Therefore, be often at the table of showbread. That is Christ as the food of God. Now, over on the other side, and this is maybe a little bit difficult, here is the candlestick.
And the candlestick, of course, is linked with light. And this, I think, is the Lord Jesus as the light of the sanctuary and not as the light of the world. Now, I knew that he was, when he was here, I knew that he was the light of the world. He said that himself. And he said that this was to the condemnation of the Pharisees. and to those evil men. They preferred the darkness. Says the Lord Jesus, this is their condemnation. He says, light has come into the world. And the Pharisees, they detested his very presence. They were glad to see him gone. He exposed them. He kept asking awkward questions and putting things to them that somehow seemed to drag out of them confessions.
and even against their will sometime they were involved in controversy with them and then he exposed them and he showed them for what they were and denounced their hypocrisy and this was to their condemnation that he was the light of the world walking in the very midst of them they didn't like that now the Lord Jesus was the light of the world but that is not the meaning of the candlestick you see this candlestick is not in the world This candlestick is in the sanctuary. And the Lord Jesus was the light of the world, but he's rejected now, and he's gone. And where is he? He's in the sanctuary. He's in the holy place.
He's in the heavenlies. And he who was at one time the light of the world has now gone up to become the light of the sanctuary. And this is the beautiful thing that he is accepted in the heavens who was rejected on earth. And if men cast them out, heaven has taken them in, and we are associated with one who is the very light of the sanctuary. Now, between the candlestick and the table, there was, of course, then, this golden altar. Now, the word you link with that is the word incense. And here was a little altar, much smaller than the brazen altar. And its main purpose was this, that the incense was burned upon it.
and from it constantly there must have been this cloud of fragrant incense that and then it was carried in of course once a year carried right into the very holiest of all and this incense is very easy to see how that speaks of the Lord Jesus here was one who when he was here was as he is now in the sanctuary he was sweet and delightful to the heart of God There ever ascended from him, even when he was here, as now, a cloud of fragrant human incense that went right eventually in between the cherubim, right to where the glory was, and delighted God's heart.
Oh, the sweetness of the life of the Lord Jesus, and wouldn't it be so very interesting? To stay there at the golden altar and to follow this fragrance and see how fragrant was the life of the Lord Jesus to God, his father. And the father's commendation of his son and all the lovely things that the father has said about him in the Old Testament and in the New, these delightful things about a man who has really refreshed the heart of God and brought incense into the holy place. Now what we can do is this. we can be associated with the golden altar and the incense in the ministry of worship. And this is true worship.
Sometimes I think, brethren, we need to assess again our reasons for being together on a Lord's Day morning. And I think it might be expressed very simply that we are here simply to remember Him. And if we are occupied with Him and there is that overflowing of Himself, Before God, this is the whole purpose of that meeting, that the Father might be delighted again with thoughts of his Son, as he sees a little company, communing together and remembering, and occupied alone with the Lord Jesus, and then the overflow of this, you see, the incense rising into the very presence of God, of those that are being occupied at the golden altar with his own Son.
What a delightful occupation is this. And I suppose that even in eternity we shall never reach higher ground than this. To be occupied in conversing with God about His Son, likely that's the highest ground that ever we shall reach. And nice that we can be occupied that way here and now. It is the meaning of the incense altar, the meaning of the golden altar, that Christ is the incense refreshing. and delighting the heart of God. Now you leave the golden altar, and you arrive at this beautiful veil. Our time is gone, but this beautiful veil, you know, it was of blue and purple and scarlet.
And if the word that you link with the brazen altar is blood, and with the labor you link water and the table, you link bread, and with the candlestick, you link the light, of course. I think that with the golden altar you link the incense and with the veil you link the word the beauty because it is the beauty of the veil that really is Christ. And here is blue and purple and scarlet particularly and all of this speaking of the Lord Jesus. You don't need to be a theologian I think to see that the blue is the heavenly color. And you look up into the sky, and we link the blue with the heavens, of course.
It is the heavenly color, without doubt. And I think, again, that scarlet is that earthly color. You know that it came from, in fact, a tiny little worm, and they referred to it as worm scarlet. From the very earth itself, this scarlet came, and it is essentially an earthly color. Now, the boys and girls can tell you that when you mix blue and scarlet together, you get purple. And how lovely is this? Here is a man who, before he was a man, was heavenly blue. It is the blue of the glory, the blue of the heavens. It is the blue of eternity, the blue of deity. And here is the scarlet of one who came right down to be an infant, a boy, a man, a real man.
For that our dear brother has already given thanks that our Lord Jesus was a real man. Here is the scarlet. And when you mingle the blue of the heavens and the scarlet of earth together, you get this remarkable man, this unique man, who in the purple we see, and I know some brethren, perhaps are not sure of the term, but we call him the God-man. And what we mean is this, that here is one who is man and God, and somehow we can see deity and humanity both in him, but we cannot categorize and we cannot analyze and we cannot rightly understand, but blue and scarlet are together here in the purple.
And when you come to the Hebrews Epistle, I think it's there we get all the authority for seeing this veil as the humanity, the beautiful humanity of the Lord Jesus. Because in the Hebrews Epistle, you get that little word, the veil, that is to say, His flesh. How was the veil His flesh? How was His flesh, the veil, in this way? that that flesh in which he lived, that true and perfect humanity, that in fact is the glory that hangs between God and me. God says to me, there is a standard that bars you out.
And if you want to understand it and to see it lived out in a man, then look at him the way that he lived. That's the veil that bars me out. I can't come near because there is all the glory there. And yet in a sense, you know, men were able to draw near to that beautiful veil. And I don't know if perhaps sometimes the priest in the holy place might have even touched that veil. But beyond it he was not allowed to go. Here is a wonderful thing that even little children came near and touched that veil which was his flesh. Even the outcast came. Sometimes the fallen ones came and actually touched that veil.
That is to say his flesh. And yet that was the barrier that kept us out. Well one day. the veil was rent he went to the cross he gave himself and through the veil through his own body the giving of it the rending of it he actually opened up a way right into the very presence of God so the veil with all its beauty is his flesh and in his flesh he has made a way back to God now the ark of course is the only remaining thing And yet it's the most important thing. And here is the ark in the very holiest of all.
And the word that you link with the ark, of course, is the word the glory. And if there is the brazen altar with its blood, and the liver with its water, and the table with its bread, the candlestick with its light, the golden altar with its incense and the veil with its beauty then here is the ark with all its glory and everything speaks of the Lord Jesus now inside that ark there were of course those three items that we have mentioned three things inside that ark and they spoke of Christ here were divine requirements in the law he lived up to those lived them out perfectly Here was a golden pot that had manna.
That was the manna that delighted God's heart. That was the bread again that came down from heaven. This was the memorial of it. And here was Aaron's rod that had miraculously budded. That was God's approval of his man. That's how God approved Aaron as the leader of his people. The rod that miraculously budded. And perhaps there's resurrection there too. It's like the chute. coming out of the stem of Jesse, this resurrection and God's approval of his son is seen in resurrection. Well, I trust that if the tabernacle is new to some of you, that at least you might see this afternoon that Christ is in its every vessel, and in every piece of furniture, and all the glory there is Christ, and that as with other parts of Holy Scripture, the way to read them is to read them looking for him and he'll not be disappointed.