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Morning, gent- gentlemen. I tried, first of all, to put the subject of the tabernacle into its literary context in the book of Exodus, and then to put it into its historical context of the situation in Egypt, and tried to point out how that this tabernacle and what it stood for in the revealed law of God that was housed in the ark here was a protest and answer to the false and idolatrous interpretations of the universe that were current in Egypt and the surrounding nations in the second millennium BC. I tried also to make the point that in this tabernacle we have not a symbolic representation of the forces of nature.
This lampstand, for instance, is nothing to do with astrology or a representation of the planets and such like things that the ancients worshipped as though they were gods, deifying the forces of nature. In eh, the tabernacle was, as we saw in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a copy of things in the heavens. It was a bringing down of the transcendent Lord, so to speak, in his gracious condescension to our world. And if Pharaoh's world out there was the world of nature, this was the world of grace. This, uh, lampstand, for instance, is not deifying the forces of nature. It is a, a, a humble, gracious, condescending, symbolic representation of him who is the source of all life, that is the transcendent Lord.
Uh, now I move on this, uh, well, then I moved on this morning to talking about the relevance of that, the message that God was preaching to pagan society, idolatrous society in Moses' day and to his people. The relevance to that to our modern world. While it doesn't bow down to literal idols, it's just as idolatrous very often in its interpretation of the universe around us. And with that idolatrous interpretation, that absolutizing of the forces of nature as though they were these impersonal personal forces, the ultimate powers that control humanity. Uh, they, uh, deliver humankind into a slavery and poverty more grinding even than that of Egypt, for they reduce the significance of our own human intelligence and our human personality and make it a prisoner of the blind, impersonal forces of nature.
And so it still holds a message at that level to our modern society. And when such things as the New Age movement reintroduce animism and Hinduism into the West. They still need the protest, uh, that God was making when he had Moses built this tabernacle and enshrined his law therein. Now I, uh, uh, I moved on then to say how the, uh, tabernacle become a s- can become a starting point for a message that is exceedingly relevant to the history of Christendom. That, uh, Christianity was meant to be a moving on from the basic foundation things that God taught in Judaism on to the full-blown maturity that is in Christ.
But alas, in the his- course of the history of Christendom, Christendom from time to time and in many places has reverted to Judaism, and in particular in its worship and approach to God has adopted features that were, uh, really Judaism and never were Christianity at all. How that therefore the tabernacle has a message to us in Christendom and, uh, uh, can help to deliver us from these old reversions to Judaism and bring us once more into the glories and the freedoms of full-blown Christianity. Now I want to proceed to the other uses of tabernacle. They may appeal to you as humbler uses, but they are biblical usages, usages.
The Epistle to the Hebrews says that the tabernacle, uh, had two functions, at least it describes two of those functions. The one we have already met, chapter eight of Hebrews and verse five: Who serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. That is, the tabernacle was designed as a copy of heavenly things that would have meant things, conveyed spiritual truth to the Israelites of the day, and taught them basic principles of the worship and service of God. It also had a second, uh, uh, function.
Chapter ten of Hebrews and verse one says, the law having a shadow of the good things to come. Those good things to come were, of course, Christ and his great saving work. Hebrews nine eleven, but Christ having come a priest of the good things to come. Good things that were during the Old Testament centuries still to come, but with the advent of our Lord actually came. This was designed of God then to be a shadow of those coming good things. Now, said someone, well, what's the point of that?
Because, um, did the Jews of the time, in Moses' time and onward, realize that it was a shadow of the coming good things? And you say, well, probably not. Well, that didn't do them any good then. And now that the reality has come in Christ, we don't need the shadow, so we don't need it either. So why bother with it? Well, for two good reasons. First is its function as evidence. How do I know that Jesus is the Messiah? Suppose I were a Jew. How would I know that Jesus is the Messiah? That the gospel he preaches is the very gospel of God.
And one answer to that, only one, but one very per- uh, uh, uh, important answer, is that you can check his claim to be the reality against the features that God gave us in the shadow. Uh, let me take a, a, a, a, a, a simple analogy. If I'm away in some foreign, uh, continental, uh, ho- uh, hotel, and my business is finished for the day, and I go a looking round the city, and here are three or four magnificent buildings, and there's me wondering what they are. Now, is that building there, uh, the palace, or is it the post office?
Uh, is this, uh, House of Parliament? It looks such a magnificent building. What, what, which building is this, do you see? And there's nobody about to ask, so I get out my tourist guide, you see, and look up the street. Oh, look at that beautiful picture. Ha ha. And I compare the picture with the building. And it's the picture that then tells me what, yes, that's the building. Though the picture, as you know, is only a bit of color on paper, isn't the building itself, but it helps me to identify the reality. Here is a shadow. I can take Christ, the reality, and compare it with the shadow.
And when I find the exact correspondence, here is evidence that Jesus is that high priest of good things to come. It has evidential value, and that not only for Jews. I have found in many years talking, uh, about this tabernacle to otherwise simple people. It is not merely possible to illustrate to them much Christian doctrine thereby, but when they see how accurately the reality matches the shadow without having to tell them, they instinctively say, well, then that must have been inspired then. Uh, secondly, of course, it acts, as I have earlier said on many occasions, as a thought model to illustrate doctrines that are, uh, otherwise appear to be abstract, uh, with the, uh, use of a, a model, uh, just a thought model like this, it is possible to make it clear to otherwise humble minds and easy for them to grasp.
So it is as that as I use it this afternoon, in an attempt, if nothing else, to encourage you, if you have never thought of using such a thing for such a purpose, that you might see that it is quite valid and biblical to use it, and can be used without fancifulness and to good effect in getting people to understand their good Christian birthright. Would you care to look in the court, as you think of the way that God built into his presence at the back of the tabernacle here, and observe that there are two vessels standing in the court and not just one. They are, they were both there for cleansing.
Here is cleansing by blood, and here is cleansing by water. Uh, we shall find, of course, that that in Christianity too, the new Testament speaks of cleansing by blood and cleansing by water. I have often said to people, well, now look, why do we need both types of cleansing? If we cleanse by the blood of Christ, why do we need any further cleansing? The very fact that the two vessels are here in in uh the Jewish system forces our attention more closely to our Christian salvation and to its talk of both types of cleansing.
Let's briefly take, uh, this altar here and its cleansing by blood. I remember once speaking in the Christian Union at Cambridge. They had asked me to speak, uh, to give a series of lectures on the historical books of First and Second Kings to the Christian Union Bible reading. After one evening, a student came up and said, uh, uh, you know, it moves me very much to hear my Old Testament scriptures being ins- uh, uh, uh, preached on and interpreted, he said. Why don't our rabbis do it? I said I hadn't a clue why their rabbis didn't do it. I, I, I, I didn't know they didn't.
Didn't they do it? No, he says, we very rarely hear in our synagogues the Old Testament expounded, he said. I said, that's a marvelous pity. I've often wondered why your Jewish rabbis don't get up and preach to us Gentiles now you come to talk about it. That gorgeous stuff in Isaiah, that denunciation of idolatry and idolatrous interpretations of the universe. I said, we all Gentiles need that more than I can tell you, old boy. Why do- why don't your rabbis get up on their hind legs and preach against idolatry from Isaiah to us Gentiles? Well, he didn't know. So we had dinner together on two or three occasions, you'll see.
And in the course of talking, I said, you know, I as a Gentile am very impressed by your law of Moses and the voice of Israel in those ancient times, that behind law, behind morality, stands God the Creator. I said, that impresses me. And I was, I am impressed to find that that in your tabernacle. In the Greek world, you wouldn't have gone to the priests in the temple to learn about morality. You would have gone to the philosophers. The priests in the temple weren't much concerned with morality, not in classical Greece anyway, and the gods they talked about were as immoral as any Athenian could manage to be.
But in the Jewish ritual system, it is the God who is the creator that is the authority behind the morality expressed in those two tablets, uh, in the ark in your tabernacle. Is that? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. He was feeling pretty good. I said, uh, uh, you say that impresses me as a Gentile. I said, but I have a bit of a problem with it. I haven't kept the model law. And what am I to say about it? I've broken it. Can I take the view that, after all, it doesn't matter? And I just say, I'm sorry, God, and he brushes it on the carpet, and we start square one again.
I said, that wasn't so in your ancient tabernacle days, was it, and in the temple? If a man sinned, then he was taught by your Old Testament ritual to come and bring a sacrifice, a bullock or a ram or a sheep or something, and to confess his sins over its head and sacrifice it there at that altar. And God was teaching them very serious things, wasn't he, about sin and guilt. You cannot say that sin doesn't matter. It must be atoned for. The penalty of sin must be paid. And my Jewish student said, yeah, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, tell me, old boy, did those, uh, did those, uh, animal sacrifices and their blood, did that actually put away sin?
Well, no, he said, it didn't really, did it? I said, that's impossible, isn't it? One of our Christian writers has put it that, uh, it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to put away sin. What does a poor old cow know about sin? They're nice creatures to talk to if they haven't got mad disease. But they stand and look a bit dumb if you broach the subject of sin, don't they? They're mere animals, you see. And you know, it's one of the glories of being an animal, you don't go to bed at night with a bad conscience. And it's the curse of being human, isn't it?
That we do go to bed with a bad conscience. Or is it the glory of being human? What am I to do about my bad conscience? Strengthened by your law in that tabernacle. And I said, you know, of course your animal sacrifices couldn't, uh, put away sin. They were symbols then, weren't they? Yes, he said. I said, symbols of what? No, no, he says, don't press me further, that would spoil our friendship. But he said, I'll tell you something, said he. You know, we had the chief rabbi down here to talk to our, our, our, uh, group, and he belonged to a very liberal left-wing group in Judaism.
And he said, we had the chief rabbi come down to talk to us. He said, do you know what the topic of his lecture was? I said, I haven't a clue. He said it was this, that we Jews must find a substitute for the doctrine of the atonement. Yes, I must, mustn't I? You'll see, I was with Don Eric in, in, in La Franca in Spain some years ago, and uh, we were having a Bible study on Gospel of Luke or something, and one of the dear Spanish Christians, a, a, a very vital girl and keen to witness for the Lord, she went out in the intervals on the streets of La Cranca, uh, uh, and gave away facts and this that and the other, and she came across an Israeli.
He was an astronomer, practical astronomer, uh, working down in uh, uh, Ramon on the telescopes there and so on. And Lamposi persuaded him to come and join us. Whether he was coming for a cheap bed for two nights, I don't know, but he stayed on to the studies as well, you'll see. And we were on the Gospel of Luke and whatnot, and, uh, that led to long and lengthy conversations, you'll see, with him. And he said to me his name was Ziv. And I said, that was interesting to start with. And he said, yes, because my rabbi told me that that was an acronym, you'll see, for the just shall live by faith, ZIV. I said, that's very good. Yes, he said, I believe in that's a basic principle in life, the just shall live by faith.
Faith in yourself, he says. You see, you've got to believe in yourself. We don't want any intermediary, no Messiah coming as an intermediary between us and God, said he. Uh, just faith in yourself and your own ideals. I said, that was marvelous, my boy. I said, uh, what happens when you fall short of your ideals? Do you help? Well, yes, he did sometimes. Well, I said, what then? Ah, he said, you see, um, our rabbi taught us we that we don't need those sacrifices anymore. We scrapped them. I said, yes, that's an interesting difference between you and Christianity, isn't it?
For when the Romans in AD seventy smashed the Jewish temple, and, well, the Jews couldn't any longer offer their sacrifices anyway in the temple, and the leading rabbi of the time did a deal with the Romans, and they allowed him to set up his rabbinical school at Jabni, and he had the difficult task of adapting Judaism now to a post-temple era. And of course, as the Jewish books explain, there are a lot of adjustments to be made. Among them, the question of sacrifices, of course, to sin. And my friend told me, yes, well, he told us it was okay to scrap the sacrifices. I said, that's very easy. That's the difference between your rabbi and Jesus, isn't it?
We Christians don't carry on sacrifices of animals, but there's this difference. You scrap them, Christ fulfilled them. Did he, he said, what do you mean? I read him further in the Gospel of Luke about our Lord fulfilling Passover. Yes, you'll see, it was impossible for the blood and bo- of bulls and goats to put away sin. How can animals know anything about sin? But our Lord came, says the Epistles of Hebrews, and if you're talking to Jews, you can say, and look what your own Old Testament says in Psalm forty. That's a technique of the writer to Hebrews, isn't it? If a Jew is going to listen to anything, he's not going to listen to you as a Christian, he's going to listen to his own Old Testament.
Well, use his own Old Testament then. And Psalm forty, by the inspiration of God, the Psalm that says, sacrifices and offerings thou wouldest not, but the body thou hast prepared me. Lo, I come to do thy will, oh my God, thy law is within my heart. And here is the glory of our Lord the Messiah and great sacrifice for sin, with perfect understanding of the holiness of God, with perfect understanding of the horror of human sin. He came to do the will of God and offered his body a perfect sacrifice in full understanding and perfectly did the will of God.
Okay, that sacrifice in the light of which God can forgive us. You'll see. Our modern society needs to hear the message too, doesn't it? Deny the importance of sin. You'll have to be very careful you don't end up living like an animal. Conscience is the mark of a human being. It is our glory. What shall we do with a conscience when it witnesses we've broken God's law and we de- we deserve the penalty?
And Christ has the answer to that basic need. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin, or to use the language of Hebrews, how much more should the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience? Now, sometimes in some evangelical circles, you'll hear the blood of Christ spoken of as though it were some kind of holy detergent. Or sometimes as though it were a kind of a charm, a mystical, magical charm, the smell of which is disliked by the devil. It is not the concept of the blood of Christ in the New Testament. The blood of Christ cleanses our conscience from guilt.
How does it do that? Well, our conscience is witness to the fact we've broken God's law, we deserve its penalty. The blood of Christ is a token that he has paid that penalty. And when I see it and believe it, it cleanses my conscience, my con- my heart from an evil conscience. We were talking this morning, uh, uh, uh, about the fact that, um, when the Jew came here and offered his sacrifice on this altar, he, he was given forgiveness.
Now, Leviticus actually states it, but let me make it clear what I really meant. I was not then saying that when the man got forgiveness, he got it because the blood of the animal cleanses conscience. The blood of the animal did no such thing, of course. Impossible. Nonetheless, the man got forgiveness. How could God give him forgiveness if the blood of the animal couldn't actually suffice to cleanse his conscience? And the answer is to be found, of course, in the fact that this was a shadow of the coming good things, you will say. It was an IOU, as we say in English.
IOU. You know, you borrow a thousand quid from your friend and you write him out a little note, I owe you a thousand quid. That's all a bit of paper, and you give it to him. That hasn't paid your debt, has it? One day you'll have to honor that IOU and actually pay him. You see, these were so many IOUs given to God. One day they would have to be honored and paid. The learned rabbi in AD seventy just took the IOUs and scrapped them.
Christ took the IOUs, honored, and paid them. And Hebrew says a death took place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant. Christ paid the debt of all the believers of all the centuries past, the collected IOU. Or to change the analogy, here was but toy money. When I was a kid, my parents provided their many, many, many children, and me among them, with a game to keep us amused on wet Monday afternoons. And it was toy shop with toy money and toy sweets.
And goodness me, even I, at the advanced age of five knew it wasn't real money, because they weren't real sweets anyway. Sweet tasting things. Jose and my sisters used to look to learn as they dished out the sweets and asked for the money and got my go for change, he'll say. I knew it was only toy then, it wasn't real. And my parents gave it to us, well, to keep us quiet, of course, but also it had a beneficial effect. It was beginning to teach us that basic question in life that sweets cost money. Things cost. That was a good thing to learn in your baby state, wasn't it? It was a job good thing to teach Israel in those baby stages that sin costs.
This was about toy money. One day the debt of sin would have to be paid by real money. And was paid by the death of Christ. All right. But why do you have to have two vessels? Why isn't the blood of Christ enough in Christian terminology? You say, why do you have to have two? Well, because the blood of Christ deals but with one side, it deals with the guilt of sin. Now we need deliverance from... our other part of sin, from the drops, wrinkles, blemishes of our personalities, do we not?
Uh, for instance, in the image im- uh, language, the figurative language of Ephesians chapter five, Christ loved the church and gave himself for her that he might sanctify her through the washing of water through the word, that he might present her to himself, not having spot or wrinkle, but any such thing. Notice the terminology, spots and wrinkles, and any other such blemishes and blotches, you'll see. Uh, and he might present the church to himself all groans. Not now I'm talking about guilt, he's talking about those deformations of character and personality that lead to all sorts of behavior disorders. You'll see Christ can forgive my acts of pride, but he doesn't forgive pride.
He's determined to do away with that. And forgiveness is only one side of the story, isn't it? A full gospel will need to preach the other side of the story, deliverance from the power of sin. Uh, so there was the labor, and they came and washed with water. And you say, if I were talking to a Jew, hmm, do you know what? There's a hypocrite coming out in me when I've been using it in, in, in the remote parts of the civilization in, in Southern Ireland. I will say, ha. Uh, I, I remember on one occasion we had it with David Wilson was the culprit, we had it in a hotel, you see, and along came a couple of priests, and they looked at this and they said, marvelous, they said, yes, looks so much like our religion.
Yes, it doesn't. That's very interesting. They said, where would the mass fit into this? So I looked to see, and I said, well, I can't quite think, you'll say, and we got on talking as to the function of this, and I came to the laver, cleansing by water. And I said, you know, that was only a symbol, wasn't it? You remember what our Lord said to the Pharisees? So I was now preaching to the Jews, if you please. Uh, you remember what our Lord said to the Pharisees when they insisted that, that people should wash their hands before they ate and all that kind of thing.
I said, he said, gentlemen, come, come, come, come. Water, that cleanses the skin. But the real filth comes not from the skin, but from the heart. And water, however holy, can't get your heart drunk. Literal water. That's superstition to suppose that literal water can cleanse your heart. What can cleanse my heart from those evil dispositions from which flow so many defiling thoughts and deeds?
And in that situation, I would start with, um, John Baptist, you'll see, and his marvelous proclamation. He said, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. That's equivalent with the altar, isn't it? And then he said, I baptize you in water, but there stands one among you whom you know not. He it is that baptizes you with, or in, the Holy Spirit. And of course, if you were talking to Nicodemus yourself, you'd say what the Lord said, wouldn't you? Now you're a ruler in Israel and you don't know these things. You must be born of water and the Spirit. Thus Ezekiel had said, hadn't he? Great ancient prophet, that when Israel is restored, in their restoration will be two things.
I will sprinkle clean water upon them, and they shall be clean. Come, come, Ezekiel wasn't talking of literal water, was he? Sprinkled on a whole nation. And then cry to the wind, there came the wind, the spirit, the ruach, and entered into them, and the bodies, the dead bodies lived, born of water and of the spirit. Hmm. Our Lord talked about it, and I didn't detain you, you know better than I, but you get my thesis, don't you? This as a thought model for preaching to humble people.
Gentlemen, don't be ashamed to use it, if you must condescend to using it. Uh, there were two wartings at this labor. When the priests were brought at their induction, they were bathed all over at the door. This is the door, so it was somewhere around here. Some people dispute whether it was, uh, was at the laver or not, but never mind that. At the door, somewhere around here, there was a lot of water, if not in the laver, was somewhere else, and they were bathed all over. Thereafter, they only needed to rinse hands and feet when they came to do service before God. And our Lord preached the same great gospel, didn't he?
John thirteen, to his humble simple. He that has been bathed all over only needs thereafter to cleanse his feet, to rinse his feet, but otherwise he's clean every bit. In our great sanctification, there is a once and for all sanctification according to our Lord, a bathing all over that never needs to be repeated, that is being born again. The other is a constant rinsing. Paul says the same thing, Titus chapter three, when it comes to the irregularities of our personalities and hence of our conduct.
He quotes the Cretans of his day. Talking to Titus, he said, you know, they're a pretty run crowd, are the Cretans. He, you see, one of their own po- poets has said they're all liars and slow bellies and evil beasts. How would you do with a pack of them in the church? Uh, you'll say they'd need to get converted, wouldn't they? Really converted. Anyway, house is done, and, and, and, uh, and Paul says, well, Tim, uh, tight little boy, remember yourself and, and myself for that matter. We also were once time foolish, disobedient, living in hate and malice and envy, horrible creatures. And how did God save us? Well, notice at that stage, Paul does not say by the redeeming blood of Christ.
That would be irrelevant, wouldn't it? Blood of Christ saves us from guilt, but not from perversions of character. How did he save us then? By the washing of regeneration, the great once and for all thing when we are born again, and then by the constant renewing of the Holy Spirit. And Hebrews, summing up that kind of argument, says, how can we come, as is our Christian privilege, right into the holiest of all here in the, in the parable, in the shadow, in this division here, where stands the ark of God with its, uh, propitiatory cover in the cover in the cherubim.
How can we come? Now, notice the exceeding accuracy of the writer to the Hebrews. He knows his stuff as the writer to the Hebrews. Here is chapter ten. Let us draw near, verse twenty two, with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled. Notice the terminology. You never wash anybody in blood in Hebrew thought. If it's blood, you're sprinkled with blood. Our hearts sprinkled from an eve of conscience, that is with the blood of Christ, and our bodies bathed.
Here comes the big verb used in thirteen by, uh, John thirteen by our Lord, that is bathed, totally bathed all over, and once and for all our bodies bathed in pure water. What a beautiful, simple, vivid, easy to be grasped illustration of the basic gospel message. Now, if we follow the road into God, let's, let's, uh, forget a lot of the detail. It's interesting that we haven't time for that. Straight in on the way into the presence of God, once you came through the gate, this altar, this laver, there were two pieces of furniture, one on the left hand side, the, uh, uh, lampstand, one on the right hand side, the table, and here, standing direct on the road in towards the presence of God, this little altar, not to be confused with that one, for all sorts of practical and theological reasons.
This altar that stood here, stood directly in front of the veil, in turn directly in front of the Ark and Mercy Seat. Why? Because at that altar, the priests would stand, one priest at a time, offering incense at the hour of prayer, and as they did so, they were addressing themselves to the presence of God that was pleased to, uh, locate itself, uh, in between the cherubim there. So here was the altar of prayer and intercession. A priest did it daily. You remember John Baptist's father, Zechariah, Luke chapter one, was ministering at that altar of incense before God when the angel appeared to him and said, Zechariah, your prayer is heard.
And all the people were gathered outside of the yard of prayer. So it talks to us about prayer, prayer in general, of course. But then when we Christians hear about that, we think not merely of our own prayers, do we? But we think of the prayers of our great high priest himself. The Epistle to the Hebrews comments, you'll see, that under Judaism they had a great high priest, Aaron, who among the other priests would intercede for the nation. We have a different priest, after the order of Melchizedek. Now, in Hebrews chapter seven, the writer reminds us it is because we have a priest that we can be utterly and completely and altogether certain of salvation.
Isn't that glorious? Here, Paul stated in Romans chapter eight, who is he that shall condemn? When it is Christ who died and is risen again, who is also at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Or, in the terms of the writer to the Epist- uh, to the Hebrews, seeing our high priest doesn't die as those high priests, seeing he holds his office without intermission or interruption by death, because he ever lives, he has a priesthood unchangeable.
Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for. The intercession of Christ, then, is an integral part of God's provision of salvation, and we may think of many areas in which his intercession is effective. I want to give one basic illustration of that, and that is our Lord's intercession on Peter's behalf. Because that goes right to the root of the matter of this question of whether we can be certain of salvation or not.
Luke tells us that in the upper room, our Lord informed them that Satan had asked to have all twelve apostles to sift them as wheat. Interesting that he had to ask permission. Satan is not allowed to attack believers, just as he will. He had to ask permission. He had to ask permission, if you remember, to to touch Job. And our Lord is indicating that Satan had asked permission and had, uh, received permission. That is the force of the Greek word. Now Satan had permission to, to attack all twelve.
But then our Lord turned personally to Peter, and he said, but I have prayed for you, singular, thee. What for? That thy faith fail not. The word was chosen deliberately, wasn't it? Faith. Our Lord did not pray that the man's courage wouldn't fail. That failed miserably. Our Lord did not pray that his testimony would not fail. That was blown sky high. Our Lord prayed that in that terrible experience, the man's faith wouldn't fail.
And that's absolutely basic, isn't it? You see, you tell me, uh, Gooding, my boy, I'm happy to announce to you that you're justified by faith and not by works. And I said, thank you very much, now that's marvelous. So it's not by works, it's by faith, yeah. So, do I get it right? Because I'm a believer, I have eternal life and shall never perish. Yes, that's what the Bible says. Everybody who believes the Bible believes in the eternal security of the believer, simply because the Bible states it. He that believeth has everlasting life. The problem is, isn't it? Is it true that once you're a believer, you're always a believer?
What should happen if a test came so severe that it broke my faith? So I wasn't a believer anymore. Useless to talk about the eternal security of the believer then, wouldn't it? And here comes a tornado of an attack from the very mouth of hell against Peter. And our Lord prays, prays for what is absolutely basic and strategic and fundamental. If this goes, everything will be lost. Prays for him that his faith should not fail.
And added, Peter, when you are restored, not if, you notice, when, when you are restored, strengthen your brethren. Did it work, gentlemen? You say, denied the Lord. So he did, the liar. Uh, then they asked him whether he was a Christian. He said no. And if you'd have been standing by, some of you, hi old chap, do you know this Peter guy? You say, yes, I do. Is he a believer? You say, I thought he was. If he says he isn't himself, well, what can I say? You couldn't have read his heart, could you? In those desperate moments, he lied because he was a believer.
And you know, when he denied the Lord for the third time, he was then a stronger believer than he was before, wasn't he? Of course he was. You'll see, when the Lord turned and said, Peter, you're going to deny me, he said, well, now, Lord, excuse me. You get most things right, Lord, says he. Uh, you'll see, which is good, but you know, this is one you've got wrong. Me deny you? Unthinkable, Lord, he said, knowing myself, the man I am, I go anywhere for you. Now, some of these hours, well, so no more, but I, no, I never deny you. Peter said, our Lord, you're going to deny me, but Peter wouldn't have it. His faith was not as mature and perfect as it should have been then, was it?
Our Lord said, Peter, going to deny me thrice, and then the cock will crow. And to Peter's utter dismay and confusion, he denied the Lord thrice, and the cock crowed. And Jesus turned and looked upon Peter, and in that flash, he believed Christ as he'd never believed him before. And not much option, had he? We now believe what we refused to believe before, and Christ was true.
And as he went out into the dark and broke his heart for his gross unfaithfulness, yet up and up and up there surged within him that if that bit was true, the rest would be true. I prayed for you that your faith shall not fail, and when, and when you are restored. So he was going to be restored, and his faith didn't fail. That is a magnificent savior, isn't it, Watto? Because, you know, at least in my little partial experience, there are many folks who put a brave face upon their Christian faith, but underneath they're haunted with doubts as to whether at last they will be saved at all.
There are three parts to this great salvation. Watch them, three of them, on the road to God. The blood of Christ, regeneration by the Spirit, and the intercessions of our risen Lord. And because he ever lives and has no favorites, he who prayed for Peter that his faith will not fail, will pray for every other believer that their faith will not fail. And because he ever le- lives, he's able to say to the uttermost all that cannot come unto him. All that come unto God through him. Just a little interesting detail, but you see, on the most times when I'm talking about tabernacle, I keep strictly to scriptural interpretation.
But then sometimes, our privilege granted to all age, I allow myself a little fancifulness. Doesn't do any harm because the rigorous thinkers see it's fanciful and they reject it forthwith. Uh, the wind. And you'll say, well, supposable simplicity, isn't it? But look at that simple fact of the order of these vessels. It would have made little practical difference if the laver had been over here in a corner, would it? Or if the laver had been put behind the temple out of the way so the priests could do their ablutions in decent privacy.
It wouldn't have made any practical difference worth talking about. It would have made a colossal difference to the accuracy of the shadow. Because, watch, that is a historical shadow. First, the Lamb of God and Calvary. And second, the risen Lord baptizing his people in the Holy Spirit. And third, his present ministry of intercession at the right hand of God. How did dear old Moses know to get them the right way round? Ah, here, Romulus, yes.
When he came to Hebrews chapter uh ten, he translated it in a way that looks as if he meant that our Lord sits in heaven offering a sacrifice. Offerens, it's a present participle. Now, it is debatable whether in the Latin of his day, that present participle, offerens, really implied a present and continuous action. But multitudes in the generations that followed took the vulgate to mean that, that our Lord sits in heaven offering a sacrifice. And from that stemmed their support for their doctrine of the Mass, that our Lord in heaven still offers the sacrifice.
He doesn't, does he? He offered one sacrifice for sin forever, and he sat down. No more offering of sacrifices. He ministers at the great altar of intercession, yes, but no sacrifice is offered there. It's exact, gentlemen. This isn't an analogy that I made up. This was an analogy made up by God himself, and if we believe scripture, of course, we are required to believe it. But then we do believe it. But what a brilliant illustration it is, shall say, and how delightful it is to watch even folks, I don't speak despisingly, of simple intellectual gifts being able to grasp these great eternal truths because God in his humility has presented them, thus beautifully illustrated in these humble illustrations.
Simply as a homiletic device, a practical device for teaching, it is extremely beautiful and effective. So Sir, our president is it is four o'clock. The writer to the Hebrews had a problem, gentlemen, in explaining to his contemporaries something about Christian forgiveness that people generally find difficult. And for all I know, your contemporaries might find it equally difficult. The difficulty is expressed in Hebrews chapter nine.
And the difficulty is this: how can the once and for all sacrifice of Christ cover all our sins, and does it? How can you have forgiveness for all your sins and not need to offer another sacrifice? And in chapter nine verse twenty seven he points out the parallel, inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after death the judgment, so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation. Notice the recurrence of the idea of once.
Starts from the observation that human beings die once, not twice. Only die once, normally. Yes. And then the question arises, when does the judgment come? And according to this verse, it comes after death. It doesn't, God doesn't hold court on our lives every day of the week. It is appointed unto men once to die, and it's then, and only then, and after that comes the great judgment. Yes? So at that great judgment, the whole of our lives come up before God for review. As it is appointed unto men once to die, and after death the judgment.
In view of that one judgment and the whole of life, so Christ was offered once, not once upon a time, but once and for all, to bear the sins of many. His one sacrifice covers the whole of man's life in view of that one. But having explained that by that, I will say, that comparison, uh, let's turn now to this bigger argument that extends from chapter, uh, uh, nine twenty to the end and includes those verses we've already noticed. And here you may care to re- to observe once more the three appearances that are mentioned.
Here they come. It was necessary, therefore, that the copies of the things in the heaven should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, merely like in pattern to the true. He entered into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
But now, once at the end of the ages, has he appeared. Been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment, so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him unto salvation.
