Morning.
We are going to turn our attention to
the sanctuary itself.
We're going to deal with the curtains, the
coverings.
So, we'll return to the book of Exodus
again to read in chapter 26, and one
or two remarks as we are reading, so
that it will be a help to us.
Exodus chapter 26, reading from verse 1.
Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle, now you
notice the word tabernacle seems to have special
reference to these curtains, moreover thou shalt make
the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twine
linen, and blue and purple and scarlet, with
cherubim, not cherubim, cherub is singular, cherubim plural,
with cherubim of cunning work shalt thou make
them.
The length of one curtain shall be eight
and twenty cubits, now reckoning a cubit to
be the length from the tip of the
longest finger to the elbow, roughly about 18
inches, it would mean that these curtains were
about 42 feet long.
Eight and twenty cubits in length, and the
breadth of one curtain four cubits, which would
mean there would be six feet.
So, we have each of these ten curtains
42 feet long, six feet wide, and every
one of the curtains shall have one measure.
Five curtains shall be coupled together one to
another, making a set of five, and the
other five curtains shall be coupled one to
another, making another set of five, and thou
shalt make loops of blue upon the edge
of the one curtain from the salvage in
the coupling of the first set, and likewise
shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of
the other curtain in the coupling of the
second set.
Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one
curtain, the one set of curtains, and fifty
loops shalt thou make in the edge of
the curtain that is in the coupling of
the second set.
That the loops may take hold one of
another, and thou shalt make fifty patches or
clasps of gold, and couple the curtains together
with the patches, and it shall be one
tabernacle."
There again the word tabernacle used with reference
to these curtains.
Well now, that is our reading about the
tabernacle curtains.
Now, we're going to read about the tent.
Verse seven, and thou shalt make curtains of
goat's hair to be a covering upon the
tabernacle, upon those tabernacle curtains.
Eleven curtains shalt thou make.
Ten curtains in the tabernacle, eleven curtains in
the tent.
Verse eight, the length of one curtain shall
be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one
curtain four cubits.
Now in the tabernacle curtain there were 28
cubits, now there are 30 in this tent.
That is about 45 feet long, and again
they were six feet wide.
And the eleven curtains shall be of one,
all be of one measure.
And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves,
making a set of five, and six curtains
by themselves, making a set of six, and
shalt double the six curtains in the forefront
of the tabernacle.
And thou shalt make fifty loops on the
edge of the one curtain, the one set
of curtain that is outmost in the coupling,
and fifty loops in the edge of the
curtain which coupleth the second set, and thou
shalt make fifty tatches of copper."
Not brass, copper.
In the tabernacle curtains these tatches were of
gold.
Here in the tent they are of copper.
"...and put the tatches into the loops, and
couple the tent together that it may be
one.
And the remnant that remaineth of the curtains
of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth,
shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle."
This has been somewhat of a problem to
some people, but I think it's simple enough
if we work out the measurement of the
curtain.
It would seem quite evident that the set
of five curtains came over the holiest part
of the sanctuary.
Now, that was ten cubits square, so that
two and a half of these curtains would
cover the top of the holiest, and the
other two and a half would fall down
on the backside of it.
So, that is what he means when he
says the half curtain, that is the half
of the set of curtains.
Two and a half would cover the top,
two and a half to go down the
back.
And then he says, verse 12, verse 13,
"...and a cubit on the one side, and
a cubit on the other side of that
which remaineth in the length," because we remember
these were 30 cubits, tabernacle curtains 28, "...it
shall hang over the sides of the on
this side, and on that side to cover
it."
Well, now those are the curtains of the
tent.
Now we have two coverings.
Verse 14, "...and thou shalt make a covering
for the tent of ramskins dyed red."
That covering of ramskins dyed red would go
over the tent.
And then another covering above, an outer covering,
of badger skins, or rather, as I believe,
they were of seal skin.
It has been very difficult to trace the
badger in that part of the world, but
they have been able to trace the seal,
and the word used in the Hebrew refers
to a marine animal.
And therefore, we would take it that it
is the seal, and they found many of
these in the Red Sea, and they were
called the dugongs.
These seals were about 11 feet long, and
they suckled their young.
They fed their young at the breast, and
it was this particular seal, the dugong, that
gave rise to our stories about mermaids.
Now, these seals, no doubt, the skins were
taken, and they were used to make the
outer covering of the sanctuary, not badger skins.
The animal they found, or got trace of,
would appear to be an animal whose skin
was useless for such a purpose as this.
So, I think it myself that it was
made of seals.
Well, now then, we are going to turn
our attention to the sanctuary itself.
I've tried to help you from night to
night to follow how that God began with
his own very throne, and came out step
by step, dealing with other parts of the
tabernacle, until in bringing in the priesthood, he
reaches the furthest place from where he began,
and that was the place of the sin
offering that was burned outside the camp.
So, we see God coming out step by
step until he reaches the place of sin,
and the place of the sin offering, and
in doing this he is making provisions for
Aaron and his sons to be brought into
the priesthood, followed by the burnt offering, and
then the offering of consecration which established them
in the priesthood, and then they were able
to make their way into the sanctuary, into
that holy place.
And then we saw the veil which said,
no way in, and we had to consider
that carefully, and then we realized why the
veil was there, and then we had to
look at our high priest, because we needed
a high priest to go into the sanctuary.
In Israel's day, once every year he went
in with blood, not without blood, never opened
up way for anybody else to go in,
but we have a great high priest who
has gone right into the very presence of
God, in all the value of his own
precious blood.
So, we looked at the very throne of
God, and we saw both cherubim of one
piece with it, and many precious lessons came
before us concerning the art, the mercies, the
cherubim.
Well now, that is what we've been following
night by night, but now we have to
turn our attention to the sanctuary itself, and
this morning in dealing with these curtains, tents,
and coverings, we're keeping before us the Lord
Jesus Christ personally.
Now, tonight we're going to deal with the
boards, and the bars, and the foundations, and
they will bring before us the Lord Jesus
Christ corporately.
Now, you may say, well I know, Mr.
Brown, what you mean by the Lord Jesus
Christ personally, but I'm not quite sure what
you mean by the Lord Jesus Christ corporately.
Well, you come along to the meeting tonight,
and I'll do what I can to explain
that to you.
So then, these two thoughts, Christ personally, Christ
corporately.
This morning, personally.
Now, I suppose you remember that this tabernacle
is a model of what we had in
the wilderness, but it isn't like that.
It wasn't like that.
Remember that we saw it in the first
place, it was closed, and the five pillars
were in position, and the door was in
position, but we have taken down the pillars
and the door so that you could see
more easily inside, and we've opened the sides
also to make it easier for you to
see in, and then we had to take
down the veil, the pillars of the veil,
and the veil itself.
We got them down there, so now we
can see right away through.
But, as you saw it in the first
place, that's how it would have been seen
in the wilderness, and I suppose any of
these people in the camp, as they looked
across, could see the sanctuary above this court
of fine swine linens on these pillars, each
one resting in its socket of copper and
having its capital overlaid with silver, they could
see the sanctuary away there in the centre
of the court, and what they would see
for the most part would be the outer
coverings.
There would be the door, they would see
probably the five pillars, and the door with
its blue-purple scarlet, but the greater part
of it was covered by this outer covering
of teal skin.
And, in trying to gather together thoughts that
would be helpful to us, I want you
to think then of the Lord Jesus Christ
personally, that he was God's dwelling place.
In him dwelt all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily.
He was God's cabinet.
So then, as we're looking at this, in
some way the outer covering will bring before
us our Lord Jesus Christ personally.
Now, I know that lots of people rather
like to think of the outer covering as
being of badger skin, because they think that
the badger skins would not have been very
lovely.
They would have been rather a rough kind
of covering, a coarse kind of covering, and
they like this thought that the outer covering
was a rough kind of covering, and they
like to think of the Lord Jesus Christ
personally as being a man of sorrows acquainted
with grief, his visage more mild than any
man, no beauty in him that we should
desire him.
But, you know, I'm not happy about that.
I remember being at a place, and the
model was in position, and they had a
conference on the Saturday, and there were two
speakers, and they had been given subjects to
talk about.
And when one of them got up and
he began his message, he read his scriptures,
and his subject was so-and-so, and
as he began the subject he kept looking
at the model, and every now and again
he forgot his subject, and he was talking
about the tabernacle, and he would come back
to his subject, then he forgot it again,
and he got on to the tabernacle.
Evidently it was a subject that he loved
so well, and he couldn't keep off it.
But I remember, I was rather horrified, when
he said, now you look at that building,
he said, the sanctuary, it was a narrow,
a long, narrow building.
He said, a long coffin-like structure, a
coffin-like structure.
What do you call it?
A cask-like structure?
And I thought, oh dear me, the sanctuary
likened to a coffin or a cask.
And then he said, you know, and there
was no beauty in it, you know, it
was a rough, coarse kind of a covering,
so reminding us of the Lord Jesus Christ,
when they said, no beauty in him that
we should desire him.
I didn't feel happy at all.
You know, I reckon that our Lord Jesus
Christ, when he was down here, moving about,
there were multitudes of people that were following
him, and you know, they admired him, they
loved him.
Many of them would fail to become his
disciples, but you know, the standard of discipleship
was so high.
But there they were, multitudes treading one upon
another.
You know, they thought he was lovely.
There he was, making the blind to see,
the deaf to hear, the lame to walk,
and healing all manner of diseases, his meekness,
his gentleness.
Oh, he was a wonderful person.
And you see, never a man spake like
this man, never a man lived like this
man, and never a man died like this
man.
You know, the Lord Jesus Christ was a
wonderful person.
And when I think of this sanctuary, and
I think of that outer covering, don't try
and tell me it wasn't beautiful.
Made of those steel skins, it would be
a lovely covering.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was a lovely person.
He was altogether lovely.
And when we look into the Word of
God, it's amazing how God, in these various
ways that we find, bringing in types, and
figures, and shadows, and things, all that it
might speak of Christ and magnify him.
And as you look through the Word of
God, you can see how the earth brings
together all its richest treasures, and it lays
them at his feet.
The gold, and the silver, and the precious
stones that bring out that prismatic radiance of
that one pure light.
The gold, the frankincense, the myrrh, the sweet
rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley.
He's the altogether lovely one.
He's the fairest of ten thousand.
Oh, he was a lovely character, wasn't he?
Oh, you say, but it still says, his
faith was more mild than any man's.
There was no beauty in him that we
should, don't forget, they said, no beauty in
him that we should desire him.
Oh no, he was a man of sorrows,
yes, and they did these things to him.
His faith may be more mild than any
man's.
This is all true enough.
But listen, before this took place, he was
here down below among men, and he was
a lovely character.
He could turn around to them, and he
could say, which of you convinces me of
sin?
He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
He was a lovely character.
I know in the background, there were always
those who were trying to get rid of
him, planning to slay him.
I know all that, but the mass of
the people left to themselves, it would have
all been for him, because he was so
lovely.
So, I'm inclined to think that outer covering
would bring before us our Lord Jesus Christ,
his reputation.
What he was to man, to the man
in a suite, to the multitudes of people.
Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
Lovely character.
Well, that's our first thought.
Now, beneath that covering of heel skin, there
was this covering of ram skin dyed red.
And if we try to keep to the
tabernacle, and what was done there, then we
will remember that when the high priest Aaron
was being brought in, he and his sons
identified themselves first with a sin offering, and
then with a burnt offering, with an offering
of consecration.
And so now, in thinking of the ram,
we have before us this thought of consecration,
sanctification.
Now, Aaron was to be that perfect type
of Christ, and so when he pressed his
hands upon the head of the sin offering,
it was might that he might be seen
as that type of Christ.
Christ offering himself as a sin offering.
This man could not do that, but when
his hands are pressed upon the head of
the sin offering, there he stands as that
type of Christ the sin offering.
Now, when he pressed his hands on the
head of the burnt offering and the offering
of consecration, again it is that he might
be that perfect type of Christ.
Now, you remember that burnt offering.
All of it, having been prepared, cut up
into its pieces, not hacked to pieces, cut
up into its pieces in a very orderly
way, and those pieces washed, they were put
together, and it was lifted and put within
the altar of burnt offering.
The sin offering was burned outside the camp.
There is God dealing with sin.
All that was hateful, he's dealing with it
there.
But here in the burnt offering, it's a
different thought.
The burning is not the same.
That is a burning in judgment outside the
camp.
This is a burning which is an incensing,
and this is all going up to God
as a sweet savor.
Every bit of the burnt offering went up
to God, and it was a sweet savor.
This was the consecration.
Every bit of this man's work and person
didn't go up to God, couldn't go up
to God as a sweet savor, but he
was brought into it as a type, our
Lord Jesus Christ, in every detail of his
life.
He was precious to God.
Every bit of it went up to God
as a sweet savor.
So we have the thought now, if the
outer covering brings before us Christ in his
reputation as he was seen by man, the
inner covering will bring before us our Lord
Jesus Christ as he was seen by God,
his consecration.
And so it was an inner covering, it
wasn't seen by man, it was seen by
God.
And so the thought of his consecration.
Now beneath that there is, as you can
see, the tent.
Now this tent was made of goat's hair,
and we have seen that there were 11
curtains made, five coupled together, then six coupled
together, and then there were these clasps or
taches of copper to couple the two sets
of curtains together.
And when that tent was thrown over the
tabernacle curtain, then the taches or clasps of
the tent would come over the taches or
clasps of the inner curtain, and those clasps
or taches would come immediately over the four
pillars that were supporting the veil.
So now again, keeping to the tabernacle, when
we are thinking of the curtains of goat's
hair, we have before us what took place
on that great day of atonement.
And I think it's good if we can
fill this out somewhat.
A Jewish friend that seemed to have gone
into these things very deeply, he helped me
and brought before me what he understood would
have taken place on this great day of
atonement.
Now remember that on that day Aaron, the
high priest dressed in these garments of glory
and beauty, must needs enter into the sanctuary
and remove all those garments of glory and
beauty, and then he would put on a
plain linen garment which was called the holy
garment, because this is the great day of
atonement.
Our thoughts now are being drawn to God
himself, to a holy God, and to a
holy God dealing with sin.
And in that case there can be no
glory there, it is all holiness.
And so we find that when Aaron the
high priest, in his garments of glory and
beauty, enters the sanctuary, he must remove those
garments of glory and beauty.
And I tried to help you, I don't
know, maybe friends here for the first time,
here you can see Aaron dressed in those
garments of glory and beauty, and we dressed
him up in them, and tried to learn
what the meaning of it all was.
But now, when he goes into the sanctuary,
he must remove these things, and so that
golden plate with the words on it, holiness
unto Jehovah, is removed from his brow, and
laid at one side, and then the breastplate
of judgment, with its twelve stones and the
name of one tribe on each stone, that
was removed and laid at one side, and
then he took off this ephod itself, and
that was put at one side, and then
he removed the robe of the ephod, all
of blue, and that was put at one
side, and that left him with this fine
linen tunic.
Now that had to be removed as well,
because that was made of fine twine linen
called shech, and it had to be replaced
with another linen coat or tunic which was
called bad, and that was the kind of
dress they wore when they were dealing with
sin offerings, when they were dealing with the
sin offering of the great day of atonement.
So, that there in the sanctuary, he slips
off these garments of glory and beauty, and
dresses himself in that rough linen gown, and
with a linen mitre on his head, now
he goes down the court there, and there's
brought before him two goats, and these two
goats have been chosen so that they are
of the likest possible.
You cannot tell one from the other.
So, Aaron goes and he stands there, and
the two goats are standing before him.
They bring to him a golden urn, and
inside the golden urn there are two golden
pieces, and now Aaron is going to cast
lots upon these two goats.
So, he puts his hands down inside the
urn, and he takes the golden piece in
each hand.
He withdraws his hand, they take away the
urn, and he stretches his hands out to
the two goats and turns them up.
If they see in the right hand the
golden piece with the words inscribed upon it,
La Jehovah, then they take a scarlet piece
of cloth, and they tie it to the
horn of that goat which is La Jehovah
for Jehovah.
In the other hand will be another golden
piece, and on it the words inscribed La
Azazel.
That is the goat that is to be
the scapegoat.
So, having cast lots now, and found out
which is La Jehovah and La Azazel, this
goat for Jehovah is slain, and then the
blood is taken by Aaron in those plain
linen garments, and he makes his way through
the court, through the holy place, into the
holiest of all, and there he must stand
before the very throne of God, a throne
of judgment, but now with the blood of
the sin offering.
Now, I think it might be as well
for me to be a little careful here,
lest you might jump to some conclusion.
You may be thinking, well, now that's what
took place on the great day of atonement,
that Aaron just took the blood of the
sin offering, and then he went into the
holiest, and he sprinkled the blood.
Well, it's not quite like that.
You see, there's more detail to it.
So, we find that in the first place,
Aaron had to go into the sanctuary with
a censer.
He came down to the altar burnt offering,
removed some of the burning coals, and then
he made his way through the door into
the holy place, through the veil, into the
holiest of all, and there, in the very
presence of God, he brought out a cloud
of sweet perfume.
He caused that cloud of sweet perfume to
cover the mercy seat.
Then he came out, and then the bollock
was taken, which was for himself, and he
went in with that blood, and it was
sprinkled once on the mercy seat, and it
was sprinkled seven times before the mercy seat.
And then he came out, and he took
the blood of the sin offering on behalf
of the children of Israel, and he went
in, and again he sprinkled the blood once
upon the mercy seat, seven times before.
And you know, when the high priest was
standing there in those holy garments, in the
presence of a holy God, and they too
are dealing with sin, there is the blood.
He dips his finger in that blood and
sprinkled it once on the mercy seat, only
once, and the cherubim of one piece with
it, their faces toward one another, they're looking
down, and they're watching for that blood to
be sprinkled there.
Otherwise, that is a throne of judgment, for
the moment the blood is sprinkled there, it's
a throne of mercy, it's a mercy seat.
And then he dips his finger, and he
sprinkles the blood before the mercy seat.
Now he counts, and he counts very carefully.
When he sprinkled the blood on the mercy
seat, he said once, and only once on
the mercy seat.
Now he dips his finger in the blood
again, and he sprinkled it before the mercy
seat, and he counted once, once.
Once on the mercy seat, and once before
it.
Now he sprinkles the blood a second time,
and he says once twice.
He sprinkles the blood a third time before
the mercy seat, and he counts once three
times, and so on until he has counted
once seven times.
No mistake made.
Now having accomplished that work of atonement, of
sprinkling the blood on the mercy seat, and
before it, Aaron the high priest came out
in these garments, these linen, plain linen garments.
He came out, and he made his way
down in the court, and there was the
other goat standing.
Now you'll notice that when the first goat
was slain, he didn't put his hands on
his head.
There was no identification with it.
There was no thought of these people outside.
This is altogether the question of a holy
God, and it's sin that is being dealt
with.
So he doesn't even put his hands upon
his head.
This is altogether God's work.
But now when he comes out and puts
his hands on the head of the other
goat, there is your identification with it.
Meanwhile the children of Israel are all gathered
outside there.
They're all prostrate before God on account of
their sins and iniquities, and they know Aaron
the high priest is going in on their
account, on their behalf.
And the question is, will he be redeemed?
Will he be accepted?
Will they be forgiven?
Will their sins be covered?
And so they prostrate before God while Aaron,
with his hands pressed on the head of
that goat, he is confessing over it all
the sins and iniquities of the children of
Israel.
And then having done that, the goat is
led away by the hand of a fit
person through the gate, through the camp, and
away out into the wilderness where it is
let go.
Now what does it all mean?
Well, this is the great day of atonement,
and the first goat, La Jehovah, is showing
us how this atonement is made.
The blood is taken into the very presence
of God and sprinkled there upon the throne
of God.
That blood makes the atonement.
Now we come to the other goat, and
his hands upon its head, confessing over it
the sins and the iniquities of the children
of Israel, we see the effect of atonement.
That is, that their sins and iniquities are
being borne away.
So, whilst there are two goats, it's only
one offering.
Remember that?
Two goats, but only one offering.
The one goat makes the atonement, and the
other goat shows the effect of the atonement,
the bearing away of sins.
Now, you need to be careful, because there
are some friends, we call them friends, some
of them very, very nice people, and some
of them very devout people, and no doubt
many of them true believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
But you know, they tell us something rather
strange.
They say, well now, when Aaron the High
Priest cast lots upon the two goats, he
was casting lots in order to find out
which goat was for Jehovah, and which goat
was for the devil.
Now, this is rather a terrible thought to
me, the idea that there in the court,
within the court of the tabernacle, that Aaron
was casting lots to find out which goat
was for Jehovah, and which goat was for
the devil.
And then they tell us that the first
goat, when it was slain, the blood certainly
was to make atonement, and that the High
Priest went into the sanctuary.
And so they say the Lord Jesus Christ,
having shed his blood, went up into the
very presence of God.
But then at a certain time, about 1844,
the Lord Jesus Christ came.
This is the way they interpret the coming.
He came, he didn't come down here, he
didn't come to the air, but he came
out of the very presence of God, and
he entered the sanctuary.
We say, well where is this sanctuary?
It was in heaven, but he came out
of the heaven of heavens, the very presence
of God, and he went into heaven, into
this sanctuary.
And from then onwards, he has been working
in the sanctuary, cleansing it of all sin
and all iniquity.
I don't know how the sin and iniquity
got up there, but they tell us that
that is the work he's been occupied with.
Now eventually, when he has finished cleansing the
sanctuary of all sin and iniquity, then he
is going to put it upon the head
of the devil, the goat which was for
the devil.
And the devil is going to bear away
all our sins and our iniquity.
You get it?
You didn't know the devil was going to
be your savior, did you?
No.
Now this is rather a terrible thought, but
they have reason for it, and I think
it'd be well for us to remember this.
The reason is this, that the one lot
said La Jehovah, and the other lot said
La Azazel.
Therefore if La Jehovah means a person, then
La Azazel means a person.
Now this is Jehovah, and this person must
be the devil himself.
So they take it that the word Azazel
is a name for Satan.
And you know, you might find that difficult,
because it would seem to be that which
is personal.
Now I've looked at this word Azazel, and
it's very helpful to note that the word
Azazel is two words put together.
The first word is Az, and it means
a goat, and the second word is Azel,
which means to let go.
And that's exactly what that goat was.
It was the goat to be let go,
bearing upon it the sins and iniquities of
the children of Israel.
So rather than believe what they say, we're
going to hold on to this, that there
were two goats, and that the one goat
in the shedding of its blood, and that
blood sprinkled before and on the throne, brings
before us a tomb, and he brings before
us the work of Christ on that cross.
He going into the very presence of God
in all the value of that shed blood.
How great I preach!
The other goat shows the effect of him
doing that, and that is the bearing away
of sin into a place where they will
never be remembered again.
So then, as we are thinking of these
coverings, that outer covering, what Christ was, the
man, his reputation, and then the inner covering
of ramskins, dyed red, what Christ was to
God, his sanctification or consecration.
Then we look at the tent, and there
we have before us the great day of
atonement, and now the thought is what Christ
was both to God and to man, his
expiation.
He meets the demands of a holy God
on account of sin, and he meets our
deep and dire need of sinners.
He opens up a way for us to
enter into the very presence of God.
So our thought concerning this tent made of
goat hair.
Now this may give you an idea of
the tent.
Here we have the five curtains, one, two,
three, four, five.
Five curtains coupled together.
One, two, three, four, five, six curtains coupled
together, and there are your patches or clasps
of copper joining the two sets of curtains
together with their loops of blue.
Now there's your tent.
So remember that when this was thrown over
the tabernacle, then you have these five curtains.
Two and a half would cover the top
of the holiest, and the other two and
a half fall down the back side of
the tabernacle, and so you are covering that
section of the tabernacle church.
Now the set of six curtains, five of
the curtains suffice to cover the top of
the sanctuary, twenty-two minutes, leaving one curtain,
and that was folded over at the front
of the tabernacle.
Probably folded over, as you see I did
it, to preserve or protect those inner curtains
which are called the sanctuary itself.
Now you can see that we have these
inner curtains, the tabernacle, and they were made
of that fine twine linen.
They were embroidered with the blue and the
purple and the scarlet, and there were cherubim
embroidered upon.
Now they again are bringing before us very
clearly our Lord Jesus Christ as being God's
dwelling place.
This is the tavern, the tabernacle curtain.
Christ personally was God's tabernacle.
God's tabernacle in flesh, in Christ, and so
we have here, first of all, our thought
about that fine twine linen, our Lord Jesus
Christ in his perfect righteousness, in that spotless
purity.
And he belonged up there, in your heavenly
colour, the blue.
He belonged up there, but he came down
here, and he came down here that he
might suffer and die, shed his blood to
redeem, and so you have the scarlet.
And then it was embroidered with purple, and
so when we read Paul's words in the
epistle to the Philippians, we can see him
bringing before us Christ who thought it not
something to be grasped, to be equal with
God up there.
Makes himself of no reputation, epitomizes himself, and
he comes out found in fashion as a
man, found among men as a man, and
he humbles himself unto death.
That's your scarlet.
Even the death of the cross, wherefore God
has highly exalted him, given him a name
above every name, and that's your purple.
But then you've got it embroidered with cherubim
too, and those cherubim always have to do
with the administration of justice in regard to
judicial authority.
They're God's executives, and so we find that
here we have these cherubim on these embroidered
curtains, bringing before us our Lord Jesus Christ.
God has committed all judgment into the hands
of the Son.
He has appointed a day in which he
will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath
given assurance unto all men in that he
hath raised him from among the dead.
All judgment committed into the hands of the
Son.
You know, we have a Christ who is
not a small Christ.
I'm inclined to think very often we're thinking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, born of a
virgin.
We see him as a baby in the
manger.
We see him as a boy of 12
in the temple.
We see him as a man of 30.
We see him on the cross, suffering, dying,
buried, raised again, received up, and that's it.
Is it?
Oh no, this is not a time Christ
that we have to do with.
He's an eternal Christ.
He spans eternity.
He spans time.
He's the eternal Christ.
He was away there in the beginning, and
it's going to please God in a day
yet to come, to gather all things together
in Christ.
He is going to be the center.
God has purposed all this from way back
in eternity.
His beloved Son is going to be the
center.
You remember the apostle writing his letter to
the Romans, says, the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth together in pain until now.
The whole creation.
God has subjected it to vanity.
What does he mean?
Well, he means that whatever purpose God had
in mind when he brought in the creation
has not yet been seen.
Because of sin, God has subjected it to
vanity.
We shall never see what was in the
mind of God with regard to creation until
it pleads God to show it.
When will he show it?
At the revelation of the sons of God.
When will that take place?
When the Lord Jesus Christ takes his place
right there at the very center.
You know, at one time the scientist said,
you know, the sun's going around the earth.
Then after a while he said, sorry, mistaken.
No, it's the earth that's revolving.
And then they said, oh sorry, yes, it's
something else.
Not only is the earth revolving, but it's
moving in an orbit.
Oh yes.
And yes, and we find that everything seems
to be moving around something which is central.
And what is that?
It's the sun.
Everything is revolving around.
And they said, oh no, sorry, the sun's
not central.
But what is central?
We don't know.
Can I tell you?
The Lord Jesus Christ is right there at
the very center of the universe.
By him all things were made.
By him all things consist.
They all hang together.
What a Christ is this?
Not just the Christ that came born of
a virgin, lived and died and went back
to glory.
An eternal Christ.
And eventually God is going to head up
all things in Christ.
And it's wonderful that you and I are
going to be with him.
For the grace of God in seeking us
out, in convicting us of sin, in bringing
us to repentance and to faith in his
touch, that we might be with him.
That we might reign with him.
That we might share that glory with him.
He's at the very center.
To him every knee shall bow, every tongue
confess.
Things in heaven, things on earth, things under
the earth.
Thank God we've already bowed the knee.
He's our Lord, our Savior.
And we look forward to his coming again.
And so now this is what Christ is
going to be to the whole universe.
King of kings, Lord of lords.
Oh what a Savior.
Well I trust the Lord will make these
thoughts a real blessing to us all, as
we think of Christ, his dwelling place, and
all that's involved in him being the very
dwelling place of God.
All the fullness of the Godhead Father.
Shall we pray?
O God our Father, again we give our
thanks to thee for bringing before us thy
beloved Son.
O we realize, our God, that we cannot
express ourselves.
We cannot speak of him as we ought
to do.
We fail, but thou knowest, our God, that
we do glory in thy beloved Son, because
we owe everything to him.
It pleased thee to spare him.
It pleased him to suffer and to die.
And he did this that we might be
with him.
And we thank thee, our God, that thou
hast assured us of that in a day
yet to come we shall see him as
he is.
We shall be like him.
We shall share in that glory which is
his, and only because he was willing to
suffer and to die that it might be
so.
So we bless and we praise thee for
such a wonderful Savior, and thank thee, our
God, that we can look forward to the
day when thou wilt head up all things
in Christ, when he shall be at the
very center of the universe, all honor and
glory being his.
We thank thee, and we bless and praise
thee for it all in his worthy and
precious name, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.