Well, this is to be the grand finale.
I hope you're all comfortable because I'm not
sure whether we'll finish just before midnight and
just after midnight.
But I'll try and do my best to
finish a little after half past eight.
So this evening we're going to turn our
attention to the board, the bars, and the
foundation, and we're going to follow our reading
of this morning, the book of Exodus, and
reading in chapter twenty-six.
Exodus, chapter twenty-six.
One or two remarks as we are reading.
Reading from verse fifteen.
Exodus twenty-six, verse fifteen.
And thou shalt make boards.
Now, notice, please, he says, make boards.
I want you to notice that because these
boards were very big boards.
And I don't think...
Exodus, chapter twenty-six, verse fifteen.
They were very large boards, and so I
don't think they could have formed these boards.
I think they probably made them as we
make these laminated boards today.
And thou shalt make boards for the tabernacle
or the case you would standing up.
Ten cubit shall be the length of a
board, and a cubit and a half shall
be the breadth of one board.
That means they would be about fifteen feet
long and two feet three inches at least
in width.
Now, that's a very large board.
Verse seventeen.
Two tenons shall there be in one board,
set in order one against another.
Thus shalt thou make for all the boards
of the tabernacle.
Now, reading about these two tenons in each
board, I've got a model board here, or
you can see it enough, and it has
got these two tenons.
You see, there is the board with the
rings, and there are the two tenons.
Each board having two tenons.
Verse eighteen.
And thou shalt make the boards for the
tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward.
That's on the side where I'm standing.
And thou shalt make forty sockets of silver
under the twenty boards.
Two sockets under one board for his two
tenons, and two sockets under another board for
his two tenons.
And for the second side of the tabernacle
on the north side, that's the far side
from where I am standing, there shall be
twenty boards, and there forty sockets of silver,
two sockets under one board and two sockets
under another board.
And for the sides of the tabernacle westward,
thou shalt make six boards.
Now, what he means to say is, you've
got two sides, you've got the north side
and the south side, and as you go
to the far end of those two sides,
you come to the back of the tabernacle.
And that's what he means for the sides
of the tabernacle westward, coming on to the
back part.
Thou shalt make six boards, and two boards
shalt thou make for the corners of the
tabernacle in the two sides.
And they shall be coupled or twinned together
beneath, and they shall be coupled or twinned
together above the head, above the head of
it, unto one ring.
Thus shall it be for them both.
They shall be for the two corners.
Now, I've got a specimen board again here
which you may be able to see.
There's the corner board, the same amount of
board as there is in the ordinary board,
and there are the two tenons, which would
make it easy if you set up the
corners, then you can put in position your
ordinary boards.
Now, a moment or two later I'm going
to give you just a short demonstration.
I'm going to put these boards together so
you'll see how they are fitted together.
I used to have a complete tabernacle, and
I would build it up for people to
see, but it took a lot of time,
and we didn't get very much out of
it.
So, I now have just one section that
you will be able to see.
So, now he says, verse 25, and they
shall be eight boards, and their sockets of
silver, sixteen sockets, two sockets under one board,
and two sockets under another board.
And thou shalt make vats of acacia wood,
and five vats for the boards of the
one side of the tabernacle, and five vats
for the boards of the other side of
the tabernacle, and five vats for the boards
of the side of the tabernacle for the
two sides westward.
That's at the back.
And the middle bar in the midst of
the board shall reach from end to end.
And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold,
and make their rings of gold for places
for the bars, and thou shalt overlay the
bars with gold.
And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according
to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee
in the manse."
Remember, I said, there in the manse, he
must have seen it.
And so here it is, thou shalt rear
up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof
which was shewed thee in the manse.
Now we want to read a little more
about those sockets of silver, so turn please
to chapter 30.
Chapter 30, to read about these sockets of
silver.
Now this is where they obtained the silver.
Chapter 30, verse 11.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When
thou takest the sum of the children of
Israel after their number, then shall they give
every man a ransom for his soul unto
the Lord, when thou numberest them, that there
be no plague among them when thou numberest
them.
This they shall give every one that passeth
among them that are numbered half a shekel
after the shekel of the sanctuary.
A shekel is twenty geras, and half shekel
shall be the offering of the Lord.
Every one that passeth among them that are
numbered from twenty years old and above shall
give an offering unto the Lord.
The rich shall not give more, and the
poor shall not give less than half a
shekel.
When they give an offering unto the Lord
to make an atonement for your souls.
And thou shalt take the atonement money of
the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it
for the service of the tabernacle of the
congregation, that it may be a memorial unto
the children of Israel before the Lord to
make an atonement for your souls.
So the silver for the sockets of the
board came from the ransom money of the
children of Israel.
Now let us see how much silver they
obtained as ransom money.
Turn to chapter 38.
Chapter 38.
I'm reading from verse 25.
And the silver of them that were numbered
of the congregation was an hundred talents, and
a thousand and seven hundred and threescore and
fifteen shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary.
A bitter for every man that is half
a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary
for every one that went to be numbered
from twenty years old and upward for six
hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred
and fifty men.
And of the hundred talents of silver were
cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the
sockets of the veil.
And hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a
talent for a socket.
And of the thousand seven hundred and seventy
and five shekels that were left over he
made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their
chapters and filleted them.
Well now that is our reading for this
evening and it is bringing before us the
boards, the bars, and the foundation.
Now this morning we were looking at the
sanctuary and we saw how that this sanctuary
is again bringing before us our Lord Jesus
Christ.
As we have been going on night by
night we have seen how God designed it
all so that it would bring before us
the person, the work of his beloved son.
And so we got to the sanctuary and
this we looked at these curtains, tents, and
coverings and we saw something of Christ personally.
That outward covering of seal skin bringing before
us the Lord Jesus Christ, what he was
to man, his reputation.
And then that inner covering of ramskins dyed
red, what he was to God, his consecration.
And then the tent made of goat's hair,
reminding us of that great day of atonement,
what he was both to God and to
man, his expiation.
And then we saw the inner curtains, the
tabernacle itself, curtains, these brought before us our
Lord Jesus Christ, what he is going to
be in the day yet to come.
He's going to be the center of all
that God shall gather together.
He's going to be the head, a wonderful
Christ that we have.
So thinking of Christ personally and the curtains,
the tent, the coverings, we turn our attention
now to the structure, to the boards, the
bars, and the foundation.
And I said this morning that we would
be seeing something of Christ corporately.
In the curtains, Christ personally.
In the boards, bars, foundation, Christ corporately.
That might not be very clear at the
moment, but it will become clear as we
move on.
Now first of all, let us remember that
God said they were to make this foundation
of silver.
The structure itself was to rest upon these
silver stockings.
And we have seen where the silver came
from.
It came from the ransom money of the
children of Israel.
And there was no difference there.
The poor were not to bring less.
The rich were not to bring more.
Each one was to bring just that half
shekel, that half weight of silver.
And then all that silver was put together,
and it was made into talents of silver,
and each of those talents would weigh about
114 pounds.
And so as there were two sockets under
each board for the two tenants, then we
have 228 pounds weight of silver under each
board.
And that would mean that in the whole
foundation of the tabernacle, there would be about
five tons or more of silver.
So it was a very weighty foundation.
But also it was rather a costly foundation,
because I suppose in present day currency, a
talent of silver would be worth about $1
,500.
So that two talents of silver would be
$3,000.
And as we think of all this, we
shall find that in those hundred talents, there
would be about $150,000 worth of silver.
So it was a foundation, and it was
a costly foundation.
But we have to remember this, that whilst
the children of Israel brought silver, and that
silver was put into the foundation, and it
was a memorial, they themselves were represented there.
In that ransom silver that was made into
the sockets of silver, they are represented there.
We remember that we are not redeemed, as
Peter says, with silver and gold, because at
one time they brought gold for ransom.
We are not redeemed by such corruptible things
as silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So the foundation of the tabernacle was in
silver, bringing before us the fact that the
foundation of this dwelling place of God, which
is Christ corporately, rests upon silver, rests upon
the precious blood of Christ.
A weighty foundation, a costly foundation.
Some years ago when I was in England,
I was going round the village from house
to house, speaking to the people and inviting
them to come to the meetings, and I
came to two very large gates set in
a wall, a very old cockscomb wall, and
these wooden gates were carved.
And then at the side I saw a
smaller gate, and I stood there looking at
these gates, and I thought, well these must
be of good age, I don't know how
long this place has been here, and I
don't know what's at the back of it,
but I'd like to know, being a bit
nosy, I thought, well I'd like to know
what's the back of these big gates.
And so I went to the little gate,
and I opened it, and I peeked inside,
and as I looked inside I saw beautiful
gardens there, and I saw a nicely made
path wending its way in and out, and
it came up to a very big house,
a lovely house.
So I said to myself, well there must
be some high and mighty people living in
there, so I don't think that they would
be interested in my preaching of the gospel.
And then I said to myself, well I
don't know, may not be interested, but then
you have a responsibility, not only to preach
the gospel to the ordinary folk, but to
these folk too, if you can reach them.
And so I thought, well perhaps I ought
to go up there, you see, to this
big house, this wonderful place, and invite the
people to come along to these humble little
meetings we're having.
And then I said to myself, ah, you'd
be better to leave them, leave them alone,
leave them where they are, because they won't
be interested.
I thought, well no, why should I leave
them out?
So I found myself walking up the path,
and I kept saying to myself, well you
know, you may be going to make a
bit of a fool of yourself by going
up to these people, but I kept going.
And when I came to the house, I
stood there, and I thought, well, now if
you've got any sense, you go back, you
know, through the gate, and get on talking
to the ordinary folk.
I thought, why should I?
So I stood there looking at, and there
was a sort of a bell pull, you
know, not a bell push, but a rod
going up, and I thought, well I don't
know what's at the end of that.
So I took hold of it, and I
hesitated for a minute, and I said to
myself, you know, you'd be better if you
go back and get through that gate there.
And why should I?
So I pulled it, and it was clang,
clang, clang, clang, I expected a bell, but
it was clang, clang, and I felt like
running.
I said, well, I'm going to stand my
ground now, and the door opened immediately, and
there was a maid there with a little
lace cap on, a lace apron, and she
said, morning sir.
So I said, good morning.
She said, what is your business?
Well, I said, we were preaching the gospel
in this hall in the village, you know,
and, oh just a moment, she said, and
I'll tell the general.
General?
Oh, I said, stop, just a minute, stop,
but she'd gone.
General?
I don't want to talk to the general.
But she'd gone, and she was back in
a few moments, and she said, sir, the
general would be very pleased to see you.
Come this way.
And I said, oh dear, why didn't I
go back through that gate?
I walked into the hall, and it was
just like going into a museum, you know,
a wonderful collection of all kinds of things
gathered from all over the world.
And I looked at these, and I said,
oh dear, why did I ever come to
this place?
This way, and yes, through a doorway, and
it was a great big room there, and
sitting in the middle of the room, there
was a man with his feet up on
a chair, and as I came through the
door, he said, come in!
I thought to myself, well, now I've got
somewhere.
So I went in, and I thought, general,
who general and I was straightening myself up,
you know, and I was going through left,
right, left, right, and I came up in
front of him, and he said, sit down!
So I sat down, and I thought, dear
me, why did I come here?
What's all this about, he said, preaching the
gospel.
I said, well, that's right, we've got a
little place over there, and we're preaching the
gospel, and I've been around inviting the people,
and I thought, yes, he said, you're preaching
the gospel, eh?
Simply by believing on the Son of God,
everlasting life is free.
Is that it?
I said, yes, that's it, sir.
Yes, he said, lazy lot you are.
He says, anything for free, and you are
there.
He says, I believe in working for it.
I believe in doing something for it, he
said.
You lazy lot.
Anything for nothing, he said.
You want it, don't you?
I believe in working for it, he said.
I worked my way from the rank to
become General Sir Reginald Hoskins.
He said, where were you during the war?
I said, I was in the army.
Where were you in the army?
I said, I was out east.
Out east where?
I said, I was out in East Africa.
Then you were under my command.
Do you remember me?
General Sir Reginald Hoskins.
Yes, sir.
Oh, yes, you were under my command, he
said.
Now, he said, what's all this about the
gospel, he says, and everlasting life being free?
Well, I said, that's what we are preaching.
Yes, he said.
It's too cheap for me.
I said, work my way up, he said.
And I believe in working for everlasting life.
Too cheap, he said.
And then I thought, the Lord is helping
me now.
I said, excuse me, sir, when I was
in South Africa, I wanted to get away
right up into the Congo, about 3,000
miles by train.
So I went along to the railway station,
I said, how far is it to Lubumbati
in the Congo?
And they said, oh, about 3,000 miles.
I said, what's the rail fare?
And they said, oh, about $35.
Oh, I said, that's cheap enough.
So, $35.
Yes, and they said, if you're a missionary,
well, we'll deduct $5 off you, see, it'll
be just $30.
So the General says, oh, that's good.
He says, I was in South Africa, I
would like to have settled there.
He says, wonderful country.
Yes, he said.
What'd you say, $30?
He said, yes.
3,000 miles?
Oh, he said, that's cheap, isn't it?
I said, yes, sir, this is cheap, yes.
I said, just for $30, I went from
one end to the other of that railway.
Cheap, he said.
I said, yes, but have you any idea
how much he cost them to build the
railway?
Oh, he said, I haven't got the foggiest
idea.
Well, I said, I believe he cost them
more than a thousand pounds a foot.
Well, he said, sir, 3,000 miles?
I said, yes.
He said, the cost must have been colossal.
I said, it was.
But I went from one end to the
other for $30.
Everlasting life is free.
Do you know what it costs God?
Do you know what it costs Christ?
I said, well, for me, it's free.
Jolly good, jolly good.
He comes to me again, do you?
And I went and I saw him again
several times, and in the end he said,
I believe, I believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ died on that cross for me.
Thank God for that.
And I remember the day when he had
his funeral.
Well, there it is, it's a costly foundation,
it's a weighty foundation, it's in silver.
We have got the precious blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I'm persuaded that when they set up
that building, they would first of all mark
out the place for the sockets of silver,
and they would put those sockets in position,
and then they would begin to set up
the boards and bond them all together.
And so, I want to come down, if
I can manage it, and just give you
this little demonstration of how these boards and
bars were fitted together.
Now, this represents these sockets of silver, as
you can see there.
Each board, with its two tenons, goes down
into two sockets, you see.
And then here is a corner board, you
see, with its two tenons.
That is in position.
And here is the other corner board.
So that would be the back part of
the tabernacle.
Now, when they put those sockets in position
and set the boards up, they probably put
one of the bars through these boards, you
see.
There is a bar going through from that
end.
And then they would take another bar, and
they would set it through from this end,
you see.
And those two bars would meet there in
the middle, you see, two bars.
And then there would be another bar slipped
through from the top, as you see there,
from that side, and then the other bar
would go from this side, and these two
bars would meet in the middle, as you
see there.
So now you've got two bars below, two
bars above.
Then the middle bar would reach from end
to end, and so there is the middle
bar going right through, you see.
So what they did with the back part,
they did with the side.
Put up so many boards, and put the
bar through the top, the bar through the
bottom, set up the other set of boards,
the bar through the top, the bar through
the bottom, and then the middle bar goes
right away through from end to end.
Now, there are people who've got a different
idea, but I couldn't accept it.
And that is that they have, as you
see there, I've got two boards, and there
are four bars, you see, two above and
two below.
But there is a fifth bar, but you
can't see it, can you?
And you say, well, where is the fifth
bar?
Well, it's there, you see.
So if you divide the boards, you've got
a bar which is going right through the
centre there, so there's two bars above, two
bars, and the middle bar shall shoot through
the midst of the boards.
They think that it means through the middle
of the boards that way.
Now, remember that this bar would be almost
the length from the front seat to the
back seat.
So it would need to be quite a
thickness, maybe four to five inches, in order
to be able to handle it.
And if they're going to put a hole
through the board, and yet not weaken the
board, remember the weight of those curtains, the
weight would be such that if you hadn't
got sufficient thickness, all the boards would crack
across the middle and it would fall in.
Now, in order to put a bar through
there, you would not be able to do
it with boards, you would need logs in
order to do that.
So I couldn't accept this, this is impossible.
And then again, of course, the thought is
we have these bars outside which are visible,
but the bar that goes through the midst
is not visible, and so it brings before
us the Spirit of God as that uniting
bond of His people.
But remember, all the bars were made of
acacia wood, and they were all overlaid with
gold.
And you never get the Spirit brought before
you with regard to acacia wood, which speaks
of the perfect humanity of Christ.
So I'm afraid that doesn't fit very well.
So anyway, that's just giving you an idea
of these boards, how they were fitted together.
So now we can carry on with our
talk.
These boards all fitted and framed together.
Now you may remember that the Apostle Paul,
when he was writing his epistle to the
Ephesians, he uses that word together, together, together.
He has in mind a building, probably this
building, because he speaks of those who believe
as being fitly framed together.
These boards, many boards, were all fitly framed
together, and the bars passed through the rings
bonding them together.
So he speaks of being builded together, of
being bonded together, of being united together.
He speaks of being quickened together, of being
raised up together, of being seated together.
You see?
Together, together, all the time.
And so thinking of the building, fitly framed
together, built together to be a habitation of
God through the Spirit.
Now here it was, God's dwelling place, bringing
before us the person of Christ.
And we're looking at these boards, 48 boards,
all fitly framed together, all resting in those
sockets of silver, a building.
Many boards, fitly framed together, but only one
dwelling place.
Now whilst the Apostle is talking about a
building, he also has in mind something else.
So there he has the thought of the
building, all fitly framed together, built together, bonded
together, but he's got something else.
He's thinking about a body.
And he says, there's one body, it's the
body of Christ.
There are many members of that body, but
all the members form one body, the body
of Christ.
Not Christ's body personally, I know, but this
is Christ corporately.
You see?
Just as you have in this dwelling place,
many boards, fitly framed together, built together to
be one dwelling place, so the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Corporately, all Christians are bonded together, fitly framed
together, they're all brought in as members of
the body of Christ, not the personal body.
Remember that he went to the cross, he
took a body that God prepared for him,
he went to the cross and in that
body suffered, shed his blood and died.
Raised the third day from a bonded egg,
he was received up and he sat down
there at the right hand of God.
On the day of Pentecost, all that believed
were together.
You see?
They were together.
And then there came that sound of a
mighty rushing wind, those cloven tongs of fire
rested upon each one of them and they
were baptized into one body.
They all became members of one body.
Now usually our thought seems to be that
on the day of Pentecost, those who believed
were together and the Spirit came and entered
into them, and from that time onwards they
endured with this power from on high, they
went out to preach the gospel.
But I rather look at it like this,
that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered, died, shed
his blood, was buried, raised again, received up,
and on the day of Pentecost, he himself
came in the power of the Spirit and
he took up his abode in another body.
In that body which he had, that human
body, he was handicapped and he could not
do the greater work that he wanted to
do.
And so that body, suffering, dying, being buried,
raised, received up, he's there at the right
hand of God.
But on the day of Pentecost, he comes.
He comes in the power of the Spirit.
And all those that were together, they were
baptized into one body.
He is now in that body in the
power of the Spirit.
Many Christians made up to be one man,
the corporate man, the Christ.
So that's Christ personally up at the right
hand of God.
He is Christ corporately.
Every member of the body, every true believer,
everyone who's been truly born again is a
member of that body.
No matter what denomination or church or group
they belong to, if they are truly born
again, they belong to that body, they are
members of that body.
We have to get that settled once and
for all.
But that's not saying everything.
And I want you to remember what I'm
talking to you about now is nothing denominational.
Neither is it anything interdenominational.
And it might surprise you when I tell
you it's not even something undenominational.
We've got to be very careful.
So now we are thinking of this corporate
man.
It's the Christ.
I want you to follow me.
I want you to think back with me.
Think back to eternity.
And a way back there in eternity is
God.
And God is thinking.
God is planning.
God is purposing.
There is God himself a way back in
eternity.
And as God looks, he can see a
man.
And he can see there the shadow of
a man.
Adam, the man that was brought in, was
a figure of him that was to come.
He was a shadow.
A way back in eternity, the eternal light
was shining upon a person.
That person was God's beloved son, the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And it was a shadow cast.
And that was the first man, Adam.
So now in God's thought, a way back
in eternity, there is the thought of a
man.
He's going to have a man.
And when God started to remake this world,
to bring out of chaos, cosmos, an ordered
state, he was doing it for the man.
He wasn't making the man for this world.
He made the world for the man.
A way back in eternity, God has before
him a man.
But not just a man personally, but a
man corporately.
God had in his mind bringing in a
race of people, many men as one man.
God was going to bring in a man
and a woman, and they were going to
multiply and fill full here, and then God
was going to secure in this race of
people, he was going to secure that progressive
and ever-developing expression of himself.
Way back in eternity, this is what he
decided to do.
A corporate man, many men as one man.
But sin came in, and that was all
frustrated for the time being.
And the man that God was seeking to
have for himself, the devil acquired that man.
He became the devil's man.
And if in the first place, God intended
to secure in that corporate man, that progressive
and ever-developing expression of himself, well, now
that the devil has secured the man, he
is going to seek in the man that
progressive and ever-developing expression of himself.
That man is going to become more and
more devilish.
Well, then does God leave it at that?
Has the devil secured the man, and now
God is frustrated once and for all?
No, no.
God moves on, and he moves on so
that he will have his man.
But he must meet this state of emergency.
This sin has come in, and God must
deal with the sin, and we've been looking
at this in the tabernacle.
And we have seen how the only possible
way of being able to make one's way
into the presence of God is by way
of that shedding of blood.
Without the shedding of blood, there could be
no remission for sin.
And so God is meeting this state of
emergency, and he shows it in type, in
figure, in shadow, all through the ages, all
pointing on to that cross where the Lord
Jesus Christ was made to be sin and
made to be a sin offering.
And there God is meeting this state of
emergency.
And when we are brought unto the sound
of the gospel, and we believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, we are born again.
We are begotten of God.
We belong to a race of people.
We are many, but we are builded together,
fitly framed together, bonded together to be a
habitation of God.
This is the corporate man.
This is the Christ.
Way back in eternity, God intended to have
this corporate man.
And so we are thinking of the boat,
and they are bringing before us Christ corporately.
We are all brought into that oneness, into
that unity, into that togetherness.
Now that's something, of course, as I say,
we've got to get settled once and for
all.
But then, whilst this is perfectly true, and
as seen by God, it's all of a
piece, it could not be so down here.
All Christians throughout the world could not be
together to manifest that oneness.
And so God, it pleased him to have
it so that in any given locality, there
would be a number of those who had
been saved and born again, and brought into
that togetherness.
They would continue to be together.
And whilst they could not be the body
of Christ, they could only be a part
of it, nevertheless, wherever they were, in whatever
locality they were in, they were to be
that body of Christ in implication.
They were to be that body of Christ
in representation.
Have you got that?
See, the body of Christ is one.
All those who believe, all those who are
born again, are members of that body.
There's a oneness, there's a unity, there's a
togetherness there.
But we can't all be together in that
way, practically.
So, in every locality there may be a
company, a number of those members of the
body.
So they could not be the body, but
they can be that which represents it.
They can be the body in implication, meaning
that wherever there is a company of those
who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ come
together, then they should manifest the same truth
concerning the body of Christ.
Now, we've got to be very careful about
this, because so much is done these days
to make churches, to bring into being what
would be called these parts of the body
of Christ.
Local churches of one kind and another.
But this is largely the effort on the
part of man.
And he works in such a way as
to produce an organisation, you see, whereas God
never works along those lines.
What God is out to have is not
organisation, but an organism.
It's altogether a question of life where God
is concerned, not organisation.
So you may be able to get people
together, you may put them together, you may
make them go together, and you may say
that that is a local representation of the
Church of God, a local representation of the
body of Christ.
You may say that, but is it?
The question is a question of life.
Now, my wife is very fond of flowers.
And often in England, at any rate, when
I've been out in different places taking meetings,
people have said to me, you're going straight
home from here, Mr Brown, I say yes.
Would you like to take some flowers from
Mrs Brown?
Sure, I would.
She loves flowers.
So they give me a big bunch of
flowers.
And away I go home, you know, I
make myself some flowers.
And she knows about the time I'm going
to arrive, and she knows the familiar knock
at the door.
And so I arrive with my big bunch
of flowers, knock at the door, she opens
it.
And when she opens the door, she looks
at me and she says, oh, what a
lovely bunch of flowers.
Give them to me.
You see, I get a bit teethed, you
know.
Now, what did she say?
Oh, what a lovely husband, you see.
Flowers!
Oh, what a lovely bunch of flowers.
Give them to me.
I say, what about me?
Oh, you're all right.
Give me those flowers.
And she begins to sort them out, puts
them in the vase, you see, and she
smiles at them and she admires them.
Oh, it's lovely, yes.
Oh, well, it's no doubt about it, she
loves flowers.
And so whenever I can, I bring them,
you know.
And then coming home one day, I said
to myself, well, no flowers today.
Doesn't seem to be the season for flowers.
Very few about.
I'm passing the shop, oh, they got some.
Well, they got lots of them.
So I went inside and I bought a
big bunch of flowers.
And home I go again, knock at the
door, she's there, and she says, oh, oh,
yes.
Give me.
She takes them, puts them down on the
table, you see.
So I say, you like them?
Yes, they're all right.
You're going to leave them there?
Oh, yes, they're all right.
Before, you know, she would set them out
here and there.
But now, it's all right.
How have you been getting on?
Tell us, what about these flowers?
Oh, yes, that's all right.
You see, there's something different about them.
They were artificial.
I couldn't get the real thing.
So I brought artificial flowers.
I know she says they're very nice, yes,
but she put them down there.
Didn't have to, you know.
If they had been the real life thing,
she'd have been setting them out and smelling
at them and admiring them.
But artificial flowers.
Yes, all right.
Well, the people that made those flowers, they
gave them all that form and all that
colour and all that organisation and even put
scent in them.
He could smell it.
But there was something he hadn't got.
He hadn't got life.
That made all the difference.
And today you can have churches put together
by man, firmly framed together.
Bonded together.
There's something wrong.
There's no life.
Tragedy is that in those places you may
have men who are truly born again, and
yet they're in the midst of so much
which is artificial.
We've got to watch out for this.
I remember having three ladies coming along to
my meetings, a German lady and her daughter
and a friend of theirs.
And they belonged to the Lutheran church.
And they came to my meetings and they
enjoyed the meetings so much.
They came to me every night and thanked
me because this was wonderful.
The word Christ was magnified.
And I said, well, you're very welcome to
come to all the meetings.
And they came.
And then one night they said, Mr Brown,
can we have a talk with you?
I said, yes.
Well, we're going along to a friend's house
to have a cup of tea and a
talk.
So you come along and then you can
ask any questions you want to ask.
So they came along.
And then when we'd had a cup of
tea, I said, well, now, what did you
want to ask me?
Well, Mr Brown, you see, we belong to
the Lutheran church.
We're truly Christian.
We've been born again.
The Lord Jesus Christ is very precious to
us.
And that ministry that we've been having all,
we've been wanting that for years and years,
but we never got it, you know, not
in the Lutheran church.
And they said, now we want you to
help us.
They said, that church is dead.
There's no life in it, Mr Brown.
And the minister is dead.
So I said, well, I'm sorry to hear
this.
Well, they said, now, we want you to
help us.
Now, will you, Mr Brown, please arrange for
us to join this church where you are
having these meetings?
We want to resign from that Lutheran church
and we want to join this one.
Mr Brown, will you please arrange that for
us?
I said, sorry, I just could not do
it.
Oh, Mr Brown, surely you could.
No, I said, I'm sorry, I couldn't arrange
for that.
I couldn't arrange for you to join that,
no.
Oh, please.
No, I said, sorry, couldn't do it.
Mr Brown, you're not going to send us
back to that dead church, are you, and
that dead minister?
I said, no, I'm not sending you back
there.
Well, then, will you arrange for us to
join this church?
I said, sorry, I can't arrange for you
to join it.
There isn't anything here for you to join.
Mr Brown, will you please explain?
I said, listen, if you are truly born
again, you are members of the body of
Christ.
And here is that which represents the body
of Christ.
It is the body of Christ in implication,
these people here.
That's why you should have been long time
ago.
You can't join it.
You already belong to it.
Oh, I said, now isn't that wonderful?
Yes, it is wonderful, isn't it?
Yes.
Oh, no, I said, you can't join it.
No.
If you're truly a child of God, you're
a member of that body of Christ, you
see?
And wherever there is that local company of
Christians who are following the scripture, where there
is life, no artificiality about it, not an
organization, they're an organism, they've each one been
born again, each one partaking of the very
life of Christ, that's it.
You belong, as far as the Lord is
concerned, that's your place.
You can't join it.
You're already a part of it, but you'd
be somewhere else.
Oh, I said, now.
So, they came along, and they were welcomed,
and ever since then they've been going on,
they've served the Lord, they're just on fire,
you know?
They're going round talking to others and winning
others for Christ.
It's amazing what these women have done since
then.
So then, can we get this clear then?
There we have the sanctuary itself, bringing before
us Christ personally, bringing before us Christ corporately.
Well now, having dealt with that, I think
it would be good if we could just,
for a few moments, run through what we've
already had, because I don't think I'll be
coming here again, you know?
There's so much on ahead there that I
don't know how long we're going to be
over here, or whenever we're going to get
back to Africa.
The way people are talking, and we've got
this here for keeps, I think.
And I do want you to remember this.
Don't get this wrong now.
This isn't my life's work.
We have been doing missionary work for 48
years.
Not going round the country, giving talks on
Tabernacle.
We're away in Africa, and sometimes this lies
in boxes for as much as 15 years,
never even look at it.
We've been serving the Lord, preaching the Gospel
among the Africans, establishing these local representations of
the Church, of the Body of Christ.
That's been our work, up in the Congo
and in Zambia.
And they're still going on for the Lord,
and managing their own affairs.
And we can go up there, and we
can give them a little more ministry, and
we can have fellowship with them.
It's grand, you know, to do it.
But every now and again, we feel we
have to go on furlough.
We go on leave.
And when I do, they say, if you're
coming over, you'd better bring the model of
the Tabernacle with you.
So when I come over on furlough, on
leave, I start in on this.
This is my furlough.
This is my leave.
This is how I spend it, you see,
moving about from place to place.
So do remember, this isn't my...
Some people say, oh, you must be a
specialist, you know, on the Tabernacle teaching.
No, I don't like that, because they're telling
me the specialist is one who gets to
know more and more about less and less.
That doesn't make me happy at all.
Well, now then, briefly, I've tried to get
before you how that God Himself designed it,
and brought it in, and brought it in
in such a way that would be a
help and a blessing to us.
And we saw that He began with His
own very throne.
Right there in the holiest, there's the ark,
the mercy seat, the cherubim of one piece.
And He came out, and we want to
watch Him coming out.
And He speaks about the table, and then
about that lampstand, not about the altar of
incense that should be there in front of
the veil.
Then He comes out, looks back at the
building, speaks about these curtains, tent coverings that
we talked about this morning, and the boards
and the bars and the foundation, passes the
labour, not a word about it, comes down
to that altar of burnt offerings and deals
with it.
And then He looks around at this court,
and this gate with its blue-purple scarlet,
and then He decides to bring in the
priesthood.
And we've seen that this is also typical,
Aaron the high priest, the type of Christ,
our great high priest.
Aaron's son's the priest, type of Christian, because
every Christian is a priest.
And now in bringing in the priesthood, you
remember, there were these three offerings taken, sin
offering, burnt offering, offering of consecration, and they
are bathed and cleaned in their priestly garments.
And then we find the sin offering, they
put their hands upon it, they're identified with
it, and then we find that Moses attends
to that sacrifice, that sin offering, removes from
it the fat, the kidneys, burns them in
the altar, and then the sin offering itself
is carried through the gate, through the camp,
and burned in that clean place outside the
camp.
That's a picture to us of God coming
out from yonder glory, comes out in the
person of Christ, God was manifest in flesh,
returned to the cross, there is Christ on
the cross, made sin, made to be a
sin offering, and God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself.
God comes out to where we are, in
the place of sin, to make provision for
us in a sin offering.
And then having dealt with the sin offering,
He comes into the burnt offering, the offering
of consecration, and then He moves back into
the sanctuary, to the altar of incense, and
then out to the labor.
Plainly saying, I'm coming right out to where
you are, in the place of sin, to
make provision for you in that sin offering.
If you avail yourself of that sin offering
that I've provided for you, it opens your
way.
You take in that burnt offering, that offering
of consecration.
You're brought now into a priesthood, you're established,
you're able now to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to me.
You can enter now into the sanctuary, you
can have that communion, you can have to
do with what is in there.
So they were brought in in this wonderful
way.
And then we saw that all that was
down here was not something in itself.
God brought all this in as a means
to something else.
It had to do with what was in
the sanctuary.
And we notice the difference down in the
court, that glittering blade doing its deadly work,
day in and day out, their suffering, agony,
blood shedding and death going on all the
time.
And when we stepped in the holy place,
we leave that all behind us.
Inside all is quiet, all is calm, all
is glory.
Down here, suffering, agony, blood shedding, death, Christ
on the cross.
Inside there, Christ up in the glory.
So the moment we find we are in
the priesthood, we realize that we can enter
into that sanctuary, we can stand before that
altar of incense which is Christ, we can
bring out our cloud of sweet perfume, we
can worship.
We realize that in doing it, there was
a labor when the priest went into the
sanctuary, they must wash hands and feet thereat,
so God has provided for us a labor.
Should we sin?
If we sin, then we can confess our
sin, he be faithful and just to forgive
and to cleanse from all unrighteousness and restore
us to that fellowship with himself.
And now as we have access into his
presence and can stand before the altar of
incense, he wants us to take in the
table and the showbread and the lampstand and
the seven lamps upon it.
Do you remember that that table brought before
us?
This fact again, that all we who have
been brought in through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we are at the table.
Born again, we're at his table.
That's our place of fellowship and communion.
So the altar of incense is Christ up
there in the presence of God.
So the table is Christ up there in
the presence of God, maintaining us in that
place of fellowship and communion.
Then the bread handed over to the priest
after seven days and it became their food,
their nourishment, their sustenance.
So we too, having been made partakers of
that divine, spiritual, divine, eternal life, that life
needs support, it needs nourishment.
We try to get clear before us that
the fact that we have eternal life doesn't
mean that we are living natural life now
and that eventually we will begin to live
the eternal life.
That when this natural life comes to an
end, we begin to live the life that
goes on forever and ever.
But rather that from the moment we are
born again, we are made partakers of eternal
life, spiritual, divine, eternal life.
And we don't stress the fact of its
duration, we are stressing the fact that it's
a different kind of life, that it's the
very life of Christ.
And to live the life of Christ, we
need nourishment.
And the only nourishment to enable us to
live Christ is Christ himself.
So there is the bread, Christ.
And then the lampstand, do you remember?
One thought I tried to get clear, and
that was that the lampstand itself, beaten out
of a talent of pure gold, was bringing
before us Christ, the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ.
You remember that the seven lamps put upon
the lampstand brought before us the Spirit, and
the lamps were throwing their light onto that
lampstand, lighting up its lovely workmanship, reminding us
that the Spirit takes to the things of
Christ and reveals them to us, that we
may be changed into the same image from
glory to glory.
Our sanctification.
Christ has gone up to be our sanctification.
He's a pattern and a power of sanctification
in you and me.
He, our sanctification, perfect and complete.
We down here, not so.
So practical sanctification must go on from day
to day.
And we can only become more like him
as we have time for the Spirit of
God to take of the things of Christ
and reveal them to us.
And where do we find the time?
That's the problem, isn't it?
And then we realised there was a veil
there, and the veil said no way in.
And we turned our attention to these people
to realise that they were on probation.
And whilst on probation to produce a righteousness
that God could accept and they could be
priests and enter his presence, then God said,
I am veiled.
Moses put the veil there.
There's no way in until they produced that
righteousness.
And they never could produce it.
God made the arrangements for them, but they
couldn't do it.
And so eventually God stepped in.
And in Christ on that cross, he produced
a righteousness.
And that righteousness could be imputed to these
people.
It could be imputed to you and me.
It can be reckoned to us.
And when that righteousness is reckoned to us,
we have access into the presence of God.
So when the Lord Jesus Christ was on
that cross, meeting the demands of a holy
God, and coming out of that able to
say, it is finished, he came out in
a state of being right.
And God is willing to reckon that same
state of being right, that same righteousness to
you and me, the moment we believe.
You see?
And the moment God produced that righteousness in
Christ, the veil of the temple was rent
from the top to the bottom, declaring a
new and a living way into the very
presence of God.
Through the veil, that is to say, his
flesh, the sufferings and death of Christ.
The veil.
Through the veil we have access by the
blood of Jesus.
So all this we have tried to take
in.
God coming out to where we are, making
provision for us.
We availing ourselves of what he's provided, and
then moving on step by step, taking in
all that we find, all typical.
Look into the New Testament and find so
much there which we are able to see
in these types.
So we go on and in, and we
have to do with Christ up there at
the right hand of God.
The great thing being, all this was a
means to that.
And all that we find in Christ and
him crucified was not something in itself.
It was a means to that.
It was a means to our going on
to know Christ in a deeper and a
mightier way.
So many people feel all you have to
do is to get men and women to
the cross.
Get them there to the cross, to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, to know their
sins are forgiven, and that's it.
And they make the cross to be something
in itself.
God doesn't do that.
As far as people are concerned, they think
that the moment you come to the cross
and you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're a Christian.
Are you?
That cross is making possible you being a
Christian.
Because being a Christian implies spiritual growth.
It implies a going on.
That cross is making that possible.
And that going on means that we're going
on to know Christ in a deeper and
a mightier way.
We're going on, and God is going to
secure in us that progressive and ever-developing
expression of himself.
He can do it.
He's got the corporate man, the Christ.
And through Christ, the Spirit revealing to us
the things of Christ, God is securing that
progressive and ever-developing expression of himself.
He met that stage of emergency in the
cross, and now he has what he wants.
Well, we can bless and praise God for
it.
I hope that every one of us here
tonight