The Lord Jesus said, Moses wrote about me. Moses
wrote the first five books of the Bible as well
as at least one of the Psalms, Psalm 90. As we
read through the first five books of the Bible
called the Pentateuch, we see the Lord Jesus
Christ spoken of there. in a variety of ways.
The theme of all of Scripture, of course, is
salvation. God's wondrous love for fallen mankind
and seeking to restore mankind to Himself. Our
ancestors, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God in the
Garden. receiving from God the just penalty for
sin. Which penalty is death? That death includes
suffering, pain, frustration, disease, degeneration,
and it culminates with physical death and eternal
separation from God. in hell. The penalty is
fit for the crime. For the crime is against an
infinite God of goodness and holiness. We, the
descendants of Adam and Eve, carry on the family
trait, which is sin. And we inherit. the penalty
of our sin, which is death. As we look around
us today, despite the advances in science and
technology and understanding and communication,
etc., etc., etc., mankind is truly in a moral
and spiritual mess. And that mess is self -made.
And the fact is that we are incapable of cleaning
it up ourselves. We need someone who is greater
than ourselves to intervene on our behalf and
come to us in our mess of sin to bring us cleansing,
forgiveness, and wholeness. And that's exactly
what the Creator has done. Not because we deserved
it either. nor because we desired it, but rather
to demonstrate His own grace, mercy, and kindness.
The Creator God has provided for us salvation,
a rescue from our predicament, a deliverance
from our mess. The first promise of this salvation
came right after the fall of Adam and Eve in
the garden. As we studied in Genesis 3 last week,
God gave the promise of a seed of the woman,
and that that seed would ultimately bring salvation
through his own suffering. God gave us the promise
of a Redeemer. Satan's attempt down through the
centuries has been the destruction of the line
of descendants through whom God would send that
promised Redeemer. Nonetheless, this line can
be traced from Adam through Seth and through
Noah and Shem, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Jacob had 12 sons as well as one daughter. One
of his sons was Joseph, who by the providence
of God was sold by his own brothers into slavery
in Egypt, where later he became a powerful figure
and was able to provide for his father and his
brothers and their families. In a time of famine,
they came to Egypt near the end of Jacob's life
to live there. And they remained there, as did
their children and their grandchildren. They
remained there for hundreds of years. Around
70 of them in Joseph's day became... So many
in 400 years, in fact, that they posed what was
perceived by the Egyptians, at least, as a threat
to the security of that nation. The Bible tells
us that there arose a new king or pharaoh in
Egypt who did not recall Joseph with any esteem,
at least, for by then Joseph had been long dead.
And in order to curb the population of the Israelites,
which was mushrooming, he put them into slavery,
cruel slavery. That provides for us the background
for the second book of Moses, the book of Exodus,
where we find another word from God regarding
the Redeemer. In the book of Exodus, we see the
picture. of the Redeemer. In Genesis, the promise.
In Exodus, the picture of the Redeemer. In fact,
I think that we can look upon Exodus as something
of a picture album, for there are several pictures
that we can point to in this second book of Moses,
the Moses who wrote about the Lord Jesus. But
we're going to select just one picture out of
the album this morning, and that is a picture
that is found in the second part of the book.
And we'll look in Exodus chapter 25 to begin.
I invite you to turn there with me. Already,
God has been speaking to Moses. This book of
Exodus records Moses' birth, his deliverance
in that little basket on the Nile River as the
daughter of Pharaoh found him. It records the
first 40 and then the second 40 years of his
life until he was a man 80 years of age when
God finally appeared to him in Mount Sinai and
said, Moses, go back and deliver my people. By
the way, Moses is one of the pictures in Exodus
of the Redeemer. Moses was a Redeemer, a deliverer
for the people of God, and is in a certain and
very true respect a picture of the great Redeemer
of the people of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we can't develop that this morning. There's
another picture that demands our attention in
this album. By this time in the book, Moses has
done what God has told him to do, however reluctantly
at first. And now with the people of God, he
is encamped in Mount Sinai. And he has been up
on the mount talking with God. And God made a
covenant with them. And God called for Moses
to bring... some of the other priests, and 70
of the elders, and to come up to the mountain.
Only Moses could come near to God. But these
others, fewer than 100 of them, were allowed
to come up on the mountain on this occasion with
Moses. An amazing thing happened. In verse 9
of chapter 24, it says, Moses went up with Aaron,
Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel.
And they saw the God of Israel. Maybe you've
never seen these verses before. They remind you
of what John saw in the book of the Revelation
when he was caught up into heaven. It says, And
under his feet there appeared to be a pavement
of sapphire as clear as the sky itself. Yet he,
that is God, did not stretch out his hand against
the nobles of the sons of Israel. And they beheld
God, and they ate and drank. Would you like to
have been there on that day? Wouldn't it have
been something to have been one of those 70 people?
To have gone up on that mountain, had this vision
of God? It doesn't tell us here how God appeared,
what theophany was used, but it says they saw
God in some form, not in His essence, but in
some way in which He was pleased to manifest
Himself to them. It says that God did not strike
them dead, though they saw Him. In grace He allowed
them to come into His presence and to view His
glory. And it says that while they were there,
they feasted. They had a meal. They ate and drank
in the presence of the Lord. This was a wondrous
occasion. This God of glory, of resplendent glory,
whom no man had ever seen. nonetheless desired
not only to be on the mountain where some of
the people could come to him, but this God of
glory desired, think of this, to dwell in the
midst of his people. He wanted to come down to
them, to live in their presence. And so he told
Moses to construct... And the picture, the Christmas
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ that we're going
to study this morning is this tent, this tabernacle
where God dwelled among His people. In chapter
25, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, tell the
sons of Israel to raise a contribution for me.
From every man whose heart moves him, you shall
raise my contribution. And this is the contribution
which you are to raise from them, gold, silver,
and bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet material,
fine linen, goat hair, rammed skins dyed red,
porpoise skins, acacia wood. Oil for lighting,
spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant
incense, onyx stones and setting stones for the
ephod and for the breast piece. And let them
construct a sanctuary for me that I may dwell
among them. The God of glory graciously desired
to dwell among his people, the sinful... people
Israel. Does this not remind you immediately
of that verse that was read for us in our scripture
this morning in John chapter 1? And the Word,
the Logos of God, the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. The Word there dwells. In John
1 .14 is literally the word tabernacle. And the
word became flesh and tabernacles among us, and
we beheld his glory as of the one and only, the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. John 1 .14 is the New Testament picture
of that which we find in the book of Exodus in
the tabernacle. I would like for us this morning
to consider three aspects of the glory of this
tabernacle that we see, which is a picture of
Jesus Christ. First, think with me regarding
the glory of its beauty. The glory of its beauty.
We don't have time to go into a detailed explanation
of its beauty. But be aware that the linen that
was brought and the colors, the blue, the scarlet,
the purple, the fine twisted linen, these beautiful
colors were part of curtains that were sewed
together for the tabernacle. It was an exquisite
structure. There were wooden frames that were
made over which these strips of fine linen were
stretched, forming walls or curtains for the
tabernacle. Imagine the beauty of this blue and
scarlet and purple. Woven into the fabric of
the tabernacle was a cherubim. with wings outstretched,
facing down. Bronze was used to make certain
pieces of the tabernacle. But the prominent metal
used was gold. Gold that, for the most part,
was beaten out and placed over acacia wood. This
beautiful wood was carved ornately, and then
the gold was beaten around it so that it formed
certain pieces in this tabernacle. We'll talk
about those pieces in a moment, but it is difficult,
I think, for us to imagine how beautiful this
structure was. There are some people who believe
that God deserves only that which is ordinary
and plain. When God gave the design for the building
where he was to dwell, it was a building of exquisite
and architectural beauty for that day. The beautiful
colors of the fabric, the gold that glistened
and shined in the candlelight, the silver, the
bronze. It was a spectacular structure. But this
beautiful structure was covered over with what
apparently was a second tent. And on the outside
of this was the goat's hair. Just plain, ordinary
goat hides. If you've ever seen a Bedouin tent,
you have an idea of the plainness of this structure
on the outside. With all of its beauty on the
inside, the outside was very plain, very ordinary.
And it apparently was constructed so that it
was taken down and folded up in a certain way
and then carried, and the porpoise skins protected
it from the desert heat and any rain that might
come. so that it was waterproofed in that way.
An amazing structure that God designed for Moses
and the people to build. And so what we have
here is a tent that is beautiful and glorious
inwardly, but ordinary outwardly. What a picture
of Jesus Christ. This morning the quartet sang
The Five Little Fingers of God. The Son of God,
the only begotten of the Father, glorious in
grace and in truth, was born as a baby, came
into the world tabernacled in flesh. When you
went to that manger in Bethlehem, had you been
a shepherd, you would have found there a baby.
Nothing is said in the Scripture, at least, of
any kind of a halo or a glow about him. What
they saw when they got there was a baby wrapped
in claws, just like the angels had said, an ordinary
-looking baby. And as he grew up, he was an ordinary
-looking man. Isaiah said of him prophetically,
he has no stately form or majesty that we should
look upon him. nor appearance that we should
be attracted to him. When one looked upon the
Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry,
one saw a man. There was nothing about him immediately,
physically, that would strike you that here was
anything other than an ordinary person. Ah, but
inside that ordinary flesh, was housed, was tabernacled,
the very glory of God. Inside that plain human
flesh was the beauty of holiness incarnated,
just like the tabernacle. Exquisite inwardly,
plain outwardly, the glory of its beauty. a picture
of Jesus Christ. And then think with me regarding
the glory of its content. The tabernacle itself
was a tent that had two rooms, if you please,
in it. It was not a large structure. It would
have come close to sitting right up here in this
area. The first room was 15 feet by 30 feet,
rectangular. It's called the Holy Place. The
inner room, and it was separated from the first
by a curtain, a veil. And the inner room was
15 feet by 15 feet. It was square. As you approached
the tabernacle from the outside, the first piece
of furniture or a Crudiment for this structure
was an altar made of bronze where there was a
fire perpetually burning for the sacrifice, what
was called the burnt offering sacrifice, a sacrifice
for the sins of the nation. The next piece of
furniture you would come to would be a laver
made of bronze outside the tabernacle. It was
a labor that the priests used. They would first
come by this altar where their sins were dealt
with. Then they would come to the labor for the
cleansing of their hands before they could go
into the structure itself for their work. Let's
walk inside the tabernacle this morning with
a priest as he holds back the door and allows
us to come in. We are struck with the simplicity
of this furniture, and yet its beauty. In this
outer room, we see on the south side of it, that
is on our left, a golden candlestick with seven
branches to it. A candlestick that weighed somewhere
between 60 and 80 pounds of solid gold. Can you
imagine the value of just that one piece in today's
market when gold was about $400 an ounce? Yet
the people had given so that they were able to
build this candlestick of solid gold. And as
we look on the other side, the north side to
our right, we see a table made of acacia wood
overlaid with gold. And on this table, were 12
loaves of bread. The loaves were called the bread
of the presence, and it symbolized the presence
of God with his people. The 12 loaves, one for
each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And directly
in front of us, before the veil that shuts us
out from the inner part, is an altar, an altar
of incense made of gold. on which was kept sweet
-smelling incense that was perpetually offered
as a sacrifice of praise unto God. Interestingly,
the incense was the frankincense, one of the
gifts brought to the Lord Jesus by the wise men.
Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the frankincense
speaking of worship. And it was used there on
the altar. This golden altar before the curtain.
Now we're going to do something that no Jew except
the high priest ever did. We're going to look
behind the veil. This beautiful curtain. And
as we look behind the veil, we see the centerpiece
of this whole structure. It is the Ark of the
Covenant, which was a box. or a coffer. It was
made of gold, wood overlaid with gold. Three
feet nine inches long, two feet three inches
high and wide. Not a large piece. The top of
this box is solid gold. It is called the mercy
seat. And it is here on the top of this box that
the high priest sprinkled the blood once a year
for the sins of the people. And on the end of
the mercy seat, fashioned out of solid gold again,
are two cherubim with their wings outstretched
and just touching above the center of the mercy
seat. Now all of this that I have described to
you is a picture. of the Lord Jesus Christ, a
picture of his person and of his work. The bronze
altar in the front of the tabernacle speaks of
his offering for sin on the cross of Calvary.
The laver of cleansing in the front of the tabernacle
speaks of the cleansing that he provides from
our daily defilement. in our pilgrimage in the
world so that we can offer unto God spiritual
sacrifices. The lampstand on the inside of the
first room tells us that he is the light of the
world. And the bread of his presence on the table,
the golden table to the north side, tells us
that he is the bread of life. And the altar for
the incense before the curtain reminds us of
his perpetual priesthood before the presence
of God on our behalf, offering up prayers for
us. The veil which separates us in the tabernacle
from the Holy of Holies is a veil that represents
his body. His body. And when He died on the cross
of Calvary, that veil was torn from the top to
the bottom, opening the way into the very presence
of God so that no more is there a separation
for those who have come by the cross into His
presence. And there's the mercy seat. Jesus himself
is called the mercy seat in the book of Hebrews.
The word propitiation in the New Testament speaks
of the mercy seat, where the blood was sprinkled
to satisfy the holiness of God. His blood, once
and for all, was sprinkled on the mercy seat,
and he himself has become the mercy seat for
us before God. You see, the whole tabernacle
is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer
that God promised in the book of Genesis. But
let me conclude by talking about a third aspect
of the glory of this marvelous tent. That is
the glory of its purpose. The tent served as
a dwelling for God in the world. It is therefore
a wonderful picture of Jesus Christ in whom dwelt,
says Paul, the fullness of the Godhead in the
flesh. Just as that tent became the place where
God manifested His presence by the Shekinah,
the brightness of His glory. So the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ became the place where God
caused his Shekinah to dwell. And as far as we
know, only on one occasion in the life of the
Lord Jesus did that glory ever manifest itself
through his body, and that was on the Mount of
Transfiguration when it shone through his skin.
So great was that glory. But then again, it was
veiled behind his flesh. The tabernacle is a
picture of Jesus Christ in whom dwelt the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. And the tabernacle
is a place of the meeting between God and man.
That was the purpose of it. So that there might
be a meeting place between this God of great
glory and splendor and sinful man. And so the
tabernacle was built so that God might dwell
among them and that there in that tabernacle
they might meet with God. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ is our tabernacle. He is the one who partook
of our flesh and blood. That he might disarm
the devil. and then serve, having sacrificed
himself, having gone to serve as our great high
priest. He is the one through whom we can meet
with God. A little boy once looked up into the
sky as he walked along with his mother, and he
said, Mother, is God up there? She affirmed to
him that in truth God was there in the heavens.
A few steps further, the youngster said, well,
wouldn't it be nice if he poked his head out
once in a while so that we could see him? Kids
have a way of putting it simply. We've all wondered,
why doesn't God poke his head out once in a while?
Hey, God did more than that. God came down out
of that heaven. And he lived on this earth when
the Word became flesh, and he tabernacled amongst
us. And in him, the only begotten of the Father,
we behold the glory of God. Have you met God
in the person of Jesus Christ? Is your life today
living for the honor and the glory of this God
who has manifested Himself to us and who has
opened the way into His glorious presence through
His incarnate Son? What a picture we see in this
album of Exodus of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
may we, in truth, during this Christmas season,
fall on our knees. and worship Him. Let's pray
together. This morning as we have seen the Lord
Jesus, as He is pictured for us in this Old Testament
tent, and as we understand that He is that tent
today where God meets with man. Have you come
to God, my friend, through the only means that
He's provided, His beloved Son? Do not seek to
find God in any other place, in any other religion.
Do not search for any other truth, for Jesus
Christ is the fullness of both grace and truth.
There is no truth that does not lead to Him.
Have you trusted Him alone as your Savior? If
not, will you do it today? Will you trust in
this Jesus Christ whom God has sent so that you
might come into His presence and be restored
to Him? Oh, friend, how God loves you and desires
that. Oh, that you would love God. Believe on
Christ and desire him above all else. Dear Christian
friend, let us worship him. If there is anything
that veils his lovely face today in our hearts,
let's rip that thing down. Let's set aside that
idol and worship him. Fall on our knees. Would
you stand together with me, please? And let's
sing again. O come, let us adore Him. O come,
let us adore Him.