SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.
SPEAKER_00: Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delant, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's your host, Pastor James W.
SPEAKER_00: Knox.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Brother James, and I greet you once again in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.
SPEAKER_01: Happy.
SPEAKER_01: We are happy indeed that you've tuned into the program today.
SPEAKER_01: We hope and pray that God will use it to be a real blessing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: We intend to be a help to you.
SPEAKER_01: And if we are a help to you, it'll be because God's Word, the Holy Bible, is a blessing to your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You know, God's word, God's word is the one thing we have in this world we can depend upon.
SPEAKER_01: We can trust it absolutely, stake our souls upon its truth.
SPEAKER_01: Every word of God is pure, and God cannot lie.
SPEAKER_01: So when God speaks, we read what he's said, we trust it, we believe it, and we abide in his words, and we are studying together the Bible book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: We're in the 26th chapter, and we're reading some pretty difficult material about the details of the construction of the tabernacle and the items of furniture that were found in the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_01: And while it's difficult reading and uh a bit of uh labor to get through it, we are seeing that many, many, many things in these chapters point us to the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We're just going to read some more of this today and then make additional comments as needed.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read starting at verse number, starting at verse number 26 of Exodus chapter 26, and thou shalt make bars of shit'em wood five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle for the two sides westward, and the middle bar in the midst of the board shall reach from end to end.
SPEAKER_01: And thou should overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars, and thou should overlay the bars with gold, and thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof, which was showed thee in the mount.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as we've talked before, it's not up to us to pick and choose how we're going to serve God, and to pick and choose how we're going to worship God.
SPEAKER_01: He has spoken, he has laid it all down in the Bible, and if we'll do things in accord with the pattern he shows us, then all will be well and pleasing in his sight.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: And thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen, of cunning work, with cherubim, should it be made, and thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shit'em wood overlaid with gold, their hooks shall be of gold and the four sockets of silver, and thou shalt hang up the veil under the touches that thou mayest bring in thither within the veil the ark of the testimony, and the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is a very important principle in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: This veil dividing between the holy place and the most holy.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament scriptures, we see that God kept his distance from fallen man.
SPEAKER_01: He would appear on occasion to Adam, to Cain, to Anoah, Abraham, so forth.
SPEAKER_01: But hundreds of years would go by, and God would speak to no one.
SPEAKER_01: When God did speak, it would be to one individual here or one individual there.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, finally, God, speaking to Moses, as we've read in this book of Exodus, led the people that he had chosen out of the land of bondage and is leading them, transporting them, if you will, to a land of promise.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, even this chosen people, with their tabernacle, where God would come down and abide with them as a nation, he did not enter into, and they could not enter into a personal relationship with that God.
SPEAKER_01: The curtains round about the tabernacle or that made up the tabernacle spoke of the fact that everyday life was in one place and worship was in another.
SPEAKER_01: Then inside those curtains in that tabernacle, we see that the ordinary is separate from the holy.
SPEAKER_01: And then and then this veil separates the holy place from the most holy place.
SPEAKER_01: And deep inside that sanctuary, God did put his presence.
SPEAKER_01: But you couldn't go there, I couldn't go in there.
SPEAKER_01: No one from Issachar or Judah could go in there.
SPEAKER_01: No one from Naphtali or Jebel could go in there.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Levites, one tribe out of one nation and all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The sons of Aaron, one family out of one tribe of one nation of all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The high priest alone of that one family, only that man could enter into that most holy place where God was.
SPEAKER_01: And he could only go in there once a year.
SPEAKER_01: If anybody else tried to go in there, it was death.
SPEAKER_01: If that high priest tried to go in there any other time, and if he didn't go in there properly dressed and conduct himself properly while there, death.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, as time went by, the Bible tells us in Matthew 27, 51, Mark 15, 38, Luke 23, 45, that Jesus Christ hanging upon that cross, allowing the veil of his temple, allowing his flesh to be rent upon that cross as he paid for your sins and for mine.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the veil that separated the holy place from the most holy place was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
SPEAKER_01: God, it's as if God Himself put his hands upon that thing and tore it in two, signifying that the way into his presence was now open and available to all men everywhere if they would come through the shed blood and the broken body of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And now our God is not a God afar off.
SPEAKER_01: Now we may draw nigh to God through Jesus Christ his Son, and God draws nigh to man through Jesus Christ His Son, and we have blessed personal fellowship with the Lord of glory.
SPEAKER_01: Praise His name.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 34, and thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the Ark of the Testimony in the most holy place, and thou shalt set the table within the veil without the veil, I'm sorry, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south, and thou shalt put the table on the north side, and thou shalt make it hanging for the door of the tent of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen wrought with needlework.
SPEAKER_01: And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shitwood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold, and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Let's note that the same colors, we've talked about these colors before blue, purple, scarlet, and fine white linen, were used in the ten curtains of the first covering of the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_01: We saw that in 25.4 and 26.1.
SPEAKER_01: They're used in the inner veil, 2631, the outer veil, 2636, and the uh and the gate curtain of the outer court, 2716.
SPEAKER_01: The work of the outer veil and the gate of the court is definitely stated as embroidery work.
SPEAKER_01: Wrought needlework here, verse 36.
SPEAKER_01: The work of the linen covering in the inner veil seems to be the cunning work of a weaver.
SPEAKER_01: 26, 1 and 31.
SPEAKER_01: The cunning work is called that of a weaver in 3535 and is distinguished from embroidery work or needlework.
SPEAKER_01: It was no doubt a material with a certain pattern design woven into it by the weaver while he was making it on the frame.
SPEAKER_01: It must have been a beautiful, beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_01: And here we see this ark again.
SPEAKER_01: We keep reading about this ark of the covenant in this place, the ark of the testimony, and it's put in the most holy place.
SPEAKER_01: And also there we see the uh the table where the showbread would be, and we see this candle stick.
SPEAKER_01: Uh people like to refer to it as the lampstand, but it's the candle stick, uh, that which holds the light, the candles that would illuminate the place.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's talk about this ark again just for a few minutes.
SPEAKER_01: As we mentioned on a previous broadcast, the fact that the ark is mentioned first indicates that the order of revelation will be from the presence of God outwards toward his people.
SPEAKER_01: Starts with the ark where God resides.
SPEAKER_01: And then we move outward and learn more about this tabernacle.
SPEAKER_01: It's clear that the desire of the Lord was not only to dwell with his people, but also to reveal himself to them.
SPEAKER_01: So he started with a place where he would dwell, and moving out from there, he would teach Israel the way by which he had chosen to reveal himself, which in reverse would be the way for them to approach him.
SPEAKER_01: Now the gold of the ark signified the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You remember that?
SPEAKER_01: It was pure gold, emphasizing that his becoming man did not in any way take away from his deity.
SPEAKER_01: This gold was as bright inside the ark as it was outside.
SPEAKER_01: That which was inside was seen only by God.
SPEAKER_01: That which was outside was seen by man.
SPEAKER_01: So there are aspects of Jesus' deity which are even beyond his saints to understand.
SPEAKER_01: But they certainly were enjoyed within the Godhead.
SPEAKER_01: The wood speaks of the incorruptible humanity of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The wood could sustain the attacks of pests and of the diseases to which other trees succumbed.
SPEAKER_01: The holy life which the Lord lived showed clearly that he could not sin, and that the enemy who so effectively caused Adam and Eve to fall had no power over him at all.
SPEAKER_01: But the shit'em wood of the ark was hidden from view under its gold covering, and speaks of that sinless purity which could truly be appreciated and beheld only by God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: The high priest saw what was outside, but it must be remembered that he took with him into the holiest of all a censer, on which were burning coals and sweet incense.
SPEAKER_01: He would see the ark through the cloud of incense as it evaporated from the heat of the censor.
SPEAKER_01: The ark would then be enveloped in a fragrance that spoke of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The priest carrying that censor would also be touched by that fragrance, and for the pleasure of God, the fragrance that spoke of Christ would fill the place.
SPEAKER_01: With this and with the blood, the priest found acceptance.
SPEAKER_01: Now we've already noted that the two tables of stone were put within the ark.
SPEAKER_01: These two tables contained God's righteous demands of man, demands which it was impossible for man to meet.
SPEAKER_01: The law, therefore, brought death to man, because if its demands could not be met, death would be the result.
SPEAKER_01: The New Testament refers to them in 2 Corinthians 3 7 as the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones.
SPEAKER_01: But there was one man who did keep it.
SPEAKER_01: The desire of God for Israel was that they might magnify the law and make it honorable.
SPEAKER_01: But instead they were robbed and spoiled.
SPEAKER_01: They fell far short of what was required of them.
SPEAKER_01: But what the nation could not do, Jesus accomplished.
SPEAKER_01: And thus he magnified the law by his perfect keeping thereof.
SPEAKER_01: Prophetically, it was a true saying that was written of him.
SPEAKER_01: He alone could say, Thy word have I hidden my heart, that I might not sin against thee, Psalm 119, verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: He alone could truly say, I delight to do thy will, O God.
SPEAKER_01: Yea, thy law is within my heart, Psalm 40, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: The two stones in the ark are unmistakably a picture of Jesus Christ, the one in whom the Word of God resided.
SPEAKER_01: He could be exposed to the full demands of the law, and yet not be subject to death.
SPEAKER_01: Of him, and really of nobody else, it could be written, His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
SPEAKER_01: That's Psalm 1, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: But placed in the ark, these tables of stone are out of the sight of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Moses understood the need for this because he broke the first two stones as returning from the mount he saw the sin that was in the camp.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to that in a few chapters.
SPEAKER_01: Thus it was that the second two tables of stone were placed in an ark, which Moses made before he went up the mount the second time.
SPEAKER_01: That's in Deuteronomy 10.
SPEAKER_01: Israel was not therefore exposed to the demands of the two tables on which God had written.
SPEAKER_01: Now what else was in that ark besides the written testimony of God?
SPEAKER_01: The golden pot of manna.
SPEAKER_01: And although no mention is made here of it being a golden pot, Hebrews 9 4 seems to indicate that it was.
SPEAKER_01: Vital truths are represented in this manna.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ is the bread of God come down from heaven, who is the true food of his people.
SPEAKER_01: To feed on him is the spiritual privilege available for every Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And indeed, spiritual health depends on our doing so.
SPEAKER_01: Reference to this was also made by the Lord when he spoke to the church in Pergamos, Revelation 2.17.
SPEAKER_01: Now this manna was unique because it was not subject to corruption.
SPEAKER_01: You remember the human manna could not be kept beyond the day for which it was given, or it would breed worms and stink.
SPEAKER_01: But this manna in this pot, inside the Ark of the Covenant, did not know corruption.
SPEAKER_01: And so it represents the glorious fact that Jesus Christ, though he died for our sins and was buried, he saw no corruption, nor will he ever be subject to it.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the hidden nature of this manna has lessons to teach as well.
SPEAKER_01: It's true that with reference to believers, the Holy Spirit says, Your life is hid with Christ in God, Colossians 3:3.
SPEAKER_01: But here it's seen that the food of the believer is also hidden.
SPEAKER_01: Only those who have been to the sanctuary can feast on it.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoyment of Christ is not delayed until heaven is entered.
SPEAKER_01: There are precious four tastes now for all who seek the Lord with all their heart.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's really remarkable that within the ark, resting side by side, are to be found, think about it, that which brought death to man in his sinful condition, the tables of the law, and that which sustained the spiritual life of man, the manna that came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: This food had been provided without any lowering of divine standards.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what else would be placed in there?
SPEAKER_01: We don't read about it in Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: This comes later in the book of Numbers, but Aaron's rod that budded.
SPEAKER_01: Now, later in the wilderness journey, the children of Israel, a man by the name of Korah would lead a rebellion.
SPEAKER_01: It's sad to note, this is the only recorded incident involving the nation in the years between the refusal of the people to enter Canaan and the commencement of the journey to the land.
SPEAKER_01: It's a solemn thing, when all that can be recorded in the period of one's life is disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: That ought to be a warning to every one of us about the danger.
SPEAKER_01: Of wasting years of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Korah, with the willing uh help of Dathan and Abiram, also a third conspirator by the name of On, seems to have bailed out early.
SPEAKER_01: But these men rose up with 250 princes of the congregation and confronted Moses and Aaron with a complaint that those two were lifting themselves up above the congregation of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the last time such a thing has happened.
SPEAKER_01: Their claim was that there was no need of priests, as all the congregation are holy and had equal rights to come before God.
SPEAKER_01: This was only pretense.
SPEAKER_01: Their motive was that they might have the prominent place in the priesthood for themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the matter was resolved when each tribe laid up a rod in the tabernacle, with the name of Aaron being written on the rod of the tribe of Levi.
SPEAKER_01: The following morning, Aaron's rod had buds, blossoms, and almonds upon it.
SPEAKER_01: And by this remarkable display, the right of the family of Aaron to be priests was confirmed.
SPEAKER_01: And this is so significant.
SPEAKER_01: The almond tree is the first to blossom.
SPEAKER_01: It indicates the precedence of the family of Aaron in the matter of the priesthood.
SPEAKER_01: But more than that, you can't fail but notice that from a dry dead rod there came forth an abundance of life, the bud, the blossom, the fruit, and that all in one night.
SPEAKER_01: It's a glorious picture of resurrection, the rich fullness of the almond blossom, declaring the richness and beauty of resurrection life.
SPEAKER_01: Inside the ark, therefore, there was that which signifies the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Aaron, yes, he'd been appointed high priest, but his priesthood was just a shadow of a coming great high priest who now serves in resurrection, having entered the true tabernacle with his own blood and not that of animal sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: The staves by which that ark was carried about, we'll talk about them later.
SPEAKER_01: We're not ready just yet to speak of those staves.
SPEAKER_01: Now the mercy seat on top of that ark was a slab of pure gold, two and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits broad, so that it fitted exactly on top of the ark.
SPEAKER_01: Was held in place by the crown of gold which was around the border of the open top of the ark.
SPEAKER_01: No measurements given for how thick the slab of gold was.
SPEAKER_01: But the mercy seat was therefore, if you will, the lid of the ark.
SPEAKER_01: There was no shit'em wood used in its construction, indicating that the work of which it speaks was carried out by one who is God.
SPEAKER_01: The pure gold emphasizing the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_01: That mercy seat, the covering.
SPEAKER_01: It was the place where God and man met.
SPEAKER_01: On the Day of Atonement, which took place in the tenth day of the seventh month, the high priest entered the holiest of all and sprinkled the blood once on and seven times before the mercy seat.
SPEAKER_01: He did this for all his own sins.
SPEAKER_01: He re-entered again and sprinkled the blood as he had done on the first entry.
SPEAKER_01: But on this occasion it was for the sins of the people.
SPEAKER_01: And one hymn writer is written about a blood-stained mercy seat.
SPEAKER_01: Now, on that yearly feast, the blood on the mercy seat made atonement for the sins of the high priest, of his household, and of all the people.
SPEAKER_01: The mercy seat was the place of atonement.
SPEAKER_01: To atone for sins was not merely the covering of them to be dealt with finally after Calvary, but the satisfying of God's righteousness as far as those sins were concerned.
SPEAKER_01: By atoning, the blood placed on and before the mercy seat satisfied God, and sins were dealt with.
SPEAKER_01: When the mercy seat is referred to in the New Testament, Hebrews 9.5, Romans 3.25, the reference is to underscore for us and to show to us that we're not stretching, we're not imagining, we're not inventing.
SPEAKER_01: That blood sprinkled on the mercy seat, displayed before God, that judgment had been carried out on sin, but it pictured the blood of Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation.
SPEAKER_01: It is by means of his shed blood that the demands of God's law are met, and it is because of his shed blood that God has mercy upon the poor sinner.
SPEAKER_01: God's anger against sin had been expressed in the death of the sacrificial victim.
SPEAKER_01: But God's acceptance of that sacrifice is evident when he extends mercy to all who will trust that blood.
SPEAKER_01: Considering the work of the Lord Jesus in this respect, we must emphasize that his death did not just deal with sins which were committed after the cross.
SPEAKER_01: The work of the cross was effected before the event took place, and past sins were not overlooked.
SPEAKER_01: But those with faith had their sins forgiven and fully dealt with because of the Savior's death.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, everybody who spends eternity in heaven, whether they died before Jesus went to the cross or lived and died after he went to the cross, they will be in heaven on the basis of his shed blood.
SPEAKER_01: Those Old Testament sacrifices pointed to his great offering, but they were not sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: They told of a day when a great offering would be made, but they came short of what was needed.
SPEAKER_01: But on that hill called Mount Calvary, there the Lamb of God shed his precious blood, and that blood, that blood, satisfied the demands of the law, and that blood made available to all sinners God's great mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah, glory to God and to the Lamb forever and forever.
SPEAKER_01: This is the preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.
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SPEAKER_01: Until then, I'm Brother James.
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SPEAKER_00: Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.