Address—T. Roach
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Like to.
Look at some scriptures that bring before us the.
Position that we have as being near to.
The Lord, the access that we have.
And perhaps we all realize what the scripture says.
Very, very plainly that we are accepted in the beloved.
That we are near to God, but I don't think we.
Realize this until we see the distance that an Israelite was from God and how all those things that would keep him at a distance have been done away in Christ.
And therefore we are brought near.
Now if we go back to the Tabernacle and the Old Testament, we find that in the Holy of Holies.
Was the place that God dwelt. He lived there among the people, but the people did not have access. Even the priests could not come into that place, and the high priest only once a year.
God is holy.
And he would make the people to feel that and realize that they were all kept at a distance and none could come near, none could approach. There were seven, and we'll read of them, seven barriers to one entering into the very presence of God in the Tabernacle.
But I believe we can find a corresponding answer to that in the New Testament, of entrance and of closeness. Perhaps we'll start then with a verse of Numbers 3.
Sorry, the first one is the numbers 2.
A second chapter of Numbers.
And this has to do with where the people pitch their tents, Tabernacle being in the center of the camp and the people roundabout.
Beginning at verse one, it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying, Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch his by his own standard, with the end sign of their father's house. Far off about the Tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch So the 1St.
Indication of distance is at least a barrier to the entrance into the presence of God. With this great distance they were to camp a far off none dare come near.
And now the second one is found in the third of numbers.
And verse 38.
For those that encamp before the Tabernacle toward the east, even before the Tabernacle of the congregation eastward.
Shall be Moses and Aaron and his sons keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel, and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
There we have the 2nd barrier. Here were the priests ranged in front of the entrance.
To the Tabernacle, and no one could approach that Tabernacle, not even an Israelite without a sacrifice. But it says a stranger that comes near shall be put to death.
Well, we'll see in the New Testament that as Gentiles, we were strangers. Strangers.
So that's the second barrier. Now, the third one we find given to us in Exodus. Indeed, the remainder of these seven are in Exodus, the 27th chapter.
In the 16th verse.
For the gate of the court shall be in hanging of 20 cubits.
Of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen wrought with needlework.
The gate.
Now we sometimes think of a gate as an opening in the fence, but this courtyard?
Was.
Fine linen and the gate was another curtain that barred the entrance to the casual entrance of anyone into that courtyard. Nevertheless, we see in the materials and the colors of that gate a figure of the Lord Jesus. And so we are getting a hint even back here in the Old Testament where man was kept at a distance.
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That God was going to make a way of approach.
Through the Lord Jesus Christ, where even in the gate is a figure of the Lord Jesus. Now we say it was a barrier. In one sense it was it was also the entrance to that holy place. But in in other sense it is a barrier. Now we'll find the the next item.
That you would come to if you went through that gate would be the brazen altar.
And we have that referred to back in the 27th chapter.
On the first verse.
Thou shalt make an altar of Shittimwood, 5 cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar.
Shall be Foursquare. The height thereof shall be 3 cubits.
And so on. I don't believe we need to read the whole description of it, but.
This was actually the next.
Barrier to a person approaching God. There was that brazen altar, and the only way an Israelite could approach that altar was with a sacrifice. The sacrifice, well, we know it speaks to us of the cross, cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we'll see that in more detail in the New Testament.
But beyond that point?
Only a priest could go. A commoner could not pass beyond that brazen altar.
But a priest, in going beyond this, would first of all be confronted by an item called the labor. We read of that over in the 30th chapter.
This 30th chapter has to do with the worship with the incense.
Which speaks of worship.
And we have people redeemed, giving their redemption money.
And then in the 17th verse of the 30th of Exodus, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.
Thou shalt also make a labor of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal, And thou shalt put it between the Tabernacle of the congregation of the and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his son shall wash their hands and their feet thereat. When they go in into the Tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water that they.
Not for when they come near to the altar, to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord.
So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not, and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.
Get an idea of the importance of this labor? Because to avoid it meant death. To pass by it without washing the hands and the feet meant death.
And so it proves its importance by the penalty for passing by it and avoiding it. It's we'll see a picture to us of self judgment, of that washing away of defilement that we have in this world.
Now back to the 26th chapter, we have the next.
Barrier to the presence of God. The door that hanging in the front of the actual Tabernacle. The building within the courtyard.
In verse 36 of Exodus 26.
And thou shalt make and hanging for the door of the tent of blue.
And purple and scarlet and fine twined linen wrought with needlework.
And thou shalt make for the hanging 5 pillars of Sheddham wood and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold.
And I shall cast 5 sockets of brass for them again.
We find this door and its materials.
Fine twined linen showing the perfections of the Lord Jesus.
The blue is heavenly character, the scarlet for the.
The purple rather his royalty and the scarlet being Israel's color.
All of these things brought in this door, the hanging which was called the door.
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And then behind that was the veil, and we read of that in the 32nd, 33rd verse.
And thou shalt hang up the veil under the tatches, 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. And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the Ark of the Testimony and the Most Holy Place, And thou shalt set the table without the veil, and the Candlestick over against the table.
On the side of the Tabernacle toward the South, and I shall put the table on the north side.
Well, there then are those seven.
Barriers that would keep man at a distance because sin had come in and God was holy. And now, as we turn to the New Testament and see how God has taken away of those barriers, we must realize that God is still holy.
But now that we have the light of the New Testament.
The shed blood.
Which brings us near. We can come near with boldness, and we're invited to come.
Were invited to come, and so this hymn that we have been singing, that we are so near we could not nearer be.
We begin to see the meaning of this.
Imagine an Israelite that would try to walk into that Tabernacle without a sacrifice and try to break in. Why, it would mean death. If it meant death to a priest to pass by the labor, what would it have meant to an Israelite, let alone a Gentile such as you and I, to go into that place? Oh, God would maintain His Holiness.
And he is just as holy today.
But now let's just turn over.
If you're pleased to Ephesians chapter 2, remembering that the first of those barriers was the great distance.
The people were to be set back.
From the entrance of the Tabernacle.
The second of Ephesians.
And verse 11.
Remember.
That ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh.
Made by hands that at that time ye were without Christ.
Being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise.
Having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus.
Ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for He is our peace, who have made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall partitioned between us, and so on. Well, we find here that though we were Gentiles, and time passed.
You know, a believer.
Believer today is no longer either a Jew or a Gentile. We have three classes named in First Corinthians 10 where Paul says give no offense to the Jews, to the Gentiles, or to the Church of God.
So we're not really Gentiles anymore, nor Jews, but we're members of the Church of God, believers in the Lord Jesus.
Are no longer Gentiles, so he says in time passed Gentiles in the flesh in a position where it says a far off.
Having no hope and without God in the world.
What a distant possession we occupied as Gentiles in this world, as those who were without Christ at one time in our lives, without Christ far off, but now by the blood of Christ brought 9 brought near. Oh, it took the death of the Lord Jesus to bring us near and to make this way. And so with all of these.
Barriers that we found in the Old Testament.
With in Christ and we are invited to come near. Now here is the first one.
Then that distance is done away with, and we who are sometimes or one time a far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
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Well, that's enough to make us rejoice. It should be to think that we're brought near, near to a holy and a righteous God. How can it be?
Well, it just shows us that when the Lord Jesus.
Takes our sins away. When that blood is that has been shed as applied, we're cleansed from all sin.
We're given a new life, all of these things come together, and as we find that we're brought near where we know that he has completed the work because he could not have one sin in his presence. We all know it was one sin that put Adam and Eve out of the garden.
And there shall not enter into that holy city, not one thing that defile it.
And so if we're brought near, it proves that God is satisfied with the work of Christ in our souls.
That every sin has been done away with and that we're pure. We're ready to come into His presence.
That says to our standing, of course.
Our position before God.
Now the second of those barriers was the You remember now the priests that were encamped in front of the.
The gate of the Tabernacle, and they were there to guard, and a stranger that came near was to be put to death. Now let's go down a little bit in the second chapter of Ephesians.
Maybe we should just continue where we left off.
At the 15th verse, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for Jamaican himself of Twain, 1 Newman, so making peace.
That he might reconcile both. That's both Jew and Gentile unto God.
In one body, by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace.
To you which were far off, and to them that were nigh, and through him.
We both have access by 1 Spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore ye are no more strangers.
And foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, and whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God.
Through the Spirit.
Well, if a stranger who came near was to be put to death, we learn here that we're no longer strangers.
As Gentiles, we were strangers, it says in Romans. What advantage?
Half a Jew as much every way, because he had the word of God that was revealed at that time. He had the word of God, but the Gentile didn't have that. The Gentiles had idols and they did not have a revelation from God.
But now we're brought near. We're no longer strangers and foreigners.
We know that there are many who these days possess Bibles and they have the word of God and therefore are responsible.
And they haven't believed it. But we can speak now of those such as the Ephesians Saints that Paul was addressing.
Those who had acted in faith, those who had received the Lord Jesus, had been brought nigh by his blood. And now he says no more strangers.
When we go to a place that we haven't been to before, we really feel like strangers, don't we? If you go into a city you've never been in before and you don't know the names of the streets, you hardly know the directions, and you sense that you're a stranger there. And you can spot a stranger because he has that look on his face of being puzzled and looking around.
God doesn't want us to be in his presence like that.
He wants us to feel comfortable there, and so we're no longer strangers. He's taken that stigma away from us. Strangers and foreigners, No, but we're fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God.
So we see that the second of those barriers is done away with now. We're no longer strangers, we're no longer at a distance.
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Then the third of those barriers was the door.
Was the gate rather the gate to the courtyard? And we find a verse in Matthew the 7th of Matthew that refers to a gate, and rather than being a barrier, we have an invitation to come in.
13th verse of Matthew 7.
Enter Ye in at the straight gate.
Where wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.
And many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be but find it. Now some of you might wonder what it means a straight gate.
Because we don't generally speak that way anymore. But if you remember in geography.
There is something that's called a straight. A narrow opening of water between two pieces of land is called a straight. It's a narrow place, and the straight gate is the narrow gate. It's narrow.
And yet we are invited to go in. It says few there be that find it, few there be that find it. Everyone finds the broad Rd. the wide gate, and many are content to follow the crowd and to go on in that broad Rd. But it says enter ye in at the straight gate.
Might be a good point just to pause and mention to those who are here who might still be strangers to God's grace. I thought this is an invitation for you. Now God would invite you to come into that walk that narrow path.
All that's not popular to walk a narrow path, but it's wonderful that that path is wide enough for you and the Lord.
To go on together, and it's the gate is narrow enough that you have to leave everything else outside your works, your thoughts. You can come in yourself, your sins forgiven and come in by trusting in the Lord Jesus. But rather now than having a barrier, a gate which is a barrier, we have an invitation here to come in and God is inviting He would.
You still tonight, you're still in your sins to come in and receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Come in and walk with Him on that narrow, that narrow way.
Sometimes narrow ways are difficult to follow.
And you might lose the trail, but we have the word of God.
To guide us and in the 23rd Psalm he speaks about.
Leading us in the paths of righteousness.
And it's interesting to notice that Word has there. It doesn't mean necessarily a straight path.
But it's one that avoids the evil and the pitfalls, and it's clearly marked out in the Word of God the path that we are to follow, and we can't see all the way to the end in that path.
But it's a path of dependence. It's a path where we have to trust the Lord for every step.
And His word is a lamp to our feet and the light to our path, So He would lead us on a path of righteousness.
But we're invited to come in through that straight or narrow gate and to walk with him.
And now we've noticed too, that the next obstacle to the entrance of anyone to the presence of God in the courtyard of the Tabernacle was the brazen altar. The brazen altar was for the sacrifice, the sacrifice of animals.
There were bulls and goats and sheep that were offered there by the thousands, and those sacrifices could never take away sins.
Could never give a guilty conscience peace. And let's turn now to the 10th of Hebrews.
And we'll just read verses 11 and 12 with regard to.
The sacrifice that.
We have.
And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes.
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The same sacrifices which can never take away sins, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God.
Now, if you were to read the details of that Tabernacle in the Old Testament, he would find no chair or bed or anything on which the priest could rest. It's true, we read of a mercy seat, but that is where God sat. That was where God was. There was nothing for the priest to sit on.
When things were out of order in Israel, we do find the priest Eli was sitting.
But the priesthood was about to be passed over in those days.
But we find nothing of God's order that called for a seat.
In the Tabernacle, why was that a priest was standing?
Daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices.
Which can never take away sins.
Well, that was a the figure.
Approving that the sacrifices were never sufficient, there always had to be another one and another one and another one, and it was all looking on to the one sacrifice which could and did and does take away sins. So we have the contrast of that in the 12Th verse.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, with the comma there forever sat down on the right hand of God, we find the Lord Jesus, as to atonement, as to putting away sins, has sat down forever. He never will need to rise up again to offer a sacrifice. Isn't that wonderful?
The Lord Jesus has offered himself once, once for all.
And now he can sit down forever because that sacrifice is acceptable to God.
And it's important that we see this, that it was only one sacrifice.
Because if the Lord Jesus ever had to offer himself again.
It would show that the first sacrifice was not sufficient.
I know the first one wasn't proper and wasn't enough. Would the second one be? So you see, it had to be one sacrifice that was accepted by God, that satisfied the claims of God, and now the Lord Jesus can sit down forever and we can rest in that sacrifice. It is enough. It is what satisfies God. If God is satisfied, we can be satisfied as well.
So there was one sacrifice for sins, rather than the constant offering of those burnt sacrifices on the altar, that brazen altar.
But it was a figure of things to come. But now we no longer are dependent on the figure. We have the reality. We have the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
Well then, if we progress in this Tabernacle beyond that brazen altar, we would come to the labor. The labor.
We didn't read the verse, but in Exodus it also tells what the labor was made of.
It was made of brass, but it was made of the brass looking glasses.
It was shiny. And if that priest, Israelite priest, would walk up to that labor and look inside, whose face would he see? He would see his own, wouldn't he? He would see his own, his own reflection. And if we just turn now to John 13, we'll see a little bit of what that labor might stand for.
13th of John.
Start with verse three and read a few verses.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God.
He riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples feet, and to wipe them with a towel, wherewith he was girded.
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Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now.
But thou shalt know hereafter, Peter saith unto him. Thou shalt never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
Jesus said unto him, He that is washed needeth not safe to wash his feet, but is clean every whip, and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him. Therefore said he, are not all clean.
Well, this brings before us a use of the labor we have in Ephesians 526, the washing of water by the Word. So we know that the water is a picture, a figure of the word of God. And the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, What I do thou knowest not. Now they understood the literal thing of washing feet.
But he he meant something else because.
He said, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. So there was something else.
That the Lord Jesus had in mind, and for our present application we would see it as the application of the Word of God to our walk.
The feet were washed.
I walk. What does that mean?
Walk well. It's often referred to in Scripture as our life here, our lives here in this world. As we walk along in life's journey in this world, there are things that defile us. There are things that we can't avoid. We hear something, we see something we're working with, something we're hearing in school, and we're reading things in school that defile us.
And there are some awful things in the school books these days.
We need the Word of God to cleanse us from those things. Young people need that. Children need the Word of God. And it's wonderful if you're in a home where you read the Word of God together. Your father and mother read it to you. You read it for yourself when you're old enough.
And all it would be a wonderful thing if we all had a thirst for the Word of God and a desire to read it every day and apply it to ourselves. So the Lord Jesus used the water to wash the feet of his disciples.
The priest in the Old Testament, he had to Washington his hands and his feet.
His hands were occupied and sacrifices, and we've seen that the sacrifices were.
Were finished because the one sacrifice of the Lord Jesus has sufficed, but there still needs to be the washing of the feet, our walk, our lives here in this world. We need to have the word of God applied because although we may be cleansed from our sins and that is what the Lord said to Peter.
When Peter went from 1 extreme to the other and he said not my hands and my.
Not my feet only, but my hands and my head. The Lord Jesus said he that is washed.
Washed all over Needeth not safe to wash his feet, but is clean every whip.
And so those of us who have been cleansed in the blood of the Lord Jesus, we're fit for heaven.
But our lives here on this earth need the cleansing of the water of the Word.
Our hearts sprinkle from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water we need.
The washing of this Word of God, it purifies our thoughts. It tells us what is truth, and there are many things in the world today that would be confusing to us if we didn't have the word of God to show us what the truth is. We can't always explain things that are happening in the world, and sometimes we're asked questions of it. What about this movement and what about that one? We don't know all about those things, but we know the truth of the.
God, and it helps us to avoid those things that are contrary to it, as we've often perhaps heard an illustration of the bank tellers handling money. And they know good money so well that when they come across a counterfeit, they know it instantly. They don't study counterfeits because it always be another one coming along that might deceive them. But if they know what is true, they know the good money.
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They handle it, they see it, they know instinctively when they come across one that isn't.
A true piece of money.
So we have the word of God that will give us the truth and will keep us pure. Now there's another verse in connection with the labor like to turn to. It's in First Corinthians 11.
It's in connection with the Lord's Table, but we can just take that 28th verse.
Connection with the labor being made of the looking glasses.
And that reflection of self, it says, But let a man examine himself.
And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Well, this boy definitely brings before us.
Self judgment, Self judgment. There's discipline at the table of the Lord. It might have to be carried out by others, but this is self judgment. Let a man examine himself, examine himself. What does it mean?
We came across one person.
It was a Christian lady.
It wasn't at the Lord's Table. She.
Was devout and she went to church.
And she said, I examine myself and I don't like what I see.
So she refrained from taking the Lord's Supper.
Well, it says here, let a man examine himself, and so let him eat that bread and drink of that cup. What should I do if I examine myself and I don't like what I see? Well, I should give up what I don't like. What I see is wrong. The washing of the water would tell me that this is wrong. And so I give it up. And I go on then with a clear conscience to remember the Lord.
But if I say well, I don't like what I see.
And I say, I better stay home, I better not go because this is inconsistent with being at the Lord's table. That's not what the verse is telling me. That's bringing my own will into it and saying, well, I don't like what I see, but I want to do it anyway. Isn't that what it's saying? What the Spirit of God would do would be to bring before us something that's not right so that we can give it up.
Expose it to ourselves from the Word of God.
And when we examine ourselves, we find and we find anything, we give it up so that we can go ahead with a clear conscience.
Remember the Lord? Well, this would be perhaps part of the truth brought before us by that labor, and that would then suit a person to go on further. And the next item would be that door, but close the way into the holy place. And we find that in John 10.
Familiar verse, perhaps, to all of us.
As we remember some of these verses from Sunday school, but the ninth verse of John 10 with the Lord Jesus says.
I am the door.
By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.
Well, the Israelite was blocked. His view, even of what was inside that Tabernacle was blocked by that door.
And that door was a hanging of fine linen, and blue and purple and scarlet picture of the Lord Jesus. And here very plainly he says, I am the door, I am the door.
As we pass through that door.
In the Tabernacle we would find on the right hand side the table of Showbread.
On the left hand side.
The Candlestick and ahead of us would be the golden altar.
Well, what do these things teach us?
That table of Showbread, one place that's called the pure table. At least one place the pure table had on it 12 loaves and even when the Kingdom was divided.
And 10 tribes had gone away from the center. There were 12 loaves on that table.
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And later in their history, when the temple was rebuilt in Ezra's time and they offered a sacrifice at the dedication of the temple, the rebuilt temple, it says they offered 12 sin offerings. According to the number of the tribes of Israel, there were two tribes that had gone back parts of two. They offered 12 because they always had in mind the whole.
Nation of Israel, 12 tribes, and we come to the New Testament.
We find the Apostle Paul making reference to our 12 tribes.
He hadn't lost sight of the fact that there were 12 tribes, even though most of them were scattered and only a remnant of the two tribes was left. They had the 12 before them. Now, what do we have in Christian, in Christianity, we have a table with one loaf, one loaf on it. And what does that remind us of whenever we look at that? Oh, it's true. It reminds us of the body of the Lord that was given in death for us.
But it also reminds us that we, being many, are one loaf and one body. And so as we look at that one loaf, it ought to remind us of every believer in the Lord Jesus. We ought not to forget that there are many, many, indeed the majority of believers that are not present when we're remembering the Lord. There are places there, but they haven't occupied that place. And as we see that loaf, it ought to remind us.
Of the truth that there is one body.
And that.
Every believer is a member of that one body.
You know there's a time coming, the read of it in Second Thessalonians, when the Lord Jesus comes and all the believers will be gathered together unto him. What a privilege it is to be gathered together unto Him now, and to show forth His death in the appointed way, and to have a testimony bear witness to this fact in the world today, that there's one body with one loaf on that table.
Well, also within that holy place.
Was this Candlestick? It was the only light that was inside of that building. The seven lamps on that Candlestick.
And what does that teach us? That Candlestick, if we read the details of its construction.
We find that.
There is a #22 Connected with it. There were 22.
Flowers 22 knots, 22 blossoms.
22 Well, you know if you read the 119th Psalm, in many Bibles is divided up into sections, 22 sections, and in some Bibles is actually the character Hebrew letter at the head of each section. There were 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and in nearly every verse of the 119th Psalm we have the word referred to.
As in different forms, it may be law judgments.
Or the word and several other words that have the similar meaning. And so we're brought into brings before us, no doubt, the Word of God, the word of God. The lapse cause is really a lamp stand. The lamps were powered by the oil by oil, which is a figure of the Holy Spirit.
And here we have in our hands the light that guides us.
It's the Word of God and it was given by the Holy Spirit and you know that.
That Candlestick was beaten out of one piece of gold. It wasn't melted. It wasn't molten. It was beaten out of one talent of gold talent and believes about 100 lbs.
Now just imagine the impossibility of anyone today to make.
Such an elaborate thing as the Candlestick beaten out of one lump of gold. But it was a miracle. It was a miracle. But what about the Word of God? It was written over many centuries by many different men, and it all agrees together. It's one as that lampstand was one.
How could it be? Why? It's a miracle. It's a miracle that we hold in our hands this word of God.
That we have to guide us and give us light. It's all one. And yet it was.
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Was written over centuries by men that never saw one another.
Well, it's a work of God. Well then, at the back of this.
Holy Place was the Golden altar, and it says specifically that no sacrifice was to be offered on that golden offer altar. They never offered an animal or even a meat offering. A meal offering was never offered on it.
But the fire from it?
Fire on it was taken from the brazen altar, and the incense was put upon it, and it filled that place with the odor.
Of that incense, so the memorial of the sacrifice that was taking place.
At the brazen altar was brought in and put on that golden altar. Well, isn't that what worship is? When we come together to the presence of the Lord and we remember Him in death. It's his death that makes it so precious to think that he.
The creator of all things and.
Sustainer of the universe, the one who was beloved of the Father, and all that we can think of about the Lord Jesus. But he laid down his life there on Calvary's cross. Well, this is what we can bring to that golden altar and OfferUp as praise and Thanksgiving and just adoring His person.
This is what true worship is.
The dimensions might be significant too to think of. The size of the brazen altar was 5 by 5 by three, but that golden altar was one by one by two. I think if you work it out, you find it was that the brazen altar was over 37 times the size of the golden altar. Well, there are many who understand the cross.
But help you understand true worship.
It's a small thing compared with the understanding of the sacrifice, and yet it's what is valued by God. That's that sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Well, there was one more barrier to the presence of God and the Tabernacle, and that was the veil, the veil, and we read of that.
Couple of places in the New Testament we can look at Matthew 27.
See what happened to it when the Lord Jesus died.
What opened the way into that holiest of all?
Matthew 27 and verse 50.
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
And behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom.
Renton Twain from the top to the bottom. Now we've often heard that.
At least I can remember, brethren, Speaking of this, how that signified that it was God that opened that up. You know, there are no idle words in Scripture but tells us it was torn from the top to the bottom. There's a meaning connected with it. There's some reason for it. No doubt that is the reason that it was God who tore that It wasn't man. It tore from the top to the bottom. And just imagine those priests.
In one place that tells us that the 9th hour was the.
The hour of prayer. It was at the 9th hour that the Lord Jesus yielded up the ghost.
And therefore it was at the 9th hour that that veil was rent, and those priests.
That were in the temple at that time, praying how they must have been frightened.
To have that view into the holiest of all tradition tells us that they sewed it up again.
And their actions, and the actions indeed of many in Christendom, are of sewing up the veil and keeping us still at a distance from God.
But this signifies that the way into the holiest of all is now available. It's open to us. We can come into the very presence of God. Indeed, we're invited to come in the fourth of Hebrews were invited to come boldly to the throne of grace, and in the 10th of Hebrews to turn back there again.
We find that.
The veil is explained there.
Hebrews 10. Reading from the 19th verse.
00:50:02
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest.
By the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us.
Through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
And having an high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Well, now we find that the veil is His flesh. I like to think of it in this way.
The veil in the temple or in the Tabernacle.
Hid from view that holiest of all the place of God's presence.
The Lord Jesus, when he walked here, it says the veil is his flesh.
His flesh, so the woman at the well, she said.
He was a Jew, the man whose eyes were open, he said He's a prophet.
And various ones knew the Lord as a man. Nicodemus knew him as a teacher, as a good man. Oh true, they found out he was more than that because God would give them a glimpse behind that veil. But there was that man, the Lord Jesus Christ, walking in this world, the flesh, the form of his body as it were hiding from view, the deity.
It took faith to see that. It took faith to look beyond and to recognize that in this man was the Son of God. Well, the veil is rent. We see that now. Faith. It still requires faith to apprehend it that in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ we have access to the holiest of all. The veil is rent.
And our souls draw near. Perhaps we could sing that hymn in closing 136. I think it is.