Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle
Table of Contents
Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle, By C. H. B.: Part 2
READ Ex. 27:1-8. Notice first its position: God did not put it outside of the court, it was placed before the door of the tabernacle, but not outside of the gate. God does not expect from the sinner an appreciation or understanding of the work of Christ. He calls for a breaking down of the will before Him. Faith is not an intellectual assent to the doctrines of Christ; faith in Christ is to abandon the soul to Him. Faith is a soul, not an intellectual, matter: " With the heart man believeth unto righteousness."
But the soul cannot rejoice in being in God's presence until he knows what God has done for him. Now first of all we will remark in regard to the altar itself. It was made of wood and overlaid with brass and its horns of brass. Brass always signifies judgment in God's word. In Rev. 1 we have a description of Christ judging among the churches, and His feet are like unto brass, He stands firm in judgments. It was made of wood, signifying Christ's humanity; covered with brass, judgment. Perfect holiness demands God's judgment against sin, and Christ bore that. We could not stand that. When God turned Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden, He placed a flaming sword there. Fire is a type of God's judgment as searching and detecting. What man could ever partake of the tree of life with the flaming sword around it? What man could stand the test of God's judgment and come off scatheless? There is One in Revelation who says, " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." The life that Christ has to give me is a life that He has a right to give, because He Himself has borne the judgment of sin.
Now I mention another feature about it. It had a horn of brass at each corner. In Psa. 118:27 we have " Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar." The horns, then, were used to bind down the sacrifice there. Do we find any reference in that to Christ? We hear Him saying, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; ' but it was not possible, He was bound, He came for that very purpose. It was not possible for Christ to be glorified and we saved, unless Christ drank that cup.
Then as to the height of the altar; the number five enters here, significant of weakness. There is an absence of the number seven all through here. In the length of the curtains of the tabernacle the seven comes in, and the candlestick had seven branches, but in those two things only, which both refer to Christ personally. In the outside portion you cannot get the figure seven in at all, but there are any number of fives here, bringing five before you prominently. Number one is essential unity: " Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord thy God is one." Number two is the number of testimony: " In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." Three is the resurrection number and the number of the Trinity. Four is the number of earthly government; God speaks of the four corners of the earth, and the four winds of heaven. Five is the number of weakness: " Five of you shall chase a hundred." It is used very often in the tabernacle here. Six is man's number: " The number of a man" (Rev. 13:18). Seven is God's number of perfection. You will find it in things referring to Christ, the candlestick and the curtains. Five is found especially here; it sets forth the weakness of these things in themselves: " The law made nothing perfect " (Heb. 7:19). There was no perfection in it, but there was perfection in the thing it typified. Now, in connection with the brazen altar -it refers to Christ's sacrifice. 2 Cor. 13:4). " He might have called for twelve legions of angels, but He was crucified through weakness." He triumphed in weakness.
By weakness and defeat
He won the meed and crown
Trod all our foes beneath his feet
By being trodden down."
He gave Himself up to the power of darkness, and conquered by so doing. We have the figure three here also. The height was three cubits. " For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God; " God raised His Son from the dead. This is the significance of the size and material of the altar.
ATONEMENT AND SUBSTITUTION.
Now turn to the grand sacrifice of the sixteenth of Leviticus, verse 4. When Aaron came to offer this sacrifice on the day of atonement, he should have on the linen garments. That is a picture of Christ in this way Christ trod this earth, and went to the cross as a spotless man, clad, as it were, in garments of righteousness. He died on the cross to make an atonement, not for Himself but for others. He is now High Priest at God's right hand. He atoned for our sins on the cross in His spotless humanity. He is now ascended to God's right hand, not to make intercession for our sins, that He did on the cross. Verse 11. Aaron offered sacrifice for himself; how can that apply to the Lord Jesus Christ? Christ had no need of a sacrifice for Himself, though Aaron had. What do I gather from that then? I get this from it-it is a type of Christ entering into heaven with all the value of the sweetness of His own sacrifice. He enters first in the intrinsic value of it, in the value that He has in God's eyes, whatever man thinks of it. If no soul should ever be saved through faith in it, it yet -has its glorious intrinsic value before God. Now, if God is delighted with Christ, surely I can rest there too. Another thing here-the same time that Aaron entered into the holy place with the blood of the bullock, he took in his hands sweet incense, beaten small. He took not only the blood but the incense. Thus you have Christ accepted with God in all the value and sweet fragrance of His work and Himself, and then its value as presented to man and applied to the believer. Verse 15. " Then the high priest came out and killed the goat of the sin offering for the people, and brought his blood within the vail, and did with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkled it upon and before the mercy seat." The blood of Christ has been taken to heaven for us, and where the blood is I can go. If the blood has been shed at the brazen altar, I have a right to stand there; if in the holiest of all, on and before God's throne, I have a right to stand there. This is the blessed thought that we have brought out in the gospel. Every soul that trusts Him has a right to enter into the holiest place. Our place is where those are who are brought near to God. It makes me sad to hear people saying,
" Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee;
E'en though it be a cross
That raiseth me."
We who believe are " made nigh by the blood of. Christ" (Eph. 2:13). The blood has been taken before God's throne, and the throne of judgment is now a throne of grace. Verse 17. "And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when He goeth in to make atonement in the holy place until he come out." Why was that word "until" there? Why, the way Christ has gone we can enter (Heb. 6:20). Notice the blessed fact that no man shall be there. Christ has accomplished our salvation Himself. Souls are very apt indeed to be looking within to find some ground of peace instead of looking back to the cross of Calvary. God says, " When see the blood," not when we see it. If I am resting in the blood of Jesus, God will pass over my sins. If I am not resting in the blood of Christ, I may have a very wonderful experience, but I will be lost in spite of all the experience I may have. Experience begins when I have faith in Christ (Rom. 5). It is first faith, afterward experience. Experience is finding out from day to day what God is, and, perhaps, what I am too -my history as a Christian. The high priest, when he was told to go into the holy place, did not take the layer full of blood, but he dipped his finger into the blood and sprinkled it before the mercy seat. This is to show us the value that God places on the blood of Christ. " Ye are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." When the leper was cleansed, it was by three drops of blood, one on the ear, one on the toe, and one on the thumb.
Let us see what we have in the case of the second goat, for there are two goats spoken of here. One is the Lord's lot and the other the people's lot. One of them is the Lord's lot, atoning for what divine righteousness required; and the other, meeting my needs. One met God's need, and the other met our need. First, atonement; second, substitution. These are the two aspects of the work of Christ: " God sent His Son as a propitiation." " He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." This is shadowed forth in the " Lord's lot," the first goat. Then we have also " Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." This is shadowed forth in the second goat, the second goat bore away the sins of the people. We cannot say to people indiscriminately that Christ bore all their sins upon the tree, but we can say to every man that Christ made atonement for him: "He by the grace of God tasted death for every man." Then to a believer in Christ I may say, " He has taken your sins away." Verse 21. There is a little word of three letters in this verse which I want you to notice particularly. All. It occurs three times. Every time sin is mentioned it is all. " All the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins." People are troubled about the sins they commit after they believe. Now, unless I know that Christ bore all my sins I cannot be happy. Surely, if He bore any, He bore all. Salvation is pure grace, God does not help any one to be saved-God saves entirely. God makes the new covenant and that is in the blood of Jesus, and of those who trust in that He says, "By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." The goat went away into a land not inhabited, therefore it was never seen again. And God says of those who believe, "Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." God would count Himself unrighteous if He forgot any work of love showed to his name (Heb. 6:19), but not so to forget our sins.
Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle, By C. H. B.: Part 3, Four Characteristic Offerings
FOUR CHARACTERISTIC OFFERINGS.—LEVITICUS 1-4
Now, the order in which we find the sacrifices here is not the order in which you and I apprehend them, not the order of our progress in and understanding of the things of Christ, but the order in which they are given from God. The first aspect of the cross we see is that He bears our sins on the tree. God commences with the highest, that is, the burnt offering. All understand the sacrifices in some way to refer to Christ, but fail to see their distinction. There are different aspects of Christ's work. No soul ever has perfect peace unless he has some understanding of the different aspects of the work of Christ.
The Burnt Offering.-It Was Called Such Because It Was All Burned up. This Is Not the Sin Offering, but an Offering of Sweet Savor Unto God, Though the Value of All Applies to Us. the Man " Shall Put His Hand on the Head of the Burnt Offering and It Shall Be Accepted for Him to Make Atonement for Him." It Is a Picture of Christ As a Burnt Offering, As One Entirely and Thoroughly Given up on the Cross. Heb. 10 Says, " Lo, I Come to Do Thy Will, O God; " Then We Have, " by the Which Will We Are Sanctified Through the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ Once." It Is a Picture of Christ's Sacrifice so Often Overlooked. He Has Given Himself up As a Sweet Savor Unto God. in Gen. 6 We Read, " It Repented the Lord That He Had Made Man, and It Grieved Him at His Heart." a Chapter or Two Farther on We Read That Noah Offered a Burnt Sacrifice, and It Ascended to Heaven, and the Lord Smelt It, and Said in His Heart, That Same Heart That Was Grieved, " I Will No More Curse the Ground for Man's Sake." and He Gave the Rainbow As a Pledge. God Has Nothing in His Heart for the Believer but Grace and Peace, and All This by the Sacrifice of Christ.
Verse 5. The priest did not kill the bullock, but he sprinkled the blood; his work commenced after the blood was shed. Christ is a priest; when did His work commence? It never commenced until He had shed His blood. He is now before God as a priest, but not to make atonement for my sins, but to watch over me, shepherd me, cleanse me, and look after my interest up there, so that I may bring all my wants to the throne of grace, but as to my sins, they were all borne by Him on the cross. Verses 6-9. Why was the offering cut into pieces and washed in water? Just for this reason: the word of God cuts; " it is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit." You can take up any part of Christ's life and test it, as the Son of man or Son of God. Test any part of Christ's life, and you will see it will stand the test of the word of God. Not so with us. And then his inwards and his legs were washed in water-a picture of Christ. Not that He had anything to be cleansed from, but you can wash a clean thing as well as an unclean thing. Take a clean thing and a foul thing: I put the clean thing in the water and I prove it by washing it in the water that it had no need of washing at all.
Christ was down here thirty-three years, and it is proved that He knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. He was tried, tempted, put to the test, and all that, and yet without sin, because there was no sin there to be tempted. There were three forms of the sacrifice: first, the bullock; then the sacrifice of the flock; and then the sacrifice of the two birds. This is a three-fold aspect of Christ as the burnt offering-it signifies Christ doing His Father's will, Christ laying down His life of His own will, and through the Eternal Spirit offering Himself without spot to God. These are all a type of Christ as a sweet savor unto God. Every soul who trusts in the blood of Christ is a sanctified soul, the blood of Christ sanctifies him. Every soul whose con science has been reached by the blood of Christ is sanctified, set apart to. God. Now, a word or two from the law of the burnt offering.
Read Lev. 6:8, etc. We see in this chapter that the fire of the burnt offering never went out. Now, the fire of the sin offering went out, and it is a grand thing for us that it did. The sin offering was taken outside and all burnt up. Any one that came along could see that only the ashes remained, the fire had gone out, there was nothing more left to burn. There is no more fire, no more judgment left for any sinner that trusts in Christ; it has all gone out and been burned up for him; Christ suffered on Calvary and bore all the judgment of the sinner. The blessed thing here is that the fire did not go out. It was renewed every morning and evening. It shall be burning upon the altar all night. All Israel have gone to their tents and are fast asleep, not thinking of Him, or serving Him, but lying in repose. But His eye is cast down there and He sees that offering burning all night long. That burnt offering burning all the time for them secured God's grace towards them at all times. Applying that to ourselves and the work of Christ, we can see that it is a picture of its perpetual sweetness to God for us. Heb. 10:14: " By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Do you believe the written word of God? There is perpetual perfection for every soul who trusts in Christ. God has Christ always before Him. I may be fast asleep or my mind occupied with other things, but if I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ I am perpetually perfected before God. It is a perfection that does not hinge on our feelings or walk, but it hinges upon his perfect offering. Believe what God says. It is not my opinion but what He says. "By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Every Christian is perfected forever by that wonderfully perfect sacrifice of Christ. I was glad when I saw that text in the Bible. I would like to put it around this room in big letters. God puts over to my credit all that Christ has done. Thus we are sanctified to God, in all the perfectness of the work of Christ.
THE MEAT OFFERING, Lev. 2—We Have in This Offering a Type of Christ As a Perfect Man. If Was Made of Fine Flour. It Was a Food Offering-It Was God's Food. We Talk About Our Souls Being Fed. God Too, Must Have Something to Feed His Soul Upon, Speaking in Human Language. He Says in the 28th Chapter of Numbers, " My Offering, My Bread for My Sacrifices Made by Fire for a Sweet Savor Unto It Is Blessed to See That Christ Is God's Food. Not Only Does He Make Atonement for Our Sins, but He Satisfies All the Wants of God's Heart. When We See All That Christ Has Done for Us, Then We Enjoy This and Appreciate It. Now Observe What Were the Component Parts of This Offering. It Was Made of Fine Flour Mingled With Oil, and Also Anointed With Oil. We Obtain Fine Flour by Wheat Being Ground, so Was Christ Put Through Suffering, and the Wheat Pressed Out. Fine Flour Is That Which Had No Uneven Grains in It. If I Should Take Flour With Lumps or Grits in It, That Will Not Do. but I Take up a Handful Without Any Lumps or Grains and I See It Is Fine Flour, and That Is a Type of Christ's Humanity (John 12:24). You Cannot Say That of Any Other Character in the Bible. Take Paul-He Was a Blessed Man of God, but He Had Need of a Thorn in the Flesh. He Had to Call Back His Words at One Time Before Agrippa, and at Another Time Had to Change His Mind. Christ Never Changed His Mind. Paul Was Told Not to Go to Jerusalem, but He Did Go. Christ Never Did a Thing of His Own Will, but Always by His Father's Will. Take Peter and His Wonderful Zeal. His Very Zeal Made Him Uneven. One Moment He Said He Never Would Deny Christ, and Drew His Sword to Defend Him; but Afterward He Denied Him and Blasphemed.
Take up John, he wanted fire to come down from heaven and devour those who were not with him. Take Moses, the meekest man on the face of the earth, and he lost his temper when he smote the rock and said, " Ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? " Christ was not characterized by anything special, but not so with us. One man is very righteous, but needs more grace; another man is gracious, but he is lacking in righteousness. There are lumps and unevenness in us, but in Christ there was no unevenness. Then the fine flour was to be mingled with oil. Oil is a type of the Holy Ghost. In all that Christ did, He did it by the Holy Spirit. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and all His works were done by Him. Many things we do in direct opposition to the Holy Spirit. The oil was also poured upon this-Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost. There was frankincense added to it also.
The priest could not feed on this. It was offered up wholly to God, and is a type of worship; it is a type of that in Christ's life which we could not appreciate. After having been made of these different materials it was subjected to the action of fire-a picture of Christ, the perfect, spotless man, going to the cross and enduring the judgment for us and yet bearing it all perfectly.
Verse 11. There was no leaven to be allowed in it. Leaven is always typical of evil; that is Christ's word, not my opinion. He says, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." Then understood they how that He bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the evil doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Leaven is evil doctrine. Again, Paul says, in the 5th chapter of Corinthians, "Purge out the old leaven." So we are plainly told that leaven is a type of evil. Wherever it is mentioned it means evil.
Now we see in this sacrifice which strongly typifies Christ, no leaven must be allowed. In some things they were expressly told to put leaven, because it was from themselves; every thanksgiving offering had to have leaven in it. Whatever comes from our hearts has evil in it. While in Christ we are perfect, as perfect as God can make us, yet in ourselves there is leaven still. Neither was there to be honey in the meat offering. Honey is nature's sweetness, and that is to be kept out of worship to God. It is grieving to the Holy Ghost to have people coming to God, and talking about " Dear Jesus, and sweet Jesus." You never find any adjective to the name of Jesus in the Scriptures. You cannot make it any sweeter. Introducing that into God's worship is honey-sentimentalism.
Verse 10. Part of the meat offering was burnt up and went to God, and part of it went to the priests. God brings us through belief in Christ to feed upon the very thing that is satisfying to His own heart. We are brought into fellowship with God. God is satisfied with Christ, and He feeds upon Him. He says, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." If we are dissatisfied with ourselves I am glad of it. I am sorry to find any one satisfied with himself There is nothing but evil in us, but in Christ there is enough, and our hearts can be satisfied with Him. God rests in Him, and there we may rest. Christ is what God wants us to see. Communion is having things in common, and that is the reason we call the Lord's supper the communion, because you drink of the same cup, and I drink of the same cup, and that is communion. When God and I are thinking of the same object, that is communion with God. " Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord."
Verse 13. While honey and leaven were not to be in it, salt was. Do not let the grace turn into mere sentimentalism, but let there be holiness there. Salt is that which preserves from corruption. There was this then put in the offering to preserve it from corruption, We have that in Christ which can never fail.
THE PEACE OFFERING, Lev. had a threefold character too. This is a type of Christ as the One who made peace for us. Many people have the idea that they have to make their peace with God. I cannot make my peace with God; God might keep His part, but I would not keep my part. Christ made peace by the blood of the cross; it is folly for us to talk about our making peace, for Christ has made it already; it is signed and sealed with the blood of Christ. Another text says, He is our peace. Have you the peace that Christ made in the blood of the cross? There is a thought of communion brought forth in this sacrifice. While the burnt offering was all burnt up to God, and the meat offering was partly fed on by the priests, the peace offering was eaten by the one that offered it. Every soul that trusts Christ has peace with God. God did not allow a single drop of blood to be shed in the camp of Israel, without being shed at the brazen altar; nor any fat to be eaten. Thus, in a typical way, the Israelite was brought into fellowship with God. It is we having fellowship with God, in Christ. He has made peace, and God accepts it, and I accept it, and I have peace in my own conscience; I am brought into fellowship with God-that is the portion of every believer. If I have peace with God what a wondrous thing it is!
THE LAW OF THE PEACE OFFERING, chap. 7:15.-This had to be eaten on the same day that the fat was burnt up: worship must be in communion with God. Suppose in a meeting a man is led to pray by the Holy Spirit twenty words that will be in communion with God; but that won't do, he wants to pray fifty words; he does, and the rest he has all to himself. All that is called worship in any church that is not done by the Holy Ghost is not only no use, but it is an abomination to God. Verse 18. All this fingering on the organ and the cultivating of man's voice which is paid for, is an abomination to God. Everything that is not led by the Holy Ghost is an abomination. Think of these things in God's presence. Verse 31. Now you find three parties shared in this peace offering; a part went to God, a part to the priest, and the rest went to the man who offered it. Aaron is a type of Christ. Thus we have God, Christ the Redeemer, and the sinner. To think that God brings you and me into fellowship with Himself and His Son! Through Christ's death God is happy to have any sinner come to Him. You can do nothing to give God joy, except to accept His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 2 we read of the angels appearing praising God and saying, " Peace on earth, good will towards men." " Peace on earth?" When Christ was born He came to bring peace on earth, but Herod drew forth his sword to try and kill Him. So peace on earth was a failure. Christ, when He discovered the enmity in man's heart, said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth." Now, mark this well, peace on earth was a failure, and so when Jesus was going to Jerusalem to be crucified, the multitude sang, Peace in heaven. By and by, the time will come, when the wolf and the lamb shall lie down together; that is future. Now God leads poor sinners to rejoice in peace in heaven. You will find no peace on the earth. Christ says, " In the world ye shall have tribulation." But we have heaven's peace and joy.
SIN AND TRESPASS OFFERING, Lev. 4-6-There are some things here that I cannot go into very much in detail to-night, but I will mention the different characteristics of them. Sin is a thing I have; trespass is a thing I do. The Christian is troubled about the sin that is inside of him, but he gets deliverance by and by, by seeing that Christ died for him. Christ has died in my stead. So you see that it is impossible for a soul that believes in Christ to be lost. While a man liveth he is under the law, but when he is dead he is free from law.
One word or so I must add regarding the difference of the offering for the whole congregation, or the priest (who represented the whole congregation), and the individual. In the former case the blood was brought into the holy place, and the horns of the altar of incense touched with it, and the body burned outside the camp; in the latter, the blood was not taken in, nor the golden altar touched with it, nor the body burned outside the camp; the horns of the altar of the burnt offering were touched with the blood and the body fed upon by the priest who offered it.
I would call especial attention to the point of contrast regarding the golden altar of incense (worship). If the whole assembly be defiled, of course worship has been stopped; but individual sin does not interrupt the worship of the assembly; if it did, when should we ever worship? It may, does, prevent power; and, should the assembly, after knowledge of it, allow it, worship. But while it remains individual, it becomes a cause of our priestly intercession, taking it to God and pleading to Him on behalf of my brother just as the priest ate the sin offering in the holy place.
Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle, By C. H. B.: Part 4, The Laver
THE LAVER.
" Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal; and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein " (Ex. 30:18),
WE have to pass the brazen altar before we come to the laver, for we never could understand the teaching of the brazen laver until we have understood the teaching of the brazen altar. But now, having passed the altar, we have a right to the use of the laver; but remember, the laver is not atoning. The only place where we found atonement was where the blood was shed; I need to be washed by the water here, but that does not atone for sin; the only thing which atones for sin, is the blood of Christ. Now there is no such thing as a man being beyond the need of the blood of Christ, for " if we walk in the light as He is in the light," then, " The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin," but while I am never on any other ground than on the ground of a blood-washed sinner, yet every sinner who trusts Jesus is saved, and the blood puts away his sins forever. " For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified " (Heb. 10:14). This is simply God's blessed word; not my interpretation of it, but God's own word; every one whose conscience has been touched by the blood is perfected forever.
" For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat" (Ex. 30:10). This is not then for atonement at all, but for washing the hands and feet of the priests. He made the laver of brass, of the looking-glasses (the polished brazen mirrors) of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of t he tabernacle of the congregation. There is avert' instructive thought for us here. " If any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein," etc. (James 1:23). The word then is like a looking-glass, but if we look into the word it will never give us a nice picture of ourselves. Looking-glasses are more often resorted to for flattery than for censure, but the word of God never flatters. So-called "students of human nature " flatter, and if we listen to them we will think all is going well, but if we examine ourselves by the word of God we will be convinced more and more that in us there is no good ' thing. I think Moses made good use of those brass mirrors. He made a brass laver and put water into it. Brass is significant of judgment all through God's word, and water is the word that cleanses us; thus we get in the brazen laver the judgment and cleansing one's self by the word. Aaron and his sons were to wash their hands and feet every time they went into the tabernacle or ministered at the altar. There was need of constant cleansing of that used to serve at the Lord's altar, and of that used to walk in His presence. Nothing, nothing but the blood of Christ can atone for sins, but we have to examine, ourselves continually by God's word, else service and walk will be hypocritical; self must be constantly judged There are three judgments in God's word-God's judgment, self-judgment, and Christ's judgment. God's judgment against sin, that is what Christ endured on the cross for every soul that trusts in Him. If I accept of Christ the judgment is passed. No soul that is saved will ever come into judgment as a sinner. Then there is self-judgment-I have need to judge myself all the time, and it is a precious privilege. I have a right to go to the water now and wash myself While I was away from Christ, washing was of no avail, the leopard could not change his spots, but now the guilt of sin is put away by the blood (for I had to come to the altar to get to the laver), the practices of sin must be washed away by the water. David says, " Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word." There is a third judgment, and that is Christ's judgment-the judgment He will execute when He comes to judge the nations with a rod of iron. I might put this also in another way, our judgment as sinners, our judgment as sons. amt our judgment as servants. And it is well to distinguish these things. Our judgment as sinners is past, our judgment as sons is every clay when He chastens us, and our judgment as servants is when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment that we have in the brazen laver is that which we have every day.
Turn now to the thirteenth chapter of John's Gospel. The Lord after supper took water and washed His disciples' feet (verse 3). Peter says, " Thou shalt never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, IT I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." Mark, He did not say you have no part in Me, but you have no part with Me. If I allow a single sinful thought in my mind, there can be no fellowship with Him. Then Peter says, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." Peter did not know that he was all right without his hands and head being washed. Jesus said unto him, " He that is washed (bathed) needs not to wash save his feet, but is clean -very whit." Mark this, Christ affirms that every one ",hat is bathed is clean every whit. He needs to have his feet washed every day, but still he is clean every whit. The washing (bathing) of regeneration (Titus 2:5) can be but once. The priests needed the feet washing daily, but the bathing of their consecration was but once, for the' priests once consecrated were priests always. This washing (regeneration) is before come even to the gate. Without it I would have been content outside.
If our- Lord and waster has washed our feet, we ought to wash one another's feet. And I shall never be successful in doing so by pointing him to the laver and saying, " There! you have dirty feet, go and wash yourself." No; let me get down, humble myself, and approach him, not as a superior, but as weaker than he, and endeavor to restore in the spirit of meekness, considering my own liability to fall if tempted.
Remember again the position of these things, for many would have us use the laver to get that which is only obtained through the altar, and many say "the blood cleanses" in a sense only used in Scripture of the washing of water of the word, and others do away with the laver altogether. We need the altar and the laver, and the laver and the altar, but the ALTAR first.
Notice there was no measure given for the lave'. There is no limit to our need of the washing of the word. Some people say they are sinless. God says they deceive themselves (1 John 1:8). I need the water to-day, and to-morrow and next day, and every day of my life down here. By and by we will stand on a sea of glass. You cannot wash in glass, can you? What then is it for? It reflects. Now, we understand we are children of God and beautiful before God, but by faith. Then we shall not need any faith; we shall not need the water to cleanse us, 'but we will have a sea of glass to admire ourselves in, if I may so speak. While we are here our beauty in Christ is a matter of faith and not sight. While we are here we need the water all the time. We never become sinless here, but "when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
The Curtains.
Now we come to the tabernacle itself and its four coverings (Ex. 24), the outside coverings of badger's
or seal skins. Why is the outside covering of this nr P Because outwardly, to man's eyes, He bath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him; He is despised and rejected of men " (Isa. 53). That is true until to-day. Man does not see any beauty in Christ. If _people did, they would not go on a single, moment in their sins. We who have had our eyes opened, do with shame confess that we had seen no beauty in Him. "We hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him nut." We did not see the beauty underneath these. It was all hid by the sombre covering. Then the prophet roes on and says, " Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities." Thus, if I throw back these curtains we find another covering of rams' skin dyed red. He was the One who shed His blood to put away our sins. This is the next thing we discover in Christ; the very One: I have been despising was put to shame for me. Now if I throw back the rams' skins, you will find a covering underneath that; curtains of goat's hair. This may suggest to us the deeper knowledge of Christ we get when we understand Him as the goat of the sin-offering, the One who not only bore my sins, but was also "made to be sin" for me. Remembering too that the Nazarite was characterized by his long hair, we may have in this also a type of Christ in His thorough Nazarite separation to God. The curtains of the tabernacle, which gave grace and beauty to all, were of fine twined linen. They were made of two is of five, joined together by taches of gold and loops of blue. The goat's hair curtains were joined with taches of brass, showing the severe character of His separation. T remarked before as to the meaning of the colors. The at the had the same colors on it. These colors were worked upon a ground work of fine twined linen. The fine linen is a type of Christ's righteousness; blue is the type of the heavenly One. It always comes first, for He must first come down from heaven. Purple is the insignia of royalty. When Christ was crucified they put a purple robe upon Him. In the scarlet it is the one who shed His blood for us-scarlet blood to put away scarlet sins. He never could have been the Messiah unless He came down from heaven. Presented as Messiah, He is rejected, and goes to the cross to die for that nation and for all.
The cherubims I think, point to Christ as the ser- vant of God. We have these things in the four gospels. Why were there four gospels written? The four evangelists were something more than mere witnesses, for Matthew tells us of things that he did not see or hear. John, who saw things Matthew saw not, does not mention them. For instance, in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, you find a beautiful ac- count of the scene on the Mount of Transfiguration, but none of these were present. John, who was there, does not say a word about it. Again, Matthew gives an account of Christ's agony in the garden, though he was not with the Lord John who was, omits it. Matthew was the pen the Holy Ghost used to write the life of Christ as the, royal One; Mark, the life of Christ as a servant; Luke, the suffering Son of Man; john, the divine and heavenly One.
The Entrances.
Why are there three? The gate of the court, the entrance into the holy place, and another veil at the entrance into the most holy place? Christ is the way all along. He is the door which leads me into the presence of God as a believer. He is also the door which leads me into the place of a priest, and through Him I enter the holiest. But each entrance had its distinctive character. The hanging for the gate of the court was upheld by brass pillars, in brass sockets, for it is through a Christ who bore judgment. and a way founded in judgment, that the believer comes to God. The hanging of the door of the tabernacle was upheld by wooden pillars, overlaid with gold and socketed in brass, for it is the Risen Christ who leads me into the place of a priest, though all stand fire in judgment. But no brass entered into the hanging of the veil; silver sockets were used here, for His presence we can stand on no other than redemption ground.
Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle, By C. H. B.: Part 5
XO 25:23-30{EV 24:5-9{THE table was made of wood, overlaid with gold. The wood was of the Acacia-seyal. Let me mention some instructing things about this tree, that we may see how well-chosen of God for this purpose it was. It can grow in a very dry soil; it is a thorny tree' full of sharp thorns. To the spiritual mind these facts are sweetly suggestive of Him, who, in a dry and thirsty land, where surely there was naught to sustain His spirit, yet was in the constant freshness of communion with God, for other than an earthly stream sustained Him. Though indeed crowned now with glory, a crown of thorns was all this world had for Him. The Acacia is the tree too from which is obtained the gum Arabic so much used in medicinal preparations, which is procured simply by piercing the tree. "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." This is the only balm for the troubled soul and sin-burdened conscience. The wood, then, is a type of Christ in His humanity. Gold always stands for that which is of God-divine. Made of wood, the table was overlaid with gold, and surmounted with a crown of gold. The gold is a type of Christ's divinity. Not as the One who came down from heaven, but as raised from the dead and " declared to be the Son of God with power," and crowned with glory and honor.
Twelve loaves of show-bread were placed on it continually on every Sabbath (Lev. 24). They were in two rows (not two heaps), six in a row. The twelve loaves represented Israel. Applying that to ourselves as the Israel of God, the twelve loaves are a type of us in Christ. Presented (show-bread means exhibition bread) before God by Him who is Son of Man and Son of God, in Him as the glorified Man we are seen by God, just as those twelve loaves in which Israel was represented were borne up by that golden table. We see the beauty then, of six in a row; God's eye saw each one. If there were six in a heap, He would only see the top one. Every believer is seen before God in the Christ perfection of Christ. They were placed there on the Sabbath day; why was that? We are presented before God by Christ in a Sabbath that cannot be broken, in the Sabbath that He Himself has won for us by the cross. No man ever kept the Sabbath day. Christ died for your sins, and if you believe on Him there is a rest. Paul says, " We which have believed do enter into rest." Rest in Christ, and you have rest; have it now.
Another thought here that is very precious: there was not only a crown of gold around the table, but also a border of a handbreadth round about. What was that for? Any who remember that the bread was always to be on the table, even when on the march through the difficult and perilous wilderness, will at once say, " It was to keep the dishes and loaves from falling off." True, but why does it say a border of a handbreadth, when all the other measures are given in cubits or fractions of a cubit? Because it is God's own hand that keeps believers: " They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand; my Father which gave them me, is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." We do not keep ourselves, we are "kept." Christ says His sheep "shall never perish." How can they, when He has His hand around them? There was also a crown to the border, so that the loaves could not fall off without a breach being made in the crown of gold. Neither can Christ's sheep perish without a sacrifice of God's glory, for He has pledged Himself to keep them.
The Candlestick.—Exodus. 25:31-39.
XO 25:31-39{To understand the candlestick, we must consider its pattern and material. The pattern of it was the pattern of the almond in all its various stages; each branch had bud, flower and fruit. The almond tree is especially a type of resurrection, the meaning of it in the Hebrew is " to hasten." Thus we have in Jer. 1:11: " Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me: Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it." Now why is it called " to hasten?" It is the first tree in Palestine to bloom; it blossoms in January. Thus also is Christ the "first-fruits of them that slept." Its pattern, then, suggesting resurrection, and its material being entirely of gold, we have a figure of the risen Christ. But the candlestick did not give any light, you know; the light was not in the candlestick, but in the lamps on the tops of the seven branches. In the lamps the oil was put, and the oil gave the light. Now all will understand oil to mean the Holy Spirit throughout the Scriptures. It is a type, then, of Christ and the Holy Ghost. Christ was the true light that came into the world men preferred darkness to light. They crucified Him, and now, risen from the dead, He sheds down light here by the Holy Spirit. Just as the golden candlestick upheld the lamps which gave light in the tabernacle, so the risen Christ up there sheds down light here by the Holy Spirit. Now you can readily understand that with all these coverings on, no light from the outside world ever entered here, all light came from the golden candlestick. If that candlestick had not been there, the man who went inside would not see that table and the twelve loaves there. And the reason believers do not see their place is, because the Holy Spirit does not get His place amongst them. The Holy Spirit is grieved thus, and consequently believers are in darkness. In John 7:39, we read that "the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Thus the giving of the Holy Ghost (distinct from the prior operation of the Spirit) was made dependent upon His glorification. When He was glorified, then the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost. Redemption must first be accomplished, and Christ have His place in glory, as declared to be the Son of God with power, before believers could have that (the Spirit) which alone could give them the intelligence of Christ's work. This, then (John 7:39), is a key to the type of the golden candlestick. The candlestick (or lamp bearer) itself is a type of the risen and glorified Christ; the light of it (given by means of the oil) a type of the light given by the Holy Spirit, shed forth by Him whom the world rejected. Seeing this will make intelligible to us Ex. 25:37, " And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof; and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it (Hebrew, the face of it)," for John 16:14 says, "He (the Spirit) shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine and shall skew it unto you." Thus, just as the glorified Christ is shown to us by the Spirit, so was the golden candlestick made visible by the lamps.
There was no size given to the candlestick. We are told the size of the altar, table, curtains, etc., but there were two things only which we are not told the size of, they are the candlestick and the laver. Why are we not told the size of the candlestick? God giveth not the Spirit by measure " (John 3:34). Again, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." It is not a portion of the Spirit that the believer receives, but the Holy Spirit Himself. " Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" All that Christ has done would be in vain had we not the Holy Spirit to make it true to our souls; but having this, things which eye had not seen nor ear heard, God has revealed unto us by His Spirit. Some have asked me, " How can I know that I have the Spirit?" I answer, " If Christ is made known to your soul, depend upon it it is by the Holy Ghost He is made known to you."
The Golden Altar and Priesthood.-Exodus 28-30.
We will look into the priesthood first, for if we are to have a worship altar, as the golden altar was, we must needs have priests to worship there. Before God gives the golden altar, He describes the priests'
dress and consecration. So we will now consider our-selves as priests inside the sanctuary. We find our-selves in God's house, in His presence. We are not only to enjoy our position and rejoice in the things of Christ, but also to worship Him and offer up the in-cense there. Let us see then what priesthood is.
We have in this chapter a description of the priests' robes first. Garments were to be made for glory and beauty. Few of us enter into that and rejoice in it. A little while ago we considered the offering of the high priest on the day of atonement, and we found he was clothed in white robes, signifying the spotless humanity of Christ. Now we are to consider the glories of Christ which He has now before God. These garments are described as being " for glory and for beauty," to show forth Christ's glory and His beauties.
Let us get rid of a wrong thought first. It is a common thought that Christ is high priest to intercede for the sins of the people. He is not. He did that on the cross, and having finished it on the cross, He has not to do it any more. It is a finished work. He is the High Priest of God, not to put away our sin now, but to watch over us and intercede for our needs.
Let us then examine a little into these garments for glory and beauty, to the refreshment of our souls. Ex. 28:6. We have the same colors here in the same order that we had in the curtains, with the addition of the gold; a thread of gold ran through the garments, for Christ's priesthood is a divine one; and the robe of the ephod was made entirely of blue, for His priesthood is heavenly. Now these two facts, the divine and the heavenly character of Christ's priesthood, is what the Holy Spirit dwells especially on in Hebrews for our comfort. He is able to save to the uttermost, that is right to the end, every soul that comes unto God by Him.
We have next the description of the garments (ver. 9). Two onyx stones were to be placed on the high priest's shoulders. On the stones were to be inscribed the names of the twelve tribes. Aaron the high priest was to bear the names on his shoulders, the place of strength. A type, this, of Christ before God bearing up every saved one. We are borne up by His strength and not by our own. " With the work of an engraver." Who is the engraver? Surely it is God Himself. " Like the engraving of a signet," that pledge of remembrance, our names are there engraved. Will God then ever forget? Nay, never! Through Christ we are ever before His mind.
The Breast Plate.
God takes up all the precious stones here as types of His saints. Suppose you take precious stones into a dark room, do you see any beauty there? No; but take them into a light room and you will see their beauty. So the saint is taken into God's presence and He there displays what he is in Christ. " Ever one with his name." I am thankful that my name it borne up on the shoulders of Christ as much as an apostle who ever lived. Not one name is forgotten Then there were rings of gold in each corner of the breast plate, and chains of gold chaining it to the shoulder, and the lower rings were fastened to the robe of the ephod by a lace of blue. It was impossible, without tearing, to loose the breast plate from the ephod. Thus we are inseparable from Christ's priest hood. As long as He is High Priest before God, so long will He have our names on His shoulder and upon His heart. These chains were linked into golden rings. Chains are an emblem of slavery; they are so in God's word. When a king took captives, he led them in chains through the gates of the city. These were golden chains, and gold being a type of the divine, it is a picture, a type, of being made by divine power and workmanship God's property. I like the word slaves, because it implies possession-we are not hired servants. Then they were inserted in golden rings. The ring is an emblem of affection and love. So, in Luke 15, after the father welcomed the prodigal home, He put a ring on his hand; it was a token that the father still loved him. Now it is a very nice token of love because it is also an emblem of eternity, for being round it has neither beginning nor end. It is a golden ring here, and therefore a type of God's eternal love. By God's power we are chained, you see; His affection and His strength bind us there. A lace of blue bound the breast plate to the ephod; believers are inseparably connected with the heavenly priesthood of Christ. " And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in his breast plate of judgment upon his heart when he goeth into the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually.' We are borne upon Christ's heart, and as long as He has strength to bear us up and a heart to love us, we shall be forever kept. If that arm that brought salvation with it can ever grow weak, and that heart that bore our judgment can ever cease to love, then can one of God's sons perish, and not before. This, by God's grace, is His work, " He is able to save to the uttermost, all them that come to God by Him." First putting away our sins on the cross, He sits now at God's right hand, ever to make intercession for us, to bear our names on His heart before God continually. In the breast plate of judgment was placed the urim and thummim, Urim and thummim means Light and Perfection. It is the Light and Perfection of God in which believers are displayed and presented in Christ. Now mark another thing. When the high priest went into the holy place, it was the light of the candlestick that shone upon these stones, but when he went into the most holy place, the Light of God's own presence made them brilliant. Thus by the light of the Holy Spirit we understand our perfection in Christ; but up there we are displayed in the very light of God's presence. The hem of the robe was adorned with pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet, and golden bells. The pomegranate signifies fruit, and the golden bell a divine sound. With all those bells around the robe, Aaron could not take a step in the holy place without making music. Thus also with Christ. It is all Christ for us here. His sound up there is always sweet to God's ear; divine music, and fruit also. However weak we may be, and however feeble our worship, yet Christ up there is the One who presents the incense, and He is clothed in garments for glory and beauty, and His ministry for us is as the sound of music, sweet to the ears of God.
THE Miter, ver. 36-38.-In all our worship there is a measure of weakness comes in, but Christ bears up all our prayers and praises. Now mark four words here, "It shall be always upon his forehead." Every day when he trimmed the lamps and burned the incense it was there. It was always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted. Christ's presence up there ensures our acceptance. If we are accepted it is in Christ, and it shall be always upon His forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord.
Aaron's sons were also clothed in garments for glory and beauty (ver. 40). God having washed the sins of the believer away, He clothes him with glory and beauty in Christ.
" Till we behold Him on His throne,
In Him we boast, in Him alone—
Our beauty this, our glorious dress,
Jesus, the Lord, our righteousness."
Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle, By C. H. B.: Part 6, Sanctification
MANY of us here are interested in the subject of sanctification and consecration. Do you and I want to know how to be consecrated and sanctified? Let us pay attention to this chapter and we will see, for the way the priests were sanctified is a type of our sanctification, (ver. 3). These loaves were put into on basket: we all share in one Christ; in Him we have all the same blessing. Aaron was anointed with the oil before the blood was shed (ver. 7). Thus also Christ was anointed without blood, but we must have the blood first. The first offering was the sin offering (ver. 14). Sin must first be put away. In Lev. 1, God puts the burnt offering first and the sin offering last. We need to see the sin offering first, and thus we have it here. Notice the three offerings in the order in which they were. The sin offering outside of the gate, " He suffered without the gate." Then the burnt offering, and then the consecration offering. The blood of this, third offering, the "ram of consecration," was taken and put upon the extremity of the priest's ear, hand and foot; teaching us thus that we are consecrated to God by virtue of, and to the extent of the blood both as regards the mind, the acts and the walk. The blood of Jesus has set apart the believer thus to God, and the blood of Jesus is the measure of that consecration. In the sin offering it is the cross applied to our sin-it is borne away by it: in the burnt offering it is the cross as regards our acceptance-we are perfected forever by it. In the consecration offering it is the cross as regards our relationship to the world-we are crucified by it, separated forever from the world, and consecrated to God. Then Moses sprinkled with the blood and oil them and their garments, " and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him."
Bathed first (and only once) in water (verse 4); second, ' the blood applied; and thirdly, the oil. In the same way there is a three-fold sanctification. The water is here placed first-conversion; next the blood-my sins put away; and then the oil (the Holy Spirit), bringing the sweet intelligence of Christ to my soul.
Now we come to that which is most especially consecration. It is not our giving to God, but God giving to us, The Hebrew word for consecrate means to "fill the hands of." The blood shed and the oil sprinkled, the hands of Aaron and his sons were filled. Thus he was installed a priest. Then, afterward, "Thou shalt receive them of their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savor before the Lord." Now that is consecration. People talk about giving to God. What have I to give to God as a poor sinner? God gave me Christ, and the more my soul is tilled with Christ the more I am consecrated to God and separated from the things of the world. Worship is not singing and playing an organ; worship itself is the heart's pouring itself out to God and thanking Him for what Christ is. Christ must be the theme of worship. I can only draw near to God through Christ. I stand before God in Christ, and Christ Himself is my offering.
Finally, Aaron and his sons fed on the things offered to God. That is priesthood and worship. Brought into God's presence by the blood, Christ is the theme of our praise, and Christ is the food of our souls.
CHAP. 30.-THE GOLDEN ALTAR.-It was placed before the veil; incense was to be burned on this. If we come to God as sinners, asking God to have mercy upon us, it is all very well, but it is not worship. On the golden altar incense only was offered. This altar is a type of Jesus Christ in glory. He is the altar upon which our worship is offered. The incense was to be kindled with fire from the altar of burnt offering. When Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire they fell dead. If anything kindles the flame of our worship to God but the sacrifice of Christ, it is offering strange fire. The knowledge of what Christ has done must be that which enkindles worship, or it will be but a fleshly form. It was put just here before the veil, on observe. Now we thank God that the veil is rent, and our incense now is offered in God's immediate presence. Having boldness now to enter into the holiest, let us draw near and offer the sacrifice of praise continually, even the fruit of our lips, giving praise to His name.
" The veil is rent, our souls draw near
Unto a throne of grace;
The merits of the Lord appear,
They fill the holy place.'
Ver. 7. The Holy Ghost for some reason connects the burning of the incense with the lighting of the lamps? Every fresh light the Holy Ghost gives us of Christ will create a fresh burst of incense to God. That is the difference between man's teaching and Divine teaching. If I am taught of God, and learn the precious things of Christ, every fresh thing I learn of Christ will make me more of a worshipper, whereas carnal teaching will but puff me up.
The Ark and the Mercy Seat.—It Was Made of Wood Overlaid With Gold. the Mercy Seat Was a Separate Thing and Made Entirely of Gold. the Cherubim We Know Not the Shape of, but Evidently They Were of Some Angelic Form. We Are Not Left to Guess What the Mercy Seat Means. in Rom. 3:25, We Are Told "Christ Is Set Forth a Propitiation (or Mercy Seat) Through Faith in His Blood." Every One Who Has Faith in the Blood of Christ Finds Mercy. Thus in the Fact of the Cherubim (Which Were Symbolic of God's Presence in Government) Being of the Same Substance As the Mercy Seat, We May Learn That God's Throne Is Now a. Throne of Grace. He Has Not a Throne of Judgment Now. Christ Came Down Here to Reign, but They ' Would Not Have Him. He Came As a King, and They Refused Him; He Went to the Cross, and God's Own Throne in Heaven Is Now Sprinkled With Blood, and It Invites the Sinner Near. We Know There Is No Throne of Judgment Now, a Blessed Thought for Every One of Us. If We Are Sons It Should Make Us Happy, If Sinners Ave Should Draw Near to God. at Present It Is Grace—" God Was in Christ' Reconciling the World Unto' Himself, Not Imputing Their Trespasses Unto Them " for the Present Time God Is Not Imputing the Sinner's Trespasses to Him, but by and by Every Idle Word Shall Be Imputed to the Sinner.
Let me remark as to what was inside of that ark. We are told in the ninth of Hebrews there were three things there-the golden pot that had manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. God gave the law the first time on the mount, but, already broken by Israel, Moses threw it down and broke it. But when God gave it the second time He took care it should not be broken (Deut. 10.). Moses was to make this ark first; and in that it was to be put. The ark of course is Christ. We had the law over our heads, but Christ had it in His heart (Psa. 40). The moment I have Christ, there is an end of the law for righteousness. He paid the penalty that I owed to the broken law. The penalty was death; He died in my stead; thus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Inside of that ark, underneath the golden mercy seat, were the two tables of stone now, the mercy seat covered it, and the blood was sprinkled there. The faces of those angelic forms were towards the mercy seat to where the blood was. God gazing down, as, it were, does not see the law that curses us, but He sees the blood. There was also the golden pot that had manna there. Christ was the true manna who came down from heaven to give life to the world. But here we have the manna, not as once, lying on the sand of the desert, but in the golden pot, for the bread which came down from heaven was rejected of men, but gone back to heaven He is still the food for our souls; we have a Christ in glory for our food. There was another thing there too: there was Aaron's rod that budded, and how that came to be there we are told in the 17th chapter of Numbers. It was put there to " make to cease" their murmuring. The Israelites had been murmuring.
How did God stop it? God would have had to kin every man, woman and child in order to stop them murmuring. He did not do that, however, but He told them to take, twelve rods, and the man's rod that He chose was to blossom. Aaron's rod bore fruit.
Aaron's rod was the type of the risen Christ, who alone ever bore fruit to God. The fruit-bearing rod was then laid up in the ark to "quite take away their murmurings from me that they die not." In the 23rd chapter of Numbers we have a peculiar expression, "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel." God did not see the murmuring of Israel, not because it was not there, but because He gazed down and saw the blood-sprinkled mercy-seat and the food and the rod that budded. Aaron's almond-yielding rod was a type of the risen Christ, who ever lives to intercede for us. The righteous One is there. If God looks down upon me here, He sees me every day failing and failing and failing, but He looks at Christ the perfect Man before Him. The very One who shed His blood to put away my sin is now my advocate. If I am a believer I am " accepted in the Beloved." It is thus God " makes to cease our murmuring from before Him. We are told in the 2nd of Colossians, In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him." There is nothing short of this. In Adam we all sinned and died and shared Adam's doom, but in Christ we share Christ s blessing. First I have a common portion as a member of Adam's race, and then also in Christ I have Christ's portion. And just as Christ does not grow any more perfect, we in him do not grow any more perfect. While I am here of course I grow more in knowledge-but as to our standing in Christ our position is ever the same. The veil is rent. Through the sacrifice of Christ we have a right to go to the very place that Christ has gone; our anchor is fixed into that within the veil-the Ark of the Covenant?
We have now solved the problem with which we started, " How can God bring a poor leper from outside the camp into His own very presence, and in a righteous way so as to glorify God, and also give the poor sinner perfect peace before Him?' We have found out how it is done. He is brought in through Christ the gate, h s sins put away at the brazen altar by the blood; he has had boldness to enter the very holiest; yes, he can enter everyplace where the blood has been sprinkled.
The Boards of the Tabernacle-Exodus. 26:15-30.
Typically the tabernacle has three aspects: Christ Himself (Heb. 9:11); the heaven into which He has passed (Heb. 9:24); and of God's dwelling here- believers ( Heb. 3:6). We will consider it now in the third aspect. First, as to the boards-they were all made of wood and overlaid with gold. I do not take gold to be a type of God's righteousness' as we have in the wall of the court, but a picture of that clothing we have of God in Christ; righteousness and everything else too (1 Cor. 1:30). It is something, more than being merely righteous. " We are accepted in the Beloved." We are clothed in Christ's own beauty. " Ye are complete in Hun." Once these boards were each of—them trees, and God had to send some one with a sharp ax to cut it down, and shape it, and place it there. These boards are now brought here to be God's house, and clothed with gold. One board could not say that he had more beauty than the rest, for they all had the same beauty, the beauty which God clothed them with. It is a sad mistake if one believer thinks that he is above another. We ought to boast in Christ, but not in ourselves, for all we have is in Him. Now, each of these boards had two tenons, and they were not planted in the sand, but in silver sockets. Silver Is a type of -redemption-it was the atonement money (Exod. 30:16; 38:27). If placed in innocence again we should fall immediately; if under law, we are cursed; we stand on a better ground-on the ground of being redeemed by the price Christ has paid. We find- believers are all gathered together, every one of them redeemed. And God had not only each of these standing in silver, but He had another way of making them one, otherwise they might not all be together. They might be all in the same place, but nothing to join them. So there were to be five bars made for each side, and one of these bars was to pass through the midst of the boards, reaching from end to end; a bar of the same material as the boards, and that went through the heart of each board, thus giving them all the same nature, so to speak. Now what makes Christians one? Every child of God has the same nature. If I am born of God, and you are born of God, we are all one. Then there were other bars. They were of the same material, made of wood and overlaid with gold. Now each board had rings placed in it, and the rings are emblematical of divine love. In Rom. 5 we have, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us." Each one has God's love in him. There was first the rings placed in the boards, and then the bars that went through the rings. Each one having the love of God in his heart, the Spirit of God would use that love to bind us all together. "Love is the bond of perfectness " (Col. 3:14). Again (Col. 2:2), " Your hearts may be knit together in love"-that is, divine love, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. Human love is but a poor thing; it is the love that has sought us, and found us, and brought us together, that must keep us together. And it is a poor knot if love has not tied it.
Now, if 'I stop there, we would have twenty boards together, and eight together, and twenty more together, but that God should have them all one, we have rings placed over the corners binding the whole three sides together so that there should not be three separated sides, but all one. They were gathered around a central object. The center of all God's types here is the ark of the covenant-the ark of the testimony, where God's glory was. The ark was the grand object-they were all gathered around that. God has one center for all believers, and that is Christ. Christ would have all believers around Him. If every believer in this place had Christ for a center, how long would it be before all the sects would be left to themselves? All that man has made are other centers. Now, supposing these boards had a will of their own, and they were to act on that will, just as men have acted, what would be the result? Well, one board would say: " I am tired of standing up here all the time; I want to do something. I want to be useful and join a praying band or something; I feel I can do more outside of the gate." Two more go into some other society, and four or five more go out there and have a nice good time all to themselves. That may suit them all very well, but at the same time where has God's house gone? It might suit the boards very well, but it would not suit God. Then the only company that can count upon Christ's presence in the midst, are those who are gathered to the name of Christ. I do not say others are not Christians, but they are not gathered in the name of Christ. The number of the bars has also its significance. There were five, the number of weakness. Realized weakness has a wonderful power in holding saints together.
Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle, By C. H. B.: Part 7, How Things Were Carried Through the Wilderness
Now we will consider the way in which these things were carried through the wilderness. Those who bore them were the Levites, divided into three families. Aaron's sons, the priests, first took down the covering, and the Levites bore them. We will commence as they are spoken of here: the first is the ark of the covenant. Aaron and his sons were to take down the covering veil and cover the ark of the testimony. Next they were to put on a covering of badgers' skins, and over that a cloth wholly of blue. Now, what do we learn from this? Now, if the ark had the outside covering of blue, and all the other things of brown, it has a meaning; it is a type of our testimony of Christ as we pass through the wilderness. He came down here as the king of the Jews to reign, and they rejected Him. And, when the veil was rent, He disappeared, He went to heaven. God was veiled in that flesh, but few perceived Him; He was hidden from their eyes. They nailed Him to the cross, and the throne which would have been set here on earth went up to heaven. Now, the throne of grace is up there. The covering of badgers' skins covered it, a somber hue which presents no beauty; and over that the cloth wholly of blue. The only testimony we have as Christians to bear to the world is this-Christ has gone to heaven. Now there is a great deal in that-it is a judgment against the world. When the Spirit of truth shall come He shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me," (John 16). The very fact that Christ has gone to heaven is a positive proof of the world's wickedness. They crucified Him and did not want Him on the earth. It is also a sweet token of grace, telling that He has gone to heaven; He has accomplished the work He came to do; He is sitting at God's right -hand. "When He had by Himself purged our sins He sat Clown on the right hand of the Majesty on high." The throne of grace is in heaven, and God invites us near to heaven and away from earth. Our one business here is not to make the world better, or to talk temperance or any other reform, for the world has rejected Christ, and God had accepted Him; that then is the sum of our testimony to the world; a testimony against the world, for it crucified Him; a testimony of the grace of God towards the world, for He has accepted Him in His offering for sin.
The next thing is the table of show bread. First the bread was placed on a cloth of blue. The bread -which came down from heaven was not wanted by the world, and He has gone back to heaven. This was covered with cloth of scarlet. In John 6, we have, first, " I am the bread that came down from heaven," then, being rejected as such by the world, except ye eat My flesh and drink My blood ye have not eternal life abiding in you." The heavenly bread was thus covered with the scarlet cloth. Now through His shed blood Christ gives us eternal life. Except we believe in a crucified Christ we cannot be saved. But do not think, dear friends, that that expression, " except ye eat My flesh," etc., has the least reference whatever to the Lord's supper; it refers to the fact of the poor sinner believing in the crucified Savior. Over the scarlet cloth was placed the covering of badgers' skin, and that hid the whole. There was but one thing which had a color outside, and that was the ark of the covenant-everything else was hid from the outside gaze by the somber line of the badger skins. I apply that thus: Our testimony to t he world is only one thing, Christ. Now we come to the candlesticks: they Were to cover it with a cloth of blue—-it is covered with a heavenly cover. Christ came down here the light of tile world, but, rejected as such, He has gone 10 heaven. In His place the Hob Ghost callus clown fun 110;0 cit, and believers have the heavenly light. Over the blue was again placed the brown. Now there was the blue, and the gold, but the outside observer could only see the brown.
It—is a wrong idea to say that every one has the Holy Ghost; that is only theology. Every believer has the Holy Spirit-never does the Scripture say that the Holy Ghost is given to every one all around.
Now we come to the golden altar. Upon it " they shall spread a cloth of blue and cover with a covering of badgers' skins." That is a yew simple type.
The altar was that upon which incense was burned worship. Now what does the world know about worship? Our worship is heavenly. There is no Such thing in God's word as an unconverted man worshipping God., God does not want it; He wants the sinner to accept of Christ. He doesn't want his prayers, praises, organs, money, etc. God has Christ to give him and God cannot take a single thing from the sinner until he accepts Christ. No one knows anything about worship but the saved soul. Next we come to the brazen altar-" they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon."—The purple, as we remarked before, is a type of royals; and the brass altar is especially a type of the cress of Christ. Now He who came to die for sinners was the King of the Jews. The last sight the world had of Christ was when He was, crucified; when He rose from the dead He was seen by believers only. People talk 'Wont Christ reigning as king, but He is not. By and by He will. At present His kingship is hid. The purple was covered with the somber badgers' skins. As to the brazen laver, there is nothing said at all about its covering. No doubt they had to carry it along, but it forms no part of our testimony, and therefore there is nothing said about its covering. Cm' testimony is positive rather than negative, though we each need the laver for ourselves. Our one testimony- to the world as u e pass along through the wilderness is just this, "Christ has gone to heaven."
How were these borne along through the wilderness These staves and rings were for one purpose, to bear the things by. The rings were placed in the table and the staves put through them. The only power for testimony is the love of Christ,-" the love of Christ constraineth us." God places the love of Christ in a man's heart and if the love of Christ does not constrain a man to bear testimony to Christ, God does not want= a bit of testimony from him. Now there is something else too-there were bars which went through the rings. These bars were made of wood overlaid with gold. God uses a human instrument, but He clothes that instrument with divine power. There were three families who bore these things that I have been talking about, the Kohathites, the Gershonites and the Merarites. God did not leave it to their choice to do whatever they wanted, but He appointed each their work, and so it should be in God's house. Aaron appointed the Kohathites to bear the ark, etc., the Gershonites to bear the curtains, and the Merarites to bear the boards and pillars.
Supposing they had been left to their own will, it would have been all confusion. Now as to the origin of the Levites. They were men under a curse-there was no good thing in them. Jacob speaks of them as being joined in cruelty (Gen. 49:5.). But God takes up these very Levites and uses them in His service. He says to them that they should be joined to Aaron (Num. 18). Once they were cursed, will divide in Jacob and scatter them in Israel," but now they are joined-joined to Aaron. Moreover, God claimed all the first born as His, for this reason. He slew all the first born of the Egyptians and spared the first born of Israel, because the blood was over the door. When Israel fell He took the Levites instead of the first born, and He thus considered the Levites as redeemed by blood; once cursed-but now joined to Aaron, because now redeemed by blood. It is so now with God's servants, once cursed and lost and guilty before God, but now redeemed by the blood of Christ and joined to Christ. There is a sweet thought about being joined to Aaron. All service done for God must be done in fellowship with Christ. It is a blessed thing to work with Christ here in a world that denies Him. Every bit of real service must be done under Christ's eye. We are each to do the work that Christ gives us. The Merarites came with their sockets of silver and placed them on the sand. The' first thing in gathering souls together is for the evangelist to gather souls on the ground of redemption, saved by the preaching of the gospel. Not gathering them together to be saved, but being saved, gathering them together. Then the Gershonites had charge of the curtains, and when the tabernacle was pitched they threw the curtains over them for beauty. Then the third person who came along was the Kohathite—his name means congregation, a type of the teacher who gives the truth to the assembly. First souls converted and then taught in things of Christ, and then taught about Christ their center. Mark their names-Merari means " bitterness " or " sadness." The man whom God can use in saving souls must be a man weaned from the world. How can he help it when he sees the world going on to destruction? He will be away from all frivolity, a man of sad spirit. Then the man who bore the curtains was called Gershonite, or stranger. The man whom the Lord will use to teach souls of Christ, is a stranger in the world, to tell them of the great Stranger, Christ Himself, who passed through this world and went to glory. Then the third, the Kohathite's name meant assembly or congregation. God sends another then, you see, to gather to Christ, not to a sect, but to instruct them in worship which pertains to God's assembly, and the blessed fact of being gathered together to Christ their center.
In these days when the denial of the inspiration of the Scriptures is getting to be so common, it is well to know the meaning of these Old Testament types.
Surely none other than a divine hand could have drawn these pictures which so widely set forth Christ and His work. May the contemplation of them lead to a greater knowledge of and love for the great Original!
Notes of Lectures on the Tabernacle, Sacrifices and Priesthood: Part 1
( With a Model.) BY C. H. B. READ EXODUS. 27:9-14.
XO 27:9-14{THE tabernacle, with its furniture, its sacrifices, and its ritual, were a shadow of things to come. In Heb. 9;10. we have a reference to these things:-" Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." Christ is the fulfillment of the shadows. In the first verse of the tenth chapter we read, " The law being a shadow of good things to come." This was only a shadow, a type, a parable, a figure for the time then present. But we cannot have a shadow without a substance. It is a blessed thing to learn from the shadow what the substance is like. Not only do we need the substance, but we need the light. You must have light to make a shadow. When God called Moses into the mount, it was in His presence that He gave the shadows. God had the reality (Christ) before Him through all eternity; He brought Moses up to the mount into the light of His presence, and the shadow is cast upon the earth.
The books of Exodus and Leviticus to most Christians are unknown books. One man told me that he had not read them in ten years, because he thought them to belong only to the Jews. If he had understood the book of Hebrews he would have seen how all these things refer to Christ. The Sabbath was a shadow of the rest we have in Christ; the shed blood pointed to Christ. God knows we cannot understand all His mind by abstract statements, so He gives us pictures, as we do our own children, that we by the pictures may be enabled to enter more into the wonderfully full and varied aspect of the work of Christ. They all pointed to one Christ, to the one sacrifice. The tabernacle is a type of Christ (Heb. 9:11). It may be taken also as a type of all believers as God's house (Heb. 3:6), and in a dispensational sense, God's dwelling place. In the millennium (Rev. 21:3) primarily Christ is everything.
There is a three-fold way of looking at it too. If you will turn to Ex. 25 you will see that the first thing God describes is not the court, as I have described, but the Ark of the Covenant. But the first thing that was made was the curtains, the tabernacle itself (Ex. 36). But the first thing we will look at will be the court. The thing God first mentioned. is the Ark of the Covenant. It was inside of the most holy place, a type of the risen and glorified Christ. God's first object is Christ. God travels outwards step by step from the Ark of the Covenant. But the curtains were made first, for this reason, Christ must first come and tabernacle amongst us. Christ is born, and the word says, He is "Emmanuel, God with us." Before a single thing could be fulfilled He must come down here. I would take up the outside first, for this reason; the first thing you and I apprehend of Christ as sinners coming to God, is not a Christ in glory, or the blessed truth of Emmanuel. We are outside as sinners until we are brought step by step into the inner place. Just as in Lev., the first thing God mentioned is the burnt offering, but the first thing the leper needed, and the priests, when consecrated, was the sin offering the first thing I am to know is, my sins forgiven. How can God bring a poor, vile sinner, defiled, under the curse and judgment, into His own very presence, in perfect righteousness, and with peace to the sinner's conscience? He does it by His grace, and in these things we will see how it is done. How can I as a sinner sit down in God's presence in perfect peace with Him? I find plenty of people who are at peace with themselves, but are they at peace with God?
Turn first of all to Lev. 13, and notice a special thing or two there. This describes the plague of leprosy, a type of sin, for two reasons;-First, it was a most contagious disease; man cannot keep it to himself; just like sin. Second, leprosy was a disease which only God could cure (2 Kings. 5:7). It must be the Great Physician who makes whole, and no one else. If there was only a spot on the man's flesh leprous, he was unclean (verse 2). Notice this verse (13). It is all turned white, and then he is clean. A leper as white as snow, and the priest " shall pronounce him clean." This is a type of the sinner. When a man has a single plea in his own defense, he has not taken his true place before God. My only plea is, " God be merciful to me a sinner." God does not require a man to do anything; if I justify God, God will justify me, but if I try to justify myself God cannot receive me. We cannot take the children of Israel as a type of sinners here, we must go to the leper outside of the camp; a sinner is outside of God's presence. Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord; three times we are told that. That is the sinner's action, running away from God. God shall punish men, by giving them just what they want, everlasting destruction from His presence. The world does not like the name of Jesus mentioned in its social gatherings. If I introduce the name of God or Jesus into a party, it makes people feel very uneasy; they are outside of His presence. As sure as there is an eternal God and eternal life for the believer, there is eternal, unending punishment for the unbeliever. He only asks one thing of the sinner, that is repentance. God wants the sinner to acknowledge his true condition before Him. Then He puts away all our sins and brings you and me into His presence as white as snow. By nature I am away from God, outside the camp. The sinner outside the camp sees that God dwells inside, the pillar of cloud shows that He dwells in there. There is a barrier of five cubits high, of fine linen, all around here. What is that which keeps the sinner off from God? What is the reason that any sinner here in his sins cannot have pleasure in God? Is it not because you are unholy and God is holy? How can a holy God have fellowship with the sinner, or the sinner stand in the presence of God and not be lost? One thing that keeps a sinner away from God is God's righteousness. Fine linen signifies righteousness (Rev. 19:8), in this case the righteousness of God. It is upheld by brass pillars. Brass always signifies justice or judgment. In the first chapter of the Revelation we have a picture of Christ judging the churches, and His feet shine like fine brass. He stands firm. His decrees are settled in justice and judgment. God's righteousness is no vain thing. As sure as God is righteous He will punish every sin. Unless there is faith in Christ every man shall have his portion in the lake of fire. Supposing we leave out Christ; how impossible it would be for the sinner to have fellowship with a holy God.
But how did God come to have a wall around Himself? God did not always have a wall around Himself. In Ex, 19. we are told that Moses went up to God in the mount, and God said, " I have borne you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." There was no wall there! But when the law came in, bounds were put around. He told Moses to go down and ask them if they would do the things that were commanded them, and they said, " All that the Lord hath said we will do." If they had been wise they would have said, " We cannot keep these commandments." Thus the law entered, or, slipped in by the way (Rom. 5:20). If they had declined to do it, they would have remained on the ground of grace. But all the people answered together and said, " All that the Lord bath spoken, we will do." In Rom. 12, we read, " They are together become unprofitable." "There is none that doeth good, no not one." You recollect that the quails were given twice. God gave them before the law was given (Ex. 16:13), and afterward (Num. 11:31), and so as to the water out of the rock. Mark the difference-before the law was given, they murmured and God did not say a Word to them, but afterward, when the law was given, and they murmured, the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. Why did He do so? The law had come in. Before that they were on the ground of grace. The law was not given to make any one righteous. How vain then to make covenants with God now. " The law entered that the offense might abound." We have all " sinned and come short of the glory of God." God gave the law then for the purpose of proving all men guilty. And now, how did God come to have a tabernacle? It was an after thought, so to speak. God says, as it were, " I am going to dwell with man, anyway." The first mention we have of the tabernacle is after the law was given, and man had broken it. It was after the golden calf was worshipped. The law came in, and prevented all approach of man to God. Then God said, " I will go down to man." Where was Jesus when he said, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest?" Was He very far off? He came down very close to them. Christ came down in a lowly form, and was born in a manger and went to the sinner's place, on the cross. How did the Shepherd find the sheep? He went where the sheep was. Christ comes to us. " All we like sheep have gone astray." " He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter." We can say " Christ has redeemed us from the law, being made a curse for us." The leper was not told to come inside, but the priest was to go outside the camp to him. He could not come before God, but the priest went out to where the leper was. When it was impossible for man to approach God, then God came down to where man was. Christ went to the cross, and bore the sinner's doom, when He cried, " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" The blessed truth of the gospel is, not that we are seeking God, but God is seeking us. We ought to seek God. But God says, " there is none that seeketh after God;" on the other hand, " the Father seeketh worshippers."
These hangings of fine linen were about nine feet high; that is higher than we are, and the law is higher than we. It proves that we have sinned and "come short of the glory of God." We find here a curtain to the gate, embroidered with three colors. What does that signify? Jesus says, " I am the way, the truth, and the life." It is not only made of fine linen, but it has three colors on it. In those three colors we have that which shadowed forth Christ. Fine linen signifies Christ's righteousness, that is, His own spotless humanity. He was the spotless man. In the three colors we have what Christ was as a Savior. In the first, the blue (the blue always comes first, and is the heavenly color, like the vault overhead), is a type of Christ as the One who came down from heaven. You understand why that comes first. He must first come from heaven to give life to the world. It is a type of Him as a heavenly stranger on earth. Then the purple, that is the royal color. When Christ was crucified the soldiers placed a crown of thorns upon His head, and put a purple robe on Him. We read of others clad in purple. It is a type of royalty. He comes from heaven, and is presented to Israel as the Messiah, the king of the Jews. The scarlet-He was the one who shed His blood to put away our sins. We have them also in the four gospels-in Mark, the spotless One; in Matthew the royal One, the king of the Jews; in Luke, the scarlet, the Savior of sinners. "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." In John, we have the heavenly color, the Son of man who is in heaven; the Son of God from heaven. You see, then, the importance of having these things on the gate. No man cometh to God but by Christ. But let us see that it is God's Christ we have before our minds. Supposing I take off the blue, and leave out the purple and scarlet, will such a Christ save you? No, we cannot leave out His divinity. Leave out the purple, will not the blue and scarlet do? No, if He is not the Messiah, He is not the one promised of old. Supposing we leave out the scarlet, will not the rest do? No, He may be the royal and heavenly one, and the spotless man, but if He is not the man who shed His blood He cannot he my Savior. Or, again, shall we ignore the fine linen? Supposing we say Christ was not without sin, that will not do-such a one would need a Savior Himself. He " knew no sin," He shed His blood for us, to put away our sin. God has only one thing to put before the sinner, and that is Christ. He is just, and the justifier of him that believeth on Jesus. Every soul that believes on the Son of God hath eternal life. If I, a sinner, trust in Jesus, then I am saved. I come to God through Christ alone.
Now I have entered in, and I am inside. Consider the difference of being inside and outside of the walls. Outside there is a barrier to keep us off. Coming through Christ I come inside, and now they surround me. While I am outside I do not like to hear that God is just and holy, but inside, I am glad of it, for His own righteousness shuts me in. As surely as God is just He will justify every believer in Jesus. God hates sin, but loves the sinner, and He put the sinner's sin on His own Son. " He is faithful and just," just to the sacrifice of Calvary, to forgive the sins of all who confess them.. If I really come to God through Jesus, He closes me around with righteousness. Adam and Eve took of the forbidden fruit, and knew they were naked, ran away from God, and hid themselves. They made aprons of fig leaves, to cover themselves. First of all, God calls Adam into his presence, and makes him confess his sin. Then we are told that unto Adam and his wife God made coats of skin. When they believed in Christ, God clothed them Himself. So with the sinner. All I can do to fit myself for God makes me more unfit for His presence. God forgives the sins of all who trust in Jesus, and also counts them righteous.