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Just commend ourselves, our God and our gracious Father. We do thank Thee today that we can.
Come together again to be over the sound of Thy word and to consider the Tabernacle, and we ask you for thy help. Thank thee for our Lord Jesus, and his work at the cross has redeemed us, Set us free, and all that thou hast accomplished for the glory of God. Lord Jesus, in that work of redemption, we thank you for it and for the blessings that thou hast bestowed upon us now.
I know and brought us from darkness and delight from the power Satan of God we bless thy holy name Lord Jesus. We look to be for help now praying for thy help with this current technology problem. I pray that they'll fix it and we committed to the asking this in thy name we pray Lord Jesus Amen.
So I guess it would be there's some display problems that guys are having and hopefully they can get it.
Figured out in the next couple minutes, but.
The mark, maybe he said maybe we just do a quick Q&A, which makes me a bit nervous because I keep stating that I'm not an expert on the Tabernacle. So I mean what we can give it a wing, we'll see, give it a go. And there's other brothers here who probably could chime in if me or somebody else doesn't know the answer, so.
We'll put it out to all of you and.
Kids, if you have questions, feel free to ask. Raise your hand so we know who you are. But.
Does anybody have any questions that Tim can answer on the Tabernacle?
I'll gladly relay it to him.
And listen, there is no silly question here, you know, we're all in it to learn something, right? And.
Oh yes, and Steve has these booklets, one per household. If you haven't received one yet, it's called The House of Gold.
Steve, there's some up here too.
So again, we, we're, we're all in it together, as we sometimes say, we this has been a wonderful subject that we've been taking up.
And I'll be honest, but you got a question.
No, go ahead.
So we talked a little bit about some aspects as well.
Question is, you've mentioned aspects of the temple in the discussion because there are similarities, but if someone wants to ask you, that's what I'm doing now.
How would you explain the difference between them not, not in terms of so much their physical structure, but their meanings? Yeah, that's a really good question. And I think the most high level answer I could give on that is that the temple points to.
Millennial truth when the Kingdom of Christ is is set up on this earth and and that for any younger one who's not familiar with what the Millennium is, it's when the Lord Jesus comes back to this earth with his bride. We come with him and he sets up his thousand year Kingdom reign on earth. And so I think I think there is some truth with respect to the Millennium that's seen there in picture.
Is that right guys?
Yeah, one of the interesting differences.
Is that, you know, we've talked about the structure of the Tabernacle and all of those things. We talked about the ceiling. We never talked about the floor. The floor of the Tabernacle was the sand of the wilderness. The floor of the temple is gold. And it just again speaks of Christ and his established Kingdom rather than the wilderness journey.
And I think, you know, we're talking about the arc a little bit. And those staves were pulled out of the ark, were they not? And put in that they're, they're kept in the temple. But the wilderness journey was done. And but with the Tabernacle, those staves, as I understand it, stayed in the ark. They were not to be removed because again, the Tabernacle was for the wilderness and they were journeying along and carrying these things with them.
00:05:05
And and it would again speak to us.
Of our wilderness journey, but the Lord being right there with us all the way through.
So that was a good question, unless Nate, do you have more to add to that or no? Does any other brother have anything to add to this?
I was just curious and the tribulation isn't there going to be a temple set up and destroyed?
Yeah, so when the.
When the Jews come back at the start of the Tribulation period, they're going to build a temple in unbelief and they're going to carry on with their worship in an outward form, in an outward way, and sacrifices. The whole sacrificial system, as I understand it, will come back into play.
Mixed within this this this assembly, if you will, of of of the Jewish system will be a mixture of both real and unbelieving.
Jews and some will have faith, some will not.
And what will happen is when the Antichrist rises up in the middle of Daniel 70th week or the tribulation as we know it in the middle of that week, he will, he will set up an idolatrous image of the beast and he will force the, the worship of the beast upon all his subjects in, in, in the land of Israel. But also it'll spread out into the.
Western prophetic Earth.
We don't have really time to, I think, start getting into all of that, but.
But that temple will be there and rebuilt in unbelief. Now. Did you ask if it was going to be destroyed? Is that right?
Before. Before the Millennium? Does somebody have a answer on that?
No.
That temple that they built will be destroyed by the Assyrian army, is that right?
Yeah, yeah, I believe that's right. And so there will be another temple built during the Millennium, and you can read about it in the last few chapters of Ezekiel.
I've got a chart in my Bible of some of the dimensions from the one end to the other. It was 500 reeds, which I understand is a mile long.
So there's there's coming glory. We can't even.
Begin to think of.
So just on the note of the Jewish remnant, there's going to be those amongst those Jews who will have to flee from their system of worship. That was because what will happen is they'll, the, the Antichrist will, will put an end to that. And those with faith, you read about it in Matthew 24 that they, the Lord warns them saying that, you know, when you see the abomination of desolation set up in the temple, you're to flee. Don't look back.
Don't go back to grab your clothes or anything like that. You got to make make haste and get out and flee. And so they will, they'll run and hide in the mountains and in in various areas. So just to finish the thought on that.
Yeah, and I think if you go into the Psalms, you'll see that if I remember right, I can and don't ask me to pinpoint where it is, but I if I remember right, you see the the temple, I think coming under destruction there by the Assyrian army, which is a 10 nation confederacy of Muslim nations coming through that the Lord allows to come through the land of Israel and devastated, totally wipe it out.
But the Lord will protect his his remnant from that, and roughly 2/3 of the Jews will die in the land, 2/3 of which will won't have faith.
So it'll be a judgment upon them.
OK, so with regards to the Ark of the Covenant, I've heard a little bit about this but I'm not entirely clear. But I understand that if someone was to look into the Ark of the of the Ark of the Covenant it they would mean death for them. Could you explain why that would be?
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Good.
Well, I might need help help on this, but we know that all the aspects of the the Tabernacle and the furniture speaks of Christ and I've heard it suggested that looking into the yard is like trying to.
Understand the details of who he is as God and man and trying to wrap their mind around it. And that's something that's just too far for us to to go. We can't take that in. Would that be right?
Yeah, there's a good verse in Matthew 1127 that we know very well, but let's read. It says all things are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father neither knoweth any man. The Father saved the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. So it's beyond our, as Nate says, beyond our our natural mind to contemplate the mystery of the person of Christ.
God and man and the same person and many people have gotten into serious errors.
And and have really.
I don't know how else to put it. They just other than incredible error and and and stumbled themselves really when they have tried to delineate the and and pick apart, if I can say it that way, the person of Christ.
We cannot do that. It's beyond us. He's 100% God and he's 100% holy man. He is the God man and.
It's not for us to look into that ark and, and, and understand that. I mean, think of it. Think, think of this. Here was the lowly Son of man who is the Son of God who came into the world. And there he lay in Bethlehem's Manger and he was upholding all things by the word of his power at the same time. And yet he was dependent upon his earthly mother.
Mary, and yet he was giving to her.
The very breath that she breathed and the strength that she needed to pick him up at the same time so he was sustaining her life while being dependent upon her for his natural life.
Can you understand that?
But it's the truth, and we need to leave those things with God because we cannot mind the depths of that.
It is beautiful and we need to leave it there.
David, I think, might have a thought. So one thing that was helpful to me is John, Chapter one and the ark had four sides to it and there's four walls that we could see here in John one, one and two.
Two in the beginning was the word. That's one wall or one side of the ark.
And the Word was with God, another side. And the Word was God and another side. The same was in the beginning with God, the last side. And as has been mentioned, if we try to dissect and break down those things.
As it will ruin our spiritual life.
We're I'm going to make a confession here. I really have.
A hard time remembering chapter verse references.
And probably not unique. So where is that?
That that situation where the man put his hand to the ark, right?
This is this is a picture of it. What chapter? Where is that first?
Salmon No.
Samuel for Samuel.
Second Samuel 6. Second Samuel 6. All right.
Verse seven Yeah, so let's just read this second Samuel 6 again. David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel. 30,000 And David arose and went with all the people that were with him from Bayali of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims. And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the House of Abinadab that was in Gibeah and Uza in Ohio, the sons of.
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The new cart. And they brought it out of the House of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah accompanying the ark of God. And Ohio went before the ark. And David and all the House of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of firwood, even on harps, and on on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nakin's threshing floor, Uza put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against us, and God smote him there for his error, and there he died by the ark of God. And David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon us. A and he called the name of the place Parazuza to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and said, How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?
So I think this is a little bit of a picture of, of just what we're talking about. It's it's a man trying to put his hand on the ark. He's trying to trying to stabilize it, if you will, and, and, and, and.
Trying to lay hold on it can't do it, can't do it and and as a result of it, you know.
He lost his life. And that's a little bit of a picture of someone trying to look into the person of Christ, trying to make sense of it and.
And in a in a sense, they they they fall into some sort of failure.
Deep failure.
To do so.
It's in First Samuel 619 where you have the men of Beth Shemesh were 53,000 or 56,000 but I'll just read it and he smote the men of Beth Shemesh because they have looked into the ark of the Lord. Even he smote of the people 50,000 and three scoring 10 men and the people lamented because the Lord has smitten many.
The people with great slaughter. The person of Christ is not for our curiosity.
I think it's also interesting to see in that passage in Second Samuel 6 how David had good intentions, but it wasn't according to the Lord's mind. And so again, how careful we might have the best of intentions, but there's a way to handle.
God's things and.
Certainly the person of Christ.
On that as well, you would note that the Phyllis signs also transported the Ark on a cart and they weren't smitten. They had to have handled it when they set it up on the Ark. They weren't smitten. Why? Because they were not responsible. Because they hadn't been given the Word of God.
And I think there's a lesson there too, right? Where?
The ark needs to be carried. Let me back up. The ark can only be properly carried by the people of God.
And what I mean by that is, is that it is only the people of God who can appreciate the person of Christ. I mean, applying some sort of worldly way of transporting the ark through the world, as the Philistines did and doesn't work right. And we didn't mention it the other night, but I thought about this after that, you know, when the priest would, I believe it was the priest that carried the ark, was it not?
And what's that? The Levi? The Levi's?
Yeah, OK, well, that that Levites for sure, Yes, but I heard too that maybe it's the priest. But anyhow, I digress. The.
The Levites who carried the Ark.
Where would when they put that those staves on their shoulders, the ark was above their heads, right? The ark was above their heads. And again, going to back to what we're saying the, the the person of Christ, it's, it's above us. He is above us.
The other thing about that is when they went to carry it, it had already been covered with a covering of blue and then a badger skins on top of that. So they were they were specifically directed not to enter in and and assume control of the ark until the priests.
I covered it, right. Let's brace coverings. And so it's that heavenly character, but then completely shrouded from outside observation because it has no place. And that might be what I'm thinking of. Tim with the priest had to go in and cover it and then the Levites could pick up with it and and carry it out. Yeah.
00:20:16
Maybe you could clarify that covering Tim when when they're journeying just looking at numbers for. I had taken it the other way around so maybe I could be corrected.
Numbers four and.
Verse five. And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering veil, and cover the ark of Testimony with it. And she'll put there on the covering of badger skins, and she'll spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and she'll put in the staves thereof. So I had taken that as the blue is what was visible. Is that right?
Welcome to another session of the Tabernacle talks around the table, where we sit and enjoy thoughts of our Lord Jesus Christ, the beauties of what he has given us in this beautiful structure. Tonight we're going to take up the.
I outside, that's it. The outside is what we're going to take up tonight. And so with that, I'd like to go over just a brief review of what we have here. We've covered a few points that would be worth reviewing again, and that is this Tabernacle, as we discussed several sessions ago, was the first time that God could dwell with man.
And we saw earlier that.
The patriarchs did not get to dwell with God. They spoke with God, they walked with God. But to dwell with man was a was a new thing. And God wanted to do that with Israel and he wanted to dwell in the midst of them as well. And that's why the Tabernacle is ludicrated in the middle of the children of Israel, which is numbering well over a million people.
We read in Exodus 2 and in the other Pentateuch books. There the ones that follow.
That it was instructed by divine command. Moses was to follow everything that God gave him.
The pattern, we've been going over the pattern in various aspects. We're going to go over further pattern tonight as well. And so it is a divine pattern that if you read later on in Hebrews, Hebrews 9 and 10, why, we'll find out that this is a pattern of heavenly things.
And then also there's a devotedness to God as well that the people had the opportunity to come and show their appreciation and their and their ability to come before him in a variety of ways. They're devotedness and we'll talk more about that. Here is an illustration that I think is beautiful here that I came across.
That is worth looking at a little closer.
And basically this is showing the overall scene as we see here and we see.
The Tabernacle itself faces east, and so this session here we're going to be going through the gate, we're going to be going into inside the gate and going up into.
The brazen altar and all into the labor as well.
Here's a top down view as well. And with my mouse, I can think I can show a little bit about what this might be. So people would come in through the gate. We're going to talk about how wide the gate was, and they would come and the priest would help them sacrifice. And then beyond that, the priest would be working with cleaning themselves in the labor and moving on into what we've spoken to already, the priests themselves being able to go into the holy place.
And the high priest of the Aaron particularly would go into the Holy of Holies. So this is a top down view of the idea is that the general public would be able to come inside the gate and be able to offer their sacrifices at this large brazen altar which we're going to take up.
Here's another cutaway here as well from the side and we're going to go over the particular gate of the the particular fencing, the court itself and we're going to cover the gate as well momentarily.
00:25:07
I guess, Josh, I would bring you in on this here as well.
Let's bring you, Let's bring you in.
You and I have been having conversations over the last couple months about about this, and we're going to talk about particulars of the posts here as well as which side of the fencing it is. But this fence, this Tabernacle fabric of the court fabric was 7 1/2 feet high, Is that correct? Right.
So that's that's something that no one be able to look over. They would not be able to see what's going on inside.
Anybody that was within any range that they probably couldn't look over that and see see anything, right. Correct. So why don't you take it, take it from there in terms of where we're going to be covering. I'll just back up a slide here. This is the court gate and pillars. That was our first topic for this evening then. Was that correct? Right. Yeah, Yeah. There's something very beautiful about this and.
Course. I mean, the whole topic of the Tabernacle is just laden with beauty.
But as it relates in particular to the gospel, we see a lot of gospel truth, I think in the outer court and in the gate that leads then into the court. And the first thing that someone sees is the brazen altar, which we'll speak about in a few minutes. But what we have in the court itself is there's 60 pillars. It's about, it's a, you know, about 150 feet.
Long by 70 feet wide, 75 feet wide.
And we have in this depiction here a a the curtain that went around it was all of white. And again, this would speak to us of our Lord Jesus and his spotless purity, his holy humanity. And maybe we'll just read in Exodus 27, verse 9. This is where we find it. And it says, and thou shalt make the court of the Tabernacle.
For the South side, southward, there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of 100 cubits long for one side, and the 20 pillars thereof, and their 20 sockets shall be of brass. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
And likewise for the Northside and length there shall be hangings of 100 cubits long and his 20 pillars and their 20 sockets of brass, the hooks of the pillars, and there's fillets of silver. And for the breath of the court on the West side, she'll be hangings of 50 cubits or pillars 10, in their sockets 10. And the breadth of the cord on the east side eastward shall be 50 cubits of hangings of the one side of the gate shall be 15 cubits, their pillars 3, in their sockets 3.
And on the other side should be hanging 15 cubits or pillars 3 in their sockets 3.
Let's just stop there. So this is really Christ in his holy, spotless humanity. He is the faithful and true witness. And what does the world see? What does the world see when it comes to the gospel? We present Christ, right? We hold him forth and and the world sees the Lord Jesus Christ in his holy, spotless humanity. This was something.
Very evident in His own life as He walked amongst men for 3 1/2 years and they witnessed His moral glory and His beauty in that respect. They had no appreciation of it aside from those who were His true disciples. Disciples indeed.
But what is interesting is that.
The pillars, which I don't want to jump ahead too far here because I think it's important that we get to the gate, which also speaks of Christ. But this this covering was around the the outside, obviously, and there was pillars that that that went all around the court to provide the structure and the pillars, I believe, would speak again of you and I right, go ahead.
Wasn't this the only thing that was wood that was not covered?
Leave a medal. So again, I agree. I think it speaks to speaks of us, right. And you know, you and I were talking about this a little bit earlier today and it was interesting that that even the wood itself, as far as I am aware, is not, we're not told what kind of wood it is. You know, we, when we were in looking at the Tabernacle building, it was very clear on what the boards were to be made out of, right? The Shittim wood or as we understand it, Acacia wood.
00:30:05
But that is not, we're not told that. And I it's interesting and you know, we were talking about this and I just wonder, and this is just a thought, but you know, we, we really need to get out of the way when it comes to the gospel because it's not about us. We hold it forth. We, we present Christ to the world, but it's not about us. It's not about you or me.
We have no glory in it. We should just be.
Be basically we I think of that verse we preach not ourselves the Christ Jesus the Lord and I think we we might see that here a little bit. The apostle Paul said that he would bring nothing to them save Christ and him crucified. And those posts were capped with silver. So those that were on the outside could see the silver above the white, which speakers of redemption as we've already talked about and they were set.
Brats, which is a reminder of Christ's work and securing their their salvation. So for those who know the value of what's on the inside, there's a responsibility in a certain sense to hold that out as available for others. You have you mentioned there's 60 pillars and that's 5 * 12.
In five being the man's responsibility.
To hold out God's truth, his divine things, and and to bring in the people through that gate that you were talking about. Yeah. And you know, these pillars were socketed in brass and as you pointed out, Tim, they were capped with silver. And so as applying it to ourselves here, we.
We see that the groundwork.
For us is is a work that has been completed by the Lord Jesus Christ, founded in in divine judgment that he is answered to men and his responsibility and perfection. That groundwork is is on the basis of judgment. But he is now the captain of our salvation. And that chapter that stood on top was made of silver Speaking of that redemption.
Beauty. And so we are under the the claims of redemption now.
And it it, and I think, you know, we read about it of in Ephesians 6 about the helmet of salvation, right? We now wear that, if you will. It's a wonderful thing. Now there's there's something that that joined each pillar and now there there's various thoughts on this. But if it's if it's correct, there are these fillets.
Or connecting rods that went between the pillars. Some people think it actually wrapped around the pillar. I don't know, but I do like the thought that if these connecting rods would.
Sit between each pillar there, there they were silver as well. And again, they're called fillets here. That would That's a nice thought. You know what? What joins us together? It's redemption. It's beautiful, isn't it?
Those of like, precious faith. Yeah. Yeah.
So, so Josh, is that what we see on the screen, the cords and the pins, is that what you're referring to? Well, no, those so there were cords and pins which were made of brass.
And and so those were there to to provide additional stability to the pillars as well.
But there are also like on this model here.
It's not sure if you're able to bring it up, bring a screen, but you can see there's these rods that went between each pillar. I'm not sure if you can see that very well, but that provided additional stability to those rods at the top.
But you know, now that you bring up the cords and the pins, I mean, I think what we can get from that is, is that again there it provided additional stability.
And I think what we can apply this to is the divine principles of the Word of God that help us to stand.
I've enjoyed that thought. And Josh, this is your thought and I'm going to kick it back to you. But just as a reminder, you were talking about how many knots there was work involved in in putting this together. 950, is that right? Yeah. Well, and I, I haven't gone through to actually count this or figure it out. And I'm, I'm not too sure I know who I got this from, but it was quoted third hand from I think a reliable source, but.
The, the mirror rights as I understand it, I think we're involved with this work. And yeah, 950 knots. I mean that's, that's a lot of knots to tie. But there is a nice thought there because we need people to bind up the testimony and to help with with.
00:35:18
That that practical shepherding help, if you will, of of keeping the Saints tied down secure, standing upright and grounded. That's that's probably the best word, grounded.
And and that's on the basis of the word of God, right? So just to recap on that, Josh. So a couple things that notes I was just taking away from what you're saying is, and I have it up on the screen here where there's there's the tie insurance between the posts, right? OK. And then there's the tie downs down in the thing. And and so it speaks of again, recap again, for those of us just catching on to this, those, those things that are tying us together and then grounding this as well, right? So the we read of the fillets, right?
And those are the connecting rods that went between the posts. And then there's the cords that came down from the from the top of the post down. And there were the pins that they tied them to basically 10 pegs what they were.
Thank you.
So then we, we have to come through the gate, right, Right. So what does, what does that speak to yourself? The world sees Christ in his Father's humanity. They see what? And before we answer that, what keeps man away from God is really the principle of his his righteousness. And there's an element of this in the white.
Of purity of holy, The holiness of God, of of the the holy.
Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it's interesting that man cannot come through that without going through the gate. And often what keeps man at a distance is his sin and and and the holy righteousness of God, right. There's a barrier. There's a barrier there. Yeah. Your sins have separated you between you and your God. The verses is that.
So the the gate was made again, a fine twine linen, but it was.
There was the same three colors woven in that had been there that we talked about already for the door and the veil. There was the blue suddenly character and the purple.
His character is Son of Man, and then the red. His character is the Son of David. And so we have his moral glory, his heavenly glory. His glory is the Son of Man, and then the glorious, the Son of David. And there's no cherubim's on the door.
More about that in a minute.
But it's interesting to note that as you consider this, this gate, I think I said door because that's what Scripture actually calls it, but it's actually just to keep things clear.
The gate, the door of the Veil.
When when you look at this gate, it was made-up of the same amount of material as the door in the veil.
But it was half as tall and twice as wide, which really speaks of the fact that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And and so then there was also a lack of cherubim in the gate, which speaks of that judicial character. And so I think it's John 317 says that God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world to him might be saved.
So the gate was wide, is what you're saying. There's room to enter, and there were four pillars, 4 being a universal number. And so the gospel goes out, whosoever will.
7075 feet wide. Correct. It would have been 15 feet times 2. So 30 feet approximately. Yeah. The gate. The gate. Yeah. And help us out just a little bit. So people would stand on the outside was the gate. We don't know if the gate was always open or or shut. It was close. It was close. It had to go through it. OK. And And then and then people were coming and bringing their sacrifices to the brazen altar right inside the gate. Right.
And it just speaks again of Christ as the Way, OK, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me there had to be entry through that gate.
Yeah. So the gate though, so the Sinner, the seeking sinners on the outside, they have to come through the gate. So as it relates to the Gospels, what we're talking about here is, is that there is no other way. So Tim, you quoted that verse in John 14 and.
00:40:02
Verse 6 Jesus said I am the way, so He is the way to the Father. He is the truth about the Father and He gives life to bring us into relationship with the Father, right?
No other way to God and into his presence. I mean, the ultimate goal here is to get from the gate, through the door and into the through the veil, which is to say his flesh has been rent in twain. That veil of the temple has been split, as we talked about last night, and right into the presence of God. That is what God wants for men. So, Josh, I'll ask you a question.
Someone goes through that gate typically. Are they saved yet? No, no, and I wasn't going to say that. Actually. You need the gate and the door for salvation.
But the door, you can't have the door without the gate, right? So you enter through the gate, and that is someone coming through.
Through Christ. But they need the sacrificial work of Christ to have their sins dealt with on a righteous basis. So that leads us then right to the brazen altar, right?
Beautiful. So the brazen altar is found in Exodus 27.
Yeah, might be good to read those verses. Nate, do you want to read verses 1 to not? It's one to 8. Exodus 27 verse one. And thou shalt make an altar of shittimwood, 5 cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be 4 square, and the height thereof shall be 3 cubits, and thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof.
His horns shall be of the same, and thou shalt overlay it with brass, and thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basins, and his flesh hooks, and his fire pans. All the vessels thereof show thou shalt make of brass, and thou shalt make for it a great of network of brass.
And upon the net shalt thou make 4 brazen rings in the four corners thereof, and thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar.
And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittimwood, and overlay them with brass. And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it hollow with board shalt thou make it. As it was showed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.
So again, we we see this expression Foursquare and you guys were commenting on God's desire for man that the gate is wide.
And, and it's available for all. And here the, the brazen altar is really what the cross is to Christianity. It's the cross and it's Foursquare. It goes out.
To all, to any any who will come.
Can come and receive of that work of Christ goes out to all, so it blocks access any further. For those that are entering that gate, the first thing they see is that brazen altar signifying that the only way you can proceed further there has to be a sacrifice.
I praise an altar. We've already talked a little bit about propitiation, which relates to the mercy seat, but the brazen altar, its substitution, it's that sacrificial work.
Just thinking of a verse in regards to that in Isaiah chapter 53. Again, very familiar verse to everyone.
But Isaiah chapter 53.
And verse 10.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. This is the part when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. It's the substitutionary work of Christ taking the guilt of our sins upon Himself and.
It's him for us. It goes back again to that first Peter 318 verse that we referenced before, the just for the unjust right. So the substitutionary work that was accomplished there.
Can we go over a little bit about the measurements of the of the brazen altar?
It was. I'm going to put a picture up on the screen here. It was quite high, correct?
Yeah. And I wonder if that, I mean if what was it here? It was 5 cubits long and five cubits broad, and the height thereof shall be 3 cubits. So yeah, I guess 4 1/2 feet. There you go, 4 1/2 feet.
00:45:14
Yeah. So it was a big, it was a big structure if if that's what we want to call it. And to recognize the great where the sacrificial animals were being put on was halfway down, halfway down a cubit and a half high. You know, I think of that and and I think of our Lord when he was suffered on the cross, that there was no eye that could see that the Lord blanketed.
The the scene in Night and.
He dealt with.
With sin, and you know, I think of that in relation to this, where that net that great was halfway down. Nobody could look and see that. And again, we were speaking earlier about just things that we just do not understand.
Whether it's the person of Christ beyond our thoughts and our understanding or the work of Christ, which also exceeds our natural finite minds to even comprehend what those three hours of darkness really meant those those internal sufferings, right. So that which characterizes soul. And you know, we read about that in Psalms 22 and Psalm 69 and.
Nothing that we can enter into there in the garden.
Well, actually before that in John chapter 12, he said, now is my soul trouble. And when he was in those three hours of darkness, there was that which impacted him, body, soul and spirit. That this I think that internal great has to do with this internal sufferings that, like you say, we could have no ability to conceive or enter into and why, why we're on the height of that great. This is the beautiful thing I've enjoyed about the Tabernacle over the years.
Is the height of that great? Was the exact same height as the table of Showbread.
Which is the exact same height as the mercy seat back in the Holy of Holies. Isn't that beautiful?
Just to rough thought it out, like you said, Josh, the sacrifice was hidden down there and all the judgment, if you could say it was being taken out on that sacrifice on that grade which was hidden based on this what we see. But then you and I can come in as priests and enjoy communion with one another, with God as with the table of showbread, but then back in the holy to holies.
That mercy seat was the exact same height where that blood is being put on there for atonement.
Very nice, I'm so enjoyed that. Maybe one of you could help me with this. There's various sacrifices that took place on that brazen altar. There were some daily ones, is that right? And and a yearly 1.
Any significance to that?
I only I've only considered two and that was that the burnt offering has to do with our acceptance before God, whereas the sin offering has to do with our forgiveness.
I'd love to hear more.
Good thoughts. I can't add to that. That's very good. Well, just we do know, we do know the Leviticus 123 and four.
There were, we've mentioned this before, there are free will offerings, offerings that were being voluntarily brought into that gate that the priests were going to offer, right? Could be an animal, could be meal.
And and that's what I mean when I say daily yes.
And then there's the sin offering, which is mandatory or trespass offering as well. True. Yeah. I'm from a Levitical standpoint. If you go to Leviticus, it starts with the burnt offering, right? It goes to the meal offering and then it has the peace offering, then the sin and trespass offerings. That's pretty interesting order of things. I was struck by that when I was considering that because like I said at the very beginning, I used to kind of think of all of these things having to do with.
Where our atonement?
That's part of it, but essentially has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ and when we talk about the burnt offering in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 2.
I believe it gives to us the the burnt offering in regards to the work of Christ.
And and what it meant to God. And Ephesians 5 and verse two it says as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us in offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour, so there was acceptance in that work, but it was a sweet savour to God because of the work of His Son and.
00:50:13
So that's God's satisfaction and and enjoyment.
Regarding the work of Christ in death and then the meal offering is dissatisfaction regarding the perfect.
Lock the evenness of character, the moral glories of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life. And the peace offering really has to do with communion, right? It's not peace with God, it's the peace of God. And the peace with God comes with the sin offering. And but it has to do with our community and it needed to be fresh, I don't think.
You didn't carry it forward beyond three days, so where was the sin offering? What's up? Where was the sin offering? Burn?
Where? Yeah, it wasn't on this altar, right? I mean, there was. It was taken without the camp and burned. Oh, yeah, That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah.
And you get that in Leviticus 4, right?
There were not to get off on a tangent here because I realized this subject, but I think there was, if you go through this chapter, you'll see the relation of the sin offering as as what the priest was to do. And I think there were certain elements of it that was was put on the burnt offering. But the carcass, it's flesh, its head, the legs inwards, it's done. It was carried forth onto a clean place, burnt without outside the camp, and there it was dealt with right. But the burnt offering.
This is where it was. It was had. It was on. On this altar, this brazen altar.
And it's so it's God's portion, right? Yeah, it's God's side of the cross. But it also says in Leviticus one that it shall be in verse four, it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. So atonement is attached to that God's side of the cross, but also it shall be accepted for an atonement for the offer, right? And sorry, just. And just to make mention, in both the burnt offering and the sin offering, the man was to lay his head.
Hand, hand on the head of the animal. Both, but with different meanings. And he had to kill it. And he had to kill it. Wow, that wasn't the priest killing the offering.
I know we've often been referring a little bit over to the book of Hebrews, especially chapters 9:00 and 10:00, but maybe we could read just a couple verses from chapter 10 in relation to the sacrifices. Verse one for the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the commerce there unto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered?
Because that the worshippers once purged, should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. And we could read further, but it goes on to compare those those offerings with the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself on the cross, and how much greater value He has.
And what all these offerings were pointing to.
What brazen altar points to.
You need you need Christ as your sacrifice if you want any access to God.
There's a couple of other things regarding the brazen altar, I think, before we move on from it again.
The this altar being made of brass and wood.
Would really point out to us that.
This would structure this wood alter was overlaid with brass. Again, brass would would be able to withstand the, the, the fire, right? And and this is the predominant metal that that is on the outside. It's it's brass and silver, gold is on the inside and it would be that which could withstand the fire. So what we have here is judgment.
Right judgment is predominantly the thought here, but there's horns on the four corners, there's rings on the sides for the staves. And I'll just offer a couple quick thoughts on that. The, the, the horns would speak. I think of, of perhaps the, the strength of his devotedness and of his will to, to do the will of God. And, and you know, you think of, of the ram caught in a thicket by his horns.
Right in Genesis. And it's the strength of his love that held him to the cross, not the nails.
00:55:02
And I think we see something of his love again last night, and I wish we we had more time to develop these thoughts and chew on this a little bit more together.
But you remember there were rings on the sides which speak about the love of God, but those rings in the corner of the building. I was thinking about this a little bit more today, just how that speaks of the love of God and it's his eternal love. And, and, and where was the the pivotal point in that structure and the strongest place?
Was in the corners, and it was secured on the bottom and on the top by a ring. Beautiful thought. And we see the love of God here too on the sides of this ark. So we have the strength of His will and devotedness to His Father. To, to to do His will and be that sacrifice, but also His love that caused Him to do it.
Isn't that borne out? I'm correct me if I'm wrong, Aren't the rings at the same level as the great, which is where the sacrificing place very nice.
Yeah, very nice. Yeah.
The other thing about this raise an altar.
Was that the fire was never quenched. It just speaks of the thought. I believe that the remembrance of Calvary will it will be eternal.
So for anybody who's listening to this and wondering, well, how does this apply to me and if you're not a Christian?
What we're saying to you tonight is that you need to come in through the way that is Christ, and you need His work done on the cross.
And you need to accept that work because it is only that work, and that work alone, through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and through the work of the cross, the work of redemption, you need that to be saved. You cannot get in to the building here, which is the place of Christian privilege, where we say you're saved and on your way to heaven and you can enjoy heavenly things. You can't go in until you pass by.
The brazen altar, which is the cross.
Every Sinner has to pass through the cross, pass by it, and it is the cross that is the great divider in the world today. You're either on one side or you're on the other. You, you are either saved or you're lost. You're either going to heaven or you're going to hell. And that's the truth of it. But God is a God of grace, isn't He? And he wants to save us and bring us into his presence. And this is what we've been saying in the gate is wide open and the gate and the gate is wide and it's wide.
It's why he wants you to come in. He he's he's not putting up any any barriers for you to come in. It's wide open, but it has to come through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Foursquare measurement of this altar is the the gospel goes out to all and he wants to save anybody who might be listening to this tonight who's not saved. The gospel is for you. God loves you. And if you have doubts about whether you will be accepted if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just know that the blood from this altar was brought into the and put on the mercy seat. God accepted that work. So it's good enough for you as well. The thing that as we consider this from the gospel standpoint, we've already talked about this, we can see the heart of God manward through this. His desire was to go and meet men and and so everything that we've been talking about has been God's provision, everything.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the is the gate, He's the altar, He's the sacrifice, he's the high priest that then takes that blood, his blood to the mercy seat. Every provision has been made. There's nothing that the person that comes to that gate brings.
It's all provided by God.
Are we ready to move on past the brazen altar? But before we do, I did have one slide I think was appropriate. I'll throw it up here just before.
Where you put this together here, Josh, Christ crucified in weakness and meeting man's responsibility in full, answering to God's righteous judgment as a sacrifice for sinners.
So before we move on to the labor to wrap things up, we have the gate, John 14, The Lord Jesus said I'm the way, the truth and the life. John chapter 10.
We have the door, I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall go in and out and find pastor. He is the door into Christian privileges. And then we go through the veil which brings us into his immediate presence as believers today.
01:00:02
And just to, I just want to stop really just to make sure this, I'm putting up this on the slide. The gate is sitting around here in front the door. We've covered this in last session here. This is the door in the Tabernacle. And then beyond in there is the veil. And we've mentioned this before and I'll mention again, the veil is rent and our souls can draw near because of what has happened out here at the brazen altar.
So once you get to the other side of the brazen altar.
That's the priest domain, is that right? Right. The priest would go back and forth from the brazen altar, past the labor into the the door and dealing with the furniture in there. But there's a difference in Christianity once you.
See the value of the brazen altar and see the value of the cross and what happened there.
And the blood is applied to your heart. You are now a priest.
And you now have the privilege to pro ceed as we go through these.
The next piece of furniture the the labour. It's something for the priests.
So moving on, we have the labor here, which we find in Exodus 3017 through 21. Does you want to read just a couple verses of that, Nate?
Exodus 30, verse 17.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a Laver of brass, and his foot also a brass to wash with all, And thou shalt put it between the Tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein for Aaron. And the sun shall wash their hands and their feet thereat. When they go into the Tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water that they die not, or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord.
So they shall wash their hands, and their feet that they dine not.
And it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him, and to his seed throughout their generations.
So this labor was made out of the looking glasses of the women? And is that in Chapter 38? I think that's where we get that, if I remember right.
Verse 8 And he made the labor of brass in the foot of it, of brass of the looking glasses. So these were mirrors, right? They would shine this this metal up, and it would reflect their image of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation.
So this.
Vessel was something for the cleansing of the priests.
So Nate, you've reminded us that after being saved, we are now constituted as priests before God. We had it today. We're a royal priesthood. We're a holy priesthood and we can OfferUp sacrifices of praise to God and our lives as a living sacrifices as we have in Romans chapter 12 and so on. And and so we we have a priestly work toward God and toward this world, right?
But I need this. I need this vessel.
For my daily cleansing for or at least what it speaks to us of and I look into it and I find water and I think again, this was made of solid brass and I don't think there were any measurements here, right? No measurements, no. And so my need of cleansing, can we say it cannot be really measured? That is practical cleansing each day and and the way in which I cleanse myself is through self judgment.
By the word of God, the water of the Word, that's what we have here in, in the brass and, and, and the the water within it. Is that right?
Right.
And just for a reference point, I will just put a quick slide up here. There's a picture of the priest washing his hands out. Again, as you said, we know that there's no measurements. And so there's various renditions of the labor, whether it had a foot of foot washing or or or not, but it doesn't matter. The need for cleansing was still there for the priests. And I believe Scripture says that it did have a foot. I can't remember the the exact reference for that, but it does have a foot.
The other thing just to did you find, did you get to Ephesians 5? Do you want to read that? When, when while Nate's turned into that, it's made of brass, which still speaks of divine righteousness, right and judgment. And you referred to it, it has to do with self judgment and in that regard, and it's still it's not for the center that was the the brazen altar, but it's for the priests.
01:05:16
So Ephesians 5 and start at the middle of verse 25.
Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word.
So there you have the washing of water connected with the word of God. So there's an element here of practical sanctification, right? And.
And Nate, maybe you can, you had some thoughts here which you can share. But it's interesting, it does say that they needed to wash there because if they didn't and they entered in unwashed, they would die. And there's a, a moral application to that, is there not where if we are coming into the presence of the Lord.
Death really is it brings before a separation, right and and and there would there it speaks to us, I believe, of of a separation of communion with the Lord. If I'm getting all dirty with the world's things as a Christian now because I'm I'm a priest here I am in my standing. I'm a priest, but I may not be priestly.
And and I don't wash and I go in.
But I, I'm, I'm out of communion, there's, there's death there in a sense, correct?
So when we're going to do priestly work, as you're referring to it, we know worship is, is one of those things the the priests would want to go into the, the holy place and the most holy and, and offer their incense and, and.
Partake of of those the furniture there, but what I see in in this phrase that they die not that.
It's not necessarily typically for us that we would die if we're not cleansed physically like what you're saying, Josh, but as a priest, we may die.
While we're unclean, we may not be in the state where we're able to worship. We may be, you know, coming in to remember the Lord, and we can feel within our own heart that there's nothing there.
And in that sense, it's because we haven't washed with the water of the Word, and for that time we're dead as priests.
When there's a couple of words that have just been used, Josh used the word standing and they you use the word state and it probably be good to clarify with that. Our standing has to do with the work on the brazen altar. The labor speaks to a state right? The washer and water by the word does not cleanse us from sin from the standpoint of making us accepted to God only the blood without the shedding of blood there is no remission, but it has to do with the.
Of our state of soul, we don't ever lose our salvation, but there's a need for practical righteousness through the cleansing of self judgment and washing of water by the word is this also brought out in the Lord Jesus in the upper room when the Passover was complete? You got it there too. I'll brush it over and we'll throw some thoughts but it's so beautiful. The Lord Jesus has had the Passover and he he.
Steps aside and guards himself with a linen towel.
Gets on his hands and knees and goes down the disciples and washes their feet right. He comes to Peter. Peter says, Oh no, not me, Lord.
Lord says if you don't want, If I don't, how how's it go? Well, Peter asked the Lord to wash him from his head to his feet.
The Lord said that's not necessary for your cleanse, but not all Speaking of Judah and he was referring to this principle that we're talking about that has to do with.
That, yeah, that the daily cleansing that's necessary to maintain our state because communion is associated with that. Beautiful. Anyway, I just want to bring that in. It's a beautiful, beautiful application. So maybe to wrap this up.
Nate, you had some thoughts on sanctification. So we have practical sanctification at the labor, maybe define what sanctification is, but there's other aspects of sanctification, right? That's right. So sanctification.
Way you could understand it is it means set apart. Oftentimes it's interchangeable with the word holiness. Not always, but generally it's set apart for a holy purpose.
01:10:14
But sanctification is spoken of in different ways in Scripture, and with the three things that we've talked about tonight, I think you see sanctification in three different aspects. So I wonder, Mark, if you could use this camera and I could make.
I'm going to actually.
Yeah, good company. Hang on a second here. All right, here we go.
OK, here we go. There it is on the screen. You're going to have to pull it out.
A little bit.
It's honed in on there you go, there you go.
All right, so I'll start from the, the outside and work my way in. So on the outside, outside of the, the linen hangings that we were talking about, you have, you could say the, the mass of humanity. There's nothing sanctified about it. They're just, you know, the common, common man. They're they're out there in the wilderness, out there in the world.
But when they come through the gate, they're now surrounded by those hangings. They're now in a sanctified place. They're in a set apart place. That is, it has a border all the way around it. They're not out there in the in the wilderness like they were before.
There's an aspect of sanctification with that.
We know that there's there's a verse in First Corinthians that speaks of the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife. And so that's not Speaking of.
A standing or a position necessarily, but just the fact that by association and by proximity there is a sanctifying element to to that person. And so they go in the gate. They are you could say externally sanctified or.
Relatively sanctified relative to all the people out there in the wilderness there in a sanctified place, but they're not saved. Where you get salvation is that the brazen altar? That's where we get our our standing. That's where we get positional sanctification. That's where it's something that can never change once we're positionally sanctified, once we know the Lord is our Savior.
Our standing is secure. We can't lose that. But then you go on to the labor. And Josh, you've already mentioned that this is practical sanctification. This is something for our daily lives as priests, as we live for the glory of the Lord.
It's it's a practical daily thing as we are washed and in that verse in Ephesians even says sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word.
And so there's I see three aspects of sanctification. First one is relative to everyone else out there. The second one at the brazen altar is positional. The third one at the laborers practical and daily.
And just to carry that thought forward with the brazen altar, at least just read in Hebrews 10 again.
Umm, verse 10 by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, And then verse 14 for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's positional sanctification. That's our standing in Christ that we cannot lose.
Well, if that's a wrap for this evening, I would just tell the listener that we have taken up a heavy topic that we have been much looking forward to, particularly with the brazen altar and the labor. And if has been said, and I'll say it again, if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you do know that the Lord Jesus died on the cross for you as your sacrifice and His blood would cleanse you from his from your sins.
And as we've talked on before, you will have peace with God.
Through the work of His son. So that's the hope and prayer of those of us here at the table and elsewhere too, that.
By seeing these little types in the Old Testament know the fact that the work has been accomplished through the through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. And so with that, we will turn next time into the priest garments and we look forward to seeing you again.
01:15:18
I know that we're very very very much overtime, but I'd like to just read.
A couple stanzas of him that I think really.
Applied this evening. This is 64 in the appendix. Though all the beasts that live and feed upon 1000 hills should bleed, though all their blood should flow, the sacrifice would be in vain.
The stain of sin would still remain. Sin is not canceled. So a better sacrifice than these. It needs the conscience to appease or satisfy the Lord.
No blood hath virtue to atone for men's offense, but his alone whose title is the word.
His who could say himself, the Son, my father and myself are one.
Who made the world around his who Jehovah's fellow stood.
And claimed equality with God, whose glory knows no bounds. Jesus the Christ on earth, His name. He came and loved to sinners, came and bowed his head and died.
A full atonement now is made.
The ransom by his death is paid and justice satisfied.
You know, there's one major difference.
We've been talking about the brazen altar and every single offer, every single sacrifice that was offered on the Brazen altar was fully consumed on that altar.
It was burnt up.
But there's one sacrifice that consumed the fire, and that's the Lord Jesus.
Because he was the perfect sacrifice. Let's give him thanks, our gracious God and our Father.
We thank thee for this time that we've had.
To be reminded of thy Holiness.
Of sanctification.
But most of all.
The cross.
And the sacrifice that was made on Calvary's cross.
Where the Lord Jesus?
The Lamb of God.
Laid down his life.
So that a fall.
Payment was made for our sin.
We thank the Lord Jesus that we have boldness to come into the presence of God because of Thy perfect work.
We thank thee for these pictures, these shadows.
That we see in the Tabernacle. We pray our God and our Father that it would affect our lives.
We ask this in the worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.