is going to be the last chapter on the tabernacle until there's a bit of a gear change the next
chapter we're going to get into the garments of Aaron the priest and move into some other things
but as we're finishing up with the tabernacle here in this section it says in chapter 27 verse 1
and thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood five cubits long and five cubits broad the altar
shall be four square and the height thereof shall be three cubits so this is the altar of the burnt
offering this is where the sacrifices are going to be performed and it's also known as the brazen
altar because it's going to be covered with brass brazen just simply means that it is covered in
brass but it's not solid brass because otherwise it would just be ridiculously heavy because this
is something that's portable remember all these objects are carried through the desert as they
wander in the wilderness and even once they get into the promised land the tabernacle is going
to move from place to place it's going to be in Shiloh for a long time eventually it's going to
end up in Jerusalem before it's replaced by the temple but this is something that's portable
everything has rings with staves through them so that it can be picked up and held but if you're
going to pick this thing up and carry it the bible says that it's going to be hollow it's made out of
wood it's hollow and then it's only just plated over or covered with brass we talked about this
type of wood here sheet team wood is not that's not an english word basically they just put the
hebrew word right there in english letters the shita or sheet team those words are both used in
the king james bible and this is a word that means scourge and again this the things in the
tabernacle picture the lord jesus christ they picture his beating and crucifixion and dying
for us and obviously the animal sacrifices that are being killed upon this altar are
ultimately picturing the lamb of god which take away the sin of the world all of this is
foreshadowing christ so especially this altar where animals are sacrificed is pointing us to
jesus christ who is the true sacrifice for our sins the bible tells in the book of hebrews it's
not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins so no one's sins were ever
actually forgiven because of an animal sacrificed upon an altar all that was was just symbolic okay
it was just pointing us to jesus christ nothing more it could it didn't intrinsically do anything
to actually forgive anyone by taking out their sins on an animal it's only symbolic that's why
doesn't happen anymore you know after the lord jesus christ this is done and there's no reason
to do this ever again and so it says they're going to make this altar of sheeting wood five cubits
long and five cubits broad five is a number in the bible that is associated with death if you
have read the book of first samuel remember how many people died when they were stabbed
underneath their fifth rib or for example the first man adam he dies in genesis five five the
first person to die after the new covenant is acts five five when ananias is killed and so this is a
number throughout the bible that's associated with death now one understand when it comes to numbers
in the bible there are a lot of numbers in the bible that have significance anybody who's even
just casually read the bible has noticed the significance of numbers like three four seven ten
forty thirty these numbers just coming up over and over again we don't want to mistake this with
numerology or kabbalah okay these are two different things and a lot of times people
mix these things up and they either go to one of two extremes they either say well don't talk
about numbers in the bible that's numerology that's divination that's kabbalah that's scary
stuff or they'll go to the other extreme of getting into the kabbalah and getting into all of
the weirdo stuff let me explain to you the difference okay when we talk about numerology
and uh that has to do with like an occult fortune-telling type of a horoscope use of numbers
okay which we don't believe in and when we talk about the kabbalah what they do is each hebrew
letter has a numeric value associated with it you know the numbers that we use where we write
a simp we don't we don't write the number one typically o-n-e we typically just write a number
one right we don't go t-w-o we put a two well those numbers that we use the one the two the
three that we're familiar with those are called arabic numerals okay those are actually invented
by the arabs and they were not around at the time of the bible okay in bible times you know
of course with the romans you have roman numerals but with greek and hebrew and a lot of other
ancient languages they would just use the letters of their alphabet as a number so it would be like
if we just used the letter a for our number one if we use the letter b for number two the letter
c for number three and basically they go that way up to uh the ninth and then all of a sudden
they start going by tens and this is how the number system works there's 22 letters in the
hebrew alphabet and then there's five special letters that go to the end of words you have 27
letters so basically what you end up with is one through nine ten through ninety a hundred through
nine hundred so from that you can construct all kinds of numbers okay great but here's the bad
thing here's the kabbalistic voodoo thing that people try to do with their bible codes and
everything is here's what they do instead of just opening the bible and just reading it as
in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth and just taking that for what it says for
what it means and letting the holy spirit speak to us through his word what they do is they say no
no no each letter has a numeric value so it's not even being used as a number they'll just take a
word and they'll just assign a number to each letter and then they'll start like doing math
and they'll find all these extra meanings in the bible that aren't actually there and the jews do
this and it's the basis of what's called kabbalah and of course kabbalah is this big rabbit hole
that you don't want to go down all right it's a dark path it's of the devil it's all kinds of
stuff because look these people are rejecting what god's actually saying so they're getting
superstitious about the text itself instead of like listening to what god's word is saying
when the bible says the word you know it's talking about what's being said not like oh
look at how it's spelled and and you know let's give it a numeric value and and add it up and
we do it across in this way and they come up with codes and it predicted everything from hitler
to 911 to whatever that's garbage friend it's a joke and i've already preached about the so-called
bible codes it's it's it's ridiculous you could take any book and you could find a pattern and
find hitler and 911 and everything else because of the fact that if you just put down tens of
thousands of letters on a page you're going to find something even by accident words are going
to start to form and so the whole thing is ridiculous it's nonsense it's been thoroughly
debunked it's easy to debunk but people eat things up like that and this is what always blows my mind
how people don't read the bible that we actually have here in our english language this marvelous
english bible the king james bible but they're out looking for the 67th book aren't they they
want to talk about the book of enoch they want to talk about the bible code well have you thought
about actually just reading it once cover to cover before you start looking for codes
it's ridiculous to sit there and look for some hidden meaning but see the jews they don't accept
what's actually being taught they reject moses they reject christ they they they don't believe
any of it and so therefore they'd rather make it mean what they want it to mean by just doing a
bunch of math doing a bunch of codes coming up with a bunch of voodoo to change what the bible
is actually saying so yes numbers in the bible have significance but only use the numbers that
are actually in the text you know if you want to use numbers to teach something use numbers that
are mentioned you know if the bible mentions a three that has significance bible mentions any
number everything in the bible has meaning but don't go to some code of well this letter stands
for this number it's ridiculous okay i mean there are different spelling variations throughout the
bible i mean throughout the bible in the in the hebrew and the greek things will be spelled
differently on different pages go back to that 1611 english replica things are spelled different
on different pages and you know what the king james bible that's in our hand right now is not
even close to being spelled the way that it was in 1611 right and yet king james bible preachers
today say oh even the spellings are inspired well that's funny because they've changed dramatically
since 1611 okay if you and go look at the replica if you don't believe me you're gonna find words
spelled completely different spellings don't matter right it's what's being said that matters
it's the word that matters it's a spoken word
capitalization punctuation spelling these things don't matter they're not significant
they weren't even around back when the bible was written and they've changed dramatic and this is
when people try to tell you oh you know the king james bible keeps changing you know what they're
talking about spellings punctuation capitalization but guess what those changes don't matter because
they don't change the meaning of the text in the end of the day it still says in the beginning god
created the heaven and the earth whatever you capitalize however you want to spell that it
doesn't matter unless you're going to get superstitious about the text so we have people
back in uh the the jewish uh false religion okay in that darkness that are superstitious about the
text with all their numerology and and all these things and then we even have people today
that are even king james bible believing christians that are superstitious about the text
and instead of just reading it for what it says obsessing over spellings and codes and things like
that we you know we need to just read the bible folks for what it says and and go with what's
being said not with all of these occultic hidden esoteric things so don't get confused when you
hear a preacher talk about the significance of numbers in the bible we're talking about numbers
that are actually mentioned and they do have significance so we can study numbers like five
and what they symbolize or a four or a seven or forty thirty one hundred twelve i mean these
numbers come up over and over again and they mean something obviously it makes perfect sense that
the number associated with death is associated with an altar what's the purpose of the altar
killing animals i mean animals are being killed and they're being burned on this altar it is an
altar of death ultimately pointing us to the death of the lord jesus christ now it says in
verse two 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 so on each of the four corners you have a horn or a
protrusion or some kind of a corner piece sticking out in the shape of a horn and you remember
criminals when they're seeking for mercy would often go and take hold of the horns of the altar
okay and joab did that other people did that so it says in verse number three 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 thou shall make of brass now keep in mind a lot of animals are being
sacrificed on this altar a lot i mean this thing is just in use hour after hour after hour just
multitudes of animals were slaughtered on this thing so there are a lot of accoutrements
associated with that i mean you've got flesh hooks right because you know you're sitting there
butchering animals cutting them up and you read in leviticus where he's talking about opening up
the animal and here's what you do with the call above the liver and here's what you do with the
kidneys here's what you're gonna do with the heave shoulder and the wave breast so they're
carving up these animals and they're going through these rituals and just killing animal after animal
and folks this must have been a powerful picture i mean if you're there can you imagine being in
this holy place of the tabernacle and just watching animal after animal after animal be
slaughtered over and over again thousands and thousands just blood everywhere burning flesh
constantly right what wouldn't you stop and ponder that and say what is what are we doing
what does this mean what is this and you know what it points us to number one it's it's an
ugly sight if you've ever seen animals be butchered it's an ugly sight i mean there's
a lot of gore there's a lot of blood it's it's it's dirty in a sense and so this is a dirty job
this is showing us the ugliness of our sin or the result of our sin our sin causes death the
wages of sin is death and we see the ugliness of the result of sin and then also it's just
pointing us to what jesus christ is going to go through that he's going to be butchered on a cross
as it were and he's going to be punished for our sins so this is a powerful image on the brazen
altar of all these animals being killed so you've got shovels to deal with ashes you know just like
at a fireplace you have the little tools in front of the fireplace you've got usually a little
shovel a little poker and a little broom right that's typically the little three-piece set that
you'll pick up when you're outfitting your fireplace all the vessels thereof shall thou make
of brass then it says in verse 4 thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass you say what's
a grate well think about the cheese grater think about grating the cheese right you're basically
taking the cheese and you're shoving it through a piece of metal with a bunch of holes in it right
so the grate is basically like a mesh okay and so what the bible is saying here is that you'll make
for it a grate of network right so again we have the idea of mesh or a network like a net is like
an enmeshed grating of metal around the altar okay it says the grate of network of brass
upon the net shalt thou make four brazen rings in the four corners thereof those are of course to
carry the altar and thou shall put it under the compass of the altar beneath that the net may be
even to the midst of the altar so let me help you try to picture this five cubits by five cubits this
is approximately seven and a half feet by seven and a half feet square and then the altar is three
cubits high that's four and a half feet high so it's going to go up to like you know chest level
right about here and then the network is halfway up that okay so halfway to the top is the network
so basically this is short enough to where you don't need a ladder or steps to perform the
sacrifices okay so you don't need to go up steps and remember god specifically said he did not want
them going up steps to the altar so there's no steps needed there's no ladder needed because
you know the average man is going to be just a little bit under six feet tall and so this thing
is only like four and a half feet tall so it's right at his working level right it's very
ergonomic you know it's like one of those it's like one of those uh standing desks that they sell
you know it's it's ergonomic you didn't want these guys sitting down all day because sitting is the
new smoking right and we don't want to be unhealthy and get sedentary so basically he had it right at
this uh working level right about here and then this network is below that to basically catch
things that would fall off or however exactly this was and remember it is impossible to reconstruct
these items based on the text you can't do it you know someday of course the devil is going
to reproduce all these things and i firmly believe that there's going to be a new temple built
in israel and then the anti-christ will once again cause the daily sacrifice to cease and
set up the abomination of desolation just like has already happened twice before once in the
old testament with the greeks and tyke is epiphanies once in the new testament 70 ad with
the romans and for the third and final time in the end times with the anti-christ and so there's going
to be a new temple set up and they're gonna have jewish worship they're gonna have animal sacrifices
and those things and uh they it's gonna be a fraud it's not gonna be of god it is impossible
to take this text and you say well it's all right there i mean let's just build what it says
wrong okay because the bible says you have to make any look we saw this in chapter 25
we saw it in chapter 26 and then again in this chapter look at verse 8 hollow with boards shalt
thou make it as it was showed thee in the mount so shall they make it so how are you going to
recreate that how do you know what to make for the compass around the top of the altar you say
we know the dimensions of the altar okay what kind of a network are you going to make okay it's hollow
with boards how many boards how far apart are the boards what's the size of the boards okay he said
do the boards the way you saw it in the mountain they didn't see it in the mount they cannot
rebuild this god does not want them to rebuild this therefore there is too little information
given here so you say well why even give us anything then if you're only gonna give us part
of the instructions because we're not supposed to build one we're supposed to read this to learn
about jesus christ you're supposed to learn this to read read this and learn spiritual truths
and so that's what we see here so he says in verse number six thou shalt make staves
for the altar staves of shit and wood 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 so of course you
can have four rings they're going to shove these long sticks that are also made of the same shittim
wood and they're going to be through the rings overlaid in brass and then men can pick this
thing up and carry it the levites are going to carry it that's their job and they're going to
carry this thing mile upon mile upon mile and if you read in the book of numbers i believe it's
chapter 33 the wanderings of the children of israel they went a lot of places it's like then
they went to here and they went to here and they would i mean they moved this thing a lot because
over 40 years they moved it many times and then even once they get to the promised land it keeps
moving so they're constantly taking it down putting it up taking it down putting it up taking
it down putting it up sometimes it would stay in the same place for a year or two sometimes it
would stay there just for a matter of days and they just had to whenever god told them you got
to move you had to move and that's explained later so it says in verse eight or we already
saw that verse nine and thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle for the south side southward
there shall be hangings for the court of fine twine linen of a hundred cubits long for one side
okay so now we're going to talk about the courtyard of the tabernacle so remember the
tabernacle is a tent right it's very small it's not big at all you say you know how big is this
thing okay well first of all let's just talk about the size of the courtyard because in this
chapter we're learning about the courtyard well the bible just told us that the length of the
courtyard so the longest side of the courtyard is 100 cubits which is 150 feet so the entire
court this is not the tabernacle this is the courtyard surrounding the tabernacle the court
is only 150 feet long okay how long is the football field 300 feet long this is half the
length of a football field and just to put it in perspective basically it's a little bit less than
the length of our auditorium here okay and then the width of the tabernacle courtyard again we're
not talking about the tent itself we're talking about the the yard around at the court okay
the width is 50 cubits or 75 feet which is less than the width of this building okay so the width
here is i believe around 90 feet or something maybe a little more than that so if you want to
picture the size of the courtyard to use your imagination a little bit basically this auditorium
that you see right here this is about the size of the courtyard except the courtyard was a little
bit smaller than this so is this a place where all the israelites are going to gather together
for church are they all going to gather together and listen to the lobby no way how many people
could you fit in this building in this building you could probably fit you know if everybody was
standing up probably a thousand people you could fit in here right if people are sitting down
you could probably fit about 600 650 people in this building okay well that's and this
like i said this building's a little bit bigger than the courtyard if anything so the courtyard
could only hold a few hundred people you know for comfortably maybe there are like 400 people
milling around in this thing at a time something like that just like there'll be you know 400
people milling around here and uh it's not it doesn't feel crowded or anything
okay so that's the size so that gives you a picture of the size right of the courtyard
but what about the actual building what about the tabernacle itself well the tabernacle itself
is like 10 cubits wide 15 feet wide that's not very big is it it's only 15 feet wide
and about uh what is it 30 cubits long so 45 feet long so 45 feet is like the distance from say what
here to that wall you know that's the whole length of the entire tabernacle
okay so this is a very small little building i can't even really say building because it's
actually a tent and if you remember the tabernacle was broken into two sections
you've got the holy place and the most holy place the most holy place represents like
one third of the tabernacle and then the holy place represents two-thirds of the tabernacle
okay so the most holy place like 15 feet by 15 feet you know i mean this is this this little
square right here is about what 10 12 feet or something who built this thing brother
dustin how big is this is 12 feet 10 feet square so basically it'd be time and a half the the
length and and width of this would be the size of the holy of holies or the most holy place
so again very small tent and then just a small courtyard surrounding it okay now what this
represents is varying levels of proximity to god and you needed varying levels of purity
cleanliness holiness in order to approach within these places so let's talk about the three levels
there's basically three levels of holiness here right because you've got the most holy place and
then you got the holy place that's your tabernacle but then you have the courtyard which represents
a third level of holiness because there is an element of holiness to being in the courtyard
so you've got three levels here and then once you're outside the court you're just out in
the world right you're just where everybody is so who's allowed to go in these different places or
who's allowed to be in these different sections well if we start at the most holy place there's
only one person okay so basically the most holy person is allowed to go into the most holy place
on the most holy day of the year once a year the day of atonement right so the most holy place the
most holy person goes in there once on the most holy day of the year so this is extremely holy
place one guy goes in there once a year that's it okay then outside of that you have the holy place
the rest of the tabernacle and the priests are allowed to go in there the sons of erin so you
don't have the levites going in there and doing stuff you don't have joe israelite going in there
and doing stuff you basically just have only the priest so so the the most holy level is just the
high priest once a year and then you have just the priests but then in the courtyard you're going to
have priests you're going to have levites and you're going to have people coming to offer
sacrifice you know that are going to be in that courtyard so the courtyard is much more accessible
to the common man the common man has no chance at the holy place or the most holy place anybody who
comes near dies all right you come near it you die you violate the sanctity of any of this stuff
you're killed okay nobody just rushes in and takes a selfie or something next to the showbread
you're it's a suicide mission if you do that if god doesn't kill you then man will okay
so now if we read the scripture when it's describing the court it says in verse number
nine thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle for the south side southward there shall be
hangings for the court a fine twine linen of a hundred cubits long for one side so remember
we're talking about the length being like 150 feet right that's a hundred cubits because a
cubit is a foot and a half okay so the courtyard or the court is surrounded the tabernacle and it
is made out of these hangings or what we would call curtains right and these hangings the bible
tells us are seven and a half feet tall i'm converting everything to feet just because that's
what we do in murica right meters are communist and so we use the english system metric systems
communist so basically the hangings around the outside are seven and a half feet tall
which is a great height for a fence right because you know you can't see over it it's basically a
foot and a half above the height of a person so that's the hanging and then it said it's a hundred
100 cubits or 150 feet long now notice how it says for the south side southward you've got
a hundred cubits why because the tabernacle is always facing east all the time okay so this
thing is going to be oriented to the east just like our church building you guys are looking
east right now is this biblical or what don't tell us to change the layout no i'm just kidding no
we're not superstitious about that but you guys all happen to be facing east in faith forward
baptist church so it's the long way anytime they set up the tavern they don't just set up the
tabernacle pointing any old direction when you set up the tabernacle you set it up facing east every
time so that means you're going to have a long side on the south side which that's the south
side of our building and you're going to have a long side along the north side and then you're
going to have an east side and a west side and the entrance to the tabernacle is going to be on
the east side that's where you're going to go in that's where the tabernacle is facing
so it says in verse 10 and we're talking about the south side of the courtyard right now the
hangings that are surrounding the courts like a fence around the area where the tabernacle is
it says the 20 pillars thereof and the 20 sockets shall be of brass and the hooks of the pillars and
their fillets shall be of silver so along this edge you've got basically 20 poles along those
150 feet that are basically making the framework for the hangings or the curtains around the edge
of the tabernacle and it's all made out of brass you know so this isn't that kind of
junky equipment that comes with tents nowadays where you know you start hammering the tent
spikes and they all break and the first thing you have to do is go buy you know real tent spikes
they give you plastic or something so this is this step is meant to last so it's all made out
of brass some of it's decorative with silver and it says in verse 11 likewise for the north side
in length there shall be hangings of 100 cubits long is 20 pillars and they're 20 sockets of
brass the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver and for the breadth of the court on the
west side so breadth means basically the shorter length and so that's talking about this side
basically the west side for the breadth of the court on the west side there should be hangings
of 50 cubits remember we said 75 foot width their pillars 10 and their sockets 10 so the same
ratio of pillars every five feet or i'm sorry five cubits seven and a half feet
verse 13 and the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be 50 cubits the hangings of
one side of the gate shall be 15 cubits their pillars three and their sockets three and on the
other side shall be hangings 15 cubits their pillars three their sockets three and for the
gate of the court shall be hanging of 20 cubits now what's going on here so we got 100 cubits
100 cubits 50 cubits and then over here you're going to expect 50 cubits right to finish the
rectangle but instead what you have is 15 20 and 15 because 20 cubits represent the entrance
okay so the entrance is basically 30 feet wide entrance so if you picture this we have the
hangings all the way around the court that are linen so they're going to be white in color
but then at the entrance alone one entrance on the east side 20 cubits wide it says verse 16 for the
gate of the court shall be a hanging of 20 cubits of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine
linen wrought with needlework and their pillars shall be four and their sockets four and what this
picture is again we talked about it that the blue purple and scarlet are the colors of someone
receiving a beating right that's the blood and bruising and i'm not going to re-preach that
sermon showing all the scriptures about jesus christ being bruised and beaten and his blood
and and that's our way of salvation so basically that's the entrance right because that's where it
all starts i mean that's where it all hinges on if we're going to approach god the only way we can
approach god the only way we can have any kind of a relationship with a holy god is through the blood
of jesus and that door represents the blood you you say blue represent blue represents the blood
purple represents the blood scarlet it's all blood because when you get beaten it's blue
right you beat someone black and blue even if you look at your veins right now you see the blueness
and if you get a bruise it's blue so so the blue purple and scarlet are all the shades associated
with being whipped and beaten and punched and smitten and all the the bruising and blood that
jesus went through that's the way in that's your ticket into the presence of god through the blood
right it's the only way in you say well i'm gonna be a good person and you know that's how i'm gonna
get in well here's the interesting thing there is a laver and we're gonna get to this in a few
chapters there's a laver okay and the word laver just think about like lavatory or if you speak
spanish you know the word labar right and what does it mean to say it means to wash your hands
right so the laver is where you say okay and basically the laver they'd wash their hands and
their feet there but if you actually look at the way this stuff is laid out when you read the bible
if you walk in the entrance on the east side right the first thing you're going to come to
is the brazen altar i mean boom it's like everything's just right about the crucifixion
right there it's like you you go through the the gate which represents the blood and then you're
just confronted with animals being sacrificed on the altar the blood being spilled the burnt
sacrifice christ's atonement pictured right there then the next thing you're going to come to is the
labor it's not like oh right away wash up no no no you don't you come to christ dirty in a sense
now i'm not saying obviously i'm not saying that in this uh system they'd go in there dirty
obviously they're going to get cleaned up before going down there but i'm saying spiritually dirty
as far as when you're coming to christ you come to christ as a sinner you don't come to christ
already cleansed of sin you're cleansed by the blood itself so you're not cleansed until you
come to christ okay and this is why we have to understand the difference when we're reading the
bible and this is one of the things that that's sometimes hard for people to grasp when you're
studying genesis excess lividicus numbers deuteronomy is the difference between being
physically clean and being holy cleanness and holiness unclean and unholy are not the same thing
in the bible so we need to differentiate between these two things now obviously if you're going to
enter the court of the tabernacle you're going to want to be physically clean you know if you
are what the bible calls unclean you got leprosy or you've got blood on you or you've been sick
or you've been around someone who's sick or whatever makes you unclean all the different
things right you came out a dead body then obviously you're not going to go there if
you're physically unclean but you are going to go there if you are in a state of unholyness
like let's say let's say you've committed some sin and you got to go bring a trespass offering
to the lord it's like all right let me go to the tabernacle and bring the sin offering oh wait i
can't because i'm in my sinful condition no because how can you get out of your sinful condition
except by going in to the court and offering the sacrifice everybody understand what i'm saying
otherwise it'd be this catch-22 well i have to get rid of all my sin then i can approach
the brazen altar it's like no no you get rid of your sin by approaching the brazen altar
does everybody understand what i'm saying so basically when it comes to salvation what's
the picture here do i come to the courtyard and i show up outside that blue purple and scarlet
door and say like yep i'm free from sin i've repented of all my sins you know i'm in a state
of uh rightness with god no absolutely not you come there in a sinful condition
you approach the cross and that's where your sin is taken care of and you you walk away
in a state of being cleansed from your sins now again we're not talking about personal
salvation salvation has always been a one-time thing by calling upon the name of the lord all
the way back to genesis chapter four so we're not talking about people getting saved and they're
not saved they're saved we're talking about being in a condition in the old testament of just being
right with god you know how to how to have that right relationship with god you do something wrong
you apologize you bring us an offering and fellowship is restored but what it pictures
though is the one-time offering even though they're doing this over and over again to maintain
a right relationship it pictures the one-time sacrifice of christ he died once we approach the
cross once we get cleansed once and we are eternally saved so that's what we need to
understand and in the book of hebrews this is compared and contrasted saying you know the high
priest is going in there every year into the most holy place but christ only went in there once
he only died for our sins once and he said it's not possible for the blood of goats and of bulls
to take away sense that's why year after year it couldn't cleanse their conscience
and otherwise they would have ceased to be offered if they were actually saved then they wouldn't
have to keep coming back because salvation's a one-time thing that's what hebrews is hammering
in chapters nine and ten and so we see here the beautiful picture of you come in your sinful
condition you go through the blood which is what those curtains represent curtains of blue purple
and scarlet you approach the cross right which is basically pictured by the brazen altar and then
your sin is atoned for the labor isn't even a thing for you okay the the labor is between the
tabernacle and the brazen altar so if you walked into the court first thing you're going to come
to is the brazen altar then you're going to come to the labor which is just a basically a water
receptacle and then you're going to come to the tabernacle so what's what's the labor for them
who uses the labor the labor is for the priests to wash their hands and feet before doing one of
two things they either wash their hands and feet before entering the tabernacle into the holy place
right what do they do in there what do they do in the holy place they burn incense and they offer
the showbread so they put the bread on the table before the lord and then they make sure that the
candlestick has the oil in it so it keeps burning those are the three things that they do in the
holy place well before they go in there they got to wash their hands wash their feet but they also
wash their hands wash their feet before they offer the sacrifices so so basically the the person
joe israelite who's coming there to get his sins taken care of to get his trespass offering taken
care of he doesn't deal with the labor okay he's basically going to go there offer but the guy
who's doing the actual killing he washes his hands and feet and of course this pictures christ again
because think about the two parties that are responsible for actually killing christ who
actually killed christ right is basically the the jews delivering him to the romans right so these
are there's two parties involved here the romans are the ones literally nailing him to the cross
the jews are the ones screaming crucify him his blood be on us and on our children
and they both the bible points out have a washing that they do before
murdering christ okay because of course ponchos pilot famously washes his hands in front of
everybody and says well i'm free of the blood of this just person okay pictured by the priest every
time he washed his hands in the labor and then he offers a sacrifice you know that could picture
ponchos pilot washing his hands before murdering christ but also the jews if you remember in the
book of john it's very clear to tell us that they were in a clean state and they wanted to keep
their cleanness they wouldn't even enter a certain area because it said they wanted to make sure
they were clean to eat the passover so they were all washed up too weren't they and the bible
points out that they were in a state of cleanness and were doing everything they could to stay clean
okay so it's the priest who's offering the offering that actually washes up and is clean
in that sense okay so let's keep going here through this so i can get through this
in the time that we have here so the gate of the court verse 16 shall be a hanging of 20 cubits of
blue purple and scarlet and fine twine linen wrought with needlework and their pillars shall
be four and their sockets four all the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with
silver their hooks shall be of silver and their sockets of brass the length of the court shall be
100 cubits and the breadth 50 everywhere again just emphasizing that it's a perfect rectangle
and the height five cubits again seven and a half feet is the fence around it the curtains
and the height five cubits of fine twine linen and their sockets of brass all the vessels of
the tabernacle and all the service thereof and all the pins thereof and all the pins of the court
shall be of brass and again another significance of brass christ is represented by the brazen
serpent that is lifted up in the wilderness in the book of numbers john chapter 3 right before
the most famous verse in the whole bible and as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness
even so shall the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have eternal life for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting notice how that second half of
john 316 is repeated verbatim why well the bible says when dreams are being interpreted for example
by joseph he said the thing is doubled because it's going to most surely come to pass that's why
it's doubled because it's just to show you the certainty of this dream that's why there were the
you know the the fat cows and then the fat ears of corn it was doubled to show the certainty
guess what john 316 is something you can take to the bank and the certainty of it is hammered
by the fact that you have verse 15 and verse 16 both telling you the exact that whosoever believe
in the name should not perish but have eternal life no doubt about that and that's emphasized
for a reason god's not just being redundant he says it twice he's he's hammering it okay
and isn't it interesting the most famous verse in the bible is associated with the brazen serpent
it's a continuation of the same thought that whosoever believed in for god so loved the
world those are conjunctions connecting us to the brazen serpent so the brazen serpent significant
why because jesus christ became sin for us what could better picture sin than a serpent you know
who led man into the first sin but the serpent in the garden of eden and when we think of a serpent
we think of evil obviously well the bible says that he who knew no sin became sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of god in him and as moses lived up the serpent in the wilderness
even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believe in him so when jesus on the
cross he became sin for us pictured by the brazen serpent being held up on the pole the brazen
serpent is also tied in with the brazen altar so we see how brass is connecting these important
pictures of jesus christ's crucifixion his death for us on the cross that's why all these things
in regard to animal sacrifice are tied in with brass that's the material that's used what is
brass brass is an alloy of uh well in the bible i i believe today brass is made out of copper and
zinc but in bible times it was made out of copper and tin okay and sometimes when the bible so i
believe today that's what's known as bronze and that's why a lot of people when they want to
attack the bible they say you're reading a bunch of bronze age superstition have you ever heard
people say bronze age bronze age bronze age the reason they're saying that is because of the fact
that uh historians will break down history based on what the most common metal was so they'll talk
about the the bronze age they'll talk about then the iron age so obviously the bible has a lot of
iron in it and but it also talks a lot about bronze but it doesn't call it bronze it calls it
brass okay in our king james bible but it's a mixture of copper and tin and sometimes when
the bible says brass it might even just be referring to copper itself because it talks
about them mining brass out of the mountains so that that might just be a reference to them just
mining like raw copper out of the mountains unless he's just being poetic and just you know means
that they're getting the copper and the tin or whatever but anyway it's probably just talking
about them pulling the copper out so it's it's made out of brass all right so again let me just
emphasize okay the difference between being clean and being holy these are not the same thing okay
there are different levels of holiness required to get into these three areas right so we've
got the courtyard which is the least holy space but it is holy anyone can enter whosoever will
may come to that courtyard you do have to you know obviously be physically clean but you don't have
to be spiritually clean the whole reason you're going there is because of your sin okay then you
have the next level where you get into the holy place only the priests can go in there so those
are a more holy group of people and of course they have to be physically clean and they have to be
sanctified or consecrated they have to be ordained as priests no man taketh his honor unto himself
you know they had to be anointed with the holy anointing oil and consecrated to be able to go
and then of course the most holy place where the most holy person goes on the most holy day of the
year once okay now you could also look at this as a picture of the trinity as well because if
you think about it the most holy place represents god as being inaccessible right i mean he's he's
not accessible you don't just show hey i want to talk to god you know waltz up to the mercy seat
not happening okay so that inaccessible inner sanctum you could say represents god the father
okay no man has seen god at any time okay no man shall see my face and live all right the presence
of god on the mercy you know you could you could represent that as god the father okay then of
course jesus christ you would represent with the court because that's where the picture is
of his crucifixion you know that's where he's being and he's accessible to everyone i mean
he came to this earth and i mean he's touching lepers he's touching prostitutes he's touching
just every publican and sinner i mean he was just there accessible to suffer the little children to
come unto me i mean he's got uh people grabbing him and they're touching his garment as he goes
through the crowd so jesus is god with us emmanuel right god with us god accessible to us
so he would represent the courtyard and then you could say that the holy place is representing the
holy spirit because what are the items in the holy place you've got the showbread you've got the
candlestick with the oil and of course the holy spirit's often pictured by oil and he's the one
who illuminates the scriptures and and gives us light and understanding and so you have a picture
of the trinity here also god the father jesus christ and the holy spirit right so you have all
three pictured there you come to jesus in your sinful condition and you walk away you know free
from your sin obviously that's the picture here not literally because literally to be saved you
never had to set foot in this building in the old testament you could just be saved by calling upon
the name of the lord just like now just like you don't have to go to church to be saved now
you didn't have to go to this physical building to be saved and you could go to this physical
building every day and go to hell in the old testament if you didn't believe on the lord if
you had not called upon him by faith so it says in verse 20 thou shalt command the children of israel
that they bring the pure olive oil or oil olive beaten for the light to cause the lamp to burn
always now where's the lamp is the lamp in the most holy place no the lamp is in the holy place
to uh cause the lamp to burn always in the tabernacle of the congregation without the veil
which is before the testimony so outside of the veil where the most holy place is where
the ark of the covenant is which is the ark of the testimony he's saying without the veil
which is before the testimony erin and his son shall order it from evening to morning
before the lord it shall be a statute forever under their generations on the behalf of the
children of israel so again the only people entering that holy place and tending to
the oil in the lamp keep that lamp burning right every morning every evening that lamp needs a
refill keep it burning only people that do that are the sons of erin the priest now let me just
give you some closing thoughts on this okay and you know people act like this is such a hard
chapter and it's such a hard part in exodus but you know if you actually stop and slow down and
read it it there aren't very many verses that don't jump out at you as interesting i mean there's
really a lot there there's really a lot that you can take away from this chapter okay but let me
just point out the fact that in the new testament how does this apply to us today in the new
testament god in the old testament is pictured as inaccessible because that is why it's even
meaningful to have access to god in the new testament if god had just always been accessible
then we would take that for granted so god has to spend the old testament showing you hey i'm
inaccessible i'm so much holier than you i'm on such a higher level than you you have to go
through all this song and dance just to even get close to me and as you get closer it takes more
purity more holiness more ritual and even then you're not getting there okay god that god builds
all that up so that we'll understand the awesomeness of jesus christ just opening a new way
the bible says that we have a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil
that is to say his flesh so when jesus died on the cross remember these things literally existed at
that time not the tabernacle but the temple and the temple is just a souped up version of the
tabernacle it has the same components the same elements of holy place most holy you know it has
the basics going on it's just a permanent structure well when jesus died on the cross
the bible says the veil was rent in twain and the bible says that that was tearing down the wall
of partition between jew and gentile between priest and non-priest okay and just opening up
a new and living way into the most holy place through the veil that is to say his flesh christ
flesh and that jesus is our high priest now this is why it's important that we understand
what we believe as baptists is the priesthood of the believer this is why you don't see us
dressing up in in costumes and putting on a funny hat and wearing all these priestly garments and
and being a mediator or taking your confession or something like that because that is not biblical
biblically through christ flesh through his blood we all every one of us man woman boy and girl
have access into the most holy place who do we pray to mary no who do we pray to the holy spirit
no who do we pray to jesus no we pray to god the father and you know what that represents
that represents not stopping at the courtyard not stopping at the holy place but waltzing right in
to the most holy place and standing in front of the mercy seat itself and just experiencing the
presence of god and speaking to god and you know what if you actually would spend some time reading
exodus and reading leviticus and reading numbers and reading deuteronomy you don't understand what
amazing thing that is that we just take for granted we just think oh ho ho man now i lay
me down to sleep you know what do you even understand what it means to be able to pray
to god and speak directly to god the father in the name of jesus christ and have him hear us
and listen to us then just be able to boldly waltz in and you know just boldly walk into heaven
that's amazing i mean imagine if you had lived in this time and just seeing all this that goes
on and just all the metals and i mean just so much brass and silver and gold and fine linen
i mean just imagine the sewing and so they don't have a sewing machine sewing and sewing and sewing
and sewing and sewing and making just curtain after curtain after curtain and ring after ring
after pole after socket just building this structure and then the tent it's like a four
layer tent forget just a rain cover this thing's got four rain covers okay
and they build this thing and then they just go through all of this reading of the law and all
of this ritual just so that one guy can go in there once a year and experience the presence
of god one time once a year one guy but we in the new testament that's where we
live or that's where we're supposed to live what a privilege i mean that's why the bible says you
know the prophets and holy men and angels would desire to look into what we have access to i mean
the guys in the old testament you say oh it's been so cool to live back then no it's cool to
live right now it's cool to have the whole bible i mean what would abraham give to have this book
just to be the whole thing i mean he saw through a glass dart you know we have access
to all of these wonderful treasures in the bible we've got church we've got the holy spirit i mean
we've got it good okay but it's easy to take it all for granted and think about how people cheapen
salvation by saying well i think i'm going to heaven because i'm a good person how ridiculous
in light of the book of exodus i mean bring that theology of yeah i'm going to heaven i'm a pretty
good person bring that into exodus it's ridiculous it's nonsense i mean if you read exodus and
leviticus and numbers and deuteronomy i mean you just walk away saying it's through the blood it's
through christ i i you know i can't have any access to this through my own merit through my
own holiness through my own cleanness through my own righteousness it's only through christ it's
only through the blood it's only through his death burial and resurrection that message comes
screaming through look this demolishes work salvation all of it just it just it just destroys
it you know so don't ever weary of these things and say well what do we you know what do we need
to read about building the tabernacle that's so irrelevant you know give me colossians give me
efeasians you know i you know it's old testament stuff folks this stuff is more relevant than
today's newspaper because this stuff is teaching us the unsearchable riches of christ we would
that we would not be able to fully appreciate without the old covenant to show us what it's
like not to have that access what it's like to be locked out and kept you know hey anybody who comes
near is going to be stoned or thrust through with a dart but then he says no you're coming onto mount
zion i mean you're just coming to the assembly of the firstborn i mean it's just it's truly amazing
spiritually and it just it just completely obliterates work salvation because where where
are the works in this passage you know where where do you work your way to that most holy place you
can't how do you work your way into the holy place how do you work your way into a right relationship
with god the old testament you don't okay it's through the blood without the shedding of blood
there's no remission it's all by christ's work on the cross not by works of righteousness what
we've done spider heads have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this great
chapter lord and i pray that you continue to bless the series on exodus lord as we continue
to learn these things and get into other material going forward lord bless our service next wednesday
night on christmas lord and i pray that it'd be a blessing to everybody who comes and and that
some visitors could come lord and and learn about the the true meaning of the gospel
that it's by grace through faith not of works less any man should boast lord help us to preach
that message from door to door and to every person that we can possibly reach in these last days in
in jesus name we pray amen