I've already concluded before, and I think you've seen as well as we've gone through these studies, that every single piece, every single thing that pertains to this tabernacle could be preached upon. Every single object and every single material, weight, measure, everything in it could be preached upon. And we could spend the rest of our days on this tabernacle. But I don't want to get bogged down, and I want to give us an overall or general view or understanding of this tabernacle. I sat down yesterday and pretty much limited this thing to about 12 messages, and this fourth one, I believe, in this series. For the sake of brevity, I was going to deal with the whole structure, the tabernacle, the building itself, which is called a tabernacle, with the coverings and the boards and all of that, but I couldn't get past the foundation. I got to the foundation, and I couldn't get past that. So we've got to spend time here, but after all, the foundation is the most important part of the building. It's that which the whole building stands on. Now, we've studied three things thus far. We've studied the fence, the gate, the eastern gate. We've studied the altar and the laver that contains the water. And these three things, or these outward, these things are on the outside of the tabernacle. These are on the outside. These are things that one must deal with or understand before they can go inside of the tabernacle. Now, let me just review with you a little bit. That fence, it was very tall, very white, and very secure. Seven and a half feet tall. white, pure linen, secured, strongly secured, so that no one could get under or get over or through that fence. That represents the law of God. Now as, let me say this, for everyone's sake, this whole tabernacle is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, of how God accepts sinners into his presence. The whole tabernacle, everything about it, is a picture of how one must come to God. Now, this fence, like I said, represents the law, and nobody could get through over or under the law. It's too high. It's too restricting. And the law of God, no one can get to God through or by the law of God. It's too holy. It's too perfect. It's too just. We can't do it. We can't go through it. There's only one way into the tabernacle, into the court, and that is through this Eastern gate only through this gate right here, and that's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself he's the door Christ said I'm the door of the sheepfold. I'm the way under the father no man comes under the father, but by me and So that's a picture of Christ and the first thing we saw as we went inside of this tabernacle the first thing you see in the worship of God is the altar where the lamb is slain with the blood, that precious blood was shed for the atonement, for the covering, the sin offering, the covering of sin. The blood was shed on that altar. That's a picture of Christ, too. That's the blood sacrificed. Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world because God said without shedding of blood there's no remission of sins. There's no entrance into God's holy presence. And I'll go into that a little more in a minute. And then we came to the labor of water, the labor of brass right here, which was full of water. And the priests, the high priest and the common priests, were to wash their hands and their feet in this labor of water. And this also is a picture of Christ. It is the water of life. It's a picture of the Word of God, which is Christ, the Word of God, which cleanses our our thoughts, our minds, our hearts, and it's a picture of sanctification, cleansing before the Lord. You have the blood, you have the water, you have justification and sanctification. These things are necessary before you go into the tabernacle itself. And the things that I just spiritualized about are necessary before you come into the presence of this Holy God. You cannot come to God except by Christ the way. That is the door, the only man approved. No man gets to God except by Christ, except through his righteousness, that life that he lived. He's the only man that God ever said he approved of. And God said, I'm not going to receive anybody into my presence except this man and all who come to him, through him, by faith. those people in Christ. You remember when we read over there in Ephesians 1, 6, accepted in the beloved. We're only accepted, admitted into God's presence through Jesus Christ, because he's the only perfect man. And the altar, you've got to see Christ. If you're going to worship God or write, and this is a theme throughout the Bible, you've got to have a substitute. You've got to have a blood sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood, no remission. And Christ is that one and final sacrifice for all sinners, forever. That one sacrifice. And all those who come to God by Him, pleading His blood, are accepted by the Father. And Christ is the Word of God, the water of His Word, that you hear, you receive, and the gospel washes away your filth. cleanses your polluted minds and bodies and enables us to come to God, enter into His presence. The spirit, there are three that bear record on earth, John said. Spirit, the water, and the blood. And these three agree in one. Who? Christ. Christ. All right. So after these things, after these outward things, an understanding of the blood and the water And it's righteousness I talked about, Christ the way. After these things, after you see, have a basic understanding of these things, a man sees Christ. You see Christ through all these things. You see Christ with eyes of faith. And although your faith is very little, by degrees, yet you do see Christ as all. This is the beginnings of a true saving faith within all of God's people. They see Christ as all, not anything they do, or can do, or have been, or will be, but see Christ as their only acceptance with the Father. And that person that sees Christ as all, as all these things, not in perfection now, as none of us know that perfectly, but that person who sees Christ at least in principle, in these things. He's at the threshold. He's at the threshold of eternal glory, of entering into the very presence of this thrice-holy God. He's at the threshold. He's waiting to go into the presence of God, that person. And that's us. Like I said before, we're really just kind of mingling around the outer court right now, just around the altar, at the foot of the cross. And so we just, these things are too, on the inside, just too wonderful for us. Okay. Now, although we don't know a lot about Christ at first, yet we do see something of His grandeur. It's like the man who came to this tabernacle. When he enters in, and he sees the altar, he sees the labor and so forth, and he sees this big building. And he doesn't know much about what's on the inside, but he sees this grand and glorious and majestic structure. This great and glorious structure. And when we come to Christ by faith, in time, we are going to be allowed to go inside and understand a little more of His glory. Some of us have a little better understanding about what's on the inside and are able to really commune with God in Christ. Those that have been walking with Him I don't mean to necessarily include myself there, but some are able to really enter into and commune with this glorious person, Christ, and God. They've seen a little more of his glory. Okay, this tabernacle, this is what we're going to look at a little bit, the building, this tabernacle was a magnificent A magnificently designed structure. Marvelous. It was gloriously adorned without and within. Quite often we make that badger skin covering out to be something less than it really is. It is brown, but it was a beautiful work. A beautifully wrought work. It really was. Tabernacle was an elaborate temple. It was full of beautiful tapestries and coverings, golden boards. I'm not so sure, anyway, that the golden boards weren't seen. There's people that differ on this, say that perhaps the coverings just went as far as that. They didn't cover the whole building. At any rate, And we, you know, we see that in Christ, and we see outwardly how He is beautiful, outwardly also. But these golden boards that made up this tabernacle, gold-plated acacia wood, and the golden furniture on the inside, and everything in and around this tabernacle had sweet-smelling savors. There were savory meats being roasted, and incense. within and without savory meat, breads being cooked and so forth. So everything in and around this tabernacle was sights and sounds and smells. Everything about it was beautiful. And that's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything about Him, everything about Him, even His body, His body, His earthly body was beautiful. Everything about it. To the natural man, no, not necessarily. When we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire in the scriptures say. That is the natural man. But when we see him with eyes of faith, his apostles, those that were around him got to know him. He was beautiful to them. The countenance, his look on his face, those beautiful feet that carried the good news all over. Okay. But the most important part of this building, excuse me, Most important part of this building is that which held the whole thing together. That which was hidden to the naked eye that you couldn't see with the outward eye. It was that without which there would be no building. The building wouldn't stand. And therefore no atonement and no way for man or men to meet with God Almighty which is foundation of this building, the foundation on which the building stood. Now, look at Exodus 26. Let's read a few verses here, beginning with verse 15. Now, the foundation is the starting point of the whole building, the starting point. And the starting point of the atonement, this ceremony, was the altar. That's where you started to approach God. And because that altar spoke of one thing that was needful to get into God, which was the blood, the blood. That's what this whole thing was about, the blood. And the foundation of this tabernacle, of this building, this is a starting point. This is a starting point. Look at verse 15. Okay, you make, God gave these orders to make boards for the tabernacle of Shittim wood standing up. Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board. And two tenons, that is, hands, that's interesting, two hands, or two things that extended out on the bottom of these boards, shall be in one board, two hands in one board, set in order one against the other, that is, beside one another. Thou shalt make for all the boards of the tabernacle And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side, southward, and thou shalt make forty sockets of silver." Okay, this is the foundation on which these boards were set in, these sockets of silver. They were forty, let's see, they make forty sockets of silver. on one side, forty on another, sixteen on the back side, I'll save you from reading it, and four where the inner veil was, where the post was, a hundred sockets of silver, a hundred of them. And this silver is talking about, is speaking of, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This whole thing, like I said, the whole thing, everything about the tabernacle and the worship of God pertains to The blood, the blood, because God said, this is the third time I've quoted it already, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. He said it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Why is blood, why is it necessary for blood to be shed? I know all these pagan religions talk about blood, use blood and so forth. Why though? Because in the very beginning, God told Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, He said And the day that you eat of that tree, the day that you rebel against me, you shall surely die. Die. That is, physically and spiritually, you'll die. And bloodshed, the shedding of blood, is the clearest picture of death. Of death. So God said, the day you eat of that tree, you'll surely die. Well, Adam and Eve ate of that tree. And they died spiritually. They died spiritually first. God cut them off from his presence. The life of God is true life. So they died spiritually. And they were borrowed from the presence of God. But they also went on to die later on physically. But God gave them this gospel picture, this story, this type. The first thing he did was to shed the innocent of animals to cover Adam and Eve in nakedness. That's a picture of the shedding of blood for the remission of sin, the covering, the atonement of sin, which Christ, the innocent Lamb of God, later on would come and shed His blood, lay down His life to cover our naked, sinful souls before this holy God. That's the first picture, and then he talks about the woman's seed. You start with the blood. You start with the blood, and you finish with the blood. You start with the blood on the altar, and everything speaks of blood. Paul said it, didn't he? He said almost all things by the law are purged with blood. If you'd have been around this ceremony and seen it in reality, this whole place was a bloody mess. And while it looked like any pagan, idolatrous worship It spoke of greater things. It spoke of the precious blood of Christ, who was to come and do away with all of these sacrifices. He started with the blood on the altar, and He ended up with the blood on the mercy seat. And that's Christ. That's His blood. We start with the blood of Christ on the cross, and He takes it all the way in and offers it on the mercy seat for us, before God. The overriding theme. The overriding theme, that which is always in view, is the blood. Everywhere you look, everything about this place spoke of blood as the overriding theme. And the underlying principle upon which this whole thing rested or stood, behind it all, was blood too. And that's what this foundation speaks of—blood. The blood must ever be before the view of God Almighty. always before the view of God Almighty. It's that which covers the all-seeing eye of God to where he cannot see our sins, the blood. And not just any blood will do. And really, the blood must ever be before our eyes, too. Never lose sight of the blood. Our faith, our relationship with God, our standing with Him rests, depends upon the blood of Jesus Christ. And like I said, not just any blood will do, Precious, sinless, costly blood. The blood of God's Son. The blood of God. Paul said it, didn't he? The blood of God. Heed the Church of God, which He's purchased with His own blood. The blood of God. The blood of the Son of God. Now, the blood, stay with me. Turn over to Leviticus chapter 25 with me. This is a blessing. I never paid much attention to this, but this is where the story of Boaz comes from. This is where the kinsman-redeemer comes from. Leviticus 25. The blood not only speaks of atonement, that is, covering, but also speaks of payment. Redemption. Redemption. Payment for sin. Not only covering. Now, it's not enough for God to just cover up our sins and not see them. He's got to pay for them. He's got to pay for them. Christ has to pay for them. put away. OK. And throughout the old and the New Testament, silver, listen to this, throughout the old and the New Testament, silver was the type of currency that was used to purchase or redeem. Redeem is just a word for buy, to purchase, to buy. Throughout the old and New Testament, silver was used. That was their currency. OK. And I thought about this. Not only today, not only is silver rarely used in our society, but neither is the blood. Now, some of you old-timers, like Joe, got your back. Joe, some of you remember years ago when all quarters and and dimes, and I remember this, were silver, solid silver. Quarters and dimes, fifty-cent piece, dollars, silver dollars, that's what was used. And you might even remember a lot of preaching back then. There was a lot of talk about the blood, wasn't there? Everybody that called himself a preacher mentioned the blood, didn't they? Whether he really believed in the power of it or not, he still talked about it somewhat, didn't he? If you look at a coin now, if any of you have a coin in your pocket, if you look at any coin you look at now, what do you find? It's a mixture, isn't it? A mixture. It's mostly copper on the inside, a little thin veneer, a layer of silver on the outside. All of them, dime, quarters, everything, a little thin veneer of copper, or of silver on top of copper. And if you've got copper pipes, eventually copper will corrode. It will corrode eventually. It lasts a long time, but not forever. And today's religion is just the same. It's got a little thin veneer, just an occasional mention of the blood. Man's religion, he talks about the blood a little bit, not much, but he has a salvation that's mostly a mixture of man's corruptible works and dead works, corruptible. The reason they're called corruptible is because our minds, our hearts, our motives, everything about us, now is tainted with sin. No man on this earth can say he has ever done anything 100% for the glory of God with a pure, true motive of love toward God Almighty and toward his fellow man without any selfishness or anything, any taint of sin within himself. No man or woman can ever Has ever been able to say that? I can't do it. Except one. The Lord Jesus Christ. Only man. Only one ever. And that's the reason these works of ours, God says they're filthy rags. He says all our righteousness now are filthy rags. That's what God says, not me, that's God. God says they're filthy rags, I won't accept them. It must be perfect. Here I go again. It shall be perfect to be accepted. Because God's holy and he won't let anything in his presence except that which is as holy as he. Now, there's no man or woman, boy or girl that's ever been born as that holy, except one, Jesus Christ. And all that come to God through him are made perfect. And like I said, today's religion is full of corruptible works. But Paul said, now, we're not redeemed. We're not bought with corruptible currency. man's works, his dead works, his filthy rags of self-righteousness. He calls it vain conversation, useless lives. But with what? The precious blood of Christ. Pure silver. Pure through and through. Look here at Leviticus 25. Look at verse 25 with me. This is great. God says here, if your brother be waxen poor, and has sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold." Now, Adam was our brother. We're all of the brotherhood of man, if you want to call it that. Adam, being our late brother, Adam sold out. That's what he says here. If any of your brother sold away some of his possession, Adam sold everything we had for the sake of sin, for a mess of potteries, Terry. He didn't. Like old Esau. He sold out. Adam lost man's inheritance, which was the life of God, the presence of God, acceptance with God, communion with God, fellowship with God. And Adam was like this before Adam rebelled against him, and God said, two can't walk together except they be good. Adam, you can't come into my presence anymore except without blood. Without blood. I mean, except with blood. Adam lost the blessings of God. He was now under the curse. He said, cursed is the ground. Cursed it. He told the woman, he said, you're going to suffer through childbearing. And all the curses that came because of sin. Adam lost the blessings of God that we had. But—look at verse 23—but the land won't be sold forever. Why? Because the land don't belong to you. The land is mine, saith the Lord. It's mine. You're just strangers and sojourners here. God said, this is my planet, and man is my creature, and God wasn't about to let his creation be marred by sin forever. It's his. And so the second Adam came. Who's that? That's the Lord from glory. That's Christ himself, the second Adam, the second man. Now, the first man was created in the image of God, but he had his own righteousness. He had the righteousness of a man. He didn't have the perfect, holy righteousness of God. He was created in the image of God. He looked something like God and acted something like God, but he wasn't. God. He was a created man. The second Adam, Scripture says, was none other than God himself, who had a righteousness too. But it was the righteousness of God, the perfect righteousness. And it's impossible. God cannot be tempted with sin or sin. God cannot fall. And this second man, this perfect, holy, righteous second man, came as a man to establish to set up this righteousness for some people that would never fail. And all who come to him, he gave that righteousness to. He gave that to them, so it's impossible that those people should ever fall. I'm preaching everything I've ever learned. OK. But this second Adam, he came and he established this righteousness, and then He took this sin, this rebellion of some people, of men, he took that upon himself, and he went to this cross. Now, God said the wages of sin, that which we earn for sinning against God is death. God's shedding of blood. Christ took all of the sin out of all people. out of all people without discrimination, but of some people, some people whom only God knows, some people. But it's a multitude of people which no man can number. He took those people's sins on himself and went to the cross, and God Almighty saw him hanging there and killed him, because that's what we deserve, what these people deserve. shed his blood, poured out his blood unto death, the scripture says. Therefore, sin, the wages of sin, is death. Sin was paid for in all people. If that were so, all people would be saved. Because I see somewhere where it says the blood of God, of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. No, we'll see in a minute how it wasn't for all people, it was some people, but all those that come to God by Christ, by faith. We don't exclude anybody, but we include all those that come. We know if anybody comes, it's because God drew them. All right, he paid that price. He paid that price because by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Over in Romans 5, it says several times—you don't have to turn—well, by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. And then he goes on to say, if by one man's offense, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness of one, that is Christ, the free gift came upon all men in Christ under justification of life. So Christ came to establish that righteousness and pay for those sins by his blood, and he purchased the favor of God Almighty. He had purchased back the blessings of God upon men. God looked down on his sons and said, I'm well pleased. And everybody in Christ who comes to Christ said, you be my representative. Everybody that comes to Christ, God looks at them and says, I'm well pleased with you. For our sake? Oh, no, no, no, no. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, Paul said. But according to your mercy, you've saved us. According to the righteousness Christ has established God accepts us in Him, in the Beloved. Remember that? And this inheritance that we lost in Adam, we got it back. Christ got it back for us. This inheritance. We're called joint heirs with Christ. Everything that God is going to give to His Son, Christ, He's going to give to us, too. What? A cabin in the corner of glory? What do we need with that? We just need to be with God, to dwell with Him. Look at this, over in verse 47 in Leviticus 25, and I'll hurry. Leviticus 25, verse 47. He said, If a sojourner or a stranger wax rich by thee, and your brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family, after he is sold, he may be redeemed again. one of his brethren may redeem him. Now, a while ago we talked about selling land, these inheritances, this possession. And all men and women by nature are under the dominion of sin, of Satan, and of ourselves. under his spell, under his power, unless a stronger man than Satan comes in and binds him and then pays the price of our redemption, which I just talked about, and sets us free from under the spell, the dominion of that cruel tyrant, Satan, sin, self, and buys a near kin, a kinsman, a redeemer, one who has the right, one who is willing, and one who, now look at this, Look at verse 50. He had to reckon with somebody. It says this one is Kinsman that comes to redeem the one who sold. He's got to reckon with him that bought him. Christ came and let the law head on. The law had a claim on us. God's holy law said, You owe me all have sinned and come short of the glory, the perfect standard of God Almighty. You owe God All of our lives we've lived for ourselves, not for God. We owe the law of God perfect obedience. We can't pay it. We can't pay it. Christ could. He came down here and not only paid for it, He magnified it, didn't He? Magnified. Paid the demands of the law and more. Made it honorable. And Christ met Satan head on. Head on. And He said, You can't find a thing in me. And all those in me, you can't find a thing that you can't eat." And Christ went to God and met God head on with the price, with the price of our redemption. God received it too. God has to receive what he provided himself. It was our ticket, our ticket into heaven, redeemable coupons. Coupons. You ladies ever redeem coupons out in the store? Of course you have. You know what his coupons were? Sockets of silver. Holes in his hands and his face. Sockets of silver that he shows to the Father. And that's, Terry, that's what old Ed said we're going to be looking for. We're looking for those sockets of silver. The foundation upon which this church stands. Blood money. Blood money. Look back at Exodus chapter 30. Look at this. Look where this blood money came from. Salvation's silver was the blood of Christ. Salvation's silver. And everybody had to have it if it was to be numbered with God's people. And so do you and I. Everybody back then had to bring some silver. Look at Exodus chapter 30, verse 12. The Lord spake unto Moses, verse 11, saying, When thou takest the sum," when you count the children of Israel after their number, when you count them. Now, like I said, if you're going to be numbered with God's people, you've got to have something to be in this number. You've got to have something. What is it? When you count them, then shall they give, every man shall give a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when you number them. that there won't be any plague among them when you number them. This is what they'll give everyone that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel of silver. Silver. Everybody. No silver, no atonement. You couldn't have a pardon in this. You could not be numbered with the people, the children of Israel, unless you had some silver in your possession. No blood, no salvation. OK, and I don't take that wrong here, I'm going to explain it. These were particular people. You see that? He said, when you take the son of the children of Israel, all right? Particular people there, a chosen people. The Israelites were God's chosen people. Like it or not, they were. They were God's elect people. No atonement except for these people. These people whose names were found in the twelve tribes of Israel. No atonement. A particular people. Okay? Look over chapter 38 with me. Chapter 38. There were a particular number of people. God told Moses to number them. There were a particular number. Exodus chapter 38 tells us that there were 603,550 men. And after the number was determined, the number was determined, look there in verse 26, a vika for every man, that is a shekel of silver for every man after the shekel of the sanctuary. Everyone that went to be numbered twenty years old and upward, six hundred thousand, three thousand, five hundred and fifty men of the hundred tallots of silver that they took up from this offering were cast to the sockets of the sanctuary foundation. a particular number, a particular number. And after that number was determined, no more offering was taken up. After they were numbered, the offering was brought in, no more offering. There remained, therefore, now no more offering for this atonement. No more silver to be taken up. The foundation was then forged. All the silver was poured into a pot, melted down, and made into these sockets of silver. And nobody can come along later on and say, hey, I didn't know, you know, I want in on this too, and here's a quarter. Too late. Too late. You're not in the number. And that's the same with God Almighty. God Almighty's chosen the people which no man can number. But God, He knows the number. He knows the number. He can, and He did. In Salvation's book, the blueprint of the building, the church, was sealed. And there's nothing going to be added to it, nothing to be taken from it. It was sealed before the foundation of the world. Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the Lamb slain. The blood sacrifice, the blood money was provided for us, for us. And what you're going to see here in a minute, this blood was for the ransom price of all of God's chosen souls. Everyone for whom the blood was shed will be saved. This is a foundational truth. This is that on which our souls can rest assured that God will receive us. It's the blood that makes atonement. Not the blood of bulls and goats, but the blood of God's Son. Blood. Jesus Christ, God's Son. His blood cleanses us, redeems us, ransoms us. But it was a personal price. Look back again there, chapter 30. A personal price. Verse 12. A personal price. Each one of these people had to bring it. Verse 12. When you take the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall They give every man, every single person from twenty up, had to give this price. All must come, all must bring it by faith, for they had no part in the atonement. And we, everyone here, must appropriate or apply or look to or plead the blood of Jesus Christ with the Father, everybody. Everybody must plead that blood before the Father. We must look and live. Look. It's a simple thing, really. A simple thing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Wash in the blood of Christ. It's a simple thing, really. A shekel. You know how much money? Look down at verse 14. Says, Everyone that passes among them their number from twenty years old and up, above shall give an offering unto the Lord. The same amount was for all that came. The rich, verse 15, shall not give more, and the poor won't give less. It amounted to about thirty-five cents. About thirty-five cents. Now, that wasn't hard to come up with. Anybody that really, truly was interested in coming to God and worshiping Him, they could come up with this money. It was there. It was there. And they had to bring this silver for the atonement because, verse 15, the rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less. than half a shekel when they give an offering unto the Lord because he's going to make an atonement for your soul, an atonement. And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel and appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord to make an atonement for your soul. And the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us. It's the foundation upon which our faith is built. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean upon Jesus' name. Christ is solid rock, solid silver foundation. His blood, it's the blood that makes atonement. And every man that would come to God, every woman, every young person that would come to God Almighty to worship Him must come to Christ to plead Him with the blood for his soul, his sinful soul. And God receives everyone that comes. The Lord is my comforter and my support. Understand my heart and execute it. When He sings, harvest my heart. The Lord is the harvest of my heart.