Turn with me to Exodus, Chapter 25. Exodus, Chapter 25. I think it's fitting that we meet together around this table, the Lord's table, in the study of this table. Because the first table, this table, speaks of Christ, and the last supper or table speaks of Christ. He's the first and the last. This is the Alpha and Omega table that we're looking at tonight. Christ. Like everything else in this tabernacle, His table speaks so clearly of Christ. Let's let's read here from Exodus 25, verse 23. God's. Commandments. To Moses here concerning the table to show bread, thou shalt verse 23, thou shalt also make a table. Shittim would. two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt make unto it a border of a handbreadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about. And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four legs or feet thereof. Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table. And thou shalt make the staves as long rods of this shittom wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne or carried with these staves. And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof. and covers thereof, and bowls thereof for the table, to cover it with all of pure gold. Thou shalt make them. And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me always." This table, the first thing I want you to notice about this table up in verse 23, it says, Thou shalt make a table of wood. It's shittom wood. Now, this wood, I've said before, is of this acacia family. Now, that is, it's an earthen substance. It's wood. It comes from a plain, ordinary tree, yet it's an enduring substance. It's a weather-resistant, insect-resistant, repellent wood. It's a wood that is virtually impervious to decay, much like the locust wood that we have today. So the table was to be made of this wood, this shittum wood. And this is a picture of Christ, who's the manhood of Christ. Christ was a man, an earthen vessel. Christ was bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. He said, after he arose from the grave, he said, touch me. He said, I'm not a spirit, I'm a man, like you are. A spirit hath not flesh and bones. Touch me, I'm a man. And it's of great comfort to the believer to know that there's still a man with a body, albeit a glorified one, but there still is a man in glory at the right hand of God, a man that we can come near, a great high priest. Yet, he's a perfect man. Like this chitim wood, he's impervious to decay, to sand, to rot, to insects. He's weather-resistant. He's able to withstand all of the assaults of sin, of Satan, and of this world that this world threw at him. He was impervious to it. He stood up to it without decay, without sin, without being tempted by sin. Look at verse 24. And this wood is to be overlaid with pure gold, pure gold. Although Christ was a man, yet he was God Almighty, God in human flesh. God was in Christ, the scripture says, reconciling the world unto himself. It was of necessity that Jesus Christ be God as well as man. Man to suffer and die, God to satisfy God's justice and God's requirements of the law. Verse 23, look at this, he tells us the dimensions of this table. He tells us that two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And then verse 25, he talks about the depth of this border. And since this is recorded, it must be important to know the size of this table. You must know something about the height, depth, length, and breadth of this table. Right? I remember seeing that elsewhere. Paul said that you may be able to comprehend with all saints. what is the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes mere knowledge. And I ask us, I ask myself, if I know anything of Christ, the measure of His character, we must. The weight of His words, do we? The breadth of His love, the wideness of His love. how all-inclusive His love is. We don't exclude anyone from the grace of God and the salvation that's in Christ. We include all that want to come. We know that no man will come except God draw them. But the wideness of Christ's love will include any man that comes unto Him, right? If any man does come, it's because God gave him the grace and the will to do so. We know something of the breadth of His love and the length of His grace. his loving-kindness, his long—do you know anything about the length of his long-suffering? How long-suffering has he been with you? How long has he suffered you, put up with you? How long will he? He said, I'll put up with him forever. I'll never leave. How about the depth of his mercy? How far did he have to reach to get you? That's the uttermost, the guttermost, somebody said. That song, I like that, we all love that song, when He reached down for me, way on down. Some of us, all of us, He had to reach mighty far to pull us out of the muck and the mire, didn't He? The depth of His mercy, oh, the depth of mercy. The height of His glory is our ascension to glory, and the heights that He's going to take us. That song says, O the height and depth of mercy, O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness of this table of redemption, pledge of endless life above. It's all in Christ and this table. Look at verse 24 again. He talks about a crown. Overlay this table with gold, this wooden table is overlaid with gold, and there's going to be a crown around it, crown molding. Crown with gold. This is just like the Ark. The Ark had a crown, a golden crown around it. Do you know anything about Christ's crown? Listen, what is the crown of Christ? Listen to this. We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for suffering and death, crowned with glory and honor. Crowned. Crown him with many crowns, the Scriptures say. Look at verse 26. And on this table you'll put four rings of gold. four golden rings, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet. There are four golden rings and two staves, that the staves may go through these rings. Four golden rings and two staves. What are these four rings? I think we looked at it before on the arc of the four posts in front of the gate. But you know, this generation, you've probably seen it on some of these so-called charismatic churches. Talk about the four square gospel church. Seen that? We're a four square gospel church. I'm not sure what they mean by that, unless it be we're born again, spirit-filled, tongue-talking, Bible-believing, Christian, something like that. Terry and I were talking about this. This man-centered religion today talks about, I this, I that, I accepted Jesus, I got saved, I this. But ours is totally speaking of him. Of God, ours is foursquare, yes. But of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us foursquare. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And all of this is borne by the person and the work of Christ, these two staves that hold all this up. And the four Gospels could be rightly called these four rings, these four golden rings, the four Gospels that connect this table and the person and work of Christ contained therein that bear up these four Gospels. Four rings and two staves. And these staves, verse 28, they were to be gold also. They'd make the staves of this same wood and overlay them with gold. That speaks to me of that precious blood that covered that old wooden cross. that golden substance, the blood of God, which he purchased his church with. The gospel of Christ. All right, look at verse 29. And thou shalt make the dishes, here's the utensils of this table, make the dishes thereof, and the spoons thereof, and the covers thereof, and the bowls thereof, to cover withal, make them all of gold. Pure gold shalt thou make them. This is the utensils. The dishes, the spoons, the bowls, and the covers, and so forth, were all made of this pure gold. And this speaks to me, not only of the works of Christ, his utensils, his works, his character, his everything about him, it also speaks of his very physical person, his hands, his feet, his eyes. Talk about beautiful feet. You know that scripture says, how beautiful are the feet that bring the gospel of the Talk about beautiful feet now, those nail-pierced feet, those nail-scarred hands. We're going to be looking for them in heaven, aren't we, Terry? We're going to be looking for those four golden rings, those utensils that Christ used to prepare us a table in the wilderness, to make himself this bread. It speaks of the very physical features of Christ that were used in the service of God. He said it, behold my hands. And listen to this. Over in the Song of Solomon, this is the way we speak of Christ. O thou fairest among women, what is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us? Well, let me tell you about my beloved, she says. My beloved is pure, white, and ruddy, the cheapest, the fairest among ten thousand. His head, his utensils, is his most fine gold. His locks are bushy and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters washed with milk, and fitly sitting in fullness, it says, sitting in fullness, his eyes. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers, towers of perfume. His lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh grace pours forth from his lips. His hand are as gold rings, also set with the barrel stones. His belly is a bright ivory overlaid with sapphire, his legs pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars towering. His mouth is most sweet. He's altogether lovely. This is my beloved This is my friend, that's our Christ, that's who that is. A man, yet God-man, all gold, pure, perfect, beautiful, and glorious in his holiness. This table was well suited in the service of God, golden, beautiful, perfectly suited, perfectly ordered in all things, and pure for the service of God's tabernacle. So is this man, Christ Jesus. He's suited. He's the table of God. He's a man accepted, approved of God for his service, for his sacrifice. God's altar. God's table. God's Son. God's Christ. God's Lamb. His table. Now look down at verse 30. And thou shalt sit upon the table, shew bread. Look for me always. I like the sound of the word. Sweet smelling bread. There's nothing, there's absolutely nothing more that is a more sweet smelling savor to us than freshly baked bread, isn't it? Bread. Can you smell it, Bacon? I can smell it. How is bread made? Very briefly, I've gone over this with you before, but bread starts out as a little corn of wheat. And it's planted in the ground. And it begins to grow. It comes up the blade, the stalk, and the full ear of corn. And then right in the prime of life, right in the full ear, full bloom, the harvest, the Lord of the harvest, cuts it down. And then he takes it and grinds it to a powdery fineness. And then he kneads it. He adds water and kneads it until it's in dough. And then he places it in an oven, closes the door, rolls a stone over the oven or whatever, and in a little while it rises and comes forth sweet smelling bread, a nutritional food. And that's Christ. Christ was a corn of wheat that fell into the ground. He was a seed of man, a seed of woman, excuse me, a seed of woman. And the scripture says he grew up as a tender plant, as a tender plant. And he was in the prime of life, in the fullness of his years, thirty-three years old, at full bloom, the height of his person, he was cut down, cut down and ground to powder, ground, wounded, bruised, smitten, stricken, and cut down in his prime. And he was needed. You know, you need dough. Well, he was needed by man, yes. He was laid hold of and pummeled. and torn asunder and so forth by man, but he's needed by man, too. I need him. We killed him, and his blood is on our hands, yet we need his blood on us and our children, don't we? But he was bruised and wounded and smitten and afflicted for our sins and ground, and then he was placed on that cross as it were an oven, and under the hot fiery indignation of God's wrath. He bore the wrath of this God who is a consuming fire and baked Him, literally baked Him, consumed Him. He died under this wrath of God Almighty and He put Him in a tomb. He rose, didn't He? He rose and came out of there sweet smelling bread, didn't He? Sweet smelling bread. Precious staff of life. The staff of life. Look over at Leviticus 24 with me. It goes a little deeper into this bread. Leviticus 24, he describes it a little more fully, the substance of it. Leviticus 24. I thought it was interesting. The word showbread means to face it or to look at it. That's what showbread means. Put it out there where people can look at it. You've got to face this bread. You have to look at it. Christ is the showbread. He's the only God, our Savior. Look unto me. He's that brazen serpent that we must look to for salvation. Leviticus 24, verse 5. And thou shalt take fine flour. Fine flour. He's that pure, white, sifted substance. Christ is. His very essence was sifted. He was sifted by the law. and came forth spotless. Then he was sifted by Satan. He said, found nothing in me. I used to love to play in my mother's flower when I was a kid. You know, it's a wonderful substance, isn't it? That Martha White lily, white flower. There's no impurities in it. It's just beautiful, pure. I've gotten in trouble from it, too. But it's beautiful. It's pure, spotless, and white. And if there's any impurities in it, you won't use it. And Christ said, Satan found nothing in me. He was sifted, tried, tempted by Satan and by man, and there's no impurities in it. Perfect, lily white, spotless. And unleavened, this was unleavened bread also. It doesn't say it here, but it does in other places. An unleavened bread takes two ingredients, flour and water. That's it. That's all you need to make this unleavened bread. Flour and water. And Christ, that this water is constantly spoken of as the Spirit of God, the water, the Spirit. Christ was the Spirit of God in all its fullness. And he came down, and all he needed to be made this bread was a substance, a body. A body, thou hast given me. I'm full of the Spirit, but this water of life, give me this fine flour, now this fine body, and I'll be made bread for my people, the body of a man, the Spirit of of God, verse 5. Fine flour, and you'll bake twelve cakes with it. Twelve cakes with this fine flour. Two-tenths of a deal should be in one cake. Twelve cakes. Now, this tells me of the twelve tribes of Israel. This tells me of the twelve apostles. This tells me of all of God's people that found in the names of those on the high priest breastplate, those twelve tribes. All of God's people are found in Christ, the bread, all of them. And these twelve cakes, it's called bread. There's twelve of them, but it's all called one bread, right? And God's people all go through the fiery furnace of affliction. They all go through the furnace of affliction and are partakers of his sufferings, that they might be conformed to the image of Christ. They are made into bread. They are called Christ. They are placed in Christ. Now, listen to this verse of Scripture. We being many are one bread. 1 Corinthians 10, 17. We being many are one bread and one body. We're all partakers of that one bread. One bread, twelve cakes, one bread, called by one name, she'll bread. Verse six, And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table. Two rows, one on the right hand, and one on the left hand, on the table. One on the right hand, one on the left hand, upon this pure table. And all of God's people are seated with Christ. Right? One bread, we are in Christ, we're crucified with Christ, we go through the furnace of affliction, we're crucified with Christ, but we're risen with Christ, too. Risen. And we're seated in Christ, on his right hand and his left hand. And verse 7, and now shall put pure frankincense upon each row. Now this is some kind of incense that was burning, this wasn't a spice, it was added to it. This was a burning of incense, that fragrance, and this tells me of the spirit of God, of Christ, and the prayers of Christ that are constantly being made for his people. Okay, look at verse 8. And every Sabbath, wait a minute, verse 7, you put pure frankincense upon each road that may be on the bread for a memorial, for remembrance, even an offering made by fire. Now, every Sabbath, verse 8, he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, every Sabbath. This bread was to be eaten daily by these priests, and there was plenty of it, that two-tenths of a deal in each cake. One writer said that these cakes were huge. I don't know where he got his measurements, but he said they were huge cakes, about ten handbreadths long. huge big pieces of bread. He said there's enough in one bread, one loaf of bread for two men to eat in a day. And there were a lot of priests to be fed, and the priests were to eat of the things of the table. They were to partake of the things of this table. This was their sole substance, bread and wine. And there were a lot of priests, many, but none of them went hungry. They all had plenty to eat, plenty. And it was daily eaten, and there was plenty of it. And every morning by these priests this bread was eaten, but he was especially prepared for the Sabbath. You see that? Every Sabbath this bread is set in order. It's baked fresh and set forth fresh on Sabbath day. And Christ is especially preached and proclaimed and set forth in order when we gather together to worship, isn't it? And this bread is to be eaten by the priest, eaten daily. And this tells me that Christ is to be, his person is to be communed with daily for our spiritual substance, daily, daily manna. We need that manna every morning, every morning. We need Christ daily, or we'll lapse into some malnutrition, spiritual malnutrition. is to be consumed, is to be eaten, is to be partaken of daily. Yesterday's manna won't do. It spoils. Last Sunday's blessing's gone, isn't it? You need one right now, don't you? Now, think about this, this bread. Have you ever thought about how many different forms bread takes? It's a variable feast of food. So many varieties. of bread that you can make. There's biscuits and buns. There's cakes and cornbread. There's dinner rolls and donuts. Just keep on. Just keep naming all different forms. Christ is the woman's seed. He's the ark. He's the lamb. He's the brazen serpent. He's the city of refuge. He's the kingdom and redeemer. He's the shepherd. He's the bridegroom. He's the sacrifice. He's the lamb. He's the fountain. He's the substitute. He's the physician. He's the table. He's the bread. Just keep doing it. A veritable feast. The word, the bread, the scriptures are a veritable feast of Christ. Every page, everywhere you look, he takes on a different form, doesn't he? Christ the bread. Call it what? Christ is all. He's all. And in verse 9, and this shall be, who shall partake of it? This shall be for Aaron's sons, and they shall eat it in the holy place. It's most holy unto him, the offerings of the Lord made by fire. by a perpetual statute." This is from a covenant, an everlasting covenant of God. Now listen, this bread was only eaten by the priests. No strangers were allowed into the holy place. Now, none but the children of Israel could partake of the atonement, but there were allowances made for some strangers. to come and partake of these things. Now here were the conditions for these strangers to be brought in. They had to be bought, they had to be servants. They couldn't just be free men, they had to be servants, servants of the Israelites. They had to be bought and paid for in order to partake of this atonement. They had to be circumcised. They couldn't partake of the atonement unless they were bought, they were servants, they were bought and paid for and circumcised. And no strangers are going to partake of the gospel, the gospel of Christ, and no strangers to the faith in Christ, but believers. Only believers are allowed to partake of the table of Christ himself, only believers. And they are evidenced by being followers, by being servants. Right? Bought and paid for, washed, bought with a price. You're not your own, you're bought with a price. Precious blood of Christ. We're bought and paid for, washed, redeemed, bought with a price. Circumcised in heart, in mind, in soul. That is the old flesh, the old heart taken away and a new one given. Regenerated by the Spirit of God. So those are the conditions for strangers. We're strangers, we're Gentiles. But we've been brought in by these And only the priests, though, now the common people could, like I say, could stand out and look within and see what was going on about the altar and so forth. Only the priests were allowed into the holy place itself to eat the bread. Only the priests. Believers are made, the scripture says, kings and priests unto our God. We're made kings and priests under our God, and we have permission, liberty, freedom, access. Scripture even says boldness to enter into the holy place, the holy of holies, not made with hands, but to the very place of God himself, all based upon the promises of God, the person and the work of Christ himself. To enter into the holiest of all, enter at the partake of the table. of Christ, the bread, to commune with God around Christ. Believers, all believers are made priests, kings. That's the reason we're called kings and priests. We're kings because we're princes, we're sons of the most high king, and we're priests because we partake of the table and we minister about the things of Christ. All right? Who may come to this table? Who could come? Well, Christ said, blessed are they that hunger and thirst. Hunger and thirst after righteousness. They'll be filled. They'll have something to eat. They'll get something to eat. Hungry people. Who can partake of this table? Hungry sinners in need of Christ. We don't police this table. That is like some so-called churches like to do. You can't partake of our table. Well, I don't want to partake of your table. I want to partake of the Lord's table. I didn't know this was your table. I thought it was his table. He's the one who polices it, as it were, but we don't exclude anybody from partaking of this, the Lord's table. And the only conditions for partaking of this table are belief. If thou believest, thou mayest. If you believe that you're a hungry sinner in need of Christ, come. Come. Christ said, have you never read how that David—David wasn't a priest, was he?—how that David, when he was hungry, he went in and took the bread and ate and gave it to his buddies. You know, something else to notice, when you read through here on your own, that the priest never went in the sanctuary, though, without Aaron. They never were allowed in there without Aaron. Aaron went in first, and the priest went in with him. And that's Christ, and that's us. We never go into the presence of God without our mediator, right? Okay, and this bread was to be eaten standing. There was no furniture in the tabernacle, no chairs, no place to sit down. They would eat this standing. They all gathered around a table standing around. This was a place of fellowship and communion. All the priests got together around this table and ate standing there. They had a big time, fellowship, I'm sure, talked about the day's ministrations and so forth, talked about the sacrifice and the blood, and they may have talked about what it meant and so forth. They were eat this standing. It was because they were always about the service, even while eating. And believers, like Christ said, I must be about my Father's business. And believers are always about the Father's business, the things of the gospel, the things of Christ. There's just no place I want to be but right here. I tell you, there's nothing I'd rather do. I have to prepare these messages and all that. Sometimes it gets laborious and all, but really and truthfully, God is my witness. There's just no place I'd rather be right now than right here around God's Word with God's people, communion, taking of the bread. I'm telling you what, this is what we're going to do throughout eternity. And if it grows weary to us now and we have no interest in it now, I have my doubts about being there then, but there's no place I'd rather be right now than right here. The Passover, the Passover was eaten, the scripture says, with your shoes on. Eat with your shoes on, your staff in your hand, ready to go out. And believers, believers are feasting and they're resting in Christ yet, but we're waiting and watching too. Got shoes on, shod with preparation. of the gospel of peace, right? Preparation for what? He's coming. He's coming. In an hour when you think not. Staff in hand, waiting, watching, looking, eating, ready. Here it comes. Let's go. Let's go. Who may eat at this table? And I'm not just talking about this table. This is just a symbol of Christ. We've been talking about Christ, our spiritual table, our spiritual bread. Who may eat of it? Believers. All those that come to God by Christ. All those that are hungry, needy, seeking sinners, in need of Christ, his righteousness, his shed blood. Confessors. I like to make, I see the scriptures give this, it seems to me that the scriptures say that baptized believers were the ones that partake at the table, that were baptized. And then they took up the table. So and that's the first principle means of confessing Christ. What this is is remembrance, a memorial of Christ. And but the baptism, the pool is where you confess him. You confess your faith. This is where you go first and confess him, confess your faith in Christ, buried with him and risen with him. And then you partake of this table and remember that, that sacrifice and that that so great a salvation. And it doesn't make any difference who baptized you, just as long as you partook of and confessed this Christ. OK? And come, partake of Christ. There's plenty to go around. Plenty to go around. Plenty of it. And it's still, he's still there right now. He's still there. I want you to turn in this Songs of Grace book with me, if you would. Sherry, come up here, please, if you would. I'm going to sing a song, number one, that's the words that Brother Donners really did assert, it's by God's grace. Number one, it's such a tremendous song for this Lord's table. It's to the tune of Brethren, meet we have met. to worship. Okay, three verses here, and stand with me while we sing this. of his love divine. Great as Vulcan is his body, thrust beneath the wrath of God. Wine poured out is a free Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember how He bought your soul and mine. In remembrance of our Savior, eat the bread and drink the wine. came the God incarnate to fulfill God's holy law. On the cross he laid atonement and retrieved us from the fall. Let us never forget the promise Jesus made to Soon he comes acting to call us home. Praise His name With this hope and expectation We rejoice to keep this peace Celebrating our redemption Jesus Christ You may be seated. That's just outstanding. Outstanding. For the stand, would you come up here please and help me serve the bread.