Mackay, Harold G: The Tabernacle 06 ~ Pillars Of The Court

A lot of these choruses. Of course, I had a disadvantage. I had to stop every now and say to a young shaver by name of Len, will you stop talking and let us sing? But in spite of those difficulties, we got along fairly well, but it does, uh, bring back a lot of these happy memories that we've had in the past, and it's amazing what the grace of God can do. You know, uh, Tom Taylor told us something that some song leaders haven't forgot- have forgotten. He told us one time at Bristol Conference that as a boy in the country, he learned never shoot at a wasp nest, you'll get stung. Shall we read now in Exodus chapter twenty seven, please? And, uh, just two verses tonight before we have the lights out and look at a very few pictures. Exodus chapter twenty seven verse nine. Thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle for the south side southward. There shall be hangings for the court of fine, fine linen of a hundred cubits long for one side. And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass, and the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. Now, our last study, we looked at the hanging of the cork, but we're going to have the lights out now, please, and the light on here, uh, on the machine, and if we could have the lights out, please. Uh, we just very quickly look at half a dozen pictures here. Tonight's subject is on the pillars of the cork, so you concentrate your, as you look at it, we see those, uh, sixty pillars all around supporting that linen court wall. And, uh, of course, four of those pillars were for the gate. Uh, one of our next studies will be on the gate, which is very, very interesting and instructive. But then we looked at this next picture, because, uh, I personally believe, although we cannot prove it, but I personally believe that the pillars were on the inside, and the linen wall was on the outside. You see, that's the way. This is a picture of our brother Peter Pell's model that he had here some time ago, and uh, uh, a brother, the brother who designed this, whom I heard teach on this about fifty years ago, uh, he put it on the, put the pillars on the inside and the linen wall on the outside. Now we take a look at one of the pillars. Here again, as I've mentioned, I don't want to spend too much time on the detail. We do not know whether the pillars were square like this or whether they are round. We are not told, but in all probability they were like this. We believe that the main part of the pillar was made of acacia wood. I remark that it did not say so in the scriptures, but the pillars that upheld the door of the tabernacle and the veil into the holiest of all, it definitely speaks of them as being made of a shittim or acacia wood. I think from that we could safely infer that all of these pillars were made of acacia wood, which was a very durable wilderness wood. Then the base was of brass or copper, and the capital on the top was overlaid with silver. The hooks that you can see there were of silver, and between each one of the posts there was a connecting rod of silver. Now, here again, we have wood, not pillars, but boards. I'm just going to briefly refer to these, but these are what was used in the construction of the tabernacle itself, the actual building. When you look at this one, you'll see. See those, uh, uh, boards, they're called in scripture, around there that formed three sides of the tabernacle building itself. This next one will give you a little idea. They were held in place, these boards were held in place by four bars, four, and 1 bar, almost the center bar, was inside, and it ran the entire length of the tabernacle. Now that will just give you a little idea of what we're going to talk about tonight, and you can keep that in your mind. We could have the lights, please. In the tabernacle, wherever you have wood, you have a picture, a type, a symbol of humanity. Wood, as we know, is something that grows in trees, and it's a product in that sense of the earth. So it's a very suitable type in the scripture, and particularly in the tabernacle here, of humanity. Now I'll have more to say about that later. The metals that we have in the tabernacle are symbolic of deity. Copper, divine judgment, because the copper was that which was selected as being best suitable to stand the fire. And we'll talk more about that and explain it when we get to the brazen altar, the altar of burnt offering. The silver that we referred to, that speaks of divine redemption. I have mentioned the fact that the silver that was used in the tabernacle all came from the redemption money, the ransom money that was paid by every male in the, uh, our nation of Israel. Then the gold speaks of divine deity. So we'll follow that thought all the way through. Wherever there's wood, then there'll be something that will refer to humanity. Wherever there is metal, there'll be something that refers to deity. Now, out in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, there was wood in three places. There were some trees. I don't imagine there were very many. We did not get down, uh, to as far as, uh, south as Mount Sinai. Very few tours go that far south, but we did see, uh, terrain that I believe would be very comparable to that at Mount Sinai. There would be a few trees, and there would be the shittim wood, this acacia, this durable wood that was spoken of as being incorruptible, not actually, but to stress it, uh, being of a very hard quality. So there were trees going. Now those trees were part of the landscape, of course. The roots were going down to the sand there, and they were drawing all of their nourishment and their life out of the soil. Now try and get that picture in your mind. I'm sorry I didn't have a picture. I had mentioned before, I had hoped to that Zondervan Publishing House would permit me to make some slides that they don't have from some of the pictures in this expensive book that I purchased that is filled with a lot of these pictures. They wrote back and said I could for the slight sum of one hundred and twenty five dollars per picture. So you know how many I'm going to get. But it won't be hard for you just to visualize a tree. Now that tree, I believe, is a very graphic picture of an unregenerate man. That tree was in the wilderness. It was of the wilderness. It was part of it. It was getting all its life and all its nourishment from the wilderness. Now, that's the way God sees natural man before he's born again. He's in this world, he's part of it, and he's drawing all of his life and all of his sustenance and satisfaction from this world. That's an unsaved person. But we watch, as it were, with our mind's eye, we watch an Israeli come out of the camp of Israel, and he has an axe on his shoulder, and he's going out, and we run after him, and we say, pardon me, sir, but where are you going? Oh, he said, I'm going out to get some acacia wood. What are you going to do with the acacia wood? Have a fire? Build a fire? No, no. You see, we are building a habitation for our God. He has commanded us to do that. He's given us a pattern that we're to follow, and one of the things required for the building of that habitation of our God is wood. I don't have any silver, I don't have any gold, I don't have any precious stones, but I'm gonna have a part in the building of this tabernacle for our God. I'm going out here and cut down some of these trees. And so we follow him, and we see him taking that sharp axe, bringing it down on the trunk of that tree, and the tree falls. Possibly, he trims off some of the branches, and he brings back to the camp the trunk of that tree. Now, there is a very simple picture of what happens when God saves a person. I have already sought to impress on you that every one of us in our unregenerate conditions, just like a tree, we're in this world, we're part of it, all of our life and satisfaction and sustenance is being drawn from this world. I was like that up until nineteen years of age. I got all of my life out of this world. I got all of my satisfaction out of this world. But then one night, fifty two years ago, the sharp axe of God's word hit me just like that. People say they don't know when they were saved. I tell you, fifty two years hasn't erased one detail of that night when God struck me with the axe of his word, and he cut me down from a proud, rebellious, wicked, worldly sinner. He cut me down, and I came crashing down in humility and in repentance. I tell you, I'd like to see that today. I'm getting awfully weary of these believe it conversions. I've got nothing before it and nothing after it. And I was telling God lately, just give me a little bit of strength, and I'll preach the gospel, and there's nobody that gets under the sound of my voice will ever be able to stand up at the judgment seat of, of the great white throne and say, Mr. McKay didn't tell us that if we weren't genuine, we'd go to hell forever. And I want God to give me just a little more strength for some of the old-fashioned gospel preaching that cuts a sinner down to size. We got all kinds of gimmicks and gimmicks and everything else to try and get people to profess to be saved. What they need is to find out they're lost and guilty and going to hell. And I've seen some mighty big sinners in these past fifty years of service for the Lord. I've seen some mighty big sinners brought down on their face before God by the sharp axe of the gospel. It cuts you down, and that which had stood there in all of its strength, drawing its life from the wilderness, is lying flat now to be used by God. That's what God does. And God's going to change this. You saw that pillar. Did that look like a tree? No. It didn't look like a tree. No, it looked entirely different than what was growing out there in the wilderness. My Bible says that when you trust Christ, you become a new creature in Christ Jesus. The first time I stood on the street corner of my home city in Canada, fellas that I had run with, that I had fought with, that I had played football with, that I had drank with, they came down the main street. They circled around me like that. While I was standing on the street corner with my Bible preaching Christ. And one of them said, well, it looks like him. Another one says, yes, it really does, and kind of sounds like him. Another one said, but it wouldn't be he out here preaching. That wouldn't be Mickey McKay out there preaching, but it was. Yes, because God had cut that proud young tree down to size. God was going to make a pillar out of him now. And the tree that had been cut down in the wilderness there is taken, and it's put in a solid socket of copper. Where had it been before? In the sand. Where's it now? In the copper socket. Solid, substantial base there of copper that could stand the judgment fire. And when you accept Christ as your savior, God takes you out of the world, he puts you in Christ. You're no longer standing on the sands of this world or anything connected with it. You're standing on the finished work of Jesus Christ, who went through the judgment fire for you. You're still in the wilderness, but you're not of it. You see? If you want to realize where you are as a believer in Christ, think of that pillar. Still in the world, but said our Lord again and again, they are not of this world. And between that pillar that had once been part of the world and the sand, there was a solid base of copper. My brethren, between me and this world, there's a solid work of Jesus Christ. And the Apostle Paul said in Galatians six fourteen, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which I was saved? No. By which the world was crucified unto me, and I unto the world. And the cross of Christ comes not only as a solid basis that you rest on for eternity, but it comes between you and the world. And you learn that wonderful lesson, you've died with Christ, and you've been raised with. You have a new standing altogether. And then they put a capital on the head of it, and they put silver on that capital, and there it stood. That which had once been a tree in the wilderness, there it is, it's standing on the comber, solid, substantial, with a silver crown on its head. Brethren and sisters, when I think of this lovely little picture, I could weep with joy. I was once part of this world. Tonight I'm standing before you, and I'm based on the work of Christ, and God has crowned me with salvation. I tell you, I'd rather have that crown on my head tonight than all the crowns of the world. There it is. It's got a new standing. That's what you get when you come to Christ. Now, wouldn't it have been a reproach? Wouldn't it have been a shame and a disgrace to the name of Jehovah if that, when the winds came, and they would come in the desert there, and blew against that curtain, if it fell over, wouldn't that be a disgrace to the God of Israel? It would. And when the winds of adversity and temptation come and we fall down flat, it's a disgrace to the name of the Lord. Because God has given us not only a new standing, but he's given us new stability. God says, now when you put that post, that pillar up there, not only put it on that solid basis, but drive a pin in over there, and drive a pin in over there, and tie it with cords, so it'll have a new stability. Many years I spent the summer months in preaching in the gospel tent, and I did a good bit of the work myself in erecting those tents. One thing I very quickly learned was you had to stake them down good. If you didn't, your tent would be down and your meeting would be off. And we had some terrific storms during that time. But I learned with a little experience that you could just about tell from the kind of soil on that lot where you were pitching your tent, how you had to stake it. And sometimes, if it was a soft, sandy soil, you had to double stake it. But we always made sure that we had a good, solid stake driven in there, and the ropes were kept tight, but not too tight, because when the rain would come, it would tighten them up. And we saw a storm was coming, we'd hurry to the tent and go round it with a sledgehammer and drive the stakes in deep. After you had a rain, when the ground was soft and that, you went around again, you drove the stakes in deeper so that when the wind came up, it wouldn't blow your tent over. Now you see, that's what God did. God said, now I want you to stake those pillars. I don't want them, my, the curtains around my habitation to look like this. I don't want them to fall down flat. I don't want some of them to sag. I want a good, straight, solid line. The Amorites, the Hittites, the Philistines, they'll all be looking at this, and they'll judge me by the wall around my habitation. Friends, that's exactly what the world is doing today, is looking at you and me. And the sad thing is that many who profess the name of the Lord, they've got an awful sag in them. They need straightening up. And some have even fallen flat on their face. I'm going to suggest to you, there is nothing that I know of in the scripture that would, that we could use as a proof of what the cords and the pins signify. I know nothing at all. There are many of these things are interpreted in scripture. I know nothing for that. I'm going to suggest that in our application, what keeps the Christian straight for God and stable and enables him to stand against the winds of adversity and temptation, I'm going to call the one cord and pin prayer, and the other cord and pin the reading of the word of God. I don't believe you can stand for God unless you daily read your Bible and pray. But if you do, if you speak to God in prayer and let him to speak to you through his word, it'll keep you straight. It'll keep you from sagging. It'll keep you from falling down. And if we do that, and may I suggest to you, one of those cords and pins could speak to us of fellowship with God, and the other fellowship with our brothers and sisters. And we need that double fellowship to keep up. So there were, it was given a new standing, wasn't it? It was given a new suit of, uh, stability by the cords and the pins. But now it has a new purpose, hasn't it? Out there in the desert, growing as part of the landscape, it may have had one purpose, but now it's been cut down and brought to the tabernacle. It has one purpose. Go back in your mind's eye now to the picture of the tabernacle. What were those pillars doing? They were holding up the linen court. That's why I believe that the pillars were inside. All through the Word of God, particularly the New Testament, the emphasis is this, that the Christian is to keep out of sight and display the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as these, uh, pillars, they held up the linen, that pure white linen. Your business and mine in this world is to hold up Jesus Christ. And if every Christian were just holding up Jesus Christ the way they should, what a blessing it would be. They have a new purpose in life now. You ask that pillar if it could speak, what's your purpose now? Well, it used to be just to grow out there in the wilderness. My purpose now is to hold up my part of this curtain. Brothers and sisters, those who profess to be believers in Christ, young or old, you've got a little part of the curtain to hold up. Hold it up at home, hold it up at school, hold it up at work, hold it up in your neighborhood, and you'll be fulfilling the purpose of God for you. And if you don't, you'll be failing in that purpose. But then, you know, as I think of this pillar, and they're so very much connected with it, as I think of this pillar, I think of the new unity that exists. Now, every pillar had its own sockets, but all the sockets were the same. And they're all made of the same material, and undoubtedly they'd all be the same size and weight and that. But each one had its own socket that it stood in. Now that should certainly remind us, every individual has to put their personal faith in Jesus Christ. My father's saved. Good. My mother's saved. Good. My brother's saved. Good. Are you saved? My wife's saved. That's wonderful. My husband's saved. Fine. Are you saved? Are you on the socket? You see? It would never have done if one of these sockets had been on the copper and the other one been on the sand. It would have been very evident what ones were on the sand. But you see, everyone fitted into its own socket, but they were all alike. They're all made of the same material. Every pillar was based on copper. Jude, in his little epistle in the third verse, speaks about the common salvation. Now, sometimes common in our language means ordinary, but that isn't a thought at all. It's a thought that the common salvation is that it's for each one, for all. Your salvation is the same as mine because Jesus Christ. And just as every individual socket was made of copper, and every pillar was resting on the same thing, so every person who's saved is resting on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But while every, uh, pillar had to take, as it were, its individual stand on the socket to become part of the tabernacle, just as you have to take your individual stand for Jesus Christ. I have a friend in Canada. In fact, he, I preached with him at times. He's now home in the glory. He went into a gospel meeting one night. God saved him. But God spoke to him during that meeting, and at the end he was spoken to very wisely and kindly by a brother in the Lord, a wise soul winner. And he spoke to him about the need of being saved. Yes, I realize I need to be saved. He spoke to him about the provision that had been made for salvation. Yes, I understand that Christ has died for my sin. Well, then will you accept him as your savior? Well, yes, I will. I fully intend to accept him. The man who was talking to this individual was a carpenter. He had in his pocket his big carpenter's pencil, and he just drew it out. The floor of that little chapel was wood, and he reached down and he drew a line right across in front of that troubled soul, and he said to him, will you step over that line with Christ or without him? The Spirit of God's working. My friend stood there. He felt it's now or never. And looking at this Christian who was speaking to him, he reached his foot forward, he put it over the line. He said, I'm stepping over the line with Christ. God saved him, transformed him, made him a preacher of the gospel. Yes, my friend, when were you fitted? To use the illustration that we're following tonight, when were you fitted into the socket of the finished work of Christ? But while that was absolutely true, and it's true tonight, yet as I mentioned, and we as we looked at the pictures, while these pillars all stood by themselves there, yet they're all linked together. What linked them? A silver connecting rod. They were all linked together. Out there in the wilderness, they grew by themselves, but now they've been linked with every other pillar by that connecting rod of silver. Isn't it a lovely picture? You and I brought out of this world, put in the Lord Jesus Christ, crowned with salvation and connected by the blood of Christ with every other believer. Thank God there's a silver connecting rod between every child of God in this building tonight and in the whole wide world. Everyone who is standing, as it were, on a socket of copper is linked to his brother and sister by a silver rod of redemption. We're reminded of that in verses that were read this morning by our brother Schwartz from Ephesians chapter two. Now we've been brought together. The middle wall of partition that separated Jew and Gentile has been removed, and all now have been brought together into one new man. We're all linked together. And there, as we're linked together, we form a circle, the circle of redemption, with our Lord Jesus Christ in the midst. There was wood out there in the wilderness, part of the wilderness, enjoying the wilderness, might I say, drawing life and satisfaction from the wilderness. There is wood, the same wood, but now it's got a new standing altogether. It's got a new stability, it's got a new purpose, and it's got a new unity. Everything you see is new, my friend. But just a passing thought. I don't want to get ahead of myself in the study. I showed you the last two pictures because there was wood somewhere else. So I couldn't see any wood. No, do you know why? Because it was covered with gold. And the tabernacle itself, that building itself, was made of the same kind of wood, but it was covered all over with gold. And when we get to that, we'll have a lovely picture. And I showed you there how it was united by five, uh, bars, brought it together, made it one building, a beautiful gold gleaming building. The tree out there in the wilderness, that's a man and his sins in the world. The po- pillar on that socket of copper, that's a man who has been brought to put his trust in Christ and is now belonging to him. That same individual is part of God's habitation. We're boards in the building. My, when we get to that, we'll see there was a different kind of a socket. It's different on the top and all that, but we'll get to that in time, if the Lord may not come. If he does, you'll know more about it than I ever will. But, uh, we'll just leave it at that. We'll just think of it, you see? Covered with gold, you say, but I'm not glorified yet. Wait a minute. Romans chapter eight, where we have the wonderful outline of God's dealings with his believing people, whom he justified, them he also glorified. My friends, although we're not yet displayed in glory, thank God, in the eternal purposes of God, which can never be changed, we're covered with gold already. We're glorified. We're part of the body of Christ, already in the eternal councils of God, glorified before him. Would you rather stay out there in the wilderness, my friend? In the world and of it, nothing ahead of you but to rot in your sins, or to be cut down and cast into the fire? Is that what you want? Why not let the word of God cut you down tonight, my friend? Bring you down in genuine repentance before him. Why not put your trust in the finished work of Christ tonight? Be able to say and sing on Christ the solid rock I stand, and become part of that wonderful habitation of God, justified, glorified, covered not only with his righteousness, but with his glory. As I've said, I believe those pillars were on the inside. You come to the tabernacle, you couldn't see them. All you saw was that white curtain. And thank God, our Lord Jesus Christ has given to us the righteousness of God, which is himself in reality. Oh, my friend, I hope that this simple little lesson tonight will make you realize the danger and the folly of remaining out there in your sins. My friend, if you don't let the gospel, the acts of the gospel cut you down and bring you in repentance, the sharp edge of death will cut you off, and you'll topple into a lost eternity. We read in Zechariah of the high priest there, and the question is asked, is not this a brand plucked from the burning? Yes. Many a time I tremble as I think of how near I was to the burden. How very near. And then a hand reached down and grasped me. Fifty-two blessed years ago, that nail-pierced hand of the Son of God grasped me. And I've been a brand plucked from the burning ever since. I trust that you, right at this moment, will say, well, I want to be based on Christ. I want to have my standing in him. I want to be covered by his righteousness, so that I'll be acceptable to God. While we pray, my friend, why not open your heart and let the Lord Jesus come in? My friend, if you are a Christian and you realize you've been sagging, you haven't had the testimony before this world that you should have, ask God to tighten up the stakes tonight. Ask God to tighten up the cords and get you back straight again. Father, we pray that thy Holy Spirit, who alone can convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, who alone is able to do a work for eternity in human hearts. May he take these simple words tonight and use them in salvation and in separation, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.