Gooding, David: 2 - The Tent and Skins

Let us read from the book of Exodus, chapter twenty six beginning at verse one. Moreover, thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet, with cherubim, the work of the cunning workman, shalt thou make them. The length of each curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains shall have one measure. Five curtains shall be coupled together one to another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled one to another. Thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling, and likewise shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is outmost in the second coupling. fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain, that is, op- uh, in the second coupling. The loops shall be opposite one to another. Thou shalt make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to another with the clasps, and the tabernacle shall be one. And thou shalt make curtains of goat's hair for a tent over the tabernacle. Eleven curtains shalt thou make them. The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains shall have one measure. And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves, and thou shalt double over the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tent. And thou shalt make 50 loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops upon the edge of the curtain which is outmost in the second coupling. Thou shalt make fifty clasps of copper, and put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one. The overhanging part that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth shall hang over the back of the tabernacle. And the cubit on the one side and the cubit on the other side of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on this side and on that side, to cover it. Thou shalt make a covering for the tent of ranskins dyed red, and a covering of seal skins. May the Lord himself interpret his word to us. Spent our time last week studying the ten beautiful linen curtains that form the tabernacle, properly so called. We tried to assemble some of the evidence that should help us to begin to understand the meaning of the parable. We noticed in particular the fact that when these curtains are spread over the tabernacle, they nowhere touch the ground. Secondly, we noticed that they are held in position by fifty loops of blue. We noted the color particularly, Fifty loops of blue on the one set of curtains there, and another fifty loops on the other set there, uh, joined together by fifty clasps of gold. And uh, blue, we argued to ourselves, was the uh, heavenly color. So they didn't touch the ground, and they were held in position by that heavenly color. And uh, then we paid special attention to the number fifty repeated three times over, uh Fifty loops of blue one side, and fifty loops of blue the other side, and fifty clasps of gold. And we took, um, fifty to be a reminder of, uh, the feast of Pentecost. Pentecost, as you know, in good Greek scholars, is the Greek for fiftieth. There was a feast in the Old Testament in the Jewish calendar of redemption, uh, called the Feast of Pentecost because it happened on the fiftieth day after another such feast. But of course, uh, that feast itself became absolutely famous fifty days after our Lord rose from the dead, or fifty days after our Lord rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit was sent down from heaven to witness, first and foremost, to the fact that our Lord was risen and had ascended into the heavens. And we found it not at all difficult to put two and two together, so to speak, or to put fifty and fifty and fifty together, along with the loops of blue and the fact that these curtains nowhere touch the ground, to read there in a parable of the coming of the Holy Spirit to witness to our Lord, who has passed through the heavens. Having got that far, we fell to, uh, considering the significance of the colors upon the curtains, the blue, the purple, the scarlet. Not only the colors, but the, uh, material they curtains were basically made of linen, and also the embroidery work of cherubin thereupon, uh, considering what those colors have to tell us about our Lord's ascension into the heavens and its significance. The clock defeated us in the end, and we had to leave a good deal of the thing unsaid. So this evening, before we come, as per announcement, to talk about the, uh, goat's hair curtains, we must first of all complete our study of these perineal curtains. I want to take up where we left off by the observation that these curtains are not just one curtain, nor even two curtains. There are no less than ten curtains. The curtains are running this way. Five curtains joined together in one set, and five curtains joined together in another set. So that we might well ask the question, if indeed these curtains are a parable to us of our Lord ascended into the heaven, why have ten curtains to do it? Why not just have one curtain? Why this elaborate procedure for, uh, coupling the two sets together? To answer that question, let us look at the mechanics once more of the uniting of these two parts together into one. It's this business of fifty loops, fifty loops, and fifty clasps of copper, and it brings us to the day of Pentecost. Let's go, uh, hunting around in the New Testament, if you don't mind. Let's go hunting around in the New Testament to find what else out we can about what happened on the day of Pentecost. We read, first of all, in Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, and chapter one, Acts of the Apostles chapter one, Verse four. this is our Lord after his resurrection and before his ascension. And being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which said he, ye heard from me. For, and here comes some very interesting words, for John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Here then is a promise. Our Lord says that not many days hence from now you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. And so it happened. Chapter two verse one: And When the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. I'm going to submit to you that the coming of the Holy Spirit there recorded in chapter two verse one is the fulfillment of the promise that our Lord made when he said, ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Now, because this is so important and so often disputed, let me prove it to you from the words of scripture. Let me refer you to Acts again, and this time in chapter eleven, Chapter eleven. And the context of these remarks is that Peter has been down to preach the gospel to Cornelius and his household, and on returning to Jerusalem, Peter has been called to give an account of these extraordinary doings before his elders. And he's in the middle of telling them, and this is chapter uh eleven verse fifteen, in the middle of telling them what happened in Cornelius's house. As I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, even as on us at the beginning. It fell on them like it fell on us at the beginning, that is, of course, on the day of Pentecost. And I remembered, says Peter, the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. So here we have the fulfillment of our Lord's promise. The Jews who believed, the apostles who believed, and the other Christian folks who believed on the day of Pentecost were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Here also, these people who were Gentiles, they also were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Now we must go carefully here, and you must forgive me if I seem to belabor the point. You must forgive me likewise if I talk quite calmly and dispassionately. For being baptized with the Holy Ghost to many good folks is a something that means an oversurge of emotion, and maybe indeed the Holy Spirit's, uh, activity in some people's causes a great upsurge of emotion. Only, before we have the emotion, let us be careful that we understand exactly what the Holy Ghost is saying through Holy Scripture, for this is an exceedingly important thing. Our Lord baptized his people with the Holy Spirit, and in so doing, he did the thing that is peculiar to this Christian age and is the distinctive mark that marks out our Lord from all other prophets and all other teachers that ever have been before. Take, if you like, the very chiefest, the very greatest of all the prophets, namely John the Baptist, of whom our Lord said that there had not risen one greater than John the Baptist, so great a prophet was he. And yet, said John the Baptist, there cometh one after me, mightier than I, who was preferred before, who was preferred before me because he, he was before me. And this is his distinguishing mark, says John. You will be able to estimate the vast gulf between my ministry and his ministry, says John, if you attend to this point. The difference between us is this: I baptize you in water, he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost. Baptizing people in the Holy Ghost, then, is the distinctive mark of our Lord's ministry. Obviously, none other had power to dispense the Holy Ghost, who is himself the third blessed person of the Trinity. No man ever had it in his power to give. Was given solely by our Lord, who is himself the Son of God, God, our very God. He and he only has power to baptize men in the Holy Ghost. But you will say, what is the effect of being baptized in the Holy Ghost? What does it do? What is it meant to accomplish? Is it a something that is given us in order to provide glowing feelings or ecstatic vision? What does it exactly accomplish? Now, it is a curious fact. As far as I'm aware, there is only one place in the whole of the New Testament where being baptized with the Holy Ghost is specifically, uh, mentioned. Let us therefore take that passage first as one of the most important things that is accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I refer, of course, to the, uh, remarks of one Corinthians chapter twelve and verse twelve onwards. One m Corinthians chapter twelve and verse twelve, a passage that explicitly tells us what the baptism in the Holy Spirit does. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free, and were all made to drink of one spirit. Let's pause and consider. Paul is talking to these Corinthians. He's in the middle of talking to them about the exercise of their spiritual gifts. And he's wanting to impress upon them that in their exercise of those gifts, they are not to be carnally minded, uh, wishing to bring glory to self, nor are they to think that one, so to speak, uh, member is more important than the other. And so he uses an analogy. And he says, in effect, in verse twelve, now look, take the human body, any human body you like. And you will observe that the human body is one. It is one entity. And yet, though the body is one, uh, it has many members. Fingers, head, eyes, nose, mouth, and any others you like to mention of all the conglomeration of members that there are in the human body. For as the body is one, he says, and hath many members. And all the members of the body, though they are many members, yet they only make one body. And all the members of the body, being many, are one body. So far, so good. It's a thing that we can easily see by looking at any human body we like. Many members, one body. From the illustration, he turns to the actuality, and he says, so also is the Christ. Pardon the English versions that they've left out a very important word, won't you? The original language which they are translating says, so also is the Christ. You will notice it doesn't say so also is Jesus, for Jesus was one person, one, so to speak, personality walked here, uh, on earth, but it says so also is the Christ. Let me come back to my illustration. For as the tabernacle is one tabernacle, and yet have many, uh, curtains, and the curtains being many curtains are nevertheless one tabernacle, so also is the Christ. Somebody says, what do you mean? Well, let the Holy Spirit explain. How is the Christ made up of many members? Oh, well, now let's read on. Verse thirteen will be the clue. The Christ is made up of many members because in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. That's how it comes about that the Christ is composed of many members. By one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. And not only so, it was done in this way also. Verse thirteen at the end, and we were all made to drink of one spirit. Two figures are being used. Let us do our best to try and understand them. I have some water. I drink this water. See now, I am made to drink of that water. Water goes into me, all right? The water goes into me. Yes. Now, what happens if I am baptized, and for the sake of the illustration, first of all, we'll start off with being baptized into water. That's what John did, didn't he? John baptized people in water, with water, if you like. That is, John got the people, and he put them into the water, not the water into them. He put them into the water. Now, I baptize with water, he says. I put people in water. But the Lord Jesus, he will baptize people in the Holy Spirit. That is, he will put them in the Holy Spirit. Now, says the verse, two things are happened. You have all been baptized in one spirit. You have gone into the spirit, and you have been made to drink of one spirit. The spirit has gone into you. All right? It's like a fish in the sea, isn't it? Huh. The fish is in the sea, and the sea is in the fish. Or the poker in the fire, the fire gets into the poker. So? Ah, but this is the exceedingly important thing, what Christ does for a man and a woman who trusts him. He not only remits their sins, but he baptizes them with the Holy Spirit, and he makes them drink of the Holy Spirit. He fills them inside with the Holy Spirit. He causes the Holy Spirit to surround them, like the water surrounds a fish, so that now the Holy Spirit becomes the very element in which they live, and the very life breath which they breathe, totally immersed in the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, both things being. Now that you will see now, I trust, the aptness of the illustration. Let's come back to to, uh, the physical body, my body, if you like. Let me ask you a question. How do you think this little finger of mine keeps on my body? Doesn't fall off when gravity is trying to pull it down, you know, and have it off all the time, but it keeps on my body. What is the secret to keeping on my body and behaving properly? Oh, you say, because it's joined on with, uh, a lot of bones and, uh, muscles and things like that. Ah, you're wrong, and I say it in spite of the medics being here present, but I said to go carefully. Uh, you're wrong, and I can prove it to you. Or if you put a bullet through me tonight and lay me out here, uh, on the floorboards and come back in, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, six years, you'll find a lot of my old fingers gone away, fallen adrift. Muscles or no muscles? Oh, so it isn't then the muscles and whatnot that keep it on, is it? Not really. They help, of course, they do their bit. The thing that keeps my finger on the rest of my body is that going right down, right to the very edge of that finger is the very life of my body. Take my life away, and though my body will appear to keep together for a while, eventually it will disintegrate. It's the fact that my little finger, my little toe, they all share the same life of the body itself that keeps the members together in one body, and it is the fact, it is the thing that makes them one. My finger is a very different proposition from my nose, you know, and similarly my ear is a very different proposition from my eye. They've got very different tastes. And as for my stomach, who shall tell the difference between my stomach and my eye? My stomach loves gravy. My eye thinks it's terrible stuff. If you put gravy in my eye, it thinks it's awful, but my stomach loves gravy. If you show my stomach an oil painting, it thinks it's a useless object, can't be eaten, uh, has no function, you'll see. My eyes think oil paintings are marvelous. What is it that keeps such a heterogeneous arrangement of members all together, working together as one whole? Ah, it is because my eye and my stomach are flooded with the same life. Ah, but herein is a marvelous thing. For the Holy Scripture says that the Lord, the great Lord, the Christ, is one body. And please, my brethren, this is not just an analogy, not a figure of speech. This is a glorious and blessed and spiritual fact. The light that surges in our risen head surges in you if you are a believer. When you came to him, the very first time you came, you believed on him. You were caused to drink. Did he not say, so say it? He that believeth, he that drinketh of me. You were caused to drink. He gave you his Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit went into you. Ah, and he did more. He put his Holy Spirit all around you, so that it became the very atmosphere in which you live. Because you have the same life as he has. You are literally are one organism, one body with the Lord. We've tried to be patient with our text. Let's now revel in the glory of the business, for this is a gigantic thing. We sit down here on earth. Can anybody say that we're joined to God in heaven, joined to Christ? Well, indeed, yes. Inseparably joined. Look at my toes there, will you, on the ground? And look at my head up here, some five foot nine and a half inches high. Do you think you'll have any difficulty proving to my toes that they are joined to my head? My distance doesn't make any difference, though, you know, the same life as in my toes, uh, joins them right to my head. And I say it calmly, standing here on earth, my dear fellow Christian, there is an unbroken chain of life that unites you literally to that risen head in heaven. Oh, let's la- let's see and let's revel in it, shall we? The glory of this parable. Get those five curtains and join them one to the other. Get those five curtains, join them one to the other. Put those loops of blue on, uh, Fifty down that side, fifty down that side, Pentecost down the middle, if you like. Join them together that the tabernacle might be one. Though being many curtains, is one tabernacle. It foreshadows the great mystery that happened at Pentecost. Join then in one body with Christ. We might notice, as we pass now from this passage in one Corinthians twelve, we might notice what is the point and drift of it. Paul is trying to show those Corinthian believers that the church isn't a place where you compete one with another. It's a place where our people of all sorts of different gifts and temperament, and some have gifts that appear to be outstanding, and some have gifts that don't appear very much at all, but he's trying to, uh, impress upon them that even the, uh, the weakest members are necessary, and that no one member of the body can think himself all the body, uh, nor should a weak member think that because he's a weak member and isn't as strong as somebody else, that he's not in the body? All the members, says he. And the operative word is the all. By one spirit you were, all of you, baptized into one body. So, you know, this particular curtain here couldn't say, you know, because you know I am an outside curtain, and I'm not in the heart of things, I am not of the tabernacle. Well, no, that was all tabernacle along there. Any little bit, any little bit of thread you might happen to get across here is tabernacle. Of course, this little stitch here isn't the tabernacle, is it? Uh, no, it's it's part of the tabernacle, but it's equally much tabernacle as this thread over here, and the blue is, uh, equally tabernacle as the red is tabernacle, though they appear to be very different. And so is the purple tabernacle. It's all tabernacle, and one bit isn't more important than the other bit. Even so is it with the members of the body of Christ, different in temperament, different in outlook, different in personality, but so be it, they have received the Savior. Then are they all equally important, and all of them members of the body of Christ. We ought to pause and, uh, interrogate Paul a little. In this fashion, Paul has himself admitted in his earlier chapters that at Corinth there were some believers who were misbehaving. In fact, there were very few believers at Corinth that weren't misbehaving. They weren't what you might have called the most spiritual of Christians. There was party strife and denominational spirit, and there was brother hailing brother to the law court before the unconverted, and there were some sad lapses of morality and this, that, and the other. Let's question them a bit closely. Paul, Paul. Now, Paul, you don't mean to say, do you, that all the believers at Corinth have had this exalted experience of being baptized with the Holy Ghost? Isn't baptism with the Holy Ghost something that only a very few believers get, you know, the really special believers, the really holy believers. Isn't it only they who get baptized with the Holy Ghost? Well, Paul has gone home, so we can't ask him, but we do believe he was inspired when he wrote the verse. I- I can't see any other way than letting the verse say what it actually says, can you? Writing to Corinth in under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says, of all the believers, by one spirit. For you see, if there was a believer that was not baptized in the Holy Ghost, who hadn't been made to drink of the Holy Ghost, he wouldn't be a member of the body, would he? If there is a bit of stuff round about here, take that, that, that bit of wood there, you know, that hasn't got my life, that isn't me then. We know how well-meaning is the desire that would urge believers to give themselves more wholeheartedly to the Lord. But in our desire to provoke one another and to exhort one another to greater godliness of living and zeal for the Savior. Let's help one another, shall we, by keeping to the true terms of scripture. It is not the fact that some believers have been baptized with the Holy Ghost and others haven't. Says scripture, all have been baptized, all made to drink. But, uh, let us pursue the bit, uh, the matter a little bit more. For when we were talking about the risen Christ, we saw significance in the material, in the colors, in the cherubim. And to be honest, if we're now going to say that these curtains represent not merely the Lord, but the Lord and his people who believe in him, can we, uh, find the same significance in the color? What about the linen? The linen, of course, is a symbol, we are explicitly told in scripture, of righteousness, and when we were thinking of the Lord, we said that, uh, his exaltation to heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit proved him righteous. But we're joined to him. Why, that's no difficulty at all, is it? Believers joined to their Lord. You see, of God, says the Bible, of God are you in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification from God. A believer's righteousness, and all that fits him to enter heaven's gate. A believer's righteousness, my dear friend, is Christ joined to him. His righteousness is theirs. That's the point of the verse saying, by God are you in Christ, who by that means therefore is made unto you righteousness from God. Oh, but look at the blue. Indeed, look at any of those colors, for I will trouble you to turn to the epistle to the Ephesians to see the colors, uh, at least their counterparts in the, uh, uh, straightforward words of scripture. Um, look at that blue, if you will. Blue, uh, for Christ, yes, he's gone back into the heavens, but blue on curtains that speak of, uh, you and me and believers that are still down here on earth. How could blue be an appropriate color for us? Oh, but listen, Ephesians chapter two this is. And verse one following and due did he quicken when you were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course of this world. End of verse 3, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ. By grace have you been saved, and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in heavenly places. This is indeed exalted language, but there it has it, that believers who have trusted Christ, in some sense, says this passage, God has raised them, he's given them new life, he's raised them and made them sit with Christ in heavenly places. So I can't understand that because at this moment I'm sitting on a chair in Finicky Gospel Hall, Finicky. How can it be said that I'm, I'm sitting with Christ in heavenly place? The answer is really simple. It is found in what we were considering a moment ago. Um, our Lord died for us. God raised him from the dead, brought him out of the grave, past the tomb, past the sealing rock, past the troops that were guarding the tomb, up through all those principalities, powers, mights, dominions, and authorities, whether they be good or evil, and set him down above them all. Now, all this moment, says Scripture, i- is victoriously seated on the very throne of God, above principalities and powers. This shall no longer hold him. The world shall no longer hold him. Satan shall no longer obstruct him. He's above it in heavenly places. Ah, but now, says the Holy Spirit, you see, you've been joined to him. And if the head is in heaven, it's as good as being the body there to. He'll never be in glory and, uh, allow himself to be separated from his body. And this is I shall find, as the old hymn says, and this I shall find, for such is his mind. He'll not be in glory and leave me behind. We are an integral part of him, one body in the Lord. Therefore, his session at God's right hand is the guarantee that one day we shall be there ourselves physically. But more than that, it means that in the spiritual sense, we are there already, isn't it? My feet are on the floor, my head is here, where is my body, will you ask me? And, uh, please may I ask, where's me? And is me on the floor, so to speak, or is me here? Where, where is me? You might as well ask where the church is. Where is the church? Oh, but scripture will say, well, that depends on how you look at it, you know, what point of view you take, if you like, and uh, the church is on earth, if you like. But if you like to look so at it, the Lord the head is in heaven, and the church is vitally linked with him. And therefore, in God's way of looking at things, the church is seated with him in heavenly places because of that link, that vital life between them. Would you like to see the purple in that? When it was of our Lord's exaltation, we reminded ourselves it was the kingly color, and the Lord has sat down upon the throne of the heaven. God has made him both Lord and Christ. We reveled in the thought of his victory over all opposing powers, whether they be human or whether they be superhuman. Ah, but see the purple on the whole lot. What courage, what courage this has for us, if we can grasp it. Let me read you the same thing in New Testament language. Paul prays this for his converts, that once they have believed in the Lord Jesus, then they will go on to discover certain things, uh, three things, in fact, he mentions, and the third thing is this: he prays that believers might have their eyes open to see what is the exceeding greatness of God's power towards us who believe, according to the working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and has put all things subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Do you get the flow of the argument? Writing to converts, Paul Wiles, who had recently been won from their pagan superstitions and vices, from their worship of Diana, the Ephesian goddess. That poor thing, that, uh, stone, I suppose it was a meteorite, uh, that stone which fell down from heaven, you know. Ephesus had a temple which was the guardian of the stone that fell down from heaven. So weak, I suppose it couldn't stay up. Anyway, he was writing for them. Now they had become Christians, and here they are surrounded by every sort of vice, the kind of vice that used to be practiced in an Asiatic city in those days. Added to that was the pressure of the devil and his hosts, spiritual opposition that would meet them at every turn. It will be vital for you, says Paul, to get hold of this in your stand as a Christian, in your warfare for the Lord, in your standing against principalities and powers, for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood merely, our wrestling is a spiritual wrestling. We wrestle against principalities, powers, mights, and dominions, the world rulers of this darkness. It will therefore be vital for you to get hold of this. I pray it for you every day, says Paul, that the eyes of your understanding might grasp what is the exceeding greatness of God's power towards you when he raised Christ. You say, well, how do- how does that come about? God's power towards me when he raised Christ. Well, I don't get that, you say, because his power in raising Christ, oh, that was nineteen hundred years ago, but I'm living in nineteen sixty six. How was his power exerted in raising Christ anything to do with me? Well, because of this same thing. Mm. If you put one of those curtains up here, you know the whole lot's got to go, hasn't it? They're all joined together. And if God's power gets hold of that bit and puts it up, that act of power affects the whole lot, doesn't it? You see, the power that raised Christ from the dead and put him above all opposition at his right hand is the power that is every moment of the day streaming towards you, says Paul. Oh, that God would open our eyes to see it, nor merely our understanding, but the deep wells of our unconscious mind. Oh, that God would fill them. It is the glorious fact that our Lord is not struggling to get into heaven. Our Lord isn't doing battle with Satan, trying to overcome him so that he himself can reach the throne. He's on the throne. Satan said he would keep him in the grave. The Jews went and muttered to Pilate, and they said, look here, if we're not careful, his disciples will come and put- take him away. Let's be sure to keep him in. Whether they were human powers or divine, God raised him from the dead, and already he is seated, my brother. And the power that seated him is, uh, streaming towards us at this moment as we sit on these seats. Yes, I can't feel anything. I don't feel any gush of feeling. Well, perhaps you don't. May I ask you, have you ever felt part of gravity? Some of the, um, biggest forces in this universe, you know, go on without being seen or felt. You haven't ever got hold of gravity, have you? The only time you feel it perhaps is when I keep you long sitting on those seats, and you feel a sort of certain uncomfortableness where the seat presses hard upon you, or you upon the seat. That's, uh, the result of gravity, you know, pulling you down and trying to get you on the floor and the, and the chair is pushing against you. Uh, but for the rest, there's no great excitement in gravity, but what a colossal power it is, you know, it keeps the world in place to start with. It keeps the whole universe going on its course, does gravity. There is this moment unseen but real, oh how real. That same power streaming towards us as raised Christ from the dead. We never ought to be pessimists, you know. We never ought to carry a defeated look, though we often do. There isn't any trouble that's so big that it will swamp the power of Christ, for he's already on the throne. The victory is ours. For us came forth the Mighty One. For us he fought the fight. The triumph won. The victory is ours. Scarlet. Worm scarlet on those, um, curtains. The blood of the worm. And when we were thinking of our Lord's exaltation, we said, you know, that, uh, he was gone in by his own blood. What should we say about the blood on the whole of the curtains? Well, let me read you a passage again from Ephesians, at this time it is in chapter two and verse, um, thirteen: But now in Christ Jesus, the ye that were once afar off are made nigh in the blood of Christ, for he is our peace who has made both one, and break down the middle wall of petition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself of the twain one new man, so making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. This passage of Ephesians is observing that in their unconverted days, Jews were vastly different from Greeks. The Jews, on the whole, thought they were very religious and good. They had the law, they weren't idolaters, they didn't go in for the unmentionable vices that the Gentiles indulged in. They thought they were pretty good. They thought the Gentiles were pretty bad. The Gentiles, on the other hand, they said they were enlightened, and they weren't so silly as these nonsensical Jews. Jews, they said, wouldn't eat pork. Did you ever hear this nonsense? And Jews, uh, didn't have any images in their temple. Their temple was a very bare old place, and, uh, Jews were rather narrow-minded lots to Gentiles, you'll see. Hum. Unconverted to both lots, religious and irreligious, both unconverted, and away from God. But how were Jews eventually brought to be together with Gentiles to form one Christian church? Oh, it happened like this, says the apostle. Christ came and he broke down the middle wall of enmity between us, that he might reconcile us both to God in one body, by means of his cross, having slain the enmity thereby. For you see, if a Jew wants to come to God, then a Jew must learn that there is only hope in Christ. There is no hope to be found in it all his orden- ordinances. He, in fact, is no better than the Gentile. For all his Jewish religion, he is a sinner still, and if he would be saved, he must come to God through Christ, as comes a spiritual bankrupt. Ah, and even as he comes, he finds his Gentile friend coming as well, and the Gentiles coming, and for all his Gentile philosophy and worldly wisdom, he too has coming through Christ and coming as a bankrupt sinner. There's nothing between them now, save both acknowledge that they are utter bankrupt sinners, and they come joined together in Christ, their only hope with God. You know, that's at the bottom of Christian unity of the true sort, where men and women have found that all the other differences don't really matter, that they all are on one common denominator, all sinners, all bankrupt, whose only hope is in the one sacrifice of Christ. There were cherubim on the linen curtains, indicative of the executive power of God's throne. We found them easy to interpret when we were thinking of our Lord. For it is said of our Lord that he is now the judge. But how shall we interpret cherubim being all over the curtains? Well, that too is easy, isn't it? Or don't you know, as Paul had to say to the Corinthian believers in his chapter six of his first letters, or don't you know that the church shall judge the world. Did you know that? Paul puts it out as if it were the one of the most common bits of Christian knowledge it could possibly be. Didn't you know that, he says? Oh, I thought you would know that years ago. What? Didn't you know? And now, well, at least if they had known, they'd forgotten. For some of them were hailing their brethren to the law courts to get their last pound of flesh and advertising to the world that they couldn't get on very well together. Shame, says Paul, aren't you aware that in the coming day the church joined with Christ is going to judge angels and judge the world? This, brethren, is not the vision of some irresponsible ecstatic. This is the calm, sober truth of God, that the man who's going to be judged, who shall fill the great white throne, has joined to himself his redeemed believers, and into their hands will he give responsibility to judge. It is a dignified calling to be called to his kingdom and glory. God help us to learn as the royal regal princes of heaven that God has made us to be. One more item as we come to the end of these. That is, um, they were blue. I've said it before. I want to say it again, if you don't mind, that when they were all put together, then the last secret of their unity, so to speak, and the thing that kept them there, uh, uh, in place and kept them together, the final secret of their unity were fifty loops of blue and fifty loops of blue and fifty taxes of gold. That was a secret, wasn't it? If they'd have come unstuck, they would have come adrift. You tell me what the secret of Christian unity is? It's an exceedingly important thing and a very topical thing nowadays, isn't it? My brethren, if we want to see- think sanely on this matter that tends to stir up so much mud, let us observe what is, uh, God's way of union. Loops of blue, cusps of gold. Say what you like, that gold is a glorious metal, isn't it? And the loops of blue is a heavenly color. May I read you some words straight from the New Testament, in fact, straight from the lips of our Lord himself on the matter of Christian unity? They come from John's Gospel, chapter seventeen and uh, verses twenty two, twenty three and twenty four. And he says, verse twenty two, and the glory which thou hast given me, I have given unto them, that they may be one as we are, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that thou did send them and lovest them even as thou hast loved me. So here is the positive part. The glory which thou hast given me, I have given them that they may be one in us, I in them and thou in me. That's what brings about the unity. One, because they are one themselves with Christ. What do you mean one? Well, that God is in Christ, and Christ is in them. Union of vital life. That's why Christians are one. That's why you can go to Timbuktu or the ends of the world and be traveling, say, in a railway compartment and fall to talking with a man you've never seen before, and presently you discover he's a believer, and ooh. You won't have to ask, uh, what church he's in. It's, uh, somewhat irrelevant. Find only the man has received the Savior and has eternal life, and as life answers to life, you will find that you are one with him. The converse is true. Find a man, be he never so religious, but who has never received the Holy Spirit and hasn't received eternal life. You will find that the vital thing, the only thing that can produce a union is just not there. Let us beware of trying in our modern day to create a union by artificial means. Let's hear the negative side of this same prayer. How many times did our Lord, talking to his father, say of his people, they are not of the world. Not. Christian unity is something that isn't, uh, that didn't spring up on Earth, you know. It didn't originate on Earth. Let me put these curtains back where they ought to be. Ha. Excuse their regularity. Do you see they don't touch the ground? They are not of this world. It is a thing heavenly in its origin. It's a unity that has come about because Christ in heaven sent down the Holy Spirit into men and women on earth and made them a living organism. It is something that men themselves did not organize. Who I know we shall have to have organization of a sort to express that union, and when we come to these boards that did stand very, very, very much on earth, we shall have to consider the practical organization of the church by which we express the God-given unity. But first of all, the vital thing, the real thing. It is not of the world. It is that we possess a common life in Christ. I say again, it's a something that has nothing to do with denominations, Christian denominations. Isn't the question, are you at one of our churches and therefore you're one with us? It's not that at all. That is completely irrelevant. Be you who you will, my dear good sir or madam, have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? And if you have, you are one with me, and I'm with you, and I nearly said there's nothing you can do about it. Huh. May I just ask, therefore, as we pass? Are you a member of the Church of Christ? You'll see now that that question is a, a little bit loaded, won't you? I'm not asking, are you a member of any particular Christian congregation? I'm asking, are you a member of Christ? Being a member of the church is a something that happens when a person receives the Holy Spirit, is born again, receives the Lord as personal savior. My friend, are you a member of the Church of Christ on those terms? I must say, as if as yet you have not understood or or experienced that thing, then you can be a member of all the Christian churches in all the world, and you are still not a member of Christ. I think I ought to give you permission to go. I- I shall have to find myself just for a few moments more, because, as you see, I've got some other curtains to talk about, and I'm liable to be another ten minutes at the least. So that you who must go, please do go. I've got to perpetrate this enormity this evening, uh, otherwise I shall be impossibly behind in my schedule and not get finished by the advertised time. Do please go. Don't stay here and be embarrassed, or at least if you stay and get embarrassed, please don't complain to the elders of this church because you'll get me into trouble. Having said that, I must go on. Just a moment or two more. See now these goat's hair curtains. Now, when we came to study those a fortnight ago, we took them as a picture of our Lord who took the sinner's place and found much comfort in the parable, and referred it to that, uh, chapter five of the Epistle of Romans, uh, to the Romans, which expounds all the tremendous and immeasurable worth that there is to be found in the sacrifice of Christ. You have doubtless forgotten, but we ended up on that occasion by quoting the last of few last words of chapter five of Romans, that first of all point to the way we became sinners. It said we became sinners not by our own effort, not by committing individual sins. We became sinners by one man's disobedience. Because Adam once disobeyed, it meant that we were born sinners. By God's ways being fair and more than fair, the passage went on to tell us how we become righteous with God. We become righteous on the same way, so to speak, as we became sinners. We became sinners not by our individual sins, we were born sinners through what somebody else did. We become Christians. We become right with God, not because of something we do ourselves, but because of something somebody else did. By one man's obedience, the many have been constituted righteous. For the point is that when Christ died, his great act of obedience made it possible for God to receive and count righteous all who will receive the Savior. And we argued at great length, therefore, our eternal security, that if once a man has trusted the Savior, he may be utterly certain that he shall never come into the wrath of God. We argued it at a great length. But the thought may have come into your mind, well now, that may be all right, but if a man can trust Christ, and because Christ died for his sins, if the man then can say, well, I'm sure I shall never come into judgment, won't that mean that the man will go out and live a careless life and, you know, and he will say to himself, well, I'm saved and that that's, I'm saved not because of my merit, I'm not saved because of my good behavior, I'm saved because of what Christ did, therefore I shall go out and please myself, and it doesn't matter what I do, I shall still be saved. There are indeed a lot of folks who argue that way. At least I find my friends do. If I tell them, now look here, I'm saved and I'm sure of it, they say you couldn't be, old fellow, because if you were sure of being saved, uh, that would mean, well, you should go out and live as you liked. Huh. Well, you know, that's a curious thing that they, they brought that kind of objection up against Paul himself. They said, Paul, uh, well, if what you say is true, and if you'll be sure you're saved because Christ died for you, well, they said, Paul, that will mean that you can go on and continue in sin just as you like. And Paul, in his chapter six of Romans, falls to answering the question. Shall we continue in sin, says he, that grace may abound? Please, I wonder if you would notice the answer. When they raise this question, or Paul raises it for them. Well then, Paul, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, says Paul. Ah, but I say again, notice his answer? Does Paul say, oh no, you mustn't continue in sin because, you know, if you continue in sin, you'll lose your salvation, you'll lose your forgiveness, you'll forfeit your eternal life, you will be lost at last and never get into heaven if you continue in sin. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, he doesn't. Shall we continue in sin? No. Well, why shouldn't we? Well, it isn't a question that if you continued in sin, you'd lose your salvation, but it is this. How shall we who died to sin live any longer therein? You can't go on sinning, says Paul to believers. You died to sin. Now, folks with a practical turn of mind will say, well, that's very odd. I don't understand that because when did I die to sin? I don't quite get that. Well, it's this way, says Paul, as many of you as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death. And Paul uses the simile, the terminology, if you like, of the Christian ordinance of baptism to illustrate the far deeper spiritual reality. Let us not confuse the two. You doubtless have all witnessed a Christian baptism when the person is buried under the water, and then not left there, but raised up again from the water. What was it all about? Why do Christians do it? They do it because our Lord told them to do it, and it's a ceremony that is symbolic and significant, just as the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper are significant. And when the person is buried under the water, it is a symbol, and it, uh, is meant to say this. One, that the person is dead. That's why they're buried. They're not buried to make them dead, you know. They're, they're buried because they are dead. How did they come to die then, you say? Well, look. These are joined together. uh Fifty loops? fifty loops? fifty fast patches of copper? Joined that the tent may be one. It is the fact that our Lord died as an atoning sacrifice for sin, in the fact that he bore the sins of the world, he stood alone, none could help him in the task. But it is the fact that if you have received his Holy Spirit and have been baptized into him by his Holy Spirit, then you are one with Christ. And because you are one personality, as far as God's law is concerned, when Christ died, you died. Why, here is a man, and when he was eighteen he inherited ten million pounds, fortunately for him. At the same time, there was a girl living in one of the four quarters of the city. She inherited and take me. Ah, there came the day when the young gentleman cast admiring looks in the direction of the young lady, and to cut a long story short, the law said that they were one. Huh? You know what? It is the fact that when that young gentleman inherited that ten million pounds, that young girl really inherited the ten million pounds, didn't she? The one. In a far deeper sense, when Christ died, says God's law, it is as though you died, because in the eyes of God's law, you're one. How can it be, says somebody, that God should allow a third party to die for our sins? Is that just? And the answer is, my dear good friend, that he didn't allow a third party to die for our sins. In the eyes of God's law, every man who trusts Christ, Christ gives him his life. The man is one. As far as the law is concerned, every believer that has trusted God's son died when Christ died. God's law has washed his hands of them. As far as God's law is concerned, they don't exist anymore. The supreme penalty's been paid. They're free. Christ died to sin, and he not only atoned for it, but he passed out of the world and away from its presence to the very throne of God. In that sense, says the Bible, I want you to recognize that you are one with Christ, and you died to sin. There isn't any thought of going on living in sin deliberately and carelessly, not if you're joined to this personality. They died to it. So did you. But how does that help me, you say, to know that legally speaking, I died to the law, I died to sin? Well, it helps you a lot. You see, it is with you as it is with a bankrupt. God has broken the power of sin, and you are no longer under the dominion of sin. How? Because he that is justified, he that has died is justified from sin. Let me use an illustration. Here's a man who goes bankrupt for ten thousand pounds, can't pay back, and there he is scratching his head. The creditors are on his track. So he says to himself, well, I haven't got the money, my business has gone broke. Um, I know I'll just sell another business and get some money that way and pay it. No, no, no, you won't, says the law. No, no, you won't. You're not going to start up any more businesses while you're still owing ten thousand pounds. What do you think? I know what the man says. Now, now, if you'll please forget, I, I, I will, uh, work hard. No, you won't, says the law. Not while you're an undischarged bankrupt. There's no good promising you'll now you'll do better next time. No, no. Until the law is satisfied, you can't move. And you know God's law says that about men and women, only men and women are constantly saying to God, yes, I know I sinned, I yes, I know I sinned, but now look, I'll do better tomorrow. But that isn't any good. Because you didn't do well yesterday, and the law says the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And as long as that law is unsatisfied, there's no good you're saying you'll start again. Ah, but see, here is escape. When the bankrupt comes before the courts and the judge says, now there's an end, and discharges him free from the law, now he may start again. And says, God, sin is no longer going to be a millstone round your neck, always carrying you back, because he that has died is justified from sin. Look at the whole of your life, if you will, and look at it from one end to the other, you'll see it's nothing but a failure. It's sin. Now, says God, I want you to understand that as far as my law is concerned, the law has seen the end of you. The end? The sentence been executed? As far as my law is concerned, you have disappeared. You died with Christ. That's why people ought to get baptized. I mean, literally baptized. There are some, you know, who won't get baptized. They say, I wouldn't like to be baptized because, um, I won't- wouldn't like to claim that I was such a good living person as to get baptized. I think that's reserved for people especially spiritual. That, of course, is nonsense. When a man gets baptized, he is saying to all and sundry he was so hopelessly bad, so thoroughly corrupt, that all God could do with him was to crucify him and bury him forever. And that's the end of him. I gladly make that admission. If I got myself baptized, a confessed failure, a spiritual bankrupt, deserving the wrath of God's law. Only I received the Savior, and when he died, I died, and the law has said quit, quittance, done. You see, if a condemned sin criminal in the cell waiting his, or rather a criminal in the cell waiting his trial dies with a hemorrhage during the night, they don't sit over the man the next day and hold a court, you know, and say, no, we still better try the case. They say, no, he's gone beyond our jurisdiction. Died. The man that's trusted Christ died with Christ as far as God's law is concerned. He's finished. You know what, if God's law knew I was around, it would come down on me like a ton of bricks. But as far as it's concerned, the old Gooding, the sinner Gooding, has gone, dead, buried, finished. But that's only one side of the story. Listen, Christ not only died, but Christ rose again, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. So reckon yourselves to be alive unto God, able to start again? On what ground? Well, my dear brethren, on borrowed capital completely. On borrowed capital completely! The only life I now have that's worth having is a life that God gave me through Christ, that Christ gave me when he took hold of me and gave me his life. The only life I have that's worth living. That's eternal life that Christ gave me, and with it came new desires and new inclinations and new ambitions. It's a life that's going to last forever. It can never perish because it's the very life of Christ. Oh yes, I got an old life still. I got a corrupt old, uh, life around me still. But that's only temporary. And when the Lord comes, even that shall fall away, and there shall be left the incorruptible and eternal life of God, flowing endlessly and uninterruptedly between the Savior and me. That's the secret of a Christian life. And if I talk to somebody here who's not a Christian, you've wanted to be a Christian, you've been trying desperately hard to be a Christian to improve yourself. Oh, my good friend, I wonder, could I show you, by God's help, what you're missing? You're trying to improve yourself. I wonder if you'd stop. I wonder if you'd be realistic enough to stop trying and own before God that it's impossible, would you? That you of yourself are a hopeless write off. Would you say that? Would you then trust the Savior and receive him? Let him be your only life and hope? Why then, if you've done that, let's come and see you confessing. Let's come and see you getting baptized. Let's come and see you telling the world where exactly now you stand. Let's see you go down into the water of Christian baptism to tell the world that you, in yourself, were a hopeless failure, deserving only God's wrath, but that you trusted the Savior, and you died with him and were buried. And let's see you come up out of the water to proclaim to the world at last that from the moment you received the Savior, he gave you new life, not a new lease of the old life. He gave you a new life, so that hereafter you may learn to walk in that newness of life.