Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: You've heard the expression a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, we all know it's true. One picture can sometimes tell a story better than words ever could. As we make our way through the Bible, we see that God's word models that too. When he wants to describe his love and care, he tells us he's our shepherd. When we need assurance of his protection, he tells us his name is our rock and our fortress, a place to hide in times of trouble. And scripture includes so many other great pictures. So hop aboard the Bible bus as we prepare to learn that God crafted one of the most beautiful pictures of our relationship with him in a rather surprising model, a building, an exquisitely detailed metaphor of all the ways that he designed our fellowship to be with him.

So as you grab your copy of God's word and turn to Exodus 38, we got time to hear from Dennis who's traveling through the Bible with us. Let's listen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I love the Bible because it's made a huge difference in my life. My name is Dennis. I live in Tegernsee, Bavaria. And 7 years ago, I had a massive heart attack and I couldn't go to work anymore and I was very depressed. And I listened to and read devotionals and I read through the Bible once. And didn't really get anything out of it. I mean it just and he started to understand it and I was to a very low point, kind of I was at home by myself and my wife would she go to work and I Googled Bible studies and the Bible came up.

And I started listening to the app. And I wasn't real good about it. I would listen here and there and you know and I would never be never kept up with it and but I got better and started listening more regularly and more regularly and then I started taking you guys advice and reading the passage before I listened to the Bible study and that made a huge difference. And then recently, God put on my heart to actually sit down and and take notes as if it was a study in a school. And I done that through revelation through our study here on Genesis so far and it's very huge difference.

I mean that's like I've never heard or heard or seen the Bible before ever. It's just opened my eyes to the incredible truth and how much God really loves me and loves the world and how painful it must be to see people turn away from him. And it it breaks my heart to see people who don't want a relationship with God. Anyway, I I don't want to keep going. I just want to tell you thank you so much for you guys and what you do. And I love the app. And I just praise God for you and your team.

Thank you so much.

Steve Schwetz: Well, thanks Dennis. It was powerful to hear how much God's word means to you. I'll save you a seat as we move along. And what about you? Has God's word met you in a difficult time? What are you doing to get more out of our studies together? And if you've been on the Bible bus for a full trip or two or more, what advice would you pass along to others who are just getting started on their Bible bus journey? You know we'd love to hear your story. Call us at 1-800-65 Bible to leave a voicemail on our testimony line or drop a note in our app or email us at biblebus@ttb.org or write to us at box 7100 Pasadena, California 91109.

In Canada, box 25325 London, Ontario N6C 6B1. Let's pray. Father, thank you for communicating your love for us in so many creative ways. Give us hearts of understanding and eyes to see your grace in our study of your word in Jesus very precious name. Amen. We're off to Exodus 38 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Not a day, friends, as we come to the 38th chapter of the book of Exodus. We're still in this section where we are looking at the tabernacle. The blueprint was given beginning at chapter 25 for all of the details of the tabernacle. And now Bezaleel and his helpers are constructing the tabernacle. In fact, I take it that the tabernacle has been constructed but just hasn't been set in order as it will be. And chapter 38 pays particular attention to the outer court. I would say that everything that's in chapter 38 relates to the outer court.

And friends, this is very important for us to see. Now the tabernacle proper was 30 cubits by 10 cubits. Now we have paid attention to that. We've gone into the details of that. And I hope you have before you right now in our notes, we have a entire page given to the chart of the tabernacle. I'm looking at that right now. I hope you are. And if you are, it'll make this more meaningful to you. Now the main tabernacle or the main part of it was 30 by 10 by 10 cubits. It was made of boards that were acacia wood overlaid with gold on all sides and joined together by bars and held upright by the fact that they were put down in sockets.

And they were carried on the wilderness march. And then the minute that the children of Israel would come into camp, the pillar of cloud would stop then they would come up and under it. And the tabernacle that had been carried all through the camp, we're going to see that in the book of Numbers that three tribes would move out and then part of the tabernacle and the ark would always lead on the wilderness march. So the ark would come in and it was put down down on the sand of the desert. And then all around it, the tabernacle would be put up.

And then you'd have in this particular section, you'd have these golden bars that would be put down along the side. And they were held together by the rings and the boards. And that bound the tabernacle together. Then over it, there would be put these four robes actually or four coverings. You have the first covering which would be the linen, then the goat skins dyed red, the ram skin, and then the badger or seal skin on the outside. That was to protect it. The beauty of the tabernacle had to be seen from within. And everything within speaks of worship and of course praise, adoration of God, blessing to the individual.

Now in this outer court which was 100 cubits by 50 cubits, there were these two articles of furniture that were out there, the brazen altar and laver. Now here is where the sin question had to be settled. The sinner would come here to the gate. And when he would stand there as a sinner, the priest would bring him in. He put his right hand upon the head of the victim, whether it was a lamb or a goat or whether it was another animal like an ox. Then the animal was slain. Then the priest would offer it on the altar.

That is as far as the individual went. From then on, he went in the person of his priest. And the priest had to stop and wash at the laver so that when he entered in to the holy place and he entered in by the door of the tabernacle into the holy place and in that were three articles of furniture, the table of showbread, the golden lampstand, and the altar of incense. All of those as we've seen speak of worship. Now he didn't dare go beyond that because there was the veil. And beyond the veil was the ark and the mercy seat.

And only the great high priest went there and he went there for the nation. Now I think today we're going to see something uh specially significant and specially meaningful actually for us today. Now will you notice first of all, the altar of burnt offering is brought to our attention. I begin reading now at verse one. And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood. Five cubits was the length thereof, five cubits the breadth thereof. It was four square and three cubits the height thereof. Now the height of it equaled of course the ark or the mercy seat on the inside.

Here was where the victim was offered and that was the judgment of the sin of the individual that came or in many cases it was the nation that was in view. And when it was the nation, it was the morning and evening sacrifice and was a burnt offering. But on here was all of the offerings that were made in Israel. When this altar was constructed, no other altar could be made. It would be absolutely blasphemy to build any other altar anywhere else. This is the approach to God only by the cross, you see. Now it's five cubits by five cubits.

That's the largest article of furniture as you can see. Actually 7 and 1/2 ft long, 7 and 1/2 ft wide, and three cubits which would mean 4 and 1/2 ft high. All the other articles could have been apparently put on the inside of it. And it was the prominent place because here is where the sin question must be settled. There'd be no such thing as worship and no such thing as blessing until they came by this altar here. Now the horns speak of strength, the ability of Christ to save. And now we have instructions here concerning the details that have to do with the altar.

There would had to be a certain pots and pans and staves and rings and all that sort of thing. And I think there's meaning in every detail as we've said. Now you have in verse eight, and he made the laver of brass and the foot of it of brass. Now there was a place beneath for the washing of the feet and the place above was for the washing of the hands. And it was made of the looking glasses of the women assembling which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now those mirrors were made of brass.

In that day, mirrors were high polished brass. And women hadn't changed. They carried mirrors in that day. And I guess they were much heavier than some of the pocket books in some of the women carried today. But in that day, they had that which was heavy, you see. But the women brought their mirrors and the brazen laver was made out of those mirrors. The mirror represents the word of God. It's the word of God that shows the believer that he needs cleansing. And the laver's there for the cleansing. You have the same thing in your bathroom.

You have a mirror and beneath the mirror, you have a wash basin. Now the mirror doesn't wash it off. The law today won't save you. You can rub up against it all you want to. But there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from a manual's veins. And sinners plunge beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Now these are the two articles of furniture that are in the outer court. Now he's going to talk about that outer court. He hasn't talked about it much before. Verse nine, and he made the court on the south side southward.

The hangings of the court were a fine twined linen, 100 cubits. Their pillars were 20 and their brazen sockets 20. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. And for the north side of the hangings and it was the same thing on the north side. And it would be 50 on the two ends of the outer court of this fence that's around. Now that fine twined byssus linen, you see again speaks of the humanity of Christ. And that separated actually man from God. I was greatly distressed to have handed to me an article concerning a message that a president of a so-called conservative seminary gave at one of these knife and fork clubs.

I'd spoken at that club years ago. Well, the reporter as he took the message down said that this preacher made this statement that what we needed to do was to follow the teachings of Jesus. Even if you denied the deity of Christ, if you just followed the teachings of Jesus, you'd bring peace into the world. Well, that's not true. There's no peace for man apart from the shed blood of Christ, friends. You see that linen fence shut man out from God. The life of Christ doesn't save us. It's the death of Christ that saves us.

And when we have preachers that pretend to be conservative given a message like that, no wonder there's so much confusion in the world today. But anywhere you turn in God's word even to the tabernacle at the very beginning when God is teaching man by picture, all of these things happened to them for examples unto us. If you can just read an ABC book and look at pictures like a baby, you can understand that the life of Christ and the teachings of Christ cannot save you. To begin with, you couldn't measure up to his life nor his teachings at all.

And it's perfect nonsense to whine out that type of thing today. It's been ground out now by modernism for years that's got us in the difficulty we're in in this country today. And it's time somebody is putting it right on the line and telling it like it is. The teachings of Christ won't save you, friends. It was the death of Christ upon the cross. And this white linen fence shut out man from God and God from man. You'll have to be approached some other way. That's the reason that brazen altar is there. Now this fence to take a look at it, there were sockets here, not a silver.

The sockets were silver at the tabernacle proper but here brass. And brass as we've seen is the metal of judgment. That picture of the glorified Christ his feet was like burnished brass. I tell you, my friend, the sin question has to be judged. You can't go into God's presence today anymore than you could take a criminal out of death row and turn him loose in society and present to him a house and lot and $50,000 to begin life. God doesn't do that sort of thing and man better not do that sort of thing. The sin question must be settled.

A man must recognize that he is a sinner and come into God's presence on that so that the outer court rested upon brass. But at the top, there was these capitals that were on top of the posts as they were around. They made a silver. And you know silver is the metal of redemption. We'll see that again in this chapter. It's very important for us to see that by the way. Now we find therefore that in the outer court even in this fence that was around it that that shut man out but that God had made a way.

And it was that he had judged sin and provided a redemption for man that he might be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. What a picture while you could stand there and look at the tabernacle and get the gospel, my friend. It's there for us. And I'm not going to read the rest of the details of the court because to me if you just going to read them all you've got so blueprint and it gets pretty boring. That may not get boring to you but it does to me. So I'm going to drop down now to verse 18 because now there is an entrance.

You don't climb over the fence. You have to come in through the gate, through the door into the sheepfold. And here's the gate and the door. Now verse 18 and the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework of blue and purple and scarlet. All of these speak of the person of Christ. Blue he came from heaven his deity. And the scarlet speaks of his humanity, the blood he shed. And blue and scarlet combine give you the purple. And purple is royalty. He was born king of the Jews. Now will you notice and 20 cubits was the length and the height of the bread was five cubits.

That was as high as the fence was on the outside. That'd be 7 and 1/2 ft. That'd be pretty hard even for a basketball player to look over into the inside. You see it shut man out altogether. Now you find this is the entrance. It's a wide entrance. Anyone can come. It's wide enough for any sinner to come in. But this is the way that he'll have to come. This is the entrance. No other entrance anywhere. That's so important to see. You actually have three entrances into the holy of holies and you have only one that can bring us into the presence of God.

And that's Christ. And you remember he said, I am the way. The way here is the gate. He says I am the truth. The truth is the way into the place of worship. And you remember the Lord Jesus said if you're going to worship God, you'll have to worship him in spirit and truth. I have news for you. And I don't mean to be harsh but it is harsh. You don't worship God going to a liberal church, friend. You got to worship him in truth. You can't deny the deity of Christ. You can't deny he died for your sins and worship him.

You insult him. You don't worship. You insult him. And actually it'd be best if a lot of folk would not even go to church. That is to certain churches their own condition is not good. And certainly the church there is insulting the Lord Jesus. You have to worship him in truth. And therefore that is the thing he said. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Now that veil speaks of the life he gave up on the cross and the veil was rent in twain. And he brings you right into the presence of God. He's the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh to the Father but by me. You don't rush into God 's presence, friend. Where did you get the idea you could come unannounced? Where did you get the impression that I had sort of a secret way into God? I don't have one. I can only come through Christ. Every sinner has to come this way into his presence. Now here is the thing that I want to call your attention to that I think is amazing. There's always been the question of the individual Israelite. The nation Israel is called a son. God never called an individual Israelite.

And the question was and by the way it's today, who is a Jew? Is he one that has just been born a Jew? Or does his religion make him a Jew? Well, actually in the Old Testament and I agree with the orthodox Jews in the nation Israel today, that you have to be born one. And God had a provision that you had to be a redeemed which mean you had to be a born again one. Now he made a provision. Did you know the nation was a chosen nation but each individual had to be redeemed.

Now will you notice this? I'll have to drop down now to verse 25. And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was 100 talents and 1,703 score and 15 shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary, a beka for every man that is half a shekel. Now these are measurements that even if we knew what they mean and I could tell you what they mean but it would be meaningless because that's not the thing that's important for us today. There's a spiritual message for us because I don't expect any of you to bring any silver to be accepted because we've been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ which is more precious than silver and gold.

So don't be bringing silver and gold. You can't buy your way in. But silver was the metal of redemption and every Israelite had to be redeemed to be acceptable. Now let's understand that very thoroughly because you hear the argument. Many people come and say, well, you mean that every Jew because he's a member of the chosen nation was saved in that day? No. No. My only a remnant. All the way through it was a remnant. It's a remnant today of those people. And frankly, it's a remnant of the Gentiles today. And I want to say this, a very small percentage of church members are saved, very small percentage.

A very wealthy man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an oil man, he said to me, we playing golf. He said, you know my wife and I used to go and they mentioned a certain church. And he says we went there and sat down with the rest of the hypocrites. None of us, he said, were born again. We just put up a front. And even before Sunday night when the sun went down, we were all drunk. May I say to you, you church members today that doesn't mean very much in these days in which we're living. You have to be redeemed.

And these people had to be redeemed. Now notice I'll have to drop down here. A beka for every man that's half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary for them to be numbered. And verse 27 and the 100 talents of silver who were cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil, 100 sockets of the 100 talents a talent for a socket. In other words, the redemption money is what made these sockets. That is this was where the tabernacle proper was placed. It rested upon silver and rested upon redemption. Now you and I today and every individual will have to personally accept the redemption that's in Christ.

You have to pay the redemption price. Now what is that redemption price? Well, it's without silver and gold. Oh, everyone that's thirsty. The only condition is today are you thirsty? Would you like to have a drink of the water of life? It's free, friends. Salvation is free but it's not cheap. It costs God everything. He gave his son to die and to pay the price and you're redeemed today by blood. These people had to accept a redemption the individual before actually he was redeemed. And many did not of course. Here in the wilderness, they had to accept it.

It was forced upon them. But when they got in the land, if they wanted to be numbered, they had to pay a redemption price. Thank God it's already been paid for us. And it's without money and without price today. It's just to be thirsty. Do you want to be saved? Do you recognize you have a need that you're a sinner? Then come. The money's been paid. And that money was the blood of Christ. And it enables you to come to God and to be accepted through Christ. What a picture we have here in the outer court.

We'll finish the book of Exodus next time. And then we're going to move on to the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. May God richly bless each one of you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Well, you can learn more about how you can come to God in our app or at ttb.org when you click on how to know God or call 1-800-65 Bible if we can help point you to maybe some resources that are available on our website. And one you might be interested in after today's message is Briefing the Bible. It's a compilation of all of Dr. McGee's notes and outlines. And it includes the chart of the tabernacle that he mentioned. And we offer it for free download. Look for it in our app or at ttb.org. Well, the Bible bus travels just once more through the dramatic book of Exodus.

And then it's off to the Gospel of Mark. I'm Steve Schwetz and I'll be sure to save you a seat for our final day in the desert.

Guest (Male): We're grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in through the Bible as we together take the whole word to the whole world.