We will be involved with the truth as that truth is both established and made known in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am currently caught up in a search with regard to the reality of the words of Christ on the Cross where He said, "It is Finished." The first recorded words of Christ are, "I must be about My Father’s business." Actually, the whole thing is, "Know ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?" His last recorded words are, "It is finished." The understanding of the one statement has direct bearing on our comprehension of the other. If we have a small comprehension of the work given Him to do, then the term, "it is finished", is equally small in importance to us; and I am finding with frightening certainty, that God’s people could not fill a thimble with their understanding of the work God gave Him to do. I am understanding that Christians are among the most ignorant people on the face of the earth when it comes to what their name, "Christianity" stand for. I do not mean they may not know sciences, etc., but concerning Christianity they are absolutely full of ignorance; and I have to put myself right there along with everyone else.

In this year of study I have been astounded over and over again. I have been smitten speechless before the Lord. I have ended up doing much more repenting than I have anything else, and I still have more questions that I have answers. We have hardly even begun to cover the surface of what the Scripture says of Him Who said, "I must be about My Father’s business." We know so little about what He accomplished, consequently our comprehension of salvation in many, many areas is little more than so-called "church membership." In other areas where it may be a little more than that, it is little more than being saved, and one day when we die, we will go see Jesus. Somewhere, in between those two thoughts, those two concepts, seems to be nine million concepts, none of which even begins to sum up the very most elementary understanding with regard to The Finished Work. We have become illiterate in the Scripture, void in our understanding, and worse than that, most believers seem to simply not care. Of course, that is because of the great "substitute" program. Hundreds of years ago, in the first century it started, but it really came to force somewhere between the third and the fourth century, a great celebrated event, the end of which was the bringing of the church under the dominion of the state in the guise of doing the reverse.

If you dare to speak some of those things, people who are firmly seated in what we call "the house of God" look at you like you fell off a star somewhere, and wonder where in the world did you come up with that; and when you dare point to the Scripture rather than reading the Scripture, they will say, "Oh that is not what I believe." Who really cares what we believe? But what do the Scriptures declare of Christ? So, for well over a year, the Lord has been dealing with me, and with many of us; in searching these things out in the Scripture, and searching the Scripture in the light of a work that Jesus said is finished. If it is finished, then the question arises, why is it not manifested? If it is manifested then there is the further question of where are the results of it? You have a hard time with those questions until we begin to be brought to a realization by the Spirit of the working of the Holy Spirit: how He works, the characteristics and nature of His work. In order to understand any of that, at least the truth of the Gospel has to be set before us; and I want to do something relating back to the Tabernacle. I have used the Tabernacle almost exclusively, and the reason for that is that the Tabernacle is the absolute centerpiece and testimony of the Scripture, for it is the Tabernacle which is fulfilled in Christ, and Christ says, "Search the Scriptures for they are they which testify of Me."

The first illusion we have to have broken down in us is that there is an old and a new Testament in your bible, when there is no such thing as an "old" and a "new" Testament with regard to the Bible. Translators have called it that simply for the purpose of categorizing books; but in the doing of that, they have robbed those books of the reality of Christ, so much so that I know Christians today who will say, "Well brother, we are New Testament Christians". When they are actually ignorant enough to believe that means "We just live from Matthew to Revelation", that everything else does not make any difference, and that this is New Testament Christianity. They cannot stand the simplest of questions. I asked the question, "Out from what did Paul preach? What Scriptures did he quote? Out from what did Jesus speak? What were the Scriptures He referred to when He said, "Search them, for they are they which testify of Me"; for none of what we call the Gospels were then written, none of the Epistles were then written; because there were no believers to write them to. The book of the recovery, which is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ, was not written; because nothing had been done to be recovered in a people. The Scriptures were very clearly those which were established in the books from Genesis to Malachi. Consequently, these are what is really referred to as the Scriptures. Then we have what is referred to as the Gospels, and then we have what is referred to as the Epistles, and then we have what is referred to as the recovery; and the whole thing makes up the Word of God. The whole thing makes up Scripture.

Then what is the Old and the New Testament? It is an elementary search. The word "testament" as translated from the Scripture means "covenant." There is an Old and a New Covenant. The Scripture as a whole declares an Old and a New Covenant. Contrast the two. None of the Scriptures themselves can be terms "Old Covenant" or "new Covenant"; because all of the Scriptures speak of both, and contrast the two continually. There is a contrast of the Old and the New Covenant from the very beginning. Cain and Abel – Abel stands as the New Covenant representative of blood. Cain stands as the Old Covenant representative of the work of our hands. It goes all the way through the Bible: Old Covenant, New Covenant. What does "covenant" mean? Basically in your Bible, it means "an understanding given of God." "Covenant" in anyone’s language, means an understanding by which two come to an agreement, and walk as one; but in the Scripture, Covenant does not mean just some understanding. It means the understanding given of God. It actually means the understanding you have of God; because whatever understanding you have of God is something given of God. You see, I believe God gives natural understanding. He makes possible that. He makes possible spiritual understanding. He would much rather we walk in spiritual understand, but many will not do that. So, there is natural understanding, understanding that tells me I cannot walk through that door. I must take the doorknob, open it, and then go through it. Though that does not really bring me into the fulness of Christ, it does keep me from running into the door. There are those understandings.

We are talking about Covenant relationship, Covenant understanding, and the understanding that we have of God. Our understanding of God is either based upon the flesh, or based on the Spirit. It is either old, or it is new, old covenant, new covenant, Old Testament, New Testament; but it has nothing to do with the books of the Bible. Really it does not. It is almost impossible now to deal with people, and carry through on that thought; because immediately you want to say, "OK turn in the Old Testament to the book of Ezra". I am really trying to break myself from that, and trying to conform my utterance to an understanding given of the Lord; but it has been so ingrained in us. Those things are so much there in us, accepted. I was just this morning watching a television show that had the disputing of the theory of evolution. It was telling how evolution took hold through a court case in one of the southern states, and was actually a mock trial that was dreamed up, and they chose someone to act like he was a schoolteacher, because they wanted notoriety for their little town. Someone said, "Let’s put Darwin’s theory on trial". They did, and it attracted attention. From there it went on. Now, in all of our schools and in our teaching systems, it has become the only accepted explanation. I was listening to that, and thinking how spooky that is; because, when I was in school, as I progressed in school it had to be taught; but it was taught as a questionable theory. In such a short period of time we have come from not being taught, being taught as a questionable theory, to the accepted explanation; and it can only now be taught as the accepted explanation.

This is what has happened in the Scripture. That which was never taught became a questionable theory, and has no become for most believers the accepted fact; and it is nowhere found I the Scripture. I would like to get specific with you, because a lot of you are wondering what it is. Basically it is the whole concept that is set forth in Christianity, other than Christ our Savor. Basically the whole concept of what and who the Church is has had taken out of it the reality of the Lord Jesus. You answer me, does this satisfy souls? No. It occupies activities. It occupies time. It does this and that. But does it satisfy your soul? See, here is the whole question. Is your soul satisfied? Not does it occupy some time during the week, not does it occupy activities. Does it satisfy your soul? Not only that, more than satisfaction, is your soul actually fed, and is your soul actually developing? If that is not the case, then you have to say that something has to be wrong with what I am being fed, something has to be wrong somewhere here. That is what I am dealing with. It is finished.

I went back with you to Cain and Abel, but it goes right on through. The whole Scripture presents a tremendous plan of God. In the book of Genesis the whole of God’s plan is set forth. It is absolutely amazing. The Lord is bringing forth ministry who are in a view of Christ, in whom Christ is being revealed, that we may set forth in clear terms, and document for believers in clear terms, what amounts to be a commentary of the Scripture in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are convinced that the only way we are every going to actually affect the Christian community is to redefine the whole basis of Christian theology, and the whole definition of the Church. That cannot be done just out of fifteen minutes or an hour and thirty minute sermons here and there. It must be done by bringing together a clear representation of the Scripture in a presentable form. We believe that the Lord has not only given us the challenge to do that, but is bringing together the resources provided to do that, and in the revealing of His Son will give us the wisdom, the knowledge, and the understanding to accomplish that.

All of what I was just talking about, believe it or not, has a very Scriptural foundation in the Bible, even in type and shadow, and in fulfillment. We need not look any further than the book of Ezra to see that Ezra was one of the instruments for the recovering of the testimony of God after Israel had lost that testimony; because of their loss of that testimony had been sent, allowed to be carried into Babylonian captivity, at the end of the express time (seventy years) to be brought back. But God did not bring them back the same way they were taken out. He brought them back in a divine order. The first thing He did was stir up men’s hearts to return to the Scripture, and see truth as it was presented there. They began to search the Scriptures. Daniel turned to the Scripture; and in Jeremiah he found seventy years. He calculated it and figured seventy years are come. He fell on his face and immediately began to pray for the recovery of Jerusalem, and for the recovery of the Tabernacle. You can read that prayer in the book of Daniel. At the same time Daniel was praying, the Spirit of God moved upon the heart of King Cyrus, and he made a decree, "Let the Jews go back. Let those who will, let all who desire…" He did not send them back. He released the, and said, "Let all who desire…" I is different going back than it was being brought out. He came in and said, "Come on." Now he says, "Let everyone who will go back. Those who will return to the testimony of the Lord, let them do it"; but that was because Daniel had returned to the Scripture and Daniel was praying.

Right after that He stirred up the heart of Ezra. During and before that time, from the decline, from the time of King Solomon to that time, the time of Jehoiakim, to that time, there had been a steady decline, and a steady loss of the Scripture and of the manuscripts, particularly during the seventy years, with the destruction of Jerusalem. They had been lost. Ezra took upon his heart, or the Lord put upon Ezra’s heart; and Bible history will tell you, the Scriptures verifies it, but Bible history and the history of Ezra that you can find written in Jewish histories, will tell you that Ezra began to gather up the fragments. The first time I ever understood what Jesus meant when He divided the loaves and fishes, and the people were set, and He told the disciples, "Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost", is when I realized that Ezra gathered up the fragments that were left of the Scripture. He gathered them up. He put them together, and one again, Israel had a viable writing of the books of Moses and the Scripture; and Ezra added to that the book of Chronicles. As you know, the book of Chronicles is just a repeat of the book of Kings, except in it Ezra has a distinct message for Israel. So you have Kings and Chronicles. And I used to wonder why in the world, it says the same thing. In Bible college, and in all the years that I have been preaching, it had never brought to my attention that Ezra wrote the book of Chronicles. I assumed that they were written at the same time as the books of Kings were written, but they were not. Ezra wrote them as part of the recovery, to bring Israel back. What is it in the Chronicles that he is emphasizing there? He brings in the story of King David, and King Solomon, and the Temple, and the city, and its completion, and then the decline. He sets it right before them. He brings before them the whole history of Israel as being summed up in King David and manifested in King Solomon.

John, in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ does the same thing for the church. He sums up the whole church in the person of the seed of David and the greater than Solomon, and presents them as the temple and the city of the Living God. Ezra gives himself to that as a scribe. The Lord began to deal with my heart that there must be come who set themselves aside, or allow God to set them aside to the ministry of the scribe, that these things be searched out, recovered, and set forth in Israel. Nehemiah exercised the ministry of a governor, and he actually built the wall. As you know, Zerubbabel and Joshua before that, and in the days of Ezra built the Temple; but with the building of the Temple, and then the building of the wall, and establishing of the city, who did they turn to every time during the times that order had to be brought now into it, in the times of "How shall se do this, that or the other? What is to be done first?" Then, during the time of the dedication, who was it that called on Ezra? What did Ezra do? He came and he read from the books from morning until night. Everything was to be established in that which was written, established upon the Scripture. Everything of the recovery had to, first of all, be established upon the Scripture, a return to the Scripture to behold the true testimony of God. Everything was brought into that. Otherwise it would be just the doings of men, or what one thinks, or what another thinks.

They stood around the wall and made fun of Nehemiah. They gathered up witnesses against Zerubbabel and Joshua. (I am not taking about the Joshua that led them out of the wilderness, but another Joshua who was the priest, and Zerubbabel was the governor). They wrote letters against them. What I am saying is that they attacked them. The Temple was built. The wall and the city was restored in very troubled times, very troubled times. But, when Ezra came on the scene, every mouth was shut; because he established it all in the Scripture. It has to all come together. If captives are ever going to willingly come out of captivity, it is going to have to be based upon the Scripture being presented in truth. I believe that any genuinely born-again believer can hear it, see it, look at it, and say, "Well, that makes sense." When the Scripture is presented in view of Christ, it makes sense. I am not necessarily talking about natural sense, but it makes sense. I do not care whether you are saved or unsaved, you have a soul, and the soul was given of God. You cannot get around that. There is something in that soul that can only be touched and satisfied by truth. Whether that soul is saved or unsaved, truth can touch it. Now, it does more to the saved, yes; but what I am telling you is when truth is heard, when truth is presented as truth in the Scriptures, there is not only soul who is not touched. Now, what has happened to the religious soul is that we have so surrounded it will all of the doctrines of men and all of that, that before it ever gets through to the touching of the soul, it offends our doctrines, and we stand up and reject it. But to the hungry heart that has not found satisfaction in all that stuff anyway, that hungry heart is much like a sinner that has not found satisfaction in all that stuff anyway, that hungry heart is much like a sinner that has not found satisfaction in the world. The truth of the Scripture makes sense. It reaches through, and you say, "That makes sense." Lord, help us to develop in every one of us, and I think we will develop it distinctly, but develop in every one of us the ministry of a scholar to search these things out.

I think some will be more given to that than others, because that is not the only ministry of the recovery, bit it is an absolute necessary one. I think all of these ministries to some degree should affect our hearts. The ministry of Zerubbabel and Joshua should be our passion to see the Temple of God restored. I am not talking about building something on the other side of the Mediterranean. I am talking about the Temple of God come forth in the knowledge of the Lord. There should be a passion in that, and in some that will actually have a manifest ministry more than others. The same with Nehemiah and on down. There will be some that will be more given to the part that Ezra played; because it takes it all to make the ministry of Christ that is necessary for the recovery, for the restoration, for God’s people to have once again established in them the true and full testimony of the Lord.

Let me read some Scripture to you. Let us look at the book of Ephesians (more appropriately, the epistle to the Ephesians). Ephesians 1:17-23, then we are going to Ephesians 3, and then Ephesians 4. Our thought here will be, the apprehending of Christ. The word, "apprehending", you are going to find in this search is the same Greek word as the word "comprehend". What you apprehend, that is, lay hold of in the Lord, you do so by comprehending, not in the natural, but the comprehending of the Spirit. That comprehending in your Bible is called faith. Faith is the laying hold of. It is both evidence, and it is substance. Faith is itself evidence. Faith is itself substance. That is what the Scriptures teach, that "faith is the evidence of things not seen". Faith is the substance. It is by faith that you lay hold of what is not seen. It is by faith that you apprehend things unseen. It is by faith that you lay hold of what is not seen. It is by faith that you lay hold of things hoped for, or things that are expected. Christ in you the expected glory of God. It is by faith. What is that? It is by the truth. How do you lay hold on the reality that Christ is in you? By the Spirit of God revealing Him in you, declaring Him as the truth, bringing you to that, enabling you to lay hold on that; and what you lay hold on greatly transforms you, greatly changes you, enabling you to live. So, we are talking about the apprehending of Christ. Almost one whole letter is given to that theme by Paul, and you will find that theme in every letter that he writes. Chapter one of Ephesians, verse seventeen, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope…", that is the expectation unto which you are called. "… that you might know the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from among the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places…" That you might know your connection with Him in that respect. He goes on in chapter two to tell you what the connection with Him is in that respect; that you too are quickened together, raised together, and seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

What is the whole theme that I am reading here? Paul is praying for believers, and ministering to believers that they would apprehend, that they would come to know, that they would hay hold on a work that is already done. "that you would come to know what is the expectation unto which you are called, that you would lay hold on it", that you would come to know what is God’s full inheritance in His saints. Not what is going to be, but what is. That you would come to know the exceeding; and this brother uses the word "exceeding" very few times. When he does, he is always using that in reference to the fulness of Christ, that which can only be seen in Christ. Not that you would just know the power, but that you would know the exceeding greatness of His power. What is that exceeding greatness? It is described: that He raised Him from among the dead, seated Him at His own right hand, far above. Then, he goes on in the second chapter, which is really just a continuation of this letter, and says, "And you…" because his whole prayer is that you may know what is the exceeding greatness toward us who believe. "And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." Quickened together, raised together, seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. "Oh", he says, " that you would lay hold on that, would apprehend that, would comprehend that." The whole thing there is that you would come to apprehend. Then in Ephesians 3:9, just summing up what he was saying from verse one, "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Christ Jesus." His whole urgency, the consuming fire in his soul was that the truth be known, the truth be seen, the truth be understood; but you must know the truth before it will consume you in such a way.

A lot of historical figures come up to me, men who even in the natural real of good and evil, right and wrong, were consumed by the good and by the right, even in that realm, in some cases to the loss of their very life. How much more to those who have come to the truth as it is in Christ? It must not be kept within four walls. It must meet us there, but it must never be kept there. We must be those who are consumed, not just who know the truth, but who are consumed. You see all of these different aspects. Our God is truth, yes; and He is a consuming fire. So, what does that mean? It means truth consumes. It means love consumes. It means we are consumed of that which He is. He becomes a consuming fire. It becomes a passion, the passion of our very soul. Everything we do, we find ourselves doing it because of that, even in such a menial task as how we make a living, what we lay our hand to, the duties done, all of those. They are not counted as separate. Why? Because they are done by one who is being consumed, and are brought right into that thing, regardless of what it is. So, it reaches out into every area. There are no mundane aspects and areas of the life of one who is being consumed by truth. I am sure those who are not in the process of being consumed have a lot of mundane, unimportant areas. Why? Because it is not those things that are mundane and unimportant in and of themselves. It is that the one who is doing them simply is not doing them in a purpose and in an understanding. But, when we are being consumed of truth, nothing is mundane. Everything becomes a way and a means to propagate that truth. Everything is consumed by it, individually, and eventually it gets hold of us corporately. It is beginning to do that now with us, to get hold of us corporately.

Now, Ephesians 3:16, " That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with my by His Spirit in the inner man." What is he talking about? "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith…" Remember what we said that was. "… That ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height…" It does not look like he wants us to leave out anything. "Well, I know I am saved and on my way to heaven." "… that you may comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height." "Well, I know my sins are past." "… that you may comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height…" You will find, as you do that, that even those little kindergarten statements that you have been making will take on far greater significance than they did before, because you will find, as you viewed "my sins are forgiven, I’m on my way to heaven", you did it from a very self centered, selfish standpoint. But all of a sudden, those things come into a view of Christ, and immediately they are no longer self centered, selfish, or even for self; but those very terms become terms of realization for the purpose of giving God greater expression. The whole thing is just coming to a greater apprehension of Him.

What I am telling you is that the Scripture, from Genesis to Malachi are packed full of types and shadows and emblems, all of which are pointing to Christ; but it is not enough to know that. You have to look at each of those emblems, and types and shadows. Why? Because, if they are important enough to be fulfilled in Him, they are important enough for us to search in the knowledge of Him. He is the one Who said, "Search them, for they testify of Me." Not only do they testify of Him in statement of truth and generality, (He is, He exists), but each of them set forth Christ in a different level of apprehension. It is absolutely mind-disturbing, mind-bobbling, to realize that. The Tabernacle itself represents three basic classes, three basic levels, of understanding Christ. All of it represents Christ. Why are there three levels? Because it represents three apprehensions of Him. Some apprehend Him in this way, others in that way. Some are apprehending Him in the whole of it. Some are without and not apprehending Him at all, but there is a perfect type of that in the Tabernacle. Israel camped close to, surrounded, and was looked at as one with the Tabernacle; they were of God taken by various means into a constant apprehension of Christ; whereas the nations that were round about looked and saw what everyone else saw. They saw the order of Israel’s encampment. They saw the order of Israel’s march, and they comprehended nothing. The comprehension was to be first settled in the midst of Israel, and Israel was to be conformed to that comprehension; then Israel themselves was to be a comprehension to the nations.

You know that Israel had a problem with that. They wanted to become more like the nations than they wanted to be a comprehension of God in the midst of the nations. You can see the same thing today in the church. Someone said that history repeats itself. I can tell you that it does, until God decides to stop it. The, every part of this represents a different apprehension. Not only the furniture, which is enough, but in this Tabernacle there are offerings. To be specific, there are five distinct offerings. First, we see the meaning of Christ in this altar. We can see Him as this brazen altar, and we would comprehend that judgment is come, and judgment is now; and it is established in Christ. It is just that most of us in truth have not come to that judgment, so we are still having trouble with things that we should not be having problems with at all; because the altar, because all of this is Christ and Him crucified. It presents a finished work. This presents Christ and Him crucified. It presents Christ in death, and in burial, and in resurrection. It presents Him fully apprehended and set forth as the tent, or Tabernacle of the Testimony. So, what did Paul say in II Corinthians 2? "I come before you bringing the testimony of God." What does that directly relate to? It relates to the Tabernacle of the Testimony. It means that Paul had to be preaching Christ and Him crucified. What did he say just a few verses after that? "I will know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." How much more proof, what more do we need to see than to understand that in the Tabernacle God set forth as a testimony The Finished Work, that Christ finished it, and Paul preached it. The center of all of it is the Cross, the Cross being His death, His burial and His resurrection, the Cross being the decrease of me and the increase of Him in order of spiritual apprehension. That is to say, the more you know of Him, the less of you exists in your understanding. He removes. He does not override.

He removes and takes away. It is a washing out of the mind, a renewing of the mind, not an adding to, but a washing. You go on to each of these, but then you have to come back with the five offerings, and suddenly you are faced with this altar again, and you realize, "I did not understand that altar at all. In order to understand that altar as it represents Christ, I am going to have to see Him in these five offerings." You see, we just lump them all together. "Well, He made an offering." He was one offering, but that one offering was five, and in that one offering is the fulness of God’s grace set forth; but God’s grace is seen clearly set forth in five offerings: the burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace offering, the trespass offering, and the sin offering. All we know about is the sin offering, and we do not know much about that. WE say, "It is all just for sin", but do you know that the sin offering was not even offered on this altar? Do you know that the blood of it was sprinkled there, but the sin offering was burned off out here somewhere outside and away from the Tabernacle? Did you know that it was the burnt offering that was totally offered here, and it had nothing to do with sin at all?

We have said for a long time, that the Cross did not just deal with sin. People come back and rebuke us and say, "That is not so. That is where He died for my sins so I would not have to die." We know that is short sighted. The Cross did not just deal with sin. It deals with a whole lot more than sin. Some say that is not right, but according to the five offerings it is right. They are all in the first three chapters of the book of Leviticus. The first three set forth are sweet savor offerings, and they have nothing to do with sin. They have everything to do with acceptance. They have nothing to do with getting out. They have everything to do with being able to walk in. Burnt offering, meat offering, peace offering have nothing to do with sin; bit it is what God has provided for those who are redeemed by the sin offering. Yet in Christ it is all seen as one offering, and it is; but then the Holy Spirit begins to show you Him as your peace, as your burnt offering, as your this or that. Suddenly, the Scripture comes to life for you. I cannot tell you how many New Testament passages have come to life for me, and all I have done, so far, is actually search out, in a very elementary way at that, the first three of those offerings.

I sat there and looked at that the other day, and I thought, "Dear God, I cannot do this." The Lord spoke to me in my heart and said, "I never called you to do this by yourself. I called you to participate in it." That is the reason I know the Lord is going to separate ministries, and bind them together, that will be supported by other ministries, and they who are bound together will support other ministries, the ministries of the going out, and the ministries of the establishing in a place, and the ministries of the establishing of the theology of the searching of these things; but it is one ministry. It is the ministry of one, Christ. So as I began to go through this again, what I see and know to be now, is the elementary setting forth; because, to see the Tabernacle as a whole is one thing, then to see it described in its furniture is yet another thing; but to come back and begin to see it in the offerings is another. Then, not only the offerings describe various comprehensions, various apprehensions, but you have the feasts. There are seven feasts broken down in the category of three feasts.

In those three major feast times, what does it have to do with this? During those three major feasts everyone had to come back to the door of this Tabernacle. Tremendous apprehensions are set forth in those feasts, fulfilled in Christ – Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. If you ask most believers about them, they will say, "Oh well, that was Old Testament stuff. Our preacher said we did not have to know anything about that, just come, give our tithe, read our Bible, attend prayer meeting, and when we die we are going to Heaven, and that is all that is really necessary." I just want to run and bash my head against a brick wall when someone tells me that! Where is the expression of Christ? What is God getting out of that? Where is His Son magnified? Where is anything that the Scripture teaches being realized in that? Nowhere, none of it.

Thirdly, the priests (plural) three orders of priesthood, which give us comprehension of those same orders in Christ Jesus. All of that is connected with a Tabernacle, a Temple, which is connected with a people who are to give it expression in the earth. That is what the Bible, the Scripture teaches; and that is what Christ has fulfilled. Seeing Him as He is has taken on a greater meaning for me. Not seeing Him and understanding that He exists, but seeing Him as He is. I cried out the other day while doing this, "Oh God, I do not even see Him as a burnt offering, let alone see Him as He is. I do not even understand the difference between these two offerings. I am sitting here as dense as a fence post, preaching a sermon on this verse, "Seeing Him as He is, we will be like Him." I said, " God, that sounds like blasphemy coming out of my mouth now." I wish we could hear this, get burdened with it. We are consumed with the desire to preach, but we are as ignorant as bullfrogs. We should just keep our mouths shut. We condemn ourselves every time we open them. We need to just come together and lay on our face and see Him, and then get direction from the Lord. Maybe the Lord is dealing with us as a fellowship to do that, or individually to do that. I am not criticizing anybody; but I am telling you that we cannot continue on our happy way. That is not going to work any ore. "See Him as He is, you will be like Him." How many times have you said that? It slapped me in the face the other day. I thought, "My God, I do not even see Him as a burnt offering. What am I talking about seeing Him as He is, and be like Him? I do not even understand what that means." I am not saying these things to give us hopelessness, but to challenge us toward finding the reality, rather than thinking that we have it, and thinking we can just sermonize it and it will be all right. That is not what it is all about. The Lord is dealing with us and shall continue to do so.

I just want to give you what will very obviously be little more than an outline for study; to stir up our minds, and to provoke us to be mindful of these things that the Holy Spirit may bring us into line with God’s thinking. Of course, I know that I personally, as a part of the Lord’s ministry, am greatly encumbered upon, and greatly dealt with at this particular time concerning the apprehension of Him in His saints, and what we must do, not only individually, but collectively, toward that end. All of that is very much upon my heart and mind, but it has opened a great deal of understanding with regard to the Scripture along these lines as well, as I am sure that it is intended to do, and that is to put me in the Word. So, along that line, and in keeping with the necessity of apprehension, I want us to look at Christ as He is set forth in the Scripture, namely in the Tabernacle. In order to do that I want to give you an outline, just a thumbnail sketch, but an outline of this eternal plan and purpose of God in the book of Genesis. I think you will be able to see a pattern, and finally come to understand that this whole pattern is only understood in the comprehension of Christ. It is all for that. It is all set forth there, and then worked out in a people to the satisfaction of God’s heart.

Genesis chapters 1-10. We are able to see what is effectively the whole of the plan and pattern.

Genesis 1:1 – Genesis 2:25 we see the creation.

Genesis 3:1 – Genesis 5:32 we see the fall from that plan, that purpose, that creation.

Genesis 6:1 – Genesis 9:29 we see the flood, which comes as a judgment. Of course the center of that is the ark. Basically we see the Judge, which is God’s judgment upon what is fallen short. No sooner does that take place,

Genesis 10:1 – Genesis 11:9 we see the erection of the tower of Babel.

Genesis 11:10 – Genesis 50:26 is our next area, and it is God dealing in a special way. It is the dealings of God once again toward His Seed, toward His One Son.

Genesis 11:10- Genesis 25:18 we see the life of Abraham. If we broke that down in a quick study, Genesis 11 – the introduction of Abraham

Genesis 12-25 – the covenant of God with Abraham

Genesis 12 – the institution of the covenant with Abraham

Genesis 13-14 – the separation of the covenant, that is, the

Separation brought about by the covenant

Genesis 15-16 – the ratification of that covenant

Genesis 17 – the institution of that covenant, namely circumcision

Genesis 18-20 – the testing, the covenant put to the test

Genesis 21-25 – the consummation of the covenant, and one son

Remains

Genesis 25-26 – the family of Isaac, the failure of Isaac, and then the failure of Esau in chapter 26

Genesis 27-36 – the life of Jacob. Jacob gains the blessing of Esau, Jacob’s life at Heron, Jacob’s return, Jacob’s residence in Canaan, the history of Esau

Genesis 37-50 – the life of Joseph

Genesis 37-38 – the corruption of Joseph’s family

Genesis 39-41 – the exaltation of Joseph

Genesis 42-50 – the salvation of Joseph’s family

Once more it ends with One Son to be brought out of Egypt’s bondage, Egypt always in type of the bondage of the world.

Now, in order for God to have One Son brought out of the bondage of the world, He began with Moses and the Tabernacle. It is with Moses that God reveals Himself. "I will this time, I have tried all of this. I have set it forth. Everything is in plan, purpose with creation in general, and man specifically, and families designated; and in the end of it, in every case it is One Son that I am after, One Son that I desire; but now I will involve Myself with man as I have never involved Myself with man before." God sets forth His intention to do this in type, in shadow, in form, in figure; and from that, we have the bulk of the Scripture. IN fact, we have everything from the book of Exodus to the book of Malachi. Everything from the book of Exodus to the book of Malachi is either involved with the Tabernacle, its types, its shadows, its priest, its goings on; or it is involved pointing back, calling a people back to it; but in one way or the other, all of those books are involved with what God sets forth, His Testimony established in the Tabernacle. Once being established perfectly in the earth, it is brought back and fulfilled perfectly in Christ and Him crucified, to be established and manifested perfectly in that vessel and vehicle called "the church".

I am not going to go on beyond that, because we want to deal just briefly with this Tabernacle, the full type, the full pattern, the full testimony; because it has never been established this way before, God’s testimony full and completely as type and shadow can make it, set forth in the midst of a people that He has chosen to be the very type and shadow of His Son. So, you must understand then, that all of God’s dealings with Israel are not really deals with Israel as a nation, not really dealing with Israel as Jews, or Hebrews, but dealing with Israel as a Son, as a son in the midst of the nations to bring forth that Son to be the salvation of the nations. To see it any other way is going to get you in worlds of trouble. It is going to get you into national this, and national that, dispensational this, and it is just not what God has set forth in the Scripture. So, all of these dealings here with the Tabernacle that are set forth for us to see, with the three elements that apply themselves there – the offerings, the feasts, the priests; all of these must be seen in the light of God bringing a Son out of the bondage of the world, God bringing forth a Son in the midst of the world, in the midst of the nations, for the salvation of the same – One Son. Do you think that He is really in the reality and the Person of Christ going to deal with us any differently, going to deal with us in any other course, for any other purpose, toward any other thing? We have made up all of these fantasies, all of these places that we are supposed to be going, and how we are going to get there; and the whole, eternal plan of God from start to finish is the having of One Son for the manifesting of His fulness. It must be that way.

It is set out that way clearly in His intention, dealing with man in all of His intentions in the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis can be summed up in that phrase – One Son. God clearly shows His intention in creation, His intention in dealing with man in whatever way He deals with him, ends with desiring One Son. That is clearly seen. Then immediately, out of that book, we begin to see God exhibiting, in a people, the getting, the bringing forth, dealing with people, of that One Son. We see Him in all of His redemptive works. We see Him in all of His Kingdom works. We see One Son. He sets the stage, and He declares Him in the Scripture; so that, when He comes, He may be received, and honored, and believed in. "He came to His own, and His own received Him not. But to those who received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." These are just very elementary things to show you that the whole Bible, having had the intention and the pattern, and the purpose and the plan established in the first book, does not change from that, but rather, in all of the rest of it, shows God working that out in man, bringing it to perfection in Christ; that He may reveal Him in creation for that, and manifest Him according to His original plan and intention. So, you see it repeated again and again throughout the Scripture; but it all has this one line, this one plan – God is after One Son. In Him you and I live, move and have our being; but we need not look beyond Him for anything, because all fulness, and all things are provided in Him. Everything that the Father desires, everything the Father is after, everything the Father ever intended, is established in that One Son; and to show forth that One Son, He gave to Him a Body, that in that Body He may reveal Him, manifest Him in the earth through that Body, the Church, and make known His full Salvation.

Here, we come then, to the book of Exodus, and we begin to see all things done according to the pattern that is established here. We must see that Christ is not the pattern of good things to come, or of anything to come. Here is the pattern, and the answer to it is Christ. Christ is not the example of something, but the fulfillment of all that is examples of Him. We need not look beyond Him; but rather, give ourselves to the learning of Him. For that, God has provided the Scripture. "Search the Scripture, for they are they which testify of Me." I would like to touch upon something of these three aspects that relate themselves to the Tabernacle giving us a greater apprehension of Christ. The Tabernacle itself represents three general apprehensions of Christ. It does not, never has, must not, and never can, represent different administrations of the Holy Spirit bringing all things to the fulness of time. Is there a difference in those two statements? Yes, there is a world of difference in those two statements. How does the Holy Spirit bring time to fulness? He does that by revealing Christ in the midst of it; for, in Him, all time is fulfilled, and every aspect of Him that is being done. It is not our intention to talk about that just now, other than to just show simply that these three elements, the outer court, the inner court, the Holy of Holies, is talking about the apprehension and the apprehending, by faith, of One Son.

Let us not forget that the Tabernacle sets forth One Son. "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." How is it that God looks at Israel? He looks at them in His view of the Tabernacle. When Israel was encamped, when they were encamped of God, when they were the dwelling place of the Most High in the earth, Israel encamped about the Tabernacle; but, not only about the Tabernacle, they encamped in direct relationship to the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was first established, always set toward the east; consequently, Israel knew in what direction they were traveling always by the Tabernacle. Now, when you and I come to understand the Tabernacle as being The Finished Work of Christ, Christ and Him crucified; then we understand that the whole order of the life of Israel was ordered by the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and all of Israel, even their encampments, was determined by the Tabernacle. No one just decided, when the signal was given to stop the journey of the day, or the journey of the week, or the journey of the month, "Well, I think I will just pitch my tent over there. There is a good looking shade tree over there. I will go over here where there is some water." That sounds more like us. All of Israel was encamped about this standard, for the standard, the sign is the Cross, not as an object, but as a Person, the Son out of Egypt, by His death, His burial, His resurrection. So, to the east was the encampment of Judah, to the south the encampment of Reuben, to the west the encampment of Ephraim, to the north the encampment of Dan; and because of the size of their encampment, if you would diagram it, all it would do would actually be to extend the reality of the Cross. So that, if you beheld Israel as an encampment, you would behold one gigantic picture of the Cross; but not as an object, because the Tabernacle is a Person; and all of Israel has their being and their identification in Him as being dead, buried and raised. So you wold behold the testimony of God – Christ and Him crucified. Your whole life is ordered by that reality. So, these three compartments, or these three courts, cannot possibly, in any way, shape or form, testify of anything other than that son Himself, comprehending Him as the way, the truth, and the life, the comprehending of Him; because it was that way for Israel. It was in these courts that Israel apprehended, comprehended, the reality of God in their midst. So, the Tabernacle sets forth the comprehending of Him, not a dispensational chart, not a chart of times, but a full administrative work of the Holy Spirit coinciding with a full work of Christ at the Cross – His death, His burial, His resurrection, the way, the truth, the life. On and on, the apprehensions of Christ are set forth here.

Now, just a rough outline of these, then we will come back to this one, which is actually the first one we approach in the learning of Him, but it is the last one that God sets out. Sooner or later our comprehension, our apprehension, must find us here at the Ark of the Covenant: to us, the last piece of furniture; to God, the first piece of furniture – the beginning. We are identified with Him, in Him, through Him. Then, from that point, all of these pieces of furniture must be in the divine light of this one comprehension; and we must begin to look at then anew in a way that we have never been able to see them before, because now we see them, not in the progressiveness of going in, but in the reality of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ Jesus. We then must understand these pieces of furniture in that light. In fact, there is no way that you can understand these pieces of furniture except in that light. That is why God established the Ark of the Covenant first. So, all of these apprehensions of Christ are bringing you here to Him; but actually, it is in the apprehending, it is in His appearing here that these are all summed up and have their full meaning. Man for generations has been looking at the Tabernacle from the outside this way, and trying to figure out Christ by trying to figure Him out from a natural standpoint, even trying to figure out the Ark of the Covenant from the outside in. Only when the glory of God is present here is there light in the Holy of Holies. And remember, after all of this was established and set in order, the first thing that happened was the whole house was filled with the glory of God, and man could not enter into any part of it to minister! God signified that only in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of His Son was there any comprehension of this Tabernacle at all.

Let us look at these as we are brought in. It would seem that we are brought into Him, each of these altars and so forth. We will come back to the brazen altar later. We will leave it for now, except to say that it is the altar of acceptance. It is here that what God accepts, finds acceptance; and this altar is expressed, understood through the five offerings that are connected with it. There is no way you can understand the brazen altar just by what it is made of. First, it is made of brass, so it is judgment; but who understands the judgment of God? Who really understand the judgment of God? To one it is this, to another it is that, to another it is something horrible about to come to earth. But in the five offerings, the judgment of God is described in terms of His grace. Yet, the judgment is no less real, because grace is not an allowance for sin or carnality. It is measured in the full measure of Christ. Paul asked the question, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead…" Do you see? But we find judgment in the light of grace. It is no wonder that, when David sinned the sin of numbering, he said, "I tell you what, I will just fall into the hands of God." Why? Because His judgment is with grace. That means it has a purpose to it. Man’s judgment just destroys and devours, and has no purpose beyond that to it. David says, " I will take the Lord every time. I will take His three days." Jesus comes along and says the same thing. He says, "If you seek to save your life, you are going to lose it. You will lose it utterly and completely; but if you will lose it, you will find it again in Me." Now, the loss in both cases is absolute; but in one case, the loss is unto Him, in the other case the loss is just unto destruction. In one case, that which is lost is found in the newness of life, whereas, in the other case that which is lost is just destroyed. All of this is in this altar, but it is set for us in the beginning, in the very beginning of our walk. Here is the judgment of God, wherein His grace abounds.

I do not know anywhere else in the bible that says His grace abounds anywhere else. You say, "Well surely in the Holy of Holies." No. UP here is the mercy seat, and that is something different altogether. Here it is in this brazen altar, which is the largest piece of furniture, because it talks about the largest, the greatest dimension of the work. Everything comes to judgment here. Everything here is brought up, seen to be short, seen to be unacceptable. What is God showing? One Son, and how, in Him, we come to be, by His death, burial and resurrection; but what does He show first? What is it? Nothing is acceptable. Nothing satisfies. This is the judgment, but the grace that abounds is through One. The grace that abounds is through Him, in Him, by Him, and as Him; and these five offerings say that. The burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace offering, the trespass offering, the sin offering. Sin is only one of a five-fold thing that is dealt with here. We think we are not acceptable because we are sinners. There is more to it than that. We think that at the Cross my sins were done away. There is more to it than that. God is showing here that nothing is acceptable, nothing is righteous, nothing gets by here, no work, no attempt, no goodness, no righteousness, no nothing, no thought, no intention, no deed, no word, no motivation. Yes, all o f that is in these offerings.

That is in the first order of things. There are two orders of offerings: the offerings of sweet savor, and the sin. Sweet savor is the burnt offering, meat offering, peace offering. They all have things in common, but they all have great distinctions one from the other as well. Then there is trespass and sin offerings. Christ, by one offering, fulfilled them all. What an offering! What a Son! For us to say, "Well, He paid for my sin"; that is not even a drop in the bucket. That is not even the beginning of the apprehending of salvation. But I am telling you the world is full of people calling themselves Christians who have no more apprehension than just that; and do not even apprehend that sin offering in its fulness. They just lump them all together. If you think that God is just trying to get a bunch of people saved, and eventually, after they die, get them all to heaven – that is fine; but when you realize that is not it, God’s plan is to bring forth One Son, then you realize that is not fine. That kind of apprehension is not satisfying that plan and purpose of God; because that kind of apprehension, "Well He just paid for my sins", is not satisfying God’s idea concerning His Son to be formed and expressed in His people. Oh, what a salvation! How we have reduced it. We have, not only kept it from the nations, we have made it impossible that the nations should even come. We have, with our idea, created a Christian religion simply so it can be different from, and keep everyone else out. One Son is not that way. He is not that way in nature, in character, in attitude, or in work, or in fulfillment; but I am seeing more and more how we do not know Him.

Who is it that does not know Him? Israel, His own, those whom He had brought out through the Red Sea, through the sprinkling of the blood on the doorpost. They are the ones who, now, here in the book of Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy He is showing to them. Now that they are out, He is showing them the way in: because He is not interested in bringing along a group of people, but One Son. That is God’s concept, and in Him, the many are One Son. It is all dealt with the same way, and as One Son. The nations of the world have never seen an indication of this, outside of that brief period of time that it was seen in Solomon. Did you realize that there was a time that King Solomon was actually recognized as the King, the ruler, of the whole known world; and the whole known world paid obedience to him, not because he mounted armies and conquered them, but because he manifested God’s Son in a people in wisdom, knowledge, understanding, because he met the need? It was snot because he went forth with armies to conquer, but because he demonstrated the glory and the richness, the wisdom, the understanding and the knowledge. He was in type what God has in His One Son, and will have revealed and manifested in a people. When will we see that all of our religious conquests have been for nothing? In fact they have been nothing but pitiful works of the flesh. Jesus told them that. He said, "You go out all over the world, and the only thing you do is proselyte and make them two-fold the child of hell that you are."

I am not talking about godly people laying down their lives around the world. I am talking about the idea of conquests. They are nothing but the works of the flesh. The nations have not yet seen the truth of the glory of God made manifest, Christ revealed and expressed in a people; but that is His plan. We have substituted our plan for that; and that is to get out of this world as fast as we can, one way or the other. If not by one way, then by death, so we can all go to heaven. What a sorry substitute for reality! It leaves us with very little relationship with Christ, or any reason to have one. It causes us to hate and despise the nations, and in so doing, we do the same to one another.

Then, we come by way of the laver. I believe that in the most general type of the laver, it is seen in II Corinthians 3:18, whereby it is seen there, and perhaps this is seeing the laver in the light of having come to the glory of God, and this is now a greater understanding of the laver than we are capable of in our comprehension. We behold the face of Him, and the veil is taken off our heart. It may well be on our apprehending of Him, on our way in. It may well be in the washing of our hands, and the washing of our feet, and the washing of the water of the Word, and the preparation. It may well be, because all of that is the administrative work of the Holy Spirit; but until the waters are troubled because of the brass basin, until the waters are troubled for the need of our washing, you look therein, and you see the face of another, because those that looked there were the priests, and they were in representation of another. I doubt that they comprehended what they saw, but we should do so, and, with an unveiled face, we will. Of course that takes us more over to a study of the priesthood than it does to what I am talking about now, but the priest had very much to do with the laver. It had to do with the washing. Why should we wash except we could see Him, and what is the glass into which we look, if not the water of the Word? What is the mirror wherein we look, according to James, not seeing the excellency. Now, the man in James saw himself and missed the excellency, but that is because he was hasty in his coming. Paul brings it back in the same truth, and so does Paul as seeing through a glass darkly. In every case it is translated as the vision of God. Where is it that we behold the vision of God except in the Word? So it is for washing, and it is for cleansing; but finally, it is for seeing Him.

We go on. Here in the apprehending of Him in the chamber, which is an inner chamber, the apprehending of Him, one of which I believe very definitely that the Scripture teaches as the comprehension of Him in His burial. I believe that, by perhaps a very casual look at that sanctuary, you will have to understand that it is a sanctuary in transition. Nothing there is what it seems to be. Everything there is in transition. Now, you may or may not be familiar with the writer of Hebrews explanation of that. In Hebrews 9:1, "Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. After the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all…" and it goes on. It says that the first, while still in view, the way into the Holiest of all is not made apparent, or is not made manifest. He says, "I come to do away with the first, and establish the second." We have to understand that here is what He is talking about, and it used to confuse me, because I never could understand that. I always wanted this to be the first, then Solomon’s temple second, or something. But I finally had to understand, to agree with the Scripture, that this is the first, and this is the second, that he was talking about in Hebrews 9, each of them having certain spiritual counterparts. Then, when I came to see that the whole thing represents His death, because you cannot get by that; and His burial, which is in fact taken away by His resurrection and the fulness thereof, then you come to understand more of what is being said with regard to Christ in the book of Hebrews, and He in resurrection fulfills all things. So, you understand that it is a place that, until it is done away, the second is not made manifest. Only in His resurrection is that so.

There is then, an apprehending of Christ that deals with us being buried with Him. Well, if we are buried with Him, what is it we are waiting on? I am talking about spiritual apprehension. If we are buried with Him, what is it we are waiting on, but to know Him in His resurrection? We are not waiting on the resurrection, because He says, "I am the resurrection." Are we not waiting to hear the voice of Him in whose voice the dead shall come forth? That is what the Lord says. Could it not be seen then in the candelabra, which is obviously a type of the church; but the church as seen there in the candelabra is a church very much in waiting. Waiting for what? Waiting for the revelation of Him, waiting for what John saw in that book called " The Revelation of Jesus Christ" – Him to appear in the midst. Is that not set forth in type here, the church waiting that Christ be revealed; because there is a light, and it has to be replenished. As I said, it is not my intention to go into all of the elements of the lampstand, but to generally see it as something in waiting, because it does snot there represent anything close to a perfect light, though it is an all gold lampstand, and though the oil there is certainly indicative of some ministry of the Holy Spirit, but it is being renewed day by day, and night by night. It burns out, and if you are not careful, it will go out. It certainly does not represent Him appearing in glory. So, it is a church in waiting that Christ be revealed in the fulness of Himself.

We look to the table of shewbread. How many volumes have been written upon that? I want you to just consider something here about the table of shewbread. In the first place, it is a gold table, all overlaid with gold. It has a border round about. It has twelve loaves in two stacks of six. In most of the teaching with regard to the loaves there, it is always taught from the standpoint that there is twelve loaves. No doubt there is twelve loaves, and it speaks of an administration in His Body, and all of the things that twelve speaks for. No doubt that is pointing to that; but the point is that if God had wanted to emphasize what the spiritual number twelve indicates, then they would have all been stacked up in one pile. They were not. They were in two piles of six, and six never represents anything anywhere chose to perfection. Six, in fact, always represents created man, not New Creation Man as is seen in the number eight, but created man as seen in the number six. Here you have two piles of that. It can be nothing but Jew and Gentile. That is the only two divisions there are in created man that the New Testament Scripture, such as in the book of Ephesians 2:14-18 even deals with; and that they are done away by the burial, but the work of the Cross, specifically through the burial, that they come forth as One New Man in the resurrection. The table of shewbread then, has to indicate His body buried in waiting. Waiting for what? Again, the resurrection. We are speaking now of the apprehending of Him as such. While it is true you may spend a long time in these apprehensions, or waiting upon these apprehensions, they are not governed by time, but by the administrative work of the Holy Spirit, and have an effect upon time. Again, it is not a dispensational period that we are looking at, but the need of an administrative work of the Holy Spirit that we are looking at. And until that work is accomplished, there remains, in apprehension, two stacks of six. What is it that we are apprehending here? We are apprehending a fully finished work. What was Israel? Apprehending a fully finished work. How can you say that? Because when they set it all in order, God’s glory filled the whole thing, and it was finished. Then the Lord said, "Apprehend this. Now lay hold of this."

In Christ it is the same way. When He was crucified, dead, buried and rose again, all of that being shone forth in the Cross, He said, "It is finished." It is set forth in Him; and now the Holy Spirit says to all that have come by that finished work, been brought through Him; death, burial, resurrection; established in Him, the Holy Spirit says, "Show the house to the house." Now the Holy Spirit says, "Now, apprehend Him." I showed you that in the gospel of Paul, that you would apprehend Him, that you would lay hold on the fulness that is in Him. For those who would say, "This is too deep. This is too complicated. I do not understand", I would only tell you the reason for that is that what we have heard in the guise of salvation has not had anything to do with salvation at all. It is not too deep. It is not too hard. It is set forth in type and shadow. How much simpler could it be? The fact is that we, as Christians, are ignorant as fenceposts, and do not want to be any different; because we have accepted what we call, "the simple gospel". "Jesus died for my sins", which in itself is not true. It was much more than for my sins. He died as me. He died as you. So, if the gospel seems too hard to understand, it is because what we have gotten hold of has no semblance to the gospel at all. That is frightening! Some would say, " Well then, if that is true, why must it be renewed?" It had to be renewed every Sabbath. Would you like to guess what day it was upon which Jesus was buried? Anyone say Sabbath? You are right. He was buried during the entire day of rest. During the entire Sabbath He was buried. There is a tremendous work with regard to understanding the Sabbath; because, as long as there are two piles, there is going to be strife and friction. Only when there is, in our comprehension, one bread are we truly at peace with God. It had to be renewed.

In my opinion that directly relates to Acts2:27, 3:34, which are related to Psalms 16:10 which says, " Thou shalt not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption." He is speaking about the burial. He does not see corruption; but rather, comes forth in the resurrection. It was eaten by the priest. What was that all about? It was eaten by the priesthood of that order in hope of resurrection. It is called " The Bread of the Presence". We could go on and on with this, but in none of its names, any of its descriptions, will this not stand up; and not only that, but fulfilled those things, bringing out of twain one new man, but not out of the life of one man, but the death and burial. This was to be always kept before them as a memorial. Jesus said, "As oft as ye do this, do it in remembrance of Me." Every way that I have seen it, it signifies a body in waiting, that the Resurrection Himself is the answer. It is insufficient in itself, showing that the mere death and burial of Jew and Gentile is not God’s answer. His answer is the resurrection in One Son; because it is in that picture of that time of furniture where you find the hidden manna. We go on.

Now we come to the altar of incense. The altar of incense is the second altar. Here in His death, we face an altar; and here in His burial, we face another one. It is a different altar, but it is an altar nonetheless. Out here, this primarily is connected with the sacrifices or offerings of sweet smelling savor; because the trespass and sin offering are off out here outside the camp. Their blood is offered here; but they themselves are offered out here on the ground out here. What is burned on this altar? I used to think the whole thing was burned. If you had asked me at a certain point in time, I would have said, "Yeah, burned it all, everything burned up here"; but the sin offering was not burned on the altar at all. It was burned outside the camp on a clean spot of ground. Yet the blood of it was sprinkled here, and the ashes of the sweet smelling offering were taken out there and put on the same spot with the sin offering. It is all united in one, but there are different apprehensions of Him set forth here, that we must see if we are to appreciate our salvation as more than just being gotten out of Egypt; if we are to understand that salvation is more than just some sins having been dealt with. It is much more than that, yet there is a correlation between all of it in that it is all in Him. Here we have ashes for beauty. The ashes are carried out and dumped in the place where the sin offering is burned. The sin offering is burned here, but its blood is sprinkled on the same altar. Primarily, this altar, in its use of actual sacrifice, is dealing with sweet savor, but here is sweet savor for the acceptance.

Now we move in the Holy Place, and we have this altar, the golden altar, much smaller, yet the height of it is the same as the height of the grade of this one. We will not go into all of that, except to show that there are great similarities here, as far as the level in which God is looking. Here we find that the only offering that is given is an offering for sweet savor. It is incense. What you see here is not the meat offering. It is incense. What do you wrap a dead body in? Why did they wrap a dead body in? Incense. That the odor of death would be overcome by the odor of life, incense is offered here. Do you know where this whole thing is? It’s in John’s gospel; John 17:1-23. It is the sweet savor prayer of the Son to the Father. This is the accepted Son. He has already been accepted here. It is not just a prayer of acceptance. He has already been accepted. It is a prayer of communion. This is a sweet savor unto the Father. This is One who is obedient unto the Father, and in that obedience, and in the burial, in the darkness of the thing, everything is waiting unto fulness of the resurrection, yet already formed in the womb, already formed in the deepest parts of the earth. That is where it is all formed, in Him, in His burial, to come forth in the glorious light of His Life, in the knowledge of Him.

We are not talking about a work being done, but an apprehension of a work that is done. Only recently I saw that the Tabernacle is not a work being done either, but a people apprehending a work done; but when this was done… You read in your bible. The word "finish" is only used one time in connection with the Tabernacle, and that is when it is all put together and everything is set in order, and all of it was finished. When that happened, the Glory of God filled it, showing that it is a finished work, but then the Glory of God withdrew from that, so to speak, and God said, "Now apprehend what I have done. Your whole walk is to be apprehending what I have done, and that apprehending will bring you into the full promise of Canaan. Now apprehend." So, even with Israel, it was the apprehending of a finished work. Every time they brought a sacrifice it was the apprehending of a work done. The priest offers this upon the altar. Our priest, our accepted One offers this incense upon this altar. He has been bruised. He has been crushed. It has been mixed. Now there, coming back, not as He came out. Bringing many sons unto glory, as the incense truly speaks of, the ingredients of which it is made. Yet the savor of it is nothing but Him and none other but Him. The prayer of John 17 is offered up here right before the veil. It is also said that incense coals are taken off this altar in a golden censor, and carried in by the High Priest, and waved before the Ark of the Covenant. There is God receiving the prayers of His Son. You can only go in there according to that which is established between He and the Father, and it is recorded in John 17.

The High Priest goes in there carrying the golden censor filled with the incense. The coals upon which the incense burned are the coals which are taken off the brazen altar, because it is a continued work, but it is distinct one from the other. There is no way on God’s earth or in God’s heaven that can stand for something like dispensational theory. There is no room for it. It is the one work of One Son bringing us to the Father’s house, establishing us in the Father’s bosom, where God and God only is glorified in that Son. How much clearer can it be set forth? This is just a thumbnail sketch, because all of the offerings with this, the feasts, the three feasts, the priests, the three orders, because they give breadth, and height and meaning to Christ in His finished work. Then there is a different apprehension altogether, this through the veil. For us it is not behind the veil. For you and I it is the veil done away. When the veil is done away, the distinction here is also done away, and everything that points to this – the candelabra, the incense, and the bread is all summed up in it; for now we have Christ standing in the midst. We have the true Candelabra. We have the One Golden Candlestick, the light of which is the glory of God. We have the one Temple, the one Tabernacle, and the one City; because all of Israel is being joined in this whole thing finally coming to rest in Jerusalem. The point is, we have a full picture of Christ dwelling in His creation, and the light of it is the light of the glory of God. So, we move into an altogether different apprehension, not a new dispensation, but an altogether different apprehension. In the Ark all of the other parts are summed up.

I say that like it is just a simple statement, but it is true. They are all summed up, but much more. It is not just a summing up of things. There is much more to this. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ the Lord, has done much more than just fulfil all Scriptural types and shadows concerning Him. He has done much more than that. He has, in His fulfilling them, taken them away, removed them, and made them unnecessary. He has done away with that whole order of things, and brought in a new order, the fulness of which is none but He Himself. He hath come to take away the first, and establish the second; so, He has not just fulfilled. He has gone beyond that and taken away; and we see that even in the type. Here, not only are all the other things fulfilled, but much more. Something that is not seen in any of them is put on display. Certainly you know what it is. The Glory of God comes down, as it were, in the midst of the cherubim, and is revealed, and becomes the light, and the understanding of the whole. It is my contention that we have come to a place where we must now look at the whole of the Scripture in the light of the glory of God. Do not misunderstand what I am saying. I perhaps do not know how to say it as distinctly as it should be said; but there is a time when we search the Scripture for Him, and there is a time, having seen Him, that we search the Scripture again in the light of Him, that we may come to the greater apprehension of Him. I believe we have come to that place. For that reason we are looking forward to ministries being developed and set aside for that. I believe it will affect the whole, and I know that it will go far beyond anything that we have yet contemplated; but I believe the Scriptural setting for all of this is just as I have set before you. Not only is there an entering in, but there is a coming forth, a shining out.

In my feeble what that is what I meant by saying we confront Him in these pieces of furniture going in; but having seen Him, they all take on a greater meaning, are summed up, fulfilled, and even removed in the Person of Him. So, we first search to see Him, and having seen Him, we search in the light of Him to see the fulness. I am finding that coming in, I saw that with Him, I am dead. But now, with the light of God revealing His Son, and bringing Him forth… and I do not claim perfection in any of this, but there are these cycles that are fulfilled, only to come around again. Now, in the realization of Him, I am having to go back and see that there is much more to this death than I ever imagined, and I am finding that in these five offerings. In each of these offerings there are several aspects, at least three, and in some, four. It is just beautiful, and the celebration of the feast… we have substituted church services for all of that. I am not talking about the gathering to know Him. I am talking about church service, and having services and all of that. WE have substituted that for the reality of the feasts. Our gathering should be in celebration of these feasts. We do not know enough about them to celebrate them; and yet, it is in connection with them that Israel is gathered. The true gathering has to be a thing of true comprehension of Christ, or it is just a bunch of people sitting in a building. Where we are gathered in the comprehending of Him, as He is set forth… that ‘s Church!

This order is important because it is in the light of this that we set forth to search the Scripture. If you are going to search the Scripture in the light of dispensations, then that is what you will find; but you will not find Christ. I used to wonder, "Lord, if a true gathering is in the comprehension of Christ, what comprehension of Christ is it in?" Many comprehend Him as their Savior, but that does not bring about a true gathering. So, what comprehension is it in? You have to go to the feasts to find that out. In our meetings, no matter how long or how short, there is only a limited thing that is going to be accomplished; so what we set to accomplish is the setting forth of truth, that the Lord may then bring each heart that will apprehend, to an apprehending of Him; whether that is done in one service or fifteen. That is all we want to accomplish in these lessons is the setting forth of truth that the Lord may deal with those who would apprehend, and bring them to an apprehending of Him. It is ever, and it is on-going. We certainly understand that; but all of our gatherings should be to that end; and if they are true gathering, they are.

I want to continue along the same lines: the apprehending of Christ. We can look at one of those aspects of the apprehending of Him – seeing Him as the day. And actually, I think that is really what everything finally comes to – the Day, that great Sabbath Day of the Lord. If you will look at Canaan, and everything that is represented in the land of Canaan, (and there is a lot represented there): there is administrations, the priests, the kings, final temple, all of that; but to God there was one thing represented by Canaan. It was His rest. The writer in Hebrews did not repeat for the church God’s rebuke because they did not enter into a greater priesthood, or a greater representation of the Kingdom, or greater representation of the temple itself. All of those things were there. What the rebuke was, is that they would not enter into His rest. So, everything that is represented in Canaan can be summed as the day of rest, which is the Sabbath, that great day of the Lord.

Now I just want to expand a little bit, and use the tabernacle, but we will use it in a little different way. There are two views that I want to talk about. One of those views is encountered in our going in, and the other of those views is encountered in our coming out. I want to deal a little bit with what that means – The apprehending of Christ. Just to review that with you, we would look at Philippians 3:10-13; it is expressed there "that I may know Him". That is what this is all about. "That I may know Him." You know, we can talk about "that day". In fact, He is that day. He is the light of that day. That day was commenced at The Cross. That day, the light of it, is to be revealed in a people who walk in it, and are in the earth a manifestation of it; that day, that Sabbath, that rest of the Lord. He is that day. He is the light of that day. So, in order to walk in that day we must walk in Him. Those who will not: then that day to them, is darkness. So, it is all about the apprehending of Christ, laying hold upon Him, knowing Him. "That I may know Him". Then a little further down, "that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." The term, "forgetting those things which are behind" – forgetting. Well, you have to first know something to forget it. What he is talking about is forgetting those things of the first order. "Reaching forth unto those things which are before". It is interesting that the term "before" here means "in presence", "the things which are present". Obviously, they are present in Him; but how often we misunderstand that and say, "Well, that means things that are yet to come." No, it is that which is present, yet to be known, and yet to be made manifest. So he is talking about the reality of Christ here. "Reaching forth to those things which are in presence…" A second translation is "in sight". So, "Reaching forth those things which are in presence…" Those things which we see to be are in presence, and they are in sight. They are in view. The word "behind" in this verse related to that which is in part.

Then in Ephesians 3:18, "That you…" (speaking to the saints), "that you may be able to comprehend…" (which is the same Greek word used for apprehend, because they are the same). YOU lay hold on a thing in the comprehending of it. "That you may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length, the breadth, the depth, and the height…" It is interesting that the word "what" here, a Greek word, can also be translated "who, which, and why". So, he is relating this to the who, the which, the what, and the why of the matter. "With all saints what, who, which, and even why the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height." The who of this matter is Christ Himself. So he goes on to say "the fulness of God in Christ" in that verse. So once again, we are dealing with the apprehending of Christ, we are dealing with the comprehending of Him.

Now, to go with this, we could make a chart. We have the Cross. I want you to see the Cross. I will just put it in the center. Over on the left side, you can put "Genesis to Malachi". On the other side put "Acts to Jude". At the bottom of the Cross put "Matthew, Mark, Luke & John", which we call the gospels. It is just a little chart that explains the apprehending. The book of Acts through the book of Jude points back over here to the book of Genesis through the book of Malachi, and becomes the apprehending of all that is written from Genesis to Malachi. All that is written from Genesis to Malachi is finished here in the Cross; so actually, from Acts to Jude you are comprehending what is finished in the Cross; but how did they do that? How did those who wrote those books do that? They did that by comprehending the finished work where it is outlined, where it is laid out – from Genesis to Malachi. What about the gospels? Where do they come in? The gospels are those books, those writings, which fully sets the Cross forth as The Finished Work. In those gospels, the four faces of Ezekiel, the four aspects of the New Creation, the four aspects of the Finished Work are fully set forth and established as being finished in Christ Jesus. So, it is in those gospels where it is established; but when we read the epistles from Acts to Jude, we find that these are books that are written along these lines – "That you would know, that you would apprehend, that you would come to see." They were not pointing to these gospels, because they were not written yet. They were pointing back here to the Scripture that was written, that was fulfilled in the Cross, that later was established in what we call "the four gospels" as a Finished Work, a Finished and a Completed Work.

So that we have all the Scripture fulfilled in the Cross. We have all the Scripture fulfilled in Christ, and Him crucified. Now, if you want to carry that diagram a little farther out, and I have, we have Genesis to Malachi pointing to a Finished Work; we have the epistles pointing here to Genesis and Malachi, the apprehending of the Scripture, the apprehending of the Scripture which is all fulfilled here in the Cross. Then we have the gospels which is declaring that work is finished in Christ. On over here you could put parentheses, and you could write in there "lost"; because everything of that was lost. It started being lost before the first century was fulfilled. It was lost, That is the sad truth, but it is the truth, and that too is according to pattern; because everything that was established in the Tabernacle and set forth in the Temple after Solomon through the successions of Kings was lost. Israel went into captivity. All the rest of those prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel are written to bring Israel back to that which was lost. It is not by coincidence that every one of those prophets find their contemporary in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It is not predicting something in the future. It is bringing us back to the Finished Work; it is presenting all over again a finished and a completed work; and then you will begin to understand that book.

You can see part of it in Ezekiel, part of it in Jeremiah, part of it in Isaiah, in Nehemiah. Consequently, in Daniel a lot of those terms are used. A lot of those books were written to bring Israel back to what they had lost after Solomon. What had they lost? They had lost the Temple and the city wherein dwelt the glory of God. Yes, it was type and shadow, but they had lost it. They had lost their very identity, because Israel itself was identified by the city, and the Temple, and the glory of God in it. That is how God saw them. You can see it in the church today. The book of The Revelation was written to bring the church back; so what happened? Through the wiles of the enemy, through the subtlety of Satan, what happened to that book? It was turned to be the book of the future, not to bring us back to anything, but to point to something that had not yet come. The church has never had anything to go back to; just a place they think they are going. Consequently, we have just come up with all of our own standards on how to get there. I know that seems to be a very simple statement, but it pretty well sums up the condition; and that condition will exist until we understand that the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ must be seen in the light of those books that relate to the recovery of Israel coming back out of Babylonian captivity, and having established once again in them The Finished Work. When we see that is how the book of Revelation must be seen, not as the explanation of things yet to come, but as a review, as a setting forth in the Person of the Son, the reality of A Finished Work, and understand it by relating it right back to those books to which it does relate, those books that dealt with Israel in type; because you find all of the same terminology in it, except now it is not dealing with Israel. It is dealing in a natural way, bit with the church in a spiritual way; but all of the terminologies are there.

So a little chart on the apprehending. What does it do? It just puts the Bible in order for us. We just see the order of it, and there it is. That is the order of it. It makes a lot of difference when you begin to search those books of the recovery, knowing that they are written toward the recovery, knowing that everything that is dealt with in them has to do with Israel coming back, rebuilding the city, and the Temple, and knowing that is only truly fulfilled in Christ. Then those books make sense to you. You do not carry them way off over past the Cross and out in the sweet by and by, where you have also put the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. People connect those. People connect Ezekiel to Revelation, but they put them both way out. "Well, he saw something out there." No he did not. He saw a Finished Work and was trying to bring Israel back to it, and John was trying to bring the Church back to it. It is the same. The bible has to be consistent. The way it is preached now is not consistent, so the answer to that inconsistency is the damnable doctrine of dispensationalism. They just dispensationalize all of it to make up for the ignorance, put it all on a time line. The thing about it is that we think that just has to do with what we call nominal churches, but it is not. Even these movements that call themselves the "Kingdom Movement", (I am not speaking against anything. I am trying to describe something.) have not themselves discarded the whole theory of dispensationalism. They just disagree with the activities of it. The nominal church says that in the last dispensation the church is going to go away in the Rapture to a place called Heaven, while the Kingdom says, "No, in the last dispensation this and this is going to be", but they both are looking at it dispensationally. They both look at Ezekiel, and parts of Jeremiah, and Isaiah, and most of all of Daniel, and Nehemiah and Ezra, and the book of Revelation as something yet to take place; rather than as God’s call back to what has already taken place, that it may be apprehended and manifested in the earth. That is the sensible way; that is the way of the Spirit. That is the way it all joins together.

Until you see that order, what standard have you for most of those books of the recovery? If they are not pointing back to something finished, then what are they pointing to? Well, it is just up to everyone’s imagination as to what they are pointing to. If the city has not already been described and set forth, then what is the city? It is just up to everyone’s imagination as to what it is. So with every other point along the line. So I just simply present that little chart as that view.

Now, we want to go to the Tabernacle, because the Tabernacle and all that is connected with it, is the heart of the Scripture; meaning now the Scripture in terms of Genesis through Malachi. What do the Old Testament Scriptures present to us? They present Christ to us, but they present Christ as pictures, or parts of a picture, all of which must be brought together to see the whole. Of course, we see the whole in Him. There are five things that relate: offerings, feasts, and priests, then the Law itself, and then the Tabernacle. Those are the five aspects that are presented to us, the aspects upon which, and concerning which the prophets all come forth. We are going to look at first what I call "the first view". They give us a view of Christ. It is first, It is a view that will be taken away at a point in your apprehending of Him; but it is an essential view. That is why I made the comment before when Paul said "forgetting". You cannot forget what you have not known. "Forgetting what is behind", which means "in part", and "pressing on to what is before", which means what is "in presence". The word "before" is "in presence" or "in sight". What is happening? The full, the real, the perfect, is replacing in him that which is in part; but here is the whole point of it: that which is in part of Him has brought him to the perfect, which therefore is replaced. It is just like this. You see this in all of these aspects, but, look here. You have read it particularly concerning the law. The law brings us to Christ, Who, in fact, then replaces the law. Why? Because He is greater! This is all just an outline, because every one of these parts could just go on forever.

So the first view we have is the view of going in. I am going to jump ahead and just establish this in your thought. Not only did the high priest go in, he also came out. There has to be something in Christ that relates to that. We cannot just ignore it. Most just ignore it, but you cannot ignore it. Why did he come out? It is obvious that he came out, but why is it written? Why is that part of the procedure noted in the Scriptures? There are a lot of things that happened that are not noted in the Scripture, because they had nothing to do with the procedure, the pattern. They had nothing to do with what the Scripture itself is given to declare. So, those things are noted that have something to do with what God wants declared. They have something to do with the pattern, so he came out. The important thing is that he went in, and he went in, in full association with all of these five aspects that the Scripture gives to Christ: the offerings, feasts, priests, law and Tabernacle. He went in by way of all of these. All of these had to do with his going in. For instance, all of Israel is summed up in the Levites, the Levites summed up in the priests, the priest summed up in the high priest, so when he goes in, he goes in for all of Israel, thus summing up the priests. He goes in by the Tabernacle, because he goes in by every piece of furniture, but he does it. He goes in, in the course of all three feasts. He goes in in the manner prescribed by the law. He goes in according to the offerings, but he does go in; and in his going in, he is related to us. The going in is just this: Christ related to us. In every one of these things you see Christ as He is related to us. In what? The going in part; but now, we must come to understand – what is the going in part?

It is a lot of things, but it is Way, Truth, Life; it is death, burial, resurrection. It is all of these offerings. It is all of that. It is entering in to the Sabbath. Why does He have to do that? For us, on behalf of us, because He related to us. All of these are necessary parts of His relationship to us, and as we, by that, are related to Him; so all of these are for the going in. The law which is broken down into the civil law, the moral law, and the ceremonial law, is again Christ relating to us. The priesthood, which is the high priest, the priest, Aaron’s sons and the Levites. The offerings which are five – burnt, meat, peace, sin and trespass offering. The three chief feasts which are Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. The Tabernacle, which is brazen altar, laver, lamp, table of shewbread, golden altar, ark. All of these that I gave you, and their aspects, are necessary to you and I comprehending Him in the going in. I am telling you now, we will never comprehend Him in the coming out; because the coming out is an expression of all that we apprehend going in. The coming out has to do with Him having an expression in a people. What kind of expression of Him are we if we do not know Him, do not k now anything about Him? What kind of an expression of Him are those people who only know something about the sprinkling of the blood on the doorpost over here in Egypt? But they know nothing about the offering, they know nothing about the priesthood, they know nothing about the Tabernacle, they know nothing about the entering in to the presence of God. They only know about the getting out of Egypt. What kind of expression of Christ are they? What kind of expression of Christ is that apprehension? What kind of expression of Christ is it to say, "Oh, we know He died for our sins, and this is the altar, and sacrifices were burned on it." Our lives are affected by our apprehending of Him in the going in. That is where He related Himself to us.

That is why we have loose areas in our lives that open us, not only to carnality and flesh and all of that, but open attack of the enemy, because we leave these gaps in our apprehending of Him. It is essential that we give ourselves to such an apprehending. It is the apprehension of the Scripture, and everything from Acts to Jude says that you would apprehend the Scripture, that you would apprehend Him, know Him; because everything here points to the Cross and A Finished Work. So, we see all these things. Now, I want to call something else to your notice. First we go in by the laver, then the emblems of the bread, the table. Everything is going in, everything with regard to these pieces of furniture is first going in; but I want you to notice something that has to do with the Tabernacle, because that is what we are really talking about right now. I want you to notice that there are six articles of furniture. The first view is shown by the six articles as Christ relating to us. Even the lampstand, when it is spoken of in this first view, the view that is set forth in Exodus and Numbers, is not spoken of as seven, but the lampstand with its six arms. We know that there are seven lamps there which speak of Christ, but it is spoken of as the lampstand with its six branches.

The only place that it is talked about as seven is in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, because Christ is the seventh. He makes sup the seven. He is what makes these six articles to become seven. He is the seventh. He is the summing up. He is the seven of the matter. Over here on the table you have two lumps of six. Again, He is the completion of that. On and on you see that, in the going in, in this first view, this view that we have to come to. I will tell you now that it is not God’s view; but it is God bringing us to His view. By this I mean it is not the ultimate view to which we must come, but it is that which brings us there. You cannot ignore it and get there, as far as getting there to be an expression of it. If you and I have come and accepted the blood sprinkled on the doorpost, then we are redeemed. We are saved; but is that all God is after? No, He is after an expression of Himself. This whole modern gospel has just focused on getting those out of Egypt; and just look at the turmoil! God has no expression. What we call the church is not even the church. What part there is of it certainly has no increase of Him. Look at what happens to it when you do not enter in. Look at what happens to Israel when they do not enter in. There is no doubt about them being delivered, no doubt about them being God’s people, no doubt about them being brought out; but they will not go in. So we really should not have to convince ourselves of the need of knowing Him in the way that He has established in this first view; and understand that if we are ever going to see an expression of His fulness in the earth that all of the Scripture points to and declares, it is going to have to come by our apprehending Him in this first view, if we are ever going to give expression of what I am calling this second view. Our greatest need is to know Him!

So, it is going in. I am just telling you that on the way in, this altar is going to be one thing to you, and on the way out it is another altogether. On the way in these offerings are going to mean one thing; and on the way out they are altogether something else. O the way in these feasts are one thing, but on the way out something else. It is the same thing with the priests, the same with the Law, the same with the Tabernacle. It is all because of a change of view in the face of Jesus Christ that has finally taken place in your heart, not because you are finally saved. You are saved to begin with, "saved" in the way we use the term: redeemed, blood-bought, to begin with. But you see, the subtlety of that is that we come in, we have lost the view. Just take a big eraser and erase all of that, because we have lost it. The only thing that you need to leave is blood sprinkled on the doorpost over here in Egypt. That is all anybody ever preaches anyway. Just get rid of the rest of it, which is all the modern gospel has done: just get rid of it, and preach the blood on the doorpost – getting out, wandering around, waiting to go to heaven. Is that not pretty much it? Yet, you have a hard time, in what I call the Scripture, Genesis through Malachi, to find our idea of going to heaven. Well, do you want to call it Canaan? Yes, but in Canaan they are still learning Him, and there is still all these administrations of Him. In Canaan there is still all this warfare going on. In Canaan there is still all this conquering to be done; and our concept of heaven does not allow for any of that. We are just walking on streets of gold and fishing. So, we have to conclude then, that the whole thing is not what we thought it was at all, but God having an expression in the earth, a full expression in a people. But now the questions for us is – a full expression, but a full expression of what?

A Finished Work that we cannot understand except by the Scripture. That declares it, for it declares Him Who performed it, and Who is the fulness of it. We must get hold of these things. You cannot sit down and really show somebody a good picture of Salvation, and not comprehend the going in. I am telling you, very few believers do. In this first view, we see Him as The Way, The Truth, and The Life. We see Him as death, burial, and resurrection. We see Him as three days, which are one Sabbath. All of those are wonderful and important aspects, ad all of them are extremely and absolutely scripturally set forth, not only in type and shadow, but in fulfillment in Him. That is the way we see Him. We see Him in that way in what I term the "coming in". When we come in, let us look at the furniture of the Tabernacle. When we come in, the first thing we do is face the altar. First, in the coming in, what is this to us? The entering in. Entering in to what? In one instance, entering in to the day that we talked about earlier, entering in to the Sabbath rest that we talked about, but here we are entering in. Entering in to what? Entering in to the presence. You know, the word that has become really big in my heart here lately is "the presence". I think so many things can be summed up with that: entering in to the presence, not being shut out of the presence. You see, that is why we have reduced that down to such an understanding in the church world and say, "Whoa, the presence of God was really there last night." Well, where did it go? The Scriptures teach that the presence of God is an abiding thing, an abiding reality. You see what we have done? It is pitiful! You get to looking at all of this, and you think of what we have done, and you want to lay down on your face and you want to just start repenting for everyone for what we’ve done.

That is what Daniel did. He just laid down and started repenting for Israel, repenting for himself, repenting for everyone, that God would restore and recover. At the same time God moved on Cyrus. You just start looking at that. It is the presence. What is that? It is the entering in to the presence. In the entering in, this altar is first the judgment of grace. WE see it explained more in the five offerings. In the first view it is the judgment of grace, You will have to make two diagrams of this Tabernacle. You cannot write it all on one page. In the first view it is the judgment of grace, Then, you come on to the laver, In the first view the laver is the washing, the cleansing of water. Obviously that is Christ. These are the things you are seeing that Christ is; so you see Him in the altar first as the judgment of grace, but still the judgment is upon you. You are seeing. In the first view we are seeing Christ in the Tabernacle, but we are seeing Him in the judgment of grace. Then we are seeing Him as the washing of water, washing of the Word; but we are seeing Him as washing and cleansing. In the first view that is what you are seeing. Then we go on beyond that, and we come to the candelabra, and there we see Him with the emphasis upon the six stands, the six arms. We see there our need to know Him. WE see the church in need of a revelation of Jesus Christ. Then we go over to the table of shewbread, and we see our need to know Him in the power of His resurrection, realizing that most of us are still seeing Him through stacks of six; and they are there, but they are there in transition, so we are seeing our need to know Him, and we are waiting for the resurrection, and we are waiting there in the revelation of the Lord.

These things are not wrong. They are necessary. It is necessary that I see. "Oh God, give me the oil that does not need to be replenished. Oh God, reveal Your Son in me and in His body. Oh, that I may know Him in the power of the resurrection, for there is no two stacks, but one loaf, and that a Living Bread." Then, we see Him in the golden altar of incense. We see that as the prayer in John 17, but that is exactly what it was, and that is what it was to the Lord – a prayer that they might be. There we see that prayer at the altar. It is an ascending prayer of the Son Himself, the Great High Priest Himself, that they might be. Not only is He saying, "that they might be"; He is saying, "Oh Father, glorify Me as I once was, bring Me into Thy glory, that I might be glorified in them." That is the prayer in John 17. It has finally got to fill this whole chamber because the incense fills this whole chamber. There is not anything else there with any smell to it. That whole chamber is a chamber of prayer. How different it is than the prayers of most today; because they have not yet come even by that first view. How different it is than most prayers today: "Oh God, get me out of here and take me to heaven as quick as you can." "Oh Lord, give me this, and give me that." I am not indicating that it is wrong for you to depend on the Lord, but that is not the prayer of the priests. That is not the urging of the Son that is within us. It is a view to which we must come, our whole prayer life. What I am telling you is that this is what our whole prayer life finally has to come to.

Then, we enter into the Holy of Holies, and in the coming in, it is beholding the Glory. That is where the transformation really starts taking place. That is where the change beings to be apparent. All of this still in view of Christ as related to us, Christ for us, or Christ as us; and it is our finding our relationship to Him here. Coming in. It is a view that is essential. But what is it all about? It is all about increase and decrease. Everything here – offerings, feasts, priests, law, tabernacle, furniture, different parts of each of these, different apprehensions. Everything here in the first view of it is set forth in the Scripture, because the second view can only come by the revelation of the Son in you, bringing you to that knowledge of Him. Everything here deals with increase and decrease. We see that in the increase of Him, there is automatically the decrease of us; because the increase of Him is a decrease. Now, I cannot tell you that I am in one view, or that you are in another, I believe that there is a time in you that one view outweighs the other, but there may well be a time in you that both of these views are working, because it is both of Christ. In one view it is Christ absolutely related to us, as us, for us. In the other view, there is nothing of me there: dead, risen, buried or any other way. In this view it is just Him. Therefore everything that has brought me there in the coming our process – because we not only go in in the high priest, but we come out in him; but now everything there in this view has a much totally different meaning to us.

At some point in time I have to believe that balance has to shift in the heart and mind of every believer, certainly if He is to have anything like a full expression. The problem is that we want to jump over the one and get into the other, and there is no way you can do that; because the one is the direct result of the other. You cannot ignore it; and if you try, God knows, and He simply will not permit it. He simply does not permit it, because one is necessary to the other. There has first got to be the increase that produces the decrease; but finally, there just remains the increase. I do not think it is just a matter of us coming to preach that we are there, I think it is a matter of exhibiting it in reality, not sermons of dispensationalism; but I see the reality of it. See, that was the joy that He saw that was set before Him when He fulfilled all of this – for this joy. For His suffering was certainly the decrease of all that He had to become; but the joy was the increase in fulness that was the end result. He brings us that same way. As for Him, so for us. In the first view, all of this, (and I mean everything up there) represents the decrease of us in the increase of Him. An example: John stood for all of this. His baptism of Jesus was, according to the Scriptures, the fulfillment of all righteousness; in other words, the fulfillment of all of this. "That all righteousness be fulfilled", Jesus said. That baptism was the indication of all of that. Of course, there was never a turning back for the Lord; but from that point there was no turning back, because out from the Jordan came a totally different view of Christ.

You see that in Matthew 11:1-19. Look at verses 11-15, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a great than John the Baptist…" "… among then that are born of women…"Notice what the Lord is associating John with. "…notwithstanding, he that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." Here is what I am after. "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John." John is representative of all of this, therefore it is his baptism. It is hiss baptism with which Christ was baptized. There must be that baptism, that going down into the Jordan, according to all that is set forth. John represented that. There is a great mystery there. "And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come." Then, as everything that has great spiritual significance to it and great spiritual understanding to it, and can only be understood in it, he says, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." This is not a parable. This is a spiritual reality, and can only be seen in the Lord. My simple point in reading this right now is just that John stood for all of this, and John is the one who said, "He must increase, and I must decrease." This is the order of John. It is the order of all of this first view; because only in Christ do we come into the second view of all of this, the greater view, the view that it takes ears to hear, and eyes to see. It takes it to see any of it, but that which absolutely is revealed in Him of the Father.

I do not want to confuse you, but I have found in my walk with Him that there is the revealing of Him IN YOU, and then the revealing of all things IN HIM concerning Him. That view, that understanding that can only come having had Christ revealed in you. Why must we go back individually, corporately, and I believe as a fellowship, and search these things out? That we may present Him in the midst of the earth, that we may present Him, because until He is presented in truth, He is never going to be seen by anybody. In the seeing of Him, then will be the things that we cannot present or explain, but only point toward. There must be this ability to present Him as He is set forth in the Scripture or no one is ever going to see Him as He is; because they do not know what the Scripture teaches, and worse than that, they think the Scripture teaches something that it does not, and they are not aware of their own ignorance. So, the order of John is the order of this increase of Him, and there is then the matching decrease of us. This is the order of the Tabernacle in the first view. Now, remember what is said by He who said, "Lo, I come. He taketh away the first…" First what? First of everything, including the first view. "…to establish the second…" It has finally dawned on me that first is first, and until there is a first, there can be no second. He does not just come to establish the second. He comes to take away the first, and He does that in many ways, in the fulfillment, and all of that; but the point is that it is taken away, and it is replaced by Him, but it is what is bringing us there. No wonder that the church people are not coming to the revelation of Christ. This first view, which is a true view, is not being preached. It is not being presented. It has been substituted for. The substitute certainly cannot bring you anything but the imaginations of the religious mind; so we have an imaginary heaven, and an imaginary life, and an imaginary everything because we preach an imaginary view. It is just an imagination of men’s hearts. Until a true view is set forth, there can be no second. That has finally sunk into my poor, ignorant heart and convicted me, and said, "Boy, you have been trying to declare one view without understanding the other. You have been trying to get people to see a view that is impossible to see until they see the first view."

We are talking about the Lord’s Body. I began to realize that until this thing is set forth into theology of the Scripture, no one is going to turn and say, "Oh God, we need to know Him." They are only going to hear what we say and say, "Oh well, you that, that bunch is just this." Why? Because most of what we say is not based upon any valid Scriptural view, what is set forth. Do not misunderstand me. I know that we are certain that Christ is revealed in us, but how much impact has that had on anyone except those in whom He is revealed? I am glad for that, but I recognized long ago that what God is doing with that is bringing forth a voice. John was a voice of one. You see, John perfectly represented a view that introduced Christ, and then by Christ, was taken away. We can just keep on ignoring God’s patterns; but until we obey it, we are not going to see the same results. Time and time again, the Lord has tried to bring to me the voice of one in the person of John, and time and time again I have put that aside. I mean in my heart I said, "I do not want to hear about that. I am interested in this voice over here, the voice of the Lord." Until you hear the voice of one crying in the wilderness, you will not hear the voice of the Lord. Until we comprehend Him in the going in, and are able to lay that forth in a Scriptural, theological, undebatable way, we are not going to affect anyone. We will have to have another generation to come along and do it. I will tell you, I do not want to end up running around in circles, I do not want to end up running a maintenance program. I do not want to do that. This whole thing is not that Christ be revealed in me, that Christ be revealed in me, that Christ be revealed in me. This whole thing is that He have an expression in the earth, and the fulness is not going to come out of me. He has been revealed in a lot of men who are dead and gone off this earth now, and He still has no expression in the earth.

At some point in time, it has to get beyond me, and into that Body which can give Him expression. That is where our heart has to be. The Lord has convinced me, in the Scripture, the order of the whole thing, that it has got to be this way, in that first view that is being presented. Yes, initially it was, but then that view was lost. Then John in Revelation was calling the church back. The point is that they never came back. They said, "Well, that book is a future book." It is NOT a future book. It is a call-back book. It is like all of the prophets over there in the Scripture were to Israel in the recovery, so Revelation is to the church in the same message, the same pattern. You cannot disrupt the pattern, "Lo, I come to take away the first and establish the second." There is a view wherein we are not found at all. Paul is after that. "Forgetting the first, and reaching forward to the second." He was after that. Even Paul says, "Not that I have apprehended." He did not say that there was not an apprehension of it, but that he was after it. That is what I am telling you; it is not something that we are going to come to and be able to preach; but something to be expressed and manifested, and will become apparent. There is such a view of Christ, and it comes only by the revelation of Him in a people. That is what Paul is talking about. Christ does much more than fulfil the first.

In the first view, we come, and it is fulfilled, the first; but He does much more than fulfil the first. He not only surpasses the first, He takes it away. He is not just a fulfillment of the first, He takes it away, and brings in an order of things that the first could not fully speak of; that first pattern of things, that first order of things. The first view of the Tabernacle, law, priest, offerings, feasts – they are the taking away of us – man. That is what it is all about. He takes it all away and replaces it all with the New, the Second, Himself. "I am the resurrection", He says. The second man is the Lord from heaven. "I am the Lord of the Sabbath." This is the realization to which we come here in the chamber that is called "The Holy of Holies", wherein God has purposed to reveal His Son in glory. All of this finally brings us there. It is there, not only where the increase outweighs the decrease, it must abolish it. I want to look at the second view, and the second view is really Hebrews, and there is a point now, that in the book of Hebrews, if you will notice it is written, that "I would like to tell you a lot more about this, but you just cannot hear it." Even in dealing with Melchizedek, the writer of Hebrews said, "In whom we would like to speak a whole lot more, but you cannot hear it now."

I am not telling you that there is something beyond the Scripture. I am telling you that there is an understanding of the Scripture that we have not come to yet. I am telling you that the first view brings you to the second. In this coming out view, this view of Our Priest coming out – what in the world is that all about? What it is all about is the reality of Him taking us into the heaven of heavens, and His coming out is in the expression. His coming is in His appearing – being revealed, and coming out. It is a coming out view of all of these things, All of these articles, then, mean more than they did to us going in. In the initial thing, it is seeing Him here. All of a sudden, the second view is the "greater than" view. As to the law – He is greater – The Living Word. As to the offering – He is the only Beloved Son and accepted of God. As to the greater than the feasts, He is not only the center of the gathering; He is, in fact, in Person, that which is gathered, and says, "Except ye eat Me you have no life." The greater than the priests – He is the Priest of that endless life. The greater than the Tabernacle – He is, in fact the Temple of God sitting in the midst of the city, a Temple made without hands, that is without sin. That is just a general view of the "greater than"; the thought here being this – He does snot just fulfil that first view. He does not just fulfil that, by which we are proved to be unacceptable, he does not just fulfil that, which is the law, the offering. He does not just fulfil that by which we are done away, that by which we have entrance – way, truth, life, death, burial, resurrection. He does not just fulfil that. He does not just fulfil that by which nothing is made perfect, that priesthood; but much more, He abolishes it to replace it with Himself as the greater than Abraham. "Before Abraham was, I am." This is the greater than Moses, the Son over His own house, the builder of all things, greater than David for He sits upon His throne, greater than Solomon because His Glory is everlasting. This is the greater than John because He is the Son of God come in flesh.

He does not just fulfil these things, He replaces them, and where is He doing it? In us, in our hearts, in our comprehension, in our minds. There is a time, dear friends, when the battle here, when the walk here, when the administration of the Spirit here, is not mainly focused upon the getting rid of me; but rather, on the full coming of Him. In that full coming, is there every place for me? Oh no, certainly there would not be. "No flesh shall glory in the presence." He comes out. Not only does the priest of the pattern go in, but he comes out. He comes out, and number one: he presents himself in the midst of Israel. He comes out: number two, he represents all to Israel. He represents all of this to Israel. Number three, he shows himself to all Israel. All of these break down. He stands on their behalf, not just for the decrease, the going in; but in type he stood on their behalf as the increase, the coming out, the accepted one of Israel; and in him all of Israel is seen, yet not seen. So what is that all about? Because Our High Priest has for us entered in, but He does not come out, or does He? This is what the so-called "second coming" is all about, but what is this second coming?

Hebrews 8:1-2. What is the center thought there? The way it starts out, "This is the sum of things." What is the sum of things? "We have such a high priest", one that goes in and comes out; but what is this coming out all about? "But we have such a high priest" far surpasses. What is he talking about? Chapter 5 and chapter 7, the priest of the endless life – He is far surpassing. Then you know, if this high priest went in, in the pattern, and in the first view, and came out; you would have to know that there is something to be known, that there is a view of Christ that far surpasses that. "We have such a high priest." This refers to Hebrews 1-8 but particularly Hebrews 5 & 7, the High Priest of an endless life, but also this High Priest that we have is said to be the minister of the true tabernacle, the sanctuary, which is translated "Holy of Holies". With Him, everything starts there. Finally, we have come to a High Priest that is not after Aaron, that is not after the Levitical viewpoint. Finally we have come to a High Priest who is revealed here in the heavens, in the Holy of Holies, and everything with Him starts here. It all starts here with Him. He is the minister of the true sanctuary, the abode, the dwelling place of the Most High God. While we have had one view of Him coming in, we must come to an altogether other view, a view of Him that starts here. Do you understand that the type of this even sets that forth; because this Ark of the Covenant is the first piece of furniture, not only described, but made, and set in order; showing that God starts here. With Him, everything starts here in the Holy of Holies, the true Tabernacle, the Tabernacle after the second, of the true view. That is the Tabernacle that is now being talked about here.

So now, our whole view of the Tabernacle is going to change. It is not now one to us that pictures Christ being identified with the earthly to take it away. The picture has changed. Now the true Tabernacle is what it has always been in the mind of God – in heaven, our from heaven, beginning there, totally different now. Consequently, every part of it is going to be totally different also, every piece of furniture. When you finally come out and get to the altar, to the last piece of furniture – going in, it was the judgment of grace. Coming out you are – because you come out by Him, the judgment of grace to all. Having been judged, we express our judgment. You see, it changes. Everything else does too, in the coming out. This candlestick becomes a Person. The gospel, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the gospel can no longer be a message to you. It becomes a Person. This laver that was for washing going in, is now for the seeing of His face coming out, and all of the Scriptures are related to that. Why? It is where we see. The coming out, it is the same way going in, except for the decrease of us with the increase of Him. Now the coming out is the ever increase of Him. Now, you look into the laver and see the face of Him. "Beholding as in a glass…" This is how you come to the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now that which has been in part… is done away…when He that is perfect is come… Now we come to know.

You need to come out with every piece of furniture, but it ends in the expression of Him. That is the High Priest coming out, that is Christ being revealed and expressed right out of this holy temple. What Aaron would only do in type, Christ does in reality, and most miss it. Very few comprehend Him in the coming out; but you see, the coming out is the purpose of the whole second view, that He be presented as the fulness of everything. He entered in. he comes out. How is He presented? The Bible says, "By a new and living sanctuary, not made with hands, that is, not of this building", translated " not of this creation." You see, we are not getting rid of any of these things as such, but they are being forgotten in a greater view. Not only that, but we go in by way of The Way, The Truth, and The Life. Coming out, it is in reverse, and the significance of that is that we go in by death, burial and resurrection; coming out it is the reverse. We see it differently. In one, it is the decrease of me. In the other, it is the absolute increase of Him – coming out. It is a glorious thing, a glorious revealing of Him. May the Lord bring us from one view to that greater view as we continue to set our hearts upon the seeing of Him. Praise the Lord! Amen and Amen.