Search
Scripture Reading: Lev. 7:11-15, 28-34; Eph. 1:2; John 1:14, 16; 14:27; 20:19, 26
As we continue the chapters on the meetings, we need to consider once again the picture of the tabernacle with all the offerings. Surely the record concerning the tabernacle and all the offerings shows us clearly that the Bible is the divine revelation of God. If the Bible were not inspired by the Holy Spirit, who could design such a tabernacle? No one could imagine or even dream of such a thing. Who could imagine a tabernacle that has an outer court? Within the outer court is an altar and a laver. By means of all the offerings, you enter into the tabernacle. After entering, you see the table of the bread of the Presence. From there you turn to the lampstand to be enlightened. The lampstand then turns you to the Ark. From the Ark you turn back to the center where there is the incense altar. If all these things had not been revealed by God, how could Moses have had such an excellent mentality to design such a thing? No philosopher has ever said something like what is revealed in the Bible concerning the tabernacle and the offerings.
Here is a portrait showing a tabernacle for you to enter into, for you to travel in, and for you to stay in. And within this tabernacle is some wonderful enjoyment: a table for bread, a lampstand, an Ark, and an incense altar. Then you need something to fill you up, to enable you, to energize you, to strengthen you to enter in. So there is another category of types, the category of all the offerings. From God’s end, coming to us, there are the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. But from our end, going to God, it is just the opposite. From our end, there is first the trespass offering, then the sin offering, then the peace offering, then the meal offering, and finally the burnt offering. On our end, there is nothing but trespasses and sin. Outwardly we have trespasses; inwardly we are full of sin. The more you try to wash your trespasses by improving yourself, the more you will see something worse.
Close to fifty years ago Brother Watchman Nee used a very simple illustration in a message. In the olden days the Chinese did not have so many wonderful toys as today. Most of the little girls had a doll made of clay. They whitened its face and put a little pink color on the cheeks and some black color above the eyes. This was their doll. They all loved it, but by touching it and playing with it, they got it dirty. One of the little ones, after getting her doll dirty, decided to wash its face. The more she washed the face of the clay doll, the more the dirt came out. When she cried and showed her mother, she was told that the doll was not washable. Saints, do you not know that you also are not washable? Do not try to wash yourself. You are full of trespasses. You need to take Christ as your trespass offering. When we go to God, we always start from our trespasses.
As you go on, you will realize that not only do you have trespasses outwardly, but you also have sin inwardly. Then you have to offer Christ as your sin offering. God comes to us from the burnt offering to reach us in trespasses. We begin our journey to God from trespasses and sin. If the Bible were not inspired by God, who could imagine these kinds of things? Who could imagine the trespass offering, the sin offering, the meal offering, the burnt offering, the peace offering, plus the wave offering and the heave offering?
We have mentioned previously that the Gospel of John is a fulfillment of the tabernacle and of the offerings. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and this Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:1, 14). It is so clear that the incarnated God by the title of Jesus Christ was and still is the tabernacle. He is the tabernacle for us to enter into and for us to travel in. We all have to declare and shout, God is enterable! God is here for us to enter into and to travel through and to stay with Him. By what means can we enter into God? It is by the means of all the offerings.
In John 1 there is the tabernacle. Verse 14 says that when the tabernacle came in the flesh, He was full of grace. Do not consider that grace is merely unmerited favor. That is too vague. We do not need to guess what grace is. Even the Bible does not allow us to guess anything. This is God’s revelation. God’s revelation does not need our guessing and our inference.
John 1 says that the tabernacle is among us full of grace and truth. Then it says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29). This is the first item of grace. The first item of grace is the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world.
In the Gospel of John this tabernacle was traveling and talking to people. Nicodemus, an old gentleman who was very ethical and very moral, came to the Lord in the night. Nicodemus was a teacher and a ruler of the Jews. He came to talk to this tabernacle. But by that time he had not entered into the tabernacle. He was talking with the tabernacle outside of the tabernacle. In this wonderful talk the tabernacle indicated to him, a teacher of the Old Testament, that he surely should know what Moses did. At one time Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole because the children of Israel had been bitten by poisonous serpents in the wilderness. Because the children of Israel were bitten by serpents, they needed a serpent to be judged on the pole on their behalf. So Moses lifted up a bronze serpent in the wilderness. It had the form of the poisonous serpent, but it did not have the poisonous nature. Whoever had been bitten by the serpent and was dying had only to lift up his eyes and look at the bronze serpent, and God healed him, making him alive (Num. 21).
Then the tabernacle talked to this old gentleman teacher, telling him that as Moses had lifted up the bronze serpent on the pole, the Son of Man, this tabernacle, this One in the flesh as a Son of Man in humanity, would be lifted up (John 3:14). The next verse says, “That everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life” (v. 15), that is, to be made alive. These two verses show us the fulfillment of the type in Numbers 21:8-9. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” These three verses together show us Christ as the sin offering. He was the sin offering so that Nicodemus might enjoy the One who came to him.
Why in chapter 1 is there the Lamb, and in chapter 3, the bronze serpent? This is to indicate something deeper. In chapter 1 there is the Lamb, and there is sin, not sins. But in chapter 3 there is a bronze serpent replacing the Lamb, and there is the poison of the serpent replacing sin. In other words, the very Lamb of God in chapter 1 became the bronze serpent. The sin in chapter 1 became the poison of the serpent in you. You have to realize that sin in you is just the poison of the old serpent, Satan the devil. In the eyes of God every descendant of Adam is a serpent, full of poison. This poisonous person is the flesh. And Christ as the Son of God and as the Word of God became flesh. But this does not mean that Christ became flesh with the sinful nature. Christ became flesh having only the form and the likeness, not the nature. This is like the bronze serpent. It had the form and the likeness but not the poison of the poisonous serpent.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Concerning this matter Romans 8:3 says, “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” The Word became flesh but without the sinful nature, without the poison of the serpent.
You have to see that sin within us equals our flesh, even equals us. We, sin, and flesh are synonyms. We are sin, we are flesh, and we are we. Christ was made flesh in our sinful likeness but without our sinful nature. He knew no sin. He had nothing to do with sin, but He was made sin. When He died on the cross, He was at that moment a serpent in the eyes of God. But He was a serpent only in likeness and in form, not in nature. Do not forget that the serpent in the wilderness that was lifted up was a bronze serpent. No one could say that a bronze serpent has the nature of poison. But surely it has the form and the likeness of the serpent.
In the Gospel of John there is the tabernacle and the first main offering, the sin offering. I doubt that Nicodemus, on the night that the Lord Jesus was talking to him, was so clear what the Lord Jesus meant when He referred to the bronze serpent. But it may be after the Lord was resurrected, when the Spirit came, and through the help of the other brothers, that he found out the bronze serpent referred to the Lord Jesus as his sin offering. It was through such a sin offering that he entered into the enjoyment of the Lord. But this entering into the enjoyment of the Lord might not have been in John 3. This might have come later.
In John 1 there is the tabernacle. Verse 14 says that when the tabernacle came in the flesh, He was full of grace. Do not consider that grace is merely unmerited favor. That is too vague. We do not need to guess what grace is. Even the Bible does not allow us to guess anything. This is God’s revelation. God’s revelation does not need our guessing and our inference.
John 1 says that the tabernacle is among us full of grace and truth. Then it says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29). This is the first item of grace. The first item of grace is the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world.
In the Gospel of John this tabernacle was traveling and talking to people. Nicodemus, an old gentleman who was very ethical and very moral, came to the Lord in the night. Nicodemus was a teacher and a ruler of the Jews. He came to talk to this tabernacle. But by that time he had not entered into the tabernacle. He was talking with the tabernacle outside of the tabernacle. In this wonderful talk the tabernacle indicated to him, a teacher of the Old Testament, that he surely should know what Moses did. At one time Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole because the children of Israel had been bitten by poisonous serpents in the wilderness. Because the children of Israel were bitten by serpents, they needed a serpent to be judged on the pole on their behalf. So Moses lifted up a bronze serpent in the wilderness. It had the form of the poisonous serpent, but it did not have the poisonous nature. Whoever had been bitten by the serpent and was dying had only to lift up his eyes and look at the bronze serpent, and God healed him, making him alive (Num. 21).
Then the tabernacle talked to this old gentleman teacher, telling him that as Moses had lifted up the bronze serpent on the pole, the Son of Man, this tabernacle, this One in the flesh as a Son of Man in humanity, would be lifted up (John 3:14). The next verse says, “That everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life” (v. 15), that is, to be made alive. These two verses show us the fulfillment of the type in Numbers 21:8-9. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” These three verses together show us Christ as the sin offering. He was the sin offering so that Nicodemus might enjoy the One who came to him.
Why in chapter 1 is there the Lamb, and in chapter 3, the bronze serpent? This is to indicate something deeper. In chapter 1 there is the Lamb, and there is sin, not sins. But in chapter 3 there is a bronze serpent replacing the Lamb, and there is the poison of the serpent replacing sin. In other words, the very Lamb of God in chapter 1 became the bronze serpent. The sin in chapter 1 became the poison of the serpent in you. You have to realize that sin in you is just the poison of the old serpent, Satan the devil. In the eyes of God every descendant of Adam is a serpent, full of poison. This poisonous person is the flesh. And Christ as the Son of God and as the Word of God became flesh. But this does not mean that Christ became flesh with the sinful nature. Christ became flesh having only the form and the likeness, not the nature. This is like the bronze serpent. It had the form and the likeness but not the poison of the poisonous serpent.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Concerning this matter Romans 8:3 says, “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” The Word became flesh but without the sinful nature, without the poison of the serpent.
You have to see that sin within us equals our flesh, even equals us. We, sin, and flesh are synonyms. We are sin, we are flesh, and we are we. Christ was made flesh in our sinful likeness but without our sinful nature. He knew no sin. He had nothing to do with sin, but He was made sin. When He died on the cross, He was at that moment a serpent in the eyes of God. But He was a serpent only in likeness and in form, not in nature. Do not forget that the serpent in the wilderness that was lifted up was a bronze serpent. No one could say that a bronze serpent has the nature of poison. But surely it has the form and the likeness of the serpent.
In the Gospel of John there is the tabernacle and the first main offering, the sin offering. I doubt that Nicodemus, on the night that the Lord Jesus was talking to him, was so clear what the Lord Jesus meant when He referred to the bronze serpent. But it may be after the Lord was resurrected, when the Spirit came, and through the help of the other brothers, that he found out the bronze serpent referred to the Lord Jesus as his sin offering. It was through such a sin offering that he entered into the enjoyment of the Lord. But this entering into the enjoyment of the Lord might not have been in John 3. This might have come later.
John is a wonderful book. First, it gives us an old gentleman, and following this a very immoral woman. Nicodemus had come to the Lord Jesus, but this immoral woman did not come to the Lord Jesus. Rather, the Lord went to her. We have to realize that this is the portable, traveling tabernacle. You should not laugh at this. Do not forget that Paul spoke of the rock that followed them (1 Cor. 10:4). If you can say that the rock followed them, surely you can say that the tabernacle followed them. In fact, in the wilderness the tabernacle did follow them for at least thirty-eight years. So in the Gospel of John the tabernacle traveled from that old man in Judea to a thirsty, immoral woman in Samaria. The Lord’s intention, the tabernacle’s intention, was to attract her to enter into the tabernacle, to enter into Himself. But she did not know this. She pretended to be so religious. She talked about worshipping God and religion. She was not only immoral but religious.
She had come to draw water, and the Lord spoke to her concerning the living water. When she asked that the Lord would give her the living water, He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here” (4:16). What is the husband? This is one of the trespasses. The Lord touched her main trespass. That one trespass implied others. Then she lied to the Lord by telling part of the truth, making even another trespass. She said that she did not have a husband, so the Lord helped her to confess: “You have well said, I do not have a husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly” (vv. 17-18). What was this? The Lord Jesus helped this immoral woman who was full of trespasses to realize her sins.
When such a gentleman as Nicodemus came, the Lord did not ask him to call his wife. Nicodemus was a gentleman and very ethical. I am pretty sure he did not have more than one wife. So the Lord did not need to touch him by his trespasses. Outwardly, perhaps he had few trespasses, but what about his nature? His nature had been bitten by the old serpent four thousand years before that. When Adam was bitten there in the garden, Nicodemus was also bitten, and that poisonous nature was in Nicodemus. The Lord’s word was marvelous, indicating that although Nicodemus was moral and ethical and gentle and good outwardly, inwardly his nature was that of a serpent.
In the very next chapter, in dealing with the immoral woman, the Lord did not try to touch her sinful nature. The Lord touched her trespasses. The Lord knew that she was altogether immoral. She had had five husbands. Not one of her husbands had satisfied her, so she was still thirsty. His talk with her was to help her realize that she had a lot of trespasses, so she needed the One who was perfect to be her trespass offering.
In John 8 there is another case. The Pharisees, the self-righteous ones, brought another immoral woman to the Lord Jesus, saying, “Teacher, this woman has been caught committing adultery, in the very act. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do You say?” (vv. 4-5). Their intention was just to destroy the Lord’s position and name. So the Lord gave them a little instruction. He said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (v. 7). This means that the Lord touched them not only by their outward trespasses but also by their inward sinful nature. When all those self-righteous ones heard this word, it touched their conscience. They all went away from Him, but this one woman eventually laid her hands upon the real trespass offering.
All these cases show us that in John there is not only the tabernacle but also the offerings. There is the sin offering and the trespass offering. And these are items of the rich grace. When the tabernacle came, it came full of grace. We all have received of the fullness of this grace and even grace upon grace (1:16). After all these cases, there is another case, that of death. In chapter 11 Lazarus got sick and died. But his death wound was healed.
In the very next chapter, chapter 12, a feast was set up. Do you realize that that feast was the feast of the peace offering? After nine cases had been covered up through chapter 11, in chapter 12 they were enjoying Christ as their peace offering. They had already participated in Christ as their sin offering (1:29). They had already shared in the trespass offering (ch. 4). They had enjoyed the burnt offering (7:16-18) and the meal offering (vv. 45-46). Now in that little cottage they were enjoying the peace offering (12:1-11).
The next chapter, chapter 13, is on the matter of foot-washing. This is the laver to cleanse you. Then in chapter 14 He had a wonderful talk with them to bring them all into the Holy of Holies. Up to now all the offerings had been applied to them. They had participated in all the offerings. They had shared and enjoyed all the offerings. Now they were brought into the Holy of Holies.
In 14:27 He said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.” But they did not get the peace at that time because the offering had not yet been slaughtered. He had not been offered. He had not ascended to the heavens through resurrection. After He was crucified and buried and resurrected and ascended (20:17), He came to His disciples on the same day in the evening and said, “Peace be to you” (v. 21). In chapter 20 it was not a promise of peace. It was a fulfillment of His promise in chapter 14. He brought the peace with Him. Actually, He Himself was the peace. When He came to them, He was peace to them. This is the peace offering.
In brief, John’s Gospel has twenty-one chapters. At the beginning you have grace, and at the end you have peace. This is why many of the Epistles in the New Testament begin with grace and peace to you. Many of the Epistles also end with grace and peace to you, or be with you. All these books are first books of grace and then of peace. What is grace? Grace is just the incarnated God to be your sin offering, your trespass offering, your burnt offering, and your meal offering. These four offerings are the very components of the divine grace. What then is the issue? What comes out? Peace comes out! This is the peace offering. The peace offering is the result of the enjoyment of all the other four offerings. And that enjoyment is grace.
In the Lord’s recovery we have talked very much in the past years about enjoying the Lord. But only recently has it become clearer and clearer how we can enjoy the Lord. Please do not take these messages as just doctrine. You must put all these things into practice. You must apply the Lord Jesus as the Lamb and as the bronze serpent lifted up on the cross. You must apply Him as your sin offering and as your trespass offering every day. If you would practice, you would see that this is the unique way for you to enjoy Christ. Only the enjoyment of Christ as the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, and eventually the peace offering qualifies you to enter into the tabernacling God, to travel in Him, and to stay within Him. Only this enjoyment of Christ as the offerings qualifies you to enter in. The Gospel of John shows you the tabernacle and also shows you how to apply Christ as all the offerings so that you may participate in Him and be qualified to enter into God.
By reading the biographies or autobiographies of some of the Lord’s children and by reading church history, you will realize that through the centuries all the dear ones who have enjoyed Christ have had these kinds of experiences. At that time they may not have used this kind of terminology, but they did have this kind of experience. They surely passed through the same way. First, they confessed their trespasses, and then they confessed their sin. They may not have been so clear in their understanding as we are today, but actually they passed through this. Then they accepted and applied Christ as their trespass offering and their sin offering. Every day they made a thorough confession of their trespasses and of their sinful nature. As long as they made such a thorough confession of their trespasses, they enjoyed the Lord as the trespass offering. As long as they confessed their sinful nature, they enjoyed the Lord Jesus as their sin offering.
Every day the Lord Jesus became so dear, so precious, so lovable to them. They wanted to sacrifice everything for the Lord. They became one with the Lord, laying their hands upon the Lord Jesus as a burnt offering. By reading their history, you can realize that their enjoyment of the Lord was so rich. They enjoyed the Lord as the meal offering, so fine, so sweet, so perfect, and so rich. Then within them and among them there was a kind of peace as the environment. They enjoyed peace before God, in God, with God, and at the same time one with another.
This is the real situation presented in the Gospel of John. The disciples enjoyed Christ as all the offerings, and they entered into the tabernacle. Eventually, they were in a peaceful situation and condition. This means that they were in the full enjoyment of the Lord. This is why so many Epistles speak of grace and peace to us. This is to enjoy Christ as all the offerings so that we may be qualified to enter into God and to dwell in Him and even to stay within Him as the tabernacle. This is the way to enjoy Christ.
How to enjoy Christ has never been made so clear to God’s children as it is today. Why through all the years has no one taught in this way? You have to realize that this is a kind of science. Science is not any kind of invention. Science is a matter of discovery. For example, hundreds of years ago people did not know what vitamins were, but they still enjoyed the benefits of the vitamins. They did not have the scientific knowledge, but they had the enjoyment. Today people talk a lot about vitamins, and they also understand the vitamins scientifically.
I am presenting to you a scientific way to enjoy Christ. I am not just telling you in a general way that we have Jesus and that He is the bread of life from heaven. No, I am telling you that the Lord Jesus is the tabernacle of God, that He is God Himself tabernacling, and that this God is enterable. Today God is enterable! The only thing that qualifies you to enter is to enjoy Christ as your sin offering, as your trespass offering, as your burnt offering, as your meal offering, and as your peace offering. Just as you have learned how to pray-read the Bible, now you must learn how to take Christ as your sin offering, as your trespass offering, as your burnt offering, as your meal offering, and as your peace offering.
Through practicing to take the Lord Jesus as their daily sin offering and trespass offering, many have found that the Lord Jesus has become more dear, more precious, more present, and even more practical to them. Their enjoyment of the Lord, practically speaking, has increased a lot. This surely has been my experience. I have been enjoying the Lord quite much for a long time but never in such a practical and rich and clear way as in these days. The more I confess my trespasses and take Him as my trespass offering, the more I enjoy Him.
Do not consider these matters as simply doctrines. They are deep truths, but you need to put them into practice. No matter how busy you are, you must take the time, if possible in the early morning, to apply the Lord Jesus as your sin offering and your trespass offering. To do this you need to confess. Repent and confess. Repent and confess. Every day we need the repentance and the confession. Spontaneously, you will apply the Lord Jesus as your trespass offering and sin offering so that you may enter into the rich enjoyment of God as the tabernacle.
