Message 113
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 27:14-16, 19
With the tabernacle and the court of the tabernacle, there are two aspects of God’s expression. Outwardly, God’s expression is righteousness, signified by the linen. Inwardly, God’s expression is holiness, signified by the gold. How can we enter into the realm, the sphere, of God’s righteousness? We enter into this realm only by passing through the gate of God’s judgment, where everything related to us is judged. Then we are qualified to bear God’s righteousness as His expression.
Furthermore, we also have the ground, the way, and the means to enter into the gold, into God’s nature, and to enjoy the divine nature as everything to us. As we have pointed out, in the Holy Place and in the Holy of Holies everything is golden. This signifies that God’s nature is everything to us. By enjoying the divine nature, we have the inward expression of God, that is, holiness as the expression of God’s nature, of God’s being. God’s outward expression is related to what He does, His doings. God’s inward expression is related to what He is, to His being. To be in the Holy of Holies is to be in God’s golden nature.
I hope that we all shall realize something vital concerning God’s judgment. Everyone who desires to come into God’s building must be judged. Apart from the gate of judgment, there is no way for us to enter into God’s building. It is through the judgment of God that we enter into His house.
John 16:8 says that the Spirit of reality “will convict the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment.” This means that He will exercise God’s judgment on the world in a positive way, not that people may perish, but that they may be saved. True repentance is to be under God’s judgment. Whenever a person repents, he places himself under the judgment of God. Only the experience of judgment can keep our spiritual life and our church life stable.
A proper human life is a life constantly under judgment. In order to have a pleasant married life, both the husband and the wife need to live a life that is always being judged. But if a husband tries to justify himself all the time, he will have problems with his marriage. A basic cause of separation and divorce is self-justification. Whenever a husband feels that he is justified, that he is right in every way and in everything, he will automatically condemn his wife. If she is one who has such an attitude, she will condemn her husband. As a result, it will be impossible for them to stay together any longer. The husband justifies himself and condemns the wife, and the wife justifies herself and condemns the husband. This makes a pleasant married life impossible.
But suppose the husband condemns himself and feels that there is nothing good in him, that not even his good intentions are acceptable to God. By the Lord’s mercy and grace, he remains under God’s judgment. Then he will say to himself, “Whether or not my wife is wrong is not my business. My concern is to remain under God’s judgment.” If both the husband and wife have this attitude, they will have a good feeling toward each other, and they will enjoy a very pleasant married life.
In the church life we also need to be under God’s judgment. If we justify ourselves, we shall not be able to stay in the church life. The more I justify myself, the more I shall condemn others. Eventually, I shall leave the church. Those who justify themselves and condemn others are not able to stay with others. In the church God’s way is the way of judgment.
After we have been under God’s judgment in a full way, the righteousness of God will be expressed upon us. This is true both in the church life and in married life. If a brother and his wife are willing to be under God’s judgment, spontaneously God’s righteousness will be upon them. Others who visit their home will be able to see the righteousness of God. But if the husband justifies himself and the wife justifies herself, then visitors in their home will not see anything of God’s righteousness. Instead, they will see two strong expressions of the self.
The elements of the gate of the court of the tabernacle are bronze, silver, and linen. The gate is constituted of these three elements. The bronze used in the sockets and the pillars is the basic material. The sockets are for the base, and the pillars are for standing. We have seen that the capitals on top of the pillars were overlaid with silver. These capitals were a crown and indicate that redemption crowns God’s judgment. God’s judgment brings forth redemption, and redemption crowns God’s judgment with glory. Furthermore, the hooks used for holding the linen to the pillars were of silver, and the connecting rods were also of silver. By means of these hooks and rods, the pillars could stand as one entity to hold the linen.
We have emphasized the fact that the linen signifies the righteousness of God. Therefore, here we have God’s judgment with the redemption of Christ as a crown to hold God’s righteousness. This is the front of God’s building.
When sinners outside this building hear the glad tidings and repent, they experience an inward convicting through the Spirit of reality. The Spirit of reality works on them to convict them and to cause them to condemn the self. This leads them to repent before God; they realize that, because they are fallen, they must be under God’s judgment.
With us fallen creatures, there is nothing that can be justified by God. For this reason, Paul says in Romans that no flesh shall be justified before God (Rom. 3:20). Rather, the entire old creation must be judged, condemned, by God. If we submit to this divine judgment and condemnation, we shall simultaneously experience the redemption of Christ. Then we shall see that Christ died not only for our sins, but also for us. When we realize this, redemption crowns us and links us to God’s righteousness. In other words, redemption brings in the righteousness of God as our expression.
First we are judged by God and then redeemed by Christ. Christ now hangs upon us as God’s righteousness. We bear the righteousness of God as the expression and testimony of God. Therefore, we are those judged by God and redeemed by Christ. With others, we are the church to become a testimony of God. We remain human beings, but we are human beings who have been judged, redeemed, and linked to God’s righteousness, bearing Christ as God’s expression. Now we bear the Triune God as our testimony.
We all need to learn to preach the gospel according to what is revealed in the typology of the gate of the outer court. We must exercise our faith to preach such an uplifted gospel. We should not preach a gospel that has been lowered down to what we think is the level of people’s understanding. Instead of bringing people up to the level of the gospel, many of us have lowered the thought of the gospel when presenting the truth to unbelievers. For years, I did this when I preached the gospel. I realized that many of those in the audience were pagans. Some were Buddhists. They did not know God, they did not know anything about the gospel, and they had never heard the name of Jesus Christ. Because I considered their situation, I did not preach an uplifted gospel. Missionaries to China also had this practice. Deep within, they had the thought that the Chinese people were not able to understand such matters as redemption, justification, and regeneration. This caused them to lower the level of their gospel preaching. This is a mistake. We need to realize that within man there is a God-created talent, ability, to receive God and to receive and understand His gospel.
People in the educational sphere have learned that children have the ability to understand more than teachers formerly thought they could understand. Just as children are often able to understand more than their teachers realize, so unbelievers can understand more of the gospel than we realize. Whenever we preach the gospel, we must believe that those listening were created by God with a certain ability, a talent, to receive and understand the message of the gospel. We need to improve our gospel preaching. We should preach an uplifted gospel and never lower the concept.
Sometimes our preaching of the gospel has been too simple. We may emphasize one point: without Christ life is vain and people are empty, but with Christ there is reality. We need to preach an uplifted gospel, a gospel that covers more than the ABC’s of God’s salvation. This will satisfy the hunger and thirst that is within man because of the way God created him. It will also stir up the interest of those who hear to come again to hear the preaching of the gospel. Otherwise, they may come just once. Having received a cup of plain, tasteless water, they will not care to come again.
I would encourage the leading ones in all the churches to fellowship concerning the presentation of the gospel, especially how to enrich and uplift our gospel messages. I am not saying that it is necessary to give a long lecture or sermon. Even in a rather short message we can present something solid and uplifted.
Man was created for God, and within him there is the ability to understand the things of God, and there is a hunger for these things. Therefore, as we preach the gospel in an uplifted way, we must believe that the hearers have the ability to understand what we are saying.
Gospel preachers such as George Whitefield and Charles Finney had the ability to awaken people to God. Whitefield prayed daily, sometimes for hours. As a result, the people who came into contact with him experienced an awakening. The same was true of Charles Finney. I was told that once he visited a factory. As soon as he entered a certain room and looked at the workers, some of them began to weep. This is the awakening power. However, in this message I am speaking not about the power of the gospel, but about the content of the gospel messages. We need to enrich and uplift the word of our gospel preaching.
If we would preach an uplifted gospel, we ourselves must know and experience all the contents of the gospel. In particular, we need to know the truths of the gospel typified by the gate of the court of the tabernacle. We need to know the significance of the numbers three and four and of the materials, the elements, of bronze, silver, and linen. We need to know judgment, redemption, and righteousness, and to know that the Triune God is a God of judgment, redemption, and righteousness. As the gate of the court indicates, the Triune God is involved with man. This involvement has the elements of judgment, redemption, and righteousness. As we preach the gospel, we need to declare that God is such a God.
With this message we conclude our study of the tabernacle itself. Next we shall consider the lighting of the lamps and the priestly garments. I hope that we shall all be impressed with a clear picture of God’s building. This picture will be more helpful than thousands of words. Not only should we see this picture; we should have it impressed deeply into our being. Then we shall have the proper understanding of the bronze, the silver, the gold, and the linen. Hallelujah for this picture of the tabernacle, the court, and the gate!
