In this sermon, the speaker discusses the anticipation of believers for the moment when they will be transformed and receive eternal life. He emphasizes that our current bodies are not yet fully prepared for the glory that awaits us, but in an instant, we will be fitted for the heavenly realm. The speaker also mentions the sufferings of the present time, stating that they are insignificant compared to the future glory that will be revealed. He then briefly mentions the emblems on a standard, which represent the blessings of Jacob on his sons in Genesis 49. The sermon concludes with a personal anecdote about a conversation with a woman who invites the speaker to a meeting but declines due to her age and fear of injury.

Exodus chapter 29. We've already dealt with the sin offering and the burnt offering, and now we have the offering of consecration. Let us read from verse 19. Exodus chapter 29, verse 19. And thou shalt take the other ram, and Aaron and his son shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his son, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his son, and upon the garments of his son with him. And he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his son's, and his son's garments with him. Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat, and the rump, and the fat that covers the inward, and the call above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder, for it is a ram of consecration. And one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the Lord. And thou shalt put all in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his son, and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. And thou shalt receive them of their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour before the Lord. It is an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration, and wave it for a wave offering, and it shall be thy part. And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the shoulder of the heave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up of the ram of the consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his son. And it shall be Aaron's and his son's by a statute forever from the children of Israel. For it is an heave offering, and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel, of the sacrifice of their peace offering, even their heave offering unto the Lord. Now verse 31. And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration, and seize this flesh in the holy place. And Aaron and his son shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them. But a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy. And if aught of the flesh of the consecration, or of the bread, remain unto the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy. And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron and to his son, according to all things which I have commanded thee. Seven days shalt thou consecrate them. Now that is our reading for this evening, and it is bringing before us the offering of consecration. Well now, I think we are beginning to get somewhat warmed up on what we have here in the tabernacle. And once again, just to bring it all together, we remind ourselves that these people, Israel, brought out of the land of Egypt, redeemed by blood, baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, entered upon the wilderness journey, probably about two million people, and God desired to have a sanctuary in the midst of them. And he called Moses at one side, and there gave Moses to see, in the mount, just what he wanted in the way of a dwelling place. And we noted how that God began with what we find in the sanctuary itself, in the holiest of all, the very throne of God, the ark with the mercy seat and the cherubim of one piece with it. And then coming out from there, he dealt with the table on the far side, the lampstand on this side, and of course in due time we're going to see these vessels, but for the time being, we're dealing with it as you now see it. And then, as he was dealing with the table and the lampstand, he didn't deal with the altar of incense, which was in front of the veil, but he came outside to look at the building itself, and then moved into the court, not to deal with the labor, but came down to the altar of burnt offering, and then looked around at this court of fine twine ridden with a gate with its blue-purple scarlet, and then decided to bring in the priesthood. Now remember that I said the priesthood is typical, typical of Christ and Christians. Adam was the high priest, his sons were the priests. In those days, at that time, God recognized only this high priesthood of Aaron and the priesthood of his son. In these days, God recognizes only the high priesthood of Christ and the priesthood of Christians. So now we are thinking of this priesthood, and we want to pay a lot of attention to it, to see how they were brought into the priesthood. And so we see God dealing with the priesthood, and the first thing was that they were bathed, and then clothed with their priestly garments. This would be, of course, what we find in the New Testament with regard to the washing of regeneration. So bathed, clothed with their priestly garments, now three offerings were to be taken, a bullock and two rams. We followed through with the sin offering. We saw these priests pressing their hands upon the head of the sin offering, in that way identified with it. And then it was slain, and Moses removes the fat, the kidneys, the midriff, and these are burned in the altar. All goes up to God as a sweet savour. And then we see the sin offering itself being taken through the gate, through the camp, and in that clean place outside the camp, there it was burned with fire. This is the first of the offerings concerning the bringing in of the priesthood. And then we followed this through. We saw that next there was to be a ram for a burnt offering. This again, they pressed their hands upon the head of this ram for a burnt offering, were identified with it, and then it was slain, and the blood sprinkled around the altar, and then we see that all of it, prepared, the pieces washed, put together, it's lifted and put within the altar of burnt offering, and every bit of that goes up to God as a sweet savour. Now we have realized that all this is typical, and it's helping us to see how we are brought in as priests. Now remember that God, in speaking to these people Israel, said that there could be to him a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, if, conditional, if they would obey his command, if they would hearken to his voice, there could be to him a kingdom of priests. Meanwhile, because they are now on probation, that they may prove themselves worthy of being a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, meanwhile, God brings in the tabernacle, his dwelling place, and he brings in a special priesthood, a priesthood that will enable him to go on with these people whilst they're on probation, to see whether they can qualify to be a kingdom of priests. So he brings in this peculiar priesthood of Aaron and his sons out from the tribe of Levi. So then, as we are thinking of this, we can see how that, all of it being typical, Aaron is type of Christ, our great high priest, and he himself presses his hand upon the head of these offerings that he might be identified with them and be shown as that type of Christ. In the first place, it was upon the sin offering. And he stands there with his hands pressed upon the head of the sin offering, identified with it, one with it, and there you see the type of Christ offering himself as a sin offering. And then he stands there with his hands pressed upon the head of the burnt offering, and again, identified with it, that he may be a type of Christ, who was utterly gilded up to God in every detail of his life, or went up to God as a sweet saviour. And then we have to follow it through and see how that also, he pressed his hands upon the head of this offering of consecration. Well now then, as we are looking at this, we are entering into it and seeing how that this is going to enable them to be priests and able to serve in the tabernacle, in the court, and able to enter into the sanctuary, into the very presence of God. They're going to be brought into a position, into a condition, in which they can offer up these sacrifices, in which they can minister within the sanctuary. And we too, we are to be brought in in the same way. Our identification with Christ on that cross, in the sin offering, in the burnt offering, as he is seen there in the cross, brought into all the value of that. Now we realize we can begin to serve. But we still have to look at this offering of consecration. Now remember, we're not talking about these people outside who could bring their offerings in. We're thinking of the priesthood. And the offerings we're speaking of, this sin offering and burnt offering, had to do with the priesthood. It had to do with the bringing in of the priesthood, bringing them into a condition and a position that they could serve and enter into the very presence of God. And so when God came out, he's showing us that he's coming out to where we are to make it possible for us to become priests and then have access into his own very presence. We used to sing a chorus at one time and it said, there's a way back to God from the dark paths of sin. There's a gate, a door, a veil that is open, and you may go in. At Calvary's cross, it's where you begin. Outside the camp, the sin offering, that's where we begin to make our way into the presence of God. So remember, these tribes all around, they could bring their offerings, but we're not thinking about that. We're thinking about the priesthood. Now I think I should say a word about this camp, because people keep asking me questions. People are very fond of counting, especially these young people. And I get young people, children, you know, they sit there and they start counting, one, two, three, four, five, you know. And then they say, ah, there's only 12 tribes. He's got 16 standards there. He's wrong. Yes, well you may count and say, well what's wrong here now? I thought there was 12 tribes. Well now, follow carefully. There were 12 tribes, and Joseph was one of the 12. Now God took Joseph out, and that left 11. Then God took Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and he put them in, and that made 13. So we've got 13 tribes now. Then God took one out, and it left 12. But remember, there were 13 tribes. But we only count 12, because God said, I want the tribe of Levi. In the first place, he said, I want the firstborn. And now he says, now I have the tribe of Levi. They shall be mine, and they shall not be counted. So you've got 13 sides, but you don't count that 13th one. You count only 12. Levi is not counted. So as you are looking now at this model of the tabernacle, you can see the position of those 12 tribes. They're more or less on the outside. But the tribe of Levi is there. You can look for his name, but you won't find it. You won't find the name of Joseph. You won't find the name of Levi. You'll find the name of Ephraim and Manasseh, and yet Levi is here. Well, well here you see this standard marked the Merarites, and over there you see you've got the Korathites, and over at the back here you've got the Gershonites. Now those three families, the Merarites, the Korathites, and the Gershonites, they are the tribe of Levi. And they picked their tent nearest to the court, because they had the service of the tabernacle. So they were there on the far side, the north side, here on the south side, and a way over at the back on the west. But on the front side there, you have another standard marking the place of the tent of Moses and Aaron and Aaron's son. They're right down there on the front. And you've got the position. So remember, twelve tribes, one taken out leaving eleven, two put in making thirteen, one taken out leaving twelve, and that one was the tribe of Levi. There's the service of the tabernacle, and they're not counted. So, we still go on talking about twelve, reading about twelve, remembering that they're twelve. So then, that's the position of the camp. Now again you may wonder what these emblems are on the standards. Well, those emblems are what you will find in Genesis chapter 49, when the sons of Jacob were gathered around him, and he began to deal out his blessing. And this is an attempt to portray those blessings of Jacob on his son, when he was dying. All right, now I think that's probably got that clear, so you won't keep on wondering, can't make out why Mr. Brown's got sixteen standards there, when there are only twelve tribes. Well now you know the explanation. So now, we have gathered up the value of the sin offering and the burnt offering, and we still have this offering of consecration. Now there's a tremendous lot in this, and from what I can see of it, it took seven days. And as it is typical, it will be typical of our consecration, during the course of our whole life, that seven, that number seven being that perfect number. Now you'll notice that once again, they press their hands upon the head of this ram for the offering of consecration. And then, Moses took the blood, and he applied that blood to the tip of the right ear of Aaron and his sons, to the thumb of the right hand, and to the great toe of the right foot. The blood is applied there. This is for consecration. It means that they are now to hear what God says. They are now to act in the way God would have them. They are now to walk in the way that God would have them walk. Remember, Aaron is that type of Christ. He said, for their sakes I sanctify myself that they may be sanctified. And so you see, I stress the words in our reading, and Aaron's sons with him, and Aaron's sons with him. Apart from him, they have nothing. It is always Aaron's sons with him. For their sakes, I sanctify myself that they may be sanctified. Aaron and his sons with him. Christ and his sons with him. You see? So, this is consecration, this is sanctification. The ear, the thumb, the great toes. To hear, to act, to walk. And then we find that certain parts of the rump were now taken. And in this rump of consecration, in this offering of consecration, we find that largely it is what would be called the peace offering. But it also has in it that which has to do with a wave offering. And that which has to do with a heave offering. And of course, it's a burnt offering. So, it would seem as if everything is brought in to this offering of consecration. So, now we notice that the fat, the kidneys, and the midriff, and the right shoulder, these are taken, and they're put into the hands of Aaron. And also, you remember that this unleavened bread is also taken, one loaf of unleavened bread, one cake of oil bread, and one wafer out of the basket. Now, that would have to do with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That unleavened bread would bring before us His sinless humanity. And then this, the unleavened cake tempered or mingled with oil would bring before us that mingling within Christ of that perfect humanity and of that spirituality. And then we have this other, the anointed, the wafer of unleavened bread which is anointed with oil, speaking of Christ as that blessed man who was the anointed one. And so, you see, this has to do with the person of Christ himself. And we are told that this was brought, these unleavened bread, these cakes, these anointed wafers, were brought in one basket. These various features concerning the person of Christ were kept together. And so, now we find that this fat, and kidneys, and midriff, and the right shoulder of the ram, and this one loaf of bread, and one cake of oil bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened bread that's before the Lord, put all these in the hands of Aaron, and waves them, you see. Let him wave them. It's a wave offering. It's a heave offering. It's got to be a burnt offering. It's really a peace offering. It's all there. And so, Aaron has it, and he waves it, and he's put into the hands of his son. And again, it is waved, it is heaved up, and he says, Thou shalt receive them of their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour before the Lord. It is an offering made by fire unto the Lord. So, all that goes as a burnt offering, and it all goes up to a God as a sweet savour. Now, this consecration, in the Hebrew, means the filling of the hands. And the filling of the hands is the filling of the hands with all that speaks of Christ. That's consecration. The filling of the hands with those things that were typical, in some way, of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, they were burned upon the altar as a sweet savour. Then we notice that the rest of the ram of Aaron's consecration was to become Moses. And then again, we follow through, and we find that other parts of the ram of consecration, they were to be seized, and then they were to be passed and taken off. They were to be eaten in the holy place. And none of it was to be left until the morning. Any left over, it was to be burned. This, of course, having in view the possibility of corruption. And of course, we are reminded that it was holy. And so, all this takes place. There was to be that experimental apprehension of what was taking place with regard to this offering of consecration. They were to eat those parts in the holy place. Experimental apprehension of all that pertained to this consecration, this sanctification. Well now, that is what we find with regard to the burnt offering. A tremendous lot more might be said about it, but I'm going to leave it at that. And I want you now just to remember that in the bringing in of the priesthood, we have these three offerings, and all three offerings are taking us to the cross. They're taking us to Christ on that cross. Christ and Him crucified. We've seen in the sin offering that that went outside the camp and led to dealing with all that is offensive, all that is hateful, all that has to do with sin. And it went outside the camp and it was a burning in judgment. But when we come to the burnt offering, and those parts of the offering of consecration that was burned, then we find a different source. All that was burned in the altar of burnt offering, and all of it went up to God at the sweet savor. It was all accepted by Him. And then we find that in that offering of consecration, there was this partaking of it, entering into all the value of it. And that is something which we need to be occupied from day to day. This consecration covers the whole of our life as Christians, from beginning to end. It is never something which is perfected or completed in us. Christ has sanctified Himself. He is our sanctification, and that is perfect and complete. But we are not perfect and complete in ourselves. We are perfect and complete in Him, and He is our sanctification there. But we are not perfect and complete down here. Practical sanctification is a different matter. And that is going to make demands upon us from day to day. And so this partaking of these parts of this offering of consecration, this experimental apprehension of all this, is going to demand a lot of our time. Well, that is what we have from the bringing in of the priesthood. They are now able to begin their service. They are now able to enter into the sanctuary. We remind ourselves that all this is true of us. That there Christ on the cross was our sin offering. He was our burnt offering. He was our offering of consecration. And as they, by pressing their hands upon the head of those offerings, were identified with them, and all the value of what was done for them was made over to them, so we, when we go to that cross, and by faith our hands are pressed upon the head of Christ, we are brought into all the value of Christ as sin offering, as burnt offering, and as offering of consecration. And that is something which is complete and perfect before God. And the moment we are brought into all that, then we are free to enter into service. We are free now to move on and in, to offer up our spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable. Now we've seen that that work was a perfect work, and until we enter into that and realize that it was a perfect work, then we can never have real peace. To be able to enter into it in such a way that you can just rest and say, well, thank God it is finished. Every job, nothing else that I need be concerned about. All the value of what Christ did there made over to me. So much so that God sees me as he sees him. That Christ was on the cross for me, he was on the cross as me. And now he's gone up, and he's in the presence of God there for me and as me. And I can say in this very wonderful way that he is my saviour. I remember some years ago, I had a tent pitched on a village green, quite a big village. And I went around this village talking to people in the houses, the cottages, and asking them to come along to the tent meeting. And as I went around the village, I came upon an old world cottage. A perfect example of an old world cottage. And in front of it there was an old world garden. And I stood there looking at it and admiring it, and I said to myself, well I hope the Americans don't come round here, because if they do, this lovely old world cottage will be wending its way over to America. So I was hoping the Americans wouldn't come round and see this lovely old world cottage. And as I stood looking at it, the door opened, and an old world lady stepped in the doorway. She had a long black dress on that reached down to the feet. She had a white lace cap on her head, and a little white lace apron. And she stood in the doorway, and I thought, well now look at that. The old world cottage, the old world garden, and there's the old world lady. Oh, I wish I were an old lady, you know. And I could put up my canvas and just paint that. It was just lovely. And then she said, good morning to you sir. I said, good morning to you ma'am. I said, you know, I was just admiring your old cottage, and your lovely garden, when you stepped in the doorway, and you'd perfected it. I said, yes indeed. I said to her, now, do you think you could come along to these meetings we're having in the tent? I'd like you to come. Well, no, she said, I'm afraid not. You know, I'm 84 years of age, and the village isn't very well lighted. And you know, I could easily stumble and fall, and break a bone. And you know, at my age, bones don't, they don't heal very well, you know. So I'm sorry, I won't be able to come to your meeting. Well, I said, mother, I understand. But she said, I'll tell you what, I'll pray for you. Well, I said, do you pray? She said, of course I do. Well, I said, ma'am, will you tell me what you pray about? Well, she said, I pray to God, and I thank him. I said, what do you thank him for? Well, she said, I thank him for the very happy married life. Well, I said, you've got something to thank him for. Thousands of people couldn't thank God for a very happy married life, so you've got something there. I said, what else do you thank him for? Well, she said, I thank him because I've got health and strength. I do all my own work, and I do my own garden. I've got something. It's not everybody that's got health and strength, so that's something to thank God for. Now, is there anything else you thank him for? And she hesitated, and looked at me, and she said, well, I thank God for Jesus Christ, our Saviour. I said, ma'am, I could tell you something better than that to thank him for. She said, you could not. I said, I could. You couldn't. I could. You couldn't. I could. You couldn't. So we argued a bit, and then she said, I challenge you. All right, ma'am. I said, what did you say? She said, I thank God for Jesus Christ, our Saviour. And you said, you can tell me something better, and I'm waiting for you to tell me. I said, I'm going to tell you. I thank God for Jesus Christ, my Saviour. Oh. I said, for Jesus Christ, our Saviour. I said, that's what you said. I said, I can tell you something much better to thank him for. I thank him for Jesus Christ, my Saviour. Oh. She said, would you like a nice cup of tea and a piece of homemade cake? I said, you know, I've been wanting that for the past hour. She said, well, you come in, and I'll get you that cup of tea and that nice piece of cake. And so inside I went, and found myself sitting there, next to all world furniture and all world pictures. I sure hope the Americans don't come here, because it'll all disappear, I'm sure. So, I looked around, and I waited for my cup. I never knew it took so long to get a cup of tea ready. I waited, and then I thought, well, you must have forgotten me. And then in she came with a tray, and she was all smiled, and she put it down and said, there's your cup of tea, and there's your piece of cake, and while you're eating it, I'm going to tell you something. I said, all right, you tell me what you're going to tell me. Well, she said, while I've been getting that cup of tea ready, I've been talking to the Lord. Oh, I said, you have? Yes, he said, I've been talking to him. I'll tell you something. He's not all yours, Saviour. Oh, I said, isn't he? No. He's mine as well now. Oh, I said, is he? He said, yes, I'm sharing him with you. Not all yours. I said, mum, I'm not sharing him with anybody. Oh, but she said, but he's mine. I said, yes, he's yours, he's all yours, and he's mine, and he's all mine. I'm not going to share him with anybody. You know, it gets more wonderful, doesn't it? Isn't it lovely, she said, and all these years, and I never knew that. I said, you know it now? Yes, she said, my Saviour. Oh, that's something, isn't it? My Saviour. She said, would you like another cup of tea tomorrow morning? I said, I'll be along for my cup of tea, and I went every morning for that cup of tea, and we had talks. We were talking about my Saviour. What a difference it made in the life of that dear old soul. My Saviour. This is it, you see. As you're thinking of this, sin-offering, burnt-offering, offering of consecration, it brings you right into that, you say, mine. Mine, all mine, is my Saviour. Now then, this evening I want to take up another subject, I think we can manage this, and that is, I want to look at that altar, because we've spoken about what took place there, but it's something important. So, if you've got your Bible there, just turn to chapter 27, and we'll just read a little about this altar. Exodus chapter 27, reading from verse 1, And thou shalt make an altar of chitin wood, that is, acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. Now, you may wonder what a cubit is. Well, a cubit was the measurement from the tip of the longest finger to the elbow. Now, that's the measurement of a cubit. Roughly about 18 inches, or some people like to measure about 20 inches, but there we think, tip of the longest finger to the elbow, about 18 inches. So, this was five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be four square, and the height thereof shall be three cubit. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof, its horns shall be of the same, and thou shalt overlay it with brass, or rather, with copper. I don't think there was any brass in those days. It would be copper. As a matter of fact, brass would never stand the heat that was generated in that altar, because it had to consume those offerings and reduce them to ashes so that brass would never do it. The word in the original really means copper bronze. And thou shalt make his palms to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basins, and his fleshooks, and his firepans, or censers, all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass. All the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass. And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass, of copper, and upon the net shalt thou make four copper rings in the four corners thereof. And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar. And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of acacia wood, and overlay them with copper. And the stave shall be put into the rings, and the stave shall be upon the two sides of the altar to bear it. Hollow with board shalt thou make it, as it was sure thee in the mount, so shall they make it." Notice, as it was sure thee in the mount, so shall they make it. He thought it. Now, we're looking at that altar, and I suppose that anyone in Israel's day who came through that gate and looked at that altar, any stranger who was able to come through the gate and look at that altar, would have immediately said, that is made of copper. And you may have it in your minds too, that that altar was made of copper, but it was not. Now what was it made of? It was made of wood. God didn't say thou shalt make an altar of copper. He said thou shalt make an altar of acacia wood. Isn't that strange? Now he said, when you have made it of acacia wood, you shall overlay it with copper. And then we are told that the fire was to be burning in that altar all the time. It was never to go out. It was perpetual fire burning in that altar, and it had to be such a fire that would consume those offerings, those sacrifices. Now, if that is so, we question, why did God say make an altar of acacia wood and overlay it with copper? Why did he not say, well the fire is going to be burning in it all the time, and it will need to withstand that fire, so make an altar of copper. No, no. Make an altar of acacia wood and then overlay it with copper. Now, had I been in Moses' place, I would have been inclined to say, Lord, don't you think we'd better leave that wood out of it? That fire is going to be a very fierce kind of a fire. And, well, what's going to happen to that wood? We'd just forget the wood and make it of copper. No, no. I said make an altar of acacia wood and then overlay it with copper. Now, why? That altar is evidently a type of Christ. We have an altar, says the writers in the epistles of the Hebrews. We have an altar, and that altar is bringing before us the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, made of that acacia wood brings before us his perfect humanity. It was made of an incorruptible kind of wood. It was made of the acacia tree, which was a thorn tree, and the only tree really that was found in the wilderness. And it was from that acacia tree, that thorn tree, that incorruptible wood, that these vessels of the sanctuary were made. And we read about Christ as a root, a root out of a dry ground, springing up. And remember that this tree, this thorn tree, was triumphing over all the conditions of the wilderness. And so we find Christ down here, in that perfect humanity, in these conditions which were against him. That root out of the dry ground. So it speaks of his perfect humanity, the acacia wood. And God says, I must have that. Cannot leave that out. So we'll have his perfect humanity. Now you can overlay it with copper. And that copper will speak of his deity. The Lord Jesus Christ was very man, and he was very God. And it must be so. Very man, very God. You know, God could satisfy, as far as we are concerned, as sinners in the sight of us, God could satisfy, but God cannot suffer. Man could suffer, but man cannot satisfy. We must have someone who can suffer and satisfy, to meet our deep and dire needs. One who is very man and very God. And there are so many people today who are willing to admit that the Lord Jesus Christ was man. He was very man, he was perfect man. But don't say he was very God. Oh no, you can't accept that. Now we've got to accept it. Make the also of acacia wood, overlay it with copper. I must have that perfect humanity, I must have that deity. Now if the Lord Jesus Christ was only man, a perfect man, then we are in rather a difficult position. And I'm going to tell you something now, which is perhaps a little unusual, but it probably will help us to see the importance of this. You know as well as I do, I've had this before you, two or three times, that in that garden of Eden, the man and the woman were given to understand that if they took of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then they would come under the sentence of death. In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So there is the man and the woman, and there's this tree which was forbidden. And we know that the woman took of the fruit of that tree and did eat thereof. We know that. And we know that by doing it she became a sinner. And we know that by doing it she came under the sentence of death. That's true of the woman. Now she gave to her husband and he did eat thereof. And he became a sinner and he came under the sentence of death. They are both in the same condition. Now we know that. I'm going to suppose something. It is supposition. Supposing that when the woman took of the tree and became a sinner and came under the sentence of death, that she offered the fruit to her husband and he refused it. Now supposing. Supposing he refused to take of the tree. What is the position? The position is the woman is a sinner and she's under the sentence of death. The man is still a perfect man and he's not under the sentence of death. Right. Now we are supposing all this. Now when the day came for the sentence to be carried out on this woman, shall surely die. All right. We've come to carry out the sentence of death. The man steps forward and says, just a moment. What are you going to do? We're going to put your wife to death. Now he says, I don't want you to do that. But then she is a sinner and she's under this sentence of death and this sentence has got to be carried out. I will die instead of her. I'm willing to take the penalty. All right. The penalty must be carried out. Either she must die or somebody else must die for her. Are you willing to die for your wife? Yes. So the sentence is carried out on the man. And the woman looks and sees a dead husband. She digs a simple grave and she buries him. And every time she passes that spot she stands there. Do you know what she says? She says, he died for me. And every time she stands there and says that, she's full of joy. She's full of happiness. No she isn't. Why? Because he's dead. There's no joy in that, there's no happiness in that. She says, he died for me. Yes. But he's dead. He was a perfect man. He could lay down his life. But he couldn't take it up again. What would have made her happy? What would have brought satisfaction to her? What would have brought assurance to the woman? Well this. Had he been able to say to her, I'm going to die for you. And on the third day, I want you to be right here where you bury me. Because on that third day, I'm going to rise again. And I'm going to present myself to you as one who died for you. And I'm risen again from the dead. And I'm going to be with you forever and ever. She would have been there on the third day. And when she saw him rise from the dead, she would have been filled with joy and happiness. But he could lay down his life, but he couldn't take it up again. Remember he's a perfect man. He has not sinned. And he can lay down his life for his what? He can't take it up again. If the Lord Jesus Christ is only a perfect man, what then? He can lay down his life. What about taking it up again? Oh no. Make thee also the case you would that perfect humanity. He can suffer. He can shed his blood. He can die. I have power to lay down my life, he said. Overlaid with copper. His deity. He can endure all that. And he can rise again. He is very God. Very man and very God. So we can thank God that we have an altar. A Lord Jesus who could lay down his life, who could take it up again, who ever liveth. And we are full of joy because he is there. Ever living to make intercession for us. And one day we're going to see him. We're going to be like him. And we're going to be able to bless and to praise him because he laid down his life for us. And because he took it again. And because he's there living now in the power of an endless life. And one day we're going to be with him. And that's going to be a great day. When we see him as he is. And when we're like him. Not very like him now perhaps. I remember one day, you know these Africans that we have in Central Africa, they've got some weird and wonderful ways of expressing themselves. Sometimes we don't know where they're getting to with it. And we had a conference there one time and one of the Africans got up and in a very straight face he said, You know the word of God says, it does not yet appear what we shall be. And I waited for it and it came. He says, you see, we're all eggs. He says, we're all eggs. I thought, yes, some of us are bad in the soup. We're all eggs he says. And he says, you see, there's the egg and the mother hen. She's got to get these eggs together in the nest and she's got to keep them warm. She's got to look at them. She goes, you see. And he says, there it is. These eggs. And the hen looks at them and she sees what? She sees a perfect representation of herself. And she's very happy. And she sees that perfect representation. So he said, it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall delight him. You see, Africans have got wonderful ways of bringing out the truth. But there it is. Thank God, one day we're going to see him. Oh, think of it. In a moment, in the quenching of an eye, we're going to feel that pulseless tide of eternal life permeating a body which is moulded in an instant to his will. Fitted for yonder. What we've got now is fitted for down here, of course. But it'll be fitted in a moment, fitted for yonder glory. And we shall meet him and see him and be with him. Ah, it'll be worth it, won't it? We shall then reckon, ah, we can reckon now that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be considered with that glory that's going to be revealed. And you know, it can't be very far off. As we look around, we listen to the radio, as we look at the television, my, you say to yourself, how much longer can this go on? It's got up speed now, utter appalling corruption, right, left and centre. Even so, come Lord Jesus, that's the cry of our hearts. Shall we pray? Our God, our Father, again we give our thanks to thee for helping us as we have looked into thy word, as we have tried to gather up some of the value of what we find in these types and figures and shadows, all bringing before us so much concern in the person and the work of thy beloved Son. He, our altar, that perfect humanity, that deity, very man, very God, able to lay down his life, able to take it up again. And now in the power of that endless life, he is right there in thy very presence. As far as that work of the cross is concerned, he has sat down. As far as that work of his ever living to make intercession, he's standing there at thy right hand. We thank thee for this. We thank thee, our God, that it pleased thee to reach us with the gospel, to reveal to us our condition, to show us our need, to reveal to us thy beloved Son as the one who could meet our needs, that because of the striving of thy Spirit within, we in repentance by faith laid our hands upon his head. And then and there we were able to say, he bear our sins in his own body, he died in our womb instead. He was there for us, he was there at us. He's up yonder in the glory for us and as us, and he's coming again, and we're going to be with him, our God. Until then, we would ask of thee to help us, that we may be the more consecrated, the more sanctified, that we may be so occupied with him that from day to day we are becoming more and more like him, because that and that alone will be well pleasing to thee. But for this we need thee. We are not sufficient of ourselves. Only as we are enabled by thy Spirit shall we ever be able, in some measure, to be like him in his consecration. We ask thee then to remember us and to help us, and to receive our thanks in his precious and alone worthy name, the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.