Exodus

•  Key SRB  = Scofield References SRB  = Scofield Margin Notes JFB   = Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Commentary JFB   = Introduction AC    = Adam Clarke Comentary AC    = Chronology by Adam Clarke OU1    = OUtline Index of Book OU    = OUtline of This Chapter  â€¢  Top Featured for Exodus Outline Chapter 27       I. Outline of Exodus 27:1-21      II. The Altar For Burnt Offerings     III. Faith Manifested         1) What Is the Spiritual Meaning         2) Israel, To Be Forgiven of Their Sins . .         3) The Utensils of the Altar of Burnt Offering         4) All the Offerings That Were Sacrificed         5) Who Cannot Help But Sin Everyday         6) The Only Way to Receive the Remission         7) God Has Not Dealt with Us Only by the Law         8) We Must Believe in the Salvation Fulfilled         9) The Salvation       10) Our Lord Has Thus Saved Sinners       11) Whom Must We Believe in?       12) This Is How the Faith of Today's Christians Are       13) Do You Consider a Fanatical Faith as a Good Faith?       14) What Is It That We Must Do in This Era?       15) Who Was Sacrificed in This Way for You?       16) All You Have to Do Is Just Grab the Truth       17) Conclusion     IV. The Color of the Gate of The Tabernacle's Court       1) The Gate And the Fence of the Tabernacle's Court       2) Jesus Christ Showed Us the Four Colors of the Gate of the Tabernacle</a>       3) The Truth That Every Sinner Must Believe       4) The Messiah Who Came as the Fulfiller of the Prophecies       5) Look at the Fulfillment of the Word of the Old Testament!       6) Jesus Christ, the Savior Who Has Saved Us       7) Jesus Christ Who Came by the Water, the Blood, and the Spirit       4) The Matching of the Old and New Testaments       5) You and I, Too, Were All Spiritual Pharisees       6) Our Sins Disappeared by Believing in the Gospel       7) Jesus Took Upon Himself the Sins of The World       4) What Is the Perfect Faith?       5) Manifested in the Gate of the Court of the Tabernacle       6) When We Believe in Jesus       7) People Who Believe in Jesus Only Religiously       4) What Would Happen to Us If We Do Not Believe       5) Only By Grace Can We Receive the Gift       6) CONCLUSION      V. In Process Exodus 27:1-8. altar. Exodus 27:9-19. courtyard. Exodus 27:21. the tent of meeting. Exodus 27:20-21. continually burning lamps. Bible Background Commentary Key Word Commentary. Wesley's Commentary. J. Vernon McGee Bible Exposition Commentary The Exodus by Haley - Chapters 1-40 Sermons on important subjects by pastors and teachers are placed on these study pages only to provide information not readily available elsewhere. In that we are using these studies no way implies that we approve or disapprove of the content. Fellow pilgrims are advised to study wisely and "try the spirits."       Verses   |-1- |-2- |-3- |-4- |-5- |-6- |-7- |-8- |-9- |-10- |-11- |-12- |-13- |-14- |-15- |-16- |-17- |-18- |-19- |-20- |-21-|  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index 1. The Tabernacle (Exodus 25:1-27:21) Exodus 27 ALTAR FOR BURNT OFFERING.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Tabernacle: (1) The Brazen Altar. Refrence Bible Chapter 27 Exodus 27:1-8 The altar of burnt-offerings, and its dimensions, 1; its horns, 2; pans, shovels, , 3; its grate and net work, 4,5; its staves, 6-8  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Tabernacle: (2) The Court. Refrence Bible Chapter 27 Exodus 27:9-15 Court of the tabernacle, with its pillars and hangings, 9-15.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Tabernacle: (3) The Hanging For The Gate Of The Court. Refrence Bible Chapter 27 Exodus 27:16-19 Gate of the court, its pillars, hangings, length, breadth, and height, 16-18. All the vessels used in the court of the tabernacle to be of brass, 19.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Tabernacle: (4) The Oil For The Light. Refrence Bible Chapter 27 Exodus 27:20-21 The Israelites to provide pure olive oil for the light, 20. Every thing to be ordered by Aaron and his sons, 21.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ The Faith Manifested in The Altar of Burnt Offering  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Faith Manifested Sermons on important subjects by Rev. Paul C. Jong Exodus 27:1-8 "You shall make an altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide-the altar shall be square-and its height shall be three cubits. You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay it with bronze. Also you shall make its pans to receive its ashes, and its shovels and its basins and its forks and its firepans; you shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall make a grate for it, a network of bronze; and on the network you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. You shall put it under the rim of the altar beneath, that the network may be midway up the altar. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. The poles shall be put in the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar to bear it. You shall make it hollow with boards; as it was shown you on the mountain, so shall they make it." I would like to discuss the faith manifested in the altar of burnt offering. When the people of Israel broke any of the 613 articles of the Law of God and the commandments that they had to keep in their everyday life, and when they recognized their sins, they gave to God their unblemished offerings according to the sacrificial system set by Him. The place where they gave these offerings is the altar of burnt offering. The people of Israel, in other words, received their remission of sin by laying their hands on the head of the unblemished sacrificial animal, cutting its throat and drawing its blood, putting this blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pouring the rest on the ground, and burning the flesh of this sacrifice on the altar.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index What Is the Spiritual Meaning of the Altar of Burnt Offering? The altar of burnt offering, measuring 2.25 m (7.5 feet) in both length and width and 1.35 m (4.5 feet) in height, was made of acacia wood and overlaid by bronze. Whenever the Israelites looked at this altar of burnt offering, they came to recognize that they were the ones who had been locked in their judgment and unable to avoid their condemnation. And just as the sacrificial animal was put to death, they also realized that they, too, had to die because of their sins. But they also came to believe that the Messiah would come to this earth and blot out their sins by being condemned and put to death like the sacrificial offering because of their sins. The altar of burnt offering was a shadow of Jesus Christ our Savior. As the unblemished animals were sacrificed with the laying on of hands and the shedding of its blood, Jesus Christ came to us as the Son of God and bore the condemnation of all our sins. Just as the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament had to accept all sins through the laying on of hands and shed their blood, He accepted all the sins of the world passed onto Him by being baptized by John, and bore the condemnation of these sins by shedding His blood on the Cross. In this way, the altar of burnt offering shows us that Jesus Christ took all our sins upon Himself with His baptism, died on the Cross, rose form the dead again, and has thereby saved us.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index To Be Forgiven of Their Sins, the Israelites Had to Give Their Sacrificial Offerings at the Altar of Burnt Offering When we look at chapter 4 of the Book of Leviticus, we see that whenever the anointed priests, the whole congregation of Israel, a ruler, or any of the common people sinned, they received their remission of sin by bringing a sacrificial offering to God, putting their hands on its head, killing it, drawing its blood, and taking it to the altar of burnt offering and offering it to God. As a matter of fact, as this altar of burnt offering was where the Israelites gave their sin offerings everyday, not a day went by when it was not busy. The Israelites who wanted to get rid of their sins prepared an unblemished animal and gave it to God on the altar of burnt offering as their sacrificial offering. Sinners passed all their sins onto the sacrificial animal by putting their hands on its head, and, as the judgment of these sins, drew its blood by cutting its throat. Priests then put this blood of the sacrificial offering on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and burnt its flesh and fat on the altar. This is how the people of Israel received their remission of sin. Regardless of who it was that sinned, whether it was a leader of the people of Israel, the High Priest, ordinary priests, the whole congregation, or any of the common people, they had to receive their remission of sin by bringing a sacrificial animal, such as a bull, goat, or ram, and giving it to God as the sacrificial offering. Sinners or their representatives had to put their hands on the head of the sacrifice, kill it, put its blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, pour the rest of the blood on the ground, and thereby burn the fat of their sacrificial offering that would forgive them of their sins. Therefore, many had to bring their sacrificial animals to the altar of burnt offering, lay their hands on the head of the offerings, draw their blood and give it to the priests. When offerings were given at the altar of burnt offering, these sacrificial offerings had to be unblemished. And when sinners gave offerings to God, they had to make sure to bring unblemished animals before God, and only by laying their hands on the heads of these unblemished sacrificial offerings were their sinned passed onto them. As such, nothing could be left out when giving the sacrificial offering. Normally, the person who sinned had to put his own hands on the head of his sacrificial animal, but when the whole congregation of Israel sinned, its representative elders laid their hands on the sacrificial offering (Leviticus 4:15). Of course, the sacrificial animal on whose head hands were laid had to be killed by cutting its throat and drawing its blood. And lastly, it had to be burnt on the altar. The smoke of burning flesh, fat, and wood therefore always filled the place around the altar of burnt offering, and its horns and the ground underneath it were all soaked with the blood of sacrificial animals. The altar of burnt offering was the place of the remission of sin where sacrificial offerings were given to God to cleanse away the sins of the people of Israel. This altar of burnt offering, where smoke never ceased to rise, was a square measuring 2.25 m (7.5 feet) in both length and width, it was 1.35 m (4.5 feet) in height. A grate of bronze network was placed at its middle, and smoke incessantly rose from the offerings that were burnt by the fire of wood on its grate. Like this, the place where the offerings were burnt and given to God was the altar of burnt offering.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Utensils of the Altar of Burnt Offering Were All Made of Bronze The utensils of the altar of burnt offering used to remove and put away ashes were all made of bronze. The altar of burnt offering itself was made by overlaying bronze on acacia wood, and so the altar and its utensils were all made of bronze. This bronze of the altar of burnt offering has a definite spiritual meaning. Bronze refers to the judgment of sin before God. As such, the altar of burnt offering is a place that shows us clearly that the sinful are most certainly judged of their sins. God will surely condemn people for their sins without fail. The place where the sacrificial offerings were vicariously judged for the sake of sinners by being burnt was this altar of burnt offering, and the altar itself and all its utensils were made of bronze; as such, these things tell us that every sin most certainly entails its judgment. The altar shows us that because of their sins, people are bound to be condemned and put to death, but by bringing their sacrificial animal to the altar of burnt offering and giving it to God, they can be washed of their sins, receive the remission of sin, and thereby live again. Here, the offerings that were sacrificed on the altar of burnt offerings all tells us that the baptism of Jesus Christ and His bloodshed has forgiven the sins of believers. So this faith that gave the sacrificial offering at the altar of burnt offering is continued on into the New Testament's time as the faith in the baptism and blood of Jesus Christ. When we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we must give to God our faith that believes in the baptism of Jesus and His blood as our remission of sin. In the Old Testament, this faith is traced to the faith that opens and enters into the gate of the court of the Tabernacle woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index All the Offerings That Were Sacrificed at the Altar of Burnt Offering Symbolize Jesus Christ What did Jesus Christ do when He came to this earth? We were sinful; we had sinned against God and broke His Law and commandments. But to blot out all theses sins of ours, Jesus Christ was baptized by John and took the sins of the world upon Himself, and thereby shed His blood on the Cross. Just as the sacrificial offering bore the sins of the Israelites passed onto it with the laying on of hands, and was thereby killed and burnt at the altar of burnt offering, because Jesus Christ came to this earth as the unblemished sacrificial offering, and was baptized, He could then shed His blood of sacrifice on the Cross and die on it in our place. By being nailed on both his hands and feet and shedding His blood, our Lord bore the condemnation of all sins for us, instead of us being condemned for our sins. Thus, He has saved us from all our sins and condemnation. What did Jesus Christ, who has become the true substance of this altar of burnt offering, do when He came to this earth? Jesus Christ has saved us by taking all our sins upon Himself with His baptism, being crucified and dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. Our Lord came to this earth, completed our certain salvation, and then ascended to the Kingdom of Heaven.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index We Who Cannot Help But Sin Everyday There is also another meaning of the altar of burnt offering, which is "ascending." As a matter of fact, you and I sin everyday. Therefore, we have to always give our sacrificial offering to God, and because of this, the smoke of the condemnation of our sins is always ascending to God. Is there any day at all when you do not sin but live perfectly? The sacrificial offerings of the people of Israel were given continuously until the priests were too exhausted from giving these offerings that forgave the countless of sins of the Israelites and could no longer carry them out. Because the people of Israel broke the Law and sinned against God everyday, they had to give their sacrificial offerings everyday.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Moses, representing Israel, declared the 613 articles of the Law and commandments of God to the Israelites: "If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:5-6). The people of Israel then promised, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do" (Exodus 19:8). So the people of Israel wanted to recognize and believe in this God who appeared before Moses and spoke to them through him as their true God, and they wanted this God to protect them. By keeping all that God spoke to them, they also wanted to become not only a special treasure to Him, but also a kingdom of priests and a holy nation that belonged to God. As such, they tried to keep all the commandments of God that He had given them. Did God already know that the Israelites would sin? Of course He did. This is why God called Moses to the Mountain Sinai, showed him the Tabernacle in vision, explained its format in detail, told him to build it, and made him build it accordingly. And He also established the sacrificial system by which offerings were to be given in this Tabernacle. When the people of Israel sought to give a sin offering to God, they had to bring an unblemished bull, sheep, goat, turtledove, or pigeon; and save a few exceptions, they had to make sure to pass their sins onto their sacrificial offering by putting their hands on its head (Leviticus 1:1-3). And then draw its blood by cutting the throat and give this blood to the priests. Their priests then took this blood, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, poured the rest of the blood on the ground, cut the sacrificial offering into pieces, put these pieces on the altar, and offered them to God by burning them. This is how the Israelites could be forgiven of their sins. When the offering was burnt, they had to burn not only its flesh, but they had to also strip and burn all its fat from the entrails and the liver. In this way, God forgave the sins of the Israelites.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Only Way to Receive the Remission of All Sins When we look at ourselves, we can all actually realize that we cannot help but sin all the time. We live our lives always sinning. We commit countless sins for various reasons, whether it is because we are weak, have too many blemishes, are too greedy, or have too much power. Even among those who believe in Jesus as their Savior, there is no one who does not sin. The only way for us, who always sin like this even as we believe in God, to be washed of all these sins and be saved is to believe in the baptism of Jesus Christ. He is God Himself who came by water and blood (1 John 5:6); He came to this earth as the sacrificial offering of the altar of burnt offering through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. When this Jesus took our sins upon Himself by being baptized and paid the wages of our sins by shedding His blood on the Cross and dying on it, how could we not receive the remission of sin through faith? Because of the salvation of our Messiah Jesus Christ, through faith you and I could receive our remission of sin all at once. Although we indeed sin always, because of the salvation of the baptism and the blood that Jesus Christ fulfilled when He came to this earth, we could be freed from all our sins. Our Lord took our sins upon Himself with His baptism, carried the sins of the world to the Cross and was crucified, and has thereby delivered us from our sins wholly. By being baptized for our sins, bearing the condemnation of all our sins with His crucifixion, and rising again from the dead, He has wholly saved us who believe in this truth. Though we could not avoid but be condemned for our sins, because of the love of salvation and mercy that Jesus has given us through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, you and I have been saved through faith. God, in other words, has saved us from our sins. It is by believing in Him that we have been delivered from all our sins. This is what the altar of burnt offering is showing us. You may think that inside the Tabernacle everything was beautiful, but if you had actually entered into its court, you would encounter an unexpected and disgusting scene. The bronze altar of burnt offering, shaped as a rectangular, would be threatening to spew out smoke and fire at anytime. The bronze altar would be waiting for sinners, its ground would be soaked in blood, and anyone would realize that this was the place of the condemnation of sin. As this place was where the sacrificial offerings were given everyday, you would be overwhelmed by the stench of burning flesh and wood. Beneath the altar of burnt offering, blood would be flowing like a river. Whenever the Israelites sinned, they brought their sacrificial animal to the Tabernacle, passed their sins onto it by putting their hands, cut its throat, drew its blood, and gave this blood to the priests. The priest then put this blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and poured the rest on the ground. They then cut the offering into pieces, and along with its kidneys and fat, put its flesh on the grate and burnt them. When blood is drawn, it is quite fluid at first, flowing in red. But after some time, it coagulates and becomes rather sticky. If you had actually entered into the Tabernacle, you would have seen this horrifying blood. Whenever the people of Israel broke God's commandments, through the altar of burnt offering, they recognized that they were to die like their sacrificial offerings on the altar. Why? Because God made His covenant with them with blood. "If you keep My Law, you will become My people and the kingdom of priests, but if you fail to keep it, you must die like these sacrificial offerings are put to death." This is how God established His covenant with blood. As such, the people of Israelites accepted it as a given fact that if they sin and break the Law, they had to shed their blood. As a matter of fact, not only the Israelites, but those who believes in God must also all give the blood of sacrifice for their sins. It shows us that anyone who sins before God and therefore has a sin in his/her heart, regardless of how small or great it is, must face the condemnation of this sin as a result. Although the law of judgment-that the wages of sin is death-applies to everyone before God, there are not so many people who actually are afraid of God's judgment and thus try to commit themselves to God's law of salvation manifested in His sacrificial system. The altar of burnt offering tells us that according to the law that set the wages of sin as death, Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins and condemnation through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen manifested in the gate of the court of the Tabernacle. For us, who always sin and must be condemned for our sins, Christ came to this earth in the flesh of a man, took all the sins of us the mankind onto His own body by being baptized by John, carried these sins of the world to the Cross, was crucified and shed His blood on it, bore great sufferings and pain, sacrificed Himself, and has thereby saved you and me from all our sins. It is because Christ sacrificed His own body and has thereby saved us that you and I could be delivered from all our sins by faith. For the sake of those who could not avoid but die because of their sins, in other words, Jesus Christ took all their sins upon Himself with His baptism, was crucified to death, rose again from the dead, and has thereby save them from all their sins and condemnation. When we look at this altar of burnt offering, we come to have this faith. Seeing that the sacrificial offering was given all the time at the altar, we can realize and believe that even though it is we who have to die because of our daily sins, God did not turn us into His sacrificial offerings, but instead our Lord Himself came to this earth and fulfilled our salvation. By being baptized, shedding His blood on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, Jesus has saved us. This is why God the Father accepted the sacrificial offering of the Israelites and forgave all their sins, instead of condemning them for sinning. By making the people of Israel pass their sins onto their sacrificial animal by putting their hands on its head, and by making them kill it and offer its blood, flesh, and fat to Him, God forgave the sins of the Israelites. Through this sacrificial offering, He has also washed us of all our sins. None other than this was the mercy of God and His love.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index God Has Not Dealt with Us Only by the Law If God were to judge you and me, and all the people of Israel just according to His Law, how many would still remain alive on this earth? If God measures and judges us by His Law alone, none of us would live even for a day. The vast majority of us would last not even for 24 hours, but die in just a few minutes. Some of us might die in just an hour while others might last for 10 hours, but the difference is insignificant-either way, we would all be bound to die. People would not be able to live as long as they do now, reaching 60, 70, 80, and even beyond. In no time, everyone would be condemned. Think of what happened this morning. Your son is still struggling to get out of the bed, having stayed up all night partying. Your wife is trying to wake him up. A shouting match ensues, with your son yelling at his mother for waking him up, and your wife yelling at your son for shouting at her-and thus begins the morning battle. In the end, both the mother and the son here end up sinning before God, and neither of them would last even for today, for they would both be condemned for this sin. But God has not dealt with us only by His righteous Law. "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities" (Psalm 103:10). Far from judging us by the righteous Law, God instead prepared the sacrificial offering that would take our place, to fulfill this righteous Law. By making us pass our sins onto this offering of sacrifice by laying our hands on it, and by making us give Him the blood of this offering instead of our own life, God has accepted the life of the sacrificial offering instead of our own life, and has forgiven all the sins of mankind, including ours and those of the Israelites, has saved us from them all, and has made us live again. And by saving the believers from their sins, God has made them His own people. This is how God made the people of Israel into the priests of the Kingdom of God. The sacrificial offering here refers to none other than Jesus Christ. Because of our sins, Jesus Christ became this sacrificial offering, and to save us who had faced the condemnation of sin, He took all our sins upon Himself with baptism, shed His blood and died on the Cross. To save us from our sins, the only begotten Son of God came to this earth in the flesh of a man and became the sacrificial offering through His baptism, all in obedience to the Father's will. By taking the sins of mankind upon Himself with His baptism received from John, by carrying these sins of the world to the Cross, being crucified, shedding His blood, and thereby sacrificing Himself, and by dying and rising from the dead again, Jesus has saved you and me wholly. When we hear the Word of salvation telling us that Jesus, in our place, was baptized, crucified, and rose again from the dead in three days, our hearts are greatly inspired. Because He who was sinless received, instead of us, the baptism that passed all sins onto Him, and as the wages of these sins, He bore all kinds of persecution, oppression, pain, suffering, and ultimately death, all of which should have been ours in the first place. When Christ has thereby saved us from our sins, nothing could be more malicious than not believing in this truth.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index We Must Believe in the Salvation Fulfilled through the Blue, Purple, and Scarlet Thread When Jesus Christ bore our sins and the condemnation of these sins through His baptism for us, and when He has saved you and me from our sins by sacrificing Himself in our place, we must all have the kind of faith that says, "Thank You, Lord!" Though many people are easily inspired by touching love stories, life stories, or just about any kind of heartfelt stories, when it comes to their hearts toward God's unconditional love, they are as cold as ice. When the grace of our Lord is so great that He was baptized and died on the Cross for our sake, there are still beastly people who cannot realize this grace and do not thank Him for it at all. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth and became the sacrificial offering for us. He accepted all our sins onto His own body with His baptism and sacrificed Himself by giving up His body on the Cross. He was slapped, stripped naked, persecuted and oppressed, all for us. This is how He has saved us. It is by believing in this truth that we have become God's children. This is the greatest inspiration of all, the great grace of God that words cannot express. When this is how Christ has saved us, it saddens me deeply to see that many people still do not believe and thank Him even after hearing it. It is because Jesus came to this earth, received His baptism, and sacrificed Himself that you and I have been saved from all our sins. Therefore, Isaiah 53:5 says, "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." We sin throughout our entire lives. To save us, who could not avoid but be condemned, from all our sins, condemnation, destruction and curses, our Lord left the throne of the Kingdom of Heaven behind, and came all the way down to this earth. He bowed His head before John and was baptized, carried these sins to the Cross and suffered greatly, shed all the blood of His heart to the ground, rose from the dead again, became the sacrificial offering for us, and has become the true God of our salvation. Do you think about this fact and keep it in deep in your hearts? When you hear the Word, it is only proper that you should believe and be greatly inspired in your hearts that Jesus Christ indeed came to this earth in the flesh of a man, and that He was baptized, crucified to death, and resurrected to save His people from their sins. If we realize that we had all been bound to hell, we can realize deep in our hearts just how greatly inspiring and thankful this salvation is. Though we had wanted to believe in God and become His people, there was no way for us to achieve this. But for you and me, who truly sought after our remission of sin, He has met us with the Word of truth that Christ came to this earth, was baptized, died on the Cross, and rose from the dead again in three days. Were it no this sacrifice of Jesus, how could we ever have received our salvation? We could never have! Were it not for baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross, and were it not for the salvation of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen manifested in the Tabernacle, salvation would have been only a midnight summer dream for us. Were it not for His sacrifice, we could never have been freed from our sins and avoided their punishment, but would be cast into the eternal fire of hell and suffer forever. Yet Christ has saved us by sacrificing Himself for our sake, just like the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Salvation of the Blue, Purple, and Scarlet Thread Fulfilled in the New Testament My beloved readers, you must never forget the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen used for the Tabernacle. The fine woven linen is the Word of the Old and New Testaments, the Word that God promised from long ago that He Himself would come to us as our own Savior, and in accordance to this promise, Jesus Christ came to this earth. The blue thread tells us that Christ, coming to this earth, took all our sins upon Himself through His baptism. He was baptized, in other words, according to the promise that He would save us from our sins and deliver us from our condemnation. To take our sins and the sins of everyone in this world upon Himself, He was baptized by John, and did indeed bear all the sins of the world. We must never forget this, for if we forget that Jesus came as our sacrificial offering and took all our sins upon Himself through His baptism, there would be no salvation. More often than not, we live in this world attaching a great self-importance to ourselves. People's hearts are such that although they cannot tolerate hearing someone else boasting, they themselves love to boast nevertheless. But there came a certain time when I started to boast of not myself, but of someone else, and this was when I became grateful to Jesus for saving me through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. In other words, I came to boast of Jesus. Now, I tell and boast as often as I can that Jesus came to this earth; that to blot out our sins, He took all our sins upon Himself by being baptized; that Jesus could be crucified on account of His baptism; and that this is how the Lord has saved us. I do not fail to boast of this truth, to preach it, and to give all glory to God. Yet there are way too many people who, though professing to believe in Jesus, preach the Word while leaving out His baptism, or only boast themselves by borrowing His name. There was a false minister who used to claim that he only spent $300 a month for his living. As if it were a great accomplishment, he used boast that he can get by with only $300 a month, and that he doesn't have to take any money when he is traveling because his followers pay for all his expenses. But is the believers' money somehow not money? Does this money not count for anything, while only his own money matters? This Christian leader claimed that all that had to do was just pray whenever he needed something. "God, cover my travel expenses! I believe You, Lord!" With this prayer, some saint popped out and gave him a load of cash, he testified. Looking at such people who say these things as if they were something to boast of, what kind of thoughts come to your minds? Matthew 3:13-17 state, "Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?' But Jesus answered and said to him, 'Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" This passage describes what happened when Jesus was baptized. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist at the Jordan River and came out of the water, the gate of Heaven was opened and the voice of God the Father was heard: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." John the Baptist was stunned at that time. John the Baptist was astonished twice at this Jordan River. He was first stunned when he saw that Jesus came to him and wanted to be baptized by him, and he was stunned again after baptizing Jesus when the gate of Heaven was opened and heard the voice of God the Father saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What is the reason for Jesus to be baptized by John the Baptist? Matthew 3:15 here gives us the answer. Let's read verses 15 and 16 again: "But Jesus answered and said to him, 'Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him." Matthew 3:15 tells us the reason why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Even though Jesus was the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven and the only begotten Son of God, He nevertheless came to this earth to save us, His people, from our sins. In other words, Jesus came to this earth as the sacrificial offering that pays the wages of our sins by taking these sins upon Himself and being sacrificed in our place. This is why Jesus sought to be baptized by John. But why was Jesus baptized by none other than John the Baptist? Because John the Baptist was the representative of mankind, for he was the greatest of all those born of women. Matthew 11:11 says, "Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist." John the Baptist was the servant of God prophesied from the Old Testament's time in the Book of Malachi: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD" (Malachi 4:5). John the Baptist was this very Elijah whom God had promised to send. Why did God call John the Baptist as Elijah? Elijah was a prophet who turned the hearts of Israelites back to God. At that time, the people of Israel were worshipping Baal as their God, but Elijah showed them clearly who the real God was, whether it was Baal or Jehovah God. He was the prophet who, with his faith and through the sacrificial offering, demonstrated to the people of Israel who really was the living God, and thereby led them, who had been worshipping idols, back to the true God. This is why at the end of the Old Testament, God promised, "I will send you Elijah." Because all the human beings, who were made in the image of God, were on the wrong path of idolatry and demon-worship, God said that He would send them His servant who would lead them back to God. The one who would thus come is John the Baptist. Matthew 11:13-14 state, "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come." This Elijah who is to come is none other than John the Baptist. In verse 11-12, it is written, "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who 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 suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." So when it says here that "among those born of women there has not rise one greater than John the Baptist," it means that God raised John the Baptist as the representative of all mankind. God made John the Baptist be born unto this earth six months before the birth of Jesus. And God prepared him as the last prophet and priest of the Old Testament. Therefore, as the High Priest of the earth, John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ and thereby passed all the sins of mankind onto Him. In other words, the reason why John the Baptist baptized Jesus was to pass all the sins of the world onto Him. The reason why Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist was to take all the sins of mankind upon Himself through His baptism. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 3:15, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Because all righteousness could be fulfilled only when Jesus received His baptism from John the Baptist to accept all the sins of the world, Jesus said that it was fitting.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Our Lord Has Thus Saved Sinners with This Method This baptism that Jesus received from John is the same as the Old Testament's laying on of hands. It was, in other words, the laying on of hands that was done before the altar of burnt offering in the Old Testament's time to pass one's sins onto the sacrificial offering. By coming to this earth and being baptized, Jesus Christ fulfilled the promise of the laying on of hands-the promise made whenever the daily offerings were given where sinners passed their sins onto their sacrificial offering by putting their hands on its head, and whenever the yearly offering was given on the 10th day of the seventh month, the day of great atonement, through which the High Priest passed the year's worth of sins of all the Israelites onto the offering of sacrifice by putting his hands on its head. Like the Old Testament's laying on of hands, because Jesus accepted all the sins of the world onto Himself by being baptized, He washed away all these sins, and because He took all these sins of mankind upon Himself, He bore the condemnation of these sins in our place and was sacrificed. This is how Jesus Christ could become the true God of our salvation. As such, we must truly admit that because of our sins, we could not avoid but face our certain death and be condemned. We must know this and feel it. And we must realize that Jesus Christ our Savior has saved us by coming to this earth and being sacrificed for our sake-that is, through His works of salvation with His baptism, crucifixion, and resurrection, Jesus Christ has washed us of all our sins and saved us wholly from our sins. We must also believe that Jesus has given us the gift of salvation, that He has fulfilled our salvation and has given us this completed salvation as His gift for us. Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness, so that if one were to only believe, and if one were to only accept, he/she would surely be saved. To make us realize this, the gate of the court of the Tabernacle was woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. This is also the reason why we would first see the altar of burnt offering if we open and enter into this gate of the court of the Tabernacle. The offerings that were given at the altar of burnt offerings were also the foreshadow of the method of salvation through which Jesus Christ has saved us. The offerings that were sacrificed on the altar of burnt offering had to accept the iniquities of sinners onto themselves through the laying on of hands and bleed to death in the sinners' place. The blood of the sacrificial offerings was then put on the horns of the altar, and the rest was sprinkled on the ground. Then, they offered the flesh and fat of the animals on the altar as the burnt offerings. These were the method by which the sacrificial offerings were given to God. All these features of the sacrificial offerings are exactly the same as the method by which Jesus Christ has become our Savior. Through the sacrificial offerings, in other words, God has shown us that Jesus Christ would come to this earth and save us in this way. Without fail, sinners' hands had to be put on the sacrificial animals given at the altar of burnt offering. This is why the Tabernacle is telling us of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Coming to this earth, Jesus Christ was baptized to take the sins of mankind upon Himself. Baptism is the antitype of salvation that Christ received to become the sacrificial offering for all the sinners of the world before God the Father. Through this Tabernacle, we can now have clear faith. Just as the sacrificial offering accepted the sins of the people of Israel on the Day of Atonement through the laying on of the High Priest's hands, and just as it had to be sacrificed in their place because their sins had now been all passed onto it (Leviticus 16), Jesus Christ came to this earth to take our sins upon Himself and to become our own sacrificial offering for these sins, did indeed become our sacrificial offering, and has thereby saved us from all our sins and condemnation. We can now wholly believe in this salvation of love. It is by believing in this truth that we can thank and repay our debt to God for this salvation of love that He has given us. No matter how knowledgeable of the Tabernacle one might be, if he/she does not believe, then all this knowledge is useless. As such, we must realize, as well as believe, just how important the baptism of Jesus Christ really is. The Tabernacle had three gates, all of which were woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. People may express each gate of the Tabernacle differently because of their ignorance. In its ordering of threads, the first to be woven was blue thread, followed by the order of purple thread, scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. Only by making the gate in this way can it properly be described as the real gate of the Tabernacle, for this is exactly how God commanded the Israelites to build it in the Old Testament's time. There was a reason why the gates had to be made in this way. Regardless of how Jesus Christ was born unto this earth as the Savior of mankind in the flesh of man and through the body of the Virgin Mary, if He had not been baptized to take our sins upon Himself in the first place, He could not have become our true Savior. If He had not been baptized, He could not be crucified and die on the Cross, either. As such, the blue thread had to be woven first, and its relative importance was also critical.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Whom Must We Believe in? Therefore, we must believe in Jesus Christ who has saved us from our sins. We can be truly born again only when we believe in the salvation that this Son of God, Jesus Christ our Savior, has given us. When we believe in the Son of God as the God of our salvation, and when we believe in the truth that He came to this earth, took our sins upon Himself all at once by being baptized for us, and bore our condemnation on the Cross, we can then all receive our true salvation. Because Jesus Christ could not take our sins upon Himself in any other way but through His baptism, only by bearing our sins by this exact method could He go to the Cross, shed His blood and die on it. No matter how He is the Son of God and how He came to this earth as our Savior, if He had not taken our sins upon Himself through His baptism, our salvation could never be found in this world. Therefore, it is essential for you to confirm the biblical evidences in detail to be in full conviction that your sins have been blotted out already. Let's assume for a moment that you owe a considerable debt. Then someone says to you, "Don't worry; I'll pay it off for you. No need to worry; I'll solve this problem." Whenever you meet him, this guy keeps telling us, "Didn't I tell you not to worry? I told you that I'd take care of it!" Let's further assume that this person even gets angry, asking why you don't believe him. Even if this person tells you everyday, "I paid it all off; just trust me," when he did not actually pay your debt off, would you really be freed from this debt just by believing him? Of course not! No matter how confidently he tells you, "If you trust me, all your debt is resolved," if he did not actually pay it off, then your debt remains as it is, and this person is only deceiving you. So you ask him again and again, "So did you pay off my debt?" He then tells you repeatedly, "Why are you so doubtful? Just trust me unconditionally! I told you that I paid off all your debt. All that you have to do is just believe me, and yet you are so suspicious! Don't be like this!" So, let's assume again, you trusted him with all your heart. But no matter how much you believed him, if he did not actually pay off your debt, then his words are all lies.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index This Is How the Faith of Today's Christians Are Today's Christians say, "Jesus has saved you by shedding His precious blood on the Cross. He bore all the condemnation of sin there. This is how He has saved you." Many pastors preach like this to their congregations. When someone among the congregation rises and tells them, "But I am still sinful," they say, "That's because you have little faith. Just believe! None other than your disbelief is your sin!" "I too really want to believe, sir. But I don't know why I can't believe." "I don't know why I'm still sinful even though I believe. I really believe." "You don't have enough faith. You need to believe more. Climb up a mountain and try fasting. Believe while skipping your meals." "Can't I just believe while not skipping meals?" "No, you have to try believing while you fast." Many of today's pastors tell you to believe, yet they do not solve the problem of your sins, and they only rebuke you for not believing. On your part, you try to believe and yet it's too hard to believe, or you truly believe blindly but the problem of your sins still remains. What's wrong here? What can explain this? People cannot have true and strong faith because they do not know that Jesus Christ took all their sins upon Himself by being baptized. It is because they believe in delusions with which they cannot solve the problem of their sins no matter how much they believe. Does faith come just by believing unconditionally without any definite evidence? Of course not! Whole faith comes all at once only when you know how the problem of sin was really solved and believe in it. "Though I had doubted You, it is far too clear that You have already solved the problem of my sins. No matter how much I try not to believe, I cannot help but believe in Your salvation, for this salvation is so certain. Thank You for solving my problem." Though we may doubt at first, in other words, because the evidence of our salvation is so certain that we can no longer doubt anymore. As the mark of our salvation and its evidence, Jesus has shown us His receipt called the gospel of the water and the Spirit. "I have paid off your debt for you in this way." Only when we look at this receipt that shows that all our debts have been paid off can the truth faith come to us. We cannot believe even as we profess to believe in God, say that Jesus Christ, God Himself, is our Savior, and claim to believe in the Savior, when we do not have the evidence of how He has saved us and how our sins were blotted out. In other words, we can't have firm conviction unless we have seen the receipt showing the full payment of the wages of our sins. People who believe without seeing this receipt may appear to have a strong feeling of faith at first, but their faith is, in fact, simply blind. It is no more than a fanatical faith.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Do You Consider a Fanatical Faith as a Good Faith? How would you like if a pastor with a fanatical faith demanded the same fanaticism from others also? "Believe! Receive the fire! Fire, fire, fire! The Holy Spirit that is like the fire, fill us with the fire! I believe that the Lord will bless you all! I believe that He will make you all rich! I believe that He will bless you! I believe that He will heal you!" When such a pastor puts up this kind of show, the audience's ears start ringing and their hearts start jumping. Channeled through a sound system of the highest quality, when he starts shouting, "Fire, fire, fire," the audience's hearts start jumping at the majestic sound of his voice. They are then overwhelmed emotionally, as if a strong faith had really come to them, and wail, "Come, Lord Jesus! O, come, the Holy Spirit!" At about this time, the pastor then incites the audience's emotion even more by saying, "Let us pray. I believe that the Holy Spirit is now descending and filling us all." The band's playing of inspiring hymns soon follows this, and people raise their hands up high, going wild with enthusiasm, and their emotional outbursts reach the climax. Right on cue, this is when the pastor says, "Let us give our offerings. In particular, this evening, God wants to receive a special offering from you. Let us all give this special offering to God." Overwhelmed by their emotions, people then end up emptying their pockets. This false pastor has already prepared an immense pulpit that is large enough to pile up all the money collected, and put dozens of butterfly nets (collection bowls) at its front. When the band starts playing hymns and people's hearts are overwhelmed by their excitement, he then sends off the butterfly collectors (volunteers passing the collection bowls) amid the audience. By lying that more offerings mean more blessings, and by incite people's emotions, such false pastors induce people to shed their tears and open their wallets. It is to make them hand over their money without even realizing by depriving them of their reason and perception and overwhelming them with their emotions instead. This is neither based on the Word of God, nor any kind of a sermon, but a fanatical and blind act that verges on a fraud. Like this, the pastors whose faith is fanatical incite people's emotions to reach their own ulterior objectives. If we know that our Lord took our sins upon Himself through His baptism, and if we believe in this Jesus Christ as our Savior, then we are not shaken, but remain at peace. The only thing that inspires us quietly is that Jesus shouldered our sins with His baptism and was crucified to death. When we think about this, that Jesus, God Himself, took our sins upon Himself with His baptism and died to pay the wages of these sins, we become immensely thankful, and our hearts are filled by a great joy. However, this tranquil inspiration in our hearts is far greater than anything else in this world; neither any romantic confession of love, nor any gift of the most precious diamond of this world can ever inspire us more than this. In contrast, the emotionally oriented inspiration of the fanatics does not last that long. Though they may dwell in this inspiration for a while, when they sin everyday and are disgraced by such sins, they cannot but hide their faces out of shame. "When Jesus bore our condemnation and died on the Cross for us, why do I still sin everyday?" So they lose their face and can no longer be inspired as time passes by; what's more, out of shame, they cannot even go to God. This is why God has shown us the altar of burnt offering. The offering of sacrifice that was given on this altar of burnt offering according to the sacrificial system was none other than Jesus Christ our Savior. As such, the altar of burnt offering manifests that Jesus came to this earth and has in fact saved us all at once through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. God has made us see this altar of burnt offering, and He wants us to be saved by believing in it.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index What Is It That We Must Do in This Era? There are many things that we the born-again must do in this era. First of all, we have to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world. We must spread the truth to those who remain ignorant of this truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, and we must thereby help them to be saved from the condemnation of fire in hell. Why? Because there are many people who are following Jesus without even realizing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested in the Tabernacle. To spread this truth to them, there are still many things for us to do. We have to publish our books that are sent throughout the whole world; from translating, proofreading, and editing to make these books to securing the necessary funds to print them and send them to countries all over the world, there indeed are many works that need to be done. So when we look at our fellow workers and ministers, we see just how busy they all are. Because all the saints and workers of God's Church are so busy in this way, they are going through some tough time physically. It is said that marathon runners reach a certain point in their 42.175 km course when they become so exhausted that they are not even sure if they are running or doing something else entirely different. In short, extreme exhaustion would make them mentally vacuous. Perhaps we now have also reached this point in our run for the gospel. Living our lives for the gospel is like running a long distance toward our goal without stopping, as the marathon runners do. Because our running for the gospel must go on until the Day of our Lord's coming, we all face hardship. But because our Lord is in us, because we have the gospel of the water and the Spirit, because our faith believes that the Lord has saved us with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, and because we believe in the most certain truth, we can all receive new strength. It is because Jesus has given us the gift of salvation that you and I have received this gift. So our hardships of the flesh cannot trouble us. On the contrary, the more difficult it gets, the more strength the righteous find. I truly thank the Lord. Spiritually, in our hearts, in our thoughts, and throughout our actual surroundings, we can feel the new strength that our Lord has given us, and that He is with us. Because we can feel that He is helping us and holding us, and that He is with us, we give even more thanks to Him. So, the Apostle Paul also said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). We therefore confess everyday that we cannot do anything at all if the Lord does not empower us. Not only was Jesus Christ baptized for us, but He was also sacrificed for us by being crucified, faced His own death, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become our true Savior. Whenever we look at the altar of burnt offering, we come to remind ourselves of this truth. The altar of burnt offering was made of acacia wood, and it was overlaid in and out with thick bronze. Its height was about 1.35 m, and its grate, a network of bronze, was placed near its middle, at about 68 cm in height. The flesh of offerings were put on this grate and burnt. Whenever we look at the altar of burnt offering, we must be able to see ourselves as we are. We must also be able to see that Jesus Christ took our sins upon Himself by being baptized in His flesh, and that He bore all the condemnation of our sins by shedding His blood on the Cross. You and I truly could not avoid but die before God because of our sins and condemnation. Because of our sins and condemnation, you and I could not avoid but die and be cursed forever. But because of Jesus Christ, who came to this earth as the eternal offering of atonement, was baptized, and died, all for us, like the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament, we have been saved. A sacrificial animal may look cute and cuddly when alive, but how gruesome would it be when it bleeds to death, with its throat cut open, after it accepts sins through the laying on of hands? That we, who deserved to die in this gruesome way, have escaped our condemnation is truly a great blessing. This blessing has been possible because the Lord has given us the gift of the salvation. Just as manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, Jesus Christ came to this earth in the flesh of a man, has saved you and me through His baptism and the blood of the Cross, and has thereby given us the true gift of salvation. God has thus given you and me the gift of salvation-do you believe this in your hearts? Do you believe in this gift of salvation, the love of Jesus? We must all have this faith. When we look at the altar of burnt offering, we must realize that Jesus Christ has saved us this way. He was sacrificed like this to give us the gift of salvation. As hands were laid on the sacrificial offering, and as this sacrificial offering bled to death, Jesus has given us our salvation by suffering in this manner. This is how He has saved us from our sins. We must realize this, believe in our hearts before God, and give thanks to Him with all our hearts. God wants us to receive through faith the gift and love of salvation that He has given us. He wants us to believe in our hearts in the salvation of the baptism and the blood of the Cross that He fulfilled by coming through the water and the Spirit. It is my hope that you would all believe in the love of our Lord in your hearts and truly accept into them His gift of salvation. Do you truly accept it into your hearts?  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Who Was Sacrificed in This Way for You? I once saw a witnessing leaflet that said, "Who will die for you? Whom did you meet today that comforted you? Jesus Christ was sacrificed for you. Is your heart not comforted by this?" Who will really bear your sins by being baptized and die on the Cross in your place to blot out your sins? Who will shed all his/her blood and die to bestow his/her love on you? Who will ever be willing to face this sacrifice for you? Is it your relatives? Your children? Your parents? None of them! It is God Himself who made you. To save you from your sins, this God came to this earth in the flesh of a man, was baptized to take your sins upon Himself, was crucified and shed His blood to bear the condemnation of your sins, has become your true Savior, rose from the dead again, is living even as now, and has given you His salvation and love as a gift. Do you truly want to accept this salvation of love into your hearts? Do you really believe in your hearts? Whoever believes will receive the Lord, and whoever receives Him will be saved. Receiving Him means to accept the salvation and love that Christ has given for us. It is by believing in our hearts in this love, this remission of sins, this bearing of sins, and this condemnation of sins, that we are saved. This is the faith that receives the gift of salvation. Everything of the Tabernacle manifests Jesus Christ. God does not demand any sacrifice from us. All that He asks from us is that we believe in the gift of salvation that He has given us in our hearts. "To give you the gift of salvation, I came to this earth. Like the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament, I accepted all your sins passed onto Me through the laying on of hands, and like this offering of sacrifice, I bore the gruesome condemnation of your sins for you. This is how I have saved you." This is what God is telling us through the Tabernacle. No matter how God has thus saved us, has loved us this much, and has given us the gift of perfect salvation in this way, if we do not believe, everything is useless. The salt in your cabinet must first be put into your soup for it taste salty; likewise, if you and I do not believe in our hearts, even His perfect salvation turns completely useless. If we do not thank in our hearts for the gospel of the water and the Spirit and accept it into our own hearts, the sacrifice of Jesus becomes worthless. Salvation can be yours only when you know just what sacrifice and love Jesus, God the Savior, has given you, accept them into your hearts and thank Him for them. If you do not accept Christ's gift of perfect salvation into your hearts but only understand it in your heads, then it is completely useless.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index All You Have to Do Is Just Grab the Truth It does not matter how much your soup is boiling on the stove; if you only think to yourself that you are going to put in the salt and yet do not actually do so, your soup can never be salty. You can be saved only when you accept into your hearts and believe that our Lord has saved you from your sins by being baptized and sacrificed for us, just like the sacrificial offering that was sacrificed on the altar of burnt offering. When God is giving you the gift of salvation, just accept it in thankfulness. When our Lord is telling us that he has saved us wholly, the right thing for us to do is to simply believe so. Is the love of God that He has given you only half-hearted? Of course not! The love of our Lord is perfect. Our Lord, in other words, has saved you and me completely and perfectly. Because He took our sins upon Himself perfectly with His baptism and died on the Cross for sure, we cannot have any doubt about this love. He has saved us this perfectly and given us the gift of salvation. We must all accept this gift of salvation that God has given us. Let's assume for a moment that I am holding a very valuable jewelry made of most precious gems. If I give it to you as a gift, all that you have to do is just accept it instinctively. Is this not the case? How simple and easy is it for you to make it yours? To make this jewelry yours, all that you have to do is just reach out and grab it. That's it. If you would just open your hearts and pass all your sins onto Jesus through His baptism, you can all easily receive the remission of your sins and fill your empty hearts with the truth. This is how the Lord said that He would give us salvation as a free gift. Salvation can be yours just by reaching out and grabbing it. We have received our salvation as a gift, without paying a single cent for it. And because God is the One who is pleased to give this gift to whoever wants to receive, blessed are those who have received it in thankfulness. Those who accept the love of God in joy are clothed in His love, and they are the ones who love this giver, for by accepting it, they have pleased His heart. Accepting this gift is the right thing to do. It is only when you accept the gift of perfect salvation that God has given you that this true gift of salvation can be yours. If you do not accept it into your hearts, then the gift of salvation can never be yours, no matter how hard your try. I, too, have received this gift of salvation. "Ah! The Lord was baptized in this way for me. By being thus baptized, He bore the condemnation of all my sins. He was baptized ultimately for my own sake. Thank You, Lord!" This is what I came to believe. I am, therefore, now sinless. I have received the perfect remission of sin. If you, too, would also like to receive this remission of sin and be saved, accept it right now. I have thought about this gift of salvation all the time from then on. Even now, when I think about it again, I realize that there is nothing else I can do but to thank the Lord for my salvation. Because this love of salvation is in my heart, I can never forget it. When I first received my remission of sin by accepting and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, I was infinitely grateful to God. And even now, after several years have passed by, I still have this same thankful heart, and am renewed everyday.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index CONCLUSION Jesus surely came to this earth to save me, was baptized to take all my sins upon Himself, and died on the Cross to bear the condemnation of my sins. When I realized that all these things were done for me, I immediately accepted them and made them mine. I realize all the time that this was the best thing that I have ever done in my entire life, the wisest and smarted act of all. I therefore believe that the Lord truly loves me and cares for me, and I also believe and confess that He did all these things because He loved me. "Lord, I give all my thanks to You. Just as You have loved me, I also love You." Confessing thus is a great joy for the born-again. Want to know more about the Tabernacle? Please click the banner below to get your free book on the Tabernacle. Our Lord's love is forever unchanging. Just as His love for us does not change forever, our love for Him cannot change forever, either. At times, when we suffer and face hardships, our hearts might turn astray and we might even wish to forget and betray this love. But even when we are overwhelmed by our pain and our consciousness fails us, and even when all that we can think of is our own pain, God still holds us faithfully so that our hearts would never forget His love. God loves us forever. That our Lord came to this earth as a creation for our sake was because He loved us to His own death. Now, I entreat you to believe in this love of God for yourselves. And accept it into your hearts. Do you believe now? I thank the Lord for saving us perfectly from our sins with this love.  â€¢ OU Top Featured for Exodus Outline Chapter 27     IV. The Color of the Gate of The Tabernacle's Court       1) The Gate And the Fence of the Tabernacle's Court       2) Jesus Christ Showed Us the Four Colors of the Gate of the Tabernacle       3) The Truth That Every Sinner Must Believe       4) The Messiah Who Came as the Fulfiller of the Prophecies       5) Look at the Fulfillment of the Word of the Old Testament!       6) Jesus Christ, the Savior Who Has Saved Us       7) Jesus Christ Who Came by the Water, the Blood, and the Spirit       4) The Matching of the Old and New Testaments       5) You and I, Too, Were All Spiritual Pharisees       6) Our Sins Disappeared by Believing in the Gospel       7) Jesus Took Upon Himself the Sins of The World       4) What Is the Perfect Faith?       5) Manifested in the Gate of the Court of the Tabernacle       6) When We Believe in Jesus       7) People Who Believe in Jesus Only Religiously       4) What Would Happen to Us If We Do Not Believe       5) Only By Grace Can We Receive the Gift       6) CONCLUSION      V. In Process Sermons on important subjects by Rev. Paul C. Jong and other pastors are placed on these study pages only to provide information not readily available elsewhere. In that we are using these studies no way implies that we approve or disapprove of the content. Fellow pilgrims are advised to study wisely and "try the spirits."        â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Color of the Gate of The Tabernacle's Court Sermons on important subjects by Rev. Paul C. Jong Exodus 27:9-19 "You shall also make the court of the tabernacle. For the south side there shall be hangings for the court made of fine woven linen, one hundred cubits long for one side. And its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets shall be bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be silver. Likewise along the length of the north side there shall be hangings one hundred cubits long, with its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of bronze, and the hooks of the pillars and their bands of silver. And along the width of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits, with their ten pillars and their ten sockets. The width of the court on the east side shall be fifty cubits. The hangings on one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets. And on the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets. For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver. It shall have four pillars and four sockets. All the pillars around the court shall have bands of silver; their hooks shall be of silver and their sockets of bronze. The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, the width fifty throughout, and the height five cubits, made of fine woven linen, and its sockets of bronze. All the utensils of the tabernacle for all its service, all its pegs, and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze." There are clear differences between the faith of the born-again and that of the nominal Christians: the former knows and believes that God has blotted out all our sins, and the latter believes in Jesus based on one's own thoughts, merely as a matter of religious practices. Yet those who believe in God only as a religious matter are prospering so much that those who are preaching the real truth are even disheartened to see these people of wrong faith spreading their false teachings and prospering. They are disheartened because they clearly know that so many Christians have been drawn into such false religions of deception and frauds. I, too, were disheartened by this for a while. Because I was truly born again by encountering the truth, and truly thankful to God for using me as an instrument for His works, and because my heart yearned for the truth of God to be spread far and wide, when I saw so many people leading their religious lives deceived by lies, I could not but become deeply saddened. Nevertheless, what is clear is that the Holy Spirit is in my heart, and that despite my shortcomings, my heart has no sin. In my heart, therefore, is found thankfulness, and I have no shame over the gospel that I believe in. When I preach this gospel to people throughout the whole world, if they hear this Word of truth and believe in it, they, too, can have no shame before both God and people, for when they believe in this truth, they all really become God's children. You too can surely have the same blessings by faith. Even though you have not studied theology, if you just believe in the truth of this gospel of the water and the Spirit, you will receive the remission of your sins, become the children of God, and receive the Holy Spirit into your hearts. And with the Holy Spirit, you can also walk with the servants of God. This is the clear truth, and believing thus is the true faith. Although I am living in a world that is filled with lies, because in my heart is this true faith, I have been able to keep preaching the gospel of truth until this very moment. Since I began to preach the Word on the topic of the Tabernacle, I came to know more clearly about the schemes of the liars, and thus I came to discern the truth from the false. This is the reason why I have been testifying this truth of the Tabernacle. It brings me an immense joy that with the spreading of the real truth through the Tabernacle, people are enabled to discern between the truth and the false. In writing this book on the Tabernacle, the most difficult task for me was trying to deal with its terminology. I have devoted a great amount of attention to this issue, looking up the original texts, to make sure that the difficult glossaries associated with the Tabernacles would not result into any conveying of wrong information, nor to such mistaken reception by the readers. Despite my own understanding and knowledge of the Tabernacle, because the modalities of the Tabernacle and its hidden spiritual meanings had to be explained to those whose knowledge is very limited, I was somewhat concerned about the task, unsure of how precisely and definitively I could really explain the significance of the Tabernacle. It would be nice, of course, if people could understand and believe as soon as they first hear it. But Rome was not built in a day; likewise, and as in all matters, the spreading of the truth and the true faith is not accomplished in a day, either, but it is achieved gradually, as we dig deeper into the core little by little. I was therefore particularly concerned about digging too deep from the beginning, for not everyone would then be able to understand it, and this was one of the most formidable challenges that I faced in writing this book. Nevertheless, with God's help, the book has finally come out without too much trouble. Needless to say, I am very happy and thankful for it. Through this book, and by discerning the truth from the false, I will reveal just how preciously, clearly, and undoubtedly today's believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit have been saved, and how, in contrast, religious and vain the faith of the believers of the other gospels other than this gospel of the water and the Spirit really is. I am therefore thankful to God, above all, for saving me from my sins. Today, there are many so-called evangelicals, who claim unconditionally that they are sinless just because they believe in Jesus. Their hearts are filled with all kinds of unfounded and delusional faith. While studying the Tabernacle, I have come to realize even more clearly just how vain and false their faith really is, and because of this realization, I thank God even more with all my heart for my salvation.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Gate And the Fence of the Tabernacle's Court From the main passage, we can find out the fact that the length of the rectangular court of the Tabernacle was 45 m (150 feet) and its width was 22.5 m (75 feet), as a cubit is a unit of length equal to 0.45 meter (1.5 feet); that the court of the Tabernacle was surrounded by 60 pillars on all sides, the height of each pillar was 2.25 m (7.5 feet); that to its east was the gate, measuring 9 m in width; and that the rest of the entire fence (about 126 m :115 yards out of 135 m : 123 yards) was surrounded by the hangings of white fine linen. The gate of the court of the Tabernacle was woven with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen, and it measured 9 m (30 feet) in width with 2.25 m (7.5 feet) in height. These four different threads, in other words, were woven to make a screen measuring 9 m (30 feet) by 2.25 m (7.5 feet) . Blue thread was first woven in full length and width into the fine white linen, and then purple thread was woven 2.25 m (7.5 feet) high, and then scarlet thread was woven 2.25 m (7.5 feet) high, followed by the weaving of white thread, making a thick and sturdy screen, woven like a carpet, that was 2.25 m (7.5 feet) high. In this way, a screen woven to measure 2.25 m (7.5 feet) in height and 9 m (30 feet) in width was put up on four pillars of the court of the Tabernacle to its east. To enter into the Tabernacle's court, as such, people had to pull the carpet-like screen up. Unlike most other gates, the gate of the Tabernacle was not of wood. Although its pillars were made of wood, the gate that was hung on these pillars was a screen woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. You might have been to a circus show on tour before, and seen how a circus tent is built. Its door is usually made with thick fabrics. The gate of the court of the Tabernacle was somewhat similar to this kind of door. As it was made of thick fabrics, it was not opened by pulling or pushing, as in hard doors, but it was pulled up instead to enter. This was the case not only for the gate of the Tabernacle's court, but also for the gates of the Holy Place and the Most Holy inside the Tabernacle. Why did God tell the Israelites to make all three gates of the Tabernacle's court, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy by weaving them with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen? We need to find out clearly what the will of God was behind this command. The Book of Hebrews tells us that all the good things of the Old Testaments are the shadows of one real substance to come, that is, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:1). Likewise, the gate of the court of the Tabernacle is intricately related to the baptism of Jesus Christ, His death on the Cross, and His own identity. As such, when we have trouble understanding the Old Testament, we can reach this understanding by looking at the New Testament. Without seeing the actual substance, it's hard to figure out its shadow, but when see what or who is casting the shadow, we can realize what it is all about. We must all realize clearly who the Savior of sinners that God has prepared from the Old Testament really is, know Him as the actual substance of the Tabernacle, and believe that His works have saved us from all our sins. Who, then, is the real substance of the Tabernacle, the One who has become the Savior of sinners? It is none other than Jesus Christ. When we examine how Jesus Christ, our Savior, came to this earth and how He has saved us from our sins, we can then find out the sure truth that He has saved sinners through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. In understanding Jesus' salvation of sinners, knowing and believing in the truth manifested in the colors of the gate of the Tabernacle's court is the most important. When delving into the Tabernacle, the first thing we must realize is that the gate of its court was made of four threads. And when we solve the mystery of this gate, we can then come to a firm grasp of all the works of Jesus Christ. By looking at the screen gate woven of these four threads, we can also understand clearly just how we must know and believe in Jesus, and exactly what kind of faith is wrong faith. The outer court of the Tabernacle actually reminds us of a sheepfold. Jesus, our Messiah, is in fact the door of the sheepfold of God, and has also become the good Shepherd (John 10:1-15). When we think of the pillars surrounding the court, we are actually reminded of the Messiah, who has become the door and the good Shepherd of His sheep, the born-again saints. The Shepherd has actually put up posts around the sheepfold to protect His sheep and has made a door there, and through this door, He is guarding His sheep. Through this door the Shepherd has close fellowship with His sheep and protects them. As a matter of fact, all those who are not His sheep are not permitted to get in through this door. The Shepherd differentiates between sheep and wolves. This is why sheep need the Shepherd. Yet it is possible that there are some among these sheep that are refusing to be led by the Shepherd. Such sheep may enter into the way of death, thinking that it is a beautiful and good way when it is, in fact, a treacherous and dangerous one, for they have not listened to the voice of the Shepherd and refused to be led by Him. These sheep can actually have their lives spared and be fed well by the Shepherd, and live their lives beautifully because of Him. Our Shepherd, in fact, is Jesus Christ, who has become our Messiah.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Jesus Christ Showed Us the Four Colors of the Gate of the Tabernacle The screen that was put up as the gate of the Tabernacle was woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. This thread of four different colors was used to make the gate of the Tabernacle. They symbolized the four ministries that the Messiah, coming to this earth, would have to fulfill to save the lost sheep-that is, the spiritual Israelites all over the world-from their sins and to turn them into the sinless people of God. If we actually know who our Messiah that came to us with His four ministries is, then, the unequivocal truth is that we have been washed of all our sins by this faith, have dedicated our remaining lives to preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and will enter Heaven through this very faith. Therefore, everyone must in fact know the Word of the truth that the Messiah has come to us by the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and has saved us from all our sins. Do you want to receive the remission of your sins by believing in the four ministries of the Messiah? Let us, then, learn about the Tabernacle. Those who know these four ministries will in fact become the righteous by receiving the remission of sin woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. The people of Israel, looking at the gate of the Tabernacle woven of four different colors of thread, had to actually believe that the Messiah would indeed come in the future and fulfill these four ministries.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Truth That Every Sinner Must Believe Had we looked at the white linen hangings of the court of the Tabernacle, we would have recognized our need for the Savior by realizing just how holy God really is. Everyone who came to know God's holiness, in fact, could not help but admit, saying, "God, I recognize that I am bound to hell because of my sins, for I am just a big mass of sin." Looking at the white linen draping over the pillars of the court, because its cleanness and majesty would be so great, people would have recognized the sins found in their hearts and realized that they are completely unfit to live with God. Whenever those whose hearts are not straight try to go before God, their sins are always revealed. As such, people have been reluctant to go before God, for they are afraid that their sins would be revealed. But when such sinful people realize that their Savior has solved their problem of sin with His blue and scarlet thread, they can confidently go before God with a great conviction of salvation and hope in their hearts. The four-fold truth shown in the gate of the Tabernacle tells us that the Messiah came to this earth in the flesh of a man, took all the sins of the world upon Himself with His baptism received from John, and shed His blood on the Cross. Those who, through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, know exactly and believe in the truth of the four colors of the gate of the Tabernacle's court can then receive the eternal remission of sin. The baptism of Jesus and His crucifixion, the truth that Christ wholly saved us from all our sins with His baptism and His blood on the Cross, are salvation like the four colors of the gate of the Tabernacle's court. The blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and the fine woven linen actually show us the Messiah's ministry that has saved sinners from all their sins. The truth of salvation that God has given to the mankind is revealed in these blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and the fine woven linen. Those who have sin in their hearts, in fact, are forgiven of all their sins by believing in the truth of salvation revealed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Countless religions have sprung up in this world. All these worldly religions have come up with their own doctrines made up with their own thoughts, all making people try to reach holiness. But not even a single person has ever been washed of their sins through these worldly religions. The reason is because they had made up and believed in their own doctrines of salvation based on their own thoughts, without realizing that they are just filled with sin. Because everyone is a big mass of sin who can never become holy by him/herself, no matter how hard one tries to get rid of his/her fundamental nature of sin, no one can ever achieve this. This is why everyone absolutely needs the Savior who can deliver him/her from sins-that is, why everyone needs Jesus. You must realize that human beings have no true Savior apart from Jesus Christ. Because the Law of God does not allow sinners to enter the House of God, we must know and believe that the Messiah has actually blotted out all our sins. The gospel that has forgiven the sins of mankind once for all is none other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Placing one's faith in the worldly religions' doctrines will only lead him/her into great difficulties on account of his/her sins, for our Holy God condemns, without fail, every iniquity of sinners. The truth revealed by the blue, purple, and blue thread and the fine woven linen was fulfilled by the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the age of the New Testament. Have you ever heard someone claiming that the gate of the court of the Tabernacle was made with only scarlet thread or only purple and scarlet tread? If so, you must now realize, from this moment on, that the gate of the Tabernacle was actually woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. God clearly commanded the Israelites to make the gate of the Tabernacle's court with a screen woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen made by a weaver. Yet because many people have mistakenly thought that the gate of the court of the Tabernacle was woven of only scarlet thread, they could not solve the mystery of the true four ministries of our Lord. This is why they had sin in their hearts even when they believed in Jesus. Realize now that that Christ took away all your sins through His ministries of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and of fine woven linen, and believe in this truth. The work of salvation fulfilled by these blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen has indeed wholly saved you from all your sins. You must realize that Jesus took away all your sins with these four ministries. Setting your own standard of the remission of sin while remaining ignorant of this truth, in other words, is simply wrong. Some people, even as they remain oblivious to what the meaning of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread used for the gate of the Tabernacle's court is, mistakenly claim that one can be saved unconditionally just by believing in Jesus as the Savior. In fact, when we ask the leaders of Christian communities about the four ministries of Jesus, we find out that many of them are ignorant of them. They say that they believe only in the ministry of the scarlet thread. If they believe in one more thing, they might say that they believe in the ministry of the purple thread also. However, our Lord actually completed all the tasks for the salvation of mankind with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. As such, we must believe that our Lord carried out for us His four ministries of salvation. Whoever has a heart that desires to know the truth revealed in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen of the Tabernacle's gate can in fact know it and believe in it. "How should I understand the true meaning of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen?" If you were to ask this question to someone in search of the truth of these thread and linen, you might be rebuked in return, "You must not try to know the Bible in too much depth and detail; it may bring harm to you," and your curiosity might be ignored. Disheartened, many people may then lose their curiosity of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. And you would never meet the Messiah ever, who is revealed in detail through the gate. Those who try to meet the Messiah without realizing the role of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and of the fine woven linen are, as a matter of fact, only religionists who believe in Christianity as one of the worldly religions. To enter into the House of God, we must know properly the truth of the four ministries of God's salvation revealed in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen used for the gate of the Tabernacle's court. And those who have found this truth must realize that the Lord fulfilled them with the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the New Testament's time. God commanded Moses to weave the gate of the Tabernacle's court with blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and with fine woven linen. What, then, is the spiritual meaning of this? Each color of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and of the fine woven linen used for the gate of the Tabernacle's court is the work of Jesus that He did for us to make our sins disappear. These thread and linen therefore are intricately related to one another. As such, those who pay attention to and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can believe in their eternal remission of sin as the four ministries of Jesus. Despite this, not trying to know and ignoring the truth of salvation manifested in the colors of blue, purple, and scarlet are, therefore, the expression of one's complete indifference to the Messiah and the same as becoming the His enemy standing against Him. Many people, in fact, remain indifferent to the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, and are turning Christianity into only one of the many worldly religions. If these people regard Jesus' four ministries with indifference, then this is the evidence that they are the fruits of the worldly religionists who stand against Christ. Fortunately, however, there is still hope for us, for in this world many people are still looking for the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When people have the knowledge of the spiritual truth of the remission of sin revealed by the gate of the court of the Tabernacle, they can receive all the spiritual blessings of Heaven. Because this faith is actually the required faith that one must know and believe in to meet the Messiah, we must dwell on it not only once, but forever. If you truly are a Christian, you must pay attention to this truth. Whoever wants to enter into the House of God must discover the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, and praise God accordingly.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Messiah Who Came as the Fulfiller of the Prophecies God prophesied with His Word that the Messiah would be born through the body of a virgin. Isaiah 7:14 says, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." Micah 5:2, on the other hand, states that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me, The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting." The Messiah did indeed come to this earth exactly as prophesied by this Word of the Old Testament. He came to this earth in the flesh of a man as the fulfillment of the prophecies in accordance to the Word of God. At which point in human history, then, did the Messiah come? When did Jesus Christ come to this earth? He came to this earth during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus (B.C. 27-A.D. 14). Jesus came to this earth to deliver you and me from all our sins and condemnation by receiving baptism from John and being crucified and bleeding on the Cross. Jesus came as the Savior of mankind when Israel had been turned into a colony of the Roman Empire and when Augustus was reigning as its emperor. Because Israel was a Roman colony, it had to follow Rome's decrees. At this time, the Emperor Augustus had decreed everyone in the entire Roman Empire to return to his/her hometown and to register for a census. Following Augustus' decree, this census was immediately begun. Because the census sought to account for each and every person living in the Empire, including those living in Israel, all the Israelites had to also return to their hometowns. From this moment, Jesus Christ was already working in the history of mankind.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Look at the Fulfillment of the Word of the Old Testament! At the time, in the land of Judea, the Messiah was already conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. This Mary was engaged to Joseph. Both Mary and Joseph were from the tribe of Judah, just as God promised that of the twelve tribes of Israel, kings would continue to be born only from the tribe of Judah. So when the Roman Emperor Augustus decreed for a census to take place, Mary, of the tribe of Judah, was already carrying a baby in her womb. When her time came near and she was about to give birth, because of the Emperor's decree, she had to go to Joseph's hometown and register for the census. Mary therefore headed to Bethlehem with Joseph even as she was expected to give birth at anytime. When Mary went into her birth pain, they had to find a room for her, but they could not find any in town. They therefore had to use whatever place that was available to them, even as they ended up in a stable. And Mary gave birth to her baby Jesus in the stable. On A.D. 1, Jesus was born and placed in a manger. The Almighty God came to this earth in the flesh of a man. To the place where animals once stayed, the Savior of mankind came. This means that Jesus was born in this lowest place to become our Messiah, and all these things had been set and planned by God even before the creation. Though people might have known that Yahweh God moves the history of mankind, none could ever realize that God Himself would actually come to this earth to save them. God, therefore, made it possible for anyone to realize that He would save him/her by lowering Himself to be born unto this earth in the humble body of a man to deliver all human beings from their sins. Why, then, was Jesus born, of all places, in Bethlehem? We may also wonder why He had to be born in a stable, and why, of all times, when Israel was subjugated by Rome as its colony? But we can soon find out that all these things came under His elaborate providence carefully drawn to deliver His people from their sins. When Joseph and Mary registered for the census in their hometown, they had to provide evidence proving that they indeed were from this town, and document their exact identity. They could register for the census only when they could provide the necessary evidence to prove that their ancestors had indeed lived in Bethlehem for generations. So they had to disclose who their ancestors were and in whose houses they belonged, and record all such details of their family lineage on the census. As none of these could be invented or omitted, by historically recording the exact identities of Joseph and Mary, God made sure that the history of mankind would also testify to the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-16, Luke 3:23-38). All these were God's works that He did to fulfill the prophecies of the Word of the Old Testament. Micah 5:2 states, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me, The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting." That the day of birth came and the Savior was born in the prophesied town of Bethlehem precisely by making Joseph and Mary arrive at the very town means that God did this work to fulfill the prophecies of His prophets. This is for sure God's planned achievement in order to blot out all the sins of mankind. That Jesus had to be born in the little town of Bethlehem was to fulfill the Old Testament's Word of Prophecy. Hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born in the small town of Bethlehem, God had already given His Word of prophecy through His prophet Micah, as quoted above (Micah 5:2). As well, the Prophet Isaiah had also prophesized about 700 years before the coming of our Lord how the Messiah would come to His people to become the Savior of sinners (Isaiah 53). As Jesus Christ was indeed born in Bethlehem exactly as God prophesied through the Prophet Micah, He always fulfills all His Word of prophecy. This prophecy was fulfilled as a historical fact when Mary and Joseph went up to their ancestor's hometown to register for the census. God fulfilled His Word by making sure that the time for the baby to be born would come just when Mary arrives at Bethlehem, so that she would have no choice but to give birth in this town. Here, we discover that our God is the God who speaks His Word of prophecy to us and fulfills all such Word accordingly. From this, we can find out that the "fine woven linen" used for the gate of the Tabernacle's court implies the fineness and wholeness of God's Word. God had elaborately planned the salvation of mankind even before the Creation, and He has fulfilled this without fail according to His Word of prophecy. We can therefore realize that the Word of the Old Testament is surely the Word of God, and that the Word of the New Testament is also the Word of God. We can also realize, as well as believe, that God indeed rules over and moves all the history of the entire universe and this earth. We can find out, in other words, that just as God created the whole universe, He has shown us that He reigns over all peoples, all histories, and all conditions of everyone thoroughly. God therefore shows us that nothing can be achieved according to one's own will, no matter what it is, unless He allows it. When the Baby Jesus was born unto and came to this world, He could not but be born in the resting place of animals, for there was no room in the inn. And He Himself was indeed born in the town of Bethlehem. We must realize that all these were the wonderful achievement of God's prophesied providence according to His faithfulness. Therefore, we must believe that the One who moves the history of this universe is our God, the Savior who has delivered us from our sins. This truth is the Word of God that shows us that He rules over all, for God is the Lord of all. It thus has now been proven that the birth of Jesus in the small town of Bethlehem was not an accidental incidence, nor something that was arbitrarily invented by manipulating the Word of the Bible. This is what God Himself said, and it is also what God Himself fulfilled through Jesus. We must know this and believe in it. We must take it to our hearts and believe that the salvation of our Messiah is the truth that is fulfilled by the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. God has shown us that the remission of sin, too, is not something that is accidentally achieved, but it is achieved through the four ministries of Jesus prepared in God's providence. This also shows, in addition, that Christianity is not just one of many worldly religions. The founder of a worldly religion is a mere mortal, but the founder of Christianity is our Savior Jesus, and God has shown us that the truth of Christianity starts from the fact that this Savior of ours is God Himself. God is testifying to us, in other words, that the Christianity that we believe in is not merely a worldly religion. Unlike all the other earthly religions, Christianity is established on all the grace given by God. As it is written in Romans 11:36, "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever," He gave us His only begotten Son as our Savior, the gospel of the water and the Spirit for the remission of our sins, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, we must all know and believe in our hearts that we should fear and obey God and His Word with all our hearts. The birth of the Messiah on this earth was according to the plan of salvation determined by God the Father even before the creation. Our salvation had been perfectly planned within this. God has allowed us to clearly realize that this truth is the actual substance of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. Therefore, we must recognize the salvation that has come to us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the remission of our sins, and believe so. It is through this faith that you and I could be saved from all our sins. We must believe that this truth of the four colors, too, is made whole by our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Jesus Christ, the Savior Who Has Saved Us with His Blue, Purple, and Scarlet Thread and Fine Woven Linen The works by which Jesus Christ saved sinners from their sins are four-fold: the blue thread (Jesus' baptism); the purple thread (Jesus as King of kings-God Himself, in other words); the scarlet thread (the blood of Jesus); and the fine woven linen (the completion of the salvation of all sinners from their sins through the elaborate Word of the Old and New Testaments). Jesus has become precisely the Savior with the blue thread, the purple thread, the scarlet thread, and the fine woven linen. We must realize that unless we believe that Jesus, who came to us through the water and the Spirit, saved us from our sins with the blue thread (the baptism of Jesus), the purple thread (Jesus is God), the scarlet thread (the blood of Jesus), and the fine woven linen (Jesus who achieved salvation with the Word of the New and Old Testaments), we can never be delivered from our sins and the condemnation of these sins. Without thus saving us from our sins and condemnation, our Lord could not have become the perfect Savior. We must realize spiritually the reason why the curtain of the gate of the Tabernacle's court was woven with blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. The gate of the Tabernacle's court was made with these blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen so that everyone could obviously recognize the gate and easily find it. Through this gate, God allowed anyone to enter into His shining House. The Tabernacle itself is the shining House of God. No one who wished to enter the House of God could do so without realizing the truth of salvation manifested in the fence and the gate of the Tabernacle's court. God said that those who, ignoring the holiness of the white linen curtain draping the Tabernacle, do not enter into the Tabernacle by the gate, but climb over some other way, are all thieves and robbers. The gate of salvation refers to Jesus Christ (John 10). When the Bible says that this gate is woven with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen, God is showing us clearly, through His true Word of the Old and New Testaments, that Jesus Christ came to this earth as the Son of God, was baptized by John, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and thereby has become our Messiah. We can thus find out the mystery of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. We must believe that God has allowed us to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to save us from the judgement of the sins of this world, and that He is the Savior who has now achieved the salvation of mankind through the Word of the Old and New Testaments. We must be able to actually realize why the gate of the Tabernacle's court was woven with these blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. What does the blue thread tell us? And what do the purple thread, the scarlet thread, and the fine woven linen tell us? When we realize God's plan, we can also realize that the works of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and of the fine woven linen are all God's plan of salvation for us and the truth of eternal life, and we can thereby enter into His Kingdom through our faith of the remission of sin. When we say that we know and believe in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, it means that we know well the reason why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and shed His blood on the Cross, who the Messiah is, all the mysteries of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, and the gospel of the water and the Spirit of the New Testament. In short, the truth implied in the gate of the Tabernacle's court is essential to all the believers who earnestly seek the truth to be eternally saved. It may seem that many people are well knowledgeable of the Tabernacle, but in fact, this is actually not the case. People are actually quite ignorant of what is meant by the blue, purple, and scarlet thread woven into the gate of the Tabernacle's court. As the mystery of these blue, purple, and scarlet thread and of the fine woven linen are difficult to understand, many people have a true desire to learn and believe in them. However, because this mystery cannot be understood just by anyone, many of them have ended up interpreting it erroneously based on their own opinions. Many religious leaders, in fact, have misinterpreted and misunderstood this truth in whatever way they felt like, only using it for their own religious ends. But God could no longer allow Christians to continue to be deceived by these liars. He thus had to explain clearly the meaning of the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen used for the gate of the Tabernacle's court, and thereby save them from all their sins. 1 John 5:6-8 from the New Testament states, "This is He who came by water and blood-Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one." This passage explicitly states that our Lord came to this world in the flesh of a man, took upon our sins with His baptism, and saved us by shedding His blood. This is why the gate of the Tabernacle's court was all woven of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. First, what does the blue thread show us? It shows us a part of the truth on Jesus, who became the actual Messiah of sinners, coming to this earth and taking upon the sins of the world by receiving His baptism from John. In fact, this baptism that Jesus received from John at the Jordan River is the truth of Jesus taking upon all the sins of the world once for all. Jesus actually bore all the sins of the world on His shoulder by being baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of all mankind. Because the sins of all human beings were thus passed onto Christ's own head, those who believe in this truth have no sin in their hearts. Second, what is the actual meaning of the purple thread woven into the gate of the Tabernacle's court? It tells us that Jesus is the actual King of kings. Jesus, in fact, did make the universe, is the Creator Himself, not a creation, and is the actual Messiah who came to this earth. He, the Messiah, actually came to this earth already in the likeness of a human flesh. And by bearing all the sins of the world on His own body through the baptism that He received from John, and with His sacrificing death and resurrection, Jesus has saved all His people, who have recognized, feared, and believed in their Messiah, from all their sins and their judgment of sin. Jesus is in fact our absolute God and absolute Messiah. He is the absolute Savior. Because Jesus took all our sins of the world upon Himself with His baptism, by bleeding and dying on the Cross and resurrecting from His death, He not only cleansed away all our sins, but He also received the vicarious judgment of sin in our place. The scarlet thread, thirdly, refers to the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross, and its meaning is that Christ has given new life those of us who believe. This truth of the scarlet thread tells us that Jesus Christ not only received the judgment of our own sins by taking the sins of the world on Himself with His baptism received from John, but He also gave new life to believers by bestowing the life-giving faith to those who had died to sin. To those who believe in His baptism and the blood that He shed, Jesus has indeed given new life. What, then, does the fine woven linen mean? It manifests that with the New Testament, God fulfilled His promise of salvation written in the Old Testament. And it tells us that when Jesus took all the sins of the world upon Himself with His baptism and was judged for our sins on the Cross in the New Testament, He fulfilled the salvation that God had promised to the Israelites and us with His Word of covenant. Yahweh God said in Isaiah 1:8, "'Come now, and let us reason together,' Says the LORD, 'Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.'" Also, the Old Testament's sacrificial system governing how the sacrifices are offered in the Tabernacle, under which the sins of the people of Israel were passed onto the sacrificial lamb with the laying of hands, was the promise that God made to the Israelites and us. This was God's revelation of the promise that He would save all the people of the world from their daily sins and yearly sins through the Lamb of God in the future. This was also the sign of the promised Messiah to come. So in the New Testament's time, when Jesus Christ took all the sins of the world upon Himself all at once by receiving His baptism according to the way of the Old Testament, it was the accomplishment of God's covenant. Having given us all His Word of promise, God has shown us that He has actually fulfilled them all, exactly as He had promised. The baptism that Jesus received manifests this truth, that the God of covenant has fulfilled all His covenants.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Jesus Christ Who Came by the Water, the Blood, and the Spirit Why was Jesus baptized by John? The reason was to take upon Himself all the sins of mankind, and to receive the judgment of sin on our behalf. To make all the sins of the entire mankind disappear, and to become our true Savior, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, went to the Cross, and bled and died on it. By doing so He not only washed away all our sins, but He also received all the judgment of these sins in our stead, and has thereby become our eternal Savior. All our sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by John, and He carried these sins of the world to the Cross. It is because Christ bore all our sins with His baptism, and because He carried these sins of the world to the Cross, He could be crucified, shed His blood, and die in our place. Isaiah 53:5 says, "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." Through our Lord's baptism, our original sins that were inherited to us from our common ancestor Adam and our own actual sins that we commit throughout our lives were all passed onto Him. And He was judged for all these sins. By thus coming to us by the water and the blood, our Lord has made all our sins disappear (1 John 5:5-8). Who, then, is this Jesus Christ, our Savior and Messiah who took care of all our sins and made them all disappear? Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Who was this mighty God that created the universe with His Word? He was none other than the Messiah of sinners, He who came by the water of His baptism to save you and me from all the sins of the world, the One who came as the Savior who bled on the Cross to be judged for all the sins of the world. Through the water, the blood, and the Spirit, Jesus has delivered us from our sins and judgment. Our Lord came to us as our Savior to take upon all our sins and be judged of these sins in our place. Jesus Christ, in fact, is the Son of God and God Himself, for the Messiah actually is our God. The name "Jesus" means "the Savior who will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). "Christ," "Basileus" in Greek on the other hand, means "King of kings." Jesus is the Creator who made the whole universe, the absolute ruler of all, the Savior of sinners, and the King of kings who judges Satan. This absolute God actually created man after His own image. As we, His own creation, fell into sin and became doomed to destruction because of our weaknesses, this King of kings promised us to save us from our sins, and to fulfill this promise He came to us. And to make us the whole people of God and sinless, our Lord Himself came to us by the water, the blood, and the Spirit. The Messiah, who is the Creator, actually came to this earth in the flesh of a man to make all our sins disappear, and took all our sins upon Himself by receiving baptism from John at the Jordan River. And by dying on the Cross, He was judged for all our sins in our place. Because Jesus was in fact the very Messiah for us, because He is our Savior and the Lord of our life, we could earn new and eternal life by believing in Him. The Messiah therefore has indeed become our God. This is why the gate of the Tabernacle was woven of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, for this was the mystery of the water and the Spirit that delivers us from all our sins and the judgment of our sins. The truth that the Lord has indeed saved us from our sins is not vague. Our Lord did not promise us His salvation ambiguously, did not achieve it roughly, and cannot approve the faith of those who believe in Him arbitrarily, apart from His concrete truth that He has actually saved us through His water and blood. Our Lord therefore said to those who nominally believe in Him, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). False teachers insist that they actually did make people receive the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, cast out demons in His name, and did many wonders in His name. But God has said to them in Matthew 7:23, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" This tells us that among Christians, there actually are many who still remain sinful, who would be judged for their sins on the Day of Judgment, and then be cast out to hell. There are, in fact, many Christians who clearly confess, "Jesus is our Savior. Jesus has unequivocally saved us from all our sins." But despite making such claims, they actually do not even try to learn that the Messiah did indeed take upon their sins with His baptism, and that He did indeed bear their sins and the judgment of these sins by shedding His blood on the Cross. These people would all go before God while still remaining sinful, for they only believe nominally, as if they were merely practicing one of the many worldly religions. As such, because they do not believe according to the truth that our Lord has said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," they have not been admitted by the Lord. Whether people believe in Jesus or not, those who have sin in their hearts cannot enter the Kingdom of God, where no sin is found, for they are not qualified to enter it. They must, therefore, make sure that they can be qualified to enter Heaven only by believing in the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread while on this earth. Making the gate of the Tabernacle's court by weaving its curtain with these blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen was the providence of the Messiah. Those who are headed to hell because of sin must believe in this. Because these people are ignorant of the truth, and because they believe in Jesus with their mistaken knowledge attained on their own, they still remain sinful. They still have sin because they, instead of believing according to the truth hidden in the materials of the Tabernacle, have thought of their Savior on their own and made their own doctrines of salvation based on these thoughts, believing that salvation comes through their own efforts by offering prayers of repentance to God and trying to reach their incremental sanctification. There are many in this world who claim to believe in Jesus as their Savior, and yet do not actually believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood. There are many in this world who, instead of actually believing in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread as their salvation, think that they can enter the Holy Kingdom of God just by believing in the blood of Jesus, even if they still remain sinful.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Matching of the Old and New Testaments God tells us in Isaiah 34:16 that every Word of God has its matching pair. The Word of God, in other words, does all match up. God said to look and see for ourselves whether or not His Word of the Old Testament matches with His Word of the New Testament. What is written in the Old Testament has its corresponding Word in the New Testament. For example, whereas the Israelites passed their sins onto a sacrificial lamb with the laying on of hands in the Old Testament, in the New Testament this is matched by Jesus Christ being baptized to take upon all our sins of the world, and thus passing all our sins onto Himself. Through His water and blood, Jesus came to this earth as the sacrificial offering and the Savior of sinners. Had He not taken upon the sins of the world by receiving His baptism, there would have been absolutely no need for Him to die on the Cross. Our Lord has clearly made all our sins disappear with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. This, too, was promised by God with His Word, whereupon our Lord came to us through this Word and washed away our scarlet sins, turning them as white as snow. Before realizing this truth, in fact, we were undoubtedly overflowing with endless sins. We therefore have nothing to boast of before God. Not only do we not have anything to boast of before God, but we have nothing at all to be confident of before Him. There is nothing, in other words, which would allow us to even pretend to be smart. Before God, all that we can say is, "Yes, You are right." If God says, "You are a seed of iniquities, bound to hell." "Yes, You are right; please save me." "I have saved you in this way, through the water, the blood, and the Spirit." "Yes, Lord! I believe!" We can only say "yes" all the time. Standing before God, we cannot say to Him, "I did this and that; I served my church this well; I really believed in Jesus wholeheartedly; I defended my faith with a stubbornness that no one else can even imagine!" How did the Lord actually make all our sins disappear? He has shown us that He made them disappear through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and through the Word of the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, He made our sins disappear with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, while In the New Testament, Jesus became our Savior by coming to this earth in the flesh of a man, taking all our sins upon Himself with His baptism received from John, and taking care of all our sins and the judgment of these sin by shedding His blood on the Cross. By being baptized, our Lord took upon all the sins of the world all at once (Matthew 3:15). All our worldly sins were passed onto Jesus' shoulder. After thus taking upon all our sins of the world with His baptism, He carried these sins to the Cross, was crucified, shed His blood, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and thereby made all our sins truly disappear. Jesus Christ has thus become our certain Savior. The righteousness of God that we have received is the righteousness acquired by believing in this Jesus Christ who came to this earth through the water, the blood, and the Spirit. This is the very salvation received from God, not something that we achieved on our own. There is nothing that we can brag about before God. In fact, we are saved from all our sins by believing in Jesus Christ who has become our certain Savior. We who had been sinners, in other words, actually received the remission of sin by believing in the baptism of Jesus and the blood that He shed for us. Were Jesus' work of salvation to account for, say, around 70 percent of our salvation, and the remaining 30 percent to be accounted by our own efforts to not commit sin, for us to be gradually sanctified and for our salvation to be completed little by little, we would literally have to stay up all night praying fervently, spend every day offering our prayers of repentance, serving the community, or otherwise trying to do everything and anything possible! But the Apostle Paul said in Romans, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 7:24-8:1). Just as Paul thus confessed, we also must believe in Jesus Christ like he did. The Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ has fully saved us from this body of death, 100 percent. Who, then, can possibly condemn us? No one can ever condemn us, for Jesus Christ has already saved us 100 percent, regardless of our own infirmities.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index You and I, Too, Were All Spiritual Pharisees Some of you may have known and believed in Jesus a little bit for a long time. You had believed in Jesus as your Savior, in other words, even before you met the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I myself also had been a Christian, without being born again, for ten years. When we first believed in Jesus as our Savior, it was a rather refreshing experience. This start was so refreshing that we thought we would be saved unconditionally just by believing in Jesus as our Savor, even if we remained ignorant of the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. When I first believed in Jesus, my heart was in fact filled with joy. So I rejoiced greatly when I first believed in Jesus, but after about five years, I came to look at myself, and I saw that I had been bound continuously by the sins that I had committed, and came to the recognition that I was still not free. Do you think I committed sins, or not committed any at all, in those five years of my early Christian life? Whether you know me or not, the answer is pretty clear: of course I did. During this time, when I did not know the truth, I was tormented every time I committed sin, and to get rid of this agony I had to offer prayers of repentance, at times even fasting for three days. The burden of my heart then seemed to lift up a little, allowing me to praise God, "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! " But after this, of course, I would end up committing sin yet again. Because I had so many shortcomings and was full of blemishes, everyday I committed sin, even as I hated myself for doing so. Not once could I resolve all my problems of sin for good. Under these circumstances, five more years went by, and when I thus had been a Christian for about ten years, suddenly, I was shocked to discover just how many sins I had committed over all those years. Looking at myself committing such great sins everyday, I was deeply saddened and utterly disheartened. And when I stood before the Law, I also discovered just how sinful I really was. It became more and more difficult for me stand before God, and I ended turning into a sinner who could not even claim, in good conscience, to know Jesus well and to believe in Him. So into my tenth year as a Christian, I could not but confess my sinfulness to myself. When I first believed in Jesus, I actually thought that I was a fairly good Christian. But as time went by, I only realized more and more that I really had nothing to boast of before God. I recognized, "I am actually a Pharisee. Pharisees are not found just in the Bible, for I myself am a Pharisee of today!" Pharisees are the kind the people who, in their pretentious holiness. Every Sunday on their way to the church with the Bible tucked at their sides, they shout out at their fellow Christians, "Good morning! Hallelujah!" And when they are worshipping, every time they hear someone speaking of the Cross, they end up crying. I myself, too, shed many tears, thinking of Jesus' blood. I thought this is what giving the true worship was all about. But while living in this world, everyone eventually discovers one's self, committing sin after sin. So people once again resort to giving the prayers of repentance. They might actually feel better for a while, but sooner or later, they would all run out of these prayers of repentance, for there are just way too many sins that they had committed. Some people even speak in tongues and see visions later on, but they are all useless. No matter what kind of attempt they might have tried, it was of no use for them to solve the problem of their sins in their hearts. If they eventually realize that they are simply worthless beings before God and recognize that they are bound to hell because of their sins, even if this realization comes late, it would still be a fortunate outcome. In fact, the longer we have believed in Jesus, the more we realize just how awfully sinful we really have been. But the Pharisees are good at hiding this. They are so good at hiding the sins of their hearts and playing the hypocrite that they are even approved by those around them for their piety. The religionists of this world greatly respect each other. But regardless of how much respect and approval they get from others, when they stand before God, they are just a big mass of sin. When we did not know the truth, we, too, used to offer our prayers of repentance diligently. But after a while, we get tired, and so we end up praying, "Lord, do whatever you want to do. I have so many sins. I've sinned yet again. Now it's become too embarrassing for me to even tell you about it." Though it's way too embarrassing, because we were told that God would be pleased whenever we confess our sins, and that He would forgive our sins with His righteousness and cleanse away from all unrighteousness, we continued to pray to Him, "Lord, I've sinned. Please forgive me, Lord!" And yet our sins, nonetheless, were still left in our hearts. Whenever people bow their heads to pray to God, their conscience reminds them of their sins and eats away their hearts. Our conscience torments our hearts telling us, "With so many sins committed, how dare you to even pray to God?" So, after a while, because we really had nothing more to say, we ended up just crying, "Lord, Lord!" More and more often, we found ourselves going up a mountain and shouting out the Lord's name. To avoid the embarrassment of drawing people's attention, we've climbed up a mountain late at night, entered in some cave there, and cried out the Lord's name. But this, too, was just having a fit by ourselves, and our sins thus still remained with us. We also tried to placate our conscience, telling ourselves that we are no longer sinful, "God is so merciful that He has made my sins disappear. I've fasted and prayed for three days. What is more, I think, I haven't sinned that much. Wouldn't our merciful God then forgive me?" But could we really deceive ourselves, even if we were to praise God for His mercifulness? How could we ever deceive our own hearts when we remained sinful before God? We could never do so! No matter how high we climbed up into leadership positions of our churches, and no matter how much we were commended by others, as long as we still continued to commit sin on our own, we could never be freed from these sins, and thus ended up as hypocrites at last. Sinful desires continued to rise up in our hearts. Though we spoke of Jesus' blood on the Cross for countless times, though we shed many tears just by thinking of His blood of the Cross, and though we had been good Christians, we still remained sinful until we met the perfect gospel of the water and the Spirit. Despite living according to all the rituals of Christianity, we still had sin. This was the Pharisee's religion. There are still many people on this earth who have this kind of faith, and they are found even in our Christian communities.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index All Our Sins Disappeared by Believing in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Before knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and before believing in this gospel, we all had sin in our hearts. Before we believed in this truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, our conscience was sinful. In all honesty, we were all sinful before God, and we were all bound to hell because of our sins, for the Bible tells us that "the wages of sin is death." We were thus greatly tormented because of our sins. And we were bound to hell both physically and spiritually because of God's judgment on us for our sins. We had converted many people to Christianity and had taught them. But we had worked while we were unable to cleanse away even our own conscience. We could not deny this before God. We recognized before God that our hearts are sinful and that we are bound to hell. I had always had an unsolved question: "Why was our Lord baptized when He came to this earth?" I wanted to find out why Jesus had received baptism. Why, and for what purposes did Jesus have to be baptized? I could understand our own water baptism as the mark of our faith in Jesus, but I could not understand at all why Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist. Why was He baptized? Why? So I asked some leaders in Christian communities, "Reverend, I have a question. Do you mind if I ask?" They told me to go ahead, and so I asked them. "It's about the Bible. It is clear that Jesus did receive baptism from John in the New Testament. But, I'm not sure why He was baptized. Do you know why, Reverend?" They then smiled, saying to me, "You don't even know that? It's something that even our kids in the Sunday school know! It's found in the original Scriptural texts, and in the Bible dictionaries as well. Wasn't Jesus baptized to lead us by example, as a model, and to show us His humility?" So I said, "But Reverend, if the answer was so simple, even the kids in our Sunday school would indeed know it. I've examined it both in the original text and historically, but His baptism did not mean that. Wouldn't there have been a reason why Jesus really was baptized by John?" I continued to ask. I began to search for the answer right after I became a Christian. I had no choice but to devote years in search of the answer to that question. I looked up all the scholarly works on this question. Even though I thus searched, asked, and investigated everything, nowhere could I find anything that explained Jesus' baptism clearly and definitively. I had struggled to find out the final answer until the Lord enlightened me on the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. While I was captured by the unsolved puzzle of the baptism of Jesus, I then came upon a chance to peruse Matthew 3:13-17: "Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?' But Jesus answered and said to him, 'Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" Reading this Word, I finally realized, "So this is it! The reason why Jesus was baptized was because He was the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament! This is the truth of His salvation hidden in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen!" John the Baptist was actually Elijah whom God had promised to send in the Old Testament. God said in Malachi 4:5 that He would send Elijah before the day of judgement, and Matthew 11:14 tells us that this Elijah whom He promised to send us is none other than John the Baptist. So I found out about Elijah, but I still was not sure why Jesus had to be baptized by John the Baptist. Then I went back to Matthew 3:13-17 and perused the passage again, "'Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' ...When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water... 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" All my doubts were then dissolved. "To fulfill all righteousness," He did actually receive His baptism. Jesus did indeed fulfill this righteous work of saving all people through His baptism. Baptism is the same as the Old Testament's laying on of hands, as when hands were laid on the heads of the sacrificial offerings in accordance to the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle. For sinners to bring forth these sacrificial offerings before the altar of burnt offering, to lay their hands on them and thereby confess their sins and pass them onto their sacrificial offering; for high priest to confess all the sins of the people of Israel and to pass them onto the sacrificial offerings for the Israelites and for themselves; and for Jesus to be baptized by John the Baptist in the New Testament's time-all these things match with one another. I finally realized that Jesus thus received His baptism (laying of hands) in order to take upon Himself all the sins of the world and to make everyone's sins disappear. So I looked up the original Scriptural texts. I looked up how the phrase, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness," is written in Greek In this phrase, "for thus" and "righteousness" are equivalent to "hoo'-tos gar " and "dikaiosune ." The former means "like this," "appropriately," "only by this method," "the most fitting," or "with this method." And the latter means, "righteousness, justice or the virtue acceptable to God." It told us that Jesus saved sinners from their sins. It told us that Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of God by being baptized and shedding His blood. It mean, in other words, that He took upon all our sins with His baptism. All our puzzles were thus solved, for we now realized the true meaning of what had caused us so much confusion and wandering. It is because Jesus took upon all our sins with His baptism that He went to the Cross and died on it as the judgement of these sins. This was the truth found in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We, the born-again, came to realize, in other words, that the baptism that Jesus received from John was the indispensable constituent of our salvation, and that He took upon the sins of the world onto Himself all at once with this baptism. You also have to realize the same truth in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only then your souls can be lighted. We cannot, in fact, ever forget the day when Jesus received baptism from John. We cannot ever forget the day when we realized that all our sins were actually passed onto Jesus. We have seen the changes that occurred in our hearts with our realization of this truth. They spread throughout our hearts like waves fanning out in a lake. Piercing through the darkness, the bright light of dawn entered us, allowing us to know the truth of salvation.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Baptism that Jesus Received Passed the Sins of the World onto Him After reading Matthew 3:13-17, I could not utter a single word for a long time. Though I was in fact sinful, Jesus received His baptism, and said, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Therefore, the reason why He had to shed His blood on the Cross (the scarlet thread) was Jesus' baptism (the blue thread). This Jesus was God Himself (the purple tread). And with the Word of the Old and New Testaments (the fine woven linen), He has taught us the real truth of salvation. Jesus, in other words, took upon all our sins. "Do we, then, still have sin or not? When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, everyone's sins were passed onto Him. Were our own sins passed onto Him as well? Were the sins of the world passed onto Him at that time? Are the sins that we already had when we were still in our mothers' wombs worldly sins or not? What about the sins that we committed when we were just a year old? Are they not also the sins of the world? What about the sins that we committed in our childhood? Do they not also belong to the sins of the world?" We have to ask ourselves these questions to make sure that we are on the right footing. Like this, faith is all about making sure that we are standing on the right ground with the Word of God. The sins that we committed in our childhood are indeed the sins of the world, as the sins that we committed in our teens are also worldly sins. All the sins that we commit in our lifetime, not to mention in our adulthood, are the sins of the world. All such sins of the world were passed onto Jesus already. Were they not? Of course they were! It is written that our Lord took upon not only our sins, but all the sins of each and every human being. So we realized, "All our sins were indeed passed onto Jesus. Do we then still have sin? No, we no longer have any sin left in us!" It is because Jesus was actually baptized by John that John the Baptist testified, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) Jesus took away all the sins of every person who ever lived and will ever live, from the very beginning of mankind to its end. All the sins that anyone ever committed throughout the entire life, and even the sins of everyone's children, were all taken away by Jesus. No matter how long this world lasts, whether for thousands of years or even billions of years, our Lord took upon the sins of all its people with His baptism, carried these sins on His shoulder to the Cross, was crucified, and thereby received all the judgement of sin for our sake-this is what we realized. As we, the born-again, actually realized that Jesus rose from the dead again and became our Savior because of this, and as we believed so, all our questions were answered. With the baptism that He thus received and by shedding His blood on the Cross, our Lord took care of all our sins. This is why the Bible speaks of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen on the gate of the Tabernacle's court, and why it tells us in 1 John 5:4-6 that Jesus came to us not only of the water, but of the water and the blood. We thus came to realize, "So this is why the Bible tells us that our Savior Jesus fulfilled all God's righteousness by receiving His baptism. This is the truth! However, Christian leaders didn't teach us this truth because they were all ignorant of it!" We become sinless only when God's truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen tells us that we are sinless. No one can approve the salvation of another soul. It is of no use to gain the good word of others. How could what people say to us-that we are pretty good Christians, or even grading us A+ Christians-ever constitute our salvation from sin? We become sinless not when people approve us, but only when the Word of God tells us Christ made all our sins disappear with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. The Word of God tells us that Jesus made not only my sins disappear, but also your sins. It tells us that because Jesus Christ the Messiah has made all the sins of all the people disappear, we would all receive the remission of sin if we would only believe. This is how we could enter into the gate of the Tabernacle's court, by receiving the remission of sin through the water and the Spirit.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index What Is the Perfect Faith? The gate of the Tabernacle's court was woven with blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and with fine woven linen. Everyone must have this perfect faith that believes that our Lord came to this earth and thus saved us from all our sins. When we believe that the Lord was born unto this earth in the flesh of a man, was baptized by John, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and thereby became our Savior, we can all become God's children. Though our deeds fall short, and though our flesh is worthless, by believing in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen in our hearts, we have become sinless. Therefore, to become the righteous is only possible through faith. By believing in the salvation manifested through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, we have been clothed in God's righteousness. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, in short, we have become God's children. Some of you still may not understand fully. If so, all that you have to do is just continue on perusing this book or attend God's church. So far we have discussed only the general aspects of the Tabernacle, but once you begin to read the detailed explanations, you will all be able to reach the complete understanding of the Tabernacle. It is so easy that even a child can readily comprehend. If people were to base their faith on their rough knowledge of Jesus, they would never be saved from their sins, no matter how long they believe in Jesus, for a thousand or ten thousand years to come. They would still have sin everyday. They would then cry everyday, for they cannot be escape from the curse of their sins. When things start go okay for them, these people think that God is helping them. But when things go bad even slightly, they wonder, "Is it because I didn't give tithe? Or is it because I missed church last Sunday? I've sinned and failed to serve God properly, and I think He is actually punishing me for them." In this way, they end up dying locked up in the Law, for the Scripture tells us that "the law brings about wrath" (Romans 4:15). To really have the kind of faith that is whole, we must know correctly and believe in the four ministries of Jesus Christ who came to us through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. We must realize the truth given by Jesus Christ. Only when we have a clear understanding of this four-fold truth and believe in it, we can have faith that is whole before God, and we can truly become His perfect children. Because we have become sinless by believing in these four ministries of Jesus, we are always the sinless righteous, even without our own struggle to free ourselves from the bondage of sin; we are the sinless people of faith, even without exerting our own willpower; and we are the perfect children of God whose sins were all washed away as white as snow, even without our own good deeds or trying. Like a baby playing and resting in peace under the watchful eyes of the parents, by believing in this truth, we in fact have peace and tranquility in our hearts before the merciful eyes of God the Father. Even though your deeds may be insufficient, all that you have to do is believe in the Lord's works, for the more insufficient you are, the more you would feel the love of our Lord. Are you clamoring to receive the remission of your sins, still unable to have the faith that believes in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen? Now those who know this truth do not have to clamor to receive the remission of sin, but just believe quietly. The ones who have become the children of God by faith are those who truly know and believe in Jesus Christ, He who came to us through the water, the blood, and the Spirit. They serve God not with their superficial acts, but they love and serve Him with their faith first. Because we believe, God grants us His audience and walks with us. Because we believe in Him, He helps us. And because we believe in Jesus who has saved us with the baptism and the blood in which we place our faith, we have become God's servants who serve His righteous works. We must now all realize the truth that God made the gate of our salvation in the Tabernacle's outer court, weaving it with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, in order to give us the salvation of the definitive remission of sin. The Scripture tells us that Jesus came to us through the water, the blood, and the Spirit, and that He has saved us from our sins with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen of the gate of the Tabernacle's court in the Old Testament. Our Lord has become the gate of our salvation from sin. We must believe, and believe yet again, in these four works of the Messiah who has actually and factually delivered us from all our sins.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Baptism that Jesus Received from John Is the Real Substance of the Blue Thread Manifested in the Gate of the Court of the Tabernacle Let's turn to Matthew 3:13-17 again: "Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?' But Jesus answered and said to him, 'Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" At this time, when Jesus was baptized, it had been 30 years since He was born of the Virgin Mary. The word "then" here refers to the time when both John the Baptist and Jesus had turned 30. John the Baptist, born 6 months prior to Jesus, was the representative of this earth's mankind who were giving them the baptism of repentance (Matthew 3:11, 11:11). When Jesus turned 30, He came to this John, who was baptizing people at the Jordan River, to be baptized. But John the Baptist tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" Jesus then replied, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." John then allowed, and Jesus was baptized by him. The Scripture also records that when Jesus was thus baptized, heaven was opened to Him, and a voice came from it, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In Matthew 3:15 here, Jesus tells us the reason why He was baptized by John. This truth refers to the blue thread of the Tabernacle's court: "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." The purpose of the baptism of Jesus received from John was to forgive the iniquities of sinners through His works manifested in the Tabernacle's blue, purple, and scarlet thread-"for thus it [was] fitting for [them] to fulfill all righteousness." That Jesus Christ would take everyone's sins upon Himself by being baptized by John the Baptist was the righteous love of God and the fulfillment of His work of salvation of all sinners. As John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Jesus was baptized to save us from the sins of the world, so that we may not be condemned because of our sins. This is why Jesus took all the righteousness of God and all the sins of mankind upon Himself by being baptized by John, for thus it was fitting for them to fulfill all righteousness. What is "all the righteousness of God?" The passage above tells us that the reason why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist was to fulfill all the righteousness of the Father. Here, we need to find out exactly what all the righteousness of God really is. "All righteousness" refers to the fact that Jesus Christ, by being baptized by John, took all the sins of mankind upon Himself. With His baptism, He took all the sins of the world upon Himself, all at once. As the purpose of His birth was to blot out all the sins of the world at once, the baptism that Jesus received from John was clearly righteous. To fulfill all the righteousness of God meant to fulfill the righteous works that make all the sins of the world disappear-that is, it was to fulfill salvation. The baptism of Jesus was the indispensable method by which God would deliver us from our sins. God set in the Old Testament that to blot out our sins, He would raise John the Baptist as the representative of mankind, make Him baptize His Son Jesus Christ, and thereby pass all our sins onto His Son. None other than this was the work of God's mercy. Because God has loved us so much, God made Jesus be baptized by John to turn us into His own children and to complete the righteous work of blotting out our sins. This is why God said, when Jesus had been baptized and came up from the water, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." God the Father, in other words, said, "With His baptism, My Son has taken all your sins upon Himself." Jesus Christ, in other words, came to this earth, and through this method of being baptized by John, He bore all our sins all at once, in the most appropriately way, and thus became the sacrificial offering to make our sins disappear. It was because the Son of God was baptized for our sake, and because He thus accepted all our sins onto Himself, that He carried these sins to the Cross, was crucified and shed His precious blood, and thereby became the Savior of all of us. Jesus has saved us who believe, in other words, by being baptized for our sins, sacrificing Himself with His blood on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. And after rising from the dead and completing His works of salvation, He now sits on the right hand of the throne of God, and when His time comes, He will most surely return. This truth is the gospel of the water and the Spirit and the core of salvation. On the gate of the court of the Tabernacle, Exodus 27:16 records, "For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver." So the gate of the court of the Tabernacle was woven of these blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. This tells us the truth that we enter the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in the gift of salvation. The blue thread woven into the gate of the Tabernacle's court refers to the fact that all our sins were passed onto Jesus when He came to this earth and was baptized. The purple thread tells us that Jesus Christ, who was baptized for our sins, was fundamentally the Creator Himself who made the whole universe and everything in it, the Lord of you and me. Purple is the color of kings (John 19:2-3), and therefore it tells us that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of all. The word "Christ" means "the anointed," and only kings, priests, or prophets could be anointed. As such, although Jesus Christ came to this earth in the flesh of a man, His true identity was actually the King of kings. Jesus, in other words, was the Lord and the Creator who made the whole universe. Jesus was the Almighty God Himself and the only begotten Son of God the Father. The scarlet thread woven into the gate of the Tabernacle refers to the sacrifice that this King of kings made when, after coming to this earth in the flesh of a man and taking our sins upon Himself with His baptism, He was crucified and shed His blood on the Cross. Jesus Christ paid the wages of our sins on our behalf, by being baptized, shedding His precious blood, and thus sacrificing Himself for our sake. The scarlet thread manifests the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus Christ. Lastly, the fine woven linen refers to God's intricate Word of the Old and New Testaments. The Bible tells us of our salvation through the Word of the Old and New Testaments. From the Old Testament, God promised that He would come to us as the Savior of sinners, and in the New Testament, just as He had promised, Jesus Christ, God Himself, did indeed come to this earth, was baptized, and shed His blood on the Cross-all give Himself up as the sacrifice for our sins. With the blue thread, God manifested the Word that Jesus Christ came to this earth to save us from our sins and took these sins of ours upon Himself with His baptism; and with the purple thread, He manifested that this One who was baptized was in fact God Himself. And with the scarlet thread, God manifested that He has saved you and me from our sins by coming to this earth as our Savior, being baptized, carrying the sins of the world to the Cross, and shedding His precious blood. That this salvation came by the Word of God promised from the Old Testament, on the other hand, was manifested with the fine woven linen. This is why the gate of the court of the Tabernacle was woven with these blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. When we look at the gate of the Tabernacle's court, this gate manifests and shows us clearly just how God has saved us from our sins and made us His people; as such, we must all believe in the spiritual meaning of the four threads used for the gate of the court of the Tabernacle. Speaking of the colors of the gate of the Tabernacle's court, the Bible first mentions its blue thread. We usually think in the order of purple, blue, and scarlet thread, but the Bible actually lists in the order of blue, purple, and scarlet thread. This shows us the importance of the blue thread. While Jesus Christ indeed came to this earth as our Savior, had He not been baptized by John, we would not have been able to be cleansed of our sins. This is why Jesus, to save us from the sins of the world, was baptized by John and crucified, all in obedience to the will of the Father. Jesus is the Lord of the universe who created all things, and He is our God. He is God Himself who has made us be born unto this earth, who has given us new life, and who rules over our lives. For Him to save us from our sins, He had to be baptized by the representative of all mankind and thereby take all our sins upon Himself. It is by being baptized by John, in other words, that Jesus Christ has become our true Savior. It was to deliver us from our sins that Jesus Christ came to this earth, and it was to take all our sins upon Himself that He was baptized. Were it not for His baptism in the first place, Christ would never have been able to be crucified. This is why the gate of the court of the Tabernacle is showing us clearly just how exactly Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins-that is, the precise method of His salvation. The colors of the gate of the court of the Tabernacle tell us that Jesus Christ would come to this earth, take all the sins of mankind upon Himself with His baptism received from John, and be crucified-that He, in other words, would take care of all our sins by Himself. When Jesus was baptized, the door of Heaven was opened, and God the Father spoke, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Jesus Christ is our Messiah and Savior, but He is also the Son of God, the very God the Creator who made the whole universe with His own Word. As being the Holy God, Jesus could bore all our sins by being baptized in order for Him to become our true Savior. Jesus Christ who created the whole universe and rules over it has shown us the clear salvation from our sins. It is because Jesus Christ, to blot out our sins, came to this earth, took all such sins upon Himself with His baptism and died on the Cross that you and I have been truly saved. Jesus Christ is the Creator who rules over our life and death, who created the whole universe, and who brought our forefathers and the entire mankind out onto this earth. He was the very substance of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. God Himself came to this earth as the sacrificial offering of sinners. Jesus who has saved us was this God, the Almighty and the God of mercy. It is because Jesus Christ took all sins upon Himself with His baptism that He fulfilled all the righteousness of God, and this is why He carried the sins of the world to the Cross, was crucified and shed His precious blood. Just as it is manifested in the gate of the court of the Tabernacle, Jesus Christ became our own sacrificial offering to blot out all our sins. This is why not only the gate of the Tabernacle's court, but also the gate of the Holy Place, the gate of the Most Holy, and even its covering of the House of God were all woven with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. It is because Jesus Christ was baptized for your sake that you and I are washed of all our sins by believing in it. Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness, and this righteousness was accomplished by taking the sins of all people upon Himself through His baptism. What we must do, therefore, is to realize that all our owns sins were also passed on Jesus at that time, and believe so. However, there are so many Christians who believe in Him arbitrarily and recklessly. They are too stubborn to abandon their own religious faith of lawlessness, challenging God from the very beginning. We have to believe in Him according to the way of salvation He has given us. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). He is telling us, "I am the way. I am the way that leads you to Heaven. I am the Shepherd, the way and the truth. I am indeed the life that saves you." By saving us from our sins, Jesus Christ has become the Lord of new life to us.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index When We Believe in Jesus, How Should We Understand and Believe in Him? We can be saved from all our sins only by believing in the exact way that He came to this earth and has saved us. The word "faith" includes such meanings as "to rely on," "to hold on to," and "to entrust." Seniors often rely on their children when they grow too old, as they find it too difficult to live by themselves. Likewise, the reason why we live by entrusting ourselves to God is because we simply cannot make our sins disappear on our own. Even if we try not to sin ourselves, we still end up living our lives always sinning. It is because we cannot free ourselves from our sins that we believe in God and place our trust in Jesus Christ our Savior by believing in what He has done for us. This is why when we believe in Jesus and seek our salvation, we must first know what kind of faith is the right faith. Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus came to this earth to save you and me-indeed, each and every human being of this world-from our sins. Turning 30, He then was baptized by John the Baptist and thereby took all the sins of the world upon Himself. We must all believe in this fact. We must believe that when Jesus accepted not only your and my sins but all the sins of the world onto Himself with His baptism, every sin, of the past, the present, and even the future, was all taken up by Jesus Christ already. However, many people are still ignoring this fact that not only all the sins of the world but also all their own sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized, and continue to believe only in the blood of the Cross. That's why none of them can easily discern which faith is the right one, even though they all see that all the gates of the Tabernacle were woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. When Jesus Christ came to this earth to save us, He did not save us in a slapdash fashion. It is because He actually took all our sins upon Himself with His baptism and bore all the condemnation of our sins with His crucifixion that you and I have been wholly saved. This is how Jesus Christ has saved the entire mankind. This is why our Lord said, "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). When we say that we believe in Jesus, we do not believe only in His character, nor only in His omnipotence. Rather, we are saved by believing that Christ, despite the fact that He is God, came to this earth, took all your and my sins upon Himself with His baptism, and was sacrificed on the Cross for our sake. When we look at the salvation manifested in the Tabernacle, it becomes crystal-clear to us just what exactly is the right faith that we must have when we profess to believe in Jesus. Today, there are many people who believe only in the blood of the Cross, incessantly chanting, "Would you be free from the burden of sin? There's power in the blood, power in the blood," and blindly shouting out, in their own eagerness, "Lord! I believe!" No matter how ardently they believe in Jesus, they can never be freed from their sins just by believing in the blood of the Cross alone. Because we are such that we can never be freed from our sins throughout our entire lives, we absolutely need the Savior, and this Savior is none other than Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who came to deliver you and me is the Savior, the King of kings, the Creator who made the whole universe and everything in it, and the Lord of our lives. He came to this earth, took our sins upon Himself with His baptism, and cleansed us of our sins by dying on the Cross. We are saved, in other words, by believing in Jesus Christ, who bore all the condemnation of our sins with His baptism and Cross, as our Savior. This is what the gate of the court of the Tabernacle is clearly and definitively showing us.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index People Who Believe in Jesus Only Religiously In these days, people claim that they can be saved just by believing in the blood of the Cross alone. Making such empty claims is nothing more than a display of their religious faith. These people say, "When I gave my prayers of repentance to God, the Holy Spirit spoke to me in my heart, 'My child, I have forgiven your sins.' How thankful I was when I heard His voice!" They make such claims saying that such beliefs are their testimony of faith. But our salvation does not come by our own emotional feelings. Rather, we are saved through the entire dimensions of our personality: knowledge, emotion, and will. We must be saved, in other words, by first knowing just how God our Savior has saved us, and then believing in it. But what about religions? What are they? Religions are nothing more than man-made institutions built on people's own thoughts. Long ago, in my family, my mother was the chef. I used to be her assistant, following her all around the kitchen, asking what help she needed-sort of like Jacob from the Bible. When my mother was busy in the kitchen preparing the meal, I was busy setting the table in the dinning room. My mother and I used to make a fantastic combination. Getting up in the morning, we got the fire going, prepared the table, and after the meal, brushed the kitchen floor with a broom. All the morning's chores were finished with this broom. This was not a peculiar scene in Korea those days. But the more interest thing was that this very broom that was used to clean the kitchen floor would all of a sudden turn into a god that would ostensibly give us anything we ask for. There were, in other words, people who actually prayed to this worn-out broom. Such absurdities were frequent in our lives; not only this, but whenever there was some misfortune in the family or the neighborhood, we used to call in a shaman to perform witchcraft. Because people at the time held pantheistic beliefs and believed that gods were everywhere, not only this broom that was used to brush the ground could turn into a god, but also ancestral tablets on which their forefathers' names were written, a large rock up in the hill, or practically everything else seen by their eyes could turn into a god. Nowadays, with the passing time, people have gradually come out of this kind of ignorance, but at that time, it was a frequent happening that just about anything would turn into a god. So one of the most brisk businesses of the time was none other than witchcraft. I remember seeing witches reciting incomprehensible spells while performing witchcraft. I used to mimic the witch's way of chanting a spell, saying, "Abracadabra Abracadabra, may the daylight come, may the daylight come, everything is mine when the daylight comes. The pumpkin barrel was broken because of the lack of devotion. Abracadabra Abracadabra." I had no idea, of course, what they meant. When such witchcraft was performed in one of the neighborhood's houses, everyone from the whole village used to gather together to see it. The highlight of such an occasion came when bills were stuffed into the head of a dead pig, smiling without a clue. How many bills were stuffed used to determine the witch's spells and her potency. This witchcraft would continue throughout the whole night until the daylight breaks. Among my acquaintances of old, there was someone who claimed to be possessed by a virgin ghost. He used to claim that he could drive away pretty much all demons, because he was possessed by a virgin ghost-virgin ghosts presumably held more power than others. He said that if he ends up facing a more powerful demon, he himself could be strangled rather than driving out this demon, but he nevertheless claimed that he could drive out all the garden-variety demons. He was none other than a sorcerer. He spent his usual times ordinarily, just like anyone else. But whenever someone asked him to perform his exorcism, he changed his clothes in a sorcerer's outfit and performed his spectacular show. It is because people's hearts are occupied by such superstitious minds that they follow this kind of primitive religions that have nothing to do with the Word of God and end up believing in all kinds of crazy and shameful things. People, in other words, have made up their own religions. As in the above story, they have invented their gods on their own. Because people have this kind of instinct, even as Christians, when they are told that Jesus was crucified for them, they can also be easily overwhelmed by their own emotions over this, and end up obsessing over and blindly believing in Him. And when they are told that Jesus is the Son of God and the Creator who made the whole universe, they just love it, and once again believe unconditionally. They also love to hear, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me," and, yet again, believe in it unconditionally without any real understanding. Because no Word of God is erroneous, even when they hear the good Word for the first time, all that they say is that they just love Jesus. But Jesus will come to judge these people whose hearts still remain sinful despite professing their faith in Jesus. He will also come to take away those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Most of the people who are ignorant of the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe in Jesus only based on their own thoughts will eventually realize, in about 10 years since the beginning of their religious lives, that they are really sinners unable to live according to the Law of God. I, too, used to believe in Jesus arbitrarily. I used to sing praises all the time, simply overjoyed to have encountered Christ. But after knowing Jesus, I came to know the Law, and after knowing the Law, I came to know my sins. After knowing my sins, I then came to realize that there would be eternal judgment of sin, and, as a result, the suffering of sin followed. To solve this suffering of sin, I therefore offered my sincere prayers of repentance. However, such faith was just like the superstitious beliefs with which people prayed to all things to be blessed. Because my heart was so troubled after I came to know the Law written in the Word of God and realized my sins, I thought I had to give my prayers of repentance, and such prayers of repentance did bring me some emotional relief. But sin still remained in my conscience, and discovering that my soul was still in the bondage of sin, I continued to suffer. In this way, it was not because I had been bound by my sins that I came to believe in and love Jesus, but it was because I had believed in Jesus that I came to realize my sins, and it was after I thus realized my sins that suffering came to me. "I must have believed in Jesus too early," I even thought, and ended up even regretting that I came to know and believe in Jesus so early in my youth. Yet I could not simply stop believing in Jesus. And so to break away from this bondage of sin, I gave my prayers of repentance, but to no avail, for these prayers did little to solve the problem fundamentally. Ordinary people are not aware of what sins they have committed even as they are committing them, but when they start attending church, they hear about the Law and come to realize their sins, and therefore become locked in their sins. They then first try to solve the problem of their sins by giving their emotional prayers of repentance, but the more time passes by, the more they realize that they are bound in their sins and they must be forgiven of them. No matter how much they pray their prayers of repentance, the more they pray, the more they realize that their sins, far from disappearing, become even more clearly revealed and remind them even more of their presence. From this point and on, such people's religious lives turn tortuously painful and they continue to suffer. They wonder, "I felt so good when I first believed, but why do I feel so much worse now than 5, 10 years have passed by? Why am I more troubled?" They realize that even their conviction of salvation, which had been held so firmly when they first believed, is no longer there. Thinking that they became sinful after believing in Jesus, they resort to fitting all kinds of doctrines to their beliefs, and end up become such religionists. It is because these people are ignorant of the truth that Jesus has saved them from their sins with His blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen that they ultimately end up becoming mere religionists. Though they profess to believe in Jesus, they are still troubled, for their hearts have no peace. Such people cannot even resort to changing to a different god, for even if they try, they know already that believing in anything other than God Himself is committing idolatry. Because they know clearly that only Jesus is the Son of God, that He alone is God Himself, and that only He is their Savior, they cannot even believe in a different god. And yet because they do not know the truth, they live in suffering, always troubled by their sins. This is why they must know and believe in the Jesus Christ that came through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. These Christians who ended up turning into religionists also know that Jesus is the King, that He shed His blood on the Cross, and that the Word of the Bible is the Word of God. What they do not know, however, is that Jesus took not only their sins but also all the sins of the world upon Himself with His baptism, and this ignorance is the reason why they are living as sinners even as they profess their faith, and why they will all end up going to the place reserved for sinners. Because such Christian religionists have no idea just how exactly Jesus took care of their sins, they believe in their own emotions whenever they spring up. As a result, the actual reality does not coincide with what they believe, like a blind trying to make out an elephant by touching its parts. This is why they are completely oblivious to what is wrong with their faith, and this is why then up in confusion once again.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index What Would Happen to Us If We Do Not Believe in the Truth of the Blue Thread? What would happen if we were to believe in Jesus as our Savior while leaving the blue thread out of the gate of the Tabernacle's court? When God commanded to build the gate of the Tabernacle's court by weaving it with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen, what would He have said had Moses instead told the Israelites to build the gate with just purple and scarlet thread and fine woven linen, and had the Israelite indeed completed the gate in this way? Would God have approved it as the gate of His Tabernacle? He would have never approved it as such. Because God told the Israelites to build the gate of the Tabernacle with four threads of different colors, if it was not built accordingly, it could never be called as the gate of the Tabernacle. Not a single one of the four threads can ever be left out. The gate of the Tabernacle's court had to be woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. Because Jesus, God Himself, came to this earth as our Savior in the flesh of a man, took all the sins of the world upon His own body, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and has thereby washed away our sins as white as snow, it is by trusting and believing in this Jesus Christ that we have been delivered from our sins. The colors of the gate of the Tabernacle tell us how we have to believe in Jesus to be saved from our sins. Those who believe in the truth manifested in the gate of the Tabernacle have all been saved from their sins. They have all received the remission of their sins, as white as snow. Jesus Christ has washed away your and my sins, turning us as white as snow. Jesus Christ has become the actual Savior of you and me. This is the very truth manifested in the gate of the Tabernacle. Yet there are many people today who do not believe in the implication of the blue thread, even as they profess to believe in the purple and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. To do preliminary research for this book, I once went to a Christian bookstore. There I found some books on the Tabernacle written by some of the most famous Christian leaders. However, some did not even address the gate of the Tabernacle's court, while others made such unfounded assertion as the following: "What do the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen of the Tabernacle's court tell us? Blue is the color of the sky, and it therefore tells us that Jesus is God. Scarlet refers to the precious blood that Jesus shed on the Cross when He came to this earth. Purple tells us that He is King." This kind of interpretation is way off the mark. That Jesus is God is told to us through the purple thread. When God has already told us through the purple thread that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, why would He repeat this with the blue thread again? It is because these people do not know the mystery of the blue thread that they have failed to interpret it properly. Because they know only the blood of the Cross, they place a great emphasis on the scarlet thread. When we see their drawings of the gate of the Tabernacle, we see that it is dominated by white and red colors. When the four colors of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen must be clearly shown in the gate of the Tabernacle's court, their drawings only show scarlet and white thread, with some purple thread, but no blue thread at all. There are so many people in this world now who speak of such untenable faith without even realizing the truth of the blue thread. There are so many in today's time who claim that they can be saved just by believing in Jesus' blood on the Cross alone, even as they do not even realize that Jesus took our sins of the world upon Himself with His baptism all at once to bear our condemnation. Such people's hearts always remain sinful. For today, tomorrow, and beyond-in fact, until they die-such people remain tormented as they cannot be freed from their sinfulness. So some people confess, "I am a sinner before God until I die." But is this really the right faith, that they would remain as sinners until their death, even as they believe in Jesus? After believing in Jesus, when exactly do we become righteous then? Is Heaven not a place reserved for those who have become sinless by believing in Jesus' baptism and blood? Heaven is indeed a place for the righteous, not for the sinful. Only the righteous who have been definitely saved from their sins and who have become sinless can enter Heaven. Those who declare themselves to be sinners until death even as they believe in Jesus have no conviction of their salvation no matter how many times they have confessed their faith in Him, because they are ignorant of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. Even as they believe in Jesus and pray to Him, they have no conviction that their prayers would be answered. Though they believe in Jesus, they are neither helped nor loved by Him. They might feel loved while they show their devotion, but when they slacken off their devotion, they feel as if they have been abandoned by God, as if they are hated by Him. They think that God loves them and blesses them only when they give their offerings and devotion to Him, and that He no longer loves them when they fail to give Him their offerings. When they encounter some hard times, they think that God hates them, unable to understand why they must go through such hard times, and ultimately end up blaming Him for their misery and no longer believe in Him. In the end, the trust between such people and God gets broken. Because their faith is a product of their own thoughts and emotions, it is very arbitrary, precarious, and wrong. When we go to God, we must cast aside our emotions. When we to go God, we must go only with our faith that clearly believes in the truth that Jesus Christ has saved us, who were bound to hell because of our sins, with His baptism and blood. Before the Word of God and the Word of the Law, before the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and with our consciences also, we must clearly recognize that we were the ones who could not but be doomed to hell without exception. Only when we know, learn, believe, and trust in what sinful beings we really are and how God has saved us from our sins can we all realize that Jesus Christ has already become our true Savior.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Only by True Faith Can We Receive the Gift of Salvation Therefore, you and I must realize that we are saved from our sins by believing in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, not by doing virtuous deeds of our own. And we must know and believe that to save us from our sins, Jesus Christ came to us clearly in this four-fold truth. He promised in the Old Testament to come as the Messiah, and just as this promise, He did indeed come to this earth, and with His baptism, took our sins and the sins of the entire mankind upon Himself all at once. He then carried these sins of the world to the Cross, was crucified, shed His precious blood, and died after uttering, "It is finished!"(John 19:30) Rising from the dead again in three days, He testified for 40 more days and ascended to the right hand of the throne of God, promising to return. We must believe these. "I have saved you definitely with My ministries of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. And I will come back to take away those who believe in this truth of salvation. I will also give them the right to become God's children. For those who believe in this truth in their hearts, I will cleanse their sins and make them white as snow, I will give them the Holy Spirit, and I will make them My own children." This is what our Lord has told us. We must believe in this Word. Our Lord has already fulfilled these promises, and He is actually working in the lives of those on this earth. He protects those who believe in this truth and bears witness for them. This is how we have been saved through our Lord's works of baptism and blood, dwell in the grace, protection and love of God, and live the life of the righteous. It is because He has saved us that we have been delivered from our sins by believing. When this book on the Tabernacle is translated into all the languages of the whole world, I am sure that people of the entire world would be saved from their sins through their faith in the truth. Those who claim that the remission of sin comes only by the blood of Jesus will no longer be able to make such claims, but they will instead come to realize just how false their claims had been. They will no longer be able to hold on to something false and claim that this is salvation. They will never be able to say that they can be saved just by believing in the blood of Jesus alone. In the gate of the Tabernacle's court is found the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the clear Word of salvation of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. Because this is the Word of God promised and prophesied from the Old Testament, and because God has kept this promise in the New Testament by fulfilling salvation from all sins with His baptism and crucifixion, if we just believe in this gift of salvation in joy and thankfulness, we can all receive the eternal remission of sin. This is the Word that is so easy and perfect, but it also is the truth that cannot be understood even with all the knowledge of the entire universe, if you do not have the pure faith in His Word. That's why we must believe in His Word as it is. Because it is such a precious truth that we cannot afford to be remain ignorant of, you and I must most certainly believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By teaching us the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen manifested in the Tabernacle freely and easily, God has allowed us to have this priceless gift of salvation with our faith. You and I alike, who believe in this truth, we all give our thanks to God for His love of truth. Yet there are many who remain ignorant of the real truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and are teaching and leading people to their false ways. To them also, we want to spread this truth. To those whose hearts are tormented by their ignorance of the truth, we preach this gospel of the truth of the water and the Spirit, wanting them to be freed from their sins and enter into the door of salvation. When we preach the truth of the Tabernacle, those who believe in it will be saved, but those who do not believe will be condemned of their sins. If we have decided to believe in Jesus, we must believe in Him knowing the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. No one knows the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread from the beginning. God told us, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). What is the truth? The truth is the true gospel (Ephesians 1:13), that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. Knowing the blue, purple, and scarlet thread properly and believing in them is the correct faith in the truth. Why did God say that the truth will make us free? How have you been saved from your sins? By believing in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, have you been not only saved from all your sins, but are your hearts also dwelt by the Holy Spirit? From both your hearts and consciences, have your sins clearly disappeared? Do you really believe and can you really confess from the depth of your hearts that God is indeed your Father? Because God recognizes only those who are sinless as His children, He approves only the faith of those who know and believe in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen weaved into the gate of the court of the Tabernacle. Sinners are not God's children; only the born-again who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the only gospel that God has given us, are the children of God the Father. Though we face many difficulties, hardships, and sufferings while living in this world, because God dwells with us, we are happy. Though we are insufficient, we are living our blessed lives, believing in the righteousness of God and preaching throughout the whole world the gospel of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, the gospel that bestows us the righteousness of God. I am thankful to God, above all, for the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. When I first believed in Jesus, regardless of how devotedly I believed, my heart had still remained sinful, and I was greatly tormented because of this. No matter how sincerely I had professed to believe in Jesus, sin was clearly present in my conscience. One can find out whether he/she is sinful or not before God by looking at his/her own conscience. In other words, those who still have sins written in their consciences are those who still have not been able to receive their remission of sin. If their consciences have even the smallest of all sins, this is the evidence that they have not received the remission of sin. However, when I could not know the truth that would solve all the problems of my sins, even the tiniest of all, and when all kinds of questions and wonderings arose in my heart as a result, God met me through His Word of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. This Word was found in the passage from the Gospel of Matthew that we have read previously. While reading Matthew 3:13-17, I came upon the passage, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). I then realized and believed that when Jesus was baptized and came up from the water, God testified His righteousness, and all righteousness was fulfilled as all sins were blotted out through this baptism of Jesus. When Jesus Christ was baptized by John, all my sins were clearly passed onto Him, and at once they were all solved on the Cross. The very moment I realized and believed in the reason why Jesus was baptized, all the problems and questions about my unsolved sins were answered, as all my sins were at once cut off from me. I was so thankful for this truth of the remission of sin, for the fact that I received this remission of sin by knowing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the true Word of God. The Lord came to me through His written Word, and I received the remission of my sins through this Word of the water and the Spirit, by believing in it in my heart. From then on, through the Word of the Old and New Testaments, I have been testifying the gospel of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread to many people, and even now, I am continuing to spread all these truths and mysteries of salvation. The true gospel is not something made of the human beings' own thoughts, doctrines, or emotional experiences. With the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, our Lord has blotted out our sins. Through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, everyone throughout the entire world will come to realize the truth of salvation clearly and to recognize that this truth is none other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is also the truth that is absolutely needed in this end times. Countless people will come to believe in this truth.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index CONCLUSION Today's era is an era where the righteousness of people is all breaking apart and their evilness is running rampant. When surrounding conditions deteriorate, people spill out all the evilness that were fundamentally lodged in them. Yet despite this, our Lord has saved you and me from our sins through the gospel of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. How thankful and priceless is this blessing? I thank our Lord for this clear salvation, for I am overflowing with joy and happiness. The world is now heading toward the end times foretold by God, and has already entered into this era. In times like this, when there are fewer and fewer people who serve God devotedly, and when even the faith of the believers are weakened, if you try to devote yourself to something other than the truth of the water and the Spirit, you will only end up with wounds in your hearts. When believing in God, if you do not believe in the gospel of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, you will only be disappointed, for it would neither leave anything meaningful in your hearts nor produce any tangible fruits. Want to know more about the Tabernacle? Please click the banner below to get your free book on the Tabernacle. Because the truth of the gospel of the four colors of the Tabernacle-of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen-is the clear truth, it is the only, best gospel for this dark world. That we live our lives having received the remission of our sins by knowing and believing in the truth manifested in the Tabernacle is a priceless blessing, a precious gift, and great happiness for us. Because those who know and believe in the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen manifested in the gate of the Tabernacle are serving the truth, not the false, a great joy is found in their hearts forever. Do you also know and believe in this truth revealed in the gate of the court of the Tabernacle? You must know it, and you must believe in it. Edtr: The question must be ask . . . by what authority is this question posed? John the Baptist never mentioned it Our Lord never spoke of it. Again, TRY, try, try, try . . . the Spirit and ask yourself one question: If this less concerning the "blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen manifested" is so important, why did Jesus not preach it to those he taught? Why? I like the work concerning the detail of the Wilderness Tabernacle . . . but why would one that has the gift to do such great work have to fall off the edge of the flat earth and pose such doctrine?        â€¢ OU Top  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Bible Background Commentary  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Exodus 27:1-8. courtyard altar. The altar was the place for the burning of sacrifices. Because it had to be portable, it was constructed as a hollow square (5 cubits by 5 cubits; 3 cubits high) made from acacia logs, with horns at each corner, and overlaid with a bronze sheath and a bronze grate. A variety of utensils (firepans, shovels, meat forks and sprinkling bowls) were used in dealing with sacrificial meat and ash. Like the ark it had attached rings and poles for easy transport. Although not as sacred as the ark, the altar also served as a touch point with God, placed at the I-axis of the outer court of the tabernacle. Its service was restricted to Aaron's priestly family, and its function tied the people to the covenant promise of fertility and the Promised Land. Through sacrifice the people acknowl-edged the bounty provided by God. Thus the altar brought them into communion with the power that protected and blessed them.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Exodus 27:9-19. courtyard Temple architecture demands that the most sacred precincts be separated from the profane world of everyday life by an area of enclosed space—in the case of the tabernacle, by the courtyard. This area was marked off by linen screen walls (7½ feet high), enclosing an area of approximately 11,250 square feet (100 cubits by 50 cubits). Since the inner portion of the tabernacle was fifteen feet high, these walls only screened the view from ground level and left the symbol of God's presence clearly visible. The draperies of the courtyard were held up by fifty-six columns placed in copper sockets. The use of these less valuable materials is reflective of the progression from precious to commonplace in the construction of the tabernacle.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Exodus 27:21. the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons are to place olive oil lamps before the "tent of meeting," which was the "holy place" immediately outside the veil separating that area from the Holy of Holies. Here God's presence was to be made manifest to Moses, and instruction was to be given to the people through these oracular messages (see Exodus 39:32; Exodus 40:2, 6, 29). The function of this space is therefore symbolic as well as utilitarian. The presence of God is acknowledged with the perpetually burning lamps. Aaron's servicing of the lamps provides a role for the priestly community here, and the assumption of guidance, first promised to Moses and thus to the people, is implicit in its name.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Exodus 27:20-21. continually burning lamps. The clearest refined olive oil was to be used to provide a perpetual light before the entrance to the Holy of Holies. These lamps, serviced by Aaron and his sons, symbolized the presence of God. The continuation of this priestly function is seen in 1 Samuel 3:3. ~ Bible Background Commentary  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Key Word Commentary on Exodus Chapter 27 1. Before and after  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Previous chapter: Chapter 26: The tent of the Lord's presence  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Following chapter: Chapter 28: The clothes for the priests and the breast-piece 2. Analysis of chapter  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The altar of burnt offerings. (Exodus 27:1-8)  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The court of the tabernacle. (Exodus 27:9-19)  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The oil for the lamps. (Exodus 27:20,21) 3. Key verse Exodus 27:20: "And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always."  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index 4. Key word / key phrase Exodus 27:1, "altar." 5. Key event / key person / key theme Some of the furniture for the temple 6. Key thought Every item of "furniture" in the temple was full of significant symbolism. 7. Key thing to look out for Nothing was thought to be too costly if needed in God's service.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index 8. Key Bible cross-reference Exodus 27:21. See 29:42,43.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index 9. Key "by way of explanation" Exodus 27:2. The "horns" at each corner of the altar were symbols of help and refuge. See 1 Kings 1:50. 10. Key "Quotable Quote" "Often, what passes for religious experience is a communal emotion felt in church services, in meetings, in singing or contrived fellowship. Few Christians would know God on their own." ~ Os Guinness ~ Key Word Commentary  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Wesley's Commentary on Exodus 27 In this chapter directions are given, I. Concerning the brazen altar, Exodus 27:1-8.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index II. Concerning the court of the tabernacle, Exodus 27:9-19.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index III. Concerning the oil for the lamp, Exodus 27:20-21.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Notes On Chapter Notes for Verse 1 Exodus 27:1. As God intended in the tabernacle to manifest his presence among his people, so there they were to pay their devotions to him; not in the tabernacle itself, into that only the priests entered as God's domestic servants, but in the court before the tabernacle, where, as common subjects they attended. There an altar was ordered so be set up, to which they must bring their sacrifices; and this altar was to sanctify their gifts; from hence they were to present their services to God, as from the mercy seat he gave his oracles to them; and thus a communion was settled between God and Israel.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Notes for Verse 2 Exodus 27:2. The horns of it, were for ornament and for use; the sacrifices were bound with cords to the horns of the altar, and to them malefactors fled for refuge.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Notes for Verse 4 Exodus 27:4. The grate was set into the hollow of the altar, about the middle of it, in which the fire was kept, and the sacrifice burnt; it was made of network like a sieve, and hung hollow, that the fire might burn the better, and that the ashes might fall through. Now, this brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonement for our sins. Christ sanctified himself for his church as their altar, John 17:19, and by his mediation sanctifies the daily services of his people. To the horns of this altar poor sinners fly for refuge, and are safe in virtue of the sacrifice there offered.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Notes for Verse 9 Exodus 27:9. Before the tabernacle there was to be a court, enclosed with hangings of fine linen. This court, according to the common computation, was 50 yards long, and 25 broad. Pillars were set up at convenient distances, in sockets of brass, the pillars filleted with silver, and silver tenterhooks in them, on which the linen hangings were fastened: the hanging which served for the gate was finer than the rest. This court was a type of the church, enclosed, and distinguished from the rest of the world; the inclosure supported by pillars, noting the stability of the church hung with the clean linen, which is said to be the righteousness of saints, Revelation 19:8. Yet this court would contain but a few worshippers; thanks be to God, now the inclosure is taken down; and there is room for all that in every place call on the name of Christ.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Notes for Verse 20 Exodus 27:20. We read of the candlestick in the 25th chapter; here is order given for the keeping of the lamps constantly burning in it. The pure oil signified the gifts and graces of the Spirit, which are communicated to all believers from Christ the good olive, of whose fulness we receive, Zechariah 4:11, 12. The priests were to light the lamps, and to tend them; to cause the lamp to burn always, night and day. Thus it is the work of ministers to preach and expound the scriptures, which are as a lamp to enlighten the church. This is to be a statute for ever, that the lamps of the word be lighted as duly as the incense of prayer and praise is offered. ~ Wesley's Explanatory Notes  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible on Exodus 27 THEME: The brazen altar; the court of the tabernacle; oil for the lamp Notice now as we move outside the tabernacle proper to the court that the articles of furniture are made of brass: the brazen altar and the brazen laver. Inside, you recall, the articles of furniture were of gold. As you get closer to God, the emphasis is on the person of Christ. As you move farther out, the emphasis is on the work of Christ.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Brazen Altar (Exodus 27:1-3)  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass. And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basins, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass [Exodus 27:1-3]. The furniture in the outer court is made of brass which represents judgment of sin. The sin question must be settled in the court before entrance can be made into the Holy Place. The furniture in the Holy Place was all of gold and pictures communion with God and worship of God. There is no sin in the Holy Place. The sin question is dealt with in the outer court. Man is standing on the outside. How is he going to approach God? The first thing he must have is a substitute to die for him. Man might avoid meeting God, but if he wants to meet God and not die, he must have a substitute. Someone will have to die on that brazen altar for him. Sometimes this altar is called the table of the Lord, and it is called the altar of burnt offering. This is where God deals with the sinner. It speaks of the Cross of Christ, and of the fact that He is actually the One who died in man's stead. It is as Paul said in Ephesians 5:2, "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." Christ is our burnt offering. The altar was made by man, but the pattern is in heaven. The Cross was God's chosen altar of sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God to die on the Cross. Christ, therefore, is more than just a good man. He is that and also He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. There is no approach to God except by the brazen altar. There a victim must be sacrificed and must be claimed as the substitute. John 1:29 tells us, "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." The apostle John spoke of Christ as that substitute upon the brazen altar. That is what the Cross became in those last three hours when darkness descended and Christ paid for the sins of the world. We are told in John 1:12 that ". . . as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." Man could not worship, pray, or serve God until he came to the brazen altar. Every priest, every Levite, had to come to this altar. Friends, "the way of the cross leads home." If Jesus Christ had not gone by the brazen altar, we would have no access to God. Jesus Christ is not only the Lamb that died for us, He is also the risen Lamb. The apostle John tells us in Revelation 5:6 that he saw a ". . . Lamb as it had been slain . . ." The brazen altar stood at the entrance of the tabernacle. The Cross of Christ stands before heaven -- it was raised on this earth but there is no entrance to heaven except by this Cross.  â€¢ OU Top The brass which covered the altar speaks of judgment. The shittim wood covered with brass speaks of His strength for sacrifice. What a picture this is of the Cross of Christ!  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index The Court Of The Tabernacle (Exodus 27:9-16)  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side: And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four [Exodus 27:9,16]. Once again the colors of the hangings tell a story. Blue was a heavenly color and spoke of the fact that Christ came from heaven. Scarlet spoke of Christ's humanity and the blood that He shed for mankind. The purple was a blending of the blue and scarlet, the color of royalty, speaking of Christ's kingship. This was the hanging for the gate of the court through which the priests and Levites entered. This entrance was only five cubits high, and the fence that went around the outside of the tabernacle was one hundred cubits by fifty cubits, and was covered with white linen all the way around. It separated those on the inside from those on the outside.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Oil For The Lamp (Exodus 27:20-21) The conclusion of this chapter is quite interesting. It deals with the oil for the lamp, and it is unusual that this subject should be brought up at this particular place.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always [Exodus 27:20]. Oil, as has already been pointed out, speaks of the Holy Spirit of God -- Zechariah's interpretation of the lampstand: ". . . Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6). The light is that which the Holy Spirit gives. The Holy Spirit will not speak of Himself, but He takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index In the tabernacle of the congregation without the veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel [Exodus 27:21]. The burning light speaks of Christ. Now all that has changed -- the Lord Jesus Christ has gone back to heaven. Matthew 5:14 tells us: "Ye are the light of the world. . . ." You and I do not make much light. It is only the Spirit of God that can use us. The first picture we have of Christ in the Book of Revelation shows Him walking in the midst of the lampstands. He is trying to keep the church's light of witness alive and burning on earth. Christ is dealing with those who are His own. A word or two should be said about two articles of furniture not yet mentioned. One piece of furniture is the altar of incense which is mentioned over in Exodus chapter 30. If you were going to worship God, you had to come by this altar.  â€¢ OU Top The other article of furniture not yet mentioned is the brazen laver. The laver made one clean to worship God. At the brazen altar you received Jesus Christ as Savior, and at the brazen laver you are washed and cleansed by the Holy Spirit of God. Then you are permitted to go and worship God. ~ J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Bible Exposition Commentary - Old Testament Exodus Chapter Twenty Seven. God receives His people's sacrifices (Exodus 27:1-8; 38:1-7) When a worshiper came to the tabernacle to offer a sacrifice, the first thing he met was a white linen fence, 150 feet long and 75 feet wide, that surrounded the tabernacle and created a courtyard area where the priests ministered. The tabernacle proper stood at the west end of this courtyard, and at the east end was a 30-foot entrance to the enclosure. Here the priests met the people who came to offer sacrifices and examined each animal carefully to make sure it was acceptable. The worshiper would put his hand on the animal's head to identify with the offering (Leviticus 1:1-9), and then the priest would slay the animal and offer it on the brazen altar according to the regulations given in Leviticus 1-7. There was only one entrance to the enclosure and therefore only one way to get to the altar of God. When God puts up a fence and assigns the way in, nobody has the authority to question it or change it. Jesus claimed to be the only door (John 10:9) and the only way to God (John 14:6), which explains why Peter said, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). In today's pluralistic society, many people like to think that every way is acceptable to God, but that attitude leads to death (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25; Matthew 7:13-27).  â€¢ BEC Top The brazen altar was a hollow "box," seven and a half feet wide and four and a half feet high, made of acacia wood covered with bronze. In Scripture, bronze is often identified with judgment (Numbers 21:4-9; Deuteronomy 28:23; Revelation 1:15). Two and a half feet from the top, inside the "box," was a bronze grating on which the priests kept a fire burning (Leviticus 6:8-13) and through which the ashes of the wood and the sacrifices fell. Because they were part of offerings dedicated to God, these ashes were considered ceremonially clean and were collected on the east side of the altar. Regularly, the priests carried these ashes outside the camp to a clean place (Leviticus 1:16; 4:12; 6:10-11). Unlike the golden altar of incense in the holy place, the brazen altar was a place of bloodshed and death, for "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22). If a sinner could manage to enter the tabernacle courtyard and wash in the laver, that wouldn't save him, nor would he be forgiven if he entered the holy place and ate the bread or burned the incense. The way into the presence of God began at the brazen altar where innocent victims died for guilty sinners. In short, the brazen altar takes us immediately to Calvary where the Son of God died for the sins of the world (Matthew 26:26-28; John 1:29; 3:14-16; Romans 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24).  â€¢ BEC Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index Each morning, the priests were to offer a burnt offering on the brazen altar (Exodus 29:42-43), a picture of total dedication to the Lord (Leviticus 1). That would be a good way for each of God's children to begin the day, presenting ourselves in total dedication to God as 'living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1-2). Preachers and evangelists sometimes invite people in their congregations to "come to the altar," but there are no altars on earth that are ordained of God or acceptable to God. Why? Because the death of Jesus Christ took care of the sin problem once and for all (Hebrews 9:25-28). No more sacrifices can be or should be offered. The Lord's Supper (Communion, Eucharist) is a reminder of His sacrifice, not a repeat of His sacrifice.  â€¢ BEC Top The only "altar" believers have today is Jesus Christ Himself who bears on His glorified body the wounds of the cross (Hebrews 13:10; Luke 24:39; John 20:20). As a holy priesthood, believers "offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). We present to Him our bodies (Romans 12:1-2), our material wealth (Philippians 4:18), praise and good works (Hebrews 13:15-16), and a broken heart (Psalm 51:17).  â€¢ BEC Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  SRB  OU Index God wants His people to appreciate and enjoy His blessings (Exodus 26:1-37; 27:9-19; 36:8-38; 38:9-20) "Honor and majesty are before Him," wrote the psalmist; "strength and beauty are in His sanctuary" (Psalm 96:6). The strength of His sanctuary is revealed in its construction, and the beauty is revealed in its adornment.  â€¢ BEC Top Strength. The tabernacle proper was a solid structure over which the beautiful curtains were draped. Twenty boards of acacia wood, fifteen feet high and twenty-seven inches wide, overlaid with gold, formed the north and south walls, and eight similar boards formed the west wall. Each of these boards stood on two silver bases made from the shekels ("redemption money") collected from the Jewish men of military age. Since the structure stood on the uneven ground, these bases were necessary for stability and security. God's sanctuary didn't rest on the shifting sands of this world but on the solid foundation of redemption. The forty-eight boards were further strengthened by four long rods (cross-bars) that ran through golden rings on each board. At the east end of the tabernacle stood five posts on which a linen curtain hung, beautifully embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn. This was the door into the holy place. Some students believe that a rod ran straight through the boards of the north and south walls, connecting them to the end pillars and adding even more stability to the framework.  â€¢ BEC Top Beauty. Gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and white are the major colors used in the hangings and coverings of the tabernacle. The linen fence around the sacred area was white, reminding us of the holiness of God. The thirty-foot gate at the east end of the tabernacle was embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet against the white background. Blue is the color of the sky and reminds us of heaven and the God of heaven. Purple is the royal color that speaks of the King, and scarlet makes us think of blood and the sacrifice of the Savior. The holy place and holy of holies were covered with four different coverings (curtains) that draped over the walls and hung down to the ground. People looking at the tabernacle would see the leatherlike outmost covering composed of badgers' skins ("sea cows,"), which protected the other coverings as well as the tabernacle proper and its furnishings. Beneath that protective covering was a curtain of rams' skins dyed red, then a fabric woven of goats' hair, which may well have been black, and last of all a beautiful covering of fine linen embroidered with cherubim in blue, purple, and scarlet.  â€¢ BEC Top Between the holy place and the holy of holies, the veil hung from golden clasps, supported by four pillars. It was embroidered with cherubim in white, scarlet, blue, and purple. Hebrews 10:20 says that this veil typifies the body of Christ, for when His body was offered on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom (Mark 15:38). Some students see a parallel between the four Gospels and the four pillars that supported the veil with the four colors. Purple speaks of royalty—the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of the King. Scarlet reminds us of sacrifice—the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of the Suffering Servant. White speaks of the perfect Son of Man—the Gospel of Luke, and blue points to heaven—the Gospel of John, the Gospel of the Son of God who came from heaven to die for our sins. Appreciation. No matter how common the tabernacle may have appeared to outsiders, everything within the sanctuary was costly and beautiful, and it all spoke of the Savior who the people of Israel would give to the world. Godly believers in the Old Testament realized the treasures they possessed in God's house. Listen to David's testimony: One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple (Psalm 27:4).  â€¢ BEC Top Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells (Psalm 26:8). We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple (Psalm 65:4).  â€¢ BEC Top And the sons of Korah wrote: How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.... Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will be still praising You (Psalm 84:1-2, 4). What Old Testament believers had in the tabernacle, and later in the temple, God's people today have in Jesus Christ. The furnishings and the ceremonies point to Christ and reveal the many glorious aspects of His character and the salvation He gives to all who trust Him. Every spiritual need of the Jewish people was met in the provisions of the tabernacle, and in Jesus Christ we have everything that we need "for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).  â€¢ BEC Top Any approach to the Christian life that adds anything to the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture is not the right approach. All fullness dwells in Christ (Colossians 1:19) as well as all the fullness of the Godhead (Colossians 2:9). In Christ are "hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3), and we must "seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1). In Christ God's people have every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), and He is all they need. To the believers who loved God and wanted to please Him, the holy sanctuary was the source of food and drink for their souls. "Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings [the holy of holies]. They feast on the abundance of Your house" (Psalm 36:7-8).  â€¢ BEC Top In like manner, believers today feast on Jesus Christ and find in Him all the satisfaction they need.  â€¢ BEC Top •  Key SRB  = Scofield References SRB  = Scofield Margin Notes JFB   = Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Commentary JFB   = Introduction AC    = Adam Clarke Comentary AC    = Chronology by Adam Clarke OU1    = OUtline Index of Book OU    = OUtline of This Chapter NOTE: If your reference search placed you here it is indication that there are no Outline References for your search on this page. To return . . . click the link on the Key above ~ Or CLICK   - Exodus 27:1. Additional Resources  â€¢ Adam Clark Commentary  â€¢ Gill's Exposition  â€¢ Geneva Study Bible  â€¢ David Guzik's Commentaries  â€¢ Jamieson, Fausset, Brown  â€¢ Matthew Henry Complete  â€¢ Matthew Henry Concise  â€¢ Treasury of Scripture  â€¢ Wesley's Explanatory Notes SRB References ^ JFB Comentary ^ Adam Clarke Commentary ^ Outline Of Chapter ^ Copyright Statement These files are considered public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that is available in the Online Bible Software Library. Bibliography Information Scofield, C. I. "Scofield Reference Notes on Exodus 27". "Scofield Reference Notes (1917 Edition)". <http://www.studylight.org/com/srn/view.cgi?book=ex&chapter=027>. 1917.

Chapter 1 - Israel In Egypt Egypt and the Bible Egypt Map 29a. The Religion of Egypt Contemporary Egyption History 18th Dinasty, 13 Kings. 19th Dinasty, 8 Kings. The Pharaoh of The Exodus. Discovery of the Mummies. Fig. 31, Columns of Hypostyle*. Fig. 32, Hatshepsut's Obelisk*.    *Courtesy Oriental Inst. Fig. 33, Thothmes III.*    *Cour. University Museum. Fig. 34. Queen Hatshepsut.*    Cour. of Metropolitan Museum. Fig. 35. Amenhotep II.*    *Courtesy of Cairo Museum. Fig. 36. Rameses II.*    *Courtesy Univ. Museum. Fig. 37. Merneptah.*    **Courtesy Univ. Museum. Pharaoh of the Exodus:.    Amenhotep II ?.    Merneptah ?. Fig. 38. Merneptah's "Israel" Tablet. Map. 29b. Fig. 39. Sstele of Rameses II.*    *Courtesy Univ. Museum. Ruins of Thebes. Map. 30. Fig. 40. The Ruins of thhe Temple of Amon.*    *Cour. Oriental Inst. Chicago. The Great Temple of Amon. Fig. 41. Entrance to the Temple of Amon.*    *Cour. Univ. Museum PA. Fig. 42. Model of Hypostley Hall Ruins Fig. 40.*    *Cour. Met. Museum, NY.    Chapter 2. Moses. He was a Levite, I. His 40 Years In the Palace. His 40 Years In the Wilderness.    Chapter 3..    Chapter 4.. The Burning Bush.    Chapter 5. Moses First Demand on Pharaoh. ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTE: Bricks of Pithom.    Chapter 6. The Geneealogy of Moses.    Chapter 7.. First of the Ten Plagues. The Religion of Egypt.    Chapter 8.. Plagues of Frogs, Lice and Flies.    Chapter 9.. Plagues of Murrain, Boils, Hail    Chapter 10.. Plagues of Locust, Darkness. ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES: The Fall of Jerico. Fig. 45. Ruins of Jerico. Fig. 46. Diagram of Jerico's Fallen Walls.*    Courtesy of Dr. John Garstang.    Chapter 11.. The Contest With Pharoh. The Sixth Demand. And Eighth Miracle. The Fifth Judgement.    Chapter 12.. Death of Egypt's First-Born. ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTE:. Death of Pharaoh's First-Born. 12:29. The Beginning of Passover.    Chapter 13.. Unleavened Bread. Consecration of First-Born.    Chapter 14.. They Cross the Red Sea.    Chapter 15.. The Song of Moses.    Chapter 16.. Redemption; (Note*) Parenthesis. (3) Experience; Seventh Stage Of The Journey; Hunger. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH GOD’S GIFT The Manna: Type Of Christ. (The Giver And Sustainer Of Life. (John 6:30-63). Manna and Quails. Mount Sinai. Map. 31. Sinai. The Sabbath Given To Israel; Type Of Israel's Kingdom. (* Hebrews 4:8, 9.)    Chapter 17.. THE PEOPLE MURMUR FOR WATER. KEY: Redemption. (3) Experience; Eighth Stage Of The Journey. Redemption: By Blood. The Memorial Of Redemption By Blood. THANK GOD FOR GUYS LIKE HUR Water From the Rock.    Chapter 18.. Jethro's Advice. Redemption: (3) Experience Leaning On The Arm Of FLesh. __________________	Chapter 19.. God's Voice on Mt. Sinai. Redemption: (3) Experience; 9th Stage Of The Journey; Israel At Sinai.; Exodus 19:1-2. Grace Given Up For Law.; Exodus 19:3. The Fifth Dispensation: Law (Extends To The Cross); Exodus 19:8. (From Exodus 19:8 To Matthew 27:35.) ToPeople Under Law, God Is "In A Thick Cloud," And Unapproachable (Exodus 19:9-23). Bible Background Commentary Key Word Commentary. Wesley's Commentary. J. Vernon McGee Bible Exposition Commentary Map 32. Sinai.    Chapter 20. The Ten Commandments. Redemption: (3) Experience: Self Known Through the Revelaton of God's Holy Law; Exodus 20:1-2. (Romans 7:7-24). The Commandments; [SER2]    Chapter 23. Crimes Against Humanity Continued. The Order Of Worship. Pending The Building Of The Tabernacle. The Law: (2) The "Judgments"; Crimes Against Humanity; Exodus 23:1-9. The Law: (2) The "Judgments"; The Land And The Sabbath; Exodus 23:10. Bringing Israel to the Land - Exodus 23:20-33    Chapter 21. The Law: The "Judgments"; The Master And Servant. The Law: (1) — The "Judgments"; The Master And Servant; Exodus 21:1-11. (Cf. KWC1; BBC1; Wesley 1; JVM1; BEC1) casuistic law. nature of the book of the covenant. Hebrew. debt slavery. slave laws compared to ancient Near East. ear pierced on doorpost. sale of daughter into slavery. minimum provision. wife's provisions. The Law: (2) — The "Judgments"; Injuries To The Person; Exodus 21:12-36. (Cf. KWC12; BBC12; Wesley 12; JVM12; BEC12) capital punishment. place of sanctuary. cursing parents. kidnapping (slave trade). personal injury laws compared to ancient Near East. human rights (slave as property). miscarriage. lex talionis. personal liability. penalties for personal liability.    Chapter 22. The Law: (2) The "Judgments"; Rights Of Property. LAWS CONCERNING THEFT. The Law: (2) The "Judgments"; Rights Of Property.    Chapter 24. The Book of the Covenant. Exodus 24:1-18 ~ Ratification of Covenant Exodus 24:1. seventy elders. Exodus 24:4. writing. Exodus 24:4. altar and twelve pillars. Exodus 24:5. fellowship offering. Exodus 24:6. sprinkling blood on the altar. Exodus 24:7. book of the covenant. Exodus 24:8. sprinkling blood on the people. Exodus 24:10. saw the God of Israel. Exodus 24:10. sapphire pavement. Exodus 24:12. tablets of stone. Exodus 24:18. 40 as approximation?    Chapter 25. Moses In The Mount. The Tabernacle. (1) The Materials. (2) The Inspired House. Outline of Chapter 25. THE LIGHTS OF THE TABERNACLE [SER25a]. THE BUILDING MATERIALS OF THE TABERNACLE [SER25b]. The Tabernacle: Outline of Chapter 25 (1) The Materials. Moses In The Mount. The Inspired House. THE LIGHTS OF THE TABERNACLE [SER25a] THE BUILDING MATERIALS OF THE TABERNACLE [SER25b] THE OFFERING OF THE REMISSION OF SIN GIVEN ON THE MERCY SEAT [SER25c] THE TESTIMONY [SER25d] (3) The Table Of Shewbread. (Leviticus 24:5-9.) Exodus 25:23-30. table of bread of the Presence. (4) The Golden Candlestick. Parenthesis Exodus 25:31-40. ~ lampstand. The Lights Of The Tabernacle [SER25a]    Chapter 26. The Tabernacle (5) The Curtains Of Linen Outline of Chapter 26. Introduction ~ Referenced I. The Pattern Of The Veil II. The Purpose Of The Veil III. The Parting Of The Veil IV.Conclusion THE TABERNACLE THE MESSAGE OF THE VEIL Introduction ~ Referenced I.The Pattern Of The Veil II. The Purpose Of The Veil III.The Parting Of The Veil IV.Conclusion Exodus 26:1-6. linen curtains with cherub design. Exodus 26:7-13. goat-hair curtains. Exodus 26:14. ram-skin covering. Exodus 26:14. sea cow covering. Exodus 26:15-30. the frame. Exodus 26:31-35. the veil. Exodus 26:1-36. design, size and layout of tabernacle. Exodus 26:1-36. portable sanctuaries in ancient Near East. Exodus 26:1-36. I-axis design of sanctuaries. __________________	Chapter 27. The Tabernacle (14) The Brazen Altar. Outline of Chapter 27 I. Outline of Exodus 27:1-21 II. The Altar For Burnt Offerings III. Faith Manifested 1) What Is the Spiritual Meaning 2) Israel, To Be Forgiven of Their Sins . . 3) The Utensils of the Altar of Burnt Offering 4) All the Offerings That Were Sacrificed 5) Who Cannot Help But Sin Everyday 6) The Only Way to Receive the Remission 7) God Has Not Dealt with Us Only by the Law 8) We Must Believe in the Salvation Fulfilled 9) The Salvation 10) Our Lord Has Thus Saved Sinners 11) Whom Must We Believe in? 12) This Is How the Faith of Today's Christians Are 13) Do You Consider a Fanatical Faith as a Good Faith? 14) What Is It That We Must Do in This Era? 15) Who Was Sacrificed in This Way for You? 16) All You Have to Do Is Just Grab the Truth 17) Conclusion IV. The Color of the Gate of The Tabernacle's Court 1) The Gate And the Fence of the Tabernacle's Court 2) Jesus Christ Showed Us the Four Colors of the Gate of the Tabernacle 3) The Truth That Every Sinner Must Believe 4) The Messiah Who Came as the Fulfiller of the Prophecies 5) Look at the Fulfillment of the Word of the Old Testament! 6) Jesus Christ, the Savior Who Has Saved Us 7) Jesus Christ Who Came by the Water, the Blood, and the Spirit 4) The Matching of the Old and New Testaments 5) You and I, Too, Were All Spiritual Pharisees 6) Our Sins Disappeared by Believing in the Gospel 7) Jesus Took Upon Himself the Sins of The World 4) What Is the Perfect Faith? 5) Manifested in the Gate of the Court of the Tabernacle 6) When We Believe in Jesus 7) People Who Believe in Jesus Only Religiously 4) What Would Happen to Us If We Do Not Believe 5) Only By Grace Can We Receive the Gift 6) CONCLUSION V. In Process Exodus 27:1-8. altar. Exodus 27:9-19. courtyard. Exodus 27:21. the tent of meeting. Exodus 27:20-21. continually burning lamps. Bible Background Commentary Key Word Commentary. Wesley's Commentary. J. Vernon McGee Bible Exposition Commentary The Exodus by Haley Ch 1-40    Chapter 28. The Priesthood. The High Priest And The Priests. Type Of Christ And. (  a  ) Believers Of the Church Age.    Chapter 29. The Priesthood. (3) The Consecration Of The Priests. The Offerings.    Chapter 30. The Tabernacle. (18) The Altar Of Incense. The Great Worship Chapter.    Chapter 31. 1). Directions for the Tabernacle. 2). The Tabernacle. (19) The Workmen. The Divine Selection and Call: "I have Commanded".    Chapter 32. The Broken Law.    Chapter 33. The Golden Calf. Presence of God. The Journey To Be Resumed. Ref. Note Page 116_c1.    Chapter 34. Moses Again in the Mount. The Second Tables Of The Law. Restoration of the Covenant Relationship. Ref. Note Page 117_c1. See: "THE LORD, THE LORD GOD" [SER1].    Chapter 35. The Sabbath In Israel.    Chapter 36. More Than Enough; The Work Begun.    Chapter 37. The Ark. (Cf. Exodus 25:10; Exodus 37:1-5.) The Work Begun.    Chapter 38. The Alter Of Burnt-Offering. (Cf. Exodus 27:1; Exodus 38:1-7).    Chapter 39. The Holy Garments For Aaron. (Cf. Exodus 31:10; Exodus 39:1-43.)    Chapter 40. The Tabernacle Built. The Tabernacle. The Tent. The Most Holy Place, Holy of Holies. The Ark. The Holy Place. The Veil. The Candlestick. Table of Showbread. Altar of Incense. Altar of Burnt Offering. Laver. Court. Map 33. Plan of the Tabernacle. Fig. 44. The Candelstick.     ________________________

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Exodus Reference Bible   |-1- |-2- |-3- |-4- |-5- |-6- |-7- |-8- |-9- |-10- |-11- |-12- |-13- |-14- |-15- |-16- |-17- |-18- |-19- |-20- |-21- |-22- |-23- |-24- |-25- |-26- |-27- |-28- |-29- |-30- |-31- |-32- |-33- |-34- |-35- |-36- |-37- |-38- |-39- -40-|
Adam Clark Exposé    |-1- |-2- |-3- |-4- |-5- |-6- |-7- |-8- |-9- |-10- |-11- |-12-| |-13- |-14- |-15- |-16- |-17- |-18- |-19- |-20- |-21- |-22- |-23- |-24-| |-25- |-26- |-27- |-28- |-29- |-30- |-31- |-32- |-33- |-34- |-35- |-36-| |-37- |-38- |-39- |-40-|
JFB Exposé    |-1- |-2- |-3- |-4- |-5- |-6- |-7- |-8- |-9- |-10- |-11- |-12-| |-13- |-14- |-15- |-16- |-17- |-18- |-19- |-20- |-21- |-22- |-23- |-24-| |-25- |-26- |-27- |-28- |-29- |-30- |-31- |-32- |-33- |-34- |-35- |-36-| |-37- |-38- |-39- |-40-|
Outlines, Notes and Cometary    |-1- |-2- |-3- |-4- |-5- |-6- |-7- |-8- |-9- |-10- |-11- |-12-| |-13- |-14- |-15- |-16- |-17- |-18- |-19- |-20- |-21- |-22- |-23- |-24-| |-25- |-26- |-27- |-28- |-29- |-30- |-31- |-32- |-33- |-34- |-35- |-36-| |-37- |-38- |-39- |-40-
Scofileld Notes   |-1- |-2- |-3- |-4- |-5- |-6- |-7- |-8- |-9- |-10- |-11- |-12-| |-13- |-14- |-15- |-16- |-17- |-18- |-19- |-20- |-21- |-22- |-23- |-24-| |-25- |-26- |-27- |-28- |-29- |-30- |-31- |-32- |-33- |-34- |-35- |-36-| |-37- |-38- |-39- |-40-

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Index to Other Books of the Bible
Introduction To Exodus
Introduction To the Bible
A Panoramic View Of The Bible
Introducing Moses.
The Pentetude.
Day and Night
Names and Order of Books of The Bible
KJV - Public Domain

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|-Genesis- -Exodus-| -Leviticus-| -Numbers-| -Deuteronomy-| -Joshua-| -Judges-| -Ruth-| -1 Samuel-| -2 Samuel-| -1 Kings-| -2 Kings-| -1 Chronicles-| -2 Chronicles-| -Ezra-| -Nehemiah-| -Esther-| -Job-| -Psalm-| -Proverbs-| -Ecclesiastes-| -Songs Of Solomon-| -Isaiah-| -Jeremiah-| -Lamentations-| -Ezekiel-| -Daniel-| Hosea| Joel| Amos| -Obadiah-| Jonah-| Micah-| Nahum-| Habakkuk-| Zephaniah-| Haggai-| -Zechariah-| -Malachi-| -Mathew Study-| -Mathew-| -Mark-| -Luke-| -John-| -Acts-| -Romans-| -1_Corinthians-| -2_Corinthians-| -Galatians-| -Ephesians-| -Philippians-| -Colossians-| -1_Thessalonians-| -2_Thessalonians-| -1_Timothy-| -2_Timothy-| -Titus-| -Philemon-| -Hebrews-| -James-| 1 Peter_| _2 Peter-| -1_John-| -2 John-| -3 John-| -1-3 John Notes-| -Jude-| -Revelation-| -Index-|

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