The decision at the door

What is beyond that door? As a boy, I once almost joined a secret club.  At the door to the initiating room, I heard screams and laughter beyond. I became frightened and retreated. Afterward I often wondered what I had missed, but I could never make up my mind to go through that door to find out.

Israelites approaching the tabernacle first saw the seven-and-a-half-foot fence around it.  They knew the tabernacle was the place to make things right with God to worship Him, and to personally offer a sacrifice and have their sins forgiven; but to do so, they had to enter the door.

The tabernacle was enclosed by a white linen fence, five cubits, or seven and one half feet, high. Details for making and hanging the fences are given in Exodus 27:9-19.

The material was to be fine twined white linen.

The "fine twined linen" tabernacle fence typified or pictured holiness or righteousness. God is surrounded by holiness; as we approach Him we are confronted with His holiness and made aware of our lack of holiness. When Isaiah "saw...the Lord...high and lifted" in all His holiness (Isa. 6:1), he realized his own uncleanness and that of the people.  He cried, "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (v. 5). Any man approaching God must see the Lord's holiness and his own unworthiness. Only then will he recognize the need to enter the one door into God's presence.

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How we can stand before God clean

How can we come into God's presence? How can a sinner stand uncondemned before God? The tabernacle shows the way.

The answer is given in simple form in Heb.9:23,24 when God tells us that this earthly tabernacle which was "the pattern of things in the heavens" was purified with the blood of "calves and goats" (v. 19) but "the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices," even Christ's precious blood. The high priest went alone once every year into the holiest of all, into God's presence, which is the picture of heaven itself, but "not without blood" (Heb. 9:7). The one absolute essential we must have to stand before God is not our church membership, baptism, confirmation, or good works. It is the blood of Christ. We must come to God "not without blood" for "without the shedding of blood is no remission" (v. 22). By faith, be sure you apply Christ's blood to your own heart and life so that God sees it as the atonement for your sins. In the Old Testament a lamb was offered to God as a picture of the Lamb of God paying for our sins. Christ suffered and died for our sins, and you can stand before God, completely washed from all sin, if you claim Christ and His sacrifice for yourself.

THANKS to you who sent friends and families emails to add to our mailing list. I really hope you will too. I need many more. You are the greatest. Hope your name is drawn to get a pack of tracts FREE.

 

Join the 10,000 who get our brief encouraging and teaching Emails MWF. Write me at sumner@sumnerwemp.com. See our web site www.sumnerwemp.com for great motivation, encouragement and much more, then enter our free book drawing. Get our newest tract, "Your Ticket to Heaven" Call 1-877-827-2871 to order them. ABC Sumner