(Exodus) Exodus 38:9-11 — J. Vernon McGee

The Outer Court and Its Biblical Measurements

Now, he's going to talk about that outer court. He hasn't talked about it much before. Verse 9,. "...and he made the court on the south side southward. The hangings of the court were of fine twine linen, a hundred cubits.

Their pillars were twenty, and their brazen sockets twenty. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. And for the north side of the hangings, and it was the same thing on the north side, and it would be fifty on the two ends of the outer court, of this fence that's around.".

The Humanity of Christ and Separation from God

Now, that fine twine, bisis linen, you see, again speaks of the humanity of Christ. And that separated, actually, man from God. I was greatly distressed to have handed to me an article concerning a message that a president of a so-called conservative seminary gave at one of these knife and fork clubs.

I'd spoken at that club years ago. Well, the reporter, as he took the message down, said that this preacher made this statement that what we needed to do was to follow the teachings of Jesus. Even if you denied the deity of Christ, if you just followed the teachings of Jesus, you'd bring peace into the world.

The Death of Christ Rather Than His Teachings Saves

Well, that's not true. There's no peace for man apart from the shed blood of Christ, friends. You see, that linen fence shut man out from God. The life of Christ doesn't save us. It's the death of Christ that saves us.

The Gospel in the Tabernacle

And when we have preachers that pretend to be conservative giving a message like that, no wonder there's so much confusion in the world today. But anywhere you turn in God's Word, even to the tabernacle at the very beginning, when God is teaching man by picture, all of these things happen to them, for example, and to us.

If you can just read an ABC book and look at pictures like a baby, you can understand that the life of Christ and the teachings of Christ cannot save you. To begin with, you couldn't measure up to his life nor his teachings at all.

And it's perfect nonsense to whine out that type of thing today. It's been ground out now by modernism for years. That's got us in the difficulty we're in in this country today. And it's time somebody is putting it right on the line and telling it like it is.

The teachings of Christ won't save you, friends. It was the death of Christ upon the cross. And this white linen fence shut out man from God and God from man. He'll have to be approached some other way.

The Brazen Altar and the Judgment of Sin

That's the reason that brazen altar is there. Now, this fence, to take a look at it, there were sockets here, not a silver. The sockets were silver at the tabernacle proper, but here, brass. And brass, as we've seen, is the metal of judgment.

The Sin Question Must Be Settled

That picture of the glorified Christ, his feet was like burnished brass. I tell you, my friend, the sin question has to be judged. You can't go into God's presence today any more than you could take a criminal out of death row and turn him loose in society and present to him a house and a lot and $50 ,000 to begin life.

God doesn't do that sort of thing. And man better not do that sort of thing. The sin question must be settled. A man must recognize that he is a sinner and come into God's presence on that so that the outer course rested upon brass.

Silver as the Metal of Redemption

But at the top, there was these capitals that were on top of the posts as they were around. They made of silver. And you know, silver is the metal of redemption. We'll see that again in this chapter. It's very important for us to see that, by the way.

Redemption and the Righteousness of Christ

Now, we find, therefore, that in the outer court, even in this fence that was around it, that that shut man out, but that God had made a way. And it was that he had judged sin and provided a redemption for man that he might be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

What a picture. Well, you could stand there and look at the tabernacle and get the gospel, my friend. It's there for us. Now, I'm not going to read the rest of the details of the court, because to me, if you're just going to read them, all you've got is a blueprint.

And it gets pretty boring. Now, it may not get boring to you, but it does to me. So I'm going to drop down now to verse 18, because now there is an entrance. You don't climb over the fence. You have to come in through the gate, through the door into the sheepfold.

Entering Through the Gate

And here's the gate and the door.