The psalmist said in Psalm 104:34 - "My meditation of
Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord."
And again in Psalm 63:6 he says - "When I remember Thee on my bed, I
meditate on Thee in the night watches." From time to time we hear about
the importance of meditating on Word of God, but in both of these verses the
psalmist is talking about meditating, not on the Word of God, but on the person
of God. And when we consider His names and titles throughout the Word of God we
can begin to say along with the psalmist, "my meditation of Him shall be sweet."
Meditating on the Lords various names and titles is very enriching and, as I've
said before, these names and titles communicate quite a bit of information if
we'll take the time to stop and consider them.
Twice in John chapter 10 the Lord Jesus calls Himself
"the Door." What does this reveal to us about our Lord? Well, what do
doors do? Doors separate the outside from the inside and they make a way
between the two. When you go through a door your location doesn’t change by any
more than two feet, but your circumstances can change drastically. Think about
it. Outside it may be cold, wet, raining, dark, but you go through the door and
it’s warm, it’s dry, it’s bright, you’ve only gone about two feet but your
circumstances have changed completely, all from simply going through a door.
There are many Old Testament accounts that demonstrate new
testament truths, and I find it helpful when pondering the titles of the Lord
Jesus to think back to the Old Testament and see if the Lord has given us a
picture anywhere to demonstrate the truth being conveyed through His names and
titles. So as we think about the Lord Jesus as the door there are a couple
famous doors in the Bible that we might look at.
The first one I want to look at is found in Genesis chapter 6
and that is the door of the ark. In Genesis chapter 6 the Lord told Noah to
build an ark because He was going to destroy the earth with a flood because all
the thoughts of mens hearts were only evil continually. But as God instructed
Noah how to build the ark He told him to make it with a door. The ark had a
door, and anyone who entered through that door was saved from the flood. This
is a picture of what the Lord Jesus is saying. “I am
the door. If anyone enters by Me he will be saved.” It’s as simple as
those people going through the door on the ark. Anyone who went through the
door was saved and anyone who did not enter through the door was not saved.
It’s so simple. In looking at the entire population of planet earth at the time
of the flood you can divide everyone into two groups, those who went through
the door and those who did not go through the door. And it didn’t matter how
big a sinner a person was, if they didn’t go through the door they were not
saved. It didn’t matter if they were a really bad sinner or a not so bad
sinner. There was no concept of being sort of saved. Their salvation was very
cut and dry, very clear. If they were on the ark they were saved. If they were
not on the ark they were not saved. There was no concept of sort of saved.
Let’s go back in time to the days just before the flood. The
ark was there, the door was there and people had decisions to make. Every door
presents a decision. You may not even realize it, but every time you come to a
door you make a decision, “do I enter or do I not enter?” You can walk down a
long corridor, passing several doors to get to the one you want, but what you
might not realize is that subconsciously you were choosing not to enter each
door that you passed. So when it came to the ark everyone on earth was
presented with a decision, “do I enter the door or not? Do I get on the ark or
do I stay off?” Now, 2 Peter tells us that Noah was a preacher of
righteousness. The message was out that a flood was coming and so people had to
decide what they were going to do in light of the coming flood.
So we come to one guy and we ask him if he is saved. And he
responds by telling us that he is a very religious person and he goes to church
every Sunday, so he doesn’t really think it’s that important to enter through
the door and get on the ark because he’s a religious person. And he says, “you
know, I don’t really think it’s necessary to get on to the ark, as long as you
believe something and as long as you’re sincere.” But let's rephrase the
question. Instead of asking "Are you saved?" we ask "Have you
entered through the door?" The flood is coming on the whole earth and God
has revealed that only those who have entered the ark through the door will be
saved. It doesn’t matter what group of people you belong to, it doesn’t matter
how religious or sincere you are, if you’re not on the ark you will not
survive.
We come to another person and we ask her if she is going to
get on the ark, and she respond by saying, “well, you know, I don’t think that
the ark is the only way to be saved. Now, if you want to get on the ark you
can, but I want to be saved my own way, and there are other people who are
saying that if I do this certain thing that I will be saved too. So the ark may
be a good way for you, but I don’t think that the ark is the only way.” Well
the truth is that the ark was the only way to be saved. There was only one way
to be saved then and there is only one way to be saved now.
The ark also presents us with a beautiful picture of the
security of the believer. If someone trips while they are on the ark they are
still saved, they are still on the ark. Everyone who entered through the door
of the ark was saved from the flood, and Noah may have fallen down on the ark
but he never fell out of it.
Some people may have thought that God was such a loving God
that He would never send the flood. And it’s true that God does love people,
but that doesn’t mean that He didn’t send the flood. No, God loved people and
He still sent the flood. God is a just God, and sin demands punishment, but God
provided a way that people could be saved from the flood. God is a God of love,
but the way that God demonstrates His love is not by not sending anyone to
hell, but by providing a way that people might be saved from it. In Romans 5:8
we read that - "God demonstrated His own love toward us in that while we
were yet sinners Christ died for us." The Lord Jesus is the way. God has
made a way that we don’t have to go to hell. He has given Himself as the Door
that by Him we may enter and be saved. It’s a decision that we must make.
Christ is the door. We must enter through Him to be saved, because He is the
only way of salvation, as He said in John 14:6 - "I
am the way... No one comes to the Father except through Me."
There’s another door I want to look
at and that is the veil in the Tabernacle.This is actually more of a curtain,
but it served the same purpose. It separated the inside from the outside and
made a way between the two. In Exodus chapter 26 the Lord was giving Moses the
blueprints for the Tabernacle. This was that special tent in which God Himself
was going to dwell in the midst of His people Israel. The tabernacle itself
consisted of two rooms. As you entered in you would come into the larger room
called the Holy Place. Only the priests were allowed into the tabernacle and
the majority of their work would take place in the outer court and in this
first room, the Holy Place. But the second and smaller room in the tabernacle
was called the Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies, and it was in the Most
Holy Place that God Himself dwelt above the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the
Covenant. And in Exodus 26:33 the Lord instructed Moses- "You shall hang
up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring in the ark of the testimony there
within the veil; and the veil shall serve for you as a partition between the
holy place and the holy of holies." Separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was the veil. And that veil basically said "stay
back!" No one was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place except for the high
priest, and he was only allowed to enter once a year in order to make atonement
for his own sin and the sins of the people. And even that one time when the high priest could
enter he would have to follow very specific instructions "lest he
die." And Hebrews tells us that this physical tabernacle pictures for us a
heavenly tabernacle and a spiritual truth. The veil made a separation between
God and man. God, being holy, cannot allow sinners into His presence. But on
the cross an amazing thing happened. In Hebrews 9:6-12 the writer is talking
about the tabernacle and he says - "Now when these things have been so
prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing
the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a
year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of
the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the
way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is
still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts
and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in
conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings,
regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. But when Christ
appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not
of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through
His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal
redemption." When Christ died on the cross He offered Himself as the
perfect sacrifice, not in the earthly tabernacle but in the true tabernacle.
And because of that perfect sacrifice there will never be a need for another
sacrifice. And what's more, Christ opened the way into the presence of God. As
the Lord Jesus died on the cross, we read in Matthew 27:50-51 - "And Jesus
cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the
veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." There were many
strange things that happened surrounding the death of the Lord Jesus, but they
happened for a reason. The veil being ripped in two from top to bottom wasn't
an accident and it wasn't a coincidence. God was showing that with the tearing
of the flesh of the Lord Jesus the way into His presence was opened once and
for all. That veil that always said "stay back" was now torn in two
and the way into Gods presence was opened. And the writer to the Hebrews points
this out clearly in Hebrews 10:19-22 where we read - "Therefore, brethren,
since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a
new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is,
His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let
us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water." we’re told that this veil is a picture of the Lord Jesus’ flesh.
When He gave up His life on the cross He made a way for us to enter into the
presence of God. We can now come to God, not on our own, but through the Lord
Jesus. We can come to God by Him. We have confidence to enter into the presence
of God by Him.
As for the earthly temple, the Jews
simply sewed up the veil and continued on with their religious rituals. But as
for the heavenly tabernacle, the way is open for everyone. Christ is the veil
that was torn, He is the door that is now open and it's only through Him that
we can have access to the Father. Because of who He is and what He has done we
don't need to fear coming into Gods presence. Our sins have been paid for by
the blood of Christ, so through Him we have confidence to enter the presence of
God. Ephesians 2:12-13 - "Remember that you were at that time separate
from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in
Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood
of Christ."
John 10:9 - “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me he will be saved.”
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