Tabernacle Lectures (7) Linen Curtains

We humans do not know how filthy and evil we are. When Jesus was on earth, people dragged a woman who was caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and were about to stone her. Then Jesus said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” (John 8:7) Before they came to Jesus, they did not realize how filthy and evil they were. When they heard Jesus’s words, they discovered the filthy sins in their hearts, were pricked by their conscience, and starting from the elders to the youth, they dropped their stones and left. No matter how clean a person may look, if he comes out before Jesus Christ and his self is revealed, he will be able to know how awful and dirty he is.

Now our hearts to see Jesus must be opened. The people who do not have the eyes to see Jesus’s holiness and righteousness cannot discover their filthy image, no matter what. No matter how cleanly a person has lived on this earth, if he compared himself with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, he would be so filthy and embarrassed, he would not even lift his head.

Simon Peter could not realize how evil a human being he was when he was catching fish on the Sea of Galilee. But one day, he met Jesus, Jesus told him, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets,” and he caught a lot of fish. Peter could not help but confess, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” In other words, compared to Jesus he was such an evil sinner, and he confessed that he could not dare stand before the holy and righteous God.

If you look at Isaiah 6, one day he saw God and he said,

“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 my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5) He saw his unclean image, so he was sad and suffering. And then he was called by God.