God's love and grace is seen in His desire to meet with us and dwell amongst us!
This is the heart of God seen in His instructions to Moses about building the Tabernacle.
Blessings
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good morning church God is good and all of the time God is good. So I have the honor and pleasure of sharing with you this morning. I was just talking to Pastor Perv in the week and saying you know it's been a while since I've been up here I hope I don't pull a hamstring so I just had to stretch a little bit but it's always a pleasure and also a burden and awaits to share God's Word and I personally have been really challenged by this Word that I've prepared. I spend time studying God's Word, spend time reading through Exodus and we obviously we from Exodus 25 all the way up to 40 and I was selling Sarisha on the way here that I haven't been challenged by a Word like this in such a long time and it's not some new revelation that I'm gonna bring but it's the same thing that we've learned over the years but just God having revealed to me this week the gospel in the book of Exodus the sacrifice of Christ the love of God for his people and just the plan of God the redemptive plan of God from the beginning all the way up with soul revelation and just God having revealed that so I hope I can share that with you and I trust that the seed will fall and fertile soil this morning. So as we look and you know Sarisha and I were talking about you know sort of what is her take on Exodus and I trusted you guys have read Exodus all the way through to chapter 40. I'm not gonna do any quiz or test so you can safely say yes and let God do with you if you haven't but Sarisha's feedback was that it was a lot of detail and I personally felt it was a lot of detail when you read Exodus 25 this is now the story of God giving the instruction to Moses on how to pull the tab and echo and you know when for those of us who've redecorated our house or done some sort of renovations or anything in your house and your wife gives you specific instructions put that picture 12 centimeters higher put the fridge this way move the couch this way it's not symmetrical here we understand that when there's specifics to an ask and we find that sort of the same mindset here with God gives Moses the instruction for the tab and echo it's very specific very specific you can go and read it and if you want to summary go look at Exodus 40 Exodus 40 gives sort of a high level overview of summary of the tab and echo but so the biblical narrative runs from Exodus 25 like I mentioned it's the instruction of the tab and echo all the way up until Exodus 40 and what we understand from from Exodus or just a biblical narratives and biblical interpretation is that when Scripture gives so much focus on something we need to pay attention I was sharing with Tresha's morning is that when we we see the the life of Enoch and it says you know what with God and in one day he was yeah and one day he wasn't here but Enoch is such a pivotal figure I mean for God to take you and translate you to heaven he is important person but you have one or two sentences dedicated to you know you have other parts in the Bible where it's one sentence it talks about summary Melchizedek you find him there the king of Salem and you find that he gets a tenth from Abraham and then you don't hear about him again until Hebrews and you find that he's such an important figure in the biblical narrative but you don't hear anything much more of him but when God gives us so much emphasis and so much detail about something it's quite important and I know most of you probably fell asleep reading it's like reading the book of Numbers it's just lists and lists of numbers and genealogies and detail but the gospel is so thick and so powerful and so pleasant in these chapters that you can't not see the gospel of Christ you can't see not see the gospel of Jesus Christ written in these chapters so it goes all the way there and then you find little stories interjecting you find the golden calf you find you know Moses's face shining with glory you find all of these little pockets of stories but the complete narrative here from 25 to 40 is the building and the completion of the tabernacle and I was challenged whether we should break down scripture by scripture but then we're going to be breaking down lots of details so what we'll do here is we'll look at the central proposition when we look at a message when we look at a biblical narrative we look at what is the central message what's the big picture and the big picture here is found in a couple of chapters so we'll be looking at verse 45 of chapter 29 if you can send then you'll just you'll find yourself we'll jump around a little bit in scripture but so Exodus 29 verse 45 when we they're just one amen okay so it says I will dwell among the people of Israel I will be their God and they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of Egypt's out of the land of Egypt's that I might dwell among them I am the Lord their God this is the central proposition of the book of Exodus of this passage of scripture and the centrality of all scripture that God who wants to dwell with us God who wants to dwell amongst us and God most importantly wants to dwell inside of us and this is in terms of the narrative history of scripture this is God's plan the central proposition for today if you look at Exodus 40 just want to when I wrap up the central proposition here Exodus 40 verse 1 reads as follows the Lord spoke to Moses saying on the first day of the first month you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting verse 16 obviously between there's a lot of detail but verse 16 says this Moses did according to all the Lord commanded him so he did in the first month of the second year on the first day of the month the tabernacle was erected and then verse 34 it concludes as such then the cut then when the tabernacle is built right then the Lord then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle throughout all of their journeys wherever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle the people of Israel would set out but if the cloud was not taken up they did not set out and sold the day that was taken up for the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day and fire was in it by night in the sight of all other house of Israel through all their journeys god bless us reading this word this is the central proposition and central focus of today's message and the purpose of scripture now if you look quickly at the elements of the tabernacle you'll go see the detail but quite simply there was woven layers of curtain the tabernacle was constructed out of four woven layers of curtains so a lot of curtains and remember this was given by donations we just had the offering message now and God said listen whoever's heart has moved asked him to give and they gave they gave curtains or materials then there was a wooden framework the entire sanctuary had a wooden framework for stability the outer court was enclosed by curtain supporter and pillars with the entrance on the east side you had the bronze altar you had the labor you had golden lamb stand or the menorah you had a table of show great the altar of incense and the ark of the covenants and these were the most important so pivotal elements that were were parts of the tabernacle now when we look at the book of john the book of john belongs begins with the well-known prologue we know this very well writes in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and it goes on for about fourteen chapter fourteen verses talking about Christ's pre-existence his pre-eminence that he was God before he became Jesus he existed with God he was co-air and coexistence with God this is what john the the prologue is talking about and it says listen in the beginning was the word the word was that God and the word was God and then the prologue closes with this proclamation verse fourteen and the word became flesh and dwelt among us closed off with this very powerful statement saying that he was in the beginning before the existence of before the foundation of the earth was laid and then verse fourteen says and the word became flesh and dwelt among us now the word became flesh refers to the incarnation right john is describing the great event of the incarnation and the word became flesh and dwelt among us now the word dwelt you know sometimes when our wives explain things to us or say something to us we have to ask for for clarification what do you mean by this because you can use a word and it can have multiple meanings like I use this before the word bow eliana was wearing a bow in a hair in the Olympics the arches used a bow in the sky when it rains you have a rainbow you have many applications for the word bow so sometimes you need clarification the word that English is a very very complex language and when translated or transliterated from the original language we need a little bit more clarification which is why we have synonyms you go look at synonyms you find another word for this is this this and the other so when it says that the the word became flesh and dwelt among us we feel that it's maybe not a full exhaustive explanation of what what dwelt means means so when we look at the word dwelt the creak roots of the word is skinny s k e n e e and basically the translation of it is tent or tabernacle literally translate the literal translation if you were to look at it the word became flesh and it took up residence he pitched his tent with us that's the exact transliteration or direct translation of it even more specifically the word became flesh and he tabernacle amongst us that's the direct translation so if you look at the the word skinny that's what it means tent tabernacle so when he says John says in the word became flesh and he tabernacle amongst us so you see a direct transfer a direct correlation between the New Testament and this story of this narrative in Exodus we were talking about card building and tabernacle so in the book of Exodus we've been going through the book of Exodus this is sort of our part two and we're closing off today there's three major themes of importance that help us understand the scope of regentive history and regentive history as God's plans to save us from Genesis 3 all the way up to Revelation in closing when we dwell with him but Exodus itself is the first theme when God took his people out of Egypt saved millions of slaves and he says you'll remember this day I am the Lord your card took you out of Egypt the second one is the giving of the law possibly I've uncovered this last week the 10 commandments were given unto them this is the second like sort of mountaintop second major theme and the third major theme is the standard the establishment of God's house of the house of God this is the third one and probably I would argue the most key the 10th of meeting with the tabernacle this is the third theme and the third theme that we'll be covering and closing off today so God goes into excruciating detail the level of detail here guys is to the angle that the nails were pitched to the dimensions to the mathematical equations to how they should part their tents to which tribes would go where to waters position where and wherever they moved and remember this was not just 40 years but they use these dynamics and these they use this the tabernacle for a while after after this even up until the building of Solomon's temple even up until Herod's temple up until the New Testament so you find that this is very specific very specific and God is not not in the details so everything God gives us is intentional everything in scriptures intentional every single detail to the materials that are used to the dimensions to the measurements to every single thing God is very specific very specific and we'll see why so this is a critical and key theme key moments in biblical redemption history prior to this there was no sanctuary you didn't have a church you didn't have a place we call would meet with these people prior to this point you had the patriarchal period and this is prior to this so you had Genesis right we understand the patriarchal period was the card of Abraham Isaac and Jacob this is the period of the patriarchs if you look at the patriarchal period we know that it's marked by important moments of worship whenever there's a significant moment or significant event in the biblical history you find that there would be a place or an altar built so and also be erected you find Noah when he comes out of the ark after the 40 days of flooding and after the 100 and something days that they spent floating they come and they land on they land on or they come off the ark and then Noah comes down and Genesis 8 verse 20 says then Noah built an altar to the Lord took some of every clean animal and every clean burden and offered a burnt offering to the on to the altar you find that they built altars at specific times and specific periods Abraham built multiple altars in his lifetime representing specific encounters with God there were certain times and we know the most important one or the biggest one that we remember is when he offered his son he was going to offer his son and God offered a sacrifice which speaks to the atoning sacrifice of Christ we find that the narrative of Christ is everywhere in scripture Abraham's descendants also built altars you find Genesis 26-25 is the Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord Jacob likewise after you wrestle with God remember the story you wrestle with the angel after having a dream he then has a dream of a ladder he sees the angels ascending and descending he woke up and took a stone that he uses the pillow he he notes it with oil and then he called the spot battle the house of God and he said for surely God is here and I didn't know it you remember that story so we find that throughout the patriarchal period there was specific times specific periods where they would put altars and this would be the meeting place of God but God never had a church never had a place of meeting never had a place where he would meet with these people that go to Mount Sinai or go to the specific spot and I'll meet with you now I want to talk about about time and space now the significance of these incidents in the patriarchal period was that there was sacralization sacralization is basically making something sacred so God made things sacred and he made time sacred and he made space sacred and this was the narrative of the patriarchal period so recall in the Passover period he says I want you to do this for all time he made the Passover period sacred he made random days now ordinary days sacred he consecrated them by the memorial of the Passover so in light man in the Old Testament we constantly see examples where space is consecrated we see example where time is consecrated so remember when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush he says this is holy crown take of your sandals bow down and worship him and Exodus 3 verse 5 do not come near near here take your sandals of your feet for this place that you're standing is holy crown now the importance of understanding that this in public faith in public religion and the whole dominion of God the whole earth was God's they understood this right so in antiquity they would understand that the fullness of the Lord belongs to God so but God does something specific in this period as we we know the conflicts of Moses and Pharaoh God said that the whole earth belongs to the Lord his presence is a ubiquitous and he's omnipotent you know omnipotence is everywhere he can be all places at all times there's no way that God is not so it's not talking about the omnipresence of God the Psalmist cried out in Psalm 139 verse 7 where can I flee from thy spiritual Lord if I send into heaven you are there if I make my bed in Sheol you are also there where can I go from your presence doesn't matter even in the in hell he is there if I send to the mountains he is there does not matter so they understood that is not talking about the omnipresence of God God is everywhere all of the time in space and in any time so it's not talking about the universal presence of God but the whole earth was sacred and in spite of these principles there were intrusions into time and space so God would come down at specific times and specific places and those places will be marked as sacred the Passover was now sacred time and the burning bush where we Moses stood was sacred crown and we understand that this was this was not a new concept to the Israelites so to this day we still refer to Israel as Holy Land we go to the sacred sites we make a pilgrimage there we find that often this is something on our bucket list that we have to go to Israel to walk with Jesus walked to see what Jesus is teach to go to the Sermon on the Mount to go to these places which is a student we all struck by it because that place is sacred because God sanctified it he said he made it he made it sacred so even though the earth is commonplace it's made holy by a visitation by God is what what I'm trying to say here now the whole point of the creation of the tabernacle is to dramatize to Israel of what God says to them and I quote he says I will be with you I read that in the beginning God promised that will be with them so he made a promise to Abraham I will never leave you no forsake you he made the same promise Isaac and the same promise even at battle when he had a dream to Jacob he says I will never leave you no forsake you when Christ comes into the world we see Naziah it's prophesied of the virgin birth says that we will call his name Emmanuel and that means God with us so this narrative and this promise that I will be with you is not only that God's presence will be with us but he will send these only begotten son to be with us and I will never leave you no forsake you as an actual promise that we stand in fulfillment today so God with us Emmanuel is is the ultimate fulfillment of the tabernacle so in a way the presence of God is marked outwardly and symbolized in the Old Testament wilderness by the construction of the tabernacle the tent of meeting a place with God says he will come to meet his people so this is something new for them this is something that they hadn't experienced required with sake set make up a designated area that will be sacred designated time that will be sacred for himself so this Sunday in this building even though this building is there's nothing special but it's a space and a place because says that you will meet these people corporately on a Sunday between 9 and 11 o'clock these times and places are made sacred so at this point they're still in transition they haven't gone to the promise land yet and they had left slavery so they're still in transition so Israel was a semi-nomadic people we understand what nomads were right people will just move around bushmen the koi sand those are nomadic people they never built houses they never stayed one place too long there were no nomads and they went where the food was where the water was Israel was semi-nomadic in the sense they're moving from place to place wandering around in the wilderness the whole point here was wherever they would go or wherever they go is where God would lead them so in the scripture that I read earlier it says that you know the presence of God was there and when the the only time that the tents were were broken down was when the presence of God was saying let's move to the next place and there's an application in this and something that we need to do we need to understand here is that whenever we going through something in life whether it be a new relationship with it be a job venture whether it be immigration whether it be whatever you want to do in your life take you on a new job try something new building new relationships whatever every single thing in our lives we need to go with God leads us because I've heard of people going to New Zealand going to Canada getting new jobs whatever it may be and you find their life falls apart because God wasn't in it we have to make sure that whatever we do in life we all is consulting with God God has to be in the center of everything that we do people we need to understand this and this is something that God is facing a president so long ago that wherever I lead you you will go and only times is the dog pulling the the owner this happens so often that instead of God leading us we are leading God we are going before him and yet the president that is said here is that where I lead you you will go so my prayer for everything I do now is Lord lead me teach me this this new job is it for me this new thing that I want to do is it for me should I wait should I hold on and sometimes from prayer oftentimes the answer is more no than yes or more weight than yes but our impatience makes us do things and take on things that bites us in the back bites us back and then we like Lord why won't you there for us and yet we went ahead of God and God is teaching the Israelites that I will lead you I will be your king I will be in the center and I will go first ahead of you the fire and the cloud led them in the wilderness so God is teaching him this principle now when we come whenever the people of Israel would move from place to place they would come to a new location and a new site so encampment is our sort of our next theme and they would encamp in a circular fashion so they would camp in a circle and for those of you who have the Bentley I see the Bentley here positive see the ESV study Bible there's amazing illustrations in there if you have the ESV you would open it up and you see the descriptions in detail the pictures and you would see the the Israelites would encamp in a circular fashion so it would be a circle and sort of in a segment of Arc which was inhabited by particular tribes so certain tribes that's a park in certain places tribe of Benjamin the tribe of of Gad and all of these these different tribes would park in certain certain places and this would be their designation and the tribes would camp around the perimeter so camps would park around the outer perimeter and if you look at the dimensions it was basically the tabernacle was to be in the mathematical center of the encampments and now there's symbolism in this you know when you're looking at it it's just numbers and details and directions but when you look at it we understand that God is teaching us something the first symbol is that as I've already said it's a visible reminder that God wants to be in the midst of his people now during the civil rights movements in America for those of you who maybe study history old enough to know in the 70s the civil rights they were fighting for their civil rights and a popular song a song became popularized there says that we will not be moved they would sing the song we will not be moved this was sort of like defiance like sort of an apartheid movement we will not be moved we will not be shaken and those words are parted directly from Psalm 46 Psalm 46 with the Psalmist or the Psalm talks about the threat of destruction and catastrophe Psalmist is saying listen threats and catastrophe is at my door that might be for all the nations it says the seas roar and the trouble and is troubled and the sea beats against the sides of the mountain and the storm is so great and perhaps even the mountain will be caused into the midst of the sea so you have this imagery of the storm bashing against the mountain and the catastrophe is coming towards them and in contrast with the threatening imagery of the storm of the sea is a peaceful and calm image of a river so you have this contrast Hebrew poetry is amazing that way you have this raging sea and you have this peaceful river traditionally in Hebrew poetry the sea would be a symbol of threatening power where the river would be a symbol of life we see in heaven even there's a river of living of living water that flows from us even and the psalmist goes on to say but there is a river whose dreams make glad the city of god the god that god is in the midst of a she shall not be moved so in other words the reason the psalmist is conference of the enduring and the stability of the permanence which was the promise of god was that he will be in the midst of his people what the psalmist was saying and what this imagery is teaching us is that we have a confidence when god is in the midst of us when god is in the sense of your life the waves can crash against your life you can be faced with all manner of economic calamity you can be faced with all manner of sickness anything can come against you you will sing praises from your hospital bed you will sing praises from unemployment line because when god is in the middle of your life when he's in the center in the midst of your presence and this is the promise that we have he said i will never leave you never leave you not when things are maybe semi-bad not when when you know when we make our marriage vows it says in sickness and naltile death is like it is a permanence in a promise there's a permanence in a promise of god and we have this peacefulness we have this this peace that surpasses all understanding and this is the imagery and the lesson they'll be learning here is that when god is in the midst of the camp if you ever been uh had a threat of a fight in school i remember uh bev when we would get threatened after school is after school and you had a bigger friend or a bigger brother or somebody you can stand shorty for you you walked in with the confidence no one can do anything to me because we we know that feeling when somebody's got your back somebody your father or your your cousin or somebody who's got your back there's this feeling of shorty how much more confident are we that we can face the troubles of this world when god is in our corner how much more certain are we that no matter what the enemy sends our way you can send waves you can send calamity our way but god is in a sense and this is what is teaching them that as long as i'm in your midst don't bizer for anything you can be afraid for nothing nothing nothing will overcome you and this is the confidence we have but we need to but there's also attachments to this that you need to abide by his commandments you need to be obedient to his voice you need to listen to him you abide in me and i abide in him so this is the the conditions god is with us so the first and foremost significance of the placements of the tabernacle of people which uh whether we get it that was the second significance uh components of this was isra was a semi-nomadic people in antiquity most of the nations of the semites the semites were the children of you know isra's cousins um so you had all of the the the mohavites and the amorites and the jebusites all of the people of the of the land most of the nations of the semites were semi-nomadic so they were crazed they would send their animals out to to craze and they would go from place to place where there was food in west water to desert and even though other nations uh had permanent settlements sometimes they would go on a march for for the purposes of war purposes of conquest military conquest and you would find that um central to they are camped encampments and central to their tenting and you would go and look at movies like troy those of what's troy you would see when king agamemnon is in the middle he's he's now telling um you know Brad Pitt's character to go and fight for him etc always you would find the central tent the tent would be central is where the king would dwell you go look in Spartacus, Cassenius and feudal Spartacus goes and breaks into their camp and he goes and kills the two leaders in the center of the camp this was a place where the king dwelt when people would march this was the place and symbolism uh that was in the center of the encampments so the idea here is god is they king before the area of before the era of the book of kings if you go and look at the bible right you got genesis the first five books of the bible and then you get to the book of judges which is a very confusing time in inscripture and then you got to the book of kings you find that you got uh david salomon saw all of these guys a period where they said give us a king we also want what they have because he's they can attack you it's gonna be you're gonna live under some some some conditions i'm your king they said no we want a king says okay take your king and see what that dwelt you go look at the book of kings you go look at the book of chronicles it says and israel sindegan's god and the next king came in and israel done evil in the sights of the lord next king came in and israel sinde done evil in the sights of the lord this was the era of kings but god here the intention initial intention was that god would be the king god would lead him god would guide them god would provide for them manor fell from heaven his prey had falling from heaven birds came out of the sky wouldn't blew them and they landed there and they they they eat meat god provided for every need god was their king and this was the purpose the card will dwell in the midst of these people he would be their king and the purpose of having the tabernacle in the center was that he intended to be their king and they provide and their leader now let's look at the structure of the temple a little bit um now the entrance faced east as we mentioned the entrance was portable it could be taken up it could be broken down and it could be transported but the leviates would be the one to transport the the the artifacts so and in the tribe of levi there was a there was a part of them which of their duties and so of the house of cohect the cohectites they would be responsible for transporting sacred vessels the sacred items and they would train their whole lives in the proper procedure on how to move and tear down and and build up the the articles of the tabernacle and we see when the story of david david is then bringing the the ark of the covenant back from from a far inland god destroyed the gods there and then david is sacrificing every couple of paces david sacrificing is dancing before the lord is bringing the ark of the covenant back and then you find that there's a man named usa the ark is about to fall over who goes and touch the ark struck down dead and it's like it is a bit harsh god but if you go and look at there was proper protocols in terms of how you should handle the ark of the covenant it wasn't just something you play around with so it this was a you know a violation of how you should handle things and don't don't don't touch the ark was one of them now the tabernacle we look at the tabernacle very quickly the tabernacle itself over the sanctuary uh so it is about a thousand square meters it is a very huge tent very very huge tent but the majority of the of the sanctuary itself was given to the outer court the outer court uh you had the outer court you're the holy place and then you had inside the most holy place and this is the dimensions if you go and look in your Bible if you have one of the dependencies you'll see the specific dimensions the measurements the detail of that now just looking at a quick comparison the ark of the covenant the ark of the covenant but the tabernacle some comparisons comparisons to edan firstly the entrance was east facing likewise you find that the entrance of edan was in the east there were cherubim after man sinned you found the cherubim replaced by the gates of of edan with flaming swords to protect it you find that there's cherubim on the garden of the of the the seeds of god you find that the lampstand represents the tree of life the law represents the tree of knowledge and this is god's plan of restoration you see an echo from exodus all the way to revelation of god's plan of restoration of edan of paradise and you see the completion in revelation 21 and 22 and i found that really amazing that there's this comparisons that god is bringing back perfection bringing back his glory and this is a shadow the tabernacle is a shadow of things to come there one day we will dwell with him in paradise and so the gospel of john showing christs fulfillment of each situation of the tabernacle and this is where i want to really really focus a bit of time is that christs is the fulfillment of the law of moses is the fulfillment of the tabernacle now it's significant that the perimeter outside was protected by the levites normal people would only be able to enter into the into the outer court now there's some dimensions here but there was a lever the altar of burning with it would burn burn offerings the lever was made of bronze it's a place where the priest would go and for purification rights they will fulfill their priestly duties they themselves will be cleansed that's a wash and the word lever is the word that way we get the word a bath or bath so this is what they would do richly cleanse themselves it was symbolic of cleansing themselves you would have the bronze lever so the high priest would have to clean himself this was the process right you would go from the outer court to the holy place to the most holy place it stood between the bronze altar so this is the bronze labor right it stood between the bronze altar and the entrance to the holy place and what's interesting is that it was made of bronze mirrors so the one of the offerings was the woman would have to give their mirrors so oftentimes mirrors i find now with the land of selfies and mirrors is that you find and oftentimes why was it given from one moment because there's this this vanity that uh that once existed where you would gaze at yourself in this mirror was now made into a bronze lever where you would wash yourself so there'd be water there'd be this bronze lever made of mirror and you would be have you would have to in a sense reflect or look at yourself an object of vanity is now used to look into God's word as a mirror seeing himself for who he really is in the light of God's high standards of righteousness presents it to us in the word of God we have to inspect our spiritual cleanliness on a daily basis and this was a symbol that that was there daily we look into the word of God James says this like if you go and look at the word of God and you walk away and you don't even recognize yourself it's a mirror it's a mirror to show ourselves the highest standards of God's righteousness this is not something that we do like today's equal it's not something that we do as a hobby something as a pastime the word of God and this walk of faith and this walk of Christ is something that we do when we inspect ourselves daily we read the word of God because it convicts us so an example that that ray comfort once done he says the word of God is like when you open up a curtain and you let the light in and then you see all these particles of dust how many of us you know you cleaned your house it looks clean and then you see these particles floating in my house is dusty I need to dust and the word of God is that light that shines in that exposes all of this this uncleanliness and this is why we do daily and this is what the brand's labor is teaching us is that it's a reflective thing and we need to cleanse ourselves daily this is what the preceptor to do every single day is retro cleansing washing himself cleanse himself and making ready for the next phase we come to God not unrighteous but it's a representation that God has high standards for us high standards just look at the detail of the tabernacle God has such high standards for his righteousness in his glory that we as people have to be perfect as he is perfect be holy as he is holy and this is one of the symbols and one of the examples that God gives us now the altar of offering is a place where they would do animal sacrifice animals were burned and this was done in the outer court so the altar of sacrifice for the bronze altar only the high priest was allowed into the holy of holies rights we understand this holy of holies was a holy place so pure and so holy was God's presence that one high priest would go once a year once in his life they would tie a rope around his leg in case he didn't make it out and they would be able to pull him out of there this was this was the high standards that God had so the holy most holy place was where the prince of God dwelt but on the altar of sacrifice of the bronze altar bulls and goats were sacrificed on the altar court to cover the sins of people for time we understood this is a temporary sacrifice Hebrews 10 verse 4 puts it this way it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins therefore when Christ came into the world he said sacrifice and offering you did not desire but a body you prepared for me with burns offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased so we understand that this is a temporary measure that God had used but there was a plan that God had for permanent solution now we understand that this progressive sacredness in this temple God is teaching us something yeah now the interesting thing to me is that the closer you get to the holy of holies is a progressive level of sacredness which indicated by the progressive level of materials used you would see bronze and then you would get all the way to the holy of holy and you see cold like on the olympic podium we just come out of the olympics now you would see bronze silver and gold and that shows a progression to ultimate glory in olympic standards this was the same thing God used different materials in the progressive levels of sacredness as you came from the altar courts which everyone could go to but then only certain people could go to the next level ultimately the holy of holies which was a high priest now again we come back to the big picture there is the circle that describes the whole camp and everyone outside the camp the encampment was considered unclean this was a picture that was created here every outside of the camp was unclean there was darkness and everyone unclean everyone was getting clean or cleansed was inside the encampment the outside was a place of the chains house and this was a way that symbolized out of darkness and those who are outside of the covenant promise and the but as you get inside you see the God pours out the gifts of mercy pours are his grace the closer you get to the center the closer you approach the direct presence of God and if you were to look at it in today's standards the book of Daniel talks about a vision that that king Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel translators vision you had the head of gold you had the chest of of silver you had the waist of bronze and then you had the feet of silver and and and i'm and you see these progression of of materials but what an descending fashion right from from most precious all the way down to least precious clay likewise in today's in today's day and in today's time we find that we are progressing or decreasing from the presence of God into oblivion when we were in school we would sing our Father in the morning we would say our Father in the evening in the afternoon we will pray for for lunch dear Lord Jesus we are going home now please keep us safe we would pray in assembly we would sing to the Lord i remember I was telling Sir Isha that as a child i would go up voluntarily and go and sing gospel songs this can i sing for you and it seems weird now it's like this little boy in primary school and i would go up and sing songs that my mother would play for me only because it wasn't a strange thing today to even say that you are Christian people are afraid to even be identified with Christ the further we move from Christ and you see this over time like in Nebuchadnezzar stream where it says in Babylon they were gold and in values it went down all the way to clay the further we move from God's presence the further we fall into destruction then we see the world is very confused i've got family who declare themselves as non-binary how can you declare yourself as i don't know what i am i wake up this way i wake up this way i decide what i am on on the given day good no God has declared you to be a certain thing this truth and those who are going to be challenging this latter day are those who are lovers of truth if you are a lover of truth and you don't stand for things like things that we already established that the earth is around our being argued today it's like no like we still revisiting this thing guys we understand that those are love truth and those love biblical truth are going to be the ones who challenge but we do not move far from the presence of God because God is got our back like we say fago after school God has got our back God is with us so we find that there's a degeneration as i was talking to a pastor b this this week you know we find that they've taken Christ out of everything they're taking God out of everything we don't measure time now by bc anymore you know we would say 5 000 bc 10 000 bc but it's bce now it's before common era not before Christ we know that time was stamped by the birth of Christ and in time continued after his death and we find that God has taken out of schools out of government even remember pastor bilead noted that out of the national anthem before when it first came out to say was um oh yeah come only spirits that's no longer in there for the kids are growing up now that's not there come only spirits we're taking God even out of national anthem because we are secular country these are the things that are happening in today's time and these are the things that God wants us to be mindful of so the closer we get to God the more it's going to cost us is what this is telling us um the closer we get to Christ the greater the sacrifice and that's why some of us are comfortable in staying in the outer court because it costs us more to go closer it costs us our time costs us our Netflix time it costs us our reading time it costs us going out and doing whatever we want to do indulging in certain things that we shouldn't be doing because they're also causes safe in a sense the outer court represents conversion so it's when we come to Christ we come up to the front i see their hand brother come up to the front we stand here we declare that we we we want a life change and that's where we stay that's where most of us stay and this is where most Christians are content to stay church attendance we seek the box we come to church every Sunday i've done my duty i've done my due diligence we occasionally pray when we convicted when we've done something wrong or when we in trouble or when we need something we pray we read the bible every now and then Christ says we hold our stand at the door and knock if anyone opens up the door i will come in and eat with him and he must be this is his plea for you this evening or this this this this this morning now again they understood that God was actually everywhere but in his redemptive history or his redemptive activity where the means of his Christ was focused this is where his Christ was focused that this was the most cycled place of all the holy of holies and further you got away from the holy of holies the further you are moving out of the place where you would be going from clean to unclean and that symbolize outer darkness the symbolism of this is used throughout the teaching of scriptures in these writings of prophets of the new system and for example it's said that the gospel of john follows in his contents in the book of revelation heavily uses the imagery of the tabernacle you find the golden lamb stand uh you know you'd find the holy place the most holy place and it's my personal conviction that most angels that fell with lucifer didn't have full access to god just go up to him a lord i just want to ask you something no god's presence was covered you find that there's a picture of this on the on the arc of the covenants there's angels cherubim that covered him even lucifer was said said to be the anointed cherub that covered it god's presence was covered was protected and lucifer would go into the presence of the angelic realm and display the car uh the the the glory of god which is where you would look on yourself and say look at me they worshiping me and you would get that that that sort of of of picture but um so you would find um there was um you know sort of it's repeated in the book of revelation so you see the symbolism there so it's really important the symbolism and uh and christ in the gospel of john is called the lights of the world because in the holy place you had candlesticks these candlesticks if you see the menorah it's one little stem and then you find three stems leading from their seven stem and uh the holy place you would have the candlesticks with the seven branches the menorah and the light was kept perpetually burning so one of the requirements was that light had to burn day and night day and night never going out and then you had the holy uh sorry in the holy place you would have the altar of incense and it was smaller than the altar of of burnt offering but more precious in metals um and this illustrates the work of prayer so what god is trying to teach him was that prayer was important prayer was one of those things that the priest would have to do on behalf of the people you go into the presence of god and he would uh offer praise unto god light the incense and the incense would rise and it was seen as a pleasant smelling aroma we quote this lord let our praise be a sweet smelling aroma unto you and you know because you would consider that animals were being slaughtered right there so they wouldn't sometimes they wouldn't be uh you know the in big english they would say you know it was odiferous smell bad and you would have the smell of incense which would be pleasing to the to the nostrils so they could identify that that's uh you know there was a there was a sense of of of of of of a sweet smelling aroma and a delightful smell in the presence of god so incense represents this and you know in all testament language they would understand this for example when uh the people of Israel were obedient to god um and they were pleasing to god they would say that their presence was meat smelling aroma to his nostrils but when they were corrupts and they they shifted their worship and they became degenerate i says i despise your feast i abhor your solemn assemblies and your sacrifice have become lonesome to me they are stench in my nostrils so this is a representation of prayer when our lives are righteous when our worship is as pure when our lives are holy that it becomes a sweet smelling aroma and our prayers are are pleasing unto him again in the new system and the work of Christ is described as being a sweet smelling aroma and a fragrance unto god when Christ went to the to the cross he had the sweet smelling aroma of their spite not oil that the woman had laid on his feet this was the the the the idea of worship smell pleasant to him and god not only fulfills the whole tabernacle in a real sense in every way in every part and then you have the golden lampstand so the only this was a dark dark dark room right you got to picture this the only lights in the dark room was a golden lampstand that had to be continuous John 8's verse 12 says again Jesus spoke to them saying i am the light of the world whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life when we surrender to the wall of Christ he makes us a new creation right we know the scripture all things all of those old things pass away and all things become new so the things we used to love and sometimes i shudder because i look at the things that i used to actively pursue so in the morning going to places i shouldn't be going because i loved it for that pursued my sin that is pleasing to me because then i shouldn't be phoning i'm phoning a random house of the nights things i shouldn't be ingesting i'm ingesting because i loved it this was my desire because i love darkness but when Christ came in those things that i loved i know long i love and now i have a love for righteousness i have a love for truth i have a love for the gospel i have a love for God because God comes in and changes our hearts and this is the work of renewal and regeneration that God does in our hearts so to love God is to hit sin you cannot be even in the presence of sin as we want to go to those old friends who are still carrying on for themselves now just blow me on the side with him carry on but the conversation is wayward the behavior is wayward the thinking that the the language everything that they're doing is wayward but now we just know a love of God is a hatred of sin we despise sin we we don't want to be near it we don't want to even fellowship with it okay those are my brother but i have to keep my distance gents and this is the regeneration of hearts and now we are lovers of truth we are lovers of God we are lovers of purity we want to be around purity Jesus is the light of the world not only is he the light of the world but he is the perpetual light in heaven this is a symbol that menorah that had to burn day and night night and day for looking Revelation 21 verse 23 it says and the city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it his light and the lamp is the lamp of the the lamp this is a picture of Jesus Christ who is the light of heaven there's no need for the sun there's no need for yes come there's no need for electricity in heaven because Jesus is a source of light he is the jewel of heaven he is the center he is the tabernacle of heaven people we need to understand that God is not putting all of this detail in there for no reason at all but every single aspect of the tabernacle is pointing to one man the light of our life he says i am the light of the world and we need to understand that you know there's attributes of the of the the golden lamp stand in order to produce lights that has to be full of oil right one of the duties of the of of air and would be that he would have to fill it with oil clean of the wicks and then light keep it lit so oil is a picture of foreshadowing of the the work of the holy spirit when we are full of the holy spirit our lives radiates light how many of us ask for the filling and indwelling of the holy spirit every single day he's our helper he is the one who helps us to fight sin he is the one who helps us say no when the body is saying yes he is the one we got to fill himself fill ourselves with the word of God and with the presence of God with the the presence of the holy spirit and this was another symbol that we had to endure by so like the priest we have to be filled daily we can't function and yesterday's anointing so today you filled with the word you had amazing time in worship you felt the presence of God is sending to you come monday somebody cuts you off in traffic some boss says something to you depression comes your way whatever it is whatever challenge you've been faced with tomorrow you can't be running on today's sunday's revelation tomorrow tomorrow you got to go into the word of God you've got to read you got to play you got to spend time on your knees you've got to ask God daily daily daily Lord help me today help me to fight this temptation help me to fight this this urge to smack somebody help me to love my wife help me to be patient with my kids whatever we're facing we've got to ask God we don't do anything in our own strength you know you know conversation this morning I was just reminded in researching or in studying this is that you know it seems obvious but not that obvious is that God does everything here in the work of salvation even the fate that you have to believe him he's given you that's a gift the ability to say no to sin it's the power of the holy spirit working inside of you where you would have said yes easily I had no I had no punch to throw in and you know a beautiful woman walk past and I couldn't fight off the temptation now it's the Lord I'm a child of God I don't want to fall into these things when you feel a temptation to do certain things you say I'm a child of God you've got the ability to fight sin if you're walking around stumbling wondering mumbling in sin you don't have any fights but God does everything for you the work of salvation the sacrifice is provided the ability to obey is provided the ability to keep the law is covered by pastor babe last week is provided everything that we have the revelation provided God reveals himself unto us he reveals himself because he allows himself to be revealed all of this is done by God nothing in ourselves that's why preacher one said the only thing that we bring to salvation is the sin required that we you know so the only thing that we bring is the sin there's nothing else that we contribute to this thing guys but God does everything all of the heavy lifting is done by God all you need to do is okay all we need to do is okay so this is the power of God and so the second attribute here is you know we are the lights of the world Philippians 2 verse 15 says that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world we are living in a twisted and crooked generation as normalized as things become as normal to sleep around it's normal to to partake in in activities and income to church and carry on to be double-minded it's normalized to behave in a certain way it's normal we are living in a twisted and crooked generation where these things are normalized but we are called to be peculiar people we are royal please dude God is called as priests and you see here that the the high priest would go before God we are those priests that go and intercede on behalf of people now we are peculiar people you're not supposed to look like everybody else you're not supposed to sound like everyone else you're not supposed to behave like everyone else you're supposed to be so weird like an alien an outcast a foreigner in this land you are so journey you are passing through you do not belong here why are we sounding and looking like the world why do we behave like them this is what God has called us to as Philippians says that among whom among the people that we shine as lights in the world we should be so full with the light that is exposed to the darkness of people and you know i'm gonna just confess to Pastor Bev here there was a time when we were teenagers and i had backslidden probably some years after i got born again at the age of 13 and i saw Pastor Bev and i was smoking something i shouldn't have been smoking and Pastor Bev was walking with his bible to church and i ran i hid it wasn't Pastor Bev it wasn't him that made me convicted but the lights that really ate from a Christian who's living righteously would make you convicted to be in their presence this is something that i felt this is something that i've seen people running from me this is when you radiate lights when you love a life that's righteous when you're living i uncompromised life people was run from you they will hide from you because of the conviction of sin this is the life that we love because it says that among whom you shine as lights in the world are we shining you know Eliana listens to these songs this little light of mine i'm the lady shining Sunday school and it's talking about a basic principle of scripture is that this light that we don't hide under our baskets you have lights you don't hide under our baskets but you let it shine on a hill for men to see even if you're ridiculed even if you are teased because i guarantee you Pastor Bev knows teased for walking with his bible and being and uh whatever is perceived as as you know boring what do you do as a Christian so boring this is the narrative that the world has but we do not walk in darkness we walk in lights many Christians love lives in the dark and don't have much light to shine we Christians by name and not by action and i remember another quote from possibly says that if you were convicted of Christianity today placed on a trial would there be enough evidence to convict you would they be would they say no no no this man undoubtedly is a Christian or would they say nah seen behaving acting like everyone else John three of us 19 we know john three 16 right but many of us can't even quote pasta because i love the world etc etc but john three of us 19 says and this is the judgment the light has come into the world and people who love the darkness rather than the light because their lights because their worlds are evil for everyone who does wicked things hates the lights and does not come to the light list his works should be exposed so we know why the world doesn't want to listen to you why they call you boring why they call you extreme why they call you all of these different names bigots and racists and whatever because they do not love the lights we are lovers of light here we are a peculiar people a holy nation sits apart by card and forecard there should be something different about you about your life that when you come into contact with believers or unbelievers your light should shine so bright that their darkness is exposed like opening the curtain seeing the dust this is the life that we should love people the word of god says that Jesus is the bread of life we get the table of show bread one of the other elements there the other article there was the table of show bread Jesus said he's the bread of life i'm the bread of life one of the ims there was a loaf of bread provided for each one of the 12 tribes uh indicating cards provision and his people's needs um you know in the wilderness got provided for them so there's there's a loaf of bread for each shelf of tribes and i challenge you today as as miserable as you may feel as you know downtrend as you may feel look at your life and what god has saved you from i can look by and many times that i should have been taken out accidents inches stabbing shootings being in the wrong place wrong woman wrong time wrong place whatever it may be we were we could have been taken out by so many things and i'm sure each and every one of you can come here and testify of god's goodness of how he's kept you when he says i'll never leave you nor forsake you we don't see i think it was last week we have you spoke about the provision of god how he does a thousand things in the background and we see three things this is the provision of god the things that he does for us we look at our lives the blessings that we have just three years four years ago i was a single man willing to to give it up now lord you can take me now i'm done i stand here today with one and a half daughters and a wife that loves me and and i am blessed beyond measure i have everything that i need god doesn't need to give me one more thing god has kept me is kept me safe you could have taken my life my father died around my age i'm drinking too much liver kidney hearts gave in because he had trained to my team dealt too much the grace of god is so much more on my life and i'm like lord thank you that that could have been my part because i followed that part the things he smoked i smoked the things he drank i drank i'm exactly like him and none the better but for god's grace that you are standing here today that you are here you could be in any other place you could be in the grave but god kept you and that's what he's trying to teach us here that he's providing for us a table of show bread this is also a meal shared in fellowship now that there's since there'd been a tone before we will follow from god bible says that we were we were enemies of the of the class we were enemies but this is a meal that is now shared in fellowship with god uh so they could now eat in peace with god the father as we were enemies now we are now in peace with him this shows us through the work of jesus we are spotless and perfectly clean it points to the marriage up of the lamb as we have been made righteous and perfectly clean through through jesus that uh we would be able to uh to die in face to face with him poor refers to this as a mystery but uh it's fully revealed in jesus class one day there'll be a feast i'm waiting feast we is coming back for a bride spotless blemishless perfect and that is us which is his pride the church who is prepared and he's going to take us up so this is also a picture that we will die in with him face to face man to man so class is a labor of regeneration i'm going to wrap this up uh just um i'm conscious of time so just want to look at the the the final component here and the arc of the covenant this was a chest made of cashew wood cashew wood is one of those trees a crew in the desert very hardy very strong uh probably one of the most perfect woods you can use for furniture um over it was pure gold and there were massive sculptures over it so as as described you've got the arc of the covenant think of a little box um for those all enough uh kissed mama this ever kissed a little vanity big thing used to keep uh linen and stuff in but think of a big kiss like uh thing and then you would have sculpted two angels to cover the presence of god i mean he says as it is in heaven the on earth the god is creating a replica or picture of how it is in heaven there's the angels the lunted cherubs are covered gory does ayah you'll see a full description of that um and then there's these cherubs uh and then the chest contained a couple of things right it had the tin commandments had the rod of air and it bloomed it also had a pot of manna that was preserved from god's provision for his people in the wilderness every day it ran manna um but the most important thing about the arc was that uh was was the lid the lid of the arc was called the mercy seat now because the arc of the covenant was a symbol of god's throne he's thrown over authority in his heat of judgments so it was in the holy place that the high priest and only the high priest could go in now we look at Hebrews 4 verse 14 it describes Hebrews is a perfect picture in description of who Jesus was and how he fulfilled everything but it says that Jesus is our high priest likewise he's our advocate he stands between god and Satan and advocates on our behalf you know it's like we thought mentioned a big brother who comes and fights for you be half when somebody comes and talk on you be half guilty as sin but coming to pay that price for you to say that this is my son and woman well pleased and this is the picture that we have of Christ he's the high priest the one who could go before the throne of god uh faultless blameless you could go once a year on Yom Kippur Yom Kippur is a day of atonement and even then only after a specific ritual cleansing had to be cleansed completely and he went and sprinkled the blood onto the mercy seats the blood of the lamb and this is a picture representation of Christ that the blood of the lamb would be spilled Hebrews 4 15 says Jesus was offered a single sacrifice once and for all there's nothing further that we do or add or can contribute no fiber you can throw into the equation there's nothing that we can do further to what Christ has done there's nothing nothing nothing more that is done he is of fulfillment of the tabernacle he is of fulfillment of the law he is of fulfillment of the Old Testament he is of fulfillment of prophecy he is the one that we've been waiting for that the Old Testament saints have been waiting for in greek is called the hilisterion that's a reconciliation in in his action the blood sacrifice becomes a covering of the judgment seats that protects us from his judgment and so the whole work of redemption and his judgment it's mercy it's found in the living symbolism of the sense of meeting that god visits his people and fulfilled in our save which is his Christ so in summary the whole point of this potentially what we may perceive as a dell passage of scripture is that god wants to dwell with us he wanted to dwell with us he fulfilled it in his son that he now dwells not with us but dwells in us imagine the power of that that the one who spoke and said let there be that the universe is stretching out to the speed of light billions of galaxies billions of stars 400 billion stars in the Milky Way of one one galaxy the are billions of galaxies and billions being produced every day we can't even ask the observable universe and you just said be and this is something god considered side projects in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and then shifts to the earth forgets about the heavens side projects displays the glory of god the one who done that decides to dwell amongst these people now it's for fullness within himself by dying for us on the cross so that he could have fellowship with us this is this is the great mystery it's such a mystery people that we can't fathom it we'll only understand in fullness when we meet him face-to-face but this is the whole thing god with us Emmanuel so for those of us who don't know him those of us who are content in the outer courts come deeper let's go deeper into the word of god let's know him more because once you've tasted something good you know once you've had a good meal i took tresher for our first anniversary to kunu i'd know if anyone you know it's a that's in sex in the world or one of those but the start is about 700 bucks sure i felt that one for for a while the main course like one five for like four piece of of lamb and a little bit of thing but i you the things you do for love but the point i'm trying to make here is that that meal is probably the best tasting thing i've had even though there's four little small pieces of lamb best tasting thing i've had once i've tasted that our average maten karit doesn't taste the same now it doesn't once you've tasted the closeness and the intimacy of christ once you've lived with him you know i was having a shower the other day and praying and it's like oh cleanse me watch me do just my prayer has been just just uh cringed in in in this message and you know it's like your prayer life changes the closer you get to in uh you pray things uh it's like you no longer just talking to a man in the sky but you pray things that are on an intimate level the closer you get to god once you've tasted kunu guys once you've been in fellowship with christ nothing will compare you go back to tv you'll be bored you'll go back to tiktok you'll be bored and this is the point i'm trying to make here is that's god with us his desire let's roll closer to in the closer we get with him we're gonna have to give up some stuff we'll have to sacrifice some things we'll have to give up some things that we think we love but the closer you get with him you won't want those things the things we desire before we don't desire anymore so that's that's my encouragement this week uh this morning uh we have the elements of the uh of the table of the lord so as we prepare just in line with this message christ being the fulfillment of everything he says take the spread and eat this is my body which was broken for you we don't take lightly the sacrifice
