0:00 Exodus 25 verse one. The Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him, you shall receive the contribution from me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them, gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen linen, goat's hair, tan ramskins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamb, spices for the anointing oil, and for the fragrance incense, onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod, and for the breastpiece. And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.
0:39 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. Let's pray. Father, as we enter into this amazing journey concerning your sanctuary in the Old Testament, we pray that you would grant us revelation of what this means for us today. Lord, we ask as we just sang, as we pray throughout this worship set, that you would change us and that, lord, we would truly understand who you are and how you pursue us. And, lord, it would ravish our hearts.
1:16 It would captivate each person in this place, lord. And we just ask for that today as we read your word. And so, Lord, we just pray that you would protect every mind and heart from that bird and those birds of the year that come to steal the seed. But, Lord, would you prepare in us good soil that the seed may be planted deeply into us, producing fruit, producing much fruit for your glory. And so, Lord, we look to you for help, and you will help us.
1:43 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Last week, we discussed the various laws that God had given the people of Israel after the 10 commandments. And so we understand the 10 commandments, but then God gives these different specific more civil laws between chapter 21 and chapter 23.
2:13 And we highlighted some. We didn't take every single one into consideration. But what we did is we highlighted the ones, and all of them can be applied in some way or another, but we highlighted some that apply to the Christian life and the Christian practice. And as we come to 25, we have to do a little bit of a background. We have to lay a foundation.
2:32 When we come to twenty three twenty, look at your bibles in twenty three twenty. From verse 20 down to the end of the chapter really, what God is doing again is he is reassuring the people of Israel of his promise that if you just to walk in my ways, if you just obey me, surely I will take care of all your enemies. Surely I will go before you. Surely if you just obey my statutes, watch all these blessings. And you can read those blessings from 25 down to 28, but we won't.
3:01 And so we just see this reassurance trying to put in confidence into his people and really just saying, listen. I'm in this. Are you? And so he's provoking them for a response. But we've touched on this verse early on in Exodus.
3:15 I just want us to explore it again very briefly. It's in verse 29 of chapter 23. Look what the Lord says when he talks about the enemies in the land of Canaan. This is how he was to deal with them. I will not drive them out before you in one year.
3:26 I'm not gonna do it in three hundred sixty five days. I'm not gonna before you in one year. I'm not gonna do it in three hundred sixty five days. I'm not gonna do it in twelve months. I'm not gonna do it in a year.
3:34 No. Lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Verse 30. Little by little I will drive them out before you until you have increased and possessed the land. And so we talked about this before concerning our walk with the Lord and how God has given us promises and how God has given each of us specific promises and a specific plan and a specific calling.
3:59 And oftentimes, if your heart is truly set on wanting to know that for yourself and wanting to fulfill that in this one life that you have, you eagerly wanna see it. And perhaps you've prayed prayers like I've prayed even myself. Lord, use me in my younger years. Use me in my days now. Lord, there if there's anything I have to give up, if there's anything I have to put aside in order for you to just recruit me in this moment and send me into the field, whatever it takes, God, I will do it.
4:25 And God oftentimes works the same way he worked with the Israelites, little by little. The calling was there. The promise was there. The fulfillment was to come, but he works on a different timetable. And so he says, I'm gonna do it slowly.
4:42 I'm gonna do it bit by bit. Less what? What's what's the reason? The same reason for you and I. Because if you were to take us from a to the letter t and not do everything in between, we can be overwhelmed just like the Israelites could have been overwhelmed.
4:55 We could bite way more than we can chew. And God wants to develop our character, and God wants to develop our our attitude and our and our discernment and our wisdom and our understanding of the word and all these different things that need to come into consideration. And so that's what they had to understand when they went to the land of CapEx. It's not just gonna come like that. It's not just gonna be this kaboom, everything is gonna go and you're just gonna have this whole land to yourself right away.
5:19 No, no, no, no, no. It says little by little. And so that requires something on our part, patience. It requires patience as we follow Christ. It requires trust as we as we believe in his timing, even though our hearts may be stern.
5:31 But Lord, you you you really gave this passion to me. I really sense that this is what I'm doing for the rest of my life. I really believe that you answered my prayer and you've confirmed that this is how I'm to live for you. And he goes, I know, but I gotta develop you first. And there's something else that we need to do while God does his part.
5:46 God's part is I'm gonna lead you little by little. That's God's part. You know what your part of mine is? When you read here in verse 32, You shall not make no covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me.
6:01 For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. You know what your part and my part is while God does his part? Your part and my part is to remain faithful in the process. Because during that process, you better believe that there will be temptation for you to get off of that process and to get off that road and to give yourself to other things. Just keep your eyes on Jesus, keep your knees on the ground, and keep believing that he is leading you little by little, and ignore the voices that would lead you astray.
6:31 So this is what he says. I'm gonna do my part. Trust in me, but you do your part. Because during this process, many, many, many, hear me very clearly, many, many, many have abandoned the call of God in their lives because they didn't wait long enough. And you can do that in many ways.
6:48 You can do that by sinning and just backsliding altogether. You can do that by trying to get ahead of God. You can do that by staying too behind. Just stay in tune with him. That's important.
6:59 And so their part was to wait. Their part was to be faithful. Then we come to 24. And everything from 21 to 23, because we read last time that after the 10 commandments, Moses had gone up and these were all the things that Moses was given to say to the people, and he does that. Look at chapter 24.
7:17 Look at verse three. Moses came and told all the people the words of the Lord and all the rules. So he does his part. But when you go back to verse one, we know that God had asked Moses to come back up. Look, then he said to Moses, come up to the Lord and Aaron.
7:32 You and Aaron and Adab and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel and worship from afar. And so there was an invitation to come back up to give the instructions, but there is more instruction to be received. And see, we can't really understand 25 onward unless we really comprehend what happened in chapter 24. And so if you had never read chapter 24, here's what really happens. The turning point, really, not just for the people of Israel, but for all history concerning God's dealing with man, chapter 24 is so important.
8:02 And if we were to sum it up, what happens is that God's covenant with man is ratified. It's made officially valid. God's relationship with the people of Israel has been made, has been stamped, has been approved based on something called what? A covenant. Now does anybody know what a covenant is?
8:24 To seek a promise? Promise? Sure. A promise from one party or from two? Two parties.
8:31 It's a contract. Essentially, it is a contract. It's when two or more parties come together and they wanna establish a contract, an agreement. But that agreement requires the parties to fulfill a certain part on their end in order for the fulfillment of that covenant to be fulfilled. And so one party says, this is what I'm gonna do, a part of our relationship, and the other party says, well, I'm gonna do this.
8:54 And here's the thing, God always initiates the covenant. It's by his grace. It's by his mercy. And and this is very common in this time where they would make covenants concerning relationship and concern. It's to really solidify.
9:05 It's not just some empty commitment. It's a deep rooted vow which speaks so much of what God requires and delights in us and wants from us. That God is in this relationship long term. That God does not want to make some flimsy, you know what, I'll I'll be there sometimes and some days I might get busy and and you get you're on your own. No.
9:24 He wants to make a covenant with humanity. He wants to make a deep rooted commitment, and he's always faithful. And when you read the covenants, and there are several throughout the bible, there are some, and people would debate this, but there are some that are clearly conditional and unconditional. Some are unconditional. Some does not require the faithfulness of man in order for God to do his part, and there are some also that are conditional.
9:47 But God will only do his part when man does his. This is a conditional covenant. So God says, I'll do my part. I'll do my part and hear all the blessings that will come from that, but you gotta do your part. In order for you to do your part, these things will come about.
10:01 If you don't do your part, in fact, this is what's gonna happen. And so this is a, this is an important chapter because God here wants to establish something long term. And he does it how? He gives his promise. He gives his commitment.
10:15 And you see here in verse three, the second part, all the words that the Lord had spoken, we will do. That was the people's response. So they heard everything from chapter 21 to 23, and they go, we're gonna do it. Oh, yeah. You know, they're excited.
10:29 It's like the heat of the meeting. You know, it was the right song at the right at the end of the message. So they got really excited. Yeah. We'll do it, God.
10:35 We're in it. And then we see that they say it again in verse seven, the second part, all that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient. And then in verse eight, and Moses took blood, the blood, and threw it on the people and said, behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. Why is that important in light of 25? Because we're gonna learn from chapter 25 onward that a majority of the rest of the book of Exodus is dedicated to the instruction and the construction of something called the tabernacle.
11:12 And if you and I wanna just sum up what the tabernacle is all about, and we're gonna learn in detail what it's about, we have to understand that it is simply God's expression of wanting to dwell with mankind. It is God's desire to move and to be in the midst of his people, but that cannot be possible unless a covenant is laid down. This is so important. 25 and onward, the reality of God wanting to come in close proximity with man cannot be possible unless it is built upon the foundation of concrete commitment. You realize that?
11:48 God is not into intimate fellowship with people who are not wanting to be wholeheartedly dedicated to him. This is why many people who bear the name Christianity do not have any fruit or any evidence that they know God because they made maybe some half hearted confession, but they have not made a covenant with Jesus Christ. And unless you and I make a covenant where we respond to what the demands are and we say, Lord, here's my life. Them, it was the old covenant. New us, it's the new covenant through Christ and his blood.
12:17 Even that principle is true in the new covenant. No relationship with the living God, no intimacy, no sense of exploration, no sense of walking with him day by day, lest you have made a covenant with God. And so, that's the foundation that God requires and rightfully so. Do you remember when we talked about Moses? He encountered God.
12:37 He had a commission from God, but there was one thing he was missing. What was he missing? Covenant. Why? He did not have circumcision, nor did he circumcise his sons.
12:47 And God was already ready to kill him right there in that moment after all those things. Because God is not interested in doing this relationship thing. Lest we have made up our minds and says my life is yours. My heart is yours. All that I am is dedicated unto you.
13:02 That's what God is looking for as the starting point for all these other blessings to flow from. That's important. We can stop it right here and examine our hearts and see if we've made that kind of a commitment to Christ. But we get this amazing glimpse. We're still building a foundation for 25 here.
13:19 It's in verse nine. So they they get this covenant established and it kind of continues in verse nine to verse 11. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven of clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel.
13:49 They beheld God and ate and drank. Now don't get caught up in the thing in the idea that they saw God. To simplify it, when you go to John six forty six, when you go to John one eighteen, it talks in it talks about how nobody's ever seen the father. So I believe that this is the second person of the trinity that we're seeing and they're seeing here. The second person of the trinity.
14:14 And here's the thing that we have to understand, is that when they come, there are specific people named. This is why we have to understand scripture in its entirety. There are names there that are familiar, are they not? Moses and Aaron, who are those two other guys? Nadab and Abihu, who are those guys?
14:33 If we can open up Leviticus chapter 10. Leviticus chapter 10. Nadab and Abihu, they were worship leaders. Now Nadab and Abihu, I mean, they were Aaron's sons. The sons of Aaron each took his censer and put fire in it.
14:52 This is when the tabernacle was established and erected and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. Next verse. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. That's a great text if you want to get worship leaders serious. But here's the connection that we have to make here.
15:20 You see that Nadab and Abihu go up to the mountain, and they have an amazing encounter with God. And just one book later, they die. You know what that means? Because you hear it from a lot of people. Oh, I I I heard of so and so, and I knew so and so, and and they've fallen.
15:43 They've fallen bad. There could be no way that they were walking with God. Says who? There could no be there could be no way that they really had a significant relationship with God. Says who?
15:55 Maybe that's true in some cases, but right here right here we see that it is possible for someone to have a genuine experience, a genuine contact with the living God. And all it takes is inconsistency. All it takes is sin to creep in and somebody not to sustain that relationship and they can fall and can make it fall bad. And so Nadab and Abihu failed to do one thing. They failed to sustain the very thing that ignited them in the first place.
16:21 And that's so true of so many people this day. Oh, the number of parents even today that had a once upon a time with God, but they're so far from God. All they have is a before this and when I was this. Well, my question is not what and when it happened, what's happening right now? I think that question will really convict a lot of people.
16:41 Not what's your testimony, it's who is God to you now. Not what has God has done for you. What is God doing for you now? You'll get a much different answer. And so Nadab and Abihu, they they this is an example to us.
16:52 A terrifying example that we can have a genuine touch from God, and we can also if we let ourselves loose, if if we become loose with God and we just let go of that standard, and we stop seeking him and waiting on him and abiding in him, we can get really flippant in God. Though he allowed them to have this privilege and not just a privilege, a position. Still, he says, I'm holy. I don't have favorites in my kingdom here. I'm not a respecter of persons, worship leader, preacher.
17:22 You can get invited to all the conferences you want, but I'm holy. And you better treat me as holy. Oh, if people really understood that, how much more integrity would we have? How much false fire would be extinguished for the real thing? It's a scary thing, is it not?
17:39 Can you imagine what these guys thought while they were going up that mountain? I was reading that thinking that. Here are these 70 guys walking up this mountain. What's going on in their minds? They're getting closer to the cloud and they're just thinking like, what are we gonna see up there?
17:51 What are we gonna experience up there? Are are we gonna die if we go up there? I mean, God's God's calling us so surely it's something for our good. Can you imagine the conversation? Can you imagine the imagination?
18:02 Can you imagine the expectation? And I thought to myself, you know what? That should be our same attitude when we come to the word of God. Lord, what are you gonna say to me? What are you gonna say to me in Deuteronomy?
18:15 There should be this expectation. There should be this longer. There should be this yes. Something is gonna happen. Surely, God, you're gonna reveal something to me, about me, to me.
18:24 Give me that hunger. There is no way that these guys are walking up there casual. It's another day going up to see the mountain of God and seeing God. No way. Just read something like that.
18:36 I said, Lord, would our hearts, my heart have this continuous expectation that surely you're gonna reveal something. And what did they see? They saw the God of Israel. Maybe just a glimpse of his glory. There was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone, blue crystal, like the very heaven of clearness.
18:55 I don't even know what that really means, but I believe Moses, though he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, couldn't even have the language to really describe what he saw in that moment. And perhaps these men were so stunned by the glory of God, they laid prostrate and the only thing they could really see was his feet. So caught up in him, just seeing what they could see in that moment. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel, they beheld God, and this is probably the most touching part, and they ate and drank with him. Now that eating and drinking, if you're if you're familiar with the covenant and how covenants are made, that's a that's a way of really sealing a covenant as well, of of taking the sacrifice that was made to make that covenant happen and eating of it as kind of like a confirmation.
19:41 But it's still speaking of something else. It's still speaking of intimacy, I believe. So don't don't lose this. This is important in connection to 25. This is the heart of God.
19:51 In all his glory, in all his majesty, in all his brilliance, in all his holiness, he calls men up and he says, let's eat and drink. Just picture that. I mean it gives a description that his feet under his feet there's there's sapphire stone, brilliant light, brilliant colors, and here's God with sinful men supping with them. And if you think this is just an exodus, go to Revelation three twenty. And this is Jesus knocking on the door of a lukewarm church.
20:23 And what does he say to this lukewarm church? Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. So we see God here in Exodus eating with these men and we see God in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, saying I wanna eat with you. I want intimate fellowship with you, which says something.
20:50 It gives us an insight about how you know you're lukewarm. You're lukewarm when you fail to practice fellowship with Jesus. That was the diagnosis of this church. Jesus is saying, I wanna come back to that place with you where you and I can sit together and fellowship and have that communion. And so a person who can self diagnose himself, they can do one thing amongst many other things.
21:17 You know that you have fallen into the place of lukewarmness when you fail to practice fellowship with Jesus. And that's the cry of God's heart for you and me. Let's sit together and eat. And I've made everything possible for you to even be in my presence. And so he's knocking.
21:38 And you know what a knock is really? It could be many things, but you know what a knock is? It's rebuke. It's making you realize how far you've fallen from that place. But although it's a rebuke in the same chapter to the same church, he says, I rebuke those whom I love.
21:53 And so even though it's hard to hear that you have fallen into lukewarmness, even though it's hard to hear it that you have stopped fellowshipping with Christ, it's still an invitation from him saying, I wanna come to this place. So this is this is what we're seeing here. This is we're seeing God's heart and it's gonna be made manifest in a powerful way. As we come closer to 25, I can't help but comment on verse 15 of chapter 24. So Moses gets called up to go higher.
22:17 He says, Moses, you only have access to come higher because I have something to tell you specifically for the people as a mediator of Israel. But look what it says. Then Moses went up on the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain. Verse 16. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days.
22:38 And on the seventh day, he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Stop there for a moment. We can read past these details and not realize what it means for us. Do you see something special there? That Moses just had an amazing amazing experience with God and God calls him to come up higher.
22:55 And as he calls him to come up higher, you would think that right away God has something to say, God has something to reveal. No. God doesn't say anything for six whole days. You know, that's true of you and me. When God does reveal something to us and he does continually invite us to go higher in him, don't expect something to happen necessarily immediately.
23:16 This is a picture of the practice of patiently waiting on the Lord. He calls Moses up, six days there's not a word, but on the seventh day he speaks. And I think there's something else with it without reading too much into it. That if that seventh day is a Sabbath, then it reinforces the truth that God established those six days of work for the seventh day to be a day in which we rest, but we rest on the Lord. Not only that, because we're free from the Sabbath keeping law, from Friday sundown to sundown, Saturday.
23:45 We're free from that. But the principle is still true. That when you and I choose to set time apart to meet with God, to rest from everything else, we can expect him to meet us there like Moses did on the seventh day. It's that practice and the the the the idea of here's my time apart from everything else, and the Lord wants to meet us in that place. That's what we see there.
24:10 Waiting on God. Moses had to wait on God. We have to wait on God. We should set that time apart to meet with God, and God is faithful again to meet us there. So then we come here, 18, Moses entered the cloud and went up to the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
24:26 So we see him there now. Forty days, forty nights. And part of that was to receive everything he needed to know concerning this thing called the tabernacle from Exodus 25 to Exodus 31. And so the purpose of this bible study is not to dive into the deep end with the tabernacle. We have to understand the overview of this.
24:54 We have to understand a foundation of what the tabernacle is. We have to get familiar with this structure before we get or else we're gonna get lost. We're gonna get lost and confused, and we're gonna have so many questions. So we need to we need to kinda build a framework here. And so when we understand the tabernacle, we have to we have to we have to understand how much God gives attention to the tabernacle.
25:18 In the book of Exodus alone, we see from chapter one to chapter 14 that God dedicates those chapters for what? Just a general understanding, what are those chapters dedicated to? Dedicated towards the deliverance of the people of Israel. From chapter one to chapter fourteen, fourteen chapters were reserved for recording the deliverance of God's people from Egypt. When When you go to chapter 15 to chapter 19, it is another set of chapters dedicated for what?
25:57 Think about 15 to 19. This will refresh your memory. What happened at nineteen and twenty? What happened? Without looking at your Bibles, what happened?
26:11 From 15 to 19, God records the wilderness wandering from Egypt to Mount Sinai, right, where again now another five chapters are dedicated to what? The giving and the instruction of the law. Now from 25 till the end of the book of Exodus, from 25 to 31, and then from 35 to forty, thirteen chapters dedicated to giving the instruction and the construction of the tabernacle. 13 chapters. Now if you were to go in Exodus, if you were to go in Numbers, if you were to go to Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and even the book of Hebrews, some would say that there is a total, not verses, there is a total of around 50 chapters in the entire Bible dedicated to the construction, the instruction, and the activity that happens within the tabernacle slash the temple.
27:11 Now if 50 chapters are dedicated in the Bible for that, that demands our attention. If God only gave a few verses to and he spoke and the stars came, and he spoke and this came and the and all creation was given two chapters in the Bible. Do you think that God is trying to give us a hint? Hey. Give your attention to the details that I have given through the tabernacle.
27:34 There's something for you there. There's something for you to discover. There's a wealth of revelation there. And I'm not I'm not against this. Please, I I don't wanna sound like I'm against this.
27:44 But so many people try to and give all their attention to whether we're young earth or old earth and how God created it and where everything came from. And I get it because there was a lot of attack in the past few years concerning that. But don't give yourself over to questions and stop looking for answers that the Bible is not trying to give. God wants to reveal something concerning his redemptive purposes and it is seen through the tabernacle. And so here's a sobering question for all of us.
28:12 How much time have we dedicated our own devotion studying it? If around 50 chapters in the entire scriptures are calling for us to see what's there for us. What does that say about our devotion to it? So what is the tabernacle? Well, we just read that it's a sanctuary.
28:34 It is a portable tent that was given towards the people of Israel for the rest of their wilderness wandering and would be planted in the land of Canaan for many, many years until when? Until when? How long would the tabernacle be in existence for? Until the temple. Until the temple of David.
28:55 Until Solomon builds the temple. And so we're talking many, many years where the tabernacle is is there until David has it on his heart. I wanna build a temple for God. Look look at where I'm living and look at where God's living. He had that conviction, and so he he calls upon his son to build a temple, which is a very familiar structure to this, but more concrete and a little bit more sophisticated.
29:18 And so this is essentially the worship center for Israel. This is where they came, this is where they met with God, and this is where God would meet with them. This is vitally important. And here's the reality of it. Sometimes we can read these chapters and kinda get lost and not know what it would look like, but we live in a day in which we can find out.
29:35 People have actually given us visuals, and we're gonna do that in a moment actually. Sarah, you can put it up. I want us to just see what the tabernacle would have looked like, and this is an exact replica of somebody who took the measurements and did it in real life. And the reason why I'm doing this is so that you can have it in your mind for the rest of our journey through the tabernacle, what it looks like and and what it would have been like for the people of Israel, what it would have been like for the priests, and all these different things. And so, you know, oftentimes we try to take the Bible and bring it into our world, but many times we have to go into their world to understand.
30:06 And so why is understanding the tabernacle important? Well, we already discussed it because it's a revelation of God's heart towards us. Go back to Exodus 24, look at verse 16. The glory of the Lord dwelt. It dwelt on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six days.
30:25 And so there's this picture of of abiding, of resting, of being there, of of wanting to be in fellowship with Moses. But listen, when you go to 25 verse eight, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. Do you see this? That when God had invited Moses and invited Aaron and all these leaders, he did wanna meet with him. They were the representatives of the people, but he did not wanna stay there.
30:55 See, this understanding of being close to God, near to God, having fellowship with God is not just reserved for spiritual leaders. And God's heart is not just for the spiritual elite. Does it matter how gifted? Does it matter how popular? Does it matter how knowledgeable?
31:11 Any spiritual leader is. If there is any any sense from that person that they are more than those that he serves, he's got it all twisted. Because God's heart for that person is just as much as it is for the person nobody knows about in the church. The invitation and the longing for God to dwell is not just for Moses, nor nor is it just for Aaron. He goes, you know, this is great, but Moses, the reason why I'm doing this is so that you can figure this out, and you can get it in your heart to give it to their heart that I wanna be amongst them.
31:42 Yes. Them. The same people that were rebellious, the same people that complained, the same sinful people. I wanna be near them. And so he says, hear my instructions for this tabernacle that I may dwell in their midst.
31:56 And again, if you think this is just reserved for the Old Testament, you gotta go to Revelation chapter 21 verse three. And this is when everything comes to an end. This is when the new heaven, the new earth, all these things are being ushered into our existence. And you know what it says concerning that? When God comes, it says, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
32:22 He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself. God himself will what? Be with them as their God. So this is God's heartbeat from the beginning of the Bible to the end. I wanna be amongst my people.
32:45 I wanna dwell with them. But not only that, and this is where it gets a lot more complex in a good way. The tabernacle itself is an object lesson for the people of Israel and for us in the new covenant. There is a message in everything concerning the tabernacle relating to three important and major things. So in the immediate sense, it is yes.
33:11 God's desire to be with man and man's instruction of how to worship God. This is how God wants man to worship him. But there are lessons here for us. And before we jump into these lessons, we have to have this kind of caution. There are two warnings and two extremes that we need to take a hold of before we jump into this.
33:30 Number one, there is an extreme of over spiritualizing every detail. And so somebody can look at the tabernacle and try to pull out meaning that the Bible is not trying to get meaning out of. And so there's a sense in which somebody can try to look for things just for the sake of looking for things and you can fall into error and exaggeration. And so we have to we have to trust the Bible to interpret the Bible and not put our own ideas in it. So we need to we need to be close to the Bible when it comes to the tabernacle and seeing how it relates prophetically.
33:59 The other extreme is being so afraid of that, just like so many other things. Right? So afraid of that and so wanting to be careful and not allegorical or all these things that it doesn't really have any significance other than its immediate purpose. That it's just some historical sanctuary for God's people where God met them and yeah, God wants to meet with us. And they fail to see what even the Bible encourages us to investigate.
34:21 So what are the three things that the tabernacle points to? Number one, does anybody know? Was it a copy of heaven? So there's a sense in Hebrews eight where it says that this was kind of a copy of heavenly things. Sure.
34:36 And people debate what that might mean and and one safe way of looking at it is that it speaks of a person. The tabernacle itself speaks of a person. Who's that person? Jesus Christ. The tabernacle is a object lesson.
34:51 It is a sermon, so to speak, in every piece of furniture of the coming Messiah. And so you read verses like John one fourteen. What does John one fourteen say? And the word became flesh and what? Dwelt.
35:09 The Greek, the original language is he tabernacled. Jesus tabernacled. He he came with the same language as what God desired for them to do. He erected a tabernacle. God came, not in a tent though, in a body.
35:27 And he dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, glory as of only the Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And here's another example that will whet our appetites concerning Jesus, how he's a foreshadowing of the temple. Hebrews ten nineteen. Hebrews ten nineteen. Just listen to this.
35:44 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by what? The new and living way that he opened for us through what? The curtain. Right? He tore the veil.
35:57 But wait, that is through his flesh. So there's something significant there concerning Jesus and how he is a reflection of the furnishings of the tabernacle. The tabernacle itself meaning what? That there is redemptive lessons to learn from even the moment you step in. The the the outer court, the measurements, all those things Wanna invite us to see Jesus.
36:24 You wanna know how much the Bible screams Jesus? Not only is the tabernacle about Jesus, the high priest is about Jesus, the sacrifice on the furnishing is Jesus. Jesus. It's all Jesus. And so we have this strong invitation.
36:36 Come see Christ. Didn't Jesus say that? The scriptures testify about me? Says the law, the prophets, the Psalms speak of me. And so we have to learn when we study the tabernacle, put on the Jesus lenses and try to see Christ.
36:52 See Jesus knowing that the New Testament even encouraged us to do so. Not only that, what else does the tabernacle speak of? The Holy Spirit filling us. Where is sanctuary? Absolutely.
37:05 In that scripture, where does it say that? Is it first Corinthians? Yeah. First Corinthians six nineteen and twenty. What does it say?
37:12 Well, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. So when he is trying to entice and encourage them to live holy concerning sexual purity, he says, here's what I want you to understand. You are the temple of God.
37:31 You are where God resides. So you know what that means when we look at the tabernacle? It means this, that when we see the furnishings and we see all those different things, it says something about us. So us as individuals, but there's one more thing that it speaks of. The church.
37:48 Exactly. And this is also found in first Corinthians, but there's a slight difference. In first Corinthians three sixteen it says, do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? What's the difference? The you there in Greek is plural.
38:03 And so when he's saying you are God's temple, he's talking to the whole church. And so we have three major concepts here. Jesus Christ, the church of the living God as a corporate level, and the individual temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you know how much time that will require from us just to see it in those lenses separately? How this talks of Jesus, how this speaks of the church, how this speaks of you and me as individuals.
38:27 Rich, wealth, treasures waiting for us to discover. So what does it have to do with you and me? I think what we have to understand is that what we're gonna discover as we go through each piece of furniture, we're gonna discover how we ought to worship God the same way it was instituted for them. The principles of worship and approaching God is found in these pieces of furniture. And so when we go through this, there might be more emphasis on Jesus and less emphasis on the church and less emphasis on you and me.
38:56 And some other places might be more emphasis on you and me and how we relate to God. Nevertheless, it is glorious. It is exciting. You can't look at this and say this is boring measurements and stuff. No.
39:10 Look at it with these lenses and ask the Lord to reveal to you, Lord, in light of all the scripture, what does the ark of the covenant mean about the church? Does it talk about the presence of God? Does it talk about how we need God to be in our midst? What does it talk about the burnt offering? What does it talk about the washing?
39:23 Is the washing talking about the word of God, how we need to be washed by the word? What does it talk about the the tabernacle? The fact that there's only one gate to get in, meaning there's only one way to come into the presence of God. What does it talk about the fact that Judah is right there before the gate when all the tribes surround it, it speaks of Judah being praised and the way you would get into the presence of God is by worship. All these things that await us, and we're gonna explore this together.
39:50 And so we see here, as we read in the beginning of the Bible study, that before he even gives any instructions about the details of the furnishings, he asks for a contribution. And so we can read this at a surface level. The Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him, you shall receive the contribution For me, then from three down to seven, he lists what he asked of for the people. What does that mean? What does that mean?
40:28 Isn't God all sufficient? Can't God provide the material for himself? Could he have not the same way he gave the instructions say, hey. Listen. Here's all the material you need.
40:38 Here. Let me open up the heavens. I'm gonna drop a parachute with everything that you need for you to contribute to my house. No. He didn't say that.
40:44 He says, here's the instruction, but I'm I'm asking for you to make a contribution. It's God's invitation of us to get rid of the valuable things, things that are so worldly and use it to glorify that. Okay. There's a part of sacrifice, and we'll get to that in the latter part. But on the surface level, on the practical means, what does it mean?
41:03 God could have supplied himself. He needs us to do he wants us to participate. He wants us to participate in his plan. Absolutely. But why?
41:11 What what is it about giving? What is it about me reaching into my pocket? What is it about me going and giving what God's house needs? What what's in that for God? Worship.
41:25 Worship. It's an act of worship. Philippians four eighteen tells us how when Paul had received the gift from the Philippians, he had sent I mean, you can close that just to put up the verses. Thank you so much, Sarah. Philippians four eighteen.
41:37 Look how Paul describes the physical gift that the Philippians had give into him concerning his need. I've received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. Now what does he talk about the gift? What is it?
41:53 It's a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. He's not talking about prayer there. He's not talking about worship songs. He's not talking about your evangelistic efforts. He's talking about you giving physically for a physical need.
42:08 And this is what we have to understand on the surface level. The same way God's house in the Old Testament had needs is the same way that God's house in the New Testament needs has needs. And God, the same way he's inviting them to contribute and to participate, he's inviting you and I. How what a convicting thing. I mean, we don't we don't think of giving as worship.
42:27 And I know a lot of people are hesitant talking about giving because so many have taken that doctrine to a whole new level. But it's still scriptural and it's still in the Bible and we're still invited to participate in that act of worship. The reason why God said, I want you to give, is because it's worship. It's worship. But notice what kind of a giver he's looking for.
42:49 What does it say? From every man whose heart moves him, you shall receive the contribution for me. He's looking for a specific type of giver. A cheerful giver. Second Corinthians nine six talks about how God, even in the New Testament, says God loves a cheerful giver.
43:11 And so for somebody to come up here and manipulate and coerce and just say and do whatever to twist your arm to give, God's not interested in that. He's interested in a person whose heart is so moved that as an act of worship, not just singing, not just praying, saying, Lord, here. Here's here's what I can give, whatever I can give to to to help advance your kingdom, to build your house. I'm willing to do it. And he wants it out of a heart that has a revelation of something.
43:40 So here's how you and me can have a heart serve because I read that. And here's the reality. When we talk about giving, we we kind of not do it because we have all these things that come to mind and our hearts are not really stirred by it. A majority of people are not really stirred by the act of giving. And there are some people who are.
43:56 They love to give. I mean, they see it as a ministry. But a majority of people, we can safely say, they don't see that as an act of worship. So how can your heart and mind be stirred so that we can, as an overflow of that, say, Lord, here it is. Number one, when you understand that what he gave you is from him.
44:17 When you understand that what you are giving is not really yours, you're kinda gonna get stirred to realize I'm just giving back to you what you gave to me. Where in the world did the Israelites get all this material in the first place? They weren't working in the wilderness. Is it like when they went to war, like the Canaanites or something? Even before that.
44:43 Egypt. When he said, listen, you're not leaving empty handed. You're gonna be able to ask of the Egyptian neighbors, and they're gonna give you. And when it came to Exodus chapter 12, the last plague, they said, here, take it. Whatever you need to do, just get on out of here.
44:55 You guys have caused so much trouble. And so was it really from the Egyptians though? No. It was from God. And so if you and I wanna get stirred to give to the body of Christ, to the local church, to God's house, one way is really saturating in our minds the truth that everything that you have, every penny that you have in your bank account is not yours, neither is it mine.
45:20 It's God. God provides every good and perfect gift. That job is God's who's given it to you, all those things, every gift, God, God, God. And we need to be so convinced of that so that whenever there is a need, our hearts will be stirred. Lord, this isn't mine.
45:32 This is yours. Not only that, I think our hearts can be stirred with this truth that we get to contribute into God's kingdom. We get to participate in that. God's calling us to participate through our giving, and I think that's a beautiful thing. And lastly, when we really give to God's house, we're not giving to God's house, or we're not really giving to Moses or leaders.
45:56 We're giving to God himself. Think about it that way. When you go later on to Exodus and when they actually come to do this, when they get the instruction and they do it, we're gonna realize when they do it that it says that they gave unto the Lord. They gave directly to God. And so every penny that you put, when you don't know what your left hand is what your right hand, your left hand are doing, you're giving, and and you're not doing it for people to see, would you posture your heart to realize, Lord, as though I'm putting it below I'm putting it at your feet.
46:21 Here it is. This is your this is yours. It's an act of worship. And so I read something like that. I say, Lord, provoke that in me more and more.
46:30 Let my heart be stirred with giving, and let me really see it as an act of worship. Let me really see it as an act of worship. But there's a picture here. It's a vital principle here concerning the spiritual spiritual. Twenty five eight.
46:47 Right? What does it say? And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. K. Verse eight cannot be a possibility unless verse one happens and verse nine happens.
47:03 What is verse nine? Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. So without verse one and without verse nine, verse eight cannot be a possibility. What's verse one? Sacrifice.
47:21 Sacrifice. What's verse nine? Submission. Without sacrifice and without submission, we cannot experience the reality of God's dwelling amongst us individually, corporately. That's significant.
47:35 Because verse one in a principle speaks of willing to give whatever it takes to have God near and to be near to God. Whatever it takes for him to reveal himself concerning the church and concerning my life as an individual. Whatever the price is, I'm willing to pay that price. And see many people can't do this. Many people can't come to terms with this.
47:58 Many people can't give, and it's not necessarily immaterialism. I'm talking about their time. I'm talking about their energy. I'm talking about theirs whatever needs to be there for me To know that God will be in this house and every service, I'll be there. And that's sacrifice.
48:18 But not just sacrifice, submission. Submission to what? He says, you can't build this tabernacle the way you want to. Everything that I give concerning the instruction of my house has to be done my way. And so many people are willing to sacrifice and give so much into God's program, but it's not really their program.
48:40 It's become it's become not God's program, their own program. And so they are more invested in building their kingdom and their vision and their little empire called their church. And because they have not followed protocol of how God's house is supposed to be, They've made a lot of sacrifice, babe. They have not submitted to the standard of God concerning how his house ought to operate, whether on an individual level. I'm talking corporate as well.
49:06 So God says, I want my house to be a specific way. I want these specific elements in my house. And so pray because my house shall be called a house of prayer. And so we hear that. That's the standard.
49:19 Prayer, the altar of incense. God wants that as a part of his house. And how many churches today are lacking that very element? Or they're willing to sacrifice. Or how many churches are willing when it comes to the choir, multiple practices a week, we'll be there every single practice.
49:37 When it comes to one prayer meeting a week, you wanna do it your way, do it your way. But God has specific instructions. You don't wanna follow protocol, then you do it your way. But you forfeit my presence. Oh, less word, more entertainment, less word, more stories, less preaching, more life coach discipleship.
50:00 You wanna do it your way? Build it your way, but you forfeit my presence. And so God says, before we get this we get this twist don't get it twisted here. You better do it my way or else this is not gonna work. And so when we look at the new covenant and we see the standard of what God's house is supposed to be and the activity of God's house, we have to realize that if we miss those things, we can say bye bye to the privileges that come if we do it God's way.
50:24 We'll have something, but we'll forfeit something so much greater. The price to pay. Whatever the price is, Lord, I'm willing to pay it. See, if you wanna come nearer, there has to be some separation. If you want more, there has to be less of something else.
50:40 There is always a price. This is the principle here in Exodus 25. Sacrifice and surrender. If not those things, hand in hand in your life, whether individually or for the church, all these things concerning what can come about will not be. So we have to determine that within ourselves.
51:02 Unless we're satisfied with a once upon a time like Nadeb and Abayu. I do not want to be a Nadeb and Abayu that can point back to some stories here and there, but have figured out how to manipulate the system and go with the flow and do things my way and have strange fire in my life. I want the real thing. I hope you would want the real thing too. There's always sacrifice, always, and there always needs to be surrender to the standard.
51:44 I remember being very little and, for some reason, this story came to mind when reading this. And somebody who was a family friend who was in Bible college at the time had a weekend where they could invite people and there was a bunch of activities on campus and my brother and my friend, we lived in the same neighborhood, She had invited us at that age, young, elementary school, to go with her. And she was a family friend. My parents were all for it. And I remember my brother and my friend did not even hesitate.
52:19 They said, we're coming. I totally forgot about the story until for some reason reading this text. And I remember our family friend said, if you want to come, Daniel, you gotta let go of that action figure. I had this one action figure, and I could not let go of it. I loved it was a toy.
52:36 And I don't I don't remember why she asked me I couldn't bring with it, but I remember she just told me, if you wanna come, you gotta leave it behind. And I remember, it came to the day where they left. And my brother and the friend and my friend were in the car, they're ready to go, and I'm sitting there in the driveway holding on to this toy. I can't let this toy go. I can I bring and I try to justify, and I try to I try to give all these reasons why that I can just bring the toy?
52:57 It won't do anything. It won't it won't distract me. All these different things. But the standard was set. And she was not budging.
53:06 And so finally said, okay, if that's the choice you're gonna make, I'm just gonna leave then. And she got in the car, and I saw them drive off. And I'm here I am holding this toy, and they left for the weekend. And I convinced myself that I made the right decision, I guess. And when they had come back, oh, did they rub it in my face.
53:26 They took pictures. They told me all the things that they did. And my brothers told me about these older guys that they got to hang out with, and the volleyball that they played and all the candy that they could eat and all these different things. And I spent my week weekend with a lifeless toy. Sounds cute, but so many people do that with their relationship with God.
53:49 You know how frustrating? I'm trying to find the verse in the Bible where I can just go up to somebody say, don't you just get it yet? Don't you understand what's awaiting you if you just let go of the silly things in your life? The things that you have so much and it's it's not even any benefit to you. It's lifeless.
54:07 It gives some thrill to you, but really can you compare it to all of this that that's just waiting for you to just explore? And it was all free. The whole weekend was free. Everything was made available. Everything was just there, and they just had a ball.
54:22 And here I am with my and so many people do the same thing in this life. There's an invitation to come up. There's an invitation for more, and they just hold on to things that doesn't even matter. And I'm so convinced that it will take until that person gets to eternity, until they realize that they themselves are the tabernacle of God. And all the things that all the the things that they could have walked through in this life, but they've just held on to the silly things, the worldly things, the unnecessary things.
54:54 So you and I need to be convinced. Lord, if this is what you say of me, if there is something awaiting for me, if all these things that we're gonna explore concerning the tabernacle and that's me, body, soul, and spirit, let me know what it means to walk through that reality. And let me know what it means to know that you wanna dwell in my life. That you wanna dwell in this church. That you wanna dwell in our community.
55:19 We want it all. We want it all. And so we conclude with that before we jump into the Ark of the Covenant next week. But can we just set our hearts through just that? Know this of the Bible, that the heartbeat and the thread of the scriptures from all the things that are revealed in the surface, know this, that the heartbeat of God for humanity is I wanna dwell with you.
55:42 From Exodus to Revelation, it is God's pursuit towards man. And he's done everything including the cross to bring us to a place in which we would be we would be face to face with him one day. But until then, we are his dwelling place. And so there's an invitation for us to know what that means in this life right now. And what it requires of us is what?
56:03 Sacrifice and surrender. There's a price to pay, but is it really a price again? No. Even gold and silver and all these things. If you line it up to what is awaiting us, if we just let go, oh, we would do it in a heartbeat if we really understood it.
56:23 And so even in your mind and life and mine, may we examine our hearts as we enter into this journey through the tabernacle and say, Lord, help me see Jesus. Help me see Jesus. Help me see how this relates to the church, and lord, let this church be the dwelling place of god. How my life realize that I myself am a temple of the holy spirit. What an awesome thought.
56:58 So Lord, whatever we need to let go of, the same way the Israelites were called to let go of certain things and to submit to the standard of the scriptures so that we could experience the life and the animation of God in us bring us to that place. And even tonight, if you have not made that covenant with Jesus Christ, if you've not ever made that wholehearted commitment, Lord, you know, I realize that you have laid it out for me through the cross, that I can only have that relationship with God through a covenant, the new covenant that you've established. Lord, I come through that covenant, that awesome covenant, and I give my life. I lay it all down, and I say, lord, have your way in me. Lord, we come together as a house, as a tabernacle of God, as God's temple, corporately.
57:58 And we say, Lord, we want everything that your word has to offer. And, Lord, we're here to be with you. We're here to eat of your word. We're here to worship you. And, Lord, whatever sacrifice or surrender needs to come about for that to be a reality, where you make yourself known in greater ways.
58:15 Lord, if if it takes anything, God, we're we're willing to pay the price. If you put your finger on anything, even as specifically as you were with the Israelites, concerning the material, God, if you have to pinpoint things in our lives, we need to go. Here it is, Lord. We give it to you. Lord, our prayer tonight is that that passion and that pursuit in every person's heart would not die.
58:38 Would not die. We're praying, Lord, together that it would come to life through the study of the tabernacle. Lord, if anybody in this place, anybody has a dull heart towards the scriptures, Lord, let it come to life. And let us realize how you are so obviously calling us to you even in Exodus 25. And Lord, not only are you calling the nation of Israel, you're calling us today.
59:03 In 2018, you're the same God. And so Lord, help us worship you the way you deserve to be worshiped. And help us pursue you the way you want us to pursue you. And help us know you in the way that you want us to know you, God. We want it all for this house.
59:17 Lord, it's even hard to even end this meeting, God. It's hard to even end this meeting with the truth that this is God's house. And that, Lord, you you tore that veil. Lord, all these things that are available to us. So perhaps it'll end or come to a close tonight, but we can walk out of here as the tabernacle of God.
59:38 Though this is the God's temple, yes, we can walk out of here individually as God's temple. And we can continually be in that place of adoration and worship and communion with you. What an awesome privilege. Overwhelmed by you. Stunned by you, God.
59:53 Lord, I I pray. I pray. We pray together. Don't let that don't let that die in this, God. In your name, we pray.
