Let's ask God's blessing upon
the service before we enter into the message. Lord, we wait upon you. We wait before you, asking that
you would speak to us through your word. Lord, we confess our sins before
you. So thankful and very grateful
that the blood of the Lord Jesus, your Son, cleanses us from all
sin. Let us be filled with faith,
with confidence in our Lord, knowing that he who lived and
died and was buried and rose again the third day for us ever
lives to intercede for us in the heavenlies. Lord, we need
the presence of your spirit now for me as I speak. For these, as they listen, Lord,
we can't receive anything except You give it to us. We desire
to learn the Word of God. We desire to enter into the special
things that You have for Your people. Oh God, we want to exalt
Your darling Son. Let us see Him in this tabernacle
in the wilderness. Let us see how that pictures
Him and all of His offices and the results of all of His works. Lord, give us eyes only for Jesus
Christ. May He be magnified this morning. So bless Your Word and glorify
Your Son as He glorified Thee. For Jesus' sake, I ask these
things. Amen. Moses is up on the Mount
of God. God took him up into His immediate
presence, and there He gave to him the outline of, the pattern
of, the blueprint of the tabernacle, and all of the pieces of furniture
that had to do with the tabernacle. I'm not sure you're aware of
it, but more is written of the tabernacle and the wilderness
than any other subject in the whole Bible, with the exception,
of course, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here from the beginning
of Exodus chapter 25 all the way to the end of the book of
Exodus, with the exception of a couple of chapters, 33 and
34, everything has got to do with this tabernacle. When God
would set before us His great creation, the magnificence of
all that He made, He used two chapters. Two chapters. But as he sits before us, this
tabernacle in the wilderness, he uses almost one half of the
book of Exodus to set this before us. This is a subject about which
the natural man has no understanding. If, as we read this morning,
and if we had continued to read on several chapters, if the natural
man reads these verses, there are things about the tabernacle,
about the pieces of furniture, about the use of the various
implements of the tabernacle, there are things that the natural
man would read that he says, well, this is all mighty interesting,
but I don't understand what this is talking about. It doesn't
matter if you have a gigantic intellect. If you just read these
words that God gave to Moses to put on paper, If you read these without the
instruction of the Spirit of God, without God speaking to
you from His Word, and without a knowledge of the New Testament,
and especially the book of Hebrews, you won't understand what this
is all about. And really, that's true regarding
all of the Word of God, isn't it? as the natural man, the unconverted
man I'm talking about, and woman, when they read the Word of God,
and especially it's true of the Old Testament, but it's also
true of the New Testament, There is an emptiness in their study
because they are so blind to the things of God, so blind to
spiritual things, that they cannot see the meaning of the Word of
God. This is a book about our Savior. We know that. But there was a
time we did not know that. We couldn't see Him in the Scriptures,
but now we see Him. And as we read and study about
the tabernacle, may God open our understanding and open our
eyes that we might indeed see by faith that one who is so spoken
of and set forth in this book to and try and figure out what this
is all about without the enablement of the Spirit of God is just
futile. Oh Lord, open this to us. There
is just one way to interpret the importance of this tabernacle
in the wilderness, and that's in a spiritual way. And I want
to be very elementary to begin with. I want the children in
the congregation to understand what this is about. Literally,
this word, tabernacle, means a tent. It is a dwelling place
for something or for somebody. You children, you've been out
perhaps camping and you have a pup tent. Or maybe as a family
you go out and you have a large tent. Well, that tent is of a
temporary nature. You don't live in it. but you'll
dwell there for a little while. And you see this tabernacle in
the wilderness, it is a tent. And the Lord is going to dwell
there, but just for a little while, just for a little while. It is estimated by conservative
biblical expositors that they actually used the tabernacle
about 35 years. and then they were done with
it. And, of course, it was portable, just like your tents are portable.
You go camping, you set up all the poles and tie the ropes down
to the stakes and all that kind of stuff, and you spend the night
there, and then the next morning, if you just stay in one night,
you break camp and you fold up the tent and you move on. That's
the way it was with the tabernacle in the wilderness. This was something
very portable. So as Israel moved across the
wilderness, they made use of an abundance of tabernacles because
there were lots of tents. Everybody lived in tents. They
called them booths. They also called them tabernacles.
But there was just one, one location, one place that was known as the
tabernacle. That was the tabernacle of God.
When God gave those instructions to Moses up on top of the mountain,
He said, I'm going to dwell with you, I'll be among you. And so
our Lord dwelt in the tabernacle. Now, the Lord is everywhere. We know that. Here's a nice word
for you, omnipresent. He is present everywhere. David
said, if I ascend into the heavens, thou art there. If I go down
to the depths of hell itself, behold, I'm there too. So God is everywhere. But He
revealed Himself in a special way to an elected people, a chosen
nation, Israel. Of all the nations in the world,
of all the nations in the Middle East, and in the areas that surround
the Middle East, there was just one nation that the Lord revealed
Himself to. And that was the nation of Israel.
And he said, I'm going to dwell among you. Not with the Egyptians,
not with the Assyrians, not with any other nation throughout the
world, just with you. I'll be with you, God said. And
of course, Israel, natural Israel, was a picture of spiritual Israel,
God's true church, the redeemed of the Lord, with whom God dwells. And this tabernacle in the wilderness,
it was temporary, but it was the dwelling place of God. God established his presence
there. It was a great big tent. Certainly
had a large outer court, that tabernacle including the outer
court, 75 feet wide, 150 feet long. And there was a special tent
or tabernacle divided into two cubicles. One of them's the holy
place. The other one was the holy of
holies. That's where God dwelled. And he made his presence known
by a bright light coming out of that that secretive portion
of the tabernacle, the holy place, the most holy place, the holy
of holies. And that bright light went up
right out of the top of the tabernacle and illuminated all of the camp
of Israel every night, every night. And as an Israelite got
up at night or when the sun went down there looking, they saw
all of this brightness all around them and they would look over
to that tabernacle and they'd say, our God is with us. He is the light of His people. He illuminates His people. And
I'll tell you this, illumination is very important. Not only naturally,
but most especially spiritually. He's the one who illuminates
our minds. He illuminates our hearts. John
said a man can receive nothing except it be given him from above. The Lord has to give us some
light on His Word. Otherwise, these will be what
Benjamin Franklin told George Whitefield after Whitefield preached. And Benjamin Franklin said, I
got every word you preach today at home in a book. And Whitefield
said, I studied that message and prepared it myself. He said,
I've got every word you preach today at home in a book. It's
called a dictionary. And that's all it will be. It's
just a bunch of words unless God illuminates your mind and
shows you the God of the Bible in His holy character, in His
justice, in His righteousness. And He's got to shine the searchlight
of His Word in our hearts and reveal to us the barren wilderness,
spiritual wilderness within. That's us. That's all of us.
There's no goodness or soundness about us. It's like Isaiah told
Israel. He said, you're a polluted people. He said, from the top of your
head to the bottom of your feet, there's no soundness in you. That's the way it is with all
of us. And God's got to show us that. It's a blessed day when
the Lord shows us our unsoundness, our filthiness. And then when
He shines the light of His Word by His Spirit upon the Son of
God, and we behold the majesty of God, the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. We see Him as the only Savior,
as the only Redeemer, the only one who can make us perfect in
God's sight. We see Him as our only hope of
righteousness, our only hope of being washed and then cleansed,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So this tabernacle, It was where
the Lord dwelt with Israel. He's with us. And should any
of the fellow Israelites, besides, say, one of the tenths of somebody
they knew, should another Israelite become distressed, discouraged,
like we get sometimes, maybe oftentimes, A brother would go
out and he'd see him and he'd shake his hand and say, oh no,
this is all against me. He'd say to him, you see that
light? You see that light coming out
of the top of the tabernacle? Our God is with us. And if God be with us and if
God be for us, who can be against us? So, what is a tabernacle? It's a dwelling place. That's
really the basic meaning of the word. It is a tent. It is a temporary
dwelling place. And I'll give you an illustration
of that. Look at the book of 2 Corinthians,
chapter 5, please. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. You see, there is but one way
to interpret this tabernacle in the wilderness, and that's
in the spiritual way in light of the Word of God. Now, let
me work on the word tabernacle for just a little bit. And I've
already said it's a temporary dwelling place, it's a tent.
Usually that's the meaning, it's a tent. Look at 2 Corinthians
5 verse 1. For we know if our earthly house
of this, this tabernacle, this is my, you're looking at my tabernacle. See, you're looking at my tent.
Well, if it is a tabernacle and it is a tent, then it houses
something or it houses somebody. This tabernacle is for somebody. What is it for? For my soul. That's what this body is. That's what this earthly house
is. It's the tabernacle of my soul. I am a soul. I have a body. You can't see
my soul. God sees my soul. He's washed
my soul in the blood of the Son of God. He's raised me from a
spiritual death. My soul is alive to God. I worship
God. I believe God. I trust in God. He's my Lord and Savior. Jesus
Christ is. This is my earthly house. But it's going to have to be
dissolved one day. And the word there really is
disunited. Something that is united to my
body is going to be disconnected someday. That's my soul. So when this earthly tabernacle
were dissolved, we still have a building of God. and a house not made with hands,
eternal." Well, where is that? In the heavens. See, when people
die in the Lord Jesus, like Evelyn. Evelyn died. She fell asleep
in Jesus, what, a week ago this past Thursday. Don's mother passed
away Friday morning. She vacated her soul, vacated
that earthly house, that tabernacle, that temporary dwelling place. And Evelyn and Alice, both of
them went to glory. But they're not disembodied souls. They're not floating around in
an invisible state. And certainly their souls aren't
sleeping. And absolutely their souls did
not go to purgatory. What an awful lie. And I've mentioned
this before, but I was reading this week about It's something
about Catholicism. They talk about purgatory. And
I've said this before, it's just another way to put money in the
coffers of the church of Rome. That's all that's about. There
is no purging of any sins by anything that God would do to
us. The people in hell, their sins
aren't being purged. There was only one place of the
purging of sin. That's at the cross. Our Lord
Jesus purged us from all of our sins. He redeemed us. He washed
our sins away. And when the soul of a believer
leaves the body, it doesn't just float around in the air somewhere. God's got a house for it. God's got a body for it. A heavenly
body. Now we'll look at verse 2. For
in this, in this tabernacle, remember a tabernacle is where
something or somebody dwells. For in this tabernacle, in this
tent, we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven. Paul said he wanted to be absent
from the body and present with the Lord. He said, that's what
I want. It's what I desire. He said, but for now it's better
for me to stay with you. And he says, if so be that being
clothed, we shall not be found naked. Look at verse 4. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan. Being burdened. Burdened by what? What burdens us? Well, it's all
the burdens of life. It's not what he's talking about.
The burden of sin. The flesh. That's the burden
to us. So, I've got so many burdens,
preacher. Well, I'll tell you what. you
will be relieved of all burdens, but most especially this one
gigantic burden when this house is dissolved. Until then, you
keep it. We've grown being burdened. My
sin still burdens me, doesn't it burden you? Of course, of
course it does. That's the reason you say, Lord,
forgive me. Forgive me, and he does, because
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, goes on cleansing us from
all sin. Being burdened, watch this. Not
for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon that mortality
might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for
the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest
of his Spirit. Therefore, we're always confident
knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we're absent
from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. We're confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body and to be present. And that means to be at home
with the Lord. What happens to a child of God
at the moment of death? They go home. That's a sweet
thought. We go home. Where's Sister Evelyn? She's gone home. She's gone home. That's at the father's house.
She's gone home. So, this body then is a tent,
it's a dwelling place. My body's the tabernacle of my
soul. Now, We have an understanding
of the basics of the word tabernacle and even for the children. It's
a tent, temporary place where something or somebody dwells.
This body in this flesh is temporary. I'm not always going to live
here. I'm going to have to vacate. The house is going to be vacated.
I'm moving out. And I'm going much further and
higher than the east side. If any of you remember that comedy
years ago. We're going to glory. I'm moving
out. I'll be done with this. A sinful
body, a frail body, a body that's mortal. A body that's dying. A body that is decaying. And
I'll have to shed my nature. The Adamic nature. Full of sin. Never has got any better. Never
will get any better. And the only thing that can be
done with it, it will have to be dissolved with the body. And
it will be forever parted. Alright now, go with me to the
book of Hebrews chapter 9. Now let me show you something
here. And this is vital. This is what I've been building
up to. Hebrews chapter 9. And I'll just begin reading,
I need to read several verses here. Then verily the first covenant
had also ordinance of divine service and a worldly sanctuary,
an earthy, an earthy sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle. All
right, here we go. There was a tabernacle. A tabernacle made. It was prepared. God gave to Moses the blueprints
for the tabernacle, and then the tabernacle was constructed
to serve the purpose that God had ordained. The first, wherein, that is in
the holy place, remember I said two cubicles, two rooms The first,
the holy place, wherein was the candlestick, the table, the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. If you want to
get particular, that was the tabernacle. Back there in the
holiest of all, there's the tabernacle. That's where God dwelt with men.
which had, now he begins to talk about some of the pieces of furniture,
the golden censer, the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about
with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's
rod that budded in the tables of the covenant, and over it
the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat, as illustrated
back in Genesis chapter 3, right toward the end. That was kind
of the pattern of it, of which we cannot now speak
particularly. Now, when these things were thus
ordained, here the writer says, the priests went always into
the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. The first
tabernacle being the first little room. The first little room. And that's where the priests
ministered. They had the table of showbread,
twelve loaves of bread, had the golden lampstand, candlestick,
seven candles, and then the altar of incense, where incense was
burned. And the priests were busy in
that room, but they couldn't go into the back room. They couldn't
go into the holiest of holies. He says further, verse 7, but
into the second, so into that second little room, went the
high priest all by himself, alone. And he only went in there once
every year, one day out of every year, the Day of Atonement. And
he must never go in there without blood. That's the dwelling place of
God. That symbolized the dwelling place of God. You can't enter
into the presence of God without a suitable sacrifice. You've got to have the blood.
The blood speaks of death. The blood speaks of judgment.
An animal had been killed and burned on the brazen altar out
there the first thing when you stepped in the eastern gate. And on that day of atonement,
the high priest, he'd burn an animal. Before that, he'd catch
the blood, then burn the animal, take that blood and go back into
the Holy of Holies. He'd sprinkle the mercy seeds. God demands blood. Don't you
go back there without blood. God will kill you without blood.
And I'll tell you, you can't enter into the presence of a
holy God without the blood of the Lord Jesus. God will kill
you. He'll kill you forever. You'll
perish in your sins. Not without blood which He offered
for Himself. Now that's the way it was with
that high priest. He had first of all offered a
sacrifice for himself and then for the errors of the people.
The Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing, which was a figure, oh, So now we know that tabernacle
in the wilderness, it was a figure. It was a picture. Literally,
it told a parable. It's telling a story. and you
have to have spiritual understanding to grasp the meaning of it, in
which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not
make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the
conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers'
washings and carnal ordinances imposed or laid upon them unto
the time of reformation. That is, all of that ceremonial
worship, it just kept going and kept going until the time of... What time? The time when the
Lord Jesus would come. What does Reformation mean? He'd
straighten things out. He'd make things right. You see,
all those animals that were offered on Jewish altars at the brazen
altar, and the blood that was sprinkled on the mercy seat,
One day of the year by the high priest. Didn't put any sins away. It didn't straighten things out.
It didn't make anything right with God. It pictured. It was
a figure. It was telling a story. It was
a parable. It was a parable about Him who
would come. And he would tabernacle, God
would tabernacle in the flesh of the man named Jesus of Nazareth. Look at verse 11. But Christ
being come and high priest of good things to come by greater
and more perfect tabernacle. See, it's wonderful that they
had that tabernacle in the wilderness. That's a wonderful thing, but
you've got to have a better tabernacle than that. So our Lord Jesus came and he
tabernacled in a body. God, God was united to human
flesh in the God-man Christ Jesus. He took up His residence. God
took up His residence in a body. A sinless body. A pure body. Look over at chapter 8 of Hebrews. Chapter 8 of Hebrews, verse 1.
Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. Here's
the main point. It's like the inspired writer,
probably the Apostle Paul, he says, now I've been writing to
you all of these things, but now here's the main point. Get
this and you'll understand. We have such a high priest who
is set fixed on the right hand of the throne of the majesty,
excuse me, in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true
tabernacle. Oh, that's what the believers
look for in the Old Testament, the coming of the true tabernacle. Which the Lord pitched. You see,
the Levites, When Moses led them, here they're going across the
wilderness, he says, time to stop. Let's set up camp. Let's pitch your tents. Unfold
your tents. And the Levites, they'd set up
the tabernacle. They'd pitch the tent. Put the
stakes in, the tapestry and everything that they had prepared. for travel, and then they pitched
the tent. But men did that. Men made the tabernacle. Now
they made it after God's blueprint, but men pitched it. Men put it
together. Ron read to us how everybody
bring an offering. If you're willing, bring an offering.
It's going to take silver and gold. It's going to take some
skins of animals. It's going to take all these
things. And it'll all be made by us, Moses said. We'll put it together. But then the Lord Jesus came,
and a tent was pitched for Him. But He wasn't a man. He wasn't born as a result of
a union of a man and a woman. He was born in the Spirit of
God. God pitched that tent. God made
that tent. And not man. Not man. You see, and you want to turn
back over to Hebrews chapter 10? Let me show you this. Hebrews chapter 10. Look at verse
7. Well, verse 6 says, "...in burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure."
This is the Lord Jesus speaking to the Father. All those sacrifices,
they were ordained of God and offered in the name of God to
the Lord, but God wasn't satisfied with them. He didn't put any
sin away. That's what it says in verse
4. It's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sin. In burnt offerings, God had no
pleasure. Now look at verse 7. Then said
I, who's the I? The Son of God. The eternal,
omnipotent Son of God. Then said I, lo, I come! In the volume of the book it
is written, in the book of God's decrees, in the book of God's
predestination, in the book of the Old Testament, in the books
of God. To do Thy will, O God, above
when He said sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings and offering
for sin, Thou wouldest not, neither hast any pleasure therein which
are offered by the law. Then said He, Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O God, He taketh away He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. Now look at the last phrase of
verse five again, but a body thou hast prepared me. God prepared
for his son a tabernacle. See, we can use that word now.
This is the, what we read a little bit ago, true tabernacle. This
is the true tabernacle. This is the real tabernacle.
That other tabernacle, that's a picture. That was a parable.
To help us to understand the real meaning of this. God fashioned,
He made a body for His Son. A body Thou hast made me. God formed that body in the womb
of Mary. And then the Son of God in that
body joined together. He's dwelling in it like a tabernacle. There's the true tabernacle.
You read about this man, Jesus of Nazareth, walking the streets
of Jerusalem, going into Galilee, doing all the miracles that He
did, teaching the people, and then going to the cross of Calvary,
and suffering, bleeding, dying, men doing all the horrible deeds
and things that they could do to Him, and God punishing His
soul. That's God in human flesh there. God in the tabernacle. God in
the tabernacle. And he died. There was a dissolving of his
body. He really died. And his body
was put in a tomb. Well, what about his soul? It
went back to glory. And then he came back. And he
took that same body into union with himself again. A glorified
body, though. That body he had while he was
walking on this earth was a body subject to weariness, thirst, hunger. It was without sin, no
question about that. He had some of the same infirmities
we have. He went to glory after he died
because he died and put away the sins of his people. Then
he came back and he inhabited that body again. He took that
body into union with himself. The scripture says, in him dwelleth
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And he took that body into union
with himself again. And we called him the God-man.
And in 1 Timothy 2, Paul says, for there's one God and one mediator
between God and men. Who is it? He says, the man in
Christ Jesus. And we're going to see him someday.
You see, God's invisible. God's invisible. God is Spirit,
John chapter 4. You can't see God. All of God
you'll ever see is the God-man. Because there's an everlasting
union between His body and divinity. He's our Savior. And all of this tabernacle, it
pictures Him. Look at John chapter 1. I'll
give you one more or a couple of references here from John
chapter 1. We're working on the word tabernacle. It's a tent. Everybody knows that now. It's
a dwelling place, a temporary dwelling place. For the Son of God, He took up
His residence in an earthly house, an earthly tabernacle, a tent,
a body. That's what this is. It's a tabernacle. You're looking at my tent. I
know the ropes are beginning to get a little frayed. And the canvas overhead, it's
kind of turned white. Well, it hadn't turned loose
yet, not totally anyway. But that's my tabernacle. It's getting some age on it. I know some of y'all are older
than I am, and I'm thankful. I'm thankful that, you know,
people say, I don't want to live very long. Long life is a gift. It's a gift. Be thankful. Be thankful. Don't moan, groan,
complain. Oh, groan. The Scripture says
groan about your sin in this tabernacle, but be thankful.
God's given you life. I've had elderly people say,
I don't know why God leaves me here. I've got aches and pains
every day. Well, notwithstanding your aches
and pains, He leaves you here to be an encouragement to your
children, to your grandchildren, to your great-grandchildren.
to other believers, to other aged believers. You've been through
a lot of things that others hadn't gone through. You can help them
as they go through and say, listen brother, listen sister, I've
been where you are and God gives grace. Be thankful for age, old
age. But the temp is getting a little
dilapidated. And one of these days it's going
to be dissolved. And my soul will go back to glory. To be with the Lord. He's got
a tabernacle, a heavenly tabernacle awaiting me. So we know a tabernacle
is that which houses the soul. And that tabernacle in the wilderness,
it was a house, believe it or not, for God. That was God's
house. I know sometimes we say things
like, well, we're going to God's house. Well, I'm not going to
rebuke anybody for putting it that way, but really God's house
is the Lord Jesus, our Savior. And God's house, the Father's
house, is heaven. This is a place designated for
worship, that's true. It really isn't a sanctuary.
This is not a sanctuary because there's nothing holy about this
place. It's put together much like your houses are put together,
except it just has a different design. Let me show you this. Let me
read this to you. Look at verse 1. In the beginning was the Word.
What is the Word? It's a vehicle of thought. It's
how we know what's on somebody's mind. You can't know my will,
you can't know my intentions unless I verbalize it to you. Jesus Christ is God verbalized. Jesus Christ is God told out. He's the Word. He's the Word. In the beginning was the Word.
When the beginning began, He was there. And the Word was with
God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not
anything made that was made. Look at verse 18. No man has
seen God at any time. I just said God's invisible.
God's Spirit. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father. He hath declared Him. Oh, that's
important. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God
declared. He's God told out. He's the A
to the Z of God. Everything you need to know about
God is found in that God-man Christ Jesus. The Word. Now look
back up at verse 14. Here's where I'm heading to.
And the Word was made flesh. Really, the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. And most everybody here knows
that word dwelt means tabernacled. He tabernacled among us. And
John said, and we build His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. So here's what I want
you to take away this morning from this introduction to the
tabernacle. That tabernacle picture our Lord
Jesus who tabernacled among men. The real tabernacle. Or as it
says in chapter eight of Hebrews, the true tabernacle. And I'm so thankful that he dwelt
among men, and that he laid down his life a ransom for many. And
everything about the tabernacle pictures either the person of
Christ, some aspect of the work of Christ, or something about
the results of his work. The tabernacle in the wilderness,
that's a picture of, it is a parable of, the Lord Jesus and all that
He is and all that He's done for His people. Well, let's pray. Lord, bless the Word now that
has gone forth. We rejoice in our Lord Jesus
who is the true tabernacle. He tabernacled among men. Oh,
what condescension! Oh what love, oh what grace that
he would come and take up his residence having a human soul
made for him. He would take up his residence
in a human body, God in the flesh. Why was He made flesh to suffer,
bleed, and die, and satisfy all of your demands? Oh, Father,
we thank You for our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who once tabernacled
among men. He is Himself the true tabernacle
of God. For Christ's sake, I pray. Amen.