Do you hope to dwell in the courts
of the Lord God forever? To dwell in the house of God
forevermore? Do you hope to spend eternity
in the Lord's house by His mighty grace, worshiping Him both in
spirit and in truth, not just here for time, but for eternity,
worshiping our God. I want tonight, if you will,
to turn to Exodus chapter 38, and I'm going to talk to you
about entering the Lord's courts. I want to talk to you personally. I want to talk to you just from
the word of God, and I want to talk to you about entering the
Lord's courts, worshiping him, about coming to God, about living
with God in his house now and forever, about life in communion,
in harmony, in fellowship with the Almighty. Give unto the Lord
the glory due unto his name the psalmist said Bring an offering
and come into his courts. Oh Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness Fear before him all the earth hold your hands here
in exodus 68 and turn over to psalm 100 Let's read this hundred
psalm again together psalm 100 Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord. Serve the Lord with gladness. I recall many, many years ago,
Brother Henry Mayhem, Brother Milton Howard and I were preaching
together out in California and Milton was preaching with this
psalm. And Henry came up to him afterwards and he said, I thank
you and thank God so much for that. He said, I've been serving
the Lord, but there hasn't been much gladness about it. Serve
the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with
singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and
his truth endureth forever. Throughout the scriptures, faith
in Christ is portrayed as coming to Christ. To come to Christ
is to believe on Him. To believe on Him is to come
to Him. It is worshiping Him. Faith in
Christ is the worship of the Son of God. It is the coming
of our hearts, the coming of our minds, the coming of our
souls to Him. The Savior says, come unto me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
This coming to Christ is the result of deliberate purpose
and determination. It's not something that comes
without decision. It is a decisive matter. And
I recognize, as you do, faith is the gift of God. No man, by
his own will, makes himself willing to come to Christ. But God Almighty
saves sinners who come willingly to his side. We come to him by
faith, willingly. We come to him because he graciously
makes us willing in the day of his power. But we've come here
tonight because we want to worship God. Is that true? We want to
see his face. We want to hear his voice. We
want to worship him. And all who worship him do so
willingly. Faith is never a matter of conscription. It's a voluntary act. The soldiers
in our Lord's army are not drafted force soldiers, but volunteers. Thy people, the psalmist said,
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. This coming
to Christ, then, is a matter of the heart, willingly, voluntarily,
joyfully trusting the Son of God, willingly, voluntarily,
joyfully surrendering to Jesus Christ the Lord. We come to Him
because we want to come to Him. We bow to Him because we want
to bow to Him. And that's the work of God's
grace. True faith is the willful, deliberate, voluntary confidence
of my heart in the power and grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus,
my God and my Savior. It's trusting the merits of His
blood and the merits of His righteousness. It is trusting Him not only as
my Redeemer and Mediator, however, it's trusting Him as my Lord,
my King. Ralph Barnard used to say, everybody
talks about making He said, I want to know who your Lord is. Tell
me who your Lord is, and I'll tell you whether or not Christ
is your Savior. Christ is Lord wherever he saves. Christ rules
in the hearts of those who are conquered by his grace. And he
conquers us by his grace, making us glad for him to rule. But
this coming to Christ is not a once for all act. It is not something that is done
with finality. It is something that begins in
time and it continues through the days of our lives and it
shall continue to eternity. Peter put it this way, talking
about worshiping the Lord Jesus, tasting that the Lord is gracious.
He said, to whom coming? To whom coming? I have come to
Christ. I am coming to Christ and I shall
come to Christ. We come to Him continually. Not only are sinners bidden to
come to Him, we're commanded of God to come to Him. And God's
command is our warrant for coming to Him. And coming to Him, tasting
that the Lord is gracious, we continually come to Him, continue
to look to Him, continue to call upon Him, because He, by His
grace, continues to make us hungry. continues to make us thirsty,
continues to make us dependent on him, and continues to make
us willing in the day of his power. Salvation is coming to
God, coming to God by faith in Christ the mediator. It is worshiping
God in spirit and in truth. A day in thy courts, the psalmist
said, is better than a thousand. He said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish
in the courts of our God. And those words refer specifically
to passages like this in Exodus chapter 38. where the Lord God
tells us about the courts of the tabernacle. How can I enter
into the courts of the Lord? What's required? By what means
can a poor, vile sinner not only enter into the courts of the
Lord, but dwell there? Not only dwell there spiritually
by faith now while we walk in this world, but dwell in the
courts of our God forever. and the tabernacle, there were
three sections, three courts, if you will. There was the outer
court where the people commonly gathered. And then the inner
court called the holy place where the table of showbread was and
the golden candlestick an altar of incense There was that inner
court there that inner holy place and then there was that which
is called the holiest of all the holy of holies the court
where alone God dwelt in his glory on the mercy seat, overshadowing
the ark, into which the high priest went with the blood of
the lamb once a year, picturing the accomplishment of redemption
by our Lord Jesus in the sacrifice of himself, who with his own
blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. The outer courts I take to represent
the church and people of God. You and I around the world dwelling
on this earth today and in all the ages of time. I take to be
the holy place representing heaven itself, the place of divine worship. You are come to Mount Zion, Paul
tells us in Hebrews chapter 12. Not we are going to, but we have
come to Mount Zion, to the new Jerusalem. When we come together
to worship God, we come not to a physical altar, but to that
spiritual altar, Christ Jesus our Lord. We come not to a physical
place, but rather we come to Christ in our hearts and with
our hearts. And then the Holy of Holies represents
the very throne of God. The only gate by which to enter
these courts, the only door of access by which to enter these
courts is Jesus Christ, who said, I am the door. And he's pictured
in these gates and these veils, these curtains hanging, separating
one court from the other. We enter in by him. But what's
necessary for us to enter? Hold your Bibles up. Let me show you five things essential
to the worship of God. Five things essential to being
accepted of God. The very first thing required
if we would come to God, if we would enter into his courts,
if we would be saved is atonement. Blood atonement. Look at verse
1. And he made a burnt offering. of Shittem Wood. Five cubits
was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof. You
read on down through verse 7 and you'll see this altar is made
of shidom wood and it's an altar of sacrifice. The altar is four
square, that it's in perfect symmetry. It has four corners
pointing to the four corners of the earth, that is the north,
south, east, and west, where God's elect are scattered in
judgment from which they must be gathered in his mercy. And
it has four horns. The four horns on this altar
representing the might, the power, the efficacy by which the Lord
Jesus Christ redeemed us and by which his people shall be
gathered from the four corners of the earth. Now, you know that
Christ is our altar. We don't worship God on a material
altar. I can't stress this sufficiently.
I can't say it often enough. We do not, in this gospel age,
worship God at any physical, material altar. We do not make
any place on earth a holy place. And those who do, do not worship
God. It is not possible to worship
God in spirit while you worship him in flesh. It's not possible
to worship God spiritually while retaining carnal elements of
worship. We either worship him in spirit
and in truth or we do not worship him. For the God, is this a holy
building? No. No, this is just a wooden
building, just like your house. It's just a it's just made out
of brick, mortar and wood. That's all. And if we didn't
use this place to worship God, I would highly recommend that
it be sold as a barn, not as another place for some of the
religious organization to meet in. The church building is not
the church. We ought to quit even referring
to this place as the church. You who meet here are the church
of God. And we don't come to this place
that's holy. We come to this place for the
holy purpose of worshiping God. and we worship him at an altar
that they cannot eat of who serve in the tabernacle. Is that what
the book says? Turn to Hebrews chapter 10, let's see. I said
chapter 10, chapter 13, excuse me. The children of Israel were not
to worship him at any altar that man had made. It must be an altar
of earth or an altar of stone. It must have no steps ascending
up to it. That is, lest your nakedness
be exposed. Because as you attempt to make
your steps up to God, you expose your nakedness. That is, you
expose your sin. You expose what you are. of your corruption, of your wickedness,
of your shame. It's to be an altar of earth
or of stone or of hewn stone, because if you put your tool
on it, you will be without the altar. In other words, we must
worship God and an altar of God's making and God's providing. Here
it is, Hebrews 13, verse 7. Remember them which have the
rule over you, your pastors. who have spoken to you the word
of God, who follow the doctrine of faith, their example of faith
and faithfulness, the object and end of their faith, considering
the end of their conversation, the end of their lives. What
is that? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. Be not worried about the strange
doctrines. Children of God, Don't get sidetracked. To turn your mind and your thought
and your attention away from Jesus Christ. Anything that's new is wrong. Can you get that? Anything that's
new is wrong. Boy, I heard something new today.
Well, forget it. Try to forget it. Don't tell me about it. Don't
remember it. Push it out of your mind. Christ
is the same yesterday and today and forever. Well, brother Don,
that's so simple, isn't it, though? Isn't it, though? That's the
simplicity is the end of confusion. Don't be turned aside to divers
and strange doctrines. Watch this now. For it is a good
thing that the heart be established with grace. What a good word. Established, fixed, firm, unmoved
with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have
been occupied therein. That is carnal sacrifices. The Old Testament carnal sacrifices
of the law. We have an altar. whereof they
have no right to eat which serve the temple for the bodies of
those beasts whose blood is the sanctuary of the high priest
for sin burned without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. Thus goeth the Lord without the
camp. Let's go to Christ the altar,
Christ the altar outside the camp of carnal earthly religion,
outside the camp of carnal earthly worship, worshiping him in spirit
and in truth, bearing his reproach. But not only do we come to God's
altar. We must come to God's altar and
worship God by God's sacrifice. The sacrifice on that altar is
Jesus Christ, our Lord, and our Redeemer. He is our Savior. Sacrifice. Turn now, if you will,
to Psalm 118. Psalm 118. Some folks try to separate the
altar and the sacrifice. That just can't be done In psalm
118 the psalmist says oh give thanks unto the lord for he is
good Because he endureth forever now skip down to verse 14 The lord is my strength and song
And has become my salvation The voice of the lord the voice of
rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of
the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. Look at verse 17. I shall not
die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath
chastened me sore, but hath not given me over unto death. Open
to me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them. And I will
praise the Lord, this gate of the Lord into which the righteous
shall enter. I will praise thee for thou hast
heard me and art become my salvation. And this is how the stone which
the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner.
The Lord's doing is marvelous in our eyes. It's a mystery. It's a wondrous thing. It's profound
in our eyes. It's inexplainable in our eyes. I talked to Brother Todd Nybert
just briefly yesterday. We've been down in Mexico. And
of course, discussing various things as we do every time we
get together. talking about fellows trying
to decipher and cut up the word of God and try to tell you exactly
how it is that Christ became what we are, how it is that Christ
was made sin, and what's involved in it, as if somehow we can explain
this. Brother Walter, one of his keen
observations, he said, God killed men for peeking into the ark. Don't handle these things with
curiosity. Children of God don't handle
these things with curiosity. God almighty didn't send his
son here to die in our stead that we might curiously peek
into things and learn things to swell our heads. Hold up.
This is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord
has made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. Talking about the day of our Lord's resurrection. Save
now, I beseech thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, send
now prosperity. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. Blessed be he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the
house of the Lord. God is the Lord, which has showed
us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords,
even under the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and I will praise
thee. Thou art my God, and I will exalt
thee. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good. His mercy endureth forever. I turn back here to Psalm, or
to Exodus 38. The Lord Jesus is that one of whom
the altar and the atonement, the altar and the sacrifice speak.
He who redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. He who knew no sin, but was made sin for us, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. This is the way
by which centers come to God. This is the basis of all worship. This is the hinge upon which
everything hangs in the house of God, in the worship of God,
for the glory of God. And let me ask you a question. The first time the word sin is
used in this book. The very first time. Anybody
know where it's used? The very first time. Remember
what the connection is? The first time. Oh, it's back
there in the garden of Adam and Eve. No, no, that's not the first
time it's used. No. Oh, it's talking about Lucifer
and the fall. No, that's not the first time
it's used. The first time it's used is in Genesis chapter 4
verse 7. Genesis chapter 4 verse 7. We
looked at it Sunday morning. The Lord God came to Cain and
said to Cain, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? Of
course. You come to me. You bring the
sacrifice I require. You bring that which I demand
of men. You'll be accepted. You you worship
me by the blood of my son by the righteousness of my son by
faith in my son You'll be accepted. Sure you will and If thou doest
not well You come some other way What is that sin life at the
door you still guilty and you know it sin lies at your conscience
and Now, let me tell you something I am thoroughly convinced is
true of all people engaged in works religion, no matter what
kind it is. Probably some of you sitting
here still clinging to your goodness, to your something by which you
mix with the blood of Christ and give yourself some announcement
of peace. I'll tell you what's dead sure
certain. Because your goodness, your works,
your righteousness, your merit, your morality, your deeds never
will satisfy a guilty conscience. It will not happen. It will not
happen. The reason Cain hated Abel, the
only reason Cain murdered his brother, the only reason is it. God accepted Abel. That's all. That's all. He couldn't stand
it. God wouldn't accept him. God accepted Abel through the
merit and the doing and the dying of his own son. And Cain trampled
under his feet the merit and the doing and the dying of God's
Son. And trampling the blood of Christ
under his feet, treating it as an unholy thing. Cain was tormented
in his conscience. And when he saw Abel walking
in peace with God, he said, I'll kill it. And murder him he did. And to this day, the vehement
rage of men is seen most clearly in their opposition to blood
atonement, to salvation by Christ alone. All right, look back here
at Exodus 38 verse 8. The first thing is atonement.
We cannot come to God. We cannot be accepted of God.
We cannot worship God. We cannot enter into the courts
of his house without blood atonement, without the sacrifice of his
darling son. But I'm going to tell you something
that fellows, they cussed me pretty good for saying it, but
I just had to cuss on. Atonement's not enough. The blood of Christ
is not enough. The righteousness of Christ is
not enough to take you to glory. You've got to have Christ in
you. You've got to have that holiness without which no man
shall see the Lord. You've got to be born of God.
The cleansing represented in verse 8 by this laver, the cleansing
by the gospel portrayed in this laver is that which is experienced
in grace. And he made a laver of brass
and the foot of it of brass, brass of the looking glasses
of the women assembling. Now, this is the first time we're
told this. This laver of brass was made by taking the mirrors
that the women had our breasts and beat them out smooth. And you know how women love mirrors
almost as much as men do. They always like their mirrors
so they can pimp and be pretty. And they brought their looking
glasses and gave them to Aaron and Moses. And these men who
were gifted to do so beat them out and made from their looking
glasses this laver of brass. Read on. Looking glasses of the
women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation. Turn over to Titus chapter 3.
Titus chapter 3. this labor of ceremonial cleansing,
this labor where men, when they go into the tabernacle, ceremonially
purified and cleansed themselves, typified the gospel of Christ
as it is applied to our hearts in effectual grace by God the
Holy Spirit. And that application of the gospel
is that which purges our consciences from dead works to serve the
living and true God. It purges our consciences from
the dead works of self-righteous, legal will-worship. Works of
dead religion performed by dead men purges our consciences from
those dead works. Look at verse 3, Titus chapter
3, verse 3. We ourselves also were sometime
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. And this and love of God, our
Savior, would man appear not by works of righteousness, which
we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being
justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the
hope Eternal life Now this is what happens when God the Holy
Spirit Sprinkles the conscience with the blood of Christ when
God the Holy Spirit gives life to the dead sinner He calls us
that sinner To hear the Word of God declared in his soul the
word of his own salvation Ephesians 1 14 assuring us that we are
gods, for he declares us justified before God. As you look to Jesus
Christ the Lord, as you believe on the Son of God, as you turn
your heart toward Him in faith, God the Spirit declares, that's
enough, in your own conscience. So now you're just before Him,
justified before God, and you can lift your heart to heaven,
and call God your father, Abba Father, Abba Father. The laver
was made from this brass, from the looking glasses of the women
assembling. Calvin suggested it is, as James
mentions in James 1.23, this laver of brass, this laver of
the gospel, so that we see ourselves and we see our natural selves,
we do indeed. But James also suggested this
looking glass is a looking glass through which we see the perfect
law of liberty in James 125. The looking glasses of this labor,
the looking glasses of the word of the gospel is that by which
we look unto and behold Jesus Christ and him crucified. looking
ever to him, living ever before him. Thirdly, in sweet communion
with him. If we would come to God and dwell
in his courts, we must have an atonement, an atonement to satisfy
justice. And we must have a righteous
nature imparted to us in sanctification and regeneration, made holy before
God, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And then thirdly, that
which is essential to the worship of God is communion. Communion. This is the delight
of worship. Communion with God's saints. Communion with the triune God. Communion believers with believers,
brothers with brothers, sisters with sisters. Communion with
our Redeemer. And he, look at verse 9, he made
the court, the court of the tabernacle. And he speaks about the south
side and the north side and the east side and the west side.
And he made the hangings of the courts and the pillars of the
courts and the sockets and the hooks and the fillets, all these
things. And the hanging, we're told in
verse 18, the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework,
a blue, and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen and 20 cubits
was the length and the height and the breadth was 5 cubits.
Now watch this, answerable to the hangings of the court. I don't think that it ever registered
with me before. Had it you? the hangings of this
place answerable to the hangings of this place. Because everything
in the worship of God is in perfect harmony and symmetry. Everything
matching up with the character of God in all his goodness. Everything
reflecting Christ Jesus the Lord. Everything in harmony. These
boards standing side by side, connected one depending on another,
all standing on one foundation. And then fourth, that which is absolutely essential
in this matter of worship, this fourth thing without which we
cannot, will not, and do not worship God is security. Security. Look at verse 19. And their pillars were four,
and their sockets of brass four, their hooks of silver, and the
overlaying of their chapiters, and their fillets of silver,
and all the pins of the tabernacle and of the court round about
were of brass. The word pin, as I showed you
several weeks ago, is used in many places that scripture refers
to as a nail. or as a stake. These weren't little pegs. These
were stakes, huge stakes driven into the ground holding everything
in place, holding everything in security. The stakes tied
to the cords and pinning things down so that when the winds would
come, nothing in the tabernacle is disturbed. Imagine. Imagine that tent you you imagine
you imagine pitching the tent any tent you take a notion to
You imagine pitching a tent out in the open field in the Sinai
desert when a windstorm comes up and the candlesticks Every
light in it still burning You imagine that every light in it
still burning the unleavened bread Now, loaves of unleavened
bread, they're not big, heavy loaves like you ladies making
your bread making machines or you who still need bread making. No, these loaves of unleavened
bread, just fairly thin loaves stacked one on top of the other.
Windstorm comes up and there they are, undisturbed, undisturbed. Nothing messed up, nothing shaken,
nothing disturbed at all. The continually burning flame,
not going out, always there. How can that be? Everything is
secured and held in place by mighty strong stakes. Our Lord is described this way.
He is a nail in a sure place. And God's people worship him
when we walk before him with secure confidence in Christ the
Lord. Not confidence in ourselves,
not confidence in our experiences, not confidence in our learning,
not confidence in our righteousness, confidence in our Redeemer. Brother Dunn, you're always sure.
I'm always sure of him. I'm always sure of him. Martin
Luther, I was trying to remember this the other night. Oscar was
talking to me about this very matter. He said, feelings come
and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. I trust the written
word of God, not else is worth believing. What if you feel empty? I usually do. I usually do. I had a call today,
someone greatly moved by a message and he said, he probably won't
last till I get done talking to you. I said, I understand. So, I do understand. I do understand. Now, my feelings are nothing. And my work's less. But what's
your security? Christ alone. Can you enter into that, Larry?
Christ alone is my peace with God. Christ alone is my acceptance
with God. Christ alone is my righteousness. Christ alone, my redemption. Christ alone, my hope. Christ alone, my peace. And so we worship God, trusting
him who alone has declared, I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish. But there's a fifth thing involved
in this matter of worship. We won't read the whole rest
of this chapter, but look at verse 21. This is the sum of the tabernacle. Even the tabernacle of testimony
as it was counted according to the commandment of Moses for
the service of the Levites. That is for the service of the
tabernacle. and then it begins to tally up
the total cost of the tabernacle. Now, I don't really know personally
what the total cost was. I'm going to give you a figure
that I've read in several places, but I can't verify it because
I don't know what these various things actually were worth in
terms of today's dollars and cents. But I'm told by folks
who ought to know that the tabernacle, with all its furnishings, cost
something more than $10 million. Wow. And now that's really insignificant. It's really insignificant except
for this. Go back and read chapter 36,
and you'll see that everything that was used to build the tabernacle
was brought to Moses, God's servants, by the children of Israel with
a willing heart." Everything. Everything. Because they seem
to say, as David later said when he sought a place on which to
build the house of God, the temple that Solomon would build. And
Rona said, David, man, you want this little patch of ground I've
got to build a house for God? Take it. I don't want anything.
Take it. I've got plenty of it. Take this
little piece. And David said, no, name me a
price because I will not offer to God. I will not sacrifice
to God that which doth cost me nothing. I won't do it. I won't
do it. As you know, over the years,
I've been asked to help folks a number of times get established
as churches if God raised up a church. This is my first requirement. This is my first requirement.
I tell them I'll come preach. I'll come preach as often as
I can. I'll help you all I can. I'll come at my own expense.
You don't have to worry about that. Our folks will take care
of me coming out there. You don't have to worry about
me coming. You don't have to worry about giving me a dime.
I require one thing. I require one thing. You rent
a public place to meet. Well, why? Well, we can meet
over here for free. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. God's people want
to serve him with that which they possess. And when you start
to seek to serve him on the cheap side and the easy side, I promise
you that's the way it will be done from now on. Nothing is
good enough for our God. Did you hear me? Nothing is good
enough for our God. Doug said to me just recently. I hear a fellow on the job. That building something in name
of Congress or hacker construction company, and I hear him say good
enough. He said, I just get angry. Good
enough. Good enough. And how often in the service
of our God, I see and hear with thunderously loud implications
from preachers and duthers, good enough. Never good enough. God, oh, God. Give me as only you can such
a heart with which to serve my redeemer in the totality of my
being. Let me not offer to God that
which costs me nothing. That's what it means to worship
God. We worship him by blood atonement
at his altar. We worship him by the cleansing
of the spirit applying the word to our hearts. We worship him
in sweet communion, one with another. We worship him in the
blessed security of acceptance and salvation in Christ. And
we worship him, giving ourselves continually to our God and our
Savior.