you get older. What are you going
to do? We'll begin our worship service
tonight with the hymn Christ at the Cross. Is that first? Okay. Christ at the Cross. On a hill far away ? Died the
Christ of the cross ? ? He yielded to suffering and shame ? ? And
there in his grace he died in my place ? ? The purpose of God
to fulfill ? ? So I'll cherish the Christ of the cross ? ? And before His throne I'll bow
down ? I will cling to the Christ of the cross ? For He is the
King I must crown ? Oh the Christ of the cross ? So despised by
the world ? Has a wondrous tension to me ? He the dear lamb of God
? Lift his glory above ? To bear all my sin on the tree ? So I'll
cherish the Christ of the cross ? And before His throne I'll
bow down ? I will cling to the Christ of the cross ? For He
is the King ? In the Christ of the cross ?
And His blood so divine ? A marvelous beauty I see ? For He opened
my eyes ? That long had been blind ? To behold Him now on
His throne ? So I'll cherish the Christ of the cross ? And
before this throne I'll bow down ? I will cling to the Christ
of the cross ? For He is the King ? I must ever be true ? His shame
and reproach gladly bear ? For in love he constrains ? Till
all shall be gained ? His glory forever I'll share ? So I'll
cherish the Christ of the cross And before His throne I'll bow
down. I will cling to the Christ of
the cross. For He is the King I must crown. 517. On Jordan and Stormy Bay. On Jordan's stormy banks I stand
and cast a wishful eye To Canaan's fair and happy land where my
possessions lie I am bound for the promised land land. Oh, who will come and go
with me? I am bound for the promised land. All o'er those wide extended
plain shots, one eternal day. They've got the sun for Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. No gin, no poisonous breath
can that health assure. Sickness and sorrow, pain and
bitter I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. When shall I reach that happy
place and I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. If you have your Bibles, please
turn with me to the 24th chapter of Exodus. We're going to be
looking at chapter 25, but I want to read a few verses of chapter
24, beginning with verse 12. We'll read through verse 9 of
chapter 25. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Come up unto me in the mount, and be there. And I will give
thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments, which I have
written, that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up, his
minister Joshua, and Moses went up to the mount of God. And he
said to the elders, Tear ye here for us, until we come again unto
you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are
with you. If any man have any matters to
do, let him come unto them. And Moses went up into the mount,
and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode
upon Mount Sinai. And the cloud covered it six
days. And the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the
midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of
the Lord was like devouring fire on top of the mount in the eyes
of the children of Israel. Moses went into the midst of
the cloud and got him into the mount. And Moses was in the mount
forty days and forty nights. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they may bring
me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly. With his
heart ye shall take that mine offering. And this is the offering
which ye shall take of them, gold, and silver, and brass,
and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goat's hair,
and ram's skin dyed red, and badger's skin, and shittum wood,
all for the light spices for the anointing oil and for the
sweet incense. Onyx stones and stones be set
in the ephod and the breastplate. Let them make a sanctuary that
I may dwell among them. According to all that I show
thee after the pattern of the tabernacle, the pattern of all
the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it. Let us
pray. Our Father, Holy and righteous is your name,
and you have magnified your word above your name. We are thankful
we have it. We praise you, Father, that you
do not leave yourself without a witness, that you have given
to us this precious book whereby you have revealed who you are
and what we are, and how indeed you save sinners by your sovereign
and free grace. We thank you, Father, that the
shed blood of Jesus Christ, that perfect sacrifice offered to
you, has satisfied you for your justice and your law, fulfilled
the law, and caused us to be made righteous
by Jesus Christ, not in and of ourselves, but he himself is
our righteousness. Father, we pray for those who
are sick. Remember Brother Fred, he's going through these various
things that accompany this treatment. We pray it should be a comfort
to him and strengthen him and give him vitality in these days
where he travels back and forth to the doctor in these places. We ask, Lord, you help him and
be with Arlene as she ministers to him. Help them, Lord. Be their strength, their guide.
Pray also for Loretta as she's having these problems with her
stomach. We pray, Lord, your doctors will find out what it
is and be able to bring her back to a good measure of health.
Pray for Brother Wayne as he's struggling in these last days.
We ask, Lord, you be with him, minister to him. For the other
shut-ins also, for Ethel, we pray, Father, help us, Lord,
to remember each other in prayer and call each other's name out
to heaven. Pray for Gary Shepard's daughter,
Stephanie. She's had these troubles and
pray you'd be with her. And the others who requested
prayer, we ask your help for them. And help us tonight, fathers,
we gather here. As you are in our midst and you
meet with us by your spirit and take the things of Christ and
show them unto us, we'll be forever grateful. We know that had you
not revealed yourself to us and given us faith and understanding,
from this book, the glories of Jesus Christ, we would have remained,
all men, most miserable. But thou hast touched us with
your grace, and we bless you for it. In the name of Christ,
we ask these things for your glory and for the good of your
people. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now, as we saw last time,
the rehearsal of the law and then the reading of it by Moses
to the people brought about a singular response from the people. They,
revealing their ignorance of the intent and the purpose of
the law, declared with one voice that they could keep the law,
and they would keep the law and do all that the law said. They
did not understand the purpose of the law, the reason for it
was given. The purpose of the law was to define sin, not make
a man righteous, but to define sin. to indict the transgressor
and the penalty was set and the penalty for sin is death. Now
the law in effect handed down a death sentence. Moses immediate
response when people said this twice when the law was spoken
and in the red his immediate response was to build an altar
and to sacrifice upon that altar to spill blood and sprinkle the
blood of the sacrifices on everything and everyone. And in the eighth
verse of chapter 24, Moses sets forth the principle of life,
the remedy for sin that is the theme and subject of Scripture
throughout. Behold the blood of the covenant,
he said in chapter 24 and verse 8. This is the same thing that
we say. We say it a little bit different.
We say, Look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down on the right hand of the Father.
John the Baptist's message when he saw Jesus Christ coming toward
him said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. It's the same thing as saying,
Behold the blood of the covenant Since the beginning of sin, when
the Lord slew beasts and shed blood to cover his sinful creatures,
this has been the truth set forth. It is the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. Continually, the law condemns
sin, and the remedy is blood death as payment or atonement
for sin. The elements of the gospel, imputation,
substitution, and satisfaction are the sum and substance of
the Word of God. In the latter part of verse 24,
which I just read, Moses is called up to the Mount Sinai to receive
the law on tables of stone and all the commandments that attend
the law. Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights on the Mount. This
number of days is synonymous with trial and temptation and
deliverance. It rained upon the earth in the
days of the flood, 40 days and 40 nights, and Noah and his family
were delivered in the ark. Moses here spends 40 days and
40 nights on the Mount receiving the Law of God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ spent 40 days and 40 nights being tempted of Satan
in the wilderness and was delivered. The instructions given to Moses
on the Mount will cover the next eight chapters of this book,
starting right here. The Decalogue, the Ten Commandments,
have already been given. They have been written down and
are yet to be etched in stone. Copious amounts of blood have
been shed in the beginning of the instructions. The first thing
that proceeds out of the mouth of God to Moses is not the Ten
Commandments written in stone. It has already been said, and
He hasn't etched them in stone yet. The first thing that proceeds
out of the mouth of God is of EXTREME IMPORTANCE and proves
to be the SUBJECT of the Word of God throughout Scripture.
The subject is the tabernacle, that amazing, portable edifice
that will forever be the place where the Holy God communes with
sinful men through the mediator of the blood of the covenant.
This is what the tabernacle is all about. Moses instruction
begins with the gathering of materials to erect this tabernacle,
and he sets forth the materials that will be used in verses 1-7,
or verses 2-7, or verses actually 3-7, and this is the offering
which ye shall take of them, gold and silver and brass, and
blue and purple, that is cloth and scarlet and fine linen, which
is probably Egyptian linen, and goat's hair, and the ram's skin
dyed red. and badger skin and chitim wood,
oil for the lights, spices for the anointing oil and for the
sweet incense, onyx stones and stones to be set in the ephod
and the breastplate of the high priest, and let them make me
a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." So all these elements
were given and they were taken as an offering from the people.
They were collected as free will offerings, those who were willing
to offer from their heart That tells us something about the
Sanctuary of God. The Sanctuary or Tabernacle where
God will reside is not born of taxation or law or commandment. The offerings that we offer when
we worship the Lord are to be from the heart, as true all worship
is actually VOLUNTARY. It is always voluntary. Our Lord
said in verse 2, Speaking to the children of Israel, they
bring the offering of every man that giveth it WILLINGLY with
his heart, he shall take my offerings. So this is a picture of the worship
of God. The variety and the value of the offerings gives some sense
of the wealth that Israel left Egypt with. They spoiled Egypt,
it says in Exodus. This tells the believer the reason
for the existence of the world and even for the wealth of those
who oppose God, as Egypt did. It is all for the glory of God
and for the good of God's children. The riches of the pagan, the
spoils of the Egyptians were employed for building the habitation
of God. Israel, when they were in Egypt,
were slaves. They didn't have any possessions.
They were slaves. They were owned and operated.
But when they left, God worked on the hearts and minds of the
Egyptian people, and they loaded them up with gold and silver
and jewelry and stones and all kinds of stuff, and those things
are used to erect this great, wondrous, portable edifice called
the Tabernacle. And the reason is because all
things belong to God. Everything is His. He says in
Psalm 24, The earth, and the fullness thereof, and every one
that dwells therein is the LORD's. This is who owns this universe. The earth, the heaven is his
earth, the earth is his footstool, and we can make nothing ourselves. We can create nothing that doesn't
come from what's already been created. But all things, everything
that happens on the face of God's earth operates for God's glory
and for the good of His people. And here's a prime example of
it. They came out, they were in Egypt with nothing. They came
out extremely wealthy. Why did they come out with all
that stuff? Because all that stuff is going to be used to
build this tabernacle. Well, not all of it. Some of it is going
to be used to build a golden calf, but we'll get to that later.
These materials were used to build a sanctuary. What is a
sanctuary? It means a hallowed place, a
holy place, a sacred place. where God would dwell among His
people, and this is a mystery, this is a wondrous thing, how
wonderful this actually is, the Holy God who is separate. That's what the word holy means,
He's separate, He's out there, He's untouchable, He's unreachable,
He's out yonder, beyond reach. Now He speaks in terms of communion
and fellowship, and all in reference to this place that they're going
to build, this tabernacle. He who is far off now draws nigh
unto the people. What would it mean for God to
be in the midst of His people? Well, we know what it means for
him to be out there. He controls all things. He uses men like
Moses to get things done. But he's never really come into
the presence of his people except in what is called Christophanes
with Abraham and Jacob and met with them. But he's never communed
with his people. That's not been in his situation.
And even in this we'll be in a representative sense. How he
will commune with his people is we'll see in the commandments
concerning this tabernacle. One of them is how the high priest
works. especially on the Day of Atonement, He communes with
His people through a representative, the Great High Priest, and that
is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what it would be
for God to be in the midst of His people, over in Zephaniah
chapter 3, in verse 14, it says, This is what it means if God
is in your midst. He's not out there no longer. He's not unreachable
and untouchable. Now He's communing with His people. He said that I may dwell among
the people. Sing, O daughter of Zion, it
says in chapter 3 and verse 14 of Zephaniah. Shout, O Israel,
be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem,
the Lord has taken away thy judgments. When did he do that? On the cross
of Calvary. He has cast away thy enemy. When did he do that?
On the cross of Calvary. The King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee. Well, what will be the end result
of that? Thou shalt not see evil anymore.
You say, well, I see a lot of evil. No, it looks evil, it feels
evil, it feels bad and it hurts. A lot of things go wrong. Every
bit of it is good. every bit of his good. God created
evil. He said that in Isaiah chapter forty-five. He created
evil, but he created it for your good. For your good. You'll not see evil anymore.
It's like old Scott Richard said, Once I heard the good news, I
ain't heard no bad news. That's the truth. He says, The
Lord hath taken away thy judgments. Then it says, In that day, that
is the day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not unto
Zion, let not thy hands be slack, the Lord thy God in the midst
of thee, the one who's in the midst of thee is mighty. He will
save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing.
That's what it means to have God in the midst of you. in the
scriptures it says where two or three are gathered in my name
i will be in the midst of them that verse in colossians chapter
two where it says uh... christ in you the hope of glory
that word in is actually among christ among you in the midst
of you in your midst is your glory So these materials were
used to build a sanctuary, a dwelling place for God. And wherever they
go, this tabernacle is going to be set up, and there God's
going to be with His people. God gave Moses the pattern for
the tabernacle. That's what He says in verse
8 and 9. and let them make me a sanctuary, which is a holy
place, that I may dwell, that word in the New Testament means
tabernacle, may dwell among them according to all that I show
thee after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of
all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it. The tabernacle, what is the tabernacle?
The tabernacle is simply Jesus Christ. That's what the tabernacle
is. And note, this is the first thing
God speaks to Moses about on Mount Sinai, the place where
the law was given. The first thing he talks about
is Jesus Christ in this tabernacle. Why did I say that? The New Testament
says that. In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God, the Word was God, the same was in the
beginning with God. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt, that's the word, tabernacled. and tabernacle among us, and
we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth." Here is the first instruction that God
gives to Moses and it is the instruction of salvation by Jesus
Christ on Mount Sinai. Here and here alone God will
commune with His people. He says that several times in
our study of the tabernacle. Here and here alone God will
do that. Here His priesthood will function. This priesthood will have a function.
Everything they do will be about that tabernacle, the newest temple.
24 hours a day they will work. They'll make sure the brazen
laborer has a proper amount of water. They'll make sure the
table of shulman has fresh bread that's pierced on it. They'll
make sure the golden altar has incense on it. They'll make sure
there's fire on the burn altar and inside the holy of holies
there they'll make sure that the ark is where it's supposed
to be. All of that is the work of the priesthood. They would
trim the lamps. And when they trimmed the lamps,
they were oil lamps. They weren't lamps like candles. They called
them candlesticks because James was a head of the Church
of England, and they used candles and things in their worship because
they were derivative of Catholicism. And that became the Church of
England because King Henry VIII uh... wanted to divorce Anne
Boleyn and marry somebody else, and he couldn't divorce as a
Catholic, so he formed the Church of England, and that's how that
happened. But anyway, there in this place, this tabernacle is
where the priesthood will function. Here, the high priest will enter
one day a year. The Day of Atonement is established
here, and he will make atonement for the sins of his people. Everything
in this structure, everything we just read about the elements
of this structure, every one of those things speaks of some
aspect of Christ and His work. Every curtain and its color has
something to do with Christ. Every veil and its fabric has
something to do with Christ. The wood has something to do
with Christ. The precious metals point to
Christ. The works of artistry, the spoons, the basins, and each
piece of furniture speak of the Savior and His accomplished redemption.
Before the law was etched in stone, before the law was etched in
stone, The architectural pattern of the tabernacle was given.
A pattern, it says. The law was added because of
transgression. But ere the law entered, there
was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Before the blood
of this temporal covenant was shed, the blood of the everlasting
covenant was shed. The Lord gave this pattern to
Moses, but this pattern Where did he get it from? He got it
from God, from Heaven. This pattern has a pattern. It
is made from ANOTHER pattern. The pattern of the earthly tabernacle
was the salvation purpose to be wrought by Jesus Christ. The
tabernacle of the earthly temporal pattern was a pattern of something
that was in Heaven, something that was eternal, of eternal
salvation. That is spoken of in clear terms
in Hebrews chapter 9. as Paul talks about the tabernacle. In Hebrews chapter 9, we'll begin
reading with verse 1, Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances
of divine service and a worldly sanctuary, a worldly sanctuary,
a worldly one, one that was on the Earth. For there was a tabernacle
made, the first Wherein was the candlestick, or the lamps, the
table, and the showbread, which was called the sanctuary. That's
the holy place, not the most holy place. This was divided
into two sections, the holy and the most holy. The most holy
was 30 by 15. The holy of holies was 15 by
15. It was a perfect cube. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. which had the golden censer,
the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid round about with gold, wherein
was the golden pot that had manna, the pot of manna, Aaron's rod
that budded, which is a picture of life from the death, and the
tables of the Covenant, that is, the tables of stone, which
the law was written. Now, they were all inside the
Ark of the Covenant. Over that was the Chair of Glory,
shadowing the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat covered the Law,
and covered all things of God. That Mercy Seat was there. In
fact, in Deuteronomy 25, it says the Mercy Seat is where God communes
with His people. And what does the word Mercy
Seat mean in the Greek? Four times in the New Testament,
propitiation. Satisfaction, that's where satisfaction
was made. and the cherubim of glory, shadowing
the mercy seat of which we cannot speak particularly." You can
speak of it later. Now, when these things were thus
ordained, the priest went always to the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. That is the fifteen by thirty
foot area. But unto the second went the
high priest alone, once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself, and for the errors of the sins of his
people. Now, what does all that mean? It says, the Holy Ghost
thus signifying that the way unto the holiest of all was not
yet made, was not yet made manifest, it was not revealed. It was there,
it existed, but it wasn't revealed what all this other stuff meant
yet. While it was in the first tabernacle,
it was yet standing. It was a type and a picture. It was Christ shrouded in mystery,
which was a figure. for the time then present, in
which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not
make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to conscience."
The conscience could not be soothed because the sin was not taken
care of. "...which stood only in meats,
and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances imposed
on them until the time of reformation, or the time when Jesus Christ
came. But Christ, being come in high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, whole. So this new one, this
one that had come in time to Moses as a pattern, it existed
in glory. What was the tabernacle in glory?
It was the one in throne, sitting by the throne of God, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. that is to say, not
made of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. Now, this talks about
Christ going to glory and putting his blood on the heavenly mercy
seat. It's a picture. These are all
pictures. For it's the blood of the bulls and goats and the
ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the
purifying of the flesh. And that was all about the flesh.
This was all back then had to do with the flesh. It did not
have to do with the Spirit, and that is why it had to be repeated
every year because men were still seen as sinners before God. How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without response to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? That is the picture
of the original tabernacle from which all of this came. Then
in the same chapter, verse 19, He talks about this incident
we read in Exodus 24. And when Moses had spoken every
precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood
of calves and goats, and water and scarlet wool, and sprinkled
both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of
the testament which God hath enjoined you, or this is the
blood of the covenant. Exodus 24. Moreover, he sprinkled
the blood with both the tabernacle and all the vessels in the ministry.
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, without
shedding of blood there is no remission. It was therefore necessary
that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified
with these, but the heavenly things themselves were better
sacrifices than these, that is, the sacrifice of Christ. For
Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands. which
was a figure of the truth, but into heaven itself now to appear
in the presence of God for us. That is this heavenly tabernacle.
And what that talks about is what Christ accomplished in chapter
10 of Hebrews, when he offered one sacrifice forever and perfected
those whom he was sacrificed for. All that was in the law,
all that was said in the law, it was a shadow of good things
to come, but not the very things. for all that was offered in the
law could never take away sin. God was not satisfied with sacrifice
and burn offering. Christ said, Lo, I come in the
volume of the book that is written to me to do thy will, O God.
What is the pattern? The pattern is Christ in glory,
having saved his people, and that is what the tabernacle was
all about. This is where God meets with
men. Our tabernacle. Father, bless
us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right.