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Sunday school from October 21st, 2018
Let's pray. Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, grant us Your Holy Spirit who writes the preached Word into our hearts so that we may receive and believe it and be gladdened and comforted by it in eternity.
Glorify Your Word in our hearts. Make it so bright and warm that we may find pleasure in it. And through Your inspiration, think what is right. By Your power, fulfill the Word. For the sake of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord.
Amen.
Before we get back into the book of Exodus, were there any questions that came up as a result of the sermon? We've been talking about money for the last two weeks. And I won't say who, but somebody did ask me if I was preaching for or against the lottery after today's sermon.
And the answer that I gave to the question, by the way, was that there was a very famous study done a few years back on how happy lotto winners are just a couple years after they've won the lottery. And that study came back that they were as happy as people who had suffered severe injuries and became quadriplegics.
Yeah.
So my answer to the question is that I would never wish that any of you would win the lottery for fear that you would experience that low level of happiness in your life. Instead, I like what Solomon said, and that is that let us eat and drink and let us take pleasure in our toil.
This is our lot. This is our lot. And this is a gift from God under the curse. And so I think it's fascinating that what scripture says is for us to be content with what our lot is. And you'll note that some of us, that there's just kind of this willy-nilly, almost capricious result that occurs.
And one of the reasons why socialism sounds so appealing is because they claim that they can somehow make it so that everybody gets the same result financially. But in the world that we live in, there's the rich, there's the poor, and there's a lot of people kind of in the middle.
And you know what? I'm completely content with this. Pretty happy with inequality of results. And I'll say this quite candidly. I expect there to be inequality of results when it comes to this life. For instance, would any of you pay money to see me play basketball for the Timberwolves?
Sure.
Yeah, but not because you expect me to do well.
You would think this would just be comedy gold.
And there he goes for a layup. Boom, he hits the rim, pits him in the face.
He's bleeding. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you understand what I'm saying, right? And there's a reason why I don't pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers. But I had to get the Dodgers in because they're going to the World Series again.
Anyway.
Just saying.
Although, oh man, that season was tough. They were giving me antacid kind of reflux all season. And at the end, they turned things around.
Weird.
Anyway, so any questions then that have come up as a result of the sermon? Yes, okay. Let me pull back into my file. Yeah, let me check. History of STDs. Yes, that file's pretty empty.
Okay.
It is my understanding that in the ancient world, they didn't have the same spectrum of STDs that we do now. I'm trying to think if syphilis was an issue back then. I don't think it was. STDs really became a problem with colonialism.
And so there were pockets of places where there were STDs. But thanks to transportation of ships and things like that, I do believe that Christopher Columbus came back with a boatload of venereal disease that they shared with the Europeans.
So it's not quite the same issue back then as it is now. So, yeah. Now, that's from a thin file. My mind. Haven't really studied that one out, you know? Yeah, you'll note this. When it comes to STD transmission, abstinence before you're married and the fidelity in your marriage has worked 100 of the time.
I'm just saying, you know. It's like you sit there and you go, you know that God's law thing, you know? If I, I'm just, anyway. Maybe I'm oversimplifying, but you kind of get the idea. All right, let's, weird topic, okay.
Yeah, yeah, now Solomon, he was married to every one of them, you know? And although he did have concubines, that's kind of a different type of relationship. But I mean, David is the one who had adultery with Bathsheba.
And, but Solomon, hundreds of wives. Why, I don't know. Hundreds of wives. And then I think he had concubines on top of that. But a concubinal relationship is not the same, quite the same as adultery.
There are obligations and responsibilities that go with a concubinal relationship. So, but again, we thankfully don't have any of those issues today. But yeah, no, nothing in scripture would make it sound like Solomon suffered from some STD or degenerative disease along those lines.
So, yeah. All right, just, that really came out of nowhere. Okay, so last week we were in Exodus 34. And we noted that the glory of God is to forgive sins. And the glory of God passed by Moses while Moses was in the cleft of the rock.
And that Moses, hearing what the glory of God is, prayed back what he heard to God. And then God literally forgave and pardoned Israel. And then said that he was gonna make a covenant with them. And see, God's all of a sudden back on track.
And so we noted that he said, behold, I'm gonna make a covenant before all your people. I will do marvels such as not been created in all the earth or in any nation and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord.
For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. And then he goes on to explain what they're to be doing. That reiterates you do not make cast images of any gods for yourself. You're required to keep the different feast days.
And we talked about last week how these feast days have interesting theological significance. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Passover, finds its fulfillment in Christ, who is our Passover lamb. And it's always pointing to Jesus.
And then you have the Feast of Weeks, which is a harvest festival. It's the first fruits of the harvest. And that is the day of Pentecost when the church begins. And so you can kind of say theologically that the fact that Pentecost, the church begins at the Feast of Pentecost with the first fruits harvest.
That at the moment, God is working the harvest field, if you would, to bring in, you know, the grain as well as the chaff. And at the end, he'll separate it all. But so, and the preaching of the gospel then has harvest implications.
The last of the feast has implications as it relates to the last day, the end of time. Six days you shall work. On the seventh day you shall rest. I've recently done, in fact, we've talked about this several times for more in-depth teaching on the Sabbath.
I would point you to our website so that I don't need to reteach the concept of the Sabbath. But the idea then is that the Sabbath finds its fulfillment then in this way, is that you're not allowed to work on the Sabbath, period.
No work can be done. And as we heard in our epistle text today, did you notice Hebrews 4? Hebrews 4 is pointing to the fact that the Sabbath is pointing to salvation by grace through faith without works.
So its fulfillment then is in salvation without works. And so to enter into the true Sabbath rest is to have salvation as a gift given to you by God and you not working or striving for it. That's the idea.
That's what Hebrews 4 said in our text today. We talked about blood last week. You shall not offer the blood of any sacrifice. And we noted that in the Scriptures, you over and again have that theme that in the Old Testament, you're not to eat the blood, you're not to eat the blood.
Why are you not to eat the blood? Because the life is in the blood. The life is in the blood. Then you get to the Lord's Supper and Jesus says, take drink, this is my blood, right? And the whole thing reverses.
And of course, the reality of the situation is what? That the life is in the blood, all right? So the Lord said to Moses, write these words for in accordance with these words, I've made a covenant with you and with Israel.
And now we'll note then that God is giving a very specific command to Moses and that command has to do with the inauguration of the written word of God. Now God begins it himself technically with him writing with his finger, the 10 commandments on the two stone tablets.
So those are the foundation stones of the written word of God. And here we see that God has given a command specifically to Moses to write these words down for in accordance with these words, I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.
And so the idea then is that we see that God himself is specifically saying, let's get this writing project going.
So the new tablets will work?
No, the Lord will, yeah, bring another pair up, well, God will do it again is the best way to put it. So you'll notice that, it's still fascinating to me that Moses smashes those things.
It's like, wow, okay.
But such was the reaction to the idolatry. So verse 28, so there was with the Lord, 40 days and 40 nights he neither ate bread nor drank water. We noted how this points to Jesus and his 40 days, 40 nights without food, fasting in the wilderness.
We noted the similarities between Christ. And then where we ended off last week then was with this fact that Moses is gonna come down from Mount Sinai after these 40 days in the presence of God and his face is glowing.
His face is going. Let's take a look at this Exodus 34, 29. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses and behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him and Moses talked with them.
Afterward, all the people of Israel came near and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai and when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Now, cross-reference for this is in 2 Corinthians chapter three.
And let's take a look at that text. Two, core three. And I'm gonna start at verse one for our context, although it's a little bit later in the chapter. I want you to see how Paul in the time of the New Testament as an apostle of Christ now, what he does with the old covenant and those things written in stone and also what the significance then theologically is of the fact that Moses glowed in the dark when he came down from the mountain.
2 Corinthians 3, one. So are we beginning to commend ourselves again or do we need a some do letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all.
And you show that you are a letter written from Christ delivered by us written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. So you'll note that in this passage, Paul writing to the church in Corinth is saying that the Christians there in Corinth, that they were a letter delivered from Christ written by the spirit.
And the spirit wrote on people's hearts and not on tablets of stone. 2 Corinthians 3, okay. I was just reading verse three. 2 Corinthians 3, verse three. Now verse four. So such as the confidence that we have through Christ towards God.
Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the spirit.
For the letter kills, the spirit gives life. Now you're gonna note that what Paul's doing here is he's making a distinction between the law and the gospel. The law, he's going to liken to words written on stone.
The gospel is spirit and life. And you'll note the dichotomy between the two. And the purpose of the law is to show us that we're sinners. And this is one of the reasons why when we talk and we make the proper distinction between law and gospel, we always note the law, because we are sinners, always has a killing work associated with it.
Lex semper accusa is the Latin here. Lex law semper always, and then accusa accuses. So rather than semper fi, it's lex semper accusa, the law will always accuse. So those words written on stone by the finger of God, they're always going to accuse and they're always gonna kill us.
And it's not because the law is bad, it's because we are. It's not because the law is evil, it's because we're evil. And so you'll note then the distinction he's making. So here's what he says. Now, if the ministry of death, isn't that a great way of talking about the law of God?
It's the ministry of death. If the ministry of death carved in letters on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses's face because of its glory. Now, I just read it out and I didn't highlight it, but the people of Israel, when Moses comes down and his face is glowing, they're freaked by this.
If this is not something, they then sit there and go,.
Wow, look, Moses, you're glowing.
Let us fall down and worship the Lord. No, they were terrified by this glory of God that was on him and he had to cover it up. So if the ministry of death carved in letters on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses's face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the spirit, you can in this case talk about the gospel, have even more glory.
For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceeded in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it.
For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, how much more will what is permanent have glory? Now, a little bit of a note here, based upon how I read this, is the Mogazaic covenant permanent or temporary?
Temporary. Is it still in effect or has it been brought to an end? It's been brought to an end. Yeah, yeah.
Right.
So if it's been brought to an end, and it has, and it was temporary, and it was, what is the thing that's permanent? Right, the ministry of the spirit, which is the gospel. The new covenant is permanent.
The Mosaic covenant, temporary. And it's been brought to an end, you know, as I think, no, with Christ's ascension, with the death, resurrection, and ascension. Yeah, listen to my son. Yeah, still at that point, the new covenant hadn't been inaugurated.
The new covenant is inaugurated. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the beginning of the end. Yep, so all Moses and the prophets point to Jesus. God says, listen to him. He bleeds, dies, rises again, ascends to heaven.
New covenant is in effect now. It's permanent, Mosaic covenant, temporary. This is the reason why, then, if somebody says to you, you Christians need to celebrate the Passover, okay? You sit there and go, have you read 2 Corinthians 3?
Generally, the people who are religiously telling you you need to celebrate the Passover, that's not a fun party. Yeah, that's, no, you know, there are better parties I'd go to. Now that's the question.
See, now that's the question. So the answer is you have to let Scripture do that for you. So are we saying, well, listen, new covenant, man, so we can steal. Let's go rob a bank in the name of Jesus because, you know, it says in the 10 commandments, thou shalt not steal.
So that's all gone now. We can steal like there's no tomorrow. You sit there and go, that's silly, okay? Oh yeah, and by the way, we're gonna institutionalize Christian murder. Let's have a murder party.
One of you is gonna die, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're sitting there going, that doesn't sound right, but the reason why, let's ask the question why. Okay, why does that not sound right? The answer's actually quite simple.
In the back end of like the book of Romans, what Paul does in the epistles is he takes the 10 commandments and they get rewritten into the new covenant with one exception, the Sabbath, okay? So they get written into the new covenant and kind of rolled into it.
This is, in theology, we talk about continuity and discontinuity between the old covenant and the new covenant. And so we notice then, and this is how theologians then kind of boil it down. The simple solution is is that in the old covenant, there's moral law, which reflects the very character of God.
There's civil law, which deals with the theocracy of Israel. And there's ceremonial law as it relates to the tabernacle and then eventually the temple. And so what has been done away with then is gonna be your ceremonial law, which finds their fulfillment in Christ, and the civil laws as it pertains to the theocracy of Israel but the moral laws on which those civil laws are based, those are eternal.
So the law is eternal and it reflects the moral character of God and they are rewritten into the new covenant. So in the time of the New Testament, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet.
Those are all things that we are obligated to and here's the thing now. In the new covenant, James says that the law is the law of perfect freedom. So the law, what does it look like to live free from sin?
It's to obey the 10 commandments. That's what it looks like.
So yeah, exactly.
And that's actually one of Paul's points is that prior to the giving of the 10 commandments, the patriarchs still obeyed them, okay? For example, the perfect example, Joseph. Joseph lives before Moses.
Joseph is in Potiphar's house and Potiphar's wife is saying, hey, baby, why don't you and I head on over into my bedroom and slip into something a little more comfortable? And Joseph's all, get away from me, woman, right?
And he literally says, how could I sin against God in this way? But there was no commandment written in stone that says thou shalt not commit adultery. How did he know this? Well, the law's written on our hearts.
So again, I always like to point out that watching the five o 'clock news, that watching the five o 'clock news would make no sense unless, well, if we didn't have God's law written on our hearts, it would make no sense.
The reason why is because, you know, film at 11, so-and-so's house was broken into, five people are dead. You know, things like that. Politicians caught in scandal, sleeping with multiple women, you know?
And we all sit there and go, oh, like this, right?
And the reason why we go, oh, is because we have God's law written on our hearts. Otherwise, we'd sit there and go, what's the matter, who cares, you know? So-and-so had their stuff stolen. They should lock their house up, you know?
You see what I'm saying? So the fact that the five o 'clock news exists and we're all scandalized by the stories of all the terrible stuff that's happening, it would never be perceived as terrible unless we all, by default, had God's law written on our hearts.
Now, for some people, they've seared their conscience and God's law just doesn't have the same effect. That's the kind of the dulling effect of repeated sin. You know, you'll note that as you give in to sin, then you have an appetite for worse and more and more and more and more.
And so, you know, you can sear your conscience in that way. Funny that, yeah. So Jesus says, here's my new commandment, ready? Like the commandment of the new covenant. Love one another as I have loved you.
It's second table, but you'll note the direction. As I have loved you, how did Christ love us? Sacrificially, right? So then we are commanded in the new covenant to love one another each way. And you'll note this.
You do that, you're keeping both tables of the law. You're keeping both of them. You're loving God, you're loving neighbor. And you know, and the 10 commandments, you know, kind of slips into the background because this is what you're doing.
You got it?
So as a minister of the gospel, I have to preach both law and gospel. Killing work and the work of the spirit that makes us alive and strengthens us. It's both together. You cut that cord at the peril of your own soul and the souls of those you're preaching and teaching to.
So if I were to just preach, God loves you. God loves you.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
Right?
And you never heard anything about sin. Am I telling you the truth? Not exactly. It's a sin of omission here because now I'm not telling you about sin. But if all I ever did was never preach the gospel.
And say, you need to obey. You need to be better. God tells you to be perfect. You know, get busy. Busy, busy, busy, right?
That's the opposite error, right? One is antinomianism. The other is legalism or pietism. And neither of them are the truth.
You did.
The entitled, yeah. Yes, that was not his thing, was it? It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Won't you be my neighbor?
Yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. And so let's blame all of the ills on society right now on Mr. Rogers. But there's a sense to, you know, he was kind of part of this progressive movement that was intentionally the decision to move away from any kind of negativity that could destroy somebody's self-esteem.
And so, and then the personification of that thinking in the visible church shows up in the form of Robert Shuler. Remember Robert Shuler in the Crystal Cathedral in the Hour of Power. Robert Shuler was all about self-esteem.
That was his stick. That was his bread and butter. And he even went so far as to say that it was criminal for any pastor to preach God's law and tell somebody that they were a sinner.
Quite the mess. And all of his books are about the power of positive thinking and all this stuff, which is not my job. You know, I get the supreme joy of telling sinners that they're sinners. And you know what happens when sinners hear that they're sinners?
Oftentimes, some of them will get mad at you and hold a grudge.
You know, oh, who are you to say that I'm that?
You know, who do you think you are? Sinner, just like you. Stop saying that!
Right? Yeah.
Yes, Captain Kangaroo, way better than Mr. Rogers. I was not into Mr. Rogers, but you know. I was into Sigmund the Sea Monster and H .R. Puffin stuff, but that's a whole other thing. Well, I'll have to plumb the theology of that later.
All right, so coming back then, you'll note then that in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul is pointing to the glory of God on the face of Moses as basically saying that here the ministry of death arrives with God's glory and that that glory fades.
And the fadingness of that glory points to the fact that this is temporary. So the Mosaic covenant, temporary, fulfilled in Christ. And now the new covenant, the New Testament is in effect, it's permanent.
And I like this because you think, what are the promises of the new covenant? Forgiveness of sins. God promises to take your sins and cast them as far as the east is from the west. I don't know how far away that is, but it sounds pretty far, okay?
Because I haven't figured out where east and west kind of, but if he'd said north and south, that'd be something a little bit different, but he said east and west. Fascinating that he said that. You know, I always like to, I like the way, I've used it even a couple times in a few sermons, this idea that God casts our sin into the sea of his forgetfulness and puts a post sign that says no fishing allowed.
You know, a good way of talking about this. So what we are promised in the new covenant is the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life given as a gift. And it's permanent, which means when Jesus shows up to judge the living and the dead, we're set.
We have nothing to fear on the day of judgment. And immediately after the day of judgment comes the wedding feast of the lamb. We're gonna party like it's the year zero, because it will be. And from there, world without end, world without end.
And never will God go back on his forgiveness. Never will we go back to sinning. World, eternal life without end. This is permanent and I'm looking forward to it. Just looking forward to it. And I keep pointing out, you will know that the new earth has arrived when I can see my feet.
So, just pointing that out. Okay, I have high hopes for the new earth. Really high hopes. So, okay, coming back then to our Old Testament text. We are back in Exodus 34. So, Moses went before the Lord to speak with him.
When he did that, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he told the people of Israel what he was commanded. And the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining.
And Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with God. Chapter 35. So, Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and he said to them, these are the things that Yahweh has commanded you to do.
Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. Consider that for a second here. I mean, we just had a recent state outlaw capital punishment and all the liberals and progressives were going, yay!
Another state that doesn't allow capital punishment. In the theocracy of Israel, if you did any chores on Saturday, you're dead.
Okay?
It's like, wow, all right. And most of us don't think, you know, when we talk about capital crimes, like murder, mass murder, somebody has to really, really do something awful and a lot of it awful in order to get the capital punishment unless they live in Texas.
But here, you work on Saturday, you're dead. So that whole movie, Office Space, where that boss is asking for the TPS report on Saturday, he would be stoned to death as a Sabbath breaker. So, and rightfully so.
And most of you are looking at me like, I have no idea what you're talking about. Okay, that's very sad, very sad. Okay, it's a classic.
All right.
So six days shall your work be done. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath. Let me ask you a question. Any of you have a new stove?
What do we have?
We have a Samsung, right? We have a Samsung stove that we got just a couple of years ago. It has a Sabbath setting. No joke, it has a Sabbath setting. And you know what the Sabbath setting is? You can push a button.
There's a
Sabbath not work?
No, no, no, no, no, no. You hit the Sabbath button on Friday, okay? Before the sun goes down. Yeah, Sabbath begins at sunset. So you hit the Sabbath button or you program so that every Friday, what happens is is that it keeps, it turns your stove on at a low level because you're not allowed to start a fire, kindle it.
And so it has your stove on on a low level and your oven on on a low level. You're burning energy, but here's the good news. Come Saturday or the Shabbat on, you know, once the sun goes down, you can turn it on high, you can turn it on low, but it won't turn off so that you're not kindling a fire.
Yeah, yeah, that's called your token goyim.
Goyim, yeah, yeah.
You want, or a singular would be your goy, okay? Oh yeah, so this is actually a kind of a thing, okay? So like if certain parts of Brooklyn, all right, if you're living in certain parts of Brooklyn and you have next door neighbors who are Orthodox, all right, and they've done like the unthinkable, they forgot to turn off the lights in their bedroom before the sun went down on Friday.
So here's what happens.
You're walking down the street and they go, psst, what, what? You're a Gentile, right?
Could you go in my bedroom and turn off the light?
What?
I forgot to turn it off before the Sabbath started.
You want me to do what?
You're gonna kill me, right? No, no, no, really, I promise. I know it's weird, it's awkward, but it's on the second floor. I'll stay here, just go up there and turn off the light.
$100. Yeah.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. So the negotiations begin.
First opening bid, 100 bucks, wow.
I hope so. I hope so.
Because it's warm, right?
Yeah, I don't know. But you can't turn off the lights. Or you can't, yeah, so there's all these rules then as it relates to the Sabbath. And so our appliances now, the better appliances, they are Sabbath compliant.
They have buttons that you can press so that they can, so that somebody who is an Orthodox Jew can keep the Sabbath, so.
Yeah, so. It's very fascinating.
Yeah. Yep.
All right, so you can't kindle a fire in all your dwelling place on the Sabbath. Now I want you to consider that the Sabbath doesn't make sense in Norway, okay? Because what happens in the wintertime in Norway?
It's cold.
Well, it's really cold, and how long are your days? Okay, you get past a certain part, you get way up north in Norway or in parts of Scandinavia. Well, here's, now you got a problem, okay? Because according to the rules of the Sabbath, the rules of the Sabbath are you are to keep it when the sun goes down on, sun goes down, and you are to keep keeping it until the sun comes back up, all right?
So posit this theory. You live in Anchorage, Alaska, right? On a Friday evening, the sun goes down, and it's gonna be a while before it comes back. That is a long Sabbath, all right? That's a long Sabbath.
It's lasting months. So you're calling in to the boss. You coming into work today? I can't, it's the Sabbath. It's a Tuesday, how could it be the Sabbath? Okay, the sun didn't come back up. Okay, so you're gonna note here that the keeping of the Sabbath kind of implies that you're living in a particular part of the planet because you can't universally apply this if like you're living too far north or too far south because there's certain parts of the year, you know, down south, the penguins, they can't keep the Sabbath either, you know?
But you get the idea then, all right? That this was, note that this was temporary and only for a people living in a particular place on the planet does this make any sense. Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, this is the thing that Yahweh has commanded, take from among you a contribution to Yahweh, whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution, gold, silver, and bronze.
You'll note then that this is the contribution that's gonna be used for the tabernacle and it is not required. You give if you wanna give, you don't give if you don't wanna give, and if you wanna give, here's the list of things we need and you give as much or as little of those things as you want.
This is not compulsory, this is all based upon whether or not you want to give generously. God loves a cheerful giver, all right? And I love that this part of it is not required, it's totally from, if a person has a generous heart.
So let him bring the Lord's contribution, gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, scarlet yarns, fine twine, linen, goat's hair, tanned ram skins and goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and stones for setting up, for the ephod and for the breast piece.
Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that Yahweh has commanded, the tabernacle, its tent, its coverings, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases. Now, a little bit of a note here.
This reminds me of something. You'll note, even the people doing the work, they are contributing it, they are not being required to give it. Isn't that interesting? You think, how can such a project occur on voluntary labor?
And I would say, you know what? That doesn't sound too far-fetched. When I was growing up, Barb and I, we grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. She lived up in Altadena, I lived down in Arcadia, and between the two of us was the city of Pasadena.
And in our communities, every single year, right after Christmas, a whole army of people would volunteer to become the people who would decorate the floats for the Rose Parade. And several years, we would volunteer, and we became known as pedal pushers.
That's what they called us. We even had sweatshirts that said pedal pushers. And we worked on the Lutheran Hour float several years in a row, but all of these floats, they are decorated by volunteers.
People are not paid to decorate these floats. And every year, it's always the same thing. It's like one day before the actual parade, and these floats look like they're not gonna be ready. But somehow, some miraculous way, it all ends up working out.
It's just a strange thing. But it was a lot of fun, although the glue stays on your fingers for a week or so. It has a weird smell to it, too, by the way. Anyway, but you think, this whole parade, and we watch it on TV every year.
This whole parade is put together by an army of volunteers, tabernacled the same way, purely out of generosity, out of a volunteer, out of the generousness of their heart, them taking their skills and applying it.
And so the whole thing was built on generosity, not compulsory requirements, which I think is fantastic. All right, so they're gonna build its tents, its covering, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, its bases, the ark with its poles, the mercy seat, the veil of the screen, the table with its poles, all its utensils, the bread of the presence.
I love that it's called the bread of the presence. Always and again, you see these references to the Lord's Supper. The lamp stand also for the light with its utensils, its lamps, and the oil for the light, the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense, the screen for the door, the door of the tabernacle, the altar of burnt offering with its grating of bronze, its poles, all its utensils and basin and its stand, the hangs for the court, of the court, its pillars, its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court, the pegs of the tabernacle, the pegs of the court, and the cords and the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron, the priests, the garments of his sons for their service as priests.
Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses, and they came, everyone whose heart stirred him. God loves a cheerful giver. Not out of requirement, purely whatever within you, you believed you wanted to give.
Everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting and for all of its service, and for the holy garments. So they came, both men and women, all who were of a willing heart, brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to Yahweh.
And everyone who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen or goat's hair or tanned ram skins or goat skins brought them. Everyone could make a contribution of silver or bronze, brought it as the Lord's contribution.
And everyone who possessed acacia wood of any use in work brought it. And every skillful woman spun with her hands and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen.
All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skills spun the goat's hair. And the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate and spices and oil for the light, for the anointing oil and the fragrant incense.
All the men and the women, the people of Israel whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that Yahweh had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a free will offering to the Lord. So then Moses said to the people of Israel, see Yahweh has called by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah.
Could you imagine God knows your name, right? And he has filled him with the spirit of God with skill and intelligence, with knowledge and with all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, in carving wood for work in every skilled craft.
And he has inspired him to teach both him and Aholiab, the son of Ahasemoc of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen or by a weaver, by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
And we talked about how this shows that if you have skill in anything, God is the one who gives that to you. You have nothing apart from him. Chapter 36. So Bezalel and Aholiab and every craftsman in whom Yahweh had put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that Yahweh has commanded.
And Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab and every craftsman whose mind the Lord had put skill. Notice the repetition. The Lord has put the skill, the Lord has put the skill. Any doubt as to where these skills come from?
You know, I always think of Dwayne Cleven. He has skill in Microsoft Excel. It's a dark art, very dark, very dark. Yeah, the alchemists of old have nothing on Dwayne Cleven. And yet God is the one who filled Dwayne Cleven with the skill of Excel.
And thank God he has that skill because like I said, it's a dark art, yeah. It takes, and you should see the Starship Enterprise that he has in his house, yeah. I've never seen a man work with five computer screens before, but he has, he has.
And a tablet and a cell phone, that's right, that's right. So, you know, I think that the folks who work in the Air Force in Colorado Springs, you know, they're gonna be calling you, you know, to ask you to track the missiles coming in from Russia.
The lights dim and may go when I turn my computer off.
Ha, what just happened? Oh, Dwayne Cleven turned on his computers. Whoa, I thought the power was gonna go out there for a second. Yeah, all right. That's hilarious, all right. So they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary.
Oh, yeah, let's see. God stirred their hearts, so they received, verse three, from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, the people bring much more than enough for doing the work that Yahweh has commanded us to do.
Now, I want to point, I want to highlight this fact here.
Out in the televangelist's universe, there's a televangelist, by the way, by the name of Ken Copeland. Ken Copeland is one of the chief primary prosperity preachers on planet Earth. Kenneth Copeland has a ginormous piece of property in Texas.
It's so big that it's on a lake, and I mean, I'm pretty sure that the International Space Station can see his house. It's that big, from space, as they're passing over. It's that ginormous. And he has his own airport, with not one runway, two.
And he's got multiple, multiple, multiple private jets. You'll note, by contrast here, that as they're building the tabernacle, as soon as they had enough, they told everyone, stop, keep the rest, we have all that we need.
Ken Copeland, who doesn't seem to ever get enough, or have enough, he's like what was described by James, and by King Solomon himself, as the person who is never satisfied with his money, because he loves money.
Here, on the other hand, the creation of the tabernacle, the most important piece of worship artifactory, created at the time, once they had enough, they cut it off. You guys are giving us way too much, you keep the rest for yourselves, we're done.
We have all that we need. You'll note the contrast. So Moses gave the command, the word was proclaimed throughout the camp, let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.
So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work and more. Restrained. Can I give you, no. But I just have a, no.
No.
But I just wanna give you just a little bit more, no, keep it. Arrest this person, they're trying to give us more than we need.
They were restrained, give us no more. And you'll note then, there's kind of an economy to this, that it does require the gospel, and the preaching and teaching, it takes money.
Money.
But you'll note that excess always stays in the pockets of the people giving, never goes into the pockets of the people serving. You see what I'm saying? Kind of an important thing. So they were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient.
And all the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle with 10 curtains. They were made of fine twine linen, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, with cherubim, skillfully worked. I always like to point this out here.
So a little bit of a note here. So fine twine linen, embroidery going on here, and depiction of cherubim. Now, when we think of the depiction of cherubim, we think of chubby babies with like little wings.
No, no, bad, bad, okay? I just think that that depiction of cherubim is so insulting to these majestic creations of God. Okay, cherubim and seraphim. We know from scripture that they have wings. And the seraphim themselves, they're called the burning ones.
You know, these are amazing creatures. And so I'm 100 convinced that when the people of Israel depicted the cherubim, they were not chubby Renaissance babies with tiny wings that look like Cupid wearing diapers, right?
But instead, the majestic, skillful, warrior type beings that they are. Now, the length of each curtain was 28 cubits. The breadth of each curtain, four cubits. All the curtains were the same size. He coupled five curtains to one another.
The other five curtains he coupled to one another. He made loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set. Likewise, he made them on the edge of the outermost curtain of the second set.
He made 50 loops on the one curtain. He made 50 loops on the edge of the curtain that was in the second set. The loops were opposite one another and he made 50 clasps of gold, coupled the curtains to one another with clasps so the tabernacle was a single hole.
Now, a little bit of a note here, this seems like minutiae detail. And I'm so happy it's there. Reason why I'm happy it's there is because you have these weird progressive liberals who come along and say, this is all legend.
This isn't really human history. Well, if this isn't human history, why all the minutiae detail and the names of the people who did the work, Bezalel, Aholiab, son of Asimak, you'll note that all of this reads like actual history.
The minutiae detail screams at you, historical narrative. This isn't legend. This is historical narrative. And you'll note that the same author who gave us this book, Exodus, is the same author who's mentioned in the book itself.
We know that he was commanded by God to write these things. And you'll note that all this minutiae detail is in the exact same book with the details about the crossing of the Red Sea, which is like the pinnacle miracle in this book.
So the person who sits and goes, that didn't really happen. This is just a legend. This is a myth. Well, the same book, we have all this minutiae detail about the building of the tabernacle and who built it.
At what point did it cease to be legend and turn into historical narrative? Well, somewhere in there.
What verse?
I don't know, somewhere before, you know, it had to be that way.
Why?
Because miracles are not possible.
These people drive me nuts. Right, that's exactly. In fact, C .S. Lewis was a fellow who, his specialty was in medieval legend. And he never told what was the inspiration for like the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and stuff like that.
But he was a medieval literary guy. And none of this reads like myth or legend. None of it. So when you get to a section of scripture like this, like you're working your way through your one, your Bible reading plan, and you get to a section like this, sit there and just say to yourself, this sure does seem like a lot of boring minutiae detail.
I'm so glad it's there because that's historical narrative. This ain't legend, right? I always like to point that out because there's a benefit to this. And funny enough, years ago on my program, I interviewed a lady who came out of the New Age movement.
And the thing that bugged her the most is that she was a New Ager who went to a Christian church and they practiced transcendental meditation and were into New Age philosophy and practices and stuff like that.
And she ended up, you know, and her liberal pastor kept saying, yeah, that all this stuff that you read about, it's just myth, it's legend, it didn't really happen. It's not history. And she would read through portions of scripture like this and it would just bug her.
Because she'd say, that just doesn't seem like legend to me. And that was like the thread that when she started to pull on it, caused all of her liberal New Age ideas to just completely come unraveled.
And she eventually repented of that. And now she believes that the scriptures are the word of God. And that Moses, you know, God used Moses and that God actually parted the Red Sea and that the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea as on dry ground.
Because you know why? Because they did, they did. That's the reason why. And so, all right, we'll stop there today and we'll pick this up again next week.