The Completed Construction Exodus 38

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome. I hope everybody had a blessed

Thanksgiving Day. We did, certainly, and God is good, and see his provision abundantly,

I think, for most of us. We can see how God is always there taking care of our needs, and it can be tough at times, but we thank the

Lord that he's always going to be there for us. I wanted to share, before we go to the

Lord in prayer, out of the Voice magazine, and there's a copy in the back, again.

But I was reading through this, and this article was entitled, The Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ Defended, and George Harton went through and did a nice job of saying, how should we defend the virgin birth, how integral and important it is to our faith as believers.

That really is fundamentally, if you can discredit or not discredit the virgin birth, we have no faith, we have no, we would not exist as a church.

But God's Son was brought into this world by way of a virgin, and his last phrase is, his last paragraph says, what is causing your heart to tremble?

God assured Ahaz, Mary, and Joseph that they did not need to fear. They were all instructed to trust

God for something they thought was impossible. May we trust God for our impossibilities.

Let's not lean on our own understanding, but wholly lean on God's power and provision. That's what

Joseph and Mary did when God revealed the virgin birth to them. This Christmas, may we celebrate the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus and trust him completely.

So just good thoughts to remember as we approach this Christmas time, and when the world has to at least distantly acknowledge that there is a

Christ, that Jesus did exist. We know for truth, but let's take this time to remember in sharing that with the world around us, our neighbors, our friends, and our coworkers, okay?

So let's open in prayer. Lord God, we thank you that you have brought us here today, Father. We are blessed to have you, to know your

Son, Jesus Christ, is our Lord and Savior. We thank you that you brought him into this world miraculously,

Lord, by way of Mary, and we thank you that you have completed your mission here with Jesus on this earth, that he's died and rose again and is in heaven today,

Father, praying for each one of us, Lord. So we thank you that we can celebrate and we can acknowledge his existence, that we can acknowledge our walk in our lives,

Father, as we trust you and as we learn more and grow in our own personal walk. God, we pray that you would bless this service today, that we would honor you, that we would bring you glory,

Father, in everything that we do, that we thank you for the musicians, we thank you for Lauren filling in and playing the piano,

Lord, and what a blessed, wonderful job she does. And we thank you for her, we thank you for their little one,

Micah, Lord, and their family. God bless those that are not here today, that are traveling, that are away from home and with family.

God, would you watch over them, we pray, but now in this time, Lord, may we just focus our hearts on you, that we would allow the

Holy Spirit to minister to us, Lord, as we open your word and sing these praises.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Okay. I'm going to be reading from 1

Peter 1, verses 17 through 21. And if you call on the

Father, who without partially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.

Who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of these words. Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 38,

Exodus chapter 38. We are nearing the end of the book of Exodus and today marks the day in which

Israel has finished constructing the whole tabernacle, including the courtyard, not just the tent, but the whole tabernacle, tabernacle as an enterprise, right?

The courtyard is included. So Exodus chapter 38.

He made the altar of burnt offering of Acacia wood, five cubits was its length and five cubits its width.

It was square and its height was three cubits. He made its horns on its four corners.

The horns were of one piece with it and he overlaid it with bronze. He made all the utensils for the altars, the pans, the shovels, the basins, the forks, the fire pans, all its utensils he made of bronze.

And he made a great of bronze network for the altar under its rim midway from the bottom.

He cast four rings for the four corners of the bronze grating as holders for the poles. And he made the poles of Acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze.

And he put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar with which to bear it.

He made the altar hollow with boards. He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze from the bronze mirror of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle at meeting.

Then he made the court of the south side. The hangings of the court were of fine woven linen, 100 cubits long.

There were 20 pillars for them with 20 bronze sockets. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver.

On the north side, the hangings were 100 cubits long with 20 pillars and their 20 bronze sockets.

The hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver. And on the west side, there were hangings of 50 cubits and 10 pillars and their 10 sockets with hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver.

For the east side, the hangings were 50 cubits. The hangings of one side of the gate were 15 cubits long with their three pillars and their three sockets.

And the same for the other side of the court gate. On this side, there were hangings of 15 cubits with their three pillars on their three sockets.

All the hangings of the court all around were of fine woven linen. The sockets for the pillars were bronze and hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver and the overlay of the capitals was silver and all the pillars of the court had bands of silver.

The screen for the gate of the court were woven of blue, purple and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen.

The length was 20 cubits and the height along its width was five cubits corresponding to the hangings of the court.

And there were four pillars with their four sockets of bronze. Their hooks were silver and the overlay of their capitals and their bands were silver.

All the pegs of the tabernacle and the court all around were bronze. This is the inventory of the tabernacle.

The tabernacle of the testimony which was counted according to the commandment of Moses. For the service of the

Levites by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron, the priest. Bazalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, the tribe of Judah, made all that the

Lord has commanded Moses. And with him was Aholiath, the son of Ahisamach, the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer, a weaver of blue, purple, scarlet thread and a fine linen.

All the gold that was used in all the work of the holy place, that is the gold of the offering was 29 talents and 730 shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

And the silver from those who were numbered of the congregation was 100 talents and 1 ,775 shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

A becca for each man, that is half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone included in the numbering from 20 years old and above for 603 ,550 men.

And from the 100 talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil.

100 sockets from the 100 talents, one talent for each socket. Then from the 1 ,775 shekels he made hooks for the pillars, overlaid their capitals and made bands for them.

The offering of bronze was 70 talents and 2 ,400 shekels. And with it he made the sockets for the door of the tabernacle of meeting, the bronze altar, the bronze grating for it, and all the utensils for the altar.

The sockets for the court all around, the bases for the court gate, all the pegs for the tabernacle and all the pegs for the court all around.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father we are thankful that we worship you who delight to dwell among your people.

Thank you that it is not because of our goodness, it is not because of our stellar records, but because of your grace and mercy that you dwell among us.

And today, Father, we thank you that we get to experience your presence. We ask that your

Holy Spirit would work in all of our hearts to convict us of our sin and draw us near to the compassionate hands of Christ who receive us, not for our merit, but for what he has done.

We pray that we would experience his love even more today, in Jesus' name, amen.

Now we're finishing up the whole tabernacle, even the courtyard.

And for many of us, when we read a chapter like that in the Bible during the quiet time, our eyes glaze over, we haven't seen the tabernacle, we won't see the tabernacle.

What is the point of all that record with the bronze and the silver and the gold?

What are the hangings? What are the sockets? What are the foundations? But I want us to reconsider in our minds how important that was for the ancient

Israelites. For the ancient Israelites, up until that point in which they finished the courtyard, there was no other way of meeting with God ever, unless you were a special few individuals.

And Moses was one of them, and he met with God on Mount Sinai, while the rest watched from the ground floor.

But now, they're going to have the presence of God dwelling among them inside the camp as if he is one of them.

And you can see how special that courtyard would have been, and how exciting even the record of giving was.

It wasn't just a huge amount of numbers to them, it was actually the record that allowed them to make it possible to experience

God's dwelling presence among them. It was an exciting accomplishment. And with that in mind, we want to think about this chapter.

For the first time in history, after the Garden of Eden, God's people had a dwelling access to God.

They could constantly go to God. And we take this for granted as Christians, because we can always pray in Jesus' name to get to the throne room of the

Father. But the tabernacle sets the background that allows us to be made clean and pure in order for us to approach

God without getting killed. The reason why we can pray in Jesus' name and that the

Father hears us is not because we're good enough, but because of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

That he made us clean, he made us pure, and he made us his children. And because of that, we can approach

God. And in the background of that is the bronze altar.

The bronze altar that allowed for the sacrificial system in which the ancient Israelites could offer up an innocent animal, and by sprinkling the blood on the horns of the altar, their sins are not only forgiven, but they're reconciled with God.

They have peace with God. They devote themselves to God. The sacrificial system inherently was not a legalistic system, but a gracious offer, a gift from God, in order that his sinful people may dwell among God's presence without perishing in their sin.

So the main point of today's text is when God takes initiative to dwell among his people, his people respond in willing obedience.

When God takes initiative to dwell among his people, his people respond in willing obedience.

First, verses one through eight cover, when God dwells among his people, he provides a way for his people to devote themselves.

When God dwells among his people, he provides a way for his people to devote themselves.

Now, after constructing everything that's related to the tabernacle, the tent, we zoom out to the courtyard.

And the main furnishing of the courtyard is described in the first eight verses. The first six verses, they cover the bronze altar, and the last two verses cover the laver, the wash basin.

And these items were crucial in Israel because they provided for Israel to commune with the holy

God. They provided a way for Israel to relate to the holy

God, to have a relationship with the holy God. They were not just neutral strangers, but through these tools, they were actually in a relationship, a covenantal relationship, a loving relationship, a faithful relationship.

Otherwise, without these furnishing, Israel also would be cut off from God due to their sinfulness.

Now, unlike the tabernacle's furnishing, these items were actually visible to normal Israelites.

They were not covered up. Any Israelite would have been allowed to see the altar of sacrifice, and they would even see the sacrifice taking place by the priests, right?

They could personally witness the death of an innocent animal, which they brought, dying on their behalf for their sin in order that they may continue in their relationship with God without perishing.

They got to see their precious innocent animals, who didn't sin against God, them dying on their behalf.

And upon their sprinkled blood, they're made clean. The owners are made clean before God.

Now, verse one starts with the dimensions of the bronze altar. The dimensions in the modern measurement, the dimensions are 7 .5

by 7 .5 feet. That is the square top right here.

And then the height is 4 .5 feet in height. So it's not a perfect cube, but it has a square top.

Now, the second verse describes the structure of the altar. He made its horns on its four corners.

The horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with bronze. Horns in the ancient days represented power and strength.

And what we need to picture is with the ancient Israel culture, the

Hebrew language itself is very picturesque. So when we do talk about the

Old Testament, I like to even think about it as a movie because the words themselves, the imagery show what picture that we need to have in mind, right?

It's very visible, it's palpable. And what it is, is when you think of horns, picture a powerful beast that is raising its horns up to the sky, right?

And it would be those horns that represent the power and strength.

Who can go against those beasts, right? Bulls or rams, those horns are raised to the sky.

And it would be precisely on these horns that the blood of the innocent animal would be sprinkled on so that Israel may continue in their covenantal relationship with the

Lord, their treaty with the Lord, right? Their promised relationship with the

Lord. And verses three to four list the items required for the bronze altar.

He made all the utensils for the altar, the pans, the shovels, the basins, the forks, and the firepans.

All its utensils he made of bronze. And he made a great bronze network for the altar under its rim, midway from the bottom.

Now, to go over these bronze utensils, the shovels were used for gathering the ashes from the altar's discard pile, right?

The sacrifice would be burnt offerings. Most of it were burnt up, right?

And the ashes would gather, so they needed the shovel to clear that out. Of course, with the sinful people, you would expect a lot of ashes.

The basins were used for collecting blood for sprinkling on the altar. And the blood is really important because the blood represented the life force of the living being.

This is why in the Bible, God's people are forbidden from consuming blood because you have to respect the life of the animal that's killed.

You don't just desecrate that. You don't corrupt it. You don't take it as a consumable.

And this was very different from the surrounding pagan nations. The pagan nations did not really sacrifice the blood.

They didn't see much use or value in the blood. However, God required

Israel to offer up the blood. And this is because, again, the blood represents the life force of the animal, which exclusively belongs to God.

All lives belong exclusively to God. That's why murder is wrong.

You don't get to take someone else's life because that life belongs to God. That's why suicide is wrong.

You don't get to take even your own life because in the end, it belongs to God. And the act of sprinkling a bull's blood on the horn of the altar, which symbolized returning the life back to God, the life giver, it was a physical teaching lesson for the

Israelites. I'm returning back the life that belongs to God back to whom it belongs.

The life of the bull would be the substitute for the sinner's life.

It was a teaching reminder. It could have been, it would have been, it should have been me shedding that blood.

It should have been my blood shed on the altar for my sin.

But an innocent animal died on my behalf so that I may be cleansed and remain in his faithful relationship with the

Lord. And the forks were used to turn over the meat while it was being sacrificed.

And that's because not every meat was burnt up to the crisp. Some sacrifices allowed for cooking of the meat to be shared among the people.

Think of it as communing with the Lord, having a festive party, a feast with the

Lord. And the fire pans were used to scoop up coals and take embers. And all of the accessories associated with the bronze altar were made out of bronze, just like the altar.

And then the grate would be used to grill the meat on the altar of sacrifice.

For example, peace offering, a type of sacrifice that's different from burnt offering, allowed

Israel to enjoy the sacrifice with the Lord. It was the external sign of their deep covenantal relationship with the

Lord. They have a type of relationship where they can eat together, right? And in the

Middle East, back then, also now, eating together was a sign of deep friendship, a sign of intimacy.

So the fact that Israel was invited to eat the sacrifice with the Lord, not that the

Lord needed eating either, was a symbolic gesture of the depth of intimacy that they had together.

Then verses 5 to 7 deal with the transportation of the altar. You can see that there are poles going through it and with bronze rings by the altar sides, four corners.

And this is because, just like any other holy artifacts, the bronze altar cannot be directly handled for transportation.

This emphasizes the distinction between the holy and the common. Any artifact that directly dealt with the divine was separated from the common.

Anyone but God. Anyone who is not divine. Therefore, the

Lord would allow for the bronze altar to be transported, but not by human touch.

Because God's holy items could not be corrupted by human touch. Now verse 8 introduces the bronze wash basin, or called laver.

And this was built to purify the priests who were about to do the sacrifices, right?

He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

Now the bronze, specifically from the mirrors, represent that it's precious type of bronze.

It's because mirrors back then were very rare. And mirrors were made from polished metal, so it reflects the image.

And so it had to be a very good quality, very pure type of bronze, because if it's filled with impurities, it wouldn't reflect the image well.

So the basin was made from high quality bronze, and this existed so that the priests could physically clean themselves before they approach the

Lord. Because the Lord is so holy, you had to be pure, right?

It's not that being dirty led to moral sin, right?

That's not it, but it was a physical lesson to teach Israel, how much more do

I need to be clean on the inside if I have to be clean on the outside to approach the

Lord, right? It was the physical phenomena that taught them spiritual truth.

This God must be extremely pure, that even the priests, right? It's not anyone who get to use this, it's only the priests.

Even they themselves have to approach the Lord in a pure, clean form.

And as it was true in Israel, and it is true now, the biggest problem when the holy

God dwells among his people is their sin. And this is because God is so pure and set apart, so holy, no sinner can stand before God and expect to live.

No sinful person can live without experiencing God's holiness.

That the weight of his glory is just so overwhelming. Even the best of the best humans tremble in fear lest they perish.

And we see that all over in the Bible. Moses, one of the best prophets. And also

Isaiah, when the glory of the Lord shows up in the temple, a prophet saying, woe is me,

I'm getting, I'm perishing. And he calls his lips unclean.

And he's the one who's been speaking God's word all this time. That is

God's holiness. And if these faithful, pure men tremble in fear before God, what chance do we have?

And that is why the sacrificial system is important. In ancient Israel, God temporarily instituted the sacrificial system to teach

Israel what is required when there is sin. And what is required according to the sacrificial system on the bronze altar is that an innocent sacrifice must shed its blood in order that the sinner may live.

An innocent blood shed on behalf of a sinful person.

And every day you can imagine the Israelites are bringing their sacrifice, right, their livestock, goats, bulls, rams, in order that they may not only be forgiven, but restored back into the relationship with God.

Sin offering, burnt offering, peace offering, they were all intended for the sinful people to reconcile with God.

It wasn't that they were brought back to the neutral place where they're just friendly neighbors or friendly strangers.

These sacrifices taught Israel if you bring the sacrifice, God will graciously accept the unblemished sacrifice by looking at your heart, right, because God doesn't need animals, but by looking at your heart, and He'll forgive you.

But not only that, He'll continue His relationship with you, that faithful relationship, that loving relationship, that merciful relationship.

And this, of course, was not meant to be the ultimate goal. It was not meant for Israelites to continue to bring sacrifices to the tabernacle door.

The sacrificial system was a temporary ritual to lead God's people to the ultimate sacrifice when

He came to fulfill the ultimate sacrifice for our sin.

It was the background lesson in order that they may receive the true ultimate sacrifice,

Jesus Christ, who would once and for all die on the cross, shedding

His blood, His innocent blood on our behalf, so that sinners like us may live.

And because His blood is so much more precious than any blood shed by bulls and goats, this sacrifice is once and for all.

And in Jesus, when we pray to Him, we often say, in Jesus' name, this is a huge claim.

The fact that you can go to God and request Him with things that you need is because you're in Jesus' name.

You're admitting the fact that you are made acceptable, pure, and holy to approach

God, not because of what you've done, but because what He's done. That's what's in Jesus' name.

That's why you can have confidence in what Christ has done for you.

In Jesus Christ, you get the sin offering, burnt offering, and peace offering all in one.

That's what you're doing when you pray in Jesus' name. That's what you're doing when you gather in Jesus' name.

Second, when God dwells among His people, God's presence is demarcated through holiness.

When God dwells among His people, God's presence is demarcated through holiness.

Demarcation means restricted, limited, setting the boundary of. Verses nine to 11 cover the two long sides of the courtyard.

So right here, the two long sides. The south and the north sides of the courtyard.

The hangings would be 150 feet. That's pretty long. And they will have, both have 20 pillars, right?

These little sticks. There are 20 of them on both north and south sides, so the hangings would hang.

And then the silver bands will be used as hooks to hook the hangings so they don't just fly away and hold the hangings securely, right?

And they would have bronze bases as a foundation. Now verses 12 through 15 cover the two shorter sides.

Verse 12 briefly covers the west side. And the west side is half in length, which is 75 feet in length.

And verses 13 through 15 actually intricately describe the east side, the entrance side.

In Israel, the east side was the opening. That was true for the tabernacle and that was true for the temple.

The hangings of one side of the gate were 15 cubits long with their three pillars and their three sockets.

And the same for the other side of the court gate. On this side, there were hangings of 15 cubits with their three pillars and their three sockets.

So from each corner to the entrance, it was about 22 .5 feet to the center.

So right here and right here, 22 .5 feet. And verses 16 through 17 describe what every side will have in common.

All the hangings of the court all around were of fine woven linen, very precious items.

And the sockets for the pillars were bronze, the hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver, and the overlay of their capitals was silver.

And all the pillars of the court had bands of silver, again, to hold the hangings tightly.

And then verse 18 distinguishes the east side again, as it describes the screen that leads to the tabernacle.

The screen for the gate of the court was woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and of fine woven linen.

The length was 20 cubits and height along its width was five cubits, corresponding to the hanging of the court.

The screen was not like the other hangings, it was distinguished, it was obvious.

And it was rather large, 30 feet in length and 7 .5 feet in height, right?

And remember, the blue and purple linen were special because it was very expensive to reproduce.

Blue and purple coloring, now I think we, those of us who have been here for a long time can even verbatim quote it, it's made from marine snails and to make one robe a blue robe would have taken thousands of snails.

That's a lot of work hours, a lot of manpower. So the entrance was very specifically set apart to show that this is how you enter into God's presence.

And as we see the completion of the tabernacle's courtyard, we do need to consider the three ritualistic states that existed in Israel.

Holy, clean, and unclean. Now I do want to say sin is not a ritualistic state.

Sin affects it, but sin is not a ritualistic state. That also means unclean does not necessarily always mean sinful.

You could be unclean without sinning. The courtyard is important because it marked off what is holy.

Everything inside the courtyard, including the tabernacle, the tent, that was holy.

Holy means set apart for the Lord. Holy means extraordinary, utterly distinct, and pure.

There's nothing like it. Which means everywhere else in the camp was ritualistically clean.

It was not holy, it was clean. Anything outside of the courtyard, but inside the walls, or the boundary in our case, was clean.

Now cleanliness did not necessarily mean hygiene, but what was pure according to God's standard.

And anything unclean remained outside the camp. And again, unclean was not sinful.

Unclean did not always mean sinful, but were things associated with death.

So if someone was sick, that was unclean, leprosy. If someone just buried their dead relative, they were unclean because they just came really close to the contact with the dead body.

That was not sinning, that was being faithful to one's family, but they were made unclean. And there was a ritual for purification for that.

So it's important to realize that unclean does not always mean sinful. Sin did make people unclean for sure, but it wasn't always unclean that meant sinful.

Now, we will go in detail of what the ceremonial states, ritualistic states, meant in much greater depth during Sunday school next week, because we're going through Leviticus.

So that's at 9 .30 a .m. Sunday. Now, the point of these ritualistic states was that the physical phenomena taught them spiritual truth about God.

The holy God is the utterly pure and life -giving God. Nothing unclean may approach

God or even reside in the same camp. It also taught God's people the significance and grandeur of God's pure standards.

If the physical categories are so precise and have to be so pure and holy, how much more important is the spiritual holiness and spiritual purity?

That was the teaching lesson. Man, I mean, the physical, it degrades over time.

It doesn't last forever, right? It comes into effect of sin all the time.

Yet that, all the physical things associated with worshiping the Lord has to be pure and holy.

How much more of me inside? And when the tabernacle was built, it was not possible to mistaken it as anything else than the location of encountering the holy

God. A person would not accidentally walk into that big entrance and said, oh,

I didn't know it was a holy place. It was a giant structure of the courtyard and the intricate design of the entrance that were impossible to miss.

And that's because it set the boundaries for what is holy in the camp. And although Christians do not enter the tabernacle to meet

God, the fact that we encounter God's presence in a limited, demarcated zone of holiness still remains.

The physical ritual of meeting God in a physically holy place has transferred to meeting

God in a spiritually holy place. Just as the tabernacle was physically distinguishable in the camp of Israel, the church has to be spiritually distinguishable in the world in her holiness.

And for the church, the spiritual location of holy worship is the kingdom of Christ.

Or as Paul would say again, in Christ. You have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into his son's kingdom.

The moment you believe that Jesus died for your sin and faced the wrath that you deserved, you enter into his kingdom.

You no longer belong to the kingdom of darkness, kingdom of Satan, the world.

You don't belong to them. You belong to Christ. And that's how you encounter

God. And that's how the church encounters

God's presence when we gather. Unfortunately, such a demarcation has been blurred.

Many once set apart churches publicly support homosexuality and transgenderism, very things that God does not call good, the very things

God call abominable. Now this does not mean we turn away these people.

We love them. But the most loving thing to do is speak the truth that God requires you to live in a holy manner.

That because Jesus died for your sin, you don't have to live in it. That's the most loving thing to do.

However, many of these so -called churches, once were faithful, have turned aside and are proclaiming the same message as the world.

Many once faithful denominations indoctrinate their people in godless ideologies like critical race theory and Marxism, just like the secular public school system, which is unfortunate because these ideologies divide up the body of Christ into different races and privileges and into different social status, and they pit them against each other.

But in Christ, there is no distinction. A poor person is just as precious in his eyes, in God's eyes, as a rich person.

A white person is just as worthy in God's eyes as a black person. Yet there are many denominations that are parroting what the world is doing.

And Christians are entertained by the same shows and movies as the world, shows that show nudity, shows that celebrate violence, shows that dehumanize people.

And Christians utter the same curse words. Christians participate in the same filth as the world, maybe not as publicly or on Sundays, but any other days.

That demarcation has blurred. However, as the construction of the tabernacle has made it clear,

God's presence among God's people is marked by holiness. It is only when the church is distinguished in holiness, different from the world,

God's presence is witnessed in the world. It is only when the church is set apart from the world,

Christians experience God's presence. This is why all these liberal denominations that accepted the world's theology and doctrines, they don't have many people there anymore.

Once used to be booming, but now it's dwindled because they're not offering something that is different from the world.

Why go there when it's just like the world? And not only that,

Christian witness is strengthened when it comes from holiness.

You'd be surprised how many people flinch the moment you say, yeah, I'm a Christian.

And some of them actually start apologizing for their curse words, even though they didn't sin against you directly.

That's because holiness is powerful. That sets

God's people apart. And whether the secular people know it or not, unbelievers know it or not, they flinch at it.

Even your association with a holy God who died for your sin is jolting.

Think on that. And as for this church, we must not lose holiness of God.

We must meditate in what God expects us to be holy, how he expects us to be holy, and we must live that out by the power of the

Holy Spirit who changes us inside out. This is not based upon our own dead works.

It's not based upon our own effort. It's based upon God working through us. He changes your desires.

Once you desire to sin in the most horrendous way possible, after you're saved, the

Holy Spirit dwells in you, you start desiring that less and less, and eventually you see that as an abomination, just as how

God sees it. That's the holy living. It's in the power of the

Holy Spirit who makes us holy. It's not that you become holy and approach

God. He makes you holy so you can approach God. Third, in order for God to dwell among his people, all of God's people voluntarily give to maintain their covenantal relationship.

In order for God to dwell among his people, all of God's people voluntarily give to maintain their covenantal relationship.

Here, I don't mean giving in terms of financial sense, but giving of themselves. There is a sense of response after they enter into the covenant.

After people of God are saved, there's a response. A Christian who does not change, a

Christian who does not obey, there's really no assurance that there was a salvation if a

Christian lives just as he did before he was saved. Now, after finishing the whole tabernacle,

Moses lists the inventory. The first three verses, 21 through 23, give credit to those who are involved.

Verse 21 acknowledges the priest, Ithamar, Aaron's son, who counted all the materials, the precious materials given to the

Lord, and they were all accounted for. There was an official audit done by one tribe of Israel, the

Levites, overrun by the priest. Something to be desired in our country.

Verses 22 to 23 give credit to two workmen from two different tribes,

Judah and Dan. Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, the son of the tribe of Judah, made all that the

Lord has commanded Moses, and with him was Aholiah, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer, a weaver, a blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and a fine linen.

This shows that it was not the Levites who had monopoly on God dwelling among Israel, and oftentimes the temptation is to think that.

It's the priest, only they matter. They're the ones who enter the tent. They're the ones who carry the tabernacle furnishing, right?

It's the Levites who carry them. Why does it matter to us? What about the 11 other tribes?

But here, it shows that other tribes were involved. It was not just the

Levites who had the sole claim to God's dwelling presence. And verses 24 to 31 list the inventory of the precious metals given, gathered from the very people, not just the

Levites, everyone. So first, verse 24 starts with the most precious metal, which is gold, all the gold that was used in all the work of the holy place.

That is, the gold of the offering was 29 talents and 730 shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

Gold, remember, was the main metal used in the most holy place. And a talent was 75 pounds, and a shekel was .4

ounce, which means the amount of gold gathered in today's term was about 2 ,193 .25

pounds. And I tried to get the decimal too because even .25

pounds of gold is a fortune. This is close to $3 .9

million in today's day. And who knows how much bigger it will be in the future.

And when we consider the fact that the Israelites were actually former slaves, this amount of giving was astounding.

Most of them had no idea of what gold looked like until the very last days when they were leaving, they asked for some money from their former masters and they were so eager to get the

Israelites out, they just gave to them, just take it all. But imagine all these people who's never experienced much fortune at all, they're giving this much gold.

And it showed their genuine desire for God to dwell among them.

It's not, oh, come visit Israel, look at this fortune. No, it's not that.

They didn't even get to the promised land. They didn't have a land at this point.

It was not for their boasting, it was so that God could dwell with them,

God would travel with them, that they would have access to God and their offspring as well.

Verses 25 to 28 list the amount of silver. And the amount of silver outweigh actually the other two metals, bronze and gold.

And this is because the census tax was paid in silver as well. So every young man had to pay, over the age of 20, had to pay in silver.

And that accounted for 603 ,550 young men above the age of 20.

And the amount of silver was 7 ,544 .375 pounds, which is about 158 ,000 if we use the silver spot price of yesterday, $21 per ounce.

And verses 27 to 28 tell us how all the silver was used.

And from the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil.

The bases that held the veil inside the tabernacle, the tent, was silver.

That's pretty precious ground. And then 100 sockets from the hundred talents, one talent for each socket.

Then from 1 ,775 shekels, he made hooks for the pillars, overlaid their capitals, and made bands for them.

The silver was used not only for the foundations here, but also to keep the hangings hanging, right?

It was held by the silver clasps and hooks. And lastly, verses 29 through 31 lists the amount of bronze used, 70 talents and 2 ,400 shekels, which is about 5 ,300 pounds of bronze.

And right now the spot price of bronze has even doubled from 2020. So it's at $2 .20

per pound, which is about $11 ,660.

And verses 30 to 31 tell us what the bronze was used for. And that's what we covered today, right?

The bronze altar, bronze laver, and also every tool that's associated with it, and the clasps that help with the pillars and the hanging, and then the bronze grating, and then the foundations for the courtyard hangings.

Those were all bronze. Now, all of this collection was freely given by the people of God.

They were not forced, right? There was no IRS for the Jews here.

They were not ashamed into giving, right? It wasn't about, oh, you're not spiritually mature if you're not giving, right?

There was none of that. There was no spiritual manipulation like that. And they were not coerced into giving, right?

They weren't emotionally manipulated to give, right? Some charitable organizations do that.

They try to move your heart. Like, if you don't do that, this person dies, right?

It wasn't that. They gave because they had a deep desire for the

Lord to dwell among them, to be with them, for that God would be with them, right?

The dwelling of their God was greater in worth than all the treasures from Egypt.

The dwelling presence of the Lord was greater in worth, more precious in their eyes, than all the treasures in Egypt.

And this is important today, not because I'm asking you to donate gold, silver, and bronze but because that the dwelling presence of God is just as important for the church, if not more important.

For the church than in Israel. And God dwells not in a tent but among his people.

And what this means, when God brought you here this morning, he had a purpose for you.

He had a reason why he brought you here. And you might not know the reason. I will not know the reason.

But he brought you here with your right set of gifts, with your personality, and with how

God has worked in your lives already. He's brought you here. And because you are here, we get to experience

God's dwelling in a different manner than we would if you had not been brought here.

And that's a gracious gift of God. Whether you serve in music, print out music and organize all of that so that we could sing songs in an organized manner so we can focus on who

God is and his character. Whether you serve with the technology so that we can actually visualize what

God has given the Israelite. Whether we serve in fixing things, providing for things, helping people get their stuff organized too, bringing food.

There's so many ways in which people here can experience God's presence.

And otherwise, we wouldn't. People help with filling up the communion food, bread and the grape juice once every month so that we could remember

Christ's death on the cross. Can you imagine having communion without that? Right?

People, we have elders here who care for them, care for the people here as shepherds, imitating

Christ. They pray for you guys all the time. We talk about how we can best serve the church.

Everyone here, whether from music to technology to driving people to filling up the communion items, all of these are possible because God has brought you here and put that desire to serve.

And because of God working through you, we get to experience his presence in a way that we wouldn't have.

And that's the importance of this inventory. This would not have been physically possible with just secular coercion, getting this much gold and silver.

It came because God was working through their hearts and these people obediently responded in such generous giving.

And as the church, we have the opportunity to do the same. Obey God and somehow contribute your gifts in order that we experience

God's dwelling. Right, imagine not having music on the Sunday morning worship, right?

Imagine not being able to get here because someone who usually drives you didn't, right?

These are all the people whom God has brought together for his glory and for his presence.

Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that you are so good and we get to experience your presence because of you.

And we thank you for Jesus, who is the ultimate sacrifice for our sin so that we could be forgiven and adopted into your family as your children.

And we pray that we would live as your children in obedience, in Jesus' name.

We do not have the. Okay. Yes, now would be a good time to stand,