God's Meeting Place Exodus 25 Vs 1 22

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August 7, 2022 - Morning Service Faith Bible Church, Sacramento, CA Message - God's Meeting Place - Exodus 25:1-22

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Well, good morning, good morning. Beautiful morning out in Sacramento today, and the
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Lord has blessed us, and he is good, and gracious, and welcome. This morning, first I wanna say thank you to Pastor for the first Sunday of every month, there tends to be a different subject, or a special topic, or Bible interpretation, or understanding on how to grow in the scriptures, and how to read through the scriptures, and he's begun that, and it's really a rich time, so if you haven't taken the opportunity to come early, and come at 9 .30
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on Sunday morning, please join us, it's a, we have the blessing, and gift of having
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Pastor Ilgen with us to what a wonderful teacher he is, so come on out.
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For announcements, prayer meeting is tonight at six, summer
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Bible study, 5 .30 on Fridays, going through Galatians, and everyone is welcome to that, men's
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Bible study is every Saturday at 3 .30, we had the men's breakfast yesterday, and that was a blessing, and thank you to Brendan for leading us in a devotional, and he did a wonderful job with that, teaching from Romans 12, verse one, and mostly verse one and two, and so we're, so many resources with our little church to stay rich, and a rich word, and sorry, we got distractions here, we have, people are pointing off to the side, you can't see it on the camera, but Audrey is here today,
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Audrey, good morning. Good morning. Audrey has been down a long road of health, and heart, and different things, and she is here today with us, what a blessing it is to see you,
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Audrey, and just what a faithful servant, what a faithful saint, she is one of those amazing women of God, and she's been here longer than anybody, and she's still trucking, and being a testimony to Christ, and we thank you,
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Audrey, for being here, what a great joy that is. Thank you. And I was gonna point you to your bulletins,
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I don't always, I must confess, I don't always read the back of the bulletin, the program in the morning, but this one's on false teachers, we have to be careful, you hear, somebody can throw a message out, it's
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Bible -based, read this, well, oops, well this one, example is, well it was Jehovah Witness, you know,
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Satan can put on a face, and put on a different look, and make it look pretty, make it look, sound plausible, and this is good for me.
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No, you have to use discernment, you have to use, you have to go back to the word, and read the whole story, and don't just pull something out of context, so.
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Anyway, just point you to read that after church, don't read it during the sermon, pastor would not appreciate that, so let's give him our full attention today, okay?
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So, well, as we prepare our hearts for worship, pastor has taught, it was from Exodus 19,
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I believe, about how Moses was directed by the Lord to tell the people to consecrate themselves, to come, he came off the mountain, he said, in the next three days, the people were to consecrate themselves, come to the base of the mountain, and the
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Lord would speak to them, and the people, in that process of consecration, they were fear and trembling, you know, there was lightning on the mountain, there was cloud, it was like a furnace that was boiling and burning, and they had something to fear, and what it was, was the presence of a holy
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God, and in a way, in a different way, we come before the Lord today, we consecrate our hearts, in our minds, in our hearts, to try to direct our thoughts, and our prayers, and our soul, and every being, to worshiping him.
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Hebrews 4, verse 16, it says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
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We can approach God boldly, it's not approaching him arrogantly, because, let's face it, we don't deserve to come to the cross, we don't deserve to come before a holy
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God, but it's because of Jesus Christ, that we're able to, we're consecrated, through the blood of Jesus, and we're gonna celebrate that today, in communion service, so let's just keep that in mind, as we approach the throne of grace, that we serve a holy
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God, and he has given us the opportunity, and the ability to come to him, and not just be let go, but he's holding on to us through Jesus Christ, so let's go to him in prayer.
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Lord God, we thank you, Father, that you have blessed us this morning, that we can come to, before you, a holy
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God, Lord, that we might consecrate our hearts, that we would be prepared, Father, to do your will, and to worship you in a honorable way,
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Father. God, we find much joy in that, this is a celebration, Lord, this is a day of rejoicing in the truth of the word, and rejoicing in the fact that your son,
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Jesus Christ, died for each one of us. God, we pray for the needs of those today, that many are unspoken,
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Lord, we are aware of Kim's sister, Stacey, Lord, you would bless her, Father, as she's struggling physically,
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Father, and just different things going on in her life, and being in the hospital, Lord, but we pray that you would have your hand upon her, that you would draw her to yourself,
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Father, that you would save her soul, Lord, if she doesn't know you, Father, and so God, be with that family, be with Kim, and other family members, as they pray for her.
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God, we ask that you would bless each one today, Lord, we pray for those that are at home, Lord, that can't be here,
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God, we thank you for all those that are here, we thank you for Audrey, Lord, for what a blessing she is, and a journey that you have had her on,
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Lord, but you have been faithful, she has been faithful, Lord, and we thank you for that.
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So God, we pray, we honor you today, that you would bless our service, and that we would bring you glory in all things, and we pray that in Jesus' name, amen.
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Amen. Well, good morning, and we are saved by grace, through faith, and not of ourselves.
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It's not of works, it's the gift of God. And let's stand and sing to our Lord, our Heavenly Father. Good morning, it is from the book of Hebrews, chapter nine, verses 11 through 15.
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Hebrews nine, 11 through 15. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having attained eternal redemption.
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For if the blood of foals and goats, the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living
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God? And for this reason, he is the mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
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Praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people, for his merciful kindness and his great toward us, and the truth of the
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Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. Let's stand and sing to our
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Lord. Exodus chapter 25,
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Exodus chapter 25, verses one through 22.
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Exodus chapter 25, verses one through 22.
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Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel that they bring me an offering from everyone who gives it willingly, with his heart you shall take my offering.
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And this is the offering which you shall take from them, gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goat's hair, ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood, oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.
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Onyx stones and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.
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According to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.
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And they shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
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And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around.
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You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners. Two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side.
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And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them.
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The poles shall be in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken from it.
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And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I will give you. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width.
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And you shall make two cherubim of gold, of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
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Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it, of one piece with a mercy seat.
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And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another.
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The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you.
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And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, about everything which
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I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. This is the word of the Lord.
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Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that you are a God who wants to dwell with his people, and that has not changed.
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Thank you that in Christ that we get to meet you in him, that he is the ultimate tabernacle, he is the ultimate mercy seat in which we get to meet you and hear from you.
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And we pray that we would seek you, desire you, delight in you in every day occurrence.
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In Jesus' name, amen. We normally don't have topical sermons, and we won't today, but chapters 25 through 31 is a topical section of Exodus.
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It's a section in which Israel is taught to prepare the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, right?
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The tabernacle is the tent, a portable temple, one might say, in which how
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God would reveal himself to his people. It's not correct to say
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God is dwelling in the temple because he is everywhere, right? The tent cannot fully contain him, but he reveals himself in the tabernacle.
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And today, we will be going over the most holy, the most precious, the most important part of the tabernacle, which is the
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Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat. And it will be found in the most holy place, or depending on the translation, the holy of holies, right?
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It can't, it's the holiest part of the tabernacle. And under the
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Old Covenant was the holiest part in the whole wide world. And now, when we read these chapters, it's really hard to even imagine what these furnishings looked like.
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It's hard to even imagine what some of the materials looked like. And when we normally read them, our eyes glaze over, and then they start to skim over them, right?
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Skim over the words. But I want to encourage us that from now on, approach this text and ask, what did it mean for the original audience?
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But not only that, how does the principle here that we can get from the text apply to us now?
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What does it tell us about who God is? What does it tell us about what the
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God's people's response ought to be, right? And when we do that, it's no longer just a text we skim over where our eyes glaze, and then our mind just wander off, but really a precious set of text.
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And this was really important for Israel. For once, they had a covenant relationship with the
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Lord, but not only that, these texts answer the question, how will
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God's people interact with God among them, right?
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God did not save Israel just to abandon them, right? Now you're free, you can go now.
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You're on your own, right? That's not a God that they had. It wasn't a deistic
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God. Or release them some endangered species. Now you're in your freed land.
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You can prosper on your own. You're on your own, right? God can save them to continue to have a relationship with them, right?
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He saved them to dwell among them. That's the important part.
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And this week and next week's sections are covered by this phrase that they were supposed to construct according to the exact pattern that God was showing
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Moses. Verse nine and verse 40 say that. And that will cover the most holy place and also the holy place.
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And today we're going only over the most holy place. Now the presence of the
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Lord is a significant theme in the Bible because the presence of the
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Lord develops over time. And for the ancient
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Jewish mind, the presence of the Lord was something they missed, something they longed for.
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Imagine how it all started. The world is created and God dwells with Adam and Eve in the garden.
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Adam and Eve walked with the Lord. They heard the Lord. They experienced his presence.
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The Lord dwelled with his people in the garden. And then
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Adam and Eve rebelled against the Lord's command. They want to be God.
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They see themselves as gods who can make up what's good or bad, who can, they decide, they're gonna decide for themselves.
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And what happens? They're exiled from the garden. Now Christians rightly know that the ultimate consequence of the exile from the garden is not the exile itself, but sin.
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That's true. Sin entered the world and death entered and we have been suffering ever since.
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For Jews, their focus is the loss of presence of God.
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For the Jewish mind, after the exile from the garden, they long for when
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God dwelt with us. So that's why these chapters are so special in the
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Old Testament. God was making something new, redeeming the way in which was lost since Adam and Eve.
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Right, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all great Old Testament saints. They didn't have a regular pattern in which they could approach
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God. God approached them in his time, in his way. And sometimes it could go for years.
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But after the Sinai Covenant, God prepares
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Israel to dwell among them. That Israel would have access to the
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Lord, although very, very limited, but they would have constant access to the
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Lord. That was something they could celebrate. And that's why these chapters are important today because it further shows us what kind of God we worship who desires to dwell among his people.
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So the question this text asks, the text asks this morning, is where will the
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Lord meet his people when he dwells with them? Where will the Lord meet his people when he dwells with them?
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First, God's people freely contribute their best in order to encounter his presence.
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God's people freely give their best in order to encounter his presence.
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During the 40 days and 40 nights, Moses was up in Mount Sinai.
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God commands Moses in verse two, "'Speak to the children of Israel "'that they bring me an offering.
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"'From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart, "'you shall take my offering.'"
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Here, the offering is not specifically for sacrifices, but rather contributions for the tabernacle, the tent, the dwelling place of the
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Lord. And it is significant that the contributions are not forcibly collected, but given willingly from everyone's heart.
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The Lord does not desire the goods in themselves, but the willing heart that gives the goods so that Israel may experience the
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Lord's presence regularly. Second, the contribution comes from everyone who wants to give, whether wealthy or poor, young or old.
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Every one of God's people has something precious to give back to God, to contribute, so that they may encounter
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God themselves. The following materials are grouped into specific categories.
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Verse three lists the precious metals. Verse four to five, biological materials, such as fabric, skins, and wood.
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Verse six, oil. And verse seven, gemstones for the high priest's garment. And I will briefly go over the significance and value of the following materials, because we will encounter them later on.
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First, verse three lists the metals. And this is the offering which you shall take from them, gold, silver, and bronze.
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Now, this list is listed in a descending order of value. Anyone who has watched the
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Olympics know that gold, silver, and bronze is the order of importance. Gold is the most precious metal, then silver, then bronze.
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Now, what is significant about these metals is that the closer you get to the
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Ark of the Covenant, the closer you get to the holy of holies, the most holy place, you will only see gold.
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And the farther away you go, you will see the less precious metals. And closest to God's presence, the most set apart the location becomes, right?
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The most valuable metal is used. And as we venture from the holy of holies, it becomes less precious.
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Second, verses four to five lists out the biological materials that are needed for the construction of the tabernacle, or the sanctuary, right?
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Blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goat's hair, ram skins dyed red, and badger skins in acacia wood.
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Similar to the list of metals, the fabrics are listed from the most valuable to the least.
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For the modern culture, we have developed methods to dye fabrics en masse to any color we want in the cheapest manner possible, too, right?
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We wouldn't expect a difference between the cost of a blue shirt as opposed to a red shirt, right?
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In fact, if the red shirt were much cheaper, we would all be wearing red. However, in the ancient times, the colors blue and also purple were extremely expensive.
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They were very, very hard to produce. The blue and purple dye came from the fluid of marine snails, sea snails, right?
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The fluid, when exposed to the sun in a certain amount, would turn the fabric bluish purple.
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And in order to dye one row blue or purple, it would take thousands of snails.
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Thousands of snails had to be caught. And you'd have to produce their fluid and dye it in the sun.
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That's a lot of manpower. And that's a lot of hours that are required.
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Hence, blue and purple represented royalty and nobility. Right, we even see purple garment symbolizing royalty elsewhere in the
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Bible. Daniel's promised purple garment for interpreting the dream in Daniel five, right?
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And Lydia is a merchant of purple garment, right? She's a wealthy businesswoman.
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Red dye, on the other hand, came from eggs of scaled insects. And because the materials for that, of course, was easier to attain, you don't have to go to the sea, and came from insect eggs, which insects lay a lot of eggs.
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It was cheaper to create red fabrics. So the list goes from blue, purple, and red.
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Now, skins and linen here would be used to construct the coverings for the tabernacle, right?
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After all, it will look like a giant tent. And regarding the acacia wood, which we'll see a lot, there were hundreds of species of acacia wood, but only a few species among them were suitable for construction because their trunk was upright, right?
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Upright trunk is necessary for good carpentry. And they provided hard, durable, yet lightweight wood, right?
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Using wood that's light to carry is important because they're in the wilderness, and they have to camp here and then there the next day, and they have to carry the tabernacle.
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Verse six lists various oils required for the tabernacle. Oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and the sweet incense.
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There's oil specifically for lighting, which would be provided all day and all night.
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God's house will never be without light. And spices needed for anointing oil, which would be used to consecrate the furnishings of the tabernacle and the tabernacle itself, right?
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To set it apart, to make it holy. Verse seven lists the gemstones specifically for the priestly garment.
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Onyx stones and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate.
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The onyx stones, the first time and the last time we saw it actually was near the
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Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 .12. The onyx stones are found in the land of Havilah, which we don't know where that is, but it's near the garden, and they're found there.
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And what these gemstones would do, that these precious gemstones would be placed on the breastplate of the priestly garment in which the high priest would wear before approaching the
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Lord. And these gemstones would actually represent God's people. So whenever the high priest approached the
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Lord, God would see the precious gems that represented his very own, right?
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God did not choose dull materials to represent his own, but the precious gemstones that shine brightly.
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God did not choose inexpensive materials to represent his own.
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He chose expensive, precious, beautiful gemstones to represent his people.
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And that's how God viewed those who belong to him in Israel. Even Israel before Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross was represented by these precious gemstones.
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How much more does God treasure you when you have been found in Christ and redeemed by his precious blood, which exceeds the price of any gemstones?
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And that's ought to cross our mind when we think about that. How does
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God see us on a daily basis? Now, what is the purpose of these vast collections of precious materials?
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Verse eight tells us, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.
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God uses the voluntary contributions from Israel in order that they may make him a place to dwell among them.
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A sanctuary, which we use the term today to refer to the location of Sunday worship, means a holy place, right?
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Sanctuary, sanctified. It's a holy place, it's a sacred place. A place that is set apart to encounter
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God alone. A place that has no other purpose except for experiencing
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God, delighting in God, devoting oneself to God. That's the ultimate purpose, and that is the only purpose to the sanctuary.
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How will Israel build this sanctuary? Verse nine tells us, according to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.
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In order for the true God to dwell among his people, he will instruct his people exactly how they must build the tabernacles and the furnishings associated with it.
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They were not to rely on their own feelings or go with their own appetite.
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Ah, I think this would look better here. Ah, this material, I think that would save more money.
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No, they were to make the sanctuary according to all that the
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Lord showed Moses. God was showing Moses the heavenly blueprints for his house to be built on earth.
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Now, how is this relevant to us this morning? After all, the tabernacle is no more.
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Even the temple is no more. Well, similar to the old covenant people,
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God does not force his people to contribute. When you give, you give out of the joy of your heart.
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God doesn't force you to encounter him, right?
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God doesn't force you to give anything that you don't wanna give. This is not a tax.
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Similar to the old covenant, our contribution is according to God's method, not ours.
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When we gather to worship, to encounter the living God, we do so according to how
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God revealed it, right? This means Sunday gathering is solely devoted to God alone.
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It is not a comedy hour, right? It is not a concert. We're not gonna have red light, blue light, green light flashing with fog machines.
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And it is not an inspirational TED Talk where you walk out with a list of things you ought to do and would change your life to become richer and more successful, right?
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We don't come to worship God expecting that. Now, you might be more successful in life by obeying
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God, and that's the byproduct. But when you gather here, the sole purpose is to encounter the living
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God when we worship him through the word and music and the reading of scripture.
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And that's it. When we gather, we gather to be with the
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Lord, right? When we sing, we sing for the Lord. We sing to the
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Lord. And when we speak, we speak to and about the Lord. It's all centered around God.
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Third, similar to the old covenant, contribution to build up God's people comes from every one of God's people, right?
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It is not specifically those who have more to give, but anyone who wants to give.
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And in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit equips us with some gift to contribute for the building up of the church, right?
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The church is often described as the new temple, right?
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The temple of the Holy Spirit. And how does God build up the church? It's through the gifts he gives us, the spiritual gifts, right?
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Each one of you, God uses to edify the church.
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And this is not the financial gifts I'm talking about. I'm talking about spiritual gifts, right?
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It's not just the pastor and the elders who teach or lead who are gifted and who have something to contribute to the church, but each one of you, right?
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God has uniquely gifted you and specifically called you this morning to build up this specific local flock.
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You might think, oh, I don't know if I can teach. Maybe that's not your gift, but there's something
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God has given you that you can give to the church so that the church may be built up, right?
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Whether it's hospitality, whether it's service, whether it's encouragement, the list goes on in the
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New Testament. But every one of you, you're gifted with something and God has specifically put you here for a purpose so that his house may be built up.
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You have something to give and it's not just dependent upon the pastor and the elders.
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It's our church, right? It's God's church. Second, when the holy
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God dwells among his people, he will meet with his people through his word from above.
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When the holy God dwells among his people, he will meet his people through his word from above.
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Now, rather than starting from the exterior of the tabernacle, the blueprint for God's dwelling place starts with an object of the tabernacle called the ark and it's the ark of the covenant.
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This golden box is the centerpiece for the whole entire enterprise because it symbolizes the covenant relationship that God has with Israel.
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And this is astounding because whenever you build anything, you start with the exterior, the structure, the outward structure, external factors.
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Not so here. God starts with what is the most important and that is the ark that represents the covenant relationship with his people.
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Verse 10 starts with the dimensions of the ark. And they shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
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A cubit is about the length of a forearm. And with that calculation, the ark's dimension in feet would be 3 .75
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feet in length, 2 .25 feet in width and height, right?
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And I have a picture of it for those of us who have never seen the ark, which is all of us.
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Right. It's a golden box and we'll go over each detail.
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So verses 11 to 15 show how pure and holy this object must be treated.
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First, verse 11 tells us the quality of the material that covers the ark. And you shall overlay it with pure gold inside and out.
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You shall overlay it. And you shall make on it a molding of gold all around.
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Now, pure gold is different from just any gold. Pure gold was the finest quality gold because it went through extra steps of purification to remove the impurities.
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It is significant that the Lord commands only the purest form of gold to cover the ark that represents his relationship with Israel.
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Right. It had to be free of impurities. The physical phenomena taught us the spiritual reality.
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It had to be pure. The relationship between God and Israel was represented and made above the purest materials.
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Verses 12 through 15 show that the ark must not be carried like any other box.
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You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them in its four corners. Two rings shall be on one side and two rings on the other side.
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And you shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the side of the ark that the ark may be carried by them.
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The poles shall be in the rings of the ark and they shall not be taken from it. Now, we might not be able to see it too well, but the reason why the poles are attached to the box is because of the rings on the sides.
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The poles go through the rings that are on the four corners of the ark so that the ark may be transported that way.
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Right. When the covenant Lord dwells among his people, the object that symbolizes their relationship may not even be touched by human hands.
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We see an extra step of separation here, right? No human can directly carry the ark just as no human can directly approach
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God. In fact, in 2 Samuel 6, when
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Uzzah reached out to stop the ark from falling from the cart, oxen cart, he died on the spot.
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And that's because he's encountered the holy God. He dared to assume his hand clean enough to touch the ark that represents his relationship with his people.
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It's frightening, but that's how it is when you approach the real
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God. Now what is the purpose of this expensive and luxurious box?
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Verse 16, and you shall put into the ark the testimony which I will give you. The purpose of this meticulously extravagant endeavor is to store the testimony,
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God's words written on the stone tablets. This may be the only scenario in the whole world and in history in which stones are valued higher than the gold.
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Not because of the rarity of the material, but the content of it.
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God's word written on the stone tablets made the stone tablets more precious and more important than the pure gold box, right?
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Gold, a box that's made out of, overlaid with pure gold, right? The finest gold.
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And the ark cannot be touched by anyone because it holds God's very word. The ark is covered by the purest gold because it contains the most precious word.
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Now verses 17 to 22 cover the top portion of the ark.
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This is what is often called the mercy seat. The mercy seat sometimes can be covered, it's the translation, they differ in terms of what they call it.
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It's called the mercy seat because every year on the day of the atonement, the high priest, only the high priest, after the necessary sacrifices would go into the holy of holies and offer of atoning sacrifice for himself and for the people.
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It's so that the sin of him, his sin, and also the sin of the people may be forgiven so that he may approach the living
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God and not die. That's why it's called the mercy seat because God had to have mercy, right?
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And it, and the mercy seat was a location in which
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God would meet the high priest. It was a significant part of the
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Old Testament. In fact, without the mercy seat, no atoning sacrifice could be done.
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That's why it's a big problem, especially for the Jews when there's no temple.
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How can sins be forgiven without the mercy seat? And we'll get to that.
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In the Old Testament, it says that you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold.
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Two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. In modern measurements, again, it's 3 .75
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feet in length and 2 .25 feet in width. It is a rectangular top right here.
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And it's also made out of pure gold, the same substance that covers the rest of the ark.
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And verses 18 to 20 talk about the cherubim on the mercy seat.
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First, verse 18 to 19 specifically describe the placement of the cherubim.
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And you shall make two cherubim of gold of hammered work. You shall make them at one, at the two ends of the mercy seat.
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Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other hand. And you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat.
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It describes the position over and over again with different words.
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They have to be at the ends of the mercy seat. Not in the middle, at the ends.
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And cherubim were angelic creatures that looked like a mixture of various animals and a human with wings.
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And what they were known for, first, they were the ones who guarded the
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Garden of Eden after humans were kicked out, after Adam and Eve were kicked out. Now, we don't see the description of them there.
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They're just told that they're there. But you can actually see the description of them in Ezekiel.
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Those are the flying angelic beings with various animals and they're constantly flying.
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And what they're known for is that they carry the throne of the Lord. On top of the ark, they were positioned specifically on each end of the mercy seat.
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And in various parts of the Old Testament, the Lord is called the Lord Almighty who is enthroned in between the cherubim.
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Imagine an invisible throne on top of the cherubim and the Lord sits on top of it, right?
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In fact, after Judah rebels against the Lord, Ezekiel shows how the
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Lord leaves the temple, right? The Lord leaves the temple because he's just sick of Judah sinning against him.
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And when, after he leaves the temple, Judah cannot claim, well, how did we get conquered with God's presence?
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Well, that's precisely the case. He left the temple. So in Ezekiel 10, it describes how the
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Lord left the temple riding on top of the cherubim. The cherubim were like, they were the portable vehicles in which
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God chose to transport himself and the throne. Right? Some monarchs prefer limos.
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God prefers cherubim. And the cherubim on top of the ark represented the heavenly reality of the
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Lord, the king, who sits on top of the throne carried by these heavenly creatures, right?
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The ark was the replica of the heavenly reality it showed. And verse 20 describes the cherubim's posture.
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And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another.
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The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. They were to spread their wings to cover the whole mercy seat.
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And verse 21 reiterates the importance of the stone tablets, the testimony written on the stone tablets that have to be put inside the ark.
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Then verse 22 reveals the function of the mercy seat. And there
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I will meet with you and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, which are on the ark of the testimony, about everything which
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I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. God from above will meet with his people below through the mercy seat.
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The mercy seat will serve as the locus of meeting for God and his people.
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It would be the location. And we will read in Leviticus 16 that the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the high priest and the people were necessary before this happened, lest they die when the holy
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God approached them. And this is a significant development ever since, as I said, the
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Garden of Eden. Now God is revealing one way in which his people can constantly approach him.
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It's not like the garden. It's not as freely as the garden. But with the reality of sin,
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God provided a way in order for him to have a continued relationship with his people.
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And that's because that's what kind of God we worship. God who desires to be among his people.
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And this thread, of course, continues. As we all know, the temple has been destroyed multiple times.
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So how are God's people to encounter God? Where do
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God's people encounter God? Similarly, the new covenant people encounter the
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Lord through his word from above. When we turn to the gospel according to John, it starts with the word of God.
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In the beginning was the word. The word was God. And the word was with God. It is very odd that it would start with in the beginning the word was, though there was the word.
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And somehow he is God, but he also has a relationship with God. He's with God. And of course, the word is from above, right?
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Verse 14 of chapter one. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
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Father, full of grace and truth. God's word, who was with God, came down to dwell among his people.
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The word for dwell, a wooden translation would be he tented among his people.
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He tabernacled among his people. This is a throwback to the tabernacle in which
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God would dwell with the people of Israel in the wilderness. And where do we meet him exactly?
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Well, at the end of the gospel, according to John, we actually see a faint allusion to the mercy seat.
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After Jesus died for our sin and faced the wrath of God for our sake, he's buried in a tomb.
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And in fact, it's in a garden. There's this tone of returning back, but better.
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And when Mary visits the tomb, John 20, 12, it says, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had slain.
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John is the only gospel account that shows two angels and their positions.
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Matthew, Mark, Luke do not have that. And you must wonder why. Why are the positions so emphasized?
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Well, the positions were emphasized in Exodus 25, 18 through 19.
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It took two verses to say the same thing. One at both end, one at each end.
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The cherubim, the angels, the mercy seat, the mercy seat in which
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God's people would encounter the living God. And what laid in between them was the body of Christ until the resurrection.
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The location of meeting place for God's people is Christ. He's the ultimate mercy seat that the
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Old Testament mercy seat pointed to. And John depicts that in the gospel that starts with, in the beginning was the word.
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Just as the Old Testament saints encountered God at the mercy seat where God spoke from above, we have the word of God who came from above and provided a way in which we can encounter
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God in himself. For Christians, Christ is the location of the divine encounter that the
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Old Testament saints longed for. For Christians, it's not just one high priest that enters once a year.
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It's anyone who believes in Jesus Christ that he has died for your sin and is risen.
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And it's precisely in Christ, every Sunday morning, we gather and we encounter the living
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God. We have the ultimate mercy seat in Christ.
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Let us pray. Father, we're so thankful that we have access to you in Christ alone.
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There's nothing else we must do, but to believe in Christ and that Christ gives us the full experience of relationship with you.
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And we thank you for that. And we pray that we would remember to treasure him and go to Christ whenever we can, knowing and appreciating the privilege that we have that the