The Tabernacle Pt. 3 Jesus Fulfills the Tabernacle

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Matthew 24 Pt. 4: the timing

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So tonight we're going to continue our series on the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, and we're going to talk about how the

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Tabernacle actually points to Jesus. In fact, Jesus fulfills everything that the Tabernacle is a shadow of.

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So just to review, the Tabernacle was instituted after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt.

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So it was on their way out of Egypt into the wilderness that God gives them this Tabernacle plan.

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Then it was instituted after they received the Ten Commandments, or the Law. So we're going to see how the

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Tabernacle helps them atone for their sins, because now they can break the Law, and they need forgiveness from that.

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So the Tabernacle will help them with that, and again, it will point us to Jesus. Third, it will show that it's instituted to teach the

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Israelites how to approach God. Again, you can't approach a holy God in your sinful condition.

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Next, the Tabernacle was requested or commanded by God in Exodus 25.

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This was God's plan and pattern for the Israelites. And finally, the Tabernacle is a shadow that points us to a greater reality, to the reality of God's Son Jesus.

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The Tabernacle was a movable tent of meeting that God commanded Moses to build. God wanted to dwell among his people, the

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Israelites. He wanted to have fellowship with them and be able to communicate with them. The Tabernacle is a prototype.

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It's actually like the Garden of Edom, which was a prototype temple that God set up to dwell with his people, mankind.

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Edom served functionally as a proto -temple, as well as a pattern for all future temples and the

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Tabernacle in the Bible. It would find its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus as Messiah. Although the

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Tabernacle made God accessible to the Israelites, he was only approachable in holiness. The structure and service of the

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Tabernacle showed a sinful people how they could come before a holy God in worship and service, offer sacrifice for sin, and receive instruction and counsel from the

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Word of God. Thus, it was a graphic portrayal of God's redemptive program for Israel.

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Every aspect of the Tabernacle, from the brazen altar where the sacrifices were offered for sin, to the mediating

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High Priest, who offered the sacrificial blood on the mercy seat, all pointed to God's redemptive plan.

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The people could only approach God through a blood atonement and a mediating priesthood.

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The fact is beautifully typified in the ministry of Jesus the Messiah, who left his throne in heaven and tabernacled among his people, as per John 1 .14.

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In Christ, we have a High Priest, a perfect blood sacrifice, and access to God for all who put their trust in him.

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The Tabernacle also prefigured the Church. Paul stated that the Church is a holy temple in the

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Lord, for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Ephesians 2 .21 The word temple is not the temple with all its porches and surrounding buildings, but the inner sanctuary, the holy of holies.

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Today, God does not dwell in a physical structure, but in a spiritual body called the Church. The figure is very impressive.

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The temple was holy and set apart for God's service. Likewise, the

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Church is holy and consecrated to His service also. Collectively, God dwells in each believer by the

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Holy Spirit, forming us into His temple. The nation of Israel never experienced this privilege.

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This is only part of the New Covenant. Only the High Priest was able to enter into the holy of holies and stand in the presence of God, and that only once a year.

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This privilege should cause each believer in the Church to walk circumspectly before the Lord. What a privilege it is to be part of the

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New Covenant and have the Lord, the Holy Spirit, living inside of us. The Tabernacle also prefigures individual

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Christians. Paul said,

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Again, that's akin to the Tabernacle, which was the way to get to God.

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Now Jesus is going to fulfill that. We'll see the writer of the book of Hebrews sums up Christ's ministry when he stated,

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So let's see what this looks like, and again, why it matters. Alright, remember the gate?

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This is the piece that allowed us to come into the outer court. This is the gate that gets you into the

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Tabernacle, and this was the only entrance. It was accessible, attractive, and well -supported.

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Christ is the only way. He's the gate into the presence of God. Jesus again said to them,

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Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

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I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

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So, it's not only this gate that Jesus represents, he also represents this gate and the gate into the

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Holy of Holies. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the

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Father except through me. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence, this is the author of Hebrews, we have confidence to enter the holy place by what?

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The blood of Jesus. By the new and living way that he opened up for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.

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And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

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So, we enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus. Again, the Tabernacle was a type and shadow of Jesus who would come later on.

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The gate signifies faith in Jesus Christ as the firstborn son of God. It is this precious elemental experience of faith in the anointed one as our

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Savior that brings new birth into the kingdom of God. The gate of faith provides entrance into the court of the

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Lord's house. Again, you only come through Jesus, but you don't come to Jesus unless you're drawn by the

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Father and have faith in him. Entrance through the gate of faith offers great reward.

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The rich treasures of both the court and the Tabernacle are available only when one passes through the gate.

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This is the first essential requirement, belief in the Son of God. To be quickened and awakened in one's soul by the gift of faith opens the gate into the beautiful court of the

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Lord's house. Keep in mind that the gate consisted of several curtains, and therefore it is sometimes referred to in the plural form, gates.

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You'll see the Psalms say, We enter your gates with thanksgiving and praise. So it's not just one gate, it's all three.

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That's Psalm 118. That's written way before Jesus came on the scene. Obviously, it was pointing to him.

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They're kings in procession. That's Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied that God's gates would be opened.

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That's, again, Jesus. So that Jesus came to ransom people from every tribe, every tongue, every people and nation.

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It was not just for the nation of Israel. They were given special privileges. They were given the

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Temple, the Tabernacle. They were given the covenants. They were given special access to God.

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And now Jesus comes to fulfill all that. So as Jesus comes on the scene, he now opens salvation to all mankind.

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It wasn't just for the nation of Israel. It was for everyone. So here it is, Jesus showing that people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation will be able to come to him.

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Okay, remember the brazen altar in Exodus 27? Again, this is a type of Christ, our sacrifice.

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The sacrifice stands at the entrance of man's approach to God. Man has no access to God except as a sinner atoned for by blood.

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All who pass through the door must pass by the bloodstained altar or not at all. Again, I think this is from last week.

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The Mizbach, the slaughter place just within the gate was easily accessible, unavoidable and unmistakable.

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So once you pass through the first gate, you would come right to the brazen altar where you had to make a sacrifice.

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If you weren't making the sacrifice and putting it on the altar, you were not allowed into the outer court.

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The next day, this was John the Baptist. He said the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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Jesus would be that sacrifice that would go upon the brazen altar to take away our sins and bring us into the court of heaven.

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Paul says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in whom?

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Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

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This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he passed over former sins.

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So this word here, very important, propitiation. Okay, this is to make satisfactory for your sins to satisfy

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God's wrath. And that's exactly what would happen when the person came in with the sin offering and the priest put it on the altar to be burned.

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The author of Hebrews says it this way, Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.

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But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

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So again, it's not the sacrifice of an ox or a goat or a bull or a ram.

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It's the sacrifice of Jesus himself that brings us into his presence. And it's one sacrifice that would be sufficient for all time.

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He was sacrificed once for all so that we don't have to continually bring sacrifices.

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Jesus was the one sacrifice that would satisfy God's wrath forever.

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The author of Hebrews would go on to say, For since the law and the tabernacle has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

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Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

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But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

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Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.

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In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. And I said, Behold, I have come to do your will,

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O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. So we see that the same sacrifices that were offered continually every year would not make perfect anyone who's drawing near to them.

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I think somebody's got their microphone on that we have to shut. That's one. Hold on, let me see if I can do this.

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So these sacrifices in the tabernacle would have to be offered every year because they don't perfect anyone.

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In fact, it would serve as a constant reminder of sins that you would have to come each week with your sacrifices to God, and then once a year as that continual cleansing and forgiveness of sins was necessary.

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Thankfully, Jesus comes, does it once for all times. There's no longer a reminder of sins, although we do celebrate communion, which reminds us of Christ's body and blood on the cross, which are the elements of the new covenant.

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Remember, the bronze altar also represents the earth and earthly things. Bronze has got that brown color, comes from the earth.

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For there is one God and there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

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So we recognize that Jesus is truly God and truly man.

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So when I say that the bronze altar is made of the earth, it also represents mankind. So as human beings, what did

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God do? He scooped up dirt, he breathed into it and brought us to life.

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He created mankind. Jesus comes into this world as a man. So Jesus is the one unique person who can represent

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God because he's deity and he can represent man because he's humanity. So he's the

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God man and he's the only one qualified to be the mediator because of it. The bronze altar was a shadow of the cross upon which

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Jesus died to take away our sins. Coming to the cross and trusting Jesus as savior is the way into the kingdom.

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The cross, like the bronze altar, is a place of death, a point at which our flesh is put down through the blood covering and atoning grace of God through Jesus.

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The cross was a place of physical sacrifice for Jesus. The cross for us is a place of spiritual sacrifice, yielding any and everything that keeps us from the presence of God.

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At the cross, we yield our lives in love, devotion, and service. Again, we're called to pick up our cross and follow, die to ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him.

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It's an intentional act. We each have a cross to bear or carry and offer ourselves up as living sacrifices every day.

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On to the bronze laver. This was the big bowl that the priests had to wash their hands and their faces with to get all the blood off of them.

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So this symbolizes Christ, our cleanser, which cleanses us from all defilement.

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It denotes spiritual renewal. We have daily cleansing from defilements of life, and it is accessible only through our priest.

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We are continually cleansed by Christ through the spirit and the word. The laver had no measurements, symbolic of the limitless cleansing power of God.

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That's of great comfort to us. I often ask people who are Protestants, I said, do you need a priest to come to God?

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And most everybody says, no, no, we don't. We don't go to a priest. You know, that's what Roman Catholics do.

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And I say wrong. Jesus is our great high priest. We do need a priest. Now, we just recognize that he's the final priest, the high priest who went into the

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Holy of Holies and made atonement for us. We don't have to come to human priests that have to continually make that sacrifice of Christ's body on the altar over and over and over and over, which actually never perfects anybody.

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The real sacrifice of Jesus does perfect those who come to him, who know him, who trust in him.

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And it's once and for all. The ministry of the laver is of great spiritual significance in our

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Christian experience. In the brazen altar, we see our justification. In the brazen laver, we see our sanctification.

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The water in the laver typified our cleansing through the word of God. When Jesus left the upper room and headed toward the

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Garden of Gethsemane just before his betrayal, he stopped in the vineyard of the Kidron Valley and gave the parable of the vine and branches.

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He said every branch that bears fruit must be purged so that it might bring forth more fruit.

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Then he told his disciples, Now you are clean through what? The word which

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I have spoken unto you. The Holy Spirit sanctifies and cleanses us, preparing us for service in Christ.

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Remember what Jesus prays in John chapter 17? Sanctify them in your truth.

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Your word is your truth. So one of the things that cleanses us is the washing of the word of God.

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It's very important that we read the scriptures daily as much as you possibly can. But daily at least.

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Sometimes twice a day if you can. So it's only through the reading of the word and the application that the spirit does through that word on our hearts and in our minds that we're going to be cleansed.

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This is Jesus. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, I'm sorry.

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Simon Peter came to Jesus and Jesus said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him,

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What am I doing? What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will. Peter said to him,

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You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered back, If I do not wash you, you will have no share with me.

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Simon Peter said back, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said,

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The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.

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Again, this is Jesus telling them that they need to come to him for cleansing. The need for purification in our walk is beautifully illustrated during the final hours of Jesus's ministry on earth.

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As he gets up from the Passover table, he takes a towel and a basin of water and begins to wash the disciples' feet.

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When it was Peter's turn to be washed, he blurted out, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus quickly informed

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Peter, If I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me. Remember, it's the last shall be first.

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Whoever wants to, we need to live servant's lives. Jesus came to seek and save the lost and to be a servant to them.

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He didn't come to lord over them. And it's the same thing with the followers of Jesus. We don't become

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Christians and start lording ourselves over people. We become their servants. And that's a very important thing that we need to keep in mind, especially in today's age.

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Jesus was saying that if he did not wash Peter's feet, Peter could not have fellowship or communion with him.

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As usual, the impetuous Peter went overboard and responded, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

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And Jesus answered, He that is washed needeth not except to wash his feet. The words washed and washed in verse 10 have different meanings.

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The word washed, luo, means to bathe one's body completely. It speaks of the complete ritual cleansing that takes place when we are declared justified at the moment of salvation.

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The word wash, nipto, is used of those who wash their hands and feet, symbolizing sanctification.

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So one Jesus does to us, the other we do ourselves. The picture is of people returning home from a public bathhouse, their bodies being completely bathed.

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They need only wash the dust from their feet to be clean when they enter into their house. So once you come to faith in Christ and you're washed by the spirit and continually washed by the word, you keep coming to the word and you cleanse your hands.

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You ask, you repent and ask God to forgive your sins. This is the washing, the continual washing that we have to continually walk in.

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Jesus says, this is in Revelation, To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and made us kings and priests to his

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God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever. So as you can see, Jesus fulfills the brazen altar.

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He becomes the sacrifice that it sits on. The brazen altar is also made of bronze, so it represents humanity.

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Now we see the bronze laver, which the priest would have to come to wash himself.

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We see again, we're washed by Jesus in his blood. So the altar points to him and also the laver.

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Next, we're going to see the Tent of Meeting. This tabernacle building was a shadow, again, of Christ and his church.

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Individually and corporately, members of Christ's body are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God, as was the tabernacle.

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The apostle Paul fully understood this years later saying, Don't you know that you yourselves are

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God's temple and that God's spirit live in you? So he would go on to say,

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Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household.

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That word household is tabernacle built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

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In him, the whole building, again, the tabernacle, the temple, is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the

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Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which

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God lives by his spirit. So God is assembling his people. And the same way all the priests and the tribes of Israel surrounded the tabernacle in the wilderness and God was in the midst of them, in the center of their camp, it's the same thing with the church.

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When the church gathers, Jesus is not only in us, he's in the center of our sanctuary.

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Each saint of God is a board in the spiritual building that God is constructing.

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Our humanity represented in the rough blemished wood of the original boards is covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ as seen in the gold overlay.

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So each of these boards were made of wood and they were covered in gold. Refined gold is that from which all impurities have been removed.

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We can only attain that state of purity and refinement through the inborn nature of Christ, our savior. His righteousness alone covers our filthiness.

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So here we see a perfect picture of a human being in his sinfulness who trusted

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Jesus, who's covered by Jesus's righteousness. It's just like that piece of wood, the tree, that it's acacia wood that's covered with pure gold.

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On the inside, the wood represents our humanity. On the outside, the gold represents Jesus's divinity and his righteousness.

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Many boards from all over the world comprise the church. They stand upright in God's kingdom because of the work on Calvary's cross.

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No longer do they have to be ashamed of the past for it is forgiven through God's grace. God has joined them together and caused them to be one, standing side by side in his love.

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The strength of the body of Christ comes not in the independent members doing their own thing, but in the unity, which is theirs, as they allow themselves to be bound together in Christ.

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When we come together in unity and we work together, there's power. When we start going rogue and doing things on our own, that's where division takes place, which is what the enemy wants.

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And here we have the scriptures. For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

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So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace

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God has given us. Let us use them. In John 17, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you,

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Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

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So first, Paul's explaining to us that as the church, we all have different functions.

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Each one of us is important to the functioning of the church, and we need each other. We're members of one another.

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So the talents, gifts, and abilities I have, I use for the church, because those are not your talents, gifts, and abilities.

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And your talents, gifts, and abilities are for me, because I don't have them. And together, we make one unit, which is exactly what

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Jesus prays in John 17 in his high priestly prayer, that we would be in unity.

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Now, it's real important. Jesus doesn't pray for conformity. He doesn't want everybody to look exactly alike, because that's not our function.

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Each one of us has specific and unique gifts that only we have. So God is not looking for conformity, but unity, so that no one can walk the walk alone.

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You will need your brother and sister. Each one of us need each other. So that's the way God designed it.

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Of course, I'll use a food illustration. You eat a steak with a fork and a knife, not two forks and not two knives.

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You need each one of those things to eat the steak. The same way the church, for it to function, needs all of its members and all of the talents that we have together.

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Okay. So we see the priest entered the tabernacle through the curtain at the entrance.

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That's right over here. He passed the laver and continued westward.

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Remember, the Holy of Holies is pointing west. The gate out here was east.

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When you walked this way, you're walking towards God. When you walked east, you were walking away from God.

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So as you walked in through the gate, you'd come to the altar, then the laver.

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Now you're ready to go into the tabernacle itself. The boards used in the outer walls are 15 feet long and two feet wide and furnishes a massive structure.

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Each board rested on and was fixed in the foundation of a socket of silver.

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Now the boards represent sinners saved by grace. Like I said before, you're no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

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In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the

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Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.

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The tabernacle building was a shadow of the body of Christ, the church, and the true dwelling place of God.

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If you're covered with the purity of Jesus through the cross, you are part of the body structure, a board standing side by side with other

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Christian followers. As part of the church, we individually and collectively are the true temple, the eternal dwelling place of God, the new

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Jerusalem, and the Israel of the Bible. Also, when we understand this in the New Testament, this has ramifications for your eschatology, which is the study of last things or end times.

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Lots of people believe that there's going to be a third temple, a physical third temple that's going to be built in Jerusalem, where they're going to offer sacrifices again.

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And those sacrifices, although they won't take away sins, would be a memorial to God. Now, when we read the

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New Testament, we see that the church is that tabernacle, that temple, okay?

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We don't look for a third temple. We are the temple. It's a spiritual fulfillment, not a physical one.

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So that's one of the things that, you know, when you read the New Testament, you're going to see it's not a physical temple that Jesus is looking to rebuild.

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He's building a spiritual temple, okay? On to the golden lampstand.

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The golden lampstand typified Christ, who lights up the walk and fellowship of believers. The holy place had no windows to allow light to shine into the tabernacle.

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The light in the holy place was hidden from the world. Only the priest had the privilege of ministering and enjoying the light of the lampstand.

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So it is with Christians. As believer priests, we are able to enter into the light of fellowship and communion with God.

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Once you walk through that first curtain into the holy place, you would immediately see the golden lampstand on the left.

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Now, the golden candlestick or lampstand signifies the seven -fold expression of the

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Spirit of God. It is the illumination of the human soul by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The pure gold of the seven lamps of the candlestick is symbolic.

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Pure gold symbolizes the righteousness of God, of Christ, and seven represents divine completion.

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Okay, that number seven, you're going to see that throughout the scriptures. Anytime you see the number seven, think of completion, like the days, the seven days, the six days of creation, the seventh completes them.

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The fact that this candlestick is the only source of light in the holy place indicates our complete reliance upon the

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Spirit when we enter the temple. He is the source of light. The seven lamps upon the golden candlestick are representative of the seven -fold

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Spirit of God. The Bible explicitly defines the candlestick. The seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God in Revelation 4, 5.

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Now, we're going to take a look at what that means. Keeping in mind that the seven lamps together made one candlestick, like you can see it over here, like this, three, three, and one in the middle, that would be seven.

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We can discern the seven spirits of God to be seven distinct expressions of one and the same spirit.

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This is an important point to get. There are not seven separate spirits of God. Rather, there is one spirit with seven profound expressions.

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Ephesians 4 tells us there is one spirit. In the same passage, we're urged to keep the unity of the

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Spirit. So, the seven expressions of the Holy Spirit are listed in Isaiah 11, 2 as follows.

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First, we have the Spirit of the Lord, which represents His authority. Then we have the Spirit of Wisdom, which is obviously

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Christ's wisdom. The Spirit of Understanding. We have the Spirit of Counsel.

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The Spirit of Might or Power. The Spirit of Knowledge. And the Spirit of the

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Fear of the Lord or Reverence. So, when we look at the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures talk about the seven spirits of the

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Lord, it's expressions or understandings of what that one spirit is and its function.

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The lampstand's purpose was to provide light. It was a beautiful type of Christ who is what? The light of the world.

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Jesus says, I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

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The light of life that Jesus spoke of can be obtained only through faith in His atoning work on the cross.

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But Jesus made it very clear that the world in general would not come to know Him as the light of life. He says,

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And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

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The light in the holy place was symbolic of Jesus's holiness. John wrote, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

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The glory of our Lord will also illuminate the new Jerusalem in eternity. This is in Revelation. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did light it, and the lamp, the lamb is the lamp of it.

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So, there you can see that Revelation talks about the fulfillment of Jesus being the lamp that lights the tabernacle.

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And who is the tabernacle? It's not just Jesus, but it's the church. We form the temple of God.

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Jesus says, speaking to the church and His disciples, You are the light of the world.

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The city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your

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Father who is in heaven. So again, here we see that we are called to be the light of the world when we're in union with Christ as His church, we represent

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Him here on earth. And what are we to do? We are to let our light shine before others so that they may see what we do, our good works, and give glory to God who is in heaven.

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And hopefully, in some sense or in some way, draw them to God. Next, Jesus says,

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But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

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This was John who said this, I'm sorry. Okay, so as we walk and we do our good deeds, we have fellowship with one another.

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And it's an indicator that, yes, Jesus's blood cleanses us from all our sins. And Revelation again,

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Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent, do the works you did at first. If not,

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I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Again, one of the doctrines we hold to is the perseverance of the saints.

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So when God issues a warning like that, His people will take it to heart, they will truly repent.

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Those who are not of God, they will try to represent or be the church or say that they're

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Christians. And Jesus says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I say? They don't repent.

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So we have to look at what's going on, especially right now. I mean, this is God's hand of judgment upon us.

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We have to think soberly about our lives. What we've been doing with our time and ask

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God for forgiveness. We need to turn from that and turn towards obedience. It's not just asking for forgiveness.

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It's turning and actually doing something. You know, we have to be doers of the word, not hearers only.

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So that's the golden lampstand. Next is the table of showbread. So we have the laver representing

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Christ's sacrifice. I'm sorry, the altar representing Christ's sacrifice.

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The laver representing Jesus is a cleansing power. We're cleansed by him and we walk into the holy place.

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On the left is the lampstand, which is Jesus, the light of the world. He, by the power of the Holy Spirit, sets us on fire and we now also become light of the world.

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On the right side of that room is called the table of showbread. And on that table, the priest placed 12 loaves of bread made from fine flour, representing the 12 tribes of Israel.

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The loaves were loaves were a continual reminder of the everlasting promises between God and the children of Israel and a memorial of God's provision of food.

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The bread, also known as the bread of presence, was eaten only by the priests, by Aaron and his sons, and was replaced every week on the

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Sabbath. Okay, so this is an allusion to communion. Okay, we're supposed to, well, we're going to probably start doing communion every week because that's what the priest did.

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Every week when they walked into that holy place, they would eat the bread of presence.

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Okay, and it's called the bread of presence because God was there in that room and we too, when we take communion,

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God is there. He is with us. The term showbread comes from a Hebrew word that means bread of the face or bread of presence because the loaves were set before the face or presence of Jehovah, who dwelt in the holy holies, as a meal offering from the children of Israel.

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God gazed with delight on the pure bread offering that sat continually before his face. Bread is called the staff of life and is emblematic of life itself.

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The showbread, symbolic of Jesus, who is the true bread of life, giving unfailing sustenance to all who partake of him.

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And he was born in the city of what? Bethlehem, which means house of bread. See how this all points back to Jesus.

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Every piece of this tabernacle has some significance and spiritual understanding found in Jesus.

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The showbread typified Christ's sinless life. The Mosaic law strictly forbade leaven, a symbol of sin, from being used in the flour set aside for priestly ritual.

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Jesus, the bread of life, was without sin. We see that yeast spoils the whole lump of dough.

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So unleavened bread was bread without yeast in it. So the bread wouldn't rise.

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It also, the leaven would puff up the bread the same way sin puffs us up as,

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I'm sorry, the same way sin puffs us up as sinners. Now unleavened bread, you probably know it and have had it before.

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It's called matzo. The bread provided food to be eaten by the priests on the

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Sabbath in the holy place. We as believer priests are to feed on Christ, the bread of life, receiving in return spiritual sustenance and strength for worship and service.

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And we come to him obviously for communion. We do that twice a month at our church, but we should be coming to Jesus every day again through his word.

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The bread and wine that sat on the table of showbread spoke of the priest's fellowship with the Lord. Our communion with the

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Lord typifies fellowship as well. On the first day of the week, we gather as a body of believers to have communion with our

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Lord around the table. We partake of the bread and the fruit of the vine in remembrance of Jesus' broken body and his death on the cross on our behalf.

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Bread is made by crushing grain, wheat or some other kind and making flour.

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Now the very action of crushing is a symbol of the suffering endured by Jesus culminating at the cross.

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Dough becomes bread when it's baked by fire. It rises and becomes the product we know after extreme heat.

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So too Jesus became the bread of life through trial by fire. He was crushed and then put through the fire.

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To partake of Jesus Christ, we share in his suffering, his trials and afflictions, but also by rising with him in resurrection power.

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The table of showbread was a shadow of the heavenly bread of life, Jesus. Just as bread is a staple of physical life,

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Jesus is a staple of spiritual life. We can partake of Jesus daily, consuming his ministry and teachings, reading his scripture, yielding to his nature.

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So here's a question. Are you partaking of the bread of life in sufficient quantities to be spiritually sustained or are you feasting on the junk food of the world?

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When we eat communion bread, it's a reminder of Jesus as the bread of life. He was crushed yet rose and became alive.

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When we partake of Jesus, we too share in his suffering, resurrection and glory.

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Jesus would say in John chapter 6, our fathers ate manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

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Jesus then said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

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For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I am the bread of life.

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Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. And once again,

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Jesus is not talking about a physical act. If you eat him or eat his bread, you'll never be hungry again.

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He's talking about a spiritual reality. Once we nourish ourselves on Jesus and continually feed on him, we will never be spiritually hungry again.

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We will be sustained by what he gives us. Next, we come to the altar of incense.

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This was the last stop before you went through the curtain into the Holy of Holies.

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Here's where the high priest burned incense on the altar every morning and evening. The four corners of the altar each had a horn and a crown on a molding on the edge.

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Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the horns of the altar were sprinkled with blood of the sin offering. The Lord required that special incense be burned constantly on the altar of incense.

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It was a special sweet incense, a mixture of spices to be used only for the tabernacle. God specifically required this recipe.

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None other was to be burned on the altar. You were not allowed to bring strange fire to the altar.

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Like the other pieces of furniture, the golden altar's construction and ministry foreshadowed kingdom living in the new covenant.

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The acacia wood represented the imperfection of humanity, covered by the gold of God's divinity or perfection.

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Our wholeness is only made possible by the unmerited grace of a loving God who covers our sinfulness and makes us beautiful.

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The sweet aroma that emanated from the golden altar foreshadowed the sweet aroma of the saints for Jesus.

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For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

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We are to bring a different scent to the world, a pleasing odor to the saved and to the unsaved.

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So again, we see this spiritual reminder that we're the aroma of Christ.

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What does that mean? That means the way we act, the way we sound, the things we do are going to be seen by other people.

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And when we're charitable to other people, we're loving towards other people, they're going to recognize something different in us.

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Hopefully to the point where they say, why are you acting this way? And then we can share the hope that lies within us with gentleness and respect.

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So this altar of incense, again, has spiritual significance through Jesus.

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Incense burning also foreshadowed the prayers and intercessions of the saints. During John's vision in the book of Revelation, the saints are seen around the throne of God in heaven.

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Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are what? The prayers of the saints.

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In the same vision, John saw another angel who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.

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He was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne.

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The smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints went up before God from the angel's hand.

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So again, this should invigorate our prayer life, knowing that that altar of incense stands right before the veil into the holy place.

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So those prayers are heard intimately by God. Our prayers are like incense that go up into the throne room where he is, where he hears and answers our prayers.

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What was done only by the priesthood at the golden altar and in the earthly tabernacle, the shadow, can now be accomplished by any of us, any of God's saints at the golden altar in the heavenly places, in the true tabernacle.

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Our prayers drift upward, same as incense to the throne room of God. Placing the altar before the veil was of great significance.

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The golden altar stood next to the veil in the center of the holy place, which separated it from the holy of holies, where God manifested his presence.

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Thus, the closest the priest could come to God in daily worship when they ministered to him was the altar of incense.

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The same principle holds true for us as Christians. The closest we can come to God is through our prayers.

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There is a significant difference between the way we come to God and the way the Aaronic priests came to him.

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Today, there is no veil separating us from the throne of God, as there was in that tabernacle.

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Before the priest could offer the incense of prayer, three requirements had to be met. First, the priest had to minister at the brazen altar, shedding the blood of an animal for their sins.

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Before we are able to come before a holy God, in the same way before we're able to come before a holy God, we must be cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus, which is done by appropriating his sacrificial death on the cross on our behalf.

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And that's done by faith, faith in him. So first, the priest needed to shed an animal's blood, and now in the new covenant,

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Jesus sheds his blood for us. Next, the priest had to wash all the defilement from their hands and feet before they could enter into the holy place to offer the ministry of prayer.

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We must confess our sins before we come to God with clean hearts, before he will hear our prayers.

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Unconfessed sin in the lives of believers hampers God from listening and responding to them. As believer priests, we are to be set apart unto holiness.

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So, as you can see, in the Old Testament, the priest would come to the laver at the sacrifice of an animal with blood.

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We come to that altar, we come to Jesus, and by faith, his blood is sacrificed for us.

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Next, we're to be cleansed. Okay, we ask for forgiveness of our sins. The priest would have to wash himself in the laver.

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Isaiah would say, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear you.

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So, if we think we're going to come to God without confessing our sins first and asking him to cleanse us,

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God won't hear our prayers. I mean, a lot of people don't really understand that they think that God hears all prayer, and that's not true.

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He does not listen to the prayers of the unbelievers. They have not asked for forgiveness and asked to come into his presence so that he could hear them.

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Third, the priest had to be in the holy place to offer the incense of prayer. Cleansed by the blood and water, they stepped into the sanctuary to fellowship with God.

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It's only when we, as New Testament Christians, are in proper relationship with God that we can have the full assurance that he will answer our prayers.

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Again, we know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will,

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God listens to him. Okay, so here's another indicator in the scriptures, John 9, that God does not listen to the prayers of sinners.

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It's for those people who have repented of their sins, who trust in Christ, that God hears their prayer.

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The writer of Hebrews summed it up well when he said, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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Again, we have to have faith in Jesus that he died for our sins. We have to come to him through the labor, through the washing of the word and the request for the forgiveness of sins, and then we can come to him.

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Finally, we're at the veil. Okay, the holiest of all places, the Holy of Holies, was the second room in the tabernacle building.

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It was past the holy place in the most inward section of the tabernacle. The Holy of Holies was the most special place in the entire complex for it housed the very presence of God in the midst of the

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Hebrew people. In order to access the Holy of Holies, entrance had to be gained through the veil. In other words, you had to pass through the holy place into the

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Holy Holies while this most sacred room was guarded by the angels with flaming swords. Now, if you can see here, these are the angels that were embroidered into this giant curtain.

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The veil of the tabernacle in the wilderness was actually a shadow of the corresponding veil in the temple at Jerusalem.

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The tabernacle veil, like other items of the tabernacle, was temporary. The temple veil was more permanent, but was also a shadow of the ministry of Jesus by which we have access into the

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Holy of Holies or the presence of God. Consider what happened to the veil of the temple at the instant

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Jesus bowed his head and died on the cross. And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

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In that moment, the curtain, the veil, of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

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Considering what we've already discussed about the thickness of the temple veil, it seems impossible for the veil to be split completely in two by human hands.

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Only by divine intervention could this massive veil be torn asunder as it was.

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One author says the veil was divinely rent at the hand of God, not just a small tear in the corner, but was rent completely from top to bottom.

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So what does this torn veil mean to us? The veil of the temple and tabernacle was a shadow of Jesus' body, his flesh.

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The letter to the Hebrew Christians tells us precisely that therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way open for us through what?

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The curtain, the veil that is his body. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God.

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In order to enter the presence of God, we must pass through the body of Jesus. The Apostle Paul said it's slightly different way to the

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Christians at Rome. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

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We cannot possibly go beyond the veil, beyond which we cannot see, and into God's presence without being united with Jesus, the son of God, without walking with him hand in hand.

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And remember, the veil was torn from top to bottom. If it was torn from bottom to top, it would be a work of man, indicating man trying to get up towards God.

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But God rent the veil from top to bottom, meaning that he was coming down to us because we could never get to him.

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Oh, I just said that, right? The veil was torn from top to bottom, symbolizing that it was not the work of man to God, but the work of God to man.

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The veil had gold clasps on top and was fixed in silver bases on the bottom, symbolizing that the veil spanned from heaven to earth, right?

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Remember the Holy of Holies, it's covered in gold, and that outer gate, those posts were set in silver bases.

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So when you look at from heaven to earth, it would be gold, silver, and then bronze. So here we have the gold clasps on the top of the curtain fixed in silver bases at the bottom.

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There was only one person who could span that distance and represent both God and man, that was

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Jesus. Again, for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

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It was at this point that God proclaimed to the Jewish people and the world that the ministration of the

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Jewish priesthood had ended. No longer was a high priest needed to annually atone for sin.

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Jesus, the true high priest, had opened the way for mankind to come into the presence of God through his atoning blood and through his body.

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And again, the author of Hebrews would say, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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One more. But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, talking of the tabernacle, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

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For if the blood of bulls and goats, goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living

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God. Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

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So here you see the transition from the first covenant through the tabernacle in the wilderness, and eventually the temple that Herod built.

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Okay, that's the old covenant. The only way to God was through that tabernacle or through that temple.

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Now in the new covenant, all the tabernacle and the temple pointed to a greater tabernacle, greater temple, which would be

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Jesus. And we enter through by his blood and through his body. Finally, we get into the most holy place or the holy of holies, which was entered only one day a year on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

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It represented God's dwelling place. It symbolized the human body of Christ and the body of believers.

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In 2 Corinthians 2 .16, it symbolizes the local church. And in Ephesians 2 .21,

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the universal church consisting of all believers. Hebrews 9 again, where Christ has entered not into the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself.

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Now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood, not his own.

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But then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once and for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

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Again, the imperfect tabernacle and temple required repeated sacrifices. The perfect tabernacle, the perfect temple, the true temple in heaven required one sacrifice by the high priest.

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And it was once for all. Jesus also fulfills the tabernacle when he answered them, destroy this temple and in three days

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I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple. And will you raise it up in three days?

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But he was speaking about the temple of his body. John says it like this. The word became flesh and dwelt literally tabernacled among us.

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And we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth.

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Paul says it like this. Do you not know that you are God's temple and God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys

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God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy and you are that temple. But do you not know that your body is a temple of the

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Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own for you were bought with a price.

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So glorify God in your body. So what we have to remember that as the church, we are

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God's temple. If someone attacks us or destroys us, we really should have pity on the people who try to tear us down or kill us.

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Because God will destroy them. Because God's temple is holy. He's made us holy. Not because we're holy in and of ourselves.

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We're holy because of the righteousness of Christ given to us. And Paul would also go on to say, what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

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For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling place among them and walk among them.

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I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the

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Lord, and touch no unclean thing. And I will welcome you and I will be a father to you.

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And you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Again, as Christ's church and as his body, we are to cast down our idols.

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We're not to be picking up idols and walking with them, so to speak, figuratively, throughout our lives.

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And we can see that as God's brought the coronavirus into the world, how many people are repenting and recognizing that they were trusting things other than God.

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Not just for their salvation, just in general. Some people were trusting in their bank accounts. Some people were trusting in relationships.

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Trusting in all different kinds. Some people trusting in the government. Now they can't trust in those things.

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God is making it very apparent to us that he's the only thing that we should be trusting.

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From the outset of the study, we learned that every room and every item of the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem was a shadow of something in the heavenly realms.

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A shadow of kingdom truth to be revealed in the redemption story, culminating in the new covenant through the cross.

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God chose to dwell in the holiest of all with the intent that, when Jesus completed his reconciliation ministry at Calvary, humanity can come into God's presence in the heavenly places, the holy of holies, through the veil of Jesus' flesh.

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Even more, God's presence would enter willing human hearts, individually and collectively, in a church, and take up residence there in a house not made with hands.

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God's limited availability to humanity under the old covenant would become unlimited and available to all in the new covenant.

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God dwelling in the holy of holies was an object lesson. The room was the object. Ultimately, dwelling in human hearts was the lesson.

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The holy of holies is an earthly dwelling place for God. The holy of holies, as an earthly dwelling place for God, was a shadow of God's dwelling place in heaven, into which we can enter in Jesus Christ, a place we no longer need to fear.

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God not only draws us into his kingdom presence, but also lives within every believer.

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Our hearts are now God's dwelling place. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, again, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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Okay, once we're in that holy place, we also see the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark contained the law, manna from heaven, and God's Aaron's budded rod.

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Christ had the law in his heart and came to fulfill it. It's another symbol of God being with his people.

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Just as the Ark of the Covenant contained God's testimony to Israel, Christ is God's testimony of man.

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The Ark of the Covenant was also a shadow of the refuge we find in Jesus, who made it possible for us to dwell in his presence.

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By definition, arks keep things safe. For the Old Covenant Ark in the tent in the desert, which was the shadow, it was a piece of furniture containing the essence of the faith of the

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Israelites, two tablets with the Ten Commandments, the golden pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded.

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All that was spiritually important to the Hebrew people was given safe refuge in the Ark, in the tent, behind the veil, where few could venture.

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For the New Covenant, the Ark is Jesus, our refuge and our strength. All who yield their lives and their souls to him find safety forevermore.

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All the features of the Ark of the Covenant pointed to safety in Jesus. The acacia wood, humanity, and pure gold divinity came together to form the shadow

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Ark. The real Ark, Jesus, brought God and humanity together. God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, no longer seeing the sins of the people, creating refuge in the work of the cross.

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So here again, we see all the pieces of the inside of the tabernacle, the table of showbread, the golden lampstand, the altar of incense, the veil, and now the

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Ark of the Covenant. Each one of these finds its spiritual meaning or fulfillment in Jesus.

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Jesus now is our Ark. Everyone found in Christ will be found safe.

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And I think last week I put up the scripture in Romans, there is no condemnation for those who are what?

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In Christ Jesus. If you're in that Ark, you will be safe and you will be safe. Since Jesus fulfills all the tabernacle typology, we will see him in several ways.

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Again, in the lampstand, the Ark, the showbread, the tabernacle itself, see how many times we're told to abide or live in Christ.

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Watch what John says. Jesus says, I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

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And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

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Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

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I am the vine, you are the branches. So here we're told several times, one, two, three, four times to abide or to live in Christ.

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Now, what is the tabernacle? And what is the temple? It's a house, right? So Jesus becomes that house, that Ark that we go into and we live in Christ.

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Watch how many times he tells us to abide here. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

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For apart from me, you could do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.

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If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

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By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the father has loved me, so have

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I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

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These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

01:04:38

So here we have one, two, three, four, five, five or six times where he tells us to abide in him or abide in his love.

01:04:45

And again, that word abide means to dwell in like a house. So the tabernacle in the wilderness literally was like a house.

01:04:54

You'd come into the house. What would you do? You'd do the sacrifice. You would take off your outer garments, which represent your sin.

01:05:03

You'd wash off your hands, your feet, and you'd come into the house through the door, through the gate.

01:05:09

On the left -hand side, you'd have light that lights up the room. On the right -hand side, you'd have bread and wine and you'd have the incense in front of you by which you would pray and enter into God's presence.

01:05:24

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Blessed be the God and Father of our

01:05:29

Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, where? In the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

01:05:46

Finally, the mercy seat, also known as the kipper. The mercy seat was on top of the ark.

01:05:52

It was symbolic of God's divine throne and presence with the sprinkling of blood on the mercy seat.

01:05:58

The judgment of God is transformed into grace and mercy. The mercy seat was made of pure gold.

01:06:04

Two winged cherubs facing each other with their wings outstretched towards each other were on it. The mercy seat was beaten or hammered from one solid piece of gold and placed upon the ark.

01:06:15

In the time of the tabernacle, the mercy seat was a place of propitiation when the sacrificial blood was sprinkled on it once a year.

01:06:23

The mercy seat typifying the divine throne of God was transformed from a throne of judgment into a throne of grace when it was sprinkled with the atoning blood of Jesus.

01:06:32

Today, sinners have a mercy seat in the blood -sprinkled body of Jesus Christ who died on the cross as an atonement to expiate sin.

01:06:42

The term mercy seat in Hebrews 9 .5 is a translation of the

01:06:47

Greek word hilasterion, which means propitiation. The word is used to refer to the mercy seat,

01:06:54

Leviticus 16 .14, where the atoning blood was sprinkled. In English, propitiation has the idea of appeasing or placating the anger of a

01:07:03

God, thus buying His love. But this is not the concept found in the New Testament. Because of His love for mankind,

01:07:11

God initiated a plan by which people could be reconciled back to Him. In the

01:07:18

New Testament, propitiation has the idea of satisfying the righteous demands of a holy God, making it possible for the removal of sin that stands between God and mankind.

01:07:28

This was accomplished again by Christ's substitutionary death on the cross for sin. His shed blood completely satisfied all the demands of a holy

01:07:36

God for the judgment of sin, thus making it possible for God to declare and treat as righteous all those who come to Him.

01:07:49

All New Testament references to expiation have to do with the sacrifice of Christ for human sin.

01:07:56

In the Bible, both expiation and propitiation are part of God's atoning work.

01:08:02

Christ's sacrifice both propitiates, turns away the wrath of God, and expiates, covers human sin.

01:08:09

God's redemptive work is both personal, relational, and objective. When a biblical context concentrates on God's wrath, propitiation is involved.

01:08:19

When human sin is the focus, then redemption provides expiation. We are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

01:08:31

God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show

01:08:36

God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He passed over former sins. And again, the author of Hebrews, and by that we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

01:08:49

And every priest stands daily at His service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, this is the

01:08:55

Old Testament system, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins,

01:09:03

He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.

01:09:10

For by a single offering, He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. The high priest, when he went through that veil and went into the

01:09:18

Holy of Holies, he did not sit down because his work was never complete. He would have to go in once a year to make atonement for the people.

01:09:28

But when Jesus went in and offered His single sacrifice for sins, He sat down, representing that the work of sacrifice had been finished forever.

01:09:39

No longer would we need repeated sacrifices to take away our sins.

01:09:44

Jesus would be the one perfect sacrifice by which He could say, it is finished.

01:09:50

The sacrificial work of the Old Testament covenant was completed by Him and in Him such that at the new covenant, we have one sacrifice for sins and we do not need to offer anymore.

01:10:05

All right, the tabernacle fulfilled in Jesus. Is this better or worse than the Old Covenant? Obviously, we know the answer means it's better.

01:10:12

So here I wanna talk to you about the Old Covenant on the left side and the New Covenant on the right side.

01:10:19

So in the Old Covenant, we had the blood of animals, but that was the type of sacrifice that they had to offer up.

01:10:26

In the New Covenant, we have the blood of Jesus. The quality of the sacrifice, what type of sacrifice did we need in the

01:10:34

Old Covenant? It was never enough. It had to be offered over and over and over.

01:10:40

It was an imperfect sacrifice. If it was perfect, it would only have to be done once.

01:10:45

In the New Covenant, it was enough. It was offered just once because it was perfect.

01:10:52

What is the quantity? How many sacrifices did we have to make in the Old Covenant?

01:10:58

Many. Leviticus 1 -7 in Hebrews 10 tells us we repeatedly have to come into that holy place to offer sacrifices for forgiveness.

01:11:08

In the New Covenant, only one, Hebrews 9, 25 and 26, and we've read that. Okay, the effectiveness of this sacrifice, was this effective to take away sins in the

01:11:19

Old Covenant? For a day or for a year, yes. Exodus 29 and 30 in Hebrews 10, 1.

01:11:26

In the New Covenant, forever. Once Jesus' sacrifice was done and he went into the true temple, into the true

01:11:33

Holy of Holies and made that sacrifice, it was eternal. In fact, it says eternal redemption was purchased by Christ.

01:11:41

So what's the result of the Old Covenant sacrifices? They were temporary. They were not meant to be lasting.

01:11:47

That's why they had to be performed over and over and over again. In the New Covenant, final.

01:11:54

That was the last sacrifice. We do not need any more. We do not need to come again with new sacrifices.

01:12:00

And again, this is another reason why there's not going to be a third temple. I mean, they could build a third temple, but it's going to have absolutely no effect on eschatology.

01:12:11

Our eschatology is found in Christ. He is the eschaton. He's the ultimate, the goal.

01:12:18

I'm trying to think of that verse in Romans 10. He is the goal or the end of the law for those who believe.

01:12:26

That word end is telos. It means goal. Jesus is the fulfillment or the goal for which everything pointed to.

01:12:34

So the tabernacle is fulfilled in Christ. And one more chart for you. So in the

01:12:39

Old Testament, the shadow was the tabernacle. And we saw that that was the place where God dwelled among his people.

01:12:46

In the New Covenant, we see that Jesus is God in the flesh dwelling among his people. He's the one who came and tabernacled among us.

01:12:53

And we see that in Exodus 25 and Matthew, the word and John, the word became flesh and made his dwelling his tabernacle among us.

01:13:01

And in the Old Testament, the high priest was a shadow, right?

01:13:07

The high priest offered gifts and sacrifices for sins in the most holy place. In the New Covenant, Jesus is a high priest in the true tabernacle in heaven that was made by God, not by man.

01:13:18

We find this in Exodus in Hebrews. And again, we've read those scriptures over and over and over again through this study.

01:13:25

Another shadow in the Old Testament was the sacrifice, right? In the Old Testament, each year, the high priest offered a blood sacrifice for the sins of the people.

01:13:34

In the New Covenant, in the New Testament, Jesus was the perfect and final sacrifice for all time.

01:13:41

Again, we find that in Romans 3, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus once for all.

01:13:49

When this priest, Jesus, had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

01:13:58

So the tabernacle fulfilled. Is it better? They serve copying a shadow of the heavenly things for when

01:14:05

Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.

01:14:12

This was the tabernacle. However, in the New Covenant, as it is,

01:14:18

Christ has obtained the ministry that is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises.

01:14:27

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. And to Jesus, this is

01:14:34

Hebrews 12, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

01:14:42

Again, we have a much more excellent ministry, a better covenant with a better word.

01:14:49

And that's just how we can talk to each other again. All right, Mr. Jerry, I'm going to free you up.

01:14:57

Wait, I can't hear you. You got to turn. Am I on?

01:15:02

You are on. It is not. There's virtually nothing I can add. This was really very well laid out.

01:15:12

I didn't want to go further. Hold on,

01:15:17

Jared. You got some kind of feedback happening. Do I? Maybe if I turn the volume.

01:15:29

Am I good? No. How's that?

01:15:35

Yeah, give it a go. I think it's good. You think it's what? Me? Why do you think it's me?

01:15:44

I didn't say that. Hold on, I'm going to turn your mic off for a second. Go ahead, Jerry.

01:15:50

Am I good? Oh, yeah, that's much better. Okay. Along with this,

01:15:56

I mean, because of what we've been given, we're now called to live sober and righteous and godly lives.

01:16:06

In this present world, because of Christ's tabernacle with us, and I was reading further in Hebrews.

01:16:16

Let's see. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering.

01:16:24

For he, I'm sorry, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

01:16:36

Not neglecting the meeting together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

01:16:43

And all the more as you see the day drawing near. I didn't read that because of the difficulty we've had meeting, but in general, we should be, because of how we've been blessed, we should be going forward with our faith in light of what we've been blessed with.

01:17:10

And the reason I read this was because I was using this with the Joel study

01:17:16

I'm doing, because it talks about the day drawing near and that's eventually the final judgment.

01:17:23

And so where we've been saved, where Christ's tabernacle is with us, our desire should be that all that have ears would hear and they would also tabernacle.

01:17:39

Absolutely, absolutely. I'm really looking forward to once we get back together, that we can do the

01:17:45

Hebrew study with Michael Kruger. I'm sure that's going to be a benefit for all of us.

01:17:52

So, all right, let me, I'm going to go, I'm going to ask, let's see if Aunt Trish has any questions. Hi, Aunt Trish.

01:17:59

Hi, no, no questions. It was excellent though, again, like last week. You gotta have questions.

01:18:05

Come on. You're so scholarly. I can't stand myself. What kind of Christian are you? What kind of Christian are you?

01:18:14

I have no idea. I'm a guy who does a lot of copy and paste and add a logos and then

01:18:20

I read it for you. That's really what it's down to. Oh, okay. No, it was excellent. You read it for you, like the sheep?

01:18:28

Oh, no, I come to puns. All right, I'm going to mute you one at a time.

01:18:34

I'm going to go through. I'm going to go through. Hold on. You got any questions,

01:18:40

Mike? No, I'm good. You're good? Great job as usual. Okay, thank you.

01:18:45

Hold on a second there now. You hold on. Mr. Eric, you around?

01:18:51

We're here, no questions. No questions? Just a wave.

01:18:56

You guys got the blankets out over there. Oh my goodness. Very warm and cozy.

01:19:02

Oh my goodness. A campfire going in here. Oh, I wish I had smell -o -vision.

01:19:09

I love that. Hold on, let me get my buddy Jason in here. Hey, Jay.

01:19:16

Hey, how's it going, Ant? All right, man. That was awesome. Good, praise God. It was, you know,

01:19:23

I'm preparing something for my church in a couple of weeks where I'll be speaking and I got lost today in Hebrews.

01:19:29

And, you know, it's not that my whole thing, it's going to be about sharing your faith, but I just ended up lost in, here the author of Hebrews stands on the precipice in this intertestimonial, testamental period where he's looking at everything leading up to where he stands.

01:19:51

This was a faith in the promises of what was to come. Yeah. Didn't have the opportunity of seeing it from our hindsight being 2020.

01:20:00

And he speaks, I mean, he goes from Abel to all, you know, all of them.

01:20:06

He, Abel to the Israelites walking through the Red Sea and all of them, he covers all of them. He covers the faith that they had.

01:20:13

And that's really, it all came down to faith. And then we go and we're able to see the, you know,

01:20:19

Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. And then Christ like flips out a little bit when he's talking to Thomas and says, you know, big deal.

01:20:28

You believe because you're putting your hand in my wounds. Right. But blessed are those who don't see me and believe.

01:20:34

Exactly. But it was, you know, you covered everything so well.

01:20:39

What jumped out at me was in Hebrews 9, how we don't sacrifice him repeatedly.

01:20:45

And that's that transubstantiation that you see with the Catholic church, or even maybe with the co -substantiation or whatever it is with the

01:20:54

Lutherans. You see how that, you know, that transubstantiation, you just can't be sacrificing him every

01:21:00

Sunday. Sure. No, absolutely. Now, there obviously was that one sacrifice for all.

01:21:06

And in the presentation of the bread and the wine, it's a communion, it's a covenant meal.

01:21:14

And there is a spiritual presence of Christ. In that moment, when we're doing that, it's a means of grace for us and it spiritually nourishes us.

01:21:23

But to think that it's the actual body and blood of Christ would actually violate the

01:21:29

Old Testament that prohibits us drinking blood. And cheapens that sacrifice, you know.

01:21:36

And, you know, my son, Jimmy, actually said recently, he goes, every time we eat, if every time we eat, we pray as if we're taking communion because we're together and he's there with us, then we could be taking communion with every meal.

01:21:50

Right. You know, it's really an interesting concept, the way to look at it. Yeah. Yeah. And this, obviously, the book of Hebrews is just rich, thick, thick with theology that I can't wait to get into that study because it's something, no matter how many times you go through it, is always something there, always a little bit deeper that you can plumb the depths and see something that you haven't seen before.

01:22:14

And you have to stick with a whole chapter at a time. You can't cut into any aspect of it from, you know,

01:22:21

God explaining to you who Christ is in the first chapter to these things in chapter nine and chapter 10 and 11.

01:22:29

It just, it's really fascinating, really fascinating. It's actually a very encouraging book because, you know, it's a blood better than Abel, a priest better than Moses.

01:22:39

It's always the better. He's better than the angels. He's better than this. He's a better sacrifice. Everything is better, better, better, better.

01:22:45

It's such an encouraging book because we're on the other side of the cross, you know, post -cross, that we get the benefits of the new covenant, you know.

01:22:57

And sometimes, you know, the people who were pre -cross, they probably understood just how difficult this was and to see those sacrifices.

01:23:06

And, you know, now it's kind of like we're spoiled. You know, we get this once for all sacrifice.

01:23:15

And, you know, what happens is we get lazy and you see what's going on today. This is God shaking us up and saying, hey, don't take this lightly, you know.

01:23:23

And that's why it's important to go back the way that you guys are right now to go back and to see all the work that went into the everyday aspect of this.

01:23:32

It really brings it to light so that we could turn around and realize that his yoke is light, you know.

01:23:40

Amen, amen. All right, thanks. Thank you. Let me see if Ms. Michelle's around here.

01:23:46

Michelle? Ava, Emily? Hello?

01:23:56

I see you have a fan. You have a question, Michelle? You can't hear me?

01:24:04

Oh, you can hear, Dad? Hello? Shoot. That was great,

01:24:09

Anthony. Okay, good. Did you have any questions? Oh, you're muted. I'm muted? We can't hear you.

01:24:16

Oh, we can't hear you. Oh, hold on. How's that? Okay, yes, we can hear you now. I apologize.

01:24:22

I apologize. Did you have questions? No, it was unbelievable.

01:24:30

It was amazing. It was great. Okay, good. I was learning, taking notes. All right, good.

01:24:35

And Emily was taking notes. Ava was here, too. She just ran out of the room for a little bit, but she was here, too.

01:24:41

Oh, yeah, no worries. No worries. We're going to publish Emily's notes. Oh, my gosh.

01:24:48

It's the truth. I got to make a copy and hand it out to everybody. Good job, Emily. Thank you.

01:24:54

Thank you. And you know what, Anthony? Like you said, it's just so great. We kept saying, I can't wait until we get back together and do

01:24:59

Hebrews. Because it's just bringing so much hope because we're in a month now.

01:25:06

So it's been a month. Look, this will probably make us appreciate fellowship all the more.

01:25:13

Once this virus is out of the way where we can hug and kiss each other like we used to, it's just so important.

01:25:20

You recognize just how we've been programmed for human touch.

01:25:27

You know, to be in relationship with one another, to be with, in fellowship with one another.

01:25:33

You know, this distance stuff, it's good because we get to share information. But there's a whole different aspect, you know, when we come together as a body that we get to, you know, that whole different ballgame.

01:25:48

So I'm looking forward to it. That's for sure. Yeah, me too. And I like also when you said, you know,

01:25:54

I forgot what part you were talking about it. But you know, like what we're doing with our time. I don't know.

01:26:01

It's just. Yeah, I know. This is a time to reflect because we have time.

01:26:08

God purposely put us on pause so that we have nothing else to think about.

01:26:13

You know, I mean, obviously, we have the cares and concerns of the world. But you look and you say, well, like right now, like I get claustrophobic when

01:26:21

I start thinking about small places. Right now I'm claustrophobic and there's nowhere on earth I can go to get away from this.

01:26:27

I mean, we're closed in. The virus is worldwide. The whole world is shut down.

01:26:33

It's not like I can fly to, you know, someplace in, you know, Mexico. And oh, everything's going well.

01:26:39

Everybody shut down. So it's like God's got his thumb on the earth saying,

01:26:45

OK, until you look to me, until you look to me, I'm going to continue to do this.

01:26:51

So we just got to, you know, heed the warning. We have to heed the warning and make sure that we turn to him.

01:26:58

We repent. We repent of our sins. And repent doesn't mean just to ask for forgiveness.

01:27:05

It means to change the way we think about what we've been doing. That's been wrong. That we know that God is brought to the surface so that we can see and realize it.

01:27:15

And then turn in obedience to him and start actually doing what he says. You know, one of the lines in the

01:27:23

New Covenant, I forget if it's Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36. It says, I will put a fear of you in your heart so that you will not turn to the right or to the left.

01:27:34

And when you see something like this happen, it puts the fear of God into you. You recognize just how weak you are.

01:27:41

Just how sinful you are. Just how out of control you are.

01:27:47

We're not in control of anything. We are completely and wholly dependent on God. How powerless we are over the things in the world.

01:27:56

You know, we're completely and wholly dependent on God for everything. And when he does something like this, now's the time to recognize, yes,

01:28:04

I am wholly and completely dependent on God. So that when the world goes back to normal, we don't.

01:28:11

We now have a better understanding of what the power of God, we read about it in the scriptures, but sometimes we don't recognize it because it hasn't happened to us.

01:28:21

But we're living in a time, I want you to, I want everybody to realize that what's happening now is an incredible indicator of God's power.

01:28:30

And it's a visual, I shouldn't say a visual, it's a manifestation of his power now.

01:28:35

So that we can experience it. And that fear of him can sit within our hearts and recognize this is a holy

01:28:43

God. This is a God not to be played with. This is not the God who, you know, people say,

01:28:50

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That sounds more like Barney. I love you, you love me, we're one big happy family.

01:28:57

You know, God is not a purple dinosaur. God is not Santa Claus. God is holy and righteous and just.

01:29:06

And when he comes back, he's coming back with a rod of iron. Okay, that rod doesn't bend, it doesn't break.

01:29:13

His law is a straight line. Like I said, unfortunately, we're crooked. So we have to adhere to his law.

01:29:22

And by the power of his spirit, he pushes us up against that wall, that perfectly straight wall and flattens us out and makes us straight.

01:29:31

So this, what's happening now is a way that he works in the hearts of his people.

01:29:37

I've had many friends that I've been able to share my faith with.

01:29:42

In fact, one of my cousins, two of my cousins, I was able to share my faith with. One of them is reading the

01:29:48

Bible and loving it and just, you know, wants to know more. And she's telling me about all her experiences.

01:29:54

And I'm just, I'm rejoicing because this was a way that God got her attention.

01:30:01

So we have to rejoice and rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances because God is doing something in it.

01:30:10

So we just have to make use of the time, right? Make the best use of the time.

01:30:15

Why? For the days are evil, right? You have to remember, this is an opportunity for us to share

01:30:21

Christ, to share his love in the sense that God sent his son into the world to die for sinners.

01:30:29

Okay. We're all lawbreakers. We're all sinners. Here's an opportunity to turn right from that and turn to him.

01:30:38

So when you experience God's power like this, it's a whole different ballgame than just reading about it in the scriptures.

01:30:48

So it's really kind of like an exciting time. Like we're living through a plague. Yeah. Think about the plagues in the

01:30:56

Bible that we read about. We're living through one right now. And just like people in the

01:31:05

Bible, in the Egyptians in those times, you know, the plague of the frogs, the plague of the gnats, all these different plagues, they didn't think anything of them.

01:31:16

Nah, that's not God. Yeah, don't worry. Yeah, this'll pass. No, he destroyed them, right?

01:31:24

So we have to make the best use of the time, recognize that we're actually living through one of the plagues that God has placed on the earth for his glory and for his benefit, for his people's benefit.

01:31:38

So let's think of it like that. Okay. I'm going to mute you real quick because I want to get Rob in here. Mr. Rob.

01:31:45

Hello. How are you, buddy? I'm doing good. Can you hear me? I can hear you just good.

01:31:51

How are you doing? We're doing all right. We're doing all right. Okay. Did you have questions, comments?

01:32:00

Yeah, it was interesting what really stuck out. I never really put it together.

01:32:06

You know, I know how the tabernacle has so much significance and so much, just, you know, the picture of it.

01:32:15

Right. Talking about how the tabernacle versus today, we're the tabernacle.

01:32:23

And it really struck me with how, you know, the foreshadowing of things to come.

01:32:31

You had the tabernacle and we had God dwelling inside the tabernacle. And today, we're the tabernacle dwelling inside of us.

01:32:41

It's really, it was just wild because I never really put that connection together.

01:32:47

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. One of the things that I didn't get a chance to get into was the fact that when

01:32:57

God instituted the tabernacle, the tabernacle was mobile, right?

01:33:03

You can move, you would follow God wherever he went by the pillar cloud by day and the fire by night.

01:33:09

And it was portable. So, you know, you could walk around and follow God wherever you went. Once that passed and then

01:33:17

God made the covenant with David, David wanted to build a house for God. So, they built that small tabernacle.

01:33:24

Solomon built the tabernacle. So, it went from mobile to a smaller tabernacle that wasn't mobile.

01:33:31

It was made of wood. Once that was passed, then they had the bigger tabernacle, which was made out of block, okay?

01:33:41

And it was much bigger than Solomon's temple. And then that temple was destroyed and they rebuilt it and then you had

01:33:47

Herod. Finally, you had Herod's temple. But going from that small little portable tabernacle to Solomon's tabernacle to Herod's tabernacle, what it establishes is the permanence of God's ultimate tabernacle that will be here forever.

01:34:06

His people are going to live on earth forever. We are going to be permanent residents of heaven on earth and that will never ever be removed.

01:34:18

So, where the tabernacle in the wilderness was portable and movable and could be destroyed and the other tabernacle was destroyed and rebuilt,

01:34:27

God's ultimate final tabernacle will never be destroyed. We are going to be permanent fixtures on this earth with God dwelling in our midst forever.

01:34:37

So, I was very encouraged by that. Unfortunately, I didn't get to put it in the presentation.

01:34:44

So, all right, brother. Let me, I'm going to try to get Jake in here. Let me just turn you off first.

01:34:51

There we go. Where's Jake? Hey, Jake, you out there?

01:34:56

I'm here, brother. Hey, man. How you doing? All right, bro. Thanks so much for that. That was such a blessing, man.

01:35:03

Really learned a lot, you know, just able to take some notes and stuff like that. Um, I think what truly stuck out to me, um, just something that I always go to, uh, especially just in my own season of life, um, just reminding myself of the reality that, like you were saying, we are the temple of God, you know, and, uh, and more importantly, our bodies are temples of God.

01:35:32

And, um, you, you brought up first Corinthians six, uh, a couple of times and, uh,

01:35:38

I was going to that. I was checking that out. Um, you know how it says, uh, your body is a temple of the

01:35:44

Holy Spirit. Um, when you have from God, you're not your own. So you, uh, you were bought with a price to glorify

01:35:50

God with your body. And, um, you know, just thinking about that. And, uh, in first Thessalonians four, where it says, you know, the will of God is your sanctification that you, that, you know, you abstain from sexual immorality and, uh, that you, you, uh, control your body and holiness and honor.

01:36:07

Um, it's just amazing to me how, you know, you think about like the temple and what you're talking about and how, you know, the priest would go in, uh, once, once a year.

01:36:21

And I know you had talked about, you know, they would, they would tie a bell around their ankle or something like that.

01:36:28

So that, um, if the bell stopped ringing that they would, they would pull them out because they would know he's dead, you know?

01:36:35

And, uh, and you know, that it's like, now we are temples, you know, our bodies are temples.

01:36:42

Right. And it's like, you know, we're so sinful, even as Christians, we're so simple.

01:36:51

And it's like, amazing how God doesn't just strike us dead, you know?

01:36:56

And how, you know, by, by one sin, but that he's so patient with us and yet, you know, where we are so prone to wander and stuff like that.

01:37:05

So it's just that it just blows my mind, you know, thinking of that. And, but it, at the same time causes me to reflect on like, you know, again, conducting myself in holiness, knowing that, you know,

01:37:21

God's spirit dwells within me, you know? And, um, you know, uh, first Timothy four says to, you know, train myself for godliness, you know?

01:37:32

And, uh, that's to be our, um, we are to be truly humbled by the fact that God's spirit dwells within us and we're to be truly, um, sparked and, and put on fire to walk in a manner worthy of, of the

01:37:48

Lord, you know? And, uh, but I, you know, I was just, I was thankful for, you know, you talking about that and, and, uh, you know, it's just something that I'm always reminded of.

01:37:58

And, but yeah, so I think, yeah, it was really good though, man. Thank you for it.

01:38:04

Absolutely. My pleasure. You know, one of the things as I was tossing and turning last night when I couldn't sleep,

01:38:09

I, I got a hole in my sleeping pattern, like at three o 'clock in the morning, that's when I wake up and I just can't go back to bed.

01:38:14

So I was thinking about the study. Um, and, you know, I started thinking about the, the, the golden lamp stand and, you know, how it had like, it looked like kind of like this with seven branches and the fire coming out of it.

01:38:27

And I said, you know what, that, that is, uh, one of the representations of the, the burning bush.

01:38:36

Okay. That you had all those branches like this and fire was coming out of it and God was in the midst of that bush.

01:38:43

Okay. And the bush itself wasn't consumed. Okay. So you have God speaking through that bush to Moses.

01:38:50

It's the same thing with the church. We are, we're God's mouthpiece. We have to speak

01:38:55

God's truth from the scriptures to people. And although there's a fire going on outside of us, we're not being consumed by that fire.

01:39:04

God's in the midst of us with, with us in the midst of it. So it's kind of like that burning bush, uh, in, in, in one, in one way represents the church.

01:39:16

You know, you have these branches that are standing out with the fire in a minute. Same thing with a Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you know, they're thrown into the fire and they look in there and there's a fourth person in there.

01:39:26

Who's that? That's Jesus. He's in the fire with them. I think we talked about this last week. Jesus says,

01:39:32

I'm going to baptize you with the Holy spirit and fire. You know, the Holy spirit is what dwells on the inside of you.

01:39:40

The fire is what happens is the judgment on the outside of you, right? So all God's people who are filled with the

01:39:46

Holy spirit do not get burned by the fire. Now there's consequences to it.

01:39:51

And God disciplines those he loves. You know, you'll, you'll, you'll feel conviction of sin. But you're going to, as one of God's people with the spirit living inside, you're going to repent.

01:40:00

You're going to turn back to him and start walking in holiness. And this is a great opportunity to do that because God obviously is shaking up the things of the world.

01:40:10

And when we have one foot in the world, okay. And one foot in the church, the shaking in the world that our foot is in is a reminder, get your foot out of there.

01:40:21

Don't, don't, don't put a foot, a finger, anything in the world. Do not love the world or the things of the world.

01:40:28

Whoever's our friend, whoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God. So we have to hate even the clothes stained by our flesh.

01:40:38

And I'm not, I'm not saying that God's creation isn't beautiful. When he talks about the flesh there, he's talking about the things of the flesh, the things that the flesh lusts after.

01:40:48

We cannot be lusting after those things. This is a, a very, very strong, uh, an important wake up call for the church.

01:40:55

We have to heed this warning, uh, or we're going to go the way of Israel, right?

01:41:01

Israel is going to be, was persecuted. And God brought the Assyrians, Isaiah chapter 10, uh, down to the, to the

01:41:09

Israelites and routed them. They would, they were just unfaithful. So, um, continually praying in the mornings and asking

01:41:16

God to forgive my unbelief, uh, in the areas that I think that, you know, I don't think the church is going to have victory in God's like really?

01:41:24

And I'm just this morning, I read about, you know, uh, Caleb and Joshua going with the, uh, the men into the land of Canaan.

01:41:32

And they were the only two that came back yet. We could do this. You know, the 40 men were like, nope, we can't do this.

01:41:38

This isn't going to work. God's like, are you kidding me? Did you see what I just did to the

01:41:43

Egyptians? Did you see how I got you through the, the, the wilderness? I camped in, in your midst.

01:41:50

I protected you. I fed you. I clothed you. I gave you shoes that wouldn't, that wouldn't wear out.

01:41:58

And now you're telling me you can't take the promised land that I promised to give you and told you

01:42:05

I would be with you to fight them and expel them out of the land. You're going to look at me and say, we can't do it.

01:42:14

No, no, we have to remember Jesus is, you know, uh, one of his last phrases, you know, going to all the world, teaching them to do everything.

01:42:23

I commanded you baptizing them, discipling the nations and what? And I will be with you even to the end of the age.

01:42:32

We cannot look at this pessimistically. We have to look at this supernaturally optimistically.

01:42:40

God is in the midst of it with us. You know, when we're facing an enemy, don't fear your enemy.

01:42:47

Your enemy is not bigger than God. God is bigger than all of your enemies. Okay. So we have fear of man as a snare.

01:42:56

We have to stop fearing man and we have to start fearing God. Fear him who can kill the body and the soul and cast both of them into hell.

01:43:03

That's who we need to fear. Unfortunately, I think the church is not properly feared God. We've feared men more than God.

01:43:11

So this is a wake up call for everyone. It's hitting every single

01:43:18

Christian. True Christians are going to look at this as an opportunity to repent of their sins and start walking in the right direction.

01:43:27

Amen. Amen. All right, bro. Let me go to, I'm sure, Joe Urso. Hi, Joe and Anna.

01:43:35

Oh, hi. How are you guys? How are you doing? Very good.

01:43:40

Very good. Excellent, excellent study and bless you for your knowledge. Anyway, I do have a few points.

01:43:49

I think Jason hit on John 9 31. Sinners will not be listened to.

01:43:56

Does that mean believers or unbelievers or both? That means unbelievers won't, prayers won't get answered.

01:44:07

What God is looking for is a humble and contrite heart. A heart that turns to God and cries out to Him to rescue them.

01:44:15

Once they cry out to Him to rescue them, then

01:44:21

God's ears will be inclined to hear their prayer. But until that point in time, an unbeliever is not going to pray according to the will of God.

01:44:28

He doesn't know God. I mean, he knows God, but he's not in relationship with God. He's not reading

01:44:34

God's word. He's not praying God's will. Jesus says, if you ask anything in my name, it will be given to you.

01:44:42

So the connotation there is in His name means in His power and authority.

01:44:50

But Jesus' enemies are not in His power and authority. It's only His people who are in union with Him that can pray in that power and authority and expect answers to prayer, right?

01:45:02

James says the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective much. Okay, what is a righteous man?

01:45:10

A righteous man is one whose faith and trust is in Jesus as Savior. He does the will of God. Exactly.

01:45:16

We have the perfect righteousness of Christ so that our prayers would actually be effective. Think about what

01:45:21

Paul warns husbands. He says, you know, you got to reconcile with your wives, lest your prayers be hindered.

01:45:29

You know, if you're not reconciled to your wife, your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. They're not going anywhere. You have to make sure that you're in right relationship, right union with your wife, and that there's no strife.

01:45:39

There's no unconfessed sin. There's no animosity between you. You need to be reconciled.

01:45:45

And then your prayers, you know, will be heard by God. But it's not a popular teaching.

01:45:52

But the word of God says that God doesn't hear unbelievers' prayers. Also, the tabernacle, when you go in, you have to go in through a veil, which is

01:46:05

Jesus. Yes. Yes. And that was, you know, very, very well done and explained.

01:46:13

No one comes to my Father but by me. So that's the symbolism, right?

01:46:19

Is that the veil and the, you know, the small opening and the big opening. Yes.

01:46:24

It's excellent. Excellent stuff. Yeah, you know, next time, you know, I'm reading through the Old Testament where, and I cited one of the verses, but there's many.

01:46:32

It says, you know, we enter your courts with thanksgiving and praise. That word courts is also for the word for gates.

01:46:39

So we enter your gates with thanksgiving and praise. So there's that outer gate that gets you into the outer court.

01:46:45

And then there's that second gate that gets you into the holy place. And then there's that third gate, you know, that veil that gets you into the holy of holies.

01:46:55

So when you start thinking about that, those terms gates, you know, that automatically starts me thinking about tabernacle and temple imagery, garden imagery, right?

01:47:06

The same thing with broad is the way or broad is the gate.

01:47:11

One of the translations says broad is the gate and wide is the way to destruction and many enter through it.

01:47:17

But narrow is the gate. And I'm sorry, narrow is the gate. And I forget the other word is the way to God if you find it.

01:47:29

So it's the narrow way, that narrow gate that you go through that brings you to God.

01:47:35

And that's, again, that's temple imagery. And the lampstand,

01:47:43

Revelations 2 .5. If you don't repent, he will remove your lampstand.

01:47:50

Is that the Holy Spirit now? No. The lampstand is the church,

01:47:56

Revelation 2. God will remove the lampstand. Yes, he will remove.

01:48:02

He will stop you from being a church. Absolutely. If you don't repent, you know, true believers are going to repent.

01:48:10

So God uses means as well as the ends. So some people say, well, if you can't lose your salvation, how can

01:48:21

God remove you as a lampstand? Well, the simple answer is God's people.

01:48:26

God's people will truly heed his warnings. They will because God's Holy Spirit lives inside of them.

01:48:35

And God's written his laws on their heart so that they will follow them. He will compel them to follow them.

01:48:44

God's people will respond in repentance. Okay. Just one more.

01:48:51

Sure, go ahead, Joe. We can get the audio from Reform Rookie. Yeah. The text along with that or just to see the graphics?

01:49:01

I'll point you to the YouTube website where you can listen to it and watch it at the same time.

01:49:10

Oh, terrific. Terrific. Thank you again. Oh, no problem, Joe. Hi, Anna. How you doing? Good. How are you?

01:49:16

I'm doing good. Doing good. Thanks for tuning in. Yeah, it was great. Oh, good.

01:49:21

I'm glad. What a blessing. All right. Let me see who else we have. We have... Hi, Kenya.

01:49:30

Is Kenya there? Oh, yes, I am. How are you, Kenya? I'm good.

01:49:36

How are you? Good. What'd you think? It was good. It was really informative. Okay. Did you have questions or comments?

01:49:44

Um, no, not really. Okay. Well, listen, thanks for popping in.

01:49:50

We're hopefully going to do this every Monday night while we're on quarantine. Okay.

01:49:57

And we're not able to actually get together. So you're welcome to come, I think. Did Michelle send you the link? Um, no,

01:50:03

Mr. Eric did. Oh, Eric. Okay. So you're part of the Christian Club? Yeah, I'm the one with all the questions.

01:50:10

Hey, how you doing? I'm good. How are you? Good. How are your parents? They're good. Excellent. Excellent.

01:50:17

Well, I'm glad to have you in here. Now I'm gonna, let's see who I'll talk to.

01:50:24

Is this Mike? Is this a friend of Michelle? Yes, I'm a friend of Michelle. It's actually under my son's name, the computer.

01:50:31

I don't know why it came through like that. But my name is Donna. Hi, Donna. How are you doing, Anthony? I'm doing good.

01:50:37

Thanks for joining us. I want to thank you so much. You're so gracious to allow me to listen. I listened two weeks ago and I enjoyed it so much.

01:50:46

And it was a great message tonight. And I really appreciate how you lay out the foundation and cover each detail the way you do about the tabernacle.

01:50:56

It's a really nice way to learn for me. I want to thank you for that.

01:51:03

And I also, it's very nice to hear everybody's perspectives and questions and also to be together in a sense about what's going on.

01:51:13

It's nice to hear the respect. Like you say, we really can't hold on to the materialistic things in a sense.

01:51:20

And what we're dealing with now, we really are powerless. Yeah, we truly are.

01:51:27

So you guys really, I have a very strong faith. And I appreciate listening because I have that kind of foundation.

01:51:37

So it's nice to know I'm on the same page. Great. Everybody's feelings of what they're going through now because it is tough.

01:51:47

And I do, I always brought up God fearing myself. So it's true.

01:51:54

We really are powerless. And so the trust, that's what we have. Sometimes when you go through, let's say the book of Judges, when

01:52:04

Israel was obedient, God blessed them with wonderful gifts. And once they were doing really well, it's so easy when things are going good to take your eyes off God.

01:52:16

You think, oh, we got everything going. You kind of forget God. You're clinging to the gifts, but not the giver.

01:52:24

Yes. And the moment you start clinging to the gifts, God is like, that's mine.

01:52:30

I need to take that back. You're to worship the giver, not the gifts. If you worship the giver, the gifts will come.

01:52:37

If you worship the gift, the giver is going to stop. It's true. Our faith and our trust and our love has to be directed in the right place.

01:52:49

And if it's not towards God and it's towards his gifts, well, then really what we're telling God is, we love your gifts, but we're not so fond of you.

01:52:59

I just think the perspective has gotten lost a lot anyway to today's generation of things.

01:53:04

It's just really at home to listen to what you have to bring here and to everybody's strong faith and feedback.

01:53:13

Thank you so much, Anthony. Feel free to jump in.

01:53:18

We're going to do this on Monday nights. If you have, Michelle, send me your email.

01:53:24

I'll just include you in the email or she can send it to you, whatever way you want. And then you're free to join us.

01:53:30

Thanks. Thank you so much. Enjoyed it very much. Our pleasure. Our pleasure. Let's see.

01:53:37

Who else do we have in here? Did I miss anybody? Who did

01:53:43

I miss? All in user three. I don't know who that is. Hello?

01:53:49

All in user three. Yes. Oh, Bob. Yeah. Can you hear me?

01:53:58

How are you doing? Do you hear me? I can hear you perfect. All right. Listen, I just got a question.

01:54:04

The mercy seat, right? Yes. That was top of the Ark of the Covenant, or is it a cover for it, right?

01:54:12

In which the angel stood on top. It was the cover that went over the Ark. So without the mercy seat, you could look into the

01:54:20

Ark. Once you put the mercy seat on top, it covered everything in the Ark. I was wondering why they would call it a seat if it was a cover.

01:54:29

Well, the word is kippur. It really shouldn't read mercy seat, but it actually represents the throne of God.

01:54:38

So when you see the two cherubim, their wings facing each other, they're face down because they don't want to look up because when you look up, that's where God would be.

01:54:48

He would sit between those two cherubim. Now, often at church, we use this.

01:54:56

We say this phrase, God's going to make his enemies a footstool for his feet.

01:55:02

So when God would sit on that throne, what would be under his feet? It would be the unbelievers.

01:55:09

Everybody who's in the Ark would be covered. Everybody outside the Ark, God's feet would be on, so to speak.

01:55:18

In ancient Israel, when the king would defeat their enemies, he would bring the king out.

01:55:28

Yeah, hold on. This is sorry. He would bring the opposing king out and he would put his foot on his neck, and that would be a symbol of his victory over that king and that nation.

01:55:41

It's the same thing with Christ. He is ruling and reigning right now from the throne until his enemies are going to be made a footstool for his feet.

01:55:50

That mercy seat is really the throne of God. And in Revelations, you hear about the saints crying from under the throne, right?

01:56:01

Because they're in that Ark. They're under the throne of God. Jesus, figuratively,

01:56:08

I'm not going to say it right, figuratively, whatever. He's sitting on the throne.

01:56:14

Thank you. He's sitting on that throne and his feet would be hanging beneath that Ark.

01:56:21

Everyone in the Ark would be saved. Everyone not in the Ark, who's going to have to come and stand before God, is going to be defeated because they're his enemies.

01:56:32

They don't want God. They've rejected him. They've rebelled against him. They know that he exists.

01:56:38

Romans 1 says, ever since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes, his divine nature and eternal power have been clearly seen so that man is without excuse.

01:56:49

No one can walk outside and say, there is no God. The only way you can say that is if you're suppressing that truth.

01:56:57

You know that God exists. You're suppressing that truth and you want to live your own way. Men love darkness and hated the light because their deeds were evil.

01:57:05

They don't want to live righteously because to them, it doesn't feel good, right? They want to do things to please their flesh.

01:57:11

So when the blood of Christ covers that mercy seat, we are covered.

01:57:20

That's why it's called a seat. It's a covering. It covers over the people and everything in it.

01:57:26

So Jesus' blood covers us. That's expiation and his death on the cross is propitiation.

01:57:35

Propitiation, if this was God and this was his enemies, his wrath would be poured out on these people.

01:57:42

But when Christ comes and stands in their place, God's wrath is poured out on Christ such that now

01:57:49

Christ is out of the way. And now God's love can be unite the believer with him together.

01:57:58

His wrath is no more being poured out on them because it's been poured out on Jesus first.

01:58:06

Anthony, am I on? Yes, you are. With the mercy seat, I just wanted to add one thing.

01:58:12

For the non -believer, it's the judgment seat. For the believer, it's the mercy seat. That's one way of looking at it.

01:58:19

Excellent point. Yeah. So we're all going to be judged before God. Thankfully, we're going to appear before God in the perfect righteousness of Christ.

01:58:28

So when I stand before God and my accuser, you've heard that word before.

01:58:35

In the scriptures, my accuser is going to come forward. Now the accuser is

01:58:40

Satan, right? Satan is adversary. He's the accuser of the brethren. He's going to stand before God and he's going to say,

01:58:47

I saw Anthony do this. I saw Anthony do this. He did this. He cheated on his taxes.

01:58:53

He stole. He lied. He did this. And the judge is going to say, Anthony, how do you plead?

01:59:00

I'm going to say guilty. And with that, my advocate is going to come running from the back of the court and stand in front of the judge and say, yes,

01:59:07

Anthony was guilty of this, this, this, and this. But I stood on the cross in his place and I paid for that sin.

01:59:13

I prayed for him stealing. I paid for him cheating on his taxes. I prayed for his lying. I paid for that.

01:59:19

I paid for all those sins. Judge, how do you rule? Innocent.

01:59:25

You're free to go. Your debt has been paid for by your advocate. And that's going to silence the mouth of the enemy because Jesus stood in my place.

01:59:35

And when he died, I died. He died in my place so that when he died on the cross,

01:59:41

I died on that cross. When he was buried in the ground, I was buried in the ground.

01:59:47

And when he rose again, I rose again with him. So once I'm risen again with Christ and united to him by faith,

01:59:54

I can never, ever have my God's wrath poured out on me because my sins have already been paid for.

02:00:02

If God poured out his wrath on me at the judgment seat, it would be double jeopardy.

02:00:07

He would be pouring his wrath out on the same sins twice. That would be unjust.

02:00:19

Make sense? I hear the marbles rolling around in your head.

02:00:27

Yeah, Anthony, that was an excellent study. I really learned a lot and I appreciate you doing it. What are we doing next?

02:00:33

Say again? What are we doing next week? I don't know. I don't know.

02:00:40

I think I'm actually going to go through the priest's clothes, the garments, because there's a lot of symbolism, again, in the clothing of the priest.

02:00:49

So I think I could do one more lesson in that. It may not be as long as this one, but I think it'll definitely give us some stuff to see.

02:00:58

Some stuff to comment on and ask questions about. Because, again, it's such rich, deep symbolism in this stuff.

02:01:08

We can go on for weeks talking just about the tabernacle. It's unbelievable.