The Tabernacle, Pt. 1 (11/14/1999)

more chapters discussing this than any other single subject and so my my premise is that if the

Bible would spend that much time talking about something then you and I need to talk about it and we need to understand it and the tabernacle is

God's complete plan and of course we know that everything in the Bible talks about Jesus Christ there is nothing that was made that was not made by him and for him everything points to him so as we go through this study of the tabernacle what

I want you to do and you have a very extensive outline that we've worked up for you that's there in front of you if you'll take that home with you read study discuss it

I would hope with the family you will be astounded what you will see and what you will hear as you just talk about it yourself

I'm going to share some information with you some of its familiar to you some of it you have never heard in your life as a

Christian and we'll point out some things for you and there are reasons why that is one of them is it's always good to study the

Bible with a Jewish mindset always now it's written for Gentiles as well but it was written by Jewish people with a

Jewish culture and with a Jewish background and a Jewish way of looking at it so if you can look at it with that mindset knowing that you are also our child of God the

Holy Spirit of God will teach you things that you would normally pass up you would normally not see them and so we have a lot of stuff we're gonna cover today a lot of information and my wife says

I put skates on when I talk and so but I'm not so concerned about what you hear everything

I say because many of the things that I will not say are more important than what I do say there were thoughts you will have that will be more important than what

I'm saying at the moment that's what I want to do is to open windows for you so I want you just to kind of throw your mind open and and be available to to God speaking to your heart and we'll have some visual aids for you here and in your section the first section we have is the introduction about 4 ,000 years ago after God had supernaturally delivered the

Israelites from their many years of slavery how many years were there in Egypt do you recall say 400 actually 430 wasn't scriptures that's 430 years we just say 400 but 30 is a lot of years

I mean it meant a lot to them you know is that well 30 30 years in Egypt was a lot for those people and so but God delivered them and we know that God redeemed these people he brought them through the desert toward the promised land the land which he had given them through their father

Abraham and his descendants we know that how he used Moses and I know you know all of this but he used

Moses and God delivered these people by the Passover blood and also by many miracles that he performed to get them out of Egypt into what we call the exodus then there came to Mount Sinai and I know that's enough what did

God give Moses on Mount Sinai do you recall what did God give Moses and I know you know this but he gave him the

Ten Commandments what else did he give him see the Ten Commandments will condemn you the

Ten Commandments will show you and me that we're not right with God he gave him the dimensions to the tabernacle which is

God's way of letting man come back to him if he just gave us a law we condemned none of us can approach

God on the basis of law we got to have some justification we got to have some righteousness given to us now you know the first five books of Moses are called the

Torah and they are extremely important you and I also know and I know some of you've been studying the

Bible and Bible study at home and so forth and so I know that you're keenly aware that the book of Genesis has the the bloom but has the bud of every major doctrine you and I will have to deal with in Scripture you can trace them all back to the book of beginnings the book of Genesis Genesis is the book of election a lot of people have problems with God electing but God has always been has he not a

God who chooses God's always chosen he could have chosen any one of a million people but he chose Abraham he just picked him out because he wanted to so he chose

Abraham he gave him a son Isaac and he also had a son named Jacob they have 12 sons who went down into Egypt and they became a nation while down there and when they came out we know that at least 600 ,000 men just men at least 600 ,000 men were in that group that came out of Egypt a mighty mass of people

Genesis is the book of election Exodus is the book we say of redemption because it's through the

Passover blood that they put on the lentil and the doorpost that God brought them out of Egypt and from Pharaoh's dominion and then just for commentation

Leviticus is the book of worship for redeemed people they began to worship

God with the tabernacle and the numbers as a book of wandering as they were wandering around is it an interesting it was 11 days journey to the promised land and they wanted for 40 years basically from 38 years they had to wander when it was only 11 days journey just like mankind is never wanting to go the way

God said so we cost ourselves all kinds of difficulty Deuteronomy is the book of remembrance some people call it the second book of the law it's actually a book of remembrance and reminds

God's people of God's redemption and warns them of their forgetfulness and it also warns them about their backsliding now in the book of Exodus chapter 20 you'll see this in your outline there was the giving of the law was there not when

God redeemed Israel out of Egypt he gave them the law for their good for their guidance and for their government it fell into three divisions the law has three basic divisions which became so amalgamated at the time of Jesus that you couldn't see any difference between them when our

Lord came it was just a massive of confusion almost where they were all just mingled together now there were so many commentaries so many sages so many

Jewish rabbis who had written commentaries on the Old Testament law that nobody really could pin anything down there were so many rules and regulations that you read about them with the

Pharisees and Sadducees but they just added to those things through the years they didn't just happen at once everybody had some idea about it and so they would do that and they became confused in their application nobody really knew what to apply and when to apply it just depend on which group you read if you're in the

Pharisees you did certain things in the Sadducees you did certain things you are Herodian you did certain things you know and so they did that now the law as I say was into three sections the first one was the moral law that's the first section and that's

Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 to 26 now the moral law is nothing but pure law and you need to understand that it is just pure pure law and it was given orally first of all by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and it expressed the righteous will of God it made no provision for priesthood it made no provision for sacrifice it made no provision for forgiveness it made no provision for failure or violation it made none of those provisions it was just pure law stated by God just pure law and it is called the

Decalogue now we call it the Ten Commandments and of course the Bible you know never calls it the Ten Commandments it's ten words there were ten

Hebrew words that were translated and to English and if you put them in English then you have sentences but they basically were not that and so they're called the

Decalogue and it was the perfect whole and expressed God's righteousness and God's will for man you and I know that the first four deal with the first four deal with man's relationship to God exactly right and the last six deal with man's relationship to man now these laws are eternal and there are a lot of people have problem with the

Ten Commandments but the Ten Commandments are as applicable today if I understand the Bible correctly as they have or ever have been they'll never go away they are eternal

Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 to 19 I mean God's law will never will pass away know what is seeing sin is the transgression of the law isn't sin is transgression of the law first John 3 4 says whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law for sin is the transgression of the law and what if you just break one commandment the

Bible says what I've broken them all you break one you've broken them all man doesn't like that and you hardly have a father church that teaches that but you and I know that that is true

James 2 10 says for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all now

Gamaliel Gamaliel was a rabbi who taught the Apostle Paul when he was Saul of Tarsus Gamaliel is one of the great rabbis of all history here's what he said let me quote him curse it is everyone who at any time breaks a single one of these laws that are written in God's book of the law said you break one of them then you're cursed by God and that's what he believed and that's what he taught

Saul of Tarsus Romans 3 20 for by the law is the knowledge of sin the violation of the law incurs the curse of God Galatians 3 10 curse it is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them the law is a schoolmaster we say they teach you that in school it's a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ it's that which points us to the deed of a

Savior that you need a Savior all you gotta do is look at how many commandments would you have to break to be lost forever wouldn't take a lot would it and all of us are condemned by the law and Galatians 3 13 tells us that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of all being made a curse for us for it is written curse it is everyone that hangs on a tree so the great moral law was given for who it was given to Israel but it's for all mankind isn't it interesting the further this country gets away from God the worst this country gets what have they done now they didn't just want the

Bible out now they want the Ten Commandments now your judge puts it in his chamber now and yet every day the

Congress starts with a prayer every day there's a chaplain that opens in prayer in the Congress every day the

Supreme Court sits with the Ten Commandments behind them and they will turn around and vote and say that you can't have them in your court but they have them there and so if God's moral law you know the scripture says that if the foundation is destroyed what can a righteous person do if we ever destroy our total foundation then this country is gone there's no way you can recover it

I don't care what you do it cannot be recovered if you destroy the foundation and the God's moral law is our foundation and then the second division of the law was the civil law now the

Jewish people have two calendars don't they? My people have two calendars they have a religious calendar and they have a civil calendar that's about Y2K Y2K Jewish people say we don't worry about Y2K you worry about 2000 our year is 5700 we ain't worried about that so their calendars different so they're not too concerned about it but they have a religious calendar and they have a civil calendar they go by their civil rules and they go by their religious calendar in Exodus chapter 21 verses verse 1 all the way through 24 11 in your outline and they are called judgments and this law had to do with the

Jewish person the Hebrews civil relationship and it's based upon the Ten Commandments but it comes out of the

Ten Commandments and it's a perfect moral standard for all human relationships now this law is given to Israel and Israel only it was not given to anybody else but we also know that it was fair it was right it was godly and it's worthy as an example for all other laws we could base them on them and be well off by doing so as they apply today now the civil laws had to do with servants they had to do with masters they had to do with murder manslaughter parental honor injuries property rights human rights justice charity the year of rest for the soil when the soil was reconservated and consecrated to God also the

Sabbath day the Shabbat it also was incorporated in the civil law called the judgments and the moral and civil law declared what the

Hebrew should be and also what he should do it told him what he was to be and also what he was to do now when we come to the

Bible this is a mistake you and I know that many Christians make they are always concerned about doing most pastors preach about doing doing and the reason people don't do is because they aren't the reason they don't do is they've never learned our first responsibility is to be is to become what

God wants us to become and if I would be what God wanted me to be I wouldn't be lazy would I I mean if I was what

God wanted me to be then I'd be doing something for it and so a lot of people think by doing they can dismiss the be but you and I know that isn't true and yet this law told them and it was a

Jewish law and it does not apply to Gentiles today except by an example that's all you can use it as an example but it does not specifically apply to you today and then the third division was ordinances very specific they constituted their religious life this is how they worship this is the thing that they did that begins in Exodus 24 12 and it goes all the way down to 31 18 and it governed the religious life of Israel and that they also pointed to the

Messiah we have to remember that everything in the Bible if we can keep in our mind as we go through this study today everything and you just think about as we go through it about your relationship to Jesus Christ everything points to the

Messiah everything points to Christ everything honors him everything glorifies him and anything you read in the

Bible if you have eyes to see you will see him you will sense him you will know things about him and so they all pointed to the coming of the

Messiah and these ordinances essentially were fulfilled on the cross they were given to Israel but fulfilled on the cross being guilty under the moral law which will say was the

Ten Commandments then the ordinances gave the priest a high priest as a representative of people they needed a representative and so it provided for them the high priest and he would go and minister to the

Lord and then also it provided sacrifices for the atonement for their sin now that's what the ordinances did for them you and I know that Aaron who was the first high priest is a picture a type of we say a portrayal of the

Lord Jesus Christ what Aaron did for them our Lord does for us almost identical

I mean typology we say type that means a picture it means a shadow it means a portrayal something that was portrayed then that's clearer now in the

Lord Jesus Christ Jesus is our atonement and we know that was shown in the ordinances and in the sacrifices and we see them there are five of them basically and we know that they all have a picture of something that he does for us and so the worship system was set up in the tabernacle it was set up in the tabernacle it was outlined and commanded in the ordinances it was set forth salvation from where which direction would salvation come

God to man not man to God most churches and most denominations and most groups most literature today talks about man going to God but salvation always starts with God and God came to man and so we will find that in the tabernacle because when we go to the scriptures and begin looking at it we will see very quickly that the scripture starts with God it doesn't start with man it starts with God and God moves from the

Ark of the Covenant that you'll see in a moment and moves all the way to the gate where man is standing out there and then from man to God once God meets man man can go to God from the gate to the

Ark almost every time I've heard people talk about the tabernacle they always start at the gate well that's the most logical thing is that you and I go to a door if there's a building we go to the door we don't go in there first and go find out what but God was in there and that's the way

God dealt with man and so the ordinances provided a promise for a guilty man who would come to God now there are also three divisions in the ordinances if you'll look at your outline this will be on the exam that we'll take later three divisions of the order say

I say you wake up all of a sudden slam listen there's one young man he already knows love me he and I were talking about this before the service and he already has this down he tell me exactly where it was found telling me that what book it was in and that was interesting to me and told me why he knew it and but there are three divisions of the ordinances one of them of course is the tabernacle the tabernacles where God would meet with the people now the tabernacle itself really it's a we say like a church building this church been really isn't anything unless you were here it really is just a building but the tabernacle was different everything in that tabernacle was a picture of the coming

Messiah it was a picture of God moving and so it was where God would meet his people but he would only meet them through sacrifice he would not meet them any other way through sacrifice the second division was the priesthood man himself couldn't do it

God gave him a mediator and so the priesthood became a mediator but now we know the scripture says intimidate that there is one mediator between God and man the man

Christ Jesus but Christ had not come to the cross and so obviously God gave them this and then the sacrifices guilty man could come to God how a bloody sacrifice now this society which you and I live does not like that we have been accused through the years of having a bloody religion they do not want to talk about blood and now many seminaries to talk about the life and we'll talk about that briefly in a moment

I'll talk about the life of Christ as wonderful as the life of Christ was you are not saved by the life of Christ it was by his death it's by the shedding of his blood that you have it and we have a religion we have a belief system that is based upon his shedding of his blood and so every precept of these ordinances pointed to Christ dying on the cross so that those guilty of breaking the moral law could come to God and the scriptural account of the giving of the ordinances begin as I said it starts with the

Ark of the Covenant it doesn't start with the outer gate it starts with the Ark of the Covenant in the

Holy of Holies and it comes outward to the door of the outer court that means that God begins salvation and so what's that word we use again election that God is the one that chooses the

Bible says no man comes to the Father say the Spirit draw him the Bible says there is none that seeks after God man does not normally go looking for God God comes looking for man and if God comes looking for man there's

God come looking for every man obviously doesn't because not every man gets saved so God is a

God again who chooses God is a God who has a word that people do not care for and that is the word election guilty man does not seek salvation of himself

God God alone is the one that draws man to himself and makes the original approach so the moral law pointed to man's guilt and condemnation and the ordinances pointed to God's salvation provided in Christ and so the ordinances provided in the high priest a representative of the people before God now let me just say this lest I forget it and I know you know this let me just say this the

Bible talks about us being a a holy nation of priests we are priests in the Lord what does a priest do a priest does essentially two things first of all the priest goes into the presence of God on behalf of the people and then he turns around and ministers to the people in the name of on behalf of God that's what you and I to do we ought to spend time in the presence of the

Lord on behalf of people and then we're going to minister to people in the name of the Lord exactly what the priest in Israel did exactly what our

Lord did and that's what Christianity basically is all about and we'll talk about the high priest a little later on but in his beautiful dress his garments were magnificent and when you see what these people did out there in the wilderness you will ask yourself an amazement how did they do it

I mean the skill that God gave them the meticulous way that they wove threads and things of this nature is it's amazing and astounding that they could do this and many people have the idea that he's a bunch of ragtag people wandering out in the desert with no organization with no concept not at all highly intelligent people highly organized and walking under the things of God as God led them and so in that beautiful dress that the high priest would have it spoke of the righteousness of Christ imputed to those that would believe in no beauty of the known if the outside beauty and Christ would give them that in his offering of the sacrifice then he spoke of the work of Christ so dressed in the beautiful garments we'll find later on that it spoke of the person of Christ and then the work that he did spoke of the work of Christ for the high priest would always be appearing in the presence of God for the people now the blood of the sacrifice declared that God's sentence for breaking of the commandments had been carried away and the penalty paid the ceremonies please remember it

I know you know this but I want to keep reminding you the ceremonies never saved anyone baptism doesn't save anybody the

Lord's Supper doesn't save anybody church services don't save anybody do they no ceremonies did not save anyone the ceremonies were there and put there under the auspices of God for what they did do is they taught the

Hebrews the way of salvation it taught them the way of salvation and if they believed the way of salvation did they were saying if they believe what

God told them and did what God told them to do in the way God told him to it then they would become children of God they would become saved and what did he do the first thing he had to do was come to the door of the court that was the first thing he had to do if you don't ever take the first step we say then you don't ever get there you never go anywhere without taking a step you won't ever get there and so we have the authority for the construction of the tabernacle if you look at Exodus chapter 25 verses 8 and 9 why build it what difference does it make what difference does it make where they had one it didn't have one the main difference is that God told them to now we are very critical many times of the children of Israel we are critical of the

Pharisees and Sadducees and we talk about how the children of Israel did this in the wilderness and they did that in the wilderness and they did this in the wilderness but they did a lot of good things there also and they were not always in rebellion against God and God told them now can you imagine here they are all these people multitudes of them right in the middle of the desert they're out in the wilderness and God tells them to build this and here's what

God said in Exodus 25 verses 8 9 he said and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I will show you after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof even so shall you make it and God said

I want you to make me a sanctuary so I can dwell with you and I'm going to show you exactly how to do it now it is astounding whenever you go and look at the tabernacle how meticulous they were careful they didn't leave anything for guesswork they didn't leave anything for their own ingenuity or creativity they did everything exactly how

God said do it they didn't dare cross a T by themselves or doubt an eye by themselves whatever

God told them to do is exactly what they did now you and I know that the Old Testament as we call it contains the gospel doesn't it we know that it contains the gospel but it's sort of hidden in a way it is in promises we have

Genesis 315 don't we Genesis 315 which is called the proto evangelium it is the first promise of the

Redeemer found in the Bible promises we have promises through the Scriptures throughout the

Old Testament that talk to us about the gospel in promise also that what we call types a type again is a person or event that occurs in the

Old Testament and it has an immediate application but it also has a future application it can be a picture we say the life of Joseph in the

Old Testament is a perfect picture of the life of Christ almost everything that went on in that young man's life

Christ himself experienced so we say he's a type of the high priest is a type of or a picture of the

Lord Jesus Christ and the tabernacle is the shadow of the cross everything in the tabernacle is a picture of pointing to what

Christ would do when he would come and die on the cross and set up redemption for you and me and every component of it every single hook every little

I mean every sliver of thread everything pointed to Jesus Christ in this magnificent structure now there are five names given to this tabernacle in the

Old Testament it has five names in the scripture and I'll give you those five names five is the number of grace isn't it first of all it's called a sanctuary we just read that next is 25 or say what is the sanctuary it's a holy place it's a dedicated place it's a place where you say come into the sanctuary here come into this sanctuary it's because it's been dedicated to a particular purpose and it's a sacred purpose and then in the next verse in Exodus 25 9 it's called a tabernacle the word tabernacle simply means a dwelling place but what was it to be

God wanted to dwell where with his people no no no so what it says is

God wanted to dwell in the midst of his people God want to be in the middle God wanted to be in the center he didn't just won't be with his people he wanted to be in the center of his people he wanted to be the center of attention he wanted to be the central attraction he wanted to be the life spring from once everything came and everything went and so it's called a tabernacle and then it is called in Exodus 26 36 it's called a tent now what is the key you and I know that a tent is a temporary dwelling place not permanent you can pick it up and move it and sometimes you would be forced to pick it up and move it so what does that tell us that tells us that the people were not where God wanted to be we have to conclude and can conclude from the scriptures that if they had been exactly where God wanted me he'd given him a permanent one that's what he did later with a temple he gave them a permanent place because when they got into the

Holy Land but why would he you know if they're not in the promised land why give them a permanent establishment no they had the temporary establishment which was the tent and so God was leading them to promised land and then in Exodus 29 verses 42 to 44 it is called the tabernacle of the congregation we said congregation what does that mean that means

God's people meet with God God's people meet with God that's why and I'm gonna say this that's why

I really have a problem sometime with naming churches the way people do I've come down a highway and I saw one called that church

I mean well I don't know anything about him but I just think you know you don't find anything like that in the

New Testament you don't find anything like that in the first two or three hundred years of Christianity they would call them congregations they would call them assembly of believers they would call them things of that nature but you didn't find

Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Catholic you didn't have that you didn't have that because they were more focused on God being the center than they were themselves or the things that they were involved in so it's called the tabernacle of the congregation where God would meet with his people and then in Numbers chapter 1 verses 50 to 53 it is also called the tabernacle of testimony now what's a testimony a testimony is a witness it was a witness of God's grace and God's power because they couldn't have done it without God it was

God who brought them out of Egypt not themselves it was God who gave them the provisions that they needed not themselves and it was

God who told them how to build this wonderful structure and those five names will give you the purposes of the tabernacle you want to why

God gave them that as best we understand it God authorized it to show them that he would dwell in the midst of his people if they would do what he said he would dwell with him is that what

God tells people you do what I tell you and I'll walk with you but you can't pick and choose with me they had to do what

God said that he would dwell in the midst of his people also it was an evidence of God's oneness with his people where they were he was where he was they were a oneness with their people

God wanted to be identified with his people and also to teach Israel the holiness of God that was the first thing they had to understand about this that God is extremely holy

God is perfectly and purely holy God is holy and the angels will not let sin arrive into the presence of God you recall the

Holy Seraphim they stand in the presence of very God himself and they hide their eyes and they cry out night and day from all eternity past eternity they cry out holy holy holy

Lord God Almighty the holiness of God the holiness of God and it was to recognize these people's minds the wholeness of God and if they recognize the wholeness of God what does that do the holier

I see God the more sinful I see I am the more of a gap I see that exists between me and God and that's why people don't want a holy

God they want a God like they are they want a God that kind of is a friend he's a buddy it's like young people they want mom and dad they don't want a parent they want to bet they want free best first thing you gotta do is you got to be a parent and God is a parent but God is separate from us

God is not coming down and be like we are God is not like it I hear a lot of counselors don't and I've read all the counseling books and taking some courses and all and some of you have and yet they're always talking about God is like your father no he's not you know anything like my dad

I mean my there's nothing like God and I never met one that was and I sure

I'm not no God is far beyond that isn't he God is such a perfect holy being but it was to teach them also that the only way they could approach

God was through a priest and through a sacrifice they couldn't they had to have a substitute somebody beyond themselves and also they had to have a sacrifice now let's think about these people for a moment these people had a sacrifice for everything you don't have you ever thank

God for God's goodness to us in the New Testament realm where you don't have to have that he's made a sacrifice but they didn't have one for everything

I mean every time they turned around and yet that's the way they came to God and also one of the purposes of Tabernacle was to teach

Israel that the basis of every relationship with God and the basis for every spiritual blessing that they can have in their life was the precious blood of a substitute no fellowship out with God without blood without blood and we know that is the precious blood of the

Lamb we know that that is the precious blood of the Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ that's what it's looking to that's what

God's teaching because you and I as Christian people we have come through haven't we we've studied the Old Testament we've tied in with the

New Testament and we've watched I mean this is just a picture for these people at this time in history but we've watched how

God just moved their thinking and how God just marched through the prophets and how God just walked all the way into the

New Testament whenever Jesus was born and then died on the cross we saw how God was painting a picture did we not we've seen how he's moved that picture all the way through history now the

Tabernacle taught Israel what the New Testament teaches you and me about the

Lord Jesus Christ that in his sacrificial death you have every spiritual blessing you have nine basic spiritual blessing and almost all the others that I know of will fit into these they are ramifications of our aspects and we can say generally redemption

Acts chapter 20 verse 28 but redemption is you do get redemption everything's related to redemption but redemption is not everything is it because you have forgiveness and remission of sin that is a part of redemption redemption brings about forgiveness but they are separate entities it's sort of like you know if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us forgiveness and cleansing are two separate and distinct things are they not they're not the same and so redemption is not the same as forgiveness and remission

Ephesians 1 7 you're also justified you don't have to go to God fearful just be aware that God could zap you if he wanted to God is an awesome holy

God but God will let us come if we come appropriately if we come and approach him correctly so we have justification in Romans 5 9 and obviously

I'd love to take time to read all of these scriptures together we will read many of them but obviously there's no way that we could have the time to read every one of these verses of Scripture then there's cleansing 1st

John 1 7 I just gave you one of the most famous verses in all the Bible there's cleansing that is a result of that then there's peace

Colossians 1 20 to make peace with the blood of the cross you and I have peace people die for peace today with it

I mean people they'll sell themselves their souls for peace just a little bit of peace and then nearness

Ephesians 2 13 we've been brought near by the blood of Christ God isn't far away

I mean God himself is he's in the heavenly realm but by his spirit he dwells within us there's a nearness we can sense a nurse the problem is you see we don't sense the nearest between us and God we know

God is out there but somehow or other God has the ability by his spirit to create his presence with us and to give us a sense of his nearness and closeness and that's confidence that's assurance to walk through life knowing that God's needed that God is near and we have that blessing

Ephesians 2 13 and then of course victory Revelation 12 11 they overcame Satan how by the blood of the

Lamb the word of their testimony and they didn't worry about their lives even to death I mean didn't bother them you know where they might die

I might not die and so they had victory in their lives you and I have victory we've seen victory in Jesus and most of the time don't have it most churches don't have it most

Christians don't have it most homes don't walk in victory with the Lord they walk defeated or they stumble and stammer along life's way and then of course

Hebrews 9 14 you have an eternal inheritance I don't know what all that is

I just know some of that you know and I've listened and studied you have listened to sermons and read books and so forth like that but whatever it is the eternal inheritance

I promise you moth will not bother moths won't bother rust won't get it bees won't get it and whatever

God would have for us it's far superior to anything that I know on this earth it's that eyes have not seen nor have ears heard nor has it ever been pinned never has never been recorded what

God has stored up for those who love him and you love him so therefore what has God stored up for you

I don't know but just to be in his presence would be something just being the new Jerusalem be wonderful anything that God have is better than what

I got down here I mean I'm not griping and complaining but man if I compare to what I have now to what God could do and what

God might do but whatever God does it'll be alright would it not it'll be okay if he does and so we have the gospel in the tabernacle the gospel in the tabernacle we're going to go through this in a moment but in the gate we have

Christ as the door right he is the entrance I am the door by me if any man enter in at the brazen altar we will find the cross this is just kind of give you a summation or panoramic thought process about it at the labor it is

Christ it's a place of cleansing the labor cleansing and so we find that Christ is the one his blood cleanses a small sin at the candlestick the golden menorah that wonderful thing that lit up the holy place we know that Christ said

I am the light of the world now I know that there was a great exchange in Matthew 5 and he said now you are the light of the world but we don't have any light of our own we are reflected light we don't have any light of our own we reflect his light and he's the light of the world at the table of showbread which actually is translated out the

Hebrew which means bread of faces the bread of faces the table of showbread he said I am the bread of life it all points to him and we'll talk about that at the altar of incense we know that that is a place continually always and ever it's a place that represents a prayer intercessor

Christ I intercession he ever lives to make intercession for us he's the great intercessor at the mercy seat which is in the ark of the covenant

Christ is our propitiation he's our satisfaction God does not accept me as my satisfaction he accepts

Jesus Christ and without Jesus Christ's payment that I have no satisfaction with God I would be condemned

I would be judged and I would be doomed forever without what Christ has done for me now in Aaron the high priest of Israel you will see

Christ as our high priest you watch everything that Aaron did you will see that's exactly what

Christ does for us as we go through it and in the offerings everything that we would say about the offerings now we're not going to have time today to go into the

Levitical offerings I wish we could but in the offerings that they offered we also can see the

Lamb of God is our subject so we can see his person and his work and the high priest and in the offerings now there were seven steps that these people had to walk through to get to God seven steps in order to approach

God from the wilderness they had to come out of the wilderness because that's where they were and this tabernacle sitting over here in a location we'll talk about in a moment they had to come to the gate and they had to decide they had to make a decision we would that's why we ask people to make them see we ask you to decide decide what did

Joshua say remember Joshua said what do you want to do I don't know what you want to do but as for me in my house we will serve the

Lord that's why time and time again we say make a decision you have to make an individual decision so when these people came to the gate they had to make a decision as to what they were going to do and then they offered a sacrifice thereby they could be accepted at the brazen altar then they would step to the labor of cleansing and there would be cleansing we'll tie all these together then they go on in further and there's intercession intercession someone praying for them praying for them at the altar of incense and then the table of showbread bread what does that mean bread mean you break bread there was fellowship the opportunity to have fellowship and then there was the golden candlestick the menorah what would that be it would be light but also what light means light means testimony something you see a testimony of God's goodness and God's grace and then when they will approach the holy of holies and of course they couldn't go in there but that's where faith turned into reality in behind that holy of holies was where faith because you see they had to have faith that God would do

God said you do this and I'll do this and they had to have faith that God would but if you could go behind there no one could except the high priest and he only went once a year then you could see that faith turned to reality behind that and reality could be realized and if you just think about what

God has done for you and God has done for me and we'll talk about that see now you can go right into the presence of God you don't have to I mean you have faith but you listen you have reality realized in your life do you not know that God has forgiven you of your sins do you not know that God dwells within your heart by the

Holy Spirit do you not know that you are a child of God do you not really know if you don't know those things with confidence then listen you're living in a fantasy world you may be a religious fanatic you may be fantasizing it but listen you can know those things can you not these things are written to you that believe that you may want no now how many people you don't know

I know you know but listen how many people all the time don't know they've been in church 15 20 30 years and you say you know they say well

I hope so I think so that's tragic isn't it not to really know for sure that you really belong to God and yet they can know all this and remember that the furniture we'll talk about it the furniture was arranged in the in the shape of a cross wasn't it it was shaped exactly like a cross from one side to the other

God just stamped that and at the brazen altar where judgment occurred and there was bloodshed that's where the animals were killed at the brazen altar and therefore judgment occurred at the labor of cleansing there was the purification there was the purification and in the holy place when you step behind the curtain into the holy place there were just three items in there were there not three items one was the altar of incense that's where as I say intercession occurred there was the table of showbread and there was fellowship and there was illumination there was no light the only light was in there was that menorah that candle golden candlestick that's the only light that was there there was no other light light could not get in from the outside no skylight no windows that's the only light that they had and then in the holy of holies the holy place of all holy places the glory of the enthroned

King was displayed and we'll see if there was a whirling scintillating flame that always the devil whirled around on that mercy seat and the

Ark of the Covenant that is the personal presence of God that was there until God removed his presence now that is the gospel in the

Old Testament now I'm gonna say this to you because most people most preachers don't believe this I'm convinced they knew it they didn't maybe call it the gospel because that's a

New Testament term but they knew the good news and they knew that God was doing something for them that he had never done in history and for these people to blindly go through something

I have no understanding is beyond my mind with God God doesn't do such a thing

God gives us understanding and he never ever ever walks by our mind pastor told me that I had to quit and I told him that I was not going to go by material that I was going to go by time we will go we'll go by time and we'll get into the tabernacle itself in just a moment appreciate your patience we'll talk just briefly when you come back about the high priest and then we'll get into its meaning and construction what yes sir if I were to go there there'll be something

I might can do no I understand yeah yeah there there are several of those around the country there's one in Los Angeles where people have

Dr. J. Vernon McGee had some people at Church of the Overdoor where they constructed that and and and obviously the visual and then there good friend of mine in Dallas dr.

Tom McCall he had one that was he'd go in and set that thing up on a big table of course it wasn't like the passion play or something like that but if I'm convinced of this

I know that a person could not be saved today but if a person only had which is like what we're saying the tabernacle he could know

God and he can know there was a substitute and he could start searching for that substitute and if you knew anything about the life of Christ you'd have to see that he was the one

I mean he would just have to see that and when we get into it it is just astounding as I said

I'm excited about it because I I want to share some things with that I promise you you don't know I promise you not that I'm smart

I'm not saying I know something you don't know it just I just happened to look at it you hadn't yet so but that and that's that's relative isn't it it just it's relative that so let's just pray for my father thank you for your goodness and grace to us ask you to continue to bless our hearts again

I thank you for the graciousness and the hunger and the desire that these dear friends have to know you and know more about you and to know your word and then to use your word day by day thank you for a people that love you love you and love your word and it's such an encouragement and blessing to see that there are still those thousands who've not bowed their knees to the bagels of the world that really do desire to have