Shall we pray Father we thank you that your word enriches our souls and enlightens our minds may it indeed be a Lamp to our feet and a light unto our path We thank you for our Savior the Lord Jesus the one who is high and holy and yet who comes so close to us and Who meets our needs in his name? We pray amen? I don't know why there was a ring left on the pulpit if anybody is missing a ring and while I'm at it I can't find a Yamaha guitar. Did I lend it to anybody?
And and while I'm at it I have a book that disappeared on Bible characters if anybody has that book on Bible characters And Lord when Jayakumara sitting there thinking, you know, I probably don't have to return that battery charger No, he would never think any such thing. I'll leave that ring right here One of the things that Christendom has struggled with is what to make of the Old Testament That's a struggle that continues on to today in some denominations as you would know men wear special clothes and wear funny hats and Actually literally swing incense around This is judaistic and Goes back to some of the things that I'll share with you this morning But in fact what first Peter two nine says is that you are a chosen generation a royal priesthood Don't need the guy funny hat anymore. There used to be a guy with a funny hat and it was taken in immense seriousness I should be careful what I say We are the people of God the children of God and we have inherited much But it still leads to this kind of ongoing Theological controversy and there would be seminaries on both sides of what I'm describing to you There would be seminaries that would be let us I will actually use a word with ism Everybody's going ooh, I don't like ism words any word that ends in ism. I don't like it dispensationalism It is a system of theology and it allows us to consider the various eras or eons as it has in Ephesians 210 in the Bible on the other hand you have the Seminary's in schools of theology that would emphasize just to man under law and man under grace But wait a minute the entire book of Genesis predates Exodus with Moses So then the entire 50 chapters of Genesis.
What do we make of them under what system or under what? Umbrella looking toward God is man working under when he is innocent in the garden That is not under the law the law is a long ways away What system will this earth be under when the Lord Jesus returns and reigns with a rod of iron? That's neither the law and the door of grace has closed and so Dispensational schools of theology would then look at the Bible in terms of seven major divisions Non dispensational and anti dispensational sometimes called replacement theology would not attend to emphasize the law and grace So we can still shake their hand with the right hand of fellowship and say well you are saved I know that you are saved, but we differ on various things So this is a good background for you this morning and for your lives because we live in an age in which you can find people Who are supporters of Israel and you can find lots of people who are anything but supporters of Israel and they say that they are Christians And I have no reason to doubt that many of them are Christians now We need to as it says in 2 Timothy study to show thyself approved of God a workman approved Need not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. That's an interest.
It's not a proof of dispensationalism, but That word or so tomato means to cut something talking about the Bible to cut something at 90 degrees Intersections and Paul had a number of other words if you look in W Evine Paul could have selected a number of other words instead of selecting one of those other words which are more metaphorical He actually makes a metaphorical application of something that's almost medical so a laboratory would have a micro tome That's able to slice off a piece of tissue that you can see through the micro tome or though tomato means to cut it 90 degrees in other words that you need to be able to divide up in a sense in a right sense the word of God into its appropriate eras to use the Ephesians word or Dispensations to use a common seminary theological word and if you don't you then find that there's a lot of fallout from that What is some of the fallout from that? Well, if I look at the church collection of books for you to show you as The out and out replacement of Israel if I look at the promises to Israel and do it on with 30 in Jeremiah 16 37 of coming back to the land if I view them as being null and void So there are seminaries out there teaching that that those promises for Israel to come back into the land were nullified Because the Jews rejected Christ and the church has whole less bolus You know that Latin phrase it means all cabbages thrown in the pot everything the church has completely Replaced Israel and the promises made to Israel are null and void every one of them Now that means that you are taking passages of the Old Testament such as the ones I mentioned and saying that they have no future validity What is the fallout from that the fallout from that is that when the perhaps a Presbyterian looks at some of the features of Leviticus What to make of it? They are reluctant to look at the tabernacle my subject for this morning In a typological sense in a future sense In a future sense because they've already committed the decision that they don't want to look at other passages about Israel in a future sense So we're going to get into the habit of not looking into things in the Old Testament as having a future application And in some cases as yet unfulfilled then we actually have trouble knowing what to do with The tabernacle and the ancient priesthood and I have a commentary written by a so-called Reformed theologian who believes in this supersessionism or replacement theology on the book of Leviticus and I tell you what I was chatting with a brother slim pickens slim pickens the Application of the book of Leviticus was simply you know if you're going to do something do it carefully do it in detail pay attention to the details And that's it what do you not see that Christ fulfilled this priesthood? Do you not see all of the typology that's contained in every aspect of this tabernacle?
I'm telling you slim pickens, but it's the fallout from insisting that the Old Testament is basically a Shut door at the end of Malachi So it's good for you to be aware of these things as we approach a discussion about the tabernacle I just love the fact that some years ago when the Jayakumar family came to us that the younger one is named Bezilil I just love it this applies to that person and the first thing I said to Bezilil which was not a fair question for a boy of perhaps seven five five This was when you first came and who did Bezilil work with? I don't know Holaab Bezilil and a holy of or given skills special wisdom and special knowledge How to build this wonderful tabernacle to construct a sanctuary for God Wow there's a responsibility One commentary point study said you know if you think that there is the secular Doing perhaps by analogy Reynolds to this church. Well, that's secular We can we can get really mad when we hit our hand our thumb with the hammer when we're doing Reynolds to the church's secular activity But when we're saying in hymns, oh, we're all really spiritual God gave Bezilil and a holy of wisdom and knowledge to do a physical work Which was a spiritual work and the commentator pointed to don't make the distinction There's no such thing and that's an important life lesson to do you view your job as a completely secular thing that you grind your teeth Through from nine to five and you don't expect to have one spiritual moment from nine to five and then you come home And you breathe a great sigh of relief and you say now I can be spiritual That is the wrong way of approaching life and that's one of the I think lovely messages of God giving that kind of wisdom to build a special Sanctuary for Jehovah this morning. We sang the word ineffable the word ineffable ineffable has two meetings One is that that cannot be expressed in words So even the best poet in the world would not be able to describe that beautiful sunrise it defies description The other is not allowed to say it the Jews are not allowed to speak Yahweh Not allowed it's ineffable legally ineffable They would pick up a new pen when they wrote down the tetra grammaton those four Hebrew consonants Never speak it even today for observant Jews Ineffable our God is still holy and high as we sang this morning and yet in the person of Christ He comes to us and by virtue of the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer.
We are in a relationship with God So there's four Main parts of this and we'll see how the time goes because it's already 12 noon And this is the first slide of the actual message itself. So I better better be careful One of these messages God desires to meet you I'm taking us what they like to call the 30,000 feet view of these things you can go into detail Oh my where did I put them you can go into detail the PowerPoint will be made available The tabernacle the priesthood and the offerings a companion best volume volume to the holy vessels and furniture of the tabernacle Written about mid-at mid-1800s by brother Solto in southern England Shadows of redemption with the tabernacle on the cover by CH Waller and a Hans book on the tabernacle with a menorah Which was outside the holy of holies? There is a great deal of imagery and typology here We could be on this for a couple of years But I'm going to take the 30,000 feet if I can view and I want you to take something away this week and that is The image of that tabernacle which you'll see in an upcoming slide and it is this God wants to meet with you God wants to meet with you. This can take place anywhere Actually the wilderness is a good place And in fact, although I say God wants to meet with you the instruction of scripture is that there should be in your life a rhythm to this Our lives are full of rhythms God says make your relationship with me part of the rhythm of your life A follow-up from that is to come together like this and to have a corporate expression of the rhythm of worship They had it we should have it Finally that there are terms to any relationship any serious relationship any meaningful relationship including a man or a woman's relationship with their God God desires to meet with you You know if I were to say How many people have you met loosely in your life?
You wouldn't be able to tell me it'd be in the thousands of people that you might have shaken hands with and said Hi, I'm George I'm David and then you actually don't even remember that happening 20 years later many many people and then maybe went a little bit farther And they became your acquaintance and you actually still remember them although you're not in contact with them anymore You did have some interaction with them. Are you in a meaningful relationship without acquaintance? No, you are not and That is of course perfectly natural. We can't have deep relationships with every my mother used to say every Tom Dicken Harry relationships that are deep and meaningful of the kind that God calls us to Have an aspect of holiness of sanctity of set apart nus a gyzo means set apart Set apart when two people get married.
They are setting themselves apart for one other person Being either the wife or the husband for the spouse There is a sanctity to marriage. There is a sanctity to your relationship with God and this is I think these things these types these images Scimata in the book of Hebrews. There's not this actual diagrams, right? There's actual dimensions these guys were amazing engineers of 3,000 years ago These the the design of this meeting place in the center of it is the holy of holies Do you just trance in there?
This relationship has a sanctity. It has a holiness at its core and it's also Beautiful as we'll see when we think of what was hanging up between the holy place and the holy of holies how do you contrast and compare that with the the offer to the Nonbeliever and the reminder to the believer in the New Testament Jesus is talking to the woman at the well And she sort of dabbles in religion and she knows something about the difference between Samaritans and Jews that goes back to Rehoboam and Jeroboam the to that came after Solomon and split the country But the hour come at the now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him In spirit and in truth that is what you are called to to have a meaningful relationship with God And the Lord Jesus himself said an absolutely amazing thing. We were singing a very very appropriate song 20 minutes ago a friend who is high and holy what? Strictly speaking that doesn't make any sense.
I am neither high nor holy. How can I have a friend like that? But that's what God has done in Christ and what does he say come on to me all ye who are labored and heavy laden And I will give you rest For I'm me can lolly and heart and you will find rest for your souls You will find rest for your souls What a wonderful thing, but that is what is there for the child of God in this age of grace Second point this could take place anywhere when that cloud started to move they pulled the stakes the boys mobilized We're moving time to go where don't know I love this. I love that you look back there I don't some of you have been to Israel and you know what?
What wilderness looks like when I when I first saw for example the Judean wilderness my reaction to that was well There's a place to die boy. Oh boy. You don't see a blade of grass and it's hot man How about living there? What no, thank you.
Why why did this even happen because of faithlessness? Do you need time to focus on the Lord? Maybe you need some wilderness time. There's a brother in this church He really impressed me he actually built a separate building and that's what he uses for his devotions leaves his house in the morning early It goes over to the other the side really I'm impressed.
That's a good rhythm. That's a good spiritual discipline Focus on the Lord we have Lots of screens some of them are this big some of them are this big and we have computers and everything and it's uh I myself a very interested in current events and politics and so on, but it can go too far Don't let it push out your spiritual disciplines. I always remember Teaching for in Africa for two months in the late 90s. I got close to the Lord.
You know one reason No phone. Well in those days we're talking late 90s No internet and no TV whatsoever no TV whatsoever Just me and my mom came to take care of me. She found out I was going to Africa She said at the age of about 65 can I come can I come and I thought well if I get back from teaching and suffers ready That's awfully good So I did Do the air ticket and this was on us this is through cedar and the air ticket was on you But the and the accommodation was provided so there's no monthly rent or anything And it was a wonderful time and I've at the end of two months. I can tell you I marveled at how close I felt to the Lord Sometimes we just need a place with which has zero distractions and it can be in theory anywhere the tendency I think is to Rather than have a meaningful relationship with a meeting.
We're talking a serious meeting between you and God You're probably a lot like me Which is better than nothing but during the day from nine to five although I am retired I'm getting jip rocked us in my hair every day and In terms of nine to five The arrow prayer, you know you've heard this concept of the arrow prayer Nehemiah standing in front of a Persian king and the king says is there anything I can do for you? You look kind of sad and he says my temple back home is in ruins So what shall we do says the king and Nehemiah ends up a prayer right on the spot? Let me read this Nehemiah 2 then the king sent out to me for what does now make request? What would you like so I pray to the God of heaven and I said to the king well that must have been a pretty short prayer I pray to the God of heaven and I said to the king God guided him right there on the spot and that is part of your Christian heritage That is your birth right that is your second birth right to be able to do that to call upon the Lord with zero notice to the Lord Just send up that prayer Don't let arrow prayers be a substitute for spiritual discipline what we see in the book of Leviticus is not only a lot of spiritual discipline We see a spiritual discipline that this church would not be able to sustain that I can I'm on the board of this church I we talk about renovations in there.
Oh my goodness But I can guarantee you that if we had to mount a Levitical system at this assembly it would be absolutely out of the question We'd get a great big F with that amount of onerous sacrificial duties and garment duties and feast duties these things become onerous So they speak but they actually speak to the need to be replaced because they're so onerous Getting a little bit of help ahead of myself Let me finish what it said and I said I'm to the king if it please the king and if I servant has found favor in thy site that that would ascend me unto Judah I'm to the city of my father's sepulchres that I may build it he sent up that prayer he held his breath for a moment and That that king took action on behalf of the exiled people They're actually Exile 586 BC just a little bit toward the end of the book of second Kings. It's over They are Taken off to Babylon and Babylon not long after is overrun by the Persians This is a famous verse and concept Seeing that that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the son of God Let us hold fast our profession for we have not a high priest who cannot be touched by the feeling of our infirmities But who at all points was tempted like as we are yet without sin And this is a great verse that we hold on to let us therefore come boldly Onto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in time of need When will that time of need come if you enter into a time of need tomorrow? At 1 o 3 p.m. Did you see that coming?
You may well not have seen that coming and you can send up an arrow prayer if it comes because you have access to the holy of holies in a sense Because you're a redeemed soul and that soul can come into the presence of God at any time. What a contrast Yom Kippur in the fall Once a year the high priest goes in once a year with blood and tradition has it that he had a Chore tied to his ankle if he drops dead We'll pull him out because nobody else can go in they'll die to the holy of holies Yeah, the wilderness is a good place to meet with God the Lord Jesus went to a solitary place to pray and we can go into our closet so to speak if we don't have an out building and Pray to our father and he sees us and our hearts in that secret place and he will deal with us openly What a wonderful promise for that New Testament child of God living under grace Well, this is not a bad thing This looks awfully complicated because it is the book of Leviticus is a nested presentation of Wow feasts at the beginning and sacrifices at the end moving toward the center of priests and the requirements and of Qualifications Leviticus 21 22 and moving toward the center a little bit is 11 to 15 ritual purity I'll make is 18 to 20 moral purity getting toward the center. What's in the center of the book the day of atonement? the day of atonement Redemption In fact, it was the temporary covering of sins with animal blood and as I said earlier this entire system with burnt offerings grain offerings Peace offerings sin offerings trespass offerings.
It's an onerous system It covers everything that the child of God could imagine and more So you should read them and you should think about their higher meaning and enrich your soul But they're onerous and it's a wonderful thing as you can read in Hebrews 9 and 10 that this entire system is now Defunct it is a defunct system because the Lord Jesus has completely replaced it and made it not necessary and personally become The atonement the center of it all interesting and the in terms of getting into some of the details that That high priest Requirements placed upon him to be bodily clean and to have these special clothes and so on He stood in front the altar of incense was there and then right behind that is this veil this basically impenetrable veil and it Was crap in a in a holiness sense. It was crafted of finally twisted linen I believe that speaks to us of the Lord Jesus. You know your DNA is a twisted thing. This is finally twisted Yes, very finally twist he was found in fashion as a man in fashion as a man Philippians to eight is the fabric in every way He was human he was born of a woman under the law and he came from the blue he came from heaven and the Scarlet speaks of redemption In the purple speaks of royalty Marvelous and then it doesn't actually say that the embroider to cherubim were gold But since the ones just on the other side of that barrier over the Ark of the Covenant were gold It's reasonable to assume that the embroider to cherubim on that hanging Blocking him out from the whole of holy of holies were also embroidered with gold thread You know if I was that man, I would really pause Other side once a year the holy of holies at the string connected to my hand There's the angels.
I'm gonna see the real the Sculpted ones the 3d ones. I'm gonna see them in a moment here. They are on that curtain that veil as it's referred to going through Very very serious But what do we read we read in Hebrews 10 and Matthew 27 that veil was torn apart Wonderful and very sobering the Lord Jesus Was bruised for our niquities by his stripes. We are healed his body was broken The veil was rent when he died on the cross from top to bottom Well, you can't even reach up there.
That's not a human Red from top to bottom the Lord Jesus was as it were rent on that good Friday for you Here's a little picture that I love You know that that's an effort on his chest and you know that each one of those precious stones represents a tribe of Israel and As we read in Hebrews the Lord Jesus is our high priest I love this image because it tells me that the that you and I Are close to Jesus heart and he knows your name He knows my name and he holds us close to his chest close to his heart because he loves us He knows us. He knows all our frailties. He knows all our failures He knows all our history and he loves us and keeps us close What a lovely image for that ancient high priest and he's been totally replaced in terms of the the rhythm of life As I mentioned earlier this morning as it happens that the Lord doesn't ask us to do this You know 27 chapters and Leviticus and all of this heavy-duty stuff. It's amazing.
Some of the you know the book of Galatians Makes this point how much of this do you really want to bite off? How much of the law and the legal system do you really want because there's no such thing as taking part of it? You're either in it or you're not that's what he told the Galatians But in terms of a rhythm of worship especially corporate worship the Lord Jesus said it says in Luke He took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them saying this is my body Which is given for you this do in remembrance of me is that a lot to ask? Acts 2 42 and they continued steadfastly in the apostle doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers Wow very far cry from Leviticus very far cry number five There was actually a very specific arrangement as to which tribe should be on which side of the four sides of the outer barrier and You know when you when you think of the some of the older mainline religions with priests within sense It's just looks like what is this a repeat of a little bit of it Leviticus and the hat and everything very often in some of those churches see that seat right there George paid for that George paid for That seat to George sits there don't sit there.
Don't sit there. He paid for that literally literally It's nothing like that now Now we worship in our weekly rhythm of worship Which I hope is reflected in your personal life on a day-to-day basis because again It's nested you have morning and evening and you have Shabbat you have a weekly feast sometimes It's considered one of the it's considered the eighth feast that rhythm and seven years and 49 years the nesting of time Is also found in Leviticus. You have rhythms of life It's amazing when you we were chatting yesterday on ESL about that you can't get parts for a 1998 Kawasaki Wow, that seems like that's the year 2000 what that the year 2025 years ago. No wonder Kawasaki doesn't have any parts left Well, that's just because the passage of time is is totally run away on me.
It's 2025 the new millennium was 25 years ago Where has the time gone soon? I'll have an eighth grandchild. What? You know, but in terms of entering a new phase of life think of it in terms of you know For those of you who still have a lot of life and and possibility of fellowship possibility of family possibility of many things Think of building into your life that rhythm of worship The instruction in Hebrews is clear not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as a matter of some is But exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching are you looking forward to the return of the Lord Jesus?
Encourage one another I happen to be up here But I wouldn't be if it wasn't for you the amount of fellowship and spiritual nourishment and spiritual help and correction that I have received It has been enormous. Well, that's God's design It's God's design for you to be part of a body Ephesians talks about ligaments and muscles and bones and everything fitly held together in the body of Christ That's what we need. We need to take our place. We need to function We need operate properly but within the freedom of Christ and my time is gone You know there are terms to any meaningful relationship.
I had a former boss who finally did Cohabitate and that was with not the modern way right the Hollywood people do this Nuptual agreement. I don't know I think if you have to write down every last detail of how you're going to behave within a marriage The width of the encyclopedia Britannica is not enough to take down everything you need to write down and the moment you both sign that thing Then next week you're going to find that there's something else that's not in the you know the 27 volume agreement It's not a it's it's a it's a relationship. It's a relationship of love and In fact the the natural man often says look this stuff this more vague stuff I just can't handle it write it down for me I want a checkbox religion and what you'll find is that in some of these religions like Mormonism the list of checkboxes is unbelievable Including wearing special underwear and so on and so on and so on Oh my goodness, but you know what the natural man loves it the natural man loves to walk into the Mormon Tower Oh what or the Catholic Basilica? Wow It's impressive.
It's impressing to the eyes. Yeah, but what's going on in here is there any? truth Spirit and truth going on inside sadly no But that's what God wants he seeks worshippers who worship him in spirit having been indwell and in truth with correct knowledge and correct doctrine We need then and now they look forward we look back To deal with the fact that God says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins and those temporary sacrifices that pointed forward They're all done. They're all finished the system is finished for us who come to the Lord's table on Sunday morning at 9 3 We merely merely shall I use that word look back on the fact that our sins have been washed away by the blood Not of an animal but of the son of God God the son was found in fashion as a man And he shed his blood and his body was rent and it's finished and it's paid for how wonderful how truly wonderful I'm going to skip over these next three things and Say this to you in closing are these things foreign to you?
Are you sitting here this morning and this is all bizarre? You need to look to the Lord Jesus Christ There was one thing that was in many of these slides which I did not point out One way in that area of the formal worship of God had one entrance only one And Jesus said in John 14 6 I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father but by me There's only one way in To be sanctified to be redeemed for the blood of Christ to be applied to you and that is the Lord Jesus so if you know him not I would say you need to get down on your knees and Asked for his repentant ask for his forgiveness and you need to repent Your need is for repentance and faith That is your need and come to God the Father through the only way which is the Lord Jesus Shall we pray Father? We thank you for our time in which we have thought about your word we pray that The invitation that you have laid out in your word that you would desire to meet with us That we would avail ourselves of that privilege avail of it with rhythm but also avail of it in times of need we Thank you father for your goodness to us in Jesus name amen. We're going to sing a song