0:01 Welcome once again to Words of Life. We are studying God's Word and are in the book of Exodus right now. And in our last two sessions, we considered the first half of Exodus. 0:21 And now we come to chapter 25. And in the next two sessions, we are going to consider the rest of the book of Exodus. And this refers to the tabernacle which God told the Israelites to construct. 0:45 So, if you turn to Exodus chapter 25 and verse 8, the Lord told them, let them construct a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them. So, the tabernacle was supposed to be a sanctuary for God. 1:12 It was supposed to symbolize God dwelling in the midst of His people. And it was a picture of Jesus Christ who tabernacled in the flesh among us. And it is also a picture of the church which is God's dwelling place. 1:38 So, when you study in these chapters about the tabernacle, we find it is different from the way we would construct buildings. When we construct a building, we would first of all describe the outer dimensions of the building 1:59 and then go down to the details. But, when God gives us a description of the tabernacle, the first thing He describes is the Ark of the Covenant which is in the most interior place of the tabernacle. 2:28 So, that is what we see in Exodus 25 and verse 10. And, starting from the innermost place which is in the most holy place. Then, He goes out to the holy place where He talks about the lamb stand and the table of showbread. 2:53 And then, He talks about the tent itself. And then, He comes outside to the altar. And then, to the outer court of the tabernacle. So, you see, God starts from the innermost place and moves to the outer place. 3:19 You see that in chapter 25 to chapter 27. So, God begins from Himself because His presence was supposed to be over the Ark. The true Christian life is like that. 3:42 The Bible begins with the words, In the beginning, God. And, when Jesus taught us to pray, He said, first of all, pray, hallowed be thy name. A spiritual man always begins with God in his life. 4:02 You must begin your day with God. That's what we learn from the tabernacle. Start from the presence of God and then move to the outer court. A lot of people, as soon as they get up in the morning, they are in the outer court straight away. 4:24 And that's why their whole life is confusion. Another thing we see here is, That God told Moses in Exodus 25, verse 40, See that you make everything according to the pattern which is shown to you on the mountain. 4:47 Now, Moses, when he was 40 years old, He had studied in the best colleges in Egypt, How to build pyramids and so many wonderful constructions they have. And here, God was asking him to build a very simple tabernacle. 5:09 If God had given him this pattern at the age of 40, He would have modified the whole thing, And said, Lord, this is not good enough. Leave it to me. I can make it a wonderful construction. But by the time he was 80 years old, 5:31 He was a broken man. And the mark of a broken man is, He just obeys God blindly. He doesn't question. He doesn't ask like the devil asked Eve, Why has God not allowed you to eat of this tree? 5:54 No, he just obeys. He says, I don't know why God has not asked me to do it. I just do what God says. And Moses' attitude was that. I don't know why God has asked me to make such a simple little thing. But that's God's will, I do it. 6:17 And you find in the end of the book of Exodus, Moses did exactly what God told him. And that's why the glory of God came on the tabernacle. And that is why the glory of God is not in many churches today. Because we have modified God's plan in so many things, 6:37 and saying in the 21st century, we can't do things like that. And that proves we are not broken. So, now we will go to the study of the tabernacle. Now, I want you to have a look at this chart. 6:58 See, in the chart, we see there, a picture of the court. First, we see a picture of this tabernacle. Here's a picture of the tabernacle. The whole tabernacle with the camp and the tents around it. 7:21 And now, we see a little diagram of the court. And you see this diagram of the court now. It's 150 feet long By 75 feet broad. 7:42 Or, we can say, about 50 meters by 25 meters. And at the entrance, you see a gate. Which is about 10 meters or 30 feet wide. And in the middle you find in this diagram is the tent itself with the holy place and the most holy place. 8:12 And that, the tent itself is 45 feet long by 15 feet wide. And 15 feet high. Now, notice this tent. 8:35 It is... We will come back now and look at the chart of the tabernacle itself. See, the outer court is just a simple white linen. That's the wall of the court. 8:56 And that white linen is described here in chapter 27. And verses 9 to 19. And here we read about this outer court, its length and width and everything. 9:18 And this white linen indicated that God's people were separate from the world. white symbolizes simplicity. And purity. 9:40 And righteousness. And that is what protects God's people when they are inside God's house. The Lord said in Zechariah 2.5, I will be a wall of fire around about my people. And notice in this picture 10:00 of the tabernacle, that there is only one gate. There is only one way into God's house. And that is a picture of Jesus Christ. And this tabernacle is so small compared to the whole 10:21 camp of the Israelites. So also the church. It's a very small group of people in the midst of a world. I wonder sometimes whether there are even 10% of people in the world 10:42 who are really born again. God's children? I mean, there are 6,000 million people in the world today. I don't think there are 600 million born again people. 11:04 So few. not even 600 million, not even 60 crores or 600 million. So it's a very small percentage of people who are really become children of God. Constitute the real church of Jesus Christ. 11:28 And now, let's have a look at this tent. See this picture of the tent. The height of this is 15 feet. Length is 45 feet. And the width is 15 feet. So the most holy place 11:48 covers two-thirds of this length. Or 20 feet long. and you get into and you get into the most holy place is a cube. 15 feet by 15 feet by 15 feet. And this tent as you see 12:11 in this picture is made with boards with two legs that sit on silver sockets. and you see there in the picture 12:35 and you see there in the picture with two legs sitting on silver sockets. and those two sockets speak of faith and obedience. That is how each believer 12:55 becomes a part of God's house. And in the same picture of the tent you see these curtains you see these curtains there are four curtains as you can see here in this picture. In the first picture you see 13:16 a curtain of fine linen in the innermost covering is a curtain of fine linen. You see that in this picture. And that picture is righteousness. That is the dress of the bride of Christ. And that is the innermost dress. 13:38 It is not something we show on the outside. This fine linen is not on the outside. It is on the inside. And our righteousness must be inside. Then you see in this picture the second covering. That is the covering 13:59 of goat's hair. That is the picture of Jesus Christ as our sin offering. They used to offer goats as sin offerings. And then the third covering is a covering of ram skins dyed red. 14:28 And that also is a picture of the animal killed the blood Christ being being a substitute for us. And then the last covering is a covering of badger skins. 14:51 It is another animal which we are not very clear about. and it was very dirty because all the dust in the desert was falling on it. You see there it is an ugly brown covering on the outside. 15:14 Now let's look at the picture of the tabernacle again. You see the outer covering is all this dirty brown color. The glory was seen only on the inside. 15:35 Psalm 45 verse 13 says The king's daughter is all glorious inside. So these are the lessons that we can learn from the study of the tabernacle. It's our inner life 15:56 that is most important to God. Outside is a covering of reproach. Jesus also the Bible says there was no beauty that people should desire him. So a Christian is not someone who looks very attractive on the outside. 16:18 This beauty is all on the inside. And now we come to the next thing which is in the outer court. In the outer court you see here a picture of this brazen altar. 16:41 And that brass altar is described in chapter 27 verse 1 to 8 where it says you have to make this a wood and the last part of verse 2 overlay it with bronze. 17:02 So the outside appearance was bronze. And this is the altar as you can see here in this picture. It was a hollow square box. And in the picture 17:22 you can see four horns in the four corners. And you see a grated network in the picture at the bottom half of the altar. inside the sacrifice 17:43 is laid inside touching the ground. Because God said you must only make an altar of earth for me not made by human hands. So this was like an enclosure inside which was the altar. 18:07 It was like a hollow box. And it was a picture of Christ being sacrificed on the cross. And the Bible says they had to tie the animal to the four horns of the altar. So that it 18:27 could not escape. It's a picture of Jesus who steadfastly set his face to go to the cross. It was no human being who bound him. What was it that bound him to the horns of the altar? It was his tremendous 18:48 love for his father. And it is that love that enables us also to be crucified with Christ. Nobody forces you to take up the cross or to be crucified. Your love ties you to the altar. 19:10 And another thing we can learn from this. The wood inside inside this bronze would have all been charred by the fires of the altar. And that's a picture of the inner 19:30 sufferings that Jesus went through which nobody could see. opened up this bronze and looked inside the wood would have also become black. There are a lot of inner sufferings that Christ went through which nobody knows about. 19:53 the next picture which I would like to show you is the brazen laver which in chapter 30 we read in verse 17. In chapter 13 verse 17 we read about the brazen laver. Verse 18 you shall make a lever of bronze. 20:14 And that's like a bucket of like a tub of water in which Aaron verse 19 had to wash his hands and feet and his sons. And it was very important in verse 20 that they should wash their feet and hands otherwise they'll die when they 20:32 enter into the tabernacle. So if the first altar was a picture of being Christ being a sacrifice for us and this is a picture of our 20:52 cleansing the Bible speaks about being washed by the water of the word in Ephesians Y 25 26 the Lord washes us with the water of the word God's word has a cleansing effect 21:12 we can also see this is a picture of water baptism which symbolizes that cleansing so the first step as soon as you come through the gate if you look now let's look at the picture of the tabernacle once again you see 21:34 you come through the gate and the first thing you see is this altar a picture of Christ on the cross and from there you go to the laver and then only you can go to the inside of the tent and so 21:57 we see there that you come to the altar then you come to the laver then you can go inside the tent so the Lord speaks here about cleansing in both these places sacrifice in one place and cleansing 22:17 these are the things that are in the outer court and only after you've gone past the sacrifice and the cleansing can you enter the holy place in the holy place 22:40 not everybody could enter only the priests could go in and in the most holy place only the high priest once a year and the priests in the holy place served the Lord there were different 23:05 things inside that holy place and they had to serve the Lord in putting bread on the table or lighting the lamp stand or offering the incense but before 23:25 you went into all that service for the Lord you have to come to the altar and the laver then only you could go to the place of service you can't go to the place of service without first being crucified with Christ 23:45 you are absolutely sure that his sins your sins have been completely cleansed by his blood and and you can never get into the service 24:06 of the Lord if your conscience is not always clean and if everything that you know has not been cleansed the Bible says cleanse your hearts and wash your hands in the 24:27 book of James so there is an inner cleansing and an outer cleansing to serve the Lord outer life must be clean our inner life must be clean and that is symbolized by the altar and the laver and from 24:48 there we move into the holy place where we can serve the Lord we'll think about that in the next session God bless you welcome again to words of life we're 25:09 studying through the Bible and we have come to the book of Exodus and we are continuing our study on the tabernacle which is listed in the last 16 chapters of the book of Exodus chapter 25 25:31 to 40 now we may wonder what is the need to study all these things in such detail we don't want to go too much into detail but there are certain things here which we can learn which are 25:53 of value in our spiritual life because here God shows us how we can approach him two mistakes we can make going too much into detail and spending many hours and days and weeks studying just the tabernacle and there 26:16 are many clever people who have written very thick thick books with hundreds of pages explaining every detail but it's only knowledge you don't get much spiritual profit from it it's human cleverness that can find all types of 26:36 meanings and various little things we don't want to go to that extreme of error and we don't want to go to the other extreme where we ignore the whole thing because this is quoted in Hebrews chapter 9 and you 26:57 won't understand that if you don't read what's written here so the Holy Spirit brings it out in the New Testament so now we come to Aaron's garments the garments of the high priest and this is described in chapter 28 and 27:19 in chapter 29 we read about the consecration of the priests so notice first of chapter 28 and verse 4 there are a number of things mentioned here which constituted the special dress that Aaron had to wear he 27:42 speaks in verse 4 about breast piece and an ephod which is like an apron you know which sometimes women wear in a kitchen and 28:03 and it was in shape like that and then it says a robe and a tunic of checkered work made of fine linen and then a turban and a sash these 28:24 were holy garments for Aaron and his sons to minister to God and then it was described how this ephod was to be made in verse 6 and it describes also about 28:44 two shoulder plates verse 7 to join these two ends of the ephod so here we see the picture of Aaron's garments and you can see the colorful dress he was wearing the 29:07 tunic of fine linen and the robe of blue and the ephod and then you see on his shoulder there are two stones in the picture of which symbolize God's power lifting 29:27 carrying us on his shoulder see when we carry children on our shoulder it's because we are strong God's God's God's power shouldering and upholding us 29:49 remember Aaron is a picture of Christ Aaron and now notice in this picture also the breastplate which is on the ephod and there are 12 stones you can see here in this picture that's symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel 30:10 but it's a picture of God's love carrying us on his heart and there was one more thing which the high priest carried in his dress it was probably some type of stone we don't know exactly what it is it was called the Urim and Thummim 30:33 and that was to find out the wisdom of God to know God's will in different situations so the shoulder plate is described in verse 28 and verse 7 onwards the breastplate in chapter 28 verse 15 to 21 30:53 these three things the breast, the shoulder plate symbolize, the breast piece rather symbolize love the shoulder plate symbolize power and the Urim and Thummim symbolize wisdom and in 2 Timothy 1.7 these are brought together 31:17 God has given us the spirit of power, of love and of wisdom then I want you to see the turban mentioned in chapter 28 verse 36 and on this turban was to be an engraving called holy to the Lord 31:40 notice this turban in this picture that Aaron is wearing there that turban was to symbolize his taking away verse 38 the iniquity of the holy things see, we know the iniquity of the sinful things 32:06 but this is the iniquity of the holy things God has to cleanse us even from the sin which is there in our holy things and Jesus has to bear that also what is the sin of the holy things it's the only place in the bible where that expression comes 32:28 like you know when you pray prayer is a holy thing but when you pray to impress people that is sin in the holy thing preaching is a holy thing but when you preach to make money 32:48 that's sin in the holy thing or you preach to get honor that's sin in the holy thing giving money for God's work is a holy thing but when you give money to get honor for yourself there's sin in the holy thing so, in other words, the motive with which we do something 33:13 brings sin into a holy thing what a lot of sin there is in the holy things in Christianity examine yourself do you judge yourself, cleanse yourself from the iniquity of the holy things 33:35 that's what Aaron's turban symbolizes now you see this other picture of Aaron in a white dress and when Aaron went before God in the most holy place he had to get rid of this colored dress 33:57 and wear a completely white dress and when he went before the people he had to take away this white dress and put on this other colorful dress so, what is this symbolizing? 34:18 that white symbolizes purity and when we come before God it must be with absolute purity there must not be a spot in our white dress but when we come before people 34:38 we should not try to show our holiness to them so, we must take off this white dress that is the meaning that means our holiness is before God we leave it there before God and we don't come and show that before people and one more thing 35:01 in verse 33 and 34 we read at the hem of his robe he had to have verse 34 a golden bell and a pomegranate alternative this speaks of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit so, we need both 35:25 Jesus had both some people discuss should we have fruit or gifts I said we need both now we go inside the tent see this picture of the table of showbread 12 loaves you can see in this picture 35:46 symbolize which 12 loaves for the 12 tribes of Israel but this bread symbolizes Christ as our food he said I am the bread of life and now this table by the way 36:07 was 3 feet by 1 and a half feet by 2 and a quarter feet 2 and a quarter feet so, this is the height length and breadth then we come now see the picture of this lamp stand with the seven branches and this is a picture of Christ and the church 36:32 Christ is the light of the world and now he tells the church you are the light of the world in Matthew 5 and you see in Revelation chapter 1 and 2 that the church is a lamp stand and now you see a third picture this picture is of the altar of incense 36:56 which you read the table is described in chapter 25 and verse 23 the lamp stand is described in chapter 25 and verse 31 and the altar is described in chapter 30 and verse 1 37:20 that is an altar for burning incense it says this is not an altar for sacrifice this is a picture of prayer which we have to always offer up to God and it is a picture of Christ as our high priest praying for us all the time 37:40 so, in the holy place there were only these three pieces the table the lamp stand and the altar where they offered incense and it is possible that during the most during the one day on which the day of atonement 38:02 when the high priest went into the most holy place it is possible that he may have taken this altar into the most holy place because a verse in Hebrews chapter 9 seems to indicate that and now the last 38:23 is the picture of the ark it is described in chapter 25 and verse 20 sorry, chapter 25 verse 10 and there you read about the cherubim in verse 20 and this is the place where God says 38:47 in verse 22 of chapter 25 I will meet with you there and here you see in this picture of the ark and inside this ark there was the manna, you see this picture the three things inside the ark 39:08 there was manna and Aaron's rod which budded with fruit and the tables of the old covenant and the lid as you see in this picture of the ark is called the mercy seat and this is supposed to indicate the presence of God with his people 39:32 but what happened when God's people backslid they still had the ark but the glory had departed and that's what's happened many times in Christian churches the new testament pattern is there 39:53 but the person of Jesus is not there and the anointing of God is gone now lastly we want to see the builders of the tabernacle that you read off in chapter 31 that you read off in chapter 31 that you read off in chapter 31 40:11 Besaliel verse 2 and the son of Uriah, the son of Hur he was one of them and verse 6 Aholiab and verse 3 we read God fill them with the Holy Spirit So to do this work 40:34 they needed the spirit of wisdom and knowledge and ability which the Holy Spirit gave them So then even to do God's work in those days you had to be filled with the Holy Spirit So there in a brief way we have seen the tabernacle 40:57 Now I want to tell you one more thing that between the Holy place and the Most Holy place as you can see in this picture See this picture of the tent now In the tent you can see there is a curtain between the Holy place and Most Holy place 41:15 That was the veil which later on in the temple was rent when Jesus died on the cross We read in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 20 this is a new and living way that Jesus made through his flesh 41:35 So now the veil is rent we can go straight into God's presence So in conclusion Let's look at what the three parts of the tabernacle look symbolized Here you have the outer court 41:58 the Holy place and the Most Holy place Look at this chart now This is the outer court the Holy place and the Most Holy place Three parts Just like man is a trinity Spirit, soul and body 42:18 Spirit and soul are hidden just like Holy place and Most Holy place are hidden And the outer court is visible like our body is visible Where does God dwell? In the most Holy place? In the spirit 42:39 So these three parts of the tabernacle symbolize three stages of our spiritual growth In the outer court In the outer court we are accepted by the sacrifice of Christ Then we go to the Holy place where we serve our God like the priests did 43:02 And then in the most Holy place we have fellowship with God That is the most important thing Acceptance, service and fellowship and then we can say the outer court symbolizes being born of the spirit or born again 43:26 And the next stage, Holy place can symbolize the baptism in the Holy Spirit And then the most Holy place And then the most Holy place being led by the Holy Spirit in daily life Or we can look at it another way 43:50 In the outer court we thank God For what He has done for us In the Holy place we praise Him for who He is And in the most Holy place we worship Him Which is not in words, it is probably in silence May we offer our all to Him 44:13 In the outer court the only light was the light of the sun And that's natural light In our unconverted days we have natural light And very often in our early days of our Christian life We have only natural understanding 44:30 Then we come to the Holy place Where is a lamp stand There is the light We get a little bit of light from God's word But when we come into the most Holy place 44:52 It's God Himself who is the light It's not just some written word Then we can also see If the outer court is a picture of our being babes in Christ And the Holy place of our being young people in Christ And the most Holy place are becoming fathers in Christ 45:22 See in 1 John chapter 2 Verse 12 to 14 He speaks about these three stages of spiritual growth Babes, young men, fathers This is spiritually babes, young men, fathers We can look at it in another way Jesus spoke about our fruit being 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold 45:45 So this is also a picture of outer court, Holy place, Most Holy place It's a picture of spiritual growth What is the greatest? What did we think in the most Holy place? First of all, fellowship with God 46:06 Much more important than service and acceptance Led by the Spirit, not just baptized in the Holy Spirit Worshipping God, not just praising Him Not just even the light of the word Or our human understanding But God's life has our life 46:25 And not just being born again babes Or even becoming zealous young men But becoming spiritual fathers Caring for others And finally And finally 46:45 Not being satisfied with 30 fold fruit Or 60 fold even 100 fold Maximum potential of ours must be used for God in this one earthly life Now, if you come to Exodus chapter 39 and 40 47:05 I think about 18 times or so the Bible says Moses did exactly as the Lord commanded him Exactly as the Lord commanded him Exactly as the Lord commanded him And thus chapter 40 verse 33 he finished the work 47:25 And what was the result? And what was the result? The glory of the Lord verse 34 filled the tabernacle And wherever they went in their journeys It says in verse 38 There was a fire on top of that most holy place by night 47:49 And all the house of Israel could see it See, this is the mark of God's presence there Now, all the dimensions of the tabernacle are given here If the Philistines got a copy of the book of Exodus 48:09 They could have made a tabernacle just like this Everything exactly down to the last detail But there's one thing they could not copy And that is the divine fire on top of the most holy place In the same way 48:31 Today when people build the church You can copy the pattern of another good church You can copy the way they have their meetings You can sing this from the same song book Preach the same doctrine And everything the same 48:52 You can even read a brother's book and preach the same message Or listen to his tape and preach the same message But the fire that was on his ministry won't be on your ministry Because you've only got the pattern Like the Philistines copying the tabernacle 49:15 Today a lot of preachers are copying other preachers That's like the Philistines copying the tabernacle What is missing? Fire is missing What is the most important thing? You do everything according to God's will 49:35 And the fire of God is there We must seek for this fire of God in our life and in our ministry And we must be broken like Moses to do everything exactly as the Lord says May God help you and me to do that 49:55 God bless you God bless you
