Abounding Grace

Announcer: Today on Abounding Grace, giving credit to God for all that He's done for us.

Pastor Ed Taylor: God is the initiator. As men and women, we take far too much credit for all that God has done for us and all God continues to do for us. We take far too much credit. Anything that we have to offer to God is what He has first given us. Anything that we have learned, He's taught us. Any good gift we receive has come from our Father, from our Father in Heaven, a Father of lights, the Bible says.

God is the initiator and He will do for man what man cannot do for himself.

Music: This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love, that you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You laid down your life, that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me.

Announcer: Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado, presents Abounding Grace. Good to be with you as we return to Pastor Ed Taylor's new study of Exodus. We'll be in chapter 25, learning more about the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant.

Our hope and prayer is that this study will help you to realize God has done so much for us. Here's Pastor Ed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles, Exodus chapter 25. Exodus chapter 25. We're going to pick up where we left off last time in verse 8. I've entitled our Bible study, God has done so much for us. God has done so much for us. We're slowing down our study a bit in Exodus as we learn about the Tabernacle, its significance as a place of worship, what God has prescribed on how it's to be built, the contents therein. It is the place of worship.

The place where the people of God will gather around. It is the point of contact for worship for this new nation. God instructs them to build a temporary, movable tent that will serve as their gathering place of worship. Their whole lives were to be surrounding this place of worship.

Isn't that cool? You were built and created to worship. To worship the one true God. The idea of worship, not just in music, not just in song, but in life. Worship is the very highest activity that we could ever attain to. That place of adoration and appreciation of God. You can jot it down in Revelation chapter 4. In verse 11, I'm going to read to you from the Old King James, because it does really well with the with the in the translation here.

Revelation 4:11: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things and listen, for thy pleasure they are and were created." You and I were created to bring pleasure to God. That is our existence, that our lives might please the one who created us.

When a person follows God, he or she comes to admire Him and know Him in a deeper way and love Him more. That love continues to grow with each day. It's through that growing love relationship that worship flows. Actually, everything that we do, the Bible says. In work, in play, throughout the day should be done in worship to the Lord.

How many would see just a little bit of an edge taken off at work if you would approach work as a place of worship unto the Lord? Where your life would honor God in that little cubicle, or with that stack of papers, or with every single phone call that you receive. For many years I worked in a call center, and I had just had a headset and a computer, just shooting calls at me all day. I could I had no and if I tried to to cut some calls off to improve my time, my supervisor would always find out. And I would just get call after call after call. And it would be very hard to see a thousand calls a day as worship to God.

But when I was born again, I saw that those thousand calls put food on the table for my family. It put me in a position where I could be kind to them and help them with what they were calling to find out. Everything in life. How many, you don't need to answer this, but how many of you need an attitude adjustment about your work?

Pastor Ed Taylor: There is an Amen in there. There was a lot of them, not me, not me, not me. That's exactly you.

Pastor Ed Taylor: The Bible says this in Colossians chapter 3, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

The nation of Israel then with this Tabernacle, they were being trained. Or the word we may use today, they were being discipled, the nation of Israel then. And the church of God in the new covenant today are being trained and discipled to base your lives upon the relational worship of God. Putting God first in your life, Jesus would say. He made it very clear.

Of all the desperation to find balance in this world and all the desperation in decisions we need to make and what are we The Bible says that our priority is to seek first God's kingdom. And all His righteousness, these other things will be added unto you. That Tabernacle would be the center. The nation of Israel would camp around the Tabernacle. As they were reminded of the worship of God.

Now, turn over, hold your place in Exodus and turn over with me to John chapter 1 and verse 14. I want you to cross-reference this verse with our study over the next many weeks in the Tabernacle which just means tent, Tabernacle. And notice with me in verse 14 of John's gospel chapter 1. The Bible declares, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Circle that word dwelt. Next to that word, you could write a verb, tabernacled. You could say that Jesus came in the form of a human being and dwelt or tabernacled before us and among us. When we study the Tabernacle, I want you to remember each of the pieces will point in some way to Messiah.

Now, I don't believe that God was expecting the nation of Israel to sit around and take notes and figure it out. But rather, He was giving insight in their understanding of worship that as that was being deposited in them, God would then continue to open their hearts in the expectation for God to keep His promises. So that by the time we come to John 1, we learn that Jesus Christ, He took on a human Tabernacle. And He dwelt among us.

For you that are note takers, we looked at this last time, but let me repeat it for you so you can capture it as we go forward. But there are similarities between the Tabernacle and Jesus. Number one, the tent Tabernacle was temporary. It served a very specific purpose for a specific time. Later on, the temple would come as a more permanent form of worship. Jesus, He dwelt among us, also for a short time in His human body on earth, 33 years.

Tabernacle, temporary. Number two, the Tabernacle was in the wilderness. And even so, Jesus with our Lord, He dwelt in the wilderness, not having a place to lay His head. Thirdly, the Tabernacle was humble in appearance. And we'll see that as we study it. There was nothing about it outwardly. When you looked at the Tabernacle, especially as it was picked up and moved and taken along and taken out and put back together over and over again, when you looked at the Tabernacle, it looked like a big tent. One that was used over and over again. It was covered with animal skins and looked similar to many of the tents of the day.

Much like Jesus, the Bible says that He was humble in appearance, taking the form of a servant. Isaiah 53 verse 2 says this of Messiah, "For He shall grow up before us as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him."

Number four. The Tabernacle was God's dwelling place among men. The Tabernacle was God's dwelling place among men. We see today, notice in chapter 25, in verse 8 of Exodus, it says, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." It was the Tabernacle where God would meet His people. Jesus, Emmanuel, we know that means God is with us, among us. Jesus came and dwelt among us. Jesus our only mediator between God and man. The touchable, the huggable, the lovable God wrapped in human flesh.

As we were on our tour on the footsteps of Paul, some of the stops were these very elaborate church buildings in Rome, very elaborate Catholic church buildings. And one of them, we were walking out and there were these big confessionals here. And the team was in there looking and taking their pictures. And I stayed back at the door as people were walking out. And I was just standing there reminding them, I said, you don't need a box. You have one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. You don't confess to a man. You don't sit in a box. You can go directly to the throne room of grace to find help in time of need. Isn't that great? Jesus is our only mediator. And He is the dwelling place of God among men.

You come to Him and you have it all. You don't need to go through man. Don't ever go through man. You can go directly to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Very important. Tabernacle was God's dwelling place. Number five, the Tabernacle provided the sacrifice place for sin. It was in the Tabernacle where the daily offerings for the sin of the nation were offered. Jesus on the cross, as we'll learn this weekend, was the sacrifice place for the sins of all mankind. As Jesus was nailed on the cross and died for us.

In Hebrews chapter 7 verse 26, "For such a high priest was fitting for us, who's holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, who has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the people's, for," speaking of Jesus, "He did once for all when He offered up Himself."

Let's pick up in verse 8 again. And let's study now the Ark of the Covenant. Verse 8. "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it." Now, verse 9, we're not going to get into this in depth, but it is good to comment here and remind you that God requires obedience according to His way and will, not yours. So when He says something, He wants it done His way. That was a very quick I want you to do it.

And it would be very easy to come to something that is being asked to being asked from you and go, "Well, I could do it better. I already know how to do this. It's just a tent. I mean, how hard is it, it's a tent. Just I can make it faster and I can make it cheaper." And, "You know, God, I could do three tents for you." But that's not what God said. God said, "I want you to make this. This is where I'm going to dwell and I want you to do it exactly as I tell you." And I believe that's a word for someone here. Someone listening in, watching online.

It is God's desire for you to do things His way, not your way. It's a very frustrating thing for you to offer God compromise instead of obedience. And they were not to compromise on these things. When He gave instructions, the expectation was that they do exactly what He said. Verse 10. "They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold inside and out. You shall overlay it and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them in its four corners, two rings shall be on one side, two rings on the other side. And you shall make poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold."

Verse 14. "You shall put the poles into the rings on the side of the ark, and the ark may be carried by them. The poles shall be in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I give you. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width. And you shall make two cherubim of gold, hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it one piece with the mercy seat. The cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings and they shall face one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. You shall," verse 21, "put the mercy seat on top of the ark and in the ark, you shall put the testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you. And I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which were on the ark of the covenant," or "the ark of the testimony of all the things which I give you in the commandment of the children of Israel."

Essentially, the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of Testimony was a small box, four by two by two feet in dimension, overlaid in pure gold, inside and out, with a molding. Rings were on either side of the four corners, poles were set through to carry the ark. The priests would put the poles through the rings and inside, we learn later, will be three items, a copy of the Ten Commandments, Aaron's rod and a jar of manna.

Now, here's where the typology gets interesting right here in the beginning. Acacia wood. Throughout the scriptures, wood is used to describe a type or a picture of humanity or flesh. Sometimes in a negative way, but many times humanity. This wood, Acacia wood, is overlaid in gold, which speaks of gold, deity and royalty.

So here you have a box made of wood, humanity, but overlaid with gold, deity and royalty. Speaking again of who? Messiah. 100% God, fully man, fully God. Acacia wood was a harder, darker wood that would last long and take a beating. Jesus, He Himself being eternal one, in His humanity, took a beating for us. Acacia wood was able to grow in dry, arid climates.

In Isaiah 53 verse 2, speaking of Messiah, the Bible says, "For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness and when we see Him, there's no beauty." Acacia wood, the bush also had thorns. What would be twisted in the head of in the skull of our Savior? A crown of thorns. The Acacia wood also had a unique property that the Bedouins would pierce the bush for the gum resin that resided in its trunk. They would take that resin and use it as a healing balm for their cuts and their bruises and their pains.

Isaiah 53 verse 5. "He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed." Now, you'll recall in the New Testament, there would be an occasion, even on one occasion particularly, where Jesus rebukes the religious leaders telling them they should have known the day of His coming. They should have known He was Messiah. Not only in His revelation, but beginning very early on in the scriptures, the Bible is pointing, it is the story of the coming rescuer of God.

Something as simple as the Ark of the Testimony with, notice, verse 17, now has a lid, the box does. The lid is known as the Mercy Seat. On it to have two cherubs or you'll notice in your Bible it says cherubim because I M is the plural for cherub. A cherub is an angel. It was to have two cherubs, a form of an angel, on either side. Their wings are to be outstretched. Put it on top, put the Mercy Seat on top, but inside put the testimony.

So this glorious piece of furniture is the first to be built. The first instruction. The first thing I want you to make for this place where I'm going to meet you is not the walls, not the poles, not the side. The first thing, God says, I want you to do is I want you to create and make the place where I will meet you and speak to you at the Mercy Seat. That's what it says, notice, in verse 22. "I will meet you." That's there is where I will meet you and speak to you from above the Mercy Seat.

This is the only time we read of God meeting at a specific location and promising to meet there regularly is on this particular box. This box was God's solution to the gulf between man and Himself. This was the place where their failures were covered. I reference you can read through Leviticus chapter 16 for all the details. The blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat so that the law inside, the testimony, the law inside that once condemned the people was covered by the blood. It's amazing. God is saying I will meet you and I will speak with you and I will give to you and I will be there with you and I will honor my word with you.

Which reminds us as we think of the Ark of the Testimony, we think of Jesus, God is the initiator. As men and women, we take far too much credit for all that God has done for us and all God continues to do for us. We take far too much credit. Anything that we have to offer to God is what He has first given us. Anything that we have learned, He's taught us. Any good gift we receive has come from our Father, from our Father in Heaven, a Father of lights, the Bible says.

God is the initiator and He will do for man what man cannot do for himself. This is the essence of pride, by the way. The essence of pride is thinking that you can do what only God can do and beginning to offer that as if you're God or greater than God. But God is gracious with us and He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

And we fast forward today, it's a perfect, I love how God weaves together our Bible studies, both on the weekends as well as in our midweek. He just weaves them together, His perfect timing, travels, when I'm away, the guest teachers, all the words that God has for us. And then He puts it together because as we fast forward today, Christianity is not based on what man can do. It is not a man's works-centered relationship or religion. Although men have made it that. And large religious systems are based there authority or their teachings on the efforts and energies of men. The best that we can offer to God is stumbling around in the darkness.

And perhaps, we know, here or there we might end up doing something right. But truly, all man can do is stumble around. The gospel is not a message of working hard. And the gospel is not a message of reading much or singing louder or making sure the that I am attending church and somebody sees me. No, no, no, no, no. Remember we read in Psalm 9, "The blessing goes to those that are seeking Him." Not seeking something from Him, but just seeking Him. Not trying to offer up, "Look what I've done for you, God. Look how important I am. Look how much I've done for you." Somehow obligating God. No, no, no, no, no.

God says, "Build it, this box, this way, out of this wood, with this gold, make sure you got the rings and the poles. Make sure the lid is built built a certain way, it's got to be this specification. Put the testimony in, and I'll tell you what to put in. It's going to be the law. Put that in, cover it, and that's where I'm going to speak to you right on top of the law. I supersede even the law," God would say. And we come to God because of what He has done, not because what we have done. It's that way every day of the week.

Announcer: This is Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. To give this a second listen, just go online to aboundinggraceradio.com or onplace.com or listen through the Calvary Church app. You can search for Ed Taylor to download that today. What is real worship? Is it a playground, a battleground, or holy ground? Warren Wiersbe looks into this in his book titled Real Worship. There are no shortage of books dealing with how to worship, but few that give a definition of true worship. Wiersbe has noticed four elements in true worship that involve wonder, witness, warfare, and wisdom. And we'll gladly send you a copy for a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Thank you for remembering us in your prayers and your giving to the Lord. Your gift, whatever the size, will serve to help us reach thousands with the message of Christ. You can reach us toll-free at 877-30 GRACE. Again, 877-30 GRACE. Don't forget to ask for Real Worship as you give. You can also order it online at calvaryco.store. And if you'd like to just make a donation and you're not interested in the pick of the month, you can just go online to aboundinggraceradio.com. Connect with us through social media. We're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. There's a link to each page at aboundinggraceradio.com. There's another great study in Exodus to look forward to tomorrow on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. May God richly bless you with His abounding grace.

Announcer: Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church, Colorado, here in Aurora.