Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Pastor Ed says we're stronger together than apart. By yourself and by myself, I'm very unbalanced. I'm very shaky and vulnerable, just like a piece of wood that can't stand on its own without help from a socket, without help from a holder, without help being coupled together. But linked together, we're strong.

We're always stronger together, church. You know that, right? We're always in our strongest position when we're in unity. The Bible says if you're going to fight for anything—I'm paraphrasing Ephesians—but if you're going to fight for anything, you need to fight to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Anyone that is participating or being used to participate in division is not being used by the Lord.

Guest (Male): It is time once again for Abounding Grace online at aboundinggraceradio.com. We're in the middle of a study in Exodus with Pastor Ed Taylor, and today taking a closer look at Chapter 26. The Tabernacle was a portable tent of worship for the children of Israel, and we're quickly noticing each part of it and everything in it speaks of Jesus. So, let's be looking for Messiah today here in part one of "God's Mercy Invites You In."

Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles to Exodus Chapter 26. We'll finish the chapter today. Exodus Chapter 26, the title of our Bible study is "God's Mercy Invites Us In." As we follow the children of Israel, remember they're leaving Egypt. They've been delivered, set free, led out by God himself. Along the way, they are learning. They're led out by God himself. They have been crying out for a deliverer, and what does God do? In the perfect timing, he provides a deliverer.

As they follow Moses, now they not only have a God that hears and a God that acts on their behalf, but God has also put a man in their life to lead them and to help them. He's answered the call. He was that reluctant servant. He wasn't so excited about it in the beginning, but God convinced him. He was convinced that God's way was better than his way.

As the children of Israel are leaving Egypt, they're learning. But in order to learn, number one, they need to unlearn a few things. There have been generations living in bondage of slavery. They have the mind of a slave. They can't help that. To us, it would reflect our old person, our old man. We're learning that as we study through Galatians. You, especially if you were saved later in life, you have a mind filled with bad habits—bad, sinful habits.

As the children of Israel then, us now, we need to learn, but we also need to unlearn our lives. Number two, they're also learning to live freely, which is very hard to live as free men and women, families. They're not being ruled by taskmasters anymore, but rather they're learning to live in relationship with their creator.

Number three, they're also learning how to follow the leader. They haven't had this before. Any leaders in their life have been cruel and harsh. So now they're learning to follow by faith. They're learning to trust God and trust the people that God has put in their life. They're learning how to follow their leader.

They're also learning, number four, how to live in a new covenant relationship. This isn't the new covenant of the New Testament, but rather remember they made a covenant with God. God made a covenant with them, and this becomes their relationship—God's definition of relationship. It's a very glorious time, very wonderful. They're very excited.

But as we know—they don't know this yet, but we know—they're also going to be filled with ups and downs and some big failures, some faithless failures that they're going to pay the price for forty years of wilderness wandering. They don't know that yet, but it's ahead. Even so, Jesus, as we are pausing here and just thinking about their whole life, just like you and me, right? You and I are in a process of learning. We don't know everything we need to know. We will never know everything we need to know until we see Jesus face to face. Then we will know, the Bible says, even as we are known.

So, we're also all learning. The problem, of course, with learning is the older you get and the more experience you have, the less you think you need to learn. "I've got this. I already understand. I've been here before. I've done that before." No, no, no. Proverbs Chapter 3 verses 5 and 6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he'll direct your paths."

Truly, that's what we want. We want to be directed. In order to be directed, we have to take the position of learning. That's really what a disciple is. That's the definition of a disciple. A disciple is a learner, someone who sat at the Rabbi's feet to learn. Jesus would say this later on in Matthew Chapter 11 and verse 27. We often skip over this little phrase as we quote this verse, but I want to read it to you.

Verse 27, Matthew 11: "All things have been delivered to me by my father, and no one knows the son except the father. Nor does anyone know the father except the son, and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him." And then the familiar passage: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Even as I was thinking of this myself, this is often when I quote this verse from memory is where I stop. I might jump ahead and say, "Rest for your soul" and emphasize that.

But there's a part just after this that's super important. What I need to do is quote it from memory, including this part of the verse. He says, "I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." Jesus's instruction: we're going to come to him, we're going to cast our cares upon him, we're going to take his yoke, we're going to exchange, we're going to trust him, we're going to enjoy his rest. But he says, "I want you to learn from me."

That's our whole life. Everything about life is to learn. He says, "I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden is light." In Exodus 26, with that in mind, we are in the middle of the Tabernacle and the instructions being given to build this Tabernacle, this portable tent of worship that will end up being used for forty years of their wilderness wandering. This is what's up in front of them, but God is preparing them for today.

As we study the Tabernacle, so much of it points as a picture of Messiah, of Jesus. We learn in John 1:14 that the word became flesh and dwelt, or tabernacled, among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father. So, review. We've learned a few of the pieces of furniture so far. First, we learned about the mercy seat, the place of the presence of God there on the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the testimony. On top of it was the lid, the mercy seat, the place of the presence of God the father.

Secondly, we learned about the table of showbread, speaking of Jesus, the bread of life. The third was the menorah filled with oil, lit up, speaking of the Holy Spirit. Inside were to be those linen curtains made of five each, held together with fifty clasps of gold. Four colors, you remember, were to be used: white, blue, purple, and scarlet. Blue speaking of the color of heaven, purple of royalty, scarlet speaking of sacrifice and blood, as well as white linen speaking of humanity. This is what the priests would see as they would walk in. This is what they would be surrounded with.

Then the layers of goat's hair with the bronze clasp and the rams' skins dyed red, symbolizing the sacrificial blood. Now, verse 14, we pick up: "The covering," he says, "of rams' skins dyed red for the tent, and a covering of badger skins above that." Now, the badger skins aren't the prettiest sight. This would be the outer layer, the outside protective layer of the Tabernacle. It was the covering that kept the Tabernacle safe from the elements of the world, from the weather, from the wilderness, from the scorching sun, the torrential rains, the wind-blasting sands, and even the wild animals.

This covering of leather was symbolic of a protective separation from the world, speaking to us of Jesus as our protector and our guard. In Isaiah 41:10, "Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you and uphold you with my righteous right hand." This outside badger skins would be what the Moabites saw when they came by, what the Canaanites saw, what the other "ites." They would see it and think just such a common little tent, nothing very special about it.

It would be like today—the best way you can think of it is like if you saw a mansion today but it's all decrepit and covered in moss and never cleaned. On the outside, it wouldn't look very attractive except for the sake that it's a mansion. But on the inside was where the beauty was. Again, speaking to us of Jesus in Isaiah 53 verse 2: "He shall grow up as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness," speaking of Jesus, "and when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him."

Now, pick up in verse 15: "And for the Tabernacle, you shall make the boards of acacia wood standing upright. Ten cubits shall be the length of the board, and a cubit and a half shall be the width of each board. Two tenons shall be in each board for binding one to another"—mark that, "binding one to another"—"thus you shall make all the boards of the Tabernacle." And verse 18: "You shall make the boards for the Tabernacle, twenty of them on the south side. You shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards: two sockets under one board for its two tenons, and two sockets under another board for its two tenons."

"And on the second side of the Tabernacle, the north side, there shall be twenty boards and for their forty sockets of silver: two sockets under one board, two sockets on another. For the far side," verse 22, "of the Tabernacle westward, you shall make six boards. You shall also make two boards for the two back corners of the Tabernacle. They shall be coupled together at the bottom, and they shall be coupled together at the top by one ring. Thus it shall be for both of them. They shall be for the two corners."

"So there shall be eight boards with their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets: two sockets under one board, two sockets under another board. And you shall make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards on one side of the Tabernacle, five bars for the boards on the other side of the Tabernacle, five bars for the boards on the side of the Tabernacle for the far side westward. The middle bar shall pass through the midst of the boards from end to end. You shall overlay the boards with gold, make their rings of gold as holders for the bars, overlay the bars with gold, and you shall raise up the Tabernacle according to its pattern which you were shown on the mount."

Which is interesting to me as the instructions were given. Moses was already given the view of this Tabernacle. It's almost like God downloaded everything into Moses's mind. So he had the framework in his mind as he was receiving these instructions. He was able supernaturally to understand the instructions and give them directly to those who were given the instructions. They were to receive them and follow them, and it was given to him this pattern that was shown to him on the mount.

So, you've got all these boards of acacia wood: twenty on the north, twenty on the south, six on the west, leaving the east open. Why would he leave the east open? Well, when Jesus Christ returns again, which direction is he coming? From the east. He's coming into the east. Which gate is he going to enter? We take you there when you come to Israel with us, and we will point the actual East Gate is far underground right now.

But the one that's showing on the wall with the Muslim cemetery in front of it—because they thought if they put a Muslim cemetery, no good Jewish Messiah would come, as if he's going to look at the cemetery and say, "Oh, I can't go through there." But the real gate is far below that. Messiah will come back and enter in through the East Gate. There is a gate there. It's not the original, but it's there on the wall. It was built years later that you can point to and be able to see, and I always like to draw that out when we're standing there looking at the East Gate from the Mount of Olives. It's fascinating.

But notice, back to the acacia wood. The acacia wood's mentioned again and it speaks to us. We already learned that the wood, the acacia wood, speaks of humanity. It's just an ugly bush-type tree that grows in the desert, and like any tree, it has to be cut down and it has to be cut up in order to be used as a place where God can dwell and come and reside. That's the instruction. You need to take the acacia wood, but it doesn't start as boards; it starts as a bush-like tree.

Here the wood speaks of our life in relationship to Messiah, our lives. Our lives need to be cut down and cut up and worked on. I'll give you one example. You say, "Ed, what do you mean? I'm not following." Okay, let me give you one example. When you and I were saved, young age, later on in age, one of the things that God needed to cut down in our lives is our pride. Can I get an amen on that? He's still kind of shaving that, isn't he? Still kind of fashioning and forming us as the boards.

We're not perfectly fashioned. There needs to be a cutting away of the pride and the arrogance. There needs to be some different work that needs to be done in your life that needs to be done in my life that needs to be done in your life and your life as God is fashioning and molding us. It all begins with being born again, newness of life. To be washed, the Bible would say in First Corinthians 6, to be washed and cleaned up, to be sanctified, to be justified.

You'll notice that all the boards were of the same height for this Tabernacle. That makes sense. That way it would be symmetrical and it would look even as the Tabernacle was built. But there's also significance with us. Why would we all be the same height? Well, I can recall that the cross puts us all on equal ground, you know? There isn't anyone in here that's more important than anyone else.

Whatever you may have that you lean on that perhaps puts you a little bit ahead in society or maybe puts you a little ahead in your family or puts you a little ahead of someone—not with the Lord. At the cross, we're all equal. And so whether you have that sense of accomplishments that might put you a little ahead, or you have that sense of failure that might put you a little below. No, no, no. We're all equal. It's all important that we recognize that in God's sight, we're all on equal ground.

Then he talks about these sockets of silver. Silver in the Bible is a metal of redemption. Redemption. The silver was all there where the poles would be there and the boards could be fastened into those poles. The foundation of the Tabernacle would be a foundation of silver, or redemption, all around. These boards speaking of humanity of equality held together by redemption, by silver. We were once lost, but now we're found.

These boards no longer stuck or planted in the world like they were as a bush, but now used greatly by the grace of the power of Jesus Christ. You can think of your life right now. I couldn't help but think as I was meditating upon one of the commentators' view of the Tabernacle and I was meditating, I'm just thinking about my own life of what God saved me from. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

He's taken something that's very ordinary and continues to be ordinary until he or she is in the master's hands. I mean, the boards, they would just be laid down. They're just like any other boards, but when they were set up for the Tabernacle, they were sanctified and set apart for the use of God. They weren't like any other boards. They were special and yet they were equal. Doesn't that sound like the church?

There isn't anything that makes us any better than anyone else. We are ordinary, but in the master's hands for the master's use, we're special because we are there to glorify God, to welcome men and women into a place of worship. Not only that, they had to all be the same height, but they could only stand upright if they were linked together. They needed to be built together exactly as God prescribes.

They wouldn't be able to be standing strong unless the instructions were followed. Notice again verse 24, notice: "They shall be coupled together." Did you see that? "Coupled together at the bottom, and they shall be coupled together at the top by one ring." And we saw earlier as the boards would be building, verse 17, one to another. They would be together and they would be fastened together.

Listen, each of the boards was a cubit and a half, but together they made three cubits. Three, a number in scriptures of godliness like the perfection of the Godhead, the Trinity. By yourself and by myself, I'm very unbalanced. I'm very shaky and vulnerable, just like a piece of wood that can't stand on its own without help from a socket, without help from a holder, without help being coupled together. But linked together, we're strong.

We're always stronger together, church. You know that, right? We're always in our strongest position when we're in unity. The Bible says if you're going to fight for anything—I'm paraphrasing Ephesians—but if you're going to fight for anything, you need to fight to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Anyone that is participating or being used to participate in division is not being used by the Lord.

Unless you're being divided from the world by the badger skins. I mean, that's being divided from sin. But within the body of Christ, division kills churches and kills friendships and kills so much progress that the church could be making if we would just couple together in the Lord the way the Lord prescribed. Allowing God to work in us, we have to be linked together, church, standing strong alongside of each other, bearing one another's burdens, helping one another along the way.

I believe it's very vital for every believer to be hooked together with another believer. It is not enough to just consume, be a Bible consumer. That's what our world has created. The church is filled with consumers. What do you mean by that? Well, your attitude, you can think of it this way. If you approach your relationship with God in this mindset, and whether it's toward God, toward a church, toward another brother, toward a ministry, whatever, and your thought is this: you walk in, let's say you walk into church tonight, and this was your heart: "What does this church have for me? What does this church have for me?"

Well, you're just a consumer. What do you mean, what do we have for you? What do you want? "Well, I'll take a hot dog and some peanuts and a nice up-front seat and I want to be escorted." What do you mean, what do we have for you? What do you think you're going to get from a church? A Bible study. Maybe a good one, maybe not, but you're going to get one. We're going to sing to you. What do you mean, what do we have for you?

Well, you can see you've just become a consumer, and God doesn't disciple you. You know that consumer mindset didn't come from the Lord. In Mark Chapter 10 verse 45, we see just the opposite. Jesus came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus is the epitome of a giver. He is the picture of generosity.

You see God is not discipling and developing consumers—"what do you have for me?"—but rather he's discipling and developing communers. When you're worshipping God, you think of not what you have for me, but you walk into a church service like this, you walk into a prayer meeting, you come together and you go, "What do I have for you, brother? Are you okay, sister? You don't seem so strong, you don't seem so straight. I haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been?"

Because you used to be so strong coupled together. You used to be so strong, but the enemy's just dividing and wanting to take away, and a lot of it is this sense of "I just need my needs met. I just want my needs met. Just meet my needs." And I'm telling you, Jesus Christ on the cross through the blood that was shed in relationship has met all our needs. All that we need is found in him. Peter tells us we've been given all things pertaining to life and godliness.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today as we study through the Bible and learn of God's abounding grace. This is Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Are you interested in hearing this message again? It's easy to do. Just visit aboundinggraceradio.com, 1place.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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