Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Do you believe that the blood of Christ is all sufficient or not? Pastor Ed says there's no middle ground.

So many have it backwards. You're trying to earn God's favor. You're approaching God with such a deep works base. It comes out in so many different ways: perfectionism, pride, striving for positions or notoriety, and just unable to ever be happy with what you have to offer God and wanting to one-up. You got the A, you want the A+, instead of resting in the Lord. But it's even worse when it comes to your spiritual life. You either believe that the blood of Jesus Christ is all sufficient, or you don't. There's no middle ground.

Guest (Male): Well, this past weekend Christians all over the world remembered all that Jesus has done for us at the cross and through the resurrection. And as we'll discover today on Abounding Grace, the Tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant also remind us of all that Jesus has done for you and me.

The timing couldn't be better as we dig into Exodus chapter 25 now with Pastor Ed Taylor. Let's be reminded of how good God is and how to be responsive to the grace of God.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Acacia wood was a harder, darker wood that would last long and take a beating. Jesus, Himself being the 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 and 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 says, "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 will 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 to the story of the coming rescuer of God. Something as simple as the Ark of the Testimony with notice on 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 -im 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. By 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 and 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've received has come 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. 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 at all, although men have made it that.

And large religious systems base their authority or their teaching on the efforts and energies of men. The best that we offer to God is stumbling around in the darkness and perhaps 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 that I am attending church and somebody sees me. 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. 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 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 that." 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.

How can I come to God though? I haven't kept His commandments. Nobody comes here today that would have clean hands and "Here we are, I've kept all your commandments, Lord." No, you haven't. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. How do we come to Him? Is it because we've kept the commandments? No. For the Ark of the Covenant, when they would come to the Tabernacle and come to the Ark, they don't come because of the law because the law is hidden in the box. They're not even going to see it.

They know it's there, but it's not to be seen or to be read. It's to sit there under the lid. But that was no ordinary lid. It was the place where God would meet them: the mercy seat covered by the blood.

Only Jesus kept the law. Only Jesus has a perfect pedigree. The Bible says in Psalm 40 verse 8, "I delight to do your will, oh my God, and your law is within my heart." In John chapter 8 verse 29, Jesus said, "And He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."

The Ark of the Covenant is a stark reminder of all that Jesus has done for me, all that He has accomplished on my behalf, all that He is currently doing in my stead, interceding for me, pleading for me, standing against the accuser of the brethren on my behalf. And I come to the Father in Christ, not in my works. I come to the Father under the mercy that God has shown me that I did not. And by the way, as I say I did not, the same is true for you. I did not receive what I deserved.

Instead, I received the mercy of God and the patience of God. I think of every single person here that's represented in the room that has been invited to our services by you because you love them and you care about them. And you care not only about who they are now, but for their eternity. You want them to hear about God's love for them.

And whether they say yes or no to your invite, that's not really what's so significant in your role, at least. Because for you, what do we do? We plant, we water, but who gives the increase? God. Every time, God. So we just are faithful, let God do what He needs to do with however those invites go.

But why do we invite them? Because we know that when they hear the Gospel, it has the power of God. The Gospel is the power of God to change their lives. And why is it that God gives them a chance right now, a few days? Let's just say that He doesn't return and we have services. Well, why does He give them the time? Because He's being merciful with them. Every moment of every day they're not receiving what they deserve.

They're receiving the mercy of God, even outside of relationship. Now how much more as we approach God, we come to the mercy seat, not the judgment seat. We come to the mercy seat. You see, most believers have it backwards. Once you get this straight, it's going to open up a channel in your life that will blow your mind in your relationship with God. You can ask some that live under the authority and the beauty of the grace of God and they'll tell you what freedom there is in following Christ.

And you don't want to have this backwards, but most do. They live like this: "I'll meet God in the Ark. That's where I need to be in the Ark. I'll keep the commandments. I'll be a good little boy and a good little girl and I'll make people proud of me and I'll get noticed and people will see me." It's in all of us, you know.

We did some training recently. I just - my heart can be so dark sometimes. And it's not even a big deal, but the Lord just showing me. We did some training here. We went on the trip, I did it when I got back, and you have to take a test at the end: 25 questions, I think they were. Why do I know they're 25 questions? Because I paid attention to them. 25. And so I'm answering the questions after the little video training, click, click, click. And I'm waiting because it doesn't tell you, "What's your score? What's your score?"

I just want to let you know, 100%. 100%. So I come back to the staff meet today. What do I say? "Hey, I just want to let everybody know what my score was. What was your score?" 80, and over here, and I remember when I sent it in, the person I sent it in to shot a little email back, "Good job, 100%." What was my response? "I wish there were some extra credit questions because I'm like an A++ kind of person."

Now, what does that come from? It's the same thing I'm talking here. This sense of, "You know, God, I'll please you. I'll get an A++. I'll make you proud of me." When all the while in Christ He loves me. If I scored a zero on that test, He loves me. If I had to retake it over and over again, the test isn't the point.

It really wasn't the point. The point wasn't - and I really didn't take it for that, although it did trigger in me my flesh. I really was paying attention. I really did want to learn the subject matter. It's very important for the oversight of this church and I did want to learn it. And that's why I took it out of relationship, but just a little test at the end can provoke the flesh.

And that's how life is sometimes with the Lord. I know your motives are to please the Lord and honor Him, not to earn favor. But you know, there are those little temptations to try to one-up someone. And your neighbor got an A-, you want an A+. Or your neighbor, and when I mean neighbor, I don't mean who you live next to, I mean the person you're sitting to right here. It's like, "You know, if they got a compliment, I want two compliments. If someone saw that, I want to be seen."

And we approach God wanting to be seen, we approach God wanting to earn. You have it all wrong. You don't meet God in the Ark, you meet God on the Ark, on the lid, in the place of mercy, not judgment. Let me show you. This is very clear. Turn over to Romans chapter 3. We have a few moments still, and you can see why we're going to slow down. These are so important, I don't want to just go through them quickly.

Notice with me, Romans chapter 3. When you get there, pick up in verse 21. I want to meet God in the mercy seat. I don't want to meet Him at the place of judgment at the law. The law is unable to make me righteous. And my keeping of the law does not make me righteous. It's not in the Ark I meet God, it's on it.

Notice verse 21, Romans chapter 3: "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God is what? Through - say with me, church - through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all - mark this - who believe. There's no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely how? By His grace." It is all over the Bible.

So many have it backwards. You're trying to earn God's favor. You're approaching God with such a deep works base. It comes out in so many different ways: perfectionism, pride, striving for positions or notoriety, and just unable to ever be happy with what you have to offer God and wanting to one-up. You got the A, you want the A+, instead of resting in the Lord. But it's even worse when it comes to your spiritual life. You either believe that the blood of Jesus Christ is all sufficient, or you don't. There's no middle ground.

It's what God has done for us. He says, notice, and this is important in verse 24 at the end, "through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth..." and there's a big word there, "...to be a propitiation." Propitiation. Circle that word. You can write next to it: atoning sacrifice. Or, you want to know another how this connects with our Bible study, you could write next to it: mercy seat.

Jesus is our mercy seat, our atoning sacrifice. His blood, it says verse 25. He's the propitiation, He's the offering, He's the sacrifice, He's the satisfaction of God's wrath. He's the place where He will meet God - meet God will meet with you. God will forgive you. God will cleanse you where? At the mercy seat, at Christ.

It says it's through His blood, through faith, demonstrated His righteousness because of His forbearance, or His mercy, His patience, that God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. Righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. God rushes in to rescue and to help us and deliver us from ourselves. We don't use that word "propitiation." I'm glad they kept in the New King James - it's an old King James word they kept in the New King James - and I want you to remember it because it's so odd, we don't use it anywhere else except in the church.

It speaks of atoning victim, or as I said already, the mercy seat. Jesus is our propitiation. You and I should have died, but instead He died and hung on the cross. He suffered for me. He hung in agony for me. He gave His life for me. Confucius didn't hang on a cross. Buddha didn't hang on a cross. Mohammed didn't hang on a cross. Jesus hung on a cross for you and me.

That's why He can say He's the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. That's the whole heart, the whole idea. It's not a narrow-minded statement. At times, Jesus will be accused of being narrow-minded, you and I will be accused of being narrow-minded. But when it comes to matters of your own soul, you're going to want to know the truth.

And there is only one way. God is giving us the picture - come back with me now to Exodus. This is the only place that the children of Israel would meet with God during this season. This is it. This is the only place where their sins would be dealt with: on the mercy seat. The mercy seat that covers the law. That covers the law.

God will provide His perfect Son. And the question is, will you receive or reject Him? For the children of Israel coming out of Egypt, coming out of all this idolatry, all these foreign gods that all of them, you're going to see in our study even later, they came out of Egypt, but it was hard to get Egypt out of them.

You and I, we've come out of the world, but there's this work of God of getting the world out of us, purifying us, changing us, transforming our minds, renewing our minds, washing our lives. We can leave the world, but we're still in the world, and much of the world is still in us.

And God says, "This is the way. I want you to make it this way." Well, why, God? Which is an interesting question. I'm very grateful that God allows us to ask it, but it's really not a question He's obligated to answer. "Well, let me explain it to you, son, everything..." No, I told you what to do, just do it.

Make the box, get the right wood, get the gold, put the rings. There's a right way and a wrong way and you want to do it the right way. It's a very simple lessons here. Because it matters. It matters that the testimony was inside. "Not, well, you know, I want to rearrange the box a little bit. Let's take the testimony out and we'll put it up on the angels. It'll look really nice and..." No! There's a reason why it's in the box. Because the law can't save you.

The law is unable to save you. The law has only been kept by the mercy seat. It's sealed in the box by the mercy seat. The mercy seat pointing to the propitiation to come, the one way of salvation, the precise fulfillment of God's prophetic promises of coming Messiah: one way, one man, the eternal Son of God.

The cross of Jesus Christ is the place where you will find forgiveness and love and help with the sin that has so completely devastated your life. As we leave here today and we enter into the beauty of this coming weekend and we just think about His death and burial and resurrection, I want you to leave here just thinking God has done so much for you. He's done so much. He's so faithful to us.

Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful and you can come to Him at any time and any moment. "That's not how I was taught" or "That's not how my home was" and "We were taught this" and "We were taught that." I understand, we all have received inaccurate teachings throughout our lives, but God has put me in your life to declare to you the truth, to undo all those false teachings, introduce you to the God who loves you, that Jesus Christ fulfills all that the Bible says.

And even in the early stages as God is forming the nation, delivering them out of Egypt from their slavery, from their bondage, parting the Red Sea, bringing them in, taking care of their every need, even in their faithlessness He continues to take care of them because He has a plan and a purpose. And even today if you have "Why, God?" know this: God is not obligated to answer that question although He may. But I can say this: I'm so grateful that you're so close to God that you would ask Him why. He's the right one to ask. He's the right one to come to. He's the right one to yield your life to. It's not what we have done for Him. It's not what we will do for Him. But man, God has done so much for us. And we are grateful. Amen?

Guest (Male): Well, we're enjoying the study in Exodus here on Abounding Grace. Pastor Ed Taylor is our teacher on the program and you can hear these studies again online at aboundinggraceradio.com and through the Calvary Church app. Check out Ed's blog at edtaylor.org and look for his podcast, Lead to Serve, on Apple Podcasts. There he discusses the value of servant leadership.

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And we'd love to have you join us for a service here at Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado. To see when and where we meet or to watch our live stream, visit calvaryco.church. Glad to have you with us for today's broadcast. We look forward to continuing the journey through Exodus next time on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. In the meantime, let's be drawing on God's abounding grace for daily living.