The Healing Word

Guest (Male): The healing word ministry on one place is brought to you by the generous donations of people like you. At any time during today's message, feel free to send a prayer request or make a donation using the links provided. Now, I pray you will be blessed as Pastor Jack Morris delivers a message from the word of God that will encourage and strengthen your faith in him.

Pastor Jack Morris: Now friend, God wants you in his presence. He has told you through his word how to get into his presence. He is going to do great and mighty things. But you must confess. You must acknowledge and it must be an ongoing thing.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the healing word, a ministry dedicated to offering strength and encouragement through God's word for anyone facing life's challenges. Today's message is here to meet you at your point of need, bringing hope and renewing your faith. Now, here's Pastor Jack Morris.

Pastor Jack Morris: Now today is in messages entitled moving closer to God. That's my prayer is that we will remember what is said today and what is said today will be said from the word of God and will move all of us spiritually closer to the Lord. Okay, here we go. You've seen this before. Let me point out a few things about it again today. Where we're going today is back here into this room. These there are two rooms here. The first room is called the holy place and the second room the holy of holies. We're almost in the presence of the Lord face to face with the Lord.

This is where we're going. We we start out here where we purchase the lamb. Everything represents Jesus is typical of Jesus. We take the lamb. The priest slaughters the lamb here and takes the body and the blood of the lamb to the altar. The body of the sheep is consumed on the altar. Blood is splashed on the altar. The people of Israel could go that far with the priest. But then only the priest could go on to the laver to be washed and then on into the holy place and ultimately the holy of holies. Now, all of us today through Jesus Christ are kings and priests under the Lord and God is calling us all to move forward closer to him ultimately coming into his holy presence.

Now, last week, you remember I talked about the priest. The priest went through his ceremony of cleansing before he took the lamb out here, had it slaughtered there, took it there and went on in. When the priest cleanses himself through the bull and the two rams. Remember last week's sermon? The bull represented salvation. The blood of the bull represented the cleansing of the priest. The blood of the second animal, the ram represented the thanksgiving because of the first offering. The first offering was the offering of salvation, the bull, the blood. The second one immediately was thanksgiving and then the third animal, which was the second ram, represented the blood put on the the the right ear, the tip of the right ear, meaning that the priest now should be a hearer of God.

Oh my friend, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to hear the word of God. The blood of Jesus is on your ear today. Your hearing has been purchased by blood. Please don't let anybody distract you from hearing the word of God. This place is holy. God is here. The word is going forth. This thing is a matter of life and death. Hey, there's blood, blood in this sanctuary today. This is not a silly place. We're in the holy presence of the Lord. And isn't that wonderful? Blood has been put on the thumb of your great hand, of of your right hand, meaning your activity not only here but out there must be covered by blood.

Say, well, I'm making a living now. I'm running this cash register. Hey, there's blood on your right thumb. I'm using this pencil. I'm I'm using this computer. There's blood on your right thumb. Your feet, your right toe, your walk. You walk in holy places now. You're a priest, a priest. You've been changed by blood. Praise be to God. We're new people in the Lord and that blood remains. That blood doesn't go away. You've been touched by blood. Now, the priest would take the lamb after all of that was done to him and he would now go in and begin the work of ministry, knowing that he was a sanctified, a very special person, a holy person.

Blood on his ear, blood on his thumb, blood on his feet, blood, blood. Now, we are to think of Jesus and his precious blood being on us today by faith. We're not people of sight. We're people of faith. But it's the vision of the soul. We have believed the word and now the blood of Jesus has been applied. Now today, we're we're going now. Even after the blood has been applied, there was still the washing because this is a dirty, filthy world that we live in. This world is corrupt and we need an ongoing cleansing all the time.

And so we go to the laver. Blood on our ear, blood on our thumb, blood on our feet. But we wash our hands and feet again. We're going in. We're going in. They're going to remove the curtain now. We're going to step in to the holy place in preparation for the most holy place. You have an outline. I hope you'll follow along, make some notes, something will spring into your mind and heart. Just jot it down for a future reference. Now, in the holy place, the holy place here's the burnt offering altar. We step over to the laver.

Now, we go into this compartment right here called the holy place. There's a veil. There's a curtain there, the most holy place, the holy of holies, where the ark of the covenant is. But we're in here this morning. And we're going to look at three pieces of furniture, the table of showbread. We're going to look at the altar of incense. We're going to look at the golden candlestick. We are going inside today. The first thing we see upon entering into the holy place is the table of showbread. It's also referred to as the bread of the presence.

It 's on the right side as as we go in. I'll try to keep moving back and forth. You can see it there on the table of showbread. As we step in, it's on the right side. The altar of incense is right in front of us when we go into the holy of holies. The candlestick uh is on the left but the table of showbread is on the right side as we enter in. And it looked something like that uh as we studied it in the scripture and saw the dimensions of the table of showbread.

It's made of a acacia wood which is a very endurable, the most endurable of all wood. It's overlaid with gold. Now, as I said before, everything in this tabernacle, if I were to take time and to go by every post and every curtain on the outside of the tabernacle, I would go on for several more weeks in bringing this teaching to you. But everything now the this being acacia wood overlaid with gold speaks of the divinity of Christ. Everything about the tabernacle was God dwelling with man. And how does God dwell with man? Through Christ, through Jesus.

And everything in the tabernacle was to get the Jewish people ready to see Jesus. And to miss Jesus was absolutely to choose blindness and to choose willfully choose ignorance because God had prepared this. Listen, if anybody is lost, Jew or Gentile, it is not God's fault. God made it very very plain. Men love darkness more than light. Men will choose ignorance. There are many today that are doing that. May God help us to be an enlightened people. This wood and acacia wood and overlaid with gold represented the divinity and the humanity of Christ. He was born of the virgin.

He was divinity, Emmanuel, God with us, the word made flesh. That's what the gold represented. The wood represented his humanity. He was born in human form and by a human woman brought into this world. Now, all of the dishes on that tabernacle and the bowls, everything there was made of pure gold. The reason is that this piece of furniture is close to the holy of holies. There's only a a curtain now that separates them from the holy of holies, telling the Jewish people, telling you and me, listen, God deserves the best. When you come into the presence of God, we don't come in and and try to fool him in some way.

And when we have been living wrong and and and not following the anointing of blood on our ear, the anointing of blood on our thumb, the anointing of blood on our walk, and we come into church and oh, I've got to just praise the Lord this morning. I mean, just going to praise the Lord. And we start just praising the Lord and we forget the sin and that we committed during the week and we don't confess it. We try to jump ahead of it and just praise the Lord and get happy in Jesus. It doesn't work that way.

It doesn't work that way. God won't accept you that way. I mean, God is not stupid and God cannot be fooled. And so God comes and brings Jesus to us, the Emmanuel, God with us. And this is the very best, the very best. God is a holy God and he deserves nothing, not my leftovers, not the crumbs, not what I can spare. He deserves all of me, all of me, all of you. And nothing less than that does he deserve.

Guest (Male): We'll be back with the conclusion of today's message in just a moment. But first, here's an invitation for you to make an impact on reaching souls with God's word.

Pastor Jack Morris: Hello friends. I'm Pastor Jack Morris. I just want to take a moment to thank you for your prayers and your donations in that order, prayers and donations. I need both from you. And if this ministry is to continue and I believe it's God's will for it to continue, I'm going to need your partnership more so than ever before. I thank God for you. I trust that the healing word is a blessing. Pray that God's word will go forth in mighty power for the saving of souls and for the healing of lives, emotions and bodies. God bless you dear one in Jesus name.

Amen.

Guest (Male): If the healing word has blessed you or someone you love, we invite you to prayerfully consider pledging your financial support. Simply visit the healingword.com and click on donate now to make your tax-deductible contribution. Together, let's continue to share the beautiful blessings of God's word with the world in need.

Pastor Jack Morris: Now, these dishes now are removed and there are 12 loaves of bread placed on there to remind the people of God that God is close to them, 12 tribes of Israel. And God is looking out for them physically as well as spiritually. Number two in your outline. First is description. We're going to look at the use. The 12 tribes of Israel are represented by the by the bread. Now, here is something important. The bread represented the grain that God gave. The people took the grain that God gave and made the grain into flour and then into bread.

Now, God does not do it all. God will give you grain. But you've got to take what he gives you and turn it into flour. You with me? You and God make things happen. And God is not going to do it all. God wants to be in partnership with us and to cause his will to be done in us and through us with our cooperation. Now, God's given you physical life. What are you doing with it? He's given you abilities. What are you going to do with your talent? They go home and bury it or are you going to put it to use for the Lord?

And he's given you life. But most of them of all, he's given you Jesus. So what are you going to do with him? Are you going to let him rule over you? Are you going to try to rule over your own life? Going to make him your king or are you going to try to be your own king? And uh you'll fail and so will I. But Jesus is here for us to crown him king of kings and Lord of lords, great Jehovah. He has come to bless us and to do great things. The bread on the altar represented Jesus who is the bread of life.

And when the Israelites were to look at that, they were to know that God is their physical life and God is their spiritual life and God is their all and all. May we focus on God today. May we see Jesus in our employment. May we see Jesus in our home. May we see Jesus in our education. May we see Jesus in everything. Jesus, the bread of life. He is this to us. And then when we come to the altar on communion Sunday to eat the wafer and to drink the fruit of the vine, we are to remember we have been doing that every Sunday leading up to this.

Truly this is symbolic, the altar, the communion service. It's symbolic of us today. We are hearing the word of God. We should be feasting on the spiritual truth. We should be being nourished by the bread of heaven. And then when we come up to this altar, we're saying Lord, I've already done this. This is just an outward demonstration of what's already been taking week after week. When we go into the tank to be baptized, we are saying Lord, I've already done this. I've already died to self and been resurrected. These things have already been done and we're just giving testimony to it.

Are you hearing the word of God today? Are you being nourished by the word of God today? Then you are the people to come up here to the communion table and to give testimony to it. What happens at the communion table is taking place right now as you hear the word of God, the very bread of life. Think about it. The bread of life. You don't live spiritually without what you're hearing here today. Neither do I, no Christian does. And this and you're you don't have anything to write down today. There are no blanks. But on point B in your outline, look it's the the second piece of furniture now as we go into the closer end is the altar of incense.

It's right now in front of us, right in front of that curtain. Here's a description of it. Acacia wood and gold again, the divinity of Jesus. This man who has come in the flesh is none other than the son of God. This is Emmanuel, God with us. The altar of incense. Now, this is very costly. This is the most costly piece of furniture in the holy place, the altar of of incense. Number two under point B, its use, its in its ingredients was taken uh from shrubs. Now, God specifies exactly how it is to be done.

God does not leave anything up to our decision uh when it comes to worship. He says we are to worship him in spirit and in truth. Now, he tells these Israelites of the certain shrubs to extract the ingredients that goes into the incense. And the incense is taken and and it's put on the the altar um where there are coals. There are coals of fire uh here. And the incense you see there's a bowl there. I don't know whether you can see it or not. And and it's put there. And once a year on the day of atonement, the the priest would move this veil, take coals from the altar of incense and take incense and step in to the most holy place.

And when he did, the incense could be the odor could be smelled not only in the tabernacle. But remember the the um diagram of all the tribes of Israel around the tabernacle on the outside, all of them facing it, they could all smell the incense knowing the priest has gone in. Our friends, when you go in, you must not go in with the smell of sin on your life and on mine. There is no need to go in unclean. And to go in unclean is about the most dangerous thing that any person could possibly do.

There is one way to get clean. Acknowledge sin in confession, in all honesty, in repentance. I mean, we need to confess not only what we've heard, not only our tip of our ear, not only what we've done, not only where we have walked, but attitudes, dispositions. We are supposed to be new people in Jesus. God is love. He saved us in love. He made us creatures in love. How can we then be so mean and hateful to one another or to our spouse or to our children or to somebody else? Friends, it's time to look deep.

The scripture says when we come to the altar, let a man examine himself. It's time to look deep into our hearts and say hey, I'm still acting and behaving like I did before I ever received Jesus. Paul the apostle says people who come here and take of the bread and the wine, some of them are already asleep in the grave because they've not treated holy in a holy way. God has sanctified you and he's put blood on you. The blood of Jesus, the holy blood of his son. He expects more out of us. And he's given us the power and the resources to live that life.

Of course, we're going to have thoughts, even attitudes. You and I all have them. But when we have them, we say God, forgive me. We go to the laver and we keep washing. We keep washing. We keep washing. He's not expecting you and I to be perfect in every way and every thought and every behavior. No, he knows that we're in the flesh. He knows. He remembers our frame. He knows that we are but dust. And he is a compassionate God when we are honest to God. That hypocrisy is playing the game, looking the part, acting the part but not possessing the part.

And that's all in repentance and in confession. God wants you. He wants you. That's the whole purpose of the tabernacle. God say I want you. I love you. I want to be near you. But I can't be near you with that kind of attitude, that kind of disposition, that kind of behavior. I I just can't do it. Yeah. But he wants you friend and he loves you with an everlasting love. So the priest goes in. And the the reason one of the reasons he takes the the uh the the altar of incense that he goes in with that and that smoke all envelops him.

That holy smell, that odor envelops him while he's in the holy place. Now, God is an awesome God. When Moses said I want to see your face. I want to see you. God says no man can see my face and live. The flesh cannot stand the almighty glory of God. There's a glory that the flesh can't stand. That's why we're going to be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. We cannot go and look God at God in with these fleshly bodies. And so God says the best I can do for you Moses is to hide you in the cleft of the rock and then put my hand over you as a shadow and then walk around like this so that you not burnt up and consumed with my presence.

It's like the presence of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, James and John when all of a sudden the robe of flesh moved aside and the glory of God within him burst forth. Those guys fell like dead men. And that was only just a foretaste. So the priest now is going in into the very holy place. He's going to move the curtain and he's going to step inside. He's now enveloping himself in that smoke that is like a shield to the very presence and the glory of God. He knows that he can't take it in there.

It'll burn him up. You can get so close but no closer. And so in Leviticus chapter 16, this is where you say Pastor, where you getting all that? Okay, Leviticus chapter 16 says lest he die. The smoke is like a shield. It's like a like a shadow around him. And when he goes into the presence of God and he smells, he has the smell of holiness upon him. The odor of godliness envelops him. Now friend, God wants you in his presence. He has told you through his word how to get into his presence. He is going to do great and mighty things.

But you must confess. You must acknowledge and it must be an ongoing thing, always remembering the blood on the ear, the blood on the thumb, the blood on the toe, going by the laver daily, washing, washing it away, getting the smell and the odor of the world off so that the odor of the altar of incense might come upon you and envelop you. God wants to envelop you in the odor of heaven. You are precious in his sight. He is jealous over you. You're not somebody else's child. You're his child. Hallelujah. Do you know him today as your personal Lord and savior?

Then give thanks. If you do not know him, then come to him. He'll forgive. He wants you. He's been concerned about you for hundreds of years, thousands of years, even before you were born. He provided Jesus for you. Give your heart to him.

Guest (Male): We love to hear from you. Your thoughts, questions and testimonies are so important to us. They truly bless Pastor Morris and the entire healing word ministry team. Please email us at contactus at the healingword.com. Again, that address is contactus at the healingword.com. Join us tomorrow for another healing word message. Until then, blessings on you.