Now let's hear the Word of God. Turn in your Bibles, please, to Exodus chapter 25. And I'm going to read from verse 23 to the end of the chapter. Exodus chapter 25, reading from verse 23 to the end of the chapter. Exodus 25, beginning to read at verse 23. You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold around it. And you shall make a rim around it, a hand breadth wide, and a molding of gold around the rim. And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs. Close to the frame the rings shall lie as holders for the poles to carry the table. You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these. And you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings, you shall make them of pure gold. and you shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me regularly. You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work. Its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. And there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it. Three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower on the other branch, so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. And on the lampstand itself, that is the central part, There shall be four cups made like almond blossoms with their calyxes and flowers, and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand. Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold. You shall make seven lamps for it, and the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it. Its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold. It shall be made with all these utensils out of a talent of pure gold, and see that you make them after the pattern for them which is being shown you on the mountain." Amen. May God bless the reading of His Holy Word. Now, let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we pray for help to hear and understand the Word of God as we continue to look at the tabernacle and its furniture to understand what you are teaching us and to understand the glories of the gospel as it is here displayed for us in these ways. Hear us, our Father, and help us with your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. Christians are inclined to walk through the tabernacle like tourists, I think. I think we're inclined to come to the tabernacle as though we're tourists with cameras around our necks. Well, probably people don't carry cameras around their necks anymore, put on their wrists or in their pockets or just on their phone. With our cameras, we would come to the tabernacle with our cameras and just wander about through the tents and the tents within the tents. And probably what we would do is, well, gawk. Isn't gawking a touristy kind of pastime? So we wander about the tabernacle gawking. And sometimes I think we do that even as we read it here in the Word of God. We're kind of wandering through, ooh, and ah, and looking at the pieces of furniture and saying to ourselves, isn't that interesting? And it's almost as though we've been to a museum. sparsely decorated museum with a few pieces of interest in terms of the furniture as we wander around. I remember many years ago going to John Knox's house on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. There was nothing in it. I was disappointed with that. There was just nothing in it. You wandered up the stairs and here's a room. I wonder if that's how we'd feel if we were wandering about the tabernacle. We'd wander into the next section of the tent. So what happened? We've looked at the Ark of the Covenant, which was in the Holy of Holies. Now, that was an impressive piece of furniture that that box and gold laid and the angels on either side with wings. That was impressive. And yet nobody would ever see that except the priest once a year. And it was hidden. Now, the next section, once you come out of the Holy of Holies is called the Holy Place. and it's a little bit longer, same width but a little bit longer and there are three pieces of furniture standing there and we read of two of them and we're going to look at two of them today and I don't want you to wander about looking at this furniture as though you're in a museum because there are two things you need to remember when we're studying the tabernacle, this Old Testament description of what God did when he came to dwell with the people as they were traveling to the promised land. There are two things that you need to remember. First of all, the tabernacle is intimately connected with the covenant of grace that God has just made. And the first piece of furniture in the Holy of Holies, remember, is called the Ark of the Covenant. So we're not going to understand anything about the tabernacle or its furniture or its tent and its coverings and its curtain poles and its rings and how it was to be used and moved about unless we understand the nature of the covenant. The meaning of the tabernacle is found in the covenant. God's covenant of grace. Remember, God's covenant of grace was that he had come to Moses and he had told him to make this known to the people that God promised to be gracious to sinners. That's what the covenant of grace means. God made a promise that he would be gracious to sinners. That promise, of course, we know very well, reaches its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the height, or if you like, there is the depth, or if you like, there is the source, or if you like, there is the completion of this promise to be gracious to sinners, and it comes in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, the tabernacle, this tent, this movable tent, was heavily laden with gold, and it was heavily laden with symbols. It was perhaps more heavily laden with symbols than it was with gold, but it was heavily laden with symbols that pointed to what Jesus Christ would do. That's what God was teaching these people way, way back. This is how I'm going to be gracious to sinners. Jesus Christ is going to do a wonderful, wonderful work. God's gracious promise. comes tumbling into our lives in the person and work of Jesus. But it's all symbolized in this old tent. Isn't it strange? God would choose a tent to symbolize the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when you go camping with Mike, he takes a tent. But that tent does not symbolize Jesus Christ. That tent is a tent. symbolizes a tent because it is a tent. But this tent, this tabernacle tent, symbolized Jesus. It was heavily laden with symbols that pointed to Jesus. God has promised to be gracious to sinners. And you're going to do that in Jesus Christ. The problem, of course, with heavily laden symbols is that we tend to catch them like a fever. We tend to catch heavily laden symbols with a fever and I suppose that fever would be what I would call symbol fever. And often Christians catch symbol fever and start seeing things that aren't there. And we do that a lot with the tabernacle. I'm not going to give you illustrations of that, although I do think I will remove some books from our library. I looked at them last week and I thought to myself, suffering from symbol fever. And what happens when we suffer from symbol fever is that we start to see everything in a symbolic way. And it becomes, well, obsessive. and we become obsessed with trying to work out what symbol is found in what curtain ring and what curtain and what pole that was used in what way and it becomes more and more fanciful, more and more forced and more and more futile and empty and we ought to avoid that. So, remember the tabernacle is explaining What the covenant of grace is all about. God promised to be gracious to sinners. And so you're going to see that symbol worked out most clearly most clearly in the tabernacle. God's promise to be gracious and merciful to sinners. And that means that we need to see Christ where he is in the tabernacle. And that means that we don't need to force him into places where he is not. Do you understand that? We will not force Jesus Christ into every crease and every piece of every pole and every curtain ring. We will not force him onto every curtain hook. It's what I call putting Christ in curtain hooks. And I don't think it's a good idea to put Christ in curtain hooks. We need to follow where the Bible leads us and not go anywhere it doesn't send us. So I'm going to say I'm saying that right at the start, because when you look at this table, you're going to scratch your head a little bit. But when we look at the lampstand, well, did you understand the description? You think you did because you have in your head a menorah. And you've got that vision in your head of, you know, one candlestick with the three, you know, coming up on either side. But what you don't have in your head, and I doubt you would be able to get it even from these English words, is the way it was decorated with all the blossoms and buds and fruit looking like almonds. and almond blossoms and so on, all those things with cups holding for lamps to be set upon them. You don't have that in your head at all. And it's very difficult even to understand what this lampstand looks like or looked like from the description that's given to us here. But we have a Jewish traditional menorah in our mind. But that's okay to start with. But where's Jesus in it? Where's Jesus in the lampstand? And even More difficult than that question is, where is Jesus in the table? I'm going to suggest to you he's not in the table. He's on the table. That it's not the table that is as important as what's on the table. That's what's important. So anyway, I'm rushing ahead of myself. So the tabernacle is intimately connected with the covenant. God's promise to be gracious. So we want to find Jesus. That's the right thing to do. But let's not put him where he is not. We want to see Jesus and how God is gracious to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's one thing to remember. The second thing to remember is that the tabernacle is itself a copy of what is real. And we need to get that into our head because most thinking, in my understanding, most thinking on the tabernacle is that it is a pattern foreshadowing what is to come. And I want to say, yes, that's right, but it's not merely foreshadowing what's to come. The Bible teaches us that the tabernacle is a pattern of what is already in existence. I think that's a radical change of interpretation for some of you, many of you, perhaps. Because you want to look at it as being a plan that tells you this is the way it's going to be. But the Bible is telling us, no, it's just a reflection of the way things already are. Because it's patterned on the heavenly realities. This is made clear for us in two texts, and I just remind you of them again. in the book of Hebrews. First of all, Hebrews chapter four verses. Hebrews chapter eight verses four to six, where we read these words. Now, if Jesus were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See, you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain. But as it is, Christ has obtained a mercy, a ministry that is more exceeding than the old covenant. He mediates a better since it's enacted in better covenant, better promises. And then chapter nine. when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come through the greater and more perfect and not made with hands, not of this creation. He entered once or for all into the holy place, not made by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. These two texts in Hebrews are extremely important because they're telling you Jesus didn't just foreshadow, the tabernacle didn't just foreshadow what Jesus was going to do. They told you this is the way it already is. That is why the book of Revelation speaks of Jesus Christ as being the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So that just changes your orientation so drastically if you grasp what's being said. He's not just simply saying this is what he's going to do. It's as though it's already done. And so when a tabernacle is built, it's built on that pattern. as though it's already done. You need to see Jesus in the tabernacle and in the symbols that are being given to us in the tabernacle because God is already gracious. Christ is already the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The Holy Spirit is already making this gospel clear to sinners right back then. It's not a new thing. It's the way that things already are. We have trouble with reality, you know. We do. We have trouble with reality. We have trouble because we think that we understand reality. But the Bible is teaching us that reality has to do with the way things are in heaven. And most of our lives now live here in what we think is reality, but C.S. Lewis called it the Shadowlands. The way things are in heaven. That is reality. We're just in a shadow of it. So what what you're being told here is think about this. God is gracious to sinners and he's gracious to sinners through Jesus. That's real. That's reality. You live your life plugging in your iPod and getting it charged up and downloading the latest version of iTunes and syncing all your podcasts and you think you're really living. Those of you who have iPods. And you charge up your cell phone because now people can talk to you anywhere and everywhere at any time of day or night. And you think, this is really living? And I have to say to you, nope. Sorry. Reality is the way things are in heaven. And we're living in the shadow of that reality. God is gracious through Jesus. That's the real thing. So let's look at these two pieces of furniture now keeping that in our mind because that's what we're looking for. God is gracious through Jesus. So we have a table and a lampstand. Let's call it a lampstand since that's what it's called here. A lampstand of pure gold. Let me turn your attention first of all then to the table. It's described for us in verses 23 to 30 and it's three feet long One and a half feet wide and one and a half feet tall. You would call that a coffee table. Wrong word. Let's not call it that. Or you might call that kind of table, if you're a little bit more furniturely artistic, you might call it an occasional table. Let's not call it that either. It's a table. Three feet, one and a half feet by one and a half feet. It's made of acacia wood and then it's covered in gold. And as far as I can tell in reading the account here, there was a frame. Some people are not sure if the frame went around the lip of the table or if it went down around the legs of the table. And it was a hand breadth width. Not really sure how that worked, but Far as I can tell, it's not the table that is significant. As far as I can see from the account given to us in the Word of God, so let the Word of God push us in the direction of the symbol. So far as I can see, it's not the table, but what is on the table. Verse 30 makes it clear. You shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me regularly. The significant thing about this small table is that there were certain things to be set on it. It doesn't tell us here, it just says bread of the presence. Feas, the word for feas is the word that's translated here as presence and it's put in the plural. The bread of the presence. Whose presence? Whose presence is symbolized by the bread? Think now. You're going to say one thing and I'm going to say maybe. Turn to Leviticus chapter 24, where it's an account is given to us of the bread of presence that's to be set on the table. Leviticus 24 and we'll read verses five to nine. You shall take fine flour and bake 12 loaves from it. Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf, and you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion, as a food offering to the Lord. Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly. It is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever, And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings, a perpetual Jew." Okay, so that throws more light on it. Not a lot, but it does throw some light on it for us. So we've got 12 loaves, symbolizing Israel. 12 tribes, the whole people. So who is on the table? First of all, you want to say Israel is on the table. The life of the people of God is on the table. But then when you read on a little bit, you're told it's a food offering to the Lord. It's to be changed weekly. And it is from the people as a covenant forever and the priest. Eat it. So, the bread on the table, which in the Old King James is called the show bread, is showing something. It's the bread of presence. Somebody's presence is being shown, and at first you probably thought it was Christ's presence being shown. But when you read Leviticus, it's the people's presence that is being shown. It's the people's presence before the Lord. It's their food offering to the Lord. Not that the Lord needed any food, not that the Lord needs to be fed, because it's very clear that he doesn't need to be fed because the priests eat this food. So it's not a picture that God feeds his people. Which is how I found most commentators taking it. It's not a reminder of daily bread. Because it was only changed weekly. It's weekly bread. It's Sabbath bread. It's a picture of the people of God Being in the presence of God. It's called the bread of presence. It's not about being eaten. It's about being seen in the presence, before the face of. It's show bread, because it's showing something. Whose presence? that the people are present before God. Now remember, what did I say very first thing? The tabernacle is an explanation of the covenant of grace. What's the covenant of grace? God promises to be gracious to sinners. Now here we are moving out of the Holy of Holies because the first thing we've seen in God's promise to be gracious to sinners is a mercy seat. The source of mercy which comes in the death of Jesus Christ. So we move out a little bit now. What do we see now? That there are sinners in the presence of God and God is not consuming them. Because he's merciful. Now it's bread and it remains bread, it's all symbol, it's pointing and so on. At the end of the week, the priests eat it, not because they're eating Israel or they're eating up all the sinners, but they're just eating the bread. And it passes on to the next stage because new bread is prepared and set up their six pile. And they were probably about round loaves, about this in diameter, six and six put on this three foot table, three foot. It's not a big table. It's about sinners being in the presence of God. It's the table of showbread that show you you can live in God's presence and he does not consume you. It's what happened when the elders went up the mountain, 70 of them. Remember, they saw God and they ate and did not die. Now it's the same symbol being given to all the people of God in the same way. And so in a certain sense, when it talks about the table of showbread, the bread of presence, in a certain sense, it's talking about God being present and sinners being present in the presence of God. And we're still alive. That's my day. That is a wonderful explanation of the nature of the grace of God to us that we're in his presence and we're still alive. It's about the covenant of grace on God's part to be gracious to us and keep us living before him and on our part to accept that grace and to keep living before him. And we spend so much of our lives trying to not live before him. hoping that at some point he doesn't see what we're doing, or that he doesn't see what we're thinking, or that something that we're doing in the course of our life we're able to do behind God's back. And the showbread says, God is here, and you are here, and it's always that way. And I think there's something symbolic in the fact that it's renewed every Sabbath day. You come back in and you get this. You get this realigned again. It's all fresh. Don't doesn't go still. Life is to be realigned each each Sabbath, each Lord's Day, fresh again, living before the glory of God and not being consumed by the glory of God, because he's a gracious God to us. And all of that comes to its clearest statement in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen with those thoughts in your mind to Jesus speaking in John chapter six. I'll begin to read at verse twenty six. I'm going to read at length Jesus discourse here on the nature of bread and himself as the bread of life. John six verse starting in verse twenty six, Jesus said, truly, I say to you, you're seeking me because you saw signs, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." They said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus said, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. A little further down, verse 32. Jesus said, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. Speaking of manna there. But my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Give us this bread always. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I say to you, you've seen me and you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. All that the Father has given me..." You see, he's talking about bread. He's talking about the presence of God, and he's talking about all that the Father gives. Well, the show bread is 12 loaves. All that the Father gives. This is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me but raise it up on the last day. This is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the sun and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. And so the Jews grumbled because he said I'm the bread that came down from heaven. Is not this Jesus, son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he say, I have come down from heaven? Do not grumble among yourselves, he said. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It was written by the prophets. They will all be taught by God. Everyone who's heard and learned from the father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the father, except he who is from God. He has seen the father. Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. I remember the priests brought the show bread in as an offering. It was an offering to the Lord. It was a symbol of Christ and what Christ would do to make these people live in the presence of this Father because God had promised to be gracious in Jesus. And that's why Jesus is speaking here about all whom the Father has given to me. God has made a covenant of grace. I will save these people. Think about it. It's called the showbread and the table of showbread because it shows you something. What does it show you? I think it shows you this. Jesus loves me. And I think it shows you this. I love Jesus because he loves me. It's about living in the presence of God because you believe in Jesus. The showbread. Think of that. Think of that when you're tired and weak and sick. Sorrowful. Think of that when you're dying. Jesus loves me. And I love him. That's what the showbread says. You, a sinner, are in the presence of God and God is gracious to you, a sinner. Think of it when you're full of joy and delight and enjoying the blessings of God to you. Think of it. Jesus loves you and you love Him. That is because the covenant of grace The bread of presence is God's presence and your presence achieved through Jesus Christ's presence. Feed on Him. Believe on Him. Trust in Him. Look to Him. Live by every word that proceeds from His mouth. He is the bread of life. that you're in God's presence. That's the first thing. And the second thing, then, is this other piece of furniture, the golden lampstand. There is a third piece of furniture in this court. It's called the altar, but we'll look at that later. The second piece of furniture is called the golden lampstand. It's exceedingly difficult to describe. You think you have the idea of it because you've got the little Jewish menorah in your head, but you don't because the way it's decorated here with each of those three branches going off the side having, and it was an old word or a new word to me, this calyx. Calyx is how you would say it, but I don't say it that way because I don't come from here. So you would say calyx. At least that's what the online pronunciation dictionary that's in American pronunciation said. But I just said calyx because that's what I said. Do you know what that is? It's kind of like the cup covering that comes up as part of a plant and a bud and a shoot and a flower. So what you've got described for you here is that on these six shoots there are to be three things. Buds and flowers and calyx. Cup parts. You didn't envisage that when you were thinking of your menorah, did you? And then on the central stem, there were to be four of them. I've read this several times and looked at it in various translations and I don't know what it looked like. I'm not even sure that it was two-dimensional in that the three branches that would come up this way At least that's how it is in the Jewish menorah. I'm not even sure that's necessarily how it's described because it could equally be done coming out sideways so it forms because it's made to look like a tree. We're being told that. I'm not reading that in. You understand that? It's made to look like a tree with buds and flowers and fruit. And there are cups on the top for lamps. to be placed in. And the fourth, the central one, is more elaborate than the three that are on the outside. So it could be, I don't mean two-dimensional, you know what I mean, a flat menorah, but it could also be circular in the way it's being held up and put together. But it's made to look like a tree. A tree? Why would it be made to look like a tree that's on fire? It's the word menorah. The word for lamp comes from the Hebrew word that means to be flaming. So why is it made to look like a flaming tree? Well, maybe because it's a reminder of the burning bush. Maybe. Why would it be a reminder of the burning bush? Because the burning bush tells you the same thing. astonishing God, who's mighty and powerful and is a consuming fire, comes down and rests upon a bush and doesn't consume it. And that is what the covenant of grace is all about. That God has promised to be gracious. So isn't a stylized lampstand that is an emblematic reminder of the burning bush. Quite possibly. Quite possibly. It also is possible that it could be a reminder of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, which tree makes a reappearance in the book of Revelation. But I think also, if you turn to the book of Revelation, you get another sense of this as well, because the tree of life appears again at the very end. Revelation 22, 1 to 6, the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit each month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. I think you see all the symbols coming together. What's the symbol saying? God is gracious. We're in his presence. We need no other light and we're not consumed. We should be consumed, but we're not because God promised to be gracious. And there's another place where the lamps, the lamps occur in Revelation, Revelation one and verse 12. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and turning. I saw seven golden lampstands. It's the same Greek word that's used here to describe the lamps that were used in Exodus. Is it seven menorah? Or is it one menorah with the seven lights? I think so. I think so. Well, what do they symbolize here in Revelation? Well, when he turns and he sees them, and in the midst of the lamps, one like a son of man clothed with a long robe and with a white sash around his chest, hairs of his head were white like white wool like snow, his eyes were like a flame of fire, His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. His voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he had seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And his face was like the sun, shining in full strength." Now you notice that this comes from the midst of the lampstands. If you want to read further, read Zachariah's prophecy in Zachariah four as well as the lampstand appears there as well. What what does this lampstand mean? What does this flaming tree mean? What is this lampstand coming back again in the book of Revelation? It is a picture of the glory of Jesus Christ in the midst of his church. sending out his gospel to the whole world. And if you read the prophecy in Zechariah 4, nobody has to go and squeeze olive and make olive oil to keep these lamps fresh. What's happening in the prophecy in Zechariah 4 is that they're just attached by a tube directly to an altar. It's like permanent supply of fuel. It's not going to run out. It's like sinking... What's that a picture of? What's that a picture of? The glory of Christ in His church being fed through the Holy Spirit, bringing life and liveliness to the people of God as they shine His light in the world. If you go back to Exodus, there was a very clear instruction that this light was to shine in one direction. It was to shine in a certain direction because obviously God didn't need the light. Verse 37, make seven lamps for it. The lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it. God is not the one who needs the light. It's sinners that need the light. And the glory of this lampstand is that it's a picture, in a sense, reminding us of the tree of life and reminding us, I think more probably, of the burning bush that says, this is how this is going to happen, that Jesus Christ is the one who's going to give you this light and the church is to carry this light into all the world and the Holy Spirit will feed the church in bearing witness to the glory of the gospel as it is in Jesus Christ. So when John starts to reflect on the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what he says in John 1, starting at verse 4. In him was life, and the life was the light of man. Is the tree of life picked up again in the burning bush? Picked up again in Zechariah? Picked up again in Revelation? Because it's all pointing to Jesus. who works with his people and sets up a witness to the whole world. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Thanks be to God. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about that light that all might believe through him. He was not the light that came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlivens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become the sons of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And then he goes on to remind us that we saw something from Moses, but grace and truth come through Jesus. It's Jesus. And He shines through His people bearing witness by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit You are the light of the world, too. And you are to let your light so shine before men that they may glorify your Father in heaven. Think about that now. Think about what light you follow. And think about what light you shed. The light you follow is increasingly the little electronic light of your computerized world that sets the agenda for what you think and what you feel. Your little computerized light in your iPod, your little computerized light in your screen of your computer, and the little computerized light in the electronic light that's in your television screen, and it sets the agenda for you and you follow the light. This is the way to dress. This is the way to think. This is the way to sing. This is the way to live. And you are supposed to be like a burning candlestick, filled with the sense of the glory of God in Christ. What does the lampstand teach us about the covenant of grace? God promises to be gracious to sinners, and there's the light. So what is it you talk about? How is it that you live? What do you display to people? Is it that God is gracious to sinners in Christ? Because that's what the lamp is all about. We need grace to believe the gospel, and the gospel is that God has promised to be gracious to sinners in Jesus. Showbread and candlesticks. That's what we are. But it's what Christ is. And what are we then in Christ? We need a heart to beat and be inflamed with love for Jesus that moves us and changes us and transforms us so that we're not conformed to this world, but that we're transformed by the renewing of our minds. and that we bear witness to who he is and what he's done. God is gracious to sinners in Christ. This is what is real. Don't spend your life distracted by fancy lights. Look to what is real, real, the gospel. Let's pray. Our Father, Be merciful to us in the hearing of your truth. Be merciful to us in the understanding of the symbols of the tabernacle that point us to Jesus. Be gracious to us that we might understand them and that we might be transformed as we believe in Jesus Christ, as we pray this in his name. Amen.