Exodus 26 is where we'll be. Tonight we're gonna talk about the bars and the veil. The veil is, in terms of typology, is definitely one of my favorite ideas to teach and to look at. It's just exciting and it's unbelievably clear. Some of the other ideas people might say, well, that's a bit subjective. Okay, I agree. I get it, but the veil. Some forms of typology or certain ideas in typological teaching have direct cross-references, very specific. And so you can't deny them. Others, you can point out the principle, you can present the idea, but it's a lot harder to be as definitive as you'd like to be. The veil is one you can be a lot more definitive on. It's exciting. But before we get to the veils, we got to go through the bars. And before we do the bars, let's pray. Father, thank you for another wonderful night to be here and to study your word together. I pray that you'd help us and bless us through the teaching of your word. And Lord know we trust that your word will be a light to our path and it will strengthen our faith. The more we spend time in your word faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Lord. We know that that's the foundation pray that you'd help us tonight in Christ's name. We pray amen. All right, Exodus 26 verses 26 through 28. Let's read those real quick. Verse 26, and thou shalt make bars of shittum wood, five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle for the two sides westward. And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach end to end. Exodus 36. Verses 31 through 34. Verse 31. And he made bars of Shittim wood five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward. And he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from one end to the other. And he overlaid the boards with gold and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars and overlaid the bars with gold. So you have a binding principle of structure here. The bars of the tabernacle serve a critical structural function. It's very important. Now, can this building, this tabernacle stand without the bars? Possibly. But if a strong wind comes through or like the night my wife and I were camping in Uganda, a pack of wild dogs run through and run into your tent and terrify everybody. It might knock it over. And so they serve a structural function. They unite the boards into a single stable frame capable of bearing weight, withstanding stress, and maintaining integrity through movement and assembly. So can you see where this might be going? These bars create stability. They create a form of unity. They strengthen the entire building together. It just reinforces all the materials that are already in place. Now while the boards represent the redeemed people of God, and the sockets represent their foundation, who remembers what the sockets represent? You all hate me, that's what it is. I know that's what it is. Good job, Shiloh. You tell her. Redemption. What are the sockets made of? I know where my children get it from. If you don't know it, just say it with confidence. You'll be so confident people think you know it. They're made of silver. Silver is illustrative of redemption. Now the bars demonstrate the principle of unity forged in Jesus Christ. This lesson examines what scripture explicitly teaches about these bars and how they typify spiritual unity in the body of Christ. So we're going to look at the bars themselves but then we're going to look at what they they tend to point to. Now they're made of Chittum wood and we talked about the connection between Chittum wood and Acacia wood and and all of that. Exodus 26, 26 through 27 said, And thou shalt make bars of Shittim wood, five for the boards on the one side of the tabernacle, and five for the boards on the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle for the two sides westward. Shittam wood represents incorruptible humanity. And we talked about that a lesson or two ago, how this wood is, it was used both for its strength and its resistance, its resilience. It can withstand the weather, it can withstand, I should look this up, I haven't looked up the, Is it the wood database? Is that what it's called, that website? Yeah. I used to just sit and read this website. It's literally just a big database of wood and the characteristics of wood, depending on the type and stuff that most people would find boring. I would sit there for hours and just read about wood. It'd be interesting to see if it has chitum wood listed and what both the Jenga hardness is and what the rot resistance is. So wood has either the ability to resist rot, that is that water has no real impact on it, at least it would take It would take a lot to really break the wood down. And a lot of wood, depending on the type, has bug resistance. So it can withstand attacks from certain types of bugs and things of that sort. And then the exact opposite. You have some wood that you put it outside, it's gonna rot in just a few days. It's just gonna go straight to rot. You let bugs get to certain wood and they're gonna eat it alive. Just nothing, no resistance whatsoever. Shittom Wood has a great combination of strength and resistance, and it's a picture of humanity. More importantly, it's a picture of the humanity of Jesus Christ, his perfect, sinless human nature. Now, the gold overlay represents God's glory and the Godhead. Often in the Bible, gold directly points to God. And you see that a lot. I told you before, Kristen and I used to teach in the good news clubs. And they would use a wordless book. And the different colors represent different aspects of God or salvation or whatever the case may be. And of course, the gold page is representative of God. The bars themselves are constructed from the same materials as the boards, emphasizing the unity is forged from like elements. So they didn't introduce some different random wood type. They brought in the same wood, overlaid with the same gold, and it's used to reinforce the structure. The bars do not replace the boards. They strengthen and connect them without altering their individual nature. Everybody has a part and a role to play. That's going to come out quite a bit in this section on the bars as it's going to eventually kind of narrow down to This this idea that would having a relationship to to being a type of humanity and then more specifically in this case a picture of the humanity of Jesus Christ. But once we are in Christ. We take on a certain aspect of that. We become the sons of God. We're made to be like Jesus Christ. Eventually, even our flesh will be fully like Jesus Christ. Now, right now, when God the Father looks at you, he sees that you're washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, and you can essentially, for the most part, do no wrong. And so this is eventually going to get to man and his role in the body of Christ. The body of Christ we've talked about before is like a building fitly framed together. And that's a fitting picture. And the reason it's fitting is because in order for a building to stand it is composed or made of many different parts. Right. None of which do you want missing when you're in that building. You want every part in place. If you walked in a building and somebody said, oh, I know it looks like this is a complete building, but there's no trusses. So you mean this building could collapse on us at any moment? It's completely missing structural pieces that keep the building strong and resilient. And when someone who is part of the body of Christ is missing, then part of the building is missing, which weakens the structure and we don't want to do that. Now just as the bars bind boards together without destroying individual identity Christ as the head fitly joins together believers without erasing their distinct roles gifts or personalities look at Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians 4 Ephesians 4 and verse. Well, let me see how much we want to read verse. Let's start start at verse 13. Actually, let's go back to verse 11. Verse 11 and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Now, why were these gifts given to men? for right? So God's going to tell you we don't have to guess why he may have done. So for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ right now the Saints in the Bible anyone who is trusted in Jesus Christ has been made a saint. Now in religion, it's kind of a special designation that they give you for having gone through some process in their religious structure. In the Bible, if you trusted in Jesus Christ, he made you a saint. And so the the body of Christ it is it is given certain men who are given gifts by God to teach and to preach and to to preach the gospel to teach the Bible and to do all these things in order to perfect the saints. So the way that you come to a place of perfection in God's eyes is for somebody to teach you the Bible. And so when you claim to be a Christian and you put yourself in a position where no one is teaching you the Bible, you are not being brought to a place of perfection. It's not possible according to the Bible. You might disagree with that. You might argue with that. That's that's entirely up to you. But if I base it on what God said in the Bible, he gave men with certain gifts for the perfecting of the Saints. Verse 13. Till we all come to the unity you see that unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now this correlates perfectly with first Corinthians 12, which we looked at yesterday when we were supposed to be preaching on first John instead. We're talking about the church. First Corinthians 12 talks about this one body that's made of many parts and then you get to chapter 13 and you get to the to the fullness of this body when that which is perfect shall come and so it all it works together beautifully and it's greatly illustrated here in this chapter. They are great cross references for each other verse 14 that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. There are a number of people who will happily deceive you because who was it? I think it was the man who created Scientology L Ron Hubbard. I think he's the one who said this if I'm wrong, then I apologize, but he said plenty of bad things. So it's okay. L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writer, and somehow he stumbled upon the idea that the best way to become rich is to start a religion. So he took his science fiction writings that everybody knew was science fiction, and he created a religion called Scientology. And now millions of people have adopted that religion. All of them can objectively see where it came from. I used to have a lawn business in Florida and I had a young man that worked for me who said he comes from a family of witches. And he said he was a witch, but it was OK. He was a good witch. He wasn't one of the bad witches. And I was like, oh, so can you cast a spell on my bank account and just make it grow? And he said, no, I can't do that. And I was like, well, what can you do? And so can you cast a spell on all this lawn we've got to cut and just make the grass stay perfect year round? And as long as they pay me, they can keep the grass perfect. He was like, no, I can't do that. I was like, man, you're useless. What's the point of you being a witch? And then one time I needed him to climb a ladder at a Publix grocery store up to the sign, which is pretty high up there. I didn't want to go up there. So I told him to do it and to get a bird's nest out of the sign. And I was like, I need you to go up there and get that bird's nest out of there. He's like, did you bring a ladder? I was like, you're a witch. Just float up there. Where's your broomstick? I mean, what? And we had to get a ladder. And he was scared of heights. How could a witch be scared of heights? And so... Anyways, that had nothing to do with the lesson. It's just another religion. Oh, yeah, here's the point. So Scientology, you can literally, it was just started in like the 1960s or somewhere around about there by a science fiction writer. So when I had this guy working for me, he called himself, so he said that every witch has an element, and that his element was fire. So we called him Scotty the Fire. That was his name. And I was wanting to witness to him a little more thoroughly. And so I went home and looked up his religion. And I honestly, I had in my head, I mean, he's a witch. He practices, I forget the name of the religious system that he claimed to adhere to. And I was like, man, this must have been around for thousands of years. And so I'm going to look this up and learn more about it. It was created in like the 1970s in England. I was like, you know, your religion just started right before I was born. And so anyways, age doesn't matter in terms of whether it's right or wrong. It's just if your religion was just started a few years ago, it's probably not helpful. It's probably not a good thing. But fitly joined together. Oh, yeah, we did. We got to finish reading the verse. I was wondering where where all that came from. I get lost in those sometimes verse 15, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him into him and all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joined together. and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body into the edifying of itself in love." And so the bars in terms of it being a picture of humanity is a great illustration of how important you are to the body of Christ. and how important you are, even to your local church. Is the church universal or is it local only? Yes. And so Either way, God is going to bless you and has blessed you with certain gifts and certain talents. And so it is your job to exercise those gifts in your local body of Christ. Now, what people do is they just show up. That's at best. If you can just get people to be here, that's the first step. And then for a lot of people who join a church, that's really all they ever do is just Show up. We've got these ministries going on. Yeah, I'll see you Sunday. Okay. And so God gave you gifts for a reason. He gave you talents for a reason and they are to be exercised obviously respectfully and within reason in the body of Christ. And if you're not doing that you are a part of the structure that is weakening the structure. And that's not helpful, obviously. Now, there are five bars per side. Who remembers what the number five represents? Don't guess. Exodus 26, 26 through 27, five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle for the two sides westward. That last one always throws me off. Yeah, I haven't looked into it from a visible perspective. to be able to describe it to you. But just reading it throws me off every time. Now, there are 15 bars total. Five on the south, five on the north, five on the west. The number five in scripture, last chance. I'll help you. Several lessons now, I have mentioned how the five fingers are representative of man. So the number five is a picture, a representation in the Bible often to man. Now, not in the same way as the number six, which obviously is representative of sinful man, right? Six, six, six being the number of a man, all that. So now, the number five in scripture often signifies grace and humanity. It's God's provision that meets human responsibility. So the idea of it being, you know, the five fingers on a hand, it often relates directly to man and responsibility. So is the number 10, there's an overlap there that seems to be interesting. But multiple bars emphasize that unity is not achieved through a single point of connection, hmm, but through multiple overlapping points of contact. No single bar bears the entire stress. You see where this is going? The burden is distributed. Everybody is important. Everybody has a part and a role and is very important. Ephesians 4.1 says, and every joint supplieth according to the effectual working and the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. So the body has many parts. They all work together, obviously, the same as your body does. Isn't it nice when you wake up in the morning and every part of the body is functioning and working and is ready to get up and do whatever it is you've got to get up and go do? What if your leg or your arm just said, I'm not going today. Go without me. But it's no different than me saying, I'm calling in sick today. I'm not coming today. Well, you're kind of the pastor. Well, y'all skip out, so why can't I skip out? And so everybody is important. Obviously, if a pastor disappears from a church, there might be a slightly more of an impact on the church, obviously. But he can be replaced. I mean, it's not the body. If your heart quits, you're in trouble, obviously. But if you lost a leg, many people lose legs, and they do just fine. They move on. And so it's not that the body is so dependent upon you lost you, God just wouldn't know what he was going to do. But the body obviously functions better when all the members are there and are doing what they're supposed to do. They're being, they're a healthy, you know, productive member of the body of Christ. When one of your parts, one of your members is not healthy and productive, all you got to do is walk through your house in the dark, or in our house, you walk through and step on a Lego. And what's going to happen? Walk through and kick a table with your bare foot. It's just a little toe. What's the problem? And yet, everybody in the house is awake now. Maybe the neighborhood. What happened? I stomped my toe on a table. That's what happened. And so it doesn't matter how small or how big the member is. Can you do without them? Sure. Are some more important than others? Sure. Slightly, but yeah, sure. But isn't it better if they're all just there and functioning and doing what they're supposed to do? Peyton says no, because then she would lose her job. I have a great series of books at home. I've told you about my favorite writer. His name is Anthony Daniels, but his pen name is Theodore Dalrymple. And he's got an entire book on drug addiction. And he says in the book that the addiction industry is addicted to addicts. Because if they get rid of all the drug addicts, then we don't need you anymore. Goodbye. All right. So the bars represent how multiple ministries and relationships work together to maintain the body's integrity and strength. Very important. That cannot be said loud enough and clear enough. Everybody needs to show up and do their part. Everybody is important. That really gets lost, you know, that idea has far more of an impact in a smaller congregation. Obviously one person doesn't show up and it's like, wow, I mean, half the church didn't show up today. The larger the church gets, the more people can kind of just hide and not really do anything. And that idea gets lost on the church because as it grows and you can come in and kind of just slip under and be here and be present, but not really have to do anything. And look, if that's what you want, that's fine. But that's really not, that was not the Lord's intent. The intent was for you to get saved and to become an active, dedicated, productive member of the body of Christ. Now, a lot of people are like, well, if I knew that before I got saved, I wouldn't have got saved. That's why the Lord didn't tell you. Now that you're here, he's like, now that you're here, you got stuff to do. All right. Exodus 26. Next, we have the rings of gold. and thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold to be places for the bars, and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold. That's Exodus 26, 29. Gold and rings were affixed to each board to receive and hold the bars. Gold symbolizes deity and divine operation. The rings are fixed points, they do not move. So you can kind of see where this is going. If the if gold is a representation of God and you have these fixed rings that obviously your stability is through your connection to God. Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me. So our connection to to God is through Jesus Christ. And so the strength of that connection is all based upon how close of a walk we have with the Lord Jesus Christ and If you want to be stayed and sure you got to you got to be fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. These rings represent the unchanging work of the Holy Spirit and binding believers together. How do you get your place your talents your gifts when you trust in Jesus Christ where those come from? We read that yesterday first Corinthians 12 the Holy Spirit provides those to you. They represent the unchanging work of the Holy Spirit. The bars pass through the rings not around them and this creates an internal integral connection when you trust in Jesus Christ. We read this yesterday as well. What happens between you and the Holy Spirit? He is sealed inside of you and he stays there until the day of Redemption. Look at Romans 16. Romans 16, verses 25 through 26, we'll read to 27, why not? Can't just leave out one verse. I'm sorry? Romans 16, verse 26. Verse 25, we'll start in verse 25 and read down to 27. Did you think you were missing a hole? No, no, no, no. Romans 16, verse 25, now to him that is a power to establish you. Wouldn't it be great to be established, to be established? It's a very important reality in the Word of God. According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now, this very important side note, anytime the Bible says there was a mystery, it then tells you what that mystery is. So I just said there was a mystery kept secret since the world began, but now. So when somebody writes a book on this verse telling you they're going to tell you what the secret is, just tell them to read the next verse. Don't buy the book. Verse 26, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. So the Holy Spirit works internally to establish believers in Christ, creating unity that is godly in origin. Now, Lord willing, someday when this church has a hundred people in it, how are you going to have a hundred people meeting together in a church, not at each other's throats all the time? Well, if you don't have the Holy Spirit present, it's not going to happen. You know, God has blessed me with a very good job. The longer I'm there, the more people begin to confide in me. And what I'm hearing is constant complaining about work. They're surprised that work is work. They're like, well, people just aren't happy here. You work from home. You have a great job. Where would you go and be? First of all, if happiness is your goal in life, you've failed from the beginning. That's a fleeting idea. And what makes you happy today may not make you happy tomorrow. Or you might swear, if I just had that thing, I'd be so happy. And then you get it, and you're like, eh. It's not what I thought. So happiness is such a fleeting idea, and what you need is contentment. If you don't have contentment, there's no chance you're going to have happiness. And then you have the fruit of the Spirit, which is joy, and peace, and all these wonderful things that God will give you through the Holy Spirit. That should be your desire. That should be your goal. If happiness is what you're chasing after, you're like a dog chasing its tail. And then when you catch it, you just hurt yourself. I didn't know that was going to hurt. I didn't know that was me I was biting. And that's just how that works. You want to be established. You want to be on solid ground. You want a chaotic world to slow down and be able to see it through the lens of Scripture, and then be able to make proper, helpful, healthy decisions based on the Word of God. And all of a sudden, things go from just being erratic and out of control to established. Just slow down, calm down, and let's just trust the Lord. Number four, the middle bar. and this is gonna be the central unifying element. What would be the central unifying element in the Christian life if you had to guess? It'd be Jesus, good job. You finally got one right tonight. Now one bar extends from end to end of all the boards, a continuous unbroken connection. This middle bar is all encompassing. touching and binding every part of the structure. Now, if it wasn't for Jesus Christ, none of us would know each other. It is highly unlikely any of us would ever come into contact with each other. I only met my wife because I went to Bible school at a church where she was at. I am only in Southern Mississippi because of a church that we came to pastor. You're only here because your expectation is that somebody is going to show up here and teach you the Bible. So if it wasn't for the central figure in all of that is Jesus Christ, and if it wasn't for that, it is highly unlikely any of us would have ever known each other, come into contact with each other, have anything to do with each other. And so he is that unifying, all-encompassing figure. The bar's position in the midst, that's in the center, reflects its centrality to the entire assembly. Without this middle bar, the other four would not have adequate strength. It is the primary structural support. It's extremely important. Again, without Jesus Christ, why would we be here? What would we be doing? Where would we be? Yeah, it's a scary thought. If you understand the reality and the possibilities, it's a very scary thought. So I am thankful for Jesus Christ and He has such a bearing on our lives that it greatly limits how far outside the bounds we can go and that we can get. And without that, there are no boundaries. Any boundaries that you would have without Jesus Christ are completely arbitrary and based on your opinion and the opinion of the groups and the circles you run in. And those vary so wildly that you have no idea without the Holy Spirit, without the Word of God, without some crazy preacher standing in the pulpit yelling at you every Sunday, how far you would go. And it's pretty far. Look at Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 and let's read starting in verse 10. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. being fruitful in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God. Now, this is the second time this idea has come up. The last one was the knowledge of Christ. This one is the knowledge of God. This idea of the knowledge of Christ and the knowledge of God comes up often in the Bible. Number verse 11 strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patients and long-suffering with joyfulness giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life. Praise the Lord for that. verse 13 who have delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son now through salvation. You get to take part of this translation and great picture. Yeah, there's some Old Testament pictures of that that are a blessing. We'll look at that someday. I'm sure verse 14 and whom we have Redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins. No forgiveness of sin. There is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood verse 15 who is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of every creature. Now, this is here. This is all that is building up to verse 16 for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things and by him all things consist. So one of the underlying questions this world often wants to try and answer is, why am I here? What is my value? What am I worth? What am I here for? Well, you exist, first of all, for Him. He created you. You exist for Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation says you were made for His pleasure. So your purpose in life is to serve Jesus Christ and to try and please Him. And if you will make that the central focal point of your life through that all your other outlying relationships will all be strengthened and made better except for the people who can't stand Jesus. They'll probably disappear. Even if you don't want them to I told you when I got saved all my friends. I got saved in Saudi Arabia. About two months later, my contract ended, and I just wanted to go home and go to church. I'd never wanted to go to church. And so I didn't sign a new contract, went back home, and began going around seeing all my friends, and all of them were like, so what happened? What do you mean what happened? I mean, did you almost die? Did you, you know, like what's this Jesus thing all about? I'm like, well, I just trusted in Jesus. What do you mean? And they just they could not come to terms with the idea that someone who was as wild and out there as I was is now going to be just focused on Jesus Christ. Wild and angry. And pastoring a church. And pastoring a church. You ask anybody that knew me back then, they would be like, you got the wrong guy. But it is a testament or a testimony of what Jesus Christ can do if you will let him. Born to serve the Lord. Have you ever heard that song? We sang it at my dad's funeral. Really? Amen. Sounds good. So Christ himself is the middle bar. He is the central unifying all-encompassing reality of the church. It's what all this is for. There's no other reason for any of this. It's all about Jesus Christ. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's not about helping society. It's not about helping homeless people. It's not about providing solar panels and toilets for people in Africa. None of that. People in this world need Jesus Christ. Now if we performed the social functions and helped everybody that we could I mean that does that's a noble idea nothing wrong with that. But all you did was the way Paris Reid had put it. He's got a great sermon called 10 shekels and a shirt and he said it's like putting springs on your wagon as you travel through life. So you had a comfortable ride, and then you're going to die and go to hell. That did not help you. What helps someone is to trust in Jesus Christ. And if that that trust is real it will so radically change their lives that they will be able to now help themselves. So either I can make them further dependent upon me and I need me to feel good. And the way I make me feel good is doing nice things for people that I pity. which makes them worse in their situation because they're constantly being helped and not really having to stand on their own two feet. But I feel better and their life's a little bit better. So what's wrong with that? What's wrong with it is they're going to die and go to hell because nobody took up the spiritual responsibility that the church was here for. If we could help people, great, no problem. But that's not that is not our primary responsibility. The church's primary response responsibility is to unite people through Jesus Christ. That is where the foundational change takes place. That's where people's hearts start to change their minds start to change. They begin applying themselves to life in a completely different way. And so if all I do is go out and I feel sorry for that person. So I'm going to go and take care of their needs for them. That's a noble thing to do. Honestly, it's people who do those types of things. My hat's off to you. But if you're not preaching the gospel to those people and helping them to come to trust in Jesus Christ, and then teaching them the Word of God, which is what they need to gain what we just read, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, he is the central, stabilizing, unifying figure in all of this. Without him, The body fragments. In him, it's all held together. Without him, your marriage fragments. Your finances fragment. Your children fragment. Your life just becomes, it's just a scattered mess of random ideas based on whatever society can throw at you and whatever you can find on Google or whatever you search on AI. How do I do this? How do I live life? I don't know. Ask chat GPT. I take, my guess is Miss Phyllis is not spending a lot of time on chat GPT. Every believer's unity flows from him and depends upon his sustaining power. Number five, the structural function We read in Exodus 36, verses 31 through 33, and he made bars of Shittim wood, five for the boards of one side of the tabernacle, five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward. And he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other. These bars bear the weight. Now if you imagine, we talked about the curtains, right? All these beautiful curtains that were made. Then you had the outer coverings. So you got the badger skins, the ram skins, the goats, the goat hair. I guess it wasn't the skin, it was the hair. So you've got all that hanging on those outer boards. And that's not to mention if the wind is blowing, the rain is falling, whatever, all sorts of things. You know how this goes. You go and you buy a tent. You're like, oh, this will be fine. And then you get in it, and a windstorm comes. You're like, this is not fine. How did we get this? Now, in Uganda, I had a really nice tent. I think Brother Keith has it now, right? Didn't they? get that yeah so anyways it was really strong it's really expensive but it was really strong and me and the guys used to go out Once a month, we'd go out and stay in a village and help them go street preaching. And so we'd stay a couple of days out in the village, and we'd just sleep in that tent. It was huge. It'd sleep like, I don't know, 14 people or something. And the bars that held it up, I mean, they were solid. It was really well made. These bars, they're bearing the weight of the coverings of the structure itself. All that material, I mean, if you just think of, if you had to guess what the goat's hair covering weighed, I mean, that had to be extremely heavy. Well, yeah, you still have the goat's hair covering, which I'm sure is heavy. And then you have the badger skins, and then you have the ram skin, and then you have the other curtains that are already inside. And that's a lot of weight to have to carry. And these bars resist outward pressure that would push the boards apart. They hold the frame together as a unified whole during assembly and disassembly. That's the amazing part to me. This whole thing was made so they could take it apart and put it back together. I just I wouldn't read them anyways, but I wonder if they made instructions. Whatever. I can't just figure it out. I have to give the instructions to my wife and so we read that and tell me what to do because I don't want to read. but they hold the frame together as a unified whole and without the bars the boards would be unstable and vulnerable. And so these bars represent doctrine held in common a shared foundational truth. This holds believers together. Look at Jude. I'm not going to tell you what chapter. Jude, and we'll read verses 1 through 3 just for the fun of it. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints. Now why what would be the concern verse 4 for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Doctrine is extremely important. That's why someone has to set the doctrinal positions and establish them in the church and then everyone has to that's going to unite here has to agree to those doctrinal positions now. You don't have to say, I agree with everything that is taught here. Not at all. But you can't come and teach contrary to what is taught here. If you have a difference of opinion, no problem. It's fine. We'll get to heaven. I'll straight. Well, me and Jesus will straighten you out. But. You don't want to be verse four. There are certain men crept in unawares who come in for the purpose of undermining the unity of a church and one of the foundational aspects of unity. Number one is Jesus Christ. Number two are the doctrinal positions. And so within reason we've got to have a unifying set of doctrines that is principles teachings that we agree to and adhere to. And if this person over here sees it one way, and this person sees it another way, and that person sees it a different way, well, which way are we going to take? Which one's right? Which one is best? Which one is, you know, do we have a church meet, you know, a business meeting and vote on it? You think that's going to go well? That would just further divide the church. Somebody has to study, prepare, and make a decision. And that somebody typically in most churches is the pastor. It should be the pastor in my opinion. Now there are differences of administration. You do things slightly differently. No problem. That's between you and your church. But here we have a set of doctrinal positions that we adhere to and abide by. And if you want to be a member of this local assembly then you at least have to say that you will you don't have to agree with everything but you can't fight against them here. I know. Amen. Number two is the Holy Spirit's work. Believers are fitly framed together by the Spirit's work not by human effort alone. So if it's up to me to to make you believe what I want you to believe that's not going to work. Even if I can superficially convince you that my position is right or better than yours, that might be okay for a little while. But at some point, God's going to have to do something in your heart to make you gravitate to these ideas and say, I can see that in the Word of God, that's right. If all it is is what Brother Thomas says, That only works for a little while as you learn and as you grow, but at some point it has to be a part of who you are. The Holy Spirit has to make it real to you. That's the hard part about the Christian life. I can't make you adopt things and believe things. My job is to teach you, hopefully with enough clarity and from the Word of God that the Holy Spirit works in your heart and helps you to come along to that position. assuming that what I taught was right. I try not to get outside the bounds of the context of whatever we're studying so that as clear and as close as possible what I am presenting to you is what the Bible says. That way when the Holy Spirit comes to me and says, how come that person doesn't agree? I showed them, I told them. I did my responsibility. The Holy Spirit will do his work in your heart. And then from there, we talked about it in the Bible definition of the heart. I am to engage your intellect and your emotions as best I can from the word of God. But when it comes to the will, it's up to you. Now if I start overstepping those bounds and I begin trying to force your will then I am taking the place of the Holy Spirit and that's not going to help me and it's not going to help you. It's my job to present the ideas. What you do with them is entirely up to you. Then you have the mutual accountability and love. That's number three believers strengthen one another look at Galatians 6 Galatians chapter 6. I can't tell you how many times my wife and I we've we've helped people who tried to help people who were having terrible marriage problems and Unfortunately, when people are having terrible marriage problems, they're not going to come to you until things are so bad that they can't stand each other. It's rare that they come to you early and say, we're really struggling with something that we can't get past. Would you please help us? Instead, they wait till they absolutely hate each other and are ready to kill each other. And then they come and say, well, we need some counseling. You need far more than counseling at this point. Man, when you wait that long, there's nothing I can do, there's nothing we can do to help them. And my wife and I have laid in bed at night and cried over other people's marriages because they're so bitter and so angry with each other, they will not move. And that's the hard part of the Christian life. You came and asked for help. We gave you the advice. I am certain if you would do exactly what I just showed you and told you it would restore your marriage. I'm not doing that. That's up to you. I can't make you save your marriage but you're certainly about to lose it. And in in the two cases in my head that I can recall they both completely lost their marriages. It's over. entire families destroyed because because you will not submit yourself to the Word of God and I can't make you do it. It's entirely up to you. And so Galatians 6 verse 1 brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself Lest thou also be tempted now listen to this verse to bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. So you're not supposed to be alone in this world. You're not supposed to be by yourself. We are as the body of Christ and as a local assembly and then as a body of Christ as a whole we are supposed to bear one another's burdens. You're supposed to be there for each other and help each other and be open to guiding and stepping in or stepping out of the way. Whatever it is that your brother or sister in Christ needs to help them come along, you're supposed to go out of your way to do that. And what's the motivation for that? Considering thyself. What are you going to do when the day comes and you've helped no one, you've invested in no one, you've put no one before yourself, and now you need help? And of course, people who are self-centered like that, as soon as they need help, what do they immediately think? How come no one's helping me? Well, yes, somebody should be helping me. Somebody should be going out of their way to give me what I want, what I need, take care of my problems. And you're not there. And so you must hate me. Well, all these other people had problems. And you where were you? Why? Why is it? Why is it that the church is supposed to drop everything when you need something? But when your brothers and sisters in Christ have a need that you could meet, you had no interest in helping. And so we have this mutual accountability and love, this concern for one another's burdens. Believers strengthen one another through encouragement, through exhortation, and shared burden bearing. Number six, wilderness portability, unity for the journey. The tabernacle was designed to be assembled, carried, and reassembled throughout Israel's wilderness journey. And the bars made this possible. Otherwise, this structure you're taking apart and putting back together, how do you stabilize it? These bars become that stabilizing factor. Portability requires strength. The bars ensure the structure could withstand the stress of frequent assembly and disassembly. The journey mirrors the church's earthly pilgrimage. Believers journey through a hostile world. Unity is essential for testimony and endurance. You need the body of Christ around you. By the way, the body of Christ needs you around. Everybody is important. Without unity, the bars, the structure would collapse under the demands of travel. Similarly, without spiritual unity, the church's witness fails. And that idea is laid out in John 17 verses 20 through 23. Now Ephesians 4 verses 1 through 3 says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. You know what God just said? You're going to have to put up with each other. God is literally saying, I want you to be part of a church, and when you get there, people there are going to get on your nerves. What are you going to do, Lord, when they get on my nerves? I want you to suffer for a long time. That's what long-suffering is. I want you to put up with it. I beseech you that you walk worthy of your vocation, worthy of what you've been called, with lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing. You want me to forbear? You want me to just put up with it? You don't want me to yell at them, kick them out? No, I just want you to forbear. Well, why would I do that? Well, that's what I did for you. So why would you not do that for your brothers and sisters in Christ? And that's what you do in a church. That's what the church is for. All right, I'll read a few of these applications. We're right at the end. Actually, I'll go I'll jump down to the conclusion because we're already at time for the first lesson the bars of the tabernacle teach that God's dwelling place is a united structure not a collection of isolated units. built from incorruptible wood overlaid with gold, materials that speak of Christ person and fitted through golden rings. The bars unite the boards into one stable functional whole. For the church today, this teaches that the true spiritual unity that true spiritual unity originates in Christ is maintained by the Holy Spirit and is expressed through the mutual strengthening of believers who share a common Foundation and Redemption and a common connection to Christ as the head of the church. I am not the head. I'm not even the under head. I'm just a member of the body just like you are. And we all have our part to do. Amen. All right. To those listening online, my wife made cookies again, so.