I invite you to draw your attention today to the text of Scripture contained in Exodus 24 through 27. We're looking today, beginning today, The second of really three sections in Moses' record in Exodus that are large chunks of detailed instructions that really should be read and preached and understood plainly and in light of a larger context. Remember, the genre here is different than that of, say, Paul's letters. It's easier to take a letter in the New Testament and really focus on small phrases and how they connect. We're not doing sentence diagramming and deep grammar analysis in a narrative and in a list of instructions like Moses records here. And it should be said, there certainly aren't any mystical symbols here with the numbers and colors and measurements that we'll see. There's much bigger picture stuff going on here. And so we're just going to work through it. as it is, as a list of instructions with sections of longer readings and then sort of broader explanations and applications as well. So we're just going to jump right in and what you'll see is that, and you probably have already seen once you got your worship guides, this is just part one. We're going to kind of stop right in the middle of these instructions just because there's no way to, in the time that we have, get through everything and say everything. And even then, we will not be able to say everything that could be said about these texts. But we're going to take the first part in chapter 24 verse 12 through the end of chapter 27. But let's start. by just reading verses 12 through 18 of chapter 24. And it comes after the covenant confirmation that precedes it in the beginning of chapter 24. So in verse 12 of Exodus 24, it says this, And the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction. So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and her are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them. Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day, he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. This is after Israel had received the law and then the book of the covenant that proceeded after it. And this is after they had seen and had heard God's glory in the cloud at Sinai. And their leaders had gone up, at the very, very previous section here, their leaders had gone up to dine with God. And then God calls Moses up. Moses, he says, is to leave Aaron and her and the elders, to lead the people and to take Joshua, his assistant, with him, and to come up to receive the tablets of stone on which the law would be written by God himself. And so Moses and Joshua go up and it's like he's walking into a cloud, quite literally. The scene that Moses describes as he's recording this in this history book is dramatic. Just this image of a man and his assistant ascending a mountain and eventually crossing over into the cloud covering that mountain. And then it's a setup for the rest of what would follow. And Moses says at the end of this little record here, Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. And what follows is the record of the instructions that God gave to Moses during those 40 days and 40 nights. Seven chapters of meticulous and detailed instructions from the Lord given to Moses regarding his intent to dwell with his people and how they should approach him. So, we're going to work through these sections of instruction just one at a time and then make some observations. Now, I realize, going into this, that this may seem a little pedantic to you, but let me remind you, Paul said all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for doctrine and correction and training and righteousness. And David spoke of the law, these very words, as something he delighted in. So, brothers and sisters, Please don't be bored or annoyed with these sections of Scripture waiting to get to the good stuff later. No, we need to ask the Lord to mold and shape our hearts and thinking in the way we take in meticulous and detailed instructions like these. This is a unique part of the Bible, but it is no less important or vital to our understanding of who God is and what He's done and how we should live. And really what we'll see, I think, when all is said and done, is a beautiful progression of, this is what I want you to see, God designing the way for his people to approach him in worship and in relationship. So we'll see God making this clear. First of all, in chapter 25, verses one through nine, let's read this. The Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him. You shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them. Gold, silver and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. goat's hair, tanned ram skins, goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breast piece. And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it." So the first thing we see here is the people's giving. It was to be from the heart and it was to be sacrificial. This is what God is doing. He's calling the people to contribute to the work that He's calling His people to do in worshipping Him and in setting themselves up to serve Him as a nation. The contribution would be from the heart. It says very clearly, from every man whose heart moves him. And then it was to be a costly thing for them. This isn't tithing yet. The Old Testament concept of tithing shows up briefly in Genesis and then goes into much fuller detail in Leviticus. But that's not what's happening here. God is calling his people to give from the heart to the work that he would call them to do. And then it would be costly. I mean, look at the materials listed here that God was going to use to build the tabernacle. Gold and silver and bronze and beautifully colored materials and animal skins and wood and oil and incense and stones. God was calling them to build him a sanctuary, or a holy place to live, so that he could dwell with them. And in order to communicate the seriousness and beauty of such a thing, fine materials and even craftsmanship were required. And that's what he called his people to give. Second section here, we're gonna move through all of this. Verses 10 through 22. They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I give to you. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold. Of hammered work shall you make them on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you take the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another. Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. and you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel." Some of you were maybe hearing the Indiana Jones theme going on in your head as that was being read. I know for sure it was happening in Rob's head. But look at the meticulous detail with which God is instructing Moses regarding this piece of the tabernacle furniture and really the central piece. Six times in this chapter, not just the section we read, but in this chapter regarding the ark and eventually, as we'll see in a moment, the table and the lampstand, you see the phrase, pure gold was to be used. This is part of a bigger category where God is requiring construction of worship elements from fine materials through which the people would approach him in worship and relationship. Pure gold, symmetrical measurements of feet and rings and poles and the mercy seat and accompanying angels on top. It was to hold the testimony or the Ten Commandments, the tablets of stone on which God would write his law. No one was to touch it. The poles would serve as the way for it to be transported, but the ark itself shouldn't be touched. It was a wooden container overlaid with pure gold, the wooden staffs overlaid with gold, the rings of gold, then the lid in one piece with hammered out images, golden images of cherubim or angels with human and animal features sometimes on either side of what God calls here the mercy seat. That could actually be translated the atonement cover, which is actually the noun form of the Hebrew verb to shut or close. And so it conveys this idea of the act of shutting rather than simply being a cover. There's more to it than just being a cover. It acts as a cover as well. And so this mercy seat is where atonement would be made. And so the golden ark lid was cover for the ark and a place, which we'll see, where the atoning blood would be sprinkled as propitiation for the sins of the people. Let's keep moving. We'll come back to that in a little bit. Chapter 25, still verses 23 through 30 now. 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, and you shall make them of pure gold, and you shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me regularly. Meant to show you a slide during the ark. I even got a little illustration to show you to give you a visual representation, and I pulled that straight from the ESV Study Bible illustrations. There's a little copyright thing there you can see in case you're worried about that. So there's the ark and then here's the one we just read, the table for bread. Similar instructions here given as to the construction of the ark. More pure gold instructions, more rings and poles to carry it without treating it as just common or unholy. And this table would contain the bread of the presence, the text says at the end there, which symbolized, would symbolize Yahweh's presence with his people with the image of that breaking bread together. And Leviticus gives further clarification on all this, but the 12 loaves of bread that would be used here weren't for Yahweh, they were for the priests to eat in God's presence. The Lord would nourish His priestly people and dine with them through the atonement that was made through faith by His grace. And then just a few more verses here in verses 31-40. 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 on 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 with 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 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." Pretty simple here. More images and symbols. constructed here through the Lord's instruction to talk about and signify the presence of the Lord. We see more, pure gold, symmetry and design, seven total lamps to make one lamp modeled after an almond flowering, a flowering almond tree. This would symbolize the presence of the Lord, which we'll see a little bit more here in a minute when we get to another section here. Now, we're gonna read all of chapter 26, the tabernacle tent itself. Follow along with me as I read. Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with 10 curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them. The length of each curtain shall be 28 cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits, and the curtains shall be the same size. Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another. And you shall make loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain in the first set. Likewise, you shall make loops on the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set. Fifty loops you shall make on the one curtain, and fifty loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set. The loops shall be opposite one another. And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to the other with the clasps, so that the tabernacle may be a single whole. You shall also make curtains of goat's hair for a tent over the tabernacle. 11 curtains shall you make. The length of each curtain shall be 30 cubits, and the breadth of each curtain, four cubits. The 11 curtains shall be the same size. You shall couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. In the sixth curtain, you shall double over at the front of the tent. You shall make 50 loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in one set, and 50 loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in the second set. You should make 50 clasps of bronze and put the clasps into the loops and couple the tent together that it may be a single whole. And the part that remains of the curtain of the tent, the half curtain that remains shall hang over the back of the tabernacle, and the extra that remains in the length of the curtains, the cubit on the one side and the cubit on the other side shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side to cover it. And you shall make for the tent a covering of tanned ram's skins and a covering of goat skins on top. You shall make upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood. 10 cubits shall be the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each frame. There shall be two tenons of each frame for fitting together. So you shall do for all the frames of the tabernacle. You shall make the frames for the tabernacle. Twenty frames for the south side and forty bases of silver you shall make under the twenty frames. Two bases under one frame for its two tenons and two bases under the next frame for its two tenons. And for the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side 20 frames, and there are 40 bases of silver, two bases under one frame and two bases under the next frame. And for the rear of the tabernacle westward you shall make six frames. And you shall make two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear. They shall be separate beneath, but joined at the top at the first ring. Thus shall it be with both of them. They shall form the two corners and there shall be eight frames with their bases of silver, 16 bases, two bases under one frame and two bases under another frame. You shall make bars of acacia wood, five for the frames on the one side of the tabernacle and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle and five bars for the frames of the side of the tabernacle at the rear westward. The middle bar, halfway up the frames, shall run from end to end. You shall overlay the frames with gold and shall make their rings of gold for holders for the bars, and you shall overlay the bars with gold. Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain. And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it, and you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold on four bases of silver. And you shall hang the veil from the clasps and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the holy place from the most holy. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the most holy place. And you shall set the table outside the veil and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle opposite the table. And you shall put the table on the north side. You shall make a screen for the entrance of the tent of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen embroidered with needlework. and you shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia and overlay them with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold and you shall cast five bases of bronze for them. It occurs to me as I read this that after these long readings, I don't think anybody has moved to go, amen. But it's still, it's beautiful, if you follow the picture, symmetrical, ornate, and very specific. I mean, repeating the instructions for each side, just to make it very, very clear. What we see here is kind of this simultaneous, no admission restriction, and the provision of steps on how to enter. There's just so much here. The metals of the tabernacle, the gold and silver and bronze, all used very specifically, very intentionally as they progress through the tabernacle. The colors of the tabernacle, blue and purple and scarlet, all used similarly, very intentionally and purposefully and specifically. There is this progression to entering. A veil separating the courtyard. Oh, I forgot to give you your picture again. Sorry, I'm just enjoying what I'm doing here. A veil separating the courtyard from the holy place where the lamp stand and table would face each other, and then another veil separating the holy place from the holiest place, or the holy of holies, which was the core, the most, the innermost part of the tabernacle. Here the Ark of the Covenant sat and the mercy seat on it through which atonement for sin would be made and separated from the rest of the tabernacle. And so God was revealing here through the tabernacle that there was a way into his presence. You know, in college, if you went to college or have been to college, you sometimes need to figure out what certain professors' office hours are. But God doesn't have office hours or an open door policy in the same way here with Israel. God is holy. God is just. God is pure love ablaze. And in order for his people to be drawn into him, there needed to be a way into his presence. Let's read verses 1 through 8 of chapter 27. You shall make the altar of acacia wood five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. And you shall make horns for it on its four corners. Its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze. You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and firepans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze. And on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. And the poles shall be put through the rings so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. You shall make it hollow with boards. As it has been shown to you on the mountain, so shall it be made. So here's the bronze altar. This is not to be confused with the altar of incense, which we'll see in part two. The similar kinds of instructions, but a different piece of furniture. Not quite as many details or specifics in some of the construction here, but we still see it to be symmetrical. It's a hollow wooden box with bronze gratings on the top and on the sides, and it's also referred to elsewhere as the altar of burnt offerings. So it's connected to the offerings, the burnt offerings being made. And it would accompany the basin that we'll see also in part two and sit in the courtyard area. Coming through chapter 27 still, now verses 9 through 19. You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side of the court shall have hangings of fine twined linen, a hundred cubits long for one side. Its twenty pillars and their twenty bases shall be of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. And likewise for its length on the north side there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long, its pillars twenty and their bases twenty of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. And for the breadth of the court on the west side, there shall be hangings for 50 cubits with 10 pillars and 10 bases. The breadth of the court on the front to the east shall be 50 cubits. The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be 15 cubits with their three pillars and three bases. On the other side, the hangings shall be 15 cubits with their three pillars and three bases. For the gate of the court, there shall be a screen 20 cubits long of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen embroidered with needlework. It shall have four pillars, and with them four bases. All the pillars around the court shall be filleted with silver. Their hooks shall be of silver, and their bases of bronze. The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height five cubits, with hangings of fine twined linen, and bases of bronze. All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, and all its pegs, and all the pegs of the court shall be of bronze." So here's the tabernacle court. It enclosed and contained the bronze basin and altar in this courtyard area through which you would pass before entering the tabernacle itself. This was about 11,250 square feet. Tabernacle itself, 675 square feet or so. I shouldn't say that. I have a habit of saying that. Very not or so. Very specifically, 675 square feet. Nothing really special or mystical about the dimensions here, but a space for corporate worship that God designed. The lesser metals like silver and bronze used here rather than the gold used in the holy and holiest places. Again, this progression of moving towards the Lord and his presence. So this would have been a common area for corporate worship, but not everyone would have been granted access into the holiest place. Only the high priest would be allowed to do that. So this would have to be big enough to house hundreds of worshipers as well as the priests, but also small enough and lightweight enough that it could be broken down and transported as well as set up quickly as a worship center once they encamped at any given location under God's leading. And lastly, these last two verses, verses 20 and 21. You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure, beaten olive oil for the light that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. In the tent of meeting outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel. So here's the lamp oil, same picture as the lamp, but this is the oil specifically for it. The oil for the lamp stand here, that light might be kept burning in the dwelling place of Yahweh. And this was to be a statute forever. The priests would tend, the text says, to this throughout all their generations. You know, Israelite lamps would almost all be put out each night when it was time to sleep. But Yahweh does not sleep nor slumber. And the tabernacle would be His dwelling place. And so symbolically, the lamp being lit perpetually communicated that Yahweh neither slumbers nor sleeps and that His presence is with His people always. So, what do we see in all of these very specific and particular instructions? We see multiple uses of a phrase like, as it has been revealed, or as I have commanded, so shall it be done, or so shall it be made. We see this command to follow and obey precisely. We see a symmetry and an order of design. We see a tented palace for Israel's king. We see this enthroned on an ark of the covenant in the innermost holy place. We see royalty symbolized in the colors and holiness symbolized by the progression of these precious metals. We see order, we see excellence, we see intention, we see obedience required to follow specific instructions. So what was all this for? First of all, God was pursuing a relationship with Israel. This is the key here, guys, and it's going to be the same key next week. God was pursuing a relationship with Israel multiple times throughout these chapters and verses, even more verses than the book of the covenant that we read a couple of weeks ago. Multiple times of the phrase that I might dwell with them. The tabernacle represented Yahweh's house among the Israelites, and it foreshadowed his future house. You know, as a sinful human being, do you know something that you do not want? You do not want to be in God's presence as a sinful human being. The Bible talks about God being a consuming fire, which means any impurity at all in his presence will be consumed and destroyed by his glory. So friend, you do not want to meet God in your sinful state because you will be destroyed. But what do we see God doing? He's pursuing a relationship with his people and bringing them into his presence. He's pursuing, drawing them in. Ever since we started this series, I've been eagerly, and we're getting inch by inch closer, can't wait till we get to the final verses of Exodus. We'll see this culmination of the people of God being drawn in and the presence of God with them. Exodus has shown already and Moses' words will continue to show God drawing in his people to relationship with him. That's the big thing that you and I should take away from these verses about the meticulous details and specific instructions with which Israel and through which Israel was to approach God. God was making a way for his people to be with him and for them to dwell with him. That's beautiful and that's awesome. In the tabernacle and in the furniture, God displayed the reality that he accepted and delighted in group-wide adoration from his chosen people gathered together. Friends, this is a foretaste of heaven where all of God's people ever will gather and worship him together. It's also, in this case, a foretaste of what local churches would look like as they sprung up in the New Covenant era. Little assemblies of one body of believers in Jesus who, through him, accessed the triune God in a relationship of worship and service like you and I have already engaged in this morning. Friends, when we read this and we see God meticulously and deliberately pursuing a relationship with his people, drawing his people in and seeking to dwell with them, we must remember that Jesus is the ultimate way to dwell with God. Israel's atonement through the sacrificial system and God's tabernacle are all transcended by the gospel work of Jesus Christ. God would ultimately tabernacle with us through Jesus. The word tabernacle means dwelling. And Jesus was to be called Immanuel, or God with us. And when in John 1.14 it says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, it literally can be translated tabernacled among us. Jesus is the ultimate way to dwell with God. Brothers and sisters, God's presence has always been at the core, at the innermost part of the lives of his people. And in our 21st century New Testament, New Covenant context, we don't gather in a tabernacle courtyard for corporate worship and sacrifices and atonement for sins, but we do still gather regularly as the people of God. Broadly, these verses are instructive for us in how we understand God's desire to commune with His people and what that means for how seriously we pursue Him in private and personal and public devotion to Him. But more specifically, this has to do with the people of God collectively gathering and worshiping and communing with Him and with each other around their fellowship with Him. Friends, this has clear connections and implications for us today. We looked at a little bit of this last week, but I'm just going to have you turn there again. Let's look at Hebrews chapter 9. We'll read not as much as we did last week, but be reminded of some of what the author of Hebrews is connecting between the Old Testament sacrificial system and our New Covenant, New Testament place. Look at verses 1 through 5 of Hebrews 9. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness, for a tent was prepared. The first section in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence, it is called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded and the tablets of the covenant. above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat." Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. The Hebrew author is like, I've got to move on here. I can't repeat everything Moses said in those many verses. And then skip down to verses 11 through 14. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies us, sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Jump down to verse 19 of chapter 10. More detail, more explanation there, but here's where he gets to this, he or she, once again, don't know, gets to this application. Therefore, brothers, in light of all this, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, Here it is. Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Friends, because of Jesus's shed blood for us, we draw near with confidence to the holy places, and we do so together, stirring up each other to faithful obedience in relationships with each other as the body, and most specifically, he gets real specific, do not neglect to meet together. Rather, we meet together, and we encourage one another. So one of the clearest things, brothers and sisters, you can take away and need to take away from these tabernacle instructions is that God cares about His people meeting together to worship and obey and serve Him. And interpreted in a New Testament context, that means we need to gather when the church gathers. So, Redeemer, brothers and sisters, as you all are doing today, and doing so in an exemplary fashion on a weather-complicated day, Redeemer, brothers and sisters, be here, if you can, whenever we meet, as an application of this. Jesus has secured our access to God's presence, so gather in his presence with the body. Friends, that includes tonight. If we still have it, if you can, pray, come and pray with us tonight. Worship the Lord and serve him together. Care more about corporate worship than vacation. Plan your schedule around those gatherings as best as you can, not the other way around. So we see, first of all, that God was pursuing a relationship with Israel. Secondly, we see that Israel needed instruction for how to worship God. He comes to them with instruction because they can't do it on their own. It wasn't intuitive. They wouldn't have come up with this on their own and whatever they did come up with would have ultimately fallen short of what God requires and would have fallen short of the beautiful picture that the tabernacle foreshadowed of what was to come. So Israel needed instructions for worshiping God. And first of all, we're not gonna get into this very much for the sake of time, and in fact, we'll even get into this a little bit more later on in Exodus. First of all, with joyful service. Remember the very beginning of the text? The first section here? Israel was to contribute to the construction plan here, and they were to do it from the heart. This is not a compulsory thing. This is not a, oh, I guess I better, or I wonder what so and so will think of me if I don't. No, God says from the heart. Worshipping and serving God honors him when it is genuinely from the heart. So brothers and sisters, serve and give abundantly and sacrificially to the ministry that God has called us all to with a joyful heart. And then secondly, with holy hearts. With joyful service and then secondly, with holy hearts. This is big. Friends, God's people must approach him in holiness. He is not, and nor should he be regarded as, common. He is God. He is I am. And He is holy. He is totally unique. He is totally other than everyone and everything else that there ever was and is and will be. These instructions communicated the need to regard God as holy and to approach Him properly. One of the things that we see here in all these instructions, I think, is that obedience is the priority of those who would enjoy God's grace, and grace is at hand for those committed to obedience. God provided a means by which they could approach him in his grace. They could not ultimately obey the law that he had given them perfectly, and indeed, they wouldn't. We'll see very soon. Yet God graciously provided the tabernacle and its system of sacrifice and worship, speaking day and night of God's atoning grace, his forgiveness available for every failure to obey the law that they had promised to follow. He knew they would fall, even though they promised, and he provided grace for them to approach and worship and be forgiven. Going back to the ark a little bit here. Remember we talked about the word for atonement cover, this mercy seat language. The Hebrew root for atonement cover regarding the ark here means to cover an offense or to pay a price or atone. This is one author, commentator I was reading says, this is the primary Old Testament instance of propitiation. And really the main sort of specific place where you see that terminology as well as broadly understanding the idea of propitiation in the Old Testament. Propitiation, kind of a big word, sort of a maybe intimidating term if you're not sure exactly what it means. It is actually a little bit more explicitly a New Testament term. One definition being the act by which God is able to act in love towards sinners in a way that is consistent with his character. Did you catch that? The act by which God is able to act in love towards sinners in a way that is consistent with his character. In other words, God can't act in a way other than wrathfully against sin and sinners because of his nature, right? And through propitiation, his wrath is appeased, it's satisfied, and he is then able to act in love towards sinners, welcoming them to himself rather than judging and destroying and punishing them. You see this idea in passages like Romans 3, 25, and Hebrews 9, 5, where the same word is used in the Greek in its original language as used by the Greek, I'm getting technical here, follow with me, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, otherwise known as the Septuagint, and those who translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek used that same word here in Exodus 25, 17. The same word translated propitiation and elsewhere. So this is the Greek word that denoted the mercy seat or the lid of the ark, but also the idea of propitiation or reconciliation by blood. And so the high priest would carry blood of sacrifice he offered for the people within the veil of the holiest place and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and there and thus make propitiation. Make atonement, satisfy the wrath of God. Israel couldn't approach God in their natural and sinful state. They needed atonement, they needed mediation, they needed propitiation. The ark, the altars, and the other furniture were designed and built to provide and communicate the way for their sins to be dealt with, for God's character to be upheld, for his wrath to be satisfied and appeased against sin and his love for them to be displayed. Look at 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2 up here on the screen, and then verses, that was funny, I've never seen that before. I said, look at 1 John, everybody's heads go down, and then I said up here on the screen, everybody's heads go up. That was fun, it was like a wave. 1 John 2, verses one and two. If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins. And then in verse 10 of chapter four, He, God, loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Friends, Christ is called the propitiation for our sins. Christ is the propitiation, and because by his becoming our substitute, assuming our obligations in his human form, obeying the law perfectly, then taking on our guilt and dealing with it, and by the vicarious punishment which he endured on our behalf, he is the propitiation, the payment, the satisfaction, the appeasement for our sins. Just as God provided the mercy seat in the holiest place for the propitiation atonement for Israel's sins, God provided a once-for-all Savior in His Son to be the propitiation atonement for all of our sins. You know, can someone give me an order of worship? Leah, can I use your order of worship for a minute? Is that your order of worship? No, it's not. Who has an order of worship I can look at? I put in my sermon notes to refer to the quote here. Look at your worship guide. The very top of your worship guide. This quote I put on here from some of my study this week. This is at the core of this, brothers. Look at what Old Testament scholar J.A. Motier says. The whole tabernacle system was an elaboration of the single symbolic act of the sprinkling of the blood. It all centered on that. Those who were called to obey had at the center of their life an established availability of grace to cater for their lapses from obedience. This is what it was all about. This is what it's centered at. This is what was at the core of the tabernacle. God providing grace for his people to obey and serve and worship him. In the old covenant through the tabernacle and the new covenant now through Christ's one for all sacrifice. God called Israel to serve and worship and dwell with him in holiness through this tabernacle, and he calls us, you and me, to serve in our New Testament context as Paul calls it in Romans, living sacrifices, as those in a constant state of service and worship and love toward God because of what Christ has done, and that has a lot of implications. We're not gonna exegete Romans 12 right now, but that has a lot of implications. Here's just a few. In light of this text, give generously to gospel ministry. Give sacrificially, give abundantly. Especially here at Redeemer, if you're a member and have taken on the ownership of this local church, especially here, And just like Israel did, sacrificially and from the heart, be willing to give up your own money and your possessions and your time in the service of God. So give. Secondly, worship. Worship God appropriately, properly. Paul talks a lot about this in 1 Corinthians 14 in the New Testament context of how to worship God together. Take a look at that. See what Paul says about exalting the Lord and edifying the saints and evangelizing the lost in an understandable and orderly and appropriate way. And connected with this application of worship, approach him in reverence and awe. We're engaging with the God of the universe, the holy God, the king of all creation. So corporate worship is, it is a family gathering. And in one sense, it's like we're all gathering in our living room to be together. But it is not a time for gimmicks or games or crude methods. No, God requires that his people take him seriously because he is holy. We have to leave it there for now because next week is part two, and there will be a fair bit of some of the same stuff, some different furniture, some different ideas. The big difference will be looking at the priest's clothing. So, as we have been considering gathering as God's people in fellowship around who he is and what he's done and drawing near to him, what better way to end and culminate all this than to celebrate communion together? as a New Testament, New Covenant expression of our dwelling with God through the saving, propitiatory work of Jesus Christ, through which He has satisfied God's wrath, bearing the penalty for our sins and drawing us in to Him. So, in just a moment, we're going to partake of communion. And as always, I want to encourage all of you brothers and sisters Paul gives warnings to Christians even, who would be lying if they take communion and say, I'm as best as I can at this moment, to my knowledge, I do not have known ongoing sin in between me and the Lord, or between a brother or sister in Christ. That's a warning Paul gives. So brother or sister in Christ, take the few minutes that we have between now and when we partake of the elements to pray if you need to, to get things right with the Lord if you need to, And then if it's not something you can do right now or you're not willing to do right now, then go ahead and let the elements pass. Paul speaks of eating and drinking unworthily as being a very bad thing. So I would encourage you not to do that. Remember, as we partake, that we are remembering Christ bruised and beaten and broken for us. So let's do that together and give thanks and worship and praise Him as we do. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for the work that you have done, communicating your desire to be with your people, making a way for us to worship you. Thank you that now we get to worship you here today, gathered, but not just in the tabernacle courtyard. We are brought into the holiest place to dwell in your presence through the work that Jesus has done to tear the veil and open up access for all your children to know and love and serve you. Oh God, we thank you. Pray that you would be empowering all of us to live in light of this, to draw near to you with confident hearts, to gather with our brothers and sisters as often as we can as a demonstration and very specific application of what this all means, and to worship and approach you in adoration and awe and love in a way that is appropriate in light of who you are. Thank you for the work that you're doing in our body. For all the brothers and sisters gathered here, would you please continue to grow and shape and mold us into the image of Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.